The Corn Conundrum

Skip Richter Answers You Questions All Morning Long!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Scamp Richards.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Smell the crazy here in the gas gas they can
use water shrimp just watching as whom got the gasses
and gas? Can you?

Speaker 3 (00:19):
There are so many good takes the soup bat basic
in way, bring in the grasses like gas and again
you date the sas the globles back teckt's not a
salmon and the red the glasses and gas? Can you
the sun beaming.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Down betweens in the gasses and gas?

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Baby?

Speaker 5 (00:41):
Can you.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Starting and treating in the gases like gas?

Speaker 6 (00:48):
Became you date?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Everything is something you can see another thing? He is
Sunday hands rats.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Nigga baby?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Can you sun thousands?

Speaker 7 (01:44):
Can you damn it?

Speaker 8 (01:47):
It's darting. Hey, good morning, Good Sunday morning, gardners. It's
gonna be another good day. Boy. Yesterday was great. I
enjoyed getting out, spent a lot of time in the
sun yesterday getting some fresh air. Well, let's see you're
listening to Guardline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we
have a phone number. If you want to write this down,

(02:08):
you ought to just write down. Keep it with you.
I only say it eight hundred thousand times a show,
but we'll still we'll still give it out seven one three,
two one two five eight seven four. You got something
you want to talk about, we will talk about that.

Speaker 7 (02:23):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (02:24):
Outside in the landscape right now, we're doing our finishing up,
but getting our lawn put to be put to bed
for the cool season. That includes a fall fertilization. That
includes if you've got a thin lawn where weeds are
typically a problem, well, when sunlight hits a soil, nature
plants a weed. A pre emergent herbicide can prevent those

(02:46):
weeds from sprouting. That that is part of the deal.
And then finally we're in the brown patch season. We
get some mild weather, some rain, and here comes the
big bronze circles. Just remember that every thing that we
struggle with in our lawns and gardens has a cultural solution. First.

(03:07):
That's the first solution is don't predispose your lawn. It
applies to every kind of plant, but I'm just using
lawn as an example where it's also true, don't predispose
it to problems. If you mow your most people have
seint Augustine. But if you most saying Augustine too short,
you know, it's almost like a golf course, a green

(03:29):
kind of thing. Well, you're gonna have problems with it.
You're gonna have more problems with brown patch if you
overfertilize it, just pushing it with nitrogen, trying to keep
it emerald green all your lawn. That that is not good.
That is not it's going to predispose it toward brown
patch problems and other things shallow rooting during the summer
when it's hot and we're already struggling to get enough

(03:50):
water out there on it. And also when you water,
there is a proper way to water, and there is
and some improper ways to water. Cross improper would be
not enough water, it's too dry, But the main improper
is too often too little. You squirt it every day

(04:11):
and keep it wet. You're constantly keeping the surface of
the soil and the grass wet, and you're predisposing it
to disease. That's true of lots of plants. You know, roses,
you have a sprinkler comes on and sprays your rose
foliage every day. Well, you're going to see more problems
with fungal diseases of the foliage because you're predisposing it.

(04:32):
So number one on all kinds of problem control, from
weeds to diseases to even insects, is don't predispose your
plants to problems. That's number one. Then when we do
still deal with some things, there are solutions to them,
but that's not where we start. We start with the
cultural that that's a concept that's important to remember, very

(04:54):
important to remember. I am rooting some cuttings inside. I
like doing that just for fun, actually, but I like
making other plants. They make. You know, you get something started,
a plant in your yard and somebody likes maybe you
got a friend comes over and goes, oh, I love
that salvia you have there. Well make some cuttings of
it and give it to them as a little gift,

(05:14):
a surprise, a little small gift. It's kind of fun
to do things like that, and learning how to make
cuttings is a blast. There's a lot of techniques for
propagating plants, certainly from seed, but also from cuttings. And
when whenever I'm doing cuttings like I am right now,
I wait until I start see a little bit of
growth occurring on those cuttings, and then you know that

(05:37):
the roots have formed and it's beginning to go forward.
When you kind of cutting off of a plant, it
has no way. I mean, it's it's like, i'll say
it this way. You start the death of that plant
because it has no roots at all to be able
to take up moisture nutrients. So the plant immediately begins
to form a wound over the cut surface and then

(06:00):
to try to get roots pushing out of that cut surface.
And if it can get a root down before it
dries out and dies, it has a chance of making
a new plant. And so that's the kind of touching go.
So you don't see growth at that time. You see
growth after the roots are out in it. Now the
cutting is starting to send out a little shoot like Okay,
let's get going here. We've got some roots, and that's
the stage my last set of cuttings are at and

(06:21):
I need to get them out of there. I got
some blackfoot daisies that are propagated. So some roses that
are propagated, and let's see some Oh rosemary, got some rosemary,
and the rosemary is pretty easy to propagate. Not the
easiest thing on earth, but probably coldius is the easiest thing.
Or a tomato cutting those things. You just say the

(06:42):
word root and you see little bumps starting to appear
on the bottom of the cutting as they get ready
to root. Anyway, you ought to try that. It's not
hard to learn. There's a lot of good information online
if you want to learn how to do it. But
even if you're just playing around, practicing and learning, it's
a good good way to go. There's some other ways
of propagating. They're really easy, also more successful, and you

(07:06):
can try those out. But that's one of the things
that I recommend. When gardeners get going and they're kind
of getting into gardening, they're wanting to learn and try
some things. Propagation is always one of the things I
suggest they start trying, because that is a lot of fun.
Later in this winter, I'll be probably about maybe Christmas

(07:30):
New Year's. Right between Christmas and New Year's I'll start
my seeds beginning for my spring garden. Some of the
plants for the spring guarden, tomatoes and peppers and things
like that. It takes about takes me about eight weeks
to grow a tomato transplant. You can grow them in
six weeks, but I in fact sometimes I go to

(07:50):
ten because I'm bumping them up to larger container sizes.
You need to start these little tiny seeds first to
January or late December, and they get growing and you
have to bump them up to a four inch pot,
and then you're bumping them up to a bigger pot.
And sometimes I have like one gallon sized tomatoes that
already have blooms and tiny fruit on them by the

(08:11):
time I need to put them outside, and that gives
them a head start. So that that's just the way
I do it. It's not the way you have to
do it. Certainly, when you go buy transplants at the store,
you typically don't buy one gallon tomatoes, Altho they are
out there. Some people do, but you can start them
yourself if you want to try that. Why would you

(08:32):
start your own seeds. One of the reasons that I
do it is fun. Another reason that I do it
is because I can have any variety I want if
I start my own seeds. Just about so, maybe there's
this obscure tomato or pepper or something like that that

(08:53):
you're never going to find it in a local garden
center because they can't carry a thousand of every kind
of plant, a thousand varieties of every kind of plan,
but you want to grow that one, and so you
by starting from seed, you can grow it yourself. You
can do that. It's kind of fun to do. And
a lot of times I'm trying to do a test

(09:13):
of some varieties and see which ones I like. And
you know, it's hard to find all those that you
want to put together in the test, but you can
grow them, grow them at yourself. Maybe we'll talk as
we get later in the season about plant propagation. That
would be a good topic for the show and getting
you set up and ready to go. In fact, i'll
do that. I need to do that before. I need

(09:34):
to talk at least about plant lighting before long here,
because we're getting close to the holiday season, and boy
does plant lighting make a great gift to put on
your list. So let's do this. Let's take a little break.
We'll be right back with your calls at seven. Welcome
back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. We
have plenty of things to talk about today. It is fall,

(10:00):
it is the planting season. It is time to get
things planted. I know that we're getting in the fall.
You're thinking about Thanksgiving and the holidays and all the
things that are coming and maybe the outside's getting ignored
a little bit. Well, let me just say this, if
you want to have the best bang for your buck
when you buy a plant, if you want to have

(10:20):
the most success, you get them in the ground in
the fall. That is an important time to do it.
So if you can, you know, cut out a little
bit of time to get outside and get that soil
ready and get a plant in the ground. You're done,
then watered in, take care of it a little bit,
getting it going. But as this weather cools off, which

(10:42):
it is, the demands are so low the plan will
be fine and very very little pampering needed. Like when
you plant during hotter weather and next summer, that plan
will be on its way to resilience instead of still
touch and go trying to keep it alive. So that's
my advice for you. Has got you covered too. On
any kind of soil you are looking at for any

(11:04):
kind of plant you're wanting to plant, whether it's a
succulent or cactus in a small container or maybe in
a garden, or if it is a fruit tree, citrus fruits,
other things you're trying to plant. If it's acidic type
plants like azalea as a commitee's purists. Let's see Virginia

(11:25):
sweet spar that's when you don't seal around here. Lots
of great plant or maybe blueberries. Airloom Sels has soils
for all those. You can go out and buy them
by the bulk and porter. You can have them delivered
to your house, or you can find them by the
bag in many places all over town. Heirloomsoils dot Com
is the website. Go there, check out the products that

(11:45):
they have, and then get some brown stuff before green stuff.
Get that soil ready to create the foundation for success
with the folks at Heirloom Soils. You're listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number this morning,
as all mornings is seven to one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three two one

(12:07):
two fifty eight seventy four. Give me a call. Let's
talk about the things that are of interest to you.
I was talking earlier about lighting, and I decided I'm
just going to go into that a little bit. Lighting
is the single biggest cause of failure and growing transplants. Now,

(12:29):
young transplants need consistent moisture. If you're doing a seed,
and that seed starts to sprout, You put water in
the soil and the seed begins to take in water.
It begins a biochemical chain of events that until that
seed gets a root down, it is very subject to
not surviving if a seed, if you were to start

(12:53):
the prize, it starts that biochemical process of Okay, I'm
swelling up here, and I'm about to put a root
down and then a shoe up and it dries out.
During that time, it's dead, and that is the most
susceptible time in a planet's life. As well as that
seed is germinating, you got to keep it evenly moist.
That's important. Warm temperatures warm for the seed variety you're growing.

(13:16):
Most seeds want to be around seventy five degrees. Now,
seventy degrees is good for a whole lot of them.
That's kind of like the peak ideal for a lot
of them. And then there's some that like to be
up almost to eighty degrees. But seventy five is a
good You're not going to go wrong with most seeds. Again,
a few even but well below seventy but not many.

(13:37):
So read the seed packet if you want to be sure.
But anyway, get the temperature right, get the moisture right,
that's important. But lighting, that is the main thing where
people go wrong. You put them by a window and
you know, your eyes are saying, there's a lot of
light here. They ought to be able to grow here.
And the seeds start to come up and they stretch
and get spindly and they lean to the side. They're

(14:00):
trying to get light. And that is a crummy transplant.
It's it's going to snap off or break when it
gets out in the wind. It's just not healthy. It
is important to have good lighting. Now, some seeds you
can start outside in trays. Maybe bring them in at
night when it's going to get a little too cool,
but let them. Let them have some time outside to
get going.

Speaker 9 (14:20):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (14:21):
And but a lot of them you can start inside.
And I always start a lot of seeds inside. I've
got a couple of lighting fixtures that I put together.
Now you can what I would recommend if you're going
to do any kind of seed starting or cutting, rooting
or things like that, I would get you a really
good quality light and you don't have to spend a lot.
They're not cheap, but it's not like you have to

(14:43):
spend five hundred dollars to get a good a good
quality light or anything, but get one that has two
good features. One of them is light intensity and the
other one is light quality. Those two things, so what
do I mean? Well, intensity means how bright is it? Okay,
so it needs to be adequately bright. Most lighting is

(15:04):
designed for our eyes. For human eyes, we have cool
white light. We have warm white light lights for your bedroom,
your bathroom, your kitchen, your living room. You know, there's
all these different kinds of lighting that you have, different
different colors of light, if you will, or at least
the way they appear to our eyes. But those are

(15:26):
way too low in intensity and typically don't have a
spectrum that plants want. Plants want all the colors of
light in one form or another, except some of the
infrared and ultra violets that gets outside their range. But
plants want good quality lighting. They especially want red and blue.

(15:46):
Those are the two colors that plants use most. So
our lights designed for our eyes are not. They look
like a two hump camel. You know, you got the
two humps. The one of the humps is the spectrum
of red, and the next al the spectrum of blue.
Our lights look more like one big long hill or

(16:07):
a series of hills. What you need for a plant
is mainly red and blue. But if you get a
good quality LED lighting that's designed for plants, you can
have that, and then you just have to put it
close enough for the plants to benefit. Now, I have
a timer on my lights because I would never remember
to go turn them on and turn them off. Turn
them on, turn them off every day at the right times.

(16:28):
You just set a timer, get those little timers and
plugs into the wall. It's real easy to do, and
it has taken care of for you. Your lighting is
pretty much done. Set it for about fourteen hours a day.
To begin with maybe sixteen hours a day, and then
go to fourteen. I'm just giving you all the things
that are make it the best. Now, can you grow
plants with less quality lighting or less duration or yes

(16:51):
you can? You can not as good as success, but
yes you can. So what are what would I recommend that?
How do you know what light about?

Speaker 10 (17:00):
All?

Speaker 11 (17:00):
Right?

Speaker 8 (17:00):
Well, that's a good question. It's very very difficult to tell.
When you go online, you see these pictures and let
me tell you this, a lot of people will like
go on Amazon and buy their lights and stuff. I
know that that's how it's done for a lot of people.
But don't believe ninety percent of the lights sold on

(17:21):
those kind of places are not really the best light
for plans. They're just not and the claims they make,
the pictures they show are just not good. You need
good quality lighting. You can go some of our garden
centers and places like that will carry good quality lighting
that you can get, or you can do a little
investigation online. I wrote an article Texas Gardener magazine on

(17:44):
lighting a while back. I guess if you know call
in or or send me an email. I can send
you a copy of that of that article that goes
into the depths on it, one on seed starting and
one on good quality lighting. And so I would recommend
you just start with that information. Don't go by somebody

(18:04):
a light just because well, not knowing what you're getting,
what you're doing on that. But that would be a
wonderful gift for somebody who is a gardener who would
like to start their own seeds and things. There are
some really good quality lights. Now, having said all about
about the wonderful perfect how you get it done, well,

(18:24):
let me just say this. If you are in a
pinch and you've got a shoplight fixture, shoplights, we always
used to just use fluorescent tubes, right, and I would
use a cool white and a warm white tube. Now
the fluorescent tubes are kind of rare, and the LED
tubes are the ones you see. But again, still, if
you get a cool white tube and a warm white tube,

(18:47):
and I would have two shoplights side by side with
two tubes in each one, and I would alternate cool
white worm white, cool white worm white. That is the
closest you can get with non plan lighting, with human lighting,
in other words, to something that will start you a
good transplant. You're gonna have to get them down low

(19:07):
close to the plants to get plenty of life. Those
plants are stretching. It means they're not getting enough light.
With the ol fluorescent types, I literally would set those
tubes about an inch and a half two inches above
the plants. But now with our LEDs, we have a
little more intensity than that. Anyway, I'm kind of rambling
on about it, but I think it's a great idea.

(19:28):
It's fun, and you ought to try it. And if
I can help you with that I'd be happy to
do that. I'd try maybe I can get something like
that posted to the website. That would be a that
would be a good thing. If I can put a
little more information on that, I'll try to get that done.
It is time to get planting, as I've been telling you,
and Nelson plant Food has a product called Genesis Genesis

(19:51):
Transplant Mix. Basically, what that is is it is a
combination of nutrients with the microrise of bacteria and fungi
that enhance it's the root growth and the soil is
it works well and you mix it in. You Normally
I say, don't put fertilizer in the planting hole. That's
true of salt based fertilizers in general, unless they're a
very slow release. But this you can you. In fact,

(20:14):
it's for that you mix it with the soil that
you're going to be planting into and you see some
really good success with it. I've enjoyed it. It's available
by the jar. Like a lot of the Nelson nutri
Star line of products is Nelson Nutristar Genesis Transplant Mix.
You want to give it a try, I think you'll
find it to be very very successful for you as

(20:36):
I have. You can find it a place that's like
Southwest Fertilizer, which carries everything right Southwest Fertilizers on the
corner of busin Utton Renwick. You always find the things
I talk about there. If you're looking for the Nelson products,
they're going to have them, and every other kind of
fertilizer and every kind of thing you need to control
weeds and diseases. Also a good place to get some

(20:58):
wonderful gifts like quality pruning tools that last a lifetime
if you take care of them. Southwest Fertilizer, corner Abyssinet
and Runwick seven to one three six six six one
seven four four. That's seven one three six six six
one seven four four. Let's take a little break for
the news. I'll be right back. Hey, welcome, he love Dunson.

(21:20):
Good heavy back.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Have time with all mass.

Speaker 8 (21:25):
We got plenty of talk about today. These kind of
quiet times on the radio gives me a chance to
go into some detail about some things that I don't
know I think maybe of interesting at least some of you.
I hope you consider giving them a shot, especially when
it comes to plants and starting your own plants and

(21:45):
trying some things like that. It's just a lot of
fun in our lawns, you know, the as you walk
on the lawn, as we deal with our heavy clays
and the fact that it gets kind of dry and
the clay gets very hard, especially the foot traffic that
compacts it. Aeration is a game changer when it comes

(22:05):
to benefiting your turf. Aeration is done not by pushing
a probe into the soil to squeeze a hole open.
You know, like if you were to just stick a
stick down in the ground, you would essentially compact the
sides of that hole by doing that. It's done by
taking a core of soil out to think of a

(22:26):
hollow tube that goes in the ground and it pops
out a core of soil and drops that core in
the surface. That's why it's called core aeration, and that's
what green Pro does. Green Pro doest core aeration. They
also do compost top dressing, which is a perfect complement
to corroration because you get a nice thin layer of
finely screened quality compost on the surface of the ground.

(22:47):
Some of that's going to fall down in the holes too,
by the way, and those holes become places for oxygen
to get in the soil when it rains or places
for water to move in, have more of a surface
area of the soil to absorb that water. And as
the oxygen moves in, the roots begin to thrive, and
as the roots begin to thrive, your grass does better.
So maybe you had compaction or maybe you have compaction

(23:09):
and you need to get that fixed. Corredoration is the
fastest way to do that. To get it fixed. The
top top dressing is also important. By the way, green
Pro also does fertilization too. They have them do the
whole nine yards. Now. They cover an area kind of
the northwest quadron of Houston. Generally by quadrant I mean

(23:30):
Interstate forty five and I ten gives us four quadrants
to the city. So going all the way up into
places like Magnolia, Montgomery and the Woodlands and Conra and
Willis and up in Cyprus and Spring and down to
don to it ten Katie West Houston and all the
way through that area. That's their basic service area. Greenprotexas

(23:52):
dot com. That's the website Greenprotexas dot com. Eight three
to two three five to one zero zero three two
a three two three five one zero zero three two
give them a call, let them work magic on your lawn.
I was going through my supply of products, you know too,

(24:18):
that my plant care products that I have, and I
have a number of different Microlife products that are as
on the shelf, and I like the the seven to
one three that's a bio matrix. It's the orange label.
I use it all the time. I've talked about that
a lot. It's probably it's got a good nitrogen boost,
especially for an organic product, a lot of nitrogen there,

(24:39):
and it works really well. I like it on my
houseplants because they're basically foliage and foliage is fed by
nitrogen and encouraged growth by nitrogen. So I use that
as well. But you know, there's a number of other
products that Microlife has. If you're looking for a fish
based fertilizer, they have the Ocean Harvest, which is a
blue label. They also have a seaweed based product as well.

(25:04):
The microbe type products are especially helpful, and there's one
called micro micro gross CM. It's a biological inoculant. It
has like sixty three different strains of beneficial microbes in it.
And when you consider how nature is, it's not just
like there's a disease that lands an attack your plant.

(25:25):
It's more complex than that because there's a bazillion different
microbes out there that are fighting either to attack your
plants or in many cases to defend your plants. And
so the idea is create an environment that is hostile
toward a bad organism. And that's why microlife puts all

(25:47):
these microbes in the fertilizer. It's because nature knows how
to do this, and you can essentially do it a
number of ways. There are some microbes that actually produce antibiotics,
as you know that. There are some that actually pretty
antibiotics on and like if they're on the leaf surface
there there's a potential there for some disease fighting just

(26:09):
having them present there. There's other microbes that are just
colonizing the leaf surface and essentially outgrowing the other organisms
that would try to land and establish a base there,
like those leaf diseases that you have, and micro Life's
built around those kind of products. There's a lot of
different products. They make a lot of different products. Right now,

(26:30):
on the lawns, we're still putting down their brown patch.
That is a fall based fertilizer. And by the way,
the brown Patch in brown Patch by Microlife the brown bag.
There is micro grow bioanoculant that is in there and
that's what helps it to work. So well, let's go. Now,
let's go down to the phones. We're going to go
to Steve and Cyprus. Hey, Steve, welcome to Garden.

Speaker 12 (26:52):
Line a skiff. Appreciate you taking my call. I'm going
to have the gardener. You know, I'm following garden long
time and I'm totally depressed with your knowledge question I got.
I sent you some pictures. I think you've commented that
you did receive them.

Speaker 8 (27:10):
Yes, they're on the water oaks.

Speaker 12 (27:12):
Now, my biggest concern was the one the bark. Is
that a sunsculd you think.

Speaker 8 (27:20):
It could be? Did you take that picture late in
the afternoon? Oh my god, I thought you reason I was.

Speaker 12 (27:33):
I did. I took a couple of days ago, but
I can't tell you what what kind of day it was,
but it.

Speaker 8 (27:38):
Was okay, okay, Well, the sun was shining on that
area at that time, and I think that what you're
looking at as sun is sun skulled. Uh. It doesn't
have to be, but there's a ninety chance it is.

Speaker 10 (27:54):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (27:54):
And what happened, and this this will happen. It'll happen
even worse in winter time because that tree will go
dormant and then and and it'll be fully dormant and
able to take a hard freeze because it's it's a species.
It'll do that here, it'll live here. And then late
on a winter day, the sun is directly shining against

(28:18):
the southwest side of the tree, and the sap starts
to flow right in that area, you know, like it
wakes it up from dormancy a little bit. And then
that night the temperature drops and all the rest of
the tree is cold hearty, but that spot that warmed
up the most, which is the southwest side, then the
freeze gets it and you end up with splits in

(28:39):
the bark. And now one added problem is is that
now that you've got the like the black printing paint
on it, it's gonna absorb heat even more because of
that dark color. So you might want to you might
want to put a little tree wrap or something like
that around it temporarily as we get into the wintertime,
take all the loose bark that's on there, anything that

(29:01):
will pop loose and peel off, just get it out
of the way. Uh and because you aren't the interior
wood that's exposed to dry out as fast as possible
to cut down on the amount of the key that
you get into that trunk.

Speaker 12 (29:13):
Now, I looking at the picture, I say that that
was saken in the morning, because it's like, yeah, it's
probably uh yeah, I don't know, maybe ten o'clock or
stole it in the morning, because I can.

Speaker 8 (29:28):
See well yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Well there's two things
that can cause that kind of damage. One of them
is physical damage for how whatever something scrapes and bumps
the bark uh in that location. I doubt you have
deer coming in, rubbin antlers on it or anything, you know.
And the skull is still yeah, the sun skull is

(29:52):
still our our our best guess on that. Now, if
the if the damage goes fifty percent or more around
that trunk, it's going to be a tough recovery and
that's going to be a weak spot for a while.
The best thing you can do, and it doesn't help
to fertilize now, but when we get out of winter
and it begins to grow again, continue to put small

(30:14):
amounts of fertilizer and speed the growth and healing as
best you can. That would.

Speaker 12 (30:21):
Like the microlife. What more you recommend for a spring.

Speaker 8 (30:26):
Well, microlife would be micro life would be fine. I
would use the ultimate, the blue bag in the spring,
because it's a faster release of the nitrogen and a
little higher nitrogen content. I would use that one, and
I would probably do it. I probably do that. Go
up to the trunk above that wounded area and look
at the thickness of it, and for every inch of

(30:48):
trunk thickness, I'm going to guess that that looks like
it's about two or three inches maybe across that trunk.
Whatever it is. Yeah, So whatever it is, give it
two or three cups of the Microlife Ultimate per inch
of trunk diameter. So let's just say let's just say

(31:10):
it was two to make it easy. That would mean
you're giving it four to six cups, which would be
what one to two pints. Spread and circle evenly all
around the plant, Scratch it into the malts there and
water it in. Really good, But do that do that
about every four weeks for a little while, maybe six

(31:30):
weeks is just try to keep that thing.

Speaker 12 (31:36):
I've got liquid seaweed would help it all is that
anything that you recommend it?

Speaker 8 (31:41):
I don't see in this case. I don't see a
benefit for this situation with the seaweed. I think it
makes nutrients and it also needs to be kept evenly
moist all year, all in during the growing season. When
get into summer drought, don't let it lack for water.
You don't drown it, but keep it moist and that
what we're trying to do is just spur the growth

(32:03):
and get that healing done, because it's got a long
way to heal. Hey, Steve, I'm gonna have to run.
I'm up up against the break, but good luck getting
that tree shape.

Speaker 12 (32:13):
Thank you very much, Thank you.

Speaker 8 (32:16):
All right, folks, I'll be right back. And all right,
thank you. Welcome back to guard Line.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Say take you say, don't let the sound you all.

Speaker 8 (32:34):
Right, folks, we're back. Let's get going again. We got
plenty of gardening stuff to talk about this morning. I
did want to mention to you a little. I don't
know people ignored their trees too much. They just do
we take them for granted. I take mine for granted.
You know. I'll go along and suddenly look up in

(32:55):
the tree and realize, yeah, I haven't. I haven't even
looked up in this tree and checked it out for
long time. There's stuff going on. Trees are the most
valuable single plant on your property. They are They add
lots of value to your home or to track from it,
depending on the condition of the tree and the type
of tree. But everybody wants to have good, beautiful trees.

(33:16):
You're going to buy a house, you want a house
with nice trees, beautiful trees, and you got to take
care of him. If you haven't had if you've not
had your trees looked at in the last couple of years,
you definitely need to call Martin Spoon More Affordable Tree,
have them come out, have him take a look, do
an assessment. Martin many services that he can do. But
we're entering the dormous season where we do dormo season

(33:37):
pruning and he can come out and do a good
job on that. By the way, when he does a
pruning on a tree, on that tree, he will also
for free do a deep root feeding on that tree
that you had print and so that's a good deal.
Now's the time to get it done and you can
reach Martin at seven one, three, six nine nine two
six six, three, seven, one three, six nine nine two six,

(33:59):
six three, he does. We focus really the time for
pruning on the dormant season, primarily needing prune twelve months
of the year, and there's reasons to prune each of
the months for things going on in the tree. But
the less stressful time, the time that we recommend doing
most of the especially the serious pruning work you got

(34:21):
to get done, is in this dormant season. The fastest
time of tree wound healing is as that tree comes
out of the dormant season, and so dormant season is
a good time to get that pruning done. Now, Martin
does a lot of other things. He can do consultations,
he can do stump grinding, past control, disease control, deeproof feeding,
of course, and if you're going to do any kind

(34:43):
of construction around the tree, you need to have him
come out and look at it and advise you, and
he'll talk to you about what needs to be done
or not done in order to keep that tree in
the best shape it can be. I so many times
have to go out and look at a tree, and
in my extension career and it was like they'd put

(35:03):
a trench on one side of the trunk and a
trench on the other side. And I had to tell
them you just cut off eighty ninety percent of the
tree's roots when you did that. We could have avoided that,
and Martin can help you avoid that. Seven one three
six ninety nine two six sixty three. Let's go now
to friends with and talk to Bill this morning. Hey Bill, good.

Speaker 13 (35:21):
Morning, No skip, I it's kind of a ridiculous question,
but do you have any idea how long a corn
plant can live?

Speaker 8 (35:33):
Like corn is in the house plant or corn is
in the vegetable out in the garden.

Speaker 13 (35:38):
The corn is in the houseplant. Let me tell you
my story. Okay, my mother in law had one of
these things. I think it was about fifteen years old
before she passed. And then we need demised. Isn't about
another five years when we moved to our house.

Speaker 8 (35:56):
Well, they I don't know how to give a eight.
You know, they don't have an age where they typically die.
I would say almost indefinitely, you know, as long as
it's being given good care in getting the light at needs.

Speaker 13 (36:12):
Real question when we demise this one, that's a good
term for it. Yea more another and it's been sitting
over in the corner and doubled in size for about
five years. At the moment, it's in a bedroom. It's
behind a window. It's about twelve fourteen inches wide and

(36:36):
ten be tall. The plan itself is probably about five
be tall. It's doubled in size since we purchased it.
And now it's looking My wife put a new I
guess you'd call it earth. It's soiled, cleaned out. The
pot roots looked to me. They were kind of white

(36:58):
and creamy looking, and that's the way they're supposed to
look good.

Speaker 8 (37:02):
All right, that's right.

Speaker 13 (37:03):
And yeah, she put it back in the pot, and
they had five leaves on it. Now three of them
are droopy and brown, the two remaining ones.

Speaker 8 (37:13):
All right, Hey Bill, I'm hearing music, which means I'm
about to about to run out of time.

Speaker 10 (37:19):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (37:20):
Main thing is give it good light they want. They
don't need direct sun, but they need good bright light.
Keep the soul evenly moist, try to avoid you know,
too soggy, wet or too dry. Uh. And that's giving
it as best chance that you have right there. When
things go wrong with plants, typically it's pardon, I say.

Speaker 13 (37:42):
What do I do? With the I guess dead leaves, leave.

Speaker 9 (37:45):
Them or cut them.

Speaker 8 (37:47):
Take the Now take the dead leaves off at the trunk.
If you've got a leaf that the tip is dead,
you can cut with scissors of V shape in the
end of the leaf to cut off the dead area.
And you still have kind of that corn plant shape
to the tip of the leaf. You can cut them
with scissors in a V shape to to keep them
looking good. He got a run. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Welcome to Katie r h garden Line with Skip Ricord's Yes, crazy.

Speaker 8 (38:17):
Gas trip. Just watch him as.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
So many bias to seep bays. Sorry gas and gas.

Speaker 8 (38:42):
Salve beam and please welcome back.

Speaker 9 (38:50):
Here we go.

Speaker 8 (38:50):
We got another hour going on garden line. If you
would like to give me a call. Seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three
two one two five eight seven four RCW Nurseries has
got an awesome sale going here in November. It is,
for example, azaleas and camellias fifteen percent off. Now, what

(39:12):
does your landscape look like in the winter. What's blooming
at your place in the winter. I'll tell you what
could be a camellia. We have Comedia Japonicas, camellias a
sanquas and when you put those two together, maybe have
some of each, you end up with blooms from December
all the way February. I mean that the whole the
winter season is pretty much covered with blooms. Because these

(39:36):
things are just that's their month. They look awesome, really
really cool. They also have crate myrtles for thirty percent off,
and when you go there, you know, you tell them
I'm looking for a crepe myrtle. I need it to
be about this tall, I need it to be this color,
and see if they can match that up. They probably can,
because crape myrtles come in all sizes, they come in
all colors. Lots of good options out there. So don't

(39:58):
just buy a crepe myrtle because it crate myrtle. Buy
one that fits what you need.

Speaker 13 (40:03):
Now.

Speaker 8 (40:03):
I see this all the time, you know, we talk
about crate murder and people chopping off crepe myrtle's head high,
you know, and then they get all these shoots that
come up and it just destroys the beautiful form of
the plant. Well, by a crape myrtle that gets the
size you want. Do you want one that's about twelve
feet tall only and stops there. There's crape myrtles that
do that and other range height ranges as well. Thirty

(40:24):
percent off RCW Nursery. They got their bench benches, their
yard art, and their metal arbors. A little archway arbor
is perfect for going into a transitioning, you know, from
one landscape zone into another. Thirty percent off. And then
citrus tree is forty percent off at RCW Nursery. That
is the garden center right there where belt Way eight
comes into Tomball Parkway. Easy to get too, easy to

(40:47):
get in, get out. And while you're there, you're gonna
find some really quality plants, lots of kinds of plants.
And just know this, they grow trees themselves and bring
them in from their properties up in Plantersville, And so
you're getting a good quality tree and they can come
out and plant it for you too. And I would
recommend that unless it's just a small small tree that
you can pick up and carry easily, I would have

(41:09):
them come out and plant. They know how to do
it properly, and you don't end up putting your chiropractice
kids through college, if you know what I'm saying, RCW Nurseries.
I was talking to somebody the other day that was
discussing plants, moving plants and stuff for the wintertime, and

(41:32):
I guess the discussion was more about, Oh, man, I
got to haul this thing in and haul this thing out,
and haul this thing in, haul it out, trying to
keep it from freezing. And I just want to give
you an idea. You probably do this already, but in
case you don't, The easiest way to move a plant
and a container, I think is with a dolly. And

(41:53):
you're thinking, well, yeah, if I put that little short
lip on the dolly, it'll just fall off. Well, you
get a strap and you put it on one side
of the dolly, tie it, go around the plant tied
to the other side, and pull it up tight up
against the dolly and put your foot against the bottom.
And it is so easy to move a plant. It's
almost a way. It is a one handed deal, for sure,

(42:15):
but you can get them wherever you need them to go.
And I leave the dolly attached unless you need it,
just leave it attached. So maybe you have a tropical
type hibiscus and you're going to get temperatures to kill
a tropical hibiscus. Move it in the garage, bring it out,
give it some sunshine. Maybe it's a boogain villia, I
don't know. Whatever you've got that you need to protect,

(42:36):
that's the easy way to do it. Certainly, cetrus. Some
of our citrus is pretty cold tender. A little big
container citrus, you can move them that way. That's what
I do. My garage is where they live in the wintertime,
but they get sunshine every day coming out the ones
that want it, the ones that need it, that aren't
going dormant. But a little tip, there's really easy to

(42:57):
move them that way, and I would recommend you do that.
You're listening to garden Line the phone number seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven to
one three two one two five eight seven for your
Ace Hardware store, and you do have a bunch of
them close to you too. By the way, is loading
up and getting ready for this holiday season coming up.

(43:20):
There is of course, there's all the things you already
go into Ace Hardware Store for. You know, there's the lighting,
the lighting you need to switch out. There's the air
filters that need to be replaced over month, making sure
things are safe as we go into the season where
some people are running the fireplace or other things. So
you got your fire safety like fire alarms and extinguishers

(43:42):
and whatnot. But the land, the lighting for indoors and
outdoors for holiday it's ACE Hardware Store chucks up full
of that all every year and really great options, some
really cool options for the lighting. ACE Harder Store also
is a place you're going to go to find some
nice decorations for indoors and for outdoors during the holiday season.

(44:06):
You just need to get by. If you haven't been
in an ACE Hardware store recently, you haven't been in
an ACE Hardware store. This is these things are individually
owned and so each owner puts their own twist on
the store, so they're not no too alike identical, but
they all have the basic stuff that you would expect
from an ACE Hardware store, and then from there the

(44:26):
owner can great what they want. I would say that
it would be now staying place to do holiday shopping
because everything from barbecue pits to beautiful indoor decorations and
sometimes even like jewelry or specially designed cutting boards and
other things that make really really good gifts. At ACE Hardware. Now,
where are ACE Hardware stores were? They're all over the place.

(44:48):
You just got to go to ACE Hardware Texas. Don't
forget the word Texas dot com. Ace Hardware Texas dot com.
You can find all my ACE hardware stores there, like
Lake Conrays on Highway one O five West, like League
on West, League City Parkway. Or how about Rockport ACE
on State Highway thirty five north down in Rockport, or
Hardware Hardware City ACE on Memorial Drive on the west

(45:11):
side of Houston. There's some good examples of the mini
stores right there. Someone someone I talk to people about
plants all the time, and they people once they find
out you know something about plants or might it becomes
a topic of conversation. I always think about doctors, you

(45:33):
know who if someone hears you're a doctor, like you're
an MD, Uh, what do they say, Well, I got
this spot here that kind of you know, And it's like, gosh,
it must be tough being a doctor. Everybody's wanting you
to diagnose some for free on the spot right there
or give them advice. Uh, well, that happens to plants sometimes.
One time I was this is this is the true story.

(45:55):
One time I was in church on a platform about
to help read something to start the service. And I
looked across the back of this kind of an auditorium
like setting, looks at the back, and the guy came
around the corner and he our eyes met, and it
was kind of weird, because you know, usually you're not
eye to eye contact with an individual like and from
a distance like that, and I was seeing he walked

(46:17):
all the way down the aisle, came up on the platform,
reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag
with leaves in it. I said, could we do this
later please? I was like, whoa, that's the that's the
worst version that I've had. But oh my gosh, yep,
Well that's okay. I like talking plans, it's just there

(46:38):
sometimes not so appropriate for that. All right, Well, let's
take a little break here. We'll be right back. We're
going to leave. Talk to w when we come back.
Welcome back, Hey, welcome back to the garden. Line's good
to have you with us. I was this past week.

(47:01):
This past week I was doing some reading. I always
try to keep up with research going on in the
plant world because things are always changing, we're always learning
things and whatnot. And this past week I was just
working on information about seaweed and what you know, I
hear all these claims for seaweed. We have all all

(47:21):
for a long time.

Speaker 9 (47:22):
Now.

Speaker 8 (47:23):
Hear all these claims and it's like, so what exactly
is held up by research? And I'm just amazing the
amount of information, the amount of trials and things that
have been done looking at seaweed extracts and the benefits
of them to plants. I mean, there's a lot of
things that seaweed extracts can do. For example, there are
a lot of growth promoting hormones in them. They certainly

(47:46):
have some nutrients in them as well, but the growth
stimulants and stuff that is in there, there are things
that help plants with stress, that help reduce some of
the stress responses. And it's kind of an amazing thing.
A lot of places around the world that you know,
have access to seaweed naturally. It's just part of the
gardening process, part of the farming process in some of

(48:08):
those areas. Medina Products has one called liquid Seaweed, for example,
and that is it comes to a little bottle that
you can It has its own little doser cup and
I really like those kind of bottles in it. But
so basically you can you know if you're going to
use an ounce or two or whatever the amount of
a product you're going to do. It's got a little
cup on the side and you just have to see

(48:29):
it see what I'm talking about. But you just unscrew
the cap and push pour it out and it comes
into just the right amount. You can use it as
a fold of your feed. That's how most people use
seaweed as a folio of your feed. You can drench
the soil with it as well. But Medina is one
of the many products Medina has out and it's one
that you should have on your shelves of your garden

(48:51):
storage area because it works. It really does. So anyway,
that was kind of a fun fact this week. Always
like kind of pick a different product that I'll start
to dive into and try to learn little bit more
about as we go through. It's kind of fun. Let's
go out to Jersey Village. Now we're going to talk
to Debbie this morning. Hey, Debbie, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (49:12):
Good morning.

Speaker 8 (49:14):
I have the same question again.

Speaker 14 (49:15):
I believe I still had some sprinkler work finished in
my backyard.

Speaker 10 (49:20):
Is it still too.

Speaker 11 (49:20):
Late to relate or to relay the.

Speaker 14 (49:24):
Grass if I wanted to put a bunch of grass in,
or should I wait till the spring?

Speaker 8 (49:30):
What is my it's not too late? Well, it's not
a black and white line, unfortunately, and our weather determines
that a lot. As the days get shorter and as
the temperature gets cooler as we go into fall, the
grassroot growth decreases more and more and more, you know,
each week. And so I do I you know, if

(49:54):
all things are equal, I would say, well, get your
side laid out there in the spring, because that's a
mile time of the year, and the grass is starting
to grow, the roots are starting to grow, and it'll
establish and go forward, and you have a good established
soil before it gets very hot. But you can plant
the rest any time you want, really to an agree,
So I would if you're gonna do it, I would

(50:14):
hurry up and do it, just so you get it
down as soon as you can, because with each passing
week the amount of growth and establishment is going down
a little bit. And so I would do yourself a
favor and get it done.

Speaker 14 (50:28):
Okay, thank you so much?

Speaker 8 (50:30):
It okay, yes, thank you you bet, thank you appreciate
your call. Already there you are. You know, in nature
there are not a lot of black and white lines
we like. We like black and white lines in life.
You know, we want to have some sort of a certainty,
I guess if you will. We want to we want
to know that, uh, you know, the what we're what

(50:53):
we're trying to to accomplish or do you know you
do it this way and it's gonna work and you're
gonna be just fine. But nature don't have those kind
of lines usually, and so as a result, we sometimes
have to put up with a little bit of uncertainty
and what we would like to be just real easy,

(51:13):
here's the answer often, isn't. I have a fellow when
I worked for AGR Life Extension that I used to
work with, and he helped me with a lot of
the issues that you know, had to deal with and
in terms of, you know, how do you go about
this particular procedure or whatever. Anyway, I used to kid
him because his answer to all my questions started with

(51:35):
the word depends, just because it depends. It really depends,
Like when is the time I should prune a tree? Well,
it depends, I mean, I can give you the general
better time, but there's a lot of reasons you print
at a different time that could could happen anyway, Just
a little observation there something we deal with. Hey Enchented

(51:58):
for us awesome guarden center down in the Richmond Rosenberg area.
I always love going there, visiting with Danny and Clay
and you know, the whole team down there, an Enchended
intended forest. They make gardening fun, they do, and it's
fun when you get out of a car. You know,
you get out of car and you're walking over toward
the buildings and you're just looking at all this cool.

(52:19):
It's I don't know how to It's not like an
old western town, but it just has a nice country
garden center feel to it and big beautiful shade trees
out there, so nice. And they have programs all the time.
You just had one on bees this past I guess
it was yesterday. Very interesting program. But now's the time

(52:43):
to go by there and get you a tree. Of course,
while you're there, leave room in the car because you're
going to want to get a lot of other things.
They have wonderful, absolutely wonderful selection of vegetables and herbs
and cool season color. The gift shop is very cool.
The housepin selection they have very cool if you like
pollinators and bees and bringing in butterflies. Oh my gosh.

(53:05):
They have a whole section of the nursery that is
just for those kind of plants. I mean, it's that amazing.
So when it comes to planting trees, now's the time.
They have wonderful trees. You know that my favorite spring
blooming tree. Currently, my favorites evolve, but my favorite one
is the Chinese fringe tree. Beautiful shaggy white blooms in

(53:26):
the spring that have a nice light fragrance to them,
and they have those there at Enchanted Forest. It's the
place to go for all the things you need, including
the fertilizers, the products, the control pests, weeds and diseases.
They got you covered on all of that stuff. Salvia's
my favorite plant. I think at one point starting to them,
they had ninety different types of salvia. That's crazy, absolutely crazy.

(53:49):
But Intended Forests is that kind of garden center. Good
advice to good, dependable advice. Give them a check. Hey,
the website is what you need to know. Enchanted Forest, Richmond,
tx dot com. They're on FM five excuse me, FM
twenty seven fifty nine outside of the Richmond area. All right,

(54:11):
let's see here. Well, I was gonna, oh, I know,
I wanted to discuss with you a little bit about
attracting birds to the landscape. And I'm a newbie to
the bird world, and pretty much, I would say about
ninety percent of what I know about birds came from
the folks at wild Birds Unlimited, you know, visiting with

(54:31):
the people in the stores, incredibly knowledgeable people in the
stores and the owners of the stores, you know, which
are intricately involved in the business, and they just have
so much knowledge about all things birds. And you know,
I'll ask them stump the chump questions and boy, they
nail them right away. It's it's a good hobby to

(54:54):
get into, and it's it's a good hobby to gift
people into as well. One time I bought a member
of our family a beautiful hummingbird feeder that they just loved.
And they weren't bird people, but they loved it. It
was so cool to have that and to be able
to watch them come up and do that. The feeders,
the quality seed that they have there it's outstanding. And

(55:17):
you can go a lot of places and buy cheap
bird seed. You can. I mean, it's just a fact.
But if you were to take out the red bebies
and look at what percentage of that bird seed and
I say red bebes If you don't know what I'm
talking about, I'm talking about the milo seeds that are
in there the birds. It is not a favorite of birds.
You can buy them, they're cheap, and if a bird

(55:38):
is starving, some birds will eat them, but it's not
their favorite and as a result, you end up with
a fraction of the bird seed to go into a
bird's tummy that you want. And so why not buy
a quality seed blend from wild Birds Unlimited. They're no
mass blends are not only all their blends are going

(55:59):
to have things that bird you're interested never seed in them.
But the no mass blends don't have the shells like
sunflowers that have the shells on the outside and they
crack them open and eat them. They love those things
favorite for birds, crack for birds, but then they drop
the shells and so I don't want those down there. Well, okay,
get a no mess blend. It's already shelled there's no

(56:20):
shells in it all. At wild Birds Unlimited, there's six stores.
Wild Birds Unlimited stores six stores in the Greater Houston area.
Here they are you ready, there's one in your area
by the way, clear Lake Eldorado Boulevard, pear Land East Broadway,
Houston on bel Air, and Houston on Memorial Drive on

(56:41):
the west side. Kingwood, of course, Kingwood is Kingwood Drive.
I was there the other day. It's a great store.
John and Susie. I've been operating that store and owning it.
Cypress on Barker Cypress And did I say clear Lake
on Eldorado. I don't know if I did, if I didn't.
That's the sixth store wild Birds Unlimited. Great place to

(57:02):
go get some cool Christmas gifts that people really will love.
Plus they have some nice, little beautiful decorations for indoors
on a birding type theme, really really nice stuff. You
got to check them out. Your gardening is like a
combination of hobbies and it's also a combination of approaches

(57:27):
that let me, let me put it this way, I'm
not describing it very well. Uh, when when you go
to garden, when you go to plants, something for beauty.
You think of visual, right, you want to look out there,
you want to see something pretty well? What is what
is pretty? Pretty is designed. It's an aesthetic flow that

(57:48):
looks good. Pretty is the balance of plants you put out.
You know, you don't have all the evergreens on one
side of the yard and all the deciduous on the
other side, because in winter that kind of gets weird.
Pretty is the color combinations. It's the foliage texture combinations,
from fine textures to big, broad, bold leaves. But there's
also the sound aspect, and birds bring us that, and

(58:10):
running water brings us that. That is a whole other
esthetic that is just so nice to having a garden.
And then there is just the movement and the color
of like a bird's flitting by, or the movement of
like a clumping bamboo, the sound of the clumping bamboo
leaves to it. It sounds like it's raining lightly when

(58:32):
you sit onder need to clump of bamboo and the
wind is blowing through it. It is really really nice.
And then there's the fragrance, and that is a huge part.
I've been purposefully planting fragrant plants on the southwest side
of my outdoor sitting area to just enjoy those fragrance
as the southwest winds laft it in another nice aspect

(58:55):
of gardening. Let's take a little break at the bottom
of the hour. I'll be right back, all right. I
hate to interrupt George straight, but we're gonna do it.
Welco about the guard line if you expect this week,
I was checking out Houston Powder coders. I always go
visit our our sponsors, you know, the social media and

(59:17):
the websites and stuff, just see what's going on. And
I was just so I was so impressed. You want
to check them out on Facebook. That's where you can
get a lot of ideas and you know, pictures of
things that they've done and stuff, and you just have
to see it to really understand what they can do.
I mean, they think outside the box. If it's metal

(59:38):
and it needs coding, this is who you need to call.
And certainly you know, the the pool furniture, the patio
furniture and tables metal or the metal artistic wall hangings
and things that are outdoors. You know, they'll tend to rust.
And it doesn't matter if it's aluminium or cast iron
or whatever kind of metal they have. A way of

(01:00:01):
making it like brand new and for example metal fencing
or gates. Maybe have one of those vertical bars iron
or fences around the property or real beautiful fences. Well,
they weather, they get to look in bad, they start
to rust. We'll catch them as soon as you can
and give them a call at Houston Powder Coats and say, look,

(01:00:23):
I need you look at this and tell me what
you can do. And the entriest, yes they can, they
absolutely can. Over one hundred different colors. It's just beautiful.
I looked at the railing of the interior of a home,
just gorgeous interior with metal railing with all kinds of
ornate stuff all in it, going up around a spiral
staircase to the second store that Houston Powder Coaters had coated,

(01:00:46):
and it was like, whoa, that is really really really nice.
Lots of different ways they go about it, lots of
you know, ways that they can come. They bring it in.
If it's rusty, if it's corroded, whatever they've got, they
have ways a deal with it. They get it all
fixed up and it doesn't matter.

Speaker 13 (01:01:03):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:01:03):
Maybe it was one of those chairs that had the
straps on it, you know, the straps that go across
and they're worn out and we need to put new
straps on. The hardware needs to be replaced. Well, they
have stainless steel hardware. They can do. You just need
you need to just think about this because there is
so much that they can do, and in time for
the holidays, you know, to get that outdoor. You know,

(01:01:23):
December is not a cold month here much, right, we
spent a lot of time outdoors even in December. Well,
how about redoing that equipment, that equipment, that furniture out
there on the outside. Maybe you've got a middle post.
It's one of those little gas lamps, you know, out
in the front yard. Maybe I'm just just think outside
the box. How about the barbecue pit. They can do

(01:01:44):
it in any color you want. Now, I've never seen
a pink barbecue pit, but if you wanted one, they
could powder coat it pink if you wanted to do that,
or one hundred different colors, including the standard black color
of course. Houston Powdercoders dot Com two eight one six seven,
six eighty eight. We're going to go out to Kingwood
now and visit with Joe this morning. Hey, Joe, welcome

(01:02:06):
to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (01:02:07):
Good morning, Skip, I'm calling for some advice for my
son who lives in West u He's got a big
cottonwood tree in his front yard and you know, has
lots of roots and shade and all has a difficult
time growing much of anything underneath it. And he's interested
in planning some sandy leaf fig because as a groundcover

(01:02:29):
his family members are allergic to Asian jasmine. And then
also he's got some boxwoods that have boxwood blight and
thinking about replacing those with dwarf yopon holly. Want to
see if you thought those were good choices and if
it's okay to plant them now and need tips for
success to get them established before it freezes.

Speaker 8 (01:02:53):
Okay, well, good questions. So basically, the the success of
these plants in the shade depends on how much shade
you know. Asian jasmine of course is not a go
for this place, but as you go into deeper and
deeper shade, it doesn't do as well. And sandy leaf
fig if it's a bright shade, will do very very

(01:03:14):
well as it gets deeper and deeper. It's just not
as dense as it could have been. But it's a
good it's a good choice for semi shady areas the same.
It's true. Did you say dwarf jopon. I think I
heard that.

Speaker 11 (01:03:28):
One, as you really to replace box woods.

Speaker 8 (01:03:32):
Yeah, yeah, the dwarfjopon can take shade, but it does
it's not gonna be as dense in the shade, and
so I have no problem with planting. It's a great
plant for our area. But I can't, of course get
out there with a photo what is it a photo
candle measurer or whatever measure intensity to make to make.

(01:03:54):
But it's not going to be a black and white
line like it does great, it does terrible. It's going
to be gradual as it gets and deeper in the shade.
But that would be an option. It's a good one.
There are a lot of plants that can take more shade.
A cast iron plant will reach a height of them,
you know, about knee high. It's a beautiful plant. I
think very dark green, very tough, can take shade. There

(01:04:17):
is a lariope. There's even a giant type of arribee
gets a little taller. So if you're looking at lining
a bed or an area, that that might be a possibility.
So it just kind of depends on how much shade.

Speaker 11 (01:04:29):
I guess is the bottom line and is it okay
to plant now? And if so, what are some tips
to get them established before it freezes.

Speaker 8 (01:04:40):
Yeah, Now it's the best time to get all of
the things we've talked about planted, and if a freeze
comes in, all of the things we've talked about should
be okay. I'm just thinking through the different Yeah, the
sooner you get them in the better at this point
because they have more time to get established. But this

(01:05:01):
is an excellent time, super low stress on them. Just
get them in the ground. And when you pull them
out of the pot, especially if it's a shrubby thing,
look on the outside of that root cylinder and if
you've got a bunch of roots that are circling, just
take a box cutter knife and slice vertically down through
that root ball to sever all the exterior circling roots

(01:05:23):
and then put it in the ground. Do that in
about three or four places around the root ball, and
that'll help it established. Sometimes this plant spend a little
too much time in the garden center or in the
grower's lot, and you get a little bit of a
root bound and you can fix that with a box cutter, knife.

Speaker 11 (01:05:39):
And any watering or any like medina has to grow
for plants, anything like that to help them.

Speaker 8 (01:05:46):
Yeah, yeah, I like the I like the the six
twelve six medina has to grow product that one. That
one works super well, and it's it's easily available. That
would be a good one for water ing things like that.
In the way I suggest people do it is mix
it up my watering can and and drench it the

(01:06:08):
day you plant, and then as you're as you're planting,
even drench that root ball as you're filling the hole,
and then do it again a week later, and a
third time a week after that.

Speaker 11 (01:06:21):
And watering course depends on how much rain we get.
But just keep them, keep them moist or is it
not too much of a problem Now that the temperatures
aren't so hot.

Speaker 8 (01:06:31):
It's much less touching go now that the temperatures aren't
so hot. You know, in the summer, it's like you
forget the water for a day and they start to stress.
But this time of the year it's not so much.
But give them a good soaking. You don't want to
drowned them. And sometimes I just use my hands, I
dig down, you know, a few inches below the surface
and feel the soil to see if it's moist or not.

(01:06:54):
But just just avoid overdoing it, but keep them adequately moist.
You know we're having well this week eighty degree temperatures
in a lot of the area a couple of times,
and that the plants are going to use some water
on a day like that. But it's not like if
you forget the water for a day or two, they're dead.

Speaker 11 (01:07:12):
Yep, yep. And one more plant, the turks cap is
Is that a good choice? Also?

Speaker 8 (01:07:21):
Yeah, it's a good choice. It wants a little more sunlight,
but it'll grow in quite a bit of shade. But
if you really want it to be dense and pretty
and have all the pretty pink or red flowers depending
on the time you type you by, then you need
a little more sun for that. But it can survive
and less and less sunlight. It just blooms better with
a little bit brighter light intensity, not necessarily all direct sun.

Speaker 11 (01:07:45):
Great and same same planting tips, Yep.

Speaker 8 (01:07:50):
Same thing. Turk CAP's tough as a boot. It's a
native Texas plant.

Speaker 9 (01:07:55):
Great.

Speaker 11 (01:07:55):
Thanks again, Skip, I appreciate all your guys.

Speaker 8 (01:07:59):
Thanks for the call. You bet good luck with that.
That is the case. Oh, time for me take another break. Well,
here we go, going to take a break. We'll be
right back in just a moment. It's been a while
since beening a ragtime. All right, welcome back to guard Line.

(01:08:19):
Good to have you with us. On a good Sunday morning,
lovely day and scheduled for today, a good day to
get out visit your local garden center. Good day to
get out this afternoon, get a little bit of hutter
and done around the landscape place. Fall seasons is loaded up. Boy,
They've got the herbs and the vegetables and the flowers

(01:08:42):
and the shrubs and trees and everything ready to go,
waiting for you to show up. It is one of
those garden centers where you're always going to find not
just great plants, but also great advice. From the minute
you walk in. You can take in samples for them
to identify or diagnose or things like that. And you've
got a problem area, you know what's going on here,

(01:09:03):
they'll help you with it. They'll help you find the
solutions that you need. We may take a particular product,
or maybe a certain plant needs to be replaced, or
maybe just some advice on proper care. They do offer
a lot of other things too, and I just want
to talk about these. For example, they have a service
called a pot to Trot and it basically is custom
container gardens made easy. So if you would like to,

(01:09:26):
you know, if you would like to build your own
container garden, you can do that. They'll advise you those
suggest plants that combine well, but you can also just
have them do that for you. They will design a beautiful,
personalized arrangement of plants perfect for whatever. You have a
front porch or a patio or a backyard with the
holidays coming, you want to decorate things, make tassele look
good upfront people walking in, or maybe a backpatio area

(01:09:49):
and need some good containers. Let them do it. These
are professionals that need know exactly how to go do that,
whether it's planting trees, whether it's delivery services which they
all so half available, or the PoTA Drot service giving
me a nice gorgeous container done by the professionals. Plants
for all seasons dot com or give them a call

(01:10:11):
two eight one three seven six sixteen forty six two
eight one three seven six one six four six you're
listening to guardline. We're here to help you have success.
The way I like to say it is, we're here
to help you have a more bountiful garden, a more
beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. That is important.

(01:10:34):
Gardening is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. It is
not a struggle. I go somewhere and I see silk
or plastic plants out in a landscape, and unfortunately I
do see that a lot or too often. It just, oh, man,
I know why they're doing it. They you know, they
want it to look good and not have to water

(01:10:55):
it and worry about pests and all kinds of stuff
like that. I used to kid with people and say
that soak plants get soakworms that eat the leaves. But anyway,
that's only funny to me. And soak plants indoors get
dust mites. Okay, I'll quit anyway that, you know, Just

(01:11:16):
say no to fake plants. Let's do some real stuff.
Let's learn how to do it. And what is the
secret of success. Learning to see things from a plant's
point of view. That's the bottom line, learning to see
it from a plant's point of view. You've got a
plant and it's not happy, And if it could talk,
it would say, you know what, I'm in a heat
vent this winter, and I go from being next to

(01:11:37):
this cold window to blasts of heat, and that's just
I'm not built for that. Or I would tell you,
you know what, the foot candles of light are about
one hundred or two hundred foot candles too low for
me to really hang on and look good here. Or
this is a nice spot, but do you know my
roots are sitting in soggy conditions. You got to get
them out of there. They can't get oxygen, they're dying,

(01:11:58):
they're rotting. It'd be nice if plants could talk to us,
But we can learn to see things from a plant's
point of view, and that's what we try to do
here on Guarden Line. I had a neighbor one time
who he was like, you know, did you see Caddyshack
with Bill Murray. You know he was obsessed with getting
that varmint, catching the varmint. My neighbor was that way,

(01:12:22):
and he had critters in his attic. And I can't
give you fully accurately what he said because it would
involve using language I'm not going to use on Garden Line.
But the squirrels were in his attic and they had
chewed the wires off of the big wires in his
attic that were powering the house. Right, and boy, he

(01:12:43):
was upset and he's going around looking at how they
got in and stuff that happens. And then sometimes you
hear the things that go bump in the night as
they bounce around up there, whether it's squirrels or rats
or something bigger. They love our homes. It's a nice
way to get away from the elements.

Speaker 14 (01:12:59):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:13:00):
Well, pest bros can come out, they'll take a look
at your house. They'll walk around it. They'll find out
places where critters can get in and they'll they'll shut
that down. They know how to do that for you,
and they'll they'll show you what they're doing and you'll
be surprised. I remember the first time I someone showed
me that an area that rats were going in and
through a wall and it's like a rat camp fit

(01:13:23):
through there. And yeah they can and they can see
the little stains of the rat. The rats have kind
of an oil on their body, and the stains an
area where they squeeze through. Anyway, they were showing me
all that pest Bros. Is pros. They know, they know
what they're doing. They is pros two eight one two
O six forty six seventy two eight one two o
six forty six seventy d pestbros dot com dpestbros dot com.

(01:13:51):
I'm going to go out to cypress and talk to Melanie. Melanie,
we've got about a minute here and I may have
to hold you over, but let's go ahead and give
it a start.

Speaker 14 (01:13:59):
Well, I found me a sweet olive. I've heard you
talk about how great they smell, and they had one
at r c W yesterday and I want to put
it in the ground.

Speaker 8 (01:14:09):
Wonderful.

Speaker 14 (01:14:10):
Okay, does it take I want to get it towards
the front of my house. My friend of my house
gets afternoon sun.

Speaker 12 (01:14:18):
Is that good for it?

Speaker 8 (01:14:21):
Uh, it's not the best for it, but they do
need some sunlight. But you're gonna have to be a
little extra careful with the water in that blazing area. Uh,
just make sure you're keeping it adequately moist and probably.

Speaker 14 (01:14:39):
Yeah, part of it isn't just is shaded. Part it's
like part of it gets more sun and part of
the front is more shaded with just a little sun,
so I'll put it, I guess towards the shade side, right.

Speaker 8 (01:14:51):
Yeah, I mean they can take sun. It's just you know,
that's the Oh boy, that's a good question.

Speaker 11 (01:14:57):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (01:14:59):
I'd have to have to check to see how big
they could get. I've seen sweet olives six or seven
feet tall. They may get they get bigger than that.
I just don't know off the top of my head.
But but you can share them to smaller size if
you need.

Speaker 14 (01:15:12):
They Oh, they smell wonderful.

Speaker 12 (01:15:18):
They do.

Speaker 8 (01:15:18):
And I'm surprised because the flowers or so go ahead, no,
I said.

Speaker 14 (01:15:27):
I walked up to a friend of mine and she
literally I thought she plugged something into the front sport.

Speaker 11 (01:15:33):
Smell so good.

Speaker 8 (01:15:34):
Yeah, that's true. That's a good testimony of up. And
the blooms are so tiny. You're thinking that can't be
a bloom. That can't be smelling like this, But it
sure is. It's intoxicating. I think sweet olives are a
control substance, so you might want to be careful there.
You might get arrested for having something that fragrance.

Speaker 12 (01:15:55):
Okay, thank you.

Speaker 8 (01:16:00):
All right, bye bye, there you go another hour in
the books, folks. We got two more to go. Stay tuned.
If you got a question you'd like to call seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Seven
one three two one two five eight seventy four.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
Welcome to Katie r h Garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 8 (01:16:29):
It's well crazy gas Trim.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
Just watch him as wo many birth teas to seep
back crazy gay gas Canosa, not a sound crazy gas.

Speaker 8 (01:17:01):
Between starting and here we are. We're ready to go.
We are officially halfway through guard Line today. Got a
couple hours left. If you would like to give me
a call, here is the number you will need to

(01:17:22):
do that, and that is seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. I'll be glad to visit
with you. For those of you that are new to
guard Line, I know we have new listeners coming in
all the time. We're here every Saturday and Sunday from
six am to ten am on KTRH seven forty am.

(01:17:43):
Now a lot of folks are listening online. You can
go to the website ktr's website go to guard Line
section Listen Live online. Past shows are also posted there
by the way or you can listen on your phone
using an app that like the iHeartMedia apps when I
use but an app that will allow you to listen

(01:18:04):
to live radio and a podcast another way to do it.
It's real easy with the heart Media app because you
can listen live and you can also go back and
listen to those past shows which we put in a
podcast type format. There are only two garden lines to
my knowledge in this country. One of them is a
lady somewhere in the Northeast, and I don't know her,

(01:18:24):
but is I think what they call the show, and
the other's me. So I think you'll be able to
tell the difference between me and a lady from the northeast.
Hopefully so. And you can find the right guarden line
and listen to us. If you have a gardening question
or any kind of tips and things like that that
you would like some help with, let's talk and let's

(01:18:45):
figure this out. It is so important to ask questions
before you do certain things. You know, like is this
we have had questions today, like it is it still
okay to plant some turf? Or sometimes there'll be questions
about pruning a tree, or questions about a choice of
a plant that goes in a certain area. My gosh,
ask ahead of time, and let's help you get in

(01:19:05):
the right direction. Because after you spent the money and
the labor to put something in, it's very discouraging to
figure out that that's not going to do real good
in that area. I jokingly say that, you know, Texas
seems to like to vacation in Colorado, at least it
has for years in the summertime, get away from the heat.

(01:19:26):
And I say, they need to put a in a
border crossing coming into Texas. There needs to be a
plant inspection place and they check your plants. And if
you're bringing black a blue Colorado columbine or a Colorado
blue spruce, they just take it away from you, send
it back to Colorado because the society prevention of cruelty
to plants certainly does not approve of that that plant

(01:19:51):
will suffer a long, slow death. Here we have plants
that do very well. Here. We have so many things
we can grow. You know, maybe you move from the
Midwest and Forsythia, the memories of Forsythia and lilac are
just part of childhood and those are great plants, great plants.
Down here, we don't have the success with them that
you would in other parts many other parts of the country.

(01:20:14):
But we have so many other plants that you can
grow down here that you can't grow in other areas,
and so getting used to that figuring it out. Two
things I recommend. Number one, listen to guarden Line. I
know I'm biased, but I still think that's a good
idea for helping you learn how to garden here. Number
two two, and this is important, go to an independent

(01:20:34):
garden center, a mom and pop garden center. People that
live here, people that garden here, people that are knowledgeable,
garden centers that hire people that know what they're talking about.
That is so important, It really is important. And I
can't overstress that. It is so important that people who

(01:20:57):
are helping you know what they are telling you, because
anybody can act like they know what they're doing. If
you don't believe me, go to social media. Oh my gosh,
drives me up the wall, really drives me nuts. And
in fact, I should have a segment of each show
where I just where I just rant. By half the
time it will be about social media. You know what

(01:21:17):
bugs me is when they put on social media stuff
that you have to click on it because you're so curious.
That's why they do it. It's just clickbait. But it's like,
don't plan another vegetable until you do this, or if
you're not doing this to your rose bushes, you're doing
it all wrong. It's like, give me a break. I've
clicked on those and looked and read and it's just

(01:21:40):
like always blooney. It's always blooney, absolutely blooney. Maybe it
has some tiny application somewhere, but look, if you're going
to come at me with that kind of nonsense approach,
then I'm done. I'm not going to listen to that.
And you should be very discerning of social media because
you know how it is. The people that are self

(01:22:00):
proclaimed experts, they maybe learned a few things and that
are true, that are good, and so now they're an
expert on everything, and that's it's just not the case.
And I would say, don't take everything I say with
the greenness without a grain as salt, because look, there's
a lot of ways to verify it, to check things out.

(01:22:20):
You have a county extension office, by the way, in
your county. In all two hundred and fifty four counties
in Texas, and in other states as well. Every state. Okay,
let's do a little history here real quick. Back in
the Abraham Lincoln days, oh Abe signed a law and
a couple things were put into place starting back then.
It wasn't all done at once, but they created the

(01:22:42):
Langrank College system, and that is a college in each
state where they would focus on things like agriculture, where
it was a college where you didn't have to be
among the elite to go to college. That there was
a state institution that would provide education for everybody. And

(01:23:03):
that is where we got places like Cornell and University
of Florida, Louisiana State University, Oklahoma State, Texas, A and
M and so on and so on, all the way
across the country. Every state's got one. Then they can
put in a thing for research and a thing for extension. Research.
Meant each state would do research like specifically in our

(01:23:25):
gardening topics in agriculture that would help guide and help
us do a better job of what we're doing to
grow more produce and so on. And then the Extension
Service was taking that university to the people. That's what
it amounts to. It's taken the knowledge of the universities
to the people of the state. So there you go.
And it was born extension. By the way, it was

(01:23:46):
born here in Texas. We were the first state to
have an extension service. A guy named semen Napp did it. Okay,
I promised you not too much history.

Speaker 12 (01:23:53):
But there you go.

Speaker 8 (01:23:54):
You have an extension service available in your county and
you should take advantage of them. And around in the
Houston area. Here in my listening area, we have a
lot of horticultures. I think there's about six in the
Houston area. See if I can name them without forgetting
somebody forgive me if I do. Orange County, Galveston County,
A Brazoria County, Fort ben County, Harris County, I'm missing

(01:24:18):
Montgomery County and Brass County. I think I got them
all there. Anyway, that is something you should take advantage of.
It's very very important, very worthy. Hey and Chenny Gardens
down on the Katie Fullshore side of Richmond is loaded
up with plants ready to go for the holidays. All
kinds of beautiful stuff, you know. I keep telling you,
got a plant and fall, got a plant and fall.

(01:24:40):
They've got it all shrubs, trees, flowers, you name it, vegetables, herbs,
and they have a gift shop that is outstanding and
you need to go check it out. When you're there,
Please go in their gift shop and see the beautiful things.
You're gonna look in almost everywhere you look. You're gonna
think that would be a great gift for some So,

(01:25:00):
you know, fill in the blank, or maybe for me.
I want one for my house. Enchanted Gardens dot excuse me,
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. There we go, Enchanted Gardens
Richmond dot com on FM three point fifty nine on
the Katie Folscher side of Richmond.

Speaker 9 (01:25:17):
Now.

Speaker 8 (01:25:18):
They're open from ten am to four pm today during
the week through Saturday eight to five. Today ten am
to four pm. Get out there. Great afternoon idea. We're
going to come right back and Jim and Montgomery, you'll
be our first caller. Up Here we go. We got
something for our younger listeners from AJAR like that nice.

(01:25:38):
I'd be the world smallest violin. Yeah, there we go. Hey,
welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. Listen,
don't forget when you are fertilizing your lawn. It's not
just the big nutrients, the NPK, the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium,
the three numbers on the fertilizer bag. It's seventeen different

(01:25:59):
news that the plants need in order to succeed, and
that includes trace minerals which are needed in tiny amounts
but which are completely essential and which you can get
from asumite. Asmite's mind out of the ground in Utah,
naturally occurring product out of the ground in Utah, and
it contains all of the trace minerals that you might need. Now,
the best way to know how to fertilize anything, any

(01:26:21):
of the seventeen nutrients is to have a soil test
to tell you exactly where you are and what you need.
But in general we know that we have to have
those trace minerals and adequate supplies in the bank account.
Just like your bank account. When you go and you
need money for something, you want to have money in
the bank account so you can withdraw it and use it.
That is how it is in the soil with nutrients,

(01:26:44):
and asmite helps chalk stock that bank account of nutrients
in the soil. Asmite Texas dot Com. You're going to
find azamite all over the place, lots of places, feed stores,
garden centers, ace hardware stores, you know, all of these
kinds of places. Carry am. Let's head out now to
Montgomery and we're going to talk to Jim this morning.

(01:27:04):
Hey Jim, welcome to garden.

Speaker 9 (01:27:06):
Good morning. I want to talk about a nettle plum,
but I also i'd like to make a comment about
a sweet olive. I had an encounter with the nettle
plumb I grew. I grew the nettle plumb in Houston
when I lived down there, and I forgot all about it.
It was growing on the southwest side of the house
and next time I noticed it, it had fruit all

(01:27:29):
over it and it was really interesting. And I'd like
to know if I could grow one in Montgomery up here, Well, you.

Speaker 8 (01:27:39):
Can grow them. Their their heartiness is going to be
you know, that wanted pretty much the challenge that you're
dealing with in it there. They're a zone nine and
ten plant and so Montgomery you're on the edge of
that up there, and you you should do okay, but
just be ready to do some covering up and we

(01:28:00):
get into some cold, cold weather, just to be a
little extra sure farm there's there's a reason we don't
grow a lot further as you go up.

Speaker 9 (01:28:08):
North right, and they went to the San Antonio and
to visit the Alamo. And as we were walking in
the Alamo church, the on the left hand side it
was a huge shrub and full bloom and there was
a police officer standing underneath it, and I asked him,

(01:28:30):
I said, what what plant is this? And he said,
it's a sweet olive and it was in full bloom.
It smells so wonderful and it was in complete full
sun on that on that front wall of the Alamo.

Speaker 8 (01:28:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:28:45):
Yeah, so they will grow on full ground, I guess
because it looked beautiful. Yea in full bloom.

Speaker 8 (01:28:53):
Yes, they can grow in full sun. I think I
hit a call earlier and it was it was more
about it getting shade all day and then boom hit
with the full in the afternoon, which now about the
coup plant really likes that. But anyway, yeah, it's a
good one. Well, nettle plum is good. Just remember if
it's gonna drop down below about twenty eight degrees, I
would I would cover it because you're gonna get some
foliage damage. And if it's gonna get below twenty four,

(01:29:17):
I sure would have a good cover over it to
protect it.

Speaker 9 (01:29:21):
I probably just a planet in a container then so
I can move it. It might be the best thing. Okay,
But this was a nettle plumb I had because it
was one of those kind of probably needed to be trailist.
It was kind of a but when I had neglected
it and I found it again and it was it

(01:29:42):
spread out over the ground.

Speaker 15 (01:29:44):
It was.

Speaker 9 (01:29:45):
Like a groundcover almost, but it was it had fruit
on it, and I was That's what caught my eye
when I was watching, you know, I was walking through
the back door and I saw it and it was
it was an agem plant.

Speaker 8 (01:30:00):
I'm gonna, I'm on need to run. But appreciate you
calling on that. That is a good plant. We never
talked about it, but I'm glad you brought that up.
And then thank you, sir. Appreciate appreciate that call. The
folks at Cena Maltch, You've got you covered on every
kind of multch, every kind of amendment, you know, the
compost types of amendments that we put in the soil.
You know, you've got the mixes like the veggie nerd

(01:30:21):
mixed from airloom sauce, which by the way, they carry
at Ciena Mulch. They also carry the other things you
need for the soil, and that's nutrients. So you hear
me talk about azemite. I just did they have it there.
You hear me talk about nitrofoss products, Medina products, Microlife products,
Nelson plant food products. They've got it all there. You

(01:30:42):
can have it bulk delivered, you can go pick it
up either way you want to go about it, just
stop in. I would recommend going by there. Cienamultch dot
com is a website. You can find out exactly where
it is. It's on FM five point twenty one south
of Town, so south of Houston. So you just swing
by there and check out the metal yard art, the
veggo beds, the decorative art for you know, outdoors, and

(01:31:04):
some of the really cool stuff they're stalking up inside
the store as well. See in them malt. Now, they're
closed today, but they're open Monday through Friday seven thirty
to five and Saturday seven thirty to two pm. Let's
go now to north Shore and talk to Debbie. Hello, Debbie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (01:31:22):
Hi.

Speaker 14 (01:31:22):
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Speaker 12 (01:31:28):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (01:31:28):
I live in north Shore and My mother lived in
Maytown and had hysteria just it was prolific going down
the fence in her backyard. And I would like to
plant rhysteria as well. I absolutely love that. It's my
favorite plant. But I'm not sure if this is the
time of year, if I should go with a tree
or bind or what. So I'm calling for a recommendation

(01:31:49):
from an expert.

Speaker 8 (01:31:50):
Well, this is the best time of year, and you
want to learn a little bit about it. Gooden planet,
it's a good time to plant it. You're going to
need something to tell us it on. It could be
you know, a trell us. It's like a grape vine
going you know, left and right across the fence. It
could be an arbor. It does really well on an arbor.
And sometimes people will take them and plant them with

(01:32:13):
a very strong pole of a very strong post rather uh,
and they will grow the vine up the post and
then let it have sort of a mushroom head, you know,
as the vines come out and hang down, and then
they prune them way back in the winter time. Yeah,
during the year and didn't get the new ones. So
there's a lot of forms that you can do with
with steria. You just need to go online to kind

(01:32:34):
of figure out how to do it and make sure
that it's getting adequate sunlight because it only blooms well
when it gets you know, a decent amount of sunlight,
and it'll be.

Speaker 6 (01:32:44):
Perfect in my front yard and off in my backyard
gets a lot of stunt.

Speaker 8 (01:32:50):
There you go.

Speaker 6 (01:32:51):
I just I just had a question. I'm going to ask. Oh,
because there's a different kinds, the different variation. I know
one is more aggressive than the other.

Speaker 8 (01:32:59):
Eye.

Speaker 6 (01:33:00):
Here's a question it was saying it would take up
to fifteen years to blue in one.

Speaker 8 (01:33:06):
Uh no, that's not true. Okay, okay, but just just
follow you don't want to overfertilize it. That is important. Uh,
not overfertilizing it very very important to do that. So
just be careful, moderate amount, but it is it's very
vigorous and so yeah, take take it easy a little bit.

Speaker 16 (01:33:29):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (01:33:30):
The wisteria that we see kind of invasive wild throughout
the southeast out in the woods and everything is Chinese wisteria.
It grows really really rapidly and cover over large areas
and stuff. But there are a number of other very
helpful and uh and useful American Wisteria. Whysteria is a

(01:33:52):
good one. And then there's one called Evergreen Mysteria, which
looks very different and it has kind of a burgundy bloom,
but not nearly a show the American mysteria. All right,
there you go. It was a good start.

Speaker 6 (01:34:06):
I'm gonna tell you want between you and the oh
what I want to wait?

Speaker 8 (01:34:14):
I'm sorry, go ahead, I want no.

Speaker 6 (01:34:17):
I was gonna say, the difference between you and the
lady in the in the northeast is they have snow
up there and we really don't. There's a big difference between.

Speaker 17 (01:34:25):
You and earth.

Speaker 8 (01:34:28):
Yeah, there's a huge difference in there. All right, Debbie,
thanks for the call. Appreciate that you take care. Thank
you so a hi, you bet, bye bye. The Arborgate
awesome garden center up in Tomball, just west to Tomball
for those of you who recently moved here. Arburgate is
a mile and a half west of Highway two forty nine,

(01:34:50):
which goes north south through Tomball on twenty nine twenty
west for a mile and a half's on the left.
Easy to find. When you get there, you're gonna find
their one two three, completely easy system. Don't go home.
With plants without getting a bag of the food that
feeds anything for roots, the soil for any application, and
the composts that improves all soil in various ways, sand clay,

(01:35:11):
you name it, one, two three, completely easy system. Now,
while you're out there, you got to see the gift shops.
They are unbelievable, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, all kinds of things.
If you can't find something for a gift at Arburgate,
then you're not trying. I mean, because that is a
that is an outstanding place, really really cool, and their

(01:35:32):
gift shop just outstanding. Of course, all the other things
you want. You know, you don't applant fruit trees, they
got them, they're ready to go. You won't applyant bulbs.
Oh boy, they had a great shipment in from the
folks at Southern Bulb Company, Chris Reisinger and his company.
Up there, Arbrogate's the place to go. Somebody's talking about
with steia. I know beverly'scutasteria up there. You're talking about

(01:35:54):
camellias for cool season ballooms. I know they got camellias
up there the arbor Gate west of tom Ball. All right,
Well I'm looking at the clock and it's saying shut up.
So I'm gonna close it down here and go to
a quick break. We will be back and uh, if
you would like to call and be one of the
first stop now, that would be a good time. At

(01:36:15):
seven one three two, one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Give me a call and we'll talk. Hang around, Go
get you a cup of coffee. I'm gonna do the same,
be right back. You know what helped If I unmute
my mic, it's easier to hear me that way.

Speaker 2 (01:36:33):
And then.

Speaker 8 (01:36:35):
Let's go to the woodlands. We're going to talk to
Jim this morning. Hey Jim, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (01:36:42):
Hi, good morning.

Speaker 9 (01:36:44):
Skip.

Speaker 18 (01:36:46):
At a local nursery, I bought three mandavilla I think
is the word plants at everything was half off and
they're in one gallon pots. So my question is, I

(01:37:06):
don't know whether to plant them now or keep them
in the garage and wait till spring.

Speaker 8 (01:37:15):
I would I wouldn't risk it. I'd keep in the garage.
It's much easier. They're not gonna make it typically through
a normal winter, so I would. I would definitely keep
them in the garage, get them outside in the sun.
Think it's a cool day, just if it gets if
it gets into the you know, like the I say,
below fifty you know, degree temperatures, I'd probably move them
outside for that and get them sunlight, let them keep going.

(01:37:38):
But in general, just protect them and then when it
warms up, but don't get too much in a hurry
to get them outside, because we'll still have some cold
nights in the spring. But when it warms up a
little bit better, then get them out and get them established,
and they'll be a wonderful tropical for summer blooms for you.

Speaker 18 (01:37:54):
Oh okay, I'm guessing when I pull them out of
the pots that they're going to be quite root boul.

Speaker 11 (01:38:02):
How do I address that?

Speaker 8 (01:38:05):
Well, you can, you can kind of tease the leaves apart.
You can also move them into a slightly larger pot.
But they're not going to do a lot of growing
over the wintertime anyway, So I would you get to
kind of tease them apart. Melle Mendeville is not one
of the you know, if you're planting a tree that
was just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger
year after year after year. Then the root bound the

(01:38:26):
recircling roots and things are much more of a concern
on something like a mandavilla that's not it's kind of
a one year shot generally, then I wouldn't worry as
much about it. But if they are wadded up on
the outside of the pot, either repot them when you
get them home, or go ahead and do that loosening
and stuff when we get some warm weather and they're

(01:38:48):
ready to go outside.

Speaker 12 (01:38:49):
Ah Okay, real good.

Speaker 11 (01:38:52):
Thanks, I appreciate your advice.

Speaker 8 (01:38:53):
All right, you bet, thanks for the call. You take care.
Let's go now to Terry in Austin. Terry. Are you
in Austin, Texas or Austin County?

Speaker 5 (01:39:05):
Oh, Austin County. Hey, skip, how are you?

Speaker 16 (01:39:09):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:39:09):
Where did I wanted?

Speaker 8 (01:39:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:39:12):
Wild onions and argust and tulut's come from. We're in
Austin County, I guess. And it's a farm. So I'm
gonna wanted to ask you where all this wild onions
come up? You know, where did they come from? Can
I say?

Speaker 13 (01:39:29):
You question?

Speaker 8 (01:39:31):
Yeah? Yeah, sure. They have seeds and the seeds have
ways of getting around. Onion seeds are larger and a
little bit heavier, so they don't tend to travel too far.
But once you got them in the yard, you know,
you either just live with them and ignore them, or
you can do treatments. But you're gonna have to do
those treatments. No, they're prety out run a little more actively.

Speaker 5 (01:39:54):
Oh you like, yeah, well, well no, they just I
guess they're around a fence line and stuff like that,
and uh the largest they're real Uh, I would say
better better and tulips. I don't know where these tulips
come from.

Speaker 16 (01:40:11):
They're like tulips bowls.

Speaker 11 (01:40:13):
They come up every winter.

Speaker 10 (01:40:15):
I guess, uh they've been here. I guess there a
forty years go ahead.

Speaker 8 (01:40:22):
Okay, well some yeah, uh, somebody planted though. So you're
saying you have tulips that have naturalized in each year
they come back. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 11 (01:40:31):
Yes, yes, they are growing wall like that.

Speaker 5 (01:40:35):
You know they're real party and uh, you can smell
them and they don't want to get rid of They're party.
They smell when they come up. But there were two
birds I guess right them ball but not tulip buls.

Speaker 10 (01:40:49):
Would that'd be hard to.

Speaker 8 (01:40:53):
The Yeah, somebody. Let's let's let's do that. Let's do this, Terry.
Are you able to take a picture and send it
to me? Could you take some captures of those things?

Speaker 5 (01:41:07):
Yes, wild, I guess yes, I'll try, scamp, Yes, I'll try.

Speaker 8 (01:41:12):
Okay, Okay, I need I need to see the plants
you're talking about to be able to give you a
better answer. So if you can do that, I'm gonna
here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put you on hold,
and my producer will give you an email that you
or someone in the family there would could send on
to me. But if you can get yes, okay, oh,

(01:41:36):
let's see here, what's the next best way to do it? Well,
I'd like to see that tulip that you're talking about,
that that is of interest. Uh if if they're growing
there and they've been growing in the fence lines without
care for years, Okay, all right, we'll just plant take

(01:41:56):
take it, dig them up, dig them up. Uh and
and and the ringballd move them around, plant them in
other places too, and just keep spreading them out if
you like the way they look.

Speaker 5 (01:42:07):
Yes, yes, all right, so but that for MrDs, I guess,
thank you.

Speaker 15 (01:42:11):
The skip.

Speaker 11 (01:42:12):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (01:42:14):
Thank you all right. I appreciate that that one's a mystery.
I'd love to see them. We do have a few
tulips that will naturalize. They're not the toughest things in
the world, but they there are a very small handful
of species that are varieties that can do that. But anyway,
that'd be interesting to see for sure. You're listening to

(01:42:37):
the garden Line. Glad to have you with us today.
Thanks for listening our phone number seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. Southwest Fertilizer Corner. This
isn't it in Runwick in Southwest Houston is a place
you need to go. And I don't care if you're
listening to my voice and you're any kind of a
gardener whatsoever. Maybe just have a yard, maybe you're all

(01:42:58):
full fledged garden of eden for square into your property,
whatever level of gardening you are. Everything you need is
a Southwest Fertilizer. The products that you need to have
success are there.

Speaker 2 (01:43:10):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (01:43:11):
And if you're an organic gardener, you there's no place
in town you can go for a bigger selection of
organics than Southwest Fertilizer. It just is it is uh
And when it comes to tools, I would even say
it's a great place for gifts because they have some
really high quality tools that any gardener on your list
would love to have, you know, printers from Falco and Corona,

(01:43:32):
for example, quality soil knives. If you know a gardener
and they don't have a soil knife, they need one absolutely,
and many other things as well. Southwest Fertilizer Corner bist
Nutt and Renwick seven to one three six six six
one seven four four seven one three six six six
one seven four four. Let's go now to talk to John. Hey, John,

(01:43:53):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:43:55):
I appreciate you taking a call. I have a question
on a couple of oak trees that are about eight
feet tall.

Speaker 13 (01:44:02):
Now.

Speaker 7 (01:44:02):
I put in two years ago, picked up from a
nursery out in the country out here, and they have
a fungus on them, and the guy at the nursery mentioned, yeah,
they have a fungus, because I questioned them about it
based on how they kind of looked when I bought them.
They were maybe five six foot tall and they grow
quite a bit. However, I've been having to spray them

(01:44:25):
every few weeks or so. I hit them with some
stuff that's back in the old fungicide three way control
that I'm using. And I'm curious as to whether or
not that any fungicide is going to get rid of
what's on there. It kind of makes the leaves brown
and turns edges.

Speaker 8 (01:44:40):
Black, and and uh, okay, let me, I've got me
ask you or something. They're Schuemart. Okay, that's what I
was going to ask you, Schumart. And and uh, if
the leaves are turning brown and black on a shoe, mart,
I don't think you have a fungus. I think there's

(01:45:01):
something wrong in the plumbing of the plant. Now, there
are fungi that can attack them, but those are not
typically plants we have to spray all the time. And
so a couple of options we can do here. You
could send me a photo by email and I can
take a look at it, and then I can give
you the most accurate answer when I actually see what

(01:45:21):
you're talking about. But when the edges of the leaves
are turning brown, or the tips of the little fingers
on that red oak or turning brown, that is typically
a plumbing problem. You can do it by burning the
roots with excessive amounts of fertilizer. You can do it
by the plant not getting adequate water for a period
of time. And if the plant was really root bound

(01:45:42):
and hasn't established yet that confined cylindrical root system that
came out of the pot, it pumps that area dry
real quick and so it can go into drought stress
even when the soil around it is fairly moist. So
it's going to be some form in my opinion, but
i'd be some form of drop or root issue. But

(01:46:04):
if you won't send me a picture, let's do that
so I can get you a better answer than my
best guess.

Speaker 7 (01:46:09):
I can do that.

Speaker 8 (01:46:12):
Okay, I'm gonna put you on I'm gonna put you
on hold. Go ahead. What are you saying?

Speaker 7 (01:46:20):
I was just gonna.

Speaker 8 (01:46:24):
Okay, Okay, Well, my my producer is going to pick
it up right now and he'll get you the email
so you can send that to me. Appreciate your call,
Thank you very much. We got to go to a
break now, I'll be right back. That's what I want.
I know I was overdue for a yodel. Hey did

(01:46:50):
you see secondhand lions? That's a great movie. And this
was a soundtrack for it. That was a good movie.
Oh my gosh. If you haven't seen Second Hand Lions,
go find a way to find it in some movie
app you belong to or whatever. It's a good one though,
really good fun movie. Microlife fertilizers been around for thirty
five plus years now in the Greater Houston area. Not

(01:47:12):
just not just a Greater Houston area. They're so far
and wide. Really that quality products, products based on nature,
products based on the microbial content that basically, you know,
microbes rule the world, right, I mean they do. They
absolutely control so many things.

Speaker 5 (01:47:28):
Do you know?

Speaker 8 (01:47:28):
Microbes even control that are affect the amount of serotonin
in your body, the feel good hormone that we have
in our bodies. Most of that comes from microbial activity
in our intestines. Isn't that weird? Well, I'm telling you
they rule the world. Microlife fertilizers billions and billions of
beneficial microbes to help your plants grow stronger, to improve

(01:47:50):
the soil. They also Microlife product of granular products contain yaka,
which is a natural wedding agent in them. You can
find them by the bag. You can by the jug
at your independent garden centers, feed stores, certainly Southwest Fertilizer,
Ace hardware stores and about a dozen places around town
have jug refill stations at our retail outlets where you

(01:48:12):
can go take that empty jug you just emptied and
refill it for a very economical cost and also not
throwing that plastic out in the environment. Go to micro
Life Fertilizer dot com to find out more about these
microlife products. I growing up my dad was he loved poetry.

(01:48:34):
He grew up learning to memorize poetry and stuff, and
he shared that with me and I really really enjoy it.
And there's so many great poems out there. I learned
a number of them growing up. Just something to put
the memory, and boy, that sticks with you your whole life.
My kids grew up with that too, learning poetry like

(01:48:55):
the Children's Hour. Do you you all know the Children's
Hour by Longfellow. It talks about the Bishop of Bingham
in his mouse tower on the Rhine. Last summer I
had the opportunity to go float the Rhine and we
went by the mouse tower on the Rhine. I thought, well,
that's a small world kind of cool. Anyway, I talk
about soil and the importance of soil all the time,

(01:49:17):
because that's so important. One of my favorite quotes is
a guy named the Enophanes. He was obviously Greek five
eighty BC. This quote, for all things come from the earth,
and all things end by becoming earth. That is a
really interesting point. One of the poems that I learned

(01:49:40):
growing up was a Psalm of Life by Longfellow. I know,
I'm getting, I'm waxing what philosophical I don't know here,
But Psalm of Life by Longfellow, memorize that thing. Tell
me not in mournful numbers, life is but an empty gene,
for the soul is dead, that slumbers and things are
not what they seem. Life is real, Life is earnest,

(01:50:00):
and the grave is not its gold dust. Thou art
to dust return. It was not spoken of the soul,
so Laphanes or Xenophan, excuse me, he knew what he's
talking about. You know, things born, they grow up, and
they become part of the earth itself and time and
that cycle, that's the natural cycle that builds our soil.

(01:50:22):
I love, I love just the concept of this system
that naturally makes the soul better and better. You go
to a tropical rainforest, you know, for eighty years or
whatever time, the trees have been dropping leaves and you
got a little parrot poop in the mix there, and
it's all hitting the ground and it's all decaying, and
it's making the soul richer and richer and richer and

(01:50:43):
richer over time. The great plains with the grass as
deep as a horse's belly, as a settler said coming west,
and the same thing. Roots grow and live for about
a year on a grass plant, and they die and
their organic materials become part of the earth again. They
open up saguays of oxygen through the soil and it
just makes the soil better. Nature is a renewing system

(01:51:07):
and everything that was once a life becomes part of
that process of making the soil better and better. All right,
this is a gardening show, but I love talking about
some stuff. So there we go. Hey, let's go out
and talk to Lloyd now in Pennington, I believe. Later
are you calling from Pennington?

Speaker 16 (01:51:27):
Yes, sir, yes, sir, Hey, how can we help you already? Gentlemen,
yesterday talking to you about sweet potatoes and when we
were the kid, my daddy, my Daddy growed only sweet potatoes.
We didn't have what they called ours potatoes. But we
would build a cold frame and we would.

Speaker 4 (01:51:49):
Put squeat potatoes in there, then cover them up with dirt,
and then they would make slips. We would take those slips,
take them out there, mister row and plant slips. After
then he always burn life with cotton seed and mega.
Then after they got to grow and taken, we would

(01:52:10):
we would cut the vine and put vine out another brother, and.

Speaker 8 (01:52:16):
Uh, we growed a lot.

Speaker 16 (01:52:18):
That's all he would. That was all we could. He
would he with sweet states.

Speaker 8 (01:52:22):
But I had a hey, that's good.

Speaker 16 (01:52:27):
I had a question about you, all right, whenever when
when we was kids only lay we ate with yellow
dent corn. Now then you've got sweet corn, and that
when did they develop sweet corn?

Speaker 8 (01:52:41):
Oh gosh, that's a good question. When I mean, sure,
a long time ago. You know, there's a huge variation
in corn plants. By the way the music means, I'm
not going to get to talk wong here, huge variation
all kinds. If you look at the original corn, then
where all corn came from, you would hardly even recognize it,
and it wouldn't be worth growing in the garden. All

(01:53:03):
kinds were developed the sweet corn. Then a number of
years ago they discovered the super sweet gene where the
corn instead of like the corn you grew that was
mostly starch, these are mostly sugar. And the dried up
kernels look shriveled and translucent because they're all sugar, very
little starch. And all these types have just been developed

(01:53:23):
by breeders over the years. But sometime go online and
look up the original parent plant that sweet corn came from,
and it's like it's a miracle that we got the
corn we have today from that thing. Hey Lloyd, thanks
a lot, appreciate you very much. You take care. We'll
be right back. Folks.

Speaker 1 (01:53:44):
Welcome to kt RH Garden Line with Skin Richter's.

Speaker 3 (01:53:57):
Just watch him.

Speaker 13 (01:53:58):
As the world.

Speaker 8 (01:54:11):
We're entering our last hour of the weekend, so we're
just going to cut right to the chase here. We
got a lot to talk about and so let's get
going on this. H Buchanan's Native Plants is in the Heights.
It is an outstanding place to go visit. I always

(01:54:32):
love going in there. They've got some events coming up
that you need to know about. These I don't care
where you live. These are wealth were well worth driving
to see? First of all, Buchanans is well worth driving
to to see.

Speaker 14 (01:54:44):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:54:44):
It's it's the largest selection in the native plants anywhere.
But don't let that mislead you. Native plants are a
small part of all that they have in Buchanan's Plants,
but the best native selection you're going to find coming up.
There are a couple events. So the first one I
want to tell you about is it's called the Harvest
Flower Workshop and it is on November twenty fifth, Tuesday,

(01:55:10):
November twenty fifth, from twelve noon to one pm. It's
at Buchanan's Plants. Now, you got to purchase tickets for
this one, but you can get tickets. Just go to
the Buchanan's website or give them a call and they'll
they'll direct you to that. But what's going to happen
is you're going to go to this workshop and you're
going to be able to learn how to decorate, how

(01:55:30):
to create floral arrangements that are just beautiful, outstanding. You
don't want to miss that. The second thing, and this
is a real big shindig. This is a holiday open
house and it is they do it every year on
December sixth, Saturday, December sixth at Buchanans. By the way,
Buchanans is on Eleventh Street in the Heights. But there

(01:55:51):
we are December sixth Saturday from ten am to three pm,
so five hours of an event. There's going to be
live music they'll be there, there'll be crafts for kids,
they have drinks, a lot more going on. It's just
a fun place and while you're there, enjoy the jazz band,
the food trucks. You know, there'll be some local vendors

(01:56:11):
set up there as well. So this is a good chance.
And plus you get to go to Buchanans and you're
going to find plants you can't live without, so make
sure and go with some room in your vehicle for that.
You're listening to garden Line the number seven one, three,
two fifty eight seventy four. We're going to go out
to a tescasito now and talk to Jim. Hey Jim,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:56:30):
Hey, Hey, good morning, Skip. Here's the question.

Speaker 10 (01:56:34):
Uh, we just heard the weather report on KGRH with
the weather it's going to be for this next week.
We've had great warm weather. No don't we feed can
I still feed my plants and fertilize my law right
now because this weather is is it? Is it allowing
the plants to grow better because of the weather and

(01:56:58):
on distress or anything, Tell me what's going on.

Speaker 8 (01:57:01):
Yeah, I would be careful with the nitrogen. That's the
one that promotes vegetative growth, and new vegetative growth is
much less hardy than older growth that has had a
chance to slow down and get ready for winter. So
I would go light on that. That's why our lawn
fertilizers have a lower nitrogen in the fall and higher potassium.

(01:57:22):
Use the regular amount. Don't overdo it. But if you
can still do some lawn fertilizing now, but I wouldn't
delay it. I get that done. As far as other plants,
most things, I don't recommend fertilizing at this point in time.
Let's let them go dormant, leave the alone. They'll be okay.
If you have indoor plants you want to put a
little fertilizer on, that's fine, But they again, as we

(01:57:43):
go into shorter days and lower light levels in general,
they don't grow as much and they don't need as
much fertilizer in the cool season. Even though it's warm
inside your house. Plants don't need as much during the
winter season as they do or benefit from during the year.
Thank you so much, Skip and have a great day

(01:58:05):
you too, Jim, Thanks a lot. I appreciate your call.
So you are listening to Guardline. We're here to answer
gardening questions. That's kind of what we do here. I
also like to give you tips on growing things. You know,
I was talking about putting down fertilizers and stuff. You
can still do it for your lawn if you'd like to.
Carboload from nelson Plant Food that's the purple bag is

(01:58:26):
a good one for this time of year. You know,
when the soil temperatures are cooling off, here comes the
winter weed sprouting. Carboload's got something for them to stop
them from successfully germinating and establishing plants. Another product from
Nelson's is nutri Star Rose. It helps get your rose
blooming really well through the growing season. It also is

(01:58:46):
good for just general health of your rose plants, providing
the nutrients that they need. And I don't care what
kind of rose you got. Could be a knockout, which
is everywhere. It could be something like the Lady Bank
so once bloomer in the spring, antiqu roses, miniature roses,
groundcover roses, shrub roses, indie matter hybrid tes. Nelson's nutri

(01:59:07):
star rose is the blend for all kinds of roses,
whether they're in the ground, whether they're in containers, or
whether they're just in raised planting buds. Five different sources
of nitrogen give you a nice regulation of growth. In general,
it's always good to keep your roses in a good
nutritious state. You need to have some of that on hand.

(01:59:28):
When we get into spring and it grows the starts
on the roses, we're going to be doing some pruning,
and the nutri star rose you want to have that
on hand for doing that. You know, in Nelson plant Foods,
family owned operation, they've been in the KDI area since
the late eighteen hundreds, and so we're talking about products
that are made here in the Houston region that are quality,
that are designed for our soils and designed for our plants.

(01:59:51):
Simple as that. I talk about a number of different
things today. One of the one of the things that
I haven't mentioned that i'd like to is talking about herbs.
Herbs are such versatile plants we've got an herb bed
that's a raised bed. It's one of those corgey metal

(02:00:12):
race beds.

Speaker 6 (02:00:14):
And the.

Speaker 8 (02:00:16):
The trailing herbs spilling over the side along with the
upright herbs in the top of the bed. It's just
a beautiful scene. Right now. We've got oregano and thyme
that's spilling over the sides of the bed. Of course
we ma interplant some flowers with them as well. Lavender
is a plant that is not easy to grow here,
and it gets down in our clay soils and gets
wet and stays soggy, wet, and it rots. It's a

(02:00:39):
challenge to grow lavender successfully in this raised bed with
superb drainage. It is going crazy. It is beautiful silvery
foliage coming up and we even got some little bloomstalks
on it. Still, herbs are a great plant. We have
herbs that bloom in the fall, like Mexican mint marigold,
which the foliage is well, everybody knows what a black

(02:01:02):
licorice jelly bean tastes like. Right that's the smell of
the foliage of Mexican at Mirago's substitute for terragon. We've
got salvia that is called pineapple, sage salvia that it
blooms late in the season with tubular balloons that hummingbirds love.
That's another herb. There's herbs that are mounding plants, like

(02:01:22):
salad burnette. It makes a nice little mound. It's cucumber
flavored foliage. We have the mounding plants like chives, onion chips, garlic, chives,
and so on. There's just herbs for all kinds of uses.
I use herbs as groundcovers around plant fall is the
best time to plant almost all the herbs. Almost all
the herbs. You can plant them in the fall. They'll

(02:01:44):
get established and they'll be hitting the ground running ready
to go in spring. Just the tip something to think about. Absolutely. Hey,
Ace Hardware stores they're gearing up for the holidays, and
you're going to be able to go there and get
all kinds of decorations for your house. In fact, you
already can. There's a lot of different things at Ace
Hardware for the fall decorations, but coming up on the

(02:02:06):
Christmas season and things they are loaded up for that
as well. You know, you've got Ace Hardware stores all
over the place. There is the All Star Ace in
Spring on Rayford Road, there is the Uvaldie Ace on
Uvaldie Road in Houston, Child's Building Supply on Nor sixteenth
in Orange, Plantation Ace on Mason Road and Richmond Rosenberg Area,

(02:02:26):
Victoria Ace on Navarro Street. I'll give you a bunch
of them here, Brenham Ace on North Austin Parkway, Champions
Ace on Spring Cyprus. How about Fulshier Ace down on
FM three fifty nine in Fullshire and Katie Hardware on
Pinoak Road and Old Town Katie. You want more, go
to Acehardwaretexas dot com. But the main thing is just

(02:02:47):
go to ACE. Go check them out. You will be
pleasantly surprised. And I'm telling you there will be a
lot of things that you'll recognize as very cool gifts
that not the standard thing everybody has, but cool gifts
that you can get at your local Ace Hardware store.
Let's take a little break. I'll be right back. Name
another show, not just gardener show, Name another show where

(02:03:13):
you can hear old poetry, yodeling and singing frogs.

Speaker 10 (02:03:20):
Sing.

Speaker 8 (02:03:23):
No apologies there, man, no apologies. Hey, I in Kingwood
at your garden centers out there, I'm talking about Warren
Southern Gardens I'm talking about Kingwood Garden Center. There is
a lot going on, lots of cool stuff. Have you
Have you been recently to your Warrens or your Kingwood
Garden Center. By the way, you need to sign up
for the newsletter, and you also need to know this

(02:03:45):
that false savings are here. They have special codes they
send you out when you subscribe to the newsletter, and
things that you can use it check out, like ten
dollars off of a sixty dollars purchase or more, twenty
dollars off one hundred dollars purchas or more, and forty
dollars off one hundred and seventy five dollars purchase or more.
That's some cool stock. But that's what you would expect

(02:04:06):
out at Warren's and at can Be Garden Center. They've
got a beautiful selection of all kinds of color, every
kind of plant you can imagine. And you know, when
I talk about cool season color, you probably think about pansies.
Maybe some of you are thinking, you know, about snap dragons,
or perhaps like ornamental cabbage and ornamental kale, those kinds

(02:04:27):
of things. But what about stock stock is a good
plant for cool season colors. It's wonderfully. It's got a
nice fragrance to it as well. A less im another
good one, colendula, another one that can take some cold.
You know, it gets cold enough, some of these will
get nipped. But in general we got some options. And
then probably my favorite cool season color is Dianthus. I

(02:04:49):
love the big giant Amazon types. They're they're tall, they
get almost knee high or about knee high, and they
have just neon colors, gorgeous, gorgeous, and they've got all
kinds of full season color out at these garden centers,
Kingwood and Warrens. Warren's is on North Park, Kingwood's on
stone Hollow. Both of them are open seven days a week.
But either place you go, you got to do this.

(02:05:09):
You got to say, I need to see the special
house plants that you have, the ones that are not
so common part of the collector's corner. Boy, did they
ever have some cool stuff, really really cool stuff. Go
ahead and check it out. See what I'm talking about.
Warrens Southern Gardens, North Park, Kingwood Garden Center, Stone Hollow Drive,

(02:05:30):
both open seven days a week. You are listening to
garden Line my phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one
two five eight seven four.

Speaker 18 (02:05:43):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (02:05:45):
I like quotes, as I've already talked about today, But
one of my favorite quotes is when you're weeding, the
best way to make sure you're removing a weed and
not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If
it comes out of the ground easily, it's a valuable plant.
Another one is same kind of setting, is to pull

(02:06:05):
it up. If it comes back, it's a weed. You
get rid of it all right.

Speaker 9 (02:06:09):
There you go.

Speaker 8 (02:06:11):
The worst mistake you can make as a gardener is
to think you're in charge. Oh boy, is that ever true.
Plants have taught me that one more than once. Pier
scapes equals beauty, peerscapes equals gorgeous, livable outdoor areas. We're
talking about landscape lighting, hard scapes, beautiful designs to the landscape,

(02:06:34):
taking that old flat landscape that is all at one
level and bringing in some tiered levels with some gorgeous
rock and stone work. They can do all of that.
They can also, of course, make sure you irrigation system's
working right. They can make sure that the drainage as
good as it can be. They have ways of improving
the drainage significantly and making that soggy bog a well

(02:06:56):
drained area where a lot of things can grow. You
need to call them, get appointment, bring some pictures in,
sit down with them. You talk to them about what
exactly they can do, whether it's a small renovation or
a complete brand new landscape top to bottom. Ready to go.
Peerscapes can do it two eight one three seven oh
fifty sixty two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty

(02:07:19):
pierscapes dot com. Let them show you what they can do,
or I tell you what. Just go to peerscapes dot com.
You'll see for yourself. It is amazing what they can do.
Professionals keep trying to tell you all that it's just
a fact.

Speaker 1 (02:07:36):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (02:07:36):
You are listening to garden Line. If you'd like to
give me call today seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. That's seven one three two one
two five eight seven four.

Speaker 11 (02:07:52):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (02:07:52):
You know we've I've talked about here on Guardenline the
passing of John Ferguson from Nature's roy Resources. Uh. John,
he was a giant in the landscape and gardening industry
here in our area and beyond John. When he created
Nature's Way, he created it to be a place where

(02:08:13):
you buy quality products so that you have success in
everything you grow, even down to the benefits to human
health of eating good homegrown food out of good healthy
soil grown in good healthy ways. John Ferguson left his
mark on this area that will be for decades to come,

(02:08:33):
an impression. Many of you have heard John talk, You've
listened to his lectures. The guy is walking was walking
encyclopedia as he taught. His knowledge was coming from just
pretty much eat, sleep, and drinking soil knowledge. Yeah. I
don't know how many science journals he read constantly, always

(02:08:54):
gleaning from them, and it's a loss for all of us. Really,
John had an impact me as well, and we just
want to remember him and honor him well. Understand our
heart felt sympathies out to his family, to all the
folks there at Nature's Way Resources. You know, Nature's Way
will continue on his son, Ian has now long since

(02:09:17):
taken up the charge of running the place in the
same way, making the same quality products that were always
made for the decades when John was at the home,
Nature's Way Resources the place where you get quality rose
soil and leap more compost and composts for specific maybe
growing citrus trees. That's a soil for citrus trees that
you're wanting to grow, whether it is a leaf mold compost,

(02:09:40):
a fungo based compost, whatever you're looking for. It's their
Nature's Way Resources. Here's a website, Nature'sway Resources dot com.
Nature'sway Resources dot com. Go check it out. They also
have a wonderful selection of native plants and other types
of plants.

Speaker 14 (02:09:58):
You know.

Speaker 8 (02:09:58):
They have a real nice garden set, a couple of
acres of garden center that is just fruit trees, natives, houseplots, vegetables,
all kinds of things at Nature's Way Resources. Let's go
out to the phones now and we're going to head
to Jersey Village and talk to Elizabeth. Hello, Elizabeth, Welcome

(02:10:18):
to garden Line Kiskiz.

Speaker 17 (02:10:20):
Thank you. I have almost a forty year old magnolia tree,
and I last week I applied the bone Eide systemic
treatment because it's been dropping leaves a lot.

Speaker 14 (02:10:35):
It looks like it has fungus, it has.

Speaker 17 (02:10:37):
Scales, and so I put it around the dripline as directed.
And so it's been one week and it's just dropping
leaves like crazy. It looks worse than I it did
last week, and I want to know if this is normal.

Speaker 8 (02:10:54):
Well, normally we get our leaf drop on Magnoia. We're
talking about southern magnolia, right, the evergreen with the big
white flowers when it blooms.

Speaker 11 (02:11:04):
Yes, yes, sir, okay.

Speaker 8 (02:11:09):
So the normal big leaf drop time for magnolias is
in the spring as the new growth comes out late
winter spring, the old growth is being dropped off. The
plant's getting rid of it to bring on the new growth.
You can have it now. We went through a really
some areas went through a really significant drought at the
end of the summer early fall. I know, I was

(02:11:31):
talking to somebody from area and they got rain at
the last day of August and they didn't have it
again until well into October. And that's a stressful time.
And Magnolias aren't built for the desert, you know, They're
built for the forested southeast US. That's where they thrive.
And so it could be kind of a latent effect
to that where it's casting some leaves a little early.

(02:11:53):
I don't know which bon eye product did you say
you put down?

Speaker 17 (02:11:58):
It's the systemic annual systemic for trees and shrubs.

Speaker 8 (02:12:05):
Okay, I'm gonna guess that that's amid a clopred. It's
either Amida cloper or dinotepheron and that one and it
will be taken up by the plant. It will be
distributed through the plumbing of the plant. And it's gonna
be a little slower now because we're entering the cooler season.
But then the scale that are sucking juices out of
the leaves or stems will pick that up and it'll

(02:12:27):
do a good job of controlling most types, not all,
but most types of scale. So I think you've done
what you can do for now, and it's just a
matter of waiting and watching. You know, rains have kind
of come back. A little bit of good soaking periodically
doesn't hurt if you feel like the soil is a
little on the dry side, and give it another good soaking.

Speaker 17 (02:12:46):
Okay, do you think it's just kind of going some
kind of shock period Now that I applied that systemic control.

Speaker 8 (02:12:55):
The product did not shock it at all, but shock
like I was talking about the late late drought, that
that could be a shock to it. And every plant's
genetically different. I used to have two live oaks in
my in my yard, and one of them each year
when it lost its old leaves, it almost was leafless
before the new leaves came on. The other live oak

(02:13:16):
was like it never was losing leaves because it just
was much of a smoother transition. That's a genetic difference
grown in the same location, same soil. So there's a
little bit of that. But I wouldn't worry about it.
I mean, I've got five seconds here, Elizabeth, I wouldn't
worry about it. I think you're going to be good
to go. Folks will be right back after this break
for the last half hour of garden line. Alrighty, we're back.

(02:13:40):
We're taking it home. Here, we're landing the plane on
the garden line. We got thirty minutes left, actually a
little less. You got a question, now'd be a good
time to out seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. Uh. If you have been out to
Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens out in Katie, Texas, good

(02:14:00):
time to go. They've got all kinds of fruit trees available.
The houseplants selection is unbelievable. Some nice little Norfolk islumpines too. Yeah,
we purchased a little Norfolk column pine years ago and
we've we've done this more than once, and we just
keep them year after year after year. It is a
tough plant. I had one, well, the last couple of summers.

(02:14:20):
I've had them one outside kind of around a corner
where we don't see it. It gets a dappled light
all through the day and I forget to water it,
and for a long time, the darn thing is still alive,
looking good. It's those are amazing plants. We kept it
indoors all the time, and then it got so big
that it wouldn't get couldn't get adequate light through the windows.

(02:14:41):
So it's been moved outside. We'll bring it inside decorated
with ribbons and things for the holiday season and little tiny,
tiny twinkly lights, and when it's run its course, then
we just put it back outside again. Anyway, they've got
those at Nelson Nursing Water Gardens. They also got some
blueberries in look real nice and beautiful gift shops. We

(02:15:02):
got cold weather coming up here, and when we get
our first frosts and freezes, you're gonna want some frost
blanket to put over those plants. They've got you covered
on that as well. While you're there, make sure I
was telling you earlier. Follow us for herbs. They've got
a good selection. Go check those out. You definitely definitely
need to get some herbs somewhere. Put them in pots,

(02:15:23):
put them in landscape beds, put them in an official
herb garden. Put them at the end of your vegetable rows.
Got a plant herbs for the fall. They're beautiful, they
are wonderful. I love the smell of herbs. I can't
pass by an herb plant without rubbing it with my
hands and smelling it. I love that the old factory
benefits of gardening. There you go, visual audio, old factory

(02:15:46):
as well. Lots of good benefits. By the way, Nelson
Water Gardens is located on the Katie Fort Ben Road,
just north of the KD Freeway. You turn north when
you get to Kje Fort Ben crust over the tracks
and just out upstreet a little bit and it's on
the right hand side Nelsonwatergardens dot Com. There you go.

(02:16:09):
So let's see, I had some other topic. I get
these ideas, the things I want to talk about and
then they jump out of my head. What was it?

Speaker 16 (02:16:17):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (02:16:18):
I know U fruit trees. This is a perfect time
to plant fruit trees the cool season and get them,
get them done, and get them planted. Now you may
be thinking, well, I don't have room for an orchard.
First of all, if you do have room for an orchard,
way to go, good luck. I would love to have
more room than I do. But fruit trees are part
of an edible landscape. And I in the past I've

(02:16:40):
had beds with Instead of putting a little miniature tree
in there a flowering tree of some time, I put
a peach tree and printed it and trained it. If
you want one that's especially decorative, there's one called red
Barren that has reddish colored balloons as a posed to
pinkish and it's has edible fruit too. But there's many
other good, good varieties, And don't just settle in on

(02:17:01):
that one. But plants some fruit trees this year. Find
out if you need two varieties or cross pollination, you
can go look it up. You can talk to a
good quality garden center and knows what they're talking about.
Our mom and pops. Oh, you can give me call
on garden Line. We can talk about that too. Let's
go out to the woodlands and now we're going to
talk to Chris this morning. Hey Chris, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (02:17:20):
Good morning, Thank you. I just bought a Christmas cactus
and it's full of buds and only two are open
so far. But I want to make sure I can
get as many flowers as I need to. I mean
that I want to see. Do I keep it watered
or let it dry out?

Speaker 8 (02:17:41):
What's the best? No, you keep it moist. You keep
it moist. Don't let the word cactus in Christmas cactus
or Thanksgiving cactus or Easter cactus the word cactus. Don't
let it fool you. These are plants that live in
the moist and so uh they can take drought, but
when you've got bloom buds on them, they'll throw those

(02:18:02):
buds off in a heartbeat if you let it get
too dry. So don't let it get too dry. Keep
it moist, not soggy, but keep it moisse whatever it takes.
Give it as much light, as much light as you can.
I've had one that you know, I'll put in a
brighter spot during the week because I wanted to get
the good light and then I'll put it, you know,
for decorations in the house, if we're having an event

(02:18:24):
or family or something's coming over. But give it good
light and keep it moist try and not make big
changes in its situation, you know, put it by a
heat vent or. I don't know, just kind of go
easy on it. But the main thing is is adequate
moisture so that it holds onto those buds.

Speaker 15 (02:18:45):
Okay, good, good to know. Thank you.

Speaker 8 (02:18:50):
You bet. Thanks for the call. Doris all. I'm sorry, Chris.
I appreciate that very much. Speaking of Doris, we're going
to go to Doris now in Austin County. Hey, Doris,
welcome to gard this morning.

Speaker 11 (02:19:03):
I'm fine, thank you.

Speaker 8 (02:19:05):
How can we help?

Speaker 12 (02:19:07):
Could I trim? I can help this time of year,
can I trim?

Speaker 8 (02:19:13):
I would wait? Okay, yeah, I would wait. Pruning is
an invigorating process, and if you were to prune it
now and we get a week or two of seventy
five up to eighty degree temperatures, it's going to want
to try to try to regrow and that that is

(02:19:34):
not a very hearty thing for the plant when cold
weather hits. So I would wait let's get to let's
get into at least January and then do our pruning
on it.

Speaker 12 (02:19:44):
Then all right, that's what.

Speaker 10 (02:19:47):
I needed to know.

Speaker 5 (02:19:49):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 9 (02:19:50):
You have a great right good.

Speaker 8 (02:19:53):
You too, have a wonderful Sunday. Appreciate that call very much.
And by the way, this is a lovely sunday. I
don't know if you you've looked outside, but I'm chomping
at the bit here. I'm ready to get out and
enjoy some great weather. This afternoon would be a good
time to do that too, and stop buy our local
garden centers. I'm telling you that, you know, we are

(02:20:16):
so fortunate in Houston to have the number of quality
independent garden centers that we do, North, south, East, West
and Central. You got good garden centers, good garden centers
that you can go to, people that know what they're
talking about, people that bring in plants that are not
just the common everyday thing, although there's nothing wrong with

(02:20:37):
everyday plants. I'm just saying, you find some things you
don't normally find, you know, and the advice is outstanding.
And the people are good. They're kind, they're nice, they're friendly,
they're they're they greet you and it just they're helpful.
You know, maybe you had a plant that you didn't
buy there and it's doing something at the house. You
take a picture of it, you bringing it. They're gonna
help you. You know, they're going to help you with that.

(02:21:01):
But support them. There is sometimes there's a concept that
if I can save a nickel or dime here and there,
that's a good thing. Well, no, not when it comes
to plants, it really isn't. You need a quality plant
with quality advice and people that know what they're talking about.
So from the time that you pick the plant, this
is one that really does well here to the advice
you get on how to take care of it, to

(02:21:22):
what you do when problems arise. That is a full
service garden center. Okay, plants are not shelf products. Hammers
and I don't know what wiring and light bulbs and
you know all the other things on chef. Those you
just set them there and they go buy them. When
you're going to buy them, plants have to be taken

(02:21:44):
care of. They've got to be watered, they've got to
be you know, well taken care of. And our good
mum and pop garden centers do just sat. Anyway, let's
take a little break here. We got one more segment left.
Probably have time for a call if someone wants to
try it at seven one, three, two to five, eight
seven four. Folks, here we go, last segment of guard

(02:22:08):
Line for the weekend. We're going to head straight out
here to the phones in just one moment. I did
want to mention, you know, I like quotes and stuff,
but Thomas Jefferson is one of the best. You know,
he was our gardening president early on. He said, no
occupation is so delightful to me as a culture of
the earth, and no culture comparable to that of a garden.

(02:22:30):
And if you've never been up to see his place, Montchello,
it is just outstanding, beautiful, beautiful gardens and everything else.
He also said he's writing a letter to a friend
back in eighteen eleven, and he said, though I am
an old man, I am but a young gardener. There
you go, there you go. You can't get old when
you're gardening. Gardener keeps you young, keeps you moving, gives

(02:22:52):
you hope, gives you things to think about, stimulates mental
and physical health. It's just a good thing. Highly recommend
it all right here let's see. Le'm go check the
emails here and see if I can get there. We go, uh, well,
let's go out here. I'm gonna take a call from
Nancy and Lake Palestine. Nancy. For some reason, the email

(02:23:15):
has not come through. But let's go ahead and try
to answer the question. I bet I can if you
describe it.

Speaker 19 (02:23:21):
Eve, Yeah, I sent you a picture about a month
ago when I still had got around to repotting it.

Speaker 8 (02:23:27):
It's in a oh a month ago.

Speaker 19 (02:23:29):
Okay, No, no, no, I seen it a few minutes
ago also, but I seen it a month ago, and
you got the picture. You telling me to go and
put it in a bigger pot, and I was just
wondering how.

Speaker 11 (02:23:39):
Big of a punt to put it.

Speaker 19 (02:23:42):
But first off, actually I've got to say, Gigle Maggie,
have about the bags?

Speaker 8 (02:23:46):
Well they Nancy, they scared the hell out of me.
Almost had a heart attack. Yes, that was I was
at the game. I was at the game, and we're
not quitters, that's for sure. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, wow, Okay, anyway.

Speaker 13 (02:24:04):
I.

Speaker 19 (02:24:07):
Figure you're not yelling lout in that if you started
yelling that loud.

Speaker 8 (02:24:13):
Yeah, they were. They were yelling like is your deck
red colored? The wood on your decks is a red color? Yes, okay,
I got I got your picture. I went back in
time and found it. Okay, So I see the tree.
How can I help?

Speaker 19 (02:24:26):
Well, it's in a smaller pot and I haven't cut
it back. How big a pot shats go with that?

Speaker 8 (02:24:35):
It's a little small for the size of that tree. So, uh,
you know, when you prune, it makes things grow, and
we don't need cetrus to be trying to grow when
it's going to be cold.

Speaker 11 (02:24:46):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (02:24:46):
I would probably leave it in the pot it's in
because it's gonna be easier to bring in.

Speaker 11 (02:24:51):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (02:24:51):
And that that way, when I had a good freezing night, yeah,
I bring it in. But when we get ready to
bring it out in the spring, once we get past frost,
I would bump it out to a pot at least
about fifty percent bigger than that one, Okay, fifty larger
than the pots you have it in. When you pull
it out, it's gonna have roots going all in circles.

(02:25:13):
And cut some of those things because that will make
them branch and they will fill in and the tree
will be okay. When you do that. At the same time,
you want to prune some of those long, arching, gangly
branches that are hanging down, uh, just to kind of
keep it more in a shrubby type of form. H
and alot to be good. Did you did you mention
which what kind of.

Speaker 19 (02:25:36):
What kind of It's said it was a lemon tree.
It's said it was a limon tree.

Speaker 8 (02:25:41):
But all of lines.

Speaker 14 (02:25:46):
And it started blooming all.

Speaker 19 (02:25:47):
Of a sudden were happy and butterflies.

Speaker 8 (02:25:51):
Yeah, oh they love it. They love it, and it's
nice on your pettio. You can enjoy the fragrance of
those blooms. Nail so good.

Speaker 19 (02:25:58):
Okay, yeah, I've got a little sundroom right off the bank,
so I can put it in there for the winner.

Speaker 14 (02:26:03):
But listen, thank you so much, and line god.

Speaker 19 (02:26:06):
And hey, and then Texas got me last night.

Speaker 10 (02:26:09):
Sorry.

Speaker 7 (02:26:11):
Well, I.

Speaker 8 (02:26:13):
Actually was kind of hoping that that didn't happen. And
I know, as an aggie is like, what the heck
I could get kicked out of college station. But no,
I was a little bit well, I think it's be
an interesting game at the end of the year when
when both teams are doing well. But anyway, that's that's that,
that's neither hearing nor there. All right, all of you, now,
don't turn off the radio. Stop, don't turn off the

(02:26:34):
radio just because I said that. Sorry, it's okay, okay,
appreciate it so much. Thank you appreciate that call. Okay. Well, uh,
you know, I always wonder what I'm going to say
on the air and when I'm going to misspeak and
say that's a long discussion that I don't have time for.

(02:26:56):
Most of you listeners don't want to hear me discuss it.
So there we go. I'm going to save you from
that one. I appreciate you listening to Guardline. We've had
a good day talking about a lot of good things,
answering a lot of questions that you guys have. I
want to remind you that I have a website. It's
called Gardeningwithskip dot com. Gardening with Skip dot com, and
I hope you'll go there. There is specifically one thing

(02:27:19):
on the website that I do want you to go
and look at and see. And here's what it is.
It is my Arctic, my publication that I wrote with
an agrolife extension horticulturist on protecting plants from frosts and freezes. Okay,
so you go go to the website and you'll have

(02:27:40):
to click on all publications and there's a long list
of things there, but there's one and it says, tis
the season to be freezen? Just the season to be freezing.
And if you click on the link of it, you
get this publication and it is like nine pages, I think,
full color. It's called protect Landscapes and horticulture crops from

(02:28:02):
frosts and freezes Doctor Monty Nesbitt and I wrote that
number of years ago, but it's still applicate, applicable, same
information is true. We go into the different aspects of freezes.
There are two different kinds of freezes. There is a
freeze that is advective and a radiative, which is more

(02:28:22):
of like a frost cold night. The air radiates or
the soiled and leaf surfaces radiate heat away and drops
the temperature. That way, when you get a freeze with
a wind blowing through, it is very hard to protect plants,
but it is essential that you stop the air movement
out from underneath the cover and on. In that publication,

(02:28:45):
on page five, there's a picture of the difference between
a landscape lollipop and a properly covered plant. And if
you just look at that one picture, one moment, glance
at the picture and you get it. You understand what
we're trying to do. We're going to use heat underneath there,
and heat would be like a heat lamp or even
just to you, one hundred and fifty watt floodlight type bulb.

(02:29:07):
Don't point them at plant parts. They will overheat the
plant parts and you don't want to do that. Sometimes
I'll point mine down at the ground. Last year, I
had a little steak underneath there and I just did
a clamp on light fixture, pointed it at the ground
because all that heat is going to rise up that
We're not trying to point it at the plant. We're
trying to warm that air underneath that cover. Anyway, it

(02:29:29):
goes into that talks about containers of water, like have
you ever seen citrus trees that have been sprinkled during
a freeze and there's ice everywhere. Well, there's a way
that that can work, but for most homeowners that does
not work, and explains in the publication how to make
it work or why it doesn't work, and you can
understand it that way. We got cold weather coming, it'll

(02:29:51):
eventually get here. I want to be ready for it,
so there's a publication free for you. Lots of other
good stuff on the website you can check out. I
hope you have a wonderful day out in the garden
this afternoon, and a wonderful week out in the garden.
Don't forget to get out to our garden centers, our
hardware stores, all the places you hear me talk about
feed stores, quality feed stores in area, southwest fertilizer. Get

(02:30:14):
out and do some shopping. I'm gonna leave it at that.
Thanks for being a Garden Line listener. We'll talk to
you next Saturday.