Turf Talk

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any
of the products or service who's advertised on this program.
Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skip Richter's.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Shoes Crazy.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Grim just watch him as many.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thanks to see botas.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Sa Sunmone.

Speaker 5 (00:43):
Good morning, Good morning to all the gardeners out there
and the ones who would like to be gardeners. Maybe
you've never tried this before. By the way, you're listening
to the Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and
we are here to help you have a bountiful garden
and a beautiful landscape. A simple as that. You know,

(01:04):
it's not rocket science, it's really not. You give plants
the things they want, and they give you the stuff
that you band. They want sunlight, they want good drainage,
they want sual moisture, they want good nutrition, they want
to be at home in the climate you live in.
You know, you bring a blue spruce home from Colorado
and well, the Society for the Cruelty to Plants will

(01:26):
be at your door to arrest you and book you
for that. Don't do it, but plant things that want
to be here. But you do those simple things that
I just talked about and you can have success. You know,
gardening is supposed to be fun, and that's what I
try to do here on Guarden Line is take some
of the mystery out of it, help you have success,
and in the meantime, remind you it's supposed to be fun.

(01:49):
Do you know that nature kills plants every year? That
means you can too, it does. I mean we get
things called annuals. They live a year and then they die.
We have by annials that live through one year, through
the winter and then they die. And out in nature
that happens, and it's okay. Don't be afraid to experiment.
Don't be afraid to try things. I don't want to

(02:10):
see you waste your time and money planning things that
are not going to succeed, or doing it in a
way that doesn't work. Where do the wise? Beware of
social media. Everybody on social media is an expert. Just
ask them. They'll tell you. But that didn't mean they're right,
or that doesn't mean what they say is right for
where you live. And that's what we're doing here in Guardlane,

(02:32):
ktr H Greater Houston Areas, trying to help people here
in the whole region of Southeast Texas to have success
with their gardens. So if you would like to give
me a call, ask a question. Seven one three two
one two k t RH seven one three two one
two kt r H. It's always kind of slow early

(02:53):
in the morning. I know you're waking up. You probably
have one eye open, one hand on a cup of
coffee trying to join the land of the living. But
early on is a better time actually to call, as
far as not having to wait in line to get in.
Affordable Tree Service is a company. You hear me talk
about a lot, and I was visiting with somebody about
him the other day, and you know, they were saying,

(03:14):
I need somebody to do such inside you on a tree,
and I just call Martin because listen, Martin has been
doing this for a very long time in the Greater
Houston area. Martin Spoon Moore and his wife Joe, they
are the owners. They answer the phone. So when you
call Affordable Tree at seven one three six nine nine
two six sixty three, you're going to get them. If
you call and Martin or Joe does not answer, hang up,

(03:37):
check that number and dial again because you got the
wrong place. This is where the owners are so actively
actively involved in working with the customers in their business.
Now we are in tree printing season. It's going to
go all the way through winter, and there's not a
better time of the year to get your printing done.
You can print any month of the year some but

(03:58):
now's the time to get it done, especially when you're
getting quite a bit of work done. Get on Martin's schedule.
He stays busy because he does a good job. So
don't mess around. And way, I'll call him in January
or February. He books up, and so give him a
call now, and that's seven one three six ' nine
nine two six six three. Have him look at your trees.

(04:19):
If he doesn't need anything, he'll tell you. But have
him come out and take a look. See what kind
of pruning might be needed. And if you were thinking
about doing anything around those trees the root system, like
putting in a trench or putting a driveway underneath the
branch bread of the tree somewhere, talk to him first,
because when it comes to trees, when the damage is done,

(04:40):
it's a little too late to do a whole lot
for it. There are little things you can do to
kind of help, but way, before the damage is done.
There's some good decisions you can make. Martin can help
you with that. If you like to go by the
websites well, afftree Service dot com go to afftree service
dot com, or just get Martin a call seven one

(05:00):
three six nine nine two six six three. Just because
someone owns a chainsaw, a pickup and puts a business
card in your door do not necessarily mean they know anything,
and in fact, from what I've seen, in most cases,
it means they don't and they can ruin a tree
when they don't know what they're doing. So take care

(05:21):
of those trees. The most valuable plant you have in
your landscapes or your trees comes to shade for you
when it comes to value for your home property. Let's
go out to Donna Now in Beaumont. Hey, Donna, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (05:39):
Good morning. I have a question. My neighbor has a
pride of Barbados and I I've been watching it spew
its seeds down onto the highway and I've been picking
them up and I have not had good luck trying
to get those seeds to sprout. And I wonder if

(05:59):
you've any suggestions for that.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
Yeah, there they are. They have a very hard coat
and uh so they're a little slow to swell up
and sprout. They like really warm temperatures, so you ought
to be if they're if they're indoors, stick them outdoors
right now because it's still pretty warm out okay. Uh,
and and get those going. One thing about trying to
sprout them now, though, is you you got to take

(06:23):
care of them during the winter. You can't put them out.

Speaker 6 (06:25):
Well, they'll be really during the winter, and and I
can bring them in if it gets cold.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Yeah, well they'll they'll be very unhappy. You'll think they're dying,
because even if it's not freezing, they're going to be
acting like they're dying. Uh, they don't even know them.
About May, when it really warms up, I might at
this point I will okay, yeah, okay, you know, if
it were two or three months ago, i'd say, yeah,

(06:54):
plant them and we'll get them going, get them strong
enough where they can overwinter. But but just hang on
to them and then yes, real quick, okay.

Speaker 6 (07:08):
It may be the same kind of issue. I have
a rubber tree plant, and earlier in this summer I
had great luck getting one of the branches to root
while it was still long, and then cutting it off
and planning it and making a tree, and I was
very successful in that. Is it too late to do

(07:29):
that to another branch? Or should I wait till next spring?

Speaker 5 (07:33):
No? No, you can do it. No, you can do
that in the winter even as long as the tree
is getting you know, the amount of light that it wants, okay,
in order to produce carbohydrates. Ye, I'll do that. You
were doing what's called an air layer, and you shouldn't
do that anytime of the year that you want to
do it.

Speaker 6 (07:49):
Okay, all right, thank you.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
It sounds like you knew what you're doing. If you
if you had success, so congratulations.

Speaker 6 (07:55):
Yes, I've done it twice, but I've done it earlier
in the spring, and I just didn't know if if
it was you know, if it was hard to tree
to do it? It's winter's approaching, you bet?

Speaker 5 (08:06):
You bet? All right, Well, thank you for that, called do.
I appreciate that a lot. We want to remind you
guys that haven't fertilized yet it is time to get
it done. And Nitrofoss has really set it up nice.
They've got what's called the Texas three step That means
a fertilizer called Fall Special that's designed for fall to
help your lawns be stronger in winter for cold heartiness

(08:26):
and come out stronger in spring. Second step nitrofos barricade.
You put it down, you water it in, and when
weed seeds try to sprout, which we are on the
doorstep of cool season weed sprouting, get that down asap.
Look at my schedule guarding with skip dot com. Look
at the schedule. It's time. Second step or third step

(08:47):
Eagle turf fungicide. We are on the doorstep of brown
patch impact our names. I'm already seeing circles developing for
brown patch out in the lawn. Eagle turf fungicide gets
up through the roots and into the plant and prevents
from happening. Everything is to be done a sap because
we're already now at the end of October. Nitro five

(09:07):
three step Fall Special barricade for preventing weeds from germinating.
An eagle tour fund you side for preventing diseases from attacking.
You're going to find it at Ingenetic Gardens Donna Richmond,
Shades of Texas in the woodlands. Plants for all seasons,
on tom Ball Parkway all places to get Texas three step.
I'm going to take a little break here. When I
come back, Ralph, Girardo and Greg you will be the

(09:30):
first ones up. Welcome back, Welcome back to the garden line.
Here we go again. We got a lot to cover today,
got a lot of folks to talk to, and so
we're going to jump right into it. You know, one
thing I have to say, I'm a broken record on this,
but I'm going to keep you in a broken record
because the most important thing you do to have success
in your garden and landscape is to start with preparing

(09:53):
the soil. It is the foundation. Imagine this. You want
to build a house and so you get a bunch
of two bout fours and throw them on the dirt
and start building. How is that going to end up?
We do that with our gardens all the time when
we don't prepare the soil. And I don't have a
better place to do the preparation to get all the
tools you need than Ciena Malts. And I like to
say this, I like say brown stuff before green stuff.

(10:15):
That's what that means. It means get your soil right,
get compost in the soil, get a raised bed for
when it rains too much, so you got good drainage
because sometimes it rains too much. Here, make sure you
have the nutrients in the soil. All that is at
Ciena Molts. They're down south of Houston. They're near Highway
six and two eighty eight on FM five point twenty one.
Here's the website. Just write this down and you can

(10:37):
find out everything you need to know. Cienna Multch dot com,
CNA Malts dot com. Now when you're there, you're going
to find bagged products. You're going to find bulk products.
You're going to find things like Landscaper's pride products. You're
going to find heirloom soils, products like their a Veggionerbix
just as an example of that. You're going to find

(10:59):
the fertilizers you hear me talk about on Guardenline, Medina
and nitrophoss and microlife and Nelson's. You're going to find
every thing that you need to have success. That is
what they're about. You start with seeing a mulch and
then you get a good plant and put it in
and you're going to have success. That's how that works.

(11:19):
So many people go first. I understand it. You want
a beautiful plant, you go buy it and you can't wait,
and you bring it home and you're going to figure
out where to put it. No, no, that's backwards. Get
the soil right, and then when you put the plan in,
it hits the ground running because you got a foundation
for success with Sienna. I'm going to head out to
Katie now and we're going to talk to Ralph. Hey, Ralph,
good morning, Welcome to Guardenline.

Speaker 7 (11:41):
Good skip, good morning, sir. Have a question, actually two questions.
The first one deals with sprinklers. You had shared with
me earlier that earlier in the season that I was
watering too much. You it'd suggested maybe a couple days

(12:03):
a week to go deeper. So I've done that. How
would you set your irrigation system now? And then the
second question that I have is if you were going
to do aeration, would you do it now or wait

(12:25):
till springtime and do it.

Speaker 5 (12:29):
You know, you can do aeration anytime that you want
to do it, generally, because it is a physical process
of punching holes in the ground, and there is a
minor amount you know, of damage to a root or
to a stem or a runner of the grass. When
we do it, we like to do it at a
time when the grass is actively growing. Now, if you

(12:51):
have compacted soil and you haven't gotten it done, just
go ahead and get it done. That's fine, with a
compost top dressing following that. And so that would be
my answer to it. If it's all like, well, things
are basically okay, but I just went in the next year,
I want to get it done, then I would do
it during the growing season when the grass is actively growing.

(13:11):
On that. As far as watering, if you go online
to my schedule that my website is gardening with Skip
dot com Gardening with Skip dot Com, there's a lawn
care schedule and on there it talks about fertilizing, aer rating, bowing,
and watering. And if you look at the watering row
across the chart from January to December and you go
all the way to October, we're at a half inch

(13:34):
a week that your lawn is needing. That doesn't mean
you have to water a half inch week. It means
like if you get an inch of rain, then you
don't have to water for a couple of weeks. You're
good to go. But this month and next about a
half inch of water a week is how much the
grass is using. So as dry as it's been, it's

(13:55):
all up to you. You got to put that half
inch on. Sounds good though, Yes, sir, you take care.
Thanks for the call. Appreciate that very very much. When
was the last time you guys went to Plants for
All Seasons? I know, those of you who are up
there in the Tomball Parkway area, you know they're located
right there, just north of Luetta. If you're going to Tomball,

(14:17):
you just exit two forty nine Tomball Parkway crossover Luetta
and they're right there on the right hand side. They've
been around since nineteen seventy three, and those of you
in that area you know them. I mean, they've got
a real strong following because people know when you go
into Plants for All Seasons, you are going to find
the best plants to grow in this area. But probably

(14:38):
more important than anything is the advice and the expertise
the products that they carry to go along with that.
I don't care if you didn't buy a plant from them.
You walk in and you go. You know, Mayazalia, I
got somewhere else. My confession, got somewhere else. It's doing
this or that. Well, they'll tell you here's what you
need to do, and if a products needed, they'll put

(14:58):
you in touch with it well, help you have success.

Speaker 7 (15:01):
You know.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
It's not like going to some of these box stores
where you go in and they may have a plant
for sale, it may or may not even should be
planted here, and then when you ask a question, the
eyes of glaze over and you know the minute the
question comes out your mouth, they don't know what they're
talking about. Plants for All Seasons does, and that is
very very important. And you can bring them samples or

(15:23):
pictures or whatever you got in there, but the main
thing is go in and check out the plants. They've
got a beautiful color palette right now for fall that
just looks awesome, beautiful containers. Plants for All Seasons dot
com is a website, and here's a phone number two
eight one three seven six one six four six. We're

(15:43):
going to go to Girardo now in Meadows Place. Hey Girardo,
welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 8 (15:48):
Hey Skip, how you doing?

Speaker 5 (15:49):
Nice?

Speaker 8 (15:50):
Talking to you again. I have a couple of questions
for you. One concern of pineapples, were at know the
one who's concerning beat Okay, of pineapple that I have
in the race bed that I protected through the winter,
they're really big. They're getting pretty good. And I know, okay,
with the sucker on the pineapples, you you can replant

(16:11):
that and it will grow another pineapple plant. But I
guess I just didn't pay attention to it. There's there's
so big the sucker in the origin the mother plant
is so big. Do I just leave that alone and
will it probably will it might produce two pineapples since
it's big. Or do I even try to plant the sucker?
I guess that's my question.

Speaker 5 (16:30):
Would I generally? Yeah, when when you get a pineapple,
that plant is not going to produce for you again,
the sucker will though, and so you could break it
off and reroot it. You know, we're going into winter,
and so I don't know, there's a case could be
made for break it off, pot it up and get
it rooted, and that way you can bring it in

(16:51):
in the pot in the winter and get it right
back out when we're done with winter. Just to head
your bet, make it a little easier, or you can
leave it in place and be ready to cover it.
If you need to.

Speaker 8 (17:00):
Okay, okay, sounds good and uh. The second question is
about beats. For some reason, I'm not successful at sewing
beat seas. Is there anything, yes that, any tips you
can give? I love you, I love the leaves just

(17:22):
just as much as the beat the root itself. But
I've been ye.

Speaker 5 (17:28):
Beat are basically the same plan as as Swiss chart.
There's very little difference and and so you can eat
beat greens just like you Swiss chart, except Swiss chart
doesn't make that root. Anytime you're trying to grow root, carrots, turnips, beats, radishes,
you need lots of sunlight, so it needs lots of
sun and the and the plants need to be spaced
out well, so you got to thun them out. So

(17:50):
if you think about how big that's going to get,
Let's say on a beat, you're going to be somewhere
between a golf ball and a little larger you know,
on harvest size on it, then you would want at
least that wide apart, maybe a little wider to space
the plants. If they get crowded, they don't produce good roots.
And if they if you overdo the nitrogen or to
have too much shade those three things, crowding, too much

(18:12):
nitrogen shade all all cause top growth or lack of
root development.

Speaker 8 (18:19):
Okay, cool, cool, I think I think I know my
problem with the sun. Okay, appreciate it, Thank you.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
Thank you, Yeah you bet. Now you know the rule
on Guardline. The advice is free, but I do ask
for half the produce that my advice helps you produce.
So just drop it off at the station, your beats
and we'll call it even.

Speaker 8 (18:36):
Oh yes, sir, yes, take care.

Speaker 5 (18:42):
All right, let's see here. We're going to go now
to Greg and Pasadena. Hey, Greg, welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 9 (18:49):
Good morning, skiff, Thank you for taking my call. Real quick.

Speaker 10 (18:53):
I'm dreading the winter weeds, spiff. Last year my backyard
was checks and I don't even know what this heat is.
It grows about three to four feet if you let
it go.

Speaker 7 (19:06):
And it shifts.

Speaker 9 (19:08):
My yard was just fested with it last year, last yard.
I recently resided my front yard, so not really concerned
too much about the front right now. But is there
anything I could do get ahead of that skip?

Speaker 7 (19:21):
Please?

Speaker 5 (19:23):
Absolutely?

Speaker 11 (19:24):
So.

Speaker 5 (19:25):
When you said three or four feet, you're talking about
how big it was in spring, right.

Speaker 10 (19:31):
No, No, these are These are the winter weeds that
pop up every winter, and last year it was the
worst it's ever been.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
Well, the winter weeds they sprout, uh and they stay
small through the winter and then in spring, like think
of the blue bonnet our roadside Texas state flower. They
you don't really see them much during the winter, but
in spring they take off to all their growth and
blooming and then die down. If you' we're seeing a
weed three feet tall in like summer or fall, that's

(20:04):
a different kind of weed. That's why I'm kind of
trying to figure out what we're talking about here. If
it's truly a cool season annual, a winter weed or biennial,
you got to get a pre emergent down before they sprout.
So the number one way we control weeds in our
lawn is to grow a dense lawn and shade them out.
That doesn't get rid of every weed, but it cuts
the numbers down significantly. Second thing is to put a

(20:26):
pre emergent out ahead of the sprouting season. And winter
weeds are starting to sprout, it is the temperature cools
off so it gets about seventy degrees and they start
sprouting with little rain coming along in there. So barricade
from nitrofoss would be a product that would do just that.
You put it down, you water it in. Takes a
half inch of water to get it down in the soil,

(20:48):
and then when they try to sprout, they can't.

Speaker 7 (20:54):
Sprout.

Speaker 9 (20:55):
All right, put it down again.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
You said, no, not at all. No, you have to
be ahead of it. So do it now, and do
it today, and water it in, and then when they
try to sprout, the word barricade is a good description
because they can't get past it. They can't get past
that surface where the barricade is, and it kills them. Now,
if you miss some, if you miss some due to

(21:18):
whatever reason, you know, no one product controls every weed.
And also maybe our application doesn't overlap quite right, and
you know you got some gaps. Then you can use
a post emergent later when you see the weeds growing,
but long before they begin to bloom and set seeds.
All right, I'm gonna have to have to take a

(21:39):
run for the news here. If Greg, if you want
to hang on, I'll get right back to you when
we come back from this hard break and lands embiaties.
You'll be the next up. We'll be right back folks. Hey,
welcome back. Welcome back to the Guardline. Folks. Good to
have you with us. If you have been looking at
your landscape and kind of thinking, uh, that's just not

(22:01):
what I want, that doesn't look good, I hate to
drive I hate to drive up and take a look
at it because it's worse for the wear. You know,
we've had a bit of a rough summer in many ways,
and some plants are struggling. You want to get Pierscapes
to call. Pierscapes are professionals. This is a preferred landscaper
for me here on Guardline, and I'm telling you it's
because of the work they do. Go to their website.

(22:22):
In fact, if you do nothing else, just go to
Piercescapes dot com. Just look take a look at the
work they do. Do you need your irrigation system repaired?
They can do that. Do you need shrubs trim? Do
you need flower beds replanted? Do you want a whole
redesign of a bed or the whole landscape, outdoor lighting?
You got areas you don't drain, well, they can fix that.

(22:44):
I mean, if it comes to making your place look better,
to making your backyard a more beautiful place that you
just can't wait to get outside and enjoy with your friends,
especially on these cool fall evenings. Pierscapes can do that
for you pierscapes dot com. And here's the number two
eight one three seven fifty sixty two eight one three

(23:05):
seven five zero six zero. We are going to go
now to Lance and beat Eyes. Lance, you and I
are the only two people that know where beat Eyes
is except for people and beat Eyes. I think, how
you doing well?

Speaker 7 (23:18):
Thank you?

Speaker 12 (23:19):
I'm doing well. I've got some fall planted tomatoes planted
on raised rows. Been super dry up here, so I've
been giving them a good soak in every two or
three days, doing good hip hie to chest tie. But
when I came home yesterday my purple cherokee, the whole

(23:42):
top half of the plant was wilted over, still a
nice dark green. I went out and looked at it
this morning. It looks better this morning, but it's not
as good as the other ones. I mean, could the
ninety one ninety two degree heat do that? Or am
I looking at something else?

Speaker 5 (24:05):
Well, it could be. It's weird that only part of
the plant is doing that, though, So whenever a plant wilts,
there's one of several things happening. Either a the soil's
too dry, can't get water. B it has a fungal
disease in the plumbing of the plant blocking the water flow,
which you can't control those once they happen to happen.

(24:28):
Or it could have nematodes that are making the root
system inefficient, making it more drought prone, or just physical
you know, damage or injury that's doing it. It is
not unusual if a plant is recovering at night. That's
usually a sign. You probably just need to make sure
it gets plenty of water. In the heat of summer,
we see that wilting. That's a normal part of the

(24:50):
day because it can't pump water fast enough. The water's there,
it just can't pump it fast enough. But this time
of the year it's not that common to see that,
so I would make sure dig down about four inches
around the plant, make sure the soil's moist. If not,
give it some water. I just don't make it soggy,
but give it a good soaking.

Speaker 12 (25:09):
That sounds good. I was hoping that's what it was.
The soil felt moist this morning, at least the top
few inches. So yeah, I'll put the sprinkler on it
and give it a good soak and for fifteen to
twenty minutes and see what happens.

Speaker 5 (25:26):
All right, let's see we can get some tomatoes. Time's
running short, and as it cools off, they slow down.
So we need to get you some tomatoes.

Speaker 12 (25:33):
If we sure do we sure do it. I'll dry
half oaken down there.

Speaker 13 (25:38):
Well.

Speaker 5 (25:38):
I was going to say, maybe we can figure out
a dropout point for the half you're bringing me, But anyway,
let's just get you something deep. Hey, thanks, thanks for
that calling, and have fun out there and beat eyes
as beautiful country out there. You take care. Oh boy,
I was at Buchanan's Plans the other day. I like
to swing by there every now and then because they
always have beautiful stuff going on there. I mean right now,

(26:01):
they are loaded up with all the fall things that
you can imagine, you know, if you want, if you
want really really beautiful fall color, if you want to
see maybe, well, for example, here's one they got cyclemen in.
Do you know what cycleomen are? There are cool season plants.
They are typically kind of a pink. I'm color challenged
when it gets into the pink and red and orange

(26:22):
color variations. But anyway, pink and red and white beautiful
colors if you need. Maybe you got a let's say
a live oak tree or something, and you just want
some beautiful color for winter under it, as long as
it doesn't get like twenty degrees out there. Cyclomen are
pretty cold, hardy, and they look beautiful. They got those.
They have amaryllis bulbs and paper white bulbs for forcing.

(26:46):
You're going to go see somebody for Thanksgiving, grab them
a bulb as a gift, a forcing bulb that is
so beautiful to have that inside. They'll really appreciate that.
And by the way, fun fact, if you will when
you vote, you show up with you you're little I
voted sticker that you get to put on you when
you vote. If you show up with that, you can
trade in that sticker for a free four inch herb

(27:07):
or veggie for your garden. Is that cool? That's only
valid from October twenty third to November fifth, But make
your vote count and get an herb or veggie to
go with it there at Buchanans Plus. When you're there,
I promise you're gonna find a lot of other cool
stuff that you really like. Buchanans Plants there on Eleventh
Street in the Heights. Go to the website Buchanansplants dot com.

(27:28):
It is loaded with good information. We're gonna go now
to Montgomery, Texas and talk to Albert. Hey, Albert, welcome
to guard Line.

Speaker 14 (27:37):
Good morning, skip morning. What I got is I got
a half acre land. I don't live there, so I
don't have a sprinkler system or a hose or anything.
I've been lying on rain the water it's Saint Augustine
and now it's mostly brown. Can I still put down
that fall fertilizer or should I wait.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
Till some rain comes?

Speaker 7 (27:59):
Or is it?

Speaker 13 (28:00):
Is it okay to put it?

Speaker 5 (28:02):
You can put it. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with putting
it down. It's just not going to do anything until
till you get some rain to wash it in. But
I'd say go ahead and get it down, or just
watch the weather and when you see that we're about
to get some rain. If you don't have a way
to water it in, then then just do it a
little ahead of time before you see a rainfall, and

(28:23):
that that'll that'll get it into the ground.

Speaker 14 (28:26):
Okay, what's the latest I could put that down? Am
I running out of time now or is there another
couple of weeks or well, well.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
There's not a It's not like preventing weeds and preventing
disease with the fertilizer. Our goal and doing it sooner
rather than later is the sooner those roots can get
the nutrients and start taking them up, the more they're
going to take, the faster they're going to take it up.
You know, once we get down and it's really cold
and the soil is cool, those roots are not doing

(28:54):
a whole lot. They're there, they're growing, but everything is
slowed down, and so you'd rather get that fertilizer while
it's warm enough for them to take it up. So
that would be the only reason to do it sooner
rather than later.

Speaker 14 (29:07):
Okay, all right, well, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 5 (29:10):
Have you ever have you ever tried?

Speaker 13 (29:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (29:13):
I was just gonna say, have you ever tried Nelson's
carbo load the fall fertilizer? No, sir, I haven't you
ought you ought to give it a try. It's uh
because it has not only is it a fall fertilizer's
got the perfect blend of nutrients for cool season preparation.
In other words, it makes the plant, the grass is

(29:34):
gonna be hardier and come out better in spring. But
there's also got that pre emergent in it. And so
when you put it down and then get it watered in,
then you have you've you've done both. You've you've taken
care of your fall fertilization and your weed prevention too.
So that's just why I mention it not hard to
find it. Carbo loads the name of it.

Speaker 14 (29:51):
All right, Well, thank and you have a great program here.
Thank you for all you all you do.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
Thank you appreciate the kind words you take. Care. Well,
here we go. We are looking at another break right now. Boy,
time flies when you're having fun. What did Kermit the
frog say? Time's fun when you're having flies? I think?
All right, Virginia in East Houston, you'll be the next up.
We're gonna take a little break. Hey, welcome back, Welcome

(30:19):
back to the garden, Linem, good to have you with us.
I was noticing some flowers that I don't talk about
a lot recently. I say, flowers at Silosha. Are you
familiar with Solosha. It's got the plumes. There's actually a
couple type. One has kind of a wavy fan like
flower slash seedhead. The other one has a plume, and

(30:40):
they're just gorgeous. I noticed them a month ago just
glowing in some gardens, and I just keep seeing them
now in beautiful arrangements and things. The cool thing about
siloshia is you can also cut it and use it
as a dried flower, because it dries and retains some
of that beautiful color. It's not the petals that are
giving you the color, it's the actual structure of the

(31:00):
flower itself, and silosia is just one of those for
fall that is outstanding.

Speaker 7 (31:06):
You know.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
They come in oranges and yellows and burgundies and reds
and pinks and just lots of nice colors. I saw
them out of enchanted gardens out in Richmond. They have
them there, of course, they have everything there, but just
really really beautiful flowers. And if you're looking for something
to carry you up into the first frost, that is
a good choice. And you need to make a note
to have them back again next summer because cilosia is

(31:29):
super heat tolerant as well. By the way, talking about
in ingena gardens, they are stocked up on all the
stuff you need for fault. They still have the beautiful moms.
They've got the silosia and other things. They've got the
cool seasoned flowers, you know, like dianthus and things that
we want to carry us even after the first frost.
And if you're looking for that gift bulb that I

(31:51):
was talking about earlier, they have amarillis that are just
stunning in so many colors. You can even get them,
you know, the containers to put them in for forcing.
When we say forcing, we mean you put the ball
ben indoors. The roots go down and pebbles or just
in water. Some glasses are designed to hold them and
just have water in the bottom and they just grow

(32:11):
inside and they blow them inside and it's beautiful and
it's the coolest thing. When you're done, you can take
them out and plant them in the landscape too. That
also will work. That's alid enchanted gardens. They're on Highway
or FM three point fifty nine down on the Richmond
or excuse me, the Katie Fullsher side of Richmond. It's been
around since nineteen ninety five. And when you go to

(32:32):
in Channigardens, you're going to find everything they've got. Oh,
a new shipment of this carving pumpkins for Halloween. Haven't
got that done yet. You can get them right now.
And they also have pie pumpkins, a little smaller pipe pumpkins.
They're at in Channa Gardens. And when you get out there,
you're going to find vegetables and herbs and everything else
that you might need. Again FM three fifty nine, Katie Fullshire,

(32:52):
side of Richmond. Here's the website Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot
com and Channa Gardens Richmond dot com. We're going to
go out of Virginia in East Houston. Hey, Virginia, welcome
to garden Line. How are you doing?

Speaker 6 (33:07):
Thank you?

Speaker 5 (33:09):
Thank you?

Speaker 6 (33:09):
Question?

Speaker 5 (33:10):
Yeay hope. I have a quick question.

Speaker 15 (33:13):
Does Microsoft super seaweed and Medina soil Activator? I found
there hiding in my kitchen. I thought it was better
than putting it out in the garage. Do they go
bad after a couple of years or just lose their business?

Speaker 7 (33:33):
Cool?

Speaker 5 (33:33):
No, they don't really lose their I mean, you know,
everything has a shelf life of sorts. But yeah, either
one of those could be utilized. If you've got it,
just mix it up and use it. Uh, it's going
to do some good, if not a lot of good.
They're both great products.

Speaker 15 (33:49):
Okay, not really, okay, just use it in because I
did find some old old, old, old old has to
grow several years back, poured it on a plan I
really didn't care about, thinking, okay, here's your test, and
it seemed to work, so.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
I thought, well, all right, I thought i'd ask. So
thank you so much, Gia. Those products hold up better,
They hold up better than we do with time, so
so go ahead, go ahead and use them. I mean,
like I said, you said indoors, and that was part
of the key to my answer to is you know,
you put it out in the shed where it's one
hundred and twelve degrees underneath the tin roof, and you know, yeah,

(34:28):
that's going to have effect on things. But indoors, those
things hold up pretty good. But in the meantime, put
them in front so you don't forget about them, and
you use them promptly, precisely. So thank you so much.

Speaker 15 (34:41):
I didn't want to have to go buy them again
if I had some and they were okay, So thank.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
You so much. Okay, yeah you bet, you bet. Virginia
Virginia's Bye bye. Virginia's talking about the micro Life product.
And stuff. You know, the micro Grow bioinoculant is one
that I you don't think people think about enough when
they're talking about putting stuff down in the lawn. You know,
right now is time for Microlife's brown patch fertilizer. It's

(35:09):
a fertilizer that has a little different nutrient blend that
does well going into the fall. But it also has
lots of microbes in it that help fight against plant problems.
You know, when you put good microbes out there, it
helps fight the bad microbes. But micro Grow is not
a fertilizer. It's just a bio andoculant and you can
use it on anything. Put it on your lawn. I

(35:31):
would do it a lawn right now. Sixty three different
strains of beneficial microbes in it. But I mean if
you want to put it on your vegetables, your flower garden,
your herb garden, whatever you want, it is safe to use.
And with sixty three different strains, it's got stuff that
literally fights disease. Some of these strains like okay, here
we go nerding out here, but you know have bt

(35:53):
Bacillus thuringensis. Well, it has something called Bacillis subtilests I
don't think they call that BS, but anyway, I'm just
thinking on the side there. Basilla subtlest fights disease. You
can buy basilla subtlest in a bottle to fight disease.
It also has Bacilla's brace for this one amelo licofacis.

(36:15):
You put that on the soil and it comes in
contact that microbe comes in contact with the soil root
and it signals the plant to change how it's growing
to fight a disease. I'm not making that up. Go
look it up, but it's all there and micro grow
along with sixty two other strains of microbes. So put

(36:35):
that out there when you do your lawn fertilizing or
after or before, it doesn't matter. Micro grow buy anoculant.
It is a maroon bag from Microlife. Microlifefertilizer dot COM's
the website. If you want to learn a lot more
about the things that they carry, and they carry a
lot of things, you know, Virginia was talking about some

(36:55):
of the liquid products that they have and the granular
products that they have as well. Where you're listening to
garden Line, I'm your host, Skip Richtor, and we're here
to help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape.
Oh and by the way, if you're looking for where
do you get this stuff? Well, first of all, Ace
Hardware is always a good safe bet. You hear me

(37:17):
talk about a fertilizer, you're going to get it at
Ace Hardware. They carry it, they do. They also carry
a lot of other products like soil type, bags of
sol related products and multz. There at Ace Hardware you're
going to find fire ant control and it is still
time to do that. In fact, I went out yesterday
was looking at a container, a big old like half

(37:38):
whiskey burrel sized container I have, and I saw that
little boiling up soil in the middle, which means fire
ants got into that thing. Well, they're not going to
last long because I've got my fire ant bait. It's
going out. Fall is the time to tackle fire ants.
Football season is fire ant season when it comes treating
fire ants, excellent time to knock them out. So in
spring you don't just get overrun with the little buggers.

Speaker 13 (38:00):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
Ace Hardware stores got you covered. Several different types of
fire organic, synthetic, whichever type you want is there at ACE.
Because ACE is the place you need tools, you need
supplies for your garden. You want to have success, you
want to have a beautiful patio environment out there. Go
to Ace Acehardware dot com. You know, if you go
to Acehardware dot com, they've got a store locator and

(38:21):
you can find the forty plus stores here near you
in the Greater Houston area. I was just visiting with
Rick from the Langham Creek Ace Hardware store this uh
past week, and you know they are. They are stocked
up and ready to go over there. We were just
talking about some of the products and things that they

(38:43):
have and some of the events that they have coming up.
So Ace Hardware is are fun. You know, each one's
independently owned. Independently owned, so that means each owner, while
still having all the standard A stuff, they can do
some really cool extras for their store. I like that.

Speaker 13 (39:01):
Well.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
Music means I gotta stop talking here in a minute,
But I'm not going to stop until I tell you
that I'm going to be at RCW Nurseries today. Get
scratch everything off the calendar RCW Nursery from twelve to two.
Come see me listen. I cannot even read all of
the things we're given away, but nice stuff like fifteen

(39:23):
gallon send philippy maple tree that is an awesome maple variety,
and fall is the time to plant trees and trucks.
Fifteen gallon redbud tree, a three gallon, a seven gallon camellia,
a flat of color plants, microlife for Eliza, in sect side,
funge of sides, freeze cloth and metally yard art. I'm
giving away nitroplast, three step barricade, fall special and eagle

(39:47):
Turfunge of size bags. Come see me.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Welcome to kz RH guarden Line with scamp Richard.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
It's so just watch him as.

Speaker 5 (40:21):
Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we are here to help you have
a beautiful garden, a bountiful landscape and more fun in
the process. Gardening is an uplifting activity. It's a fun activity.
It's one that does physical good for us, it's one

(40:42):
that does mental good for us, and it just should
be fun. If you feel like you failed at gardening,
let me just tell you didn't. You can only fail
at gardening by quitting, by stopping, by not trying. Nature
grows and kills plants every year you can too. It's easy,
is that?

Speaker 7 (41:01):
So?

Speaker 5 (41:01):
When it comes to gardening, we just need to help
get that thumb looking better by giving you good information.
I like to tell people there's no such thing as
a brown thumb. There's only uninformed thumbs. And we inform
your thumb. When your thumb gets smarter, suddenly everything starts
to be greener. It's as easy as that. And one
of the key steps is brown stuff before green stuff.

(41:22):
What does that mean? That means prepare the soil, get
the condition of the soil optimum, and your plants will
be much much more successful. You will suddenly look like
you've got a green thumb because you just did the
simple task of preparing the soil first. And one of
the best ways to do that is with heirloom soils

(41:43):
products Airloom Soil. They sell soil by the bag all
over town. They sell soil by bulk. You can go
get it out at the porder location of Warren's Rock
and Mulch. You can also by the way, you can
also just have that deliver it. They can bring and
dump it in your driveway so you can get to

(42:03):
town making that bed and improving that bed and mulching
that bed. They can also put it in a supersack
and set that in your driveway. A supersac is a
big old bag that holds a cubic yard of soil. Yeah,
it's a heavy duty bag and they put it right there.
It's neat and clean and easy to do. They're very
very easy to do. In fact, they've got there. They've

(42:24):
got a deal going on one qbic yard supersack, their
new branded supersacks. You can put one cubic yard of
aged leaf mole compost and you get the supersack two
for ninety nine bucks. That's seventy five dollars savings per
sack and it's good through two day. So you're going
to have to get on the phone and give them

(42:46):
a call. Two eight one three five four nineteen fifty
two eight one three five four nineteen fifty. They're open
from seven am to three pm today, so if you
won't take a minute, we'll wait while you go give
them a call seven to three today and closed on Sunday,
back opening again on Monday, but the deal's no good
on Monday. It's through today. You can go pick it

(43:08):
up at the porter yard or that's on a Highway
fifty nine out there in Porter, or you can have
them deliver it three sacra minimum though for delivery and
it does cost for delivery fees. But book heers now
get it done. You can go to a rockandmltz dot
com slash delivery and get that done. But anyway, heirlom sauce,

(43:30):
or just buy it by the bag, you know they have.
I mentioned earlier that Cina Molts carries their veggie nerve
mix for example. They also have fruit and berry mix.
They got to cactus and succulent mix that I use
for our strings of pearls and turtles and all those
other strings we have at the house. The works potting soil,
rose and bloomers blend, expanded shale, lots of things from

(43:50):
heirloom soils. All you got to do is give them
a call. Take advantage of that supersacked boy, that leafmol
compos that is cadillacs, really good stuff. You'll do some
top dressing of your lawn. You want to improve your beds.
It'll do all of that. Our phone number is seven
one three two one two k t r H seven

(44:12):
one three two one two k t r H one
more reminder here for you folks. Nitrofoss Texas three step system.
You do the two step on the dance floor, you
do the three step in the lawn, and here are
the three steps. Step one Nitropos Fall Special one Ariser.
It is a fertilizer designed nutrient wise for fall in

(44:34):
our area. When you put fertilizer down now in the
fall in our area, just go to my schedule on
my website Gardening with Skip dot com and you'll see
what I'm talking about. It's all scheduled there for you.
You put it in the fall, your grass will be
more cold, hardy because it's taking up those nutrients and
make carbohydrates. And it also comes out in spring strong.

(44:56):
Do you know that your early spring growth in the spring,
when your lawns starts to wake up and grow, all
of that energy is coming from stored energy from fall
fertilizing for what it took up in the fall. Second
step barricade pre emergent. You put it down, you watered in.
It forms the barricade and weed seeds can't break through it.

(45:16):
Third step Eagle turf fungicide. Egle turf fungicide is a
systemic you put it down, you water it in, it
goes into the plant and when brown patch shows up,
it says, uh uh, this patient has been protected. In
other words, the grass itself has the ingredients inside now
to fight that disease. And so Eagle Turf fungicide, Nitropross,

(45:38):
Barricade and Fall Winnerizer, Fall Special Winterizer all from Nitroposs.
You can find them widely available. You're going to find
them at places like Katiace Hardware, plants and things in
Brennam Court Hardware and Stafford Growers Outlet and Willis. In fact,
you want to find some, come out to RCW Nursery today.
I'm going to be given away two or three bags

(46:00):
of each one all three of those, more than one
bag of all three of those. We're gonna be giving
them away out at RCW today, and if you don't
happen to win that, maybe you'll win one or the other.
I think over twenty prizes we're gonna be given away
out there, and then you can just pick them up
because they're gonna have plenty on hand as well. RCW
carries the Night of Us three Step as well. All right,

(46:23):
we're going to head to the phones and we're going
out to Humbol to talk to Albert. Hey, Albert, welcome
to garden Line. Well, thank you very much.

Speaker 16 (46:32):
I have a simple question on Japanese sweet potatoes. I
had taken some of the potatoes, got them to go ahead,
and I guess that you want to call them my
gross stems, went ahead and planing it. I gave something
to friends of mine, and the ones that I gave
away so far, they're telling me that they did not produce.
I can't figure out why I did not produce.

Speaker 5 (46:57):
Was this from way back in the warm part of
the season, or is this something recent that they planted.
I'll call it recently, about four to five months ago
that they were planning. Okay, yeah, so that's enough time,
all right. When sweet potatoes don't produce, there are several reasons.
Number one, good sunlight. Number two, adequate water to keep

(47:19):
the vines from stressing. When you get those little slips
that you said you grew off the sweet potatoes, if
they're a big, strong, thick slip, you're going to get
better production than if it's a scruny little slip coming
off of there. Those are all some of the things.
There are some other things that can go into the
process of it. But if you get a good strong slip,

(47:41):
you get it in. It's got plenty of time. It
does have adequate water, it has adequate fertilizer, but not
too much nitrogen. But some they ought to produce for them,
So something along one of those lines went wrong.

Speaker 17 (47:56):
Yes, might be too much nitrogen.

Speaker 16 (47:58):
Possibly, don't know mile today, but they were all telling me.
None of the group basically vine.

Speaker 5 (48:06):
Zaca no potatoes. All right, yeah, I uh yeah, okay,
all right, well thanks for that call, Albert. I appreciate
that sweet potatoes are not you two. Sweet potatoes are
not that uh difficult to grow, but uh people they

(48:28):
run into some issues with them and those things I'm mentioning.
Here's what's happening. You're taking a section of vines, sticking
it in the ground and it actually roots. Is that amazing?
I mean, it roots fast enough before the vine dies.
It's got roots that that's fast. And those leaves are
capturing sunlight. So you've got a big old vining, sprawling
sweet potato plant and it's in sun and carbohydrates are

(48:49):
being produced and they that's what makes the root of
a sweet potato. So if you're not getting roots that
that is where we start looking through the process of
the things I mentioned something along the lines there is
just not quite working right on that. But anyway, it's
a great crop to grow. D and D feed up

(49:11):
in the Tumble area. In fact, if you go up
to Tumble up to forty nine, then you turn to
the left and go west on twenty nine to twenty
about three miles, that's where D and D feed is
And it's your local hometown feed store out there. Everybody
that's in that region knows D and D dry by
it every day. The Dover family has owned and operated
D and D since nineteen eighty nine. They recently did

(49:34):
an expansion. And when you go into D and D,
if you hear me talk about a fertilizer, it's going
to be there. And that's nitroposs and that's Microlife, and
that's Nilson's and that's Medina. They have bags of heirloom soils,
they have Landscaper's Pride soil and mult type products there.
They get in some plants seasonally to come through there
as well. When you go into D and D, every

(49:56):
kind of pest, disease and we control you need is
in there. Really nice selection of some things that are
not just readily available at every place when it comes
to fighting weeds or diseases or pests. D and D
feed Store, of course, it's a feed store, very high
end lines of dog food like Origin, Diamond, victor Star
Pro food for other pets as well, and of course

(50:18):
livestock food. Just go into D and D and check
it out again. About three miles west of two forty
nine on twenty nine to twenty. Here's a phone number
if you'd like to give them a call. Two eight
one three five one seventy one forty four two eight
one three five one seven to one four four. I
was out in my garden this past week pulling up

(50:43):
some okra plants. It's time to get rid of the
plants that I had. I breed okra, so I've got
more ocre than I ought to have. Fact about the
whole garden turned into okre this year because I'm crossing
and seeing how they do. If they don't do good,
they get pulled up and thrown away. If they do,
I saved the seed and we keep going from there.
When I pulled up a plant, I saw nemotodes on

(51:04):
the roots, and I'm going to post something to our
Facebook page, garden Line Facebook page. If you don't follow
us on Facebook, you should because we're always posting to that.
And I'm going to put something on Facebook about nematodes.
I've got a little video that I made and it's
going to point you to a resource for more information.
So if you've ever dealt with nematodes, I'm not going

(51:25):
to take time today to go into a long nematode explanation,
but they're just basically, they're tiny, microscopic wormlike things in
the soil that really mess up your plants, and there
are very few plants they don't like. When you look
at the list of things and nematodes attack, you kind
of go, well, what else is there? Not many things
are Nema toad resistant, but there are varieties that are.

(51:46):
But anyway, found that in my garden. I was discouraged
because I really work hard at not bringing those things in.
I don't know how they got here, probably with some
soil I put in there, But the bottom line is
I was dealing with them and because of that, well
there we are. When was the last time you went
out to Katie to Nelson Nursery and Water gardens. You know,

(52:08):
Nelson's is the destination garden center out west of Houston.
They're out there in Katie. You just go out to
Katie Fort Benroad, turn right, go north across the tracks.
Nelson's is right there now. They specialize in water gardens,
I always have for a long time. They're nationally known
for what they do in water gardens. But there is
a weekend special going on today and tomorrow ten percent

(52:31):
off the Danner Pond Master sale. So that would be
things like magnetic drive water pumps for example, and filters
and things like that. If you are if you have
a water garden and you need to, you know, up
upscale your pump a little bit, make sure things are good,
or if you want to put one in. This would
be a good time to run out there.

Speaker 13 (52:51):
Now.

Speaker 5 (52:51):
While you're out there, you're going to find a lot
of things. They've got high quality butterfly coy, beautiful beautiful fish.
I mean butterfly coy, got the shabunkans and other things.
But there is these are these are rare and special
special fish that they have. Uh, it's always fun to
go out there. Today is evening from five to seven.

(53:12):
They're gonna have live music by Mike Gallo out there's
gonna be fun. I think they have music all the time.
When I hear the sound of running water and Nelson Watergardens,
it's like therapy I could do. They should. They should
have chairs and charge you to sit in the chairs
because it would be cheaper than a shrink. I'll tell
you that, and it'll do more good too. Nelson Watergarden
and nurseries loaded with fall color, things like cyclomen, things

(53:34):
like Dianthus. They're ready to go. Uh, You're just gonna
find everything you need. And by the way, their houseplants
selection you have to walk through it when you go
in the door is outstanding, beautiful, beautiful house plants. Here's
a website, Nelson Watergardens dot com. Just go there Nelson
Watergardens dot com. You'll see everything I'm talking about and

(53:56):
a lot lot more love that place. Always loved one
out there. I say this a lot, but I'm saying again,
we are so fortunate here in the Greater Houston area
to have outstanding garden centers. It's time for me to
take a little break, I believe, so I'm gonna quit talking.
I'll be right back.

Speaker 12 (54:16):
Hey, welcome back.

Speaker 5 (54:17):
To guard Line. Glad you are listening to end today.
If you'd like to give me a call, We're here
to help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape.
All you got to do is call seven to one
three two one two k t RH. We glad to
work with you on finding the solution or maybe finding
some ideas. Maybe got an area that you're trying to

(54:38):
figure out what would go well there? We will perform
well for me there. We can help you with that too.
You hear me talk about quality home products a lot
here on guard Line because I really believe in that
company is an outstanding company. It really is. And it's
not just my opinion. It's fourteen thousand and five star reviews.
Actually more than fourteen thousand now five star reviews. It's

(54:59):
a fact that in twenty twenty three last year, Houston
Chronicle best of the best in the home contractor division. YEP.
That is quite a track record there, and you know,
it just goes on and on the kinds of awards
that they win, and it's because the customers recognize how
they're being treated and they like it. If you are interested,

(55:20):
maybe you're a licensed electrician or plumber and you're interested
in a work in working for a company like that,
a company where it is it's a pleasure to work
for and it's rewarding. You know, we're talking about competitive pay.
We're talking about medical, dental, vision coverage or tirement plans,
matching for one K paid holidays and time off, quality
training programs, and they do really train you because they

(55:41):
want to make sure when you go out you represent
them well and the customers are well satisfied. And my goodness,
they excel at that. And then there's good opportunities for
career growth with Quality Home. So if you're a license
electrician or a plumber and you would like to be
part of that. The company they Clean Water Solutions. And
then what I'm always talking about their Generac automatic stand

(56:04):
by generators. All you got to do is go to
Quality t X dot com and apply online Quality TX
dot com and they they are looking for folks. I'm
telling you this. These two storms this year have a
lot of people looking to have generators installed, and for
good reason too. Boy was ever a mess this year
and a quality generator such as a Generac automatic stand

(56:28):
by generator from Quality Home is helping solve those problems
for folks. Our phone number is seven one three two
one two k t r H. Seven one three two
one two k t r H. I was out in
the yard the other day. Uh. Actually it's kind of

(56:50):
a two part story. I was out in the yard
and I have a neighbor that doesn't control their weeds,
and you know, sare yard whatever, but the seeds end
up blowing over were on my side. So I've got
this little strip that every year I go out in
the fall and do this pull fall asters up out
of my lawn. Fall astra is a little tiny flower,

(57:10):
dime sized, looks white, but it kind of has a
lavender hue to it, lavender pinkishue to it. And those
suckers they crawl around under the grass. You don't really
notice them or see them. If your grass gets weak,
the astra shows up because it's a dark blue green color,
and your lawn could dye a drought, and the astra
stays alive. It is a tough ombra, and they when

(57:31):
you mow, they just go sideways and stay in in
in there. And then at this time of the year
they've been blooming for a few weeks now they send
out these low, tiny blooms, and that is your warning
to do something about it. And here here's why you
can't spray them with a post emergent herbicide. Now it
won't work. When weeds become we say reproductive, meaning they're

(57:54):
blooming and setting seeds, it's a little late to have
success with a post emergent herbicide. Those are for use
when the weeds are young and growing. That's when they
work best. Well fall aster, when it sets a seed,
I nerd it out. One year. I decide I'm going
to figure out what's going on here. And I opened
up a seed, a bloom that it faded and had

(58:16):
seeds in it. Fifty seeds in that bloom. And I
looked and this plant was biggest steirm al on my car.
It had probably one hundred blooms on it. And so
you do fifty times one hundred, and that's five thousand.
So let me ask you a question, would you rather
what are your lone to soften the soil and go
out there with one of these real cool kneeling benches

(58:37):
like they have it Southwest fertilizer and pull one weed
up if they're tap rooted, just wiggle it out of
the soil and take five thousand seeds in your hand
and put them in a five gallon bucket to go
throw in the trash, or would you rather do with
five thousand plants next year? That's the trade off. And
so get out there if they're blooming, get going, because

(58:59):
once they fin blooming and they set seed. Now when
you're dragging him out through the yard, they're dropping seeds everywhere,
so you're losing some of the effectiveness of the hand pulling.
But I'm telling you that is the thing to do
at this time of year, to get ahead of them.
And I took some pictures. I may post these to
social media. There was a guy in the front yard.
I stopped and talked to him, got his permission. There

(59:20):
were piles of these. He had gone through. The whole
front yard must have been just filled with this weed,
because there were a little two foot high piles everywhere
in the yard that he had just piled up, maybe
a foot eye all over. As he was pulling up
and he's going to gather him up and get him
out of there, I just said, man, way to go.
I know that's work, but you cannot imagine how much
good you're doing right now, get out there and doing that.

(59:42):
So anyway, that was my public service announcement for the day.
Get those things out of your lawn. We're going to
go to talk to Rick. Now, Hey, Rick, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 13 (59:53):
Thank you, Sip, good to talk to you. I'm wondering
what is the better time to a small fig tree
that will go to purchase at the nursery. Is it
now or should have wait till February?

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
You know you can go either way, figs or semi
cold tender. So were we unknowingly? Now, let's say we're
going to have this really bad freeze in January, it
would have been nice to have it in container where
you can bring it in. In general, there's not a
problem putting a fig in the ground. Now. With figs
et ceters, I kind of like to hedge my bet sometimes.
So that's your call. If you do plan it, just

(01:00:30):
be ready to cover it up with a ton of
compost and malts for those freezing nights and then pull
all that stuff back away and you should be okay.

Speaker 13 (01:00:37):
All right, thank you so much, sir.

Speaker 5 (01:00:41):
Thank you appreciate the call.

Speaker 13 (01:00:42):
Rick.

Speaker 5 (01:00:42):
You take care all right, folks, We're going to take
a little quick break here for the news. I'll be
right back. Welcome back to guard Line. Good to have
you with us today. Hey, we've got things to visit
with you about. And I wanted to start off just
by talking again about the importance of microbes in the soil.
Microbes they rule the world, and I mean that. I

(01:01:03):
mean I spend a whole show droning on about everything
microbes do for us. They are the number one producer
of serotonin in our bodies, or the microbes in our intestine,
serotonins that feel good chemical So right there. Good for microbes.
Without microbes, who wouldn't have beer. Good for microbes. Without microbes,
our plants would not be able to thrive. Because microbes

(01:01:24):
work with the roots of the plant. They protect the
root from disease. They feed the root by breaking down
organic matter in the soil and releasing it. They also
communicate with the root in ways that caused the plant
to grow better or more disease resistant. That's why Microlife
has micro grow bioinoculant. Now it's fall fertilizing season and

(01:01:48):
you should do that. You can use Microlife's brown patch
for that. It's very good for that. But you need
to put out the micro Grow bioinoculant, and anytime you
are doing any kind of planting, sprinkle a little bit
in there when you do it. But on the lawn
you just spread it out according to the label. It
doesn't take much like five to ten pounds per thousand
square feet. We're not fertilizing here, we're inoculating. We are

(01:02:13):
getting the microbes out there because the sixty three different
strains in micro grow by aoculant do a lot of
good things. I've talked about that before in the air here,
but just keeping right off, you ought to have a
bag of that on hand pretty much all the time
because whether you're planting vegetables or flowers, or doing even
a container garden, especially maybe in a container garden, that

(01:02:35):
that would be a chance to inoculate that soil with
some additional, great beneficial microbes to help your plants to thrive.
Let's set out to southwest Houston. Now we're going to
talk to Laurel. Laurel, welcome to Gardenline.

Speaker 18 (01:02:50):
Good morning, sir. I wanted to I hope you can
answer a question for me because it's kind of dry.
I have some wondering juice, And my question was, could
I just spray like a gallon of water or should
I just do a watering can? What? What is your recommendation, sir? Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:03:13):
The goal in watering any plant, including your wandering jew
is to wet the soil with a good soaking. So
if you uh, maybe a gallon in uh like a
foot out in all directions from the plant, kind of
a circle, if you could soak it all into that area,

(01:03:34):
that would be that would be good. Uh. The key
is how wet how deep does the soil get moistened?

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
And so when you water, uh, it's good. It's educational
to go out and water and think, okay, I've got
I've watered enough, and then wait, just wait a little
bit and go back with a trowel and dig down
and see how deep that is wet. Oftentimes you'll find
you've only wet the soil and an inch deep and you
thought you gave it a good soaking. So it's not
like put a.

Speaker 18 (01:03:59):
Gallon on them or go yes, is that what you're saying?

Speaker 5 (01:04:03):
Yeah, you can do that when I when I water lawned,
I tell people all the time, when you water a lawn,
just get a good long handled screwdriver, and after you've
watered and it's soaked in for about an hour, push
that screwdriver in the ground. And wherever the soil is wet,
the screwdriver will go like through through wet butter or
soft butter. And when you hit concrete that means it's
not wet there. And you can see, did I wet

(01:04:26):
it three inches deep? Four inches deep, six inches deep?
And you want to give a good soaking, you'd like
to wet that soil at least four inches deep. For
those wandering.

Speaker 18 (01:04:34):
Jews, well, thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:04:35):
You don't have the water often. If you do that,
you bet you don't have to do it often if
you do it right. Don't do that just a little
shallow sprinkling three times a week, I'm sure you will.
That's a tough plant. So it's it's doing what it
can to help you. Thanks Laurel. That is the case. Yeah.
For your long watering. If you don't know how long

(01:04:57):
the water, well, uh, there's two ways if you're watering along.
Two ways to know. Number one is you want to
water until you've applied an inch of water, and it
may you have the water a little bit. Let it
soak a little bit, come back and water a little
bit more so you don't have runoff, because putting an
inch on it one time often you end up with
the runoff. That's one an inch of water. Number two,

(01:05:19):
after you water, go out, stick as straight a little
flathead screwdriver or whatever straight down in the soil, and
it'll go through wet soil easily, and it'll be like
you hit a concrete sidewalk underneath the surface when you
hit that dry zone. And then you just pull it
out and you know exactly how deep you wet it.
Two little quick tips there that hopefully will get you

(01:05:41):
off to a good start. Let's see here. I wanted
to tell you a couple of things. You know, I
talk about Arbigate all the time because it's one of
my favorite garden centers. Arbrogate always has the best outstanding
collection of plants and ling for the landscape and everything

(01:06:01):
else like that that you're going to find. I mean,
they just do. They specialize in that. They just got
a bunch of their bulbs in from heirloom Southern Bulb
Company excuse me, the Southern Bulb Company. Chris Weisinger. He
produces these Texas bulbs found in Texas lawns and landscapes
and all over the place. Chris Is collected them and

(01:06:21):
it's his company now and Arburgate carries those. And so
you're going to find outstanding bulbs that repeat here. And
that's important. You know, you can plant a tulip and
it pops up, you get a bloom that dies and
you're done. It's called a one shot wonder. Or you
can plant bulbs that live in abandoned homesteads in Texas
year after year after year. That's called an investment. And

(01:06:44):
Arburgate's got those from there. Arbigate has their you know,
brown stuff before green stuff. They have their package of
products to make the brown stuff right. The soil right,
it's a food, organic food complete food feeds anything with roots.
It's a soil for an application that includes expanded shale
because expanded shale lasts even longer than compost and improving soils.

(01:07:07):
And then finally organic compost complete, which also has expanded
hill in it too. So when you take those three
home and then you get those beautiful plants that Arburgate
has and bring them home, you're set up for success.
And if you have any issues any questions, you can
always go back because Arburgate, Bevern and Kennon and the
whole group there, they are experts at advising you for success.

(01:07:30):
That's why people love to go back there. You can
go to Arbrogate dot com the website and earn more.
They're just west of Tumbull on twenty nine twenty twenty
nine to twenty And if you've never been to Arburgate,
crawl out from under the rock you've been living under
because it's the place everybody loves to go and for
good reason. I'm going to head out now to Mike

(01:07:51):
and Brenham. Hey, Mike, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 19 (01:07:54):
Yes, sir morning, I have some peach trees that are
having a hard time.

Speaker 10 (01:08:01):
Early in the spring.

Speaker 19 (01:08:02):
In the summer, they got lots and lots of rain,
but for some reason, whenever I seem to put my
sprinkler water on them, they struggle.

Speaker 10 (01:08:12):
Okay, any suggestions, huh.

Speaker 5 (01:08:16):
Well, peach trees like a good deep soaking, so when
you water, you got water enough for them to do good.
They've got extensive root system and and any plant prefers
rain water over our drinking water, they just do. But
a good soaking with water should keep them going. Peach

(01:08:37):
orchards are irrigated all the time, and I would, you know,
I would say maybe not enough water was going on them.
And that's me not being there and but just guessing.
But it takes a considerable amount of water. One time
out in west central Texas, Texas, A and M has

(01:08:58):
a research center and they have these giant underground pots.
Imagine a pot that is so big that it holds
a mature sized peach tree, but it's underground. It's got
a scale under it, you know, like those scales you
drive across and it weighs the truck and then you
drive on. And so they could monitor hour by hour
how much water was evaporating from that tree and from

(01:09:18):
the soil. And they found that a mature peach tree
pumps forty five gallons of water a day out of
the ground. That's a lot of WAE I see in
the summer. And so now if it has less, it
stays alive, but it starts to shut down. It doesn't
set buds well, it doesn't produce well, it doesn't fill

(01:09:39):
the fruit well. And so my point in making that
little story is just to say you need to give
them a good soaking every week, a good deep soaking
for them to do well in the summertime. Now, when
the leaves are falling off here soon, not really much
to worry about. I mean it just adequately moist soil,
which doesn't take a lot of watering to maintain them.

Speaker 19 (01:10:01):
When would you expect the leaves to start falling off.
I've had some leaves fall off, yeah, quite a bit.

Speaker 5 (01:10:10):
Well, I've seen Yeah, I've seen a lot of peaches
around the area, driving around where the leaves are coming
off because of the stress. You know, we got to
the end of the season and people kind of let
up and we're still having ninety plus degree temperatures with
no rain, and a lot of peaches are dropping leaves
because of that stress. Normally it needs to cool off

(01:10:31):
a little bit. The shortening days and the cooling temperatures
cause these trees to decide it's time to cast off
the leaves and go into winter. So we're on the
verge of that season. If the tree was perfectly happy,
it probably wouldn't be dropping leaves. Just quite yet, not.

Speaker 20 (01:10:46):
That many at least I see.

Speaker 19 (01:10:49):
I see so predominantly we think moisture and maybe they'll
get better.

Speaker 5 (01:10:56):
Oh yeah, just give adequate moisture. And when we get
back in the next summer, that's when we need to
kick into watering them.

Speaker 11 (01:11:05):
I see, I see.

Speaker 19 (01:11:06):
And then one other question. I'm wanting to plan some
bash and party pink crave myrtles around my house. When's
a good time for that?

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
Fall is the best time? Now, all the way through
November is great. I mean, you can plant in winter,
you can plat and spring, you can plant in summer,
but the best time is as soon as you can
get them in there because it gives them the most
time to establish roots before next summer puts a strain
on those plants which won't have a fully established root
system yet.

Speaker 21 (01:11:39):
Thanks allent, okay, all right, thank you three time, sir.

Speaker 5 (01:11:42):
Thanks a lot you've met. Thank you, Mike, appreciate that call.
Got to run to a break here, folks, Bridget When
we come back, you'll be our first up. Hey, welcome back.
Good to have you on Guardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter.

(01:12:03):
And what are we talking about? Well, you tell me.
This is a call in show for you to discuss
the things that are of interest to you, things you
want to know to help you have a beautiful lawn,
a bountiful landscape. You can give me a call at
seven one three two one two K t R H
if you like. You know, I'm a broken record on
the soil. The soil, the soil, how important that is.

(01:12:25):
We get excited about plants kind of I get excited
about soil. I mean I'd run out there to compost polemate,
compost angels in the ground, lay on my back and
wiggle my arms around. But a lot of people don't
get that excited about the soil. But you should. And
landscapers pride. They have got a wide variety, a number
of a couple dozen plus products that will help you

(01:12:46):
have success in your soil. One of them is called
healthy Soil compost. It's made from one hundred percent locally
sourced grain material materials that they have decompost ground down,
decomposed down into what's called healthy soil, very high quality.
And then they have a mushroom compost. These are created
from clean local mushroom substrate. Now we've got places that

(01:13:08):
grow mushrooms and they grow them on a substrate, meaning
a organic material that the mushrooms grow on. And then
when they're done with that that substrate goes out the door,
but it is good stuff. I remember back, oh my gosh,
decades ago, I was in Conroe, Texas, Montgomery County. We
put in a whole new garden with mushroom composts and

(01:13:30):
you could not believe. I wish I could show you
the pictures of the difference between where there was mushroom
composts and whether it was it was night and day.
Landscapers Prides got a quality mushroom compost too. Go to
Landscaperspride dot com find out where to get it. It's
widely available. You can find out. There's social links too,
you need to follow them on social media, but that
store locator and the product details are all there at

(01:13:52):
Landscaper's Pride dot com. As they like to say, let's
grow together with these quality products from Landscaper's Pride. I'm
gonna head out to Spring, Texas now and we're going
to talk to Bridget. Hello, Bridget, Welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 20 (01:14:06):
Good morning.

Speaker 22 (01:14:08):
I have a two questions. I could have questions, but
I'll just stick to two. I water trees at my
mother in law's house. They're the magnolia trees. And after
last year, I thought she was gonna lose one of them,
so I started slow deep water to keep them going.
And I'm doing the same thing again this year. I
noticed one of them has broken bark and it looks

(01:14:29):
like it's healed or healing. But I'm just wondering, is
that something I need to worry about bugs getting into.

Speaker 7 (01:14:37):
Or just leave it alone?

Speaker 5 (01:14:40):
And yeah, no, you don't. You don't need to worry.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Okay, I just was a little.

Speaker 5 (01:14:49):
I'm sorry. We've got a little delay going on here,
so we ended up talking over each other. I don't
know if you have the radio going in the background,
but that throws people off too. Now that the magnolia,
if it's healing over, that's good. So you did the
right thing last year, killed bagnolia trees, and by watering them,
you did the right thing. As it gets vigor, as
it gets health, it'll close that wound back over by

(01:15:11):
putting callous around the sides of it.

Speaker 22 (01:15:15):
Okay, it looks like it's doing that. I'm just I
keep saying, you've got to water these things, so I
just start doing it myself. The other question is, as
my son bought a house or acquired a house and
it had those two token oak trees planted in the subdivision,
and in between there were Amarilla's bulbs, a whole lot

(01:15:35):
of them that are growing in between these two oaks.
There's nothing there. Now they've died back. I know they're
going to start coming back. Does he need to do
anything as far as fertilization. I know they were blooming
in February.

Speaker 5 (01:15:49):
We're talking about the bulbs, right, fertilizing the bulbs.

Speaker 7 (01:15:52):
Correct.

Speaker 22 (01:15:52):
I'm on a cell phone, so that might be the
reason for the delay.

Speaker 5 (01:15:58):
Okay, No, you don't need to wear about fertilizing those bulbs.
They'll do just fine with whatever's out there for supplying
the other plants. They'll do fine.

Speaker 22 (01:16:07):
All right, Well that's my questions. Thank you very much,
have a great day.

Speaker 20 (01:16:10):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:16:11):
Well, thank you, thank you for the call. Appreciate that
very much. Good luck with that. Yeah, that is the case.
If you you know, as dry as it's gotten, here
goes our soul moving again. When it gets wet, the
clay swells. When it gets dry, the clay shrinks. And
fix my slab foundation repair. They're all about that. They

(01:16:32):
understand that Ty Strickland's been doing this for twenty three years.
He knows what he's doing. Free estimates for garden line listeners,
by the way, So give him a call. If you've
got sticky doors, if you got cracks in the brick
or cracks in the sheet rock inside, or maybe the
sidewalks heaving or the driveway, give Tie a call, have
him come out, free estimate, tell them your guardenline listener.

(01:16:53):
And the thing I like about Tye well a lot
of things, but Ties a Native Estonians, fifth generation tech here.
But his his goal is to do to be on time,
and he is to fix it right, and he does,
and to price it fairly and he does. You can
call two eight one two five five forty nine forty

(01:17:13):
nine two eight one two FI five forty nine forty nine,
or go to fixmslab dot com. Don't delay, don't be
an Ostrich. Doesn't help stick your head in the sand
on this one. Have him come. Look, he will not
try to sell you something you don't need. I talked
to him one time recently about a situation and after
we described it and talk through it and everything, he goes,
you know what, no need to go in and do

(01:17:34):
major work on that. Yet it's okay. And that's how
Tie is. He's honest, he's direct, and he knows what
he's doing. Fixmslab dot com. We're gonna go now, let's
see here. Oh, I'm running out of time trying to
get you to get to you, Tom and Dickinson. You'll
be our first up when we come back if you
can hang around that long. I appreciate the rest of

(01:17:55):
you being gardenline listeners and we our goal is to
help you have success. Don't forget. I'm going to be
at RCW Nursery today. I'll be there from twelve to
two and we're giving away over twenty different things. And
I don't mean just little things. I mean, for example,
nitrofoss three step program. There's three steps, barricade, fall fertilizer,

(01:18:16):
Eagle tour funder side. There're only two or three bags
at each of those. And then a fifteen gallon San
Philippe and maple tree awesome variety, fifteen gallon red buds,
two different sizes of camellias. We're going to play flat
off color plants. It just goes on and on and on.
Some really cool metal yard Ard pumpkins for decorating your place.

(01:18:38):
A really cool They have these fun fashion tumblers that
have funny sayings on them. I love those as well.
I'll be out there answering your questions, bring me pictures,
bring me samples, let's talk, let's get our picture made.
They've got some fun stuff going on out there. For example,
you can expect a barbecue lunch. There's some I don't
need the prizes I mentioned, games for the kids and whatnot.

(01:18:59):
All at Rcday that's the nursery. There're two forty nine
combo Parkway comes in, don't lay out, Come on out
twelve o'clock today. I'll be there. Will you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
Welcome to Katie R. H Garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (01:19:13):
It's shoes crazy here.

Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
Gas Shrip just watch him as well by us many
thanks to sup Bot basics like gas Baby, can you
dabbles bad?

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
Not a sad glassy said gas.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
The sun beamons of a tweets gas.

Speaker 10 (01:19:52):
Starting.

Speaker 5 (01:19:54):
Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to guard Line. Good to
have you with us. We got lots of stuff to
be talking about right now, and I want to get
right on into it. Before I do that, I did
want to mention to you that Nature's Way Resources still

(01:20:14):
has their Fungal Friday cell going on This is a
good deal. On Fridays, you can save twenty percent off
their fungal compost. Now that's a high quality product. You know,
everything they make it Nature's Way is high quality. It's
the place where rose soil was born. It is the
place where the leaf mold compost that we talk about
all the time was born. And this fungal compost, fungal

(01:20:36):
compost is good for use in the soil for sure.
It's also good as a top dressing on your lawn.
Screen down really nicely where you can spread it over
the lawn, rake it in after. If you do a aeration,
it's even better. But anywhere you put the fungal compost,
you're going to see the benefits because it's nature's own
slow release fertilizer. It's nature's own mult it's a nature's

(01:20:58):
own organic materials, the steamulm, it's microbial activity and therefore
helps plants. That's how it works. Nature's Way Resources is
located up there on Interstate forty five. You just where
fourteen eighty eight comes in for Magnolia. You just turn
right and cross over the railroad tracks. It's right there
on Surebook Circle. I can't even say the word easy

(01:21:20):
to get to. You can buy it by bulk, you
can have them deliver it. You can find bags around
town of all their products. They've got composts and swells
and mulches and everything you need. As I say here
on Guardline, the brown stuff that makes the green stuff thrive.
Nature's way resources. We're gonna go now to the phones
out to Dickinson and talk to Tom. Hello, Tom, Welcome

(01:21:41):
to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:21:43):
Hey Skip, good morning.

Speaker 11 (01:21:45):
A couple weeks ago you were giving some advice about
dealing with ants, not mound treatment, but more of a
global approach.

Speaker 5 (01:21:53):
What was that product, right, Well, there are several There
are a number of brands of bait fire ant bait,
but the things like oh gosh, andro is one brand
extinguishes another brand. There's a bunch of brands. Basically, what
they are is there a bait substance like cornmeal based

(01:22:17):
or soy oil based kind of bait, and then they
infuse a very slow acting ant growth regulator or insecticide
into it, but that it's small enough that the ants
pick the bait up and carry it all the way
back to the colony it doesn't kill them, and then
everybody starts to feed on it, and it makes some
of them make the queen where she can't reproduce young.

(01:22:39):
Some of them just killed more slowly, but they work
really well. Yeah, and you're right about that. Not doing
the mound treatments are fine. But if all you do
is mound treatments, you're playing whack them all with ants
because there's mounds you can't see that I haven't come
to the surface yet. That then you'll be treated.

Speaker 13 (01:22:54):
Yeah, I'm starting to see a lot of scouts.

Speaker 12 (01:22:56):
I've been working back in the backyard quite a bit
and I've seen a lot of scouts moving around.

Speaker 5 (01:23:00):
So I thought, now it's the time. Yep, they're very
active right now. I've got I said earlier today, I
had some that just popped up in a container that
I have, And so yeah, follow is an excellent time
to do it. And you're correct a starting with the baits,
because even the invisible mounds have workers that will go
out and get the bait and bring it back.

Speaker 12 (01:23:22):
And there the instructions are all in the packaging.

Speaker 13 (01:23:25):
Just follow what they say.

Speaker 5 (01:23:27):
Yes, and there's a good everybody is tempted to want
to dump the bait on the mound. Don't do that.
Just put it everywhere if you can, and you're putting
a super low amount out like andro for examples, like
a pound per acre. So I mean, it's just like
a granule here, a granule there. You think I'm not
doing any good, you are. It works. The stuff is.

(01:23:49):
It's one of the most environmentally safe ways to control
fire ants is by taking a bait approach to it.
There's even an organic when if you want that called
come and get it that. You can find a lot
of places too. No problem, Thank you so much. Good
luck with those you bet appreciate your call. Fire Ants

(01:24:10):
in the fall, boy, are they ever a problem? They
spoil the show. If you have been out to Warren's
Garden Center in Kingwood, both Warren's Southern Gardens is on
It's on North Park Drive in Kingwood, Kingwood Garden Centers
on Stone Hollow Drive out there. Both are open seven
days a week. They are still having their pansies party.

(01:24:31):
What does that mean. I means you go into Warrens,
you grab an eighteen count flat of four inch pots
pansies twenty five bucks twenty four nine actually now through
November third, so grab some of the fertilizer while you're
out there for pansies. They've got that stuff to keep
the blooms coming, because when these pansies are planted, they

(01:24:53):
can bloom all winter for you. They're very hearty, but
you need to continue to encourage them because the soil
is cooler, the release of nitrogen from the by the
microbes is a little slower in the winter, so you
keep that fertilizer coming, which causes the penzies to grow.
When you get growth and leaf growth, you get more blooms.
And a lot of people plant these things and then

(01:25:14):
they just walk off and forget them. Fertilize them, give
them a boost, and you'll get a lot better blooms too.
So go out there, go to Warrens, grab a flat
eighteen four inch pots of pansies twenty five bucks now
through the third. They also have some specials on bed
mixes of various types. They've got rye grass for those
of you who want to overseed in the winter time.

(01:25:36):
They've got some rye grass out there at Warrens that
you can use to do that. Amarillis bulbs. It's fall,
it's time for that and they've got it lots of fall, veggies,
lots of mums. Of course, when you're out there, just
to join their newsletter. It don't costing thing to join.
You get special coupons. You'll get author offers. They have
something called a monthly lawn care coupons that they put

(01:25:57):
out through the newsletter. It's fun. You can go to
the website and do it. You go while you're in
the store and they'll hope sign you up, or you
can just give them a call and they'll get you
signed up for the newsletter. For the Warren's newsletter, really
worth going to. But right now you just need to
go out and see the place. Looks awesome, very very
nice out there. You were listening to guarden Line. The

(01:26:18):
phone number is nine excuse me, seven to one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. Makes it easy
to give us a call. How can we help you
to have a beautiful lawn, to help you have a
bountiful landscape. I'm getting a spot on the side of

(01:26:39):
my house ready for some fruit trees this fall. I'm
going to be planning fruit trees and I just I've
got most of the things done. I got one water leak.
I'm trying to get finished fixed, and I'll have some
nice things. I got some of the lego beds, metal
beds that are going in. They're just about a foot
high because that spot is poorly drained, I mean really

(01:26:59):
poorly drained. And fruit trees like good drainage. So if
you're gonna plant a fruit tree and you got a
spot that doesn't drain well, you need to fix that first.
Either either fix the drainage with subsurface drainage French what
they call French drains, re route the water that's coming
off the roof to make it wet there whatever, or
in my case, I'm just bringing the bed up about

(01:27:21):
a foot and it's a nice large bed. They're gonna
grow in that and do well. And I you know,
I didn't know how bad that area was until when
we first moved in a couple of years ago. Several
years ago. I U there was a fig tree there
and it was a fig with open eye. Those are
the eyes with the holes in the end on the
fig and they get soured and I don't like that kind,

(01:27:44):
so I was gonna get rid of it. I got
another fig tree putting in when I dug it up,
and I'm not kidding you. This fig tree was probably
a feet tall and at least that wide. When I
dug it up, the root system was five inches deep
and it was like a pancake. It went in the
ground and it went totally horizontal, and I dug it,

(01:28:06):
I dug it up, I turned it over. I kept
digging and looking, and that bugger not an inch deeper
than five inches. It was going sideways because the soil
was heavy clay that was poorly drained. And that's when
I realized, if I'm going to do an orchard here,
I can't have this treat. Peach trees will not put

(01:28:27):
up with what a fig tree put up with there.
And so I'm working on that. And so if you're
thinking about planning for this winter time, I would encourage
you to check the drainage. And if you don't know
how to check the drainage, if you're not sure, get
something like a post hole digger or something just to
dig straight down.

Speaker 7 (01:28:43):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (01:28:43):
I would dig about eighteen inches twenty four inches deep
with it, and then get you a water hose and
fill it with water. Now do this when the soil
is moderately moist. I mean, if the soil is totally dry,
it's going to soak up all that water because the
soil is dry. But let's get the soul moist first
with a good soaking, and then fill that thing with
water and see how long it takes to drain It

(01:29:04):
ought to drain out in eight hours. It needs to
drain out by twelve hours, and the minimum is twenty
four hours. If two days forty eight hours later there's
still water standing, that's a drainage problem and you need
to do one of the things I just talked about
to fix that in order to have success. I'm all
run take a quick break here. When we come back,

(01:29:26):
Ryan and Laporte, you'll be the first step. Hey, you
are listening to Guardline and we're here to help you
have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape. That is
our goal. And one of the steps in that is
a quality nutrient blend in your soil for plants to thrive.
And I want to tell you about a couple of
products that I use in my gardens. One of them

(01:29:46):
they're both from Nelson Plant Food. One of them is
called Nutristar Genesis. Think of that as the transplanting solution.
It's got microbes in a microriza, the fungi that live
with plant roots and help them. They've got bacteria and
all kinds of soil microbiome content in it. You mix
it into the soil and then plant your plant. So
if you're bumping it up from one container to another,

(01:30:08):
mix it into the soil in the new container. If
you are just transplanting from a container into the ground,
mix it into the soil in the ground. Nutristar Genesis works.
Another nutristar product from Miln Plant Food is Vegetable Garden
Nutristar vegetable Garden. I use this in my vegetable garden.
It's got a wide array of nutrients. You can use

(01:30:29):
it monthly for a release of nutrients that will increase
not only the growth and quality of the plants, but
of course the produce that you get from it. Five
different sources of nitrogen in nutristar vegetable garden for a
nice even release that results in the kind of performance
you're looking for. I use it in my raised bag gardens.

(01:30:51):
You can use it in containers as well. If you're
growing a garden container, you can use it. It says
vegetable garden, but you can put in a flower bed
if you want and it'll also perform well there. I
like to use mine out where I'm growing the food
in the vegetable garden. All quality products from Nelson Plant Food.
We're going to go now to Laport, Texas and talk
to Ryan. Hello, Ryan, welcome to garden Mine. Hey, how

(01:31:14):
are you doing skip, I'm well, sir, Thank you. Hey, Yes,
I'm doing great. Yeah. We had an above ground pool
and we took it out and I've been putting top
soil in it and I got caught.

Speaker 13 (01:31:30):
Well, my wife taught me put the cat litter in there,
and we'll.

Speaker 10 (01:31:33):
Do about thirty five pounds of cat litter.

Speaker 5 (01:31:39):
On top of it. Is that an issue you're kind
of cutting out there? But I think I heard what
you're asking. Cat litter is basically a clay, uh, and
it just dried and hardened clay. But in time it
will soften if you get it wet.

Speaker 10 (01:31:55):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:31:55):
So you know, having a lot of it is going
to create there's gonna be just a chin clay down
in there. It doesn't mean nothing will grow or whatnot.
I just would you know if you want to mix
some in with soil you're putting in. That's fine, that's
not a problem. But in general, go ahead. I've been
doing about thirty five pounds of cat litter to a

(01:32:16):
forty pound bag of top soil. I wouldn't do that much.
I would cut back on that a little bit. Again,
it's not going to be the end of the world.
But you know, there's a reason why we don't say,
put cat litter in your pots and plants and everything
like that. I mean, it doesn't bring a lot to
the table in terms of plant nutrients and growth performance

(01:32:39):
and whatnot. So there's not a black and white line
in nature where I'd say, you know, use twenty five
but not. You know, there's not that kind of line.
But just just realize that the top soil you're bringing
in is the main benefit, and if you want to
mix a little catletter in it, you can do that,
all right, Thank you, sir, Yes, sir, thanks for the call.
That's a good question. I never had that one for

(01:33:00):
so I wish we had prizes to give away. You'd
win one first, throwing me a new a new curve
on the questions today, Wabird's unlimited is the I was
going to say, it's my favorite store for birds wlies,
the only store that I go to for bird supplies.
Warbird's Unlimited is not only the place where you get

(01:33:21):
super quality feeds and bird feeders and houses and everything.
By the way, winter's coming, we've got a lot of
bird feeding to do coming up here. But they're also
the place where you get advice, you know. I was
talking to someone the other day at Walbirds. They said,
the ruby throated hummingbird migration is winding down, and if
you will keep your feeder up at least two weeks
after you see the last one in your yard, it's

(01:33:43):
not going to keep them from migrating. That thing of
don't leave a feeder up. They won't migrate. No, they
will when they're ready, they migrate, But if they're still
sticking around, they needle more refueling for that journey. They're
trying to fuel up. So leave the feeder out. After
a couple of weeks you don't see one, pull it down.
You can leave one phil through the holidays if you want,
because occasionally we have some rufous hummingbirds that stick around

(01:34:05):
all through the winter until March, and some of them
will head on down to Mexico. Others will kind of
come along the Gulf coast here and say, you know what,
We're not going to make that trip. We're going to
hang out in Houston. We like it here, and so
if you leave a feeder up, you might get lucky
and see a hummingbird through the cool season. As our
days get shorter, nights get longer, that means less hours

(01:34:26):
for birds to feel up. So you want to get
a quality feed like wild birds Unlimited Winter super Blend.
It's packed with fat and protein. So the hours they
are out there feeding, they can get a high quality
feed that'll help them through these winter months. And always
remember keep water out. I was just refilling our water
supplies out in the backyard yesterday. It is dry and

(01:34:49):
it kind of still hot, to be honest, those birds
need water twelve months, every day of the year. They
need water, and so always keep a supply for them
that attracts them as much as good quality feet like
wildberd's feet. Let's go out now, let's see where we are. Okay,
We're going to go to Lake Jackson and talk to Joanne. Hey, Joanne,

(01:35:10):
welcome to garden Line. Hey, good morning, Thank you for
taking my call.

Speaker 23 (01:35:15):
I'm having an issue with something. I think it's called
Dallas grass or Dallas grass that's a weed in my art,
and I'm trying to see what your recommendation is for
getting rid of it.

Speaker 13 (01:35:29):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:35:30):
Dallas grass myself, whenever I've had it in a yard,
I do one or two things. If you don't have
a lot of it, you can actually kind of dig
it up with a spade and fork. You get the
roots and everything out of there as best you can
and just get rid of it that way. If you've
got a lot, you can dab a grass killing herbicide
on it, trying to get it on the Dallas grass,

(01:35:52):
but not so much on the lawn grass, because it'll
call the long grass too. The grass killers will call
the long grass. But if you if you can do that,
that helps. I have on my on my website. On
my website, I have a weed wiper. How to build

(01:36:13):
a weed wiper, and I love using those for weeds
like Dallas grass because you can reach down and squeeze
the herbicide through a sponge onto the weed and it
really really does a good job. It's it's it's it
works well to use a weed wiper to do it.
So that would be one other technique. Now, when you

(01:36:33):
put a premergent herbicide down in the spring following my schedule,
which is a February application, you will prevent seeds from
the Dallas grass from establishing.

Speaker 15 (01:36:45):
Right, what do you recommend?

Speaker 5 (01:36:50):
I would do barricade in the spring. Yeah, I would.
I would put down barricade in the spring. And we're
not talking I've been talking about barricade for winter weeds now,
but I'm talking about way until February to apply for
the Dallas grass. Okay, and if you can get if
you can get that down there, go ahead.

Speaker 20 (01:37:09):
Barricade.

Speaker 13 (01:37:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 23 (01:37:10):
We don't have a whole lot of places down here.

Speaker 6 (01:37:14):
Is it b A R R?

Speaker 5 (01:37:17):
Yeah? Barricade? Huh, just like that. Let's see you are
in you were in Lake Jackson, so that's yeah. Do
you have any Do you have any ace hardware stores
nearby out there?

Speaker 23 (01:37:30):
No, we have a couple of locals I can try there.

Speaker 5 (01:37:34):
Yeah, try that. Don't try try try the barricade if
pardon if they don't have If you can't, no, well,
now would be the dabbing it with a weed killer
or wiping a weed killer on it. It's a perennial weed.
That's why, that's why you got to kill the original weed,
not just prevent the seed, but the seeds will just

(01:37:56):
add more next year if you don't prevent them. If
you can't, you know, I'm just trying to help you
in your area. If if you can't find a barricade,
there's another product called Dimension that is also a pre
emergent weed killer that will work also if you can't
find the barricade. Okay, you for your help, you bet,

(01:38:20):
good luck with that. Appreciate appreciate your call. Let's see here.

Speaker 13 (01:38:23):
We're going to go.

Speaker 5 (01:38:24):
Now, where are we going next? We're going to go
to Bill and Cyprus. Hey, Bill, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 24 (01:38:31):
Good morning, good morning, love your show. I'm taking to
find some sod. I'm out here in the bridgelands, some
Tiffany four nineteen tiff okay for nineteen and a celebration bridge.
Do you know where I can get some of this?

Speaker 5 (01:38:48):
Just you know, I don't know, And you know in
that different areas who all carries that. We got a
number of turf suppliers here in the Greater Houston area.
Tiff four nineteen is an older Bermuda. It's been used
on ball fields. A lot of colleges and high schools
use it on their football fields and things. Even some

(01:39:08):
golf courses have used that celebration is a newer one.
You should be able to find those two locally. See here.
I'm going to look around and see where I can
find it, and if I find something, I'll say it
on the air here before the end of the show today.

Speaker 24 (01:39:26):
Okay, and I'll listen. Another question. It's heavy clay over
here too, So how many inches of soil should I
have on top of that clay so that the roosts
will attach?

Speaker 13 (01:39:40):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:39:40):
Actually, those are growing clay that you know. The turf
producers along the Gulf Coast, many of them are growing
in a clay type soil and clay is not a
problem as long as you get water. And if you
wanted to add a little bit of a better top
soil to the surface, kind of mix it in a

(01:40:01):
little bit and level it all out, you could do that.
You can put several inches down. Just don't don't drop
like a top soil right on top of a clay
where you have that sudden interface, because water will tend
to move through that topsoil, it hits the clay and
it stops, and you have what's called a perched water table.

(01:40:21):
In other words, it's like an underground water table. And
so you'd rather blend those interfaces together. So okay, get
like a pick and just dig some of it up,
uh pick or rototiller or whatever, either way you want
to mix it in. But mainly just get all the
perenni Yeah, get rid of perennial weeds and smooth it

(01:40:43):
off and level it off. That's the main thing you're
going to do there. Hey, I've got a run to
a break here. I will be right back, folks and Bill.
If I can find a source on those, I'll come
back and talk about it. Hey, welcome back to Guardline.
Good to have you with us. We are looking for it,
visiting with you about the questions that you have regarding

(01:41:03):
the products, the plants, the processes procedures that help you
have success. You know, gardening is a fun hobby and
each day we get out in garden, we learn a
little more and we get better at it. We do
we start to learn to see things from a plant's
point of view. That's really what it's all about, you understand,

(01:41:23):
what a plant wants, and you give it that and
you're going to have success. And that's what we try
to do here on guard Line. You know, Southwest Fertilizer.
I was talking Bob the other day. They've been around
since nineteen fifty five. You hear me talk about them
all the time. I just don't know a place that
carries the supplies, in the quantities and the diversity that
Southwest does. When it comes to synthetic fertilizing, organic fertilizing,

(01:41:48):
synthetic weed disease and pest control, organic weed disease and
pest control, Southwest Fertilizer is literally they literally do have
the largest supply of organic products in the entire rede
And if you hear me talk about a fertilizer on Guardline,
a nitrophoss, Nelson, Microlife, Medina, all of those, they've got

(01:42:09):
them all and then some they you know, I always
say they have an eighty foot long wall of tools.
I just found out the other day and now it's not.
Now it's a ninety foot wall of tools. I mean,
they just have everything. You know, the weed wiper I
was talking about earlier, you can build if you go
to my website gardening with skip dot Com. It tells
you how to build your own weed wiper, which comes
in really handy. Just go to the website and read

(01:42:31):
about it. Well, Bob's got the tool that you start with,
the grabber tool with the suction cups that you start
with on it. He's got it there ready to go.
It's just you know when you walk in there, you're
gonna find everything you need. If you drag in there
a plant in a plastic bag or a picture on
your phone or something and you need help with it,

(01:42:52):
and what is this and what can I do? Well,
they know what they're talking about, Bob and his team,
or they are experts at this, and they'll point you
to the product that helps you have success. They got
a great bulk seed counter the shelf, which is just
like all these little drawers of bulk seed, which is
a very economical way to buy seed. They sell seed

(01:43:13):
by the packets as well. But whether it's tools, whether
it's products, whatever you need. It's a Southwest fertilizer been
around since nineteen fifty five. Then it's because they are
a one stop shop. You don't go in there and go, yeah,
we don't have it. You have to drive across town. No,
Southwest Fertilizer has it. If they don't have it, you

(01:43:34):
don't need it. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com. Here's a phone
number seven one three six six ' six seventeen forty four.
We're going to head out now to Victoria and talk
to Tim. Hello, Tim, Welcome to garden line.

Speaker 21 (01:43:49):
Hey, how are you skipped? Just need a little information
on pomegranate. Pomegranate trees. I've got two of them. I've
got a pink satin and a red silk and the girl, well,
I think they're just getting tall and steindily. And what
I have seen online was that you should prune those
back late winter for the new growth to put on fruit.

(01:44:13):
Is that correct or it's okay?

Speaker 5 (01:44:16):
Yeah, that is correct. Uh, well that's up to you.
I mean, depending on the growing conditions they're gonna hit,
whatever height they're going to hit. We don't normally worry
about pruning palm granites a lot, uh, but you know it,
they're a good plan. The biggest challenge you're going to

(01:44:38):
have with palm granite is when we get a lot
of rainy weather and there's fruit on it. There are
some fruit rots that you can have, and I want
to I want to refer you to something that that
gives you a lot more information than I can give you.
Just real quick here on the on a phone call.
If you go to the Aggie Horticulture website, just do

(01:44:58):
a search for Aggie or culture. There is on the
front page there's a fruit, a fruit section, and you know,
you can go to vegetables or fruit or other things.
Go to the fruit and there's a whole publication that's
like six pages long on pomegranates. It goes into the varieties,
how to plan them, how to fertilize them, how to
prune them, we control disease issues, you know, all that

(01:45:21):
kind of stuff. And it's very very good, and I
would suggest you check that out. Okay, all right, because
pruning printings really pruntings basically you know, keeping it a
bush of maybe three three to five trunks coming up
out of the ground and removing the others. You know,
that's kind of and they're going to keep sending suckers up,

(01:45:42):
you know, so you're kind of aiming for three to five.
If one is not doing well, you can get rid
of it and let a new sucker become a main stem.
But that's basically pruning. Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:45:53):
One I have two trunks and it's it's really healthy,
and the other has three trunks. Should I let one
of the okay tuckers go up on the other one
that they've been in the ground about four and a
half years.

Speaker 10 (01:46:03):
So there's you know, getting pretty good size.

Speaker 21 (01:46:05):
So I don't know if that's good.

Speaker 5 (01:46:06):
Yeah, you can at a little bit more. Yeah, it
makes it a little bit bigger bush to do that.
You know, as they grow, some of them will lean
out to kind of get away and get sunlight from
the others. And and so that's what I would do.
I'm ground it difficult, Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 21 (01:46:24):
I would just say my my biggest problem with in
these squirrels, I find out squirrels like to eat pomegranate.

Speaker 5 (01:46:31):
Yeah, but I'm telling you, if you if you are,
if you can get a recipe for squirrels, uh, pomegranate
and pecan fed squirrel is some of the best eating
you can you can enjoy. So all right, I bet
the phone rings now, Yeah, that's I have to I

(01:46:53):
have to joke about it. Yeah, Someone a friend of mine,
san Antonio, a friend of mine, Santonio used to say
we don't have too many deer, we have too few freezers.
But I know a lot of people love deer and
feed them. So all right, sorry about that. We're just
kidding here sort of.

Speaker 21 (01:47:12):
Warri also have an a Warri satsuma tree that needs
probably a pruning. Is there a time to do that?

Speaker 5 (01:47:20):
Wait until spring? You know, satsumas are marginally hardy here.
They're they're yeah, they're among our more hearty citrus. But
if you if you wait until springtime, when we get
past the freezer and frost, if you need to do
some pruning, go ahead and do it. Then you can
do it in small amounts off and on through the season.
But I wouldn't prune them and encourage new growth right

(01:47:42):
before we go into cold weather, because that's not going
to end.

Speaker 21 (01:47:44):
Well, okay, so the the pomegranates do those late winter.

Speaker 5 (01:47:52):
Yeah, late winter is a good time for those us.

Speaker 11 (01:47:55):
Okay, super okay, Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it,
all right, Tim, Good luck with that. Thanks a lot.
Appreciate the call. I'm gonna be at RCW Nurseries today.
Do not forget after the show twelve o'clock. I'll be
there from twelve to two two hours answering your gardening questions.
If you got samples to bring, if you've got pictures

(01:48:16):
to bring.

Speaker 5 (01:48:16):
Bring them on out. And I tell you what I've
never I don't know that I've been to a site
where we gave away so much stuff as we're giving
away today at RCW. We're talking about like bags of
barricade from Nitrofoss part of the three step, bags of
fall special part of the three step from Nitrofoss, bags
of eagle turf fungicide, part of the three step program.

(01:48:40):
We're going to give away some microlife fertilizer. We're gonna
give away a flat of assorted color plants. You know
you don't put some color in your flower beds, and
then shrubs and trees like a three gallon and a
seven gallon camellia, a fifteen gallon red bud that's a
valuable tree, a fifteen gallon San Philipe red maple awesome.
The best red maples you're gonna find and plan is Semphilippe.

(01:49:03):
And boy that somebody gonna win one today. And then
lots and lots of other things, you know, night fussbug
out Max are gonna have some of that to give away.

Speaker 4 (01:49:13):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:49:13):
It just goes on and on. Like I said, we're
gonna be given away right and left out there. While
you're out there, you're gonna get some barbecue.

Speaker 4 (01:49:19):
Uh you.

Speaker 5 (01:49:21):
They have some a little things set up for photo ops.
We used it last year. It's a lot of fun.
I'll take a picture with you if you want. In fact,
if you take a picture of me and print it
out and put it in your pantry, it'll keep the
cockroaches out of the oatmeal. So there's another plus of
coming out today to rc W. I don't know what's
going to come out of my mouth sometimes. All right, well, uh,

(01:49:41):
you are listening to Garden Line. Our phone number is
seven one three two one two k t RH. Give
us a call. I'll be right back after a short break.
Welcome back to guarden Line, folks. Good to have you
with us today. You are listening to a show that
is designed to help you answer your gardening questions and

(01:50:03):
have success. I want you to have a bountiful garden.
I want you to have a beautiful landscape, and that's
what we're here for. You can give us call it
seven one three two on two kt rh. That is
a good way to get a hold of us. In
the meantime, I just want to remind you it is
fall lawn season. Fallow is the most important season in
the lawn. I mean that the most important fertilization of

(01:50:24):
the year is the fall fertilization because not only does
it supply your lawn nutrients to help it be cold hardy,
but it also is a time when those nutrients are
going to go into the plant and be ready to
come out in the spring. That's why the folks at
Nitrofoss have created the three step program. First step is
the fall fertilizer. It's called Fall Special by Nitrofos. It's

(01:50:47):
a winter riser type of fertilizer prepares the plants for winter.
Second step barricade pre emergent prevents the weed seeds that
are about to germinate and I mean any day now
they'll be jar dominating. It prevents them from getting up.
It forms the barricade over the soil surface. They can't
get through it. Second or third Nitroposs Eagle turf fungicide.

(01:51:10):
You put it down, you water it in as you
do the barricade, and it goes into the this one
goes into the plant and it is a disease prevention
that's in size. Like when we take antibiotics, we have
them in our body and then the diseases are fought
by those antibiotics. That is how the ego to our
fungicide works. It prevents the infection for example. So when

(01:51:32):
you go into the lawn with these products and water
them in with about a half inch of water, you've
got the nutrients taken care of the diseases or excuse me, Yeah,
the disease is taken care of like brown patch. And
it also works on take all root rot too, which
infects in the fall. And then finally the barricade to
prevent the weeds. It's one, two three, it's easy to do.

(01:51:55):
D and D Feed has a plantation ace hardware and
Richmond has it. Hiden and Feed and Stuben Airline carry
Nitrofassis Texas three step program and today at RCW Nursery,
I'm going to be given away two or three bags
of each one of those along with a lot of
other things. So coming up to RCW from twelve to
two and maybe a win a bag if you don't.

(01:52:16):
They also carry it there as well. It's time to
get that done. All right, I'm going to head out
to the phones. Oh my, here we go. We're gonna
go to Ken and Katie. Hey, Ken, welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 20 (01:52:31):
Good morning, Thank you for taking my cow. Yes, sir,
I've got I yes, two crate myrtles in my front yard.
And they both look like they've been pulled through a chimney.
And you got all kinds of a black suit or
something on the leaves.

Speaker 7 (01:52:49):
What can I do?

Speaker 10 (01:52:52):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:52:52):
That Blacksit is caused by ninety percent chance. It's caused
by a scale insect. If you look up and down
the trunks and the black suit, you may see some
little tiny white flex in there, and it's called creat
myrtle bark scale and it produces. It sucks the sugary
juice out of the plant, and it secretes it as

(01:53:12):
a substance called honeydew that falls down and the set
grows on that sugary water. So you need to prevent that.
You can use a systemic product that you drench on
the soil. It goes into the plant and then when
the bugs are sucking juices out of the plant, that
product kills the bug because it's in the plumbing of

(01:53:34):
the plant. It's not sprayed on the outside of the plant.
That would be at this point in the season, probably
the best step to take.

Speaker 20 (01:53:43):
And what is it called?

Speaker 5 (01:53:46):
Oh well, it's two ingredients. And I'm going to give
you just the first few letters of them because they're
the only things. They begin with those first few letters.
One is called in mid dough I am id in
mid dough. The second ingredient begins with D I N
O T E F. Dino tap and med oh and

(01:54:08):
dino tap. You don't need both. They do the same thing.
They're insecticide. You mix them in water, you drench them
around the plant, on the soil so the roots pick
them up.

Speaker 20 (01:54:20):
Okay, And right now would be a good time to
do it.

Speaker 5 (01:54:26):
Yes, you could do that now. You may have to
do it again at another time, but that would be
a thing to do now.

Speaker 20 (01:54:33):
All right, that's what I need it.

Speaker 5 (01:54:36):
Okay, all right, good luck with that. Appreciate you bet,
appreciate your call very much. Okay, who's been waiting the
longest here. Let's go to JM and Houston. Hey JM,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (01:54:51):
Thank you, skip and enjoy and enjoy your show very much.

Speaker 5 (01:54:56):
Sure.

Speaker 17 (01:54:56):
I don't know if you were I don't know if
you were called, but she's certainly an email are regarding
dove weed in my yard, and you indicated that I
needed a post service side, which I've had my long
care people put on the yard, but it's dead. But
I was curious to know if I was supposed to

(01:55:17):
pull up the roots that were under the leaf that
are on the ground, or shall I just leave them alone?

Speaker 7 (01:55:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:55:27):
And you know, if you get them up, there's little
seeds that have followed the little tiny flowers dove weed
has that are on there still, and if you got
some of those out, that would help a little bit.
The main thing you got to do now is when
we get into the springtime, a pre emergent to shut
those seeds down before they get going. Uh, doveweed is

(01:55:47):
a little bit slow to Germany, and so the spring
pre emergent applications that are on my schedule for almost
all the other weeds it is, dove weed comes a
little bit later than that. So what I would recommend
that you do is, if you don't have other weed problems,
then go ahead and hold off on your pre emergent application. Typically,

(01:56:12):
I would probably make it in March or April, because
dove weed typically is going to be sprouting when it
really gets warm in May, you know, so that that
would be Yeah, you're delaying it because those those pre
emergents are only going to last you about sixty days,

(01:56:34):
maybe maybe up the ninety days, depending on conditions. And
so when you when you no longer have the effective
pre emergent, you have to repeat it again. Okay, do
I need to.

Speaker 17 (01:56:49):
Put down grass or it's been where the dove weed
has died and where it's bear I.

Speaker 5 (01:56:58):
Need to now wherever sunlight, Yeah, wherever sunlight hits the soil,
nature plants of weed. And so if you if you
let that, if you let that stay there, something's gonna
come up, dove weed, seeds or something else. So putting
sod in those spots is a good idea.

Speaker 25 (01:57:15):
Okay, great sounds good. All right, all right, all right,
thank you sir, appreciate it, you bet? Yeah, yeah, we
got our hands full today, but yes, you're right. All right, folks, Wow,
we are time flies. I don't have enough time to
grab the next call here. Let's see when we come
back from break, Evelyn and Ken and Lawrence. You will

(01:57:38):
be our first ones up as we come back. Just
a reminder that I'm going to be at RCW Nursery
today from twelve to two.

Speaker 5 (01:57:46):
Won't you make time to come on out. We got
some decent weather today, a good time to get out there.
They're having their fall flame. They're gonna have barbecue lunch.
Don't even worry about grabbing lunch. Just come on and
have some barbecue with us. Bring me samples of your plants,
bring me pictures of the landscape. Any kind of questions
that you have. I'll be happy to answer those. While
you're out there. You're going to get a chance to

(01:58:06):
win more stuff than I think I've ever given away
in an appearance. Well over twenty different items including, uh
some shrubs like the camellias, trees like red bud and
San Felipe maple, the three step nitrophosphall products, the barricade,
the fall Special, the Eagle chur funge aside, some cool

(01:58:29):
yard art, freeze clock. Hey, that's going to come on
hand to put the scene. I can just sit a
name on, on on and on. It's gonna be a
fun day. Let's get a picture made too. While we're
doing it. See you in a bit.

Speaker 1 (01:58:42):
Welcome to k r H guarden Line with Skip Rict.

Speaker 2 (01:58:45):
It's just wims Sat Daisy.

Speaker 5 (01:59:05):
See folks, welcome back to garden lines. Glad to have
you with us. We got a lot of ground to
cover here. Man, it just seems like time's flying today.
Have you ever been out to Hoorges Hidden Gardens. They're
down in Alvin, Texas, just south of Houston. They're your
garden center down south. And that really that whole region,
you know. So if you live in Santa Fe or Dickensenter,

(01:59:27):
I'll go Arcadia, Alta Loma, all those communities down there.
This is your backyard garden center. Now, Hoorge has just
gotten in some blueberries. He's got on special and oh
my gosh, the eight different varieties of blueberries are available.
They're at twenty five bucks for a three gallon blueberry
that's ready to go on the ground. These plants are
over three feet tall, and you know, blueberries just really

(01:59:51):
enjoy the climate and weather we have done here. They
just want a high quality water. So you want to
if you got rain water, that's even best, but a
good water on them. You want to put them in
a soil mix that is somewhat acidic and high and
organic matter. Some people use peat moss in the mix,
some sand in the mix. So if you just have
a real heavy clay, you're going to want to mend

(02:00:12):
that soil and create a raised bed to have success
with those blueberries. But they will grow here. I mean
we have blueberry forms in the area now. Jrae has
a lot of other things too. By the way, they're
open in this fall. Their hours are they're closed on Monday,
but Tuesday through Friday nine to three and on the
weekend Saturday and Sunday eight to four. So today and
tomorrow both eight am to four pm. Go out and

(02:00:35):
grab that blueberry. Those blueberries, Remember to get two different
plants so they can cross pollinate. When you do that.
While you're out there, you're going to see a lot
of other trees and shrubs and plants and citrus and
all kinds of things that carries. He also has that
three sixty tree stabilizer, So if you buy a tree
from Joje, also buy one of those three sixty tree stabilizers.

(02:00:56):
They are very very effective on helping stabilize a new
tree until they can get a good root system down.
There in the ground. We're going to head out now
to talk to Evelyn. Hello Evelyn, Hey dad, this.

Speaker 18 (02:01:11):
Is actually Emily, Evelyn's mother.

Speaker 26 (02:01:14):
How are you.

Speaker 5 (02:01:16):
I'm good, I'm good.

Speaker 10 (02:01:19):
Good.

Speaker 18 (02:01:20):
We need to update your taste in music, by the way,
from the nineteen seventies, because you know it's.

Speaker 6 (02:01:25):
A new decade now.

Speaker 5 (02:01:27):
H Only my granddaughter can talk to me that way.
You can't speak to me that way, you lady.

Speaker 10 (02:01:36):
I have two questions for you, and I know you've
got a line, so I'll be fairly quick.

Speaker 18 (02:01:41):
I am driving back home from picking up my chicken.

Speaker 5 (02:01:44):
Coop right now, and I'm wondering if there's any.

Speaker 18 (02:01:46):
Ways that I can use my chickens to enhance my garden.

Speaker 5 (02:01:52):
Well, number one, chickens will run a mile to catch
a grasshopper, and so any kind of pest like that
that they can yet they'll go after. Just remember that
they'll also packet your little seedlings and things, so don't
let them out there when you have, you know, just
have little plant seedlings. They'll pack at them and keep
the fresh manure out because it can carry some of

(02:02:12):
the human disease issues like salmonella and E. Coli and whatnot.
But once the manure has been mixed into the ground
and allowed to decompose. That's another benefit that they can give.

Speaker 8 (02:02:24):
You.

Speaker 18 (02:02:25):
Can I put my Can I put the maneuver inside
my compost?

Speaker 5 (02:02:31):
You can, but you got to compost it well, so
it takes a good hot compost or some time underground
for the thing to be fully broken down so that
it's safe to use.

Speaker 18 (02:02:45):
That makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 15 (02:02:47):
My second question, I'm headed to the nursery today to
pick up some fruit trees, and I know you said
to cut up the roots really good so that they
can branch out.

Speaker 5 (02:02:57):
Do I need to amend the oil or is there
anything else do you suggest.

Speaker 18 (02:03:00):
I do when I put them in the ground.

Speaker 5 (02:03:03):
Yep. The better the soil is, the better they'll do.
When we say cut up, what we're referring to is
is slicing through the outer roots cylinder in three or
four places so that circling roots are severed. And from
that where you sever them, they'll branch out and establish
really really well. If you can put in a good soil,
mix some top soil if the area is not draining well,

(02:03:25):
making sure that it's raised up a little bit where
you plant the fruit trees so that they drain well.
But those are the key things, and probably the most
important thing is keeping the weeds away at least give
them a two feet mulch in all directions. Wider is
even better because the lawnmower in the weed here. Sure
do you tear them up?

Speaker 13 (02:03:45):
For sure?

Speaker 26 (02:03:45):
For sure? All right, well, thank you.

Speaker 13 (02:03:47):
That's very helpful.

Speaker 5 (02:03:50):
All right, thank you, appreciate it. Thanks for the call.

Speaker 20 (02:03:52):
Take care.

Speaker 5 (02:03:53):
We are going to run now. Going to run now
to Rosenberg, Texas and talk to Ken. Hey, Ken, welcome toguardline.

Speaker 13 (02:04:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 11 (02:04:04):
I have read an article in the past about a
fishing worm that's an invasive one from Asia that when
you touch it youris I have some of those in
my garden.

Speaker 5 (02:04:13):
Can I get rid of them?

Speaker 12 (02:04:15):
Or what's the risk of having them there?

Speaker 5 (02:04:20):
There's no way I know to get rid of just
that worm without nuking the soil and killing everything. Yeah.
I don't know a good way to eradicate them. That is,
that is out of my area of expertise. So I
don't know what else to tay on those. It's it's
unfortunate we have those, but I don't think it's practical

(02:04:41):
to try to treat for them. I could be wrong
with some good they're invasive species. Well, I mean, we
had a lot of things that are invasive that end
up doing a good job.

Speaker 27 (02:04:53):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:04:53):
We got the the Asian lady beetle here that's more
voracious in its appetite than our native lady beetles, and
so they are still out there doing good for you
in the garden. But yeah, I don't I'm just not
a native I'm excuse me. I'm not an invasive species
expert when it comes to things like that. I've heard
of what you're talking about. I'm familiar with them. I

(02:05:14):
just I just don't know. Okay, thanks so much, all right,
thanks a lot. Sorry, it couldn't be more help on that, alrighty,
you bet, you bet? If I can get my mouse
here and there we go, all right. I was telling

(02:05:34):
you earlier about the importance of building the soil. And
although it is fertilizing season, uh, there is a kind
of nutrient application that we make at any time of
the year, and that is azamite. Azemite is a micronutrient
or a trace mineral supplement. So when you put that down,
it is going to provide those minerals into the soil

(02:05:55):
bank account that all through the year when a root
needs main these or some other obscure little tiny mineral
that is essential but needed in tiny amounts. Asmite has
provided that for the soil. So Asmite is put out
in small amounts. You know, forty four pound bag is
going to cover up the twelve thousand square feet, so
it goes a long way because you're not dumping a

(02:06:16):
bunch of fertilizer on it. You are supplementing a micro
nutrient into your soil. Very important. Can be done anytime
of the year. You can do it when you fertilize.
Just do it in a separate application from your fertilization
because the particle sizes of various products are different and
therefore they don't spread evenly if you don't if you
try to mix them together. Asmite Texas dot com is

(02:06:39):
a website. You're going to find asmite in a lot
of places.

Speaker 10 (02:06:41):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:06:41):
Ace Hardware has it. Ace Hardware carries asmite forty Ace
Hardware stores around the area. It's easy to find one
near you. And while you're at Ace Hardware, grab that
Nitroposs one two three completely easy system that is the
fall special that is the barricade, and that is the Eagle,
and decide fall specials nutrients. Barricade is to stop weeds,

(02:07:05):
don't let them through the soil, and the eagle is
to shut down diseases when they try to infect your grass.
And ACE Hardware carries that package from Nitrofoss forty plus
ACE Hardware stores in the Greater Houston area. Go to
Acehardware dot com find the store locator to find the
one near you. It's easy that way to get everything
you need for your lawn and your landscape. I'm gonna

(02:07:27):
take a little break here. When we come back, Lawrence
and Humble, you'll be our first stop. Hey, welcome back
to Garden Line. Welcome back. Good to have you. I
was just at break looking over some notes that I
had about various things, and I was noticing that Enchanted

(02:07:49):
Forest Garden Center and Channa Forest Garden Center has their
stock right now of new plants for fall is just outstanding.
I was looking at some pictures of the I was
out there the other by the way, had a real
good time out there. Thanks for everybody that came out.
But they've gotten a whole new shipment now of things
in from the vegetable in the vegetable areas and in

(02:08:10):
the herb areas. Their fall color is just still unbelievable.
And when it comes to trees and shrubs and everything
that you can imagine. You want some dependable perennials like
Salvia's and others that'll come back here after year. That'll
attract butterflies, that'll attract bees, that'll attract hummingbirds, all kinds
of different things. They've got it stocked up there at
Enchanted Forest. You know, in Channa Forest is a garden

(02:08:32):
center that's out there in Richmond Rosenberg, but it's in
the Sugarland direction. So as you go out, you want
to head down FM twenty seven fifty nine. That'll take
you to Enchanted Forest, which is off to the right
as you're heading up fifty nine towards sugar Land. It's
way down off to the right there. It's it is
so beautiful to go to. Every time I go out,
I'm just a mess, amazed. And I was telling Clay

(02:08:55):
that I don't think the place has ever looked better
out there, and it is. It is a load it
up and by people are they loving it. You can
watch people's faces when they drive it. I was like, Wow,
this is cool. I didn't realize will be this cool.
It is so nice. And when I was out there
wandering around looking, I was trying to keep up with
what are these people carrying at various garden centers and things,

(02:09:17):
and it's like, I don't know anything that's not here.
The house points selection look great out there. The gifts
the gift shop is awesome. They carry all the products.
You know that you hear me talk about fertilizers all
the time on guard Line. They've got them there in
chanted forest. While you're out there, and you know how
important it is to make sure you've got the soil
right for your plants to have success. So whether you're

(02:09:38):
needing a holly or a red bud, or a maple,
or an oak or a magnolia or a fruit tree
or a shrub, fallows the time to plant them, and
they got they have them. They've got them there. They're
set up some beautiful little esperanzas, various types that were
really in beautiful bloom when I was out there, and
lots of other things. It's just in chanting forests, the
kind of place you got to go Enchanting is the

(02:10:00):
word it's it's in their name, but it's also a
description of the place you're going to get good advice,
good direction, quality plants and top not shape and a
breadth of selection that is just amazing. In Jenny Forest
Garden Center. I'm going to head out now to Humbol, Texas,

(02:10:20):
and we're going to talk to Lawrence. Hello, Lawrence, Welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (02:10:25):
Hi good Born, and thanks taking a call. Yes, sir,
don't know if you see my email there.

Speaker 5 (02:10:34):
Throat. Oh you had the house, Yeah, you had the
house plants with the leaves, right, yeah, yeah, I did.
I saw that. That is very strange that that look.
My first thought was that maybe a sunburn, and then
it didn't quite look like sunburn. It Overwatering can cause
problems because the roots can't get oxygen, and so can

(02:10:56):
root rots, and when the root dies you start to
see problems on the top. But as I look closer
at it, it almost looks like a bacterial infection has
gotten into those leaves, because from one point everything out
from there is just collapsing and turning to mush, and
so once it's doing that, there's no bringing it back

(02:11:16):
to life. So I would cut that leaf off, and
I realized that's going to mean doing a lot of
pruning on those plants. But cut it off and get
it out of there. Those kind of bacteria can splash around,
or as you're handling the plant and moving your hands around,
you can spread them around that way too. Just to
be extra careful, Laurence would I would make my pruning
cuts with snippers, and then I would spray those snippers

(02:11:39):
with lysol between cuts. That way, if you do have
some bacteria that you're getting when you cut through the branch,
you'll kill it before you go cut another branch, and
you can avoid That's true any kind of pruning where
you're worried about cankers and diseases and things. Is sterilize
those printers between cuts and life is the simplest, easiest

(02:12:01):
way I know to do it. I mean, there's lots
of other ways to do it, but I like to
use it because it's tandy, real easy to do.

Speaker 13 (02:12:08):
Is there anything else that put on the soil of
the leaves.

Speaker 5 (02:12:11):
Or anything like that, not really, You know, the bacteria
itself appears to be interior in the plumbing of that plant.
At some point we can use copper type sprays on
plants to stop bacteria from landing on the surface and infecting,

(02:12:32):
but it leaves your plants looking blue, and for a houseplant,
there's just not a practical way to do that. I
would not recommend it, and some plants are sensitive to copper.
So with the eight hundred thousand types of houseplants we
now have around, I just don't know which ones are
safe and not, so I would use the sanitation if
were you check the soil, make sure it's not soggy, wet,

(02:12:54):
make sure the pot the drain holes are not plugged,
keep it moist but not soggy, and then do the
sanitary pruning. I think it's your best bet. Get them
in as much light as you can so that they
have the best chance of building the energy to recoup
and recover and put new growth out. That's kind of

(02:13:14):
the whole nine yards on and trying to bring that
plant around.

Speaker 13 (02:13:19):
Okay, I appreciate you, all.

Speaker 5 (02:13:23):
Right, thank you, appreciate the call. Take care. Beautiful plant,
by the way, beautiful beautiful plant. You know, when I
went through and got my horticulture degree, I think you
could write on a postage stamp the amount of stuff
I learned about house plants. I'm serious. Of course, I
was in pomology, focusing on fruit, but also we learned

(02:13:43):
a lot about ornamentals and everything else. But I tell you, houseplants.
When COVID hit suddenly, it's like I had to learn
the names the new houseplants I didn't even know existed,
and people start going crazy over those things. And it
still continues.

Speaker 13 (02:13:58):
Now.

Speaker 5 (02:13:58):
People are really in house plants for good reason. So
and I, by the way, I've got more than I
know what to do with around the house. But boy,
doesn't it doesn't it just make an indoor environment less sterile.
It's warm and just inviting to be, kind of living
in a jungle. And I've got some daughters that have
enough houseplants to where you walk in the door and

(02:14:19):
you're afraid a little shop of horrors reaching out and
eating you. You come through Nature's way resources. They still
got their fungal Friday sale on twenty percent off their
fungal compost. Now, I would recommend going out there because
when you're out there, they've got the sale still going
on on all kinds of plants except the sun native

(02:14:40):
sun perennials are the only ones that are not on sale.
But they have a lot of different types of plants
and they are on a super sale out there right
now at Nature's Ray Resources. If you've got a vehicle
that can haul some soil back, purchase bulk. Purchase mulch bulk.
Purchase soil bulk. They have every kind of blend you
can imagine you need. I was talking about plant and blueberry.
Do you need something for blueberries. They've got blends for

(02:15:02):
acidic loving plants like azalea's commitas and blueberries and gardenias
and whatnot. They have vegetable and herb soils. They've got
soils that do really well for citrus, fruit trees and
things like that. Nature's Way Resources just just think of
it this way. They were into soil before it being
into soil became cool, if you want to think of

(02:15:24):
it that way. A lot of the quality blends we
now talk about in the Greater Houston era were born there,
and they know how to make quality soils and quality mulches,
and you can buy it by the bag there. You
can buy it by the bag at various outlets around
town as well. But whether you go get it, have
it delivered, Buy by the bulk, buy by the bag.
Nature's Way Resources is place to go. And don't forget

(02:15:46):
Fungo Friday's twenty percent fungal compost every Friday. Take advantage
of that. Our phone number is seven to one three
two one two k t RH if you'd like to
give us a call seven to one three two one
two kt r H. Look for visiting with you about
the kinds of questions that you might have. I am

(02:16:09):
really impressed with a number of products that the folks
at Medina have produced over the years. And Carrie, right
now I want to talk to talk to you about
Medina Plus. Now you probably famil with Medina Soil Activator.
It's been around for a long time. Well, they took
Medina Soil Activator and they really bumped it up a

(02:16:30):
notch with over forty different trace elements, a lot of
natural growth hormone from seaweed extract, a lot of minerals
are in that vitamins, a lot of other things are
in Medina Soil Activator. Excuse me, Medina Soil Plus, which
is so activator plus more. I just planted a whole
bit of strawberries the other day. Got a man. Finally,

(02:16:52):
you know the cobblers kids go barefoot, So sometimes my
yard has to wait while I'm helping you with your yard. Well,
I got a whole bit of strawberries in every plant,
got a good drenching with Medina Plus. I'll do it
again a week later. I'll do it again a week
after that. Three applications of Medina plus drenching it. I'd
put over the top of the plants. Get it on
the leaves. It's good for that too. You can fold
your feed with it, but mainly for the transplanting. I'm

(02:17:15):
getting it down there in the root system. Now it's
Medina Plus isn't just for transplanting. It's just fall is
a seasoned to plant. So you need to have Medina
Plus on hand along with a watering can so you
can water those plants in and drench them with the
quality material called Medina plus from Medina. It works, It
works well, That's why I use it. Someone was calling

(02:17:39):
me the other day asking do I need to do
I need to aerate my lawn. That was a question
that I get from time to time, and the answer is, well,
aeration is always helpful. It's always helpful. But if your
lawn is a heavy clay or if your lawn is
compacted compacted clay, then aeration is just essential. Need to

(02:18:00):
get that done. If your lawn's been struggling and just
getting thin, it's like it's just the green is not
green enough. I need to rejuvenate it. Well, there could
be a lot of things involved, but one of the
things that I like to see folks do is do
a core aeration follow it with a quality compost top dressing.
And the folks at B and B turf Pros down

(02:18:22):
south of Houston, they're the ones who know exactly how
to do that. In that region. They cover about a
twenty mile area, and that would include all the way
from let's say north and west up to Sugarland in
Missouri City, and then as you swing down Highway six
Brasnow or Colas Siena, Iowa colony Manvil, and all the
way over east to Paerland. That's kind of their service region.

(02:18:44):
You can go to their website and I would encourage
you to do that because you can see the kind
of work they do there. BB no end just BB
Turfpros dot com. What you will find is with BB
you get quality materials, They only use products and companies
that I trust here on guard Line, including Cnimals I
was talking about earlier. They use Cnimals, So that tells

(02:19:04):
you they're after the good stuff. They put that on
your lawn. So they do the aeration, they do the
compost top dressing. Uh, and they do an excellent job
of it. And that you know, people try to erate themselves.
Typically they use an narrator that doesn't pull plugs out
like bmb's does. That's what you want to do is
pull the plugs out. And it's a lot of work,

(02:19:24):
and it's messy, and it's dusty, and you're hauling compost
and shoveling and carrying it. Let them bring their equipment
and get the job done for you. Bbturf pros dot Com.
Here's a here's a phone number. Seven one three two
three four fifty five ninety eight seven one three two
three four five five nine eight. They're all about customer
mess ups, customer satisfaction. They care to make a relationship

(02:19:49):
with you that will go on beyond just this one application,
and they do quality work with quality products as a result.
I'm going to take a break for the news. I'll
be right back folks, well about the guardline. Good to
have you with us. As always, we are here to
help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape and
fun in the process. A little bit earlier today somebody

(02:20:10):
called me about Bill from Cyprus called about look at
for Tiff four nineteen and Celebration of Bermuda. Those are
two Bermuda cultivars that are out there. Four nineteen has
been around a long time, and I've been hunting down someplaces.
I think I believe that your King Ranch Turf Grass
locations are going to carry both of those. You just
you just need to call them and see what they have,

(02:20:32):
you know, in stock at the time, or what they
can get, and they're going to carry those two. I
do know that Milburger Turf also carries the four quarteen.
And you didn't mention this variety, but really an outstanding,
really outstanding variety of Bermuda grass re superior and trials
and things like that is a variety called tif Tough

(02:20:54):
tif t Uf Tiff Tough So four nineteen is Tiff
four nineteen. Tiff comes from Tifton, Georgia. Uh Tiff Tough
is another good one, and Millburgers carries those. Now, Millburger
is a wholesale place, but they do have retail outlets.
So I'm just going to give you a phone number
if you want to call if you're trying to find
a retail outlet for Milburger's mill Burger's varieties. Here, here's

(02:21:17):
number seven nine. Excuse me, start over nine seven nine
two four oh ninety four sixty two nine seven nine
two four oh nine four sixty two. That you know,
they're not gonna You're not gonna drive out their farm,
but they're not gonna bring a little palette to your house.
They're wholesalers, but they do have retail outlets. So call
them and say, hey, what where can I get you're

(02:21:38):
four nineteen? Where can I get your your tiff tough Bermuda?
That is definitely one that I would consider. You know,
we don't talk about bermutilawns a lot, but Bermuda is.
It is an amazing turf grass. Each turf grass has
its pros and cons each one does. And so, uh
what do you what do you uh, you know, what

(02:21:59):
do you wreck men? Skipt for turt Well, it depends
on what you got. Do you have a whole lot
of shade. Well, probably not bermuda, probably saying Augustine, or
there are a few zoysias that are pretty good for that.
Do you need something that is extremely where tolerant? I mean,
I need something For example, here comes a question, I
need something that my kids can play four soccer games
a week on impound to death and still survive. Okay,

(02:22:21):
well maybe that's a little overdoing it, but that would
be bermuda grass. Bermuda grass, you can strip it all
off the ground and it comes right up. Have you
ever try to get out of a flower bed? You
know how tuugh that stuff is? You know, right, it's
not easy to get rid of. That's kind of a
turf you want if you're gonna have wear and tear,
if you got sun, If you want the most fine textured,
beautiful turf in the world and you're willing to mow

(02:22:43):
it regularly, bermuda grass is that type of turf. They're
the golf course greens. If you know how golf course
greens are. I mean, can you have a more beautiful
turf than that? Well, that is a dwarf type of
a bermuda that's mode every day and you can have
that Okay, most people aren't going to do that in
their yard, although you could create a putting green in

(02:23:04):
your yard. But that's Bermuda's advantages, right, You like to
roll around in the grass and stuff, well, Saint Augustine
has any chiggers in it sometimes, as Bermuda might do.
So I kind of like Saint Augustine for that. See
what i mean, everybody, Every grass has its pros and
cons and each one has different specific requirements to have
success with it. If you can't get out and mow regularly,

(02:23:26):
which all grass wants to be mowed regularly, Saint Augustine
is a little a little more forgiving of an erratic
mowing schedule. You know, if you let Bermuda grass grow
a while and then you cut it way back, it's
going to be brown and twiggy kind of because that's
just the nature of the beast. The more often you
mow it, the better it looks. But that's true of
a lot of grasses. So I guess what I'm saying

(02:23:47):
is there's a lot of options out there. You can
go to the Aggie Turf website Aggie Turf one word,
Aggie Turf, dot TAMU dot E Edu and on there
you'll find a list of turf types for Texas with
the description of what I just gave you, pros and
cons and things and more. Also on there, or turf weeds.

(02:24:09):
Where you got a weed, I don't know what it is,
go look at there. There's pictures of them. Grassyweeds, sedge weeds,
broad leaf weeds are all there on the Aggie Turf website.
It's very very helpful. So there's a little spiel on turf.
But pretty much everybody's got a lawn, at least more
so than pretty much any other plant we have. Let's
go to Liverpool now and talk to Trish. Hey, Trish,

(02:24:31):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 20 (02:24:34):
Good morning.

Speaker 26 (02:24:35):
I have a sister law up an Alto tech Alto, Texas,
who built some rice beds last year, and she bought
a box store race beed soil and of course it okay,
failed miserably because it doesn't hold moisture. I matter of fact,
we visited with her and it felt very woody.

Speaker 6 (02:24:56):
But she doesn't want to throw it away. She's wanting
to know what she can do to a mend.

Speaker 5 (02:25:00):
That put a high quality compost in it, mix a
high quality compost into that soil, and so what that's
going to do is a lot of a lot of
cheap soils. Okay, if you want to be a soil
yard and you just want to move stuff through make
money and not worry about how they're going to do

(02:25:20):
it people's yards, what you do is you grind up
a bunch of organic matter. You about halfway compost it
until it turns brown. Then you bag it up and
sell it. And it's not ready. It's not been properly made,
like you know, you when I talk about places you know,
like airloom soils and Nature's Way and whatnot, they're making
it correctly. And so these cheap places send that stuff out.

(02:25:42):
I've opened up bags of potting soil, garden bed soil
in those stores before the box store, and it's like
there's wood chunks in there. For crying out loud, that's
not good. So what you do, I mean it is
organic matter. So what you do is you get a
quality compost and mix it in and just keep doing that.

(02:26:04):
But go to the places to sell quality compost. Don't
go back to big box do I compost get you
you know?

Speaker 7 (02:26:10):
Right?

Speaker 26 (02:26:10):
Okay, okay, all right, Well, Thank you so much.

Speaker 20 (02:26:16):
For your time.

Speaker 5 (02:26:18):
Yeah, you bet, you bet that good question too. By
the way, thank you, thank you for that question. You know,
everything that was once alive rots. Was it Shakespeare that
said dust, thou art to dust return it? It's not
spoken of the soul. We're talking about the fact that
it's our bodies that we're talking about there.

Speaker 15 (02:26:36):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:26:37):
Well, everything that was once alive becomes soil again eventually,
And okay, bad dad j I specialize in dead jokes.
But do you know that that for several decades, some
of our great composers, you know, like Schultz and Mozart.

Speaker 13 (02:26:57):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:26:57):
Anyway, Mozart, for example, uh, composed and ever since then
he's been decomposing. Sorry, but seriously, everything that was once
alive becomes soil again, and it just takes time, and
a good quality soil yard knows how. They know how

(02:27:17):
to do it properly, to grind up the particle size right,
to mix the carbon materials and the nitron materials at
the right ratio so that it decomposes, so that the
microbial content microbes do all the work in this. We
just get the credit. Microbes do that job of turning
that stuff back into good quality material and it takes
time to do that and you don't rush it out.

(02:27:39):
You do it right. But quality compost is always a
good idea. Let's go to Danny now in Houston. Hey, Danny,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (02:27:49):
Hi.

Speaker 27 (02:27:50):
I have figs three Every year it has figs and
it's became green and small and never grow and never
get right.

Speaker 5 (02:28:02):
All right, Danny, I'm gonna I have to run to
a quick break, but I'm gonna come back from break
and answer your question. I want to pull together some
things and we will. We will take it from there.
So thank you for that question. I'll be right back
with Danny. Uh just a moment. Stay tuned. Hey, welcome
back to the garden Line.

Speaker 4 (02:28:19):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:28:20):
Moss Nursery done in Seabrook is a place that you
need to visit. Now, everybody down that area knows the
southeast of Houston. Everybodys nursery, I mean, it's most nursery
has been around a very very long time. But he
hadn't been down there. Maybe live in another area. He's
want to do a little horticultural tourism. You ought to
go check it out. It's on Toddville Road in Seabrook

(02:28:40):
and Moss Nursery is eight acres of wandering through wonderland.
I mean it. Every time you turn a corner there
is something unusual. Jim mosc goes all over the place
and brings back all kinds of things from carved totems
to you. He's got to go see it. It is
really cool. One of the best selections I can you're
gonna find anywhere. They always have tons of containers. They

(02:29:04):
are always stocked with everything for the season. Like right now,
they have maragals in stock, and they have mums in stock,
and they have cyclomen cool seasoned plant in stock. If
you've never planted marigals in the fall, that is the
best season for maragals that there is. In summer, spider
maights will eat their lunch. In fall, spider maight populations
crash and marigals get to do what they want to

(02:29:27):
do without having to deal with mites. They glow right
up into the first frost, orange and yellow and white
types of miragals. When you go to mas nursery, you're
always going to find something you didn't expect. Right now,
they got their Talavera Halloween pumpkins and ghosts on sale
for thirty percent off while their supplies last, and their
houseplant greenhouse is unmatched. Beautiful philodendrons of all kinds. They

(02:29:51):
got the one called burkin that has little white stripes
and sleeves. That is really an easy plant to grow.
You know, some philodendrons can be a little picky, but
barkin is so easy. I had a coworker that could
kill a silk plant. I mean she was not a
plant person. She had a burkin in her window and
it just got better and better and better. It's it's
you know, yeah, you gotta water, but that's a great plant.

(02:30:12):
Easy to grow. This this weekend, by the way, Tina's
Broadworst House is gonna be out there serving Yes, brought worst,
So go out grab your lunch there so you have
time to shop, because you're going to need time when
you go to Moss Nursery to walk through and see
it all. There's a lot to take in fifty five
eleven Toddville Road in Seabrook. Maas Nursery dot com. Maas

(02:30:36):
Nursery dot Com. We're gonna go now to back to
Danny and Danny. We were talking about fig trees and
you're talking about your fig tree just not performing. Tell
me again how long it's been on the ground. I've
been like three years. Three years, okay. So fig trees
are pretty tough and they're not that hard to grow,
but if they don't get enough water, they struggle. And

(02:30:58):
so if it's in droggy conditions, it's going to really
struggle with that. The other thing that happens to figs
is nematodes. Nematods are little tiny worm like creatures too
small to see. They get in the roots and cause
the roots to develop bumps and knots, so they look
sort of like a string of pearls, or you know,

(02:31:19):
like a snake swallows an animal that has this bump
in the middle of the snake. You know, the roots
look like that. And so you can take a water hose,
maybe a little spading fork, and loosen some soil around
the tree a little bit and then sort of blast
out the roots where you can get a good look
at them. You don't want to tear them all off,
but look at them. And if you see all those

(02:31:39):
little bumps and things like that, that is a nematod
problem and figs that we don't have a fig that's
resistant to nematodes, and we don't have a control that
you spray on the soil that kills nematodes, so you
have to go to other measures. I'm about to put
something on our garden line Facebook page this week that

(02:32:00):
talks about nematodes and points you to a web page
that I have that tells about the options you have
for managing them. If that's what you find, I would
say there's about an eighty five percent chance that NEMA
toads are what's going on with that tree. If you
feel like it's not a problem with underwatering. Okay, thank

(02:32:22):
you so much. You bet so. Watch our garden line
Facebook page. My website is gardening with skip dot com.
I haven't put the NEMA toade publication up there. It's
just I was just talking to my web guy yesterday
about we're going to get it up there this week.
So watch for that. But first thing you do is
go watch those reachs out. Take a look and see

(02:32:43):
if you see what I'm describing. Okay, thank you so much. Yes, Danny,
thank you for the call. I appreciate that. A lot
the folks at Microlife Fertilizer make fertilizers that are chalk
full of microbes in addition to the new tree, their
chuck full of microbes. Whether you use their liquid products

(02:33:03):
like a seaweed based product, a fisher motion based product.
I like the seven one four liquid that they produce.
You know, Microlife has been making quality products for a
very very long time, and they know what they're doing.
And when it comes to organic type products, they are
the name that everybody looks to. By the way, I

(02:33:25):
said sevenfore I meant seven one three. It's the orange
label Biomatrix. It works really well. They've got another one
called Microlife Maximum Bloom that's heavy in the phosphorus in there.
They've got the liquid humates, plus they've got a micro
Grow liquid. They have a product called Cactus and Succulent.
Then there's one called Soil and Plant Energy. You just

(02:33:46):
have to go online to Microlife Fertilizer dot com Microlife
Fertilizer dot com. You can click on any one of
those and see exactly what's in it and what it does.
And I would encourage you to do that. You know,
we talked I got Microlife's dry fertilizers. They're a green bag.
That's our summer fertilizer. They're brown patch and a brown bag.
That's their fall fertilizer. I've been talking about all morning,

(02:34:09):
their bio inoculant and the quality of that and why
we use that, but also these liquids. They're all there,
and microlife products are widely available. Garden centers, feed stores,
Southwest Fertilizer, ace hardware stores all over the Greater Houston
area are going to carry these microlife products and they work.

(02:34:30):
And I would encourage you if you've not used something
like maybe you haven't used that biomatrix. That is a
great boost. I use it on my houseplants, but it's
also great for using outdoors on plants and containers or
in the soil well for micro life fertilizer. Well, you're
listening to Garden Line and we are down to almost

(02:34:52):
no time left, so we're not going to be able
to take a call going forward from here, but thanks
for listening today. By the way, I'll be back tomorrow
from six am to ten am. Every Saturday, every Sunday
six am to ten am. If you miss a show,
or if you listened without a piece of paper and
a pencil in hand, I encourage you to do that,
and I said some product like that phone number I

(02:35:13):
gave a while ago for turf. You can go back
and you can listen to the podcast and hear it there.
We post this podcast right after we're done here. Remember
to subscribe to us on Instagram and on Facebook. We're
constantly putting good information out that way. And most of all,
get ready to jump in your car.

Speaker 13 (02:35:34):
I am.

Speaker 5 (02:35:35):
We're gonna head over to RCW Nursery. Don't need to eat.
They're gonna have some barbecue there for you and a
lot of fun stuff with their fall flag. There's gonna
be stuff with the kids. There's a little photo ops
and things like that. And you get to not only
get to shop the nursery, but bring me some samples
to look at, bring me some pictures. We'll get those diagnosed.
I want to get my picture taken with you, So

(02:35:55):
come on out. Let's do that. Let's do that, and
while you're out there, read to win over twenty different products.
Fifteen gallon sam Philippe red maple, fifteen gallon redbud tree,
three gallon and seven gallon camellias, a flat of assorted
color plants. The nitrofoss three step. We've got more than
one bag of barricade, Fall Special and Eagle Turf fungicide

(02:36:19):
we're going to be given away. They got a bell chime,
they got a chapin spreader, they got you see what
I'm saying, freeze cloth, metal, yard art, A real cool tumbler.
They got these little fashioned tumblers that have funny things
printed out on the side. They're cool. They have got
a lot of other products that they're given away. I mean,
it's just going to be product after products. So come
on out. I look forward to seeing you again. I'll

(02:36:40):
be there from twelve to two, twelve to two. You
don't know where they are where. Combo Parkway f M
two forty nine comes into beltweight eight RCW Nurseries