Fall Gardening featuring Angela Chandler

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:06):
The crazy here.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Gas can you shrip? Just watch him? As well as
many thinks the suapbot basic in Babassies like gas again,
you dude's the clubs back kicking.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Not a sound, Glassy said.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Gas and the sun beamon of between the gas.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Starting and achieve.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Well.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Good morning, folks, Good morning, Welcome to Garden Line Sunday.
I'm your host, Skip Rictor, and we're here to have fun.
How about that? If you got a gardening question, give
me a call seven one three two one two kt
r H. We'll talk to you about that. I've got
a couple of things I'd like to start off with

(01:10):
this morning. I had a really good time at Oba
Palooza yesterday, thanks to everybody that came out for that.
We Uh I spent some time talking about beneficial insects
and uh we had a lot of great talks there.
It was. It was a good day, very good day
at Oba Palus always is. They put on excellent educational
programs the Organic Horticulture Benefits Alliance. So thank you guys

(01:34):
for having me over there for that event.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
UH.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Coming up this fall, I'm going to be doing some appearances.
I'll start talking about those as we get closer to them,
but I want to be doing some appearances out and about.
My very first one is going to be in Montgomery
County at the Montgomery County Fall Home and Garden Show
in Conrod. That'll be on September sixth. And I just
mentioned it now because, Uh, if you jot that down

(01:58):
on your calendar, if you live anywhere up northeaston up
that direction, come on up. We'd love to love to
see you out there. I be giving a talk on
fall lawn care tips. Boy do we ever have a
lot to talk about with fall and lawn care. One
of the things that just has exploded this summer in

(02:19):
terms of long care are issues with what I perceive
in most cases to be take all root rod. Take
all root rot is a fungal disease that is everywhere.
It's it's ubiquitous. If you will be hard, you'd be
hard pressed to find a lawn that the organism is
not there with the grass. What happens, though, is when

(02:42):
the grass gets stressed. Stress weakens living things, including us,
And when stress weakens your grass, then take all has
the opportunity to get the upper hand. Essentially, move in
do its work, and its work is killing roots. Take
All root rot, that's the name, and it does just that.

(03:03):
We have a lot of different kinds of diseases. It
can affect our turf, things like brown patch or large
patch in the cool season, the big circles, gray leaf
spot in the early summer especially, we see that. But
those don't kill turf well, by and large, they don't
kill turf. That's not normal for them to kill turf.
But take All that's what it does. It kills turf,

(03:25):
and so as it gets bad enough, it kills the
turf by killing the roots. And on one hundred degree
summer day, if your grass doesn't have roots, it's not
going to last long. It may you might as well
pick up a slug or a little section and throw
it on your driveway. And you know how would that
turn out. Within a week, you'd have tan grass dead

(03:47):
out there on the driveway. And that's kind of what's
happening in the lawn. And we see it with yellowing
as the first stage. Usually. Boy, I got some pictures
of huge yellow area. Somebody's going to be able to
catch it really early by jumping in early on it.
But anyway then it moves to brown or dead. But
again it's because the grass doesn't have roots. So what

(04:09):
kills the grass lack of water? If the soil is wet,
how can there be a lack of water lack of roots.
That's how it happens. And so anyway, there's things you
can do. I have a new publication. My web person
has been Town's back in town and going to post
that first thing next week if we can get it
on up. I've already started sending it out to some

(04:31):
folks by email that have sent questions about that that
we've talked about on the air. But anyway, I'll probably
be doing some more of that today. And it just
walks you through all the options you know, we have
on my schedule. There's a spray option of a funderside
in the fall and in the spring. If you go
to gardening with Skip dot com you can find that.

(04:52):
But anyway, bottom line is, yeah, we're dealing with it,
and it is a problem for sure. So what we
need to do in order to really deal with it
properly is avoid it. I'll tell you that's how you
best deal with it. When a fungus is started killing
back of grass, it is very difficult to control it.
In fact, let me back, let me expand that statement.

(05:15):
When a fungus moves into an organism, in general, it's
much harder to cure than it would have been to prevent.
If you've got if you're going to apply a fungicide
ahead of time, you can stop the fungus from over
getting started. But when you wait until the patient is sick,
and especially in an advanced stage like take all root

(05:35):
route will make your grass, it is very difficult to
just spread fungicide or apply granule rather and be done
with it. Very hard to turn that around. But anyway,
those are a few thoughts. We'll talk about that some more.
Speaking of your lawn, it's a good time to get
down the sweet green from nitrophoss. Sweet green is a

(05:55):
fertilizer that releases pretty quickly and it's very high in carbon,
and microbes love carbon. That's why organic gardeners will put
out a molasses onto their soil because of the benefit
to the microbes and therefore of the planets. And sweet
green from night foss is available in a lot of
different places.

Speaker 5 (06:13):
M and D.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Rosenberg You'll find it a Bearing Hardware on Bissonette and Westheimer,
Kerry night Foss Products, as does Ace Hardware City on
Memorial and up Plans Froll Seasons up north on Highway
two forty nine. You'll find night Foss Products up there
as well. Let's set out to let's see album this morning.
We're going to talk to Joe Anne. Well, hello, Joanne,

(06:35):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (06:36):
I think I had the same problem. I sent you
pictures yesterday and I need to find out what your
opinion is about what is wrong?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Okay, I don't have a I don't have an email
that's as it's from Joanne. Would it have had a
different name on it? Maybe on the air it could have.

Speaker 6 (07:01):
I don't know. But yesterday and that he gave me
that address, you know, and your address?

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Okay, is it Joanna? Okay?

Speaker 6 (07:19):
Well, well I'm sorry and I wanted to see what.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Tell me tell me, yeah, tell me what you're saying,
we will we can do this without that.

Speaker 6 (07:30):
Well, it's uh uh, it's big patches and they're just
getting bigger and bigger, and they seem to progress about
uh a foot and it's a big wide area. I
live on ten acres, so I can't just put little stuff,

(07:50):
you know, expensive real stuff on it. But but to
see if it was a little bit of green less
like you're seeing and maybe but it leaves the weeds
or the weeds are still in there. But the grasses, yeah,

(08:12):
it's just chomping away and I don't know if it
scrubs or.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Okay, well let's let's do this when so let's say
he had a green lawn and then you say, now
there's patches, described to me what it looks like when
you it started, and what you're seeing right now? What
color is it? You mentioned there can be pretty large,
but what what color does it turn from? Green? First? Okay?

Speaker 6 (08:42):
And then and then brown?

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Brown? Okay?

Speaker 7 (08:47):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (08:47):
And when did you first notice it?

Speaker 6 (08:50):
About a month ago, not quite a month ago, about
three weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
And he's just kidding you see, I'm just you're just
seeing them randomly all over the place. Is that it?

Speaker 6 (09:03):
Yeah? Pretty much? But there right now, there's a great
huge patch in the front yard and it's just getting
bigger and bigger. Okay, I meant here you know, yeah,
fifteen feet it's big.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Okay, Yeah, I get that, all right, Well, it's going
to be one of three things. It's either gonna be drought,
or it's going to be chinchbugs, or it's going to
be take all root right one of those three.

Speaker 6 (09:31):
Okay, we tried chinchbug killer. It doesn't seem to do anything.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Okay, Well, uh, I'm going to send you this publication
to look at. It's called an end up look at
take Off, and what it does is it tells you
how to identify chinchbugs. If they're there, you get on
your hands and knees you and see them.

Speaker 6 (09:49):
Yeah, can down there with the water.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
But yeah, I don't do the and water anymore. That
that's difficult to get it to work right. But anyway,
there are different ways to go about the chinch bug assessment,
but let's just do this. The take all explanation on
there is very thorough and your options. Of course, there
is a fungicide treatment, but we typically use those in

(10:19):
a spring or fall. But in the summertime there's some
other things you can do, including a micro nutrient supplement,
watering enough to keep the grass as adequately moist as
you can because it lacks roots, so the roots that
it has you don't want to get be in dry soil,
and then there is a peat moss application that can

(10:41):
be done. There's a lot of things, none of them
are easy, but this disease is not easy. This is
a tough one to deal with. And so let me
send you this to give you a little more information
on it. But the main thing is to start doing
what you can now, because even what you see now
is going to get worse. Even if you went out
this warning and started doing something to it, it's still

(11:03):
gonna get worse for a while because there's grass that
has lost its roots that hasn't died yet, and it
will progress to that. You're just trying to shut the
disease down so the grass can essentially, you know, make
a turnaround and begin to try to regrow.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
It isn't doing anything.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, well, in areas where there's no roots, moist soil
doesn't help, does it. So you gotta you gotta, you
gotta read this thing and look at it. And you know,
we can talk about it all day, but to get
you to the point you need to take a look
at this. And I've got to go. I'm there. Tellab
it's a heart break here, Joanne. Hold on, well, well,

(11:43):
hold on, I'm gonna I'm gonna put you on hold.
My producer will give you uh or you get my
producer your email so I can send it to you.
All right, folks, we'll be right back in just a moment. Well,
good morning, Hey, welcome to guard Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter. And what are we here for? Well say
it with me. Beautiful, beautiful garden, bountiful bountiful landscape and

(12:09):
more fun in the process. That's how it works, right we.
It is my strong, hilly hiled opinion and I will
not be dissuaded from this that gardening is the best
hobby that there is, that it is good for you
in so many ways, mentally, physically, you name it. I
mean it really really is. I'm not just saying that
I like I like to say about this is. I

(12:30):
may be biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. Okay.
I happen to be right on this one. I know
because I got poles of scientific research showing all the
benefits from kids with ADHD to old folks dealing with
dementia or with creakedy joints and dealing with health and
just all the fitness, all the mental piece of mind.
You name it. There's tons of research on gardening and

(12:53):
the benefits of it, so we're gonna stick by that one.
That is true. Yeah, yesterday we had a guest on
from Houston Powder Coats Fabio was it was a great,
great time. I mean there was a lot of interest
from the listeners and I have had other questions about this.
Powder coating is what you do to old metal to

(13:14):
make it last forever and look better than it ever looked.
It's better than traditional types of painting. We went into
the details about all the reasons why. But it turns
furniture back into new outdoor furniture metal. You know, whether
it's a lumina or cast iron, wrought iron, you know,
decorative kinds of things, a lamp, posts, you name it,

(13:35):
whatever you have. It could be something indoor. Once you
see what it looks like, you'll recognize that. So many
things around you every day as you go about around
town and things are powder coated. That's what makes stuff last.
I mean, if you're down on the coast and you're
dealing with salt, corrosion and things, powder coating is a
solution to that. That's what you do now. Houston Powder
Coats knows how to do it. You get to pick

(13:56):
from over one hundred different colors. If you can hear
my voice, they probably will come pick it up there.
I mean, I know we got folks way out far
from Houston that are listening to garden Line. But they
do service a very wide area. They pick it up,
they bring it back, and they do everything you need
to do, from dealing with the rust to putting on

(14:17):
new nice They use stainless steel bolts, so they really last.
Plus they're beautiful, and they turn your furniture back into
something new that old. Those metal chairs and table out
in the back, for example, they can do if it's metal,
they can powder coat it. Okay, Houston Powdercoders dot com.
Houston Powdercoders dot Com and the phone number two eight

(14:40):
one six seven six thirty eight eighty eight two eight
one six seven six thirty eight eighty eight need to
give them a call, take a look at what they
can do. And if you have older metal things, it's
even better there because they can the older metal stuff.
We were talking about this yesterday.

Speaker 8 (15:00):
It is just.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's just built better. It's just built a lot different
than some of the modern things are. And a powder coating.
I'll turn around. Let's go to spring and talk to
Rich this morning. Hey, Rich, welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 8 (15:16):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Skip.

Speaker 8 (15:18):
Following up on your lead of the take all root rot,
I sent you a couple of pictures of my lawn
which I've never I've been here thirty three years. I've
never seen this before, and I am assuming it's the
take all root rot that you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Anyway. That's spot I treated.

Speaker 8 (15:40):
Two weeks ago with a zoxy stroman granular, okay, And
I'm wondering should I just wait and see or should
I change it to add a different class funder side,
such as Michael ute and all today.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
I would not do that. The fundracides can have some
growth regulator effects, and you don't want to overdo them,
or stack them, or use two different ones, you know,
in succession and stuff so close together. Let's see the
take all. The pathologists don't talk about summer treatments, but
summer is when we see the symptoms worse, because the
demands are so high on your grass, even if you're

(16:21):
watering it. That grass is pumping water fast to stay
cool on a summer day, and when it starts losing roots,
its ability to get that water even though the soul's
moist is not there. You do have take all. From
what I can see in the symptom, I know nothing
else that matches those symptoms other than take All. I'm
going to send you this publication because I haven't gotten

(16:44):
it online yet, but it goes through It's called an
end depth to look at take all, and it goes
through all your options. One thing you can do right
now is do a micro nutrient spray. Because the root
can't take up iron, you start to see yellowing. Manganese
deficiency is another one that comes in with take all,
and supplementing manganese seems to help as a folier feed.

(17:08):
So you get your hose insprayer. In the publication I'm
sending you, it talks about, you know, a product to purchase,
and actually I think I give you three of them
that you would just hook up to your hose in spray,
follow the label carefully, and just fold your feed it.
I'd do it about once a week for a while,
and it's kind of like rich. The equivalent of it
to me is, you know you're sick, you're in the hospital,

(17:29):
you can't eat, so they hook you up to an IV,
you know, to keep you nourished and on top of things.
And that's kind of what you're doing with the takeoll
with this folier feed is you can't make roots appear tomorrow,
and so we're helping it in the meantime. And then
there's a discussion of a peat moss application, if you
want to go to that step too. I have seen

(17:52):
it to be pretty good at greening it up. Usually
within a week you see an improvement on it. Now
neither the micro nutrient nor the peat moss is curing
the disease. It is helping the patient in the meantime
and everything you can do to avoid stress. I would
hold off on any broad leaf weed killer treatments in
the lawn. I would definitely water adequately to keep the

(18:13):
saw moist. And let's see what else. Compaction, aerration, those
kinds of things. If that is happening, go ahead and
do some alleviation of the compaction. But judging from your grass,
it doesn't look like you've been dealing with compacted soil there.

Speaker 8 (18:31):
Now I've had it aer rated and the top pressing
about a year ago. Okay, well, I'll look forward to
receiving your email and I'll take those steps and hopefully
I'll get back to you with a success story soon.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, take me some after, you know what. I would
appreciate that, because I would like to have a picture,
like if you could try to take this exact same
picture maybe a week or two after applying it and
keep me posted on it, because we're learning as we
go on this one. Unfortunately, by the time people are
noticing it, which is now what August, this has progressed

(19:12):
pretty far. Your lawn is it's still early in the
visual development of take all root rod, and so I
think you can do a lot to help hold it,
hold it off and get it back on its feet again.
But just remember it's all about the stress and that
grass is trying to send out the ends of the runners,
peg down new roots and keep going. And anything that

(19:33):
stress is it is just setting it up. Some lawns
are so declined that they're going to end up residing
because you know, we got bare dirt areas. But hopefully
you can stop yours from doing that. All right, sir, Well,
do appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (19:46):
Thank you, Skip.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
All right, thank you, I appreciate it. Appreciate your call
very much. Well, we're going into a little break here.
When we come back from the from the break, we'll
be talking to Joanne out there in Alvin. And in
the meantime, go check out my website Gardening with Skip
dot com. That's where my schedules are. That's where you
can find out what we do apply about for take

(20:10):
all retrut in the October and November. Those are the
next two application times that you would apply for this.
That is a primary infection time. We'll be right back
all right, folks, welcome back to guard Line. Glad to
have you with us this morning. Hey, if you are
interested in seeing this publication, just hang on. We're going

(20:31):
to get it on the web early next week now
that my producers, my producer, my web guys come back
into town and we're going to get that thing up
for you. In the meantime, if you've got a question
you need to send me a photo, you can do that.
Just call my producer, get the email to send it to,
and then follow up with a phone call to Guardline.

(20:51):
I'm not able to type out answers and start a
back and forth discussion on email. It's just absolutely physically
time wise whatever cannot do it. But I'm happy to
visit with you follow up on a gardenline question, so
feel free to call in. We're going to be having
the phones open today all the way up until about
eight o'clock and then I think i'll open them after that.

(21:12):
But I've got a special guest coming in and Angela
Chandler from the Garden Academy is going to be here
at eight o'clock and we'll be visiting with her about
all kinds of things, and I promise you you will
find it very, very interesting and helpful, so stay tuned
for that one. If you're looking for anything to make
your lawn and garden beautiful, it's fertilizers, pest control products.

(21:34):
We control all of that tools that you need to
get out there. Or if you just want to make
your outdoors more livable. ACE Hardware has got you covered.
From things to take care of your deck to make
sure it stays in top shape, you know, paints and
stains and deck preservatives and whatnot. If you are looking
for barbecue equipment and pits, they've got the best. They

(21:54):
really do keep top brands everything from you your quality
hand tools, to barbeque equipment to you name it. Ace
Hardware is the place to go for that. And you
can find my ACE Hardware stores in the much greater
Houston area all the way down to Rockport and all
the way across to Orange and so on. That's why
I mean much greater Houston.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
You can find those by going to ACE Hardware Texas
dot com. Ace Hardware Texas dot com. You can find stores,
for example, Lake Conraase on Highway one to five west
up Northwest j and r Ace Importer on FM thirteen fourteen.
I was up there a while back. League City ACE
on West, League City Parkway down Southeast, Hardware City on

(22:35):
Memorial Drive in Houston, another place I made an appearance
last year or this year, I guess, and Rockport A's
Way not in Rockport and State Highway thirty five North.
Just some examples some of the many ACE Hardware stores
you'll find at ACE Hardware Texas dot com. If you'd
like to give me a call talk about a gardening
question seven one three two one two five eight seven

(22:57):
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Earlier I was talking about plants are all seasons being
a place where you get some of the nitrofoss products
that we talk about here on guard Line. It is
a great place to get all kinds of products, you know,
the I always say brown stuff before green stuff. And
they've got the store set up like that. When you

(23:18):
go from you got your plants in the cart and
you go to check out, you got to go right
into where all the fertilizer is. And when you walk
in from the parking lot right out front, that's all
the soil stuff. I mean, you got to step over
the soil to get into the plants right and I
think that is a really good arrangement. They have an
excellent selection of all of the above and they are
true loan and garden experts. This family owned operation has

(23:39):
been around since nineteen seventy three. Right there on Tomball
Parkway highway to forty nine, just north of Luata, Okay,
just on the right hand side, if you're going north
on the east side of two forty nine, you're going
to find good expert advice and very friendly, helpful service
and you so you can take pictures or samples with

(24:00):
you when you go in if you want to go
what is this plant? Or you know, my neighbor has one.
I took a picture. I want to get one. What
is it? Will it? Do you think it does well?

Speaker 7 (24:09):
Here?

Speaker 5 (24:09):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (24:10):
And you can get my call. Two eight one three
seven six sixteen forty six two eight one three seven
six one six four six Plants for All Seasons dot
Com updated that website looks really good. Good job on
that one. Appreciate that.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yesterday I was out at the OBA Organic Horticulture Benefits
Alliance visiting with some of the folks from Microlife. Uh,
just talking to him about products and things.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
You know.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Microlife six two four is the number one selling organic
fertilizer in the Greater Houston area and it's still way
beyond our area too. By the way I've seen it,
I've been surprised, you know, driving out pretty far and
finding Microlife products available there. Being organic, they're not going
to burn your lawn or your plants. There's the granular
type products like the green bag, the six two four

(24:56):
that you see everywhere, the ubiquitous green bag. But then
there's also other versions of granulars. The one for acidic
loving plants like blueberries or azaleas or camellias. For example,
if you have Virginia sweet spire or puris. Those are
two other shrubs that would benefit from the acidic one.
In fact, even roses do a lot of times. Our

(25:18):
pH gets a little high in our area and a
gradual overtime applications of the pink bag. The six two
four that's a pink bag works really well. Then all
the liquid products that they carry. I like the bio Matrix.
It's a high nitrogen orange label bottle seven to one
three or the three numbers on the bag. Again safety use,

(25:39):
not going to burn your plants, and it works. And
then the Ocean Harvest blue label four two three, another
great one for all kinds of things. It's a fish
based product. Like we used to say, fish and mulsion
and seaweed. Well, Microlife's got both fish and mulsion and
seaweed if you will. The blue label Ocean Harvest, that's
the fish based product that works so well. Life products

(26:00):
are available all over the place. You're going to find
them pretty much every where you go shop. Just like
I said, they're kind of ubiquitous there everywhere. Then they
do work. You can go to a place like a
Southwest Fertilizer for example, Southwest Fertilizers on the corner of
Bissina and Renwick, and it is the place. And you
hear me say this all the time about them. If

(26:21):
they don't have it, you don't need it. And what
I mean by that is everything that would be worth buying,
they definitely have it in their store. The widest range
of fertilizer options I've ever seen anywhere, the widest range
of insect and disease and weed control products that you're
going to see anywhere. And if you're thinking, well, I

(26:42):
don't use chemicals, I'm an organic gardener, Well you're not
going to find a bigger selection of organic products anywhere
in the region. Then you'll find it Southwest Fertilizer. They
keep stocked up on everything, and you know they know
what they're doing there too. So if you take them
sample or a picture, let them put their eyes on
take a look at it, and they're going to be

(27:03):
able to help you with it, and if a product
is needed, they'll point you to the one that works,
so you're not wasting time and money on things that
don't work. One of the things that I've noticed about
a lot of gardeners, not necessarily more educated gardeners, but
just people that want a garden but don't rely understand
all the products and things. Is the debt or the

(27:26):
bug looks on the bottle, the more likely it's going
to sell. So if you got an upside downe fire
ant that looks like you just croaked, they're going to
grab that for fireant control. That may or may not
be the best product for fireant control. But that's kind
of how folks shop. It is better to go to
a place like Southwest Fertilizer where you talk to people
and they point you at stuff that works. It may

(27:48):
be a little indoscript bottle and you're going, are you
sure this is if they're pointing you to it, it
is the stuff that you want to be using that works.
That's the advantage of going to a place where they
know what they're talking about. I've told this story before
on guarden Line, but I was in a big box
store which shall go unnamed a good while back, and

(28:10):
I was talking to someone that worked there and said, so,
what would you do about or tell me about this
product ors? I can't remember the exact question. And you know,
you can tell when you ask somebody a question if
they don't know the answer, and you can just see
it in their eyes, and then you know they're about
to start answering it, but they don't know. And that's

(28:31):
what happened, absolutely nonfactual words coming out of their mouth.
And I just smiled and listen. I mean, I gonna
sit there, you know, O, I know better than you.
I just listen to their answer, and it said, Okay,
how long you been working here? I've been working here
a week? Oh what were you doing before you worked here?
I was a hairstylist. Okay. That qualifies you to sell

(28:55):
chemicals to people that can have good or bad effects
on what's going on. And I'm not trying to pick
on people when I say this. I'm just telling you
that when you go to places like Suthis Fertilizer, you know,
when you go to a full service nursery that it's
what we say a mom and pop an independent garden center.

(29:15):
That's where you get people that know what they're talking about.
And it is much more economical to buy the right
product to do what you need to do, and you
do it once and it works than it is to
have people just hand you stuff and say here, try
this or here this will work. But they really don't
know that. And so I urge you to support our

(29:38):
local independent horticulture business gardening business companies that you hear
me talk about here on Guardline. They are the ones
that are really going to help you there, and that's
what you need. Okay. I feel very strongly about that,
because you know, a lot of it just kills me
to see people buy something and waste money. Sometimes I'm

(30:01):
a little nosy, Okay, I'm just wandering on here talking
about this. I gotta take a break here. But sometimes
I'll even walk up somebody who's shopping and I can
just tell they're looking around, they don't know what to get.
I'll just ask them, hey, can I help you with
that and try to point them to the right thing.
All right, Well, enough of me rambling. I gotta take
a break here. We'll be right back.

Speaker 7 (30:19):
You know.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
I found that if I turn off my mute button
and you can hear me Bevin Boy seven two two
fifty eight seventy four. That is our phone number here
if you'd like to give me a call here on
guard Line. Ask a gardening question. If you got fire
mounds out in the yard, and you've got you know,

(30:41):
maybe a gathering patio gathering this afternoon or tomorrow or
something like that, and you need to knock some things
out fast. Night Fist Fiant Killer does that. You just
treat the individual mound with it, uh it watered in.
Follow the label that's the bottom line. Follow the label.
I always do that, and then I'll lock it out quick.

Speaker 9 (30:58):
You know.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Normally I you suggests bates as the first line of
defense against fiance, but there are times when you need
something faster that takes a bait to work, and that's
where the individual mound treatments with night Trusperiant Killer can
come in handy. Now you're going to find night Fresh
products at places like Katias Hardware on Penoak Court Hardware

(31:20):
on South Main, dun and Stafford. You're going to find
them at Stanton Shopping Center on North Taylor, for example,
and in Brenham at Plants and Things on Highway three
sixty five. I've been talking about various things today, putting
in some little plugs for our independent garden centers and
independent basically horticulture businesses that we have here in the

(31:42):
greater Houston area. And you know, we have a company
that born in Texas, actually born over in Hondo, Texas
on Medina products. And Medina's been around since I think
the nineteen fifties is when it actually started, sometime around then,
because I know, if you take Garden Line back, of course,

(32:02):
I've been here for a few years prior to that.
For about twenty six years, Randy Lemon was the host
of Garden Line by Knows Randy, and you know, we've
got the Bill Jack and John Burrows and a lot
of folks. As you go back over time to the
Dewey Compton days, well, Dewey Compton talked about Medina products.
That's how long the products have been around, have been

(32:22):
popular with gardeners, and Medina has a wide range of
products things that work too. You can get a granular fertilizers,
you can get liquid products of various types. You know,
the Medina cel Activator is kind of one of the originals.
It's one of the ones that has been long loved
by many, many different kinds of people. I like specifically

(32:43):
a product called Medina Plus and it has the Medina
Soil Activator that's the base of it, the original Medina
cel activator, but it also has micronutrients. It's fortified with
micros and seaweed, extract as well, so you get all
the natural soil building advantages as well as some extra
ingredients that make it really good as a follier feed,

(33:05):
a fullier feed as well, and the seaweed extracts and
the follier benefits of it. Now you can still use
it as a drench when you're transplanting. Put drench the
new plants in waterme a couple times after that. Medina
products work and they're not going to burn your plants.
This one will really benefit whatever you're trying to grow.
And you're going to find Medina where. You can find

(33:27):
it at aceard restores, You're going to find it at
our independent garden centers. You're going to find it at
feed stores. Talk about our feed stores all the time
here on guard Line. It is widely widely available, So
go check them out and give them a try. I
think you'll agree with me that they are very beneficial.
They do work. And again, when I talk about something

(33:49):
on guarden Line, I've used it. I've used it and
it works okay. Otherwise I would be putting my name
on something like that. You were listening to Guardline our
phone number seven three two one fifty eight seventy four.
The other day, I was out checking my mosquito buckets
and they recently had the new products all put in them.

(34:10):
You know, pest Bros. The folks that do those mosquito
buckets for us, They come out and change those out
about monthly, and basically it's putting new ingredients down in them,
and those ingredients attract mosquitos. Those ingredients kill the larva
that when the mosquito's leggs and the buckets you want
them to come in their lay eggs, and the mosquito

(34:31):
in it lands, it picks up some of the substances
on there, and one of them is a fungus that
kills the mosquito within seven days, which is kind of cool,
and you don't want to actually, you know, you don't
want to kill it instantly, because that mosquito is going
to fly around and land in other bodies of water
and take some of that with it and help that
little sagging gutter that has a little water in it

(34:52):
from becoming a squitter breeder. Areadpestbros dot com. That's the
name the website of the company, thepestbros dot com. Give
them a call two eight one two O six forty
six seventy. If you haven't had termite treatments recently, they
have one of the most up to date, state of
the art safe products and techniques that you can have

(35:15):
for getting termites control. They put a little trench around
your house. They put a product down in the trench
can last ten years and so rather you know than
just they're just not nuke and everything around trying to
kill termaite number one. That's not very effective, but it's safe.
So what they go about doing and the one reason
I really like this company is they do know how
to treat effectively, but they know how to do it

(35:36):
in the safest manner, so you get long term results
without those worries. Two eight one two O six forty
six seventy. Let's go out to the phones now. We
are going to head to if I can find my mouse,
where do to go there? It is Lumberton and we're
going to talk to Ron this morning. Hey Ron, welcome

(35:57):
to Guardline. Good morning, Hello, how could we help? Yes,
I've got a little time for a music play, so
we're probably gonna have to finish your call when we
come back, but go ahead.

Speaker 10 (36:11):
Okay, I got a I lost a twenty year old
oak tree in a storm a couple of years ago,
and I planted a live oak. It's about fifteen sixteen
foot tall now. And the acorns have a little black
spot on the end of them. Is there something I
need to worry about spray them?

Speaker 5 (36:28):
Or what.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
I wouldn't worry about the acorns or spraying for that?
It could be a disease spot. Acorns also get weavils
that get inside of them, and they when the weavil leaves,
it leaves a little round hole that will be besize
hole in the acorn. But that's nothing for you to
worry about.

Speaker 8 (36:49):
Okay, Thanks for your help, Yes.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Sir Ron, thanks for the call. Appreciate that very much.
All Right, we're gonna go to the top of the
hour news and David and Crosby you hang on because
you're the very first up when we come back to Guardline.
Thanks for listening today. Guys. Uh, let's come back. What
are your questions? You want to be right after David
when we come back seven one three, two one two

(37:12):
fifty eight seventy four. Sound well back, welcome back, Welcome
back to garden Line. It is good to have you.
It is good to have you Mom, your host skip Rickmann.

(37:33):
What are we here for? Well, we're here to help
you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape and more
fun in the process. That is, that's what it's about here.
If you'd like to give me a call, you can
at seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Just a reminder if you have not done a fertilization
in the last few months. Nitrofoss super turf is an

(37:55):
outstanding product for feeding your long gradually over time, and
that is really the best way to fertilize in the summertime.
It has so many benefits. You know, when you overdo
nitrogen on a lawn, when you just give it a
big flush and nitrogen, you get a lot of top growth.
It's green and beautiful. But you mow like crazy and
water like crazy trying to keep it going and in
the process. And this is interesting. This was the first

(38:19):
time I heard this. It was like, Nah, that can't
be true. And then I saw evidence of grass grown
in containers. And then they looked at the root system.
Grass that was grown with a right amount of nitrogen
had a nice green color and a good deep root system.
Grass that was grown where they overdid the nitrogen had
lots of darker green top growth and the root system

(38:39):
had actually shrunken down or had not developed. It was
very very limited. Well in summertime when it's hot and
you may have a grub eating a root here and
there and other stresses, you do not need a limited
root system and you don't need to be mowing all
the time either, trying to keep up with it. Proper fertilization.
That's what nitrofive super Trip does. It releases gradually over time.

(39:00):
The nineteen four to ten fertilizer is in a silver bag,
makes it easy to pick out in the store. And uh,
if you do it now, you're gonna be taken care
of all the way up until it's time to put
a fall fertilization on. You're gonna get night Foss products
at places like M and D and Beamer and the
one in clear Lake. Uh, the M and D and Cyprus,
as well as the one in Rosenberg. And then there's

(39:23):
other places like Hiding and Feed on stuben Er Airline
and D and D feed up there in the Tomball area.
They carry Knight to Foss products. Let's go out to Crosby,
Texas now and we're going to visit with David this morning.
Hello David, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Good morning, Skip. Thanks you to take it with call.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yes sir, so, yes, sir, I can okay, thank you.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
I'm wanting to spot treat for weaves like.

Speaker 11 (39:56):
I've used MSM Turbo okay, but I think even the
package says not to use add or above ninety degrees.
And I've always a product called Celsius, which would be
the best for hot summertime because you know that Virginia
button meat shows up in a spring, the summer, the fall,

(40:17):
and I just try to spot three it before you
know it takes over.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Yeah, so I would go with the Celsius in the summer,
and I would even at that no matter what you're using,
do it earlierly in the day, the coolest time of
the day you can, you can apply it, and that way,
you know everything's dried off by the time the temperature
rises up and the damage is reduced that way also,

(40:44):
But I would do the Celsius. NSN Turf is a
good product. You've got to follow the label, though I've
seen people over apply it and cause problems for the grass,
and it is very hard on woody ornamentals. And if
you were to put a lot of it out and
get a rain right after it, you would see damage
in the foliage of your trees and shrubs which have
roots underneath your turf. And so be very careful with

(41:06):
MSM turf. It's a it's an effective product. It has
a definite place and there's certain things that it can
do that others can't. But just got to be careful
with the application on it. But I do celsius on
on what you're talking about. Also, because you buy celsius
in a little you can get it in a one
gallon packet mix makes one gallon and so if you're

(41:27):
spot treating, just going around with a gallon, that'll that'll
cover a very large area when you're just spot treating.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Very good. That sounds wonderful, SKIPT Thank.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
You, yes, sir, you bet. Thanks appreciate that. David, all right,
if you'd like to give meet all folks and got
a question seven one three two one two k t
r H. Seven one three two one two k t
r H. I was talking about superturf a minute ago,
where all can you get superter well if you listen

(41:57):
to a lot of those places are ACE Hardware stores.
ACE hard where carries a wide variety of products. If
you are looking to get a weed control, or a
disease control or insect control, if you're looking for tools,
if you're looking for anything to make your outdoor living
area more pleasant. I like going in there and shopping
for some of their battery operated equipment. They got quality

(42:19):
brands like how I happen to have to Walt is
one that I tend to buy my tools in. It's
not the only one, It's not necessarily even the best
one that there is out there, but it's a good one.
ACE Hardware carries it. I've got a little ego or
ego I don't know how you pronounce that ego mower.
I've had one for a long time. Many ACE Hardware
stores will carry those as well. Each ACE Hardware store

(42:40):
is independent, though, so the owner can make the personality,
if you will, of that store however they wish to
make it. They have all the standard kinds of ACE things,
of course that you depend on, but so many stores
have so many other things that are really really cool.
Ace Hardware Texas dot Com. That's how you find your

(43:00):
local ACE Hardware store Ace Hardware Texas dot com. When
you head there, you'll find places like, for example, northeast
there's a K and M and a Tascasita on Timber Forest.
There's one in Kingwood on Kingwood Drive. You go southeast
down to Kilgore's Clear Lake Lumber on East Main. You
go to the west to Katie Hardware on Pinoak in

(43:22):
Old Town Katie. How about way southwest Port Lavaca, Hey, Hello,
everybody out there in Port Lavaka and Rockport in that
whole community listens to Garden Line Port Levaca, ACE on
Calhoun Plaza and then all Star Ace up north in
the Magnolia area. Those are just examples. Go to ACE
Hardware Texas dot com, find your local store and check
them out. Make sure and sign up for the aceh

(43:43):
rhards program. I belong to it myself. It makes sense.
Why not if you're going to shop get benefits from that,
And there's some really great benefits. I'll tell you all that.
All about that at your ACE Hardware store this coming week.
I've got a number of tasks that have been waiting
on me. I have some drip irrigation repairs to do,

(44:06):
I had some little drip line in my vegetable beds.
I love drip and micro sprinkler irrigation. It's very efficient.
And the little lines I had had little slits in
the lines that are laser cut slits, so it drips out,
and over time they've gotten clogged up, you know, I
don't know, lime in the water, iron deposits, or maybe

(44:27):
some microbes growing inside there. Who knows. They're plugged up.
That's the bottom line, and it's not working really well.
So I'm going to replace it with little bubble. They
call them bubblers, but it's just a it's a little steak,
a very short steak, like five or six inches tall
at the most, and it squirts out in a like
a well, like an asterix. If you type an asterisks

(44:50):
with a typewriter, you know how you've got little points
going out in all directions. That's how the water squirts
out of one of these. And so I can wet
an area. I can wet up area about eight inches
across or maybe even a little more, and that applies
the water in a wider area up and down the row.
Put some new pipe down the row, new tubing lines,

(45:11):
and that's one of the things I need to get
done because my plants are struggling. I'm having to go
in there and hand water all the time. Part of
the reason I like drip irrigation is I've got a
clock and I just, you know, set the clock and
it comes on the days and times I tell it
to and it takes care of it. But you know,
I should make sure everything's working right. And in my case,
that's one of the jobs I got to do before

(45:33):
I get done with this. I want to remind you
that we are in a hurricane season, and even without hurricane,
summer is storm season here. We get some really wicked
summer storms. Sometime they come through and that's when our
trees get messed up. A tree that's not prune properly
has weak branches. And if you haven't had somebody look
at your trees in the last three or four years,

(45:54):
for sure you need to have somebody come out. And
I would suggest you get a hold of Martin spoon
More at Affordable Tree Service. Affordable Tree Service been around
a very long time, decades and decades of experience seven
one three, six, nine nine two six sixty three seven
one three, six, nine nine two six six three. Put
your trees in the hands of somebody that knows what

(46:16):
they're doing. They can do the proper pruning as needed.
Have them come out Affordable Tree Service seven one three
six nine nine two six six three. I'm going to
take a break right now and we will be back
in just a moment. All righty, welcome back, Welcome back
the guard Line. Get to have you with us. Hey,
if you got a gardening question and would like some assistance,

(46:38):
I'd be happy to give me a call. Seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four KTRH five
eight seven four. That's as simple as that. Well, it
is mosquito season. Walk outside, go outside in the morning,
go outside in the late afternoon. It starts to cool off.
They will eat you alive, as you know. And what
can you do about it? Well, one thing you can

(47:00):
do about it is always keep a packet of mosquito dunks.
Are some of the mosquito granules mosquito bits. I think
they call them on hand. I've got them. I got
them in the cabinet inside, keep them cool, and whenever
I have an issue, I just take them out there.
A mosquito dunk is a little doughnut sized thing that's
of compressed material. That is a disease of most squitoes only.

(47:23):
The only thing that thing affects is mosquitoes and fungus
nuts in your pots, and we definitely don't need either
of those. But anyway, you throw it out on a
little pond area you got, it'll cover ten one hundred
square feet ten by ten area and last about a
month as it slowly dissolves away. If you were going
on vacation, here's what you need to do. You need
to put all your pant plants and a little one

(47:45):
of those little kiddie pools if they'll fit in there,
little kiddy pools, and take the saucers off and just
set them down. Put an inch or two of water
in a bottom. Depends on the size of the pot.
You know, you've got a big old pot. Two inches
is fine. If it's a little bitty pot, two inches
maybe halfway up the pot, that's that's too much water.
But put them down in there and throw a mosquito
dunk in there. Actually you could break it and it

(48:06):
just put like a fourth of a mosquito dunk in
there and it'll float, and definitely the whole time you're gone.
If a mosquito tries to land in that water and
lay eggs, those eggs, the disease in the mosquito dunk
will kill the mosquitos and you will not be a
skeeter breeder. And also you'll have living plants when you
come home. That's important when you go on a long trip.

(48:28):
Mosquito dunks are widely available the feed stores, our independent
garden centers, the Ace hardware stores, Southwest Fertilizer. I mean,
you can meet mosquito dunks all over the place and
they do work, and we have a very long mosquito season.
We deal with all kinds of diseases that are wicked,
diseases that mosquitos carry, just bad stuff. Don't be a

(48:50):
skeeter breeder. Get some mosquito dunks. And by the way,
you can break them up with a little hammer if
you want. Put a few bits down in those little
basins underneath your pots. You know, the tend to hold
water when you water. You don't want to be a
breeder in those areas either, So mosquito dunks that's what
you need. I have a thing about mosquitoes. They just

(49:12):
annoy me. And of course they do. They annoy everybody,
but I don't know. I think I'm more annoyed than
most people. But I hate to go outside. I'm trying
to garden. I'm trying to just enjoy myself, and I
got these little going through my ears as they fly by,
and then I look on my leg and there's five
of them down there, just vampiring out on my legs,

(49:35):
and it just annoys me a lot. I hate those things.
You know, you can do a lot. Let me just
talk about this a minute. We're in long sleeves, helps,
wear in long pants, helps covering up as much as
you can. Of course, there's different kinds of things that
you put on to repel them. Some things work pretty well,

(49:55):
some things not so well. But I don't like to
have the lather up on everything. I just don't want
to have mosquitoes in the backyard. And that's that is
my goal, and I do attempt whatever I can do
to help shut that process down. If you're looking for
a really beautiful landscape, Pierce Scapes can work magic on

(50:16):
your place, and I can prove that to you by
giving you a website, and if you will go check
it out, you'll see what I'm talking about Pierceescapes dot com.
Even if you're not looking to get a landscape a
renovation right now, go check out the website just to
see Plus you get good ideas for things you might
want to do at your landscape. I got to warn you, though,

(50:38):
when you take a look at what they can do,
you're going to want to hire them to come in
and do it. They can do everything like we're talking about.
Maybe irrigation needs some work. Maybe you would like landscape
lighting that's nice, just not for beauty, but also for
safety around the house. You don't want dark areas where
someone can hide. Maybe you're looking to do a stone walkway,

(51:01):
or maybe you're wanting to create a gorgeous patio. Oh,
go to the website peerscapes dot com. Look at the
work they can do. It is amazing what they can do.
Maybe got an area that is low and when it
rains a lot, it just doesn't drain well and plant
roots submerged in water. There are very few plants that
can live in that kind of condition. Plants want good drainage.

(51:22):
By and large piercescapes can fix that area and make
it good drainage. They also do a quarterly service. So
let's say you want to keep your beds looking good,
but you don't have time to get out there and
do all that. They'll come by once a quarter. They
will pull the weeds if they're any. They'll replenish the
multch They will make sure and replace if you depending

(51:43):
on their arrangements you set up with them. They can
replace flowers seasonally so it always looks good. You know
when it's time. We're in summer now, but here comes
the cool season this fall. It's time to put in
the fall flowers. That's what I'm talking about, that kind
of transition. Make sure your irrigation is working well. They
check that. It's all part of their quarterly service. Give
them a call to eight one three seven oh fifty

(52:04):
sixty two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty and
they can get you all set up at Peerscapes extra extra,
unbelievably good work in the summertime. I always hate it
when my electric bill goes up in water does to

(52:27):
you know, because we're using more of those and you
can't stop the fact that it's one hundred degrees outside,
but you can stop the fact that you can't get
your house to cool down because your air conditioner can't
keep up, or that it's running all the time trying
to keep up, and you're paying like tons of money
every month trying to keep up with the cool, nice,
comfortable Liverpool area inside your home. Arctic Insulation Solutions, Arctic

(52:52):
Insulation Solutions. Let me give you the website first, Arctichuston
dot com and Arctic for those of you like me
that always forget, there's two a rc TIC Arctic Houston
dot com. That's the website. Go check them out. They
can do anything needed to make your house more livable
and save on your bills. That would include things like

(53:14):
fiberglass insulation. That would include things like radiant barrier in
the roof for attic fans they have. They are specialists
and doing the whole nine yards. You just have to
give them a call eight three to two, five, eight six,
twenty eight ninety three, have them come out, have to
take a look, make an assessment, and they'll tell you
here's the things we think you could do to help.

(53:35):
And you know it's not like you have to buy
this whole package. It's like, well you can go, well,
I can afford that much of it. I can't, you know,
I can't do the whole nine yard. That's okay. They
can help you take it step by step to save
you a little more money, a little more money, a
little more money, whatever you need done. They cover from
Berkshire to Baytown and from up in Willistown to Galveston.

(53:56):
Arctic Insulation Solutions eight three, two, five, eight six, twenty
eight ninety three. Let's go out to Pasadena now and
we're going to talk to Frida. Hello, Frida, welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 9 (54:10):
Thank you Skip. I was just wondering. I talked to
you a week or so ago about what I thought
was brown petch on my little yard in the back,
and you indicated that it might be root rot or something.
And I sent you an email with some pictures. I
was wondering if you'd received them. I had a chance
to look at.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
You if I received them. I did look at them.
I don't. Oh, there we go, hang on just oh.
I replied to you, Frida, you should have gotten an
email from me on Thursday at five twenty one. Yeah.
Do you want me to resnd that?

Speaker 12 (54:53):
Yeah, bottom line on your line, your pardon?

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Yeah, Your your photos were excellent, by the your photos
are excellent, by the way, very helpful and diagnosing. Uh so, Uh,
I'm ninety five percent sure it's take all root rot
causing that yellowing grass, making it turn brown then after
turning yellow.

Speaker 7 (55:11):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
And what I did is I attached to my brand
new publication which hadn't even made it online yet.

Speaker 13 (55:17):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
And I'm gonna let me resend this, okay.

Speaker 9 (55:21):
To miss zero four at gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Hang on one second. Yeah, I like that. I like
the miss. I like the Mississippi. Yeah, that's that's a
good email. Yeah, I did. I'm gonna tall what heron do.
I'm gonna forward it to you that way, it'll have
uh everything.

Speaker 7 (55:43):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
And I'll send it here in just a second. But yeah,
it's take All root Rot. And I'll put a new
publication together that it will be online hopefully really early
this week. My web guy's back in town now. But
I'm gonna it explains take all root rot, And there's
annumber of options, and chances are you're not going to
do all of the options, but they all help. And

(56:08):
it's not going to be an easy disease to control.
It's hard to stop it and turn it around. But
everything I know to do about it. To get your
lawn turned around, make a U turn and head back
to good health is in that publication.

Speaker 9 (56:21):
Okay, okay, all right, I'll be looking for your email.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Alright.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Well, I'm glad you followed up with a call, because
it took me a while to reply to your original one.
And so I'm glad that now you'll take a look
back again and hopefully we'll get you on the right track.
But thank you. I appreciate your calling.

Speaker 8 (56:40):
By bye, you bet bye bye.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
All right, Oh gosh, we're coming up close to a
break here in just a second. I was visiting with
some of the folks at Nelson a while back, and
you know, Nelson has so many good fertilizers, so many
good products, so many things that just they work, they
absolutely work. And Nelson Bruce's Brew is a fertilizer that's
very interesting. You know, we got our fast releases and

(57:07):
then we got our very slow releases. You know, Nelson
has slow and easy, extremely slow release fertilizer over time.
Bruce Is Brew gives you some fertilizer now and the
perfect ratio of nutrients, but then it gradually releases over time. Also,
so it's kind of a hybrid between the two, if
you want to think of it that way. Bruce is
Bruce part of the turf store line from Nelson plant Food.

(57:28):
You're gonna find it all over the area, a lot
of these places, garden centers and ace hardware stores and whatnot.
Southwest Fertilizer, you're gonna find Bruce's brew. You need to
try it now it it'd be a good one to
use right now. Get you ready for that fall fertilization
in a few months. We'll be right back. All right, folks,
we're back. Hey, you got a gardening question, I got

(57:50):
a gardening answer. Seven one three two one two k
t r H seven one three two one two k
t r H. Wild Bird's Unlimited is the place. You
hear me talk about them all the time because I
love going into those places and they have good stuff.
They really do top quality feed, all kinds of feed.
It's not like you buy a bag and it's called

(58:11):
bird seed and that so it's supposed to feed every bird.
They have specialty blends for different kinds of bird for
different times of the year, you know, when they're nesting
or when they're molting and things, and there's just they
just know what they're doing. They're experts when it comes
to it. They're six stores near you all around the
Houston area. There. We got a store in Clare Lake,

(58:31):
we got a store in Cyprus. We got a store
in Houston on the southwest side, one in Houston on
the west side. We've got one in Kingwood, Texas. And
we got one in Paarland, Texas. So here's what you do.
You go to this website. WBU stands for Wildberds Unlimited,
WBU dot com. Forward Slash Houston. Yeah, that's here, Houston.

(58:54):
Wb dot com forvard Slash Houston. Go check them out,
find the store near you and see what's going on.
I'll tell you one thing that's going on right now.
It's hummingbirds. Hummingbird You need to be getting those feeders
ready to go. If you don't own one, go to
Wildbirds and give one. My favorite one from Wildbirds is
the high Perch hummingbird feeder. I like it because you
can see all the birds all the way around it.

(59:16):
It's a little flat disc where the birds land and
you can see them, and it's just really easy to do.
While you're there, Now you can buy a blend that
has sugar in it and also has the preservative in it.
But there is a product that is it's a nectar
addition product that allows it to go instead of like,

(59:38):
you know, it's one hundred degrees outside and like in
three days, that's going bad. And if you don't believe me,
I was talking to Rich Eaty from Wildbirds Unlimited up
in the Cypress area yesterday. He was at the Oba
event that we were at, speaking by the way, and
you know, he made a point and it's like, this
is a good way to put it. Take you a

(01:00:00):
nice glass of sweet iced tea and enjoy it for
a little bit, and then set it outside. Two days later,
come back and take a swig of that tea. Is
that what? That's what a hummingbird experiences when you leave
sugar water out. Really, it takes about three days is
about all it'll go before it starts getting kind of bad.
And with this extender you get like, oh, I don't know,

(01:00:22):
ten days or so out of it. It's a really
really good deal. But anyway, so whatever you go after,
it's called nectar defender. I believe it's a proper name
for it. But anyway, get ready for the hummingbirds time
to get those things out so when they arrive they
find your place. And I have found that it takes
a little while. You know, each year the word gets

(01:00:43):
out more, you pick up more hummingbirds. They know where
your feeder are, especially they have more than one feeder.
But when you look at the map and on wild
Bird's Unlimited web page, there's a map of the hummingbird
range that they're in, and it's all the Eastern US,
basically eastern US, but if you look down, it comes
down and cuts into the eastern third of Texas. And

(01:01:05):
so we are fortunate here and even down the coast.
As you go down the coast, you know, toward the
tip of Texas, that's hummingbird country and the ruby throated
hummingbirds come through there, and they are coming. They're on
their way if you will just get ready for them.
Have that feeder so when they come in and you
know they're traveling thousand miles, make sure that when they

(01:01:29):
show up at your property there's something there and they
don't go on looking for, you know, feed somewhere else. Now,
another thing you can do, and I don't talk about
this a lot, but another thing you can do is
plant your garden to attract hummingbirds. Things that have tubular flowers,
and especially red flowers, seem to be especially attractive to them.

(01:01:52):
Now that's a generic statement. There's exceptions to every rule,
but in general you'll find that they are very attractive.
They love Turk's cap. That's an native plant that does
very well here. Zach Buchanan and I talked about it
when we're discussing native plants the other day. Turks cap
is a really popular one with the hummingbirds. I have
found that they also like Salvia garnitica. Now that's the salvia.

(01:02:16):
It makes a larger bush, but it has purple or
bluish colored flowers on it, long tubularents. But they like
that they didn't have to be read for a hummingbird.
They like that one very much. There are many other
plants that they like. Kufia, the David verity Kufia. It's
sometimes called firecracker plants, got little skinny long they're one

(01:02:36):
inch long, but they're really really skinny, and hummingbirds love that.
I got a picture of a hummingbird on that plant.
And there are many many others, so I can't name
all the hummingbird plants here today. But they're there and
all you'd have to do is go online to a
search and find a list. But why not this fall
when it's a perfect time to plant all kinds of things.

(01:02:58):
You're not going to have a better time. I mean,
you plant today if you want, If you take care
of it, it'll live and it'll be fine. But if
all is coming, get those beds ready and one at
this year, pick out three or four, maybe five plants
that you really like that attract hummingbirds. They're pretty and
they attract hummingbirds and put them in your landscape and
then you watch. Yes, you'll have feeders, but you will

(01:03:19):
also have hummingbirds in your landscape. And that's a natural way,
you know. They I mean they love to go to
plants and things, and so stop. Buy wild birds unlimited.
Make sure you get a good feeder, get the products
that you need there for them. And while you're there,
you're going to see a lot of other birds, and
you can ask them any kind of questions. I mean
I asked Ritch the other da, I go, hey, so

(01:03:40):
are hummingbirds here? Yet? You know when are they arriving?
And stuff? They know all that stuff they keep track
of all that stuff. All right, let's it out to
Kingwood and talk to Joe. Hey, Joe, welcome to Guardenline.

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
Thanks Skip, good morning. I had a couple of the
questions regarding fertilizing shrubs for Mexican fire bush. What is
the best fertilizer to use on it? And when should
I apply it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
Okay, there's not a specific best on fire bush. I
actually have just used lawn fertilizer on them before. That's
going to stimulate the growth on them. But the blooms
are all on the ends of the shoots. As they grow.
On a fire bush, you could use more of a
balanced fertilizer, you know, that had more of all three

(01:04:31):
of the different ingredients than just primarily the nitrogen, and
they would do fine with that. I found that they
don't take a lot of fertilizer. Now, if you've got
a poor soil or something. Yeah, there's definitely times when
they're struggling because they need nutrients. But it's not the
kind of plant that you just have to, you know,
just fertilize a lot to get it to grow. It's
a pretty good tough plant. Main thing is give them

(01:04:54):
adequate water, don't let them dry out. They don't like
drying out.

Speaker 5 (01:04:59):
Excellent. I that's a good leadium to My second question
is I've got some leftover ncrofost superturf. What all are
the shrubs and plants I can use it on?

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Uh, superturf. I have to tell you this. I mean,
I can appreciate all the fertilizers that are designed for
specific groups of plants, and there are times when you
want a really high phosphorus fertilizer or something like that,
and that's helpful. But I use one type fertilizers for
a lot of different things, you know, And if I
need to go a little different direction, you know, I

(01:05:35):
can bring in something more phosphorus or potassium, or maybe
added magnesium or something. But you could put superturf on
pretty much anything that needs a boost of growth over
a longer period of time. If you want to gradually
feed it, that would be perfectly fine to do that.
Just to follow the label, you're only going to use
with the super turf, You're only going to apply about
five pounds per thousand square feet, which would mean about

(01:05:58):
a cup per ten by ten area, and that'll be
adequate for the superturf. It won't you know, you put
more at slow release. It's it's okay, but about a
cup forever ten by ten area when you're doing it
in landscape beds.

Speaker 5 (01:06:13):
Great an any dude, because it's any dues or don't
with the super turf or it can use it unversally
as versus any shrubber plant.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Yeah, you can use it on anything. It's just if
something is wanting more phosphorus and there's not phosphorus in
your soil, then you would definitely need something different. But
just to give things a gradual boost of nitrogen over time.
Even flowers that you know we put phosphors on because
it's it's needed for rooting and flowering and stuff, they
still need vigor because they've got to grow and have

(01:06:45):
leaves in order to capture the sun, make carbohydrates and
make flowers. So yeah, I hope that clarifies it for you.

Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
Appreciate the open again, Skip.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Hey, Joe and King. Thanks a lot. By the way,
you've got a great wildbird store out there. I love
to go to that one.

Speaker 7 (01:07:04):
That's a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Yes, all right, sir, you take care bye bye, all right,
time for me take quick break we're coming back. We
got one more segment and then I'm gonna have angela
Chandler from the Gardening Academy come in and we are
gonna spend a good while just talking about all kinds
of topics that you are gonna want to hear. You're

(01:07:25):
definitely gonna want to hear. And it's just another chance
for you to pick somebody else's brain here on Garden Line.
So hang around for the starting at eight o'clock, we're
gonna have Angel and don't go away. I'll be right
back for our last segment. There we go, There we go. Hey,
welcome back to guard Line. Folks. Got a little bit

(01:07:46):
of time left here in this segment. If you'd like
to get me a call, Probably have time for a
call here seven to one three two one two k
t R H or fifty eight seventy four if you'd
rather not hunt for the letters fifty eight to seventy four.
Southwest Fertilizer has been a Houston lawn and garden tradition
for seventy years now. In fact, they celebrating this year
they're seventieth anniversary. Now, you don't last seventy years as

(01:08:08):
a business unless you're taking care of your customers and
making them happy, and Southwest does that and they do
it by number of ways. Number one, this selection is unbelievable,
not better than any place I've ever seen. They have
everything if you're looking for quality tools. For example, ninety
foot wall of tools with brands like Corona or other.
Another good one it's Falco, and there are many others

(01:08:30):
that they have there. One of my favorite tools is
a soil knife, and they've got more than one kind
of soil knife that they have there. They've got the
kneeling bench, then other cool tool. I don't know if
you call it a tool, but it is for me.
It keeps me from waking up in the pre natal
position the next day because I have gotten up and
down off my knee so many times that yeah, wake

(01:08:52):
up curled up in a ball from soreness. They've got
that there. Southwest Fertilizer is also a place where you
get friendly service and helpful and knowledgeable service. You bring
a sample in, you bring a photo in there, and
you show it, show it to Bob, a owner or
Aaron for example, or they really they have a number

(01:09:13):
of people there. They're very very well versed they know
what they're talking about. They'll take a look, they'll tell
you what it is, and then if something is needed,
they'll tell you which product's going to work best, or
if you've got several options, what your options are. That's
why I've been around for seventy years. That kind of service,
great products, quality products, unbelievable selection and good, friendly, knowledgeable service.

(01:09:36):
Corner Bisonette and Renwick in Southwest Houston. If you've never
been there, to drive over there sometime, either make a
special trip, or next time you're heading around that part
of town, just stop in. Corner Bissinet and Renwick, Southwest Houston.
Southwest Fertilizer dot Com. We're going to go now to
talk to Lloyd. Hello, Lloyd, welcome to the garden line. Hey,

(01:09:57):
tell me where you're calling from.

Speaker 12 (01:10:00):
Intent takes.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Pennington? Where is Pennington?

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Something south of the truck.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
Oh okay, well good. Are you listening on the radio.
I'm just curious are you listening? Okay? Are you listening
on the radio up there or are you listening online?

Speaker 14 (01:10:20):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
I'm listening on the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
Right. Good.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
I always like to see how well good? Glad to
hear that? All right, sir? Well enough of all that,
How can I help you today?

Speaker 12 (01:10:32):
Okay, I was wondering about to sew a pH or
purple hal fees.

Speaker 1 (01:10:38):
Okay, they like it on a slightly acidic side. If
you can be around six to six point five, that's great.
You can go up as high as seven or I've
seen them grow at seven point five. But they get
a little unhappy when that pH give gets a little
above neutral, So keep them kind of in the neutral
to slightly lower than newatral range. Or do you got

(01:11:02):
a sandy loam soil you're growing in?

Speaker 12 (01:11:04):
Men? So?

Speaker 7 (01:11:09):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
Posting?

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
Okay, all righty uh now you're making my mouthwater. Lloyd,
I'm sorry we're talking over each other. Ask me one
more times. Green, oh, turn of greens? Okay, Uh, greens
in general are going to be tolerant of a pretty
good range, uh, not real particular on those. So you know,

(01:11:36):
if gardening in general is happy, then greens are going
to be happy in those ranges. But hey, the go
ahead that that purple hall. Purple hall makes my mouth
water because years ago I spent a summer in rust
and Louisiana, and I'm telling you you could go buy

(01:11:58):
them on the road side there that people have shellers
and they were shelling them for Oh my gosh. I
know a very few vegetables where it makes so much
difference whether you get them fresh or canned. As a
purple hole pee, I mean, there's no nothing like a
fresh purple hole pee that in a.

Speaker 12 (01:12:17):
Pan of corn bread.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
Does it works? Wonders? I think I could hang out
with you, say, you know, a kid with people on
garden line saying my advice is free, but you just
have to send me half of the produce. I think
that would be a winner on purple hold peas. I'm

(01:12:39):
happy you're up there. That's a well, you know, purple hop.
All right, good, well, you know it's getting a little late,
isn't it, first to September. You're gonna be cooling off there.
I don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:12:55):
Yeah, I'm gonna try.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
You see how they did?

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
All right? Good? Good? Well they can take the heat.

Speaker 7 (01:13:02):
I know that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
I appreciate, I appreciate. I appreciate your call. Yes, sir,
thank you a lot. You have fun up there in
the Crackett area in Pennington. You take your Yeah, I
get all. You know there there are very few foods
that like just make my mouth water, and that I

(01:13:25):
would just get neurotic about. As far as vegetables are concerned,
purple hole peas is definitely one of them.

Speaker 7 (01:13:30):
O'k.

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
A good sweet corn, fresh sweet corn that's been picked,
Oh my gosh, picked and run inside. I always jokingly say,
you got to get the water boiling before you go
out in the garden and pick your sweet corn, so
when you come in, you drop it right in the
water and it's that fresh. That's a little exaggeration, but
oh my gosh, those kinds of things, you just can't
beat them, you know. Now, I can't promise you that

(01:13:51):
a radish tastes better out of your garden than out
of the store. It probably does, but it you know,
things like black eyed peas, purple hole peas, sweet corn, tomato.
I love tomatoes fresh out of the garden anyway, by
making your mouth water. Fall is one of the best
gardening seasons of the year. It is it is you
take things like you plant, like right now, you plant

(01:14:13):
let's say green beans, bush beans, and they ripen. It
can be a forty five days from now, so it'll
be we'll be getting into later September. Maybe you can
plant them a little bit later than now, actually, but
when they ripen and the nights are cooling off a
little bit, I'm telling you it is. It is a
better quality crop than you get in the spring when
they ripen, when the weather's heating up.

Speaker 15 (01:14:34):
It just is.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
You know, it doesn't mean don't grow them in the spring.
It just means fall, fall, fall, And when we get
into September, it's time to be planting broccoli and cauliflower
and all the blue leafed vegetables, the coal crops. We
also call them cruciferous vegetables because the blooms. Oooh, there's
a quiz for you. Why do we call cruciferus vegetables cruciferous?
By the way, By the way, cruciferous refers to cross shape.

(01:15:00):
It's like a crucifix, rucipherous. The reason is the blooms
have four little petals that make an X, that make
a cross. That's right now, You know, you can be
the cliff Claven of your neighborhood and go around spouting
horticultural gardening advice and fun facts you can think of
me to be all right, we're gonna take a little

(01:15:20):
break here. When we come back we're gonna have Angelau
Chandler with us from the Gardening Academy, and we're gonna
be talking about all kinds of things. We're gonna be
talking about some tips for fall gardening, how to get
your garden ready for that, some of our favorite tools
for gardening, tips for managing pasts. Oh my gosh, it's
gonna be great. Get your calls ready. You can give

(01:15:42):
us a call and pick both of our brains. See
in just a bit. Starting in Well, folks, welcome back,

(01:16:04):
Welcome back to garden Line. We got a special hour
coming up here with Angela Chambler from the Gardening Academy.
Angela has agreed to come on this morning and visit
about all kinds of things. I got lists of stuff.
I've been looking forward to this this for a long time. Actually,

(01:16:27):
I have Angela on to kind of pick her brain
talk about a lot of different things related to gardening.
You're going to find her, I know you will a
wealth of information. Let's go out to the phones and
get Angela on with us right now. Hey, Angela, are
you there?

Speaker 16 (01:16:43):
I am.

Speaker 12 (01:16:43):
Good morning, Skip. It's good to hear from you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
Well, good morning, Yeah, good to talk to you.

Speaker 5 (01:16:49):
Too.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Thanks, thanks for coming on. I appreciate you taking time
this Sunday morning out. I just want to talk about
all kinds of things gardening. Would that be okay?

Speaker 12 (01:16:59):
That sounds good.

Speaker 7 (01:16:59):
Meat.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
It's my favorite, it is, isn't it. I know I'm
a one trick pony when it comes to what do
you want to talk about? You've been doing this. You've
been doing this a long time here in the in
the Greater Houston area, and you know that the experiences
and the things you've learned as you go along.

Speaker 7 (01:17:19):
I know this.

Speaker 1 (01:17:21):
I every day I learned something new. I just do
and I tried to at least I'll go hunting it
down if it doesn't find me. But I may be
just wandering through my garden and I noticed something that
I never noticed before. It's like, how did I miss
that all this time?

Speaker 12 (01:17:37):
Well, I think that's actually one of the joys of gardening. Oh,
I'm sorry. I think that's one of the actual joys
of gardening, is the fact that we have that opportunity
to learn something new all the time. The garden teaches
us to be their gardeners. I just I just think
that's one of the best things about it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:58):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
It absolutely is. And there are a couple of things
about gardening that I really especially enjoying. One of them
is that that it is a constant learning. Gardening keeps
you young, it really does. And it's a thing where
hope is always on the front burner.

Speaker 7 (01:18:16):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
You you buy a package of seeds and you look
inside and it's this little pilo to trite us, It's like,
what the heck? And to know that you can put
one of those little scrawny flat things in the ground
and a tomato is going to come up and you're
going to get to eat tomatoes. That isn't a that's
a miracle. And just the hope. You know, my you know,

(01:18:40):
my best garden that I have ever had is the
one I'm gonna grow next. It really is, because I
just believe each year it's like you have that hope
and you know it's going to be good, and that
that just makes it a fun a fun thing. But anyway,
we're kind of going philosophical here. I need to get
our hands in the dirt and talk about some real

(01:19:00):
stuff here. So right now we're dealing with, you know,
the typical summer heat. Although I will have to say,
as far as summers go, this one has not felt
too bad to me compared to what we have experienced.
But when we're dealing with stress and things like that,
you know, it's hot, the soil moisture is often lacking

(01:19:20):
because number one, it's evaporating more, it's transpiring more from
the plants, and it's not raining quite as much. That's
a stressful time. And yet it's time to be thinking
about a fall garden right now. So do you have
any thoughts or tips for planting and the stress of
the heat and the lack of soil moisture First of all,
any thoughts about that? What do you do?

Speaker 9 (01:19:43):
Well?

Speaker 12 (01:19:43):
There are some things you can do for your soil
that will help you with that, and now is a
good time to do them, even though it's hot for
us out there, because it will prepare your soil to
be able to, you know, be ready for the fall
gardens when the plants are ready.

Speaker 6 (01:19:59):
To go in.

Speaker 12 (01:20:00):
So, you know, there are some things that you can
can add into your soil that help with moisture control.
One of them, of course, would be composts, which kind
of gives your soil a more spongy, you know texture,
another would be expanded shale because expanded shale absorbs about
thirty eight percent of its weight in water when we

(01:20:22):
are either irrigating or when we have natural rainfall. So
adding those things into your soil, you know, well before
you plant, to sort of let everything settle and let
the microbes all get happy again is a really good
strategy for getting your soil ready. And then as far
as preparing, the major thing we need to do to
prepare for the fall garden is think about the fact

(01:20:44):
that the middle of August is the perfect time to
start so many of our seeds for fall planting so
that they can go in, you know, depending on if
they need about six to eight weeks to get to
transplant size. That's just the perfect timing for your September
and into October planting. So and there's so many things

(01:21:07):
that you can get ready for, you know, whether you're
a vegetable gardener or whether you like to plant annuals
for fall bloom, that's just the very perfect time to
get started.

Speaker 1 (01:21:18):
That's that is a good point, I know, you know,
Beverly at our harbor Gate. I like the fact that
two of those new products or two of the products
that they have in their completely easy system or the
soil complete and the compost complete, and both of those
have expanded shale in them mixed in and clay soil
compost go ahead.

Speaker 12 (01:21:39):
No, goat, you go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:21:42):
When we're dealing with expanded play with clay soils, compost
is important. With sandy soils, compost is important. I mean,
it's it's a wonder drug for the soil. But compost
breaks down. And that's why, you know, I talk to
listeners all the time, and you know, they had a
pot on the patio and it was full of soil
when they planted it, and now it's half full of soil,

(01:22:03):
and that soil is just oxidized or composted away, and
so the compost goes away, which is actually a good thing.
It's what nature does. But the expanded shale sticks around
and it helps that clay soil continue to be kept
open if you put enough of it in there.

Speaker 6 (01:22:23):
Well.

Speaker 12 (01:22:23):
And you know, we know that you know soil When
we say the word soil, you know it's a combination
of a great many things that plants need. But by
the same token, you know, the grit factor of soil
is very important because it does allow us to have
good poor spaces so that we have adequate drainage, we
have good oxygen to get down to the roots. And

(01:22:47):
as you mentioned, compost does decompose, especially in this sort
of you know, semi tropical climate, it can decompose quickly.
So the combination of two of those worked into that
clay soil really does good soil over time.

Speaker 1 (01:23:03):
It really does. And you know, when we're doing an
flower bed or a vegetable garden, typically we're looking at
annual a lot of annual plants in that. And you
can rework the soil and continue to mix in some
compost and do those things. When you're looking at a
rose bed, you don't dig your rose up every year
to rework the soil. And they did a study up

(01:23:23):
at A and M. Dallas where they looked at expanded
shale and the soil of their earth kind roses. And
I don't want to go too far off topic here,
but the earth kind roses basically are selected because they
are You plant them and forget them pretty much. They
mix compost and expanded shale and the soil. A lot
of expended sheal like three inches in the clay soil

(01:23:45):
up in Dallas, which is kind of like our Houston
black clay, and then they get them watered the first year,
get them going, and then they just water them as
kind of a rescue treatment from there on. They don't
spray them or anything, and they either survive and look
good or they don't, and that's how they pick them out.
But that expanded shale just works wonders because those roses
are going to be there for decades and the expanded

(01:24:06):
shale to last longer like it does is a really
big benefit. So yeah, I'm big on the expanded jail,
especially especially for clay.

Speaker 12 (01:24:16):
Yeah, I'm a big fan of it, and it can
be used for several other things too. I like it
as a top coat on succulents that I have planted outside.
It kind of stabilizes the soil for them access as
a rock mult when you get it moist, you can
tell that your soil is moist. So it kind of

(01:24:37):
deters the squirrels from digging around in my pots and
planting their lovely little oak trees. And took con seedlings
for me.

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
So there you go in the garden.

Speaker 12 (01:24:48):
It's a great top coat.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
That's good. Hey, I'm up against a hard break. Let's
take a break real quick. We'll come back with Angela
Chandler and your calls. We will take calls kind of
pretty much any kind of topic, and we kind of
focus on tips for planting and pest control and getting
ready for fall gardening. Those would especially be hot topics
for you to call in and ask about. Right now,

(01:25:11):
We'll be right back, folks. Alrighty, well, welcome back to
garden Line. I am visiting with Angela channeler from the
Gardening Academy and a garden Academy, and we're talking about
all kinds of things related to fall gardening. So feel
free to give me a call seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. And uh, let's see

(01:25:33):
if I get my producer there to bring both Angela
and our color online. We are going to head out
to Fairfield and talk to Marty this morning. Hey Marty,
do you have a question.

Speaker 17 (01:25:45):
Good morning, Yes, Hi, Angela, good morning. I I have
all my okra are just starting to pop and they
are in my garden, and I'm wondering if I should
go ahead and start planting my fall garden like undershade.

Speaker 12 (01:26:06):
I think that's what you call it.

Speaker 14 (01:26:07):
Undershade and get them started in this heat. Would that
be a good idea? Or should I wait until the
okra are finished?

Speaker 12 (01:26:17):
You're talking about planning in an understory under your okra
plants understory.

Speaker 14 (01:26:21):
Thank you? Yes, understory?

Speaker 12 (01:26:23):
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, that's absolutely fine. In fact, that's
a very good strategy there are you know, you have
a lot of room underneath the opa. The stems are
tall and kind of out of your way. It's a
very good practice to sort of defoliate as you go
up the stalk of okra, so you can remove that
last layer of leaves and provide just enough shade to

(01:26:47):
sort of temper the soil somewhat. But it's that you
can absolutely enterplant into your okra right now.

Speaker 14 (01:26:55):
Okay, good, because I have some lettuce that actually survive
under by okra plants all through this summer. It's crazy.

Speaker 12 (01:27:04):
But wow, yeah, yeah, I know. I know you tasted
it because it could be a little bitter this time
of year.

Speaker 17 (01:27:14):
Well yeah, I throw it in with rugar lettuce and
arugula and stuff like that, so I really don't taste
a bitter nephew.

Speaker 12 (01:27:24):
But yeah, that's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:27:26):
If you pick, if you pick better, lettuce. You don't
have to add a regular I mean, you don't have
to add ridicio. Go ahead. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

Speaker 15 (01:27:39):
No, no, that's true.

Speaker 14 (01:27:41):
What can I go ahead and start planning underneath understory
of the okra right now?

Speaker 15 (01:27:46):
Then?

Speaker 12 (01:27:47):
Yes, you sure can. It's called interplanting, and you can
plan in that just fine. And then when it is
time for your okra to be finished, and if you
still have a crop underneath it, just cut the okra
stalks off. Don't try to pull them up because that
will disturb the roots of whatever else you have in there.
So you know, they can be kind of woody anyway,
so sometimes it's a good time to cut them off

(01:28:09):
and allow them to sort of decay naturally for a
little while. Okay, and what plants can I go ahead
and start now?

Speaker 15 (01:28:15):
Broccoli?

Speaker 8 (01:28:16):
Uh uh?

Speaker 15 (01:28:18):
With cabbage?

Speaker 12 (01:28:20):
Yeah, the soil is a little warm to direct sow
those things right now, but you can certainly start those
things any you know, anytime starting about mid August. You
can start those things indoors as seedlings. But the soil
is a little warm now, and so some of those
plants the tendency to not germinate. The seeds won't germinate

(01:28:41):
if the soil is too warm. So I would recommend
if you if you really want those you know that
group of you know, your your broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage kales,
your mustard greens, things like that, I would I would
wait until the first of September, or at least wait
until the soil starts cooling off a little litle bit.
And you know, for a vegetable gardeners in the Houston

(01:29:03):
area in particular, a soil thermometer is a very good investment.
They're not terribly expensive, and they can really be a
very good guide for you as to when you can
go ahead and plant seeds outside. And there are lots
of great germanation charts online that will tell you what
the good temperature range is for germination.

Speaker 14 (01:29:23):
Oh awesome, okay, great, Well, I have lots of seeds
and mar Yeah, and I didn't know there was a
soil thermometer.

Speaker 6 (01:29:29):
I have a p H.

Speaker 18 (01:29:32):
Reader, but that's yeah, no, get it.

Speaker 12 (01:29:35):
They're not expensive and it's a very good tool for
Houston gardeners because our soil temperature both spring and fall
is one of the keys to deciding when to plant.

Speaker 1 (01:29:45):
Interesting.

Speaker 14 (01:29:46):
Okay, all right, great, yeah, yes.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
Yes, Well before you go, Marty, I would I would
encourage you to start cutting those okra leaves off at
the bottom. You know, they get old and dry up
anyway down down the stem. But keep working your way up.
The okra will be okay, reducing the leaf area, it'll be.
It'll keep going because you can really brighten that shade
a lot by cleaning that out, and some of our crops,

(01:30:12):
like we could be planning cucumbers, we can be planning
summer squashuh And with the okra cooling the soil by
shading it, preventing it from getting so hot, you'll get
a little bit better germination too, and you get that
head start. So I think that's a great idea.

Speaker 14 (01:30:27):
Okay, awesome, Well thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:30:29):
It's the way to go, then.

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
It's not a bad idea. Yeah, yeah, I like that idea. Well,
all right, thank you, you bet. You take care Angela.
So there's a lot of good information and ideas there
on that. One of the things that I do and
planting for the fall garden is it always seems like

(01:30:53):
I'm needing to plant a cool season crop. When it's
too warm for the cool season crop. You know what,
I'm so uh. Having having a little bit of a
shade like that to help it get established is very helpful. Also,
making sure to keep the ground a little bit more,
making sure to maintain the moisture because it dries out

(01:31:14):
so fast, especially if you're planning seed. If they dry
out after they've started to germinate, they're they're going to
die and not recover from it. Even with things like
broccoli that we're going to be putting in in September,
a little bit of shade over the top of the
road doesn't hurt anything to help it get get.

Speaker 12 (01:31:33):
Established, hurt anything, especially since you know, we still have
a lot of warm temperatures going into September and they
really like to stay in that cool range, So having
that little bit of shade doesn't help it. It's a
high you know, if you if you interplant with okrah,
that's a relatively high shade, you're not going to have

(01:31:54):
any interference. You'll still have plenty photosynthesis for your broccolay
to get started.

Speaker 1 (01:32:01):
That is that is true? Well, those are all those
are all good tips. I'd like to ask you a
couple of questions. I mentioned that I learned something every day,
and I do. I go out and seek things to learn,
but I also just run across things that that's like, well,
I have heard that one before or seen it. What
are some things that you've learned from your garden in

(01:32:22):
the past year or two that kind of come to
mind as far as maybe it's not like you never
knew it before, but you're kind of re realizing it
if you know what I'm talking about, or maybe it
is just something you've tried that you haven't tried before.

Speaker 12 (01:32:39):
Yeah, it kind of really goes with the callers question,
and that's about timing of things. I think my timing
gets a little bit better every year, you know, taking
time to plan ahead so that I'm sure I have
transplants ready for the next season. But you know, one
of the biggest problems that Houston gardeners have right now
is squash find borr. It's a very frustrating little pest,

(01:33:03):
although it's quite pretty, and so I've over the last
couple of years, I've learned some additional strategies to combating
the squash fine borer, and one of them is the
timing I used to direct so most of my yellow squash,
which is one of the most susceptible to their issue.

(01:33:24):
And so now I am starting my squash indoors, which
I didn't really do until the last few years, getting
ready to plant it out, because if you can get
it out early, if you can, you know you have
you can choose from squash that have between forty five
and sixty five days to maturity. And the squashvine borer
arrives some time in April and then unfortunately is with

(01:33:47):
us until you know, we really get close to our
frost date. So getting that squash started early and getting
it out in the garden just as soon as I can, uh,
I think that that is one of the things that
helps get a good squash harvest in. And then I
have been toying with different things to try to protect

(01:34:09):
the stem itself, and I have found that there's I
don't know how to describe it, but it's a stretchy
tape that quite often they use in a clinic when
you have a blood test, they use this stretchy tape
you know, around the puncture area that, believe it or not,
is pretty good to wrap around the Because it's stretchy,

(01:34:29):
it doesn't you know, constraint or you know, put any
constraints on the planet itself.

Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
Yeah, and it kind of protects that lower part of Angela.

Speaker 7 (01:34:36):
Let me.

Speaker 1 (01:34:38):
H, yeah, let me cut in this a little bit.
I got about fifteen seconds, so we have to break.
But if you go to a place that sells that
supplies and you get something called that wrap, a lot
of feed scores will carry that. That is exactly what
you're talking about. We got to go to a break.
We'll be right back with Angela and your calls at
seven one three two one two kt r H. Welcome

(01:34:59):
back Lives. Good to have you back with us. We're
visiting with Angela Chandler this morning and talking about all
kinds of things, whatever the topic is on fall gardening.
You got a question, give me a call seven one
three two one two kt RH or fifty eight seventy
four if you don't like to hunt down the letters
as you look at the doll, I'm going to go

(01:35:21):
back here and bring Angela on. Angela. We were talking
about squash vine borr and that is one of the
topics that I just could drone on for days about
it because for a long time I have tried eight
hundred thousand different things readever resource report I could find,
but I ran across something that I had. I don't

(01:35:43):
know how I got through my gardening life without knowing this,
but about it's probably ten years ago. I ran across
an article from from some research at Cornell. It's been
done more than one place about parthen a carpeck squash,
and basically, basically, folks, what parth and a carpet is
that it can fruit without being pollinated. Now, we know

(01:36:04):
that you need bees to take pollen from the male
squash bloom to the female squash bloom, but there's some
varieties that's set quite well without that, and so one
of them, and it happens to be one of my
favorite yellow squash varieties, is multi pick. Now it does
about a forty percent fruit set in the trials I've
seen without they bag the flowers so bees can't get

(01:36:28):
to the flowers, and about forty percent of them were
able to set. Another one. Most of the ones that
are parthenocarpet or zucchinis, but a golden glory is a
golden colored zucchini. But there's one called nocee and och
and then there's some others. Dungeo is another one, but
I just found that really interesting. So you basically could

(01:36:48):
plant your squash, put a roe cover fabric over it
so no bees could get in, and still enjoy some harvest.
To avoid those vine bars, you just have to lift
it up to harvest them and put it back.

Speaker 12 (01:37:00):
You know, Insect netting is becoming more and more popular.
I know that I use it more and more in
my garden than I ever did before because it is
a perfect no chemical strategy for a vegetable garden. And
there are quite a few plants that we grow in
our gardens, especially with the fall gardening coming up, that
don't require depollination because we're not you know, we're not

(01:37:22):
dependent on the flour to produce the fruit. You know,
so when we get our leafy greens and cabbages and
things like that. In insect netting, it's light, it's easy
to put over plants, that doesn't damage your plants, and
it's just a great way to keep the insects from
attacking it in the first place.

Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
There you go, well, and I've used the netting. I've
actually used the row cover fabric. I'll grow them under
row cover until the first female blooms open. Typically with
squash you're going to get mail blooms opening first, and
then you've start to see mail blooms. And that's true
at cucumbers too. Uh but uh, I'll wait until then
and then pull it off so when the vine boards

(01:38:04):
find it lay an egg, the egg hatches, crawls down
and does enough damage to stop production. You at least
have a harvest season.

Speaker 3 (01:38:10):
Out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:11):
You mentioned the word netting though, that new stuff that's
truly netting. It's just like miniature window screen that's very
soft and pliable. That is really good stuff. I like
it better than the real cover fabric I.

Speaker 12 (01:38:24):
Do too well, And it's a little bit more friendly
as far as releasing some of that late summer you know,
early fall heat that we have. It's really good for
that where road cover occasionally can have a currency to
sort of keep that heat in, especially if we're if
it's moist.

Speaker 1 (01:38:40):
All right, but well we got to call it. Uh yeah,
let's uh uh. If I can get my producer to
bring on Katie in the woodlands here, we will have
Katie ask us a question on garden. Right there we go, Hey, Katie,
welcome to.

Speaker 12 (01:38:55):
Garden line herk skip I have.

Speaker 13 (01:39:00):
I thought I got rid of them, but I obviously didn't.
I have tomato hook worms or tomato hooked caterpillars that you.

Speaker 12 (01:39:07):
Know they can get into.

Speaker 13 (01:39:09):
They're huge and they're destrust and I can't. I'm organic
and I am a pollinator, so I have monarchs.

Speaker 12 (01:39:17):
And golf costilleries and all that.

Speaker 13 (01:39:19):
So I don't want to do anything broadcast for damage.
But what can I do for my tomatoes too?

Speaker 1 (01:39:27):
I understand. I understand that, Katie. And if you will
turn your radio down in the background and just listen
through the phone receiver, I'm going to have Angela's start
off and answer that for you.

Speaker 12 (01:39:37):
Okay, So honestly, especially because you are because you are
a butterfly gardener, you really can't resort to using BT,
which is the most common thing people use. So in
all truths, hand picking is the very best strategy that
you can use for the help. If you bet a person,

(01:39:58):
battery operat black lights and they blow in black light
in the evening, and so you'll go out, go out
after dark with that black light and just shine it
around your tomato plants that will glow. Put a pair
of gloves on. Because there isn't a factor to picking
them up, but parent pat them and just both of them.

(01:40:22):
Uh you know those of us who raise backyard chip
in to the kid. But you can put them in
a just lock bag and close that up and just
talking in fresh.

Speaker 1 (01:40:33):
All right, Katie, we're getting a lot of road noise
from you here. I don't know if you can do
something to prevent that, but it's cutting in with some
some background noise. Yeah, Angela's right, and yeah, there's a
There is a principle and i PM integraty past management
called importation of natural enemies. And that's been done before

(01:40:54):
where they bring in something that eats the pest. And
you can do that with tomato hornworms. By doing this,
invite one neighborhood child over to your house, pick a hornworm,
drop it on the sidewalk, and stomp it and it
squirts like a package of ketchup and McDonald's on the
floor and you don't even have to talk. Go back
in the house. Fifteen minutes later, look out the window

(01:41:16):
and all their friends will be there. They will have gathered.
And that's called the importation of natural enemies, and it
works really well.

Speaker 13 (01:41:24):
That's a good idea.

Speaker 12 (01:41:25):
I've got a couple of boys that.

Speaker 6 (01:41:26):
They just love to do.

Speaker 1 (01:41:27):
That there's stomping a hornworm.

Speaker 12 (01:41:33):
Yeah, learning from my grandmother. When I was a child,
we got paid a penny apiece to catch grasshoppers, and
you know, back in my day, a penny apiece was
a lot of fun to have.

Speaker 13 (01:41:43):
So the door I have those two. But grasshoppers have
been getting rid of some other nastic things, so I
don't worry about them as much of those horn RUMs,
right yep.

Speaker 12 (01:41:56):
And I will tell you though, that my favorite strategy
for for hornworms is completely different. I plant a what
I call it a sacrificial tomato bush somewhere off in
my garden, away from the vegetable gardens, and feed it.
And you know, when you feed a tomato, it produces
lots and lots of foliage and very few tomatoes. But

(01:42:17):
I do I know that the hornworms are going to
develop into the little hummingbird moth or hawk moth if
people call them, which is a very entertaining pollinator of
our night bloomers. So I will actually move a few
of them over to the sacrificial tomato plant and let
them complete their lifestyle. And I'm sure that that just

(01:42:38):
sends dedicated tomato growers into apoplexy. But they really are
very fun to watch in the garden when they do
as an adult. They love things like Group Montrea and
are not Blooming cat Guy and.

Speaker 15 (01:42:56):
They will.

Speaker 12 (01:42:56):
They're kind of a cute little creature to have.

Speaker 1 (01:43:01):
Hey, Katie, thank you, thank you for the call. You
bet we got to go to break here, Angela, We'll
be right back with Angela from the Garden Academy. If
you have not, well, let me say something about that
when I come back. All right, boy, I'm beare to
hear the music here it well, We're we are back

(01:43:23):
with Garden Line and with Angela Chandler from the Gardening Academy.
And I should have mentioned this right when we started
the show. You probably might recognize Angela's voice on the
radio because when Randy passed uh in order to keep
Garden Line going, Angela Chandler and Beverley from the Arbrigade

(01:43:47):
held the show together. They came on and answered gardening questions.
Michael Garfield, who has his own high tech Texan show,
he was kind of the control man for the whole show,
and they were the gardening experts. So Angela, I just
want to on behalf of a lot of people and myself.
Thank you and Beverly both for doing that. That was
an important service and y'all did a great job.

Speaker 12 (01:44:10):
Well, thank you so much. It was an absolute honor
to be there during that time. And like many people,
I still miss Randy.

Speaker 1 (01:44:18):
So yes, that's true. Absolutely. Well, well, thank you for that.
I keep talking about the Garden Academy. Would you like
to talk a little bit about it. I assume you're
still doing the Garden Academy. I know you have the
website up there.

Speaker 12 (01:44:35):
Yeah. Really, the Garden Academy is website and it kind
of grew out of my talks around town. I've been
teaching garden in the gardening in the Houston area for
just short of twenty five years, and I was often
asked questions during a class or in the Q and
a session after a class, and to thoroughly answer the question,

(01:44:58):
I would tell people, oh, gosh, uh, you'll give me
your email. I've got this great article on that and
uh subject.

Speaker 14 (01:45:05):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:45:06):
So it got a little cumbersome trying to do that
and get that back information back to people. So I
created the Garden Academy website, uh, where they can go
and download anything they want on a you know, we're
absolutely free. We don't sell anything, uh, And you can
download any of the articles and some it's a way
for me to get some of my class handouts out

(01:45:28):
to people so that they can print them and have
them in their library and study them when they wish.
But it's all local, you know, Upper Gulf Coast information.
It's really geared towards our climate and the challenges that
we have as gardeners here in the Houston area.

Speaker 1 (01:45:44):
And it is a.

Speaker 12 (01:45:44):
Challenge, yes it is.

Speaker 1 (01:45:48):
And it is an excellent website folks. And I'll try
to remember to mention it again before we're done today.
But it's the garden Academy dot com. That's where you
can get information from Angela. There's a lot of good
information on there if you want to do you know,
like crop rotations from different crops and growing in the
same spot. There's information on specific vegetables that you can

(01:46:09):
find tips for growing. Just a lot of good stuff
on there. But I didn't want to I get so
excited about talking about gardening, I forget to do all
that kind of housekeeping stuff that I definitely want to do.
All right, Angela, we have a guest, Greg from Pasadena,
and we'll get connected here with Greg and get him
in here with his question as well. Hey Greg, welcome

(01:46:34):
to guard Line. Yes, good morning.

Speaker 7 (01:46:37):
Skip sent your photos on my lawn yellow Wind and
got your email looking at it right now. And you
had indicated that as possible or take all root rods,
and oh god, I didn't want to do. That's slave
discress last probably not even eight months ago.

Speaker 4 (01:47:00):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:47:02):
So it's a new shad new not even a year
old sad.

Speaker 12 (01:47:13):
Well you have you have to remember that we've had
a particularly wet summer. Uh, and that's kind of hard
on a new lawn. And if you have root rod
issues that could have contributed to that.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
I see, I see.

Speaker 7 (01:47:30):
Okay, So I got an article Skip sent me uh
a link uh on information that I could possibly read
up on and undertake. So what uh what's the remedy
any quick remedies?

Speaker 12 (01:47:49):
Well, it depends on how how bad it is and
how you know what kind of shape your roots are
in at the time. When when you go out to
you you know, and I'm not familiar with the conversation
between you and skin, but when you go out to
your yard and you can you pull on this the turf.
Does it come loose easily or does it give you
resistance when you tug on it?

Speaker 7 (01:48:11):
Or do you know I have not attempted that, uh
to do that. It seems this chefs really recently started, probably.

Speaker 1 (01:48:21):
A couple of weeks, two or three weeks now.

Speaker 7 (01:48:24):
Yeah, and it's not very prevalent, but it seems to
and it just seems to be spreading, and that's what's
been concerning to me. But I will go out and
attempt to pull the grass in those areas well.

Speaker 12 (01:48:41):
That'll just give you an you know, that'll give you
an indication as to whether or not your roots are
still you know, whether whether or not the grass has
dyed to the extent that you're losing your root mass.
But really this is a good time of year to
do some foliar feeding before you start your actual fall

(01:49:02):
uh fertilizing schedule. And you know, SKIP has a schedule
online you can pick that up, and that's a really
good one to follow to maintain a healthy line. But
with this extra little bit of heat that we have
right now, I think, you know, I might lean towards
doing some some folios and then getting onto SKIP schedule

(01:49:22):
for the rest of the fall.

Speaker 1 (01:49:25):
All right, yes, ma'am, well, thank you very much. I
appreciate it. Thank you Ski.

Speaker 3 (01:50:35):
Starting and treat.

Speaker 1 (01:50:50):
All right, folks. Well, I'm half back. I can hear
the show and I can talk into my mic, but
I can't see any information for the callers or to
take calls. I'm I'm prettyer's going to help me here
in Angela. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to have you
help as well on this particular one. We just had
a complete powered off in the in the studio and

(01:51:12):
then came right back on again. But now I'm having
trouble getting some of the systems back up and running.
I understand we have a call from Beth. Is that correct?
If we can get Beth on the air, Hey, welcome
to guard Line. Beth.

Speaker 4 (01:51:29):
Okay, my question is I have a metal garden whatever
they call them that I'm going to try to grow
plants in. Okay, a garden and it's new and I'm
doing the I'm trying to do the layering in it.
And it's four feet wide about eight foot long.

Speaker 2 (01:51:49):
I've got cardboard in the bottom.

Speaker 4 (01:51:51):
It's sitting on pebbles. Can I use corn cobs instead
of wood for one layer or the beth.

Speaker 1 (01:52:00):
Well, I know that you're you're going to put soil
on top of the corn cobs. Is that what your
plan is?

Speaker 15 (01:52:05):
Yes?

Speaker 12 (01:52:06):
Yes, instead would I was going to use corn cobs.

Speaker 1 (01:52:10):
You could, but here's the thing. Even with wood, it's
going to decompose and that level is going to sink down,
So you're going to need to be adding more bed
mix on top of what you already have as that happens.
Corn cobs will probably decompose a lot faster than that,
So for a little while you would have the level
of soil you're wanting, but it's it's going to sink

(01:52:31):
down pretty quick. And the whole reason for putting things
like that done in the bottom, or you don't have
to purchase as much bed mix initially, you know, to
fill all those beds I can get. That can get
costly as you're filling a bunch of beds, But if
you want to do that, that's fine. Just just know
that you're going to need to be adding bed mix
pretty quick compared to if it were big old chunks

(01:52:53):
of wood or something like that, which.

Speaker 4 (01:52:56):
Yeah, well is something else you would suggest.

Speaker 1 (01:53:02):
I generally don't put the wood and things down in
the bottom. Now that can be done that. You know,
the whole concept of google culture is based on those
kinds of things. There are people also that take a
hay bale and lay it on the ground and you know,
open up a little section and it puts some compost
or potting soil and then plant right in the haybale.
So you can grow stuff in things that aren't dirt

(01:53:26):
or soil. But the longer term solution is just going
to be to have a good bed mix in there.

Speaker 7 (01:53:34):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:53:34):
And would that be the garden bed mix that you can.

Speaker 3 (01:53:37):
Buy in the in the.

Speaker 1 (01:53:41):
Yes, any kind of a bed mix for vegetable soil
and whatnot. I can't see what part of town. What
part of town are you in? Okay?

Speaker 12 (01:53:53):
I can go to or wherever you know.

Speaker 1 (01:53:56):
Yeah, that's just down the down the street the street
in an interstate. Yeah yeah, and they can deliver too.
They have a thing called a veggie veggie mix that
they can vegetable soil that they can do in that
kind of bed. I assume this is for vegetables, Am
I correct?

Speaker 16 (01:54:12):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:54:13):
Yes, okay, yeah, that's what that's what I would do.
All right, Well, you much, you bet, thank you very
much for the call. Uh, well, Angela, I'm flying blind here,
so we'll just kind of keep talking in the process.
It's always something, right Murphy's law. Will you give me

(01:54:34):
some Will you give us a few tips or tricks
or whatever that you've had over the years you've learned
that kind of help make gardening less work, you know.
For example, I when I discovered the kneeling bench that
flips over and you can sit on it or flips
over and the legs will come handle so you can
get up and down from your knees. That changed my life.

(01:54:55):
But what are some tips or tricks or products or
things that that you like for making gardening less work
or more productive.

Speaker 12 (01:55:03):
Well, I completely agree with the kneeling bench.

Speaker 7 (01:55:05):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:55:05):
One of the things is that so many avid gardeners
we are aging, and so things like raised beds make
things easier for us. The kneeling benches make things easier
for us. I have a garden scooter, as I call it,
where I can, you know, scoot around in the garden
and tend to things, especially in raised beds or in
barrels or in some of the other planters. But I

(01:55:29):
think that you know, using things like uh, you know,
not so much products, but as things like mulch. Mulch
makes gardens so much easier because it does suppress weeds,
it does help you keep the heat down on the beds,
and it does you know, eventually, if you use good

(01:55:49):
organic quality things for your mulches, it breaks down over
time and contributes to good to good health. One of
the things that's helped me so much in the Houston
area is installing drip irrigation. It's not difficult to do.

Speaker 2 (01:56:05):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:56:05):
There is no way that I think even two of
us love to get out in garden that we can
keep up with the watering the garden by hand and sprinklers.
They're very useful, but they're also very wasteful, and we
have a lot of problems with just evaporation. But installing
drip irrigation made a huge, huge difference. And then over

(01:56:26):
about the last seven or eight years, I've been using
cover crops and so I find that as far as
weed management, that that's been a huge game changer for me.
I use winter cover crops on my larger beds. I
keep crop rotation going in my vegetable beds, my raised

(01:56:46):
bids so that I don't have the weed competition all
of the time. And then, you know, as many of
us move to raise beds, it's getting the tools to
actually use in your raised beds, which are not your
traditional long handled tools. So I found I needed something
where I could actually, you know, rake soil clean or

(01:57:08):
prepare a bed easily. I was able to find a
rake that's about maybe eight or nine inches wide, and
it has an expandable handle, so I can shorten it
when I'm working across the four foot or three foot
access of my beds, and I can extend it and
lengthen that little rake when I'm working on the long side,
the eight foot or twelve foot side of my beds,

(01:57:30):
and that that's been a big help. And then I
started planting with a scoop that's really meant for soil.
It's a soil scoop that's meant, you know, to be
used when you're using things like potting soil out of
a sack or you know, your different composts, or you know,
fertilizer out of a sack. But I find that that's
the very best thing for planting, whether I'm in the

(01:57:50):
soil or in my raised beds. So those are a
few things. And then pruning is a big deal to me.
I love growing fruit trees and I have a very
regular pruner, both winter pruning and doing some summer pruning.
And so a good sharp Japanese pruning saw is the
very best thing. I cannot believe how easily and quickly

(01:58:14):
it makes the pruning jobs for me. I mean, I
can get out of print a tree in less than
fifteen minutes. And I just love that thing.

Speaker 1 (01:58:21):
And what kind of saw did you say?

Speaker 7 (01:58:22):
Again?

Speaker 12 (01:58:23):
It's a it's a Japanese pruning saw. There are a
lot of brands, you know, they they kind of rate them.
It's a it's a curved saw like you see, you
know some other gardening saws, but this one just happens
to be. They're very sharp, and they make very quick work.
I can honestly cut it faster that way than I could,

(01:58:43):
you know, with an electric saw of some kind. So
I'm in love with my saws.

Speaker 1 (01:58:48):
Well that's great, Hey, I'm up against a little breaker.
Hang on, we're going to come back, and if you
have a call, you'd like to call us in here
on a garden line seven one three two one two
kt r H will be right back with Angela Chandler.
All right, we're back, and guess what, I have full access,
so let the show go on. We're going to head

(01:59:09):
now out to talk to Mike in League City, and
I've got my producer to connect Angela and Mike and
I here and there we go. All right, Mike, welcome
back to gard or welcome to garden Line. How can
we help today?

Speaker 18 (01:59:25):
Yes, I like tropical plants, and I specifically plume areas,
and I have some very nice plum areas that were
brought back from Hawaii that are very precious to me,
but they can only grow in pots. I'd like to
be able to plant them because I see these things
in Hawaii growing up to the biggest trees, and uh,

(01:59:47):
I just want to be able to do that and
survive at winter.

Speaker 2 (01:59:51):
In South Texas.

Speaker 18 (01:59:53):
So I'm looking for any kind of technology that you
may know over anyway of keeping these things, because I've
I tried know saran wrapping on with Christmas lights, and
nothing stops the freeze. It tends to just take them
out completely.

Speaker 1 (02:00:08):
Okay, that's my question. All right, good well, Angela, I'm
gonna get you to weigh in first here and then
I'll make.

Speaker 12 (02:00:15):
Some comments, all right, I sure will. In all honesty,
growing them in the ground outdoors here is really not
very practical when through our winter times it's wonderful during
the summer. They love the heat, they love the humidity.
They do very well in that. There's some you know,
some examples of them on the island that are absolutely gorgeous.

(02:00:36):
But a common way that plumeria fanciers can handle theirs
is a technique called plunging, which means that you'll actually
plant them in their pot in the ground. And you
can either do it straight in the ground or do
it pot in pots, which would mean that you would
actually plant a pot, an empty pot, and then slide

(02:00:56):
the pot that has your plumeria in it so it
can enjoy summer's outdoors. You can enjoy them, you know,
in a natural looking you know environment out in your landscape.
But then you would actually need to pull that pot
for the winter to store your pram areas indoors. The
other option would be a greenhouse. There are some plant

(02:01:20):
covers that you can buy, but people don't often use
them correctly. They will, you know, use a large plant
cover over a plant and then they will tie it
to the trunk of the plant or the stem of
the plant, and that doesn't really collect a lot of
heat for you. The best thing to do if you're
going to use a large cover is to make sure

(02:01:42):
that it's open to the ground. So I tell people
think of it as a tint instead of a lollipop.
That's the best usual that people report. So that if
you're open to the ground, keep your ground moist before
free you and that way, as the ground cools off,
the heat is collected up in the canopy of the
plant and you'll get a few more behave of protection.

(02:02:04):
But you see, uh, you know, other than doing it
that way of plunging is is a very common technique
used by both high bosks growers, you know, the tropical
high Booscis and Arson area growers, and it is a
pretty practical way to manage them and still enjoy them
in your guard.

Speaker 1 (02:02:21):
That's a good that's good advice, Mike. We're getting some
background sound from from your phone there. Uh yeah, that
Angela's points are very well taken. And that pot in
pot is also you know, they're not going to blow
over like she said, it just it makes a very good,
sturdy way to do it all. If you go to
my website Gardening with Skip dot com and look under

(02:02:43):
the publications, there's one titled just the Season to be Freezing.
I know, I thought it was plenty at the time.

Speaker 3 (02:02:51):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:02:53):
That publication links to an Aggrolife horticulture publication that I
co authored with one of our specialists on protecting plants
from frosts and freezes. And it's nine pages, full color illustrations,
and it gives you the whole idea of what to do.
Bottom line, it comes down to can you keep the
cold air out and put enough heat underneath to match

(02:03:15):
the weather that you're having. And where Angela described a
tent versus a landscape lollipop, there's a drawn image in
the publication about that. So for everyone else listening to
you need to read this before we get to winter,
because whether you're protecting you know, vegetables in a garden
or citrus trees or whatever you're trying to protect, this

(02:03:36):
publication gives you all the principles and helps you know
how to go about doing it. So I'd encourage that's
on my website again, Guarding with Skip dot Com.

Speaker 12 (02:03:44):
Yeah, very much.

Speaker 1 (02:03:47):
Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 12 (02:03:48):
And just another little piece of advice is for everybody,
regardless of what style of gardening you have, of what
kind of plants you like to grow, is to have
your freeze protection plan in place by November first. We
you know, we probably won't get a freeze that early,
but if you have all of your supplies on hand,
if you'll have your protocols ready by that time, you

(02:04:10):
won't get caught in the rust that happens when we
find out that a freeze is coming.

Speaker 1 (02:04:16):
Are you saying that I shouldn't run out at four
o'clock or five o'clock or six o'clock on the day
the freeze is hitting, trying to find some heat lamps
still in the stores and plastic.

Speaker 12 (02:04:25):
And things heat lamp, heat pack and frost left, you know,
because nurseries do sell out of it. But you have
your whole plan in place by November first, have everything
staged and ready, and then we won't get caught with
our plants down there.

Speaker 1 (02:04:44):
I put some new citrus trees in UH and I
planted some that probably are not hardy enough where I am,
but I'm already planning. I've got a PVC ticker toy
structure planned that is going to hold freeze cloth and
because yeah, we don't wait too long. So words for

(02:05:04):
the wise there, good point, Hey Mike, thanks a lot.
I appreciate you, appreciate your call a lot. Thank you,
appreciate you'all. All right, all right, you take care. Well,
we got one more caller here. I want to jump
to Angela, and then I've still got plenty of questions
for you. Let's go to Manny in northwest Houston. Manny,
welcome to Garden Line. You're on the air with Angela

(02:05:26):
Chandler and I. How can we help today?

Speaker 15 (02:05:29):
Yes, Angela mentioned something earlier about squirrels, and I was
I was outide in the yard and I've bent over
and I lost the signal, so I didn't get to
hear what she said about it. If she could repeat
that real quick, be helpful for me.

Speaker 12 (02:05:43):
I was just mentioning the fact that my outdoor potted
plants they like to dig in them, and unfortunately they
seem to have very good taste because they always did
us the most expensive of my plants. But they will plant,
you know, the oak, the acorns, and I'll end up
with oak seedlings in my pots. Or for coond trees,

(02:06:04):
and they'll I'll end up with those seedlings in my pots.
So I top coat with expanded shale. I used to
use gravel, but use expanded shale now because it has
some other good good things that it does. But top
coating with that that I don't think they like the
feel of it on their feet, and so it has
stopped them from digging in my pots. So I quit

(02:06:24):
losing my beautiful, expensive little treasures and also don't don't
end up having to fight tree seedlings in my container plants.

Speaker 1 (02:06:34):
That's a good point. And I know people. I know
people also that have taken like hardware cloth, and if
you've got a pot and you're gonna be using that
pot long term, you can cut a circle of hardware
cloth to fit down in there, make hole for the stem,
and cut in so you can get it around the stem.
And cats like to get in some pots and do
their use them's bathroom, and that'll keep anything from digging

(02:06:55):
down in there. I even have dogs, you know. I
like organic fertilizers, and some of them, the dogs are
very interested them as well, because they have a little
bit of a fragrance that the dogs like and so
I will have to put those to keep the dogs
out of my thoughts too.

Speaker 15 (02:07:13):
Yep, okay, yeah, any tipso getting the protection for the
figs and pears and everything else. They just wipe me
out this year, the squirrels, Yes.

Speaker 1 (02:07:27):
I do.

Speaker 4 (02:07:28):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (02:07:28):
I started bagging things several years ago and it is
you know, you can buy the fruit bags thankfully now.
I used to use just paper lunch sacks and I
would wrap them around the fruit and staple them. But
the fruit bags are very very available now. Nurseres are
carrying them. Of course, you can buy them online as well.
You do have to take the time to tie them

(02:07:50):
around fruit, but you know, I have things. I've got
a tree full of pop PAFs this year, and I
know I wasn't going to get a single pop off.
We didn't get out there and bag them, and we
bagged our pears. It us take time, but you will
get your fruit from them if you tie them properly.
They might pull one or two off, but they don't
get all of your fruit. And it's just one of

(02:08:11):
those things we have a trade off because the other
ways of managing them are are you know, uh, they're
just too difficult or they're not dependable enough, but is
a big deal.

Speaker 1 (02:08:24):
Have you tried the organza bags for that? The little
drost I had?

Speaker 12 (02:08:30):
But they do work, but they're you know that you
find them at hobby shops because they use them for
wedding savers. But they are uh. I don't think there
is tough because we used to bag our plums with
those and the squirrels were able to pull them off.
But these fruit bags are just a larger version of
that and so uh and they're relatively inexpensive. And we

(02:08:54):
just the two of us just get out there and
just start tying them behind all of our fruit. And
they don't seem to interfere, you know, with the light
penetration either. So they do a good job and it
is worth the time. If you love growing fruit, it's
worth the time. We even put them around our grape clusters,
you know.

Speaker 2 (02:09:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:09:14):
Have you ever had squirrels try to tear the organza open?
Because you can pull the drostring and tight, but will
they tear it through the organza?

Speaker 12 (02:09:22):
I've had them try. But what ends up happening, really
skip is that they end up breaking the fruit off
while they're trying to get into it. Whether they can
tear the bag open or not. They'll end up knocking
the street off while they're where they're trying. But like
I say, these fruit bags, the Organza bags you're talking about,
these fruit bags look exactly like that. They're just a
little larger version.

Speaker 1 (02:09:44):
Okay, all right, good hey Manny, good luck with that.
You know when people when people call me and they
tell me squirrels are eating all their pecans, I just
like to point out that pecan fat squirrel tastes better
than pecan.

Speaker 15 (02:10:04):
Well I didn't. Yeah, yeah, I didn't have enough lead
in the in the gardening, so I need to ance lead.

Speaker 1 (02:10:13):
There you go. Yeah, the local law enforcement frowns on that. Well,
uh now I'm going to move on while horrified listeners
run for their radio to turn it off. Thanks a lot,
many appreciate your call, Angela. I want to follow up.
I want to follow up some things you were talking about.
We were talking about tips and tricks for making gardening
uh less work and more productive and whatnot, and you

(02:10:37):
had given us some tips on that. When we come back,
I've got a heartbreak in ten seconds. I want to
talk about some of your favorite plants for hot weather.
When we come back, Angela, and if you'd like to
give us a call seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four will be right back. All right,
Welcome back, folks, travel We're going to get right back
to it here. We got plenty to talk about in

(02:10:58):
about a half hour left to do it. We got
Angela Chandler from Gardening Academy, Garden Academy here with us
on Garden Line today. You have probably heard Angela on
the radio before, for example, when Randy passed. In order
to hold this show on the air while they searched
for a new host, Angela and Beverly from the Arborgate

(02:11:20):
Garden Center up in Tumble, they kept the show going.
They sat here and answered questions each morning, getting up
too early for a human being to have to get
up on Saturdays and Sundays to make sure the show
could go on. And we really appreciate that. We have
got now Marshall in Dayton, Texas given us a call,
and we're going to go to Marshall with Angela here.

(02:11:42):
If we can get connected, all three of us together,
that has to be done outside of my control. There
we go, Hey, Marshall, welcome to Garden line. How can
we help.

Speaker 19 (02:11:52):
Today, Angela, I've got a question about a cucumbers. I've
got them on my property and they're they're pretty abundant. Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:12:06):
Are they edible?

Speaker 19 (02:12:07):
I've heard some people say yes, some people say no.

Speaker 8 (02:12:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 12 (02:12:12):
Okay, you're probably talking Are they little tiny things you're
talking about the mouth melons?

Speaker 2 (02:12:18):
Well, the size of a small plum.

Speaker 12 (02:12:22):
Yes, they they are. They are called mouse melons. There's
a couple of other common names for them. They've kind
of become popular recently, I think just because they are
unusual looking.

Speaker 15 (02:12:35):
But they.

Speaker 12 (02:12:37):
They are edible. But it's whether or not you kind
of like that. They have a tart flavor to them.
They might be better, you know, done is a is
a you know, pickle, rather than being eaten fresh. But
they do have a slightly tart, cucumbery flavor to them.

Speaker 15 (02:12:55):
Huh.

Speaker 18 (02:12:55):
Okay, like a bitter cucumber.

Speaker 1 (02:12:59):
These are the arena I.

Speaker 12 (02:13:00):
Can call it bitter. I would just say it's tart.

Speaker 1 (02:13:02):
Yeah, these are. These are very small that what Angela
is talking about kind of oval, sort of watermelon shaped,
not really cucumber shaped as much as a well management Okay.

Speaker 19 (02:13:12):
Yeah, I've had somebody tell me that, uh, they're poisonous
to animals or to dogs especially.

Speaker 1 (02:13:21):
Okay, well let's do this. I want to be really
extra extra extra careful here, I am. We are not
suggesting you stick one in your mouth and eat it. Okay,
if you were talking about what Angela and I think
you probably are talking about. Yeah, they're edible. People buy
the seed and plant them. When you use the word wild,
then I start to wonder what we're dealing with out there.

(02:13:43):
I am not a poison plant control expert. But if
you wanted to send me a picture of some with
the leaves and put something in the picture that shows size,
like your hand or a pencil or something, I'll give
you my opinion on it. But the last thing I'm
going to do is tell anyone on the air, yeah,
you can eat that, because heaven knows whether what you're
looking at and what I'm picturing in my head is

(02:14:06):
the same thing. So we want to be extra cautious there.

Speaker 12 (02:14:09):
Yeah, and there are some Yeah, there are some gord
varieties out there that you should not be eating. And
you know, unfortunately a lot of that family has look alikes.

Speaker 1 (02:14:20):
So yeah, yeah, so I'm going to put you on
hold Marshall or actually, I'm just gonna have my producer
go ahead and pick it up and give you an
email if you'd like to send me. Make sure the
pictures are close up and then really good sharp focus,
and that way I can make sure and give you
a more accurate assessment on that Angela. Before we went
to break, I was talking about what are some of

(02:14:42):
your favorite plants for hot weather? You could say that
from a vegetable garden standpoint, but also maybe just a
handful from the landscape that you really love.

Speaker 12 (02:14:53):
Yeah, well, you know kind of really hot weather plants
in the vegetable garden, we really kind of do get
limited during that time period to uh, you know, things
like the squash and okra, and of course there's a
huge selection of colpies or field peas that we can grow.
I've got beds full of them right now. But you know,

(02:15:14):
I think most of us when we think about our
favorite hot weather plants, we're talking about color that we
like to see throughout the summer, and we have some
that are basically standards in our area that have been
grown here for years that are really dependable for us.
I think everybody loves to drive by a garden and
see a big, beautiful pride of Barbados growing. You know,

(02:15:36):
it just it just it's kind of a street street show,
you know. It's kind of a car stopper. I guess
you would try to it is.

Speaker 1 (02:15:43):
You know. I contend Angela that if you filled your
yard with pink flamingos and had a pride of Barbados
and full bloom, no one would notice the flamingos the
plan I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 12 (02:15:58):
Yes, so beautiful. They're so beautiful and looks so delicate,
but they're so tough, you know, So that's definitely one,
especially if you love a tropical look. You know, trying
to attract pollinators during the summer is good for us.
So many of us that enjoy them in our garden
are planting things like vineas or the various cone flowers.

(02:16:19):
I've had a lot of fun this year with a
prairie cone flower, which they also call clown cone flower.
It's a very tall, blooming cone flower that's just kind
of coming in here. Hit when we hit the August
heap again for that tropical look high biscus, we can
grow both the hardy high biscus and the tropical high
biscus here, So they come in a rainbow of colors.

(02:16:41):
So no matter which one you know, what color is
your favorite, you can you can find one that will
will make you happy. Yellow bells or esperanza is another
one here that's super dependable, has a very long blooming period.
I've got a bed that has those in it along
with some trialis, and you know, it's just kind of
an explosion of yellow and blue because I you know,

(02:17:05):
also plant plumbago in that bed. But you know, Mandavia
is another one that's grown well here for a number
of years, and they've come out with lots of new
hybrid mandavillas that grow a little shorter, not quite as
vigorous of vine, but they kind of if you prin them,
they can can form a very shrubby plant and they

(02:17:26):
just bloom like crazy, and they've come out in some
beautiful new colors. So that that's one that I've had
a lot of fun with. And then Mexican flame vine.
If you've got a fence that you can grow on on,
or if you've got a trellis that you can grow
on on, that's another one that is tough as can be,
and when it goes into bloom, it loves it hot,

(02:17:48):
you know, towards the end of summer and in the fall,
and just a riot of color. That is one where
I've had several people tell me that people have actually
stopped and knocked on their door and said, what is
that orange vine over there? So you know, we have
and we have, you know, things like durantis that are
definitely used and tough plants that do well for us.

(02:18:10):
And one of my favorites recently, and probably it's a
favorite because I've planted it close to our walkway and
so I see it every day as I walk by it,
and that's the blue potato vine. Because it has very thick,
luscious foliage on it. It's a very fine, nice looking foliage.
And then it has these blue, you know, cascading flowers,

(02:18:32):
not not too kind of a limit, a little bit
reminiscent of a wisteria, but in beautiful blue that I
think it also comes in white, but that blue potato
pie is really really pretty.

Speaker 1 (02:18:43):
Uh yeah, I've been impressed to that that potatovine will
bloom decent in a moderate amount of shade too, if
it's got decent light intensity. I was surprised. I didn't
expect it to bloom in the shade, but it it's
it's a decent I wouldn't say deep shade, but it'll.

Speaker 12 (02:19:04):
Actually where Yeah, where mine is located is on a
walkway that's east exposure. So it gives the morning sun,
which it seems to like very very much, and there
is a pecond tree adjacent to it on the north
side of it. But it gives it a little bit
of shade in the afternoon, but it still gets enough
of that, especially that morning sun, which is our very

(02:19:26):
best sun.

Speaker 1 (02:19:27):
Yeah, well that's good. I'm gonna have to go to
I'm gonna have to go to a break here. I
want to add one thing to those lists as I
was thinking, and that is when summer comes in, it's
too hot for a lot of things to bloom. Foliage
is our friend, and we have some gorgeous foliage colors
in For example, Canis there's the purple and silver Persian

(02:19:48):
shield plant that is really beautiful. I like there's some
new kaladiums not caladium, well kaladiums yes, or foliage collocacias
that have multicolors in the ear. One called Hawaiian punch
has very red pettioles with the leaves, and so think
about foliage when you think about color. We could go
on and on on foliage color options like copper plant

(02:20:11):
for example, like Joseph's coat, that provide color when it's
too hot for a lot of things to want to blooms. Yeah,
we're going to take a quick break and we'll be
right back with Angela and Phyllis and from Dansbury. All right,
let's get Angela back in Nancy on the radio while
I apologize to my listeners. That's funny. Hey, Nancy, welcome

(02:20:34):
to Garden Light. I just had reply to your lemon
tree pictures, but I saw them that you called. What's
your question about the lemon trees today?

Speaker 20 (02:20:44):
Well, first thing, yeah, I having too much fun. That's okay,
I know, I love your laughter. What do I do
with the it's just grown. I'm getting like forty lines
supposed to be a lementary, but the line that you
go the next two line should back and win because
it still.

Speaker 1 (02:21:03):
Well, yeah, I'm looking at the pictures. So the gangly
schoots going way out and down low, those are kind
of in the way, you know, as you're it's in
a container on the patio by the way. Folks, Uh,
you could you could trim those back a little bit
and encourage a little more upright growth.

Speaker 7 (02:21:19):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:21:19):
For the size of the pot, that is a pretty
large plant, So you're having to, I'm sure keep it
watered frequently to keep it from being in a stress,
because if they stress, they're not they're going to abort
fruit and you don't want that on a centrus. I
would I would go ahead and bump it to a
larger sized pot sometime soon. But in the meantime, just

(02:21:40):
cut off the things that are growing out of the
way and let the growth continue a little more upward.
But it looks like a great plant.

Speaker 20 (02:21:48):
Okay, Hey, did you see the hanging sign on one
of the pictures. It says astro?

Speaker 1 (02:21:52):
I did the astros. Would you please talk to.

Speaker 12 (02:21:55):
Them for me, I will say on the other side,
a flippers, Oh does it?

Speaker 4 (02:22:02):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:22:02):
Well, bless you, my child. That is wonderful.

Speaker 12 (02:22:06):
No.

Speaker 1 (02:22:06):
I think both of those that know how to break
our hearts, and we need them to stop that right now.

Speaker 12 (02:22:13):
Right, that's right, it's going to be a truth. They're
going to do that, all right, Thank you, great.

Speaker 1 (02:22:20):
Thank you all right, bye bye. Well Angela, let's get
back to a couple of questions here. I got one
more call before we end the day. Here, uh the
uh you we had talked about, you know, getting the
vegetable garden ready and some things like that. Do you
have some tips for managing pests, either without sprays, which

(02:22:40):
is my preference, or with sprays that are a little
low talks, low impact and things. And if you want
to throw some beneficial insect comments in there, I'd be
happy to hear that too, Okay, sure.

Speaker 12 (02:22:52):
Will you know, we we spoke already about the insect netting,
and this is a strategy that a lot of people
are using now in the vegetable garden. If you just
think about this, group your plants together that don't are
not dependent on insects for pollination, and we have a
lot of those that are coming up in the fall garden.

(02:23:12):
So that is one of the very best ways to
have a completely non toxic, chemical free pest control management
system right there, is to use that just exclude the
pest from the first place. If you do need to
turn to something, some of the gentler things that you
can use are things like BT and we don't want
to use that on any plant where we know is

(02:23:34):
a favorite of a beneficial inprict that has a caterpillar
in its life cycle. Spinosa is a tool that's been
in the organic toolbox for a long time, but that's
one that you want to use on plants that are
not blooming because it is toxic to bees. But there
are a lot of plants that you can use that

(02:23:54):
on if you have a problem. Recently, there are some
you know, the three and one B safe by organoicide
that is sesame oil based instead of being kneem oil based,
and so I find that that one's a little bit
gentler for use in the garden too. But then all
honestly skip if people will start folio feeding, their plants
get a little bit tougher, it's thickens the cuticle on

(02:24:17):
the plants, and so they have fewer problems with pests
in the first place, just by the fact that the
plant is a little bit stronger.

Speaker 1 (02:24:25):
All right, I need to get this collar with you,
and uh, we're running out a long time, but real quick,
would you give me two or three things that you
like to use for folio feeding?

Speaker 12 (02:24:35):
Yes, just the liquid seaweeds are one of the best
things that you can reach for. Uh, they seem to
do a very good job. And then Ocean Harvest, which
is a microlife product that is a superior product as well.

Speaker 16 (02:24:49):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (02:24:49):
And then yeah, those are two really good choices for
folio feeding. And just do it once in a month
and your plant, your plants will thank.

Speaker 5 (02:24:56):
You for it.

Speaker 1 (02:24:58):
All right, there you go, Thank you. I agree on
both both of those counts. We're going to go now
to Phyllis in Danbury and see if we can help
Phyllis before we run out of time here today. Hey fellas,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (02:25:09):
Thank you.

Speaker 16 (02:25:09):
I hope you can help me.

Speaker 9 (02:25:11):
I'm a little concerned about that lemon bush.

Speaker 16 (02:25:14):
It's okay growing on it on the bottom, but I
don't know if you've got the pictures and if you
can see it, but some of those leaves.

Speaker 17 (02:25:23):
Are really dark.

Speaker 16 (02:25:25):
They look like to me, they look like they're dying
of some kind.

Speaker 8 (02:25:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 16 (02:25:30):
I've been having problems with getting these little black spots
on my leads.

Speaker 1 (02:25:34):
Okay, I didn't get your I didn't get your photos.
So let's give it our best shot. So in short,
you've got some black spots, not overall black city on
the leaf, but black spots.

Speaker 16 (02:25:46):
Well, it's starting to turn they're starting to turn dark.

Speaker 12 (02:25:49):
I'm gonna go back outside.

Speaker 1 (02:25:51):
And look at it, and okay, this is happening ahead. Yeah,
I'm down to seconds here. I tell you what I'm
going to put you on. I'm going to put you
on hold, and I want you to get talk to
my producer and make sure you get the right email.
Send me those pictures. I'll help you during the week.
On this one. It may be that you have a piercing,

(02:26:11):
sucking insect like scale, for example, that is producing a
honeydew that the city molds growing on. Let me take
a look at the pictures up close. Send me pictures
of the undersides of the leaves too, because there's a
scale that's white that gets under the leaves that I
need to take a look at. And we'll be glad
to help you. Angela, thank you so much for coming
on today. Gosh, has it been a whirlwind or what?

Speaker 12 (02:26:33):
It really hasn't went fast? And I would just like
to say quickly do anteaching this fall at the arbor
Gate and at College of the Mainland in Texas City,
So join me there for my classes.

Speaker 1 (02:26:45):
Looking forward to that. All right, well, send me info
and we'll promote that.

Speaker 12 (02:26:50):
Thank you.