KTRH GardenLine | 4-29-23

Skip Richter answers gardening questions while continuing Garden Line.

Episode Transcript

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KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorseany of the products or services advertised on
this program. Welcome to KTRH GardenLine with Skip Ricter. Just watch him

(00:20):
as well. Good Saturday morning,on a good day for gardening. If

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you're listening to garden Line and I'myour host, Skip Ricter, We're here
to talk to you about whatever isof interest to your regarding plants. Maybe
you've got a question about vegetables orthe lawn or some trees, perhaps roses,
bugs are reading the plants, diseasesare attacking the plants. Well,
we can walk you through it.Give us a call. Seven one three

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two one two fifty eight seventy fourseven one three two one two five eight
seven four. Be glad to visitwith you and find out what's going on.
You know, we've had some interestingweather here lately. This little front
that move through send us a littlerain, and now we're going to get
some sunshine here coming out of it. The temperatures are so nice and mild.

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It's kind of an interesting thing forthe plants in the landscape. You
know, there's some things that wouldreally like to be taking off and growing
fast right now, and you geta little bit of this cool weather and
it sort of holds things up alittle bit. But I do want to
point out one thing about the situationwe're in right here, in this big
middle of the spring season, andthat is, if you've got broad leaf

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weeds in your lawn and you aregoing to need to use a broad leaf
weed control product that's post emergent,meaning it kills them after they come up
rather than prevents them from coming upand establishing, then you need to get
that done pretty soon. There isan exception or two, but almost all
those products that kill a broad leafweed that's already growing in your lawn,

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those products can be damaging to SaintAugustine when the weather gets hot, and
hot can mean as low as midto upper eighties. When you get you
know, say your eighty eight degrees, some of those products will stress you're
Saint Augustine. They're not going tokill it right outright, just if used
as directed, but they'll stress it. And so if we're going to try

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to control those broad leaf weeds,we need to do so soon rather than
wait, because once it heats up, you put those products down, and
a number of them, again,not everyone but a number of them they
do stress the Saint Augustine. Sowhat's what does that mean? It's stress
is a Saint Augustine, Well,it means that it may yellow a little

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bit, it means that it willget weaker. It means that a disease
like take all root rot will getan opportunity to come in and take down
that plant. That plant be inyour Saint Augustine grass plants, and so
we try to avoid that by notadding insult to injury. It's almost it
almost becomes like a situation where you'retrying to decide between you know, do

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I live with the weeds? DoI control them with a spray? Do
I hand pull them? And everybody'sgot different answers for that, and each
weed is different. You're not goingto hand pull dollar weed, you won't
get anywhere at all. You're notgoing to hand pull in a lawn and
you know, nuts edge or somethinglike that. But if you do need
to do that spraying, now's thetime. And so that would be the

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perennial weeds, the things that aredifficult to control, like dollar weed,
Virginia button weed, if you wantto control dichondra, those are just some
examples. You want to get thosethings taking care of earlier on rather than
later, because later you're not goingto have the options. You're just not
and so you just live in mowand try to ignore them as best you
can. But just something to thinkabout getting out there. We try to

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avoid stressing plants in every way wecan, because I love to anthropomorphize,
and here we go again. Butplants in many ways are like us,
and that if you don't eat right, if you don't get enough sleep,
if you know you're not taking careof your body, you're more likely to

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get sick than if you do allthose things and do them right. You
sleep well, you eat right,you've got healthy food, you exercise.
You know, it doesn't mean you'renot going to get sick. It just
means your chances are much much less. And we just get in this loop
with our bodies when we weaken ourselvesto where it seems like everything that comes
along, you know, we catchit or we takes us down. And

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that happens with plants too. Whenyou weaken a plant, you increase the
chances of problems with it. Thereare diseases that are absolute opportunists. They're
there in the environment. You maywonder where did that come from. Well,
it's been there all along. It'sjust the patient, the subject.
The plant got weakened and the diseasegot a chance to move in. So

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take all root rot is one ofthose diseases of Saint Augustine. It when
Saint Augustine is in a stressed,weakened state. That stress could be from
shading, it could be from drought, it could be from a broad leaf
post emergent weed control product in hotweather. There's a lot of ways we
stress or can stress Saint Augustine.Take all has the opportunity. Another example

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of that is with hypoxalin canker,and that's a disease of oak trees.
Primarily we see it on our redoaks, but it can occur on almost,
i guess, just about any kindof oak tree. When the disease
is ubiquitous, it's in the environment. But when the plant gets stressed,
the tree gets stressed, the diseasemoves in and suddenly you've got bark fallen

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off. You've got these big grayareas or big kind of olive brown,
drab, dusty looking areas on thetrunk where the bark fell off and the
tree is dying. And someone maysay, well, where did Habboxlan come
from? Well, it was alreadythere. I'll continue that in just a
moment. For right now, Iwant to go to the phones, our

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number again seven one three two onetwo five eight seven four, and we're
going to start off this morning talkingto Joe out in Jersey Village. Good
morning, Joe, Hello Joe.All right, I'm gonna put Joe on
hold and see if we can getJoe back here in just a moment.

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Josh, let me know if weget him that last year freeze all that,
and it's down to where I've gotone big patch of mossing but grown
dirt, and then it's sort ofthe dead grass. You can see.
It's like the semis, I thinkit is. But then I've got orders

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of the you know, the typicalso Augustine wonder, but no leaves on
the order. Okay, So I'mthinking I've got so well born because I've
seen some moths too. I think, all right, well, Joe,
we're a little early for soide webworms, but there are plenty of other
moths out there. But I think, unless you well, we're too I

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think I'm gonna say we're too earlyfor the sideweb worms to be the issue.
That when you have runners without leaveson them. We often look at
a disease called large patch. Weused to call it brown patch um,
and that rots the leaves off therunners. It makes those big circles in
the cool season. You see themin the fall, in the spring.
But if the run, if therunners are green, that's a good sign
because they can resprout leaves. Thatthat's not the problem. They're actually not

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green. They die, but there'sno leaves. I mean, I don't
know ways leaves are teacher. Sothe runner is dead too, it's not
okay, But there are are patchesof green still left throughout the yard,
okay, well in areas. Sowhat I would do first is I would
assess how big are the dead patches. You know, if you've got a

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dead patch, that's maybe there's agreen sprig here and there where the green
parts or a foot apart here andthere there's some green life in and among
the dead. It can close backover and over the course of this summer
season with good care. If they'relarger than that, I'd consider buying some
some pieces of side to put inand try to get a head start to

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fill it back in, because whereverthe soil is bare, you're going to
get a lot more weed problems andwe'd like to avoid that. I think
starting off, have you fertilized yetthis this spring I have, but that
doesn't seem to have done. Andit's under twenty I mean, you know

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something year old oak tree and uhso I thought it was just not enough
sun. But it's been even theareas of good sun, it's it gets
like this clumps of green grass left. But then there's these bare brown runners
of the Saint Augustine. So Idon't know. I didn't know what does

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take holl uh look like I didn't. I'm gonna hold on here and take
a break, and you hang onand we'll come back to you right after
break, and we will continue thisdiscussion. If you'd like to call our
number seven one three two one twofifty eight seventy four. Well, good

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Saturday morning, on a good dayfor gardening, as they all are.
We have been talking with Joe outhere in Jersey. We're gonna go back
to Joe and just one second here, but I want to give you the
phone number. It is seven onethree two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four. Well, Joe,

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let's continue on. So we gotgrass dying, and it's in the shade,
it's in the sun, and there'sall kinds of patches. I need
to hang on one second, Joe, I need to put you on hold.
Um let's see, we're gonna comeback to go there, all right,
Joe, Uh, anyway back backwith the um the grass. Are

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you there? Okay? Excuse me. We're having trouble with Joe. So
we're gonna get the gremlins out ofthe system and I'm just going to continue
to talk here about about ter up. Joe's back. Joe, how are
you okay? I didn't know whetherlost year are you lost? We have
we have ghosts inhabiting the wires,and so we're trying to run them out

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right now. So back to theback to the along Joe. If I
were to just guess, I thinkyou probably have a disease called take all
root rot in that grass based onsome of the ways you've described it.
Now for me to diagnose over theair, not even seeing the grass is
a long shot, so I wouldn'tI wouldn't assume that's the final word.

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You've got a couple of options.One, you can try to manage this
from a cultural standpoint, you know, doing the things that help the grass
get stronger. Or and this maybe the better option, you can take
a sample and send it into thestate plant clinic where they will truly diagnose
it. They'll culture it out ina petri dish and truly identify it,

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and then we know exactly what togo after it with. So if you
wanted to do the diagnosis option,you just take a plug of sick grass,
not healthy, not dead, butsick declining. It doesn't look good,
but it's still alive, and yousent and you go online to plant
clinic one word plant clinic dot TAMUdot e d U Plant Clinic dot TAMU

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dot edu and just follow the instructionson the form. That's the way to
find out for sure. If youwant to go the other route, what
I would recommend is to begin usingfertilizers that are somewhat acidifying to your lawn.
Microlap sixty four, for example,is an acidifying fertilizer. Not the
green bag but it's it's kind ofin a pinkish bag. I believe pick

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ash red a color, but it'sacidifying one. You would use that.
Top dressing the lawn with a verythin layer of pete moss has been shown
to be effective as well. Aeratingthe lawn has been shown to be effective
also and helping to combat take allroot rot. So those would be kind
of your cultural options if you don'twant to go to the route of officially

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having it identified. Because it neverhurts to do some top dressing, it
never hurts the duration, and itnever hurts to a moderate amount of fertilization.
Well, i think that's excellent recommendSo I'm going to do the test.
And because if I've got a tenby ten spots, even though we
won't grow in, even though that'syeah, that's an unusual situation. Can

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you think of anything that was donethere in the past, you know that,
Like I don't know, if youwere out on property, I'd say,
did you have a big burn pilethere, you know, on the
land or is it was that aplace where some building side or anything like
that. No, the only thingI can think is is that just because
it's right to it's under this oaktree with heavy shade that I wasn't paying

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attention to the grass and died graduallythen went away, but it receded.
It receded, and then there's that. Then as you described the other spotsy
areas where there's learned birds and thenthere's the grass. There's a lot of
fetch that grass. So I thinkI need to sample, to take the

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plant and sample and fit it in, and what about a soil sample should
do that? You could do that, but I put down some medina and
some hemates and I didn't know.You know, that didn't seem to make
as well. But that didn't hurtanything. And we probably just have too
many things going on here at oncewith it. And so for example,

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I would say, you know,the shade, as I was mentioned a
little bit earlier, it can bea contributing factor to take all root rot
because it stresses the grass and soit's usually not just one thing that's happening
soul. I would do that sample. If you want to do a soil
sample, you could because it wouldinform your future fertilizing. Now or only
question on soil is do you wantto sample your whole lawn and small samples

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all over, put it together,mix it up so you get an overall
idea. Or do you want tojust sample an area that nothing wants to
grow to see if there's something unusualgoing on just in that one area,
and that could be two different samplesthat you do. I'm inclined to think
that the reason nothing is growing isbecause of a soil nutrient or pH issue.

(15:01):
That's what a soil test would tellyou is just nutrients and pH nothing
else. And so I'm I'm notas yeah, yeah, you got to
go sample this soil in this casebecause of what you're calling about. I
would say that if you do thedisease, you want to If you do
the disease sample, you want totake the sample correctly. And I don't.

(15:24):
I have a YouTube channel online andthere's a video. If you do
a search for skip ricter on YouTube, first you get a bunch of video
games that somehow have skip ricter inthe name. I don't know what that's
about, but you also get mychannel, and on my channel, if
you do a search for soil orgrass sample or you know, turf sample

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or something, there's a video thattells you exactly how and where to take
a sample, because when you takethe time to do it and spend the
money to have them look at it, you don't want to just have taken
a dead sample and they say,we can't do anything with this. So
I to that video online first.Okay, excellent, excellent, excellent.
I think that's what I'm going todo, because it's the grass is just

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it's it's facting weird and I justuh, if I put down new turf,
new side, he would die.It would catch the take all too,
right, well, it could offthe stress if the stress or factors
are there, it could take allis already all over the place. It's
not like you know, you broughtsomething in and now you have take all,

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and so bringing in new side undergood conditions. The fact that take
all is there is not a problem. Otherwise ever long on the block would
be dying right now, would takeall root right, It's a it's an
opportunist. So we're trying to avoidstress and the grass, which is kind
of my little monologue today, wastalking about the importance of avoiding stressing our
plants because then we skit on thistreadmill over spring for this we're spraying for

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that, you know. Yeah,yeah, just I mean it's like saying
I don't want to take care ofmy body. I just want to have
met us and five medicines that Itake every day to keep me alive.
Well, that's not a good wayto go about it, and so that
that's kind of the approach I take. But I've been I've been doing this
a long long time. And althoughI can't know that you have take all
root, right, I would putabout eighty percent of my guests in that,

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and then we'll la when the labresponds to you with the results.
Give us a call, let meknow. I'd like to continue this discussion
as to what we do about it. I'll do it. Would you run
that paddress by me one more time? Yes? And I'm sure other people
would want to write that down too. I always say, listen to the
show with a pen and paper andthey address for plant samples. Would you

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want to say, here's a sickplant, tell me what's wrong? The
lab is plant clinic, plant clinicdot TAMU, dot E d U t
A MU is in Texas a andM University dot edu is an education Okay,
actually, all right, than Iappreciate it. Thank you for going

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on. All right, I appreciatethat call. Thank you very much.
Okay, good good, that's that'swhat we want to hear. Oh my
goodness. Well, our phone number, you need to give us a call
seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. We'regonna head to break here in just a
bit, and if you will giveus a call, Josh, we'll get

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you on the board and you canbe first up as we move forward with
the show. Yeah, that thatwhole concept of predisposing plants to getting sick
are in some cases to insects aswell, is something that's important to note
because a lot of times we justthink about, you know, we're throwing
these silver bullets at the at thelawn or the garden or whatever we're going

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after. And you know, thereare a lot of great products. There's
awesome fertilizers, there's good pest control, there's good disease control, and so
on, but we start off withcultural We want it to be healthy as
we can, and then we havevery few times where we then need to
apply some product to cure or fixa problem rigging that withtor don't be Babin

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man. If that doesn't get yourblood flowing and wake up, speaking to
wake up. If you look overat the neighbor's house and the lights are
off, go over and knock onthe door and tell them they're missing garden
Line, they will rise up andcall you blessed. And maybe not today,
but later on. We love whenpeople listen to garden Line. Right,
Hey, well, we've got aphone number that you need to write
down, in fact, hand itto your neighbors when you go over there

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seven one three. Maybe not today. I don't know if I want them
calling me saying why did you tellmy neighbor to come wake me up when
I was trying to sleep in sevenone three two one two fifty eight seven
tventy four seven one three, twoone two fifty eight seventy four. It's
kind of been a why is mygrass dying? Morning? So far?
See if it continues that way.Take all is one of those diseases that

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is just a real problem because youknow, gray leaf spot makes the lawn
look horrible and it does significant damageto the grass blades, but the grass
but can bounce back. The brownpatch you st are now called large patch
here in Texas makes the big circles. That's a problem, but the runners

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are left green and so the grasscomes back. But take all is one
that kills the roots. Take allroot rot the name kind of tells you
what's going on there. And whenyou're dealing with something like take all root
rot, that's a disease that whereyou get to replace the grass or hopefully
keep it alive and try to growit back in. We always have options
in gardening and horticulture that you know, you can replace the hold on,

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or you can put some little plugsor little pieces of grass in here and
there. There's a lot of rangeways to do it, but the bottom
line would take all is it's it'skilling grass and that's why we're concerned about
it. Let's now go out tothe phones and we're going to talk to
Steve in New Canaan. Hello,Steve, Hi, how are you well?
Thank you great. This was Februaryand I put down a pre emergent

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on my Saint Augustine lawn and abouta week later or two, one of
the lawn services that tree yards,you know, spray came and by mistake
treated my yard. They did thefront yard and realized their mistake before they
did the backyard. So the backyardlooks great. It's exactly where I want

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it to be. The front yardis horrible. Okay. Is there anything
I can do to counteract that guestsin compatibility with the chemical or something?
But you're talking about this take allroot rod. That's kind of I've got
bare patches that runners that are brown. Yes, you know, in a

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lot of this well, and thiswould be kind of one of those opportunities
where Takeoff would love to hop in. But we're just gonna have to wait
and see. There's no fixing theeye. You know, they double dosed
the lawn with pre emergence. Alot of the pre emergence, and a
lot of the very effective pre emergencewill are what's called DNA inhibitors. What
that means is they don't let rootsdevelop. And if you'll go out to

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your lawn where it was double dosedand get out on your hands and knees
and pull up a runner and lookat the roots on it. Instead of
long, normal roots going down inthe ground, you will see roots that
are stubbed off. You know,they may be a quarter inch long by
the time they hit the soil,they quit growing, or they may be
you know, a half inch longin the end, may kind of be

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like a caveman club. We callthose clubed roots. That's a sign of
that kind of herbicide, pre emergentherbicide that's been overapplied, damaging the root
system. So here's the double whammy. Your grass needs water and nutrients,
but it can't get a root inthe ground, and the old part of
the runner is dying, maybe froma disease, maybe just whatever. And

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so now the grass is sitting therewithout an ability to get water, and
it's like you pull the runner outand through it on the driveway. And
so what we need to do isjust try to take care of it as
best we can. If you didkind of a little folier application of nutrient
to the lawn, that would behelpful. But I'm not saying that's the

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normal solution to this. It's justwe got to get the grass through this
period of time, and it cantake sixty days or more for that product
to break down so that it canreally get some roots down in the ground.
And in the meantime, we gotto try to keep it alive.
So that's the juggling act you're doingright now. Okay, So I've done
the quick green up. Uh youknow, I'm using the ncrofoss products every

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that's all I use. So Ijust followed the fertilizer schedule and absolutely just
do the best, do the bestI can. Yeah, because so I
don't need to resaw it, orI could resaw it if I wanted to,
Well you could, but i'd waita while. It is if you

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is that Yeah, if you droppedyour sad onto that spot right now,
that product is right there at thesurface, that's what it's made to do.
It's doing its job. We justkind of overdid it and now you
know, we're kind of having towait it out. Yeah. Yeah,
because like I said that, it'sa too totally diametric where they realized as

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I went out and said, well, y'all do it and so, and
they were already packing up realizing thatthey've gone they've cut intear by mistake.
Yeah. Well, and let mesay too that I'm I'm making the assumption
that it's the what I called theDNA type herbicide pre emergent herbicide. So
that's just that what that is.But hey, I appreciate your call.

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I wish you good luck with that. We're gonna have to head off to
a break. Well, appreciate,appreciate it. You bet. Her number
is seven one three two one twofive eight seven four seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four.Right, go, well, good Saturday

(25:44):
morning, on a good morning forgardening. You're listening to garden Line,
which is a good thing to bedoing right now at least. Maybe I'm
biased, but I think so.Maybe if you had a head lamp you
could go out and start gardening.But I believe, I believe a cup
of coffee in the radio is goodenough for right this minute. How about
that? Hey, if you hadany kind of gardening questions you want to
talk about, give me a callat seven one three two one two five

(26:07):
eight seven four seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. Talking
about all kinds of things related tothe lawns this morning and grass stresses and
whatnot. It is so important tostart off by taking care of your soil.
I mentioned that we're talking about cnmalsa little bit earlier. Uh,

(26:30):
you know, you go to aplace you get, you get the compost
materials, you get the fertilizer materials, you get your soil right, and
then you plan and it's important.And I understand I was at yesterday.
I was, in fact, Iwas out and enchanted channing gardens down in
four Being County area and just walkingaround looking at all the color. And

(26:55):
you know, this is that timeof year in garden centers around the Houston
area. You just are just eyesare just wide open with oh my gosh,
I have to have one of allof these, right, and the
color the plants, that's what inspiresus. But before thinking about the green
stuff, you need to think aboutthe brown stuff, and that's the soil.

(27:17):
Because the awesome plants that are availableat our independent garden centers very well
adapted, quality, many cases diseaseresistant plants that we choose there because they've
selected the best for us. They'renot just mass merchandising stuff all over the
United States and their stores because theydon't have those They have a store here,

(27:37):
are two stores here, and they'relocal. But those plants dropped into
unprepared soil that's not given them achance for success. I mean, they
some of them are so tough.They'll live despite that. But why not
start and get the setting right forthe plants so that they can thrive,
create that environment that they can thrivein, and you'll be amazed at the

(27:59):
results. And so you know it'sThere's two things that at least come to
mind initially that I think or achallenge as I talk to gardeners. One
of them is getting people to lookat the fall as as good of a
planting season as the spring. Everybodyhas spring fever, and we got it
right now. I've got it rightnow. In fact, I had had
to have a few things to haulhome with me because just love, love,

(28:22):
love the spring planning season. Butfall is a great planning season,
and yet we don't have that springfever in the fall. I wish I
could change that and have it inboth seasons. Second thing is getting people
to do the soil before they plantthe plants. Now, I used to
say, spend a dollar on yoursoil before you spend a dollar on your
plants. I think that makes thepoint, But why not spend a dollar

(28:45):
on both at the same time.But when you come home with a plant
and you're not coming home with compostfor a heavy clay, you know,
expanded shale for example. With thefertilizers that you need to mix into the
soil and to sup ament the plant, then that plant is not going to
give you its full potential. Andthat is exactly what we're trying to do

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here, is have our plants dothe best they can. When you go
to the garden center and you seethat flower, you see that tomato plant,
you see whatever your mind's eye pictures, how beautiful your place is going
to be, how productive your garden'sgoing to be, how tasty the tomatoes
you're going to get are going tobe. Right, that's what we want,
and we can realize that we livein an area where it is easy

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to be successful in gardening if youfollow the basic principles, and principle number
one I'm going to say is builda quality soil. It may not be
exciting to look at a handful ofbrown stuff and that's not as pretty as
a hibiscus bloom that's got you blowin your mind. But if you want
the mind blowing hibiscus bloom, thenspend some money on the brown stuff and

(29:57):
the nutrients that go with it sothat you can achieve that that's a word
to the wise, and I promiseyou if you will follow that guide,
you're going to see much more successand you won't be one of the people
that say I have a brown thumb. I planted this, I planted that.

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Nothing grows here. We can helpwith that. So give us a
call. We're going to go tobreak but write down seven one three,
two one two fifty eight seventy four. Josh will get you on the boards
and when we come out of thissegment, you will be the first in
line. We can talk about whateverkind of topics you want. It's kind
of been a turf morning. Maybewe need to get some vegetables and herbs

(30:41):
and flowers and expecting the phone toring on trees it usually does. We
we'll get to all that kind ofstuff. But that's where we're here for.
You're listening to Guardenline. I'm yourhost, Skip Ricter, and I
can't wait to get back to thenext hour. See if them. KTRH
Garden Line does not necessarily endorse anyof the products or services advertised on this

(31:04):
program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Linewith Skip rictor so Trip. Just watch
him as so many club back rickety, good Saturday morning. You are listening

(31:38):
to garden Line. I'm your host, skip Rictor, and this is a
good morning for gardening, as allmornings are. Our phone number, write
it down, get on the board. Let's have Josh get you ready to
go so I can visit with youabout what's of interest to you. Seven
one three two one two five eightseven four. And we are going to

(31:59):
begin by going to talk to Marty. I believe we got Marty online this
morning. Soon as we get moreup, we're gonna we're gonna have to
hold on Marty just one second.Well, last segment, I was talking
about the importance of building soil,the importance of keeping our plants healthy through
proper cultural care, and that themeyou're going to hear from me week after

(32:21):
week, over and over. Youknow, we talk about products. Here's
a good fertilizer, here's a goodpest control, here's a good disease control,
and all those kind of things.But that's not what we lead with.
We lead with building good soil.We lead with keeping our plants healthy.
Then when we have problems, andwe will have problems, then we
deal with the different ways to controlthose problems. And our nutrients and our

(32:44):
fertilizing is guiding our growth. It'ssupporting our growth. It's helping plants to
be more floriferous if it's a flowerproductive, if it's a vegetable or fruit.
You get the idea. And that'skind of what that's our aim.
That's how we go about it.All right, let's talk to Marty this
morning. Good morning Marty out therein Fairfield. Morning, Skip. I

(33:07):
know you wanted to get off theturf questions, but I have one's okay
with the intermittent rains every other daylately, I'm still trying to battle some
crab grass and some dollar weed.I've gotten most of it down. But
what you said there was something Icould go ahead and put down now before
the warm season comes the hot Ye, what would that is it? I've

(33:30):
got the weed beater complete, okay, about two bags of it? Can
I put that out and it's stillIf there's more rain, it'll be okay.
I need to get that ingredient listin front of me on the weed
beater complete. I believe that.I believe that's post emergent if I'm not
mistaken, but I need to checkit off the top of it. Yeah

(33:52):
it is, but I didn't knowif that was a heat or cold.
It says heat and warm and cold, warm and cool season warm in cool
season. Yeah, I would.I would still watch the temperature on it.
When we get up above mid touper eighties, I would start being
careful with that one. And I'lllook at the ingredients again. But I'm
ninety percent sure that's one I would. I would go ahead and use it

(34:13):
now. The dollar weed, thebroad leaf weeds in your lawn, now
would be the time to use abroad leaf post emergent product on them,
and so that this would be thetime if you're gonna if you're gonna do
that now. The pre emergence,like the crab grass, for example,
that's where something like barricade would comein. Well, I go ahead,

(34:35):
I already had the barricade. Theseare all up already, Okay. So
once the crab grass is in yourlawn, you just need to mow it
and ignore it, because you're notgoing to kill crab grass plants without killing
your lawn. It's a it's agrass growing in a grass and there we've
got a problem. Oh, I'vebeen pulling it out. Well, you
can pull it out too. Yeah. I mean that's that's good. I

(34:57):
mean, you know that that's fine. I'm just saying the pre emergence and
the post emergence once the crab grassis up, neither one is going to
be an option for you because,okay, you'll damage your lawn. But
yeah, fine, is there anotherproduct that I can put down now?
For just overall any weeds at all, most of them are the crab grass

(35:20):
and the dollar weedstal Okay, Well, the dollar weed is a perennial,
and so while every plant can comefrom a seed, it's being a perennial
you you know, it's living andcoming back on you. And so I
would for the dollar weed again,I would do the post emergent broad leafs.
Do you say we'd beat or completeor ultra? I can't remember which

(35:40):
which one you mentioned? I havecomplete, complete, okay, yeah,
and so you could you know,you could use that on the dollar weed
still. Uh, if if youare dealing with the crab grass and there's
going to be others coming up,which there will be, that's where the
barricade helps. How long ago didyou do the barricade last time? Back
in February February. Okay, yeah, February March April. So I would

(36:05):
say probably anytime towards the end ofthis month, depending on when in February
or early May, go ahead andget the barricade out again, just to
continue because warm season weeds can keepgerminating through the through the season, and
so okay, that's you know,it's not like you put this stuff down
and it works for eight months.You know, you're probably looking at five

(36:28):
to sixty days, depending on thepre emergent that you use and the conditions
that you have. Okay, well, there's some other weeds that it seems
like they're blowing in from. Ihad neighbors on both sides that don't have
you know, wonderful soil but orgrass, and I've got some weird weeds.
So okay, I just wanted tosee if the weed beater complete was

(36:50):
okay to put down, because I'lljust do that for everything. Yeah,
and I'll do it today. Yeah, that would be fine. Yeah,
go ahead and get that done.We don't have any more rain schedule that
I for today. You wouldn't wantto put something like that downright for it
rains. But now I think that'sbehind us. So this ought to be
a good time and the weather,temperatures are going to be great. Oh,
I know they're awesome already. Allright, you bet get out there

(37:13):
and have some fun. All right, bye bye bye bye. Well let's
head out and now to Katie andtalk to Diane. Hello, Diane,
Good morning. We got Diane there, I'm here, there we go.
How are you doing this morning?How can we help? I'm good.
There seems to be a serious declinein crape myrtles all over this side of

(37:37):
town. And I've never seen thembe this slow coming out. And if
they do come out, they're comingout just weird, like from the bottom
of the branch, but not allthe way to the top. Yes,
there might be a third of itat the top. It just looks dead.
We might have one that's sort ofliving and then one right to it

(38:00):
that looks sort of dead. Ye. What's causing that? And how can
they be prune so that they mightcome back? Well, there's more thing,
more than one thing that could causeit. But I think a lot
of what we're seeing here is theresult of the December freeze that cut our
plants not fully hardened off and readyfor freeze. You know, normally crape
myrtles can take our winner without anyproblem, but I think that it cut

(38:22):
them off guard and we saw somedie back from that. It's normal for
the tips of crape myrtles a littletwiggy stuff right out at the end to
freeze and it ends up falling outanyway. You don't even have to prunt
it out. But when you saidlike a third, you know that's a
big chunk, and so that's probablycold damage. When the new growth comes
in, which it is now,that kind of tells you where to prune

(38:45):
back to. And I would isyou prune a crepe, I would rather
than stub it off so that whenyou cut a branch it looks like the
end of a broom handle. Iwould go back to where there's a side
branch and I would cut it offjust right about there, so that it
leaves a more natural form, becausewhen you have those stubs, you get
a crow's foot or regrowth, andit just it's very unnatural looking. The

(39:07):
branches don't tend to be well attached, so they may break off in future
storms. So cut back to wherethere's a side shoot. Does that make
sense, Yes, it does.And it just take some more time.
Well, it does, it does, and I mean you can leave it,
but you're gonna happen. You know, a dead branch is a dead

(39:28):
branch, and so you want toget this. Okay, what about the
ones that are just coming back fromthe ground. You mean, like the
whole top is dead. Yeah,the whole thing is now still looking brown
except for some new growth shoots atthe bottom. I'd give it a little
more time. I'd give it alittle more time. But you're gonna have

(39:50):
to cut the drunk off if thewhole top is dead, and then take
the shoots and leave a bunch oflet me maybe three or four right now,
and then gradually go down to oneand shoot. You just want to
kind of head your bed a littlebit. Hey, I'm gonna have to.
I'm gonna have to go to abreak. If you want to hang
on and continue, we can.No, No, that's fine, Thank
you, Thank you for the call. The number is seven one three two

(40:12):
one two five eight seven four.It had a whizzing man with a gun
in his hand and he was lookingboy, you know, he said,

(40:37):
fellow with the hair. Yeah,this is one of those songs that you
just have to listen to just letit run a minute here we go,
alright, alright, well that thatkind of gets the blood flowing a little

(40:58):
bit. This morning. You're listeningto garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here toanswer your calls. If you want to
give us a call, the numberis seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. Let's
go ahead and head out to thephone right now, and we're going to
talk to Susan in Cyprus. Goodmorning, Susan, Hey, Skip,

(41:22):
how are you? I'm well,thanks? What's up? So? What
will kill all these little tiny mothsthat are in my Bermuda gras, my
Bermuda grass. They're not side webworm moths. They're real tiny, you
know, Susan. Killing moths asadults is kind of difficult because for a

(41:43):
lot of the species, the larvaor what's doing the eating. The caterpillars
for butterflies and mosart are doing theeating, and in the case of the
moths, they're not. The moththemselves are not chewing on your plants,
so you can't put the poison onthe plant and kill the moth. You
just kind of have to basically ignorethem. If it's not a moth that
we know is a problem, Iwould recommend leaving it alone. There are

(42:04):
literally hundreds and hundreds of species ofmoths that we see around our landscape or
maybe don't even notice, that arejust of no big concern. Okay,
it's just when I walk across thegrass, there's like literally thousands of them.
They're so tiny, really, yeah, they're they're a little teeny tiny.
It's like even in my whole neighborhood. My neighbors have them. It's

(42:29):
just little teinky ones, and there'slike we walk through the grass and that
just there's literally thousands of them thatjust fly around real close to the grass.
Well, that's very interesting. Haveyou noticed when they land and stop
flying, do the wings sit outto the sides, making sort of a

(42:49):
triangle shape with the moth like alike an jet air fighter wing? Or
do they lay along the body wherethey're shaped more like a school bus.
They're so small you couldn't see it. They're they're so small. Okay,
you couldn't even tell what kind ofmoth it is. It's not like a
web worm, moth where you couldactually see it. So you've seen a

(43:12):
side web worm moth before and thisis smaller. You're saying, oh my
gosh, yes, no, no, no, I know what sadweb worn
moth? Why these are little teencyteenthcy almost clear looking moths, almost clear
looking. Okay, well, Iam not aware of any turf pest that
fits that description. You know,when it comes to moths and the turf,

(43:35):
We've got sideweb worms and we havearmy worms, and they're both much
bigger, much especially the army worm, much bigger. So I know that,
you know, you don't like theidea of them being there, but
they're really I don't think there areany problem, and I don't think you
need to do anything about them.I mean, you could always, you
know, kind of nuke the yardwith an insecticide, and you know,

(43:57):
if you got it on, I'mprobably kill them. But I just don't
think that'd be an approach i'd take. I think I think they will come
and go. They have a life'sa lifespan, a very short lifespan,
and I don't think it's gonna bea long term problem. And if that's
if that turns out to not beright. You can feel free to call
me back. But I see alot of different kinds of moths that come
and go through the season, andI wish I could tell you exactly what

(44:20):
kind of moth you're seeing, butI'm not, you know, without seeing
it and getting it under a microscopeto truly identify it, I'm not sure
what that is. But but again, when I look back at the things
that could be causing your long problems, that's not in the list. So
thank you very much. That wasn'tvery comforting, but I hope it was

(44:43):
all right. Thank you. Youbet, you bet. You know so
so many, so many different kindsof insects out there. You know,
we've been We were talking earlier aboutsome broadly WE control products. Someone mentioned
the weed bitter plus or Ultra orsomething like that. When you're looking for

(45:04):
products, I can think of noother place in town to go other than
Southwest Fertilizer. Southwest been around sincenineteen fifty five, and I was out
visiting with Bob a while back.We did a live appearance out there,
and every time I walk through thestore, I just walk up and down
aisles making note of what products theyhave. So as I guide people,
I can say, well, yeah, this is available in the market and

(45:24):
you can get it here. Ittakes an hour to do that. It's
Southwest Fertilizer because they have so muchand if you're an organic gardener, they
have all the different things you needfor that as well. If you need
tools, if you want bags ofmulch and compost, soil amendments, if
you need to get your lawn mowerblade sharpen. In the back, they
got a shop and they sell equipmentand they service equipment back there, so

(45:47):
it's kind of like the one stopshop for what you need. Take a
sample in and let Bob and histeam look at it. See what's wrong.
What is this sample in the bag. They won't steer you wrong.
I won't just say you some productbecause you brought them a bug and it's
an insight killer. They'll take youto the right thing based on you know,
you tell them, hey, Iwant a garden organically, so they'll

(46:08):
take you to that kind of product, or I just want something that a
systemic or last or what they candirect you because they know what they're doing.
Southwest Fertilizer dot Com is a placeyou can go to find out more
about them, find a location andeverything like that. But they're there,
and what used to be the southwestside of town now it's kind of been
swallowed up as Houston just keep seemingto work its way outward, right,

(46:30):
Well, if you're needing a productlike that, and I know we were
talking about the moths as Susan had, you know that this is a kind
of place that's going to find somethingor have something and direct you to the
right kind of thing that will thatwill help control them. This morning,
we're talking all kinds of different things, but lawn seems to be a popular

(46:53):
topic. I wanted to mention alittle bit about vegetable gardens. We're in
that transition season where we're in thebig middle of spring, and when you
know, when we're in the bigmiddle of spring, that means our cool
season is starting to go downhill.The cool season garden is, you know,
winding up. I've still got afew cool season crops in, but

(47:15):
in general kind of winding up prettywell. And the warm season crops are
coming on and now the hot seasoncrops are going in too. So things
like okrah ok is kind of likethe poster plant of the hot weather right,
it can take any kind of heat. And I'm going to talk about
some other warm season vegetables that youmight want to plant a little bit and

(47:37):
when we get here a little bitafter, I'm going to save it probably
until we get after the break time. But there's a number of good greens
and things that we can plant.But when we're in that transition season,
that's your opportunity to improve your soil. And if you haven't had a soil
test done in a while, Iwould recommend doing that. You can go

(47:57):
online the State Soil Lab Texas Aand M is a simple URL. It's
all the all the URLs that Isend you to for fire ends and diseases
and insects and soil and all thatthey all end and dot TAMU, dot
edu and this one is simple.It's soil testing. Soil testing dotam or

(48:17):
dot edu. Get your soil testednow, so when you transition from one
crop to another, you know whatto add to the soil to get it
right. And also every time youtransition an inch a compost mixed down into
the soil to enrich that soil,to improve the drainage, to help it
to just do better to just reallythrive and be the kind of base foundation

(48:43):
that plants need to draw from.You get the water right, you get
the nutrients right, you get theoxygen down in the soil, and things
just do better. So as wedo those transitions, take advantage of that
time to do that. You know, I always say buy the brown stuff
before you buy the green stuff,or when you buy the green stuff,
because fixing it to begin with isso very very important in the vegetable garden.

(49:05):
Right now, as I'm pulling outsome of the crops that I have,
I've got some radishes that have kindof wound up, and some carrots
that I need to harvest. IfI can find time to get off the
radio and run down take care ofmy own garden. What do they say,
Nikki the cobbler's kids go barefoot?Have you heard that one? Yes,
if we put a picture, ifwe put a picture in my garden
today on the internet, no onewould call garden one. They'd be like,

(49:28):
well, obviously that guy can't helpme. Well, it's because I'm
talking to you instead of taking careof my garden. Now, I'll catch
it up. But the radishes havecome out. The character about to be
harvested, and I have been slow, but I need to get my black
eyed peas in the I love crowderpeas, purple hole peas, cream peas,
all those kinds of things. Thatis one vegetable that you know people

(49:52):
say stuff tastes better when you growat yourself. A black eyed pea in
a can versus a fresh shelled blackeyed pea is like two different vegetables.
I don't know that I've ever hada fresh one. I've always had in
it is unbelievable. Wow. It'sthe only way to go anyway, speaking
of the only way to go whenwe need news, the only way to
go is to Nikki. And hereshe is tonight is gold. I'll be

(50:19):
a tail bleak so way in thistown. See me in the bay like
it. So we'll get the bullhallo like to live. Can see us
coming off? Good morning on agood Saturday morning for gardening. I'm your
host, Skipwrector, and you arelistening to garden Line. We're here to

(50:43):
answer your gardening questions, to talkgardening. Let's see our phone number.
You want to write this down sevenone three two one two fifty eight seventy
four seven one three, two,one, two, five, eight seven
four, And we're going to startthis segment off by going out to Oak
four Rest and talking with Sharon.Good morning, Sharon, Hey, Skip.

(51:06):
My question is about how to getrid of bamboo. My neighbor planted
bamboo and he doesn't want to getrid of it, and it's growing under
my fence and coming in my yard. Oh boy, okay, well do
you is this? It sounds likeit maybe the running type of bamboo as
opposed to the clumping type of bamboo. Correct, Oh boy, okay.

(51:29):
Well, the public service message toeveryone listening, don't plant a running bamboo
unless you have a way to containit because they run. It's like planting
bermuda grass next to a flower bedthat doesn't end up well usually right,
So what your options are pretty muchis to dig down, put in some
sort of a barrier to prevent It'slike an undergo thigk of it as an

(51:51):
underground wall, and they make somevery strong materials that you can put in
the ground. It is not easy, it's not cheap to do that,
but that creates the wall. Thealternative is either hand digging it or to
spray as it pops up. Onyour side. But the problem with spraying
is it translocates over. Just likeif you sprayed bermuda grass in one spot,

(52:14):
that chemical is going to move outto the other bermuda grass nearby and
affect it as well, so thatthat sort of becomes a neighbor issue.
But it sounds like they're not beingvery good neighbors to begin with. So
how deep does that barrier have togo down? That is a good question,
and that is outside my area ofexpertise, so I'm not going to

(52:34):
give you a definitive answer, butI would think if you could get down
about eighteen inches that would do it. I would talk to a bamboo expert.
You know, there are number ofplaces to sell bamboo and their landscapers
that can do that kind of barrier, and they can probably tell us.
Expect some of it may be relatedto soil type too, but it's going

(52:57):
to have to be a company thathas access to the kind of product.
I mean, you can't just puta little piece of tin or a little
piece of plastic down in there.This is a this is a special,
very dense, less forever kind ofplastic that's put down as a barrier in
the ground. I'm sorry you're inthat situation. I know it's a it's
frustrating. Very okay, well,thank you for your information. I appreciate

(53:22):
it all right, Sharon, thankyou for that call. Our phone number
if you'd like to be on theAaron Talk Gardening is seven one three two
one two five eight seven four.You know bamboo, I actually love bamboo,
and I love the clumping types,especially because they kind of behave.
I think about grasses. You've gotclumping grasses like maiden grass or miscanthus and

(53:49):
other grasses. It just form aclump, and the clump gets bigger over
time, but it stays a clump. Then you have the runners, and
that would be a Bermuda grass isthe best example. It's going underground above
ground. Branbew bamboo has these undergroundrhizomes that pop up, and so it
just keeps going and as long asthere's some soul moisture to keep it alive,

(54:12):
which welcome to Houston. There's alwayssome soul moisture. It's just going
to keep going and it becomes notreally good if you can contain it.
Running bamboos. There's some beautiful,wonderful types of running bamboo. But to
just plant it, especially on theborder with your neighbor, and not contain
it is just I mean that whatwould that be some form of horticultural terrorism

(54:36):
that might that might be a goodway to put it. All right,
Well, let's let's go back tothe phone seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. We're goingto go to Friendswood now and talk to
Mitchell. Good morning, Mitchell,Good morning, sir. Hey done,
the first time caller here. Thankyou, glad you called. I've got

(54:57):
a pond. We live out ina rural area. In the back my
place. I got a pond.It's roughubly one hundred and fifty foot wide
by probably two hundred foot in linkand you know the depths, of course
change from four foot too. Iprobably had in the middle of that maybe
fourteen foot. Okay. I've gota bunch of this algae style mos moss
in it, I call it.And it's just like overgrowing the pond.
And I've got a bunch of fishin it. And I don't want to

(55:19):
kill the fish. I want toreduce the algae. And I'm looking for
something to maybe sprinkle in the waterthat's safe, safe and you know,
environmental environmentally compliant. All right,So I'm going to give you a website
because it's gonna we could talk foran hour just on the pond kinds of
things like you're asking, and thiswebsite is you will love it. It

(55:43):
is Aqua plant a qua p lA n T as in water plant aqua
plant dot dot TAMU dot edu.Like all the websites I give you in
you can go on there and it'llhelp you a If I a weed plant
in your pond, it will helpyou manage the weed plant and even as

(56:04):
stuff if you want to stock themwith fish and all kinds of things like
that. But it has helpful videosand especially when it comes to dealing with
specific like for example, there's asection on floating plants, you know,
like duckweed. There's a section onsubmerged plants or plants that come up to
the surface like lilypads would for example, And then there's a whole section just

(56:28):
on algae, and it divides themby the types of algae. You see
what I mean. But we couldtalk for an hour. You go to
this website and it will take youthrough everything that you need on dealing with
the things in your pond, allright, and that's aqua plant. You
spend something at the end of kindof order. Yeah, aqua plant is
the word first word and then dotT A m u as in Texas A

(56:52):
and m university t A m Udot e d u as in the first
letters of education. All right,well, thank you, sir, and
we will we will investigate. Thankyou so much, so much pretending.
All right, thank you for thecall. And you are listening to garden
Line. I'm your host, SkipRichter, and we are going to be
back after a little break to answeryour gardening questions. Right down the number

(57:14):
and give us a call. Sevenone three two one two five eight seven
four. I'm not crazy. I'mjust but stay you'll see. I'm just

(57:37):
I'm all right now, you don'tcare. Well, I'm not crazy.
I'm just a little crazy about horticulture, I guess you could say, in
gardening. And I hope you aretoo. Obviously you're listening to garden Line,
and you know I know this.We have people that listen to garden
Line who are not gardeners. Theyjust just like to listen to hear about
gardening and learn about things, andso you're welcome to but imis you.

(58:00):
If you keep listening, we're goingto make a gardener out of you.
I mean, at least we're goingto get you to go out and get
a house plant and bring it back, and that's the gateway drug. Next
thing you know, you'll be plowingup the backyard and well, you get
the idea. That's why we're here, though, to answer your gardening questions
and hopefully inspire a little bit.Our phone number seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven onethree two one two fifty eight seventy four.

(58:24):
Looks like we've about to enter theeight o'clock time here for the last
two segments, so we've got alittle time. It's going to be short.
I believe we've got a call comingon the board. We'll move to
that in just one second. ButI was talking about warm season vegetables while
ago, and I mentioned that Iwould talk about some greens and if you
and i've talked about this before,but I'm always wanting to expand our palette,

(58:49):
but both in terms of color andplants, new plants we haven't tried
before, but also in terms ofvegetables and things that we eat and when
I say greens, you think coolseason. I promise you do, because
if I said name greens, youwould name lettuce, you would name spinach,
you would name collars, you wouldname kale, you would name maybe
a rugula. You get the idea. We're talking about cool season greens.
But in the warm season, wehave things like malibar. They call it

(59:13):
malibar spinach. It's not spinach,but malabar is a good name for it.
We have things like molochia, whichis a green very popular in various
parts of the world, but especiallyin the Middle East area. It's a
really, really happy to be inHouston kind of green. We've got amaranth,
the vegetable types of amaranth that willgrow in the summer, and on
and on. I probably name tenor twelve different warm season greens. So

(59:36):
as our weather moves hotter now inthe coming months, and things like well
my tomatoes aren't setting as well,or the squash and cucumbers aren't doing as
well, there is a group ofvegetables to carry you through that season and
have fresh, healthy, nutrient richproduce that helps you to have a healthy
life and also to enjoy some newflavors and new kinds of cuisine. I'm

(01:00:00):
crazy to give those a shot.Let's head out now to the phones.
We're gonna go to clear Lake andtalk to Stephen. Good morning, Stephen.
How are you, sir? I'mwell? How are you today?
Well? On vertical and at myage, that's good. You know,
every day I get up, Iread the obets first, and if my
name isn't in the paper, Ifigure it's going to be a good day.

(01:00:20):
You know you're not doing that online. Now you're actually reading the paper.
Yeah, I hold the old stuffand no, actually i'd do it
online. I've just reading my paperonline. Well, I have a couple
of comments to make about other callers. I'm pope. I can mention the
name of these organizations, but interms of the bamboo, do West Foundations
deals with that? I think mostfoundation companies do, and they can counsel

(01:00:44):
you. But you know, doyou know about Caldwell Nursery and Rosenberg?
I do know about Caldwell, butgo ahead and go ahead and mention it.
Regarding the bamboo, well, theyspecialize in bamboo, and I don't
know if you've been out there,but they have stands of bamboo set up
like a jungle set. And youknow, I even asked them if they've

(01:01:05):
rented out for folks that are doingactual movies. It's just fantastic. So
they're they're what I would consider.You don't mistake me for some of those
he was talking about, but Iwould consider them experts on bamboo and how
to take care of it and makesure it doesn't creep into your neighbor's yard.
Yeah. And I was gonna say, do you know if they have
the products and they do that serviceor just advise. I don't believe they

(01:01:30):
do the service, but once again, don't mistake me, right, but
they certainly can advise. Yeah,And I would think if you go there,
they can point you to somebody.I know. That's how it is
with all our good mom pop gardencenters. Is you go there and you
say, hey, who would yourecommend for our landscape or you know whatever,
They're going to point you to somebody. Well, it's out of the
way a little bit certainly for us. And clearly here we've been there a

(01:01:50):
couple of times. The setting isjust amazing. But if you don't want
to go there, I'm sure youcould call them and they could counsel you
as to what to do. Andthen the third thing is the seventh wild
Birds Unlimited is now open. Theyhaven't had their grand opening yet, but
they've had the soft opening and they'redoing business. It's in the area that's
called the Reserve in Clear Lakes,Oh and clear Lake. You know,

(01:02:12):
I'm going to be out there atwild Birds and clear Lake on May twenty
seventh, towards the end of May, and I can't I can't wait to
see the new store. I hearit's really really cool. No, it's
really really nice yea. And ofcourse the guy that runs it, the
Jeff, is just a wonderful dude. Well, hey, I thank you.
I appreciate that call, Stephen.We're going to head another break sure

(01:02:34):
those of you listening seven one threetwo one two five eight seven four.
And by the way, I'm goingto be today in Kingwood at K and
m Ace Hardware from eleven thirty toone thirty. I'll be there for two
hours making an appearance. We're goingto be giving away a bag of nitro
phos fertilizer every thirty minute, soyou want to get there and sign up
for it. Give me a chanceto meet you. Let's talk. Bring

(01:02:58):
in samples, bring them in abag so you don't have stuff flying all
over the store. Bring them ina bag, or bring me photos on
your phone. We can talk aboutwhatever you're interested in. K and m
Ace Hardware in Kingwood. I'll getthere by eleven thirty and I look forward
to seeing you. I hope youwill stop by, especially anyone that lives
out in the Kingwood New Caney Porteranywhere in that area. Plus, you

(01:03:22):
need to get by and see thisAce Hardware store. You will be impressed.
KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorseany of the products or services advertised
on this program. Welcome to KTRHGarden Line with Skip Rictord. Just watch

(01:03:50):
him well, good Saturday morning,on a good day for gardening. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, andyou're listening to garden Line, and this
show is about talking to you aboutwhat you're interested in. I'll offer some

(01:04:11):
thoughts and monologues as we go throughhere, but I think the best part
of the show is hearing from callers, hearing your questions, because I guarantee
you, if you've got a question, somebody else probably has the same kind
of question. If you'd like tocall, our number is seven one three
two one two five eight seven fourseven one three two one two fifty eight

(01:04:32):
seventy four, and we will getyou, Josh, We get you up
with there on the board, andwe can talk to you and visit about,
you know, the kinds of thingsthat you particularly find interesting. Well,
we've talked lawns today, we talka little bit about trees today.
I've talked a little bit about vegetablestoday. Have you ever thought about herbs?

(01:04:53):
You know, I mean maybe youpicture an herb garden as being this
formal garden, you know, whereeverything is a metric and it's all well,
those are beautiful, those are gorgeous. Most people don't have room for
one of those, right. Ifyou've got a patio, you can grow
herbs. You can grow them inpots. In fact, I grow I
grow my chives, I grow myoregano. What else do I have in

(01:05:15):
there? I've got time and containers. I've got rosemary and a different container
that's growing. I always grow mybasil out in the containers on the patio.
All of these things can be grown. All these herbs can be grown
even without an herb garden. Iput herbs in my vegetable garden at the
end of the rows because certain herbs, like chives, they bloom and they

(01:05:36):
bring in a lot of pollinators anda lot of beneficial insects too, and
basil too. When basil blooms,that's very popular. In fact, just
the other day I bought a basil. I can't remember where I was when
I found that thing. I thinkI was. I believe I was out
at Arbor Gate and they had onecalled African Blue and it's what I've grown
before out there or in my house, and it is just a loanator magnet.

(01:06:00):
Now it's not one that I wouldplant just for culinary purposes. I
mean you can it's a basil.You can consume it, but I prefer
some of the other types of basilfor cooking or pesto or something. But
this one, it blooms like crazy. It makes a bush about I don't
know, three feet high eventually,and it just loads up and it'll be

(01:06:21):
covered with so many you'll see beesand you'll go, I don't even know
what kind of bee that is.Well, it's one of our native bees.
And you're helping keep them alive becausethey are helping us with pollination.
You'll find a little surfeit fly onit, that lay larva that eat a
fens for example. You'll find parasitoidwasps on it. Just another reason to

(01:06:44):
grow herbs. That many many goodreasons out there. But if you've not
tried that before, today'd be agood day to go out. Get you
a good container, get you somegood quality growing mix to put in the
container, and then pick an herbor two, depending on the size of
the container. If you go toa good independent nursery, they're going to
tell you, you know, ifyou're buying this size pot and you want

(01:07:05):
these herbs that yes, you canput all those in one pot or no
eat this one needs its own potor whatever, and they'll get you off
to a good start. So ifyou haven't tried grown herbs before, you
really need to. I mean,they're beautiful. We have some herbs at
bloom pineapple sage for example. It'sa salvia. The leaves smell like pineapple

(01:07:25):
when you crush them. It hasbeautiful, long red blooms that are attractive
to hummingbirds. For example, thereis Mexican meant marigold it smells. The
leaves smell like black jelly beans,you know, the liquorice jelly beans.
I happen to love that. Nowsome people aren't crazy about it, but
the leaves smell like that. It'sused as a substitute for French tarragon in

(01:07:46):
our cooking. But in the lateseason, when the day length starts to
shorten up, we see blooms,just all kinds of yellow blooms on top
of the Mexican met marigolds. Sothey're ornamental herbs that are there. I
mean, what other work could youwant from a plant? You can eat
it. It is ornamental. Itattracts beneficial insects. I mean that that's

(01:08:08):
kind of like a trifector right there. And herbs can be that kind of
plant. So if you've not triedthem before, when you're out and about
shopping today, and boy, Ihope you will be, because this is
going to be a good day toget out to a garden center, that
you will check out some of thoseherbs. Well, let's now head to
the phones our number seven one three, two one two five eight seven four,
and we're going to head all theway out to Grange your land and

(01:08:30):
talk to Eugene. Good morning,Eugene. Yes, sir, I told
the man to McCall. I want, I want to plan a ruby red
grapefruit, and I'd like to growa pear tree. I want. I
want one that grows soft yellow pears. And I'm wandering work and find one.

(01:08:54):
And if it's too late in aseason to try planting. And granger
Land, I'm where on earth areyou were? Granger Land Roma? Oh
gosh, I've driven through there.I should know where grain chure Land.
Sorry, you're out south southeast ofCutton Shoot or something right? Well,

(01:09:16):
yes, yes, sir, exactly, there you go. So you are,
you were pretty close to being overin the Kingwood area, and you
can head over to Kingwood Garden Centeror Warren's Southern Garden and they are going
to have the kinds of like Kingwoodwhere i'd go, Yeah, Kingwood Garden
Center, but Warren Southern Gardens isin Kingwood, and I would I would

(01:09:41):
go check them out. And ifyou you know, if you can't find
that one, the other one's probablygonna have it. But those they're going
to carry the kinds of things you'relooking for out in in that particular area.
So that that would be my suggestionfor you, sir. Okay,
well the soul I noticed so whereI was wanting to plan it all this

(01:10:02):
rain. Now some crowd edge builtsome mounds. So I'm wondering if that's
going to be too wet. DoI need to have some dirt hold in?
Yes, crowdads tell you there's awater table down there, and so
you're gonna want to bring in andcreate a raised mound. I would try
to get it a foot high.And here's why it's going to settle.

(01:10:24):
Well, you won't get an eighteenwheeler to bring in a dump croke load.
Okay, Well, if you canget up, if you can get
soiled, that's up about a foothigh. It be better to be a
little higher because it is going tosettle down. But get you a good
quality mix. Now, you're alsonear airloom soils. They're in Porter,
so airloom soils is close to you. They will deliver to your house.

(01:10:45):
You can have them dump it onthe driveway or you can have them bring
it in the big supersacks. Now, the nice thing about the super sacks,
it's a big bag that they dropoff on your driveway. And think
of you know those cloth grocery bagsome people shop with. Well, imagine
something that holds a cubic yard ofsoil, right, and if you need
more than that, you can theycan bring it and dump it. But

(01:11:08):
talk to the folks at Heirloom Soilsbecause they they're gonna they're gonna have exactly
you know what you need, andthey can give you the right mix.
Tell them you're wanting to grow fruittrees and they will get you a mix
for fruit trees. Okay, yeah, I want to put them at about
five or six foot from the buildingand probably about five or six foot apart.

(01:11:32):
Okay, well, that's all good, and they can direct you and
all that, and I'm gonna haveto go to break here, but I
would definitely get a hold of them, because before you put that tree in
the ground, you need to knowyou have good prepared soil, and you
need to know you've picked the rightkind of grapefruit and pear. And the
two places I've sent you, threeplaces I've sent you won't won't steer you

(01:11:54):
wrong there. Thank you very muchfor that call. We're gonna take a
break now and I will be backthe number seven, one, three,
two one, two fifty eight,seventy four. Give Josh a call.
Let's get you on the boards.Just say those old shouts got the same

(01:12:18):
side. Well, good Saturday morning, on a good day for gardening.
You are listening to garden Line andI'm your host, Skip Rictor, and
we're here to talk about whatever youare interested in. This is the season

(01:12:41):
for spring color and spring excitement andspring in the garden. This is the
time to get your lawn right.You I've got infection. Talk about the
cobbler's kids go barefoot. The otherday. I've got a couple of bags
of fertilizer that a couple of differentkinds I'm trying out, just testing.
I always like to try different thingsand get experience with them. You know,
how fast do they kick in,how well do they work, and
so on. And I've been ableto get to my lawn to fertilize it.

(01:13:05):
For the fertilizer that'll carry me throughthe summer. So I need to
get out there and do that.And I was talking about, you know,
some of the color plants, andone of the one of the plants
that I've not grown a lot inthe past. I've grown them off and
on, but I just have kindof been focusing on other things. But
that's hibiscus, and I love theperennial hibiscus. Those are the kind that

(01:13:28):
have the big dinner plate sized bloomsand they die to the ground and come
back. But if you want color, you just can't do better than the
tropical hibiscus and checking out some ofthose. RCW has an unbelievable collection of
those out there. For example,you can, you know, you can
have the standard colors, like here'sa red one, here's a yellow one.

(01:13:49):
But some of these, especially someof the kind of Cajun series of
hibiscus that they're carrying out there.Now, it's like you stare at the
bloom and try to name the colors. I mean, it may start off
orange and go through some sort ofa coral look and the next thing you
know, you're into kind of apink and then a purple and this is

(01:14:10):
all in one bloom. I mean, it's just absolutely amazing, and that
that's typical for our CW to havecolor. I mean the right now,
the hanging baskets they have are unbelievable. They are absolutely unbelievable. If you
don't know where they are first ofall, go to RCW Nurseries dot com.
RCW nurseries dot com. They're onTumba Parkway, which is two forty

(01:14:31):
nine about where two forty nine comesinto Beltway eight and they're open Monday through
Saturday from eight to five and onSunday from ten to five as well.
But trust me on this one,if you go out there, you're going
to come home with color. Itis. It is amazing, just the
pizzazz and the pop that purchase likethat can make in the landscape. I

(01:14:54):
was, you know, out,I've been out. I think one of
my favorite things to do is justto basically go out and drive around to
some of our awesome nurseries that wehave in this area and just see what
they have. And you know,I've been doing horticulture for thirty four years,
well longer than that, but officiallyprofessionally for thirty four years, and
I always learned something new when Ivisit. Now, I'm not talking about

(01:15:17):
some big box store that's got thecookie cutter junk they sell all over the
country. I'm talking about a momand pop, an independent garden center that
brings in some really cool and uniquethings and We talk about these garden centers
all the time. We're fortunate tohave them as sponsors on garden Line because
that just gives us more of anopportunity to talk about the awesome garden centers.

(01:15:41):
But when you go there, you'regoing to see things you've never seen
before. And I'm telling you Ido every time I go to an independent
garden center and look hard enough andlong enough, it's like, I didn't
know that variety was out there.I didn't know they had developed that plant.
What is this species? I've beendoing this thirty four years and never
even heard of this before. Andyou visit them, and of course they
know, they sell it and theyknow what it is. And that's one

(01:16:03):
of the fun things about gardening istrying out new stuff. And some people
think of it like, well,you gotta do this landscape once and either
get it right or wrong. Andno landscapes evolve. If you have a
landscape that's twenty years old, ithas outlived its original planting. In other

(01:16:24):
words, maybe the trees have gottenbigger and now an area that was sunny
is now too shady for that rosebushto bloom. Well, well move the
rosebush to a sunny spot. Putit in a container on the patio if
you have to. But get somethings that like the shade, some of
the old shrubs that we used toplant the house I grew up in.
I was looking at a picture theother day and the house I grew up
in had Nandina and Glossiabelia and redtip potnia out in front. And the

(01:16:48):
last time I drove by there andlooked at it, and this was a
long time ago, the shrubs wereover the eaves. Whoever was living in
the house now, but you hadgiven up trying to prune them. Well,
now we have shrubs that stay low. It used to be that Chinese
witch Hazel Laura Peddlum just became atree. Well, you can buy them
now that size, but you canbuy them now that are compact. So

(01:17:09):
your landscape is constantly in need ofan evolution, of a change, of
moving things, in of trying newthings. You know, it's like clothes.
You know, you can wear clothesfor ten years, I guess,
but why not have something new totry out? By the way, one
of my daughters posted on social media, when I see old pictures of mom

(01:17:31):
and dad, and I see momI think that's a beautiful dress. When
I see pictures of mom and dadand I look at Dad, I think
he still wears that shirt. It'strue, I'm guilty, but they're helping
me, helping me overcome that,helping me overcome that. Hey, give
us a call seven one three twoone two five eight seven four. So

(01:17:55):
don't let people look at your landscapeand go you know, I've been here
twenty years ago, I've seen itten years ago, and I'm looking at
it today and nothing has changed excepteverything's overgrown, you know, and things
that used to bloom or not bloomingas well. We can fix that.
And that's the fun part about gardening. Look at your landscape and look at
your garden like it were an etchA sketch. You remember those. You

(01:18:19):
got the two little knobs and onegoes up and down, one goes sideways,
and you try to draw something,but inevitably your brain says go left
instead of right, and you endup messing up your diagram. What do
you do? You turn it upsidedown, you shake it, and you
start over with a brand new picture. Our gardens are like an etch A
sketch, and we can't turn themupside down and shake them. But we

(01:18:42):
do have this thing called a rototeller, and don't be afraid to use
it. There is no shame inpulling out a plant. Maybe you bought
it and you just don't like itanymore, Maybe it's not doing well.
Maybe we can move it to anotherarea. We'll give us a call.
Let's talk about those kinds of things. We would be happy to visit with
you about anything related to your landscapeand your garden and maybe how to give

(01:19:04):
it a good face. Left andby the way, Today at eleven thirty,
I will be at K and mAce Hardware out in Kingwood, and
I hope you will come out tosee me. If you live in the
Kingwood Porter, New Caney, anywherenorth and east like that, or if
you just want to drive across town, I would love to see you out
at K and m Ace Hardware andKingwood from eleven thirty to one thirty.

(01:19:26):
We'll be giving away four bags ofnitro FoST fertilizer, one every thirty minutes,
so you want to get in andsign up. But when you come,
bring me samples of plants you wantto identified or issues you will have
solved in a baggie or bring photosfrom your phone, Like, here's a
dark area in the back of thelandscape. What could I plant back there
with a good photo where I cansee the setting. We can help you

(01:19:47):
with that. So I hope you'llcome out to K and m Ace Hardware
and Kingwood today. Let's head outnow we're going to go to Richmond and
we're going to visit with Michael.Good morning, Michael, Good morning,
Skip Well. I want to thankyou for all your knowledge. It's a
pleasure to listen to you. Andmy question is around what you're talking about

(01:20:09):
the other week, about them Maugustrumbush and probably even like the Indian Hawthorne
boxwood seem to be going through alot of stress right now with the root
broad And my question really is aboutdo you think this is kind of a
permanent issue with the boxwood. ShouldI not be trying to replace him because

(01:20:30):
I'm going to keep struggling with that. Well, you know, boxwood,
there are so many wonderful types ofboxwood. The problem with boxwood for us
is there are several things that they'resusceptible to. They can get nematodes.
If you're in a sandy soil.You can have problems with that. There's
certain kinds of root diseases that plugthe plumbing that can get in a boxwood.

(01:20:53):
Occasionally an untimely cold snap can catchthem off guard. So as much
as I like boxwood, I wouldn'tput it at the top of my list.
There. If you have the rightsoil in place where the things I
just mentioned are not present in youryard, they can be a nice edition.
So that's kind of the trade off. It's hard to give a yes
no Michael. Yeah. I thinkmy problem where I want to put them

(01:21:16):
is that the soil stays moist becauseof where the sun in space and north
and I just you know, it'shard to keep them there. All right,
Well, I got I got aboutthirty seconds, and if you if
you want to continue the conversation afterbreak, we can do that. Basically,
a moist soil is fine as longas it's not saggy wet for an

(01:21:36):
extended period of times. But Carl, I'm going to put you on hold,
and if you want to hang on, that's fine. If you've gotten
your answer and want to go,that's good too. But I thank you.
I do appreciate that call. Ourphone number is seven one three two
one two five eight seven four.You're listening to garden Line, and now
you're about to hear the news fromNikki. I took a halt. She

(01:22:10):
said, look what good Saturday morning? On a good Saturday for gardening,
like they all are. The lightis out, I can see everywhere.
Don't see a little signed yet,got some haze. But listen, this
is gonna get better today. Thisis a good day to get out in
the yard and garden. This isa good day to go visit a garden

(01:22:31):
center. And we're gonna head backto the phones. By the way,
the number is seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. We
are going to go back and visitwith Michael out in Richmond. Michael,
we were talking about the boxwoods,and I think you had some other follow
up to that. Yeah, anotherquestion for you. I've got my neighbor

(01:22:53):
that's right on the fence line hasa like a series. It's for country
that come out of the ground ina nice circle. And I was wondering
what you would recommend to if there'sany like I guess organic food that you

(01:23:14):
can put down to strengthen those pondtrees to keep them healthy. Okay,
what would you say as a trunkdiameter on those trees about chest high?
How big are they? Yeah?I would say they're probably a foot if
not maybe foot to have. Okay, so pretty good size. Yeah.

(01:23:34):
Up, A coin that reaches thatsize is you know, it's it's hit
its kind of mature level. Imean, they'll get a lot lot bigger,
of course, but we're not talkingabout a young tree that we're trying
to get to grow fast anymore.We're talking about tree that's now established.
And so there's this balance act wherethere's a certain amount of soil moisture available,
there's a certain amount of nutrients available, and that kind of determines how

(01:23:56):
big a tree can get. Youknow, when you go around the country,
you see the same species a treedifferent sizes depending on growing conditions.
So with our pecans, we don'twant to just push, push, push
with nitrogen all the time because theyknow there's a certain size that the soil
inside and climate is going to allowthem to be. And so once we
get close to that, we kindof let them let them just gradually take

(01:24:17):
off from there and do what they'regoing to do. And I find that
the lawn fertilizing that you do,if there's a lawn underneath the trees or
around the trees anywhere, that's goingto be adequate to keep the trees healthy.
Now, if you look up inthe tree and you see issues in
the foliage, sometimes and high pHsoils pecans can have zinc deficiency, and

(01:24:39):
so we supplement with that, butthat's a very specific way of supplementing.
If they're just as a general lackof good vibrant green leaf color, then
maybe we do need to add alittle nitrogen or have a soil test to
guide us to a mystery nutrient thatmay be missing. But other than that,
fertilize your lawn. And a treethat size, I wouldn't do additional

(01:25:01):
fertilizing for it unless you just reallyare needing it to get bigger faster.
Okay, Yeah, it was moreabout you know, there there was one
branch or one tree that seemed tobloom later than the other three and then
circumference if you will, And soI didn't know if it was just a

(01:25:23):
sign of like stress on that tree, or it could be a couple of
things. Yeah, Micah, couldbe genetics, there's their variations. Just
like people are genetically different, pecantrees are genetically different unless you have exactly
the same variety in each tree.It also sometimes when we see that,

(01:25:44):
it's because the variety of pecan.There's two types of pecans. One produces
the pollen catkins first and then thenutlets that are receptive to pollen. The
other one does it the other wayaround. It produces the receptive nutlets and
then later the pollen. So whenyou say bloom, you're probably referring to
seeing those catkins out there, becausethe nutlets aren't that noticeable, they're so

(01:26:05):
tiny at that stage, and youprobably are looking at one that is the
other type from the ones that areas you said bloom first, you're probably
looking at one that's just switched.And that is good that you have both
because the technical terms for those wholike to nerd out is protogenous and protendrous

(01:26:26):
on the pecans. But basically,when you have both a protogenous and a
protendrous pecan, then they can pollinateeach other even better. Now, pollen
is wind blown on pecan, Soif you just had one type any pollen,
any pecan in the neighborhood, butthe wind blow in the right way
is going to send your pollen toyour tree. But when you have on
your one site both types, you'recovered and you're you're always going to have

(01:26:48):
the pollination necessary for a good setof pecans, which will make all the
squirrels in the neighborhood very happy.Yes, they are very happy. Okay,
well, very good, shake thatskip and thanks again. All right,
Michael, thank you for the call. I appreciate that very much.
Let's head out. I think we'regoing to talk to Carl in spring next.

(01:27:12):
Carl, how are you great?Good morning, Thank you, you're
doing a great job. Really appreciateyou answering everybody's questions, so thank quickly
and clearly. But two questions.One, is it too late to transplant
great mortles that are on the smallerside. Are you talking about you digging

(01:27:32):
them up? Are you talking abouttaking them out of a container to plan
them digging them up? I movedthem two years ago from the back to
the front because they weren't doing verygood, and now I'm ready to put
them back in the back. Carl, if you have to do it,
I would do it right away,and I would get as much of the
roots as you practically can get,not so much going deeper, but going

(01:27:54):
wider. Okay, if you geteven a foot deep as plenty, but
wider is more important. And waterthem in right away, maybe put a
little shade cloth over them to justkind of take a little bit of the
intensity to sign out until they getsome roots down. If you could at
all wait, I would wait anddo it this fall. It'll be way
better to do it in early November. Okay, okay, great. My

(01:28:17):
second question is what would you recommend. I need a freeze resistant, fast
growing screening bush, and I dolike logustrums, but just is there something
better than a lugustrum that grows fasterand taller and wider. All right,

(01:28:38):
well, I'm gonna come in onlugustrum and then we're going to go to
break and if you'll hang on,that's a big question, and so I
like to give it a little bitmore time. But lugustrum is not a
plant. I like, they're everywhere, They've been around forever, but they
get a foliage leaf spot disease thatjust plagues them, and they are a
painting. It's a pain in theneck to deal with. We got other

(01:28:58):
ways we can steer you and whenI come back from break, we'll talk
about some of those options. Okay, okay, thanks, thank you very
much for hanging on. You're listeningto garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Rictor, and our phone number. Write this down seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four.Real quick to band apologize. I'll tell

(01:29:36):
you you gotta you gotta appreciate thefact that country music sings your life,
or at least sometimes what you hopeisn't your life, but it has a
way of putting it into song.You're listening to garden Line and I'm your
host, Skip Richter our phone numberseven one three two one two five eight

(01:29:57):
seven four seven one three two onetwo eight seventy four. We're gonna go
back now to talk to Carl inspring and we're going to continue our disco.
No I think we got do welose? Michael? Are we to
Carl? Now? Yes? Allright, Carl? How can we help
today? Yeah, we're guarding atall, fast growing great bush to use

(01:30:20):
of a screen or along a fenceline. Okay, privacy, yeah,
you know that that's the challenge iswe want something that gives us instant privacy,
which is hard to come by.We want something that's evergreen, which
limits the plant palette a little bit, and we want something that doesn't get
as fat as it gets tall,so it doesn't eat up the whole yard,

(01:30:42):
right, And that's the challenge thatwe have. There are some pretty
good upright hollies that will do wellif your area is well drained and you
provide good moisture sole moisture for themas they begin to grow. Certainly,
there are some yopons that can beupright and give you some good growth.
The problem with the upright yopuns,carl is as they get older, they

(01:31:03):
tend to kind of open up.We say they fall apart, meaning they,
you know, what's upright, beginsto lean out, and so they're
not at the top of my listfor those kinds of that kind of use.
There is the oh gosh cherry LaurelSouthern or Carolina cherry laurel. There's
a variety called Brighton type. There'ssome other compact types. And by compact

(01:31:27):
it just means they they're more compact, they grow slower, but they still
get tall, and so that wouldbe that would be a good one to
use as well, so that thoseare a few of the opportunities that you're
in spring. Is that right,correct? Yes, if you will,
If you will head up, Idon't know how far away you are from.
Like our CW Nursery which is boutway eight and two forty nine or

(01:31:50):
even up to m plants for allseasons. They're going to have a wide
variety of shrubs, and they're goingto have things that are not coming to
my mind right at this moment thatthey can direct you to also, so
I know, I don't want togive you too limited of a list there,
but one of those places is goingto be able to steer you correct.

(01:32:10):
How high do you think that thescreen is going to need to be.
I would prefer it to get toaround eight feet tall? Okay,
well, I would throw southern waxmyrtle in there, and if you keep
it sheered. The nice thing aboutit is it puts up with wet soil
too. So I hope that helps. I'm going to have to run.
We're at the end of the segment, but I hope that's helpful to you,
that those folks won't steer you wrong. You know, I was talking

(01:32:32):
about soils I was talking about soilsearlier, and the folks at Heirloom Soils
they have every blend you can imagine, and they know how to make it.
When you talk to Louise out there, when you talk to Mark out
there, those are experts at it. And if you don't want soil dumped
on your driveway, which by theway, is fine to do, but
if you don't consider their supersack,they can put a cubic yard in a

(01:32:56):
giant superstack that they set right onyour driveway. You is it up,
it's clean, it's easy, it'snice. Go to Airloom Soils of Texas
dot com. And while you're atAirloom Soils of Texas dot com, check
out their cubic yard calculator. Itis the most extensive, amazing one I've

(01:33:17):
seen online. I've seen a lotof them. I mean, if you
want to know how many five gallonbuckets is in a yard, they can
tell you that this calculator for whateveramount of soil you need will help you
calculate and therefore purchase the right amount. Airloom Soils of Texas dot com.
The nice thing about you know whenyou when you do a calculator like that,

(01:33:40):
because you think, what is acubic yard of soil? I mean
it there's three by three, ButI'm a soil of that really. I
mean I need a pile out here. I want it to be ten inches
high and four feet wide and somany feet long. How do you figure
all that out? That's a nicething about a calculator like that, and
the quality products that they that theymake. You know, I'm gonna heading

(01:34:00):
out here. We are. Wegot about another what hour in the books
before we're done. But don't forgetif you're anywhere out in the Kingwood,
New Porter, New Caney, anywhereout in northeast. I hope you'll come
out today to K and m AceHardware in Kingwood. I'm gonna leave after
the show. I'll be set upand ready to go by eleven thirty and

(01:34:20):
I'll go till at least one thirtyout there at K and m As Hardware.
It's a chance to meet you know. On the air, I only
have time to take a few phonecalls each day. But when you come
out, you get eye to eyetime with me. We can discuss whatever
kinds of planting plans you have,whatever kinds of questions you have, we

(01:34:40):
can do a diagnostic to kind ofhelp you maybe figure out what's this bug
or what's this disease, or bringme a picture, let's look at what's
going on. And by the way, when you take pictures, always take
them in good sharp focus. Sometimessomeone will hold up a leaf and they'll
put their phone up there and takea picture in the phone focuses on the
backyard, not on the leaf rightin front of the phone. Make sure

(01:35:02):
it's in good sharp focus. Becausethe diagnosis and the identification is only as
good as the picture, and sowe want to make sure and get that.
While you're out there at K andM, you're going to see the
store and the products that they haveon the shelf. And it is really
really amazing, you know, whenyou're when we're talking about Ace Hardware stores,

(01:35:23):
we've got Ace Hardware all over theplace. And so if you're going,
well, where is K and MAce Hardware? Where is my Ace
Hardware in the community where I live? Ace Hardware dot com. It's as
simple as that Ace Hardware dot Comfind a store near you. You can
find and join me at K andM today, and I hope you will
by the way. Even if youdon't live that way, come on out.

(01:35:45):
You will not be disappointed. Believeme, it is a cool place
with lots and lots of good products. I was out visiting with Ace Hardware
the other day and looking at thethings they carry, and again I can't
believe the variety of products. Ifyou're organic, if you're synthetic, if

(01:36:05):
you don't care, they've got productsfor you. You want soils, you
want fertilizers, and we talk aboutall these fertilizers all the time. They're
going to have it all there foryou as well. So you know,
a good hardware store is going tohelp you get the right paint. A
good hardware store is going to helpyou understand how to use what they sell
you and bring in a piece ofpiefin. What do I? How do

(01:36:28):
I fix this? They'll tell you. But when it comes to lawn and
garden, Ace Hardware is exactly thesame kind of service. KTRH Garden Line
does not necessarily endorse any of theproducts or services advertised on this program.
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Scaredrectors. Just what a well, good

(01:37:15):
good Saturday morning on a good dayfor gardening. As all days are good
for gardening. You are listening togarden Line and I'm your host skip rictor,
and we are here to talk toyou about whatever you're interested in when
it comes to gardening, maybe thelawn, maybe trees, maybe shrubs,
flowers. We talked a little bitabout herbs a little bit earlier today.
I hope I made my best pitchat talking you and to trying herbs.

(01:37:39):
They are one of the most versableplants that we can add to the landscape.
I would would always consider other waysto plant things. You know,
when you're a plant collector, whicha lot of us are. I know,
uh, you know, us plantcollectors, we don't start with a
landscape plan usually, and we shouldbe is that's what makes the place is

(01:38:00):
most beautiful. But we start bywalking through a nursery going oh, I
don't have one of those. Ohthat's a new house plant. I think
I need one of those. Yousee what I'm saying. And then we
bring it home, we try tofigure out where to put it, and
we just kind of put them wherewe put them. But hey, it's
your property. Between you and thehomeowners association. You can do what you
can do. What you want todo. We have all these gardening rules.

(01:38:23):
You know, the nice sweeping,gradual curves in the landscape makes for
easier mowing and more esthetic on theeyes. And we want to blend our
colors so that they're appropriate in termsof the way they match within the color,
you know, the span of colorsaround the circle, of all the
different options of colors that we have, and so on. But you get

(01:38:45):
the idea. Hey, there's norules in gardening except have fun. Now,
the Homeowners Association does right rules,But when it comes to gardening,
enjoy it. Grow what you wantto grow. I mean, you could
put in a flower bed and doannuals and stuff and decide, you know
what, I'd rather have some perennialsor a shrub there. I'm going to
grow vegetable as well. How aboutsome ornamental vegetables the bright light Swiss chard,

(01:39:10):
rhubarb, charred those are beautiful.I don't think I've ever mentioned salad
burnette. Salad burnett is a littlemounding plant. I don't know whether to
call it a vegetable or an herb. It's kind of in between. But
it has a little leaves that havea cute, fresh cucumber like taste.
But it makes a mound. Soif you used a row of salad burnett
around a board a border, itwould be it would be really attractive.

(01:39:33):
It'd be like you know how peopleuse lo rioty to form a border,
Well, you could use salid burnett. Now, it's not going to be
green all year and so it's goingto have its season. But I'm just
saying, get creative, and youcan put things you can eat in all
kinds of places around the landscape.So don't just have the mindset of there's

(01:39:55):
my flower garden, there's my vegetablegarden, there's my herb garden. If
you want that, do it,but otherwise mix it up. I even
sometimes will mix herbs with ornamentals,other ornamental plants in the same container.
I've put herbs with a vegetable plantbefore in the same container. It's fun.

(01:40:15):
Get out there and have fun.Well, we're going to go to
the phones. You're listening to gardenLine. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and our phone number is seven onethree two one two five eight seven
four two and two fifty eight seventyfour. Or make it easy, Katie
R. H Let's head out toWestchase now and we are going to visit
with Sharon. Good morning, Sharon, Hi Skip, Thanks. I have

(01:40:41):
a question and it's not for me, it's for my friends asking for a
friend. Okay, Yes, shewill not call in. She googles everything.
But I've been telling arm about yourshow, and I said, you
know, you should really call agarden Line about She wants to know about
ants in her stable garden and Idon't have a vegetable garden, so I

(01:41:02):
don't even know how to praise thisquestion. Okay, but she said she
kicked over a mound and ants crawledout everywhere, and I said, well,
you know, you need to becareful what you put on those in
it for your to control the antswerAnd that's when I told her to call
it a skip and she said,will you call? So what? How?

(01:41:26):
What is she? What is thebest way to deal with that for
her? All right, Well,first of all, thank you and her
for the question. We have gotto get her comfort level up. You
know, if you've listened to GardenLine very long, you know that I
make it easy for callers, right, And I'm not going to go answer
that's a stupid question. Don't callme by I'm going to give it another
answer. She's an engineer and shedoes everything online. Okay, well,

(01:41:53):
so we coordinate, she and Ibecause I don't know much about it online
and she helps me there, sowe kind of help each other. All
right, Well, here's the answerfor your friend. And there are a
lot of other people listening that havethe same question. Now I'm going to
assume by ants she means fire antsbecause she talked about kicking off the over
the top of a mound, andthat sounds like fire ants. Do you

(01:42:13):
know offhand if that's it or didshe just say aunt? I don't know
offhand, but I suspect. Ithink I'm trying to remember our conversation.
I think it might be. Okay, well, it's probably fireans because every
other aunt in the vegetable garden youdon't need to worry about. There is
one ant called a leaf cutter aunt, but you don't have a mound in
your in your garden. A moundof a colony of leaf cutters is bigger

(01:42:36):
than your garden. But we're gonnasay fire ants. So here's here's two
things. First of all, youwant to start with a bait if you
just treat fire ant mounds individually,it's like playing whack a mole. You
see a mound pop up, youkill it, and then over here a
mound pops up, and you killit, and then over here a mound
pops up. Because you never reallyget rid of the underlying colonies that you

(01:42:59):
don't see. So a bait,even invisible mounds that haven't boiled of the
surface yet, a bait will getthem, and you spread it evenly through
the garden. And I only knowof one bait labeled for use inside vegetable
gardens. There maybe some others,but I've looked and so far I haven't
found any others. But it's calledcome and Get It, Come and Get

(01:43:20):
It. It's a product I believeit's made by Fertile Home and it is
a bait based on an organic ingredientcalled spinosid. And so the ants pick
it up, they take it backto the colony, they feed the queen
and it takes it from there.So I would use that product in the
vegetable garden. If the garden issmall, you can use other baits around

(01:43:42):
the garden. And there are manyfire ant baits on the market that you
just wouldn't put them in the garden, but the ants would go find a
granule because they're not just hunting aroundthe mound. They're going pretty far out
and searching for food, and they'llfind them and bring them back to the
mound. The other thing I wouldtell your friend Sharon is if she's working
in the garden and ants crawling upon her legs and two up the handle

(01:44:05):
of tools and things is a problemif you dust, if you wear rubber
boots and dust the outsides with ababy powder, or if you dust the
handles of your tools with baby powder, ants try to climb up and they
fall off, and it's just away like someone will often say, you
know, I've got a nice compostpile, but the ants are in it,
and I can't turn the compost withoutgetting bit. Well, baby powder

(01:44:28):
is your friend. It'll take care. That's just a little added tip for
your friend. Okay, So letme read you fertilem makes it. It's
got Spinoza and it's called come andget it. Come and get it.
That's right, and we're gonna right. It is safe for edible vegetable gard
It's labeled for edible vegetable gardens.That's right, and I thank you for
the call. I'm gonna have torun to break, but thank you very
much, and thank your friend.Okay, our phone number is seven one

(01:44:51):
three two one two five eight sevenfour. We'll be right back. Well,

(01:45:12):
welcome back to garden Line. Youare listening to garden Line and this
is a call in show. Sohere's the number to call in. Seven
one three two one two fifty eightseventy four seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. You knowI've talked about fertilizing today and that this
is the time to get all thosesummer fertilizers down. But I don't want

(01:45:32):
to forget to mention something, andthat is when you put your fertilizer out,
you need to follow it with anapplication of azamite. If you want
more information on azamite, which isby the way, I mind material dug
up out of the soil full ofmicronutrients, the little trace elements that are
essential for not only plant health,but for human health, you can go

(01:45:54):
to Azamite Texas dot com and findthat I'd like to use azamite in a
vegetable guard about ten pounds per thousandsquare feet and a vegetable garden provides all
those minor things that we need.And so we talk about nutrients a lot,
and you're probably thinking, well,what you know, how do you
know how much nutrients and why isthis or that important. Well, on

(01:46:15):
the typical fertilizer bag, you gotthree numbers, which is three nutrients,
and those three numbers are going torepresent nitrogen, phosphors, and potassium.
Sometimes they'll add sulfur and magnesium intothe numbers on the bag occasionally you see
that. But plants need a lotof different nutrients. They need about sixteen
seventeen nutrients that are essential for justthe basic things that plants have to do

(01:46:36):
to grow and survive. But weneed additional nutrients. So when I put
like an azamite into my garden,I'm building that soil full of all kinds
of trace elements that are part ofgood food. And you want your vegetable
garden. You're growing a vegetable gardento grow healthy, quality food for you

(01:46:57):
to consume. Because what we eatdetermines our health, right, That's one
of the main reasons we have problemsis because of the way we eat.
Well, when you build your soilthat way, and your produce is built
and packed with that kind of nutrient, it's going to be healthy. And
that's why I would recommend something likean asamite product for your vegetable garden as
well. Well, let's head tothe phone's the phone number seven one three

(01:47:18):
two one two fifty eight seventy four. Let's talk to Francis out in Memorial.
Hello, Francis high skip. Goodmorning to you, Thank you,
Good morning to you. I wantedto talk to you about my amarillis that
are container rised and is it toolate to put them in the ground.

(01:47:42):
No, it's not at all.You can go ahead and set those things
in the ground and they'll get theirroots down. Try to not disturb the
roots more than you have to,and that will be that will be the
best for them. But yes,you can move them right out and now
no problem. Okay, I havethem in real big pots right now,
like six or eight and how deep. I know I need to leave some

(01:48:08):
of the top bulb. Yeah,yeah, amarillas, it kind of sits
up near the soil surface. Youcan you know, I wouldn't if the
top of the bulb is just rightup at about the soil surface that should
be pretty good. There's somewhat flexiblethere. But I wouldn't bury them down
deep like you would a daffodil forexample. Okay, and what about a

(01:48:30):
kubo's? Can maybe try and splineit? Now? Well, now I'm
assuming you're meaning you're digging them up. You're not pulling them out of a
container, right right. I wantto try and splint them. They've gotten
too big for the area. Yeah, you know, can you yes?
But you need to dig down aboutprobably eight inches only. But why does

(01:48:54):
you can get If you can gettwo feet three feet out on each side
of the shrub, that's even better. What I do on my is I
dig up one dig under one sideand slide a tarp under there, and
then I dig the other side,and then you can just drag that plant
onto the tarp. Because if youtry to pick up the amount of soil
you're going to have, you mightas well call your chiropractor and ask him

(01:49:15):
if he makes house visits, becausethat's there you go. But when it's
on a tarp, Fransis, youcan just drag it. I mean,
one person, if you want to, you just grab the tarp and it
just slides right over the lawn andgoes right to where you want to put
it, and you just slide itright back and you never pick the thing
up. That's that's why to doit now. Having said how to do
it now, if you can waituntil November, that would be a better

(01:49:40):
time. Your chances of success.It won't be as touching go at this
point. You got to get itinto the new location, watered in really
well, and then once you've donethat, then continue to give small light
waterings to keep it going until itgets a good extensive root system. I
did theyse of the freeze, andmy hibiscus didn't. Well, the tropical

(01:50:05):
biscus aren't very cold hearty. Cubasis pretty cold hearty, okay, okay,
okay. And what about um sosian quota um hedges and that sort
of thing. We used them overin Mobile quite a bit. Oh yes,
yes, yes, that's a niceevergreen And if you got the right

(01:50:26):
location, which is decent drainage andan acidic type soil, they're going to
be the happiest. That's certainly prettierthan um um. What is the japonica?
No, that's the glass stop chameilias, but they're certainly nicer than Tom

(01:50:47):
and Hedge. We have rand here. Okay, I got you. Yeah,
Chamillias, both the Sasanko and theJaponicas both will will grow here.
Uh, and you can learn abouthow to grow them. They do have
some unique requirements. Are we're alittle of course, we're much further east
than you were. And it's theacidic soils are not as prevalent here in

(01:51:08):
the general Houston area, but wehave some. But you can. The
nice thing is you can buy agood bed mix and you can make it
feel very much at home. It'llthink it's in the Deep South somewhere,
and just and just do real wellfor you. Okay, Well, I
show thank you and really enjoying yourprogram. Well, thank you. I
appreciate you saying that, and thankyou for being a listener. Thank you.

(01:51:32):
Yeah, the community is well,I haven't I haven't talked about those
here, and I really need tobecause communias are a beautiful, beautiful flower.
You get that you enjoy them duringthe December January season. Depend on
what kind of communities you're planting.Well, but yeah, success with camelias
is important, and you know,I'm an old broken record when it comes

(01:51:55):
to talking about soils and the importanceof that. But to get a good
quality soil, a fungal compost soil, a leaf mold compost soil, that's
the key. And if you're goingto try something like a camellia, you
especially need to build that soil right. And a place where you can do
that is Nature's Way Resources John andIan Ferguson up in Nature's Way, which

(01:52:17):
is just off Highway forty five,just south of Conro, north of the
Woodlands. They have those kind ofproducts. They have been a leader in
terms of soil for a long time. They were the original creators of the
leaf mold compost and the rose bedmix. You know, you hear us
talk about those kind of things.They take their time with soil, so

(01:52:39):
it's not just let's rush some organicmatter through, make it turn brown and
sell it. Let's give it thetime it needs to fully compost and fully
develop. And the results of plants, it's very significantly different when you have
that. By the way, whenyou're at Nature's Way, they have two
acres of display gardens and plants,plants for sale, and they have a

(01:53:00):
wide variety of plants. Last timeI was there, the second to last
time, they had a decent starton the plants. But the last time
I went it was just a monthor so ago. I was surprised at
how many plants that they had.So while you're there, you're picking up
your compost, you're picking up yourmalts, You're picking up maybe the mineralizer
that helps add the nutrients and mineralsto the soil. You can also pick

(01:53:21):
up some plants as well, butstart with the soil, and Nature's way
is a great way to start withthe soil and get it right so that
it looks like your thumb is greenerthan anybody's down the block. Do you
have a green thumb, Nikki?I do not unless I'm painting and it
happens to be green. But shortof that, no, Well, I

(01:53:42):
always say it's there's this thing asbrown thumbs. There's uninformed thumbs there you
go. That's why we're hearing.We teach your thumb how to grow things,
and everybody thinks you have a greenthumb, you know. I hear
people say, well, grandma everythingshe planted grew, well, Grandma knew
how to do it. So anyway, I'm taking up the nice news time.
Well, we'll jump into it.It's plan two line. When you've

(01:54:06):
been crying all those blund shot eyeswith me, you know, it's hard
for me to do a whole showwithout at least one Western Swing asleep at
the wheel. In fact, Ithink I may haven't done undone one for

(01:54:27):
two or three shows, but Ilove that Western Swing, and a sleep
at the wheel show gets the jobdone. You're listening to Garden Line.
I'm your host, Skipper Richter,and it is getting near our last couple
of segments here. So if you'reit shouldn't calling in now. I'd be
a good time to do it.Seven one three, two, one two
five eight seven four seven one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four.

(01:54:51):
By the way, those of youwho are out northeast in the Kingwood area,
tasks are the Porter, New Caneyall that direction. I'm going to
be today eleven thirty to one thirtyat the K and m Ace Hardware in
Kingwood. K and m Ace Hardwarein Kingwood. And when you come out

(01:55:12):
there, bring me a sample ofa plant, bring me a sample of
a bug. Whatever you want identified, whatever you want diagnosed you want to
bring pictures on your phone. Itwas like, here's an area where I
can't see him to get stuff togrow. What would you suggest planting there?
It's a little too shady. Ormaybe you know some other feature that
you just really want to enhance.Well, let's take a look at those.
Just make sure the pictures are goodsharp focus. By the way,

(01:55:34):
go to Ace Hardware dot com.That's where you're going to find the Ace
hardware near you. And if youwant to look at well, where's k
and m Ace Hardware, Well,rather than me reading out the whole address,
go to Ace Hardware dot com.It's on king It's in Kingwood,
so that can't be too hard tofind ken it so Ace Hardware dot com.

(01:55:56):
When we are out at these sites, it is always good. You
get to visit with people that arelistening, get to meet you, You
get to meet me, We getto talk and kind of you get to
see the face behind the radio.What do they say, a face made
for radio? I hope, Ihope I don't know that, but maybe
I do. Anyway, Knmas hardWord looking forward to seeing you. We
are we are going, we areJosh is talking to my ear cracking me

(01:56:18):
up. We're going to go outto Magnolia now and talk to Barbara.
Well, Barbara, good morning,how can we help? Good morning,
Skip. I have another question aboutAmarilla's. Mine are usually abundant at this
time, and this year I haveno blooms, so I don't know if

(01:56:39):
there's anything going to happen this year. What should I do? Wow,
are these in containers? Are inthe ground? They're in the ground.
Well, that's a that is abit of a stumper, you know.
I'm sorry. I have the green, but no blooms. Are yours?
Do you know? Are yours theold type called Johnson's amarellas that have the

(01:57:02):
skinnier petals or do you have oneof the new florist amarellas that have the
big wide petals. Johnson's is alwaysjust red. The others can be red
and pink and kind of a yeah, I would say these are old.
They came from a very dear friend'sgarden who's no longer here, so they
were dug up quite a few yearsago. But this is the first year

(01:57:26):
I have no flower. Well,just thinking horticulturally through it, there's not
some common amorellas thing that I've runacross that causes, you know, particular
to them to not bloom one year, but horticulturally, your bulbs bloom and
then the leaves capture sunlight and bringthe carbohydrates in to get the new bloom

(01:57:48):
bud created over time for next year. Right, So if if you were
to prune off the foliage early andit has to use stored energy to grow
ran new foliage, that could throwthem off a little bit. If anything
that prevents that rejuvenation of the bulbperiod could affect the next year's bloom and

(01:58:10):
a bulb in general. So Idon't you know, you're probably gonna tell
me, no, I didn't dothat, and yeah, and so I
don't know why they wouldn't bloom again. I mean, they're they're dependable.
These are bulbs, especially the oldtype like you're talking about. They'd live
in abandoned places and just keep doingtheir thing. So it's not like you

(01:58:30):
have to pamper them. But thatis the bloom cycle. So somewhere in
there, I don't know why,but that got off. But I wouldn't
worry about them. I think they'llbe right back. It's not like a
disease. It's at them until now. They're never going to bloom again.
They'll be back. Is it toolate for them to come this year?
Tell me what what area you're in? I'm in m Magnolia. They hate

(01:58:57):
us to say that, but newMagnolia, New Magna U. I don't
know. They could. They couldsurprise me and just be a little slow
putting up some balloons. I thisis stretching past what I've experienced with those,
So I just I don't want togive you an answer like it's authoritative
when I'm giving you my best shot. Guess. Okay, And in this

(01:59:17):
case, let's just wait and seehopefully, and if they do bloom,
please call and let me know.I'd like to know that. Okay.
I'll keep hoping and wait for thesurprise one day. All right, there
you go. That sounds like agood boy. Have a good tape of
bye. Well, thank you,Barbara. I appreciate that call. Thank
you very much. All Right,we're gonna take a break here. I

(01:59:39):
did want to talk to you beforewe do go to break though about sweet
green. Sweet green is Nitrofosters productthat is an organic plant food. It
is rich in a molasses type material, gives it that nice, fresh sweet
smell. It's got a high analysisof nitrogen about eleven percent nitrogen. It

(02:00:00):
agular releases over time. It feedsthe microbes in the soil, which microbes
are the key to making things happen, making that rich soil environment that promotes
optimum health and optimum performance. Andyou're gonna find sweet green everywhere you find
nitrofoss. If you're up in Brannamat Plants and Things, or at Montgomery
at Gem's Hardware, or if youcome out to see me today at K

(02:00:20):
and m Ace Hardware in Kingwood,I'll be there from eleven thirty to one
thirty. You can get you somesweet green while you're out there too,
nitrofoss sweet green everywhere nitrofoss is sold. Because I'm my vegacine, I'm the
kind of heat gonna make it,George, I can get. My gift

(02:00:54):
to you today is that I'm notsinging at hammer. You're listening to garden
Line and I'm your host, SkipRichter, and we are here to answer
your gardening questions. We are enteringour last segment of the day, So
if you got a call, giveus a call. If you got a
question, give us a call.Seven one three two one two fifty eight

(02:01:16):
seventy four. Seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. Josh
says, we need to take apromo picture of me in Gucci. I
just want to go on the record. This like outranks the I promise no
new taxes. I promise you willnever see a picture of me in Gucci.
Number one, I'm not gonna payfor it. Number two, I'm

(02:01:39):
not gonna do it. How's that? If nominated, I will not run.
If elected, I will not serve. Yeah, that's not gonna happen.
Josh, all right, seven onethree two on two five eight seven
four or two on two k tR eight. We will look forward to
talking to you about whatever kinds ofthings you're interested in visiting with today.
By the way, we'll be backtomorrow. We're every Saturday and every Sunday

(02:02:02):
from six am to ten am,and so tomorrow morning six am. That
by the way, just a littletip for garden line listeners. If you
want to get right on the boards, the best time to do it is
on early Sunday morning. For somereason, there are a few people sleeping
in at that hour, and sothat's your chance to get on and be
part of garden line. Well,let's head out now, and we're gonna

(02:02:25):
go to Kingwood and talk to Allen. Hello, Allan, good morning.
We got Ellen there. I thinkwe'll have him in just one moment here
and in Kingwood. All right,Well, I'm gonna wait one second on
Allen. We will get to him. He will be here in just a
moment. By the way, Iwill be out at Kingwood at K and

(02:02:45):
MS Hardware at eleven thirty to onethirty today and so bring me. You're
tired, you're weary, you're sick, plants yearning to breathe free or whatever,
so please please please do that?Do we got Alan ready to go
out there in Kingwood? Hey,Alan, good morning? Well, Hello,

(02:03:05):
good morning to you, sir.Hello, could you hear me?
I can? Let's do that?Okay? Uh? I need Where are
you going to be in Kingwood again? I want to be sure I show
up and I didn't hear you.I hope you will. We are going
to be at K and m AceHardware in Kingwood. It's on Kingwood Drive

(02:03:26):
if you want to be specific.Dat Well, I'll be there. Hey,
I have a new house. Andwhen they put the bermuda in,
they did a very very poor charta job. It's not level, it's
real lumpy. It's up and down. Okay, And I need some knowledge
on how you level a yard orwho I could call to come in and

(02:03:47):
level the yard. Okay. Well, a good a good quality landscape service
place could bring in the kind ofmaterial you need to do that leveling.
Now, when when you have bermuda, that's fortunate in this case, but
as you could cover it up withdirt and it'll pop right through the top,
you know, Saint Augustine, youcover it with enough dirt if you
got a real low level or alow hole or something, and it won't

(02:04:09):
it ain't able to come through itas to crawl through from the sides.
So but bermuda, bermuda pops rightthrough. So I would use kind of
a top soil type mix just todo the leveling. Now we're not talking
about a top dressing. That's whenwe go with a fine screened quality leaf
mold compost. But compost breaks down. So if you have a hole and
you fill it with compost, it'sgoing to be full but then it's going

(02:04:31):
to become a hole again as thatcompost breaks down, right, it sinks
down. So we want to usesomething with a little more structure to it,
like a top soil type mix,just to get that those holes leveled,
the area evened out like you wantit to be, and then going
forward for that, then the topcompost top dressing. So someone's listening and

(02:04:51):
you know thaying skips tell us youput top soil all over your yond.
Well, no, only for fillingin holes, because we want something structurally
solid to you know, to keepthat level for us. Okay, wow,
that's good because everything I'm here andput sand down, well, you
know you hear that. And oneof the reasons is because on golf course

(02:05:12):
greens and things, they use sandas a top dressing because it's a super
super well drained mix that they waterthe heck out of. So anyway,
but I hope that helps. I'mgonna helps a hold on, hold on,
thank you very much, Yes,sir, I'm gonna look forward to
seeing you out there. I gottarun now. I'm going to go over
to a Taska Ceda and talk toRuby. Hello, Ruby, Yes,

(02:05:33):
I am looking for a good placewhere they sell orchids, a nice selection
of variety of orchids. If youcan just help me with that, that's
all I need. Yeah, Well, you're out in the Taska Ceda areas.
What's your favorite closest nursery that yougo to out in that area?
So we go to We've been toWarrens, We've gone to Ace Hardware.

(02:05:58):
I've even driven out to Orchids Express, which they're fabulous. I'm going there,
but I just want a variety,not just orchids, but orchids and
other plants. Well, you knowthere are places that specialize in orchids,
but for the variety, you're notgoing to do better than Kingwood Garden Center
and Warren Southern Gardens those two.And uh, you know, I'm gonna

(02:06:19):
by the way, I hope youcome over to k and m Ace to
see me today. When I'm outthere. It's eleven thirty to one thirty.
But you're going to be right inthat area. You've got to supergarden
centers with a wide variety of plantsthat you can check out as well.
And that Okay, I think you'regoing to find what you're looking for.
If you're looking for a particular type, you know, a certain species of

(02:06:41):
orchid. We may have to goto a more kind of obscure orchids specialty
place. But I think what youneed as a place that has a wider
variety of things. Yes, allright, thank you, all right,
thank you very much. You knowyou're talking about talking about ACE Hardware.
If you would just go online toACE Hardware dot com. I talk about
him all the time. But thirtynine locally owned and operated stores. I

(02:07:05):
mean that they're all over this listeningarea, and our Houston group of ACE
Hardware stores does an excellent job ofmaking sure that when we talk about it
on garden Line, they carry itin the store. And that's nice because
what a better deal. I mean, you need to go into a hardware

(02:07:25):
store for all the things you gointo the traditional hardware store for. When
you walk into an ACE, you'regoing to have people that it's the old
time hardware. Remember when maybe growingup, you walked into a hardware store
and there's some old guy that comesshuffling up, and you know, you
show him a piece of pipe orsomething you're fixing the plumbing, and he

(02:07:45):
knows exactly where to take you andhe tells you exactly how you do it
and it just has that kind ofknowledge. Well that's Ace Hardware. But
take that over to the garden Center. So all the products we talk about
are going to be available, andthen some there. They have a great
selection. By the way, ifyou're a griller, Webber, Trager,
Big Green Egg, they've got allthat kind of stuff as well. Make

(02:08:09):
sure and sign up Race rewards programswhere every time you buy something you earn
money back on your purchase. Butgo to ACE Hardware dot com and find
a store near you that. Ican't give you better advice than that.
And if you'll come out to theK and M A's Hardware in Kingwood on
Kingwood Drive eleven thirty to one thirtyas soon as the show's over, I'm

(02:08:31):
heading that way. We're there toanswer your questions. I just like shake
your hand and meet you. Butif you want to bring in pictures and
have me kind of advise on someplantings you'd like to put in, I'll
be there and I'll be available forthat and look forward to getting to talk
to you. You know. GardenLine is here from six am to ten
am every Saturday and Sunday, andwe're here to answer your gardening questions.

(02:08:54):
We also are available by podcast.And if you miss the show and you
want to go back and what wasthat thing he said, Maybe you didn't
listen with a paper and pen handy, Well you can go back and listen
to a pass show and get somemore information. But we enjoy getting to
visit with gardeners. We enjoy yourquestions and calls. And I would suggest
that you become our advocate in yourneighborhood. Tell your other friends and family

(02:09:18):
and people in your neighborhood to listento garden Line. They can get a
lot of good information. We reallywork hard and providing good quality, research
based solid information, not just advice, not just someone's opinion, but something
that's been tried and proven and thatworks. Because your yard and your garden,
they're your show place and I'm hereto make them more bountiful and more

(02:09:41):
beautiful. And that's the purpose ofthe advice we give. So when you
run into problems, when you're lookingfor ideas, that's why we're here.
You know, there are not manytowns that I know of in Texas where
you get eight hours of garden showon a weekend. I mean, that's
a lot of opportunity and the combinationof that with oh so many wonderful garden

(02:10:05):
centers Houston area. What a greatplace to live in garden