The Drought Disaster

Skip Richter answers your questions all morning long!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with skin Richter's.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Crazy here manding in the bassis gas.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
They can use white shrimp.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
You just watch him as whirl god grasses and gas
began you did, are so many pro thinks the soup
bus in the great ding the grassies.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Like gas, and again you did.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
The Samos becomes back second but not a sound the
glasses and gas and you so bemon of ding in
the gassy said gas may be? Can you starting in.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
The gases like gas became?

Speaker 4 (00:49):
You did?

Speaker 5 (00:50):
Everything is so clean.

Speaker 6 (00:52):
And see and.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Everything is Sunday and had there marry well, good morning,

(01:18):
good Sunday morning, folks. It is good to be back
here visiting with you on Guarden Line. We got plenty
we can talk about today. Interesting, interesting kind of weather
this weekend, so I'm coming up too. As a matter
of fact, we're getting to the fall season. You know,
September is a summer month, half of October is a
summer month, and then we have a summer day or

(01:40):
two that follows that before we finally finally cool off here.
But I can feel it outside of boy stepping outside
this morning, so yesterday is the same way. So good
to get out, just feel some cool air. I hope
you're enjoying it too. And there's plenty that we can
be doing. There's lots of stuff going on in the

(02:01):
garden and in the landscape, and I'm sure we'll be
talking about a lot of those things today. If you'd
like to give me a call seven one three two
one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four, and we can visit
about the things that are of interest to you. The
elephant in the room, as far as I'm concerned right now,

(02:22):
is the sneaky drought that has kind of come up
on us this end of summer. And I say sneaky,
especially sneaky to me. I I knew had it been
kind of dry, and I noticed the planets were kind
of looking like they needed good water, but I hadn't
really looked at the weather records, and I looked back
and saw, Uh, since the first of our of September,

(02:45):
and with you know, pretty hot temperatures we've been going through,
there's hardly been any rain at all, and a lot
of the listening area now, of course, you say that
in an area as big as our k KTRH listening area,
and there's people that have gotten rain, but in general
it has been a dry one. And here's how things
work when we move into drought. If we've had some

(03:06):
good rains and the soil is thoroughly soaked, thoroughly soaked,
it is moist down deep, and you know there's plenty
of moisture, those plants can run for a while on that.
You know, grasses they've got roots that go down below
six inches for sure. I've had pulled up Saint Augustine
roots that were ten inches down in the ground, and
you know, they they can do good for a while there,

(03:29):
and then the trees have a very extensive root system,
so they're doing good for a while. But once it
starts to get dry, things are limited. You know, they're
on that edge where there's a little moisture in the soil,
but it's really hard to pull it loose from those
soil particles because there isn't much and things start to
get thirsty. Then you're watering, but you're putting a little
bit of water on the top and hopefully getting a

(03:51):
good six eight inch soaking on it if you water correctly.
But that doesn't go a long ways because that huge deserve,
the bank account of water has been drained and so
there's very little that is available. That's where we need
that good, long, slow rain that you know, goes over
two days or something like that and just really wets

(04:12):
the soil deeply and thoroughly. And we haven't gotten that.
So as it is, we're having to hold on and
keep our plants going. Uh. And once we get to fall,
once the leaves drop off, the deciduous plants, yeah, there's
not much water use. They still don't need to be
in powder dry soil, but uh, there's not much water
being used by the plants at that time. Same thing

(04:34):
will happen with our turf grasses. As the temperatacles off
in the days get shorter, they go into kind kind
of a hold, a holding period, especially things like Saint Augustine.
You know, it just is on a hold. It would
when Saint Augustine's in the middle of winter, if we
would have a week of warm weather, it would start
to get active in going because it's it's not dormant,

(04:58):
it is snoozing. Let's put it that way. Some plants
go dormant. Saint Augustine does not go dormant. Bermuda grass,
you could you could say it goes dormant. It's really
just too cool for it to grow. Also, but bermuda
goes into a deeper sleeping state to the point where
you know, you take something like well, you know, glyphis

(05:20):
at er we used to be used to be what
we called round up kills everything. Uh, and golf courses
can spray a bermuda fair way in the middle of
the winter when the bermuda is completely asleep with roundup
and not kill the bermuda grass, which normally it would
kill the heck out of it, and then kill the
weeds without killing the bermuda grass. So that that tells

(05:41):
you what stage of the bermuda is in. I realize
I'm droning on here, but just bear with me anyway.
So when plants are in that state, you know, there's
not much happening, but they can begin to grow with
the right temperatures begin to grow again. Curse the day
length is still short. But when a tree goes dormant,
it goes chemically dormant. So I'll use a peach tree

(06:05):
as an example. For those of you buying fruit trees,
make sure and check the hours of chilling for the
variety that you're buying compared to the hours of chilling
where you live. If you're way up in Huntsville, you're
probably getting seven hundred, maybe seven to fifty hours of
chilling on some winters you're up in that range, six

(06:27):
fifty seven to fifty up in that range. And that's
without me looking at a chilling map to make sure
I'm exactly on. You get down lower toward the coast,
and there's winters where you get three hundred hours or
four hundred hours certainly of chilling and that's not a lot,
and so you got to have a tree that matches it.
But here's what's happening. What do I mean by chemically dormant.

(06:50):
What I mean is that this peach tree goes into winter,
it drops its leaves and the buds are dormant. But
they can't wake up if we have, you know, a
week of warmer temperatures because they are chemically dormant. There's
a chemical in the plant that is keeping those buds
from waking up, and that's for the plant's protection. So

(07:11):
if we have a week of warm temperatures in the
middle of winter, it doesn't just start growing in blooming,
because that would be a disaster because more frosts and
freezes are coming. But during that time, when temperatures are
around forty five degrees could be give or take five degrees,
maybe maybe forty to forty five degrees, give or take.
Then each hour that we spend at that temperature is

(07:35):
an hour of what's called chilling, and that temperature breaks
down the chemical that's keeping the buds asleep. So as
we go through those hours, maybe you have a peach
that's a six hundred hour peach. That's quite a bit
from a lot of the Houston Listening area or Houston
Greater Houston area. It needs to get six hundred hours

(07:58):
of chilling before those buds the chemical's broken down and
the bud can take off and grow. And when that happens,
then you get some warm weather and here the care comes,
the blooms and hopefully not another frost. So that's kind
of how that works in the chemical chilling of plants
that are dormant, and we've seen some We usually talk

(08:18):
about chilling hours with fruit, but I have seen years.
One year we had a very warm winter and the
Chinese pistache trees, which is one of the trees that
gives us fall color here, had trouble waking up, and
because they still had the chemical and I'm keeping them asleep,
we just hadn't had enough winter yet, all right. So
that's a fun fact, probably a lot when you're on

(08:40):
your first cup of coffee with one eye open. But
we'll be back with more in just a moment. Hey,
welcome back. Could you have you back with us. There
are very few times of the year where everything comes
to a head in the lawn, and this is one
of them. This is one of those times. When we

(09:03):
hit October, there's a lot happening. We are needing to fertilize,
because it is the time when the grass is taking
in its nutrients to build top winter hardiness and to
store for early spring growth. It may be I've had
a turf specialist tell me it's the most important time
of the year for fertilizing turf. Is a fall fertilization

(09:24):
that's October here for most of our listening area. It
is also a time when the winter weeds are about
to germinate. In fact, you know, a good little coal
spell come in here, cool off the soul tempts a
bit and then some rain and they're up. And so
if you're going to prevent them, much better to prevent
weeds than to kill existing ones, you got to do

(09:44):
that with a premergent herbiside at this time. And then thirdly,
when we get that little bit of a break from
the sun, I've already seen some large patch also called
used to be called brown patch circles. When we get
a little break from the heat and the little rain,
it's going to happen. The circles are starting to appear.
So all three of those are happening at the same time,

(10:04):
and that just that kind of thing just doesn't generally
happen all at once like this in the lawns. That's
why nightro Fuss put together the Texas three Step. It's
the Fall Special Winter Riser, the Nitrovas Barricade weed pervent,
and the Nitrovus Eagle turf fungicide, which is a disease preventter.
Now it's prevent is the key word in these. It

(10:25):
is once the weeds are up, a quality product like
barricade for preventing weeds, well they're up already, you know,
a primer that prevents them from establishing plans once the
big brown circles are in your lawn is too late
to fix those areas. You may stop additional ones, but
they're there. So timeliness is critical right now. If you're

(10:47):
going to do these things in your lawn, you need
to do them now. Now is the time. Don't delay
or you've missed the opportunity. You can find night fass
products like the Texas three Step at Bearings Hardware on
West high Chanta Gardens Dinner Richmond, and plintorvill Seasons on
Highway to forty nine as well, So keep that in mind.

(11:07):
It's a perfect storm going on in the landscapes right now.
I stopped by an Ace hardware store the other day.
I was checking out some barbecue accouterments. Can you say
accouterments when you're talking about barbecue supplies? I don't know anyway.
Sounds good makes barbecue and sound high falutin anyway. I

(11:28):
was taking out some of the things that go along
with barbecue, and you know, there's so many accessories like
anything golf to you name it. It's got all the
accessories that go along with a sport.

Speaker 7 (11:38):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
And it just reminded me of the quality brands of
barbecue equipment that Ace Hardware sells just amazing. And I
don't know, we got holidays coming up and I'm telling
you a nice shiny black barbecue pit that O well
or Green. I should have to say green now because
Big Green Egg they got them at Ace Hardware stores.
You know, they each a sardware store independent, so they

(12:00):
carry different ones. But the Big Green Egg, which is like,
that's a cult in the barbecue world. It is a cult.
And those of you who are in it know what
I'm talking about. They have those and many of our
Ace Hardware stores, the Tragger, the Rectech Rectex, the one
I use personally. Tragger's been around a long time. Great
brand too, you know, even the Weber girls. I've still

(12:23):
got one of those little web Weber domes that you
put your brick ups and things in. Those are great too.
Ace has everything, and they have more brands. I can't
name all the brands in here, but and then everything
you need to go with it. And that's just like
ACE because it is the place. You know, if you
want to go outside and enjoy the outdoors, go ahead,
I do. I've got those little beer guard I call

(12:44):
them beer garden lights. It's the strings of lights and
aren't real bright that you know, you hang across an
area and it just creates a warm glow, makes it
nice to sit outside, which isn't nice to sit outside now,
and these cooler nights we're having. But Ace's got all
of those things and plenty more, you know, all the
garden things. I was just talking about the nitrofoss Texas
three step. You're gonna find that kind of stuff at

(13:04):
Ace Hardware stores as well as other brands, a fertilizer,
other things to deal with pest, weeds and diseases that
you have in your landscape. And there's Ace Hardware stores
all over. You can find yours by going to Ace
Hardware Texas dot com. Ace Hardware Texas dot com stores
like Ospase, Ace and kirkandall up in the Woodlands, or
go Alo further north to Willis and you've got all seasons.

(13:26):
ACE on I forty five North Euvaldi As on New
Valdi Road, east side of Houston Chambers Ace on Broadway,
as a matter of fact, in Galveston, and then done
in Bay City, there's Bay City ACE on Seventh Street.
That's just a few of the many many ACE Hardware
stores that we have whatever you need, you know, from
the typical hardware stuff paint and plumbing and wiring and whatnot,

(13:48):
to all of the other things that you never dreamed
would be in a hardware store. You're gonna find those
at ACE Hardware. ACE Hardware Texas. Don't forget the Texas
dot Com. You're listening to our line phone number seven
three two fifty eight seventy four. Give me a call
if you got a question, we'll visit about that. I
have been working on some herbs. My wife has an

(14:11):
herb garden that we have on the patio its and
one of the raised metal beds that we love to use.
The bed is filled with a quality mix, and I've
noticed over two years now that mix has dropped down
about four inches from the sides. Because that's what organic
matter does. It decomposes away and you fill that bed full. Generally,

(14:34):
I tell people fill the bed a little bit mounded
in the center. You know, I don't mean like a mountain.
I mean more like a dome over the over the bed.
And because it's going to settle down, it's time for us.
When we do a next transition, we'll be adding some
more stuff to the bed just to get that level
back in again. But we've got a lot of nice
herbs that are thriving in that well drained soil. And

(14:55):
you know, when I grew up a garden, me, you
ran a rototiller through the dirt in the backyard. I mean,
that's kind of how you made a garden. You just
banged it loose and planted and there you went. And
now more and more raised beds are becoming popular for
good reason. They provide good drainage, you know, when we
have had rain lately, but boy, when it rains, it

(15:16):
pours here. Yeah, I was living in Cyprus when we
got that fifty two inches in a couple of days
when the hurricane came through. But with the raised bed,
the access strains away. That's very important with a raised
bed if you want, if you build the right hunt
of raised bed, you can sit on the sides. And
for those folks that are older, you know, getting up
and down on your knees and standing up again, that

(15:39):
has its wear and tear on you. And it's nice
to be able to sit down and just you know,
work at something about knee high level. And that's a
good advantage of raised beds and you can put quality
mixes in them. We have so many good mixes here.
In fact, I'll just mention Ciena Maltz Cinamlts carries everything

(15:59):
you need to have success with the garden because they
know how to make the brown stuff really something special.
The brown stuff is the soil. The green stuff is
the plants. Brown stuff before green stuff, go to Sienna
pick up one of their quality next. You know, they
carry mixes like they have for example, airloom sols, veggie

(16:20):
nerb mix that's just one example. They have rose soil,
they have organic composts, they have mulches to go on
the surface, everything else you need. If you're doing some
landscape work and you need some stone or gravel or
river rock to create a drainway, Ciena Maltz has got
you covered on all of that stuff. And if you're
within about twenty miles of deliver or for a fee,

(16:41):
and they also can deliver by the supersac. That's the neat, clean,
easy way to get soil to your garden. If they
bring it by, they set it on the driveway or
wherever you want them to set it, and then you
just scoop it out of the sack, nice, neat, clean
and easy. Sienna Multch dot com Southeuston on FM five
point twenty one, Sienna Mulch. Excuse me, so anyway you're

(17:05):
talking about herbs. We have a number of perennial herbs
in our garden. I think I think she has about
two or three types of time and I know at
least two types of oregano and then rosemary. We use
the trailing rosemary because it does it comes up a
little bit, but it sort of weeps down over the
sides of the bed, and so that's attractive. Also, the

(17:27):
trailing type blooms better than the upright type. They both bloom.
The trailing type tends to be a little more floriferous,
and there are honeybees love those blooms and other insects
love those blooms. So just another reason to have that
in the garden. And there are a bunch of more herbs.
But I would encourage you this fall. There's not a

(17:47):
better season than fall for planting herbs. Make an herb
garden and it you know, if you want to go
all the way and be Louis the fourteenth with your
little geometrically balanced. You know. Herb garden those are beautiy
go for it. If you want to just create a
herb garden and a raised bed by planting the herbs
you like. Do that. If you want flowers, how about

(18:09):
pineapple sage that has red tubular flowers. It's a wonderful one.
How about Mexican mint marigold. It has a licorice jellybean
type scent to the leaves. It's used as a substitute
for terragm. But in the fall that's beautiful gold and
yellow flowers up on top. There are herbs for everything

(18:29):
that you might need or want, from of course medicinal
to culinary herbs, to just herbs that are flat pretty.
They make nice plants. You can do them in a
bed like we do ours, or you can do them
in containers, or you can mix them in with your
other gardens. You know, why not put a Mexican at
marigold in a flower bed so you have those blooms
at a time when there aren't a lot of other

(18:51):
things blooming in the garden. How about lining a walk
with some chives. They look like little lariope plants. You know,
that's another idea. So I'm just giving you a few ideas,
but the main thing is try it out. Check it
out and see what you like. Grow the things you
like and the ways you like. Main thing is have
fun and make it easier on yourself as you do

(19:13):
your designing. You know, I keep telling you always soil first.
Get that right so you have success. Secondly, make it
easy for yourself, whether it's a raised bed or whatever,
makes it easy for you to take care of. Yesterday
I was out at the arbor Gate. I want to
thank Beverly and the team out there for bringing me out.
That was fun. I got to see a lot of
folks and enjoy visiting about all kinds of things. Plus

(19:35):
I got to peruse Arbrogate, which is always fun. You know,
they keep fruit trees year round out there, and they
have an excellent selection right now, but every month of
year you can find fruit at Arborgate. Cool season color
is all over the place there. There's even some warm
season color for those of you that want to carry
the warm color up until the first breeze. We never
know where that's going to be, but they have that.

(19:56):
Vegetables and herbs, they got camellias, they got roses. It's
just a great place. And when you're out there, make
sure and grab a bag of their Organic Food Complete.
That's a fertilizer for anything with the roots. There is
an Organic Soil Complete, it's a soil it has an
expanded shale in it. And there's Organic Compost Complete that

(20:16):
also has expanded shell and it's a compost. As the
name says. Those three pretty much everything you need as
far as the brown stuff is concerned, and just throw
a little mulch on top and you're good to go.
They deliver bulk of the organic Soil Complete and the
Organic Compost Complete, so if you would like to get
those in a larger quantity than a bunch of bags,
you can do that. But those are excellent products. They work,

(20:38):
and I promise you this when you go to Arbigate,
you're gonna have a good time. Everybody was out there
that I got to talk to, certainly it is having
a good time out at the arbor Gate. Let's take
a little break here. We're going to go for the
half hour break and I'll be right back. I just
want to let you know that next week I'm going
to be at Brenham Ace Hardware and I'll tell you
more in a minute. All right, we're back. Hey, interested

(21:03):
in talking about gardening today? Here's the number seven one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Give me
a call. We'll be happy to visit about the questions
that you might have and help you get to a
good solution for anything that seems to be bug in
your lawn at this time.

Speaker 8 (21:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
In Chany Gardens is a great place, you know if
you hear me talk about them all the time. But
in Channy Gardens down in the Richmond Rosenberg area is
actually on FM three point fifty nine. That's on the
Katie Fullscher side of Richmond, Katie Fullsher's side of Richmond.
And when you go in there, you're going to find
pretty much any plant you would be looking for, especially
the ones for that season you know that we're dealing with.

(21:44):
And something I hadn't talked about much as fall is
ornamental grasses. And they have a good selection of ornamental grasses.
They are just gorgeous in the fall. That's typically when
they put the seed heads on. They look so good.
If you're going to do anything for Halloween or Thanksgiving,
any decorations you want to create, some plantings for those,
They've got you covered on all of that stuff. You know,
they have classes all the time down there, and there's

(22:06):
always something at a class on pumpkin pumpkin type arrangements
and things like that. They got one it's called an
iron basket make and take that they did. I believe
that they did that one yesterday. I believe it. Anyway,
they've got lots of classes going on all the time,
and so you can learn to make stuff that's planting.

(22:27):
It's just gorgeous, gorgeous things. They're so skilled at doing that.
If you're looking to get seeds, if you're looking to
get transplants, if you're looking to get gorgeous pottery, certainly
pottery for the season, but pottery for all seasons. And
they're the place to go. You're going to find a
lot of creativity there, and you're going to find people
that know how to help you. They have the knowledge,

(22:49):
they have the expertise to help you have success, because
that's what we're all about here is we want to
have success in our gardening. And I'll tell you this,
if you are looking for something different, if you're looking
for something standard, they've got it all. They've got, you know,
everything from the pansies and tomatoes all the way to
very unusual things the desert rows of bones, eye little

(23:12):
plants and containers, and on and on and on. It's
there at Enchanted Gardens, Katie Foster Side of Richmond. Go
to this website and find out everything you need to
know Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. And while you're by there,
make sure to do the brown stuff before the green stuff,
which means pick up some microlife, nitrofoss, know, some plant food, medina,

(23:32):
nature's wate, soils, heirloom soils. They're all there at Chenny Gardens,
one stop shop. You know, I'm going to beat that.
So anyway, I was talking about some different things I
have started propagating. I'm going to be teaching a propagation
class for the Master Gardeners down in Gallaston County here

(23:53):
coming up, and just starting a lot of cuttings and
things so we can use them as props as we
go through. We do a lot of different kinds of propagating.
But I took a lot of rose cuttings and I
did some other creative ways of propagating too. But the
rose cuttings are all rooting. I got some rosemary that
are rooting. And I'm not telling you all this just

(24:14):
so you know what I'm doing. It's stuff that you
can do. Right now is a good time. Take some cuttings,
get them into a good loose, well drained mix, cover
them with something clear that allows light in, not direct sunlight.
I'll cook in there, but lots of light and keeps
the humidity in because you know, when you take a cutting,

(24:34):
it's a race with time. You have severed it from
its roots, from its ability to get any water or
nutrients from the roots, and so it's in this humid
chamber and the plant suddenly starts making calluses on the
wound area and then it starts making roots, hopefully in
time for it to supply itself and keep growing before

(24:54):
it dries out and dies. But you can grow a
lot of things by cuttings. And so if you've got
roses you'd like to propagate, if you've got rosemary you'd
like to propagate, and a lot of other things, now's
a good time to do that. I also am doing
some tip layering. Actually it's just called layering for what
I'm doing. But you go to the end of a
branch a vine. Well, here's the easiest example is tomatoes,

(25:19):
because you just say the word root and roots bumps
start to appear on the stem. But if you took
a tomato branch of vine and you bend it down
to the soil, and you put that not the very
end of it, but about six ten inches from the end,
you bury it a little section with soil. I usually
use a bent coat hanger section like a youw to

(25:41):
pin it down into the soil. Sont when the wind blows,
it doesn't pull out of the soil. And then those
soil over time and keep it wet. Within a couple
of weeks, you're going to have a good root system
forming on that tomato. You just cut it loose from
the mother plant. So that's a high percentage rooting. Way
to do things is the layer by taking that branch

(26:01):
because it stays connected to the mother branch. Now, with
some things like roses, it needs a little bit of
a wound, and so I'll bend them until the tissues
start to crack, but I don't break it loose. So
think about your elbow. You know you've got a straight
bone going from your shoulder to your elbow, and a
straight bone's going from your elbow to your hand. But
your elbow is like a joint. It's a hinge. So

(26:23):
imagine taking the end of a rose shoot and bending
it like that, you know, a little bit back from
the end, and you can just all of a sudden,
you can tell you know, okay, I've broken some things
in there, but it's still connected. And you put that
in the ground. You pin it down and covered up
with soil and start watering it. Sometimes I'll put a
little rooting hormone on it too, just to make sure.
But after a while you're gonna be able to dig

(26:44):
it up and cut it loose for mama, and you've
got another rosebush. You could do that in a container.
Let's say you have a gallon pot. We have some
people that want a rose that I have at my house,
some friends, and they've asked for this rose. So I've
got several of them that are in pot that I'm
layering it in the pot rather than in the ground,

(27:06):
keeping it watered, and so when it's ready to go,
I'll cut it loose. Grut for a little bit more.
Get a good root system on it so they don't
end up losing it, and then give it to them
and there we go. That's how you can share a plant.
So those are just some ideas. There's a lot of
other ways to do cuttings, but I encourage you give
it a shot and see how it works for you
in your lawn. The folks at Nelson have put together

(27:28):
a really nice product. It's called carbo Load and it's
in purple bags. And the carbo Load is a ten
ten twenty fertilizer perfect for fall. Carload also contains a
pre emergent herbicide, So when you put it down and
watered in, gotta water it in, get the pre merging
in and get the fertilizer nutrients in the soil. It

(27:48):
starts preventing whet. So when do you need to do it?

Speaker 9 (27:51):
Now?

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Now, don't delay, get it done, because the sooner you
get it in, the better off your grass is going
to be, and the better off your weed control is
going to be. Load from Nelson, the purple bag easy
to find. Also grab some genesis from Nelson. That's the
transplant mix. Think of it as an an organic type
for like not one hundre percent organic, but organic type

(28:11):
for lat it's got microwrison back to your in fungi
and other things in it. And you use it for
any time you're transplanting. You put it in the soil
that you're about to plant into, whether it's in the
ground or in a container. That is how you use
the Genesis and it works really well. Let's take a
little break. We'll be back for the last segment of
this hour. Just a moment. Alrighty, we're back. Welcome to

(28:36):
guard Line. Thanks for joining us this morning. Gonna be
a good day. Gonna be a great day this afternoon.
I hope to be able to get outside a little
bit and continue to enjoy myself in terms of getting
things ready to go. I was talking about propagating just
before we went to break, and propagating is a fun
hobby to learn, it really is. And you know, there's

(28:59):
levels of garden I've said this before, but there's the
gardener who basically cares about the lawn and stuff, but
they just hart people and say go do that, go
fix that, go make that happen. Then there's the gardeners
who get involve themselves. They get in the dirt, they
play around, maybe they do some hiring and some gardening,
and that's cool. There are people that you know they're

(29:21):
gardening is basically a pretty landscape. Then there are people
that venture into things you can eat, like a little orchard,
some fruit trees, some vegetables, some herbs. There's gardeners that
do their thing indoors, like a houseplant or a beautiful
collection of houseplants and plantings, starting seeds indoors, starting cuttings indoors.

(29:42):
Now we've gone into propagating. That's a whole new level
of gardening. There's people that grow specialize things like they're
into orchids, for example, or they're into certain types of
irises or roses, or a strong, strong group of following
for roses, and they get into a plant and they
go nuts, go all the way nuts on plants. And
I always said, I'm going to start a ball maas

(30:04):
society because there isn't one yet for obvious reasons. But
we can, we can be. We need a new plant society.
There we go. It's gonna be the ball moss's. Seriously though, that,
by the way, a ball moss. You can buy cousins
of ball moss at a lot of our great garden centers. Uh,

(30:25):
And it's easy to grow. It's fun to grow, and
you know it doesn't look they don't usually don't look
quite like ball moss, but they're similar anyway. If you
can't grow ball moss, I can't help you. So there's
different levels of gardening, and I hope you'll get involved
in that. Try some new things, try some different things. Listen,
I gotta warn you it's addictive. Though. I'm pretty sure

(30:46):
there's a wing of the Betty Ford Clinic for gardeners
because I know I need to go to it because
it just you get going on it. It's fun, you're
having a good time, and next thing you know, you
know that you drive off to go to go to
the garden center and your spouse calls in all the
credit cards and reports some stolen. They gotta somehow defend

(31:06):
the family budget. No, seriously, it's a lot of fun,
it's less. The thing I like to put is, hey,
a little rototiller is a lot cheaper than a golf
cart or a deer lease or a bass boat. So
give me a break. Right, that's my take on it.
But I'm a gardener and I'm biased. But that doesn't
mean I'm not that I'm wrong. Houston powder Coat is
the biggest powder code in our region. And if you

(31:28):
got anything metal outside that you want to look brand new,
and I mean brand new. Check them out. Find their website. Well,
I'll tell you the website. Find them on Facebook or
go to the website which is Houston Powdercoders dot com.
Look at the work they do. When you see it,
you're going to suddenly go, oh, I could take this
down there. I could take that down there and let

(31:49):
them do that. And I'm telling you they bring brand
new life into something that looks like it needs to
go to the road and be hauled off. Houston Powder
Coders they come get it, they do their work, they
bring it back to you. It's it's perfect. Everything you
need done, the rust, they deal with the rust. You

(32:09):
need new bolts, they put stainless steel bolts in. You
need new end caps, you know for some of your
patio furniture, you know, little plastic in caps on tubular
furniture stuff. They do all of it. Well, slings, you know,
across the seat. Everything you need done, they make it new.
You just got to go check them out. Here's the
phone number two eight one six seven, six thirty eight

(32:29):
eighty eight two eight one six seven, six thirty eight
eighty eight Houston powder coders. So, anyway, we were talking
about propagating, and I encourage you to try that. There's
some other ways of propagating. There's root cuttings. Blackberries are
often propagated by root cuttings. They have big, thick fleshy
roots kind of like a pencil, you know, a thick

(32:52):
root fleshy, and you cut those into six in sections
and plant them and they you get shoots popping about
of the ground. That's one way that you can do that.
And then there's budding and grafting. Now there's where you
get dangerous because you could have a peach tree that
has five different kinds of peaches on the tree, or

(33:13):
actually peaches and plums are fairly graft compatible. You could
have a peaches that also has plums on it. You know,
if we could grow apricots here successfully, you could do that.
That's also somewhat related. But think about that, think about
creating a little fruit cocktail tree. Now you can't graft
apples onto peaches and peconds on the plums or anything,

(33:36):
but you can graft a lot of things together. So
there's a there's a whole new option for you. But
that's a that's a harder skill to learn, but it's
very learnable. You can do it. So what do you
want to what kind of skills and fun things do
you want to pick out? How about starting your own plants?
You know we've got the spring gardening season is still

(33:56):
a ways away, but wouldn't it be nice, you know,
maybe for the holiday, get a gift of a quality
set of plant grow lights that you can start a
whole flat of cuttings from. And you find these obscure
tomatoes that you can never find anywhere under the sun,
or maybe some peppers that are that way. Nobody's gonna
sell the transplants of those, but you can grow on yourself.

(34:17):
Get some seed, get some seeds, starting mix, get a
good heat a little heat mount matt to go under them,
and a good quality light over the top, and you
can start cuttings. I've got some right now that I
was telling you about that are underneath one of those
kinds of lights, and it's helping them route if I
put them outside, if I put them in the backyard.
I've got two golden retrievers, and I know how that

(34:39):
ends in an ain't pretty. They're also called golden destroyers,
and they will take care of those for me. Put
them in the front yard I'm gonna or front patty
or something I'm gonna forget, forget to take care of them,
and then they'll get too dry and cuttings cannot dry
out one second. They gotta constantly be perfectly moist, and
they can't be in full sun either or in direct sun.

(34:59):
So anyway, there you go, have some fun with it.
Let's learn about it. If you would like suggestions for
ways to learn more about it, I can provide those
for you. That would be a good thing to add
to the website too. I need to make a note
of that. So anyway, try something new. I'm always telling
you that try something new. Have you been to Buchanans

(35:21):
native plants in a while? You know this is Native
Plant Week. We are in Native Plant Week right now,
and it's a great time to go buy Buchanans because
I'm telling you there's nobody in this listening region that
has the selection of natives the Buchanans does. They just
have an absolutely outstanding selection, And I encourage you to
get by there. They are on Eleventh Street in the Heights.

(35:44):
Eleventh Street in the Heights. Go check them out, find
out what they have. But let me tell you this,
although they are the place that has the best selection
of natives, that's not the majority of what they have.
They have all kinds of plants, and they have classes.
I think on November twenty fifth, they've got a harvest
flower workshop where they teach you all about you know,

(36:07):
if you want to grow your own flowers. See there's
another aspect of gardening, growing cut flowers in your garden
that you can bring in and decorate or maybe make
an arrangement to take to somebody. But bright Now, Buchanan's
has got great ornamental grasses. They've got cool season color.
It just looks good. Buchanansplants dot com, Ukenansplants dot Com.
Make sure and sign up for the newsletter. Alrighty, we're

(36:31):
going to be going into cool season here for long.
And I just had to throw in about Buchanans have
a great great greenhouse or plants, house, plants and things, succulents,
you name it. Tropicals may get a jungle inside. All right,
So I'm going to be at Brenham Ace Hardware next
Saturday from noon to two Brenna Mas Hardware. So those

(36:54):
of you who live north and west that don't generally
get down to the Houston area, here you go, come
on out plan next Saturday, come on out to Brenham
Ace Hardware. We'll be there. We'll be answering questions. We'll
have some giveaways too. By the way, as we always say,
we look forward to.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Seeing Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skip Rickard.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Crazy Trim.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
Just watch him as well. So many bleas to suppotasy.

Speaker 9 (37:41):
Gas.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
I'm not a sound.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Gas sun.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Hey, welcome to guarden Line on a lovely Sunday morning.
I just love it when the cool weather arrives, when
the weather breaks. I'm a I guess I'm a cool
weather fan because I lived in the South. If I
if I lived in lived in Minnesota, I would not
like cool weather because it gets cold weather there for

(38:17):
a long long time. You know. For us here we are,
winters are probably about seven days a year. We just
don't know which seven days. But that's kind of kind
of mild and nice down here most of the time,
and we can grow so many different things people that
for those of you listening that have moved here from
the Midwest or California or the Northeast or wherever you

(38:39):
wherever you came from, we have a long growing season
and we can grow a lot of cool things. Now,
maybe you miss for scythia, and maybe you miss what's
the Oh gosh, I just went blank on the shrub,
fragrant shrub just when I ride out of my head. Anyway,
you miss it that used to grow in the Midwest
or some place else. But citrus trees, even avocado if

(39:04):
you don't mind rolling the dice a little bit on avocado.
But so many things that we can grow, beautiful camellias
that do so well down here across as Alias as well,
and then many other things that you can't grow in
other places. So we take advantage of that. Blueberries do
southern high bush. What a great blueberry. By the way,
if you're going to grow a blueberry, check out what

(39:27):
you were looking at for you buy it. Meaning I
see blueberries for sale all the time that ought not
be grown here. Typically it's going to be a big
box store and what they're going to be selling you
is a northern high bush variety. And they don't do
well down here. They do well in Missouri or Arkansas
or someplace further north than that, but not down here.

(39:50):
We grow rabbit eyes down here. Those have pink berries
that turn blue, although there is a variety called lemonade
that stays kind of pinkish. And we grow Southern high bush,
and the Southern high bush are big, plump berries on
a smaller sized plant. So they're very very well suited
to our area. But they do need really good quality water.

(40:14):
So if you live in an area with water that
is not the ideal quality. And when I say that,
i'm talking about the pH is high, the salts are high,
and the water or the sodium is high, or the
bicarbonates are high. Blueberries don't like those. And that's where

(40:35):
we get into collecting some rainwater. You know, with a
rain barrow you can water things that are just very
sensitive to different kinds of water issues. For a lot
of you, that's not a concern. Good water. You're doing
just fine. You know, you go up in some areas,
I know College Station Brian area, that's a very high
sodium water up there, and things like blueberries are not
going to be very happy unless you can supply them

(40:57):
with a quality water source, but try that Southern Oh,
they're so good. I think blueberry is one of the
most perfect fruits. Now, my favorite fruits are mangoes and peaches.
That's just me. I love the flavors, I love the
aromas and everything, but blueberries. Think about this, I'm gonna
I'm going to be a Blueberry Council of America salesman here.

(41:22):
So with a blueberry, you get to eat one hundred
percent of what you buy. You don't throw away an
apple core, you don't throw away a peach pit. You
got to eat one hundred percent of what you buy.
The antioxidants and the health qualities and blueberries are very high.
They are an excellent food for a number of things

(41:43):
and is also not not a high calorie thing. And
they last. You can get you a little pint of
blueberries and set it on the car now aside from
one hundred degrees out in the sun, you can carry
that thing around with you for a good while and
it just it just stays good. I mean, they have
a great shelf life on a blueberry. So I just

(42:05):
think there's a lot of good attributes of blueberries. They're
very tasty, and so why don't you try something this
year if you don't have room to create a bed
for the blueberries. By the way, if you do have
a bed, you need to do some acidic soil blends
and our quality soil folks here in the Greater Houston area.
You know, we got the Nature's way up there that

(42:26):
produces the soils, and we got airloom soils up there
that produces the soils. You get your quality blend that's
acidic to wear your blueberries and or put them in
a container and find a container that's large. Don't put
them in a half whiskey barrel because half whiskey barrels
are not rot resistant, and they rot and your blueberry
will weigh out less the barrel, then you got a problem.

(42:48):
But put them in something at least about that size,
go plastic or something, and they'll do very well for
you anyway, that's my suggestion. By the way, blueberries will
take a tiny bit of shade. They don't want to
be in shade, but a little bit it's okay, just
as long as they get a few hours of sun.
All right, there you go. That's my sales pitch for
blueberry it is time in your yard to put out

(43:12):
the Microlife brown patch, which is the brown bag. Isn't
that convenient? Yes, it makes sense right brown patch brown bag.
It is not a fund be sides, it's a fertilizer
that is chalk full of disease fighting microbes. Sixty three
different strains of disease fighting microbes are a Microlife brown patch.
Get it out now, soon, soon soon. Like other organic products,

(43:36):
it breaks down through microbes to release the nutrients into
the soil. So you want to get it done soon,
get it down in there if you're gonna if you
are going to use it in another way, which by
the way, you could use you could use it in
a flower bed to mix in the soil if you want.
I mean, it's a great fertilizer. It not just for lawns,
but if you do that, you will help reduce your

(43:59):
issue is that you have to deal with in the fall,
like like the round patch, large patch, and you'll have
a nice, healthy long going into the winter season, which
is important. And it's for microlife. From the folks at Microlife,
you can go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com find out more,
find out where to get their products, most good garden centers,
most good feed stores, most good you know you these

(44:23):
hardware stores, Southwest Fertilizers, a lot of places that carry
microlife products. But time is everything. Remember what I said earlier.
Fall is this very unique perfect storm in the yard
where a lot of things are happening. And so this
is not the time to drag your feet. Fall is
the time to be Johnny on the spot and get

(44:44):
out there and make sure you get these things done
in your yard. So we were talking about propagating, and
I wanted to wanted to discuss some of the benefits
of learning how to propagate. First of all, for what
thirty five years, I think I trained master gardeners around

(45:04):
Texas and a number of different programs, and I would
always tell master gardeners on propagation day that today you
become a dangerous person to allow in your yard. And
it's because when you know how to root a cutting,
the world is your apple is I say, you go
to a yard and you see a plant you want,

(45:25):
and you got snippers, and you got a plastic bag,
you got a little moist piece of paper towel to
throw in the bag with the cutting. I'm telling you
you're a dangerous person. I'm not suggesting that propagators are thieves,
but let's say that there are times when people do
liberate plants that need liberation according to them. But seriously, though,

(45:46):
you see a plant you like and you say, hey,
i'd like a cutting off that most people won't let
you do that, and now that plant is yours. And
so that's another fun thing about learning how to propagate.
And that could be a plant in the wild. You know,
a plant in the wild that you would love, that
native plant, and if you know how to do it.
It's not always super easy with the plants that are,
you know, out growing, but if you learn how to

(46:08):
do it, you can sure have that yourself. All right,
let's take a little break. I will be right back
with your calls in just a moment. The number seven
one three, two one, two, fifty eight seventy four. Here
we go. There's a blast from the past. Hey, welcome
back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. I
was recently looking at Peerscape's website. I love to go there.

(46:30):
I go there for inspiration too. You go and check
out the website here here it is pierscapes dot com.
Peerscapes dot Com outstanding. The work they do is unbelievable.
I mean, you peruse that for two or three minutes
and you know everything you need to know. I mean
it's they do. They do their installations, of course, they

(46:51):
do designs, of course, but they also do maintenance. You know,
fresh mulch, mulch installed in your beds. You have them
come out to a quarterly maintenance where they spruce it up.
They make sure the irrigation's working. If there are any weeds,
they get rid of them. They put fresh mults down.
Check out your plants. You know, maybe it's time for
a color change, which we're going to be in soon.

(47:11):
For example, you got a lot of nice warm season
color right now, and it'll be time to transition into
the cool season color and pier scapes. When you're on
their maintenance program, they can come out and get that done.
That's just part of what they do. Maybe you've got
bad irrigation issues. Maybe I have bad drainage issues. That's
what I haven't talked about in a while, and I
guess it's because it hadn't rained. But boy, when it
rains and you get standing water, there are very few

(47:33):
plants that want to be in soggy, wet swamp conditions.
How do you fix that? You go u per scapes
haven't come out. They make good drainage. They turn an
area that was a swamp into a place where you
can grow pretty much anything you want to grow. That's
how they do it there Piercescapes dot com two eight
one three, seven oh fifty sixty. And if you really

(47:55):
want to just transform your landscape, consider having them come
out and do some hard escape for you, or maybe
some rock walls, some retaining walls around beds. And you
know when they have all these different ways they do
stone borders around beds, but also like a two foot
high rock wall for example, it adds, it just adds

(48:15):
a whole new feature to the landscape, and the place
looks so different when it's not just the flat old
plane typical landscape. Per Scapes can do that. That's why
they're my number one preferred landscaper here on garden Line.
Please please do check that out. I think you'll be impressed.
So I was talking to Rolf a good while back

(48:39):
out at Nelson's Nursery and water Gardens, and we were
just talking about different kinds of plants and things that
they do and whatnot. And I love I love water gardening.
I've only dabbled in it myself, and I'm determined to
more than dabble in it. I've got two little fountains,
you know, that are small and interesting. I love the
sound of them though. They're great. But when you go

(49:02):
out to nursery, Nelson's Nursery and Water Gardens, first of all,
you're going to a place that's a national leader when
it comes to landscapes and water gardens. They are, I
mean all over the country people know about Nelson Nursery
and Water Gardens because of the work they do. You
can get your fish there, you know, koi and kabuchen
and other kinds of fish that they carry. You can

(49:23):
get your your lily pads there. They even have the
big Amazon tropical lily pads. I don't know. Go online
and do a search for tropical Amazon lilies and you'll
see a picture like of a lady standing in the
middle of a giant lily pad in the water and
it's keep it's holding, you know, hold her up. That's
that's the kind of things they have. The regular tropical

(49:46):
ones here that that bloom and bloom and bloom. They've
got the hardy ones that even the tropicals go through
the winter. Ralph tells me here pretty well, but they
have all that, the fish and everything. But how about
just a little disappearing fountain one of the beautiful tall
glazed potteries that the water is spilling over the side continually. Boy,

(50:06):
birds will thank you for doing that in the backyard.
And I'm just telling you here, here's the test for it.
And now if you have a pulse, I'm pretty sure
this is gonna be true for you. Go out to
Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens and just sit somewhere out
in the shade out there and close your eyes and listen.
That it is therapy. It is music to the ears

(50:26):
to hear water moving in a landscape. Now, while you're there,
you're going to go through the middle of the store
and see all those great house plants, beautiful gorgeous house
plants that they have inside. You're gonna walk out the
back and you're gonna see herbs and vegetables and flowers
and shrubs and trees and fruit and roses. And it's
a nursery, it's a nursery. But you're going to see

(50:47):
this amazing, amazing water features and you're gonna want one.
And I'm just saying, the holidays are coming, maybe your
wish lists need something added to it, you know what
I mean? All Right, In the meantime, it gets you
some cool season color out there. Grab you a couple
of camellias and so that you have color in the
in the wintertime. Some communes bloom very well on December.

(51:09):
Others are blooming in January, February, March, even March. Uh
And that's the place to do it. So where is it? Well,
go down to Katie Turn North on Katie Fort Ben
Road and it's just down the street, just a little bit.
Nelson Watergardens dot com. Nelson Watergardens dot com. So what
are we going to talk about? I gosh, I have
so many things I want to want to visit about.

(51:31):
This is an unusual day. It's a quiet day on
the phones. But that's okay with me. I hope it's
okay with you, because I'm getting to say a lot
of things that I don't normally have time for, which
I like that some other point I want to make
about a gardening and this also Gosh, you'd think it
was December. The way I'm talking about gifts is quality tools,

(51:56):
quality tools. Now I am an official tightwad. I don't
like to waste money. I like to get the most
out of my dollar, and over the years. Early on,
I bought a lot of little hamprunters that were worthless junk.
But they were cheap, and so I thought, this is
a good deal. It's cheap. It is not. Those things
often they don't fit your hands right. You do a

(52:18):
lot of pruning, and your carpel tunnel or arthritis, whatever
you're dealing with, it just flares up. But a quality
set of hamprunters, just as an example, will last you
a lifetime because you can replace the blades, and if
you take care of them, you keep them sharp, keep
them oiled. It just makes pruning easier. That's true of hamprunters,

(52:39):
that's true of bloppers. But there are other tools that
are important. You know, I've talked to you about the
kneeling bench. The kneeling bench that you can sit on
it or you can flip it over and kneel on it,
and the legs become handles to get back up, which
is so helpful, as I say, for anyone north of
forty years old. And then the soil knife one of
my favorite tools. I look about top five tools, sowel

(53:02):
knife is in the top five. And what is so
a knife? Just think of a booie knife, you know,
a big, old, giant butcher knife looking thing, but way weight,
thicker and stronger. One side is serrated for cutting roots.
The other side is just regular knife. Most of them
have come to a point. Some of them are around
it on the tip. You can sharpen the edge as well.
Some of them have a little cutter for twine. They

(53:23):
have markings for depth, so if you want to plan
something five inches deep, you know you can go that
deep on it. They are a super sturdy knife. I
use them for a lot of things when I'm down
on my hands and knees. They're my weeder, they're my digger.
They're my my weed remover or reed that has to
be dug out to get the roots and things out.
A great tool, a quality tool, So that's that. Then

(53:45):
there's some quality hose. You know, I grew up with
a hoe that was a chopping hoe. You know, the
standard Like if I said, picture picture a garden hoe.
You would picture this hoe. That's the kind I grew
up with. But now there are hose that are so specified.
There's one called a hula hoe or a stirrup hoe,

(54:05):
and it looks just like a stirrup on a cowboy saddle,
but the bottom part where your foot would sit in
a horse saddle stirrup is the blade and it's sharp
on two sides, and it swivels just a tiny bit.
So you hold it and it's like you're imagine that
you're mopping out in front of you, you know, and

(54:25):
you're going back and forth. That is the motion that
a hula ho does. And if you've got a big
area with weeds, you can cover that whole area really fast.
If the weeds aren't too big, you can do that.
My favorite type of gardening hoe now is a diamond hoe,
and there are various versions of this. There's one that's
got a blade like a ruler, not that long, but

(54:46):
that shape. That's called a collinear hoe. But the diamond
hoe is a very narrow diamond that all four sides
are sharp, and those long points. Because it's a narrow
diamond that you can go right up beside a plant
and just nick out a weed right there. It's made
almost to use in a sweeping type motion because you're

(55:10):
not chopping with it. Absolutely not to be used for chopping.
You use it in more of a sweeping So you're
going through your beds and you're holding the handle like
you would hold a broom handle if you were sweeping,
but you're going through the bed like that. Now you
can also hold it and push it out in front
of you like you're prying shuffle boards. Ye, all these
analogies and you can clear out. But it is so good.

(55:32):
It's sharp and it's easy. Look, I grew up chopping,
and my back and my shoulders hurt from all the
chopping and stuff. Whenever I misbehaved as a child, I
had to go out and weed the garden. And we
had a weed free garden. Put two and two together
and figure that one out. But anyway, this kind is

(55:55):
just almost effortless because you're standing up. You're not stooped
over with the arched back in HOEI. You're standing up
and you're just like you were playing shuffle board. That's
that's the hula. Actually, the hulo is the shuffle board.
The stirropoe and this one is almost like you're you're
just pushing a dust mop. You know, like the guys

(56:15):
that go across the basketball court during breaks, so you
know they run up and down with those the big
wide mops. Well you're doing that, but you're not running
through the garden. But that that's a standing upright type
thing and it works really well. So what am I doing?
I'm just droning on about tools, because there are some
really quality tools and you should get those kinds of
tools because they're worth having. There's a lot of good ones.

(56:39):
I tell you what I need to do. I'll make
another note here a garden gift. I make a garden
gift or tool list, and we'll put that on the website.
All right, there we go. But it's a good idea,
and you can put them on your on your Christmas
left or list. You can just buy them for yourself
because they're good, good quality tools. Don't skimp on those.

(57:00):
How many of you bought cheap garden hoses before they cracked?
They kink if you don't hold your mouth just right,
you know, they get kinked and it's a mess. They
don't last long. Okay, I'm just saying Quality doesn't cost.
Quality saves that's the way to do it. Saves wear
and tear on you, saves money, not a waste. Okay,

(57:21):
there you go. Well it's gone. It's been five minutes
since I talked about soil, so I guess it's time
to talk about soil because I love talking about soil.
Heirloom Soils top quality, all kinds of soil. Do you
want to grow citrus? Do you want to grow vegetables
and herbs? Do you want to grow roses or other
blooming plants. Those are all blends that they have at

(57:43):
Heirloom Soils. Whether you're doing a raised bed garden, whether
you're filling in holes in the lawn, leveling it out
a little bit, whatever you're doing, they've got you covered.
You need leaf mold composts, they've got you covered. You
want it delivered by the supersack. They can do that.
Three supersacked minimum. They can do that. Do you want
to go out and get it to borter? You can
go pick it up yourself, save you the delivery cost.

(58:06):
Heirloomsoils dot com high quality soils widely available by the
bag and many many places around town. And you really
ought to check them out. It is an outstanding product.
I've used that. I've used their cacti and succulent mix.
I've used their their tropical ponding mix that for you
know what you would think of as cool ponding soil.

(58:26):
They have those mixes as well. Airloom soils, good quality product,
easy to find in our area. We're fortunate to have
them here because quality soil is important. You need a
good quality mix in order to have success. Well, I
want to remind you again that I'm going to be
at Brenham Ace Hardware next Saturday from twelve to two.
I've never been up to Brenham for an appearance before,

(58:49):
so I'm excited about this. It is a really nice place.
You need to come up. You need to see me.
You need to check out the brennam Ace Hardware. We're
gonna have some really cool giveaways. I'll be there answering
your gardening questions and it'll just be a nice physic
out in the countryside. So I hope you make plans
next Saturday to come on out. Let's take a break,
we'll be right back there we go. It's been a while.

(59:12):
I sin with your little beavers on the garden line,
welcome back. If you'd like to get me a call
of a the number is six or excuse me, fun
maybe so many times that I said this number seven
one three, two, one two fifty eight seventy four, seven one, three,
two and two five eight seven four. I appreciate quotes,

(59:32):
and I like I like folks like Will Rogers and
Mark Twain especially, but in really lots of good quotes
out there. But I was amused. I ran across one.
Mark Twain in one of his novels. You know, he's
the guy that wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckberry Fan had
a character he colored colorfully referred to as the the waterman,

(59:53):
who the character excuse me, refer to the watermelon is
the chief of this world's luxuries, king, by the grace
of God, over all the fruits of the earth. This
character says, when one has tasted it, he knows what
the angels eat. It was not a Southern It was
not a Southern watermelon that Eve took. We know this

(01:00:13):
because she repented Mark Twain. I think the guy liked watermelons,
so do I. By the way, that's a fun thing
to grow. But anyway, I get a kick out of
those sort of things that dry earthy humor. Right there,
we go earthy? All right, Well, so I was what
was that talking about before? We oh talking about tools

(01:00:36):
and quality tools and things. I would encourage you to
take a look at that, and I'm going to put
together a list of some tools that I think are very,
very important. And one I mentioned earlier previous to the
previous segment was seed starting equipment, lighting and stuff. If
you want to grow your own seeds indoors, there is
nothing more important than lighting that.

Speaker 9 (01:00:59):
You of them.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
And there's a lot of stuff to know about lighting.
And there are a lot of lights for sale, you know,
you go on Amazon, you find ten thousand billion little
lights and they all look good and they look wonderful,
and ninety percent of them are junk because the light
wavelengths are not right. The light intensity is not adequate,

(01:01:21):
and that's just a fact. That's how it is. Now,
there's ways of doing lighting less expensively. You can use
a shop light with a cool white bulb and a warm,
warm white bulb in it. You know, you spread out
the spectrum with a cool white and a warm white.
That's fairly economical, and you can do that, or you
can purchase a quality light. If you're going to do

(01:01:43):
a lot of seeds, starting in things or growing things indoors,
a quality light is worth it. Anyway, that's a whole
nother discussion, but I'm just saying lighting is most important. Yes,
a good mix is important. Yes, quality seeds are important. Yes,
you got to keep them moist and so Onure is important.
But lighting is where people fail. That's where you get
those lanky little seedlings that are spind lee and they

(01:02:08):
have no stem strength. They break off, they just never
take off and become good plants. And it's all about
the light. It's all about the light, all right. Look,
a Megan trainer needs a song that says, all right,
there you go. Nelson plant food Genesis, Well, I was
telling you about it earlier, A very important mix to

(01:02:29):
put in the soil where you're going to plant plants,
when you're going to transplant plants. I've told you this before,
but a couple of years ago, I took some Genesis,
and I took a set of tomatoes that I was
growing for the spring garden, and they were in little
tiny pots and I was going to move them up
to four inch pots and in some of the four
inch pots, I put Genesis, and some of them I didn't.
I just bumped them up within a week or week

(01:02:52):
and a half. It was dramatic the difference in those
two sets of transplants. The Genesis transplants me in way superior.
You can use Genesis when you're planting a tree or
shrub or rosebush in the yard. You mix it in
the soil. Normally, I say, don't mix fertilizers in the
soil if they're synthetic, especially because the salts will burn them. Well,
Genesis and not that way. It's not going to burn

(01:03:14):
your plants, and it works. It works very well. If
you're going to create a container, Let's say you're gonna
do a colored container. Hey, here's an idea too. What
about an herb container for Thanksgiving? That you plant a
bunch of herbs in and you do it a little
shallow container that could be a table center piece. You
go figure that out how that would look. You know,
it could be something rustic, it could be something nice.

(01:03:36):
But a nice set of herbs even along a table
with some decorative material around the pot and things. That's
a cool thing. But when you're going to transplant these
things when you're growing containers. Nelson Genesis, Nelson Genesis transplant mix.
It works. It's easy to find. It's available by jars
all over the place where you find Nelson products for sale. Alrighty,

(01:04:01):
there we go. That is one of the important things
is making sure plants get the nutrients they need. A
lot of our plants go buy and they're kind kind
of hungry, they're kind of needing something extra. I was
talking about tools, and when I think about tools, it
always reminds me of Southwest Fertilizer because they do carry
quality tools. You know, I mentioned cheap printers. You go

(01:04:21):
to Southwest and you're going to find brands like Falco
and Corona, two of the best, two of the best
that are on the market. Or there you know printers
that some of those you can exchange a blade. That's
why they last a lifetime because the blade gets small,
gets dulled and sharpened a billion times. You can just
put a new blade in. Makes it real easy. The
garden dealer seat that I like, is there the weed

(01:04:42):
wiper tool that's on my website that you can build.
Bob's got the whole grabber tool, the kind of grabber
tool you need to build the weed wiper. He's got
all that. But it's also where you're going to find
all the fertilizers I keep talking about here on guard Line,
the pest control, weed control, disease control. It's all there.
And when you got a problem and you don't know
what's going on, take a sample, take a picture, take

(01:05:03):
it in show Bob and the team, Bob and Aaron
and the whole team there. I'll take a look at
it and they'll tell you what it is, and they'll
tell you what you need to do, and they will
have more than one option for what you need to
fix the problem that you're dealing with. It's friendly service,
it's quality products, and its unbelievable selection. That's Southwest Fertilizer
Corner Bisnett and Runwick seven one three six sixty six

(01:05:27):
one seven four four seven one three six sixty six
one seven four four. Uh So, anyway, we're discussing all
kinds of things today. Got a lot of time to
talk about some stuff I've been wanting to talk about,
uh for a good while. If you are wanting to
move a plant, this is the time of year to

(01:05:47):
move it. It's the best time of the year, November,
I would say, is like the prime time, but late
October is fine too. We're gonna get a break in
the temperatures here, and you can do that. And the
reason is without much demands on the plant, and especially
as the plant is losing its leaves, there's not much
stress for transplanting. So one time I had a rose

(01:06:07):
bush and it was up by a driveway and I
wanted to see the rose when I drove up every day.
But the area just didn't get quite enough sun. There
was a big, old live oak tree that provided shade
for too many hours of the day over that area,
and so I needed to move it. So what I
did is I dug a hole. I dug around it,
and there's a certain area that's going to be what

(01:06:30):
we call the root ball, and I would go out
and dig down outside that area. I believe in this one,
I took probably about maybe about eight inches on each side,
ten inches on each side of the road, and I
dug down and then it went underneath it, and I
slipped a tarp underneath the rose by leaning it one way,
and then I cut the other side underneath, you know,

(01:06:52):
pushing a shovel underneath it. And slid it right up
on the tarp. And this is so easy because you're
not going to hurt your back when you do this.
And you take the tarp, and if you got somebody
to help you grab four corners of the tarp, you
can pick up a lot of weight. Anyway, I can
pick up a lot of weight by just lifting up
on a tarp. The easier way than that is to

(01:07:14):
grab the tarp and drag it, and just drag it
across the yard to where that rose bush is going
to go. In my case, the rose bush, have the
whole dug, slide it right into that hole, get it subtled,
make sure it's at the right height, the right depth,
in other words, the little soil around it. Throw some
genesis in around it and water it in and then

(01:07:34):
pull the mulch over the top and you're good to go. Now.
One thing I do, by the way, on rose bushes
and even clumping ornamental grasses, is I'll pull the branches upward.
And this takes a little bit of work. It helps
to have somebody with you, and I'll wrap a twine
around them to hold them upwards so they look like
an upright juniper. And when you've wrapped them up, and

(01:07:56):
that way you can get all the way around it
to dig in the case of rose without giving blood,
and it's easier to handle and get to. And then
you just move it to a good spot. And that
could be you know, I don't care what you're moving.
Maybe you want to remove some salvias. Maybe there's some
other smaller ornamental grasses that you want to move. Maybe
you have some herbs that you want to move. You

(01:08:17):
got a section of oregano and you want to divide
it into two and take one section and planet somewhere
else as a groundcover. You can do that. Now's the
time to do it. Just get a good amount of
soil and when you move it immediately watered in very
very well. Now, some things that are ever green, if
they're going to be in a sunny spot, I would
put some kind of a shade cover over them, something

(01:08:40):
to keep a little bit of the sun off of them,
because they've lost the vast majority of their roots. No
matter how hard you try on the digging, Remember, digging
wider is more important than digging deeper on most things.
We have a few things that are top rooted, like pecondree, seedling.
But most things you just go wide or rather than deeper.

(01:09:03):
So anyway there's a tip, what is not where it
needs to be? Is there something in too much shade
that needs sun? Is there something in too much sun
that needs shade? Is there a plant that you really
want to put in that spot and there's something else
in the way, Move the one that's in the way,
take it somewhere else, playing it in the yard, or
give it away, or here's a big one. Here's a
big one. I tell it. I'm gonna come, I'm gonna

(01:09:24):
go to a break here, and I'm gonna talk about
this one later. But what do you do when there's
an old family home place and it's about to be
sold and there is that camellia that you just want
to go with you, or some other plant, or when
there is a place about to be bulldozed for whatever reason,

(01:09:44):
maybe a road's going in or whatever new new house
going in, and you want to save something off that
property and you have permission to do that, how do
you do that? I'm gonna talk about that in a bit.
Right now. We're gonna take a break right back. That's
what I'm talking about. Little tractors on a Sunday morning. Hey,
welcome back to your garden line. It's good to have

(01:10:06):
you with us. I was talking with folks at Pestpro's yesterday.
Randall and I were visiting and just kind of catching up.
I always try to keep up with my sponsors, find out
what's going on. And boy they are they are heading
into a busy season with varmints right now. For example.
You know, the rats and even squirrels have ways of

(01:10:27):
getting up in your attic and you can hear them
run around up there, and little boogers tend to chew
on wires and cause they can seriously cause problems, you know,
for the home. But no one wants that up in
the attics and stuff. They can come out, they can
take a look. They know the ways these things get in.
They know how to think like these critters, if you will,
and how to close off those areas so they can't

(01:10:48):
And when you know, there's a lot of things you
can do to prevent those kind of problems. But we
also have things outside. You know, We've got possums and
we've got raccoons and all kinds of other things that
can cause problems and stuff and what to do about them,
and they know how to deal with it and make
sure that you aren't having to deal with that as
we go into cool weather. These things are looking for

(01:11:09):
a place to live, and I'm happy that. I hope
they find one, but I hope it's not our house,
right And so anyway, call Pestbros. Have them look at that.
You know, they do the whole nine yards of past,
whether it's fire ants out in the yard, which, by
the way, in our warm climate down here, you can
have fire and activity in the middle of winter. We
have some warm days. They know how to deal with

(01:11:30):
them in a very effective way, a good, safe way
that is going to make sure you don't have to
worry about it anymore. You can enjoy your yard. Dpestbros
dot Com two eight one two oh six forty six
seventy two eight one two o six forty six seventy
Let's go out to Clear Lake now and talk to Ken. Hey, Ken,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (01:11:52):
Hey Skip, I've loved you from Afar for many years now,
and I just wanted.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
To thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:12:00):
Just call in and uh but uh so, uh, I've
got a rain good creeper and I don't know if
you know much about them, but they uh, they love
they want all the sun they can get. And I've
got I've got one on the side of the guards
facing the west and you wouldn't believe it. It's it's
it's a beauty. And uh but I have one in

(01:12:20):
the backyard up against the fence on the east side,
and I've got a huge Arizona ash in the back
that it's got a canopy because that goes from one
side of the yard to the other. So uh that
that one, don't that rain going, don't don't do jack.
But uh so I've done this before with the say that,
and I did exactly what you were talking about. I
dug around it about you know, a foot and this

(01:12:44):
this the rootball. The rootball is about uh that's a
good solid uh two foot. So I did everything he said.
Uh and uh but and I was thinking about doing
what you were talking about with the tar if can
get done, but I'm moving it over to a friend's house.
And okay, but I'm just wondering. You know, I've been
waiting and waiting and waiting to where the temperatures get

(01:13:06):
below nineties. And no, I don't want to be too
late because I wanted to get established because it don't
make it through the winter. But I just don't want
it to get killed, you know. So when's it be
time to make that move.

Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
Well, it could be clear, it could be killed back.
You know, those are something they're somewhat cold tender. But
I would I would do that. You could do it now,
or you could do it early next month. I would
probably go ahead and make the move late in October
and then watered in really good and in the first
winter maybe mulch up over that base of it really good.

(01:13:42):
You know, we always say don't palm mult up against
the trunk of a tree and stuff, but for just
some protection of the base of the plant, so we
get it. If it dies back, it doesn't die, it
just dies back and then no year. Yeah, So just
just to a multch that crown, because it's going to
be a little different situation going into this winter having

(01:14:02):
been moved.

Speaker 10 (01:14:03):
Yeah, yeah, all right, yes, Saric, thank you, Hey, thanks
for the call.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
Appreciate that. Good luck, good luck with that. Rangoon creeper
is such a beautiful, beautiful plant. Listen, this drought has
really put us stress on our trees. We got a
lot of trees that are struggling. You'll notice it. They're
out there dropping leaves and things like that too early.
You need to get Martin a call Affordable Tree Service
Martin Spoon Moore seven one three six nine nine two

(01:14:28):
six sixty three Two things. First of all, get on
the on the list room to come out and look
at your trees. Uh and do any midwinter or not midwinter,
any dormant season pruning that you need to get done. Okay,
so he'll come out. He stays he's booking in I
still believe he's still booking in November still, but you

(01:14:49):
may have to get in December or something to get
on with him because he does stay busy, but he
does good work. And if with that, with every tree trim,
he'll do a deep root feeding. Now that that is
that I do. I want to mention though that it's
with this stress he can do a deep root watering
also on your trees. Get that stick down in the
ground to provide a good soaking to a good depth,

(01:15:12):
to keep that root system adequately hydrated, to keep that
tree as out of stress as possible. You need to
get that done before all the cold weather hits. So
let's let's go ahead and do that seven one three
six nine nine two six six three. If you want
to go to his website, it's aff tree Service dot com,
a f F tree service dot com. We're going to

(01:15:34):
go now to Steve in West Houston. Steve, we've got
a very short time, but we'll see if we can
help you here. If not, I'll have to hold you over.

Speaker 11 (01:15:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:15:44):
I have a sweet olive, you know, a shrub and
it's planted it three or four years.

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
Ago and it's.

Speaker 13 (01:15:55):
To the music.

Speaker 14 (01:15:56):
You're going to have to help me up?

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Are you there?

Speaker 7 (01:16:02):
Yes?

Speaker 14 (01:16:03):
Do you go ahead?

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
It's it's okay, yeah, what about the sweet oliver? Is
the issue for you?

Speaker 15 (01:16:11):
It's oh green, there's no yellow or dropping leaves, and
there's no nothing doing on them. There's no phone, good sir, anything.
But it's only about three and a half feet tall
and kay, not much. But what could I do to yeah?
And well drained?

Speaker 12 (01:16:34):
Where it's what?

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
Okay? All right, I tell you what. We're gonna go
to break and we're gonna come back and pick it
up there and tell you what's to do about this
sweet dollar? Appreciate you?

Speaker 9 (01:16:45):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:16:46):
Telling you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
Welcome to k t r H Garden Line with Skip rictor.

Speaker 3 (01:17:04):
Just watch him as.

Speaker 16 (01:17:20):
Sound.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
Hey, welcome back to Guardenline folks. We are glad to
have you with us this morning. We started a call
right before we went to break, so I'm gonna head
right back now to talk with Steve. Steve, you were
telling us about a sweet olive that just wasn't growing.
Is that pretty accurate there?

Speaker 13 (01:17:47):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:17:47):
Sure, okay?

Speaker 15 (01:17:50):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:17:50):
You know, sweet olive is an interesting plant. It can
get like up the twenty feet tall, but usually in
a landscape about six feet is what we tend to see.
It can get larger.

Speaker 8 (01:18:01):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:18:01):
And I've noticed that it is a slow grower. I've
got one in my yard now. I have not always
provided it, just ideal conditions, you know, to pamper long.
It got a little dry on the summer, but not
too dry. There was no dieback or anything. And it
just is not growing very fast. Mine is not. But
it doesn't really you know, it's not real soil picky.

(01:18:26):
You could certainly do some fertilizing of it. I don't
know if I don't remember you saying if you had
or had not, but a little bit of it. I
have a good turf type. Yeah, get get a good
turf type fertilizer. And how tall is your sweet olive
right now?

Speaker 5 (01:18:39):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (01:18:41):
And that's what that's what I don't as I said, there,
I see no you know, disease or any you know
dropping or yellow leaves, no eating on it. But it's
been there three or four years. I planted it and
it's only three and a half foot tall and not Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:19:02):
Yeah, Well, if you're going to use what is there
a certain kind of lawn fertilizer that you prefer?

Speaker 14 (01:19:10):
No, I allow your your charge.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Yeah, okay, that's good. Well, grab you a bag of
Microlife green bag, the green bag that's a six two
four and because you're not going to burn with that,
uh and yeah, six two four it's a green bag.
And I would put probably, uh you could, you could

(01:19:36):
do it now, It wouldn't hurt to do it now,
But primarily in the spring is when you're gonna want
to do it, because the sweet otive is not going
to grow much in the wintertime. But uh, if you would,
if you would in the spring, probably give it about
a cup of the Microlife and then I would say,
you know, next month, give it another cup. Of the
microlife spread around and scratch that microlife into the soil

(01:19:57):
so it stays moist and the microbes get to work
on it and everything. Or if you've got a mulch
around your sweet olive, do that. And if you've got
grass around it, pull that grass back and give it
as big of a mulched area as you can. We're
doing everything we can here to try to get that
thing growing. And it doesn't need to be competing with grass,
and it needs a good mulch to moderate soul temps
and so on.

Speaker 12 (01:20:18):
As far as I.

Speaker 3 (01:20:19):
Would try to.

Speaker 12 (01:20:22):
Excuse me as far as fertilizing, would you say it
would be better to wait till spring, residents fertilized now.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
I think so, because it's not gonna you're not gonna
make it grow in the winter by by fertilize now.
And I would just I would just give it a
break for now.

Speaker 12 (01:20:41):
Okay, when you say spring kind of ballpark day.

Speaker 3 (01:20:47):
Probably probably March, I would say, let's see your Yeah,
you do in March.

Speaker 12 (01:20:53):
I have one follow up question, and I won't keep you.
We talked before about horse herb, and it mixed in
and just about a third of my Saint Augustine yard.
And I've noticed with the draft do water have a
sprinkler system, but it's dying back and I figure that's

(01:21:14):
from the draft, but it is it is hell to
pull up. I was wondering when and what you would recommend.

Speaker 5 (01:21:22):
To uh something to you know, uh spray or pellets
whatever on it that won't hurt the Saint Augustine.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
How big of an area is this horse herban? Is
it isolated spots or is it like a large area?

Speaker 12 (01:21:43):
It's it kind of meanders the whole backyard.

Speaker 14 (01:21:47):
I would say.

Speaker 12 (01:21:49):
It's maybe a quarter to a third of the yard
and it kind of it kind of tails.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
Okay, there's not They're not a good way to do it.
I have sprayed orse herb with glivasate, which is used
to be we used to call it the roundup, and
it got spots, it got unhappy, but it didn't kill it.
And so that's a tough herb, right, It's a tough weed.
And so if you're gonna get rid of it, your
options are are doing the hand digging, which in that

(01:22:19):
large of an area is not very practical for you,
or using something that may hurt the Saint augustine, which
you could use. I have a thing called a weed
wiper on my website, and it might be worthwhile building
building one of those, because you can target a weed
with the chemical without getting it so much on your

(01:22:41):
lawn because you're using sponges to get it just on
the weed. If you want to go that route, that
would probably be helpful. There's a couple of ingredients on
a herbicide sheet on my website also, and the triclope
here is sold as brush control poison ivy can products.
They typically contain triclope here and that ought to knock

(01:23:05):
it out pretty good. But it's it's hard on the
Saint Augustine, So you don't want to just go out
and spray that in your yard. It's you can hurt
your long lot if you do that.

Speaker 12 (01:23:14):
So if you could find it, yeah, I don't want
to sacrifice the Saint Augustine at all, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:23:19):
It's it's it's yeah. And when we get into the
spring season and it's still cool before the temperatures are
let's say, above eighty five on the days typically above
eighty five, you can use a product that has two
four D in it and it depends on the blend

(01:23:39):
you purchase, but it may have more or less, but
that ought to also work pretty well on it. So
those are a couple of options that you might want
to try.

Speaker 12 (01:23:51):
The second, when you said the product that would have
two four D.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
In it, yes, two four D is a dog and
it's in blends called Trimech t r imec. There are
a number of products out there from all you know,
you go to bon Eye, you go to High Yield,
you go to Monterey, you go to whom I'm leaving out, Fertilome.
All those companies are going to have a product that

(01:24:19):
is usually a three way that contains two forty and
I would try that on it and see how that
works well.

Speaker 12 (01:24:24):
It sounds like that would be all right, the easier
on the San Augustine than using the the whatever For
the former round up.

Speaker 3 (01:24:35):
The two forty is hard on Sant Augustine too, but
u but if it's not too hot, it's not as
hard on it, So just be careful, try to minimize it.
And again, if you can use that wiper, and it's
on my website Gardening with Skip dot com, I think
that's going to be the best way to try to

(01:24:58):
deal with the fact that you've got a very hard
to control weed and some grass. It's very sensitive and so.

Speaker 8 (01:25:03):
That, yes, that's the what's your.

Speaker 14 (01:25:07):
Thank you for your help?

Speaker 12 (01:25:08):
You bet.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
You bet well? Keep me posted, let me know how that,
let me how that goes for you. It'll be next
time for I know much, you bet by by, I'm
gonna take a little break. I'll be right back. All right, folks,
we're back on guard line. What kind of questions you got,
Give me a call. Seven one three two one two

(01:25:31):
five eight seven four seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. Uh. Plants for All Seasons, Great
Garden Center right there, just north through Luetta on Tumbull Parkway,
So just north of Luetta tumble Parkway. What you're going
to find at Plants for All Seasons. There's a couple
of things that I think are important. Number one is expertise.

(01:25:52):
People that know what they're talking about, that are going
to steer you right. That is critical. We've got a
lot of places around town that sell plants and stuff,
but the people that work there don't know what they're
talking about. They just don't. It happens in big box typically,
but the places and you need to walk in. You

(01:26:12):
need to find somebody who's gonna be able to tell
you here's a plant that will grow where you live,
and how to grow it in order to have success,
so your dollars are well spent. Plants for All Seasons
is that kind of place. Plants for All Seasons is
where you're going to find a good selection. That's another
thing that they have right there that you're going to
find everything. You need to also go with those plants

(01:26:35):
to make them thrive. Remember brand stuff before green stuff.
You walk into Plants for All Seasons, you gotta step
over the mulches and the soil composts and things like
that to get in the door. And then on the
way checking out, you got to walk through the fertilizer
to get back to the register. Those are the things
that create success for what's your caring long in your basket?

(01:26:55):
The plants very good combination there Plants for All Seasons
dot com. That's the website two eight one, two seven six,
sixteen forty six. I was talking with Rich at Wildbirds Unlimited.
He has a couple of wallbirds on the limited stores

(01:27:17):
and just asking about, Hey, what's the situation on hummingbirds
because you know, I love birds, but I'm not a
bird expert, and so he is. He is. You go
to a Wallbird's Unlimited store, one of the six stores.
You talk to the folks in there, the owners, the
people that work there. They know what they're talking about.
You're gonna get good advice. And he was telling me
that the the hummingbirds are making their migration, but probably

(01:27:41):
by the end of this month, we're looking at the
ruby throated's moving on. But you should leave a feeder
out because we have some rufous hummingbirds that hang around here.
We'll get winter over wintering rufous hummingbirds, So don't don't
put the feeder up just yet. You may have some
hummingbirds still coming in. For that, it's time to switch
over to the Winter super Blend. Winter super Blend is

(01:28:02):
packed full of high fat and protein and birds need
that is the day length is getting shorter, the nights
are getting longer, the feeding available time for the birds
is less. The Winter super Blend is an ideal mix
where they get a power pack of the things they
need to succeed going through the winter. When times are
hard for the birds that are around here. It's kind

(01:28:25):
of quiet at my feeders right now, and I was
tune with the rich who's saying, this is that time
you might want to pull those feeders down and get
them cleaned up. You know, you got any bird feed
that has kind of gotten moist and is caked in
there and getting moldy and things like that, clean that
all out, scrub the up pal good, and then put
them back out because we'll soon be getting other birds in,

(01:28:47):
like the ruby crown kinglets, the warblers, both the orange
crowned and the yellow rumped ones. I like those names.
Yellow rumped warbler, orange crowned warbler. Anyway, those love suet,
they love bark, butter bits and meal worm that'll have
sunfire chips and wild Birds Unlimited has all of these.

Speaker 7 (01:29:04):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:29:04):
There's six stores you can go to WBU dot com,
Forward Slash Houston, WBU Roberts Unlimited dot com Forward Slash
Houston find the six stores near you. They're all over
the area. It's not hard to find one. But the
main thing is go on in and let's get going,
because this is a fun bird time coming up in

(01:29:25):
the landscape, and I just love it. Love the music
that they sing for me. We're going to head out
now and go to Spring Branch this morning, and we
are going to talk to HRTA. Well, hello, Hurta, Welcome
to Gardenline and let me get you to turn that
radio down a little bit.

Speaker 6 (01:29:45):
Yes, sure, good more good to talk to you.

Speaker 13 (01:29:50):
More questions about moving.

Speaker 17 (01:29:55):
Well, this spagnolia tree, well, actually I have two of them,
but there's not more than a foot tall, barely maybe
fourteen sixteen inches tall.

Speaker 16 (01:30:10):
Okay, I've given one of them. Well, I've given them away.
But what's the best time to move them?

Speaker 8 (01:30:18):
And what's the best way?

Speaker 3 (01:30:21):
Probably November. They're an evergreen, you know, so they got
leaves on them all the time, so we wanted to
cool off a little bit because when you dig them up,
they're going to lose most of their roots system. And
just get as much of the roots as you can
and the main thing is keep those roots moist and
get them in the ground as soon as you can.
And then watermen really good with soil so it settles

(01:30:43):
in around the roots. So this is an operation, and
you're operating. You're cutting that plan out of the ground
and you're getting it into a new spot and for
it to succeed. It cannot dry out. It needs to
never drive in that process.

Speaker 17 (01:30:57):
Well, now these are going to friends, I need to
put them in a pot.

Speaker 6 (01:31:03):
How large pot?

Speaker 14 (01:31:05):
I mean compared to.

Speaker 18 (01:31:08):
Their roots as well?

Speaker 9 (01:31:09):
I do I need a bounce?

Speaker 3 (01:31:10):
Yeah? How tall did you say they were?

Speaker 14 (01:31:15):
Oh?

Speaker 17 (01:31:15):
No, more than sixteen inches?

Speaker 3 (01:31:19):
Okay, I would get Well, the more roots you can get,
the better. So but then the more roots you get,
the heavier that pot is going to be. To try
to move around it, I might try. I might try
putting them in a bucket, a five gallon bucket with
a handle, because however deep you make it, you don't
have to fill it full of soil. But then you

(01:31:40):
got a handle where it's easier to carry them, because
otherwise it's hard to pick up a pot with very
much soil at all in it. Okay, if you have
a five gallon bucket with too much soil, and it's
gonna be hard to pick up, but that way you can.

Speaker 16 (01:31:54):
Okay, the uh, the gentleman in the family is going
to come take him up.

Speaker 6 (01:32:00):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:32:04):
The gentleman ought to come dig him up. You have
the gentleman come dig amo. Yeah, there we go. You
gotta sing, you got to sing for your supper or
heard it? You've heard that, right.

Speaker 6 (01:32:19):
Yes, I have heard that.

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
He's got to come over and dig him up if
he wants those plants. Hey, thank you heard good luck
with that. I appreciate you calling in.

Speaker 6 (01:32:29):
Thank you to take care scope.

Speaker 3 (01:32:33):
All right, bye bye bye bye. That's for sure, Hey,
not for us Texas. Three step listen, stop the presses
now now now now, now is the time to do it.
Because there's there's the fertilizing that's step one, and we
need the sooner we get it down, the more time
the grasshouse while it's warm enough to be actively taking

(01:32:54):
the nutrients out. So soon. Uh. And then the second
and third step, which is the barricade to prevent weeds
and the eagle turf fungicide to prevent large patch or
brown patch. When weeds are sprouted in our plants, it's
too late for a premergent. When diseases are making those

(01:33:16):
big circles in the fall in your yard, it's already
rotted the leaves off. They're not gonna get green because
you put on a fungicide. They'll get green next spring
when it warms up. Now, now, now get it done. Now,
those three steps. Where do you get the three steps
of Texas three step from nitropos? Well, you can get
them at the Arbigate and Tumbled Fissure's Hardware Laport and

(01:33:36):
Stanton Shopping Center. Now, but those are all places that
carry one or more of the nitrofoss products. So there
you go. Important to do that. Let's see here, I've
got a couple of calls on my producer. Tell me
these calls, there's no information here? Are those ready to go?
If you'll just let me know that, I know which

(01:33:57):
way to go next. In Chenna Forest all right in
Channing Forest Garden Center down in the Richmond Rosenberg area
on FM twenty seven fifty nine. Awesome, awesome garden center
right now. When you go, it's beautiful. By the way.
All the Halloween decoration, you know, from pumpkins to the

(01:34:20):
ceramic pumpkin containers or decorations from them, they're there. They're
the blooming plants for cool season color are there. They're
waiting for you to take them home, make your place
look good. The herbs and the vegetables. I've been trying
to talking to grow herbs and vegetables all morning. The
herbs and the vegetables are there and they have a
great selection, and I say, what, it's the best planning season, right,

(01:34:42):
so why not why not go ahead and get those
things in the ground, the trees, the shrubs, the you know,
all of those plants, the perennials. Now's the time and
in Chenning Forest has got you covered. All you had
to go to their website Enchanted Forest Richmond TX dot com.

(01:35:02):
Enchanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com. Again. They're on FM
twenty seven fifty nine, which is south of Highway fifty
nine as you head from the Rosenberg or Richmond area
up towards Sugarland. There you go. Let's go now to
the phones. I don't have your name, but uh I
who am I speaking to? And what are we going

(01:35:24):
to talk about today?

Speaker 11 (01:35:27):
This is Brett and I'm concerned about some palm trees
in my yard.

Speaker 3 (01:35:32):
All right, Brett? Uh what area you calling from?

Speaker 11 (01:35:38):
Champion Forest Spring?

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
Oh okay, gotcha? Gotcha? All right? What's happening with the palms?

Speaker 11 (01:35:45):
Well, one of them I think is completely dead. They're
two different types. I think one is a queen palm
and that's what I believe I've lost. And I think
it's from from going back and forth from maybe overwatering
and underwatering. Can't tell with which I'm doing, you know,
But the one I'm most worried about. It's about a
twenty foot I think it's called a fan palm. And

(01:36:10):
I went into one of the nurseries and they recommended
this funge aside, I gotta get up, get up and
clean out the top of the palm tree and pull
out whatever's in there, and then I pour this this
uh copper funge just side I.

Speaker 13 (01:36:26):
Think it's called.

Speaker 3 (01:36:28):
And okay, is.

Speaker 11 (01:36:29):
That is that really? And one of the things they
said was they think it's they they're dying because of
the past winters. But both palms survived the winters quite well. Again,
one to a ten footer and it's pretty much dead.
The other is a twenty foot and it's a lot
of brown palm fronds. So I'm not sure whether that

(01:36:49):
was that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:50):
Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't know exactly about that
pour in the copper in the top thing.

Speaker 10 (01:36:57):
But.

Speaker 3 (01:36:58):
It is un usual that you would have over or
underwatered a palm tree unless it was just brand new
planted and things like that. But it's been in the
ground a little.

Speaker 11 (01:37:08):
While, Yeah, they've been there. I've been in the house
for five years, and I think they're pulled, okay, probably
twenty years old.

Speaker 3 (01:37:17):
Well, Brett, I'm against a hard break and I'm gonna
have to put you on hold. But when we come
back you we will continue this discussion about your palm trees.
Just to just hang on there and we'll be back
with you, all right, folks, we'll be right back. Well, hey,
welcome back to Guard nine.

Speaker 9 (01:37:34):
Folks.

Speaker 3 (01:37:36):
All right, we're going to run right back out here
and continue our conversation with Brett about the palm trees. Brett,
I think it may have been a cold weather damage problem.
What can happen is those palm trees have one living
bud from which they can sprout growth, right, and that
is at the very top of the trunk. So if
that bud dies, the leaves that are around it may

(01:37:58):
be alive for a little while and and but you're
just not getting new shoots coming up out of the center. Now,
you can have some decay that perhaps a copper or
some other fun de side might might help get in control,
But if the center bud is dead, there's going to
be no benefit to those And so the question is

(01:38:19):
is that bud alive or not? And I can't answer that,
you know, on the on the phone here on the are,
But that is going to be the thing. You might
want to have somebody that is a palm tree specialist
come take a look at it, see what they see.
And and they may have see some things that that
you're not seeing right now that would give them a

(01:38:41):
clue as to where to go from here. But getting
up there to treat them is going to be quite
a chore. But I would make sure that bud is
is not already dead or that or that effort is wasted.

Speaker 11 (01:38:52):
Can that bud be seen by going up top and
pulling out any I guess to breathe that's at the
top of the three Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:39:01):
Yeah, when you when you get anything dead out of there,
there should be a bud that has some life in it.
And actually it should be growing by now, because let's
just say it was last winter that killed it. Uh,
it would be very clear there's no low life in it.
And I don't know. I don't want to tell you
they're goneers, get rid of them. I don't want to
tell you go put the carper in there. I just

(01:39:21):
can't tell based on the information, but getting somebody out
there with a bucket or whatever they can look in
the top it would be good.

Speaker 11 (01:39:30):
Okay, I'll do that skip. Thank you very much for
your advice.

Speaker 3 (01:39:34):
All right, but I hope, I hope that helps a
little bit. All Right, we're going to go back to
the phones and again tell me who I'm talking to
and where you're calling from.

Speaker 7 (01:39:45):
Hi, this is Steve from Friendswood.

Speaker 3 (01:39:48):
Okay, Steve, how can we help?

Speaker 7 (01:39:51):
Well? I sent you an email a little over a
week ago and couldn't call in until now. I've got
some roses that had some black leaf spot and I
think I've taken care of that issue. But now I'm
wondering they're just barely starting to come back out, and
I'm wondering whether alike pruning might be in order. I've

(01:40:14):
seen noticed the landscapers for the neighborhood association doing the
same too. It's roses and so one of your wisdom
on that.

Speaker 3 (01:40:25):
So was this, did I reply to this email of yours.

Speaker 7 (01:40:32):
All? You said, we're trying to find it. Yeah, I
would need to call in. You said you forwarded it
with the email that I said it too.

Speaker 3 (01:40:39):
There you go there you go. Thank you that that
helps me get to the bottom of it. Let me
let me look at those I do sometimes get folks
that don't don't go trying to find my email and
send it to other places, because the only one that
I have for the show here is this one, and
so I do have to forward these onsom well not

(01:41:05):
seeing it, but I'm gonna keep looking here. But the
bottom line is you got roses. They've dropped their leaves
right there we go. I just I just found it.
Black spot, Okay, I found it, Steve. So it is
not you know, like ideal rose growing time right now
as we're cooling off, but you should be seeing some
new growth. Unfortunately, we'd rather not have them put out

(01:41:27):
a lot of succulent growth right before you get our
first freeze. But you may be seeing some new growth
on them. If you do a light pruning, they are
going to try to regrow in a response to that.
So if you could hold off, I would. It's not
a night and day thing, not a black and white deal.
You know, if you're pronum, you're gonna kill them, or
if you don't pronem, you're gonna kill them. But those

(01:41:48):
roses are weak. They lost their food factories to black spot,
and so they got to get some more leaves out
there and put some new growth on. So if it
were mine, I think I would wait and see if
they just put on some new growth. If you want
to do a trimming on them, you're going to get
some growth, but you may get some coal damage to it.
So it's kind of a fifty to fifty in my

(01:42:08):
opinion on where you would go at this point on
those roses. Just remember the leaves are important, and at
the same time, anything other than a light pruning I
would not recommend, so very light, yes, and then let's
see where they go. Those roses are tough though they're
gonna be fine. They're gonna come back a little black

(01:42:29):
spot knocking the leaves off it and go'll kill the butch.

Speaker 7 (01:42:33):
Okay, that's great, Thanks very much.

Speaker 3 (01:42:36):
All right, Steve, thank you appreciate your call. Let's see here, well,
let me have a little problems with our phones today.
Hearing folks Ace hardware stores have got you covered on
whatever you need to have success out in your landscape.
You hear me talk about putting this or that fertilizer down,

(01:42:57):
this or that pre emergent weed control down, this or
that of disease control product down. You hear me talk
about the importance of getting out there and improving the
soil and whatnot. Ace Hardware Store has you covered there everywhere.
They're easy to find. You can go to ACE Hardware
Texas dot com. Ace Hardware Texas dot com. Now we're
coming up on freezing season. Okay, this is when you're

(01:43:20):
gonna want heat lamps, and you know the low clampon
lamps that are heavy duty. If you're gonna put a
heat lamp in, don't put it in a cheap clamp
on fixture, get a good, solid one. Ace Hardware's got
you covered. Now you wait until the day the cold
friend's hitting and everybody else is gonna be out there
and they're gonna get them for you do so, now's
the time to do it. Do you need things to

(01:43:41):
wrap your pipes, all that kind of stuff. Ace Hardware's
got it. They're ready to go. Give them a call,
go buy there. Ace Hardware Texas dot Com. Find them.
If you're an Orange, there's Chil's Building Supply on Nurse sixteenth,
then Baycliff just south of Chema on Grand Avenue, Hamilton
aces on Highway six and the Bear Creek are Fulsheer
ace guess where on three fifty nine in fullshure Wharton

(01:44:04):
feed and Ace on North Richmond Road. And the Child's
building I mentioned child Building supply and the one I'm
gonna be at next Saturday, Brenham Ace on North North
Austin Parkway out there in Brenham. So come on out
there and grab your supplies. While you there, come out
and see me. We'll visit look forward to that. I
need to take a quick break. I'm going to come

(01:44:25):
back and try to get to Greg and Conro and
Donna in Beaumont in this last segment. Alright, alrighty, we're
back here we go on guarden line still Roland got
another hour and it's after this one azelm micronutrient essential.
That's what you need to know. In addition to the

(01:44:46):
big three numbers on all four liser bags nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,
there's a bunch of more numbers that need to be
on there because there ingredients that plants need. They're secondary nutrients.
And then there's the trace minerals also called micro nutrients.
That's what azemite's about. And They are essential for plants,
and it's important to have them in that bank account

(01:45:07):
of the soil so plants can take them up when
they as they need them, and they do need them
all the time. As mite provides that, you can go
to Azimite Texas dot com find out more about it.
It's mine naturally out of Utah and put into a
product that you can spread on your lawn while you're
out there doing your fall fertilizing. Why not also make
another trip through the lawn with the azamite to provide

(01:45:30):
those additional micronutrients out there. Widely available around town, easy
to find, easy to get, and easy to use. Simple
as that. Let's go to Conro now we're going to
talk to Greg this morning. Greg, thanks for being patient
as we work the gremlins out of our system. How
can we help you on garden line today morning.

Speaker 13 (01:45:50):
I've got a lemon and a lime bush and it's growing,
but the the leaves are starting to fold in and
fall off or fall in on their dispairing. I don't
know if it's the bugs.

Speaker 3 (01:46:05):
What ninety chance you're talking about the citrus leaf miner,
A little tiny flylike insect lands on the leaf and
lays an egg inside the leaf, and a larva hatches
out that crawls through the leaf, eating the tissues between
the upper and lower surface. So you see tray. If

(01:46:26):
you look closely at them, you'll see little trails in
the leaf going around. But they take on a twisted, curled,
sometimes a silvery look to the leaf as it loses
the green color. And that's the inside. It can be
go ahead.

Speaker 13 (01:46:43):
No, I'm sorry, I was saying, no fart the leaves.
The leaves are just they start folding in on the
cells and closing in.

Speaker 3 (01:46:54):
Yeah, well, send me a picture if you want. Okay, well,
if you want, I can put you on hold. You
can send me a picture and I'll take a look
at it and see if I agree with that what
I said originally. I'm pretty sure I will. But make
sure it's a very close up picture, and so I
can see the leaves and send me two or three pictures.

(01:47:16):
I can see different sizes and kinds of leaves really
close up, and I can answer that if you want
to go that route. Otherwise, assume that it is the
leaf miner and treat with spindos, said s p I
n O Sad and you're going to need to do that.
You're going to need to do that about every seven
to ten days for a little while, as long as

(01:47:38):
there's a fresh flush of new growth. Now the citrus
is going to be shutting down here for winter, but
next spring is a new growth starts. You have to
spray the new growth, not the old growth, the new
growth with the spinocid so that when the leaf miner attacks,
the spinocids in there, shutting them down. Okay, okay, so

(01:47:58):
all right.

Speaker 13 (01:48:00):
Yeah, last year in the winter and it did freeze it.
How I died down. It was brown and dry, and
I got it to come back. Will it produced? Ben's
has already shocked itself.

Speaker 3 (01:48:12):
I guess what was the name of the plant?

Speaker 13 (01:48:17):
I know you'd ask. My daughter got it from for
me from home depot and it comes in a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:48:24):
Okay, well, why don't let me put you on hold.
My producer will give you an email and if you
can give with your daughter whatever, figure out the name
of that uh, and just send me some information on it.
Tell me remind me we talked, okay, Greg if if

(01:48:46):
we may have some audio issues, but let's try and
see if that works. Okay, Uh, if you are not
able to hear him, we just have to try call
him back and next week and hopefully we'll have this
thing fixed. Appreciate your call. Medina products like hastro Grow
six twelve six are excellent for use on your plants.
There's a lot of Medina products, you know. There's a
Medina product that is basically humis in a bottle, which

(01:49:07):
is basically concentrated compost in a bottle. It's called Humate
humic acid, very good for the soil. There's the original
Medina you know, remember the original formula of Medina that
was called Gosha, which is a Medina sol activator. That's
the original, and then they beefed it up with some
other things and created Medina Plus, which is an excellent

(01:49:29):
product as well. All of these from the folks at
Medina been around. This company's been around since the nineteen
fifties providing things that gardeners swear by and you can
get them all over town. The haster Grol six twelve
six with that high phosphorus content, is an excellent product
when you're watering in new transplants. Do it at planting,
Do it again a week later, Do it again. A
week after that, and you will have given that root

(01:49:50):
system its best chance of a good, fast, early start,
which is important on getting that plant established. We're going
to go now to Donna in Beaumont. Donna, thank you
for being to patient. How can we help today, Yes.

Speaker 6 (01:50:03):
Sir, my husband sent some pictures of a pepper plant,
and I have several pepper plants that are doing the
same thing. It's like the leaves are not flew that all.
They're all crinkly. They're very green, but it's just they're
they're very odd looking. And I've never seen a pepper

(01:50:24):
plant curl up like this and get so I don't
know who else. They're wrinkly instead of the way a
leaf would normally look.

Speaker 3 (01:50:35):
Yeah, I'm trying to find that email. Was it recently
or yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:50:40):
Well oh he said, yeah, it's from Sabian Sadian Gabe,
I got them.

Speaker 3 (01:50:51):
Okay, that is a virus. That pepper has gotten a
virus in it, and it's causing the malformation of those leaves.
You might the peppers will be edible if they develop normally.
And we're getting kind of late in the season here,
you know, I see you're still starting.

Speaker 6 (01:51:09):
To blow and I bring them in when it gets cooler,
but right now I've been leaving them out for the sun.

Speaker 3 (01:51:19):
Okay, Well, Donna, I would, I would say I would.
You can go ahead and see what you can get
out of it for this year, but next year, make
sure and get rid of those and get some new
ones because there's no curing a virus. And I don't
think it's going to get a good production for you,
but we'll see, okay, but next year gets you.

Speaker 6 (01:51:43):
Just just just so odd looking. And I do have
one other pepper plant that's got the leaves are real
yellow and there's little tiny brown spots on the leaves.
And I didn't send a picture of that one.

Speaker 3 (01:51:56):
Okay, if you can find a copper spray, a copper
based spray at your local garden center, and then yeah,
and then use that according to label, get away from
the sidewalking things. Copper is blue and it can stain
masonry blue. So get it off that that patio or
whatever you got there. Uh and uh and then do it,

(01:52:17):
do the spray on it. Uh. And you may have
to do that again, you know, maybe two weeks later.
Just kind of watch it and see how it's doing.

Speaker 15 (01:52:25):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:52:25):
But those are those are leaf diseases, and copper generally
is a pretty good one. That way. If it's a
bacteria or a fungus, you're probably gonna take care of
it on that plant. Don't keep these plants together because
a bug can transfer the virus from the sick plant
to this other one that has the spots on the leaves.
So you will, all right, Donna, thank you. Man. Appreciate yeah,

(01:52:48):
appreciate you calling you. Take care. Warren Southern Gardens I
in Kingwood a great garden center, Kingwood Garden Center, Great
garden Center both on South Park Well, Warrens is on
North Park Stone or Kingwood's on Stone Hollow seven days
a week. You're gonna find all the products to talk
about here in garden line. You're gonna they have awesome selection,
especially the the heirloom soils products, lots of those. When

(01:53:12):
you know I've been talking about you hear me talk
about Nelson fertilizers and Microlife fertilely. They got those there
and they even have a filling station where you can
fill them back up again. You bring your jar of
Nelson or Microlife fertilizers in and get a refill on them.
Lots of great fall color. It's just a good time
to be out. Grab you a container, make you something
beautiful for the fall at Warren Southern Gardens or Kingwood

(01:53:35):
Garden Center again, both open seven days a week out
there in the Kingwood area. So well, we're putting this
hour in the books. We're going to come back as
we fight the audio gremlins. Don't hesitate to give us
a call. If you'd like to call now, just go
ahead and get on the board. So you're ready to go.
Seven one three two one two five eight seven four

(01:53:58):
seven one three two on two five eight seven four.
I'll leave you with a thought from Abraham Lincoln. We
can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because
thorn bushes have roses. There you go thought for the day.
Probably somebody you wish could hear that too, Right, Yeah,

(01:54:22):
that's it, Hey, don't forget. Next Saturday, Next Saturday, Next Saturday,
I'm gonna be at branham Ace Hardware twelve to two,
twelve to two, next Saturday, twenty fifth of October, Branham
Ace Hardware.

Speaker 1 (01:54:36):
Come on out, Welcome to kt r H Garden Line
with Scared Rict.

Speaker 2 (01:54:43):
It's just watch him as please to see sign Sam.

Speaker 3 (01:55:17):
Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to Guardenline, folks. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we are here to help you have
a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape and more fun in
the process. So give me a call at your convenience
if you have a question seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three two one

(01:55:37):
two fifty eight seventy four. Be glad to visit with
you and try to get to the bottom of some
of the things that you have been wondering about. If
you have gone out to your landscape, you know, just
or let me put this way, if you pull up
in your driveway, you pull up and you're taking a
look at at your place, or maybe you're driving by

(01:55:58):
street out in front and you look at your yard.
Once you look at it like it's not your yard,
once you look at it like it's somebody else's yard. Okay,
what do you see? What would you what would be
What areas are you kind of like wishing maybe you
could change, or what plants are not really impressing you,

(01:56:20):
or what area would you like to see enhanced. Maybe
it's a shady area and it's just kind of like
disappears into darkness. You know how shady areas are, especially
when you put dark green plants in them and dark
flowers in them, you don't really see them. What could
you do to improve those? Think about that, and as
you drive around town, take notes, because there's always something

(01:56:40):
you can do. And sometimes we kind of get our
head down and you know, we're trudging along and we're
going through life and we don't really we don't really
stop and look and look up and just think. Look
with new eyes, look at your landscape and new eyes,
what would be nice and different, and let's start moving
toward that. A shady area, example, benefits from things that

(01:57:02):
are very light colored to brighten it up. So, for example,
if you've got a pathway going through a shady area,
if you've got a garden bed in a shady area,
line those with Aztec grass. If it's not too deep
a shade. Astet grass will grow in some shade but
not too deep a shade, and it's white and it
just looks like runway lights going around to bed or

(01:57:22):
going down a pathway. It really brightens it up really nice.
There's a lot of light colors you know if you're
gonna do kalladiums, not the dark, deepest colors, but the
lighter colors of pink or lighter colors of green, for example,
really show up in those shady areas. Anything that has
white flowers, anything that has very light pastels, like for example, Impatience.

(01:57:43):
And now that's not a flower for winter, it's a
summer one. But Impatients come in some really light colors
that show up in the shade. There's a tip to
think about it. I'm gonna give you another one just
a minute. We're gonna jump out here and get busy
in just a second. I did want to talk about
microlife brown patch another time, because it's time. It's time,
it's time to do it. Microlife brown patch is a

(01:58:04):
fall fertilizer chock full of sixty three different beneficial microbes,
and it is like a power supply out there in
the grass. It's got the nutrients that the grass needs
going into fall. It's ready to go. Get it down now, now, now,
don't delay. It's an organic fertilizer. It needs to be

(01:58:25):
released by microbial activity. So let's do it today. Let's
water down really good, and let's get them ready. To go,
and those microbes are going to be helpful. They're beneficial.
All sixty three of them do something, whether it's disease
fighting or whether it's plant growth enhancing or whatever. They're beneficial.
And they're in the microlife brown patch. So get them out.

(01:58:46):
Find it. It's everywhere. Microlife's easy to find all over
the place. But just take them. Take a brown bag
home of microlife brown patch and get it out in
the lawn. Follow the label as far as how much
you put out, you want to get a good supply
of it out there. Don't skimp on it. But that's
what we're gonna do. All right, We're gonna go now
out to Rosenberg and talk to Tom this morning. Hey Tom,

(01:59:08):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (01:59:10):
Thank you, thank you for your program. I have a
question about a Carolina reaper pepper that I have pepper
plant I haven't in a pot and it's probably five
foot Paul produced very well this year.

Speaker 10 (01:59:25):
I usually take the pot in for the winner. Is
it appropriate to cut it back before that or just
leave it as it is?

Speaker 3 (01:59:36):
Well you can, it might be a little better in
the future to start a little earlier with the cutback.
So because when you cut it back, it's going to
try to grow, and when you have it inside, it's
not going to get good light to support the new
growth and things. So as much as you can get
it outside during the day on days you know, when

(01:59:56):
the temperature is above fifty degrees, just go ahead and
get it outside and let that plant get some sunlight
during that winter season when it's already a little less
bright and winter than it is in summer. Plus now
you've got it in a protected spot. But you can
do that. That's fine. But there's one thing, Tom. You
have to do this. You got to get your fire

(02:00:17):
extinguisher and stead it right beside that plant because it's
liable to catch your house on fire. That sucker is
so dad hot, I'm telling you. Can you eat those things?

Speaker 14 (02:00:28):
No, we put them in some salsa. Make some salsa
with it. You start with half. Yeah, if it's not
enough the rest in there. Yeah, they're nasty, Oh my.

Speaker 3 (02:00:38):
Gosh, they are. When you make salzy, you got to
use a glass bowl because it'll melt plastic. You can't
put a saws with a reaper in it and a
plastic bowl. People are believing it, I'm saying.

Speaker 14 (02:00:51):
Out there, We've had it for a couple of years
and it wasn't doing anything. So we bought another little one.
Put it in the same pot this year, needed a mate.
I guess it produced. We get peppers all the time.

Speaker 3 (02:01:07):
Yeah, well good, that's good.

Speaker 14 (02:01:12):
I appreciate the information. I really appreciate your show.

Speaker 3 (02:01:17):
Thanks a lot. It's got of fun having fun. All right,
you take care, good luck with that. Send me a
picture of that someday. I want to see that sucker.
All right, there we go. Hey, Southwest Fertilizer, Southwest Fertilizer.
Where is it corner Bisonett and Runwick in Southwest Houston.
What do they have? Yeah? The entest, Yes, everything. What
do you need fertilizers? We got more fertilizers and you

(02:01:39):
know what to do with? Said, well, what about we control,
disease control, pest control. Yes, everything I would possibly recommend
is going to be there at Southwest Fertilizer. All right,
here's another objection. I'm an organic gardener. I don't like chemicals.
You're not going to find a bigger organic selection anywhere
than its Southwest Fertilizer. What what else? I mean? Come on,

(02:02:01):
it's the place, it's the place. To go corner Bust
and Runwick. You can take your old plants and diseases
and insects and weeds in there. They'll tell you what
they are and then they'll tell you what to do
about them. Southwest Fertilizer corner Bust and running. All right,
let's go back to Alvin now, and we're going to
talk to Frank this morning. Hey, Frank, welcome to garden line.

(02:02:25):
Hello there, Hey, how can we help today?

Speaker 19 (02:02:29):
Hello there, Yeah, I was calling about a screen along
the fence line. There's about maybe sixty feet there that
I want to make like a property screen. I want
to plant some kind of seedars, like red ceedars or
something big Christmas tree shapes that want them to go
up at least fifteen twelve fifteen feet high planet maybe

(02:02:50):
ten feet apart. Was looking if you have something, some
kind of head you want to recommend something native?

Speaker 3 (02:02:56):
Okay, there we go. That's helpful. Eastern red cedar is
a very good tough plant, and it does start off
Christmas tree shape, but it gets to be a big
tree in time. So the screen someday is going to
go away as those plants get taller and taller. You're
not gonna have that lower screen where you need it,
but for a good while it would be a good

(02:03:17):
one to do, And so that that's an option. You
just got to what I would recommend on the eastern
red seedar. You're not going to see that in garden
centers really. I mean I'm not saying never, but I
don't think I've ever seen one in a garden center.
But you're not gonna see them much. So what you
can do is buy conservation bundles of those things. We're
getting a little late to order those because they sell out.

(02:03:40):
But basically, these are little like three foot high trees
and roots you know that their their bear root, and
they bundle them up and send you a long, you know,
rectangular box in the wintertime. And they're not very expensive,
or a few dollars apiece, but you just put them
out real thick and hope most of them will grow
and any that you can go back in later and

(02:04:02):
thin the ones out. You don't because if you try
to create sixty feet of store bought container grown plants,
that that's a pretty significant cost. And using these conservation
bundles is probably better way to go. If you're going
to do something like the eastern red cedar. Now, if
you're okay, get.

Speaker 13 (02:04:18):
There something else that you recommend.

Speaker 19 (02:04:21):
I'm sorry, there's any other plant that you recommend other
than that that might be like retain as a you know,
a permanent edge.

Speaker 3 (02:04:29):
Yeah, so yopons are good for that. Yopons do very well.
There's male and female yopons. The females have berries, the
males don't. If you want berries for pretty berries, you
can get one called Pride of Houston, and it's an
excellent rice sold all over the place. That's a good
one for it. Another good one is southern wax myrtle.

(02:04:50):
Now that needs some saw moisture. Both the opon and
wax myrtle will put up with quite a bit of
saw moisture, but they need some to help them get established.
Southern wax myrtle, don't get the dwarf types. Get the
standard regular wild type and it'll get taller. But you're
gonna need to do a little shearing on it periodically
to sort of form that hedge shape because it's gonna

(02:05:13):
otherwise be a big old mounting bush. So if you
can get it, you know, side trimmed, but then let
it grow on up it'll make a nice screen for
you as well. And those both are native plants for
this area.

Speaker 19 (02:05:27):
Okay, Okay, that's.

Speaker 3 (02:05:32):
Yeah. Does it drain well, it's a raised area.

Speaker 10 (02:05:36):
But it's also along a drainage ditch or like a
drainage area.

Speaker 3 (02:05:39):
Okay, but I can keep them up above. Okay. So
another one is uh uh Carolina cherry laurel, and it's
a native to East Texas, uh well, the eastern part
of the state.

Speaker 9 (02:05:57):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:05:57):
And so it would be good you would I probably
want to run on all of these. You would run
want to run a long line, irrigation line down the
way and have some sprinklers set up at each tree.
They don't have, not a sprinkler like you picture in
your yard, just a little steak that comes up and
squirtch water in all directions, so that you can give
them good soakings to not only keep them alive the

(02:06:20):
first summer, but to make them grow faster, because your
goal is to have a hedge, not fifteen years from now,
but sooner, right, and so the watering the first few
years very very important. And then in the future after
that when we go into like we've been, you know,
I don't know how it's been in Alvin, but I
had a half inch of rain in the last month
and a half and that that's not good in the

(02:06:42):
hot weather at the end of the summer.

Speaker 19 (02:06:44):
So you're gonna need any recommendation where find these native plants?

Speaker 10 (02:06:49):
Where I can find them in.

Speaker 8 (02:06:50):
This way you can't.

Speaker 3 (02:06:52):
Yeah, Buchanans Plants has Buchanans Plants will have all of
those except the Eastern red cedar. They're gonna have other junipers,
but not the Eastern red cedar.

Speaker 7 (02:07:01):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:07:05):
Buchanan's Native Plants is in the Heights. In the Heights, uh,
in north central Houston. You're down in Alvin, so uh
Jorges Uh. Jorges Gardens is down there between Santa Fe
and Alvin, and he's on Elizabeth Street. Elizabeth Street, it's

(02:07:29):
called Hojorges and Gardens. Let me let me give you
a phone number and you are to call for Hey,
he does have a lot of trees and shrubs, but
just see what he has or what he can get.
He may be able to buy in a bunch of
them from you. Uh. You know, if you if you're
going to do sixty feet and you're trying not to
spend during the bank account. You could go for some

(02:07:49):
smaller plants, you know, five gallon size something like that,
and just take care of them and they'll they'll grow
pretty fast. So here's the phone number, seven to one
three six three to fifty seven one three six three
two fifty two ninety. He's on Elizabeth Street in Alvin
and that is about as close to you as I

(02:08:10):
can get since you're in.

Speaker 19 (02:08:12):
Yeah, that's a good recommendation.

Speaker 3 (02:08:17):
All right, there you go. Well, good luck you, thank
you very much. Skip all right, take care. Glad you called.

Speaker 9 (02:08:26):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:08:26):
It is always good when people call uh before they
make choices. You know, a lot of times instead of
someone calling ahead of time, they'll find some plant someone
told them the plant, and they'll invest in sixty feet
of shrubs and it's just going to be a long
term disappointment. And so uh, when you call ahead of time,

(02:08:48):
you can choose to not do what I'm saying. I mean,
that's your it's your yard, not mine. Do what you want,
but at least get an opinion. That's always a good idea,
especially before you go spend the money on stuff. Nature's
Way resources I was there just what a week ago, Uh,
and Nature's Way is. It's where so many of our

(02:09:10):
soil products were born. Rosetsoil came from Nature's Way, leaf
mold compost came from Nature's Way. You see what I'm
talking about. But they have all kinds of soil, soil
for fruit, tree, soil for vegetables and herbs, soil for
any kind of maybe you need to fill in some
holes in the yard, leveling the yard out. They have everything.

(02:09:30):
They have everything soil and soil products, They've got them.
They also have a good selection in native plants too.
I was just talking and there's not close to Alvin
being up almost to Conro, but they have a good
selection and nati plants up there, and you need to
check those out. Their fungo based composts and their leaf
more composts or just outstanding Nature's Way Resources dot com,
Nature's Way Resources dot com. Go there. That's that's how

(02:09:53):
you find the phone number. That's how you find where
they're located and what they have available at Nature's Way
sources quality products and they're done in the way Nature
did them because nature knows how to build soil, and
so do the folks at Nature's Way Resource. Give me
in a call up there. Talk to Ian or Leo
or one of the one of the team up there
at Nature's Way Resources and they'll get you fixed up.

(02:10:17):
Let's see, I'm sitting here watching the clock, and it
seems to be did I miss Did I miss a break?
It feels like I did. All right, Let's let's take
a quick break now, and we're gonna have to come
back and take another break here in just a little bit.
There we go, all right, who can tell me who

(02:10:41):
that is? Three seeds to? Whoever can tell me that?
And I don't know what kind of scenes are? You
have to come out to him a bit. There we go,
love it. Hey, welcome back to the garden line. Good
to have you with us. We're gonna go right out
to the phones here. Got a very short segment this time.
Uh and uh, let's see who am I speaking to?
And where are you from?

Speaker 4 (02:11:04):
Hello?

Speaker 3 (02:11:05):
Hello? Hello, Hey, who am I talking to? And where
are you called?

Speaker 4 (02:11:08):
This is Jennifer from a task Casita.

Speaker 3 (02:11:13):
All righty, Jennifer, how can we help today?

Speaker 4 (02:11:16):
Yes? I okay. I have a couple questions. But one
was about ten years ago. We had this bare spot
up here in our yard and it was really big.
It was like twenty five feet long, maybe four feet wide,
in a big semicircle, and I thought, oh, this is
some kind of dirt fungus problem. And every year it

(02:11:37):
moves south about five feet, same big semicircle, till finally
it actually went to the neighbor's yard. And now he's
kind of freaking out about it. It's this big bear patch,
you know, in a big line that goes from the
house to the curb. And I was thinking that maybe
maybe the soil needs to be tested or something, because

(02:11:59):
he he's just like, I've tried everything. It just doesn't
grow any grass.

Speaker 3 (02:12:06):
Is it still rather circular?

Speaker 4 (02:12:11):
I would say not quite as circular on his in
his yard as it was in mine. Mine was just
like a big semicircles got green. You got more trees
than me.

Speaker 3 (02:12:24):
Okay, did you Yours turned out green again? It didn't
just stay brown though.

Speaker 4 (02:12:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's it's all green now, okay. And
it moving, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:12:37):
Yeah. So when when you saw it, do you remember,
it was like a certain time of year that you
saw it, and.

Speaker 4 (02:12:44):
When you have grass, and then when the grass would
die out in the winter, it would move, so it
was probably moving the whole time, but that was when
when it was noticeable.

Speaker 3 (02:12:58):
Well, the fact that it's moving, that's a stumper. The
first thing I think about is brown patch, which is
typically a cool season disease, and you get these large,
rather circular areas that turn brown and then when spring
comes they turn green again, and they're green all summer,
and then in the fall it can hit again. And

(02:13:19):
I wouldn't be unusual to see brown patch, you know,
migrating in a sense across your yard. Not that it
always has to move in certain directions. It tends to
pop up where it's going to pop up, but that's
a possibility. But that's a very weather and time of
year related thing. So I don't know, it doesn't sound
quite right.

Speaker 14 (02:13:40):
I need you to take some pictures.

Speaker 3 (02:13:43):
Yeah, I need you to take some pictures, if you would,
and get up close, get down in the grass. You know,
let's see, you know, from a few inches above the grass,
what it looks like, what it looks like down the bottom.
Pull up some of those areas and see if the
roots are dead or if they're living on the grass
that's beside the sick area and in the sick okay,

(02:14:06):
and just show show me some pictures. Let's take a look. Nothing.
Something's wrong in the in the story, I don't know.
And if you can get any more of a kind
of a history on it, like yeah, it shows up
in October and then it's green again in March or
some other version of that, all those facts will help
me try to get the bottom of this. Okay now,

(02:14:28):
but I don't I don't think that my call screener
can hear you today. That's why I'm happened to ask
everybody who they are.

Speaker 4 (02:14:34):
Well, that's why when you answered, I was like, I
didn't talk to a call screener.

Speaker 3 (02:14:37):
So, yeah, I know, I know that's our our fun
systems messed up. Right now, we'll get it fixed for
next week. But question two, sure.

Speaker 4 (02:14:49):
Yeah, I bought some ridoculous dead roots, you know. I
mean they're not dead, but some dry roots in the mail.
And I was wondering when I need to hits us
in the ground.

Speaker 3 (02:15:02):
Get them in the ground right away. I've got ten
seconds before the heartbreak.

Speaker 8 (02:15:06):
Get him in right away.

Speaker 3 (02:15:07):
Watermen, really good and you'll be good to go October
November is good. Thanks a lot, appreciate your calls. Sorry
to have to run. I talked to you long the
last time. So we're gonna take a break here, We're
coming back for the last half hour a garden line. There,
you go, alrighty, alrighty, here we go. Let's do it.

(02:15:30):
We got a half hour a garden line left and
plenty to talk about. If you've got a question seven one, three, two, one,
fifty eight to seventy four. That's how you get in
touch with you. You can't talk about the things that
are of interest to you. RCW Nurseries is an outstanding
garden center in and of itself. They a lot of

(02:15:51):
the trees and shrubs they grow. They grew up at
the Wimston Tree Farm up there in Plantersville, and so
it's the thing. They know what to grow here. They
know the varieties that grow here. They know this species
that grow here. They know how to grow a plant
so that when it lends in your yard, it survives
and RCW can come out and they can do the
planting for you. That's another service that you can have

(02:16:11):
them do. U and I would recommend it if a
tree is very big at all, like I like to
put it, if it's bigger than about ten gallons, rather
than put your chiropractor kids through colleges, have RCW do
it for you. Now. Right now is that perfect storm
at RCW that I've been telling you about. It's the

(02:16:32):
perfect time to plant all these things, and it's the
time when they are on incredible sale. Azel's and camellias
fifty percent off. Hey, you want flowers in your in
your landscape in the winter, get some camellias. They're great
for that fifteen percent off. If you are looking for
crape myrtles or perennials one gallon perennials thirty percent off

(02:16:54):
for those right now. And here we go. Select roses,
not every rose, but select roses and citrus trees are
forty off. Right now at rcw's they got the concrete
and metal yard art, which is really cool thirty percent off. Again,
where is it. It's at the corner of two forty nine,
which is also called Tomball Parkway. I'm about wait eight.

(02:17:14):
Easy to get to. RCW is always it's always a
great day to visit RCW in this afternoon would be
a great time to go do that as well. Rcwnurseries
dot com. We're now go back to Tomball and talk
to David. Hello, David, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (02:17:32):
One morning, skipper.

Speaker 8 (02:17:33):
Oh, I got blueberry bushes, and uh I planned them
three years ago, and last year was the first year.

Speaker 9 (02:17:42):
That I got any barries off of them.

Speaker 8 (02:17:46):
Didn't get that anywhere, but.

Speaker 9 (02:17:47):
I did pet them, and I'm thinking.

Speaker 8 (02:17:49):
It would probably call it with the first year, so
then here I won't. And I've got them planted in
fifty five gallon grum, a plastic.

Speaker 3 (02:17:59):
Drum that I cut and.

Speaker 9 (02:18:00):
A half, so they're in like a twenty five gallon bucket.
That's a good size, good size, but I wanna I
want to maximize my very potential. Should they be in
the ground or will they do good?

Speaker 8 (02:18:14):
And if I keep them in the pot, what can
I do this year to really make them things live?

Speaker 3 (02:18:21):
Okay, well, let me let me ask you a couple
of questions. Do you happen to know the names of
the blueberries you bought.

Speaker 14 (02:18:29):
A good one?

Speaker 10 (02:18:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 11 (02:18:32):
I bought them at art y.

Speaker 3 (02:18:33):
Yeah, okay, well if you can.

Speaker 8 (02:18:39):
Remember asking you, I think, give me the ones that
knew the fast in this area at art to tell you.

Speaker 3 (02:18:46):
Well, then they then they gave you good plans. I
don't have to worry about that. It's just that sometimes
people buy this two of the same variety and the
cross pollination isn't great with that, uh, And sometimes they
be like two different types of blueberries and the donation
is good for that. So I'm gonna assume you got
some good plants because you got them at RCW, that
you need growth during the growing season to create a

(02:19:12):
lot of new wood. Blueberries produce like next summer's blueberries
are produced on the little thin shoots that grew this year,
and then after they produce, that shoot won't produce blueberries again,
but a shoot off of it will. So you always
need to have fresh new growth that will set buds

(02:19:33):
in the shute in the in the wood for in
the late summer and fault for next year's crop. So
good growth is important for next year's blueberries. That's one thing.
The more growth you get, the more potential areas where
you can have that fruit on it. Don't prune them
too much at all, In fact, for now, probably none
at all. After about five years of a blueberry being

(02:19:53):
in the ground, you can start to pune a little bit,
but not much before that. So the other would be bees.
You gotta have bees that are coming in there and
working on the blooms for you. And blueberries have a long,
skinny blossom, and it takes certain kinds of bees to
be able to get their tongue down in there and

(02:20:13):
to get what they're going after, but also to help
with the pollination. Bumble bees can do that. There's another
bee this morning, you want to know, David, But there's
another bee called a side cutting bee. And if you
look at the bottom of your white blueberry blooms, you
see a little brownze slit and a bee has come
and cheated. Instead of going in the long way, which
you can't do, it cuts a slit in the side

(02:20:35):
and it goes in from the side. And when that happens,
you don't get very good pollination out of it because
it's not passing by the pollen and the anthers and
filament and all that stuff, the pistol that's out there
in the flower. So pollinations a possibility if you have
good blooms and no bloom set. If you've got no

(02:20:57):
blooms and therefore no berries, that's going to be due
to a growth problem.

Speaker 13 (02:21:05):
Is there anything I think putting in the pot to
help them grow better?

Speaker 3 (02:21:09):
Or I can't really control the beings.

Speaker 8 (02:21:11):
I mean, I just I live.

Speaker 9 (02:21:12):
In a small backyard with Tomball.

Speaker 3 (02:21:16):
So yep. So here's here's the thing. They need to
They need to stay moist and they need a high
quality water. Uh And I don't know the water at
your house maybe just fine for them. But if you
start seeing browning edges and tips on the leaves or
if then you probably are dealing with a poorer water
quality and little rain water would help in those. It

(02:21:39):
needs to never dry Okay, that's good. Yeah, do that,
use that as much as you can, but mainly don't
let them dry out. Blueberries and azalias cannot take drying
out completely, and in a container. The only moisture and
nutrients it can get comes out of that container. And
fortunately for you, those a half barrels are a good size,

(02:22:01):
so you can hold a lot of moisture in them.
And then get you a good fertilizer for acidic loving plants,
and there's a number of them on the market. Microlife
makes kind of a pinkish colored, pinkish reddish bag that
is for like azaleas and camellias and blueberries and other
acid loving plants. And I would use that liberally because

(02:22:24):
in the spring when they start to grow, put a
bunch of microlife in there, the acidic one, and mix
it in the soil so the microbes get to it
stays moist, and then I do it again six ten
weeks later, and then maybe a third time through the summer.
And that combination of acidifying fertilizer and the nutrients that
are with it and moist soil, you should get good growth.

(02:22:45):
And your next year should be should be be good.
The coming spring is already set. We can't do anything
to change next spring spruit set, but we can for
the future year. All right, Thank you, sir, Thank you, David,
appreciate the call. All Right, let's see here. I got
to watch my time because I've been not paying attention.

(02:23:08):
Green Pro is a company that will come out and
do core aeration and compost top dressing and do it right.
They service pretty much the northwest quadrant of Houston. So
think of Interstate forty five and I ten as forming
a quadrants four quadrants to Houston northwest. That's kind of
the green Pro area. So Cyprus, Woodland's Conrad Willis, Magnolia, Montgomery,

(02:23:33):
even Katie and West Houston. They cover all that of
all that area. Now they'll come out. They'll make really
quality aeration. And I don't mean pressing a hole in
the soil. I mean popping a deep core out of
the soil and dropping it on the surface. And then
you put a quality mix out. And they've got the
really nice, expensive equipment that spreads a nice even mix

(02:23:53):
over the whole area. And what that does is it
breathes life in the soil. It feeds the soil biology,
the good microbes that are down there. It alleviates compaction
and improves the lawn's internal drainage, the ability for it
to take in moisture not just run off. And so
if your line is struggling with drought or take all
or brown patch or chinchbugs or just foot traffic, cor

(02:24:16):
aeration and compost top dressing is the way to turn
it around. You go to greenpro Texas dot com greenpro
Texas dot com. Eight three two three five one zero
zero three two. I'm gonna give you that one more
time eight three two three five one zero zero three two.
We're gonna take a little break and we're back for
our last segment of the day. There we go there

(02:24:40):
we go. Little Huey lewis in the news this morning,
our last little bumper for Guardline. Glad to have you
with us. Here we go taking on our last segment
nine to five Texas three step. I keep telling you
about it. It's three things. It's fertilizer, it's we'd prevention,
and its disease prevention. So it's the night foss fall

(02:25:01):
special winter riser. Get it down now watered in with
a half inch of water. It's the night foss barricade
to prevent weeds, not to kill existing weeds, to prevent weeds.
Get it down now watered in with about a half
third of an inch, half inch of water. It's the
night of fass Eagle turf funge side. It prevents those
brown circles in your yard, but you gotta do it

(02:25:21):
before they show up. Get it down now, watered in,
because the roots of your grass take it up to
fight against the brown patch. One, two, three, I'd put
them all three down on the same day. Three trips
across the yon, the lawn, turn in, turn on your
irrigation system, put about half inch of water on and
you're done. Now where do you get it? You get
it and he you can get it at D and

(02:25:42):
D and Tomball that they carry night Foss products, Fisher's
Hardware and Mount Bellevue and Lake Hardware in Angleton. Simple
as that we are gonna let's see, speaking of mont Bellvue,
we're going to head out and talk to Mark right now.
Welcome to garden Line. Mark.

Speaker 11 (02:25:58):
Oh skip, how.

Speaker 3 (02:26:02):
Good? How can we help?

Speaker 8 (02:26:03):
Good?

Speaker 18 (02:26:04):
Yes, sir, hey, I sent in some pictures of my lawn.
It's zoische grass. I replaced it last March, actually was
what time is done? And now it's.

Speaker 11 (02:26:16):
Going really well.

Speaker 18 (02:26:17):
And the law mower I have unfortunately cuts high and
I want to get it cut low. So I'm thinking
a real mower would be the best. I wanted your
suggestions on this. And then how to take it down?
Do I take it down gradually? All at once?

Speaker 13 (02:26:32):
What do I do?

Speaker 14 (02:26:33):
Sir?

Speaker 3 (02:26:34):
Okay? Well, I don't. I don't have your pictures unless
they came in on a different name. But I don't.

Speaker 18 (02:26:40):
I'm not seeing Oh it's under s MB two eight
five seven.

Speaker 3 (02:26:46):
Okay, let me let me look for it while I
while I give you the answer to this. So you
can mow Zoyja with either a propeller blade mower or
a real type mower. If you're going to cut it
at least an inch and a half high than a
propeller blade mower, you could probably get by with that,
Especially at two inches high, you could. If you're going

(02:27:08):
to get down and cut it at an inch or so,
a real type mower is going to be the more
important one to do because basically you're looking at a
very low cut, and those propeller blades tend to gouge
when the ground is a little uneven, So the lower
you get, the worse off the mowing looks when you

(02:27:30):
use those. So that would be the answer. As far
as how much you can take off at a time,
I usually try to mow about a third of the
leaf off at a time. That's the ideal mowing schedule.
So the shorter you mow it, the more often you
have to mow it to follow that one third mowing rule.
And so that would be it. And if you've got
one that's just grossly overgrown, real tall, and you want

(02:27:52):
to cut it way down, you could do that all
at once. It's a shock to the grass, but it
can be done. If you're going to mow it back
very far. You better do it pretty quick because we're
kind of hitting the time when grass growth is slowed down,
and when you mow a bunch off, you end up
opening the soil to sunlight and that's when the weeds

(02:28:12):
start proliferating. Because they can get sunlight, the weed seeds
can So I might wait on that, do the mowing,
and then put down a herbicide pre emergent. Whether you
do it now it's time to put pre emerging on
now anyway, or whether you do it in the spring,
do the mowing back and put on the pre emergent
so that any weed seeds that try to sprout that

(02:28:33):
premrgon will shut them down before they become weed plants.

Speaker 18 (02:28:37):
Yes, sir, I do follow your schedule, and I think
that's the reason why law is.

Speaker 3 (02:28:42):
Doing so well.

Speaker 14 (02:28:44):
Okay, well I will.

Speaker 18 (02:28:46):
I think I'm going to do in the spring because
I I want to purchase a real mower it sounds like,
and I just got to fucking where I can get
those at and go from there. I'll send you after pictures.
I'd love to see it more on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (02:29:01):
Well send me, send me them before and after. And
I'm still not finding not finding your email, so you
may have to call in sometime talk to the producer
and make sure your email you're sending it to is
the right one. But thanks for the call mark.

Speaker 18 (02:29:11):
Yeah, all right, thank you sir.

Speaker 3 (02:29:14):
Right, all right, you bet you take care up. Had
a caller just give up, well, it's too bad because
they were about to be on garden line here, all right.

Speaker 13 (02:29:25):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:29:25):
Quality Home Products sells the generators that you need so
that you don't go without power at times when you
really need it.

Speaker 13 (02:29:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:29:34):
I maybe your job requires you to be online all
day and every day and you can't go without power
because there's important things happening. Maybe you've got a freezer
full of food and you're about to go on vacation.
What if a storm hits and the power goes out.
That's gonna be interesting. I've done that, by the way,
and it is nasty stuff. You learn all about how

(02:29:55):
to use newspaper to freshen or a freezer. Uh. Anyway,
that's a whole other story. Some of you know what
I'm talking about. Quality Home Products of Texas they sell
the Generac automatic standby generator and they sell a lot
about things too. By the way, it's not just that's
the only thing they carry. But the Generac automatic stam
By generator is the time that comes on once it's
set up. It comes on when the power goes out,

(02:30:16):
so you don't have to worry about it. Quality Home
Products monitors it from headquarters there here at Houston. By
the way, this is a Houston company, family owned since
nineteen eighty nine, and so if something happens, they can
often fix it long distance just by connecting into the generator,
or at least they can do a troubleshooting and know

(02:30:37):
what to do about it. And say, this company is
great the way they do things, the way they treat
customers and helping you find the generator you need, not
sending you selling you something you don't need. And they
are all in house. You know, they don't sub out
all their stuff. They got their own electricians for example,
and so on. They don't come out and bring in
this little thin slab that your lawnmower will knock around.

(02:30:58):
They pour a nice thick slab for that generator to
sit on, because it's gonna take a good slab to
support a good, strong generator like that. The awards that
they've won, the customer reviews. It's through the roof. Nobody
compares to Quality Home Products of Texas. So if you're
going to buy a generator, that's who you want to call.
And here's the number seven to one three Quality seven

(02:31:19):
to one three Quality. Go to the website Quality TX
dot com. Quality tx dot com. They have financing options available.
And by the way, it's a process to get a
generator set up. And we can have a storm, it
could be a we could have an ice storm in
the winter that breaks lines and knocks out power. Can

(02:31:41):
happen anytime, but go ahead and start the process. This
would be a good time to do it. In fact,
in the winter season, things are a little bit slower
around there, and so that's especially a good time to
be doing this preparations and getting things set up to
get a generator put in your property. Quality Home Products
of Texas one three Quality or QUALITYTX dot com. Well,

(02:32:05):
we have hurdled the phone grumblins today and hopefully we'll
get all that fixed next week. It's been great talking
to you this week, and I hope you'll have fun
this week. I got two things, two things I want
to suggest to you. Number one, try something new. What's
going to be new this fall. Flowers you've never grown,
grow things in a way you never have. If you

(02:32:25):
ever put together a color combination planner to beautify your
place even in the cold season, you know what I'm
talking about. Keep trying to get you to grow vegetables
and a container and things. Try something new. What's it
going to be? Number two? Have fun? Make sure you
have fun in the process gardening. Listen, we don't live
in the time when if we had a crop failure
we all started at This is not the world we

(02:32:46):
live in now. We have to worry about that pressures off.
Have fun, absolutely have fun. Letting. A named Janet Kilburn
Phillips said, there are no gardening mistakes, only experiments. I
like that. There are no gardening estate mistakes on the experiments.
That's what I like to say. And another one, here's

(02:33:07):
another one. Despite the gardener's best intentions, nature will improvise.
Isn't that true? Saint Augustine's a great grass. If it
only knew and all the other grasses knew exactly where
to stop growing, that would be so helpful. We wouldn't
have to worry about all that. All right, there you go, Uh,

(02:33:30):
let's see you gotta give one more for you here. Oh,
the worst mistake you can make is a gardeners to
think you're in charge. Gardening will humble you. Tuck to
you next weekend.