Grass advice and fertlization troubles

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Things to see.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A sign.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Sand Bean Tween starting tea. Hey, good morning, good morning.
I am glad you're with us this morning. We're here
to talk about gardening. We got plenty of things we

(00:38):
can talk about. As always, I say that every day
because it's true every day. I uh want to first
of all, thank the folks, Thank you, thank you very much.
I really had a good time out there at Encented
Forest yesterday. H Danny and Clay and the whole team
out there. You guys have put together one heck of
a beautiful nursery. Oh my gosh, I took all the pictures.

(01:00):
I'm sorry posting some of them here to our Facebook account,
our gardener and Facebook this week, I just want you
to see the police. It looks so beautiful, lots and
lots of color. Thanks for the folks that came out.
We had a lot of good discussion, plenty of things
to talk about. Kind of became a fireside chat where
we just kind of all sat around and one question

(01:20):
after another, samples and whatnot. It's what we do it
our appearances. It's your chance to get out and kind
of get eye to eye and talk, ask your questions.
Have a lot more time than we do on the
air to visit with you about things. Plus we can
put our hands on pictures and also on samples and
get a better look at things like that. I want

(01:43):
to remind you that on Guardenline here, if you would
like to send in a photo, you can call the
the producer and get an email to do that. I
don't just open email wide open. With six million people
around Houston and me being one, there's no way I
can can take the general through the week email onslaught

(02:05):
because it's just too many, too many other activities as
part of my horticulture tasks that I do my horticulture business,
so just not able to you know, just do all
the emails. But if you would like to send an
email with a photo and then call in, we can
certainly handle it that way and be happy, happy to
do that. So if you if you have a question

(02:26):
and you think you know it probably would be helpful
if he could see this, that's the best way to
do it. Give Chris a call, let's get you the email,
send me some pictures. I had several people yesterday that
send emails requesting to send in photos and whatnot, and
so looking forward to those calls today as well. Being

(02:48):
out yesterday and just enjoying a little bit of a
break in the temperature. Hadn't it been great? Haven't you
just really enjoyed that? I sure have. I you know,
it's summers long, listen. I've been living in Texas for uh,
let's say, a lot of years, a long long time,

(03:08):
other than a three year stint out of state. I
know what Texas summer is like, and it's long, and
it's tough. I understand that, but hey, it's not that bad.
I mean, we we survive it, and here comes some
of the best seasons of the year. I love love fall.
I love winter too, by the way, I actually do.
I don't know. My mindset is. You know, when it's

(03:30):
blazing hot, it's just kind of hard to not be
sweating outside, and in the wintertime you oist throw on
another coat and get warm. So anyway, that's one that's
one man's perspective of it. While I was out at
the in Chanet Forest yesterday, I had a conversation with
somebody about microlife microlife products. They were asking me about

(03:50):
different things, and in fact I was visiting also with
Danny a little bit about it and you know, we
were just talking about different things. You know, Microlife has
their fall special me the fall Special. That's funny. Microlife
has the brown Patch. And when you read brown patch,
it's like, okay, well that's a that must be a
fungicide or something, and it's not what it is. It's

(04:13):
a fall fertilizer that's loaded with microbes. And it's the
microbes in it that we're putting out and you put
on irrigation or rain splashes things around and you just
get microbes all over the surfaces of the plant, whether
it's plant roots or plant plant tops and things, and
microbes are beneficial. I would say that if you're going

(04:34):
to do the fall fertilizer from Microlife, which is called
brown Patch, I would also do their bioinoculant. And this
is what I was visiting with them about out it
and Channey forest Yestordy is that bioinoculant has sixty three
different beneficial strains in it. And you know, if I

(04:56):
tell you, well, there's bacteria all over that, there's microbes
all over it, one may think, oh, well it's diseased.
It's no. Most microbes are not out there to cause
some plant disease we have a problem with a lot
of them are beneficial to the plants. Bacillus. There's a
you know, bt is a Basillis Basillis thuringiensis. There's also

(05:18):
a Basillis melikopatians. Isn't that a word? Becauzon tite, And
there's four different strains of it, and that particular basillis
helps fight disease and it even gets get this, it
gets on plant roots and it causes the plant. It
communicates with the plant and causes the plant to develop
in a way that makes certain diseases less able to

(05:42):
attack the plant. Is that weird? I mean that is cool? Cool? Cool.
There's also a basilla subtlest, Basilla subtlest. You can actually
purchase basilla subtlest. I don't know still in the market,
but there used to be a brand called Serenade that
was a fungicide and basically the ingredient was basilla subtlest. Well,
these are two of sixty three things. And micro grow bioinoculant.

(06:04):
It's a kind of a maroon colored bag, kind of
a burgundy maroon colored bag. Micro grow bioinoculant. So when
you do your Microlife brown Patch do micro grow bioinoculan
and also bioinoculant is not a fertilizer, it is an inoculant.
You're putting a bazillion different microbes that do good things

(06:25):
to plants out there, and that's the combination for microlife.
Any we're visiting about that, and if you want to
find out more about microlife products, you can go to
microlifefertilizer dot com. They're they're pretty much for sale everywhere,
real easy to find them. You hear me talking about
garden centers and feed stores and Ace hardware store, Southwest Fertilizer,

(06:45):
those places you're going to find it. But I just
think that stuff's cool. I don't know, maybe maybe i'm
a nerd. Well I actually am a gardening nerd, But
I just think that's some really really cool stuff. Maybe
one of these days I need to get a guest
in a microbiologists just do some digging into that kind
of thing, because it is really really interesting and cool.

(07:10):
Driving through some neighborhoods and noticing the differences in landscapes,
have you noticed how many landscapes are basically just a
sea of green, Well, you don't need to have a
sea a green. If you are tired of a boring landscape,
call Piercecapes. If you want a small job done, you know,
just some major revamping done. On the other hand, either

(07:31):
way they can do it. They can do it. They
can do irrigation repair. They can put on hard scapes
and plant lighting or excuse me, the landscape lighting. Lighting
not for plants, for you just makes your place magical
in the evenings. They can do that. They also have
a quarterly bed maintenance which is really nice because just
once a quarter they come out and fertilize and weed

(07:53):
and airate and multch and change out your seasonal color.
And you can find all of that at piercescapes dot com.
I go to that piercescapes dot com. Look at the
work they do. You'd be very impressed if you want
to get them a call. Two eight one three, seven
oh fifty sixty. And with that, I'm going to take
a break here for the news and I'll be right

(08:14):
back to your calls. Starting you a morning. Good to
have you with us. Hey, listen, uh, if you would
like to give us a call, it would help if
I gave you a phone number wouldn't it. Well, let's
just do that. Seven one three two one two k
t r H. Seven one three two one two k
t r H. By the way, I wanted to let

(08:35):
you guys know I will be at RCW Nurseries next Saturday,
Next Saturday. Uh, and I'll be there from twelve to two.
So come on out over the lunch hour and let's visit.
Do you bring me samples, bring me photos. You know
how we do it, you know the routine. Uh, And
that's what we'll do. We'll walk around out there too,
if you like. I want to. I want to show

(08:57):
you some of the plants that they have, some of
the trees and they oh gosh, they're outstanding the amount
of plant material and the quality and it just says
fall when you walk out there. They got great fall vegetables,
they got good fall color and everything. It's good. Now,
guess what's going on out there? A barbecue lunch. They're
going to do a barbecue lunch out there. So we

(09:17):
grab a bike. Yeah, twelve to two, So don't worry
about eating. Just come on out. We'll visit with our
mouthsful as we talk. We can. We're also going to
have some prizes, you know, just there's games for kids
and stuff like that again next Saturday, October twenty six,
from twelve to two at r CW Nursery. If you're
new to the Houston area, RCW is the garden center

(09:40):
that is where Tomball Parkway Highway two forty nine comes
into belt Way eight, just northwest corner of Houston.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Right there.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's really easy, easy to get into and I always
love going out there. That's a good group and it's
a great, great location. Did you know that RCW? Did
you know that that part of you Houston. Let me
put that way, it was all dairy country at one time.
Some people didn't know that. It dawned on me one
day when I was I lived up in Cypress, and

(10:10):
if you go up in Cypress, there's a place called
Jersey Village, Jersey as in Jersey Milkcow, and there's also
a dairy Ashford Dairy as in yeah, I don't need
to do the sound effects again. Well that's all. That
was all big big milk production company country. In fact,
right where ARCW sits. I was talking to David a

(10:32):
good while back and he was just telling me, you know,
there's these big old giant, beautiful sycamores on their property.
Oh they're gorgeous. And that also was, you know, right
there in dairy country. And of course that's back in
the days when nineteen sixty was a goat path way
outside of town. But anyway, fun fact about Houston. Did

(10:55):
you know those of you out there in Jersey Village,
in Cypress and all of that, there was a time
when you would be walking through a dairy cow pasture
to do what you dry do driving down the street.
Right now, you're listening to Garden Line, and I'm wanting
to talk to you this morning about a few things,
just kind of some heads up stuff. First of all,

(11:18):
falls for planting. I love saying that. I hope you
don't get tired of listening to it. But it is
the most important planting season of the year. Please take
advantage of it. If you're thinking about putting in a tree,
do a tree now. Now's the time. It's the best time.
If you're wanting to put in perennials like ornamental grasses
or perennial flowers or anything, do it now. If you

(11:40):
want some beautiful color, not only the warm season color
that goes into fall, which we're planting those still right now,
but also the cool season color and we're on the
edge of cool season planting season two. All the things
that can take cold but they're beautiful. You got to
do it, but first you got to build the soil.
And for those of you that have been out to

(12:03):
Nature's Way Resources, you know the products that they have
out there in high quality. They are you know, John
Ferguson years ago, I started that place, and Nature's Way
Resources is where a lot of quality soil materials were born,
such as the rose soil. You know a lot of
people have rose soil now. It started there at Nature's
Way Resources. Leaf more compost it started there at Nature's

(12:27):
Way Resources, and now they have the fungal compost by
the way on Fridays. That's Fungal Fridays at Nature's Way
twenty percent off, twenty percent off fungal compost. Do you
need a top dress your lawn, grab some of the
fungal composts or their leaf mold, But with the fungal
compost you can just top dress off save quite a
bit there on Friday. It just makes sense. And when

(12:48):
you're out at Nature's Way Resources, remember that they are
having right now a plant sale, and this is a
big deal sale. It's the year end sale nursery discount,
fifty percent off the huge variety native trees and fruit trees,
houseplants and shrubs, but it does exclude native sun perennials.

(13:10):
All the rest we're talking about on sale and it
ends December first, so here's your chance to get those plants.
It's the best time to put them in the ground.
So in Nature's Way, you go home with the brown
stuff and then take advantage of that sale and go
home with the green stuff and get sat up. They've
got a nice selection of natives and non natives out
there as well at Nature's Way Resources. They're out at

(13:35):
the where fourteen eighty eight comes into Interstate forty five.
If you'd like to give them a call. Nine three
six two seven three twelve hundred. We're going to go now,
let's see where are we on time? Yeah, I always
have to watch my clock because I get going here.
We're going to go out Cyprus and talk to John. Hey, John,

(13:55):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (13:58):
Good morning.

Speaker 6 (13:58):
How are you.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
I'm doing well? How can we help?

Speaker 7 (14:03):
My question is I recently had a diseased oak tree
that was cut down, and the next day or two
they're going to be doing some stump grinding. What is
the best way to make sure I can get Saint
Augustine saw to regrow in that area over where the
stump was cut down.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
So yeah, So first of all, when they grind it,
there's a lot of wood, not just the stump sticking up,
but all the maiden roots that were underground of that tree.
It's a lot of wood chunks, and the more of
that they can get out of there the better, because
it's not the wood is hurting something. It's that all

(14:39):
that wood then will decompose, and so when they finish,
if they leave it level, it'll end up sinking down.
Because number one, when you fluff up soil, it sinks anyway,
just like if you've ever dug a trench and tried
to fill it in and then later you find out
it's like you didn't have enough soil. But also that
decomposition of the wood cause additional sinking. So I would

(15:01):
get all that out you can and then leave it,
mound it up a little bit, just a little bit
of a mound, knowing that it's going to sink. And
then when you put your side down. Hopefully you'll end
up pretty close to level at the end of all
that process, after a few months of the settling.

Speaker 7 (15:20):
Okay, So I don't need to put through that all
the woodchips or anything.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
No, not unless you're you're you don't have enough soil,
which could could happen if you don't have enough soil
to level it off. Then you would add soil, but
that would be just part of the filling process where
we fill in all low areas before we lay saw it.
And if you can get a good sandy low mix,

(15:47):
that would be a good idea.

Speaker 7 (15:50):
Okay, perfect, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Okay. Yeah, and don't just put composts and stuff down
because that, like wood chips, that's going to decompose away
and sink down too. You need something that's really soiled,
like a sandy loam. Okay, perfect, good luck with it, Yes, sir,
thanks for the call. Appreciate that the whenever you do

(16:14):
have a tree taken out, it's just inevitable, you know,
the tree as it grow. Yeah, start is a little
seed unless you planet it, and that gets bigger and bigger.
The roots get bigger and bigger. And if you ever
looked like even in the forest around a tree that
it's like the sool goes up, and it's because all
this underground expansion has occurred of roots and the soil

(16:36):
sort of pushes up and then it sort of washes
away too, and that leaves roots exposed. But that process
of getting rid of an old tree and getting something
new in it's just part of part of how that works.
If you are looking to do your fall fertilization or
if you're looking to do a fall weed prevention, all

(16:58):
you have to do is go to ACE Hardware and
they're going to have every one of the fall fertilizers
I talk about. They're also going to have the products
like the barricade from night Fuss that you would put
down to prevent weed seeds from germinating. And here's the thing.
The sooner you get the fertilizer down at this point
in the season, the sooner it is the better because

(17:21):
it goes down and to the degree the grassroots are
actively growing and the plants growing and it's mild temperatures,
you're going to get a lot of nutrient that's taken
up into that plant to make it stronger and hardier.
If you wait longer and longer and longer you're getting.
It's slows down more and it's just not taking it
up as fast. So get it done now. If you're

(17:41):
going to do the barricade and get it, go to
Ace Hardware. They're going to have it. Knighte Fuss barricade.
Put it down asap because it prevents weeds that are
sprouting from establishing. A seed sprouts and it can't get going.
Barricade shuts it down. Well, do that now and Ace
Hardware is loaded. You know there's forty Ace Hardware stores

(18:03):
around the Greater Houston area. It makes it really easy
to get whatever you need for your lawn and garden.
Maybe you're looking to do disease prevention, maybe it doesn't
matter what it is. You need to make that lawn.
Its best to make your fall flower beds their most beautiful.
Now's the time to be planting those two. By the way,

(18:25):
Ace Hardware has got you covered on that. While you're there,
grab that fire ant bait because you know you need it.
And fire ant control is best done by bait, and
it's best done by fresh bait. So if you got
some fire at bait that's been sitting out in the
garage for a year and probably not that appealing. So
go ahead and get you some fresh bait and let's
knock those things out before we go into fall. Well,

(18:47):
it's time here for me to take another break, and
I just wanted to mention one more time. Next Saturday
r CW Nursery, I'll be out there for their fall Fling.
They always put on a good party there at RCW.
They're gonna have barbecue, lunch, prizes, and games. We're gonna
have a good time, and I hope you'll come out
and I can help you with some of the questions

(19:08):
you might have about some of your landscape plans, or
maybe we'll just sit and visit. We had a good
time doing that Yesterdayt's do that again. Look Saturday, Hey, folks,
I'll be right back back. Welcome back to garden Line.
Glad you are with us today. I was talking a
while ago about how Ace Hardware Stores carries you know,
your your products for fertilizing and for disease control, weed

(19:31):
prevention and things. I mentioned the nitro Foss Barricade. You know,
barricade is part of Nitrofoss's Fall three Step Texas three
Step program. What is the Texas three step Well, it's
a dance. You doing your lawn the first the first
time around, you're doing the Fall Special win a riser
that is a fertilizer design for fall. It is rich
and phosphate to help promote your healthy root system. It's

(19:53):
also high on potassium for winter heartiness and really vigorous
initial growth when it comes out in the spring. Second
one step is the barricade that prevents weeds. You put
it down, you have to water it in always of
the pre emergent. You've got to get it into the
soil surface where it does its work. Ties up there
at the soil surface, and when the weed comes through,
it says, uh huh, not going to happen, Not on

(20:14):
my watch. That's what barricade does. Third step Eagle turf fungicide.
Egle turf fungicide is a systemic fungicide goes into the
plant and it protects it against disease attack from brown
patch or large patch as it's now called, and also
from take all root rot, Take all root rot m
large patch. Both can be controlled with the nitrof Egle

(20:38):
turf fungicide. Three steps Fall Special Fertilizer barricade, pre emergent
and nitrofos Egle turf fungicide. Step three. Now you're going
to find these that in Chenny Gardens Downer Richmond. You're
going to find them in Shades of Texas in the
woodlands plants for all seasons up on Tomball Parkway as well.
Easy to find these three products. But remember the time

(20:58):
is short. Look at my schedule. Let's do it this month,
and this month is well on its way. And you
wait too long, and if we get a cold front
and you get some weed sprouting, you get some brown
pat showing up, you can still treat, but you've kind
of missed the boat on some of those things. So
don't delay. Get those things down a SAP that is important.

(21:21):
We're going to go now out to Houston and talk
to Dave. Hello, Dave, welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 8 (21:27):
Hey there.

Speaker 9 (21:30):
I was going to try to yes, can you hear me?

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yes, sir?

Speaker 9 (21:36):
I was what I was going to try to do
was this week I was going to put down a
weed killer. Next week I was going to try a
pre mergent, and maybe the week after that maybe a fertilizer.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Would that be a good?

Speaker 9 (21:51):
Would that be the best way.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
To go I would do. I would do everything you
need to do right away that you don't have to wait.
Uh And and I think of all those, the most
important to do first is the pre emergent, because that
if you missed that boat, you know, we get a
cold front and some rain or something, you're gonna have

(22:13):
weed sprouting. So go ahead and get the pre emergent down. Now. Now,
when you say weed killer, I'm assuming it's because you're
seeing weeds in the lawn you're wanting to kill.

Speaker 9 (22:24):
I don't see a lot, but I didn't want to wait.
I just think if there were some there, I wanted
to take them out. If there were some sprouted already,
I wanted to take them out.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yeah, I would. I would just do the pre emergent.
If you're not seeing anything, kind of walk around, look
at especially in bear spots where your lawn's a little thin,
look look there. And but right now, I'm not recommending
a lot of post emergent products for various reasons. Uh,
there's a place for them. But I think if you
just do the pre emergent and then turn right around

(22:56):
when you finish spreading it and put out your fertilizer
for fall. Get a fall type fertilizer, put it down
and then water it in with about a half inch
of water, and you're good to go. You put a
little more than a half if you want, but about
a half something like that.

Speaker 9 (23:14):
Sounds good to meet.

Speaker 10 (23:15):
You do not have to.

Speaker 9 (23:19):
You don't even have to persuade this lazy person.

Speaker 10 (23:23):
That's perfect.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
I think it's funny. That's funny. Yeah, A lot of
the weeds that are summer weeds, they're already setting seeds
or blooming or whatever if they're in the lawn and
and so it's a little late for the what you're
referring to as weed killer for those. Okay, it's a
little late for that. And I think we're still getting
ahead of the cool season weeds. Just with the weather

(23:44):
we've had, as dry as it's been and stuff, I
think we're ahead of that. So I think just the
pre emergent's gonna get you going.

Speaker 11 (23:52):
All right, Dave, thank you, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Thanks for the call. Call back any time. Good talk
to you. They care all right, folks. You are listening
to garden Line and the phone number is seven one
three two one two k t R seven one three
two one two kt r H give us call. Let's
talk about the things that are of interest to you.

(24:17):
I mentioned that I was at in Channing Forest yesterday
and a really good time out there. You need to
go check that place out, you really do it is.
It is beautiful out there. I mean, they just have
tons of color, and the butterflies are going nuts and
the bees are going nuts. You know, pollinators are they're

(24:38):
really honkering down getting as much of the pollen and
nectar and everything whatever kind of pollinator what they're looking
for as they can right now, because they know the
days you're getting short, and they know that they gotta
you know, it's kind of like an old bear that
gets all fat before hibernating for the winter. Well, it's
a similar thing. They're they're busy. They are staying very
very busy and outed in Channe and four. They have

(25:00):
some outstanding beautiful plants too. I was looking at some
of their trees yesterday and wow, they are beautiful. They've
got some red buds that they just got in out
there that look really really good, a number of different
kinds of red buds. Of course, the herbs and the
veggies always have to walk over to that area, and
they are really stocked up with herbs and veggies and

(25:22):
the cool season color even is coming in. You know,
pansies and violas is what we start to put out
when it really gets cool. And they're loaded up on
that and Enchanted Forest. But those of you haven't been there.
That's if you're in Richmond, you're heading up toward sugar
Land direction. It's off to the right on FM twenty
seven twenty seven fifty nine. Enchanted Forest. When you go in,

(25:45):
check out the gift shops, check out the houseplants too.
They look really good right now. I was really surprised
at the selection that they still have, and it's an
outstanding shape. And you know, this is house plant season.
So we got holidays coming up even just you know,
where are you going for Thanksgiving dinner? How about taking
somebody a plant from Enchanted Forest or maybe taking them

(26:08):
something from the gift shop. They've got some really cool
stuff for a houseplant too. All there in Channing Forest,
go check them out, and there's something going on there
pretty much every Saturday. Now. They're staying keeping things, hopping
makes it a lot of fun. I know D was
out there talking about shade plants yesterday. And then I
was out there and they got stuff always going on

(26:28):
in Channing Forest. Hey, here's the website. Would you go
look at it because it's really good. It is really
really inspiring and good to check it out. Enchanted Forest, Richmond,
TX dot com. Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. So
it was helpful when people put together a really good

(26:50):
quality website. All right, it's time for me to take
a little break here. I will be right back. Our
phone number if you'd like to give us a call
and be on the board when we come back. Seven
one three two one two k t r H if
you'd like to give me a call seven one three
two one two k t r H. Seven one three

(27:10):
two one two k t r H. I was visiting
with someone this past week about black velvet multch. You know,
black velvet is the maults from Landscaper's Pride. Uh, and
it's not dyed. And they were they were going, I
know you don't like dyed malts. Yes, I don't, neither
did Randy, by the way.

Speaker 10 (27:29):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
And just I just don't find I find it not
very natural. Okay. And then we can get in debates
about what it hurts and doesn't hurt and all that
kind of stuff. But I just don't like the look
of it. I don't care for the look of it.
Black velvet is natural, it is naturally dark and just
just a rich It's a good name, black velvet. That's
a good name for it. Excellent name. As a matter

(27:51):
of fact, it's a hardwood multch and uh it's one
that you know, lose the landscaper's pride, folks. This is
a this is a local company here in our region.
It's a company that takes wood bait, wood type products
and turns them into stuff that's garden gold. An example

(28:11):
of that would be their planting mix. It's a blend
of locally sourced pine barks, got sandy loam in it,
so it's got that structure of soil in it and organics.
And you can use it to revamp any garden bed.
You got a bed that's kind of sinking down, you
want to bring it up a little bit, go ahead
and do that. You make a bed out of it too,
Just choose that to create the bed. But it is
an excellent product. It's very suitable for most growing seasons,

(28:35):
really growing situations, growing conditions, I should say all seasons
and it works well. Another one compass Pete that's locally
screened pine excellent soil additive. It's going to improve structure
and it's going to hold up for a good while too,
and it also adds as decomposing materials. Are those essential
organics that are so important for having success with your soil.

(28:58):
You can go to landscapers Pride dot com. I'm feeling
to find out more. It's widely available. You're not gonna
have trouble finding Landscaper's Pride products, but Landscaperspride dot com
can tell you all the places where you may find
them in your area. And as they say at Landscaper's Pride,
let's row together and boys fall ever a good time
to get some of their products and get off to

(29:20):
a great start. I'm going to head out to pair
Land and talk to Pam. Hello Pam, open to the
garden line.

Speaker 11 (29:27):
And good morning, Skip.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Morning.

Speaker 12 (29:32):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
What's up?

Speaker 11 (29:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (29:34):
I sure can.

Speaker 13 (29:36):
I am looking for an organic alternative or to pre
emergent her beside. I had serious issues with mag Magnolia's
in the spring. Of course, they were stressed by last
summer and then the freeze. But one of the things
that Augus pointed out was the use of weed killer.

(30:00):
And I don't use any weed killer other than the
pre mergent and I just have a six months follow up.
Everything's good, but they really advise to stay away from that.
Is there any practice I could implement that would achieve
the same result.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Here's the organic alternatives that are on my schedule. If
you go to gardening with skip dot com, I have
a lawn, pest, disease and weed management schedule that has
synthetic and organic options. First of all, always be building
turf density with proper fertilizing. The denser the turf gets
by fertilizing properly and mowing, often the less weeds you're

(30:42):
going to have. That's one because pre emergent stops weed
seeds and dense lawn stops weed seeds too. Secondly, compost
top dressing at the end of the season going into
fall or in the spring coming out early. Either one
of those puts a little bit more of a shade
cover over the ground. You know what I'm saying. Even

(31:02):
though you don't top dress deeply, it is blocking a
little bit of light. So that also helps. And then finally,
there is a product called corn gluten meal. Corn gluten
meal is kind of a hit and miss. It can
stop weed seeds if you get it out there and
water it in. The problem is, we're not in control
of rainfall, and if after putting on corn gluten meal

(31:24):
you just get ongoing small amounts of rainfall, it's not
going to be as effective. But that is the only
organic pre emergent that I know of as corn gluten meal.

Speaker 14 (31:36):
Okay, okay, well, then you've managed my second question that
I also need to I've been doing the aration twice
a year for about four years now, but I probably
still need to do it in the areas that continue
to have weed issues.

Speaker 11 (31:54):
So thank you very much.

Speaker 15 (31:56):
Well.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Aeration is yeah, aeration is mainly for comp action, so
if you're doing trust year, that's a lot of erasi.
But yeah, but it sounds like you're off to a
good start. So I do wish you well with that.
I appreciate it, all right, thank you for the call.
Take care. Buchanan's Native Plants is on Eleventh Street in

(32:17):
the Heights. Eleventh Street and if you've never been there,
you gotta go. Fact this afternoon be a good time
to get over to Buchanans. They are loaded up. They
have beautiful fall color. Listen, we talk about pansies and
viola's in the fall. Those are they're very hearty, very
good cool season color. But Dianthus is another one, just beautiful.

(32:38):
There's the shorter types of dianthus that we've always had,
and then in recent years we started seeing these just
neon glowing tall dianthus like Amazon is a series example
of that, and the colors are just amazing. They make
good cut flowers too, by the way, but Dianthus is
a good one, cold cold, cold, hearty. Things like kale,

(33:02):
ornamental kale and ornamental cabbage are also available. And then
we have things like snap dragons. We got stock that's
a really underplanted stock is a wonderful cool season color, plant, colangulas, nasturtiums.
There's a lot of things we can do for some
color as we go into the fall season. Alyssam isn't
a good example. It's all there Buchanans. You know, they

(33:22):
are Buchanans native plants. I mean, so they totally stocked
up on natives. Last time I was out there, they
had a great selection of strawberries. If you want awesome,
Let's say February March April May through that region. Depending
on where you live in the area that strawberry season,
especially March, April and early May. Go to Buchanans, pick

(33:43):
up some of the strawberries, get them in now, and
you will have a really, really nice strawberry season. Let's
head now to Mike in spring. Hello, Mike, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 16 (33:56):
Good morning. Thanks for telling you, Micall. I'm getting ready
to just put some saint always being down? Is it
all right to put humans and we nower down on
top of that before I planet.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
If you can mix it into the soil a little
bit and then level it out real good, then you
can lay your sid on top of that. But I
don't do a whole lot. You can put a little bit,
but don't do a whole lot. Maybe an inch or
so would be enough for that. Okay.

Speaker 10 (34:33):
And another thing, what if you put some of that
in your your long like like.

Speaker 16 (34:41):
You would.

Speaker 10 (34:43):
You are?

Speaker 3 (34:43):
Yeah? Uh, you you could do that if it was
well composted. The humans is well composted just by nature
of it being humans. But uh, the manures need to
be very well composted. H and don't do too much,
keep it very thin very.

Speaker 10 (35:00):
Then, yeah, in the loan. In the loan, that's already there.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yes, that's what I'm talking about, like a top dressing.
The top dressing we put out at about a third
of an inch deep.

Speaker 17 (35:13):
So yeah, that's why I mean to do that in
in your loan. It is okay to do that, Yes,
very lightly, very lightly.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
That's right. That's it.

Speaker 11 (35:32):
You got it.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
It is it probably even better, probably be even better
to do it in the spring, but you can do it.
All right. Well, good luck getting that lawn established. Mic,
sounds like you got some work ahead of you.

Speaker 10 (35:46):
There, I'm about done.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
Oh okay, all right, well thanks for thanks for colling,
and have a good rest of your good rest of
your weekend. I really appreciate that. Uh yeah, I talk
about the importance of tree care and affordable tree care
is the place you need to call. Talking to somebody
just the other day about Martin Spoon Moore. Write this
number down seven one three six nine nine two six

(36:14):
six three. I'll give it to you a minute. If
you don't have a pen, I'll give you one second
to grab one. Ay Fftree Service dot com. Martin stays busy,
get on his schedule. It's fall and spring, see well,
actually falling in winter. Important time to get some of
that pruning done, and we're now in that season. Get
it done. Seven one three, six nine nine two six

(36:37):
sixty three. Tell him your Gardenline listener, get on far
up in the line as you can. He is booking up.
And stay in busy, don't delay. You want to get
that printing done if you can by February. It's the
best time you can prune all year. But call him now,
don't don't lose the opportunity to get on this window
and get that done. You want your trees to be

(36:58):
well taken care of, in properly prune. Don't turn them
over to somebody who knocked on the door and left
your business card. Go with somebody knows what they're doing.
That's Martin Spoon from Amal Trip. Well, we're going to
take a break here for the news marine. I will
put you up first, then we come back. Look forward
to talking to you, savings. Just watch him as.

Speaker 18 (37:40):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Welcome back, Welcome back to guarden Line. Good have you
with us. We got a lot to talk about and
a lot of people to talk to, So we're gonna
jump right up there on the phones and go to
Marene in Lakeside of States. Hey, Maureene, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (37:58):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 19 (37:59):
I think I have a simple problem, but it's always
best to check it out. During the storm, I had
to have a fencing replaced, so they placed the wood
on the ground and did their work all as well.

Speaker 10 (38:14):
They're gone, scleaned up, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (38:16):
But I did notice that the spot where the wood.

Speaker 19 (38:18):
Was that it was kind of turning straw looking, so
I just watched it in et cetera, et cetera. But
now I've always had an apossum pass through. I don't
have a problem. He's welcome to share whatever I grow
food wise, but it now looks like he was looking
or she was looking for something, and it's kind of

(38:40):
made hold and ripped up the grass and spots. So
I'm now thinking I need to remove that straw grass
where he's been looking or she he's been looking for,
maybe grub or whatever else they find edible. But as
I was passing by Low's or another big box store,

(39:05):
I thought that they had on sale some sod, So
my question is this should I put down some type
of chemical But I'm not really seeing anything.

Speaker 10 (39:15):
That the possum would look for.

Speaker 19 (39:18):
But he's returned or she's returned. But now last night
I did not see any evidence of a new area
being dug up. But it's like a big dog was
passing through my yard and you know, left me a
gift and then did that back leg motion where he's
digging everything up.

Speaker 12 (39:37):
So what do you think I have going on?

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Well, I don't think you need to put an insect
aside down. I don't think he got a bug in
there that needs to be treated. It also could be
that the possum is more of a guilt by association
unless you just have seen the possum doing the damage.
That sounds more like something an armadilla would do, you know,
rooting around with their nose, So you may also have

(40:02):
something going on. There are the critters that can do that,
but you have to.

Speaker 19 (40:08):
Come up with another critter. Lakeside of State is not
known for having armadillos.

Speaker 7 (40:13):
And I'm in a you know, small.

Speaker 19 (40:16):
Property, so I'm not out in Cyprus.

Speaker 10 (40:20):
Or wall or I'm in the city.

Speaker 19 (40:23):
So those chances of that animal, although it does.

Speaker 10 (40:26):
That that it looks just like it.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
Okay, so then any.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
Area that is turning straw, I was like, how wide?

Speaker 16 (40:40):
How long?

Speaker 10 (40:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 19 (40:41):
No, no, I got you.

Speaker 20 (40:42):
Uh, it is not a big area.

Speaker 19 (40:44):
It's just it's not typical for my backyard. So it's
it's maybe five by five five, you know, six foot,
it's not it's not a big area.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Yeah, you know, I don't I just don't think i'd
do anything to it. I think it's gonna be fine,
uh it, you know it. It's hard to say for
sure what's doing that. Maybe it is the possum or
some of the skunks do that too, by the way,
but who knows exactly. But the straw colored could be

(41:16):
due to a number of things, just the changing in
the weather. Some people have had some lawns that are
that are starting to I don't know, it's like they're
they're tired and old looking.

Speaker 19 (41:26):
But yeah, it does look like that. It looks like
somebody aging and you know, you're getting gray hair and
losing some it's looking to it could be yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
You know, we've had a dry period now and the
temperature has been warm up until just recently, and so
it could just be struggling a little bit for lack
of moisture, so moisture or could be a little bit
of a disease going on in there that's kind of
causing some of the yellowing or some of the the
lack of color, the straw color iss you described at

(41:58):
the tan Uh. I would just kind of watch it
and see, you know, without me seeing a sample in
my hands and really examining it. That is kind of
the best shot I can do for you on it.
I wouldn't use an insecticide with an area of that size.
I just am not real concerned about it. If it
were a disease problem, I would expect to see more

(42:20):
areas of the lawn showing the problem.

Speaker 19 (42:23):
Okay, so what about putting in two pieces of sod.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
If you want to do that, that's fine. In general,
it's getting the end of the time, Yeah, to put
side down, but if you hurry up, if you get
all organic matter off the surface like dead grass and
most stuff, so the side you put down can contact
the soil, and you water real good before you put

(42:50):
it down. You lay it down, and then you water
it about twice a day for a week, and then
once a day for a week. You might get that.

Speaker 19 (42:58):
I did that in a couple of spots.

Speaker 20 (43:00):
Yeah, okay, I just need you, I guess.

Speaker 19 (43:02):
I'm just calling to get a blessing about how to
do it.

Speaker 12 (43:05):
And you're very good at.

Speaker 19 (43:06):
That, so.

Speaker 16 (43:09):
You can.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
You know, if it were mine, If it were mine,
I'd give it a real long thought about maybe just
waiting until it warms up in spring and really wants
to grow and then do it the sod ddition.

Speaker 21 (43:21):
But there's not a right, you're me some energy extended?

Speaker 3 (43:28):
You got you got there? You go, all right, Thank you,
appreciate your.

Speaker 11 (43:33):
Call so much.

Speaker 10 (43:34):
Appreciate appreciate you too bad.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
All right, bye bye. You guys have heard me talk
about Quality Home. You know, when we had the storms
this year, I think everybody in their dog wants to
buy a generator, and for good reason, I mean, my gosh,
and Quality Home. There's not a better place to get
a quality generator one of these Generat automatic standby generators.

Speaker 10 (43:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
The Generatic automatic stand by generator is outstanding. But when
you buy it from Quality Home, you get service. That's
why they're so highly rated rated. That's also why you know,
Better Business Bureau gives them the highest word you can
imagine repeatedly, because that's kind of service they provide. Now,

(44:16):
what they're looking for is to hire somebody electricians and
plumbers to help them in meeting the demand. You know,
with Quality Home, all their contract work is inside the interior,
meaning inside the company. They don't just contract everything out.
And so when you have Quality Home, come do it

(44:37):
automatic standby home generator for you. You know, the electricians coming,
the plumbing coming, whoever's coming to do stuff. It's Quality
Home employees doing that. And that is another reason why
they're so good. Now, if you are an electrician or plumber,
you're looking for an opportunity well, competitive pay, comprehensive medical,
dental vision. They have retirement plans with four oh one

(44:59):
CA matching paid holidays and time off. They do train
you because they want you to give the service and
to know the products like you would expect Quality Home
to do. And that that's how they go about doing business.
They also have good opportunities for career growth. Just go
online to Quality t X dot com. Quality t X

(45:20):
dot com. There's another application online that you can fill out.
Time for me to take a little break here and
when I come back, Tim and Bill, you made my
first two up. Welcome back to garden Line. We are
glad to have you with us today. Someone I get
this question a lot, and here it's it's varying versions

(45:42):
of it, but basically here's the question, Uh, when do
I When do I put out asmit? You know it's
fertilizing season? Do I put out as Is now the
time to put out as mite? And the answer is
you put out as might whenever you want to put
out azmite. As might is a micronutrient supplement. It is
not something you put down like the standard fertilizers with

(46:02):
lots of nitrogen in them that make your long take
off growing and be green. It is a boy It
is a bank account deposit. That's what you're doing of
trace minerals. Okay, So when you put asmite down, any
month of the year you put it down, it goes in.
It attaches to the soil. The trace minerals attached to
the soil, and when the plant roots need them. Whatever

(46:24):
the mineral is, you know, maybe it's something like iron
or zinc or whatever is it's needed in the trace
mineral group, Well it's in that bank account and the
plant can have it. So you could do it when
you fertilize. You put your fertilizer oute, turn around, fill
up with these might put the AZMTE out. However you
want to go about it is up to you. The
month doesn't matter, and so most people will do it

(46:46):
when they fertilize because it's just easier. You're already out
there running the spread or across the lawn, so why
not just go ahead and do your asimite at that time.
Either way you go about it is fine. Just just
once a year. A good application of ASEM is usually
what I would recommend for most long say you have
a saw test just to check and make sure what

(47:06):
levels of what you need. But as might goes a
long way because it's a tracement or you're not putting
the quantity out that you're putting of other fertilizers. So
about forty four pounds bag is going to give you
six to twelve thousand square feet of coverage? Works really well,
It's as simple as that. All right, So let's go
to Tim now in Oh gosh, Tim, where are you located?

Speaker 11 (47:30):
I'm out here by the Surprises being State Park.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
Oh okay, all right, good, well, how can I help today?

Speaker 22 (47:37):
I have a fig tree that's been in the ground
for about five maybe six years. It seems that it
only grows spread and out, not really up. But it
doesn't produce any figs.

Speaker 11 (47:49):
It's done.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
It no figs, huh, four or five?

Speaker 11 (47:53):
And then a couple of years later it put on
a few. And I just walked over here and I
saw one, a green one on it. This year this
is the first time this year it's done put a
fig on.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Wow. Well, uh, it's say that again. I was thinking,
my soul, I didn't here something. Uh, well, it could
be it could be. How much sunlight is that fig getting?

Speaker 22 (48:21):
I would say at least half a day. It's by
big live okay, okay, goes.

Speaker 11 (48:27):
You know, and shades it for you, you know, but
it gets a good morning and so.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Well, uh, you're not putting too much of that chicken
in her on it, are you.

Speaker 9 (48:37):
No.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
I hear them bragging in the background over there, so.

Speaker 11 (48:42):
Uh so you know, I don't know.

Speaker 20 (48:47):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
There are a number of things that can stress a fig.
Nematodes in the soil. If you have a somewhat sandy soil,
you may have a lot of nematods and you get
enough of them on a fig tree, and the roots
just are very inefficient taking up water and nutrients and
they struggle, so that the only way to check that
is to wash out some roots, you know, get a
spade and kind of pull up some soil and wash

(49:09):
it out real good and look for bumps all over
the roots.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
The other possibility is a variety, the variety of figs.
Some figs produce better than others. They're not all equal,
but generally figs are easy and almost no care. So
that is a little bit of a mystery. Yes, yeah,
it is a little bit of a mystery that you're
not getting anything.

Speaker 22 (49:32):
It's a very large purple fig when it's on there.
I'm talking golf ball or maybe slightly larger when they
do produce one.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Okay, yeah, I would you know, if you got room
for another one, I would go buy a fig and
get a get a good variety of l s. U
Purple is a good one. One calls Celeste is a
good one. It's a nice, smaller but real sweet fig
and plant them out there and just see if they

(50:02):
do better than that one did, because then we may
be thinking, okay, that's the variety. Something's wrong with it.
Don't overfertilize them. Just a moderate amount is all they need.
If any figs are very tough, make sure you get
them well watered. But check for those nematodes, just to
make sure that's not on that because there's no cure

(50:22):
in that. And you know, it's like having a dog
with a thousand ticks on it. It just really just
sucks the life out of of the fig tree to
have all those nematodes on it.

Speaker 11 (50:33):
So you saying I can't fertilize it.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
You can, but moderately, don't overdo it, just modern and
don't do it now do it? Well, that's true, that's true.
But some situations the soil is so poor that a
fertilizer is helpful, but very moderate in that, and I
wouldn't do it now. I would only do it, you know,
in the early in the spring or maybe early summer season.

(51:02):
But that's if I were looking at a fig and
it weren't growing, it didn't look good, it just kind
of seemed to lack color and vigor. I might try
the fertilizer. Then if your fig is growing healthy and
it looks good, green, healthy, then I wouldn't wouldn't bother
with it.

Speaker 22 (51:18):
Okay, Well, sound all right, We'll try a little fertilizer
and go from there.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Yeah, check, check for those nemotods and then yeah, just
I try a different fig too, because I that's possibility.
But that obviously your fig doesn't know how to read,
because if it knew how to read, it would have
learned a long time ago. That figs just don't need care.
They just fruit for you no matter what.

Speaker 11 (51:41):
That's what I thought. You appreciate that, all right, sir?

Speaker 18 (51:46):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (51:47):
You bet good luck with that. That is an unusual
thing to have a fig that does not want to
cooperate at all.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
You've heard me talk about Star Hope before, and the
reason is because I believe in Star Hope. I've seen
the work that Star Hope does. I mean it's decades ago.
My wife and I volunteered with Star Hope back when
we lived in the Houston area, and now it's just
something we continue to believe in and support. You know,
all it takes is two dollars and eighty five cents

(52:16):
to provide a meal for a homeless man or a
woman or children for that matter. You can go to
Star of Hoope Mission's website. It's real easy. It's shmission
dot org and there you can learn more and you
can donate there, and I would encourage you to consider that.
You know, Star Hope, when you put a dollar into

(52:37):
Star Hope, it's a dollar that goes into changing lives.
It really is. They don't just give people a nickel
and say good luck. They actually bring people in. There's housing,
there's food available. If mom or dad is dealing with
substance abuse, they help with that. They have programs for that.
If they're trying to get trained for a job so

(52:59):
they can get on their feet, Star Hope has training
like that, and then they have instructions on how do
you get a job, and they help you through that process.
That time at Star Hope is when you're saving your money,
you're getting established, you're finding some dependable transportation, and you're
getting the chance to actually turn your life around. And
when you do that, you turn your children's life around.

(53:21):
And that's the hope in Star of Hope. They provide
Christ centered counseling and instruction and spiritual guidance as well.
Star of Hope Mission is something that I hope you
will put your compassion to work by providing a donation
on an ongoing basis. Join myself and others and be

(53:42):
a supporter of Starve Hope. I want to head to Westside,
Houston and talk to Bill.

Speaker 18 (53:49):
Now.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Hey, Bill, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (53:51):
A good morning, Skip. Say, I have a two questions
about fertilizing. One is probably a silly quest, but I
always curious about it.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
If you have.

Speaker 6 (54:05):
Say a fifteen five ten, you have then seventy percent
of the bag of fertilizers and erth would it be
a greater value if just using those same numbers you
got a thirty ten twenty with only thirty percent of

(54:26):
the bag inert and put it out at half the.

Speaker 18 (54:31):
Measure?

Speaker 3 (54:33):
Yeah, why don't increase the Yes, sir, that's an insightful question,
and you you kind of have hit on something. In general,
if you're looking at per pound of nutrient, it is

(54:54):
less expensive to buy a more concentrated fertilizer in general,
but there's a lot of other factors, like is it
in a slow release form? You know the chemistry, if
you will, of the fertilizer itself. There are some things
that cause the price to go up. A slow release
tends to cost a little more than an immediate release,

(55:15):
but it works a lot better and you end up
getting more efficient use. So yeah, you paid more for it,
but you're getting more of what you paid for it,
you know what I'm saying. And so there's a lot
of trade offs there. Organics in general or lower concentration
because they're natural. Nature does not pack, you know, thirty
percent nutrient into a product like you can synthetically. But yes,

(55:38):
in general, the more concentrated, the more bang you get
for your buck.

Speaker 18 (55:43):
Okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 6 (55:45):
Then the other question is about the choices of the
full fertilizer. I found a little confusing. I put out
the nitroposs already, so it's just a academic question. The
matrovos is eight twelve sixteen, with light on the nitrogen,

(56:06):
heavy on the potassium within the southwest. It seems to be,
it doesn't It seems to be for a different time
of the year, like it's sixteen eighty twelve. It's confusing
to me looking at the numbers. But I've used nitrogen, yeah,
and nitrovosh.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
That's right, and there's there's a lot of that kind
of variation out there. The bottom line is the majority
of the nutrient your plant needs is already in the ground.
It's in the soil. It's attached to the soil particles
and things, and we are supplementing when we fertilize. It's
not like there's zero out there and it only gets

(56:44):
what we add. So in that our little supplementations can vary.
You know, for decades triple thirteen and ten twenty ten,
we're fertilizers that were recommended and it didn't kill the
lawn to do it. But turf science and research throughout
the South over the years has showed us that that
middle number phosphorus tends to build up over time. And

(57:06):
so if you constantly use something that has a lot
of the middle number, over time, it builds up. Okay,
it's not going to happen in five years or something,
but it will happen. And so you see variations. Each
nutrient has things it does for the grass, and so
you can make a case for phosphorus being good for
a root system. You can make a case for potassium

(57:27):
being good for cold heartiness. You can make a case,
you know, for nitrogen of course being good for supporting
growth in general. A three, one two are something similar.
Type ratio is what we use through the growing season,
and it can be a little higher nitrogen, it can
be a little lower. But you know, if you and
ten of your neighbors or nine of your neighbors all

(57:51):
did a soil test, you would find the results to
be a little different in each yard. And so when
I recommend a fertilizer, I'm giving you a good general
ninety percent of the time, ninety five percent of the
time probably a good fertilizer to put down. But each
person's yard is different. And so for example, if you
were overloaded with phosphorus, I would say use something with

(58:13):
zero phosphorus. If you didn't have enough, I would use,
say something with more than a three one two ratio.
So it's a little more complicated than that. Or your
questions are good, it's just in general. And what I
would recommend finally, is just and I've got to go
to a break here in about ten seconds. I would
absolutely do the soil test periodically every three or four years,

(58:34):
and then you know exactly the fertilizer that's best for you.
And if you want to call into the show with
your results, email them to me. I can help guide
you in doing that. But for most people we give
them a good general guide that's going to work and
buy and large be you know, a great way to go.
So if you want to hang on for after break
to continue, I'll be happy to do that. I gotta

(58:56):
run right here to take a break, folks, I'll be
right back. I wanted to talk a little bit about
birds and Wildbirds Unlimited. You know you hear me talk
about them a lot, because I really believe in wild
Birds stores and the products they carry as being superior.
And here is an example of that. They're bird seed.

(59:17):
It is quality seed. They don't throw the kinds of
bird seed into the mix that are cheap, and that
way they kind of make the bag bigger and make
it look like more seed, but the birds aren't going
to to eat it. They put the things in the
birds eat And you could get blends. You know, what
kind of birds are you trying to attract? Well, there's
different mixes and blends that are options there at Waldbirds.

(59:38):
You know, they have a standard blend that's contract pretty
much everything, but they've got the special blends for different
kinds of birds as well, and different times of the
season as well. Right now, my feeders are stocked up
with a couple of different options from Wildbirds Unlimited. You know,
Wabird's Unlimited is not just the place for the quality seeds,

(59:59):
but it's also the place for quality products. And if
you're looking for a bird feeder that's quality, that's gonna last,
that's gonna provide better access or maybe exclude squirrels. That's
that's My favorite feeder is the squirrel excluder, and boy
does it ever work. Although you have to put on
earplugs because the language of the squirrels use when they

(01:00:21):
try to encounter that feeder and can't get in, it'll
make a sailor blush. It is horrible, But I appreciate
the fact that the feeder works so well. They've got
you know, we're going into the winter season and pretty
soon we're gonna be looking at things like those little
packages of suet, you know that you put inside a
little warkage for the birds to peck out the sewet
from and the seeds. They have seed that or feeders

(01:00:43):
that fit any kind any kind of bird that you're
trying to fix or to supply.

Speaker 11 (01:00:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
The bird houses another thing I like from them. Listen
if you or not if you don't consider yourself a
bird person. I'm gonna suggest something, and that is to
go into a Walldbirds and check it out and talk
to some of the folks there. I think you will
find this. Like, wait, I've been missing this.

Speaker 11 (01:01:09):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
For years I gardened and I just didn't even think
about the birds. I mean, I appreciated a bird and
a bird song, but it was never part of my gardening.
And now all of a sudden, it's like, yeah, every
time I go outside, I almost set outside this early
morning with a cup of coffee. Oh, the cacophony of
music of the birds in the morning. I love it,
and I actually look forward to it, and I think

(01:01:30):
you will too. Go to WBU dot com, forward slash Houston,
WBU dot com forward slash Houston, find one of the
six wild Birds stores and just swing by there. Go
go this afternoon. Go check that out. I think you
will be very impressed. I'm going to go back here. Bill,
we were in the middle of a philosophical question about

(01:01:51):
fertilizer I believe, and so I wanted to continue that.
I was mentioning, you know that the best way to
know how to fertilize this have a soil test done,
and it really is true. I one time when I
was in Austin, Texas, we had a neighborhood we were
working with from a water quality standpoint. They were concerned
about runoff into some of the surface and groundwater they

(01:02:14):
had up there, and we did a survey of two
hundred homes in this particular neighborhood. It was a black
clay soil and of those two hundred homes, I think
one or zero needed phosphorus, and it's because they'd been
using high fertilizers for years now. Just grass need phosphors,

(01:02:35):
yes it does, but because of the soil and because
of the fertilizer history, two hundred homes, not one needed phosphors.
And it's normal that phosphorus is one we tend to
not need to supplement for grass. I don't want to
say grass didn't need phosphors. I mean we don't have
to add more because there tends to be enough there

(01:02:56):
for it. But every lawn's different. Bilso you know, for
you to do a soil test is the best way
to do it. And you know you ask a good
question at the beginning, and that's why not buy a
stronger fertilizer rather than one that's not as strong. That's
a good question. Some people, though, have other goals other
than just how cheap can I get a nutrient? You know,

(01:03:17):
so if you're an organic gardener, you're going to want
to use an organic fertilizer and those tend to be
lowering concentration.

Speaker 18 (01:03:25):
Okay, you really did you have to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Follow up on that or are we good now?

Speaker 18 (01:03:37):
No answer, and thank you very much. And by the way,
we love your skip, really enjoy listening to you.

Speaker 10 (01:03:46):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
Thanks, that's kind of you to say that. Yeah, it's
you know, we on the air. One of my challenges
has been been horticultures for over thirty five years. I
think about the answers to simple questions and I could
talk for an hour, but people's eyes the glaze over
and they would forget everything I said. So we have

(01:04:06):
to simplify. When we simplify, sometimes it comes at the
expense of some detail. That's that's important, right, But that's
just how it is with any topic in life, and
so we try to keep it simple. We try to
make it easy. But you know, someone like you calls
in and wants to drill down a little for well, further. Well,
we'll go ahead and do that too.

Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
Well, let me just say something about I think the
best experts can explain things in simple and a simple matter.
I found that in college too, you know that. You
know it was complicated and the kind of scratch your head.
But the good professor with one who could take complicated
things and explain it to me, the fifth grader, you know,

(01:04:47):
even though I was in college simplifying.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:51):
And also the other comment is it's fun to watch
or hear someone who loves what they're doing.

Speaker 18 (01:04:58):
It's very obvious to me that that that's you and gardening.

Speaker 6 (01:05:05):
I also like the I do love it philosophical philosophical
thing you said about plant life. I can't remember. I
wish you would repeat that sometime. But how plant life,
you know, affects everything in our life. You know, when
you were in a big steak, it was a plant
in the beginning that provided the the.

Speaker 18 (01:05:27):
Food for that cattle. But just the way everything revolves
around plant life. Do that again?

Speaker 11 (01:05:34):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Well, I'll do that again. All right. Well, Well, as
we hang up here, I'll make a couple of comments
along those lines, because I think that is interesting. I
think it's good to step back and just get some
perspective and we forget about a lot of things about
the just the miracle, it's nature and how it all works.
And so thanks a lot, Bill, You take care and

(01:05:57):
we'll talk to you again sometime.

Speaker 18 (01:06:00):
Thank you very much. Skidding all right, bye bye now bye.

Speaker 16 (01:06:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
I I really like that. You know, there's a there.
There is something that I was thinking about the other
day that is just amazing to me, and that is
there's a little formula, uh and you know I won't
read out all the letters, just like a chemistry formula.
And basically what it means is that you take you

(01:06:27):
take the substances that plants take up, and you sign
shine sunshine on the leaves, and suddenly you've got the
food that feeds every bit of life on the planet,
virtually every bit of life on the planet. When I
come back from a little break here, i'll talk about
that just a little bit. But I think that is
pretty amazing stuff. All right, folks, the number seven one

(01:06:51):
three two one two k t R H. Give me
a call. We'll talk about the things that interest you.

Speaker 20 (01:06:56):
With Boss L.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
Good have you with us today if you've not been
out to in Chane Gardens. You need to run out there.
That is the garden center if you're in Richmond heading
up toward Katie Fullsher direction, heading north. It's on FM
three fifty nine and it is loaded with all kinds
of cool stuff for fall. It's the fall season, so
you know within Chanet Gardens every season they're going to

(01:07:20):
have the things you need for that season. Right now,
it's the cool season. Color, it's vegetables, it's herbs, it's
all the woody shrubs, trees and vines that you want
to be planting now, and the perennials that you want
to be planting now. When you go out there, you're
going to find the products to go with it. Products
by microlife, Nature's Way and nitrofoss and Nelson and airloom

(01:07:40):
soils and Landscaper's Pride and Medina and so on. They
are always stocked up on the things you need. And
then they have the people on hand that can answer
your questions in a way that sets you on the
path to success. Very very important. Plus it's just fun.
In fact, this afternoon, why run out and in Chanted Gardens.

(01:08:03):
It is on the Katie Follsher side of Richmond, on
FM three point fifty nine. Here's the website. Just go
here and you'll find out everything you need to know
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com in China Gardens Richmond dot com.
When you go, take someone with you, because this isn't
just like you're going shopping. This is like you're going

(01:08:24):
for an experience. Oh and you get to come home
with cool plants too. That's a good way to look
at it, you know, visiting with Bill, just thinking about
the fact that you have this plant and it takes
up water and nutrients from the soil, and it takes
them to the leaves, and sunlight shines on those leaves,

(01:08:46):
and carbon to oxide goes into the plant and out
of it comes what supports all life on earth. It's
pretty amazing that animals can't produce their own food. We
have to eat food that has been produced because something
can capture sunlight and make food. And that's true with plants.

(01:09:08):
It's truth. Animals is truth with everything. It's a big cycle,
but the whole thing runs on the fact that the sunshines.
And another way to put it, I like this one.
I don't know who said this, but man, despite his
artistic pretensions his sophistication and his many accomplishments. OSE's existence
to a six inch layer top soil and the fact

(01:09:29):
that it rains, and I would add to that in
the sunshines. All right, we're gonna go now to Bill
in uh let's see do do no Gordon, excuse me,
Gordon and Beaumont, Hey Gordon, welcome to garden line.

Speaker 23 (01:09:44):
Yes, sir, I have a question in regards to brown
turkey figs. I had a tree that all planeted in spring.
It grew very very little, but then all of a sudden,
about two months ago, it started growing and put on
new growth and lots of figs. However, the leaves, they're

(01:10:05):
green on top, and then they'll turn a brownish color
on the bottom, and then within three or four days
the leaf will drop and just fall off.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
Is there some kind of disease or something that's.

Speaker 23 (01:10:23):
Identifiable with that brown of color on the bottom of
the leaf?

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Yeah, Gooden, A couple of things. Leaves get old in time,
and as we go through some summer droughts and stresses.
Sounds like your tree got a little on the dry
side and then yellow boost hair toward the end of
the season to grow again. That can cause leaves to
you know, get old, start looking tattered and torn and
brown and other things yellowing and falling off. But there's

(01:10:51):
also a disease called fig rust, and there's no controlling
it really. I mean, there's things we can do to
minimize it, but it's really hardly worth spraying for because
not much watch or is labeled. Uh yeah, and that
causes leaves to defoliate. Figs are so darn tough they
can defoliate from rust and next thing you know, they're
putting on new growth again. So I think in your case,

(01:11:13):
just keep taking good care of it, keep it mulched,
and and in the hot, hot summer weather, just give
it enough water to keep it going. Yeah. I watered twice.

Speaker 23 (01:11:22):
I'm probably watered every day, and then uh wow, okay,
and then triple eight fertilizer and it's growing like crazy.
I don't open fertilized. I just but uh another hand
on asparagus. If people are growing asparagus. I've got two

(01:11:42):
asparagus beds that I'm on my about fifth crop of
the year. Once they grow up to about four feet,
I cut them and get a new crop of asparagus,
and uh all I do for those are dolomite, lime,
and Triple eight fertilizer besides mulch. And it's I got,

(01:12:06):
like I said last time I called you, Hope, I'm
over two hundred pounds on that.

Speaker 11 (01:12:12):
So and uh, I'll try to.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
So you're cutting, you're cutting it all back to the ground,
cutting it back to the ground to get the spears up.

Speaker 23 (01:12:20):
Yes, sir, it's once you let it get up about
three or four feet, the root grows.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
Is it going to grow that much more?

Speaker 23 (01:12:28):
So I cut it back to the ground and it's
up to asparagus that is. I have three different brands
of Jersey, Martha, Washington, Martha something else.

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
But uh, yes, uh it's very good eating.

Speaker 11 (01:12:45):
But anyway, I thought i'd give that hit to callers.

Speaker 3 (01:12:49):
Thanks much, real quick. Yeah what ah right, Gordon, tell
me one more, one more time? How many times you
cut it this year to the ground.

Speaker 11 (01:12:58):
I'm on about the fifth cut.

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
I'm fixture to cut it for the fifth time. All right,
all right, Well, thanks a lot, and I appreciate I
appreciate your call of very very much. That's interesting, very interesting.
If you haven't done fall fertilization yet, I'm telling you Nelson.
Plant food folks have got something that is kind of
a twofer. It's carbo load. Carbo load it is a

(01:13:22):
fall fertilizer to help produce the carbohydrates needed to go
into the plant to create winter hardiness and to come
out strong in the spring. New spring grass growth is
based on stored energy carbohydrates from the fall season, primarily
the fall season, and so it's so important your fall fertilization,

(01:13:42):
perhaps the most important fertilization of the year. Now, in carboload,
you also have a pre emergent herbicide. So when you
put carbo load out, you need to water it in
like any fertilizer would anyway, but you especially need to
water it in soon because you want that pre emergent
to be at the soil surface preventing cool seasoned weeds
which will be germinating very very soon. So get the

(01:14:04):
carbon load out watered in about a half inch of water,
so you put a little more if you want, and
then next thing, you know, when those seeds try to germinate,
the pre emergence they are preventing it. Plus you got
those nutrients there for your turf. Now, some plant food
products are all quality. The turf star Line is excellent
and carbol Load is the product for fall fertilization. I

(01:14:29):
was hitting down. In fact, I've got just got five
thoughts went through my head all at once. There. So
the folks at s the aenemalts, I'm heading down that
direction here in about another week, I'm heading down that way,
and I always like to stop in it's the animals,
because it's the enimaltch. You just have every product you

(01:14:52):
need to have success. And I work and work and
work at trying to convince listeners that start with the
soil the way put it as brown stuff before green stuff.
You get the soil right, and then you put good
plants in and they naturally grow. They just do well
because you've created the foundation for success. Ciena Maltz is

(01:15:13):
the place for everything related to the brown stuff. That
would include composts, that's embed mixes like the rose soil
that we talk about, like the veggie and herb mix
from airloom soils. I carry that there and it is
also the place for fertilizers Nitrofoss, Nelson, Medina Microlife, Azamite,

(01:15:34):
Nelson's Turf star Line, airloom soils. They carry all of that,
and then they carry the stuff go on top of
the ground. Native hardwood, multch is double ground Malta. Do
you like Louisiana price black velvet. They got it there
at Ciena Maltz. When you leave Ciena Malts, which is
by the way on FM five point twenty one near
where Highway six and two eighty eight come together, just

(01:15:55):
north of Road Sharon, when you leave there, you've got
the foundation for success. Don't put a plant in the
ground without putting the foundation for success in place. From
cienamlt cnamults dot com is the website. Easy, easy to
get in and get out, and when you go in,
you're going to be greeted. I love going to that place.
It's just fun. You've ever heard Amon say a soil

(01:16:18):
place is just fun?

Speaker 10 (01:16:20):
It is for me.

Speaker 3 (01:16:22):
I just get excited about it. In fact, one of
these days I'm going to see if I pay them
some money where they let me go lay in the
compost piles and make compost angels. That's my goals. That's
what I want to do next. If I do that,
I'll post a picture to Facebook. All right, enough of that, Hey,
guess where I'm going to be next Saturday RCW Nurseries.

(01:16:43):
I hope you'll come out. RCW is the garden center
where two forty nine comes into belt Wag eight. They
are having their Fall Fling and I can't wait. I
always love going out there, especially when they're having one
of these shindigs. They're gonna have a barbecue, lunch and
prizes and games for kids, and I'll be their entry
your gardening questions and as you know, who knows what's
gonna come out of my mouth, But we're gonna have

(01:17:04):
a good time. We're gonna have a very good time.
Bring me some samples to identify, to diagnose. We'll get
all that taken care of. Next Saturday from twelve to
two at r c W Nurseries.

Speaker 20 (01:17:16):
Welcome to Katie r h Garden Line with skimp Rickard's.

Speaker 17 (01:17:20):
Shoes, crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
Trim. Just watch him as thanks to see botasy.

Speaker 16 (01:17:45):
Not a sign.

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
Sun.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
Hey, welcome back. Good to have you back with us
here on Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and
we're here to answer your gardening questions. Basically the way
I like to look at it is, I'm here to
help you have a more bountiful garden and a more
beautiful Landscape's that's the way it works. There are no

(01:18:14):
such thing as brown thumbs. There are only uninformed thumbs.
And we're here to inform your thumb. And you'll be
amazed as your thumb gets smarter, how green it becomes.
That's one way to look at it. One way to
look at it. If you've not done your fall fertilization yet,
Nitrofoss has got you covered with their Texas three step program.

(01:18:36):
You do the two step on the dance floor, you
do the three step in your lawn. And here's the
three steps. Fertilizer weed prevention, disease prevention. First fertilizer that
is Nitrofoss Fall Special Winneriser. Nitro Foss Fall Special Winneriser
provides the nutrients, especially that a very important potassium that's

(01:18:56):
needed in order to create cool cold hearting and also
to help the plant come out stronger in the spring.
And here's how it works. When the plant takes up
a little bit of nitrogen, not as much as in
the summertime, but in the a little bit of nitrogen
with the potassium, it is essentially like anaphreeze in the
plant because it produces carbohydrates and carbohydrates are the anafreeze

(01:19:20):
of the plant, and so it gets through winter better.
But then in the spring, new growth begins with stored carbohydrates.
And that is what you provided when you put your
Nitropostphall special down as a winter riser.

Speaker 7 (01:19:32):
In the fall.

Speaker 3 (01:19:33):
Second step is here comes the brown patch, the large patch,
the big circles, and take all root route also attacks
in the fall as well. When you put down the
turf fungicide actually is step three, but who's counting step
three turf fungicide, then that gets in the plant of
the grass plant, and it prevents the disease from infecting.

(01:19:54):
And you got to get ahead of it. Wait until
you see brown circles and they're going to be brown
all winter, no no matter what you spray on them
or applied to them. Get it done now. Second step
that I skipped over is a barricade. That's weed prevention.
So let me quit confusing you and just make it simple.
Nitrofuss fall special winter riser number two, barricade for weed prevention.

(01:20:16):
Number three, eagle turf fungicide for disease prevention. Water them
all in, get them in the soil. Even the fungicide
will be taken up by the roots and you're ready
to go for fall. But here's what you shouldn't do. Delay.
If you wait until weeds are up, if you wait
until diseases have attacked, if you wait until it's cooled
off so much, grassroots aren't taken up nutrients very much. Well,

(01:20:40):
you just missed the opportunity. So get that done.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
You can find those products of D and D feed
and TALML. You can go to Plantation, Ace Hardware and Richmond.
You can go to Hiding and feed Out on Stubner Airline.
Or you want some more, how about Stanton Shopping Center
done in Alvin. How about Jim's Hardware and Montgomery Ace
Hardware City a memorial drive Chenet Forest. I mean, it's
easy to find nitroposs products, but the main thing is

(01:21:03):
find them and get them down. It's time to do that.
You are listening to Guardenline and the phone number is
seven one three two one two k t r H
seven one three two one two k t R eight.
A little slower on the phones today. Maybe it's because
we're getting philosophical. So either people's eyes are rolling back
in their heads or it's just interesting. They're they're enjoying listening.

(01:21:28):
I don't know. You tell me which which of the
two that is. I know I'm interested, but that doesn't
necessarily mean that everyone else is. What is my uh?
Mom used to say a German phrase to me, and
it was yetis tirkin zine plasier kid. It means ever
creature has this pleasure for me, that's plants and talking

(01:21:50):
about plants or one of my one of my pleasures.
Plants are All Seasons on Highway two forty nine, Toma
Parkway right up just north of Plants for All Seasons
have been around since nineteen seventy three. This family owned operated,
family owned and operated garden center has long been just

(01:22:12):
a fixture in that whole area, that whole region because
people know when you go there, you're going to get
good plants, of course, but you're also going to get
good service and knowledgeable service, and that is so important.

Speaker 10 (01:22:24):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:22:25):
One of the things I hate on guardline is when
someone calls me and go, yeah, I about this, and
how about this? And how about this? And now you
know what do I do? And I'm listening going why
did you buy that? Why did you buy that? Why
did you buy that because that plant doesn't grow here,
that product doesn't work on this That product is for
something other than what your problem is. You see what
I'm saying. When you go into Plants for All Seasons,

(01:22:46):
you get directed in the right direction to the plants
and the products that you need to have success. They
help you with the diagnostics and the advice. Even if
you didn't buy a plant there. You know, you may
show up and go, I got this such and such roads.
I didn't buy it here, but it's doing that. They'll
they'll talk to you about it. They'll tell you what
you need to do and hopefully put even a better

(01:23:07):
plant in your hands to take home to have success.
That's how it works at Plants for All Seasons Plants
for All Seasons dot com. That's the website. Here's the
phone number two eight one three seven six one six
for six. I shouldn't have said the phones were slow,
because here we go. Okay, well, let's go to Spring Branch.

(01:23:29):
We're going to talk to Jeff. Hey, Jeff, you're first
in line. What's up?

Speaker 21 (01:23:33):
Hey, Skip?

Speaker 20 (01:23:34):
Awesome, great to talk to you. Beautiful day two real
quick questions.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
Thank you.

Speaker 20 (01:23:38):
Eagle Turf Fund Eagle turf fungicide on Zoisia any temperature
that I need to be worried about or just get
it down.

Speaker 3 (01:23:48):
Just get it down, Just get it down. Zoezia has
its own set of diseases. Each turf species does. Some
of them they share.

Speaker 14 (01:23:54):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:23:54):
Zoiaza can get take all root right, just like Saint
Augustine can for example. Uh so, yeah, get it, get
that down, do it soon. Water it in the roots
of loysier will take it up, and it'll be in
the in the plant to help protect it.

Speaker 20 (01:24:07):
And that'll that Eagle turf will help that take all
root rot helpful.

Speaker 3 (01:24:14):
Yes it does. Yeah, Michael, Buttanhill is the ingredient in
eagle turf and it is an effective product against take
all root rot. There's there's two or three products that
work really well on take all them, Michael, butanill is
one of them. That's eagle turf.

Speaker 20 (01:24:28):
Gotcha another real quick question. I got so excited, but
got caught up and got my tomatoes in late insidet
just got him in last week. Uh, probably not going
to produce anything, right because these cool nights.

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
Yeah, that's that's the case. Unfortunately it's a little late.
But I mean you put a greenhouse over them, keep
it warm. You have tomato us. But yeah, yeah, that's
the case.

Speaker 18 (01:24:56):
Gotcha, all right?

Speaker 4 (01:24:57):
Perfect?

Speaker 10 (01:24:58):
Thank you. I appreciate everything you do for us.

Speaker 3 (01:25:01):
Yeah, Jeff, thanks for the call. Appreciate that. Uh let's
see where where are we going from here?

Speaker 10 (01:25:07):
With?

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
And I think next is Mark? Mark, Welcome to garden line.
How can we help?

Speaker 18 (01:25:13):
Thanks?

Speaker 16 (01:25:13):
Kim.

Speaker 24 (01:25:14):
Hey, I've got a problem with my neighbor's dove weeds
and now gotten into my yard. How can I control it?
I've got I've got the celsius. I've done it one application,
it doesn't seem to have affected it. And then and
then went to seeds. So what can I put down
and win for the seeds.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
At this point next spring? Those seeds aren't going to
germinate until it warms up. So go ahead and wait.
Get my schedule online at gardeningwith skip dot com. It
tells you when to put out pre emergence in the spring.
That's basically February celsius. Excuse me. Doveweed is a little
bit later to germinate, so if you bumped it till early.

(01:25:54):
If you're just going after dove weed, you can probably
bump it into early March and be okay on that
for that particular weed. But putting it down earlier is
fine too, Okay.

Speaker 10 (01:26:06):
Is the.

Speaker 24 (01:26:07):
Is there a selective pre emergent for it or is
it a general and barricade that work?

Speaker 3 (01:26:14):
Barricade will work, okay, And also there are some post
emergents that you can use. Is this a big area
or a small area?

Speaker 24 (01:26:22):
Well, you know, it took me about a gallon to treat.

Speaker 18 (01:26:25):
But what I what I treated?

Speaker 3 (01:26:27):
Okay, Yeah, that's what I would do. Hey, I got
to run to a break. If you need to follow
up on that, that's fine, just hang on, but I
got to run right quick here. Uh, we'll be right back, folks,
welcome back to guard Line. We're going to head out
to clear leg now and talk to Mark. Hey, Mark,
welcome to guard Line. Hey, good morning Skip. I had

(01:26:51):
a couple of questions.

Speaker 25 (01:26:52):
Well, one is I put down some new sod in
the backyard and I've been watering it like a fend
twice a day for the last two weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
And uh, you know, now there's no rain in our future.

Speaker 11 (01:27:05):
So should I what should I do?

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:27:08):
Should I back off to once a.

Speaker 16 (01:27:09):
Day on that?

Speaker 3 (01:27:11):
Yeah? For sure, Yeah, once a day is you did.
It was put in two weeks ago, and you've watered
it twice a day, you said, about ten days ago.
And I've been watering it in the morning and in
the evenings. Yeah, I got once a day for sure.
And and in fact, you know, as our temperatures cool off,
you may not have to water it every day. Now

(01:27:32):
that's that's ten days of that. It ought to be
rooting him pretty good. And so I just want to avoid.
You know, we got this two things going on, and
they're they're kind of the opposite of each other. One
of them is we want to water it often to
keep it wet to get those roots in successfully. Number two,
we want to we don't want to water very much
because we don't want to promote brown patch and fall disease.

(01:27:54):
And so oh you kind of you kind of have
to choose between the two. So I would back off
of that watering a little little bit. Once a day
should be fine. And you shouldn't have to put a
whole lot of water on when you water, you don't
don't put an inch on every day, you know, for example,
just just a little bit to get it going. Kind
of watch and see. You can also grab the turf
and real gently kind of pull on it, and you

(01:28:15):
can see, well, this is pegging down.

Speaker 20 (01:28:17):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:28:18):
There's a low resistance to me just lifting it up.
It's not like a throw rug.

Speaker 25 (01:28:23):
Ah Okay. The other question I had is I found
a bag of sweet green in the garage, so I
put that down last week. I didn't put it on
the new turf, but I put it on the rest
of the yard. What's your opinion about that sweet green?

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
Well, it's a good fertilizer. I you know, it's all nitrogen,
so generally this time of year we're going we're dropping
the nitrogen and bringing the phosphorus up in our fall fertilizers.
So I wouldn't I wouldn't generally recommend that for the falls.
It's a good fertilizer for summertime, especially when we are
wanting to push with a lot a nitrogen. It's not
going to hurt your lawn. But anyway, yeah, okay.

Speaker 25 (01:29:06):
And then the pre emergence that you've been talking about,
like barricade and such. I've seen those a day's hardware.
That's an awful small bag. It doesn't take much, is
that right?

Speaker 3 (01:29:21):
Yeah? No, it does not take much at all, and
so just follow the labels on the bag. I don't
have the rate in my head, okay, but follow the
labels on the bag and it'll tell you. But it'll
cover all the area you need to cover, that's for sure.
And don't overdo it. Don't overdo it.

Speaker 25 (01:29:40):
I did have found a little brown patch or in
the front yard, and I had this Eagle. I think
it's called Eagle twenty. It's a liquid Okay, I think
I got the name right. And then I just sprayed
a little bit. I didn't saturate, but I sprayed that
area just a little bit. But I mean it's still there.

(01:30:02):
It's not going away. I just kind of wanted it
to stop growing. Maybe I did something there. Yeah, no, No,
Eagle's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:30:11):
Eagle is a fungicide that is systemic and moves into
the plant, and so it's going to give you protection
for a period of time here. Okay, Hey, thanks for
taking my call. Skip have a good day. Well you bet,
Thanks for the call, and you have good rest of
your weekend. Appreciate that Erlin Soils has produced some of

(01:30:34):
the best products that I've ever used, really for improving
your soil. So you know, they're composts, they're blends, you know,
the veggie and urb mix and all the many many
products they have. Right now, I want to tell you
about a limited time deal they've gotten, and I mean
very limited. This deal ends next Saturday. Okay, so you
got to get it done. But it's a one cubic

(01:30:55):
yard super sack. They've got a new branded one cubic
yard super for airloom, soils and worms, rock and mulch,
and you can get it full of age leaf mold
compost and the sack you get to keep itself for
only ninety nine dollars. That's seventy five dollars savings per sack.
Again only through next Saturday. So this is perfect for

(01:31:17):
guarding and landscaping. But leaf Mo compost, it's excellent for
top dressing your lawn. It's excellent for use as compost
just any bed you're doing and redoing and mixing and
you know planting, you're gonna mix some composts in the soil.
Leaf Mo Compost is Cadillac stuff and you either have
to go out to porter to pick it up or
they'll deliver it. But there's a three sack minimum for delivery.

(01:31:40):
They're not going to say one sack and haul it
all over town. So you know then their spees for
delivery as well, of course, but whether you got a
truck or trailer, you can go out there and they'll
set it right in the in the truck. And there's
nothing neaterer and cleaner than a supersack. I mean, it's
just like big old grocery sack, but it holds a
qbyard of soil. Out there on fifty nine Access Road

(01:32:02):
and Porter, that's where you find Warrens Rock and Moltz.
That's where you pick up your airloom source products. They're
open from seven am to three pm on Saturday and
on close today, but they're open Monday through Friday from
seven am to four pm. So if you want a
book a delivery, go to Rock the letter in and
the word Maltch Rockendmulch dot com slash delivery or call

(01:32:26):
this number two eight one three five four nineteen fifty
two eight one three five four one nine five zero.
We're going to go now to Paarland and talk to Hal. Hello,
hol welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
Hey Skip, good morning, how you doing.

Speaker 3 (01:32:44):
I'm well sir.

Speaker 10 (01:32:46):
U.

Speaker 2 (01:32:46):
Yeah, you've covered this before, Skip, I just couldn't remember
what you'd said. I've got several bucks was here in
the backyard that have started getting I guess there's some
sort of fungus or something else pretty and green, dark green,
And then all of a sudden they'll have a limb
or two that'll start turning like a light tan and

(01:33:08):
it's obviously dead. Yeah, and it just slowly moves across
the whole plant. I end up having to take it out.
Is there cainy solution for this?

Speaker 18 (01:33:19):
Is it in the soil?

Speaker 3 (01:33:23):
It can be one of several things in the soil,
or nematodes and some root rits that can kill boxwood
above the soil is boxwood blight and some other types
of disease issues and like coal damage and other things
that can kill above ground. But none of that has
a oh go by this spray and put it on

(01:33:43):
it solution. It's just that they are what they are.
It's one of the reasons why I see boxwood declining
in terms of popularity around here.

Speaker 18 (01:33:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:52):
Yeah, I'm just wondering would it be a good idea
not to put something else not boxwoods back in the
place of these plants.

Speaker 18 (01:34:03):
Would it have any effect on a new plant?

Speaker 3 (01:34:08):
I would I would not put boxwood back in. When
you pull a boxwood up, it's pull one up right
for it's dead, but while it's still has some green
in it, but you just like the things, might as
well pull it up. It's done. Look at the roots,
take the soil off. Look for all little knots and
bumps along the routes that indicate nematodes. That's one thing
you need to know because once you put back in,

(01:34:31):
it needs to be nemotoad resistant. And if you don't
find those, then come up with some other kinds of
a shrub. There's a lot of things from Dorf, Jopond,
others that could kind of be a suitable substitute and
go with something different than the box Would that would
be my sub question?

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
Okay, all right, okay, uh yeah, I got one question
that has absolutely nothing to do with gardening.

Speaker 11 (01:34:53):
But what going to ask you? But I got to anyway,
there was a.

Speaker 2 (01:34:58):
Lady i'll work with worked with back in the eighties,
and I've always wondered if y'all are related or name
was artist Richter?

Speaker 3 (01:35:08):
No no relation, No artists in the family. All right, hell,
thanks a lot, all right, thank you, thank you, you
take care all right bye bye uh. Microlife fertilizers have
their fall fertilizer which is called brown patch Microlife brown patch,
and it's for putting down in the fall. I would

(01:35:30):
suggest that you also falls an important time also put
down micro grow bio andoculan. That's a maroon bag bio
inoculate micro grow bioinoculate sixty three different strains of beneficial microbes.
When you get beneficial microbes around plants, they have different effects.
Some just populate the plant surfaces and they make it

(01:35:53):
hostile for a disease sport of land and be successful.
Some of them actually interact with the roots. Several strains
and this bioinoculant interact with the roots to cause the
plant to become more disease resistance. It's kind of cool stuff.
It's science we've been learning about in these last few
years a lot, and it's a pretty amazing thing the

(01:36:15):
way the natural system works out there about micro grow bioinoculant.
Just do your brown patch and then come back load
up and do a micro grow bio inoculant application and
water it and really good. Give it a good watering,
and you're good to go for fall with your organic
lun care system. I'm going to head now to Katie
and talk to Scott. Hey, Scott, welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 11 (01:36:38):
Hey morning, Skip.

Speaker 12 (01:36:40):
I have the question about application rates of some of
the pre emergency Looking at your schedule and I like
barricade locks can easily find it locally. But I'm reading
the back of the package and there's a minimum and
a maximum, and reading some on the internet. I'm trying
to decide, you know, or told an earlier caller that
you know, little goes a long way. But yeah, should

(01:37:03):
I be going what what rate?

Speaker 11 (01:37:06):
Should I be.

Speaker 12 (01:37:06):
Putting that down to make sure I control weeds? You know,
read on the internet? Put it down all the maximum rate,
all all at once, But then I can only use
Barry King once a season. What what's the what should
I be doing? And what are the consequences of over application?
Am I just wasting money or causing damage?

Speaker 3 (01:37:29):
Yeah? That's a good question, and they're telling me it's
it's break time. I got to run for the news
and when we come back, let me tackle that. Scott.
We'd be happy to enter it. And Marty in Fairfield.
You'll be right up after Scott. Thanks folks for listening,
and I'll be right back head right out here in

(01:37:49):
just a moment back to the phones. I wanted to
mention a Star of Hope again to you and if
you you know, I consider people to be basically compassionate,
and but you want when you help someone for that
help to really help and not maybe just be part
of the problem or maybe just be a drop in
a nocean that doesn't accomplish much. Well, when you help

(01:38:12):
Star through Star of Hope, you are making a difference.
At last. Star of Hope takes good care of every
dollar and make sure it goes to changing lives. I've
seen the work they do. I have visited with folks
that have been through Star of Hope. I know what
I'm talking about on this. And for two dollars and
eighty five cents, you can provide a meal for a

(01:38:32):
homeless man or a woman or a family with kids.
You can go to Shmission dot org Sohmission dot org
and be part of providing over six thousand meals a
week that they do their at Star of Hope. Go
to Shmission dot org and would you join me and
being a supporter of Star Hope and putting your compassion

(01:38:53):
to work in a way that truly transforms lives and
not only helps the people, but certainly their children and
overall helps us in the Houston community as we turn
lives around Christ's name. Star of Hope does all that
they do. I'm going to move over now to Scott.

(01:39:16):
In Katie and Scott, we were talking about application rates
for barricade I believe when we left last time. So
the barricade bag does have a little bit of a
range on it. If you go with the higher end,
it lasts longer, It gives you more months or more

(01:39:36):
weeks if you will, of the protection out there. I'm
a little bit hesitant ongoing too strong on that stuff
because the way that a pre emergent works, almost all
the pre emergence on the market work by inhibiting root
growth in the grass. And so if you get the
levels up high enough, and especially during the growing season

(01:39:57):
when your grass is out there putting out runners and
trying to send roots into the ground, it can affect
that rooting in and people that overdo it can damage
their grass that way by preventing good root development. And
in the heat of summer that's very much needed this
time of year. I would say go probably with the
lower rate, and you're going to be okay, it's going

(01:40:17):
to carry you all the way up until spring anyway,
but you're going to be putting it on again as
part of the schedule that I have online, you'd be
putting it on in February. And so if you want
to go medium rate, that's fine, but I wouldn't go
high rate at this particular time of year. I don't
think it's needed. We're just not having to get it
to hold on. If you did a February application and

(01:40:39):
you wanted to last further into the summer, you could
go with a higher rate, but even then I like
to go more moderate on it.

Speaker 11 (01:40:47):
Okay, Well that answers the question.

Speaker 3 (01:40:51):
Okay, sir, you take care. Thank you for that question.
I appreciate that if you haven't met out to Arburgate,
you need to go check them out. Arburgate Garden Center
is one of those destination garden centers, one of the
true garden centers, the mom and pops, the independence here
in the Greater Houston area that we look to for
quality plants and quality advice. You know, when you go

(01:41:13):
to Arburgate right now, you're gonna find fall decorations. You're
going to find gift shops that are brimming with really
cool stuff, but you're going to find plants that are
perfect for our climate, perfect for the season, whether it's
fall vegetables and herbs, whether it's annual color. You know,
to spruce up those beds and make it look good

(01:41:34):
somebody coming over for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I get things
looking good out there. Arburgate can help you do that.
You know, there's no better season than fall for planting perennials,
tree shrubs and herbs. Why not go out to Arbrogate
and get the plants you need at the best time
to get them planted, and that is in the fall.
This is the season when garden centers should have a

(01:41:54):
line backed up two blocks down the street because this
is the season when you should be planting for the
best success. Why you're at Arbigate, grabbed their organic food complete,
their organic soil complete, and their organic compass complete. Three
bags that I'll call the brown stuff. Get them in

(01:42:16):
the ground, get that bed ready, and then when you
get an Arbigate plant, put in the ground. Number one,
you got the soil ready. Number two, you got a
good quality plant. Number three, you've got advice and service
there at the garden Center to help you have success
before and after the sale. Arbrogate dot com. That's their website.
They're located about a mile and a half west of
two forty nine on twenty nine twenty they're in Tumble.

(01:42:41):
And now we come to Marty, who gets the award
for waiting the longest time all day of anybody. Thank you, Marty,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:42:50):
That's fine, thank you. It's I killed all the dowly
on one whole side of my yard my house with ulster.
We'd beat her ultra and I've been raking it up.
It's a whole lot easier. It's to break up when
it's dead, and I don't want to put sod down

(01:43:11):
right now. I was thinking about bringing in some soil.
Need to know what to bring in to fill in holes, okay,
and to let it sit for the winter. What would
you recommend that you could?

Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
Yeah, I would do I would do a sandy loam
type soil for filling in that. You know, it's a
good solid soil, so when you fill in a hole.
It doesn't just end up sinking down over time, like
if you had a high compost material would decompose away
and sink back down. So you can find a good
sandy loan quality soil, that would be my option for that.

(01:43:51):
You know, then when spring comes, just a light kind
of rototilling or mixing of the surface. If you're able
to get a piece of equipment out there and do
that and then smooth it out to lay your sod on,
that would be kind of finalizing it and getting it
ready for the planting.

Speaker 8 (01:44:07):
Okay, is there anything else I need to do to
make sure that this dove weed doesn't come up again
and take over It literally took over the well.

Speaker 3 (01:44:15):
When you put Oh, I know, it's a mess when
you when you have killed it. Now, it's not going
to come up in the spring. In the winter, it's
it's too cold for that. Unless we just have some
really warm weather you might get some sprouting.

Speaker 10 (01:44:30):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:44:31):
And then when you put your sod down, the dove
weeds not going to push through the sod. Now, what
it'll do is if you've got a little gap between
the side pieces and there's some dove weed seeds or
whatever in there, they're going to sprout up, but you
could just roll carefully with a little post treatment, just
knock them out like you did with the uh, the

(01:44:52):
bonny weed beatter ultra you know at that time. But anyway,
I think you've done what you need to do for now,
and so it's just a matter of of waiting until
it's time to plant in the spring and then getting
that down maybe a light rototilling. You'll get a few
winter weeds that have come up in there. You could
put a pre emergent down now on the bear soil

(01:45:13):
because winter weeds are going to sprout and you're going
to end up with some winter weeds when you're ready
to plant. The rototilling could fix that. But if you
wanted to put down some barricade, now, go with the
lower rate, the lower rate of barricade, and that would
kind of help hold it until you get ready to
plant next March or April.

Speaker 8 (01:45:34):
All right, perfect, that's what I was thinking. I just
wanted to clarify it. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:45:41):
You got it, Thanks Marty, Thanks for that call. Time
for me to take a break. Folks will be right back.
Products you know, Benina's been around since Oh I don't
know a long time they've been. They're probably the oldest,
longest sponsor of Guardenline that they're back, Oh Doey Compton days.

(01:46:02):
I was talking to someone the other day that was
talking about, you know, listening to the radio back when
Ben Oldagg and Dewey Compton and different folks like that
were on before it was even called garden Line before
Randy Lemon certainly for me and Medina's sponsor since then.
And you know, a lot of you use their products.
Medina Soil Activator has been around for a long time

(01:46:24):
and a lot of people love it and swear by it.
And now they've got the Medina Plus, which is Medina
Sole Activator Plus. Over forty different trace elements. It's got
natural growth hormones from seaweed extract. It's got a number
of different mineral elements in it, you know, magnesium, iron, zinc,
things like that, as well as a lot of other
important ingredients that are part of plant growth support, things

(01:46:48):
like hormones, vitamins, different different things along those lines. Medina
cel Activator Plus will increase blooming and leaf growth, of course,
and promote fruit set on plants that do set fruit.
I would suggest right now. The front stage for Medina
Soil Active Miniina plus is transplanting. You put some of

(01:47:09):
that in water, follow the label. Mix it up. It's
not salt based. You will not burn plants with it.
You can use it as a foli or spray if
you want, but mix it in a can of water.
And when you put a plant in the ground, whatever
the plant is, just have your Medina so ILCTI beta
plus right there to drench over the top. Drench it
right over the foliage water that plan in. Soak it good,
get it all the way down in the root system
to get it off to a very very good start.

(01:47:31):
That may be an herb or an ornamental grass or
a perennial herb. Or it may be a vegetable or
a flower of a bedding plant flower or cool seasoned flour.
It may be a shrub or a tree, a rose
of vine whatever.

Speaker 22 (01:47:45):
It is just.

Speaker 3 (01:47:47):
One size fixed all when it comes to putting a
Medina Plus, drench over the top of those to get
them established for fall. Medina Plus widely available like other
Medina products, and it has long been proven and gardeners
can tell you that themselves. Medina Plus. I'm going to
head out now to Troy, Alabama and talk to Paul. Hey, Paul,

(01:48:08):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (01:48:10):
Good morning, skipt. I was just gonna make a suggestion.

Speaker 26 (01:48:14):
We were talking about catalysts a few weeks back, and
I dug mine up. They were in a ten by
ten bed and they were so route down from all
the boves that had grown that I dug them up
and reclaimed them, put a little compost stuff back in there.
But I think the problem was they just overgrew over years.
I was thinking about the guy with the asparagust what

(01:48:37):
kind of problems you now? But that's just a thought.
So thought, yeah, that's a good point, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:48:45):
Yeah, Well, if you're growing kalal lily's successfully, you're doing
a good thing because they're challenge for a lot of
folks to grow. Maybe conditions in Troy over there is
a little bit different than here. I don't know, but
it is true that your points will taken that a
lot of bulbs will and rhizome's plants will get kind
of crowded, and they benefit from getting divided periodically. Give

(01:49:06):
them a little room to grow.

Speaker 26 (01:49:08):
I say, take the exits, put them along the fence,
row in your neighbors or take them from me.

Speaker 3 (01:49:13):
So all right, okay, well, how great, Thanks for appreciate
to appreciate your call. You bet. We're gonna go now
to Jackie in Baytown. Hey, Jackie, welcome to guard Line. Oh,
thank you very much.

Speaker 16 (01:49:32):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:49:33):
I've got a problem.

Speaker 22 (01:49:34):
I have had a problem the last couple of years
with Virginia button popping up.

Speaker 3 (01:49:38):
It never had it before. It just popped up.

Speaker 11 (01:49:41):
And I was given.

Speaker 22 (01:49:42):
Information to use blindside, uh, to work against, and I've
been working to you know, patch my patch.

Speaker 11 (01:49:49):
Finally I thought I just about had it. It finally
come back again this year and what IF's Uh?

Speaker 22 (01:49:55):
I was wondering, is there something I can do this
time of the year that would help, you know, for
like in the spring if it pops back up again,
like a winter preventative or something that.

Speaker 3 (01:50:05):
Or do I just need to want a blind side? Yeah,
it's it is cooling off right now, and uh, the
Virginia button weed is not really interested in growing. It's
it's starting to chill out a little bit.

Speaker 21 (01:50:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:50:22):
The the blind side that's not normally available typically over
the retail counter.

Speaker 1 (01:50:29):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:50:29):
It has a mix of a couple of ingredients in it.
One of them is met sulfur on methyl, the other
self introzone. The met sulfur on methol. You want to
be careful with that ingredient. And therefore with the blind Side,
don't overapply it. Don't apply it and then overwater it in.
It's it's not made you know, the way you have
to water it in. It's just made for spraying on

(01:50:50):
the plant because you can damage some of your woody
ornamentals with it. But it is a it's a very
effective herbicide as opposed to mergent. I would I would
say when you see the virginia button weed making its
space show again, that would be a time, you know,
to go ahead and do a treatment like that for it.

(01:51:13):
I have you used Blindside before you on your lawns
or anything.

Speaker 22 (01:51:19):
You started using it last year, And I would spray
it right on the plaid kind of go find the
virginia button, kind of do the little twist, pull it
out of the grass where it was above, spray it
and then wait till it to turn brown and go
back and pull it out, you know, and get the
root and everything. And it seemed to be effective that way.
But like I said, it's a little slow. You have
to go place by place, and of course my neighbors

(01:51:40):
just popping up in there. Then it jump back into
my yard, so I'm having to kind of treat their
yard too.

Speaker 3 (01:51:45):
So right, yeah, we'll just make sure your turf's in
really good health. If it's stressed or coal damaged or
you know, damaged from drought or whatever kinds of things.
You don't want to just apply that blind side to it.
You want to be in good, strong health, all of
that label. Carefully, very very important to mix it right,
apply it right, look for any restrictions you know that

(01:52:06):
they give you in terms of using it. Sometimes you
get a little discoloration and yellowing from that particular product.
But just just be careful with it. But yeah, and
for right now, what I would do on Virginia button weed.
I know you don't want to be on your hands
and knees, but if I had it in my lawn,
which I happen to not have that weed, thank goodness currently,

(01:52:26):
but getting it out of there by hand pulling some
I know, breaking it off. It's going to break off,
and you're not You're not eliminating the plant by pulling it.
It breaks off. But you're all those seed pods that
are along the stem. You can get those out of there,
and so you're really cutting down on the amount of
seed for next year by doing the best you can

(01:52:48):
getting as much of it out as you can. And
I know that's difficult because it intertwines with your grass. Yes,
like a carpet. It's your eyes, doesn't it. Yeah. And finally, Jackie,
just keep that watering down, you know, a good soaking
on a very infrequent basis. The more you water, the
happier and more vigorous Virginia button weed is. So we

(01:53:11):
tend to water more than our Saint Augustine needs. Too little,
too often is what's typical. But if you can let
it dry on a little bit between waterings, it will
at least slow down the Virginia button weed, making it
easier to get ahead of it. Okay, all, well, thank
you very much, sir, have a good we Thank you.

(01:53:32):
I appreciate appreciate your call. You bet, you bet, you
take care. Uh. You know, if you're looking for any
kind of product, especially ones that are harder to find,
like we've been talking about, Southwest Fertilizer has got them,
you know, Bob doesn't have it. You don't need it,
because he has everything. If I talk about a fertilizer
and a sect a side, a fungicide on guardenline, Bob's
got it, and including things like as might if you

(01:53:55):
need a tool, if you need hoses, garden hoses, if
you need the law on more blade sharping, by the way,
go ahead and get that done now before there's a
rush in the spring. He can do it. Small engine
repair they got shopping back. Tell him you need one
of those kneeling benches. I keep telling you about that
of Southwest Fertilizer. That's the tool. You're gonna you give

(01:54:15):
that as a gift, and you just wait. People are
gonna love it. They may look at it and go hmm, okay,
just tell them. Don't tell them I said, it's because
they're old, because as you get old, you need you
need a kneeling bench more. But don't tell them that.
But anyway, how about one for my sister who is
significantly older than me, A fact that I like to

(01:54:36):
point out to her whenever I get a chance.

Speaker 10 (01:54:38):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:54:39):
And after I watched it, well, I thought, you know
what I gotta get knew one of those and I did.
I was talking like that's cool anyway. Just one of
the things you get at Southwest Fertilizer dot Com corner
of bus Nut and run.

Speaker 10 (01:54:52):
With welcome to KTRH. Guarded line with skip rictor.

Speaker 7 (01:54:58):
So just watch him as we.

Speaker 3 (01:55:13):
May give a piece SUPs.

Speaker 2 (01:55:23):
A sign.

Speaker 3 (01:55:27):
All right, here we go. We got another hour left
today and we are kicking it off right here. Looking
forward to your calls if you'd like to give us
call seven one three two one two k t r
H seven one three two one two k t r H.

(01:55:47):
I have really looking forward to getting out in my
garden this this week. I you know, sometimes I just
get busy with horticulture business and other activities and things,
and I just kind of hard to get back around
get out in the garden. And there's a lot of
things that could be done right now. I've got a
couple of flower beds I'm fixing to get planted. Do

(01:56:10):
you know, by the way, did you know that that
means you're from Texas if you say fixing too. I didn't.
I grew up saying it and I didn't know that
was a thing. And until someone goes what is fixing
to me? Well, it means the same thing as calling
a reservoir a tank, and you all grow up doing that.
It's a tank. Okay. Anyway, I'm fixing to get out

(01:56:32):
there in the flower beds and get them planted. I've
got some beautiful gingers, two different kinds of ornamental ginger,
and if you haven't grown ornamental ginger before, you ought to.
It is a great plant. A lot of the gingers, well,
there's many different species and they each have their pros
and cons. The kind I'm planting is butterfly ginger Jadicium.

(01:56:55):
That's the genus, and there are a couple of different
ones that I have that I'm really looking forward. I've
never grown before, so I'm looking forward to getting those
planted out there. They are typically a late summer bloomer,
early fall, and so those need to get done. There's
a lot of other plants that are just waiting on me.
You know, they're in pots, and hopefully I remember to
water them, keeping them alive long enough time get out

(01:57:16):
there and get them planted. But I do practice what
I preach in this. I'm not going to put a
plant in the ground without preparing the soil. If you
want a Peter piper tongue twister is don't PLoP a
plant into an unprepared plot. That is the way to
remember it. Don't pop a plant into an unprepared plot.
So anyway, I am getting it ready and here we go.

(01:57:36):
This week's the planting week. We're going to get it done.
I mentioned, you know, I was talking about south As
fertilizer before we went to break. Bob is going to
provide you. I mentioned fertilizers and pesticize. What I always
want to remind people is when you hear people talk
about pesticides and fertilizer, organic gardeners often are like, yeah,
I don't use that stuff, Well you do? You just

(01:57:57):
use your organic versions of it, Okay. And when it
comes to the best supply of organic products in town,
the widest supply, Sophist Fertilizer is going to have it.
They stock a wide selection of things that are natural
as well as synthetics in their products. So just keep
that in mind. I'm going to go now to Katie, Texas,

(01:58:21):
and we're going to talk to Wally. Hello, Wally, Welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (01:58:26):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:58:26):
Chip got a question on our favorite topic, Virginia button weed.
I've been inundated in a couple areas on lawn, especially
some low areas, and I've pulled it up like a
cheaper rug. That stuff's amazing. Yeah, that question is. And
I've got some of these are in some low depression

(01:58:49):
areas and my intent is to backfield what's some new
top soil, then put more augustine down sod what you
know once that when you pull this stuff up, it
seems like the you know, the top and that most
of the roots come with it with a lot of
the soil. But is there still some root systems stuck

(01:59:10):
in the ground. Do I need to till that up
before I put the.

Speaker 20 (01:59:17):
Uh?

Speaker 10 (01:59:17):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:59:17):
Well are you tilling it?

Speaker 10 (01:59:20):
Is?

Speaker 3 (01:59:20):
Just if the soil is hard, you want to loosen
it up for a good sid to soil contact. But
I would scrape everything off the surface in those low areas,
you know, just scrape you get all the virginia button,
we get all the grass and everything, and that way
you don't have to spray it there and then put
your soil down to level it out, and then put
your side on top and you should be good to go.

(01:59:41):
Just be ready because you know it's gonna pop up
here and there, you're gonna miss a seed or two
or who knows what. Uh, just be ready to treat
as needed.

Speaker 5 (01:59:50):
And before I put the on new top soil, before
I put the side down, should I bring anything to
help the new root system?

Speaker 18 (01:59:58):
Take check.

Speaker 5 (02:00:00):
I've heard you talk about something breaking down to help
the break down the clay in the sod.

Speaker 3 (02:00:11):
So you're outing, Katie, and you typically don't have high
sodium soils out there. So because you don't, putting gypsum
down is not going to be helpful to your soil
out there. So the main thing is if you wanted
to amend the soil with a little bit of a
composting material, you could do that. Just loosening it up

(02:00:32):
is good, you know, seeing augustine will grow on just straight,
unimproved clay. All the sod farms, we got thousands of
acres of sod around Texas, and all these sod farms
down on the Gulf Coast they're on basically a lot
of them are on clay soil, some not, but and
the sod grows just fine on pure clay. So there's
not a real need to have to do major amendments

(02:00:55):
to it. You just want to get the nutrition right
in the soil and that's what our fertilizing does.

Speaker 5 (02:01:01):
Okay, well, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (02:01:04):
Okay, all right, thank you. I appreciate you call very much.
You take care. Yeah, that is important to remember. Hey,
I'm going to be at RCW Nursery's next Saturday. Remember
RCW is the garden center right there where a belt
way e comes into Tomball Parkway Highway to forty nine.

(02:01:24):
RCW is the get it got at nursery. Meaning well,
first of all, they probably have it already, but if
they don't give them a call, they don't have it.
They'll do their best to find it. You're going to
find a great selection right now really of herbs, perennials,
coo season annuals, shrubs, and native plants. You know, they
got those specials going on where we're talking about fifteen
percent off of trees at RCW Nursery. I mean that

(02:01:47):
is a good deal, right, a good deal. When you
go to RCW, you're going to find everything that you
need to have success in your lawn, your garden, your landscape.
That is just what they specialize in. And when you
get good advice from a good nursery like RCWU are
going to have success with what you do. Come out

(02:02:07):
and see me next Saturday from twelve to two. Twelve
to two RCW Nursery, They're going to have their fall Fling.
That means we're gonna have fun. We're gonna have a
barbecue lunch, we're gonna have some prizes, we're gonna have
some games, and then just you and I visiting talking
about plants. So we had a great time when we
go out to those kind of places. I had a
great time last time I was at at RCW Nursery.

(02:02:30):
I always love folks coming up. Gardeners are so enthusiastic
and hopeful. And let's just kick off the rest of
this fall with a good fall fling out there RCW
next weekend. I want to go now to Leslie in
a Missouri city. Hey, Leslie, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 1 (02:02:46):
Thank you, Good morning Skip. I have two questionships that
are right.

Speaker 3 (02:02:51):
I have a yes.

Speaker 1 (02:02:53):
The first one is actually you may have answered it
with the previous caller.

Speaker 3 (02:02:57):
I have a.

Speaker 1 (02:03:00):
Called a fire bed. It was an area where I
had a tree and a semicircular area about fifteen twenty
feet in diameter, and so I've just taken it down
to ground level and I'm going to put.

Speaker 11 (02:03:13):
Sod on it.

Speaker 1 (02:03:14):
And I had had read a starter fertilizer was good,
but I've got like a half a bag of nature's
resources when a riser fertilizer, and I was wondering if
I could just use that instead.

Speaker 3 (02:03:32):
Yeah, go ahead, you don't not this fall, not this
fall on the sod. I mean, if you want to
put a little bit down, that'd be fine, but especially
the potassium the last number, the third number. But if
you just want to lay it down, get it watered in.
I planted sod this past spring and I did not
fertilize for months. I couldn't get around to it, and
I was surprised at what a good fertilizer charge came

(02:03:56):
in with the soil and the sod. So don't feel
like you have to fertilize right now. Wait until spring,
and then when you've mowed the lawn twice, put out
some fertilizer and it'll be good to go.

Speaker 4 (02:04:07):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 3 (02:04:08):
And the second question, Leslie, Yeah, I'm gonna have I'm
sorry to interrupt you. I've got to go to a break.
Hang on, we'll come back with your second question. All right, folks,
seven one three two one two kt r HB right back.
All right, welcome back to Guardline. Good heavy with us,
looking forward to talking to you about the things that

(02:04:30):
you're interested in as a gardener. We're going to head
straight back out to Leslie and Missouri City.

Speaker 11 (02:04:35):
Leslie.

Speaker 3 (02:04:36):
We were we were halfway through your question, and I
think you kind of had a follow up.

Speaker 1 (02:04:42):
Yes, thank you.

Speaker 10 (02:04:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:04:44):
My other question is I've heard, I think you and
a number of others say that follow us actually a
good time to plant new shrugs. But is it a
good time to transplant shrucks I've got I've got some
shrubs that have kind of grown together and I want
to move.

Speaker 4 (02:04:58):
Some of them.

Speaker 3 (02:05:00):
It is the best time to transplant. In fact, you transplant,
you can plant during the summer and get away with it.
You try to transplant during the summer and you're gonna
be up a creek. So yes, get that done. Dig
it up, Get wider rather than deeper. You don't have
to dig two feet deep, but you need to dig
wider in about maybe eight inches or so deep. And

(02:05:22):
then what I do to keep from hurting my back
is I'll dig around a circle kind of almost like
a little trench maybe eight inches deep around it, and
then take a flat shovel and go underneath that and
slide a tarp underneath it, and you kind of lean
the plant one way, slide the tarp under, and then
lean the plant the other ways. You cut roots and

(02:05:42):
slide it up onto the tarp. And that way you
never have to pick You never have to pick it up.
You can just grab that tarp and drag it to
the new spot and slide it right into the spot.
If there is an obstruction where you can't drag it.
Two people grabbing the four corners of a tarp can
pick something up that's quite heavy without hurting your back.

(02:06:03):
You don't stoop at all.

Speaker 4 (02:06:05):
Gotcha.

Speaker 5 (02:06:06):
That sounds like a great plan, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (02:06:10):
Yeah, just be patient and be careful because you don't
want to you don't want to put your kids. Uh,
you don't want to have to put your chiropractice kids
through college. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (02:06:20):
I'm sorry, would you say that again?

Speaker 1 (02:06:22):
I interrupted?

Speaker 3 (02:06:24):
I just said, you don't want to put your cairo
practice kids through college, so so be careful with lifting
that stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:06:33):
Okay, that sounds like a really good plan. Should I
amend the soil where I'm sent taking it.

Speaker 3 (02:06:39):
To uh in the entire bed area, Yes, but not
in the planting hole. So if you if you want
to mix in some composts to a large area and
then dig the hole to plant, that's fine. But don't
dig a hole and put compost in it.

Speaker 24 (02:06:56):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (02:06:56):
Okay, that's good because I'm glad I asked because that's
exactly what I would have done. Okay, Thanksgiving?

Speaker 3 (02:07:02):
Yeah, I know, it's what a lot of people do.
You bet you take care of you know night fussis Texas.
Three step I keep telling you about it because it
is time to do it. That three steps are fall fertilizer, barricade,
weed preventter, and eagle turf fungicide disease prevent so fall

(02:07:26):
special barricade eagle Simple as that you do all three.
You do them all the same day. If you want,
don't put them all in the same hopper, but do
it all on the same day. Put out the fertilizer
at the proper rate, follow the bag label. Put out
the barricade at the proper rate, even a little on
the low end of the rate. At this point in
the season you can do that. It just stays within

(02:07:48):
that rate and then the Eagle Turf fungicide put it
out at the proper rate, watter it all in, get
it in the ground. Even that even the fungicide will
be taken up by the roots of the plant and
it will give you protection against weeds sprouting for fall.
It will give your turf the strength that needs to
go through winter and come out strong. And it'll prevent

(02:08:09):
diseases like take all root rot and like brown patch
or large patch in your lawn. Now you're gonna find
this type of product Night FoST Products at D and
D Feed and Tombaal Plantation, Ace Hardware, and Richmond Hiding
and Feed on Stubner Airline. You're going to find it
at Ace Hardware and Sico Ranch, the Arborgate and Tomball
and Shades of Texas down in southeast Houston on Genoa

(02:08:32):
Red Bluff will also carry that. We're going to head
now to sugar Land and talk to Patty. Hello, Patty,
Welcome to Guardenline.

Speaker 21 (02:08:40):
Good morning, Skip. I have this Meyer lemon that's about
going on its third year. The first and second year
it blossomed and it put out a little baby fruit,
but it aborted all of it. But this year, right now,
it's totally green. It looks healthy, but it's in a

(02:09:01):
sunny location and it's not blossoming at all.

Speaker 1 (02:09:06):
It's all green.

Speaker 3 (02:09:08):
Okay, okay, well just be patient with it. It'll it'll
settle in and it'll it'll be back in a blooming cycle.

Speaker 7 (02:09:15):
Here.

Speaker 3 (02:09:16):
I don't know exactly why there's not blooms on it
any particular time. I mean, you've got good sunlight, that's important,
that's needed. If it looks healthy, that means you're watering
it and not letting it go into drought stress, because
that can cause some problems with blooming and holding on
to fruit.

Speaker 21 (02:09:33):
I can ask fertilizer or no anything so encourage you know.

Speaker 3 (02:09:40):
I don't recommend, yeah, I don't recommend fertilizing this time
of year on something that's already kind of cold tender,
because to push new growth and then have cool weather,
it's even less cold hearty than if you didn't. Okay,
so let's wait until spring and then begin fertilizing it
again and get you a good centris fertilizer. We got
a number of great brands out there on the market

(02:10:03):
by the various people. You hear me talk about here,
get a good fertilizer, put it down, follow the label,
get it, keep it watered in. And I think I
think next spring you'll be back in the blooming business.

Speaker 21 (02:10:13):
Okay, okay. I thought about, you know, going and buying
some bees or something.

Speaker 3 (02:10:20):
All right, well, you know, if if you have if
you have blooms, you need bees. But I bet there's
enough bees unless you're just spraying and killing them all.
No doubt you're doing that.

Speaker 21 (02:10:29):
So I mean, my tomato plants and my pepper plants
have flowers, but they're blooming.

Speaker 18 (02:10:37):
There.

Speaker 3 (02:10:37):
You go, all right, well, well, you know sometimes plants
just do different things, and so I just say, relaxed,
it'll be okay, It'll be okay next year.

Speaker 21 (02:10:47):
Okay, thank you, Skip, I have a great thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:10:53):
I appreciate your call. You bet, Patty, You take care
and a really wonderful rest of your weekend. You know,
ACE Hardware is where you get pretty much anything you
need to have success with your garden and landscape. I mean,
they specialize in that that the motto for aces ace
is the place, and that's true whether you're talking about

(02:11:13):
paint or plumbing or electrical or whatever. It's definitely true
when you're talking about your lawn. Do you need fertilizers,
Do you need weed control? Do you need disease control?
Do you need garden hoses and sprinklers and hose and
shovels and rakes and everything else you could possibly want
for your landscape and for your lawn. They've got it
there at your local Ace Hardware store. You know, there's

(02:11:35):
forty Ace Hardware stores in the Greater Houston area, so
it's really easy to find yours. If you want to
see a little map, kind of cool map also to
find the ones near you. There may be some fairly
close you're not aware of. Go to Acehardware dot com
and find the store locator and just put your zip
code in there, and what you're going to see is
a lot of red dots all over the place. And

(02:11:57):
that's true here in Houston, of course. It's true. You
got friends in Austin that need to know where an
ACE Hardware is with they can use Ace Hardware Store Locator.
It's all over the country, but here in the Houston
area we are really fortunate to have some awesome, awesome
Ace Hardware stores. While you're there, grab if you've not
put out bait for fire ants yet, get that out too,

(02:12:17):
because fall is the best time to get those baits out.
We say fall is football season, right, So AGR Life
Extension Entomology used to have a program called tackle fire
Ants in the Fall, just reminding you it's time for
football season. It's time to tackle fire ants. You put
a bait out and knock those things down severely. If
not a removing them in your spring's gonna be a

(02:12:40):
lot better as a result of that. Nobody likes ants
in the pants, that is for sure. All right, let's
see where are we heading now. We're heading to Baytown
to talk to Sandy. Hello Sandy, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 27 (02:12:54):
Hi, thank you, thank you, thank you. My question is
is about fifty years ago I made a mistake by
putting down a four inch pot of that little tiny leaf.
I think it's a jasmine that they have around hospitals.

Speaker 19 (02:13:10):
And office buildings.

Speaker 1 (02:13:13):
It's a low grower.

Speaker 27 (02:13:14):
Well, it's taken over my backyard and I wanted to
do something safely to remove it without messing up to
eat because system. But I really need to get rid
of it.

Speaker 1 (02:13:26):
It's a monster.

Speaker 3 (02:13:30):
Yeah, yeah, okay, assuming that's Asian jasmine based on your
description fIF so you would first up would be you
could just scrape it off the soil, just you know,
have some make it out there and basically scrape everything
off the surface and just under the surface. You know,

(02:13:50):
you hoe underneath the surface kind of horizontally. Not chopping down,
didn't it, but just dragging a ho horizontally under the surface.
Just rip it all out of there and get it
all out with as much of the stem and roots
and everything as you can. That will not eradicate it.
You're always going to have some behind that will pop up,
so you just have to have to deal with that.
But the alternative to that is to apply a herbicide

(02:14:12):
that kills it in a way that doesn't damage of
the plants, and a wiper applicator is the way to
do that. Products containing trichlope here t R I C
l O P y R are very effective for doing that.
For doing that, if you spray will carefully, you can
do it, or you can do a wiper applicator to

(02:14:34):
put it on there. Some people say that it helps
to get like a weed eater, a mower or something
and kind of chop it up real good and then
and then spray on it that exposes some cut surfaces
and things. However you want to go about it, just
know you're going to be doing it again. One thing
is not going to fix it all. Hey, Sandy, I'm
gonna have to run to a commercial if you want

(02:14:55):
to hang around and keep talking. If not, thanks, Thanks
for calling Garden Line, folks. I'll be right by. Good
to be back here on guard Line with you, and
we are going to jump right into the phone calls
and go to Bill in Galveston. Hey, Bill, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 10 (02:15:12):
Hi.

Speaker 15 (02:15:13):
I got two questions for you. First one has to
do with how I put Barricane on my along on Saturday.
How do I have to wait before I put the
fertilneser on?

Speaker 3 (02:15:23):
Not at all. You can do it immediately and then
watering both them all right? Yeah.

Speaker 15 (02:15:30):
Second question, I had a Sego pond take it out
about two years ago, and I try of grass to
grow there, but it's always turning brown on me.

Speaker 3 (02:15:39):
Any suggestions, hmm, turning brown wonder why? Well, I don't
know that the Sego did that. It probably you know,
brown grass can be due to drought or disease, or
possibly in sets. But do you feel like you're watering
it adequately.

Speaker 15 (02:15:59):
I'm watering it everything days automatically.

Speaker 3 (02:16:03):
Yeah, that ought to be enough. If you're putting enough
water down, that ought to be enough. I'm not sure
why it's turning out, and it's only turning brown right
where the sego was right.

Speaker 15 (02:16:11):
I was wondering there's some kind of chemical or something
of the Sago crimes you've created the cause of the problem.

Speaker 3 (02:16:18):
I don't think so. I've never heard of that, and
I've never seen that either. Otherwise around segos we'd see
grass dyeing. I don't know what to tell you. If
you want to send me a picture of the area,
maybe from a distance, and then get up close and
take a real close picture where I can see the
actual symptoms on the grass, make sure it's in sharp focus.
I'd be willing to take a look and see if

(02:16:40):
there may be something appears in that area that I'm
not picturing in my mind right now. But I'd be
happy to have you take a look. If you'd like
to go that route, Okay, I'll do that.

Speaker 15 (02:16:52):
Probably won't get to you till next week, though, because
I'm I'm getting ready.

Speaker 3 (02:16:56):
To okay, yeah, sure, do you have an email or
do you need one? I'll need one. Okay, hang on.
I'm going to put you on hold and Chris will
pick Yeah, Chris will pick up the phone. Call here
in just second and he'll give you an email. Thanks
a lot, Bill, see if we can help you further.
All right, you are listening to Garden Line, and we

(02:17:17):
are here to help you have a more bountiful garden
and a more beautiful landscape. I think that it is,
you know, just first of all, thanks for listening. I
appreciate that we want to help you do that, and
we do that by giving you good advice. If we can,
you know, help you in some way, well then that

(02:17:38):
is exactly what we would like to do. So give
me a call. Seven one three two one two k
t r H seven one three two one two kt
r H. Have you noticed cracks in your brick on
the outside of the home or maybe cracks in the
sheet rock inside. Typically those cracks are going to start
at a window corner and go down or up to

(02:17:58):
the floor or ceiling, maybe a door that's sticking inside.
Those are all signs of foundation movement. And you need
to call fix my slab foundation repair. That's Tai Strickland's company.
He's been in business for over twenty three years now,
and ty knows what he's doing. I would, if I
were you, I would just give him a call two

(02:18:19):
eight one, two five five forty nine forty nine, have
him come out and look. Tell him you're a guardline listener.
It's a free estimate for garden line listeners. And ty
is not one who jumps the gun. You know, Oh,
I see a tiny crack. You got to have all
this foundation repair. He'll look at it and he'll tell
you whether it needs it or not. You know, it's
not unusual for foundations to get older to have a

(02:18:39):
little movement that just welcome to the soils and climate
we live in. That happens, but at times it is
something you need to jump on before it becomes a
major problem. And Ti is a native Houstonian, fifth generation
Texan by the way. And one thing I like about
Tye is his goals are to show up on time.

(02:19:01):
Oh my gosh, don't you wish every service person that
came to your house showed them on time. That's one
of Ty's commitments and secondly, to price it fair.

Speaker 11 (02:19:11):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (02:19:12):
And then to fix it right, what more do you
ask for? You show up on time, you give me
a fair price, and when you fix it, you do
a good job. That's fix my slab foundation repair. That's
how Ty Strickland does business. Go to the website fixmyslab
dot com find out more. Maybe your driveway is heaving
and cracking, maybe it's a sidewalk. He can handle those two.

(02:19:33):
He knows how to do it, and he can advise
you on all the other things about how to minimize
foundation damage, things that are in your power, not in
your power to do. Give him a call two eight one,
two five five forty nine, forty nine. We're gonna head
now to the heights and talk to Clark. Hello Clark,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (02:19:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 18 (02:19:55):
I have a problem.

Speaker 4 (02:19:56):
I've basically lost ninety percent of my bro as, particularly
after the ground that we add recently, so I ded
some ideas on how to either replaced it, have somebody
come in and soide it, or what's the best way
to go about that.

Speaker 3 (02:20:19):
Well, first of all, at this point in the season,
I think i'd i'd focus on, you know, getting any
spots leveled out that you need to get leveled out
in the area and get that grass planted next spring
when it's going to take off running and grow. And
if you need to plant it now, you can put
saw down it just the root growth and development and

(02:20:41):
everything as much slower as we get into cooler weather
and so I you know, and we're kind of on
the line. You could plant it now or you could wait.
If it mine, I think i'd if there's any work
to be done. You know, you got some roots sticking
up above the surface. You got to kind of smooth
that out and get soiled up there where you don't
have roots sticking up out or low areas things. I'd
get all that work done now. If you got any

(02:21:02):
perennial weeds that have been giving you trouble, maybe bermuda
is invading your Saint Augustine or some other weed issue,
I'd take care of all that and then in the spring,
gets you some grass down. Otherwise you can plant it now.
You just have to, you know, find good local source
on grass. We got a number of them throughout the
Greater Houston area. Here where you can get some turf

(02:21:22):
and put it in is the area pretty shady.

Speaker 18 (02:21:27):
Yeah, idio is big.

Speaker 4 (02:21:31):
The contrary is sort of just taking all the water
out of the backyard. In the front yard, I have
a red oak created all around it is just dirt
and so obviously have water.

Speaker 3 (02:21:43):
Know, well, that could be the light too, you know,
even Saint Augustine, which is probably your most shade tolerant option,
Even Saint Augustine, if it didn't get enough light, it's
just going to go downhill. So you may want to
stop and kind of rethink do you want to go
back with grass there? You know, it may be that
a shade loving groundcover or some other options you may

(02:22:06):
need to consider. If you feel like there's enough light
for grass, then replant. But those shade trees, they're beautiful,
and you know in the heights you got some gorgeous
trees in there. But sometimes it's just the dense that
lawn ceases to become an option. So that's the only
caveat that I would throw out there for you to consider.

Speaker 4 (02:22:30):
Yeah, well we've got a garage doing closing part of that.
But it's grown in the past. I've been here a
very long time and it's never done this before in
like fifty years and I've never had this bad problem before,
so I'm thinking it's mostly the crees and the fact
that I didn't water. Yeah, it could be because always
came back.

Speaker 3 (02:22:50):
Yeah, because I thought I would everyone. Yeah, that's true.
Every one of those fifty years has been getting shadier
and shadier, you know, as the trees.

Speaker 4 (02:22:59):
Yeah, I wouldn't at some point.

Speaker 3 (02:23:04):
Yeah, at some point, you know, it kind of crosses
the line where the grass cannot get enough energy from
the sun to sustain itself. And then it gets in
this week and stay. It's kind of like our bodies,
you know. We get tired, we get weak, we're not
eating rye or whatever, and suddenly you get sick more often,
and the grass is the same way. And as that's

(02:23:25):
something that is being more and more taken away, you
kind of hit a point where suddenly it's going downhill
and then diseases are worse and it's more susceptible to
drought and other things. So anyway, just.

Speaker 11 (02:23:37):
Something to think about.

Speaker 3 (02:23:38):
But good luck with that. Thank you for calling. I
appreciate that, and I do wish you you take care.
I'm sorry I had to run there. Yeah, that would
be a good thing for me to ask I know
you're in the heights. I know Buchanan's keeps grass certain
times of the year there, and so you might be
able to get some over there, or give them a

(02:23:59):
call and ask them, ask them who around that area
they would would recommend if they don't have the turf
on hand there off the top of it. Okay, okay,
good luck with you, sir, Thank you appreciate your call.
Bye bye. UH Nelson Plant Food. You know, they're the

(02:24:21):
ones that have the turf Star Carbolode, which is a
combination of a fall fertilizer and a pre emergent that
you put it down, you water it in, and you
covered both bases weed prevention, so those cool season weeds
which are sprouting soon aren't able to get established. And
then finally they are secondly the UH fertilizer that's an
ideal blend, perfect for fall, perfect for helping your grass

(02:24:44):
go into winter strong and come out strong. From Nelson
Plant Food. Now they also have Neuster Star Genesis, which
is what I would recommend for fertilizing new transplants in.
So here's here's the way I would use that, and
no way I do use that. You you wrinkles some
into the potting mix of what you are going to
use to repot a plant. Okay, so you've got a plant,

(02:25:06):
you're going to move it into bigger pot. This putting
soil you're gonna put in there. Mix some carbel load
in a carbon to no not carbon genesis, mix some
genesis into it. It is a natural fertilizer loaded with
microizo bacteria and other fungi that kind of helped that
soil microbiome. It's not a salt based product, and so
you can use it in the planting hall without burning

(02:25:27):
plant roots. In fact, it really helps if you're gonna
put a rose bush in out in the garden bed,
mix some genesis into that soil and then plant the rose.
It just it just works. It works very very well.
It comes in the jars with a screw top lid,
doesn't take a lot. You're just kind of mixing it in.
So when those new roots come out, they've got some

(02:25:47):
good stuff loaded with good microbes that are there to
help them to thrive, and your plants just get off
to a better start, much less transplant shock and issues,
better early growth. All of that from neutral star genesis
from Neilson Plant Food. We are going to go out
to Terry Sue in the gallery and now, hey, Terry Sue,

(02:26:07):
welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 11 (02:26:12):
Hi Skip, I'm calling about the use of expanded shale.

Speaker 28 (02:26:18):
Okay, Gey, I know that you've talked about you need
more than you think you need, and I've bought several
bags of it and I've got it.

Speaker 3 (02:26:29):
Okay, three inches deep?

Speaker 4 (02:26:31):
Now I mix it in?

Speaker 28 (02:26:33):
Right?

Speaker 11 (02:26:34):
How much do I mix it in?

Speaker 3 (02:26:36):
How deep?

Speaker 10 (02:26:39):
You know?

Speaker 3 (02:26:39):
If you can get it? Yeah, if you can mix
it in about six inches, that would be good because
that's a good chunk of the root zone right there.
I have seen research on it where it does best
if you can put two or three inches on the
surface and mix all of that in. And here's why.
Just for a kind of an example, imagine you had

(02:27:00):
modeling clay in your hands and you took just a
little sprinkling of kitty litter and put it in there
and then modeled it around. You would have clay with
a few pieces of kitty litter in it, and that
wouldn't accomplish much. But what if you put as much
kitty litter as you had clay and mixed it around.
Now you've got something chucky that breaks apart. It doesn't
stick together so much because it's got so much of

(02:27:22):
the kitty litter in it. Right, Well, expanded shale is
basically like a super hot fired former clay dried material
that now has big pores in it. And it works
really well. But the more you get on the soil,
the better it does. And it lasts longer than organic
matter because it doesn't break down like organic matter. It

(02:27:42):
stays open a little bit better. Yeah, well, so that's
that's the principle. There's not a magic number like you
have to put this much out, but I can just
tell you two or three inches as best.

Speaker 28 (02:27:53):
Well, I've dug it down about a foot until I
hit the oh okay and removes the big itchy chunky.
I removed as much of the of the clay as
I could, and so I hit the part was really solid,

(02:28:13):
and then I put the expanded shale on top of
that and was going to mix it in and then
add other stuff with organic material and soil and mix
it in and just kind of go from there on top.

Speaker 5 (02:28:28):
And then should I put some.

Speaker 11 (02:28:30):
On top of it?

Speaker 3 (02:28:33):
Well, only mix it in if you put it, if
you sprinkle it on top, mix what you sprinkled in,
because it doesn't help you on top of the soil.
It helps you in the soil. And the deeper you
work the soil, that's more volume. So, going back to
my modeling clay and kitty litter example, if you double
the amount of clay you're dealing with, you got to
double amount the expanded shail you put in in order

(02:28:55):
to have that good effect. So, yes, their organic materials
not just fine in compost, but like a chunky you know,
decomposed pine bark and things like that. Mix that in
as well as you can as also, and it's also
very helpful. You're going to create a real good bed
when you do all that.

Speaker 28 (02:29:12):
Well, I hope so been dealing with this for five here,
you know, I first put doug somehow and put in
a compost.

Speaker 11 (02:29:23):
And mix it in.

Speaker 1 (02:29:24):
Now it looks like I didn't do anything.

Speaker 10 (02:29:26):
It's just.

Speaker 3 (02:29:29):
Okay, Well you're off to a good start. But also
don't be afraid. Don't just go down, build up, add
some bed mis on top, and you know, just keep
using that bed up with additions and you'll be Hey.
Thanks Terse, thanks for the call. I wish you well.
Sounds like you're off to a good start and if
you dug a foot down, you're a better gardener than

(02:29:50):
I am. So congratulations on that as well. I do
appreciate appreciate your call very much. Folks, you've been listening
to guard Line and uh I just to tell you
about something. It's a little news item here before we
go for the day. You know how we complain about
modern tomatoes don't taste good like an old time tomato
does right well. Texas A and M Research and Vegetable

(02:30:13):
Improvement Center. That's a real cool place, by the way.
They are in they are breeding vegetables to be healthier.
Onions with more cancer fighting corcetan and carrots that have
more beta caroteene and stuff like that. Isn't that a
nice change? There is a project where they got an
eight point four million dollars grant from USDA, and they're

(02:30:34):
working with a number of other universities. University of Florida,
Michigan State, California, Cornell, Arizona, Washington, North Carolina, University of Georgia,
Oregon State, and A and m's leading the charge on this,
and they are breeding tomatoes that have exceptional heat tolerance,
water use, efficiency, flavor and quality as well as human

(02:30:57):
health properties and disease resistance. Can't wait till that project
comes to its truition. This is gonna be a long
term thing. But imagine that breeding tomatoes that are heat tolerant,
that use water better, that have better flavor, and that
help fight disease. They have the compounds that are naturally
occurring in these tomatoes, like lycopene and a tomato that

(02:31:18):
helps fight disease.

Speaker 16 (02:31:20):
That is an.

Speaker 3 (02:31:20):
Exciting new development. Congratulations to the Vegetable Improvement Center for
Landing that you know, those are the folks that gave
you the ten to fifteen onion, the Texas super sweet
ten to fifteen onion. They're the folks that gave you
some super high quality carrots, really high quality potatoes that
they've bred developed and there's just a lot of good
things happening up there. I just thought that was good news.

(02:31:42):
You'd be interested in hearing about it. Experts from five
major tomato breeding programs are going to be part of
that multi university collaboration that's going to develop these regionally
adapted disease resistant water proof, water use efficient, heat tolerant,
nutrient rich to mate us that's good news, all right.

(02:32:07):
Thanks for listening to the Guardenline. Next Saturday, I will
be at RCW Nursery for the Fall f Lin from
twelve to two. Barbecue, prizes, games, and you and me visiting.
Come on out. I can't wait to see at RCW
next Saturday