The Webworm Show

Skip ans!wers your calls all morning long

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Linewith Skip Ricter. It shows gas can
use a trim. You just watchhim as worlds Gas. Many good things

(00:21):
to sup botas in great gas.You did Savos jobs back again. They're
not a SidD Glasses and gas andthe sound bemon of between the gas.

(00:44):
Well, come, welcome to gardenLine. We are here, live and
well and ready to go with allkinds of gardening talk. What are the
topics that are of interest? Whatare the topics of interest? Do you
have any particular questions that you mightbe interested in gett a little help with.

(01:04):
Well, that's why we're here.You can give us a call seven
to one three two one two kt r H seven one three two one
two k t r H and we'llbe happy to visit about those kinds of
things. Boy, this weather hasbeen interesting, hasn't it. These storms
that are coming through not so badthis last one, but before that we

(01:29):
had a couple of doozies. Andwhen people end up dealing with things out
in the landscape from storms, typicallyfallen limbs, excessive water standing after a
storm, it just reminds us ofthe things that we need to do to
prepare for them, and then alsomaybe talk a little bit about the things
we do afterwards. When you havea branch that has been broken on a

(01:53):
tree, you of course need toremove it. But when it comes to
how to remove a branch, alot of folks aren't aware of that.
And if I were to simplify itas much as just down to the basic,
here's a visual picture for you.If you're following a branch down the
say it attaches to the trunk.You're following it down toward the trunk.

(02:14):
Right before it attaches, it flaresout, and so if you cut that
branch off where it attaches to thetrunk, you have a big wound because
it has flared out. If yougo out to just a little bit,
you've moved outside of what's called thebranch collar, and you're making a much
smaller cut. If you move outfurther, it will die after you cut

(02:38):
it. That insection will die andyou will be left with a stub,
which is a rotting piece of woodthat prevents the branch from closing over that
wound. So there's a sweet spotin there, and that is very important
when you're making those cuts. Thebranch collar has the ability to heal more
so than trunk tissue does. Socutting off that color is not a good

(03:02):
idea, but making the cut atthe right place allows it the best chance
in the world to be able toheal and go fast, or at least
heal what relatively fast for what atree would be doing. Let's go ahead
and go to the phones this morning. We're going to go to Kingwood and
talk to Salvador. Hey, skipby doing today. I'm well, sir,

(03:23):
good Hey. I got three citrustrees that are in thirty gallon pots,
the lemon and the grapefruit. Thisis a second year they've been out.
I brought them in for the winnersbecause I was tired of losing them.
Well, the lemon tree has lostmaybe half a sleeve, but now
it's blooming again. But the grapefruittree when they were out there, when

(03:46):
I brought him out there to beginwith this end of the winter, they
were bright green and fresh looking.Now the grapefruit tree is almost a complete
yellow. There's some green in it, but it's yellowish. There is fruit
growing on it. I just wonderedwhat happened, okay, as it went
from green to yellow. Can youdescribe what changed first, and was it

(04:08):
older leaves, younger leaves? Didthey just turn completely I'm going to say,
did you say older leaves? Yeah, further down the branch, you
know the No, it sort ofall happened at once. It gradually I
noticed it. But now it's prettymuch you know, it's it's yellow.

(04:28):
It still looks healthy, I guess, But it went from a lush green
to this, and the whole treeis like that. Okay, Well,
I don't know what it could be. And it was before the rains even
happened, too, so I knowit's not fluttered or anything like that,
right right, Well, chances areit's not a nutrient issue for a tree
to change that fast. Staying inthe same soil is not going to be

(04:51):
a nutrient issue. It's going tobe a water issue. And water logging
is one of the more common causesof a situation where the plant starts yellowing
and dropping its leaves. Well,that's the thing. The grapefruit tree did
not drop its leaves. It's juststaying a yellow a lemon drop. Like

(05:14):
I said, half the trees.But now it's blooming back again. All
those crouts are coming back. Okay, so it's not dropped its leaves,
it's turning in. Nope, notat all. Well, I still would
check soul moisture. If the yellowingis all over the tree, yes,
I have trouble attributing that to anynutrient because no nutrients changed dramatically in that

(05:41):
short amount of time, and thesoil there are nutrients that are mobile the
plant can move them around. Theyare nutrients the plant cannot move around.
And so to see the yellowing allover rather than in old leaves or new
leaves or whatever, I just don'tsee a nutrient related to that. Was
there any chance that you sprayed thetree with anything or sprayed something? Never

(06:04):
do I spray the trees ever.Okay, rid in the garage for about
it, I don't know, maybea month just for those cold times.
Yeah, I think we're talking aboutsomething in the soil in terms of sole
moisture. It pots have drain holes, hopefully it does, and those drills
can become clogged. Are these potssitting on the patio or are they sitting

(06:28):
out on the sting and the lawnderthe plastic you know, the gardeners when
they put in the trees and thehouse as well, I grabbed a bunch
of them, their thirty gallons,okaying around. I do know that I
move them around when I cut thegrass, so they're not you know,
blocking the rain and the flow ofthe water. Yeah. So that they
have holes at the bottom around thesides of the pot. That's really big

(06:49):
holes. Yeah, so that thegardener you know what the gardeners where the
people put in people's shards and whenit curst building those big black yell have
you treated the yard with anything?Nope? Okay, well we didn't see,
but that that this is when theyjust came out, So we didn't

(07:12):
see that had nothing to do withit. They were already yellowing probably about
two weeks after being taken outside.Okay, all right, they just kind
of let it play out and seewhat happens. Like I said, the
lemon tree is just coming back likeit's brand new. Now, Yeah,
I think, I think so.I would just to be sure, I
would fertilize them with a product forcentrus. Follow the label, don't put

(07:38):
too much in there, right,just follow the label and let's water that
in and see give them a littlebit of time. But that all yellow
is quite a mystery because you've kindof eliminated a lot of the things that
might have led to that. Youknow. The soil was from a one
of the A stores. It's acitrus palm soil good okay, and last

(07:59):
year they were growing great. Ibought a lime tree this year and it
hasn't been effective. Well it's likeyou know, crystal, just very lush
green. But so I basically I'mjust gonna move the pots again, make
sure it's draining boil. You know, with all this water, I could
see what you're saying, but itdid happen before this, So just let

(08:20):
it play out and see what goeson. Yeah, I don't you know.
You've we've eliminated chemical problems, we'veeliminated nutrient problems, We've eliminated sort
of drainage problems. I'll just letmother nature take its course and hope and
pray it works. I think so. Uh So that would be my suggestion.
I'll call you maybe a month tosee you and give you an update

(08:41):
and see what's happening. That wouldbe That would be good. I'd appreciate
that perfect all right, thank yousir. Yeah, but do that fertilization.
I will thank you if the treeturns around, it can do some
Wait, what was the fertile Whatshould I put in there one more time?
Oh, a citrus crius type offood and like a citrus food or
something. Yeah, just a productthat's labeled for CRUs. We we are

(09:03):
all our fertilizer sponsors that We've chosethem because they have high quality. All
of them have quality ingredients, andwe have Centrius food. So now I'm
just trying to see if that's theproblem. This could not be the problem,
though possibly correct. I don't thinkit is so tast it happened and

(09:28):
how all over the plant it happenedat once? Okay, Well, like
I said, I'll touch back tomaybe next month. I'll tell you what's
going on. Thanks, thanks foryour info. I appreciate your call.
All right, our phone number sevenone three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one twofifty eight seventy four. We're gonna take

(09:48):
a little break here. It istime for a break and then something.
I'll be right back, all right, Little Leonard Stannard first thing in the
morning, there could have you withus on guard line today. We are
look looking forward to visiting with youabout questions you might have seven to one,
three, two, one, two, five, eight seven four.
Plants for All Seasons has been aroundsince nineteen seventy three. They're right there

(10:11):
off of Tomball Parkway Highway two fortynine, just north of Luetta, just
right on Tomboll Parkway. And thenyou know, when a company's been around
for that long, you know thatthey're doing some things right, and they're
doing a lot right. And Plantsfor All Seasons I like to say that
if you've got a brown thumb,go in there and they'll make it green.
And the reasons for that is,you know, we don't believe in

(10:33):
brown thumbs here, we believe init. We say that they're uninformed thumbs.
Well, when you walk into Plantsfor All Seasons and talk to very
knowledgeable staff there, you're going toget directed to the procedures, to the
diagnoses, to the supplements, tothe fertilizers, to the pest control,
to whatever your plant needs that hasbeen accurately diagnosed. That is kind of

(10:58):
how they do things. You cantake a place, you can take a
sample, a picture maybe on yourphone, and they'll help you with that.
You're also going to get the rightplant put in your hand plants that
belong here, that grow here,and plants that fit the setting that you've
told them you want to plant thisplant in. That is all part of
going home and having success. Theycarry all the fertilizers I talk about here

(11:20):
on guardline and a number of differentquality soil and mulch based products right there.
Plants for All Seasons. Dot Comis their website. Two eight one,
three, seven six, sixteen fortysix. I want to go out
now to Pearland and we're going totalk to Melvin. Hello, Melvin,
Hey, good morning, Scoop.You doing Bud, I'm good, sir.

(11:43):
Okay. I've got two peach trees. One is a red barn,
the other one is a mid pride. They both got plenty of peaches on
it. So the question is whattime of the year did they naturally ripen
on the tree, And then whatis the best method for picking them early

(12:03):
and trying to get them to ripenor soften up off the tree. And
your reason for picking them early iswhat birds? Well, it got so
many of them on there, youknow, Okay if they all at the
same time, yeah, you know, then I've got the bombard people with
peaches or cut them up, freezethem and stuff like that. All right,

(12:26):
well, okay, here, here'shere's the thing. Peaches are primarily
ripening in June and in July herein our area. Uh, that is
primetime peach season. You may getsome that ripen towards the end of May,
but those are not That's the minorityof the peaches. When a peach

(12:50):
ripens, it turns from green tothat blushed color that everybody recognizes as a
peach. But the way to reallytell if it's ripe is to find us
that's not in the sun. Youknow, wherever the sun hits the peach,
it's going to be pretty red.But if you find like where a
leaf lays across the peach, orsometimes right up at the top where the
stem attaches, or just the underside, backside, you'll see a change from

(13:13):
green to kind of a shartruse yellowcolor. And as it gets toward that
yellow on the side that doesn't havesun, it's probably getting ripe. You
can also squeeze them just a littlebit, and if they give to the
pressure of like your thumb, that'sanother sign that they're very ripe. You
can pick them a little bit earlier. But the peaches are not a fruit

(13:35):
that has the ability to ripen offthe tree. They're not like a tomato,
for example, that you can pickit a little finish. So you
need the peach to at least beat a firm but sweet stage before you
pick it again. If you letit get mushy, you know how that
turns out. It's called peach cobbler. But if you just look at those

(13:58):
signs, I think that's the best. And now it's just another reason why,
you know, as I recommend treesfor people, I try to get
ripening over a period of time.You know, get a peach that ripens
two weeks after the peach that youthat you already have that kind of thing,
just to spread that out a little. Yeah, right now, there

(14:18):
you feel them and they're very hard. The red barn has like got beautiful
blush on them, you know,beautiful looking peaches there, but when you
grab them, they're actually very veryhard. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
the commercial folks pick peaches at thatstage because you cannot ship a peach that
starts often, and so they justlook at the color, the color on

(14:45):
the side where the sun isn't makingit look riper than it is. I
think that's your best bet. Andthen tastes some taste one you kind of
get an idea that way, whatthat color should look like. Yeah,
but that's good. That leads mein the right direction, all right,

(15:05):
Melan, I gotta tell you,I've heard about a lot of people with
problems, but haven't too many peaches. I've never heard about anybody that had
that problem. Usually i'd say that'sa that's a way to make a lot
of people happy. Maybe you cantrade them for something you need. Yeah,
the red barren is so loaded thatthe limbs are just kind of like,

(15:28):
oh my god, down, Ohokay. You know they're pretty much
almost the size of tennis ball.You know, Well, remember in the
spring, you want to thin yourpeaches out. If you can thin them
out by the time they reach aboutthumb size, that's the best. But
I'll put mine. You know,if you open your hand as wide as

(15:50):
it will open, the distance betweenthe tip of your thumb and the tip
of your little finger, that's howfar peaches should be on a branch in
order to full size. And one, yeah, I should offend them out.
I did not do that. Youknow, that's just all right,
but appreciate it. Enjoy your soand keep it up there. Thank thanks
with the call. Appreciate the callvery much. Our phone number if you've

(16:11):
got a question something you would liketo ask seven one three two one two
five eight seven four seven one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four out
in the lawn. It is timeto do your summer fertilization if you haven't
done that already, and I wouldrecommend at this point in the season that
you choose a slow release fertilizer.And what is that, Well, that

(16:34):
means a fertilizer that especially the nitrogenin the fertilizer is not just a form
that dissolves away and is immediately available. When we do that, we end
up with a flush of green growth, meaning you get to mow a lot
more and overdoing nitrogen actually causes theplant to have less of a root system.

(16:57):
I know it's hard to imagine,but I've seen the studies and the
pictures of the roots and how theylook in different nitrogen levels. So if
you have a fast release, forlike, you can dose it out in
small doses. But that means fertilizingjust a little bit a whole lot of
times. What I'd recommend is thatis a slow release, and that is

(17:18):
going to have nitrogen informs that releasegradually over time. It's also nice when
we get a gully washer rain thatdoesn't all just dissolve and wash away.
Nitropos Superturf is that kind of fertilizer. Nitrofos Superturf was designed for our area,
for our southern turf cress. It'slike Saint Augustine and Bermuda and Zoysia
and our hot and humid climate.It will help cut down on moy up

(17:41):
to twenty five percent just by eveningevening that growth out. Now you're going
to find nitrofoss super turf at OspAace in the woodlands for example. You
also find it at plants for allseasons. I was just talking about right
there on two forty nine Tomball Parkwayand plants and things up and run them
another good source for nitropost products likethe super turf. If you are mowing

(18:08):
your lawn, and I know youare, you have a decision to make.
Do you return the clippings to theturf or do you remove them bag
them. I want you to thinkabout something When you put nutrients on the
ground, the grassroots take it up, and what do they grow with it?

(18:29):
Grass runners and leaves blades, grassblades. When you then clip those
grass blades off, you're taking someof the nutrient that you purchased and you're
going to put it in a bagand set it at the curb where the
trash comes and hauls it away.That's called renting fertilizer. Your nutrients.
You paid for good nutrients. They'regone from the property. When you return

(18:56):
your clippings to the turf, thoseclippings release a perfect blend of nutrients.
Because think about this. To growa grass blade, you have to have
the right balance in that grass bladeof nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, minuscule
little elements, trace minerals, thingslike manganese and zinc. They're all in
the blade. And so it's nature'sown perfect slow release fertilizer. A study

(19:21):
done by text A and m manyyears ago, they looked at the nutrient
value of clippings. And if youtake all the clippings from one year of
mowing and you had it analyzed,and then you got the pounds of nutrients
that were in those clippings you wouldweigh more apply nutrients with your lawn more

(19:41):
than your fertilizer spreader. I willsay that again. We fertilize our lawns
to give it the extra boost.Nitrogen, for example, is volatile.
We need to keep adding some toit. But your lawn mower puts out
more nutrients than your fertilizer spreader does. And so to bag those and have
mauled a ways just wasting. Youcan do that now when it rains too
much and the grass gets at tall. Yes, I bag some of mine

(20:04):
the other day. I hate tohave to do that, but I did
used it as mulch and flower bedsand some garden beds that I had.
But in general, let that clippinggo back into the lawn and feed your
lawn. All right, we're gonnatake a little break here. It's time
for the news. Seven one threetwo one two KTRH. Welcome back to
garden Line. How many of youremember the arches. Okay, we're going

(20:26):
way back. I remember, Okay, here we go. Brief story.
I remember that on the back ofcereal boxes for a little while, they
would print little records. Yeah,they press into a plastic that was over
the back of a cereal box,and you could cut them out and put
them on your little forty five recordplayer and play the records. And it

(20:48):
was super sugar, crisp sugar.Of course, that was a song by
the Archies. I'll never forget that, all right, those days are gone,
as they say. Well, Ihave been talking about recycling your clippings
and the importance of that, andit is important. It is something we
should do. There is some placefor organic matter on your property to go.

(21:10):
It could go back in the lawnin the case of clippings. It
could be ground up and used asa mulch. In the case of leaves
or branches or things. Most peopledon't have a grinder to do that kind
of thing. I run over myleaves in the fall, some of them
I run over with the lawnmower andjust chop them up real good, so
I can use them as a littlefine textured mulch on the surface of the

(21:30):
ground in my vegetable garden. Thatworks pretty well. But remember that that
nature recycles naturally. Have you everseen a deer in the forest drake and
leaves, or a cow in ameadow bagging clippings? Of course, not
that nature has a way of takingwhat grew and turning it back into the

(21:52):
soil and making the soil better andthe soil better in the process. Even
grass plants, you know, grassplants live about a year. Excuse me.
The roots of a grass, it'san individual root lives about a year
and then it dies. Now it'spushed a channel through the soil and growing
and it's just all kinds of microbesthat are going all proliferating around that root

(22:15):
because of the things the roots feedingthem. And then is that as it
dies, now you have a passagefor air and moisture to move down in
the soil more readily. And soif you do a time lapse, imagine
the grass plant sending down a rootand it dies, and then here comes
another root and another root. Ofcourse they don't all die at once.
It's a process. But in thatprocess the soil is getting loosened. It's

(22:37):
having organic matter put down into it. We do that, we buy compost
and we speed up the process putit down in the soil. But nature
does that naturally, and so takingadvantage of that system, the healthier your
lawn is, the better your lawnis doing the better your lawn will do.
How does that sound. The betteryour lawn is doing, the better

(23:00):
your lawn will do. What doesthat mean? That means you've got a
healthy lawn. You've got good coverage, your weed problems are being minimized,
you've got an active growing root systemthat is enriching the soil. You've got
nutrients from the clippings that are goingback into the soil, and so all
of that creates a more beautiful lawntoo. Again, it doesn't mean that

(23:21):
we don't have things to do likefertilizing. We do. But nature system
which we are taking a notch upin terms of having a nice, beautiful,
uniform, dense lawn. A naturesystem is to take care of itself.
The better your lawn is doing,the better your lawn will do.
So good healthy dense lawn. That'sa secret. If you go to my

(23:41):
schedule on guarding with skip dot comand let's see, if you go there
on the lawn care schedule, thelawn care schedule, it talks about how
to mow properly. Do you knowthere is a way actually to mow properly?
And it talks about the importance ofreturning those clippings and creating a dense,

(24:02):
healthy lawn. If you go tothe weed schedule, the weed management
schedule in red letters right in themiddle of the page, I'm going to
read it. The first and mostimportant step and weed control is to build
a dense, healthy turf over timethrough proper through proper fertilizing, mowing,
and watering. Remember, wherever sunlighthits the soil, nature plants a weed.

(24:27):
All Right, those are some thoughts. I think it's a little bit
on the academic side, But Ithink as you understand that it starts to
make sense, and the way yougo about gardening and the way you look
at problems in the lawn starts tokind of evolve a little bit and we
just become better gardeners as we do. Remember, there are no brown thumbs.

(24:48):
There's uninformed thumbs. And for youlawn rangers out there, hopefully I
just informed the thumb just a littlebit there. Our phone number, if
you'd like to give us a call, is seven to one three two five
eight seven four seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. Your
Ace Hardware stores, Yeah, theforty Ace Hardware stores in the Greater Houston

(25:11):
area. They stay stocked up onthe things you need to have a more
beautiful landscape and a more bountiful garden. That would include things like every fertilizer
I talk about on garden Line,like composts and mulchz that you hear me
talk about here on garden Line.They have the pest control, the weed
control, the disease control products youneed to have success in the case of

(25:36):
things like here's mosquito season. Youcan buy your mosquito dunks there. You
can buy a fogger there if you'regoing to go after them that way.
Just whatever you're trying to do tohave a beautiful, beautiful landscape and a
bountiful garden, ACE can help youwith that and also help you with making
your outdoor living a nicer experience.First of all, no mosquitos. Second

(26:00):
of all, a really sweet barbecuebit, you know what I'm talking about,
Like Trager, Big Green Egg,wherever, those kinds of things they've
got that they can get it allset up. Go to ACE check them
out Acehardware dot Com. Find thestore locator so that you can find the
ACE Hardware nearest to you. Pickup your fertilizer, your FIREMNT control time

(26:22):
still time to do that, andmosquito repellent this weekend at ace, I
was complaining yesterday about the mosquitos andtheir outbreak, and one of the things
I have to do when I gethome is clean out my gutters on the
house. I had just not noticedthis, but I have a certain kind

(26:45):
of well. I have cypress treesthat pretty sees little feathery leaves, and
those things will really clog up agutter well, and I hadn't noticed that
they'd built up. And when wehad this gully washer and it was overloading
the gutters, Uh, it cameover the sides of the gutter and a
normal gutter. That shouldn't happen.But I need to get up there and

(27:07):
clean that out because I guarantee youthere are mosquitoes that are reproducing in that
area. Mosquitoes just need a littlebit of water and a little bit of
time to lay an egg, getthe larvae, and here comes the adult
mosquito coming out of it. Andwe need to make sure and stay away
from that and avoid it. Andthat's what's going to happen in my house

(27:27):
for sure this week it's time takea break. Our phone number seven one
three two one two ktrh. I'llbe right back. Welcome back to gardenline.
Good heavy with us. What doyou like to talk about today?
I've been going on about some ofthe natural systems out there, how to
have a beautiful, dense, thick, healthy lawn, and why the practices

(27:48):
we do help achieve that. Forus, that is our goal to have
a beautiful, dense, healthy lawnthose of you who love lawns, and
boy, judging from percentage wise ofthe calls, we get lawns and trees
or by far the top two topicsthat people are interested in. I mean,
we get, you know, questionson plumerias and roses and bugs and

(28:10):
diseases and everything else. But I'lltell you LUNs and trees, that is,
those are very important to people andthey should be. Trees are a
valuable, valuable asset to the landscape. They shade our homes, which in
the summertime can help significantly on airconditioning electric bills, for example. They

(28:30):
also provide shade for us as we'resitting outside. I have a cypress tree.
I complain about some things about thatcypress tree, but I tell you
I don't complain about the fact thatwhen I go outside and sit underneath it,
it is nice and cool. Evenon a hot day, there's a
nice break. If we have abreeze, we have a big fan.
I have an out back that ismy artificial breeze if the breeze refuses to

(28:53):
blow, Because a breeze makes abig difference. But trees are valuable.
Blooming trees are very gorgeou and whenyou decide to plant a tree, you
need to think about it for awhile. Think about what do you want
out of that tree. Some peoplewill call and say, what's a good
tree to plant? I lost thetree, what's a good tree to replace
it? Well, what do youwant? Do you want a big spreading

(29:17):
shade tree. Do you want somethingthat's ever green or something that is going
to lose its leaves and allow thesun through in the winter or does that
matter? Do you want something thatblooms? How big? Do you want
it to be? Little tree overa patio area or again a big giant
shade tree. All of that helpsus determine what are some of the options

(29:37):
to have success with your trees.But think about trees, they are a
long term investment. If you livein that house for the rest of your
life, A quality tree could lastthat whole time. I really could.
It's a very, very valuable investmentand I think an important decision. So
let's not take it lightly. Let'schoose some good, good types of trees

(30:00):
that are gonna survive for us andfit what we want them to be able
to do. I was talking aboutour schedule online and if you go to
gardening with Skip dot com, youwill find that schedule that will guide you
in both lawn care and lawn pestdisease and weed management. I talk about
it a lot because I've put togethera lot of information into these two schedules

(30:26):
in hopes that they'll guide you becauseyou're gonna have questions next week, next
month, next season, next year, and you can always refer back to
this and as we do updates toit, I'll let you know. But
the nice thing I think about theseschedules is they're color coded and they cover
January through December, and they giveyou options both synthetic and organic for both

(30:48):
fertilizing, insect control, disease control, weed control. Where we have those
options, they are there listed onthe schedule, and that makes it really
easy for you. A lot ofpeople print that out and make it and
just you know, take it withthem when they go shopping, because that
way, you don't have to rememberwhat it was that you were wanting to

(31:10):
get, or what the option Band C is for you. You got
them right there. I'm going tobe doing another appearance before we hit the
summer season here, and that willbe two weeks from yesterday at Wildbirds Unlimited
in bel Air. Now. WarbirdsUnlimited stores are fun to go to,
you know, just on any givenday, but I hope you'll consider coming

(31:33):
out and meet me there at thewild Birds Unlimited. I love to meet
people that listen to the shows.That's just always fun. It's one of
my favorite things about the whole gardeningworld is meeting gardeners and talking to gardeners.
Warbirds Unlimited has an excellent selection ofeverything you need for birds. I'll
be there because they're there, they'rethe experts on birds. I'll be there.

(31:56):
If you've got plants you want diagnosed, you can bring a sample in,
you can bring a photo in.If you have plants that you would
like to have identified. Maybe it'sa weed. Maybe it's a beautiful plant
you saw somewhere. Bring me apicture. Let's look at it. Remember
when you take pictures and bring themor email them to me. If we're
dealing with an email question, it'simportant to take a picture of the plan

(32:19):
and it's setting, and then alsoa picture of what distinguishes that plan up
close. Like if it were adisease spot, let me see it up
close. If it's an insect,let me see it up close. If
it is a pattern in the leavesor a blotching or a lack of color
or whatever, let me see itup close and make sure it's in sharp
focus before you hit sent. Onelast thing, if you're going to be

(32:40):
emailing and with email, I can'tanswer the emails of everyone in the in
the Greater Houston area, so weconnect those to the show. But if
you do email me a photo,please attach it rather than embed it into
the text. When a photo isembedded in the text, I have to
go through a couple of steps tobe able to save it and really zoom

(33:02):
in better to see it better.And when it's attached, it's real fast
and that makes it a lot easier. So if you would attach them rather
than to bed them. That wouldbe helpful anyway. I hope you come
out next or not next two saturdaysfrom yesterday, June fifteenth, right in
the big middle of June. That'seasy to remember. Wabird's unlimited in bel
Air. Look forward to seeing youout there. Back at the house,

(33:28):
I was working on some beds thathad been neglected for a little while,
and I finally had some time toget out and do some revamping of those
beds. I was taking out somereally heavy clay that we had in the
beds from a trench that had beendug and the clay had been just set
there because I didn't want it put, you know, in the yard and

(33:51):
other beds. And I'm moving thatclay out, and then I'm bringing in
quality bed mixes to work into thesoil. Things also like expanded shale to
work into the soil, and thatmakes it's really helpful to be able to
do that. I'll talk about alittle bit more of that in a moment.
Let's go to Conro now and talkto Larry. Hello, Larry,

(34:13):
good morning, Skip. How areyou today. I'm well, sir.
How can we help good? Isent you a couple of pictures yesterday in
reference to some trees I put insome hollies, Yes, okay, And
I was just asking if you'd recommendthat I put those in in Oh,
I guess October. Hey, Larry, I don't see those pictures, do

(34:34):
you. Let's see here? Isn'there to show up as from Larry?
Is that? Or does email beginwith some different letters or things? The
email would come be s is inSam b as in Victory owas in Oscar
b as in Bravo four three SVI don't see it? Will you resend

(35:02):
them? And when I come backfrom break, if you want to hang
on the phone, you can dothat. We're about to have to take
a break here. But if youwill re send them to me or just
call back, we will try todive into that. Okay, yeah,
let me get yeah, let meget back and make sure I get with
your assistant there to get that emailcorrectly then, because I received it from

(35:23):
them yesterday. Okay, Okay,here, I'm gonna put you on hold,
am my producer. You're going togive you my email address. Thanks
a lot. All right, we'vebeen listening to Guardline. We're here to
talk about the things that interest you, How can we help you have success?
That is That is exactly what we'retrying to do here. You know,
gardening is I think the most wonderfulhobby there is out there for a

(35:46):
lot of reasons, but it isone that is daunting to some people.
And it doesn't need to be likewe say, there's no brown thumbs.
There's some informed thumbs stick around.We'll be right back and we will continue
to inform your thoughts to KTI rH Garden Line with Scamp Richard's trip.

(36:20):
Just watch him as a world,so many good things to see. Boss
S, welcome back to the guardenLine. Good to have you with us.

(36:44):
We are looking forward to visiting withyou about the things that interest you.
That is what we're trying to dohere on the Garden Line. Make
sure that we help you have success, as I like to put it,
a more beautiful landscape and a morebountiful garden. We're gonna head back out
to Conroe to talk to Larry.Larry, I've got your photos and taken

(37:04):
a look at them, and Ithink the first thing I would say is
think about what you want the plantform to be. Do you want a
tree with a you know, abear trunk coming up and then a top
that has all the leaves and foliageon it. Are you looking for more
of a wall of foliage it goesto the ground or what do you think
there? Well, I'm definitely Iwanted to look like a tree more than

(37:30):
a bush. Okay, well you'rewell on your way to that. The
trees, they look pretty good.Actually, I think you obviously have spent
some time making sure they're well watered. Get them through, you know,
when we come into this next year, just remember the root system is still
very confined, so just make surethat the original root ball and a little

(37:53):
beyond that does not dry out.So you'd recommend trimming those up Pruningum,
yeah, you could clean up thetrunks to the height if you want uniformity.
You know, some of them brancha little lower. You could remove
the lower branches. Just figure outwhat the heights you want it to be

(38:14):
and then prune them out. Rememberthat leaves develop where sunlight, where there's
sunlight, So if your top ofthe tree gets real wide and broad,
it's going to shade out the lowerareas and you're not going to have foliage
down in lower areas, So justdo a little selective printing, not sharing
them like a shrub, but alittle selective printing to shape them as you

(38:37):
want them, making sure that thelower leaves are reaching out and getting sunlight
as well. When you trim theygrow at the bottom of the tree,
at the bark right near the ground. Does that encourage growth more to the
top of the tree, Well,it does. Trees are going to to

(39:00):
grow anywhere that there's sunlight. You'regoing to see branches sprout, shoots come
out, You're going to see leavesgrowing and things like that. When you
allow that to go on, there'sa certain percentage of what the roots are
taking up that is going into thosebranches, and especially if they are branches
that are not going to be permanenton the tree, then when you cut

(39:22):
them off, you've you know,you all the resources that went into making
that branch are taken away now andit would have been better to make the
decision a little earlier and to havethose resources go into the growth that is
more permanent. Sounds good. That'swhat I'll do, all right, sir.

(39:42):
Thank you, very thank you,sir. A good day. Yeah,
thanks for the call. Appreciate thata lot. I'm having trouble here
with my buttons. Okay. EarlierI is going on and on about nature
and taking care of the soil andwhatnot, and lens Scaper's Pride is a
company built around that. Landscaper's Pridehas like twenty seven I believe different products

(40:07):
that are out there on the market, things that improve the soil, you
know, compost, soil blends andwhatnot. But I want to talk about
what goes on top of the soilbecause you think about a forest, the
rich some of the richest soil onEarth, and you've got a lot of
organic matter that's decomposing on the surface, and that's called malts when we get
it into a garden. They havethe black velvet molts, unnaturally dark molts,

(40:30):
not dyed, naturally dark, beautiful, beautiful molts, very velvety in
depth. They have a hardwood moltsbased on true hardwood shredding trees, not
plump, not a pecking pallets likesome companies will do. They have a
pine bark molt, which is ourmost popular and it's a beautiful pine bark.

(40:50):
That last pine bark lasts a littlebit longer, doesn't decompose as fast
as some of the other maltes mightdo. And then of course the Garden
Magic Soil, that's the blend thatin addition to the chicken pellet fertilizer,
it gives you about three months offeeding. That soil has. It's based
on pine, it's got humus,it's got screen pine, and it also
has composted rice holes. So againseveral different organic materials decomposed back into a

(41:15):
quality growing mix for plants. Allat Landscapers Pride. All you have to
do is go to Landscaperspride dot comand you can find out more about the
products and also where to get them. Let's go now out to Champion's Forest
and talk to Barbara. Hello,Barbara, oh skip, thanks for taking
my call this morning. Sure,I am unundated in some areas with ki

(41:39):
linga, okay, And what canI use on it? It's I don't
want to damage to Saint Augustine ifI can avoid it, okay. Kay
Linga is a lot like nutgrass,and in terms of it being related,
it's very similar to sedge, andit is a little more difficult to control

(41:59):
than than nuts edge is. Andso what what I would suggest you probably
are going to want to get somethingwith halo sulfur on in it. And
I know that's a that's a lotof a lot of word there, but
basically something like heritage. Excuse me, not heritage. I just went blank.

(42:22):
Sedge hammer, I'm sorry, sedgehammer, sedge hammer, or there's
sedge ender. Also, sedge hammerand sedge ender are both products that will
help you will need to apply themmore than once, and so they not
said the kalinga is probably not aone shot deal. Thet if I use

(42:45):
a pump up sprayer and spray itand it happens to hit some of the
Saint Augustine, that's okay, justjust follow read the label carefully, and
follow the label carefully, try totarget the kilinga. But the sedgehammer is
designed to be used in lawns,as is the sedge ender. Right,

(43:07):
I appreciate that. I'll get tothat today. Well not today, it's
still too wet. Yeah, butas soon as things start to dry out
a little bit. And just aone more note, sedges, including Klinga,
they love wet conditions. And itdoesn't mean if you let your lawn
dry out, they're going to goaway. It just means that the wetter

(43:27):
it is, the more they proliferate, and the more of a challenge it
is to bring them under control.And this season it's definitely hit all spots.
Yeah, we're not in charge ofthe clouds, are you. No,
we're not so yeah. Well,I tell you, I see a
lot of folks that weigh over watertheir lawn way more than the lawn needs.
And so just keep that in mind, you know, be a little
stingy with the water out there.Well, where I live, I don't

(43:52):
have to water too much because theway the drainage is set up in our
patio community, the water runs downhilland guess who lives down there? You
go, all right, all right, Well, uh then maybe the way
to get rid of kilinga is tocall a realtor. Well, I don't
think I want to move. Ilike, hey, Barbara, thank you,

(44:12):
appreciate it, Thank you. Ihave a great day, you too.
We're going to take a little break. Seven one three two one two
k t R. Hil be rightback. Welcome back to the guard Line.
Good to have you with us today. If you have a question that
we can assist with our phone number. The number you need to call is
seven one three two one two kt r A seven one three two one

(44:34):
two k t r h uh Nitroposshas a number of different fertilizer products in
the market. One of them thatI find very interesting is sweet Green.
And I say interesting because this isa different kind of an approach to fertilizer
based on a molasses type material withmicrobial activity on it. Uh. It

(44:57):
has an eleven percent nitrogen content thatis very high for an organic type material.
When you put it on the soil, that carbon based material, the
molasses based material, the carbon itreally reactivates the microbes in the soil,
especially beneficial bacteria. These microbes needcarbon in order to thrive and grow,

(45:21):
and when you add this to thesoil, you get a rejuvenation and a
real increase in bacterial numbers. Thisis why organic gardeners like to put molasses
on the soil for example. Theyrecognize that and sweet Green will give you
a nice greening up. It'll dissolveaway as the rainfalls or as you irrigate
move down into the soil and yousee that result. Because it is going

(45:45):
to be available, you can usethis more than once through your summer season
to continue to just provide the amountof green and growth that you're looking for.
You're going to find it at EnchantedGardens down in Richmond Rosenberg, at
Shades of Texas up in the Woodlands. You also find it at Fisher's Hardbor
both the one in South Houston onSouth Moore and also the Fisher's Hardware and

(46:07):
the Port on South Broadway Street.Makes it easy to find a lot of
availability of these and other nitro fussproducts. I think that with the rain
that we've had, our lawns aredoing pretty well. Actually, in fact,
the only thing I've noticed is Isaw some yellowing in my lawn the

(46:28):
other day, and it was abeautiful green lawn, And there are just
some areas that are just starting toyellow a little bit. And I think
that just an excessive amount of watermaybe to drain is not being as good
as it is. I don't knowwhat else going on there. I'm keeping
an eye on it. Maybe adda little iron key late to the soil.
Iron key late is a form ofiron that the soil doesn't just tie

(46:51):
up immediately like it would regular iron, and iron key late, just judiciously
applied, can help with that lackof color. Let's go to pair Land.
Now we're going to talk to Greg. Hello, Greg, Hi,
Skip. I've got a lawn thatB and B put in a bunch of

(47:12):
new San Augustine saw it for usabout five weeks ago. They did a
beautiful job, did a beautiful job. And what I need to know is
is it okay to do anything nowyou would with a regular established lawn,
from fertilizer to bug out max toanything. Is there anything I shouldn't do

(47:32):
with this lawn? Yet? Afteralmost five weeks, most of the time
turf comes in with a as Iput it a charge of fertilizer. It's
got some nutrient in it, andit doesn't need nutrients for a while.
It's getting a root system down.Been in five weeks now you've got a
pretty good root system. You cango by one of two ways of looking

(47:53):
at it. One would be tosay, wait a month at least maybe
six weeks before you start fertilizing.Okay, so you're getting close to that.
The other would say, when you'vehad to mow the lawn twice,
it's probably time to start fertilizing.And that's what and that's what we've done.
It has been mowed twice. Yeah, so it's got enough of a

(48:15):
root system to where we're not worriedabout it being not established. And so
you could do any of those thingsthat you want to do. Look at
the color too. But if you'regoing to do a fertilizer, I would
do one that is a very slowrelease one, gradually releasing those nutrients over
time. Okay. And and andI use nitro fas is it the it's

(48:43):
no, it's not the red bag. It's a silver bag from Nitropos.
It's called super turf. Yeah,superturf, silver bag. Really easy to
find. Uh. And and justto apply that, follow the label on
Nitrophos super turf. You're going toput about five pounds per thousand square feet.
I believe I need to check thatlabel again and may be a little

(49:04):
off on that, but I believeit's fine. Okay. I think on
my fertilizer spreader, I think itgoes to fifteen and I used about ten.
Does that sound about right? Yeah? Probably? So, yeah,
that is okay. That is adifficult thing because we had all these brands
a fertilizer and all these brands ofspreaders and things. One way that I

(49:25):
put it. Is this a walkbehind spreader, It's got wheels, it
is h it's like a broadcast.So generally if you put it a notch
or two above halfway, so yousaid you have you had a fifteen notches
on it, Yeah, fifteen,and I usually do about ten. Yeah,
nine or ten would be okay,Yeah, don't you won't. Don't

(49:49):
go over ten. But I'll tellyou something else. There's nothing wrong with
going like way lower than that.And you go across your lawn and then
at the end you see how muchyou have left. And it may be
that you've put almost two thirds ofit out, so you need to back
off a lot, or it maybe that you need to add more.
But if you just do it inone trip across the lawn, you could

(50:13):
run out before you get to theend of the lawn. And so I
like to go a little light untilI figure out with my spreader and this
product, this is about what Iwant to set it on. Anyway,
that's just a little little extra things. Not know that that that's great.
One more really quick thing I've gotAnd I talked to you about this before
and everything worked out beautifully. ButI planted a big yucka tom Sonyana and

(50:39):
it just got through blooming and it'sgot a few blooms left before they're about
to all fall off. Is itokay to cut off that bloomstock now?
Or should I wait until it driesout? You can cut it off now
if you want. Okay, Yeah, that's good. Well, that takes
care of everything. That love yourshow. Thanks a bunch, Hey,

(51:00):
Thanks, Greg, appreciate you beinga listener. Okay, all right,
bye bye you bet bye bye.Mother's Day. Mother's Day was passed.
Does that mean we quit giving gifts? No, there's always a day for
a gift. Father's Days coming up. Now. When you think about gifts
and you think about somebody who alreadyhas everything, what would be a good

(51:21):
suggestion. Maybe it's just a housewarminggift. This is a great I have
a great idea for you. WaBird's Unlimited. Wild Birds Unlimited has all
kinds of things birds and most peopleenjoy just watching birds, or sitting out
on a patio and listening to theirsongs and watching their antics. Whether you
need a little bird waterer, alittle bird bath as they call it,

(51:45):
if you need a house for birds, if you need a feeder for birds
Wildbirds Unlimited. How's all that?Including a really cool book called The Joy
Bird Feeding by the founder of WarbirdsUnlimited. It makes an excellent gift from
housewarming to whatever event, to justhey you're my friend. Here is I
just wanted to do this for you. Wild Birds Unlimited is six locations around

(52:07):
town. Go to WBU dot com, forward slash Houston, or hey,
I have an idea for you.I'm going to be at Waldbirds Unlimited.
It's coming up two weeks from yesterday, June fifteenth. I'll be at the
Waldbirds Unlimited and bel Air. Socome on over and see me and we'll
talk about some great ideas for giftsor maybe you want to buy something for

(52:30):
yourself. Let's head out to Hoffmannow and talk to Greg. Hello,
Greg, how you doing. I'mgood, sir. What's up? All
right? I'm in here. You'retelling about these mosquito dunks. Yes,
and I was warning Are they safearound animals and stuff like that? Absolutely

(52:52):
safe. Birds can drink the water, the cat, the dog can drink
the water. It is. Thereason is this is a disease of the
mosquito larva. And so I meanif a lady beetle K drank the water.
It wouldn't hurt it because it's notit's not a mosquito larva. Okay,
cool, cool good. I gota few animals and bought me some

(53:15):
of the mosquito dunks. Could.I've been hearing you talk about them,
and yeah, yeah, good,And I read up on it a lot,
but I just wanted to see ifmy mind was reading the same way
it was reading. Yeah. No, this is you know, there are
a lot of pesticides out there,and we always concerned about, you know,
side effects and stuff. I can'tthink of anything with less than those

(53:37):
side effects as a mosquito dunk interms of all the things we care about
in the backyard, from people topets, to beneficial insects to birds,
you name it. All righty,well, get sure, do appreciate it,
and thank you. You have awonderful day, SIRVI. You bet.
Thanks. I appreciate the call.Good luck those mosquitoes. I tell

(53:59):
you, we've all got a battleon our hands. Oh I know it.
I'm battling them already, so allright, but take care great right,
yeah, mosquitos, mosquitos, boy, they have been they have been
proliferating at my house, you know, and you got to be diligent.
I had here, here's just anexample. I was in my garden and

(54:22):
I had I spread leaves in thewalkways in my garden. It just makes
an all weather pathway. They decomposeand then periodically I harvest if you build
the walkways and put it in thebeds, because it's composted leaf material.
Uh. And I had an extrabag of leaves that I set off in
a corner and kind of forgot about. And I was walking by the other
day, just cleaned things up,picking things up, and I saw that

(54:43):
bag and it had rained on it, and of course there were these little
small puddles in the bag. Mosquitoescan proliferate in that they can breed and
go through their life cycle in thatlook for places where you have standing water
that you can get rid of.And if you have standing water, you
need to keep mosquito dunks or thething to use makes it so easy.

(55:05):
Each dunk lass about a month,I believe, releasing that disease of mosquito
larvae into the soil. Well,we're gonna take a little break here for
the news. Our phone number ifyou would like to give me a call.
We got a wide open board hereif you'd like, here's this a
great chance to get on uh sevenone three two one two kt r H

(55:27):
seven to one three two one twokt r H. I would like to
ask a question and when you comewhen we come back, if if you
call, would you think about whatare some new things you want to try
in the garden you haven't done before? Maybe you heard me talk about birds
or birdhouses. Maybe you heard metalk about the mosquito dunks, or maybe
some kind of plant. What areyou going to do different this year?

(55:49):
Gardening is about growing in more waysthan one. It's about growing in your
gardening skills and growing in the inthe number of things and the types of
things that you have. Will beright back, welcome back to guarden Line.
Glad to have you with us today. If you'd like to give us
a calf seven one three two onetwo kt RH and we're going to head

(56:10):
right out to Friendswood and talk toCharlotte. Hello Charlotte, Good morning,
Stip morning. I would like toask you about white I think their white
flies in my yard. Okay,I've had them at least a year and

(56:30):
I kept thinking they would die inthe winter, and I applied bug out
Max about three weeks ago. AndI cannot tell that there's any difference.
Okay, Now, describe what you'reseeing. How big are they and when
you walk through the yard, whatdo they do? Okay, So,

(56:55):
especially early morning when I walked throughthe yard, they just fly up in
cloud, almost like a cloud,and they are very very small. I
mean, I can't part of it'smy vision, I'm sure, but I

(57:17):
can't really make them out very well. I just know that there are clouds
of white Okay, Okay, youknow, I don't think that's white flies.
Number one white flies. Our turfis not a target for white flies
eating. There are there are manykinds of little gnatlike creatures that it could

(57:39):
be coming from. It could befungus gnats. They eat on organic matter
decomposing in the soil surface, andthey love wet conditions. It could be
a lot of different kinds of things. It is not a pest of the
lawn though, so other than thefact that you got these little credits flying
around, it's not something you needto be concerned about with your lawn.

(58:00):
Okay, Well, that's good.To hear. Yeah, it's always good
to seem to be dying or anything. But it just bothers me. Yeah,
I understand. Well, you know, I mean we could you could
spray a insecticide out there, andfor the case of these, I think

(58:21):
you would need to go to aspray because the the product used is going
to dissolve and go down into thelower thatch and soil area and and do
its work down there. But Ithink with something like this you probably need
a spray that you can get allover the foliage of the grass and stuff.
It. Just remember what you know, Nature has a lot of interactions

(58:43):
going on, and very few ofthe things are pasts that are out there.
So I always try to avoid disruptingthe balance. Uh, you know,
but if if you need to getrid of them, that that is
possible. I just not if itwere my yard, I don't. I
wouldn't. I would just ignore it. No, I'm fine with ignoring them

(59:04):
if if it's not going to killmy grass. Right, it's not not
those things. If your grass dies, it's because of some mills. Okay,
Okay, thank you very much,Thank you, Charlotte, appreciate that
very much. Now that you andI have just decided we don't have a
problem there. I guess we cango solve world hunger and deal with some
big problems. Right. Get thebills paid. Thank you, Charlotte.

(59:29):
I appreciate it. You take care. Yeah, that is for sure.
If you are wanting to have abeautiful lawn and landscape, I want to
tell you about peer Scapes. Peerscapeshas been around for a good while and
they're professionals. They've got designers thatcan go in and I mean then recreate
whatever you're looking for. Do youwant a beautiful outdoor rock patio area.

(59:54):
Do you want it to have outdoorlighting, landscape lighting? Do you want
to have work done with an irrigationsystem to improve drainage to like I said,
pretty much what you need. Doyou want to have a whole new
beds put in and design? Theycan do all of that. Pierscapes is
a professional. They are professionals.They absolutely know how to do it right

(01:00:15):
and you can go to their website. Do this, Go to their website
and see what I'm talking about.Pierscapes dot com. Piercescapes dot com.
You will be very impressed with thekind of upscale work they can do,
but they can do work on anykind of a home setting. And they
have a quarterly maintenance, so maybeyou just want someone to come in once

(01:00:36):
a quarter clean up the flower beds, put in new color, malt the
flower beds, you know, dosome trimming and fertilizing and all that type
of thing. Check the irrigation system. Perscapes can do that too. Just
give them a call again, makeit easy for you pierscapes dot com or
two eight one three seven zero fivezero six zero. Now we're going to

(01:01:00):
head out to Kingwood and talk toJoe. Hello, Joe, good morning
Skip. I had a one questionand asking your advice about lawn fertilizer spreaders.
I'd used the Trustee Scott's Speedy Greenfor about twenty years and recently the
one of the wheels fell off ofit, so I thought I would just

(01:01:21):
go replace it with the same kindsince it had been such a good one,
and I got online the new oneshave terrible ratings and you know,
their very poor quality. So Ijust my yards about six thousand square feet,
and of course it's broken into somebig parts, some little parts,
or you know, in the frontyard, there's probably three areas in the

(01:01:42):
back about six. I used ahand fertilizer and so I get better control,
but it only holds about four poundsand so it takes a long time
to spread the fertilizer. So Iwas calling to see what advice you had.
Do you use a walk behind thespreader or to use a handspreader?
I used a walk behind for fertilizer. If I were putting out fire at

(01:02:05):
Bait, I would use a handspreader. Uh do you mind sharing what what
brand you use? I don't mind. I was just thinking about it as
I figured you'd ask that I thinkit. I think it's a Scotts brand.
To be honest, I had tolook at the brand. Uh it's

(01:02:25):
uh yeah, I'm pretty sure it'sthe Scotts. And I don't remember which
way it's a it's a good butlet's say a medium range of Scott's spreader
and it works well for me.That's fine. Yet I got it over
at uh Southwest Fertilizer, bought itfrom Bob over there, and and it
Yeah, I've been pleased with it. Yeah yeah. Have you bought it?

(01:02:45):
Was it recently or have you hadit a quite a while ago,
about a year ago, and thenI've gone through a lawn transition. I
planted a new lawn a couple ofmonths ago, and so I haven't had
to fertilize yet. I'm about tostart, but it's the on came in
with such good nutrient charts. Itis still looking good. But I'm about
to put this low release out totake care of the rest of the season

(01:03:07):
up to fall. When you putout grub killer, to use the walk
behind for that also, you can. Yeah, it just depends on how
big of an area you're going tocover. Most of the time, I
would not cope my whole lawn inan insecticide for grubs. They tend to
be more of a problem near outdoorlights. You got a porch light or

(01:03:30):
something where all the june bugs are, and you see them more in kind
of hotspots like that. To behonest, I just have not had a
grub problem that I've had to worryabout in a very very long time.
I do it mainly as a preventiveto keep the faral logs out of my
yard. Okay, oh well,okay, but I mean they'll come in

(01:03:52):
rooting for earthworms and a lot ofthings. But yeah, I know what
you're talking about. Yeah, armadilla'stoo. They love the Yeah, yeah,
I have lots of armadillas. Allright. Joe Hey, thank you,
Skip you Bet, I appreciate you. Carl, thank you very much.
We're going to take a little breakseven one three two one two K
t r H. I'll be rightback. Come back to garden line a

(01:04:12):
little memory of Tobeque. Well weare. We're discussing a variety of different
kinds of things today. I've beendoing a little bit of, I don't
know, going in depth a littlemore on a few topics. I like
to do that every now and then, just to kind of get some understanding
of what's going on behind the scenesin gardening and why we have success,

(01:04:35):
why we do what we do.One of the questions I get periodically and
probably should get more based on drivingaround and seeing how things are planted,
is how far apart do you plantthings? How far apart do you plant
like annuals in a bed or shrubsdown down a hedgerow? And uh,

(01:04:56):
one answer to that is do youwant fast or do you want to save
money? Which is more important toyou because of course you put things closer
together and you get faster fill in, but that comes at a cost of
more plants. You can put themfurther apart, and you may take a
while to get it to fill in, but you bought less than the way

(01:05:17):
of plant. So it's kind ofa trade off there. And in general,
as a very general roll of thumb, I think about how big a
plant's going to get, and I'llplant it at about fifty percent to seventy
five percent, maybe eighty percent ofthat distance. So if you've got a
shrub, and I'll make the numberseasy. If you've got a shrub that's

(01:05:38):
going to get ten feet wide,that would be planning them five feet apart
for a very fast fill in,or up to about eight feet apart for
a slower Okay, so fifty toeighty percent of the distance. You have
to consider too, how fast doesa plant grow. If it's something that
just crawls, like Texas Mountain Laurelgrows very very slowly, probably gonna put

(01:06:00):
something like that a little bit closerbecause it's going to take a long long
time. If it's something that growsfast, well, then a little further
apart would be That'd be another factorin how far apart to plant things in
flower beds and whatnot. There's somegreat online tools where you know, it'll
tell you I'm putting in a plant, here's the bed area, and I

(01:06:24):
let's see, I need to plantthese x inch you know, inches apart
or so, and then it'll tellyou how many plants you need for that
area. And that's very helpful goingin. Just remember that always, I
always have an extra plant or twoor three around, because sometimes something happens
to one plant, and that way, you've got the one kind of sitting

(01:06:46):
in the on deck circle and youcan just pop it right in little Astro's
reference. You can pop it rightin to that spot. So just having
an extra one or two is alittle way to head your bet some And
then I end up putting those ina container or something like that, because
you know you can't get rid ofa plant that's perfect health. Well let's

(01:07:06):
go back to the phones. We'regoing to go to Spring and talk to
Rich. Hello, Rich, goodmorning. Skip struggling struggling with trying to
tell the difference between kalinga and nutsedge. Okay, all right here, nuts

(01:07:26):
edge has a more upright growth habit. It's gonna get taller than Kalinga gets.
On top of nuts edge, you'regoing to have some you're gonna have
a cluster of what would be asedge bloom doesn't look like a flower.
And then the seed set that's moreopen, and it may it may cover

(01:07:49):
an area, oh, I don'tknow, two inches across or more.
Kalinga the top of it where theseeds would be. It's more like small,
fuzzy, almost round ish types ofthings sitting right in there entire So
maybe the individual ones would be aboutthe size of, you know, one

(01:08:11):
of your smaller fingernails or something likethat. Kalinga, there are some,
so Kalinga is the one that hasit. It almost looks like a mini
pineapple if you will in the middle. Yeah, yeah, something like that.
That would be Kalinga. And thennutsedge is just more open. And
you can do an online search fornutsedge and Kalinga doing image search and it'll

(01:08:35):
it'll direct you to you. There'syellow and there's purple nut sets. So
student kinds of nutsedge that are mostcommon around here is very selective herbicide skip
that will take care of both withouthurting Saint Augustine. I would go with
sedge hammer or sedge ender, andyou will need especially with the kalinga it's

(01:08:57):
harder to control. You will needto be ready to do more than one
application over time, maybe six weeksapart. Just watch it and see you
don't want to overdo that. Butsedgender or sedge hammer both are pretty effective.
Well, do appreciate the help,Skip, Thank you you bet take
care. Appreciate that call. We'regoing to go out now and talk to

(01:09:21):
Greg in Katie, Texas. HeyGreg, Hey, how you doing,
Skip? I'm good? Today isGreg Day. You're the third Greg.
I don't know what's going on.They don't give you enough time to send
it. I mean that was thefirst one up. Sorry about that.
I'm trying to send it. Ithought last week about webworms into trees.

(01:09:45):
I am sending you a picture Ithink it went now where a tree is
completely full of them. It's inthe green space right next to my house.
My house has a lot of treesthat are sixteen to seventy eat taller
more. I can't get a hoseor anything else up high enough to break
up the webs, so right nowthe webworms are falling on us. And

(01:10:11):
that's disgusting. But I'm concerned becausethey're all over. I mean, there's
hundreds of them. Are they goingto be eating the grass and the plants?
No, they don't eat grass.There are other plants that they can
eat. Wow, I see thephoto, Holy Macarel. What kind of
plant is that? I don't know. It's a tree in the green space

(01:10:33):
next to me. But I havea lot of trees in my yard.
Like I said, we're sixty andprobably all the way up to eighty feet,
and there's all sorts of my neighborsthe same way. The webworms are
just crawling all over the fence.That is, for those of you listening

(01:10:54):
to me talk about a picture onthe radio, which is not a good
not good radio. This multi stemshrub is completely white with webs and there's
not a single living leaf on itthat I can see. That's amazing.
So those webworms, there's not muchleft for them to eat on there,

(01:11:15):
So there's no sense spraying it atthis stage. Blasting the webs off wouldn't
be a bad idea, just gettingit cleaned up. They are the tree
is going to bush the bush,it's going to come back out, and
as it comes back out, youwant to spray the foliage with an insecticide.
There's organic and synthetic options, butspray it with insecticide so that any

(01:11:36):
webworms that remain don't just go rightback to town, because if they eat
a leaf that's been sprayed, itwill kill them. And that is the
goal on this. This is worsethan I've ever seen on a plant like
that. I'm gonna I'll come inin the email later, but yeah,
that's what I would suggest. Justwatch if you start to see a little

(01:11:58):
bit of a webbing form on anyother plant around there, then spray the
plant with the insect side. Mostof sexercides don't last that long, so
you don't want to just spray becausesomething might show up. You want to
wait until you see it actually has. Like I said, most of our
trees are sixty seventy or tall orbe tall, and there's nothing I can
do well. That is true,but I haven't seen anything like this anywhere

(01:12:26):
in town. And in fact,there are a few years where we see
the cons taken almost completely leafless,but not very common. Very interesting.
Thanks for the thanks for the photo. Good luck with that, but do
stay with it and be ready togo when they show up somewhere else.
They got probably two more generations thisyear that we're going to see of those

(01:12:46):
things. All righty, okay,thank you, thank you. Wow,
that's interesting. All right. Wellhere at the end of another hour,
Sarah, we didn't quite make itto you, but you will be the
first up when we come back atthe after the top of the hour news.
Just a reminder again, I'm goingto be at Wallbird's Unlimited in bel

(01:13:06):
Air on Saturday, June fifteenth,two saturdays from yesterday, and I'll be
answering questions, looking at samples andjust folks. Listen to garden Line at
r H Garden Line with Scamp RichardsTrim just watch him as well. So

(01:13:41):
many things to say, sig welcomeback guarden Line. Good Davey with us
today. Looking forward to visiting aboutthe things that are of interest to you.
Let's just hop right on that andwe're going to head out to Sarah

(01:14:05):
in clear Lake. Hello, Sarah, high Skip. I have been gardening
in my yard for thirty five years. And when I very first started kind
of landscaping the yard which had neverhad anything done with it, I planted
these azaiahs called Gumpos and they werelittle dwarfs. I mean, they didn't
ever get any higher than like twofeet ever, and they had these beautiful

(01:14:27):
kind of dusty rose ballooms. AndI cannot find them anymore. I've been
to Arburgate, I've been to mosNursery. I cannot find them. Or
do they just not grow them anymore? Well, I'll tell you what.
If those two places can't find them, they must not because they have an
extensive ability to go out and findand bring plants in. Now. I've

(01:14:49):
never asked them to order anything.Well, is that something I can do?
Yeah? I would do that.I would talk to them and say,
can you order this particular plant.I'm not familiar with that particular Azalia.
The name sounds for me, Ithink I remember back when when it
was talked about a lot. It'sg u m p o. Is that

(01:15:10):
it? I think so? Ithink so. I think that's right,
the Gumpo Azalia. I'm just gonnalook right here and and see if I
can see. Yeah, Monrovia carriesit, and I know that Arburgate orders
from Monrovia. Okay, and sofar we'll talk to Moss. They they
can do that too, I'm justsaying it it. I haven't asked Moss

(01:15:36):
about, you know, some oftheir plant sources and things, but yeah,
gumpos apparently still around. Yeah theywere. They were a great little
plant. They're not as vigorous asyou would like. Really have to take
care of them, but I stillhave two, miraculously an every year.
They just are a delight when theybloom because the color is just so pretty
and I have not seen anything elselike it. Yeah, well that sounds

(01:15:58):
pretty cool. Well I'll go righton down and ask them. Thanks for
your help. Thank you, goodwork. Well, I appreciate it.
Thank you. Take care. Uhyeah, there's always some new plant coming
along, and there's always old plantsthat we fall in love with, and
sometimes they stick around. Sometimes theybecome very difficult to find. You know,

(01:16:18):
we're not talking about tomatoes, butI can tell you a dozen tomato
varieties that I used to love thatyou just don't see anymore. They're just
kind of not around. Some ofthem. The breeders don't even do them
anymore, so that that's a sadthing. But when you fall in love
with the plant, you need tobe able to have it around. Uh
Medina has come out with a newfertilizer product. It's a liquid that goes

(01:16:43):
on the end of your garden hoseand it's called super Grow Plus. And
I'm very impressed with this product.It's a sixteen zero two fertilizer. Now,
one little quart bottle is going tocover about four thousand square feet,
take you about ten minutes to getthat job done, and you can do
it now, you can do ita couple of months from now. It's
primarily going to release the nutrients now, but about one fifth of the nitrogen

(01:17:08):
in it is going to be graduallyreleased over time. It has a wonderful
concoction of things like molasses and humicacid for examples. Those are excellent.
A seaweed extract is in it.Iron a chlated form of iron specifically,
isn't it So if you had alittle yellow spots and whatnot, I would

(01:17:29):
just try this out. Grab youone of those court bottles of Supergrow Plus,
hook it up to the hose,and go over the lawn. Hit
those spots that are looking a littleon the yellow side, and I think
you're going to see a difference fromthat. Now. This is one of
many has to grow or many productsfrom Medina, including has to grow,
has to grow plant food, hasto grow for lawns, and then now

(01:17:49):
has to grows super grow plus allgood products from Medina widely available in our
area. It does really, reallywell. We're going to go down to
Steve and Mission Bend. Hello,Steve, Hello, ships. I have
lived in the house that we arein for about thirty one years and we

(01:18:12):
have a brand new problem in ourbackyard. And I'm told they're called webworms,
and they they've covered a tree inthe backyard with webs, and those
little worms are crawling all over ourpatio, furniture, all over our yard.
Okay, how do I get ridof it? Well, if you
got any leaves left to eat,you can spray those leaves and it'll kill

(01:18:35):
the webworms. That We've got organicoptions, and we've got synthetic options that
will buy up the fastest. Thefastest I would probably you could either do
something called spinosaid SPI n O sA D, or you could go to
what are called synthetic paritheroids, anothersynthetic parrethoids and the ingredients there are many

(01:19:01):
ingredients, but they all in andth h R I N SO resmethrine ci
fluthren. Yeah, those kinds ofthings end in thren and there's only one
that's organic, and that is pyrethrine. All the rest are synthetic, and
the pardon son p y th hr i N. Pyrethrine does not last

(01:19:29):
very long in the environment, andso if you want an organic I would
use the spinocid instead spinosaid, butthe synthetic perrethroids are going to last longer.
By Fenthren is a very common one, okay, But again you got
to get it on the foliage,so breaking up the web with a little

(01:19:49):
stick, a strong stream of water, whatever. But the sooner you get
it to them the better. Theolder the caterpillars are, the harder they
are to ule. Do we spraythe whole yard as well, Only the
plants that have the webbing or thestart of webbing on them. They webworms
like a lot of different kinds ofplants. But there's no sense in spraying

(01:20:14):
something that hasn't gotten a little bitof a start of the caterpillars, or
you'll it won't stick around long enough. Okay, thanks, thanks, good
luck, appreciate the cost. Yeah, thank you very much for that.
Talking about bugs, and things.Night Foss Bug Out Max is a granular
product. You put it down yourlawn, you water it in, and

(01:20:35):
it controls, oh gosh, overone hundred and thirty different kinds of insects,
I believe, And within forty eighthours you got total control. And
that control is going to last throughthe summer. It sticks around so very
persistent, and it'll control ants andfleas and ticks and chinch bugs and sod
webworms. And by the way,we're entering the season for chinch bugs and
eventually sod webworms here. So NightFoss bug Out Max is the way you

(01:20:59):
can get ahead of the game orto catch up, and they've gotten ahead
of you. You'll find them atHiding Feed on Stubner Airline. You'll find
them at Plantation Ace Hardware out inRichmond Rosenberg, and at the two Bearing
Hardwares here in Houston on Businette andon West Timer. It's time take a
little break, and when we comeback, I will head to Richard just
you'll be first out. Good tohave you with us listening today. Enjoy

(01:21:27):
getting outside and getting some things donethis afternoon. I hope if you'd like
to enjoy just taking care of theflowers and the vegetables and whatnot, kind
of walking through and looking things over. You know, they say the best
fertilizer is the footprints of the gardener. I say the best pest control is
also the footprints of the gardener.You know, you catch them right now.

(01:21:48):
Webworms are just everywhere. People goingcrazy about web worms, and they
should. I mean, they're they're, they're they're everywhere. But they started
off as a few little kind ofpillars on a leaf somewhere on a tree,
maybe several spots, but they startoff that way. And if you
see them at that stage, alittle squirt of the right insecticides and you

(01:22:11):
got them under control. When youdon't happen to notice them in time,
they may already be so far aheadof things it's hard to catch up,
or there's very little left to saveon the foliage of a tree. So
just an example of how getting outand checking things early helps. In fact,
I'll say this stand by this thatif you want to use the safest,

(01:22:35):
the least toxic pesticides, and ifyou want to have the most benefit
from them, the earlier you doit the better. As insects get older,
as caterpillars get older, like thingslike BT isn't as effective against them
as it is when they're very young. And then there are some insects like

(01:22:56):
stink bugs and leaf footed bugs wherea boy, you don't catch them early,
you're gonna have to go with somepretty potent stuff and definitely not an
organic product in order to get themunder control. So just a little tip
the footprints of the gardener. Catchit early, act early, and you
have the widest range of options andthe safest options that you might want to

(01:23:18):
spray out there. All right,just a free tip for the day.
Let's go to West Houston and talkto Richard. Hello Richard, Hey,
good morning, Skip, how areyou. I have good? That's wonderful.
I have a two year old camelliathat's on a trellis and we want

(01:23:39):
to transplant it today. Are thereany precautions and steps we need to take
after we move it that you wouldrecommend? In particular, Boy, transplanting
your camellia today is tough. You'reprobably going to lose some lot of foliage
on that plant when you do.Getting as much of the root system as

(01:23:59):
you can wider is more important thandeeper. Okay, so is it going
to be put somewhere on your property. Yes, we're moving just from one
side of the yard to the other, rich soil to rich soil. It's
a good, good situation. Sothe less disruptive you can be to the
roots, because digging it, nomatter what you do, is going to
be extremely disruptive. But the lessdisruptive the better. So what I do,

(01:24:24):
And I moved a rosebush a whileback like this. I cut a
circle around the plant, cut down, and then I took my shovel and
went underneath. So maybe I wasoh, probably six or eight inches deep
something like that. And I wentunderneath and then got about halfway and I
slid a tarp underneath the plant.You know, lean it one way,

(01:24:45):
slide the tarp under, then cutloose the other side, and just slide
the plant right up on the tarpand drag the tarp to the new location.
You can move a very heavy pieceof soil with dragging a tarp,
and the one person can do it, but two for sure. You get
it in this new spot, diga hole that's the depth and size of
what you got, and just slideit right into that hole. And then

(01:25:06):
water it in very well. Builda little burma soil around it if you
can, so that when you water, the water soaks right into that spot.
If the area is somewhat sunny,definitely cover it with some sort of
a shading cloth. However, youcan rig something up to help it,

(01:25:27):
because it's not going to have theroots to supply water to the leaves and
it'll all turn brown if it can'tkeep water to the leaves. Well,
that's very informational. Do you applyanything like a root stimulator or just water?
Now you can't. You can doroot stimulators. There's a number of
different things. Are based on vitamins, I'm based on hormones. I'm both,

(01:25:49):
but that won't hurt anything at all. To add well, great,
I had one special request. Wouldyou allow me to wish my gardener wife
a happy enniverse street nast Julie.Okay, anniversary to both of you.
That's good. Well, thank you. Yeah, she's the she's my gardener
and love of my life, sothank you. I just have to ask

(01:26:12):
you, now, uh, whenyou said when I people talk about their
gardener, they're usually talking about somebodythey hire to come in and take care
of things. Does she do allthe work around that place, making everything.
She does most of the work.I have to give her all the
credits. She's certainly the brains welland uh, I do some of the
labor, but she's the brain.Okay. Well, I refer to that
as German gardening. It's it's gettingwork done by the sweat of your frow.

(01:26:35):
Thanks a lot, Richard, Iappreciate your call. Have a good
okay anniversary to both of you.Well, that's good, that's good.
Gardening is a fun thing and andand to do with you know, a
spouse or friends or family. Uh, it's just enjoyable. And I'm fortunate

(01:26:56):
to have several people includ my wifeand the family that enjoy getting out a
little bit and doing some gardening.And uh, I don't know, it's
just more time to relax and enjoymore of that psychological benefit that gardening brings.
And in so many ways, gardeningbrings peace of mind. It's a
way to wind down when you aredealing with stresses. It's a way to
unwind. Uh. It's just ajust a good activity out there. Well.

(01:27:20):
Our phone number seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four seven
one three two one, two,five, eight, seven four or by
email at Garden Success at TAMU dotEdu. Garden Success at TAMU dot Edu.

(01:27:40):
We've had storms recently and we sawa lot of big limbs come down
and do a lot of damage,including knocking out the power here through huge
sections of the greater Houston area.Well, when hurricane season arrives, which
it did yesterday officially and goes allthe way through November, you need to
think about getting Martin spoon Moore andhis team from Affordable Tree to come out

(01:28:03):
and do some selective pruning. Thatwould be trimming away any dead areas in
a tree, doing other selected pruning, making sure your trees are safer than
the heavy winds. You're basically settingyour trees up for the best they can
be in terms of storm readiness.Now, you don't want to have a
tree fall on your home or agiant limb fall on your home or other

(01:28:24):
valuable property. So if you haveany dead trees or huge dead limbs,
would definitely get those out now.I can't express enough the importance of proper
tree care coming into this storm season, And as we learn just the other
day, it doesn't have to bea hurricane season. To have major damage
to our trees, call Martin spoonMoore. Here's his number seven one three

(01:28:47):
six twenty six sixty three, sevenone three six nine nine twenty six sixty
three. His website aff Tree Servicedo aff Tree Service dot com. Martin's
been doing this for many years herein the Greater Houston area. This is
a family operation. I mean,he and his wife. They answer the

(01:29:11):
phones. If you call and Martinor Joe doesn't answer the phone, well
hang up. You call the wrongplace with affordable in the name Affordable Tree
Service dot com. I hate itwhen people lose major limbs on trees because
typically when nature prunes a tree doesn'tdo a very good job. I'm just

(01:29:32):
saying, you know, when youget a limb that breaks and rips and
strips the bark down and things,those wounds are very slow to heal,
if they heal at all, andthat's why it's important to avoid that at
all costs, if at all possible. If you would like to give us
a call, seven one three twoone two five eight seven four is the

(01:29:54):
number. Dan Nelson out at NelsonPlant Food has been concocting some quality fertilizers
for a very long time. Youknow, Nelson Plant Food has the Color
Star line, They've got the TurfStar line, the Slow and Ease.
They have other lines as well,but in the Turf Star line, Bruce
is s brew and Slow and EASiare the two ones that I like to

(01:30:15):
talk about in the summertime. Brucesprew is a quick green up product,
but it has a couple of typesof slow release fertilizers, so you do
get a gradual feeding over time aswell. So I would say it's front
loaded to the fertilizing now and thenbackloaded to the gradual release flip that around.

(01:30:35):
Slow and Easy has a little bitof available fertilizer right away, but
it has some very long release nitrogenchemistries in it that will provide you release
for over four months. So whenyou use Slow and Easy now, you
do not fertilize again until the fall. Fertilization Slow and Easy helps feed the

(01:30:57):
microbes in the soil, It helpsacidify the soil. It just provides that
kind of turf growth that makes niceeven growth for even you have a spike
in mowing problems, you don't havea loss of root system due to overfertilizing,
slow and easies and excellent products fromNelson Plant Food as many of their

(01:31:17):
products are excellent and well known andwell loved. Here. You've probably have
used the color Star before. Hey, have you ever used their Boogain Villa
food? Those of you who haveBoogain vellas, Nelson has an excellent Boogain
Villa food as well. And itreally for any vine. I mean,
do you have a Virginia creeper?Do you have a passion vine? Do

(01:31:38):
you have a trumpet hondisuckle of vine? Butterfly vine, Carolina jessemine. You
know that's the one that blooms yellowin the spring, jasmines, and you
know, whatever it is, BoogainVilla Food is an excellent choice for all
of those you are listening to Guardlineand we're here to answer your gardening questions.
And we're gonna run real quick hereto Jimmy and Conrad. Oh hey,

(01:32:00):
Jimmy, do we have a Jimmy? All right, I'm gonna have
to put you on old Jimmy whenwe come back from a break. We
just don't have enough time really togo into the call. When when we
come back from a break, youwill be our first s up and we
will discuss what is of interest toyou before we go into break. I

(01:32:24):
just want to remind you my schedulesare online that cover your lawn through the
year January to December. One isthe lawn care schedule. The other is
the lawn Pest Disease and we'd managementschedule. Gives you all the products organic
and synthetic, tells you when toapply them and to control or two feed
whatever you need to do in yourlawn. They're both free and they're both

(01:32:45):
at Gardening with Skip dot Com.Gardening with Skip dot Com. All right,
I'm gonna turn it over to thenews and we'll be right back.
Good to have you with us listeningtoday. Enjoy getting outside and getting some
things done this afternoon, I hopeif you'd like to enjoy just taking care

(01:33:08):
of the flowers and the vegetables andwhatnot, kind of walking through and looking
things over. You know, theysay the best fertilizer is the footprints of
the gardener. I say the bestpest control is also the footprints of the
gardener. You know, you catchthem right now. Webworms are just everywhere.
People going crazy about web worms,and they should I mean, they're

(01:33:29):
they're, they're they're everywhere. Butthey started off as a few little caterpillars
on a leaf somewhere on a tree, maybe several spots, but they start
off that way. And if yousee them at that stage, a little
squirt of the right in sexicides andyou got them under control. When you
don't happen to notice them in time, they may already be so far ahead

(01:33:53):
of things it's hard to catch up, or there's very little left to save
on the foliage of a tree.So just an example of how getting out
and checking things early helps. Infact, I'll say this stand by this
that if you want to use thesafest, the least toxic pesticides and if

(01:34:14):
you want to have the most benefitfrom them, the earlier you do it
the better. As insects get older, As caterpillars get older, like things
like BT isn't as effective against themas it is when they're very young.
And then there are some insects likestink bugs and leaf footed bugs where boy,
if you don't catch them early,you're gonna have to go with some

(01:34:35):
pretty potent stuff and definitely not anorganic product in order to get them under
control. So just a little tipthe footprints of the gardener. Catch it
early, act early, and youhave the widest range of options and the
safest options that you might want tospray out there. All right, just

(01:34:56):
a free tip for the day.Let's go to West Houston and talk to
Richard. Hello Richard, Hey,good morning, Skip. How are you?
I have good? That's wonderful.I have a two year old camellia
that's on a trellis and we wantto transplant it today. Are there any
precautions and steps we need to takeafter we move it that you would recommend?

(01:35:20):
In particular, Boy, transplanting yourcamellia today is tough. You're probably
going to lose some lot of foliageon that plant when you do. Getting
as much of the root system asyou can wider is more important than deeper.
Okay, So is it going tobe put somewhere on your property?

(01:35:42):
Yes, we're moving just from oneside of the yard to the other.
Rich soil to rich soil. It'sa good, good situation. So the
less disruptive you can be to theroots, because digging it, no matter
what you do, is going tobe extremely disruptive. But the less disruptive
the better. So what I do. And I moved a rosebush a while
back like this. I cut acircle around the plant, cut down,

(01:36:04):
and then I took my shovel andwent underneath. So maybe I was oh,
probably six or eight inches deep somethinglike that. And I went underneath
and then got about halfway and Islid a tarp underneath the plant. You
know, lean it one way,slide the tarp under, then cut loose
the other side, and just slidethe plant right up on the tarp and

(01:36:25):
drag the tarp to the new location. You can move a very heavy piece
of soil with dragging a tarp,and then one person can do it,
but two for sure. You getit in this new spot. Dig a
hole. That's the depth and sizeof what you got, and just slide
it right into that hole, andthen water it in very well. Build
a little burm of soil around itif you can, so that when you

(01:36:46):
water, the water soaks right intothat spot. If the area is somewhat
sunny, definitely cover it with somesort of a shading cloth. However,
you can rig something up to helpit, because it's not going to have
the roots to supply water to theleaves. And it'll all turn brown if

(01:37:09):
it can't keep water to the leaves. Well, that's very informational. Do
you apply anything like a root stimulatoror just water? No, you can't.
You can do root stimulators. There'sa number of different things. Some
are based on vitamins, I'm basedon hormones. I'm both. But that
won't hurt anything at all. Toadd well, great, I had one

(01:37:29):
special request. Would you allow meto wish my gardener wife a happy anniversary?
Name Julie. Okay, well,anniversary to both of you. That's
good. Well, thank you.Yeah, she's she's my gardener and love
of my life, so thank you. I just have to ask you now
when you said when I people talkabout their gardener, they're usually talking about

(01:37:51):
somebody they hire to come in andtake care of things. Does she do
all the work around that place?Making everything? She does most of the
work. I have to give herall the reit. She's certainly the brains.
Well and uh I do some ofthe labor, but she's the brain.
Okay, Well, I refer tothat as German gardening. It's it's
getting work done by the sweat ofyour frow. Thanks a lot, Richard.

(01:38:12):
I appreciate your call. Have agood thing. Thank you sir.
Okay, the anniversary to both ofyou. Well, that's good. That's
good. Gardening is a fun thingand and to do with you know,
a spouse or friends or family.Uh, it's just enjoyable. And I'm
fortunate to have several people, includemy wife and the family that enjoy getting

(01:38:33):
out a little bit and doing somegardening. And uh, I don't know,
it's just more time to relax andenjoy more of that psychological benefit that
gardening brings. And in so manyways, gardening brings peace of mind.
It's a way to wind down whenyou are dealing with stresses. It's a
way to unwind. Uh, it'sjust a just a good activity out there.

(01:38:55):
Well our phone number seven one threetwo one two fifty eights of twenty
four seven one three two one twofive eight seven four or by email at
garden Success at TAMU dot edu.Garden Success at TAMU dot Edu. We've
had storms recently and we saw alot of big limbs come down and do

(01:39:19):
a lot of damage, including knockingout the power here through huge sections of
the Greater Houston area. Well,when hurricane season arrives, which it did
yesterday officially and goes all the waythrough November. You need to think about
getting Martin spoon Moore and his teamfrom Affordable Tree to come out and do

(01:39:39):
some selective pruning. That would betrimming away any dead areas in a tree,
doing other selective pruning, making sureyour trees are safer than the heavy
winds. You're basically setting your treesup for the best they can be in
terms of storm readiness. Now,you don't want to have a tree fall
on your home or a giant limbfalling your home or other valuable proper So

(01:40:00):
if you have any dead trees orhuge dead limbs, would definitely get those
out now. I can't express enoughthe importance of proper tree care coming in
to this storm season, and aswe learned just the other day, it
doesn't have to be a hurricane seasonto have major damage to our trees.
Call Martin spoon Moore. Here's hisnumber seven one three six nine twenty six

(01:40:25):
sixty three seven one three six ninenine twenty six sixty three his website aff
Tree Service dot com. Afftree Servicedot com. Martin's been doing this for
many years here in the Greater Houstonarea. This is a family operation.
I mean he and his wife.They answer the phones. If you call

(01:40:46):
and Martin or Joe doesn't answer thephone, well hang up. You call
the wrong place. With affordable inthe name Affordabletree Service dot com. I
hate it when people lose major limbson trees because typically when nature prunes a
tree doesn't do a very good job. I'm just saying, you know,

(01:41:08):
when you get a limb that breaksand rips and strips the bark down and
things, those wounds are very slowto heal, if the heel at all.
And that's why it's important to avoidthat at all costs, if at
all possible. If you would liketo give us a call, seven one
three two one two five eight sevenfour is the number. Dan Nelson out

(01:41:30):
at Nelson Plant Food has been concoctingsome quality fertilizers for a very long time.
You know. Nelson Plant Food hasthe Color Star line, They've got
the Turf Star line, the Slowin Ease. They have other lines as
well, but in the Turf Starline Bruce is sprew and slow and easier.
The two ones that I like totalk about in the summertime Bruce Sprew

(01:41:53):
is a quick green up product product, but it has a couple of types
of slow release fertilizers, so youdo get a gradual feead over time as
well. So I would say it'sfront loaded to the fertilizing now and then
backloaded to the gradual release flip thataround. Slow and Easy has a little
bit of available fertilizer right away,but it has some very long release nitrogen

(01:42:17):
chemistries in it that will provide yourelease for over four months. So when
you use Slow and Easy now,you do not fertilize again until the fall.
Fertilization Slow and Easy helps feed themicrobes in the soil, It helps
acidify the soil, just provides thatkind of turf growth that makes nice even

(01:42:41):
growth for even you have a spikein mowing problems, you don't have a
loss of root system due to overfertilizing. Slow and Easies and excellent products from
Nelson Plant Food as many of theirproducts are excellent and well known and well
loved here. You've probably used thecolor Star before. Hey, have you
ever used their Booga and Villa food? Those of you who have Booga and

(01:43:03):
vedas, Nelson has an excellent BoogainVilla food as well. Uh, and
it really for any vine. Imean, do you have a Virginia creeper,
do you have a passion vine?Do you have a trumpet hondisuckle of
vine, a butterfly vine, Carolinajessemine. You know that's the one that
blooms yellow in the spring. It'sjasmines. And you know, whatever it
is, Boogin Villa food is anexcellent choice for all of those. Uh.

(01:43:28):
You are listening to Guardline and we'rehere to answer your gardening questions.
And we're going to run real quickhere to Jimmy and Conroe. Hey,
Jimmy, welcome back, looking forwardto continuing on here with our next hour
of the show. We're going tohead out to who's been online? Okay
Kay in Paarland, Hello, Okay, Hi, good morning, Skip,
Thank you for taking my call.Sure, I was just got part of

(01:43:50):
the conversation with the lady who waslooking for and azalia that she couldn't find
any longer, and I didn't hearwhat it was. I'm not an azalea
person now, but back in theday when my husband and I had our
first house, we had an azalea. It was back in the sixties and

(01:44:10):
it was called Macrantha, and itwas amazing. It bloomed almost all year,
except like December and January, andit wasn't profuse blooms like azagahs do
now for a month or so,but it just bloomed all all through.
It started in the spring, andit bloomed all through the summer and just

(01:44:33):
went down in the cold winter.And I haven't seen it anywhere, and
I was just wondering, have youor have you ever heard of it?
Yeah? I have there there's stillthey're still available. I don't you know,
I don't check all the varieties ofour garden center to know, right,
but I think they still can befound. Uh yeah, I just

(01:44:55):
I was just curious if you'd ever, you know, heard of it.
Okay, well, so it's stillout there somewhere if the Okay, thanks,
thank you so much, have agreat day. Bye bye you too.
Take care. Let's see here weare now going to head out to
Greg and Conrad. Okay, thisis the fourth Greg of the day.

(01:45:17):
Something's going on. Well it's adifferent one. Uh hey skip, uh.
I want your ideas on a vineI built a pergola or an arbor
on my back porch. Uh.Anyway, I'm trying to I want to
grow a vine up it. Idon't want it to cover all of it,

(01:45:40):
but uh, you know part ofit, and you know, ideally
I was thinking of the Star Jazzniney uh, but I don't know if
it's gonna be able to handle thethe full sign and the heat that was
get here in the summertime. No, I've seen it out in full sign.

(01:46:00):
It can it can take a fullsign. Yeah, okay, the
star Jasmin can because you're rewarded withthe wonderful flowers. Uh, you know,
the lovely it. It blows acouple of times a year, doesn't
it, uh spring into the summertimekind of. Uh So I would say
it can have more of an ongoingbloom. You may get a little re

(01:46:23):
bloom balance of it. I haven'treally studied that close to to even notice,
but yeah, Star Jasmine. It'sreal popular in Houston. Typically you'll
see it being used in a lotof ways that it makes a wonderful wall.
You'll see it on like an ironfencing going down the road. I've
seen it on chain link fence,which is the prettiest thing you can do

(01:46:45):
to a chain link fences. Throwa little star jasmine over the top of
it. You can share it,you know, like as if it were
a shrub. And so it's it'sa versatile plant. All right. Great,
that answers that I appreciate it.All right. Just keep in mind
that it is an eager grower.So it doesn't understand that where you wanted
to stop unless you tell it witha hedging tremors. Okay, okay,

(01:47:11):
thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate appreciate your call. Uh.
Now we're going to go to Louiseand West Houston. Hello, Louise,
Hey, Skip, how are you? I'm good, sir, what's
up? Hey? Oh, Ijust know who I'm talking about. I
just figured out who Louise is.Hey, So you you helped me.

(01:47:33):
I have a few things. Youhelped me with the wet worms on Thursday.
And so what I did is Itweeted it with what it was the
systemic uh bray. I think heused an assepate. I believe if I
remember your your your and then andthen I let it dry and I have

(01:47:54):
played the wet worm control and everythingdied. All those wet worms died.
So I know it's a pup theirtopic right now. But you know,
if people wanted to see what whatwas used, they can go to the
Heirlom Soils Instagram and check it out. Oh yeah, yeah, do you
put it on there? Okay,I'll go check that out. I'll put

(01:48:15):
it on there. Yeah, Iput it. So related a couple of
things. Uh, I'm gonna bein San Antonio in on Saturday next week
at the Festival of Flowers. Soif anybody is in the west part of
you know, West Houston is closerto San Antonio. WANs to come,
say hi, as a really coolevent. And they have a bunch of

(01:48:35):
vendors, a bunch of your sponsorsgo there and have boots and stuff like
that. And number three, youmentioned the discount we have going on just
fifty percent off and they have twofootbags of the works and cactus. But
Warren Soilent Gardens in Kingwood Garden Centerhave forty percent off on soils on Heirlom

(01:48:57):
Soils and all the plants will todayWarrens and Kingwood until today. And that
the other the uh, the worksputting mix and you know the and the
cactus succulent that ends today too,right, it is, yeah, but
I weren't selling gardens in Kywood GardenCenter. All the plants, all the
air them cells products and Poma productsare going to be so pretty good deal.

(01:49:21):
You know, an end of seasoninventory reduction. You can never get
enough soil or enough molts. JereMy Jerema malts my Maltz quote a minute
ago. I don't know if youwere you were listening to that one I
had. I found I found aquote about maulch and now I'm trying to
trying to find yourself say it,say it the right way here? Oh

(01:49:44):
god, yeah, I listened toit. That that double it or like
a free bags or something. Souh. An easy way to get rid
of that quote is to use thecalculator online. There you go, you
do, I know you got onegood? Uh that would say you a
little bit but it but it Ilike to give a funny quote there.

(01:50:06):
Oh yeah, I always buy threeor four more bags. Always. You
never to have more more soil ormultile hands. Most doesn't go bad.
If you let us sit there longenough, you got compost. Well,
no, most those go bad.And the reason why is because the decomposition
process kind of stops and then startsbleaching the wood inside the bag. Reaction

(01:50:30):
Yeah back, yeah, yeah,okay, Well that was it. So
if anybody until Saturday complete. Yeah, I've been to Festival Flowers. It's
a wonderful event. I think whenI went it was like at uh Mason
Shriner building up on the Shriners Auditoriumin North North Yeah, so it's still

(01:50:55):
there. Okay, good, Yep. We reached the edge of San Antonio,
not quite to San Antonio with thisshow, so you're probably gonna have
some people listening that are just outsideof town our direction that that are interesting.
Thanks a lot, Louise, allright, thank you, all right.
Our phone number is seven one threetwo one two KTRH. Give him

(01:51:23):
my producer a call and we'll getyou on the board. We just cleared
out the lines with that last call. We've got some open lines. So
we've got a question you've been wantingto ask, Well, this would be
a good time to do that.We got one more hour. We're about
to put this show in the booksfor the weekend. One more hour of
garden Line coming up. Remember thatgarden Line is also available by podcasts,

(01:51:45):
So whether you use the iHeartMedia podcastapp like I do, or you have
other podcast apps. You can findgarden Line and you can listen to past
shows. So when you're wondering whatwas that quote, he said, well,
what is the that you just mentioned? You can go back and listen
to past shows and enjoy that.Just a reminder too, you can listen
live on the heart Media app.So you could be out in your garden

(01:52:08):
right now with the phone in yourpocket listen to the garden Line. LI
to kt r H Garden Line withSkip Rict. It's crazy Trim just watch

(01:52:30):
him as well. God us somany birthdays to suppazy gess not a sign.

(01:52:51):
Welcome back to garden Line. Goodto have you with us. We
uh we're here to answer your gardeningquestions if you got any, and you
give us a call. Seven onethree two one two kt r H seven
one three two one two kat rH. Let's head out to Katie and
talk to Laurel. Hello, Laurel, Hi, I have noticed on my

(01:53:15):
tomato plant that we have the stinkbug. And I understand that's the same
as the leaf put it bug right, same same damage. Yes, okay,
I sprayed uh uh well is thatstrong enough to get rid of them.
Uh, you cut out on mewhen you named the product. What

(01:53:39):
did you spray? I sprayed CaptainJack's Dead bug? Captain Jack's dead Was
it Captain Jack's deadbug? Brew?Is that what they called it? Oh?
I think it's just Captain Jack's Deadbug. I don't know. I
had to. I put it ina pump sprayer, two tablespooze per gallon.

(01:54:00):
Okay, what I'm trying to rememberwhat the ingredient is in Captain Jackson?
I think shot I thought of it. Probably is. I was going
to check and make sure. Spinosais very effective against webworms, but it's
not effective against stink bugs to speakof. So what's your Yeah, what

(01:54:29):
you're gonna need is something that hasmore of a more of a punch to
it. And at this stage,when the stink bugs are adults, or
the leaf footed bugs and they havewings that can fly around, it takes
a more potent spray to be ableto take them down and get rid of
them. Something that is what wewould refer to as a synthetic parithroid.

(01:54:51):
Uh. And those are products thatend in the letter's thren t H R
I n H. There's permethrin,there's by fen Thren. There's a lot
of thrends out there. Uh,the only one that's organic is I just

(01:55:14):
went blank. I can't say theone that that's going to organic. Yeah,
I'll be honest. I don't pretendto be organic at all. I
just want my vegetables. Well thenyeah, then then go with with a
product. You're out there at Katiekt Is Hardens a couple of hardware stores

(01:55:34):
out in the KT area that aregoing to carry these products for you.
And I would just recommend you yougo to one of those, and I
think you're going to find good successoryou're up near I ten. I'm on
Mason, so the eighth hardware onMason's Night. Okay, good sounds good.

(01:55:55):
Okay, do you have a particularproduct, I mean, can you
name a specific What are the thestink bugs are on tomatoes? Yeah?
Yeah, you're gonna have to findsomething that has tomatoes on the label,
something that's labeled for edibles like thetomato. And I don't have in ahead
every product that they carry, youknow, out there on the shelf.

(01:56:19):
But if you if you go andgive that a just look for something with
Thren in the name. And that'llwork. There are some other chemistries out
there that will work pretty good forthat. It just has to be labeled
for tomatoes and that that's the challenge. Okay, great, okay, thank
you very much. All right.Yes, oh and one one tip,

(01:56:42):
Laura, spray early in the morning. They tend to be a little more
sluggish, so you can get aroundand get spray on them than they are
later in the day when when theweather, when the weather heats up.
Okay, okay, thank you verymuch, thank you. I appreciate appreciate
your call very much. Thank you, Bybie. Our phone number if you'd

(01:57:05):
like to get us a call isseven one three seven one three six two
six. Excuse me, seven onethree two one two five eight seven four.
I'm looking at other numbers while I'mtrying to say a different number.
Seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four r KTRH if you like

(01:57:28):
to go that route. We havetalked about a number of different things today.
I wanted to discuss a little bitbriefly about having success with containers.
I think that containers are underutilized inour in our landscape. You can put
a container just about anywhere, rightso if you need to move a plant

(01:57:51):
and it's in a container, it'sreally easy to do. I like geraniums
in the springtime, they're out infull sun doing just fine. When it
starts getting hot, it's too muchfor them to be in full sun all
day, so I move them intoa spot with the morning sun and they
do fine. It's just containers reversatile. You want, though, a container

(01:58:14):
with adequate soil volume, because hereit is hot, and it's hot twenty
four hours a day, seven daysa week when we move into summer,
and so that plant is pumping alot of water to keep itself cool.
And if you don't have a goodvolume of soil, you're not going to
have a good bank account of water, and it'll be limited and the plant

(01:58:35):
will tend toward getting drought symptoms likewilting or some other setback. You want
to keep those things growing. Sowhatever the plant you're growing, depending on
the size of it, just geta container that's a little bigger than you
probably think you need, and Ithink you'll be better off that way.
Make sure you get a good qualitymix in it, a good quality mix

(01:58:58):
that drains adequately well. There area number of good things that you can
use many different kinds of soils andmixes and blends, but make sure it
drains really well. That's important inorder to have that because you wanted to
whole moisture bit which you also wantedto drain well, and then pick plants
that do well in the summertime.And a good garden center can help you

(01:59:18):
with choosing those kinds of plants andeven combine them in a container if that's
what you're looking for. A goodgarden center example would be Nelson's Water Garden
and Nursery. Nelson's actually Nursery andwater Garden out there in Katie, Texas
is an outstanding garden center. Theyhave a wide variety of plants. And

(01:59:38):
then Nelson's have been in the businessfor a long time and they know their
stuff when it comes to quality plants. Now you know, they originally became
literally nationally famous with the water gardenpart of the business. They can set
up ponds, they can set updisappearing fountains, they can set up waterfalls,
they can do all this kind ofthing. Stock them for you with

(02:00:00):
water plants like lilies. Water liliesare very beautiful, and many other plants
they can stock them with a fish. They have all that there. They
can come out to your place anddo it, do it, set it
up, or they can advise youif you're doing it yourself, on how
to go about doing that yourself.But at the garden center, you're going
to find a wide variety of thingsthat do well here. Every time I

(02:00:21):
look at what are they talking aboutright now, what they just get in,
it's like, oh my gosh,that is an excellent choice for our
area. So that in and ofitself is worth a trip. But you
got to go for the inspiration.When you get out there and you see
the place and you see the water, you hear the water, you're gonna
want water for your backyard or yourpatio or wherever you want to put it.

(02:00:45):
Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens in Katie. That's a website Nelsonwatergardens dot com.
Nelsonwatergardens dot com. It's on KatieFort Benroad, So you just turn
to the right when you're heading outten toward Katie, to the right on
Katie Fort Benroad, and it's astone's throw right up there, easy to
find. And again I promise youyou will love it when you go,

(02:01:06):
and you should take some friends withyou when you do it because they will
love it too. Really good relationshiptime. On a very brief trip right
out there to Nelson Water Garden ourWest Houston Garden Center here on garden Line.
Folks at Microlife have they've been makingfertilizer for a long time and they

(02:01:29):
focus on organic types of products.And you can find micro Life products that
are in a liquid. Their liquidproducts from fisher moulsion to seaweed to fertilizers
in a liquid form. You canfind them in the granular form. Right
now, we're thinking about lawns.It's lawn time and Microlife's six two four

(02:01:51):
green bag, the green bag,that's an excellent product for lawns, but
I'll tell you this, it's anexcellent product for a lot of things.
Use it my vegetable gardens. Thatit works very well out in there.
It doesn't have to be on alawn, but it is a standard for
Microlife for lawn care. They havethe Humates plus concentrated compost in a bag.

(02:02:14):
Humates plus is the purple bag andit is a concentration of composts down
into that final stage called humus thatis the final decomposition stage of organic matter.
And with humates plus, you arestimulating the microbial content in the soil
as well as adding some because itdoes contain microbes and microhizal fungi, those

(02:02:35):
fungi that grow in association with aplant's root and reach out, making the
root more efficient, more effective.It's all there in a bag microlife,
humtes plus. Whenever you are goingout and fertilizing, just keep in mind
that you want to get things spreadout evenly. And I mentioned this in

(02:02:56):
a call a little bit earlier.But what I'm using a new fertilizer or
a new spreader and trying to figureout the settings. We have our rule
of thumb, which is you knowto basically, when you are using a
push behind spreader in other words,of spreader on wheels, just go a
notch or two above half. Soif they're twenty notches, then set it
on eleven or twelve. See whatI'm saying, And you want to get

(02:03:19):
that right, But early on Iwill often hedge bed a little bit,
and I will make sure and maybego light the first trip over and then
go crossways again, because that firsttrip will tell you are you getting the
right amount down or do you needto increase it a little bit, do
you need to lower it? Sostart by aiming for about half, just

(02:03:42):
as a tip until you figure outhow to use it. It's time for
us to take a break. Weare going to be right back, Tiffany.
You'll be first up when we comeback. The days of the singing
cowboys, a lot of that waseven before my time or Rogers's case,
g Autry. You know, backin those days, when you watch the
old black and white Western movies,it was easy to know who to shoot

(02:04:06):
at because of the color of thecowboy hat. If it was a white
hat, that's supposed to be agood guy, if it's a black hat,
that's supposed to be a bad guy. Don't you wish bugs wore hats
so we'd know whether they were beneficialinsects or pests that we need to squirt
in the face of something. Justa thought, just a thought. We're
going to go out to cypressnow andtalk to Tiffany. Hey, Tiffany,

(02:04:29):
Hi, Skip. We absolutely loveyour show. That was cute about the
bugs. Yes, we do wishthat we try to have fun ever now
and then, all right, yes, you do. We love we absolutely
love your show so much and youSo we have two crate myrtles in our
backyard. We moved in this house. It'll be five years this June.
So they were planted five years agoand they've been healthy. They're about ten

(02:04:54):
feet tall. But on one ofthem and they have the white blooms.
So the one on the left,it's I noticed on the mark that it's
covered with these tiny little they sortof look like ants, but like termite
maybe looking things. And then someof them are a little bit larger like

(02:05:15):
ants. So I looked in thebeds thoroughly and there's no ant beds.
I just wanted to know what yousuggest. And I was listening to you
yesterday and you were talking about howsome crp myrtles the bark is not the
gray color, it's more the cinnamon, and that's how ours is. It's
more of the cinnamony color. Butit's sort of flaking off a little bit

(02:05:41):
too, Okay. So just wantedyour advice and what we should do.
So when you're seeing these ants,are they on both the branches and the
leaves, are just you're seeing themon branches or leaves it looks like just
the branches. To be honest withyou, I mean I have to like
put my glasses on and really lookthe branches in the main trunk. Okay,

(02:06:09):
are you Are you noticing any BlackCity material on the surface of the
branches or anything. No, No, that's one thing I haven't seen any
of. It's just kind of likethat cinemon color and it's a little bit
flaky. Yeah, but yeah,but just no, it's none of that
blackstood. I've had that before.In our create myrtle. We have a
smaller one in the front, andwe've had that before. And but no,

(02:06:34):
these these don't. Yeah, thisdoesn't have it on there. Okay.
So when answer on trees, theydon't eat trees? Answer not a
tree pass But when answer on treesare shrubs or any kind of plant,
usually it's because there are some insectsthat they're taking care of on that plant.

(02:06:55):
And okay, so aphids would bean example. A scale the the
insects that produce honeydew, a sugarywater substance, which is why we get
Black City mold. Those insects.Ants actually are taking care of them and
protecting them because they can go upwith their antenna and they can rub on
the insect and they produce a dropof sugary water the ants can drink and

(02:07:17):
feed on, and so okay,that's usually what's happening. If you got
ants and you're not seeing city mold, I'm not sure what it is that
you're seeing. If you would liketo send a picture of like the trunk
where you're finding ants, if there'sare they in groups or are they just
kind of here and there. There'sa lot of them, I mean,

(02:07:39):
not really in groups per se,but there's like yesterday, I mean like
Friday, I looked and that wasthe first time I noticed them, But
yesterday it seemed like there was alot more just crawling all over, not
really in groups, but just kindof crawling everywhere. They're up to something
and it's not eating your plant.If you would like to take a close
up picture and get it in goodsh our focus and send it to me,

(02:08:01):
I can take a look. I'llprobably see some scale on those plants
when I look at it, butI don't know. That's why. Yeah,
to see a photo. If you'dlike to do that, let me
know and I can put you onhold and the producer can give you an
email to send the photo to.Yes, I definitely would like to do
that for sure, and I cansend them. Yeah, we're about to

(02:08:22):
go to church. But I'll definitelysend it next Saturday, so you can
look at it and I'll call back. That's good anytime during the week.
I will answer it on Saturday onthe air. You can call back.
But just the closest you can get, the better I can see the ant
or whatever the insect is, I'llbe able to do a better diagnosis.

(02:08:43):
Okay, I'm going to comment onthat a little bit more in a moment,
but so you may want to stickaround, keep the radio on as
you're on your way to church.I'm going to make some more comments.
Absolutely, we absolutely will. Welisten to as long as we can.
And I have one more question ifyou have time. Okay, we have
a tiny little bed to be It'slike on the west side of our driveway,

(02:09:05):
so it doesn't get any shade.It gets full sun all the time,
and we have just a little greenbush we like to plant something beside
it. I'd say the bed isabout four by like five feet, and
I mean it does get the fullsun and so you know, our daughter,
our little one, she loves daisies. Like I thought about planting daisies

(02:09:26):
or I don't know, but itneeds to be something that can really handle
full sun. And I know youtalked about this salvia, but we have
mainly orange and yellow flowers in ouryard. That's kind of the color scheme
we like to stick with. Isthere anything you recommend orange and yellow?

(02:09:46):
There is a little zenia with tinyflowers that look daisy like they're white.
They also have an orange and ayellowish gold form and it's called narrow leaf
zenia. It spreads more like alittle lava flow. It's not like regular
zinias that come up as cut flowers. This one will stay probably no more

(02:10:07):
than probably a ten inches or sohigh, and it just sort of flops
out, but it's constantly in bloomwith these little yellow flowers that are little,
maybe about the size of a quarter, but there's a lot of them
and it makes a real pretty massand you can get those colors that are
in your scheme. Ooh, thatsounds very pretty, Okay, narrowly zinnias

(02:10:31):
zen and so that would be thatwould be one option. Let's see full
sun marigoles can take hot weather.The spider mices get on them pretty good.
But marigols are another one that's gonnahave the yellow and orange coloring that
you can choose from, so there'ssome very dwarf type. You want something
to stay small enough to fit thesetting, so that would be enough for

(02:10:52):
you. Just have to watch forthe spider mics. That's the problem with
marigols in the summer. Gotcha.Okay, Well, thank you so much.
Skip. Like I said, welove your show and keep doing it.
Thank you. Appreciate that, appreciatethe call. I've got to put
you on hold, Tiffany, andmy producer's gonna pick up and give you
my email so that you can sendme those photos. Yeah. I want

(02:11:16):
to just a couple of comments here, Charlie. You're gonna be the first
up after the break here. Idon't have enough time to give your question
adequate time. Aphids and ants havea mutually beneficial relationship. The ants will
literally carry aphids up onto a plantand set them down, and then they

(02:11:37):
come back to them and in somecases the answer like dairy farmers, they
put the aphids there. The aphidsare sucking juices. They're getting that sugary
stuff. The answer taking their antennaand making the aphid produce a little drop
of sweet stuff and then feeding onthat stuff. Kind of cool. So
that's why we call them dairy farmers. Now. Also, when things come

(02:11:58):
to eat the aphids, the antswill defend them. So it's kind of
like, you know, the antcomes in and it says, hey,
uh, what are you going togive me? And uh, in exchange
for that, I'll give you someprotection. So in that sense, the
answer like the mafia, So youchoose it. Dairy farmers are the mafia
answer putting aphids on plants in manycases, and they're also there for other

(02:12:20):
types of honeydew and whatnot. Scalecan produce honeydew our sugary substances. You
know, white flies can. Uhthere's meatie bugs another one that can do
that. But there you go.That's the story of the ants. They're
either mafia or dairy farmers, ormaybe a little bit of both. It's
time for a break for the newsour number seven one three two two kt

(02:12:41):
r H. Charlie your first stepwhen we come back. All right,
welcome back to Guardline. Good tohave you with us today. We are
going to head straight out to thephones and talk to Charlie and Lake Jackson.
Hey Charlie, Hey Skip, thankyou for taking my call. I
was gonna say, according to mywife, all bugs have black hats,

(02:13:03):
and I got a problem with squattersand for Wes right, Yeah, I
used to I used to joke aboutthe U in my house. If it
had six legs, it was aninstant death sentence. You know, the
court case starts. The first pointis it has six legs, A galvel
comes down and it goes to thechair. That's that's how spiders are in

(02:13:24):
my house when I had kids around. So my question is generally I live
in Lake Jackson, Texas, andso as you can imagine that we're next
to the town that's capital of theworld. Is that clue? But you're
talking about so well as I usedthat cutter back guard, the other guard,

(02:13:50):
one of those products that spray broadcatof the guard, and it's it's
fairly effective. But when I getclose to my house and stuff, I
generally like to at that way.My question is that in order to get
some other bugs and the face oftime and everything, h is it okay?

(02:14:11):
Or is it effective? Just wastemy time when I add balance,
prayer and then also the uh,the the big those three ingredients together,
then add the water and then spray. So I'm trying to hit all the
bugs, you know that I'm havingit with. I've had some success,

(02:14:35):
of course on the webworms. ButI'm I'm wondering if you have that.
Okay, when you were saying thenames and of the mix, uh you
cut out I heard cutter, Ithink, And but the other two the
other one is permethium, is that, uh right? And then the other

(02:14:58):
one is mauth ion Okay, Anddo you know what the ingredient is in
the cutter. It's probably a syntheticperithroid. I believe you're exactly right.
Yeah, well number one, Idon't think you'd need to mix synthetic Perrethroids
are all pretty good at killing insects. Of course, each product may have

(02:15:18):
certain things that it controls. Theproblem with mixing is the potential for incompatibility.
And what happens is when you mixtwo things that are not compatible,
they things can change, they canseparate out, and so like if you
did dormond oil with a liquid insecticideand water, it would separate out or

(02:15:41):
will separate from water. So thefirst half of your spraying, you know,
you're applying one thing, and thenthe second half you're only applying the
second. Another thing that happens isthat they start to clump and or drop
out, precipitate out, like ifyou shook up some muddy water and then
settled out of it would be thesilty mud if it's sat there for a

(02:16:03):
minute. That happens with incompatibility,or it can happen. You can put
them in a little jar and mixthem all up and shake it up and
then watch and see. You justwant to make sure that pressure can build
up. He can build up withincompatibility. You know, I think for
a home garden situation, Charlie,I would just spray separately. But my

(02:16:24):
first thought when I heard those chemicalsis they're pretty much all going to do
the same thing. So depending onwhat you're going after specifically, I don't
know that you need to mix verygood. Well, then he answered my
question. I really apprestated. Allright, I love your show, Thanks,
sir, appreciate that very much.I do appreciate that. You know,

(02:16:46):
we're talking about all these different productsand things. If you're looking for
a place that has everything along thoselines. That is Southwest Fertilizer at the
corner of Businett and Renwick in southwestHouston. Southwest Fertilizer has been around since
the fifties and there's not a productthat I mentioned, whether it's a herbicide

(02:17:07):
or insecticide, or whether it's afertilizer that Bob doesn't have it. Southwest
Fertilizer they do. And when youwalk in there, you're going to be
stunned at just how much stuff theyhave. Probably one of the biggest lines
of organic products anywhere in town.When it comes to synthetics, biggest lines
in town. You make the choice, They're going to have it there.

(02:17:28):
They have tools, they have somany other things we're talking earlier about.
I said, I got a fertilizerspread or a push behind one. They
also have the kind you walk behindand turn the knob. I mean,
if you don't find it as SouthwestFertilizer, you don't need it because they
carry so many things. Again,on the corner of Bissinet and Runwick in
Southwest Houston, and here's the websiteSouthwest Fertilizer dot com. Southwest Fertilizer dot

(02:17:54):
com. We are going to gonow to the West time and doctor Glinda.
Hello Glinda, Hi, good morning. I am just about to work
in my yard and I was listeningto the show and I thought, gosh,
I just need to call and findout. I have a horrible problem
of weeds. I'm sure that's notunique to just me, but it just

(02:18:18):
seems like it's just awful. Iweed, I weed, I weed,
I weed. I can't get ridof them. And the two big things,
of course, nutgrass. I thinkeverybody has that, and I haven't
found anything that really kills nutgrass.And then I had this other weed that
is the best I can describe itas like a wild wandering jew with a

(02:18:39):
really pretty purple flower. I don'tknow what it is, but you know,
you really have to dig the rootsout to get rid of that.
And I'm about to put in somegreat bed mix that I got from Cowboy,
and I thought, well, youknow, maybe I should just call
and see if there's something some someknow, chemical or granule that I can

(02:19:01):
put in into this dirt or intothe bed. Now before it put the
dirt in, what do you think? All right? I just think I'm
doing all this work and paying allthis money for this new dirt and mulch,
and I get it. And sothe wondering jew type plant that you're
talking about is called tratiscentia and itis a common one. And it's kind

(02:19:22):
of in between the grasses and thebroad leaves. So things that work on
grasses don't really work. Things thatwork on broad leaves don't really work.
It's a little bit more of achallenge to control the nuts edge. Is
it growing in your lawn or isit growing in a flower bed? Well,
I would say it could well beboth, but okay, yeah,

(02:19:43):
not so much in the in thelawn, it's flower beds, more flower
beds. Yeah, that is abit of a challenge. You've opened up
a can of worms here, Glenda, and I'm up against Oh do you
mind hanging on? So I can'tdo justice to an answer with zero timeline,
So hang on and we'll come backto kat. Okay, thanks very
much. Sure our phone number ifyou'd like to give us a call seven

(02:20:05):
one three two one two K tR H. I'll be right back.
Welcome back. Good to have youhere with us on garden Line. We're
entering our last segment of the day, and we opened up a conversation with
Glinda from Westheimer before we went tobreak and so now we're going to jump
right back into the big middle ofit. Well, Glinda, I want
to congratulate you that you have chosensome very difficult control weeds. So that's

(02:20:28):
off to you for that. Thethe one that has the purple flowers,
I said, was a tratiscancha spiderit may be specifically more commonly called spider
wort. Is it like, oh, maybe foot high and knee high tall?
Or does it stay real low tothe ground. Well, it's it's

(02:20:50):
very straggly, okay. You know, it can be close to the ground,
but it's kind of a climber too. If there's anything, you know,
a shrub close to it, it'llclimb up, okay, but it's
just very straggly. All right.Well, that's probably not spider work.
Then that's probably something more like thewandering jew type of plant. Those are
difficult to control. I have seenplants in that grouping, Okay, not

(02:21:18):
specifically maybe the plant you have,but plants in that grouping. Celsius is
a herbicide that is available over thecounter here in the Houston area. It
is not inexpensive, but it isvery good for broad leaf weed control,
and it's listed also for controlling plantsin that family. Now you have to
try it and see. I can'tguarantee you the efficacy specifically against the one

(02:21:43):
you have, because we still haven'ttotally figured out which one you have,
but if you've got any weeds inthe lawn, Celsius is good. One
other nice thing about Celsius, ifyou mix it up, go ahead and
use it is it works on broadleaf weeds, but it isn't as hard
on your turf. Do you haveSaint Augustine any chance? Yeah, okay,
it's not as hard as on SaintAugustine as most other broad leaves are.

(02:22:05):
When the temperatures get into the mideighties and early a low nineties,
a lot of these other products willreally be hard on Saint Augustine. Celsius
is not so much. And sowhen you mix it up you try it
on this I would like to knowhow it works with you, and if
you don't mind taking a picture,show sending me a picture so I can

(02:22:26):
see specifically what the weed is andknowing that I have a lot of weeds
that come up in my place,but not everyone in the world. So
I haven't tried every herbicide against everyweed for sure, but I would try
that. But I know it'll dogood on the summer weeds in your lawn,
so I think that would be atwo fer. You could give a
shot to the nuts. Sedge isvery difficult to control, and there's a

(02:22:50):
product called image Image for nuts Edge. Now, like other companies, I
don't know why they do this,but they take a way well known name
and then they sell it with productwith ingredients that aren't part of the well
known name product. So there's imagesthat don't have the thing you need to

(02:23:11):
control nutsedge in it. So lookfor the label that says image for nuts
sedge that that has that as partof the name of the product. There's
other images, but if you takethat one, follow the label carefully,
depending on what's growing there, thereare you can have some damage from image
to desirable plants, so that's inyour in your beds. There's a list

(02:23:35):
of plants that you can use imagearound, and then there are the lists
that you shouldn't use image around.But generally it just tells you what you
can rather than what you can't.Yeah, and it's a spray. It's
a spray you sprayed on the plant, wait about two days, so if
you can target it to the thenutsedge weeds on the foliage weed and wait

(02:24:00):
about two days and then water itin with about a half inch of water.
Because it moves in the soil andhas root activity as well. That's
what that's the reason why. Alsowe worry about a certain plants using it
around. You can't use roundup aroundplants. That kills everything you the product
uh oh gosh, sedg gender andsedge hammer. I believe they're just labeled

(02:24:24):
for launch. I may be wrongabout that. I need to check it.
I am actually working on a nutsaid publication I'm going to put on
my website. I hope to getit up by next weekend. But I've
been I've been doing the research onit, getting ready and working on it.
So hopefully that will be around.We'll be able to you know,
give give you a better a betteranswer to that than I'm giving you right

(02:24:46):
now. Okay, Well, wonderfulI was gonna say. I was.
I also use something called dead weBrew. It's a bone eye problem.
Yeah, but you know that seemsto work but again, those two particular

(02:25:07):
weeds just seem to be so resilientthat you think it killed them. The
next thing you know, you seea new little green leaf poking out of
something you thought was so anyway,Well good, I will try those two
in those two items you mentioned,what did you put the dead weed brew
on? Well, just about everything. I mean, I know, I

(02:25:28):
know it's a broad leaf killer aswell. So I have this other little
weed too that's gosh. I don'tknow what they're called. You know,
it seems like every time the windblows, it blows in a new weed.
And so I just keep having differentweeds. I'll look at one,
I'll go, wow, I didn'tsee you last year. Where'd you come
from? Yeah? Well, deadwe has two naturally occurring acids in it,

(02:25:54):
the coprilic and capric They sound aboutthe same, uh and uh.
So if it you know, ifthat works on something, go ahead and
give it a try. It's it'sdefinitely worth a try. With the nutsedge.
Most of the products that are outthere for nuts edge, they they
don't they don't have a surfactant inthem, and you need to add a

(02:26:16):
surfactant. That's something I have learned. Yes, those those slick leaves,
they they don't hold the spray,and so this works. There. There
is a product, the one calleduh sedge Hammer Plus does have a surfactant
already in it, so it workspretty good. But yeah, and I

(02:26:39):
just went and checked it. SedgeTammer is labeled for landscape beds, so
that but you need to the label. Be very careful, careful with it,
right, Okay, okay, wellthat sounds wonderful. Thank you so
much. I appreciate your help.All right, good luck with those.
Thanks for the call, Thank you, sure bye bye. All right,
let's in the garden line and weare who we're just a well minute of

(02:27:03):
it. No time for calls leftin this show today. Well, I
appreciate the fact that you listen toguard Line. I just want to tell
you though, when you're looking forsupplies and things, Ace Hardware stores have
got them. You know, we'rethrowing these names around, you know,
sedge hammer and all that kind ofstuff. Ace Hardware has got a wide
variety of products for controlling pest diseasesand weeds, as well as all the

(02:27:26):
fertilizers I talk about on Garden Line. So when you hear me talk about
a product, your ACE Hardware storeis probably the closest place to go to
get it, because there's forty storeshere in the Greater Houston area. Go
to Acehardware dot Com find the storelocator. Sometimes when you go to ACE
Hardware dot Com, it pops upand says can we use your location?

(02:27:46):
Just say yes, and it getsyou right there. Ace Hardware very very
effective for finding everything you need inone spot, really really good for that.
I want to remind you that I'mgoing to be at a Wallbird's Unlimited
to weeks from yesterday. That's Junefifteenth. It's a Saturday, after the
show. I'll be there from elevenam to one pm. From eleven am

(02:28:09):
to one pm, and I hopeyou'll come out and see me. It
is the Wallbirds Unlimited, specifically inbel Air. There's six of them around
the Greater Houston area. I'll beat the bel Air store two weeks from
yesterday. Bring your samples and allkinds of things out and we'll diagnose them,
we'll identify them, and we'll justsit there and talk and laugh and

(02:28:30):
have fun. How about that.That's another fun thing to do. I
hope you can figure out by now. I like to have fun. Appreciate
you guys being listeners. Don't forgetwe do have the podcast that is available
where you can listen to past showsand tell your friends about Garden Line.
We occasionally have callers from all overthe country that like to listen in so
wherever your friends live, they cando the Heart Media app and listen live

(02:28:54):
where they can go to the KTRSwebsite and listen to past shows there.
Well, I hope you have awonderful, wonderful I just want to leave
you the quick quote. We cancomplain because roses have thorns, are rejoiced
because thorn bushes have roses.