The Pruning Party

Skip Richter answers your questions all morning long!

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Crazy Gas Can you trim? Just watch him as
well go Gasses and gas.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Are so many good takes.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
The seep bason in the gassies.

Speaker 5 (00:25):
Like gas and became you dates back making not a
sound the glasses and.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Gas and sun, themons of between.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
The gasses like gas?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Can you starting and treating the gases like gas?

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

Speaker 4 (00:50):
Everything is so see.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Good morning, welcome to garden Line. Good to have you
with us this morning. Hey, if you've got a question
today about writing down this number and you can give
me a call, we can talk about it. Seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. Uh. Well,

(01:17):
I I've got some plans outside this week in the garden.
I've got a couple of projects that I'm working on.
One of them is rejuvenating some planners. I have got
some planters that the soil level is lower than it
should be in the planner. Have you ever noticed that
you fill a pot up and you put your plants

(01:39):
in it, and everything's let the level you want it,
and then a couple of years later, take a look
at it, and it's like that thing's almost it's like
two thirds full of soils that are a full or
maybe maybe it's even more shrinkage in that. And that
happens a couple of reasons. The soil settles down. Uh.
And you know, after you fluff up potting mix or

(02:00):
plant or a container mix and you put it in there,
it's going to settle down. Also, it decomposes a way.
The fancy word for it is oxidizes, but are organic
materials in the pot, they start to break down, and
they break down more and more and more leaves become compost,
Compost becomes humus. That's kind of how nature works. And

(02:21):
so when you're getting that quality soil blend to put
in the container, you're basically getting something that is significantly
broke down, but nowhere near completely broken down. And so
as a result, things settle down. Now, is that a
problem with the plant, Well not initially, but eventually you
have less and less soil volume, and they every drop

(02:42):
of water, in every molecule of nutrient that that plant
can get has to come out of that soil. So
if you've got half of a pot of soil where
you used to have a whole pot of soil. That's
just a less availability, less of a bank account for
water and nutrients. So I've got some of those that
are starting to sink down like that, and I'm going
to get it in there and fluff them up a
little bit with some fresh material. You don't have to

(03:04):
throw away old potting soil. I get that question all
the time, you know, Do I get all the old
out and put just new in? No, of course not.
Does nature do that. Nature just decays organic matter on
and on and on down the line. Now, if it's
been in there for years and years, the bottom of
that pot is going to be kind of a gooey mess.

(03:25):
It'll be very small particle sizes, prone to staying water
logged and too wet for periods of time. And so
it may be good too. If you want to dump
it out and mix in some fresh and put it
back in. You can do that. You don't have to
get rid of the old stuff. I mean, it's Nature's
organic matter just gets better and better with time in
terms of the things that it can do for plants,

(03:46):
humus and humatees and fullbic acid and humic acid and
all the things that come is that decomposition process continues
are good for the plants, So don't worry about that now.
If you had nematodes in the pot, or if you
had some root rot in the pot, yeah, okay, go
ahead and toss that off somewhere and get you some
fresh doun to start over. But no need to do that.

(04:10):
I'm just mentioning I'm gonna do that because I suspect
you probably have a container or two on the patio
that might use a little freshening up as well. So
there's something to think about. The same thing is true,
by the way, when it comes to mulches, I'm always
taken back by the question, and it comes in pretty often,

(04:32):
you know, do I'm going to get that old mulch
out of there and put fresh new mulch in. And again,
let's go to the forest and think about how nature works.
What nature does is it drops leaves on the ground,
and they are dry leaves. We call that a forest
floor mulch. Those leaves get covered by other leaves the
next leaf season when leaves drop on them, and as

(04:55):
they're covered up, they stay moist longer. They start turning
a chocolate brown color. They enter the stage that especially
British garden writers I often here, refer to as leaf mold.
And that's not like bread mold. That just means leaves
that are kind of turning chocolate ly brown. They're crumbly,
but you can still see that they're leaves. They still
have that shape of leave, maybe have broken up pieces,

(05:17):
but that's the stage they refer to as leaf mold.
And then from there it goes into a fully composted
material where you can't tell what it was before because
it's all crumbled down into small pieces. So who rakes
a forest? Nobody. I've never seen a white tailed deer
out in the forest cleaning up the floor like we

(05:39):
sometimes feel like we need to do in our landscapes.
They just leave it, they let it rot. And now
I know that some folks want their mulches to be
real pretty. You know, maybe you're buying a cedar maultch
or a pine bark maltz or a shredded wood multon
and you just want it to look nice. And even
that's fine, you can do that basically what I do
in my beds. I always have beds somewhere where my

(06:02):
leaves are going. You know, I may top them off
later with a prettier mulch on top, But remember that
about three fourths of the nutrients the tree took up
that year or in its leaves. So when you bag
those up and put them in a curb for somebody
to haul away, you are just renting fertilizer because all

(06:24):
of the nutrients that we're taking up are now sitting
in an organic form on your lawn or wherever you
rake them up from. And the decision is, do I
use these as a mulch and then return all those nutrients,
recycle them all back into the soil in a really
nice blend, because it's the blend that nature wanted to
take up when it made those leaves, or do I

(06:45):
throw them away? And the answerest for me is simple,
absolutely not, no leaf leaves the property. In fact, my
neighbors are so nice, the ones that even don't know me.
Three streets down, they bag their leaves and put them
at the curbside for me, I just think that's the
sweetest thing that they could do. And I go by
and pick them up ahead of the garbage trucks, have
a little pick up, throw it in the back. Let's
go home. We're going to make good use of you. Well,

(07:08):
anyway you get the idea, I would recommend that you
find a use for them. Maybe again that little show
placed bed you got out front. You don't want it
looking like leaves. I run over mine with a lawnmower
so they don't blow away before I put them down.
But you can find a place a compost pile or
something recycle those materials or put them in a bed

(07:29):
and then cover it with something pretty if you want
to go that route. All right, Well, there's just a
little thought and tip for the day. But anyway it
gets us roll in here, we're gonna come back. I'm
gonna take a little break here in just one second,
and we'll be back with questions if you have any
seven one three, two, one two, five eight seven four.
Now I want to talk about ACE Hardware stores before

(07:50):
we go. Ace Hardware is all over our region and
you can find my ACE Hardware stores from all the
way from Orange, Texas in the east, all the way
down to Corpus and Ort and the west, and certainly
all around the Houston area by going to ACE Hardware
Texas dot com. Ace Hardware Texas dot Com. They are
loading up right now on all of the holiday decorations

(08:12):
and things, and certainly some really cool types of lighting
that you just don't find everywhere. In fact, very difficult
some of those things to find. I always love going
into Ace Hardware store. I feel like I have all
the modern things, but at the same time I've got
some of the cool old retro stuff too, whether it's
toys and gifts or those old kinds of lights you
remember from childhood. Go to your local Ace Hardware store.

(08:35):
You can find it at Acehardwaretexas dot com. We'll be
right back. Good morning as your wake up call. By
the way, welcome back to guard Line. As always, glad
to have you with us talking gardening this morning, and
you get to set the agenda. What are your questions?

(08:56):
Happy to visit about those something if you are looking
for gifts for that person on your list, kind of
got one of everything already. About Wildbirds Unlimited, I can
tell you there are a lot of people that would
just enjoy a nice little birdhouse bird feeder. Wildbirds Unlimited

(09:16):
has got you covered on that quality seeds for the season.
By the way, you yourself, if you have not stocked
your feeders, you need to swing by wild Birds Unlimited
and let them educate you on the kinds of seeds
that birds prefer, whatever kind of birds you want to
bring in. They are nice, you know, pictures and everything
of it, so it makes it really easy easy to

(09:37):
find the ones that you want. But there's some really
cool stuff in there for gifts, and your local Wildbird's
Unlimited store has got the expertise and they've got the
items that are quality items. Maybe it's a poll that
you can hang multiple bird feeders on a very attractive
system that they have. Maybe you're dealing with squirrels getting

(09:57):
in and stealing all the bird seed. They've got bird
feeders like the eliminator that are awesome for that. I
have one and I'm telling you, squirrels can't get it.
They can't get to my bird seed anyway. Just check
them out. All you have to do is go to
WBU dot com, which stands for wild Birds Unlimited WBU
dot com forward slash Houston to find the six wild

(10:19):
Birds Unlimited stores in our area. What's he out to?
A Taska Sita? Now we're going to visit with Joe
this morning. Hey, Joe, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (10:28):
Good morning, script, love your show.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (10:35):
My question is not a gardening question. It's a skunk question.
I'm trying to okay, I'm looking for a repellent, a
skunk repellent that's under my deck.

Speaker 8 (10:53):
Thankyard Dick.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Okay, Well, I don't uh, I'm not a wildlife expert.
There are there are some publications on the agra Life
Learn website and it's a g r I L I
f E like an Agriculture and Life Agralife Learn dot
T a m U dot E d U. You can

(11:14):
go there and you can just search for skunks or
for armadillas, or for moles or gophers or whatever, and
they have a publication on them. It tells you a
lot about them. There's not a repellent that I know of.
Certainly something that smells bad, and I'll chase a skunk away.
But the thing, usually, excuse me, that's usually recommended is

(11:37):
finding out how they're getting under there and using a
screening hardware, cloth kind of material to essentially block them
out or whatever. Something that's just a screen that keeps
them out of there is going to be your best bet.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Of course, it's possible to trap them with a live trap.
But oh boy, oh boy, good luck coming away from
that without smelling like you know, I've known people that
do it and that throw a tarp over them and
then carry it out of there. But that's a nasty
mess anyway, So I would say probably screening them out.

(12:13):
It's gonna be your best bet.

Speaker 8 (12:17):
Okay, thank you, good all right, Joe, take your time.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
All right, thank you. Good luck with that man. You
take care.

Speaker 9 (12:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Wildlife, the Eggerlife Learned website has a lot of publications,
a publications that are from your local agriculture extension office
and service on all kinds of things. While I'm talking
about it, I just mentioned the wildlife parts of it,
but there's publications on a wide variety of stuff. You know,
ranchers and farmers that have questions about pastures and cattle

(12:52):
and whatnot. There's lots of those pond weeds and your
pond how to get rid of those on your farm,
to public related to food and food preservation and food
science and those of you who can and who freeze
and who dry foods and things. By the way, the
University of Georgia's got one of the best well, it
has kind of our national extension clearinghouse. When it comes

(13:15):
to food preservation information, you just have to look at
Food Preservation University of Georgia Extension and you can find
the site. I don't have it on the top of
my head, but oh my gosh, they have a ton
of information on all kinds of things. You know, does
kim che need to be need to be refrigerated or not?

(13:36):
And you know, just all kinds of stuff, just anything
related to your gardening produce and fruits and whatnot and
how to preserve them and again drying and all the
other stuff. That's a good site for that anyway, So
just telling you about some free information or out there.
You know that there is an extension service in each
of the fifty states, and they were set up years ago.

(14:00):
A fellow named Abraham Lincoln signed a law that there
were actually three laws. One. The first one created the
land grant system the university in each state to provide
information typically back in that day, on agriculture and then
food science or home what they will at that time

(14:22):
called home economics, and that would include everything from sewing
to kick cooking and canning and whatnot. Of course, now
that group of extension now deals with all kinds of
things including health related issues, heart disease and so on,
and making sure your toddler is in a safe car seat,

(14:46):
and they do checking on that for free in some counties,
and just a lot of lot of services. But anyway,
I'm kind of getting a little off the topic. And
each state got one LSU is one Texan and m
is one. Oklahoma state has one Cornells and so on.
Each state has one. And then we also have the
what we call eighteen ninety system, which it would be

(15:08):
Prairie View here in Texas. And each state also has
an extension university with that. So you can get these
information publications online. You can also go to your local
office and visit with the agents that are there. You
can ask them questions. We're fortunate here in the Houston
area we have a lot. In fact, we have more horticulturists,

(15:30):
more horticulture specialist agents than anywhere in the state. There
is an agent in Montgomery County, in Brazos County, in
Fort ben County, in Harris County. Out in Orange, let's
see Brazoria County, Galveston County. Okay, Folks, who am I

(15:51):
forgetting hope? Nobody but Anyway, we've got a bunch of
them here. Most counties across the two hundred fifty four
counties of Texas don't have a horticulture agent an agent
that serves that function. But anyway, that's what you got here,
and you should take advantage of it. That's where the
Master Gardener Volunteer Training program is. It's a program where
you get very extensive training in with the purpose of

(16:15):
you being a volunteer to help other people with their
gardening questions. It's not just a gardening class where you
learn and go home and now you're smarter and you
have pretty your gardens. It's a class to train for volunteers.
So you should call you Kunty Extension office about that
as well. I do volunteer trainings for extension offices still
off and on, and it's an excellent, excellent program full

(16:38):
of great people. You meet a lot of good fun
gardeners in that process. All right, Well, there you go.
Houston Powder Coders is the number one powder coder in
our whole region. In fact's the biggest one that you
can find in this whole area. They can take metal
that is in a bad condition, corroded, rested, are just aging.

(17:01):
You know that barbecue pit that the paint is kind
of wearing off of and it's starting to get a
little rusty haze over the top of it. Well, they
can take that and then turn it into brand new.
They clean up the equipment completely, and then they use
a process called powder coating to get a paint that
sticks very tightly to the metal and gets in all
the nooks and crannies, which is very hard to do

(17:23):
when you spray paint and they they bake it down,
and you've got you've got a brand new piece of equipment,
or a brand new piece of furniture, or a brand
new piece of artwork or a port railing or whatever.
If it's metal, call Houston Powder Coats and let them
turn it into something brand new. Over one hundred different
colors in stock, So what color do you want it

(17:45):
to be? They can do that. Here's the number two
eight one, six, seven, six thirty eight eighty eight and
here's their website, Houston Powdercoders dot com. You can send
them a picture, they'll give you a quick quote, they
will come get it, they will do the work, and
they will bring it back. If you hear my voice,
I don't care if you're out there in Columbus, Texas

(18:07):
or wherever fairly far away from us, they're gonna go
and they're gonna pick it up, they're gonna bring it back,
they're gonna do the work on it. That's Houston powder coders.
Time to take a break here in just one second,
I want to remind you about my website, gardening with
skip dot com, where you can find things like the

(18:29):
publication on how to protect your plants against frosts and freezes.
It is coming, it'll be here. Wake up one morning
and realize, oh my gosh, it's going to freeze tonight.
What do I gotta do right now? Download that publication
and read it, look at it, learn from it, and
get your supplies ready. You've been forewarned. Got us a

(18:49):
little breakfast book, you go on to your own garden line.
Good to have you with us this morning. Hey, you
got a gardening question, Well, I think I have a
gardening answer. Give me a call. Seven one three two
one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. The arbor Gate has

(19:10):
Senna and missus Claus coming out there on December third,
from ten am to one pm. That'll be that's a
Wednesday again on Sunday, December seventh, from one to five pm.
Bring your cameras, your kids and your pets. Let's get
some photos. Uh. It's his annual event out there, and
boy is it ever cool. While you're out there. By

(19:31):
the way, bring a vehicle with room for a Christmas
tree because they've got their new trees in from the
Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina. Beautiful, beautiful trees they are.
They're just outstanding. Fraser First, by the way, Fraser First
have the real short, soft needles, real thick, hardy branches.
The color is just a beautiful dark green, and you

(19:53):
get that refreshing mountain fragrance that comes along with them.
Unbelievable condition too. I mean, they get those things zipped
in here just so fresh, and they take care of
them too, so they stay that way. So get you
one and while you're out there, you can go make
one trip to get the tree and another show back
when sen and Missus Closmon be there, because that's always

(20:15):
a fun thing that they have going on. By the way,
if you have Christmas decorations and you want to kind
of you know, update everything, or maybe you need some
more of this or that or the other. They've got
you covered, from beautiful ribbons to beautiful garlands to little picks,
you know, like a little miniature gift wrapped on a
stick that you can put in. I would say it'd

(20:36):
be kind of cool to put out of your front
door and some containers or beds to have these little
things as part of your decorations as guests come over. Anyway,
it's not surprising that the Arborgate's got plenty of everything
out there, and they sure do. And while you're out
there too, don't forget it's still time you can get
some garlic in the ground, and they do. They do
have the garlic as well. If they folks have them

(20:56):
all run out there and taking it all home with them.
It's easy to grow garlic too. I would recommend you
get better. Try now. For those of you who have
never been to the Arborgate, well that's interesting because you're
the first person I've ever met that hadn't Just about.
Arburgate is west of Tombull on twenty nine to twenty,
just a little bit outside town there on the left.

(21:18):
You want to remember to turn down Tristel Road, which
is a loop, a street that goes before Arburgate, goes
around behind Arburgate and comes back into twenty twenty after Arburgate.
So if you don't see it and you pass Arburgate,
just keep looking to this left there if you're going
away from Tombule and find it because it takes you
around to the back. We had that wonderful parking lot,

(21:39):
easy safe access. You definitely need to know about that. Well.
You are listening to garden Line and we're here to
answer your gardening questions to help you have success. Gardening
is a I think it's the best hobby there is.
I know I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
So it gives you the opportunity to enjoy physical activity,

(22:06):
which is so important. It gives you the ability to
enjoy mental activity, hope and renewal and seeing things from
your hands come to life, you know, the fruit, the vegetables,
the flowers, the beautiful lawns, the attractive landscapes. It's just
a wonderful hobby. And congratulations on being a Guardenline listener

(22:30):
because you are and I think the best hobby that
there is out there, and certainly one that has many
benefits you know, even to the value of your property.
You know, you do some wise changes into your landscape
and your property becomes more valuable. And in addition to
more valuable, if you plan on selling a property, it

(22:50):
is more sellable too. You know. It's one thing for
it to be worth more in the eyes of a buyer,
it's another thing for it to not stick on the
market very much because people come by and they go,
I want that one that is gorgeous. I want to
have that one. And so there's so many benefits to gardening.
I think the best ones of all are the peace
of mind and just the enjoyable relaxing pace that gardening brings.

(23:16):
That is a pretty cool thing. Fall is the best
time for planting period. It is the best time for
planting almost everything we put in our gardens, in our landscapes.
But you know, if you listen to garden line, brown
stuff comes before green stuff, meaning fix the foundation, build
a foundation, prepare the soil before you put in the plants.

(23:39):
And Nature's Way Resources has long been a leader in
providing quality blends for the soil for your plant's success.
How does nature do it? That's the way Nature's Way
does it. Whether it's their rose soil which, by the way,
rose soil was born in Nature's Way, or high quality
leaf mold compost used for top dressing or many other

(24:00):
uses for leathal compos which was also born at Nature's Way.
It's the place to go. Nature's Way is having their
semi annual nursery clear out sale right now now through
November twenty sixth, the entire nursery stock is thirty percent
off at Nature's Way Resources. Go to the website Nature's
Way Resources dot com. You can find out about availability

(24:22):
there and also about the mini products that they carry.
You can go pick them up in bulk. You can
pick them things up by the bag. You can go
find bags at many retailers around the Houston area of
Nature's Way products, or they can deliver to you however
you want to go about it. Nature's Way Resources is
a great place to get a start and create that

(24:43):
perfect foundation that makes your plans just take off and thrive.
You're listening to Gardenline and I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and today we're talking about several different things that started
off with a little bit of a monologue this morning.
I've got some other things that I want to cover
and go over as we talk about it. One of

(25:05):
the things that I would like to talk about is pruning.
Now we are entering up into the pruning season here.
I generally do my pruning in midwinter, mid to late winter.
The reason for that is that the fastest time for
wounds to heal is in the spring. So you may
have seen these time laps photography things where like there's

(25:27):
a desert cactus flower in it, like in about six seconds,
it opens up and closes back up, you know, because
they're running the time of photography so fast. Well, if
you were to do that with a wound on a tree,
you would see the cut made in the winter, and
then in spring that cut closes very quickly, you know,
on a time lapse, and then in summer it just

(25:49):
sort of sits there, and then in fall it closes
up a little bit faster, but not like spring. Spring
is the fastest time of wound healing. So you make
a pruning cut right for spring, and it's going to
be on its way to healing very quickly. It's also
important to make the correct pruning cuts, and I'm going
to talk about that a little bit as we go
through the morning this morning. But just keep in mind

(26:10):
that we are entering the prime time for pruning almost
everything that we have out there in the landscape.

Speaker 9 (26:16):
Now.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
If you need pruning equipment like quality tools like Falco
and Corona loppers and ham printers and saws, Southwest Fertilizer
has got you covered. They have a ninety foot long
wall of tools, ninety feet of tools that you can
pick from quality tools and they first of all these
make good gifts, but just for you, just for your
pruning that you yourself want to get done. This is

(26:39):
a place to go and they can advise you. They
carry the quality brands that last forever. You get a
quality prunter from Southwest Fertilizer and you take care of
it and you don't buy another priunter unless you lose
it in the garden somewhere, because it's that kind of
quality that lasts, and it makes sense to pay for
quality and then to not over and over again to

(27:01):
buy more cheap stuff. Southwest Fertilizer corner of bussin Ut
and Runwick Southwest Fertilizer dot Com. Let's take a little break.
We'll come back with the last segment of this hour. Hey,
welcome back, Welcome back to guarden Line. If you've got
a gardening question, not a better time to call than
now Sunday Morning's all, it's kind of a quiet time.

(27:21):
So seven one three, two one two five eight seven four. Uh.
Before we went to break, I was talking about pruning,
and I want to make a few comments about pruning
in just a second here. But when I started talking
about prenting, it reminds me about trees and the RCW
tree sale that's going on right now. It is incredible,

(27:41):
unbelievable price. Citrus tree is forty percent off, Great myrtles
thirty percent off, as alias and camellias fifteen percent off.
And you know RCW, whatever kind of tree you want,
maybe you want a big, beautiful shade tree. Well this
is a company that grows their own up there in Plantersville.
This is a company that plants them for you. If
you would like that, and then you get a bigger tree,

(28:02):
you definitely need to have them plant it for you.
They do it professionally, they know what they're doing. And
so take advantage of now and take advantage of these
prices on a lot of different types of trees here
to go buy RCW and get that tree scheduled to
go into your yard. The best time to plant tree
is forty years ago. The second best time is today.
That's the saying, and it's really true. In order to

(28:25):
enjoy the benefits, let's get it in the ground, let's
get it rooting, let's get it established, so next summer
it's not so touch and go and keeping that tree alive,
and that tree will become the most valuable plant in
your landscape, because trees are just that. Whether you want
a flowering tree, whether you want a shade tree. RCW
has got you covered. Now. They don't just sell trees.

(28:46):
They've got beautiful roses. They have all kinds of shrubs
and now is the time to plant all of that
as well. Do you want some groundcovers, They've got you
covered for that. It's just a great nursery. It's a
great place and during this November you don't want to
mess out on this. They also have metal arbors and
benches and yard art. And I'll bet you can find
a pretty cool gift, maybe something for your own house,

(29:08):
but something for a gift as well from r CW nurseries.
There you go, there, the nursery that's there where Tumbull
Parkway and belt Way eight come together. So I was
talking about the printing and one of the important things,
well some important tips for printing is Number one, you

(29:28):
want sharp printers. Dull prunters. They will kill your hands.
I mean, the strain on your joints and muscles of
your hands is much greater when you have a dull
set of printers. They don't cut as well. They don't
cut clean cuts. You're more likely to tear the bark
than to slice through it very cleanly, and it's just

(29:50):
hard to do. Sharp prunters, make sure they're sharp. Second,
the type of prunters. There are some prunters that are
more of a scissor type punter. We call those bypass printers.
They work like a pair of scissors, but one side
is basically holding the branch. To the other side is
the slicing blade that comes through. Scissor types are better

(30:12):
than anvil types. With anvil types, you got a flat
surface and a blade, flat straight blade comes down up
against that flat surface as if you were using a
meat cleaver on a chopping block. That's basically what an
anvil type does. I don't like those nearly as much.
They're just harder to get good clean cuts with. I

(30:33):
like the bypass prunters better. When you use a bypassed printer,
you want to set it onto the branch so that
the blade is cutting upward, so like, don't get the
blade up in that narrow v angle cutting downward, but
instead cut upward. And the reason for that is you're
must much less likely to strip. Sometimes those blades kind

(30:55):
of push out a little bit from the part on
the other side of the branch, and it doesn't make
a good clean cut. But with cutting upward, it's just
a better way to do it. Finally, when you make
the cut, you want to make it cleanly pretty much
perpendicular to the angle of the branch itself, because as

(31:16):
you cease to be perpendicular instead of a little round cut,
when you're done, you have a long oval cut, which
means more area for the branch to heal back over,
So pretty close to the tree, but perpendicular. I can
give some more tips a little bit as we go
through this morning, but those are just a few to
keep in mind. The folks at Microlife have been making

(31:38):
professional and home fertilizers microbial products for over thirty five years.
I've been doing it for a very long time. They've
got their granular line of products, lots of quality fertilizers
and that as well as things like humates plus, which
is like concentrated compost in a bag, biological, biologically loaded

(32:03):
products that enhance and in fact introduce many types of
microbes that are beneficial into the plant's environment around the
roots that provide that extra benefit to the plant. They
also have their liquid lines of products, so many good
products here, from things that are based on like a
fish amulsion type product to a seaweed type product to

(32:25):
again a microbial enhancing type product. You can get the
liquid humans and its liquid form from them, as well
as standard types of fertilizers, all from Microlife, all dedicated
to providing things naturally for a healthier planet. Microlife Fertilizer
dot Com will give you the full list of retailers
and the fullest of their products that you can check through.

(32:47):
And I think you'll agree with me as you use them.
This stuff works. Microlife products do work. I always get
toward the end of an hour and I have to
keep glancing at my clock here because we're coming close.
I have to put this one in the books. I'm
going to continue to talk about some pruning things. I
want to mention one right now though, as we're about
to go to break, and this is an important one.

(33:10):
When you are cutting off a branch it's too big
for you to hold with one hand and let that
absorb for just a minute. That's not a very big branch.
You got to be able to cut it off with
one hand. You're holding it up here over your head
with one hand. If it's too big for that, you
need to use a three point cut. And a three
point cut is where you remove the weight of the

(33:31):
branch before you make the final cut removing the branch.
So to do that, you go out a little ways
from where the branch attaches and you cut upward from
the bottom about a third of the way through. Don't
go too far, it'll pinch your your cutting your blade.
And then you go out from that a little further
and cut down from the top, and that branch will

(33:51):
break and fall away, but that first cut prevented it
from stripping down the surface. Then the third cut is
the one where you hold the little stuff you just
made and you cut it off properly at the exact
right spot, and you can find information like this all
over the place. You do a search for three point
cut printing cut, three point printing cut, you'll get diagrams

(34:13):
showing you how to do it. Trust me, I don't
know how many people have said, Oh, I don't want
to go to three cuts. I'm just gonna cut that
thing off real fast so it didn't struck. Yep, don't
do it. You've been forewarned. Anyway, there's a few tips.
We got plenty more coming today. Good to have you
listening with us. If you would like to get on

(34:35):
the boards for a call and be first up when
we come back seven to one three two one two
five eight seven four. I'll grab me a cup of coffee.
You do the same, and we'll meet here with both
our eyes open, ready to talk.

Speaker 8 (34:46):
Garden.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skimp Rictor.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
It's yes, Trim.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Just watch him as many.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Teas septs not a sid credit, says.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Salamon of three.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Starting. Good morning, folks, Good to have you with us
this morning. Hey, what are we going to talk about today?
You tell me seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty

(35:50):
eight seventy four. I have talked to you about the
three sixty tree stabilizer a number of occasions. But basically,
for those of you who aren't from with it, what
this is. It is a device, I guess you could say,
an invention, a cool new invention. It grabs a hold
of the tree. It grabs a hold of a t
post right beside it, or not right beside it, about

(36:11):
a foot and a half away, and it holds it
securely but allows movement. That is important. When you honker
a tree down and it can't move it all, that
trunk does not develop strength like it should. It's a
principle of nature that when you stress things, they get
stronger when you bend and stretch and things. That's why
working out our muscles has the effect that it does well.

(36:32):
This tree stabilizer strap is soft. You can set it
loosely to allow a little bit of movement and it
is very effective. You don't got wirestre trip over, you
have things to mow around and whatnot like that. Just
check it out. You're gonna find the three sixty tree
stabilizer at places like Hoorgeshad and gardens see in a Mulch,
Buchanan's Native Plants, and arbor Gate, all places that carry

(36:53):
in our area the three sixty tree stabilizer. If you're
going to plant a tree, you need.

Speaker 9 (36:58):
To have one.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
Let's go out to Spring and we're going to visit
with Phil this morning. Hello, Phil, Welcome to Garden.

Speaker 10 (37:04):
To Skip Thinks Skip. I had a question about something
that showed up in the yard within the last two weeks.
You saw, all of a sudden, we dug some of
this up and took it to the hardware store and
they identified it as a Japanese brown orchid. Have you

(37:25):
heard of that.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Japanese brown orchid? How did they come up with that
diagnosis or identification.

Speaker 10 (37:36):
Well, one of the guys there had had this come
up in his yard already, and I'm not sure he's
a master gardener, but there is one there, and he
pulled it up on the website and that's what it
looks exactly like that. It looks like it's got a
ton of bulbs on the bottom of it, and some

(37:56):
of them are really huge.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
So I was just trying to figure out there's an orchid.
There's an orchid called Japanese brown orchid. Okay, that is weird.
Can you can you describe it to me, just just
kind of a rough description.

Speaker 11 (38:17):
Uh.

Speaker 10 (38:17):
Well, it's got a green the green shoots come up
like you know, it would be an orchid, but on
the it has uh, it has a ton of bulbs
on the bottom of it. I mean, my wife dug
up one out of the flower bed, which was in
kind of an area of heavy compost, so it was

(38:38):
easy to get everything out, and the bulbs had gotten
very large. And I pulled some up out of the
yard or dug it up out of the yard, and
it had a lot of it had bulbs on it.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
They were at the.

Speaker 10 (38:51):
Smaller stage at that point. But apparently it develops a
ton of these things.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Okay. And did they say it was an invasive.

Speaker 10 (39:04):
Or they said it was an invasive species?

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Okay, Well, I think I know a weed that may
fit the description you're talking about. But I'll tell you,
what do you do. You happen to have any that
you could just take a picture of and send to me.
I could, yes, Okay, why don't we do that and

(39:30):
we can be sure there is one that is a
very invasive little weed. But it comes up and you
don't have any leaves on it at all. It's just
a little short stalk with some or somewhat orchid like
flowers on it. That is very I don't want, no, no, okay,
well then that's that. That's fitting the what I'm talking
about stalk. The blooms kind of have a little bit

(39:55):
of a violet color to them. But anyway, take a
if you send it to me, and and that way
we'll just quick guessing.

Speaker 10 (40:04):
These haven't gotten the stage where they would produce any
blooms we have let him get that that far. I
was primarily looking at a way to kill it because
it is difficult to get it out of the grass.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
I need I need a picture. Let's just do that, okay,
all right, we will send me a picture. We'll take
a look at it. The weed I'm thinking of is
called broom rape or b r O O m R
A p E. I don't think that's Some of the
things you're saying make me think that it's not broom rape.
But anyway, that is a that is a booger that's

(40:42):
in very invasive. Uh so, uh, you might want to
google that, but send me a picture of it and
let me see what you got. And we'll we'll we'll
go from there if you want to. If you get
the picture to me for the end of the show
and call back. Okay, okay. Well we're going to church
here in a little while, so it may not'll be.
But this just this just all showed up all of

(41:02):
a sudden. It was really surprising. Okay, let me and
all right, one more earthquake.

Speaker 10 (41:13):
Well, the the question is I've been dealing with this.
I guess that's a nutgrass variant called kaisingo.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Is that correct, kai Linga? Uh huh Kaylinga Okay.

Speaker 10 (41:25):
And the question was it produces all these little sprout
sprouts with a ton of seeds on them, so I
you know, I've been killing the actual plant with sedge hammer.
And my question was, when when you kill a plant,
it doesn't kill the seeds? It doesn't, no, or does it?

(41:52):
That's what I was. That's what I just want to
clarify because I always pick them off and the max
that I see him and they ask the plant Okay,
thank you very much, Skip.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Okay, all right, well look forward to getting that picture.
We're going to get the bottom of this and figure
it out. Okay, thank you. Grant appreciate that very much.
You bet alrighty, mystery weed. Hey, plants for all seasons.
They've they've got in their trees, they've got in their
their decoration. Beautiful, beautiful whence that is out there, but too,

(42:22):
by the way, get bye there before other people come
and get the one you want. They've got a nice
selection plans. Fall season has been around since nineteen seventy three.
The Flowery family has and does run this place. They
are true lawn and garden experts. They know what they're
talking about. You can take them pictures, you can take
them samples, you can just you can even go in
and say, here's a picture in my yard. What would

(42:45):
you suggest in this area? What are some shrubs? It
might be good there, and you know they can help
in that way. This is a full service nursery and
whether you're looking for quality plants, quality pottery, nice Christmas
gifts and beautiful gift shop inside, this the place to go.
They've got everything from the brown stuff that you prepare
with to the green stuff that you put in. Plants

(43:07):
for all seasons. Dot com two eight, one, three, seven, six,
sixteen forty six. We're going to take a quick break
when we come back Sue in Houston, you'll be our
first up. Hey, welcome back. For good to have you
here on Guardenline Blessed Dog Gardens. Heirloom Soils has been
making airlom quality soil products for a long long time.

(43:30):
We're talking about people that understand how to properly take
organic materials and turn them into garden gold. This is
a company that whether you're looking for something for a
vegetable or herb garden, or for fruit tree planting, whether
you're looking for a mix for potting up your cactus
and succulents or tropical types of houseplants, whether you want

(43:51):
you to go out there and plant some fruit trees,
whatever you want, and the landscape beds, and on and
on and on. Airloom Sols has got you covered. You
can go to the website Heirloom sol Oil dot Com.
Check it out, look at all the products that they
have available by bulk. You can have it delivered, you
can go pick it up out importer if you want
to do that. You can also buy it by the
bag all over town. Widely available products from Heirloom Soils

(44:14):
Heirloomsoils dot Com. We're going to go now to Houston
and talk to Suell. Hello Sue, and welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (44:24):
Hi Skip, thank you for taking my call. My pittosporum plants,
the outer part of the leaves are turning yellow. The
inside of the leaves.

Speaker 8 (44:35):
Okay, it's green.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Okay. Do you happen to know if you're seeing this
at the ends of the shoots more or further down
the shoots, in other words, the young leaves or the
older leaves.

Speaker 12 (44:52):
It's well, it's kind of hard to tell it. It's
mostly on the outside of plants. It's not we have
new we have new growth, but I don't think it's
on the new growth there. They're very small new growth
leaves and they're just now coming out. But this has

(45:15):
been going on for several weeks.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
Okay, well, uh, you know, I tell you so, I
really need a picture to give you an accurate answer. Uh.
There is a chance that what you're seeing is some
iron deficiency. Being on the outside of the planet. That
tends to be where the newer foliage is, and the
yellowing of that newer foliage is often related to an

(45:42):
iron deficiency. But if I saw the actual leaves in
a photo, I think I might change my mind about
that because I'll see some things that I'm.

Speaker 12 (45:51):
Not I'll be glad a picture also.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Yeah, let's do that. Give me some close up ones
when you do.

Speaker 12 (46:00):
Okay, our sprinkling system is about twenty five years old
and we're kind of thinking of redoing that. So would
you recommend a company.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yeah, the folks at Peerscapes do that kind of work.
They I don't know exactly where you're located. You'd have
to talk to them and see if they're going to
cover the area that you're in. But Peerscapes can do
that kind of irrigation work depending on where you're located. Okay,
are you north, south, east, west, central, which direct? Which direction?

Speaker 12 (46:37):
Yeah, we're in the southwest, we're off of we're in
tangled south.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
Okay, tang tangle what a all right? Well send me
that picture and remind me of your your question about
the irrigation and I'll give you a reply to both
of those and we'll go from there.

Speaker 12 (46:56):
Okay, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Put you on I'm gonna put you on, Yeah, don't go.
I'm gonna put you on hold, and my producer is
going to give you an email that you send those
pictures to make sure they're in sharp focus and let
me see the whole bush, and then let me see
some close ups of what you're describing. And I look
forward to receiving those, Thank you very much. Nelson Plant
Food has a number of quality products out there that

(47:19):
are part of their nutris Star line. One of those
products is the nutri Star Genesis Transplant Mix. This is
a product that is the first retail blend by Nelson's
to incorporate macariza, bacteria and fungi to enhance your soil's
micro biome. You mix it in to the container soil

(47:40):
that you're going to be planting into, or to the
ground the outdoor soil in the ground that you're going
to be planting into, and then you set in the
plant and watered in really well. It helps minimize the
transplant shock by enhancing the soil and feeding that plant's
new developing root system. It's easy to use and it works. Joeys.

(48:00):
You always should have someone hand on the shelf because
anytime you're going to plant, you take it with you
and you do that. I'm going to be moving some
cuttings that I rooted into little containers this week and
as I do that, the soil that I'll use for
the containers is going to have Nelson Nutristar Genesis transplant

(48:22):
mix in it, and I know how they're going to
perform because I've done this before from the folks at Nelson.
You know, Nelson family has been out there in Katie
since the late eighteen hundreds. They make their own fertilizers
right here in the Houston area, and this family owned
brand is one you can depend on. All right. Phone
number for Garden Line if you'd like to give me

(48:44):
a call seven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. We're glad to visit with you and help
you find success in what you are wanting to do.
I've been talking about today and earlier was talking about
the best time to prune being in late winter before

(49:07):
new growth begins. And one reason for that, by the way,
is when a plant is fully dormant, the bark is
it tends to stick tight to the wood underneath it.
As the sap begins to flow and that plant is
ready to start growing, it loosens up and you can
peel the bark off like a banana skin. It just

(49:28):
a banana peel. It just it just strips away very easily. Now,
when you prune and it's the bark is as we say, slipping,
it very likely that you're going to get some tearing
of the bark and some damage. Ain't a good thing.
Ain't no good thing, because it is very difficult for
wounds like that to heal, and they're going to be

(49:49):
very slow to heal, and so you'd rather avoid that.
So what we're aiming for is getting our pruning done
before that starts, which is why we say and the
dormant I'm a winter is the best time for printing
those things. Now, if what you're printing, though, is a
plant that is coal tender, like a citrus, for example,

(50:10):
I wouldn't prune those in the middle of the cold
because we get some warm weather, you may get a
little bit of growth going on, and then the next
cold snap that's going to be especially sensitive to damage.
So what you want to do is through most things
during the dormant period of winter, and then some of
the tropicals and things I'll prune as we begin growth

(50:30):
or even into the summertime. It's a good time to
put some quality work out there and make sure those
things are looking their very very best. If you haven't
been down to Jorgez Hidden Gardens, just a swing down there.
This is a garden center for all of you down
south of Houston. It's actually on Alvin address. It's it's

(50:53):
in between Alvin and Santa Fe and the the garden
center itself is on Elizabeth Street south of the Highway six.
They're open Tuesday through Friday from nine to three and
Saturday and Sunday from eight to four. It's a family operation.
Horayes wife and as even as kids get involved. You
show up on a weekend, you may even get greeted

(51:15):
by the kids out there in the parking lot if
you get out of the car. Lots of quality, quality
shrubs and trees. You know, the place began as an
as a live oak nursery and has grown now into
a full surface nursery. Lots of fruit trees. You're gonna
find vegetables and herbs and flowers and lots of other
things there at Jegees Hidden Gardens. Or he will come

(51:35):
out and you'll plant those trees for you too. Maybe
you want a beautiful southern magnolium. Maybe you want that
beautiful spring blooming Chinese fringe tree or a live oak,
or all kinds of other plants or Haes got them
at Hoorges Hidden Gardens. Here's a phone number seven to
one three six three two fifty two ninety seven one

(51:56):
three six three two fifty two ninety or his own
special blend of fertilizer made by the folks at Nelson
Plant Food. And he carries the three sixty tree stabilizer
that you just heard me talking about a little bit ago.
Let's go now to Clearlake and we're going to visit
with Mario this morning. Hey, Mario, welcome to garden Line.

(52:20):
Thanks Kif. How are you today.

Speaker 8 (52:23):
I've got a situation.

Speaker 9 (52:25):
Good.

Speaker 8 (52:25):
I'm glad to hear that. I have a situation with
my lawn and I don't know if it's serious or
what to do about it. And one of my neighbors
called it something nuts something. These little uh weed like
things are sprouting up all over my lawn and I'm
wondering what I can do about that, if anything, at
this time of the year.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Okay, well, I'm going to assume that it is nuts edge.
There are some other weeds that look somewhat like that
one called Kailinga for example. But I'm gonna assume it's
it's nuts edge. Of a neighbor looked at it and
told you that's what it is. That's cause enough for us.
We're gonna recommend. We're gonna recommend that you get a
product called sedge hammer. Now that's a brand sedge hammer. Uh.

(53:13):
The the ingredient we're looking for is in it is
called halo sulfur on. So just think of a halo
like rind your top of your head, and so halo
sulfur on. If you will go to my website gardening
with Skip dot com, there is a publication called Nutsedge

(53:33):
nutsedge and in depth. Look you can download it printed
out and it explains to you how to go about
controlling nutsedge. But halo sulfur on is the product that
you're gonna want to use if it's when it's in
flower beds, especially, but also on the line. It works
very well.

Speaker 8 (53:53):
And can I put that down?

Speaker 9 (53:55):
Now?

Speaker 3 (53:58):
You know you could try. You'll get some benefit from it,
but that nuts edge will have formed additional nuts that
haven't sprouted yet, So in spring you're gonna think, oh,
I didn't do any good at all. And that's all
the daughter tubers that are underground that are coming up,
and you have to hit it again then and then
stay with them. That's what the publication explains is the
importance of never letting it up to form a bunch

(54:20):
of leaves and recapture sunlight and replenish the tubers and
form more tubers. Otherwise you're just you're just going backwards.

Speaker 8 (54:31):
Okay, Well, skip as you usual. You're very helpful, and
thanks again for you for all of your good information.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
All right, but you take care. Thanks for the call. Mary,
appreciate that our phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. Pest pros is staying really
busy right now. Is busy with randall the other day?
Uh and it you know, of course they're always doing
past what we think is pest control. You know the

(55:01):
six legged creatures that are that are all over, from
termites to cockroaches to fire ants outside right now, it's
the four legged creatures that they're busy with. It cools
off and the rats and mice and other things larger.
One of the creatures that go bump in the night.
They want to head up into your attic where it's
a nice warm place to be.

Speaker 10 (55:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
They come out, pest bros. That is, they will come
out and they'll evaluate the property. They'll look at places
see where pests may be getting in. Their professionals, they
know what to look for and it would surprise you
where pest can get in. And they'll make sure and
seal all those out and take care of the situation
for you. Thepestbros dot Com two eight one two oh
six forty six seventy two eight one two zero six

(55:45):
four six seven zero. We'll take a break. We'll be
right back. Don't go away. Well already, alrighty, we're back.
Welcome back to the Guardline folks. Hey, we got a
lot more to talk about today. Glad you are with us.
Hope you're having a beautiful Sunday morning, a wonderful Sunday morning.
It will be a great day today. We just we're

(56:06):
just in a string of what do they call it, Oh,
my gosh, chamber of commerce weather there you go. I
couldn't think of the chamber of commerce. And this is
this is the kind of stuff that gardeners live for.
Right there. I mean, we just love getting out in
this kind of stuff. We've got a break from the heat,
so we can enjoy ourselves out there and nice little

(56:28):
clear skies at least to enjoy that as well. Uh
Medina products, there's so many of them to talk about,
you know, you kind of like where do you begin,
because there's so many good ones. You know, I talked
about has to go six twelve six all the time
because that's a great one for drenching into plants that
you're planting. With that high phosphorus content. You get a
real good support for root development on that. But I

(56:51):
want to talk about their humic acid. Humic acid or
it's kind of a liquid form of humus if you will.
It's again concentrated post is basically what humous amounts to
now humate humic acid from the folks. At Medina has
both the humic and the fulvic acids. Now you may
be thinking acid. I don't put acid on my plant. Well,

(57:11):
nature does it and has forever been doing it. As
decomposition occurs in organic matter, it hits the human status.
Those are naturally present and they have many very beneficial
effects to your plant as well as especially to the
soil and the soil structure itself. It is a very

(57:31):
important thing to make sure that we stick with the
things that nature does take advantage of that, and that's
exactly what's happening when you use Medina humate liquid humous product.
You want that natural plant to soil relationship, good fertilizer,
uptake the trace minerals that the plant needs. They can
tie up in the soil in many cases and it

(57:53):
helps keelate them. What does kelate mean? Keylate is well,
basically it's it's from a Latin word which means like claw.
So take your hand and reach out and imagine you're
grabbing onto a tennis ball and your fingers are going
all the way around it. Your hand is the key
lading or particle that is holding on to the nutrient

(58:14):
and the soil can't have it. Your hand's got the
tennis ball and it goes up to the plant and
the plant gets the nutrient that it needs. That's what
a key late amounts to. That's my way of saying it.
At least hum humate humic acid from the folks at
Medina can do just that and many other beneficial effects
from it as well, yep. Like other Medina products are

(58:35):
widely available to feed stores, garden centers all through our
and ace hardware stores all through our Houston Greater Houston area. Here,
we're going to head out now to Lake Conroe and
talk to you guitar day this morning. Hey Dave, what's
up today? Hey?

Speaker 6 (58:53):
Sugarcane. But he only went to Bailville there and picked
up our turkey. Yeah, we went by the age there
and then talk with them. They were all nice. They
were so nice. Hey, but on sugar chaney, Oh it's big,
you know, so they were all very very nice and there. Hey,

(59:14):
I'm in my backyard right now. It's a little bit
cool back here, you know. I'm right here own Lake
Conrod anyway, and uh, you know, I got my jacket on.
But on playing the sugar tane, I'm thinking about playing
it in a corner over here and then uh, because
I can cut it off at the stalks or what
do I need how do I need to do eat stalk?

Speaker 9 (59:37):
Or what do I need to do?

Speaker 3 (59:40):
Play well? Sugar cane? Is it?

Speaker 9 (59:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Sugarcane's a running type of grass, you know, so think
about bermuda grass. It's going to spread out in all directions.
Sugarcane is of course very tall and upright, and you
want those big thick, tall upright stalks for harvesting. I
would probably you could put it in a corner. Just
keep in mind that it it doesn't understand where property is,
so you don't want your neighbors going, hey, your sugarcane's

(01:00:05):
taking over in my backyard here, So I would. I
would put it where you can control it too, from
all the other directions. But it's a makes a nice
tall grass.

Speaker 6 (01:00:15):
That's a good idea.

Speaker 10 (01:00:16):
That's a very good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Plenty of sunlight, plenty of sunlight.

Speaker 6 (01:00:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's where I'm looking at right now, because
the sun's coming up to my left and where I'm
looking at right now, and uh yeah, and it is
a little cool at it. At least I got my
jacket on. But yeah, I'll plan a little more up
on a hill over here and then uh that way
whenever it rains, because we got a lot of water

(01:00:43):
run off over here. But anyway, no other than that,
just like wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving and thank y'all
for everything, you know, thank God for us. Oh my
my leukeini squashes blooming up me name, bluming up, but
they're picking up. Oh we're big times, so I'm doing good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
Oh good, good, You're good to go. Hey on that sugarcane.
Last thing you need to do, though, is you need
to call the Imperial Sugar Company and tell them they're
about to have some raw competition, so they might want
to prepare them.

Speaker 6 (01:01:20):
Listen this, can you hear me, yes, sir, I can
he Yeah, Hey, yeah, I did work for im Sugar.
I mean I did. I did.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
There. They didn't they didn't make you sign they didn't
make you sign a non disclosure agreement or a non
competition agreement. Okay, hey, Dave, thank you. Thanks, good to
talk to you. As always, you have a good rest
of your day. All right, there you go. Yeah, you

(01:01:53):
can grow sugarcane down here, guys. In fact, South Louisiana
got quite a sugarcane industry over the years. Loves are
our climate down here anyways? Kind of fun. When I
was a kid, I can't remember which of my aunts
or uncles or somebody in the family grew sugarcan I
don't remember who it was, but they've had a little
bit of patch in the back and we would go

(01:02:15):
out and cut those little sections and chew on them
just you know, your kid. It's sweet, it's fun. It's
where sugar comes from. Oh one of the places sugar
comes from. Who that'd be another that'd be a good quiz.
What kind what plants is sugar made out of? Everybody's
gonna get sugar cane first, but there's some others. There's
type of beat that is a source for sugar as well.

(01:02:36):
All right, but I digress into fun facts and our
goal isn't to do just that. Have you been to
Buchanans Native Plants in a while? You need to go
and if nothing else, you need to get out there
to Buchanans when they're having their big Holidation dig that
they have all every year all the time. Every year

(01:02:58):
they this comes around and they bring Santa out. I
mean it's a shindig where it's called the Holiday open
House by the way, all kinds of things for kids,
and it's at Buchanans which is on Eleventh Street in
the Heights. This is a free event, doesn't cost anything.
I mean, they have drinks and all kinds of stuff.
There certainly some music, live music, so plan on that.

(01:03:21):
On December sixth, which is a Saturday, from ten am
to three pm, so five hours of this event. Now,
when you're out there, you've got to load up on
all the cool stuff. Their gift shop is set up
for Christmas and it's just gorgeous. Just going in I
might even try to describe it, but the ornaments and

(01:03:43):
everything unbelievably beautiful. Go in and check that out, so
allow yourself some time to do that. Also, get ready
to come home with your Norfolk Pine, with your point sets,
with your Christmas trees. Buchanans is set up for all those.
In fact, i'd suggest go ahead to get the Christmas
trees rather than even wait till the third, because they

(01:04:03):
are going to be going out of there. People love
their Christmas trees and the condition they're in and quality
and everything like that. Let's see. I want to remind
you that on Tuesday, that is on this Tuesday, they
are having their Harvest Flower workshop. Okay, this Harvest Flower

(01:04:23):
workshop will be at Buchanans. You don't need to know
anything about floral arranging, you just come and learn. Now.
The spaces are limited and I haven't talked to them
in the last few days to see if they still
have spaces open, but you should give them a call
because it's Tuesday the twenty fifth, from twelve to one,
so one hour over the noon hour. Have Buchanon's on
eleven Street and the Heights. Now you can go to

(01:04:44):
the website and find out more information, find out about
getting tickets and whatnot. But check it out, make sure
and if you're thinking about doing it, go ahead and
do it quickly because this is a popular event and
you don't want it to fill up before you have
a shot at it. Fun thing to do out there
at Buchanan's. Native Plans. Well, I'm going to take a

(01:05:05):
little final break for this last segment here coming up,
and I'll be right back in just a moment with
your calls at seven one three, two one two five
eight seven four. We had a discussion the other day
about what a sock hop was. Had some colors call
in and make that I got a fun, fun fat

(01:05:27):
lots of Personally, you're listening, you don't know what sock
op is gonna go look at us. You pretty much
need that song because you do a sock cops. All right,
welcome back to the garden line. Good have you with us, folks, Uh.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help
you have success. That is my goal. I actually have
two goals. I want you to have success, and I

(01:05:47):
want you to have fun in the process. Fun listening
to the guarden line, fun gardening.

Speaker 12 (01:05:52):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
And I want it to be beautiful and bountiful out
there all over the place, because that is achievable. And
you know what the secret to having sex us with
gardens and things is. And this is a quote from
I don't know who said it a long time ago,
but anyway, it's the secret of my success. I think
you said something along these lines. Secret of my success

(01:06:14):
has been in has come with learning to see things
from a plant's point of view. I butchered the quote,
but the facts the same, learning to see things from
a plant's point of view, and that is true. You know,
someone plants a rose bush and it's not blooming, and
it's just not blooming. And they're doing this, they're taking
care of it and it won't bloom. And they go
up and they ask the plant, put a microphone in

(01:06:35):
the plant's face and say what's up. And they go,
I'm not getting any sunlight. I have to have sunlight
to make carbohydrates. Carbohydrates make blooms, carbohydrates to make fruit,
and I'm not getting any. So seeing thing from a
plant's point of view means, if you've got a plant
that's gonna bloom or fruit almost without exception a few
things bloom in the shade, you got to give it sunlight.

(01:06:56):
That's seeing things from a plant's point of view. My
roots are drowning. They can't get oxygen, geno and roots.
I'll anthropomorphize here, but do you know roots breathe in oxygen.
They have to have it or they'll althy die. They
need oxygen. And so you put them in soil, heavy
clay soil. You keep it soggy, sop and wet, and
you know, stick your head down in the bathtub and

(01:07:18):
try to breathe. I mean, that's what they're trying to do.
It's not going to work. See things from a plant's
point of view, and that's really what horticulture's about. Now,
how do you find out what a plant's point of view?
As well? Over the years, there's a lot of research
done to learn about what plants want to find out.
And then there's the folks that just get out there
and do it, and year in and year out, their

(01:07:40):
experiences and things make them a better and better gardener.
You keep getting better and you never get there. I've
been doing this for well, my whole life. I've been gardening,
but professionally for over thirty five years now, in fact
thirty eight years, because I did it before I came

(01:08:00):
to Texas Extension. Anyway, I've been doing it for a
long time, and there I learned something every day almost.
I mean, there's always more to learn. You never finish.
You never finish. And you hear me here on garden
line get questions about all kinds of things, and there's
always some unusual ones, you know, like this orkid that's

(01:08:20):
taken over the lawn kind of question that came in today.
I want to see that picture because I'm not sure
what they're talking about there. It's always a learning day
as we are gardeners. That keeps us young, that keeps
it fun too. And just remember our former president, let's see,

(01:08:41):
Thomas Jefferson was the one who said this, though I
am an old man, I am but a young gardener.
And that is a fact. You always gardening keeps you young.
Sometimes gardening makes you old too, when when you fight
something over and over again and you just can't seem
to get ahead of it, like torpedo grass or whatever.

(01:09:02):
But anyway, I think gardening is a great hobby. So
there we There we are. That's your philosophical moment for
the day. Let's see here, where are we We're about
to close up this eight o'clock hour. I'm talking about
pruning a lot today, so I'm just gonna keep talking
about pruning. Another principle of pruning is that plants that

(01:09:23):
bloom only in the spring are bloomed, are pruned after
they bloom mostly, and plants that bloom repeatedly through the
year are pruned in winter. Because plants that bloom bloom
only in the spring are blooming on old growth, last

(01:09:44):
year's growth. Take a peach tree, for example. That peach
tree right now is dropping leaves and going into the
winter season, and it already has the buds for next year,
so that we call that old growth last year's growth.
It's gonna bloom on last year's growth, and so you
prone it wintertime, and it will it will. We prune

(01:10:06):
peach trees in the wintertime as the exception, I should say,
because they produce so many blooms that we don't want
the tree to have that many fruit, and so we
punt it for strength to the tree. But other things
that bloom only in the spring, that would be like
a spyriea or bridles wreath. That would be if you

(01:10:27):
came from a place where furcythiore has grown. That is
that flowering quints we grow down here bloom only in
the spring. And there's others. Ladybank's rose is a once
blooming rose. If you prune them now or in the winter,
you're cutting off all their bloom buds. Again, with fruit trees,
it's the exception, because we're not growing them to have
a giant blooming tree. We're growing them to have a

(01:10:47):
fruiting tree. But for all the others, you wait until
after they bloom that Lady Banks rose, and you get
the bloom show. Then you do the pruning, and all
is good going forward from there. Now, plants that bloom repeatedly,
they're blooming on new growth. Roses are that way, so
we prune them in the winter and when the new

(01:11:08):
growth comes out, it's got a rose on the end
of the shoot. That's how that works. And salvias are
that way, and a lot of other plants are blooming
on the ends of the shoots of new growth. The
only enders of bloom on the ends of new growth,
so we prun those in the wintertime. That's kind of
how you divide those two. Hope that well I didn't
confuse it with the fruit tree exception, but anyway, that's

(01:11:29):
how you divide those two up. So that's how you
know when to prune is when is the bloom time
for it? Now, when bloom when plants set their bloom buds,
and those bloom buds go through winter. Typically those kind
of plants also have to have a certain amount of
cold for the little bud inhibition chemicals to break down,

(01:11:51):
so that plant can bloom when the weather warms up
a little bit. And that's the way we pick our
fruit trees, according to the chilling hours that we get
in the area where we live. So there's a few
more few more tips there on pruning. And by the way,
what percentage of the tree under ideal conditions that a
peach or an apple or a pear or something like

(01:12:11):
that sets should be allowed to stay on the tree
is fruit for the tree to produce the answer is
about ten percent for many things, especially peaches. So if
you have a thousand ballooms on a peach tree, you
only need about one hundred of those, okay, to make peaches.
That'd be a big tree. But you remove most of
them so you can prune a bunch away when you're

(01:12:33):
doing your pruning, and then you're going to thin them
out to the proper distance apart. Maybe we'll talk about
that more next spring. But you're going to thin them
out because if the tree is overloaded, Number one, you're
going to get limb breakage. But also you're going to
get a bunch of small fruit that just don't develop
because of the competition between the fruit. I like to

(01:12:55):
refer to it as pits with skin on them. Imagine
that a peach bit with some skin on it. That's
a kind of fruit you get when you don't thin it.
How far apart do you find them? Apples pears one
per cluster, preferably the middle big bloom. And for peaches,
open your hand as wide as you can and see
how far is it from the tip of your little

(01:13:15):
finger to the tip of your thumb. That's how far
peaches should be apart. On a branch. How about plums.
Close that hand and reach and grab the branch like
you're grabbing the broomstick. How far is it from one
side of your hand to the other side, In other words,
how white is your palm? That's how far you leave
prune plumps on a tree when you're thinning. Just a

(01:13:38):
few tips right there, you know it?

Speaker 5 (01:13:40):
Cool?

Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
All the things we have built in on our bodies
for measuring, you know, with the the man's thumbs, about
an inch the length of that first section on your
index finger. It's about an inch for a lot of people.
That's about how deep you plant your onions, About the
depth of first little crease in your fingers. All right,

(01:14:01):
let's take a break here. We got a call coming in.
We'll pull that up first, if you'd like to be
next seven one three, two, one two five eight seven four.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skip Richard's shoes.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Crazy here listening, gas can trim, just watching as woods.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
Us so many good thanks to sup bat basic gas
gas can.

Speaker 5 (01:14:37):
You subles not a sound credit the glass gas.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Sun beam and down between gas starting.

Speaker 3 (01:14:57):
Hey, good morning, folks, welcome back guard Line. I talk
all the time about brown stuff before green stuff, meaning
prepare the soil before you plant the plants, which means
build the soul's bank account of everything the plants need.
That includes, by the way, oxygen in the soil, which

(01:15:17):
is what a nice quality compost can help bring. It
includes stimulating microbial activity. But it also includes the nutrient
bank account. And I like to say bank account because
that is an analogy that provides nice clarity to it,
meaning that you put money in the bank and later
you need money, well, the money's in the bank, you

(01:15:38):
can take back out. That is a bank account, right.
So what about nutrient bank accounts? That means all of
the seventeen nutrients that plants need to go through their
functions and survive, plus others that are benefits to human health.
Those nutrients are in the bank accounts so the plant
can take them up day by day by day. And
that includes micronutrients which is what azomites approp supplies. We

(01:16:00):
have our regular fertilizers with the three numbers on the bag,
the big three nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and there's others are
secondary and whatnot. But the trace minerals the stuff that
is in azamite. This is really just as important, although
needed in smaller amounts. That's why we see trace. We
just need a little. But don't let the quantity needed

(01:16:25):
be the same thing in your mind as the importance
of the nutrient, because things that we only need a
tiny amount of are still essential, and that's why we
consider asmite an important addition into the soil. Now you
can find more on asmit by going to azimite texas
dot com. Bottom line is it's mind out of the
ground in you toass so it's a naturally derived product

(01:16:47):
and it's put out at any time of the year
you want to put it out. You don't have to
do it when you're fertilized, although it's often convenient because
you already got the spreader out there and you're already
heading out. You just have to change the setting between
your fertilizer and when you apply to a MI because
the particle size is going to be different, most likely.
Asomite texas dot com for more info, we're gonna go

(01:17:07):
now up to Mike and Willis. Hello, Mike, Welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 9 (01:17:13):
Yeah, how do you doing? I get a problem with snakes? Uh?
And I had a question on propagating blueberries.

Speaker 3 (01:17:24):
Okay, I've been using bah.

Speaker 9 (01:17:26):
I've been using bait yeah about every week and no luck.
Still well I've got a little bit better. I just
know my beat. Some to eat my beat. I think
it's c.

Speaker 3 (01:17:44):
Yeah, it could be, it could be.

Speaker 9 (01:17:49):
Is there a spray versus a bait for uh snails?

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
Well, no, the regular approach for snails is to use
a eight around the garden in order to have best success.
You want a fresh bait, not one that's sat out
in the storage shed at one hundred and twenty degrees
all summer, you know, or things like that. A fresh bait,
and you want to put out enough of it where

(01:18:16):
the snails are going to encounter it where they are uh,
and they will feed on it and it will kill them.
There are different There are two basic general types of bait.
One of them contains a chemical called metaldehyde, and it's
a poison for snails. It also has other things that

(01:18:37):
you know it could it could be a damage to
other organisms, including pats. So we generally don't see the
metaldehyde products used as much, but it's very effective against
controlling snails. The second type of product is one that's
based on iron phosphate or iron and basically the snails
eat it and it just it. Yeah, it shuts down

(01:18:58):
the system. The Sometimes they'll throw a second ingredient like
amtacloprit or something into with the iron bait so that
it also attracts and kills other types of insects. But
a fresh bait is very important. You want the snails
or slugs to eat it and to get a terminal

(01:19:21):
case of constipation from eating enough of it if they
get a little bit and get sick. There's actually a
thing called bait shyness where it's kind of like if
you ate an egg and it was kind of bad
and you got sick from it, you probably wouldn't want
to go eat another egg. You know, your stomach could
be turned toward that idea, And that actually happens with

(01:19:43):
the snow baits and things. So you wanted to get
enough of it in the first shot, and good fresh
bait that they're going to want to get. As far
as the bean, you probably have something else going on there.
Caterpillars love to jump into the beans and into the
bean leaves, so that's a possibility there. But the snails,
with the activity they feed on tender foliage. And but

(01:20:04):
with snails, you see the trails, you know, you see
that slimy dried trail.

Speaker 9 (01:20:09):
I see just uh, carcasses too, or just when I
dig in the mults, I can see because we're talking
about Yeah, its size, but it's believes on one of
the green beans that look like a sieve, you know,
like it looks like at BT for that or.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
If it's a caterpillar, BT will work. Uh, you might
want to if you don't know for sure that it's
a caterpillar, you might want to try the ingredient as
a directing. It's it's in NEME. So when you buy name,
you don't buy the oil form. You buy the form
that the ingredient says as a direct And so just

(01:20:53):
remember A Z A is the ingredient and that kills
things that you leave, so it'll kill both beetles and caterpillars,
and whereas BT only kills caterpillars. So if you don't
know which it is caterpillar or beetle, then use the
the isidact and type of neame and and that'll that'll
take care of it.

Speaker 9 (01:21:15):
I try to remember that, and I hope and I'm propagating. Yeah, blueberries.
I did my just recent, my summer pruny, and I
was taken to pieces and putting in. I got about
fifty or so in containers Surrey too early? Should should

(01:21:37):
I wait? Wait until my heavy pruni in the winter time.

Speaker 3 (01:21:43):
You're talking about doing cuttings, right, Yeah, yeah you can.
Blue blueberries can be propagated from uh semi hardwood cuttings.
And from hardwood cuttings. You need to get a really
good strong rooting hormone, not just the standard stuff, but
one that is is more potent for plants that are

(01:22:06):
a little bit harder to root, you know, like you
take a colius cutting and drop it on the ground
and it's gonna root without hormone. I mean they they're
willing to root blueberries a little harder. So get a
good strong rooting hormone uh and dip the cuttings in
that put them in a very very well drained mix

(01:22:27):
and a clear cover over them to hold in moisture
in a bright outdoor place not direct sun.

Speaker 9 (01:22:33):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
And and they a pretty good result from that. Okay,
well just not too hot.

Speaker 9 (01:22:43):
No, not what's the good hormone? Because I've got one.
You spread off the shelf at some of the places
to go.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
Yeah, well a good A good hormone. There's there's brands.
There's a there's one call horror modeing uh, and then
there's another one. It's a liquid and the name is
escaping me right now. But you can buy those in
different strengths. And so that's what a professional would use
because then they they basically dilute it down to get

(01:23:16):
the strength for the type of plant they're trying to root. Actually,
to have too strong for some plants is not good.
So that that is where if I were you, you know,
in order to try to do this on the radio,
it's not going to work. So I would suggest go online.
And here's what you'll want you to type in. Do
you have a pen or paper handy? Okay, now, well,

(01:23:41):
do a search for rooting. Do a search for rooting
blueberry cuttings. And and I'm gonna I'm going to say
this and you can come back and listen to the
recorded show later if you can't write it down. At
the end of rooting blueberry cuttings, type in the words
after a space there type on site s A T E,

(01:24:04):
colon dot E, d U and that's saying I want
you to find me blueberry rooting uh, blueberry cutting rooting information,
but I own you. I only want you to look
in university based sites, research based sites, and you'll get
a good, good answer to that. Okay, blueberry cutting rooting
site colon dot e du Hey, I'm way past to break, Mike.

(01:24:27):
Good luck with that, and thank you for your call. Folks.
Will be right back and Michelle and Jersey Village you'll
be our first up. Yeah, where did you get that
kind of captivated?

Speaker 12 (01:24:42):
There you go?

Speaker 3 (01:24:43):
Well, you know we're coming up on Thanksgiving, the national
holiday for competitive eating. I'm pretty sure. All right, there
you go. Welcome back to Guardline, folks. Good to have
you with us today. Have you been intended for est recently?
This place I love going period. I love going all

(01:25:03):
the time. They've always got stuff going on out there.
By the way, Santa is going to be out there
next Saturday, on November twenty ninth. The big guy himself
will be there, And I wonder is that going to
be Clay with a white beard on Clay? Are you listening?
I don't know. I'm just saying anyway, he'll be out there,
Santa himself will be out there for family photo ops

(01:25:24):
from ten am to two pm next Saturday, So the
minute I quit talking on garden Line, they start snapping
pictures at the Enchanna Forest with Santa. Next Saturday. There's
also going to be a holiday succulent make and take.
What is that? Well, Amanda Barone's going to come in
and she's going to show you how to use succulents
to create a beautiful decoration for your front porch or

(01:25:45):
for maybe a centerpiece for your table. It'll be a
lot of fun. So you need to get out there.
They're gonna have some delicious, flavorful things from Flowerful Synthus,
they say, as the way they put it, irresistible treats
for all cookie gloving customers. But while you're out there,
you need to see the Christmas trees. They are out standing.

(01:26:05):
They've gotten noble fur from twelve or from two foot
up to twelve feet. They have Nordman's fur from five
to ten feet, a silver tip fur from seven to
ten feet, and then fraser fur from three feet up
to twelve feet high. That's a lot of range right there,
and it just really kind of gives you what you want.
Pick the one you want, the one you like. They're

(01:26:27):
all there and they're in great shape right now, ready
to go home with you. For the best part ever.
Every tree purchase that you buy out there at Enchanted
Forest Garden Center, you get the complete treecare kit that
includes a combo sized tree removal bag and skirt okay,
a bottle of tree preservative to keep it fresh, a

(01:26:48):
reusable tree stand you can reuse that, and free delivery
if you need it. They'll bring it to you if
you need it. And after the holidays you can return
the tree stand and receive a ten dollars off coupon
to use on your next purchase out there and in
Chandon Ford. I mean, come on, what more do you want?
You can't beat that for sure now. Enchanted Forest is

(01:27:09):
on FM twenty seven fifty nine outside of Richmond Rosenberg,
south of Interstate fifty nine or Interstate sixty nine. Enchanted Forest, Richmond,
TX dot com. The main thing is just get out there.
Don't let somebody pick over all the trees, and the
point set is and everything you go get your own.
Why are you there? Pick up some onions too. They
have a number of different types of onions from the

(01:27:32):
ten fifteen two. Things like the Texas early white and
the Red Creole and Southern beale. Those are all good.
I've grown all those onions. I love them. They do
a good job, and they got the bundles for you.
Ready to go and get in your garden? All right,
let's see here. Let's go out to Mike in full Shore. Now, Mike,
welcome to garden line.

Speaker 10 (01:27:52):
Yeah, thanks Skip.

Speaker 13 (01:27:53):
My question is around knockout roses, and they grow very
well in my yard, and what I've been doing is
puning them to keep them from getting too tall.

Speaker 8 (01:28:06):
And so what I noticed recently is that after pruning, the.

Speaker 13 (01:28:09):
Growth that comes out is producing like these very radical
looking heavy thorn ends that look unhealthy. So if you
take like a six inch section, there could be one
hundred words on it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
Yeah, Mike, I got bad news. I'm ninety five percent sure,
ninety nine percent sure that you've got a disease called
Rosera's at in those and that's not curable. And as
you prune, it moves from it can move from one
plant to another. There's little mites that spread it and
they float on the air. Let's be one hundred percent sure.
Send me some close up pictures of it before you

(01:28:50):
go digging them up. Sure, because if it's rosas at
there is no cure. And as long as that rose
sits there, it's like what a typhoid, you know, the
carrier of disease that infects anything else nearby, even things
that these things float on the wind out from it.
So if it's that just a sap, you got to

(01:29:11):
get them out of there, because they're the only hope
of having roses back there in the future. To get
those out. Now, wait a little while and then put
you some new roses in. But let's I'm going to
put you on hold. If you want to send me
a picture, Nicholas will give you a email. Show me
the whole rose, show me some close ups of this,
make sure they're in sharp focus, and I'll be happy

(01:29:32):
to help you from there. But in the meantime, I
do appreciate your call. Let's go now to Laurie in Sharpstown. Hey, Laurie,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (01:29:42):
Hi Skip, I'm calling because we cut down an old
water oak about three four years ago. I mean it
was old and dying, and we've recently purchased a red
oak to have replanted the nurse. He's going to come
out and replant it on December the third. But we've

(01:30:04):
had an outbreak of mushrooms and I took a picture
of them, you know, and google them through Google Lands
and it says they're Granoderma cicile. Is that how you
say that? And they're all, yeah, ganoderma.

Speaker 3 (01:30:24):
Yeah, that basically what's out there. They're probably coming up
from where roots are very close to the surface that
you're seeing those. Okay, and it may be ganoderm there's
a little Brazilian mushrooms and Anish. Yeah, that's quite a challenge,
but the bottom line is that's just that is just
dead wood that don't worry about putting your nutrient in.

(01:30:46):
It'll be just fine, so it'll be safe.

Speaker 14 (01:30:48):
A problem because we didn't want to put a brand
new speak in there. And okay, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:30:54):
Well thankful Genoderma is ganoderma can be It can be
a problem on on trees. Typically you see the mushrooms
coming out the base of the trunk with GNA darma
or somewhere on the trunk, lower trunk. But yeah, you know,
as far as putting a new tree in an it's
just part of nature, uh, go ahead and get your
tree in and get it growing them on. No, No,

(01:31:18):
that's that is uh. They are the they are the
tip of the iceberg of a fungus that is going
through all those dead roots in the ground. Okay, the
roots down down, So yeah, knocking the mushroom off the top.
That didn't do anything, so don't worry.

Speaker 10 (01:31:33):
Okay, okay, all.

Speaker 14 (01:31:35):
Right, well, thanks so much, good luck you want to
waste a new tree?

Speaker 3 (01:31:39):
Thanks a lot, you bet well, I'm glad you called.
Glad you called. We're going to take a little quick
break here, Cindy and Seabrook you will be the very
next one up. All right, folks, welcome out to your
guard line. Here we go. How can we help you
today to have success? Give me a call seven one
three two one two four. Ace Hardware stores are geared

(01:32:04):
up for the Christmas season, the holiday season that includes
Thanksgiving too. They have got all kinds of decorations. The
Ace has a wonderful selection of Christmas lights. And remember
how I always say Ace is a hardware store, but
Ace is so much more. It's not your grandfather's rdor store.
It has everything Grombo had in its store, but so
so much more at ACE. You're going to find in

(01:32:25):
these independently owned stores where you know the owner can
create whatever kinds of selection of things they wish. You're
going to find all the standard stuff you would expect
from ACE, but they can add twists to it. Beautiful
landscape lighting is available at all ACE stores. Some of
them even have little antique types of lighting maybe that
you remember from growing up, or antique types of toys

(01:32:45):
that you remember from growing up. You know, it's a
place to get your fertilizers, your pest, weed and disease
control for your yard. It's a place to get quality tools.
It's a place to get nice gifts, all kinds of things. Again,
each ACE is unique. Go to ACE Hardware Texas dot com,
Ace Hardware Texas dot com and find the ACE stores

(01:33:07):
near you. You're gonna find stores like Fulshierrace Done on
three fifteen nine in full Sure Hamilton ACE on Highway six.
It's just in the Bear Creek area, Brennamece on North
Austin Parkway. Someone is talking about Brenna Mace today, Wharton
Feed and ACE on North Richmond Road. Child's Buildings supply
out there in Orange Blake Baycliff which is on gand
Grand Avenue in south of Kemah. You're gonna find Ospas,

(01:33:31):
ACE at Kirkandall in the Woodlands up in Willis, All Seasons,
ACE on I forty five North Don and Galveston Chambers,
ACE on Broadway, and Bay City ACE on Seventh Street.
And I'm just giving you a few. There's a lot
of them. Go to Ace Hardware Texas, don't forget Texas
dot Com and find the store near you, and then
mainly just get in there and check these things out.

(01:33:52):
You are gonna I'm telling you, you're gonna see a
lot of gifts for a lot of people you know
and think I got it now. That person that's hard
to buy for, they would love one of those. I'd
Ace Hardware. We're going to go to Seabrook and talk
to Cindy this morning. Hey, Sindy, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (01:34:09):
Hey, thank you very much. Last week I was driving
and you recommended a foundation company and I didn't have
a chance to write it down. We've lost about nine
oaks in the yard with the hurricanes, and five of
them were really close to the house. We're getting some
cracks and things around and just trying to get some estimates.
One person has been said to remove two.

Speaker 11 (01:34:31):
Of the oak no.

Speaker 15 (01:34:32):
Three oaks that they are like within two to three
feet of the house.

Speaker 11 (01:34:37):
So I didn't know the name.

Speaker 15 (01:34:41):
Yeah, that's what they said.

Speaker 3 (01:34:42):
Twenty You absolutely whoever you called, you absolutely also need
to call fix my slab foundation repair and it's fixedmyslab
dot com. Do you have a penhandy?

Speaker 7 (01:34:58):
I did?

Speaker 3 (01:34:59):
You can write some down. Okay, here's a phone number
for fixmyslab dot com two eight one two five five
forty nine forty nine. Ty Strickland's a guy, uh straight
shooter shows up when he says, gives you a fair price,
fixes it right. He'll tell you what needs to be done,
what doesn't need to be done, but yeah give it.
Give him a call the free estimate. Uh and just

(01:35:21):
tell me your guardline listener and.

Speaker 10 (01:35:23):
Uh okay, great, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
Sorry you're in that situation. But he's said you bet,
he's the guy to talk to, alrighty uh, well, you
are listening to garden Line. The phone number here seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Piercecapes.
I've been telling you about them all year. They're the
company to turn your place into something magical. No matter

(01:35:45):
what you need. You know landscape design, complete renovation of
the whole landscape. Quarterly maintenance, taking care of things coming
out periodically and making sure those beds are looking their best.
Landscape lighting, fixing, drainage areas good. Hear againation work, making
sure that's all working right. This is the place Pierscapes

(01:36:06):
piercescapes dot com. That's the website I keep saying. Go there,
Go find their Facebook page, Peerscapes on Facebook. Look at
the work they do, look at the quality of the
things they do, and you will be sold. Two eight
one three seven oh five zero six zero two eight
one three seven oh fifty sixty Peerscapes. That's a company

(01:36:28):
you need. We're about to put an hour in the
books here in a little bit, not quite yet, and
we got one more today nine to ten o'clock. We
are here from six am to ten am every Saturday
and every Sunday. And now, if you miss the show,
you can listen to past shows on the KTRH website

(01:36:50):
in the garden Line section. All the past shows are
recorded there in a podcast type format. You can also
if you have the iHeartMedia a being listened to the
show live, and you can also listen to pass shows
on the iHeartMedia app. So wherever your phone goes, you know,
you have your phone up in the car and you
can drive down the road at whatever hour you want
catching up on pass shows on Guardline if you'd like

(01:37:12):
to do that. I just want to remind you that
that is also available. Now we're talking about trees a
number of times today. We were just visiting with Cindy
about trees. Affordable Treecare. Affordable Treecare that is Martin Spoonmore's company.
They are professionals when it comes to taking care of

(01:37:34):
your tree. Now, our trees have been struggling right now
with a drought. You may not look out there and go,
my trees did yet, But what you notice is the
trees get stressed and they drop the leaves too early.
That's one sign of the drought types of stress that
they're having. I know that several of our counties are
in extreme drought. That place is like Austin County, Wharton County, Jackson, Colorado,

(01:37:56):
severe drought here in Harris County as well as Port
Benbers or Montgomery, Liberty. You know the counties around us
here uh, and tree stress is not a good thing.
Tree stress leads to major tree problems, and making sure
those trees are well hydrated is important. Martin can come
out and he can do a deeper at watering. And also, uh,
this winter is going to be doing this pruning on
your trees. That's the time to get pruning done. Give

(01:38:19):
him a call seven one three, six nine nine two
six sixty three to have your tree sprune. Now, if
you have him prune a tree, he'll do a free
deeper feeding on that tree as well, So keep that
in mind. Also something to keep in mind when you
call Affordable Tree Service, make your make sure you call
the right one. Here's the deal. There are a couple
of companies out there with Affordable in the name, pretending

(01:38:40):
to be part of Martin's team, and they're not. They're not.
When you call affordable, you're going to talk to Martin.
Are you going to talk to his wife Joe, or
you're going to talk to his mom Judy. It's a
family operation. And if you call and you're not speaking
to Martin or his family, it's not the right Affordable
Tree Service. Hang up and I'll seven to one three

(01:39:01):
two six six' three gets scheduled to have him come
out and do some pruning for. You if you haven't
had your trees looked at in the last two, years
they need looking. At they need to be examined for
any kind of a pruning that might be needed on,
them for any kind of other issues that are going,
on and if you need. Consultations you, Know cindy was
talking about having somebody come out and the foundation company

(01:39:23):
looked at the. Trees have a tree company look at that,
too because tree companies understand what can and can't be,
done what should and shouldn't be done to a, tree
And martin With Affordable Tree care is exactly that kind
of company to have come out and do that for.
You we're about to put this in the. Books. Here
let's see WHAT i. GOT i got a couple of.

(01:39:44):
SECONDS i can talk for two. SECOND i always refer
you to the website over and over because there's so
much free information. There i'm Still i'm working on several
new things to put up on the. Website and when
we get questions kind of you, know over and over,
again questions about, THAT i just put it up on the.
Website i'm working on something right. Now on, pruning proper.

(01:40:05):
Pruning that's What i've been talking about. Today it's on my,
mind And i'll put that up there SO i can
just refer you to, it you, know because sometimes to
elaborate on an, answer it just six to minus time
to do it on the, air and it's better just
to point you to a publication where you can look
at it any day you, want any time you, want
and get those answers that you're looking. For all, right,

(01:40:28):
WELL i need one more cup of coffee to finish
this day. Off it is a beautiful day. Outside oh my,
gosh starting to warm up a little, bit but it's a,
lovely lovely. DAY i hope that you will spend some
time out this, afternoon and also this. Week we've got
a good week coming up, here a good time to
get out and enjoy things out in the. Garden, remember

(01:40:49):
as you're planning the activities and, things every time you're
out walking through the, garden whether it's in the, morning
a cup of coffee in your hand or, whatever step
back and look at the garden with new, Eyes look
at the landscape with new. Eyes you, know you see
it all the, time and you sort of don't see it, anymore, Right,
uh but step back and say what WOULD i like to?
Change what would look? Better what areas need a little

(01:41:12):
bit of? Work this is planting. Season that would be
a good time to get those questions answered in your
head and to go out and do.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
That welcome to kt R H Garden line With Scipe richard's.

Speaker 4 (01:41:31):
Trim just watch him as there are so many good
things to see botas in there not a sorry Gas.

Speaker 16 (01:41:55):
Sam starting all, right we're, Back, hey last hour guard
line coming up.

Speaker 3 (01:42:09):
Here last chance asked the question until next week end
if you'd like to give me call seven to one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one
three two two fifty eight seventy. Four glad to visit
with you and help you have. Success. Uh today's kind
of been a lot of talk about, pruning AND i
realized we're a little bit out of the main pruning.

(01:42:30):
Season but it's a good thing to be thinking. About
you need to get those pruners. Sharpened if they're not,
sharp make sure you're ready to go when that time. Comes.
Uh the uh one of the pruning mistakes THAT i
see people make a lot of times is taking an
a needled evergreen and pruning it back too. Far, now

(01:42:54):
WHEN i say a needled, evergreen What i'm referring to
is like a pine, tree like an arbor, vite or
like a, cedar those kinds of, plants a, juniper for,
example that'd be another example of. That when you prune
them back beyond further back than the last living, needle

(01:43:16):
they're not able to re. Sprout AND i know that you're, Thinking,
okay wait a, minute that can't be, true because you
don't take any other kind of tree but basically sought
off of, it chains off the, ground and it, sprout
dry back out. Again because that's what trees can, do
not these, trees not these kinds of shrubs and. Trees
and so when you do, that they can only re

(01:43:36):
sprout from the base of a living. Needle and even
if whether it's a needle like a pine needle or
a scaly type of a leaf structure like on a,
juniper they. Can't and so when you pun them back like,
that you get a, hole a dead spot that is
not going to. Regreen maybe from the. Sides branches will

(01:43:57):
start to grow in from living needles from the side
and fill in over. Time maybe, maybe but pruning it
misdone can ruin that plant. Period people that are Growing
christmas trees they share them so that they have the
form that all the consumers want to take. Home and
when they share them like, that if they were to

(01:44:17):
shear back a little too, deep and that happens In
christmas tree, forms sometimes that particular tree will have a brownze.
Spot that mighty As we'll dig it up right then
and plan another one in this, place because it will
not make a Decent christmas tree in the attractive form
people are looking. For so why AM i saying, This,
well other things can do. That if you have there's

(01:44:38):
a little, insect a little caterpillar called a, bagworm not a,
webworm but a, bagworm and they eat the needles off
these plants and then they make these little torpedo shaped
small bags that hang from the tree that have a
bunch of dead plant foliage attached to the outside of the.
Bag and when they eat out an area and all

(01:45:00):
the nice green, stuff you got a brown. Spot it's
never going to fill back. In diseases blights can come
in and they can kill sections of these trees out or. Plants,
junipers especially junipers buy and large want to be in
an environment where they have some moist, soil but where
they don't get rained on all the. Time they like
a dryer. Environment and when we start putting them in

(01:45:22):
and putting a sprinkler over, them some of these jennifers
like a rug juniper that grows down on the ground
like our groundcover almost and your spraying them all the,
time and here comes the. Diseases and when it kills those,
tissues they're not going to regreen. There it's going to
be very splotchy and ugly. Looking so don't do that
with your, prunters and don't miss care for your. Plants
but that too frequent, watering so that you end up

(01:45:43):
with the same, problem just done by a disease rather
than your. Prunters something to keep in mind whenever you're
out and you're doing pruning on. Plants one of the
things that people ask a lot is DO i see the?
Wound and many years, ago ceiling was a popular thing

(01:46:04):
to do because we viewed it as. Well we opened a.
Wound so now we need to protect or cover over
that wound that Would we don't want it to, rot
so we're going to put a covering over it and
pruning paints and sealers of various types have been used
for a very long, time long time. Ago also more,
recently THOUGH i think back in the, seventies nineteen, seventies

(01:46:26):
they have been late. SIXTIES a guy Named Alex schigo
did some, studies a series of many studies where he
went into the woods and looked at trees that had
branches that had fallen off and how they had. Progressed
from that, point we can use the term, healing although

(01:46:46):
from anboro cultural, standpoint plants don't. Heal they close over
the wounded, area but they don't technically heal like you
would heal if you had a cut on your. Arm but,
anyway that's that's neither here nor. There Alex eiga went
in and he studied these, things and he tried pruning
paints and, things and he found that they do not

(01:47:09):
help that plant close, over or in the layman's, terms
they don't help that wound heal, over but they don't
let it close over. Well and in, fact what happens
is the pruning paints get cracks in, them and now
what would have been protecting the wood from, moisture now
moisture seeps in behind that, crack and the pain itself

(01:47:30):
is slowing the drying of that interior, wood and it
actually increases the decay and the inside of a. Tree
the best thing you can do to avoid decay on
the inside of your trees is to prune. Them to
make your pruning cuts when the branches are still. SMALL
i jokingly kind of say that whenever you get out

(01:47:53):
of saw to prune your, tree it's an admission of.
Guilt and WHAT i mean by that, is if you
had branches that are not long term, branches you should
remove them when they're the size of your thumb or
a golf, ball or hopefully very soon after. That the
longer you let it, go the bigger the wound. Is
and so for you to go out with a saw
MEANS i should have cut that branch off. Before you

(01:48:14):
see What i'm. Saying that's WHY i kind of tongue
in cheeks say it's an admission of guilt because pruning
decisions should be made early on and not. Later, now
sometimes you have a big old tree and a storm
breaks a. Limb, okay, yeah you got to get out
the rasaw and you do, that but just know that
the bigger it is the less the more time it's
going to take to close that wound over with callous

(01:48:35):
tissue kind of comes in from the sides of the
of the big pruning cut and like a slow lava
flow coming back across there to cover over that interior
wood and protect. It but that's just something to keep in.
Mind learn how to train a, plant learn how to
train a tree or shrub, properly and don't. Delay make
those decisions early on and you will end up having

(01:48:58):
a stronger tree as a. Result all, right let's go
out To conro now and we're going to visit With
beths this. Morning Hello, Bess welcome To Garden.

Speaker 11 (01:49:08):
Line Hi. Schip love your, Show listen to it every
CHANCE i.

Speaker 8 (01:49:13):
GET i have a.

Speaker 11 (01:49:15):
PROBLEM i have A i called you a while. BACK
i don't know if you. REMEMBER i was going to
put corn husk in the bottom of my container garden
THAT i got. Started, WELL i DECIDED i had limbs
falling THAT i went ahead and just put the limbs
in there and covered it with cardboard and dirt and
such as. That, anyway the the QUESTION i have right,

(01:49:35):
now if everything in there is, growing, OKAY i have
lettuce in one corner and it has a yellow mustard
fungus destroying all around it and up the sides of the.
Container is what DO i do about?

Speaker 3 (01:49:53):
That so you're not describing the leaves of the lettuces.
Yellow you're saying that there's something yellow that is growing
on the surface of the ground and the sides of the.
Container is that? Right?

Speaker 11 (01:50:10):
Yes, Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:50:12):
Okay does it look like scrambled? Eggs?

Speaker 11 (01:50:18):
Yes and then so there's no animals in there or anything.

Speaker 3 (01:50:24):
Like, that right, Right so in, nature there are a
lot of different fungi that are part of turning what
was once living plant material back into soil. Again. Uh
and they're not diseases of. Plants they're just decomposing the organic.
Matter and this scrambled egg sometimes they call it scrambled

(01:50:45):
egg fungus because that's what it looks. Like there's another
one that they call dog vomit. Fungus you can imagine
what that looks. Like but these these grow wherever you
have multuary or organic matter and the. Soil they grow
on there and they pop. Up we get some, rain
we get a little cooler. Weather things can cause mushrooms
and other kinds of fungi to pop. Up there's nothing

(01:51:05):
to be worried. About if you wanted, to you, know
just take the little corner of a trial and just
kind of knock them off the surface and get them
out of.

Speaker 9 (01:51:12):
There you.

Speaker 3 (01:51:13):
Can but they're not a. Disease uh and so you
don't have to worry about them killing your.

Speaker 10 (01:51:18):
Plants, okay, great all, RIGHT.

Speaker 11 (01:51:23):
I have one more QUESTION i Have we just all, right.

Speaker 3 (01:51:26):
Best i'm Gonna i'm gonna hold, On. BESS i need
to hold you. THERE i got to go to a.
Break hang, On i'll keep you. Around you can ask
your question just one. Second we'll be right. Back, Folks
there you. Go what's the matter were talking? About, hey
welcome back to The Garden line Style Southwest. Fertilize it
has been A houston lawn and garden tradition since nineteen fifty.

(01:51:48):
Five did you know THAT i am the Fifth Garden
line host to speak For Southwestern. Life they're in their
seventh year. Anniversary you don't do that unless you take
care of your customers and they get what they. Want
they don't walk in and, go OH i need some,
such and oh we ain't got. That OH i need, This,
well we ain't got. That you walk Into Southwest. Fertilizer

(01:52:09):
you find everything you. Need the city's largest selection of
herbicides and secticides and. Fungicides if you're an organic, gardener
it's the largest selection in the region for organic products
and whatever you, need quality, tools quality. Products they even
carry you, know fertilizers that you hear me talk about On.
Gardenline they carry soils From nature's, way they carry soils

(01:52:32):
from heirloom, soils huge selection of. Seed this is the
place to. Go corner Of, Bison nutt And runwick In Southwest.
Houston Southwest fertilizer Dot. Com here's a phone number in
case you want to call, them seven to one three
six six six one seven four. Four we're going to
go back to best Now. BEST i think you had
a follow up, question so let's go ahead and do that, Now.

Speaker 12 (01:52:56):
OKAY i we just.

Speaker 11 (01:52:58):
Moved to a new property In New, waverley AND i
have an area That i'm wanting to plant camellias because
it's got more. Acid but it's also like fourth. Floor
CAN i AFTER i clear, it Which i've cleared it
once and everything came back BECAUSE i didn't have time
to do. It but WHEN i clear, it CAN i put,

(01:53:19):
Down And i'm forgetting the name of the weed killer
that you put on grass for. Weeds CAN i spread
that in there to help keep the weeds? Down SO
i get it? Planted what is the weed?

Speaker 3 (01:53:32):
Lawns, well you're probably if you're preventing your you're looking at.
Barricade we'd probably be the. One you're, yes, yes have
heard me talk. About you can do. That that'll last
for a, while and you could certainly try that in that. Area.
Uh it works on most types of weeds that are
coming from, seed but nothing that is perennial coming up
of the ground is going to be controlled by a

(01:53:54):
pre emergent product like. Barricade that's just preventing. Suce another,
thing since it's been a forest floor kind of, location
why not just get a bunch of mault leaves and
you know people throw out their leaves in the cool,
season and just make a nice thick blanket a mulch
over there and let that soil surface decomposition keep going
like it has been before the. Clearing, uh and then

(01:54:16):
when you're ready to, plant you can scrape back the
leaves and do your. Planting so that that's another really
good option for nice thick layer of leaves on, it.

Speaker 11 (01:54:25):
And that'll prevent things from. COMING i, mean it's prolific
what comes, up it's, awesome but it's you, know so
much of, it AND i HAVE i have saved a
lot of time.

Speaker 3 (01:54:35):
It, well that's, fine use those, too uh that it'll
prevent the same thing that a pre emergent herbicide would,
prevent and that's weed. Seeds if you've got perennial weeds
that are popping up by the, ground neither leaves nor
a pre emerging herbicide will stop. That but a good

(01:54:56):
thick mault is just a natural. Way it's what it's
what nature has been doing since you can before you
cleared the land to keep weeds out of that.

Speaker 11 (01:55:02):
Area, Right, okay, well thank you very.

Speaker 3 (01:55:06):
Much all, Right, bess you take, care good luck with.
THAT i have a shirt THAT i. MADE i need
to make copies of this shirt. Anyway it's a picture
of the forest and they're deer raking leaves in the,
forest And i'm in the meadow right next to. It
there's a bunch of hole steam cows that are mowing

(01:55:27):
and bagging the meadow. Grass and out at the roadside
are all these black trash bags out, there and it,
says nobody rakes the forest or bags the. Meadow nature recycles,
naturally and that is so. True and we come in
and we want to clean everything up and so. On
and once you allow sunlight to hit the, soil you're

(01:55:48):
going to have. Weeds the WAY i like to put it,
is wherever sunlight hits the, soil nature plants a. Weed
if it's a thin lawn that sunlight is sitting in the,
soil here come. Weats if it is an area you
want a, garden and you get all the plants off of,
it and it's just a bunch of bear dirt and
you're getting ready to, garden and all of a, sudden
it looks like a chia pet with weeds just coming
right up out of. There sunlight hits the, soil nature

(01:56:09):
plants a. Weet you don't let sunlight hit the, soil
weeds cannot germinate from seed and. Grow that is as
simple as. That so that's what we want to try to.
Do that's the easiest. WAY i, mean that's a natural
way to go about and do. That you are listening
To Garden line and we're here to help you have.
Success you can reach me at seven one three two
one two five eight seven Four now In Chinned gardens

(01:56:33):
done in A Richmond rosenberg, area they are loaded for
bear when it comes to this holiday. Season they have
gotten you, know they always do a great job of
carrying every kind of plant that you want to have success.

Speaker 4 (01:56:45):
With.

Speaker 3 (01:56:45):
Here they always have people on hand who will greet
you and answer your questions and point you in the
right direction so that you can have. Success Santa claus
is gonna be Out Jenny gardens On Saturday november twenty
ninth from ten to Two Saturday november twenty s Next
saturday from ten am to two. Pm right they're doing

(01:57:08):
a collection to support families in need during this holiday
season out. There they'll be accepting your cash donations toward
that if you would like to contribute to. That they're
always doing good things like. That and In Chenna, gardens
bring the, kids bring your camera and enjoy. That, Also,
boy is there a selection Of christmas trees really really

(01:57:29):
nice and, beautiful all ready to go fresh and. Set
when you go to In Chenna, gardens you're going to
find all kinds of, thing did you? Know right? Now
you know falls the time when we plant wildflower seeds
like blue. Bonnets but did you know you can go
out to In Chenned gardens and you can get blue
bonnets by the four inch pot. Transplant you can and
you just pop them right down in your flower beds

(01:57:51):
and come spring you're going to have a beautiful display
of blue. Bonnets so here's your. Chance get out there
and get some of those things ub plants that you
are wanting to put in your, garden like, onions all
kinds of onion. Sets they got them ready to, go
all kinds of beautiful color, plants cool season, color gorgeous,
pots you name. It and you got to go into

(01:58:13):
the gift shop At Enchanted. Gardens now In Chenned gardens
is on The Richmond rosenberg, side and excuse, me The
Katie fullsher side Of Richmond. Rosberg Katie folscher's ON fm
three fifty nine been around since nineteen ninety, five And
i'm telling you the gift shop is just. Amazing go
check that out too while you're out. There lots of good.
Opportunities you, know anytime you go, there they understand brown

(01:58:36):
stuff before green, Stuff so you're going to be able
to get soils From Nature's way and heirloom. Soils you're
gonna be able to get fertilizer from microlife and nitroposs
And nelson plant food and medina all there At Chended.
Gardens that makes it. Easy WHEN i first started seeing
that brown stuff for four green, SIDE i, like does

(01:58:58):
this make sense to? PEOPLE i, mean does that help?
UNDERSTAND i just really want to make an, emphasis and
that is that the foundation you create determines the success
you're going to. Have AND i see a lot of
times where you know someone maybe they're not really planning on,
gardening but they go and they see some plants in

(01:59:21):
some place and they come home with them and they
walk around looking at Where i'm gonna put, them and
they scrape off the surface of the ground and stick
them in the. Ground AND i call that plopping a,
poor pitiful plant into an unprepared, plot, Right and that
is a recipe for, disaster because the next, thing you,
know the plants, struggling it doesn't establish, well the weeds grow.

(01:59:42):
In you mow around it for part of the, year
and then you just start mowing over the whole thing
because you can't stand look at, it and you, Go
i'm not a, GARDENER i have a brown, thumb and
none of that is. True the only thing that is
true as you should prepare the saw before you. Plant
folks At nelson have a lot Of nutristar line of.
Products you, know those are in the. Jars those are the.
Ones many of those you can refill at over a

(02:00:03):
dozen places around The Greater houston. Area now the refail,
stations you take your old empty, jar you pull the,
handle you fill it, up just like you're buying peanuts
in the grocery, store and you get a good deal
on the. Fertilizer and you don't throw away, plastic which
we got plenty of that already in the waste. Stream.
Now Nutri star rose is one designed for, roses all

(02:00:24):
types of, roses old, roses new, roses tea, roses shrub,
roses climbing, roses groundcover, roses all types of, roses whether
they're in containers or whether they're in. Beds you can
use nutri star rows from the folks At nelson on your.
Roses got five different sources of, nitrogen so you encourage
that vigorous but, regulated healthy growth on the. Leaves roses

(02:00:48):
need to be fueled and because the more growth you
get on your, roses you're going to put them. Heavily
and the more growth you get on your, roses the
more blooms you're going to. Get and so Nutristar rows
is designed just by that from the folks At, NELSON
a quality fertilizer made by The nelson family and made
here in The Greater houston. Area easy to find all over.

(02:01:11):
Too by the, way.

Speaker 9 (02:01:14):
That is the.

Speaker 3 (02:01:14):
CASE i was looking at some pictures of what they're
doing now At Siena multch and every TIME i, look you,
KNOW i follow them on social media and A Cinamaltch.
Cinamlch they just are bringing in all kinds of cool
gardening bling right, now from decorative, art metal art for
sticking out in the, landscape to beautiful quality pots to

(02:01:37):
some little things that are like a little ceramic mushrooms
are called, shroomies uh to very you, KNOW i mentioned
various types of. Pottery they're they're set. Up they even
have seeds on stock in. There and quality tools too
from the folks At leonard tool Uh Sana maltz splice
you go for the foundation's. Success that's, composts that's bed

(02:01:57):
mixes like veggie nerd mix From. Maryland so it's a
place you go for mulches of various. Types it's the
place you go for flatstone and river, rock creating that dry,
stream look for extra dainage through your. Landscape it's a
place you go to get those super. Sacks they can
deliver them if you get three of. Them each one's
a cubic yard and if you're in a within about

(02:02:19):
a twenty minute or twenty MILE i believe radius Of Ciena.
Mulch go to the website cienamultch dot. Com it's Southe,
houston but you can find out exactly where They're they're
Open monday Through friday seven thirty to five and On
saturday from seven thirty to. Two closed On. Sunday close,
today they'll be back open again. Tomorrow get started right

(02:02:39):
by going first to see in a. Mulch there we go.
S have you heard that? Song are you wondering where
liter Sy shrek? Two, yeah soundtrack For. Shrek frk's got
some good. Music all, right you're listening to Garden. Line

(02:03:02):
i'm your, Host Skip. Richter we're here to help you have.
Success you got a, QUESTION i got a phone 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 let's talk about the things that
are of interest to you so you can enjoy having
success in your garden and your. Landscape we are in

(02:03:22):
such a great. Season this is the gardening. Season i'm telling.
You fall is, awesome, awesome so much stuff we don't,
fall you, know we plant wildflower, Seeds we hopefully start
strawberry plants. Now if you want to have the best,
selection you plant in the. Fall we've been planting strawberry
plants for over a month and a. Half, Now, uh
it's time to get those. Out if you're going to

(02:03:45):
plan a woody, ornamental if you're going to plant a,
perennial now is the time to get that, done all,
Right so stop in and get your, supplies your, soils
your your plants and, things and get those things. Planned
by the, Way Nilson Water gardens And nursery out there
In katie on The Katie Fort Ben. Road you just

(02:04:05):
turned north On Katie Fort Ben road OFF a ten
and it takes you straight up the street To Nelson Water.
Gardens they've got Their christmas trees in and they look,
good and they're ready to. Go they're ready to, go
so head on out there and get that. Done they'll
get them trimmed up for you and. Everything they're all
bundled up so you can get them home with. You of,
course they also have points, setus beautiful point. Setus they've

(02:04:27):
got the little six inch. Pots they've got nice hanging.
Baskets they're just gorgeous for. Decorating remember when you bring
a point set at, home you want to don't let
it dry. Out don't keep it, soggy, wet but don't
let it dry. Out i'll take mine and put them
in the sink And i'll give them a good, drenching
thoroughly wet that, soil and then don't water again for a,
while let them let them begin to dry, out but not,

(02:04:50):
completely not. Completely i'll use the weight of the, plant you,
know point set a dry points at a very LIGHT
i mean it doesn't have any weight at. All i'll
pick it up and if it's getting kind of, light
stick my finger down in. There field the soe. Up
it's a little, moist just, wait but then go ahead
and keep it adequately moist and you have the best.
Success if you want to put them out where they

(02:05:10):
get a little bit better. Light that near a window
or something like that's good, too kind of help them
keep them looking. Good just watch out for the heat,
drafts and watch out for that drying. Out that's the
one where you end up losing leaves off your, branches
and you don't want to do. That, beautiful beautiful holiday
cactus out there At Nilson nursery And Water gardens And

(02:05:32):
katie as, well lovely holiday. Plants still have fruit, trees
still have the blueberries and other types of fruit trees
there for. You they still have the frost, blankets the
frost blankets that you will. Need and if you wait
until it's the day you need to put them, out
everybody else can have come and gotten. Them so get
out there and get. Them get some beautiful house plants as.

(02:05:52):
WELL i love that. Place by the, way here's an
idea for A christmas gift about giving someone in your
family a water. Feature maybe it's a container where you
have a what they call the recircling water. Container it

(02:06:13):
spills over the, sides it. Goes it looks like it's
going in the, ground but really it's just going into
a tub where it recycles back up through and it's
just a continuous circuit of water flowing over the sides of.
It that's called a disappearing. Fountain how about, that maybe
a group of kids in a, family we'd go together
and get their parents something like that for making a

(02:06:34):
beautiful feature and the. Landscape just an, IDEA i don't,
know just an. IDEA i personally would go in and
grab some of those houseplants that they have because they
are so, gorgeous so many beautiful. Types Nelson nursery And.
Watergardens here's the, Website nelsonwatergardens dot. Com Nelson watergardens dot. Com,

(02:06:54):
okay we got our lines, open SO i would like
to Call we're kind of heading toward the end of
the show. Here typically last, minute everybody triest to call,
in and it's hard getting every buddy give them time
we need to give, Them so this would be a good.
Time seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy.

(02:07:16):
Four you've heard me talk ABOUT d AND d feed
for a long time. NOW A d AND d was
spongorback WHEN A randy was doing garden line and still
is a great feed. Store you head out west Of
tomball in twenty nine to. Twenty they're out that direction
and they have what you. Need of, course they have
livestock feeds and. Things if you're feeding, wilelife they've got.

(02:07:38):
That if you're feeding, pets super high end lines of dog,
food quality quality food for. Pets and it's the place
where you go and any kind of a plant problem
you're going to run, into they're gonna have something for.
It and whether it's killing a weed or preventing a
disease or getting rid of an insect or something like.
That needy also has on hand a little. Device it's

(02:07:59):
called the free and it screws into the end of
a pot of a pie faucet and it's about three inches,
long and you put it on there and you turn
on the faucet and nothing comes. Out but when he gets,
cold you know how you try to set your faucet on,
trickles so it's always dripping or trickling all. Night you're

(02:08:20):
racing all that. Water AND i found that SOMETIMES i
don't set it quite on enough and then it, Freezes
and NOW i got a frozen, faucet a broken, pipe
and problems freeze. Meiser when it gets, cold it shrinks
up inside and the water leaks, out and as it warms,
up it swells up and the water closes. Off and
so you just leave it on the, faucet leave the

(02:08:41):
faucet on and it. Works and they got him At Dandy.
Feed just go in there and, SAY i want to
see the freeze. Meser skip was talking. About those are,
cool cool. Gadgets so many people tell me how good
those things. Work so there you, Go Dandy, feed three
miles west of Tumble On highway two forty nine two,
eight one three five one seventy one forty four two,

(02:09:01):
eight one three five one seven to one four. Four
there you have. It what are you gonna be doing
in the garden this? Week what kinds of? Activities what
kind of plantings are you going to be doing in
the garden this? Week, WELL i suggest, that in addition
to WHAT i always, say and that's prepared this all,
first that you get to some quality. Perennials you, know.

(02:09:23):
Fall here's an advantage of fall planting on perennials for
all you tight wides out, There, OKAY i, know BECAUSE
i am. One you go out and you get you
a plant and you plant it in the. Fall let's
say it's a salvi or some of the. Perennial and
then you in, spring mid, spring late, spring you go

(02:09:47):
out and you get you the same, plant but in
a larger pot, size which costs significantly more than a
smaller pot, size and you plant. It and then you
look at those two plants some by, summer and you're
gonna have a hard time telling the difference between, them
because the fall planting head start is worth a. Lot
and so for folks that are just trying to enjoy

(02:10:09):
more plants and save a little, bit you, know why
do we save the. Money we save the money so
we can buy more. Plants that's, right isn't?

Speaker 10 (02:10:15):
It of?

Speaker 3 (02:10:15):
Course well there's a little tip for. You fall planting
another reason we fall, plant another reason we fall. Plant
for those of you who UH i tell let me
come back with one more. Tip we're going to take
a little break right here and come back with our
last segment of the, day And terry and, stagecoach you're
going to be our final caller for the.

Speaker 4 (02:10:32):
Day Did john Have?

Speaker 3 (02:10:37):
Hey welcome back to Guard. LINE i want less thanksgiving
family and friends here WHEN i count my place don't
get to talk to you again on guard line until after.
That so let's go ahead and say Happy thanksgiving to you,
guys any of things it can be thankful for. Us

(02:11:00):
let's go out now and we're going to head the
stage coach and talk To terry this. Morning, Hey, terry
welcome to Garden.

Speaker 9 (02:11:06):
Line, hey thank, you good.

Speaker 17 (02:11:09):
Morning thank you're. TALKING a good time to get down.
WILDFLOWERS i wanted to just kind of probe that subject
a little, more SO i guess you, Know I'M i
want to get some. Natives going out on state, stagecoach
we get a lot of like long needle, pine so
there tends to be a lot of you, know pine

(02:11:30):
straw on the, ground although not, everywhere but a lot of.

Speaker 3 (02:11:32):
Places SO i guess you know what plants?

Speaker 9 (02:11:36):
Which what?

Speaker 17 (02:11:37):
Plants what? Where do you have a recommended? Source and
other than just going walking around the woods and throwing them,
around is there anything ELSE i need to?

Speaker 9 (02:11:45):
Do keep my fingers?

Speaker 17 (02:11:47):
Crossed good.

Speaker 3 (02:11:47):
Question. Yeah wildflowers in general need. Sunlight. Uh and so
when you're getting pine straw on the, ground that means
you're close enough to a pine tree THAT i don't,
know may not may not be good sunlight or in
the hand it may be, decent but that just keep
in mind they need. Sunlight and pine straw is a

(02:12:08):
mulch on the surface of the soil which blocks, light
which means weed seeds and wildflower seeds are not going
to come up well under that. Condition so if you
got enough light for, them or if you don't scrape
that pine straw back a little, bit you can do.
Wildflowers you want to get you a good. Blend and you,
know if you're talking about little packages of wildflower, seed
while garden centers have, those but if you're looking at

(02:12:30):
somewhat of a, quantity you, know a little bit larger.
Area there's a. Company there's two. Companies and do you
have a pin or pencil andy?

Speaker 9 (02:12:38):
Cherry, no BUT i got a good. Memory i'm driving right,
now So.

Speaker 3 (02:12:43):
I'll look it all. Right, well it's pretty easy to.
Remember there are Two texas wildflower seed companies that will
sell you a bulk of seeds of various. Quantities one
of them is Wild Seed, farms and it is In.
Fredericksburg Wild Seed. Farms by the, way as you're driving To,

(02:13:04):
fredericksburg you drive right by. It it's a beautiful place
in the spring when everything's. Blooming. Uh the other place
is called Gosh Native American, Seed Native American, seed and
it's In, Junction, texas also The Hill. Country and they
both will offer individual wildflower, seeds and they both will

(02:13:25):
offer blends regional. Blends so let's, see you are in
a stagecoach. Area you could plant the standard blue bonit
you see everywhere that has a little white tip on the,
top or is your soil fairly sandy they any chance out?

Speaker 17 (02:13:40):
Here it's a real mixed. BAG i, MEAN i can
dig it ten feet ditch And i'll hit sandy, loan
Then i'll, play Then i'll hit some natural decent almost.
Third you know it's it's really.

Speaker 3 (02:13:52):
Straight, Okay, well we have another blue bonnet that's Called
sandyland blue bonnet that. Grows it's often seen In East,
texas and it's even bluer because it doesn't have that
little white. Tip so when you look at a field of,
them they just look bluer because you don't have a
little white tip at the top of every. Flower but
that's not the one you commonly see on the. Roadside

(02:14:13):
that's our standard blob on. It but, anyway you can
plant those wildflower seeds out there if you have a
way of scratching the soil, surface maybe something you drag
behind a mower or a tractor or whatever that just
kind of breaks up the soil surface a little bit
and scatter their seeds out and then it gets watered.
In if it's not gonna, rain get some water out

(02:14:35):
there on. It because we're starting a little late at
this point in the fall for, that but you can
still do it. Normally we're planting them a little bit
earlier in the. Fall they're gonna, sprout they're gonna come,
out and they're gonna sit there all. WINTER i would
recommend a good mowing before you do, it just to
cut down on any grass or other weeds that are
down there blocking the sunlight from the. Soil and, yeah

(02:14:58):
that's how you go about. It the nature takes it from. There.
DEPENDING i would get a, mix because that way you
may have some that do better in a certain spot than.
Others you, know there are certain wildflowers that that do
love a very sandy. Soil drummond flocks as an example
of another one that loves sandy. Soils, Uh and, yeah on,
that then you may have some that will put up

(02:15:19):
with the clay. Soil so get your.

Speaker 17 (02:15:21):
Blend, okay, YEAH i, definitely you, know thinking IF i
can get just, like, say kind of A i don't,
know three to five pound sack of, them And i'll
go scrape a couple areas and a lot next door
and crash your ground and throw them and hope for the.

Speaker 3 (02:15:36):
Best there you. Go sounds like a. Plan all, Right,
well good luck with. It, YEAH i appreciate. You appreciate, You.
COLIN a good. Question and that leads me to a
question for. You how many state? Flowers Does texas? Have state?

(02:16:00):
Flowers Just texas? Have oh you're, thinking you're, thinking well
that one the blue. Bonnet, okay fair. Enough actually that's,
right but the number one isn't. Right there's five different
kinds of blue bonnet that occur here In. Texas one

(02:16:21):
of them they're all, lupines and so the genus Is.
LUPINUS i know this is, nerdy but, hey we're we're
in in the. Show this is a fun. Fact when
people gather For, thanksgiving you can be the horticultural Cliff
claven of the family and share your wealth of knowledge
of obscure. Facts lupinus, subcronosis the sandy lamb blue. Bonnet

(02:16:41):
that's the one that all the way to the top
of the blue bonnet flower is. Blue the next one
is the one that you see, everywhere and That's lupinus tex,
census The texas blue. Bonnet it has the little white
bunny tail at the top of the. Plant wonderful blue.
Bonnet both of those are. Good you go out To

(02:17:03):
West texas and There's lupinas, havevardia the big ben blue,
bonnet and these boogers are. TALL i mean it's like
an eighteen inch tall. Bloomstalk for a, WHILE i don't
know if they're still doing, this but for a while they.
Were TEXA a AND. M was working the horticulture department
on making them into a cut flower that could be
grown in. Greenhouses and here's. Why imagine being able to

(02:17:28):
control the blooming of a blue, bonnet and you grow
these containers full of blue bonnet blooms in a, greenhouse
and you cut, them package them up and ship, them
just like all cut flowers are shipped all over the.
Country so you got some long, lost forlorn soul that
somehow found themselves up In Boston massachusetts and they miss

(02:17:51):
their blue. Bonnets what a lovely here's the perfect gift
with that, person a tub of bluebellt ice cream and
a package of blue. Bonnets wouldn't that be? Cool fresh cut.
Flowers that's what they were doing with The texas. BLUEBONE
i don't know how far long that, got but they're
working on. That then there is one called an annual,
loupine The pinus, caccinus and that one is very. Rare

(02:18:12):
it's typically found in Southwest texas all the way over
To california and Northern. Mexico no one ever sees that,
one hardly to speak of because it is not as.
Common there's a dune blue. Bonnet dune blue bonnet is
found From, Montana, Nebraska, colorado parts Of New, mexico reaches
down Into. Texas it's the only perennial blue bonnet of
our five state flowers In. Texas all, right there you?

(02:18:36):
Go DID i just two? FIVE i THINK i did five,
anyway lots of different. Kinds and when someone asks how
many state flowers do we? HAVE i got five of them,
Anyway SO i guess if they find another lupine it.
Will in, fact there was a legislative boat or whatever
done years ago to officially name that the state flower

(02:19:00):
was all blue. Bonnets you know it. Was firstly it
was a blue. Bonnet well which blue? Bonnet, well all blue,
bonnets and it said and any others that might be,
discovered so we may have. Sex who. Knows there we,
go there's the five stave flowers Of. TEXAS i hope
that was. Fun interesting. Fact appreciate you listening to garden.
Line it's always fun to have you with. Us feel
free to get out there and enjoy your week in the.

(02:19:23):
Garden lots of fun things going. On here's an. Idea
how about create a beautiful decorative planting in containers to
go in your front porch or your back. Patio you,
know we live outside in the winter here because it's
a dog on warm on many. Day why don't we
create a beautiful outdoor planting like. That you could do
it with fall. Colors you could do it with you,

(02:19:45):
know holiday season, colors you, know reds and greens and
the typical. Season put some tensil in the pots and other,
things decorate them with. Ribbons makes a beautiful entrance to the.
Home how about something like that for the table inside
create a beauty full decorative. Container all, right just an. Idea,
well we appreciate you being a. Listener hope you have.

(02:20:06):
Fun hope you enjoyed the show, today and we look
forward to visiting with you again a week from. Now
remember any shows you, miss you can listen to past
shows on kat Rh am on the Garden line section
or on The iHeartMedia. App fine Garden. Line there's only
two of. Them i'm one of. Them the others a
lady somewhere in The. NORTHEAST i believe the outer be
ab will tell us. Apart, anyway talk to you next.

(02:20:27):
Week