Look At Your Landscape

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Shoes, the crazy here in the bassis gas can you
use water shrimp? Just watch him as we'll go gassign
you so many takes the soup bow Bason in the way.
The brassies like gas and began you date Savos becob

(00:28):
back again, not a sorry. The glass said gas and
the sun Beamon of dreams in the gasses like gasby can.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
You jam starting and dreaming in the gases?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I guess you d Everything is so clean you can
see and never day is.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Sunday in the.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Welcome back, Welcome back to garden Line. We've been waiting
all week to do this again, and I'm glad you're here.

Speaker 5 (01:34):
I am uh.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
We're here to talk about gardening. I love talking to
gardeners and I love talking about gardening. So I guess
I'm in the right spot right now and you are too.
Thanks for joining us and listening this morning. If you
got a gardening question, here is a phone number you
want to write down. Y'all. Always have this with you
just in case something pops into your head. Seven one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one

(01:59):
three fifty eight seventy four. Give us a call. We'll
talk about the things that you know are your questions
that are of interest to you. As I usually say,
I have been kind of out of the garden this week,
just a number of things going on, and actually found
some way to get my back in a condition where

(02:22):
it's not real happy when I go gardening. So we're
we're in a little bit of a convalescent this morning still,
but I can't wait for the next week coming up.
I think I pretty well got the kinks worked out
literally and ready to get back out there again. Tell
you what I have been doing, though, is dragging some

(02:42):
hoses around. I've got an issue with my irrigation system
and I need to get around to getting it fixed.
But in the meantime it's you know, it's just I'm
learning a lot about the turf that I have at
the house. By the way, I have two Saint Augustine's
in the front yard, Cobalt and the other one is
called Provista. And in the backyard I got two different zoysias.

(03:07):
One is Palisades and the other one is xeon, a
broad leaf and a narrow leaf Souysia, And so in
watering them and seeing I let my lawns go pretty
far before I water them. Now, I don't let them
to get into a level of drought stress where they're
literally dying back and I'm opening the door for take
all root roight an other stress related opportunists to move in.

(03:29):
But I do not water them just because it's watering day,
if you will. I've got areas in the front and
the cobalt especially that is so far that is my
most drought resistant of my four turfs. Uh and it
is the Saint Augustine of all things. But I've got
areas under the shade where I've not watered it yet

(03:50):
this year. That's sink in a minute.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
It is.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
It is August the eighth, and I have not watered
it yet. Now, we had some good rains off on
through the spring and or into summer, some periodic rains
that have come along, so it's not that it hadn't
gotten any moisture at all to it. But I am
watered it now. I've got other areas that I've watered
twice that are in the sun on that cobalt, and

(04:16):
then some of the other grasses I've watered a little
bit more because they start to get a little bit
of a you know, you can tell their drought stressed,
and I need to do it quick before they get
seriously stressed. But I've been very impressed with the cobalt.
Now there's other things about cobalt are not impressed or
not crazy about. It grows fast, and so I get
to mow it a lot, and that's without me pushing

(04:38):
it with too much fertilizer. I did a slow release
early in the spring on it. Let's see on that
yard I had used the super turf, the nineteen four
to ten from Nitrofoss. That's the slow release and the
silver bag. And I'm always trying different kinds of fertilizers
and experimenting with them and watching how they do. And
you know, it's it. It helps me help you better.

(05:02):
Because if i'm advising or if I'm telling you, well,
this is a great product, you need to use it,
I need to either have a handful of research that
has proven whatever it does, or I need to have
done it myself or both. And so that's what I've
been doing. Anyway, that cobalt has been on the super
turf this summer and it's done very very well. The
color is good. Everything's fine except one spot in the sun.

(05:26):
I finally have watered a couple times now, which is
out in the lot of sun. The other spots they
get good light, they get some morning sun, some afternoon,
a little bit afternoon sun for a while, not too
late in the day, and it's doing good. So I've
been very impressed with that turf. I just am not
crazy about how much I use my lawnmower on it.
But you know, there's no perfect plant out there, just

(05:49):
like there aren't perfect people. Everybody look at the person
sitting next to you and say, boy, and that ever true.
They're looking at you saying that, by the way, But seriously,
every every plant has its pros and cons and anyway,
so kind of impressed with the cobalt. It's done very
well in that regard. The Pravista has been an interesting grass.

(06:14):
It has a very slow vertical growth rate. It spreads sideways,
but vertically not much. And I'll mow it once every
time I mow the cobalt four times, three or four times,
depends on where I catch them in their cycle, but
three or four times lass. So that's been kind of
good for me. Now I've had had to water it

(06:35):
a little bit more, but not much. It's not been
a water hog. I probably put a host to it
twice this summer, so that's been good. But I always
tell you people over water their lawns.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
When I built the lawn, I brought in some soil
and leveled it out and got everything right and mixed
it up and got the soil right so it could
root deeply. And that is what I do. I give
it a good watering. There's moisture down deep, but not
always right up at the top, and that helps bring
oxygen into the soil. People that water their lawn every
other day, you are sealing off the top with a

(07:11):
wetness that is keeping oxygen too, also from getting done.
And it says like overwatering a houseplant, the roots don't
die because of water. They die because they can't get oxygen.
That's what kills them. Not water didn't kill plants. Water
keeps oxygen from being around the roots because they're submerged
in water. Just like if you were submerged in water,
you couldn't breathe. So I don't know, just some things

(07:36):
to think about on your lawn. I mean, here we
are in the middle of summer, spending money on drinking
water to put on our lawns. We ought to do
it as efficiently as possible. Don't you think I do? Well?
You get the idea, all right? So I want to
mention that today during the eight o'clock hour, I'm going
to have Ty Strickland from fix my slab foundation repair

(07:57):
on and we are going to talk about fundation and repair. Now,
if you're thinking, well, you know I don't have cracks
in my foundation, will we can talk about that. But
you need to listen to this because we're going to
talk to tie about why foundations crack and what you
can do about it. And the thing about I'm a
plane a tree by my house? Is that a good

(08:20):
idea or bad idea? How far away does the train
ney to be by the way before it doesn't affect
your foundation? And what are the things you can do?
What are the options for that heaving driveway you got,
or the crack driveway that dry wet fluctuations and tree
roots are causing problems with and there are things we

(08:40):
can do. And if you got any questions about that,
if you wonder about anything or you saw something on
the brick or in the you know, you got a
crack in the sheet rock and here's where it is
and stuff. Give us a call an eight o'clock hour
and talk the tie. We're going to have him here
where you can ask your questions about foundation issues, types
of foundations and whatnot. So fix my Lab, Ty Strickland.

(09:03):
They are the go to experts. Ty's been doing this
for decades. He's a native Houstonian, fifth generation Texan. He's
he understands Houston soils. He deals with this every day.
So here's your chance to give him a check out.
If you're curious about the company, go to fixmislab dot
com and find out more about Tye's company and what

(09:26):
we're going to be talking about. You can look on
the website and find out more about that too, or
or That's what I'm asking you to do. Uh so
that as you come up with these questions, you're you're
ready to go. All right, let's take a little break
and we'll be right back. I'll tell you one thing
that this is a I'm going to say it's a
gardening activity. I'm stretching that a little bit. But one

(09:50):
thing that I recommend people do in late summer. I mean, what,
it's blazing hot out there right and it's going to
be blazing hot. That's just where we are. It's Septembers.
This summer month or two in a sense, is to
get out and evaluate your landscape, because this is a
time of year when the landscape has taken and is

(10:11):
taking its biggest beating.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
You know, the.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
Plants that are not super heat and drought tolerant, you're
going to find out about it right now. Areas of
your lawn where the irrigation isn't reaching fully. You know,
it may be reaching, but it may be getting a
quarter inch when other parts of the lawn are getting
an inch. That sort of thing. Plants that you have
put in sun that need to be in more shade,

(10:36):
or vice versa, put in too much shade. Now's the
time to evaluate, and early morning is a good time.
I mean, just go ahead and put your phone in
your pocket, tune in, get you your iHeartMedia app on there.
It's free, by the way, find guard line and you
can be listening walking through the yard with your coffee
right now. But take a look when you get some

(10:57):
daylight and see how things are doing. Just you know,
for once don't see it as your yard, see it
as just a yard you're examining, you know, because when
when we're familiar with stuff, you know the inside of
your house, the curtains and carpet and whatever. I mean,
you don't even notice it hardly anymore because you lived there.
But but look at your yard with new eyes and

(11:20):
ask those kinds of questions. You know, how are things
looking right now? What stand at the street and you're
driving past your house and it's not your house, you're
just looking at it. What might be different? Is there
good color? And in the beds do things look like
you want them to look? Or the beds attractively shaped

(11:40):
and placed? Is there or their plants that are struggling?
And why would that be? Maybe the soil needs some improvement,
you know, that's where we begin. Brown stuff before green
stuff and what could be done. Here's here's the thing
that's going to come out of all this. Uh we
got fall coming and now you can plant every month
of the year. You can plant right now if you want.

(12:01):
But I'm thinking longer term than that. I'm thinking about
how do you build a home scape that just gets
better and better every year because you've prepared the soil.
You've chosen plants that you like the look of. This
is your yard, and you've chosen plants that are resilient,
that are tough, that can live here, or at least

(12:23):
that you can get the water too, that are going
to be needed. You know, you want to put hydrange in,
You're going to need to water it. They like water,
they don't like getting dry. That's just an example. But
take a look at your yard and landscape from that way,
walk all the way around. Think about it. Every time
I drive through a neighborhood, I'm looking at houses and landscapes.

(12:44):
I just am. It's what I do, It's how I
see things. I'm pretty sure a dentist everywhere he goes
he stares at people's teeth and thinks about stuff like
we could straighten that out right there. Anyway, that's part
of me in horticultures. But it's a good idea to
drive around and look because you'll see something that's like wow,
I like the way they did that, or that where

(13:05):
do they get that crape myrtle? It's a perfect size
for the little spot over there in the bed where
it is. It's not too big, or maybe I was
driving by a neighborhood the other day and I saw
some crape myrtles that were huge. I mean they were
like shade trees huge, and the way that they were
arranged it just created a really nice shady spot out there.
And you know, even a big crape myrtle is not

(13:28):
as big as some of the shade trees, but it
did the trick. So do that. Think about it because
falls coming, fall is coming. It's time. We can be
getting soil ready now, or we can wait a little
long and get it ready. Either way you want to
go about it. Bottom line is, look at your landscape
of new eyes. Now's a good time because if it
is gonna not look good anywhere, it's gonna be now.

(13:50):
This is a tough time of the year for plants
to survive and things. Maybe that perusal of your landscape
will cause you to say, you know what, I need
a new irrigation system or I need to fix the
irrigation system I have. And by the way, if you
need things like that, Piercescapes is a company I always
point everybody to there. Go to landscaper. They know how
to design, they know how to fix irrigation issues. I mean,

(14:13):
they can do the whole nine yards and so, you know,
get some pictures of your place, take it in, talk
to them, this is what I'm looking at. What are
my options here and stuff? Have them come out, or
maybe you're just having trouble keeping your place, you know,
up to shape if you will, and they'll come out
quarterly and go through your beds and make sure their

(14:36):
weeds are out and the mult is good, the irrigation
is properly working. You know, when those pansies start to
get fried by the heat, it's time to put something
else in, actually long before then, and they do those
transitions as you wish. But pierscapes dot com is a
website and that's who I would recommend that you call
on that. But get out and do the walkthroughs and

(14:59):
now and make notes, take some pictures, think about that,
and heck, if you got some questions on it, and
give me a call here on garden Line, I'll be
happy to help you make some suggestions. If you call
my producer, you can send in photos. They will give
you an email to send in your photos, but you
got to follow up with a call. I can't type

(15:20):
out a landscape recommendations under an email response, But I
will be happy to visit with you on the air,
and I'll tell you something else about calling. Other people
have the same questions and they will benefit from hearing
it as well. So I always enjoy visiting with people
about their questions because I know others that are listening
have the same questions. Set out to Tomball now and

(15:40):
we're going to talk to David this morning. Hey, David,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (15:44):
Good morning, sir. Hey, I got two types of plans.
I've got our shrubs, trees, wherever you gonna call them.
I got two crpe myrtles and two I call them,
I think it's a by text. I call them Texas lilacs.
I got two of those, and they're they're kind of juvenile.
They're not super old, but they're not They've been in

(16:06):
the ground couple of years, and they they got like
three or four main little trunks coming out of the ground.
And then I got a ton of these little shooters.
And when you cut them shooters off and they just
they fight you. They come back with a vengeance. And
I eventually want all of the crepe myrtle and those
lilacs to form a trunk that makes the thing look

(16:29):
like kind of like a tree more than a shrub.
Should I manage those shooters because they're coming straight up?
Or should I keep cutting them off?

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Okay, uh, Well, first of all, you are tackling a
tough task. I've done it myself. I know what we're
doing here. But it's not something. It's not a one
and done. You're You're gonna be dealing with these things
a while, and I'm gonna answer you. I like to
answer questions in a broader way because other people are
about to plant a itex or a creat myrtle. And

(17:00):
the earlier you start, if you want a single trunk plant,
the earlier you get going on that, the better off
it is. I took one that of Itex that had
a trunk. Oh gosh, it was about the size of
a baseball or a tennis ball, and I cut it
off and tried to turn it into a single trunk.

Speaker 7 (17:19):
And I have.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
But what you're going to have to do is you
cut it off and then you need to purchase a product.
And I'm aware of two off the top of my head.
One's called sucker Stopper and the another one is called
sucker punch, and basically what they are is a plant
hormone that tells the plant don't grow shoots. The reason
why shoots come up when you cut it off is

(17:43):
because of hormone changes. Because of that pruning. These buds
that are sitting there dormant and are not going to
grow suddenly take off like wildfire because you removed that
big shoot near them, and so you've got to make
the cut and then treat that cut, and you can
treat around it. It soaks into the tissues and it'll

(18:04):
suppress them, but it only suppresses them for a few months,
and then you see a little sprout come back, and
you cut it off. You know, catch them earlier, you
catch them a little dab a little bit of that
on there, and you're basically just slowing that calm in
that thing down because crate myrtles and vitechs both love
to sucker profusely, and the heavier you prun back on them,

(18:26):
the worse it is. So going into a single trunk
can be done, but it's going to be an ongoing thing.
Choose the best trunk you can get, remove all the
others and be ready. Just periodically, don't let them grow
too much before you go in there and remove them
and then treat them with a sucker punch or or
sucker stopper.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Okay, so go to one trunk for each one for
both of them, the btex and the crate myrtles. If
that's the manage and manage that. Now another question too,
once I cut them back, what is the best plant food,
fertilizer or something to really mind to help them to
really kick start and go better.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
Well, when you cut them back, you're gonna get vigorous
regrowth because that huge root system that was producing like
four or five trunks now is putting all its energy
into one and then all the suckers that it tries
to grow. And so I would not do any initial
fertilizing until you get this process rolling and then you

(19:33):
can begin to use. There are products, you know. Nelson
Plant Food makes a crpe myrtle plant food, and you
could use the crate myrtle on. Vitex's just for blooming trees.
It's designed for that, and it would be fine to
use those. It's part of the nutri Star line that
comes in the jars. That would be fine. Sometimes in
a pinch I'll use lawn fertilizer around my trees and

(19:55):
that's fine. I mean, trees can't read. They don't know
it's for grass, it's for plants either way. But initially,
let's not encourage that suckering anymore than it's already gonna be. Okay. Hey,
I've got about twenty seconds here, and I have an
absolute heartbreak, David. But I hope that will.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
I hope that. Good morning to you.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
Too, and thank you for the call. It's a very
good one. I know a lot of other people have
that same kind of question. Folks will be right back
if you got a question. Seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three two one
two kat r h will be right back. If you
have a gardening question, we'll be happy to visit with you.

(20:39):
Just give us a call. Seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. A while ago, I was
visiting with David about uh the cranp myrtle, talking about
plant foods and stuff. The product that I was mentioning
from Nelson plant Food is their creat myrtle food. Now.
Nelson has in their nutri Star line all kinds of

(21:01):
different fertilizers. Plumeria fertilizer, Booginvilli, you Rose fertilizer, vegetable fertilizer.
Lots of great options there. And the nice thing is
it's about a dozen places around town where you can
refill your jars and so that makes for a very
economical refill. Plus you don't throw the plastic away, which
is kind of nice. But anyway, Nelson products are forever

(21:24):
part of your lawn. There is a nutri Star for houseplants,
for indoor plant there are the turf Star line for
your lawn itself, and then there's specialty products like the Genesis,
which is a transplant fertilizer. You mix it into the soil.
It's loaded with microbial activity and humates and it just

(21:45):
creates plus all the nutrients and it just creates really
good early growth on anything you're putting in the ground
or transplanting to a different sized pot. It can also
be used that way. It's not going to burn your roots.
For the folks at Nelson Plant Food and you can
find those all over the Let's head back out to
the phones now and we're going to go to Houston. Eva. Hello, Evana,

(22:07):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (22:08):
Yes, Hello, Yeah, good morning. I have a Japanese loquat
planted in the flower bed. Bought it about five years
ago and it grew into a big bush, very decorative
leaves and so hot. Last year it for the first
time was having a little fruit, you know. And this

(22:30):
year suddenly the plants started to dry, the leaves started
falling down, and it goes from the bottom to the top.
And I gave it extra boost of water, probably four times,
and it just doesn't recovered. I don't know what's the reason,

(22:53):
because I never really extra put water into it. It
grew very well.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
There is a boat.

Speaker 8 (23:01):
At and t cables next to it. I don't know
whether the guy's messed up the.

Speaker 9 (23:06):
Roots or.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
I doubt that. I doubt that so lo quiet any
new tree, any new shrub or anything like that. The
first year it doesn't have a good root system, and
even the second year it's somewhat limited. So when we
go into these hot temperatures and dry and it doesn't
it doesn't. I mean it's hot in the day, it's
even hot at night, and it doesn't get the water

(23:30):
it needs. They'll they'll do that. You'll see the tips
and edges of the leaves turn brown and the whole
leaves will turn brown and fall off. But overwatering is
also a problem, so you want to just give it
a good soaking periodically. Loquat, though, does get pretty large,
you know, they can. They'll be twenty feet. They can
get bigger than twenty feet. If you feel like it's

(23:52):
going straight up and not branching like you wanted to,
you can cut that stem back and it will branch
below where you cut it and grow out, and you
just have to continue to shape it in the direction
you want. Normally people don't worry about pruning low quots
much just because it's they They tend to grow a
nice bushy tree anyway.

Speaker 8 (24:15):
But but the size never never never pruned it.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
Yeah, well you can.

Speaker 8 (24:24):
Tea but beautiful, beautiful shape like half dome, very nice decorative.
And I was just devastated, and I thought the leaves
started to fall and it's now totally bro I.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Think, well, if it's totally brown, that's not good.

Speaker 5 (24:43):
You.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
The only thing I could tell you, Ivanna, would be
to go out and get some of the little branches
that are you know, the little branches are a little
about pencil size, you know, uh, a little more and
uh and just scrape back. Take a little knife for
your thumbnail, and scrape the bark back on those little
tiny ones and see if underneath it's creamy colored or

(25:05):
maybe kind of a light green color. That means it's
still alive and it's going to put new leaves on
and be fine. If when you scrape it back it's
the color of a paper sack or a pecan shell,
that means it's dead, and so get it, get watering it,
and and watch and see where new growth appears. And

(25:25):
if it doesn't, then something killed the whole tree and
it could have been most mm hmm. Yeah, I don't,
I don't. I don't know. There there are root rots
that can kill low qualts, but I don't want to
go to the extreme of what it could have been.
Let's just take it, and if you want to, if

(25:47):
it starts to do a little something different and like
put some growth on or whatever. If you want to
send me a picture, you can call back and my
producer will give you an email to do that.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
And but you know, if you're just send me a
picture of a completely brown tree, I'm not going to
tell you much on it other than let's wait and
see if new growth comes, just make sure it gets
a good soaking on an infrequent basis.

Speaker 8 (26:09):
Okay, all right, all right, well thank you very.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Much, Luck, thank you for the call. Appreciate that you
take care. Yeah, that's that is. But low quats are
very interesting. I grew up in the yard. Love those things.
The Arborgate. I had Beverly on the other day talking
to her about the Arborgate. I hope you listen to
it as a great, great show. She's just so much

(26:33):
information because she's been doing this for a while and
she knows a lot of kinds of plants. And you know,
when you go out there, that's how it is with
all the folks that work there. I mean, they help you.
They know what to tell you. They don't make stuff up,
you know. They you go in and you say, hey,
I want a plant that fill in the blank, the
size is, color this whatever, and they're gonna be able

(26:56):
to do that, or hey do you carry this plant?
If they don't have it, they probably can get it.
And every time you get to Arburgate go home with
their one two three completely easy system. That's a soil
for anything with roots that is a compost material. Also
by the way have you If you've not been to
the arbor Gate, you need to go. It is out
on twenty nine to twenty just to the west of

(27:17):
Tombole and go check out what it looks great right now,
lots of good stuff going on out there. But anyway,
back to the one two three system, it's a soil
that just for every application. The compost of course improves soil,
but it also has expanded shale in it, which is helpful.
And then a plot food a fertilizer. It's an organic

(27:38):
fertilizer that works very very well. And so just when
you go home with that, you're going home with the
brown stuff that's going to be the foundation for the
green stuff that you picked up there at arbor Gate.
And today would be a good night day to go
out and visit. Let's set out to Jersey Village. Now
we're going to talk to George this morning. Hey Joe, good.

Speaker 10 (28:01):
Morning, step I have two questions for you, if you
don't mind. The first is about my lawn. Man was
treating my grass and I said, what is that one?

Speaker 11 (28:11):
This looks like a weed.

Speaker 12 (28:12):
You're going into Saint Augustine.

Speaker 10 (28:13):
He says, that's crab grass.

Speaker 7 (28:15):
He says, nothing you need to do to treat it.

Speaker 10 (28:17):
He says, you got to get down your hands and
knees and dig it out.

Speaker 11 (28:19):
So I said, well, I'm not going to do that because.

Speaker 9 (28:22):
My hands and knees.

Speaker 12 (28:23):
My knees given up giving up on me a few
years ago.

Speaker 10 (28:25):
So then the next question is, I've got a minor
lemon that I think is dead because when I when
I go in there to the top of the plant,
I bend it over and snap it off, and his
snaps like not no bend in it. So but growing
out of the bottom of the plant or some greenery
coming up, it's about a couple foot tall. My wife says, no, no, no,

(28:45):
don't get a new plant that's going to turn into
a new lemon tree.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
So what do I do? Okay, So here's here's what
I need you to do. We're going to go backwards
on your question. Start with the mari lemon. Look at
the leaves on the shoots that are coming out of
the bottom. Do they have single leaves on them or
do they have leaves and sets a three? And also
the leaves and sets a three, it will probably have

(29:10):
a lot of thorns on it as well. That means
the rootstock has grown and there's no sense leaving that.
It will never give you a maur lemon. It's not
a mar lemon. And so then in that case you're
gonna pull it up. And if it's coming out and
it shoots and it's not that thorny, and it has

(29:30):
leaves that are you know, normal single lemon leaves coming out,
then it can regrow. And should the first part be
truly completely dead, you would just cut it off there
and that shoot would become the trunk of the tree
that's replenishing itself. Okay, but that's the decision on that.

Speaker 13 (29:50):
Now.

Speaker 4 (29:50):
As far as the crab grass, I don't know your
long GUYE, but I don't necessarily think that's an accurate assessment.
It may be if it is crabgrass, you can stop
it with a pre emergent herbicide to prevent it from
coming up. And if you get my lawn care schedule
go to Gardening with Skip dot com my website Gardening

(30:11):
with Skip. There's a free lawn care schedule on there,
and there's a lawn pest, weed and disease management schedule
that's the one you need for this weed. What I
would recommend first though, is I'm going to put you
on hold my producer. He's doing some other things, but
he'll get to you. Just hang on, and I want
you to send me some pictures up close of that

(30:31):
weed and I want to know for sure what it
is before we start making recommendations. Okay, and I'll be
happy to continue that on email with you if you'd
like to do that. All right, George, I got to run,
but thank you very much. Good luck. Hey, we're talking gardening,
all kinds of gardening, different things to visit about. I

(30:53):
was out this past week and stopped into my local
A hardware store you know you can find yours Ace
Hardware Texas dot com, don't forget the word Texas. Ace
Hardware Texas dot com, and just checking out the different
things I have. I always wander to the barbecue pits.
I just can't help it, and all the accouterments. In fact,

(31:15):
I was picking up some seasonings, a nice wall full
of seasonings for barbikhue because we're doing some stuff at
the house. And uh, but just I always take a
wander through the store and look at everything that's going
on in there, and I mean, you know, it's all
the regular hardware stuff. You know, you need fixtures for
the bathroom, you need switches for the walls, and light

(31:35):
bulbs and everything else. You know, pieces of plumbing for
fixing things. They got all that, but so so so
much more really cool stuff. We have a little machine
that puts fizzy and water. You know, you have a
little flavoring in it and it kind of creates a
little lime flavored fizz. The kind of thing. And the

(31:57):
store I go to for my own they happen to
have all the equipment, you know, the little co two
canisters and flavorings and stuff like that. But I just
put that out as an example. Now, each Ace hardware
store is independently owned, so they can carry anything they
want to carry. And you go in and you tell
them something you're interested in. Who knows, maybe they'll maybe
they'll have that. But it's just a great place to shop.

(32:19):
And I find myself going there for all kinds of things,
all the supplies, walking down the aisles, checking out what
does my store have in the way of gardening supplies
and boy controlling pest weeds and diseases and fertilizers and
so much of the stuff. You hear me talk about
on Guardenline. Is at your local ACE Hardware store. Go
to Ace Hardwaretexas dot com see the stores and go

(32:41):
check it out. You will be surprised. If you haven't
been in an ACE Hardware store in a while. You
need to see the new Ace hardware. It is very
very cool. Enjoy that. For example, mosquito dunks. I picked
up some mosquito dunks a while back. The mosquito dunks
are the little donuts that you into a pond or

(33:02):
some water and any mosquito that lays an egg in
there to raise new mosquitos. Those mosquitos will be controlled
by a natural disease of that specific insect. It will
not hurt a lady beetle, It will not hurt the
family cat. It will not hurt your songbirds that are
coming to drink out of the water. It is for
mosquitoes and mosquito dunks can be broken up if you

(33:25):
don't have you know, one dunk covers ten square feet
and lasts a month. If you've just got smaller things,
you can break them up, put the bits and pieces
in there. Either way you want to go about it,
It just works. And got mine at my local Ace
hardware store, but media mosquito dunks, those are widely available.
I mean, I don't know that I've been into a
garden center or a feed store or whatever. It's just

(33:46):
not going to carry mosquito dunks because they are part
of living in Houston. Every Houston house should have some
mosquito dunks in the on the wall, in the garage
or in the house where shelf. It's a good product.
It really does work. I was talking to Liam or Ian.

(34:08):
Excuse me, Ian, my brain just switched stream. Two different
people in at Nature's Way Resources at the other day
and we're just talking about some things coming up. You know,
Nature's Way is where a lot of our soil products
were born, and it's just a it's just a good
good place to go and get quality. If you want bulk,

(34:28):
if you want bags, they've got it all there. What
most people don't think about, though, is Nature's Way also
has plants. They've got a great selection of all types
of plants, including many many natives and native plants are
you know, a wonderful way to go. Native plants are
plants that grew here. They've dealt with the problems we
have here. They're adapted to that kind of thing. Uh,

(34:51):
And they do have that at Nature's Way Resources. You
can go to Nature's Way Resources dot com Nature's Way
Resources dot com find out all about them. Why are there?
I want you to make a note that they have
their fungal composts sale going on right now. Thirty dollars
for a cubic yard. That is incredible price. You can

(35:14):
get finally screened or not as finely screened, but it's
whatever you want. The one on sale is the Courser
size and it's only available as bulk, not by the bag,
because it's used for bulk, you know, applying composts throughout
a bed. However you want to use it. It's a
good product.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Now.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
Coming up in the fall fall being September nineteenth, Nature's
Way Resources is having their Fall Festival. It's a fifth
annual and I've been to these many times. They're wonderful
local vendors, lots of cool boost to visit. You can
get you something to drink there and shop. They're going

(35:53):
to have. Of course, all their plants are stocked up
like crazy on plants. I'll be there answering gardening question
since and there'll be things for kids to do. Too
at Nature's Way Resources. Now they're located on Sherbrook Circle
and Conro But here's where that is. You go north
on forty five where fourteen eighty eight comes in. As
if you were going to turn left and go to Magnolia,

(36:14):
you turn right, go across the railroad tracks in your
Nature's Way Resources, Nature'sway Resources dot Com right down September nineteenth, Saturday,
September nineteenth. It'll be from eight to two pm. I'll
be there at about noon to two myself. Hope to
see you there. It's a fun, fun place to go,
real cool for sure. So summer is still a time

(36:40):
when we can do planting, and I would recommend that
you get yourself over to Enchanted Gardens. Enchanted Gardens is
one of those garden centers that's just it's just unbelievable.
I mean the number of plants, the types of plants,
the variety of plants right now, gorgeous or mental grasses

(37:00):
of all types. A beautiful little plant called ferry duster.
It's a calliander. You got to go see it. It
looks like a little mimosa tree, but it's a little
shrub and it's beautiful and it does so well. You
can still get your vegetables there. They got they got those.
The gift shop is just amazing. You don't go to
in Chenni Gardens without walking into the gift shop and

(37:22):
checking out the stuff that they have. Now in Chenny
Gardens is again north of Richmond Rosenberg on FM three
fifty nine. Enchanted Gardens, great place. I hope you will
give them a check out. Good quality people that greet you,

(37:42):
that know what they're talking about too. Another thing to
talk about that. All right, well we got some music owner.
Remind you that Ty Strickland from Fix My Slab is
going to be here in the eight o'clock hour if
you want to pick his brain about protecting your slab,
dealing with a slabes issues that you might have with
the slab, questions that you might have, What about trees,

(38:05):
you know what can be done? What about that cracked driveway?
How how do you fix a cracked driveway without bringing
a Seema truck in there in Portland. That's questions like
that that we will be getting. So make sure it
stay tuned for about eight o'clock hour. You don't want
to miss it. Welcome back to Garden Line I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're glad to have you here today.

(38:26):
We got garden talk to do. I mean we do.
I'm going to be talking about some things this morning
that I've been wanting to talk about. I want to
remind you that at eight o'clock, for the eight o'clock hour,
we're gonna have Ty Strickland from Fix My Slab in
here and we're gonna be talking all kinds of things
about slabs. Now, if you think, well, my concrete slab
is fine, I don't have a problem or whatever, well

(38:47):
listening anyway, because there's a lot of things we can
do or not do that effect our slabs. And boy,
you do not want to have major slab problems if
they can be avoided, and how do we how do
we avoid them, how do we fix them? How do
you go about this? And what can be done? We've
got If you got questions, give us a call that
hour we're gonna talk you. I'll put your on the

(39:09):
phone with Tie. You can pick his brain and we
will get to the bottom of these issues. Because I
know that, uh it's he told me one time. I
think he said that all slabs have cracks in them.
And I'm gonna I'm gonna ask him what what do
you mean by that? When we have him on here,
because you know, well, if all slabs are cracked, does

(39:30):
that mean they all need to be fixed? And it
answers no, But what does that mean? All Right, that's
what we're gonna do for the eight o'clock hour. In
the meantime, you got a question seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. D and D Feed
and Tomball's outstanding feed store. You know, it's been around
for a good while now, and every time I go
into D and D, I'm always impressed with I'm impressed

(39:55):
with the the scope of what they have when it
comes to, of course feed. And then when I say feed,
I mean including pet foods, quality pet foods and things.
But I'm talking about the scope of what they have
in terms of the lawn and garden supplies that they have.
You're gonna find products that you just don't find everywhere there.

(40:17):
They carry some specialty things that are hard to find,
and then they carry all the standard things. You know,
do you have some ants that you need an ant
bait for that are coming in the house or something
like that, or do you deal with flies outdoors. You
need some traps or fly poisons or things. Do you
have fire ants you need to deal with You know
you're going to be doing some planting. You need fertilizers,

(40:38):
you need swell amendments. They've got it all. You need
to control trees, shrubs and brush and poison, ivy and things.
They've got great products for just that. D and D
Feed is west of Tombol on twenty nine to twenty.
It's easy to get to Just head out there. You
can also go to their website and it's d D Now.

(41:01):
Don't put an ND in the website, d D feed
dot com. That's it. The main thing is get on
out there and check them out seasonally whatever you need.
You know, there's seasons where they're bringing in baby chicks
for those of you who want backyard chickens. There's seasons
where it's going to be freezing and they have the
little freeze misers that you put on your faucet. That's

(41:21):
one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen come
out as a new invention in the last decade. Pretty
cool stuff seasonally at D and D feed as well.
And you were listening to Garden line, and I try
to give you, know, some timely advice things that are
going on out in the landscape. Right now, we're still

(41:42):
watering our lawns. Surprise, surprise, good soakings on an infrequent basis.
That's the best way to spend your watering dollar. A
little squirt that let grass gets wet, the thatch gets wet,
the water goes off, it evaporates, and you've made in
Greater Houston aaria more humid. Thank you very much. A

(42:05):
good soaking. After the grass is wet and that that's
just wet. You keep water and it goes down in
the soil. Now we're getting something out of our watering dollar,
and you give it a good soaking. What that soil
fairly deep? Now? How deep should you water? How much?
People ask me the question how long should I run
my irrigation system? And I have to answer, I do

(42:26):
not know, because I don't know what system you have,
what soils you have, and so on. You want to
water long enough to what the soil about six inches deep?
Now does it? How much water does that take? And
a lot of soils, it takes an inch of water
you can put on an inch wet A little deeper.
You know, Saint Augustine roots will go way down below
six inches. I've dug out parts in my yard that

(42:50):
grass was down ten inches down in the soil, but
a good soaking. So how do you know how long
to run the system? Well, you turn it on, you
run it until it's about to run off, and have
little catchkins there to determine when you've applied an inch.
You probably cannot put an inch on it one time,

(43:10):
probably not. Most lawns, Clay soils and slopes and things
make it where you can't put an inch on it
one time, but you can water for a while, have
it go off, wait forty five minutes to come back
on again, water for a while and you can get
that inch down.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
Now.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
The real answer the question is not how long do
I run my system? Because you got to figure that out,
But the question is how do you know when your
soil is wet six inches d or more? You get
a long handlescrewdriver and you push it in the soil.
I've got one that very long handled one, just because

(43:46):
I don't like stoop that far, and you push it
down to the soil and if the soil is wet,
it goes through it just like modeling clay. You know,
it just pushes right through easily, and all of a sudden,
it's like you hit an underground sidewalk. You don't bunk,
it doesn't go any further, or you got to really
push to try to go further. That's how deep the
soil is wet. So it's a simple way to tell you.

(44:08):
Run your system for fifteen minutes, stick that in the soil. Well,
let it soak for a while. Stick that in the soil,
and see how deep it wet it. Run it for
thirty minutes. You see what I'm saying. What matters is
how wet, how deep the soil got wet, and then
that's the bank account that your grass is going to
use to survive for the next week or maybe two,

(44:30):
depending on shade or sun, before you need to water again.
Let's uh, let's anyway. I hope that. I hope that helps.
I hope that helps. Jorgeshiading Gardens down south of Houston
is it's I've been to Hoges a number of times,

(44:51):
and every time I go, I'm always surprised at what
he's done new. Now you know, he's added, he's expanded,
he's a great selection of fruit trees, unbelieved selection two
of any kind of a shade tree, landscape tree, flowering tree,
whatever you're looking for, he's got you covered. But when
it comes to fruit, or he even gets in some
exotic kinds of things. But those of you down south

(45:12):
where you you know, roll the dice, take a chance
on avocados and mangoes and Cavendish banana, the ice cream banana.
He's got that. He's has sugar cane, he's got guavas
and Barbados cherries, and he just carries a wide variety
of things down there at or He's hidden gardens. Now
you just need to go check them out. He's he's

(45:34):
on Elizabeth Road in Alvin, Texas. But if you if
you go down there, here's a phone number. You can
give them a call, find out what the hours are
and stuff. Different times of the year may hour shift
a little bit. But seven one three six three two
fifty two ninety seven one three six three two fifty
two ninety it's big. It's Alvin address, but uh, it's

(45:56):
actually in between Alvin and Santa Fe down south there.
But just go check him out. Great guy, great family.
It's a family operation down there at raesid and Gardens.
Let's head out now to the phones and talk to Clay. Hey, Clay,
welcome to garden line. Where are you calling from?

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Well, from Lagrange.

Speaker 7 (46:17):
We just moved in probably last week.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
Got a question.

Speaker 7 (46:23):
We about four or four or five weeks ago, we
had thirty eight pallets of bermuda laid down, and it
seems like we have We're having a lot, a lot
of crab grass coming out. It's grass that has a
base maybe two to three inches in diameter, and it

(46:47):
plays flat out from that. How do I get Is
there anything I can put on that to get.

Speaker 14 (46:53):
Rid of it?

Speaker 7 (46:54):
Or do I just have to pull it up?

Speaker 4 (46:58):
Clay, I don't think you have crabgrass. You might, but
let's do this once you take a picture of it.
Make sure it's a good folk.

Speaker 7 (47:09):
I've got a picture of it, Okay, I couldn't find
y'all the website.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
All right, Well, I'm gonna you don't do it with
a website. I'm going to put you on hold. My
producer will give you an email, and I want you
to email it to me and I'll take a look
at it and be able to know for sure I've
got a publication on the web that's free. It's called
the Lawn, Pest, Weed and Disease Management Schedule. And what

(47:39):
you'll see on there is in in the early early
actually late winter, and then again in the fall or
two seasons when a pre emergent is put down on
the ground and watered in, and that prevents seeds from
sprouting and making weed plants. And so think it's crabgrass
that's going to be a February applicat, But again I

(48:01):
don't think it is. It may be a perennial grass,
and it may be an annual grass. And so let's
try to get an idea on it. If if I'm
not able to idea it from what you send me.
Once it gets a seed head on it, definitely pull
that seaedhead, lay it on a dark surface, and take
a picture and send me a picture of the seed head.
Then I'll know exactly what it is. But I'll be

(48:22):
happy to give that. I just don't want to send
some of them buying a product that go ahead.

Speaker 7 (48:28):
Okay, some of them do have a seedhead on it.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
Some of them do send me that picture, send it
to me and we can we can continue. If you
want to call back after you send it. We can
take a look at that. Tell you what I'll do
when I get the email. If it came through successfully,
I will I will reply and just say, okay, call

(48:53):
it your convenience, and if not, after the show sometime
and next there or two, I'll try to reply to
you on it.

Speaker 5 (48:59):
Okay, okay, all right, all right.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
I'll go away. All right, folks, we will be right back.
You are listening to Guardline. This is your host, Skip Ricker.
We're here to help you have success. And so here's
what we do. You give me a call seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. I try
to give you a reasonably coherent answer, and all as well.

(49:26):
We'll see how that works. Go ahead and feel free
to call as you wish. Uh MIGHTA grow is a
fairly new product on the market. As far as far
as our products go, it is an outstanding product.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
Now.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
Mina grow is not a fertilizer. It is not you know,
like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium in that. Mita grow is a
substance that has many natural plant type things in it
that cause roots to develop, cause the plants to get
a good strong root system, cause the plant to be heartier,
more disease resistant, more resilient. It has many different factors.

(50:04):
You know, the microbe in it. There's a bacteria in
it that actually affects the way that the plant grows
in response, making it more difficult for diseases, certain diseases
to attack it. It's got microorhizal fungi of two different categories,
and I think there's probably oh my gosh, I'm gonna
I'm gonna just shoot from the hip here. I think

(50:24):
there's probably about fifteen different microiza in it of those
two categories that really help a root system. It's got
vitamins B one, B three, E B six. It's got
cid of cainan, which is a very important plant related
hormone material. It's got ib a, which, in fact ib
a people that are doing rooting, you know they stick

(50:46):
cuttings in something a powder or liquid to get them
to root. Well, iba is that kind of material. Now,
it's not like you put cuttings in microgrow, but when
you get that in the soil, it is stimulating root
growth and development. It basically here's the bottom line. We're
in the middle of summer. It as hot as all
get out. Plants are struggling and you need to help them,

(51:08):
and Mitagro does that. The name on the package says
mighta Gro, but it says it's not dead yet. It's
not dead yet. When I put new plants in this spring,
I put some Angelonian, I put some plumbago in h
for summer color. I treated with actually I treated some
with micagro and some that didn't. The ones I treated

(51:30):
were ones that looked like they were about to die
because I planted part of them one day and then
the rest of them. It was a few days later
that I got them in. It's like, oh boy, and
they looked really bad and I treated them with micagro.
And now you can't tell the difference. I mean, they
are all doing good out there there. That I pulled
those out of what the condition they were in by

(51:51):
doing that, And that's true. I mean, from trees down
to little annuals in the ground. Mighta Grow is an
effective product that's widely available here in the Greater Houston area.
Let's sit out and out of friends would and we're
going to visit with Carolyn this morning. Hey, Carolyn, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (52:05):
Hey, thank you.

Speaker 15 (52:08):
My two neighbors and I are having a problem with
our fig trees. This is the second year, okay that
we've had an abundance of leaves, beautiful figs, and then
after I take the first figs off, they leaves turn
yellow with brown spots fall and then I have no

(52:30):
leaves and now my leaves are going back on again.

Speaker 16 (52:33):
Am I not watering?

Speaker 17 (52:34):
Am I not fertilizing?

Speaker 4 (52:37):
Well, A lack of water can do that. You know,
even totally saturated conditions where roots can't get oxygen will
cause the leaves to fall off. But it's also the
possibility that you got a fungus called fig rust, and
fig rust causes brown splotches on the leaves that then
the leaves turn yellow and fall off. It's a fungal disease.

(53:00):
Is fig is kind of an obscure fruit, you know,
compared to apples and pears and peaches and things, and
so there's just not a lot of products out there
that are labeled for fig fungal control. Avoiding wetting the
foliage is important. This year, we got a lot of
rains early on, and so you can't avoid rain, but

(53:21):
a lot of times people will have a sprinkler that
gets the leaves wet, and that makes rust worse, much worse.
Treating it with sulfur treatments are partially helpful against the rust,
but when the temperatures are up at ninety degrees and above,
the sulfur can burn those foliage the leaves fig tree,

(53:45):
and you don't want to use that. So bottom line
is you don't really have a good spray solution. It's
just a matter of keeping the plant healthy. The fungus
knocks the leaves off, the fig re grows new leaves.
That doesn't do it any good to lose a whole
set of leaves and have to grow more. But figs
are resilient enough where it should survive. Rake up all
the fallen leaves. If any are starting to show spots

(54:08):
on the tree and stuff, just pull them off and
get them out of there and reduce the amount of
we say inoculum the infectious spores to help lower it
a little bit, doesn't eradicate it. Fig Rust is something
we tolerate and something that we try to avoid making worse.

Speaker 17 (54:30):
Okay, with pruning help.

Speaker 15 (54:32):
Should I prune a fig tree.

Speaker 4 (54:34):
Or do I not?

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Not?

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Really? You know, we prune it when winter has killed
back branches, we prun those back. You can do some trimming.
Most of the time figs get frozen back, and so
they become multi trunk plants. And I don't does yours
have one trunk or does it have a bunch.

Speaker 15 (54:53):
Of trunks bunch of trunks.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
Yeah, So what often I will do is when you've
got a whole bunch of them and they're all crowded
in there, then then air doesn't circulate well and disease
issues can be a little worse.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
That's where I would remove entire trunks at the ground
uh and maybe have five, you know, trunks that are
spaced out a little bit more by taking you know,
something real big in the middle out. But that's not
a must, that's an option, But that's how you would
go about that. But as far as pruning the top
growth and stuff generally not necessary. Figs take care of themselves.

Speaker 18 (55:30):
That's what I've always heard.

Speaker 11 (55:32):
And then, like I said, this is the second year,
thank you, Okay, you bet.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
That's a that's a good question and one we don't
have a real great answer to. Unfortunately, the ground up.
Remember I've been telling you about that deal that was
going to be over at the end of July. The
response to the ground ups anniversary sale on shredded Premium

(55:59):
double shredded hardwood mulch has been incredible. People have just
gone nuts and they have a ton of it, and
so I visited one the other day. We're going to
extend it. They're going to extend it on. We're go
on into August here with it. So if you didn't
get yours, now's the time to do it.

Speaker 10 (56:19):
Now.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
It's it's bags that are shredded in about an inch
and a half sized particles roughly, that's the shred sized,
nice earthy smell. By the way, the bags have two
cubic feet in them, so uh, if you want a
cubic yard, you need thirteen and a half bags. But
if you only buy a bag or up one to

(56:40):
nine bags, it's two twenty five a bag. Everybody needs
more than that, over ten ten and over two dollars
a bag. So get a lot of bags at the
ground up dot Com. Go to the ground up dot Com.
Everything you need to know is there. This is unprecedent.

(57:01):
You're never going to find multi this quality, this price
ever again, Now's the time to get it. We'll be
right back. Hey, welcome back to the guarden Line. Glad
to have you with us this morning. How can we
help give me a call seven one three two one
two five eight seven four would be happy to help
you with that, whatever the question is. You know, Southwest

(57:22):
Fertilizer is the go to place where you're gonna find
everything you need pretty much when it comes to products
and tools and supplies and everything for your plants. So
they've got they've got the best selection all over the
region of organic products. Absolutely the biggest option selection I've
ever seen here in this region. Uh, but not just organic,

(57:45):
the synthetics as well. I don't know anybody who carries
as many times fertilizer as Southwest Fertilizer does. I don't
know anybody that has the selection of things to control insects, weeds, pests, diseases.
If you don't know what it is that you have
and you don't know the problem, take them a photo,
take them a sample and a plastic bag in there.
Let Bob or Aaron or one of the folks there

(58:07):
take a look at it. They'll tell you what you
need to do. If there's a product you need, they
probably have it because it's kind of hard to stump
them with the product they don't have. If you need tools,
if you need supplies, if you need your blade sharpened,
if you need small engine repair or to buy some
small engine equipment, it's all there at Southwest Fertilizer, Southwest Fertilizer,
corn Abissinet, and Runwick. You do not want to miss this.

(58:30):
I don't care where you live. This is a one
stop shop for you. For example, you've heard me talk
about sweet Green from Nitrophos. That's the eleven percent nitrogen
natural fertilizer with a kind of a sort of like
dried It looks me like dried molasses or something, and
it's from a molasses space. And you put it down,

(58:50):
you water it in. The plants just respond because the
microbes respond. Microbes take that and break it down, release
that nitrogen, that eleven percent nitrogen to the plants, and
Bove's got it there. But he has everything there. I mean,
that's just how Southwest Fertilizer is. But stop I and
get your sweekering. It's a good time to put down
sweakering too. By the way, Now it'll carry you all

(59:10):
the way up from fertilizing. Now with this wee green.
We'll carry you up until this time to go ahead
and do that fall fertilization, which we'll be doing in October. Okay,
figuring from nightro Foss good product. All right, Oh my gosh,
let's see. Let's go to Randy and Niederland. Hey Randy,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (59:32):
Good morning, Skip. I've got a question about trimming a
live oak tree. I've got one to trim a couple
major limbs I need to get out of it.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
And also well i'd like to know.

Speaker 17 (59:45):
About how to take them out of there. As far
as where to cut. I heard you talking about it before,
but can't remember. Also, it seemed to me that you
had said something about treating the cut afterwoods on the
oak tree ease that you normally wouldn't do on other
trees because of some disease specific to oak trees.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
Yeah. Yeah, Randy, you can prune any time of the
year on those oaks. The best time to prune when
you're doing a lot of major you know, like you've
got a chainsaw out. We do a lot of major
work is in the end of winter or midwinter to
the end of winter. In that time because the spring
is the fastest healing time for a wound, yes, sir,

(01:00:29):
or closure time, I should say callous formation. But pruning
when it needs to be done, could be done if
you live in an area where oak wilt is present,
and in the Greater Houston area. Down here, we don't
have a lot of oak wilt centers where it's an
active center of infection and things, and if so, if

(01:00:50):
you prune, there's a likelihood of a branch getting infected
and so on, like they do in Central Texas. But
oakquilt has occurred here often on here and there through
the years, so I guess in general, I don't worry.
If I used to work in Austin, and boy there
it's like if you prune, you gotta you gotta prune

(01:01:11):
with a saw in one hand and treat with the
spray and the other to seal that wound. Over here,
we're not quite that way, So I don't tell everybody
that they have to treat the wounds or spray the
wounds or paint the wounds. So in general, it shouldn't
be a problem unless you have to know neighbors anywhere
in the few blocks from you even have had oak wilt,

(01:01:33):
and then then you might want to consider painting those
woods with. Well, it's just a sealant. It could be
any kind of a wound treatment sealant. What happens is
when you make a wound, a smell goes out in
the air, if you will, from that wound, that a
little beetle can smell, and that beetle may feed on

(01:01:56):
an oak wilt fun infection on a true and then
it's got those spores in its mouth and body, and
then it goes over to your tree to feed on
the wound, and that's how it gets transmitted in there
from a distance. Uh Right, So anything that's gonna be
a problem that you have.

Speaker 5 (01:02:13):
Right, so kind.

Speaker 17 (01:02:17):
I'm sorry, any kind of pain on sea land would
be okay, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
That's fine. I don't I'm not a big fan of
the black tar like ones because that absorbs heat and
you got little uh tissues that are trying to grow
callous and you don't want to get them blazed blistering hot.
But that those are pretty much what you see. Uh
So if you want to treat, then treat when you cut.

(01:02:45):
Don't prune today and treat tomorrow, because it's the fresh
wound that's the problem. But for everybody else listening, just
I just want to be clear on this. I'm not
telling anybody that prints an oak tree you gotta treat
for oak wild here in our area. So if you
choose to do that, you treat right after you paint.
I'm going to use the word paint, because it's not

(01:03:08):
a hinge side you're putting on. It's a it's a
it's a something to keep the beadle out of the
wound and once it ries up and is healing and stuff,
that's not it's not a problem anymore. Okay.

Speaker 17 (01:03:19):
Well, one one other question is on the major limbs
that I got to cut. And I say major, I'm
saying maybe six to eight inches a couple of them.
Where exactly do we do I prune thos?

Speaker 4 (01:03:36):
You prune them not flush up against the trunk, but
just a little out from that. Okay, there's a well,
this is a hard one to describe on the radio.
Something on my website. If you it's a collar, it's
it's okay. When a branch comes into a tree, you

(01:03:56):
know that branch is some size. Let's I'm just gonna
pick a number, but let's say it's a six inch
thick branch. When it gets close to the tree trunk,
it flares out and attaches. So right where the flare starts.
The closer you get to the trunk with your pruning,
the bigger the wound's going to be, because that branch
is getting bigger as it goes into the tree, So
you want to prune it before it gets real big.

(01:04:19):
On the other hand, if you prune it even further
out than that, now you've got a stub that's going
to die and not heal over. But the branch collar
will close over that wound just fine. So look at
how it starts to flare out and just a little
bit into the flare, go ahead and make your pruning
cut there. Sometimes you see a raised ridge where the
branch attaches, and you can almost see a raised ring

(01:04:42):
around it, and that's the place to prun. But we're
talking about everything from elm trees to pecan trees to
oak trees to you know, every tree is a little different,
and that's why it's hard on the radio to describe it.
But basically, what I just said is as close as
I can se.

Speaker 17 (01:05:02):
When I want, I cut the when I cut the limb,
I should cut it right just a little bit into
the collar, or right right at the collar.

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
Well right for most plants, right out there, for most trees,
right out the collar. Go online and do a search
for the three point cut. They do a search for
three point pruning cut. Uh and uh, if I if
I can, let me give you a little added after
three point cut. If you will write the word site

(01:05:32):
s i t E or type in the word site
s I T E not ghd like your eyes, s
I T E like location, and then a colon in
a period, and then e edu. Anytime you write site colon,
you're telling Google or whoever you're searching with, I want
you to look for what I just told you, in

(01:05:54):
this case, three point pruning cut. I want you to
only look in places that the website ends in dot
e ed u, which means it's a university, it's a research,
it's a forest service. That you see what I'm saying
those kinds Yes, uh.

Speaker 11 (01:06:14):
Go dot e d u.

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
Correct, that's okay.

Speaker 17 (01:06:21):
And did you say did you say cut site with
the s.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
S I T E y s I.

Speaker 17 (01:06:32):
I was getting it this fight?

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
If okay, No, no site s I T like the
location you know on site on location. All right, So
that's something you can use anytime you're doing a search
if you want to weed out all the commercial hits
that you're going to get and all the people that
just think they know that are typing something online and stuff,
and it pretty much is limiting you to universities and

(01:06:56):
agencies like the Texas Forest Service. Uh, it's gonna have
a it's going to have an EDU ending.

Speaker 17 (01:07:03):
So yes, sure, okay, okay, all right, sure, I'd appreciate
your help.

Speaker 4 (01:07:07):
Thanks, take care. I'm I'm I gotta you bet you
take care. I appreciate that call very much. Uh So,
if you haven't been in Channa Forest, you need to
get out there in Chanted Forest south of Sugarland and
south and a little to the east of Richmond on
FM twenty seven fifty nine. Great, great location. Lots of

(01:07:29):
wonderful plants right now. But the herbs, the vegetables, the
the color, oh my gosh, the crape myrtles, the boogainville is,
the candlestick plant, the panas, the lantanas. You want. Butterflies
all know this place. They have it marked on their
map because it's so cool now coming up. This is

(01:07:50):
a ways out, but August twenty ninth of this month.
It's a Saturday. They're having part of their Evening series
of events there. It starts at five pm and it
goes to eight pm. It's called Planning your Fall Garden.
You do not want to miss this Planning your Fall Garden.
And it's not just vegetables. Nicole Brida's going to be
talking about vegetables, herbs and flowers. Okay. And if you're

(01:08:16):
an educator, you need to find out about their Butterfly Brigade.
It's a friendly competition between areas schools to win plants
for your school garden. Butterfly Brigade. Head on out there, Saturday,
October August twenty ninth. All right, we gotta take a
break here. When we come back, let's see here. We
got Dave and Terry. You're the first two up. All right,
we're back. Welcome back to the Garden Line. Could have

(01:08:38):
you with us this morning. Let's see here. Let's go
out to Dave in clear Lay. Hello, Dave, welcome to
garden Line. Yeah, Hey, Skip, how you doing.

Speaker 10 (01:08:51):
I've got.

Speaker 5 (01:08:54):
On the backside of my pool.

Speaker 12 (01:08:55):
We've got a.

Speaker 7 (01:08:58):
You know, a section where we'd like to install the
Eagleston hollies, And I'm just wondering if now it's.

Speaker 5 (01:09:04):
A good time a bad time.

Speaker 19 (01:09:06):
We probably put either fifteen or thirty gallon Eagleston hollies
in the ground.

Speaker 11 (01:09:10):
And I just don't want to put them in and
have them die in the heat of the summer.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
Right well, let me let me say it this way.
You can plant any time of the year if you
keep the root ball continually moderately moist, so that the
answer is can you plant now? Yes, But you have
to do that because that plant sitting in the garden

(01:09:36):
center where it's going to sit between now and whenever
you end up buying it and bringing it home, is
getting watered every day and it's doing just fine. But
typically people put it in the ground and that root
ball gets pumped dry. You know, you don't get around
to water in it every day, or at least every
other day, but may even be every day, depend on conditions,

(01:09:56):
and then I'm not sure a very expensive plant, yeah,
is lost and you don't want to do that. So
the safer time to plant is in the fall when
it cools off. But you can plant now, and you
have a head start now, so that that's my best
answer on that.

Speaker 7 (01:10:14):
Is there any oil amendment or anything you do, Yes,
there's any.

Speaker 4 (01:10:20):
Here's what I would do anything, Yeah, I would. If
you want to amend something, amend the whole bed a
very large area where these are going to be. Put
some composts down, mix it into the soil deeply, make
sure the soil is raised up a little bit because
it's going to settle down a little bit, and you
don't want your hollies to be sitting in soggy conditions.

(01:10:43):
So if it's an area that where drainage isn't perfect,
or you know, we get rainy of spells, it's always
nice to have a little bit of a raised bed.
And just remember if you make it ten inches high,
it's going to end up being six inches higher or
less in time. You can do that and do that amendment,
but don't amend the planting hole. Those hollyroots are gonna

(01:11:04):
have to go out a great distance from the plant
and so amend the whole area, not just the planting hole.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Okay.

Speaker 19 (01:11:13):
And if the soil is working hard there, okay, if
the if the soil, yeah, kind of break it up
and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
Yeah, moisten it a little bit, give it a day
or so to so kind of down in there. Dry
soil is like concrete, You need a jackhammer. Wet soil
is like wet butter. It just makes a mess trying
to work it. So you need moist soil. And if
you can, if you can get a little moisture in it, Yes,
that's very important for blending it up, getting your organic

(01:11:45):
matter down in the soil and and so on, very
very important to do that.

Speaker 7 (01:11:50):
Yeah, okay, all right, I appreciate it, Thank you that.

Speaker 14 (01:11:57):
That you bet.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
That's what I recommend, and just know this to day
before I let you go. Hollies are notorious about being
very susceptible to drought when they're young. And you may
have a sprinkler on, let's say, in a bed, and
holly leaves are stiff and they block water, and so
you may have part of the plant that's getting water
to the roots, but then there's a section out there

(01:12:20):
where something has deflected the water and it's not reaching,
and you want to make sure that whole area gets
adequately moist. So when I recommend hand watering for a
couple of years, especially early on, but even during next
summer's rescue times where you're going into water, do some handwatering,
because there you can make sure everything gets watered and

(01:12:43):
Holly's will not tolerate it if they don't get a
good even soaking all around.

Speaker 11 (01:12:48):
Okay, okay, all right, appreciated, Thank.

Speaker 4 (01:12:51):
You, thanks a lot, you bet you take care. I'm
going to go now to Terry and Cyprus. Hey, Terry,
we're short on time, but let's see if we can
help you. If not, I'll carry over. But I'm gonna
se if I can help you, since you've been waiting
a while.

Speaker 9 (01:13:06):
It's a real quick one. I've got a p con
tree I had trimmed up a couple of months ago.
The tree is probably twenty two years old. I still
get the beautiful cons every few years, you know, But
this year I've got a whole bunch of leaves that
are turning brown and dropping off the tree already. What

(01:13:30):
is happening?

Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
In order to give you the best answer, Terry, I'm
gonna need to see pictures of those leaves just as
they fall, before they turn fully brown. When what you're
seeing maybe a picture of the tree, and then get
a bunch of leaves that are not too far along
in the browning. Take a picture of them and send
them to me, and you can call back later today,
or I can reply in an email to you what

(01:13:54):
I see. It most likely is some sort of a
leaf disease. It could be something called the block black
pecan a FID, but I'm gonna be able to see
that when I see the leaves. But it also could
be a disease called scab, in which case you retroactively
you would have wanted to be doing some fungicidal sprays
too during wet seasons and things. Scab is much worse

(01:14:18):
than others. But once it in facts, then the leaves
gonna go ahead and fall off in time. But that
I'll offer that if you'd like. I'm gonna put you
on hold as we go here. Just hang on and
my producer once he has a couple of things to
do right at the end of this segment, and then
he'll he'll pick up and give you an email where
you can send me those photos and I'll be very

(01:14:39):
happy to help puld the film. Well, welcome back, Hey,
welcome back to Guardline folks. Good to have you with us.
Just a reminder before we get going here, Superturf nineteen
four ten from Nitrofoss. The silver bag provides these months

(01:15:01):
of gradual feeding of your turf, the way turf should
be fed, the way we should be fed. I mean,
do you eat Do you eat three months of food
at one time? Okay, maybe I shouldn't ask, do you
should you eat three months of food at one time?

Speaker 15 (01:15:15):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:15:16):
In your turf's the same way. Superturf gives a gradual feed.
You can find Superturf and other night FoST products it
places like dan d Feed and tombaal RCW Nurse around
Tomball Parkway and allspaws ace up in the woodlands on
kirkandall this hour we're going to be talking to Ty
Strickland from Fix my Slab, and you hear me talk

(01:15:37):
about them all the time. We're going to be talking
about all kinds of things related to problems with the
concrete in our world, our foundation and driveways and things
like that. If you have a question this hour, the
eight o'clock hour, I ask that it be call if
it's regarding something regarding what we're talking about foundations or

(01:15:58):
slabs or driveways or whatnot, and feel free to do so.
To talk to Ty we're gonna look at the way
our plants might affect foundations and things as well. If
you have a general gardening question, hold that until nine o'clock.
We'll be doing that for the nine to ten hour
again when we come back. So let's head on out here,
Ty are you there?

Speaker 1 (01:16:20):
Good morning, Skip?

Speaker 12 (01:16:21):
How are you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:24):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for a grand to take
time out today and come on the show. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Now. I'm happy to be here. Skip. I've been partnering
with you for a little while now, and I just
want to tell you your audience is right up my alley.
There's a big difference, PERSI. There's a big difference between
people who have a house and have a home and
your audience who are concerned about their landscaping, are concerned

(01:16:54):
about their home, and those that's my customer right there.

Speaker 4 (01:17:00):
Well, good, I'm glad to hear hear that. Well, nobody
wants to talk about foundation problems, right. I mean, anytime
something that potential level hits in my life, I want
to stick my head in the sand like an ostrich
and maybe it'll go away. And we know it doesn't.
One time you told me that all slabs have cracks,

(01:17:20):
and I if I if I'm quoting you right? Can
you is that?

Speaker 19 (01:17:24):
Do you?

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Is that?

Speaker 4 (01:17:25):
Did I get that right? And if so, will you
explain what that means?

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
Yeah, there's there's definitely a uh in my in my world,
there's three levels of cracks. I mean, all concrete has cracks,
and it's called shrinkage cracks. The next level of crack
is kind of when it starts to become a hinge point.
And that's when you really start to notice whenever you know,
whether it's the front of the house, back of the

(01:17:52):
house starts dropping, it becomes a hinge and that's when
you really want to be a little more aggressive and
start getting on top of the situation. Uh. The last
form of crack is whenever you actually have vertical displacement
and the slab actually fractured, and we want to prevent
that for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:18:13):
Yeah, vertical, that's interesting. Vertical displacement, so like one section
is literally lifting upward, not just hinging like you say,
you know, tilting a little bit, but but lifting upwards.
I could see how that would be a problem that
might be on the level of the san Andreas. Uh crack, Well, well,

(01:18:36):
let's uh, let's let's talk a little bit about you know,
when people are listening to this and they're going, well,
I don't know if I have cracked in my foundation?
How do I how do I know what I have here?
I mean, how do I know that it's something I
need to call you about?

Speaker 1 (01:18:52):
Well, there's some uh obvious thing. The thing I tell
people is that this is the cause and effect. Right,
So if your slab is dropping enough, what happens is
it's actually pulling on your framing. So whenever your doors
are not sitting perfectly aligned in the frame and you
develop diagonal cracks off of the door frames, that's truly

(01:19:17):
when you want to start getting worried because it's actually
pulling on the structure. I don't you know, I talk
with my hands a lot, but like when the slab drops,
basically the wall is rolling out, So it's pulling on
your framing. And that's why it's a structural concern.

Speaker 4 (01:19:36):
Okay, And that's that hinge thing. Like since you mentioned hands,
If people will put their two hands flat out in
front of them and together and now tilt one hand
to the left or right, that's is that what kind
of what you're talking about it exactly.

Speaker 15 (01:19:51):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Exactly skip as a slab drops, Basically the wall is
rolling out, so it's pulling on the framing of your
home and that's what's causing your doors to be misaligned.
And I'm not talking about people say ghost doors, but
you could actually look at your doorframes and there'll be
a gap larger on one side versus the other. And yeah,

(01:20:19):
that's when you need to be concerned. It is a
structural concern.

Speaker 4 (01:20:25):
And putting off dealing with it is not a good
plan because at some point what has to be done
becomes more major, more expensive, and so on.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
Yeah, if you can catch it early, we can handle
it from the perimeter. If you wait too long, then
now we're actually having to do interior work and that
is terrible. You either have to jackhammer through the floor,
which is not pleasant for a homeowner, or tunnel underneath
the house, which is a much more expensive plan. So yeah,

(01:21:02):
if you catch it early, you can handle from the perimeter,
and uh it's much less expensive.

Speaker 4 (01:21:10):
Okay, Yeah, well that's true. A lot of things in life.
Putting off a problem tense to not fix itself. So uh,
that's that's good advice. Let's uh, let's let's do this.
I'm gonna I need to take a little break here,
and I think it's a little early, but I think

(01:21:31):
I'm gonna go ahead and take it because I want
to dive off into some more questions and not have
to stop you part way through an answer. We're talking
to Ty Strickland from Fix my Slab. Fix myslab dot
com is the website if you'd like to go there
and check it out if you've got a question regarding
soil foundations. And we're going to get to driveways too.

(01:21:51):
A lot of people have driveways that look like the
rocky mountains you know as well. It's not exactly level anymore. Uh,
give us a call, uh seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. Just a reminder to hold
off on gardening questions themselves now. If you won't talk
about trees and foundations and things, we'll talk about that.

(01:22:13):
But give us a call. We'll be right back. Do
you know that this is Buchanan's fortieth anniversary. Buchanans Dated
Plants and the Heights on Eleventh Street fortieth anniversary been
around a while, and what a great place to go,
by the way, when you go there. You know, I
know you're going for the plants and the expertise and
stuff that they have in the product, but always check

(01:22:34):
out the Bungalow their low gift shop. Do you know
that they have clothing?

Speaker 14 (01:22:38):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:22:39):
And do you know that they have like for kids,
they have kids pajamas and clothing. And by the way,
this is tax free weekend. You know. August seventh through
Sunday August ninth is Texas tax free weekend back to school.
You know, we're clothing and footwear and school supplies and
stuff are exempt. And so stop into the Bungalow check
out some real cool pajamas and for kid and that

(01:23:00):
does count for the tax free weekend. I want to
let you know too that today, after I quit talking
here on garden Line, at ten o'clock at Buchanans Elizabeth Wingfield,
Polino is going to be talking about creating a fall
cut flower garden. It's a free class, one hour class
from ten to eleven at Buchanus Native Plants in the

(01:23:21):
Heights today. Creating a fall cut flower garden. What a
great idea. It's free and while you're there, chop around
and see some of the wonderful plant options that they
have there at Buchanans Native Plants. We're going to continue
our discussion with Ty Strickland from Fix my Slab Foundation
Repair and Ty welcome back to garden. Line kind of

(01:23:43):
wanted to shift the question over a little bit and
talk about the effect of plants on our foundations. And
I will get a question from time to time Tie, like,
you know, can I plant a tree five feet from
my house or ten feet from a house or fifteen
feet from my house? And they're concerned about the roots,

(01:24:04):
and they're worried about the roots lifting up the foundation
and cracking it. And so we talk about the fact
that tree roots go two and a half times the
height of the tree in all directions and can even
be further depending on the soil and the conditions, and
so moving a plan over a little bit, the tree
roots are still going to go over there. Of course,
the further you get away, the less size there's going

(01:24:25):
to be on them. But do you have any thoughts
or advice regarding trees and roots and how they affect
the foundations of our houses. Can you kind of enlighten
us on that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
Yeah, the biggest thing that I see, I mean I've
been doing this twenty five years and the biggest thing
that I can tell people is those oak trees that
the HOA, the developers wires in your small front yard,
they have a major effect on your foundation, probably about

(01:24:57):
fifteen to twenty years in three gets big enough and
the moisture is getting pulled from the soil. And so
prevention is a great word, I think. And root barriers,
anything you can do to keep the roots from growing
underneath your house will have a major long term effect

(01:25:19):
of not needing foundation repair.

Speaker 4 (01:25:24):
Okay, okay, So I think a part of what you're
saying there is is it's not just that the root
gets under the foundation like it would go under a
sidewalk or a driveway and crack it. But it isn't
it the effect of like the moisture removal that a
tree is capable of doing and going in increasing that

(01:25:44):
wet dry.

Speaker 1 (01:25:45):
Cycle exactly, Skip. I mean, we build floating flabs because
we know our soil moves up and down, and in
a perfect world, if you have even moisture around your house,
your slab moves up down evenly. But due to the
effect those two or three oak trees that they require

(01:26:06):
you to put in your front yard. Over time, there's
less moisture in the soil in the front of your
house and in the back of your house, and that's
what causes a lot of foundation problems. The front of
your house begins to subside due to a difference in
moisture content compared to the rest of your yard.

Speaker 4 (01:26:30):
Okay, so yeah, that's a good visual you gave there
of the floating slab. Like the soil gets dry, shrinks down.
This soil gets wet, it lifts up. But when it
gets wet on one side not the other, it gets
dry on one side and not the other. That's that's
where you start to get that crack in the hinge
that you were talking about earlier. So now tell me

(01:26:53):
a little bit about the the root barriers. Do y'all
do those or do they need to talk to somebody
in a tree business for that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
No, absolutely, I do those. I mean, what we're trying
to do is, once again, we're just trying to prevent
the roots affecting the house. So if you look at
it from a I don't know, I guess a overview,
once again, the house is designed to move up and

(01:27:25):
down evenly, which once again a floating flab, but with
the trees in the front, you develop less moisture. So
if we can prevent the roots from going underneath the house,
then you have a better chance of maintaining equal moisture
around the house, and their house is going to move
up evenly.

Speaker 4 (01:27:47):
Okay, So can you give me a little bit of
a lot of technical detail, like a root barrier? What
are we talking about? What is that? How far away
from a foundation typically would you do? How deep does
one go? Just kind of a general overview. What do
you mean by root barrier?

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
So it depends on the yard obviously or in the situation.
But we want to prevent the roots maybe five five
feet away from the home from going underneath there. And
so there are products out there that you know, whatever,
you dig a trench and you install the product, and

(01:28:30):
the product that I use is called bio barrier, and
over time it basically creates a leasing effects with a
herbicide that prevents the roots from going underneath the home.
And it's I mean, people talk about prevention all the time.

(01:28:50):
It's Houston. It's not. If you're going to need foundation
in parish, just win. But there are some things you
can do from a prevention standpoint, root barrier is one,
soaker hose are another. So lets you say that there's

(01:29:14):
not a lot you can do to prevent it in
our current soil conditions, and we're building so fast around Houston.
Everything that we're building right now used to be rice farms,
and the soil is just black gumbo clay, and you're
eventually going to have problems if you don't start thinking
about prevention early.

Speaker 4 (01:29:37):
Would you recommend I realize I'm kind of going down
a rabbit trail here on this routething. I'm just curious
myself about it. But would you recommend that when a
house is built that something like that we put in
or is that something you would wait and if needed
later added? I know that I'm asking you questions that

(01:29:58):
I know the answer begins with the word it depends.
But what do you think is this something that should
be installed earlier or just wait and see?

Speaker 1 (01:30:09):
I mean, I think if somebody is really a true homeowner,
which most of your audiences are, that is concerned about
the flower beds and all of that, their plants and
the beautification, yes, I think if you do it early,
you're going to have a much less chance of having

(01:30:31):
foundation problems in the future.

Speaker 4 (01:30:35):
Okay, And I do know what you mean about the
rice patty soil in the clays and the high When
I was in school, I had to take a soul
science class and they call it the shrink swell potential
of the soil. I'm sure those are terms you probably
used to but yeah, potentially so high.

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
Skip. You'll have to remind me, but there's something about
a high plastic. It's to the index correct, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:31:03):
Yes, huh yeah, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:31:06):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:31:07):
You know, if you have a sandy soil, it's not
going to do much shrinks well, you know when it
comes to water. But boy, some of these clays, yeah
it does. It's kind of like me in enchiladas. There's
a big shrink swell potential when I start considering a
lot of enchiladas, but unfortunately it's mostly swelling, not much shrink.

(01:31:32):
Joking aside, how we get that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:37):
I mean, people really don't understand it. It's like a
double edged sword, like, oh, I'll just cut the trees out.
I mean, I've been to houses where big trees whatever,
one hundred year old oak trees have been removed and
they just built a big old house and all of
a sudden, we've got to swell and you can see
the house from the street. It's it's it's it's six

(01:32:01):
inches off level because one side of the house has
swelled so much because they removed a big oak tree.
So the soil conditions here are lot of a little
bit insane.

Speaker 4 (01:32:14):
Yeah, yeah, that is a challenge. Well, I guess it
keeps you busy. But unfortunately for the for everybody that's
building all these houses all over the place, it's not
a good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:32:26):
So when when we're talking about this, uh like a
like a root barrier, things to protect it. You made
another statement about a soaker hose. Uh can you kind
of advise people on if someone were to put a
hose around the house?

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:32:41):
And how do you run those? Do you just leave
them on always soaking or do you do you put
them on when it's kind of quit raining? And then
we're we're you know, it's hadn't rained for a couple
of weeks, so let's go ahead and get some moisture
in there before it starts moving a lot or what
do you recommend?

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
So skip I pay attention to there's a us strout
monitor that comes out every Thursday morning at seven am.
And right now we have no drought conditions. So it's
a balancing act. You're trying to maintain moisture around your house.
So yes, the soaker hose definitely helps. What I recommend

(01:33:21):
is to keep the socer hose about eighteen inches away
from the foundation. And you're trying, once again, it's a
balancing act. You're trying to maintain equal moisture. So right
now you should be running a soaker hose about one
time a week, about twenty minutes of twenty minutes at
a time, the important part, once again, about eighteen inches

(01:33:43):
away from the foundation. If we continue on our normal
Texas summer where we're going into drought conditions, which we
are not there right now, you would increase that two
days a week, three days a week, twenty minutes at
a time. Uh. So you're trying to maintain you can.
The problem is people wait too long and they can't

(01:34:05):
catch up once the drought hits. So right now we're
thinking about, okay, we're perfect, perfect moisture content. How do
we maintain that? And it's once again it's a balance
and that skip.

Speaker 4 (01:34:21):
Okay, okay, Yeah, So It's like a lot of these
questions and you know, the answer UT is going to
begin with depends because it depends on shore, It depends
on how hot it is, depends on how much of terrain,
and on and on. Uh so that but that is
a good guideline. It gives people an idea. You know,
what does it mean to moisten the soil? And basically
you're just saying, try to keep it evenly moist as

(01:34:42):
best you can. So uh that's that's really good advice
and very very helpful. I'm about five seconds away from
having to go to a heartbreak. Ty, thank you. We'll
be coming right back to you, and just a moment, folks,
don't go away. We are visiting with Ty Strickland from
FI my Slab Foundation repair about all kinds of things.

(01:35:03):
I've been talking about some fascinating things about, you know,
the causes and ways to prevent problems with the foundation
on our homes. If we want to bring Tie back
in here and Taiwan to continue our discussion, I'd like
to shift over for a moment and talk a little
bit about the driveways and things. I was at a

(01:35:26):
family member's house a few months ago and their driveway.
I told them it looks like the Rocky Mountains. I
mean it had just sort of fallen down on the
sides and stuck up in the middle, and they had
a big, old giant crack and pieces are falling off
of it and everything else. Uh, there are things that
can be done aside from bringing in a bulldozer and

(01:35:46):
a cement truck to put a new driveway in. And
will you talk a little bit about driveway issues and
what can be done about those.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
Certainly, ski you have to remember that we're only dealing
with flat work, which is the nonstructural concrete, and it's
only four inches thick. So it's sitting up there in
the middle of our expansive soil, and it's going to
move if it's dropped. That's not that big a deal.

(01:36:21):
We can come in and we can do an injection
of semontitious grout and remove the trip hazards. What's kind
of interesting is that the insurance community has totally changed
where they will not renew if you have trip hazards
in your driveway. So we're getting a lot of calls

(01:36:43):
to remove that so people can renew their homeowners' insurance
policies but there is a way to level your driveway,
and it's probably a third of the cost of making
out and replacing and pouring new concrete. So you know,

(01:37:04):
it's one of those things. If you're seeing that on
your expansion joints in your driveway that they're not level,
we can help with that. And it's so much cheaper
if you catch it early before you have to break
it out and replace it.

Speaker 4 (01:37:25):
Okay, now I'm assuming if it's so far along that
now you've got a two inch gap and the two
slabs have separated, we're getting a little too light there
for any kind of repair.

Speaker 1 (01:37:34):
Right, Yeah, So the biggest differences skip is if the
tree has affected the driveway where it has caused the
driveway to lift up. I can't lower a driveway at
that point. We have to replace it. But and I

(01:37:55):
don't know whatever the number is, seventy percent of the time,
if you catch it early, we can keep you from
having those trip hazards and level it and save you
a lot of money.

Speaker 4 (01:38:10):
Well, you know, just thinking about it, it seemed to
me like, uh, this may be a place to where
a root barrier before the problem becomes a bad wouldn't
be a bad idea because you know, tree reaches are
only going to get bigger in time.

Speaker 1 (01:38:28):
Absolutely, And the more important part about that, Skip, is
that that tree is gonna need more water to stay
alive old or it gets and it totally influenced whether
it's the foundation or the driveway or the sidewalk. So yeah,
so there's there's a lot of preventative things that you
can do, and root barriers a great, great resolution for that.

Speaker 4 (01:38:54):
That is a that is a good point. So all
this foundation foundation issues and talk, you mentioned some different
levels of fixing a foundation, from you said stuff you
can kind of do on the outside, to jackhammering through

(01:39:16):
the floors to creating trenches and crawling under I just
can't imagine those last two, especially the trench thing where
someone's crawling under the foundation trying to fix it and stuff.
What basically are you doing. Is there sort of some
sort of a vertical peer being put down deep in

(01:39:37):
the soil to get a good foothold or what's happening
when you're doing that level of a repair.

Speaker 1 (01:39:44):
I try and keep it simplistic, Skip, and think about
in most areas around Houston, the top eight feet of
soil is what I consider active soil, and so when
we install highling, then you can look at it as
any type of support. But basically we're penetrating the active

(01:40:05):
soil and going deep enough to get into the non
active soil, and that soil is not affected by the
elements because it doesn't have the same exposure. So we're
just transferring the load from the act of soil down
to the non active soil.

Speaker 4 (01:40:24):
Okay, So that's why these skyscrapers aren't all tipping over
and falling on their side. They're getting down to something
solid that'll hold the building up.

Speaker 1 (01:40:32):
Buh yeah. I mean, I don't know if you want
to go into like the leaning tower piecea or anything,
but very simple. You think about it like the they
think about a house in Gallaston up on stilts. All
we're doing is putting in silts to go through the
act of soil to get down to the non active soil,

(01:40:53):
and that will become the new soil supporting the structure.

Speaker 4 (01:40:58):
Okay, that's good.

Speaker 5 (01:41:00):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:41:01):
I suspect you've probably not been called by the Italians
to come fix that darn thing because they're making a
lot of money off the fact that it's crooked. But
that would be quite the job to take on.

Speaker 1 (01:41:15):
And I may not be able to communicate over there.
I only do job site Spanish.

Speaker 4 (01:41:23):
Okay, yeah, I don't think that would work. Oh yeah,
well that's all. That's all good and interesting. So do
you have any This is getting a little outside of
you know, fix my slab. But when someone is building
a house, I assume that there are some options when

(01:41:44):
it comes to foundation options. Do you know if you
were putting a new house in, would there be anything
that you would request in the way that the foundation
is built or just builders should know what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:42:02):
So that's an interesting skip. So it's a big difference
if you're building, let's just say, a custom home versus
buying a track home. So with a custom home, you're
going to do a soul sample and then and they're
going to look at the soil conditions there. But when
you go into a neighborhood, they may do two or

(01:42:24):
three soul samples throughout the whole neighborhood and that determines
how they're going to build a foundation. With a custom home,
they're going to tell you whether you should do builders peers,
which is just pre engineered foundation that has peers underneath it,

(01:42:47):
versus just put it in a floating slab in neighborhoods.
In neighborhoods, they're doing basically the cheapest, right, they're trying
to get through ten you, that's the builder's warranty. And
after ten years it's probably good. But come fifteen to

(01:43:09):
twenty years, due to the oak trees in the front,
they're probably gonna have problems. So yeah, if you could
look at prevention early and root barriers are probably the
biggest thing that I could advocate for.

Speaker 4 (01:43:25):
Okay, all right, well that that is that is interesting.
I would think that you know, those those piers and
things come at a cost, but when you look at
the value of the home and the cost of fixing it,
maybe not so bad. Good.

Speaker 1 (01:43:42):
Well, the builder, the builder, the builder is out in
ten years and he can get it. He can put
a slab in and he doesn't have to worry about it.
But come fifteen twenty years, with those two oak trees
and a postage stamp front yard, that's when the problems start.

Speaker 4 (01:44:04):
Yeah, and we do you mentioned ha earlier, but I'm
going to not go on to a tirade tirade here
on it. But I do I see situations where they
have to have two live oak trees in a front
yard that's not big enough to even own a lawnmower.
You can just mow it with a weed eater, and

(01:44:25):
it's like, okay, you know how big live oaks get, right,
So I've never been able to hear that one out.

Speaker 1 (01:44:32):
Skip you skip. You and I are on the same page.
That's I mean, I've been doing this twenty five years,
but basically I chase trees in ninety percent of the
cases in the front yard.

Speaker 4 (01:44:46):
You wet trees. I'm sorry I didn't catch up.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
I said, I'm just chasing the trees that they require
them to foot in a small front yard, and they're
going to have problems at fifteen minutes twenty years out.

Speaker 4 (01:45:02):
Yep. Well, I don't think you have to be a
horticultural expert to know that if you've planted two live
oak trees that are close enough to hang a hammock
in them, that's probably too close. And sometimes it gets
darn close to that in these right yards. That's good. Well,
what would you want to know if you were just

(01:45:26):
one of our listeners and they were they were talking
to someone to I'm gonna have to have to put
this on hold. I'm they're telling me I got to
go to a break here. We will come right back
to you and I'm gonna finish that discussion or question
just a second.

Speaker 19 (01:45:39):
Hey.

Speaker 4 (01:45:39):
By the way, folks, Sienna Mulch down south of town.
Sienna Multch dot com is the place you go for
everything to make the sore right. As I say, brown
stuff before green stuff. You get the soil right, you
put the plants in and you have success. You don't
get the sore right and put the plants in and
you get to go bomb plants after years of disappointment,

(01:46:02):
fix us all first. Ciena Maltz is a place to
go to do it. Cnmaults dot com. We'll be right back.

Speaker 5 (01:46:08):
What will happen tomorrow?

Speaker 1 (01:46:10):
Wake up with Jimmy Parretts Local news, Global events. It's
the information that matters to you.

Speaker 9 (01:46:17):
Houston's Morning Yous Tomorrow.

Speaker 13 (01:46:19):
Monday, starting at five on news Radio seven k t
rh HI.

Speaker 20 (01:46:24):
This is Troy Sharp, CEO of Oak Harvest Financial Group
and host of the Retirement Income show her every Sunday
at noon on KTRH for sixteen years. Most married couples
spend years preparing for retirement. But if you ever prepare
for the tax shop, that can change everything. It can
permanently increase your taxes tied to Medicare, Social Security, and
investment income, potentially doubling the taxes you pay for life.

(01:46:45):
Get your free guide at Doubledtax dot com. That's doublethetax
dot com. Investment advisory services are provided through Oak Harvest
Investment Services LC, a registered investment advisor.

Speaker 18 (01:46:54):
When the unexpected happens, get your vehicle to loan. Start
a collision center in Jersey Village and get free instaments.
Lone Star Collision Center has state of the art equipment,
expert color matching technology, and we'll get your vehicle fixed
right the first time. Plus you'll get Chevrolet certified service
guaranteed and backed by a lot of time warranty and
lone Star is certified for Corvette, Honda and accurates. Will

(01:47:16):
log on lone Star Chevrolet Collision Center dot com. Then't
hurry to the lone Star Collision Center in Jersey Village.
Chevy together, Let's.

Speaker 21 (01:47:23):
Dry Hey Skymike here, Scott Man Saturdays at ten and
four Sundays at ten. For over twenty five years, your
trusted fiduciary Advisor. If you're over fifty with five hundred
thousand dollars a more, you may be effectively retired and
just don't know it.

Speaker 13 (01:47:37):
Go to Safe Money with Scottman dot com.

Speaker 22 (01:47:41):
Get back to school ready and get rewarded at Walgreens.
It's the perfect time to refresh your home and your wallet.
Earn ten dollars in story rewards when you spend thirty
five dollars on your favorite brands like Tide, Sharman, Dawn,
Always Pampers an Old Spice with my PNG Healthy Savings.
Stock up on your every day is set tools at
Walgreens and ensure you have.

Speaker 1 (01:48:02):
Everything you need to start the school year off right.
Offer valid eate.

Speaker 22 (01:48:06):
Two through eight A then participating locations restrictions apply.

Speaker 5 (01:48:14):
One seven seven.

Speaker 19 (01:48:15):
Cars Skids KAS Cars Kids one seven geven Cars Skids.

Speaker 13 (01:48:23):
Study TA call eight seven seven Cars for Kids to
reach a friendly live agent. Donation is super easy in
your car can be picked up as soon as tomorrow.
Call us now or go to Carsperkids dot org.

Speaker 2 (01:48:37):
Game.

Speaker 13 (01:48:38):
Did you know you can donate real estate too? Hey,
KTRH listeners.

Speaker 14 (01:48:42):
Did you know that Amco has been fixing transmissions for
over sixty years. If they can fix the most complicated
component on your vehicle, don't you think you should trust
them with the rest of it. Amco has easy payment
plan options for almost any credit situation.

Speaker 18 (01:48:56):
Call them today.

Speaker 14 (01:48:56):
That's Amco with twelve centers serving Houston, Woodland, Spring, Humble,
Missouri City, Pasadena and Webster Mco. That's double A, MCO
Transmissions and a whole lot more.

Speaker 4 (01:49:10):
Yeah, when you like me, You've got nineteen two and
thirty seven grand children plus Mammo's gonna get urinary. Your
carpet is gonna get urin air. Get that among the
smell out car oops steam.

Speaker 1 (01:49:21):
Cleaning you needed car oop steem your house, smell that
corcat litter buy the group.

Speaker 23 (01:49:26):
In a recent survey of one hundred and twenty three
thousand wireless customers, Pure Talk was the only wireless company
to receive five stars in every category coverage, support, value
and data. What else do you need to know? Switch
to pure Talk today and get any plan, including their
top shelf unlimited data plan for just fifteen bucks a
month for your first three months, no contract, no commitment,

(01:49:50):
Dial pound two fifty, say micro and let Pure talks
us Customer service team, help you make the switch.

Speaker 16 (01:49:56):
Are you having trouble hearing? Hearing loss can devastate the
qual of your life. Now there's an affordable fix for
you or your loved one. Rated the best hearing aids
of twenty twenty six by Forbes Health, Audien Hearing has
the highest quality hearing aids at the lowest crisis, starting
at just ninety eight dollars a pair.

Speaker 4 (01:50:13):
I actually like them better than my old five thousand
dollars hearing aids. Could not believe how my hearing in life.

Speaker 16 (01:50:19):
Shase join over one million happy customers by going to
audienhearing dot com. That's a U, D I E Nhearing
dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:50:29):
That must be some kind a way out of here.

Speaker 1 (01:50:33):
Say that, jump that to the theme.

Speaker 2 (01:50:37):
That's too much comfilter.

Speaker 4 (01:50:40):
Hey, welcome back to the guard line. Good to have
you with us this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:50:44):
Hey.

Speaker 4 (01:50:44):
You know, Medina products widely available. You find them at
garden centers, you find them at feed stores, you find
them at a hardware stores, you find them at Southwest Fertilizer.
Easy to find all over the greater Heresonario. Medina products
like has to grow hashtro grow plant, which is a
higher phosphorus product, great for transplanting, but can be used

(01:51:06):
on any kind of plant, especially when you want to
boost that phosphorus up, perhaps for fruiting and flowering reasons.
Then there's hashtro grol lawn. It's a twelve four to
eight that you put on the end of a garden
hose and you just water it right into the lawn
and gives you a nice quick boost. Just two examples
from the many hastrogro products, but also from the many

(01:51:28):
many Medina products that work. Try them, they work. They've
been around since the nineteen fifties and gardeners swear by them.
Medina products excellent work if you're dealing with pest problems.
By the way, pest Bros. Is the only place I
send people. Pest Bros. Is the company that will come

(01:51:49):
out and do the mosquito buckets that I talk about
all the time, the ones that attract mosquitos in that
they want the mosquito lay the egg in there because
the eggs will never turn into mosquito, and then the
mosquito goes away with a little dust on its feed
from landing in the bucket that when they find little
tiny bits of water, you know it all. It takes
is a bottle cap for mosquito to go through its

(01:52:10):
life cycle. It prevents that water from being a place
where mosquitoes can grow up in as well, and the
mosquito that carried him away, by the way, gets a
fungus disease that it picked up in the bucket that
kills the mosquito. Ain't that cool? They also have the
herbal product that smells so good. I tried it out myself,
thinking this is stuff just can't last. I was amazed.

(01:52:33):
They say up up to thirty days. I got at
least that from when I had the herbal treatments done here.
We just kept going outside, you know, bare legged, looking
around evening late day, where mosquitos should be carrying you
off to the next state, not a mosquito. I mean,
I was amazed at how well that worked. Thepestbros dot Com.
Give them a call, talk to him about all the

(01:52:53):
different kind of pest solutions that they have. We go
back out here and grab tie again. So, Ty, we
were talking before about the driveway kinds of issues. I
think you have some. Do you have some other suggestions
for people on that?

Speaker 1 (01:53:10):
I don't know if it suggests skip I said, the
biggest thing is you're dealing with a driveway, sidewalk, patio,
whatever it's it's only four inches thick versus with your home.
You may have a thirty inch gray being going down.
So the soil is totally different at thirty inches versus

(01:53:32):
four inches. So I do have another company called Southern
Concrete Raising, and you know, we go in with nonstructural
repair where we can actually lift the sidewalks, great sidewalks
or driveways and get rid of those trip hazards because

(01:53:54):
they're going to be affected far faster than the foundation
of your home just due to the fact that it's
only four inches deep. It's in the active soil.

Speaker 4 (01:54:07):
Okay, okay, uh and so I without confusing people with
a lot of names and uh numbers and websites, if
they called fixmyslab dot com, went to fix my slab
dot com and college all y'all could refer them to
that other service as well.

Speaker 1 (01:54:22):
Right. Absolutely, we're sister companies that were in the same office.
So yes, if you call fixmoflock dot com two eight one,
two five five four nine four nine, we can take
care of any of your concrete needs, whether it's structural
or nonstructural.

Speaker 4 (01:54:42):
Okay, good that all that all sounds sounds very helpful. Well,
you've given us a lot of tips here in terms
of avoiding the problems in the first place, as best
we can uh. The things that a homeowner can do,
like keeping the soul moist with a with a soakerhe
around the property. It doesn't mean it's one hundred percent
guaranteed you're not gonna have problems. It just means that

(01:55:04):
to the degree you prevent the wet dry, which means
the shrink swell, you're preventing big headaches down the line,
to root barriers, to the kinds of work that have
to be done when people come in. So you mentioned
the phone number. I want to give that again. It
is folks, it's two eight one, two five five forty

(01:55:26):
ninety nine. Now they will come out and do a
free inspection to assess the problem. In fact, ty, let
me just let you explain that better than I will.
What happens when somebody calls.

Speaker 1 (01:55:42):
Oh, we have a wonderful staff that actually answers the phone.
There's no AI. We actually talk to you and we
personally set up an appointment that fits for us and
the homeowner and we come out and we give a
free evaluation and we give our honest opinion. That's and

(01:56:03):
that's all we can do is skip is give an
honest opinion whether the homeowner is in the prevention mode
or in the recovery mode. We're just going to give
our honest opinion. We show up when we tell them
we're going to show up to the four hour windows.

Speaker 4 (01:56:19):
Well, that is that is a wonderful thing. I don't
tell you. I can't tell you how many times I've
sat at my house waiting for some cable guy or
something like that to show up, and you book the
whole afternoon and then they don't even come. So the
fact that you guys are straight shooters, you're going to
give people the honest opinion on it, not just try
to sell them on something they don't need. You go

(01:56:41):
show up and then if you have to fix it,
you're gonna fix it right. And I appreciate that about
you guys very much. I also appreciate you coming on
the show today. I know I probably kept you from
getting a lot of good work done, but thank you
for taking time out.

Speaker 1 (01:56:53):
For us today time, Kip, I appreciate you and partnering
with you, and it is a big difference between working
for a homeowner.

Speaker 4 (01:57:03):
It was good to have tie with us and really
learned well, learned a lot about everything from foundations to driveways,
to what we can do and how do we deal
with our trees and foundation protecting foundations and whatnot. That
was that was super useful. We're diving back in full
fledged into gardening now. If you have a gardening question
seven one three, two one two five eight seven four, Uh,

(01:57:25):
it is time to call Martin spoon More at Affordable
Tree and get on the schedule this fall for him
doing an assessment of your trees and any necessary pruning
that might be done to make sure the trees maintain
develop and just have a good structural integrity, good strong
branch angles and good I was gonna say design, that's

(01:57:50):
not the right word for it, but creating a tree
that is structurally sound is basically what I'm talking about.
Martin spoon Board Affordable Tree knows his staff. When it
comes to that, you can trust Martin to come in
to do an assessment and to give you the kind
of care, give your trees the kind of care that
they absolutely do need. Now you can go to the
website Afftree Service dot com. You can find out about

(01:58:15):
all of the different services they offer. You can also
there find the phone number seven one three six nine
nine two six six three to give them a call
and get on the schedule. They've been in business since
nineteen ninety nine, been doing trees with decades now of experience.
Seven one three six nine nine two six sixty three.
That is Affordable Tree Service. I was checking out rcw's

(01:58:41):
website the other day. I checked their social and the
website on these various companies and things, but looking they
have a Facebook page that has always got stuff going
on on it, and just looking at the trees growing
out there at Williamson Tree Farm up in Plannersville, which
is part of the family operates there the Williamson Tree

(01:59:01):
Farm and the RCW Nursery. Right now they're having an
August sale. That is awesome. No, remember you can plant
every month of the year. When you plant in August,
you just have to water those trees in the ground,
knowing where all the roots are, which is that cylinder
you took out of the pot. It's going to be
that way for a while as they slowly spread out.
But what a time to get a deal. Forty percent

(01:59:24):
off of pavilias, thirty percent off some of the select roses,
thirty percent off the crpe myrtles, thirty percent off their
select maple trees, all their metal yard are which is
some cool stuff. Thirty percent off thirty or twenty five
percent off azaleas, twenty five percent off citrus. You're not
going to find a better deal than this r CW.

(01:59:45):
That is the Garden Center right where Tomball Parkway Highway
two forty nine comes into about WAG eight two eight
one four to four oh fifty one sixty one. Get
by there and take advantage because people will be heading
there with this kind of deal and you want to
have first pick. That would be a good day to
get out there and do that at r c W.
Let's head up on the phones now we're going to

(02:00:07):
go to Philip in Brazoria. Hey Philip, welcome to Garden Line.

Speaker 12 (02:00:15):
We questions for you. Uh, I've got a plum tree
that's give to me about eight years ago, and uh
you know it's about eight whenever I got it. I
got from Trinity to get it to me. Well, it's
about eight foot tall now and uh for about the
past five years, it's had like over one hundred ballooms

(02:00:35):
on it, you know, and they just the blues just
fall off. Yeah, you know, they don't They don't ever
get any plums on it.

Speaker 7 (02:00:42):
Uh?

Speaker 12 (02:00:43):
Is there is there something that all or?

Speaker 4 (02:00:46):
Uh?

Speaker 12 (02:00:46):
Or do I need to go get another plump seat
and make it up?

Speaker 4 (02:00:52):
You need another plumb tree? Uh, some plum, A few plums.
A few plums are self pollinating, self fruitful, but most
plums are not, and they need a pollinat or a
second variety. Now here's what you can do, Philip, rather
than plant, you know, buying another tree, planting it and
waiting for it to get big enough to have blooms
and pollinate. If you know anybody that has a plum,

(02:01:15):
chances are it's not the one you have, the black
plum that you have. But if you know anyone that
has a plum that would let you clip out a
couple of I don't know, maybe eight ten inch long
branches with some blooms on them at bloom time and
put them in like aulces. Stick them in a coke
can with some water in it, and just take a

(02:01:36):
string and tie it in the tree and the bees
will visit the blooms you clipped and brought in, and
then you're blooms and you can get by with at
least some fruit set. And if that works, then you
know for sure, Yeah, this is just a pollination problem.
And in the meantime, you know, you you get your
tree going so that it can cross pollinate. But that's

(02:01:58):
kind of the test. And that's also the how to
get a few plums early on. You'll just need to
trade those bloom sticks out about once a week during
the bloom time, about ever five to seven days. Uh
and and uh, if you get enough of them in there,
I mean, you may get a decent crop of plums
out of it. But that that's one thing you can try.

Speaker 12 (02:02:19):
Okay, let me ask you the tree that I got
to talk though. You know, there's a seed that I've
got it all. You know, I dug it up. If
I was going there back to training and dig up
another pretty goosized tree, would that work?

Speaker 4 (02:02:37):
That's a that's a good question. If it is a
seedling that've came from a seed, it's going to be
genetically different, and it might work. If it is a
root sprout some plums or stick it forming and so
when you dig another one up, you're just digging a
clone of the one you had from before. Then it

(02:02:58):
wouldn't work.

Speaker 1 (02:03:00):
It wouldn't work.

Speaker 12 (02:03:01):
Well, they've got lock.

Speaker 4 (02:03:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (02:03:04):
See they've got like six plum trees up there in
the uh. I mean every year they're plums. I mean
they get nice and big brown, real dark. Yeah, if
I get it off of a different tree, would that work.

Speaker 5 (02:03:23):
If it was a.

Speaker 4 (02:03:24):
Different tree, Yeah, as long as it's not the same genetics,
you know, because two trees of the same variety or
the same type are not going to pollinate. So yeah,
give that a try and see how it does. But
in the meantime, just go see if they let you
trim some branches off and bring them back right when
the branches already have open blooms on them and your

(02:03:45):
tree is open blooming uh, And see how that works
for you. And I mean that'll answer your question right there.
All right, I got a run, Phillip, but good luck.
And when the plums start coming in, you can bring
the plum jelly to the studio and we'll call this
all even. All right, take care, all right, thank you

(02:04:05):
appreciate it very much. You know, microlife fertilizers. So many
good products out there on the market with Microlife. The
options from the green bag, which is the one we
think of for fertilizer the lawns, to the red bag,
which is for acidic plants. By the way, if you
are dealing with take all root rot, I would recommend

(02:04:28):
just shift over to the red bag for fertilizing your lawns.
It is an acidifying fertilizer. It is not going to
cure take all overnight, but it does. Every time you
acidify the area, you're making it less hospitable for the
take all root rot. So I would personally I would
switch over to the red bag for that situation. Otherwise,
any acidic loving plants azaleas, camellias and so on, Virginia

(02:04:51):
sweet spire, even things like roses do very well with
that red bag from the folks at Microlife. And then
there's so many other good that are loaded with specific
microbes designed. But where a product is designed and nature
designed the ingredients uh to put down to enhance the

(02:05:13):
beneficial microbes that are present there in and on around
your plans. From the folks at Microlife, you can go
to Microlife Fertilizer dot com find out more about that.
Let's take a quick break and we'll be back. David
in Winchester your first up. All right, welcome back to
garden Line. Folks.

Speaker 12 (02:05:31):
Here we go.

Speaker 4 (02:05:34):
Who knows what? Who knows what movie that was from?
Somebody tell me I don't. I wish we had a prize.
We need prizes for that kind of thing. But anyway,
you will have the admiration of the entire listening audience
if you can tell me that. How about that? That
works pretty good. Let's go out to Winchester here we're
going to talk to David this morning. Hey David, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 3 (02:05:55):
Thank you, thank you all listening to your show. You're
a you're a great baggie. You're a great knowledge bull
plant person. But I have a friend there to spring
Cypress area that have some foxtail purns that are being
burned tremendously in this seat. They're big ones, and I
was wondering what you suggest to to try to shade
them from the sun, and.

Speaker 1 (02:06:13):
You know, in the intense afternoons.

Speaker 4 (02:06:16):
Yeah, you know, there's just there's just not a great
way to do it. I mean, you know, you're not
gonna stick an umbrella over them. I Uh, they can
take sun. But when we get into really hot and
then especially as they get a little on the dry side,
you start to get the burn pretty good on them. Uh,

(02:06:36):
So make sure that they have plenty of moisture without
keeping them drownded in a swamp is the best thing
they can do, or just plant on this fall moving
them moving them to another location would probably be the two.
But I would think, see how you do on this,
because I've seen a lot of foxtails in the sun,
and I have seen some sun scald on them, but

(02:06:59):
then with adequate water, it's not near as bad.

Speaker 3 (02:07:02):
I know that.

Speaker 1 (02:07:04):
Great.

Speaker 5 (02:07:05):
Well, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 7 (02:07:06):
And to play a little Gianny Rodorguez music.

Speaker 1 (02:07:08):
He's my favorite singer. He used to sea sed Now for.

Speaker 4 (02:07:10):
You, Oh my gosh, we're go, I tell you what.
All right, there you go justin. We need to find
riding my thumb to Mexico. We'll do that for you, David.
This first time I taken a request, but we'll try it.
Thank you very much. All right, there we go, there
we go. Let's uh, let's do this. Let's go now
to Brian in Channel View. Hey, Brian, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (02:07:35):
Hey, Skip, I'm trying to send you some pictures of
an issue I got. I think it looks like rusk,
but I'm not sure. But the pictures might be too big.

Speaker 4 (02:07:53):
But oh, I got your I got your photos. Yeah,
I got your photos. There. So basically, there's no problem
at all on your tree. It is it's almost a
bush like a tree right now.

Speaker 5 (02:08:09):
Uh yeah, So then there's the American plumb.

Speaker 4 (02:08:14):
H huh. Okay. Now, the older leaves are the ones
doing that, and it's not unusual for a tree for
whatever reason the leaves get old, or if it gets
a little bit of a drought, or if you know,
other kinds of stresses, it'll oftentimes decide, Okay, these older
leaves are gonna go. I'm gonna take care of my
new leaves. And that is a very minor amount of
that on that tree. The tree vigor is excellent. It's

(02:08:37):
putting on lots of new growth. That tree is just fine.
There's no disease that needs spraying. The little speckles and
stuff on the leaves or just because as that leave
starts to be cut loose from the mother plant, it's
not the defenses aren't up, and you'll get you'll get
a few specks and things on them. But that's not
a disease that's going to do that to all the trees,

(02:08:58):
all the leaves on the tree. It's good that you
got that little uh waterer around the base. That's very good.
You can turn it on and keep it moist there.
The wider you can give it of a multster area,
the better. And if you want good growth on that,
if you could get it like even two feet out
from the trunk in all directions, you know, kill the
grass and put down some mulch and oh see, okay,

(02:09:20):
it's just less it's less competition for it. And so
you know that if you were to ask the tree
where where how close can I or how close do
you want me to let grass grow to you? It
would just say you see that that road in the distance,
I want it on the other side of that road.
That's not an aesthetic to have, you know, thirty thirty

(02:09:43):
foot moulsteria around our trees. So just give it what
you can.

Speaker 5 (02:09:49):
Okay. So you only got two photos because I got
a couple more. I have a mayhawk tree that looks
like it's got spots of them. I want to their
dark red spots on it, on a hand full of
leaves I got them.

Speaker 4 (02:10:06):
I got that is a fungle. That is a fungal
disease on your mayhaw. It is happening to the older
leaves because they've been there the longest. You know, the
new leaves may already have a fungal spore that's on them,
but it just hasn't reached the point where you're see
in this big old spot yet.

Speaker 1 (02:10:23):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:10:24):
I don't know the exact name of that particular fungus.
Mayhaw is in the apple family, so there's there's a
possibility that it could be something like black rod or
some other disease. But I would just consider you're gonna
have to find a you have to find a fungicide
labeled for fruit trees in general, because nothing's gonna say
mayhaw on the label. It's just too obscure of a

(02:10:47):
plant for any company to send the money to get
that added to the label. But I would get a
good a good fungicide, something with chlorothalonil in it, which
is a brand is called Dakanil, is generally good for that.
But let's see you are in channel view area. I
would just you might you might call the folks over

(02:11:10):
at Moss Nursery. I know that you're not right next
door to them, but that's close.

Speaker 14 (02:11:15):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:11:15):
And see what Moss Nursery has as far as the
fungicide for fruit tree foliage, and see what thinks. And
I would try using that. You're gonna need to do
it periodically. All those leaves that are on it that
look like that, go ahead and pick them off because
that's now just spore factories to create more spores. Anything
on the ground like that that's fallen off, pick it up,

(02:11:36):
get rid of it. You're just making the chances of
leaves getting sick. The less as you do that you're
not eradicate I see, Okay, the analogy I use on Yeah, well,
chlorothalonil is one or just the work just dacannil is
easier to remember. D A C O N I L

(02:11:59):
dak cone is one. But that is not the only one.
Boss is probably gonna have something else that you could use.
But like I said, it needs to be labeled for
fruit fruit trees.

Speaker 5 (02:12:09):
So that's all already great, all right, thank you so much,
skip good luck.

Speaker 4 (02:12:15):
So as we were saying, earlier. Now, I'm not going
to charge you for that advice, but I do love
Mayhaul Jelly and we'll accept the jar dropped off at
the station. At any point here, I'm hoping get you
a little ways away from Mayhawk Jelly. Yeah, I'm gonna
have to work a few years ago. Thank you, appreciate
your call. Thank you, thank you, Bye bye you bet

(02:12:39):
there you go. Uh yeah, you know, your local Ace
Hardware store has got all kinds of things like that.
In fact, I was, you know, visiting there with David.
He excuse me, that was the wrong Brian, Brian.

Speaker 1 (02:12:54):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:12:55):
Ace Hardware is going to be a place that you're
also going to find products for uh spray your plants
that you need to control pest weeds and diseases. It's
gonna be a place to get tools. I've bought a
little timer recently myself for a hose end timer. You
know the faucet on the side of the house. Put
a little timer on it. I got some sprinklers and stuff.
I am horrible about not turning the sprinklers off. I

(02:13:18):
turn them on. I think, yeah, I need to come
back in a few minutes. I don't And next thing,
you know I'm wasting water. Just go to ACE Hardware,
get you a little timer, hook it up, and it
makes it so convenient, so easy. In fact, you get
a nice timer, you can even set it to water
those plants on Monday or Wednesday and Friday. Some of

(02:13:39):
them even allow you to set times or how many
times during the day to water. Ace Hardware has all
the things you need, all the gadgets, all the products
for a beautiful lawn and a bountiful landscape and garden.
Ace Hardware Texas dot Com. Go to ACE Hardware Texas
dot com. Find your local Life Hardware store when you

(02:14:00):
go in there and tell them skip set high. Let's
head out to Willis. Now we're going to visit with
Rocky this morning. Hey Rocky, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 1 (02:14:11):
Good morning.

Speaker 4 (02:14:14):
Morning. How can we help?

Speaker 11 (02:14:17):
Yes, I had a problem with the yard. I said
some progos in I don't know if you have them.

Speaker 4 (02:14:25):
Uh is it Rocky? Is that the name it will
come out or the Oh?

Speaker 11 (02:14:29):
The the email is Roscoe Halterman email at gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:14:35):
I just go by Rocky.

Speaker 4 (02:14:36):
Yes, I've got it. Oh, yes, yes, I've got your photo.

Speaker 1 (02:14:39):
It looks terrible.

Speaker 11 (02:14:40):
Yeah, yeah, and that green blue grass that's growing up
in there right now, greenish.

Speaker 9 (02:14:47):
I don't know what.

Speaker 11 (02:14:47):
I've never seen this. My yard usually is in pretty
good shape. I took several pictures in one of the
area where it looks really nice.

Speaker 4 (02:14:56):
Yeah, it's not all about uh, well, that's good. What
you're looking at there, you're Saint Augustine is dying out,
most likely due to a disease called take all root rot.
And I can't just look at grass it's dead and
say what caused it. But I've been doing this enough
where that's most likely what caused it because of the

(02:15:17):
pattern of the dying. If you go to my website,
gardening with Skip dot com Gardening with Skip dot com,
find my publications, they're on there and they're in the
lawn section and probably the plant problem section also. But
take All Root Rot. There's two of them, and i'd

(02:15:38):
recommend reading them both. It tells you the options that
you have. It goes into detail on that, and so
I won't go into great detail here because you can
just print them out and you've got everything you need
to know. That's what it is. Now. What you're seeing
in there is bermuda grass that is taking over those areas.

(02:16:00):
Bermuda grass is almost impossible to get out of Saint Augustine.
There's some ways, but it's not easy. So I would
consider spraying those areas that are mostly dead with something
to kill everything to get that bermuda grass out of there,
so that when you put new Saint Augustine in to
get it going again, which you can do right away. Well,

(02:16:22):
a week after you spray, you can. You can mix
swell up and do it that it'll it'll not be
immediately infested with the bermuda grass.

Speaker 11 (02:16:34):
Okay, do I need the treat the soil or the
area with something.

Speaker 4 (02:16:40):
No, the only treating is done to plants that are sick.
By the way, I'm gonna have to put you on holder.
I'm just looking at the clock. I got to go
in about five seconds. If that's enough, you can hang up.
If not, you stick around and I'll pick you up
right when I come back. Rocky. Let's first of all,
welcome back to garden Line. This is not a normally

(02:17:00):
a call in play the music station, but hey, I'm
game to that too. We always need some good bumper music.
I send out to Willis, Texas and talk to Rocky
this morning. Hey Rocky, welcome to garden line.

Speaker 11 (02:17:13):
Hey, uh okay, I just had a couple other questions.
Will this keep spreading? Or how do I in the yard?
I just I'm not sure what to do about that.

Speaker 4 (02:17:25):
Oh gosh, Rocky, I'm sorry, my brain has been going.
I got all kinds of emails.

Speaker 11 (02:17:31):
The questions, look, rock and the blue is the August
or the bermuta coming in.

Speaker 4 (02:17:40):
The bermuda grass?

Speaker 9 (02:17:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:17:42):
So take all root right as an opportunist.

Speaker 1 (02:17:44):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:17:44):
It is in lawns that look fine. Uh, but when
the lawn gets weak, the disease gets the upper hand,
so to speak, and and you begin to see die
out and progression. So stresses, A drought stresses certain herbicides
that stress the grass. Extreme amounts of shade soul compaction
are all predisposing factors that take all a chance to

(02:18:09):
start killing your lawn. So to the degree you can
avoid the stresses, that is helpful. And then on the
schedule is it tells you what product do you use
and when to apply it. And fall is the most
important time if you're going to do a fungicide treatment.
For takeoll, it's the most important time to do it.
We would do it in October and I would do

(02:18:30):
it again in November, about a month apart. You can
also do a spring treatment, but you shouldn't have to
treat all the time for it. You get the lawn
back on its feet and you avoid the stresses and
it moves on from take all root rot. There's other
things in the publications like peat moss applications and stuff.

(02:18:51):
I had a lawn this year that a neighbor had
and when we did the peat moss application only and
got it back on its feet again, it growing. It
looks just fine now. But it's it's bottom line is
avoid stresses, alleviate stresses if you already have them, and
sometimes the funderside treatment itself to go right out the

(02:19:11):
disease itself.

Speaker 11 (02:19:13):
Okay, I'll follow the nitrofoss fertilization schedule.

Speaker 1 (02:19:17):
I mean, the yard looks really good.

Speaker 11 (02:19:18):
This just happened all at once in that one area,
and it seems like it's spread its spread out right.
So I don't know if maybe the water just doesn't
get enough water in that area because the rest of
the yard looks beautiful.

Speaker 4 (02:19:30):
Yeah, who knows. I mean, it could be different, It
could be different. Things. But the bottom line is, you know,
you're you're just alleviate the stresses and the way I
see it as a street going through there, between a
shrub and the little rock bed, it almost looks like
the water runs through that area.

Speaker 11 (02:19:53):
It does, water runs, it runs down that way, So.

Speaker 4 (02:20:00):
Normally I don't think of maybe so uh yeah, I
don't know, But that's just me staring at it and
you know, observing. But the bottom line is, try to
avoid the stressor. And you've if you've got the website up,
you got those publications, you read them, you'll understand this

(02:20:20):
creature and you'll know exactly how to go about it
and the different options that you have for turning things on.

Speaker 11 (02:20:27):
You've rid of that for I really just need to
kill that out and lay some new sad down.

Speaker 4 (02:20:32):
Yeah, that would just be a grass killer or an
everything killer. Uh you know kind of product, uh to
spray down to put a new sod because that is
a thick patch of bermuda. In fact, I would spray it.
I would let it's gonna take it a week before
you even hardly notice that it's working, and then give
it a little more time at least a week, and
then mix it up water real good, and wait because

(02:20:55):
you're gonna have some bermuda we sprout in there that
you missed, and make sure you get rid of that
before you in August and dale otherwise, Yeah, otherwise it's
just going to be uh yeah, spreading. And it may
even be in the in the healthy grouse over to
the side. I didn't look that close at the photo.

Speaker 11 (02:21:11):
Of it in the healthy bass too. Okay, Well, I
appreciate your health skift. You didn't Be've been very helpful.
I'll get aft here and get after it and just
keep water a little bit better and probably kill out
that bermuda, and ladies, goodt and make sure I keep
it water and keep following that permization schedule.

Speaker 1 (02:21:24):
I appreciate your show. You keep me out right in
the past.

Speaker 4 (02:21:29):
Well, good, thank you, appreciate the call very much. All right,
folks seven one three, two, one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
How can we help you to have success? That's what
we're here for. I often say, A bountiful garden and
a beautiful landscape. Nelson Water Gardens out in Katie, Texas.
It's a great place to go. Uh It is the

(02:21:52):
destination place out west of Houston. It's your West Houston
destination nursery. Let's just put it that way. Nelson Water Gardens,
of course they have everything that you might need for
water gardening of all types. But they also have a
wonderful nursery with lots of cool plants, lots of things
that can take the heat and really survive. Go out there,

(02:22:15):
bring the kids they can get They can feed the
fish for free out there and they will love doing
that at Nelson Water Gardens on Katie Fort Ben Road,
just north of Interstate ten out there in the Katie area.
For those of you done in League City, I haven't
talked about League City Feed today. League City Feed is

(02:22:35):
a wonderful feed store. It's that old time feed store
you know, you go in has the smell of a
feed store. Just love that fragrance in a feed store
you go in there. But when you're looking for things
for your garden and lawn, they've got the products a
full list. What are you fighting? You know you're fighting?
Take our ride. Are you fighting? Is it diseases or
fund fungus or insect? Do you need a quality fertilizer

(02:22:58):
or do you need bags of various products from heirloom soils.
They carry heirloom soils, several products there from heirloom soils,
right there at League City Feed. Now, if you haven't
been to League City Feed before, here's how you get there.
You first of all, of course, go to League City. Secondly,
you're going to go on Highway three, a few blocks

(02:23:22):
south of Highway in ninety six. So just go across
ninety six east to west head south on Highway three
and you'll be there. It's right there. So all of
you in that whole region down there, League City Feed.
Here's the phone number if you want to give them
a call. Two eight one three three two sixteen twelve.
Two eight one three three two sixteen twelve. I was

(02:23:46):
on my backyard this past week and I noticed my
bird feeders are empty from seed. Again. It's time to
get out there to take care of my poor birds
that are hungry. I'll tell you what's the most important
that you do for your birds, and that is give
them water. Right now, I have some containers of water

(02:24:07):
out that you know, I like five inches deep, and
I turn around they're dry again. If the birds need water,
it is hot, so give them good water and then
swing by Wildbirds Unlimited and grab some of their feather
Pro Super Blend. That's the blend for the season now
with the protein and fat the birds need as they're
going through molting and shedding feathers, getting new feathers in there.

(02:24:29):
It's a very susceptible time for birds too. By the way,
feather Pro Super Blend from wild Birds Unlimited go to
WBU dot com forward Slash Houston find the wild Birds
Unlimited store near you. WBU dot com forward Slash Houston

(02:24:50):
six stores to pick from all over the greater Houston area.
Let's take a little break here and we'll be right back.
Thanks for the laugh, Trevor.

Speaker 12 (02:25:01):
That is.

Speaker 4 (02:25:03):
Oh my gosh. You know, there's some things that I'm
not gonna put on the air, just not but people
are are are curious, right and anyway.

Speaker 1 (02:25:15):
Move on.

Speaker 4 (02:25:17):
You're listening to Guardline. We're here to help you with
gardening questions, and we got a little short segment left
here today. If you got a question, that'd be a
good time to call, or you can call me tomorrow
morning six am to ten am. We're here on garden
Line each Saturday and Sunday morning for those of you
listening on the radio, welcome KTRH seven forty am. For

(02:25:37):
those of you listening on your computers or on your
phones or whatever, you can listen via the radio link,
or you can get an app like the I Heart
Media app for example, that where you listen to podcasts.
Look for garden Line maybe on there. It is on
the I Heart Media app. I know that, and you
can listen to shows live. You can also listen to

(02:25:58):
past shows both on the app up and on your computer.
So if you go to the kr h's website, you
can listen to past garden Line shows. Maybe you heard
me say something today and you can't remember what was
it that he said, go back, just listen. The show
will be posted a few hours after we do them,
and you can do it that way as well. Makes
it real easy, plus for all seasons. A great garden center.

(02:26:22):
It's there on Tomball Parkway, which is FM two forty nine,
and you know, it's been around since the seventies, a
long time. These are folks that are truly professionals when
it comes to plants. You walk in there, you got
a question, you know, maybe you're bringing them a sick
plant or a picture or a leaf from something, and

(02:26:44):
you want information, they're going to be able to help you.
They know their stuff, They're going to be able to
help you. Perhaps you are wanting advice on plants for
a certain spot, you know, that shady spot or that
spot out front where you want some really good color.
They can help you with all of that. Right now,
all the cool tropical stuff is just it just looks

(02:27:06):
so good. There at Plants for All Seasons. That would
include beautiful fir and hanging baskets, that would include color,
different kinds of color, things for the shade and for
the sun. Certainly, their house plants section just keeps getting
better and better and better as we go on. Just
to sea if summer color and color options there at

(02:27:28):
Plants for All Seasons. Again, they are on Highway two
forty nine just north of Luetta, just north of Luetta
two eight one, three, seven six, sixteen forty six. Plants
for All Seasons dot com. That is the website. So
we were talking with someone earlier who's talking about the

(02:27:51):
Oh it was I think it was Rocky and Willis
that had the take all problems and he said he'd
been using the night Fross system in the yard, and
that's a good one to go by, you know, the
specifically right now, the super Turf nineteen four ten is
one that we keep talking about night foss super Turf

(02:28:12):
nineteen four ten as a slow release can give you
several months of release of those nutrients. Also from nitrofoss
at this point.

Speaker 9 (02:28:23):
In the year.

Speaker 4 (02:28:23):
A good one would be the Sweet Green. Sweet Green
is a natural based fertilizer that's not super slow release.
It does have to go into the soil. The microbes
turn it loose, but you're not going to wait long
to see some nice response from the sweet Green. It'll
carry all the way up to the fall application. Now
where do you get night foss, Well, the answers everywhere,
that's a fast answer. The longer answer is many, many

(02:28:47):
places like plants and things on Highway thirty six South
and Brnham or Lake Hardware both the one in Angleton
on Belasco North Alasco or the one include on Dixie Drive.
They carry those satin shoppings out on North Taylor and Alvin.
Another good place to get your nightro FoST products. Heating
and feed on Studenter Airline another good place. And then

(02:29:09):
Memorial Area Memorial drive. Specifically, Ace Hardware City is a
good place. Langham Creek Ase Harbor up on five point
twenty nine in the Copperfield Cypress area, as well as
both intended forests and in Chenning Gardens down there in
Richmond Rosenberg and Court Hardware in Stafford On, South Maine.

(02:29:30):
So I'm I'm just showing you there's a lot of
places I hadn't even begun to scratch surface on, all
the places that carry that kind of fertilizer. All right,
let's see here, Well, what kind of gardening questions do
you have. We're here to answer gardening questions and if
you've got a if you've got one, let's see, We've

(02:29:53):
got about three minutes left here, so it's pretty tight
on it. We'll be happy to try to fit you in.
I'm going to close out here with a couple of
tips as we go through this weekend, things you might
want to keep in mind. It is still a good
time to plant cool or warm season color. We have
so many plants that thrive in the heat as long

(02:30:15):
as you give them moisture. That's what they need is moisture.
But you give them that and they thrive in the heat.
Planted plamegos in front of my house this year. Beautiful
plavegos right now. But I'm watering them adequately.

Speaker 1 (02:30:27):
Now.

Speaker 4 (02:30:27):
Plamego is not a it's not a prima donna. It's
not going to like like a hydrogen. You don't water
it for a day, and it's like throwing a fit.
Plavegos are tough. But any plant you want to do,
it's best. You got to give it some water in
this heat. I mean, think about you and me. We're
sitting outside in the sun. We're not going to be
there long before we need to drink some water. We're
going to be at a world of trouble. And that's

(02:30:49):
how it is with your plants. Angelonia, probably my favorite
summer annual is Angelonia. It's just so darn tough, Madagascar perrie.
People call it vinca, another name mata esca, prairie win go.
I prefer that one, but whatever you want to call it,
it is a very summer tough plant, very very good.

(02:31:12):
Gets you some color. Summer landscapes become a sea of green,
green grass, green groundcover, green shrubs, green trees. Green is
a pretty color. Green is not the only color. Get
some foliage to have beautiful color too. A lot of
things don't bloom as well in the summer, or bloom
at all in the summer. There spring and fall.

Speaker 5 (02:31:30):
Maybe.

Speaker 4 (02:31:31):
By the way, when you're designing your landscape, always include
foliage because it's a dependable color addition. And always include
fall bloomers plants that bloom in the fall. There are
plants that wait until the day length gets short, and
that's when the color starts to appear. An example everybody

(02:31:52):
knows is point seta. Now we don't grow point SETAs
all through the landscape much here, but point SETA doesn't
get color until the day length gets shorter. So what
about some plants like that? Copper canyon daisy is a
good one. There is a salvia called Salvia regla. Regla

(02:32:15):
is in regal. It's mountain sage is another name for it.
It blooms in the fall fall aster gorgeous blooms. Mexican marigold.
It's an herb that has It's a substitute for terragun
from an herb standpoint, but in fall it sends up
shoots and has pretty yellow flowers on top. Another salvia

(02:32:36):
or late summer and fall blooming. A really good show
is pineapple sage that looks good. Plants and those things.
You can have color in the fall too. Keep your plants,
keep your landscape looking good by following a few of
those tips. We'll be around tomorrow morning at six o'clock.

(02:32:56):
I hope you'll be here. I promise to show up.
I don't know about you at six am in the morning.
I don't know. It takes is a couple of cups
of coffee and I have both eyes wide open, and
who knows what I'm gonna say. All right, thanks for
hanging out with us. Oh, by the way, I'm gonna
be at the Houston Rose Society meeting today. Now. It's
open to the public, so if you would like to go,

(02:33:19):
you're welcome to go. You can go to the Facebook
page of Houston Rose Society and you can hear me live.
It'll be broadcast on Facebook. Or you can just show
up at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church on Heights Boulevard in
the Heights, Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church. I'll be two pm.
Two pm. That's when you need to be there.