Why Isn't My Fruit Tree Producing Any Fruit?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with skimp rictor.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
The crazy.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Gas. Can you want a trim? Just watch him as well.
Things to sup batras in bringing the glasses like gas,
begin your days back again. Not a sound the glasses

(00:32):
and gas and the sun beam and down dreaming the
gas gas.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Stop.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Dreaming.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hang on, folks on one slip a coffee away from
coheron sobby right back with you and.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
See the Sunday.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
All right, let's give it a shot. Here you be
the judge. Welcome to Garden Line. Good to have you
with us this morning. We're looking forward to visiting with you.
You know, that's what this show is about. I can
sit here and drown on about horticulture and gardening and things,
and I do some, but it's really about you and
your questions in your lawn and your garden, trees and

(01:19):
shrubs and house plants and you name it. How do
we helpe you have success? That is my goal. I
say that this way you pretty much all the time,
and that is that we're here to help you have
a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape and more fun in
the process. And if I can accomplish even two out
of three of those, I'll feel like we've accomplished something

(01:40):
for the day. But I know we can hit all three.
Gardening is a lot of fun. Yesterday I was in
my backyard and we've got a fence on the back wall,
and it's this big long privacy fence and you know,
you look at it and okay, it's a fence, But
being a horticulturist, I want to see green and flowers

(02:00):
and fruits and whatever else I can put on that
wall to make it look even better, you know, create
that eden the view of aging rot resistant wood is
not a comfort to me, but of you plants and
flowers to smell the fragrance it is. And so I
put up some kettle panels on a really tall posts

(02:24):
that we have, and I planted Confederate jasmine also known
as star jasmine on it. It is evergreen, so it'll
look good all year round. And boy, when it blooms,
it is, oh fragrant, very nice, very nice plant. And
so that's what we're going for there. We're going to
aim for that, and that is the plan. So we

(02:44):
got them all planted, the vines. I kind of trained
them along horizontally. You know, if you just plant things
like that jasmine and just sort of let them do
what they're gonna do, they're gonna pretty much go up,
up and out a little bit, kind of making V
shaped if you will. Well, I want that to be
a wall of green. So I took all the current

(03:05):
bines and went at the very bottom of the fence,
just horizontal with them. We're gonna get a lot more shoots,
and they're gonna go up, and I'll keep training them
out and getting them to reach each other and connect
and fill in. But that's just part of that process
that happens in shrubs too a lot. By the way,
you may have noticed that your shrubs keep wanting to

(03:26):
be top heavy. They want to be wide at the top,
and then at the bottom you don't have any foliage
because the top is shading out the bottom and you
only get leaves where you get light. We'll say that again,
you only get leaves where you get light. So, whether
it's a fruit tree or whatever it is, if the
top is shading out the interior or the bottom, they're

(03:47):
not going to be leaves down there. And so most
people want a shrub to be just a wall of foliage.
Especially if it's a screening shrub, a hedge, and so that.
To do that, you got to keep the bottom wider
than the top as you print it, and you'll be
fighting against what the shrub is trying to do when
you do that. They want to grow top heavy. They
want to be an umbrella with all the leaves up

(04:08):
on the top like an umbrella, and then all stiggy
and twiggy and twiggy and everything else down below. But
as you keep the top a little more narrow at
least parallel, but a little more narrow at the top,
a little wider at the base, sunlight reaches all areas,
and you maintain foliage from top to bottom. That's what
we're going for anyway, That's what I've been up to. Yesterday,

(04:29):
at least I made a little doughnut of soil around
each plant, maybe I don't know, let's say three and
a half four inches high, and water did in really good.
The reason I do the doughnut of soil called a berm,
is because when you fill that with water, it all
has to go straight down right there, which guess what

(04:50):
is where all my roots are. I planted him yesterday.
I do not have roots all through the bed. Yet
it take a long time to achieve that, but early
on for survival going into summer. Here it is June
and I'm planting plants. It's okay. All I gotta do
is go out there and water them frequently in that
small amount, just an inch or so of water inch

(05:11):
or two or three of water, depending on on you
know what, whether it's in lots of sun or just
a little bit of sun. Minds in a medium amount.
And that's what we'll do well watered in that way.
And once you know, we get through this first summer,
I'll begain In fact, before we get to the end
of the summer, I'll be watering the whole bed periodically,

(05:31):
but mainly for right now it's where all the roots are.
And that's a mistake people make a lot on plants,
is they put it in the ground. You get some rain,
and the whole soil in the bed is all nice
and soaked and wet. But that little root ball, that
cylinder that came out of the pot, that's where that's
where the water gets pumped out really fast on a
hot sunny day, and so that's where you got to

(05:53):
add the water. So you find that sweet spot between
consistently moist and soggy water logged swamp. No oxygen in
the roots, that's all bad. So how do you find
the spot in between the two?

Speaker 6 (06:07):
Way?

Speaker 1 (06:07):
You kin'd of have to use your fingers and feel.
That's the bottom line. And I can sit there and
tell you boill for every gallon of container size, you
give it a gallon of water. Every you know, I
could make up stuff like that. I mean to be
generally accurate. But different soil types, different sun amounts. On
the end of your hand are some really handy gardening gadgets.
One of them is your fingers and that feels the

(06:31):
soil and you can tell if soil is moist or not,
and that is really handy. Sometimes I think I'll give
you the laydown of all the the gardening gadgets on
the end of your hand. That would be a maybe
I'll do that today. Well anyway, seven one three two
one two k t RH. If you'd like to give
me a call, let's visit about the things that are

(06:52):
of interest to you. Eagle turf fungicide is from nitrophoss.
Eagle turf fungicide is very very effective in shutting down
a number of different diseases because it's a systemic protectant.
It gets in the planet, it gets in the roots,
it goes out, it kills diseases that are present in
the plant, which a lot of fungicize just keep the

(07:14):
disease from infecting. This one gets in the plant itself
and kills the disease inside and it lasts. Eagletur fungicide
from nitrofoss available a lot of different places. You're going
to find it in spots, let's say, like dndfeed and
tumble maybe MD beam Er down on Sagemont and in Sagemont,
or a clear Lake area M and D clear Lake

(07:36):
on Bay Area Boulevard Brennam excuse me, plants and things
another place that you're going to find nitroposs products. Time
for me to take a little break here in just
a second, just one more reminder seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four or seven one three
two one two k t RH. Let's talk about the

(07:56):
things that you're interested in this morning, and we will
be right back to do that. All right, we're back,
Welcome back. I'm your host, skip Rick.

Speaker 6 (08:05):
Here.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
You're listening to Guarden line. We got some gardening talk
to do today, if you'd like to give me a call.
Seven one three two one two k tr H seven
one three two and two k trhe. I planted a
type of Collocasia in my garden yesterday in one of
the one of the beds actually up against the house.

(08:26):
We're up shady aery gets a little bit of sun.

Speaker 7 (08:29):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
And if you're not familiar with colocasia, Colocasia and allocacia
and kalladiums all have those big heart shaped leaves. Uh.
If you you probably have heard of elephant well you
know what kladium's arm, sure, but you probably heard of
elephant ears before. Okay, that's that that group of plants
that that's what we're talking about here.

Speaker 6 (08:51):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
The allocacias in general. Uh, they're they're all kind of
heart shaped slash arrow head shaped in their leaf. But
the cases tend to point the leaves upward or outward
a little bit, while the colocations tend to hang down.
So when you look at them, you're seeing a heart
that looks like a heart, with the allocations you're looking

(09:13):
at more like a arrowhead. Which the way I remember that,
by the way, is allocacia. It begins with a as
does Arrowhead. So not all of them point, you know,
just directly up. They do lean out, but anyway, that's
a general purpose. They each have their best spots that
they can go in. But I was planning one that's
really colorful one and it just reminded me Arburgate Garden

(09:34):
Center and Tom Ball has a wonderful selection of all
kinds of tropical looking things. You know, we get here
to summer, it's hot, it's sultry, and tropical plants thrive here.
You know, we think, oh my gosh, I'm going to die.
I feel like this is more sweltering than you know,
Calcutta or someplace deep deep in the rainforest jungle.

Speaker 7 (09:57):
No that it.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
We have plants that love it. They love those kind
of conditions. And what do they say when in Rome?
Do as the Romans do? Well? If you want to
have a happy landscape in the summer, include a lot
of tropical plants, tropical dazzlers, plants that are just gorgeous.
And boy does Arbrogaatee ever have some beautiful ones of those.
You know, there's a standard green colors, there's types with

(10:18):
colorful petioles. Kind of planet. It had kind of reddish
petioles in it. There's some types. There's one that, oh gosh,
the name's escaping me right now, but it has splashes
of pink inside of a purple leaf. It's a fairly
new one, kind of a Hawaiian something Hawaiian in the name,
I can't remember, but anyway, another kind has purple leaves,
deep deep purple leaves and with those big giant bold

(10:42):
foliage there eye catchers. And remember when you're doing your landscape,
to change up, change up your colors in the landscape,
and change up your textures so you get something really
fine grass like a grass an ornamental clumbing grass has
very fine lines, fine tech. Make sure the bold leaves
of color Caasha and Allocasia are just wonderful contrast to that.

(11:06):
So use those more and use color in foliage as
much as you can. In the summer. We have lots
of blooming things in summer, but not as many a spring.
And so when summer comes, even when plants kind of
start to not bloom as well, you still can have
color by using bold foliage color. All right, let's run
out to Brian, Texas and we're going to talk to

(11:26):
Dan this morning. Hello, Dan, Welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah, good morning, Hey Skip, I've got a question. I
just bought a little piece of land out in kind
of northeast of Brian. It's pretty wide open out there,
there's no trees on it, and were just wanting to
get some recommendations on some relatively fast growing shade trees

(11:55):
and ornamentals. I know I've had great myrtles in the past,
and great myrtles have done pretty good. I've been out
in here in the Crosby area, but just now relocating
and just wanted to get your thoughts on some trees.
I know live oaks are big up there, but heck,
I'm seventy two years old. I'll never see live oaks grow.

Speaker 8 (12:17):
There.

Speaker 6 (12:18):
You go.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, they say society is great when men plant trees
under whose shade they will never set, So that there's
something to think about. Well, Dan, you know, as you
go up north and east of Brian, whether you're up
to the North Ulch or Wickson Valley or anywhere out
in that area, you've got a range of different soils
that we are looking at the area of Texas called

(12:41):
the Post Oak Belt. So there's a lot of grainy,
granular gravelly types of soil that post oaks love. I
would not plant a post oak by the way number one.
You can find it in the garden center. But there's
also some clay soils up in there, and so a
couple of options there. You could go with a red

(13:02):
oak such as a shoemard or a nut tall and
nut tall or shumard red oak. They grow pretty fast
when you get all the weeds away from them, so
they don't have any competition. Give them a big mulched
area so they have a forest floor environment, and water
them regularly. Watering is more important than fertilizing, but of
course also fertilize them with a nitrogen based fertilizer. You

(13:25):
can get pretty good growth out of those. There are
a lot of other trees too, It just kind of
depends on what you like. The cypress trees will do
well up there. You see a lot of those as
you drive through Brian College Station and road medians and
other things. Just if you can get something that doesn't
if it's going to be in your yard, get something

(13:47):
that doesn't produce knees. There are cypress that produce knees
and cypress that don't. If you have a clay soil.
With the amount of rain you get up there, which
isn't as much as in Houston, but it still is
a lot that soul stay soggy and the knees start
popping up in your lawnmower has the time of it.
So just something to think about. If you go with

(14:07):
the cypress, they're very sturdy, very long lived. A lot
of people like elms, and there's some beautiful elms. If
you want a tree that once it's established, you don't
care for, have to care for a lot. Cedar elm
is a good tough one that can do that. It
doesn't make as big and spreading of a tree as
the others as the oaks will.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
Okay, well, I think that like that red oak idea.
Maybe do you think, yeah, great marbles you think of
do alight up there?

Speaker 1 (14:40):
They do? They do great up there. They are a
tough tree, surprisingly tough. I would if you want shade
from it, I would get a very large one, such
as natches like the Indian tribe at trail. Yeah, not
just trail like that. It has white flowers and it
has a beautiful cinnamon colored exfoliating bark, unlike the putty

(15:05):
colored trunks of most crape myrtles. This one has even
attractive trunks. I think so Natchez will get about thirty
feet tall with water and care. Okay, well, great, it
has a few ideas.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Appreciate your information. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, and you and you're not far from wims And
tree farms done in Plannersville. But they grow a lot
of trees out there, and they will sell if you
contact the amount of time, I believe you can just
go down and make a retail purchase. Okay, what is
what was the name of it, Williamson Tree Farm. They're
connected to RCW Nurseries in history Whimst's in Plannersville. If

(15:45):
you if you go one oh five, like you're going
to Conroe and turn south toward Plannersville, it's just right
there on the left, off to the left. Okay, well great, Hey, yeah,
this sounds great.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
Hey, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
All right, have fun. All right, you're listening to Garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter. How can we help you
today with your garden? Like we just were talking with
Dan there about some tree ideas for a certain part
of the listening area. Whenever you choose plants do. Remember
that they have an opinion about the soil. And I

(16:18):
mentioned the you know, that area is in the gravelly
the gravelly soils of the Postoke Belt, but also the
clavy clay soils. But there's also sandy soils. In every area,
there's somewhere there's going to be some sand. So that's
another thing to keep in mind. Quality Home Products is
the number one generator servicer in the Houston area, you know.

(16:39):
And they're number one for a number of reasons. First
of all, from the time you first call them or
walk in, you're getting customer service. They are making sure
you get the generator you need. They ask you the
questions they need to ask to make sure you get
the size and type of generator that you need. They
have the Generac automatic standby generators, which is amazing generator.

(17:01):
It just comes on when the power goes off. You
don't even get out of your chair. But their service,
you know, they take care of any permits that you
need to get to put in a generator that you
don't have to do that. They handle that for you.
They come out and pour a nice strong, thick pad
for the generator to go on. Other companies often will
drop a little two inch piece of concrete on the ground,

(17:22):
hit it good with a good lawmar zone and move
it to the side. Not quality home. It's quality that
they do. Listen. This company's been a family owned business
here in the Houston area since nineteen eighty nine, and
the number of awards they have won and continue to
win is amazing. The Better Business Bureau and they're the
ones that make sure companies are taking care of their customers.

(17:44):
Most prestigious Award eight times Better Business Bureaus Most prestigious
Award eight times. Quality Home Products of Texas standout, organization, reliability, integrity.
They prize really in fact, they want you to be happy.
They prioritize being honesty, honest, and transparent really with every

(18:04):
one of their clients. Qualitytx dot Com is the website.
Go check them out or give them a call. Seven
one three quality, seven one three quality. They have quality products,
definitely quality service so that you can enjoy a quality life.
And by the way, hurricane season is coming and last
year taught us that we can be out of power

(18:26):
for significant periods of time. Don't delay, it's a process
to get this done. Call Quality Home Products of Texas
seven one three quality. All right, you're listening to garden Line.
If you'd like to give me a call. Seven one
three two one two k t r H. Seven one
three two one two k t r H. I was
out yesterday checking out my mosquito buckets, the ones I

(18:50):
got from Pestbros. And you can too, by the way
that by the way, they service the whole area from
Baytown to kd and from the Woodlands all the way
down to Texas City, and uh, you know, they just
do mosquitoes. But boy, do they ever do mosquitos. We
were sitting out yesterday and I think we had one
or two mosquitoes kind of that came up on us
and we were sitting out in that prime mosquito time

(19:10):
of the day, you know what I'm talking about, end
of the day, and they just come out and eat
you live. We've had rain good night week after week
where we've had rains to create those little puddles. All
it takes is a bottle cup of water for mosquitoes
to breed. And normally, you know, I would have been
having to chain myself to the ground because mosquitos have

(19:30):
been some mini on me that'll lift me up off
the patio carried me away. Best Bro shuts that down
with their mosquito box. It really really works good. Yeah,
I mean nothing is going to get rid of every mosquito.
I used to nuke my lawn with a foger just
to be able to go out for a little while
with family and friends and enjoy that outdoor area. Not anymore.

(19:52):
Not anymore. Mosquito can always fly in from here for there,
but the bulk of them, the way the buckets work.
Just call them and ask them how they work. They
can take seven two eight one two o six forty
six seventy two eight one two o six four to
six seven zero, or go to the website the Pest
Bros b r o s dot com talk to them

(20:15):
about their termite control. Also, you know termites. That reminds
me it's they pour a material down in a little
trench around the out just outside the perimeter of your
house and termite's trying to come through. Shut them down
for ten years. And I like that because you know,
to put a lot of pest to side out where
kids and pets and other things are going to be encountering.

(20:35):
It's not a good thing at pest Bros. They know
how to treat effectively, but they also know how to
do so in the safest manner, so you get long
term control without worries. Vpestbros dot Com two eight one
two o six forty six seventy Sitting here looking at
my clock. I got about a minute left. So well,

(20:58):
when we come back and remember it, I may need
to get my producer to remind me. I want to
talk about the things at the end of our arms
and how we use them in horticulture, in gardening. I
know you're good. Why is he saying it that way?
I don't know why I say things Wed, It's just the.

Speaker 6 (21:16):
Way it is.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
I'll be also talking this morning a little bit about
fruit trees that do not produce fruit and why that,
why that is, and what you can do. So stick around,
stay tuned. We definitely want to spend some time on
that with you. If you got any other questions, if
you'd like, we have an open boards right now. Actually,

(21:39):
if you want to be one of the first ones up,
well if you get on the phone right now seven
one three two one two kat r h Alejandro, get
you up on the board so you can be first up.
When we come back. Hey, welcome back to guarden Line.
Good to have you with us. What are we going
to talk about today, Well, you tell me when the
phone calls. We got a couple of folks online here

(22:00):
be visiting with in just a moment. If you've not
been down to Enchanted Forest Garden Center, you really need
to go. They have got a wonderful selection of plants.
I always tell you about their herbs and vegetables and things.
I always tell you about the pollinator plants and the
butterfly plant. Just just butterfly alone, I mean the plants
that attract the adults, the plants that are the tract

(22:23):
the larva, which is important. You know, you want monarchs,
you got to have milkweed, so monarch larva there. You
want to go, frittlery, butterflies, you got to have some
passion bend because that's what their baby's eat. Well, and
Chanted Forest has all of that, and of course a
lot more. They also have some desert willows. I don't
know if you're familiar with desert willow, but it is
a very fine textured tree. You know, earlier I was
talking about the the colocasia and alocasia, how they had

(22:46):
the big bold leaves. Well, this is a very fine
strappy leaf, very thin narrow leaves, but they have beautiful blooms.
There's a number of different there's just the standard wild
type of desert willow, and then there's some varieties that
have been selected. They have one called Bubba. Bubba has
been around a good while and it is a dependable variety.

(23:06):
It's been proven. The blooms on it are kind of
a pink to maroon burgundy color. They're sort of in
that range, and it makes a small tree that casts
a light shade. The nice thing about that is you
put it in a flower bed, maybe a high dry mound,
because it can take drought very very well, and then

(23:27):
you can plant things around it and they get enough
light to still do pretty well. You know, you get
something that is evergreen and just casts the shade so
dark you can't see your hand in front of your face.
Bubba desert willow is different than that, and it really
deserves a place in our landscapes, So especially those of
you who are trying to cut down on water use
that are looking for things that are more drought tolerant.

(23:48):
Once established anyway in shanty forest, just go there FM
twenty seven fifty nine. If you are going from Richmond
Rosenberg area up to Sugarland direction, it's off to the
right on FM, or better yet, go to their awesome website.
It is really helpful. Enchanted forrest Richmond, TX dot com.

(24:13):
We're going to go now up to the northwest Houston
area and with well ed, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 9 (24:26):
My favorite subject has become soil.

Speaker 5 (24:31):
And okay, well, I'm still battling it. I went organic
about four years ago on all of my fertilizing. Now
I want to get more into putting stuff into the soul,
more and more that can help amend it and spent

(24:53):
but to get it, I'm using Microlife for almost everything.
I'm using as a mite at times, I'm.

Speaker 9 (25:03):
Using mister Ferguson's remineralizer a lot, and his molt is
a lot. Now I want to put some stuff in
that's liquid now, and then I want to put.

Speaker 5 (25:15):
Stuff down that's granular. I just want to pump that song,
and I don't mind spending the money to do it.

Speaker 9 (25:21):
Give me some one two, three, four by six things
to do and regularly, oh.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Boy, I can do Okay, well, Uh, First of all,
you're on a good track with great products. Congratulations on that.

Speaker 8 (25:36):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Or is your sore clay soil? Or is it more
of a sand or a loan? Do you know?

Speaker 9 (25:42):
No, No, it's a lot of clay.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
When you dig down more than the depth.

Speaker 9 (25:47):
Of a shovel blade, you know what?

Speaker 5 (25:49):
You hit me down there?

Speaker 9 (25:51):
And now I have gotten the most of the whey.
I'm interested a little more.

Speaker 5 (25:57):
Broken up over the last five or two in years,
but I know I need to just keep going down
back and forth doing something.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah, all right, ed, well, for the sake of time,
I'm gonna Your question is about one thousand and one
good questions all packed into one. So let me give
you some quick highlights. When you improve on a clay,
you do it with organic matter, and you do it
with expanded shale. I didn't hear you mentioned shale. But

(26:28):
as you mix several inches of expanded shale down into
a clay, it loosens it up significantly. There's been a
lot of research on that that has shown the benefits
to a clay. Organic matter is always wonderful. Organic matter
is what nature does to soil, and so it works.
But organic matter decomposes, and so if you're going to

(26:49):
put in something like let's say a roast bush, well
that's going to be there for years, decades maybe, and
so you can't just amend the soil once with organic matter.
Having the expanded shale in there. Making sure you have
good drainage is all important. If you're using the azamite
and then you mentioned mister Ferguson's mineralizer, those are similar products.

(27:11):
So what I would recommend you do is occasionally test
your soil. You can go to a website that's soil
Testing is the name of the website, Soil Testing, and
then it's dot ta MU, which is Texas and M
University dot edu Soil Testing dot TAMU, dot edu. Find
the urban soil test form, fill it out, follow the destructions,

(27:35):
and then let them tell you what's in your soil.
They may tell you your potassium is high, they may
tell you it's low, they may tell you it's just right.
But when you get that result, then you'll know exactly
going forward how to fertilize. If we just use the
same thing over and over and over again without ever testing,
we can be gradually getting out of balance. And so
we want to avoid that, and I think you're at

(27:57):
a point now where some soil testing would be in order. Okay,
I agree, I agree, Okay, all right, Hey, call me
back sometime we'll continue this discussion. So sounds like you
got a lot more good questions. But I'd love to
visit with you.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
You you're very You're very smart.

Speaker 10 (28:14):
You know I'm gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Thank you, all right, thank you, sir. Appreciate Yes, sir,
appreciate that. Thanks a lot. Let's go now to Pat
in the barker Cypress area. Hey, Pat, welcome to garden Line.
Good morning, Skip, thanks for taking my call. I've got
a weed.

Speaker 11 (28:32):
It has little bitty of white flowers on it in
my Saint Augustine, and you can grab clumps of it
and just pull it up. Is I put a pre
emergence way back when it was cold before it got hot,
but it didn't seem to affect it.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Uh, I've had it. Yeah. Do you know if picture
of the weed again in your mind's eye, does it
have four padals that are skinned and white so it
looks like a little white X or a little white
cross on the flowers. No, it has on the runners.

(29:09):
It only on top of the soil. I noticed it.

Speaker 11 (29:12):
It will every once in a while. You got to
pull it real hard to get it out of the ground.
But it also has these little beady things along the runners,
just a little.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 11 (29:21):
They're green, some of them are white.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, oh boy, Well, I think it's Virginia button weed.
But some things you're saying or contrary to that. The
best answer I can give you is for you to
take a picture of it and email it to me
and let me make sure I give you the right answer.
I mean, I can shoot from the hip, but we
may be wasting your time and money, and I don't
want to do that. I think you're talking about Virginia
button weed. But Virginia button weed has small, white, cross

(29:48):
shaped flowers. They're probably across the whole flower, maybe about
a third of an inch or so. But I'm going
to put you on hold, and if you'd like to
pursue that, just my producer will pick it up and
he'll tell you to email me that photo and then
let's get get you a good I don't want to
pursue that. I don't want to pursue Okay.

Speaker 11 (30:07):
Also, I have Dallas grass and I read that stuff
is very hard to get rid of.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
You almost have to dig it up. Is that? Do
you know anything that pretty much, well, pretty much digging
it up is going to be what you end up doing.
It is a very very difficult, very difficult grass to
control from a homeowner standpoint, just due to the the
access that you have to, not as many products as

(30:37):
as someone else, you know, as a commercial person I
would have access to. But digging is a very dependable
way if you're going to do I tell you what,
let me do this. I'm about to have to go
to a break here. I'll come back from break and
I'll talk about Dallas grass just a little bit, okay,
and then we'll do that. And for the Virginia, for
what I think you have in the Virginia button weed,

(30:58):
there's a productal celsius, like the temperature celsius and follow
the label and see how that works. It's going to
take more than one application to kill it. That's just
the way. Hey, thank you, thank you for the call.
I appreciate I appreciate that very much. I'm sorry, I
got I got to run here. I'll be right back.
Folks already, look back a little Roger Miller this morning

(31:21):
on Garden Line. Hey, I was just talking with a
pat about the Dallas grass and we just ran flat,
ran out of time, but I didn't want to make
a couple of comments about it. Dallas grass is one
of the most difficult grasses to control for a homeowner,
a resident, a non commercial applicator. You just don't have

(31:42):
access to some of the things that commercial folks do.
It's hard for commerce for commercial folks to control too,
by the way, But what I would recommend for it,
Number one, hand digging. I know you don't want to
hear that, but you know, if your whole yard's Dallas grass,
I don't know, maybe just kill everything and replant. That
would be one thing. It's too much to handig. But

(32:03):
if you have some just here and there, just stay
with it. Hand dig never let it produce seeds and
increase its spread that way. But getting out there wet
the soil really well, you know, an inch of water
or following a good rainstorm the next day or so,
you can easily get it up. Get you one of
the little prong weaters that goes in the ground, you

(32:26):
can kind of lift it up a little bit. I
like to use a soil knife for that. By the way,
love my soil knife, but just do it a little
at a time here and there. I have controlled a
lot of weeds that way, and I'm not trying to
do the whole yard on one day. But get out
early morning when it's cool, work for a little while,
come back to it later. That's legit now. Other than that,
there's two options that are not as thorough as that,

(32:50):
but they are options. One is to use a product
to just kill it and kill everything. It'll kill your
long grass, it'll kill the Dallas grass. So you spot
treat as much as you can get it on the
Dallas grass without getting it on your turf grass. And
those are those general products. You know, glyf essay, it
has been once, been around for a long time. But

(33:12):
when you treat a weed with that, it's gonna kill
it and it's gonna get it out of there. But
you're gonna have all these dead spots in your yard
and then the grass can grow back in or you
can plug some in. How you go about it, all right.
The last option is to use something called Celsius, which
I talked about before. Celsius has three three different ingredients
in it. One of them, only one of them is

(33:35):
pretty effective against Dallas grass. You can use celsius early
in the mornings, even in the month of June where
it's really hot out there. But I'd get it done
and then I'd be ready to come back at it
and do it again in the fall. It doesn't if
you read the labels, it says it suppresses it. Okay,
so if you suppress and suppress and suppress, you can

(33:57):
kill something pretty much. But that would be the other one.
Not a great it's not a miracle cure. It's not
you know, you're I'm just telling you. It's a This
is why I said it's a tough week. There's just
not og. Spray this and it'll kill everything, kill it
and you'll be good. So anyway, those are your options
for Dallas grass unless you have a major infestation and

(34:20):
a very large lawn. I you know, I wouldn't do
the hand digging, but you even if you hire somebody
to do it, if as long as they get all
the pieces and parts out of the ground, that hand
digging is is definitely a valid option. And then create
a dense, healthy lawn so sunlight can't hit the soil
and you have better success. You know, I talk about
turf all the time. I talk about soil all the time.

(34:42):
And if you want to have success with any kind
of plant, it's the soils where you start. And Cienamultch
is where you go. Cina Maltch is south of Houston.
You're Highway six and two eighty eight. Go to the
website Sienna Mulch dot com cienamultch dot com. When you
go there, you're going to find by the bag, you're
going to find by the bulk all kinds of products,

(35:04):
whether it's various types of composts, bed mixes and multches
that go on top of the ground, as well as
other things you need around the landscape like sand and gravel,
soil for filling in, soil blends for filling in to
the to the level out some areas in your lawn.
Cienamultz dot COM's where you go. You also find the

(35:24):
nutrients that go in the ground to build the brown
stuff into a bank account that plants can thrive in.
That would include stuff from microlife and nitrofoss and nail,
some plant food and medina and certainly asamite as well.
All there at Ciena Maltz Sienna multch dot com. So
you're listening to garden Line a phone number seven one

(35:46):
three two one two k t r H seven one
three two one two k t r H. I was
being kind of in not talking on the phone, but
doing some text emailing with the folks at Pierscape, so
that I'm going to go ahead and look at one
of their sites. I'll be posting some stuff online here
for too long, just to show you kind of work

(36:08):
they do. I would like to go visit our clients
here on Guardenline, those who sponsor our show, those who
are our supporters, and see the work that they do.
You know, I'd sit here and tell you that Piercescapes
is unbelievable, and you can see for yourself by going
to pierscapes dot com. See the kind of work they do.
I mean, we're talking about rock, walkways and walls a stone,

(36:30):
We're talking about landscape irrigation. We're talking about drainage of
areas that don't drain, landscape lighting, issues with your irrigation system,
or maybe you just need quarterly service. You want once
a quarter that's every three months for them to come
out go to your beds, flower beds and stuff, get
them all weed free, make sure they got some good
mulch in them, make sure the irrigation is working, do

(36:51):
any trimming that needs to be done, and then you
set it up accordingly with them. But they can replace
the plants that you have with new plants. For example,
those pansies from winter aren't looking very good now are they.
In fact, they're gone, but they'll come in and do
a color change in the bed for you. All from
Pierce Scapes piercescapes dot com two eight one three seven

(37:13):
h five zero six zero. So anyway, I'm gonna head
out there, take a look at some of the work
that they do, get some pictures. I'll post some stuff
onto social media. As a result of that, I was
visiting with some folks that were went to jorg sitting
gardens recently. Boy, they just loved loved it. They really

(37:34):
enjoyed good Jorges down in the Alvin Santa Fe area.
It's an Alvin address. It's on Elizabeth Street and Alvin.
But if you're in Alvin, you're heading down Highway six
towards Santa Fe. It's off to the right back in
that direction, and all of you folks in Alvin, Santa Fe,
certainly Hillcrest, Algoo, Alta, Lomo Arcadia, that whole region down there.

(37:55):
This is your backyard garden center. Horay carries the three
sixty trees abilizer. Jorge always has a good selection of
fruit trees, both things like blueberries et ceterus, but also
peaches and plums and you name it. Got some good
avocados right now too. And then there's all the color
plants from roses to annuals and perennials and whatever you

(38:17):
need to have success. Jorges Hidden Gardens that would be
on Elizabeth Street, alven Dress seven to one three six
three two fifty two ninety seven one three six three
two five two nine zero. Well, I believe I've run

(38:37):
out of time on this segment. We're going to be
take a little break. You and I can each get
us a cup of coffee. Be ready to go again
here in just a moment. And when we come back,
don't let me forget. I want to talk to you
about the gardening tools that each of us has come
equipped with at the end of our arms. I know

(38:58):
that's curious, isn't it. It's called a teaser. By the way,
don't go away. We'll be back to do that. Hey,
if you got some time, go to gardening with Skip
dot com and just bookmarket. You don't have time to
look at everything. They're just book market and come back
to it. Bus my web guy the other day and
we are about to post a bunch more stuff on there,

(39:20):
getting it all set up and ready to go with
a new transition coming as well. But anyway, check it
out bookmarket well the right guy. Hey, welcome to garden
Line folks. Glad to have you back. What do you
want to talk about? Give me call seven one three

(39:41):
two one two k t r H seven one three
two one two k t r H. I was in
an ACE Hardware store the other day, and I try
to get around and see different Ace Hardware stores because
each one is independently owned. So while it is an
a store and therefore has all the things you would
expect from an ACE store, all kinds of quality products

(40:03):
and whatnot, each one has its own personalities. You know,
an owner can choose to open up a fudge bar
if they want in one of the stores, or they
can choose to do something else like that, and it's
always fun to go see what they have and the
cool products that they have and services. The ACE Hardware
is all over the place. You know, you can go
to ACE Hardware Texas dot com. Acehardware Texas dot com

(40:27):
and you can find the store near you. Don't forget
the Texas ACE Hardware Texas dot com. That's my ACE
Hardware group here in the greater Houston area. So if
you're listening all the way down from Rockport to I
don't know, Orange, Texas, you have ACE Hardware stores in
your area that are part of our group. Stores like
Child's Building Supply in Orange or Memorial Hardware a Memorial

(40:49):
Drive in Houston, Port Lavaca on Calhoun Plaza in Port Lavaca,
Lake Conroe ACE on Highway one oh five just outside
Montgomery there. League City ACE is down in League City
on the West League City Parkway. All Star is in
Magnolia on FM fourteen eighty eight and by there, in fact,
it did an appearance there a while back. And Bay
Cliff Face on Grand Avenue and Bake Cliff. Those are

(41:11):
all examples of some of the ACE Hardware stores. Now,
when you go into an ACE Hardware store, you're going
to find things that are quality and things that are
pertinent to the kinds of gardening and enjoying the indoors
and outdoors. So for example, maybe you need maybe you
need your deck kind of rece stained, or you need

(41:31):
a preservation product for your deck. They've got that, of course,
they have paints and all kinds of things like that.
Don't let that go too far, by the way, you
want to catch it and keep good quality of all
your deck materials by you know, taking care of them.
That way. You need propane for barbecuing and other things.
Do you need barbecue equipment? Don't forget to get air

(41:52):
filters when you're in there. Always one changes out about
once a month in order to make sure you are
taking care of that very expensive central heat and air
unit that you have, So make sure and replace those
in there. And then of course for gardening, everything you
can imagine, certainly the fertilizers, the pest control, of the
disease control. Listen, when you go into ACE, you're going

(42:13):
to find everything you need. ACE is the place, that's
what they say, and that is a fact. By the way,
do you know if you know exactly already what you
want to need. Most things you can buy online and
pick them up at your store, your local ACE Hardware store,
which you're going to find at ACE Hardware Texas dot com.
And one last thing, sign up for the ACE Rewards program.

(42:33):
Sign up. You can do it online, you can do
it and when you go into a store. But I
belong to it every time I go into ACE and shop.
You know, with the Rewards program there's discounts and special
offers only for ACE Rewards customers email directly to you.
So make sure and sign up for that. Take advantage
of that great, great idea. All right, if you are

(42:56):
interested in asking your gardening question, you can reach me
at seven to one to three two one two k
t r H seven one three two one two k
t r H. I was talking to somebody about Buchanan's
plants the other day. What was oh they were They
were discussing some of the natives and things that Buchanans
has and uh, Buchanans has a better selection in natives

(43:18):
than anybody in the whole region, the whole region. I
don't care where you're I said, from Orange to Rockport,
I don't care where you're listening from. Buchanus native plants
is going to be a source for those things that
are great plants to have but just not widely available.
Of course, they have the standard stuff. Yes, it's not
just native plants. You're going to find great pollinator plants there.

(43:39):
You're going to find you know, I was talking earlier
about some of the tropicals, the gaudy tropicals with beautiful color.
They have those there. If you're into succulents and indoor
plants and you really really love house plants, you can
have one of the best selections you're gonna find, as
well as one of the biggest urban vegetable selections here
in the city. Uh, it's excellent, excellent, excellent. They know

(44:01):
that it begins in the soil. They know, you know,
I talk about brown stuff before green stuff. Buchanans has
got everything you need. They have a full line of
Microlife's products. They have nitrofoss and Nelson. They have products
from Medina for example. They have soil products from Nature's
Way and Airloom Sauce, and then they have their own

(44:21):
a couple of different lines like their Life below in
the Tropicore that they carry. Beautiful gift shop. I mean,
there's a thousand reasons to go to Buchanans a thousand.
They added one thousand and one earlier this year and
that was the new checkout area. It's a nice covered
roof where you're out of the sun, you're out of
the rain, and then they're not going to lose that

(44:42):
oneto a storm again like they have the other two.
So they are all set up and ready to go.
Go to the website, which is I think one of
the best sources of information on gardening that I've seen,
and that is buchanansplants dot Com. Helpful videos, good information.
They feature plants each week. You want to be part
of that, and you want to sign up for the newsletter.

(45:04):
Buchan's naeded plants on Eleventh Street and the Heights. We're
gonna head out and out to the phones and had
the Spring branch and talk to Herda. Well, hello, herd
it good morning.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Good morning. My questions about day lilies. Uh there's a
cluster of them on both sides of the sidewalk and
uh they bloomed. It's white and just a hue of

(45:35):
a kind of a rose color. But anyway, they I
guess they bloomed about I didn't you know, look at
the time that they were blooming. But uh then uh,
and of course they roll up at night. I didn't
know that, I'm learning.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
But you're running around out side at night looking at
day lilies.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Well, no, the next day, I mean, there's just all
they're all dead, shriveled and wrinkled. But anyway, now they
have a little green bulb at the top. Oh, by
the way, the stem is a straw. They don't have

(46:27):
any other form. But anyway, I've never had these. Well,
but anyway, uh is that bulb wh a new bloom coming?

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Or I'd have to see it to be sure. You
may have a seed, you may have even a seed
pod going on up there, but it could be. Give
a little time, just wait and watch and see there's
a wonderful plant. Day lilies. They they you know they
they have They're called day lily for a reason. As
you know now, it's a good dependable toup plants. Some

(47:01):
of them repeat bloom better than others. But as you
as you get along into it, you can find some
gorgeous colors and very dependable ones too. I'm sorry to
have to run, but I got like three seconds before
i'ma have to go to a break. I appreciate you
carfian to hang around weeking. Okay, you take care too,
Thank you so much for calling folks. I'll be right back. Hey,

(47:22):
welcome backs down love crocodile rot. All right, you're listening
to the guard Line. We're here to help you have
success in your gardens. You just give me a call
seven one three two one two kt r H. We'll
talk about the things that are of interest to you.
All right. I believe I'm going back out here and

(47:44):
visit again with Herda. Hey, herd, are you still there?

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yes? I called back. My son Scott gave me a
three gallon pot stage. Where is the best price to print?
How much sun does it need? I think they take
full sun, don't they?

Speaker 8 (48:07):
They do?

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Now, this is the herb sage that you're talking about,
not the shrub sage, the bush.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
No, this is the bush.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Oh okay, okay, yeah, they need full sun sage bushes.
Does yours have sort of silvery leaves or are they
mostly green?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
They're a silvery silver green.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Okay, yeah, lots of lots of sun as much as
you can give them, and make sure you get them.
We say high and dry, meaning on a raised mound.
So when it rains too much. Their roots aren't soggy wet,
because they'd rather be in Uvality, Texas than Houston, Texas.
So we've got to we've got to make sure that

(48:54):
when you know, we just put them on a hy
dry mound and they'll they'll be fine.

Speaker 12 (48:57):
They'll do well there, all right.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Yeah. I grew up in Santonio and they did very
well in Santonio. But it's much higher and drier.

Speaker 4 (49:09):
It is, it is.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
But even there, you know, you've got to give them
good drainage. So yeah, it's a good plant, good plan.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
All right. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
You know who gene Autry? Do you know who gene
Autry is? Deep in the heart of Texas, Deep in
the heart of Texas. A sage in blooms smells like
perfume deep in the Absolutely it's a Texas plant for sure.

Speaker 8 (49:32):
All right.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Thanks, you have a good rest of you. Yes, ma'am,
thank you for calling. Appreciate that. If you're up in
the Magnolia direction from Tombole Spring Creek, feed your hometown,
feed storage right their garden Parkway or Garden Parkway, you
can tell him a gardener Grand Parkway and Highway to
forty nine Spring Creek Feed is the place where you

(49:56):
get the foundation stuff for your garden. I'm talking about
fertilize like turf Star and microlife and nitrofoss if you've
got pests and weeds and diseases to deal with, they
carry their garden center stocked with a really good supply
of all of those things. Now you're going to also
find that any kind of lawn and garden and pond supplies.
Maybe got a little pond, They're going to have all

(50:17):
of that there. When you walk in, you're greeted like
you should be greeted, and a good quality business, friendly,
courteous staff. And if you need pet food, they have
very high end lines of pet food as well there
at Spring Creek Feed. Now, if you are a frequent buyer,
they have a frequent buyer program on select brands of
pet food, so that helps save a bit of money

(50:39):
there on some of those brands. Let them know that
you kind of are interested in that, and they'll tell
you all about it. If you're a military or senior citizen,
there are discounts available to you. They do special orders
and they also have a delivery service all their Spring
Creek Feed in Magnolia on FM twenty nine seventy eight,
just minutes away from Parkway and Highway two forty nine.

(51:03):
Let's head out to Cyprus now and we're going to
visit with Susan this morning. Hello Susan, Welcome to garden line.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Thanks Skip.

Speaker 7 (51:10):
How are you.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Doing well? Thanks?

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Get you know the temperatures, yes, temperatures are in the nineties.
Now is it too hot to spray a weed killer?

Speaker 11 (51:24):
Now?

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Will that hurt the grass with the high temperatures?

Speaker 1 (51:27):
So you're you're wanting to apply it in your lawn?
Or are you using something to kill broad leaf weeds?
Or are you using something to prevent weeds from sprouting
from seed?

Speaker 3 (51:38):
I've already got the weeds, so I need a post emergent.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Okay for many of the good post emergent weed killers.
Once you get up in the upper eighties, even you
can start to get stress on your Saint Augustine grass.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (51:54):
There.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
The recommendation is to do your applications early in the
morning orly as you can, so that they dry up
before the sun is baking down and heating things up
a lot. There is a specific weed killer called Celsius.
Like the temperature Celsius that it can even be in

(52:16):
the low nineties and it's okay, it's not going to
hurt it. But whatever you use, do it first thing
in the morning, just to give you that extra measure
of safety.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Okay, good, and then Celsius is okay to use them.
Permuta grass.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Yes, it is also label for your mutographs. It comes
in little pockets that make one gallon of spray, but
a gallon goes a long way if you're just spots
spraying weeds here and there. You know, generally with weed
killer like that, you don't spray your entire yard, every
square foot of it. So I like the little one

(52:54):
gallon things because you can mix them up, use it up,
and then you're done.

Speaker 11 (52:59):
I'll do that.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Thank you, Good luck with it. Thanks Susan. Appreciate your call.
Take care. You are listening to Gardenline. I'm your host,
Skip Richter and the phone number seven one three two
one two ktr eight seven one three two one two ktrights. Hey,
Medina products have so many options that gardeners have gone

(53:21):
to for a long long time. I don't know. Back
in the nineteen fifties, Medinas was going strong, and that's
where you get things like Medina Soil Activator, which stimulates
your biological activity in the soil. It's one of the
just foundational products that Medina has. Then there's Medina Plus.
Now with Medina Plus, you get not only just the

(53:44):
Medina Soil activator, but they have increased some other They've
added other things to the formula to increase the benefits
of it. And so for example, you got micronutrients and
you got seaweed extract in there, so you get all
the natural soil building advantages while those extra ingredients make
it even better for a folier feed for plants. Any

(54:06):
country shrubs anything with leaves, even lawns. Seaweed extracts help
plants achieve good growth. They help the yield on things
that are producing fruit for you by enhancing natural product processes.
So basically we're trying to help our plants against all
the stresses that they're dealing with. Make sure they have
the nutrients that they need. Well, try Medina Plus. It's

(54:27):
available in a gallon, it's available in a cort. It's
easy used. You got a plant that's struggling along, give
it a folier feed and then put some in a
watering can and just drench it into the soil really
good and you'll get a double benefit from that makes
it really really easy to apply. Another good quality product
for the folks at Medina. Don't forget too. By the way,

(54:49):
Medina has to Grow for lawns. It's a twelve four
to eight formulation. Hooks up to a garden hose, Go
over your whole lown and give it a good quick
boost of energy. And I love their Souper Grow Plus.
That's another lawn product that's almost all nitrogen and at
zero phosphorus the middle number, which for a lawn is
just fine. Most of our lawns have enough or more

(55:11):
than enough phosphors. So Medina Supergrow Plus hooks up to
a garden hose. And by the way, don't you know
these products say they're for lawns, but they're good fertilizers.
I'm funic over your vegetable garden. You need to get
some okra growing, or tomatoes or peppers or whatever. Just
just blast them with that. It'll give them a boost.
You will see a difference. And just don't let the

(55:33):
tomatoes and the okra seed that it says lawn on
the fertilizer bottle and they'll think you're giving them something
that's just for them. I'm telling you it works. You know,
we complicate things sometimes, but hey, the plant just says
I need nitrogen, I need phosphorus, I need potassium magnesium,
and it lists out about twenty things that it wants
and you give them that and they're happy. And Medina

(55:55):
products will do that for you, especially the Supergrow Plus
and the uh Medina Ashti Grow for lawns. You're listening
to garden Line phone number seven one three two one
two k t r H seven to one three two
one two k.

Speaker 8 (56:10):
T r H.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Have you been out to Nelson Water Gardens the nursery
and water Gardens out in Katie, Texas For any of
you that live west, you have got to go there.
Nelson Water Gardens and Nursery. Are you drive to Katie
turn north on Katie four Ben Road and it's just
a little bit up on the right hand side. It

(56:33):
is a destination garden center because of all the things
they carry, but it also is a place for beautiful
water features that just went. I'm warning you when you
go in there, you're going to be oh, I got
to do that in my yard. Oh, I want one
of those in my yard. Oh, I got to do
that in my ard. They'll come out and those set

(56:54):
up water features for you. They'll create a I mean,
if you want the whole nine yards, you know, like
a rock waterfall, they'll build the whole thing and do it.
Or maybe you just want one of those disappearing fountains,
you know, a big tall urn glazed pottery that the
water runs out the top and comes out the bottom.
By the way, the birds will thank you for doing that.
And beneficial in sex as well. They can sell you
the products and tell you how to do it. If

(57:15):
you want to put together yourself, they can do that
either way. You go Nelson Water Gardens in Katie, Texas.
So head out to Katie. Go north on Katie for
it Ben and there you go. If you have not
been out there before, go visit the website first, Nelsonwatergardens
dot com. Check it out. You're going to see the

(57:36):
beautiful pottery that they carry, just so many many different products.
And maybe you're thinking, Okay, I can't put in a
waterfall and all of that in my garden. Well, how
about one of their little tabletop water features, something that
bubbles along and it's a very attractive. You put it
on a counter or a little table outside there and

(57:59):
you're sitting here. H just go, just go and see it.
You'll see what I'm talking about. By the way, take
kids with you when you go and uh, tell the
folks at Nelson say, hey, we'd like to feed the fish.
I'll give you your kiddo a little handful of a
fish food and then go back and feed the koi
in the big back koy pond. They will love that.
It is really really cool. And then you need to

(58:20):
go home with koi.

Speaker 6 (58:21):
Right.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
All right, Well, we're coming up here on a break
ron in the heights and Bill and Conro you're gonna
be our first two up when we come back.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
When we get back here on Guardline, we'll visit with
you about the things that you were interested in for
the rest of you. Seven one three two one two
k t r H is the number. Seven one three
two one two k t r H. Give us a call.
Let's help you have success with your gardening endeavors. And
remember jazz because it's getting that outside. No reason to

(58:53):
stop gardening. We got a lot of gardening left in us,
all right, welcome back to the guard Line. Glad to
have you with us. Nature's Way Resources. Someone was talking
about those earlier. They use some Nature's Ray Resources. John
Ferguson years ago created this company to help build soil

(59:16):
the way nature does. That's what it's called. One reason
it's called Nature's Way, and soil products were created that
are now well known by name in the whole Greater
Houston area, like or roase soil, like a leaf mold compost.
Those were all born at Nature's Way Resources. John understood
that in order to create better plant growth and productivity,

(59:40):
more beautiful plants, you had to fix the soil first,
the way nature does. Now sain Ian runs the place.
It's same traditions, same quality products. You're going to find
everything that you need to have success to create that foundation.
By the way, if you want to go to the website,
I would highly recommend it because it has been revamped.

(01:00:01):
It's just really really helpful and informative. Nature'sway Resources dot
Com Nature's Way Resources dot Com. They are still having
their fungal based compost specials. They call it Fungal Friday,
but on sale ever Friday, it's ten dollars off a
bag forty pounds bag and twenty dollars off. If you
want to get it by bulk so you can drive

(01:00:22):
over there and pick it up. You can have them
deliver it to you. You can go to many area
garden centers that carry Nature's Way resources products by the bag.
The main thing is just do it. I want you
to raise your hand, you know, kind of like a
Scouts pledge or whatever. What do they do, three fingers
up in the air something. Raise your hand and repeat
after me. I will not plant a plant a plant

(01:00:45):
until I have prepared the soil. I swear that I
will not plan a plant until I have prepared the soil. Boy,
if everybody just did that, we would have so much
fewer problems taking care of the soil. First is the
secrets of access. It's a foundation. Let's head out now
to the heights and we're going to visit with Ron

(01:01:05):
this morning. Hello Ron, welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
Hey, Skip, how you doing today?

Speaker 13 (01:01:11):
Listen, I'm calling.

Speaker 14 (01:01:12):
I've got two issues. Uh, front yard just got into
this situation. We got a lot looks like culover clover
is what.

Speaker 13 (01:01:22):
He's trying to say.

Speaker 14 (01:01:23):
And Uh, okay, I'm trying to decide if I want
to if I want to just kill it and then
resad or if I should try that Celsius idea well,
and if I do just kill it, I was thinking
about just weeding it right down to the surface and
then putting sid over the top. Or is it going
to grow back if I do that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
If it really is clover, it won't grow back. That's
an annual plant that should be dying out as the
weather gets really hot. And that's my next question.

Speaker 13 (01:01:54):
If I send you, how do I send you a
picture of it?

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
All Right, at the end of our here, I'm gonna
put you on hold and my producer will give you
the email. Take show me the lawn with where I
can see kind of them mount over all you got
take a close up of it, and then pull a
plant up and bring it inside, like if you got
a real dark dining table or something, set it on
there and take a really close, very well focused picture,

(01:02:20):
because some of these plants are harder to distinguished. But
there's something called Lesbodisa there, there's one called medic that
are all clover like plants, and so I want to
make sure that you with the right one. But if
it's an annual. If it's an annual, you cover it up,
and it's gone. It's going to die anyway. If it's
a perennial, then covering it up just means you put
your nuln in and now you got it back again.

Speaker 13 (01:02:42):
You don't want that, Okay, all right, next topic, backyard.

Speaker 6 (01:02:48):
Backyard.

Speaker 14 (01:02:48):
I resaw it a couple of years ago, and it's
all dead again because of drainage and the dogs. Of course,
so we build a fence to keep the dog problem off.
So now I'm I'm like trying to decide if I
can just supplement the soil to bring it up, or
if I'm gonna need to put in drains and and
how and that. So go ahead and answer that question first,

(01:03:10):
and then my next question. I'm gonna let you go.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
All right, we go. We gotta do these quick then.
Uh So, the bottom line is when it rains, you're
seeing standing water for a period of time, yes, and
like a few days or even longer.

Speaker 14 (01:03:30):
Uh No, just you know, you can see a line
of where the where it sits for a while, but
it does after a day, it goes away.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
Okay, probably, Okay, there, you could bring in a little
bit of soil and level it out a little bit.
Just remember when you bring in soil to deal with
a wet spot, you just move the water somewhere else.

Speaker 7 (01:03:51):
So, yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:03:52):
I mean, And so.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Sometimes fixing a problem creates a problem. Uh if the
internal drainage, if that's soil, is very tight, you know,
the dog traffic, human traffic, then maybe a good aeration
with some compost would be what you need. Yeah, the
creating some creating some internal drainage. I can't make that
call over the over the phone essentially with you, but

(01:04:17):
those are your options. If you go with a loamy
type of soil, not a heavy clay for to top
dress over there and then replant, you could certainly do that,
keep in the pity pattern of the four legged puppies
away until it gets rooted in really well, and then
trying to do what you can to keep them from
wearing the pathways in it. All of that is good,

(01:04:39):
so you don't have to do this a third.

Speaker 10 (01:04:40):
Time then later and just real quick.

Speaker 14 (01:04:43):
Anyway, I can tell if the front yard is lower
than the backyard, is there some kind of trick or
do I need a guy with a I forget the
name of like to shoot the level Yeah, I can
tell if I do.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
If you want, yeah, if you don't do it professionally,
you have somebody come do that.

Speaker 8 (01:05:03):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
And you know people like pierscapes they do drainage systems
and whatnot like that and they can off I don't
know if they for you. Okay, well, okay, here's here's
the here. Here, here's a cheaper way to do it.
You go to a place, you know, like a hardware
type store, big box hardware kind of place. They have

(01:05:23):
little levelers that you can attach to a tripod and
they hang so that if the if the tripods crooked,
the laser light hangs straight. You got to wait till
the end of the day because these lasers aren't strong
enough to see during the day when it's getting almost dark.
And you can literally spin it around and you see
a line on the wall. People use this to hang

(01:05:45):
pictures on the wall straight and you turn it around
the other way and wherever that line is will be
at the exact same height because it's hanging, it's hanging level.
So you just go, this is getting out of horticulture here.
But if you go do that, I've used that to
get a real rough check. But again you're going to
have to do it at the time of day where
you got a little bit of light but not too

(01:06:06):
much and so run. You bet I got to run.
You are are run? Take care all right, I'll take
that as a compliment. Wild Birds Unlimited has the blends
that you need for whatever birds you want to bring in,
whatever kind of a bird you want to bring in.

(01:06:28):
That would include things like, uh, the cardinals, that boy
I've got. I've got a blend that is for cardinals
that does so well. It's called Cardinal Confetti and it
comes just from Wallbirds Unlimited. Right now is nesting season.
We're talking about nesting super Blend all the time because
it's the perfect blend for when birds are raising they're young,

(01:06:48):
and again only available at wall Birds Unlimited. They sell
seeds that are called no Mess if you want to
go that route.

Speaker 6 (01:06:58):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
For example, I've got a blend in and it's a
quality blend. Birds you'd ever drop a seed, but it's
got some sunflower shells in it, and the birds peck
them open and then you got all these shells on
the underneath the feeder. A no Mess blend comes already
pre shelled. So if you want to go that route,
they've got that at wild Bird's unlimited six stores, Cypress

(01:07:18):
on Barker, Cypress, Houston on Memorial Drive, Houston in the
West on bel Air Pearland on East Broadway, clear Like
on El Dorado, and Kingwood on Kingwood Drive. The main
thing is just go to your local store and see
what they have. You can go to WBU dot com
forward slash Houston to learn more. Take our next little break.

(01:07:40):
Bill and Conrae, you are our first up. Thanks for
being patient. Welcome back to garden Line. All right, we're
first thing going to go out here and talk to
Bill and Conroe. Bill, thank you for your patients. Welcome
to garden Line. How can we help today?

Speaker 6 (01:07:57):
Good morning Skip.

Speaker 15 (01:07:58):
I have this say plants that I bought a few
months ago and it's doing well and it's about a
foot and a half fall now. And I noticed the
other day and it's not on the outside of it,
but inside with the branches are connected and all.

Speaker 6 (01:08:13):
What's there's this white stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:08:15):
It's kind of like I'm called sticky, but it's it's yeah,
it's just growing in various different places where the branches
are connected.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
So I once, okay, probably not go out and take
your thumb and forefinger and grab some off of there
and squeeze it and sort of slide I'm off to
the side, and then look and if you've got kind
of a pinkish goo on your fingers, that's media bugs.

(01:08:49):
And I think that's what you're dealing with on there,
probably now media bugs. Yes, Now, if you would like
to send me a picture of it up close, I'll
take a look at it, but you got to get
as close as you can, and you may even pick
a few off and put them on a dark piece
of paper and then take a picture of it as
close as you can, but very good sharp focus. I'll
take a look and assess that for you. But if

(01:09:12):
you just do that that squish test meat bugs will
leave a sticky pink goo all over your fingers. And
once you know it's that, then in this case, you
you could use a systemic insecticide to go in the
plant and kill them. It's drenched on the soil, it
gets in the plumbing of the plant and they're sucking

(01:09:33):
juices out of your plant. Or you can do some
sprays of little horticultural oil applied to them. But that's
pretty tedious because you're kind of trying to hit every angle.
Because you only kill what you coat in the oil.
It's a little more tedious to try to deal with
that that way. A systemic what product, Yeah, insecticide use

(01:10:04):
if it's systemic. Yeah, there's two or three different ingredients
that are common in systemics. Acefate is one, in mid
o cloakprid is another, probably a little more common. Dinotepheron
is another, just depends on There are some rose products
out there that contain several different things, and one of them,

(01:10:26):
for the bug part of the rose problems is a systemic.
But that's the root I would take on it. But again,
if you want to be one hundred percent sure, I
don't mind taking a look at a picture for you,
just to confirm.

Speaker 15 (01:10:38):
All right, well, thank you, all right, all right, you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
Bet I'm gonna put you on hold and if you
if we're done, you can hang up. Otherwise my producer
will pick up. Alrighty Warren Southern Gardens out there in
Kingwood and Kingwood Garden Center out there in Kingwood, by
the way, they the summer hours. They're open seven days
a week, summer hours Monday through Saturday nine and Sunday
ten to four. Monday through Saturday nine to four, Sunday

(01:11:03):
ten to four. Warrens is on North Park. Kingwogarten Center
is on Stone Hollow Drive. When you go to those places,
you're going to see some redicuol stuff. They've got a
new stock of plumerias. I was just looking at Warrens.
The new stock of plumerias. All the jungle jack premium
varieties are. They're ready to go for you. Plumeria, for

(01:11:24):
those of you who don't know, is the Hawaiian lay flower.
That's the flower that they make strings of flowers to
go around as a necklace. Okay, you can grow those yourself.
They're easy to grow, just follow some simple rules on it.
They don't take a whole lot of pamper to keep
them alive. Plumerius are available there. They are also having

(01:11:45):
a little contest there with war on Warrens, where if
you are interested, you can enter. What you do is
you send them a picture featuring plants that you bought
from Warrens. Whether it's a blooming flower and a flower bed,
or a thriving vegetable garden, or the prettiest potted plant
on your porch, and if they'll spotlight their favorites and

(01:12:06):
every entry gets a chance to win fifty percent off
any one item coupon. That kind of sounds fun, right,
It's taking care of their customers, but of course they
do that. That that's how Warren's and Kingwood Garden Center
are fun places to visit. Easy, easy to get to.
Warren Southern Gardens on North Park, Kingwood Garden Center on
Stone Hollow Drive. Go buy there and have some fun.

(01:12:27):
By the way, if you have Microlife, if you buy
Microlife or new some plant food fertilizers, you can take
those jugs back in if you buy them by the
jug and you can refill them there ed Warren Southern
Gardens and Kingwood Garden Center, and it's a more economical
way to buy fertilizer. Plus you're not creating more plastic
waste in the environment. I wish more things we bought

(01:12:49):
were just we go in and refill that just it
just makes sense. You're listening to garden Line phone number
seven one three two one two KTR eight seven one
three two one two k t r Hi's visiting with
the folks at BnB Turf Pros the other day. BnB
turf Pros is the place you hear me talk about

(01:13:09):
all the time. They will come in at the family
owned business of focusing on customer service. And you know
everybody says they focus on customer service. Well go look
at the ratings of places, do they really? BnB Pros
Pros does BNDB turf Pros And here's the website bb
no end in the website BB Turfpros dot com, Bbturfpros

(01:13:33):
dot com. They do aeration, they do fertilization, they do compost,
top dressing. They use quality stuff because they want to
have a good, successful, ongoing relationship with you their customers.
So that would mean things like using high quality materials
from cnmols like cenmulches, top quality leaf mo composts. That's

(01:13:55):
what they use. They only use products and companies I
trust here on Guardenline. They do high quality work. And
whether you live in sugar Land all the way across
to the to the west or to the east and
to the south down of Cross forty five, League City
and Dickinson and then all down Highway six and Proland
and friends would place, this is their region that they
service there, so just give them a call. Seven one

(01:14:18):
three two three four fifty five ninety eight. Seven one
three two three four fifty five ninety eight. Now for
your compost stop dressing and narration price to start around
five hundred dollars depending on the yard size and the
distance traveled. So it is a bulky process, a mess
for you to try to do it yourself. But they

(01:14:39):
come and they do a quality job on it. And
I can think of no single thing that you do
to your lawn that brings more response than cororation with
compost stop dressing. Just an example, by the way, the
other day, I have a little spot where I walk
through my gate and that one spot just gets trampled.
I tend to take different ads to that spot so

(01:15:01):
I don't just have a pathway worn in my grass,
but when I get to that spot, it always gets
stepped on. And the grass was just thinning out. I
mean I could see dirt all around through it because
it was getting pounded to death by my feet. I
had a little aerration plug thing that I just you know,
made a bunch of holes in the soil, oh about
you know, four inches apart or something like that. Did

(01:15:24):
that area fee a little compost on the top. It
is ninety five percent covered.

Speaker 6 (01:15:28):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
It went for like fifty percent cover to ninety five
percent covered in just two or three weeks. That is
how important it is to break up that compaction and
to do cororation and to do the compost stop dressing.
And I really didn't put that much compost on it.
It's primarily the aerration alone was doing that, but both
combined it works. Bbturfpros dot com. Okay, do you know

(01:15:54):
that they say the cobbler's kids go barefoot? Do you
know what that means? It means the guy who makes
shoes is making cheos for other people. He didn't end
up making cheos for his own kids. If you were
to see some of my garden areas, you might go,
And why would I call garden line Seriously? I mean,

(01:16:14):
if people talk about their gardens like you know, everything's
always perfect, and you may be thinking, wow, this is
a guy on the radio. I bet his place looks good. Well,
it does look good, But I'm telling you there are
times where I'm busy. I'm running around doing speaking engagements
or consultations and other things, and I'm just not home
taking care of my own lines. And I have to

(01:16:36):
catch up on it. So when you hear me say something,
just know that I'm saying it from experience, Okay, and
the do as I say, not as I always do,
is very applicable. But it also helps me. Like that
compost out dress and comment I just made, you know,
I should have taken care of that long ago. I

(01:16:57):
know what to do, but I got in there, did it,
learned a little bit about it as I do it.
So anyway, there you go. All right? Well, and plus
the fact that I said it's because I'm not there,
it's also because I have two Golden retrievers and they
retrieve plants. I wish they retrieved leads, but primarily my plants.

(01:17:23):
Back to garden line, folks, what are your gardening questions?
What do you want to talk about? What have you
struggled with to find success in your garden. I want
to make an important point. I've said this many times before,
but for those of you who are hearing me for

(01:17:44):
the first time, you don't have a brown thumb. No,
you don't. I don't care how many plants you've killed,
you don't have a brown thumb. A brown thumb is
an uninformed thumb. So if you want to say I
have an informed thumb, okay, I'll go with that. Maybe
you do, maybe you don't. But people that seem to
have a green thumb, they're just giving plants what they want.

(01:18:06):
It's as simple as that. They know what a plant wants,
they give it what it wants. And that's why it
looks like they have a green thumb, because everything comes
up roses. As they say, all you got to do
is teach your thumb. Bring your thumb with you, sit
down front the radio, let's talk, and as we get
your thumb a little education. I don't care what you
want to grow. You know, I tried to grow orchids,
but I killed every one. I got a brown thumb. Well,

(01:18:27):
let's bring your thumb. We're going to fix this. You
can grow orkids. They're easiest. Nothing is easier as a
plant probably, well, not many things to grow down am
ofth orchid. You know, they just are easy to grow.
Just give them what they want. That's as simple as
it is. All right, I think you get the idea. Hey,
if you're dealing with fire ants in your lawn, if

(01:18:50):
you know chinchbugs, maybe last year they hammered your lawn.
We're coming up on chinchbug season here for long well,
bug Out Max granules by Nitrofoss that will do it.
It will shut down the insect cretits crawling around in
the lawn. Bug Out Max is available in many different places.
You know night foss products are. For example, you go

(01:19:10):
to place like a chenet forest, you go to ace Hardware,
Sinkle ranch or auspose ace up. In the woodlands, you're
going to find night fresh products like the bug Out
Max Arbigate up and Tom will also carry some night
foss products there as well. The main thing is don't
be run out of your yard because fireans bite. There

(01:19:31):
are ways to deal with them and bug out Max
is a good way to do that. He's easy to do.

Speaker 8 (01:19:37):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):
Earlier on I was saying, hey, we need to talk
about the gardening implements, the gardening tools rather that are
at the end of our arms. And let's do that
just for a little bit. First of all, if you
look at your hand when you open it wide open,
from the tip of one finger to the tip of

(01:19:59):
your little finger to the tip of your tomb thum
good night thumb thumb to little fingertips. Okay, that is
a certain distance, and everybody's hands different. So I can't
say everybody's hand is this way, but a lot of
people's hands are going to come pretty close to six
inches for that distance right there. Okay, it just depends
on size your hand. If you look at the width

(01:20:20):
of your thumb. Now, guys tend to out a little
wider thumbs, but the width of a thumb is pretty
close to an inch. But check yours. Put it down
there with mine, af to mash it down just a
little bit, and it's exactly an end. And you can
measure with that. If you are going to plant, let's say, onions,
we do that in January, maybe February, but primary January

(01:20:42):
you put those in the ground. You want to plant
them as deep as the first joint on your index finger. Okay,
so you can't stick your thumb sideways down in the soil.
But if you put your index finger down and down
to the point where that first little joint, the first
crease in your index finger, that is about how deep
you plant onions sets when you're putting them out there

(01:21:03):
to grow. You know your ballb onions, red, white, and yellow,
different types of onions. That works really well for them.
Learn what the width of your hand is. It depends
on the size of your hand, but that is a
certain number of inches. And you can just learn to
measure everything that you're doing right there. Now, if you
take your thumb and your forefinger and put them together.

(01:21:26):
Whenever you have a bug that you want to get
rid of, you put them between your thumb and your
forefinger and you press really hard, and then you slide
your thumb about a half inch to one side and
the bug is gone. You got some cool goo on
your finger now, But that's how you kill bugs, the
thumb and forefinger slid to the side. Okay, y'all are

(01:21:46):
going okay, now, come on, guy, give me a break.
All right. No, but seriously, the tools of our hands,
the ways that we can learn to measure. I mean,
you can get pretty fast, you know, when something says,
you know, plant these a foot apart. Well, I just
put my two thumbs together and I stick out my
two little pinkies and that's a foot apart for me.
So learn how to measure those things. Those tools are

(01:22:08):
very handy and they work really well, and it kind
of makes it easy to know. I bet there's some
others on there. Some of you may know some other
ways that you use your hands for the measuring and whatnot.
Get us a call. We'll listen to that too. Seven
to one to three two one two ktr seven one
three two one two kt r H Plants for All Seasons.

(01:22:32):
Is the Garden Center. I'm sure you've been there before.
It's on Tomboal Parkway, which is Highway two forty nine
uh and just north of Luetta on Faces Tomboll Parkway. Okay,
been around. Said's nineteen seventy three. Family owned and operated.
These folks are true loan and garden experts. They know
what they're doing. They can point you in the right direction.

Speaker 12 (01:22:55):
Right now.

Speaker 1 (01:22:55):
They've got some great curcumas. Kakuma is a type of
ginger that the blooms are kind of set down in
the big canna like foliage leaves. The leaves look sort
of like cannas, and the blooms sit down in there.
You can use them as cut flowers too. They're good
for that, by the way, but it's just a nice way.
You've got a real shady spot and you want to
bring some cool color into it. There are so many

(01:23:18):
breeders have come up with so many kinds of hidden ginger.
Now you have colors from white and pink and even
a greenish color with burgundy, and it's just lots of
lots of good options there hidden gingers. Something that I
don't talk about with plant roll seasons that I do
want to mention is number one the pottery. Outstanding, gorgeous pottery.

(01:23:40):
I got a couple of pots from there that I
just love, and I usually tell gardeners, Hey, I know
that pottery can get expensive, you know when you're buying
a lot, but why not just invest in one pot
a year at least do that, just one pot. It
could be a big buck, be a small pot. By
the way, bigger pots are better for our summer because
they home more soil for a whole more water. Therefore

(01:24:01):
you don't water as much, or your plants don't go
and distress. They've got gorgeous pottery there. I love my
pots from there. Also, they are tools. They have an
excellent selection of all kinds of quality tools. Listen, don't
buy cheap tools. Don't buy something because it's the cheapest tool.
You can see, get a quality brand. Corona is an
example of that, and they carry Corona there Corona's a

(01:24:24):
quality brand, whether you're buying loppers or hand pruners. They
have so many different kinds of hand pruners there, and
Plants for all seasons, the little hand tools like a
trial and whatnot, and pruning tools, pole pruners and others.
Buy a quality tool and it'll be the last time
you have to buy that tool because it lasts and
lasts and lasts. And they got that at Plants for

(01:24:44):
All Seasons. Okay, well, let's see where are we here.
Once I start talking, I realize I'm probably running into
a break which I have. We'll be right back seven
to one three two one two KTRH. And when we
come back, Chris and Alvin, you'll be our first s up. Hey,
welcome back. Wellcome back, somebody left the gate open. We

(01:25:04):
got a bunch of calls. We need to get to here.
Nelson Plant Food has a product called Slow and Easy
for your lawn, and the name describes it all slow
and easy, simple, simple, You put it out, you do
it now, and you don't fertilize again until fall. It
lasts months, like four months or more. Now. The good

(01:25:25):
thing about it Slow and Easy is it's got a
great blend of nutrients, the blend that turf needs and
takes up. So you're not contributing to an imbalance by
using a fertilizer that's got a bad ratio of nutrients
in it, and it it takes the night. Let me
put this, It takes the nitrogen and it gives it

(01:25:45):
out a little doses to your lawn. So even though
you're putting it all now and I'm saying it's going
to fertilize all the way to fall, the only way
that can work without you having a mowmo mo because
you put too much nitrogen on it one time, is
for the fertilizer to be designed so it releases a
little bit now and then it releases some more later,
and some more later, and some more later, and that
makes it easy. You put it down, you're done. You'll

(01:26:08):
water it in. We get summer watering a lot in
the summer, trying to keep our lawns alive, and that
can leach out nutrients. But when you have a product
like Slow and Easy, you're going to get that nice
gradual release. You don't lose it all to the next
gully washer rain. It prevents burn, it feeds so microbes.
It enriches the soil, that's the bottom line. Also, it

(01:26:29):
ascidivizes a little bit. It's got an acidifying characteristic in
it that allows us to keep that pH from getting
too high and which ties up nutrients. So you know
your lawn has yellowing in it because the lack of
phosp or iron availability, maybe high pH, maybe too much phosphorus. Well,
with slow and easy, you hope work it in the

(01:26:51):
other direction for a much beautiful, greener lawn. We're going
to head out and out of Alvin and talk to
Chris this morning. Hello Chris, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (01:27:00):
Good morning.

Speaker 6 (01:27:01):
Skip.

Speaker 10 (01:27:02):
Have got a I think it is what's called a
Mexican avocado. I planted it I probably around five years ago,
i'd say. And when I first planted it, it didn't
really well and had a bunch of blooms on and
he tried to make fruit that first first time, and uh,
I was excited. And then the squirrels, the squirrels, I
think the squirrels got it all. My kids swore swore

(01:27:25):
on their you know, oh that they didn't touch them.
But after that the plant seemed to do good.

Speaker 13 (01:27:30):
We had a freeze.

Speaker 10 (01:27:31):
I protected it. Uh, and it did okay, but uh,
it has been it's been beat up by one of
my kids when they do the weed whacker. They he
got carried away and uh probably well. Prior to that,
one of the freeze freezes did get it. It died,
but it came back and and it was looking really healthy.

(01:27:51):
And then then we had another freeze and it it
died and came back and then my son hit it
with a whacker, a weed whacker, and like, okay, great,
you know this poor thing has gotten going to make
it well. It came back, it spreaday out new growth.
I checked it last or took early this week, and
the leaves are all brown and shriveled up. And I thought,
oh now, and I would I've been watering it.

Speaker 6 (01:28:13):
I don't.

Speaker 10 (01:28:14):
It's in a it's in my front yard, which gets
the house.

Speaker 13 (01:28:17):
Spaces of south.

Speaker 10 (01:28:17):
It gets full morning sun all the way to midday,
and in the afternoon after about one o'clock it's shaded
by trees from the west.

Speaker 1 (01:28:26):
So it's ok.

Speaker 8 (01:28:28):
It's not getting it.

Speaker 10 (01:28:29):
It's not getting hammered all day by the sun.

Speaker 6 (01:28:31):
But and I kept it water. We had some rain down.

Speaker 13 (01:28:33):
Here, which was good for it.

Speaker 10 (01:28:35):
And I kept looking at it, and it just like
it went from green. It looked really great. It's really bad,
just almost overnight. And I don't know if a bug
got it or.

Speaker 1 (01:28:45):
Well, if it did that overnight, is something in the soil, probably,
But okay, your plan has been through a lot. In fact,
if it had the society, the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Plants, it would be reporting you right now.
But seriously, it's been through all that. The weed whacker
cuts away the outer flow them tissues all the way down,

(01:29:07):
cuts away the cambium, and that alone can kill a plant,
but more slowly it dies by starvation, is what the
roots starve. But you know it's hard. I heard all
you said, and all I know is just wait, see
give it some more time. See if it sprouts. You
may be better off just getting you a nice new plant,

(01:29:27):
putting it in there, create a mulch bet around it,
two feet out from the tree in all directions to
keep the way both away. Yeah, that that is it's
good for the tree. Trees like to grow with their
roots in the forest floor, meaning rotting leaves and organic
matter and melt and stuff. So keep the keep the
grass away, keep the weeds away. You have much better

(01:29:48):
growth on it. Uh, And then you know, just be
ready when we have those real cold weathers, especially as
as it's it's a young it's going to be a
little more sensitive to cold than it gets a little
bit older. But that would be my recommendation if you
want to be patient and wait and see if it sprouts.
It just sounds to me like it's just not going
to be the if you want to eat avocados, I

(01:30:11):
think i'd pull it and get a new tree and
just get down with it. But if you want to
give it a little time to wait and see, that's
fine too. But just somehow stop the injury. Stop the injury.

Speaker 10 (01:30:22):
Yeah, that's well. My son felt really bad. I said, Hey,
I said, did you hit the tree with the wheat whacker?
And I said, and he said, well, he said, oh yeah,
I forgot to tell you there was some green lings.
He said, was that the avocado? I said, yeah, it
was it was the avocado.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
Well, you got a George Washington in the house, you know.
He chopped down the cherry tree and he said, I
cannot tell a lie. Hey, thanks thanks for the call, Chris.
Good luck with it. I hope you can get back
into the avocado business. You bet. I appreciate you call
very much. If you were dealing with treees, Affordable Tree
Service is the one I would tell you you got.

(01:31:03):
You gotta give them a call. Affordable Tree Service knows
how to take care of trees. This company has been
around for decades. Martin Spoon Moore's company, Affordable Tree Service
is a family business. You give them a call at
seven one three, six nine nine twenty six sixty three.
You're going to talk to Martin's mom. Tell her you
heard about it on guardline. Because guardline customers are their priorities,

(01:31:25):
so make sure and tell them that. But seven one
three six nine nine two six six three. If you
want to learn more about specific services they offer, you
can go to a f F Tree Service dot com
a f F Tree Service dot com. But you need
to give them a call seven one three, six nine
nine two six six three. If you need printing done,
if you need deep root feeding, if you need uh

(01:31:47):
maybe you're just consulting. You know, hey, we're going to
do some you know, trenching or putting some foundation or
maybe laying a driveway over part of this. Oh my gosh,
call them first so they can advise you before you
do serious damage to that tree. Pre construction care very
very very important. Pest and disease control also done by

(01:32:07):
Affordable Tree. They keep your trees healthy. And now's the
time to get them get on their calendar because summer
storm season is coming and you need trees that are
properly to have the best chance of making it through
the winds. That will be here. We're going to now
head out to Tomball and talk to Mel. Hello, Mel,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 13 (01:32:29):
Hey, good morning. I'm a little late this morning. I
got a question about I mean, he who is every year,
you know, you trial the boys and stuff you put
in there and try to chase them away. Yeah, they
come right, any suggestions.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
They they yeah, they do come back. The There is
a website, uh and it is see the name of it.
It is hang on one second on get you to
get you the right one here.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
I believe it's uh Agrolife Learn. Let me let me
check that and make sure Agrolife Learn dot com. Believe
that's try and we're gonna find No, it's not dot com.
It can't be dot com. It's University dot tam dot
e du Just one second right, Sorry the delayer, but

(01:33:20):
I want to get and other other people are gonna
have the same question. Yeah, agrolife learned dot tmu dot
e du. Go in there and type in the word
moles m O l e s. It's applications and some
for sale.

Speaker 13 (01:33:31):
But okay, I'm sorry, I didn't. I didn't catch life
learned at where did you say?

Speaker 1 (01:33:38):
Not at? Just dot t dot t A m U
dot e d u uh. There there is a there's
a publication on moles and in that in that area
you can also go there's a section. If you don't
go by category, there's a section on you know, like
wildlife resources. It's thirteen different different you say that, but anyway,

(01:34:02):
get more information on it. Here's the bottom line though,
the bottom line is you're gonna either trap them or
poison them. One of the two poisons don't work very
well on them. Traps do. There are traps to shoot
spikes down in the ground. Basically, you find the run
that they're doing. Find the run and if it's like okay,
I think, you step on it and just mash the

(01:34:24):
little rays soiled down and then come back the next
day and check it. If it's pushed back up, that
means that's an active run that the moles are going through.
And so then you you push it down and you
set that trap, and then when the mole comes back
through there, it gets them. It's kind of gruesome, but
that's the way you go about it, and you just

(01:34:46):
need to set it in an active run. Good hardware stores,
feed stores and places like that or are going to
have traps or be able to tell you how to
get one so that you can have success. I talk
to call them out at D and Defeat see if
they've got any mole traps out there. I bet they do.
All right, that's west.

Speaker 13 (01:35:05):
I can handle the groove.

Speaker 1 (01:35:07):
Okay, well, well talk talk to them out at D
and D feed twenty nine twenty is just three miles
west of two forty nine. You may have been by
there already.

Speaker 13 (01:35:16):
Oh yeah, yeah several times.

Speaker 1 (01:35:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:35:18):
Agre Life learn at tamu ed jucation at tam dot
e u.

Speaker 1 (01:35:26):
Yeah, but it's not at it's not an email address,
it's a website. So it's dot agrolife learned dot t
a m U dot e edu. I need to check
that again because I I haven't. I haven't looked at
it in a while. Hopefully, I hope they still have
that out there. If not, another Langrete university will. But uh, anyway,

(01:35:47):
let me let me do this. Hold on, I'm going
to hang up with you, but I'm put you on hold.
My producer is going to get get give you an email.
If you will email me, I will send you that
publication as an attachment.

Speaker 13 (01:36:00):
That no sounds like a win appreciate.

Speaker 1 (01:36:02):
So just hang on, mil you bet, hang on, We'll
be back.

Speaker 6 (01:36:07):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:36:07):
D and DE Feed and Supply isn't up there in Tambol,
and they've they've got everything you need. I mean, you
know you're looking for quality dog food and things, very
high end lines that they carry. But when it comes
to the garden products from nitrofoss and Microlife, Nelson turf
Star products from Medina, the jars of Nelson plant food,
the jars and microlife products from heirloom soils to have good,

(01:36:30):
good quality soils. They've got it all there at D
and D Feed and Tomball, three miles west of two
forty nine on twenty nine twenty. If you want to
get McCall two eight one three five one seventy one
forty four, two eight one three five one seventy one
forty four. Let's go now to Marie and Montgomery. Hey Marie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 13 (01:36:51):
Good morning, Skip, Skip.

Speaker 16 (01:36:53):
I'll be treating my lawn with the nitro falls dugout next,
which has the pip pantherm. So my question is this,
Can I treat my poor grubs in my flower beds
with it? Or should I use their grub out their
grub X rather, which has a different acted ingredient.

Speaker 1 (01:37:15):
That is a good question. I do not have a
bugout Max label in front of me, but it's going
to be up to what the label says. The label
tells you how much product do you use, when to
apply it, and where you can apply it. If you're
going to do that. It just s has lawn and garden.

(01:37:37):
So I'm going to assume you can use it in
flower beds, but would check the label to be sure.
I would say I'm seventy five percent sure you could
use it in the beds, but I'm not the law
that labels the law.

Speaker 16 (01:37:48):
Okay, I understand, Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
So the next time, yeah, you're out there, Montgomery, I
know Ana plants out there just outside Montgomery. They're going
to have it. There is a good hardware store out
there in the Montgomery area, Ace Hardware Store, h and
they're going to probably have it too. And you can
just go in, flip it over, read it for you,
buy it, and bring it home. Okay, thank you, all right,

(01:38:16):
thank you? Goodbye? Yeah it is it is uh bye bye.
It is true. The label is the law. And you know,
people I used to as an extension agent, I got
calls like, hey, I just sprayed ortheene on my tomatoes.
Can I eat them?

Speaker 8 (01:38:32):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:38:33):
I mean, can you eat them? Yes? Should you? I
don't know, Probably not, because it's not on the label
to do that. And I can't give you permission to
eat something that's been you know, had something sprayed on it.
Shouldn't be shouldn't be sprayed on labels a law. I
wish people would read the label. But you know how
we are, especially us guys, yep, I know I'm throwing

(01:38:53):
myself under the bus. We don't like to add, we
don't like to ask for directions or read directions. And
we are very very sure that if a teaspoon is good,
a tablespoon is better. And that is wrong, wrong, wrong.
A lot of kinds of products, including herbicides. You used
too much. You hurt your lawn or you hurt whatever

(01:39:15):
plants your spring. All right, folks, we'll be right back. Hey,
welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Ricker.
Good to have you with us today. We got all
kinds of good things to talk about. And I almost
start talking about speaking of good things in Chanty Gardens
down in Richmond, on the Katie Fullshire side of Richmond.
As a matter of fact, they're out there on FM
three fifty nine now the website. I want to write

(01:39:37):
this one down because it is very informative, very helpful,
lots of good information. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Enchanted
Gardens Richmond dot com. They've got all kinds. By the way,
today out in Chanted Gardens they have an event. Oh gosh,
what is the one. It's I just went blank. I

(01:39:58):
was just about to tell you, Oh, ferry gardening, fairy gardening.
What does that mean? Well, it means creating these little
miniature gardens as if it were a bunch of little
tiny fairies that created a garden. You can do them
around the base of your trees. That's a great place
to do them, but you can do them in a
container or anywhere you have little figurines you use. You
use little plants that are very small, like maybe a

(01:40:19):
moss to be the equivalent of a lawn. You get
the idea. Well, today, starting at ten pm the minute
I quit talking, they're going to kick off there at
Enchanted Gardens FM three point fifty nine richarmd n Rosenberg,
Katie Fullshire, side of Richmond. They're going to start that
program and they'll be rolling on it and then there's
another one coming up. I'm will tell you this ahead

(01:40:40):
of time so you can plan for it. Pots for
your patio or pool pots for your patio or a pool.
That is next Saturday, June fourteenth, from ten to two.
This is a significant program here. And let me tell
you something. If anybody knows how to create beautiful containers,
it's the folks at in chan Did Gardens. Maria does

(01:41:02):
excellent work for them there. You see her work all
the time if you follow them on social media. But
you want to create a hanging basket, you want to
create a container, you want to do one of these
metal It's not wire, it's thicker than wire, but metal
racks that then you line with a burlap or coconut
core liners or something, fill it with soil, and then

(01:41:22):
plant in it. They can tell you how to do
it and hands on. You get to do it yourself.
You get to choose your container and your plants and
then you can plant one of those containers and Maria
is going to be guiding you doing that. They'll help
you with the selection you like. Maybe you go, well,
this is for sun or maybe this is for shade,
or it works. Now the cost varies depending on what

(01:41:44):
you select. You know the size of the container and
the type of container. But just give them a call.
Two eight one three four one twelve oh six two
eight one three four one twelve oh six. Now while
you're out there, you hear me talk all the time
about every kind of plant that they have so many
cool plants at enchanted gardens, and so many cool products

(01:42:05):
to go with your plants, from fertilizers to containers to
landscape bling. We'll just call it landscape bling. This is
the place to go. You need to sign up for
that one next week. That's really really good. I love
going out there too. It's a fun place to visit.
Always find some good stuff at Chanted Gardens. Still someone

(01:42:26):
earlier they need to go to their local Ace Hardware
store and find stuff. Well, it is true. Ace Hardware
is the place to go for you name it.

Speaker 7 (01:42:35):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:42:35):
I know you probably grew up in the hardware stores
where you buy wire and plumbing stuff and lighting and
switches and paint and things like that. ACE has all
of that, but it's so much more than your father's
hardware store. This is a place where you're going to
find the best selection of quality brands of barbecue pits anywhere.

(01:42:56):
Brands like Big Green Egg and Trager and Rectech and
Weber and you fell in the blink. All the supplies
you need for them, they're there at Ace Hardware Stores.
That's just an example of what Ace Hardware stores can do.
Ace Hardware stores also is a place where you're going
to find everything you need to take care of your home.
You know, you got to change out your air filters.

(01:43:17):
You got to maybe get some propane tanks for your
for your cooking. If you have a gas grilled, you
need to preserve that deck and take care of the deck.
You need fertilizers for your lawn. You need pest and
weed and disease control. You need gardening tools, or maybe
you know you're a do it yourself and they have
quality hand tools to fit your budget. You know, we're

(01:43:38):
talking about the ACE brand themselves. Stuff from Milwaukee, Stanley, Craftsman,
de Walt. They've got it all there at ACE Hardware store.
When you're in there to ask them about joining the
ACE Rewards program. It's free and easy, or you can
go online and do it. ACE Hardware Rewards customers get

(01:43:59):
discounts and special offers. It's you got it. You just
need to sign up and then you're shopping Pace. It
pays to shop at ACE Hardware storre as a result,
Ace Hardware Texas dot com. Acehardware Texas dot Com. That's
what you need to know. Let's go out to Lake Jackson.
Now we're going to talk to Lonnie. Hello Lonnie, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:44:20):
Hi.

Speaker 6 (01:44:20):
How you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:44:22):
I'm good here? How can we help? Okay?

Speaker 17 (01:44:25):
Yes, sir, I'm bought a little blueberry bush and it's
completely taken over and by some type of whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:44:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 17 (01:44:35):
I sent you a picture of it and I wanted
you to look at it. And first of all, see
if it's something that I can put on it to
save it, and then should I move it away from
other plants afford spreads?

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
Oh my gosh. Okay, well, my best guess is those
were tiny caterpillars. So get in there. I don't know
you'll find it anyhow, because all the leaves are gone.
But get in there and open that up a little
bit and look for little tiny caterpillars. And if that
ever start, it should relief. It should have enough energy

(01:45:13):
to relief. But begin to spray it with either spin
no said s P I N O S A D
the word spin, the letter oh, the word sad, or
something containing B T B as in boy teas and tom.
But you don't at this point, there's no nothing to spray.

(01:45:35):
It's it's they're done. But next time you start to
see a little bit of this, hit it with that.
Those are both organic, They kill caterpillars. They work very well.
There are also products that contain well that those two
alone will be enough. You just have to do, especially
in the regular basis about every three days, as long
as it contains the BT. It's what I mean, yes BT,

(01:46:01):
or I want to spindocit either one of those. Okay,
one other question.

Speaker 17 (01:46:07):
We were putting in a pool, and when this is
all the destruction is all done, we want to replant
some trees and this and that in the yard.

Speaker 1 (01:46:16):
Uh it do you get questions answered?

Speaker 17 (01:46:18):
Do we just need to call in or do you
have a website you can send email a question about
I want to.

Speaker 1 (01:46:24):
Put in a lime train? I want to put it?
I don't have yeah, right, I can't do the I
can't do the email things. I just have too much
to cover on that to be able to go into
the time involved. But if you can email me pictures
and questions and then follow up with a phone call, uh,
and then then we would be ready to go, just

(01:46:44):
like you did on this one right here, that's probably
the best way to go about that. My website is
gardening with skip dot com Gardening with skip dot com,
and there are publications that answer questions on there. Okay, hey, Rick,
I got to run or Lani, excuse me?

Speaker 17 (01:47:02):
Do you know anybody like Jack I don't recommend okay,
uh for for what we're recommend for?

Speaker 1 (01:47:10):
What for these questions? Like an arborist, like these type
of questions, I would well you could yeah, you could
call your county agrolife Extension office down there. There's an agent.
Uh what county is Lake Jackson in Brazilia. Okay, Yeah,

(01:47:31):
you've got a horticulturist in your office right there in
Brazoria County, so you're lucky. Uh, not just agriculture, but
also a horticulture. Just give them a call, talk to
either her or the master gardeners and they can get
you fixed up. Okay, Well, thank you for your help.
All right, yes, sir, thanks a lot. Appreciate that.

Speaker 8 (01:47:52):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:47:52):
Moss Nursery Done in Seabrook, Texas is a place you
go for you fill in the blank. Eight acres cram
full of gargious plants, beautiful blooms everywhere. I don't care
if it's going to be one hundred degrees in a
month or so. They've got plants that can take it,
that thrive in that. They have people that work there
that are friendly, that are helpful, that can put you

(01:48:14):
and the right plant together so you can both be
happy when you get home. Moss Nursery isn't just another
garden center. It's a seventy year old family operated nursery.
That garden center that just is the source for everything
that you're looking for. That includes shrubs, that includes trees,
that includes some of the best selection of pottery you're

(01:48:34):
going to ever see anywhere. Mainly, it's people that can
help you have success. If you are looking for some
beautiful house plants, go check out that greenhouse. It is unbelievable.
Love going to Moss Nursery, Seabrook, Texas, Toddville Road by
the way two eight one four seven four twenty four
eighty eight. Two eight one four seven four twenty four

(01:48:56):
eighty eight. I'm going to take a break. We'll come
back and and Montgomery you'll be our first stop. Hey,
welcome back to garden Line. Good have you with us.
We're going to run right off the phones here and
talk to Rick in Montgomery. Hello, Rick, and welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 15 (01:49:12):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (01:49:14):
My wife and I body.

Speaker 17 (01:49:16):
We bought a Chicago hardy.

Speaker 18 (01:49:17):
Sting from a reputable place in time Ball and we
have not planted. We haven't transplanted it yet, but we
just recently discovered the leaves are starting. This is starting
from the ground up, so the bottom leaves first, they're
starting to yellow and they also have some like brown spots.

Speaker 1 (01:49:37):
All around them.

Speaker 6 (01:49:40):
It's starting to creep up up the tree. We've been
water it.

Speaker 1 (01:49:48):
Yeah, so it could have had a time where it
went without water for a little bit, even in the
process of you know, you getting home and whatnot, had
a little bit of a drought stress. It could also,
you know, figs, as new growth comes on, sometimes leaves
are cast off, especially in stresses. But they can be
cast off, and so as you're describing it, it may

(01:50:10):
not be a problem, but there is a disease called
fig rust and that is everywhere, and it's in the air,
and when we have wet conditions on the leaves, you
tend to get rust infestations that cause brown spots and
yellowing and defiliation of the spot of the leaves that
have that on them. There's not a great rust control

(01:50:31):
product for the home gardener. There just isn't, and that's
label for figs. Sulfur sprays can help suppress it a
little bit, but you have to be careful using sulfur
when it's really very hot. I would spray that sulfur
maybe very very early in the morning on the foliage.
If you do go that route. You can go online

(01:50:52):
and do a little web search for fig rust and
look at the images. Whenever you do that, a lot
of the images are something else. That's just how it
is out there that as you look at all of them,
you kind of go, Okay, this is pretty clearly what
they're talking about here, and see if that's what you see.
And if it is, then then again a wettable sulfur
or a liquid sulfur type spray, following the label, but

(01:51:14):
being very careful not to do it when the sun
is hot baking down on the foliage. Okay, it does
look like you may want to test it, Yeah, right, Well,
if it and if it's a rust, at some point
the spores get released. And if you take your thumb
and rub it off the bottom of the leaf, not
the top, but the bottom, you'll see a rusty little

(01:51:36):
dust on your thumb. Good, that's the spores coming off
of it.

Speaker 6 (01:51:40):
Okay, I'll do that.

Speaker 1 (01:51:43):
Okay, where should I?

Speaker 6 (01:51:45):
Well?

Speaker 1 (01:51:45):
Good luck and as much sun as you can give it,
decent drainage. You know, I wouldn't put it in a swamp,
but decent drainage. Figs are tolerant of clay soil. They're
tolerant of pretty wet soils. But if it just is
too heavy of a clay, and it stays too wet.
You're not going to get good rooting depth from your figs.

Speaker 11 (01:52:08):
That's pretty sandy up here in Montgomery.

Speaker 1 (01:52:12):
Oh you're good to go then. Yeah. Now, one other
thing is in sandy soils, figs can get nematodes. That's
just nothing you can do about that. It just is
what it is. So mix as much compost as you
can into the soil and continue to keep that thing
mulched in a big, wide area so that there's always
decomposing organic matter, a big thick layer of that on

(01:52:34):
top of the soil, and now will help your fig
to thrive. Also.

Speaker 7 (01:52:38):
Okay, well, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:52:39):
I appreciate it. Okay, sir, good luck with that. I
enjoy your figs now. I always say on guarden line,
I don't charge you for my advice, but I do
ask you to bring me half the figs. That's all.
That's all I'm asking. Sounds reasonable to me. Thanks a lot, man,
appreciate you. All right, there we go. Yeah. Microlife fertilizers

(01:53:01):
come in many forms. There's the granular forms of course.
You know about the green bag, that's the lawn fertilizer
sixty four, which by the way, is good for anything.
They have forms for acidic kind of a pinkish red
bag for acidic loving plants. They've got just a wide
variety of options out there. I want to talk to
about some of the liquids. Microlife Biomatrix is the orange

(01:53:24):
labeled liquid you can buy by the quirt, you can
buy by the gallon, and it is an extra boost
of nitrogen. So I use it a lot on houseplants
because it's got that extra nitrogen boost in it, but
it's also wonderful to use outdoors. And then there's a
Microlife Ocean Harvest, which is a blue label, okay blue label.
That's a four two three organic fish based fertilizer. Has

(01:53:47):
a little bit of fish odor, so use that one
outdoors rather than in the house. But it is an
organic product that works really well. Neither one of them
is going to burn. You use them properly and they
will give you good plant results. Okay. Microlife fertilizers, you
can go to microlifefertilizer dot com find out about all
the other fertilizers for microlife, and there are a number

(01:54:08):
of them, including things that are supplements of microbes, including
things that have other growth promoting factors in them, not
just packs of nutrients, but a lot of other good
things in them. That's what you find at microlifefertilizer dot com.
You're listening to Gardenline. We're coming close to the end here.

(01:54:30):
If you would like to be one of the first
calls when we come back from this break. By the way,
we're about to enter when we come back our last
hour of the show. So if you want to be
not have to wait in a long line, maybe called
before so that our producer can have you ready to
go when I do come back. By the way that
I said, you can get Microlife fertilizer a lot of places.

(01:54:51):
One place you can get it is Southwest Fertilizer. That's
no news because Southwest Fertilizer carries everything. They carry products
from Microlife and Nelson's and from Medina, from Nitrophoss. They
have their own brands of product fertilizers as well. They're
going to have any kind of tool you can imagine,

(01:55:12):
and it's going to be an equality brand, a quality
brand that's going to work. The tool wall is ninety
feet long. Okay, does that tell you something. Can you
imagine how many tools you can get in ninety foot
long wall of tools When you go in there, you
can bring them a sample, you can bring them a picture,
and you can say, hey, guys, take a look at this,
what is it? What do I do? And if it's
a problem, they'll tent'ify it. They'll tell you here's some options.

(01:55:35):
And there won't just be one, there'll be a number
of them there. I sent somebody to Southwest the other
day who had a problem with re sprouting. They had
dug up a crape myrtle and gotten rid of it,
and then the roots sprouted, and they wonder how to
get rid of that, And I said, well, goes out
of this fertilizer. Here's what you need. I have a
plant that is suckering a lot crape myrtles, see that too,

(01:55:59):
And there's a different product that you can put on
when you remove the sucker, the little shoot coming up
from the bottom you don't want. You just put that
on the spot and it stops the suckering, It shuts
it down, works really well. You're going to get it
where Southwest fertilizer. Do Do you need the name of it? No,
you don't because here's why. You go and you talk
to Bob or one of the staff and you say, hey,

(01:56:19):
Skip said, there's something that stops suckers from coming out
of the bottom. They'll walk your right to it. Skip said,
there's something that kills a plant, the tree sprouting that
you want to get rid of. They'll walk your right
to it. They know what they're talking about. Southwest Fertilizer
dot Com corner Busin and Renwick. Simple as that. All right,
time for a little break here. We will take the
news break right now, and when we come back, we

(01:56:42):
will be back for your questions again. If you want
to get a little head start and now it'd be
a good time. Just give a call, get on hold,
get your business done while you're waiting seven one three
two one two k t RH we'll be back with
your questions. Remember my website Gardening with Skip dot com.
If you go there, there's a thing called controlling woody
weeds in the landscape. What is a woody weed. It's

(01:57:05):
poison ivy, it's pepper vine. It's those hackberries coming up
along the fence line because the birds poop the seeds
out right there. It's that cramberle. You dug up and
now it's coming up again, but you don't want it there.
The roots are sprouting, controlling woody weeds in the landscape.
It's free. It tells you how to do it. It works,
it's easy to there's one on nutsedge. You ever had nutsedge?

(01:57:29):
People call it nut grass. I've got a publication called
nutsedge and end out the book. If you read it
and if you follow it, you can get rid of nutsedge, definitely.
I did it all last year and to a bed
full of nutsedge. And this year I had like three
nutsedge nuts. It popped up in spring. Everything else is gone.

(01:57:51):
And guess what I did. I jumped on them, as
they say, like a duck on a junebug. Because you
give nuts edge a few weeks to grow and set
nuts underground. And not only do you have a worst problem,
you have like an eight times worst problem, because that
is the nature of that evil beast. That's it. But

(01:58:12):
my publication tells you how to deal with it. Gardeningwidth
skip dot com. All right, we're back, sud Welcome to
garden Line. Good to have you with us today. Love
to visit with you about the things that are of

(01:58:34):
interest to you if you'd like to give me call
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(01:58:55):
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if you've got maybe where the registers are the low
events that come out of the ceiling for your ac

(01:59:17):
or maybe where a ceiling fan or a light fixture attaches,
there's a gap there and that hot air can get
down into your living space. And I mean it's like
leaving a window open.

Speaker 12 (01:59:27):
It really is.

Speaker 1 (01:59:28):
I mean, if you've got one hundred and sixty degree air,
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(01:59:52):
air conditioner ran all day and it never got down
to that. Well, that's costing you money and it's not
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shop for your customized insulation need. Do you need a
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(02:00:15):
insulation blown up? I like the kind that blows up.
They blow it out up in there. It's costs less
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(02:00:36):
you need a solar attic fan. What is that? Well,
it is a fan that blows air out of the attic,
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get above eighty five degrees or above seventy five percent humidity.
Because also you don't want it wet up there or
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(02:00:58):
and it keeps that attic belie ventilated. These are just
a few of the things they do. Then go ahead
and remove all the old insulation. They can spray to
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do that thing I was just talking about initially. That's
sealing all those holes, all those little gaps, low tiny gaps.

(02:01:19):
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(02:01:44):
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Give them a call and let them come out and

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give you an estimate on what you need. They cover
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if you all the way up to Willis and down
to Galveston. I'm in the whole area here, Arctic Insulation Solutions.
Let that out the league city. Now we're going to
visit with Glenn. Hello Glenn, and welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (02:02:22):
Hello.

Speaker 19 (02:02:23):
I need to take you off of speakerphones, so I
don't have the background. You can't hear any reverb, can you.

Speaker 8 (02:02:33):
Not?

Speaker 1 (02:02:33):
Currently? Okay?

Speaker 13 (02:02:35):
Great, thank you for taking my call.

Speaker 19 (02:02:38):
I currently use your schedule and I'm using the pre emergent.
I use that the number of times per year that
you recommend and I don't know if the weeds are
becoming tolerant to it, but it doesn't seem to be
working anymore.

Speaker 1 (02:02:58):
Okay, what kind of weeds you you seeing that escape
the last pre emergent you put down, do you know?

Speaker 19 (02:03:07):
Yeah, there's ones with and uncolored blandch so bear with
the area the purple or blue little flowers. And then
there's another one that if you touch it it curls up.
The leaves actually curl up. And then there's some broad
broad leaves as well.

Speaker 1 (02:03:25):
Okay, good, all right, so what's probably happening. Some of
those weeds are perennial weeds, and so pre emergents don't
stop the weed from coming up. It's already existing and
died back and now it's coming back again. They just
stopped the seeds from creating new weed plants. So that's
one thing. Pre emergence don't last. They don't last forever.

(02:03:48):
And so you know, if you do them in like
our first pre emergence in February, mid February in your
area for sure, maybe early February down in League City,
and by the time we get sixty days or more in,
they're breaking down and weeds can begin to germinate on that,
so that's another possibility. Yes, resistance is possible, but not

(02:04:12):
that common. There are a few weeds like annual bluegrass,
we do have some resistance issues with, but I think
primarily what we're looking at is perennials coming back through.
The one that you touch the leaves and they curl
up is almost a woody little weed. The vines are thin,
but they're very woody with little claws on them, And

(02:04:33):
that one you have to use a post emergent that's
pretty powerful on. Some of the products that will control
it will hurt your lawn. So I usually tell people
to pull that up. Just lift the runners up out
of the lawn, lay a piece of cardboard or something
under them, and just spray the runner with a certain
product containing triclope here. Just on that runner, let it dry,

(02:04:56):
and then you pull the cardboard out. But I'm just
saying that's the way to kill it without killing the grass.
Some of the others, the one with blue flowers, it
could be something called dove weed, bluish purple flowers. There's
one with blue flowers called dayflower that is also not
going to respond even to good broad leaf herbicides. So

(02:05:16):
maybe what you would do, Glenn is let me put
you on hold, and I'm gonna let my producer give
you the email, and if you would email photos maybe
some of this you're still having problems with something, send
me a picture because then I can tell you that
weed what you need to do, you know, right, I

(02:05:39):
appreciate that approach. There's not a shotgun. Not a shotgun
answered all these weeds, okay.

Speaker 19 (02:05:44):
Sure, And I didn't know that before, so I appreciate
the education with that. I'm also using your recommended pre
emerchant or post emergant to spray, and the spray works
really good.

Speaker 13 (02:05:55):
It kills a week.

Speaker 19 (02:05:57):
I could actually see some of the week starting to
die that same day.

Speaker 1 (02:06:02):
Yeah, well, good, well, and even with the sprice you
know there, Like I said about that sensitive brier, the
one that folds up when you touch it, the stuff
that works on all your other broad leaves may not
work on that because it's a little different kind of weeds.
So yeah, send me pictures. In that way I can
give you a better answer. But I do ask send
the pictures prior to making the phone call so we

(02:06:24):
can visit about our online because other people are gonna
have the same questions and I'm just not able to
type out answers to all the emails.

Speaker 19 (02:06:31):
Okay, I understand, so I'll stand by. I appreciate your help.
Have a nice weekend, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:06:37):
I'm putting you in hold on alle Hundro pickup right now,
RCW Garden Center, RCW Nurseres right there where Beltwegh eight
and tom Ball Parkway come together. That is the get it,
got it nursery. First of all, they probably have it
when you go by to get it. But if they
don't have something, they do their best job to find
it and bring it in. So that just kind of
makes it a nice full service deal. You can shrubs

(02:07:00):
and trees and woody vines and things from them, like
roses for example being another example. Uh, they'll come out
and they'll plant trees for you if they're you know,
those are big containers. You don't want to break your
back or put your chiropractice kids through college. Let RCW
come out and plant it the right way. They know
how to do it. They grow their own trees. What
they sell grows here. That's the bottom line. They're not

(02:07:21):
going to sell you a blue spruce tree to put
in Houston. They're going to sell you something that grows here.
While you're there, you're gonna find Nitrovoss fertilizer, Microlife fertilizer,
uh Nelson turf Star lines a fertilizer there at RCW.
And whether you're looking for beautiful bougainvillias, whether you're looking
for gorgeous cajun hibiscus tropical hibiscus, they've got it. RCW

(02:07:44):
Nurseries dot Com, corner of Tambaugh Parkway and Beltway eight. Okay,
I believe I'm way overdue here on going to a
break Carney. Well, let's just do that. All right, we're back.
Welcome back to garden Line. Good to have you with us. Hey,
here's a number you'll need this one. Got a gardening
question seven one three two one two K t R H.

(02:08:07):
And I can only do gardening questions. I had a
one time I got when I was a county extension agent.
I went to a yard and I there was a
lady and her husband. They're both there, husband and wife.
And when I got there, I was there. I thought
to assess a problem, and uh, one of them crossed

(02:08:30):
their arms and said to me, will you tell I'll
let you decide whether it was him or her that
this is such and such. And I realized I just
walked into a marital argument. I thought it was horticultural,
it was marital instead, And so I told him, I said,
my horticulture advice is free. Marriage's advice is three hundred

(02:08:52):
dollars an hour. So which which way do we want
to go here today? Anyway? They laughed thankfully. I'm so upset.
Same thing here on garden Line, we do give free
horticulture advice. Let's got to Lake City. We're going to
talk to John this morning. Hey John, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 20 (02:09:10):
Good morning, thanks for taking my call. Just a quick
question you best Saint Augustine lawn. My Saint Augustine is
looking really great. But I have not put on any
any fund to side this year. I missed it earlier
this year, and I have noticed just slightly a little

(02:09:30):
yellowing patches, and I'm wondering, is it too late to
put down the fund to side or could it be
something else?

Speaker 1 (02:09:35):
Possibly a good point, good question, John, So we're gonna
here's what I'd like you to do, because I don't
like to recommend pesticides of any type if they're not needed.
If you go out to your lawn, get on your
hands and knees and look real carefully where you see
the yellowing foliage. Notice if it's yellow in stripes, and

(02:09:57):
that may mean picking a grass blade and holding it
up the light and seeing the green and yellow vertical
parallel to the grass blade stripes, that's iron deficiency. If
it's just splotches of yellow, there may be something else
going on in that leaf. And gray leaf spot has
been a problem this late spring and early summer because

(02:10:19):
it likes warm temperatures and it likes lots of moisture.
But there you'll see spots on the leaves that are
grayish but they have a purple border around them. But
then when there's spots are there, the leaf starts to
die out and you get yellowing to go with those spots.
So if you see the gray leaf spot, yes, it
would be a good time to put out your eagle
turf fungicide from night Foss for that.

Speaker 6 (02:10:42):
But you need to.

Speaker 1 (02:10:45):
Remember that the more often you water, the worse fungal
diseases are going to be. So put this, you can
put the same amount of water on over a week,
but just try to get it on in a good
soaking rather than a bunch of squirts that keep the
grass sweat all the time. So that would be that
if you see the iron deficiency stripes, the yellow stripes,

(02:11:08):
then I would say probably either a supplemental keylated iron
and keylated as h E g. Related is like it
looks like how you would say it keylated, uh, and
you could apply that. Or it may be that your
pH is high and your phosphorus is high and only
a swew test could tell you that. Okay.

Speaker 20 (02:11:28):
Yeah, And the reason I'm suspicious I had a bad
problem last year with with brown patch and it's all
gone now, But just wondering if past performance is you know,
a sign of problems in the future. If that's an issue,
then I should worry.

Speaker 1 (02:11:48):
I'm sertain that I didn't catch that. Okay, yeah, So
if either one, it could be diseases. But with the
diseases at this time of the year, there's diseases that
you would have. One is take a root rot, which
just in large areas, the grass looks like it needs watering,
It shrivels and it dies very irregular. I said large.

(02:12:11):
I meant to say irregular it could be a small area,
but it grows and bigger and bigger in time. But
that's an underground problem or grating spot on top of
the ground. The dot, the spots on the grass plades.
Those are the only two fungus issues you're dealing with
right now. Okay, okay, and thank you very much, thank you,

(02:12:33):
you bet appreciate your call very much. You take care U.
League City Feed is down in guess where League City.
In fact, if you're down in that area, maybe you
live in Santa Fe or Dickinson or Elkamino, Reale, Clare,
Lake City, Webster Baycliffe, Lamark, San Leone, Dickinson, that whole
area through there that this is your hometown feed store.

(02:12:55):
And if you go over to Lake City on Highway three,
just a few blocks south of Highway Nay is League
City Feeds on the east sides on the Bay side
of the of the highway there. When you go in,
you're going to find a feed source. Been around for
for forty years now. The third generation of Thunderbergs are
running the store. League City Feed open Monday through Saturday,
nine to six, closed on Sunday. If you need fertilizers

(02:13:18):
that I talk about here on garden line, like Microlife
and nitrofoss for example, Nelson plant Foods. Products you know
from the Medina, the folks a MEDEENI you're going to
find them there. League City Feed. You're going to find
that old time service where they still carry the bags
out for you, and you're going to find anything you
need to control pest, swedes and diseases. They keep a

(02:13:40):
good supply on hand, so whatever you're going after to
make your lawn and garden more beautiful and more bountiful,
League City Feed's got you covered again. They're on Highway three,
a few blocks south of ninety six. Here's a number
two eight one three three to two sixteen twelve. We're
going to go to Pearland now and talk to Henry.

Speaker 6 (02:14:01):
Hello, Henry, Good morning, Skiff. I had a question for
you on some groundcover jasmine that I planted. I've got
basically three areas. They all receive the same water, same sun.
Two of those were successful in taking but one of them.
I fought the weeds for the longest time, and I

(02:14:23):
thought that the jasmine had kind of got to a
point where it was going to overtake the weeds. You
know how I will do that, but I just lost
control of the weeds. And you can still see the
jasmine down in the This may require a picture. If
it does, just let me know. You can still see
the jasmine. But the weeds are so plentiful that I'm

(02:14:45):
afraid to continue to pull out the weeds because now
I'm pulling out the jasmine? Is there anything that I
can put down?

Speaker 1 (02:14:52):
Yeah? So are the weeds grassy or are they broadly weeds?
They're grassy all the above? Oh, grassy? Okay, good, good, good?

Speaker 6 (02:15:03):
Primarily Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:15:08):
Okay, So you go to my website, which is gardening
with Skip dot com. I don't know if you've ever
been there, but if not, you need to go Gardening
of Skip dot com. And when you get there, there's
a publication under my publication list, and it's called Herbicides
to use with Skip's weed wiper. Okay. Now, when you're

(02:15:31):
going into something like jasmine, and maybe you're using something
that would hurt the jasmine, well, with the weed wiper,
you can wipe it right on. There's a there's another
publication telling you how to build one. In this case,
you don't need the weed wiper, but you still need
that publication.

Speaker 7 (02:15:47):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:15:48):
It goes down and divides the weeds into groups. The
woody weeds like BlackBerry and poison ivy and tree seedlings
and stuff, the grassyweeds, the broadleaf weed. It's something that
kills both grasses and broad leaves, wild onion, wild garlic,
and nuts. It each of those has its own herbicide
for grasses only. There's two products there. And I won't

(02:16:10):
say out the chemical name on the air. I mean,
I have to spell the whole thing. That gets kind
of boring on the air. But there's two products, different ingredients.
Both of them kill grasses but don't hurt broad leaves.
In fact, one of them is called over the top
grass killer. Just as an example, you just spray it
right over the top. Jasmine's fine kills the grass.

Speaker 6 (02:16:31):
Okay, great, and I think there's.

Speaker 1 (02:16:35):
Probably yeah, I think I have like six or seven
different products that have those two in them, or one
of them. You don't need both either one or the other.

Speaker 6 (02:16:46):
That's that's great. Out. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (02:16:48):
Have a good day, all right, sir, Thanks for the call,
you bet, you bet appreciate that very much. It's not
difficult if you just kind of know what you're going after.
And for those of you here are kind of wondering,
what do you mean broad leaf and grassy, Well, there's
for the most part, there's three types of weeds we

(02:17:08):
deal with. One is broad leaf, which means the leaves
are broader and the veins on the leaves go out
like the fingers on your hand or some form of that. Okay,
grass blade blades are long and skinny, and the veins
go up and down the grass blade like railroad tracks
going down the grass blade leaf. The third type is sedges,

(02:17:31):
and that would be nuts edge and kaialenga and some
others like that. Each of those three categories we deal
with in different ways, but knowing which category you're in
at least get you in the right ballpark for that.
Folks at airlom soils have more quality soil products than
you can imagine. I mean all kinds of things. Maybe
you are looking for just compost, or maybe you're looking

(02:17:53):
for compost with expanded shale for those heavy clay soils
to last longer. Maybe you're looking for gistics spanditshell. Maybe
you want veggie nerve mix or bloomers rosanother bloomers blend.
It's all there. Go to Heirloomsoils dot com find the
one near you, use the calculator to figure out how
much you need. Then go to your local garden center

(02:18:14):
and feed store nice hardware stores in places like that.
Find your airloom soil by the bag or call them
up and have them deliver, or go pick it up.
You can drive out there to porter get it yourself.
You got a truck or trailer. But the main thing
is go to Airloomsoils dot com. Find a quality product.
All right, welcome back, Thank you. Could you have it
with us here on Guardenline. We are in our last

(02:18:37):
half hour of the show today, so either give me
a call or keep your piece until tomorrow morning. Give
me either way. Seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four seven one three two one two KTRH
makes it easy easy, all right, NiTi Fas Superturf silver bag.
Now those are the things you need to know night

(02:18:59):
Fas Superturf sober Back. It is a slow release fertilizer
contains nineteen percent nitrogen, but don't worry about that. It's
not going to make your lawn just grow so fast.
You have the Momo mo mo mo to keep up
with it. And when that happens, by the way, you
also end up with less of a root system. Isn't
that weird that excessive nitrogen causes top growth at the
expense of root growth. And do we need less roots

(02:19:22):
in summer? Heavens, no, we need we need more roots,
you know, because you need a stronger, more robust plant.
And that is what night fis Superturf is about. Now,
You're going to find night Foss products like Superturf at
many different places. For example, you go to Fisher Hardware
down there on Alexander in Baytown, you're going to find it,
as well as the other Fisher Hardware is in Pasadena

(02:19:43):
and Laport in mont Bellvue. You're going to find it
at Hide and Feed on Stubner Airline. They carry night
Foss products, as does Enchanted Gardens out there on FM
three point fifty nine in the Richmond Rosenberg area. Nightrofis
super Turf will carry you all the way to your fall.
Fertiliz makes it easy, makes it fast and simple. Well,

(02:20:06):
I have covered a lot of different things today. I
told you how to look at the end of your
arm and find those little things called fingers on there
and use them in proper gardening things. I want to
talk a little bit about no fruit on fruit trees.
I mentioned I would do that earlier, and so let's
do it right now now fruit trees. There are a
lot of different kinds of fruit, and just because they're

(02:20:26):
all called fruit doesn't mean they're anything alike. I mean,
when you go from a fig to a satsuma, orange
to a peach to a pair, you are going into
a whole different categories of plants, and they behave differently
many types of fruit set fruit without pollination from a
second variety. So figs, the figs we grow here now

(02:20:47):
in California, they do grow figs that need pollinating here.
Our standard figs in Texas are not. You don't require pollination,
They just form fruit. Peaches are going to pollenate themselves
and be just fine. You don't have to worry about
a second variety. Plums, it's better to have a second variety,
although there are some varieties like methley that will pollinate themselves,

(02:21:10):
but in general it's better to have a second variety.
When it comes to pears, in general, it's better to
have a second variety to do well. When it comes
to blueberries, they will pollinate themselves some, but if you
want bigger berries, you need a second variety for cross
pollination for them to do their best. Apples need to
have two varieties in order to have success. Okay, so

(02:21:32):
those are just some examples of reasons you may not
have fruit on your fruit trees. We call it the
Lonely Hearts Club. That variety needs a partner that's a
different variety in order to pollinate it. That's one number two.
You don't have pollinator insects. If you kill all the bees, well,
the pollination's up to you. Go ahead and buy an
artist paintbrush and run around your tree pollinating every little

(02:21:55):
flower every day. Good luck with that, by the way, Oh,
a solution for the Lonely Horts club. The first reason
we don't get fruit is to find a friend who
has that kind of fruit in a different variety and
make an arrangement. See if they will let you trim
one little branch off, put it in I like to
use just like a soft drink can, a coke can

(02:22:17):
or something. You can just wire it into the branch there,
put some water in it and stick that branch in it,
and the bees all that day will go through and
they'll be getting pollen from those flowers and taking them
to your flowers. So you're gonna get a little pollination
there until you're able to get up tree planted and
growing and to a point where it can bloom itself,
so you can bring in some things that way. You

(02:22:37):
just have to have a cooperative friend to do it.
Maybe promise them half your peaches or something. I don't know,
but that's one, okay, So it's number two, no pollinators,
It's important. Number three not enough sunlight. It takes a
lot of carbohydrates to make bloom buds and to set
blooms and to make a good crop of fruit. And
so if you have a lack of blooming, if you

(02:22:59):
have a lack of fruit development and things, and maybe
that you're not getting the at least six hours of
sunlight almost all fruit is going to require to have success.
So those are three reasons. There are others we could
talk about, but those are three reasons why you have
a fruit tree that doesn't fruit. Maybe sometime we'll come
back to visit that and talk about a few others.
Let's head to Montgomery right now, and we're going to

(02:23:21):
head out there and talk to Brett. Well, hello, Brett,
welcome to gardenlin'em. Good to have you with us.

Speaker 12 (02:23:29):
Good morning. I was asking we put down the nitropause
silver bag late April, early May, and my question is
how long should I wait before I do it again?

Speaker 1 (02:23:45):
Tell me you did it, and you said toward the
end of May or early May. No, No, yeah, right
at the end of April early May.

Speaker 12 (02:23:52):
I don't have my calendar deal with me, so I'm
in the car.

Speaker 1 (02:23:55):
But yeah, right at the end of April.

Speaker 12 (02:23:57):
And I didn't know if we needed to wait many days,
you know, are how long between the.

Speaker 1 (02:24:03):
You know it's gonna last about four months or sixteen weeks.
So let's just say you did it in May. That
covers May, June, July, and August. I wouldn't do it
again then because by the time we get to October,
we're going to be doing a fall fertilization with a
different blend, and you don't want to have the silver

(02:24:25):
bags still going strong at the same time. Now you
add the other that that's not a good approach at
that season of the year. So you if I would
return my clippings, I think you're going to be okay
to carry you through. If you wanted to give a
little boost, then choose their their red bag, which is
the fifteen to five to ten. That's an immediate release. Okay,

(02:24:46):
you could you could do that if you felt like
it needed more. I think if you return clippings water adequately,
your LUN's going to look good anyway. But be ready
to consider the red bag by the time it about
maybe late July and early August.

Speaker 12 (02:25:04):
Okay, yeah, I and we have really hard you know
this clay soil up here. Do we need to do
We need to add the trace minerals in I've heard
you talk about that.

Speaker 1 (02:25:17):
Yeah, Well, the the real answer to your question depends
on what's already in the soil, okay, because you only
add what you need. That includes regular fertilizers, that includes
the trace minerals. But as a general guide, putting the
azmite down once or twice a year, depending on your
soil conditions is a good idea. It doesn't hurt to
add some more in there. You just don't want to

(02:25:38):
overdo it. Like any kind of fertilization, you don't want
to overdo it. But a soil test is our main
guide on all kinds of fertilization, but in general we
go with the rules of Thumb, which is my schedule
of when to fertilize and when to put down the azmite.

Speaker 12 (02:25:54):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna do a soil sample. I
think it's a good idea. I've had this place for
three years now. We get good grass growth. It's been
growing so fast. I'm a little bit worried I'm not
getting the root growth I want.

Speaker 1 (02:26:06):
But the lawn is thickened up a lot, and uh
it lied good. You know, it's a good heavy base.

Speaker 3 (02:26:13):
But okay, that's all right with it.

Speaker 1 (02:26:14):
I just was wondering, go to do it right? Yeah,
well I would expect that from night Fross super terf
to give you that. But let me just tell you this.
If you go online to my publications, there's a publication
on SWIW testing made Simple and when you look at it,
go see the deal. You know what you need to
do on it. But it also uh if you if

(02:26:37):
you click on it and look at it as a
PDF file, uh, you have a direct link to the
right form on the sal Testing website. Okay, and tells
you how to fill out but you you'll go past,
ye yeah, past the web page, click on the PDF
download of it. All right, thanks a lot, many appreciate that,

(02:26:57):
Thank you, Yes, sir, take a little break here. Listen.
When we have clay soil, that means when it gets wet,
it swells, when it gets dry it shrinks. Most clay
soils will do that. There's different types of clays. But
what happens when that happens, Well, your sidewalk cracks, your
driveway cracks, your foundation can crack. And fix myslab dot

(02:27:21):
com is the website for fix my slab foundation repair
ty Stretchlan's been doing this for twenty three years. He's
a native Estonian, fifth generation Texan, and he takes care
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(02:27:45):
two five five forty nine forty nine. Give him a call,
tell him you're a guardline listener. Free estimates for gardenline
listeners two eight one two fy five forty nine forty
nine or fix myslab dot com. I'm gonna take a
break and Mary in West Houston. You'll be first when
I come back. Welcome back to garden Line. All right,
let's go to let's go to West Houston and we're

(02:28:08):
going to talk to Mary. Hello, Mary, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 21 (02:28:12):
Hi, thank you for taking my call. I have a
raised bed in front of my townhouse. And I say
it's the raised bed. It's actually like a big planter box.
I sent you a photo of one of six as
alias that I have in there.

Speaker 3 (02:28:31):
They're brand new.

Speaker 21 (02:28:32):
We put in good soil, and now I'm starting to
lose them one by one. I had one guy tell me, oh,
you've got a fungus. I took a sample to Cornelius.
She said, no, it's an irrigation problem. You're watering too

(02:28:53):
much or you're watering too little. Then I took a
sample to Southwest and he said, it's a problem.

Speaker 10 (02:29:00):
It doesn't seem like you're.

Speaker 21 (02:29:03):
That is draining well or that you know, so it's
not draining well. Okay, I don't know what, so you
can look at it.

Speaker 1 (02:29:10):
I can help you with that. I have I already have.
So here here's here's the thing. The plant, the whole
plant is declining and wilting. Rapidly, and that means there's
a plumbing problem. The flow of water from the bottom
to the top is not happening. So if you have
poor drainage and or over water so that the roots

(02:29:31):
cannot get oxygen, a plant will wilt in standing water.
And azaleas need good drainage. They want moisture consistently. They're
not drought tolerant that much, but they they need good drainage.
So if that happens, that alone can take a plan out.
Usually when a plant is stressed like that, root rots

(02:29:53):
will enter the roots, and now you have a disease
inside the roots, killing the root system, which again is
just it's the same result. That's why I say it's
a plumbing problem. If you don't have roots, you can't
get water up to the top. That's a plumbing problem.
And so whether it's physical due to lack of oxygen drowning,
or whether it's root rot, it causes a similar symptom above.

(02:30:15):
So the question is which is it. If you dig
down in the soil with a hand trowl about four
inches deep or six inches and feel the soil, you
can tell if it's too soggy, wet, and so that
tells you right there what you men need to do.
It could be that just drying out, it'll perk back
and be okay, but if not, then you would need

(02:30:35):
to do a systemic fungicide treatment around that plant, and
that would be buying certain kinds of fungicides, not just anyone,
but buying a fungicide that you would drench on the
soil and it would be taken up into the root
system to protect the plant. If you wait until too long,
that's not going to work because there's no root system

(02:30:56):
left to protect. So it's going to be one of
those two. I can't tell you, nor can any of
the people you've talked to tell you just by looking
at the at the picture you know, or the planet itself.
But it's going to be one of those things. So
you think about, think about how wet you've kept it,
think about how well it drains. Is it a raised
bed like we recommend for azelias to be planted in,

(02:31:19):
or is it down ground level in a clay where
it's easy to stay soggy.

Speaker 7 (02:31:24):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:31:24):
Then some people will pull plants out, build up the bed,
set the plants back in in order to try to
fix that problem. That way. But if it's a disease,
you've got to get a systemic fungicide that fights root rot,
and you need to go to a place like Southwest
Fertilizer Bob has telling him, I've got I need a

(02:31:45):
root rot fungicide. And he may have something called ban
rot b A n R O T, or he may
have another one to help you with that. But if
he looked at it and told you, I think it's
just too wet, then it's probably not a root rot,
because he knows what he's talking about.

Speaker 21 (02:32:00):
Okay, okay, okay, good to know I'm dedicated to making
this work. I think I'm crazy, all right, Okay, I
appreciate it very much.

Speaker 8 (02:32:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:32:14):
Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate it's your call. Yeah,
that's kind of how it works. That's how it works
with the root rots and things. You know, in a
lot of ways. Uh you if you see a plant
and the leaves are all turning crispy and dying, uh,
you know, it could be drought. It could be that
a borer is chewed through the trunk and has cut

(02:32:36):
off all the plumbing pipes. Right, can't get water. If
you got if the plumbing is broken in the middle. Uh,
And that's what happens when a borer choose through the tissues.
It could be that you put so much fertilizer on
you burn the root system. Salt based fertilizer, not organic,
but salt based. You apply too much to a limited,
confined root system like a new plant, and you can

(02:32:58):
fry the roots because salt plant skin. You can't put
salt on plants like that. When you overdo it. Put
the right amount, it's good for the plant. Put the
wrong amount, you kill things. And all of those create
similar symptoms. Tip and margin burn on the roots from
fertilizer for other things. But when it comes to just
a wilting well, water's not getting to those leaves. But

(02:33:22):
the question is why is it Because there's no root system.
Maybe it's a root rot. Maybe it's something underground chewing
up the roots. Maybe when you planted it, you let
it sit out and the roots outside dried out, and
then you put it in the ground and now that
plant that had a good root system getting watered every
day in the pot suddenly is in big trouble. It

(02:33:43):
could be a lot of things, but the bottom line
is it's a plumbing problem, and you've got to figure
out why. And sometimes that requires just thinking back to
how you've cared about it, considering whether it's planted in
the ground, or do you need to loosen things up
a little bit and get it above ground. I tell
people when you plant in azalia or blueberry especially, but

(02:34:04):
other plants, this can be true as well in poorly
drained areas. Imagine that you set the plant on top
of the ground, and then you bring in a bed
mix and fill in around it. Now that's not the
order that you go in, but it creates the mental
picture of my root system is in the bed, not
sunken down into poorly drained soil. It's in a raised

(02:34:25):
bit soill. You build a bed and then you dig
the hole. But the equivalent of it is you just
set the plant on the ground. That helps people understand.
Don't in a clay soil that doesn't drain well it's
a low area or whatever. Don't just dig a hole
in the ground. That's it's called an underground bathtub. And
a clay soil it holds water. Farm ponds they line
them with clay so they hold water that they put

(02:34:48):
vent night clay in a farm pond to make it
whole water better, and so you don't want that when
you're sticking a plant in the ground. All right, Hey,
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(02:35:10):
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(02:35:30):
eight eighty eight. You will not believe how beautiful they
can make your furniture. Let's go now and talk to
Tim in Massachusetts. All right, Tim, how can we help
the day?

Speaker 8 (02:35:42):
Yeah, good morning, SKIPT. I have Queen Anne's lace and
it's it's in dating our flower garden. Of your of
your herbicides that you use with the wiper, what one
is going to be the best? Because I can see
any mentioned the Queen Anne's lace if you.

Speaker 1 (02:36:01):
Go under the broad leave it. I know the leaves
of Queen Ann's lace are not broad but it's a
broad leaf plant. It's not a grassy plant or a
sedg and so go with the what it says broad
leaf on there. And so you can use a number
of different products. Is this growing among desirable plants?

Speaker 8 (02:36:19):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (02:36:21):
Okay. So also on my website you'll see something about
skips homemade weed wiper and it's a little gadget Bill's
real easy to build one. Yeah, And so you can
wipe it on the Queen Ann's lace leaves and it'll
translocate down and kill it and you get none on
your desirable plants. That's why I created that weed wiper,
homemade weed wiper. And then go down the list to

(02:36:45):
broad leaf weeds. Yeah. And so basically you're looking at
things like trimac or other broad leaf controls that have
multi ingredients. Typically they'll have about three different ingredients in
them to make sure they cover all the spectrum.

Speaker 13 (02:37:02):
Okay, very good, And there.

Speaker 8 (02:37:04):
Isn't too much you can do about Japanese na napweed.

Speaker 13 (02:37:08):
Is that correct?

Speaker 1 (02:37:10):
I'm gonna have to look on that one. We don't
deal with it as much down here, but I would
use a broad leaf as my first shot on it.
It may be that we have to shift to something else.
If you like to hold on, my producer will give
you an email. We send me a picture of it
and an email, and then maybe call back next tomorrow
or next weekend and let me look into that one.

(02:37:31):
And I may need to go a little more specific
than just what's on my sheet right there.

Speaker 13 (02:37:35):
Okay, okay, great, thank you very much for your hope.

Speaker 1 (02:37:39):
All right, give itt I'm putting you on hold if
you want to stick around and get that email. All right, folks,
there we are. This one's in the books. Hopefully you
had fun today. I sure did. We'll be back tomorrow morning,
six am, bright and early. Hey, if I'm willing to
get up and be here, grab you a cup of
coffee and join me.