Who's Eating My Peaches?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to kt r H garden line with skin Richard's.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Trim.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Just watch him as so many.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
Good things to Septasya.

Speaker 5 (00:27):
Was not a sign gas the sun.

Speaker 6 (00:36):
Beam and of.

Speaker 5 (00:40):
Hey, good morning gardeners. An't noticed it rain yesterday? Wow,
some area has got a gully washer that is that
means a lot of rain. Gully washer's kind of like
a frog strangler. That's another term for a lot of rain. Well,

(01:01):
we'll take it. We will take it now. This is
a reminder when we get this kind of rain that
drainage is important. And you know, I was looking outside
during the one of the worst parts of it. Are
I say worst when it's rain in the heaviest and
husband for a while and uh, just looking in my yard,
where's water gathering right now? Now? For water to puddle

(01:21):
up during the rain is not an issue. It's the
days following the rain that are the issue. You know,
if you've got four days out, still got a puddle
out there, well, that's not going to be an easy
spot to grow. Most plants, there are a few that
take that. Button bush is a great native shrub, large
shrub that can take saggy, wet conditions. Cannas can take
so Saggi wet conditions. Cypress trees for sure can take

(01:45):
Slaggi wet conditions, but most plants can't. So that's when
we need to get out there and do some things
to fix those spots. Very important, very important. If in
the yard, I've noticed I mowed yesterday prior to the
rain arriving and got everything cut back. Boy, the lawns

(02:06):
are they're happy, the temperatures are warming up, their growth
continues to speed up. It'll get a little faster too
as we go forward, but they're doing good. I'd fertilize
my lawn earlier in the season and things are growing
looking really good, and I hope yours are too. If not,
this is a time to get down your summer fertilizations.

(02:30):
Slow release for summer. That's what we talk about. And
why do we do slow release, well, several reasons. Number One,
slow release fertilizers mean you fertilize once and it just
keeps fertilizing for you over time. If you did a
fast release before last night's rain, a lot of it
may be on its way down the street because basically

(02:53):
those dissolve and they release their nutrients quickly, which is
good for the purposes that we use them for. But
we're at the time now where you can do the
slow releases, and i'd recommend that now. If you're going
to use a fast release going through summer, you need
to do it in very small doses over time. So
you're turning a fast release into a slow release by

(03:17):
taking x amount that you would put on over the
course of summer and applying it in a bunch of
small doses. It takes extra time. You know, it's not
the best of technologies, but it works. You can grow
on that way. Slow release, on the other hand, gradually
feeds the soil for you. They're designed with different kinds

(03:38):
of nitrogen that release over different periods of time, so
you get that nice even feeding that avoids a flush
of growth that means you got to mow more, that
avoids excessive nitrogen release, that means you get top growth
at the expense of root growth. And super turf is
that is that kind of fertilizer. It's a nineteen four ten.

(03:58):
It's from the Folks at Night and it works on
all of our southern turf crisis in Augustine Bermuda Zeetsia.
It does well in our hot humids climate down in
this region and it goes about four months out and
so I would highly recommend it. In fact, today I
just want to mention today, I'm going to be at

(04:18):
the Ace Hardware City on Memorial Drive from twelve to
two and I'm going to be given away three bags
of super Turf today. So come on out. Maybe he
will win some. I've got a lot of giveaways. I'll
tell you more about that later, but I don't know
that I've ever had this many different giveaways at one appearance,
but we got a lot going on at Ace Hardware City. Anyway,

(04:39):
nine to five. Super Turf. You're going to find it
in a lot of different places. You're going to find
it at Bearings Hardware on Bissinette and one on West Timer.
You're going to find it in Shanne Forest down there
in Richmond Rosenberg area, and many many other locations like
any Knight Foss product. We's head out now to Danbury.
We're going to talk to Edward. Hello, Edward, welcome to garden.

Speaker 7 (05:02):
How you doing I'm about it.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
I'm doing good. Thank you.

Speaker 7 (05:07):
Okay, I've got avocado tree. It's like number six. All
the rest of them have died. Is there any special
fertilized as it's a half avocado?

Speaker 5 (05:19):
Oh a has well has has a hard time here.
It's it's it's kind of cold tender, and we generally
go with some other types of avocados. But that having
been said, doesn't affect the kind of fertilizer you put
down on it. Uh, you can get a fertilizer fruit.
Uh you kind of did on Haas. Yeah, you kind

(05:41):
of did on Hass. But you know, it's it's just
a that's a kind of Califorfornia avocado. It's the kind
you see in the grocery store, and they just don't
have a cold heartiness that we would expect, you know
that we would need, I guess for here, so you
do a little extra protection on it. But anyway, as
far as fertilizing the thing that was what your question

(06:03):
was about, I would use You could do a fruit
tree fertilizer and there's some of our our garden line.
You know, companies that produce fertilizer will make a blend
just for fruit trees. Or you can just use a
lawn fertilizer on it. And to do that, you want
to walk up to the tree, and however, thick the

(06:23):
trunk is not around the trunk, but across the trunk.
Every inch one or two cups a fertile of lawn fertilizer.
For most lawn fertilizers. If it's it's one or two
cups sprint. If it's organic, you can double or triple that.

Speaker 7 (06:41):
Well, I'm hauler here and I'm trying you know what
avocandal trees?

Speaker 8 (06:44):
The u.

Speaker 5 (06:48):
Uh, There are a number of Yeah, there are a
number of varieties out there. There's a wilma, there's a
there's so many different varieties. Let me do that. If
you go to a website that's called Aggie Horticulture Aggie
hyphen Horticulture U there is a section on there for

(07:08):
fruit trees, and there's a publication on every kind of
fruit tree, and there's one for avocados and if you
if you go to it, it'll talk to you about
growing avocados, you know, the soil of the varieties and
things that you need. But basically it's a we're looking
for what are called Mexican avocados. Okay, all right, so

(07:33):
the the kind like hosts is not a Mexican avocado.
But let's see another one is Holland Wilma. There's one
called Lula. There's a lot of other avocado that you know,
you could grow, it's just not gonna be as hardy.
And so what I would recommend you do is go

(07:55):
to wherever you can you can find quality, quality garden
center near you. Not not a big box store, not
a you know, just a.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Parking lot in Ballonia. But anyway, put them out in
the front life.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
They need, they need full sun. Bull they need yeah,
they need, they need absolutely full sun. Uh. And if
you yeah that that's going to give you the best. Now,
if you'll drive up the street to Alvin, head up
thirty five to the Alvin Santa Fe area, that's where
jorgees Hidden Gardens is, and Jorge has a number of

(08:41):
hardy avocados available up there that might be worth It's
a little trip up the street, but but it might
be worth it to go up there and grab one
from Jory because he does carry some varieties that are hardy. Here.

Speaker 7 (08:53):
Okay, yeah, I have a drunk and I'm working to day.
I actually work out of als today.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah. If you go from Alvin, Yeah, as you go
from Alvin down towards Santa Fe Jorge is off to
the right, about halfway between the towns. But it's an
Alvin address. All right, thank you.

Speaker 7 (09:12):
I appreciate it all right.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
Now, if this all works, you know on Garden Line,
all I ask is that you bring me half the
produce if this is successful. So I'm going to get
my recipe for walk em Molly out and I'll be waiting.
All right. Thanks. I appreciate it.

Speaker 7 (09:28):
Playing taps when I'm playing it because this is number
six and I've lost five so far.

Speaker 5 (09:34):
Very good, very good. Thank you. Appreciate your call. Hey, folks,
I got to run. I'll be right back, all right.
Welcome back to Guarden Line. Thanks for listening this morning.
Congratulations all of you who are up with at least
one eye open. Good to talk to you.

Speaker 9 (09:50):
Hey.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
If you've got some furniture that is sitting out in
the back and it ain't looking so good, all right,
maybe rusty, Maybe some of the the little rubber caps
on the ends or the straps on it and other
things are falling apart. It just needs to be fixed up.

Speaker 8 (10:07):
Well.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
Houston Powder Coader is the one that do that. They
are professionals at it, and they can pretty much. If
it'll hold still. They can put a powder coat on
just about anything. They've got some giant bend I they
do a trailer literally in a bin. But when it
comes to our yards, you know that metal railing, the
light post, middle lamppost out in the ground, the artwork
that you may hang on a fence to the side

(10:28):
of the house, it's a metal. If it's wrottle iron, aluminum,
cast iron, they can do it all. Well, here's what
you need to do. Take a picture of that furniture,
whatever it is, and send it that picture to sales
at houstoncoders dot com. Sales at Houston cooders dot com.
They'll give you a quick quote, they will come pick
it up, and they will deliver it when it's done.

(10:51):
If you live in the greater Houston area. Houston powdercoders
dot com over one hundred different colors in stock one
six seven, six thirty eight eighty eight two eight one six, seven,
six thirty eight eighty eight. You will not believe. Go
to the website Houston powder Cooders dot com and look
at the kind of work they do. It's like, oh

(11:12):
my gosh, that is like new, or if not better
than new. They know how to do that. Let that
out to Magnolia and we're going to talk now to Ronnie. Hey, Ronnie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (11:23):
Good morning, Skip, good morning. Is our soul too warm
to have a good tulip crop?

Speaker 5 (11:34):
You know, it's not our soil, it's it's our overall temperatures.
Tulips like a nice, long cold winter, and here they
just you know, we just don't have winter. And if
you were to ask a tulip, they go, that ain't
winner down there in Houston, and it messes them up.
Now there are you can do two things. You can
plant standard tulips and use them as what we call

(11:57):
one shot wonders, meaning you plan them, they pop up,
they bloom, you throw them away like you would a
tomato plan or something. You know, you grow it and
you throw it away and you plan new one next year.
You could do that. Or the other is there's a
company called Southern Bulb Company, Southern Bulb Company that sells
throughout the area. I know that they sell bulbs in

(12:18):
a number of our garden centers. I was at Arbigate
that a while back and saw Southern Bulb bulbs there.
There are some what we call species tulips. They look
like really really skinny little tulips, but they're very pretty.
But they actually will naturalize here. They do pretty well.
And then there's one that's larger that looks it is

(12:41):
a tulip. It's called prey cox and they call it
Texas tulip because it will naturalize here. But that is
a very unique exception and it looks a little different
than what you think of when you picture a Dutch
tulip in your mind's eye. You can go see that online.
It's Southern Bulb Company, Southern Boye.

Speaker 10 (13:05):
Last two seasons, I've got some from Holland and they
say acclimate it in the refrigerator for a bunch of
sixteen weeks. But if you want it.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
Done, yeah, they're one and done. So yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got to plan them at just the right time.

Speaker 9 (13:26):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
And their bloom season can go kind of fast, especially
if it's getting a little bit warm.

Speaker 9 (13:30):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (13:30):
But that's what I do. And you're not far from Arburgateham.
They're going to have them. You can call them and
say what will you have next year? They'll have some
on hand at the right time to plan them. It'll
be this fall. But anyway, if you want to see
what they look like. Yeah, if you want to see
what they look like, go to Southern Bulb dot com
and you can see pictures of what I'm talking about. Okay, Okay,

(13:51):
thank you skip, Yes, sir, you bet, thanks for the call.
Appreciate that very much.

Speaker 9 (13:58):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
Ace Hardware Store have whatever you need to have success
and the outdoors. Now, of course it's a hardware store.
They got the inside stuff, of course, but they also
have unlike the old time hardware store you may have
grown up going to, they've got an incredible amount of
things to decorate and beautify the indoors as well as

(14:20):
things for the patio and whatnot. And now, of course
it's a season where we're taking care of our lawns
and we're making flower beds and vegetable gardens. And when
you need the fertilizers, the pest control, weed control, disease control,
when you need the garden hose and the hand tools
and all the things you do to have beauty, they've
got that. And then for the relax and the enjoy

(14:41):
you know, the barbecue pits, the string of lights, all
the things that make outdoor living so pleasant. Ace has
got you covered. You can go to ACE Hardwaretexas dot com.
Ace Hardware Texas dot com and find the ACE Hardware
stores near you and they're all over Houston. Got a
whole bunch of them here now if you would like
to see one live and in person today, I'm gonna

(15:04):
be at Memorial City Ace Hardware Ace Hardware City here
in on Memorial Drive in the Houston Areio from twelfth
to two today and I am going to be given
away a lot of stuff. We have got some bags
of azamide. We've got a super turf from Nitrophoss. We've

(15:24):
got heirloom soils. Oh my gosh, We've got the works
potting soil. We've got their leaf mold compost. We've got
hardwood molds. We've got shale expanded jail from them. Uh,
it just goes on and on. I have got from
Nelson plant Foods and color Star and then the Azalea
plumerias and door indoor plants and bogonin veea versions of
the jars of Nelson plant food products. There is a

(15:48):
product that's a name, which is an insect control from Boni.
We're gonna be given away. You've got micro Life product
I mean, oh, and then the three sixty tree stabilizers.
I'm gonna have three of those as well to give
the I mean show up and your chances of winning
are pretty good. I'd always like to meet people at
these appearances today from twelve to two at the Memorial

(16:10):
location Memorial Drive location of Ace Hardware. It's Ace Hardware City.
All right, let's head out to Beytown. Now we're going
to talk to Bill. Hey, Bill, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (16:20):
Good morning, thanks for playing the call. Yes, we get
two quick. The major one is illut it on my
video and back of the house. And if I had
done rip up my file baby because of the drainage.
Do you know anybody in the area that can do
that drainage? We do that draine, you know, underground piping

(16:43):
or whether they need to direct all the water away from.

Speaker 5 (16:48):
Yeah, you are a little far You're a little far
away from these folks, but I would give them a call.
And if they can't come that far, they can probably
tell you who could. But it's B and B turf Pros.
B B turf Pros. They kind of they kind of
handle I know, they go all the way over to
UH Interstate forty five and just across forty five a

(17:10):
little bit. But B and B Turf Pros is the
company that we're looking for. Excuse me, I haven't hanging
up my throat. The phone number is seven one three
two three four fifty five ninety eight. I should ask
if you had a pen handy first, yes, seven one

(17:31):
three two three four five five nine eight B and
B Turf Pros.

Speaker 8 (17:36):
Okay, great, all right, talked about it.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
There may be a little far Yeah, yeah, all right, sir,
thank you, thank you, good good luck. Yeah. Yeah. This
rain is kind of reminded us of drainage issues. A
lot of a lot of clay soils here in the Easternario,
and clay soils do not drain well. Typically we can
do things to improve them in our flower beds and whatnot.

(18:02):
Bottom line is, you know, clay hole's water. That's why
on farms, when you want to build a farm pond,
you dig a hole in the ground and then you
put in that hole, you line the pond itself with
something called Bentonite clay, and it's a it's a clay
that basically goes down there and seals and turns what

(18:23):
might just be something that drains right out into something
that holds water well, clay holes water. But a good
company like B and B turf Pros they can they
can do that kind of thing for you. They have
the technology, they understand the process of drainage and and
it it. You know, some people try to do it yourself,

(18:43):
depending on the job. That sometimes is difficult to do
because you need the drainage to go downhill. Surprise, water
drains downhill, and you need it to drop, you know,
so many inches every so many feet in order for
to truly drain out right to another location. Anyway, that's
some of the how to are the details of it.

(19:04):
But you need a good quality team that knows how
to do that to do that well. By the way,
that kind that just reminds me that when you're choosing plants,
always choose plants that fit the site. Sunny shady. There's
different groups of plants. Plants that drain well, plants that

(19:24):
don't drain well. Same kind of thing. Speaking of plants.
Antigros Imporium Antigrosenporium been around since nineteen eighty three, and boy,
they have so many cool things going on right now.
They have two new plant bundles groups of plants exclusively
at Anti Grosmporium. One is called the Soft Cottage Bundle.

(19:44):
The other is the Vibrant Cottage Bundle. And just ask
their associates there when you're there. They are up in Independence,
Texas and it's a great outing to get out and do.
Here is the website. This is where you go. Everything
you need to know is there. Antique Roseemporium dot com.
The Antique Roseemporium dot com if you want to give

(20:07):
them a call. Ninety seven nine eight three, six fifty
five forty eight. Thatts Some big events coming up on
May seventeenth is the Beneficial Insects Seminar and Kids Activities,
So there's gonna be a great program educational program on
beneficial Insects, free seminar. At the same time in kiddos
age three to ten can enjoy what they call Nature Nectar.

(20:29):
It's a hand, hands on activity where they learn about pollinators.
They'll be garden inspired crafts, there'll be a butterfly story,
a lot of fun facts, and it culminates with a
magical ladybug release in the gardens. And you've got to
get tickets for it and you go to the website
antique Rosimporium dot com and that's where you're going to
find tickets for this event as well as a lot

(20:51):
of other good information at the Antiquerose Importum, one of
my favorite garden centers to visit. I'll be right back.
Welcome back to Gardenline, folks. Good to have you with
us this morning. Yeah, I woke up with something in
my throat this morning. Asmite is the trace mineral supplement

(21:12):
I talk about all the time here on Garden Line.
Asmite has those minerals that are needed not in large quantities,
but that still are essential for plant growth. And I've
said it this way before, but to explain that, like
you need a lot of nitrogen for plants, just need
a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus and potassium. They use
a lot of those, Okay, when it comes to things

(21:34):
like zinc and molybdenum and boron, they don't use much
at all. But if they don't have any, they die.
They don't live. They cannot live without trace minerals, and
so that's why we add a trace mineral supplement like
azmite to our soils. You can find more information at
ASMIT Texas dot com. And you can find azamite in many,
many places all over the Greater Houston area, most of

(21:57):
our inpenit garden centers. You know, places like an Ace
hardware store, like for example, feed stores and whatnot that
we have all places you're gonna find asmite. And today,
if you come out to Memorial City Ace Hardware that
is on Memorial Drive. By the way, it's Ace Hardware

(22:17):
City on Memorial Drive, I'm going to be given only
four bags of acemite. Take it home, try it out.
How's a good time to put it on. If you're
planning on doing any container gardening, and I was doing
this just yesterday, planting some things in containers for my patio.
I've been chipping away at that all spring now, just

(22:39):
getting little jobs done. And I love containers. But you
need a good quality soil. You need it to drain well,
but you also need it whole oisture. You don't want
the water to run right through like it was gravel
for example. On the other hand, you don't want it
to be just mucky and boggy and no oxygen in
the root system. And it takes a quality to do that.

(23:00):
In jungle land is a quality soel. They're outdoor flower
and vegetable planting soil is excellent for flowers and vegetables
and herbs and whatever you want to grow outside in
those containers. Consider jungle land. It works. Distributed by night foss.
You're going to find it in places like the plantation.
Ace Hardware. They're out there on FM three point fifty

(23:23):
nine they carry night foss products. M and D up
in Cyprus on Luetta Road carries night foss products, as
does the Ace Hardware and single ranch on Mason Road.
Just three examples of the mini of places that carry
nitrovoss products here. So what happens when it rains the

(23:45):
soil swells. It swells, and when it gets dry, the
soil shrinks. Did you know that our clay soils have
high what the soil scientists called shrink swell potential. That's
why when you go out in the summer and it's
hot and dry, there's cracks in the backyard so large
you could lose a toddler or a little fufu dog
right right drops right down in the ground right there

(24:08):
in the backyard. Well that's an exaggeration, but you know
what I'm talking about. Well, when you have a slab
of concrete, whether it's a sidewalk, a driveway or a
house that is set on top of that kind of soil,
and that soil is moving. It literally is moving. I
mean it moves so much and it's so powerful it
cracks slabs. And every summer is in Houston, when it

(24:29):
gets hot and dry, you just see water lines breaking
all the time. And it's because of that same soil
as a powerful mover. Anyway, if you've got that, you
need to call fix my Slab talk to try stick
on that Fixed my Slab. He's been doing it twenty
three years now. The website is fixmislab dot com. The
phone number two eight one two FI five forty nine

(24:52):
forty nine. You know you know something's going on when
you see a crack in the brick outside, or when
you see cracks in the sheet rock, or when a
door that used to not stick is now sticking. You
know as you try to open it. That's a sign
something is moving and you need to have him come in.
Tell him your guardenline listener Free estimates for guarden line listeners.
And the reason I would send you to Tie is

(25:14):
this resons he shows up on time, He fixes it right,
and he charges a fair price. Now that's all you
can ask for from anybody doing any kind of a
service at your house. I's been around here again twenty
three actually more than twenty three years now, uh, doing
this business. He's a native Ustonian, a fifth generation Texan.

(25:35):
Fixmislab dot com two eight one two FI five forty
nine forty nine.

Speaker 11 (25:41):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (25:42):
And don't be an Ostrich. You may think, oh, I
don't want to don't even I don't even know if
I've got slab problems. You know that's what. That's a
can of words. I don't want to do that. Well,
don't be an Ostrich and stick your head in the sand. Listen.
I've talked to Tie about jobs before on Foundations, and
you know, we'll talk about it and what's going on

(26:04):
and where the cracks are and what we're seeing and
all that, and I'll say something like, you know what,
at this point, that is not something you need to
worry about. It just probably not and uh, And he'll
tell you those kind of things and so it doesn't
get better, but it does get worse. So be careful
with your slabs. You're listening to Garden Line the phone

(26:25):
number seven one three two one two k t r
H seven one three two one two five eight seven
to four makes it easy to give us a call.
What do you want to talk about this morning? We
have got a lot of topics. I'm uh, I don't
know why. You know. I like Okra. I talk about

(26:46):
Okra all the time here on guard Line. It's just
one of my little horticultural obsessions. The way the way
I put it is, it's the latest and a long
line of horticulture obsessions. Uh. And I actually have not
planted over this year. I just have been busy running
around doing all kinds of things with my horticulture activities

(27:08):
and anyway, so I've got some beds that are ready.
Now I need to get out there and get that planted.
We are now entering the doorstep of the warm season.
It is not hot here yet, but it will be.
And so those things there are plants like tomatoes, for example,
you know the way too long to plant your tomatoes.

(27:30):
And the tomato plants will grow, but they don't set well,
especially the slicers. The little red cherry tomatoes or not.
Doesn't have to be red. The cherry and grape type,
the small fruit to tomatoes. Those set better in the
heat than the large slicers do. And so as we
hit this time of the year, the things that we're
planting change a little bit and we start thinking about

(27:53):
the heat tolerant summer garden. I've got some malabar spinach
coming up, and I don't like coli at malabar spinach
because it's not spinach, but that's what people call it.
I just call it malabar greens. But it just laughs
at our summer heat. Amaranth is another one, amaranth. The
farmers have it coming up wild, the wild types in

(28:15):
the field they call it pig weed. But amaranth is edible.
The greens are edible, and there's some nice large leaf
types that really do well in the summer. We have
a lot of things that do well here in the summertime.
If you are wanting to grow cantalope, honeydew, watermelons, all

(28:35):
those different kinds of melons, they do well in the heat.
If you're wanting to grow okra, as I mentioned, of course,
southern peas do well in the heat. There are sweet
potatoes that will be planting now to sweet potatoes do
well in hot, hot weather. The squashes that take a
long time to produce, we have to grow them through

(28:57):
heat because it take so long to produce. And that
would include pumpkins, and that would include what we call
winter squashes like acorn squash and butternut squash for example.
Those do well now.

Speaker 11 (29:07):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (29:08):
And so you should get out and get some of
this kind of planting done. It's a good time to
do that, and your garden centers can help you get
off to a good start doing just that. Let's take
a break here. When we come back, Rod in Houston,
you will be our first up. All right, we're back.

(29:29):
Welcome back to garden Line. Good to have you with us.
Phone number if you'd like to give me a call
seven one three two one two k t R h
RCW Nurseries is loaded with beautiful plants right now. The
summer color, the things that can take the heat, you know,
things like gomprina, things like Avobulus. They got a type
of a bobulist called blue. My mind, blue is in

(29:52):
bou e because it is gorgeous blue. And this is
a plant that grows low to the ground, has beautiful
blue flower, takes the heat. You need to check it out.
They have pentas right now and oh my gosh, pentas
called Egyptian starflower track. Butterflies like crazy. You got a
bright shade or a morning sun afternoon shade kind of location.

(30:13):
They love that. Lots of gorgeous lantanas. It's you know
rcw oh. And they're shrubs. They you know, they specialize
in shrubs and they sew man and trees too, by
the way, so many options. They have something called the
emerald colonnade holly. Now what that is. It's a plant,
but they've trimmed it up as a topiary, so you know,

(30:38):
you got stem comes up and they have a little
ball of foliage and the stem comes up in a
bolla foliage for those formal settings, maybe by the front door.
You can put them in a big pot if you want.
Even they are gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. And then one of
my favorite plants for summer is dipladini denia. Excuse me, Dipladinia.
It is a beautiful red or white or pink flowers.

(31:01):
They they look, they look they I don't know how
to describe them. They're just beautiful. You just have to
see them. Five pedals and it's a it's a vine
type plant, but these are particularly in more of a
compacted type form. Never gets too hot. Set them out
there on the patio by the pool wherever you want.
Just give them good sunlight and they will thrive there. RCW,

(31:25):
by the way, is the garden Center on Beltway eight
and Tomball Parkway. Right at the corner of Beltway eight
and Tomball Parkway. You can go to RCW nurseries dot
com for more information. We are going to go now
to Rod in Houston. Hello, Rod, Welcome to garden Line. Hello, Hello,

(31:46):
are you there? Yeah, Hey, thank you. How can we
help today? I'm calling I'm.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Trying to figure out is there any way to get
rid of crab grats?

Speaker 5 (32:00):
Yes, a lot of people call several different things crabgrass.
Some are one is and the rest aren't. But where
is it growing? Rod? It's growing in in my grad.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
I have Saint Augustine and is growing inside in different areas.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
Okay, Well, if you'll turn that radio down the background,
if it is in your Saint Augustine and it is crabgrass,
you're you can't spray and kill a grass in a
grass in most cases, so you're you're left with hand
pulling or regular mowing. Uh in the in the spring,

(32:41):
late winter. In February, you put down a pre emergent
herbicide that prevents the crabgrass seeds from ever getting started
in your Saint Augustine lawn. So that's kind of a
next next February thing that you need to do for it.
It may be a different kind of grass, though, Rod,
and so I'd like to make sure we've got the

(33:01):
right grass. If you would like to take a picture
of it and send it to me, I'll be happy
to take a closer look. And it may be that
we take a different approach based on what I see,
But I'll just throw that out there. If you're interested,
I can put you on hold as we're done here,
and if you want to stick around, my producer will
give you an email. Just get up close. I would
even pull some of it, take a picture in the yard,

(33:23):
but pull some of it up and lay it on
like a dark table surface or something where you can
get in and take a real good close picture, because
that helps me identify it than just a weed out
there among the grass. It's kind of hard to identify
sometimes that way, all right, sir, Okay, okay, all right,
we'll be happy to continue this conversation. You take care,

(33:45):
get you there on hold. Yeah, well, pest brothers. Oh
my gosh, you know I got there. There mosquito buckets
at my house, and I was looking the other day
and there are mosquito wriggulars all in there.

Speaker 6 (33:58):
Now.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
Normally, when you look in water around your house and
you see mosquito regulars, you're thinking, oh my gosh, I'm
in trouble. I'm thinking, oh boy, things are working because
they those buckets attract mosquitos. They lay eggs in there.
Those wrigulars will never become adult mosquitoes. But what will
happen is the mama mosquito that landed and laid those eggs.
She picks up a couple of things on her feet

(34:20):
that will number one kill her by it's a fungus
that kills mosquitoes. Can you think of a better thing
to happen to mosquito other than swatting it between your
hands than a fungus to take it down? And then
whereverwhere she goes those little stagnant, tiny bits of water
where mosquitoes can breed, she takes that with her and
it will the product in the second product in there

(34:41):
will can kill other kinds of mosquitoes anyway, pestpros. When
I think of pest Bros, I think of modern technology
that is safer and that is effective and that it lasts.
That's how they work. Talk to them about their tomat
or tomato termite control systems. They've got some really cool
modern technology. Is that is the least environmental impact that

(35:05):
you're going to have from anything, and it works for
like ten years. Amazing. Dpestbros dot com, dpest b r
os dot com two eight one two o six forty
six seventy heading out to spring. Now we're going to
talk to Trey. Hello, Trey, welcome to Gardenline.

Speaker 12 (35:26):
Hey, Skip, good morning. I sent you over some pictures
in an email of my patio gardina that has one
or two leaves on it that are yellowing from time
to time, and I want to see if I could
get some feedback from you on on how that plant's doing.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
Oh okay, I'm not seeing a tray email. When did
you send that out, tray?

Speaker 12 (35:52):
It might have been a week or two ago. I
wasn't able to call in.

Speaker 5 (35:55):
Oh okay, Oh okay, all right, good. Let me let
me look a little bit further back here, Uh toon
there we go? Uh find it here? Yes, okay, you
had so you're tell me more about how this progressed
as you first began to see it.

Speaker 12 (36:17):
Just started kind of at the bottom. U posted to
the soil line and just saw one one kind of
yellow leaf completely, and then every now and then I'll
see another one that's starting to turn yellow, and then
it'll eventually become fully yellow. But it's not a large
number of them. It's kind of just one two zy
here and there.

Speaker 5 (36:38):
Yeah, it looks to me like trey. It's just you know,
our guardias are evergreen, but leaves don't live forever, and
it just looks like as new growth comes out and
you know, starts to cover up those old leaves, the
plant just aborts the older leaves. And that happens on
live oaks, it happens on pine trees, it happens on
magnolia trees, and certainly on goade guardina's as well. I

(37:01):
don't see anything that looks like a problem there. I
do see some residue on the leaves, or is that
are you overhead watering them with a sprinkler or.

Speaker 12 (37:11):
Something, or I'm trying to water down down low, but
I think my yard sprinklers are getting some oversprayed from
from the Yeah you know the sprinkler heads.

Speaker 5 (37:22):
Yep. Okay, Well, I mean it's not the end of
the world, you know, if you have a choice, I
would water down low. It's just a residue from that
from that water that contains minerals. But I think your
guardina looks great. I think that is a normal reaction,
and it looks like it's loaded with the bud so
they may even be opening by now.

Speaker 12 (37:42):
All right, sounds good. Well, I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Thank you, skip you bet, thanks for calling to verify that.
I bet that's a beautiful plan. I can't wait, I go.
I can almost smell it right now.

Speaker 12 (37:56):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (37:57):
All right, all right, you take care to talk to you.
Medina products are There's so many Medina products. I mean,
it's just I don't even know where to begin really.
When I talk about them, usually I talk about has
to grow six twelve six. That's the plant food that
I particularly use it, and you can use it in
a lot of ways, but I particularly use it when

(38:18):
I'm transplanting plants. To give it about three good doses
of hash to grow about a week apart at planting time,
and you know those plants are established. It's got the
phosphorus and everything to get them established and for them
to do well. There are a couple of products. Two
products for the lawn that don't want to talk about.
One of us called has to Grow Lawn. You hook

(38:38):
it up to a garden hose. Has to Grow Lawn
is a twelve four eight fertilizer, so that's a three
one two ratio. Like we always recommend, twelve four eight fertilizer.
Far turf that is and has to Grow lawn is
simple to use and it works and you're going to
get a nice quick greenup. Another one is super Grow Plus.
It's also a has to Grow super Grow Plus. It's

(39:01):
a sixteen zero two. It's more nitrogen, no phosphorus, a
little bit of potassium. When you want to give anything
a boost of nitrogen. I can't think of a better
way to do it than has to Grow Supergrow Plus
from Medina sixteen zero two hooks up to a garden hose.
You can buy it by the gallon too, by the way,
but it really works. Use it on your tomato plants,

(39:24):
use it on your lawn, use it on anything you
want to give a good quick boost to and it'll work.
Where are we here looking? I always kind of lose
track of my time here just a little bit. Heirloom
Soils is a company that has quality mixes period. I
don't care what you're doing. Like, for example, today I'm

(39:44):
going to be giving away the works indoor potting soil,
leaf mold compost, Oh my gosh, great for the lawn,
and all kinds of uses, hardwood malts. They sell shale
too there By the way, Heirloom Soil products are available
by the bag all over Houston and also by bulk.
You can go to Heirloomsoils dot com Heirloomsoils dot com
and find them. I have never tried an airloom soils

(40:07):
product that didn't work very very well. All right, And
if you want to win one, come out to them
to Ace Hardware City a memorial and we will get
you involved in that drawing and you may win one
as well. I'm looking forward to that. By the way,
I'll be there from twelve to two twelfth to two today,
so grab you a bite to eat. Head out there.

(40:28):
And let's talk those of you who it seems like
everybody's got a weed problem in they're going pull them up,
put them in a bag, bring them to me. I'll
put them under a hot lamp and make them confess
their name, and then we'll figure out what to do
for them. Got any bugs, got any pictures of your
landscape you'd like to What could I plant there? What's

(40:48):
wrong with this plant? We'll help with that too.

Speaker 8 (40:54):
There.

Speaker 5 (40:54):
Good morning, hey, welcome to garden Line. Good to have
you with us this morning. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and we're here to help you have a dountiful garden
and a beautiful landscape and more fun in the process.
Don't forget that last part. It is important gardening should
be fun. And when does it get to be fun. Well,
it gets to be fun when we have success, when

(41:15):
we go out there and we plant something and we enjoy,
if you will, the fruit of our labors. Okay, Now,
when you go out and you plant things and they
don't do well and they die, people say I've got
a brown thumb.

Speaker 11 (41:29):
You do not.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
I promise you do not have a brown thumb, because
there's no such thing as a brown thumb. Now, I
know what that means to say I have a brown thumb,
but you don't have a brown thumb. You have an
uninformed thumb. And we're here to inform your thumb. So
bring your thumb with you to the radio. Let's let's talk.
And by the way, you can listen to garden Line
on Katie r Age seven forty am or I suspect

(41:51):
some of you are doing that. Or you can listen
to us online at the website, the Gardening webs of
the kt h's website. You can also listen to us
on the iHeart Media app. Get you the little iHeart
mediapp it's red and white. Got a little white heart
there and it's red and white actually, and you find

(42:15):
garden Line and you listen that way. You could be
right now, it's getting daylight out there. You could be
going outside right now and have your phone in your
pocket and be listening to guarden Line while you get
some early morning tasks done. Maybe it's just walk through
the garden with a cup of coffee. You got your phone,
take a picture, send it to me, and then follow
it up with a phone call and we'll talk about

(42:37):
It'll be like live from your garden. On garden Line,
that's good. I was talking earlier with someone who's looking
for some drainage work and that said B and B
turf Pros did it done in their area. B and
B Turf Pros is a family owned service that I
just I'm very enthusiastic about recommending these folks. They provide
honest and quality work. It's the bottom line, because customers say,

(43:00):
satisfaction and high quality work and certainly quality products is
at the center of all they do. They only use
products from companies that I trust here on Guardenline, for example,
cnamlts Top Quality leaf more compost for compost top dressing
from Cnamlts. Now they do, they'll do fertilization, they'll do aeration,

(43:20):
they'll do compost top dressing. Just give them a call
seven one three two three four fifty five ninety eight
seven one three two three four five five ninety eight
or BB no end in the website BB Turfpros dot com.
BB Turfpros dot com. Prices for compost, top dressing and

(43:41):
cororations start around five hundred dollars, depending on your yard
size and the distance that needs to be traveled. But
through the month of May, and we are in May, folks,
we are officially in May. Free aeration with purchase of
top dressing. So here's the deal. You you buy a
compost top dressing service from them and they'll come out

(44:01):
and they'll do aeration for free. That's how that works.
It's just the month of May, okay. So wherever wherever
you live, from sugar Land and Missouri City, all the
way across the southeast side of Houston, down to League
City in Dickinson, and certainly down to Albn as well,
Apparentland that they serve that area. So give them a
call to eight. Excuse me seven one three two three

(44:24):
four fifty five ninety eight. We're going to go now
out to Tumbull and talk to David. Hey, David, welcome
to the garden Line. Good, good morning, sir.

Speaker 13 (44:35):
Hey, Yes, sir, my schedule, My schedule says that we
need to be putting barricade down about this time. And
I could read the label, but I it's easier to
call you.

Speaker 8 (44:50):
Do you do you.

Speaker 13 (44:50):
Wet the ground first or do you have to wait
it afterwards?

Speaker 5 (44:55):
No, you wet it afterwards, you put it out waiting
an annual And I would, Yeah, your let your lawn
dry out good. We don't want to stick into the
leaves of the grass. And it's not that that hurts
the ground. It just just let it dry out good,
so those granules kind of fall down in the lawn.
And then turn on the water. And you may want

(45:16):
to wait a few days before you apply it because
it's already so wet out there. But turn on the
water watered in with about a third of an inch
of irrigation, and that'll get it down in the soil
where it'll spread out and form a barricade over the
soil surface, preventing the weed seeds from coming through.

Speaker 13 (45:33):
Should I mow the grass first too.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
You could, but you don't need to you. In fact,
I would probably wait and put it down watered in
real good, and then mow the grass because you don't
want to. You know, when you mow, the clippings get
down there on the surface, and that's a good thing,
mult in the surface and decomposing. I'd rather get the
barricade down and watered in before I drop all the
clippings in it. If it's not night and day. That's

(46:00):
how I would do.

Speaker 8 (46:01):
It, all right, David, I'm going to beat it.

Speaker 13 (46:03):
I'm gonna beat them weeds this year, man, I don't.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
I've been having a problem with them, and I've.

Speaker 13 (46:08):
Been putting the barricade down.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
It's doing it.

Speaker 13 (46:10):
I've been having timing issues and I'm still having any
weed issues.

Speaker 5 (46:15):
Well. Now, the warm season weeds begin. The warm season
weeds begin germinating back in March. But by that, if
you put it down early on, like we recommend in February,
you know, we're looking as I say, March April May,
that's ninety days out, it would be it would be
time to do it again. If you need to continue
that protection on through the summertime. But when you run

(46:37):
into weeds, you know, you can also take a picture
of them, email them to me, and it may be
that we would take a different approach depending on the
weed and the stage that that weed is in of life.

Speaker 13 (46:47):
Okay, okay, thank you, sir.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
Yes, sir, thank you. I appreciate your call very much.
While Birds Unlimited is my favorite place for all things birds,
and that includes getting information from people that know what
they're talking about. I ask them a bazillion questions every
time I talk to somebody from Wilbirds Unlimited it is

(47:11):
nesting season for many of our songbirds. We got birds
nesting at our house. The folks at Wallbird's Unlimited I
is designed. It's really a perfect blend of seeds to
provide birds what they need most this season. It's called
Nesting Super Blend and it's only available Wallbird's Unlimited Nesting
super Blend. It's got things like peanuts, dried meal worms.

(47:33):
Boy birds love those sunflower chips, bark butter bits, and
on and on. It's also got extra protein and calcium.
The calcium helps egg formation, eggshell formation that is, and
a skeletal development for their nesting birds. For your nesting birds,
you can purchase Nesting Super Blend from wild Birds Unlimited
loose and seed bags, or you can buy it in

(47:55):
little compacted seed cylinders if they have to peck the
seeds out to get it. Whatever you do, look for
it at any of the six Wildbirds Unlimited stores here
in the Greater Houston area, and that includes adding Kingwood
on Kingwood Drive, down in clear Lake on El Dorado Boulevard,
in Paarland, on East Broadway, up in Cypress on Barker Cypress,

(48:17):
or in Houston on the West Side. There is a
Memorial Drive store, and then down south in Houston there's
a bel Air store and while you're there, pick up
their high perch hummingbird feeder. It's my favorite nectar feeder
for hummingbirds and it's available at Wildbird's Unlimited. I'm gonna
have to run take a break, Darryl and Angleton, you

(48:39):
will be our first up when we come back. Hey,
good to have you with us. Welcome back to Garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help
you have a bountiful, beautiful, enjoyable garden. That's what we
like to do. If you have indoor house plants that
you haven't potted up in a while or bumped up
to a larger pot, you may consider that. You know,

(49:01):
once a houseplant gets let's say bigger than three times
the size of the pot, like if a pot were
I'll make up a number. Let's say it's eight inches wide.
Once that plant is twenty four inches wide, that's three times.
That's about a time to consider repotting it. Now, that's
a very generic statement. There's a lot of different kinds

(49:22):
of plants. It doesn't apply to all exactly, but just
give you a rough idea. When plants get root bound,
need to bump them up to a beare pot. And
if you're going to do that, you need a quality
product like jungle Land indoor water saving potting soil. The
water saving means there's crystals in it. It holds that
water so that when you forget the water, I know

(49:44):
you don't, but when your neighbor forgets the water, it
holds onto the water, so the plants have access to
moisture for a little bit longer to kind of carry
them into that. It's quality product. It drains well, but
it does hold that moisture. And you're going to find
jungle Land product or jungle Land nitro fastproduct. I like
the jungle in. You're going to find it in places like,
for example, Memorial Ace Hardware City on Memorial Drive, where

(50:08):
I will be today. I'll be there today from twelve
to two at Ace Hardware City and we are going
to be providing a number of giveaways and answering your
gardening questions and having a really good time. I hope
you'll come by and do that. If you're up in
the Woodlands. Night FoST products can be found at Ospas
Ace on Kirkandall Road and in the Katie area Katie

(50:28):
Hardware Ace on Pinoak another example of where you can
find night FoST products. Let's head out to Engleton now
we're going to visit with Darryl. Hey, Daryl, welcome to
guard Line.

Speaker 8 (50:40):
Hey, you getting mourners skip?

Speaker 1 (50:43):
What can I do about these these borders to get
my squash every year?

Speaker 7 (50:47):
Man?

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Have you already got them this year? Or you're just
kind of getting ahead of it? Are you already seeing
one there? Okay? QUI Yeah? Squashvine bore is it's a pain.
It's a little if you haven't seen the adult before.
It's a black and orange moth that looks like a

(51:09):
wasp that sits on the leaves and flies around and
during the morning, early in the morning, you can see
them just sitting on the leaves. They're laying eggs, single eggs.
They'll lay them typically on the stem down at the
ground or on a petiole, which is long stalks that
the leaves are on. Uh and then they bore in.
So you either are treating the stem so that when

(51:30):
they try to chew through it, it kills them because
you have a pesticide on that stem. Or you are
splitting the vine where you see the sawdust coming out
and using your knife point to go in there and
kill that that worm, splitting it lengthwise. You know it's
a wound, but the vine generally can can survive that splitting,

(51:53):
but not the chewing of the caterpillar on my squash.
What I'll do, Steve, Steve, I'm sorry, Darryl, is to
put a garden mesh fabric over the plants. It's like
a very soft windows screen kind of thing, you know,
a little checkerboard of squares that the bugs can't get through,
and you could lay it over to the ground, put

(52:15):
something on it so it doesn't blow off, and you
leave it on there until the first female squash open.
Typically on squash, you get a few male ballooms open
and then you start to get the fruit blooms the
female blooms. When that happens, you got two options. You
can either lift it up, go out in the mornings,
lift it up and do a little hand pollinating yourself.

(52:36):
Or you can just take it off, at which point
the vine borers are going to find it. But by
the time they find it and then lay eggs, and
the eggs hatch and on you get a decent little
yield to squash before it takes the vine down. So
those are kind of the options. If you're gonna spray,
you want to spray late in the day. You want
to direct your spray to the vines themselves, give them

(52:58):
a good coating with an secticide that's gonna be persisting
there on the surface. Avoid spraying when the blooms are open,
because we've got bees out, and if you get spray
in the blooms, you're gonna kill your important pollinator that's
helping you have squash. All right, Not easy, but it's

(53:18):
it's an option. You bet, thanks a lot, appreciate appreciate
your call, Darryl very much. Nelson Plant Food has so
many great products, but they have these these canisters or jars.
They're clear with a big, big wide screw top lid,
and they come as part of the Nutris Star line.

(53:39):
They come in everything you can imagine. You know, there's
one for hibiscus and flowering tropicals. You know, there is
one for azaleas, there's one for areas, there's one for
indoor plants. There's one for bougainvillias and vegetables and on
and on uh and they work. That's as simple as
that they work. There's about a dozen places around town
where you can get those jars refilled, which is an

(54:01):
economical way to go about it. Nelson also has Color Star,
their most famous of all their products. I mean it's
sold all over the country. Literally, people find out about
it and they want it shipped out to them across
the country. And there's a reason. It's good stuff. By
the way, I'm going to be given away several jars
of the Color Star or maybe some Azalea plumeria indoor

(54:25):
plant boogabee. I've got a lot of those that I'll
have on hand today out at Memorial Drive. Ace Hardware
store it's called Ace Hardware City on Memorial Drive, will
be there from twelve to two, So come out and
check it out. You're going to find these Nelson plant
foods all over town. They're widely available and like I said,
they work, and I know that because I've used them.

(54:47):
Let's set up the Deer Park now we're going to
talk to Steve. Hey, Steve, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yes, can here be okay?

Speaker 5 (54:57):
Yes, sir?

Speaker 11 (54:58):
Hello, Okay, Yes, I just sent you an email. I
hope you got it. It shows a blade of grass.
I've got it in a pretty big area of the
lawn that Scott looks like that. The grass is green
and the tips are all brown looking.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
Okay, Steve, I don't have it. Let me put you
on hold, and I'm going to have my producer get
with you. Make sure we got the right email, and
if not, I may have to have you resend it.
Just hang on here. I will keep watching in the

(55:41):
meantime because I need to be able to see that
in order to give a good answer to the question.
Plants for All Seasons is the garden center that is
right there where Luetta comes into Tomball Parkway, which is
also called Highway to forty nine. Plants for All Seasons,
just north of Luetta on Highway to forty nine. I

(56:01):
was in there the other day looking at all the
color and oh my gosh. They the place is loaded
up and it really looks good. Lots of lots of
good color plants, lots of good plants for ground covers,
the herbs that they have, the hanging basket plants that
they have. I mean, it's just really, really beautiful. There

(56:24):
is a number of different kinds of plants. There's always
a new plant coming out every year, dozens of new plants.
There's right now, there's one. It's a type of portolaco
or personallyane kind of plant. It's called color Blasts double
and it is. It's amazing. The blooms. I don't know
how to describe them. It's almost like they look like

(56:44):
it's not many roses, but they just have a whole
lot of petals all bunched together in gorgeous hot hot colors,
beautiful colors. So you ought to go out there and
check them out. Why are you there? Go ahead and
check out some of the other plants that they have.
They have excellent bedding plants.

Speaker 11 (57:03):
You know.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
I was talking earlier about it's time with the vegetables
to be planting things that like like summer. Well, they
have seeds and plants of all kinds of vegetables and
flowers and herbs, and they have the ones that you
need to plant now so that when it gets hotter
and hotter, they just keep looking good, they just keep growing,
they just keep looking good again. That's plants for all seasons.

(57:25):
On Tamaa Park, we had with two forty nine just
north of Lueta two eight, one three, seven, six one
six four six two eight one three seven six sixteen
forty six. When it comes to our trees, you know,

(57:45):
trees get our attention when we have a storm and
all the trees come crashing down like happened twice last year.
And it doesn't have to be a hurricane. It can
be any kind of summer storm. As we learned again
last year. Martinspo Moore's company, Affordable Tree. This is a
family business. They've been doing it a long time. They've
been sponsors a garden line for a very long time.

(58:07):
Martin knows this stuff, you know, he's been doing this
for gosh. I actually he's third generation, a third generation
that I know of, to be part of our garden
line team. Here, Affordable Tree Service comes out, They look
at what the situation is. They give you an honest,
accurate assessment. Let you know what's going on when you

(58:29):
call him, and here's the number seven to one, three, six, nine, nine,
two six sixty three. Probably this is a family business.
So you're probably going to talk to Martin's mom. Tell
her you heard about us on Guardenline. Guardline customers are
their number one priority. I'm gonna get that phone number
again seven one three six ninety nine two six six three.

(58:50):
Whether you need consult consultations on your trees, maybe you're
going to have some construction done, Oh my gosh. Pre
construction care is very important. Do not let anybody come
out to your place and do trenching or construction or
anything that affects the root system of a tree without
calling Affordable Tree first. They do also do deep root

(59:12):
feeding and pest and disease control. They can do stump grinding. Certainly,
they do pruning and getting your trees pruned properly prior
to their arrival of the next storm is important. Affordable
Tree Service seven one three six ninety nine two six
sixty three. You're listening to garden Line, We're here to

(59:33):
help you have success in what you're doing on your gardening.
So yeah, I do is give me a call seven
one three two one two KTRH. So a lot of
people will send a photo and then call. I'm not
able just by sheer numbers. I'm just not able to
answer all the emails by typing out answers and sometimes
it's more in depth the answer. And so if you

(59:55):
can send me a photo and follow it with a call,
especially if it's like, what's this weed on or what
kind of flower is this? Or what's wrong with this plant?
I get a lot of those. A good sharp photo,
and let me just coach you a little bit on
this so that I can help you, because if I
get a fuzzy photo, you'll get a fuzzy answer, and
we don't want either to happen. Take a picture of

(01:00:17):
the plant overall, and then go in up close. Now
you know if it's a bug or if it's a
tiny weed in the lawn. Get as close as you can,
and before you send it to me, look and make
sure it's in sharp focus, and you can blow it
up really good. Don't downsize the photo if you get
up close like that. Sometimes it helps to pull up

(01:00:38):
a weed and set it on the table on a
dark surface and take a picture of that because I
can see it better. Get pictures sometimes the weeds that
are all woven into the grass, and I can hardly
make out what the weed is because it's too far away.
When you send it to me, attach it to the photo.
I attach it to the email. Don't embed it in
the text. If you can get it attached, it's much

(01:01:00):
easier for me to open and zoom in while I'm
trying to do three things at once. I don't walk
into your gum at the same time very well. So
if you can attach it, it also helps. But sharp
focus is the number one thing. And you can call
my producer and he will give you the details on
how to do that. I'm'll take a little break and
we'll be right back after the half hour break here

(01:01:22):
with your questions. Hey, welcome to Garden Line. Glad to
have you with us. You've heard me talk about Sweet
Green before. It's a unique fertilizer. Nitrofoss really did their
homework in creating this. This is eleven percent nitrogen, which
a really high nitrogen content for an organic fertilizer. You

(01:01:43):
put it out there, it melts away into the soil
and the beneficial bacteria and other microbes they just love it.
They like carbon. They need carbon, right and when you
provide them that, they're gonna do well, and that is
sweet It really rejuvenates and just encourages them to take

(01:02:04):
off and do very very very well. Sweet Green is
available in a lot of places around town. You're gonna
find it in spots like court hardware, on South Maine
down there in Stafford. You go to M and D
out in Rosenberg on Avenue I. They're going to carry
night Foss products out there, Enchanted Gardens on FM three

(01:02:25):
fifty nine out in the Richmond Rosenberg area, and Hiding
and feed Stuben Airline. I don't think I said that
one on I forty five North. Places you can get
quality products from night Foss, like sweet Green. And by
the way, it's time to get that done. If you
haven't for Lizer lawn in the last six weeks and

(01:02:46):
you haven't used the slow release yet, it'd be a
good time to do the Sweet Green. Let's head out
to Steve in Deer Park. Hey, Steve, you know I'm
still not getting your email and don't I don't know
what's going on, but let's try to answer your question
without me actually looking at the picture. Give me a
description again. I think you said there was yellow or
brown tips on the grass blades.

Speaker 11 (01:03:07):
Well, the grass is like green at the base, but
the tips are kind of brown and a little shrivel
like I guess.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Okay, when you look at the blades, are you seeing
are you seeing spots on the leaves? Are you seeing
spots along the blades.

Speaker 11 (01:03:30):
Dead or spots mostly on the end. So, like I say,
the bottom part of it is green.

Speaker 8 (01:03:38):
I can walk out here and look at some I guests.

Speaker 11 (01:03:41):
If I can.

Speaker 5 (01:03:42):
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I don't know. I don't know
anything that attacks the ends of leaf blades. You know,
if they wasn't getting enough water, which that's absolutely not
the cause. But if it wasn't, it wouldn't give those symptoms.
If it was getting too water, it wouldn't give those symptoms.
If Yeah, the only thing I can think of is

(01:04:07):
have you applied a salt based a synthetic fertilizer that
might have been a little excessive in the application recently.

Speaker 11 (01:04:16):
Well, I applied some of the nitro foss weed and feed.
It's not recent, it's been a little.

Speaker 5 (01:04:23):
While, okay, And I don't think that's a Yeah, it's
not every well, this is strange.

Speaker 11 (01:04:31):
It's not every leaf. It's some of the leaves have
it and some are.

Speaker 5 (01:04:37):
Some are but anyway, yeah, and no spots though, you're
not seeing circular ish spots along any of the grass
blades anywhere, even on the end.

Speaker 11 (01:04:53):
No, I don't think so. I thought at first it
might be a fungus. But I think it's the wrong
time of year for that isn't either.

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
We're getting close to great leaf spot season and I
was just.

Speaker 8 (01:05:06):
Trying to think of that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:07):
Uh yeah, I guess boy. I wish I could see
a picture of it. I don't know what's happening. I've
looked in my junk mail and all that kind of stuff,
and I'm just not seeing it. And so you did,
did verify the email with my producer?

Speaker 11 (01:05:24):
Well, it's gardening with Skip Brickner at iHeartMedia dot com
right now.

Speaker 5 (01:05:31):
Yeah, you've got it right. All right, Well, let's do this.
Let me put you back on hold Alejandra, I need
you to verify that email. I think I think we
need to do a change on that. Hang on, Steve,
I'm hang on. I'll come back to you after you

(01:05:53):
make a change on it. I'm going to run out
now to Port Arthur and talk to Alan. Hello, Alan,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:06:00):
Good morning.

Speaker 7 (01:06:00):
How are you this morning?

Speaker 8 (01:06:02):
I'm well, okay.

Speaker 14 (01:06:05):
My question is about a lime tree I have. It's
a I don't know what kind of but it makes
a little mini lines but it's doing healthy and it's
started to produce some lines. But all of a sudden,
I got little black spots that appear to be on
the inside of the leaf because I can't rub them off,
them off for any day, and the leads a turney
black spots, and then the leads are turning real black
and curling up. I can't figure out what's causing this.

Speaker 5 (01:06:33):
There's little spots interesting there, a little.

Speaker 14 (01:06:37):
Beatty, a little bitty spot. But I go out of town,
I've gone five days a week, and I come back
and I find it like this here. So I those
little betty spots that turn into that whole big old
black spot and the leaves curling up or what this
seems to be internal?

Speaker 5 (01:06:51):
Hm, okay, it could be something that's bacterial. It could
also be oh gosh, there's there's a lot of possibility.
This is another one. We're seeing. A photo I think
would would probably help. Boy. Let's if you can, if
you can send I'm gonna give you some answer possibilities,

(01:07:14):
and then if you could send me a picture. I
think that that that might be that might be most
helpful if I can take a look, and and maybe
I'll get another opinion when I actually see it. Sometimes
things that that get described on the air and things
that get formed in my mind or are two different,

(01:07:35):
two different things. Okay, so there's there. Yeah, there's a number.
There's a number of different issues that can occur on
on limes and other types of citrus, and there are
some it could be like a bacterial type of spot.
There's a disease called greasy spot that can affect citrus

(01:07:56):
leaves and it's kind of a black colored oration. There
are it's a possibility. You said it's not on the leaf,
it's in the leaf.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
Correct.

Speaker 8 (01:08:07):
I cannot wipe it off.

Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
I can't scrape it off my.

Speaker 8 (01:08:09):
Fingernails or anything.

Speaker 5 (01:08:11):
So is it bumpy at all?

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
No, it's just mood.

Speaker 14 (01:08:16):
This can be.

Speaker 5 (01:08:18):
Okay, I'm eliminating things as we asked this. There's a product.
There's a disease called altern area brown spot that can
affect the leaves and it'll cause some black spots on it.
It can appear in the fruit as well. Yeah. Other
than those, I'm kind of trying to rack my brain

(01:08:39):
here on some others that it might be. How much
what percentage of the plant would you say of the
plant's leaves are affected?

Speaker 14 (01:08:48):
I just just got home last night. I think like
that out of town working. I just walked aro and
looked at it.

Speaker 8 (01:08:53):
I just noticed.

Speaker 14 (01:08:54):
I would say it's less twenty five percent less than.

Speaker 8 (01:08:56):
Twenty five percent.

Speaker 5 (01:08:58):
Okay, Well I think it'll be okay, Yeah, I think
it'll be okay. It may be if you can take
some pictures and send them to me. I may end
up recommending a specific kind of a spray for it.
But right now, my gut feeling is I wouldn't worry
about it. Try to avoid overhead watering. I know you

(01:09:22):
can't control rain, but try to try to avoid that.
And in the meantime, I'm going to put you on
hold and have my producer give you an email, and
I'd like to see some really good close up pictures
and good sharp takers. Okay, all right, Ellen, thanks a lot, appreciate.
I appreciate that a lot. Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens

(01:09:43):
just out there, and Katie Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens
is it's a destination garden center, is the bottom line.
If you've never been out there, you gotta go. If
you have, you know what I'm talking about. Their nursery
is outstanding, all kinds of beautiful plants they got a
really nice select of adranges right now, some beautiful beautiful
day lilies. Oh and all just asiatic lilies too. Those

(01:10:06):
are the kinds that are up on long, tall stalks.
Got a whole bunch of bloom buds at the top
that open up, just gorgeous, gorgeous bloom. But now while
you're out there, you gotta see their water features. There's
so many cool water features and the sound of water
is you need it in your garden. I say that
because I need it in mind. I so enjoy our

(01:10:28):
water features outside. It's just nice, it's lovely, and you
need to go check that out. Of course, they have
everything you need coluding fish, including the plants that go
into a water garden. So go out and check them out.
Nelson Water Gardens and Nursery. By the way, they're located
on Katie Fort Ben Road, just north of the Katie Freeway.

(01:10:49):
You turn north on Katie Fort Ben Roads. It's just
a hop, skipping and jump down the street on the
right hand side. Open Monday through Saturday nine to six
and Sundays from eleven am to four pm. We're going
to now go to Steve and Deer Park.

Speaker 11 (01:11:09):
Steve, Yeah, can you look and see if you see
my email this time. I think I got it this time.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
Okay, yes, I did. It did come through. There we go. Okay,
let me get where I can see this. That is
gray leaf spot. That's great leaf spot causing that. And
it's a fungal disease. And it loves mild temperatures, warm

(01:11:40):
mild temperatures, and it loves high humidity or high moisture.
So we get a lot of range. You're going to
see gray leaf spot. You irrigate a lot too frequently,
and you're going to see gray leaf spot. And you
can use a funge aside to shut it down, but
I would recommend instead that you just mow it, ignore
it at this point, and avoid any extra watering, don't

(01:12:04):
push it with too much nitrogen. But if you need
to go to a fungicide, there are good lawn fungicides
that can help shut this disease down. I'm running real
short on time, but that would be the bottom line
for it. Nitrophos has a product that's a disease control
product that comes in the bag. There's one that's totally

(01:12:26):
like a total disease control type product that works very well.
I'm gonna have to run, folks, So we're coming close
here to a break. If you have got standing water,
you will have mosquitoes. And mosquito dunks are a great solution.
You got a little spot that's got some water in it,
Maybe it's a catch basin under a plant. You can't
remember to turn them over and dump it out all

(01:12:47):
the time. Well, put some Mosquita dunk granules in there.
It'll work. You got standing water, Mosquita dunk granules looks
like a little donut. You can break them up if
you don't need as much. One doughnut covers one hundred
square feet, lasts about a month. Really works well, and
you're going to find it all over the place. Garden centers,
feed stores, ace hardware store all carry these Mosquita dunk products.

(01:13:09):
Time for me to take a little break now and
I'll be right back. Ah beach boys, it can only
mean one thing. It is summer. Summer is here, I know,
don't rush its skip it gets hot. Well, there we go.
Welcome back to garden Line. Good to have you with us.
We are here to help you have bounty beauty and
good times out there in the garden. Everybody cares about

(01:13:32):
their lawn Number one call I get relates to lawns.
That's it. Of all the plants, nobody calls me about
their Cole Robbie, but lawns that's number one. And how
do you have a good lawn? Will you take care
of it? And there's a lot of things we do
to take care of our lawn, but one of the
single most important things when you're dealing with the lawn
that is thin, that has compaction, that is struggling and

(01:13:53):
trying to recover from all kinds of disease and insect
and drought and things like that, is aeration followed by
compost top dressing. Simple as that cororation pulls a plug
out of the ground and drops it on the surface.
If you've got a thatch problem, that also helps thatch
to decompose very rapidly by getting those plugs up on

(01:14:14):
the surface in the thatch area. Then you put on
the compost top dressing. A very fine, finely screened compost
falls down in the holes, goes down to the surface.
It helps the soil biology, It brings oxygen into the soil.
It helps out lawn take water in at a better rate,
and that is important too. The bottom line is it

(01:14:35):
helps the lawn. Now, Greenpro, those are our folks that
service the area northwest quadrant of Houston. We're talking about
Spring and Cyprus and the Woodlands and Conrad and Willis
and Magnolia, Montgomery and down to Itan Katie, West Houston,
Central Houston or north Do they cover a wide area? Basically?
The northwest quadrant is the area that they primarily work.

(01:14:58):
Greenpro Texas dot Com its website greenpro Texas dot com
eight three two three five one zero zero three two
eight three two three five one zero zero three two.
We're going to head now out to Laporte and talk
to Matt. Hey, Matt, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:15:17):
Hi, how are you doing?

Speaker 5 (01:15:20):
I'm doing well today. I'm doing well. How can we help?

Speaker 15 (01:15:23):
Uh?

Speaker 16 (01:15:23):
Well, i have a small garden in front of my
house and I've been I've had it. I've had the
house now for twelve years, and uh, every year it
seems like that I'm I'm moulting it over, weeds are growing,
I'm multed over our plant plants, and they die and

(01:15:47):
then spring comes back around and I mulch it again,
and it's just an ongoing thing. So really, what my
question is that I want to produce a garden that's
going to be more stable and it's going to last longer,

(01:16:07):
and the plants won't die and grow and die and grow,
and uh, you.

Speaker 5 (01:16:14):
Know something like that.

Speaker 16 (01:16:16):
And then and also you know, I mean I live
in southeast Houston, so the grass just I mean, ben,
it just comes in, you know, it tries to take over,
you know, because I have said augustine grass.

Speaker 8 (01:16:33):
And so it's just an ongoing problem.

Speaker 16 (01:16:36):
So I'm trying to figure out a solution for that.

Speaker 5 (01:16:41):
All right, it sounds like you have an in the
ground garden, not a raised bed. Is that correct? That's correct? Okay, Well,
one good solution that I do is and you can
garden in the ground. I mean, farmers do it all
the time. But I like to do the raised box
beds because you can put a high quality mix in them.

(01:17:01):
It gets them up above the ground. So you're saying,
Augustine's not gonna be crawling in there. And it's a
good weed free soil to begin with. And I just
think you get better performance, the drainage is better. I
don't know everything that might be contributing to your garden woes.
It could be a lack of sunlight. It could be
some droughty conditions. It could be a tight clay soil.

(01:17:21):
I mean, there are a lot of factors face a
garden to struggle.

Speaker 7 (01:17:27):
Yeah, it faces the west side, do west okay?

Speaker 5 (01:17:33):
Well? Of course, Then there's the blast of the late
day sun. Most of our fruiting vegetables need six hours
of sun in order to do reasonably well, so that
that could be a factor. I would suggest putting in
some sort of a box around it, whether you know,
you go out and invest in like a veggo bed,
or whether you build some structure yourself that or even

(01:17:57):
just have a raised mound where you bring in quality
soil and the side slope up so that your garden
looks like you know, you go out to West Texas
those mesas where the side slope up and then you
have a flat top a mountain. You sort of do
that as a garden bed without any side. You can
do it either way. Good quality saw mix, good nutrition

(01:18:19):
and dependable moisture and decent sunlight. Those are all keys
to success. Now, the mulches should keep down weed seeds
if it's if it is a perennial weed like bermuda
grass coming in there. Mulch isn't going to stop it
at all. But if it's an annual, the mulching should
stop the weed seeds. But I think we're looking at nutrition, drainage,

(01:18:42):
maybe some other factors like that, based on what you
told me. Okay, so you're suggesting a raised box.

Speaker 16 (01:18:50):
And when you say that, when you say a box,
when you say a boxed.

Speaker 5 (01:18:56):
Garden, what do you mean by that? Does that basically
mean like, well, yeah, go go look at a go
look at a product called gosh I just said. I
just said the name of it, and it just jumped
out of my head. I'll think of it in a second. Anyway,
there are metal sided corrugated painted beds that you put

(01:19:19):
together and you know they may be sides may only
be eleven inches high. In fact, that's plenty high for you.
Eleven inches h And then you fill it with a
quality mix like heirloom soils of veggie and herb mix,
and now you grow in that and and then you
add your nutrients. You get a good fertilizer for for
plants that uh uh, you know, vegetables and herbs and

(01:19:42):
things like that, and and you do success Vego bed
is the one I was trying to think of v
E G O that. Now that's just one brand, and
you know, some people make their own out of treated wood.
Some people, you know, put bricks around this. I just
get you a good quality bed. But go look at
a Vego and that that's kind of the thing I'm
talking about. If you don't like the look of that,

(01:20:03):
find some other way to box in a raised quality
garden mix. I'm running out of time here, Matt, but
I do wish you well. I hope that works out,
and don't hesitate to call back if we can be
of a further assistance to you. In Chendit Forest Garden
Center is the kind of place where when you go there,

(01:20:25):
you just are amazed. I was there recently and they're
just walking through. Oh my gosh, the amount of quality planting,
the color that they had. They have a salvia list
that goes on forever and ever. It's my favorite geness
of plants. Ninety one varieties of salvia, and in Chenney

(01:20:45):
for us, amazing a lot of them are hummingbird magnets.
Now they've got all kinds of summer perennials. If you
need any products to take care of your lawn. They've
got it. You got to see their gift shop if
you got some hard to shop for folks and CHENDI
for go see their gift shop. They are located if
you're heading if let's say you're in Richmond Rosenberg heading
towards sugar Land, they're off to the right. It's FM

(01:21:07):
twenty seven fifty nine. But here's what you really need
to know. Enchanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com. We'll say
that again. Go to the website. It's awesome, tells you everything.
Enchanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com. Well, we ran out

(01:21:28):
of time. Jordan and Kingwood, you'll be first up if
you can wait until we come back, and I'll be
back to answer your gardening questions as well. All right,
we're back, Welcome back to the garden line. Let's just
do this. We're gonna jump right out there. Jordan, you've
been patiently waiting for a while here. Let's go right

(01:21:49):
out here and talk to Jordan in Kingwood. I'm good.
How are you doing?

Speaker 12 (01:21:54):
Not too bad?

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
I've got kind of a one off here, and I've
listened to your show for quite a while and done
a great job so far. But I've got it. I've
got a tree here and it's it's it's.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
An orange tree.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
It's about twenty twenty foot tall and about halfway up right.
So the ranches, like from fifty percent upward are oranges
and from the bottom half are lemons. But the lemons
look the exact same as the oranges, and it's the
same exact tree. They're about the size of the softball.

(01:22:29):
And I'm trying to figure out if it's a hybrid
or if in some way possibly something got crossbred or grafted,
or this is like a common thing. It's kind of weird.

Speaker 5 (01:22:42):
Well, that is weird. Yeah, both the lemons and the
oranges are about the size of a softball or the
yellow fruit and the orange fruit is about both about
the size of a.

Speaker 1 (01:22:56):
Softball, correct, And they look likegantic softball oranges. And so
it produces about two hundred of them. But the upper
branches are taste like taste like an orange, and then
the bottom are totally eleventh.

Speaker 3 (01:23:15):
Yeah, it's weird.

Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
Okay, h Well, I'm trying to think about the ways
that could happen. Yeah, it could be grafted, it could
be a genetic change, genetic change in it look closely
at the at where the change occurs and look at
the at the trunk there or the branch where you know,

(01:23:41):
like where where does the You can just follow the
branches down and where does that change happen? And look
around there and see if you see signs of a graft,
you know, or something if you're just normal bandard growth.
How long have you have? You had this tree?

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
About eight, eight or nine years? I mean, so we
usually we don't know what else to do with two
hundred of these things, so we just make wine out
of it.

Speaker 5 (01:24:07):
Okay, So it's been this way all along or it
just recently changed like this.

Speaker 1 (01:24:13):
No, that's always been That's why it's weird.

Speaker 5 (01:24:16):
Okay, would you do this, Jordan? Would you take a
picture of the tree when it is well, Actually, it'd
be helpful. It doesn't have fruit on it right now,
does it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
It'll be December probably, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:24:30):
I'd like to see the tree and then see the fruit.
Even cut through a few fruit and let me look
at them and make sure which species of citrus we're
dealing with. You know, something can be a little different color,
but it's just a color that's changed. It's not the fruit.
But you're describing the lemons as being lemonee in their flavor.
That is a big lemon. The lemons do they have

(01:24:52):
super thick skins.

Speaker 1 (01:24:56):
It's the same consistency as the orange. So yeah, it's
pretty thick.

Speaker 5 (01:25:01):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:25:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:25:03):
But also, and then the follow up question was, you know,
I like because I've germinated, like in planted, you know,
seeds from that and it's grown. You know, for about
two years, I wanted to see if those might be
able to produce fruit. I don't know if that's a
thing or not, but.

Speaker 3 (01:25:18):
Yeah, I tried it.

Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
Oh that's that's a great idea. Yeah, very very important
to try that. Very good. Now you took the fruit,
the seeds out of the lemon or the orange or both.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
I call it a lorrange.

Speaker 5 (01:25:33):
But I'm saying, but you're taking the seeds out of
the the orange fruit of yellow fruit.

Speaker 1 (01:25:39):
No, no, no, they're both orange.

Speaker 8 (01:25:41):
They look the same.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
Yeah, they're the exact thing.

Speaker 5 (01:25:45):
Oh it's not yellow.

Speaker 1 (01:25:48):
They look they look identical. But but but the upper
ones tastes just like an orange, and the lower ones
tastes just like a lemon. So it's very kind of odd.

Speaker 5 (01:26:00):
Well, you got my curiosity up let's take I'd love
to see you know, when the fruit come back again.
Let me give me a call back. Let's or email me.
I'll be glad to look into this further because I'd
like to get to the bottom of it. Right now.
They're just several possibilities, but none of them sound quiet right,

(01:26:20):
so but thanks for asking. But please do stick with
this and get back with me because I'd like to
help pursue solving this one.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
Okay, Joonasa, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot, sir, Hi.

Speaker 5 (01:26:32):
You bet, thank you a lot. I appreciate that. You know,
Southwest Fertilizer has been around the Houston area since nineteen
fifty five. This is our seventieth year. Happy birthday, Southwest Fertilizer.
You don't stick around that long, in fact, get better
through the years without doing things right, taking care of

(01:26:52):
your customer's right, carrying everything they need, having expert service.
So when people walk in there, I mean they may
have a bug or a leaf or a picture or
something and they put their eyes on it there at
Southwest Fertilizer, Bob and his team they diagnose it. They
get you to the right product to fix what you got.

(01:27:13):
Friendly service, quality products and great selection. That's Southwest Fertilizer.
They're on the corner of Businett and Renwick. I was
there the other day and thanks for everybody that came
out when we were at Southwest Fertilizer. We had a
really good time. And uh, it's always good to meet
folks that are listeners to garden Line. Southwest Fertilizer dot
Com seven to one three six sixty six one seven

(01:27:35):
four four. Let's go now out to Baytown and we're
going to talk to Glenn. Hello, Glenn, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (01:27:43):
Thank you welcome. It's nice to talk to you again.
I've called you several times. I think I'm the person
that calls you from Baytown. I tell your neighbors three
quick questions. I have cleaned out my flower bits from
all the weeds. What should I put on the naked
ground to prevent weeds?

Speaker 14 (01:28:06):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:28:06):
To prevent weed seeds a good thick multch So.

Speaker 17 (01:28:09):
I probably should have sprayed them before I pulled them.

Speaker 5 (01:28:13):
Okay. If they're perennial, are they grassy weeds like bermuda
grass or is it broad leaf weeds? Then okay, well,
I would still put a good thick mulch on them.
You get there or four inches of mulch on it,
and it will block out the light. And I think
it's going to take care of most of your weed problems. Now,

(01:28:34):
whatever comes through that, you need to give me a
callback and send me a photo. Let me look at
the weed and I'll tell you what to do about it.
But since you got it cleared out, let's get a
good thick multch down if you if you still, if
you do, you happen to still take the printed copy
of the newspaper.

Speaker 8 (01:28:53):
No I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:28:55):
Okay, good well, I was going to have you put
some paper down, but most people don't have printing copies
in their hands. But let's just do that. Get through
four inches of multch to block all the light as
soon as possible over it, and then whatever comes through,
let me look at it and we'll prescribe the right
product to control that kind of weed. Okay.

Speaker 17 (01:29:14):
Second question, I have torpedo grass in one side of
my yard in the flower bed that is just totally
out of control. Will GLASSI fate take care of that.

Speaker 5 (01:29:25):
It will, but it'll kill whatever you spray it on.
So if the whole area is like look, let's just
kill everything and start over. Then glaphyse would do it.
I have a thing on my website. My website is
gardening with Skip dot com and it's called the weed
Wiper how to build your own weed Wiper. If you

(01:29:48):
will take a look at that, it will tell you
how to build something. And you put the glaphysite on
the sponge and torpedograss gets taller than the grass around it,
and so you can wipe it on the torpedo grass
without killing your grass. And if you like a printed
copy of it, I'm gonna be at the Ace Hardware

(01:30:09):
City on Memorial Drive. It's on the west side of Houston,
so i'd be a little drive, but we're gonna be
given away a lot of stuff. I'm gonna have some
print copies of my weed wiper, how to build it,
and then the sheet that tells what to put on
the weed wiper to kill various kinds of weeds. So
you're welcome to stop buy and do that. I'm gonna
have to go. I'm at a hard break. If you
had a follow up question, just hang on, but I

(01:30:31):
appreciate your call and we'll be back folks in just
a moment, all right, Welcome back, folks. I was at
warren Southern Gardens recently. They're the one on North Park
driving Kingwood. By the way, there's also Kingwood Garden Center
on Stone Hollow Drive. Both of those places are open
seven days a week. But I was out there at
Warren's for an appearance and just walking through. It's just

(01:30:55):
it's just fun and it's beautiful, and it's load. They
are loaded with all kinds of things, everything you can
imagine and want. By the way, this weekend May three
through fifth, they're having their Sinco to Mayo sale. And
the interesting thing is the bigger the pot, the bigger
the savings. You know, gallon pots three dollars off, forty

(01:31:17):
five gallon pots forty five dollars off. I mean, it's
just a ton of great stuff. When you go there,
you're not going to believe the color and the savings
and the options is I guess the best way to
put it. So many plants. I don't even know where
to begin talking about it. By the way, both Warrens
and Kingwood Garden Center have the refill stations for the

(01:31:42):
Microlife and Neilson plant Food. Do you take your old
jars of either of those and you can refill them
right there. It makes it real easy to do. They
also have an amazing selection of pottery. It is beautiful,
really nice selection of garden tools. I was impressed with
that when I was there too. And Kingwood Garden Center's

(01:32:02):
gift shop is just it's just stunning. It's really really
cool stuff. So now, no matter what you're doing, no
matter what you're planting, no matter what you're wanting, from
the brown stuff meaning the soil products you know, to
the fertilizers, to the plants themselves. We're in Southern Gardens
the Kingwood Garden Center, Kingwood, Texas. You're fortunate to have

(01:32:24):
those out there. Let's head out to Montgomery and we're
going to talk to Larry. Hey, Larry, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:32:29):
Hi.

Speaker 3 (01:32:30):
How you doing Skip. I've got two I've got two
live old trays about trumps are about three inch in diameter.
They're ten to eleven foot tall. Started about two years
they've been planting about four years ago, and started about
two years ago, like and started growing on the truck.

(01:32:54):
It is completely up the trunk now and it's starting
on the branches. The trees look healthy. Do I need
to worry about it? I chased it down and it
looks like it's cartilage liking. What do I need to do?
Do I need to worry about it?

Speaker 5 (01:33:15):
You don't need to worry about it. Lichen grows on
rocks and fence posts. It just needs something for support
to grow on. Basically, if you want to get rid
of lichen, there's a product called moss Max m Oss
m a X that is labeled for controlling li likeen.
But when you kill it, it's going to come back.

Speaker 9 (01:33:37):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:33:37):
Sometimes it's just there and that there's no problem with
the tree. The Lichen's just there. A lot of times,
as trees decline or is there slow growing like in,
tend to build up on them because the declining tree
doesn't have the canopy of shade that a healthy tree would.
But sometimes it's no sign that there's a problem at
all wrong with the tree.

Speaker 3 (01:33:58):
So it looks great.

Speaker 5 (01:34:04):
Okay, well then I'd not sweat it, you know, uh,
just move on with your other gardening chores and nothing
to see.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
Here, all right, skip, Well, thank you very much. You
put thet ease.

Speaker 5 (01:34:19):
There, you go, Thanks for your call. Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
Have a waterful day scip you as well.

Speaker 5 (01:34:26):
Thank you, sir. I appreciate that if you have indoor
house plants and you are looking for a soil mix
that will help with the watering schedule, that would be
jungle and water saving potting soil. It's got crystals that's
absorbed way many, many, many many times where they're weight
in water and when that soil dries out a little bit,

(01:34:47):
those crystals are still moist because they hold so much water,
and the roots can go up to a crystal there,
they're gonna be there. They're going to get access to
moisture as the soil gets a little too much on
the dry side. And it works well, it also drains well.
Of course, it has to to be a quality soil.
Jungle Land is available for many places. You're going to
find nitrofoss products sold all over town. Places like plants

(01:35:11):
for all seasons and the places like the D and
D Feed up in Tomball or Fissure's Hardware done in
Pasadena on Southomore places that carry nitrofoss products. And there
are a lot of great products and a lot of
great places that carry those. The Nature's way resources is it.

(01:35:36):
I was out visiting with Ian the other day, and
we're just going over all the different products that they
carry and what's going on with this, and what's going
on with that. And you know, they've been inventing products
that Nature's Way for decades now. That's where rose soil
was born. That's where leapmo composts was born, and others
as well. If you want a quality mix to turn

(01:35:58):
your plants into very happy campers, that's Nature's Way. Resources.
Too many of us PLoP a poor old plant into
an unprepared plot and that plant struggles. When you think
about nature, what does nature do? Nature builds the soil
slowly over time. You go to some Amazon rainforest and

(01:36:19):
when pull back the trees and look at that soil,
it is the best stuff on earth. And trees made
it that way with their leaves and a little parrot
poop thrown into the process. Nature's Way. Resources knows how
to take organic materials and turn them back into the
best soil building products you can have. And they're good
at that. By the way, every Friday is fungal based

(01:36:41):
compost Friday. Fungal Friday, Fungal based composts or high quality.
Nature's Way has them ten dollars off bags forty pounds
bags twenty dollars off by the bulk. What a great
way to get them. By the way, you can buy
Nature's Way products in bags, or you can buy them
bulk you haven't delivered if you would like to do
that way. Resources dot Com Nature's Way. Just remember that

(01:37:04):
Nature's Way Resources dot Com if you want to call
them nine three six two seven three twelve hundred nine
three six two seven three twelve hundred. When I talk
about products here on garden Line, I have a standard.
Before I'm going to recommend a product number one, I
need to see research that shows it works. That that's one.

(01:37:25):
That would be one way that I'm convinced this is
a good product. The other way and the way I
prefer is to do it myself, use it myself. And
I have been working my way through microlife products for
some time now because there are a lot of microlife
products out there. There's a granular bag, granule bags that
would be things like the six two four green bag

(01:37:48):
that we typically use on loans, but trust me, you
use aren't anything you got it works well and I do.
Then there are the the acidic Loving plant fertilizers. Microlife
has a products a kind of a pinkish bag that
is good for plants that like acid. That would be
like a gardenya, or a azalea or a camellia. Even

(01:38:10):
roses do really really well with that kind of fertilizer.
There is humts plus and I would suggest when you
fertilize also follow it up with an application right then
of humates plus. It is concentrated compost in a bag,
in little granules, in a humus type form that is
going to build your soil over time. Now I said

(01:38:33):
the acidifier was a pink bag, it's actually kind of
a reddish bag. The pink bag is their hybrid. But
they have products for all kinds of it. They have
a citrus and fruit product that is available out there,
and then all their liquids things like super Seaweed and
Ocean Harvest. That's the seaweed and fishial motion combo that

(01:38:54):
it's two different products but used together that organic gardeners
have used for a long time. You can get the
humans plus is a liquid.

Speaker 9 (01:39:01):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:39:01):
And you know, I could just go on and on.
Microlife Soil and plant energy is an outstanding product. Microli
like liquid liquid AP is an outstanding product. These are
the ones I've used and they work. Microlifefertilizer dot com
is the website, and you're gonna find Microlife all over.
Feed stores carry it. Your mom and pop garden centers

(01:39:22):
are going to carry it. You're gonna find it in
Ace hardware stores. You find it a Southwest fertilizer. It's
easy to find and it works. And if you're looking
for an organic approach to gardening, I can't see a
better place to start with all of the mini options
that they have. You're listening to garden Line. The phone
number is seven one three two one two k t

(01:39:43):
r H. Seven one three two one two k t
r H. Give me a call and we will be
happy to help you with the questions that you might have.
I had some folks that have been sending me some
emails today and so you guys that are interested in
sending in the photos and follow them up with a call,
we'll be happy to visit with you as a result.

(01:40:05):
So give me a call after you've sent me those
photos that you're looking at. Those of you in Willis
have a fairly new garden center up there and it's
called Growers Outlet, and I say fairly new. It's been
open a while, but Growers Outlet in Willis is on
seventy five, just south of the town of Willis. So

(01:40:26):
all of you up there in Conroe, even in the
woodlands up in Willis certainly, and then North and New
Caney and that whole region up there, and then across
over to the lake, you know, April Sound, Belt Water
and all the communities out there, Republic, Grand Ranch, Seven
Coves and so on. Point Aquarius. This is your hometown
garden center that is loaded with all kinds of plants

(01:40:49):
everything you can imagine, from veggies and herbs to perennials
and ferns to shrubs and trees and fruit and hanging
baskets and color plants with the garden beds, they've got
it all. In fact, a lot of their things, like
the geraniums of urbina and other plants, they grow them
in house. Some of the most beautiful macho firm baskets
and other color baskets that you're ever going to see

(01:41:10):
anywhere at Growers Outlet. And here's the website. It's the
name of the place, Growers Outlet in Willis dot com.
Growers Outlet in Willis dot com. They list all their
plants by availability on there, so you know if it's
available or not at the nursery. And they provide their
pricing online, which is really surprising that almost never happens,

(01:41:31):
but they do it at Growers Outlet in Willis on
Highway seventy five, just minutes away from Interstate forty five.
They're going to have products too, from like Nitrofas and
Microlife I meaning by the way, they carry Superturf from Nitrofoss.
Superturf is the nineteen four to ten product that gradually

(01:41:52):
releases nutrients over four months. It is it is. You
put it down now, you return your clippings, you never
mow it, and you're going to find it at Grower's
Outlet and Willis as well as many other places around town.
I'll be giving away some today as well. We'll be
right back. All right, folks, we're back. Welcome to garden Line.
Good to have you with us. Look forward to visiting

(01:42:14):
with you about your questions. What do you want to
know about? What do you want to talk about? You
got a problem to solve in the garden or maybe
just some suggestions for things to help you have success.
That's what we're here for. All you got to do
is doll seven to one three two one two k
t r H seven one three two one two k
t r H. Boy, the storms we had that storm

(01:42:35):
I had a storm I was pretty significant last night.
I mean a gully washed rain on us. And it
always reminds me of last summer. You know, we had
those two storms that came through and knocked down trees everywhere,
shut down power for literally weeks, at least two weeks
in both those storms. In many places. Well, a generator helps,

(01:42:57):
and a automatic standby generator by Generac especially helps because
you can be sitting there in your chair before you
have time to get out of the chair or the
power's back on. I mean it just like instant it
just power goes off, it kicks on. And so those
quote once in a lifetime storms that come many times
in a lifetime over and over again, well you don't

(01:43:18):
have to be left in the dark. You can protect
your power supplied maybe you and by the by the way,
quality Home Products of Texas. Thing I like about them,
among many things, is they take care of their customers
from the beginning to the end. And here's what I
mean by that. You call them up and you say,
I think I may need a generator? What God, what
do I need? And they talk to you and they
figure out what do you need exactly? You know, are

(01:43:41):
you just trying to keep the freezer of food from
die or ruining? Are you trying to do you gouy work.
Maybe you work from home and you have to be
on the internet all the time, have access you can't
go down. Do you need to keep your air conditioning
central units and stuff like that going? Or you know
what you need? Quality Home Products of Texas can get

(01:44:02):
you set up. They come out, they take care of
everything for you, from you know, the regulations and permits
to putting a new slab down. Yeah, they don't just
put a low, prefab thin slab that gets knocked around
by the lawnmower. They put They pour a quality slab
for you. They do it right. And then when they
walk off and it's all set up, that's when it
just begins. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week,

(01:44:24):
three hundred and sixty five days out of the year,
you are being taken care of by Quality Home Products.
Quality TX dot Com is a website qualitytx dot com.
Quality home products, quality products, quality service for a quality life.
You only give them a call. Dolls seven one three
quality for quality Home Products of Texas. Your source for

(01:44:47):
Generac automatic standby generators, but more importantly, your source for
a customer care. Let's head out to let's see, We're
gonna go to Northwest Houston now and talk to Diana. Hello, Diana,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (01:45:07):
Oh hello, Yes, I have a question.

Speaker 5 (01:45:10):
I have a low spot in my front yard and
I was told due to that in retaining water that's causing.

Speaker 17 (01:45:17):
A lot of my dollar weeds.

Speaker 6 (01:45:19):
And I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to
fill in that hole.

Speaker 14 (01:45:26):
Without having to dig up all the existing.

Speaker 18 (01:45:31):
Vegetation that's on top of it, you know, the grass
and the weeds and everything else.

Speaker 15 (01:45:35):
Can I judge?

Speaker 18 (01:45:36):
Can I put newspaper on there and put maybe leveling
sand and dirt?

Speaker 5 (01:45:45):
No need, no need for newspaper. Just bring in a
quality turf leveling product, you know, and you can. You can.
The folks up at our Nature's Way up in Tomball,
the folks in Heirloom Soil both have a lawn mix
that is primarily sand with a little bit of composted
in it that you can use to level out that area,

(01:46:08):
a good sandy loam top soil to make sure and
get it level. Just keep in mind that when you
do that, the water that was gathering there is going
to go somewhere else, So it may create a wet
spot somewhere else by doing it that way, but just
keep that in mind. Another option is to put a
subsurface drain in. A subsurface drain takes that water and

(01:46:32):
takes it off to another location where it drains away.
And that's another way to turn a wet spot into
a well drained spot.

Speaker 12 (01:46:41):
What is this subsurface drain I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (01:46:47):
Yeah, a subsurface drain. Yeah, well, they also call them
French drains. Basically, it is a perforated pipe that's underground
and the water goes in the pipe and drains a way.
It's like it works opposite of an old septic system,
which is taking taking water out. This is bringing water
or taking water in, and this is taking water out

(01:47:10):
of the area.

Speaker 18 (01:47:11):
Okay, what what like plaint salt seas didn't have that
type of soil.

Speaker 5 (01:47:19):
They might they have their their their they have some
blends and stuff, but they don't have the bulk levels,
you know, like you would get with someone that's bringing
in a large amount of it. They may have some
bags of it, but you're probably probably gonna need a
lot of bags, right.

Speaker 15 (01:47:38):
I don't.

Speaker 16 (01:47:38):
It's not that big an area maybe four by four
it the very most.

Speaker 19 (01:47:43):
It's you know, just oh okay, well yeah, yeah, just
if if, if that's where you shop, just go by
and ask them do they have like a lawn filling
mix a top soil, and explain the situation to you
and they'll put you in touch with with one.

Speaker 5 (01:47:59):
I didn't know an area.

Speaker 14 (01:48:01):
Oh yeah, is there any did you say there was
a place in Tumble.

Speaker 5 (01:48:07):
That you could buy this to? Maybe there's a place
up there's well, there's a place there, okay. I was
talking about arbigates providing soils that are like growing growing mixes,
compost and soil blend growing mixes. Those are highly organic though,

(01:48:28):
like a lot of bed mixes and things are. And
so what you're wanting is more of just the mineral
part of soil, the top soil, the the loamy top
soil kind of thing to fill in there because that
way it stays that level. It doesn't sink down over time.
So that's all. Yeah, that in the end of the

(01:48:49):
place are your two options.

Speaker 6 (01:48:51):
Okay, I'm sure what were the two companies you mentioned before?

Speaker 8 (01:48:54):
The places I could get the.

Speaker 5 (01:48:56):
Soil, Yes, Nature's Way Resources and they're up toward Conroe
on Interstate forty five and Heirloom Soils on Porter, Texas
on Highway fifty nine. Now, if you're just needing that
little of area, you can buy it by the bag.
You can buy it by the bag in different places.
But talk to talk to the folks your shot your

(01:49:17):
shop there at Plans Roll Seasons. Just talk to them
there and see what they have a lot of different
kinds of soil products and they probably have something that
they work for that.

Speaker 6 (01:49:25):
And I'm also close to Arbor Gates too, so oh.

Speaker 5 (01:49:29):
All right, well, thank you. I appreciate your calling. Good
luck getting to the bottom of that. One is for
sure quality home products. I was just telling you about those.
I want to give you one more time the phone
number seven one three Quality. You need to give them
a call. It takes a while to get this whole
process done of putting an automatic standby generator by generak

(01:49:51):
in on your property, So don't delay, go ahead and
give them a call today. RCW Nurseries opened up in
nineteen seventy nine, by the way, Williamson family, and they
still run it. This place has stood the test of
time because they take care of their customers and they
have whatever you need, and you know it. I'm always

(01:50:11):
amazed when I go in there at the quality plants
that they have and at the range of plants that
they have, the just from vines to shrubs to trees,
to all the bedding plants and the color and roses
and things that you might want. They grow their own
trees up there in Plantersville, so you know you're getting
a tree that's grown right and that it's a species

(01:50:32):
that belongs here because they know what grows here and
they don't say you something that doesn't belong here. Our
CW Nurseries. So come out and plant them for you too.
You can plant them yourself. It's a small container. If
you don't want to put your chiropractice kids through college,
then have RCW do the planting for you. RCW Nurseries
dot Com. Time for me to take a little break

(01:50:52):
here and we will be right back. We're going to
head out to I think we're going to Pasadena. Now,
let's see. Yeah, we're gonna go to Pasadena and talk
to Mary when we come back. All right, welcome back
to the garden line. Glad you're with us today. I
talk all the time about the importance of soil preparation
before planting, and I just if I just sat here

(01:51:15):
for four hours on a garden line day and said
it's important to prepare the soil before you plant. It's
important to pare the plant. It would be time well spent.
You'd go nuts, but it would be time well spent.
Ciena mulch is the place down south of Houston where
you take care of the brown stuff before you plant

(01:51:35):
the green stuff. They have everything. It's a one stop shop.
I'm talking about composts. I'm talking about bed mixes like
the heirloom soils, veggie nerb mix. I'm talking about mulches
to go on top of the ground, native hardwood mulchus,
double ground mulchus, and on and on. I'm talking about
blends like rose soil. I'm talking about everything you need,

(01:51:57):
including the nutrients for the soil roots. I've got to
have a good bank account of nutrients, microlife Nelson's Medina
nitrofoss asamite. They've got it all. They've got it all.
And when you leave Ciena Maltch, which is by the
way on FM five point twenty one near Highway six

(01:52:17):
and two eighty eight, when you drive off from there,
or when you have them deliver it within about twenty
miles for a small fee, they will deliver. You're set
up to then go get all the beautiful plant or
maybe you bought the plants and now they're sitting there.
Don't plan them. Go to Sean Animals, get what you need,
get this all right, and then plan them. Trust me,
it is the night and day difference. Siennamult dot com.

(01:52:39):
Just write that down cienamultch dot com. That's all you
need to know. All right. We're gonna go now out
to Pasadena and talk to Mary. Hello, Mary, Welcome to
garden Line. Good morning. The previous caller dollar weed. I
have dollar weed problem.

Speaker 4 (01:52:56):
We are aware of the drain each issue and we're
going to take care of that.

Speaker 5 (01:53:00):
But we're wondering what we can do. Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:53:04):
Is there something that we can kill the dollar we
with as we do this.

Speaker 5 (01:53:09):
Yes, you want to get a product that is a
broad leaf post emergent weed control product, and I would
get one of the combinations, like they'll have two or
three different ingredients that kill broad leaf weeds and by
the combinations you get better overall results from just than
just using one type of chemistry in that product. So

(01:53:30):
it will have a name. Uh, go ahead, Well, I
was gonna say, whedon nater is something that I do
know that we put out back when I'm not sure when. Okay,
but I don't Okay, we didn't say that it did anything. Okay, Well,
what I would do is get something that has uh

(01:53:51):
it has a name like trimech that is one name
of a group of products. Boneyed a weed beater, weed beater,
and fertilome has a weed free zone. Those are all examples.
Read the label spray early in the morning while it's

(01:54:11):
cool so it dries off before the day gets hot.
And get a something called a surf factant. It helps
the spray stick to slick dollar weed leaves. Anytime a
weed is kind of slippery, the google spray just runs off,
So a surf factant. It's also called a spreader sticker.

(01:54:31):
It's the same thing. But when you go to a
good place that knows what they're talking about. They're gonna
be able to provide that for you. And you've got
some ace hardware stores in your area that can provide
you know, that kind of product for you. Just it's
a multi product for broad leaf weed control. All right,
thank you so much. Doing Earnie in the morning before

(01:54:53):
it gets really really warm and when it's not gonna rain, Yes,
and do it soon. Don't wait a month or two
or three, because the hotter it gets, the more problems
these things can cause to get into that situation. All right, Mary,
thanks a lot. I appreciate I appreciate your call very much.
Sweet Green from nitrofoss is a fertilizer that dissolves away

(01:55:15):
very easily and moves down in the soil to feed
your plants. Now, it's made for lawns, but you can
use sweet green on all kinds of things. It's a
nitrogen source. It's a nitrogen source to give a boost
to growth. And if you're trying to get a good
quick boost for the plants that you're growing, including your lawn,
sweet green is perfect for that. You're can to find
sweet green it places all over the Greater Houston area

(01:55:36):
and places that carry nitofos products like Fisher's Hardware on
Broadway Street and Laporte M and D. Beamer Sagemont area
and Stanton Shopping Center on North Taylor down there in Alvin,
all places that carry nitrofos products. Speaking of down that direction,
someone had called me earlier today and I just I

(01:55:59):
started to start talking to them about Moss Nursery because
you know they're done in Seabrook. Moss is on Toddville
Road in Seabrook, and it is an outstanding nursery. It
just is you go there and you wander through eight
acres of gorgeous plants. Those of you who lived on
there know what I'm talking about. You know, you drive
off and you tell your your family, I'll be back
in about an hour. Well three days later, you come

(01:56:21):
back to the house because you got infatuated with plants
at Moss Nursery. And it's so easy to do all
kinds of flowering shrubs and including azalias of course, hanging baskets,
annual color plants, if you want a pretty flower bed
from a Lissam designas they've got it all there. They
have all kinds of unusual things things like bonseye and

(01:56:43):
houseplants that you just don't see anywhere else. They're very unusual.
One of the best selections of pottery you're gonna find anywhere.
I mean, it is very extensive. Moss Nursery down in Seabrook,
Texas on Toddville Road. M Aasnursery dot Com, Mossnurcery dot
com two eight one four seven, four eighty eight. Let's

(01:57:05):
go now up to Cyprus and we're going to talk
to Jake. Hey, Jake, Welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 20 (01:57:11):
Good morning Skip. I have a Saint Augustine backyard, and
it seems like a couple times a year when it
gets hot and muggy, I get what I'm ninety percent sure.

Speaker 8 (01:57:22):
Is gray leaf spot.

Speaker 20 (01:57:23):
The grass starts to yellow. I see the little diamond
shaped brown spot. So I apply an anti fungus. You know,
I think I've used maybe Headway or Heritage g in
the past a couple others. It goes away. But I'm
wondering if I'm hurting myself in the long run, and
maybe I should just wait it out because I don't
know how much I'm impacting my microbiome and my soil

(01:57:46):
by applying anti fungus a couple times a year. I
just didn't know if you had any thoughts on how
I could maybe improve my improve my soil, and if
I could, if I should just wait out the fungus
this time and you just leave it a.

Speaker 5 (01:58:02):
That's up to you. It does come and go. Now
in severe cases, it really makes the lawn look bad.
In minor cases, it's like, yeah, it's not great, but
it does coming. Typically when it really heats up, we
don't see as much of that problem in our lawns
when it really heats up. But I would suggest, well,

(01:58:24):
here's the things that make grade leaf spot worse. Shade,
lots of moisture, and extra nitrogen. Those three cause grade
leaf spot to be more of a problem. And so
we primarily deal with it from well back in April
all the way up into July. Really we can see
some of it. But the bottom line is you can

(01:58:46):
go either way. You can let it take its course
and ignore it and just mow and keep going, or
you can spray it or treat it if you use
the granular products, whatever you want to go about it.
You can treat it and deal with it. There's not
a right or wrong on those. I tend to ignore
it because it's not very bad in my yard because

(01:59:07):
culturally I keep the conditions away that it likes as
best I can. But boy, with all the rain we've
been having, I would expect the little outbreak of it
pretty quick here. That's that's great information.

Speaker 20 (01:59:20):
I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't gonna,
you know, take over the world. So I'll probably ignore
it and get a soil test just to make sure
my conditions are are better. But thank you very much.

Speaker 5 (01:59:31):
Yeah, yeah, just go easy on the nitrogen. That's why
I like slow release, you know. That's another another reason
we do that. But yeah, you ought to be in
good chafe. Hey, thanks for calling though. I appreciate you
checking in about that. Take care year round Houston, Year
round Houston dot com the name of the company, the
name of the website, Year round Houston dot com. They're

(01:59:55):
specialist when it comes to core aerating and compass top dressing.
They primary. We talk about them as focusing inside the Beltway,
inside the Beltway of Houston. They do it right. They
use top quality products. They they take all that messy
you know, try to go rent something and have them
done compost on the yard and then clean up the

(02:00:16):
machinery and get it back and all of that. It's
not easy to do for do it yourself, but they
take care of it for you. You're round Houston dot com.
You're round Houston dot com. Eight three two eight eight
four fifty three thirty five eight three two eight eight
four fifty three thirty five. We're going to go now
to Rick in League City. Rick, I gotta tell you,

(02:00:37):
I just have a short time. We're going to be
talking in the music, but if you need to, we
can hang over and finish after the top of the break.
But I want to get started with you here. How
can we help?

Speaker 4 (02:00:47):
Thank you Skip. I have a spot in my backyard
that I have cleared. I need a tree that would give
me some privacy in the back. It needs to be
when it's mature, about twenty five or thirty feet tall,
and I would like some color. And I already have
a magnolia and already have a palm tree. Do you
have any recommendations on a good tree.

Speaker 5 (02:01:09):
A tall crape myrtle like a natchez, has white blooms.
It gets thirty eight feet tall or so. Another one
I really like is Chinese fringe tree. It's a spring bloomer.
It gets about that size and it looks beautiful. I'm
going to a break. If you want to hang around,
we'll continue. Thank you, We're not all right. We're back.

(02:01:30):
We're back for the last hour Garden Line today. I
want to remind you again that today after the show,
I'm going to head over to the Ace Hardware storeal
Memorial Drive. It's called Ace Hardware City, and we are
going to have a heck of a time there today.
Come on out and see me. I'd love to help
you with plant questions you might have. You know, on

(02:01:50):
the air, I'd get to only visit with people for
a short amount of time because I got other people
to get to another business to attend to about out
at these appearance is we can sit and talk eyed
eye for a little while, we solve some things. We
get usually get a group of people out there and
I'll just say out loud what I'm doing helping with

(02:02:10):
a particular problem. So everybody kind of enjoys sitting around
listening and learning and asking questions. And I'm going to
be giving away a ton of cool stuff. And I
mean that really, I don't think I've ever had this
many different kinds of giveaways at one event. But we're
going to be doing three different bags of super turf
from Nitrofoss. We'll be doing some Kneemax, which is an

(02:02:32):
organic spray for certain kinds of pests that they have
on hand there. We're going to be doing several bags
of products from heirloom soils such as the work spotting soil,
the leaf mold compost they make a high quality one
hardwood maultch really really good product as well, and then
their shale product. Some examples of a few of the

(02:02:54):
ones from airloom soils we're given away. Got some Nitrofoss
products I mentioned the super turf, micro life products will
be given away, four different bags of asamite as well,
and then from Nelson plant food jars of the color Star,
and then we'll have a few of the Azalea plumeria
indoor plants and boogain villas and the three sixty tree

(02:03:15):
stabilizers given some of those. I mean, like I said,
a lot, but come on out, bring me samples, bring
me pictures on your phone. Let's get to the bottom
of it, and you come see a really nice Ace
Hardware store called Ace Hardware City right there on Memorial
Drive in Houston, Texas. How do you find your Ace
Hardware stores in Houston. You go to Acehardware Texas dot com.

(02:03:38):
That's how you find them. In Channy Gardens on the
Katie Fullshire side of Richmond, stop by the other day,
visiting with Joy there and just kind of looking at
what all they had going on. And I'm telling you,
the place it's just you gotta go, you gotta go,
and you gotta take your friends. It's almost I could say,
as far as I can see. You look and there's color,

(02:04:00):
there are every kind of plant. One thing that I
was really impressed with at Chanta Gardens, and I always
have been, is they're iron containers for coconut core liners.
So I think of a wire basket made of iron
and you put a liner in it that is like

(02:04:20):
an entanglement of the stuff on the outside of a
coconut that's called coconut core, and that those fibers, and
then you fill it with potting soil and you grow
in it. And they have ones that are on stands.
They have one that hang from chains from underneath the
tree limb or porch, patio whatever, they're beautiful, they have
already planted, or if you want to make one, you

(02:04:41):
could just go talk to them and say, hey, I
need something. It's going to go in full sun. I
want it to be a combination of plants. I want
to be beautiful. And they'll walk you through the process.
So if they go get this, go get that, and
they'll help you. Whether it's chimes or fountains or whimsical
art for the garden, they've got it and their team
is as enthusiastic as they come. Enchanted Gardens bring them

(02:05:01):
photos and samples to get that expert advice. And while
you're there, you know, brown stuff before green stuff. Go
home with some microlife or nitrofoss or Nelson plant food
or medina. Go home with some nature's waste soil or
some heirloom soils as well. They're open Monday through Saturday
eight to five, Tomorrow Sundays ten to four. Intended Gardens

(02:05:21):
on FM three point fifty nine. Here's the website Enchented
Gardens Richmond dot com, Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. We're
going to go now to Southwest Houston and talk to Laurel. Hello, Laurel,
Welcome to Garden Line.

Speaker 6 (02:05:38):
Good morning, Skip.

Speaker 18 (02:05:39):
I have a fabulous singing the praises for a Southwest Fertilizer,
one of your show sponsors.

Speaker 5 (02:05:47):
This is how nice they thank me.

Speaker 18 (02:05:50):
I had a big mower that it's really heavy for me,
and it had one of those thingies on it that
was supposed to be self propelled and quit working a
long time ago. And I called them and asked them
to take a look see at it. And this is
how nice they are. They looked at it, they told

(02:06:13):
me how much it would be and they said, this
is really not worth doing. How honest and responsible these
people are, and they're just going to bring it back
to me. And I want to thank you for having
great show sponsors that are honest and true.

Speaker 5 (02:06:30):
All right, folks, I did not pay Laurel to say
that it's nice to me, but thank you, L. I mean,
that is a that is flowering praise for a company
that really deserves it. I appreciate that much.

Speaker 18 (02:06:43):
They're so fine and they were honest about the whole thing.
And it's a good moment, but it's so heavy for
me and I can't figure it out.

Speaker 21 (02:06:53):
You go to the.

Speaker 18 (02:06:54):
Experts and they tell you something you could believe it
honest and true, and that's why.

Speaker 6 (02:06:58):
That's a greatful for you.

Speaker 18 (02:07:00):
Guys have one of their products and I can't help
with sing their praises and I thank you.

Speaker 5 (02:07:07):
Yeah, well, thank you for those kind words for them.
That you know, we talk about the importance of local businesses.
Mom and pop shops is the nurseries we call them.
But you know Southwest Fertilizer, the mom and pop is
Bob and Diane and they that's the kind of business
they run, and that's why we love to send people there.
And it thrills me to hear reports like that. Thank you.

(02:07:28):
I appreciate you taking time to call in. Let me
know that you have a wonderful day. Take care. All right,
let's go now to to southeast Houston. We're going to
talk to Jill. Hello, Jill, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (02:07:50):
Okay, I'm in south east Houston.

Speaker 5 (02:07:54):
Okay, who am I talking to? Oh? Okay, Okay, how
can I help today?

Speaker 3 (02:08:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (02:08:05):
I have these little Okay, have a big oak tree
in the front yard and little oak saplings coming up
all in my flower bed. I've been pulling them, but
it seems like it's more, keep coming and keep coming.
Is there any way to get rid of them besides
getting rid of my oak tree?

Speaker 11 (02:08:23):
No?

Speaker 5 (02:08:24):
Probably not. So there are two things that happen.

Speaker 15 (02:08:27):
Is a live oak, I assume, I think so on
the builder plane it them, you know.

Speaker 5 (02:08:33):
Okay, Well, it could be root sprouts coming up. Typically
those are near the base of the tree. Or it
could be acrons sprouting up, and that that can be
near the base.

Speaker 15 (02:08:44):
Because they're even on the sides of the house. And
we have squirrels you know, that bury them too, And yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:08:49):
Yeah, there's not a great way. I mean, you can
you know, have a little weed wiper that you could
dab something on those little seedlings and it would kill them.
I generally try to just pull them up when they're
very very young. It's easier to get them up with
the soul's moist or you know it just however you
want to go about it. But it's just part of

(02:09:11):
part of life with a with trees.

Speaker 15 (02:09:13):
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. I mean,
in the law. And you can mow them, you know,
and that keeps them down. And so I just wondered
if there was anything that I have a spry different
stuff on them, but it doesn't really seem to.

Speaker 5 (02:09:31):
Now, just just just use get my weed wiper and
then I have a publication called Controlling Woody Weeds in
the Landscape, and they are at gardening with Skip dot
com and uh, that's where you'll find them. I got
to run for a break here. When we come back,
Hank and West, you you'll be first up. Uh huh,

(02:09:51):
welcome back to the garden line. Good to have you
with us. Looking forward to visiting with you about the
kind of questions. Did you might have Nelson plant food?
You heard me talking about them all day. By the way,
I'm giving away some Neilson plant food jars today at
Ace Hardware City on Memorial So come on out and
see me. They've got jars. They got things like color Star,

(02:10:14):
which is the number one fertilizer by the jar that
they sell, ship it all over the country. Just talking
to Dean the other day, some other person had gotten
some samples of it and they loved it. They're a
company that does landscapes, I guess, and they were like, okay,
ship it. We want we want, we want you to
ship a bunch to us because it works. That is

(02:10:35):
how it is nutristar, hibiscus and flowering tropicals another great one.
Just come on out. I'll be giving away some not
just the color Star, but I'm also going to be
giving away some azelias and plumrius, some indoor plant food,
and some Boogombellia plant food. At my appearance at Ashardworugh
City out there a memorial drive Bruce's Brew that is

(02:10:56):
a hybrid type of a fertilizer. What I mean by
that is it's it's a fast release and that it
releases some immediately, but it's also a slow release and
that it gradually releases the rest over time, so it's
kind of a hybrid type. Bruce Is Bru is great
for a quick green up of the lawn with a
continued release over time to give a nice even growth,

(02:11:17):
and it is a part of the turf Star line
of Nelson plant foods available all over town. Let's head
to West U and we are now going to talk
to Hank. Well, Hello Hank, and welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 3 (02:11:31):
The Yellow Skip.

Speaker 22 (02:11:33):
He wanted to get some advice and suggestions. I've got
a thirty x four strip area in my backyard that's
currently covered by big blocks of limestone with a little.

Speaker 1 (02:11:48):
Bit of pea gravel underneath.

Speaker 22 (02:11:50):
I started removing the limestone and there's not that much
pea gravel. But I want to break out all the limestone,
put down some dirt, and replace the hunchtone with grass.
I'm looking for suggestions on what type of grass is
easy to grow.

Speaker 8 (02:12:07):
I'm not going to.

Speaker 1 (02:12:07):
Put a sprinkler in there. I could water it manually.

Speaker 5 (02:12:11):
And secondly, what type of.

Speaker 22 (02:12:12):
Dirt and how much shall I put down underneath before
I lay the grass down?

Speaker 5 (02:12:19):
All right? Good? Uh? What do you want out of
the grass? Just green to look at? Or is there
you know, is it an area you use for sitting
or walking or just to have a patch of green?

Speaker 8 (02:12:33):
What?

Speaker 5 (02:12:33):
What's the goal?

Speaker 22 (02:12:35):
It'll be just a patch of green. It's between my
patio and my swimming pool, and I'm going to have
a little concrete walkway from the patio to the pool,
so it'll really just beat a.

Speaker 8 (02:12:46):
For green rate.

Speaker 5 (02:12:48):
Okay, Well, there's there's a lot of great options out there.

Speaker 14 (02:12:51):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:12:51):
Saint Augustine's the number one grass we plan around here
because of the shade tolerance. Sounds like that area gets
lots of sun. Though. If I understood, you correct, and
so you can you can kind of grow anything. I
might consider something that's a zosias. Zosia is a nice
little grass. There's a variety called uh xeon excuse me, yeah, xeon,

(02:13:14):
ze o n Xeon is a and neon. They're both
both types of zois. But it's a very fine textured grass,
very fine textured, and so it's almost like a golf
course screen if you mode it really low. If you
had a little real type mower, and with that amount
of grass, you could just have one of those little
real type mowers that you push and it spins around.

(02:13:37):
There's no motor on it, and you might regularly and
it looks beautiful. It's a really nice, clean, neat look,
makes good density with water and fertilizer, of course, uh,
and that might be something kind of different to use,
but really any kind of grass could grow there. I
just like the I like the look of that one.

Speaker 3 (02:13:59):
Xeon.

Speaker 22 (02:13:59):
And then what type of dirt and how much?

Speaker 8 (02:14:02):
What how thick of a bed of dirt?

Speaker 5 (02:14:06):
Yeah, well, you know, grass wants grass wants good root depth.
So as you go down, what is there clay soil
below it?

Speaker 22 (02:14:14):
Now it's I think it's that kind of gumbo mud.

Speaker 3 (02:14:18):
It's just thick.

Speaker 22 (02:14:20):
It's really thick and dark colored soil.

Speaker 5 (02:14:27):
Yeah, well I would. I would put a little bit
of a kind of a sandy loamy type of top
soil over it. I don't know how much room you
have to fill in. You don't want to create a
raised mound, probably, uh So I would just get a
good sandy low mix, a top soil type mix and
put it in there. But grass can grow in quite
a bit of shade too. So and the xeon, I

(02:14:49):
use the word neon it. That's that's my blurb mistake there.
It's a xeon zeo and and uh, I think that
it is going to take a heavy clay soil and
do just fine. But if you mounded it slightly where
the water drains off adequately, that would even be better.

(02:15:09):
But not required.

Speaker 22 (02:15:13):
Do they sell xeon slabs of grass like the little
patches already grown where I can just.

Speaker 5 (02:15:19):
Lay it down, Yes, yes, you can find it. A
number of growers along the Gulf coast will grow that.
And I know if you talk to the folks at
Milburger Turf, they don't sell retail, but if you talk
to them they can point you to places that carry
it that they sell. The folks at Millburger Turf carry it.

Speaker 7 (02:15:44):
Awesome. Well I'll give that a shot.

Speaker 5 (02:15:45):
I appreciate the suggestion. Yeah, yeah, go online and look
at some pictures of it so you can see what
I'm talking about. I think you'll agree it's beautiful. I
have some in my yard. I love it. Yeah, all right,
sounds nice, All right, henk, yes, sir, you take care
glad to assist with that. One. Spring Creek Feed is

(02:16:08):
your hometown feed store up there in the Tamba Magnolia area. Really,
it's on the northeast side of Tomball up up FM
twenty nine seventy eight up toward Magnolia direction. They're just
minutes away from Graham Parkway and Highway to forty nine.
At Spring Creek Number one, you walk in friendly, courteous
staff and one of the i'll say prettiest feed stores

(02:16:29):
you ever go into, because they have a lot of
stuff in the middle part of the store from home.
Of course, you look left and you see all the
feed you know, especially like quality pet food brands like
Victor and Purina and whatnot. You look to the right
and that's the garden world over there all the products
you need to control pests and weeds and diseases. The
fertilizers from lines like Nelson, turf Star, like Microlife, like Nitrofoss.

(02:16:55):
That's all there. Spring Creek Feed and Magnolia on FM
twenty nine seventy eight. If you are military or senior citizens,
there's a discount of that. They do special order as well,
and they have a delivery service. Go check it out.
You can't miss it. Big old, giant barn looking building.
Magnolia on FM twenty nine seventy eight. That is Spring

(02:17:17):
Creek Feed. Let's go now to clear Lake and we're
going to talk to Mario. Hello, Mario, Hey, Skiff, how
are you?

Speaker 6 (02:17:26):
Hey? I have both places. Yeah, I'm good. I'm glad.
You always give me good advice. One of your pieces
of advice was to replace my boxwoods, which were devastated
by the freeze, with dwarf Feopon Hollis. And now my question,

(02:17:46):
after a couple of years, they're really taking hold in.
How should I shape those things? My wife and I
both like the tailored look of the boxwoods. Okay, can
you do that with theyopon and still have it look good?
Or should I guess leave it go natural.

Speaker 5 (02:18:09):
All the above are fine. Since you like the tailored look,
I'm not going to address the natural, but that is
a totally legitimate way to do boxwoods, I mean yopons.
You can make them kind of a square shape hedge
like square shape. Always keep the top slightly more narrow
than the base, and that way sunlight reaches all the

(02:18:31):
parts of the plant. When a hedge gets top heavy,
becomes more like an umbrella hanging out over the top,
the interior portion doesn't get enough light and you lose
your foliage there. So always when you're doing a hedge,
including yopon, keep the top a little more narrow than
the base. Or you can some people do them like
a little meatballs, little round buwling balls out there in

(02:18:52):
the landscape. You can do that too. It's very tolerant
of different kinds of shearing.

Speaker 6 (02:18:59):
Okay, well you answered my question as usual. I appreciate it.
Thanks so much.

Speaker 5 (02:19:04):
All right, thanks ll Carl. Appreciate that you take care, Mario,
have a good, good week out there in the garden.
Ace hardware stores are all over the Greater Houston area.
All you gotta do is go do the website for
my Ace Hardware stores here in the Greater Houston area,
and that is ACE Hardware Texas dot com, Ace Hardware

(02:19:26):
Texes dot com. Find the ones near you. When you
walk into an ACE Hardware, first thing's going to happen
is you're going to go, oh, I didn't know they
had all that. And every time you turn a corner it's, oh,
I didn't know they had all that. It's a great place.
And it's not just the standard hardware. You know, electrical
and plumbing and lighting and fixtures and all that. Yeah,

(02:19:48):
they have all that, but they have beautiful indoor decorations, homes,
gift items, wonderful gift items. And then when you walk
out the door, whether it's your lawn, your flowerbeds, your garden,
your path, they have something for everything. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.
And if you're hearing me talk about fertilizers or hearing
me talk about pest control products or weed control products,

(02:20:10):
it's at your local Ace Hardware store. If you want
to see one, come see me today at ACE Hardware
City on Memorial on the West side East. I'll be
there from twelve noon to two pm. We're going to
be given away a ton of stuff more more different
things than I ever given away at one of these appearances.
Really really cool. I'll even have some three sixty tree

(02:20:31):
stabilizer stabilizers to give away for any of you planting
a crape myrtle or some other kind of tree and
you want to give good support to it. We'll have
those there on hand. Lots of cool ACE Hardware stores,
but you got to go to Ace Hardware Texas dot
com and find the ones near you. We're going to
go now to Katie and talk to John. Hello, John,

(02:20:53):
Welcome to Guardenline.

Speaker 23 (02:20:55):
Good morning, Skip. I want to see if you can
help me and my wife solve a mystery of who've
done it. So we have a bunch of squirrels in
our yard. My daughter loves feeding the birds, and of
course that attractive squirrels. So I have fourteen different peach trees,
and I was super excited had about five dozen peaches growing,
and they all started disappearing rather quickly.

Speaker 8 (02:21:19):
By the choices either between squirrels or rats.

Speaker 23 (02:21:22):
The only conclusive thing I've seen I've yelled at squirrels
in the peach tree, but there's one peach about the
size of a golf ball. Un ripe of course, with
half of it chewed, including the pits. Does that sound
more like a rat or a squirrel?

Speaker 5 (02:21:39):
It could be both. They both have the same teeth
and mouth parts and feeding style could be the one.
I would suspect squirrels, but I wouldn't eliminate rats. You
can bag individual peaches with something called organza bags. If
I did that, we have.

Speaker 23 (02:21:59):
We had one peach on one tree and I tied
it off with the baggie, and then the very next
day the squirrels didn't figure out how to get the
bag out, but it destroyed the limb, and the dead,
blood last peach is just sitting there inside the bottom
of the bag.

Speaker 5 (02:22:16):
Oh my gosh. Okay, well, anyway, that's that's an option.
There's other kinds of netting and stuff, but they're just
not a great way to do it. There are some
hot pepper sprays made of the ingredient and hot pepper
called capsation. You can put that on the peaches and
at least give them a bad burning taste in their mouth.
If you can consistently do that, they might leave them alone,

(02:22:38):
and then by the time you get to harvest time,
you know it's gonna have worn off or you can
wash it off, but I think the bag is probably
the better way to go. But Johnna, you got a
problem there. I can send you squirrel recipes though, if
that would help.

Speaker 23 (02:22:52):
My goal is I wanted to shoot them with pellat
gun and dispatch them. The option is trapping them.

Speaker 5 (02:23:00):
God got you, So we focus on yeah, good good points.
I'll not weigh in on that one, but I got
to run for a break here, but thank you on
good luck. I do feel your pain on that one
for sure. Time for me to take a break, folks.
I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to Guardline. Good
to have you with us. Looking forward to visiting with

(02:23:22):
you about the kinds of questions that you might have.
If you want to give me a call, the number
is seven to one three two one two k t
r H. Seven to one three two one two k
t r H. More than once that I've been talking
about drainage issues and one of the ways we deal
with wet areas is we put in a sub service drain,

(02:23:42):
sometimes referred to as a French drain. Basically, it's a
perforated pipe and gravel that drains the excess moisture away
to a lower location somewhere else now Piercecapes. That's one
of the things they can do is landscape custom drainage.
And with all the rain we just had, you need it.
Probably you're probably looking at some boggy areas. Plants, by

(02:24:05):
and large, very few plants can grow with their roots
in soggy submerged conditions. They just can't. But you can
fix that, and Pier Scapes can fix that. They also
do landscaping, beautiful landscape design and installation using the best materials,
the best plants for here in our Houston area. They
can do quality custom irrigation that is designed to incorporate

(02:24:30):
whatever area you got in your landscape. And they do
landscape irrigation maintenance as well. And typically irrigation system always
needs some maintenance. They can do that. By the way,
They have a quarterly maintenance service that not just looks
at irrigation, although it does that, but looks at remulching
the beds to keep a good thick layer of mulch on,
pulling any weeds out, doing any trimming that's necessary, you know,

(02:24:53):
all the stuff you need. Once every quarter, once every
three months, they come out and they do that. That's
part of the services that pier Scapes can offer. You
give them a call to eight one three seven oh
fifty sixty two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty.
But first I want you to go to their website
and look at what they can do. Pierce Scapes dot com,

(02:25:15):
p E A r CE Scapes s c A p
E s Peerscapes dot com. You'll be very impressed. I
know we're gonn head out to Tomball now and talk
to Roger. Hello, Roger, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 21 (02:25:30):
How are you doing, sir?

Speaker 5 (02:25:33):
I'm doing well, Thank you.

Speaker 7 (02:25:35):
I have a question.

Speaker 21 (02:25:36):
I have a large oak tree in the backyard between
the dogs and lack of shade or the shade under
the tree, I can't keep grass growing in there. Looking
for a ground clever because you know, in the springtime
the cicadas come out and the copper heads go under there.

(02:25:59):
I've got dogs in backyard, they dig some looking for
some kind of groundcover, maybe put rocks down. I'm just
looking for some suggestions on low cover that will kind
of reduce the snakes and keep something in there so
the dogs just don't get dirty when it kind of
gets muddy.

Speaker 9 (02:26:19):
Does that make sense?

Speaker 5 (02:26:21):
Gotcha? Yeah, sure does well. Molt is a good idea.
I wouldn't do. I wouldn't do rocks. I would do
a good thick layer of shredded hardwood, malt or something
along those lines, and you just add to it, and
you know, they run across it. They don't get all dirty,
and that's what the forest does. The trees will be
very happy with it, and it makes I think it's

(02:26:41):
an attractive thing to have a nice maulched area beneath
the tree. Now, if you want to add some plants in,
there are sedges that often do pretty well in quite
a bit of shade. Not deep deep shade, but they
many of the sedges can take less sunlight than your
Saint Augustine or your turf grass. Would that would be

(02:27:02):
a plant for, you know, a shady area like that.
There are a lot of different plants. I mean, you
could you could plant a number of different kinds of
ferns in an area like that. You could plant a juga,
which is called carpet bugle in an area like that,
and I could go on and on there. There are
a lot of Some people will just fill the area

(02:27:23):
with Aztec grass or loriopy as tech grass, is not
a grass. It's more like a larriapy uh. And it
doesn't get too tall. When you need to, you can
moi it back to the almost the ground and come
out fresh if you'd like to do that. But it
makes a nice not too tall groundcover.

Speaker 21 (02:27:43):
Okay, And that's how do you spell that? Or how
where would I find that?

Speaker 7 (02:27:47):
Or is it a or actual plant plant?

Speaker 5 (02:27:51):
It's actual, it's actual plants. And these are clumping plants.
So if the area is huge, you're have to buy
a lot of plants of the clumping kinds of things
that would the the sedges are clumping. Aztec grass is clumping.
It's kind of a white leafed type clump, and then
Loriope is a green leafed type clump. Most loriiope is.

(02:28:15):
You go to a quality garden center, you know you're
there in Tombo, you've got arbigate right on your back door.
If you head down the road a little bit on
Tomill Parkway, you got plantural seasons. Both of those are
going to have a great selection. In fact, you can
just talk to them and they'll probably talk to you
about some vining ground covers and some other options for

(02:28:37):
an area like that.

Speaker 21 (02:28:39):
Thank you very much for your time, sir, I will
be out there to check with them.

Speaker 5 (02:28:44):
All right, good, you take care appreciate that micro Life
fertilizers come in many forms, and I talk about the
lawn fertilizer quite a bit and the liquids as well.
I just want to focus right now on a couple
of things you need to be doing in your lawns.
Microlife six y two four is the number one selling

(02:29:05):
organic fertilizer in Houston. It is a three one two ratio,
which is the ratio and lawns stick up nutrients and
uh and it's easy to use. You just spread it
out there. It goes in the soil. It slowly decomposes
as microbial activity breaks the nutrients down to release to
the plants. It's not going to burn anything. It's not
a salt based fertilizer. And then you follow that up.

(02:29:28):
I would do it with humates plus. That's a purple bag.
It's concentrated compost in a bag. You do the sixty
two four to get that lawn boosted and growing. You
do the humanates plus to continually build the soil quality,
to get that humus down in the soil to improve
microbial activity. To improve internal drainage and aeration and whatnot

(02:29:51):
down in your soil, and both are available from Microlife.
You can go to Microlifefertilizer dot com and see all
the retailers they carry their products. I'm going to tell
you this, it's kind of hard to walk into a
place that's a Mom and Pope garden center and Ace
hardware store, Southwest Fertilizer, or a feed store that doesn't
carry micro Life products. Let's see here. We're going to

(02:30:11):
head out to League City now and talk to Ralph. Hello, Ralph,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (02:30:16):
Hello, thank you for taking my cost skip. Like you said,
live in Wig City. Everybody out here has magnolia trees.
It seems like I planted two in my backyard in
the summer of twenty twenty one and they've gone from
seven feet to about twenty feet tall, very full grown,
very well, but they don't seem to get blooms like

(02:30:39):
other people do. And I'm wondering. Number one, I've never
pruned either of these trees, and they're pretty heavy at
the bottom. Maybe you know what's the deal about maybe
pruing a couple of feet off at the bottom. Number two,
they really haven't fertilized them, and what should I use
to fertilize them? And should let me?

Speaker 5 (02:31:01):
Yeah, let me let me hit this. I'm hitting a
hard break. I'm gonna give you a couple of quick answers.
If we need to carry this question over, we can
do that. As far as pruning, I wouldn't do that.
Nature doesn't plume prune magnolias, and they do just great.
They look good. As far as them go into the ground,
that's fine. That's an option to let that skirt go

(02:31:22):
all the way to the ground, because it's going to
be It's difficult to get anything to grow under a
magnolia anyway, So just letting their foliage go to the
ground is one esthetic option. If you want to trim
them up, you can do that. Then you're just gonna
have to moult underneath them or put monkey grass underneath them,
because that's about the only thing that will grow. But
as far as blooming, I don't think you need it.

(02:31:44):
There sounds like they're growing pretty good for you. Because
magnolias are somewhat slow growing. I don't think you need
a fertilizer necessarily for them. If you want to use
something too, something for acid loving plants. A number of
products out there like that. But you can do a
modern fertilization. But as they settle in, they ought to
be they ought to be blooming if they're getting adequate

(02:32:05):
sunlight to those areas of the plant. So maybe they
just need a little more time. If there's something you
can do to brighten up the foliage in that area,
you might want to try that. I don't know if
that'd been printing some other trees or whatever. But yeah,
they're they're a little personicity. But I'll just be patient
with them.

Speaker 9 (02:32:23):
Okay, thank you. I'll give them another couple of years
and see what they did.

Speaker 5 (02:32:27):
All right, and then call me back. If they don't,
I'll come out there with a chainsaw. We're not gonna
cut them down. I'm just going to fire it up
and say, next time Ralph calls me, I'm coming down
here to finish the job. And I bet bloom stop
popping out all over the plate. Thanks Ralph. All right, folks,
we'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (02:32:43):
All right.

Speaker 6 (02:32:44):
Hey, we had some glitches and the mechanics here, we're back.
You know, Buchanan's native plants. I wanted to tell you guys,
about those. Buchanans has got their new barn set up.
It's it's the checkout barn. So now if the draining,
you're covered. If Tott and Sny you're covered. And that
bless their hearts. They have lost their checkout area twice

(02:33:05):
is year greet the storms. So good to have that open.
By the way, I don't want to I don't want
to fail to mention to you that when you go
to Buchanans you're going to get the service. You're going
to get the plants, the expertise, everything you need to
have success. They specialize in native plants. The Cannon's Native
Plants is the number one source of natives in the

(02:33:28):
Greater Houston area. No matter what you need. Do you
got shade, they got it. Do you need a native
plant that attracts hummingbirds or butterflies?

Speaker 5 (02:33:36):
They got it.

Speaker 6 (02:33:37):
Buchanan's Native Plants like them. You need to go to
the website and you need to check it out. It
is awesome. There's tons of good pre information there and
you're going to love it. You are going to love it.
Today I'm going to be at a memorial on Memorial
Drive at ACE Hardware City. Ace Hardware City on Memorial
Drive and I'm going to be giving away some tree
Hugger sprinklers, excuse me. And the tree hugger, by the way,

(02:34:00):
is the ultimate watering device for either newly planted or
established trees and shrubs. You put it around the tree,
and if it's a new tree, you just barely turn
it on because you have a little small rootball there.
It'll water it. As that tree grows, you turn it
up more. It takes care of them, and it's a
great way to rescue any tree during summer heat and drought.

(02:34:22):
Go to tree hundred sprinklers dot com. You can find
a retailer near you, or I can just tell you.
You're going to find them at DMB Feed. You're going
to find them at Spring Creek, at League City, at
Southwest Fertilizer. Ace Hardware is like sinkle ranch and katas
a tescaseda ace fullsher ace. You're going to find them
at the arbor Gate, Nelson Water Gardens, RCW Warren Southern

(02:34:42):
Gardens in Keeywood out there in Kingwood, and you're going
to find them at in Jenny Forest as well. I mean,
it's a great product.

Speaker 9 (02:34:49):
It works.

Speaker 6 (02:34:50):
You need to have one on hand because trust me,
and may be what now, but summer is definitely coming.
Just another reminder to get out your Nitrofoss Super Turf
Nicapos Super Turf nineteen fourteen. It's the silver bag, so
it's easy fine when you go into a garden center.
It's designed for our Saint Augustine, our bermuda and our

(02:35:10):
soysia grass and it really really works here. And by
the way, I'll be giving away three bags of that
today at Ace Hardware City on Memorial Drive, So come
by and let's meet and let's do that. It works
super super well. Now for those of you down in
the Alvin area, you can get your three sixty trees stabilizer.
By the way there at JORGEZ Hidden Gardens, I'm going

(02:35:32):
to be given away several trees stabilizers today at my
appearance down at Horaz which is on Elizabeth Street in Alvin.
You're going to find an awesome selection of fruit and
that include peaches that are low chill, and apples and
plums and pears and avocados that is sen somebody there
yesterday for an avocado tree. They've got Peggy Martin roses

(02:35:53):
and any kind of plant you're looking for. Really, it's
an outstanding place.

Speaker 9 (02:35:57):
Go down, say hi to Hora.

Speaker 6 (02:36:00):
He is on Elizabeth Street in Alvin, which, if you're
in Alvin heading toward Santa Fe, it's off to the
right about halfway to Santa Fe on the right hand
side down Low ROADJA. So go check them out, all
right while we're rolling here on the music