Frost Damage? Here Is What To Do

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden Line with Skip Ricter
Jes Crazy.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Gas can use a shrimp.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
You just watch him as world god.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Gas Gas.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
That are so many goings to supervision in baysies like
gas again you did, almost back again, not a sign,
the basses and gas the sun beamon of.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
A tree, the gases gas you jam.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
First starting and dreams like gas you did. Everything is
so can see.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Glad to have you with us though. We're here to
answer your gardening questions today. So let's do some Let's
do some gardening, or let's get official here and do
some horticulture this morning. We're going to talk about the
kinds of things we might be needing to do this
time of year. Maybe a few ideas for you and
for your gardening this year. Whatever is of interest to you,
And of course those are your calls. You have some
questions about identifying things or diagnosing some issues that you

(01:18):
might have, or even some suggestions for how to have
more luck with your lawn or your garden, perhaps trees
and the landscape. You name it, you get to make
the call. The only thing I can help you with
is getting your spouse to do more work outside in
the garden. I am not I can't do that. I've
told people more on one occasion over my career. Listen,

(01:39):
gardening advice is free. Marriage advice is three hundred dollars
an hour, so we'll see it's probably not worth what
you'd pay for it from me, but anyway, that's what
we're here for. Seven one three two one two ktrh.
That's the number. You'd like to give me a call,
we will talk gardening with you.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
This is uh.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
By the way, I had a great time yesterday done
in Fort Benk County at the Epicenter at the Home
and Garden show down there. I had a good time.
So all of the folks from Enchanted Forest that were there, Boy,
they had a nice spread out. And thanks to everybody
who came out and sat and listened and asked questions,
and boy, we had a good time. We covered a
lot of things about warming out on questions, but that's

(02:21):
what we're there for, lots of good advice and we
had some fun in the process. We always try to
do that as well, So thanks for coming on out
and visiting with me about those kinds of things. Just
kind of as a reminder. My next appearance coming up
is going to be February fifteenth at Enchanted Gardens, and

(02:42):
I'm also going to be giving a talk out there.
I'm going to be talking about ways to have more
success with gardening for less work. Okay, the way I
like to put it is get more out of your
garden with less sweat or less ibuprofen, if you know
what I'm talking about there, And we're going to I've
got a lot of ideas on that. So we don't

(03:03):
want our physical limitations to stop us from gardening. And
it's so cool, you know. It used to be that
there was not the help out there to help someone
who maybe had was dealing with arthritis in their arms
or bad knees or whatever you know condition that kind
of limited their ability to garden. And now we have

(03:24):
so many helpful tools, lots of ergonomic tools that work
really well. Depending on what your limitation is, it need
not necessarily be a limitation anymore, with some really really
cool things that help a lot. I've talked about the
kneeling bench before, but that's a simple little thing. It's

(03:44):
just a folding up bench you because it folds its
stores real easily. But it's it's something you can sit
on and you flip it upside down. It's something you
can kneel on, and the legs that were holding it
up when you sat on it become the handles that
help you get up and down. I think that is
pretty cool, you know. I remember how many of you remember,

(04:05):
those of you who are somewhere north of forty remember
the first time you woke up sore and you didn't
know why do you know what I'm talking about? It's like, Wow,
I'm sore? Why am I sore? Did I hurt myself sleeping?
And by the way, that can also happen somewhere north
of forty, but anyway, you know, and then you get
to thinking, I seriously, I've had that happen more than once,
and I just couldn't figure out what was it that

(04:28):
I did. And then finally it dawned to me, Well,
I walked around the yard all day. But then I
kind of realized, No, I walked around the yard and
I got on my hands and knees to pull a
weed or to plant a plan, or to dig a
dirt or you know, whatever we're doing, and up and
down and I kind of did the numbers, and it's like, yeah,
probably about ten thousand times getting up and down and
up and down. And if it's not muscles you normally

(04:48):
use well, you gets sore in the morning. So good
tools like that, like that kneeling bunch, they're really helpful.
This is one of my top five tools. Another one
is I guess we're just gonna talk about tools here
this morning. Another one is the soil knife. Soil knives
imagine a big, old giant butcher knife, but sharp on
both sides, not you know, like blade on one side

(05:10):
and no, you don't cut on the other side. This
is like both sides, and it's slightly scalloped so you
can use it almost like a imagine a knife that's
kind of scalloped a little like a shovel, so you
could use it to dig out a hole. I do
it for planting. You know, I'm put a transplant on
the ground, a four inch pot or something. Just take
that knife and dig it right out. One side has

(05:31):
a serration on it, and so when you run into roots.
I talked yesterday about my no dig no till garden,
excuse me, no till garden. And so when I take
out cornstalks or tomato plants or whatever. I just use
that serrated side of my soil knife good on there,
and a couple of stabs into the soil, and that
thing comes right out and leaves all the roots behind,

(05:52):
which is helpful. Roots decomposed roots open up pathways down
into the soil, and nature leaves roots in the ground.
That's what nature does and what happens to those roots
they decompose. The microbes get all happy because they got
something to break down. That's their food and it works well.
But anyway, sol knife is good for that. They have

(06:15):
markings on them, so you know one inch deep, two
inches deep, three inches if you own to do that.
And then some of them, most of them have a
little scabbard too to put them in, which looks cool.
You know, you kind of feel like you got your
bowie knife there walking around the garden. But some of
them even have other features like a little hook that
will cut twine, a little sharp hook. And perhaps important

(06:37):
as well, especially for some of you, is a little
bottle opener. So you're out there in the garden and
you need you get some refreshment out of a bottle,
you can just pop that lid right off and there
you go, you're intent, you're in business, so anyway, so
knife's good, good duol. That's another one. Our quality pruners
are very important. If you're gonna get quality pruners, you're
gonna have things that last and that are easier to get.

(07:01):
The cheap o's the cheap prunters, you will pay for those.
You'll pay for them in two ways. Number One, it's
more wear and tear in your hands, and you'll just
notice it, even if you don't have authortis or anything.
Just pruning with cheap prunters is harder in your hands.
The way they cut, the way they move, the way
they kind of get sprung out where they don't cut right,

(07:22):
that's not good. And when they quit working well, and
when you're trying to keep them sharp and having trouble
with that, you just get tired of them. Throw them
in a bucket, throw them in the trash, and then
you go buy another one. And after you bought a
few cheap pruners, you could have just bought a nice
pair of punters that have replaceable blades that are easy
to sharpen. The quality brands, you know, a brand like

(07:43):
Corona just being one example. Those kinds of things. They
will sell you replacement braids. I'll eave and sell you
a little tool for sharpening them as you use them.
They come in length that you can get a nice
leather scabbard for them. They're just worthwhile. So whether it's
a big lopper that you cut en off larger limbs with,
or a hand printer, or even a good quality printing
saw for removing small limbs, that is that group. I'm

(08:07):
gonna make those one group, that group of quality cutting
tools very very important. Well, I'm gonna take a little
break here. It looks like the first quick break that
always come so fast. Every hour's time for that. I
just will be right back with your calls if you'd like.
You know, early in the morning is the time when
the phones are a little quieter. So if you were

(08:28):
some of folks yesterday, we're having to wait a while
if you'd like to get a good quick start, and
now'd be a time seven to one three two one
two k t r H seven one three two one
two k t r HW. Right back there you go.
When's the last time you heard that? Welcome back to

(08:50):
garden line. Ah, let's see here, we're gonna go run
out to the phones. Now, I think a few people
took some good advice. Get get in early in the
morning and get a first first end of the phone.
We're gonna go to Copperfield and talk to Donna this morning. Hey, Donna,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (09:07):
Good morning. I have two questions. One of them is
about my elephant ears. They are mush. I had quite
a few elephant ears around a couple of trees. All right,
I'm supposed to understand cut that mush down. Is that true?

Speaker 7 (09:25):
Okay, yeah, you can.

Speaker 8 (09:29):
If you leave it.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
It's not the end of the world. It's not like
it's going to mess up your plant. But just because
it's mush and it's ugly and you know it has
to come out, you can cut it out. But I'll
tell you this, Leaven, if you do remove it, then
throw some some little bit of compost mult or something
over the top of that plant, the base of the plant,
and that'll that'll protect it, because even the dead mushy

(09:51):
stuff is kind of a shell of protection against let's
say we do have another real hard cold snap. So
you can leave it or let it dry out, or
you can just pull it out because it is not
going to get better. There's no problem of pulling it
out other than just exposing the base. And now you
want to throw at a mult over it, and you're
still good to.

Speaker 9 (10:09):
Go that way.

Speaker 6 (10:10):
But I could cut it down maybe so that maybe
six inches of the stalk are exposed on top and
let that dry out. Would that work?

Speaker 2 (10:19):
You could do that. That's not gonna be a lot
of protection, but you could do that. I would just
you know, it's just always a good idea to have
a mult over the base of perennials, especially ones that
are a little marginally hardy. Now, elephant ears are pretty tough.
You're going to be okay on those either way. But okay,
I just a tip.

Speaker 6 (10:36):
If I just pile up those long leaves on top
of it, would that be okay and not cut anything?

Speaker 2 (10:46):
You could do that. Yeah, you could also do that.
It's fine either way. It's just most a lot of people,
you know, when we're talking about like woody plants and
things that are above ground, we're leaving that material to
continue to protect against futureses, but we're also not sure
what we're to prune sometimes because you don't know how
far back the real stem damage has occurred on things

(11:10):
that are more suckulent, like an elephant air that are
just going to turn to mush. Well, you know it's gone,
so it's going to need to come out at the
ground eventually. It's just a question is do you do
it now or do you do it later? And like
I said, either one is really okay.

Speaker 6 (11:24):
Okay, thank you. My second question is about an area
that I lost a very very large red oak last
year during the storms and had the air stump ground
and it's still raised area and it's like when I
walk over this kind of mound of mush dirt stuff,

(11:46):
it sinks where I walk, so it's still going down.
Is there anything I should do with this area to
help it heal or whatever? It's just awful big area
to deal.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, I see what you're saying. You know, that's one
of the things about stump grinding, and for other folks
that are listening that are having stumps ground or need
to have a stump ground or whatever, all that would
First of all, the grinding itself fluffs up the soil.
You know, you're you're loosening everything up, and now you're
chunking that stump into pieces of wood or chopping it

(12:21):
up into pieces of wood that are going to decompose.
And when that happens, the soil is going to settle.
It'll be very mushy, as you say, like walking on
sifted flour is very soft, and then it decomposes and
sinks down. So whenever you do a stump grinding, the
more of the wood you can get out of there,
rake out of there kind of you know, use a
little pitchforky kind of scoop, whatever it takes to get

(12:43):
some out of there, the better off you'll be. But
then I usually recommend getting some good soil and just
making more of a mound like a pitcher's mound on
a baseball field over that area. How high, I don't
know how. It depends on the size of the stump
and thing. But basically you're saying, I know you're going
to settle, so I'm going to mound you up just

(13:04):
a little bit, just a little bit, so that when
you settle your you're close to level and that that
would be what at this point, Donna, that I would
suggest you do is put a little bit of soil
in there, maybe a little bit mounded up a few
two or three inches up a little bit because it's
going to settle some more, and you that way, you're
closer to ending up level than the depression in that

(13:27):
tart around.

Speaker 6 (13:28):
Two feet high now in the middle, and it's just
a huge, huge mound, you know, like ten by eight
or something like that, very close to the house. And
I was just trying to do something with it too
high hopefully yes, in the center. Yet it's just from
the ground level, it's it's it's still bad and I

(13:51):
did break out a lot of the wood out of it.
It's it was a big tree.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah. Well, if that's the case, well part of it
too is as trees get bigger and their roots get bigger,
it heaves the soil up around them. There is already
a little mound at the base of a tree as
the roots have gotten bigger and heaved it. So in
this case, I wouldn't add more soil to the top.
Two feet is really high, but it's going to settle
in and so you just can end up occasionally kind

(14:16):
of raking it and managing the settling over time. But
two feet is yeah, I wouldn't add more soil to that.

Speaker 6 (14:23):
So I might look at I might be looking at
it a year or two before I can do anything
with that area.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
It depends on what you want to do. You know,
if you're going to plant something like, let's say a
groundcover over it, or even just a flower bed, then
you can go ahead and do that, and each season
as you're putting in new flowers, or each year as
you're doing things, you may need to add some as
it settles down. So you could go that route. If
you're going to plant another tree there, yeah, then the

(14:54):
settling is more of a problem, and so I would
probably if you could go a little bit to the
side for a shrub or a tre tree, I would
do that. It sounds like it may be a little
too close to your house for a tree anyway.

Speaker 6 (15:06):
Yeah, may have been. It barely missed the house when
it went down, so okay, wow, but I'm I'm thankful
it didn't hit the house. It was a very huge
tree to deal with. But thank you for your advice.
I saw you last at Langam Creek Ace Hardware and
you always give it.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Oh you did well.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
Thanks, thank you.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, thanks for coming out the You're in Copperfield, so
that's just your backyard Ace hardware store right there.

Speaker 6 (15:32):
That's right there.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
You came out all right. Hey, thanks don I appreciate
that a lot. You take care. Let's head out now
to Orange, Texas. We're going to talk to Darren. Hey, Darren,
welcome to Guardenline.

Speaker 9 (15:45):
Thank you. How are you.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
I'm doing well this morning.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
So I've got in my yard.

Speaker 5 (15:54):
I've got some.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
Your stickers is what I've always called them. It almost
looks like it's right now. It's really green, and it
almost looks like a curly leaf, small leafs. But during
the summer there's so many stickers in it you can't
hardly even kids can't play barefoot outside. So I was

(16:17):
going to know, Yeah, you knew what it was and
how to take care of it, and when would be
a good time to treat it.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, there's more than one kind of plant that can
have a stickery seed pod. You know, grasspurs are one
that everybody knows about those, But those are true grass plants.
Which you have is a broad leaf plant, even though
the leaves aren't broad it's broad leaf as opposed to grass.
And so what you would want to do right now
is apply a product that is for broad leaf weeds,

(16:48):
post emergent product, not a pre emergent that prevents weed
seeds from come from establishing, but a post emergent, and
there are a number of them out there. We'd beat her. Uh,
we'd beat our ultra those kind of things of a fertiloam.
Oh gosh, I'm trying to think of it. We'd free zone.

(17:09):
There's a number of brands out there on that. And
so you get yourself over to one of your I
think you've got some ACE hardware stores over there in
the Great the Orange area, and just just talk to
them and say, I need a broad leaf weed control here.
Here's why you would want to do that now. But yeah,
you've got Child's building supply over there on sixteenth Street.

(17:34):
You would when it gets hot, spraying weeds in your
Saint Augustine is hard on your Saint Augustine, and hot
means in the upper eighties, even mid to upper eighties
is when we were starting to go, hey, let's let's
watch out for these things. They could hurt our grass.
Well we're far from that right now. So A secondly,
once those weeds start to get those burrs on them,

(17:55):
they actually have a tiny bloom you don't even notice,
and then they get the burrs on them. Then it's
harder to kill them with those products. We said. I.
The way I put it is, once the weed becomes reproductive,
it starts producing blooms and seed. Uh, it's hard to
kill them. So now's up is your window where you
can do the most good with the least damage.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
Okay, well, I appreciate you him. I'll get that taken
care of you, bet.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Darren, thanks for the call. Have a good days, stay
dry today. Yeah, it's supposed to rain. In fact, I
was getting a little misty coming back yesterday. We were
driving through the finest mist and it's supposed to be
a little bit more of a rain day today. Let's
head out to Magnolia now and talk to Jeff. Hey, Jeff,

(18:43):
good morning, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (18:46):
Good morning, Skid. Thank you for picking up the call here.
In weeks or maybe months past, you commented on a
certain area. I have a front yard that got uh
redone with with new grass and everything, and there are

(19:09):
certain areas that were a little lower and every time
it rains really heavy it it gets submerged in water
and the grass is really never taken over. Okay, do
I need to redo that area or I think there
is something you recommended, a mulch or something to cover
that with, and then when the season starts again, I
guess in the spring that would be in better shape.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
So so the problem is that it you don't have
you don't have grass doing well. But the area also
is it tends to stand in water. Did I understand
that right?

Speaker 9 (19:40):
Yeah, it's a little low and just a little low,
and if it rains really heavy, it's like an inch
or so underwater.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, got you, all right, I got to run to
a break here right quick. Hang on just a second,
and I'm going to come right back to you when
we when we get right back just one second, Jeff,
Good morning, Good Sunday morning. By the way, I hope
you're having a nice, peaceful morning so far. If you're
listening to Guardline, I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're

(20:09):
here to answer your gardening questions. All just give me
a call seven one three two one two k t
R H. And we're going to go back to Jeff
in Magnolia. Jeff, sorry for that interruption. We had to
pay some bills, but let's continue on with you with
your questions.

Speaker 5 (20:23):
Sir.

Speaker 9 (20:24):
Yeah, maybe I have an area in my yard, and
I was thinking that because it's a little lower, Maig,
I should but till the whole area that resided again,
or I think you've been the past had recommended a
sort of sort of a mult or something to put
in there instead.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, well you have a couple of options. If the
area is low, it's always that's kind of problematic because
when we do get our big rains or extended rain
periods several days here that that is an issue. So
you know, the going all out solution is to put
in a fringe drain in that area, have someone install

(21:03):
one that takes the excess water off to a lower
area off site somewhere, and that that would be one option.
The next step would be to bring soil in and
raise the area up so the water naturally has to
go somewhere. But you kind of have to watch because
you maybe just be moving a problem from one spot
to another when by bringing soil in, you just we

(21:24):
have another spot that was fine now it's web. So
those are those are two options. The other is just
to live with it if it's not too bad, and
it's pretty much lawns are pretty tolerant of wet conditions.
By and large, they do okay on that. In that case,
it's just a matter of you know, getting good aeration
in the soil if it's a little compacted, and that's

(21:47):
part of the issue, having a core aeration done, doing
some compost top dressing on it, and trying to get
that lawn is healthy, the root system is healthy as
you can. So those are kind of the three levels
of addressing that. Now, why it died, it could have
been due to to just compaction and excessive moisture, but
it may also have been a root disease. It could

(22:10):
have been a lack of sunlight due to shade. It
could be you know, some droughty periods that open the
door for for some issues like disease related. So it's
kind of hard for me to know the answer to
the why right now.

Speaker 9 (22:23):
But how much sun I cut back way on some
trees that were in that area.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. I tell you, Jeff
that what I found is when grass is struggling due
to marginal light amounts, you know, it's not enough to
just kill it, but it's just barely hanging on. When
it starts declining, it's hard to turn it around. It's
just because it doesn't have the energy to get better.

(22:50):
You know, the patient is so weak that it's just
trying to Trying to recover is something that may not happen.
And so the more you can get it, the better.
If you can get it at least six hours of sun,
that's good. If you can't do that, then with each
hour less you get, it's going to be marginally weaker

(23:10):
in order to do. And when I say sun, it's
a matter of total light. So if you have a
very bright dapple shade all day, that's pretty good. If
you have a few hours of direct sun and then
deep shade, you know, there's an equivalency in there somewhere.
So it's not just direct sun. But the more direct
it is, the more light you're going to get to

(23:31):
that grass.

Speaker 9 (23:32):
Okay, as you're a compost of dressing, you'd recommend that.

Speaker 7 (23:36):
What you say.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
The folks at Heirloom saw as I say, you're in, oh,
you're up in magnolia area there over an heirloom says
that's important. They have a blend they put together that
it's got some sand in it and it's got some
compost in it as well, and they'll they can deliver
bulk of it, or you can get a go over
and get it yourself and bring it back closer to you.

(24:01):
Would be Nature's Way, which is on Interstate forty five
just south of Conroe. So you're a Magnoias so right
where fourteen eighty eight comes into forty five is yeah,
And I would call talk to Ian over there or
one of the folks at Nature's Way and say, you know,
what do you what do you have for something like this?

Speaker 7 (24:18):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (24:18):
And they're going to have lens, they're going to have options,
and they'll be able to tell you on that. Do
you do you need a phone number for them?

Speaker 9 (24:28):
No, I've been by there before.

Speaker 7 (24:29):
I use them occasionally.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, so okay, good, all right, Well that's what I
would do. But just to remember that the more it's
more of a soil, a sandy or sandy loam type soil,
the more what you build up is going to stay up,
the more organic matter it has in it, the more
it's going to tend to sink back down over time.
Is that organic matter decomposes away?

Speaker 10 (24:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (24:54):
Okay, all right, all right, thank you so.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Much, Yes, sir, thanks for the call. Good luck with that.
Our phone number seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four seven one three two one two five
eight seven four. We definitely want you to have success,
and if we can help you with something, give me
a call. Let's do that. I one of the things

(25:18):
I've said this before, one of the things that that
makes me sad is to have a gardener or someone
who wants to be a gardener who just throws their
hands up, throws in the trowel in this case literally
the trial, not the towel, and says I can't, I can't,
I can't do this, I'm not good. I got a
brown thumb, and all those kinds of things we say

(25:38):
when we can when plants die on us. Look, I
just want to let me comfort you. I'll try to
use my most soothing voice. You are not a brown
thumb person. You're not. You do not have a b
I promise you you do not have a brown thumb.
Plants need certain things. They need sunlight, they need moisture

(25:58):
but not too much. They nutrients and a balance. They
need soil that drains well but wholesome moisture. And as
we give plants those things they want, suddenly let's just
say go back to the thumb color your thumb starts
turning green. Okay, and you can do this. It is
something you can do. And gardening it, you know, people

(26:19):
are in it for a lot of reasons. Some people
it's like I want a pretty place. I'm gonna pay
somebody to come make it pretty. And that's okay, that's legit.
You can do that. We can help advise you so
you can help guide the people that come to make
your place pretty. Other people want to do it all themselves,
and they want to walk through it step by step
by step, build their own perkilas. I mean, lay their

(26:41):
own side. I mean you can go that route too
if you want to, and we can help you with that.
My goal here is for you to have a bountiful
garden and a beautiful landscape. And the third one is
very important and more fun in the process. Gardening should
be fun, it should be rewarding. But know this, to
be a great gardener, you got to kill a lot
of plants. So if you've been getting frustrated because you're

(27:03):
killing plants, you're just on your way to being a
great gardener. Because each time something goes wrong, we learn
from it and we get better at it, and so
that's my encouragement for the morning. You can do this.
This is really not all that difficult. Well, it's getting
close to time for me to take another break, and
I want to give you the phone number one more

(27:24):
time seven one three two one two kt r H.
And I want to remind you that my website, Gardening
with Skip, I just keep adding more and more things
to it that help answer the questions I get here.
I've been doing this for over thirty five years gardening
advice and quite a few years in Radio two, and
I've heard a lot of questions, and I know the

(27:45):
kinds of things people are going to ask, and so
I put these things together on the website so that
you can get the help you need. So Gardening with
Skip dot com, go check it out and find some
things that can be helpful to you. All of them
are free downloads up there be right back. Alrighty, we're
back and we mugging around on caurn line this morning. Hey,

(28:08):
give me a call seven one three two one two
kat r H. We'll talk about the things that you
are interested in, try to help you have some success
with your garden. As I was saying, you do not
have a brown thumb. You really have a green thumb.
You just haven't informed your thumb enough to get it
to turn green. And that's what we're gonna do right now.
We're we're gonna talk about the things that help you

(28:29):
have success with garden, because that's what's all about. Who
wants to buy a plant go to the trouble of
planting and watching it die. That's discouraging. We don't want
to have that. So we got to get the soil right.
We want to make sure the plant's in the spot
it wants to be. Does it like lots of sun
or not too much sun? Does it need certain conditions
of soil, like acidic soil like a blueberries and azaleas

(28:50):
and camellias and puris. I never talked about puris. Puris
is a wonderful plant. Virginia sweetspar there's another one I
don't talk about. A native plant to the southeastern parts
of the US, including parts of Texas, that has beautiful
little long blooms on them, little clusters of long blooms,
and it's a great one. But it likes the citic

(29:12):
soil conditions, and you can create that for your plants.
So when you do that, you make them feel at home.
If you make them feel at home, they will be
happy and they will grow and perform for you, kind
of like the show field of dreams. How many y'all
remember that if you build it, they will come. If
you build the soil and the site, your plants will thrive.
That's just how it works. It can happen. So that's

(29:35):
my encouragement for the day. Our garden centers are loading
up out there on plants. Just going and visiting some
of our great garden centers that we have here in
this area. Oh my gosh, I was getting spring fever
just looking at the plants that they have. And it
is time to get going on that now.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
I know.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Listen, today it's out there and it's raining. I don't
want to go to a garden center's rain and all that.
That's a to you. I'd throw a raincoat on and go.
I mean, like I love. Here's the deal. When you
go and it's kind of a you know, not a
bright sunny day, well, a lot of people are staying away,
so you got the place to yourself. You can talk
to them and ask them questions and get all kinds

(30:15):
of help and whatnot. But anyway, whenever you go and
do it, get those plants, but make sure you got
the soil ready. Remember brown stuff before green stuff. So
when you go to someplace, get a bag of compost
or molt or bed mix or whatever you're going to do.
Maybe you just need to mix a little compost into
the soil and that'll do it. Maybe you want to
build a whole raised bed, and that's a good idea.

(30:36):
You know, for years my vegetable gardens were down in
the soil. In other words, you go in the backyard,
scrape off all the grass or weeds, whatever you got,
and your rototilet up and you plant in it. That's
a vegetable garden. Well, since then I have learned that
that first of all, that's fine. I mean, can garden
that way. That's how we farm, by the way. But

(30:59):
I now have raised bed boxes. And whether you I've
done it with just a mound of soil, you know,
where you create a mound of soil that's like uh,
you know, maybe eight ten inches high and it'll settle
a little in time, but kind of packed the sides
a little bit as you're making it, and it makes it.
It makes a decent bed, or you can put it

(31:19):
in a container of some sort. Maybe it is wood
that is that is rot resistant, wood, that's a box.
Maybe it is one of the nice corrugated metal containers
that are painted and they're very attractive and they last forever.
They're very they're rust resistant. That you know, all of that,

(31:40):
you can do that. Maybe you want to do a
rock bed and do a beautiful stone on the sides
of the bed, or those little landscaping bed stones that
are for creating a little retaining wall in the landscape.
It doesn't matter. Plants do not care what they're growing in.
I want you to think about that fella I know

(32:01):
in Mississippi a lot of you probably heard him. He
comes over here and speaks every none. Then I fell
to rushing. He made a statement. He said, you cannot
embarrass a plant with a pot, And that is true.
I mean literally, You get you a toilet fixture, stick
it out in the garden, drill holes in the bottom,
get ready for letters from the hoa by the way,

(32:22):
and put a plant in it. And that plant will
grow because it's a container and it holds a toilet
holds a lot of soil. My point is not to
do that. My point is that they didn't care where
it's growing in. It says how much soil do I
have so I can get through the Texas summer days.
Number two, do I have good drainage? And number three
did you put a good soil in me? And it'll grow?
So when you're going to grow in something, it doesn't

(32:43):
matter what I mean. You can lay logs on the
ground and make a box bed. There's a lot of
work and they will ride away and you'll be doing
it again. So it's not what I would recommend. The
plants don't care. I like now growing and raised box
beds because when you do that, you can put the
best quality soil mix in there and from day one

(33:04):
you're growing and you're having good luck with it. To
get out and bang through on a rototiller and try
to improve the soil and you can that it is
more work, and I just find that I have my
best performance and a good quality boxed bed and it's
so easy. And like I said, if you were to
decide I'm going to have a garden this week, and

(33:27):
you're going to go do it today, and you go
out there aside from any drizzlies, and you put a
box anywhere. It could be on the soil, it could
be on the driveway, it could be on a patio plant.
I didn't care what it's on, and you felt it
full of good mix. Later today you're planting your garden
and it's a ranky tat and it's as easy as that.

(33:48):
That's what I'm talking about. And so that's one way
to have good success. Now in flowerbeds, you're not gonna
have boxes all out in front of the house everywhere
for flowers, but those we do build up. Those we
get a good bed mikes in to have success. But
start with the soil. Start with the soil it. I
guess one analogy was if you're going to build a

(34:09):
house and you went out there and you just laid
a bunch of two bay fours on the ground and
started hammering up walls and making it. How long is
that house gonna last? Not very long. You get a
good solid foundation and then you build right on it
and correctly on it, and you're gonna have a house
that lasts for decades and decades. Okay, that's what we
do with the garden if we want to have success,

(34:31):
not waste money. You can have success that way. My
phone number is seven one three two one two k
t r H seven one three two k t r H.
I'm going to be taking our top of the Hour
break here for the news in just a minute. But
if you'd like to be first up, that'd be a
time to call and talk to Jonathan. Say, hey, get
me on there. If you've got some pictures of something

(34:52):
you want to talk about, call us up and get
the email to send those two and then follow that
up with a phone call of the show.

Speaker 9 (35:00):
Maybe.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
You know.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Sometimes people call and they go, well, I got this weed,
and it's They sort of describe it, and I'm doing
my best to try to make sure identify it. But
if I don't picture what you're describing correctly, then I
may send you off down the wrong path, and I
don't want to do that. So it's always good to
have a photo for identifying a plant, or for identifying
a bug or a disease, or for diagnosing, you know,

(35:25):
whatever kind of problem. Just give us a good photo.

Speaker 9 (35:29):
We'll do that.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Do that all the time. Appreciate that too, by the way,
makes it a lot easier, all right, Well, I hear
music which means time to wind this one up. We're
going to be back with your calls here in a bit.
I do want to remind you that we are in
we are on the verge, the doorstep of the spring season,

(35:52):
and it really is here in our area. So getting seeds,
buying your seeds, getting them ready, Starting your transplants. We
talked about that yesterday down at the Fort Ben Garden Show.
Starting your transplants, getting good, healthy transplants, growing all of
that kind of stuff. Now's the time to do it.
I can't think of anything better than the one day
to be inside growing your own transplants.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skip Richard.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
It's just watch him as many good thanks to super Crazy.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Sorry, well, good morning, Welcome back to garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Rictor, and it's good to be visiting
with you on a nice Sunday morning. I know it's
a little drizzly out there. It's gonna be a little
bit drizzly er as we go through the show today,
but that's okay. That's why we can enjoy gardening from inside.

(37:09):
We're talking about gardening on the radio, but maybe starting
some seeds, starting some cuttings, getting out a seed catalog
and doing some planning and thinking or a little online research,
reading up on some stuff. You know, they say in
order when you're cutting wood, when you're you know, logging
the forest, if you will, you got to keep the
saw sharp sharp. But it's not just about cutting down trees.

(37:31):
It's about keeping the saw sharp because the dollar of
the saw gets the harder it is to cut wood,
and the less you get done. I guess the same
thing is true about gardening. Making sure that we are
continually learning more, growing more. I guess sharpening the saw,
this saw beeing the gardener in this case that is important,
and it makes gardening more fun and it's exciting. You know,

(37:55):
there are so many kinds of plants in gardening that
you're never gonna get the end of it. And you
may start and you're all about, I just want a
good lawn, I want a perfect, beautiful lawn. But then
you discover I don't know, it could be something really random,
like orchids. Enjoying growing orchids. The moth orchid is the
one that you see everywhere for sale, and it is

(38:15):
an easy one to grow. I neglect, don't tell anybody this,
I neglect mine and they still bloom as long as
I don't just like kill them. I mean they're easy
to grow. Maybe you get into that and you want
to do that. Took somebody the other day that was
into African violets, and I mean they grew miniature African violets,
they grew the large type African violets. They were into
something else called a pieces that's another related cousin of

(38:39):
African violets that is really cool and beautiful. And they
just get all into that, and that's cool. Maybe you
are about eating and you want vegetables and you want fruit,
and you want to grow herbs, and that's your new
thing on guarding. It always is something new, always something new.
A couple of days, a couple of shows ago, I
mentioned terrariums and how you know that used to be

(39:02):
a really popular thing, terrariums, and they kind of waned.
And I see an interest coming back in that now too.
And that's a whole other thing. So somebody, I mean
somebody that is completely shut in. They can't get out
and do anything, maybe physically, you know, for whatever reason,
a little terrarium to put some plants in and to grow,

(39:26):
get a little light over it, and stuff that is
a kind of gardening that is also kind of fun
to do. You can get some really creative designs that
way people go to great links, kind of like building
a ship in a bottle. You know you can. You
can kind of let the sky be the limit. But
find something you like and try something new. Hey, twenty
twenty five New Year. Time to try something new. Do

(39:47):
something you haven't done before in gardening. Try something you
haven't tried before in gardening. There is for the rest
of your life. You live to be five hundred years old,
you are not going to run out of new things
to do and try and learn when it comes to gardening.
That's just how that works. Well, let's do this. Let's

(40:07):
head out to Brenham, Texas, and we're going to talk
to Mike. Hello, Mike, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (40:13):
Hey, Hey, Skip, thank you.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
I just have a question.

Speaker 12 (40:18):
I've got a plan to improve my yard and we
do a lot of organic, but I'm not sure that
we're gonna be able to do that entirely. I want
to try and kill off some weeds and stuff that
are growing in the yard, and I'm thinking about using
two four deep products and then I use Balen's And

(40:41):
I was wondering if if I did that, would that
affect the Bermuda beheya wild grass that I have grown,
And would it affect the soil as far as the
bugs and the quality of the soil and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Okay, well two D is not going to effect grasses
like that, so there won't be a negative effect on
your turf, and its effect on microbes is minimal. If anything,
nature is pretty resilient. I would probably not just us
two for D. That's fine. It works on things. You

(41:18):
just got to be careful because it kills broad leaf
plants and your petunias, your shrubs, your trees, your flowers,
those are all broad leaf plants, and so it's easy
to have secondary damage that you don't intend. So you
got to be really careful with spraying those things. If
you've got broad leaf weeds, those are winter weeds and

(41:40):
you can spray them. Now, there are a number of
products out there. There's product blends from fur loam and
from Monterey from a high Yield and what's the other
one on bone eye is another one. There's those blends
like that for controlling a variety weeds. They put more
than one product together and that way it covers better
range of weeds out there. But uh, do all that

(42:04):
before it gets temperatures get up above mid eighties. Up
it definitely up in the upper eighties. Get that done
before then, because then you can damage some types of
grass depending on the product you use and the type
of grass that you have. Anytime you can spot spray, Yeah, anytime,
eating spot spray Mike is good. And also make your spray.

(42:29):
Don't pump up your sprayer very much. You would like
of course droplets going out from the spray. If you
pump it up a lot, you end up almost creating
like a foggy mist that will drift off site under
that higher pressure spray. So keep this, keep the spray
pressure down a little bit, and that that is also
a safety factor.

Speaker 12 (42:51):
All right, So I have an acre of land, is
there is there a granular product that you like?

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Well all the time? No, I don't have to be
sprayed if you're killing existing weeds. There are products if
the weeds are wet you can put out. I know
nitrophoss has a number of those kinds of things. If
you're talking about a whole acre. There are also a
versions of some of these things, but you can get
you a product that if the leaves are wet, it's

(43:20):
like putting out fertilizer with a product in it and
it sticks to the weed leaves and kills them that way.
But you need the leaves to be wet in order
to do that. A normal acre, it's not like you
can just turn the water on out there. So that's
where a spray is a little more helpful because you
can target it. And we're talking about killing the existing weeds. Now,

(43:41):
preventing weeds. You put a granular down and the next
time it rains, it moves into the soil and then
it's there to prevent weed seeds from coming out.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
Gotcha is Balin's one that you like?

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Baylan is one I would I would probably go with
uh something that has pendamethylene in it, or something that
has a die thiope here in it. If you'll go
to my website gardening with Skip dot com and look
at the disease, pest and weed schedule, I list a

(44:14):
couple of options there and you can see the ingredients,
and those are the ones that I would go after
as a pre emergent, and if you're going to be
post emergent, that's a that's a different thing. All right. Hey,
I'm up against a heartbreak, Mike, but good luck getting
getting that under control. Thank you, Bett, Thank you for
the call. All right, folks, I'll be right back.

Speaker 13 (44:39):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
We need to start having contests here on Guarden Line
where the caller that calls in and can tell me
who's singing that gets a free I don't know what
I've come up with something like that. That'd be fun.
All right, folks, you are listening to Garden Line. We're
here to help you have success. So give me a
call if you would like to ask a question. Seven

(45:04):
one three two one two kt r H seven one
three two one two k t r H. Al Right,
we got the super Bowl coming. I was talking to
somebody that about that the other day, and I realized
that we broke our heart to have the Texans drop
out of the running for it. But it's still coming,
and it is the super Bowl, and you know super
bowls or parties and grilling. I love to grill outside.

(45:26):
Ace Hardware Store has got the best selection of quality
grills and grilling equipment many place you're gonna find, for example,
uh trade names like Trager, names like Weber and Rectech
and Big Green Egg and Blackstone. You know those are
those are Cadillacs. And I'm telling you they have all

(45:46):
kinds of supplies to go with them, everything you need
if you are an ACEH Rewards member. Some of the
stores now each each a store is independently owned. So
call your local a store if you're going to get
a grill. A lot of them will assemble and deliver
it to your home for you. Not IFBA does that,
but some do, and so ACE Rewards is well worthwhile

(46:07):
for many reasons, I belong to a rewards. It's simple.
You just sign up, you get the card. You can
just give me a phone number if you want to
use it, and you don't have to carry the card
around with you or anything. But the bottom line is
you're gonna get points and it's gonna save you in
the long run. And it's it's absolutely painless, effortless. Just
just do it. And every time you go into Grace,

(46:28):
Grace ace you Sunday morning. I guess everything you go
into Ace, you are you are doing yourself a favor
by having that uh A rewards members own. Now it's
also time to do spring cleaning in the house and
in the garage. So do you need some spring spring
cleaning supplies? Do you need some shelving? Do you need
some toats to get that garage in order? Isn't it

(46:49):
weird how our garages just collect junk? You know, you
get it all cleaned up, and it's like it's like
a junk magnet in the garage and next you know
you're climbing over stuff and having to turn sideways to
get from your car to the back door. You know
what I mean, the garage door. Well, ACE has got
you covered on getting all of that back in order,

(47:10):
and they can do that. Now you're gonna find an
ACE all around the place near you. There are a
whole bunch of stores here in the Greater Houston area
all the way, you know, throughout my whole listening area
there are ACE stores. But places like Champions Ace Harbor
up in Champion Forests, northwest Houston, Langham Creek. ACE Hardware
is right there in Copperfield. We're just talking to somebody
this morning, Donna, that lives over near Champions Area, And

(47:34):
excuse me, the Copperfield area. She goes to Langham Creek
all the time, Memorial Ace Hardware on the Memorial area,
and you go out to Richmond and you got, for example,
the Plantation. Ace Hardware a great store out there. Have
been there more than one time, really enjoy that store.
But go to Acehardware dot Com, find the store locator,
find a store near you, And that is how you

(47:56):
go about it, because Ace is the place. And I'm
telling you not long when we talking about go get
this fertilizer, Go get that product or control weeds or
insects or diseases or whatever, and Ice is going to
have it ready to go for you when you just
show up. All right, I'm gonna talk about a couple
of things this morning, And first of all, I'm going

(48:17):
to talk about a little bit about transplanting. I had
some questions yesterday down at the Fort beIN County Home
Show about transplanting plants, and as a question was evolving,
I kind of realized this person had a plant that
the roots were all wrapped up in the container, wrapping around,
and that's what happens. It's a round container that most
plants are grown in and the roots hit the side

(48:40):
and they just have to turn left or right or something,
and they just start going around in circles. And when
you pull that plant out of the ground and put
it in out of the pot and put it in
the ground, the plant the roots are not going to
unwind underground.

Speaker 8 (48:52):
And so what do you do?

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Because a pot bound plant is not going to establish
as fast or as well in some cases, if it
were like a little tree, those winding roots are going
to get bigger month by month, year by year, as
the trunk gets bigger month by month, year by year.
And the next thing you know, those roots are literally
strangling the base of the trunk of that plant. And that,

(49:16):
unfortunately happens way too often. You got to cut the roots,
and don't be afraid to cut them. People buy this
big old plant and it's probably too small of a
pot and you pull it out and it's just white
with circling roots, and they don't want to cut those roots.
I'm gonna hurt my plant. I got this big beautile
cut the roots. You if it's you know, something smaller,

(49:39):
a little shrub, The roots aren't that big. Take a
box cutter knife, push that little one inch blade out
there and slice vertically down through that root system in
three or four places around it. Here's what's going to happen.
Wherever you cut a root, roots are going to branch
out new roots. Just like if you have a branch
above ground and you were to lop it off or

(49:59):
snip it off with punters, what happens. New shoots come
out from behind the cut. That's what roots do. One time,
I was at Arbigate Garden Center up in Tambol and
visiting with Beverly, and there were some trees that they've
gotten in and I noticed a circling root on them,
because that's what happens at pots. If you've got a

(50:19):
plants grown in a round pot, it's gonna have some
circling roots. And I got a permission and went in
there and took handprinters and just snipped the roots on
one of those plants. Came back two weeks later and
there were fresh white little roots, several three or four
coming out of each cut surface. Everywhere I'd cut a root,
there were three or four fresh, tender white roots coming out.

(50:41):
That's what's going to happen underground for you when you
cut the plant roots before you put them in the ground.
Don't be afraid to do it. Another reason why it's
so important to plants sooner rather than later. If you
do that in July, it's a little more stress on
a plant than if you do it now in January.
So get that done, but ruthless. Now, if you have
a little maybe a bedding plant, a tomato or a

(51:05):
petunia or whatever you're gonna put in the ground, you
will often see those when they've been in the pot
for too long, have a massive roots. The whole site.
You can't even see dirt. The whole side of the
pot is just solid white right in most cases tan
brown roots because they typically start dying out when they're
that pot bound. Cut those two or just kind of

(51:26):
tease them apart. Sometimes I just with a little tiny transplant,
just rip the roots on the outside with my fingers
off and stick it in the ground and watered in
really good. Get some get some roots stimulator in there.
Get the kinds of products you know, you hear me
talk about things well, For example, nutri Star Genesis. That's
a great one, a great one by the folks at Nelson.
I mix that every time I'm going to transplant a plant.

(51:49):
Nutri Star gets mixed in with the soil in the
planting hole, or in the case of a container plant,
it gets mixed in with the potting soil that's going
to be put around that new plant in the container,
and it takes off and it grows fast. There are
products that you can dip them in. You know has
to grow by medina. That's when you can drench it

(52:10):
with a watering can or like I mentioned yesterday, I'll
often take put a little has to Grow in a
bucket or something and then just dip the set the
plant in there while I'm getting the whole dug and
then pull it out. Now you got a root ball
soaked with the has to Grow six twelve six plant
food and you just put it right in the ground.
And we have other examples of that. But take care

(52:31):
of those roots. Don't expect it to fix itself underground.
It won't. And trust me if you do. If you
bought two plants and they're both equally root bound, and
one of them you just put in the ground, and
the other one you did what I've been saying to do,
come back in June and look at those plants, and
then give me a call and tell me how they're doing,
and you're going to see that difference. Trust me on

(52:52):
this one. It is important to do that. Now we
have the ability to buy a plant that's not so
terribly root bound, take advantage of not doing that, buying
one that's not so terribly root bound. But if you
have them and if you cut them, the plants will
survive and they'll do well. All right. I spend a
lot of time on that. But that is again one

(53:12):
of these days, I think I need to come up
with maybe the top twenty five mistakes gardeners make. That
sounds like such a negative list, but it would help
you not make those mistakes. And one of the ones
is planting root bound plants without doing something for that
root system. That would belong on the list. All right,

(53:33):
you're listening to Guardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter our
number for gardeners to call in. This is a call
in show. Seven one three two one two k t
r H seven one three two one two kt r H.
By the way, that nutri Star that Genesis Nelson Plant
Food has, they have their fertilizers are kind of grouped.

(53:56):
There's a nature Star that's more organic types of fertilizer.
There is a turf Star that's products for your lawn.
Turf Star. There is a Nutristar line, and those tend
to be things like fertilizer for your plumeria, or fertilizer
for your fruit trees, or fertilizer for your vegetable. That's
the kind of the nutri Star line. But there is

(54:18):
a Nutristar genesis that I've been talking about, and it's
got the reason it works so well and the reason
I use it well. The reason I use it is
I tried it and I was shocked and how well
it worked. It really surprised me how well it worked.
But it's got the endo and the ectomiciza. You're sitting
there going, what the heck does that even mean? Well,
micariza are little. There are fung fungal strands that live

(54:41):
in an association with roots, that's called a mic orhizal association.
And these fungi go into the root, doesn't hurt the plant,
it helps the plant, and then they go out in
the soil and they may grab a phosphorus molecule from
way out in the swell that the plant can't reach
and bring it back to the plant. Or they may
cut act two plants together like a telegraph line or

(55:04):
a telephone line between the two plants for communication. But
this has both the ones that are on the outside
of the root and the ones that are in the
root as an endow versus ecto. It's got those, it's
got bacteria and other fungi that benefit that soil microbiome,
and then it's got the humantes and of course it's
got some nutrition in it as well. Now you mix
them in the soil. You do that, then as those

(55:26):
plants are growing, then you do your regular fertilizing like
you would do. The genesis is for the transplant mixed
potting soil or soil or whatever you're putting in. It's
specifically designed to be mixed in the soil. Okay, but
don't forget. Get you some color Star or other nutri
Stars or nutri Star whatever you're going to use, and

(55:47):
have those on hand for ongoing fertilization. But before you
put a plant in the ground, have that nutri Star
genesis around because I'm telling you it works, and I'm
telling you that because I have used it. Della experiment
with it a while back. Alrighty, well, I am up
against another hard break here. If you would like to
get us a call and be on garden Line to

(56:09):
ask your question seven one three two one two KTRH.
When we come back, we're going to start off with
Brad out there in Pasadena. Brad will be right with
you in just a bit. Here, I want to remind
you my website, Gardening with Skip dot com, is where
you're going to find things that I'm often referring to
during the show. Someone asked me nuts Edge was all

(56:30):
over my garden last year and now it's all frozen back.

Speaker 7 (56:33):
Is it gone?

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Oh no, no, no no, it's not gone, unfortunately, But
I have a publication Nutsedge and in depth look that
will tell you how you can, I promise successfully get
rid of Nutsedge if you follow my advice in that publication.
Just an example of one of the things on the website.
Folks will be right back. You know how to jitterbug,
It's okay to be doing that right now. Let's get

(57:00):
back to the phones here on garden Line. We're going
to go straight out to Pasadena, Texas and talk to Brad.
Hello Brad, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (57:09):
Hi Skip. I've got a backyard just full of crab grass.
Should I put the pre mergent down right now?

Speaker 2 (57:19):
I would. I would wait just a little bit. On
my schedule. I've got the pre emergent starting in mid
January and going going through February. You can do it now,
but with where you live, if you did it a
little bit later, that would be fine. Here's the thing,
you don't want to wait too long. But at the
same time, by doing it too early, then it ends

(57:42):
up breaking down a little earlier too, And so the
extend how far it goes out is not as far.
Do you see what I'm saying. I mean, they only
last a certain amount of time before they break down
and you have to reapply them. So I would probably
do mine maybe a next maybe next week after something
like that would probably be about ideal for your area.

(58:03):
Could could even come a little bit later now.

Speaker 10 (58:06):
Okay, good? Uh this well, pro diamine do the job.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
For diamond Yeah, oh yeah, that would be fine. Uh
you know that the uh, there are a lot of
ingredients out there that are that are pre emergence and
I liked for for this area. I found that the
barricade products just work really well. Nitrophoss has its barricade
version and stuff, and I would I would recommend that

(58:36):
you just use.

Speaker 10 (58:36):
That very good okay, thank you, Skip yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
And just remember when you do this that you need
uh you need to water it in after after you
you apply it, so it only starts working when you
move it down into the soil surface area. That that's important.
And by the way, barricade is par diming that you

(59:04):
were talking about.

Speaker 10 (59:07):
All right, thanks again, Skip.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Yes, sir, you take care, good luck with that all ready,
and let's go now to Huntsville, Texas. Talk to Linda. Hey, Linda,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (59:20):
Good morning, Skip.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Morning.

Speaker 14 (59:24):
I have a question about some rows of sharing cuttings
that I made last ball. They've been in the greenhouse
on a warming pad under grow lights for probably two
and a half months now, and they're really starting to
grow and get lots of leaves, and I'm wondering when

(59:45):
I can move them outside, take them off of that
heating pad and grow lights and put them outside.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
Well, you know, we don't know what the weather is
going to be. And let's just say that we're up
in Huntsville, so you go further north in the hearing
listening area. Let's just say, you know, a week or
two from now, you're going to drop back down into
the mid teens. That'd be kind of hard on those
brand new plants that are not hardened off. They've been

(01:00:16):
living the life of Riley in your nice greenhouse under
the lights and stuff with the heating mat. So I
wouldn't put them out too soon. I'd give them a
little more time. What I would do, though, is go
ahead and lift them up out of there and pot
them up. Pot them up into something, you know, whatever size.
It doesn't have to be a giant pot, but just
get them, get them growing. With a little more root space,

(01:00:38):
you can get them off the heating mat, provide them
a little continue to give them the light that they have,
and then once we get past the freeze damages, let's
say we get somewhere into oh, I don't know, maybe
mid March or something like that, then then go ahead
and put them out or gradually acclimate them like, pot
them up, get them growing, set them outside, and let

(01:00:59):
them let them experience the cool weather we're having. But
that way you can bring them in if it gets
freezing cold. If you plant them, you're going to definitely
go ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
Would you say, is too cold.

Speaker 15 (01:01:14):
You know that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Yeah, it's not a it's not a black and white line.
It's not that temperatures above freezing that worry me. It's
it's a plant that is not hardened off being subjected
to temperatures that are very, very cold. And since I
don't have my crystal ball on the weather, i'd rather
be conservative. And that's why I said put them up.

(01:01:37):
Maybe put them outside, but be able to bring them
in and they'll continue to develop roots. Even if temperatures
are in you know, the highs in the fifties and
at night it's in the low forties or upper thirties.
They'll be okay, and they'll be developing root systems and
getting acclimated. And then when you plant them out, your
chance of success is going to be even better.

Speaker 14 (01:02:00):
But for right now, I could turn that heating pad off.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, if they have growth on top, that
means they have roots. Yeah, a cutting that is is
growing has roots. Those cuttings sit there and when that's
one way I know they're rooting is because you start
to see new growth appearing.

Speaker 14 (01:02:20):
Okay, so I could at least turn the heating pad off. Yeah,
when it's warm and move them back inside when it's
going to be cool at Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
That would that would be That would be great. It
sure would get you somebody genesis from Nelson. Get some
genesis from Nelson. Plant foods so that when you plant them,
whether you pop them up or put them in the ground,
mix some of that in the soil they're being planted
into and you're going to see a good benefit from
that as they they will establish better. Okay, genesis genesis

(01:02:58):
from Nelson. Oh, I thank you for that. You take care, Linda.
I appreciate the call very much. Well, oh my, Barbara
and Hempstead, you're gonna be our first up when we
come back from a break here. I don't have time
to give your question the time I would like to
provide it, So we're gonna hold you over and come

(01:03:19):
back to you right when we get back from break.
Remember on plants, plants go through a hardening off process
as as things cool off in the fall, and that
makes them more winter hardy. When we don't allow that,
a plant that should be hardy won't be. For example,
crate myrtles. A couple of years ago in December we

(01:03:40):
had warm temperatures, they were not hardened off and ready.
We had a seventeen degree I believe temperature where I
live and crate myrtles killed the ground that re sprouted
out of the base because they weren't ready. All right,
I'll be right back in just a moment. All right,
folks were back. Let's do this. You are listening to

(01:04:02):
garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. We're here to
help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape
that is as simple as I can put it. Oh
and one more thing, and have fun in the process.
And never forget that gardening is supposed to be fun,
and it is. You know, it's like getting to play
in the dirt when you're an adult. And it's a
good excuse for that. Right, Calvin and Hobbs, you remember

(01:04:24):
the Cavin and Hobbes comic strip, The Little Tiger and
the Little Boy. There's one of those, and it said,
at the end of the day, if your genes aren't
grass stained, you need to seriously reconsider your life. I
love that one.

Speaker 8 (01:04:41):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
I agree that's true. Hey, let's go out to the phones.

Speaker 9 (01:04:44):
Here.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
We're gonna head all the way out to Hempstead and
talk to Barbara. Hey, Barbara, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 16 (01:04:51):
Thank you, Kim.

Speaker 13 (01:04:55):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
Yes, ma'am? How can we help? How can we help?

Speaker 13 (01:05:00):
Okay? I thought a tumbler to do compost because I thought,
why not use all the things out of the kitchen. Okay,
Well there the tumbler got too heavy for me to turn.
So the other day I got frustrated and I unloaded
it and I put I dug it down into my

(01:05:22):
raised beds, which I sow vegetables as my raised bed.
So if I made a huge mistake, that's going to
let me this spring? Or is it gonna be okay?

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
I think it's gonna be okay. Well, can I ask
you about how far along the composting process do you
think you got? Does it about halfway to compost? Or what.

Speaker 13 (01:05:47):
The bottom of it looked like?

Speaker 5 (01:05:48):
I mean, wonderful soil.

Speaker 13 (01:05:51):
It didn't have a bad smell the top the top
has you know, it has like eggshells and some avocado
and things like that. I haven't broken down yet that
dark and believe it mostly broken down because I have

(01:06:11):
an old.

Speaker 17 (01:06:11):
Tree to like.

Speaker 13 (01:06:13):
You think it's okay?

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
Yeah, I know it's okay. And the eggshells are almost
never going to break down. I mean they'll they'll be
all dark brown, black stained. If you come back five
years from now and an eggshell is still going to
look shaped like an eggshell, they don't break down much.

Speaker 9 (01:06:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
The avocados or those old leathery skins are tough, and
that's going to be very slow. So that's understandable. But
the other rest of it is fine. What you probably
ought to try to do, though, is as you get
it in there, turn it more often, because what happens
is you're going to get decomposition and now you have
this heggy, heavy, soggy thing sitting on one side. So
when you try to crank that around to the top,

(01:06:55):
that's what's making it so hard to crank. So the
more often you turn it, the less that's going to
have happen, and you'll be able to continue to do
turning as you need to.

Speaker 13 (01:07:04):
Okay, well, different ones, Okay, never mind. I also have
a question for a friend of mine. He has a
lemon trees that are in thought that she put in
her baron and wrapped the blankets. Well, when she took
the blankets off to take him back out, something has
eaten all the bark off of those trees. That's like

(01:07:28):
five trees. So she was thinking it was spping mice
or something like that. But are those trees gonna be
okay with no bark?

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
Well maybe not. The things like rats and mice and
some are cretain. Other creatures can gnaw on the base
of a tree, uh and chew the bark on it.
I would my question would be for her to check
and see is the bark eaten all the way around

(01:08:01):
on the trees and how wide of a section is that.
So if it's just like on one side they choose
some bark, then all the rest of the trunk is
connected still from the top to the bottom. It goes
all the way around.

Speaker 13 (01:08:17):
It's get me pictures, and it looks like all the
way around. I mean they went from okay, you know,
the soul level as far as they could get into everything.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Oh well, then that's going to be too inside. Yeah,
so what that's going to be too big of a
gap for it to callous and close over Sometimes with
a small we call that girdling. By the way, when
they go when something removes the bark all the way
around a trunk, If it's just a small area, you're
going to get callous and it may close back over

(01:08:54):
but and it but if it's very big, it never will.
And and that tree it'll look like it's living for
a while, But what's happening is the roots are getting
starved for carbohydrates and it will go downhill and you
won't be able to turn it around. Now she has
a couple of options. The simplest, easiest thing is just

(01:09:17):
get new trees, because then you know where you are
and you know you're gonna do it. But if she
wants to try to save those, she might try planting
it a little bit deeper in a pot and getting
some soil up against the bark, living bark that's still
on that stem. Take a little pocket knife and make
some little vertical slits in it, like the direction of

(01:09:38):
the trunk, Just little slits with that little wound will callous.
And where you get callous, you can get roots, and
you may be able to get the top part above
that chewed to go ahead and root and save the tree.

Speaker 8 (01:09:53):
That way.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
It's a long shot, but I'm using the term maybe
on that, but that is a possibility. Those trees are
too small to do bridge graphs on and so I
don't I don't think that's going to be feasible. But
if she wants to try to save them, that's how
to try. Otherwise, just get you a good new tree

(01:10:14):
and get some rat killer to put out there in
the meantime.

Speaker 13 (01:10:19):
All right, sorry to tell her that, but okay, i'd
thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
Thank you, Barbara. Take care good to talk to you. Yeah,
I was a fun, fun story, funny story. I worked
in Missouri for three years as a fruit grower advisor
for Missouri State at that time it's called Southwest Missouri
State anyway, and I would go out all over the
state and help people that were grown fruit trees, primarily

(01:10:48):
commercial growers, but you know, some homeowners. And went out
to see a fella who had his trees had been
girdled by rabbits. Now, what happens sometimes in areas where
you get lost snow is the rabbits go hopping up
to the trunk. They're hopping up on snow, and they
chew the bark all the way around the trunk. They
literally girdled the tree that way. And this was a

(01:11:10):
sizeable probably about a four or five inch trunk on
this apple tree that they had chewed off. And so
there's a thing called a bridge graft where you cut
a branch and you essentially connect the top part that
was to above where it was chewed off, to the
rootstock part below where it was chewed off. So you
have these little bands of branches going across there. It's

(01:11:32):
called a bridge graft. And I was sitting there doing
this for him for free, just to help the guy.
And I looked up and there's a little bunny rabbit
like twenty feet away, and I go, there's your culprit.
And the guy laughed and he goes, yeah, he's our
pet rabbit. He hangs out around here. And I'm sitting here.
I'm not helping a guy. I'm feeding a rabbit. Why

(01:11:53):
am I doing this? Anyway? Fun story, all right, we're
at the end of an hour here. We're gonna be
back in a little bit, and when we do, we're
going to talk to Glenn in Lake Jackson, And if
you'd like to be up then just get Jonathan m
call seven one three two one two kat r h
and we will talk to you about that too. You know,

(01:12:17):
I'm talking about grafting. Grafting is kind of a fun
thing and so is budding and it's not hard to learn.
Now early on you're going to not have great success
because you kind of to get the neck of it.
But as I was talking earlier, what have you never
done that you're going to do a new and try
this year? How about trying to bud? Budding doesn't cut
off the whole branch, and so if you fail at it,

(01:12:38):
you haven't lost much. Do you know you could bud
four or five different kinds of peaches on your peach tree?
Would that be cool?

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
I'm just saying, welcome to kt RH Guarded Line with
scam Rictor.

Speaker 16 (01:12:52):
It's trim.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
You just watch him as.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Many things. Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to Guardenline'm good
to have you with us this morning. You know, right now,
if you go outside and look at your landscape, I
bet it looks pretty bleak. You know that freeze we
had my Saint Augustine grass and and Zuysey I've got

(01:13:28):
a little of beach. Uh they really got fried and
burned back and that looks so great out there this
time of year. But I'll tell you who can fix that,
and that is Peerce Scapes. I'm just every time I
go to their website and I would ask that you
just go look at it. Please go look at it.
It's Piercescapes dot com. Piercescapes dot com. Look at the

(01:13:49):
work they can do. It is amazing, it is outstanding.
You'll you'll look there, maybe you'll look at the hard
escape work that they do and you just go, oh
my gosh. I have to have a pat or a
walkway like that. I have got to create a water
feature like they create. I've got to create that outdoor
barbecue pit area like they show. Landscape lighting unbelievable, the

(01:14:12):
difference it makes in your home, both in safety, you know,
we can see around the house kind of a security thing,
but also just in beauty, and Pierscapes does all of that.
They also do maintenance. So maybe you just want somebody
to come out and four times a year, I want
you to get in here, get the flowerbeds, put some
new flowers in, put some mulch in, make sure the
irrigation's work, and right, do a little trimming here and there,

(01:14:33):
I mean fertilizing. They do all that. That's part of
their quarterly maintenance program. But you got to call them
and connect and get you know, get them on board
to do what you need done. Now, if it's a
big landscape job, it's gonna take some time. Sit on
with the designers, show them some pictures and let them
do it. Maybe it's just a bed you want to redo.
Maybe you just want to have them come in quarterly

(01:14:55):
and do the maintenance. Whatever it is you need. Two
eight one three seven fifty sixty two eight one three
seven o five zero six zero are better than that.
Phone numbers on the website to Pierce escapes dot com.
Take a look. See what you think. We're gonna go
now to Lake Jackson and talk to Glenn this morning.

(01:15:16):
Hello Glenn, and welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:15:19):
Thank you. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
I'm well, sir, I'm well.

Speaker 8 (01:15:25):
I've got I covered up my high biscus trees and
a palm tree, and they stayed covered up with a
frost protection cloth, and uh huh. When I took them off,
they looked pretty. The leaves looked darker and very wilted.
I didn't know whether the sun or the freeze got him.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
The lack of sun, rather it would be and I
would be the freeze. The freeze got them Yeah, that's
that's it. You may still you may still have some
life though in the stems, the trunk and branches. I
would give it a little time, and that plant will
tell you where it's, what's alive, and what's not alive
when it begins to push out new buds, and just

(01:16:07):
cut it back to wherever there's new growth at that time.

Speaker 8 (01:16:11):
Okay, So covering them up just didn't do very much.

Speaker 5 (01:16:15):
Did it? Well?

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
It can. There are a number of factors. Number one,
how hardy is the plant for covering. That's a big difference.
Number Two, if you wrap it like a landscape lollipop
tied around the trunk, it's not going to do much good.
If you drape it to the ground where soil heat
can rise up, it does more good. Then the next
thing would be adding heat underneath it, like a flood

(01:16:39):
lamp or a heat lamp underneath to provide warmth underneath
the cover would be another I've got a publication online,
Glenn on my website Gardening with Skip dot com that
tells you how to do it. But when you look
at pictures of that on the publication, suddenly it'll all
makes sense. But it's a matter of that how cold.

(01:17:00):
Go ahead, I had lollipopped. They were all lollipopped. Yeah, yeah,
Well check out my publication. I'm telling you, when you
look at it one time for now on, you'll know
how to cover a plant. And it's a matter of
how cold does it get, how tough is the plant,
how well do you cover it, and do you add
heat and it you know, if it's going to be

(01:17:20):
thirty one degrees, we're not so worried. If it's going
to be you know, low twenties, we got a big problem.
And you're gonna have to do a lot to save
a tropical, very cold sensitive plant like you described.

Speaker 8 (01:17:33):
Yeah, I'm having trouble keeping high biscus here because you know,
one freeze a year takes it out.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Well, that's true. Yeah. You know one thing you can do,
and this is just another step, is just get some
soil or a real nice composting mix and make a
big old volcano cone at the bottom of the plant. Normally,
I don't say do that because that's not how you
normally treat plants. But if that had been done, then
that highbiscus would have been killed back to the soil.

(01:18:02):
But when you pull that cone dirt away from the base,
you would have had living tissues that could re sprout,
and at least your plant will be back in business
pretty quick that way. So that's another tip I'll throw you.
Of course, you can't go backwards in time, but going forward.
Keep that in mind.

Speaker 8 (01:18:19):
Do I need to take the dead leaves off?

Speaker 9 (01:18:23):
Nah?

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
Just wait, I would right now. I would leave it
and wait if we have another phraeze, you know, then
you know, covering the base a little bit with some
soil may help. But once it starts growing, either it's
all dead or you may get some sprouting somewhere along
the trunk or around the base. I wouldn't give up
quite yet. Okay, Well, we're going to just be We're

(01:18:44):
going to be hopeful, not confident, but hopeful, all right, Okay.
Appreciation Oh yes, yeah, you bet, Thanks for the call.
Appreciate that a lot. You take care alrighty. Yeah, that
is the case, folks. It's on the website. It's on
the website. Please take advantage of it and check it out.

Speaker 17 (01:19:02):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:19:03):
Martin spoon Moore at Affordable Tree is our go to
guy for treecare here on garden Line, and it's because
Martin knows what he's doing. He's been doing this a
very long time. He is an expert at things. And listen,
our winter weather is unpredictable. As we just saw. We
got winds, we got freezing temperatures. Our trees in general
need to be taken care of. Last summer two storms

(01:19:26):
were horrible, took trees down, took our power out. It
was a mess. You need to call Martin now and
have him come out and look. Listen. If you can't
remember the last time you hid your trees pruned and
evaluated for their health, right now is the time to
call Martin. And here's a number seven one three six
nine nine two six sixty three. Seven one three, six

(01:19:46):
nine nine twenty six sixty three. Here's his website, Afftree
Service dot com. Aff as an Affordable aff Tree Service
dot com. Seven three two six six three. Martin does
pruning and maintenance. He removes trees, He grinds stumps. He

(01:20:06):
does barricades under the ground to keep your tree roots
from getting into trouble going off somewhere they don't need
to go. He does planting. It is transplanting. He does,
like I said, deep root feeding. He does it all
but right now have him come out. He stays busy.
He does a good job. People call him to come back.
So give him a call. Tell him you're a Guardenline listener,
by the way, and have him come out and check

(01:20:28):
out your tree, see what needs to be done. He'll
shoot straight with you, tell you what you need, do
an evaluation for you and then let you know and
you can make a decision on where you want to
go from there. Affordable tree service, Martin Spoon More time
for me to take a little break. When I come back,
we're going to talk to Karen in West Houston and
Ryan in Brazoria. Alrighty, alrighty, we're back. Welcome back to

(01:20:55):
the garden Line. We're going to run straight after the
phone's got Spookes have been out there waiting. Head to
West Houston and talk to Karen. Hey, Karen, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 18 (01:21:04):
Hey there, Skip. I have an LSU purple fig tree,
about fifteen years old. It's about twenty feet tall. I
didn't get it pruned in the fall. Can I still
prune it before it buds out? And can I take
can I root some of the cuttings?

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
Okay, you can print it. I would wait a little bit.
Even if it starts to butt out, you can still
prun it, and there's no problem with printing it at
that time. Printing is an invigorating process, and so you
cut into living wood and it is more likely to
sprout sooner than if it wasn't prinned. So what we

(01:21:47):
don't want is, let's say you print it today and
then next week and the next week. And I haven't
looked at the weather, but we have temperatures up in
the seventies and then it drops down and we have
another hard freeze. You're going to get damage from that
hard freeze. So I try not to invigorate a fig
treek since their marginal in their heartiness anyway, So I

(01:22:08):
would wait to do it. But yes, you can do it.
That's fine as far as rooting. Just find you some
of the ends of the shoots, you know, the sections
that are about the size your little finger, the branches
and that that's last year's growth. And if you cut
those off, I would wrap them, put them in some
moist sand, or wrap them in moist paper towels in

(01:22:31):
a zip lock bag, put them in the refrigerator upside down,
literally upside down. You can do that. You don't have to,
but you can do it that way. And then when
you bring them out and stick them in the ground
to root, they're they're going to root very easily. Figs
are easy to root. The only thing you don't want
to do is use older wood, the gray wood, you
know that grew the year before. You want to use

(01:22:52):
the more recent growth. That's why I said the size.

Speaker 18 (01:22:55):
Your little finger, and how long would I leave them
in the refrigerator.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
I'd leave them in there a few weeks and then
when the weather warms up and they're gonna want to
be outside, then pull them out and you can just
put them outside. You can stick them in a one
gallum pot full of potting soil if you want, put
a little cover over them to hold in a little
bit of moisture. Figs are pretty easy to root. I
know people that go under the eaves of their house,
maybe on the north side where it's kind of shady

(01:23:21):
but still bright, and they're just stick them in the
ground there, and the ones that managed to root and
come up, then they dig them up move them. I
like to use the one gallum pots myself.

Speaker 18 (01:23:33):
That's great information.

Speaker 6 (01:23:35):
Thank you for the help.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
All right. Good luck with that. Lsu purple is a
good fig that's for sure. Thanks for the call, Karen,
You take care all right. We're gonna go now to
talk to Ryan in Brazaria. Hey, Ryan, welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 7 (01:23:52):
Good Marra Skip, thank you for taking my call. I've
got We purchased a property that's got about a fifteen
acre cam orchard on it that was planted from what
I've found about back in the eighties, but it's been
let go for probably the last.

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
Twenty years, and I'm been working on.

Speaker 7 (01:24:11):
The Chinese tallow you know that's not supposed to be
in there, so I've been doing some hacking squork in
there and around those trees.

Speaker 17 (01:24:19):
Some of the research says that you need to stop
doing that as the spring comes it because it becomes
less effective. Are you familiar with that or where or
you know anything about that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
Yeah, you don't have to stop. It's just that the
best time to do a herbicide treatment on the base
of a tree, a stump or at the base to
kill it is in the fall because the tree is
pulling all its carbohydrates down into storage for winter, and
it takes that product in very well. In the spring,
it's kind of like the growth is going the other direction.
You got a lot of flow going outward. It's not

(01:24:54):
that the herbicides won't do any good, they're just not
as effective then, and so you may want to wait,
let it want to get some growth and settle in
and do it a little bit after the weather warms
up pretty good, and try it then and get because
you don't want to wait until you don't have to
wait until next fall to try it again.

Speaker 7 (01:25:12):
Okay, And then are you do you know of anybody
that can help me with that with this orchard? I
don't know much about countries and orchards, any recommendations on
somebody might be able to give me some guidance. I'm
maybe re establishing it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
Uh Well, first of all, I would are you in
Brazoria County or what county are you in?

Speaker 7 (01:25:37):
Yes, sir, Brazoria County.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Yeah. I would talk to your county Extension office and
they have a connection with the specialists in horticulture at
the university. We have some specialists and fruit growing and
nut growing things like that that they can connect with.
If you call your Brazoria County Extension Office and ask
for the horticulture agent and speak with her and she

(01:26:02):
can get you connected. Also there at the Aggie Horticulture website,
just do a search for Aggie Horticulture. There's a page
on fruit and nut fact sheets, and on that page
you're going to find information on there's a publication on
improved pecans that's grafted ones, publication on native pecans, and

(01:26:24):
either one of those can help you understand a little
bit about caring for your trees. What it's basically going
to amount to is you want to keep the grass
down low, keep it mode around them very low, so
that you can minimize the competition from that. If you're
able to water, that's good. If you're not, that's okay.
There's a lot of unirrigated pecans, especially in the south

(01:26:48):
and east parts of Texas where it does rain quite
a bit. But I think you'll find some help on
those websites as well.

Speaker 7 (01:26:57):
Very good, Thank you for the information.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
Yeah yeah, Brazoria County website. Talk to your horticulture agent.
She's good and she will put you in touch with
the folks at Texas A and M, or she'll bring
them in if she needs to to provide some additional
help in helping you. All right, sir, thank you very much.
You have a great day, Yes, you take care alrighty,

(01:27:22):
there we go. Yeah, Brazouri County's got a very active
extension of it. They got educational programs going on all
the time out there. And if you're a gardener at
Brazouria County, you need to you need to get a call,
get on the schedule, find out what are the master
gardeners up to, what kind of programs are going on,
what kind of programs is extension putting on. They've done
everything from you know, programs on figs to a really

(01:27:47):
good annual strawberry program they put on out there every year.
That's excellent. Uh so yeah, I would, I would definitely
get involved, find out at least at least be notified
of what's going on so you can take advantage of
some really good educational opportunities. And by the way, extension
offices are all one hundred excuse me, all two hundred

(01:28:10):
and fifty four counties in Texas are served by an
extension office. The vast majority have their own extension office.
If you go out west, we're so far west that
there's more jack rabbits than our people then that you
may have two counties out there they're served by one
office or something. But around here in our area you
got an extension office. Around the Greater Houston area, you
have a horticulture agent. All office is going to have

(01:28:31):
an agriculture agent which covers horticulture. But in Brass County,
in Conrad, Montgomery County, in Harris County, in Houston, in
Orange County, out east Brazoria County south for ben County
to the west, southwest, Galveston County down south. I'm probably

(01:28:52):
leaving them. I leaving out. I think that's it. Anyway,
all those counties have a horticulture agent too, and they
have a master gardner program. In master gardner put on
educational programs. They're volunteers trade by extension to serve the public.
They help extension reach more people. They extend extension. The
way I used to say it when I was a
horticulture agent is extension takes the university to the people,

(01:29:16):
and master gardeners take extension to the people. You know
what I'm saying. They help extend what one horticulture agent
can accomplish or one agriculture agent. In counties that just
have an agriculture agent. So that is a resource that
you should take advantage of. That's where you go get
information on soil testing. That's where you get help with
all kinds of things and really cool educational programs too.

(01:29:40):
All right, that was your little extension commercial for the day.
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(01:30:03):
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(01:30:25):
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(01:30:48):
number if you want to give me a call, seven
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(01:31:08):
and when do I do it? And they're gonna get
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so it's really cool. All right. Time for me to
take a break, if you would like to give me

(01:31:30):
a call seven one three two one two kt.

Speaker 4 (01:31:32):
R H.

Speaker 2 (01:31:36):
Alrighty, here we are, we're back listen uh, I want
a public service announcement if you are into David Austin roses.
David Austin is an English rose and it's a more
modern breeder of roses, but they breed roses that look

(01:31:57):
like old time roses. They just are. They're really gorgeous
and many of them are fragrant. You know, there's Gertrude
Jekyl that is an English climbing rose. It's really good
at flowering, good for fragrance. They're just great ros there's
lots of goodness. I mentioned I shouldn't even have mentioned
one because there's a whole bunch of them and they're awesome. Well,
Plants for all Seasons. Has got them in and they

(01:32:18):
got them in and the big tubs are bear root.
Now bear root, this is the season, bear root fruit trees,
bear root roses. You can plant bear root plants, bear
root pecans this time of year. But you don't want
to delay because at some point they're gonna have to
pot them up, and when they pot them up, the
price goes up. And that's makes sense. I mean, they're
putting time and money into doing it. But if you

(01:32:39):
would like to get a David Austin Rose and a
really nice one. Now's the time to swing by Plants
for All Seasons and grab you one of those. It's
a family owned operation. It's right there at Luetta and
Tomball Parkway two forty nine just north of Luetta, actually
Tombo Parkway high Way two forty nine, which is Highway
two forty nine just north of Luetta for all seasons.

(01:33:01):
They're lawn and garden experts. They can help you out
and get you up to speed on whatever you need
to know. They help diagnose. Oh, by the way, they
also have strawberries in stock and their blooms already on them.
I mean to get those things. Don't delay, you know,
we plant strawberries in the fall. We can still plan
them now, but get them in the ground, get them going,

(01:33:21):
and go ahead and start. Find you a strawberry shortcake
recipe because you're going to need it. Grab you some
strawberries there too. While you're at Plants for All Seasons.
Plants for All Seasons dot com. That's the website Plants
for All Seasons dot com. If you want to give
them a call two eight, one, three, seven, six sixteen
forty six and they have a giant wall of seeds
and it is seed starting season. So go in there

(01:33:44):
while supplies are good and grab you some seeds when
you swing by. Plants for all seasons. I'm going to
head now out to Willis and we're going to talk
to Kim. Well, hello Kim, and welcome to garden.

Speaker 16 (01:33:55):
Line, Ken Maury, thanks you for taking my call. I
have two questions. I have a dwarf magnolia that I've
put in a spot that wasn't the wisest division, and
I'm wondering if I can move it this time of

(01:34:16):
year or do.

Speaker 10 (01:34:17):
I need to work?

Speaker 2 (01:34:18):
Okay, Uh, when you say dwarf, do you know the
name of the magnolia by any chance?

Speaker 10 (01:34:27):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:34:27):
No, dwarp Southern?

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Southern? Okay, southern? Okay?

Speaker 5 (01:34:33):
How long?

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
Wo'd you plan it?

Speaker 9 (01:34:35):
About?

Speaker 16 (01:34:36):
Two years ago?

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
Okay? Well, magnolia does not like to be moved. Now,
you're kind of It's been in in a while, so
you're gonna have to cut quite a few roots to
move it. But if you're going to do it, I
would do it a S A P. And I would
worry more about getting wider than deeper. When you dig
it up if you can get down about you know,

(01:35:00):
ten inches or so deep, but especially try to go wider.
And what I would recommend so that you don't kill
your back trying to move it is I will cut
a little trench around the tree. Let's just say you
were going to go two feet out in all directions,
just as an example, you would dig a little trench
two feet out down about ten eight eight inches ten

(01:35:22):
inches deep, and then you would use your shovel horizontal
it's better here for a flat shovel, and go underneath
it and cut maybe halfway under as you kind of
pull on the plant, leaning it to one side you
need some help with us, and then slide a tarp
underneath that half then go to the other side and
cut underneath it toward the tarp and you can just

(01:35:43):
slide it up onto the tarp when you get far
enough under there, and a very little soil disturbance, almost
no lifting, because you literally can drag it with the
tarp from one spot to another, or if you have
a cup maybe four people, two to four people, you
can grab corners of the tar and it's very you
don't have to stoop, and you just lift it up

(01:36:03):
and carry it like you're carrying a stretcher over to
where it goes. You slide it right in. And that's
the minimum damage, the minimum back injury, and the greatest
success chance that you're going to have trying to move
that because they're not they don't like being moved.

Speaker 16 (01:36:19):
Okay, all right, And the same fo wax myrtles. I
also have a seat wax myrtles that I would like
to yes, move okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:33):
On the wax myrtles, I would prune the top back
pretty good, you can. They're tough, and so I would
probably cut them back. How tall are they right now?

Speaker 16 (01:36:45):
Probably about five feet.

Speaker 2 (01:36:46):
Told, okay, you might cut them back to even like
three feet or something, and just so they're easier to
handle too. But go ahead and move them the same
way at the same time now and get them in
this new spot. Make sure either of those plants is
put at the same level that it was growing before.

(01:37:06):
Don't make it deeper, don't make it shallower, and then
watered in really really good. And I would get a
good roots stimulator solution at your local wherever you do
your shopping. You know what you were up there in
Willis You got all seasons Ace Hardware right there on
I forty five north up in Willis area. I would

(01:37:27):
just turn by there and grab some of their stuff.
By the way, put it on your calendar. I'm going
to be heading up that way. Let's see what a
want to be up there February twenty second, Saturday. So
come out and see me. If you get a chance,
Tell your neighbors to come on out. I'll be up
there at all seasons as then. But anyway, grab a
root stimulator solution if you can get some something called

(01:37:50):
medina has to grow six twelve six medina. It's a liquid,
and then water your new plants in with that with
a good he just you put you mix it in
a watering can and just drench, drench the plants and
that'll give you one more little bit of a measure
of success.

Speaker 4 (01:38:10):
Okay, okay, sounds great.

Speaker 2 (01:38:13):
Thanks all right, Kim, Thanks for the call. You take care,
good luck with that. Time for me to take a break.
I'll be right back, but just lunatic there you go.
Welcome back to garden line, little Billy Joel for us
this morning. See if you would like to give me

(01:38:33):
a call and ask a gardening question. I'll be happy
to take that call seven one three two one two
k t R H. And we'll see if we can
get to the bottom of things so that you can
have success. I was mentioning the fact that I'm going
to be at All Seasons Ace Hardware a little bit
ago with a caller, and that will be coming up
later on. I've got a number of pretty busy spring
of appearances going on out there, and I hope some

(01:38:55):
of you will get a chance to come out and
see me one or two places surprise me. Sometimes people
to more than two or three places just to ask
the next question that they might have. And that's all good,
and that's all fun. By the way, Ace Hardware's you know,
the super Bowl coming up. Time to get the grills out.
You know, you got to have that Super Bowl party.
And when it comes to grills, you're not going to

(01:39:16):
do better in Ace Hardware. I'm talking about grills and
quality grills like Big Green Egg and Blackstone and Weber
and Trigger Rectech. I'm talking about grilling supplies and seasonings,
even really amazing grilling seasonings and all kinds of things
you need to be the true barbecue champion of your street.
That's it. Now, Remember if you're an ACE Reward member,

(01:39:38):
which everybody should be, because anytime you buy something at ACE,
it goes on your rewards and it builds up and
it matters. But ACE Rewards member at a lot of stores,
they'll even assemble and deliver the grill for you. You
just have to talk to your ACE store. Each one's
independently owned. They're each different what they choose and able
to do. But that's a super extra plus. Now, if
you want to get your garage in order, which I

(01:39:59):
need to do. If you saw mine, oh my gosh,
it was in order at one time. Have you noticed
how garages have a tendency to collect junk. I mean,
you know, you have this big expense of a well
cleaned garage and you're soper out of it. Next thing
you know, you're having to walk sideways to get to
the garage door to go in the house because it's
so filed with junk. ACE will fix that. They got

(01:40:20):
shelby units, they got storage toads, they got any kind
of cleaning supplies you need for inside and outside the home.
ACE hardware and where are ACE Hardware's everywhere? There's Victoria
Ace Hardware. There's Bay City ACE Hardware down in Galveston,
Chalmers Ace Hardware. It's easy to find an ACE Hardware
store near you by going to Acehardware dot com and

(01:40:41):
finding the store locator. Simple as that. I was also
just talking to him up in Willis and I mentioned
that she's transplanting a couple of things, and you want
to water those plants in with a roof stimulator. You
also want to have things that provide the nutrients that
plants need.

Speaker 5 (01:40:59):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
Phosphorus is an important nutrient in rooting, and that's why
the folks at Medina created has to grow six twelve six.
Plant food now has to grow six twelve six. It's
got the six percent nitrogen, twelve percent phosphors, packed with
phosphors and six percent potassium. That is very helpful for
helping a new plant get off to a good start

(01:41:21):
as it tries to rebuild a root system, whether you
took it out of a pot, maybe you did some
root trimming because of circling roots, or if in the
case of transplanting, you dig it up and you're cutting
all these roots off. It needs to get new roots
started and has to grow six twelve six helps that
has to grow. Six twelve six isn't just fertilizer. It's
got medina sool activator simulate biological activity. It's got humate

(01:41:44):
humic acid which improves soil structure. You know, when organic
matter decomposes, it starts off as grass clippings or leaves
or whatever form of organic matter. It turns into compost,
which is broken down, and then compost keeps going and
it breaks down until it's just humous the final decomposing stage.
It's got acids in it, good acids that help. First

(01:42:07):
of all, microbes get real excited about that and they
rule the world when it comes to improving our soil
for our plants. But also those humic acids help with
soil structure and the creation and the release of nutrients
from the soil. And then it's got seaweed extract. Do
you see what I'm talking about. This is a concoction
that is very helpful and people use it for folio

(01:42:28):
applications all through the year. I'm telling you right now
you're planting. This is planting season. Use it when you plant,
put it in a watering can, mix it up according
to the label. Watered in a little bit goes a
long way. When you put that plant in the ground,
soak it with Medina, has to grow six twelve six
mixed up in water. A week later, Do it again,

(01:42:49):
a week later, do it again. When you do that
three times, you're giving that plant it's best chance. It's
starting and having trands planting success again from the folks
at Medina. I was Disney with Andy from Medina out
in four Bank County yesterday at the home and Garden
show that we had out there. We were just talking
about some of their products and they have a large

(01:43:12):
line of really really cool stuff. So there you go again.
The phone number here if you'd like to give me
a call seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. We are entering our last hour of the weekend,
not just today but the weekend here on garden line
and so if you got some questions, can't hold till

(01:43:32):
next Saturday, Well this would be a good time to
give me a call so we can help you have success.
That is what we want. We want you to have fun.
We want you to have success. Listen, Gardening is not
rocket science. You know if you are, if you're trained
in rocket science, rocket science is not rocket science either.
It's just a simple matter of formulas and facts and

(01:43:53):
physics and all kinds of things like that. Same with
the gardening. You know what you're doing, you know what
plants want, you know how to give them what they want.
It sort of gets simple. But to people on the
outside it may seem like, I don't know, you got
to hold your tongue right and have some magic dust
to sprinkle on to make everything work. It's not the case,
just a matter of knowing what you're doing, even if

(01:44:15):
it's rocket science that works. I want to visit with
you a little bit about pruning our plants. Late winter
is the best pruning season of the year, the best.
That's when, especially if you need to do a lot
of pruning, that's when you need to get it done.
It's important to have quality tools that are sharp, whether

(01:44:38):
it's a saw, hand pruners, or looppers that you're cutting
off a larger limb with what Always keep your tools
sharp because sharp tools make good clean cuts that heal
fast and or less strain. They put less strain on
your joints and muscles when you're doing it, so sharp
tools are important. I like the bypass prunters that is

(01:45:04):
like a pair of scissors. There's one side of the
printer is more of a flat ish surface to kind
of hold the branch. The other side is the blade
that cuts through the branch. That's a bypass prunter. The
other kind of printer is an anvil prunter, and it
has a flat bar and the blade comes down on
the bar as if you took a hatchet and chopped

(01:45:25):
down on top of an anvil. You know, it cuts
that way. I don't anvile printers don't print as well
for me. I don't care for them as much. Biprisced
punters work really really well. Keep them sharp, keep them sharp.
Prune near where the branch attaches. And I have a
little video out on this. It's on our Facebook page

(01:45:46):
and you have to kind of scroll back to find it.
It's been a while. But if you leave a stub,
the stub dies and the branch can't close over because
there's dead wood in the way, and so you have
this entryway decay to get into the stem or trunk
or branch or your plant. So you don't want to
leave a stub. On the other hand, as a branch

(01:46:07):
approaches where it attaches. Like picture a vertical trunk with
a branch coming in from the sides. That branch is
a certain diameter as it approaches the trunk, and then
right when it gets near the trunk, it flares out
at the point of attachment. When it starts to flare,
the closer you get to the trunk, the bigger the
wound you're making, because it's getting bigger, the branch is

(01:46:28):
getting bigger, and you want to leave the tissues in
that ring that's called the callous I mean, excuse me,
the collar of the attachment point. You want to leave
those tissues because they heal fast, and it's actually the
trunk that is healing over that wound, not the branch
tissues themselves, So leave the collar.

Speaker 8 (01:46:50):
You can go.

Speaker 2 (01:46:50):
Online and learn about this. Find the video I did
on Facebook to learn about it. There's kind of a
sweet spot in there. You don't want to cut too
close because it makes a big wound and you're removing
the best healing tissues. You don't want to cut too
far away because that leaves a stub that will die
and prevent closure. So find that sweet spot. It's not
that hard to do. The simplest way I would describe
it is as you follow the branch down where it

(01:47:12):
starts to flare out cut there. Now that's a generalization.
Lots of different kinds of plants, but at least I
get you in the ballpark. All right, love of that,
you want to take a break top of the hour,
I'll be back with our last hour a garden Line.

Speaker 1 (01:47:29):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with skin Rictor.

Speaker 3 (01:47:32):
It's just watch you as worthies spy.

Speaker 2 (01:47:57):
Not a sad All right, folks, here we go. We
are saddled up and ready to ride the last hour
of garden Line today with your calls. If you'd like
to give me a call seven to one three two
one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four and let's head out
to Montgomery now and we're going to talk to Benson.

(01:48:19):
Hey Benson, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (01:48:22):
Thank you. The reason I was calling, I'm thinking about
making a raised bed and I was calling to see
if using treated lumber was safe for vegetable garden.

Speaker 2 (01:48:35):
That is a good question, and I don't no matter
what I say, there's going to be a lot of
debate about it. People that are concerned about chemicals are
not going to ever consider treated lumber safe. But the
old treatments that were used, the CCA treatments that were used,

(01:48:56):
could leach out and did have concerns for help. There's
a not a question about that. The treatment has changed
over the years. They've evolved through different kinds of com
agal that they used to treat lumber. And the nermans
tend to move less much less in the soil because
you know, if something leached out of the board, it
wouldn't be there to protect the board, So they tend

(01:49:16):
to not leach out as bad. If you're concerned about it,
I would say the concern it potentially could be, well,
what if a root grows up against the board and
takes up something and it gets in your tomato kind
of thing, And I understand that concern. That hasn't been
shown to be a significant factor at all. Now, if

(01:49:40):
you're concerned about it, the couple of things you can do.
First of all, there's a question does it leach out?
And second is the question does the plant take it up?
And third is a question is does that plant move
it to like Let's say that let's say it was
a tomato, but does it actually put it in the
tomato or not? And those are three levels of things
that in general there doesn't seem to be a big

(01:50:00):
concern about it. But again I respect folks that are concerned.
So here's what you can do. You can line those
beds with plastic. It gets you a good thick plastic
sheeting something six metal or more, and line the beds
with the plastic. You can also paint over them some
sort of a se lunt to kind of hold that on.
That would be another option that you could do, or

(01:50:22):
you could just go with something that's not treated.

Speaker 7 (01:50:24):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:50:25):
The one of the best raised bed products is the
corrugated metal that has paint. It's kind of a the
equivalent of galvanized, but it's even better than galvanized. And
then it has a paint coating on the top of it.
And that's another option too. So it's up to you.

Speaker 10 (01:50:40):
Okay, Yeah, I just the wife was kind of worried
about if it leached into the into the soul that
the plant pick it up and cheating.

Speaker 2 (01:50:50):
Yeah, And that's that's a factor. You know, when it
comes to chemicals and life and dangers and stuff. They
there's a term they say that dose makes the poison,
and that's really true. You know, aspirn is can kill
you if you take enough of it, so can table salt.
Now that's not to say that we shouldn't care or

(01:51:10):
be concerned about chemicals. It just means that you know
that it's a good question, your question a lot of
people ask, and it does come down to, so how
much are you're getting and how concerning is that? Because
we're exposed to a lot of things that we would
rather not be exposed to every day, and so that's
where you kind of have to balance it out. And
I think most people land on the hey, I don't

(01:51:31):
want to be I don't want to add that to
my life. You know, I don't want to add that
chemical to my life. And that's fine. You can do
that direction as well. Another factor with treated wood is
in an advantage of a treat of wood bed as
you can sit on the sides as opposed to a
little piece of tin you know that you can't sit on.
But when you have treated wood, then there is the

(01:51:51):
skin contact too that you could get from it, and
so you know, you're out there. Little kids are out
there in their shorts sitting down on the side of
the bed or or something. There's a small potential for
that being an additional concern. But it's a complex issue
and nobody's going to be happy with the answers. But
you do what you what you're comfortable with.

Speaker 10 (01:52:13):
Okay, right, right, right, okay, Well this sounds good. I
sure appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:52:18):
You have a thank you you two bensent, thank you,
and thanks for calling and asking about that, because a
lot of people, I'm sure have that question. Yeah, I've
dealt with that question for years. It used to be raredized.
We talked about and I've had a rare road tie
bed before because you can get old rovertized for cheap,
you know.

Speaker 18 (01:52:35):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:52:36):
Now there, you've got that tar that will when they're
it's hot in the summer, you sit on them and
it sticks to your clothing and stuff. That's a mess.
But hey, you do what you want to do. I
know what I do and and so uh it's when
when we get into trying to answer a question in
a non emotionally reactive way, but trying to get as

(01:52:56):
much facts as we can, it's always a little more complicated.
It's easier to just go that stuff will kill you,
run away, don't do it. But in general, what I
just said there is what I what I believe. And
so did I tell you to use it or not
use it? I didn't tell you either one of those.
I said, you do what you want to do. Here's
here's how I understand it is. I've read research and

(01:53:18):
all these things. This is what I picked up, and
so you do it. Do it that is you wish
to do. Most people are not going to want to
be in contact with any kind of a chemical treatment,
and so I get that. So that's fine. I'm talking
about ACE hardware stores before and all kinds of places
to get it. You know, as you get over on

(01:53:38):
the east side of Houston, there are still ACE hardware
stores over there too, not as many in that area,
not as many general commercial places over there. But Deer
Park has got a really good Ace Hardware store if
you if you head out, it's just kind of where
belt Way eight and two twenty five that region, that's
deer Park on Center Street. In deer Park, they've got
a nice little Ace Hardware store. For those of you

(01:54:00):
out in the Laporte area, this is not too far
away from you, anyone along Beltway E south of Buffalo
Bio over that direction. Deer Park Ase Hardware is one
you need to definitely know about. And if you haven't
been by there, you need to go check them out.
That's a good one out in the Deer Park area. Well,
between talking about treated timbers and I don't know what

(01:54:23):
else I've been doing, kind of running short on this
first little segment. If you have not been to Buchanan's recently,
you need to go Buchanan's Nati Plants. It's just an
outstanding place right now. You know, a daylight today, Go
see them, I know it training. Go see them and
check out the greenhouse. It's all covered, you know, Gota
rained on in there. You will not believe the quality

(01:54:46):
house plants and things that they have. By the way,
they've also got plenty of vegetable transplants, they got seeds,
they got all kinds of things. You know, they specialize
in Nati plants. They got every Nata plant you can imagine.
Excellent advice. But I like Buchanans has come up with
some really really cool things. A little small plants, a
little miniature like two inch houseplants, foliage plants and you

(01:55:10):
can put those together make your own little terrarium. I
think that's a really cool thing to do, and they'll
get you set up on it. They are loaded up
on really cool little small tropical two inch plants. You
put your terrarium together, and what a great idea for
a rainy DAA. All right, we're gonna take a break.
I'll be right back with your phone calls. Hang around.

(01:55:32):
All right, we're back back for the last hour garden line.
And by the way, if you'd like to give me
a calls seven one three, two one two five eight
seven four, kind of quiet on the phone right this moment,
so it'd be a good time. Whoever can doll the
phone fastest to not have to wait when you call in.
I was talking about Buchanans Plants and just the incredible

(01:55:54):
selection of everything that they have. By the way, their
website is Buchanansplants dot com. You need to go there,
and you need to sign up for the newsletter. Sign up.
Trust me on this one. They will send you incredible
helpful information about things going on, about events that are
going on to Buchanans, about special products and fun facts too,

(01:56:15):
and a lot of good educational things. It is a
very valuable newsletter to do. They are on Eleventh Street
in the Heights. For those of you who are new
to Houston or have been here but just living under
a rock and don't know where Buchanans is, well, eleventh
Street in the Heights, and you gotta go. And again,
I'd go today. This afternoon would be a great time
to go because I'm telling you they've got that beautiful

(01:56:37):
greenhouse where you're completely dry and you can pick out
a project to build your own terrarium or whatever you
want to grow. I mean, they've got it all there,
truly really good stuff at Buchanna's Plants. I talked about
Affordable tree earlier and Martin Spoon Moore. The way I
would put it is this, he knows what he's doing.

(01:56:59):
Martin knows what he's doing, and your trees in time
can develop some bad habits. Let's say that's why we
have to train trees if we want to develop the
strongest branch structure. So if we have another storm God forbid,
like the two we did last season last summer, your
trees are strong and they're better able to withstand or

(01:57:19):
at least have the best chance of with standing that
kind of windstorm. Now, if you have not had your
trees looked at, if you can't remember the last time
you've had your trees looked at, and I mean prune
evaluated for their health, how they doing, what do they
need and so on, You've got a callm maartin now.

Speaker 5 (01:57:36):
Just do it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:37):
It's seven one three six nine nine two six sixty
three seven one three, six nine nine twenty six sixty
three the website aff tree Service dot com. Aff Tree
Service dot com. Call, get on his schedule, have him
come out. He'll do an assessment, he'll look at things,
tell you here's what I see, here's what needs to

(01:57:58):
be done, here's what we can do, and then you
pull the plug, decide to pull the plugs, go for it,
let's do that or not. But have him come out
and give you a professional advice on it. Because narrow
branch angles, trees that have issues that are developing. Don't
wait until a storm tells you you should have had
that done. Call him now and get on his schedule.

(01:58:19):
This is prime time for getting printing done and it's
very important that you not delay because he does stay busy.
He does a good job, affordable tree service seven three
six n nine two six six three. I have been
working on getting my seeds organized inside. I collect seeds.

(01:58:41):
I've I've got seeds that I purchased years ago. Unfortunately,
I store them as best I can to extend their life.
And you know, each type of seed has a different
lifespan under good conditions, even that it's going to have.
You know, like a lettuce isn't the same as corn,
isn't the same as a tomato isn't the same as
a petunia, and so on. They each have their lifespan.

(01:59:04):
But good storage is important. And good storage means air tight,
dry and cool. One two three air tight, dry and cool. Okay,
if you store them where moisture can't get in, they're
gonna last longer. And you know what I do when
I get a you know, you buy some electronics, some

(01:59:28):
sort of electronics. You get that little packet of desiccon
in it. I save those because you can warm them up,
kind of drive some of the extra water out of them,
and put them in with your seeds, and they do
the same thing. That little tiny area where you've got
air around your seeds in the glass jar are in
the one of those little pop down sealable containers. It's
completely water tight. They're good for doing it, and that

(01:59:52):
keeps them dry. If you're saving your own seeds, let
them fully dry out. Let them dry out, give them
a couple of weeks and nice mile warm temperatures to
get as much moisture out of them as you can
before you store them. And then put them in your refrigerator. Now,
if you were the International Seed Bank trying to save
seed forever, you would put them in a very deep, deep,

(02:00:12):
deep freeze. But that's not necessary. Just put them refrigerator.
That's good. Even your air conditioned home space is good
for storing seeds. Not as good as a fridge, but
it's good. And so store your seeds right. And I've
got these boxes and boxes of seeds. I collect seeds,
you know, I'm on the road side. I'll see some

(02:00:33):
plant and I'll gather some seeds off of it. And
I'm always getting bringing seeds home. By the way, write
your name on I write the name of what you
collected on the seed when you save it. Otherwise you'll
never remember. Trust me, I know the hard way. But anyway,
save your seeds, store them well, and it's time to
get them out and start doing that. We got lots
of things we could be planting right now. And my

(02:00:56):
favorite gardening season of the year, I think is that
springs season where you're getting the fever and you're starting
siege and you're rooting cuttings, and you're planning things out
and you're buying transplants from the garden center and plants
from the garden center and you're bringing them home. Oh gosh,
that is a fun, fun time and we're right now
in the big middle of it. Let's see, you've heard

(02:01:18):
me talk about Microlife products a lot, and I'll talk
about a specific this or that or the other product.
I just don't talk about Microlife just a little bit,
can I do that? Microlife is the number one selling
organic fertilizer in Houston. That's the specifically, that's their six
to four lawn fertilizer and it sells a lot. The
number one selling organic lawn fertilizer in Houston quantity wise,

(02:01:42):
is that Microlife the green bag. But Microlife has so
many different kinds of products. You know, Microlife has the
humates plus that helps with soil condition. Microlife has the
bioenoculant that's got sixty three different strains of microbes in it.
Good guy, microbe that help your plants. Microlife has micro

(02:02:02):
growth liquid AF six or excuse me, eight different strains
of known disease fighting microbes. There's not a fungicide. It's
microbes that fight disease naturally. And I could go on
and on. There's dozens of Microlife products that are out
there at your feed store, at your ACE hardware store,
at your garden center, at your Southwest fertilizer. Microlife products

(02:02:27):
are widely available, and there's so many, and a lot
of gardeners call me and they want to garden organically,
and they want help gardening organically. That's why Microlife was developed.
And it works. I started ten years ago. I believe
first time I ever used a Microlife product, and it
was there green Bag sixty four.

Speaker 5 (02:02:48):
I liked it.

Speaker 2 (02:02:49):
I like the way it works, and as a result,
I still use Microlife product. Got some in the garage
right now waiting to go out the next time I
head out and do something to my plants. You are
listening to garden Line our phone number seven one three
two one two five eight seven four seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four.

Speaker 6 (02:03:10):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:03:10):
Anyway, I was talking about getting my seed collections together.
I got boxes all over the desk I hear in
my studio actually, but I'll put them in the kitchen
table typically until my wife runs me out of there
because I tend to leave stuff. Do you have anybody
in your life that makes a mess and doesn't clean
it up? Yeah? My wife does. Anyway, The bottom line

(02:03:34):
is I got the seeds all spread out, I'm getting
them planned, getting you know, doing tests on the germination.
And I wanted to talk about that germination testing. When
you've got seeds, I've been sitting there and sitting there,
and it's like, I don't know how these are. And
if you turn a pack, if it's a sal a
package you bought, you turn them over, it'll tell you
when they were packed for what year. But is it

(02:03:54):
still good? I don't know. And so you gonna what
are you gonna do?

Speaker 8 (02:03:58):
Well?

Speaker 2 (02:03:58):
One thing you can do is to a termination TSK.
And the easiest way to do it is to take
ten seeds and put a take a paper towel and
moisten the paper towel, not sopping soggy wet. Just moist
lay ten seeds on it, and then fold it over
a couple of times. Put it in a let's say
a plastic bag, could be a ziplock bag. It could

(02:04:20):
be whatever you want, just something, hold that moisture in
and put it in a mild, warm space. That could
be the counter in your kitchen if you want to
do that wherever you'll see it, and every three or
four days, just check it and see see how what's sprouting.
Some seeds will sprout in two days, some seeds maybe
two weeks. But just watch them and check them. And

(02:04:44):
if you put ten seeds, then you get the percentage
real easy, because if eight sprout and two don't, that's
eighty percent germination. So what does that mean. Let's let's
make it even worse. Let's say two sprouted in eight didn't.
It's twenty percent germination. That means you're probably going to
a plant five times as much of the seed in
order to get the number of plants you want. Do
you see what I'm saying how that works? So the

(02:05:05):
germination test a do you want to use the seed
or not? Be If you use it, do you need
to add a few extras, because you're gonna need some
extras because not all are going to come up. Another
thing that I do on germination is I start seeds
in a little small container and I like to get

(02:05:26):
the little containers that you may bring home the sauce
from a fast food restaurant or ketchup you ketch up
in those little things. I like the ones that are
a little bigger, about too inches across. They got will
pop down plastic lid, but little seed starting mix in
there just a little bit and sprinkle your seeds in it.
Mix them in just a little bit, and then moisten
it and pop the lid on it to hold the

(02:05:47):
moisture and set that on your counter. And once they
start to sprout, they've got to have good light. You
need to get them under a plant light. Whatever you
can do to put the most amountain light you can
on those things to help them sprout and grow. And
what will happen is that they'll come up and it'll
be just like a little forest of seedlings in there. Well,
once they sprout, before they get their first true leaves

(02:06:11):
and get very big at all, you can very gently
lift them up and grab them by one of the
cottle leadings. That's the little seed leaves. That's the first
thing that comes up. That's called a cottle eating it's
not a true leaf. You can hold on by that,
not the stem, because you'll crush the stem and just
kind of gently tease them apart and then put those
into your planting containers that you're going to grow them in.
Maybe it's a big flat seventy two, you know, one

(02:06:32):
of those big flats. Maybe it's a little six pack.
Maybe it's a Dixie cup with holes sponged in the bottom.
But you know, then you can pick your seedlings out,
and even if only half German ad, you're gonna have
plenty extras. And we always have more seeds than you
know to do with. But that's another way you can
deal with seeds that may not germinate real well. Is
that way the ones that do come up, then you
quickly move them and they do not miss a beat.

(02:06:56):
They hit the ground running and do really really well.
All right, I'm ready imbling on here, and I gotta stop.
I will be back with your phone calls from Paul
and Mark in just a moment. All right, open your window.
You can do just that. If it's not raining at
your house. Now, I will be pretty same here. A

(02:07:16):
little bit of rain coming in, but that's a good thing.
Glad to have that. Plenty we can do for gardening
in the meantime, that's for sure. Hey, let's add straight
out to the phones and go to Clear Lake and
talk to Mark. Hey, Mark, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (02:07:31):
Well, thank you very much. Good morning on this maybe
wet morning. We don't have any yet here. And I'm
going to ask you a question. It may not be
in your wheelhouse, but I'm pretty sure you have experience
with it. I've got a problem with squirrels and rats
with bird feeders. I've got a bird feeder that's suction

(02:07:51):
cup to the window, and I got bird spikes on
all the three sides of it. Like when I open
the blinds and look at it looks like an alien.
And I've pretty much fixed that because I've got some
one hundred thousand heat unit cayenne pepper from Central Market,
and I put the bird heeds in there, shake it up,

(02:08:12):
and then put it in the feeder. That's control of
the squirrels. But sometimes I'll wake up the next morning
and it'll be empty. But the only thing I think
that goes with those is the rats have another feeder out.
It's a bluebird feeder, has one in three eight square
hard mesh, and that kind of repels the squirrels. But

(02:08:36):
I've seen a rat in there. So the question is
is there any I get the sensation or the sense,
the sense that the rats aren't bothered by the heat
by the peppers. And I was wondering if there's anything
similar to that, or if I've got it wrong. They
are repelled if it's hot enough, And is there somebody

(02:08:57):
make a spray out of I'd like to make a
hot spray that I can put all around the area
where these things are coming in. Help.

Speaker 2 (02:09:04):
Yeah, yeah, I like that. I don't know. I would
think that rats be in mammals the hot pepper would
burn their little mouths. But I tell you what, if
we got any wabirds unlimited managers or owners that are listening,
please give me a call. I'm talking to Rich yesterday
down in for Ben County from Wibird Store on Memorial Area. Anyway,

(02:09:28):
I'm pretty sure that rats are going to be burned
by that. I know that squirrels are burned by the
hot pepper. The capsation oil that's in pepper, and you
can buy like directly by seed from walbirds that already
has that in it. They also there's also the oil
that you can buy and you can treat your own seeds.
And those are the two things as far as squirrels
are concerned, and I think this would this would apply

(02:09:50):
to rats too. I've got a feeder called a squirrel eliminator.
Now I realize you already have feeders and you're trying
to solve the problem for those, But that squirrel eliminator
has a little anything of any weight, and you can
set the tension as to how heavy can something be
at the feeder. But I've got mindset so even a
blue jay lens on it and it closes the door

(02:10:11):
and it can't get in. It keeps squirrels out well,
and it will keep rats out well too.

Speaker 10 (02:10:16):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:10:17):
Those are that is one option, the hot pepper oil
treated seed. You have a scroirrel excluder, Yes, I mean
hood with that one, because it's.

Speaker 11 (02:10:30):
It's where they're good. Yeah, they get on there and
they entertain me for a little while and then they're gone.

Speaker 2 (02:10:36):
There you go. Yeah, if you listen, you you cannot
believe the language squirrels use when they go to those
and get frustrated. It's horrible. I mean, it'll it'll cause
the sailor to blush. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 11 (02:10:47):
But anyway I heard, Yes, I would thinking about it,
putting a remote microphone.

Speaker 2 (02:10:51):
Out there so I can listen to that's it. That's it.
If we could get it translated. Oh my gosh. Uh
definitely not for a Sunday morning, is it? So I
would talk to your wildbird store and ask them that
you've got one that right there on Claire Lake Boulevard
and El Dorado. They're in clar Lake and they can
help you. They can tell you what works, what doesn't work,
and how to do it. That would be my best

(02:11:14):
guess on that, other than putting something out to get redtorats.
You know, there are treatments to kill rats and so
taking the necessary safety precautions, you might try that as well.

Speaker 11 (02:11:26):
What is this oil that you were talking about.

Speaker 2 (02:11:29):
Well, the oil in a jalapeno or you know, hobernaro pepper,
that's capsation is the name of it. And actually you'll
see it when you have muscle aches. There are creams
that are capsation based creams and you rub them on
your and it heats up. You feel the warmth in
your skin from them for aches and pains. But it

(02:11:51):
is the oil that makes a pepper hot. It's oil
used in some of those creams. And it is also
the substance that makes bird seed too hot for bird
for squirrels to eat.

Speaker 11 (02:12:02):
And you're able to buy that and is it fine?

Speaker 2 (02:12:05):
Ugh, it's kind of an oil, so I guess you could,
but be careful, you know, you wouldn't want that and
they are getting in your eyes or anything, but be
very careful. I bought it. I think I bought mine
at Wallbirds. It's a little mine is a it's a
small bottle, uh, that you have, And I was using

(02:12:25):
it to try to talk my dogs out of chewing
on something they were chewing on, you know, and so
it was like, yeah, you know, it's kind of like me,
you grab the wrong pepper and I'm not going to
eat that pepper again.

Speaker 10 (02:12:37):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:12:38):
By the way, that didn't work very well, But yeah,
didn't they They learned what it smelled like and then
they just stayed away from it. When they were puppies,
they thought that the well, I guess they they when
they were puppies. They thought that that little wooden frame
that goes around your door was for chewing on, and

(02:12:58):
so we were having we were trying to work on
that with them. Anyway. I was desperate. But back to
your question. I talked to Waldberds and see they're going
to be the experts on that.

Speaker 11 (02:13:09):
Okay, Well, thanks very much, marciate it. Take care you met.

Speaker 2 (02:13:13):
Thank you, appreciate your call very much, very much. We're
going to go now out to Corpus Christy and talk
to Paul. Hey, Paul, welcome to garden Line. Hey, Skip,
how you doing. Good morning, love your show. I'm doing well,
thank you, sir. I had a lantana question.

Speaker 9 (02:13:29):
I've got three different varieties of lantana in the ground
around the house.

Speaker 10 (02:13:33):
The freeze, the recent.

Speaker 2 (02:13:35):
Freeze, of course, happen pretty good.

Speaker 9 (02:13:36):
Just wanted your opinion of recommendation and when the best
time to cut those back would be.

Speaker 2 (02:13:42):
I'm minor frozen down and I'm leaving them because that
top growth does provide an insulating effect on keeping the
heat down that's coming up out of the soil, bouncing
it back down. So I'm going to wait until the
danger of freeze is past, and then I'll cut mine back.

Speaker 4 (02:13:58):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:13:58):
If you, or whatever reason esthetically cannot tolerate that, then
go ahead and cut them back to a few inches high.
But you're going to need to mulch that area very well.
And it's likely that in cutting them back, you may
stimulate a little earlier growth than they would otherwise do,
which is not good. So i'd wait. Okay, that's my

(02:14:20):
bottom line.

Speaker 15 (02:14:21):
All right, all right, appreciate it, thank you, Thank you
for the call. Appreciate that, all right, have a good day,
all right, Paul, Yeah, thanks for listening down in Corpus Christy.
Appreciate that.

Speaker 8 (02:14:33):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:14:34):
I got to run to a break, folks, and I
hated I had to jump off with Paul there, but
I'll be right back, Steve and Southwest Houston. You'll be
our first s up when we come back. All right, folks,
welcome back. Glad to have you listening in today on
Garden Line. We're here to help you have a bountiful garden,
a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. And

(02:14:57):
we're going to start on the phones this segment. In fact,
by the way, this is our last segment of the weekend.
So here we go. We're going to go talk to
Steve in south West Houston. Hello Steve, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (02:15:11):
Good morning.

Speaker 19 (02:15:12):
I have a question for you about trimming or pruning
apple trees when it comes time. I think it's a
little soon right now. But when I do, what would
you recommend doing with the canes? Are there ways to
root any of that or use those? I mean, the
only thing I know to do with him right now
is chop them up and put it in the barbecue

(02:15:34):
and smoke stuff with it.

Speaker 2 (02:15:37):
Yeah, that's an option. No, there's not a practical way.
The fast, simple answer is the wood of an apple
tree is grafted on to a rootstock, and that wood
is a mature wood. Juvenile wood will root. Mature wood
is almost impossible to root, and so I would say, no,

(02:16:00):
uh that that's just kind of the bottom line.

Speaker 19 (02:16:06):
Yeah, young wood like like what you would use for
the gardenias and rooting those they seem to root pretty easy.

Speaker 9 (02:16:16):
It is.

Speaker 2 (02:16:16):
But I'm going to clarify that a little bit. It's
not that the shoot is new and young. It's that
the part of the tree is mature or immature. So
like if a pecan tree Let's say you plant a
pecan or an acre in the ground and a shot
comes up out of the ground. That is juvenile wood,
and it grows up and at some point the trunk

(02:16:39):
and the branches it becomes mature wood. And then everything
that grows up there is mature and hard to root.
If a sprout came out of the bottom of a
trunk of a seedling tree, a seated tree, you could
root that easier, but the older wood you can't. And
so when you buy an apple tree, what you're buying

(02:16:59):
is mature wood drafted onto a rootstock. So I mean,
from the get go, it's going to be hard to rout,
even though it's new shoots that spring maybe or something.

Speaker 5 (02:17:07):
Okay, well, it's still good for smoking. One other quick question.

Speaker 10 (02:17:11):
It is it is?

Speaker 19 (02:17:12):
Yeah, it really is. And did you not say sometime
in the past that you had a place up in Willis, Texas?

Speaker 2 (02:17:22):
Yes, years ago, rout trees, fruit trees and strawberries. We
had an orchard.

Speaker 5 (02:17:31):
Where was that in Willis?

Speaker 2 (02:17:34):
If you go east of Willis, If you go east
of Willis, I'm trying to remember what the road was.
It went out that way, but it was out there
the road. A road that came into that road right
at the corner of our property that went down south
toward the airport and the Lone Star Center down in
Tumbull on Airport Road, but it wasn't Airport Road. Intersecting

(02:17:56):
there's a low road that cut across the Airport Road.
I honestly can't remember the name of it right now.

Speaker 19 (02:18:00):
Who's like fourteen eighty four cuts through there and that
type of thing. Yeah that you know extended, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:18:10):
Okay, I think there may still be some fruit trees
on it. People didn't didn't really take care of them
after we moved away.

Speaker 5 (02:18:19):
But oh, where what kind of fruit where you growing it?

Speaker 2 (02:18:24):
Did?

Speaker 5 (02:18:24):
You have pretty good success?

Speaker 2 (02:18:27):
Primarily peaches and we had a strawberry patch up there
at the same time. Yeah, in the strawberry patch, and then.

Speaker 5 (02:18:35):
Go ahead the peaches.

Speaker 19 (02:18:38):
Don't you rotate those trees like every fifteen or twenty years.
Don't they have a kind of a short life or
shorter life.

Speaker 2 (02:18:48):
Peaches in the Southeast generally are going to be about
a twenty year plant. You'll have them that go longer.
I just remembered where it was is Rose Road and
County Life Road. That's where orchard was southwest?

Speaker 5 (02:19:04):
Was it actually line.

Speaker 2 (02:19:07):
M right off County Line?

Speaker 5 (02:19:11):
I see, okay, because I are.

Speaker 2 (02:19:13):
You remembering something or what's it?

Speaker 19 (02:19:16):
No, I think I know where it is. I think
I've been by it. Yeah, and you're on County Line Road.
There's a place where it dips down with a creek
that when it rains hard out there, it floods, and uh,
there's some houses along there.

Speaker 5 (02:19:29):
But I know where Rose Road is because there's stop
signed there. I believe in a little station corner.

Speaker 2 (02:19:36):
Yeah. Oh gosh, I'm trying to remember the name of
the creek. Creek was on our property. So it's not
at Rosen County Line. It's toward Willis a little bit.
And this is not very exciting radio for everybody else listening. Anyway,
that's where it was. Where it was.

Speaker 19 (02:19:52):
To find out that something grows as well as pine
tree is out there, it's pretty exciting because there's a
lot of pine trees a year. But I think all
that was owned by the paper companies or something something
like that, and they they they're rotated crops of pine trees,
which take a while.

Speaker 2 (02:20:10):
Yeah, that's it. Well anyway, all right, Hey, thanks.

Speaker 5 (02:20:14):
Thanks for the talk. About something exciting. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:20:17):
There you go, there you go. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah
that was boy, that's a long time ago. I tell
you one thing. Uh, it's one thing to go to
college and get a horticulture degree and learn all about
the science of gardening. It's another thing to get out
there and grow something yourself. And uh, I find that
you are a much better gardener and gardening advisor when

(02:20:39):
you've actually done something instead of just reading about it
in a book. And that is that is definitely the
case here. Boy, that was. That was a That was
a fun time and a hard time at the same time.
It's a lot of work to put in an orchard
and take care of an orchard. Well, let's see here,
we're so close to the end of the show that
I'm not going to even give the phone number out again.

(02:20:59):
I was talking yesterday to Rich he's a Wildbird's store
owner over in the Memorial area, and we were talking
about different kinds of things Wildbirds and their new deal
right now, he's over in the Memorial driver the cardinal
product that they've come out with, it's called Cardinal Confetti.

(02:21:22):
It's a blend. Now there's also a Cardinal tube feeder
and a cardinal. It's called Good Evening Cardinal Feeder. That's
part of the Cardinal Confetti collection. But this Cardinal Confetti
is an amazing mix of stuff that most of which
I would eat, like sapphire, black house, sun black oil, sunflower,
sunflower chips, nutrisaf, bark butter, pecan have striped sunflower, and

(02:21:44):
dried meal worms. I haven't quite made it to eating
dried wheal worms, but the rest of it makes my
mouth water, I tell you this. It all makes a
cardinal and many other types of bird's mouth water too.
And you can get it. It's a new products, not
just a spring product, a winter product. They're gonna have
it all year. They're as unlimited. It's brandy. You got
to check it out. It is cool and cardinals are
so cool, you know, they're so beautiful, the birds, and

(02:22:06):
there's such a lore behind cardinals. It is really really interesting.
So gets you some of the Cardinal confetti. Grab those
feeders while you're out there, make sure and get you
some bark butter. That's a product created by Jim Carpenter,
who's the founder of Walberds. Bark butter is something you
literally like peanut butter. You would just smear it on

(02:22:27):
a tree trunk and birds come and just they go crazy.
They have documented over one hundred and fifty species of
birds coming to Jim's birdaceous bark butter. Bark butter is
easier to say. They have bark butter bits, little bite
sized nuggets. They've got bugs and bits Yep, they got
meal worms in the bark butter. You can buy those.
It's super high in calcium, helps egg development and bone growth.

(02:22:50):
And listen to your birds are going to be nesting
and raising young soon. And a high quality food like
bark butter very good one to have on hand. Plus
is kind of cool. You can smear it wherever you want.
You have to put a feeder out if you don't
want to. All right, there's the music. I kind of
get sad at the end of every show in the
music place because that means we're done. I'm gonna talk

(02:23:12):
about gardening anymore. Thanks for listening, appreciate that. I want
to remind you that if you go to my website
gardeningwiskip dot com, that's where you're gonna find my lawn
pestiseaes and weed management schedule, my lawn care schedule also
is on there. The information on protecting plants from cross
and freezes, how to control nutsedge, how to take a

(02:23:34):
soil sample, and on and on and on. We just
keep posting more to it. It's there. It's free to
look out online or a download. Have a wonderful weed
pout in the garden and we'll talk to you next Saturday.