Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katy r. H. Garden Line with Skip Richard's.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Shoes, crazy trip. You just watch him as many good
things to seep, busy gas.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Not a sign.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Sun beamon of a.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Hey, good morning, good morning on a good Sunday morning.
Welcome to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. And
what are we here for? Well, we're here to help
you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more
fun in the process. That's what it's all about. Going
good things, good things to eat, good things to look at,
(01:02):
making our places more beautiful, making our homescapes more valuable.
You know, you ever want to sell your house, you
and have a beautiful landscape, and you can always throw
some flowers in a flower bed, but it's the landscape
you build over time that's also very important. Maybe that
beautiful shade tree over the outdoor patio that takes time
(01:25):
to do so, best time to plant a tree is
forty years ago. Second best times today? Why not get
out there, let's do it. Well, maybe not today, we're
going we have a little bit of rain going through
the area here, unless you're going to go out with
a headlamp and do it in the dark right now.
I think we ought to hold off just a little
bit on that. But this is the season. Remember when
you're planning woody shrubs, trees, when you're planting vines, when
(01:51):
you're planting woody vines, especially when you're planning perennials. The
sooner you get them on the ground, the longer they
have in order to stay bablish a good root system
before summer arrives. And I know, the hot summer is
kind of hard to think about right now because we
are so far from it, but it's coming, and so word,
did the wise go ahead and get those things established.
(02:15):
You'll be glad you did. You have a nice head start.
It's not just a matter too a plant survival. It's
a matter of plant thriving. You want it to grow fat.
When I plant a tree, my first question is when
can I hang a hammock in it? Okay, So it's
a broomstick size little tree out there in the middle
of the yard. It just looks so far out there
(02:36):
and lonely. But boy, when it gets big, it's going
to reach all over the house, maybe even shade the
house roof a little bit, hopefully a western wall. So
go ahead, and get it in the ground. We want
that thing to get growing. We'll give you some tips
as we go through the season on how to take
care of trees, how to make them grow faster, how
to prune them. In fact, why don't I talk a
(02:57):
little bit about pruning right now. In fact, I'll probably
post a little audio clip to our Facebook page on
this one. But in order to successfully run a plant,
you need to follow a few basic principles. Now, while
back on Facebook, I posted something about the angle that
you make the cut when you were removing a branch.
(03:20):
The angle and how close to the trunk do you
get and you don't leave a stub and you don't
prune right up against the trunk. There is a proper
place to prune. I go into that and that little
Facebook clip. It is also important when you're removing a
big branch to do it with what we call a
three cut method. If that branch is too heavy for
you with one hand to hold and keep from falling
(03:42):
and stripping the bark off the tree as you're cutting
the branch off, then you need to do a three cut.
What you do is you go out ends on the
size of the branch, but let's see. You go out,
oh about maybe a foot ten inches, and you cut
upward from the bottom of the branch about a third
of the way through. Stop about a third of the
way through, because you don't want that branch to start
(04:05):
to sag down and to pin your saw in there.
Then you go out a little further than that, just
a few inches further than that, and you cut downward,
and once you get to a certain point that branch
is going to sag down and break off in that
first cut that was made upward will prevent the bar
from stripping down the tree. And once that falls, now
(04:27):
you got something small you can grab your hand on
and go ahead and make your final cut where it belongs.
That's a three cut method. If that didn't make sense
on the radio, which I understand it probably probably it's
hard to picture all that, especially at six in the morning.
Just do a search online. Make a three point cut pruning.
Three point cut pruning, and that'll tell you exactly how
(04:49):
to do it. And trust me, I've seen so many
people go, I'm not going to go to all that
troub I's gonna cut it off. I'll cut real quick
so it doesn't strip down Yeah, good luck with that,
because when it does strip down, it will not heal
fast at all. It'll be one of the slowest healing
wounds you ever had. When you have a branch fall
and strip down the tree, and the longer it stays open,
(05:10):
the wound stays open. I use the word heal. I
do that automatically. Trees don't heal. They close over. They
callous and close over the wound. But anyway, that's a technicality.
But for it to callous and close over and protect
that inner wood, you want to be done as quickly
as possible, and you need to make the cut correctly
for that to be done as quickly as possible. All right,
(05:32):
just a little thought. I'm pruning there. I was out
checking out some of my plants. I still have a
few houseplants that are living outside, and most of them
I brought in. I've got a light in the garage
where I put them over winter. I have too many
houseplants for the house. Well, let's put it this way.
(05:52):
I have too many houseplants for the few areas that
get really good light inside my house. Those well lit
areas right next to a big, old giant window where
there's a really good light. Those are already full of plants,
so the rest of them they spend the growing season,
which is most of the year here outside on the backboard,
(06:16):
front barge places like that, so I bring them inside
to protect them. I've got a couple more to bring in.
I got a fiddlely fig outside got too big for
the house, and I'm going to be propagating it by
cutting the top off, creating roots on the top, cutting
it off, making a shorter plant, and some other things.
And then I got a little ivy type vine. Actually
(06:37):
it's a type of philodendron that has been sprawling around
in the back, and I'm going to have to go
in probably do some pruning up on it because it's
just flopping around over where. I like that jungle look too,
by the way, bring it inside and get it kind
of cleaned up for the winter. Whenever you're bringing plants in,
I suspect some of you or have waited until now
(06:59):
like I have for bringing all those plants in, you
need to make sure there are not any tests on them.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Now.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Spider mites are declined because of the hot weather, but
things like meeleebugs, things like scale could be hitching a
ride inside the house, and it's much easier if you
need to pull it in the garage for now, and
then when it warms up a little bit, get it
back outside and deal with those pasts, treat for them,
do whatever you guy do to clean that up before
you bring it in, because you're not going to be
spraying insecticides inside your house. I just I hope not.
(07:29):
And get those things cleaned up. Just give a good
look over and you can get that done. Well, it
is about time for me to take a little quick
break here. We will be back if you'd like to
give us a call this morning seven to one three
two one two kt r H seven one three two
one two kt r H.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Good.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Alrighty, alrighty, we're back. Let's do this. We got gardening
to talk about today, right in fact today you know
I say every day is a good day for gardening.
Well this today's going to test that, right because start
raining here about the end of the show. Depending on
where you live. Well, and then here comes some cold weather,
it's still a good day for gardening. You know what
I'm gonna be doing this afternoon. I'm gonna go out
(08:10):
to my garage where I have my little heat lanth. Well,
I actually have heat mats and little lights, and I'm
gonna start my spring warm season garden plants. I normally
get it done earlier than this, but I'm gonna go
ahead and start some tomatoes and peppers and other things
like that and get them going. I've got some seeds
of flowers I on a plant, so I don't care
(08:30):
if it's minus ten degrees. There's an ice storm and
the one's blowing one hundred miles an hour. It's a
good day for gardening because you can go inside and
do it. I've also got a house. Yesterday I just
potted up a house plant cuttings that I had rooted,
and I made a new plant out of them. Indoors.
It's always a good day for gardening. Well, let's head
(08:51):
out to the phones. My number if you'd like to
give me a call seven one three two one two
kat r H. And let's see. We're gonna head out
to Katie and talk to Hank. Good morning, Hank, Welcome
to garden line.
Speaker 7 (09:04):
Good morning.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
How can we help today?
Speaker 6 (09:10):
Can you hear me?
Speaker 7 (09:11):
Now?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Yes, sir, h, I have some.
Speaker 8 (09:15):
I planted some Georgia grass and uh you know, a
month and a half ago, and I put some humates
and uh six two four or six yes, uh micro
lifeound before I planted and tilled it in with new dirt.
All this and I've put heavy, not a heavy but
a light roots and type fertilizer. Now when winter times,
(09:40):
winter is over, excuse me, I want to know how
I have greened up bridges.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I can, all righty well, if you go online to
my website, which is gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening
with Skip dot Com. I have two schedules on there.
One is lawn care and the other one is everything
that goes wrong with the lawn insects, diseases and weeds,
things like that. The lawn care schedule has the first
(10:05):
fertilization of the year. Okay, if you want to go
with a synthetic type fertilizer early in the year, then
you can do that late February into March, you can
do that first. And that's just to get it to
green up. It's not gonna make it grow. When the
temperature is too cool, the grass isn't gonna grow, but
(10:27):
it will take up some nutrient and green up a
little bit early. The actual fertilizing in earnest if you
will begins in April for your lawns now. You mentioned microlife.
It's a great fertilizer. My first application of microlife is
going to be about the beginning of April in your area.
You can wait a little bit and do it. You'll
(10:48):
bid to late April if you want, but I go
ahead and get that done in April. Microlife's an organic fertilizers,
so in the coal soil in the wintertime, its release
is a little bit slower, and so I don't recommend,
you know, fertilizing now with it. The nutrient you put
down already is going to stick around for a while
(11:08):
and it'll be available even early on in the spring.
There'll be some of that nutrients still available because it's
in an organic form.
Speaker 8 (11:17):
Nitrophos has one. It's called sweet something. It's supposed to
really green. Would that be something to put in the
first of March?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
You could that is sweet green. It's on eleven percent
nitrogen fertilizer. It's a great fertilizer. They also nitrofuss you
know promotes their excuse me, my brain just went blank here.
They're Imperial, which is a red bag. Then that's a
fifteen five ten fertilizer that they recommend. That would be
a green up type fertilizer. I probably would hold off
(11:48):
on the sweet green until things warm up a little
bit more. But if you want to green up from nitrofuss,
I would do the red bag, which is Imperial. Thank
you all right, sir, Good luck with that. Take care yep,
that is true. You know, I probably a thousand times
(12:10):
have talked about those schedules, and so I'm going to
talk about them one thousand and one. I put them
together based on research from turf scientists places like Texas
and m LSU, Oklahoma State or Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, all
through the South. Turf scientists do research. They determine what
(12:30):
are the nutrients grass uses, what are the amounts it uses,
when do they need it? All kinds of things like that,
and that's what those are based on. And so this
is free advice that's right there online. I know folks
that print them out and hang them in the garage,
you know, stick them next to the fertilizers. Better put
them on the refrigerator if you want. But it just
tells you what to do and when and it makes
(12:52):
it really really easy. There's no guessing. In fact, a
lot of folks will print it out and they'll take
it with them when they go to the store and
show they'll say, hey, I want this one right here?
Do you got it? And I think that's a great
way to do, because then you get in the store
and you're trying to remember what was the name of that, Well,
now you can see the name of it. And our
garden centers that you hear me talk about, our Ace
(13:12):
hardware stores, our Southwest Fertilizer, our feed stores that we
talk about, they carry these products and so you know
they may not carry every single one, but you're going
to find what you're looking for.
Speaker 6 (13:24):
Here.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
We've kind of forewarned them this is what we're recommending,
and so they can be ready when folks come in.
So I recommend you do that. Get it printed out.
I have laminated front and back copy. I printed a
two sided page with lawn care on one side and
a lawn pest disease and we'd management on the other.
And that way it doesn't matter if it gets wet.
(13:46):
You know it's laminated. It's sitting out there. Makes it
real easy to do. Or you can slip it in
one of those little notebook covers plastic covers where you
put papers in. You can figure that out well. Talking
about the cold weather, we you know, have been dealing
with a number of different kind of forecasts depending on
(14:09):
what area you are in. You have people listening up
in Huntsville, We've got people listening done in Corpus, over
towards Louisiana, and of course Houston, and down in Galveston
and up in College Station, you know, every direction, and
the forecasts a little different. We've got areas that are
going to have three days of freezing. We've got areas
that aren't going to get below freezing, but they're going
to get close to it. And so those forecasts are
(14:31):
their best guests. But it is time to be ready
for it. And ACE Hardware is a great place for
that because they've got everything. I was looking at ACE
Harder the other day and they've got something called a
brooder and heat lamp brewder and heat lamp browder, meaning
you know, you hang it above chickens and they they
little chicks gather underneath it to stay warm. It's a
(14:53):
two hundred and fifty watt things, so you can put
a big old bulb in there that provides some heat. Well,
that would be good to hang underneath a tree. Maybe
you have a citrus tree and this cold we're having
is kind of marginal, but for lemons and for limes,
for example, those are very cold under it would be
(15:13):
helpful for those hanging. Don't point those hot bulbs at
your plant parts meaning leaves, meaning stems, meaning trunks, branches.
Don't do that. It'll damage them. You put your hand
in front of that thing and leave it there for
about ten seconds, and you see what I'm talking about.
It gets hot, it's pointing down at the ground. But
Ace has got you covered on that. They have clamp
(15:34):
on lights too. If you like the kind that you
know you squeeze it. Clampson's got a little aluminum shield.
You can put, you know, a bulb in there that's
one hundred and fifty wide, or you can put a
brighter bulb in there. Just make sure you're buying a fixture.
If you're gonna use one of the really hot heat lamps,
you need a fixture that can handle that, not just
(15:54):
the cheapest dinkiest one. The cheapest dinkiest ones are fine
I've got some of those, but I'll it like one
hundred and fifty out bulb then and one of those
and and stop there. But those lamps are helpful, but
they're only helpful if you have a cover over the top.
And ace has got plastic, they've got tarps, they've got
all kinds of things you can put over a plant
(16:16):
to hold that heat in because when the wind blows,
and boy is the wind ever going to blow tonight,
We've got some for those of you listening up in
the northern part of the listening area. You got actually
actual wind warnings. It's going to blow so hard. But
it doesn't do any good to put heat underneath the plant.
If the wind's blowing, it just blows the heat out
(16:37):
of the way. You have to have a cover that
goes over the plant and that secures to the ground
to create dead air space. So I use plastic. Now
I want to talk a little bit about plastic. Some
people say don't put plastic over plants because where it
touches the leaves, you'll get frostburn on a freezing night.
And that's that's true. You will. But if you've got
(16:58):
a big old let's say it's a summe tree or
an orange tree, and you're going to get cold enough
to damage that plant. Well, I don't worry about a
little bit of frostburn on the out periphery, leaves touching
the plastic. If you don't want that, then you can
use something else, but or put PBC hoops to create. Essentially,
(17:21):
you're building like a little igloo. You're using PBC to
make a big arch. Let's say you make one from
north to south over the plant, and one from east
to west over the plant, and then you get tarp
over that. However you want to go about it, just
remember when you get to the ground whatever you use, soil, bricks, rock,
anything that has weight and to stand and still set
it on that thing to hold it down, especially if
(17:43):
the wind we're having. I also have some little outdoor
clamps that I put around the PBC, and like you
spread the tarpover the plastic over and you put a
clamp on to hold it to the PBC. That's good,
hold it down. There's a lot of ways to go
about this. In the garden. You can take PVC and
you can make arches down the row, so you create
(18:05):
like a little quantcet hut a little tunnel made of
PVC that you spread something over and that keeps it
up off the plants, and that works really well too.
So anyway, just a bunch of ideas. But the bottom
line is go to ACE. You can go to your
ACE Hardware up in Brenham. You can go to your
ACE Hardware and the Packo ACE which is down in Alvin,
the Kilgore Lumber Ace in clear Lake, j and r
(18:26):
Ace up and Porter. These are all part of the many,
many aces that we have here in the Greater Houston area.
Well it is time, just about time for me to
take a little break here. When we come back, I'm
gonna John, you'll be in League City. You'll be at
our first up. I want to make sure we got
some time for for the you know, give you a
(18:46):
good answer for your questions.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
In the meantime, just get ready for the cold.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
There's another little device out there by the way, and
ACE carry's ease. It's called a freeze miser. If they
can clean them out now, Yeah, it's cool. You just
attach it to your faucet, turn on the faucet and
no water comes out. But when it gets cold, something
shrinks up in there and it allows water to trickle
through and it keeps that pipe from freezing. So in
addition to the little covers, the star foam covers you
(19:14):
put over your pipe, he has those as well. You
can have the freeze miser on there and that's a
good thing just to have around, very helpful to do.
All Right, we're going to take a little break. John,
you'll be first up when we come right back.
Speaker 9 (19:31):
Welcome back.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
We're glad to have you with us today, looking forward
to talking to you about the things that are of
most interest to you. And we're going to head straight
out to John in League City. Hey, John, welcome to
Garden Line.
Speaker 6 (19:48):
Hey, good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 10 (19:50):
My question is about our plant beds and the cold
weather that were forecasted the next several days. You know,
we got plant covers, you know, lightweight clip pants plant
covers we can put over them. But the question I
had is, you know we're right along the freeze line
here south of Houston, so I'm not even sure it's necessary.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
But if it is, do.
Speaker 10 (20:09):
You recommend that when you pull those over in the mornings,
that you pull them back every day and by noon,
even if it's only going to get a let's say
in the high forties and not get really warm, or
do you recommend just leaving the mom for several days.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I recommend taking them off. And for two reasons. Number,
if they're clear, the sun shines through them and it
gets hot underneath them. You can go outside and on
a day that's thirty degrees and you get in your
car and it's actually a little little comfortable in there
because the sun shining through your windshield. But it can
actually get too hot when the temperature goes up and
the sun breaks down, even on a winter day. So
(20:46):
if it's clear, even if it's not clear, it's good
for them to get some sunlight. And you know, if
you leave them covered for two or three days, it's
not going to be the end. They're not going to
die into there, but it is good for them to
get some light, and that allows the sun to warm
the soil around them in the bed also, uh and
then when you put the cover back over, you're holding
(21:06):
in a little bit of extra heat. So now you
just have to decide how much trouble do you want
to go to. But ideally that's how I would do.
Speaker 10 (21:14):
It, Okay, And even if it gets an clients like, uh,
do you recommend like if it gets down to freezing
thirty one thirty two of a run on the left,
do you cover them?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Do you always recommend covering plant beds for that?
Speaker 4 (21:29):
You know, it depends on the plant right around thirty
even thirty one at thirty even, Like I said, suma
orange does not need to be covered, but a lime
tree does. For example, if you're looking at a flower bed,
if it's a if any or a vegetable bed, any
warm seasoned plant you know, from tomatoes to petunias is
gonna or marigoles is going to be killed by a frost,
(21:53):
killing it back even, and so you do have to
cover those. Of course, pansies and violas and dusty miller
and stock and listen and other things are not going
to be hurt by a little minor freeze. Well, it
depends on the plant. Bottle brushes are very col sensitive,
and while they may make it through winters here are
(22:13):
just fine. Especially if we have some warm weather heading
up to a freeze, they can get some significant stem
damage and kill them back. From that. They may reach sprout,
but they're not among our heartier types of plants. So
at thirty two. I wouldn't sweat it a lot. But
if we're going to get down, as it goes down
(22:35):
into the twenties further than I start worrying about bottle
brush at some point. Got yeah, those are just a few,
you know, a few things to think about as you're
out taking care of these plants.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
You bet good luck with that. Enjoy all right, I
appreciate that call. We're going to go now to Cypress
and talk to Henry. Hey, Henry, welcome to garden line.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 11 (23:03):
My wife has a Duranta in the back garden. It's
a monster. It's got to be eight feet tall, four
feet around. Is there anything we can do to protect
it during the freeze if we're looking at maybe twenty
nine out here and I wrap it up, cut it
down a little bit, or.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Just watch.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Well again, you know, duranta is twenty nine is not
a huge thing for them, but you will get a
lot of damage to them. Typically they're gonna you know,
it's hard for me to give an actual number of
the temperature because it varies so much. And is it windy,
is it not? Wendy? Was it warm going into the
cold and all that. It'll vary, but douranta can be
(23:48):
killed with the ground and come right back, and so
that's not a big concern. I'd throw a little bit
of compost or mult around the base, make a little
mound just to protect the base should it get killed back.
It's not going to be killed to that degree by
the temperature you're probably going to experience there. Another factor
is that the cold only lasts for a little while.
(24:09):
By the time you get to about eight o'clock or
nine o'clock, that temperature is coming on back up and
so it's not a you know, twenty four hours of freezing,
so damage is not as bad typically in those kinds
of freezes. If you want to be a throw something over.
Speaker 12 (24:25):
The top, well that's what I was saying.
Speaker 11 (24:29):
Maybe we could wrap it in some sheets and see
if that will help protect it well.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Rather than wrap it. All that does is slow the
cooling of the branches. But I would rather have that
soil heat there. And I mean, if you want to
go all the way, you could, you know, take PVC
and make a little protective box or arts over the
plant and then put a tarp or a large piece
(24:56):
of plastic over the top. And put a little heat
lamp underneath it and then you're all good. You shine
that heat lamp down low near the base of the planet,
not against the stems, and that heat warming up, will
you'll make it right through without damage. Uh. If you
do that right, you just got to keep that dead airspace.
Don't let the wind blow up underneath there. It just
blows the heat right out.
Speaker 12 (25:16):
Okay, Well, then I appreciate the helps a lot.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
I want to thank.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
You, you bet. And if yeah, and if you want
to go to my website Gardening with Skip dot com
Gardening with Skip, the publication is on there for frost protection.
I just posted it to our Facebook page a direct
link to it, and you can kind of look at
it and it'll give you some ideas that may be helpful,
because who knows, maybe next few weeks we hit another
one that gets colder and you're wondering about some other plant.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
All right, sir, okay, thank you much.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Thanks Henry, you bet, bye bye? Alrighty well, uh, I
think we'll be talking about frost and freezes a lot today.
And that makes sense because it is kind of the
the gardening news of the hour, isn't it is for sure,
I will be going over a bunch of other things
I wanted to. I wanted to talk a little bit
(26:08):
about frosts and freezes and damage that they caused the
plants and why maybe when I come back, we'll delve
into that a little bit. It's a bit on the
nerdy side, but it's helpful to understand, because if you
understand what's happening, then you know how to prevent it.
And so you get out there and maybe the situation
(26:28):
you have isn't that textbook situation that you heard what
to do. So now what do I do? Well, if
you understand what's happening, you can adjust and still protect
your plant. So we'll try to do a little bit
of that when we come back in just a second.
My number if you'd like to give me a call
in the meantime seven to one three two one two
kt R hit.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
So I guess something? Do it all right now?
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Oh man, not a cloud in sight, trust me on
this one. There are a few clouds in sight. You
can get through some raine here. I'm about to stick
something on our Facebook page about what do you do
when it's raining and then it's cold? Co cold? You
enjoy the weather, you go, get you some stuff at
a garden center. Grab you some seeds, some flats, maybe
(27:12):
those kind with a little plastic cover over. You don't
have to have those, but it's kind of cool and
some seeds starting mix and have fun indoors. Gardening is
every day of the year. Go buy your local nursery,
your local feeds to it. They got all that kind
of stuff ready for you. Some of them have good lighting,
good quality plant lighting, plant growth lighting. And I have
(27:34):
a little publication that I put together on the website
on lighting for starting seeds. I'll post something about that later,
but that's very important. But anyway, for today, what a
great day to spend the afternoon and tomorrow and the
next day when you're inside not able to do the
garden outside, garden inside starting. Hey, is there a tomato
(27:55):
plant you would like to grow that you can't find
for sale as a transplant? Start at yourself. I mean,
we've got nurseries that have lots of different varieties and
transplants and gray I mean that's awesome. But sometimes there's
things you want to try that you can't find locally,
or maybe you wanted to try your hand at propagating
I've got some African blue basil, and African blue basils
(28:19):
hate cold weather. But African blue actually is amazingly happy
out there right now. But it's not going to be
when it gets cold. So I'm going to go take cuttings,
bring them inside. I'll just stick them in water probably
for now, just because it's fast, get some roots on them,
and get them potted up inside. And I've taken that
plant to next year. EMA made a couple extras if
I want to give away some to a friend, Lots
(28:41):
of things to do and enjoy inside, if you'd like
to give me a call here on garden line seven
one three two one two five eight seven to four
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
I said before break that I was going to talk
a little bit about prepare, the difference in frosts and
(29:03):
freezes and some of the what's going on there with plants.
Have you ever thought about this? You can have a
frost when you don't have a freeze. Now, frost is ice,
So how can you have a frost when you don't
have a freeze. This is in that publication, by the way,
(29:24):
that I've been talking about on the website. It's also
I posted at the Facebook page today. How can that happen?
Because for water to become ice, you got it, it has
to freeze, right, So what's going on there? You can
have a frost when it's thirty five degrees thirty six degrees.
And what happens is on a cold still night. You
(29:45):
typically don't see frost on windy nights. On a cold
still night, the plants, everything radiates its heat out up
into the atmosphere. So I mean it could be a
you know something, You just leave a rake or something
sitting on the ground out in the garden, and there's
(30:07):
a certain amount of heat in that item, and as
it radiates out, that item actually can lose its heat
faster than the air around it. So if the air
is I'm gonna get a little closer to thirty two.
Let's say the air is thirty four degrees, that plant
leaf can radiate heat out so that the plant leaf itself,
(30:31):
the surface drops down below thirty two or two thirty two.
And when that happens, the moisture in the air condenses
and freezes on the surface of the leaf, and that's
called frost. Notice this next time you see frost if
you have a yard and there's frost all over the grass.
But maybe you have a live oak tree it's got
leaves on it, and that canopy is reflecting the radiating
(30:54):
heat back down. There's not frost underneath that live oak. No,
why is that? You know the air temperature the same
underneath the live oak and outside, not underneath the live oak. Okay,
the difference is that radiant heat and that's how you
have frost when you don't have freeze. Just kind of
fun fact there. So what happens is if we put
a cover over a plant, we are doing the same
(31:16):
thing as the canopy of that live oak. This isn't
freeze protection I'm talking about. This is frost protection. And
you may have frost form on that plastic or tarp
or whatever is the cover over the plant, but the
plant itself inside there is a protection from the frost
(31:37):
as a resultant. Now, if the plant leaf touches the plastic,
then the plastic temperature dropping down to freezing takes the
plant leap. The heat from the leaf goes right translocates
up in there and so you can get burned. That's
why we do see burn when plant leaves touch plastic.
But it's one thing if you just want it to
all be pretty in no burned leaves. But if you're
(31:58):
just trying to get it to survive, I have no
problem using plastic over plants. Just know that where the
plastic touches the leaves, you're going to get foliage burned
on a good coal night. So few fun facts, a
little bit nerdy, but I think hopeful at least next
time you go to that garden party and you know,
garden club or master gardener group, whatever, and ask that
(32:21):
question of people, you know, how can you have a
frost if you don't have a freeze. It's not does
not to be below thirty two degrees in the air
for you to have a frost. How can that be?
People kind of chew on that one a little bit.
You can be the horticultural Cliff Claven of your neighborhood.
Remember Cliff from Cheers, the guy who knew everything or
thought he did. Yep, that's what we're talking about. Well,
(32:44):
our phone number is seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two
five eight seven four indoors. I am helped I continue
really even through the winter to a small degree to
fur my plants and provide just a light dose of nutrients.
(33:04):
And Microlife has a lot of good liquid products. You know,
you can get microlife products that are that are that
are seaweed, that are effissient mulsion types of products. You
can get microlife products the I like the Orange label bottle.
That's one that has got a seven percent nitrogen and
I believe it's a seven to one four blend. You
(33:25):
mix it in a little bit of water and it
does super super well.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Anytime I'm watering the plants, even through the wintertime, I'm
putting a little bit of that Microlife product out there
in the water, just in a very dilute rate. And
by the way, that one is called Biomatrix, the Orange
label it's a seven to one three fertilizer. Actually, Ocean
Harvest is a four to two three Microlife super Seaweed
(33:52):
is a zero zero points zero three. It's got a
little bit of nutrient in it, but you're putting it
on there from a lot of the other compounds that
are present seaweed. Not the fertilizer so much as the
other compounds that are present in seaweed. If you like
their liquid humates. Plus, that's another great one to use.
All of these are from the folks at Microlife. You know,
(34:14):
Microlife fertilizers are widely available all across down You're going
to find those and just grab you. I would say,
if you want to just start with one, start with that.
Biomatrix is seven one three. That is pretty much a
good for for all kinds of uses when you have
indoor plants that you're wanting to grow. Most of our
houseplants were growing for the foliage, not for the blooms,
(34:34):
and Microlife biomatrix is really set up for that. When
I'm starting a new tomato plant or a pepper plant,
or lettuce or anything broccoli, anything you're growing from seed indoors,
that would be another good choice for those as well.
Lots of good products from Microlife. It looks like, gosh,
I'm looking at the time here, we're about to run
(34:55):
out of time. This morning flew by. It always does
time fly, and you're having fun, So I'll take a
break here in just a second. I did want to
mention something about the birds outside my bird feeders. I've
got a couple of them right in the backyard that
are where I can see them. And by the way,
(35:16):
that's where you should put a bird feeder where you
can just sit inside and enjoy it too, even on
a bad day. Birds need energy during the wintertime, and
Wibirds Unlimited has their Winter super Blend. Wildbird's Unlimited Winter
super Blend has extra protein and fat in it that
helps fuel the birds during these times when well the
days are shorters and I need daylight hours. All those
(35:37):
seeds that were available in the fall, you know, the
dried seedheads from the season and stuff. They've pecked those things,
cleaned them up, and it's getting to where they really
need some extra energy from us. And Wilbirds is always
going to be a place where you're going to find
every seed for the season for the bird. So if
you're going to grow, if you want. There's some birds
(36:00):
that eat like the little thistle seeds in a thistle
type feeder. There's things that like the peanuts and the
suet and stuff, and there's there's birds. I primarily feed
the Wallbirds Unlimited Winter super Blimm, but I mix it
with a few other things in the wintertime. It's all
at wildbirds wbu dot com. Forward Slash Houston six stores
(36:23):
use scenaria. I'll be another good thing to do this afternoon.
Go buy a wild bird store. If you've never tried
bird feeding, for you ought to. I uhould not be
a bird person. I mean, I you know, I had
nothing kids birds, but I just wasn't you know the
guy with the binoculars and the short pants walking through
the woods saying that sounds like whatever.
Speaker 5 (36:44):
Boy.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
Ever since I put those feeders up in the backyard,
I just added a new thing to gardening and on
a cold winter day to look out and to see
all the beautiful birds that come up and are attracted.
I even have a little bird feeder books the pictures
of the birds send them life in my phone.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden Line with Skip Richter's.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Just watch him as many things to sup.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Not a sound alrighty, we're back. Let's get going on
gardening again. You know, this is a wonderful Sunday or
some gardening activities. Maybe this afternoon it would be a
good time to get out there. Swing by your local
feed store, garden center wherever you buy your seeds and
your starting supplies and things like that. Come on home
(38:00):
and let's plant something I talk about. In fact, I
posted something Facebook, our garden line facebook pages. By the way,
if you don't follow us on garden line Facebook, you
want to. We put a lot of interesting information out there,
and I think you will enjoy it. Anyway, I was
posting something about, you know, going out and getting seed trays,
(38:22):
and you can get the little covers, the clear covers
over them. You can get the heating lamps and you
lighting and all that. You can do all that a
traditional way. But you know, people have tried growing seed
a lot of different ways over the years, and so
have I. By the way, I seem to really enjoy
repurposing containers. So well, we went to a long time ago,
(38:46):
I went to grabed a salad at salaughter or something
to go and had a little yellow container with the
clear lid on it. And I look at those things
and as a gardener, is like, I could grow something
in that. Are you that way? That way? Well, anyway,
I brought it home, put a little seeds, put a
little sew a mix in it. I know it didn't
have holes in the bottom for drainage, but it's okay
(39:09):
because when I water, I'm gonna barely sprinkle some water
on top. And by sprinkling it on top just enough
to keep it moist, then put the cover over it.
You really don't have the water again for a while
at least until you have to open it. Sprinkle let
us seed on it. And it came up like a
chia pet in there. And then after it was up,
I just kind of gently lift some up. You can
use a spoon or something like that to kind of
(39:30):
lift a few up and then transplant them into little
little containers you're going to grow them in. And so
in a little small area you can do that. Have
you ever been to a store where maybe you've got
ketchup in a little plastic container with a lid on it,
a clear container with you know what I'm talking about,
those little flat things. And I don't want to sit
here naming fast food restaurants all day, but you know
(39:51):
what I'm talking about. I'll put a little stuff in there,
and I may start, you know, a half dozen a
dozen lettuce seed in there, and then move them from
there into the container. That way, if you have on
those seventy two trays and seventy two cell trays and
you plant plants in all the cells. Well, if for
(40:12):
whatever reason, bad seed whatever reason, you know, third of
them or fourth of them don't come up. Well, now
you got all these open cells in there. So this way,
I start off with the little seedlings and then gently
transfer them over to the cell. So that's another option.
You have to do it that way. A lot of
times I'll plant two seeds in each cell and that
way both grow. One of them gets clipped off with
(40:33):
scissors at the base. But anyway you want to go
about it. I make paper pots too. I need to
post that to Facebook. In fact, I will do that.
I don't know if it will be today, but I'll
get that done. How to make your own paper pots?
And boy, that is so cool. You just take newspaper,
you take any kind of paper really, and you roll
(40:53):
it up and create a pot with it. And then
when you grow the plant, you'll find in a tray
with little water in the bottom. The it'll keep it
moist and the roots will come through the sides of
the pot really in the air because there's moisture everywhere
around it. And then you just take them out and
plant the whole pot and all in the garden. I
think that's a good way to recycle paper anyway that
(41:16):
works for me, So I'll show you how to do
that sometime soon. But there's no one way to do it,
I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And every
time I turn around, I'm just you know, thinking of
another way. And again everywhere I go. If I go
somewhere to eat and have a take home thing that
has a clear lid, it is going to become a gardening,
(41:37):
a seed starting, a cutting, rooting, it's going to be
something like that. And you may be that way too.
If you're not, you got to give it a try. Well,
you're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and our phone number here is seven one three two
one two k t r H. Seven one three two
one two k t r H. You need to be
(41:58):
out making sure everything is ready for the freeze coming up.
For some of you, there's not going to be a
freeze way down south, probably not out on the island Gobston,
but those of you as you go north here it hits,
and for some of you it's going to be a
pretty significant little freeze that's going on. It's all a
matter of what plants you have, what condition the plant
(42:21):
is in, how cold it gets and how long it
stays cold. Those factors are all there. They all affect
how well a plant will do. And it's you know,
I sit here and I go, well, let's see it's
going to be twenty nine degrees. Will that kill this plant?
You know, give it the best gas. Based on my
experiences and what's you know, what's been learned by testing
(42:45):
plants for cold officially, But the bottom line is there's
a lot of factors in there, and you never know.
Surprises me. Surprises me if you have not tried your
hand pruning yet, or maybe you've tried, but you kind
of feel like, yeah, I don't really know what I'm doing.
I go out there and I cut stuff off, but
I don't know how to do it. It would be
(43:07):
worthwhile learning how to do pruning properly. Each type of
plan is different. And let me just give you an example.
When you're pruning a nandina, you don't hedge it. I
know people do hedge it, but they shouldn't hedge it.
When you're pruning a nandina. If you've got a very
old cane and nandina grows, it's called it's almost like
(43:29):
a bamboo, because it sends these shoots out of the
ground that come up to a certain height depending on
the species or the variety of the nandena. But you
get an old shoot, an old cane, and you just
cut it off at the ground and new ones will
come up. You don't top nandina with a head. You
don't cut the sides of Indiana. That's how nandina is print.
(43:50):
A blueberry, for example, Generally I will leave blueberry stems
for about five years and then take them out. And
so once you've got a blueberry that's five years old,
basically I'm starting about a five year renovation of that plant.
I'm taking the oldest stems off at the ground and
(44:11):
again new ones come out. Now will that old blueberry
stem keep growing? Yes, it tends to get twiggy, it
tends to get less productive. It's the bigger shoots that
are coming up that are going to have nice size
wood and the nice buds on them for next year.
So with the blueberry, that's a system you would use
if I were pruning something like let's say it's a
(44:33):
young tree, maybe oh here's a good one, A great myrtle,
a great myrtle. You train them to either a single
trunk or you can do multiple typically three is what
people use. And then as those trunks come up, then
they fork into two, and then each of those forks
into two, and you end up with this beautiful candelabra
of a structure. Don't top them off. Don't top them.
(44:55):
It looks horrible. There's not a horticulturally good reason for
topping them off. There just isn't. But that's how you
pun in the cry learn how to prune the plant
that you have, and you can have success. And I'll
talk a little bit more about punting when you come back.
I'm gonna take quick break right now. If you want
to give me a call, be on the boards. Just
give Jonathan a call and seven one three two one
(45:16):
two kt RH and say, hey, put me on hold.
I'm ready to go. And you will be the first
up when we come back if you're the first to call. Alrighty,
here we are.
Speaker 5 (45:26):
We're back.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
We're gonna talk gardening. That's what we do here on
Garden Line. We want you to have success, that's the
bottom line. If you feel like you got a brown thumb,
I want you to stop what you're doing, and just
listen to two words. You don't. You don't, you don't.
You don't have a brown thumb. I promise you that
all you have is a thumb that needs a little
more information. The reason Granny could grow anything. You know,
(45:50):
you remember how Granny is like she could drop a
pencil on the ground and just start to root and
grow into a tree.
Speaker 5 (45:56):
Right.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
The reason is Granny just knew what plants want it
and how to take care of them. And it's as
simple as that. It always comes down to, is it
the right species? Is the soil right? Oh my gosh, soil, soil,
it's so important, number one thing important. So well is
the lighting right? You know, did you plant a variety
that's going to do well here? Those kinds of concepts
(46:18):
are important. How about the nutrition? What do plants want?
What kind of pH do they want? Do they want
soil that is well drained most do? Or can they
tolerate very wet conditions and they put up with a
drought or not? You know, there's a difference between a
hydrangea and a cactus. They don't have the same needs
when it comes to water. So just learning what plants
(46:38):
want and it really bails down to simple things. You know,
I've done this for so long, gotcha. It's spent forty
five years in the extension service ag Life Extension is
horticulturist and been gardening since I was a kid. And
you just learn stuff. You pick stuff up over time.
You see people do things right, you see people do
things wrong. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life,
(47:03):
but that's okay. You've got to make a lot. You
got to kill a lot of plants to be a
good gardener. That is giving you permission to try something
that may not work. Just try it. You'll learn from it,
and you'll have fun in the process because it's not
you know, it's not like you're creating this I don't know,
glass sculpture, and if you mess up, it's broken and ruined. No,
(47:25):
you just get to start over. Gardening is easy, easy
to do. There's no shame in pulling a plan up
and putting another one in. That is okay. When you
start seeds. If you've tried starting seed and had problem,
give me a call. We'll talk about it. I guarantee
you we can fix that. It's going to be really
simple when it comes to seed starting we're looking at
(47:48):
number one mistake people make is poor lighting. Poor lighting,
there are other mistakes. Seeds can it can dry out
too much, can kill seedlings once they start to germinate.
Those ceilings have no resilience whatsoever. If they dry out,
they die. That's possible. It can be too wet, and
now we've got root rots and it's soggy. You can
(48:10):
have a growing mix that has a disease in it.
Maybe you went out and just got some garden soil,
or you're reusing some old mix, or plants had died
in it, and there's a possibility there. But lighting is
the number one. Temperature is also important, But temperature is
more a factor of having it work faster and more successfully,
(48:32):
not just fail or succeed. If you look at a
tomato seedling, for example, it would like to be at
about seventy eight degrees the soil and seventy eight degrees
in order for it to germinate and grow well. But
you can germinate a tomato at seventy You can germinate
a tomato at eighty five degrees. It'll happen. It just
(48:52):
may take longer for it to happen, but you find
the right range of temperature. That's good, but nothing is
as important as lighting. That's where we feel. You put
plants by a window and you think, oh, there's good
light here, and the plants will agree there's good light
out there, and they will start to grow toward it
and become long and lanky, stretching trying to get through
(49:14):
the good stuff outside. You put a plant light over them,
and suddenly you've got good lighting. And most people with
plant lighting. There's two mistakes that we make. Well, okay,
two main mistakes that we make. Number one is the
quality of light. Number two is the quantity of light.
(49:35):
If the light is too dem you know this. You
got house plants, you put them in a dark corner
of the house, They're not going to grow. That's quantity
of light. They can't get enough light enough energy. Think
of plant leaves as solar panels. Okay, if you had
a little electric meter hooked up to a solar panel
and you put it in a closet, you're gonna get
zero electricity, right, And then you go out and do
(49:57):
a medium light and it comes up a little bit
and you put out direct sign and boom, the meter
goes all the way across. It is like lots of light.
That is quantity of light, and plants need a certain
quantity of light to stay stocky and to grow well
and seed links. That's very true. Quality of light means
what are the wavelengths in that light. There are lights
(50:20):
that are for humans that we look at and we
think that's good light, but it is not a good
array of wavelengths for plants. Remember when you're in school
and I don't know science class, I don't know what
grade they did this, fourth grade, fifth grade, who knows,
maybe second grade. Anyway, you put a little prism in
(50:40):
front of light and you see the rainbow come out
the other side. What that prism is doing is it's
taking white light and it's breaking it up into all
the wavelengths so you can see them. That's what a
rainbow in the sky is. Different wavelengths. Now, they're not
all equal in terms of plant green all the wavelengths,
there's something that it can do for plants pretty much.
(51:01):
In fact, even a little bit in the ultra violet
and a little bit in the infrared section, just a
little way ways where we don't even see it. The
plants are getting some of that but there are certain
wavelengths that are important. The two most important are red
and blue. Red and blue and blue is the most
important for seedlings especially. That doesn't mean you go out
and buy blue lights or those purple lights that you've
(51:22):
seen that are basically made up of red and blue.
I use white light, but I use white light that
has a wavelength range that is designed for plants. And
you can buy those kind of lights. You can spend
a lot of money on a light like that, or
you can spend a little money, but be careful. You
go online, you go online on Amazon or something, and
(51:44):
you see these things that say they're wonderful lights, and
they make all these claims, and they may be a
piece of junk. They really may. And I've seen a
lot of them. And I wrote an article on plant
lighting that is on my website Gardening with Skip dot
com Gardening with Skip dot com, and it was one
(52:05):
of the more recent ones I put up there. I'll
probably post on Facebook to it pretty soon here, but
if you want to start your own ceilings, you need
to read that because it's it's pretty simple, and getting
a good quality light is good. Now, if you want
to go all out and Let's say you're gona grow
a tomato plant and you're gonna make you're gonna produce
tomatoes in your garage or in a closet. You can
(52:28):
do that, by the way, you just have to have
a really good light with perfect wavelength ranges so that
it can do that. Yeah, you can do that, but
most people I just want to get a ceiling up
for a tomato plant to put out in my garden, right,
or a lettuce plant or a broccoli plant or whatever. Well,
if in a pinch, you can get a warm white
(52:50):
and a cool white light and put them together and
grow underneath that. Back in the fluorescent days when everything
was fluorescent, I use to use a cool white tube
and a warm white tube in my fluorescent lights. And
that wasn't a perfect plant light, but it gave the
range of toward the red and toward the blue. That
(53:12):
cool white's toward the blue red white red light is
toward the red. No warm white is toward the red.
And that did okay. But those fluorescent tubes you literally
needed to put them about an inch above the plant leaves.
I know that you're going no way, yes way, yes way.
Every time you're doubling the distance from the light to
(53:32):
the plant. It's not you think, well, that's the same
amount of light. I mean, if you look at it
with your eyes, it'd be like, yeah, that's virtually the
same amount of light. No, it's not. It's less than half.
When you double, less than half of the light volume
that's reaching that plant leak. So anyway, I dropped the
fluorescence right down their light. Now pretty much everything is
turning LED and that's fine, same principle, cool white, warm white,
(53:57):
and you can get some lights that do a pretty
good job of that. The problem is, if you're not
really a nerd about plant lighting, it's kind of hard
to tell, well, what would be a good LED shop
light for growing what I want to grow. So that's
why I usually say, if you can combined cool white,
warm light, you're gonna get by. You're going to grow
your transplants. Just be ready to get it closer to
(54:19):
them than you think. And I can't tell you how
far that is because every light is different in the output.
But you can figure that out as you do, or
just go buy a quality plant light and have fun.
That's what I do know. I've gone through a lot
of different plant lights. Over the years, I've tried a
lot of them, tried some that work, some that didn't work,
and sometimes learn the hard way, sometimes learned by reading
(54:42):
and learning, which is a better way to learn. Whatever
they say, learn from the mistakes of others. You don't
have time to make them all yourself. That's true when
it comes to growing plants. But you can do this
and it's fun and once you get going on it,
I got to warn you it's addictive that plant light
is a twelve month out of the year activity. If
you want it to be. It'd be summertime. And you
(55:05):
found some seeds on a plant, you want to come
in and bring them in and start start them and see,
you know, I want I want to see what I
can grow from this. You will find that cuttings can
be grown under plant lights, and cuttings are even more
forgiving than just a little vegetable seedlings and flower seedlings.
When it comes to not having just the perfect light,
they just need a moderate amount of pretty bright light
(55:26):
and they they do pretty well. So anyway, just something
to think about when you're going for light shopping. I
would recommend first read the article that I put online.
It is free. It's on my website Gardening with Skip
dot com. If you want. There are some good books
(55:48):
out there if you really want to delve in. There
are some really good books out there, and there are
actually some good accounts on Facebook and social media that
delve into the nerdy stuff on things. It just depends
on how far into that you want to go. But
at least just start with my article. It'll give you
some concepts that I think will be enlightening for you
(56:08):
and you will have better success as a result. And
I should warn everybody at the beginning guarden line every
time we do a show that gardening is addictive. It
is addictive. And you may think you're just starting out
growing some little tomato plant or house plant or something
like that, but no, no, no, it never stops there.
(56:29):
Those are the gateway drug to real gardening. Next thing
you know, you'll be you'll be starting cuttings, you'll be
propagating plants, you'll be crossing plants to create your own.
Once you learn how to cross plants, oh my gosh,
the world's your oyster. You can create whatever you want
to create. There are people, there are amateur folks out
(56:51):
there that work on tomatoes. You can go online learn
more about them. But they they cross to me, they've
learned how to do it, and they share their seeds
with each other, and they have dwarf tomatoes and they
have big tomato. Now I'm not saying any of them
are great tomatoes. I'm just saying it's an amateur and
if you create it, it's your baby, and so it
(57:11):
is great.
Speaker 13 (57:12):
Right.
Speaker 4 (57:13):
Isn't everybody's baby the most beautiful thing in the world
to them? Well, that's true. When it comes to crossing plants.
You just have to be careful because it is definitely
an addictive thing. I had a question that I came
up yesterday. I wasn't able to get to on the air,
but basically, let's see, I think it was who was
this sent that to Sally sent this to me? Had
(57:35):
a few gerber daisies and outdoor pots. And the question was,
can you put those in the ground as perennials? Will
they wander over in the entries? Yes, gerber daisies are
perennials here. Now they need moist soil consistently, they need
a good organic matter content, So put a lot compost
in the soil, put them in an area that has
protection from the hot western sun, so they like they
(57:57):
want sun, but it gets too hot here at the
summer to carry them as perennials through the year really well.
So yeah, you can do gerber daisies like that. You
can do Shafta daisies like that as well. But where
we usually go wrong is it gets too soggy wet
because the drainage isn't good and you got to fix that,
or it gets too dry. But I let I put
(58:18):
mine in morning sun afternoon shade, and they do just fine.
All right, folks, time for me to take a break.
Here's a number seven one three two one two ktrh.
I'll be right back. Seven one three two one two ktrh.
That's the number. If you'd like to ask a question
or just brag about I don't know that Tomati you
(58:39):
grew last year. We'll we'll we'll tolerate a little bit
of that as well. All right, we're going to go
out to League City now and we're going to talk
to John. Hello, John, Welcome to garden Line Hike. Good morning.
I have a question.
Speaker 14 (58:50):
I lost a couple of big red bun trees last
year that provided them great privacy, and so I'm looking
to replace those with something that's fast growing, you know, lower,
lower maintenance, and if it has a tropical kind of
I kind of have a lot of palm trees already,
so it has a tropical field, that'd be great. So
(59:11):
I'm just wondering if you had any recommendations.
Speaker 4 (59:15):
So, Johnny, how important is that it provides shade or
that it block a view?
Speaker 5 (59:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (59:24):
Yeah, so that's why.
Speaker 6 (59:25):
So you're right.
Speaker 14 (59:27):
So I'm trying to for privacy mainly because the red
buds that I lost were pretty large and provided privacy
along a fence line with a neighbor, so fast growing
and providing that privacy would be probably a priority.
Speaker 5 (59:46):
Ye.
Speaker 4 (59:47):
So, imagine you're in your house or your yard and
you want to block the view either you're looking out
or them looking in. How high do you think that
might need to be? And here's where here's what I'm saying, Like,
if you're sitting on a patio and there is a
shrub that is five feet from you, it only needs
to be about six feet high and you're not going
(01:00:09):
to see anything. It's going to block your view. But
if you go all the way, like let's say fifty
feet away. That shrub will need to be about twenty
or thirty feet high, maybe depending on how tall the
view is next door. Did you see what I'm saying? Like,
how tall do you think this is going to need
to be to effectively block?
Speaker 5 (01:00:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (01:00:27):
Yeah, yeah, I understand it's going to be twenty maybe
thirty feet Yeah wow?
Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
Okay, all right, So you're gonna want something that's evergreen
so that it provides the block of the view all
through all through the season. Twenty your thirty feet is
really tall for a plant like that, and especially to
get anything fast in order to have that kind of coverage.
(01:00:55):
Japanese yew is a very good plant used I will
get quite tall. They tend to be a little narrower,
which is helpful because they're not taking up the whole yard.
They're not a shade tree because they don't spread out.
But you could put them and they'll you know, twenty
or thirty feet is too tall for that, so you
would need to put them a little bit closer to
get that full view block. But they are evergreen and
(01:01:18):
and that that could work for them.
Speaker 15 (01:01:21):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:01:21):
There are some live oak that are a little more
columnar in. They're in their shape. They're not as spreading
as others because generally live oaks just take over the
whole world and can't grow anything under them. But that
might be a possibility. Oh gosh, I'm trying to think
you're evergreen, that's all. Uh, and cold cardy that's the
(01:01:43):
other thing, that's the other challenge from it. So the
another the go ahead.
Speaker 14 (01:01:49):
Oh I was going I was going to say, so
the red buds that were there, though, they obviously lost
their leaves in the winter, so we're used to losing
some privacy.
Speaker 6 (01:01:57):
In the in the winner time. So if it's evergreen,
that would be terrific.
Speaker 14 (01:02:01):
But it doesn't have to be just because we're you know,
we're you know, we're looking for privacy primarily over the spring, summer,
in the fall.
Speaker 4 (01:02:12):
Yes, okay, well there's there. Now. Sweet gums are not
super easy to grow. They like they're kind of particular
about their soil. They like kind of an acidic type
of soil and for them to do their best. They
don't do real in real high pH or soggy wet
clays or things. But there are some columnar types of
(01:02:32):
sweet gums, and I'm trying to the name of the
cultivar just escaped me. Maybe I can find it here
while I'm talking to you, But that would be one
you see those planted. I was driving through, oh just
kind of to the east and north of River Oaks
and saw a bunch of beautiful ones. They were lining
a driveway making a really nice, tall, narrow, very narrow screen,
(01:02:56):
so that that would be something to consider. They are deciduous.
They do have a good fall color generally, so that
would be another one possibility. It's a sweet gum. Again,
just knowing if your soil conditions are adequate for it,
(01:03:16):
because sweet gums are a little bit picky about that, right,
And I'm gonna tell you the name of it. It
gosh is around on the tip of my tongue. Slender
silhouette is the name of the sweet gum. Slender silhouette.
So you need to plant a number of them, depending
on how long that view line needs to go. Slender silhouette,
(01:03:40):
sweet gums. Yeah, what else is good? Most of our
holidies are not going to get tall enough.
Speaker 6 (01:03:51):
What do you think of Mexican sycamore?
Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
Is that a well, it's a it's deciduous, it gets
tall and it spreads very wide, so you're going to
have to to do a lot of pruning to keep
it from either crossing the fence onto the neighbors or
taking up a good too much of your yard. But
Mexican sycamores is a fine tree. It does very well.
I mean, if we're gonna open the door to that
(01:04:14):
kind of thing, you know, then we have a lot
of different shade trees that that will do quite well.
You know, there's red oaks that that will do well
like that. Yeah.
Speaker 14 (01:04:26):
I just asked about the sycamore because we actually on
the other side of the fence that we have a
really large one and we like it.
Speaker 6 (01:04:35):
So it's not ours, but.
Speaker 4 (01:04:37):
You know, it's it's nice. Okay, Well, you know it
would be one to think about. I would you know
what I would do. I would call RCW Nursery and
and get a hold of David Williamson there. He has
a tree farm up in Plantersville and they grow a
lot of different kinds of trees and he's going to
have several great ideas that I haven't even mentioned here.
(01:05:01):
But the RCW Nurseries is where Tomball Parkway comes into
belt Way eight. That's a retail garden Center. They sell
trees there, but they also have the farm up in Plannersville,
and he could probably put you in touch with the
kind of species and variety that will do best for
what you're trying to do. Okay, I'm gonna have to
run to a break, John, but good luck with that,
(01:05:22):
and I wish you well. RCW. David Williamson, Thank you, sir.
All Right, I got to run to a break. I'll
be right back, folks, Scott and Spring you'll be first up.
I guess I'm still on there what I'm doing then,
Sad Weird, welcome back. Good to have you with us
(01:05:45):
here on Guarden Line. There's got a lot of things
to talk about today, as we do every day, there's
always something to discuss on plants. Right now, the topic
of the day is freezes and frosts and taking care
of those. I've talked about seeds starting and pruning and
things all so topical this time of the season, but
so is planting. And if you're going to put a
plant in the ground, you want to get it off
(01:06:06):
to a good start. That means having good soil to
begin with, and when you plant it. I like to
water my plants in with a quality mix. Medina has
one called Medina Plus, and basically Medina Plus is Medina
Soil Activator plus over forty trace elements as well as cytokinin.
It is a natural growth hormone that comes out of
(01:06:27):
seaweed extract and whenever you drench your soil with that,
you're going to get magnesium and iron and zinc and
a number of other things including various kinds of vitamins
that are all part of this concoction that we call
Medina Plus. You're going to see better establishment from in
the transplant, good root development. You want roots to get
(01:06:49):
out there quickly, to establish in the soil so that
plant can hit the ground running as I like to
put it, and not just sit there for a while
pouting until it decides to finally grow. Better blooming, better
leaf growth, better fruits set. All of these are things
that come about with a good drenching with the Medina
Soil Activator Plus called Medina Plus from the folks at Medina.
(01:07:10):
And as with other Medina products, you know they they
are widely available. You're going to find them in our
garden centers and our feed stores and our hardware stores.
Southwest fertilizers. It's easy to find those throughout the Houston area.
I'm going to head out now to on the phones.
I'm going to go to Spring and we're going to
talk to Scott. Scott, welcome to garden Line. How can
(01:07:32):
we help today?
Speaker 7 (01:07:33):
Thanks. I have a problem. I'm like, well, identified it
with my phone. It's called based on the phone, it's
called Chinese creeping vine. There's a purple flower. It has
like a monocot vein structure, and I'm trying to get
rid of it because it's like spring like crazy, especially
in this wet weather that we're having. I'm trying to
figure out how to control it.
Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
Chinese creeping vine.
Speaker 16 (01:07:56):
Yeah, a little purple flower of that. It's like it's
like it has like nodules and it goes from one
plant one will grow and then a root and then
grow and root and it's kind of like anyway a vine,
but the groundcover.
Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
Okay, So, so how big how big is the flower?
Speaker 7 (01:08:19):
It's tiny, tiny, tiny, little purple flower.
Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
Okay, Okay, Jess, I'm trying to think of the other
name for what you're I think I know what you're
talking about. The other name for it, Oh, gosh. Well, anyway,
as far as controlling it, there is a there's a
cinnamon based product out there by Agrillon, and if you
(01:08:45):
dust it onto those plants, when the leaves are wet,
the cinnamon sticks to them and it just fries them.
It doesn't hurt your Saint Augustine, but it but it
does do a good job of controlling just as a
burned down those kind of plants. Now they will they
can come back from seed, they can come back from
parts that weren't killed when you did that. So that's
(01:09:05):
just something that we have to do with. Oh my gosh, Scott,
I'm trying to think of the name of the thing,
and it's escaping me right now. I know what you're
talking about. Well, I'll tell you what. Let me we can.
We'll wind up our call here in a bit. But
when we do, I'm going to find the name and
I'll talk about it in the air when out there
(01:09:25):
and I'm able to do that. But this can put
up with some shady areas too. It's not just the sun,
and it's one of the one of the plants you know,
they can do that. So how long have you had
this in your yard?
Speaker 7 (01:09:42):
Probably been fighting it for three years now it'll just
come up somewhere else. I put pre murdered harvest, I
do the fertilization schedule, and it still pops up. So
it's just the paint the butt of the I've gotten
rid of my Virginian button weed from that. Tweets that
celsia stuff that will a charm.
Speaker 5 (01:10:00):
But yeah, good.
Speaker 4 (01:10:02):
Oh, by the way I thought of the name of it,
I'm gonna interruptre. I just thought that doveweed is what
I couldn't think of. Dove weeed has little purple flowers
and it's a strappy leaf. The parallel the nation kind
of thing you described. Yeah, and that is a problem.
It kind of almost it can almost hide in sant
augustine grass because it has a wider leaf blade. Although
(01:10:23):
it's not identical in augustine, but unlike other weeds, it
kind of is somewhat similar. It can be controlled by
using a pre emergent. Some of the products that are
used on it. I'm not real crazy about. Atrozine is
one that I don't like to recommend because of issues
that can happen because of atrazine. That that's one if
(01:10:44):
you use your celsius on it. It should work well.
Celsius is listed as an effective control of doveweed, and
a doveweed typically comes up in the spring when the
cel temperatures reach about seventy degrees, but by the time
you get into late summer, it is taken over and
it's a big problem. So the earlier you can catch it,
(01:11:06):
the better off you would be. And the only other
alternative is to scrape everything up and reside, or to
use a kill everything killer to kill the grass and
the weed and everything and then replant. But I think
that since you already mentioned celsius, I would use that
on the doveweed.
Speaker 7 (01:11:22):
So good, all right, sound good, all right, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
I appreciate it, appreciate your call. God, funny you drew
a blank right there. Doveweed is one of those we's
kind of Virginia button weed that it's a problem. It's
one of the I would say definitely a top ten
weed in terms of dealing with in our lawns here
in the Greater Houston area. Uh, all right, I'm gonna
go up here. We're gonna go to Will in New Waverley.
Speaker 6 (01:11:49):
Will.
Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
I'm really short on time, but let's see if we
can help you in the amount of time I got.
Speaker 15 (01:11:53):
Okay, could I still do fahrenheit and codiamine in a
hose on spray or effectively?
Speaker 4 (01:12:01):
You could if there are weeds that haven't germinated yet,
that are cool season weeds. Okay. The fahrenheit is a
post emergent, so any weed you spray it on it
should be effective in controlling. I don't like hosen sprayers though,
the ability to really target the weed is not there
(01:12:24):
like it is with a pump up sprayer. Also, the
hosen sprayers put out a lot of volume, and what
we really need is more of almost a mist, you know,
going down of course, droplet mist going down on the weeds,
and you just do a much better job of that
with a pump up. But you could do that. The
pro diamine being a pre emergent. When we get into
(01:12:45):
the spring season in February, it starts here. That's when
we're putting down the pre emergent products for warm season weeds,
it start to germinate typically end of February early March,
depending on where you live in this season.
Speaker 15 (01:13:00):
And uh, the uh pre emergent. Can I use that
in the hose on? But or is that the same thing.
I've got a little Wyobi you know, battery operated sprayer
that is pretty effective in terms of the spot treating stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:13:16):
I would use the battery operated sprayer the hose end
some pre emergent I mentioned a while ago that I
don't like to discuss atrazine products. Those are effective premerch
we control. But if you were to put it in
a hose end, it's going to drench down deep into
the sut and you can cause damage to plants that
(01:13:37):
are growing to have roots in those areas with that.
And so I just would hose ends are fine for fertilizer,
uh and others supplement things that not not for pesticides.
Speaker 15 (01:13:50):
Okay, on your on your on your spot treater. That
the grabber kind of thing, do you use that full
strength or do you delude it to the normal dilution.
Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
You deluded to the appropriate delution. Yeah, uh make it,
you know, you make it a little strong. Because the
reason I like my grab tool is you use every
little pestis on our herbside because you're just reaching out
there and squeezing it onto the leaf of the planet
or wiping it on the stema the planet yeah, so,
but do do you use it at the stronger label rate? Don't? Yeah,
(01:14:23):
I don't because you're not going to cover all the
folded of a planet. You're just getting it on some
of the fuldage. So a little stronger rate helps there,
but not strong one.
Speaker 15 (01:14:31):
Final, quick one. What's the best time to transplant Japanese?
Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
You?
Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
Now fall is better, but now don't delay?
Speaker 15 (01:14:41):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
Welcome to k t r H Garden Line with skimped Rickard.
Speaker 9 (01:14:48):
It's just watch as okay, folks, welcome back.
Speaker 4 (01:15:10):
Let's get this hour going. We got a lot of
things talk about here. They got special guests coming up
in just a second. I want to run first thing
out to wes U and talk to Charlie. Charlie, I
wanted to see how we could help with the question
that you had.
Speaker 12 (01:15:24):
I've got four different kinds of plants in my landscape,
and I wondered what the cold tolerance is. Do I
need to cover any of all of them? I've got
loriapy Asian jasmine, Japanese, you, and avilias. The avilias are
new two or three months old.
Speaker 4 (01:15:47):
None of those need covering in the freezer. You're going
to have done in West u Yeah, this time they're good.
Speaker 5 (01:15:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:15:54):
What will happen with the lariope? Yeah, with the loriope
is sometimes when we get a little cold, they'd get
a little ragged looking and stuff that happens in the
summer heat with spider mites too, And you can just
cut that lariope off. In fact, i'd recommend you do
it when we get here into January, before the new
growth starts on it. Just mow it back to the
(01:16:15):
ground and get fresh new growth out. If it's looking
a little on the ragged side, but none of those
need covering.
Speaker 5 (01:16:21):
Oh you can mow it.
Speaker 12 (01:16:23):
I didn't realize that.
Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
Because you know, yeah, the old leaves, after you know,
a season or two, they start to kind of shrivel,
turn brown. There's issues. So just make it fresh, cut
it back, you know, come right back out of the ground.
But don't wait until the new growth starts, because then
you'll have a bunch of leaves that the top has
been chopped off of.
Speaker 12 (01:16:44):
Okay, so what you see just just when it starts
to warm up, when it starts to grow over that
be run Mark.
Speaker 4 (01:16:51):
I would just say you could you could do it now,
but I would do it probably mid January something like that,
when you start to the fresh new leaves coming out.
Get that done pretty quick if you haven't already done.
Speaker 5 (01:17:04):
It, Okay, I have not.
Speaker 4 (01:17:07):
Okay, all right, Charles, thanks.
Speaker 12 (01:17:11):
And everything else I mentioned is I guess if it
was going to get done in the cold and thirty,
I might need to cover it.
Speaker 4 (01:17:18):
But if we get down in the yeah, there's not
a practical way to cover Japanese you anyway, but those
are cold hearty. You're just typically not going to experience
temperatures where you are that's going to damage those plants.
Speaker 5 (01:17:35):
Okay, all right, all right, sir, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:17:39):
One last thing for you to worry about today. Good
luck for Thanks for the call. I appreciate that. Hey,
I have a special guest that I like to bring on,
and that is mister Dean Nelson from Nelson Plant Food. Hey, Dean,
are you there?
Speaker 6 (01:17:55):
Yes, sir? Can you hear me?
Speaker 4 (01:17:58):
I can? I can? Well, Good Sunday more, Thank you,
Good morning, Sunday, morning year. Well, happy New Year to
you too. You know, I have been last weekend and
yesterday and I was talking about Randy Lemon's scholarship and
I wanted to have you come on and let's talk
about that a little bit. I know you hoped, well
(01:18:18):
you basically got that set up at Texas A and
M I'd like you to tell folks about the scholarship
and uh, you know, just let's just start off with
what what is this scholarship and how can people participate
in it?
Speaker 17 (01:18:32):
Well, the what first made me start thinking about it
is as I go to these trade shows and you
and I both have been going for i know, four
years for me, probably less that the same for you.
But anyway, as you go to these shows, there's less
and less young people in the horticulture industry. And in
horticulture industry, you know, it's it's not an easy job.
(01:18:54):
You have to love to be with plans, you have
to love to be outdoors, and you start off on
the end of a shovel. When you get out, even
when you graduate, you know, he're out there with the folks,
working with the land, helping improve flowers and plants for
your customers. And and it's a service. It's basically a service.
Speaker 6 (01:19:12):
And so.
Speaker 17 (01:19:14):
Yeah, I'm thinking we need to start bringing more new
people into this industry.
Speaker 6 (01:19:18):
And so the.
Speaker 17 (01:19:20):
Idea I thought, well, you know, let's do the scholarship
to help help some of these kids when they come
into A and M.
Speaker 6 (01:19:27):
Of course, you know I both graduate from A and M.
Speaker 17 (01:19:29):
And uh so I got with horticulture department and talked
to doctor Dringa, he's ahead of the department there and
and he's he was.
Speaker 6 (01:19:38):
Very excited about it, he said.
Speaker 17 (01:19:40):
And I asked him, I said, what would you use
this for an existing student or you would you use it.
Speaker 6 (01:19:44):
To recruit somebody? He said, oh, definitely recruit, He said,
we can.
Speaker 17 (01:19:48):
We can use the money to find a kid that
is really dedicated coming out of high school to the
to horticulture and loves loves plans and people. And uh,
we can use this to recruit some good kids. And
in the past, I don't know, I guess ten years
I brought in five kids, they graduates ME and M
(01:20:10):
into the horticulture industry. Now I hired them and trained
them for a couple of years, and five of three
of them are still in the industry. One of them
actually owns about it. I don't know about a twenty
million dollar company. She worked for me here a couple
of years and then she went to another job and
ended up buying a guy out and so it makes
a big difference. One person can make a huge difference
(01:20:33):
in this industry.
Speaker 4 (01:20:35):
That's true. That is absolutely true. And having gone through
the hort program up there, I can tell you that
that is something that is always needed. You know, there's
a lot of folks working out in the industry that
maybe they've picked up information from here and there, but
not necessarily accurate training and just the basics and things.
(01:20:57):
And as an employer, being able to hire somebody that's
coming out, you know, with the already a head start
on the industry, sure is a good thing, isn't it.
Speaker 17 (01:21:09):
Well and and A and M. And of course I
know Stephen F. Austin has a big program, and I
think Sam Houston does. But horticulture is not an easy degree.
How many different plants types you have to know and
how to take care of them, and insects and soil
chemistry and biology and plants physiology, and it's it's it's
(01:21:31):
it's fascinating. When you start looking at what God did
that putting all this stuff together, it is unbelievable.
Speaker 6 (01:21:38):
And that's that's your whole job.
Speaker 17 (01:21:39):
Your job is, yeah, to help help us understand what
to do, what not to do, you.
Speaker 4 (01:21:47):
Know, and I've told people this before, but the way
I would put it is, horticulture is not a discipline.
It is a combination of disciplines. And it's to be
a horticulturist, you've got to be an entomologist, a plant pathologist,
a soul scientist, a plant nutrition expert. And I mean,
you know, I could just keep going and you kind
of have to put it all together because someone calls
(01:22:08):
up and says, hey, my lawn is yellowing and my
brain's going, okay, is that an iron deficiency? Why is
it an iron? Is there a lack of iron? Is
the pH two highs or too much posphors? I mean
you see what I'm saying. That the thinking process. But
it's fun. I love it. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 5 (01:22:23):
It has a lot of fun.
Speaker 17 (01:22:25):
Like somebody calls the doctor say, hey, doctor, I feel bad.
Speaker 6 (01:22:28):
Will I need a medicine pool? How do you feel?
I just feel bad? Send me something?
Speaker 4 (01:22:34):
There you go. Hey, Dean, I'm up against a quick
commercial break. Can you hang on and we'll keep this
going we come back. Yeah, thank you so much. I
appreciate that. I'll be right back, folks. All right, welcome back.
Glad to have you back with us here. We're visiting
with Dean Nelson of Nelson Plant Food and we're talking
(01:22:54):
today about Randy Lemon. You know, I talked yesterday about
this anniversary of being the anniversary of Randy's passing when
we lost him here in the southeast Texas area. Such
an influence, and I do want to say this before
I forget, and we'll come back to it at the end.
But if you would like to participate in supporting this
(01:23:16):
scholarship for the sake of horticulture students, supporting horticulture students
coming out in the industry, you can go to my
website Gardening with Skip dot com and right there top
thing I've got posted is the Randy Lemon Scholarship. You
can give online or you can give a check, and
it tells you how to do all that. Right now, Dean,
i'd like to first of all, welcome back. I'd like
(01:23:37):
to just talk about Randy a little bit. He was
bigger than life and quite the character. I can attest
to that. He and I used to joke that we
were never going to tell our kids what happened in
Moses Hall at Texas A and that Randy was just
he ruled the room, right.
Speaker 5 (01:23:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 17 (01:23:57):
And you know, if I'm a put a little guilt
trip on your audience here, maybe a little bit. But
you know, if you ever if called and talked to
Randy he helped you with your plants, or if if
you met him at a book book signing and and
talked with him or sponsored the show, you know, we
need to pull me up some money and remember Randy
(01:24:19):
and just get you know, anything to the foundation. You know,
like you say, bigger than life. And he'd come out
to the plant and we'd walk around. He's all very
interested in how we made fertilizer and why we made it.
And I have some wonderful pictures of us together that
I just absolutely cherish. I get kind of teary when
I when I look at him, and uh, but gosh,
(01:24:45):
I lost my trade of thought here. But he would,
like you say, he was just bigger than life. And
whenever I would bring out a new fertilizer product, you know,
just to tell tell people how influential he was, I
would go around all these these retail stores and they
would say, well, is Randy gonna talk about it?
Speaker 6 (01:24:59):
What Randy say about this? Does Randy use it. Randy
like it, you know, and he was huge.
Speaker 17 (01:25:05):
And this the Gulf Coast gardening community, there's nothing like
it anywhere in the country. I've been all over the country,
you know, selling my products, and there's no big garden
shows out there.
Speaker 6 (01:25:18):
There's no big gardening.
Speaker 17 (01:25:19):
Community like what what what Randy built and Bills Bill's
act and John Burrow before them.
Speaker 6 (01:25:25):
You know, this is this is something, This is something.
Speaker 17 (01:25:27):
And you and I are all you know, take you
especially are taking into and growing it even more. But
we're all benefiting from from from what Randy did all
those years.
Speaker 4 (01:25:39):
Right well, he was he was larger than life. His
presence here meant a lot to the green industry. And uh,
I tell people all the time that you're so fortunate
to be in gardening here in the Houston area with
a number of outstanding garden centers, quality products and things
and then advice that makes it so easy to have success.
(01:26:01):
And for over twenty five years, Randy sat in this
seat and he educated the greater Houston area and he
was certainly loved and followed and appreciated. And you know,
you and I each have a personal connection to Randy,
and I can tell you this, I'm a product of
that program that he came out of. And this scholarship
that you guys have set up up there is really
(01:26:22):
important because they'll come a time and I'm not sitting
in this chair and there needs to be somebody else
to come and to take that chair. And just the
memory of Randy is is I don't know, there's not another.
As they say, they broke the mold.
Speaker 6 (01:26:39):
And this is the scholarship is permanent.
Speaker 17 (01:26:42):
It's a permanent endowment and once we get it, it's
we're a twenty five thousand dollars now and the goal
is one hundred and that'll that'll generate four thousand dollars
a year to a student forever, and they'll give it
to one student until that person graduates, and then they'll
find somebody else and give it to them.
Speaker 6 (01:26:59):
But you can all also add to it, you know.
Speaker 17 (01:27:02):
If somebody wants to call up, say I just want
to add, you know whatever to the current scholarship, and
they'll give it out this year. So we're going to
fund it's going to be funded at a thousand dollars
in the fall, and uh, we're just gonna keep adding
to it over the years and get it up to
where we need it to be.
Speaker 4 (01:27:20):
Well, I really appreciate the fact that you took the
initiative to get that set up, and I hope that
people listening, both the listeners who benefited from Randy, the
businesses that benefited from Randy's presence and here in the
Houston area would, as you say, step up the plate
and be part of this because we got a good
(01:27:41):
way to go. You know, a thousand dollars a lot
of money, but when you're looking at a college education,
someone some could you know, not going to become a
rocket scientist or a physician or whatever, and the future
of moving into the degree of horticulture help goes a
long way and maybe makes the difference between a very
good person making it into the industry and not. And
(01:28:02):
so I really encourage everybody listening to my voice to
consider being part of this because we need to get
that thing up, Like you said, two one hundred thousand
in the endowment so that we can be given four
thousand every year to a student.
Speaker 17 (01:28:17):
And these kids coming and we go every year to
the job their and these kids coming out at the
horticulture department are amazing. They are motivated, they love what
they're doing and it's just so fun to be around them.
Speaker 6 (01:28:31):
And so if we can you know, like one person
like you know, like.
Speaker 17 (01:28:36):
You or me, you know, makes it can make a
huge difference in all of Texans, you know, in our
horticultural experience is just one person you never know, you
just never know.
Speaker 4 (01:28:50):
You never know, and it matters. It does matter. And
I guess you and I both said this in different ways,
but everybody listening to Guarden Line is benefitting in one
shape or form of from the things that Randy set
up and built here. I say built here, you know,
because it does go he goes back all the way,
you know, that's Zike and Burrows, you know, back to
(01:29:14):
the day when Dewey Compton was doing the show in
the fifties, and it is unheard of that we have
a show that's that's continued this long. And and also
eight hours a weekend. That's something you go around the
great the whole country, you're not going to find that
guarding show eight hours a weekend. But that's a fortunate
thing for folks that are listening here. So when you know,
(01:29:36):
thinking about Randy, I don't put you on the spot
or anything. But do you have a favorite story of
Randy or any any would you would you tell us one?
Speaker 17 (01:29:45):
Yeah, we he just wanted we'd come out to lunch
and we'd down in Belleville and there was a gas station.
Speaker 6 (01:29:52):
It was a taxi coast.
Speaker 17 (01:29:53):
It was a shell station back then, and they had
these big, old, huge, greasy hamburgers. I mean that they
must have added about four thousand calories. And it was
during COVID. We walked in there and I said, you know,
I want to, you know, get some hamburgers. Well, okay,
but it has to be to go. I said, why, well,
it's we're closed, it's COVID. And I looked in their
dining rooms, like about a ten by ten space with
(01:30:13):
some one hundred year old chairs that are falling apart
in the desk, I mean the table.
Speaker 6 (01:30:18):
I said, look, there's nobody in here. We can just
sit down here. Okay. It took him about twenty minutes.
Speaker 17 (01:30:24):
They're all handmade, and uh, he was so thrilled about
that hamburger and they are good hamburgers. And then today
people it's nott a shell station. But everybody says, where.
Speaker 6 (01:30:36):
You gonna go lunch?
Speaker 17 (01:30:37):
Let's go a shell station. What's nott a shell station?
What is I don't know, let's go, but he sounds.
Speaker 6 (01:30:46):
And also the last time I saw him, he said,
I need a part line from a yard. I want
you to look at it. So, and he called me
all the time about asking me about stuff. You know,
what about this? What about that? You know, problems or
how to fix this?
Speaker 17 (01:30:58):
So I walked it was this house, and Katie and
I went up there about ten o'clock.
Speaker 6 (01:31:02):
He came out of in his pajamas. I was laughing
at him. I said, why are you wearing your pajamas.
I'm working on my book.
Speaker 17 (01:31:09):
I'm about finished with it. He was almost finished with
his last book.
Speaker 6 (01:31:12):
So we looked at.
Speaker 17 (01:31:13):
His his yard and his weeds, and he wanted some
fertilizer for him and his neighbors. But you know, he
all he you know, his whole life was harder culture,
the books and the people and the customers. You know,
his whole life was their kids of course, and Von
you know, course.
Speaker 4 (01:31:30):
Right, absolutely well, and Randy. He just loved communicate with people.
Speaker 17 (01:31:34):
And also you and I think, weren't you at that
Brookwood tree planning they did for him? Yeah, so you
know I was. I was not shocked, but I was
very you know, they went on and on about what
all he has done for them over the years. He
just has the hardest, biggest texts helping all those kids.
Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
Yeah, that's true. Yeah, there's there's a tree out of
Brookwood if anybody ever goes out there, which I would
recommend you go check it out. Wonderful place, wonderful program
that they have that. I believe our David Williamson RCW
donated a tree that they planted out there. I believe
it's a nuttall oak and I look forward to going
and visiting periodically and just seeing that thing grow because
(01:32:14):
that will be a very long term remembrance right there.
I love that. Yeah. Well, uh, the scholarship again, you've
made it where it's it's easy to donate to. People
can go online.
Speaker 5 (01:32:31):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:32:31):
I tend to not read out the whole u ur
L because nobody's gonna be able to write it down
or remember it. But it is the A and M Foundation,
Texas and M Foundation. The scholarship is called the Lemon
Scholarship of two ms L E, M, M O n uh.
And you can send a check by mail to them
or you can go online and give online either way
you want to go about it. And again I've made
(01:32:53):
it easy by just on my website. The very top
thing that's there Randy Lemon Scholarship. You click on it
and it it has a direct link in there to
go straight to the scholarship. If people to want to
go about doing it that way. Again, I would encourage
people to do this. Number one, just out of appreciation
(01:33:13):
for what Randy meant to this area and to gardeners
into this area and to horticulture businesses in this area.
And number two, because it's just a good cause. Like
you said, horticulture as a degree, it's a challenging thing.
It's not the kind of thing that typically you know
it's going to people gonna get rich quake off of,
to say the least, but it is something that by
(01:33:37):
supporting it, you're making a difference in what you have
enjoyed for twenty five plus years of Randy and a
couple of years of me here doing this. That is
all because of the horticulture knowledge and training that's been
provided to students as we speak up there, and like
you said, there are a lot of good horticulture programs
around around the state. But this this one is dear
(01:34:01):
to both dear in my heart and I know certain
certainly to Randy's heart as well. I got about a minute, Dean,
any final thoughts here before we have to take a.
Speaker 6 (01:34:12):
Break now, just looking forward to a great year in
this weather.
Speaker 17 (01:34:16):
You know, he's freezing one day and it's hot and
neck so you never know about that. But you know,
Randy was just you know, he's always be in our hearts.
And hopefully every year we can around this time we
can kind of keep talking about his little bit and uh,
I don't know, just God leave in the United States
of America.
Speaker 4 (01:34:35):
All right, there you go. We're very fortunate. And again
I want to thank you. I appreciate you coming on,
uh taking some time out. This has been good. I
think it's a great thing to remember back, you know,
and also to have the opportunity to do something that
looks toward the future. And this is a really important thing,
(01:34:55):
a wonderful thing. And thanks thanks a lot for getting
it set up.
Speaker 5 (01:34:58):
Dean.
Speaker 17 (01:34:59):
Yeah, now I sayybody, get your check look out so
you'll forget there.
Speaker 5 (01:35:04):
You go.
Speaker 6 (01:35:05):
Good, Thank you, good?
Speaker 4 (01:35:06):
All right, yes, sir, you too, Thank you, sir. Well,
here we are, time for a break. I'll be back
right after Jared gets and educates you about the news.
I wonder if Jared's got all his pipes and plants
covered up right now? My cage just fine. Alrighty, alrighty,
(01:35:35):
We're back back on garden line. Got lots of plant
things to discuss today. We're going to go back to
phones here in just a second if you would like
to call seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one two kt r H. So,
when you think about needing something to do your gardening,
(01:35:56):
whether it's taking care of your lawn or your vegetable garden,
or flower or seed starting or any of that. Maybe
you need a tool for pruning, what do you think
of first? Well, how about Southwest Fertilizer. You know, every
time I go into Bob's store there, Southwest Fertilizer. It's
on the corner of Bissinet and Runwick in Southwest Houston.
Every time I go in, I see something like, Oh,
(01:36:17):
I didn't know you had that, And then my second
thought is, oh, why didn't I You have everything in here?
If Southwest doesn't carry it, you don't need it and
whether it's you know, we've been talking about freeze protection
and things. It's pruning season. Do you need a quality saw,
a quality handprint, or a quality looppers. Don't buy junk
from some national chain store. Just go to Southwest Fertilizer
(01:36:41):
and grab you some quality tools because it's time for that.
They carry that kneeling bench. It's a sitting bench. You
flip it over, it's a kneeling bench. It helps you
get up. If you're north of forty you know what
I'm talking about. You gotta you can't do that up
and down all day without paying the price. With the kneelingmnch,
you can. Bob's got that. He's got that there. Do
you need a fertilizer spreader? You need a spreader for
putting out fire ant bait? Do you need the fire
(01:37:03):
ant bait, insecticide, fung aside, herbicide, fertilizers, they're all there.
If you're an organic gardener, you're not going to find
a bigger selection of organic products than Southwest Fertilizer carries
in the whole region. That's just a fact. They've been
around since nineteen fifty five, and there's a reason for that.
Now You can give them a call at seven one
three six six six one seven four four, or just
(01:37:25):
go to the website Southwest Fertilizer dot com. Tell you
where to find them, tell you how to call them,
and main things. Just get over there and get your supplies.
Be ready to go. Bob's got you covered. We're going
to go out to League City now and we're going
to talk to Steven. Hello, Steven, welcome to garden Line.
Speaker 5 (01:37:43):
Hey, Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 18 (01:37:44):
Happy to be on the show with you today, Thank you, sir.
So I have a I have a question about an
oak tree. Right behind my house. There was a big
oak tree. It was maybe twenty twenty five feet tall
and it had grown over the corner of my garage.
(01:38:06):
So back over the summer, I had that cut down
and it was cheaper to cut it down to about
eight feet eight nine feet rather than grind it all
the way down to the stump. And I thought for
sure that would have killed it. But since that time
there have been sprouts that have come off the top
of it, and there's a decent amount of foliage on there.
Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
Now.
Speaker 18 (01:38:29):
My question is, with the weather turning, is that going
to finally kill that off?
Speaker 19 (01:38:36):
No?
Speaker 4 (01:38:37):
It was it a live oak or red oak or
do you happen to.
Speaker 5 (01:38:39):
Know what kind live oak? I believe.
Speaker 4 (01:38:43):
Okay, no, it's going to sprout back. So you're wanting
to kill the tree, right?
Speaker 19 (01:38:50):
No?
Speaker 18 (01:38:50):
No, Well, I just didn't want it to fall on
my garage, and that's why I had it cut back.
I thought for sure cutting off as much as they
did would have killed but it didn't. And I don't
necessarily want to kill it. I mean, if it grows back,
it's going to take years and years to be a
problem again as it was, So I just I wonder
(01:39:11):
will this freeze kill it? And then will I have
a big, you know, eight foot problem back there that's
going to fall over on one of my kids.
Speaker 4 (01:39:19):
Okay, no, it's not going to kill it. If it
is so close to the garage, did you have to
prune it like that? I don't know that there's a
long term future for that tree. Once it's been cut
back that hard, it's regrowth, it's going to be just wild.
Hair is going everywhere, and it won't have a really
great structure. So I would seriously consider removing it. If
(01:39:41):
you want to treat there, then plant one at a distance.
Where you're not going to have to do that kind
of pruning to it. That would be my advice. Now,
if you want, you can have someone who knows how
to prune come out there and take a look at it,
but their jaw is going to hit the ground when
they see it. They could kind of help bring it
(01:40:01):
back to a shape that may stay away from the garage,
but that sounds like it's close enough to be kind
of an issue with foundations and who knows what else.
Maybe well, that way going up into.
Speaker 18 (01:40:12):
The garage, the driveway ends and then there's a slope
that goes down and this oak tree is at the
bottom of that slope, So it's decently far away enough.
Now if it'd sell over, it wouldn't hit the garage,
but with it being as tall as it was, it
would have taken out the far corner that showed up.
Speaker 4 (01:40:33):
Yeah, I got you. Well, live ooks are huge, and
so that's going to get huge again, and it'll have
even weaker branch attachments because of that primming. So I again,
I don't know there's a long term If you want
to hire an arbist to come out and take a
look at it, I would call Martin Spoon Moore from
Affordable Tree. Have him to come out and take a look.
You know, I can't see it, but he will, and
(01:40:54):
he'll be able to tell you whether it can be
saved or not. If you want to get rid of it,
you can do that. Tell you how to do that too.
If you maybe plant a tree that doesn't get so
big right there, that might be option.
Speaker 5 (01:41:07):
But it's up again.
Speaker 18 (01:41:08):
I'll take that down. What was the name of the
company against service?
Speaker 5 (01:41:13):
Affordable Tree? Okay, and they serve this league sitting mart uh.
Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
I think he goes down that far. Give him a call.
He can tell you. Here's the phone number, seven to
one three six seven six twenty six sixty three.
Speaker 18 (01:41:29):
Twenty six sixty three okay, And then just one one
other question real quick before I get off the phone
with you. We have three dogs in the house and
this time of year, with him running around the backyard,
there's a patch of grass that they just they just
tear up and it doesn't matter how much it grows
in in the summertime and it does grow back. But
(01:41:51):
until it does grow back, they track a bunch of
mud in the house. And we've we've tried everything to
keep them from killing it is or anything any fertilizer
we can put, or turf builder down there or something.
Speaker 4 (01:42:05):
There is nothing that will make any grass you can
plant tolerant of that kind of foot traffic from dogs.
They just wear it out.
Speaker 5 (01:42:15):
Now.
Speaker 4 (01:42:15):
Bermuda is the most wear and tear resistant, but it
has its own issues other than going out and putting,
you know, kind of maybe some patio stones out there
to kind of extend that out a little further. I
just don't know a good suggestion on that one.
Speaker 18 (01:42:33):
All Right, we can try, and I'll give your guy
a call. I have some trees in the front I
may have in prune anyway, all.
Speaker 4 (01:42:40):
Right, sounds good. Hey, thanks for the call. I appreciate that.
Oh let's see, boy, I don't have time to take
another call. Carry and Buffalo rego down in Houston. We
will have to hold you until we come back from
the top of the hour news and you'll be our
first two up if you're able to stick around for that.
Thank you and everyone listening for being a garden Line listener.
(01:43:03):
We appreciate you being around. We do not take that
for granted. I know you've got a lot of other
things you can be doing. With your time. I hope
this is entertaining for you. I hope it's educational for you.
And I don't know, maybe we're helping you have a
little bit of success at least. That's what i'd like
to think, you know. The way I like to put
it is, we're here to help you have a bountiful garden,
(01:43:25):
a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. That's
what I like to have. That's what I'd like to accomplish.
So let's see if we can do all those three.
Just want to remind you one more time. We have
our garden Line Facebook page where I have posted a
link to the Frost Freeze publication protecting your landscape Plans.
It's free and you can click right on it on
the Facebook page and get to it, or you go
(01:43:46):
to my website gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening with
Skip dot com, lots of other good information information on
lighting for seed starting, information on randulin, on scholarship, and
a lot of other things that are up there as well.
All right, don't take a break, you stick around and
we'll be right back with your calls.
Speaker 1 (01:44:07):
Welcome to kat r H garden Line with skimp Rickard's.
Speaker 2 (01:44:11):
Yes, yes, just watch him as well.
Speaker 4 (01:44:26):
Well, well, welcome back. Let's get back into the phones
here on garden Line. Thanks for listening in today. I
appreciate that we're going to go straight out to Buffalo,
Texas and talk to Carrie. Hey, carry.
Speaker 3 (01:44:41):
Hip. I'm calling for my daughter. Actually, she got some
pine trees.
Speaker 20 (01:44:48):
In her yard and all of her are several of
her neighbors pine trees have died from pine bart beetles.
And I heard you talking to someone a couple of
weeks ago, but I could and find it a preventive
or pine barked beetles.
Speaker 4 (01:45:08):
Well, the only the best prevention for pine bart beetles
is not let the tree get stressed. Drought stressed, lightning
strikes all of that the tree. The beetles actually pick
up a fragrance in the air if you will, that
the tree produces and it attracts them to the stress tree.
So you know, you just see perfectly healthy trees. Typically
(01:45:30):
pine bart beetles don't just show up and take them down.
Usually it's connected to a stress, so that that would
be the prevention. There are sprays that you can put
on the trunk that soak in between the little bark chunks,
you know, and where it's beetles will tend to go in,
you know, where they can get easy access to the
interior of the tree. And if you have a spray
(01:45:53):
that was put on ahead of time, it'll kill the
beetle when they try to bore in. Once you have
a mo the tree, though, those sprays don't go in
and kill any beetles. Most of the time, we just
don't spray for pine bart beetles because you just can't
spray on and on and on over and over and
over again in case one would would want to show up,
(01:46:13):
so that would that would be my advice. What what
part of the region does she live in? She's and Tomball,
tom Bull area. Okay, Uh, there's a there's a Texas
Forest Service office in Houston, used to be just off
the Beltway on the north northwest north side of the town,
(01:46:37):
Texas for Service and they've got some folks there that
can address the beatles and more in depth as to
options and things. But I kind of generally lean away
from spraying unless you know you're out on a property
where you have room, because to spray, you need to
spray About eighty percent of the height of the tree
(01:46:58):
if you can, and if you can imagine trying to
squirt up on a tree trunk straight up in like that,
you're going to have a mist coming down on you
and drifting over in your neighbor's yard, on their little
dog and everything else. It just doesn't sound like a
good idea to me. But if the tree is in
the right location and you get somebody with the equipment,
they can come in and do a preventative spray, but
(01:47:20):
not a curative spray.
Speaker 3 (01:47:23):
Why, Okay, well I will give her that information.
Speaker 4 (01:47:30):
Alright.
Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
If you were to spray, if you were to spray,
what would be your active ingredient?
Speaker 4 (01:47:37):
I would contact an arborist to see what they are
recommending right now, the things that we used to use,
there's a productal lending that's horrible for your eyes, very
damaging that we don't recommend that anymore. There are some
synthetic pyrethroids that tend to stick around a while, because
you need something that's going to soak in and be
(01:47:59):
there for a while. Pray every week. Uh, And so
that's the direction that I would go in. But I
I would hire you know, it's then tom Ball area.
I would call Martin Spoon Moore with Affordable Tree Service.
Do you have a pin or pencil handy there?
Speaker 5 (01:48:16):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 4 (01:48:18):
Let me just give you a number. It's seven one
three six twenty six sixty three seven one three six
nine nine six sixty three.
Speaker 3 (01:48:31):
Okay, I have this information. She can, she will with it.
Speaker 4 (01:48:39):
There you go. Hey, quick question. Are you listening on
the radio.
Speaker 5 (01:48:43):
Or online online?
Speaker 4 (01:48:47):
I heeart okay, okay, good, good to know. Hey, thanks
for the call. Appreciate that very much.
Speaker 20 (01:48:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 12 (01:48:54):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (01:48:56):
All right, We're gonna go down in the Heaston area
now and talk to Rego. Hello, Rego.
Speaker 21 (01:49:00):
Yeah, hey, Skip, how are you guys?
Speaker 6 (01:49:04):
So?
Speaker 12 (01:49:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 21 (01:49:05):
Good, good Skip. I have a question. For many years,
I have what's called I hear all these people calling
in about their plants, which is great. My problem is
I have too much of a plant. It's called the
star jasmine. And I have what's called the living fence.
So on my iron fence throughout my whole property. I
have two lots of fifty by one hundred and it
covers the whole perimeter. So what I do every year
(01:49:28):
is I use three male tarps cover them up and
they survive, you know, but I know, remember a couple
of years back where we had that real severe Texas
freeze and the great went out that year, the all
the leafs turn brown, they fell off, and they looked horrible,
but then they all came back. So because this has
been many years that it's been, I think it's it's
(01:49:50):
it's pretty much you know, it's it's established, you know
what I mean. So this year I'm covering them up
as I've been listening to your show, and I'm like, well,
it's not going to be a heart freeze, it's a
life freeze right now. So I'm like, should I even
cover them up, you know? Or now that they're established
for more than fifteen years, should you know? Should I
(01:50:11):
even keep covering them up in the futures because they
come back? But I mean, luckily I just cover them
with tarps. They stay green and they survive. But I
like my privacy and when they that year, when they
turn brown, it just looked horrible, but they came back,
you know. So I'm just asking on a star jasmine,
I thought they were cold, hardy, I know, the Carolina jasmine?
(01:50:33):
Is that the star Jacksman? How can you because every
year it seems like I have to do this every
year when the cool freezes come in, you know from
the Arctic care and then they're good. You know, So
what do you recommend because I'm going to get I'm
getting older and you know, I'm gonna probably have to
hire people to come over and cover that, or what
do you recommend? They're established star jasmine around my perit
(01:50:54):
or my fence.
Speaker 4 (01:50:56):
Alrighty, I would not worry about them. This freeze at
all Star jobs is supposed to be hardy to about
zone eight, and so it ought to go way way
up past us in Texas with hardiness. Now that is
under ideal conditions, that heartiness rating. So if we were
to have like seventy five eighty degree days and all
(01:51:19):
of a sudden it drops down, you know into the
mid twenties, well okay, you know our low twenty even teens. Yeah,
you're gonna get some damage to it. But in general,
it's not something you should have to in your area
worry about covering.
Speaker 21 (01:51:35):
Okay, all right, all right, that answered my question because
it's like a tradition idea. Every year, my neighbors are like,
there you go covering your headges and I'm like, yeah,
but you know what ago I love And then the
reason I love sar jasmine. If all the bees come
over and they you know, they propagate my my citrus trees,
my plumerias, so it's just and then when people, you know,
(01:51:58):
when it's in bloom, everybody comes by and they'd like
the smell. So yeah, yeah, I just I up with it,
and I go I don't want to part with it. Yeah, Well,
thank you, I got you advice.
Speaker 4 (01:52:10):
You bet, Thanks for the call. You take care. Hey, folks,
I got to go run to a quick break here.
I'll be right back with your call. Seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four A. Let's get
back here and get going on guardline. We got a
few more things I want to touch base on today.
By the way, we're in our final hour. We'll be
done at ten o'clock this morning. Appreciate you listening in.
(01:52:31):
And if you got a question, can't hold until next weekend,
well seven one three two one two k t R H.
Feel free to give me a call. I'll be happy
to help you with that as well. I've been talking
about freeze and PROSS protection and a number of different
calls today I've gotten things from email, pictures and different
things that relate to that. I just want to I
(01:52:56):
don't want to under I just see how to do this.
I don't want to understate the issue with the coal
we got coming this weekend. There are plants that will
be killed by the coal we got coming this weekend
that are very cool sensitive. However, we have a lot
of plants that can tolerate what we're having and not
everything needs to be covered. Is sometimes you may get
a little burn or frost on the outside. So you
(01:53:17):
just have to decide, you know, is it worth your
time and effort to do that or not? And maybe
it is, maybe maybe it's not. But when the temperature
drops down briefly in the morning comes back up, that's
generally not a big deal. Now, if you've got something
that is col sensitive, yes it will absolutely if you've
got sweet potatoes out there in the vegetable garden or
(01:53:38):
tomatoes in the vegetable it's going to fry the tops,
peppers and other things on that. You may the base
of the plant may even survive with this and reach
sprout if we had to have warm weather, which were
a long way from that. But just make that decision
based on that. You know, whenever you need to protect things,
it always helps to shop and get those supplies on hand.
(01:54:03):
And I know you know what I'm talking about. I
have been there rushing into a store. It's already starting
to get dark outside, and I'm trying to protect my
plants because i didn't prepare ahead of time. Right, have
you been there? You need to buy a clamp light
to put some extra heat underneath, which I use clamp
lights in my garage around my houseplants just to provide
(01:54:24):
a little warmth. Throw a little cover over them because
they don't want to be you know, thirty five degrees.
I mean they want to stay somewhat warmer than that,
and clamp lights work well for that. Do you need
a cover? Do you need a frost blanket to go
over the top? Get those things ahead of time. Do
you need to cover your faucets? Get out? Get those
things ahead of theim. Ace Hardware, by the way, carries
(01:54:46):
all of this stuff, and there's Ace Hardware stores all
over town. You can go to Acehardware dot com and
find the store locator, but in your zip code whatever,
it'll find the stores near you where you can get them.
But I tell you this, what else should we get
to a freeze and more? Everybody goes out and buy
these buys the sing so get it ahead of time.
So maybe you're buying today for tonight or this week actually,
(01:55:09):
or early part of the week, but you have it
on hand. I've got those little star frost covers that
I bought last year and they're hanging on the wall
ready to go. The ace also has something called a
freeze miser. It's a faucet protection. You screw it onto
your outdoor faucet and you turn the faucet on and
water does not come through it initially, but as a
(01:55:31):
temperature drops inside, it starts to shrink up a little
bit and allows water to trickle through, and that prevents freezing.
Moving water is more difficult to freeze than stagnant still water.
The temperature because you got fresh new water that's warmer
than freezing coming through trickling through, it keeps it from freezing.
Those freeze misers work well. You ought to have those
(01:55:52):
on hand. Just have them in the garage for when
you need them. You know, are you using some sort
of a propane heater in the garage or something and
you need, you know, to get your prope tank filled up.
Do you, for example, have a fireplace and you need
some fire logs and firewood. ACE is going to have
things like that. Do you need to provide maybe a
(01:56:12):
heat lamp above some animals like pets that you have.
I know, anybody that's raising chickens, baby chicks, they have
the little heat lamps that hang down for those. ACE
has everything along those lines. ANA freeze for your car.
Now we're not going to be in your car engine
block's going to freeze up weather, but always good to
(01:56:33):
have ANA freeze at the proper levels in your car.
And ACE can get you taken care of that pipe,
heating tape and supplies to the little foam covers that
go over pipe to provide a little extra protection. All
of that is available at ACE. Take care of those
three p's, plants, pipes, and pets. That makes it really,
really easy. And ACE Hardware, the Greater Houston ACE Hardware
(01:56:56):
Group is all over the place, places like Kata's out
in Katie Hamilton's Hardware off of Highway six near Bear
Creek out in Orange. Thank you for listening from out
in Orange. Child's Building Supply in Orange is an ACE
Hardware store. You go up to all seasons, Ace and
Willis or Kilgore Lumber in kler Lake or J and R,
Ace and Porter. See what I'm talking about there everywhere.
(01:57:19):
I'm going to go on and on reading these. Go
to Acehardware dot Com, find your store and get by
there and get that now. If for some reason they're
sold out, just make a note they'll restock on them,
and go buy and get these things so you have
them on hand and you're ready to go. We say
ACE is the place, and you can say ACE is
a place for and just fill in the blank. It's
a place for one fertilizers, it's a place for tools.
(01:57:41):
It's a place for beautiful indoor decorations too, by the way,
indoor home decoration. It's a place for that barbecue pit
that you didn't get for Christmas that you really want
one of. Just go buy Ace the the place, and
they're everywhere. Makes it really really easy for you. You're
listening to garden Line, I'm your host skipper and we
are here to answer your gardening questions. Seven three two
(01:58:04):
one two kat rh got a little time for our
bottom of the hour break and then we're coming back
for the last half hours, so it's better to call
sooner rather than later if you've got a question. We'd
get toward the end of the show. Sometimes everybody wants
to call, and I just can't quite get to all
the calls at that particular point in time. Earlier, we
were talking to Dean Nelson about the Randy Lemon Scholarship.
(01:58:26):
And you know Nelson Plant Food has a wide variety
of things for every kind of plant you can imagine. Now,
we think about their turf Star line for oh the
different things for our lawn, Yes, awesome line. We think
about things like color Star for any bed that is
growing beautiful color plants for you, whether it's foliage or
flowers or whatever. Color Star is an outstanding fertilizer used
(01:58:50):
really all over the country. I literally mean that it
is shipped to I don't know how many different states
around the country because landscapers and gardeners have discovered it
and recogniz just how well it works. But I want
to tell you about Nutristar line. Nutri Star has many
different fertilizers specific to the kind of plant. There's one
for plumeria plants, there's one for roses, there's one for
(01:59:12):
fruit and nut trees. There is also a nutri star
for your indoor plants. So you just you buy it
in a little jar and as you're going through the season,
just sprinkling a little nutri star up there. I would
do it once or twice during the winter during the
growing season, of course, more often maybe three times during
the growing season, but just a small amount. It doesn't
(01:59:33):
take much, just a little bit, and it is going
to release some nutrients right away and then others gradually
over time. And that increases the strength of the plant
by providing the nutrients it needs for growth. And our
houseplants primarily are foliage plants, and so you want a
fertilizer that's going to support good vigor and growth if
(01:59:55):
you have light, and you have nutrients and you have water.
Even believe how fast those plants can grow and how
beautiful and dense they can become. A nutrients are for
indoor plants is just one of many examples from Nelson
Fertilizer that can do just that. By the way, Nelson Fertilizers,
there are a number of places, about a dozen places
around town that have the little refill stations for certain
(02:00:16):
ones of the Nelson fertilizer line. We just to take
your jar back in you fill it back up again,
which I think is really cool, really cool. All right, well,
I want to get back talking about some horticultural topics today.
I don't know the specific kinds of plants that interest you.
(02:00:36):
I mean, we have everything from house plants and orchids
to Gosha just drew a blank on oh, herbs, herbs
and fruit trees and vegetables and other things. And everybody's
got their own questions and stuff. But regarding house plants,
we're going to be kind of hole up in the
house here for a few days buying large especially during
(02:00:57):
the rainy period. Here we're about to get into and
what do you do inside? Yesterday I spent a good
amount of time just rejuvenating houseplants, going in and any
old dead leaves and things, taking them off and making
sure they look good. I've got some vining plants that
were trailing way down to the floor and it kind
of bring those back up and pin them up and
(02:01:19):
get them ready to go. I had one that was sprawling,
and be honest, it just wasn't full of leaves. You know,
if you have something like apothos ivy, and he goes dry,
and then you water it, the leaf turns yellow and
falls off, and now you got this long string that
doesn't have any leaves on it for maybe a foot
or two or three foot section. You've lost the leaves.
You can do a number of things. You can cut
those off, stick them down in the water and get
(02:01:41):
some roots going on them, and then pot them up
in a container. And I've done that several times with
some of my vining philodendrons, with my pathos ivy and
other things. The other day, what I did on a
plant was I took the little vines. This is a
small vining type of philandendron plant. And I brought the
vines up and laid them across the pot and took
(02:02:05):
a paper club. And if you unfold a paper clip
and just leave one hook, the big hook in the
paper club, and then straighten out the rest of it,
you can push those down in the pot. I usually
do it at about a forty five degree angle, and
you pin that vine down to the surface of the
soil in the pot. And wherever there's a node, it
(02:02:26):
can grow root down into the soil, but that keeps
it from just falling out and it'll get rooted. And
when you do it immediately you've got a nice, full
plant that's full of foliage because you don't see all
those naked vines through there because you've pinned them all
in and round it up. And I've got a couple
of plants. I got one pavas. I've probably done that
three times too, and another time I just sheared off
(02:02:48):
everything and started more out of it. But that's kind
of tidying up your plants. So we have a little
fight us. Tree of miniature kind of ficus in the
house belongs to my wife, and we didn't went in
and trimmed out some of the little twiggy foliage or
twiggy stems that had died inside. Remember whenever you're trimming
a ficus that you need to be aware that they
(02:03:10):
bleed a milky sap that will stain clothing and carpet
and furniture and whatever else you get it on, so
be careful with that. But whether it's a fiddlely fig
which is a ficus, or the one everybody just calls
ficus tree Pycus binjamina, that's another type, and there are
other types of ficus as well. Just make sure when
you do that. I usually have a little paper towel
(02:03:30):
or a napkin, and as it starts to bleed, I
just sort of press it up against there, and it's
our sticks to the tree until it settles down and
quits bleeding. But you can do a little trimming on those.
We're shaping those up. But anything you do to rejuvenate.
I have several of that that outgrown their pots, and
so I slipped them out of the pot, trimmed away
(02:03:51):
and he wrapped up tight, bound up roots in that
little pot. Just took my knife her fingers and tore them,
pulled them, cut them off whatever, put them in the
next larger sized pot, and watered amen, and here we
go continue to grow. Just remember don't go too many
pot sizes up. If you take a plant, let's say
it's a little four inch sized pot, and you put
it in a one gallon sized pot, well what's going
(02:04:14):
to happen is all that new soil around it is
going to stay wet because there's no roots in it,
and it gets water logged much easier that way. So
generally I'll bump up one pot size at a time
when I'm bumping my plants up and did a lot
of rejuvenation there. It works pretty well. If you've got
a container that doesn't have drain holes, get you a big,
(02:04:36):
maybe a one inch thick layer of charcoal. Put it
in the bottom. They have charcoal that's sold implant chops.
Put it in the bottom. Then put your potting soil
in and if you tend to overwater, that'll keep it
from getting real sour down there in the bottom. It
helps a little bit. It's better to have drain holes.
But if you don't, and I've got one pot that's
a little tall, and that's what I do, and I
(02:04:56):
get by with it. Just be extra conscious when you
water it that you don't over water. All right, Time
to turn it over to Jarrett for the local news
and I'll be right back for the last half hour
regard Line, the regular hodown on guard Line. Thanks for
listening in. Hey, if you want to give me a
call seven to one three two one two kt R
(02:05:17):
seven to one three one two KTRH. That is it,
all right? I was talking about the different things we
can do indoors, taking care of our indoor plants and
keeping them as healthy as we can just remember in
the wintertime they use less water. Uh, that's just because
there's less light in general. Light intensities are less temperatures
(02:05:39):
in general or a little bit cooler, so we tend
to not have to fertilize as much or water as much.
So be real careful when you water, not to overwater
because we can do a lot of damage to plants
about overwater. I when I was repotting, I was adding
some chunkiness to the potting MidiX there. You can use
little small wood chips. You can there's large pieces of
(02:06:02):
pearlte up of that. I also there's some expanded shale
types of chunks that you can add to it. And
it helps the drainage. That helps with overwatering. You know,
it's not water that's killing the plant when you overwater,
it's lack of oxygen in the roots that are killing
the plant. So if you have a very fine textured
(02:06:24):
potting soil grow we call that growing media. If you
have a fine textured media, it just gets real soggy
and mucky mucky, real easily. And so what you need
to do is you need to be able to loosen
that up, let the water drain on through you may
water a little more often, but you'll prevent that and
(02:06:44):
over time, putting media, including outdoor container media, decomposes away.
If you ever had a plant on the porch in
a container and you put it out there and it's
full of soil, and to you later you are noticing
that pot is half full of soil. What happened there, Well,
(02:07:04):
all the potting media it oxidized, it decomposed away, and
when that happens, you end up with a very mucky,
poorly drained media. And that's where you go in. You
can kind of tease the soil off the root system,
put some pressure new soil in there, pot it back up,
and get it going again. That's kind of what I
was doing with my plants, as getting some of the old,
(02:07:25):
decomposed away soil off and repotting them up so that
they do good and they take off again. A good
rainy day activity. And by the way, this is a
rainy day. Depending on where you live, you may already
be getting rain or you soon will be. And so
something to consider just sprucing those things up. If you
have a plant that you want to propagate, now's a
(02:07:46):
good time to do it. Indoors you can learn about
how to start plants from cuttings, and there's a lot
of different ways to do it. Some plants are easy
to root from cuttings. Some plants are very difficult to
root from cuttings. Basil is an example of an easy one.
We're about to get a freeze in here that's going
to knock out the basil out in the yard and
(02:08:06):
for the most part, except maybe the base of the
plant if it's protected. And now be a good time
to go out today. Get those cuttings, bring them in.
You can do a couple of things. You can put
them in soil and they'll root. Now, basil is so easy.
You don't need a rooting hormone. Some plants you want
to dust them with a rooting hormone powder or dip
them in a rooting hormone liquid before you put them
(02:08:28):
in the ground or in the pot to root. Basically,
you can just stick it out and moist whatever and
it'll root and grow. Some people like to put it
in water, and I'm not a fan of water rooting,
but I do it myself some when I'm in a
hurry and I just want to stick something in water
to keep those cuttings alive and they'll eventually form some
roots and then you can pot them up that spine.
(02:08:48):
But the type of root that a plant creates in
water is different than the type of root it creates
in a rooting medium or in potting soil and water.
The roots are long and stringy. In potting soil, you
tend to get a plumper root with lots of root
hairs and things growing off of it. And it's just
(02:09:09):
a better way to do it. But you can go
either way. It doesn't matter. Just be aware that that
is the difference. And when possible, if I'm going to
read something that's difficult to root, I'm going to put
it in a quality medium and use a rooting hormone
to do that. It's also time to start seeds. I
talked about that a little bit earlier, but you need
if you're going to grow tomatoes, you need about six
(02:09:31):
weeks to grow a good tomato transplant. You can go longer,
and you just have to bump it up to a
bigger container and continue to provide plenty of light. But
remember that every time you bump up plants, you take
more space. For example, take one of those typical plant
trays you start, they have seventy two individual little plant
(02:09:52):
cells in them, seventy two. So if you took that,
it's about a nine by twenty or so size nine
by nineteen sized tray. And if you were to take
each of those seventy two and bump them up to
a four inch pot, well, now you're covering a big
area with those bumped up tomato transplants. And I know
(02:10:14):
you may go, I'm not going to grow seventy two
tomato plants, But my point is just that as you
bump them up, it gets bigger. Sometimes I'll bump them
up even to a gallon size when I like to
start my tomatoes really at the end of the Christmas
season before New Year's and get a real good headstart
on them. But anyway, if you have to bump them
(02:10:34):
up again, now you're covering the whole floor of the
garage and you don't have enough light for that. So
plan your timing of your planting accordingly. But about six
weeks tomatoes, about a seven week for pepper plants. They're
a little bit slower to get moving and do that.
If you're going to grow cucumbers and squash, water melons,
(02:10:54):
cue curbet family, melon type family of plants. Those are
only I need about two weeks maybe three to grow
a good sized transplant, depending on temperatures and growing conditions
and everything. But time it out that way. Root crops
I typically don't grow as transplants. Now you can transplant
beats and radishes out, but they grow so fast and
(02:11:16):
so easy that it's typically not worth it. Carrots, that
root when it goes down and that root breaks or
it hits maybe it finds a hole in the pot
and it hits air, it's going to burn the tip
of that root off. And now you get those carrots
that have like two legs on them or more. And
carrots are not for transplanting, that is for sure. Lettuce
(02:11:39):
I typically will sprinkle it out in the garden directly
and then thin them out as they begin to grow.
You can grow lettuce transplants, you can grow spinach transplants.
And actually it kind of makes sense because how much
lettuce you can eat at one time. You know, there
may be one hundred seeds in a packet. How many
(02:11:59):
lettuce bibs or heads have you eaten in the last
two months? Not that many? Right, So why are you
planning twenty lettuce seeds at one time, because they're all
going to be ready to harvest at the same time.
So I may do, you know, two or three or
four of them, and then two or three or four
of them a week later, and two of there or
four of them, and you can sort of have a
(02:12:20):
succession coming off. So that's another little tip for growing
those kinds of things. As far as flowers, we got
a lot of great flowers we can grow when the
warm season arrives. Things like zinnias and sunflowers and whatnot.
Are there. Petunias take a longer time. The seeds are
so tiny that I typically don't try to plant pansies
and petunias from seed. Plus you can just buy them anyway.
(02:12:42):
But sometimes the vegetables I want a certain variety that
just isn't going to be available in the market. No
nursery can carry nine hundred types of tomatoes, and there's
more than nine hundred in the market, so you may
grow some of those things yourself. But anyway, those are
just a few tips. Go to my website and check
out the lighting for growing plants. There is a very
(02:13:06):
helpful article that helps you understand plant lighting and what
it takes to have success. Whether you're growing a seedling
to go out in the garden, or whether you're growing
a house plant, or whether you're growing something indoors that
you want to go all the way to harvest with,
like a tomato plant. It'll help you have success. All right,
time for me to take a break. We'll be right
(02:13:27):
back and Mary, you will be our first step when
we come back. Hey, welcome back again. Welcome back to
the Guarden Line. We've got one little segment left here
and we're going to jump right on the phone see
if how many of these we can get done. We're
going to go first to Mary. Hello, Mary, welcome to
Garden Line. Good to have you on.
Speaker 19 (02:13:49):
Yes, enjoy your program so much, and I've learned a
lot through the years. I've listened when Randy Lemmin was
on there and the other person. I forgot these, but
I've learned a lot, and I want to thank you
for your program and ask what top mulch should we
(02:14:10):
put in the flower bed? Should I put that down
this winter?
Speaker 4 (02:14:16):
You always want to keep the soil surface covered with mulch.
That's what nature does in the forest, and that's what
we should do in our gardens. Whenever sunlight hits the soil,
nature plants a weed, and so mulch helps prevent that. Also,
mulch helps moderate temperatures. So maybe you have a little
plant that's kind of a tender perennial, like it gets
(02:14:36):
really cold, it's going to die, but generally it comes back.
You put a thick layer of mult over the base
of that plant and it insulates it on a cold
night so it can reach sprout from the base after
the weather warms up. So it's always good. As far
as what type, Yeah, you know, just there are a
lot of good quality mulches out there and they work.
(02:14:57):
They work well. Some are shredded hardwood. That's an excellent mulch.
Speaker 15 (02:15:01):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (02:15:02):
The shred hardwood mulches are one of the more common
ones we see around here. Some people like the decorative
pine bark mulches because of the beauty of them, or
a cedar mulch because of the beauty of it.
Speaker 5 (02:15:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (02:15:12):
It just it's an organic material there on the surface.
Speaker 5 (02:15:17):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (02:15:17):
And so Landscaper's Pride has one called black velvet that's
a real dark color. It's not dyed. It's really beautiful.
The one from Landscaper's Pride is called black velvet. Now
that they had other marches, that's that. That's the one
I mentioned because it's dark, and some people I like
(02:15:40):
mulches of all types. I mean, if it's just plain old,
chopped up, you know, a hardwood extra hardwood mulch, I
think that's pretty too. But some people like you know
that dark colored mulch, and so that would be a
good one that's not dyed. That I think you might try.
It's available on bags all over town. But we've got
a lot of good The main thing is just do it.
(02:16:01):
If it's organic and it's covering the soil surface, you're
doing your plants some good, some work.
Speaker 19 (02:16:07):
Oh I have two beds of knockout roses in there,
starting to leave out leaf out there starting.
Speaker 5 (02:16:14):
To bloom again.
Speaker 19 (02:16:16):
So I was put some more mulch on those.
Speaker 4 (02:16:20):
Okay, well that will be good. And yeah, and uh Mary,
keep it about three inches thick, and uh as it
as it started, it'll decomposed down and release the nutrients
and improve the soil. And just don't take the old away.
Just add fresh on top whenever you need to add more.
Speaker 19 (02:16:40):
Okay, thank you very much. And have a good day.
Speaker 4 (02:16:43):
You bet you as well. Thank you, And now we're
going to go to Galveston and talk to Bill. Hey, Bill,
welcome to Guardline.
Speaker 5 (02:16:50):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (02:16:50):
Got a couple of questions for you.
Speaker 13 (02:16:52):
First of all, I've got to I have a coutto
tree that I think is that it has a metal
problem because it's got it's putting out budget at this
point the year when normally that should be in the spring.
Speaker 6 (02:17:01):
Should it.
Speaker 4 (02:17:04):
An avocado should not be budding right now. We wanted
to stop that because it's already lacking cold hardiness, but
we're not in control of it. The tree's gonna do
what it's gonna do.
Speaker 13 (02:17:15):
So I mean, I mean, should I try to protect
it from the from the cold weather or what should
I do?
Speaker 5 (02:17:23):
What?
Speaker 4 (02:17:23):
What variety do you have?
Speaker 5 (02:17:25):
I have no.
Speaker 13 (02:17:25):
Idea, but it's it's prolific and it's about ten feet high.
Speaker 4 (02:17:31):
Okay, Well, I think the chances are the garden center
sold you one that's more cold hardy, and we have
some avocados that aren't cold hardy at all, and then
we have some that have decent cold hardiness and they
should be okay going through this freeze.
Speaker 6 (02:17:46):
Okay. Secondly, I put down in the garden.
Speaker 13 (02:17:51):
But the problem is that the water doesn't seem to
be getting down into the inn actual soil. Should just
put more water runner or what.
Speaker 4 (02:17:59):
Yeah, it's got to do. If the mult is fine textured,
like you can use compost as a mult If it
were like that, it's gonna soak up a lot of
the water. You put down a chunky malt, the water
should run right through better. But I would get out there,
dig down about four four inches or so six inches,
feel the soil, take a little trial, because I wouldn't
(02:18:21):
be surprised if the soil is adequately moist as you
get down there. Okay, all right, sir, all right, thank
you much, all right, all we asked. You know, on
guard line we don't charge for advice, but I do
ask you to bring half the avocados to the to
the ktr H and drop them off and I'll call
it even thank you. I lost bill before I got
(02:18:48):
through making my ridiculous, repeated consonant statement that I like
to make your own garden line. All right, Well, like
you say I said earlier. You know, when I tell jokes,
if I think they're funny, well then that's good enough.
For me, whether someone else.
Speaker 5 (02:19:03):
Does or not.
Speaker 4 (02:19:04):
And remember, if you're a parent, you know this right.
You went somewhere from owning the room to rolling eyes
somewhere between six and ten years old typically is when
that occurs. It just depends on the kiddos. Well, thanks
for listening to garden I listen. Get out there, stay dry,
take advantage of these days to get some indoor gardening done.
(02:19:26):
We've got all the things I've been talking about today,
really really important for that, get your supplies on hand.
If it's a little late, yeah, there's a mild freeze.
So if it's a little late for you to get
the supplies, I'll talking about ace hardware, having all these
different kinds of things. If it's a little late to
get it done today, well go ahead and get the
supplies because even if you have to wait and get
them later in the week, have them ready because this
(02:19:48):
probably is not the only freeze we have'd be nice
if it was, but chances are we're going to have
some other cold weather. One quick reminder, when you go
to a quality garden center, you're going to find trees,
let's say, fruit trees that are designed to grow here.
They're the right chilling hours. They're the right hardiness and
(02:20:09):
so on. That is important. When you go somewhere else,
you may find a tree and a shrub or a
plant a vine that has fruit that no business being
planted in the Houston area. That's why I like my
mom and Pop's independent garden cellers. When you do, there's
a thing called chill hours. You want to buy one
that has the right chill hours for your area. Bill
just call from Galveston has way less chill hours than
(02:20:32):
they do in College Station or Huntsville or even Conro
for that matter. You want to get one that has
the right chill hours because you want it to start
blooming when it's time, not too early and not too late.
And it's all about chill hours and a good garden
center number one let's sell you something you don't have,
but they can help you find the best ones for
(02:20:52):
your house so you have success.