Pruning Fine Tuning

Skip Richter answers your questions all morning long!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skimp Richards.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
The basis in the gas gas can use a trim.
Just watch him as well, God Gas began you are
so many good takes, the soap boppets in the bay.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Bringing the grasses like gas, and began you date smost
globos back agad not a sound, the glasses and.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Gas and.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
The sun themon of great pit in the gas, he said,
gas by can you must starting.

Speaker 5 (00:45):
Out bringing in the gasses like.

Speaker 6 (00:47):
Guess became you date.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Everything is so clean and see and never thing is song.

Speaker 5 (00:57):
Had the tram. Hey, good morning, gardener, let's talk gardening

(01:24):
this morning. Welcome to garden Line. By the way, I'm
your host, skip Rick here. We're here to help you
have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape and more
fun in the process. And as important as the first
two are, don't forget that third one. Gardening is supposed
to be fun.

Speaker 7 (01:40):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
It can be fun. As we learn to see things
from a plant's point of view. Suddenly we see this
beautiful plant in the garden center and we think, oh
my gosh, look at the picture on that tag. Those
roses are gardens. I gotta have this one, and you
bring it home and you actually get a healthy, vibrant
bush that produces roses for you. Isn't that what we want,

(02:03):
how we want it to end up. That's what makes
it fun. And the secret to get from that plant
in the garden center to success at your garden is
providing the rose what it wants. Seeing things from the
roses point of view, the rose is gonna say, by
the way, I'm talking roses because hey, Valentine's Day around
the corner. What the rose is gonna say is I
want sunshine. That is like number one on my list,

(02:27):
lots of sunshine six hours at least, give me six
hours and I'll give you a nice show of roses.
I want good drainage. I don't want to sit in
a swamp when it rains too much, as it does,
and that's part of the state quite a bit. And
I want good nutrients in the soil. I am gonna
spend lots of energy producing roses for you to enjoy,

(02:51):
and I need a lot of energy to do that.
I need leaves in sunshine, and I need vigorous growth
so that I can produce more and more and more leaves.
To be able to fuel more and more roses for you.
So that's what we need. We need moisture in the soil,
we need nutrients in the soil, extra boost and nitrogen
to keep things growing along. And you'll get your roses
out of the deal. And that's kind of as simple

(03:13):
as roses are well. I mean, there's a lot of other.

Speaker 8 (03:16):
Things to it.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
You know, you get some diseases, you get some insects
that can invade and whatnot, But by and large, it's
a matter of just giving the rose bush what it wants.
That is exactly how this works out in the landscape.
You know, we're coming out of winter pretty quick here,
and our trees that are deciduous are still dormant. You

(03:37):
can look up and see there's not a sign of growth,
just jet on them. But it's coming. But it's time
to get those trees looked at and pruned. While someone
who knows trees, like Martin spoon More from Affordable Tree,
they can look up and they can see the branches,
they can look at the angles of the branches, they
can look at any potential broken limbs, diseased tissues up
in there, and go ahead and go out and get

(04:00):
get them cleaned up, get them right, get them pruned
in a way that creates the best branch strength possible
for the season ahead, That keeps your tree healthy, that
gives you the shade or flowers or whatever you're growing
that tree for that you want, and it makes sure
that when summer storms come, you've done all you can
to try to make that tree as resilient as possible.

(04:22):
And remember, tree pruning isn't just for old trees. The
sooner you start pruning and taking care of a tree,
the stronger its branch structure is going to be, and
the better of a tree it's going to be in
the longer lived and longer it's going to serve you
with why you planted the tree. Mostly in the case
of trees, it's shade. But there's a lot of nice
blooming trees out there. Affordable Tree knows how to do it.

(04:44):
You can call Martin seven to one three six nine
nine two six six three seven one three six nine
nine twenty six sixty three. Get your trim trees trimmed
the right way at the right time by an expert.
Call Martin now get on a schedule for that. For
that schedule fills up. We are in the big middle

(05:05):
of pruning season right now, and this time, remember every
tree prunes, you're gonna get a free deep root feeding
on that tree. So another reason to call Martin now
get that done. I was down in the garden show
yesterday at the Energy and we had a really good time.
Appreciate everybody that came out. Got to meet a lot

(05:26):
of garden Line listeners and that's always the fun part.
I've been able to do that and visit with you guys,
take a look at pictures and samples and whatnot, and
get down to the diagnosis of it all. So that
was good. I can tell that people are feeling spring coming.
You know that it's it's not too long and we're
gonna this week's warm weather is going to tell plants

(05:49):
wake up. It's like an alarm clock going off for
your plants. And when that happens, you're going to see
the blooms and the growth coming and oh my gosh,
everybody becomes a gardener overnight. It seems like that happens,
and that's a good thing.

Speaker 9 (06:02):
We like that.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
But just remember that you need to provide your plants
the soil that they need to have success. That is
the secret to success. You got vegetables, you're going to plant,
maybe some tomatoes. You got flowers, you want a plant.
I know it's still time. Plant and trees and shrubs.
You need to get those in the ground sooner the better.
And it's all about the soil. It's all about giving

(06:25):
a plant what it wants, right. Seeing things from a
plant's point of view, and a plant says, most plants say,
I don't want to be in a swamp. I want
soil that drains well. Give me a raised bed. Most
plants that are woody shrubs and trees, that is, they say,
I want to live in a forest, And in a
forest there's leaves all over the ground decaying year after year.
Getting rich, rich soil with a nice mult of leaves

(06:45):
on the surface, that's what I want. We'll give them that.
You can do that. Get a good bed mix, get
a good compost mix, put it in the soil, loosen
it up in a large area for that shrub row
that you're putting in, make sure it's raised up a
little bit, and then cover it all up with a
mulch on top. No weeds. When the sunlight cannot hit
the soil of the weed seeds are not going to
be a problem. Now perennial weeds, that's a different thing.

(07:09):
We can talk about those two. That's something different. But
you want to take care of these things and make
sure that they're doing their very best. Growers Outlet up
there in Willis is for those of you who are
in the Lake Conroe area, the Conrow area, of course Willis,
knew Averley, that whole region up there. Growers Outlet's your
hometown garden center. And the website's easy, and you need

(07:33):
to go to the website because there's a lot of
information there you're going to need, like what's the phone number,
how do I get there? Where is it? Well, I'll
tell you it's just south of Willis on seventy five.
But they also have a listing of availability on the website.
It's a very unusual thing that they would put availability
up there on the website, but they do. And so
you can check out. Oh, they got the beautiful giant

(07:54):
ferns in they're ready to go this week. I got
to get over there and get one. They have shrubs
and trees, they have veggies, you know, herbs, a big
beautiful hanging baskets, gorgeous flowering hanging baskets, a lot of
things that they grow in house. Got a nice little
gift shop in there as well. And while you're there,
you're gonna be able to pick up your microlife and
your nitrophoss and your Medina fertilizers and be off to

(08:18):
a good start. And here's the website. It's so easy
to remember. What's the website for growers outletting Willis Growers
Outlet in Willis dot com. Can't get simpler than that. Again,
Highway seventy five, just south of Willis. Let's take a
little break and we'll be back in a moment. By
the way, if you need to give a skull seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Hey,

(08:41):
welcome back, Welcome back to garden Line folks. Good to
have you with us this morning. Nice Sunday morning. I
hope you're enjoying yourself out there, getting some eyes open
with a cup of coffee or whatever it takes in
the morning to get you up and moving. Some people
are morning people. They wake up bouncy, happy and ready

(09:02):
to go. If you're not a morning person and you
live with a morning person, Oh my goodness, bless your heart.
That's a rough thing. It's a rough thing first thing
in the morning. But we're glad you're here. I'll kind
of keep it calm and quiet for us until we
get about a fully awake and everything. You're listening to

(09:22):
Garden Line and we're here to answer your gardening question,
so feel free to give me a call if you'd like.
We can answer the questions that you have. Growers outlet.
I was talking about them a while ago. They have
a series of classes coming up. The first class is
on the sixteenth of February, so that's right around the corner,

(09:44):
isn't it. On the sixteenth of February. Medina Garden Products
is going to be there. They got fifteen seats still available.
You can revitalize your garden beds for success. And I
suspect this is probably Andy coming to get the class.
Excellent Andy Cheddester. It will be tips on jump starting

(10:04):
your lawn and your garden after this winter. And she
knows a lot. I've known Andy since good Night Knows
a long time ago. We were both in the Greater
Austin area at one time in my life. And Andy
and I have known each other for a long time.
I'm Taya. She knows what she's talking about, and this
will be a great class. You will love her, I promise.
At Grower's Outlet up in Willis, just seventy five, just

(10:27):
south of Willis. Up there again, February sixteenth. By the way,
it's at ten am now. Attendance is free, but seating
spaces are limited, so we've got fifteen spaces left. If
you're listening up in the Willis area or Conroe, like Conroe,
anywhere up there, you need to go ahead and get
a hold of the folks at the Grows Outlet so

(10:48):
you can get your spot reserved. I looking at the
weather this week, I was just trying to predict this,
So when are we going to start seeing, you know,
the first signs of spring. And every part of the
country has its first signs. If you came from the Midwest,
or if you came from the north, the East coast
and stuff, you probably know Forsythia, the yellow blooming plant

(11:12):
that screams spring before most things are screaming spring. It's
an early bloomer for them up there. And we have
our own, you know, versions of that, things that come
out a little early here depends on where you live
and what kind of plants you're talking about. The wildflowers
are always a big deal. They when they start to
billow up on the road sides, even before they get
the like the blue bonnets get their blue flowers. You

(11:34):
can see the plants as a dark green, beautiful plants,
almost bluish green that blow up on the roadsides. And
you know spring is in the air, and that we
have some plants that like to sleep in and they
are they're very conservative, and I would I guess you
could say they're very smart because they've been in Texas

(11:55):
for a long time and they know that, Yeah, sometimes
it seems like spring, but it's not. And so that
would be something like a pecan of a con a
native tree, the state tree of Texas, when it starts
to warm up in the spring, it said, I'm gonna
hold on here and just make my decision in a

(12:15):
little bit here. I'm not quite ready yet. And that's
a good thing because you send out your leaves and
stuff and then get a late freezer, frost or something
that hits them. Of course it's a loss. So pecans
are slow to wake up when they get going. We
have other planes in our landscape that just want heat.
They're they're not being conservative about frost. They're just like,

(12:36):
I don't like cool. You know, when you're wearing shirts
sleeve shirts, they're wearing long sleeve shirts because they don't.
They want to be warmer than that. And example of
that would be the Pride of Barbados, Redbird of Paradise.
That that one's a slow one to wake up in
the spring. And we got some others that are like

(12:57):
that as well, and so we kind of have to
our plants. There was once a book written, a book book.
I think it's a book called Coincide. I believe it's
the name of it, and it was it was all
about timing everything based on the plants around us. So
like you put your such and such down on the
lawn when pecan leaves are as big as a mouse's ear,

(13:21):
or you do this when dogwoods bloom, and I think
that was a good way to approach it. You know,
we tend to go by the calendar in our lives,
so we say, well, you need to fertilize in these
months or at this time of the month or whatever,
and that's fine, we can do that, but you know,
every year is different and so when the plants, the

(13:42):
weather will affect the plants, and the plants will respawn differently,
and exactly when a plant begins to do what it
does could be different each year. I'm not going to
be months apart, but you may you may have a
week or two a difference, and when you see something
sooner or later than normal. So kind of learned to
watch your plants too, that's a good thing. We can

(14:04):
also look for signs like the pollen shed. You know
how it is with pine tree pollen when that arrives,
and then the oak pollen and other things those are
hard to miss. The pine tree is hard to miss.
You get all this yellow stuff all over the cars
and whatnot. So you can use those signs as well
to kind of time the activities that you're going to

(14:25):
be doing out there in the garden and the lawn.
Right now, I would just say it is a good
time to build soil, because it's always a good time
to build soil. But we got summer planting coming up.
You know, you're going to be putting your tomatoes and
you're going to be putting your your petunias and marigolds,
and other kinds of flowers like that. You're going to
be putting a new lawn in to an area, now,

(14:46):
it'd be a time to get things ready. So when
you can, you just jump right in. What happens a
lot of times is you think, well, I'm going to
next week, I'm going to prepare the soil so I
can you fill in the blank, plant whatever, And then
here comes rain, and it rains, and it rains, and
just about time quitch raining. And then you think the
soil is getting dry enough to actually get out there

(15:08):
and work in it where I'm not in the mud
a mud pit, and the here comes another rain, and
so your planting gets put off. If you prepare the
soil when the sun is shining and the soil is
a good moisture content, then you're ready when the rain comes.
And don't trust the Houston area rainfall the vicissitudes of

(15:31):
nature to the wort or to be dependable. In other words,
when when you want a plant, do it now. So
Ciena Maltch they've got it or southe Houston. They are
on FM five twenty one. I talk about them all
the time. Sienna Multch dot com. I was talking to
somebody the other day and they were saying, yeah, we
get all our stuff at Cena Maltch, and you know,

(15:54):
I was just commenting on how fun it is to
go out there because the folks out there are so friendly,
so nice, and they were Yep, yep, that's right, that's
how they are. You go to Cianamalts and you're going
to find top quality compost, top quality bed mixes, even
carry the veggie nerd mix from Airloom Soils. They have
everything you need and they have every fertilizer that I

(16:16):
talk about here on Garden Line, they carry it. It's
the Anamalts. They make sure that if it comes to
making your soil a place where plants can be successful,
that's what they're going to carry. And that's what they
do carry. It's the animals. They also carry vego beds.
If you want one of those raised garden beds, they've
got them there. You can in fact go out there
and look, they got one set up that you can

(16:37):
see in the store. They've got all kinds of cool
things from soaps and candles and pottery and whatnot. They
have good tools available there for gardening, good quality am
Leonard tools is just a one stop shop. Now you
can have them deliver for a fee within about twenty
miles of the location. But just go to the website
check out and find out more. Sienna Bults dot com,

(17:01):
Sienna Mulch dot com. I was tugging with some folks
over the weekend at the Garden Show. We were talking
about planting and we were discussing Genesis, which is the
Nelson plant food product. That is, it's a nutrient, but
it's not just nutrients. You know, you can buy fertilizers

(17:25):
of all types from Nelson's and other people that have
different ratios of nutrients in them. But this also has macariza,
bacteria and other fungi that benefit what we call the
soul microbiome. That's just the world down there in the sort.
It's the zoo that lives in the soil, if you
want to think of it that way, zoo of animals
and fungi and things. I'm telling you Genesis, your plants

(17:50):
will respond to it. And I say that because I
use it and I've seen the results of what it does.
It is an excellent product. You just think of Genesis
as what you use to get a new plant started.
That's the best way to think about it. If you're
going to bump up a tomato into a bigger container,
mix Genesis into the soil in that next container size.

(18:11):
If you're going to put in a rose bush or
something else in the ground, mix Genesis into that soil
as you're refilling the hole around the root system of
the plant. It'll get it off to a good start.
And then as it gets growing and season goes on,
you can grab your color Star, your nature Star, your
nutri Star, all the other lines from folks at Nelson
and you can finish up with that. But you got

(18:33):
to get started on the right foot. I like to say,
you want your plants to hit the ground running, and
that is exactly what Genesis will do for you. It
comes in jars, and so it's real simple and easy
to get found all over town. Easy to find. Nelson
plant food products are all easy to find, and Genesis
there's no exception to that. Let's take a break, we'll

(18:54):
be right back. Like this song has a lot of lyrics.
Here comes it. There you go, that's the whole nine
yards right there, all right, welcome back to guard Line. Hey,
good have you with us? You got a gardening question, Well,
gimme a call seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty

(19:17):
eight seventy four. Happy to visit with you about whatever
kinds of things you want to ask about. It is
spring time. We've got a lot of people asking questions
about lawns, especially, you know, when how do I prevent weeds?
I got weeds in the lawn? How do I get
rid of them?

Speaker 8 (19:30):
And all that.

Speaker 5 (19:31):
Just remember we're at the big, big peak time of
doing something now about weeds in the lawn. So here
here are your options. Option one for the weeds that
are in your lawn already is to pull them up. Now,
some of you are looking at a lawn that's more
weed than lawn, and you're going you got to be
kidding me. Okay, Well that's you. That's your yard, you

(19:54):
get to call it. But in mine, I've got a
scattering of weeds. You always have a few weeds here
and there, just kind of along with the territory, and
I just pull them up. That's simple enough when the
soil is moist. Depending on the kinds of weeds, some
have a taproots, some don't have more of a fiber
spreading root system. But you can get them up. That's
that's not that difficult to do. Options to option too,

(20:15):
is to sprite now. If you were on to prevent
all the weeds of summer, now's the time you put
down a pre emergent herbicide to do that. If your
lawn is thin, if sunlight is hitting the soil, if
weeds have been a continual problem for you, a pre
emergent herbicide is probably in order for that. If you
want to knock that out. The goal is to build
a dense lawn and not have to do that, to

(20:36):
have a liwn that blocks the light from hitting the
soil surface and shuts the weeds down itself. But for now,
that may be something you need to do, and there
are products out there like barricade that can do exactly
that barricade from nitrophoss. The weeds that are existing are
already starting, some of them already starting to bloom and

(20:58):
set seat, and with this week's war whether they will
be taking off and moving forward fast. If you're going
to have to spray them, you got to spray them
now with a post emergent broadlyf weed control killer, because
once they start blooming and setting seed. They've become we say,
reproductive blooming and setting seed, and they're more difficult to control.

(21:19):
Plus you're already going to have seeds that have developed
and formed on the plant, and the spray won't kill
those seeds. So if you wait until a weed has
one hundred seeds or a thousand seeds, and there's some
that produce more than that, then you're just you're just
sentencing yourself to more problems next fall. So get them

(21:40):
out now before the seeds are at the very least
with your first mowing. When you finally need to get
out there and mow, you need to set them over
down lower and put a bagger on it and catch
as much of the debris as you can and maybe
get some of the seeds out that way. But now
is a very opportunit tune time for preventing weeds and

(22:02):
getting rid of the existing ones that you have. So
just keep that in mind, so go forward here. That
is important to know in Chenne Gardens is one of
those garden centers where people drive from a long way
to get there because it is an amazing place. It's
all kinds of cool stuff going on and in Chana Gardens.
They've got a stock of plants that is just outstanding,

(22:24):
and they are starting to just fill those benches to
the hill. You know, if you've been there before, I
mean it's plants from eye to eye, from horizon to horizon.
The herbs are looking good out there right now. Lots
of great cool seasoned vegetables and some warm seasoned vegetables
coming in. And then excellent, just excellent educational opportunities and

(22:45):
classes that they have out there coming up on Saturday
February fourteenth, what day that is anyway, Saturday February fourteenth
at in Chenne Gardens, ten am to three pm. Love
is in the air. Go out and plant a succulent
container for someone for Valentine's Day. And people love succulents.

(23:09):
They're a hot item right now, and they have a
whole array of succulents that you can use. A staff
will be there to answer your questions and teach you
how to put it together. And you can create a
beautiful little succulent container. And if you know, if you
don't want to give it us a gift, go do
it for yourself. But that's out there, you know, you
got to call them out there. Let them know you
want to come to that. Find out the details, what

(23:29):
does this cost and so on, because you're going to
be getting the supplies you need to create this succulent container.
So make sure and sign up, go out, go out there,
or just let's do this. Why don't you go to
the website, by the way, in Chenna Gardens is on
FM three fifty nine on the Katie Fullshoer side of Richmond.
Go to their website here. It is enchanted Gardens Richmond

(23:50):
dot com in Chennigardensrichmond dot com and get signed up
for that. You don't want to miss that for sure.
You are listening to garden Line. If you have a
gardening question that I can help you with, I would
love to do that. You need to give me a call.
It's seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
Let's talk. Let's get to the bottom of this. You

(24:12):
can bring your plants with you you to the radio too,
by the way, they will get greener if you have
them in the room when you're listening to garden Line.
At least that's what that's what I have heard. All right, Hey,
Nature's Way Resources. They are the premiere producer from history

(24:32):
past of organic materials to make your yard, your garden
and better your plants happier. From a long time ago.
Many things were invented there. Crew are born there, as
I like to say, at Nature's Way Resources. It's on
Aner State forty five north up toward Conro. Now you
can go up there. You can get bulk, you get

(24:53):
bags up there, and they have a native plant nursery
which is really worth checking out. It's a they have
a good selection of native plants up there, but their
bags are available at a lot of other places.

Speaker 10 (25:06):
You know.

Speaker 5 (25:06):
You can go to Ace Hardware and Memorial Drive, Nelson
Water Gardens out there and Katie carries them. I know
Southwest Fertilizer and both of the enchanted Jenny Forests and
Channa Richmond carry Nature's waste soils and products up north
two forty nine plants for all seasons, all seasons. Ace
Hardware Way up in Willis. I was there a while back.
Ace Hardware in the Woodlands, J and R's Ace and

(25:28):
Porter at Tascasda Ace and Hardware, and also up northeast
K and M. Ace Hardware and Kingwood carries the products
from Nature's Way Resources. Also, I know Bearings on Businet
got like twenty palettes of Nature's Way Resources bags the
other day. Wabash feed received a palette this week Central

(25:50):
Rock and Malts that's at Yale and I ten. Now
they have just the leaf mole compost, but they have
it in bulk. So if you're kind of in the
city there, Central Rock and It's at Yale and I
ten carries Nature's Way leaf mold compost in bulk. So
that's another good thing. For the full list of places
you can get Nature's Way Resources, go to their website,
nature's Way Resources dot com and look at all the

(26:13):
great products that they have. They will be happy to
visit with you and to help you find a product
that is going to be best for whatever you're trying
to grow, whether it's a little herb container or whether
it's a fruit tree orchard. They've got you covered. Let's
take a little break and we will be back. And
I feel like I just got transported back to the seventies.

(26:34):
I mean, there you go. Hey, welcome back to garden Line.
Good to have you with us. We are here to
help you have success, that is the bottom line, and
to enjoy yourself. And make gardening one of your favorite hobbies,
if not already, make it a better hobby, a more
fun hobby for you, because it should be. It's a

(26:56):
cool thing. I mean, where else can you just see
a constant chance at renewal, a fresh start every time
you turn around. Every season is different, every every week
it's different. Where can you take some little piece of
detritis in your hand happens to be a tomato seed,
put it in the ground, and suddenly you've got ketchup,

(27:19):
You've got slicing tomatoes, You've got dried tomatoes. You've got
I mean, you grew it yourself and you get to
eat it. Oh my gosh. If you don't grow vegetables
this spring, you need to start growing vegetables. It is
so fun. I don't know what you like to eat.
Maybe you are a fan of greens like kale, for example,

(27:39):
and spinach and what gosh, I just went blank collars
and lettuce and arugula and all these kind of greens.

Speaker 10 (27:48):
Go for that.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
Maybe you don't like kale. I heard a sportscaster I
promise this happened on TV. Sportscaster on TV said they
were talking about kale and he said, I got a
good kale recipe. He goes you get. You get a
cookie and you spray it with PAM to make it slippery,
and you and coat it and you put the kale
leaves on it, and you put them in the oven
and you bake them just long enough for them to
turn crispy. You bring them out, you spray them with

(28:12):
olive oil on top, and then sprink them when with
salt so that the salt sticks to the kal leaves.
And then you go over to the trash and tilt
the pan and it all slides right off in the dry.

Speaker 7 (28:23):
Ah.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
You had me going anyway, Maybe you don't like kale,
all right, We're not gonna make you kill which you
should trust me. It's good for smoothies too. You don't
even know it's kale in there. That's good for you.
What do you want to grow? Grow something this year?
You want to grow? If you only like one or
two things, well, then grow one or two things. It's
your yard, it's your mini farm. Your farm could be

(28:45):
a container in the back patio. It could be a
bunch of containers down the driveway if you don't hit
them with the car. Where have you got sunlight. Let's
grow some vegetables, and you need to get some products
that will help you have a boost for those vegetables.
One that I recommend you use is hash to grow
plant food. It's a six twelve six. It's good for

(29:06):
watering in transplants. That's by the way, it's from the
folks at Medina. Astrogro six twelve six has that high
phosphorus content, so when you water a new transplant in
with it, you get that phosphorus down to the root system.
It's very important in developing a good strong root system.
And I'll do it at planting in a week apart
twice more a week apart after that. But there are

(29:27):
a lot of other good products. If you like guarding
in a more organic way, then their fish blend. The
fish blend is an excellent product, as is liquid seaweed.
You put those two together, organic gardeners known for a
long time, fish emotion and seaweed together make a good combo.
And that certainly is absolutely true. But then what about
your lawn. How about the Hash to grow lawn. It's

(29:51):
an eight or excuse me, a twelve four to eight
lawn food. That's the blend that's the nutrient ratio that
is what the grass plant is going to take up
is three as much nitrogenous phosphorus and twice as much
potassium three one two ratio twelve four eight is exactly
that from Hash to Grow. It comes in a gallon
and it comes into court. Get the quarto, get up

(30:13):
to your garden host, go to town on the lawn.
It will give your results. When you're done with that,
go buy a gallon because you can refill that quart
if you want to, and just keep using the applicator
that comes on the court. So it's just a tip,
but hey, I'm just saying it works really well. And
there's many other products from Medina that are super super products.

(30:34):
They do an excellent job of making products for the lawn.
They have liquids, they have granulars, they have products for
everything you want to grow from the lawn to the
vegetables and flowers and whatnot. Just go online and check
out their product. Go back and get the original Medina
Soil Activator, that's the one that made them famous. And
then they added Medina Plus, which has Medina Soil Activator,

(30:55):
but some micros and some other really cool stuff that
will make plants respond from the folks at Medina, and
they're available all over the place, not hard finding Medina
in the greater Houston area and far far beyond that.
By the way, they are a Texas company out there
in Hondo, Texas, on the other side of San Antonio.
Been through there many times. Have you guys seen the

(31:18):
sign as you go out inter State ten? Is this
still there? I need to ask Andy to she'll know,
but it said this is God's country, don't drive through
it like hell. There is actually a sign, was a
sign there for years. I haven't been out there in
a while, but anyway, some of you may know. Maybe
you are trucker and drive that way. Let me know.

(31:40):
Let's go out to the phones. We're going to head
to Katie now and talk to Henry this morning. Well, hello, Henry,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (31:47):
Good morning, Skipped. I'm just what's your recommendation. I did
some major pruning on my azalea bushid, maybe up to
west half of its size. And your recommendation when I
should do that?

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Well, normally, you know, we do a majority of our
printing and wintertime on plants in general, but azelias are
spring bloomers primarily, and so if you wanted to wait
and enjoy the flowers and then as they fade, go
in and do your pruning, you could do that. That
would be fine. If you wanted to do a little
bit now, maybe you got some big old, long, gangly

(32:27):
shoots going out well, you know, one way or the other,
that could be trimmed back. You could do a little
bit now and then after bloom come back and do
some more. But it's kind of up to you on that.

Speaker 11 (32:40):
Okay, it's kind of it's been wind whipped and it's
really scraggly looking, and I think in order to get
it back to where it's going to be a good
full plant again, I think those long ones need to
come down now. I don't want to do it if
it's gonna be a good interrupted. You know, if you
think it's bad time to do it.

Speaker 5 (33:01):
Well, it's just that if there are if it's gonna bloom,
the buds are sitting there on those branches, the scraggly
branches you have, the buds are on them. So I
would say, enjoy the blooms and then prune it, or
you could print it now. If the plant is weak,
if the plant is weak, it's not going to come
back as strong after pruning. It just doesn't have the

(33:21):
energy to do it. But if it's in decent shape,
you should get good regrowth on it and you can
cut it way back then follow that up with a fertilizer.
Get you a good application of a fertilizer for acid
loving plants. I like to use the one that microlife
has that's designed for acid loving plants. It's a it's
a reddish pink bag micro Life six two four in

(33:42):
a reddish pink bag. It's it's for acid loving plants
scattered around. You're not going to burn your elies with it.
I would. I would do that after you prune, just
go ahead and put the microlife down and as things
warm up, microbes will turn those nutrients loose. I would
probably fertilize them about two or three times, maybe eight
weeks apart, a couple of months apart, starting now and

(34:05):
going on into summer, to get those things vigorous and healthy.
Since you've after you've done your pruning.

Speaker 11 (34:12):
Okay, okay, well, thanks very much for your help.

Speaker 8 (34:15):
Skip. I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (34:17):
You had Henry, thanks a lot, appreciate it. Cal all right,
there you have it. If you elect to give me
a calls seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one two five eight
seven four, be happy to visit with you. Hey, guess
we're I'm going to be next Saturday. I'm going to
be at the Montgomery Lifestyle Home Show in Conroe at

(34:38):
the Conra Hyatt. It's up there, like Conra area. I'll
be there. That's Saturday the fourteenth. This is always a
great show. I love going to it. I'm gonna tell
you more about it here in a little bit, but
I love going to the show. I'll be there from
twelve noon to two pm answering gardening questions. I have
some copies of my book on hand. I will also

(34:59):
be talking briefly about some gardening tips for those of you.
So if you were in the Lake Conroe area or
anywhere around that from Montgomery on up to Willis and whatnot,
just come on out there Montgomery. It's called the Montgomery
Lifestyle Home Show up at the Conroe Hyatt Show. I'll

(35:19):
tell you more about that when we get back a
little bit. If you have not downloaded your lawn care schedules,
from my website. Go get them now. Gardening with Skip
dot com. That's the website Gardening with Skip dot com
and download. There's a pest disease and weed schedule, and
there is a lawn care schedule that's more about making

(35:42):
the long grow. The other one's about dealing with all
the things that I want to get in the way
if you having a beautiful lawn.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip Richard.

Speaker 8 (35:53):
It's so.

Speaker 12 (36:00):
Trim.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Just watch him as well. So many things to suit blacks.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
Great gas again, you're not a sign.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
The sun bean and down between starting gas.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Everything so clean.

Speaker 5 (36:41):
See all right, folks, Hey we're back. Welcome back to
garden Line. Good to have you with us. Let's talk gardening.
It is spring, spring has sprung and it is time.
I know, and I know we just barely got out
of a freeze. But trust me, we're we're doing good here.
I can't for sure that we're not going to have

(37:01):
any more freezes. I'm gonna believe we're not gonna have
any more freezes. That is what I'm thinking. Okay, I
know the odds are slightly against that prediction, not much,
but a little bit. Most years. Depends on where you
live too. If you're done, like if you look at
the data, whether data from Don Houston Hobby, we're done, well,

(37:24):
almost completely done, if you look at the data from
intercoon netal and a little bit later, a little bit
later than not. But that's okay. Listen, When gardening arrives,
you got an option here. When I'm going to win
spring arrive, you have an option here. So if you wanted,
let's say, to plant tomatoes, and you're trying to decide
when can I plant tomatoes? We can plant tomatoes anytime

(37:44):
you want. They're your tomatoes. But when can I safely
plant tomatoes? Well I have to ask you a question,
what do you mean by safely? Because if if you
absolutely do not want to lose a tomato, if you
are very conservative with those gardening dollars, and if you
want to know when you can plant where the dangers

(38:07):
or the danger of frost or loss is minimal, well
you got to wait a little while. We're not there yet.
By any means, I can tell people that are on
that conservative end of the gardening world because they wear
a belt and suspenders just in case you know what
I'm saying. They got a backup. Well, if that's you
hang on this way. But let me tell you this

(38:30):
ours made a season is short compared to further northern
parts of the country. And you think, yeah, but north
it stays co longer in the spring and gets cold
sooner in the fall. I know, But they got this
long summer where they can grow things. You can have
tomatoes that take eighty something days to reach harvest, and
they get a good season out of them because their

(38:51):
summers aren't quite as hot, quite as long, quite as humid.
And you know, even the night's so hot up there,
you know, as they are down here for as long.
So for us, we have to get our spring crop
in and then we can get a fall crop in.
And there are a few tomatoes that'll go through summer,
primarily those that are small fruited, so cherry tomatoes and

(39:15):
grape tomatoes set fruit in hotter weather than your big,
old slicer tomatoes will set fruit.

Speaker 8 (39:23):
And so the.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
Earlier you get a tomato in, and the more mature
that plant is when you put it in, the sooner
you begin to get tomatoes because the days when they
quit setting are coming soon. And you got a window
there to get the most out of So that's why
I plant early. I can go buy another plant if

(39:46):
I need to Listen, This isn't like I'm trying to
survive just on gardening. I'm gardening for fun. Okay. Plus
I get the nice, healthy vegetables that I grew myself.
I know what hazard hasn't been placed on the vegetables.
I know how they were grown. I know the farmer.
The farmer's me. Even if you have a container in
the back patio, you're the farmer, all right. So when

(40:07):
you're gonna do that, you don't get a good early
start and grow your tomatoes that way, get them going
as fast as you can. I just said it's a
little early to put a tomato out because probably going
to have another frost. The chances of it on the
average are up there. But buy them and plant them
if you want, go for it, have fun with them,

(40:28):
protect them during the cooler, chilly nights that we got
to have some more of those coming. But go ahead
and get them out there. Or you can do what
I do. And here's what I do. I got some
tomatoes just yesterday, okay, and I brought them home. They're
medium sized, little plants, you know, nothing giant or anything
like that, but minor going into now a one gallon

(40:49):
bucket container, and I'm going to put them under my lights.
I've got lights that I grow under. If I didn't
have lights, I would put them outside this week, every
day of the week. Maybe bring them in at night
if it's gonna be a little chili side. But get
them growing in that gallum pot. Make sure you put
Genesis from Nelson in the soil that you're potting them

(41:11):
up in. Trust me, this will work. It does work,
and water men really good. And then get them growing.
And by the time it's fairly safe, I'll put my
very large plants out and they're gonna have blooms on them,
and they're also going to have a few small fruits
starting to set by the time I plant them out.

(41:32):
You can't beat that, folks. That is the way to
get as good of a head start as you can,
because once we start having daytimes in the nineties and
night times in the upper seventies, the tomatoes are going
to quit setting for the big slicers by and large,

(41:53):
and that happens early. That happens pretty soon. So the
sooner you get going the better your tomatoes are looking
and grow and whatnot. The better off you are if
you wait. If you wait until April to put a
little plant out there in the ground, you're gonna get
some tomatoes, but not the production you get if you
did the things I just said. So that's my advice

(42:15):
to you. And you do a little post on social
for that. That would be a good thing to add
to it. Jraes hitting gardens down down south of town.
I was talking to somebody the other day, uh, in fact,
yesterday at Home and Garden show that was he just
loves Horae, the loves to go out and get things
from Horas gardens. And we were just talking about how

(42:36):
Jraes has grown, you know, when it got started kind
of small, and then it's gotten bigger and bigger and
more and more. I mean, his fruit selection is extensive
and very nice. And his roses, oh my gosh. He
I look at these list of roses, had all kinds
of knockout roses. You know, there's more than one kind
of knockout. He's got those there. He's got the drift roses,

(42:58):
those that stay down low for around a border in
a landscape bed. Something that's you know, not going to
get up very high. They got good disease resistance. There's
coral drift and lemon drifted and peach drifting and uh,
popcorn drift for example. Uh, lots of lots of nice
options for roses. Oh, and then the hybrid tes and

(43:18):
grand of flores. You know, a piece rose, very popular tropicana. Gosh,
that's that's a gaudy, beautiful thing, mister Lincoln. One of
the most fragrant red roses, and just beautiful Chrysler Imperial.
And then the patio roses like white iceberg. I used
to have a white iceberg when I lived in another home. Uh,
nice little rose and good disease resistance in that too.

(43:40):
Not like knockout. Nothing's like knockout, but anyway, very good. Anyway,
ores got them. You gotta get down there. Now. Here's
the phone number for Hora seven to one, three six
three two fifty two ninety seven one three six three
two five two nine zero. He has opened Saturday and
Sunday from eight to four and on Tuesday through Friday.
Close tomorrow, closed on Monday, Tuesday through Friday, nine to three.

(44:04):
It's a family operation. Kids help out on the weekends,
even greet you when you get out of your car.
I mean it, it's Elizabeth Street and Alvin that's the address.
But just just give him a call seven to one,
three six, three, two fifty. Let's take a little break.
I'll be back. Hey, welcome back, Walter back gardens. Welcome

(44:25):
back to the garden line, folks. Good to have you
with us. We are here raring to go because spring.
I listen, go outside and be real quiet. Listen. I
hear spring roaring just on the other side of the horizon.
It is on its way, going to get here fast.
It is time to get ready. It's time to get
out there and have fun. This is gonna be your
best gardener ever. It is repeat after me, this will

(44:48):
be my best gardener ever. And you can also say this.
It may be so good that what I grow actually
looks like the pictures on the tags are in the
seatcap lugs. That would be amazing. I saw see catalog
one time and it was apples and it was a branch,
I don't know, a section of branch maybe two feet long,

(45:09):
and I swear there were like twenty five apples on
that branch. And it's like, okay, somebody knows how to
do cut and paste with the gra This was ridiculous.
Oh yeah, Well, anyway, we got a we we've got
a lot of optimism as gardeners. You know, there is
a there is something I don't know whether it is

(45:30):
an unknown pollen that floats on the air. I don't
know if it's a substance, some sort of a human hormone,
substance released by microbes out of the soil that gets
into our brains. But two things happen. Number One, we
become optimists, like never before. You buy that pack of
tomato seeds, and you can see yourself putting hunts and
hinds out of business with the ketchup you're gonna make.

(45:53):
You can see yourself all the farmstands shut down because
that's how many tomatoes you're gonna get. Right, We're optimist, absolutely.
And the second thing is we lose our ability to
reason just a little bit. You know, I've seen you
standing there in the garden center looking your eyes have
a little spirals in them, a little bit drool come
out of the corner of your mouth. I mean, our
minds get taken over by gardening enthusiasm. But I love it.

(46:17):
I absolutely love it. Let's go out to Katie Texas
now and we're going to talk to Ray this morning. Hey, Ray,
welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 13 (46:26):
Good morning, Skipe, good morning. I just had I just
had a quick question. I want to do the core
eras of the top dressing. Who can I get out
here in k You do.

Speaker 5 (46:38):
It, Katie Texas. Oh, let's see you've got Oh gee,
I'm trying to think of the name of the folks
out there. Here's what I would do. I would call
BMB turf. I think you're a little far for them
to get out there. You can give them a call
and see. If they don't come out and do it

(47:00):
that far out, they will be able to point you
to someone who does H, B and B turf.

Speaker 8 (47:06):
All right, that I do that before they come out?
What can I do to like put it on steroids
so to speak?

Speaker 13 (47:19):
Like what can I put on the on the turf
before they come and do the aration and the top dressing.
What kind of fertilizer if any, should.

Speaker 8 (47:29):
I put to like super super advance it kind.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
Of Yeah, Well, depending on when they're gonna do the aerration, uh,
if like you know, on my schedule, the main fertilization
of spring starts in April. Okay, So if you're gonna
have an air rate in April, then go ahead and
spread your fertilizer down and then let them come out

(47:55):
and air rate and compass top dress and then it
all gets washed in together. If they were going to
come air right right now, I wouldn't fertilize before they
come because it's it's early. It's it's a little early
on the slow release fertilizer that you're going to want
to put out in April. Uh so, uh, yeah, that
that's kind of the bottom line. Just uh just look
at when they're coming out and fertilize for whatever is

(48:17):
appropriate for that season. It's according to my sky.

Speaker 8 (48:21):
Yes sir, Yeah, all right, you thank you well.

Speaker 5 (48:24):
Last the last question, good luxe.

Speaker 8 (48:27):
Uh after they do the top dressing, how long do
I have to wait until they until I can mow again?

Speaker 5 (48:36):
Yeah, you can mow right away if you need to mow.
I would suggest mowing prior to the aeration and top
dressing if your lawn is getting a little taller. Uh,
the whole process just works a little bit better, so
you can do a mowing and then the day before
they show up or something like that. That would be
just fine. Then you won't have to mow for a while,

(48:57):
and the compost will fall down in the grass a
little nicer, so not a big part, not essential, but
just if you got the choice, go ahead and mowed
a little before they get there.

Speaker 8 (49:07):
Yes, sir, all right, thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (49:09):
All right, you bat, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
I appreciate that very much. Let's go to George in
Jersey Village. Hey, George in the garden.

Speaker 14 (49:19):
Yeah, good morning, Yeah, good morning, skip, good to talk
to you. I my boguan bee. It took it really
on the tin with that last cold, and it's nothing
but brown branches and so on like that, and I
trimmed a lot of it back. But my first question
is that what can I do to help it along?
And then my next question was, you were talking the
other day about a cactus something that has a really

(49:41):
beautiful flower on. It's not a cactus, but it's something else.
And I was driving and I couldn't write it down.

Speaker 7 (49:47):
So I want to know what that was.

Speaker 5 (49:49):
Well, let's well, let's let's start off with your Bougainvillia. Uh,
the book you just need to wait and see how
it's going to grow. You can take your thumbnail and
scratch just underneath the bark a little bit and if
it's pretty, kind of a light green color nice under there,
then then that's good. Uh it's alive. But if it's brown,

(50:11):
it's probably dead. But rather than rushing to get that,
you know, boom villa ready to print it back and everything,
I would just wait. It's gonna have to get warm
before the boomovilla wants to grow. And when it does grow,
when it does grow, uh, you'll see growth coming out,
and then you prune all the dead back to where

(50:32):
the living is. The plant will tell you where to
print it back. And that's the approach I prefer to
take on the boomvilla. All right, Okay, the cactus is
called the thing that's a cactus. It had cactus in
the name. Is called epiphylum epiphylum, and it's it's a
slang term for it is orchid cactus. It's neither an

(50:53):
orchid or truly a cactus. But anyway, that epiphylum big flat,
strappy leaves and just flowers that look like a starburst
pedals going in all directions.

Speaker 14 (51:05):
Hey, you're told me though, it was really beautiful, So
what I would like to see it?

Speaker 8 (51:09):
So are those available at the.

Speaker 14 (51:10):
Nurseries around where I am, like RCW Nursery and the
other one I forgot.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
I would, I would, I would ask them if you're
if you're in Jersey, you know you're real close to
r CW, you're close to plants for all seasons and there. Yeah,
r CW, but probably RCW probably has them because they
carry some of those things too. So just get good.
You're lucky, man. You you live among a lot of

(51:37):
good nurseries. Right you got arbigade to a little further
up the street. You're lucky.

Speaker 13 (51:46):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (51:47):
Well, it's a it's a cold tender plant. Uh you know,
a tropical like it's not an orchid, but you know,
you take orchids for example. They're perennials where they live
where they're from, but for us here, we have to
protect them from cold. So they're they're perennials, but only
because we don't let them stay outside.

Speaker 14 (52:07):
Okay, and can spill that the Latin name for it
please for me?

Speaker 5 (52:13):
Yes? Yes, E P I.

Speaker 10 (52:17):
P H y.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
L l U m oh my god, thy lump with
a p h yeah l you have epi phylum p
h y L you one? Okay, all fun when it blooms?
When bloom sent me a picture?

Speaker 7 (52:36):
Pardon, all right, we'll do thanks again.

Speaker 8 (52:39):
Let's skip you were were you going to say?

Speaker 15 (52:42):
Did you?

Speaker 5 (52:42):
Are you going to say? Am I going to eat it?
What would you miss?

Speaker 10 (52:45):
She said?

Speaker 5 (52:48):
No, no, no for for flowering, for flowering plants, for
flowering plants. To pay for the help. What you need
to do is give me a cutting off of it
and we'll call it even. Thanks George, right, yeah, bye byeye.

Speaker 10 (53:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:04):
For those of you who are wondering what were they
talking about? I always joke around with people that are
growing things, you know, like tomatoes. It's a I don't
mind advising you for free, but I would like half
the tomatoes you grow. I think that's reasonable. Uh, And
just kidding around with people.

Speaker 8 (53:18):
So there you go.

Speaker 5 (53:20):
Phone number seven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. Uh, Southwest Fertilizer. I'm going to be out
there in April, mid April. But this is a place
where you find everything you need to have success. And
here we are. We're going into the gardening season. You

(53:40):
need gardening tools, rakes, hose, shovels, printers, soil knives, kneeling benches, UH,
the little gadget I used to make my weed wiper.
If you don't know what that is, go to my website.
I've got to show you how to build one. Bob's
got it all there. He also has all the fertilizers
for spring nitrophos Nelson's micro Life products him of his own.

(54:02):
His Southwest blend UH is there as well. He has
more than one Southwest pnd UH and then products from
Medina for example, and then everything to control pass and
weeds and diseases, you name it, it's there. Southwest Fertilizer
corner of Byssinet and Runwick easy to get to and
I'll tell you when you go in, you're going to
be treated right. They're friendly, they're helpful, They knows what

(54:23):
they're talking know what they're talking about. If you got
a weed and you don't know what to do about it,
put it in a bag, bring it in there and
show it to them. They'll tell you what to use.
They got it. They got the products you need. Southwest
Fertilizer dot com seven to one three six sixty six
one seven four four. I'm going to go now to
Archie and Pairland. Hey Archie, welcome to garden Line morning.

Speaker 16 (54:44):
I'm born a good morning Skip. I'm just trying to
get through permission before I leave off the church this morning.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
I've got a bed of the.

Speaker 16 (54:52):
Arch archangel Allegonius. The last two years I've actually saved
something after a freeze like this, but I'm not so
sure I'm gonna save them this year. I put tars
stuff over them and everything in newspapers, but I think
it blew off a little bit, so some of that
cold air.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
Got underneath her.

Speaker 10 (55:09):
So I don't know.

Speaker 16 (55:10):
And I go ahead and cut those limp back now,
because I mean they look terrible.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
You know you could. I would probably leave the bottom
two inches or so on them. If they're going to
be alive, it's going to be down low. They're not
a real perennial for us, but we get lucky some
years a mild winter and we can bring them back through.
But we normally we just think of them as annuals

(55:36):
and replant. But if you want to, if you want
to see just kind of back to about two inches,
then you don't have to look at it.

Speaker 17 (55:41):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (55:43):
I don't think they're coming back. But you know, there's
a lot of microclimates around people's houses, and where you
got them, you may get lucky. Who knows.

Speaker 16 (55:51):
I'm kind of about six flats of them out there,
so that's why it's kind of expensive to replace them.
So that's why I was kind of you know, some
of them.

Speaker 10 (56:00):
Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (56:02):
Give it, give it a shot, give it a shot.
Who knows you might get Let me know if they
come back. I'd be curious to know that, because my
bets on that they won't. But I'd love to hear
that I'm wrong.

Speaker 16 (56:14):
Okay, okay, sure, thanks, all right, you bet, thank you.

Speaker 5 (56:19):
All right, if you'd like to give me a call
seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
We're about to go into a little break here, and
when we come back, you can be one of our
first calls up. That would be really nice.

Speaker 10 (56:31):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (56:32):
Folks at Microlife have been building quality fertilizers for a
very long time, over thirty five years. Uh, they've been
doing it. You're going to find fertilizers by the bag
for the granules. I was talking to someone earlier today
about their acid loving fertilizer. A six two four in
a pink pinkish red bag does good for azelias and
camellias and paris and what Virginia sweet spire And I

(56:56):
even use it on roses. I like to bring my
rose pH down a little bit from where I have
it right now, so I think it's a good one
for that. But the folks at Microlife Microlife Fertilizer dot
com have a nice array of liquids as well. You
just got to go try them out. I've used so
many of them and not one has disappointed me yet.
Let's take a little break. I'm gonna hand the microphone

(57:17):
over to Erica and let her tell you all about
the news here in just a bit. Hey, welcome back.
Good to have you with us. Welcome back to the
guard Line. We are learning to see things from a
plant's point of view, and just hang on. Bring your
plants with you, by the way, and bring your thumb.
I have watched thumbs. People have told me this at least,

(57:38):
that they bring a thumb and put it in front
of the radio when they're listening to guard Line and
it starts turning green. Just hearing them from because it's
all about having an informed thumb. That's what it's all about.
Gardening is not magic. There's no special you know, talents
and things that make it all great for people. The

(58:00):
reason Grandma could grow everything and she dropped a pencil
the root and grow into a pine tree is because
Grandma knew how to take care of plant. She knew
how to give plants what they want. And learning to
see things from a plant's point of view is what
it's all about. And that's what we do here on
guarden Line, So feel free to join us with that.
Folks at the Arburgate have an outstanding selection of plants.

(58:20):
They are loaded up, they're ready to go for spring
and when you go there you are going to see
everything you need. It is fruit tree time. For example,
they have fruit trees year round, but right now the
selection is outstanding. It is time to get those in
the ground. And you know, with anything plant wise, when
you're at Arburgate, you just ask them questions like how

(58:43):
do I plant this? Or how far I part do
a plant these fruit trees? Or you know, how do
I take care of this? How do I take care
of that? They're going to help you. They are friendly,
they're knowledgeable, which is important. We love independent garden centers
because these people live here and that is certainly of Arburgate.
They're experts at this stuff. Now with the Arburgate, you're

(59:04):
going to find that they also have some excellent programs
coming up through the year. And I'm going to be
speaking at Arburgate when we get out there into May.
I'll be there making appearance out But they have lots
of cool classes. You go to the website and check
out the educational resources and things that they're having. They've
got a whole array of things going on this spring

(59:25):
that you're not going to want to miss, so make
sure and take advantage of that. There's a program by
Angela Chandler on February twenty eighth. I know that's a
little ways out, but people plan ahead. Saturday February twenty
eight to ten am. Angela's going to be talking about
citrus trees from planting all the way to year three.
And she's good at this stuff. She knows her stuff.
So head out to Arbrogate find the best beautiful plants

(59:48):
things you're not going to find a lot of other places.
Pick up their one, two three, completely easy soil system
that is a fertilizer, a soil and a compost, all
made for our soils and our climate and our plants
here in the Greater Houston area. I've been run now
on the phones out to Katie, Texas and talk to

(01:00:08):
Russell this morning. Hey Russell, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:00:12):
Hey Skip, how you doing.

Speaker 5 (01:00:16):
Doing well? Thank you? How can I help?

Speaker 18 (01:00:18):
Hey, just real, just a real quick question for you.
I listened to you every weekend and I think I
heard you say yesterday, but I don't remember. I've got
probably their ten year old rose bushes that were planted
at the house before I had bought it, and I
call them tea roses. They're kind of small ones, but

(01:00:41):
they're red and they need to be cut back. They've
went way out of control and they've got some old
old branches on them. When's a good time to trim roses?

Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
Now? Now's the perfect time. They're about to start their
big spring growth pera and stuff and and so go
ahead and get them cut back now, and uh then
you'll be ready to go. They're gonna pop out of
the ground with this weather we're having, uh this week
being so warm, Uh that.

Speaker 18 (01:01:12):
Uh you have to see the established plants. They've got
pretty good sized roots on them, and over the years
I have kind of trimmed up the main branches to
where all of the balloons and greenery is, you know,
up on the top half type of thing. But it
looks like they're starting to wake up, and you know,

(01:01:32):
the wife wants some troom. So I didn't go, don't
kill them. I said, I'll call skip.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
Okay, all right, Well, and you're your your local garden centers,
you know out there. You got Nelson water Gardens uh,
Nursing water gardens uh out there, and they're there good
at that uh, and they can advise you to you know,
take a picture of a rosebush carried in on your
phone and ask them about printing it if you have
any questions, because I think, did you say hybrid teas

(01:02:01):
or or did you tell me what kind of roads
you have? It seemed like I said tea.

Speaker 18 (01:02:06):
I just I call them te roses. I don't know
what they're called. But they've been growing really, really good.
It's just that they're now probably ten years old, and
I have some bottom main stub ups coming up out
of the ground that they're just they're beyond their time.
I need to remove those, but then do a nice

(01:02:28):
poodle ball trim on the ones that are still just
kicking along, all.

Speaker 5 (01:02:35):
Right, well, talk, I still would take a picture out
the garden center and let them look at it and
tell you about printing them, because it may be that
your roses could use a pretty hard cutting back, you know,
if they've gotten kind of all the growths up on top,
and they're lanky and a little a little large or something,
it may be the cutting backs in order. But I
can't tell you that without knowing what kind they are
and seeing a picture of them. But I would.

Speaker 18 (01:02:59):
I've cut them because right now they're over four and
a half foot tall and they're leaning out of the
flower beds over three foot which is interrupting my lawn
service crew, you know. So no, I'm gonna get out
there and I'm gonna I'm going to get after them.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
All right. Sounds good? Well, good luck with that. I
appreciate it all right as you will. Yep, thanks, yep,
take care, Russell, Bye bye. I want to remind you
guys that I'm going to be next Saturday, that is
February the fourteenth. I'm going to be at the Montgomery
Lifestyle Home Show that is up in Conroe at the

(01:03:42):
Hyatt Regency in Conroe. That's on Grand Central Parkway about
eight and about eight and a half miles from Cynthia
Woods Mitchell Pavilion if you're heading up from that way.
But Montgomery Life Style Home Show is a great show.
Lots of stuff going on, lots of good exhibitors and
and whatnot. And I'm going to be there from twelve
o'clock to two pm next Saturday morning. So those of

(01:04:07):
you that are up there, you need to come on out.
Let's talk. Let's bring me some samples. Let's bring me
some pictures, like I was just visiting with Russell there
about his roses. You know, take a picture of your
plants and bring them and let's talk about them. Give
me a good picture, though, make sure it's in focus.
Maybe a couple of different angles on it so I
can point at it and go cut it right there,

(01:04:28):
or you know whatever. Or if you want me to
identify a plan, I can see clearly which planet is.
But Hyatt Regency, Conroe on Grand Central Parkway next Saturday
from twelve to two. Now, the show's going on Saturday
and Sunday, but I'll be there on Saturday from twelve
to two happy to answer your gardening questions. I'm going

(01:04:49):
to have some giveaway products that I'll be providing so
people that come and listen to me give a little
brief tips for spring, and then some Q and A
with you. I'll bring some copies of my books along
and also be ready to do diagnosis. We'll say I'm
not a doctor, but we'll say the doctor is in
a free plant clinic or whatever going on there, Montgomery

(01:05:12):
Lifestyle Home Show. All right, I'm gonna take a break.
We'll be right back with our last segment of this hour.
Stick around, don't go away, all right.

Speaker 15 (01:05:20):
Welcome back to the garden Line, folks. Good to have
you with us, having a good time here and glad
you have joined us. By the way, hey, the pest
pros they are the ones you call when anything with
four or six legs is bug in your house. Except
the family pet. They don't deal with that. But if
you've got mice.

Speaker 5 (01:05:40):
And rats and squirrels in the attic and I don't
know anything that goes bumping the night up there, they
know how to deal with that. And that is the
biggest pest of the cool season is all the four
legged critters that crawl around up in there. They know
how to control them. I just had a termite treatment
done to my house. They do a very nice long
termite treatment, like a ten year. Put it in a

(01:06:02):
little trench round your house, just a shallow little trench.
They pour it in there and they covered up with
the soil and it is a barrier and termites for
ten years. When I get through there, and it's down
kind of underground and up against the side of the house,
so it's not a place where you know, kids are
playing and pets and everything like that. A very safe
way to go about it, and a very one and

(01:06:25):
done a way to go about it. And they're experts
at this. No matter what you're going after, fire ants
or silverfish or cockroaches in the house, they know how
to treat effectively, and they know how to do so
in the safest possible manner, so you get long term
results without the worries. Pest pros. The website is the
Pestbros dot com. The phone number write this down two

(01:06:49):
eight one two o six forty six seventy two eight
one two six forty six seventy. These guys do great work.
They know what they're doing. You need to give them
a call bliss out. Someone was asking me earlier about
the epiphylum. You know what is this orchid cactus? We
were talking about that.

Speaker 14 (01:07:09):
Uh, and.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
The one that I most recently saw. They have some
down at in chenned Forest and Richmond that are just beautiful.
And you'll see these things in pots oftentimes in hanging baskets.
They get a big, old, flat, strappy stem like they look.
You might call them leaves. It's actually more the stem.
But they produce these gorgeous flowers that are just like
a starburst of little strappy, skinny petals. Some are all white.

(01:07:36):
There's one called gold Charm that has golden petals. That's
one that they have there at Intended Forest. And while
you're down at in Chenni Forest, you need to you
just need to check the place out. They have got
a load of wonderful landscape color that is ready to
go home with you. You need you just need to
stop in and take care of that. Because it is
spring there, they're ready to go. They know how to

(01:07:58):
advise you the right way. These folks gardeners, you know,
Clay and Danny and the whole team there and in
Jenny Forest. They know how to advise you and they
know which plants will work best. So you go in
and you go, hey, i've got a shady area, I'm
having problems with it, and they just come right here.
They'll show you the plants that are there. They'll talk
to you about what do you do with them. They'll
take the time to make sure you go home happy.

(01:08:19):
Because when you go home happy, this independent garden center,
mom and pop, if you will nursery, they know you're
going to come back and be a customer for life
and you will love the place. Trust me. Enchanted Forest. Now,
if you haven't been there before, it is on the
it's like you're going up to sugar Land from the

(01:08:40):
Richmond Rosenberg area. It's a Richmond address, but it's FM
twenty seven fifty nine. What I'd suggest is just go
to the website and everything you need to know is there.
Enchanted Forest, Richmond TX dot com. Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX
dot com. Let's go now to Lloyd and Pennington. Hey, Lloyd,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (01:08:59):
Good.

Speaker 11 (01:09:00):
It's good.

Speaker 10 (01:09:00):
How are you today.

Speaker 5 (01:09:03):
Doing good?

Speaker 10 (01:09:04):
Can we help got a coup of questions for you.

Speaker 19 (01:09:07):
Okay, I'm getting ready to plant my potatoes and I
always put cotton seed meal under them to uh, you know,
to give them a little food in about thirty or
forty days. It's saying that I could add fish meal
to it. Fishmeal will leave a taste in that. I
know we used to give it to pea, but it

(01:09:29):
would it would leave a piche taste.

Speaker 11 (01:09:33):
You don't think, not in the pit.

Speaker 5 (01:09:36):
No, it won't leave a taste in yourtatoes. It'll it'll
smell it, you know, fish meal. But but you're going
to mix it in the soil, and microbes are gonna
get ahold of it. And by the time you got
potatoes on those plants, there aren't many fishmeal around. Uh,
it will have broken down. But you need to mix
it and the cottonseed meal down in the soil when
you're planting. Uh, and then and then you'll be fine.

(01:09:56):
Those are two good, two good products. They'll work both organic.

Speaker 20 (01:10:01):
What you make some.

Speaker 5 (01:10:05):
Uh follow the label? Yeah, yeah, I would, I would
make some about Okay, all right, go ahead, Okay, that's.

Speaker 19 (01:10:19):
Fine for some long needle, long needle pine. I want
just the seedlings I don't want them. I don't want
them yet. When they're in the candle stage, I won't
just the I.

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
Can't find it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Here's yeah, I can. And they're called conservation bundles. But
we're getting late to get those. If you I'm going
to put you on hold. My producer will give you
my email. Email me and I will send you some
wholesale lists of the you buy the little things bear
root and you plan them in the winter. Like I said,
most places tend to sell out by now, but I'll

(01:10:53):
send you the places where you get them. All right, Lloyd,
just hang on, don't go away. We'll you bet all right, folks,
there you go. Yeah, conservation bundle. I need to talk
more about those sometime anyway. Yeah, and Shanty Forest is
in't that a great place? I just love going down there,
And you got to go check out some of the
plants that they have. They're just outstanding. Listen, all seasons

(01:11:16):
turf is located. They actually have several farms. They have
several thousand acres of turf around this area. All seasons turf.
There is a farm you can go to which is
north of the Berkshire area. And what I need you
to do first and foremost right now is right down
All Seasons turf dot com and then this phone number

(01:11:37):
two eight, one, three, seven, five seventy five oh five
now will they will deliver with a delivery charge. You
got to order at least three pallettes or you can
pick them up there at the farm. Go to the website.
You'll see everything you need to know. Super super quality turf.
They dig it or they cut it, they harvest it

(01:12:00):
if you will the day you're going to want to
plant it, so it's not going to sit there. For
any turf that sits in a palette for a couple
of days has gone down dramatically and its quality. You
need to get it the day that it's dug and
that's what they do at All Seasons Turf. You can
find zoysias like the Xeon and the Palisades, two of
my favorite zoisias, by the way. Xeon's very fine textured,

(01:12:21):
good shade tolerance. Palisades also it's got good shade tolerance
and it is a medium textured zoysia. They have Saint Augustine's,
they have Bermudas, and they have other zoysias and things.
You just need to go check them out again. They're
ten miles west of Highway ninety nine. That's the forum
out there in the Berkshire area. You can go online
to All seasonsturf dot com and order it. You can

(01:12:41):
give them a call two eight one, three seven five
seventy five oh five. We are entering the big crazy
turf season now and it is time to get your
order in for when you want to get that turf
planted now. They work with people that can go out
and plant the turf for you. They don't do the planting,
but they got people they work with that do it.

(01:13:01):
So if you just want to make the whole deal
and call All Seasons and say this is what we need,
and they'll get you all set up where you can
get that lawn that died last year looking good again
this spring. And don't delay. Don't delay. It's a you
can get turf down. It's okay to put it down now,
you know. I like to do it when the grass
is starting to grow the primetime spring because the demands

(01:13:25):
are lower. It's easier to kind of water it in
and keep it going. But you can play a turf
all summer. The people that lay the sod all through
the year actually, but we're we're entering primetime, so don't
delay all seasons turf dot com.

Speaker 8 (01:13:40):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (01:13:43):
We are going to take a little break here and
we will. We will be back with your gardening questions
after we take a break for the top of the
hour news. I've got a number of things I want
to talk about as far as spring. If you've got
some questions, right down this phone number seven one three
to one to five eight seven four. Sometimes things get

(01:14:04):
a little busy, especially in spring here on garden Line,
and one good way to not have to wait a
long time is just go ahead and called during the
break and be on the boards, top of the list,
and we'll get to you when we come back. Don't
forget that. I am going to be at the home
and Garden show called the Montgomery Lifestyle Home and Garden
Show that is up there in Conroe on Grand Central

(01:14:26):
Parkway at the Hyatt Regency Conroe next Saturday, Next Saturday,
February fourteenth, I should be giving away roses. Anyway, I
will be answering your gardening questions. I have some books
on hand, and you know, as we usually do, just
bring me you're tired, you're weary. You're struggling plant masses

(01:14:48):
yearning to be diagnosed and solved. We'll take care of it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip Rickyard.

Speaker 5 (01:14:57):
It's so please.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Gasa Trim just watch him as we're going. Gas us
so many good things to sup blocks away.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Gas baby came you jos back not a sign glass
and gas.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Sun beamon of between.

Speaker 12 (01:15:31):
The gas.

Speaker 8 (01:15:36):
Starting.

Speaker 5 (01:15:42):
Hey, welcome back to the garden Line. Let's do this.
We got a lot to talk about, a lot of
people talk to you today, so we're gonna jump right
into it.

Speaker 11 (01:15:51):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:15:52):
Let's see, let's start off by going out to Brenham, Texas.
We're going to visit with Rooster this morning. Hi Rooster,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:15:59):
Good morning Rack.

Speaker 10 (01:16:01):
I somebody call and ask.

Speaker 12 (01:16:03):
About seeds, and so that reminds me I need to
ask about seeds. I'm trying to do my seeds for
tomatoes in my garage with the lights and everything. It's
about about that time to get them started. And I'd
like to get some heirloom seeds that are.

Speaker 10 (01:16:25):
That would be really good for this area.

Speaker 8 (01:16:28):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:16:28):
And if you happen to know somebody that I could
order them from also bluebonnet seeds, which I've never had
any success with because.

Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
Of my black gunbow here.

Speaker 10 (01:16:40):
I don't know where they don't like that or something,
and uh.

Speaker 5 (01:16:44):
I'll do that sprout and do your bluebon its sprout
and then not grow or do they never even come up?

Speaker 12 (01:16:55):
They just don't come up. They have in the past
a little bit, but then don't do or anything. But
it depends on the air because across the street you've
got sandy loam, and then on my my lots here
that it is that gum black gumbo.

Speaker 5 (01:17:13):
All right, give me your give me your third, give
me your third question right quick, and I'm gonna have
to keep moving because i got some folks in line,
but I'll hit all three of them at once.

Speaker 10 (01:17:21):
What was the third?

Speaker 12 (01:17:22):
I wonder if you know anything about honeybees and where
you can buy a local honey. That's a weird question
for the Gordon line, but you might know.

Speaker 5 (01:17:33):
Yeah, well you I'm sure you got some places out
in the Brunna area that sell honey locally. I know
some of our feed stores will sell honey here. I'm
trying to remember if they have it at D and
D Feed and tom Ball, But I I just can't
remember seeing it. They might. He's worth giving them a call.
As far as the seeds are concerned, any of our

(01:17:53):
garden centers are going to carry a nice selection of seeds.
Arburgate is you know not as you come in toward
tom bol Way you go by Arbigade. Uh.

Speaker 10 (01:18:02):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:18:03):
There's a number of other garden centers around that do
have a nice selection of seeds.

Speaker 17 (01:18:07):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:18:07):
And then a lot of people will mail order to
get a specific kind of tomato, you know, like if
you want a specific variety that's not for sale locally,
you mail order the seeds in and get them delivered
right to your house. That would be another approach since
you're a little further out, probably prefer okay, Uh well uh.
There's one called Totally Tomatoes Totally Tomatoes, and there's one

(01:18:32):
called Tomato Growers Supply, and they both have more tomato
varieties than you even knew existed. They also do peppers
and all plant but that's what they focus on, Totally
Tomatoes and Tomato grow Supply. If you're going to order
some seeds in that you can't find anywhere else, they're
going to have them. The other place. If you if
you want to do bluebonets that way, you need to

(01:18:54):
plant them in the fall though. But there's a place
called Wild Seed Farms which is in Fredericksburg, and there
is a place called Native American Seed which is in junction.
Both of those out in kind of central Texas, uh,
and they will sell you American flower seed. You can

(01:19:14):
go online a Native American Seed. So for the for
the wildflowers, it's it's Wild Seed Farms in Fredericksburg and
Native American Seed injunction. That will sell you a wide
variety of specific You can get mixes of wildflowers or
you can buy specific species by species the seeds from

(01:19:37):
those folks. All righty, but just remember the wildflower seed
is probably going to need to go out in the fall,
all right. And for success with your blue bonnets, if
you want to be a lex are you are you
talking about playing an acre of them or just a
little patch around the house maybe an acre? Okay, We'll
talk to the folks at those places and ask them

(01:19:59):
if their seed are scarified. Scarified that means the coat's
been roughed up so they sprout better, and that may
improve your chances of success.

Speaker 12 (01:20:08):
I suspect that I seem like I remember something putting
seeds in a pan or something that had a rough
sandpaper in it or.

Speaker 5 (01:20:16):
Something of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a way to
do that. But but just talk to them. I think
they've probably already got this. Hey, I hate to have
to run, but I gotta move on. But good luck, Rooster,
and thank you for thank you for your call. I
do appreciate that I was talking about Plant Froll Seasons
as a place for seed. They're right there on two
forty nine where Luetta comes in to two forty nine,

(01:20:36):
which is Tomball Parkway. If you are a brown thumb
and you won't see it turned green, go to Plant
Frell Seasons. They'll do it there. If you're a green thumb,
you probably already know about it. But they have a
full service retail nursery. They even can deliver, you know,
if you want to have them also delivered things and whatnot.
Just talk to them about all that. But they're lawn
and garden experts, great seed selection inside and we always

(01:21:00):
have whatever is seasonal. You'll find a wonderful selection of
herbs and shrubs and trees and all kinds of things.
Flowers of course, and houseplants and whatnot. Plants for all
seasons dot com two eight one three seven six sixteen
forty six two eight one three seven six sixteen forty six.
Now we're going to go all the way out to

(01:21:22):
central Florida and talk to Eddie. Hello, Eddie, Welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 9 (01:21:27):
Thank you for taking the call, A longtime resident of
huge time and temporarily.

Speaker 8 (01:21:31):
In Florida for a while.

Speaker 5 (01:21:34):
All right, God, since you're calling from a foreign country, Yes,
all right, go ahead. Bleeding heart, bleeding hearts.

Speaker 8 (01:21:48):
I've got three of them.

Speaker 9 (01:21:50):
We had twenty five degree weather for about three days.
I had them cover frost blankets, and also my high
biscus and all of the lands look dead at this point,
thinking maybe to cut them back a couple of inches
above the ground.

Speaker 5 (01:22:09):
Yeah, you could scratch the vines on that bleeding heart,
the stems and see if you've got any green underneath.
You know, it takes about a week or so after
a freeze of some milder, warmer temperatures for that tissue
to really collapse and go from green to brown where
it's real easy to tell the difference. But it's been
enough time. Now you ought to be seeing some decline

(01:22:30):
in it. I would you know if you can be patient,
don't get in a hurry to cut those back. You
just don't know until you actually get into it. If
you can wait long enough for them to reach sprout
in spring, that's the best. But if not, use your
thumbnail figure out how far back you need to trim.

Speaker 9 (01:22:47):
Perfect that what I'll do. I'll just hold back a
little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:22:52):
All right, sir? All right, well, get your business done
out there in Florida and get back. Get get back
over here to Texas as soon as you can.

Speaker 10 (01:23:01):
Take care.

Speaker 8 (01:23:03):
I'll be thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:23:04):
There you go, all right, Thank you, Eddie, appreciate the call.
Let's take a little quick break when we come back
ray in Missouri City. You're first up. All right, welcome
back here we go. Let's get moving here on garden line.
All you gotta do is call me at seven one
three two one two five eight seven four Ace Hardware Stores.

(01:23:27):
I talk about my ACE Hardware stores all the time,
and you can find yours at ACE Hardwaretexas dot com.
Ace Hardware Texas dot Com. When you get in there,
you're gonna find the fertilizers I talk about on Guardline.
You're gonna find products to control pests, weeds, and diseases.
You're gonna find all the tools and supplies from you know,
gardening shovels and rakes and hose to the sprayers at

(01:23:50):
the end of the hose, I mean, everything you need
to get out there and get your place looking awesome.
ACE Hardware Texas dot Com. That's where you find it.
You're gonna find stores like Jnr's ACE and Porter, League
City ACE down on League City Parkway in southeastern Houston area.
Out west there's Hardware City on Memorial Drive and Nice
ACE Hardware Store there Rockport ACE down in Rockport on

(01:24:13):
State Highway ninety or thirty five north, and then up
in Conrad there's Lake Conroy ACE on Highway one oh five.
To the west. Part of our ACE Hardware stores here
in the greater Houston area. ACE Hardware Texas dot Com.
You are listening to garden Line and we're going to
run out now to Missouri City and visit with Ray. Hello, Ray,

(01:24:33):
and welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:24:36):
Hello.

Speaker 14 (01:24:37):
I harvested my sweet potatoes just before Thanksgiving and I
stored them.

Speaker 8 (01:24:43):
In the garage, you know, well ventilated.

Speaker 14 (01:24:47):
Cage, and they they sprouted and they're still.

Speaker 8 (01:24:51):
Sprouting, and I want to know what to do to
keep them for sprouting.

Speaker 5 (01:24:56):
Well, you know, you gotta once they start doing that,
it's kind of it's kind of hard to stop them.
And you want to break those sprouts off when they
start to sprout right away.

Speaker 7 (01:25:07):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:25:08):
Sweet potatoes generally aren't stored in cold storage because they're
not made for that. You get get too cool on them.
Most people store them and just dry on the counter
kind of temperatures. But there's not a sprout inhibitor that
you can use for sweet potatoes that you know you
would use for your home garden sweet potatoes.

Speaker 14 (01:25:28):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:25:29):
So it's just a matter of right, right, Yeah, there's
there's not a way to stop them from He's got
to cool their heads have to cool off where they
don't want to grow. That's that that's probably the best
thing that you can do. But they get some warmer
temperatures and they're they're going to start sprouting. You know,
people will stick them in a jar with water in them,

(01:25:51):
put tooth picks in the side. Have you ever seen that?
And the vines grow out and the roots go down
in the water jar. Uh, But that that just tells
you if they got some moisture and they got some
warm temperatures, they're going to grow, and so trying to
keep them a little cooler is probably your best bet.

Speaker 8 (01:26:06):
Well, i'll tell you what happened. I put them in there, a.

Speaker 10 (01:26:08):
Lot of them, and I read that they was that
I was supposed.

Speaker 8 (01:26:12):
To put them in a warm area to for them
to cure for about two or three weeks.

Speaker 5 (01:26:18):
And that is correct, and well warmans in the eighties,
you know, and and so it doesn't have to be
much warmer than that. I mean, you can you can
cure them at hotter temperatures in the summertime and stuff
when they first come up. But yeah, yeah, that that's
a problem for them. I understand your your situation.

Speaker 8 (01:26:42):
Okay, so it's the the best.

Speaker 14 (01:26:46):
If I keep them cool, they'll maybe they'll kind of
gave it to growth.

Speaker 5 (01:26:53):
It'll slow them down a little bit. Yeah. I've grown
sweet potato before, and and sometimes I problems with sprouting.
But it's more when the condition you know how to
how to how to stop it is the big challenge.
It's more when the conditions are right that they're just

(01:27:15):
gonna sprout.

Speaker 8 (01:27:17):
I'll wash them off right there. If I dug them
and I wanted if that hating thing to do with it, I.

Speaker 5 (01:27:24):
Generally just kind of dust off the soil gently because
their skin is very thin, uh, you know when they
when they uh first come out, and that curing helps
that warm moist curing helps that I say a moist
meaning humidity, not actual moisture on them. But if they're
in a cool, dark, well ventilated area, that's kind of

(01:27:47):
the best you can do.

Speaker 21 (01:27:48):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:27:48):
Sometimes wrapping them in you know, some newspaper around them
and stuff may help a little bit on that, but
you want to be careful that you don't create a
condition where they're just going to decay in there. So
that but next time you do curing, try to keep
them around eighty degrees with high humidity for about ten
days and that should be done. You should be able

(01:28:09):
to do that. Now you can pull those sprouts off,
break them off, rub them off, whatever, and you'll be fine.

Speaker 8 (01:28:17):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:28:17):
With the potatoes, you just don't want them to grow
too long because that sprout is pulling nutrient out of
the potato to be able to grow.

Speaker 10 (01:28:24):
Right, Okay, okay, so ah right, thank you, goodbye.

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
Thank you for the call.

Speaker 8 (01:28:31):
Ray.

Speaker 5 (01:28:31):
I appreciate that very much. Yes, sir, you take care.
Houston Powder Coders will turn whatever metal you have, outdoor
metal that you have into something that is extremely hearty,
weather proof and gorgeous. Over one hundred colors they can
choose from. And so that furniture that's looking a little

(01:28:51):
worse for the wear, you may be thinking, yeah, I
gotta throw that away. That's pretty rusty. The bolts are
all rusting and stuff. If it's got a good if
it's a good solid metal, give them a call, send
them a picture. Go to the website first Houston Powdercoders
dot com Houston Powdercoaters dot com. There you'll find an
email where you can send them a picture and they'll

(01:29:12):
send you a quote and if if if all is agreeable,
they'll come get it. They'll do the work. They'll bring
it back simple as that. They know how to do it.
For those of you that are barbecue enthusiasts, you got
an old pit that's on the rusty side, let them
put one of one hundred different colors on that pit
with a nice solid rustproofing powder coating on the outside,

(01:29:37):
it'll look like brand new. They know what they're doing.
Here's a phone number if you want to give them
a call to eight one six seven six thirty eight
eighty eight two eight one six seven six thirty eight
eighty eight. I want to remind you that on Tuesday,
February seventeenth, that is nine days from now, is the

(01:29:58):
annual Fort ben Regional Vegetab Conference. Now this has been
going on for years. I used to be part of
organizing it when I was an extension agent with Agridfe Extension.
But this is the best ever. Hey, this year's is
the best ever. It's at the Fort Benn County Epicenter,
which is on Southwest Freeway there. Now you need to
call the Extension office and get registered. They can give

(01:30:20):
you the information that you need. I can't read out
the whole URLT on the air, but it is two
eight one three four to two thirty thirty four two
eight one three four to two thirty thirty four. If
you didn't get to write that number down, just find
the Fort Ben County Extension Office give me a call. Now.
There's going to be a day full with five tracks

(01:30:43):
of different educational content. There'll be a track just for
backyard gardening, there'll be one for agg producers that need
to get their applicators license and things. They'll be one
for teachers and educators on gardening with kids and stuff.
That'll be a cool track. One for small scale producers,
market gardeners that are, you know, not a giant vegetable farmer,

(01:31:04):
but they're starting a small operation or they're going to
sell it. And there's one for food preservation, food safety
and recipes. So what do you do with those things
when you want to dry them or can them or
freeze them or whatever. Five different tracks that you can
choose from. It is a good deal. Now, it's a
forty five bucks up until well we passed that date. Sorry,
it's fifty five bucks to register. We're in late registration now.

(01:31:28):
But I'm telling you, you get a barbecue meal in
the middle of it. You get some really nice breaks.
There's an exhibit area with sponsors exhibits there. Go through
and look at a lot of cool exhibits. And I'm
going to be there on that day, February seventeenth, Tuesday,
from one fifteen to two fifteen talking about raised beds
and container gardening. Give you a lot of tips for that,

(01:31:50):
So come on out join me out there. Trust me
on this one. You're going to like it. It is
a very good event. Annuel Fort Ben Regional Vegetable Conference, Tuesday,
February seventeenth, just coming up at the Fort Bend Epicenter
on excuse me, Fort Ben Epicenter on Southwest Freeway. There
you have it, Warrens and Kingwood Garden Center. I don't

(01:32:10):
know how Kingwood got two garden centers like this, but
good for you. Warrens is on the excuse me, North
Park Drive. Kingwood Garden Centers on Stone Hollow. Both of them,
by the way, are open seven days a week. So hey,
I got an idea for this afternoon. Swing by there
and get you some plants. Get ready for a great
week of gardening coming up, all of you out there

(01:32:31):
and Valley Ranch, New Cane, porter A, Taskea, Seeda Humble.
Of course, Kingwood this is the place you need to go.
They've got some beautiful house plants of all kinds. They
carry stuff you just don't see everywhere, you know, the
staghorn fern, hanging baskets, the bella palm, the majesty palms,
the various kinds of you know, mother and lost tongue,

(01:32:52):
also called snake plant also called scents Ofvaria. They've got
the black coral, they got the laurental, they got the
fern macato, fernwood, micado, and much more in the way
of houseplants there. But of course they've got blueberries and
fruit trees, and blackberries and grapefruit and guava and CRUs
These are all in February. They're coming in. Lots of

(01:33:14):
tomatoes and pepper plants coming here onions, set sea potatoes,
lancelot leaks. Have you ever grown leaks? You can grow
them in your garden. That's absolutely true. And a great
pottery sell forty percent off Warrens in Kingwood Garden Center
out there in Kingwood. You need to frequent these places
because there's always something cool and new, and they got
great help that can advise you with good, solid, accurate advice.

(01:33:39):
All right, let's see here, We're gonna go out to
north west Houston and talk to Daryl this morning. Hey, Darryl,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:33:47):
Good, good morning, Skiff.

Speaker 12 (01:33:49):
I had a quick question about if there's any benefits
of putting coffee grounds on plants.

Speaker 5 (01:33:56):
There is a slight benefit. They are somewhat define if
the plant were to need a little bit more acidic conditions,
and they have a decent nitrogen content that will very
slowly be released out to the plants. So I wouldn't say,
you know, they're miracles. You need to go get everbody's
coffee grounds and bring them home with you. But if

(01:34:17):
you got some, yeah, put them out there. Just scatter them,
scatter them kind of loosely, you know, don't dump a
whole pot of coffee right at the base of the plant.
But yeah, they're organic material. They will become part of
the soil. Again.

Speaker 8 (01:34:31):
Well, good enough, that's all I need it.

Speaker 5 (01:34:34):
Now, Now that that's the true that's the true answer, Darryl.
If I wanted to pull your leg, I would tell
you they help your plants because they keep the microbes
up all night. They can't go to sleep with all
that caffeine, and they just work and work and release
more nutrients.

Speaker 10 (01:34:49):
So if you.

Speaker 5 (01:34:50):
Believe that I got some offshore property up there in
Nevada somewhere for it, all right, thanks Darryl. Take care.
It's hard for me to be serious for very long.
I try really hard. Well, here we are, we're coming
up on a break. So before we run to break.
Don't forget Montgomery Lifestyle Home Show this coming Saturday, the fourteenth,

(01:35:14):
It's actually the fourteenth and fiftieth. I'll be there on
the fourteenth from twelve to two, fourteenth from twelve to two.
And where is the Montgomery Lifestyle Home Shows at the
It's on Grand Central Parkway at the at the Hyatt
Regency there in Conroe. Come on out. We gonna have
a good show. We're gonna have a good time. I
got a lot of good information and I look forward

(01:35:34):
to meeting my listeners up in the area. So we're
going to do that. Let's take a break here. I'll
turn it over to Erica again for the news. Erica,
can you bring us some wonderful good news, you know,
some happy things. I know you're in charge of all
the news and what happens, so we'll see how that goes.
And welcome backs. Good to have around listening in on

(01:35:57):
garden Line and participating a call seven three two one
two fifty age seventy four. We'll get to the bottom
of your question as well. Listen, the ground up has
got some outstanding soil blends. Composts and soil blends, for example,
they're double screened composts screen down to a real nice
particle size, very high quality product does well. They have

(01:36:19):
lead more compost too that is super high quality. You
can buy ground up products by bulk by having them deliver.
You can go buy and pick some of them up.
The Britmore location is where the street locations for ground up,
mostly on the on the west side of town, which
is nice for those of you that are over there.
But the Britmore location that is where the plants are.

(01:36:43):
That is where a lot of products are available bulk
and bag, but especially by bag, and also where you
can go as a home gardener. On Saturdays there open
up for home gardeners to come in. You can go
get the products right there at the brit Moore location.
So Saturdays is the day that we home gardeners can

(01:37:04):
run in there to the Brettmore location for the ground up.
Now what do you get when you find that? Well,
how about some things like I mentioned the leaf mool compost.
They have a flowerbed mix, it's excellent. They've got a
mix for roses and azaleas. They've got a vegetable and
herb mix, lots of different things and you can go
to their website the ground Up dot Com and find
out more. But know this that their bags are available

(01:37:27):
at a number of garden centers, you know the Ace
Hardware and Champions and the one on Memorial. RCW Nurseries
carries their products. Cnamltch carries their products. Down South Moss
Nursery down Seabro carries products from the ground Up. You
can go to the ground up dot Com and then
you can find other places where you can buy their
products by the bag, so you don't have to go
to brett Moore to get them. I'm just saying if

(01:37:49):
you want to go there. Plus, the plants are there
and they have a really nice selection of plants at
their brett Moore location. All right here it is dground
up dot Com. Here's a phone number if you need
to call into the call center two eight one nine
seven oh zero zero zero three two eight one nine
seven oh oh three the ground Up. If you got

(01:38:12):
a question on garden line, here is the number. Seven
one three two one two five eight seven four. Will
be glad to visit with you about the kinds of
questions that you might have. People have been asking me
about like when do I turn my irrigation system back on. Well,
you know what would you recommend skip? Well, two things.
First of all, I keep promoting my lawn care schedules.
They're free. You can't top me down on that price.

(01:38:36):
And if you go to the lawn care schedule, there's
a blue bar right across the page January to December.
It tells you every month of the year the historical
average inches of water per week that your lawn needs.
January zero. This is because we're trusting on moist soil

(01:38:56):
and rainfall and cool temperatures. February zero, tpic a half
inch in March, three quarters of an inch in April,
and then an inch from May, all the way up
until the beginning of September when we start to taper
off the tiny bit on our way back down again. Now,
so when do you turn the irrigation on. It depends

(01:39:16):
on the weather, is the actual answer to that. If
we and we were going through a very dry spell
in the cool season, and then most of you got
some rain. If you got some rain, you're probably okay
right now still. But if you've got new plants you're
putting in, or new seeds you're planting, you got to
water them in and you got to start watering them
and keep them moist, and that's going to require irrigating

(01:39:37):
your lawn itself is probably still okay. But as we
get toward the end of this month, just watch the
temperatures in the weather. Typically we'll do a little bit
of watering beginning in March, not near as much as summer,
but we'll do a little bit. But watch the rainfall
because all of this stuff on my chart there those
inches I was quoting per week. Again, those were per

(01:39:58):
week for that in that month. Those inches that I
were quoting on there, that was a per week amount.
And it's in the absence of rainfall. By the way,
that's in all caps in bold, and someone still is
not going to read it anyway. That's the way it is.
When it rains, you don't need to water quit. I
don't care if it's the middle of summer. If you
get a good soaking rain of an inch or more,

(01:40:21):
you don't need to water all right. So that's the
answer to the watering question. I don't have a crystal
ball to know exactly how the weather's going to go
these next weeks and months, but that guide is based
on the average rainfall amounts that are received in Houston
along with the temperatures that we have in the Greater
Houston area. Okay, there you go. You know what I

(01:40:46):
said that wrong. I said it's based on the average
rainfall amounts in Houston. It's not. It's based on the
average temperature that we have. The guide is based on
how much water is going to be needed in the
absence of rain. There you go, all right. I was
out at my feeders the other day and some little birds.

(01:41:07):
I let a feeder go go dry, go empty, And
I'm sorry. The birds were there. They were polite. They're
not like the squirrels. The squirrels use language and make
a sailor blush. The birds were just saying, excuse me, please,
would you get us some feed? And of course I'm
happy to do that. And where do you get it?
You get it at wild Birds Unlimited. Why because it's quality?
Why else? Because when you buy a bag of seed

(01:41:30):
for birds from wild Birds Unlimited, all of that bag
goes into a bird's stomach. It's not stuff that you know,
like if you put Brussels sprouts on your child's plate.
I know some kids eat them, but a lot of
kids are going to feed them to the dog or
hide them in a napkin or something, because they don't
like to eat that. That's how birds feed. Feel about

(01:41:50):
those little red bebies that fill up a lot of
bags of cheap bird seed. Wild Birds Unlimited not that way,
not that way at all. Now I'm still feeding their
winter super blend, high fat, high protein for a time
of the year when birds don't have much to eat.
We're at the end of winter, the days are still short,
not much time to get out and forge for food.

(01:42:12):
Not a lot of insects running around out there to
snack on either. Wild Birds Unlimited Winter super Blend still
a good time to do that. Go to a store, though,
I want you to see the different feeders that they have.
I want you to see their bird houses. Martin Houses
got several options there. Wild Birds Unlimited, you gotta go by.
You got to go check them out. And now, where's

(01:42:34):
your wild Birds Unlimited Store? Well, here's how you find out.
Wbu dot Com forward slash Houston tells you where every
wild Bird's Unlimited store is in our area. We got
six of them here and they are easy to get to.
They're scattered all over the region and I'm telling you

(01:42:54):
you will enjoy it. And while you're in there, I
want you to pick the owner and the people that work.
I want you to pick their brains for lots of facts,
because those folks know birds. A can take you what
kind of birds are here right now, what kind of
are coming, what kind of feeders you need for them,
what kind of birds seed you need for to track
that kind of bird? Or typically their blends attract a

(01:43:15):
lot of different kinds of birds. But you got to
go to a wild bird's unlemited store to find that out.
All right, let's take a little break. We'll be right back,
you know what. All right, we're back.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
When they start talking cute, I don't want to ten.

Speaker 5 (01:43:27):
Hey, welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you with us.
We've got lots to talk about still, we've got a
lot of time to do it too, So let's get
going here. Uh, if you would like to give me
a call seven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. Uh, if you want to show place, there's

(01:43:47):
one company name you need to know, and that's Pierce Scapes.
One word, Pierce Scapes Pierce Caapes has been in the
business for a good while since nineteen eighty eight, So
what is that twelve plus twenty six, that's thirty eight years.
I guess that they've been doing things here. They know
our soils, they know our climate, they know the plants
that go here, and they know how to design and

(01:44:08):
create beauty. The folks they have working for them whole
distinguish landscape, irrigation, drainage, backflow, pesticide certifications, licensing, all the
things they need to be trained on that they need
to know for success. Whether they're taking that wet spot
out back and putting in subsurface drainage to turn it
into a nice place where you can grow things, or

(01:44:29):
if they're creating landscape lighting that just makes your home
look like a showplace, or they're putting in hardscapes or
rock patios or stone walls. I mean, they can do
it all. They can do it all there, designing with plants,
creating beauty around your home. That's what they do. They
also do maintenance. If you need them to come in,

(01:44:49):
let's say, just want them to come in every quarter,
spruce up the flower beds, get rid of the weeds,
put some multch down, check the irrigation, all that kind
of stuff. Maybe change out the color. Hey, you know
those pansies are looking kind of bad. Now they're getting warm.
Let's put some fresh spring color in. They can do
all that. You gotta call them two eight one three
seven oh fifty sixty or go to the website. I

(01:45:09):
always want people to go to the websites because when
you see piers scapes work on the website, you're gonna
know why I like them so much. Piercescapes dot com
two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty two eight
one three seven oh five zero six zero. You are
listening to garden Line and we're here to answer your
gardening question, So feel free to give me a call

(01:45:31):
on whatever we can talk about to help you to
have better success with your landscape. It's not magic. It's
not a You don't have to have special dust pixie
dust to sprinkle over your plants, or this certain little
thing that's magical that makes all your plants grow. All
I know is how to think like the plant you

(01:45:53):
want to grow. And that's what you help you do
here on garden Line. When you know what a plant
wants and you give it that suddenly ad By says
you got to go. I mean thumb. Well, you can
let them believe that if you want. But it's really
just about giving plans what they want and it's not
that complicated. So let's talk about that. Let's see we
can help.

Speaker 10 (01:46:10):
You with that.

Speaker 8 (01:46:11):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:46:11):
I'm gonna head out now to west you and we
are going to visit with Charlie this morning. Hey, Charlie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (01:46:21):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (01:46:22):
I sent you a picture. It's only about five minutes ago.
I got some weeds in my Asian jasmine. I don't
know if you had a chance to look at yet.

Speaker 5 (01:46:33):
Charlie, it did not come through. Let's do this. I'm
gonna let me put you on hold. Let's check the
email address you have and if you need to resend it,
send it, resend it and call me back or if
you if if you have the right one, just hang on.
I'll come back to you. We'll try to answer it
without that, but just hang on one second. Nicholas, will

(01:46:56):
you check and make sure that we got the right
email there for Charlie. Let's see here. Yeah, there we are.
I was checking out Buchanans. I always go visit my
sponsors web pages and their social media because there's always
something going on in Buchanans is absolutely that kind of place.

(01:47:16):
There is always something happening at Buchanans Native Plants in
the Heights. Now, native plants are in their name, and
it should be because nobody has the variety of native
plants and the native plants specific knowledge that you're going
to find with the folks at Buchanans on eleven Street
in the Heights. Now, when you go to Buchanans, you're

(01:47:37):
going to go, well, there's a lot of plants that
aren't native here. Yes, most of their plants aren't native
because there's a bazilion gazillion plants out there that aren't
natives here that are grey plants to grow, so they
carry them all. But natives is what they focus on
making sure. They just have unbelievable selection. But right now,
they got lots of fruit trees in stone Fruit and

(01:47:58):
those are the ones that the pit inside that would
include nectarines and apricots and peaches and plums and pluots.
Wait a minute, what do you say, he said, bluot?
What's a pluot? A pluot is like a cavapoo, half
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, half poodle. A pluot is half
plum and half apricot, and so a blue ot is

(01:48:19):
how you get that? And they have them there. They're
kind of cool. I'll get you on pears. They got pears.
They've got all kinds of other fruit. Yeah, like I said, almonds, apples.
Do you need vegetables like tomatoes and peppers and eggplant?
Do you need herbs of all kinds? Buchanans Native plants did?
He answered all the questions of I need a Yeah,

(01:48:41):
go to Bucums Buchanus nati Plants. They have full line
of microlife products, products from nitroposs, you know, some plant food,
Nature's Way, resources, heirlooms, soils. They have their own Life
Below which is a compost and shell blend. They have
their own Tropic Core It's a peat free container mix
for your favorite tropical door plants. And then you got
to go in the gift shop the bungalow really really cool.

(01:49:05):
Where does it all happen? Eleventh Street in the Heights.
Buchanans Plants dot com. Sign up to be on their list.
You get a lot of good helpful information from them.
This afternoon would be a great time to go. I'm
just saying, with this weather, my gosh, this weather is
so good. Do you know how hard it is to

(01:49:25):
sit here on a microphone talking to you when I'm
a gardener, I just talk about gardening. I are a
gardener and I love getting outside, and I'm sitting here
looking out a window going I had to get to
my place to do some gardening. Man, this is this
is too good, this weather, and that's what I will
do this afternoon, get a little bit of gardening work
done on the outside. So I want to mention a

(01:49:49):
couple of other things. We've gone through a variety of
different topics. I was just talking about when do you
start watering your lawn? And how do you water your
lawn and so on. U that information is on my schedule.
There's some other good stuff up there, though. My website,
gardening with skip dot com will give you a lot
of good information. I'll tell you another place you can

(01:50:11):
get really good information, and that is from the folks
at Texas Texas Gardener magazine. They have something called the
Texas Gardener Planning Guide. And if you're new to gardening
or new to the area. You've got to get a
copy of this. If you've been gardening before, it's still
a very helpful resource for you all through the year

(01:50:31):
January through December. It just walks you through. It's got
some special features in it as well, but it walks
you through. How do you plan out your guard How
do you how do you what do you need to
do now? What do you need to do next week?
And so on? How do you plan you're gardening out
from the folks at Texas Gardener. Now, you can go
to the magazine website, this is Texas Gardener dot com,

(01:50:54):
and there you can subscribe to the magazine either as
a print copy to write in the mail, or you
can sign up to receive the digital copy, which I
like because you get access to a bunch of years
of past copies that you can go back and read.
So that's a good deal right there. Now, you go
to a lot of our home garden centers and a

(01:51:17):
lot of these places will carry Texas Gardener Magazine right
there at the rack, and so go get them there too.
How are you want to go about it? You just
need to. You just need to read Texas Gardner Magazine.
It's written by Texas Gardeners for Texas Gardeners, of which
I am one of. I write for them every month,
every time they have an issue. So what you need
to do is get that gardening guide though the Texas

(01:51:39):
Gardener Planning Guide. It's available online too at Texas gardener
dot com. Alrighty, well, let's see here we got Charlie's
email in, So Charnie, you're going to be the first
one up when we come back from this top of
the hour break. Look forward to helping you out there
in westu Well the rest of you, just one more

(01:52:00):
reminder that I'm going to be at the What I'm
Gonna Be lifestyle show in Conroe at the Highest Regency,
the Higher Regency on Saturday the fourteenth, This coming Saturday,
from twelve to two. Come on out and see me.
I got some giveaways on hand and we're just gonna
have a good time. I love meeting the folks who
listen to the garden Line. Love to shake your hand,

(01:52:22):
help you out a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (01:52:25):
Welcome to kt r H garden Line with Skip Richard.

Speaker 9 (01:52:29):
It's just watch you as.

Speaker 6 (01:52:54):
Not a sad.

Speaker 5 (01:53:04):
Welcome back to guard Line. Welcome back, folks, let's do
let's do some more gardening this morning. We've got an
hour left and this weekend of gardening. Remember next weekend,
by the way, I'm going to be at Montgomery Lifestyle
Home Show in Conroe. Montgomery Lifestyle Homeshow and Conrod that
is at the highest Regency in Conra. I will be
there from twelve to two answering your gardening questions. Hope

(01:53:25):
you can make it on out. We're gonna go straight
over the phones. Charlie's been waiting a while while we
got our little email thing worked out. Hey, Charlie, I
did get the photos in, so let's do this. Let's
talk about your questions. Oh, we have my question.

Speaker 7 (01:53:40):
What is that weed? That's an Asian jasmine? And how
can I get rid of it? We'll go away by
itself when the weather warms up.

Speaker 5 (01:53:50):
Well, actually, you've got three weeds that I see in there.
There may be more, but I saw three. One of them.
One of them has the little four leaf flow looking leaves,
you know, sticking up, and that is ox salis. That
is axalis. It has a little tuber underground, a little
bulb underground rather that it comes back from. So you

(01:54:12):
got to send a herbicide down into that bulb to
get it to kill it. The other weed that I
see is there's a BlackBerry vine. I only see one
set of leaves in there, but it's a group of
three leaves with a little cut in edges. But there's
a BlackBerry vine in there. And then there's also some oxalis.

(01:54:33):
And that's if you go to your picture toward the
very bottom of the picture, in the middle, there is
I'm sorry I said oxalis first. The one I'm talking
about now is Dichondra di chondra. It's a leaf that's roundish,
but it sort of looks like a heart in that
it's cut in at the top like a heart would be.
That's akxalis. So what do you do about these? All

(01:54:54):
three of those require a post emergent broad leaf weed killer. Now,
your Asian jasmine is a broad ly weed or broad
leaf plant, so you got to be real careful. The
jasmine has a little bit of achine to the leaf,
so spray will tend to stay off of it. But
I think if this remind what I would do is
I have a gadget that's a homemade gadget called a

(01:55:17):
weed wiper, and you can make it yourself, very fast
and easy. It's very simple to me. In fact, if
you look at the picture you can figure it out.
But it's made from a grabber tool like you'd get
a jar off a shelf with. And let's say you
are in westu If you can go down to Southwest
Fertilizer Businet and Runwick, they have the tools you used

(01:55:40):
to make it from the grabber tool with suction cups.
They carry that one down there. But go online to
my website gardening with Skip dot com find Skip's weed wiper,
how to build it, and everything is there. And then
there's another publication on controlling woody weeds in the landscape
that lists by weed type the you need to use

(01:56:01):
for yours. You're gonna want to get a product that
contains either a trimac substance Trimeac or a Trichlo peer
tri Clo pyr. Both of those will damage your Asian jasmine.
So with the weed wiper, you have sponges and you
just reach down and squeeze it, and those weed leaves

(01:56:24):
that are coming up above the jasmine, you just roll
carefully squeeze it and it wets that leaf. But you're
not spraying and getting it all over the jasmine, and
you're gonna have to do it more than once because
you know there's gonna be more of those things in
there that you're seeing right now. But if you do that,
you know, every couple of weeks, go out and do
it to anything sticking up. You can get ahead of

(01:56:44):
it and win that way. The only one that's a
challenge for you is that dichondra that's growing down really low.
It just hugs the ground, and so just kind of
getting in there and hand pulling up the runners as
best you can, we'll keep it down. It's gonna be
hard to get it all out though, hidden a that jasmine.

Speaker 7 (01:57:02):
Okay, that's that's that sounds like work, But I just
have to keep ast to it.

Speaker 8 (01:57:07):
I guess, yeah, it is.

Speaker 7 (01:57:09):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:57:10):
You know, it's a very complicated situation you got there.
But I think what I've given you is the the
most practical, least workway. You know, the building the weed
wiper is just going to take you less than an
hour to put it together, uh, and then going out
periodically you have a cup of coffee. On one hand,
those things are about three feet long, so you don't
if it's to bend over. You just reach down and

(01:57:30):
and like you're picking up trash with one of those
grabber tools. You just but you're just squeezing that onto
the leaves of the weed. So that's that's your best
shot at it. Okay, all right, sir, All right, Charlie,
thank you, sir.

Speaker 8 (01:57:45):
I think by.

Speaker 5 (01:57:48):
Yeah, the what doy weeds are a problem. And let
me just let me just go there. Let's see here,
where are we I'm gonna go to the website. I
want to tell you. I want to tell you about
some of the publications that are there that I really
want you to see. I talk about the website all
the time. I still talk to eight hundred bazillion people
that tell me I'm middle of the webs, like, all right, well,

(01:58:09):
we're going to go with you. Then there's all publications
right in the middle of the page. There's a publication
on take all root rod and my schedules are on
there and soil and nuts edge and all that. If
you scroll down far enough, you'll see herbicide products for
application with skipsweed wiper. That's where if you've got a
grassy weed, what do you use? It tells you if

(01:58:29):
you've got a broad leaf weed, what do you use?
It tells you? If you've got a nut's edge, what
do you use? It tells you If you've got a
hackberry or poison ivy coming up? What do you use?
It tells you? All right, then there's a publication controlling
woody weeds with a little foam brush and a stump
in it that tells you how to deal with those
things that have a stem, even a poison ivy it

(01:58:50):
gets big enough, you can cut it off and dab
the stem with the right product and it'll work. And
then there's one Skips homemade weed wiper right there on
the website. These are all among the free things, than
more coming soon as we continue to add to that website.
It's all there. It's free. It's for you to be
able to have better success. And some of these things

(01:59:10):
take more time. Actually I'm ending up taking time on
this just talking about it. But in general I don't
have time to talk about in detail all of these,
so I put them on the website and that makes
it easy for you. You don't have to remember. Just
go download it or read it or print it out
or whatever you want to do. RCW nurseries. Oh my gosh,
they get it, got it nursery? Why do we call

(01:59:31):
it that? Well, if they don't have it, they can
get it. But I can tell you this, they probably
already have it. RCA RCA boy that dates me. RCW
Nurseries is at the corner of Beltway eight and tom
Ball Parkway. Easy to get to, in and out right there.
And guess what's going on, Like, what's the elephant in

(01:59:52):
the room at RCW Nurseries right now? It's roses. No
place gets as many roses in as our CW Nursery.
Pages and pages and pages of roses, single space, lots
of roses. Do you want hybrid tes? Do you want
Grande Flora's flora bundas? Do you want roses to stay

(02:00:15):
down low, almost like a groundcover? Do you want climbing roses?
On and on and on? You want shrub roads? They've
got it all. It's there, it's waiting for you. But
I'll tell you this unbelievable selection. But everybody knows about it,
and they're going to right now. They're in their cars
going to RCW. So you better get there this afternoon,
You better get there soon. They'll have roses all year,

(02:00:38):
but the best selection is a S A P. Get
over there again, Bellie eight Tomball Parkway, get your roses,
splice to go. All right, let's take a break. We'll
be right back. Let's jump back in there. Welcome about

(02:00:59):
your guardline and your stip rector. We're here to help
you have success with what you're doing out there in
the landscape. So here is a phone number. You'll need
to give me a call so we can talk about
your landscape questions. Gardening questions seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three five one
two excuse me, five on two seven one three two

(02:01:21):
one two fifty eight seventy four. I just want to
back over to Austin Santonio area. That's where five one
two is. All right, let's talk about whatever kinds of
questions that you might have. Happy to do that. B
and B turf Pros outstanding company. These folks with B
and B. Basically their goal is to have you as

(02:01:44):
a customer for life, and they know to do that.
These this is a family owned company. They know to
do that is they've got to give you good, honest,
quality work. They have got to make a personal connection
with you to make sure you are satisfied and whether
you're them come in and do a landscape maintenance, which
they do, or having them come in and do the

(02:02:06):
aeration core aeration and compost top dressing, which they do.
They'll come out and do that. Now they're not going
to come out in just you know, if you want
to do the aeration and compost top dressing, you need
to get them both done. That's really the best way
to go about it because they go together. And when
you're hauling equipment and a bulk of compost out there

(02:02:29):
to do these kinds of things, and they use quality composts,
the leave more composts from the folks at see in
the mulch. It takes some time and expense to do that,
and so they don't just go out and do a
little thing out there in a distance. You need to
get have them do the aeration, have them to do
the composting. Just get it all done and have it
done right. That way you get the most benefit out
of it too. Now, do you need some landscape work done,

(02:02:52):
They can do that. And they're located down kind of
south and a little to the west of Houston, so
they cover the area, oh up around Sugar maybe a
little further out north than that Missouri city, certainly all
the way down through you know Paarland friends with League
City Dickinson, which now we've crossed over forty five, and
then back up Highway six to Manville and Alvin and

(02:03:13):
Arcola and Sienna. That whole region down there they do
and it's not just those towns, it's all through there.
You need to give them a call and see if
they'll come to your area, because I'm telling you these
people do great, great work. Seven one three two three
four fifty five ninety eight seven one three two three
four five five ninety eight. Now the website BB no

(02:03:34):
end in the website BB Turfpros dot com. Go check
them out. You really need to see the work they do.
Here's also something I want you to do. If you
have Facebook, go to B and B turf Pros on Facebook,
and every entry is another property where they're doing another thing.

(02:03:55):
They're laying turf, they're putting in beds, they're installing stone,
they're they're doing all the things that they do and
as you scroll down you just kind of get the idea.
I see why skip LASiS people this is this is
professional work. It's what they do. Bb turt pros dot
com seven one three, two three four five five nine eight.

(02:04:18):
There you go. And while we're talking about numbers, if
you'd like to give me a call seven one three
two one two fifty five ninety eight. Let's talk about
the things that are of interest to you, the questions
that you have about gardening. I uh talking with the
folks at Microlife. I I speak to Mike Sarrant and

(02:04:38):
some of the other team there at Microlife all the time,
you know, just checking on what's going on, now, what's new,
what are you doing? And I would just I ask
I asked them to send me some of the the
info sheets on some of your products. This is a
while back, but it is amazing the microbial content of
some of their products. And I I understand these microbes.

(02:05:01):
I know what they do. You know they like There's
one called Bacillus subtlests. They have ten different strains that
they put in some of their products. Bacilli subtlest fights disease.
There are actually products on the market out there. I
don't know if they're still around, but there used to
be that are just basilli subtlests that you spray on
plants to fight disease, to prevent disease, because it's a

(02:05:21):
good guy bacteria. You can tell back because you put
it under microscope. It's got a little white cowboy hat on.
But it's a good guy bacteria and it goes out
there and it fights against the bad bacteria, which you
can also put under a microscope. They have the little
black cowboy hats on that. Remember the old Westerns genotry. Anyway,
probably dating myself, there's another one. Oh, I love this
one because it's fun to say. Basilli's amelo likophacians. Yeah,

(02:05:46):
do you know this one? You drench into the soil,
or in the case of the micro Life products, you
put them in the soil and they go. This bacteria
goes up to the plant root. It communicates with the root,
and it may the plant grow more disease resistant above ground.
That was my mind blowing. I just think that stuff

(02:06:09):
is so cool. I mean I could go on and on.
I mean there's sixty three different strains in some of
these products that they produce, and some of them, you know,
you get regular Microlife green bag, you got microbes in
that too. And then you have some where they actually
put extra packages of microbes together for fighting certain things.

(02:06:29):
The micros, liquid af the soil, and plant energy. Those
are just examples of things that aren't just about the
fertilizer of the nutrients. Yeah, those are important. Microlifs, got
that covered. But oh my gosh, it's the microbes. They
rule the world. And the more you increase organic matter
in your soil, which microlife products or in and of

(02:06:50):
themselves they are, are organic matter. And the more you
provide those nutrients in a gradual way, which is how
nature does it when it breaks us down, when the
microbes break the organic products from micro life down, the
better if your plants are going to be. I don't
know how else to put it. It is as simple
as that. Micro Life's a great product and it I'll

(02:07:10):
tell you that because I read their papers that I
asked them to send me. I tell you that because
I use it in my yards and my gardens and
it works. That's it. That's it, all right. Here's a
phone number seven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. I know, I know some of you were going.

(02:07:31):
He read the the scientific names of microbes out loud
on the radio. I know, I just get excited about
that stuff.

Speaker 7 (02:07:39):
I do.

Speaker 5 (02:07:40):
I do because it's cool the more you learn about
Like did you know I'm here I go again? Did
you know that microbes can can communicate with a plant
and make that plant become more disease resistant, Like, hey,
you might want to do some powdery mildew resistance up
there on those leaves. I mean, it's amazing that they
can do that. They are fun in the soil that

(02:08:01):
attached to a plant root. Some of them go around
the root and make like a force field, a shield
around the root to protect it. Some of them go
inside of the root, and then they'll send a strand
way out past where the root can reach to grab
a phosphorus molecule and bring it back for the plant's food.
Or they'll reach out and connect with another fungal strim
from another plant. And now you've got a phone line

(02:08:24):
between the two plants. All right. I try not to
nerd out, but I got to give you this one
more thing. Just hang on with me for this. You
will love this. They have taken two plants growing side
by side, but a distance and they've separated them, so
no air, no gases, no harmony or pheromone, kinds of

(02:08:45):
things you know to can communicate between them. And one
plant got bit by a bug, the next plant starts
to develop the natural defenses that happen when that plant
gets bit by a bug. How did that plant know
the telephone line through the soil, through fungal telephone lines

(02:09:06):
telling the other plant you better get ready. That's my
mind blowing again. All right, well, let me go back
to just practical. Let's see what do I do, What
do I put on? When do I put it down?
All right, we'll talk about that too. Get my schedule out.
It's time to look at your fertilization. If you're going

(02:09:28):
to do any kinds of weed prevention we control, there's
stuff to be going on now with that kind of
quiet on the insects and the lawn thing right now,
But don't worry, they're coming. You look at my schedule.
You see when the chinchbugs show up, when the soid
web worms show up, when the grubs show up, When
you need to be doing things if you've got a
problem with those, and remember on all these things, it's

(02:09:48):
not like every year you put everything on the schedule down. No,
But when you have a problem and you have to
deal with it and you have to stop it or
treat for it, it tells you what and when at
that time to do it. Let's go out to Spring,
Texas now and we are going to visit with Scott
this morning. Hello Scott, Welcome to garden.

Speaker 8 (02:10:05):
Line Marten Rick.

Speaker 4 (02:10:08):
We just got I just bought a house and we
cut down a bunch of trees because they were way
too close to the foundation, like a live oak and
some pines.

Speaker 11 (02:10:16):
And I'm trying to figure out how do you kind
of speed.

Speaker 4 (02:10:19):
Up the root decay, especially for that live oak, which
is it was like maybe seven feet from the foundation.
So I'm just trying to get it.

Speaker 10 (02:10:27):
Okay, you go faster.

Speaker 5 (02:10:30):
And yeah, first of all, you need another roots dead.
Some plant trees and roots will re sprout and so
you're not gonna you know, you need it to be
dead so you can get it to decay. And so
that that would be step one. But I'm going to
suggest something that I have I have never it's not

(02:10:52):
on the label of this product. I've never thought about
this before until you asked this question. But the folks
at Media have a product that's sixteen zero two. Those
are the three nutrients. There's a lot of nitrogen in it,
and it is in a hose in sprayer Medina products.
And if you will take that product and you will

(02:11:14):
squirt all the wood areas down there that you can
see any wood that you can just squirt it drench
the soil with it. What's going to happen for microbes
to break down carbon which is that root, they need
nitrogen also, and so putting a natural product like that
down and soaking it in there, you're going to have

(02:11:34):
the mix of carbon and nitrogen for those soil microbes
which are already present in the soil to break it
down as fast as you can get it done. And
it just needs to stay moist. That would be the
other thing to speed up decomposition. So when someone makes
accomplished pile, they take brown stuff and green stuff. Brown
stuff is carbon and leaves. Green stuff would be like
fresh weeds and cuttings, nitrogen and stuff. What you're going

(02:11:57):
to do is get the medina, get a hold of
the medina, and when you go down in there and
just keep it wet, dude, periodically, you don't have to
do it every day or anything, just periodically go in
and soak it with that product. The product's made for
your lawns, making your lawns green and happy and all that.
But I'm talking about using it in a in a
different way, and I'll tell you it'll work for this

(02:12:18):
because I know it's got good, good nitrogen content. All right, Oh,
I would help if I gave it. Let me give you.
Let me give you the actual name. It's called super Grow.
It's called Nanina has to grow. Super Grow sixteen zero
two has to grow. Super Grow sixteen zero two comes
in a little court container with a hose end attachment.

Speaker 10 (02:12:39):
All right, Okay, that coin, thank you, yes, very you bet.

Speaker 5 (02:12:44):
Thank you appreciate that very much. All right, got to
go to a quick break here for the bottom of
the hour news. Greg and Clearlake, Tanya and Crosby. You're
a first two up. Yeah, there we go. There, we
go all right on the downhill stretch here on Guarden Line,
and we want to help you with whatever we can

(02:13:05):
help you with. Otherwise you can what do we say,
call now or not forever? Hold your peace, hold your
piece until next next weekend. Let's go out to clare Lake.
We're going to talk with Greg. Hey, Greg, welcome to
Guarden Line.

Speaker 20 (02:13:18):
Well, SKIP just had a quick question on glyphosate, and
my question is is and I've tried to look on
the internet and I can't see them find any information.
Is I wanting to try to find a product that's
similar to glyphosate that I could spray underneath the tree
and it just strictly goes through the leaf matter. You know,

(02:13:38):
glycos sate breaks down in the sun, and so I
don't have to worry about it hanging around and affecting
other affecting the tree and stuff like that as long
as it you know, it doesn't it doesn't touch any
of the green matter, basically the leaf matter. So I
was curious which herbicides now that are out there that
are equivalent to that that I could spray underneath the

(02:13:58):
tree and not worry about, uh, you know, killing the
tree because it comes up through the roots.

Speaker 5 (02:14:07):
Okay. Uh. So Glifa said, actually it's it's microbial activity
in the soil helps break that down too. That that's
kind of one of the main ways. So another option
would be herbicides that contain glue phoscinate glue phoscinate, okay,

(02:14:28):
and uh so it's it's g l u f O
S I N A t E brands. Okay.

Speaker 20 (02:14:41):
Is that basically you go buy a roundup nowadays and
they don't have glycosad in them anymore. It's got some
other chemical in there. I'm always worried as something that
a spray it's gonna effect, you know, be taken up
by the roots and stuff. I don't want that.

Speaker 5 (02:14:56):
Well, well, roundup is glue. I'm getting tongue tied here.
Glave State's still around. It's just another other products. It's
the typical round up that's sold in garden centers. You know,
it doesn't have it, but the glaphise itself a high yield.
Makes one called kills All Monterey makes one called Ramuta.

(02:15:16):
There's a product called Eraser. Those are all glip say
products still around on the market. Glufoscinate though I kind
of like gly fascinated. It makes if you're spraying aligned
with it, it makes a nice clean line, works a
little bit faster than the glyphate does. Uh And it
comes in a number of you know brands that you'll
find out in the garden center world. So that that

(02:15:38):
would be one. It works like gly fascinating kills everything
and or well it kills broad leaf and grasses, so
that would be an option for you. The other thing
would be to get a grass only killer, and grass
only killers doesn't kill broad leaf, kills grass. That would
be things with sythoxidem and things with blueze folk and

(02:16:02):
now I know those names. People are iSER glazing over.
All you got to do is go to my website
guarding with Skip dot com. On my website there is
a publication called Herbicide Products for application with skipsweed Wiper
and for every kind of weed there are those products
that are listed out. So for example, I said flu azipop.

(02:16:24):
If you look at that, oh grasses, it has Ornamac,
furnilom over the top, grass Killer, Fuselaide and orthograss be
Gone are all examples of that kind of product. The
other one I said was Cythoxidem. Examples post boneide, grass Beater,
high Yield grass Killer, Monterey grass Killer. That's why I say,
just go to the website and all the example brands

(02:16:44):
are there. Now I mentioned glue Fascinate Finale is a brand,
and Bioadvanced Weed and grass Killer is another brand. But
it's all on that free publication, free paging printed out
right there on my website Gardening with Skip dot com.

Speaker 20 (02:16:58):
Okay, yeah, I've seen before, and the only issue that
I've had is it doesn't say whether it's you know,
it only affects the leaves or it affects the you know,
the roots to it. Like I said, I want something
that breaks down I don't have to worry about. That's
why I like glypox baid and generally when I'm finding
information on the internet, they don't really explain that. I'm
always afraid I'm gonna put something down, it's got to

(02:17:19):
nhimbit or something, and it's going to be taken up
by the roots.

Speaker 5 (02:17:24):
All right, So nothing on my website page that I
just told you about is made to put down and
go up into roots to kill things. It's it's it's
just made for killing. Spraying on the top, killing the
top and not worrying about the roots unless you just
dump a gallon on it and soak the soil, which

(02:17:44):
is wasting money and no one would apply it that
way anyway. So just follow the label sprayed on the top,
You're good. You don't have to worry about roots. On
anything on my list.

Speaker 20 (02:17:55):
Okay, good, So it'll be either you know, sunlight breakdown
or microbial breakdown of the product based. I don't have
to worry about it inhibiting the growth of the of
anything around it, basically as long as I don't get
direct overspray on it.

Speaker 5 (02:18:08):
That's right now that I said that, And I'm looking
at my list again, and there is one there's one
thing that can have root activity, and that's one called image.
Image kills nutsedge. If you put image down and was
you're done in the soil. It also works on the
nutsedge underground and certain perennial and flowers, annuals and perennial

(02:18:28):
flowers and shrubs, and it might be affected a little
bit by the image, but that's the only example. And
we use image anyway and lawns and stuff, and it
doesn't it's not a big deal. But that's the only example.
That's an exception to what I just said.

Speaker 20 (02:18:42):
Okay, okay, great, great, yep, that's exactly what I needed.

Speaker 5 (02:18:46):
All right, all right, thanks sir, appreciate, appreciate your call
very much. Good luck with that. And that was a
real good question too, by the way, Nelson Nursery and
Water Gardens out there in Katie. I was telling someone
about them earlier on Garden Center out there in the
Kati area. When you go out to Katie, you turn
north on Katie Fort Ben Road and you will get

(02:19:07):
to Nelson's in a heartbeat. They are having us super
sale today only today, thirty percent off all interior plants
and citrus trees at Nelson Nursery Water Gardens. They're in Katy, Texas.
Thirty percent off, and I'm telling you they have some
of the most beautiful interior plants you're going to find

(02:19:29):
and citrus trees. What a good deal. I mean, yeah,
we may have another freezer or something. Put the thing
in the garage. If it's going to have another free're
probably not gonna have one. But anyway, what a deal
Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens. Of course, when you're out there,
you're gonna you're gonna hear the water, You're gonna go
out and get therapy, and you're gonna want it in
your backyard. Just trust me, It's happened to me. I

(02:19:50):
know what I'm talking about. You need to go see
those folks. Pretty cool. Let's go to Crosby, Texas Now
and talk to Tonya. Hello, Tonya, thank you for taking
my call.

Speaker 22 (02:20:03):
I have a question about sharricade. I had the whole
front yard resotted last April, all New Saint Augustine. So
ten months ago is it too soon for barricade?

Speaker 5 (02:20:19):
How many months ago did you say ten?

Speaker 13 (02:20:22):
Ten?

Speaker 5 (02:20:23):
Back in eight apris ago ten. Yeah, it's not too
soon at all. Now, once the side has been down
for certainly a month, you don't have to worry about that.
It's got its roots down and you can begin to
use it, but never use too much of it because
at the right at the label rate, it does its work.

(02:20:43):
When you start doubling or certainly tripling the label rate,
you're going to have problems with grass any stage of
the year. That's not something you want to do. But
follow the label and.

Speaker 22 (02:20:54):
You're okay, do I need to go with a lighter application.

Speaker 5 (02:21:01):
No, it's just that when we put the pre emergence out,
and barricade is a great pre emergent, but there are
other pre emergents and they work the same way. They
stop a weed seed from being to put a root
down in the ground, and they and that's how they
keep the weed seed from becoming a weed plant, and
if you overdo them, your little Saint Augustine runners are
trying to put roots down too, and it affects that.

(02:21:24):
So just follow the label and you're okay to use
these things. Just don't double them up and then you know,
a month later put more down and more down and
stuff it. Just just follow the label and you'll be
all right.

Speaker 7 (02:21:38):
Okay.

Speaker 22 (02:21:39):
One other question, would you recommend mowing first I still
have leaves on the ground, I.

Speaker 5 (02:21:47):
Would, Or if you got leaves, if you could just
kind of vacuum them mumbo the mower into a bagger
or rake them up or something that way. When you
put the little granules of barricade out, they they fall
down into the turf batter. You don't have so much
debris on top to catch your granules, and then you
can water it in and get water down on them

(02:22:09):
and get them washed in really good. So in other words, yeah,
if you can get some debris off there, that's fine.
I'm not so worried about the grass leaves themselves, the
grass blades needing to be mowed off before you do it,
but getting the leaves and stuff out of the way
it's not night and day difference, but it'll help a
little bit.

Speaker 22 (02:22:28):
Okay, well, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (02:22:33):
All right, Tonya, thanks for the call. Appreciate you waiting.
All right, folks, Let's take a quick break and come
back for our last segment here on guard.

Speaker 1 (02:22:40):
Line, starting your morning with the hottest happenings.

Speaker 23 (02:22:43):
We are hot, Hot courting Hot.

Speaker 1 (02:22:46):
Keeps you cool and comfortable all day the Hottest Topics.
Houston's Morning US tomorrow five to eight on Use Radio
seven KTRH.

Speaker 24 (02:22:57):
Hey you'mon. Here's something that matters more than people realize.
A lot of weight loss plans don't have an end,
just another month, another bill, another refill. You're never really done,
You're just managing. What I like about soda weight loss
is there's a finish line. You go in, you learn
how to eat, you work with the real nutritionness, you

(02:23:17):
let go of the weight, and then you leave, not
because it failed, but because it worked. You walked away
knowing what to do, what works for your body, how
to get the weight off without panic or dependence. The
goal isn't to stay on a program forever. The goal
is to get your life back. If that idea feels different.
It's because it is Soda weight Loss. STA stands for

(02:23:38):
a state of the art sodaweightloss dot com.

Speaker 5 (02:23:42):
Go to the website, look at the before and after pictures.
Read more testimonials.

Speaker 24 (02:23:45):
You're going to be hooked sodaweightloss dot com or call
eight six six eight hundred Soda Soda Weight Loss.

Speaker 21 (02:23:52):
Join us for a short time to have results that
last a lifetime.

Speaker 5 (02:23:57):
Skymike here.

Speaker 25 (02:23:58):
Ninety six percent of you baby will lose an average
of one hundred eleven thousand dollars of Social Security income
over your retirement. It's all because you take Social Security.

Speaker 5 (02:24:08):
At the wrong time.

Speaker 25 (02:24:09):
The amount you forfeit as a couple could be hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Let's avoid this. For your free
social Security risk and income for life analysis, call Scott Man.
Scott is a fiduciary with over twenty five years experience.
If you've saved three hundred thousand or more, be one
of the first ten callers eight hundred sixty three six

(02:24:31):
oh three three two. Learn to get every dollar you're
rightfully entitled from your social Security How to protect yourself
versus a stock market crash and outliving your money plus
how to generate two times the amount of income versus
conventional risky investments eight hundred sixty three six oh three
three two or hit safe money with Scottman dot com.

(02:24:53):
If you're over fifty with five hundred thousand dollars more,
you may be effectively retired and just.

Speaker 5 (02:24:58):
Don't know what you're still thinking? Job changing the new year.

Speaker 21 (02:25:00):
Yeah, I need something that's in high demand and more
stable in this economy. It Yeah, cybersecurity, maybe even AI.

Speaker 5 (02:25:06):
That's what I did. Really, how went to my computer career?

Speaker 21 (02:25:09):
You don't need any prior experience and you could start
your new career in a matter of months. A lot
of it pros. Go to school there too to level up.
Sweet our classes online or on campus both. Well, I'll
check it out.

Speaker 5 (02:25:18):
Thanks, make this your year.

Speaker 18 (02:25:20):
Take the free career evaluation now at Mycomputer Career dot
edu and Elite come Tea a certification.

Speaker 5 (02:25:26):
Partner financially just available to those who qualify, including via benefits.

Speaker 17 (02:25:29):
Texas Gardener is a whole lot more than just a
print magazine. Our digital products give you the ability to
access great Texas based gardening information wherever you are and
whenever you need it. Texas Gardener offers an e magazine
that comes with an eleven year archive, ebooks and a
free weekly newsletter. So if you want to plan happiness

(02:25:49):
in your garden, head over to Texasgardener dot com and
subscribe to our print or digital offerings. Also be sure
to check us out daily on Facebook and Instagram.

Speaker 26 (02:26:00):
Oh hello, it's me the calculator that lives inside of
tax Slayer. And let me tell you I love numbers.
Ten forties, ten ninety nine, s W two's all of them.
With tax Slayer, anyone can file a federal return for
just twenty two to ninety nine. You'll get one hundred
percent accuracy and your biggest possible refund guaranteed. Now those
are great numbers. Need help along the way. We've got

(02:26:22):
us based real human support. File by February eighth for
just twenty two to ninety nine and get the refund
you deserve.

Speaker 5 (02:26:28):
Tax Slayer file fearlessly. Here's a tail of Linda trying
to lose weight. But the medpresses she found we're all
over the place.

Speaker 6 (02:26:36):
Hidden fees and markups made her jawn drop low. Then
she found good RX. Now she's in the no GLP.

Speaker 5 (02:26:44):
Want subscriptions FDA approved.

Speaker 21 (02:26:46):
With clear upfront prices.

Speaker 5 (02:26:47):
And same day pickup.

Speaker 6 (02:26:49):
Last GoodRx unknown nonsense way save time and money on prescriptions.

Speaker 1 (02:26:56):
Get to GoodRx dot com slash weight loss.

Speaker 8 (02:26:59):
Good rx is not insurance.

Speaker 17 (02:27:15):
One gain.

Speaker 5 (02:27:23):
They we back the guard line. You never know what
they're gonna plan on the guard line. Good to have
you with us. If you want a quality soil blend,
Heirloom Soils is excellent at making these quality blends. You
can go to their website Heirloomsoils dot com find out
all the different products that they make. There a couple

(02:27:45):
of options, three options. Actually they sell by the bag
all over town. They will ship it to your deliver
it to you by the qbicyard. You gotta get several qbyards.
I believe three three QB cards is a minimum. I'm
not sure about they have to ask them. I know
three super sacks is a minimum for them to deliver.
But they can deliver it to you either way, or

(02:28:07):
you know, just go out there and pick it up yourself.
They're in Porter, Texas. If you don't go out there,
you got trailer truck. Just do it that way. Two eight, one,
three five four nineteen fifty. That's to get a hold
of the soil yard itself so you can go out
and pick it up, but you need to check them
out online by going to Heirloomsoils dot com. You'll find
that veggie and herb mix. It's so popular around town.

(02:28:30):
I mean they even carry it down and seeing the
mulch on the opposite corner of the Houston area. It
is a good good product. It works really well, as
does their roses and Bloomers blend. You know, the so
many good products, including leaf more accomplish. You can even
get decomposed not decomposed grant, well you probably get that too.
But expanded shale. Hey, I've been talking all weekend. My

(02:28:53):
brain's about shorting out here. Expanded shale and by the
bag directly and mixed with composts, both from Heirloom Soils.
Great products to have. You get this Houston clay and
you've got to open it up because it just gets
thick and gooey. I mean it just does so good products,

(02:29:15):
good quality products. That's what we're looking for. Ace Hardware
stores all over the area. We got Ace Hardware Stores.
They're part of my garden Line group here all the
way from Orange, Texas, down to Port Aramss and Rockport
and certainly all over the Houston area. For example, all
Star Ace up there in Magnolia. How about Port Lavaca

(02:29:37):
Ace on Calhoun Plaza. There, we crossed down Katie Hardware
on pinoak Kill, Gore's Clear Lake Lumber on East Main,
and K and M up there in Kingwood. And there's
another canem in a Tascasita in Kingwood and Kingwood Drive,
and a test Asita on timber Forest Drive. Lots of
good Ace Hardware stores. You know, you can do all

(02:29:57):
your gardening stuff you need there, so you can have
a beautiful or just yard, that's what we're trying to
achieve here. But you can also get the things you
need for spring cleanup indoors. You can get the things
you need for redoing that things outdoors. Maybe you need
to restain the deck or paint, or you want to
get you a new barbecue pit. Yeah, let's get this
weather out of the way. We're gonna have some good

(02:30:18):
barbecueing weather this week. Ace Hardware has got you covered
on the top brand things like Big Green Egg and
Rectech and Weber and Trayger. There's another Pelley grill that's
a good one. They've got you covered on all that,
including quality tools for doing whatever kind of do it
yourself projects you have. ACE is the place, man. It

(02:30:40):
used to be the logo or the slogan there. ACE
is the place. It is still the place to get
all of these things and much much more. Let's head
out to Spring, Texas and we're going to talk to
Tracy this morning. Well, hello, Tracy. I love the elevator music.
How we're doing.

Speaker 22 (02:31:01):
Great, Thank you Stif for taking my call.

Speaker 23 (02:31:03):
I've got some lagustrooms that are probably forty years old,
that are probably forty years old, and we're wanting to
trim their kind of out of control. So we're wanting
to get to trim them back probably a third or
maybe more. So I was wondering if that kind of
states to.

Speaker 14 (02:31:18):
Do and when I should be able to do that.

Speaker 5 (02:31:22):
Okay, yes you can, and now do it now. Now's
a good time to do it anytime we get toward
the end of winter because when you prune it, the
plants are going to start sprowling back out, and we
don't have a hard freeze right you know a week
or two after you pun it, because it's going to
just burn all that tender succulent growth. So I usually
wait until toward the end of winter, but cut them
back as far as you want. They'll be fine. The

(02:31:45):
gustrooms are prone to problems with foliage diseases, so if
you've had those in the past where we have brown
spots and yellowing leaves. As the new growth appears, you're
going to need to do a few fungicide sprays on
it because they are just real susceptible to that. But
they can take a good cutting and come on back.

Speaker 23 (02:32:03):
We didn't used to have those, but now the last
several years. Yeah, a lot of leaf falling out, a
lot of a lot of a lot of fungus problems.

Speaker 14 (02:32:10):
So what's best to treat them with?

Speaker 5 (02:32:14):
Because it's around a pool, Yeah, well, you just that's
avoided by the way you spray. Don't spray when there's
a wind. Don't spray with a super fine mist that
tends to just hang in the air and drift. Uh.
But get good coverage. You need a spreader, sticker, something
to make it stick to those slick lagustrium leaves. Otherwise

(02:32:35):
your spray just balls up and rolls off.

Speaker 8 (02:32:38):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:32:38):
So put that in the spray uh Uh. Dacanil sprays dacanil.
The ingredient is chlorothalonil is good for fungal leaf spots.

Speaker 8 (02:32:48):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:32:48):
And there are a lot of other ones too, Belton
which is also try a dimophon. I'll tell you what.
You go to a good good garden center, nose or
stuff home, mom and pop, and you're going to find
advice on that. And I don't know how far you
are away being there in spring from like planchball seasons
are up on two forty nine, but uh, they absolutely

(02:33:10):
will be able to know and tell you that kind
of thing. And if you if you have any doubts,
you know, you can email me and I can send
you some suggestions. It's hard to read all the fancy products.

Speaker 23 (02:33:23):
Is there anything spectemics.

Speaker 14 (02:33:24):
That you know of?

Speaker 5 (02:33:28):
The beilaton is tryadaimaphon t R I A D I
am a uh. And then there's one called propaconasol. Propacanazol
is the ingredient and it will move up in the plant.

Speaker 22 (02:33:42):
And that's awesome.

Speaker 23 (02:33:44):
Well, thank you so much for your help.

Speaker 5 (02:33:46):
Have a great week, all right, thank you for calling
you got in just outside the wire. There's the music
that means we gotta go away. Thank you, you have
a you bet have a good week tracing. All right, folks,
just another of my I want you to come out
and see me. I'm going to be at the Montgomery
Lifestyle Home Show and that is at the Higatt Regency

(02:34:07):
Conra next Saturday and twelve to two. You know the routine,
Bring me samples, put them in a bag. Got weeds,
got diseases, got bugs, Throw them in a bag. I'll
bring them in. I got a little hot lamp. I'll
put them under and make them confess and tell us
what they are and what to do about them. Also,
if you got pictures on your phone, bring those with you.
I'm going to be giving away some products there. I'll

(02:34:28):
have some of my books on hand if you like,
sign copy and we'll just have a good time. Next Saturday,
twelve to two, Higatt Regency Conra