Fix Your Problems Before They Happen!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden Line with Skip Rickard's.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Crazy trim. Just watch him as many things to seep
brasy in great.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Gas again.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Back again, not a sign.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Gas.

Speaker 5 (00:36):
Good morning, gardeners, Good morning hope you are having a
wonderful morning already. For me, a wonderful morning starts off
with quiet and uh, a cup of coffee, a little
time to think. That's a that's a good thing. Oh,
we'll start it off easy this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I wanted to, uh, well, first time you get the
phone number in case you would like to call. Sometimes
we have people that are sitting there seem like then
we come on, they jump on the phone. That's good.
At least it gets you no waiting access of to
get your questions in seven one three two one two
KTRH seven one three two one two KTRH. I was

(01:18):
walking through a lawn, Saint Augustine lawn this week and
was looking just kind of looking down at it at
you know, some of the things going on, and noticed
quite a bit of gray leaf spot. Still. Gray leaf
spot is a fungus, and one thing that is kind
of a principle of most fungal problems is that it's

(01:43):
primarily environmentally driven. There are such a thing as having
a disease come in, you know, like we had a
coronavirus came in to the country from outside the country.
But in general, our plant diseases are here already, already
in your your landscape, and they just don't take off

(02:04):
because the conditions aren't right. And so gray leaf spot,
the conditions are moisture on the surface of the grass
blades and warm temperatures, not necessarily hot temperatures, but warm temperatures.
That's why it's primarily an early in the summer disease,
although we can get it anytime when you create the
right conditions. So the analogy I use for this with

(02:26):
fungi is imagine, you know, you've got a water spicket
coming out of your house over on in a shady spot,
and it started to leak around the connection and it
was spraying a miss that was going back on the brick.
If you let it do that for a few days,
After about a week or so, you're going to notice
algae growing on your brick. Where did that algae come from, Well,

(02:50):
it was it's everywhere, but it's not growing because on
a dry brick surface, algae is not going to grow,
but you keep it moist and suddenly here goes the
algal grow. Right, that's how funge i work in the lawn.
So when you overwater, actually, let me change that. When
you water too frequently, you promote gray leaf spot in

(03:12):
your lawn. And what happens when it rains every day
for a week, Well, that's not in your control, but
that is what you would expect to start to happen.
And nine Fiss has a product called Eagle that is
kind of a go to, and it's the reason I
like it for gray leaf spot and some other diseases
as well, is because it's systemic. You put it down
as a granule, it goes in the soil, the roots

(03:32):
take it up, and it helps fight that. The primary
things I recommend for take all root rot are systemic.
They put them on the soil, they come up into
the plant, and they fight the plant from the inside.
So it instead of being like a surface protectant, you
spray it on a leaf so a spore can't land
and infect that leaf and create a spot. This is

(03:53):
something we get in the plumbing of the plant and
it prevents it from the inside. And those work a
lot better, and some of those even have the ability
to do what we call curative function, where you have
the start of a disease and it just shuts it
down from the inside. Anyway, that's a lot but Eagle.
By the way, if you're looking for night Foss products,
you're going to find Knight Fash products at places like

(04:15):
Langham Creek Ace Hardware that's on five twenty nine up
there in the Copperfield neighborhood. If you head to RCW Nursery,
you find Nitrovoss products. The Tumball Parkway and Beltway eight
and down in Angleton include Lake Hardware stores there, Velasco
and on Dixie Dry. Both of those locations sell nitrovis products.
But the best thing with fungi is to get ahead

(04:39):
of them. That's true of the No, we're not in
the cool season when we have the big brown patch
circles take lss large patch circles. But once those circles appear,
it's kind of late to put a funge aside down.
I mean, stop more circles from happening. But you tend
to already have a mess that you got to live
with all winter because grass is going to grow and

(05:00):
fill those brown circles back in in the winter time.
So ahead of time, preventative, preventative, preventative. If you know
you're having fun goal problems, preventative is the best way
to do it. After the fact, we just don't have
the same effects. So anyway, that is grey leaf spot.

(05:21):
Hopefully it won't be a problem if you go to
my lawn care schedule. I have two schedules on my website,
and I know some of you have heard me say
this a bunch, but we always have new listeners or
people that aren't listening when they listen. There is Skip's
lawn care schedule, which is how do you grow a
beautiful lawn, So it's fertilizing and air rating and mowing

(05:44):
and watering and the products you use for fertilizing and
when you apply them. And then on the other side, well,
on the other schedule, I print mind two sided like
that on card stocks. Real handy to keep around is
the lawn pest Disease and we'd management Schedule one is
for insect problems and disease problems for preventing weeds that

(06:07):
would be like a pre emergent and cultural practices that
prevent weeds and then for killing existing weeds, and both
of those schedules, by the way, they offer you synthetic
and organic options, so you have options there as well
as some advice as you go along. So anyway, yeah,
so you look for gray leaf spot and on my schedule,

(06:27):
I've got it in starting a little bit into April
all the way through the latter part of July, which
is our primary season where we see the gray leaf
spot and not stretching the borders a little bit out.
But you never know the year, so it can happen.
So there's that, that's for sure. I hope that schedule

(06:48):
is helpful to you. I'm about to do a little
bit of an update to it, just in talking with
folks and looking at some of the situations, and I
just think I'm gonna move I'm gonna do a little
bit of an adjustment here and there. It's not big,
it doesn't amount too much in terms of you using it,

(07:09):
but I just think we can tweak some things just
a little bit. I wish there was a way to
get more information on a page, because sometimes just to
say here's a disease, go spray this is not adequate
in terms of really helping people minimize problems. You've heard
me say this before, but when we have a problem

(07:32):
that is affecting our lawn, almost always there is something
in the process of preparing to plant, planting and caring
for plants and the plants you choose that could be
done to help avoid the problem. Those are called cultural practices.
And I don't think in terms of there's a bug,

(07:54):
here's a spray, That's how I kill it. Only, Okay,
there's times for that. In general, there's so much that
we do to take the number of times we need
to spray or apply granules down to a minimum, and
that's what we want to do. We don't want to
be a pesticide treadmill, where I don't care if it's
organic or synthetic treadmill. You don't want to be on

(08:15):
that treadmill if you can avoid it, and good cultural
practices help you avoid that. That's what we're looking for. Okay,
So hopefully that makes a little bit of sense. But
just to remember that that usually when problems appear, you
can look backwards in time and see things that could
have been done to minimize them. A good example of

(08:36):
that is weeds wherever sunlight hits a soil nature plants
of weed. That's just a fact. Your long gets thin,
you're gonna have weeds pop up, and so dense healthy lawn,
mow water, fertilized, dense healthy lawn helps avoid most weed problems.
Not all, but most we're not talking about. You know,
you have no problems. If you do everything right, you

(08:57):
still have problems. But why not minimize it instead of
every time you go outside you got to spray or
apply something to try to kill whatever is trying to
kill your plants. Makes sense to me. The folks at
Pierscapes have created a just a wonderful set of options

(09:17):
to help Houston area homeowners have a gorgeous landscape. Now.
First of all, you can have Pierscapes come in and
do quarterly maintenance for you. So maybe it's just your yards.
Are you there and they come in, They look at
your flower beds and things. They do the any weed control,
any mulching that's needed. They make sure the irrigation is

(09:37):
working right. And that's an important thing to do because
it is getting hot here. I need to take care
of that all those general maintenance things and they do
it every quarter and that includes depending on their arrangement
you make with them. They can do a color change
every quarter if you want, or they can do one
color change or two color changes a year, meaning, Okay,
the pansies are starting to melt in the heat, let's

(09:58):
put in some warm season fly that sort of thing.
They also can do significant revamps of your landscape, from
creating a whole landscape from scratch, to renovating an existing landscape,
to just adding lighting or fixing a poorly drained area
or dealing with the irrigation. Piercescapes dot Com is the

(10:19):
website and you need to look at it because that's
where you see the kind of work they do. It's amazing.
Two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty two eight
one three seven o fifty sixty piercescapes dot Com. I'm
gonna take a break. I'll be right back when you
get hot outside. Mm hm, so time to find some waterfolks, boy,

(10:44):
I tell you that how many of you loved Maybe
you still do? You don't you know? You don't have
to mid out. You can tell me. I won't tell
anybody running through the sprinklers outside, remember that? How about
slipping slides? Little plastic on the ground and have some
on Yep, that's summertime and you never get too old
for that. By the way, I'm officially giving us all

(11:06):
permission to run and play in the water when we
want to. You know, there's times when I've got a
picture of one of my daughters and we were in
the garden and I was asking her to water, and
I looked over there and she had one of those
handguns that sprays, you know, a missed kind of showery
missed out, and she had it pointed straight up in
the air, and it was just like she's standing under

(11:28):
a waterfall and she's having the best time. I guess
my plans were getting watered a little bit. But anyway,
water gotta have it, especially when you live done here
in the summertime. You're listening to the Guardline. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
beautiful garden, hopefully a beautiful landscape as well, and a
bountiful one whether you're growing vegetables or flowers or herbs

(11:51):
or just a gorgeous lawn. We want you to have
success with that. That's why we're here. You can give
me a call seven one three two one two Kati
r H seven one three two one two k t
r H. I've got some things in the emails. The
way I work that here, I'm not able to type
out answers to all the emails. Just too many people

(12:12):
that can send me emails and I just can't. I
just don't have the time with my other projects and
things to be able to do that. And so what
I ask is that if you want to ask a
question and a photo would be helpful, please please do
send it and then call in. We've got a number
of people that have sent me some photos that'll be
calling in, and what we'll do is I'll have time

(12:32):
to look at the photo and then when they call
we can talk about it. And you know what I
found that when somebody describes something, and it may be
me describing something to you, and then in your mind's
eye you picture it and then you actually see it
in a picture, it's like, Okay, that's not what I
was picturing at all. And that happens to me a lot.
You know, someone says, well, I got this plan and

(12:53):
it's whatever, and then when I see the pictures, like,
oh okay, well that's different. Pictures are important. Right, picture's
worth a thousand words. So when you send me a picture,
I ask couple of things. One, make sure it's in
good sharp focus. If I see I've had people hold
a weed or something up in their hand and take

(13:15):
a picture and the camera focuses on the background and
not on the weed. Well, fuzzy pictures give fuzzy answers,
and you don't want a fuzzy answer. You want a
sharp answer, an accurate answer, and so good sharp pictures
are important. Check them for you send them. Get as
close as you can to things that may need to
be examined, like here's this little grass seedling coming up

(13:35):
in the lawn. Well, you got to get really close
for me to see that. Other I'll just say, yeah,
that's some kind of grass and I don't know what
it is. And so close whenever you can, when that's appropriate.
Sometimes a picture of the overall setting is important. That
helps me a lot. And then finally, when you send it,
if you can attach it to the email rather than

(13:58):
rather than embed it in the text. When I'm trying
to do radio walk into your gum at the same time,
it's just easier for me to click on it and
open it when it's an attachment that's a little paper
clip symbol, that is a little easier. I can't open
them out of the text bit anyway, if you could
do that, that that just helps a little bit for

(14:18):
me to do it. So anyway, there you go, send
a picture, follow up with a phone call, and we
will help get you success. And that is a service
that I think is really valuable because you know, a
lot of people see problems like there's spots in my
lawn and then they go to a store and just say, yeah,

(14:38):
I need something for lawn disease, and maybe you get
a product, but it's not the right product for the
disease you have. And especially true for weeds. We had
a lot of a bazillion different weeds and although there
are products that control a lot of weeds, there is
not one product that fixes everything. And so it's kind

(14:59):
of going the doctor. You know, you say doctor, I
don't feel well, and he starts writing you a prescription.
Say wait a minute, how can you write a prescription
for a quote I don't feel well. We need to
know why I don't feel well, then write me a prescription.
That's kind of how it is with recommending insecticide or
fungicide or herbicide, And that is true whether it's synthetic

(15:20):
or organic. You need to know what you're going after
in order to have success, and then the timing and
on it. So anyway, there's a little spiel hopefully that
will make sense. But it is a free service. You
can do that as often as you like. Send me
the photos, follow up with questions on garden Line and
we'll be happy to help you that way our phone

(15:44):
number seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Guess what I was doing this morning at four am? Well,
I was. That's a little earlier than I normally get
up for the show. So I'm a barbeque a brisket
on a barbecue this morning. I've got a nice barbecue

(16:07):
pit that got from Ace Hardware as a matter of fact,
and it's a pellet grill, so it you know, feeds
the little pellets in and so you can set it
where it just like cooks for ten hours if you want.
It's amazing what comes out of it. But anyway, I
was out, I'd gotten it spent. It's spent the night
in the refrigerator after having all the rub applied to it,

(16:28):
and now it's out there and it's slowly working its
way through. We'll have it tonight. But Ace Hardware has
so many good options for that. I talked to someone
yesterday who was a Big Green Egg fan, and I
want to tell you something. And now this is just
my opinion, but Big Green Eggs are a cult. It
really is a cult. I'm pretty sure because everybody I

(16:49):
know that has a Big Green Egg, it's like that's
all they could talk about. That's all. I mean, it's
just like that's the only barbecue pit that exists. I
get it, and it's a wonderful, branderful brand. But they've
got you know, you got to Ace Hardwer. You're going
to find Tragger, which is pellet grills and things. You're
going to find Rectag, which pellet grills and things. You're
gonna find Weber and other brands and all the stuff

(17:13):
that you need to go with them, you know, the
little meat probes that tell you the temperature. Ace Hardware
is set up for making indoor and outdoor living more pleasant.
It is, and I have found so many things there
that have just made it nice. I mean, when I
say indoor and outdoor, let's do outdoor living. How about
a string of lights on the patio. We set some

(17:35):
of those up so in the evenings when it finally
cools off enough in the summer to want to be
a little outside, you just turn on the lights and
you go out and you enjoy the evenings out there.
Maybe another thing that we've done is, you know, setting
up the different lawn furnitures and things that make it
kind of nice to recline. Ace Hardware's got you covered

(17:56):
on a lot of that as well. And then when
it comes to fan or any other thing. My daughter
and son in law put a fan up on their
back patio that just kind of oscillates, rent sits under
the eaves and oscillate. It makes it such a nice area,
so pleasant, and Ace has got you covered on all that.
Maybe your deck needs receiling, don't let those things go

(18:16):
too far before you do the redo the preservation of
the wood on that deck. Ace has got you covered
for all of that. And then of course gardening, all
kinds of gardening, lawn care of the fertilizer stuff on
my schedule for past weeks, Diseases and fertilizers. You're gonna
find it. ACE Hardware. You can go to ACE Hardware Texas.

(18:37):
Don't forget Texas. ACE Hardware Texas dot com. That is
our regional ACE Hardware group. Here on garden Line. ACE
Hardware Texas dot Com. You're gonna find stores like Ospas
ACE on Kirkandal up in the Woodlands, All Seasons, ACE
up in Willis on Interstate forty five North, just up
in Willis Chambers, ACE on Broadway Street. Down in Galveston

(18:59):
Bay on Seventh Street north south east west Central. ACE
Hardware has got you covered. Go to Acehardware Texas dot
com and find some cool stuff. By the way, when
you're in there too, guys and ladies who do the
do it yourselfers, check out all the quality tools things
from Blackendecker, stan Lee, Oak, Milwaukee Craftsman, and de Walt,

(19:24):
for example. They've got you covered. I'm looking here at
the clock. Later on today we're gonna have someone from
Mosquito Dunks in and we're going to talk about Mosquito
dunks and how they work and some of the specifics
of them. You know, I talked about sitting outside, boy
can Mosquito has ever spoiled the show there. Mosquita dunks

(19:44):
are a little beige donut floats in water. It takes
them about a month to fully dissolve and go away,
and they release a bacteria that kills mosquito larvae. And
they work and you can find them everywhere. Feed stores
are independent nurseries, gardens, ace hardware stores. Mosquito dunks are
critical in the Southeast Texas area to have to go

(20:06):
through summer because it will rain and mosquitoes can reproduce.
We'll be right back after a short break. Alrighty, welcome
back to garden line. Good to have you with us, always,
always good to have you with us. I have two
happy well, I got a bunch of happy places, but
two primary happy places for me is being out in

(20:27):
the garden, being out in the landscape mesum with plants,
digging in the dirt, having fun, and talking to gardeners.
I love visiting with gardeners. Gardeners are in buy and
large and I've you know, I had a career for
thirty five years and Agrolife Extension Texan and Agrolife Extension
Service as a county horder culturist, and I wish I

(20:49):
had a little counter on me as to how many
gardeners I talked to over all those years. But I'll
tell you this, gardeners, buy and large are just nice people.
They're just good people. You know. They've chosen a hobby
that is laid back, natural, if you will, and they're
just good to talk with and they're fun and they're
excited about it. And when you're a gardener, you aren't.

(21:11):
You have to be to some degree a hopeful optimist
because you pick up these little pieces of detritus called
seeds that just look like what is that. I mean,
there's like a little piece of a leaf or a
chunk of bark that fell off. I mean, there's tiny
little things and you put it in the ground and
when you look at that seed, a gardener sees tomatoes

(21:32):
or a gardener sees zenias or sunflowers or whatever, and
you put it in the ground and it comes up,
and it's just that whole process is renewing, fun process.
I love talking to gardeners. Gardeners and good people by
and large. They're just a really, really good group. So
that's part of that happy place that I'm talking about

(21:55):
in my landscape. Sometimes I like to talk about what
I'm doing in the landscape. Maybe some of you are
going through the same things. I do a constant weed patrol.
Not that I'm out there just to find weeds, but
every time I walk through the yard, my eyes just
after a while, you know, they sort of subconsciously you

(22:17):
see weeds. Have you ever heard about somebody that is
good at finding counterfeit bills? You know, they handle so
much real money that a bill comes through and there's
just something about it that they notice something's wrong here, right,
because it's just automatic. Well, that's how I am with weeds.
And I'm walking through my lawn and I'm just seeing
that there's a weed over there, there's a weed over

(22:38):
there or here. You know, earlier it was annual bluegrass.
Oh gosh, that's a mess, and those little seat heads
on it, I just could spot them, and I just stop,
reach down, get to the bottom of it, pull it
out of the ground, and keep walking. And wherever I
get I got a handful of weeds or something, I
throw them in a bucket. And it's just an ongoing
thing to do that. And if you do, you can

(23:01):
actually do a lot in controlling weeds without waiting until
you have this big weed problem, and there's giant, ugly
weeds everywhere, and now you're out there digging them up
and pulling them all all up, and it's just this
major hot mess with the fire ants and the one
hundred degree sun eating your lunch. And so just think
about that, just a small patrol. I don't even go

(23:23):
out to pull weeds. I just am going around from
here to there to get a garden hose, to walk
into the garden, to go over here and plant something
or whatever. All right, just a thought. Let's head out
to Brookshire now, and we're going to visit with Ken
this morning. Hello Ken, and welcome to garden Line. Hey, welcome.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
I'm new to the area and well move here in
January from New Mexico.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
So the soil is much different. We have clay, yeah,
but lit'sten.

Speaker 6 (23:51):
I have a bottle brush that we had a bare
backyard new house, so planted old plants. We bought a
bottle brush planeted about March. It seemed healthy, seemed healthy,
and then about two months of them, about forty five
days ago, one of the center branches just turned brown
and died. And I thought, well, maybe something happened and

(24:11):
didn't think to the rest of the plant looks good.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
And now I've got two more.

Speaker 6 (24:15):
Branches that have turned brown and are dying again. The
rest of the plant looks good. It seems to beginning
enough water. So I'm trying to figure if you might
know maybe roots stimulate or I don't know.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
That's very, very unusual. First of all, welcome, welcome to
the greater Houstonario. Gladt here it rains over here. I
don't know if you've ever noticed what those big puppy
great things in the sky actually can drop water. Unlike
some parts up New Mexico, you get up in the
mountains and you get a little more frequent rains. But anyway,

(24:49):
kidding aside the bottle brush or any plant like that,
where you're seeing selective dying out of branches, follow that
branch downward with a really good close examination, and where
you know, here's here's living branches and then there's there's
a dead one. Does that dead one go all the
way to the ground. Is it its own shoot or

(25:11):
does it attached to a living branch? And if it
attaches to a living branch somewhere in there, you're either
going to see like borer holes with an insect that's
chomping through it and cutting the water supply off to it.
Or you may see a canker like sunken areas of
the bark or split bark where the bark has died
back and the inner wood is exposed. There's going to

(25:33):
be something like that that has caused that branch that
I if it goes all the way in the ground,
it could be a couple things. It could be its
own plant. Sometimes growers will stick there orfore plants in
a pot and it grows just as a single bush,
but it's really several plants, and so you may have
lost an individual plant, but the other plants are alive

(25:54):
and fine. So do the Sherlock Holmes can and see
if you can figure out which of those things is happening.
But it's going to be one of the above. It's
going to be a borer insect, it's going to be
a canker disease killing the bark. It's going to be
a it's its own plant and maybe a root rot

(26:17):
kind of thing going on with it. But it's gonna
be one of those.

Speaker 6 (26:21):
Okay, all right, well, great, that's great, And give any
suggestions for an avocado tree that might grow in this climate.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Oh, there's some great ones. There's some great ones. You're
out at Brookshire. If you go over to Nelson Water
Gardens in Katie there, if you're at Interstate ten Katie
Fort Ben Road, you go north, it's in Katie Katie
Fort Ben Road. You go north. It's not very far.
Nelson's just on the right, and they're a great nursery. Uh,

(26:50):
And they will have avocados there, and so you know,
you might call him. It could be that they the
last ship have got sold out or something, but it's
worth a visit anyway. But but they will sell you
the kinds that grow here and that that's very important.
And that's why I love our independent nursery so much,
because you know, they're not a box store that just

(27:11):
gets shipments all over the country and may or may
not have stuff that should be planted here. So yeah,
Nelson Water Gardens can do that. And and those varieties
are are hardier than normal avocados than the regular store
bought has avocado kind of thing. Okay, and you're still

(27:33):
going to have to protect yeah, let me said one thing.
You're still going to have to protect an avocado when
we have our colder temperatures that can occur occasionally. Okay,
so they're not fully hardy, Okay, go ahead. You had
another question.

Speaker 6 (27:46):
We we live in an age way and all of
them require a live oak in the frontry. I have
a live oak, never owned one before. It seems to
be doing good. It's green, it's it doesn't grow very fast,
and I guess that's just the nature of the beast.
What type of water do I need to do anything
more than usual for it?

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Then? You know, I got to let me U. Can
you hang on for just a little bit. I need
to go to a break. Let me come back, because
that's a little longer answer than I have time for.
So just hang on a second. We'll be back with
you in just a second. Here, ken, I'll be right back. Folks.
All right, folks, welcome back. Good to have you with us,
Good to have you with us this morning. It is

(28:29):
it is summer, and when it's summer, it gets hot.
And when we say hot, you know we're talking. You
got your attic, and I've seen things like one hundred
and fifty hundred and sixty degrees up there in the attic,
which is just insane, and that heat radiates under your
house and you pay for it. And sometimes have you
ever noticed like your AC can't even catch up in
the summer. You got to set on I don't know

(28:51):
what seventy three, let's say, and all spends a day
not below seventy six because it just can't keep up
with it. Well, their things you can do to fix that,
and you need to call Arctic Insulation Solutions. Their website
is this Arctic Houston dot com. Arctic is arc tic
Houston dot com eight three to two five, eight six,

(29:13):
twenty eight ninety three. They can do full radiant barriers
up in your attic, drop temperature by about thirty degrees
or more. They can do fiberglass insulation, nice thick, high
R value insulation. Not hard to do, real easy for
them to get up there and do it. They can
do solar attic fans, which come on when the temperature
rises above eighty five and the humidity is above seventy

(29:35):
five or the humidity is above seventy five, and they're
basically just pulling air through that attic. You know, it's
much better to have the outside temperature air up in
the attic than one hundred and fifty degree air up
in the attic. They can do all of that and more.
They serve all the way from Berkshire to Baytown, from
Willistown to Galveston. Arctic Installation Solutions eight three to two,

(29:55):
five eight six, twenty eight ninety three arttic a rc
Tichuston dot com. Let's go back out here to Ken
and Brookshire. So Ken, you've got a live oak tree
and you're talking about watering and having success with it.
The number one thing we can do to make our
trees go faster is to get the grass competition away

(30:18):
from them as far away as we can.

Speaker 7 (30:21):
Now.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
I know there's things esthetically that are not You know,
if you have a little live oak and you go
twenty feet out in all directions with a malt, that's
not going to be pretty in the landscape, but that's
what the tree would like for you to do. But
just getting the weeds away from the base in a
nice thick Moltz. Trees want a forest floor around their
root system, not pasture grass in their eyes, and so

(30:45):
that's one number two. When you water a good deep soaking,
it's going to take at least an inch maybe a
little more water to thoroughly wet that soil deeply. A
newly planted tree, a fairly new the first couple of
years especially needs a good soaking, primarily in the area
underneath the branch spread of the tree. That's where the
focus of the watering should be. But that's important. And

(31:08):
then fertilizing is important, but not as important as the
first two. But fertilizing at a moderate rate gets you
a lawn fertilizer. Look at how thick that trunk is,
and for every inch of trunk thickness, you give it
one or two cups of lawn fertilizer sprinkled around the tree,
and not just at the base of the tree, but

(31:29):
in a circular area around it. Watered and really good.
But the nutrients are the third most important thing. The
lack of competition and good soaking. So it never lacks
for water because in the early stages you want it
to grow as fast as you can. That's different when
it becomes a big, mature tree.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
Okay, so what's the easiest way to measure the water
inches wise? If I want to, like, put the hose there,
let it soak for a while.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yeah, it's hard with a hose. If you have a
little sprinkler, any kind of a rain gauge, and if
you don't have a rain gauge, any kind of straight
sided pinto bean can or cat food can or tuna
fish can will be your rain gate. There's a device
called the tree hugger sprinkler here in this area, and

(32:18):
I'm not sure if they have those out at Nelson
Water Gardens or not. They might they might have those
out there. But a tree hugger sprinkler is a little
green thing that's hinged and you put it up to
the tree and it's a circle that goes around the tree.
There's different sizes of it. You hook your hose to it,

(32:39):
and you could even put a timer on your hose,
and if you have a brand new tree, you can
set this thing where it just barely the sprinkler just
barely comes up a couple of inches and goes right
back down, and you're watering that root ball, which is
important early on, and then you turn it up more
and more to where eventually you can water a very
big circle. Maybe your tree's five years old and you're
still trying to get it to grow fast, right uh,

(33:00):
And so that would be another another possibility.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
Okay, well, thank you for all the hints and helps
and and uh we'll learn.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Uh we're learning about clay and yeah, well and it's
it's typically a black clay out there, by the way,
I was just looking Katie. Ace Hardware has those, as
does Sinco ranch Sinco Ranch Ace Hardware. Both of those
have they carry the tree huggers. If you're looking great,

(33:29):
I'll head out there. Actually today they're open. All right,
you take care, thanks for the call. Welcome to Texas,
and just hang around garden Line. We're going to help
you get up to speed on how to have success
around here.

Speaker 6 (33:41):
Well, we're watching and then I saw you out in
the Channon Gardens when you're out there doing this speek.
We were out there getting a lot of our plants
and trees and brushes and bushes and flowers.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
So we're taking your advice. Isn't that a great place?
It's a great a great place. Yeah. Oh, well, that's gardening.
Is that there's a wing of the Betty Ford Clinic
for gardeners and the gardening in general is addictive, by
the way, and China Gardens has tree huntor sprinklers too. Okay,
super all right, well, thank you, all right, take care

(34:15):
bye bye. Yeah, that is we warned you. Gardening is addictive.
You know anything that's that's as much fun as gardening.
As you start getting going, you know what happens some people.
Here's here's the levels of gardening. There's the I want
it to look pretty out there. I'm gonna have somebody
to do it. That is one. The next level is

(34:38):
I'm gonna have somebody to do some things, but I
want to get out and dabble and you know, get
some dart under my fingernails out in the flower beds
and the garden and stuff. That's another level of gardening.
And then it proceeds into the danger zone. That's where
you are revamping stuff, turning up your building structures to

(34:58):
hold vines, to create an ar utrellis, and you start, well, actually,
there's a four stage and this is where I'm sorry,
it's this is where people need professional help. And that
is when you find a plant that you're obsessed with,
kind of like me and Okra, and you just dive
into it and you become and I don't want to

(35:20):
pick on any society members or anything, but you have
one species, you know, and you have every existing variety
of that species, and when a new one comes out,
you got to have that. And then in the final
stages of this, we need to make a medical warning
commercial for this. Anyway, in the final stages, you're actually

(35:40):
crossing the plants to breed your own new varieties of
that species. That's the stage I've hit with Okra It's
it's I need intervention. I love messing with plants. And
you know, I'm joking about this as if it's a problem.
It's not a problem. It's fun. We have a good
time doing it. But oh boy o boyl boy, that's gardening. Well,

(36:03):
here comes some music. I means we're about to put
this hour in the books. Hey, if you want to
be first up on garden Line when we come back
seven one three two one two k t r H.
Seven one three two one two k.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
T r H.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Let us help you have success, get to the bottom
of the kinds of questions that you might have on gardening.
Today would be a good day, by the way, to
get out and visit some of our garden centers. You know,
we're talking about some of them today on the phone
with with folks that call in. But We have great
independent garden centers here and it's just listen, I've seen

(36:41):
for years gardeners do things right, make mistakes, and on
on and on. An independent garden center is free expert advice,
a place filled with plants that want to grow here
and people that want to help you have success and
know what they're talking about. Hey, good morning, Good Sunday morning, gardeners.

(37:05):
Glad to have you with us today. We are talking
about gardening. Uh seven krh. So you reach me here
so you can ask kind of questions you want to ask,
kind of try to cover a little bit of everything. Uh.
For those of you down in the in the southeast
Houston region, Moss Nursery is is the go to premiere

(37:27):
place down that direction. It's over in Seabrook, Texas, and
uh it's on Toddville Road, by the way. Everybody that
lives over there or has for a while knows about
Moss Nursery because it's just the place has been around
for seventy years. It's a family operated and it's eight
acres in size, by the way, my gosh, and it's huge.
Allow yourself some time because it's fun. It is a

(37:50):
blast to go through Moss Nursery, just turning every corner
to see the next thing. There's always going to be
cool yard art and pottery and plants and pottery thing,
all kinds of great pottery over there. The plants selection
is everything you could possibly want. Do you need shade plants?
Do you need succulents? Do you need fruit trees? Do
you need shrubs? Do you want things that bloom in

(38:12):
the heat of summer? Do you want things that produce
like edible vegetables and flowers? Mean, excuse me, herbs. Well
you need flowers too, by the way. But anyway, they've
got you covered and it's a fun place to shop.
While you're there, check out some of the quirky stuff.
You know, Jim is always bringing in some unusual things
from his travels and whatnot. And then they have the artwork,

(38:35):
the quirky design t shirts that he's created. There's one
called the eyeball plant, and you just got to see it.
It is a very unusual thing, but you know, that's
that's Moss Nursery. It's everything you would possibly need in
a garden center. And even more. Moss Nursery. Seabrook, Texas
m aas nursery dot com, maas nursery dot com. Let's

(39:00):
go to the woodlands. Now we're going to talk to Mike. Hello, Mike,
Welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 8 (39:06):
Hell say, good morning. I was listening earlier this morning
and you were describing what I think is a grave
leaf spot, and I lost connection right before you, you know,
said what to do treat that grayley spot?

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Okay, I mentioned eagle turf fungicide. It's a granule. You
put it down on the soil, watered in, it's taken
up by the roots and that fungicide gets all in
the plant and then when the disease tries to attack it,
it doesn't let it. It shuts it down. Now, it
doesn't take a lawn full of leaves with the gray

(39:42):
spots on them and make the spots go away. The
infection you have there in those spots that that's killed area,
that it's dead area, it's going to still look like that,
but it does prevent additional infection and it shuts those
infected spots down. So it's it's better as a preventative,
But if you don't get it down as a preventative,

(40:04):
at least get it in as soon as you can
to shut it down. Great, thank you, Yeah, you bet,
Thanks for the call. Appreciate that. By the way, it's
a night fast product called Eagle. All righty, let's head
now to Houston and talk to Carter. Hey, Carter, welcome

(40:24):
to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (40:26):
Good morning, Skip. I have a power bed full of
seniors that I've planted from seed. I do this every
year and they do great. I like it because the
plants grow tall. In fact, they're almost they're probably about four.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Feet tall now.

Speaker 9 (40:44):
But I love it, and so do all the neighbors.
They've gotten powdery mildew, and I wanted to know what's
the best thing to help treat it.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah. Powdery mildew is an unusual fungus in that most
fungi I want the leaves to be wet. That's when
the spores sprout and grow and create problems. Powdery mildew
doesn't want wet leaves. It wants high humidity and mild
It likes milder temperatures a little bit more, but high
humidity so that if you plant things really dense and

(41:23):
so there's not good air movement in there, there's a
lot of extra humidity that kind of hangs around you
tend to have worse powdery mildew. You know from that.
I think there are some zenias that have some resistance
to it, and I couldn't name a cultivar now, but
in the future, as you look for seeds, just check
for that and see if you can find anything that

(41:44):
has some resistance to it. One of the safest ways
to fight powdery mildew with a spray is to use
nam oil it's the name oil. Now. When it gets hot,
oils can burn plain, So you want to do it
early in the morning.

Speaker 10 (42:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
They will eradicate the powdery mildy you have. Any damage
to the leaf will not be fixed. It'll it's damaged.
It'll stay there. Uh. And then for a little while
they're protecting against powdery mildew. So you will need to
repeat and eam oil sprays periodically, uh, if you want
to maintain that. There is also on the organic side,

(42:25):
there is a biological fungicide called serenade like singing to
somebody's serenade. Uh, And that one is it's pretty effective.
It's a type of a bacillis like BT kills insects.
Serenade is a bacillis that kills powdery mildew and some
other funk, some other fungi, and then there's several synthetic

(42:48):
products that will control powdery mildew.

Speaker 9 (42:51):
All right, well that's very helpful. I can't think I'll
trust if I can early.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Okay, Well, just remember that coverage is take how long
does it take to how long does it take to do.

Speaker 9 (43:08):
What to kill the fungus?

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Pretty pretty much that day it's it's killing because all
it's doing is killing the surface. You know, it doesn't
go in the plant. It's not a systemic that goes
in the plant. But it coverage is critical parter when
you're doing this. If you spray and one leaf of
zenia blocks the spray from hitting the leaf below it,

(43:36):
let's say, uh, there won't be protection on the leaf
that didn't get coated with the kneem oil or with
the basilla's subtlest.

Speaker 9 (43:46):
All right, okay, serenade, thank you very much. This is helpful.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
You bet, thanks appreciate it. Well, thank you. I appreciate
that you take care if you are looking to really
take a lawn that is struggling, that's thin, and you
know your water in your furlight. It just isn't doing
well well. It may be soil compaction in glay soils.

(44:12):
That's even a likely thing. Year Round Houston dot Com
are specialists when it comes to cororating your soil and
then compost top dressing following the cororation. Cororation opens up
holes in the soil that gets oxygen in the root system.
We say it breathes life down into the root system
in a sense. Compost top dressing some of it falls

(44:33):
in those holes, some stays on the surface, and it
decomposes in time. It's microbially rich and your lawn responds.
Someone sent me pictures of the lawn the other day
that they had done a corroration compost top dressing in
and it was like good night. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
Year Round Houston covers the area inside the Beltway and

(44:54):
the website is the name Year Round Houston dot Com.
Eight three two eight eight four fifty three thirty five
eight three two eight eight four fifty three thirty five.
I need to take a little break here and when
I come back, rufous In Cove, you'll be our first up.
All right, folks, welcome back. Good to have you with
us here on Guardline if you have a question, you

(45:16):
can give me a call seven one three two one
two kt RH. If you did not do summer fertilizing yet,
it's still okay to get it done. It's a good
time to do it. Nitropos Super Turf the silver bag
from Nitropos. It's a nineteen four to ten fertilizer gradually
releases for like sixteen weeks or four months essentially, and

(45:37):
that'll carry you all the way up to our fall
fertilization at this point, especially when you're returning those clippings.
It gradually feeds, which is the way you want to
feed your turf in the summertime. It well, plants take
up nutrients every day. They don't take up a year's
worth of nutrients in one week and then start it
at the rest of the time. You want a fertilizer

(45:57):
that feeds low and that's what Nitropos does. You're gonna
find Nighto Foss products at places like a hardware city
I'm Memorial Drive. You're gonna find night Foss products at plants,
twell Seasons on two forty nine. You're gonna find them
at Bearings Hardware and West Timer and on this and
that and the M and D H Hardware ACE Hardware
up there in Rosenberg area. M and D all places

(46:19):
that carry Night to Foss products. Let's head out now
to the phones. We're gonna talk to Rufus in Cove, Texas. Hey, Cove,
Rufous from Cove. How's it going.

Speaker 10 (46:30):
Going real good?

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (46:31):
I found a bug this morning on my trip to
go after coffee again. It's about maybe two inches long,
half inch wide, maybe border inch better, Dick. It's black.
It's got two big old eyes on the front end,
and I got white rings around. This thing is black
with white stripes down. It would look great as for

(46:55):
a fingernail for a zombie. Have you ever seen anything like?

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Yes, Uh, it's a it's a kind of a type
of an iron beetle. Oh gosh, I'm trying to think
of the name, the specific name of those. But yeah,
those two big eyes. I guess that's supposed to scare
things off the way that it works. Uh gee, I
can't come up with the specific name of it, but

(47:24):
it's it's larva or bore and wood. It's it's one
of the things that bores in interior into the wood.

Speaker 10 (47:33):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Well, I don't think it does pine. I think it.
I think it would be hard woods.

Speaker 10 (47:42):
Specifically, right right, that's that's what it looked like. Personal thought,
will chip off the tree and I'm going I didn't
have that much wind last night. Yeah, well for zombie fingernail.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
Yeah, I know, it's kind of cool. There's a number
of different beetles that are larger like that that are
very unique. Gosh, trying to think of the name of
that specific beetle, and it is escaping me right now.
I'll think of it. I'll think of it in a minute.
But yeah, it looks like it has eyes.

Speaker 11 (48:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
That's one of the things in nature, they that that
nature does to help things scare off. It's it's I
think it's called a click beetle. Is it alive? Did
the one you found? Is it alive? Still?

Speaker 8 (48:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (48:26):
It is kind of he's acting like he's going it
looks like he's going to the final stage of life.
But when I went to get him, I got a
container and he did jump, but jumped in my container,
So right now.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Okay, yeah then yeah, one of the names I know,
which when you're talking about now that one of the
names for that is called the eyed click beetle because
it has eyes and if you will lay it on
its back, it will pop the hinge between its thoraxin's abdomen.
It pops it and it flips it up in the
air so it can land on its feet. You know,

(49:00):
some beatles lay there and wiggle their legs in the
sky and can't turn over. The click beetles click, yeah,
they do. They the clickbians can do. That's called the
eyed click beetle that you're looking at. And you said
it jumped or no it's not, and there's not a
way to no bottom the fast answers. No, they're just

(49:24):
not a practical way to control them. The amount of
damage you're getting from them is not a big deal. Uh,
don't worry about it. Careful when you pick them up though,
they've they've got a set of jaws on the front,
So don't stick your hand in front of its mouth,
all right, man, thanks a lot, rufus, Take care. Yeah,

(49:45):
nature is so cool. So many unusual things out there
in nature that is that is a cool deal. Kids
will think that is really wake especially the click You
know that there's several kinds of click beetles that we
run into in our landscapes and you lamb on their
back and they just like it's like they just pop
this little hinge and it flips them right over. It's

(50:06):
kind of cool. The folks that Nelson Plant Food have
so many lines. They got the turf Star line, which
are the things you use for your lawn, a turf
Star several great products in that line. They've got the
nutri Star line, which is specifically products for a type
of plant. Like there's a nutri Star for vegetables. There's

(50:28):
a nutri Star for bougain via. If you've got a
bougain villa and you want to give the proper kind
of fertilizing and the right ratios to it. Nelson Nutrastar
bougain Va is the one for palms and ornamental grasses.
And by the way, did you know palms are actually
a grass type plant. They're not broad leaf plants like
other trees. They are essentially a more kin to grass. Well,

(50:49):
Nutristar palm and ornamental is just for those. There's neutral
Stars for Plumeria. There's lots of different nutri Star lines
from the folks at Nelson Plant Food, and all you
have to do is go to your local garden centers,
and typically that's where you're going to uncover and counter them.
You'll find them sometimes at ace hardware stores. You're going
to find them at feed stores. They're widely available here

(51:10):
in the Greater Houston area. There's about a dozen places
around town that will let you refill the jars and
refill stations where you go in, you take your empty jar,
you fill it up. It's more economical and you avoid
throwing away more plastic, which we all do too much
of that already. So Nelson Plant Food Nutral Star lines

(51:31):
specifically for the plants that you're going after. And you
gotta fertilize. That's something that people don't really, I think
consider enough. A lot of times, you know, I get
calls and say, well, my plant's there, it's growing, it
looks okay, but it just really isn't taking off. And

(51:52):
then you throw a little fertilizer right and suddenly it is.
And you would think, well, that's it. By news, you fertilize,
it makes plants grow. But a lot of times people
don't consider the fact that you know, in nature, plants
are growing on the decomposing organic matter and the mineral
content of the soil that's dissolving away off the little
essentially rock soil particles. And that's fine, you get a

(52:15):
nice even growth and everything. But when you're trying to
push something along. You may be planting a sweet corn
in your garden and you're trying to get the most
yields you can out of it. That takes an extra
boost of nitrogen more than one actually in the course
of that crop being grown. And so when we fertilize,
we get more of that. When you've got a flowering plant,

(52:36):
that is it flowered really good and now it's just
kind of dwindling down. A petinues tend to do that
as it as they go into their season. You fertilize
and you think, well, I don't I don't want leaves.
I want flowers, but flowers you have to have leaves,
And so supporting and promoting new growth creates more foliage.
Those are solar panels that capture the sun and make

(52:58):
plant food, and then you see more flowers and you
see more fruit on your plants. So even though you
look at fertilizers and it's kind of in people's minds
that well, I'm gonna produce flowers, I need lots of
the middle number and not so much to that first number. No,
you you actually need you need both. And yes, phosphorus

(53:21):
is important for roots and for flowering and whatnot, but
nitrogen is important too, So keep your plants boosted in
order to maintain good growth and good health. Don't overdo it.
Never overdo it. It's kind of like us. We can
eat too much, especially of certain things. And although I'd
rather not hear that, but good good nutrition for success. Hey,

(53:45):
our phone number if you'd like to give me a call.
Seven one three two one two kt r H seven
one three two one two ktr H. I was out
on my patio yesterday and it was late in the day,
the time when meskis go nuts. I mean, you know
they I've had mosquitos in the backyards are bad. I

(54:06):
was afraid that when my little granddaughter came outside, they
were going to grab her, pick her up and take
her across the fence to some other huge, huge mosquitoes.
Lots of mosquitoes yesterday I did. I don't think I
had one, and that's unusual not even have one. And
it's because I've got the mosquito buckets from pest Bros.
And they're in my landscape and they're maintained. That's what

(54:28):
pest Bros does. Pest Bros. Comes out each month to
maintain those buckets for you. And you know the way
they work two things. Number one, they make the mosquitoes
come to the bucket and then they mosquitoes lay eggs
in the water. And in the water is two things.
One ascent that the mosquito smell that makes them go

(54:49):
to the buckets. Just like mosquitoes are attracted to our
carbon dioxide out of our breath, they're also attracted to
the especially the smell in these buckets. They go there,
they lay eggs. A lot eggs hatch into larva that
will never become mosquitos. It shuts them down. While they're there,
the mosquito picks up granules, not granules, little dust particles
off of a screen that it sits on in the bucket.

(55:11):
And when it flies off, everywhere that mosquito lands on water.
You know, mosquitoes can literally land on water. Some of
that particle gets in the water and now that water
can't grow mosquitos either. And this is safe. It's not
gonna kill you know, birds and the family pet or
cat that goes out and drinks some of the water.
This is good stuff. And then there's a fungus that

(55:32):
gets on its feet. Can you tell I'm getting excited?
Anytime fire ants or mosquitos are suffering, I get excited.
And that fungus within a week kills the mosquito itself.
So we wanted to live long enough to go out there,
and all those water places that we don't even know about,
I want those shut down too. That's how the buckets work,
all right. Pestpros doesn't just do mosquito buckets. They do termites,

(55:55):
and they do cockroaches inside, and they do rats in
the outside of the varmints and stuff. The pestbros dot com,
thepestbros dot com. That's the website, thepestbros dot com. If
you want to get MC call get a quote two
eight one two o six forty six seventy two eight
one two o six forty six seventy They cover the

(56:16):
greater Houston area, and by greater I mean all the
way from Texas City down south up to the Woodlands,
from Baytown on the east, all the way west to
the Kadi area. If you hear my voice pest Bros.
Probably comes to your house Dpestbros dot com two eight
one two o six forty six seventy. I'm telling you, uh,
nothing kills every mosquito. You know, there's always mosquitos flying

(56:39):
in from places. But this is amazing. I've never seen
anything like it. And now I used to get the
foggers and nuke my landscape, you know, to kill everything.
I didn't. I hated it. I didn't want to do that,
but my gosh, you know. And then there's the misquita,
the diseases mosquitoes spread around. Ugh. Anyway, time for me

(57:01):
to take a break here in just a second. If
you'd like to give me a call, be first up
coming off the break. If you're the fastest to dial
seven one three two one two kt r H. That's
seven one three two one two kt rh. We'll be
back with your calls. And I want to talk just
a little bit about fruit growing and some things that
I've noticed in terms of calls and emails from people

(57:24):
trying to grow fruit. So stick around. We'll be right back.
All right, we're back. Welcome back to garden Line. We're
here to help you have success. If you'd like to
give me a call. We can help work through some
issues in the garden or some questions or maybe and
this is fun. You know, not everything in gardening is
a problem. Maybe we can suggest some plans or some

(57:48):
approaches to success with plans that that is fun. Here
here's the thought. This is something that I probably ought
to talk about this more. But when you do a
line landscape, you often are looking at you're in a
garden center and you're seeing all these pretty flowers. Ooh,
I like that, I like that, And maybe you're taking

(58:09):
it to the level of well combining the colors that
are pleasing to you, or some plants that are taller, shorter,
and you know, so when you look at a back fence,
you've got some taller plants in the back and some
shorter ones in the front. So esthetically it looks good
to you. But think about the four seasons. The four seasons.
We live in a mild climate, and even in winter

(58:29):
here we can have color and we can have plants
that are interesting. The cinnamon colored exfoliating bark on a
Natchez krpe myrtle is beautiful in the winter time. Do
you see what I'm talking about? And then there's flowers
and stuff. Think about all four seasons. In spring, it's
easy to get blooms. Everything's blooming in spring, it seems like.
But there are also things that bloom through the summer.

(58:51):
They are very tough here, they can make it here.
And then we have things that only bloom in the fall.
They pop up for their show in the fall season.
So when you put in your lands, always be thinking
about and as you you know, may come home every
day and you look at your landscape through the seasons,
look at what's missing, you know. So and typically in
our Houston area landscapes, summer becomes a sea of green,

(59:13):
green grass, green groundcovers, green shrubs, green trees. And where's
the color? Well, green's the color. Okay, where are the
other colors? So think about the four seasons when you
plan your landscape. Let's seat out now to Marene in
Lakeside of States. Hello, Marene, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (59:31):
Thank you.

Speaker 12 (59:33):
I have a thought in my head and it was
more expensive than the other and I thought, you know, should.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Call in and ask. And so here's my question.

Speaker 12 (59:43):
When using mulch, I wanted to do my beds in
the front and I know it has a delicious smell
to me, more than some other things that we put
in place, but it was quite a bit more expensive.
So what is the value in using the feedar mulch.

Speaker 11 (01:00:02):
Is it a repellent for.

Speaker 12 (01:00:06):
Insects versus another one with just getting wood chips or
some other ria mulch.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Yeah, cedar mulch is it's pretty initially the color, but
as it ages it turns.

Speaker 12 (01:00:18):
Gray like, Oh, I'm not really much concerned about the color.

Speaker 11 (01:00:23):
I just want to.

Speaker 12 (01:00:23):
Protect my plants, so I'm planning to do two inches.

Speaker 11 (01:00:26):
So I did two inches.

Speaker 12 (01:00:28):
Unless you tell me I need to do more.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Well, I'm just giving you the overall on ceedar. The
other thing is the scent is nice, but the scent
doesn't last forever either. And as far as the depth
deep enough to block all the sunlight out, depending on
the size of the chips the particles of mulch, if
it's very small in size compared to large in size,
you would need less to block out the light. Well,

(01:00:53):
if you've got big old chunks like pine bark chunks,
for example, you need to make it deeper in order
to fully block that light. Uh. And then the other
thing about this eater is it's a little slower to
decompose a little bit, but that depends too on particle size. Uh,
there's not right wrong and that it is more expensive.

Speaker 12 (01:01:12):
Okay, Well in one case I was I could have
but did not, gotten ten bag four bags for ten dollars,
whereas I got ten bags for sixty five dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Okay, so I didn't think Yeah, ricing.

Speaker 11 (01:01:31):
Why if I was watching my dollars, But I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
I'm not. That's not what I'm doing for gardening.

Speaker 13 (01:01:37):
You have to do what's right for me smell wise.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Look, yeah, marine, I would say, it comes down to
what do you want? What do you want to look at?
And and uh, and then you you make the financial
balance between your options. That then but it there's not
a right or wrong on this. Just put mulch down
thick enough to block the weeds and hold that. That's all.
Moisture and temperature more appropriate. Okay, The next question is

(01:02:04):
really what it does? Okay Fusia plants.

Speaker 12 (01:02:08):
Fusia plants are not known for this area, so I'm
not doing well with it. But if I wanted to
get another one, where would you say arbrogate or well?

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
Yeah, but but I don't get fusia. Now, Fusia is
a gorgeous plant in the spring, and you get to
enjoy it for about fifteen minutes when you get home.
I'm exaggerating what happened though, Yeah, well that's what happens.

Speaker 12 (01:02:41):
It was gone.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Well, I know, I know, and I'm exaggerating, but I'm
trying to make a point. You know, if you want
something that you get more more bang for your buck
in terms of time. There's so many other you know,
you go to a place like Arbigate, you're going to
find tons of hanging basket color options that just laugh
at summertime heat. So I would go that route. I

(01:03:04):
love few shit. It's a beautiful flower. But unless you
just got money to spend on changing out baskets, I
don't think it's a great choice. Hey, Marine, thank you
very much. I appreciate, appreciate call to all right, you
bet you take care? Yeah, that's the case. Southwest Fertilizer
Corner Abyssina and Renwick in Southwest Houston is your one

(01:03:27):
stop shop for everything you need as far as supplies
and tools equipment for your gardening, okay fertilizing. Ever, fertilizer
is ever kind of out of my mouth is a
Southwest Fertilizer. Every insect control, disease control, weed control that's
ever come out of my mouth and more or at
Southwest Fertilizer. If you're a synthetic gardener or an organic gardener,

(01:03:49):
the best selection each of you will find is at
Southwest Ferdalize. Their organic selection is bigger than anybody I
know in the whole region. If you need tools, quality tools,
ninety foot long wall of tools, quality tools, and then
the things that aren't in other places so much. You know,
I talk about the kneeling benches. They do carry the

(01:04:11):
kneeling bench that I like. They also carry the little
tool that makes my weed wiper. You go my website
guarding with skip dot com. Look at the weed wiper.
You can build one of those. Bob's got the tool
you start with to build it, the graber tool you
start with. It's all there. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com, corner,
Abyssinett and Runwick. Really friendly service, really great quality products

(01:04:33):
and a selection like none other. Seven to one, three
six six six, seventeen forty four. I was visiting with
somebody the other day who was bragging on Affordable Tree Service.
Affordable Tree Service Martin Spoonmore's company. You've been hearing about
Affordable Tree Service. Gosh, Randy talked about them for years

(01:04:53):
and years. They had been around doing this for a
very long time, and they know what they're doing. That's
the bottom line. You can give them a call seven
one three six ninety nine two six sixty three. If
you want to know more about their services, you can
go to the website aff Tree Service dot com. There
you'll learn that they do consultations, bids are free. Uh,

(01:05:17):
they do pruning, they do deep root feeding, they do
pest and disease control. If you need a stump ground,
they do that. And if you're gonna do any construction
around her toe, if you are gonna mess with the
tree's root system, that includes dropping a sidewalk on top
of it, that includes digging a trench within the branch
broad of the tree, have them come out and do
preconstruction care to protect that extremely valuable part of your landscape,

(01:05:40):
that tree. They know what they're doing. Seven one three
six nine nine two six sixty three. It's a family business.
You're probably gonna talk to Martin's mom when you call
gardenline customers are their priority. You're telling them you heard
about it on garden Line seven one three six nine
nine two six six three. I was taking care of

(01:06:02):
some plants. I've got some plants that haven't been fertilized
while they're in containers, and you know containers are it's
even more important to fertilize because that's a confined root
system and they don't have a large boume of soil
to draw nutrients and water from. And what did I do.
I grab my Microlife Biomatrix orange label. It's a seven
to one three. That's what I typically use indoors because
it doesn't smell at all, and it's a nice organic

(01:06:25):
fertilizer highend nitrogen to boost the foliage growth, which most
are indoor plants or foliage plants. But I was doing
some fertilizing outside on some plants that were struggling, and
I grab my Microlife Ocean Harvest. That's a blue label.
That's a fish based fertilizer of four to two three fertilizer.
Mix it in water, give them a dose. I'll probably

(01:06:45):
do it about three times, maybe a week and a
half apart. Something like that. Just to get them a
really good boost. They're going. It's not gonna burn plants.
These aren't salt based fertilizers. You can find out about
more of the Microlife fertilizers and where to find them,
which I'll save you some trouble. It's everywhere, uh but
Microlife Fertilizer dot com, Microlifeurleisure dot com. I'll take a

(01:07:07):
little break here and we'll be back for our last
segment of this hour. There you go, a little George
straight for you this morning on garden Line. Hey, our
phone number seven one three two one two k t
r H seven one three two one two k t
r H. If you have metal furniture or metal ornament
or anything metal outside in your landscape, you need to

(01:07:29):
call Houston Powder Coders to have them turn it into
something special, I mean, really nice. I grew up with
those tubular metal chairs. You know, they kind of came
in primary colors, you know, like red and blue and whatnot,
yellow and whatnot. Uh, And you could kind of bounce
on them because the metal tubes curved that none of
those things well, after a while, they they're rusty. The

(01:07:51):
bolts are rusty. You take them into Houston powder coders,
and they will put in new, fresh stainless steel hardware.
They will give them a nice coating and it's brand new.
It is like brand new. Same thing true with those
little expanded metal outdoor metal table furniture and chairs. Same
thing as true with some metal that's hanging on the
back fence or the side brick of your house. You know,

(01:08:14):
something decorative and ornamental. If it's metal, they can coat it.
You're talking about cast iron, wrought iron, aluminum patio furniture.
They do the repair that's needed. The little welding here
and there might be needed. They can do some of that.
Houstonpowdercoats dot Com two eight one six seven six thirty

(01:08:34):
eight eighty eight two eight one six seven six thirty
eight eighty eight. We're going to head now to Southwest
Euston and talk to Carolyn this morning. Hello Carolyn, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (01:08:45):
Thank you. My ochre seeds have just come up. They're
in a container.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
Oh boy.

Speaker 14 (01:08:53):
The containers twelve inches high and sixteen inches across at
the top, but about six inches across at the bottom.

Speaker 15 (01:09:02):
Well.

Speaker 14 (01:09:02):
The fertilizer that I have is Scott Super bloom or
has to grow six twelve six How much should I
how much should I put in? And how how frequently?

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Yeah, you've got to go with what the label says
on these because you know different concentrations. The has to
grow is a Medina product, and that one you're not
going to burn your plants with it, so it's not
so critical to get it just right. But just follow that.
They'll they'll tell you on the label. I'm wanting to
say that the has to grow is an ounce per gallon,

(01:09:41):
but I that don't read the label to be sure
that's right. Okay, that is that's what I would do,
and then and then water with that, and I would
water with that. Now you're going to grow the oakrah,
how long in these containers? Are you going to transplant
it out? Or what?

Speaker 6 (01:10:01):
No?

Speaker 14 (01:10:01):
That that they'll stay there? Will that size?

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
Okay?

Speaker 14 (01:10:04):
T take care of three okra plants.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
Tell me the top is wider than the bottom and
the depth. Tell me the width and the depth again, please, the.

Speaker 14 (01:10:18):
Depth is twelve twelve inches, The width at the top
is sixteen.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
Okay, and at the bottom it's about six right, Okay,
you can grow okra in that. I don't if you
try three okra in that you better be water in
it at least twice a day. Also, that's a narrow base,
and so when the wind blows, it's gonna blow it

(01:10:45):
over really easy. Is that okra gets taller, so you're
gonna need some way to stabilize that. But I would
say if you tried three in there, you just gotta
be real comfort because they're going to go into stress
really fast because that is a very small volume of soil.
Even for one okra, you can do it. One time
I grew okra in in a solo cup, a red

(01:11:09):
solo cup got about twelve inches tall and it had
an okra pod on top. So if you keep it moist,
you can grow okra in a lot of things. But
the problem is keeping it moist, it just pumps that
root ball dry so fast. You're still with me, Carolyn, Well,
I think I think we lost her there anyway, But

(01:11:30):
that was the bottom That was the bottom line. It
kind of covered the things we were talking about. Anyway,
planks for all seasons. It's the garden center that's there
on Tomball Parkway Highway to forty nine, right where it
comes into Luetta or just north of that. So if
you're going north. Let's say, just for sake of example,
you're from Houston going north toward Tumble, you exit Luetta,

(01:11:53):
cross over Lueta, and it's on the right hand side
right there. It just faces two forty nine. Since nineteen
seventy three. The Flowery family, they've been doing this a
long time. They know this area and their customers know them.
That old region. I mean, everybody knows about plants for
all seasons, and they go there and they depend on
them because they're experts. You know. That's that independent nursery

(01:12:17):
thing I talk about all the time. You walk in there,
you're talking to gardeners who garden where you live, who
garden the same area you live in, that have been
around for decades, seeing new species, new plant varieties. They
know what works and what doesn't work. They're not going
to sell you a blue spruce tree that belongs to Colorado's.

(01:12:39):
That's kind of just a silly example. The point is
they got the right kinds of plants. They got gorgeous pottery.
I got some pots from there myself, the beautiful Glaci pottery.
And then shrubs, trees, vegetables, herbs, flowers, annuals, trailing plants
for hanging baskets, combo plants for containers. They've got it
all plants for all seasons. Dot COM's the website. Here's

(01:13:02):
the number. Two eight one six seven six sixteen forty six.
Two eight one six seven six sixteen forty six are
true lawn and garden experts. You were listening to garden Line.
I'm gonna give you the phone number, even though we're
just knocking me take a call before we go to break.
But if you'd like to be one the first up,
now'd be a great time to dial in. Seven one

(01:13:24):
three two one two k t r H. That is
seven one three two one two k t r H
went out in the yard yesterday and had some limbs
that had fallen down, and it just reminded we had
a storm came through as rough. Well remember the storms

(01:13:44):
from last summer. When storms come, they'll knock the power
out by knocking down tree limbs and stuff. And that's
where the Generac automatic standby generator from Quality Home Products
comes in. It comes on automatically. Quality Home is a
standout organization. Absolutely, the customer service is like none other.
You can go to the website qualitytx dot com or

(01:14:07):
you can call them. That's seven to one to three quality.
But do it act now because it takes a while
to get all this set up. But they do everything
for you and you are not going to find a
company that has better customer ratings, however you go about
looking at it, whether it's the Better Business Bureau, whether
it's Houston Chronicles best of the Best, whether you know
five star ratings, fourteen thousand of those. By the way,

(01:14:29):
this is the company to get your generator from. They
are honest. They're a local company, family owned here in
Houston since nineteen eighty nine, and they do have financing
options available. Quality Home Products of Texas, qualitytx dot com. Well,
times up for this hour, we'll be back. What kind

(01:14:51):
of questions do you have? What are we going to
talk about when we come back. Well, well, welcome back,
Welcome back to Gardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and
we are here to help you have success in the garden.
One of the things we deal with in summer here
in the greater Houston area are mosquitoes. You know mosquitos, right,

(01:15:12):
and there is a simple little product out there called
mosquito dunks. You hear me talk about mosquito Dunks all
the time. I've asked Heather stick Me from Mosquito Dunks
to come on as a guest this morning and we're
going to kind of pick her brain and talk about
all things related to mosquitoes and so, Heather, are you there,

(01:15:34):
I'm here. Good morning, Skip, good morning. Thanks for coming on.
I appreciate you taking some time out to talk about mosquitos.
I said earlier this morning that mosquitoes can be so bad.
One time I went outside with my granddaughter and I'm
pretty sure they tried to pick her up and carry
her across the fence to the neighbors yard. It's like

(01:15:55):
a ton.

Speaker 15 (01:15:56):
Of mosquitos, I'm going to say, bart of Texas. So
they can be pretty nasty creatures.

Speaker 1 (01:16:04):
For sure, they are nasty. They are nasty creatures. And
by the way, folks, if you have a question about
mosquito mosquito control, using mosquito dunks and things, give us
a call this hour. Either Heather or I will try
to put our heads together here and I help you
with that. If it's other kinds of gardening questions, if

(01:16:25):
you'll hold off, I'll start taking those again from the
nine to ten o'clock hour this morning. So that's kind
of how we're going to do things. But any kind
of mosquito related things, just feel free to give us
a call. Well, Heather, thanks again for coming on. I'd
like you to tell us a little bit about the
product mosquito dunks.

Speaker 16 (01:16:43):
First of all, sure, So, mosquito dunks resemble a small,
beige looking type of donut.

Speaker 15 (01:16:51):
They're round in shape, and.

Speaker 16 (01:16:53):
They're designed to float on the surface of standing water
to control mosquito larvae.

Speaker 15 (01:17:00):
So they dissolve over a period.

Speaker 16 (01:17:02):
Of time and they kill that larva before they become
those pesky, flying, biting, disease carrying adults.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Okay, nice, that's uh, that's a good thing. You know,
anytime a mosquito suffers, I'm happy. So I'm glad to
hear we have we have a disease to control mosquitos.

Speaker 16 (01:17:27):
Correct, So, mosquito dunks are made of a bacterium called
bt I. That's a very short way of saying Bacillis
therengientis subspecies is raelianss.

Speaker 15 (01:17:38):
BTI is a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
Easy because tight exactly exactly.

Speaker 16 (01:17:44):
So essentially it acts as a gut disruptor and it
prevents those larva from feeding if they don't feed, they
don't develop, and again they don't turn into those biting.

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
Adults right right, And so the anywhere there's stagnant water,
mosquitoes can reproduce. It's amazing how little water it takes
for mosquitoes to reproduce, as.

Speaker 15 (01:18:08):
Little as a bottle capfull of water. Yeah, they don't
need a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:18:12):
So think about that. Think about that. We get rains
around the Houston area, and you know, maybe you're good
at going out and dumping out the bird bath periodically
to keep mosquitoes from breeding in there. But what about
the you know that hollow tree where water gets in
and you got standing water in an old hollow section
on a tree, or what about other areas where you

(01:18:33):
just kick it in and drain it out. That's where
things like these mosquito dunks come in handy. One of
the one of the things I think people don't make
this connection. But you mentioned bacillistheringiensis israeliensis strain israeliansis. Everybody
that's a gardener pretty much knows about BT. And when

(01:18:54):
we say BT, we're talking about a strain called Kurshtaki
that kills caterpillars spread on foliage. Caterpillars eat it, caterpillars
get sick and die. This is a different strain of
BT that works on mosquitoes, and I believe it works
on fungus nuts too. Is that correct?

Speaker 15 (01:19:11):
That is correct? That is correct.

Speaker 16 (01:19:13):
So we make a product for caterpillar lepidopterrid species, the
Christaki version, but okay, guy, which is different is toxic
only to mosquito larva, black fly larva, and fungus gnat larva.
So if you have in your houseplants and you have
trouble with fungusnats, our mosquito bits will work to control

(01:19:37):
those those nasty pests.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
That that is a that is a good point and
a lot of people, especially when you keep your pots
wet a little too wet, that wet potting soil, you're
gonna find fungus nuts showing up. They will find it
and there'll be a problem. And putting the little mosquito
bits it's the same thing as a mosquito dunk, just
small granules, right, That is correct.

Speaker 15 (01:20:01):
They're formulated just a little bit differently.

Speaker 16 (01:20:04):
So bits better in house plants or for broadcast application
large areas outside where it might be difficult to float
a dunk. The bits are ideal for houseplants and control
of fungus nats.

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
Good good well, And that is that is helpful. I
know too that, for example, in the basins underneath of
outdoor plants on the patio, those little catch basins, we
often have standing water in there when you're watering enough
to keep that thing alive on hot summer days. And
boy is that ever a good mosquito breeding area. But

(01:20:41):
you can't quite get a dunk inside those little basins.

Speaker 15 (01:20:44):
Usually bits are a great application for that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
Okay, okay, mosquito bits and grandinous mosquito dunks. And they're
all from the companies called some Responsible Solutions, right, that
is good, good well. I know that those people that
have dealt with mosquitoes before definitely are concerned about it.
And we should be concerned because there's some pretty serious

(01:21:14):
diseases that mosquitoes carry. I don't know if you're an
expert on mosquito disease caused diseases, you are transmitted diseases,
but you probably have some thoughts on that as well.

Speaker 16 (01:21:27):
Sure, we know that mosquitoes can carry disease like West
Nile virus zica in you know more southern climates. Other
parts of the world, Dungey fever can be a problem,
But we are seeing a little bit of an increase
in mosquito born illness here in the States. So in

(01:21:48):
most cases, yeah, it's relatively treatable.

Speaker 15 (01:21:54):
People develop some kind of flu.

Speaker 16 (01:21:56):
Like symptoms, body aches, joint pain, headache, things like that,
but it can be very serious and mosquito bites. Mosquitos, unfortunately,
are considered one of the world's deadliest animals, so they
can transmit disease that can result in death.

Speaker 1 (01:22:14):
And I want to I want to just repeat what
you just said there, because I recently read a book
about some of the essentially the plagues of history, you know,
everything from the Black Death to you name it, and
several of those were mosquito based transmitted issues in those

(01:22:34):
plagues of history, and not just a plague going through
but the things that just exist in tropical areas and
kill millions of people over time. And to say mosquitoes
are one of the world's most dangerous animals is striking
that it's really true. When you look at the number
of deaths through history that have been caused by mosquitoes,

(01:22:56):
I think it exceeds everything else as far as creatures
are concerned.

Speaker 15 (01:23:00):
I believe you are correct.

Speaker 16 (01:23:02):
Yes, yep, they're pretty small, but they can be deadly.

Speaker 1 (01:23:07):
They sure can. Well, I'm going to take a little
break here and we'll come back with you, Heather in
just a moment. If you can hang on for one second,
we would like to continue this discussion. I got plenty
more things I'd love to talk about, so we'll be
right back. Folks. Alright, yeah, yeah, you knew I had
to play buzz off mosquito with the topic we got today. Hey,

(01:23:30):
welcome back, Heather. It's good to have you back. I
wanted to continue on with a few questions, if that's okay.
The BT I the type of BT that's in mosquito dunks.
Can you tell me kind of how it works? How
does it kill a mosquito? Some people kind of like
to get into the nerdy part of this.

Speaker 14 (01:23:52):
Sure.

Speaker 16 (01:23:53):
So, essentially, it acts as a gut disruptor. So as
those as the female mosquitos lay the eggs, the eggs
hatch into larva in the water, and they're filter feeders,
so they ingest micro organisms and anything that's in the
water in the water column that the ti dissolves off

(01:24:15):
the mosquito dunk and as the mosquito ingests that again,
because it acts as a gut disruptor, it basically kills them.

Speaker 15 (01:24:26):
They're not able to feed and they die.

Speaker 1 (01:24:30):
That's interesting. So the function in a mosquito larva is
the same as regular BT is in a cuterpeller, disrupting
the gut. That is good. Hey, we have a callar here.
I'm gonna let's head over to a collar Jay in
the woodlands. Jay, I think you had some mosquito questions.

Speaker 4 (01:24:51):
Yeah, good morning, darnedest thing. Yeah, I've got mosquito craps
in the front yard, you know, the one whard has
the UV at a track and the fan blows them down.
Same thing in the backyard the first time. And I've
lived here since two thousand and eight. I'm having a
lot of mosquitos inside my house. I mean, I am

(01:25:11):
getting eaten alive. I've checked windows, I've checked for you know, screens,
I've checked everything. But how was that happening?

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
And what can I do about it? We make a
couple of comments and I'll pass the baton to you
if you'd like to add anything to it. I've noticed
mosquitos like to gather around the entrance to my house.
Like the front door is kind of an entrance set
in with the area, and they gather there. So every
time we open and close the door, even if we
try to be fast, it's just like they're right there,

(01:25:43):
and it's almost like it pulls them in. I don't
know of any way a mosquito would breed or develop
like inside your house, but somehow they would be coming
in from the outside. Heather, do you have any thoughts
on that?

Speaker 16 (01:25:56):
Yeah, I unless you have an area of standing water,
I would think it would be difficult for them to
breed indoors.

Speaker 15 (01:26:03):
They are likely coming in from the.

Speaker 16 (01:26:05):
Outside, particularly if you've got shady areas where they like
to harbor near your entryways.

Speaker 6 (01:26:13):
Hm.

Speaker 4 (01:26:14):
Okay, the back door is fairly sunny, but now the
front doors in shade. I rarely go out the front door.
I mean, I've got access to cosplosives with that help.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
Oh boy, this sounds like we're going to Caddyshack Land here, Jay,
with you take because this is like Moby Dick. The
mosquitoes are the big white whale, and you've becoming obsessed there.

Speaker 4 (01:26:42):
With the pretty much pretty much. But basically just just
wave them out and just try to shoo them away
when I'm going in and out.

Speaker 1 (01:26:52):
It maybe just be a little observant, you know of that.
We we have dogs that go in and out the
door all the time. They think they have to be
out side over five minutes and uh so we do
a lot of door opening, and probably more than we're
conscious of. But I don't know what else to tell
you on that somehow they're coming in though. So yeah, okay,

(01:27:14):
well a lot of ideas. I think Heather and I
both said, you bet, thank you, Ja, I appreciate appreciate
your call very much. Okay, Uh, let's uh Heather, we
win to run over to another call right here. Somebody's
got an idea mosquitoes. We talked to Adolph in Menville. Hey, Adolf,
got some thoughts here.

Speaker 17 (01:27:34):
Yes, sir, good morning. I wanted to ask you, uh,
does the mosquitoes spray the county sprays for mosquitoes. Does
that affect the the garden pints? For example, I had
a couple of rue plants. They're beautiful, yeah, and now

(01:27:56):
they're they're kind of dying off. Well it kind of
will be I don't know.

Speaker 11 (01:28:03):
If it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:05):
Go ahead, yes, sir, well, I'll comment on it, and again, Heather,
if you want to add something, please do. Uh the
sprays they use for those the trucks going down the
street and whatnot, Uh, they're not going to do that
to your plants. And they just they dissipate very you know.
I guess if someone took and just sprayed a liquid
right onto a plant, you might have something. But the

(01:28:29):
kinds of things they're using are not that way. They
could not go spraying stuff that's going to damage plants
up and down the street. That would be a big mess.

Speaker 17 (01:28:41):
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't think so. I just wondered why
all of a sudden it seemed like, yeah, maybe it
was just a coincidence.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
I don't know any other thoughts, any other thoughts on that.

Speaker 15 (01:28:56):
I would say it's just a coincidence.

Speaker 16 (01:29:00):
Their spring is an insecticide and not a herbicide, so
you it shouldn't have any damaging effect to landscape.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
Okay, all right, all right, good, thanks a lot, appreciate it.
Right off, Heather, we had a caller came in and
just left the message and he thought maybe the mosquitoes
and this is this goes for the previous caller. Uh
might be coming in through plumbing vents, So I don't

(01:29:28):
know exactly how where that process would work. I don't
know what would bring them in through there, unless there's
some of our carbon diox arbill breathing out is going out.

Speaker 15 (01:29:38):
I'm not certain either.

Speaker 16 (01:29:39):
My brother is actually a plumber, but I can't afford
to him to ask him, so I could ask you.

Speaker 1 (01:29:46):
Oh, he charges family. Don't you get the family right?
At least Heather?

Speaker 15 (01:29:52):
But I'm not sure, but I'll add, okay.

Speaker 7 (01:29:55):
You might know.

Speaker 1 (01:29:57):
That's that's kind of that's kind of interesting. Now with
the bits you were talking earlier about the dunks, which
are the little mini donuts that we float, last about
a month. With the bits, I think you're wanting to
reapply those about every week or two, right.

Speaker 16 (01:30:13):
That is correct. We recommend for best control that you
apply about every seven to fourteen days. They're designed to
control very quickly, so they'll begin to kill mosquito larva
within twenty four hours.

Speaker 15 (01:30:28):
You know, they don't last.

Speaker 16 (01:30:29):
Quite as long as the dunks, so reapplication every seven
to fourteen days.

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
Yes, okay, So interesting thing about mosquitoes is when the
water is moving they tend out to be as big
of a problem. They like stagnant still water, especially water
with decomposing organic matter in it. And so there, you know,
a lot of people utilize that. I've seen a little
thing you float in bird baths that just makes ripples
and the water. Funny little thing, but it just it

(01:30:58):
just keeps the water ripple and it kind of helps
to cut down on yeah, cuts down on them a lot.
You can't you can't do that practically all over the landscape.
But that is interesting. Now, these this bt i basilosthere
gensis Israelian, the bti and mosquito dunks. It does not
hurt people or pets or birds or you can put

(01:31:21):
in your coy pond or you know, if you got
goldfish in a pond or little thing outside. It's not
gonna hurt livestock. It's not gonna hurt beneficial insects, birds
or any of the wildlife. That's correct, right, that is correct.

Speaker 16 (01:31:35):
It is toxic only to mosquito larva, black fly larva,
and fungus net larvae, so it won't harm pets, wild life, fish, livestock,
any none target species.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
Good. Now, when it rains, there's all these places that
maybe we don't notice. Everybody knows that old tires catch
water and that's just mosquito heaven to go breed there.
But there are other places that sometimes we see water,
such as like a little kid's kiddie pool, you know,
a little plastic kids set in the water pools and

(01:32:10):
you put water in it and you go away, and
you think, well, you know, I'll change that. It hadn't
been there very long. But it doesn't take mosquitos long
to go through their life cycle, does it.

Speaker 15 (01:32:21):
It really doesn't. It's just a couple of days. So
you know, a lot standing water is key.

Speaker 16 (01:32:28):
But you're right, there are often places where people don't
look where they're collecting water. So a lot of times
people don't look up your gutters if they're clogged, can
collect standing water.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
Yeah, that that is amazing. I'd like to just remind
people of that because it just doesn't take long at all.
And there are a number of different species of mosquitos too,
and we don't we have more than one species here
leave in our area. Any thoughts about some of the

(01:33:03):
species we're dealing with.

Speaker 16 (01:33:06):
You know, I am not quite as familiar with the
number of species that you have in Texas or in
the Houston area specifically, But you're right, there are a
number of different species. Yeah, the benefit to dunks and
bits is that it will control all of them, so
it's there you go. It's not just specific to one

(01:33:28):
species or another. It will control all mosquito larvae.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
That's that is good. That's kind of what I was
thinking as in asking that I I do know that. Well,
all of you listening to me, you've had time where
you go out and it's like they're really big mosquitoes
landing on you. And then there's a time maybe a
little further away from rain or something, where you see
these little tiny mosquitos that are landing There's Those are

(01:33:55):
just two examples of some of the different species that
we see here in this area. I'm up against a
heartbreak here in twenty seconds, Heather, I want you to
come back, and I'd like to shift gears a little
bit and talk about some of the other products that
you guys at Summit Solutions have some at Responsible Solutions,
and I just think it's great that we have something

(01:34:16):
that doesn't hurt all the things we care about outside,
but it does take out the mosquitos you know, to
have an organic option like that is wonderful. Folks will
be right back, all right, welcome back, Welcome back to
garden Line. This hour, we are visiting with Heather Stickney
from Summit Responsible Solutions. They are the makers of Mosquito

(01:34:38):
dunks and Mosquito Bits, which are one of the best, safest,
most common sense ways I can think of to stop
mosquito larva from developing and turning into those nasty, adult,
flying and biting mosquitos that we have to deal with. Heather,
welcome back to garden Line. It's good to have you back,

(01:34:59):
and I want to to shift gears for a moment
outside of the mosquito dunks and bets and tell us
about some of the other products that you guys carry.
I generally don't talk about those a lot online, so
I'd like to hear about some of that.

Speaker 16 (01:35:12):
Sure, so we talk about mosquito dunks and mosquito bits
as being a great way to control mosquito larva. Unfortunately,
there is no fail safe way to eliminate mosquitos from
your yard completely. Controlling the larva is a good way
to do that, but when you do have those adults
that you want to try to control. We make a

(01:35:34):
product called Mosquito and Net Barrier, which is a permethron
based spray. Permethron has been widely used in mosquito control
for many, many years, and that will actually help knock
down and control that adult population. So you can kill
the adults, and you can kill the larva using a

(01:35:57):
combination of the dunks and bits and then the mosquito
and that barrier.

Speaker 1 (01:36:03):
Okay, now, is this something you're just spraying the mosquito
and that barrier in the air, or are you like
spraying surfaces Like we were talking a while ago about
how at my house the back door is kind of
inside and I just see mosquitos kind of they love
hanging out in there in the hot, hot part of
the day. Or would I be spraying the bricks and
stuff with it so that if they lay in they

(01:36:25):
get it on them or what?

Speaker 16 (01:36:27):
Really, where you want to apply it is in your lawn,
so on your grass, and then on areas where mosquitoes
might rest, so on vertical surfaces like fences. They like
to harbor in bushes, shady areas. They're not really strong flyers,
so they're more low than high.

Speaker 15 (01:36:47):
But okay, areas where they made harbor during the day.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Oh well, and I know around our area the shrubs
around the house. You know, everybody wants to have shrubs
around the house, and that during the day when it's hot,
that's that's where the mosquitoes really tend to gather. You know,
for us in the kudo parts of the day, they
get that break at the end of the day when
we want to go outside, so do they, and that's

(01:37:12):
when they show up on the patio to spoil the show.
But so you would use the mosquito in that barrier,
sprang it onto the foliage of those of the plants,
the shrubs and things. Yeah, that makes sense. I get that.
Anything else or go ahead, go ahead. But you were
going to add some well.

Speaker 16 (01:37:31):
I was going to say, with respect to the mosquito
and net barrier, you know, you don't have to worry
about harming your landscape plants. Again, it's an insecticide and
not an herb aside, so it shouldn't do any damage
to your plants.

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
Okay, all right, any other kinds of products to talk about.

Speaker 16 (01:37:52):
You know a lot of times people will use a
skin based repellent to help keep mosquitoes off of them,
something like a beet or something that's been EPA approved
as a skin based repellent. Yeah, it's hard to keep
covered up when you're outside, especially in Houston in the
summer months, but keeping your person protected with longer layers helps.

(01:38:17):
We make a product called Green Armor insect Repellent, which
is designed as a clothing and gear treatment, So you
can actually treat your pants, your shoes, your socks, your shirts,
your ball caps, backpacks, tents, canvas chairs that you might
use outside sit in with this product called green Armor.

(01:38:40):
It works as a repellent and it will also kill mosquitoes, ticks,
which can be problematic, gnats, I'm sorry, mites, and chiggers.
So just sort of an added layer of protection to
skin based repellent.

Speaker 1 (01:38:58):
Okay, So that's the kind of thing that you would like,
spray it onto these surfaces and let it dry for
a little bit before then using them yourself. Like whether
it's a some item of a clothing or like you're
mentioning a tent or a backpack or something like that.
Is that correct?

Speaker 15 (01:39:19):
That is correct? That is correct. You'd spray the garment
thoroughly or the equipment thoroughly.

Speaker 16 (01:39:25):
Allow it to dry and then you're able to use it.
So it's kind of a neat product. It will treat
I believe, up to seven full outfits and will last
up to six weeks even after washing.

Speaker 15 (01:39:40):
So if you're someone who.

Speaker 1 (01:39:41):
Likes that is significant. Yeah, that is really significant. Okay. So,
and not just mosquitoes, but other crawlers, ticks and chiggers
and mites and things as well.

Speaker 15 (01:39:55):
Right, that is correct. That is correct?

Speaker 16 (01:39:59):
So nice, you know, and can be used at any
time in the season. We're talking a lot about mosquitoes now,
but in the fall if people are out hunting, you know,
in terms of controlling against ticks, it's a great it's
a great option.

Speaker 1 (01:40:16):
Okay. Nice. Well, that's that's good. Uh So is there
anything else that I should be asking about a product
wise that you'd like to tell.

Speaker 16 (01:40:23):
Us about, you know, right off the top of my head,
I can't think of anything.

Speaker 3 (01:40:30):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:40:30):
Well, I've I've been to your I've been to your website. Uh,
the summit, by the way, we should give that if
if people want to learn more about uh, these products,
you can go. Uh, I'll let you summit Responsible Solutions
dot com. Is that correct?

Speaker 15 (01:40:47):
That is correct?

Speaker 1 (01:40:50):
Okay, some Responsible Solutions dot Com. I was, I was
at the website and I saw a product that I
I know we're off target here or off topic here,
but I just have to ask you about it, and
that is called deer band repellent capsules. Do you guys
still have those?

Speaker 15 (01:41:07):
We do?

Speaker 3 (01:41:08):
We do.

Speaker 16 (01:41:08):
It's kind of a unique option for repelling deer from
your yard and from your land.

Speaker 1 (01:41:13):
Yes, yes, And that's one thing I've that caught my
attention is the uniqueness of it.

Speaker 15 (01:41:22):
It is encapsulated go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:41:26):
Go ahead, No, I'm going to hear you say it.

Speaker 16 (01:41:31):
It's an encapsulated coyote urine. So while odorless to humans,
deer have a much stronger sense of smell, so it
triggers in them a predator response. They think there's a
predator in the area, and they stay away. So basically,
you drop the capsule about every ten feet or so,

(01:41:54):
water it in, it webs out, and that scent reaction
will keep the deer away.

Speaker 1 (01:42:01):
And I hear it works pretty good on on on
rabbits also a lot of people have rabbits coming in
to chew on things in the yard.

Speaker 16 (01:42:08):
Rabbits, armadillo, I don't know if armadillo are a problem
in Houston, but it will keep those away as well.

Speaker 1 (01:42:17):
All right, well, I'm pretty sure listeners that you've never
heard the words encapsulated coyote urine before on Guarden. When
I saw that, I just thought, Okay, I got to
ask other about this. This. Yeah, this is crazy.

Speaker 16 (01:42:31):
I'm just glad I'm not the one who makes the product.

Speaker 1 (01:42:34):
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I have so many questions, none
of which I need to go into right now. Anyway, Yeah, okay, Well, anyway,
that that's all very very cool stuff. So there's a
mosquito on that barrier that you spray on things, uh,
and it kills and repels them from from the area.

(01:42:57):
And then the green armor intectral hellan as well. So
let's see here, we're I'm in another break. We got
one more short segment. If I can get you to
hang on, can you hold on for a little longer
for us, come back one more time? Certainly, Thank you, Heather.
All right, we'll be right back, folks. All right, welcome back, folks.
We are visiting with Heather Stickney from Summit Responsible Solutions.

(01:43:21):
They're the makers of mosquito dunks that you hear me
talk about all the time here on garden Line. A
natural natural product that is a disease of mosquito larva.
So you put it in and put them in water, they
float along. They released that type of BT. By the way, BT.
You know we have BT for caterpillars. This is a

(01:43:43):
different strain of BT that kills mosquito larva and also
kills fungus gnats and Heather, what was the what was
the other thing? Did you say blackfly larva or what was? Okay? Good? Yeah,
And by the way, these are approved for use in
organic production, so if you you know, if someone has

(01:44:06):
an organic operation, this would be a type of a
product that could be used for that. How long will
they last? How long do they retain their potency? Heather,
if someone had mosquita dunks, maybe they bought them two
years ago or something.

Speaker 16 (01:44:24):
Sure, they retain their potency really indefinitely, as long as
they stay dry.

Speaker 1 (01:44:30):
So as long as they stay dry, that is correct. Good, Well,
I think that it sure makes sense, you know, to
just have them all the time hanging around the place.
I tell people that you just get them and if
you have some extra just hanging on the wall, you're
gonna need it later, and when you want it, you

(01:44:52):
don't have to run down and buy. You've already got
some there and you can just go out and use them.
I think we have a thing in gardening. Uh, I'm
having some fun here with the listeners and you, but
we have a thing here in gardening called gorilla gardening.
And basically what it means is gardeners good on the
sidewalk and they drop flower seeds in the sidewalk cracks,

(01:45:12):
or they stick a little fruit plant over in a
corner somewhere, and it's like they're they're out there doing
all this gardening stuff as they walk through town. I
think maybe we need to be gorilla mosquito controllers. You know,
you can climb over the fence at night and throw
mosquito dunks into your neighbor's stagnant water that they won't

(01:45:32):
deal with. And it's pretty I know you are just
get some granules and sling them over the fence. No, seriously,
you know, to offer to I am serious about what
I'm about to say that that was a joke, but uh,
to offer even to give your neighbors some bits or

(01:45:54):
dunks to put in in some water or something like that.
It makes sense for you because you don't want them
mosquitos breeding across the fence line and then flying over
to your place. And so the more you can get
neighbors to cooperate and to do these sort of things too,
the better off it'll be at your house.

Speaker 15 (01:46:13):
Absolutely.

Speaker 16 (01:46:14):
And again, you know, anyone who uses dunks or bits
can feel confident that they're only killing mosquito larvae. They're
not other beneficial insects, any wildlife. It's probably one of
my favorite things about the product. It does what it's
supposed to do very effectively without causing any other harm.

Speaker 1 (01:46:37):
That that is really interesting. Just to nerd out a
little bit here on mosquitos. Why do mosquitoes bite us?
You know, I mean, we know they want our blood,
but why do they bite us? What's going on there?

Speaker 16 (01:46:55):
So one of the interesting things about mosquitos is that
it's only the females who bite.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
And I'm gonna let that one just I'm gonna let
that go. I have lots to say about that, but
we're gonna let it go. That my gift to the
listeners today, And you go ahead. I figured it's okay
because in a honey, yeah, in a honeybee colony, it's
only the females that do any of the work. The
males just lay around the hive all day, so there's

(01:47:24):
a balance to nature.

Speaker 16 (01:47:26):
Go ahead, absolutely, But the females require a blood meal
to lay their eggs. So that's why there, that's why
they're biting. They're getting ready to lay their clutch of
eggs in standing water and start the population all over again.

Speaker 15 (01:47:41):
So that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:47):
That's it. That's it. Well, it is kind of interesting
and something something we haven't talked about and I is
dogs and heartworms. Here on the Gulf Coast. Heartworms are
a serious problem dogs. If your dog is without heartworm
protection for a month, they can be in a life
threatening problem. That and the vets are always saying keep

(01:48:10):
your dog, especially the Gulf Coast, keep your dogs protected
on heartworms. Well, heartworms are spread by mosquitoes as they
do the blood feeding on the dogs, and so this
would be yet another benefit of using the dunks and
things to keep the mosquitoes down. It's for your for
your your pets like that. Absolutely anyway, fun fact, uh so,

(01:48:32):
uh one one other kind of curiosity and I have
heard mosquito folks talk about this before. But why is
it that mosquitos itch when they when they do their
feeding on you? Why is that an itchy thing? Do
you want to comment on that?

Speaker 16 (01:48:50):
Sure, so when they bite, they are injecting their saliva
into you and it triggers a systamine response in the body.
So your body text that sali but it knows it's
not supposed to be there, and that histamine response is
what causes the itch.

Speaker 1 (01:49:08):
What a pleasant thought. Mosquitoes are spitting in my arm
and spitting in my neck and okay, that's gross, but
I yeah, but only you know the ten year old
boy in me is having a lot of fun with
the coyote urine pellets and all these other silly things.
Thanks for thanks for playing playing along for that. But

(01:49:31):
this is this is a great product, folks. Again, you
can go to uh summit, give me the website again.
I want to do not's it wrong?

Speaker 16 (01:49:41):
Summit res Summit Responsible Solutions dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:49:48):
Okay, now in the greater Houston area, in my listening area. Uh,
there are so many places you can find the Summit
solution products. You know, the mosquito donks and mosquito bits
for example, are you go to our ace hardware stores.
They're all over I are you. We got a ton
of those. You go to our garden centers that you
hear me talk about, North, South, East, Western, Central here

(01:50:09):
in Houston, all of them they carry the mosquito dunks.
You know, you go to feed stores. We got a
lot of feed stores that are sponsors that are just
they're really good about carrying quality products, and they're going
to carry the mosquito dunk products or mosquito dunks mosquito bits,
now you know the different. Remember the dunks float on water.
You can break them up if you need a smaller

(01:50:30):
chunk of a dunk, but they float on water about
thirty days, covering one hundred square feet, doesn't matter how deep,
because the mosquitoes are all floating up there at the top.
And then the mosquito bits give a faster action, don't
last as long. But if you need to just swing
a bunch of bits over a larger area, you know
your neighbors swamp in the backyard, you could do that
and approach with the bits. Heather, thanks so much the music.

(01:50:53):
I don't know if you can hear it, but it
means that I've got to quit talking here pretty quick.
This being great having you on today. I appreciate you
coming on.

Speaker 15 (01:51:00):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:51:03):
All right, Will you take care and folks, I'll be
back at the nine o'clock hour. If you got any
gardening questions, now's the time to call in. Seven to
one three two one two kt RH. Welcome back to
garden Line. Gardeners are listening to a show that's about
you and your gardening. What are your questions? If you've

(01:51:25):
got a question, you can call me seven to one
three two one two k t RH. Get all kinds
of calls on all kinds of things, and so happy
to visit with you and help you have a more
bountiful garden, a more beautiful landscape, and certainly more fun
in the process. Arctic Installation Solutions is the company that
goes into your attic and make sure that your house

(01:51:51):
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You can go to their website Arctic Houston dot com.
You can give them a call eight three to two
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They serve the whole region here. They will come out
and they can do things like put radiant barrier in
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(01:52:13):
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(01:52:35):
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(01:52:55):
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(01:53:19):
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to Gardenline.

Speaker 15 (01:53:36):
Hi, Skip, thanks for taking my call. I enjoy your show.
Can you hear me? Go?

Speaker 1 (01:53:41):
Well, because I have it on speech, I sure can,
so I can write, I can hear you.

Speaker 18 (01:53:47):
So we have dogs and we walk.

Speaker 19 (01:53:51):
Along our green belt and back there there's a lot
of lantana and a lot of passion buying like toun,
and so I wondered if I could I wanted to
get some of those from back there and put into
my yard.

Speaker 10 (01:54:10):
So I wanted tips.

Speaker 19 (01:54:11):
On how I could be successful in doing that, and
also some of the passion vine.

Speaker 15 (01:54:17):
You know, it's all like real viny, and.

Speaker 19 (01:54:19):
It's in areas that are like intertwined with lots of stuff.
I think I'd found one area where I think I
can get actually to the ground and get some of it.
But I was also wondering if it would be possible
to maybe do it from a clipping, which I tried
once before and I was unsuccessful.

Speaker 1 (01:54:43):
Okay, I have never tried to do to root cuttings
of passion vine, but I just can't imagine that you couldn't.
I would think that would be possible. One thing you
might want to try, just to make a little leisure
on you is if you I have some passion vine
back there, get you a big container, well container could

(01:55:04):
be a gallon size or whatever, and take the passion
vine and bend the vine down near the container, lower
it down to there, bend it so that it sort
of cracks the vine but not breaks it. You know,
like your elbow. If you make your elbow your arms straight,
and then bring it to a ninety degree angle that
elbow right there, that's the wound on that vine. When

(01:55:26):
you do that and place that under the surface in
your container, you could set a brick on it. You
could take a bent coat hanger U shaped and pin
it down into the container and then wet that container
and keep it moist. You could even put a little
trail of water underneath it, and in time that wound
or callous and then root. And I think that would
be a good way to get that passion vine to root.

(01:55:49):
When you do a cutting, you've now removed it from
all nourishment, all water, and it's touching. Go trying to
get a quick root down before the thing dries up
and dies. With this technique I just described, it's called layering.
It's easier to root viiny types of things that way.
So you might try that, or digging it up passion.

(01:56:10):
If this is wild passion vine, it's gonna roots, sucker
and you're gonna get it's gonna be coming up all over,
and so you ought to be able to dig one
up pretty easily.

Speaker 19 (01:56:20):
Too, Okay, okay, And then the lantana just try to
just get a big area around it, because I mean,
it grows so profusely out there. I'm thinking, hopefully he'll
growth that way in my yard.

Speaker 1 (01:56:34):
Yeah, probably, it probably will. I would I would cut
it back significantly, even if you ended up cutting almost
all the leaves off, get as much of the root
as you can. But you know, you don't have to
get a five gallon bucket of roots. And then put
it immediately before it dries out, even dip the roots
and water to get them nice and moist. Put it

(01:56:55):
in a bucket of whatever you're gonna grow, potting so
or whatever, and then put it in a very bright,
shady spot, maybe on the east side of the house
morning sun or wherever it gives morning sun and afternoon shade,
because it's gonna then have to develop new roots and
start to send out a shoot. And if you dig
it and have all those leaves on it, you've taken

(01:57:17):
off a lot of the roots and digging it no
matter how careful you are, and all those leaves are
pumping out water and they're gonna shrivel and turn brown,
and you've actually gone more backwards than just digging it,
cutting it back to about six inches high, and then
letting it restart from there as if it were let's
say you went back there right now and you just
cut some off about six inches high, it would come

(01:57:37):
sprouting right back out of the ground. That's kind of
what we're doing.

Speaker 15 (01:57:42):
Okay, Okay, I will I will give that a try.

Speaker 1 (01:57:47):
Alright, have fun, Okay, all right, you take care. You
bet appreciate the call. You're listening to Guardenline our phone
number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four are so one three two one two Kate t.

Speaker 6 (01:58:03):
R H.

Speaker 1 (01:58:03):
Can go about it that way as well. You know,
I am becoming quite a backyard bird enthusiast. I never
was a burder, nothing against it, just never kind of
became a hobby of mine until I started focusing on
all of the ways you make your backyard a more

(01:58:24):
pleasant place to sit out and enjoy. And I've talked
about this before, but our gardens are more than just
visual color. That that's what we tend to think of.
You think of landscape. You look, it's pretty, okay, that's
that's good, that's important. But there's sense. There's fragrances from
flowers that make it an added layer of enjoyment. There's

(01:58:45):
the sounds like a bird's and we love sitting outside
and hearing the sounds of birds, and then the visual
course of watching the birds fly around and they're antics
and stuff. Wild Birds Unlimited is the place you need
to go. And there's several reasons I say that. Number One,
they got quality products. Wildbirds Unlimited sells quality feeders, quality

(01:59:06):
bird houses, and quality bird seed. Bird feed. Okay, we're
talking about blends. Like right now, they have the only
place you're gonna get nesting super blend as Wildbird's Unlimited,
and it's perfect for this season. We still have birds
nesting out there. Very it's designed for that. They you know,
when we go into the winter season, there'll be different

(01:59:27):
kinds of seed blends and you know, things like bark
butter that's smeared on bark and whatnot. There's a lot
of options from Wildbirds Unlimited, but it's quality. When you
buy a pound of bird feed or seed at Wildbirds Unlimited,
you get a pound of stuff that goes into the
bird especially the no mess blends where even the sunflowers

(01:59:49):
have the seeds taken off. It's not a bunch of
junk that's thrown in there because it's cheap to add,
and then the birds kick it out and donate it.
Wildbirds Unlimited has six stores right in Houston area. There
is the Cypress Store on Barker Cypress. There's the Pearland
Store on East Broadway, the clear Lake on El Dorado Boulevard,
and Clare Lake. In Kingwood. There is a wild Bird's

(02:00:12):
Unlimited on Kingwood Drive and then in West Houston on
Memorial Drive and in Southwest Houston on bel Air. So
lots of good places to go. Wild birds unlimited. That's
what you need to do. Time for me to take
a quick break. When we come back, Logan and Katie,
you'll be our first stop. You haven't heard Ryan Reynolds
and Ferrell. Seeing that you have, you've missed a comedy routine.

(02:00:40):
Pretty funny, Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. We're gonna go
out to Katie now and talk to Logan. Hey, Logan,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (02:00:48):
Hey, good morning, how you doing.

Speaker 1 (02:00:51):
Good? Good? How can we help the day?

Speaker 11 (02:00:55):
I have a Saint Augustine lawn. My runners of the
Saint Augustine have started. Within the last I'd say three weeks,
they started growing more on top than whenever. On most
they kind of stand up stuff like that. They're not, yeah,
growing down and embedding themselves right.

Speaker 1 (02:01:16):
Right, So there's nothing to do about it. It happens
in my lawn here and there, and I usually will
go in and just kind of pull that runner away
from the direction it came from, you know, and break
it off, get it either. It happens a lot as
our lawns get dense and become very thatchy, and a

(02:01:36):
lot of watering, nice warm temperatures and a lot of
fertilizing increases the growth rate of grass. And so what
happens is, you know, Saint Augustine is like a bunch
of runners just crawling around on top of the ground.
Unlike Bermuda or Zoezia, they also have underground and so
with those runners on top of the ground, they start

(02:01:57):
to climb on top of each other. So the more
runnerth you get, the faster it grows. The more you know,
you just kind of put all your fingers together like
one stacked on top of the other. The more it
just starts to do that and a shoot comes out,
and if it gets pointed upward, you know it doesn't
have the mindset of oh I got to go back
down again necessarily, and it just ends up on the surface.

(02:02:17):
So some correoration with compost top dressing can help reduce
thatch layers and get that to go away over time.
Cutting back on nitrogen fertilizing your fertilization rates or frequency
also helps, and then watering enough to keep the lawn
healthy but not just pushing it. You know, with a

(02:02:40):
lot of extra unnecessary water. Those are all steps that
can help move it in the other direction. But it's
not a black and white issue where you do this
and the runners all go down to the soil again. Okay, yeah,
all right, that's what's happening. Sure, yeah, that's why it's happening.

(02:03:00):
And just got a part of the deal with that
grass especially, So thanks a lot. I do appreciate your call.
Appreciate you called logan. Uh, you're listening to guard Line.
My phone number here on garden Line is seven one
three two one two kt r H seven to one
three two one two k t r H. Now, Uh,

(02:03:21):
if you are wanting an organic type product for a
fast feed on your lawn in the summer, a real
quick feed, the folks at Night Trust have put together
one and it's called sweet Green, and sweet green is
eleven percent nitrogen uh, and it dissolves away real fast,
got high carbon content, so microbs love it. They love

(02:03:42):
the carbon. Uh. And you put it down, you watered in.
My next door neighbor actually put down some sweet green
a while back, and we were talking across the fence
the other day and he was just saying, man, I
mean that that stuff works, and it did. I mean
it's beautiful lawn, it's green. Now, that's not a slow
release like the Night Silver bag the super Turf Sweet
Green is. It's going to release and it's going to

(02:04:05):
give you quick results. You don't want to overdo it.
No fertilizer should be overdone. But what I would do
if I were going to use the Sweet Green, I
would it would be, well, let's break it up and
let's do a little bit now and a little bit,
you know, maybe four weeks from now and a little
bit four weeks from then, and you can do small doses.
I like it because if you just need to give
a real quick result, some of the slow releases are

(02:04:27):
going to spread that feeding out over time and maybe
you need to get in. I need to give that
lawn a shot of nitrogen. Get this thing going. Swegering's
perfect for that, and it works really well. And again,
you know I talk about slow release and the advantages
of it, Well, you take a quick release and you
just break it up into smaller applications and you accomplish
the same thing. I just for paralyze them more often

(02:04:49):
to do that. Now, where do you get night Foss
products a lot of places, a lot of places. You
go to Fisher's Hardware down in Baytown, if you're up
in Brenham Plants some thing carries night Foss products plans
for all seasons on two forty nine, right where Luetta
comes in to two forty nine. That is a company
that carries them as well. Ur CW Nursery carries night
Foss products. Go up into the KD area KTA Is

(02:05:12):
Hardware on Pin Oak and kt at Sincle Ranch on
Mason Road, both of those places where you're going to
get night Foss products. Sweet Green being a night Foss product.
If you have some questions you like to visit about
on garden line seven one three two to one two
k t r H seven to one three two one
two k t r H, give us a call and

(02:05:35):
we can talk about that. I mentioned before one of
the breaks amitted ago that I want to talk about
fruit trees a little bit. Get a lot of questions
on fruit trees, and this summer I've gotten several questions
from people that said, my fruit tree is not producing.
It's not producing well. Maybe a fruiter here or there
or whatever, but is not producing well. What are some
reasons for that, Well, here are some reasons for that.

(02:05:56):
Number one, they have to be pollinated, and so if
you kill all the bugs, the insects, the pollinators insects
like honey bees and others, where you're not going to
get the pollen transfer. And so that's a possible cause
of it. Some fruit trees require two different varieties to
cross pollinate in order to set fruit. They're not self fruitful.

(02:06:19):
They have to have a different variety to pollinate them.
That would be true of apples. A lot of pears
are that way, most plums are that way. Peaches are
not they're self fruitful. Pigs self fruitful, you're not going
to worry about that. Grapes you don't have to do
varieties for grapes or for per semmons, you know, for example.
So there's both kinds of fruit, but that is one.

(02:06:42):
So if you have a variety and it doesn't have
a partner, and it needs a different partner to pollinate,
then you're gonna have to find a different variety and
planet planet so they could pollinate each other. Another possible
cause is lack of sunlight. Sun shines on leaves. Leaves
are solar panels. Solar panels fuel energy production in the plant.

(02:07:03):
That the energy is called carbohydrates. So in sun you
get a lot of carbohydrates, means you get more fruits
at and you get more fruit development, more blooming, and
more fruit development. Okay, So as your tree goes into
less and less sun, the tree is still living, it
looks okay, but the bloom production goes down, and so

(02:07:25):
that could be another reason why we're not seeing fruit.
And then there's there are other reasons, like the wrong
number of chill hours in the variety. Sometimes stresses can
have an effect on that and cause some things tend
to abort. For someone a real bad about aborting fruit
or early on, not later in the fruit's life, but
early on. So those are a few other things you

(02:07:48):
might want to consider. Let's head out now to Pattison
and we're going to visit with Susan. Hey, Susan, welcome
to garden line.

Speaker 13 (02:07:58):
Hey skip, good morning, Good Sunday morning. I have some
azmite I want to put down, and I notice we
have some rain coming up next week.

Speaker 1 (02:08:05):
I don't think it's going to be.

Speaker 13 (02:08:06):
You know, huge amounts, but I didn't know if I
should wait till after the rain or it would it
be a good idea for down with the rain water
it in?

Speaker 1 (02:08:13):
Yeah, no, let the rain water it in. You do
want to get that down and let the rain water in.
Follow the label carefully on the application amounts and try
to get as even as a spread as you can.
Anytime you're using you know, standard fertilizers, the three numbers
on the bag, or micronutrient supplement like that azamite. You

(02:08:34):
want to get good covers. The more even you spread it,
the better off your results are going to be. So
for me, I put it out at a way lower
rate than you think going Let's say north south, and
then go go east west. And if you have a
little left over, that's okay too. You can set the
thing down less and apply it over the he's real

(02:08:55):
even spread Whatever you can do to even that spread
out is helpful.

Speaker 13 (02:08:59):
Okay, All right, now you said I heard you say
north south, and then either my phone.

Speaker 1 (02:09:04):
Broke up or something that.

Speaker 12 (02:09:05):
What what did you say up to the north south?

Speaker 1 (02:09:08):
Well, what what I was trying to say is put
it on both ways. You know, if you do if
you do it one way, let's say it's east west,
north south, It doesn't matter the directions. Just as you're
doing in one direction, you can you can have stripes
through your lawn where maybe it did that movie laps
between those and so when you spread it out and go, yeah,
it just evens it out. Just anything always I say,

(02:09:29):
it's you can always go over the lawn again with
your spreader. But if you put too much out at
a time, now you've got the problem. Okay, I got
to add more than I should have had to put
on in the first place, and and it's just better
to go light and then go back over it in
a different direction.

Speaker 11 (02:09:47):
That makes total sense, okay.

Speaker 13 (02:09:48):
And this is okay for flower bits too, right.

Speaker 1 (02:09:51):
Oh yeah, you can use as might and anything vegetable gardens.
I like it gardens because you want you want things
you're eating to have all the full set of nutrients.
And you bet sure. All righty cool, thank you so much. Well,
good good luck with that. Take care. Yeah. MAT's a
good product available in a lot of places too, by
the way. You can get it at feed stores and

(02:10:13):
garden centers and A'ST hardware store. I mean, there's a
lot of places they carry that. He's a mite. In
our area, we're gonna have to take a little break
here for the news. Uh. When I come back, Stephen
Rosenberg and Martha and Menville you'll be our first two up.
Look forward to visiting with you back on Garden Line
if you've got some questions. Seven one three two one

(02:10:33):
two k t r H seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. Hey, welcome back to Garden Line.
Good to have you with us. We're going to head
out now to Rosenberg and talk to Steve. Hi. Steve,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (02:10:50):
Hie, good morning. How are you today?

Speaker 1 (02:10:54):
Well, I'm doing great. How are you doing?

Speaker 7 (02:10:58):
I'm doing good.

Speaker 18 (02:10:59):
I'm calling you to give me some extra work that
I'm going to have to do in this hot sum
but that's okay.

Speaker 1 (02:11:05):
I Well, it's good that you're calling knowing I'm about
to increase your workload.

Speaker 7 (02:11:12):
That's right.

Speaker 18 (02:11:13):
I purchased a home and while it was on the market,
the lawn was somewhat neglected.

Speaker 7 (02:11:20):
It is Bermuda grass.

Speaker 18 (02:11:24):
And the soil was very compacted, so I did some
liquid humorate.

Speaker 7 (02:11:32):
I try to stay with organic.

Speaker 18 (02:11:34):
As much as possible, and I use a a Medina
product that I've used for years and seem to have
good luck with But one thing that had happened in
the in this transition is is the weeds really kicked
in and so I think what I have is is
a lot of johnsngrass mixed in and I really identified. Yeah,

(02:11:58):
I think so it's what it appears to be because
and the reason why I came to that to places,
at first I thought it was crab grass.

Speaker 7 (02:12:05):
I went at it with a herbicide for Bermuda lawns.

Speaker 18 (02:12:10):
Ultimately was a two four debased product which worked really
well on the clover and other things. But this particular
weed that I like, I say, I think it's a
Johnson grass did not respond at all to that product.
So I'm trying to figure out what it is that
I could spray, because if I could spot treat it,
I would, but it's pretty pervasive.

Speaker 7 (02:12:33):
So that's why I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:12:34):
Calling, Well, there's not a way to kill Johns grass
in a grass lawn without killing the grass lawn as
far as a spray, and I know you'd rather do organic,
but organic or synthetic, there's not that option. If you
go to my website gardening with Skip dot com, what

(02:12:55):
you'll find there is a thing called a weed wiper.
And have you ever been to the website any chance?

Speaker 7 (02:13:04):
I have not. I just moved to the area.

Speaker 1 (02:13:07):
Okay, good well gardening with skip dot com. When you
go to the website, there is a all publications, right,
you're the top there all publications and when you go
to that and scroll down, you'll see skips homemade weed wiper.
And it basically is a grabber tool, one of those
things you used to get a jar off a shelf.
But it's made with suction cups. You can buy those,

(02:13:29):
so you know you're in Rosenberg. You're really close to
Southwest Fertilizer on the corner of Bissinet and Runwick in
Southwest Houston and Bob Sellso's grabber tools. They're not that expensive.
You take it and I'll show you how to put
sponges on it, and then you would wipe a product
or you would soak those sponges in a product that

(02:13:50):
kills johnsngrass. And because Johnson grass comes up higher than
your Bermuda grass without even bending over. Those little tools
are about three feet long. You can just reach down
with a cup of coffee in one hand and the
tool in the other and walk through your yard and
just kind of squeeze it and pull those sponges up
against the leaves of the Johnson grass and it'll translocate
down and kill it. And you may not get it

(02:14:11):
all in the first time you do it, but on
another Saturday morning or something, you just go out in
there and you do that and you can get rid
of it. And I know you got a lot of it.
But there's just the only other option to you would
be to squirt a herbicide on it and have dead
spots in your Bermuda grass that would then have to
grow back in. That's an option. I think. This other

(02:14:32):
option is Oh wow, I like the weed wiper. That's
why I came up with that.

Speaker 7 (02:14:37):
Sounds great. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (02:14:41):
All right, man, you take care. Welcome to the area,
by the way, and thanks for listening. Thanks for listening
to Garbline. I appreciate that. All righty, Medina products. You
mentioned Medina products. There are so many great Medina products
out there. You know, you've heard me talk about the
hashtro grow six twelve six plant fe It's got that
hygh phosphorus number, which a lot of times when I'm transplanting,

(02:15:04):
just soak the plants in with that do it about
twice more a week. Apart, there's the Medina Plus and
the Medina Plus has that original Medina Soil Activator, a
great product, plus forty different trace elements including things like
certain types of minerals like iron and zinc and magnesium
and so on, other kinds of plant influencing substances, you know,

(02:15:26):
things that affect plant growth. Hormone type ingredients and vitamin
type ingredients are in it. It's going to give you
better growth, better development, therefore better fruits at you get
better blooming out of it, and you use that for
transplants also if you want to, if you want to
go that route, there's a lot of great Medina products
out there. They got the humate humic acid. It comes

(02:15:49):
in a liquid, but most of these come in a
quart and in a gallon size. But the liquid humus
humate liquid humus from Medina is an excellent product. Humus
is the final decomposed stage of organic matter composts, and
it contains the humic and the fulvic acid that are
excellent for working on soil structure and helping that soil

(02:16:12):
have a good developed structure and for doing things that
really stimulate the soil microbial content, the microbial populations of
the soil. That is what that humic acid can do.
All of those are Medina products, and all of them
are so widely available to take a whole show to
tell all the places you can buy Medina products here

(02:16:34):
in the Houston area, feed stores, garden centers, ace hardware stores,
and on and on and on down the list. And
I was talking about Southwest Fertilizer a second ago. Yes,
Southwest Fertilizer, of course, also has a wide variety of
Medina products. We're going to head now out to Manville,
Texas and talk to Martha. Hello, Martha, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 20 (02:16:56):
Yeah, thanks Gip for taking my call. And is calling
about the peach trees, fruit trees in my backyard. The
leaves are turning yellow and some of them are dropping
to the ground and on my fish, okay trees and grapefruit.

Speaker 3 (02:17:13):
I have an apple tree, also an orange tree.

Speaker 1 (02:17:18):
Okay. And is this yellowing happening on Is it it's
happening on all those species that you mentioned, Is that correct?

Speaker 8 (02:17:25):
Well?

Speaker 1 (02:17:26):
Yes, yes, okay, okay, So it's probably the older leaves
that you see turning yellow. And older, meaning if you
if you look at a shoot coming out with leaves
on it, the ones out toward the end those are
the newest ones, and the ones further back on the
shoot are the oldest ones. When older leaves turn yellow

(02:17:46):
and fall off, it usually is related to a fluctuation
in so moisture. Plants get way too wet, the roots
are soggy. They can't get oxygen. That's a problem. Plants
get too dry and they can't get water, that's a problem.
I don't know if you have Apothus ivy in your house,
but if you ever let it get dry and then
you water it, the old leaves turn yellow. After that

(02:18:07):
it perks back up, but the old leaves get cast off,
and so water fluctuations can do that to plants. It
could be a lack of nitrogen, but the way you're
describing it as turning yellow and falling off doesn't sound
like a lack of nitrogen to me. I think it's
a sole moisture issue.

Speaker 3 (02:18:26):
Yeah, because before rain I thought maybe it needed water.
But you know, we're getting a lot of rain and
there's still the only tree that's not turning leaves not
turning yellow is the apple tree.

Speaker 1 (02:18:38):
Okay, all right. Well, you know, the soil could be
different different areas. One spot could stay a little wetter.
There's there's a lot of factors, but I think that's it.
And I like to put a big mulch area around
my fruit trees because that helps moderate that soil temperature.
But it also keeps the weeds away so they're not
stealing the water from the soil, and so that if

(02:18:58):
you may want to increase mulched area around them, Martha,
I'm gonna have to run for a break here, but
I hope that helps. I'm ninety nine percent sure we're
looking at something in terms of soil moisture. You may
have to dig down with a little hand trial about
four to six inches and feel the soil and see
if it's adequately moist too soggy, too dry, you know,

(02:19:19):
whatever it is. But I do appreciate you calling in
this morning. Thank you very much. Okay, you welcome, bye bye.
All right, all right, I gotta go to a break, folks.
We'll be back with our last segment of the day. Well, well, welcome,
welcome back to Garden Line. Got our last segment of
the day. Here, last segment of the weekend. I appreciate

(02:19:41):
you listening to guarden Line. I don't take the fact
for granted that we got folks that are taking time
out in their data listen to garden Line. Hopefully we
are keeping it informative and a little bit enjoyable as
we go through there. If you would like to give
me a call, I've got time for a call. Maybe
two right now if you hurry. Uh seven one three

(02:20:02):
two one two ktr H seven one three two one
two KTRH. ACE Hardware Stores are you know, their motto
is ACE is a place and you can just kind
of fill in the blank after that. ACE is the
place for all kinds of standard hardware needs, you know,
traditional hardware, things like plumbing and lighting and wiring and
switches and paint and on and on the hardware stuff.

(02:20:25):
ACE is also the place for indoor and outdoor living.
ACE is a place for quality tools. ACE is a
place for the things that you need to maintain your property,
the equipment, the tools and things like that. ACE Hardware
Stores just they serve the community. Not too long ago,
we're talking someone from ACE about the fact that they

(02:20:49):
serve the Children's Texas Children's Hospital here in the Houston
area with fundraising that they do coming up. This is
a little further out, but I want you to be
aware of this coming up. ACE is having an event.
It is I know it's far out, but to stick
with me here October twelfth, Sunday, October twelfth, from five
thirty to eight thirty pm. And basically what it is,

(02:21:10):
it's Ace at Top Golf. You've been to Top Golf before.
I love Top Golf to support Texas Children's Hospital through
the text through the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. It's really
a great cause. And as we heard on the other
day at Bill murphon from the acepon JOHNS. Rude talking about,

(02:21:33):
you know, the transforming stories about lives, kids lives here
in the greater Houston area. So the Texas Children's Hospital
serves nearly five million patients annually. So when you support
this cause, ninety percent of your money to Texas Children's
Hospital goes to patient services, one percent to charitable care,
and one percent to eight education, one percent of research.

(02:21:56):
But basically it's going it's going to the kids and
all the proceeds stay right here in Texas. So why
am I talking about all this? Well, the ACE Hardware
Texas Retailer Group, my group here in the greater Houston area,
and other Ace Hardware stores they're going to be sponsoring
on Sunday, October twelfth, five thirty to eight thirty an

(02:22:17):
event at Top Golf, a fundraiser. Maybe your organization would
like to talk about supporting that, being a sponsor or
a supporter of that. All you got to do is
reach out. Here is a email Okay, Brick at Acehardware
dot com, Brick at Acehardware dot com, and here is

(02:22:41):
the phone number two eight one two two three fourteen hundred.
Two eight one two two three fourteen hundred. Some of
our Ace Hardware stores in our Houston area, part of
our Ace Hardware Texas Retailer Group, are heading this up. Again.
It's further out there, but maybe you've got a company
or an organization and then you want to help with us.

(02:23:02):
Maybe you are just interested and you love, you know,
going out to Top Golf and having some fun out there.
They can tell you more about it that I'm telling
you here, by the way, that the location is going
to be the Top Golf at five sixty Spring Park
Center Boulevard in Spring, Texas. Top golf at five sixty
Spring Park Center Boulevard in Spring, Texas. So go check
them out and be a support for that. What it's

(02:23:24):
fun and it's a really really good cause. We are
now going to go out to the woodlands and visit
with Deb. Hello, Deb, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 21 (02:23:34):
Hey scare, how are you?

Speaker 1 (02:23:38):
I'm great? Thank you? What's up today?

Speaker 21 (02:23:40):
Hey, Adam?

Speaker 11 (02:23:41):
Quick question?

Speaker 21 (02:23:42):
So we're getting ready to go out on a vacation
for this little over.

Speaker 8 (02:23:46):
A couple of weeks.

Speaker 21 (02:23:47):
And I have some potted plants that I set up
an independent sprinkler on, you know, a little timer thing
from my water spicket and a hose, and I'm thinking
I might need to fertilize them. What's a good potted
plant outdoor? Potted plant fertilizer.

Speaker 1 (02:24:05):
Tell me a little bit about the plants. What kind
of plants are we talking about here?

Speaker 21 (02:24:09):
Oh, you had to ask me that question. I have
a kind of a ginormous, ginormous lantana that really probably
needs to be repotted. I have some asparagus ferns.

Speaker 6 (02:24:22):
I have.

Speaker 21 (02:24:25):
Some little teeny uhunias that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (02:24:30):
Okay, okay, I would get a Nelson color star. You
can find Nelson color Star lots of different cases. Nelson
plant Food color Star is the name of it, and
uh to follow the label on how much you put out.
Don't overdo it, but you could put a little on there. Uh,
if you've got water that is dependably being applied to

(02:24:52):
the pots, then that you'll be good. You'll be good
to go. If you wanted to go a little more
conservatively on it. There is a product from Nelson called
Genesis and it is a more of an organic type
fertilizer as opposed to be an AsSalt based type fertilizer.

(02:25:13):
And so that would be fine, but just you know,
any fertilizer, especially the synthetics, their salts and so they
dissolve and they release and they're available. Color Stars is
going to give you a longer feed time. But the
main thing you need for those plants is water. Make
sure your watering system is working. Whether they get fertilizer
or not is not as important as whether they get

(02:25:33):
water or water. And yeah, yeah, as the water. And
so what you've given me is mostly color blooming plants.
That's why I suggested color Star. You know, the asparagus,
fern and foliage plants like that they'll benefit from it too.

Speaker 21 (02:25:49):
Okay, all right, sounds good.

Speaker 1 (02:25:51):
Thank you, all right, have fun on vacation, and good
luck with your plants as you come back. Thanks a lot,
all right, thank you, all right, Bye bye bye bye,
Oh vacation. Oh I wish we had another break. We
could play vacation by the Go Gos, Right, that'd be

(02:26:12):
a good song to follow up. Hey, you are listening
to guard Line and we're wrapping up today. We appreciate
you listening in. I am here every Saturday and Sunday
morning from six am to ten am. Don't forget. You
can listen to past garden Line shows. You can go
to the website KTRH website, go to the garden Line
page and you can listen live there. You can also

(02:26:33):
listen to pass shows there. You can also go to
my website which I keep telling you guys about gardening
with skip dot com. There's a place to click on
right at the top. There, there's a place to click
and listen to guarden Line live or past shows. You
can get the iHeartMedia app. That's the way I listen
to garden Line and other shows. Okay, I have the
iHeartMedia app there and I can listen to pass shows,

(02:26:56):
listen live. It's on my phone. My phone's always with me.
I may not be around a radio, but I'm always
around my phone. iHeartMedia app. A little white square with
a red circle inside makes it easy. Well, thank you
for being a listener. I do want to just re
mention again that our sponsors or the reason you get
to listen to garden Line, the reason I get to

(02:27:17):
be on guarden Line, the sponsors or the reason anyone
watches TV or listens to radio, and thank them when
you go see our sponsors. Support our sponsors, they are
the reason that's why we get to listen for free.
I hope you have a great week out in the garden.
Remember do all the things that help plants thrive, but

(02:27:40):
mostly have fun.