Cultivating the Next Generation of Gardeners!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip Richard.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's just watch him as many things to sept crazy.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Well.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Good morning.

Speaker 5 (00:30):
Sun, Good morning gardeners. Good to be back in the
saddle with you again. I was way last weekend. I
hope you enjoyed a little bit of a best of show.
We are back live today, so that means you can
give me a call if you'd like to talk about
the things that are of interest to you to help
you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape and more

(00:50):
fun in the process. Here's the number you need, seven
one three two one two k t r H seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy for let's
talk about that. Being away from the house for a
good while, I came back, and you know, every time
I come back, I'm always a little surprised at different

(01:12):
things that I see. You know, which plants are doing well,
which ones are not doing well? In my absence, I
had a bunch of rose cuttings that I had taken
and rooted. I know, this is a sad story. Gets
you a Kleenex, and I missed like a dozen of
them in this little container. And we have a real
bright area inside the house where I'd set them, and
they were still in a little shallow rooting container, and

(01:34):
I left didn't think about putting them in a less sunlight.
If I put them in less sunlight instead, it's really
kind of a very warm window. When I came back,
their toast. In other words, the bottom lane of the
story is they all died, so I get to start
over again, live and learn. I guess that's the way
we look at it. It's also interesting seeing what's looking
good when you come back. Hibiscus loves summer heat. That

(01:57):
and there are other plants that just love it a lot,
but I love tropical hibiscus. I've got several of them.
They are wonderful plants. Of course, in the winter time,
we got to figure out what to do with them
because they don't take the cold and it's full force. Now,
those of you who live wey south in the listening area,
you probably don't have to worry about that so much.
But those of you who live further north, you definitely

(02:19):
do have to bring them inside. I like the perennial hibiscus.
The mallows, we call them southern mallow. Now those have
the big dinner plate size blooms, and you get to
choose three colors, white, pink, and red. Those are the
three that they typically come in. There's been some breeding
work that's a topic for another day, that has brought
some other colors into those, but for right now it's

(02:41):
primarily white, pink and red for the Southern mallows. Okay,
so anyway, I love those things. They are blooming like crazy,
and it's not just solid white, pink and red. There's swirls,
there's speckled leaves, and with those three colors on them,
it just it's a great plan. In fact, Arbigate's got
a bunch of them. I was looking at Arbrogate the

(03:01):
website the other day and oh my gosh, they have
got a great group of them. Breeders just keep messing
around with that. In fact, they as they've worked with it,
we were getting, you know, variations on the pink and
the red that are so beautiful. The blooms are huge.
You can take a big old bloom and to float
it in water. They don't wilt much after you pick them,

(03:23):
unless you're setting them out there in the sunlight. But
you can pick a bloom in the morning time, bring
it inside and pretty much through the day. It looks
pretty good and if you float in a little bit
of water, it's pretty way to display them. But they
got them over at Arbrogate. Of course, they have everything
you need there for heat, for hot weather and sun
types of plants. If you want to have a successful landscape,

(03:45):
you got to plant things that want to be here.
And folks at Arburgate they know, they know what grows here.
They've been doing in a long time. They're out there
on twenty nine to twenty. For those of you who
are new the area and haven't been there, most people
around here absolutely and over Arbigate is you know, it's
it's one of the natural cycles of summer days and spring.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Days as well.

Speaker 5 (04:06):
Get out there and see what they've got new, because
I guarantee you every time you go, you're going to
see a bunch of new plants that you don't even know,
didn't even know, and they do so so well here.
By the way, Everget's got a really good recipe online
right now for basil tea. I say it's not a recipe,
it's a little a description of how to do it.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
But it just.

Speaker 5 (04:27):
Reminded me that we have a lot of things in
our gardens that can really spice up the summer really nice.
There's a lot of herbs that you can steep in
tea that bring wonderful flavors. And with basil, you know,
basil comes in many different flavors of basil, very unique
and so you pick the one you like. But go
check that out on the Arbigaate's website arbrogate dot com

(04:49):
and see what I'm talking about. Let's heat out to
Kingwood this morning and we're going to talk to Joe. Hello, Joe,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (04:56):
Hey, Skip, how are you today, sir?

Speaker 4 (04:59):
H Doing good? Doing good? How can I help you?

Speaker 6 (05:01):
Yeah? I'm started some seeds, tomato plant seeds and they've caught.
My question is when do they go into the garden
for the fall crop? And when's basically near the end
to put them in? You know, do you put them
in mid August and if you go past, let's say September,
you're just wasting your time. So everybody, you need to

(05:24):
get those in a shot. But they are starting to
come up now.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
Yeah, yeah, you need to get them in this month,
sometime this month, it doesn't matter. You're going to get
the plant growing and the plant will grow in the
heat some but you got to get a good established plant.
So when we get a break in the weather and
they can actually set blooms, they're ready to go. So
the sooner you know, you can get it done in July,
I mean, you could do it in August you're up

(05:50):
in Kingwood, but further, a little further out, you can
do a little bit later. But we got a little
window in the fall where we're trying to get that
heat to break, and you know how he can go
all the way in the October sometimes, sure, don't don't delay, Joe,
get that done.

Speaker 6 (06:05):
What's probably the last time you could put him in
late August.

Speaker 5 (06:11):
I mean if you if you had a very if
you had a very fast variety, they vary a lot
and how many days to harvest, and you had the
biggest plant plant you could have going in, maybe even
one that already is starting to put looms out, although
they won't set, but it's mature enough. Then you could
probably go into mid August where you are. You know,

(06:33):
after that it kind of becomes you're taking a chance
with the weather.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
You may get lucky, you may not.

Speaker 6 (06:40):
All right, well, thank you, I'm going to give a
shot to share and see what happens. Thank you again,
all right.

Speaker 5 (06:45):
Joe Hey, thanks for Colin garden. I appreciate that a lot.
You take care. I was looking at some nuts edge
that it popped up in a new patch of turf
that I planted not too long ago. And anyway, I
grab my weed wiper tool that's on my website gardening
with skip dot com. Tells you how to make it,

(07:05):
and I just was thinking. Somebody asked me that day,
where do you buy those? Well, you don't buy those.
It's a low home made tool. It's real easy to make.
And if you want the grabber tool part, it's a
section cup grabber tool at Bob's got them at Southwest Fertilizer.
Southwest for those of you who don't know, it's worth
the trip over there, no matter where you live. They're
corner of Thissinet and Runwick. But when it comes to tools,

(07:26):
they have like a ninety foot wall of tools and
I don't care what you're trying to do. They have
got a quality tool for it. And don't buy cheap tools.
I know you're saving money when you buy a tool
that doesn't cost as much, but you're not you're spending
money because I've got prunters that just they're going to
be around to the day I die, and they've been
around a long time and it's because they're quality. You

(07:49):
take care of them and they last and they last.
And Bob's got that kind of tools there Chrise. He
has everything you need from fertilizers to products to control
pests and weeds and diseases. But again Southwest Fertilizer, Corner
Bussinet and Runwick that's where you get it. And if
you want to build that weed wiper tool that I
show you how to make, it is really easy, even
if you're not to do it yourself. For you can

(08:10):
learn how to make this tool very simple Southwest Fertilizer
dot Com seven one three six six six one seven
four four. While you're out and about, you need to
make sure if you haven't done a summer fertilization you
do some now if you're if you know, maybe you
fertilized earlier in the summer and you're just kind of
wanting to top things off a little bit, you know,

(08:32):
as we get into August and stuff, we're getting kind
of close to that fall fertilization season and While we
I like to use slow releases, you can take a
faster release fertilizer and just give it small doses and
you can help your lawn. Maybe maybe your lawn looks
good and it's okay, maybe it needs a little bit
here and there, just to give it a little boost

(08:53):
because it's struggling along. Sweet Green from nitrophoss the product
that can do that. It is a natural based produce
product that works well, smells wonderful by the way, but
sweet green. When you put it down, water it in,
it dissolves into the soil, heavy carbon type molecules in it.
That microbes just go nuts and your lawn will green up.

(09:15):
My neighbor was bragging about his lawn the other day, saying,
I can't believe how all o this stuff works. And
it's right. And you get nit frouss places like RCW Nursery.
You can get it Langham Creek Ace hardware out there
in Copperfield, or go down to Richmond Rosenberg Plantation Ace hardware.
They've got nitrofuss stuff there as well. Let's take a
little break and I will be back with your question.
Seven one three two one two k t R h Oh, Yeah,

(09:39):
it remembers the Everly Brothers, to be honest, not even
alive when they ever I was probably alive, but I
wasn't listening to music, I'll tell you that.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
But that's good. Uh Ever love.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Those love that time, good kind of music. Houston Powder Coders.
You hear me talk about them all the time. I'm
gonna have to get them on the show because I'd
love to pick their brains on this. The powder coating
is a process. It's way better than painting. When you
are looking at power coating, you're looking at a surface
that is way more durable. And I mean they even
have ways of powder coating that deal with like you know,

(10:11):
the salt spray of the ocean and things, and to
help fight the inevitable corrosions and rusts that happen to
our metal furniture, our metal gates, the metal gates. If
you've got any kind of metal outside, it could be decorative,
something ornamental even well, and especially the furniture. That's that's
that's what most people are interested in. They can do it,

(10:32):
Houston Powder Coders. If you want to find out more,
go to the website Houston Powdercoders dot com or give
them a call two eight one six seven six thirty
eight eighty eight. Look outside at the metal that you've got,
the furniture and things. Does it need some work? Is
it getting rusty or the bolts resting? Does it need
new straps you know those sling fabrics and vinyl straps

(10:55):
and things. Whatever. They can do it all Houston Powder Coats.
Just send them an email with a photo, say at
Houston Cooders dot com. They'll send you a quote. They'll
come pick it up in the Houston area. They'll deliver
it when they're done in the Houston area. Houston Powder Coders,
they'll turn your furniture brand new again. In fact, I
mean it almost looks better than new. I've seen some
of the work that they do. You are listening to Guardenline.

(11:17):
I'm your host, skip rictor if you want to give
me a call seven one three two one two k
t R eight seven one three two one two KT. Right,
let's go to spring. Now we're going to talk to JR.
Hello JR.

Speaker 7 (11:29):
Hey you morning, sir. How are you good?

Speaker 4 (11:32):
Good? I how can you help?

Speaker 8 (11:34):
So? I've got a little hunting property north north of
Beaumont Sill the area, and I want to start putting
in oak trees to produce acorns. And I'm wondering which
type of oak tree. I've been told a Spanish oak
will produce acorns the fastest, within a couple two three years.

Speaker 5 (11:58):
I don't know that any are is going to get
of you acrons that fast. These oak trees are typically
seedling trees that you're buying, uh, you know that buy
and large. They're not grown from cuttings or maybe some
exceptions out there, So they're they're they're immatures and they
have to grow and mature over time to be able
to do that for hunting. A white oak is a

(12:20):
good one because they have the big, large acorns that
just you know, very popular with the deer. But tell
me again, where is that place.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
North of Beaumont?

Speaker 9 (12:33):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Before what around Silsby?

Speaker 5 (12:39):
Yeah, I would, I would look for one of the
types of live oak that are out there. But if
I don't know a way to speed the process up,
to be honest, and if you start planting store bought,
container grown trees, that price can add.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
Up pretty quick. Uh if you're going, of course, and.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
So you may want to get some acrons and start
them yourself. They're not hard to do. They need to
go through a cold period, so you know, whenever acorns fall,
you can pick them up and subject them. I put
them in moist sand and the refrigerator, leave them there
for a few months and then bring them out and
they'll sprout and grow after that. But that'd be my suggestion.

Speaker 8 (13:18):
For you, Jared.

Speaker 10 (13:19):
Okay, fantastic, Thank you sir, for sure.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
All right, all right, yeah, appreciate that. Oh, by the way,
there is a there is a website called Texas Trees.
It's by the Forest Service and they list all the
trees for every area of Texas. So go on there
and look at what the oaks are that they would recommend.
All right, that should help hey, D and D feed
up in the tom Ball area. They've got everything you're

(13:44):
hearing me talk about when it comes to fertilizers, for example,
you know Nitrofis, Microlife, Nelson Turf Star Medina products, you
know the jars and Nelson plant food and Microlife they
got those as well. They sell airloom soil products by
the bag, makes it really nice. Of course, their feed
store everything you need from high quality dog and cat foods,
you know, pet foods in general, from brands like Origin,

(14:07):
Diamond and Victors. I think the Akiri Star pro as well.
The Dover family opened that up in nineteen eighty nine
and it is still going to In fact, they just
expanded it about a year ago. Two eight, one, three, five, one,
twenty one forty four, two eight, one three five one
seventy one forty four three five one seven one four
four D and D feed and toml is going to

(14:29):
carry all of the things that you need your hometown
feed store. And whether it is past disease, weed control,
rodent control, They've got it all there.

Speaker 7 (14:39):
Let's it out.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
Decline now and talk to Jason. Hey, Jason, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 7 (14:44):
Good morning.

Speaker 11 (14:45):
Thank you.

Speaker 12 (14:45):
I actually you may have given me my solution with
that ag you just did. I put down the scots
I think it was turf builder or some type of
weed and feed.

Speaker 7 (14:54):
It's the pink stuff.

Speaker 12 (14:55):
This year and the and the spring, the yard looks
great and everything, but I have neighbor who doesn't take.

Speaker 7 (15:01):
Care of the yard.

Speaker 12 (15:01):
So one side of my yard has these these weeds
that spring up about two feet you know, I mean,
we cut the grass and then a few days later,
less than a week later, We've got these two foot
tall weeds that are growing on there, and I was
just wondering. You know, I don't want to I don't
want to over over fertilize or you know, I'm sure
there's wheats out there, and I was just looking for
a recommendation because I'm sure you know exactly what weed

(15:23):
I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah, I wish I could see it.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
Uh, you know what, we could sit here and you
give me a real quick description. Let's see if I
might get lucky and identified. If not, I mean, I
need you to send me a photo of it. You
can the call.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (15:41):
I did Google of it, and I think it said
something about goose goose grass or something like that.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
Oh, goose grass, okay.

Speaker 12 (15:49):
Is that the one that springs up really fast and
is a couple of feet tall, like a put in
the half two feet tall? And I mean when it's
got little grass.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
Oh, it's just seedhead coming up. Yeah yeah, yeah, right, Okay,
I think you're dealing with Behea grass. There.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
Behea is the you know, it's a lawn grass in
some parts of Florida, but here people don't like it
because those seedheads just pop up so high. It's a
very tough grass, not super easy to control. But I
think that's what you're dealing with. But sending you out
to control it without knowing for sure what you have,

(16:27):
you know, it could be a waste of your time
and money.

Speaker 8 (16:29):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
There is a product. The ingredient is met sulfur on U.
It may be called ms M turf. I know they
have met sulfur on a D and D feed and
tombal MSM turf. Or there's another brand called man or
M A n O R that is really hard on
Behea grass, but it can be used another turf grass.

(16:52):
You so want be careful when you use it. Don't
overuse it, don't drench it down in the root system
because it can hurt trees and shrubs and things. But
that would be your best way to go after Baha
grass in other lawn grasses like Saint Augustine. Now for bermuda,
and you definitely want it to be dormant, and probably

(17:13):
for zoysia too. I need to check, but the label
will tell you that.

Speaker 12 (17:16):
Okay, all right, well I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
Have a good weekend, yes, sir, Good luck with that.
Because it's a persistent one. That's why people like it
for lawns in some parts of Florida. I mean, you
can be drowdy and you can drive cars over it
all day and the grass just bounces back. But be
careful what you wish for, that's for sure. I always
talk about brown stuff before green stuff because getting the

(17:40):
soil right is the key to success. And look, we're
entering into the middle of summer here, excuse me, and
fall gardening season is coming. But you can still plant stuff.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Now.

Speaker 5 (17:51):
There's a lot of things you can plant.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Now.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
What we have to do in summer is we just
have to pretend the plant is still in its pot
underground when we plant it. What does that mean. Well,
the root system you pull out of a container is
all a cylinder of wound up, right winded up roots
right there. So when you put it in the ground,
the soil may be moist, but it pumps that cylinder
dry in a day because in the garden center, there

(18:14):
are water in that thing every day, current, you know,
keeping it in good health, maybe more than once, depending
on the plant. So when you put it in the ground,
if you've got quality soil with good organic matter content,
the roots can take off and go far and wide
and establish Well, all you got to do is water
it a little every day at the base and you know,
you gradually move off to a normal watering cycle. But

(18:38):
that's the secret of summer success in planting. But the
preface to the secret, the thing before the thing that's
first seeing a multch quality soil mixes. You get the
soil right, the plants get happy. Is that is foundational.
You PLoP a poor plant and an unprepared plot and
you're going to be disappointed. But Ciena Malts can fix

(19:01):
all that. They are down southe Houston near Highway six
and two eighty eight. They carry all the brands you need.
I mean they carry fertilizers too. That's part of the soil.
That's part of the brown stuff, Microlife, Nelson Turf, star Medina,
nitrophizz Asamite they carry asamite, carry heirloom soil products, the
Nelson plant food jars as well. Down there Sienna Maltz

(19:22):
dot com. Just go there, Cienamultz dot com. They're open today,
by the way, until two. They're closed on Sundays, open
Monday through Friday as well. Cianamltz dot com. Just write
that down. You can find them. You can figure out
just what you want. If you're ever then twenty miles
of them, they'll leaven deliver down there quality products that
give you success.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
That is so important.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
It's like going out and going out in the field
and laying a bunch of tuo baf fours on the
ground to build a house. Now, how smart is that?

Speaker 4 (19:49):
Right?

Speaker 5 (19:50):
Well, we do the same thing when we buy a
wonderful plant. They could thrive here and we just put
it in the ground with no prep at all, And
that is a recipe or success. I was mentioning Ciena.
You know I had Medina products. One of the Medina
products at planting time that I like to use is
has to grow six twelve six. It is a plant

(20:10):
food six twelve sixty six percent nitrogen, twelve percent phosphorus,
six percent potassium. That phosphorus is very important and root
development and also, by the way, plays many other functions
in the plant. But Medina has to grow six twelve
six plant food has Medina sol activator which stimulates biological activity.
It's got humate humic acid which humic acid improves soil structure,

(20:35):
proves nutrient uptake. It's got seaweed, extracts in it as well.
I mean you caname spray this stuff on the leaves,
you know, dilute it down. It's not going to burn
your plants. Is excellent for transplanting, but it's excellent for
all kinds of fertilizing. I typically when I put a
new plant in the ground, I'll soak it in well
with a dose of Medina astro grow six to twelve
six plant food. About a week later, I'll do it again.

(20:57):
About a week later, I'll do it again. And remember
we're trying to get those roots out as fast as
we can. We want that plant to hit the ground running.
Once you've prepared the soil right like I always talk about,
and then you get a quality plant that wants to
grow here, and you plant it right, and then you
take care of it with frequent watering and small amounts
and doses that has to grow. You're setting yourself up

(21:19):
for success. And hey, you're investing time and money and
your hopes and dreams and what you want that plant
to do for you. Well, do it right and get
it right the first time. Everybody'd be happier that way.
Time for me to take a quick break. I will
be right back. Alrighty, we're back. Welcome out to garden Line, folks.
I'm your host, Skip Richter. We're here to help you

(21:41):
have success in your gardening. You can give me a
call at seven one three two one two. Katr actually
be happy to visit with you about the things that
might bring better success for what you want to do.
One thing is going to a good quality garden center
and in chain of gardens down in the Richmond Rosenberg.
It's on the Katie Folsher side of Richmond on FM

(22:02):
three fifty nine. It is an outstanding place to get
not just the plants, but all the things that go
with the plants, all of the bling for the landscape,
beautiful pottery, wind chimes, I mean just everything you can imagine.
When you go there, you're gonna say, oh, I love that.
I've never seen one of those before. You can say

(22:24):
that a lot because they have really cool stuff there.
That's why people drive so far to get there. Good
knowledge too. Their staff is friendly, they're knowledgeable, and they
can point you in the right direction. And while you're
there you can pick up your microlife and your nitrophoss
and you know, some plant food and your medina in
your nature's way and your heirloom soilce. I mean they
carry it all there and right now they've got the

(22:46):
plants of summer ready to go. Just stop in and
check them out again. Katie fullsher Side of Richmond on
FM three fifty nine. Here's the website. I would encourage
you to write this down because you will. You will
see amazing things on their website. Be very helpful to
you as a gardener. Enchanted Gardensregimond dot com, Enchanted Gardens
Richmond dot com. Let's go out to the woodlands now

(23:11):
and we're going to visit with Lonnie this morning.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
Welcome to Guardenline, Lonnie, good morning, Good morning Skip.

Speaker 11 (23:18):
I applied barricade for the schedule a week or ten
days ago and lightly watered it in, and I'd say
within thirty six hours we started having this cycle of
heavy rains. So I've had several inches and I'm curious
if it's safe to reapply or should I wait period

(23:41):
of time.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
Here, I would not reapply it. Barricade is one of
the best pre emergents at not dissolving and washing away
very far. It's very persistent, which is what you want
of a pre emergent. You want it to be in
that you wanted to lock in at the top of
the soil where the sieeds are German and stay there,
and it's good at that, So I think you're okay.

(24:05):
The concern is when you double up or when you
you know, fifty percent more on a pre emerging herbicide application,
there are there are things that are not good that
can happen for your lawn and stuff.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
So I would I would leave it as it is.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
I think you're I think the barricade is still going
to work very well for you, and i'd avoid that
doubling up. And if you want to wait and then
and fall, do it for your cool season weeds. That's fine,
that's not too soon, but not right now.

Speaker 7 (24:35):
Great.

Speaker 11 (24:35):
That also, I had spot treated with celsius. You apply that.

Speaker 5 (24:43):
How many hours between your spraying and the first rainfall?

Speaker 11 (24:49):
Maybe twelve?

Speaker 5 (24:51):
Yeah, you're good, You're good. Okay, I think you'll be okay.
Let's let's wait and watch. Celsius is going to work
a little slow, so be patient with it. But it
works very well.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (25:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (25:02):
I think it's pretty expensive too, so I'd rather not
retreated right now.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
Yeah, yeah, it is It is all right, sir, you
take care, Thanks a lot, appreciate the call. You like
to ask you a question of me this morning, Well
let's do that. Seven one three two one two k
t r H. Seven one three two one two ktr H.
I was talking to folks that League City Feed, talking
to Adam as a matter of fact, yesterday, and I'm

(25:31):
going to run down there. Always like to get around
and visit my sponsors as much as I can see
what's going on, see you know, what kind of products
are new on the on the shelves and stuff. It
just kind of helps me step the date on things,
find out how they're doing well. League City Feed. This
is a third generation of Thunderbergs. Let's run that store
started forty years ago by Grandpa in an Okra patch.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 5 (25:54):
And so now by the way, it's located about on
it's on Highway three in League City, just a few
blocks south that we're hiving ninety six cuts cross, so
that whole region down there. This is a great hometown
feed store. Still carry the bags out for you and
when you go in, you're gonna find what you need
to have a beautiful lawn. A bountiful garden, beautiful landscape.
They've got the nitrofoss, the asimite, the microlife, the heirloom soils,

(26:18):
you know, Nelson plant foods. They've got it all there.
And when it comes to past weeds and diseases, they
carry that as well. They do a great job of
staying stocked up on that. And if you have to
have some backyard chickens, you need feed, you need feeders,
you need waters, everything, but the chickens. They've got that
at League City Feed as well. Two one two three

(26:39):
three two sixteen twelve two one two three three two
one six one two. I was talking about coming back
from a trip out of town and when as I
come back, I find, you know, some plants are thriving
and some plants are not not doing so well. And
the plants that have had the most time to get

(27:00):
root systems in the ground are doing better than the
same plant that had not been in the ground for
as long. And doesn't that make sense because when you
go away and the plants don't get watered for a while,
then which ones are going to be the most resilient?
The plants that are well established, And it's important to
take care of our plants that way, and to make
sure that they are in good shape by the way too.

(27:24):
We've had a pretty good year for rainfall, but when
we go into extended summer droughts, a good deep soaking
for the trees occasionally is a very important thing. You
don't water them like you water your lawn every week,
but a good soaking on an infrequent basis. During periods
of heat and drought combination, we go two or three

(27:45):
weeks without water, and you bet you need to give
your trees a good soaking to keep them out of
the stress. It's not just a matter of keeping them alive,
it's a matter of keeping them healthy because as they
get stressed, then they're going to start to show problems.
Now you hear me all the time talking about Martin
space Moore's company, Affordable Tree for Tree Care. Well, they
can do everything from deep root feeding, you know, to

(28:06):
stump removal to pruning planting. If it's trees, they can
do it. But right now, the main thing you need
to be calling them about is pruning for making sure
your branch structure is as strong as it can be.
You know, tree that hadn't maintained care of in a while.
When was the last time you had a tree broun

(28:26):
or had someone look at your trees. If it's been
a while, you definitely need to call Martin. Get them
out there, get them, have them come out, have them look.
They've got experience. They know how to prune correct, prune correctly,
because whether it's your family, your fence, your house, your
neighbor's house, god for a bid, you do not need

(28:47):
trees falling and breaking in storms. And we don't control that,
but proper pruning goes a long way toward helping teese
trees whether the storms a ff trees Are dot com.
That's a website if you don't go see the different
services that they offer. But main thing is this phone
number seven to one three six nine nine two six

(29:09):
sixty three. We'll say that again, seven to one three
six nine nine two six six three. You need to
call them and get on the schedule. They stay busy
because they do good work. That's the bottom line. So
you know, if you're thinking about having it done, go
ahead and call them and get on that schedule to
have that done. Or maybe it's just come out and
look at my trees, tell me what you think and
if you're doing any kind of construction around the tree,

(29:31):
please I ask you, please, have them come out and
take a look. Before the first trench is made, the
first vehicle goes across the root system, the first whatever
is going to happen. Have them come out first and
advise you, because you can do a lot to prevent
serious damage. They can end up taking the life of

(29:52):
your tree before the damage is done. Afterwards, then there's
much less that we can do to recover from the
damage that we could have avoided. Affordable Tree Service six
seven one three six nine nine two six sixty three.
Let's see, I'm going to take a little break here
and we will come back with your calls in just

(30:14):
a moment. If you'd like to dial in and be
first up when we come back. Seven to one three
two one two KTRH. All right, folks, we're back. Welcome
back to Gardline.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
Good. Hey you with us.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
Hey RCW RCW Nurseries. In fact, that's the website two
RCW Nursries dot com. They're at Beltway eight and Tomball Parkway.
A lot of you know them, especially rosarians aroundtown, know
them as a place that has the huge selection of
roses all you know, they just it's in pages and
pages of roses that they get in there. Well, summertime

(30:48):
comes and we're looking at a lot of plants for
summer color. You know, I was talking about hibiscus earlier
when we began the show. They've got some of the
most gorgeous, exotic looking tropical biscus. They got the one
of my favor series as a Cajun series, and it's
just beautiful and they carry it. They're at RCW. They
specialize in all kinds of plants, but especially trees and shrubs.

(31:10):
You have to grow their own trees up there in
Plantersville at Williamson Tree Farm. And when you go in there,
you're going to get in fact, I'm going to get
David in here. I need to have him. I'm gonna
pick his brain about trees and tree planning and early
survival and success. And we'll get him in here for
the summer's over. But they really know what they're doing.
They come out and plant the trees for you, but
the main thing is they're going to say something that

(31:31):
does well here and they have beautiful trees.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
And then when it.

Speaker 5 (31:34):
Comes to summer color, things LIKEVILLI is of course they've
got that and they're just stunning. They just are. You
just need to swing by there. It's at Tomball Park.
Win beout wait eight real easy to get to RCW
nurseries dot com. Go check them out, and when you're there,
make sure and get some of the expert advice. It's
a great thing about our mom and pop our independent

(31:55):
garden centers is they live here, they grow here, they
know and they.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
Can help you have success.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
Let's head out now. We're going to go down to McAllen,
Texas and talk to Al. Hey, l, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 13 (32:10):
Hi are you the.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
Good sir? How can we help?

Speaker 13 (32:15):
Well, I've got a question that I think you will
be knee deep in it when I ask it. I
have a need to turn on and off things that
are like you're going along for a while and you're wondering, well,
when it rains, I'm going to be out of town

(32:36):
for three days and I'd like to be able to
turn turn it off, okay, and then time it and
turn it back on. Yeah, such a weird animal? Is
there such an ad I'm just okay.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
And you know the good news is it's not that
expensive either. A lot of irrigation parts can be a
little pricey. But it's called a rain switch, and they
come in different forms. The standard form is that it's
just a little kind of an upright almost.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
Like a lipstick.

Speaker 5 (33:14):
You lifts the container but a little bigger around and
in the top is a little piece of paper like
the back of a big chief tablet, that kind of thing.
When it rains, it swells that up and it flips
the switch, and your irrigation clock runs just like it
doesn't know it rained, but that switch doesn't let the
sprinklers come on. Then as you get past the rain

(33:37):
and it starts to dry out, that thing shrinks back
down and this switch goes off and the sprinklers and
their normal cycle will start watering again. So it's just
a little switch that interrupts your controller clock from being
able to tell your sprinklers to come on.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
And they're not very expecting.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
But I'm going to guess about twenty five bucks will
buy you one. But you got to go to an
irrigation supply placed there somewhere in the McCallan area, and
I know you got them because all right, there you go,
that's the solution to your problems and then go on
vacation and have fun take pictures.

Speaker 10 (34:11):
Well, thank you very much.

Speaker 13 (34:14):
That would very good.

Speaker 11 (34:15):
I listen all the time and you're always coming up with.

Speaker 5 (34:20):
Thank you, thank you, Mike. I appreciate or Al, I
appreciate that very much.

Speaker 8 (34:25):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
It was visiting with someone the other day had been
in at Ace Hardware, and it was like, I can't
believe all the stuff they cares. I know, I tell
you that every time they do a garden line show.

Speaker 10 (34:36):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
You know it's not when as a kid went into
hardware stores. You know, I had all the stuff. You know,
the guy that shuffles to the back and finds exactly
a little piece of pipe or wiring that you're looking for.
Ace Hardware's got all that. But Ace Hardware. If you
want to have a beautiful garden, a bountiful landscape, they
got you covered. If you want to have a beautiful
outdoor sitting area, a living area, I should say they've

(34:56):
got you covered.

Speaker 10 (34:57):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
If you want to have barbecue, bid you need quality tools,
quality brands. You know de Vault and Stanley, Blackendecker, Milwaukee,
Ace's own brand, Craftsman. They've got all of that as well.
You just go to your local ACE and how do
you find them? Go to this website. ACE Hardware Texas.
Don't forget the Texas. That's my local garden Line ACE

(35:19):
Hardware Group here in the Greater Houston area. And I
say greater, I mean all the way down to Corpus
Christi and all the way out to Beaumont, and this
whole region of the state. Places like Spring Ace on
Spring Cypress, Crosby Ace down or up in Crosby FM
twenty one hundred may have been there, Langham Creek ACE
which is five twenty nine in Cyprus, and near Copperfield

(35:41):
Plantation ACE which is on Mason Road. Done in Richmond Rosenberg.
How about Northwest? We haven't been there. Champions Ace on
Spring Cypress in Spring. Just a few of many ACE
Hardware stores you'll find at ACE Hardware Texas dot com.
Make sure and sign up when you're there. Make sure
and sign up at the ASH Rewards program. I belong
to it.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
It's great.

Speaker 5 (36:01):
As you shop, you get great benefits. We're going to
head now to Tomball and talk to Mike. Hey, Mike,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (36:10):
Hey, good morning, Skip. I've got some mealy grass in
my front yard, and I sent a picture in one
of them has this white, fuzzy stuff all over it,
and I'm just wondering what that is and how do
I treat it.

Speaker 5 (36:26):
I'm looking at the picture. It's a little hard for
me to zoom in and make out it's either a
mealy bug or a type of scale and I just
can't quite distinguish it well enough. But bottom line is
it's an insect and it's sucking juices out of the
mealy and that's why your mewly grass leaves are starting
to get pale and if you look real closer, a

(36:47):
little speckily, you know, instead of being solid green, or
they're sort of specky green. So I would I would
start by trying a systemic insecticide on the in the soil,
drench it in around the place, and it'll take it
up by the roots. It'll put it in the plumbing
of the plant, and anything sucking juices out of that
plumbing is going to be.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Killed by it.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
So so you're poisoning the plumbing, not not just spraying
the outside to try to kill it. And there are
a number of products there's in mido Cloprid is one
ingredient that has that. If you're you're up in the
Tombowl area, you're lucky. I mean you've got everything from
uh you know, arborgate to plants for all seasons to

(37:31):
D and D feed out there on the west side
that are going to have the product. Just tell them
you've got either a scale or mealy bug and you
need a systemic to put on the ground. They'll they'll
say you one of several that are on the market.

Speaker 10 (37:45):
Okay, yeah, there's one right about five or six feet away,
and it's it's not that way. It doesn't have the
fuzzy white stuff on it.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
Yeah yeah, okay, well you can get rid of it though,
but go ahead and do it because you got a
lot of it on there.

Speaker 10 (38:00):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (38:01):
You know, these things are like they're like ticks on
a dog. You know, one or two ticks isn't gonna
be the problem, but when the dog's covered with them,
that's really taking the life out of the animals. And
that's what's happening with these as extensively as you have them.
So I wouldn't delay. I'd go ahead and get that done.

Speaker 10 (38:18):
Okay, I will do. I got an ace that's real,
real close so I'll go there.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
All right, sounds good. Well, thank you for the call.
Good luck getting rid of it.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
You bet.

Speaker 5 (38:30):
You know, really is a great native plant. We have
a lot of different muleius that could be grown here.
They're native throughout various parts of the state. Really really
quality plants.

Speaker 8 (38:43):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Let's see here. Yeah, Well I was talking about, you know,
some different different ways to go about, you know, having
success with getting plants planted and making sure that they're
doing well.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
And you know the bottom line is you take a
company like Nature's Way, for example, Nature's Way Resources up
in the Conro area. You just go up forty five
and Nature's Way is there on the right across the
railroad tracks, right where fourteen eighty eight comes in from
the left. They are on the right Nature's Way Resources
dot COM's website. You need to check them out. They

(39:19):
still have their Fungal Fridays really really big discounts on
fungal based compost.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
What is that.

Speaker 5 (39:26):
Well, that's a tree product based compost and it does
super well. They have it screened down as well for you.
But Nature's Way Resources dot Com check them out. I
don't care if you need a potting soil if you
need micronutrient amendments, if you need compost, if you need mulch.
They only sell quality stuff, just like it's been since

(39:47):
it begins, since John Ferguson began it. Now his son
Ian is running the place with the same quality product
in the same service. Nature's way resources brown stuff before
green stuff, folks. I wonder, I wonder if I'll ever
get tired of saying that. You may get tired of
hearing it. But I can't tell you how many times
people call in and they've got a question or this

(40:08):
or that, or if somebody catches me somewhere, I'll get
an email. Uh, And I as I listen to the
problem and I find out more about how this is done.
To realize it, so much could have been avoided by
just getting the foundation right before they put the plants in.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
So important, so important.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
All right, Well, we're gonna take a little break for
the news here at the top of the hour, and
we'll be back with your calls. You want to be
first up top of the next hour seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three
two one two ktr h.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
So many things to set.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
All right, folks were back. Welcome back to Guardline. By
the way, good to have you with us. What would
you like to talk about today? Here's the phone number
and we'll talk about Well, it's got to be gardening related.
You know, I'm not good at plumbing or how to
get your teenagers to mold the lawn. But seven one

(41:13):
three two one two KTRH seven one three one two
ktrs now. I hope you don't subject your kids to
horticultural punishment.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
I grew up.

Speaker 5 (41:24):
It's a wonder I ever became a horticulturist because whenever
I misbehaved, I had to go out in our garden
and pull weeds. Okay, think about that. I mean hot
fire in summer south of San Antonio. Yeah, I had
to go out and pull weeds. I can't believe I
ever got into gardening. By the way, just a unrelated note,

(41:45):
we had the most weed free garden in the town.
And if you want to put two and two together,
I feel free to do so. But anyway, you get
the idea. You know, microlave fertilizers come in many forms.
They have their dry grain, the alers you like the
standard sixty four, the green bag that's use for everything,
especially on the lawns and the humates plus and whatnot.

(42:07):
But Microlife also has a whole line of quality liquid
products and Spinoles show just talking about all the different
products and the nuances of them. Two that I would
just say out to be the first two on your
shelf are Microlife Biomatrix Orange label seven to one three.
It's a higher nitrogen fertilizer. It's a liquid comes in quirk,
comes in a gallon. I use it on my houseplants

(42:29):
all the time because it's it doesn't have an odor
at all to it and it's not going to burn
the plants like other Microlife products don't burn plants or
not salt based. But you can mix it in and
every time I water, I'm putting a little bit of
that water into the plants. You can use it outside too.
I'm just saying that it Typically I always have a
jug of water for my plants and that's always what

(42:52):
I got in there.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
Now.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
Ocean Harvests the blue label four two three four two three.
It's a fish based fertilizer, primarily for outside because it
is a fish based fertilizer and it works really well.
I use some just the other day on rejuvenating a
houseplant that had been outside and kind of off in
a corner where it was neglected. I know it wasn't me.
Somebody else neglected in my house.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
Not me.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
I could never Yes, I did it. Okay, I'm confessing anyway.
And it is coming back from our Lord Trump. I
was looking at it as wow, it is bouncing back.
It's like rocket fuel for it. Go to micro Life
Fertilizer dot com find out more about all the products
that they have, their quality, products that work. Let's go
to Paerland. Now we're going to talk to Jenny this morning. Hey, Jenny,

(43:37):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (43:39):
Hey, thank you for taking my call today. I'm hoping
you can help me out with our front yard. We
have a couple of bushes that just start doing so great,
and I'd like to take them out and replace.

Speaker 15 (43:51):
Them with something that has.

Speaker 11 (43:54):
Some color to it flowering.

Speaker 14 (43:55):
Maybe one of them is in full shade and the
other one is parts on maybe four to six hours
a day. But I'll be honest, kind of like that
houseplant you were describing, kind of need to set it
and forget it because we're not the best at maintaining.

Speaker 7 (44:15):
So any thoughts on what we can put in that.

Speaker 14 (44:17):
Would look great and give us a little color.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
Gosh, there's so many things, Jenny, you know, it's it's
kind of hard. I always say, it's like handing me
a credit card and saying, go to the mall and
buy me some clothes. I don't know where to start,
what do you like and whatnot. But of course, here
in the Houston area, azelia's in the shade. That's a standard.
It's a spring bloomer and they do well if you
can give them a good quality soil. Now, as far

(44:44):
as to set it and forget it, you would need
an automatic watering system that is set up to make
sure they don't dry out when you forget them. Once
they're established, not so much they still need watering, but
especially early on, it's a little bit touch and go
with them. Whenever we move from sun to shade, our
blooming options drop dramatically. And so if are you looking

(45:07):
for a shrub that's like a year round evergreen woody shrub,
or would something that dies to the ground in the
winter and then comes back be sufficient for this area?
Or what are you thinking on? Those two probably.

Speaker 14 (45:20):
Need more of the evergreen because of the hoa.

Speaker 5 (45:25):
Oh okay, yeah, okay, I get that. Well, see it's
a little too shady for roses. Probably you're going to
just go, I think, with a good tough, dependable shrubby plant.
If your soil is a little bit acidic. Chinese witch
hazel is nice. With some sunlight, you get nice burgundy

(45:49):
growth on the foliage and then in spring you have hot,
pink or white blooms, depending on the type you buy.
But if you do Chinese witch hazel, make sure and
get the most dwarf types. You can't because they can
get really big and you don't want to be fighting
them with prunters all the time. But it needs to
be acidic or the leaves start to get a little
iron chlorosis on them, so you'd have to build up

(46:10):
a bed like you would build up brazilias for acid
loving plants. So that would be an option for there.
Other than that, we're looking at things like various kinds
of hollys, various the yo pond, for example, the dwarf
compact yopond don't get that large, but they would be
good in an area like that. Those are a few
options for you.

Speaker 7 (46:29):
Thank you so much. I appreciate that help.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
And it sounds like.

Speaker 14 (46:34):
It's got to be checking.

Speaker 5 (46:36):
The soil first, yep, getting this ail right for the
plants you're going to plant.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (46:41):
A big difference between planting and agavi and azalea in
terms of what you do to the soil. So yeah,
definitely do that run over. You're not too terribly far
away from Chema over there and the boardwalk and Moss Nursery.
They've got a huge selection and they have a lot
of shade loving plants too, And just an afternoon like

(47:02):
this afternoon or tomorrow, getting out there and visiting them,
I think they could give you a lot more inspiration
than I can. And a brief phone call.

Speaker 16 (47:12):
Thank you, I appreciate that.

Speaker 5 (47:13):
Have a great day you too, Jenny. Thanks for the call.
I appreciate that as well. All Right, we are now
going to head over to Crosby, Texas and talk to Joe. Hello, Joe,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 16 (47:28):
More than mister Skip, you're doing to find job. I
don't know why the Mother garden talk about this way
to do this.

Speaker 8 (47:34):
I've got my front yeah, thank you very much.

Speaker 16 (47:37):
My front yard. Yeah, you'd be doing it my front yard.
It's kind of sandy at the hills is closer to
the sun. And I literally didn't take care of my
son August seen the last two drafts. No, that's all
gone and all I've got it is really a sick
miniature cover looking things. And I mean they look good
from a distance when you cut them, but when you're
in the yard of it's horrible.

Speaker 6 (47:58):
Now.

Speaker 16 (47:58):
I keep thinking that if I just keep cutting them,
say the old guy and the natural Texas graphs would
come back, or yeah, I don't want to go down
because you got water heat.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
So so is your question getting rid of the clover
like plant or cut.

Speaker 16 (48:20):
If you just keep cutting it taking.

Speaker 17 (48:21):
A die out?

Speaker 4 (48:23):
No, I think it's not.

Speaker 5 (48:25):
Clover Clover follows the same growth cycle as bluebonnets. Sprouts
in the fall, grows through the winter, blooms in the spring,
and then dies uh primarily, and you probably have something
like a less meadizo, which looks clover like. There's some
other plants that could take a little clover. It's gonna
be one of those things. There. You're looking at a

(48:45):
broad leaf post emergent weed killer, and it depends on
the specific plant. If you want to send me some
pictures of it. I can take a look and be
more specific. But when the sun heats up, those products,
most of them are really hurts your Saint Augustine. So
I would suggest a product called Celsius that is not cheap,
but if you mix it up right, it goes a
pretty long way. It makes a gallon. Now, not all

(49:07):
of those kind of plaints are going to be controlled, yeah,
but not all of them will be controlled by Celsius
or any other specific ingredients. So probably I'll put you
on hold at the end. Here, let's uh, let's have
my producer give you an email and send me some
close up pictures. Even I have to pull a weed
up and sit it on the kitchen table to take
a picture of it in good sharp focus, and let
me send Let me send it.

Speaker 16 (49:28):
I'm already going to work, but I'll get it.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
Not a proper.

Speaker 5 (49:33):
Yeah, well, that way I can just give you you bet, thanks, Joe,
appreciate that. Hey, I gotta go, folks, be right back.
All right, folks, we're back with Goylee. Oh my gosh,
look at that. I just get I get these emails
in and it just tracks me.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
All right.

Speaker 5 (49:53):
Well, that's interesting. Hey, uh, I wanted to talk about
Nelson Water Garden and Nursery. It's out there and Katie,
and if you've ever been there before, you know why
I'm excited about the place. Well, I love to go there.
First of all, it's therapy. And it's one thing to
go to a nursery and buy plants, quality plants. Well
they've got those there. It's another thing to find knowledgeable staff.
They've got that there. But this is like therapy. You

(50:16):
go there and you go out unto the trees on
these hot summer days and just sit and listen to
the water. I mean, it is therapy. And you're going
to want to take home on one of those disappearing
fountains a big beautiful ceramic glaze container that the water
flows out at the top of back into the ground
and recycles back again through. Birds are going to thank

(50:38):
you for that too.

Speaker 7 (50:38):
By the way.

Speaker 5 (50:39):
They're thirsty, but it's beautiful stuff. They invented that.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
By the way.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
At Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens, you're going to find
quality products. Some of the pottery they have, well a
lot of the pottery they have. The selections, it's incredible
and it's beautiful stuff. It's investments. I mean, it's the
kind of thing you put in your landscape and it's
going to be there essentially forever. I mean it's really
quality materials. I love it, and I love the plants too.

(51:06):
You know that even though water gardens is in their name,
so is nursery. Whether you're needing annuals or perennials, or
herbs or vegetables or fruit trees or shrubs and roses
and you name it, they've got it all. It's beautiful
asplints too. Inside the store, why are you there? You're
gonna be able to pick up the supplies that you
need to have success with your gardens and with your landscape.

(51:26):
Nelson Water Gardens is on Katie Fort Benroad, just north
of the Katie Freeway. I ten Nelson Watergardens dot com.
Nelson Watergardens dot com. If you'd like to give me
a call today, you can reach me at seven one
three two one two Ktrh'd be happy to visit with
you about that.

Speaker 10 (51:46):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (51:47):
You know, you hear me talk to callers all the
time where we talk about well, you know, if I
get a photo from you and you follow it up
with a phone call. We can, we can try to
diagnose it. Because when you look at a picture, uh,
it really helped nail down the cause or the culprit
or whatever, and therefore the ants are a lot better.

(52:08):
You can describe something and I can't quite quite get it.
I wish you could. You could give me live samples
here on the garden line, you know where I just
reach into a little box and pull that pull out
of the weed that you're talking about. But I'll tell
you who can do that, and that's Southwards Fertilizer, Bob.
They listen, this store has been around for seventy years
this or seventieth year now, started back in nineteen fifty five,

(52:32):
and Bob and his whole team there are experts we like,
say they can get their pair of eyes on it.
You know, let them take a look at it. It
could be a photo that you bring in on your
phone or printed out. It could be an actual weed
in a bag that you bring in. Let them look
at it. They'll diagnose the problem and then if a
product is needed, they'll get you to the right product.

(52:52):
Because there is no one in town that has a
selection of things to do with pests, weeds and diseases
of fertilizers, organic and synthetic. By the way, if you're
an organic gardener, this is the largest organic garden selection
in town. Of products, they carry them all and a
product name never comes out of my mouth on Garden

(53:13):
Line that Bob doesn't have, and it's because he already
has them. He he's committed to doing that. So take
your samples in, take your pictures in, let them help
you with it. It's quality products, it's expert advice and
good old fashioned service. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com corner of
Bissinett and Renwick. If you'd like to give him a
call seven to one three six sixty six one seven

(53:36):
four four seven one three sixty sixty six one seven
four four. If you would like to give me a
call seven one three two one two KTRH give me
a call seven one three two one two k t
rh Uh. Piercecapes is our go to landscaper here on
Garden Line and been around since nineteen eighty eight. They

(54:00):
service a wide area up there. They're kind of up
in the Tombol general area, service a wide area around
that whole the whole region, not just in Tombol, but
you know, in forty five minutes in all directions there
they got clients and it doesn't it doesn't matter what
you want done, they can do it. Maybe you just
want a flowerbed revamped, or maybe you just want maintenance

(54:22):
where once a quarter maybe somebody comes in and they
just they clean up your flower beds, pull the weeds,
replenish them all, check the irrigation, make sure everything's working right.
If the plants need replacing, you know those cool seasoned
plants we're entering summer, and vice versa. They can do that.
You just have to give them a call. Seven or
excuse me eight two eight one three seven oh fifty

(54:45):
sixty two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty or
better yet, just do this. I'm always trying to get
people to go to their website because it's so awesome.
Pierce scapes dot com. Pierce Scapes dot take a look
at the work they do, lighting, drainage, all kinds of
heart heartscapes, you know, pathways and patios and everything. They

(55:09):
can do it all. Maybe you want the whole nine yards,
you want the complete renovation of a landscape, or an
installation of a new home you're having built. They can
do that at Pierce Scapes dot Com. I'm gonna head
out now to uh, let's see, uh talk to Lloyd
in Pennington.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
Is that right? You're in Pennington? Lloyd?

Speaker 13 (55:30):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Sorry, asked Greg.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
Where is Pennington located? That's a new one on it.

Speaker 10 (55:37):
You ever heard of Groveton?

Speaker 4 (55:39):
Yes? Yes, okay, now I know.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
I'm about twey oot day mile north of Groveton on
to eighty seven.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
Okay, got you all right? Well, get all your neighbors
to call me. I never had a call from Pennington
to my knowledge, so good. Good to have you on
the phone. How can we well, you know, if there's
three or four that's that's enough.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
Hey, how can I help you today?

Speaker 18 (56:04):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (56:05):
I've got about an acre and a half that I
normally just disc up in in uh in the wintertime.
And I've broadcast mustard kind of uh collared greens, and
I've even.

Speaker 7 (56:18):
Put some carrots in there.

Speaker 10 (56:20):
It's done.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
I keep the pH of the soil pretty high.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
I put lime on it.

Speaker 10 (56:24):
I put two tons of line.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
About every three or four acres. Uh, but I always broadcasted.
I put nitrogen and potash in the fertilizer, and I
normally put about six pounds of seed of the various
seeds in the well. For three or four years, I
got a really good stand. The last two years, I've

(56:46):
not got a good stand. Can you tell me maybe
what i'm doing?

Speaker 4 (56:51):
What i'm doing?

Speaker 5 (56:53):
Yeah, that's a that's a good question. And of course
when you'd broadcast, you've broken open the soil a little.
That I guess or are you not plowing or do
you just broadcasting it?

Speaker 3 (57:04):
I just getn't killing?

Speaker 5 (57:06):
Okay, Well, if you're doing all that, of course all
the wheat, all the weed seeds get real excited about
that because the sunlight hits the soil. So sometimes some
years the weeds can be a little more choking out things.
Old seed is one possibility of planting. There's a lot
of reasons this could happen, So I'm going to go
through a bunch that probably don't relate to your situation.

(57:27):
But old seed is one. When seed starts to germinate,
when it swells with water. From that point on, that
seed has a short time to get a root down
and get established or it'll die. It can't stop partway
through germinating, and like a seed would be dry and
sitting there waiting. Once it starts, it can't wait anymore.

(57:48):
It's committed itself. And so if you have a little
dry spell for a while, it doesn't take long. Just
the surface of that soil where the seed is dries out.
You can lose them that way. So that's another thing.
The seasons haven't been that different where I would blame
the weather, but I guess you know that could also
be playing a factor. But I'm thinking more in terms

(58:10):
of so moisture, possibly planting depth. If you've got them
covered a little too much, some things like carrots won't
set up on top almost But those are my best guesses.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Well, I never I never cover them. I just seed
it and I just kind of run over it with
a full weel and pack it in the ground. Well,
but now I've been told at putting the seed together
with the fertilizer could be my problem.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
I missed that if you mentioned that earlier. Yeah, you
don't want to do that. You would rather put the
fertilizer down and do your disking or light disc very
light disking, and then do the seed. If a granular
fertilizer salt based fertilizer was sitting next to a seed,
would burn the root. You know, that's can't can't quite

(59:03):
do that, so you might get away with that, but
I wouldn't do it that way. I'd do the fertilizer,
get it in the ground, and then do the seed,
or let the seed come up and start growing, and
then run over it and broadcast the fertilizer. But probably
the first one is how I do it.

Speaker 10 (59:19):
That's probably worth. That's probably worth.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
That's where I'm missing.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
The boat, I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (59:26):
Well, if you ever get another batch of that, I'd
love to see a picture of this. That's your first
person I've ever talked to you that's out there just
doing that kind of planting of all kinds of apples together.
Sounds interesting. I bet it's a sight. Well, thank you, sir.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
You appreciate it, and I appreciate that.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
Appreciate that, yes, sir, you bet, thanks a lot. I
appreciate that. Plants for all Seasons it's right there where
how we two forty nine tom Ball Parkway comes into
a bout way eight Plants for all Seasons, a place
where you're gonna find expert advice, where you can find
any product you're going to need to take care of
the problems you have. You can take a picture in there,
you can take a sample of plant in there. They

(01:00:04):
know brown stuff before green stuff. You got to walk
through all the fertilizer products and they'll upfronts all the
soil products. You know, just to get there to the
register because that's so important. And when it comes to plants,
you're going to have an outstanding selection of some of
the best plants that do well in our area. This
place has been around since the night early nineteen seventies.
They are experts, they're veterans. They know what they're talking about,

(01:00:26):
and you will have success with your plants and with
the advice that you get.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
Go in there.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
They're a friendly group and they have everything you need
to have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape. And
as a result of that, how do I alway see it,
You're gonna have more fun in the process. Time for
me to take a bottom of the hour break.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
I'll be right back. All right, folks, we're back. Welcome
back to the garden line. Good to have you with us.

Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
Someone was asking me about a fertilizer. They live way
off in Timbuk II of the listening area, and they
were asking me about a good fertilizer for a slow
release product for the plants, and I was telling them
about Nelson Plant Food turf Star. The slow and easy
Nelson turf Star is a product that is going to

(01:01:14):
gradually release the nutrients, especially the nitrogen, over a very
very long time, and it's going to you do it now.
It's going to carry all the way up to fall fertilization.
It works like that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
The nice thing about it is that slow release prevents
burn all. It also helps speed the soil microbes, enriching
the soil, and it acidifies. It has an acidifying agent
in it as part of the the chemistry that puts
that's put together there and slow and easy and as
a result, as you keep that pH down a little bit,

(01:01:46):
a lot of the problems we run into, like iron chlorosis,
which can be a problem obviously in turf especially, but
it's because of high pH and high phosphorus and things.
Slow and Easy has a very low phosphorus number, and
it has a slightly sidifying fact which is nice. And
it just works. You put it down and you forget it.
It lasts a very long time and turf Star products
that whole line from Nelson Plant Food is quality stuff.

(01:02:09):
Now that we're in summertime, there's the Plumeria food. You know,
plumeria and all kinds of tropical bloomers. It works good
for those. Now listen, plant can't read it. Maybe maybe
you've got you know, some other tropical blooming plant, like
a like a you know, hibiscus by the way, they
have a hibiscus plant food too, or maybe you have
another alamander an end of the year or whatever. You

(01:02:31):
put that plumeri on it, it's going to do just fine.
It works on a number of different things, and of
course it works on plumerias very well. That's part of
the nutristar line from Nelson Plant Food. These are widely
available all over the place. Just go to your local
garden center, you feed stores, hardware stores, ace hardware stores,
places like that and ask for Nelson plant Food products

(01:02:53):
by name. Let's see, we're going to go now to
Friends Wood and talk to Mariann this morning. Well, hello,
hell Marianne, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:03:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 19 (01:03:03):
I wanted to plant a high biscus in a pot,
and I wanted to know if I could use the
herb and garden soil or the rose soil to use
planting in the pot. And if not, what type of
potting soil would you recommend?

Speaker 5 (01:03:22):
Yeah, I would use either of those. The vegetable and
herb or the rose soil would work fine in a
larger container. And you're gonna want a little bit larger
container for a hibiscus because they get they have some
size to the plant.

Speaker 19 (01:03:34):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
So either way, i'd probably I probably would think about that.
Which way would I lean?

Speaker 13 (01:03:40):
Lo?

Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
I probably would lean a little bit toward the rose soil,
but I can tell you're gonna have good success with
the other. You're just those are highly organic soils, meaning
there's a lot of decomposed organic matter in them, which
is part of what makes them so good. And so
you're gonna want to after you know, next year, you're
gonna want to probably uh move the planet out of

(01:04:01):
the pot, add a little bit of potting soil and
put it back in because that level is going to
sink down over time.

Speaker 19 (01:04:07):
And what potting soil would you recommend for the high biscus?

Speaker 5 (01:04:12):
Uh, either the rose or the vegetable and herb would
be fine for it. Either one. I'd probably lean toward
the rose soil a little bit.

Speaker 19 (01:04:21):
Okay, but I thought that urban garden soil or the
rose oil was only for in the ground, not for pots.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
Well, no, it's designed. It's designed to be a great
bed mix for a garden bed or a rose bed
for the rose one. But their their texture is fine
enough to where they will grow just they'll do just
fine in a pot. I've got a hibiscus and some
rose soil myself right now. It's when there's a little

(01:04:52):
plastic small looks like a half whiskey barrel.

Speaker 7 (01:04:55):
Yep, yes, okay, all right, so much.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Okay, you luck with those, send me pictures of the
beautiful plants when they balloon for it. All right, thanks
a lot, I appreciate that. Listen, if your lawn is struggling,
you need to consider the possibility of its struggling because
of soil compaction. That is a factor in our clay soils.

(01:05:18):
And B and B turf Pros the website is just
that BB turf Pros dot com. BB Turfpros dot com,
family owned business. They provide honest, quality work. Now they
do aeration services as well as a fertilization, compost, hop dressing.
They can do that all They only use quality products
that I recommend here on Guardline. So their leafmoll compost

(01:05:39):
comes from the folks at the animals. That's just an
example what I'm talking about. They are about personal connection
with their client. They're about your satisfaction. Now to load
up on a big bulk of compost and haul it
somewhere and use the high quality, expensive equipment that they use.
On its price to start around five hundred dollars depending
on the size of your yard and how far they

(01:05:59):
have to travel. Uh So you know this is is
an investment in your lawn. But I'm telling you, if
you've got a lawn that is struggling and you tried fertilizing,
you're trying to water and it's just you're not getting
response from it, or or maybe chich bugs or diseases
or some other issue has hit the lawn. Compost top

(01:06:19):
dressing coming after a good quality core aeration with the
equipment that BnB Turpros has can turn it around and
you will see results. I'm telling you I've seen results
in like within a couple of weeks. It's like, whoa
that was That's already looking good. BB Turpros dot Com

(01:06:39):
seven one three two three four fifty five ninety eight.
Seven one three two three four five five nine eight
give them call. They service the area, by the way,
kind of south of Houston. So starting over in Sugarland
in Missouri City, you come all across Highway six there Ciena, Arcola,
man Bul Alvin and then up to Parland, Friendswood, League City,

(01:06:59):
Decay and over at forty five. That's kind of the
prime area that they service with their company. So give
them a call. Seven one three two three four fifty
five ninety eight. I love going to garden centers, and
this summer I've noticed, of course, a lot of people
are into butterflies, right, Butterflies and pollinators. That's another big

(01:07:20):
one that people care about. And I always think about
enchanted forest when I think about that, because they have
such a great selection.

Speaker 4 (01:07:27):
You know, for.

Speaker 5 (01:07:27):
Butterflies, it's not just a plant that the adult butterflies
like the flower of that plant. It's also plants that
they're larva their babies. If you will have food and
so like if you're a monarch, you're looking for milkweed
to lay eggs on because that's what your baby's eat.
If you are a beautiful orange golf, fritillary, caterpillar. You're

(01:07:48):
looking for passion buying because that's what your babies eat,
and so on, all across the spectrum, and they've got
all of those there in Chanted Forest. Now it's down
in Richmond Rosenberg area. And first of all, i'd write
down this websites, awesome website, lots of good information. Enchanted Forest, Richmond,
TX dot com. Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. They're

(01:08:12):
on FM twenty seven to fifty nine, just south of
Interstate sixty nine or Highway fifty nine for those of
us who remember that. Anyway, good selection of plants. I
don't care what kind of planet it is for the
adults or for the young ones.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
They've got it.

Speaker 5 (01:08:27):
Churse Jennifer says, every kind of plant, very heat tolerant plants,
shade tolerant plants, herbs and vegetables and flowers, annuals, perennials,
hanging baskets, and then everything else that you're gonna want
to have success with your plants. Anyway, got to give
them a call. Chanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. Just

(01:08:49):
go check that out and you'll see exactly where to
go how to reach them. And the main thing is
let's get that done. If you want to have beautiful
fall blooming plants, now's a great time get those things in.
Maybe it's a fall blooming salvia. They have like ninety
different kinds of salva over the course of the air
that they've raced there or that they've sold there. It's
a it's this crazy selection. I think you can tell

(01:09:12):
them kind of. I'm kind of excited about that place.
You're listening to guardline my phone number seven one three
two one two kt r H seven one three two
one two k t r H.

Speaker 4 (01:09:24):
Give me call.

Speaker 5 (01:09:25):
Let's talk about the things that are of interest to
you now and me being away, I did not stock
my bird feeders, and I came back, uh and yesterday
I uh later in the day is taking a look
out there, and I ain't see any birds. It's like,
where are the birds? And they looked at the feeders
and they're empty. You know, wonder the birds didn't leave

(01:09:46):
a little note stuck to the door. Hey buddy, what's
going on?

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:09:49):
I get my I get my bird feed at Wallbirds
Unlimited because Wallbirds Unlimited has the best blends, like right now,
still nesting season for a lot of kinds of birds
and the Nesting Super Blend, which is an exclusive available
only at Wallbirds Unlimited. That's the one that's the go to.
It's got exactly the kinds of energy, the protein and

(01:10:12):
whatnot that birds need during that time, you know, when
they're raising new young and for the young. As a
matter of fact, did you know that Wallbirds Unlimited has
a variety of blends. But every seed in that bag
is something birds want to eat, not the red bebes
of cheap bird seed, because by the time you throw
away the red bebes, you paid too much for the

(01:10:33):
birds those cheap bird seeds, because I've seen them where
it's way over fifty percent of stuff birds don't want
to eat. Well anyway, Wibirds Unlimited Quality. You can also
get their no mess blends. No mess blends mean that
if it's let's say a sunflower, black old sunflower or
something just crack for birds, they love it well, they
have to shell it and drop the shells on the ground,

(01:10:55):
so you don't want that. Get their no mess blends
works really well. Five no excuse me? Six Wildbirds unlimiteds
in the Greater Houston area go to WBU dot com
forward slash Houston WBU dot Com, Forward Slash Houston find
those six Wildbirds stores in North Southeast, West Central. We've
got you covered, beautiful, beautiful products, wonderful products and folks

(01:11:20):
that know how to help you have success with bringing
beautiful songbirds to your yard. By the way, now's the
time to make sure you have water out for them
to birds have to have water every day, just like us.
Put some water out for your birds. I gotta take
a little break here, I've gone a little long. We'll
come back in just a moment. And Patty in League City,
you'll be our first job. All right, folks, we're back.

(01:11:41):
Welcome back to Guardline. Good heavy with us. Listen in
our lawns. We have a number of different insects that
we deal with through the year. And if you go
online to my gardening schedule at gardeningwith Skip dot com
Gardening with Skip dot Com, I've got a lawn care
schedule basically mowater fertilized schedule, how to grow al and
the second schedule is the lawn pest, disease and weed

(01:12:02):
management schedule. That's everything that goes wrong in the lawn
that wants to destroy that beautiful lawn you got well,
night Foss bug Out Max is an insecticide. It comes
as a granule. You can put it out and whatever
the bugs are out there, it's gonna shut them down
down in the thatch area. So even things like fleas
and ticks, you know, that are out there crawling around

(01:12:22):
the yard because the dog dropped the fleas off or
something along those lines. Things like chinchbugs, thing like sodweb worms,
fire ants that are out there in the yard. Bug
Out maxkills up to one hundred and thirty different insects
and within forty eight hours it has shut things down.
You're gonna find night Foss products a number of places.
You go to Ace Hardware City on Memorial Drive. You

(01:12:42):
go to the M and D out there in Rosenberg
on Avenue. I maybe Bearings Hardware. The one on Bissinette
and the one on West sim Or both carry night
Foss products, as does Plants for All Seasons. On Highway
two forty nine. You are listening to the guardline. We're
gonna go straight out to a call here. We're gonna
talk to Paddy in League City. Hello, Patty, welcome to
garden line.

Speaker 15 (01:13:03):
Yes, good morning. Can you hear me now?

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
Yes? Ma'am.

Speaker 15 (01:13:07):
Hello, Okay, I had a golden rain tree and that's
been been in the grounds for about three months. I
bought it from Moss Nursery. Uh it's about seventh it's
about seventh foot now.

Speaker 13 (01:13:22):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (01:13:23):
It was doing really well, and that I started noticing
some of the leaves are yellowing and then they turned
black and dying. So I didn't know if it was
overwatering or underwatering. Uh. The lady was wonderful, she told me,
went to what I planted it to water it every
day for a month, and then three days a week

(01:13:45):
the second month, and now I'm in the third month.
So uh, that wasn't sure. You know, I don't think
it's trying to die, but I was worrisome about it.

Speaker 5 (01:13:56):
Right right, Well, I'll tell you it could be either
extreme more likely too wet than too dry, based on
the symptoms you described. But it comes down to you know,
if you have a clay soil, if it's a low area,
it's very different than a sandy soil or.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
A high area that drains away. Well, it could be
one or the other.

Speaker 5 (01:14:17):
But in three months after planting, it still has a
very confined root system, so the base of that plant.
Sting too wet causes roots to lack oxygen and therefore
die back, and therefore the top follows. So dig down
about six inches just outside of where the root ball
was that you planted, and feel the soil and see
if it's dry to the touch, and if not, hold

(01:14:38):
off on the water a little bit. In three months,
it should have the start of a decent little root
system around near the base. So I'm not saying don't
water at all. I'm just saying watch the overwatering. And
when you dig down and feel the soil, you can
kind of tell the difference between wet and dry with
your hand. And that's better than me giving you a
schedule like water. This meantimes a day because temperature and

(01:15:01):
a lot of other things affect that.

Speaker 15 (01:15:04):
Yes, sir, uh the uh it I had, I had
an established one that was almost thirty years old that
eventually perished. It was huge in my front yard. So
we dug it up and pulled up the room, and
she warned me, she said, do not put the new one,

(01:15:25):
you know, in that old opening. She said, So I
dug the whole adjacent to the opening, So you know,
I don't know that has anything to do with anything.
But so I will do as you say. I think
back off, yeah, on the watering and uh and it
thought gently on a raised amound, and then she gave
me the bag of mult to put around it on

(01:15:49):
the top. So I didn't think exactly what she said.
Do you have an email that I can send a
couple of pictures.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Of what it's Yes, I'm going to put you on
hold right now and my producer will provide you that email.
And thank you very much, Petty for calling in this morning.
ACE Hardware stores or the place you go for whatever
you need. Really, that's their motto. ACE is the pace.
ACE is the place for you. Fill in the blank.
I love the selection of quality hand tools that fit

(01:16:23):
your budget, and the selection is outstanding at ACE.

Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
Haardworre.

Speaker 5 (01:16:26):
I love the selection of barbecue stuff, high quality pitts.
So you're talking about things like Rectech and Treyger and
the Big Green Egg along with it's cult following and
the Weber grills and all the things that go along
with making barbecuing wonderful. Hey, turn that outdoor sitting area
into an outdoor living area, and ACE Hardware can help

(01:16:49):
you do that. It's ACE Hardware Texas dot com. That's
the website where you'll find all my garden line ACE
Hardware stores in this whole region. ACE Hardware Texas dot
Com stores like All Stars, Ace A, Magnolia Northeast k
and m Ace up there in kingwad Or Southeast Kilgore's
Clear Lake Lumber on East Main Street, Katie Hardware on
pinoak An Old Town, Katie on the West Side, down

(01:17:11):
southwest Port Levaca, Ace on Calhoun Plaza, just some of
the many stores you can find at ACE Hardware Texas
dot Com. Let's go now to Spring, Texas and we're
going to talk to David. Hello, David, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (01:17:26):
Hey, thanks for taking my call. Yeah yeah, I got
a quick question for you. Twenty years with the same
Saint Augustine lawn here in Spring and this year, I
don't know if it's speakings of the excessive rain or what.

Speaker 13 (01:17:42):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:17:42):
There's a weed that's.

Speaker 17 (01:17:45):
In a vine. It kind of grows underneath the Saint Augustine,
kind of similar to the way that Saint Augustine grows.
I looked it up online and to the best of
my ability, it resembles a Virginia butterweed button button weed.

Speaker 4 (01:18:02):
Yeah yeah, let's.

Speaker 7 (01:18:06):
Maturely.

Speaker 17 (01:18:06):
It comes out with a little white flower. If I
don't mow for a couple of weeks and the leaves
turned purple, I guess when it's really purple.

Speaker 4 (01:18:16):
Yeah, yeah, okay, that's what it is. No, not gonna work.

Speaker 8 (01:18:22):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:18:22):
But Virginia button weed is a tough one to control.
Most products just suppress it. They don't kill it.

Speaker 8 (01:18:29):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:18:30):
In now that we're in the heat of summer, a
lot of the products to kill broad leaf weeds in
the lawn can really stress your saint obviously lawn.

Speaker 10 (01:18:37):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:18:38):
And so what the wonder that I'd recommend because it
is one of the best ones for Virginia button weed
and the least damaging in warm temperatures is called celsius.
And now you're not going to kill Virginia button weed
with one application. You want to get it, uh. You
want to get it healthy and growing, because herbicides work

(01:18:58):
best when a plant is not stressed, but when it's
healthy and growing, they take up the herbicide better. So
you hold off on mowing, let that get growing, and
then use celsius.

Speaker 4 (01:19:09):
It's not cheap.

Speaker 5 (01:19:11):
You can buy a little packet that makes a gallon
and then spot treat as you go through the yard.
Be ready six weeks later to do it again. And
especially as we go later in the summer season start
to get into fall, you may need to do another
one then, but just watch it and see. But if
it's actively growing, Celsius will work pretty good. Hey, I've

(01:19:31):
run out of time here, David, but that's sure, we'll
do it. And if you go, yeah, if you go
to my lawn Career, Pest Disease and weed Management schedule,
think you can find more information that will help you there.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
Appreciate that. Listen.

Speaker 5 (01:19:46):
We're in the season of hurricanes and storms, and Quality
Home Products of Texas will sell you a generatic Generaic
automatic stand by genera. It comes on automatically when the
power goes out. You can buy generators from a lot
of places, but nobody gives you this service of Quality
Home Products of Texas.

Speaker 4 (01:20:02):
They don't.

Speaker 5 (01:20:02):
I'm telling you fourteen thousand plus five star reviews, they've
won the Pinnacle Award Better Business Bureau, those prestigious customer
service work eight times eight times Quality tx dot Com.

Speaker 7 (01:20:14):
Just go there.

Speaker 5 (01:20:15):
See I'll prove to you that I'm sending you to
the right place when you experience the way that they
treat you, not just before you buy the thing, but
twenty four to seven three sixty five after you do.
Seven one three Quality is a phone number seven to
one three quality qualitytx dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
Listen.

Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
It's a process to get a quality generator like that
set out in your place. So don't delay, don't wait
till there's a storm in the golf for crying out loud,
call them now. Just get the information so you can
make a good, educated decision. And you're not going to
do better in quality home products.

Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
Time for me, take a little break here at the
top of the hour. We will be back. I got
a special guest coming in. Hang around already.

Speaker 5 (01:21:03):
Welcome back to Guarden Line, folks. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and we're here to help you have a bountiful garden,
a beautiful landscape. And don't forget this third part, maybe
the most important, more fun in the process. Try gardening
should be fun. You do not have a brown repeat
after me, I do not have a brown thumb. There's
no such thing as a brown thumb. There's only an

(01:21:25):
uninformed thumb. The reason Grandma everything she touched succeeded gardening wise,
is because she just was doing what plants want her
to do. I mean, that's what it amounts to. Sunlight,
soil drained, it's moisture nutrients. It's not that difficult.

Speaker 4 (01:21:42):
And so hang around.

Speaker 5 (01:21:43):
We bring your thumb with you. Sit down front of
the radio. We're gonna talk. We're gonna talk gardening. We're
gonna get your thumb informed. And just look how it
will turn greener in the process. At least that's the way.

Speaker 4 (01:21:53):
That I like to put it.

Speaker 5 (01:21:55):
I need to get out moment lawn because it has
gotten huge while I was away gallivanting for over almost
a couple of weeks. And one thing I always notice
when I'm looking at lawns and pictures of lawns is
whether the mower blade is sharp or not. You know,
a good sharp blade makes clean cuts, and when you
make good clean cuts, the lawn even looks better. Think

(01:22:17):
about this a grass blade. If you snip it off
with scissors, you're gonna have a little fine line of
tan right where you cut it off. On the other hand,
if you take a piece of rebar and just hit
it real hard and rip the end of it off. Well,
you're gonna have a jagged wound that has a whole
lot of tan on it. Now you stand back at
the street and look at a lawn full of ten

(01:22:38):
Brazilian grass blades, and that pixelation makes a difference. It
actually affects the beauty and color of your lawn. To
have a good sharp blade. Now you go Southwest fertilizer,
you need some work done on anything like that. They've
got the blades and things that you need. They've got
a shop in the back for They do lawn equipment,
both sales and service, and they do blade sharpening as well.

(01:23:01):
It's easier in your mower to have a sharp blade,
and it looks better in your lawn.

Speaker 4 (01:23:05):
It's just the way to go.

Speaker 5 (01:23:06):
And when you come to when it comes to chopping
up those grass clippings, so they decompose back into the turf,
better fall down into the turf. Well, well that's what
you need is good sharp blade. Now while you're in Southwest,
you're going to see everything else Bob has, which is
every fertilizer under the sun, every insect aside, every herbside,
every fungicide, and probably most important of all, a staff

(01:23:27):
that knows what they're doing. You bring them a sample,
you bring them a picture of something, and they're gonna
put their eyes on it, take a good look. They
know what they're doing, they'll diagnose it, and they'll put
the right product in your hand. Friendly service, quality products,
great selection. It's a reason people from all over will
drive to Southwest Fertilizer corner of the Sinnette in Redwick

(01:23:47):
seven one three six sixty six one four. Well, I
said before I went to break, I got a special
guest today, and I do. Our special guest for this
hour is Dean Nelson from Nelson Plat Food, and I'm
gonna ask kind of hold the calls this hour. If
you've got questions, I'll be around the next hour. We'll
answer those, but I'd like to be able to spend

(01:24:09):
some time visiting with Dean. Hey, Dean, are you.

Speaker 7 (01:24:13):
There, Yes, sir, I'm here.

Speaker 5 (01:24:16):
Well, welcome to the Garden Line. It's so good to
have you on. Good to hear your voice again. Are
you able to hear me?

Speaker 4 (01:24:21):
Okay?

Speaker 7 (01:24:22):
Oh yeah, yes, sirs, well good good.

Speaker 5 (01:24:27):
Well, you know i'd ask you to come on today
because every now and then we make another round of
reminding people about Randy's scholarship, And I'd like to spend
just a little bit of time just kind of talking
about Randy and then get into the scholarship and some
things that have been going on with that. But you know,

(01:24:48):
anybody who's listening to Garden Line for a while knows
that Randy was an icon here in the Houston area.
And I mean probably more people knew Randy's name than
the mayor's name sometimes just because he was well beloved.
And for over twenty five years he held down this
spot and just made gardening a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
And he worked hard at it. I mean when he
and he said that, you know, when he first started,
he didn't know what he was doing. I mean, he
knew the horticulture, of course, he was a lifelong learner,
but he didn't know the radio business, or the promotion
or the book writing business.

Speaker 7 (01:25:23):
He didn't know any of that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
And he kind of self taught and worked worked his
tail off for all those years, and just he built
up his brand and he spent like a year finding
out going to all these nurseries.

Speaker 7 (01:25:34):
How hard that is.

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
I mean, it takes a big commitment to show up
at all these retail stores and and answer questions and
look at things in person, you know, instead of trying
to figure it out over the radio.

Speaker 7 (01:25:46):
And when he started, you know when Bill.

Speaker 20 (01:25:48):
Zach go ahead, no, go ahead, I wasn't trying to
cut in okay, And you know when he started off
with Bill Zach, they it was kind of a I
don't know how big the audience was, but it wasn't
nearly as big as when he finished.

Speaker 1 (01:26:03):
And he grew it just just with his force of
his personality and his his uh energy that he put
into it and writing those books was a huge effort.
I think he had four books that he wrote about
Martening in Texas and promoted those all over the place
and and educated everybody, and and he just loved of
course he had a big personality, which you have to have.

Speaker 7 (01:26:25):
I think you have to to get where he was.
And uh, you know, I go all over the country.

Speaker 1 (01:26:32):
I really don't go out to California, but the southeast
and the East and and there's I have not seen
another program like Gardenlight.

Speaker 7 (01:26:41):
I mean it's huge, and the growing season in Houston
is huge. It's long.

Speaker 5 (01:26:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's true. Uh that you know when
this when new Compton was doing the show, who kind
of really is the founder, even though they can't call
it garden Line back then. But when when he was
doing it, it was not on for four hours on
Saturday and Sunday morning both and that grew over time,
and Randy had a huge part in the success, no

(01:27:10):
question about it, the expansion and success. I don't know
another show in the country, and I've I've tried looking
several times because I'm really curious. But typically a gardening
show is going to be an hour or two on
Standay morning or something like that. That that's common across
you know, even here in Texas, San Antonio, Dallas and whatnot.
But this much time as spending with people in it

(01:27:33):
and for gardeners in the area, you know, they benefit
from the fact that there's just a lot of information
going out each weekend and it helps people have success,
and I guess in a sense makes Green Houston a
greener place and a certainly more fun place to garden.

Speaker 1 (01:27:51):
Well, until I got into this in the eighty three,
I didn't know. I didn't understand the importance of horticulture
in Texas. I mean, I remember going to lock of
More golf course in the eighties and Tom Werder was
a golf course superintendent. He was an Aggie buddy of mine,
and I was shocked that they mow those greens every day.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
Yeah, and boy they do every day.

Speaker 1 (01:28:11):
Yeah, and you talk about hawd for it. It has
sharp blades. I mean, they can tell you about how
sharp blades help. So that's true.

Speaker 5 (01:28:19):
Oh gosh, can you imagine a golf course without it. Well,
that's great, I'm gonna have. Of course, we just get
started here. That's the way it is on Guardline. You
just get started. Next thing, you know, you gotta go
break and stuff. But I'm gonna cut in right here
and take a break. But when we come back, I
want I want you to tell us a little bit
about the scholarship, and then I want to hear about
a recent person that received the scholarship. So hang on

(01:28:41):
with this, Dean. Thanks for so much for giving your
time today, and we'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (01:28:48):
Yeah, yeah, Dean.

Speaker 5 (01:28:50):
I don't know if you can relate to Toby Keith
right there. My mind and my body don't know what's
agreed on what I ought to be doing. Welcome back
to Garden Line, folks. It's good to have you with us, Hey, Dean, Uh, well,
I'd like to get back to talking about the Randy scholarship,
And why don't you tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 7 (01:29:13):
Randy?

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
I mean, and really they talked about it at his
at his memorial service. But that guy was a big giver.
I mean, he gave so much. And you know you
were there at Brookwood when they planted a tree for
him because of all this stuff he had done all
those years, and and he never talked about it, he
never bragged about it.

Speaker 10 (01:29:29):
He just did it.

Speaker 7 (01:29:30):
And so in fact, I just remembered, did you ever
get your car fixed? When I backed into you there
at Brooklyn?

Speaker 4 (01:29:37):
Are you gonna bring that up on the air. I
still have I still have whiplash.

Speaker 5 (01:29:41):
My lawyers are gonna be contacted because they've been right
ever since.

Speaker 4 (01:29:46):
Yeah, No, I'm fine, go ahead with Randy. Let's not
talk about my car.

Speaker 7 (01:29:50):
But uh and and and it's a family, you know,
Brookwood's the family. And is Anita. I came shulter her.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
She came to Bellville the other day for that memorial
service because she's family with the Elix who's the grandparents
of Virginia that they lost at the camp, and so
we're all family and Randy was a big part of
the horticultural family here and so you know, just the
idea is, okay, we're gonna set something up to and
he would he would be so excited about it, and

(01:30:16):
you know, for his kids to know that, you know, hey,
his their dad is is forever and this is a
permanently endowed So it's gonna go on forever, and it's
gonna help help kids. And I talked to doctor Dring
about it. He's the horticulture department. I asked him, what
are you gonna do with this money? And he says,
we're gonna use it to recruit top kids into a
horticulture department. He said, you'd be surprised how much a

(01:30:38):
scholarship will help. And I've been involved in three other
scholarships through the Aggie band up there, and the kids
they picked for these scholarships just make me feel stupid
and dumb and lazy.

Speaker 7 (01:30:48):
They are so good.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
And so that's kind of and we asked everybody of
the radio to to send money in and we're still
asking because we're trying to get it up to one
hundred thousand dollars permanently endowed, which will generate four thousand
dollars a year for these kids and the well I
talked about Annihilator, but I asked her the other day
what it costs, and just this, the A and M

(01:31:12):
part is ten to twelve thousand a semester.

Speaker 7 (01:31:14):
And these kids, you know a lot of them are
working as she is to pay for it.

Speaker 1 (01:31:20):
And you know, we've been blessed, and I've been doing
this and you have to for you know, almost fifty
years now, forty something forty three, I think, and you
know we've been blessed and it's time to give back
and to grow our industry because you go to these
trade shows and there's a lot of us older folks
around and these younger folks, you know, they want to

(01:31:40):
go into the high technology. They want to go sit
in the office, they want to work on their computers.
You know, there's the kids that want to get out
and work in the dirt. And it's it's not as
many as you would think. So to this is to
help grow the industry and it'll be hadn't have a
long term effect. If you one kid I hired, I
don't know ten years ago, is a summer intern and
worked for me for three years. And now she owns

(01:32:02):
a landscape company that has about two hundred fifty employees.
And she had no idea she was going to be
in the horticulture of business. She was agg business. She
wanted to go into banking or real estate, and we
got her into our industry and she's been She was
like the outstanding leader in Texas like three years ago,
and so one person can have a huge impact.

Speaker 5 (01:32:22):
Well and you and they've given recently, they some young
man got the scholarship. Who's who's in that field in
horticulture at a m that's all right?

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
Yeah, yeah, they picked an alla up moon Smith and
her last name had lunch with her last week and
she's probably listening. She blew me away. I mean, she's graduated.
Her she's a military kid. Her mam and dad were
at Colleen in the army. They moved all over. She

(01:32:56):
graduated from PLANEO and she her mam and dad's split up,
and so then you know, she didn't want to go
to college. So her mom said, Okay, you're going to
go to AmeriCorps. And she didn't want to.

Speaker 7 (01:33:09):
She didn't know what it was. And she went for
four years and just loved it. I mean it's for
people who don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:33:14):
It's like Peace Corps, but it's here in the US
and you serve projects and you have your team of
ten people, and you go to parks and you go
to any kind of nonprofit that needs help.

Speaker 7 (01:33:25):
And she yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:33:28):
I asked her how she get hooked on horticulture. She said, well,
I was working for this food bank and we were
growing food and she says, I just fell in love
with the fact that I grow plants and see them
and help them and nurture them, and some of them
last for you know, many many years. And she said,
that's how I got hooked on hard.

Speaker 4 (01:33:47):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:33:47):
And it's important to have good, good training programs like
those kids are going through. You know, there's a lot
of there's a lot of information on gardening out there,
and a lot of it is not true, not applicable,
or not misapplied or whatever. And having having these kids
come through with a good, solid training because you know,
the bottom line is if you spend time and money

(01:34:07):
on plants and taking care of plants and things, you
want to have success and you don't want to be
operating out of information that's just not accurate. And you
know I've made my I've made my share of mistakes
in life, and I would like to avoid doing that
as much as possible. So I think I want to
thank you for getting that scholarship set up. You know

(01:34:28):
it was it was huge for our area to have
Randy that for the years we did. You probably know this,
but Randy and I actually went to school together. We
lived in the same dorm at A M and so
Randy and my friend a long long time. I've been
on a show before, never dreamed that I'd actually be
sitting here doing the show.

Speaker 4 (01:34:44):
But he he was.

Speaker 5 (01:34:46):
He was bigger than life. He was a great guy.
And I know this, I'm very sure of this. Knowing
Randy h he has got to be beaming with bride,
knowing that there's a scholarship at A and M in
his name for future students that are going to come
out into the industry.

Speaker 4 (01:35:03):
And I know that would matter a lot.

Speaker 7 (01:35:07):
Well, and if well, let's.

Speaker 1 (01:35:10):
Go ahead, Well and you're a supply, a supplier or
retail store, you've listened to a show, you've benefited from it,
and we need to just contribute and give back. And
because of knowledge. She's paying for half of her school,
and she's working thirty five hours a week and going
to school and she's just a hard worker, and we

(01:35:31):
just need to help help these kids.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
Well that's that's true, and I'm happy for Nala, and
thanks for thanks again for helping set this up. Now
for the rest of us, folks, we can be part
of supporting that, whether it's a small gift or a
large gift. And I'm putting something on my website. We're
going to give you some information today on the air,
but I know how it is. You hear it on
the air and then what was that thing I heard?

(01:35:55):
So I'm putting something on my website that will give
you all the information we're going to talk and then
some and will direct you to how to give. So
if you have trouble, you don't have a pen in
front of you can't write everything down, just just go
to guarding with skip dot COM's can be up there
at the top of the site. We're trying to get
it up for the weekends over and I'm pretty sure
we will. But there is an online portal Dean for

(01:36:19):
giving to the scholarship, and it is give dot am
slash Randy Lemon give dot AM as an AM radio
I guess probably means something else slash Randy Lemon, and
you can go online there you can choose boxes. I
want to give this amount or that amount or that amount.
If you happen to be someone, especially in the industry,

(01:36:41):
and you've benefited so much from Randy's presence over the years,
you can make larger gifts. And you can give by
check or make a larger gift by reaching out directly
to the A and M Foundation. And I'm going to
give you a phone number on the air because it's
simpler to do. But on the sheet I'm posting, it's
going to have the lady's name, Megan Hutchinson her email address,

(01:37:04):
and the number is ninety seven nine four three one
forty one twenty two. Ninety seven nine four three one
forty one twenty two.

Speaker 4 (01:37:12):
UH.

Speaker 5 (01:37:13):
There'll be information on where to if you want to
do it by check, where to send the check, and
the memo you're going to write, Lemon Endowment. By the way,
Randy's last name, Lemon, has two m's in the middle
Lemon Endowment.

Speaker 4 (01:37:24):
UH and Dean.

Speaker 5 (01:37:25):
Do you want to add anything to that aspect of
our conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:37:29):
No, just let's you know, if you want to make
it an annual donation. Like I said, this will probably
never end.

Speaker 7 (01:37:34):
Just keep growing and growing. If it's some day or
down in the future, we can make another scholarship for it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:39):
But uh, you know, I think with all this ill
country stuff, I think we all it hits home that
we're we're bigger.

Speaker 7 (01:37:45):
Life is bigger than us.

Speaker 1 (01:37:46):
You know, we're a community and we've got to help
other people and we've got to uh, you know, improve
the lives.

Speaker 7 (01:37:52):
Wherever we can. And so to me, that's what's important
in laughing.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
And you know, I've talked to my grandchildren other that too,
of Ben and Sarah Jane, and you know that they
they give all the time.

Speaker 7 (01:38:05):
They're like eight years old.

Speaker 5 (01:38:06):
So well, bigger than us that it is, and we
need reminding of that. And and unfortunately tragedies always remind
us of our mortality. And when we see people coming
together after a tragedy, that's the good part of us,
you know, that that gets our minds off all the

(01:38:27):
bickering and all the things that go on in society
and and kind of puts the important stuff back in
the front, in the front row. So you got a
good point there. Uh So, in terms of the scholarship,
the plan, you're saying it's an we want it to
be an endowment. And can you explain just to folks
a little bit how that works. You know, you have

(01:38:49):
a certain amount of money for anybody can get a scholarship.

Speaker 7 (01:38:52):
Yeah, well you got to.

Speaker 1 (01:38:53):
We had to get it up to twenty five thousand
dollars to give her a thousand dollars you know, Yeah,
that's the minimum.

Speaker 7 (01:38:58):
And so we got that up there.

Speaker 1 (01:38:59):
And the more we can give, you know, if we
can get up to fifty thousand, and then they'll you know,
they'll get it's about four percent they give. They invest
the rest to make sure it's permanent. And and also
you can you can say, hey, I just want to
give a one time deal and you just if you
want to just give an extra couple hundred dollars or
whatever and just give it to her this year.

Speaker 7 (01:39:19):
You know they'll do that. I forget they have a
name for it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:21):
But you can you can give money every year and
say give it directly to the scholarship student and that'll
help them out.

Speaker 7 (01:39:28):
And like I said, she's she's got a deal where
her stepfather pays half and she pays half.

Speaker 1 (01:39:34):
So anything she can raise, any dollar you give will
be doubled because he's going to give the other half.
And she's working thirty five hours a week up there
at a retail.

Speaker 7 (01:39:45):
Business.

Speaker 1 (01:39:47):
And man, that's just for school. Then you got to
pay you your your housing, your transportation, your food.

Speaker 7 (01:39:54):
You know, you got to do all that.

Speaker 1 (01:39:56):
But she's a she and she wants to be an
arboretum and so I got her. I got on the
phone and called Joseph Johnson. If people don't know, he'sn't
charges that our breedom there at A and M on campus,
the gardens, and he's going to give her an internship
this fall. I'm pretty dang sure he has a space
far and I'm getting them together, and she wants to
go do that so we can help this kid.

Speaker 4 (01:40:15):
That's wonderful she's and I can assure.

Speaker 7 (01:40:17):
That will worth healthy. See her head is in the
right place for sure.

Speaker 5 (01:40:22):
Well good, that is good to know. I appreciate that.
I'm gonna take a little break here again for the
bottom of the hour news. By the way, I wanted
to mention folks, they're listening, you're around Houston dot com.
That's the website, that's the company, Year Round Houston dot com. Uh,
they do corrodtion and compost stop dressing. And as weather
heats up, our water bills are going up because we
have the water more. As it gets hot and dry,

(01:40:44):
the better your root system is, the healthier Laune's going
to be. And when you do corrotion, it's like breathing
life or breathing oxygen down into the soil itself, which
brees life into the soil with some compost stop dressing
over the top of it. It deals with issues like
compaction and it. You know, we do a lot of
things for long. We fertilize, we water, we make sure
they get good sunlight hopefully and that all helps them thrive.

(01:41:07):
But that top dressing in coeration from year round Houston
dot Com is a miracle worker. You can reach out
to him at eight three two eight eight four fifty
three thirty five eight three two eight eight four fifty
three thirty five. They served the area outside the Beltway
here in the Houston area. We'll be right back with
Dean in just a moment.

Speaker 4 (01:41:27):
Oh boy, I like this guy.

Speaker 5 (01:41:31):
You know, we don't do a lot of yodling anymore,
but Don Wallser could do it as well as any
of them. That was the theme song for Second Hand Lions,
a movie with Robert Duval and al was the other
guy's name anyway. All right, yeah, Dean, I'm sitting here
reminiscing in music. But let's get back to the topic.
The topic at hand, Randy's scholarship. And I think you

(01:41:55):
may have had some other things you wanted to say
about it, or did we kind of cover it.

Speaker 7 (01:42:00):
I think we covered it.

Speaker 1 (01:42:01):
I mean I think we you know, established it, you
know what an impact he has on it, and this
is this is for the future of horticulture, texts horticulture, you.

Speaker 7 (01:42:08):
Know, and it's just fitting to put Brandy's name to it,
and he would be proud of it. And so we're
just gonna try.

Speaker 1 (01:42:15):
To you know.

Speaker 5 (01:42:17):
All right, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna say again on
the air, if you would like to give online, you
can go to the website give dot a M slash
Randy Lemon, give g I V E dot AM slash
Randy Lemon.

Speaker 4 (01:42:33):
Uh By.

Speaker 5 (01:42:34):
Certainly, by some time tomorrow we're going to have it
up on my website at Gardening with skip dot com
where you go from other stuff. We're gonna put it
front page the information sheet on how to give, how
to give online. If you want to do it by check,
or if you want to do a larger amount than
is in the categories that you'll see online, how to
do that as well.

Speaker 4 (01:42:52):
And it'll all be on the website.

Speaker 5 (01:42:53):
And I would ask you for those of you who
listen to Randy Love Randy benefited from Randy both and
enjoin listening to them on the air, but also advice
to help you have a better place, consider even a
small gift. Just consider that, and I would ask that
you do that. I think that's certainly a very good
cause when you look at the way it's going to

(01:43:15):
multiply to professionals in the field of horticulture in the
years to come. Dean, you guys are involved with other
things thought. I know that the Junior Master Gardener program
is something that some people probably aren't aware of, But
Junior Master Gardener was really started by Lisa Whittlesey, Texas
and m there's a whole team of folks up there

(01:43:35):
working on that and have but it's an international program now.
It's in every state in the country and it started
right there in College Station and it trains youth on gardening,
but it uses the sciences to do that. So if
you've got kids that are let's say their kindergarten or
they're in first grade or fifth grade or whatever, and

(01:43:57):
you would like a curriculum to help teach just plant science,
but also to learn to write, there's a whole segment
on learning to write using the garden as a vehicle
for that, learning math, learning science. It's a wonderful program
and I'm kind of setting it up there, but I'd like, Dean,
if you would tell us about the recent camp that

(01:44:18):
they did and that you guys were involved in.

Speaker 7 (01:44:21):
Yeah, just to rear how this all tied in together.

Speaker 1 (01:44:24):
About three years ago, we went to the Texas Nursery
Landscape Association. They had their winter conference at A and
M and it was a three day deal and we
went through all the labs and the classrooms, and I
hadn't been through a lot of the new stuff and
got to thinking, well, you know, they have football camp,
tennis camp, golf camp, so why the heck don't we

(01:44:45):
have a horticulture camp. So I started talking to everybody
i could up there. Joseph was a big part of it,
and doctor Dringa was a big part of it. In
Lisa and this kind of just stewed for about two
years and then all of a sudden, Lisa said, we're
gonna do this. And if you don't know, Lisa willsee people.
I mean she's a retired teacher and she is a
ball of energy.

Speaker 7 (01:45:06):
She is so good.

Speaker 1 (01:45:08):
And so she pulled her team together and you know,
we met a couple of times and did all the
planning and it was a three day deal.

Speaker 7 (01:45:15):
They started in June. I could not go. I was
at a Young Life camp.

Speaker 1 (01:45:19):
I had to as a counselor kind of a deal,
and so I sent my you know, three people from
my office went up there, Kelly and Shelby and Maggie,
and it was a three day camp and they these
kids loved it. I mean, there's the video. You can
go online and look at it. But they did a
lot of bug stuff and pollinators and like intemology, which
is bugs and plants, and they did a pict from

(01:45:42):
the garden for the food bank and the people that participated.
Joseph was there, Doctor Drina came in and helped and
the people that help were just ecstatic. There was twenty
five kids where they wanted to start out small so
we can kind of get it organized. But everybody that
help was just so excited about it. And Lisa is
already talking about expanding the three camps next year and

(01:46:06):
going to off campus, you know, going to different cities
and putting this thing together.

Speaker 7 (01:46:11):
So and it's kids that are in junior high school.

Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
You know, I was with the Development Council and doctor
Marino a long time ago and they all came up
with the concept that we need to get to these
kids when they're in junior high because that's when they're
really trying to figure out kind of what they want
to do and what they're interested in. And if you
can get them in agriculture, then they can get into
the FFA programs at high school. And the four H

(01:46:35):
programs are fantastic. I mean they have national competitions and
I'm going to brag A and m One. I mean
Belleville won I think the horticulture a couple of years
ago national horticultural teams and they learned not only the science,
but leadership skills. They learned a lot of leadership skills.
So we can get these kids up there to buds
in balloon camp and get them infected with the disease

(01:46:59):
of horticulture.

Speaker 4 (01:47:01):
There you go.

Speaker 7 (01:47:01):
There you go teach those thumbs how to how to
grow plans.

Speaker 5 (01:47:06):
Yeah, well it's contagious. We know that it's contagious, that's
for sure. Well, for those of you listening, if if
it's the first time you're hearing about Junior Master Gardener,
I need to get Lisa on here sometimes talk about
all this. Yes, but uh, she she is a fireball
and uh definitely some of the most professional uh curriculum

(01:47:28):
and programming and things that they just they do it
top notch. That's why it's international. I mean, that's why
it's gone to ever state in the country from Texas. Uh,
it's outstanding. But if you want to know more, I
want to give you a website. It's j MG, which
is Junior Master Gardener j MG kids dot us now
not dot com dot org, dot u s j MG

(01:47:52):
kids dot us. You can learn about the curriculum there.
There's information for teachers, very popular at public school, very
popular in homeschool, a lot of a lot of good
You look at these curriculum and there's early childhood. There's
the elementary level which is level one, and then there's
the middle and junior high level two and just go

(01:48:13):
click on it. Just go look at some of this.
When you see the graphics and stuff. Kids eat this
stuff up and it is outstanding. And I Dean getting
back to the I think it's called the Bugs in
Bloom Camp right that they just did. Yeah, thanks, thanks
for being a support of that. I really appreciate that
because it is you know, we talk about the importance

(01:48:34):
of like the scholarship helping people that want to be
professionals in the green industry horticulture to be able to
get through college and get their education. But now this
is also something that is just connecting people to horticulture
in general from the point when they're first starting off
in their kids.

Speaker 4 (01:48:52):
I did a.

Speaker 5 (01:48:55):
Online it used to be a slide show back in
the day. Now it's available online called I'm Posting for
Kids that they put up on the at one point
on the Junior Master Gardener website, and it was it
was how to build a compost pile and stuff. And
it was all done by my kids. You know, I
do as much as I can through the sweat of
my kids growing up in the garden. They got to

(01:49:17):
get their hands dirty and the dirt. You know, I'm
kind of like the old German, the old German gardener
that had success in his garden through the spread of
the sweat of his frow.

Speaker 4 (01:49:29):
Sorry that's a bad joke, but anyway.

Speaker 5 (01:49:31):
Anyway, so my kids were out and we took pictures
of them, and they did built a compost pile stage
by stage by stage, and that's available online too, by
the way. But when kids learned the garden, it's a
whole new world. And it's not just you know, I
grew a turn up and I eat it kind of thing.
Although anything they grow there more likely to eat. But
when we consider our fast food culture and the effect

(01:49:53):
of that on all our health, the way we eat
number one cause our health problems in this country is
what we put in our mouth. Uh, and lack of
things we do in terms of exercising our bodies.

Speaker 13 (01:50:04):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:50:04):
This sets kids on a different path and JMG is
huge in that, and so you know, you're supporting that
camp and all the things that they have.

Speaker 19 (01:50:12):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:50:13):
It's making a huge difference.

Speaker 5 (01:50:15):
And then when it comes to science where they get
down you know, they have a little They have a
little thing on JMG folks called bug Bugs Suckers, and
it's a little thing you can make yourself. It's got
two tubes that come out of what used to be
those little little film cases, a little plastic things that
film used to go into UH and and they can
go around literally sucking up bugs and capturing them in
this and the kids go nuts through the garden and

(01:50:37):
just the whole life science thing. I know, I'm taking
over this UH interview and I really wanted to focus
on what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (01:50:45):
Let's do this.

Speaker 5 (01:50:46):
I'm I'm late getting to a break. Let me come
back from the break, Dean. We'll have some final thoughts
on the Junior Master Gardening Program, bugs in Balloon's Camp,
and anything else we want to say about Randy.

Speaker 4 (01:50:57):
Thanks a lot, folks, will be right, We'll be right back.
All right, folks, welcome back to the Guardline. Good hea
you with us. Listen.

Speaker 5 (01:51:05):
If you've listened to me one time on the show,
you know that I always say brown stuff before green stuff.
That's as simple as I can make it. But if
you want to have success with plants, the soil in
the right condition for that plant is important. Gave doesn't
need what a zelia needs, of course, but every time
you improve your soil, you improve success. Whether it's your lawn,

(01:51:27):
whether it's a tomato patch or whatever you're growing. And
Cienamultch down south of Houston is a one stop shop
for everything when it comes to brown stuff. When you
drive away from there, you have the what with you,
the foundations for success. That includes quality soil mixes, you know,
things like products from heirloom soils. They carry the veggie

(01:51:51):
nerve mix, for example, from Marlom. It includes composts, it
includes mulches, and it includes all the fertilizers that you
hear me talk about on garden Line. So everything you
need to build that bank account to create that foundation
for success is it Cienamltch. The simplest way I can
put it to you is just go to the website
cnamalts dot com, cnmultch dot com. They'll tell you where
they're located. It's close to Highway six and two eighty eight.

(01:52:12):
They cover about a twenty minute or twenty mile area.
When it comes to deliveries, if you need it delivered,
they can do that for a small fee. But you
can walk in there. Take your truck, you take your car,
throw some bags in it, throw some bulk on the
back of a wagon. However you go about it. Before
you PLoP the poor plant into an unprepared plot, build

(01:52:32):
a foundation and Cina MAULTA, hope you do that.

Speaker 4 (01:52:35):
We're going to get back now to Dean. Here.

Speaker 5 (01:52:37):
Dean, we're in our last segment, and thanks so much
for hanging around this hour. It's been fun and it's
good to talk with you. Uh So, let's see where
did we leave things when we were going to break there?
Anything else about the bugs and blooms or the Randy scholarship.

Speaker 7 (01:52:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
So you know, I was on the school board in
Belville for a long time, and so I've been always
been interested in about our education in Texas. And these
kids have to learn so much in school to pass
the tests and memorize.

Speaker 7 (01:53:10):
So much that you know, maybe some of the more
important things are left out.

Speaker 1 (01:53:15):
And so when you can get a kid out into
the outdoors and get them to plant something and grow
something and take care of something and learn about the
soil and when that thing dies, what happened or what
you can do about it, that's kind of stuff that
they're not going to learn anywhere else and firsthand experience.
I mean, a very few of them are going to
be able to take some support classes through AG, but

(01:53:38):
most kids aren't. And so you're getting kids away from
the computer screen, you're getting them off all the social stuff,
and you're having family time and stuff like that is
going to stay with kids forever and ever.

Speaker 7 (01:53:51):
And Julie and I were always out there.

Speaker 1 (01:53:53):
With our kids, helping them with pigs and steers and
working in the yard and teaching them how to take
care of things and the work ethic. And so I
just can't say enough about how important it is to
get your kids out there when they're young.

Speaker 7 (01:54:08):
When they're teenagers, it gets a little harder.

Speaker 1 (01:54:12):
But little plants and plants in the front yard, I
mean some flowers and and that's your flower.

Speaker 7 (01:54:19):
And you go out there two weeks there and they're dead. Okay,
what happened?

Speaker 8 (01:54:22):
You know?

Speaker 7 (01:54:23):
It's it's really that's true, that get down to the basics.

Speaker 5 (01:54:28):
That's true. And I'll occasionally get calls from kids here
on garden line. I'm my own granddaughter called one time
for loud and uh. When kids get out and they
see the wonder of that. And you know, you go
to one of our great independent garden centers throughout the
Houston area. We got on north, south, east, west Central,
uh huh, and you talk to them, tell them, hey, look,
I got my little daughter, son or whatever, bar both

(01:54:50):
with me here. Uh what would be a good plant
for me to get started with? And they'll help you
with that. They'll hope you understand that, and and give
you the soils and the pot and everything for success.

Speaker 4 (01:55:01):
And it's not that hard.

Speaker 5 (01:55:02):
And then the JMG websites there, of course, that's a
wonderful one. But when kids experience, when we as adults
experience nature, it changes us. And I always tell my friends,
in fact, I I like telling, you know, like a pastor,
that I'm actually the one who's working in the profession
created by God because it wasn't the cubicle of Eden.

(01:55:27):
Do you see what I'm saying. That's my tongue in
cheek joke about it. But seriously, yeah, we're maybe God.
We're made to engage plants and even walking through the
forest or planting the seed.

Speaker 1 (01:55:41):
I'll talk to a master gardners group one time, and
I talked to a Master Gardeners group one time, and
I told him, you're not master gardeners. I said, God
is doing all the growing.

Speaker 7 (01:55:50):
You're just trying. You're just trying not to speak.

Speaker 4 (01:55:55):
Yeah, well, and that's fun.

Speaker 8 (01:55:57):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:55:58):
The fun thing about gardening though, is, like I said before,
I think you were on when I said this. You
don't have a brown thumb, right, you have an uninformed thumb.
And it's also true that you don't fail at gardening,
you just give up. You don't fail because as long
as you keep at it, you're gonna you're gonna have success.
And gardening is one of those things in life. Boy,

(01:56:19):
we're getting philosophical, heir Dean. Gardening is one of those
things in life that I like to compare to an
etch of sketch, one of those things where you got
two knobs and you can either draw up and down
or sideways. Inevitably, you try to draw something and you
mess it up, and what do you do. You turn
the etch of sketch upside down and shake it over
your head and put it back down and start over.
You got a free slate. Gardening is that way we

(01:56:40):
have rodo tillers. If you if your garden didn't look good,
let's start over again.

Speaker 4 (01:56:45):
We can do it again.

Speaker 5 (01:56:46):
It's always fresh, it's always new, and it just brings
life and mental health. Really Okay, welln you that's enough
in me.

Speaker 1 (01:56:54):
You mentioned the you're you know, like your sponsors need
garden centers. It's thee an emotion and nails and water
gardens everyone. And I know just about all these guys
and they are the best people. I mean, they want
to help you so much. And it's not about making money,
which we have to do, yes, but it's about helping
you in your household and plants and plants and be
successful and that work when you're with your kids. And

(01:57:18):
our industry is just and people. I bring people in
from other industries and that's within a week they say
this is the best industry.

Speaker 7 (01:57:24):
These people are amazing, and they really are.

Speaker 4 (01:57:27):
Yeah, it is, it is, and that is so so good.

Speaker 5 (01:57:32):
We've got about two minutes here before I start to
hear music, which means I got to shut up for
the top of the hour. But I do appreciate you
coming on and any other be thinking, any other thoughts
you might want to add before we go out here.
I just just want to remind everybody, go.

Speaker 1 (01:57:46):
Ahead, go ahead, you know, things at home, and this
Hill Country thing is just the flood and just the
thousands and thousands of people that are out there that
are helping, and all the people that are missing and
unaccounted for, and the people that are giving things to
people to come out there and help, whether it's water
or diesel or a back hole or a trash haller

(01:58:09):
or whatever.

Speaker 7 (01:58:10):
It just makes makes you just.

Speaker 1 (01:58:12):
So grateful to live here in the state of Texas.
And we're a family and we're just praying for all
those people. Like I said, we lost Virginia nine years
old from Camp Mystic here from Belleville, and our community
is hurting, and I know there are a lot of
communities that are hurting, and anything we can do to
help those people is just we need to do it,
step up and do it. And Uh, I don't know,

(01:58:35):
it's just it's just overwhelming. It's just just a tough
time here in Texas. But we're Texas tough, so we'll
we'll get through it. Yeah, that's that's well said, Dean.
I appreciate that.

Speaker 8 (01:58:47):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:58:48):
Gardening is a it's a great hobby to have, it's
a great profession to have for those of you who
are interested. You'd like to know more about becoming a
horticulturist and are getting a degree in horticulture. Uh, give
me a call on guardline, I mean email. We'll get
you plugged into the right thing. If you'd like to
give toward Randy Scholarship, and I hope you'll at least
consider this. Give dot am slash Randy Lemon, give dot

(01:59:13):
am slash Randy Lemon. I just had a text a
moment ago from my web guy and by hopefully by
lunch today, we're going to have that Randy Lemon Scholarship
link that has all the information. You don't have to
write down the r ls and the addresses and the
names and anything like that makes it real easy. In fact,
they'll be live. You can just click on them on
the website, so guardianiskip dot com you'll find it up there.

(01:59:34):
We'll leave it up there for a while too. But Dean,
thank you, thank you so much for coming on today.

Speaker 7 (01:59:41):
Yeah, yeah, it is.

Speaker 4 (01:59:42):
It has been.

Speaker 1 (01:59:42):
Let's get this junior master Gardner saying let's get let's
just get Lisa on here.

Speaker 4 (01:59:50):
I need to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:59:51):
I've known Lisa a long time and we both have
enough dirt on each other that we could, we could,
we could coerce each other to probably do whatever we
need to do. But she's a she's a grand lady,
and it's a super super program. And yeah, that'd be
a good visit. Maybe maybe I'll pull that off for
the end of summer if possible. But hey, thanks a
lot again, you appreciate.

Speaker 7 (02:00:11):
It as okay, all right, take care, all.

Speaker 5 (02:00:16):
Right, folks, that hour is in the books. When I
come back, the phones will be open. Let's hear from
you seven to one three two one.

Speaker 4 (02:00:23):
Two kt r H.

Speaker 5 (02:00:24):
You can talk about some of the you can ask
about some of the things we just talked about if
you want. Seven one three two one two k t
r H. I got one more hour left today. Let's
talk gardening. Welcome back to the Garden Line. Good to
have you listening with us today. Nice visit with Dean

(02:00:48):
there about Randy Lemon's scholarship and some of the programs
going on, one of the camps going on with the
Junior Master Gardening program. If you'd like to give me
a call, phones are open this hour seven one three
two one two KTR should be happy to visit with
you about the things that interest you. Microlife products have
been around for a long time. In fact, micro Life
sixty four is the number one selling organic fertilizer in Houston. Now,

(02:01:12):
these products are not going to burn your lawn or
other plants. That are not salt based products.

Speaker 4 (02:01:17):
They are made with the.

Speaker 5 (02:01:21):
Products that nature itself has created. In other words, they're organic.
That's what organic. That's the basis of organic because it
was once alive and now it is available to help
stimulate microbial activity. It's to help to release nutrients into
your plants. You know, that's think about this the great
grasslands of the mid Midwest. When the Conistoga wagons came across.

(02:01:41):
Who'd been fertilizing that? What the sequoias on the West coast.
You know, who's been fertilized, who's been taking care of that?

Speaker 4 (02:01:51):
Nature has?

Speaker 5 (02:01:51):
Nature has a system for doing that. Now, when we
want to get more out of something like a hybrid
rose that we're wanting to bloom bloom bloom, a tomato,
we're wanting to just really give us a good harvest
of a lawn. We want to have extra density with
and beauty and health. Then we do provide supplemental nutrients,
but with microlife. You're doing it in a natural system.
It's part of the deal. Their products are packed with

(02:02:14):
not only the organic components, but also things like microbes
and other substances that help plants to grow. The green
bag six two four that is the standard for lawns,
although I'll tell you I use it for a lot
of other plants other than the lawns. It is an
excellent products. The three one two ratio that's a ratio.
Grass takes nutrients up in and many other plants do too,

(02:02:34):
by the way, and it works. Humante plus the final
decomposition state of organic matter is humus. It's like a
bag of humans plus. It's a purple bag.

Speaker 4 (02:02:44):
By the way.

Speaker 5 (02:02:45):
Fertilizer sixty four is a green bag humans plus purple bag.
That's like a concentrated compost in a bag. You put
it down on the ground and all of the benefits
of what nature created first, that's humus is put into
your soil. It's if you put it on your lawn
and just men times of years you want, you can
mix it into the soil. If you're putting in a flower,

(02:03:07):
beut or something. I mean, there's a lot of ways
to use it. But the main thing is just use it.
We're not looking at quick fixes here. We're looking at
over time, continuing to make things better and better and
better and better, because that's how nature goes about it.
Micro Life Products, if you want to learn more, Microlifefertilizer
dot Com lots of good information there. Let's head out

(02:03:30):
to Richmond now and we're going to talk to Ruth. Hello, Ruth,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 18 (02:03:35):
Good morning, Skip. I have bought, as it was back
in the winter time. I bought two dwarf myra lemon
trees from the master and potted them up in a
larger pot. Went about twenty five I think in chi.

(02:03:56):
But I have something eating the leaves, and okay, I
think that it is little green grasshoppers.

Speaker 4 (02:04:06):
Are you seeing them out there on them?

Speaker 15 (02:04:09):
I did.

Speaker 18 (02:04:10):
I saw two I didn't identify, and they look like
a small grass. They're green, so I'm saying grasshopper. They're
that shape, okay, okay, And well so that's what I'm
on the plants. But something is eating the lais and
I'm wondering what to do.

Speaker 5 (02:04:31):
Okay, well, uh, they're the things that eat leaves are
caterpillars and beetles and grasshoppers and slugs and snails. Those
are typical leaf eaters that we have.

Speaker 17 (02:04:42):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:04:43):
And so whether it's a grasshopper or some other pestles,
or maybe it maybe you're seeing grasshoppers, but there's also
another culprit that's coming out at night and chewing on things.
However you want to go about it, it's a matter
you have. You have two options. One, you got one
little plant there. It's a plant you're going to want
to eat food off of. So you could a row
cover fabric, which is a very fine thin polyester fabric

(02:05:05):
that you buy for garden centers, and you could place
it over the plant. Just don't trap the culprits inside.
Make sure they're all off of there, and the air
moves through it, light moves through it, water can get
through it, and just block them out that way.

Speaker 4 (02:05:19):
And typically these.

Speaker 5 (02:05:20):
Things aren't around year round anyway, by any stretch of
the imagination, so maybe just be a period of time
you're doing it. Secondly, consider how much damage is being done.
A few leaves here and there. Plants just outgrow it,
and the loss of the plant is not worth worrying about.
And so that's another factor you could consider. You can
see the plant. I can't, but you can see it,

(02:05:41):
so a few leaves gone is not a problem. And
then finally your last step would be to put an
insecticide on the plant. So whatever comes along and chumps
it is going to get killed. And that would be
my I've definitely about three options down for me in
my garden, but those are your options.

Speaker 18 (02:06:00):
Okay, thank you, So sort of make a tent over
then I'm picturing.

Speaker 5 (02:06:06):
Yeah, you know, you can just you can just kind
of bag it. You know how you wrap a lollipop,
you know, the little plastic over the top. You could
just sort of do something like that. These pests are
not going to crawl around finding some hole up underneath
by this now, and so you're just basically kind of
covering it as a way of excluding pass and that
works on most things as long as you don't drop

(02:06:28):
them underneath it.

Speaker 4 (02:06:30):
Yeah, that ought to take care of it.

Speaker 5 (02:06:32):
You're you're out there in Richmond Rosenberg, I bet they
have some out at the enchanted gardens just north, or
if you're down south and Jennet Forest. I have seen
rope cover there before. And then you got some good
ace hardware stores like the one on three point fifty
nine Plantation Ace I bet may have it as well.
Call before you go, just to save yourself a trip.

(02:06:52):
Although all those places are fun to go to even
if they don't end up having what you're looking for.

Speaker 18 (02:06:57):
What is the fabric called again that I would find
at the store?

Speaker 5 (02:07:00):
Uh, row cover fabric. If you just say row cover fabric,
they'll know what you're talking about. Are you Are you
a sewer?

Speaker 4 (02:07:10):
Are you a seamstress by any chance? Truth?

Speaker 9 (02:07:15):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (02:07:15):
Could be?

Speaker 5 (02:07:17):
Okay, Well, there's a there's something that seemstress used called
stabilizer that they aren't on to support. And it's like that,
but much softer and lighter and more seat three even
than stabilizer. So that's what you're looking for. Oh no, well,
thank you for the call. Uh all I all I
ask now is when you do get lemons, just bring
me half for one season and we'll call it even.

Speaker 4 (02:07:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 9 (02:07:40):
I would I would love to.

Speaker 18 (02:07:42):
I have actually two lemons on one at one point,
and I was wondering if I should take because the
plant is so young or the tree. I wondered if
I could take one of those womons off to give
more oops to the one where they both develop the
weather they're still green.

Speaker 5 (02:07:59):
The Okay, I'll give you the quick an. I'll give
you the quick answer. We like you to pull all
the fruit off of citrus trees for the first two years,
and then the third year let it bear fruit and
you'll end up with a bigger tree and way more
fruit in the long run. If you can't stand it,
leave you one to taste. I'll understand that it's not

(02:08:20):
the best thing to do, but I understand you're excited.
It's a fruit. You don't want to pull them all off.
So that's my hedge is to say, Okay, leave one
if you want. But the more you leave on, the
less production you're going to have, because that energy is
going to go into developing that lemon instead of branches
that may grow seven more lemons next season.

Speaker 18 (02:08:41):
Okay, I was wondering. We thank you very much, Skiz.

Speaker 5 (02:08:45):
All right, Ruth, thanks a lot, appreciate that. Hey, I
got a run to a quick break. Folks, ed and friends,
would you'll be first when we come back. All right,
all right, welcome back to the guardenline. Glad to have
you with us today. Thanks for listening. By the way, Listen.
ACE Hardware stores all over the Greater Houston area. And
when I say greater, are a local ACE Hardware group here,
that's my garden line group. You can go to the

(02:09:07):
website ACE Hardware Texas, don't forget Texas Ashardwaretexas dot com
and find out all the stores. And we got a
bunch of them around here. I mean places like all seasons.
ACE up in Willis, a Uvaldi ACE on the East
Side on Uvaldi Road, Chambers, ACE on Broadway Street in Galveston,
down southwest Bay CITYACE on Seventh Street at Bay City,

(02:09:28):
just a few examples of many that you'll find at
Acehardware Texas dot com. Now, when you're there, everything you
need for a beautiful, bountiful garden and landscape. That includes
fertilizers and pest control, disease control and tools and advice.
And it also includes things to turn that outdoor living
area into something special. Listen, it's really hot during the

(02:09:50):
day to be out there sitting outside. I know that,
But in the evenings when things cool off for early
in the morning, that patio is a magical place to be.
I like to go out early in the morning when
the birds are singing. ACE Hardware's got everything you need
to have success to create that environment. I got a
string of those I call them beer garden lights, you
know those lights that are not real bright. They are

(02:10:12):
in strings. You put them all around the patio and
it just creates an ambiance. It's just awesome. That and more,
more and more are available at your local ACE Hardware store.
If you haven't been in one in a while, go
check one out, because they are not your father's hardware store.
They certainly have all that hardware stuff, but they have
so so much more. Ace Hardware Texas dot Com. We're

(02:10:35):
going to go now to Friends with Texas and talk
to Ed. Hello, Ed, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (02:10:42):
Thank good morning, Skip.

Speaker 10 (02:10:43):
How are you doing?

Speaker 4 (02:10:45):
I'm doing well, Thanks, heik.

Speaker 10 (02:10:48):
Can you hear me now?

Speaker 4 (02:10:51):
Yes, sir? How can I help?

Speaker 3 (02:10:54):
We have a big crop of milk weed this summer
and it's being torn up by a How do you control.

Speaker 4 (02:11:03):
Apids on milkweed?

Speaker 5 (02:11:06):
You don't want to put poisons on there because you
want the monarch caterpillars, you know, to be on their feeding.
So what I would do is I would get insecticidal soap.
You can buy it almost anywhere insecticidal soap, and you
mix it according to the label and go out early
in the morning when it's cool, before the sun is
baking down and it's one hundred degrees and spray the aphids.

(02:11:30):
And you need to kind of spray upward because they'll
be underneath leaves, they'll be around the tender stems, and
when you do that, it'll knock them off. Once it dries,
it's no longer hurting anything. So just check make sure
there's no little baby caterpillars from monarchs, because it'll kill
the baby caterpillars too, won't kill the older one.

Speaker 4 (02:11:48):
But in sex size soaps, the fastest way.

Speaker 5 (02:11:50):
The other alternative would be to get a strong stream
of water from a spray gun and just blast the
physically blast the aphids off, and you can do that
and that'll get most of them. A few aphids is
not a big problem for milkweed. If it's completely inundated,
it is going to take a lot of energy out
of the plant.

Speaker 4 (02:12:09):
So those are your options as far as I see it.

Speaker 17 (02:12:13):
Okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 4 (02:12:15):
All right, thank you appreciate your call. Take care.

Speaker 5 (02:12:20):
I actually leave a few aphids on milkweed because they
attract lady beetles for lady beetle, larva eat them. They
attract parasitoid wasps that lay eggs inside aphids.

Speaker 7 (02:12:30):
It's cool.

Speaker 4 (02:12:30):
It's like the movie Alien. I have to tay about that.

Speaker 5 (02:12:32):
Sometimes they attract surfeit fly their larva eat aphits. They
attract lace wings. They're RV eat aphits. You see what
I'm saying. It's like a nursery for beneficial insects to
do that. Hey, if you haven't been to Sprint Creek
Feed before, and you're up there kind of north and
east of the Tombol area, up near Magnolia on FM
twenty nine seventy eight, that's the road they're on. Sprint

(02:12:55):
Creek Feed is an awesome place. You drive up, it's like,
oh my gosh. The storefront is so impressive. You walk
inside and it's beautiful, all kinds of things for the
home and decorating and whatnot. Right in the big middle
when you walk in. Off to the left or all
the foods, you know, for various kinds of critters, including
our dogs and another pats.

Speaker 4 (02:13:15):
To the right, there's the garden part.

Speaker 5 (02:13:17):
Now there's some gardening stuff outside too, but to the right,
things to control pists, things to control weeds, things to
control diseases. Do you need fertilizers from lines such as Nilsen,
turf Star, from Microlife, from Nitrofoss. They've got all of that. Friendly,
courteous staff and by the way, if you are senior
citizen or military, there are special discounts for you. They'll

(02:13:38):
do delivery service and if you need to, they can
do special orders as well. At Spring Creek Feed again
in Magnolia, just north and east of Tumble FM twenty
nine seventy eight. Let's head now down to Galveston and
we're going to talk to Bill. Hey, Bill, Welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 21 (02:13:55):
Hi Skip, I sent you an email with some pictures
about isaiahs, and I'm trying to figure out why some
of the leads are browning, are getting turning brown and
one of the trees, one of them die. I put
a twelve of them in, but I can't figure out
what's going on.

Speaker 5 (02:14:11):
Huh okay, So the symptoms are for those who can't
see the picture. Listening to the radio, you got nice green,
healthy leaves that look good on the plant, and then
you got stems that the whole stem's dead and it's
turning kind of a bronze color, dead, drying.

Speaker 4 (02:14:26):
Up, and whatnot.

Speaker 5 (02:14:29):
The only time you see a plant with a perfectly
healthy branches and not healthy branches, one of two or
three things is happening. In the case of this azalea,
I think what's happening is something's wrong in the roots. Now,
if the soil stays too soggy. Azaleas don't live in
a swamp. They want moisture, for sure, they don't want
to be dry. But if it stays too soggy, you

(02:14:51):
can often get root rots that move into the azalea
and start to kill them. Back if we were coming
out of a wintertime where we could have a coal snaps,
sometimes you see the stems split from the cold and
then that whole branch dies. That can cause this symptom.
But that's not what's happening here because of the time
of year we're looking at it, and also things like

(02:15:12):
borers and plants can shoot through and disrupt the flow
of water and nutrients out to the branch from the
roots and cause similar symptoms. My gut feeling on this
one is it's a soil born problem. Either just soggy
soil or a root rot that has come in from
the soggy soil.

Speaker 4 (02:15:30):
I would print all of this out.

Speaker 5 (02:15:31):
I would dig down about four inches and feel the
soil and only water when it's starting to get a
little dry to the touch. You don't want it to
get bone dry, but a little dry to the touch,
then watered again. Keeping that soil moist A mulch on
the surface is always good for azelias. There are a
forest floor species and they like to have a good
mulch surface. It helps moderate that soil moisture for them.

(02:15:55):
And that's what I would do. If it continues, you
may need to purchase are decide to drench the plants with.
There are products that you don't spray on the leaves.
You put them in a watering can and drench the
root system and they shut down a fungus. But I
can't look at a picture and tell you for sure
that there's a fungus or not.

Speaker 21 (02:16:13):
Okay, So I take that at four inches, I can
see if so is so, if it's soggy, that's the problem.

Speaker 5 (02:16:20):
Yeah don't. Yeah, Well, and it may be that it's
not soggy now, but it was. You see what I'm saying.
So that's that's my gauge for watering. You know, for
me to tell you, well, water three times a week
for twenty minutes and blah blah blah, well sun shade
well drained, poorly drained. There's too many variables, and temperature
certainly is a variable. So I just like to go
down and feel the soil. That's the best way to

(02:16:41):
know is there moisture at the roots or not? And
or is there too much? And that's what you're trying
to do. Okay, thank you, skip.

Speaker 4 (02:16:50):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 5 (02:16:51):
Appreciate the call. You take care, good luck with that
ze plant. There are wonderful plants to have.

Speaker 4 (02:16:56):
Nine to five.

Speaker 5 (02:16:57):
Super turf is the silver bag. You hear me talking
about it all the time. Somebody emailed me just the
other day about nitrophi superherf nineteen four to ten.

Speaker 4 (02:17:03):
They said, yep, that's it.

Speaker 5 (02:17:05):
It is a slow release works on all our southern
turf grasses, Saint Augustine, Bermuda, Zeisia, and it feeds gradually.
So when you use superturf in the summer, you've covered
your fertilization all the way up until fall. You know,
you can go to my schedule online at gardening with
Skip dot com. You'll see superturf on there, and then
you'll see the fall fertilization that we're not going to

(02:17:26):
do till October. So for now, superturf the way to
go sixteen weeks of feeding. By releasing nitrogen slowly, you
don't get this flush of growth, so you're mowing is reduced.
You know, you overdo the nitrogen on lawns and you're
mowing like crazy trying to keep up with the vigorous grass.
Why not just keep it healthy because there's a difference

(02:17:48):
between too much and not enough and just right. And
just right is what we're aiming for. You follow the
label on super turf and you got just right. You're
gonna have a better root system because of that, you're
gonna have a healthier lawn, a greener lawn, and most importantly,
a denser lawn. Now's the time when we're building the
density so that when fall comes and all the cool

(02:18:08):
season weeds want to sprout. You've got a thick lawn
that sunlight doesn't hit the soil. You've fixed your weed
problem from coming up by seeds in the fall. You
fixed that weed problem. Just by taking care of your lawn,
you're not putting out a product to control the weeds
because you've avoided them, and super turf can help you
do just that. You're going to find night Foss products

(02:18:29):
a number of different places. D and D Feed and
Tombaal they carry them, M and D Beamer in Den
Sagemont area and clear Lake area. M and D clear
Lake on Bay Area Boulevard carries it, and up and
Brenham Plants and things carry night Foss products up there
as well, and like I said, they do work. You
are listening to Guardline. If you'd like to ask a question,

(02:18:50):
the phone number seven one three two one two kt
RH give me a call. Love to visit with you
about that and the things that would be helpful for
you to have success in your garden. I was visiting
with Bob at south As Fertilizer a while back and
we were talking about some different things. There's always some
new products coming out, and we were talking about some

(02:19:12):
ways to manage bermuda grass is when it's growing in
your Saint Augustine lawn and what do you do about
this and that and the other.

Speaker 4 (02:19:20):
And I was just looking.

Speaker 5 (02:19:21):
At his selection, and you know, every time I go there,
I walk the aisles and look because there's always a
new product on the market, and if it's on the
market and it works, Bob's going to have it. And
it just makes it easy. You can be just not
an organic gardener, you can be an organic gardener for
both of you folks, both types of folks. You're not

(02:19:43):
going to find a better selection than Southwest Fertilizer. Tools
are there.

Speaker 13 (02:19:47):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:19:47):
It's even a place for gifts. I don't talk about that,
but there are some awesome products that if there's a
gardener on your list or just someone who's a lawn ranger.
You know, the guys take care of the lawn and
are it well. Bob's got some cool tools and gifts
for everybody there, from fertilizer spreaders to the products that
go in them, fire ant products to the spreaders that

(02:20:10):
we put them out with. It's all there. Southwest Fertilizer
Corner Businet and Runwick in Southwest Houston. You can go
to Southwest Fertilizer dot com or you can give them
a call seven to one three six six six seventeen
forty four. During the week, I'm not on garden Line
during the week. You got a question, throw it in
a bag, take a picture and go to talk to Bob.
Let them put up pair of eyes on it. They

(02:20:31):
can help identify it and if a product is needed,
point you in the right direction.

Speaker 4 (02:20:35):
Time for a quick break. I'll be right back.

Speaker 5 (02:20:38):
Alrighty, all right, a little laid back music. Gonna laid
back Saturday morning. Welcome to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richard. Glad to have you with us today. For
those of you listening Live, good to have you. For
those of you listening by podcasts days you know I
say I'm speaking to the future. Glad to have you too.
You know, you can go to the KTRCH webs to

(02:21:00):
the garden Line section and listen to pass shows as
you can also listen to on the iHeartMedia app. I
would highly recommend that because no matter where you are,
with or without a radio, you can listen to garden
Line twenty four to seven because the pass shows are
posted there. You also listen to Live too. By the way, Hey,

(02:21:21):
do you want to do a revamp on your landscape?
Fall is the best season for planting period, I mean
every season we can plant every season has things we
do right. But when it comes to especially woody ornamentals,
trees and shrubs, but other plants as well, fall is
the best time to do it. So why not call

(02:21:41):
Pierscapes now and sit down with the designers and go
through what you'd like done. Do you want to totally
redo the front? Do you want to take those ugly
flower beds out and create something that's esthetically beautiful. You know,
if you have an outdoor area, and I keep talking
about man that outdoor area outdoor life, you expand your

(02:22:01):
house outdoors to the patio. I don't have a patio.
Colpier Scapes, they do rock scapes, They do all kinds
of landscaping. They do borders, rock walkways, they do drainage issues.
That spot that stays too soggy is your irrigation not covering?
You waste water when your irrigation is not efficient because
you water enough to keep the dry spot green and

(02:22:24):
all the other spots are getting more water than they need.
You paid for that drinking water. How about lighting for
the landscape. Do you need to get on their quarterly
maintenance program where they just come out and take the
bed you have and they take care of them. They
make them look good, and they mulch them, and they
put in fresh plants as needed and as agreed upon
with your your arrangement with them, and they have every

(02:22:45):
kind of thing you need to have success. You want
to show place colpier escapes, go to piercescapes dot com.
Look at what they do. Don't believe me. If you
don't want to, just go look because the pictures wret
the thousand words piercescapes dot com two eight one three,
seven fifty sixty. All right, we're now gonna head if
I can find my mouse. Sometimes I feel like my

(02:23:09):
mouse goes wandering during the show.

Speaker 7 (02:23:11):
Here we go.

Speaker 5 (02:23:11):
We're going to go to Pearland and talk to Kenna. Hey, Kenna,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (02:23:15):
Hey, how are you? Thank you for taking my call.

Speaker 4 (02:23:17):
I'm doing good.

Speaker 7 (02:23:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (02:23:22):
I have chinchbugs that literally annihilated like a twenty by
twenty area. So I sprayed it with ignite FC, which
has a virisae in it some other stuff. Okay, so
apparently they're gone, but I don't know what to do.
Number one, I don't know how I got them. And

(02:23:44):
there's a French terrain that runs where it is, so
I don't have a drainage problem. Man, they were awful.
They devoured my yard. I just don't know what to
do next.

Speaker 4 (02:23:55):
Yeah, I understand well.

Speaker 5 (02:23:58):
By Fenthren, I think is ingrad you were describing there
is effective against a lot of plants. And it's persistent too.
So it's like if a chinchbug arrives a week after
you spray it, by Fentherren is still there making sure
they don't get a foothold. They have wings, they can
fly in. I mean a typically chinchbug start at a
curb or a driveway, you know, in the hot sun,

(02:24:20):
and then they just go out into your yard like
a wildfire burning through.

Speaker 4 (02:24:25):
But it sounds like you.

Speaker 5 (02:24:26):
Shut them down. If you see any signs of a
grass that looks like it needs watering, you know, and
you go, well, I just watered, you know, get on
your hands and knees and look for chinchbugs, because that's
what they do. They suck the juice out of the
grass and it looks like you might need to water
in the earliest stages, and then eventually it looks like
the grass is dead because it is, and so you've

(02:24:47):
got that product. You can use it as needed, but
if you did a good job of it, you're probably okay.
Everybody's got a chinchbug here or there. I mean, they're ubiquitous.
They don't come from some other part of town and
arrive at your house, and so it's just a matter
of the populations of them. And you've knocked them back
hard enough to where I think you'll be okay. But

(02:25:08):
watch you know what to look for now and catch
them way before you start to see browning of the grass.

Speaker 9 (02:25:14):
Well, skip, that's what's so puzzling. I worked over the
weekend and Monday I thought it was just dry. So
I got down on my hands and knees. I took
a spade and I thought maybe I had grub worms.
I couldn't find anything. But the very next day my
yard was cut. And I'm telling you, I put a
piece of paper down and they just were. You didn't

(02:25:36):
even have to put a paper down. They were just
I was mansested with them.

Speaker 13 (02:25:40):
I didn't get it.

Speaker 9 (02:25:41):
How I could see it that monday.

Speaker 5 (02:25:45):
Well, they didn't go from zero to one hundred miles
an hour that fast, but they were there. They just
I guess their numbers hadn't reached the point where they
were taking it down that fast. But bottom line is,
can't look backwards on it. You've done what you need
to do, and then let's get that grass growing with fertilizing, mowing,

(02:26:05):
and watering properly to get it as full as you
can because when fall comes, that's when the weeds sprout
for winter, and you want as much density as you
can rebuild between.

Speaker 4 (02:26:15):
Now and then. Okay, so how do I do that?

Speaker 18 (02:26:18):
What do I do?

Speaker 9 (02:26:18):
What are my steps?

Speaker 19 (02:26:20):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (02:26:21):
Go go online to gardening with Skip dot com and
look for my free lawn care schedule and it walks
you through all the key parts of how to have
a beautiful dense lawn mowing, watering, fertilizing, micronutrients, aeration, all
those kinds of things. Okay, okay, okay, and that'll get
you off to a good start. Sorry, sorry you had

(02:26:41):
that problem hit. But let's we'll grow out. Just to
check out the website.

Speaker 9 (02:26:46):
Yeah, the door in my garage, so yeah, I'll go
back in there. Look, okay, I'll take off pats, but
I couldn't find anything on unchin.

Speaker 4 (02:26:57):
Okay, that's a yeah. At the top.

Speaker 5 (02:27:00):
If there's two schedules, one is lawn care. The other
one is lawn problems. It's called lawn pest disease and weed. Okay,
and on the pest disease and weed. If you saw
take all. Look higher. The top row is insects and
it tells you when chinchbugs typically will arrive and what
to do about them. Thank you, Ken, I got to run.
Appreciate your call though, very very much. You know Cina

(02:27:22):
Maltch down south of town. I've been talking about them
today more than once. They're just they're just a one
stop shop. I don't know how else to put it
other than that. If you want success, do you want
a beautiful yard, Maybe you're doing it yourselfer and you're
gonna do some compost, stop dressing yourself or oeration yourself.
They've got the products to do it. Maybe you are

(02:27:43):
a person wanting to put in new flower beds or
revamp flower beds that just aren't producing well for you.
They don't they don't look good. Go to Cianimals. Talk
to them, tell them I want to grow this, I
want to grow herbs, I want to grow flowers or whatever.
What do you have is a good mix for that?
They've got it. They also have mulches. They also have

(02:28:03):
all the fertilizers for microlife and Nelson's like the Nelson
turf Star and then Elson plant food jars that I
was talking about earlier. They have Medina products. They've got
products from nitrofoss and azamite. They have the soils from
Maryland soils by the way too. If you want to
create a beautiful maybe a stone pathway or a stone
patio that you're going to do it, do it yourself on.

(02:28:23):
They've got all the things sand and gravel and stone
on pallets and so on. They deliver within twenty miles.
Sienna Mulch dot com Cienamulch dot com. They're on FM
five twenty one near Highway six and two eighty eight.

Speaker 4 (02:28:39):
See here we are.

Speaker 5 (02:28:40):
I don't have enough time to get take another call
right at this moment. Done in Sugarland. You're gonna be
our first when we come up for our last segment today.

Speaker 4 (02:28:49):
That is what you need to know.

Speaker 5 (02:28:50):
Hey, I was talking about Nuturestar before the Plumeria plant
food that they have. Neutrastar is the line from Nelson
for specific kinds of plants. There's a nutri Star vegetable.
There's a Nutra Star booginvillia. There's a nutri Star palm
and ornamental grasses, and there's a Nutra Star Plumeria, which
I like to use on all kinds of flowering tropical plants.
Comes in a little jar by the way, on a

(02:29:11):
lot of these products. There's about a dozen places around
town where you can refill the jars, which makes it
very economical in the voids putting more plastic in the environment.
Another quality product, many quality products for the folks at
Nelson Fertilizer corks very very very well. Alrighty here, I'm
going to take a break. We'll come back with Don's

(02:29:32):
Call and the last segment of the show. Hey, welcome back,
Welcome back for our last segment of Garden Line today.
Glad to have you with us today. You know, I
was telling you earlier about Ace being the place for
so many different kinds of things if you want to
turn your outside area into something very special, and that
includes all kinds of aspects.

Speaker 4 (02:29:53):
You know, I talked about strings of lights.

Speaker 5 (02:29:55):
I talked about the barbecue and creating that wonderful place
to get out and and cook out with the family.
That's what we do here in summer in Texas a
lot of that cooking out. Maybe your deck needs painting,
or maybe it needs preservation to keep that wood lasting longer.
ACE has got you covered for that. What do you
want to do outside and how do you want it

(02:30:16):
to be better? Maybe you need propane for your barbecue.
They've got that there. And certainly everything related to gardening
and success.

Speaker 8 (02:30:24):
You know that.

Speaker 4 (02:30:24):
I talk about that all the time.

Speaker 5 (02:30:26):
Don't forget we're supposed to be changing our airfolders out
every month. ACE has got that as well. I'm telling
you inside the house, outside the house, what do you need?
ACE is the place. Acehardware Texas dot Com is where
you find your local ACE Hardware store, the ones closest
to you. ACE Hardware Texas. Don't forget Texas dot Com,
Acehardware Texas dot Com. So for example, Lake Conrays on

(02:30:48):
Highway one oh five west up north, go northeast, We'll
go to jnr's ACE Importer on FM thirteen fourteen Southeast
League City, ACE on League City Parkway West, Houston Hardware
City World Drive. I was there doing a parent charlier
this year, and then we down southwest in Rockport, Texas.
Hey shout out everybody. In Rockport and Port Lovaca. You
both have an ACE Hardware store there. Rockport's on State

(02:31:10):
Highway thirty five north down in Rockport. So that's just
examples of the many ACE Hardware stores that.

Speaker 4 (02:31:17):
Are here in our area.

Speaker 5 (02:31:18):
Let's go out now to sugar Land and we're going
to talk to Don. Hello, Don, Welcome to garden Line morning.

Speaker 22 (02:31:23):
Skip sure, enjoy your show. I got a problem with
horse you heard that has gotten into some of my
Saint Augustine. Is there a product that will kill that stuff?
Or is that stuff just too tough to deal with.
I went to a Southwest fertilizer and they sold me
some weeds on about fertilean, but that doesn't have any

(02:31:43):
effect on it. And he said it probably wouldn't kill
it if that's.

Speaker 4 (02:31:46):
What it is, And that's what the Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:31:48):
I've tried to kill horse irb with the round up.
I've tried to get it with a round up before,
and it gets all blotchy leafed and looks like it's
half dying, and then it doesn't die.

Speaker 4 (02:31:57):
I mean, it is a hard one to kill.

Speaker 5 (02:32:00):
Don't well, I don't know if anything to kill horse
herb without hurting your Saint Augustine.

Speaker 4 (02:32:04):
But products that have tr well, you know what to do.

Speaker 5 (02:32:10):
And I know everybody has different opinions on these things,
but orse herb is a great native groundcover and areas
that are real shady where even the Saint Augustine is
struggling or soap will grow as a groundcover, and native
enthusiasts love that plant. It attracts a certain kind of
butterfly in there as well, So you know there's that option.
Whether they say if you can't beat them, join them.

Speaker 3 (02:32:31):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:32:31):
But as far as killing it, trimac products will kill it,
but they'll also kill your Saint Augustine. But if you
do about two or three rounds of that, make sure
you've got all the or A about, then you can reside, uh,
and and get away from it that way. But as
far as something to selectively.

Speaker 22 (02:32:47):
Just yeah, it's not, I it's not.

Speaker 5 (02:32:53):
I don't think so, especially as you get into more
more and more shade, because Saint Augustine needs more like.

Speaker 22 (02:32:58):
Than I got a on her fruit trees. Do you
advise just spreading it around the drip line or should
I boreholes kind of around the drip line and pour
some of these.

Speaker 4 (02:33:09):
No, I don't which way.

Speaker 5 (02:33:11):
Don't do holes take the take take what you're gonna do,
and spread it pretty much from the drip line to
the trunk evenly throughout that circular area. And and then
if you are able to scratch it in with a
rake or something, or scratch it into the mult or whatever,
that's even better. And taking the grass away from under
your fruit trees is like fertilizing them. That grass is
a big competitor. So give them a mulch bed and

(02:33:34):
that's how you go. But I'm kind of running short
on time here, don I'm gonna have to run. But yeah,
for a for a rule of time, yeah, get you,
get you a lawn fertilizer. And for every thumb with
across the trunk. Let's say it's a three inch trunk
like a coke can size, that would be three to
six cups of that fertilizer.

Speaker 4 (02:33:55):
Okay, thank you, don appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (02:33:58):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:33:58):
Pestbros. That is the pest control company I talk about
on guardline all the time. I'm just talking with the
Aranda from pest Pros the other day. They have complete
pest control services. What do you need done? Do you
do you have fire ants out in the yard? Do
you have mosquitoes out in the yard? Are you Are
you worried about termites? Well you should be. We live
in an area where termites do invade. Pest crows can,

(02:34:21):
pest pros can come out in the du a little
trench around your property or around your house, excuse me,
near the house, and they put a product done in
the trench and termites cannot go through it and get
to your house and it last ten years. And you
know you've got pets and kids and stuff running around
out there. You don't want to have pesticide all over
the top on the soil and things that might be
a danger. Pest pros are experts treating effectively in the

(02:34:45):
safest manner, so you get a long term control without worries.
That's what we're looking for here. You can call them
at two eight one two oh six forty six seventy.
I will say that again two eight one two o
six four six Z seven zero, or go to the
website that's the simplest thing, the pestbros dot com dpestbros

(02:35:09):
dot com. When you're talking to them telling them you
heard about these mosquito buckets. Skippos talks about on garden line.
You don't know how you can get that for you.
They cover the whole area from Texas City all the
way up in the state forty five to the woodlands,
from wet and Bastown on the east side to the
Kadi area on the west side. Dpestbros dot com. That
works very, very well. I was driving through a neighborhood

(02:35:34):
the other day and I was looking at the sidewalks
and the sidewalks it was like the top of the
Rocky Mountains. I don't know how I boil a bicycle,
you know, rattle your teeth loose. If you were trying
to roller skate down the sidewalk, you're going to be
eating concrete pretty quick because that It was a mess.
And it's because our klay soils. They they heave, they
get wet and they swell, they get dry and they

(02:35:56):
shrink and you just think, oh, come on, it can't
be that bad.

Speaker 7 (02:35:59):
Yes it is.

Speaker 5 (02:36:00):
It tears up foundations, it tears up driveways, it tears
up sidewalks, tears up streets. I remember Houston drought a
few years ago where they're in waterline breaks because literally
the movement of the soil was causing breaks and water
lines down in Houston. Well for a home foundation, that
that's a problem. And fix my slab foundation repair Ty Strickland,
By the way, I tie on. We're going to pick

(02:36:22):
his brain on foundation issues coming up a little bit
later this summer. But fix my slab. Tie has been
doing this for twenty three years. He knows what he's doing.
So what do we notice. We notice when a door sticks.
We notice when there's a crack in the sheet rock
or a crack in the brick on the outside. Typically
these sheet rock and brick cracks, you'll people mostly notice

(02:36:42):
them like right at the corner of a window or something,
but they can be anywhere. I mean, they don't have
to be at the corner of a window, but that
means something's moving. Even a sticky door, something has changed.
It used to not stick now it does, or vice versa.
Have them come out, free estimates for garden line listeners.
Have them come out. You can go to fix myslab
dot com. Fixmslab dot com. That's the website. You can

(02:37:05):
call them two eight one two FI five forty nine
forty nine. TIC's been doing this for twenty three years.
He knows what he's doing, Native Estonian, fifth generation Texan,
he knows our soils, he knows how to assess it,
and he knows how to fix it right. And boy,
if every service person would do what Tie does. And

(02:37:25):
that's three magical things that make me happy when someone
comes to my home to do anything. If they will
show up on time, if they will fix it right,
and if they'll charge me a fair price. That is
the trifecta. That is it, and that is fix my
slab foundation repair two eight one two FIY five forty

(02:37:45):
nine forty nine. Well, today has gone fast, by the way.
I had all kinds of things I was going to
launch into and talk about. I'll be back tomorrow morning,
six am. If you'd like to give us a call in.
For those of you who have sent some photos and
not followed up with a call yet, well I hope
you will follow up with a call, because I'm not
able to do all the emails that just don't have

(02:38:08):
the time to be able to take on the flood
of emails that we get here on a garden line.
But follow up with the call and we will be
happy to visit with you and call back tomorrow and
we'll talk about that. I've got a number of different
things that have already been called in, So I'm looking
forward to visiting with you folks here on guarden Line.
In the meantime, don't forget my website, Gardening with Skip

(02:38:31):
dot Com. Everything I got on there right now is free,
and I'm about to put the Randy Lemon scholarship information up.
There's other good information that's there, and we're still in
this summer long process of revamping the site. We're gonna
give it a whole new look and have some better
functionality as well because of it. So we look forward
to you stopping in there and checking things out. A

(02:38:54):
lot of questions that I answer in the air are
just it's too detailed and too much information to try
to remember, but on the website it's there. So like,
how do you control nutsedge? Well, you can control nutsedge,
first of all, and I tell you how to do it,
and there's a publication called Nutsedge and in depth look
and it is great. Do you have woody weeds coming

(02:39:17):
out like hackberries and poison ivy or peppervine? Those are
all whitty weeds that are a mass I've got a
publication on how to control those in a very simple,
easy way that doesn't kill everything around them.

Speaker 4 (02:39:32):
So try that out.

Speaker 5 (02:39:33):
Check out some of those publications, Get my lawn care Guide,
get my long pest Disease, and we'd management guide. And
let's help you have success. That is the goal of
the show. In addition to having fun, we want you
to have success in your landscape. So how can we
help you do that. That's what we'll do. All right,
we're going to close it down. I will be back

(02:39:54):
tomorrow morning to answer your calls. Right here, same place,
same station,