What Kind of Soil Do I Have?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden line with skin Rictor.
It's crazy man.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A trim you just watch him as well.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
There are so many birthdays to super.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Busy gassing not a Simon gas gas sunmon.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Hey, good morning, good morning, gardeners, want to be gardeners,
soon to be gardeners, and people who have gathered just
to hear kind of crazy things. He gonna say next.
We're glad to have you with us this morning. I've

(00:57):
been looking forward to this morning. As a matter of fact,
this week has been a busy one out in the
garden for me, dodging rain storms. Did you guys get
some rain where you live? We sure did, boy, I mean,
and it rained, and it rained and it rained. It
just seems like every time I just if I get
soil moist or dry enough to be able to, you know,

(01:18):
actually actually get something done, well, here comes another rainstorm.
I want to talk a little bit about preparing soil.
I talk all the time about how important it is.
You know, we got to prepare our soil, We got
to take care of our soil. And that's true, certainly true.
But we have different types of soil. You have different

(01:40):
types of soil. In your various yards and gardens. If
you're dealing with soil that was there when you got there,
meaning the soil from that site before even the house
was built, the soil from that site, you either have
a sand, a silt, or a clay type of soil.
Sand is granules like sugar gran There are various sizes

(02:02):
of sand, but basically they drain really well. They're like
just imagine a shattered windshield on a car. You know,
it breaks up into those little tiny squares, little chunks
of glass. That's what sand amounts to. If you look
at it under a microscope and it water goes through
it and nutrients go through it, it gets droughty really

(02:22):
fast after you water. It doesn't hold water very well,
and you have to fertilize periodically pretty frequently actually to
get the same effects. Does that means sounds bad?

Speaker 3 (02:33):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Actually, the good thing about sand is it does drain well,
and so it helps things that don't want to be
too wet to drain well. Some of our crops that
we grow, loves and strawberries and even blackberries. A soil
that has a consistent amount of sand in it, or
a loam for blackberries, they do well in that. Then

(02:54):
there's silt. Silt is in between the two. Silt is
a very tiny particle, it's not but it's in between
sand and clay, a little closer to clay than the
sand in size, and it holds moisture very well and
it drains okay, but it can be a little bit tight.
And then there's clay, which everybody knows what clay is,
basically our Houston black clays that occur along the Texas

(03:18):
Gulf Upper Texas Gulf Coast especially. They don't drain well
and they don't take in water well. Does that make
clay bad? Not necessarily. Clay soil holds a lot of
moisture and if it's prepared properly, it can actually be
a good soil for years. In this along the Gulf coast,

(03:39):
this was a big fig production area and eight hundreds
of acres of fig trees growing in this clay soil
that then turned into rice paddies. In many cases the
rice paddies a whole water very well, but it makes
a good crop for having that kind of clay. There
are the things that can grow in clay too, So
the bottom line is the those are textures of soil okay,

(04:03):
send silk clay and as you mix them together, and
no soil typically is just one. Well I shouldn't say no.
Most soils are not just one. They're a mix of
the two or three. Rather and a loam. The word
loam is not a I'm nerding out here on you,
but just bear with me. I think it's worth knowing this.

(04:25):
The word loam means a mix of the three. Okay,
And if you get send silk clay mixed together, that's
a loam. And loam would be almost the ideal soil
for many, many, many different kinds of things. But you
can't change your texture. You can't take sand and grind
it up in smaller particles to make it a silt
or a clay or whatever. If you have what you have,

(04:46):
unless you buy and bring in something different. What you
can do is you can add organic matter to it,
and if it's a heavy clay, you can add expanded
shale to it. Expanded shale. Remember those little la I
don't see them muchymore. I'm sure they still are, but
on barbecue pits. On the bottom of barbecue pits are
really like Swiss cheese holes in the rock. A lava rock. Well,

(05:10):
if you were to take expanded shell and look at
it under our microscope, it kind of look like that.
Lots of pits and holes all in it. And it's
basically a clay that has been super fired in a
very hot, steamy oven to expand and get all these
little holes in it. Why does that matter, Well, all
those little holes are places where moisture can attach, where

(05:31):
nutrients can attach to. Its increases the surface area of
the particles, and microbes live in on the surface of
those as well. So it's a good thing, expanded jale.
So what do you do. You take your soil you
have and you amend it. Now, there are a few
things where one product is a miracle cure for everything,

(05:52):
but in the case of soil, composts comes pretty close
to that. If you have a sandy soil and it
drains too well, compost additions are like adding little tiny
sponges into that broken glass of sand. You know that
little tiny water runs right through. Now you got little
tiny microscopic sponges everywhere in there that are holding moisture

(06:13):
and holding nutrients. So compost helps the sand. If you're
on the other end of the spectrum, and you have
a clay and water won't go in the clay very fast.
By the way, did you know our Houston black clay
soils take in water at about an eighth of an
inch an hour, all things being equally. You just take
the soil, no roots, no organic matter in it, just
the soil, and about an eighth of an inch an hour.

(06:36):
That ain't very good. I mean, in other words, they
just sit there. Water just sits on them pretty much.
You add compost to that, and now that massive clay
gets broken into little chunks are groups of clay particles.
So the description you know, with sand and compost, I

(06:58):
said it was like broken glass with any sponges in it.
With clay in compost, it's like instead of a mass clay,
now you have like a bowl of popcorn where the
clay particles are clumped together with the compost. And now
there's airspace in between them, and so that does take
in water faster, and it does drain internally better. So

(07:18):
the compost is a miracle cure for all kinds of soil, really,
But when the soil is wet, you don't want to
work it less with it. It would be like taking well,
what would be a good example for that, Like rice
crispies or something, and you wet them and then you
start mashing on them. Okay, it just becomes a gou,

(07:39):
a thick goo. It destroys the structure of clay based soils,
which many, many, many of our soils have a lot
of clay in them. So what do you do. Well,
you wait until it's moist but not wet, but not dry.
If it's dry, it's concrete, you can hardly break it up.
If it's wet, got gooey, you ruin the structure. It's

(07:59):
why we don't walk on our garden beds too. Well,
there's just a soil one oh one in our first
little segment here. How about I give you a phone
number and we start talking. Seven one three two one
two k t RHIW right back, little Zach Brown, first
thing this morning. Good to have you back with us. Look,
if you're looking in your lawn and you're seeing the

(08:21):
little spots all over your Saint Augustine leaves, or if
you're standing back looking at the lawn and it just
like looks like parts of it are kind of yellowing
and just sort of browning and going away. It may
well be a gray leaf spot. That is a disease
that loves moisture, and boy have we had moisture lately.
It loves warm temperatures, and boy have we had warm

(08:41):
temperatures lately. Gray leaf spot is something that tends to
go away as the weather really heats up hot and
gets drier in the summer. But it's with us now
and I'm seeing quite a bit of it around in
the area of lawns. The way to deal with it
is eagle turf funderside from the folks at nitrofoss. Eagle
turf fungicide contains michael butte neil. That is a systemic.

(09:05):
It works on a lot of different diseases, not just
gray leaf spot, but it's excellent for gray leaf spot.
Eagle turf fungicide from Nitrophis. You're gonna find it at
places like Ingented Forest down there in the Richmond Rosenberg area,
the Ace Hardware, Sinkle Ranch or perhaps Ospas Ace up
in the woodlands, all places that carry nitrofos products. We're

(09:29):
gonna head out now to the phones and Terry, you
are the early bird of the day. Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Hey, thank you you're talking about the soil amending earlier
in Tompost got a question. I guess I've got two questions.
First question is, you know old timers used to talk
about putting gypsum in soil. I think, particularly like play soil,
that would they claim with help break it up and
grain out. I mean, I've even heard tales of you know,
they use like old gypsum board from construction and just

(09:58):
throw it in the arc and it breaks park improves
the soil. Is there any truth to that?

Speaker 1 (10:03):
This sure is And I appreciate that question. It's an
excellent question, Terry, because most people misunderstand gypsum. So here's
what happens if you go to areas that have a
lot of sodium in the soil, the Briancotta Station area.
You go up there and try to you wash your
hands and you can't get the soap off because there's
so much sodium in the water. It just feels like
soap's not coming off your hands. That sodium in a

(10:26):
clay soil makes that clay structure destroy. It destroys the
clay structure and it just becomes a massive clay be
good for building a farm pond, but not growing a yard.
And gypsum knocks the sodium off the soil particles, so
it can wash away and you can regain good structure.
And that's why they look at gypsum as loosening a

(10:49):
clay soil. But if it's just clay and it's not
clay with a lot of sodium, gypsum doesn't really help
the clay much, if any at all. So it's a
good thing if the problem is clay with a lot
of sodium in it, and if it's not, then then
it's not probably worth messing with. I would. I would

(11:12):
then look more toward organic matter or maybe expanded shale
in a long term flower beds as a solution.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
So how do you know if your clay's got a
lot of sodium in it or not?

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Is it just?

Speaker 5 (11:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (11:27):
One bay would be a soil test. Typically, our soils
don't just have a lot of sodium in them here, uh,
they in this area. But if your water supply has
sodium in it, number one, you can taste it. Number two.
The like I said that you it's like your instead
of soap just washing off, it's just like your hands

(11:49):
stay slippery and you're not able to get it feels
like you're not able good soap off even though you are.
People that have water softeners they use sodium to soften
the water to help but clean better, wash your clothes better,
and things like that. So if you have a water
softener and you irrigate with that water, then you're putting
sodium out in the soil. But a soil test you

(12:10):
can go to what there's there's a website. It's real easy.
It's soil Testing. Is the name of the website, soil Testing,
and then the address is dot t A m U,
dot E ed U text A and M Statewide Soil
Testing Lab, Soil Testing dot TAMU, dot ed U, and
then you can know exactly what all your nutrients, including
sodium are.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
I appreciate that information because I do have a water
software and I know it.

Speaker 5 (12:36):
Like you said, you use the.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
Salt to accomplish this purpose. So I've been using that. Yeah,
you know, water the landscaping around my house, and maybe
at some point I should throw a few handfuls of
sodium on my flower beds or something out.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah it could be. Yeah, that could be a lot
of people too, will go the water softener will be
for going in the house and they're out outdoor pipes
and stuff will be plumbed before the water softener because
you're spending money to soften that water and it didn't
good for the landscape anyway, So that would be another
thing to check and maybe make an adjustment to. All right.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
Kind of on a related note, So I had a
new house built years ago, and of course they bring
in clay to build a pad, and I'm on kind
of a little bit of slope lands in some places
it's you know, it's probably looking at three feet of clay.
Makes it hard the landscape around my house. Any suggestions
what I can do? I mean, I really can't bring
in a bunch of topsa on poll of that because

(13:36):
then it's it's up against my house, you know, yeah,
kind of eat foundation gap. So any suggestions on what
to do to make that it's the real d you know,
kind of snotty clay with some streaks of gree in it.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Oh, okay, Well they are that that typically is a
poorly errated clay based on the physical or visual description
you gave, So you know, if it's already up pretty high,
one option would be to take some out and then
bring in expanded shale organic and organic composted materials a

(14:12):
little bit on the chunky side, you know, not like
potting soil, but more like kind of a bed mix
that has a little bit chunkier because it's going to
last a little bit longer. That way. Expanded shale is
not cheap, but if you can get it down at
about three inches deep even and mix it in as
deeply as you can, it'll give you a very good

(14:33):
long term benefit to the clay. I like to use
expanded shell and compost together because they each have their benefits.
But they did some studies up in Dallas, which also
has a black clay like we have here, and they
found that putting three inches of expanded shale down just
did wonders and making that clay better air rated, taking
water better, drain better, and all that. So I would say,

(14:57):
if you need to excavate a little out of the
beds to be able to do that, go ahead and
do that. If you can just add three inches of
the shale in without bringing it up too high, then
I would do that.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Where do you get expanded shale at any home improvement store?

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, Well, you can buy a lot of places but
I would call Heirloom Soils heirloom. Go to the website
heirloomsoils dot com. They sell it by the bag. They
might sell it by the bulk too, because you may
be you may be buying quite a bit of it,
depending on how many flower bed square footage you've got.

(15:36):
But Heirloom Cells, I know, sells it by the bag,
so it's going to be available in the stores where
they that carry their products. Dope anyway, that's I think
that's probably the single best investment. And if it were
a veg garden or a flower If it was a
vegeta garden or a flower bed, you can just add
compost every time you rework the soil. If it's something

(15:58):
that's going to have roses or shrubs where you're not
going to pull up the plants and rework the soil,
that's where the expanded show gives you the longer term
I think is probably a better choice.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
All right, all right, appreciate it, Thank you, all.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Right, good, thanks for the call, good questions. Good to
have you with us on this Saturday morning. Folks, if
you'd like to give me a call seven one three
two one two kt R H seven one three two
one two kt RH. For those of who done in
League City area, your hometown feed store is League City
Feed And when I say area, I mean area. I'm

(16:34):
talking about all those communities down there, Baycliffe and Lamark
and San Leone, Webster, el Kamin Area, League City of course,
Clear Lake City, Santa Fe, Dickinson, all those places. This
is your hometown feed store. It's about a few blocks
south of Highway ninety six on Highway three. They're in
League City. Now, when you're drive by, you'll see it there.
It's on the east side of the road and it's

(16:56):
been around since I think they built it forty years ago.
Believe in fact, it was over forty years ago that
their grandpa built that League City feed store. Now the
third generations of Thunderbergs are running the store, and when
you go to League City, they're going to carry all
of the things that you need for your lawn in
your garden. Now I'm talking about things like, for example,

(17:19):
fire ant baits and fire ant individual mound treatments. They've
got them there. You know you hear about nitrofoss bugout max, Well,
that's a League City feed You hear about baits like
extinguished for example, or mound treatments like surrender. They're all
there at League City Feed. And it is fire and season.
By the way, if you don't know, you hear me
talk about mosquito bits and mosquito dunks all the time

(17:40):
for getting in water to prevent those mosquitoes from breeding. There.
League City Feed has got those. We're looking all these
different products for fertilizer, superturb from nitrophiles, they carry them.
All micro life products, they got those there. The I
was just talking about heirloom soil. So they've got their
roses in Bloomers blend and the veggie her mix and

(18:02):
the berry mix. They carry all of this stuff and
you just need to go buy there, and they're gonna
have everything that you're looking for. Products from Nelson like
they're weedin et or Azemie and other things. It's all
at League City Feed, so one stop shop. It's easy.
They're open till six during the week, including Saturday today,

(18:22):
closed on Sundays. And if you're looking for premium pet foods,
you're gonna find premium pet food. It's like Taste of
the Wild, awesome, very high quality pet food. They've got
them there at League City Feed. For example, I was
talking about those mosquito dunks. Now's the time to get
those things out there. If you've got standing water anywhere,

(18:44):
put them in there, Like maybe you have a bird bath,
or maybe maybe you've got a little area that just
doesn't drain well and you hadn't gotten around to fixing
the drainage there yet. But you've got a little puddle
that lasts for a week or two after a rain,
You better get some in there. You got some saggy gutters,
Throw granules up in the gutters, a hollow area on
a tree, you know where a limb used to be

(19:05):
and it trotted out. Throw some mosquito granules, or take
a dunk and break it up and put it in there.
You'd want to not be a as we say, Skeeter Breeder.
By the way, League City Feed phone number eight two
eight one three three two sixteen twelve two eight one
three three two sixty twelve. That's League City Feed, just

(19:25):
a few blocks south of ninety six on Highway three
there in League City. I've got to pick up some dunks.
I've got a grate in my landscape in front where
the water runs off the driveway and I didn't want
it to just pull up in the bed there, so
I put a little French strain where water can go
through the rocks and go on and get out of there.

(19:46):
But there's a grate that takes in some of it,
and down at the bottom of that grate, they're standing
water almost all the time because it gathers there and
then the excess moves on out. Throw a few granules
in there periodically, you know, that's stuff last. I know,
the little donuts of mosquita dunks last about a month.

Speaker 6 (20:04):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
And so you don't have to leave it long. I
mean you have to do it that often, but you
do want to do it because you don't want to
be a skeeter breeder. Well, we're going to take another break.
Here the phone number if you'd like to give my
producer a call and be ready to go when we
come back. Seven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two kt r H. Hey,

(20:28):
welcome back to guard Line.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
You look good.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
We are talking gardening today. Uh. This past week with
the rain, I couldn't work the soil, which I spent
a lot of time talking about. By the way, starting
off the show, today, but it is going to dry
out and we're going to get some beds made. I've
got a number of different products that I'm wanting to

(20:53):
work into the soil, some really nice bed mis that
I picked up from the folks at a Nature's Way sources,
and it it's high quality, is gonna help me get
those beds up in a raised there. I do have
clay soils too, by the way, and so getting that
getting that soil fixed is a good thing. I mentioned that,

(21:15):
you know, sand and clay and everything has its pros
and cons. But it don't think that, you know, we
gripe about clay because of the things it does. It shrinks,
its swells, it breaks up our sidewalks and foundations that
you know. It heaves and it dries out too much,
and it gets cracks in it, and it doesn't drain well,
doesn't take in water well and all that. But we
fix those things. We can fix those things. And so

(21:37):
clay has its pros too. And so when I start
mending these beds, and when you do, you're gonna get
soil that you can grow almost anything in it. And
there again, I'm not an anti clay person because a
well amended clay is a good soil for a lot
of different kinds of things. So just just remember that

(21:58):
another tip that I would throw out there just for
those of you interested in getting maybe taking your gardening
up to a higher level. When you plant, think about
what wants to be where you're planting it now. I know,
as gardeners were always wanting to create, to grow something

(22:20):
that doesn't grow here. Right if you move from the Midwest,
you're probably still trying to figure out how to grow
lilacs in Forsythia because they were such a staple for
your landscapes back home. But there's a certain amount of
that that we can do. But we can't change can
change the weather itself, right, I mean, we can't change
the fact that it gets as cold as it gets
or as hot as it gets, or rains as much

(22:43):
or little than it does. But you can do a
lot to amend the soil and to make a plant
at home. But also there's a case to be made
for planting things that just want to grow in what
you have there. We have many plants, and we're talking
about claysoil. While ago clay soil and things that strung
go along to grow in a clay soil. Well, we
have a lot of plants that can tolerate a heavy

(23:05):
clay soil that even thrive in heavy clay type saals.
Look at the native plants that we have around us.
They do well because they're from here. They, if you will,
they grew up here in this kind of clay. And
you go to a place like Buchanans, for example, you're
gonna find tons of native plants. And that's just what
they do all the time. They have not just natives,

(23:27):
So please understand this. Buchanans has every kind of plant.
I'm talking about fruit trees and vegetables and herbs and
house plants and tropical you know types of things. They
have it all, but they focus and they make sure
that they have every possible native that's on the market
that will do well for you here. That's how they
do it. And they it doesn't matter what you're trying
to grow or do you want to support pollinators? Do

(23:49):
you want to attract hummingbirds? Do you need something for shade?
Do you want something that blooms seasonally? Do you need
an evergreen? You go in there and you tell them
I need this. Do you have anything like that that's native.
For example, red bay. Red bay is a native tree
in the area, and it's leaves or used like you
would bay laurel. You know, when you use bay leaves

(24:11):
like you're throwing a bay leaf in when you're making
gumbo or something. Well, red bay is also a seasoning
type of leaf. It's a little different flavor wise than
bay laurel, but it is a seasoning leaf and it's
a native so why not grow one of those. There
are so many good native herbs people that are into

(24:33):
flavors for cooking, like Mexican or regano. That's a different kind,
very different than regular regano. It's just think of a
whole completely different plant. But you can do that. I
talked last week. I was talking about inland CEOs and
as a groundcover and a shade loving groundcover, a wax myrtle.
You know if it gets soggy and wet and stays
on the wet side, well, wax martle. In fact, did

(24:55):
you know wax myrtle is a native herb. I've never
used it as a nerve, but anyway, it's leaves can
be used like use bay laurel leaves. Texas Star hibiscus.
That's a native that we have along the Gulf Coast.
The funny thing about Texas Star is it has Texas
in its name, but it's because the flowers look more
like a star five petals. But it's not native to

(25:17):
Texas specifically, but Louisiana in the Gulf Coast. It is
kind of interesting anyway, whatever kind of native you're looking for,
whatever you want, you're gonna find it there at Buchanans.
And they do such a good job of bringing these
plants in, making sure they're in top top quality, and
so you get to go in and you shop and
explore yourself along. How about this, How about edible natives.

(25:41):
Edible natives in the terms of like mulberry, for example,
muscadine grapes, Mayhaw's mayhaw is another one, elderberry, prickly pear.
I grew up in prickly pear country down south of
San Antonio. And I'm telling you, the nopalas, the nopals,
the the pads, the young tender pads before they get

(26:02):
the thorns on them so much, they're very good edible.
We'd use them, slice them up and use them in
scrambled eggs. That's how we used them. And then the tunas,
the little fruit for paricular pair. Those are native Texas fruit.
Agarita is another one. It's a native Texas fruit that
grows in much of the state. Chili pekins. Boy, if
you want a pepper, they'll set your mouth on fire.

(26:24):
Chili pecin peppers. Let's see that. Barbados cherry is another
one common per Simmons. There's a lot of native plants,
and when you go to Buchanons you get to enjoy
all of these things. So what do you do, Well,
you jump in your car and you go to eleven
Street in the Heights, eleven Street in the Heights or better, Yeah,
just start by going to the website Buchanans Plants dot com.

(26:47):
Bu Canoes Plants dot com been hurt serving gardeners here
in the Easton area since nineteen eighty six. And I
guarantee you when you go there, alle yourself some time,
because you are going to really really enjoy shopping and
seeing so many plants that you haven't even heard of maybe,
and you're going to find some cool new things to

(27:07):
create that beautiful landscape, to turn your landscape more native,
to support songbirds and to support all of the things
that you want to get out of your landscape, the enjoyment.
There be canons. They carry a wide variety of fertilizers too,
you know, things like Microlife. If you're looking for a
quality organic fertilizer, you're not going to find anything that

(27:31):
is better than Microlife. It's an awesome fertilizer that provides
the nutrients and the right ratios that plants want. That's important.
Now there's a green bag that's our lawn fertilizer. But
just train you and me. It's an everything fertilizer. I
use it in vegetable gardens. I've used it in herb gardens.

(27:52):
I've even used it when I was in a pinch.
I needed something I was mixing into a soil blend
to plant some plants, and Microlife's not salt based, is
not to burn plants. I just mixed some into the
soil and plant them a plant. And because it's the nutrients,
it's going to do well. That's a green bag. Then
there's humates plus concentrated compost in a bag, the purple bag.

(28:12):
You can do that anytime you want to do it
and it will work. Microlife high quality products. You can
go to the website Microlifefertilizer dot com. I want you
to learn about all the others. I don't have time
talk about many of them here on the show, but
there are a lot of great microlife products we need
to be exploring our way through because they do work.

(28:34):
If you haven't been a Southwest Fertilizer, you need to
go because everything you need is there. That's the bottom line.
Southwest Fertilizer has been run for seventy years and everything
for your garden, from tools to fertilizers, to pest control,
disease control, weed control, and expert advice is all there

(28:55):
at Southwest Fertilizer. If you're an organic gardener, the biggest
organ next selection anywhere in the region is it Southwest Fertilizer.
Whatever you need is there, that's the bottom line. Just
remember this. If they don't have it, you don't need it.
That's the kind of place Southwest Fertilizer. It's a one
stop shop. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com. Corner of Bissinut and Renwick.

(29:16):
Corner of Bissinet and Renwick, Southwest Houston. Well, I'm gonna
take a little break and we'll be back with your calls.
Seven one three two one two KTRH. Good morning, Gardner's
good morning on a great day to get outside and
enjoy enjoy the outdoors. Uh, if you've been here for

(29:36):
a summer, you know what summer's like here in the
Greater Houston area. And so we appreciate any cool conditions
we can get, or any mild conditions that we get.
We're still we're still doing pretty good. I'm not gonna complain.
I learned a long time ago that wherever you live,
there's something about the weather you might not like. And
even you know, people talk about perfect weather like I

(30:00):
don't know, Southern California doesn't rain that much, and just
temperatures are so good that gets boring for me. I
like to have a little bit of change. And maybe
some of you are going no, I'd rather be bored. Well,
I seriously, I like a little bit of change in
the weather, and boy, do we get that here, that
is for sure. You're listening to garden Line and if
you'd like to give me a call or ask a

(30:21):
gardening question. Seven one three two one two k t
r H seven one three two one two k t
r H R c W Nurseries is right there where
belt Wag eight and Tomball Parkway come together. It's really
easy to get to. As a result of that, r
CW is the kind of place where you go and

(30:42):
you're going to find quality plants that were grown right.
First of all, they are the plants that ought to
be grown here and planted here, but they're they're done right.
You know. They grow their own trees. They grow They
have a tree farm up there in Plannersville area, Wimson
Tree Farm where they do bring their own trees in
from there. By the way, they got a sale right

(31:02):
now going on on crate myrtles ten percent off Crpe
myrtles right now now. When you buy a crp myrtle
anywhere including RCW, you want to get one that of
course you want the flower color you want, but you
also want the size that you want. Crpe myrtles are
not sold with saws, and people plant big crape myrtles.

(31:24):
I was driving through neighborhood yesterday with my wife just
pointing out the Natches crape myrtle. Natches is one of
my favorite crape myrtles. It has white blooms and it
has beautiful cinnamon colored exfoliating bark, and it was very popular,
and they were all through this neighborhood. And I just
made the point. I love that crpe myrtle. It's also

(31:46):
powdery mildey resistant, by the way, but it gets like
thirty feet tall. And so if you're going to put
it at the corner of the house and you don't
want it to reach the eaves, why not plant one instead?
Do you know that crate myrtles will get three feet tall.
Crate myrtles that get five to seven feet tall, maybe ten,
ten to twelve, fifteen feet tall. You can buy the
size you want, So pick a crape myrtle that gets

(32:07):
the size you want, the color you want, the size
you want. Now I've got I've got a web page
out there somewhere. Somebody else put it up. But if
you do a Google search or whatever you use to search,
and you put in my name, Skip Richter, and then
crape myrtle, Skip Richter, crpe myrtle, one of the things
that pops up will be a chart and it shows

(32:29):
you all the sizes of crape myrtles. It gives you
a little picture of what the ballooms look like. It
tells you whether they're powdery, mildew resistant or not, whether
the bark is of interest. I think they even have
on their fall color. Some crapes do a really good
job of making beautiful fall color. But that is an
old list and there's lots of new ones that have
come out since then. I need to redo it, but

(32:51):
that's a major undertaking with all the new ones. But anyway,
go look at it and just get some ideas and
you'll kind of you may find a lot of them
on there. You're gonna have trouble finding now because time's change.
But that will get you in the ballpark of thinking
and looking and seeing what's available so that as you
go hunting for a great murder, you can find a
good one. And then just head over to RCW. RCW

(33:14):
has outstanding quality plants because they grow on themselves. They
really really look good when you're there. I want to
ask you to try one thing this year from RCW,
and that is their Cajun Hibiscus. Now, Cajun Hibiscus is
a series, is not one plant. It's a bunch of
different plants. The blooms are gaudy and they're gorgeous. Absolutely,

(33:39):
they should call them the the gg hibiscus, the gaudy,
gorgeous hibiscus. Try one this year. I've got some. I
got a big plastic It looks like a whiskey barrel
but it's about two thirds that size and made a plastic. Okay,
you know what the thing is I'm talking about. I've
got one in there, and last year edge I bloomed
and bloomed and bloomed, and the blooms are so pretty.

(33:59):
They're so gorgeous, and in a container. You can put
it wherever you want it. Where have you got sunlight?
You put an entrance to going in the front door,
you're hushing, put it on the back patio, whatever, but
gets you a casion. Hibiscus from r c W Nursries.
Head on over there again the corner of Beltway eight
and Tomball Parkway. R c W Nurseries. Check those out

(34:21):
now for the lawns. If you would like to give
your lawn a boost, something that you know gets it going,
gets it a good boost of nutrients and things. I'd
like to recommend a couple of things for you to consider.
First of all, medina has to grow lawn. Medina has
to grow lawn. It is a three one two ratio

(34:42):
fertilizer as a liquid that hooks to a garden hose.
You look it up to a garden hose and you
spray your lawn with it. It's fast, it's easy, and
it'll give you a quick result, but it doesn't just
go away fast. It lasts a while. Medina has to
grow lawn is a great way to give your lawn
a boost. And the thing I like about the hose

(35:04):
in sprayer for lawn is I've got an area in
my backyard where the lawn is not doing as good,
and I can go in there with my hose end
and I can just do a little treatment to that
area and just kind of green it up a little bit, okay,
kind of feathered out, blended in really well. As opposed
to a fertilizer drop spreader or or a whirlybird spreadder
where it's kind of slinging the fertilizer, it's a little

(35:26):
harder to control. The application Medina has to grow for lawn.
It's a twelve four to eight. It does super super well.
Medina also has a sixteen percent nitrogen fertilizer that has
zero phosphorus in it, which for many of our lawns
is a very good product choice because most of our
lawns have more than enough phosphorus. That's a middle number,

(35:48):
more than enough of the phosphorus. So I would recommend
that you give that a try. Try one of those
Medina products. They hook up to the host. They're faster
or easy. You're in, you're out, You've done it, and
it just looks good. I love those products. I started
using some of the different Excuse me, I'm still fighting

(36:08):
a cold that I was getting over for a while.
But anyway, Hastra Grow Lawns is twelve four to eight
formulated for the lawns. It does well. I started using
the other one, the sixteen percent nitrogen Medina Supergrow Plus.
It's got a little kind of a green label on it,
but super Grow plus and sixteen zero two are the numbers.

(36:29):
If you want to give a boost. That is a
great way to give a quick boost. And I know
it says lawns. Don't tell anybody, but you can use
it on anything you want. You can use that. I
know people that will spray it on their tomatoes to
get a little boost and vigor in their vegetable garden
and spread it on the tomatoes and have and on
the soil too. You can fold your feet it, you

(36:49):
can put in the soil. It works well. Medina hasht
gro Lawn and Medina Supergrol Plus. Both of them hook
up to a garden hose. Both of them will give
your lawn a good boost. Both of them are widely
available here in the Greater Houston area. So check those out,
try them out. I want to hear try them out,
and I'd like to hear how they do for you.

(37:10):
And they don't call me the day after you apply them.
It takes a little longer than that. But I would
like to hear how those things work for you, because
I can tell you my experience with them has been outstanding.
I know I'm talking about this a lot, but when
Andy from Medina first told me that they were coming
out with this sixteen percent no phosphorus fertilizer, I was

(37:31):
really excited because I can just tell you there isn't
a lawn out there that isn't going to benefit from it.
And I've done a number of soil test studies on lawns.
I was in Austin for a number of years working
as horticultures to with agrilife extension over there. And we
did a study of two hundred lawns in northwest Austin

(37:52):
in the Steelhouse Creek neighborhood, and we soil sampled every
lawn and looked at the nutrient levels in those lawns
and that area. By and large, when you look at
a lawn, you're going to find the phosphorus levels or adequate,
which is why we generally recommend going with the low
middle number on turf, just because in general that's true.

(38:13):
I will say this, Uh, people call it all the time.
You know, what's a good fertilizer for this or what
should I put on that? Well, we see fertilizers with
names on them, like this is a lawn fertilizer, this
is a hibiscus fertilizer, This is a plumeria fertilizer, this
is a vegetable fertilizer. That's all good, that's a good start,

(38:34):
But what any plant needs depends on what's already in
the soil. So when you do a soil test, you
find out what's in your soil, and it may be
that you go with a different kind of fertilizer for
that plant than the one with that plant's name on it,
because your soil for that plant is a little bit different,

(38:54):
so it's always good to have a soil test. You
can go to Soil Testing dot t a m U,
dot EDUT, dot tamudd you and there find out how
to get your sol tested. You can also go to
my website gardening with Skip, Gardening with skip dot com.
Write that down least bookmark that website. We are adding

(39:16):
stuff to it all the time. There's a lot of
good information out there, continuing to put stuff up. I've
got several projects I'm working on to get up on
the web right now. And it's all free. Can't beat that,
so anyway, check it out. There's a publication on testing
your soil, how to do it and where to send

(39:37):
your soil, which soil form to use when you go
to soil Testing dot tamudd you. So it's trying to
help you. A goal is for you to have a
beautiful landscape, a bountiful garden, and more fun in the process.
We'll take a break here, be right back. Good morning,

(39:59):
Good morning, gardeners. Good to have you with us this morning. Hey,
you are listening to garden Line and our whole purpose
here in addition to having fun, by the way, is
for you to have a more bountiful garden and a
more beautiful landscape and enjoy the process. You can give
me a call at seven one three two one two
ktr H seven one three two one two ktr H

(40:22):
be glad to visit with you about the things that
are of most interest to you. For those of you
who live down south of Houston, your hometown garden center
down there is Ores Hidden Gardens or Hayes Hidden Gardens.
It's an Alvin address. Actually, it's located on Elizabeth Road.
Elizabeth Road in Alvin. If you're in Alvin, you just

(40:43):
head down Highway six towards Santa Fe and it's off
to the right. It's kind of in between the two cities,
Alvin and Santa Fe. But off to the right Elizabeth
Road is the address. Now, why would I tell you
to go there? Well, any of you from any of
those communities like Santa Fe, hillc Us, Algoa, Arcadia, Alta Loma,
you know, all Alvin, of course, all those places, you're

(41:06):
going to find an amazing array of things at jorghesid
and Gardens. Right now, right now, he has got some
red buds that are amazing. There's one called Hearts of Fire.
Hearts of Fire, and it's what you would think. It's
got red and orange, peach colored and green tones all
in the leaf. It is gorgeous even when it's not blooming.

(41:27):
You know, red buds bloom in the spring, but all
the rest of the year. What are you looking at? Green? Right? Well,
with Hearts of Fire, you get all these other colors
in there. There's other kinds of spectacular Eastern red buds.
They have weeping red buds where the stem comes up,
the trunk comes up and the branches hang pendently down
from them. Very unique feature in the landscape. And then
of course they have one called Merlow that's a beautiful

(41:49):
like the wine color of the foliage, very beautiful. If
you're looking for vegetables like peppers, for example, or he's
got those. If you're looking for fruit trees right now,
he's got avocados still that actually have fruit on them.
They carry citrus, they carry blueberries, all kinds of things.
And when it comes to shrubs and trees, Jorges got
you covered on that too, great myrtles, multi stem He's

(42:12):
got the you know, everything from small live oaks that
you want to get started in your yard. You know,
the best time to plant a tree is forty years ago.
Second best time is today. Well there you go. Rayes
got you covered on all of that rages hidden gardens,
go check them out again. Elizabeth Street in Alvin, just
out the Highway six. We're going to head out to

(42:34):
the phones now and we're going to visit with Norm
if I can get the right button here. Hey, Norm,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (42:43):
Hey Skip, thank you for taking my call. I don't
want to overwhelm everybody with our compliments to your show,
but we are very very happy out here in the
Senior citizen land.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
It's what you do.

Speaker 7 (42:58):
It entertains us every Saturday and every Sunday. I was
telling you a producer about Francis, my wife. She's listening
out on the patio and I'm in the house because
I don't want her to take over the phone call.
But we we have a problem at our age, falling

(43:21):
around in the garden. And what's your little invention that
you talk about all the time, your weed wiper. I
had a hunch that I could give you a challenge.
And before we hang up today, be sure and get
your three m sticky pad and make a little bit
of a note a weed walker, and we'd what do

(43:49):
you call it, wiper? Come together. We can't wipe the
weeds without a weed walker.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Oh okay, And talking about toppling over in the garden, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 (44:01):
I've got a kind of miracle stories that I've told
about falling in the yard and I've managed to survive
to this year. But walking in the garden, to me,
has been an idea creator. I always tell my grandchildren,
somebody invented that, and you take pride in the wheat wiper.

(44:24):
And I'm thinking that when we were babies, we had
a little what they called walker, and you put your
legs through the holes, and then you got wheels and
you learn how to walk. And I'm thinking out, But
I've asked people that my contact that are in the

(44:48):
machine shop what they call them guys that create stuff
and build stuff, to.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Think about it.

Speaker 7 (44:56):
And one of my friends up in Central Texas is
a retired.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Guy doing that, and I call it him.

Speaker 7 (45:03):
He's on the porch, of course, every morning, looking at
the sunset, listening to you. But the need to not
fall in the garden becomes more more necessary every day.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Right. Well, well, normally you know this would be a yeah,
this be no. And gardening is for all ages and
it should go as long as our life goes. I
mean I knew people that even toward the end of life,
they were still you know that they had their house plans,
that little cart came in and stuff they could do it.
It is a refreshing and wonderful thing. We could talk

(45:43):
for days on the topic. But uh, there is there
are you know, regular rolling walkers that some people use.
There's also a rolling seat that some people use. But
your point is well taken. I think it's a matter
of getting good solid pathways first of all installed that
give you a little more stability. That's important. But I

(46:03):
hear your challenge and let me think about that a
little bit and see if we can figure out maybe
some other tips. I know there's a lot of great
tools that are ergonomic that I help. You know, sometimes
folks are dealing with things like an arthritis or some
other limitations. But let me think about that. Uh, I've
got a whole line of folks that are lined up
here that I need to get to. But I appreciate

(46:26):
your kind words and your call and I will give
this some thought. I think that it is a good point,
because the last thing on Earth we need to do
is slow down our gardening when life's limitations come along.
But I thank you, Norman. And do you have any
of those sticky pads?

Speaker 7 (46:45):
Yes, somebody invented the glue that's on the back of that.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Right right by accident. Yeah, it was uh huh. There
you go. All right, Norman. Hey, thanks, call back, call back,
call back, anytime. I'd be glad to a visit with
you about that. Let's see here, we're going to go
to Joe and spring Joe. I got about a half
a minute, but if we need we'll hold you over
to the next break.

Speaker 8 (47:08):
Okay, have one big question in two little comments. So
I follow your long care program religiously for the last
seven years, and I think my tree likes it better
than my lawn. That thing is growing like galore. And
so I'm having a problem that two branches are crossing
each other and I didn't catch it earlier. And so

(47:30):
my question is, you know it's they're they're getting closely
and stuck together. Is it too late to have the
tree trimmed for the summer? Do I just have a
guy come in there and take out that one branch
so that they're anymore.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Or now you can do it just making a cut
here and there is fine to do it now, go
ahead and get it done. Just make sure they know
how to prune and what they're doing. But no, now's fine.
No need to treat the wound.

Speaker 8 (47:55):
Either, Okay, so just take care the one branch, don't
through the whole tree trimming. It needs to thin in
the whole tree.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Well. I mean, you could do a moderate amount now,
but it's not going to heal very fast, and so
it would be better to do the majority of your
printing in winter. But anything that's going to get worse
between now and next the end of or next midwinter,
go ahead and do it now, and you know, don't
let it get worse like that. But yeah, that's the balance.

Speaker 8 (48:27):
And also my lawn, I'm getting some yellow h what
do you call pieces of the grass all around. I
haven't put my slow release fertilizer on yet. Do I
pick one that has the highest iron in it? Or
is it time for iron eight or something? On the yard?

Speaker 1 (48:46):
You know, Joe, if you are able to take some
close up maybe a picture, of your lawn and then
some close ups of what you see as yellow as
close as you can get in sharp focus, and email
them to me. I can give you a better answer.
It could be a lack of nitrogen, it could be
a foliage disease, and it also could be ourn deficiency.

(49:06):
I'm leaning away from it being ourn deficiency in and
of itself, unless it's related to a disease. So I'd
rather give you a better answer. So if you would
email me those, you can call back, we can talk
about it. I'll reply to that, and we can even
finish a conversation today if you'd like.

Speaker 8 (49:23):
Okay, well the pictures in sun Ben.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Yes, sir, thank you, I appreciate the called. Look forward
to helping you more with that question. I got to
run to a break, folks. When we come back, we're
going to talk to Forrest and in Galleria jim Idam Magnolia.
All right, welcome back, folks. Good to have you back
here on Garden Line. Got plenty of things we can
be talking about right now. I first of all, I

(49:48):
wanted to I was talking earlier about the clay soils
and the issues of clays, our heavy clay soils here
have what is called a high shrink swell potential. What
does that all mean, Well, it just means us, when
they get dry, this shrink, when they get wet, they
swell and so in the summer, when it's hot and dry,
you got cracks in the backyard so deep you could
lose a toddler down the things, or a small foo

(50:08):
foo dog. And then it rains and they swell up
and that moves sidewalks, driveways, breaks water pipes underground for
the city, and it causes foundation problems for your home
and fix my slab. Foundation Repair is the expert company
that I would suggest you give a call if you
have any questions about where things are. I mean, they

(50:30):
can do things like, you know, re level your driveway
if you've got issues with cracks in the driveway. Ty
Strickland's been doing this for twenty three years. And so
you got to crack in the sheet rock indoors. Typically
you'll see those sometimes in the ceiling, but or the
walls in general, but maybe over in a corner by
a window on the outside. Same thing on the brick.
Cracks in the brick going down on the outside is

(50:50):
a sign something is moving. Don't be an Ostrich, don't
put your head in the sand. You need to have
him look at it. This is an honest fellow, native Houstonian,
fifth generation Texan. He knows what he's doing, been doing
this for twenty three plus years now, and he'll come
out and take a look, you know, tell you if
you need work and if you do what's needed, or

(51:11):
if I'll tell you now for right now, you're it's good.
Just let's let's let's watch it. Let's see how it goes.
Tell him your guardline listener Free free estimates for Guardline
listeners fixmyslab dot com. Easy to Remember Fix myslab dot
com com two eight one two five five forty nine
two eight one two five forty nine forty nine. We're

(51:33):
going to go now out to the galleria and talk
to Forrest. Hello, Forrest, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (51:39):
Hey, if I wanted to ask you about this, you know,
putting a filtered cloth or some filtered cloth over vegetable gardens,
specifically tomatoes, to kind of create a micro underneath.

Speaker 6 (51:57):
If you think that's something that would work here in Houston.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
People use it some. It doesn't change the ambient air temperature,
but it does keep the sun from heating up the
plant tissues so much. The trick for us is to
not lower your sunlight intensity levels so much that your
plants aren't able to make enough carbohydrates, in your case

(52:23):
to set tomatoes. So if you were to go I
wouldn't definitely, I would not go past fifty percent shade.
It could be a little lighter than that. And now,
if you're already struggling to get enough sun, then adding
the shade cloth would probably be a mistake. But in
general it helps a little. It just remember it doesn't
change the ambient air temperature. So when it's ninety, it's ninety.

(52:46):
When it's you know, seventy eight degrees at night, it's
seventy eight degrees at night, even at the shade cloth,
and those are the things that tend to make our
tomatoes slower cease production when it gets hot.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
I just felt like, at some level, as you said,
the ambient temperature is going to get so high that
it's just going to tomato season is going to be
over at some point here, and I didn't think the
shade cloth would yeah really change that that.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
That is true. It makes a little difference, but not
a lot. And so what we do. What I do
in my garden is you know, I may have some
slicer tomatoes, and I know when the temperatures get up
in the nineties and the night times are above the
mid seventies, for sure, they're going to start shutting down
their production. And I throw in some cherries or grape

(53:35):
type tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes grape tomatoes because they set well
even in hotter weather, and that way you at least
get tomato flavor carrying you on a little further into
the season. Okay, well, I appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
You bet, thanks for being patient waiting on the call.
I know we've had a line here, so good to
talk to you. Let's now go to a task ASDA

(53:59):
and talk to Jill. Hey, Jim, welcome to garden line.

Speaker 10 (54:02):
Thank you sir.

Speaker 11 (54:04):
Today's topic is tree planting and care and root washing
and root girdle removal.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Okay, good questions, any specific or just you want me
to comment on all that.

Speaker 11 (54:22):
I would like you to comment on it because the
fact is that I've been buying product lately that is
so root bound. It's just it's unbelievable. I can't believe
how Yeah, you think these nurseries are going to take
that of care.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
But well, and it's not all. It's not necessarily the
nursery's fault. You know, the most economical way to grow
a tree is in a round pot. There are pots
out there that are designed to air prune roots and
to prevent girdling, but they're expensive, and nobody goes to
the garden center and says, I want a tree that's

(54:58):
in this kind of pot. They just don't. People don't
know to ask for that, and so it's not worth
it for the growers or for the garden centers to
try to carry the higher dollar tree, And that, unfortunately,
is the situation we're in. For the most part. You
can get by with a circling tree if it doesn't
spend too much time in the pot. Now, if you know,

(55:19):
if it sits there for an extra year or two,
well then you're going to have major problems in the
You know, before you buy it, When you get them home,
you slide them out and you cut the roots. I
cut mine in three or four places vertically. I'll use
a little box cutter knife to cut small roots, or
I'll use hand prunters to cut bigger roots, but cut them.

(55:41):
Within two weeks they will be branching out new roots.
Just like if you cut a branch, you get re
sprouting from behind where you cut. When you cut a root,
you get re sprouting from behind where you cut. So
before they go in the ground, any circling roots should
be cut on a plant that is going to get
big and live a long time. Not so important for
a little perennial plant or you know, some small little

(56:04):
shrub maybe, But if it if that root getting bigger
over time and the trunk getting bigger over time are
likely to come together, which they would on a big
tree like a live oat, for example, then you need
to be they need to be cut. You mentioned the
term root washing. Root washing is the extra step that

(56:24):
you can go And here this is the fastest version
that I that I can give you. But if you
if you were growing a tree and you had it
in a gallum pot and the roots went out and
made a circle, what's a gallumpot about five inches six
inches across maybe the top that that'd be like, let's
say a five inch circle, and then you move that

(56:45):
tree to a five gallum pot and keep growing it out.
Now that circle from the one gallon is inside and
it can't be seen because you put it in a
bigger pot with more soil. Root Washing is where you
blast off all the growing mix so you can see
inside and remove all of the different things that might

(57:06):
be a problem. Do the surgery if you will, the
root cutting all through good forestry folks from Texan and
Forest Service told me about this a long time ago.
We did a demonstration for some for a class I did,
and it works, but it's a lot of trouble and
most people are not going to want to go to that.

(57:28):
But if you have concerns on a bigger tree that
you may have some interior buried problems, root washing would
be the way to get around that. Thank you so
much and have a great day, all right, Thank you sir.
Appreciate your call. Yep, And you're a lot of you

(57:49):
listening are going, oh my gosh, I didn't even know
I was supposed to worry about all that, will you know?
It's it's it's a matter of degrees, and some trees
are prone to that. Bread for pairs, they grow so
fast and they can quickly get into girdling problems. I
wish I could show you pictures on the radio. I
can show you some pear trees in general that have

(58:12):
come into the extension office. It just took pictures of
its amazing. Also, living Christmas trees that is a problem
in general. A living Christmas tree is going to be
a problem. They don't like having their roots cut. Pine
type species, those kinds of plants don't really care for
having the roots cut. They have to grow, grow, grow

(58:32):
them so they can sheare them so they can make
a little miniature Christmas tree so you'll buy it. Well,
that tree spent just by the nature of how a
living Christmas trees has to be grown. It spent too
much time in the pot, and so then you put
it in your landscape. It grows for a while and
then you start It depends on the species. But about
eight years down the line is when you really see

(58:55):
the things start to go south. Anyway. Something to think
about wild Birds Unlimited is the place to go for
anything you're looking for for birds, anything that you're looking
for for birds. Do you need bird housing, do you
need bird seed? Nothing compares to wild Birds Unlimited. Bird

(59:15):
seed blends right now, the blend to use is Nesting
Super Blend because we're still in nesting season for birds
and it helps with the development of the birds. Now
you can buy it loose, you buy it in seed cylinders,
but just buy it nesting super blended. Wild Birds Unlimited.
They're six stores in the Greater Houston area Kingwood, Clear Lake, Pearland,

(59:38):
Houston on bel Air, Houston on Memorial and then Cypress
up in Barker. Cypress is another wild Bird's Unlimited store.
They carry quality seed, not the seed the bird kicks
on the ground, the little red bebes that come in
cheap bird seed. Birds don't like those, and you waste
most of what you're buying in the bag. Wild Birds

(59:58):
Unlimited half quality seeds of things birds want. You buy
a pound a seed, you get a pound of something
that goes into the bird's stomach. In the case of
their no mess blends, where they're not even sunflower shells
on the outside of the sunflower kernels. While birds I'm limited.
I gotta take a break here, Steven der Park here first.
When we come back. Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to

(01:00:19):
the garden line. Good to have you with us. Hey,
I just want to say some this is important that
you hear this today because time is essentially up. Nature's
Way Resources is having the final day of their fungal
compost overstock sale fifteen dollars a yard. I don't I

(01:00:39):
don't have to even produce it for fifteen dollars yarp.
But anyway, fifteen dollars a yard now through the end
of May, which is today. The end of May is today.
Give them a call nine three six seven one three
twelve hundred nine three six seven one three twelve hundred.
You need to contact them on this Nature's Way resources
dot com and Nature's Ways where you get all kinds

(01:01:01):
of quality products. You know, that's rose, soil, leaf, mole compost,
fungal based composts of course, but this fungal compost overstock sale,
this is your chance to load up. And just I
mean you can use fung You can use screen fungal
compost even as a top dressing on your lawn if
you wan't do that, you can use it in flower beds.
You can use it as a surface malts even if

(01:01:22):
you put it down and then mix it into the soil.
It works very well. And they have a super sale
going on that ends today. So nine two seven three
twelve hundred Nature'sway Resources dot com. Check out that website.
It's awesome. It has to go to the contact information
find out how I get there. But the main thing is,

(01:01:43):
don't let this deal go by. It is an awesome
one you don't want to miss. We're going to head
out to Steve in Deer Park. Now, Hey Steve, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:01:53):
Good morning, Skip. I sent you an email some tomatoes.
Did you see it?

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Okay? I did. Let me take a look here. Oh yes,
uh huh okay, go ahead, and having run with holes
in them.

Speaker 12 (01:02:12):
Yeah, And I sent you a picture of it cut
open to where there's some Yeah, anyway, and they're split
and I'm real bad and I'm really not getting the
best production this year for some reason. But anyway, to
head in recommendations.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
You bet. So the hole is and the interior shows
that a caterpillar got in there and chewed around, and
once you make a wound, you start to get decay
and all kinds of issues. So that's what you're looking
at on that one. You know, regular applications of something
to prevent caterpillars. There's a lot of options for that,
but you got to do it before the caterpillar gets in.

(01:02:50):
I know you use seven. I think I see some
seven dust looks like on the surface of some of
the tomatoes, and that'll kill the heck out of a caterpillar,
But not after the caterpillars inside, you know, they it's
more of a venom from getting in. So that is
what it is. The cracking tomatoes crack typically in two

(01:03:11):
common ways. One in addition to just splitting. When they
grow real fast after a rain, you get little round
cracks that go like in a circle around the stem
attachment area the top of the tomato. And then you
get these radio cracks, which is what you see, and
it looks like you just took a little knife and
just split the tomato from the stem, you know, across

(01:03:34):
the shoulder a little bit. That is very variety specific.
Some varieties are bad about that, others are not so bad.
Anything we do that evens out the growth helps with
all kinds of cracking and splitting of the tomatoes. And
so sometimes what will happen is the tomato will grow
and it'll be real dry, and it's not growing very much,

(01:03:56):
but the cells are still dividing. Then you get this
gully washer rain and the roots take up all this
water and it tries to fill up all those cells
and it swells faster than the skin can accommodate it,
and you get the splits from that. So evening out
the watering is helpful for the splitting. But this shoulder

(01:04:16):
cracking like you see, is going to be more variety specific,
and it just there's just not a thing to do
about that other than try a different variety if you don't.
If you don't like it. It's mostly catic though general, Yeah,
go ahead.

Speaker 12 (01:04:33):
I was thinking for next year, trying to stay ahead
of the caterpillars, and I was thinking that if you
had a favorite that you like to use, because I
don't really see you know, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
That's right, and there's different options, you know. I'll just start,
you know, on the synthetic in things like seven dust
will kill caterpillars if you keep it on the surface
of the fruit and it lasts a long time. It's
persistent there, which is good when it comes to pest control,
bad when it comes to you eating this stuff. But

(01:05:09):
that is one that is one end. On the other
end would be things like using BT or spinosid as sprays,
spinosid lasts longer, so it would give you b tea.
After a couple of days, it's no longer killing what's
out there, so you pray in it all the time,
trying to get ahead of the caterpillars. The spinosid lasts longer,

(01:05:33):
and then some people will actually bag their tomatoes, you know,
if you just have a tomato plant or two, those
little organza bags with the draw string, they'll slip them
over there and just pull them, pull them over them,
and you keep everything out. You keep the bird pecks out,
you keep you know, the caterpillars and stink bugs away,
so that that's more detailed. But those are very inexpensive

(01:05:54):
little bags. Again, if you had, you know, twenty tomato plants,
that would be too tedious. But just a few. It's
an option.

Speaker 12 (01:06:03):
What about insect the saddle soap, it's a good option.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
It won't work on the caterpillars, it just doesn't. Oh no,
it's good for it's good for spider mates and a
fits on your tomato leaves.

Speaker 12 (01:06:16):
I was concerned about the seven desks for the contamination.
But anyway, thank you for all the options.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Yeah, you got some options, and thanks for the COSTA
appreciate appreciate you call very much. When was the last
time you guys were at Arbrogate. They always have new
things coming in. I mean it is always cool. It's
just I love going to Arbigate because of all the
stuff that they have. Do you need vegetables? Dany flowers?
Do you need roses? Do you need shrubs? Do you

(01:06:45):
need bulbs? Oh? By the way, guess what they just
got in A bunch of bulbs from Southern Bulb Company
h And they've got some of the great bulbs for summer.
There's a lot of awesome options for bulbs for summer,
and they're starting to carry some of the gingers. And
ginger is one of my favorite plants. And a Southern
Bulb Company is an outstanding producer of bulbs, and Arborgate

(01:07:07):
carries their bulbs. So go by there, say I want
to see these ginger bulbs. Skip was talking about the hedicium,
the white butterfly ginger, one of my favorite ones. There's
a lot of other types that are there. When you
go to Arburgate. Grab the one two three system. The
food complete, the soil complete, and the compost complete. All
three organic, All three work, and all three help you

(01:07:28):
get the brown stuff. Right, so the green stuff you
bought at Arburgate goes in and hits the ground running.
You can also buy those by the bulk by the
way at Arburgate, just about a mile and a half
west of two forty nine on twenty nine twenty there
in the Tombault area. Let's go now to Wharton and

(01:07:50):
we're going to talk to Angie Ajie. I got a
little bit of time here. Let's see if we can
squeeze a call in with you.

Speaker 10 (01:07:56):
Warning skip, Yeah, I was calling about my Peggy Martin roses.
All of a sudden, they've got spots all over them
and they're dropping their leaves. That's my first question. And
sent you some pictures I saw it in Yeah, what
do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
That's called circaspara leaf spot. It is a fungal leaf spot.
It's not like bronze spot that makes big large blotches
or black spot large blotches on the leaves. It just
makes a little round circleish dark spots sometimes at the
gray center, a little bit of a yellow halo around them,

(01:08:35):
and you would just have to use a fungicide to
prevent it. So Peggy Martin's a tough rose a little
sir caspara coming and going on it. You could ignore
it and it would be Okay, it doesn't look good,
but it's not going to kill your Peggy Martin. If
you wanted to spray, then then you could use a

(01:08:55):
fung aside to stop it.

Speaker 10 (01:08:58):
Okay, But the leaf drop is that that go along
with this particular fungus that you're talking about.

Speaker 12 (01:09:04):
Okay, okay?

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
Would go ahead?

Speaker 10 (01:09:10):
Would it benefit from pruning the roads back and just
kind of letting it start over? Or that fungus in
the soul and.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
It's just going to be there, it's in the air.
Uh So if you pruned it back, you'd get fresh,
tender new growth. And then if we got some rainy weather,
when spores land on the leaf and they get a
little coating of water over them, they germinate and they
infect and they cause the spots. So pruning, okay, wouldn't
change it. It would just I would delay a little

(01:09:38):
bit and the new flesh of growth could get it
too if the weather was right.

Speaker 10 (01:09:43):
Could I use the same spray sun just side that
I use on my high biscuits and not my high
biscuits my hydranges? Would that the same thing work for this.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Do you happen to have a recommendation the name of
it is if you know what's in it, I could
tell you products that are contained dack o'nil would be
good for the gray leaf spot. Uh. The products, let's see. Uh,
there's a product called immunox is another one that is

(01:10:14):
pretty good on the gray leaf spot. I'm trying to
think of what other that those would be the primary
ones that you would look at. Uh, yeah, it just
kind of depends. It just kind of depends.

Speaker 10 (01:10:30):
The daklo mil is what I want. I need a
product with daqueo mil in it.

Speaker 11 (01:10:33):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
A C it's d A c O n I L
dack O'Neill jl okay nimaspraiser. Also, they're organic and they're
pretty good on on the gray leaf spot as well.

Speaker 10 (01:10:50):
Yeah, and that's uh need to get that out early
in the morning, right before it gets too hot.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
It's better, Yes, it's better. I would probably go with
the immune em unox type product. All right, Well, I'm
up against a hard break, but good luck with that rose.
They're a beautiful one to have.

Speaker 10 (01:11:10):
Can you talk about my whole in my in my
Cajun high biscus when you come back. What's eating?

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
Yes, I'm gonna put you on hold and we'll talk
when I come back. All right, folks, I'll be right back. Alright, folks,
were back. Hey, we're back. Had a listener Larry sent
me a product that kind of relates to a conversation
that I was having a norm about, you know, overly

(01:11:37):
folks walking through the garden and not falling. And it's
a little walker deal. It's called a wheel ease. Well,
it's got a lot of ease in it. I don't
know anyway, w h E E L E easy anyway
it is. It's got big old fat rubbery tires. It's
for going on the beach with it, and it's like
a walker for the beach kind of deal. It would

(01:11:57):
be good for a garden, but runs about a loving
hundred bucks. So that's some expensive tomatoes. But anyway, those
of you who are injured, well and check that. I'm
not recommending the product, doing anything about it, just public service.
Had that conversation and caller, Thanks appreciate you sending me
that information. Larry. All right, let's see here. Well, I

(01:12:22):
wanted to tell you talk about ACE hardware stores just
for a moment. ACE is. Every time I go into
an ACE, I'm just reminded of how awesome of a
place they are. And I really you gotta go in
one to see. I can sit here and describe it
and tell you about all this stuff. But they have everything.
They have everything you need and all the fertilizers. I'm

(01:12:44):
talking about, all the products to control pasts and weeds
and diseases, and the tools that you might need, and
on and on to all the things that make outdoor living,
including the barbecue pits. One of these days, I'm gonna
tell you about my barbecue pit that I got at
ACE recently. Oh, we're loving thing, just turning outside into
a whole new, wonderful living area for us. But ACE

(01:13:06):
Hardware stores are all over the area. You can go
to ACE Hardware Texas. Don't forget Texas. Acehardware Texas dot com.
That's my garden line ACE Hardware Store group. Acehardware Texas
dot com. There's an ACE in League City, for example,
on West League City Parkway. There's an ACE in Katie
on Pinoak. There's an ACE down on Mason Road in Richmond, Plantation,

(01:13:30):
ACE K and m A. Tascasita is in Humble Texas, Fullshare,
Ace down in Fullshore, Texas on three fifty nine, j
and Our's Ace Hardware in Porter, Texas, and Bay City
Ace Hardware. Those are just a few of many, many,
many Ace Hardware stores here in the area. Go to
Acehardware Texas dot com, find the one near you, and

(01:13:53):
go check it out. You'll be glad you did. Let's see,
We're going to go now to Malin in Houston. If
I can find the right button.

Speaker 13 (01:14:03):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
Hey, Melinda, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (01:14:07):
Good morning, and kudos to ACE Hardware.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
I love them.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 14 (01:14:15):
Can we have a problem, Well, I've had a problem.
It started last year where spider mites just took over
my garden that I have in my atrium and I
sprayed them with a copper fungicide and I just had
trouble getting under control and it really just affected my

(01:14:35):
entire garden. And now they're back again this year and
I just okay, I've had a recommendation of something else
to spread my plants, and I just wonder what your sure.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
Sure? Is this an outdoor atrium type area that you're
talking about? It is, yes, Okay, So the simplest safest
thing to do for spider mites is to blast them
with water. So I have a little, you know, one
of those hose end guns that you spray with, and
I'll put my hands. If the plants are reachable, like

(01:15:09):
head high body hide that you can just blast them
by putting your hand about the leave and blasting it
off and just knocking the spider mics off of there.
They get Really they have a lot of issues when
they stay too wet. That's why they like hydrot dry, dusty, hot, dry,
dusty surfaces. So every time you give them a bath,

(01:15:29):
it's like you're causing fungal diseases of their body or
other issues. So just physically knocking them off getting them
wet like that once a week more than enough to
keep them. You do that about three times and you've
got them in check enough to get by the next
step would be to put an insecticidal soap or a

(01:15:49):
horticultural oil in a spray and spray upward from under
the leaf. Both the blasting, the soap and the oil
require you to get the mites wet in order to
kill them. So if you have one leaf that is
above another and the spray doesn't get on the leaf
that's the spray is blocked from. They will not be

(01:16:13):
controlled because soap and oil aren't poisons, they're physical killers.
So coverage is critical. Do them early, early in the morning,
when it's the coolest time of the day so it
dries off before the hot bake, the hot baking sun
would come out, because soaps and oils can both damage
plants in hot weather with sun baking down on them.

(01:16:34):
But I use blasts of water myself. Some plants it's
just a little impractical to get a blast to work
on them. You just can't get it to really blast
the leaf well. And in that case, the soaps and
oil sprays would be your best bet. And they're both
super super low toxic. Don't don't don't use copper anymore.
That won't work at all.

Speaker 8 (01:16:55):
Right, Okay, And I understand, like I can do that.

Speaker 14 (01:16:58):
I have a bunch of plants, but I can do that.
But I also have an ivy that they got on
last year, and it would be almost impossible to do
that ivy.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
It would be it is absolutely impossible of doing an
ivy like that. There are some mitasides out there. There
used to be a product called Kelthane. I think it.
I think it's still on the market, but I'm not
sure of that. But you know, going into an ice
hardware and saying, hey, what what do you have for
spider may? Do you have anything like Kelthane? And I'd

(01:17:28):
have to check to see if that one's still around.
We've generally have gotten away from those because when you
use those kind of things, you often kill the beneficials
that are keeping the spider mites somewhat in check, and
then you have worse problems. But there are i'll call
them spidermight poison type products that you could also use.

Speaker 8 (01:17:51):
And how do you spell that one?

Speaker 12 (01:17:52):
Kelthane?

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
Would well? Kelthane is k E L T h A
n E. And I I probably shouldn't even have brought
it up without me first going and checking and making
sure that it that it actually is available.

Speaker 14 (01:18:09):
Still, okay, all right, okay, I hope this works and
I appreciate your Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
You bet, thanks for the call. Appreciate that a lot. Hey,
it's time to do your night Fass super Turf if
you have them already. Nitrofass Super Turf. It's slow release,
gets out there, releases for four months in your in
your lawn and just makes things look good. It really
really is an awesome fertilizer, widely available. You're gonna find

(01:18:42):
it at places like in Jennet Gardens and Richmond Rosenberg,
or maybe the M and D and Cyprus, or Katie
A's Hardware on pennok all places you're going to find
night foss products like that super turf. All right, well,
music means I gotta quit talking, and I will. We
will be back though, if you'd like to give me
a call, be one of the first up seven one
three two one two k t r H seven one

(01:19:04):
three two one two k t r H. I want
to remind you again about the website. I still talk
to a lot of people that have ever been there.
Gardening with skip dot com. Gardening with skip dot com.
Look at what's up there. My schedules are up there,
you can print them out, and there's lots more time
for me to grab another cup of coffee. Talk to

(01:19:26):
you in a minute. All right, folks, Hey, we're back.
Welcome back to guarden Line. Glad you're with us today,
looking forward to hoping you have a successful and more
enjoyable gardening experience. If you like to give me a
call seven one three two one two k t r H.

(01:19:47):
By the way, I just saw, uh, Angie, I we
had somehow you slipped through the cracks on my calls
and I wouldn't getting back to you. So if you
like to give me a call back, be happy to
visit with you a little bit more. And in fact,
as I say that, there we go. All right, Hey, Angie,

(01:20:08):
that's funny. Sorry about that. I just stuck you on
a shelf and forgot you were there. My apologies.

Speaker 4 (01:20:16):
That's all right.

Speaker 10 (01:20:17):
I'm very patient.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Good, well, I'm trying that patient. So you have some
You had a hole in a bud of a hibiscus.

Speaker 10 (01:20:26):
Right, yes, my cage hibiscus.

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
Yes, yeah, that is a caterpillar hole. And there are
various kinds of caterpillars that will chew on the leaves
of hibiscus and also sometimes chew on the little buds.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
It often is a little bit cosmetic and not maybe
worth getting out a spray bottle and mixing up stuff
and spraying if you want to spray to control them.
Either BT products products that contain an ingredient b as
a boy teas and Tom the proper name of the

(01:21:03):
of the bacteria as basillistheringiensis. That's why we just say
bt or A. Spino said products s P I N
O S A D spin No sad. They are both organic.
They're both caterpillar killers, and you would just have to
spray ahead of time and when they chew in, they
get the product and it kills them. I think Spino

(01:21:25):
said would work better for this situation. To be honest,
if it were mine, I probably would just tolerate a
little damage unless it just got really bad.

Speaker 10 (01:21:34):
All right, I'll leave it b and then you know
we were talking about that fund decide for the gray
leaf spot on the Peggy Martin. The one I have
is in in fues is the brand name that I have,
and the chemical starts.

Speaker 15 (01:21:50):
With the P p R O p.

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
Oh propaconaisole. Okay, yeah, that's fine, that would work to
It's fine. It's another good one if you If you
do that, that that is essentially well, it's the same
category as the emmynox that I gave you. It's a
different ingredient with the same category, So don't don't alternate

(01:22:15):
between those two. But the infuse should work. And if
you needed to change from the infuse. Then the dacanil
is a different category and we try to switch to
avoid resistance issues.

Speaker 10 (01:22:26):
Okay, okay, all right, well thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
All right, all right, thanks for your pure no work.
You take care. Bye bye. Plans for All Seasons on
Tomball Parkway just north of Luetta Garden Center bet Arounds
is nineteen seventy three. I mean, we're talking about a
family owned operation of folks that know what they're talking about.

(01:22:50):
They are true lawn and garden experts, they really are.
You can take them pictures, you can bring in samples.
They can help you. They can help solve problems that
you would have. They could even make suggestions, you know,
like oh, I want to do a container, but it's
only going to get about a third of a day sun,
and I want it this and I want that. And
they'll just walk around with you, pick out some plants
and say put these together. They would look really nice.

(01:23:13):
You can give them a call two eight, one, three
seven six sixteen forty six, or go to Plants for
All Seasons dot com. Whatever you do, and if you
take pride in your landscape and in your garden and
in your lawn, you need to visit plants for all seasons.
On two forty nine, they will help turn what you
think maybe a brown thumb into something green. Let's go

(01:23:35):
to Netherland now and talk to Randy. Hello, Randy, welcome
to guard Line.

Speaker 11 (01:23:41):
How are you this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
I'm doing well, Thank you, good skip.

Speaker 12 (01:23:47):
My question is about tomato seeds that are a year old.

Speaker 3 (01:23:52):
If I plant them and they germinate, is there any
reason to think that that the plant would the inferior
to a seed that was from this year.

Speaker 6 (01:24:06):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
Now, if they were stuck out in a hundred and
something degree hot, you know, storage shed outside, then that
will take a toll on viability. But tomatoes will last
a year easy. As a seed gets more towards the
end of its viability, like where if you plant them
only half the seeds have come up, They're going to

(01:24:27):
be a little bit weaker as an early on seedling,
but then they should hit the ground and catch up
and be okay. But a year old is not a
problem with tomatoes. Okay, I appreciate it all right, Renny,
you take care, Thanks, thank you, appreciate appreciate that very much.

(01:24:48):
Heirloom soils, when you think of heirloom soils. You think
of quality products, and you think of selection. And when
I say that, I mean do you need something for
roses and other bloomers. Do you need some them for
vegetables and herbs? Do you need something for fruit trees?
Do you need a nice quality screened compost leaf mold
compost to go on top of your lawn? Do you

(01:25:10):
need a lawn mix just to fill in some holes,
level things out a little bit, and get ready for
planting that lawn? What do you need? Do you need
mulches of many kinds? Heirloom soils They have it all.
You can buy it by the bag at your local
garden centers and feed stores and ace hardware stores in
places like that. You can buy it by the bulk.
You can have them deliver it and dump it on

(01:25:31):
the driveway. You can have them deliver it and bring
it in. A big supersac that holds a cubic yard
is neat and clean and easy. It doesn't matter how
you want to go about it. Just start by going
to heirloomsoils dot com. Learn about the products you want,
find out where to get them, and then go do
the right thing, which is start with the brown stuff.
The soil so that the green stuff the plants thrive.

(01:25:55):
They hit the ground running. Super quality products. I use
them myself, never had one that didn't work in the
most outstanding way. It is really good stuff. This is
not cheap hurried through low quality like you buy. You know,
you go someplace and you find something that looks less expensive,
Well it's cheaper or meaning it's cheap, it's junk. It

(01:26:18):
doesn't work. There's see so much of that, especially in
big box stores and things. Airloom soils, quality products, reasonable price,
and they work. Gardening is supposed to be fun. Don't
make it harder on yourself by using cheap junk. Get
a quality product like airloom soil that's made right so
that it does work, so you can have success. Let's

(01:26:42):
go now out to let's see here, go to Fairfield
and we're going to talk to Marty. Hello, Marty, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:26:49):
Morning morning, Skip.

Speaker 10 (01:26:51):
Thank you for the.

Speaker 16 (01:26:55):
The list, the email that you sent back to me. Hey,
I just three souded the whole side of my yard
and because of Virginia button weed and it's coming back.
And I wondered what I could use right now because
I used whatever you had on your website. I used

(01:27:18):
that on the front lawne and it seemed to have
weakened the grass a little bit.

Speaker 12 (01:27:23):
So in this well former.

Speaker 1 (01:27:26):
Yeah, so, Virginia button we it's hard to kill and
it takes a good punch to kill it. And Saint
Augustine is susceptible when weather gets up in the nineties
to some of those products, and so I would recommend
a product called Celsius, like the temperature fahrenheit and Celsius.
Celsius you can use it even into the lower to

(01:27:49):
mid nineties and it'll be okay without stressing your Saint
Augustine as well. And the trials I've seen across the
southeast US Celsius has been as good against the Virginia
button weed about anything that's over the counter in the
garden centers. So I thought would be the one I
would go with.

Speaker 16 (01:28:07):
Okay, I'm gonna be at the plants for all season,
not until Tuesdays. There's something I can just put in
this one little one by it's just like a one
foot by five inch area to kind of hold it
for a couple of.

Speaker 1 (01:28:20):
Days to kill the Virginia button weed. You mean, yeah, Well,
if It's only one foot by five and I mean
you could pretty much squirt anything on it. Just do
it early in the morning. I don't know if you
have a product that has like trimech in it, or

(01:28:41):
if you have a product like Baun eye beater, or
if you have fertilan weed free zone. Just get down
close and do as as best you can. Get it
on the Virginia button weed rather than the grass. But
that's a really small spot. And I would if you
do it in the morning. Temperatures are cool, uh, and
it has plenty of time to dry out before the

(01:29:02):
sun gets hot. I think you'd be okay with any
of those right now.

Speaker 15 (01:29:05):
Okay, you have image with turbo it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
I don't know what's in image with turbo.

Speaker 16 (01:29:16):
Dister fact it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
Okay, Oh okay, yeah, oh the turbos. Yes, let me
check on that image. I'm not sure on that. I'm
up against a really hard break here at Marty, but
I'll see something when when I can come back to it. Okay,
all right, thank you, bye bye, all right, folks, I'll
be right back alrighty, welcome back to Guardline. Good have

(01:29:41):
you with us? Got plenty of things we canna be
talking about today, and the callers are all over the
board when it comes to topics, so that's good. It
kind of makes it fun. Hey, D and D Feed
and Tombole awesome, awesome feed store. Of course, it's a
feed store. You get all the livestock feeds and things
you want, but you also get some really high quality
foods too. They have a number of different brands to

(01:30:03):
choose from, and dnd feed is a one stop shop
when it comes to things for your garden and your
lawn also. For example, you're going to find fertilizers from
Nitrofoss and Microlife, Nelson turf Star, and from Medina and
General Nelson plant foods in the jars as well as
Microlife in the jars too. You're going to find soils

(01:30:24):
from heirloom soils for example. Dand Feed carries things that
you can't find everywhere when it comes to certain products
for treating weeds or diseases or insects in your lawns,
in your gardens, shrubs, trees, whatever. You got, dand Feed's
going to have the supplies that you need to have success.
You're dealing with the pests and roadents outdoors. They've got

(01:30:46):
you covered. You need Mosquita dunks and other Mosquita product
control products. They've got you covered. D and D feed
three miles west of two forty nine on FM twenty
nine in Toombol two eight one three five one seven
one forty four two eight one three five one seventy
one forty four. We're going to run out now to

(01:31:06):
cypress and talk to John. Hello, John, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (01:31:10):
Hey, thank you skip.

Speaker 9 (01:31:13):
Hey.

Speaker 17 (01:31:13):
I have a question.

Speaker 18 (01:31:14):
I've never aerrated my yard before, and I've kind of
been thinking about it, and I think I'm going to
try to do it this weekend, and I was curious
if you could if I go rent an aerrator, can
you help me understand? So once I air rate, I
think the next step would be compost top dressing.

Speaker 19 (01:31:33):
But can you help walk me through.

Speaker 18 (01:31:34):
The things that would be beneficial for my yard? I
have Saint Augustine grass.

Speaker 1 (01:31:39):
Okay, so number one you want A first thing you
do is turn on your sprinklers and get you some
little metal, little wire flags. And everywhere there's a sprinkler head,
put a flag in so that you're not destroying sprinkler
heads with the aeration. You don't want that Okay, I've
done that extra work. Yeah. Second, you want the soil well,

(01:32:01):
this may have been even first, but you want the
soil to be moderately moist, not soggy, guey, wet, and
definitely not hard heart dry, so that you get the
most out of your aeration and then get your product.
If you can find a core aerator, one that pulls
cores out of the soil rather than just squeezing a
hole into the soil, then do a core aerator. It's

(01:32:25):
better to do that. Go over the lawn left right,
north south east west. If you will do two different ways,
make good aeration through the lawn, and then spread your
leaf more compost roughly about a third of an inch
thick something like that is plenty to put out there

(01:32:46):
on it and rake it around and it'll it'll go
down in the hole. So you do their. You do
the aeration first, you do the leaf moll compost second.
And you can buy it by the bag. You can
buy it by the bulk. You can have them to
deliver it. You know, if you need a whole QBICR
of it. If you go to airloom Soils website airloomsoils
dot com there's a calculator and you can say, Okay,

(01:33:08):
my yard is this big and I want to put
it this deep, and it'll tell you exactly how much
you need. Then you know if a book delivery is
needed or not. And you can also go pick it
up if you happen to have a trailer or truck.
But however you want to go.

Speaker 18 (01:33:22):
Okay, what about like fertilizers or any products that I
could spray on to help my grass?

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
Is there anything? Or should I just wait after I
do the compost? Yeah, wait until the whole thing's over.
If you if you wanted to, if you're gonna do fertilization,
I would probably do it. I don't know. You could
do it first and then do the aeration and top dressing,
or you could air rate fertilize and then top dress.

(01:33:51):
However you want to go about it is fine either way.
It doesn't really matter with the fertilizer what order you
put it in, but just put it out at the
right rate. Follow my skin schedule in terms of the
products to use for this time of the year. Sure,
and you should be good to go. Water it in
real good when you're done. Okay.

Speaker 18 (01:34:07):
Last question, Also, like I've heard it and read about hummates.
If I put humates down, would that help?

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
Yeah? Humates are always good. No, hum mates are like
concentrated compost. I would do it after the aerration. Micro
Life's purple bag called Humates plus. You can put it
out now. There's going to be a rate on the bag.
If you wanted to go a little higher than that rate,
it is not going to hurt anything. It just is
adding more humans to the soil, and so that that

(01:34:37):
would be a good thing, and it would with the
aerration it would get it down below the surface too,
which is even better.

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (01:34:44):
Okay, all right, okay, sounds like you're off to a
good start. John, you bet, thank you. I appreciate appreciate
your call. Yeah, good idea. Hey, Nelson Water Garden and
Nursery out there in Katie, Texas is theur West Houston
Premier Garden Center. And when I say premiere, I'm talking
about a destination type garden center you take your friends to.

(01:35:07):
People travel from distances to get there because it's so cool.
They have been basically they have been a leader when
it comes to all things water garden across the country
now for years. They are awesome. But what you're gonna
find when you go to Nelson is not just water
garden stuff. You're going to find plants from house plants
to beautiful little They have a little thing called a

(01:35:29):
sand dollar cactus and you just got to go look
at them. They're cute. They're a little dark, dark gray
green with kind of white silvery spots on them. They
have little pretty low ballooms on them. Really cool. When
you're there, you're going to find plants for you know,
vegetables and herbs and shrubs and trees and flowers, and
certainly water garden plants do really really well. So Nelson

(01:35:53):
Water Gardens and Nursery and Katie on Fort Ben Road.
You just turn north on Katie Fort Benroad. It's just
a little bit up on the right hand side. Nelsonwatergardens
dot Com. Let's go now to Pinehurst, Texas and we're
going to talk to Marcus. Hello, Marcus, Hi, thanks for
taking my call.

Speaker 20 (01:36:14):
I have a question about a magnolia tree.

Speaker 10 (01:36:18):
I have.

Speaker 1 (01:36:21):
Okay, I have a.

Speaker 20 (01:36:24):
By garden area. It's mostly just a mult going around
the tree. It's about a ten foot diameter circle. And
my tree it wasn't taken care of by the previous owner.
So now it's grown way out and it's growing down

(01:36:44):
and I would really like to trim this tree, but
I know magnolias are sensitive, so I didn't know if
you had any.

Speaker 1 (01:36:56):
Yeah, it's okay to prove them, primarily them in the winter,
but you can do some printing right now. The thing
with magnolias is part of their natural beauty and form
is when the branches go all the way to the ground.
We say the skirt goes all the way to the
ground on the tree, the foldage skirt. And that's fine.
If you want to train them up where they have

(01:37:16):
a trunk and then the branches start at some height,
you can do that. There's no problem with doing that.
It's just that it's difficult to get things to grow
under a magnolia, and so you know, when you train
it up because of the density of shade year round,
it's kind of difficult. And sometimes people just let them
go all the way to the ground. That's purely aesthetic.

(01:37:38):
Your choice.

Speaker 20 (01:37:40):
Yeah, I know my wife would prefer that, but I'm
probably sitting the outside of the tree is, or the
drip line of the tree is probably sitting about three
to four feet outside of what I've got already. Okay,
my front yard is not that big.

Speaker 1 (01:38:01):
Yeah, well, trim them up, trim them up to a
certain height. If you want to do part of it
now and go up a certain height and then in
the wintertime go up a little higher. You can. You
can do that just kind of. Look. Sometimes it means
a branch needs to come off the trunk. Sometimes it
just means maybe there's a fork in the branch and
one side's going down low and the other west side's

(01:38:22):
coming up higher, and you can just make that cut
at the fork and not have to remove the whole
branch at the trunk. But you're not gonna there's not
a right or wrong on this. You're gonna be okay,
just go with your ascetic preferences. Let me say wife's
aesthetic preferences.

Speaker 20 (01:38:40):
Okay, I have read some things that you need to
keep your cutting tools as sanitary as possible.

Speaker 8 (01:38:48):
Is it.

Speaker 20 (01:38:51):
Wipe everything down with alcohol and all.

Speaker 1 (01:38:54):
That kind of all right, So it's just a if
we're dealing with things that maybe does like hankers and things,
we sterilize it between cuts. But in general, you don't
need in pruning the landscape to always sterilize in between
every cut and on a magnolia. I don't think you
have a problem with that. I wouldn't worry about it.

(01:39:15):
If you want to get your bottle or a spray,
a spray can of Lye sool and just spray the prunters.
It's fast and easy that way. Uh, if you want
to do that, okay, good luck.

Speaker 20 (01:39:26):
So I appreciate it, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:39:29):
Thank you very much. Appreciate appreciate your call very much.
All right, folks, well here we go. We are up
against another break, Jay and deer Park. You are going
to be first when we come back from a little
quick break here for the rest of you. Seven to
one three two one two kt r H. Seven to

(01:39:50):
one three two one two kt r H. Take a
little quick break and we'll be right back. Don't go away,
all right, folks, welcome back. Good have you with us
here on Guardline. Hey, I won't tell you about a
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(01:40:12):
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(01:40:33):
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(01:40:55):
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(01:41:17):
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Speaker 2 (01:41:21):
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Speaker 1 (01:41:21):
I don't care if you live out West or Brookshire,
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(01:42:05):
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fiberglass insulation. They can do any kind of insulation you
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really really well is blown fiberglass with an r value
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(01:42:26):
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But it lasts a very long time and its thermal
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(01:42:47):
can do is put a solar attic fan in. Now,
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That attic fan that's powered by the sun. It comes
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(01:43:11):
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(01:43:34):
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(01:43:54):
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Speaker 17 (01:44:12):
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I guess Arctic Houston eight three to two five eight
six twenty eight ninety three. Eight three to two, five
eight six twenty eight ninety three. We're going to head
out now to Deer Park and we are going to

(01:45:13):
talk to Jay. Hello Jay, and welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 21 (01:45:18):
Good morning, Skip. I've got some brown pat questions on
the front yard. I sent over some pictures. I'm not
sure if you've seen those, have access to them, but
I did traded for it last year. It's just not
recovering quite as fast as I thought, so any tips
on recovery, and probably more important is prevention. This isn't
the first time it's happened, so I want to try

(01:45:38):
to get ahead of it this year.

Speaker 1 (01:45:41):
Okay, let me let me get that picture of pictures
that chat back out in front of it. Yeah. So
the brown patch rots the leaves off the runner, and
then the grass comes back, because it doesn't kill the grass,
it just rots the leaves off. But in the meantime
you're left with these spots, and then you're left also
with more weed problems because the sunlight now can reach

(01:46:01):
the soil. When I look at your areas, it looks
like more than brown patches going on. To me, it
looks almost like it might be take all root rot.
As I you know, I can only get so close
in the photo, but as I'm zooming in and taking
a look at them, there are just some signs that

(01:46:23):
more is going on. There's also some signs of a
little bit of gray leaf spot and a little bit
of Saint Augustine decline virus. Okay, So if you go
up to those spots when you're out there in the
yard and you see some grass blades, and when you
pick them, the green has all these little tiny thin

(01:46:47):
splotches of not green, kind of tannish yellowish looking in them.
That's gray leaf that is Saint Augustine declined virus, and
I think that's what you're dealing with. So the fact
that there's some seed heads in there, I think it's
an older type of Saint Augustine maybe, but that's what
I'm seeing. So my best guess, shooting just from pictures,

(01:47:11):
is that you've got an older type of Saint Augustine
that is weakened by the virus. There's no cure for that.
Lots of loans have had it over the decades here
in the Greater Houston area. It's just a matter of
plugging in, either revamping the lawn holy or just plugging
in some healthier Saint Augustine's that are resistant to the
virus to get away from that. The other the take

(01:47:33):
all is a root killing disease, and it's showing up
is some yellowing on your turf and some decline of
the growth in your turf. I would say that if
you go to my website and go to my lawn
pest Disease and we'd management schedule there is it tells
you about brown patch, it tells you about take all
root rot. When you would apply things for those I

(01:47:56):
would seriously consider doing a take all root rot app
location this October in your lawn. And finally, the gray
leaf spot is the spots on the leaves that have
very ten centers and purplish borders. I see a lot
of that in those areas. And there's a fungicide product
by nitrofoss called Eagle a g l E and Eagle

(01:48:21):
will control a number of diseases, but also that gray
leaf spot. So I think I would do an Eagle application.
I might consider some compost top dressing in some of
those areas, uh, and then just moderate fertilization on through
the summer.

Speaker 21 (01:48:36):
For now, at the beginning of that you talked about
maybe replacing it. In my mind was going towards cutting
out that area and putting in new side just in
those those spots. Yeah, would that be I mean it
seems to me that would take care of most of that,
right or should I would you recommend going with them

(01:48:57):
and whatnot?

Speaker 1 (01:48:58):
You you could? You could? That would be that would
be some work. Just each Saint Augustine is a little different.
Some are bluer than others, some are more upright than others,
some that you know, and so you may end up
with a little splotchiness when you try to put the
new grass in among that old grass. But that that

(01:49:20):
is the only drawback. But I understand certainly you don't
have to redo the whole lawn just because of this.
If it were my lawn, I would do I probably
would do some aerration corroration. I would do a compost
stop dressing, and then I would be ready this fall
to do a take all root rot application and then
that fungicide eagle. I think I would do that and

(01:49:42):
let's see if we can bring it back before we
do the more drastic thing of resotting areas perfect.

Speaker 21 (01:49:50):
I appreciate the tips. And then there was one other
picture that was thrown in in there, just just a
plug for the Vego garden systems.

Speaker 1 (01:49:57):
I saw that. That that's beautiful. I have a question
for you, a real quick question. I'm laid on a
break here, but do those little Christmas ornaments? Do you
think they help with birds pecking the tomatoes? Have you
noticed any difference?

Speaker 21 (01:50:14):
I did weirdly enough, I think it does. This is
my second year to do them, okay, And I don't
know if I heard of from Reindy or from yourself.
But I thought there's a waste of time, and after
battling it for years, I decided to do it, and
I honestly think it did make a difference.

Speaker 1 (01:50:28):
Well, good good. I'm just curious because people have talked
about that for years and usually they use red ornaments
so it looks like a ripening tomato or something. But
I just thought i'd ask, Hey, thanks a lot. I
appreciate that, and good luck getting that long back and shape.
If you do those things and can turn it around,
send me a picture. I'd love to see it. Well
do thank you, Thank you for the call. Appreciate that.

(01:50:51):
All right, I'll be right back, all righty, ready, here
we go. Love Neil Diamond. If you're listening to guard Line,
the phone number seven one three two one two ktrh
Enchanted Forest Garden Center out there in Richmond Rosenberg area.
They are on FM twenty seven fifty nine. By the way,

(01:51:12):
let me give you the website. It is an awesome
website and you need to go there. You also need
to follow them on social media, by the way, Enchanted
Forest Richmond TX dot com. Enchanted Forest Richmond, t X
dot com. They are loaded with all kinds of cool
and unusual things right now, I mean beautiful beautiful things,

(01:51:35):
things that bloom and vines like mendevilla and diplodinia. They
have beautiful hibiscus, they have beautiful pilumerias. They've got all
kinds of yard art that's just gargous. By the way,
Plumeria is the Hawaiian layflower. You are the one you
make a necklace out of. Looks really really good. You
need a vitec street. You see those blooming around town.

(01:51:56):
That beautiful purple blue blossoms just go on into summer.
It's a great pollinator attractor too. Has a nice fragrance too,
by the way, they've got those there. Now you need
to know about this public service announcement. Today Today at
Eningended Forest Gended Forest in Richmond Rosenberg area two thirty
to four to thirty is the Tomato Tasting Contest. Don't

(01:52:21):
miss this. You got a tomato on a haul out there?
Check in is it two thirty okay? Starts at three
check ins at two thirty. It's a free event, family friendly,
all ages. All ages can be part of this. You
can celebrate that joy that comes in growing, tasting and
sharing tomatoes. Now they're going to give awards for judges choice,
the best tasting tomato, the biggest tomato by weight, the

(01:52:43):
People's choice, the crowd favorite one most people like, and
the best tomato themed costume. So there you go. Don't
know if you have time to sew one still, but
the best tomata theme costume Enchedded Forest Tomato Tasting Contest today.
While you're there, go what is it their herb house?
Unbelievable selection in the herb house. I mean they have

(01:53:07):
so many different kinds of herb. I talk about that
their herb selection all the time. But try this on
for size. Eighteen varieties of basil. Do you think you
can find one you like out of eighteen varieties of basil? Yeah?
Nine varieties of ment, eight varieties a time, five types
of aregano, Mexican marigol, lemon, verbena, deal, fennel, onion, chiveed card.

(01:53:27):
It just goes on and on go. Yeah, you know
you can't go tomatoes without oregano. Right, You've got to
be able to and basil. You got to be able
to make pestos and things well. Intended Forest Richmond Rosenberg
Intended Forest Richmond, TX dot com. We're gonna head out
the phones. Now go to sugar Land and talk to Samuel.
Hello Samuel, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (01:53:49):
Good morning. Just have a quick question. I've been working
with a company called True Green, and I am not
saying they're doing a bad job, but I'm having a
real problem with crabgrass and Okay, I'm torn between just
you know, digging them. There's so many of them. I
would say, is it a bad idea just to pull

(01:54:13):
them out and put new grass or just continue with
the process that they're saying it'll.

Speaker 15 (01:54:17):
Go away over time.

Speaker 1 (01:54:20):
Well, it goes away when your lawn gets so dense
that light can't get to the ground and the seeds
can't get started. But most lawns are gonna have some
thinness to them. That's why on my schedule you'll see
barricade applications in mid February because crabgrass is an early germinator,
and you got to put it down before the crabgrass germinates. Now,

(01:54:40):
if you get a good pull pulling of your crabgrass out,
then you could do a barricade even now watered in
with a half inch of water, and then future seeds
that would come up, it'll stop those for about sixty
days or more in your lawn, so that that would
be an option for you.

Speaker 17 (01:55:02):
Yeah, I just it seems like every time I pull
it out put new grass. I'm good for about six
to eight months, and then inside of a year they
show up in different spots.

Speaker 1 (01:55:15):
Well, two things. Number one, just what I said, follow
the schedule. You can avoid crabgrass that way. Secondly, if
you want to send some pictures up close, pull some up,
lay it on a dark surface like a kitchen table
or something, and take a picture of it in good
sharp focus. If you've got seed heads on it, that's
even better. Let me make sure we're talking about crabgrass,
because there's a lot of grasses some of them look

(01:55:37):
somewhat like that. But I'll be happy to do that
for you, Samuel. But my schedule is available at gardening
with Skip dot com, and if you send the photos,
I'm going to put you on hold. If you want
to stick around, my producer will pick up and tell
you how to send me some photos so we make
sure we're talking about the same grass. But thank you
very much, I do appreciate that call. Speaking of lawns,

(01:55:58):
Nelson Plant Food has outstanding products for the lawns. We've
talked about a number of different things that they carry,
super quality products I won't call weedinator. Wheedenator is a
herbicide that kills existing weeds. We usually talk about that
in the springtime. They do have the Slow and Easy,

(01:56:20):
which is a summer fertilization product that lasts for four
months or more. You put Slow and Easy down from
Nelson now and you're not going to fertilize again until
the fall fertilization. It is that slow. It has several
different kinds of nitrogen in it, and each one releases
at a little different pace, and so you get this
nice even feeding with Nelson Slow and Easy, Slow and easy,

(01:56:46):
easy to remember, easy to apply, and you will love
the way your lawn looks when you use it. It
is a super quality product based on turf research science
that knows exactly what grass needs, what it needs, and
what ratios and how to apply it. Nelson's Plant Food,
Slow and Easy. Piercecapes is who I would tell someone

(01:57:08):
to call if they wanted if they're on needed professional help.
If you need professional help, that's a different phone call.
But anyway, Pierscapes they can come in, they can revamp
They can redo your irrigation system. Maybe inefficient, they can
fix that. Do you have bad drainage, they can fix that.
Do you want landscape lighting, They can do that. Go
to the website get the inspiration from there. Pierce Scapes

(01:57:34):
dot com. Piercescapes dot com two eight one three seven
oh fifty sixty. These are professional folks that know how
to do it right, and they can do whether it's
a big job or a small job. They can make
your place a showplace, that little garden of Eden that
we all want when we dream of our beautiful outdoor

(01:57:55):
living environment around our homes. Pest Bros. The landscape pest
and pest management company and the indoor pest management company
that we talk about here on Guardline. They cover from
Texas City all the way up to the Woodlands up
Interstate forty five. They go from Baytown on the east
all the way to Katie on the west. They can

(01:58:17):
fix termit situations. They can fix fire ins and mosquitos
and wild varmints and whatever you're going after. The Pestbros
dot Com Dpestbros dot com two eight one, two oh
six forty six seventy two eight one two oh six
four six seven zero. This week I posted something about

(01:58:38):
my mosquito bucket system. I reposted what the mosquito buckets
are all about. And this next week I'm going to
give an update from my yard on how the mosquito
buckets I have from pest Bros. Have been working. So
stay tuned for that. Follow us on Facebook, by the way,
garden Line on Facebook, or you can follow me also
on Instagram. Gardening with Skip on Instagram. Our garden Line

(01:59:01):
with skip. Excuse me, garden Line with Skip on Instagram.
We post things periodically say pretty regularly that will help
you have a beautiful and bountiful garden. I'll be right back.
Welcome back to garden Line. Hey, by a hour today,

(01:59:23):
No time for you to give us a call if
you got a question. Seven one three two one two
kt r H seven one three two one two k
t r H Houston powder coders. You've heard me talk
about them before. They are the biggest powder coder in
this region. Six acre operation, over seventy five employees. I mean,
these people are serious about powder coating. They got ben

(01:59:44):
Sebiggie and drab a whole Traguzhnak trailer in there and
get it powder coded. But from a home garden standpoint,
what do you have outside that's metal that you would
like to make beautiful and to preserve its quality. Maybe
you've got some outdoor furniture that's starting to rust a
little bit. Well, they can deal with the rust. They
need maybe a broken well need's fixing, and need some

(02:00:05):
new hardware like rusty bolts and things. I'll put stainless
steel ones on there. Anything that it needs to get
it back in the shape it was. That includes straps
and you know, sling fabric and vinyl straps and those
little plastic rubber feet that go on the bottom of
some of the tubular furniture. They do all that, and
then you get to pick from over one hundred colors
as to what color you want it to be. From

(02:00:26):
something very natural like almost a rusty color, or a
tan color, a black color, to you name it. They
can do it all cast iron, wrought iron, aluminum, if
it's metal. If it's outside and you want it powder coated,
here's what you do. You take a picture of it,
you email it to them sales at Houstoncoders dot com.

(02:00:47):
Sales at Houstoncoders dot com. They will give you a
quick response. If you're in the greater Houston area, they'll
pick it up and when they're done, they'll deliver it.
Simple as that. I mean, this is a This is
a company that knows what they're doing. They treat their
customers right, and the work is unbelievable. Go check them
out at Houstonpowdercoders dot com. Houston powder Coders dot com

(02:01:10):
two eight one six seven six thirty eight eighty eight.
If you're on Facebook or Instagram, look them up on
social media Houston powder Coders and look at the work
they do. Unbelievable. It'll make you wish you had metal
furniture if you didn't, so you could take it by
there because they do such unbelievably awesome work. All right,
we're going to run here. Let's see here. Get my

(02:01:33):
computer mouse. I always grabbed the wrong I have more
than one mouse. Can you believe that I have mice?

Speaker 10 (02:01:38):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (02:01:38):
And I got to go to the right one. We're
gonna go to El Campo and talk to Jim. Hello, Jim,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (02:01:45):
Thank you.

Speaker 18 (02:01:46):
Skip.

Speaker 15 (02:01:46):
My wife and I had just moved to El Campo,
bought a piece of property. That's it's all active farming community,
so everything is pretty much clearcut. And when I wanted
to put some trees in around the house, but I
just kind of wanted your recommendation. So what kinds of
trees would do well in that area? And you know,
seek relatively low maintenance.

Speaker 1 (02:02:07):
Right, Okay, well, good, good question. Good time to ask
too before you plan. So just remember that remember this phrase,
live fast, die young. Okay, grow fast, die young. Typically
the trees that they go, oh, this is a fast
growing tree. It's not worth having weak wooded all kinds
of issues. But if you get a quality tree, like

(02:02:30):
an oak, for example, let's say a nuthall oak or
a shoe mard oak, if you fertilize them and water
them adequately, they will grow at a very good rate
and they will last decades and decades and decade. Your
grandkids will enjoy the tree. So that's the way you
want to go. Get a good quality species and take

(02:02:51):
care of it with watering and fertilizing. Watering is more
important than fertilizing. Fertilizing is also important. Shoe mard would
be one if your soil is good, decent, kind of
a loamy type soil. If it's a clay. If it's
a little bit maybe questionable drainage, definitely shift over to
nuttall oak. Nuttall will grow in any kind of soil,

(02:03:13):
but it's just a little more tolerant of poor drainage
than the schue mart Is so nttal. Can never remember
how many ls it has, but anyway, nuttall. Another good
one that you see around is Chinese elm. It is
this one. You probably ought to go online and do
a search for it so you can see what I'm

(02:03:34):
talking about. But as little small leaves, it's got a
very open, tall, large habit. But the bark is kind
of a cinnamon and gray mix of splotchy, exfoliating bark.
It's a very attractive bark, so even in winter it
looks good. But that one grows pretty fast. You see
it used a lot in parking lots, islands and things

(02:03:55):
where the conditions are horrible for trees. It's very tolerant
of a ye rows of conditions. But that would be
another good one, you know. There there's just so many
different kinds of trees, Jim. I like cypress trees a lot.
I think they make a big, beautiful, long live tree.
But if your soils a little soggy, they send the

(02:04:17):
knees up. And so if you've got clay soils and
it may stay a little on the wet side for
periods of time, you would want to get one called
a month of Zuma cypress. He doesn't want money month
of Zuma and they get huge in time. They're a
nice treat, a little bit less cold hearty than regular cypress.
But down you're in Whartons, so you know, it's not

(02:04:40):
like you're calling me from Huntsville.

Speaker 15 (02:04:43):
What size trees would you recommend we start with, I
mean in terms of, you know, having the best chance
for success.

Speaker 1 (02:04:52):
Yeah, when you buy a tree, you pay for the
size of the pot. That's basically what you're paying for.
And so when you go from five gallon to fifteen gallons,
it goes up. When you go from fifteen to thirty,
it goes up. And so the bigger the pot, the
bigger tree you start with. But if you wanted to
save a little money and buy a little bit smaller tree,

(02:05:13):
just make sure that any roots circling the pot or
cut when it goes in the ground, and then start
taking care of it. If you will do, if you
will do three things for a tree. You can save
a lot of money on the tree initially and get
that small tree to catch up with the bigger one
pretty quick. One is get rid of all grass in

(02:05:34):
as large of an area around the tree as you can.
For some people that they can only stand it three
feet out from the trunk. But if you with that tree,
you would like grass no closer than the branch spread
of the tree. And the more of a mulched area,
the more of a forest floor you give it, the
faster it's going to grow. Plus it keeps along more
and wheat eat away. Second, give it a good soaking,

(02:05:57):
get you a tree hugger sprinkler, and following the recommendations
on watering it, you can water a small area with
a tree hugger, and when it's a fifteen year old tree,
you're still rescue. Watering it in summer to keep the
growth rate as fast as you can. You're not just
keeping it alive, you're keeping it growing. And then finally,

(02:06:17):
every spring gets you a lawn fertilizer without weed controlling it,
just fertilizer, and for every intra trunk diameter give it
a cup or two a synthetic fertilizer. Or three times
that much for if it's organic fertilizer.

Speaker 15 (02:06:31):
Okay, excellent. Last last question, that's any any particular place
you recommend?

Speaker 3 (02:06:39):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (02:06:39):
Don know, Campbo area. Well, you're you're not too far
away as you come into town A. Richmond Rosenberg. You
got in Chenna forests and Channa gardens. Those are good.
I don't know the other big tree cellars you know,
down out that far out that far in the area.
I'm sure there's some good ones out there, but I

(02:07:01):
would go with one of those. They're going to carry
good species and good quality ones. And I'm assuming you
want a big shade tree. I should ask you that
up front, not a flowering. Yes, yes, yeah, well that's
what i'd recommend.

Speaker 16 (02:07:15):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (02:07:15):
In a nutshell, I've kind of tucked myself into my
next break here, but.

Speaker 15 (02:07:19):
I hope that thank you very much, extremely helpful.

Speaker 1 (02:07:23):
You bet, thank you. Folks. Will be right back. There
we go, There you go, All right, folks, we're back.
Welcome back to the garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and we are here to help you have a bountiful garden,
beautiful landscape and more fun in the process. If you
are in Kingwood or Humble or a test Caasita or

(02:07:44):
Porter anywhere out that direction. Here's a public service announcement.
Today's last day for the Spring megasale at one Southern
Gardens and Kingwood Garden Center. That's the one where you
buy one hundred dollars worth of stuff, you get twenty
percent off. You buy three thousand dollars with the stuff,
you get forty percent off. Now, I know you're going
who buys freaked out? People do, But if you're on

(02:08:05):
a revamp your landscape, my gosh, I mean, what a
deal forty percent off of a major revamp. And that
includes not just plants, certainly plants, but all kinds of
things like metal trellises and fertilizer products and other things.
It's there at Warren's Southern Gardens in Kingwood Garden Center

(02:08:26):
the last time, last morning. Today. That's it. So there's
something to be doing this afternoon. Why are you there? Once?
You check out something and that is their proven winners,
Summerrific rose mallows. Rosemallow is a perennial hibiscus. It has
big blooms, bigger than tropical a biscus. They typically are
going to be white pink red or some version of

(02:08:48):
the three. That's kind of what rose mallow is about. Now,
those things are gorgeous. They make perennial plants come back
year after year after year, and they bloom and bloom
and bloom. Each bloom last day, but there's clusters of blooms.
So there's bloom and bloom and bloom. And they've got
him at we're in Southern Gardens, proven winners, summer terrific, Hibiscus,

(02:09:10):
perennial rosemall beautiful plants. You need to check them out.
They by the way, when you go out to Kingwood,
Warrens is on North Park and Kingwood is Kingwood Garden
Center is on Stone Hollow Drive. Let's run out to
the phones. Now we're going to head to College station
and talk to Jesse this morning. Hello Jesse, and welcome

(02:09:31):
to garden y Well. I good to talk to you.

Speaker 13 (02:09:34):
Talk to you on your college station show in the past. Listen,
I have a okay, I have a problem with yellowing
of my Saint Augustine lawn in one particular area of
my lawn, but no other. I follow your schedule, a
fertilizing and pre emergent all everything I've downloaded your schedule.

(02:09:54):
I put down the azoxystroban, I've used heat moss on
the area. I've had my county extension agent come out
and he actually pulled up some sprigs and brought him
back to his office and looked at him with a
microscope and says, I don't know what's causing this yellowing.
I've noticed some other yellowing patches and other yards in

(02:10:16):
my neighborhood. I was wondering if you had any idea
what could be causing this. It's been going on for
a year in just one particular area of my yard.

Speaker 1 (02:10:27):
All right, Well, it's a it could be a number
of things. And you're fortunate to have Stephen Brugerhoff as
your horticulture agent up there, and he's taken over that
show that I used to do up in College station.
Yeah he could when they came out to my house. Yeah. Yeah.
So what I what I would recommend, Jesse for me
to help you the best is let me we'll close

(02:10:48):
here in a second. I'll put you on hold and
send me photos. I want to see the whole lawn,
and then I want you to get up real close
and as close as you can get. Send me some photos.
In good sharp focus. I'll take a look at them
and we can take it from there. It still could
be take a root rot. It may be that that's there.
It could be that that section has a higher pH

(02:11:09):
or maybe a bunch of phosphors got applied, or something
that is tying up iron. It could be great leaf spot,
which is going on a lot right now in the area,
including College Station, and so let me just look at
a photo, so we don't waste your time and money
sending you out after a product that isn't the one
that fixes what you have. Okay, I appreciate it. I'll

(02:11:30):
say them the lot, all right, I'll put you on
all one hundred pickup just second here and we'll take
care of that. ACE Hardware ACE is the place. Here's
what you need to know. Acehardwaretexas dot com. ACE Hardware
Texas dot com. Don't forget the word Texas. Acehardware Texas
dot com. That's my greater Houston area ACE Hardware Group.

(02:11:51):
And there are so many stores and when you go there,
you can find your store real close to you. And
when you go to ACE, you're going to find everything
you need for success with your lawn. You know, I'm
just visiting, you know, with just seeing College station about
his lawn. I'll tell you this whenever I get through
looking at the pictures and come up with here's what
it is, here's what you do. The answer is going
to be waiting at Ace Hardware store for somebody to

(02:12:13):
pick up, for them to apply and to have success.
It's as simple as that. Guess what I'm going to
be doing this afternoon. By the way, I'm heading outside.
I got a brown, brand new bouncing Baby rec Tech
barbecue grill from Ace Hardware, and we are going to
be doing some fun stuff on it. These You know,

(02:12:33):
Ace has all the top brands, you know, Traeger pillet grills,
Rectech Pellet grills, the Big Green Egg. Oh my gosh,
there's a cult following for Big Green Egg and Weber
and on and on. I mean, there are many brands, quality,
many kinds of accessories you need to unit. You always
have to ask accessories to do your barbecue.

Speaker 6 (02:12:52):
It.

Speaker 1 (02:12:53):
It's all there at Ace Hardware. Make your outdoor a
wonderful living area with Ace Hardware Stores. We're going to
go now to Spring, Texas and I'm going to visit
with Ann. Hello, Anne, Welcome, to garden line.

Speaker 5 (02:13:05):
Good morning, thank you. I have a lot of beds
in my yard back in front.

Speaker 10 (02:13:13):
Most of them are pretty much.

Speaker 5 (02:13:15):
Sun but I pull these little wispy weeds. They grow
up like overnight, and the pine els. I guess I'll
never get a big enough where I can keep that out.
But could I get to sprinkle in the bed.

Speaker 1 (02:13:32):
To try to deter that.

Speaker 5 (02:13:34):
I mean, they grow like crazy. If you got one,
you got five, and then you got about ten, and
then it rear of it all over.

Speaker 1 (02:13:42):
All, right, ann, Well, I need to know the weed
before I can really recommend a product for you if
it's coming from seed. There are products that are labeled
for use in a garden bed that are pre emergence
that you can use, but it depends on the barricade works.
But barricade is not labeled for garden beds, and so

(02:14:06):
I can't recommend that you use it in a garden bed. Generally,
with garden beds, my approach to my beds is multch, mulch, multch,
never let the sunlight hit the soil. You're right about
pine needles. They make a good multch, but they don't
block the light as well as other types of mulch,
and I think I would consider putting a little thicker
layer of mulch and something that blocks the light a

(02:14:28):
little bit better. That would work in keeping weed seeds down. Now,
if it's a perennial weed, you know nutsedge and bermuda
grass and a lot of them. Okay, well, then go
on my website gardening with Skip dot com Gardening with

(02:14:49):
Skip dot com and look for a publication called an
in Depth Look at Nutsedge or nuts edge an in
Depth Look and read that and it'll tell you what
to do for nuts edge. It's a a little more
involved than I can get in on the air, but
it's not hard to do, and you can do it.
I have a little weed wiper that I made that
makes it real easy to use. You don't have to
have a weed wiper to control ntsage, but that is

(02:15:12):
probably it. If you would like to send me a
picture of the weed up close in good sharp focus,
I'll identify it and then tell you what to do.
We can also take that approach. Okay, okay, well.

Speaker 5 (02:15:23):
I'll look on your wisite.

Speaker 1 (02:15:24):
Thank you so much. Yeah, you do that, I'm gonna
put you on hold. You can hang up or if
you wait, you can get an email to send some
photos to to make sure we're talking about the same weed.
And thank you very much and I appreciate your call.
Sprint Creek Feed is up there in Magnolia off FM
twenty nine seventy eight. Sprint Creek Feed is. It's beautiful

(02:15:45):
by the way you drive up and it's like, oh
my gosh, this please is gorgeous. Castle you walk in,
there's all the feed that you would expect from a
feed store. Of course, there's that kind of thing, but
staring straight ahead, there's all kinds of beautiful things for
the home, for indoors, decorations and whatnot. Really cool nice store.
Spring Creek Feed Center on twenty nine seventy eight, just

(02:16:08):
minutes away from Graham Parkway and Highway two forty nine,
just northeast of the Tombaugh area. They carry fertilizers like
Nelson's and Microlife and nitrofoss. They carry pest, weed and
disease control products. If you are a military or a
senior citizen, then discounts are available to you. They special
order and they also will deliver upon request at Spring

(02:16:31):
Creek Feed Center. I recommend you check them out by
the way spring creekfeed dot com. That's the actual website
if you want to go there and check out the
things that they have going on there. They also have
plants by the way, low plant section out front. That's
really nice Spring Creek Feed. I was looking. I always

(02:16:52):
check follow my own sponsors on social media and just
see what's going on, what's happening, what's happening there in
Chennet Gardens out in Richmond Rosenberg. You know, I don't
even need really to look at social media because there's
always stuff going on there and I can just tell
you what is the season, well, I can tell you

(02:17:12):
what they have there because they have everything you need
for whatever season you're in. Now, this is kind of cool.
But on Saturday, June seventh, that's next Saturday, at ten am,
they are doing a little class on ferry gardens. And
if you've never seen a ferry garden, just think of
a miniature garden with figurines in it. So you go
to the base of a tree, for example, and around

(02:17:34):
that tree you have light, a little mossy like mulch
area down there, and then you have all these figurines.
It's all a little miniature and it's like a little
miniature scene as if you walked upon a little faery
neighborhood in your garden. You can do that in containers too,
by the way, And in Chened Gardens Chenny Gardens, Richmond, Rosenberg.
They're on FM three point fifty nine on the northeast

(02:17:55):
side of Richmond, the Katie Fullsher side of Richmond F
three nine. The websites in Chenni Gardens Richmond dot com.
Follow them on social media, check out the things that
they have. Very interesting, very cool. I saw recently they
had kind of come up with a plan for a red,
white and blue flag planting So imagine a planting bed

(02:18:19):
that looked like the American flag. Yeah, they got they
got the plants to do that with. Isn't that cool?
But that's just like them to be creative like that.
They carry all the products you need, they have, they
have folks that greet you, that help you, that know
what they're talking about. And Chenny Gardens on the Katie
Foster side of Richmond. I love I always love visiting,

(02:18:40):
you know. We one of these days we need to
do a garden line garden tour, like an All Saturday
or something tour where we just go around and look
at all these places. Would that be fun? Would you
like that? Get a big bus go around. We'd have
to pull trailers behind the bus for all your plants, though. Anyway,
you get the idea. I'll take a little break here.

(02:19:01):
We'll be back in just a moment with your calls.
Seven one three two one two ktr H. Seven one
three two one two k t r H. In the meantime,
why not go check out my website gardening with Skip
dot com. Gardening with Skip dot com. Look at what's
up there, make yourself familiar with it, and get ready.

(02:19:21):
There's a lot more stuff coming. We're just going to
keep building it better and better. But it'd be good
if you had a bookmark. That way, when you're listening
to guard Line, I can just tell you, hey, go
check it now. I'll be right back. Okay, you get it,
You get it, Megan Trainer, Oh my gosh, Hey, welcome
back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. Seven
one three two one two KTRH. That's the number you

(02:19:43):
need if you want to give me a call. We'll
talk about what you're interested in. As long as it's
gardening that you're interested in. Be glad to help. When
we get rain, guess what happens in yards all over
the place, including years in mind, and that is fire ants.
They come boiling up out of the ground if you well,
getting those little dirt mounds built up a little bit higher,
and they spoiled the show. In fact, I can tell

(02:20:06):
you a horror story. Years ago. I was in ruston
Louisiana at a peach orchard, big peach orchard. I was
doing a part of my master's work there in horticulture,
and I was out pruning one day. No, it wasn't pruning,
it was harvesting, actually doing some thinning of the peaches
and whatnot, and all of a sudden I felt pain

(02:20:28):
from my belt down everywhere. And what I was standing
in a fire at mound and they had all crawled
up my legs, crawled up the pants actually, I guess,
and I think they all went one, two, three, go,
and they all just it was like everywhere pain shot.

(02:20:50):
Let me just say this modesty gave way to self preservation,
and yeah, it was. I'm glad that that was before
the day where they filmed everything and put it on YouTube.
But there's probably still talking about that in Rust and Louisiana.
I remember that time. That guy. Anyway, let's just say this,
it was, it was. It was not pleasant. My relationship

(02:21:12):
with fire ants is not a love hate relationship. It's
well it is. I love to hate them. I just
love hating fiants. The folks that nitrophass have a fire
ant killer. It works well, it works fast. You know,
we got baits, and I recommend you use baits. They're
a good long term way to get controller on the yard.
But when you need to get out there and knock
a mound out, you know, let's say this afternoon, you

(02:21:34):
got a party going on, and tomorrow maybe you got
a gathering going on. You need to deal with those
fast and so getting fast results is important. And the
Nitropos fire ant killer is an excellent choice for doing
just at and spoiling the show. And right before you
put it on the mound, I want you to look
at the fire ants and go skip sent me hahaha,

(02:21:54):
and then put it on the mound. That that will
make me feel better at least. Yeah, like I said,
I was, I was. I was basically marred for life
from that experience. Well, you are listening to the garden
line if you'd like to give me a call seven
one three two one two Katie r Age seven one
three two one two Kati your age by the way,
Sorry about that vividmental image. Affordable Tree Service. If you

(02:22:17):
need your trees taken care of, Affordable Tree Service, that
is the one you need to call. Martin Spoon Moore's
company is a family owned operation. You've been hearing about
Martin since what Randy was sitting in this chair for
twenty six years doing garden Line. He talked about Affordable
Tree Service as the go to place, and it still is.
It still is. Uh, This family owned operation is the

(02:22:40):
kind where everybody pitches in. And you give a phone
call to Affordable Tree Service at seven one three sixt'
nine nine two six sixty three, and probably you're going
to talk to Martin's mom. She usually answers the phone
there seven one three six nine nine two six six three.
Tell her you're you heard about him on guarden Line,
because Guardenline customers are the top priority for them, So

(02:23:02):
make sure and mention that to them now when you
give them a call, they certainly can come out and prune.
It's storm season and your tree's being properly pruned is
very important. And it's not just like you prune them
now for this season. It's like you continue to maintain
a healthy tree so that when storms come, you have
a tree that has grown in the strongest possible way

(02:23:24):
to withstand those storms. Do you see what I'm talking about?
And they know how to do that at Affordable Tree Service. Now,
with proper pruning, over time, you build the most resilient
tree you can. They do other things. They do consultations.
If you're going to have any kind of construction done
around a tree, please call them first to come out

(02:23:46):
and advise you. By the time you put a trench
in the ground, you damage the roots. It's done. You
can do things to help it recover as best you can.
But it's way better than to let Affordable Tree come out.
It's way better two. Let Affordable Tree come out and
tell you where to put that trench or what you
can do to help the tree in the process, and

(02:24:06):
so on. They do deep roof feeding, They do pest
and disease control. You got a no stump you're tired
of looking at, they can come out and do stump grinding.
If you're gonna build a house, pre Construction Care. You
got to call them first. Affordable Tree Service seven one
three six ninety nine two six six three and somebody
just left the gates open on the phone here. All right,

(02:24:26):
We're gonna go up to Willis now and talk to
Kelly this morning. Hello Kelly, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (02:24:33):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (02:24:35):
Morning.

Speaker 19 (02:24:36):
Had a question. I'm up in Willis, Texas. Got a
real problem with I guess what's called a leaf cutter ants?
And you huh, yeah, and uh. I want to know
if the best ways to get rid of them and
control them or either you know one or the other.

Speaker 1 (02:24:59):
Yeah, they're a challenge. Leaf cutters are because what they
do is they chew the leaves off your tree, they
clip them off, they take them home, they glue them
to the ceiling and grow fungus on them and underground,
and then they eat the fungus. So it's hard to
control them. There are some baits that are made for
leaf cutter ants, and you just have to go where

(02:25:21):
you shop up there in the Willis area. You might
talk to the folks at Growers Outlet and see if
they have one. It's kind of a specialty bait. They
may not, but check them, check with your ace hardware
store up there right off of forty five going north
and see if they carry a leaf cutter ant bait.
If not, you need to search for one because it's

(02:25:42):
not the same as regular fire ant bait. It's a
different bait. But that's one option. I had a farm
west or to study, east of Willis on County Line Road,
and we had peach trees. And I came out one
night and three trees that were fully leafed out were
completely leafless overnight because they found them and they cleaned

(02:26:02):
them out. We had a big colony. And what I
did is I got some dust like ortheene dust ant
must and I dusted every entrance to every mound. You know,
they have a whole colony of little holes. You can
see where the active holes are, so that every fire
ant that I mean, every leaf cutter ant that left
the mound or came back to the mound walked through

(02:26:24):
the dust and it kills that ant. It does not
kill the mound. But if you do that and they
can't come out without dying and tracking that stuff in,
you will suppress them and you won't see them for
a while. They'll go away for a while and at
that point that is where you you know, then it
at least it's just keeping them from doing their damage

(02:26:46):
as fast as you can. Now, I'm gonna do this,
if you will. I'm gonna put you on hold, and
I want you to give my producer your email, and
I'm going to send you a concoction that pest control
operators have told me works. It's a combination of different
products and I can't go into it all on the air,
but I will send you a copy of this for

(02:27:06):
you to give a shot to if you just promised
to report to me how it does for you, because
I'm told that it works pretty good and it gives
a good long suppression of the leaf cutter aunt. But
just hang on, put you on hold, and I'll see you.

Speaker 15 (02:27:21):
Time for one other thing or not.

Speaker 1 (02:27:25):
You're gonna have to hold until after break for that.
But I've got to go to break. I'll pick you
back up when I come back. All right, All right, folks,
I'll be right back here we go. All right, we're back. Hey,
when was the last time you went to Moss Nursery?
You hear me talk about Moss all the time. The

(02:27:46):
place is amazing. I mean, you go down to Moss
and you're gonna find eight acres jam pack full of
gorgeous plants, just everything you can imagine. If you want
to create a tropical paradise, boy did they ever have it.
If you want to maybe do cactine succulents, they can
got you set up. You're not com find a better
selection of containers anywhere. I mean, the place is crawling

(02:28:09):
with containers and every other kind of plant you can imagine.
Jim Moss has made this family operation. I've been around
seventy years, by the way, eight acre family operation, seventy years.
He's made it into a wonderland and it's a fun
place to go, just wandering through and seeing all the things.
If you cannot find a plant you like there, then
you don't. You better check your pulse. You probably don't

(02:28:31):
have one. Because Moss Nursery is set up with everything
you need to have beauty and success. That's why people
down there love it so much. That's why I have
to have truckloads of plants coming in constantly, just keeping
the place well stocked because people love that thing. Doesn't
matter betting plants, herbs, shrubs, vines, They've got it all

(02:28:52):
they've got it all there now. If you don't have
some fun, how about showing up on Saturday, June fourteenth
from twelve to six pm. Twelve noon to six pm Saturday,
June fourteenth, a couple of saturdays from now. They're gonna
have Alex Moss, the Black Angels and light in the
attic and it's just it's gonna be worth to have
a crawfish ball. It's all free. Crawfish boil for free.

(02:29:14):
How do they do that? Anyway? It will be fun.
Go check out Moss Nursery, have some fun. Look at
the waters features and things that they have. Look at
the beautiful oh asked to see their out There is
a rows of Sharon. Some of the most gorgeous underplanted
plants been around the South for a long time. Not
as common as they used to be, but they should be,
and they got them there at Moss Nursery on Toddville

(02:29:35):
Road in Seabrook, Texas. We're gonna head now up to
the Woodlands and talk to Ken. Hello, Ken, Welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 20 (02:29:43):
Morning.

Speaker 22 (02:29:44):
Skip got a couple of questions about the Weeden Eter product.
I put that down almost exactly ninety days ago. March first,
and it has been fantastic. I don't know about the
weed killing properties of it, because I couldn't really tell

(02:30:04):
if it was that effective, but the grass has just
been incredible. It's you know, just a deep green, and
it hasn't grown up as you know, it hasn't gotten
stringy and tall as much. I haven't had to mow
it as frequently, I guess, and it has really spread

(02:30:26):
with runners just you know, like incredibly filled in some
areas that I was concerned about. And you know, I've
used other products for spring, and my question is I've
still got a half a bag of it left. Can
I use it now and make another application for the
summer or do I need to switch to something else now?

Speaker 1 (02:30:48):
Now tell me how long ago you used it?

Speaker 22 (02:30:52):
Ninety days March first, Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:30:55):
Yeah, you can use it again, and you're dealing with
Saint Augustine, yes, okay, yes, you can, just be careful,
don't misuse it. It has an ingredient called a CANBA
that's very effective as a post emergent broad leaf weed control.
It's not going to control grassy weeds. Post emergent broad

(02:31:17):
leaf is the one, but you can use it now
if you'd like to. I generally don't talk about that
now because we're usually switching to some other things through
this time of the year. But if you wanted to
get your fertilizer down and do the weed control at
the same time, you could do that. I would wet
the lawn and while the leaves are wet, the grass
blades are wet, then I would put it out and

(02:31:41):
then and then yeah, okay.

Speaker 22 (02:31:45):
And one other question about weed control. I know you're
not supposed to use most of them when the temperatures
get hot, But the only question is if you use them.
You know, she's going to go to ninety five in
the afternoon, but it's only you know, eighty in the morning.

(02:32:07):
Is it okay to use those things or is it
a you know, anytime in twenty four hours if it
gets above ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:32:14):
No, that's a good question. Yeah, it's it's a good question.
And when I've talked to the reps from the companies
about that, because I had that same question, they were saying, well,
as long as it's not ninety when you're using it, Well,
you know, when we get into the heat of summer,
it's going to be ninety by the time this comes up. Practically,
I mean, that's an exaggeration, but you want to be

(02:32:36):
real careful, so I try to avoid it. That's why
you always be talking about celsius, because it's more forgiving
in terms of the temperature. Plus it works good on
most weeds. But if you do it in the morning early,
let it cool, well, that's cool, let it completely dry
off then and then here comes the sun. It's supposed
to be okay on those. Just be a little careful

(02:32:59):
because some of the products are Saint Augustine, especially not
just saying, especially, some of the broadly weak collar products
really really weaken it. They stress it. They cause it
to yellow, to discolor a little bit, and and can
even do more damage than that by weakening it and
opening the door for some diseases. When we start pushing

(02:33:19):
the edge of that of that rule.

Speaker 22 (02:33:24):
Okay, well, I appreciate it, and I'll go out and
put on another application of the weed natter here in
a few days.

Speaker 1 (02:33:34):
All right, sounds good, Well, good luck with it. Just
remember don't, as always, don't if a teaspoons good, a
tablespoons not better, follow follow the label.

Speaker 22 (02:33:42):
I understand, and that's why I've got a half a bag.

Speaker 1 (02:33:47):
Okay, well, good, good for you, Good for you? All right,
you take care? Ye, yeah, that is the case. Seeing
the Maltz is your one stop shop for success. And
I really mean that. You know my mantra on garden line,
brown stuff before green stuff, well, at least it's one
of my mantras, brown stuff before green stuff means you

(02:34:10):
get that soul right. It drains well, it's got good nutrition,
it's got good internal oxygenation. It holds water well, but
it drains away the excess. It's got everything that plants need.
Is a foundation for success. See animals is a place
you get that done. You go there, you get your
compost products. I don't care if you're putting in a
vegetable bed or a herb bed and you want the

(02:34:31):
veggie nerb mix from Heirloom Soils. They've got that. Maybe
you're putting in some altheas I was just talking about
the Rosa sharon and the Althea moss nursery. Well that's
a blooming plant. So the rose mix, the rose and
bloomers mix that they carry is awesome for those kinds
of plants. You get the fertilizers that you need from microlife,

(02:34:52):
and from nitrofoss and from Nilsen plant fruit, and from Medina.
You need some azamite, they've got it there, Ciena Moll.
So basically, you drive in, you drive out, you set
up success, you plant your plants and you're good to go.
Don't forget Sienna when you're putting in your garden beds.
They deliver within about twenty miles of their location there,

(02:35:14):
so you can have them deliver for a small fee
if you'd like to do that there on FM five
twenty one. Just go to this website, Sienna bultch dot com.
By the way, they're open today till five pm, or
excuse me, till two pm. Sorry, only two pm today
during the week till five on Saturdays from to you
close on Sunday Sienna Mulch dot com. We'll tell you

(02:35:34):
everything you need to know. We're gonna now go to Peter. Peter,
are you in a town called Butcher, Texas?

Speaker 23 (02:35:41):
Brookshire, Texas, sys sir, Good morning, Skip, how are you doing?

Speaker 1 (02:35:43):
Oh? Brookshire? Okay? You know, I thought I knew every
town in Texas and I'd never heard of Butcher. So
all right, hey, Peter, how can we help so skip.

Speaker 23 (02:35:52):
I've got a couple of big mesquites and aliva. With
the branches, you're getting so long and they're starting to
hang low. Now I was wondering, I've been using like
four by fours kind of pomp up the brains, but
they're so heavy, I can't do that anymore. So it's
wondering what's a good technique to elevate those branches. So
I have to kind of it's just getting hard to
mow underneath them.

Speaker 1 (02:36:13):
Okay, well, if you want to elevate them, you're either
putting a prop under them, which is a long term
thing and requires a good strong prop, and then you've
got to move the prop in order to mow. There
is something that a qualified arborist can do where they
basically put an eyebolt through the branch and put an

(02:36:34):
eyebolt in a branch up high on the tree the
trunk or something, and they use a cable to support
that limb and to keep it from sagging more. Now
that's not normally a homeowner type attempt, but you can
kind of picture how that would work. But a good
cable with those eyebolts and good washers through the branch,
so that you know it, That would be another option,

(02:36:58):
and I'm not there to take a look at it
and to be able to assess whether that would be
suitable for the angles and the situation you got in
those trees, but that would be probably the way if
someone were wanting to go about not having to cut
the branch off.

Speaker 24 (02:37:13):
Also cast another quick question, you bet so, I have
a small orchard and I'm power of pulling weeds. Is
it okay to like weed eat around that gets the
grass will load to put a wheat barrier down and
multiple on top. Because a lot of these trees are
only about two to three years old, was that going
to be a problem.

Speaker 1 (02:37:34):
Well, what I would recommend is weed eating it as
to the dirt basically, and then laying down a good thick, thick,
thick mulch and keep it thick. The weeds that will
come through that are things like nutsedge and bermuda grass,
but those you can control with products that don't hurt
the tree. They don't hurt that like. There's a grass

(02:37:57):
only killer several on the market. You can go my
website gardening with skip dot com look for the publication
herbicides for skipsweed wiper and there's a section for grass
killers on there, and so the tree will love that.
Trees want to live with a forest floor environment. So yes,
as wide as you esthetically can stand, the tree will

(02:38:18):
like that. Fantastic Thank you sir. You bet have a
good day and we'll talk to you later. Appreciate your call.
All right, folks, Well that was fast. They're on a show.
We'll be back tomorrow, by the way, look forward to
visiting with you then.