Lets Talk Spring

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To Katie r h. Garden Line with Skip Ricord shoes.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
The crazy here the basis gas can use trim.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
You just watch him as.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Whom god gas gasby you.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
May put it takes the soup baas in bad bassies.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
And gas and again you jus glos back tacking.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's not a sound glassies like gas. The sun bemon
of treating the gassies like gas.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Baby, can you.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Starting in and out of the treating the gas gas became?

Speaker 4 (00:47):
You?

Speaker 5 (00:49):
Hang on? I gotta get some coffee.

Speaker 6 (00:53):
There we go.

Speaker 5 (00:55):
Well, apparently some of you do not need coffee. You're
already Doland phone numbers before I get here. I guess
you could go ahead and start without me. Welcome to
Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are
rare to go to get some talking done about all
things horticulture or gardening. I don't use that term horticulture
a lot, but basically that is the official term for

(01:19):
what we talk about here on Garden Line. Horticulture is
from a Latin word hortas, which refers to a garden.
Basically is what it amounts to.

Speaker 7 (01:29):
So how to.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Culture your garden? That's what we're about, all right? Well,
let's just I tell you what, since we got some
early birds, let's just jump right out there and we
won't get on the phones and talk to Mel and Tomball. Hey, Mel,
welcome to garden Line morning.

Speaker 8 (01:43):
Now I haven't had my caffee yet, but I'm here.
I'm trying to beat the rain a little bit, and
I'm wondering if it's why you're unwise to put down
by barricade fifteen five ten on the same day.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
You know, that's a question. I get a lot about
that end fertilizing, and you know, if we have a
rough estimate how much it's going to rain, you know,
if it's going to rain a half inch or something
like that, just a little bit of water, there's no
problem with doing that. The barricade is really good at
sticking to the soil. It's it's made to do that,
because if it didn't, it would just wash through and

(02:18):
wouldn't be up there where the weed seeds are helping out.
So I'm not as worried about it. And if you were,
if you're asking the same question about an immediate release fertilizer,
I would say, well, you know it, could you get
a gully washer rain that could wash a lot of
dissolve and wash away your fertilizer. But I think on
the barricade, you're probably okay unless it's just going to

(02:38):
really rain a lot for a long time, all.

Speaker 8 (02:40):
Right, So I'll hold off probably on the fifteen until
after the rain, and I don't think it'll be hard
for you.

Speaker 7 (02:48):
But okay, all right, that's why I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
All right, you take care, appreciate that cold. That's uh yeah,
pleasure YouTube. Thank you. Now we're gonna go where we're
going to go to Memorial and talk to Bruce. Good morning, Bruce,
Welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Good morning, Thank you for taking my call. I'm trying
to rehabilitate my front yard. I've been following the scheduled
for a number of years, but our neighbor has removed
some trees and it got a lot more sun last
year than we'd realized, and we hadn't adjusted the the
sprinkler system to compensate for that. So we were away,
came back and we've lost I'm going to guess maybe

(03:29):
twenty percent of the grass in the front yard. We
did get army worms or sodweb worms come up, and
we knocked them back with bifen. My plan is to
airate and top dress with composts and then stay on
the fertilizer scheduled. But there's anything else I need to do. Oh,
you know, with the lack of grass, we're getting a
whole pile of I put barricade down in the fall,

(03:52):
but we're getting up pile of weeds.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
Okay, yeah. That wherever sunlight hits the soil, nature plants
of weed, so that goes along with it. If I
could see the lawn and you know, let's say you
had sprigs of living grass that were, you know, within
a foot of each other or something, I would say
it will close back over with good care before the end.
If you've got areas that are a little wider than that,

(04:16):
you might want to plug some grass in just to
speed that coverage, because the faster it gets covered, the
less weed issues you're going to have. You can use
a product like a barricade as a pre emergent to
stop the summer weeds, which are just we're on the
doorstep of them germinating. So we want to get that
barricade down for the earliest of those that sprout. That

(04:39):
would be one option that you can do. Be careful
when you use a pre emergent, always that you use
it according to the label instructions. This is a case
where if a teaspoon's good, a tablespoon is not better.
In fact, a tablespoon can be a problem because you
got new grass runners that are out there trying to
peg down some roots. And you know, if you overdo

(05:00):
that pre emergent.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
The run.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
It didn't kill the runners, It just prevents rooting when
you overdo that, So be careful with the amount you use.
But some judicious use of it is fine if you
want to do that. The other approach is just to
get everything growing and then deal with the weeds later,
you know, as the grass gets filled in and whatnot.
Kind of it's your call. It's to which way you

(05:24):
want to go. But I would say that mow, water,
and fertilize or your three keys to getting that thing
back in shape. Assuming the sunlight is good. If there's
some areas where the tree shade is just taking too
much of the solar rays away, then the grass is
going to have trouble getting covered quickly, especially, and so

(05:48):
that would be the only caveat to that.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
Cool. I have one other question about barricade because the
well two questions. One, when I buy it, it doesn't
have a specific setting for the for the spreader that
I have. I recall that by advice to begin and
use them like one notch up from one quarter on
a broadcast spreader to get an amount that's appropriate for that.

(06:13):
Would that still be a reasonable way to do it? Literally,
there's no there is no instruction. There's nothing for my spreader.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
Okay, well, you know there's there's a lot of products
with a lot of particle sizes and a lot of spreaders,
and it's one of those almost impossible. We can't even
get two phone companies to make the same kind of
plug to go on your phone. So anyway, Yeah, the
quarter above, I mean a notch above quarter is good

(06:40):
for those of you who are listening and going, what
are they talking about. Well, if you have a spreader
that you walk behind and this isn't the handheld, this
is the kind you walk behind, and it has twenty notches,
well a quarter would be five notches, so five, set
it on five or six, a notch above quarter and
put out your pre emergence with that. Now, it's not

(07:01):
the same as fertilizer for everybody listening. I'm sorry, Bruce,
I have to have to do on my caveats because
people here and they don't always hear here. Well, so yeah,
that is just the case for that, and it's a
good rule of thumb. The thing I also like is,
you know, you know about how much you want to
put out of either fertilizer or a product like barricade,

(07:24):
and it doesn't hurt to do it a little light
the first time because here's here's a product you got,
here's maybe a newcheprudder. You haven't used that product with
go light because you can always you know, if you
go north south, you can always come back east west
and add the rest of it. But at least that
way you kind of know, and then going forward you
know exactly where to set it.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Gotcha. One last question about barricade in terms of shelf life,
because I had bought him went Southless fertilizer and got
a fifty pounds sack, figuring it would last me several seasons.
Then instead of just these ten pounders every year, let
stuff keep in a garage.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
Uh. Yes, you know, any kind of a chemical substance
is potentially gonna have issues with humidity, with heat, uh,
and some of them even light. That's why they put
certain kinds of pesticides in those brown bottles to help
block some of the light out. But anyway, just you know,

(08:24):
to keep it as keep the temperature as moderate as
you can, and keep it sealed up where you don't
have a lot of humidity, exposure and things, and that
helps extend the life. There's not a black and white
line where you can keep it for x amount in
the months or years. You know, it's it's a it's
a very gray line. All right.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
All right, one last question website? Well, what is the
best website to get a fresh copy of the fertile
the fertilization schedule?

Speaker 5 (08:49):
Now, all right, it's Gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening
with Skip dot com, and I'm gonna bruce, I'm overtime
on my break here. Thanks so much for the call.
I appreciate that. We'll be right back. All right, folks,
welcome back. Good to have you back with us. We
have got a lot of things that I want to

(09:11):
cover and I'm going to start off this morning. But well,
by the way, a while to go up said something
I wanted to come back to it. I was talking
about when you put fertilizer down before rain and the
fact that if you get a gully washer, it can
wash away a lot of your especially salt based which
would be a synthetic fertilizer. Not necessarily the slow release

(09:33):
types because they don't turn those elements. Those nutrient elements
loose to go into solution and head either down through
the soil or off across the surface to the street
or wherever they're going. But it's always better to put
fertilizer down and put the right amount of irrigation on
it to move it in that way, you have control,
it's more precision. You don't overdo it. And I realize

(09:55):
you're using you know, your drinking water to water the lawn,
which is what we do also, But it's just a
it's a better way to go about it. Now there
are you know, selobritase fertilizer isn't going to turn all
those loose so fast. Also an organic type fertilizer, so
you take microlife for example. Microlife is a natural based
fertilizer and when you put it down, it's not full

(10:16):
of the salt form of the form of those elements.
The microlife has to be microbially broken down, which it is.
Microbes are excited to get some of that to jump
on and it breaks it. They break it down and
they release the nutrients into the swell. That's natural system.
That's how nature works. You know, there is no salt
based fertilizer in nature. It's basically organic matter decomposing. Whether

(10:41):
you know it is a bird poop in the jungle
or buffalo poop on the high planes or whatever. I mean,
we're talking about organic stuff that's got nutrients. It's being released.
So that's microlife. Now, microlife's been around here for what
thirty five plus years in the Greater Houston area. They're
sixty two four long fertilizers, the number one selling fertilizer
that's organic here in the Houston area. The advantage of

(11:05):
something like this is again that slower, a little bit
slow release. It's not going to give you like three
or four months like a synthetic slow would, but it's
going to gradually release those nutrients and then you can
fertilize again as you want going through the season. The
bottom line is just understanding how that's working, and basically
it's working in that natural system with all the microbes,

(11:26):
and you know, in each bag of microlife you got
billions of beneficial microbes that help your plants. They help
them grow stronger. You know, it also improves the soil.
It is an organic matter. You're talking about being compost
down on the soil. Well, when you're putting an organic fertilizer,
you are in a way they're improving the soil structure
and things itself over time, and that is really important.

(11:48):
Now you're going to find microlife in a lot of places.
You can go to microlifefertilizer dot com and find out
more about it. But I just wanted to comment a
little bit about how that works and why it works
like it does. And I think those of you who
are organic or who want to be organic, or finding
that you can get on that schedule, you can begin

(12:08):
to over time use those products the sixty four, the
humates plus and on and on. There's a lot of
those products from microlife, and you gradually, over time take
your lawn into a more natural organic state of the
cycle of nutrients and the improvement of the soil and
so on. All Right, So, anyway, I hope that made

(12:29):
a little bit of sense. I was checking out Moss Nursery,
say yesterday or day before. Anyway, the folks at Moss,
you know that nursery is. It's not just a nursery.
It's not just another garden center. That place has been
around for seventy years, eight acres to wander on. And

(12:50):
first time I went there, it was like, am I
in like a botanical garden? Or is this a garden center?
You're walking around and there's just plants everywhere, and there's
fountains everywhere, and there's all kinds of unusual and cool
art everywhere in around the Moss Nursery grounds. I stand
in Seabrook for those of you who haven't been there,
on Toddville Road and Seabrook. You can go to the website.

(13:12):
It's Moss Nursery dot com and Moss is spelled maas.
But right now, don't stand still in the parking lot
because there are trucks coming in constantly. I think they
got like six or eight shipments a day these last
few days. I really mean that they are loaded on.
They have like small cacti if you like those, if
you like succulents, Oh my gosh, they're succulents, just everything

(13:37):
you can imagine, and just trays and trays and trays
and trays of them. It is an awesome selection. Now
when you go in there, pretty much any plant you want,
like do you want a Japanese maple, or do you
want a tropical plant? Or do you want herbs? Or
do you want hanging baskets? Oh, right now they have
a lot of beautiful hanging baskets that just came in.
We're refresh off the truck, so you need to get

(13:58):
by there and check it out. It's Moss Nursery on
a seabrook on Toddville Road, if you want to give
them a call two eight one four seven four twenty
four eighty eight. I always like wandering around there because
Jim brings back all kinds of stuff from his travels,
and you know, you may see some carved wooden mask
almost like a totem pole like figures. It's just you

(14:19):
never know, you never know. And fountains too. They just
got in a bunch more fountains that are really beautiful,
really cool. You know, adding water, the sound of water
to your landscape is one of the coolest things that
you can do. I like going out in the morning
and sitting on my patio and the bird feeders aren't

(14:40):
too far away, and just watching the birds as they
come in, but mainly listening to their songs. Birds are
mourning people. Have you noticed that some of you are
not mourning people? And I've never been a morning person,
but I don't know. As I've gotten older, I've become
more of a morning person. So I'm kind of like
the birds. But boy, they will shut up in the morning,

(15:01):
and their songs are beautiful. The sound of water. We
all at a fountain out there just off the patty
a little bit. That is uh, you know, making the
sounds of water, and it is just you've created Eden
right there in your backyard. And it just didn't take
a whole lot to turn that place into Eden. And
that that's a cool thing anyway, It's something I enjoy.

(15:23):
Our phone number if you'd like to give me a
call seven one three two one two kt r H
seven to one three two one two kt r H.
I want to remind you that my uh pro my
publications are online at gardening with skip dot com and
I put them up there so that I can answer

(15:45):
your questions in a more effective accurate way. You know,
the more I the more I make and answer brief,
the less accurate it becomes. Have you ever thought about that?
Like you go to the you go to the doctor
and you ask them to explain something, and if they
just gave you like a forward sentence, well, yeah, that's

(16:09):
not gonna help a lot, right, But you can go
too far with this, But anyway, my point is that
when someone calls and says, well, what should I do
for such and such? I can give them an answer
to that. But there's a lot of questions. There's a
lot of butts, as I like to put it, You know,
which turp do you have? How long has it been in?

(16:31):
How much sunlight is it getting? Do you see what
I'm saying? And so that the devil's in the details,
as they say, and so in these publications I'm able
to put the details. For example, someone has stuff coming
up in the fence line. Maybe it's poison ivy. Maybe
it is some greenbriar or some peppervine or hackberry trees,

(16:52):
or maybe in the in the yard there is torpedo grasp,
well you don't want that one, or dallas grass growing
that are very difficult to kill, and on and on.
I just created the sheet called herbicide products to use
with skip'sweed wiper. Now I like this approach because instead
of spring products all over creation, you put them on
a sponge on the weed wiper. And if you don't

(17:13):
know what I'm talking about, go to my website. I'll
show you how to build one. And you put the
right product on for the weed you have, and then
you just reach down and wipe the weed. You can
have a cup of coffee in one hand this morning.
You could be out there once the daylight arrives. You
could be out there with a cup of coffee in
one hand and the weed wiper in the other, walking
through your yard. And let's say you had wild onion
and wild garlic. You don't have to treat the whole

(17:35):
yard with the with a herbicide. To do that, you
put it on the weed wiper. You just go through
and grab those squeeze it and pull them up and
you're wiping it right on that weed and it works well.
And that's all online. It's a free publication that you
can check out. So anyway, that's my point. There's a
lot more on there. I guess I ought to talk

(17:55):
about more of the publications that are up sometime, but anyway,
that one I think almost everybody needs, because you're gonna
have poison ivy pop up, or you're gonna have a
weed that's difficult to control. You know what about nuts
edge in a garden bed and you've got other plants
and you don't want to kill those plants, but you
want to kill the nuts edge. Online look at my publications.

(18:17):
We're gonna head over now to League City and visit
with Ross. Hey, Ross, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (18:24):
Hey, thanks for taking the call.

Speaker 10 (18:25):
So I have a the house in Lake City, and
I have a large dog that has dug up the
backyard over the years, and I want to re establish
the lawn area. It's not a big area, it's about
ten by thirty that he's dug up, but it's all
that clay soil that's down here in Lake City, and

(18:47):
I'm wondering how I amend that soil and get the
Saint Augustine growing again.

Speaker 5 (18:54):
Yeah, well, you can get some you know, a quality soil,
blend or mixed or compost, any of those. Put it down,
mix it in a little bit into the surface of
the clay and then just plant your side right back
on top of that and that'll work really really well.

Speaker 7 (19:12):
Okay, So what would be and I can go to
mas well right here.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
Yeah would yeah, yeah, Well it could be a compost product.
It could be a bed mix type product that you
put down. Hey, Ross, I'm sorry to do this to you.
I gotta take a quick break. I want to spend
a little more time with you on this. Could you
hang on just a little bit and I'll we'll be
right back. Okay, all right, all right, all right, folks,

(19:38):
I'll be right back. All right, welcome back to guarden Line.
Good to have you with us. I am barely here
in the music. All right, let's get back going here
on the topics of the day. I mentioned that earlier

(20:01):
that if you are going to put a lin in,
you want to get that soil ready. You want to
get everything as best you can, get it leveled out,
get rid of the weeds that are plague you, that
are perennial. So if you have a Saint Augustine lawn
and you've got bermuda grass crawling through it, that's a
challenge to do. There is a way to kill the
bermuda out, but it is, it's complicated, very expensive, and

(20:23):
unless you hire somebody to do it, probably not going
to happen. But if you are going to revamp that lawn,
there's your chance to get rid of the bermuda. And
I don't care how long it takes. You know, one
thing that happens when we try to spray a weeds
sometimes is you'll you have a bunch of the weed
and you spray and you get almost all of it,
but then one pops back, and bermuda is notorious for that.

(20:45):
Nut set is notorious for that. So you kind of
have to be patient and wait, maybe a couple of weeks,
get a little rain on it, and then or water irrigation,
and here comes back, and then you got another shot
at it, and you got to you gotta go after it,
because nothing gets everything with one apption. It just doesn't.
Nature doesn't work. It doesn't work that way, and so
be patient, but get it right. Keep in mind that

(21:08):
the most important thing for your turf is probably the
sunlight amount that it's receiving. Soil is important, and certainly watering,
you got to water and stuff, but the sunlight that
is the fuel that drives everything in your grass. You
want your grass to be healthy, you want it to
be pretty and green, you want it to grow fast

(21:29):
and fill in and all that get dense sun sun sun,
that's the energy for everything lack. The more you go
in the shade, the more the grass goes into a
just trying to hang on and survive pattern. And then
it gets too shady for that and it starts to decline.
And when grass is in the shade and it starts
going downhill, it is very hard to bring it back.

(21:51):
It just is because it doesn't have the energy to
be able to do that. Imagine your body if you
weren't eating right. You know, you eat three salting crackers
one day. Okay, how much energy are you gonna have?
You're gonna feel like getting up and running running a mile? No,
because you don't have the energy. And the sun is

(22:14):
the energy source for our plants. And so when they
don't go what they need, there's a marginal area where
they get by, kind of like you're sitting around the
house not doing much because you just don't have the energy.
But they need energy, they need sunlight, and that is
certainly true grass. That's probably the number one limiting factor
that we deal with on grass. Now I want to

(22:36):
talk about timing on weeds. We are in a crucial
crossroads when it comes to weed management in our turf.
The cool season weeds are what you see right now
in your grass. If you see weeds that are all
up in the grass, that is a cool season weed.
It's not a warm season that's the big old weed

(22:58):
sitting there. That's the thing like clover and chickweed and
hem bit and cleavers and carpet weed and a bunch
of others, dandelions, things like that. They are coming through
the season and they're putting on their show. They're about
to start blooming and setting seeds. So their life cycle

(23:20):
is just like the blue bonnet. When you think a
cool season weeds, think of a blue bonnet. It sprouts
in the fall and it sits there as a little
They call it a rosette because it's just a little
bitty small plant that sits there waiting. When we start
getting past midwinter, we're coming into spring, that blue bonnet
begins to grow and all of a sudden, now you
see these big mounds of blue bonnets on the highway.

(23:43):
Where were they in November and October? They were there,
there was little plants. Then they start to grow, and
then the next step is because it changes in day
length and because of the warming temperatures, they start blooming
and we get to drive down the highways and enjoy
our bluebar on it. And then after they bloom, they
set seed, and at that stage that plant has become

(24:06):
we say at the bloom stage, it's become reproductive, meaning
it's ready to start reproducing producing seed. And at that
stage it's very hard to kill weeds and your lawn.
So you want to do it before they start blooming
and producing it. They just starting to bloom. That's okay,
go ahead, it's okay still. But the longer you wait,

(24:26):
not only is it harder to kill the weed, but
it's already made seed. And so that's that's kind of
the cycle. And now's the time to knock those out
or hand pull them. I hand pull mine ninety nine
percent of the time because I don't have that many
and I don't mind getting out there and doing a
little bit. There's there's gadgets to help that a little
bit too, But however you go about it, just do it.
That's the bottom line, speaking of just do it, Pierce

(24:49):
Scapes is our number one garden Line preferred landscaper and
there's a good reason for that. And if you want
to see it, go to piercescapes dot com. Look at
the pictures, look at what they can do. Whatever you
want to make your landscape look good, I bet they
can do it because they do hardscapes. They do walkways,

(25:09):
they do rock borders, they put in new gardens, they
do landscape lighting, they do maintenance, cordly maintenance, mulching and
trimming and fertilizing and replacing flower color in the beds
is needed, and things like that. They help create better drainage.
Peerscapes are they're professionals, from their landscape designers down down

(25:31):
to their employees that have distinguished landscape irrigation, drainage backflow
pesticide certifications and licensing. And these folks, these are professionals
and they do the job right. You can go to
pierscapes dot com. That's how I suggest to do. It's
easy to remember. If you want a phone number, it's
two eight one three seven fifty sixty. But the bottom

(25:52):
line is go check it out now. Even if you
think I'm not going to do that this. Go check
it out, take a look at what they can do.
You'll you'll be inspired. And then who knows, as we
go through, maybe you'll just decide to pull the trigger
right then, or at least in the future. You'll know
who to call them, who to go to when you're
ready for any kind of a landscape revamp. From a

(26:14):
little fixing this and that here and there to I
just want to turn everything upside down, to start over
and have a beautiful place. When you see the pictures,
you'll know what I'm talking about. Plants for all seasons.
I was looking. They've got their tomato plants in and
they got a lot of them in. Of course, they're
getting a lot of different kinds of plants. It's spring
and they always load up on that. There they while

(26:36):
back I was talking about, they'd just gotten in the
potatoes and the onions. And by the way, if you
haven't planted potatoes or onions, hurry up. You can still
plan them. It's okay to still plan them. You're getting
toward the end of the season, but you can do it.
Just don't delay. Get that done. While you're there. Check
out their new indoor kind of the gift shop area,
the place where they have their tools and seeds and

(26:57):
all kinds of really cool stuff for the home, lawn
and garden. It's right there. And you know, at Plants
for All Seasons they understand that soil comes first. So
when you go out and pick all your pretty plants out,
in order to get to the checkout, you got to
walk past all the fertilizers and the soil products and
things like that. And that's good because don't go home

(27:19):
with those plants without going home with some stuff to
make the plants happy. Brown stuff before green stuff. Brown
stuff is fertilizers and soils, and Plants for All Seasons
has the whole nine yards. And then of course if
you have any kind of problems, you can go in there.
We're talking about professionals. They've been doing this since nineteen
seventy three. They know what they're doing. You can go
to Plants for All Seasons dot com or if you

(27:40):
want to call them two eight one three seven six
one six for six at Plants for All Seasons. I
love going in there, love visiting with all the Flowerdy
family and just kind of talking about we also kind
of compare notes, you know, way, what are you hearing
about what's going on, what are people bringing into the
store these days, stuff like that that is very very helpful.

Speaker 11 (28:05):
You know.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
ACE Hardware is the place to go for everything you need.
You know, I talk about they've got your fertilizers and
herbicides and pesticides. But I want to talk about some
aspects of the store that I don't usually talk about.
Like right now, they've got moenfauce. It's twenty percent off,
twenty percent off moenfauce. It's right now. They've got air filters,
Buy three, get one free. Do you need some paint?

(28:28):
They got a President's Day sale on all kinds of
painting supplies at your ACE Hardware store like K and
m Ace and a Task Casita, K and m Ace
and Kingwood, the Bay City Ace Hardware. Those are just example.
They're all over the place. Ace Hardware dot Com find
your store. They're all over the listening area. And that's cool.

(28:49):
They got a lot of cool stuff. I was doing
spring cleaning myself, you know, getting getting bens and shelving
and things like that. Maybe you need to do that too.
Have you ever noticed how your garage the junk just
sort of expands. It's like it. It goes through uh
cell division at night, and now you have two pieces

(29:10):
of junk where there was just one. I don't know
how that works, but there bends to that or get
rid of it.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with skin Rictor.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
It's just watch him as many things to suppotas.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
A sad.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to garden Line. Good to
have you with us. What are we gonna talk about today?
You tell me, I've got some things I'd like to
talk about, But this is a Collin show. This is
about what are your questions? How can we help you
have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape. That's what
we're here for. That's my goal. At least I want

(30:17):
to see you have success. It breaks my heart when
someone says I got a brown thumb. I tried gardening,
I killed everything. I can't grow plants. No, no, no, no,
no no, you do not have a brown thumb. There's
no such thing as a brown thumb. Listen to me,
trust me on this one. There's no such thing as
a brown thumb. There are uninformed thumbs. And if you

(30:38):
want to associate a color with your thumb, well, then
let's do it this way. The more informed you get,
the greener your thumb gets. Okay, And that's all it is.
The reason Grandma could grow anything. Grandma drop a pencil
on the ground and'd sprout and grow a pine tree,
you know, I mean, she could do anything. The reason
is she was giving plants what they want. They have

(31:00):
opinions about how much sunlight, how much drainage, how well
the soil condition is in terms of aeration and internal
drain They have opinions about nutrients. They have opinions about
if they want to live at your house. Next time
you go on a vacation to Colorado, do not bring
Colorado columbines and blue spruce trees home. The Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Plants will arrest you and

(31:22):
throw you in jail. That shame on that. I mean,
that's a torture plant, something that wants to grow here,
That's what I'm saying. That's part of making it look
like you got a green thumb. It's because you put
a plant where it wants to be, and oh oh,
put it in soil that it wants to be. And
the better your soil and you make ge it lucky
and just have good soil where you moved. Most people

(31:43):
have to fix their soil. They have to improve their soil.
They have to take a look at what nature does
and then go home and do that. That's why we
had compost to the soil, by the way, because nature
adds compost to the soil, and just a little different
way than we go about it. You have a green thumb,
closureiz and repeat after me. Click your heels together, and
you will be like Dorothy and a wizard of Oz.

(32:06):
I have a green thumb. I have a green thumb.
I have a green You have a green thumb. Just
keep listening to guard line. All right, Well, I want
to talk a little bit about I mentioned the importance
of a post emergent weed control. Now before those weeds
start setting seed. So that clover in your lawn, that
chickweed that hand best, especially hand bet it's already blooming

(32:27):
out there in the yards. You need to stop it now.
Handpull it, spray at whatever you're gonna do. Stop it now,
or it will sentence you to thousands more seeds of
that same species that you can deal with next spring.
So you don't do it. You don't want to do that. Secondly,
pre emergence. Pre emergents prevent the seeds when they try

(32:48):
to sprout from becoming established. So if you right now
in your yard, I'll bet there is some cribgrass seed,
I'll bet there is some seed of other things, will
graspers and other ones that it's a warm season weed
that comes up from seed. We've got a whole bunch
of them. And if you're going to stop them from
ever getting started, now's the time to do it. Because

(33:09):
once they're up and growing. There are a few pre
emergents that have a little bit of post emergent activity,
like if the weed seed is really early starting, they'll
kill it too, but some of them don't. And the
main thing is get there ahead of it. And I
use the baseball analogy all the time. You start swinging
somewhere between when the pitcher lets go of the ball

(33:30):
and when it gets to your plate. If you wait
until it's almost to you to start swinging, what's going
to happen. It's going to be in the catcher's mitt
and you're swinging in the air. That's what it's like
putting out a pre emergent. You got to do it
at the right time. You swing before he lets go
of the ball, he just looks stupid. That's not going
to work. You wait too late and you're going to

(33:51):
strike out. And that is true. Now's the time to
swing with the pre If you're going to put one down,
you get it down now. The barricades are great example.
Put it down, water it in, get it into the
surface of the soil, and then when they try to sprout,
to give you about about sixty days, maybe a little
longer where it's protecting against the weed seed sprouting. And

(34:15):
so if you wanted to extend it through the summer,
you'd have to do it again at that point. Don't
overdo it at any point in time. I know we're
built thinking A teaspoons good, a tablespoons better. This is
not only is that not true with pre emergency. You
can do damage when you misuse products of all types,

(34:36):
all types, even since that even organics, you don't misuse them.
You use them properly because there are things that can
happen that are not desirable. And so in the case
of pre emergence, only what the label says. And I'll
let me explain it this way, just real quick. If
you are a company and you have a product to sell,

(35:00):
would you tell someone to use a teaspoon if a
tablespoon was better. No, because you sell more products the
more they use, right, So why would they tell you
use this amount on the label. It's because that's the
amount that works and that doesn't cause the damage that
excessive amounts could cause. So believe them, if if they

(35:24):
if they could sell you more. They're in a business,
right If a company making a product could sell you more,
well they would want to do that. That's why we
have a label. Labels the law. But more importantly for
your home garden, label is the right amount without hurting things?

Speaker 2 (35:41):
All Right?

Speaker 5 (35:42):
That was a soapbox. I just have seen so many
examples of others. I set out to pair Land and
we're going to talk to Kay, and I'm going to
stop my little diatribe here about products. Hey, Kay, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (35:56):
It's thank you Skip.

Speaker 12 (35:58):
Oh excuse me. I'm having a real big problem with weeds,
and I think I probably have some of everything that
you mentioned while ago, I have tried tried to find
weedon Nator. I've tried both the ace in Pearland in Friendswood.

(36:18):
They don't carry it.

Speaker 7 (36:20):
Huh.

Speaker 12 (36:20):
They have Nelson products and I've tried the plant it
for him.

Speaker 9 (36:23):
I can't find it.

Speaker 12 (36:24):
Can you give me an alternate other than weed?

Speaker 9 (36:27):
And they are would get rid of I can't everything
I can.

Speaker 5 (36:31):
I got a penhandy I do this is this is
for you, and I got an email from Marty about
the same question. Go to Nelson plantfood dot com, nelsonood
dot com, and right in the big middle of all
your choices up there is a store locator. It's in
that little strip of words at the top of the screen.

(36:52):
Store locator. You click on that, and all over Texas
you can find out where you can buy their products.

Speaker 9 (36:57):
Okay, well I thought about doing that.

Speaker 12 (37:00):
I thought if I could maybe an alternate.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
Yeah, that's good. You call it because other people have
that same question this morning. All right, Hey, kay, good
luck with that.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Have fun?

Speaker 12 (37:11):
Yeah you bet?

Speaker 5 (37:12):
Bye bye. Well, I just droned away that segment, So
we go for another break and I'll be back with
more of your calls in gardening information as well. Read
may welcome back, Welcome back to the garden Line. Good
to have you with us. I was visiting a new

(37:34):
sponsor that we have the other day and this, by
the way, it's Houston powder Coders, and I was so impressed.
I remember growing up we had those metal chairs that
were painted bright primary colors and it was like a
metal seat curved around and had some little ridges in it,
and then the underneath the seat was like a white

(37:55):
metal tubing that curved around toward the ground and then
back under you. And it like you could kind of
bounce in that chair. It had a little bit of
a springiness to it. You know what I'm talking about.
Those kind of chairs. Well, those things are awesome. That's
retro cool stuff. Well, Ace powder coats can take an
old chair like that and they can fix it up
if it needs a little bit of a maybe it
needs just a little bit of welding repair. This is

(38:16):
true of anything they're doing. They coat metal with a
special process that is way better than painting, way more durable,
and they'll come in they'll do a little repair if
it needs it. If they in those kind of chairs
had the little bolts and things through that were was
resting and whatnot, they replace them with the stainless steel hardware,
putting it back in. If you've got a little plastic

(38:38):
feet on some piece of metal out there in the yard,
or end caps, you know how the tube they put
a little plastic endcap in it so water didn't get
in there. They'll replace all that. And I don't care
what it is. I mean it could be it could
be tables, it could be benches, anything like wrought iron,
cast iron, aluminum. They'll do it all. And I'm telling
you it's amazing. And the color choices you have. Do

(39:00):
you think one hundred plus color options, like if you
tell them black, they go which black? You know what
I'm saying, one hundred plus color options any kind of
color basically they can essentially do. And I saw some
stuff that had a real rustic almost you know how
the old almost a rusty kind of cast iron look,
you do it? And I looked at this, Oh, when
y'all go and do that one, they go, oh, that

(39:21):
is that's the color we put on it. And you know,
if you want that kind of look, they can do
that all the way through one hundred plus colors. I mean,
I don't know what else to say. If you want
to get a quick quote from them, just go outside.
Any kind of outdoor metal, from furniture to a lamppost
to a porch rail, to what else? Maybe art a

(39:45):
decorative metal art outside. Take a picture of it and
email it to sales at Houstoncoters dot com. Sales at
houstoncoders dot com. They'll give you a quote. And by
the way, they offer free pickup and delivery to the
greater Houston area. That's a good deal. Houston Powdercoders dot com.
What do you have that needs to be brought back?

(40:07):
Don't buy a new one. Don't have to buy a
new one. Have them come out and do it right.
Get your stuff and bring it back to check them out.
Look up Houston powder Coders on some of your social
media and take a look at the kinds of work
that they do. It's really cool. I was so excited.
I was like wanting to come home and look for
pieces of the metal I have powder coated because it

(40:29):
is a nice process. That is true. All right, Well
we are here. I was outside yesterday trying to get
some pictures taken in a garden and the wind is
just blowing and blowing. And you know what I thought
of is last year when had those storms come through
that just wrecked havoc on our power grid. You know,

(40:50):
people without power for a long time. And the pictures
I saw around the Greater Houston area of tree damage
were just heartbreaking, just hammered. And you know a lot.
We can do a lot to protect our trees against
that by pruning them properly and even by beginning with
training them properly too. Martin spoon Moore from Affordable Tree.

(41:11):
He understands all this. He knows how to do it.
You got to take care of your trees.

Speaker 6 (41:17):
You know.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
You don't just plant a tree and it grows, and
that it is what it is. If you want the best,
if you want a tree that's valuable, even more valuable
to your house, or that doesn't grow for forty years
when it's really gorgeous and beautiful and then a limb
blows off because it had a narrow branch angle, have
him come out if you have not. If you can't remember,

(41:38):
let's say the last time that you had your trees
pruned or evaluated for their health, Well, now's the time
you got it. You need to do that. These are
the most single valuable plants in your entire landscape. Give
Martin a call. Seven one three, six, nine nine two
six sixty three seven to one three six nine nine
two six sixty three. That's Martin spoon More at Affordable

(41:59):
Tree Service. Here is wife Joe will answer the phone
and by the way again seven to one three six
nine nine two six six ' three or a ff
tree Service dot com. He does way more than training
and pruning. He can advise you on things. He can
talk about what they can do, other things like deep
feeding and just have him look. He'll know what needs

(42:21):
to be done and he'll talk with you about it
and you can decide. I hate it when a giant,
beautiful tree is just split open and laying there. It's like,
oh my god, you can't go backwards. You can't go backward.
Let me tell you something else you can't do. By
the way, while I'm ranting about this, you can't undo
a bad pruning job. Now you can go get a

(42:43):
cheap haircut and put a bag over your head for
a few weeks until it grows back. But with a tree,
when when somebody doesn't know what they're doing gets a
hold of your tree and messes it up, they know
getting back to what it originally could have been there
is not I mean they a good treat person can
try to begin to repair damage and get it growing

(43:04):
back in a good way. But some of these hatchet
jobs that I see driving around town, it's like, Okay,
it's done, it's done, And so don't be that person.
Just because someone has a pickup, a chainsaw and a
business card to sticking your door does not mean they
know what they're doing or should be turned loose on
your trees. All right, enough of that, rent, can you

(43:29):
tell I feel strongly about it. I do because I
hate it when somebody has to go through all that
kind of stuff. In Jenny Forest Garden Center down in
Richmond Rosenberg area is a awesome, awesome gardens that I
love going down there. I love, you know, visiting with
the folks Jennifer Forest. Just by the way that Danny

(43:52):
is now on board with them, and that's a real
nice addition to that as well. I was talking to
him at the Home and Garden show down there in
the Richmond Rosenberg area a while back. But at the
garden Center right now, by the way, they always have
now in the spring they're always having on Saturdays typically
they're going to have these educational programs going on that

(44:15):
are really really helpful, very very helpful. In fact, next Saturday,
Mike Sarrant is going to give a talk. He's or
the guy from Oba and from Microlife. He's going to
be talking about gardening the organic way. So it's free program.
You can go down there, go see Mike, tell him
Skip said hi, and then let's see what else is

(44:38):
going on. They're having a Valentine's Day learning experience down
there too. But go to the website. It's enchanted that
the website is enchanted Forest enchanted. Let me just give you,
let me just give you the whole whole thing. All right,
you're ready, got a pen. You're supposed to listen to
Garden Line with a pen all the time, right, enchanted

(44:59):
for Richmond dot com. And I mean that listen with
a pen because I'm going to be giving you stuff
all the time, phone numbers or emails or got to
go to this website and write it down. Enchanted Forest Richmond. Oh,
I forgot the TX TX dot com. My bad Enchanted
Forest Richmond, TX dot com. Chanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com.

Speaker 6 (45:23):
Check it out.

Speaker 5 (45:24):
Look at all the kind of cool stuff they have.
They have a lot of really really nice stuff. They
got some cool fruit trees, right, now you can get
the low chill types that need to be planted here. Listen,
just because something's for sale in the area does not
mean it should be planted here, especially if you go
to some of these big box stores and others that
sell their junk. Okay, I meant that junk all over

(45:48):
the country. And you may buy an apple that belongs
in Washington State. I've seen blueberries and raspberries. It would
not grow here because of the wrong ones. Go to
a good mom and popgardens center, an independent garden center,
and Chennit Forest what I'm talking about here. They'll sell
you the lo chow varieties that do well here. They
even have a three and one tree. It's like three

(46:09):
different varieties grafted onto one tree, so you'd have room
for three trees. Buy a three and one you can
get all three kinds of fruit on that same tree.
That's pretty cool. Stop as well as all the things
you need, you know, the tools of fertilizers, of soils
and whatnot to get that off to a good start.
So let them help you create a fruitful paradise, your

(46:30):
little garden of eaton eat I n eaton all right,
that's in Chennit Forest By the way. They're on FM
twenty seven to fifty nine. If you're heading from Rosenberg,
Richmond area up to sugar Land, it's off to the
right down there FM twenty seven fifty nine. You're listening
to garden Line. Our phone number. If you'd like to

(46:51):
give me a call seven one three two one two
kt r H seven one three two one two kt
r H. We will help you have success. That's my goal,
at least that's what I would like to see happen.
I was talking about the importance of post emergent now,
the importance of pre emergent now if timing is what's

(47:15):
important now. You know, there's a lot of ways to
go about gardening. There's things like organic versus synthetic. There's
options there, and sometimes those two lines kind of get
fuzzy right in between a little bit as you go
across it. But however you want to go about it,
you just need to do it. I mentioned that I

(47:35):
do a lot of hand pulling in my yard just
because I don't have that many weeds, and it's easy
to do. You know, I've got a weed here and there,
Why treat the whole yard for a couple of weeds?
But as your grass gets thinner, you're going to have
more weed problems. And the term I use is wherever
sunlight hits the soil, nature plants of weeds. So what
is the single best individual start to weed control in

(47:59):
your lawn. It's mow water fertilized. Mow water fertilized. That
seems so simple. Come on, it's got to be more
than that. No mow water fertilized. The more you probably
don't want to hear this, but turf specialists will tell
you this. The more often you mow, the denser your

(48:19):
lawn will be. And I'll use your shrubs as an example.
If you let your shrubs grow out a foot and
a half and then you cut them once a year back,
how would that look. It would be ugly. You'd be
cutting off all the leaves and be all dead twigs
inside and stuff. It'll be horrible. But if you share
that shrub regularly through the season, you have this wonderful

(48:39):
dense wall of foliage that is just solid. You can't
see in the shrub. It's a dense wall of foliage
that somewhat applies to your lawn as well. So the
more often you mow, the denser. Your lawn is going
to be watering as needed is very important. If your
lawn gets drowdy, it's going to die back a little bit.
It'll probably serve, but now sunlight hits the soil. The

(49:03):
third thing fertilize. You need the right nutrients in order
for grass to thrive, especially nitrogen. That is a single
most important nutrient in your lawn for good green color
and growth and density and health. Okay, you need more
than nitrogen, but that's the most important. That's why it's
the first number that's the highest on a bag of

(49:23):
lawn fertilizer. The first number mow water, fertilize. You do
that all year this year and the vast majority of
your weed problems can be overcome for weeds that are
coming back from seed. Now something that's not coming back
from seed. That's like you know, Virginia button weeds and
dollar weeds and dichondra and all the things that just

(49:46):
live in a lawn. That's not going to get rid
of them. They'll still be there. You have to treat
for that. But the vast majority is just simply mow
water and fertilized. That's a secret. I mean, you know,
it ought to sounds like it ought to be harder
than that.

Speaker 11 (50:00):
Just not.

Speaker 5 (50:01):
That's a secret to it to success. So the denser
your lawn, the better off you're going to be. That's
why when we see things that cause our lawns to struggle,
we start to one problem leads to another. Your lawn
gets stressed and now take all root rock comes in.
Why is that? Well, if you don't get sleep, you

(50:22):
don't eat well, you don't exercise, and you go to
some event where there are a bunch of people and
some of them are coffin and sick, you are more likely.
It's not a black and white line, but you're more
likely to get sick because your body is not able
to fend it off. Plants are the same way. The
stronger and healthier the plant, the better it can fend
off many of the problems that attack them. So good

(50:45):
health is important. That's why I did two schedules. I
didn't just do a lawn pest, disease and weed schedule.
I did a lawn care schedule. And that is the
mow water fertilized. It includes the aeration, It includes you know,
the the azamite, the supplemental of the micros in there.

(51:06):
That's getting the healthy lawn. And when you've done that
and you've got issues that arise, and there will be
issues that can arise even when you do everything right,
flip the thing over and do the other side. And
that's how to manage them, simple as that. All right, folks,
I'm gonna take a break. Seven one three two one
two ktrh. Hey, welcome back to guarden Line. You would

(51:31):
like to give me a call and talk about what
is of interest to you? Seven one three two one
two ktrh. That's the number. That's how you do it.
Spend a lot of time on lawns today. But you
know what, lawns is the topic that everybody, everybody seems
to have questions about. When I was Horticulture so Texas

(51:54):
A and m Agrolife Extension Service for thirty five years,
we used to say the three things that made the
phone at the extension office where the three t's trees,
turf and tomatoes. And that is so true on garden
Line as well. When it comes to the number the
first two trees and turf that the majority of questions.

(52:15):
That's what people ask about because people are concerned about
those I get it. When it comes to the vegetable garden.
Nobody calls me about their co rabbie or their a
regular tomatoes, the queen of the vegetable garden. That is
the case. Anyway, whatever your questions are about, we will
try to give it a good shot. You know, when
it comes to gardening and plants, there is no end

(52:39):
to the learning. There isn't. There absolutely isn't. And I
can tell you this because I've done it for decades
and decades, and it just always something new. There's some
new plant that gets discovered, you know, COVID hits, and
suddenly we discover there's eight hundred billion kinds of houseplants
that you can't live about. Remember that. And so those

(52:59):
of us that are order culturist, you know, house plants
are kind of off on the periphery of all the
kind of things people ask about and stuff. And so
suddenly we're having to beef up on all these eight
hundred kinds of this or that species and how to
grow it and everything else. But that's the fun part.
That's one of the fun parts of gardening is learning.

(53:19):
I love I love learning. And the more you learn,
the more you're able to do what you want to do,
have success with what you want to do. That's what
we're talking about. There's no brown thumbs, there's uninformed thumbs.
So let's get your thumb informed. I phone number again
seven one three two one two K t R H.
I'm going to shift gears here. This is a time

(53:40):
of year when a lot of people are planning fruit trees,
and we've got some excellent selections of fruit trees in
our various independent garden centers that we have in there
in the Greater Houston area. I was looking at the
Buchanans Gardens Center Buchanans Nursery. It's actually, i should say,
and there's native plants, because that's part of their name,

(54:03):
and it's because they they absolutely have the best selection
of native plants of anybody in the region.

Speaker 4 (54:12):
It is.

Speaker 5 (54:12):
It is really really outstanding what they have. But they
also have free trees that they've gotten in. They've got
some really cool ones too, by the way. And so
if you're looking even some things that are not so common,
you know, some things that aren't that common, they have them,
like when it comes to nectarines and apricots, and when
you look at things like peaches, and plums and pluots.

(54:34):
Do you know what a pluot is. A pluot is
a plum apricot cross, plum apricot cross. Okay, they have
one called Flavor Grenade pluot and has to have a pollinator.
But all their stuff is low chill. All their stuff
will do well down here in the Houston area and
even south of the Houston area. They've got excellent, excellent choices.

(54:57):
And of course that you know when it comes to peaches,
and they got a lot apples that do well. They
got pears that do well. They even have an almond.
They've got tropical stuff. I mean, you know, it depends
on the season as to what they have in at
that time, stuff that's appropriate to plant. But if you're
looking et ceteras and other things, Buchanan's Native Plants has it.
And when you go to Buchanans Number one, it's fun.

(55:19):
It's just fun to walk around there and see all
that they have. But if you want to get a
little bit of a gardening education, go talk to some
of their people there. They're very knowledgeable, very very helpful.
And the times that I've been in there, I've been
super impressed with what they know and with the selection
that they have. So you walk in and you could say, Okay,

(55:40):
I want to put more natives in my landscape, because
I understand all the reasons. That's a good idea. I
need something. I want something that will attract hummingbirds it's
a native blooming plant, or I want something that will
attract be a food source for butterfly larvae of some type.
They're going to have that stuff and they're going to
know it. And they have native plants just in general

(56:01):
Texas area natives. They've got native plants that are just
from the Houston area here right around this area. They're
immediately native right to our area. And when you go in,
you're gonna find the selection and you're gonna find the
help that you need. Anyway, I'm talking about them a lot,
but just because I really enjoy going in there. Buchanan's
Plants on Eleventh Street, Eleventh Street in the Heights, Buchanansplants

(56:26):
dot com. Sign up for their newsletter. It alone is
worth going to the website for the newsletter that they
send out is outstanding. So you need to at least
sign up for that newsletter too. But anyway, all right,
there you have it. Well, let's see here. I better
run out to the phones. We got some folks out here.

(56:47):
It helps to look over there that way, ever know.
And then Woody and Kingwood Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (56:53):
Hi Skip.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
I just want to say you how much I appreciate
your show and what a great job you do. And
is about oxalis? Is there any way to get rid
of that stuff besides digging up the little spindle roots
or h there's different kinds of oxalis. Sometimes you get
these little bulbs underground that you kind of got to

(57:17):
dig those up. Uh products that yeah, hand digging is that.
There's also an oxalis that's a little tiny weed that
reseeds profusely. It's interesting because after the blooms, the little
capsules that hold the seed, they they explode, they pop
and they throw seeds. And I've been in garden centers
where there was oxalis on the ground and up in

(57:39):
the pots. It was coming up because the ground weeds
threw their seeds up into the bench, up onto the
bench in the pots on top. So that's what you're
up against, Uh, pre emergence that will work against you know,
the broad leaf weed like that is one option for
that kind of oxalis. When you're dealing with the you know,
the types with bulbs and are our in the ground,

(58:00):
you're probably gonna have to go to something that's more
like a two four D ingredient. And I would use
my weed wiper for that, so you're not spraying it
out everywhere and damaging other broad leaf plants with the spray. Okay,
so I just do that.

Speaker 13 (58:19):
I put down the barricade now, and then I just
continue to dig those bulbs up.

Speaker 5 (58:25):
Well, yeah, the barricade would be for for the seeds,
for things that are coming back from the seeds. The
digging up the bulbs is for the exist Yeah, that's
for the existing type. There are ornamental types of oxalis
that are gorgeous. They call them shamrock plants and things
like that. They do really really well, so you know

(58:48):
there when they established, they stay there and that then
when it's a weed problem, that's that's unfortunate. Okay, Well,
thank you for your help. I'll give that a try. Yeah,
you're going to do more than one, and by all means,
don't let them bloom and go to seed again, because
then you're just you're going backwards, right all right. Thanks,

(59:10):
you appreciate I appreciate that very much. You take care.
Uh yeah, I Uh. Someone was asking me about Nelson
Plant Food and sources well ago, and I was telling
you go to Nelson Plant Food. Uh, go to their
website and you can find out exactly well you know
where to get it. It's now Nelsonplantfood dot com. There's
a store locator on there. That's where you're going to

(59:31):
find things like uh weed Nator that we were talking about.
Weed Nator has a growth regulator that causes your lawn
to go more horizontal and less vertical, less mowing, but
still good coverage. And it's got a weed control product
for killing existing weeds. So you wet your lawn to
get the weed leaves. Wet put out this fertilizer. It

(59:54):
sticks to the weed leaves, it soaks in, and it
kills them that way. So it's important to have wet
leaves on your lawn to get the best result out
of the turf Star Weedonator. And it is a widely
available product here from the folks is Nelson. I'll talk
about some of the other products here as we go
through the show, but it is it is a product
that works let's see here, I'm looking at Okay, I'm

(01:00:18):
going to go out to talk to Phil here. Hey, Phil,
welcome to garden Line. All right, I'm a put Phil
back on hold. I'm going to take a break here.
Of Phil, we'll come back to you right after break.

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Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
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Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
All right, we're back. Still good to be back with you.
Kind of questions you have, give me a call seven
one three two one two kt r H. We'll see
if we can help you with that. I'll have a
more bountiful and beautiful place that would definitely be a goal.

Speaker 7 (01:05:20):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:05:20):
You know, it all begins in the soil. It all
begins in the soil. When you go to a garden center,
you want to see the pretty stuff and the eating stuff, right,
you want to see the tomato plants because you can
taste those tomatoes. You want the flowers. In fact, people
love to buy a plant that already has big old
flowers on it. And I understand that if you buy

(01:05:41):
a plant that doesn't have any flowers on it, it
may be the best plant there is because it's going
to put all its energy into growing and then setting
some blooms. But you've got to have faith to do that.
And a lot of people know I want a plant
that is in a little tiny six pack with a
one inch cell of roots, and I wanted to have
a flower the size of a dinner plate on top.
All right, well, go for it. But when we're wanting

(01:06:05):
to have success, it starts in the soil. That's where
it begins. And Nature's Way resources I like to think
of it as maybe the grandfather place of soil around here.
Nature's Way has been around a long time. John Ferguson
established it and with the idea of providing products for

(01:06:26):
us to be able to garden in the way that
nature does, and that is organic matter in the soil
to help plants have success. And so now iansun running
it and the whole team out there, they are a
great team, really knowledgeable folks. But anyway, the whole team
out there, they produce still the quality soils, the ones
that were born at Nature's Way, like roast soil and

(01:06:47):
leaf moore composts, for example, they produce that. They also
have fungal compost and by the way, either the leaf
mold or the fungal compost is excellent for top dressing
your lawn. Either way, leaf mold or funk well, both
are good for top dressing the lawn. However, you won't
go about it. They have the mixes for various types
of plants like vegetables and herbs. If you want to

(01:07:08):
grow fruit trees, if you want to grow something acidic
like an azalea or a blueberry, they have a mix
for that. And when you go to Nature's Where or
when you call them, you're going to go home with
something to help you put a foundation down for success.
Now you can go there and pick it up. You
have them deliver it. A lot of their products are

(01:07:29):
sold by the bag in various locations around the Greater
Houston area. So any way you want to go about it,
just do it. That's the most important thing is just
get it done. Most people want to skip that step
because it's not as I don't know cool, you know,
I'd rather have pretty flowers than talk about brown dirt. Well,

(01:07:50):
if you don't talk about brown dirt, you're not gonna
have pretty flowers. Nature'sway Resources dot Com We're going to
go now to the woodlands and talk to Ken. Hey, Ken,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Morning.

Speaker 25 (01:08:03):
Skip.

Speaker 13 (01:08:04):
That was an appropriate advertisement. I'm getting ready to have
my delivery of the double ground hardwood mulch in the next.

Speaker 25 (01:08:13):
Week or two.

Speaker 5 (01:08:14):
Ready.

Speaker 13 (01:08:16):
My question is I've always just pulled I usually have
a couple of inches of oak leaves in my uh
several of my beds, and I always kind of blow
them or rape them out. Is there any reason to
do that or just put the mult right on top,
you know, I mean, doesn't it make leaf mold compost eventually?

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
It will eventually, So it depends on what you're going
to grow. You know, if you're gonna plant little seeds,
having that chunky leaves and sticks or anything like that,
it kind of makes it hard to get good seed
to soil contact and get them at the exact right depth.
But you know that you can mix leaves in. I
generally like to give them more time. Like if you're

(01:08:58):
going to plant the spring, mixing leaves in right now,
they probably wouldn't have time to really break down very good,
and it might tie up a little bit of nitrogen
and early in that process of breaking down. So what
I'll often do is when they fall and we've got
them gathered, maybe rototill them into the soil, and that
gives them several weeks to do what they're going to

(01:09:18):
do prior to us getting out there and planting. But
in my gardens, I tend to not do a lot
of rototilling, So I just rake those leaves out of
the way, build the soil like I'm going to build
it whatever it needs, and then plant the plants and
bring the leaves back in as a mult around them.

Speaker 13 (01:09:34):
Well, for me, this is mainly the malt is just
a it's shrubbery and you know, AA beds and things
like that, and I'm not planting any new seeds. I'm
just mainly weed control.

Speaker 5 (01:09:50):
Gotcha, gotcha? Well, you can use it. Leaves are fine
for we control. That's what That's what guy uses in
the forest. It drops those stream leaves on the around
and that basically that's one of the things that they do.
So yeah, you can do that. You can mix it
with the pretty mulch, put the leaves down and then
put something pretty on top of it.

Speaker 13 (01:10:09):
If you don't like the look of leaves, that's well,
that's exactly what I was thinking because I've been raking
them out and then I'm going, you know, I'm just
using it to you know, for weed control, moisture control
and stuff like that. So just throw the uh, it's
just for cosmetics.

Speaker 5 (01:10:27):
So there you do. You know, that's it.

Speaker 13 (01:10:29):
Yeah, so okay, I'll save myself. Yeah, raking blowing. The
other question I had on your two products, the whedonator,
I still need to use some barricade prior to that.

Speaker 25 (01:10:45):
Is that correct?

Speaker 5 (01:10:47):
Correct weedonator is a post emergent barricade is okay, emergent,
So that's separate things you're trying. The weedenator is killing
your cool season weeds that are up. The barricade is
preventing the warm season weeds that are on the way.

Speaker 7 (01:11:01):
Perfect.

Speaker 13 (01:11:02):
That all right, I just figured that out.

Speaker 8 (01:11:05):
So that's what I'll do.

Speaker 13 (01:11:07):
And I need to push me back to the producer
so I can get an email and send some picked got.

Speaker 5 (01:11:15):
You all right?

Speaker 25 (01:11:17):
Here you go.

Speaker 5 (01:11:17):
I'm putting you on hold and Jonathan'll pick it right
up and go with it. If you are planting a tree,
or if you planted a tree even in the last
five years, you need to think about getting you a
three sixty tree stabilizer. That's a little sprinkler goes around
the tree and you turn it on. You can barely
turn it on and just water the root ball, the
cylinder roots that just went in the ground, that tree

(01:11:38):
you just planted, or you can turn it on and
water a wider and whiter area. They come in three sizes.
They hook up to a garden hose. They're easy to use.
And the reason I said, like a tree's been in
for five years. If this summer we go into one
hundred degrees for one hundred days with the rain, which
we occasionally get those kind of things coming, you just
turn that thing on and you rescue water your tree

(01:11:59):
with its right underneath the branch bread of the tree
very very well. And it's that good rescue treatment. You're
going to get it at RCW Nursery. You're going to
get it at Jorges Hidden Gardens. You'll find them at
Siena Maultch down south and be Cannons and the Heights
and Arborgate in Tomball and plants for all seasons on
two forty nine on the way up the Tomball. It's
widely available. Find them at Southwest Fertilizer too. Bob's got

(01:12:20):
them there. But get you one. Keep it in the
you know, keep it in your gardening shed or garage
because you're gonna want to use it. Maybe you're gonna
plant a rose bush. They're good for that. To get
the little one, the seven inch one for establishing a
rose bush. That works well.

Speaker 7 (01:12:36):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:12:36):
I hear music, which means I gotta quit talking, turn
it over to I got to turn it over to
the UH top of the hour news and things. But
when we come back, Marty in Fairfield, you'll be our
first up when we come back. If you can hang
on the.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Welcome to kzy r H Garden Line with Richard.

Speaker 26 (01:13:05):
It's.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Just watch him as the world.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
All right, welcome back to garden Line. Good to have
you with us this morning. All you gardeners and would
be gardeners out there, I want to be gardeners out there.
Everybody's welcome. If you've never grown a thing in your life,
well welcome. We can help you. And you've got to
try stuff. There's way too much gardening. Let's start you

(01:13:44):
with a house plant. We'll get inside. We'll tell you
how to get the right light for that, which species
to pick out, and you're gonna have fun. And I
gotta warn you though gardening is addictive.

Speaker 7 (01:13:55):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:13:55):
It is highly addictive. They don't there should be a
warning label put on plant gardening is highly addictive. I
think there's even a wing of the Betty Ford Clinic
for gardeners. I'm just saying, I'm pretty sure there is,
because it is we're talking about. Yeah, yeah, but it's fun.
It is absolutely fun. Too much fun. As a matter

(01:14:16):
of fact. RCW Garden Center, RCW Nursery right there on
Beltway eight and Tamil Parkway two forty nine. That's the
get It, Got It Nursery Number one. They probably have
it already what you're looking for, but if they don't,
they probably can find it somewhere. They do their best
and finding it and bringing it in. That's why I
like to call them to get It, Got It a nursery.

(01:14:38):
The huge selection, of course, all kinds of plants, herbs,
perennials and annual shrubs, native plants, all of that. Right now,
we're talking roses because pages and pages they have hundreds
of varieties of roses. They bring in at the end
of winter every year and it's first come, first serve,
so you know, they come in with several hundred time

(01:15:00):
roses by the time, you know, you wait until spring
and they're always they're always gonna have roses there. But
there's no selection like the first where you it's just like,
what do you want a climber? Do you want a bush?
Do you want a miniature? Do you want one with
red blooms, white blooms, coral blooms, whatever? Do you want
one fragrant not fragrant? Do you want a shrub? Do
you want to cut flower, hybrid tea? All of it? R.

(01:15:22):
CW is a favorite of rosarians because they do have
that kind of selection. They also have a tree farm
up in Plannersville where they grow their own trees and
they grow things that are well adapted, well acclimated to
our climate, to your yard right here. So when you
get a tree from them, you know it's gonna grow
here because it's from here. Think of it that way.
It's grown in this area right here, and you can't

(01:15:45):
beat that. By the way. That tree farm is open
to the public on but you got to listen to
this carefully. It's up planners Though it's open to the
public on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, only, and you need
to make an appointment. Go to the website. I'm going
to give you that way website, whimsuntreefarm dot com. You
have to make an appointment because you know this is
a wholesale tree farm, and so you can't just a

(01:16:08):
bunch of people show up, but making that appointment and
go see go look see the trees themselves. Get pick
out something you like. Uh, it's pretty cool. All part
of that RCW world that we talk about all the time.
We're going to go out now to Fairfield and talk
to Marty. Hey, Marty, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 13 (01:16:29):
Good morning.

Speaker 26 (01:16:29):
I'll bet that Betty ford Wing has the best garden
in the whole place.

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
I don't know where. Sometimes things come out of my
mouth that I problem anyway, you know.

Speaker 26 (01:16:41):
Anyway, Hey, I didn't catch up with the weather stuff
yesterday or maybe this morning. Okay, I'm having my beds
prepped on Monday tomorrow and we're just doing them alt
and cutting back all the stuff and I'm not planting
anything yet. What do you think, well, well, what do

(01:17:05):
you think will be our future short term? Long term
type situation? I know you're not a weather guide, but.

Speaker 5 (01:17:13):
Yeah, I'm not but what I've been seeing is, you know,
by the time it just depends on where you live
in the Greater Houston area. But by the time we
get into tomorrow, the rain chances start to go up.
And of course Tuesday and Wednesday should be pretty rainy
unless things change, get a little bit of a break

(01:17:34):
on Thursday, I think as it is oh cold, No,
I don't see by Wednesday. I think some areas are
going to be down in the upper or mid thirties,
you know, still a few days away. But I don't
see phrases, and probably not frosts based on the amount

(01:17:54):
of moisture that's that's in the air. I don't think
the temperature, the way it falls and stuff, I don't
I don't think we're going to have a frost.

Speaker 26 (01:18:03):
Okay, well, I know they're getting cold weather up north,
like in the Dallas area. Have some friends and as
I'm cutting things back from the most goosh, I'm covering
it everything with maulch and just there you go. I'm
not going to plan anything just in case.

Speaker 13 (01:18:20):
But I'm just curious.

Speaker 5 (01:18:23):
Yeah, I think that's a good idea, you know. I'm
I'm letting mine just stay ugly for now I'm in
a hurry, but I understand people wanting to clean it out.
But if you do, you're right, Marty. Just mound some
mulch up over the base of that plant. Uh, to
provide that insulation, because I think from what I've seen,
I don't see predictions of freezing and maybe people living

(01:18:46):
living up in Huntsville maybe getting something like that. But uh,
it's going to get down cold. Was it Saturday or
someday later in the week, even the weather clears out
and we get some actual, you know, good nippy cold weather.
But yeah, short term, okay, much problem? Hey, you I

(01:19:06):
saw some pictures. You were asking some questions about we control,
and I saw pictures along, but I really couldn't make
out the weeds other than some like annual rye grass
or something coming up in there. Was there a particular
of weeds that you were gentlemen.

Speaker 26 (01:19:21):
It's just post emergent, And that's why I wanted to
get the weed weed enator. I didn't know if maybe
I have a whole ton of stuff and maybe there
was something else I could use, because I'm I'm talking
up a big fat zero with I've checked into four locations.

Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
None of them had we there, Well, I'm going to
reach out to them and see. I know it's out there.
I know it's popular and people are wanting it, uh
And so I'm going to reach out to Nelson's and
see see what's up there. You could also just you know,
directly call them and they could tell you they would
they would move having on earth to get a bag
of it in your hands. So don't worry about it.

(01:19:57):
Don't worry about uh bothering them out there and say
I need this stuff. Skip talked about it and I
can't live without it, and so don't make me.

Speaker 7 (01:20:04):
Have to drive all the way in.

Speaker 9 (01:20:06):
All right, all right, bye bye.

Speaker 5 (01:20:11):
Okay man. Every time I turn around, it's time for
another break. We can't be doing this. I got gardening
to talk about here today. All right, when we come
back from break, let's see Joe in Kingwood and Susan
and Patterson. You're gonna be our first two up. I've
talked about wilbirds a lot, and one thing that I
don't spend enough time on is a product they have

(01:20:33):
called bark butter. Imagine peanut butter, but peanut butter that
is loaded with all kinds of good stuff including like
dried meal worms and all kinds of other stuff and
you just smear it. I mean, you just go out
there and take your batulu and just smear it on
a tree trunk. Birds come up and they go nuts
on this stuff because it has such quality feed in

(01:20:54):
it and high protein and high fat and high calcium
and everything they need because nesting season's coming, they need
that high calcium. Right now, one hundred and fifty different
kinds of birds have been documented on bark butter. So
this feeds all kinds of birds, and it's at wildbirds,
and it's easy and plus it's kind of fun just
to go smear stuff around. So I mean, you know,
if some you just need significant others holding still enough,

(01:21:17):
smear some on them, the birds will show up. Okay,
that was going too far, but seriously, WBU dot com
forward slash Houston. That's our wild birds. There's six stores
around here, easy to find them. And I'm telling you,
I could talk all day about the quality products they have,
from nest boxes to feeders, to quality feed not the

(01:21:37):
kind birds kick out on the ground, the kind birds
eat that attracts the birds you want to attract, and
the knowledge there that may be the best thing. Yet
you go in and ask a question, you say, I
need to know this, They're gonna know the answer. They
are experts at it. And I've tested them on this.
I mean, you know, I was talking to Rich the
other day and he's the memorial in the store up

(01:22:02):
in Oh Gosh, I can't I used to live there.
I just blinked out. I can't say Cypress, thank you, Cypress.
There we go, Cypress store. I lived in Cypress. Anyway,
he's at those stores, and I was just picking his
brain on some things. I do that from time to time,
and I just it's always like, Wow, that's a lot.
That's a lot of good information to know. And these

(01:22:22):
people they know, they know, and they can help you
have success because there's nothing better than going out in
the morning, get you a cup of coffee, sit out
there on the patio or porch, and just listen to
the birds.

Speaker 7 (01:22:34):
It is it is.

Speaker 5 (01:22:36):
You can't buy that kind of therapy. That's good stuff
for sure. All Right, Well, I'm gonna take a little
break and we'll be right back. All right, Welcome back
to Garden Line. Good to have you with us today.
Looking forward to seeing how we can help you have
a more successful gardening endeavor all the things you want
to try to do. We're gonna run back out to

(01:22:57):
the phone right quick here and go to Joe Kingwood. Hey, Joe,
welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 25 (01:23:03):
Good morning Skip. I'd to appreciate your recommendation regarding how
to repair my lawn after the barrel hogs severely damaged
it at least eight times last October during the drought.
This is the oh my gosh, at least the fourth
time farrel hogs have destroyed my lawn in the last
ten years. My house is located at the end of
a cul de sac off a green belt and it's

(01:23:25):
near East End Park in Kingwood. Were you able to
see the photos that I sent?

Speaker 5 (01:23:30):
Yeah, I did?

Speaker 7 (01:23:31):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:23:32):
They're rooting around does a lot of damage. When I
was over in the Austin area working with extension there,
we had golf courses that they'd come in one night
and do tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage
just in a night in that on the golf course.
And they're a problem here in Texas. So bottom line
is getting everything raked out smooth first of all, and

(01:23:54):
then assessing how much living grass you have. And if
you've got, you know, two sprigs of grass that a
foot apart, and you take care of them, they will
cover back over by the end of the summer season
for sure. And if it's any wider than that, I
definitely would put some plugs in and between them. At
least some areas you may want to just take everything
out and rest it so you get to what you

(01:24:15):
want to see faster, But that's up to you how
you go about it. But the main thing is smooth
it out firsthand and then just go back with the plantings.
If the grass was growing there before they hit, it
ought to be able to take it back over again afterwards.
Some of your photos looked a little shady, and so
that would be a concern that I would have with

(01:24:36):
the grass filling in. There may be a case there
for going with solid sod and then trying to maintain
that density going forward as opposed to waiting on it
to crawl back across the space and fill in.

Speaker 25 (01:24:49):
Yeah, they are both in shady areas. On the left there,
that's a big oak tree of the acorns or what
attracted them to my yard in the first place, unfortunately,
And then on the rider are some big pine trees. Uh,
is there any My wife is ready to toss in
the towel and stop watering and stop fertilizing. I'm not

(01:25:12):
quite there yet, any Uh. You know, I don't want
to spend thousands of dollars doing cororation and compost top
dressing and like you say, residing. Is there anything to
help stimulate whatever is there to spread?

Speaker 5 (01:25:31):
Yeah? So mo water fertilize is the key to a
dense lawn. So getting out. Follow my schedule at gardening
with skip dot com. It's a free, long hour schedule.
Follow that on wind to fertilize. It gives you the
options of products to use. I would do that in
the don't overwater LUNs tend to get water too little
too often. Here. It's better to give it a good

(01:25:53):
soaking and let it dry out rather than a squirt
every day. And so as we go through the season,
do that for your lawn. You can do if an
area not too big like I think yours is, you
can buy a little thing. If you step on it
and it goes down the ground, you do some aer
rating yourself. It's a little bit tedious, but you know
it might that may be a trade off from spending

(01:26:15):
a lot of money on it, and then you could
buy bags of things like leapmole compos to spread over
the surface and water it in real good and and
go go that route too, So I would. The bottom
line though, is look up at the sky and look
at the limbs and if you if you're not getting
enough light, thinning out some of the foliage to get

(01:26:35):
more light intensity into that area is going to be
a very important key too, because light's the limiting factor.

Speaker 25 (01:26:43):
Yes, and that's just to keep trees pruned as well
as possible, or as well.

Speaker 5 (01:26:51):
As you can you know, yeah, well that's an option.
If you can't grow, then we start looking at things
like sedges and other shade loving groundcovers as something to
go over the soil surface. But as far as trying
to get grass, it just comes down to how many

(01:27:11):
foot candles for how many hours are hitting the ground.
And so if your trees have low hanging limbs, we
say raise the skirt that outdoor low hanging limb around
like an oak tree, you see that, printing that up
to get some incidental light in from the side a
little bit and then finning out the canopy above would
be your two options there, all right.

Speaker 25 (01:27:32):
Yes, sir, all right, good luck, thank you, good luck
for that, Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:27:38):
All right, thank you. Southwest Fertilizer has been a Houston
gardening tradition, lawn and gardening tradition since nineteen fifty five.
I'm the fifth host that's spoken. They go back to
the Dewey Compton days. Really and by the way, they're
celebrating their seventieth anniversary, So happy seventieth birthday Southwest, Bob.

(01:28:00):
It's not Bob seventies anyway, Happy birthday to all you
guys out there. They carry products that I talk about
on guardline and many many more. If you need a
herbicide for weeds to prevent them or to kill them
that are existing, if you need an insecticide, if you
need a funge aside, if you need all kinds of
plant stimulants and anything that's associated with success in the

(01:28:22):
lawn and garden, they've got it. And that includes tools
that includes soil amendments, fertilizers that like azemite. They carried
the products from Nature's way, products from heirlooms, soils and medina,
and on and on and on. They got it. They
walk in there, you're going to be treated right. They're
very friendly service and the products they have at the

(01:28:42):
top notch, including their tools. And then the selection is
there's there's no place. I don't know how far you
have to drive, but it's way out of the hous
scenario to find any place. It's got what Selfwist Fertilizer
has in terms of selection corner Bisonett and Renwick Selfist
Fertilizer dot Com seven to one three six six six

(01:29:03):
one seven four four. While you're there, grab you some microlife.
They've got all the microlife products you want. A liquid
like the Biomatrix orange label, the seven one three liquid.
It is great for foliage types of things that high
nitrogen level. I use it on my houseplants. I use
it on outdoor stuff too. I use it. They've got

(01:29:23):
the Microlife Ocean Harvest Blue label. That's an organic four
two three product. It's not going to burn plants. People
have long known fish mulsion and seaweed which they have.
Seaweat two is excellent, excellent for plants and anything that
microlife makes. I think seems to be there at Southwest Fertilizer,

(01:29:44):
So go buy and check it out. There, but grab
you some of that microlife. You're going to find that
when you get a microlife product, you're working with nature
to improve, to improve the success that you have, whether
it's a dense lawn or whether it's a fruit full
tomato plant or anything in between. Floriferous flowers, Microlife Fertilizer

(01:30:05):
dot com. There's a list of the retailers there. It's
available everywhere, and also there's a list of their products
and you can learn more because I don't have time
to tay about all of them on the air, but
there are a lot of really good products produced by Microlife.
But they've been doing this again for over thirty five years.
We're going to go now out to the hobby area
and talk to Chuck. Hey Chuck, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:30:28):
Hey Skip, how you doing? This is Chuck and caught
it from the Massive gardener days.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
Yeah, Chuck, I know you.

Speaker 7 (01:30:36):
How you doing couldn't be better. Look here from a
young boy, I grew up eating a common for simmons
and I didn't know where to get one, and I
didn't know if there was still a good idea.

Speaker 5 (01:30:52):
Well I've eaten those two. You know you can go
to the roadsides if you right around wherever their wild
trees grow and you can just pick some of those
persimons off and plant the seeds. That's one option. I
don't know if anybody sells just the wild native per semon,
they might. You might call Buchanan's Native Plants and the

(01:31:12):
Heights and see if they carry them, because they they
really specialize in natives. You might try with with you know,
being down south there some of the other garden centers
like Mosses down south there, uh, and see if he
has the native. But I like the improved ones. You know,
there's there's some really good quality improvements where you get

(01:31:33):
a per simon that's three or four times bigger than
the little native ones. But anyway, those those be the options.

Speaker 7 (01:31:41):
Their improvements. Do you have a suggestion on the variety type?

Speaker 5 (01:31:44):
Like on the varieties, Oh, gosh, there are a lot
of good varieties. If you go online to the Aggi
Horticulture website going through Master Gardener, you probably learned about
Aggie Horticulture.

Speaker 27 (01:31:54):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:31:54):
They've got a publication right there on per semons and
it it's it's excellent and it lists varieties. One of
the oldest ones that that it is called fu U
f u y you and uh fo you is it's
available widely. Now there's a lot of new persimmons that

(01:32:17):
are very much improved on Fuu. So that that's just
that's just one that is not going to be hard
to find. Uh, there's let's see, what's another one that
I like. I like hashiya h a c h i
y a y a Hachiya. It's more of a conical
kind of shaped, like more of an acorn, you know

(01:32:37):
where it's. It's a little longer than it is wide.
Uh there's Eureka that's more of a tomato shaped one.
It does very good.

Speaker 25 (01:32:45):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:32:45):
Tananashi is another good one. There's a bunch of good
ones on there. But go to Aggie Horticulture website and
find the fruit. It's a it's right on the front page.
You click on fruit and then you click on per
Simon and you've got more than you want to know
about persimmons in that free publication.

Speaker 7 (01:33:00):
Thank you all.

Speaker 5 (01:33:01):
I appreciate it, all right, Chuck, you take care all right,
by bye? Well there we go. Uh yeah, oh, I
love persimmons.

Speaker 6 (01:33:11):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:33:11):
The way to eat up a good A good mushy
old per simon, you know, the oldest stringent kinds. When
they get mushy, you get in the bathtub and you
have someone hand it to you, and that way you
can just eat it. You're gonna have per simon dripping
off your elbows and you just take a bath and
you're good to go. You heard it here first, folks,
how to eat a percmon. Well, that's funny, at least
it is funny to me. All right, we're coming up

(01:33:33):
on a break for the news. I will be back
with your calls. I do want to remind you gardening
with skip dot com. I keep referring to it because
that's where I put everything that you will want to know.
Seven one three two one two k t r H.
I'll be right back, So welcome back. Good to be
back with you. Hey, we're going to keep going here
on garden line. We've got a lot of gardening to

(01:33:54):
get done before the end of today, that is for sure.

Speaker 13 (01:33:58):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:33:59):
I talk about the importance of compost, top dressing and
core aeration of the soil. Core aeration means you pop
a plug out of the soil, take a hollow hollow
time and it goes in the ground, it comes back
up out and it leaves that little cylinder of soil
on the surface. Looks like they had a little miniature
dog convention on your yard. When they're all done. Now

(01:34:20):
the top dressing falls down in those holes, as does fertilizer.
Oxygen gets down in the holes, and it just stimulates
a root system and in a heavy clay soil, that
is very important to have success with your launch. A
very helpful thing. It's done on golf courses all the
time because people are trapesing up and down the golf course.
It is a secrets of success, it really is. And

(01:34:41):
you can do that in your yard. And if you
are in the let's say the inside the Loop area,
inside the Beltway area rather year around Houston, dot com
serves that area. Now Cliff Carson and the whole team
you're around Houston, they're specialists. When it comes to coming
out and doing core aeration and compost. You can do

(01:35:01):
it yourself. It's complicated, it's very cumbersome to do it.
I'd say, save the hassle of running a machine, which
by the way, is probably not going to do a
good corporation. It's just gonna punch it squeeze a hole
open in the soil, compacting the side so the whole. Uh,
you gotta transport it, you gotta clean it, you got
to return it. You got big posit compost in the driveway.
Just call year round, have them do that. They use

(01:35:24):
quality screened composts, no smell. This is quality screened compost,
so it settles down readily, right down into your lawn
out to the soil surface. So if you are inside
the Beltway or if you're out in the Richmond Rosenberg area,
that's another area they surface service out there. You need
to give me a call and bring some fresh life

(01:35:44):
into your soil and therefore into your lawn now year
round Houston dot com. That is the phone number. Excuse me,
the website year round Houston dot com. Don't try to
dial that the phone number eight three to two eight
h four fifty three thirty five eight three two eight
eight four fifty three thirty five year round Houston for compost,

(01:36:05):
out dressing and air ration inside the Beltway and out
in the Richmond Rosenberg area. We try to cover our ereas.
There are a lot of folks that listen to a
lot of different directions and companies like this. You know,
it's heavy equipment, expensive, heavy equipment hauling compost around. You
just can't run all over creation doing that. And so
we have more than one preferred supplier depending on where

(01:36:26):
you live here in the Greater Houston area.

Speaker 6 (01:36:29):
I like that.

Speaker 5 (01:36:30):
We're going to go now to the phones and talk
to Colin. Hello, Colin, welcome to garden Line. Hey, how
are you? I'm well, sir. How can we help?

Speaker 4 (01:36:41):
So?

Speaker 28 (01:36:41):
I'd like to plant in the ground in my backyard
a large orange tree that produces a lot of fruits.
It's going to be okay, Sun, I've had one the
back before, and I know the satsumas are good, but
can you recommend one that will give me a lot
of fruits that tastes good?

Speaker 5 (01:37:02):
Yeah? Where do you live? I mean what part of
the area medical? Okay, the Republic of Texas is a
good cultivar of orange that does well here and there.
There are others out there, but a Republic of Texas
is one, and I would you know with where you

(01:37:23):
are there you're not. You might talk to Moss Nursery,
which is out of course at Seabrook that's a little
distance from you. But they're down kind of south and east,
and then Horace Hidden Gardens is down south and I
know he has a lot of fruit trees. I can't
keep up with all the varieties that each of them carry.
So if you're looking for a specific win, you meant

(01:37:43):
to drive a little bit, go to one of our
independent garden centers around town. But anyway, Republic of Texas
is an orange that is pretty popular here in this area.

Speaker 28 (01:37:54):
Would you recommend an orange tree or a satsuma?

Speaker 5 (01:37:59):
Wellay, if you want a fresh eat I like the
satsumas because they have that baggy skin that you know,
your little thumbnails. It just peels right off. It's very
easy to peel. If you were going to juice it,
I think a little bit larger fruit like an orange
would be probably better for juicing. But you can juice
e the one of them, I mean, if you want to.

Speaker 28 (01:38:21):
No, I don't want to juice it.

Speaker 7 (01:38:22):
I just want to eat it.

Speaker 5 (01:38:24):
Oh, where did I get Okay? I was thinking you
wanted juice this. Well either way, either way, satsuma is
going to be heartier. You get a good satsuma and
it'll take you down into the low twenties. There's some
types that will go down into the mid to upper
teens once they've had a couple of years to establish.
So that's a plant that you very seldom are really

(01:38:44):
going to have to cover in your area.

Speaker 28 (01:38:48):
Is there a specific brand of satsuma that I.

Speaker 13 (01:38:50):
Should look for?

Speaker 5 (01:38:52):
Lots of good ones. Brown select is one that's popular.
There is a one called Miho am I each. Oh,
there's one called Sito s E t O. Those are
both excellent, and then the fellow in Santonio Bread a
couple for cold heartiness. One is called Arctic frost uh

(01:39:13):
and it's very cold hearty, So that that would be
one if you're trying to go is if cold heartiness
is the number one thing, I would do the Arctic frost.
But the others are great, and you can read about
each of them, you know, you go online, go to
Aggie Horticulture, look at their cetrus and they're going to
have a list of varieties and information on there. Or
you go to a good garden center and they can
tell you you know what they carry, you know the

(01:39:37):
characteristics of it. It's kind of like apple. It's kind
of like apples. You know, everyone one of them is
may be better for cooking, one of them is better
for juicing, one of them is better for fresh eating,
one of them is tangy, one of them is not.
You know, so it's kind of that way with the
satsumas and another cetrus. Of course.

Speaker 13 (01:39:53):
Great, well, thanks so much.

Speaker 5 (01:39:54):
All right, thanks sir, Good luck with that. All righty,
let's uh, I think about Let's go out to Tomball
and talk to John. Hey, John, welcome to guarden Line
on Skiff.

Speaker 7 (01:40:04):
Got a quick question for you called a couple of
weeks ago. I'm trying to help my daughter out planning
some sant Augustine because they're trying to sell a house,
so they got weeds. Then they also have dogs, so
I'm trying to find a perfect answer for this on
what I could spray for her to get the weeds

(01:40:26):
out before I plant new side in her backyard. And
how much time I need to wait for the dogs I.

Speaker 5 (01:40:35):
Need to see the weeds. Are these broad leaf weeds
that are coming up right now that you're heard that
are growing?

Speaker 7 (01:40:41):
Yeah? Yeah, it's just a mess factor, so they're going
to have to reside.

Speaker 5 (01:40:46):
You're gonna have to use a post emergent weed killer
and it's going to take a little while to work,
and the weeds will decline and they'll go out of there.
Now with the dogs, if they like to eat weeds,
they may have to keep them off for a while.
If you can at least get it, put it down,
spray it on the weeds, and then wait about a
week without the dogs chomping down on them. Then you

(01:41:07):
could mow down low, get most of the weed tops
out of there that you sprayed, and the products would
have already translocated down And there's a bunch of them
on the market. John. You know, being up there in
the Tomball area, you've got a number of great outlets.
I know they carry a lot of weed control products
out at D and D feed out west of Tomball

(01:41:28):
on two forty twenty nine. But your garden centers, you know,
like Arburgate up there, they're going to have that also.
But you want to get there's one called Booneye weed beater.
There are several versions of weed beater. The Furlan has
a is it whed free zone? I think they Furloan
has one. But they're all post emergent, broadly weak killers

(01:41:50):
and they work. Use them according to the label. And
don't lay get it, don't delay, get it done asap
so that you can get ahead of all that. Okay, ship,
yes sir, thank you, Good luck with that. All right,
here's another break. I'll be right back with your questions
at seven one three two one two KTRH.

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Speaker 5 (01:46:43):
This would be a good time to talk about wild
birds unlimited, but I've already done that a number of
times today. All right, we're gonna go out to the
phones and we're gonna talk to Olivia. Hey, Olivia, welcome
to garden Line. How are things in Friendswood?

Speaker 3 (01:46:57):
Thank you?

Speaker 32 (01:46:58):
We're doing pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:47:00):
I have a question about my queen palms.

Speaker 32 (01:47:03):
They survived the freeze. The actual crown is still a
little green, the prawns or not. Is it okay to
go a hidden free to feed them after all they've
been through? Or should I wait a little while longer
till we're sure there's no more cold weather?

Speaker 5 (01:47:18):
Good question, that's a good question, you know, fertilizing them.
Fertilizing a plant that's too cold is not going to
make it grow because it's too cold, So it's not
you know, it's fine to go ahead and fertilize them
now if you want. It's just that nutrients wash away,
and if that tree isn't going to be actively taking
them up real soon, you might want to wait a

(01:47:40):
little bit, let it warm up a little bit, and
then give them some fertilizer. But there's nothing wrong with
putting it down now. So there's not a you have
to fertilize palms on this day kind of rule out there.
But if it's a slower release, that would definitely be
one that I'd put down now, and it's ready to
go when they when they start to grow.

Speaker 32 (01:47:58):
But either way, I do have one that everything fell
from the crown, so there's no leaves if you will
know prawns, but the trunk is green. It looks like
the roots survived, being that there's no leaves. Will it survive,

(01:48:20):
do you know? Or will it just die?

Speaker 15 (01:48:21):
Is slow ter or flea tid?

Speaker 5 (01:48:24):
Well, here's the thing on palms, and this is true
of almost all palms. Some will sprout from the bottom
and make a clump of trunks, but most palms, the
only living bud to grow new growth is at the
top of the trunk. So if it dies you got
a telephone pole, it's going to be dead wood. I
mean that until it falls over. So that is the

(01:48:46):
part that matters. And if you can't always tell if
it's alive, orknife, it's too tall to get up there
and look at it. You can, if you can look
at it. If it's brown and mushy kind of in there,
it's probably gone. But I would give it some time,
you know, let's wait, let's let the weather heat up
real good and get into a few months of summer
and see what's going on up there. Sometimes they're really

(01:49:06):
slow to respond. They got killed back a lot, but
not completely. But you know, with me trying to do
this on the phone, that's about as accurate as I
can give you there, because if I was there looking
at it, I might be able to see a little
bit more.

Speaker 32 (01:49:20):
All right, I'll try to be patient. Okay, thank you
so much.

Speaker 5 (01:49:24):
Hey, thanks for Carl. Appreciate that a lot. Listen. I
was at the arbor Gate the other day looking at
some of the stuff that they had, and oh my gosh,
as always, they're just constantly bringing in plants at the
arbor Gate, and they are stocked up with everything for
spring shrubs, trees, fruit tree do you know that fruit
trees here around and I'm talking about you know, the

(01:49:47):
apples and pear kind of fruit trees. I'm talking about berries,
you know, blackberries and strawberry. I'm talking about grapes. We
were talking about per summons a while ago with someone.
They carry that they carry a wide riety citrus to
Arbigade is an excellent place to find everything you need.
If you're wanting to start seeds. They have seeds, they
have seeds starting kits that the color that has come

(01:50:09):
into that place right now is outstanding. And of course
vegetables and herbs. Yes, it's time to get some tomatoes
and some herbs and be thinking about depending on where
you live when getting those out. And there's nothing wrong
with buying a tomato plant today, even if you're not
going to plant it for a week or two. That
way you have the selection. So go buy there. They

(01:50:29):
have a great range of varieties. Get you what you want,
take it home, just water. You can pot it up
in a little bigger pot if you want to put
it outside in the sun. We're about to go down
in the thirties, so you'll bring it in then. But
that's okay. Put it back out during the day. If
it's a little cool, that's okay. You just don't want
it below forties maybe for your tomatoes, but you can

(01:50:49):
get ahead start that way. In the back is the
parking lot off Thrashel Road that is so easy to access,
nice safe, easy access from the back of Arbigate And
those of you who've been there before, No, people love
this place. I mean it's like, even if you weren't
going to buy a plant, just to walk through there
and look at the yard art and the gift shops

(01:51:10):
and it's you gotta go.

Speaker 25 (01:51:14):
You have to go.

Speaker 5 (01:51:15):
I can't adequately describe it. You gotta go. And now
with that back parking lot, a lot of people can
all show up and have a good time at the
same time at Arborgate. Arborgate Garden Center is west of
Tomball For those of you are new to the area
on twenty nine to twenty just a couple of miles
west out there on the left hand side, easy to
get to and fun. I promise you you will have fun.

(01:51:37):
Take somebody with you because this is like, this is
like an outing for gardeners and their friends and their family.
So take somebody with you when you go out there.
I talked earlier about the importance of taking care of
your trees, and if you have not had your trees
looked at, get Martin spoon More out there to look
at your trees. Martin is the owner of Affordable Trees Is.

(01:52:00):
He and his wife both answer the phone, Martin and Joe.
If they don't answer the phone, then you called the
wrong place. Seven one three six nine nine two six
six y three. He's gonna come out. He's going to
make sure your trees are in top shape. And because
new growth is beginning now in the spring, it's time
to get those things pruned and get them in the

(01:52:21):
best shape they can. So if we do have storms
this summer, at least they have the best shot at
having a good, strong structure that doesn't break in the
least of you know, a little wind comes through and
starts tearing the tree up. Martin can help with that.
He does deep root feeding, He does a lot of things.
If your tree needs it, he probably does it. And
so Affordable Tree Service aff Tree Service dot Com seven

(01:52:44):
to one three six nine two six six three seven
one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three someone
asked me the other day about flower beds and how
do I have good color? And we're talking about, you know, well,
in the cool seat and here's some plants and in
the warm season, here's some plants that do well. And
by trading them out and stuff. And you know the

(01:53:06):
most important thing is the soil, right. We talk about
that all the time, getting a good quality soil. And
part of that is getting the nutrient mix to help
that plant grow. It's not like you fertilize and it
makes a plant grow. It's like a plant wants to grow.
It's got moist soil and it's looking for nutrients. It
takes all those twenty nutrients plus to help a plant

(01:53:29):
to grow like it wants to grow. And when you
put that out on the ground, you have got you've
got the setting where that plant will grow and it
will bloom and it will bloom and it will bloom
especially you know, a product like a color Star from
Nelson Plant Food color Star, just think of it year round.
If it has color, it needs color Star. That's kind

(01:53:52):
of as simple as I can put it. Get the
get it. Look at the label tells you how much
to use and whatnot. Now, If, on the other hand,
you've got something like a tree or a shrub, then
use Nutril Star Tree and Shrub from Nelson five different
sources of nitrogen. It's going to release some, but it's
going to gradually release over three to four months. It's
got micro nutrients in it as well. And I don't

(01:54:13):
care what kind of tree or shrub you have. This
stuff works. If it were a tree that was producing fruit,
you know, maybe a citrus a peach in avocado, then
citrus fruit and avocado Nutris Star citrus fruit and avocado
from Nelson's. That's the one you're gonna want to use.
Nelson's got you covered on all these products. The Turf
Star line for your lawn, the nutri Star line for

(01:54:35):
specific types of plants. They even have a Nature Star
line for organic products. Nelson Plant Food is widely available
in our area, and if you want to find out
where to locate it, go to Nelsonplantfood dot com and
look at the store locator. Also look at the products
while you're there. It's really cool. Well, here goes another hour.

(01:54:55):
I got one left today. If you want to get
on the boards for when we start the next hour,
all you gotta do is all seven one three two
one two k t r H seven one three two
one two k t r H and Josh our Donathan
get you on the board and we'll be ready to
go when we come back from the top. Don't forget

(01:55:16):
my lawn care schedules plural are online at Gardening with
Skip that's me dot com. Gardening with Skip dot com.
The lawn care schedule and the lawn pestis and we
management schedule synthetic and organic options from January through December
for everything that you need.

Speaker 1 (01:55:41):
Welcome to k t r H Garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (01:55:45):
It's just watch as world.

Speaker 3 (01:56:00):
Many things to sets, not a sad.

Speaker 5 (01:56:15):
Alright, folks, here we go. We got the last hour
of garden Line for the weekend and we are at
the doorstep right here and we're going to cover some
ground this hour. We got a lot of things to
talk about and some calls as well, So give me
a call if you would like. Seven one three two
one two k t r H. Uh In Chanty Gardens

(01:56:36):
is a garden center out there in the Richmond Rosenberg area.
For those who haven't been there, you need to go.
It is on the Katie Fullsher Side of Richmond on
FM three point fifty nine. It's now standing Garden Center.
There's all this stuff going on out there. They have
programs this spring. Uh just really really excellent. As a
matter of fact, Next Saturday, February fifteenth, say that again.

(01:56:57):
Next Saturday, write this down February fifteenth, I'll be there
from twelve noon to one thirty. Twelve noon to one thirty,
and I will be talking about tips for making gardening
less work. Does that sound good or what the way
I like to put it? The subtitle is how to
get more from your garden with less sweat and less ibuprofen.

(01:57:18):
Tips for making Gardening less work. I'll talk about making
gardening easier and more productive and definitely more fun, and
we'll have some fun in the process. Again. That's the
next Saturday, Enchanted Gardens on FM three point fifty nine
on the Katie fullsher Side of Richmond. I'll be there
from twelve noon to one thirty, so come out and
see me. By the way, their hours are Monday through

(01:57:38):
Saturday eight to five and Sunday from ten to four,
so this afternoon be a good time to get out
there and check them out. When you go to Enchanted Gardens,
first thing you're going to think is, oh my gosh,
this is an expanse of stuff. I mean, they've got
everything from every kind of plant you can imagine, certainly
the ones that are most seasonally appropriate right then, and

(01:58:00):
all the way to some beautiful pottery. They're pottery selections outstanding.
They've got a nice little gift shop. They got all
the products that you know, the ones you hear me
talk about here, like fertilizers from Microfias, Nitrofoss, Microlife, Nelson
Plant Food and Medina. They've got soils from Nature's Way
and heirloom soils you've heard me talk about those before.

(01:58:23):
Excellent selection of roses going out there right now. Go
check out their website. It's Enchented Gardens Richmond dot com.
Enchented Gardens Richmond dot com and come see me next
Saturday from twelve noon to one thirty. I'll be there,
look forward to seeing you. Let's go to Port Arthur
and we're going to talk to Alan. Hey Allen, welcome

(01:58:45):
to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (01:58:47):
Good morning, heyd Ring. I'm sorry skipped this morning. I'm
I'm put my pre emerging out and I know you
don't want to. I don't want to overwater because I say, you.

Speaker 5 (01:58:57):
Just want to get it just below the surf of
that day. The crict.

Speaker 9 (01:59:00):
Like my sprinkler systems, I got those types that you know,
are those kind?

Speaker 7 (01:59:07):
Do you have any kind of idea how you.

Speaker 5 (01:59:09):
Can call any you can call any time that you
want to garden line if you always bring me sound
effects that are that cool?

Speaker 9 (01:59:15):
I like that.

Speaker 5 (01:59:18):
So you've got one of those sprinkler systems that threw
me so much you got to go back and finish
that question.

Speaker 8 (01:59:27):
That was okay, I don't want to overwater it.

Speaker 7 (01:59:31):
So I'm just curious you have any kind of I know, how.

Speaker 9 (01:59:34):
Much time with that type of sprinkler I would run
that water?

Speaker 5 (01:59:38):
You know, I don't. Every sprinkler system is different. But
here's what you can do. If you've got to rain gauge,
or if you have a straight sided can, like you know,
something like green beans came out or something set that
anywhere out there, I'd put you know, you put it
out there, put several of them around. But because it
never those sprinklers don't apply evenly, uh and just water
until you've caught about a half inch of water and

(01:59:59):
that that's how long.

Speaker 9 (02:00:01):
Yeah, I don't know how I've done that before, just
to see my fur linesp okay, so.

Speaker 5 (02:00:09):
Half about a half? Yeah, yeah, that'd be plenty. All right,
all right, all right, now come up with some more
sound effects and call back. All right, you take care.

Speaker 7 (02:00:22):
I like that.

Speaker 5 (02:00:23):
That's funny. Somebody somebody wants to telling me. You know,
you get a little toy gun and you give it
to your son and your daughter, and your daughter goes
PM pewm and your son goes I don't know if
that's true. I bet there's some girls they go. All right,
let's go to sugar Land. Talk to June. Hey, June,
welcome to garden line. Do you have any sound effects
for me today?

Speaker 12 (02:00:45):
No, it's not effects today.

Speaker 27 (02:00:50):
Your segment of the tomatoes?

Speaker 12 (02:00:52):
Is it too early to start playing the tomatoes.

Speaker 5 (02:00:56):
We're going to get some thirty degrees here in the
next we and I would I would buy the tomatoes now,
because you get to pick your varieties before they get
picked over by other people. Go and buy them right,
bring them home, and if you're going to hold them
for over a week, I would move them up into
a little bigger pot and start watering and fertilizing them

(02:01:17):
every day that you can get them out for every
hour of sunshine that's where it's not below forty degrees,
just put them out there, even forty five degrees, let's say,
put them out there and they'll it'll help them, it'll
help them acclimate to the temperatures and they'll grow a
little bit. And then when it's safe, like we don't
have a thirty degree scheduled for a week, then go
ahead and put them out, you know, and in your

(02:01:38):
area done in sugarlane. That's probably you know, going to
be toward the end of the month or early in
March that you would actually be planting them out.

Speaker 27 (02:01:47):
Okay, okay, that's what I kind of thought. Is it
too late to play it from seeds, Well, it.

Speaker 5 (02:01:56):
Is a little late. You could try find a variety
that says asked is possible, one that says it's fifty
five days to harvest or something along that line, if
you can find it. If you can find that, uh,
and then get it in the ground asap, and you're
gonna have to start it indoors where it's warm because
you want it to grow fast. It takes about about

(02:02:17):
six weeks to grow a transplant, and that's going to
put us toward the end of March. If you start today.

Speaker 27 (02:02:22):
Oh well then no, I'll just it for us because
I'm in Shipland and I just it's a good challenge
to watch a little one grow from seas.

Speaker 5 (02:02:34):
Oh, it's a blast. We'll get some seeds of something
else and trum. By the way, come out and see
me in Channet Forest next Saturday from twelve to one thirty.
I'll be given a talk and answer questions.

Speaker 27 (02:02:46):
Oh great, thanks in Channt fort.

Speaker 5 (02:02:49):
In, Jennet, I'm sorry, I'm Jenny Gardens. Oh my brain
by this time of the show is starting to falter. Yeah,
I'm Chaney Gardens out of Richmond Roseberg.

Speaker 4 (02:03:00):
Right.

Speaker 5 (02:03:00):
Those are both great garden. Yeah they are.

Speaker 7 (02:03:04):
They to go to. I just went and got pro
mixed to.

Speaker 27 (02:03:08):
Be playing Primarius.

Speaker 5 (02:03:13):
Very good, very good, Thank you for the call. That's good.

Speaker 2 (02:03:18):
Hey.

Speaker 5 (02:03:19):
D and Defeed is on the west side of Tombull.
D and D feed is on the west side of Tumbull,
and I want to tell you that place. In fact,
i'm gonna I'm gonna talk about them a little bit
more here, but that is the place to go for
all kinds of things from fertilizers to you name it.
But we're gonna talk about and when we come back
from break here. A little bit more earlier, someone had

(02:03:40):
asked me about, well, if I don't live in the
area where that company you recommend for compost, top dressing
and core aeration serves, what do I do. I've got
people for almost all the areas around Houston. If you're
down south, let's say you're from Sugarland in Missouri City,
all the way down like Highway six, all those communities Presno,
Sienna or Cola, Alwa, Colony, Manville, or even over as

(02:04:02):
far as Pairland. B and B turf Pros is your
company now. The website is bb no end bb Turfpros
dot com. Go there and check it out. This is
a family owned business. They provide quality work. It is
so important to them that you are satisfied. They take
care of you there. They're straight, they shoot straight with

(02:04:24):
you there, high quality work. They only use quality products.
They get their top quality leaf more compost from the
folks at Ciena Multch So you know this is good stuff, right,
and they go beyond, above and beyond to make a
personal connection with you their client. They want you to
be satisfied. B it B turf pros seven to one
three two three four fifty five ninety eight seven one

(02:04:48):
three two three four fifty five ninety eight. I want
to take a break and I'll be right back with
a call from Jennifer up in Conro. Tell me you've
read that song before, and I'll call you a liar. Well,
that can only mean one thing. The chicks are in
at D and D Supply up in Tumbole. I know
that was a stretch, but I had to do it.

(02:05:09):
D and Defeed is three miles west of Highway two
forty nine and Tomball And listen, if you want back
your chickens, you are not going to find any place
like this. Dozens and dozens and dozens of different varieties
of chickens. Stuff you've never heard of. Have you ever
had a speckled Sussek pulleck? Have you ever had an
Americana pullet? How about a buff Brahma or a lavender

(02:05:31):
wyan Dot. Those are all coming in this Wednesday, February
twelve at D and Defeed store. And every week i'man
on and on I'll talk about them again, because they
keep getting new ones in every week, sometimes a couple
of times a week, depends on the week, but it's
all on the schedule. Go to D anddfeed dot com
look at the schedule for when they get their chickens

(02:05:53):
in and you can find out about that. They got
everything you need. You'll heat to go over the chicks,
baby chicks, maybe some bedding material, perhaps a water, a feeder.
They will get you set up.

Speaker 2 (02:06:02):
Now.

Speaker 5 (02:06:02):
While you're there, you're going to find the fertilizers for
your lawn like nitro foss and microlife and Nelson turf
Star and Medina. You're going to find soils from heirloom soils.
You're going to find the everything from plats of vegetables
to seeds to all kinds of the stuff. It just
just go there and look at it. It is amazing.

(02:06:23):
And they also have other Nelson plat foods by the
jar there as well. So D and D Feed three
miles west two forty nine on the left right outside
of Tumble, not very far at all, and boy, the
news is hit. The chicks have arrived. That's why all
the chicks hang out. D and D Feed by the way,
I didn't know if you knew that, all right, We're
going to go now to Jennifer and Conro. Hey Jennifer,

(02:06:45):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 27 (02:06:47):
Hey.

Speaker 12 (02:06:47):
Thanks.

Speaker 20 (02:06:48):
I was hoping to reuse the soil from my container
vegetables for the last year or two. So I'm guessing
I need to do something to put vitamins back in it.
Can you tell me what that might be?

Speaker 5 (02:07:01):
Okay, So, first of all, if there was no diseases
that affected your plants, you can certainly do that. If
you know you had damping off or some root rod
or something on the plants, then I generally don't recommend
that you reuse the potting soil for those kind of situations. Now,
if you go to my website Gardening with Skip dot

(02:07:24):
com Gardening with Skip dot com and you look at
the publications, there's a publication called pasteurizing growing media or
garden soil in an oven. And so if you had
a little pot and you wanted to make sure it
doesn't have any bad stuff in it, you can follow that.
Nine chances out of ten, if you reuse your soil,

(02:07:44):
you're not going to have a problem. But if you
want to be extra careful, you can do that to
the soil. I reuse mine all the time, but I
always watch and make sure that you know there wasn't
a disease problem in the plants that grew there before.
But you absolutely can do it. And now what you
want to do is you want to get some a
product from Nelson Plant Food and it's called Genesis Genesis

(02:08:06):
and Genesis is something that you mix with the potting
soil as you're working it back up again to replant
into that pot It is it is a fertilizer, but
it is a fertilizer in a very natural form that
has a lot of extra good stuff in it and
it just helps plants hit the ground running. So Nelson
Genesis it's available about in those little clear jars with

(02:08:28):
a big white screw top lid, and it's it's sold
all over the place, So that would be one. But yeah,
beefing up the soil a little bit now if you
if you don't, if you can't find it up there
where you live, then get you something that it says
it's a slow release fertilizer because you don't want to
burn plants by putting too much nutrient in at one time.

(02:08:50):
You can put a slow release in and it'll feed
it gradually over time.

Speaker 9 (02:08:54):
And some of it o a organic emulsion as well.

Speaker 5 (02:08:59):
It's it's fine. Fish emulsion doesn't have a lot of
nutrient in it. It has some other things that are beneficial.
I would probably if you're going to do that, I
would mix it with a seaweed as well. But Microlife
has something called ocean harvest and it has about like
a four two three. I think fertilizer. That one would

(02:09:20):
be a good one to use. The Microlife ocean harvest.
You just mix it in water and when you drench
it in yes, you will be fertilizing well with that. Actually,
when I was saying that while ago, I was picturing
seaweed instead of fishing mulsion. Seaweed is the one that
doesn't have a lot of nutrients in it. Fish emulsion does.

Speaker 12 (02:09:38):
Okay?

Speaker 20 (02:09:38):
Can I ask you citrus do your question as well?

Speaker 5 (02:09:41):
Yeah, real quick.

Speaker 20 (02:09:45):
We have a zillion flowers on it, and then they
come into baby lines or baby lemons, but then like
all those little lemons fall off and we probably only
get like eight percent. Is that normal?

Speaker 5 (02:09:55):
Okay? It can be Citrus set more than it needs
and it'll abort all the ones that it can't handle.
But stresses really make that worse. So if you had
that set and then it got dry a little bit
and it lacked for water or some other stress, it
will often abort it more because of that stress. So

(02:10:19):
it could be partially natural normal and it could be
partially stress related. So try to keep the soil evenly
moist nice, well drained, but good even moisture in the soil,
and a moderate amount of fertilizer, not too much nitrogen
at that point, and I think you're going to get
the best fruit set that you can.

Speaker 27 (02:10:40):
Thank you.

Speaker 20 (02:10:40):
I appreciate it all.

Speaker 5 (02:10:42):
Right, thanks the call. Appreciate that a lot, Thank you
very much. Azemite is a trace mineral supplement that I
talk about all the time. Why do I talk about
trace minerals. Well, on fertilizer bags, they only they generally
only put the three numbers of nitrogen and phosphorus and potassium.
Sometimes you'll get calcium and sulfur added on there, but

(02:11:03):
generally it's three numbers. Well, what about there's like twenty
nutrients that a plant can use that plants can use
at different stages of their life growth, and so what
about all the others those are equally important is the
Big three, they just aren't needed in as high a quantity.
That's what we're talking about with azamite. You know, a
forty four pound bag of azamite will cover six to

(02:11:24):
twelve thousand square feet lawn. Because we're talking about a
micronutrients supplement. The fact that you just need a little
does not mean it's less important than nitrogen and phosphorus
and potassium in your typical lawn fertilizer. It's equally important
because they're both essential micronutrients. Macronutrients both essential. Forty four

(02:11:46):
pound bag, Now, if you got a vegetable garden, i'd
put about ten pounds per thousand square feet, and yes,
I would use it in a vegetable garden because you
want to pack those vegetables that you're growing with all
the nutrients that they need as well. You can go
to azamite Texas dot com find out more about it,
or you can just go to one of the places
you hear me talk about on Guardenline. It's it's pretty
widely available. Feed stores, the independent garden centers, places like

(02:12:09):
Ace Hardware and Southwest Fertilizer. Those are all places where
I've seen azamite for sale in the Houston area, so
check it out. It's one thing that you can do it.
You don't have to fertilize with as mite when you're
fertilizing other things, but you can same day put your
fertilizer out, come back load up to asmite, put it
out separate applications. It could be the same day or

(02:12:32):
it can be six months apart. They don't have to
be connected, but they can asmite for your trace minerals.
We're going to go now to Crosby and we're going
to talk to Tanya. Hello, Antanya, Hi Skip I am.

Speaker 33 (02:12:46):
I have a question for you. I hope you can
answer Hello.

Speaker 2 (02:12:49):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 5 (02:12:51):
Yes? I sure can.

Speaker 4 (02:12:53):
Okay.

Speaker 33 (02:12:55):
After years of battling weeds and take off patch and
sodweb worm, I have very little Saint Augustine left and
this is the year I'm going to have to bite
the bullet and really get someone like turf Pro out
here to level two grade to do the core aeriation,
you know, the good soil and put down the sod.

(02:13:17):
Turf Pro is that I'm not in their area, and
can you recommend anyone that would be the king would
Humble bay Town. Sometimes even deer Park companies will come
out to like Houston. Anyone that would do that like turf.

Speaker 5 (02:13:31):
Now, this this is out on the periphery of where
they can go, but you may want to give year
Round Houston a call. That's the that's the website too,
year round Houston dot Com. And I think they will
service out in that area, but you just got to
talk to them. I generally don't talk about that area
because that's out peripheral for them, but the last time

(02:13:53):
I talked to them, it seemed like they might reach
out a little bit in that direction, so that that
would be go to that web site, year round Houston
dot com, and I think I think that maybe they
can help you there. Okay, okay, that sounds good.

Speaker 33 (02:14:07):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (02:14:09):
You bet. Good luck with that, all right. Well, that's
a good practice to be doing to your lawns and
your gardens and all that. Out in Kingwood. Speaking of
that area, Warren Southern Gardens and Kingwood Garden Center are
two outstanding places to go and get everything you need
for your for your gardens. Kingwood's got this awesome gift

(02:14:29):
shop that's just amazing. They totally revamped and it is
really cool. I like the way they've set it up
now Warren Southern Gardens. You know you're going to find
a wide variety of plants. And they have the full
landscaping services too, by the way these places do. So
if you need to have them come out and do
some landscaping thing, they can do it out in that area.

(02:14:50):
But they they just are excellent at carrying a wide variety.
Do you want color plants, do you want herbs? Do
you want vegetables? Looking for a rosebush? Looking for whatever?
They've got it and when you're out there, you know,
brown stuff before a green stuff. They've got Microlife fertilizer,
Nitroposs fertilizer, Nelson turf Star fertilizer, uh they and other

(02:15:11):
Nelson plant foods. They have the refill stations for the
jars of Nelson and Microlife, the jars of each of
those products. You take your old jar in and refill it,
save a little bit of money and don't throw that
plastic into the environment. Products that like the mosquito dunk
that I talk about. As we warm up here a
little bit, I'll be talking about those they've got that

(02:15:32):
airloom soils. They've got it all. They're ready to go.
Just show up. Warm seven Gardens North North Park Drive,
Kingwood Garden Center, Stone Hollow Drive. Both of them are
open seven days a week. Hey, there's a good afternoon
outing to get out there and get you some plant.
It's spring, the fever is hit all right. Well, I'm
gonna quit talk in there. Take a little time for

(02:15:53):
the news here as we take a break. If you
would like to give me a call seven one three
two one two ktr H and I'll be right back
with your calls. Hey, welcome back to garden Line. Welcome
back to gardener.

Speaker 7 (02:16:08):
Hey.

Speaker 5 (02:16:09):
You know what one of my favorite places to go
to is Ciena Malts. You didn't you expect me to
say that, did you. I love it. I love things
that help our plants succeed, and that would be anything
related to soil. That's why I say brown stuff before
green stuff. Ciena Malt is your one stop shop South
Houston for all things brown stuff. They're down near Highway

(02:16:32):
six and two eighty eight. The actual road is Farm
to Market five twenty one FM five twenty one, or
you can just go to the website. Sienna multch dot
com that that tells your phone number how to get there,
everything you need to know. Uh, everyone down in that
region you need to know about this, and I know
people that travel a little distance to get there because
they do have great products, and we're talking about things

(02:16:56):
like you know, they've got products from the excuse me,
heirloom soils. They got products from Landscaper's Pride. They have
the fertilizers from Microlife from Nelson, the turf Star line
and other Nelson products. They got Medina fertilizer, they got
Nitrofast fertilizers there, and they have asomite. They're just talking

(02:17:16):
about that, the trace mineral supplement. So if you want
to get your soil right, the brown stuff, they've got
everything you need. You can go there with your pick
up or trailer and pick it up. If you're within
twenty miles, they'll deliver for a small fee to get
it out to you. However you want to go about it,
just go about it. It's time for spring planting, and
don't put a plant in the ground before you fix

(02:17:38):
that soil, so the plant has a chance for success,
because that's why you're planting the plant for flowers or
fruit or beauty. Don't PLoP an unprepared plant. Don't PLoP
a poor old plant into an unprepared plot. That was
my Peter Piper version for a horticulture fix it first
at Sienamalts. They're open Monday through Friday, seven five Saturday

(02:18:01):
today seven thirty to two and closed on Sundays again
five five twenty one Sienna mult dot Com. And I
promise you they'll treat you right. They just it makes
you happy to go in there and just the cheerful
faces and the helpful folks. I love going into Cena Molt.

(02:18:21):
All right, let's go out to the hill country of
Texas and talk to Rick. Hey, Rick, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (02:18:27):
Hey you don't skip.

Speaker 5 (02:18:30):
I'm well, thank you.

Speaker 7 (02:18:32):
Good.

Speaker 9 (02:18:32):
I have two questions. One is on pre and post
emergence and the other ones on they're rating the yard.

Speaker 34 (02:18:42):
So I use a product and I used it about
a week ago. We'd beat our ultra that has both
a pre and post emergant and it is one. Is
that a good product or should I be using them separately?

Speaker 5 (02:18:59):
We'd beat our ultra is fine. I've talked about it
before on the on the show by Bone eye bon
Eyde makes that. Uh so it's fine, especially for killing
things that are already existing, especially for that let me
check that. Let me check that label. I didn't know
it had a pre in it. Are you sure about that?

(02:19:22):
Check that sure?

Speaker 9 (02:19:24):
The one I'm using says both pre and post emergent.

Speaker 7 (02:19:27):
It kind of.

Speaker 34 (02:19:28):
Reminds me of the weed and seed. Should I be
doing them separately? Or can I put down a pre
and post emergent at the same time?

Speaker 5 (02:19:36):
Yeah, you know, in general, I prefer to put the
pre and the post down separately because it gives me
better control. That's not to say that combo product you
know wouldn't wouldn't work. I mean I will, but often
I find that I'm kind of going, uh specifically according
to maybe I'm trying to say, like there's a specif

(02:20:00):
a weed I'm going after, Well, I get to pick
my my herbicide based on the weed or you see
what I'm saying, And so I like to do It's
the same way with with the weed and feeds. There
are some that they do just fine, but in general
I like to use them separately. But anyway, it just
depends on the situation. I don't want to overstate it.

(02:20:22):
You know, yeah that let's see, that's got MCPA, it's
got mecaprop I can but yeah, that's all post emergent
in the weed weed Beater ultra, so you would need
a pre like barricade. A night Foss makes a product
called barricade, and that's a pre emergent. But don't delay.
It's time to get it down. What part of the
hill country are you.

Speaker 9 (02:20:43):
In, about ten miles west of New Brothols.

Speaker 5 (02:20:49):
Okay, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's time, and in late
February is an important time for you to get your
pre emergence down to be ahead of things there.

Speaker 9 (02:20:59):
Okay, great, now this is the spring. I was going
to go ahead and do the top dressing. We just
moved in about two years ago and I'm not sure
it's been done, so I need to do it. But
I always mentioned about aer ration. Well we go down
about an inch and a half to two inches and
we hit rock around here.

Speaker 5 (02:21:24):
Well, you can't run an errator on those limestone outcroppings,
that's for sure, right.

Speaker 7 (02:21:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:21:30):
I used to joke that in West Austin the place,
soil is the dust that gathers on rocks between rains
because there's not much much of it out there, but
that you have a heavy clay, sticky soil out the
black clay soil typically in that area, and the if
you can't get deeper than that, aeration is not going
to really help. But the grass has a hard time

(02:21:53):
on that. If a grass can't get six inches of
soil to grow in, you're watering it a lot to
try to keep it alive in the drought because it
just doesn't have that that soul volume that it needs
to have some resilience in terms of moisture availability.

Speaker 9 (02:22:07):
Yeah, the grass last year looked great in the springtime.

Speaker 7 (02:22:11):
But is it okay?

Speaker 34 (02:22:12):
Just put the compost down, the top dressing down without
doing any aeration.

Speaker 5 (02:22:18):
Yeah, it's fine, that's fine. If you're really dealing with
that kind of soil. If you ran an errator over that,
it would be like banging in on a sidewalk. It
would be bad for the aerrator and it'd rattle all
your teeth loose.

Speaker 9 (02:22:30):
Right, all right, I can't find anyone here.

Speaker 5 (02:22:35):
Okay, Well, that may be a reason for that. You
go on the east side of thirty five and they
have soil over there, all right, Man, thanks a lot.
Bye bye. All right, you're listening to Garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, and we're gonna take a little
break here. In just a moment, I did want to

(02:22:56):
mention I talked about different products and stuff. Medina has
so many great products. They've got one called has to
Grow six twelve six. It's awesome for a lot of things,
but especially transplanting because that twelve, that phosphorus, the middle
number really helps the throot development. Mix it in water.
I do it in a watering can when I plant
a plant, I don't care if it's a tomato plant

(02:23:16):
or a rose bush. Drench it at planting with that product.
A week later, drench it again with that product, a
week later, a third time, drench it with that product.
When you do that, you're getting it off to a
good start. You're gonna have the best possible chance of
success with that. Now you can use it for foldio
feed and other things. But like many Medina products, the

(02:23:37):
stuff works and it's easy to find because it's widely available.
Time for me to take a break. We'll come back
with our last segment of Garden Line in just a moment.
All right, folks, we're back. If you've got a burning
question that doesn't need to wait until next Saturday, you
may call seven one three two one two KTRH. We're

(02:23:59):
in our last segment of the show today and be
happy to help you as we can. ACE Hardware Store
has a motto, and it's ACE is the Place. And
then I like to say it like ACE is a
place for you fill in the blank, because it is
whatever you need is there. I talk all the time
about they've got the fertilizers and the disease and insect

(02:24:20):
and pest control and tools and hoses and everything you
need to have beautiful yard. Talk about the patio and
the barbecue pits and the landscape. You know, the little
strings I call them beer garden lights.

Speaker 13 (02:24:30):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:24:31):
They have everything like that and inside the home. But
right now it's spring and it's time for some spring
cleaning stuff. Do you want to maybe do some sprucing
up with paint? They got a President's Day sale on
all kinds of painting supplies, so stop eyeing see it yourself.
Do you have propane tanks? Do you want to get
them topped off? Do you want to do an exchange
whatever refills they've got it at ACE Hardware, And while

(02:24:55):
you're there, sign up for the ACEH rewards. And the
reason is, and I belong to it myself. Every time
you go shopping, you're receiving discounts. There are special offers
that are only for ACE customers. They email them directly
to you. As you build up your points on that.
It just makes sense that, you know, you don't even
have to carry the card around with you. They can
look it up and they put it in the computer.

Speaker 2 (02:25:15):
It's easy.

Speaker 5 (02:25:16):
How about light bulbs and batteries and all kinds of
stuff that we stock up on, they've got it. How
about air filters, you know you're supposed to replace them
every month, Buy three, get one free. You want to
change out of faucet. I did my kitchen faucet recently,
twenty percent off. The Mowen faucets this month, twenty percent off.
So that's it. Ace Hardware, That's what I'm talking about.

(02:25:37):
How about your deck? Does it need to be resealed?
You know that would don't don't let it go without
keeping it in top shape. ACE has got the products
you need to do the recealing. Also of your deck,
Now there's auspas ACE up in the woodlands. There's like
Conro Ace in Montgomery done in Sinco Ranch. There's a
hardware Hamilton Hardware is kind of off Highway six near

(02:25:57):
Bear Creek. And then there's Wharton Feed and Hardware, Bay
City Hardware, Bay City Ace Hardware. There's a lot of them.
Go to Acehardware dot com, find the store locator and
find your local ACE and get familiar with it because
you're gonna want to run in there a lot. ACE
is the place. It's a one stop shop for a
lot of things that you will need.

Speaker 11 (02:26:21):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:26:21):
Today we've covered a lot of ground on talking about
different kinds of things. I spent quite a bit of
time trying to sound the warning that now's the time
to control existing weeds and to prevent weeds that are
to come. Those are on my schedule. You can see
that up there. Now's the time to do that. Don't delay.
Now's the time to plant fruit trees. Get you your
fruit trees, go to a Go to a good independent

(02:26:46):
garden center where they know what they're talking about, because
they can tell you does this fruit tree need a
pollinator or not? The person working in a wow I'm
not going A lot of places have people that don't
know what they're talking about. They just don't. I've gone
in and asked questions just to kind of see, you know,

(02:27:06):
what they know, and it's like, oh my gosh, these
people are selling products. Go to hometown garden center, your
independent garden centers that we talk about on garden Line.
They'll tell you do you need two peaches to pollinate?
They'll tell you the answers know. Do you need two plums? Maybe?
The answers maybe. Do you see what I'm talking about?

(02:27:27):
Do you need two blueberries to pollinate? Well, probably not need,
but you'll have more and bigger berries if you have
two different varieties to pollenate. You see what I'm talking about.
That's important. Now's the time to get your fruit planted,
get it out there, get it done, find a sunny spot,
and enjoy success with your fruitful endeavors. Your garden. I
like to call it a garden of eaton E A

(02:27:50):
T N eating. You can create that. And there are
so many great places and great supplies here in the
Greater Houston area that were spoiled. We really are spoiled. Recently,
I was out in Phoenix, Arizona, and of course, like
when I go to any place, the first thing I
want to know is let me see the best garden
centers you got. Folks don't do a horticulture tour of

(02:28:14):
Phoenix unless you want to go to the botanical gardens.
I guess you're spoiled in Houston. I'm telling you you're spoiled.
We have great places. It is spring. Get out this
afternoon and go visit someplace. You know, just just walk around,
talk to the folks, see what they have. I guarantee
you there's gonna be stuff you need. Maybe take some

(02:28:34):
pictures of your landscape with you and say, look at
this area. It's really dark and shady back there. What
would grow there? Or this spot over here it stays
a little wet sometimes, what plants would be happy in
that area? Because most plants aren't in a wet sagy area,
But there are plants that are. That's the advantage of
a really good quality garden center. Anyway, I do garden

(02:28:59):
center to every day that I can. I love going
out and seeing what's going on there and visiting with
the folks that are out there. And you should too.
You know, we talk about when I've said before, when
you are cutting trees in a forest. The most important
thing is to stop and sharpen the saw every now
and then, or you'll be doing a lot of work

(02:29:19):
and not getting very far along. Same is true with gardeners.
You got to sharpen the gardener. I sharpen my knowledge
of stuff all the time, constantly learning, constantly getting better,
meeting new gardeners, having fun. It is a great hobby
to have because I don't care where you are, where
you live, what you like. There is a type of
gardening for you, from a terrarium with a light on

(02:29:42):
top on the eight hundredth floor of a high rise
downtown to that patio plant that can grow on a
pot and grow some tomatoes on the eight hundredth floor
of a high rise downtown. If you've got the back
forty and you can do whatever you want. There's a
type of gardening for everybody. Most people want to have

(02:30:04):
a beautiful lawn that is important to them, and you
can have that with the right products. Remember, lawns need light.
Lawns need light. Can they grow in shade?

Speaker 25 (02:30:14):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (02:30:14):
Will they thrive in shade?

Speaker 27 (02:30:15):
No?

Speaker 5 (02:30:16):
If it's too dark. If it's moderate shade, they can thrive.
Saint Augustine can thrive in shade, and to some degree
some of the zoosias as well. But give it good light,
and then mow water and fertilize. Mow water and fertilize.
That's a secret to have good healthy lawn. And when
I say mow water and fertilized, I don't I mean
do each one correctly. MO often with a sharp mower

(02:30:39):
at a decent height. Don't cut the grass blades off.
There the solar panels, So don't mow Saint Augustine like
it's a golf course green. Give it some light, leave
some solar panels on it. MO regularly, water deeply, but infrequently.
If you wet this is a general thing about all plants.
If you wet them frequently, you're going to have more

(02:31:00):
disease problems because diseases are spores that land on the leaf.
While some of them are are in case of bacteria,
individual bacteria land on the leaf. You keep them wet
and they will infect that leaf, so let them dry out.
That's why there aren't as many disease problems in West
Texas there as there are in East Texas because it
rains over here. But then on top of that we

(02:31:21):
water all the time. We water over and over again
too frequently. Typically watering is too little, too often. I
had a neighbor when I lived in Cyprus. His sprinkle
came on about every other day, and the heads were
so missiligned they wet the car. They wet my car
in my driveway. They were squirting up to my side,

(02:31:42):
so I parked backwards on some days to wash the
other side of the car. But anyway, water with a
good soaking on an infrequent basis, even in the heat
of summer. You don't have to water every week more
than once, Even in the heat of summer. Once is enough.
If you've got a wimpy lawn that you're trying to

(02:32:03):
nurse back maybe twice a week with a half inch
each time, but you need to be working your way
toward once a week or less. I've got areas in
my lawn last summer they got watered maybe every two
or three weeks because it was in a shade, and
I had developed a good root system by proper watering,
deep and infrequent, and then finally fertilizing. Fertilizing plants is

(02:32:25):
kind of like us eating. You want a good quality
food and you want to moderate amount you over eatn't
turn out too good. When you push a lawn with
too much fertilizer, you're not doing it any favors. Get
a good quality. We talk about all the ones all
the time here on Guardline. We've selected the ones that
I know will work well for you because I've used
them myself. And we fertilize at the right time, according

(02:32:47):
to my schedule, and you can have the most beautiful
on on the block. Mow water. Fertilize in the presence
of good sunlight. That's a secret to lawn care. It's
no secret, all right, folks. Music means I got quit talking.
I've had a good time. I hope you have a
fun day in the garden this afternoon or out in abouttown.
Have a great gardening is supposed to be fun. Talk

(02:33:09):
to you next Saturday.