July 11, 2026 • 39 mins
Landscape designer, garden expert, and host Teresa Watkins explains the benefits of Saharan Desert dust and features “oligotrophic” as the Dirty Word of the Day. She also discusses winter-damaged Royal Poinciana trees, bottlebrushes with root problems, and what to do in your landscape this July, and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
And welcome back to the second hour of Better Lawns
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, the landscape designer, garden author.
We have a wonderful tour company called Art and Bloomgarden
Tours that you're welcome to travel with us and we
go visit beautiful, sublime gardens all over the United States
(00:29):
and across the Pond. And we have a lot of
our twenty twenty seven tours up right now and you
can go check it out at Art and bloomgardentours dot com.
We have the French tour up and we are going
to be visiting listenee, some wonderful chateaus and castles and
all of the iconic Parisian landmarks, the Louver and the
(00:56):
Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. We get to see the
the new Notre Dame Cathedral.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And the best part about this is you get to
hang out with Teresa Antony.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So then you get you basically get a.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
One on one because you do keep y'all's tours smaller.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
We do.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We do so if anybody wants to know the costs
and how they can sign up or even be put
on a waiting list, where did they find that out.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
They go to Art and Bloomgarden Tours all one word
Art and Bloomgardentours dot com and they will fill it
up fast. And we do keep small groups, so we
are looking forward to doing that. I have a wonderful
trip next week. Tom mccomban will be here next week
and he will be hosting for me while I'm gone,
(01:40):
and I know you will enjoy that. And Tom is
always great to have. Do appreciate it. And so let's
now go to the dirty word of the day. And
now it's time for the dirty Word of the Day
on Better Lawns and Gardens with Teresa Watkins. And the
dirty word of the day is only a go trophic
(02:01):
oly go trophic, and the word oligotroph is a combination
of the Greek adjective only ghost meaning few, and the
adjective tropicose meaning feeding. It's an important word for understanding
ecosystem dynamics, soil fertility, and sustainable land management in nutrient
(02:23):
poor regions of the world. Olygotrophics environments where the available
nutrients offer little to sustained life with very low concentrations
of nitrates, iron, phosphates, and carbon sources. These environments include
deep oceanic sediments, caves, glacier and polarized deep subsurface soils, aquifers,
(02:48):
ocean waters, and leech soils. These areas exhibit low surface chlorophyll.
They're occasionally described as ocean deserts. Examples of olygota trophic
creatures are the cave dwelling salamander called an omlm and
organisms like lichens with their extremely low metabolic rate. The
(03:11):
oligotrophic soil environments include agricultural soil, frozen soil, and white
sand soils in the Amazon Basin. Various factors such as decomposition,
soil structure, fertilization, and temperature can affect the nutrient availability
in the soil environments. I chose today's dirty word because
(03:33):
Florida is experiencing Saharan desert dust this weekend. Although the
dust can be difficult for people with allergies, it benefits
oligotrophic coral beds. Lizzie, you asked me, how does it
affect coral beds?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
How does it effect or how does it?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I mess it up?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
How does it affect coral beds?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
There? Go, Well, we're going to explain right now, and
we're also taking your guard and then questions this hour
one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
and you can text two three six eight zero. So
the Saharan desert dust and its roll in fertilizing iron
coral reefs. Recent research suggests that the Saharan desert dust
(04:16):
can naturally fertilize coral reefs by supplying the central micronutrients,
especially iron, that is often scarce in nutrient poor reef waters.
The only gootrophic waters trade winds across the Saharan desert regions,
such as the Chads Depression westward across the Atlantic. The
(04:38):
particles can travel more than six thousand miles before settling
over the ocean and reaching the Caribbean and southeastern US coast.
As the dust moves through humid air and seawater, temperatures
changes and atmospheric acids alter its iron minerals, making them
more soluble and easier for marine oranisms to use. Iron
(05:02):
is important for photosynthesis and respiration. Coral reef Studies show
that exposure to dust can raise levels of iron, manganese, magnesium,
and other metals in coral tissues, boosting photo synthetic performance,
especially during heat stress. This metal cocktail effect suggests that
(05:25):
several dust carrion nutrients, rather than the iron alone, may
help coral reefs become more resilient. Saharan dust also fertilizes
atlantic phytoplank and blooms, which form the base of the
marine food web. These blooms may indirectly benefit reef ecosystems
by increasing food for reef fish and other organisms. Overall,
(05:49):
Saharan dust can help fertilize coral reef ecosystems by delivering
bioavailable iron and key metals that support coral photosynthesis, health,
and resistance to bleaching. This processor reflects the broader roll
of Sirharan desert is sustaining marine productivity. How wonderful is
(06:11):
mother nature and set you know, I know, you know
the dust it affects me. I don't like the dust.
I can tend to get asthma when when it's really dusty,
But that it really helps our coral reefs is wonderful,
you know. So one triple eight four five, five, two
nine sixty seven, or you can text two three six
(06:33):
eight zero like William from Melbourne just did. We're going
to be back with more of better Lawns and Gardens
from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios. I'm Teresa Watkins and
this is Florida's talk and entertainment network, So welcome back
(07:08):
to Better Lawns and Gardens. If you have a gardening question,
you can call one triple eight four or five five
two nine six seven. That's one triple eight four five
five two nine sixty seven. Or you can text me
two three six eight zero. Let's go to William and Melbourne.
Good morning, William, how can I help you?
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Good morning? Yes, I would like to know. I would
like to see it. What type of gourd or something
I could grow for birdhouses?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
M okay, so any other variety of gourds, depending on
what size of house you want to create, will grow
here in Florida. You just need to have some full sun.
You need to keep the ground you know, you need
to keep it consistently moist. They don't like, you know,
going weeks without water or watering too much. Just needs
(07:58):
to be consistent. And then you need to have good
air circulation. So you need to have it either growing
on a trellis, a wall and a spalier obelisk. You
need to have it growing vertically up, so you need
good airflow.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
How about it in a container, in five gallon container.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Sure you could do that, but again you need to
you want them to grow up. So you're going to
need to put something that will allow the vind the gourds,
vines to grow up.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Okay, I thank you, Dan.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You're welcome. You're welcome. It's the gorge for birdhouses are wonderful.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Now now, okay, so you get it grown. But then
with the humidity in Florida, my thought process is like,
it's going to turn into mush.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Right, and so you need to keep it in a cool,
dry place, okay, which is in Florida kind of hard
to find, but we do have them areas where you know,
like in the corner of your garage which is nice
and cool, or you know, you don't want it near
your dryers or wash machines and that kind of stuff,
but a cool, dry, little closet. They are going to
start to decline, and Lizzie, they will get mold, but
(09:05):
you want to get them through. That process takes about it,
you know, one month depending on the side of the gourd,
to a year for them to dry out. And then
that's when you know, as as soon as it gets
light weight, the lighter it gets that it's all decomposing
on the inside.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Okay, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, let's go to Tom and Merritt Island. Good morning, Tom.
How can I help you?
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Okay? So, first question on the seminole pumpkin. I'm harvesting
them now, and about how long should they cure before
I can eat them?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I would, you know, I would keep thumping it. It
just depends again on the size and the weight of it.
Uh So, I would just wait until it's you know,
about two to three weeks. You can you can go
ahead and see what it weighs and thump it and
what it sounds like. It's you know, kind of uh
you know, how can I describe the thump? It's just
(09:58):
a thump. That's what I'm going to ask say the
next time. How does he describe the thunk that you hear?
I would How many do you have?
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Oh? I have over twenty? Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
There you go. Well, here's what I would do. I'd
wait three weeks, let it dry and kind of sit
on your counter kind of age, and then in three
weeks then I would cut it open and see where
it is in the process and then you can either
go for it and you can eat the others, or
wait a little bit longer.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Okay, Now question a watermelon. I've grown watermelon before, and
I've got some watermelon out there. Excellent, and typically a watermelon,
you know, you get there's that yellow spot on the bottom. Yes,
But on some of the watermelons, at least the ones
that don't have a full leaf cover, I'm getting some
yellow on top. Is that a concern or is that
just normal?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I would say that it's it's not necessarily a concern.
It just again one depending on how long it's been growing.
How long have you been growing them.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
I've already getting I'm picking. I'm picking some and eating
them already.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah. I would say then you want to go to
those and eat them as soon as possible. I would
not let them stay too much longer. Yeah, the yellowing
on top is an issue.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Okay, Okay, Just a quick comment on gorge. I've been
growing Qq's a squash, which is the edible gorge. Yes,
and it just takes over your garden. It's very aggressive
and I've got so much. I got more squash than
I could give away, and I'm actually picking some gorge,
and I'll put putting you know, clean them and put
(11:27):
them in my back bedroom for them for them to
start curing there.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You go, okay, so you put them in even inside
your bedroom? And what do you set them on?
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Do I watch them on?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
What do you set your your guards on? Do you
have them in a box? Do you have them on
a tray?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
They're they're sitting on carpet.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
They're sitting on carpet. And how long does it take
when they when they when you have them in your bedroom?
How long does it take for them to dry out?
Speaker 5 (11:53):
That? I don't know. This is the first time I've grown.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Oh okay, well super well, so Tom, when you find out,
give us a call back.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Yeah. Well, I'm not going to grow them again. They
just they're too aggressive, take up too much space.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
What size garden do you have, Well, it's at.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
The side of the house and it has grown about
forty feet on the hurricane fence at that side of
the house.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Wow. Wow, Jack and the gourd vines. Yea, Jack and
I grew.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Up into my Karen bouletree and I have large gorge
hanging from the Karen bouletree.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh that is so cool. Well that is really great. Tom,
You've got a green thumb. Definitely there. Thank you so
much for calling in. All right, thank you, You're welcome.
We have great listeners. I mean all these gardeners. I
love hearing them and calling in. If you have a
gardening question or just want to brag about your garden,
I would love to hear it. One triple eight four
(12:46):
five five two nine sixty seven, or you can text
two three six eight zero. So we have Brad and
Gainesville and he said, what are your thoughts on lawn sweepers?
Am I damaging the grass blades? And I would say, no,
you're not damaging it. My thoughts on lawn sweepers are
there an alternative to you know, bagging your clippings from
(13:09):
the lawnmower, leaving it on the ground and then you're
collecting the blades, the spent blades already into the piles.
It's a much easier way to do it. It's not
as as damaging as a lawnmower to it. But also too,
it depends on if you have a flat surface. So
lawnmowers can you know, go over mounds and go over
(13:32):
holes and and and can go in and out a
little bit easier. But when you're using a lawn sweeper,
you have to have a very flat, even surface, So
it depends on your property. And there's you know, uh,
I think they're fine. It just depends on what you're collecting,
whether it's the dried leaves in the fall or your
(13:53):
grass clippings, and it's you can do it when it
is dry and put them in your compost spin and
it's already going to be starting to decompose. So lawn
sweepers are are pretty cool, just if you have enough
room in your garage for them. You know, it's all
those questions.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Okay, what what here's my question. See now, listeners, please
pay attention to this. Do not everythink you got a
numb question. Okay, what's a lawn sweeper.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
A lawn sweeper is it's smaller than a writing lawn mower, okay,
And it goes through and it just picks up everything
that's cut. It just sweeps the lawn. It picks it
up to where you can take it and dump it
somewhere else. You can dump it into your compost pile,
and uh, it's it's really it's cool. Okay, Okay, but
(14:41):
but again you have you have to have and it's easier.
It's kind of like a push mower. You can also
drag it to as well. They're not automated and you
don't write it. Okay, it's it is a something you
have to push by hand or drag it.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
We when we had a lawn business, we had one
of those for the leaves and stuff, and we call
it was called goat.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, so it was like a big it was like
a big blower, so like it sucked. I mean it
was it looked like a blower, but it's like the
push blowers, right, but it wasn't. It actually sucked everything
into a huge bag and pulled everything.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Out of the yard. So okay, I never heard it
called that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
It called along sweepers. Yeah, look at them up. They're
pretty cool, you know for the guy who has everything
for his lawn you know, technical uh and equipment. You know,
it's just something extra to to to play with one
of those.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
They're very interesting because when I try to explain to
people we had a goat, they're like, oh, you gotta
you gotta go goat like a really like an animal,
and I'm like, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
The name of it is a goat.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
One triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text me two three six eight zero.
If you'd like to go to my website, you can
go to she s h E Dash Consulting dot com.
And you can also too, Lizzie, where can they go
for listening at the podcast for UH if they missed
(15:59):
any parts of the show so or even shows in
the past we have over there's something like six hundred
shows that they can you know, see and here again.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, just go to better Lawns dot com. That's Better
Lawns dot com. That's the easiest way to find it.
H uh.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And then then if you would like to also find
out more about UH, you can email me your guarding questions.
I have some great questionings coming up from Kira, and
then also uh Sarah and we can also take your
gardening questions one triple eight four five five two nine
(16:36):
sixty seven or you can text two three six eight zero.
So again, we are experiencing extreme heat right now. You
want to make sure that you are drinking water a
bottle of water every thirty minutes.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
And also include electrolytes in that too, So don't just
think water's going to help you because a lot of people,
like even Shrek that we call my husband Track, you know,
with us having the businesses that we have, he works outside,
so he you know, for there for a few years.
He's just like, I drank almost a gallon of water,
at least a gallon and a gallon and a half.
I'm like, well, where were the electrolytes in that? He goes,
(17:11):
I don't need that, like, no, no, no. Electrolytes is
what gets you through and replenishes everything.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So it's important. It's amazing how quickly you can succumb
to it. And if you're getting a headache or your
stomach starts to hurt when you're outside, that's one of
the two of the symptoms there of getting heat stroke,
you want to make sure you're not doing that. And
so vegetables and fruit care. This way you can go
(17:38):
ahead and start your tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds for
mid August transplant. Make sure your garden beds have organic
material in them. If you have sandy soils, you want
to make sure that you are you know, applying and
putting into your soil your sandy soils organic material. One
(18:00):
bag of compost, one bag of manure, one bag of
top soil for every ten square feet of area is
a good recommendation. And you don't want to mend a
single hole. When you're planting plants, do not amend the hole.
It's already in good soil. The plant, shrub or tree,
(18:21):
whatever you're planting, is in good soil. If you need
to amend your garden bed, then amend the entire garden bed,
not a single hole. What that's going to do is
if you amend the garden bed, then it's going to
girdle those roots and it's not going to really adapt
to that area. And I'll be talking about that in
just a few minutes. We're coming up on a hard
break right now. But when you have a good root ball,
(18:45):
opening up the roots is very important. Making sure that
it will adapt to that area is important. And so
when when you see the plants when you're buying them,
go ahead and take it out of the pot. Look
at the root ball. You want to see nice white, fleshy,
(19:08):
a little bit moist roots system. If you see and
it's red or brown and it's desiccated and really very dry,
then you're going to want to open up some of
those roots and maybe even slice the sides of the
roots to encourage new growth. You go ahead and take
your shovel and put it completely down around the outside
(19:29):
of the plant, and that will be very helpful. It's
Saturday morning. You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm
Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
(19:58):
Welcome back to Better Laws and Gardens. If you have
a gardening question one triple eight four five five two
nine sixty seven where you can text two three six
eight zero. So Tony and Melbourne. She emailed and she said,
good morning, Teresa. I listen to you every week and
I've sent some questions before. I finally got pictures of
(20:19):
our bottlebrush and maybe you can help us. My husband
is ready to just pull out the backyard bottle brush
trees because they aren't doing well like the front one is.
And she sent great pictures. So the front tree is
doing really well. It's beautiful, even though we planted the
back ones first. Why is this any suggestions on what
we can do so I can tell my husband how
(20:39):
we can save the back two trees next time. If
I have a question. I will chick, I won't check
it out and I will call instead. Thanks for your help.
I love your show. Uh so, yeah, she said, two
great pictures of the back tree, backyard trees and the
front trees, and so really important for you too look
(21:00):
at how you're planting. So I love the pictures. The
photographs tremendously See what I did there, Lizzie, tremendously sweet.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
So your two trees in the backyard are definitely girdled.
The root balls are girdled, and that's going to make
it very hard to grow. It's always going to struggle.
And you can definitely see it by at the base.
The roots are coming out of the ground and they're
going They look like they're wrapping around more roots that
are up at the surface. So what I need you
(21:33):
to do is have your husband dig up the trees
and look at the root system. Open it up. You
can even wash the dirt off of it and try
and untangle those roots. If they're so thick, and it
looks like the top ones are so thick, you can
go ahead and clip them, okay, and give let the
(21:54):
energy start to come from the other root system. Now
you don't want to do too much. I would only
say two to three of the root systems. If you
have a good full of five or ten gallon rootball there,
but it looks tall enough. They look like they're over
six foot tall, so you do have a good sized
root all there. But you do want to make sure
(22:15):
you're clipping some of those roots to allow the tree
roots to expand you want to keep the flare of
the base of the tree at the top. You don't
want to bury that flare underneath the ground. So really,
these bottle brushes are struggling because they were planted incorrectly.
So once you cut them, put them back in the ground,
put the dirt back in, make sure you're going to
(22:38):
water it well for several days and even up to
two weeks every day. Just saturate that root ball so
that it can get through the shock, because it is
going to go through a little bit of a shock,
but right now it's going to be the hot. The
heat is going to allow the root system to grow.
I would say, make sure it's watered real well before
(22:59):
you dig it up well afterwards, and it's going to
do much better when you start to see new growth
on it. You'll know that it will came through it better.
So Tony, let me know how you do, and you know,
let me make sure that that I gave you the
right advice. I want to do that. So Kiara and
fort Meade, she said, we bought our first house. Congratulations, Kara,
(23:24):
and the yard has been abandoned for years, including a
royal points on a tree that she thought she was
too far north inland for it, but it did have
two flowers on it when we bought the house last summer. Unfortunately,
it was too big for me to cover during the
cold and it never woke up from dormancy. So finally,
now six months later, she's getting some green appearing. And
(23:47):
it's only one little twig near the ground. It's been
a month now and it's still only green. All the
other branches look dead. Should I cut the whole tree
down to this little branch? And I've attached a photo.
Thank you, Teresa. I have been listening to you for
years from my tiny patio garden. I'm ecstatic to be
able to listen to you in my big, awesome new yard.
Well I think that's wonderful, So congratulations Kira again on
(24:12):
your new yard. I'm so excited for you. So I
have good news and good news. Okay, So one Fort
Meade is zone ten and that's perfect for Royal Pointsianas,
so it will do very well there. The freeze did
take it to the ground, and if we have severe
freezes it is going to succumb to them. But hopefully
(24:33):
we're pretty we're pretty good for the next few years
without having a really major frost. But if it does,
you know, depending if it's over six foot tall by
next winter, then you do want to cover it and make
sure that it gets through the next winter because two
back to back freezes won't be good for it. So
(24:53):
but thank you for sending in the photos. So she
if I can kind of describe the picture, she has
about a three to four inch caliper tree that is
dead all the way up to about four to five
feet tall, and this Royal Points on it has set
up a little branches on the bottom of it, so
(25:16):
they're going to go really they're going to grow really well.
But I would cut off just the dead vertical branches,
not vertical, the horizontal branches, yes, sideways, the sideway branches
of the trunk, and keep that main trunk that's four
inch caliber, so that she can protect the royal points
(25:38):
on it from getting mowed over. Now, one of the
biggest things I've seen lately in when people send me
pictures is they're planting trees and they're letting the grass
grow up to the trunk of the tree. And so
what that does is that the grass and weeds and
shrubs are competing for the water and the nutrients that
(25:58):
should be absorbed by the tree trees, and they're not
getting it because of the grasses is going to take over.
So you want to create, you know, a six to
ten foot area, especially for points on a royal points
on it, a ten foot area around the tree so
that when you put fertilizer down, when you put water down,
(26:19):
it's going to that tree. It's not going to get
absorbed by anything else.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And so she can keep letting this a Royal POINTSI
ona grow and then I would say probably next spring
she can then cut down the tree should be a
little bit bigger, should be at least three to four
feet tall, and she can take down the dead other
portion of the trunk. Okay, okay, but she doesn't. I
wouldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Right now, that makes sense, and that's actually that's actually
a very good idea, especially about the grass getting so
close to the.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, you know, it's something that you know people don't
think of, but you want to create its own little bed.
And if you're designing your backyard, you know, if you
have a tree you'd like to put in, create a
corner or a larger bed where you can put plants
in away from the root system, but that you create
your own little garden bed. You can put some shrubs in,
(27:12):
but you want to make sure they're at least for
a five to six foot tree, that the shrubs are
at least ten feet away. For now. You could always
put in smaller annuals than around it as the tree grows,
but you want to make sure that the trees that
you plant are getting enough water, they're getting enough fertilizer,
(27:33):
they're getting the nutrients, and they're not getting whacked by
a lawnmower or a weed whacker. If it's Saturday morning,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens from the Summit
Responsible Solution Studios. I'm Teresa Watcaus and this is Florida's
Talk and Entertainment Network and welcome back to better lawns
(28:07):
and gardens. If you'd like to ask me a garden question,
you can give me a call one triple eight four
five five two nine sixty seven, or you can text
two three six eight zero. So Kara mentioned the royal Pointsiana,
and I wanted to talk a little bit about it
because it is a gorgeous tree. It can be grown
(28:28):
in zones nine B to eleven. That's USDA zones nine
B to eleven. It is susceptible to freezes when we
have a major freeze, but it should be able to
get through a South Florida winter, even getting down to
about forty five fifty degrees, it should be just fine.
(28:48):
It does lose its leaves in the winter time, so
it is deciduous, Kiara, So don't worry about it not
having leaves. You know, when you see it now, your
tree looks that three to four inch caliper looks like
it was an older tree that just got zapped. And
so royal points on this don't bloom until they're at
(29:10):
least five years old, and so that you had it
had two blooms on it last year kind of indicates
that it is that old. So the new growth coming
up may not bloom next year, but uh it should
take you know, with proper fertilizing, only a couple of
years for it to come back. They it's also called
(29:30):
the flamboyant tree or flame tree, beautiful beautiful orange red
flowers that are just cornered, deep red to bright orange.
And they do have yellow flowering cultivars of these trees.
And it deciduous. I said that, but it also too,
(29:51):
it's needs some pruning when it's when it's newly planted,
you want to keep an eye on it, and as
with all new trees that are planted, you want to
just kind of start to very carefully limit up so
that you're able to eventually walk underneath it. But you
only want to do this once it has a good
(30:13):
canopy on it, enough of the leaves and branches that
if you take off a few, it can still go
through photosynthesis. You don't want to shock it. You can
take a third of the branches off, and that of
an established tree a young tree then and it is
not going to stress it out too much. So when
(30:33):
you're talking about trimming shrubs, even trimming a root ball,
you don't want to do them at the same time.
You don't want to take the plant out of the
tree or shrub out of the pot and cut the
roots and then cut the top of it off at
the same time. That's just going to be too much
stress on it, especially during the summertime. If you want
(30:54):
to make sure that the tree is you need to
trim a branch that could hit some by or is
in the way that's growing into your house. You can
cut those off at any time. Okay, go ahead and
take care of them. You want to make sure you're
doing a clean cut. You want to do it diagonally
and leave a little bit of a collar on major trees,
(31:15):
the trunks of trees so that it will grow over
it and trees relate very well to it. One triple
eight four five five two ninety sixty seven, or you
can text two three six eight zero. What can you
be doing in your landscape right now? Definitely, you want
(31:36):
to make sure that you are applying insecticide and minor
nutrients spray to citrus trees each time it gets a
new flush of growth. That's very important. Excuse me. You
want to keep figs moist. You want to feed them
lightly and again mulch is very important to keep the
ground moist so that you can avoid summer fruit drop
(32:00):
with figs. So mulching fruit trees is important, and you
can even you know, lightly moult citrus trees. H to
keep the moisture in. Pruning blueberries right now is important.
When the harvest is over, once you've gotten the last
bit of the blueberries, you can go ahead and cut
it back. And then blackberries when they have the declining
(32:23):
stems when they die, you can cut those off and
allow new growth. Right now. You can give fruit trees
a very light pruning. You want to make sure, like
Alan says, that you prune it very lightly. You don't
want to take off more than a third. Roses. If
you have rose gardens going right now, you know, your
hybrid ts, your grandifloras, you can give those a cut
(32:45):
once they finish blooming and that will allow them to,
you know, start that blooming process over again. Drift roses
and your smaller roses, your groundcover roses, they do not
need to be prune to grow.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I have a stack of them, do you, Yeah, I
just haven't put them in the ground yet. I'm just
like I've become like the worst person when it comes
to plants, I swear.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So if you have azaleas and amelia's, do not cut
them anymore. I'm just going to tell you you're going
to uh not want to cut your azaleas and camellias
because you're cutting off the blooms for next year. All right,
So if you're having to prune them so that people
can walk by the sidewalk, or that they are too
(33:32):
big and they're getting into your house, then you've got
the plant in the wrong place. Okay, you do not
want to cut your azaleas and your camellias right now. Now.
If there is let's say you have an azalea shrub
and there's one big long stem that's coming out of it,
that's just you can just see it. It's just it's
just sticking out. It's you know, overachiever. Uh, you can
(33:55):
go ahead and cut those back any time to kind
of keep that form of that azalea. No need to
prune crape myrtles. You do not need to do that.
They do not. You can cut the seed pods off,
you can cut back branches that are you know, going sideways,
that is rubbing another branch. You want to make sure
you have good airflow circulation in your crape myrtle, and
(34:18):
then all the suckers you can just rub off with
your hands. You don't need to you know, get them
while they're still nice and green and young and tender,
and you can just rub them off and they'll be fine.
Point setiis if you have point setias in your yard
and they're doing well, this is the time of the year.
For the next month, you can go ahead and cut
back your point setias. You can cut them back four
(34:40):
to six inches that allow them to go ahead and
encourage more growth. You can prune your hydrat just now
if they bloomed and you got to remove the old
flower clusters, and you can reshape them. And then also too,
you want to mush rooms. Mushrooms are growing in the landscape,
(35:03):
and there is a sign of healthy landscape. Okay, okay,
about that the organic material in your in your ground
is doing well and the rainfall is causing the mushroom
fungi to uh to emerge and grow. That's not really
a bad thing, and you don't need to do anything
to uh to get rid of them. They're just going
(35:24):
to die on their own naturally and you really can't
prevent the air sports from coming through from the neighbour's
yard or from you know, just in the air. The
mushrooms are going to come up. But if you're getting
all this rain and you're irrigating, then you're going to
get the mushrooms. That is something you can do something about,
(35:44):
so you don't want to, you know, compound the problem
by overwatering too as well. Also mosquitos. I was at
a landscape this week that had a lot of blind
mosquitos in it. They were just coming up by the hundreds,
and you know, Summit Responsible Solutions has a really good
product that will get rid of those, the mosquito and
(36:10):
yard barrier. Yes, will will kill the blind mosquitos for
up to four weeks, and it does have primes in it,
but it was a very very effective for getting rid
of blind mosquitos, especially around your screens and your pool enclosures.
But it will also get rid of spider mites, It
(36:31):
will get rid of white flies, ants, fleas and ticks, chinchbugs,
it will get rid of leaf minor aphis, Japanese beetles
if you're up north, and then mole crickets. So the
Summit mosquito and nat barrier that you can find in
any hardware store at nurseries and then also online you
(36:52):
can go on to Summit Responsible Solutions dot com and
order it. You can go to any of the delivery
services online and the great products you know kind Amazon,
those things and get it.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yea, yeah, I don't have time to usually run to
the box stores to get my Summit Responsible Solutions, so
I do order it like they're like Amazon, and it
just makes it easier to deliver it right there to
our house. And yes they are a sponsor, but I've
used some Responsible Solutions way before I even did this show,
and I absolutely one hundred percent of back.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
There's a wonderful product, and so you want to check
out some Responsible Solutions dot com. So we want to
thank Dana Venrick with quality Green Specialist Nursery. He has
a wonderful nursery where you could go get native trees,
native shrubs, He has fruit trees, he has all kinds
of herbs, and then also to the plants. The fruit
(37:47):
trees he has are great olive trees. He has so
many different types of olive trees that will look good
in any yard. Olives do very well here and you
will get olives the very first year you play an
so they're just a wonderful fruit tree to add. And
I love that silver gray color. It looks good on
Mediterranean homes and things Spanish style homes also too. He
(38:10):
has a mulch and all kinds of soil and you
can get a soil test done there. And that's very
important because you need to know what's in your soil
to fertilize it. Before you fertilize, get a soil test.
We don't need to be putting down as much nitrogen
as we think. And right now, especially for your turf.
You're on a fertilizer band in most counties in Florida,
(38:33):
so that goes on through October. First, thank you Lizzie,
you are the magic behind the screen board there.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Thank you so much, and thank you to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
You guys make our jobs a whole lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
So thank you. We do, we do appreciate it. We're
going to be back with more of Better Lawns and
Gardens next week. Thank you so much to all our
callers and listeners. If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to
Better Lawns and Gardens, I'm Teresa Watkins in the summit
Responsible Solution Studios. This is Florida's talk and entertainment network,
And welcome back to the second hour of Better Lawns
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, the landscape designer, garden author.
We have a wonderful tour company called Art and Bloomgarden
Tours that you're welcome to travel with us and we
go visit beautiful, sublime gardens all over the United States
(00:29):
and across the Pond. And we have a lot of
our twenty twenty seven tours up right now and you
can go check it out at Art and bloomgardentours dot com.
We have the French tour up and we are going
to be visiting listenee, some wonderful chateaus and castles and
all of the iconic Parisian landmarks, the Louver and the
(00:56):
Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. We get to see the
the new Notre Dame Cathedral.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
And the best part about this is you get to
hang out with Teresa Antony.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So then you get you basically get a.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
One on one because you do keep y'all's tours smaller.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
We do.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We do so if anybody wants to know the costs
and how they can sign up or even be put
on a waiting list, where did they find that out.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
They go to Art and Bloomgarden Tours all one word
Art and Bloomgardentours dot com and they will fill it
up fast. And we do keep small groups, so we
are looking forward to doing that. I have a wonderful
trip next week. Tom mccomban will be here next week
and he will be hosting for me while I'm gone,
(01:40):
and I know you will enjoy that. And Tom is
always great to have. Do appreciate it. And so let's
now go to the dirty word of the day. And
now it's time for the dirty Word of the Day
on Better Lawns and Gardens with Teresa Watkins. And the
dirty word of the day is only a go trophic
(02:01):
oly go trophic, and the word oligotroph is a combination
of the Greek adjective only ghost meaning few, and the
adjective tropicose meaning feeding. It's an important word for understanding
ecosystem dynamics, soil fertility, and sustainable land management in nutrient
(02:23):
poor regions of the world. Olygotrophics environments where the available
nutrients offer little to sustained life with very low concentrations
of nitrates, iron, phosphates, and carbon sources. These environments include
deep oceanic sediments, caves, glacier and polarized deep subsurface soils, aquifers,
(02:48):
ocean waters, and leech soils. These areas exhibit low surface chlorophyll.
They're occasionally described as ocean deserts. Examples of olygota trophic
creatures are the cave dwelling salamander called an omlm and
organisms like lichens with their extremely low metabolic rate. The
(03:11):
oligotrophic soil environments include agricultural soil, frozen soil, and white
sand soils in the Amazon Basin. Various factors such as decomposition,
soil structure, fertilization, and temperature can affect the nutrient availability
in the soil environments. I chose today's dirty word because
(03:33):
Florida is experiencing Saharan desert dust this weekend. Although the
dust can be difficult for people with allergies, it benefits
oligotrophic coral beds. Lizzie, you asked me, how does it
affect coral beds?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
How does it effect or how does it?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I mess it up?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
How does it affect coral beds?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
There? Go, Well, we're going to explain right now, and
we're also taking your guard and then questions this hour
one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
and you can text two three six eight zero. So
the Saharan desert dust and its roll in fertilizing iron
coral reefs. Recent research suggests that the Saharan desert dust
(04:16):
can naturally fertilize coral reefs by supplying the central micronutrients,
especially iron, that is often scarce in nutrient poor reef waters.
The only gootrophic waters trade winds across the Saharan desert regions,
such as the Chads Depression westward across the Atlantic. The
(04:38):
particles can travel more than six thousand miles before settling
over the ocean and reaching the Caribbean and southeastern US coast.
As the dust moves through humid air and seawater, temperatures
changes and atmospheric acids alter its iron minerals, making them
more soluble and easier for marine oranisms to use. Iron
(05:02):
is important for photosynthesis and respiration. Coral reef Studies show
that exposure to dust can raise levels of iron, manganese, magnesium,
and other metals in coral tissues, boosting photo synthetic performance,
especially during heat stress. This metal cocktail effect suggests that
(05:25):
several dust carrion nutrients, rather than the iron alone, may
help coral reefs become more resilient. Saharan dust also fertilizes
atlantic phytoplank and blooms, which form the base of the
marine food web. These blooms may indirectly benefit reef ecosystems
by increasing food for reef fish and other organisms. Overall,
(05:49):
Saharan dust can help fertilize coral reef ecosystems by delivering
bioavailable iron and key metals that support coral photosynthesis, health,
and resistance to bleaching. This processor reflects the broader roll
of Sirharan desert is sustaining marine productivity. How wonderful is
(06:11):
mother nature and set you know, I know, you know
the dust it affects me. I don't like the dust.
I can tend to get asthma when when it's really dusty,
But that it really helps our coral reefs is wonderful,
you know. So one triple eight four five, five, two
nine sixty seven, or you can text two three six
(06:33):
eight zero like William from Melbourne just did. We're going
to be back with more of better Lawns and Gardens
from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios. I'm Teresa Watkins and
this is Florida's talk and entertainment network, So welcome back
(07:08):
to Better Lawns and Gardens. If you have a gardening question,
you can call one triple eight four or five five
two nine six seven. That's one triple eight four five
five two nine sixty seven. Or you can text me
two three six eight zero. Let's go to William and Melbourne.
Good morning, William, how can I help you?
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Good morning? Yes, I would like to know. I would
like to see it. What type of gourd or something
I could grow for birdhouses?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
M okay, so any other variety of gourds, depending on
what size of house you want to create, will grow
here in Florida. You just need to have some full sun.
You need to keep the ground you know, you need
to keep it consistently moist. They don't like, you know,
going weeks without water or watering too much. Just needs
(07:58):
to be consistent. And then you need to have good
air circulation. So you need to have it either growing
on a trellis, a wall and a spalier obelisk. You
need to have it growing vertically up, so you need
good airflow.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
How about it in a container, in five gallon container.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Sure you could do that, but again you need to
you want them to grow up. So you're going to
need to put something that will allow the vind the gourds,
vines to grow up.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Okay, I thank you, Dan.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You're welcome. You're welcome. It's the gorge for birdhouses are wonderful.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Now now, okay, so you get it grown. But then
with the humidity in Florida, my thought process is like,
it's going to turn into mush.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Right, and so you need to keep it in a cool,
dry place, okay, which is in Florida kind of hard
to find, but we do have them areas where you know,
like in the corner of your garage which is nice
and cool, or you know, you don't want it near
your dryers or wash machines and that kind of stuff,
but a cool, dry, little closet. They are going to
start to decline, and Lizzie, they will get mold, but
(09:05):
you want to get them through. That process takes about it,
you know, one month depending on the side of the gourd,
to a year for them to dry out. And then
that's when you know, as as soon as it gets
light weight, the lighter it gets that it's all decomposing
on the inside.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Okay, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, let's go to Tom and Merritt Island. Good morning, Tom.
How can I help you?
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Okay? So, first question on the seminole pumpkin. I'm harvesting
them now, and about how long should they cure before
I can eat them?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I would, you know, I would keep thumping it. It
just depends again on the size and the weight of it.
Uh So, I would just wait until it's you know,
about two to three weeks. You can you can go
ahead and see what it weighs and thump it and
what it sounds like. It's you know, kind of uh
you know, how can I describe the thump? It's just
(09:58):
a thump. That's what I'm going to ask say the
next time. How does he describe the thunk that you hear?
I would How many do you have?
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Oh? I have over twenty? Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
There you go. Well, here's what I would do. I'd
wait three weeks, let it dry and kind of sit
on your counter kind of age, and then in three
weeks then I would cut it open and see where
it is in the process and then you can either
go for it and you can eat the others, or
wait a little bit longer.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Okay, Now question a watermelon. I've grown watermelon before, and
I've got some watermelon out there. Excellent, and typically a watermelon,
you know, you get there's that yellow spot on the bottom. Yes,
But on some of the watermelons, at least the ones
that don't have a full leaf cover, I'm getting some
yellow on top. Is that a concern or is that
just normal?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I would say that it's it's not necessarily a concern.
It just again one depending on how long it's been growing.
How long have you been growing them.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
I've already getting I'm picking. I'm picking some and eating
them already.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah. I would say then you want to go to
those and eat them as soon as possible. I would
not let them stay too much longer. Yeah, the yellowing
on top is an issue.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Okay, Okay, Just a quick comment on gorge. I've been
growing Qq's a squash, which is the edible gorge. Yes,
and it just takes over your garden. It's very aggressive
and I've got so much. I got more squash than
I could give away, and I'm actually picking some gorge,
and I'll put putting you know, clean them and put
(11:27):
them in my back bedroom for them for them to
start curing there.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You go, okay, so you put them in even inside
your bedroom? And what do you set them on?
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Do I watch them on?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
What do you set your your guards on? Do you
have them in a box? Do you have them on
a tray?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
They're they're sitting on carpet.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
They're sitting on carpet. And how long does it take
when they when they when you have them in your bedroom?
How long does it take for them to dry out?
Speaker 5 (11:53):
That? I don't know. This is the first time I've grown.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Oh okay, well super well, so Tom, when you find out,
give us a call back.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Yeah. Well, I'm not going to grow them again. They
just they're too aggressive, take up too much space.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
What size garden do you have, Well, it's at.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
The side of the house and it has grown about
forty feet on the hurricane fence at that side of
the house.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Wow. Wow, Jack and the gourd vines. Yea, Jack and
I grew.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Up into my Karen bouletree and I have large gorge
hanging from the Karen bouletree.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh that is so cool. Well that is really great. Tom,
You've got a green thumb. Definitely there. Thank you so
much for calling in. All right, thank you, You're welcome.
We have great listeners. I mean all these gardeners. I
love hearing them and calling in. If you have a
gardening question or just want to brag about your garden,
I would love to hear it. One triple eight four
(12:46):
five five two nine sixty seven, or you can text
two three six eight zero. So we have Brad and
Gainesville and he said, what are your thoughts on lawn sweepers?
Am I damaging the grass blades? And I would say, no,
you're not damaging it. My thoughts on lawn sweepers are
there an alternative to you know, bagging your clippings from
(13:09):
the lawnmower, leaving it on the ground and then you're
collecting the blades, the spent blades already into the piles.
It's a much easier way to do it. It's not
as as damaging as a lawnmower to it. But also too,
it depends on if you have a flat surface. So
lawnmowers can you know, go over mounds and go over
(13:32):
holes and and and can go in and out a
little bit easier. But when you're using a lawn sweeper,
you have to have a very flat, even surface, So
it depends on your property. And there's you know, uh,
I think they're fine. It just depends on what you're collecting,
whether it's the dried leaves in the fall or your
(13:53):
grass clippings, and it's you can do it when it
is dry and put them in your compost spin and
it's already going to be starting to decompose. So lawn
sweepers are are pretty cool, just if you have enough
room in your garage for them. You know, it's all
those questions.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Okay, what what here's my question. See now, listeners, please
pay attention to this. Do not everythink you got a
numb question. Okay, what's a lawn sweeper.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
A lawn sweeper is it's smaller than a writing lawn mower, okay,
And it goes through and it just picks up everything
that's cut. It just sweeps the lawn. It picks it
up to where you can take it and dump it
somewhere else. You can dump it into your compost pile,
and uh, it's it's really it's cool. Okay, Okay, but
(14:41):
but again you have you have to have and it's easier.
It's kind of like a push mower. You can also
drag it to as well. They're not automated and you
don't write it. Okay, it's it is a something you
have to push by hand or drag it.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
We when we had a lawn business, we had one
of those for the leaves and stuff, and we call
it was called goat.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, so it was like a big it was like
a big blower, so like it sucked. I mean it
was it looked like a blower, but it's like the
push blowers, right, but it wasn't. It actually sucked everything
into a huge bag and pulled everything.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Out of the yard. So okay, I never heard it
called that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
It called along sweepers. Yeah, look at them up. They're
pretty cool, you know for the guy who has everything
for his lawn you know, technical uh and equipment. You know,
it's just something extra to to to play with one
of those.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
They're very interesting because when I try to explain to
people we had a goat, they're like, oh, you gotta
you gotta go goat like a really like an animal,
and I'm like, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
The name of it is a goat.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
One triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text me two three six eight zero.
If you'd like to go to my website, you can
go to she s h E Dash Consulting dot com.
And you can also too, Lizzie, where can they go
for listening at the podcast for UH if they missed
(15:59):
any parts of the show so or even shows in
the past we have over there's something like six hundred
shows that they can you know, see and here again.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, just go to better Lawns dot com. That's Better
Lawns dot com. That's the easiest way to find it.
H uh.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And then then if you would like to also find
out more about UH, you can email me your guarding questions.
I have some great questionings coming up from Kira, and
then also uh Sarah and we can also take your
gardening questions one triple eight four five five two nine
(16:36):
sixty seven or you can text two three six eight zero.
So again, we are experiencing extreme heat right now. You
want to make sure that you are drinking water a
bottle of water every thirty minutes.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
And also include electrolytes in that too, So don't just
think water's going to help you because a lot of people,
like even Shrek that we call my husband Track, you know,
with us having the businesses that we have, he works outside,
so he you know, for there for a few years.
He's just like, I drank almost a gallon of water,
at least a gallon and a gallon and a half.
I'm like, well, where were the electrolytes in that? He goes,
(17:11):
I don't need that, like, no, no, no. Electrolytes is
what gets you through and replenishes everything.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
So it's important. It's amazing how quickly you can succumb
to it. And if you're getting a headache or your
stomach starts to hurt when you're outside, that's one of
the two of the symptoms there of getting heat stroke,
you want to make sure you're not doing that. And
so vegetables and fruit care. This way you can go
(17:38):
ahead and start your tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds for
mid August transplant. Make sure your garden beds have organic
material in them. If you have sandy soils, you want
to make sure that you are you know, applying and
putting into your soil your sandy soils organic material. One
(18:00):
bag of compost, one bag of manure, one bag of
top soil for every ten square feet of area is
a good recommendation. And you don't want to mend a
single hole. When you're planting plants, do not amend the hole.
It's already in good soil. The plant, shrub or tree,
(18:21):
whatever you're planting, is in good soil. If you need
to amend your garden bed, then amend the entire garden bed,
not a single hole. What that's going to do is
if you amend the garden bed, then it's going to
girdle those roots and it's not going to really adapt
to that area. And I'll be talking about that in
just a few minutes. We're coming up on a hard
break right now. But when you have a good root ball,
(18:45):
opening up the roots is very important. Making sure that
it will adapt to that area is important. And so
when when you see the plants when you're buying them,
go ahead and take it out of the pot. Look
at the root ball. You want to see nice white, fleshy,
(19:08):
a little bit moist roots system. If you see and
it's red or brown and it's desiccated and really very dry,
then you're going to want to open up some of
those roots and maybe even slice the sides of the
roots to encourage new growth. You go ahead and take
your shovel and put it completely down around the outside
(19:29):
of the plant, and that will be very helpful. It's
Saturday morning. You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm
Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
(19:58):
Welcome back to Better Laws and Gardens. If you have
a gardening question one triple eight four five five two
nine sixty seven where you can text two three six
eight zero. So Tony and Melbourne. She emailed and she said,
good morning, Teresa. I listen to you every week and
I've sent some questions before. I finally got pictures of
(20:19):
our bottlebrush and maybe you can help us. My husband
is ready to just pull out the backyard bottle brush
trees because they aren't doing well like the front one is.
And she sent great pictures. So the front tree is
doing really well. It's beautiful, even though we planted the
back ones first. Why is this any suggestions on what
we can do so I can tell my husband how
(20:39):
we can save the back two trees next time. If
I have a question. I will chick, I won't check
it out and I will call instead. Thanks for your help.
I love your show. Uh so, yeah, she said, two
great pictures of the back tree, backyard trees and the
front trees, and so really important for you too look
(21:00):
at how you're planting. So I love the pictures. The
photographs tremendously See what I did there, Lizzie, tremendously sweet.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
So your two trees in the backyard are definitely girdled.
The root balls are girdled, and that's going to make
it very hard to grow. It's always going to struggle.
And you can definitely see it by at the base.
The roots are coming out of the ground and they're
going They look like they're wrapping around more roots that
are up at the surface. So what I need you
(21:33):
to do is have your husband dig up the trees
and look at the root system. Open it up. You
can even wash the dirt off of it and try
and untangle those roots. If they're so thick, and it
looks like the top ones are so thick, you can
go ahead and clip them, okay, and give let the
(21:54):
energy start to come from the other root system. Now
you don't want to do too much. I would only
say two to three of the root systems. If you
have a good full of five or ten gallon rootball there,
but it looks tall enough. They look like they're over
six foot tall, so you do have a good sized
root all there. But you do want to make sure
(22:15):
you're clipping some of those roots to allow the tree
roots to expand you want to keep the flare of
the base of the tree at the top. You don't
want to bury that flare underneath the ground. So really,
these bottle brushes are struggling because they were planted incorrectly.
So once you cut them, put them back in the ground,
put the dirt back in, make sure you're going to
(22:38):
water it well for several days and even up to
two weeks every day. Just saturate that root ball so
that it can get through the shock, because it is
going to go through a little bit of a shock,
but right now it's going to be the hot. The
heat is going to allow the root system to grow.
I would say, make sure it's watered real well before
(22:59):
you dig it up well afterwards, and it's going to
do much better when you start to see new growth
on it. You'll know that it will came through it better.
So Tony, let me know how you do, and you know,
let me make sure that that I gave you the
right advice. I want to do that. So Kiara and
fort Meade, she said, we bought our first house. Congratulations, Kara,
(23:24):
and the yard has been abandoned for years, including a
royal points on a tree that she thought she was
too far north inland for it, but it did have
two flowers on it when we bought the house last summer. Unfortunately,
it was too big for me to cover during the
cold and it never woke up from dormancy. So finally,
now six months later, she's getting some green appearing. And
(23:47):
it's only one little twig near the ground. It's been
a month now and it's still only green. All the
other branches look dead. Should I cut the whole tree
down to this little branch? And I've attached a photo.
Thank you, Teresa. I have been listening to you for
years from my tiny patio garden. I'm ecstatic to be
able to listen to you in my big, awesome new yard.
Well I think that's wonderful, So congratulations Kira again on
(24:12):
your new yard. I'm so excited for you. So I
have good news and good news. Okay, So one Fort
Meade is zone ten and that's perfect for Royal Pointsianas,
so it will do very well there. The freeze did
take it to the ground, and if we have severe
freezes it is going to succumb to them. But hopefully
(24:33):
we're pretty we're pretty good for the next few years
without having a really major frost. But if it does,
you know, depending if it's over six foot tall by
next winter, then you do want to cover it and make
sure that it gets through the next winter because two
back to back freezes won't be good for it. So
(24:53):
but thank you for sending in the photos. So she
if I can kind of describe the picture, she has
about a three to four inch caliper tree that is
dead all the way up to about four to five
feet tall, and this Royal Points on it has set
up a little branches on the bottom of it, so
(25:16):
they're going to go really they're going to grow really well.
But I would cut off just the dead vertical branches,
not vertical, the horizontal branches, yes, sideways, the sideway branches
of the trunk, and keep that main trunk that's four
inch caliber, so that she can protect the royal points
(25:38):
on it from getting mowed over. Now, one of the
biggest things I've seen lately in when people send me
pictures is they're planting trees and they're letting the grass
grow up to the trunk of the tree. And so
what that does is that the grass and weeds and
shrubs are competing for the water and the nutrients that
(25:58):
should be absorbed by the tree trees, and they're not
getting it because of the grasses is going to take over.
So you want to create, you know, a six to
ten foot area, especially for points on a royal points
on it, a ten foot area around the tree so
that when you put fertilizer down, when you put water down,
(26:19):
it's going to that tree. It's not going to get
absorbed by anything else.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And so she can keep letting this a Royal POINTSI
ona grow and then I would say probably next spring
she can then cut down the tree should be a
little bit bigger, should be at least three to four
feet tall, and she can take down the dead other
portion of the trunk. Okay, okay, but she doesn't. I
wouldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Right now, that makes sense, and that's actually that's actually
a very good idea, especially about the grass getting so
close to the.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, you know, it's something that you know people don't
think of, but you want to create its own little bed.
And if you're designing your backyard, you know, if you
have a tree you'd like to put in, create a
corner or a larger bed where you can put plants
in away from the root system, but that you create
your own little garden bed. You can put some shrubs in,
(27:12):
but you want to make sure they're at least for
a five to six foot tree, that the shrubs are
at least ten feet away. For now. You could always
put in smaller annuals than around it as the tree grows,
but you want to make sure that the trees that
you plant are getting enough water, they're getting enough fertilizer,
(27:33):
they're getting the nutrients, and they're not getting whacked by
a lawnmower or a weed whacker. If it's Saturday morning,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens from the Summit
Responsible Solution Studios. I'm Teresa Watcaus and this is Florida's
Talk and Entertainment Network and welcome back to better lawns
(28:07):
and gardens. If you'd like to ask me a garden question,
you can give me a call one triple eight four
five five two nine sixty seven, or you can text
two three six eight zero. So Kara mentioned the royal Pointsiana,
and I wanted to talk a little bit about it
because it is a gorgeous tree. It can be grown
(28:28):
in zones nine B to eleven. That's USDA zones nine
B to eleven. It is susceptible to freezes when we
have a major freeze, but it should be able to
get through a South Florida winter, even getting down to
about forty five fifty degrees, it should be just fine.
(28:48):
It does lose its leaves in the winter time, so
it is deciduous, Kiara, So don't worry about it not
having leaves. You know, when you see it now, your
tree looks that three to four inch caliper looks like
it was an older tree that just got zapped. And
so royal points on this don't bloom until they're at
(29:10):
least five years old, and so that you had it
had two blooms on it last year kind of indicates
that it is that old. So the new growth coming
up may not bloom next year, but uh it should
take you know, with proper fertilizing, only a couple of
years for it to come back. They it's also called
(29:30):
the flamboyant tree or flame tree, beautiful beautiful orange red
flowers that are just cornered, deep red to bright orange.
And they do have yellow flowering cultivars of these trees.
And it deciduous. I said that, but it also too,
(29:51):
it's needs some pruning when it's when it's newly planted,
you want to keep an eye on it, and as
with all new trees that are planted, you want to
just kind of start to very carefully limit up so
that you're able to eventually walk underneath it. But you
only want to do this once it has a good
(30:13):
canopy on it, enough of the leaves and branches that
if you take off a few, it can still go
through photosynthesis. You don't want to shock it. You can
take a third of the branches off, and that of
an established tree a young tree then and it is
not going to stress it out too much. So when
(30:33):
you're talking about trimming shrubs, even trimming a root ball,
you don't want to do them at the same time.
You don't want to take the plant out of the
tree or shrub out of the pot and cut the
roots and then cut the top of it off at
the same time. That's just going to be too much
stress on it, especially during the summertime. If you want
(30:54):
to make sure that the tree is you need to
trim a branch that could hit some by or is
in the way that's growing into your house. You can
cut those off at any time. Okay, go ahead and
take care of them. You want to make sure you're
doing a clean cut. You want to do it diagonally
and leave a little bit of a collar on major trees,
(31:15):
the trunks of trees so that it will grow over
it and trees relate very well to it. One triple
eight four five five two ninety sixty seven, or you
can text two three six eight zero. What can you
be doing in your landscape right now? Definitely, you want
(31:36):
to make sure that you are applying insecticide and minor
nutrients spray to citrus trees each time it gets a
new flush of growth. That's very important. Excuse me. You
want to keep figs moist. You want to feed them
lightly and again mulch is very important to keep the
ground moist so that you can avoid summer fruit drop
(32:00):
with figs. So mulching fruit trees is important, and you
can even you know, lightly moult citrus trees. H to
keep the moisture in. Pruning blueberries right now is important.
When the harvest is over, once you've gotten the last
bit of the blueberries, you can go ahead and cut
it back. And then blackberries when they have the declining
(32:23):
stems when they die, you can cut those off and
allow new growth. Right now. You can give fruit trees
a very light pruning. You want to make sure, like
Alan says, that you prune it very lightly. You don't
want to take off more than a third. Roses. If
you have rose gardens going right now, you know, your
hybrid ts, your grandifloras, you can give those a cut
(32:45):
once they finish blooming and that will allow them to,
you know, start that blooming process over again. Drift roses
and your smaller roses, your groundcover roses, they do not
need to be prune to grow.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I have a stack of them, do you, Yeah, I
just haven't put them in the ground yet. I'm just
like I've become like the worst person when it comes
to plants, I swear.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
So if you have azaleas and amelia's, do not cut
them anymore. I'm just going to tell you you're going
to uh not want to cut your azaleas and camellias
because you're cutting off the blooms for next year. All right,
So if you're having to prune them so that people
can walk by the sidewalk, or that they are too
(33:32):
big and they're getting into your house, then you've got
the plant in the wrong place. Okay, you do not
want to cut your azaleas and your camellias right now. Now.
If there is let's say you have an azalea shrub
and there's one big long stem that's coming out of it,
that's just you can just see it. It's just it's
just sticking out. It's you know, overachiever. Uh, you can
(33:55):
go ahead and cut those back any time to kind
of keep that form of that azalea. No need to
prune crape myrtles. You do not need to do that.
They do not. You can cut the seed pods off,
you can cut back branches that are you know, going sideways,
that is rubbing another branch. You want to make sure
you have good airflow circulation in your crape myrtle, and
(34:18):
then all the suckers you can just rub off with
your hands. You don't need to you know, get them
while they're still nice and green and young and tender,
and you can just rub them off and they'll be fine.
Point setiis if you have point setias in your yard
and they're doing well, this is the time of the year.
For the next month, you can go ahead and cut
back your point setias. You can cut them back four
(34:40):
to six inches that allow them to go ahead and
encourage more growth. You can prune your hydrat just now
if they bloomed and you got to remove the old
flower clusters, and you can reshape them. And then also too,
you want to mush rooms. Mushrooms are growing in the landscape,
(35:03):
and there is a sign of healthy landscape. Okay, okay,
about that the organic material in your in your ground
is doing well and the rainfall is causing the mushroom
fungi to uh to emerge and grow. That's not really
a bad thing, and you don't need to do anything
to uh to get rid of them. They're just going
(35:24):
to die on their own naturally and you really can't
prevent the air sports from coming through from the neighbour's
yard or from you know, just in the air. The
mushrooms are going to come up. But if you're getting
all this rain and you're irrigating, then you're going to
get the mushrooms. That is something you can do something about,
(35:44):
so you don't want to, you know, compound the problem
by overwatering too as well. Also mosquitos. I was at
a landscape this week that had a lot of blind
mosquitos in it. They were just coming up by the hundreds,
and you know, Summit Responsible Solutions has a really good
product that will get rid of those, the mosquito and
(36:10):
yard barrier. Yes, will will kill the blind mosquitos for
up to four weeks, and it does have primes in it,
but it was a very very effective for getting rid
of blind mosquitos, especially around your screens and your pool enclosures.
But it will also get rid of spider mites, It
(36:31):
will get rid of white flies, ants, fleas and ticks, chinchbugs,
it will get rid of leaf minor aphis, Japanese beetles
if you're up north, and then mole crickets. So the
Summit mosquito and nat barrier that you can find in
any hardware store at nurseries and then also online you
(36:52):
can go on to Summit Responsible Solutions dot com and
order it. You can go to any of the delivery
services online and the great products you know kind Amazon,
those things and get it.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yea, yeah, I don't have time to usually run to
the box stores to get my Summit Responsible Solutions, so
I do order it like they're like Amazon, and it
just makes it easier to deliver it right there to
our house. And yes they are a sponsor, but I've
used some Responsible Solutions way before I even did this show,
and I absolutely one hundred percent of back.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
There's a wonderful product, and so you want to check
out some Responsible Solutions dot com. So we want to
thank Dana Venrick with quality Green Specialist Nursery. He has
a wonderful nursery where you could go get native trees,
native shrubs, He has fruit trees, he has all kinds
of herbs, and then also to the plants. The fruit
(37:47):
trees he has are great olive trees. He has so
many different types of olive trees that will look good
in any yard. Olives do very well here and you
will get olives the very first year you play an
so they're just a wonderful fruit tree to add. And
I love that silver gray color. It looks good on
Mediterranean homes and things Spanish style homes also too. He
(38:10):
has a mulch and all kinds of soil and you
can get a soil test done there. And that's very
important because you need to know what's in your soil
to fertilize it. Before you fertilize, get a soil test.
We don't need to be putting down as much nitrogen
as we think. And right now, especially for your turf.
You're on a fertilizer band in most counties in Florida,
(38:33):
so that goes on through October. First, thank you Lizzie,
you are the magic behind the screen board there.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Thank you so much, and thank you to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
You guys make our jobs a whole lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
So thank you. We do, we do appreciate it. We're
going to be back with more of Better Lawns and
Gardens next week. Thank you so much to all our
callers and listeners. If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to
Better Lawns and Gardens, I'm Teresa Watkins in the summit
Responsible Solution Studios. This is Florida's talk and entertainment network,
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