February 28, 2026 • 39 mins
Mark Kann, Director of Florida Operations for Sod Solutions talks about your sod & reassures us our grass should come back. If not here is a solution. Dirty Word of the Day: Kleptoparasitism Please don't use Atrazine fertilizer if you have free range poultry.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to the second hour of Better Lawns and Gardens.
I'm Teresa Watkins. Thank you for joining us this morning.
We have a great show coming up for you. We
have the director of the Florida Operations for SOD Solutions,
Mark Can and he is going to be talking to
us about lawn recovery. Let's go to our dirty word
(00:30):
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
klepto parasitism. Klepto parasitism or parasitism by theft, is a
feeding strategy where a creature takes food from another, usually
(00:50):
through confrontation. But this behavior persists when stealing is easier
than hunting, especially if potential victims are weak or plentiful.
But I'm talking about the insect world. Cuckoo birds in nature,
they put their eggs in other birds' nests and the
(01:10):
same thing with klepto parasites are They can be arthropods
such as bees, wasp flies, beetles, bugs, and spiders. Like
most bees, cuckoo bees are solitary, meaning that they do
not dwell in social hive communities. They are called cuckoo
bees because they lay their eggs in the nest of
(01:31):
other bees in a manner similar to the cuckoo bears,
which lays eggs in the nests of other birds. Cuckoo
bees is a notable example, so what you want to do.
Cucko bees are more robust and less hairy than most
solitary bees, sometimes resembling wasp. They lack pollen baskets since
they don't gather pollen for the offspring, and species vary
(01:54):
significantly in color, some displaying iridescence. Cuckoo wasp target target
potter and mud dauber wasp nests. Cuckoo bees visit various flowers,
but show preference for Spanish needles, frog fruit and Florida
sunflowers and dotted horsemen. They do not collect pollen. They
visit flowers solely to collect nectar, and that's how they
(02:17):
get pollinated. It's not uncommon to find a cuckoo bee
snoozing on a flower petal. They simply tuck their legs
under their abdomens and relax with their antenna straight out,
before falling fast asleep. Ninety nine percent of the klepto
parasitic bees descend from a single bee that lived ninety
(02:38):
five million years ago, and there are three species of
cuckoo bees that are endemic to Florida. So the dirty
word of the day is klepto parasitism, living off of
somebody else and stealing it.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Through confrontation, I'm gonna have to rally and save the
cuckoo bees because I have seen these before, have you yes,
and I've killed them?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Oh my god, No they're not. They're very, very cool,
and so yeah, I do appreciate it. I am going
to be speaking at the Sweetwater Oaks Garden Club Garden
Fair today which is being held from ten am to
five pm in the Protegrity Plaza to sixty wa Kaiva
Springs Road, Longwood, and then also tomorrow's Sunday, March first,
(03:23):
ten am to four There's going to be lots of
plant vendors, lots of art and also children's activities, food,
food trucks, and lots of great speakers. So come out
today to the Protegrity Plaza ten am through five pm
today to sixty Wakaiva Spring Road in Longwood, and that
(03:45):
will be a lot of fun and then also Peterson's Nursery.
I will be speaking there March fourteenth. I'm looking forward
to it on how to add color to your garden. Yes,
and then the roses. They have a great, big, huge
rose say all coming up, but they just don't know
exactly when the roses took a hit, but they're coming
back beautifully and they literally have hundreds and hundreds of roses.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And that's the thing though, the good part about it
is that those that were saved so get I mean
whenever whenever we announce or you go, you should go
to their website and you should enlist our sign ups,
so this way you can get their newsletter and when
they're going to be selling the roses because it's it's
a first come, first surf and they go fast and
it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It is really these are roses that do beautifully here
in Florida. If you think growing roses is hard, you
should try them because they're very easy to grow and
and do well here. So I that's going to be wonderful.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Also too, if you'd like to get my newsletter, it's
coming out. I promise I got sick this one.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
You got very sick. And then we had all the
freezes and we did just it was obnoxious.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
It was it was, It was obnoxious, annoying, And so
you can go to my website www dot g s
H E. Hyphen Consulting dot com and sign up for it.
We still have some spots left on our Art and
Bloom Garden Tour to the Best of English Gardens and
the Chelsea Flowers Show, and we have a couple more
(05:17):
spots left on the Revolutionary Tours, so if you'd like
to check that out, It's Art and Bloomgardentours dot Com.
For all of our tours this year, we have about
eight of them, and we will love having you along
going out and enjoying all these beautiful gardens together. Yes,
they will uplift your spirit and get lots of inspiration
and design ideas. It's where I get my design ideas
(05:40):
from just traveling around the country and overseas and bringing
it back here to Florida so that we can have
beautiful gardens.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What I love is my favorite is I like when
she actually goes away because when she comes back, there's
just this freshness, this fluff in this rosy you read,
just exclodement and there you glow when she comes back
and she's just like, Okay, this is what I learned,
this is something new.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I'm gonna try that.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I'm just I love it saw Tony feels and so
imagine if you went on these tours with her, how
you would feel coming back.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's just really exhilarating. And I have found lots of
flowers in gardens up north and overseas that will do
well here in Florida. So it's always it's always a
great way to go and we're going to be right back.
We have Mark can He is the director of the
Florida Operations for Soft Solutions. He's also the president of
(06:38):
Florida Turf Grass Association. Is your lawn going to recover?
Mark's gonna tell us how and if it is or not.
Stay tuned if you're listening to us on Saturday mornings,
Better Lawns and Gardens from seven am to nine am.
Here Florida's I'm Teresa Watkins, Florida's Talking Entertainment Network. Welcome
(07:06):
back to Better Lawns and Gardens. Joining me right now
is Mark cam He's the president of the Florida Turf
Grass Association. He has over thirty years of experience in
Florida's turf grass industry, holding both MS and BS degrees
from the University of Florida Go Gators. As Director of
Florida's Operations for Soft Solutions, Mark supports turf grass professionals
(07:29):
across Florida, South Georgia, and South Alabama and collaborates with
researchers on sustainable turf grass varieties. Mister Can earned the
Florida Golf Course Superintendent Association Distinguished Service Award in twenty thirteen,
and he is a longtime member of the Golf Course
Superintendent Association of America and the United States Golf Association.
(07:53):
He is an excellent resource for helping homeowners help their
lawns recover. Good morning, Mark, Good morning, you are quite distinguished.
I loved learning all about your background, so we appreciate
you spending the weekend with us, justin for a few minutes.
And the winter freeze in twenty twenty six has caused
(08:13):
significant damage. How have the golf courses been affected?
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Well, you're definitely seeing a lot more color change than
you have in previous years. This cold weather. This has
definitely been a lot different from years in the past
where we've had not just colder temperatures, but just longer
durations of temperatures. So, you know, a lot of golf courses,
you know, they've gone from the traditional receding of rye
grass to more lipid programs such as pigments or dies
(08:41):
to kind of keep the color throughout the winter. But
so where they're having misses or skips and things like that,
you're definitely seeing the color differences that you don't normally
see in the previous years.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
No, I was up at the village for Wow, the
health of.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
The grass be just fine. For menio grass is tough,
and they'll come out of the winner is just fine.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh, I'm sure they will. But I was up with
the villages and the golf courses up there. You could
see it was a striking difference. You could tell that
they were really they were they had gotten hit. So
I see brown lawns in residential communities. In a few areas,
some of the lawns are green. Do all grasses go dormant?
Speaker 5 (09:17):
So all grasses can go dormant, but they don't always
go fully dormant. You know, some grasses can go dormant
sooner than others. You'll see certain grasses like seeing augustine
or scentipede, they'll they'll go dormant a lot faster than
sea bermuda grass or behead grass or soys of grass.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Okay, and so the soil does we talk about Florida
and we don't get wintertime in our our soil are ground?
Does it really freeze like it does is up north?
But does it get colder and does that affect the grass?
Speaker 5 (09:52):
Oh, it definitely does affect the grass. You know, we're
unique in Florida where we get these cold days. But
you know we also warm up pretty well during the day.
So you know, when we're thirty degrees in the morning,
it's sixty or seventy degrees in the afternoon, you know,
grass is going to be just fine. It's those days
where we stay in the thirties or forties during the
day time. You know, that's really what kind of shuts
(10:13):
the grass down.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So so give it the presence of dead grass in
homeowner's yards right now, how can they determine whether they
have just winter dead grass or it's thatch.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
So really it's not good. It's good thatches your dead
decaying matter. So you know, some of that grass that
looks brown. Now, yeah, that's going to die off. It's
kind of I can kind of relate it to say,
like skin on your arm. You know, we we have
dead skin on our arms all day long, and you
know it kind of just sheves off, but doesn't mean
our arms are gonna die.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Or our skinstead So that's true.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yeah, So I mean everything's gonna be just fine. You know.
Thatch is more you know during the during more of
a concern during the spring and summer. You know, you
want to get rid of that that material. I always
kind of recommend taking a leaf wreak and just kind
of rik it out at the top of the grass
and get some of that dead stuff off, just like
you would just kind of wipe the dead skin off
your arm.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Right, And that just is for basically older grasses, right,
older lawns, because it's an accumulation of over growing with fertilizers.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Yeah, the more fertilize you put out, you know, if
you go too higher rate, you need to produce more thatch.
You mean, the grass is always going to be growing,
so it just always it's always replacing itself as new
tissue grows, old tissue dies and just kind of replaces itself.
So as long as you're not over fertilizing and pushing
the grass too much, you shouldn't have too much of
the accumulation of thatch.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So we talk about you know, on your website it
says spring performance begins in the fall, and we talk
about maintenance all year round, but what does it mean
spring performance begins in the fall.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
I am a huge believer and how your grass goes
into the winter is how it's going to come out
in the spring. So you know, I always say, you know,
prep your grass in the fall, so you know, we
tend to increase our potassium, which is a good base
for for your grass for over the winter. Just gives
it enough energy and fuel to kind of survive through
the winter and keeps in good health. You know, when
(12:15):
you when you go in, if you have grass is damaged,
you're we going into the winter. You know, it's not
going to recover over that winter time. It's just grass,
this isn't growing enough. So pretty much how you go
into the winter is how you're going to come out
in the spring. So you definitely want to give yourself
a good head start, you know, coming in the spring
by having healthy grass in the fall or winter.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So when should homeowners start to fertilize their lugs, because
if it's not growing now, if it's still dormant now
and brown, should they should they fertilize now or should
they wait until late March April?
Speaker 5 (12:48):
So you know, the late March April ideas, it's a generalization.
You know, it's based on historical data, you know. Okay,
these are when the temperatures go up. So it's really
depending on temperature. You know, grass really starts to grow
and soul temperatures around sixty degrees fahrenheit. So when you
start getting in the fifties in the morning, seventies during
the day, grass will start greening up. And then when
(13:08):
we start getting in too like the sixties in the
morning and the eighties at night or during to day.
You know, that's that's pretty much when you'll see grass
start growing again. So I wouldn't rush to start fertilizing
or do too much until you may we have those
ideal temperatures.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Okay, And so when they do start to see this
growing and mowing, because I know my landscapers they haven't
been mowing a lot because the grass hasn't been growing.
But when it starts to mow, what should they do
with that dead grass clipping? Should they just make them
or leave them on the on the ground.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Like I said before, you I really recommend just you know,
depending on the size of the yard. Obviously it may
not be feasible. But if you've got a smaller yard,
go out there with like a leaf raight and just
kind of raak the surface and get some of that
dead stuff off. Sometimes you can just take a mower
and set it down a little bit lower than normal,
like no more than maybe a quarter inch of whatch
your normal mowing height is. And sometimes you know, if
(14:01):
you put the put a bagger on there and sometimes
it'll step up some of that that dying material and
just kind of find it out a little bit, gets
a little bit more sunlight down to that tissue. It
gives a better time to recover that.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's great idea, and so guidelines homeowners how can they
determine what the appropriate fertilizer is for their lawn.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
So I always refer to the university recommendations of that.
I know, if you get a store nowadays, a lot
of the brands still actually have UF recommendations on the
bag here in Florida that I'll tell you what's put out.
So my biggest caution in the spring time is not
to put out too much nitrogen, especially you know, looking
at the weather now, it's going to warm up here
(14:44):
in the next week or so, and people are going
to get anxious and want to put out fertilizer. And
if we have another cold snap and you've got access
nitrogen out there, that could lead to some disease issues.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, that's true. Oh please, no more cold snaps. I
hope not so so. Over the last two years, Mark,
you have gotten really in a severe drought. I haven't
seen this since twenty twelve. So what steps can homeowners
do so they can ensure that their lawns are getting
properly watered?
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Yeah, so, I mean even during the winter, you know
a lot of times people just shut their radiation off
and grass is dormant or semi dormant, But even that
needs to be watered. I mean, just like a you know,
hibernating beargats and oxygen. You can't shut off the essential
you know, things that people that grass needs. So, you know,
(15:33):
I always talk about in the springtime, you know, roots
are a little bit shallower, So you always want to water,
you know, more frequent with less volume. And then as
time goes on throughout the summer, you know you want
to try to decrease your your frequency, but increase your
volume because you want those roots to get deeper. So
roots are going to chase water. So if you're water
(15:54):
and every day there's roots are going to stay at
the surface. They're never going to get very deep. So
if you start watering a little bit deeper, roots will
follow that water down.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
So water less often, but water longer. Yes, that would
be great. Okay, And so tell us about SAD solutions
and how you collaborate with the universities to research turf.
I would love to hear that.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
So we work with land grant universities, and you know,
our biggest idea is we just we want to develop
grasses that are are more sustainable, that are better for
the environment. So we're looking for grasses that require less
inputs such as fertilizer or irriation. You know, a lot
of things we're looking at are better cold tolerance, better
shade tolerance, better drought tolerance. Obviously with the droughts that
(16:37):
are happening, So so that that's kind of what we're
always looking for. We're looking for something that's different from
what's on the market. It's better for homeowners, it's better
for turf producers to produce, and that's kind of what
we look at.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Okay, And so you have a great website. It provides
a lot of information, So tell us what we can
find on your website and what that link is.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Sure if you go to Thought solutions dot com. We
have turf grass guides for all of our different varieties. Yeah,
these are kind of general guides, so I always cast people.
Then if you live in South Florida, you know you'd
probably want to go on the higher end of whatever
we recommend for that particular grass. I mean, we have
grasses all over the world, so you know, when we
(17:23):
have our maintenance guides, they are kind of general wise,
so you have to take it a little big grain
of salt, but they're they're good guides, good general practices
for each of our grasses. And then each of one
of our grasses it actually has its own website, so
if you want to get into more specifics the it's grass.
If you just type in each of our grasses, you
can find that. But if everything's on our website, if
(17:44):
you give us saw Solutions dot.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Com, well I will tell you I've been pleased with.
I have been installing Citra Blue in some shadier lawns
for clients and it's done very well. Tell us about
Citrup Blue.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Such a blue is phenomenal. As far as Shaye Torrance
and disease tolerance, I don't think there's another grass in
the market with the disease tolerance, especially seeing August team wise,
it's done really well, especially in areas where you know
the lethal environ of crosis is attacking Forarktam down in
South Florida. It's actually we found a case up in
Jacksonville recently. So this this is a grass that's just
(18:21):
attacking Fortam and it's killing it off. And Citric Blue
has actually done really well. It's been one of the
options for replacement. We haven't said it's resistant, but after
almost eight years of being in LVN sites, it's done
very well. So there's been a lot of Citra Blue
installed in South Florida, especially in these LPN areas.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Thank you so Mark so much. Mark. I do appreciate it.
Saw Solutions is a great company and I love how
your environmental and you're looking for more sustainable solutions. So
I do appreciate it. Thank you for coming on this morning.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Oh you're welcome. And that's a saw solution dot com
and you can find out about their grasses on there
and you can ask for them too, so your landscaper
will be able to get them out to the state.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I was love the fact that he kind of reassured
us like, hey, you know, look, this is how it
looks whenever he goes into the winter.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's exactly. So now we're ready for next year exactly. Well,
you can take care of your lawns this year. So
I do appreciate that's Mark Canhey, uh, director of operations
for Florida for SOD Solutions dot Com. We're going to
be back with more of your phone calls. One triple
eight four five five two nine six seven. It's Saturday morning.
(19:34):
You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkas
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Good morning,
(19:56):
welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. We're taking your
phone calls. One triple eight four five five two nine
six seven, or you can text two three six eight zero.
I want to give a big thank you to Mark Cann,
the director of Florida Operations for Soft Solutions, and all
they do for research on turf grass. It's very very important.
(20:19):
Let's go to Dick in Central Florida. Good morning, Dick.
How can I help you?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Good morning? We listen love your program, try and listen
to it every week. I've got in central Florida. I've
got a very large avocata tree and a medium size
just the tip ends are burnt, probably eight inches to
foot and a half of dead on the end of
the limbs. Do I cut that brown off back to
(20:45):
the green?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yes? Quote, yeah, go ahead and do that right now.
Anything that is dead you can cut off very easily.
I wouldn't worry about the tips so much. I would
leave as much of the leaves, the green leaves on
as possible. But if you have dead areas, go ahead
and cut them out.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
You're welcome, sir. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it. It's
so nice to hear, isn't it. So we have some
wonderful text messages. So let's see. Oh, this is very
good klet in winter Haven. Thank you for a perfect
text message. She gave me her name, she gave me
her city, and she asked a great question, how long
(21:25):
after actressine is applied to a yard is it saved
for chickens? Again, My baby chicks won't be here until May,
and we'll move to their coop and run in July. Okay, cleet,
So here's the answer. If your chickens are free range
and they roam, I would not put down actressine. Okay.
It is not labeled for use in poultry farms or
(21:48):
in areas where there are birds, okay. So as far
as chicks, if they are in a run and they're
in a coop and they don't get out, then you
can put the actressine down in areas where you have
lawn okay. But if they are free range, I would
not use it. Okay. And there is label instructions on
(22:10):
the chemical and on the products that you can read.
And then also there's an eight hundred number there anyone
has any questions about any of the chemicals they want
to use in their yard, there's a great eight hundred
number on all labels that you can call the company
and ask them directly and they will give you a
good response. But I would not use the actressine if
(22:32):
your chickens are free range. Great question, so Laurient Palm Bay, Hi, Laurie.
She was wondering if I speak at any local nurseries
in Palm Bay or Melbourne. I don't, but I could,
so if you go to a nursery there, you can
let them know. I'd be happy to come down and
talk at any nursery. And are there any nurseries in
our area that you might recommend? I don't know the
(22:54):
Palm Bay area nurseries, I'm sorry to say, and so
I can't help you, but I would just go visit
all of them, just I mean, there has to be
quite a few, because it is in the south and
they on the coast, and they do have wonderful weather there,
so there should be several and go and see and
talk to them, look at their plant selections and see
(23:16):
how they do, how they respond, how helpful are they.
And you'll find a good one, I know you will.
So just check them all out, yes, and see what
gives you the best. Brand one triple eight four, five, five,
two nine sixty seven, or you can text two three
six eight zero, So Gene and down they sent me
(23:37):
some wonderful pictures of this bee. And it says, what
is this bee? Is it good or bad? Good bug
or bad bug? And she found it in a pot, uh,
And it is a good bee. It's beneficial. It's a
sweat beek. And they're very pretty. It's not a pretty
name for a for a pretty bee, but they are beneficial.
(23:59):
So thanks, thank you for the pictures. That was great.
So then Susa she sent me and I don't know
if it's a he or she because the first name
is it's just an initial. Uh, sent me great photographs
of a native winged elm that they planted about six
(24:20):
feet tall, and it looks kind of peaked. It doesn't
look happy. And she said, what can they do for
her wing dowm? She says, hih, Teresa attached to the
photos of my wing elm planted around September. It's about
six feet tall. Should I dig it up and plant
it deeper? And it's very prominent that you can see
(24:40):
these roots around the top. They're literally out of the
ground about two inches and they're kind of curving and
so and so, thank you for the great pictures. It's
going to need to be replanted, and this is a
good time. It's still kind of young. It hasn't been
in the ground a year. It's been in the sid September,
(25:01):
So what you need to do. What I noticed first
of all, is there's no mulched area around this winged elm,
and that means the grass is going to compete with
the tree for the nutrients. So that's why we have
a mulched area around the tree over the root ball,
(25:22):
so that the tree can absorb the nutrients it that
you put down from fertilizers from the rain, that it
will be able to get the water that it needs
in the nutrients. So I would create a mulched area
around it. I would say probably three to four feet
out around the tree, all the way around in a
(25:43):
circle around the tree. But I also then would dig
up the elm tree and see how girdled it is.
The roots do look girdled, so I would take it
out of the ground. I would literally wash all of
the dirt off of the root ball so you can
see an open up that root system, and then replant
it again. Replant it. I sent her pictures where you
(26:05):
wanted to leave it out of the ground a few
inches so that it can settle properly, mulch it, and
it should do a great recovery in the spring.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
See And that's see, that's I didn't learn this till
last week. Okay, all right, So anybody thinks that they're
out there and they're just like, I'm dumb le whatever hear,
you're not, okay, because if I am learning.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Itself, anybody killer stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
But the girdling like I've had, I couldn't understand why
I would go through and clean out some of my
flower beds or even you know, my vegetable beds. And
it seems like I literally just took the plant, stuck
it in the ground and then it's just still there
and I can pull it up because it died, and
it still looks like it just came right back out
of the pot. But it had produced a little bit,
but it didn't, you know, make it No, But that
(26:46):
makes sense. It is because I'm not taking the time
to break the rooting like you spread it.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, you want to gently tease it, open it up,
and stimulate it, because if it stays in the same
shape when it's planted in the pot, some of these
plants are in a pot for months and months and
months and they don't realize that they've been planted. And
so when you put them in the ground or in
a new pot, open up that root system and that's
going to kind of tenderly break some of the roots
(27:15):
that you that it goes, oh my goodness, something's happening.
I got to survive and it starts to grow new leaves.
So always gently open up the root system, make sure
it's not girdled, and you can replant. So thank you
for those great text messages. We're going to be back
with more of Better Lawns and Gardens this Saturday morning.
This is where you are. We love to hear from you.
(27:35):
I'm Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
(28:00):
Welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. We'd love to
have your phone calls one triple eight four five five
two nine sixty seven, or you can text two three
six eight zero. I'll be speaking at the garden Fair
of the Sweetwater Oaks Garden Club, which is gonna be
at Protegrity Plaza today ten am to five pm and
(28:20):
tomorrow it is on ten am to four pm. They're
gonna have plant vendors, garden accessory and art vendors. They're
gonna have speakers all day long today and tomorrow. I
am speaking at ten am. They're gonna have hands on
children's activities, educational books, and food trucks. Yay for the
food trucks, and so please come out and see us.
(28:42):
And I will be giving away the terrarium. So uh,
you have an opportunity to do that. What can you
be planting right now? Well, for getting ready for spring
and summer. You can be planting beans and candalope and corn, cucumbers, eggplant, lufah,
pepper's pumpkins, squad tomatoes and watermelons. Bulbs. You can be
(29:04):
planting African irises ammarillis. And I will tell you my
amaryllis bloomed like we didn't even have winter. They are
gorgeous and they are blooming right now. This is where
you want to look for lubber grasshoppers to hatch. Lubber
grasshoppers love amaryllis and crinum lilies and all of the
spider lily families. They love the bulbs, So look for
(29:27):
those lubber grasshoppers need to be killed immediately. I will
just tell you though the bay of my existence also too.
Amazon lilies can be planted right now. BlackBerry lilies, I
love those blood lilies, bulbines, palladiums, cannas, crinums, day lilies,
Gladiolis gloriosa lilies is a wonderful, wonderful bulb Louisiana iris society, garlic,
(29:51):
spider lilies, and rain lilies. So it is a great
time to be planting right now. We're going to get
the rain this weekend. If you've got rain yesterday, today, today,
and tomorrow, this next week will be perfect for gardening
and planting in the garden. Let's go to Gordon and
plant city.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Hey treats a long time to see.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Hey, if everyone enjoys your dirty word of the day.
This time I was not able to understand how it
was pronounced or spelled.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Okay, okay, great apolo.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Oh no, my apologies. I only have a few just
a short time to talk about it, and I sometimes
get it's different. Klepto k l e p t.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
O to lie, to tell a lie, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yes, to steal and parasite so klepto paraticism or klepto parasites,
which is what the cuckoo bee is.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
A klepto parasite, a kleptomaniac, and some of the steel, yes,
lines of steels. Oh oh now I got it now, yeah,
I would tell you some tall tales about how the
cold slowed down the use of glass. Okay, and it
finally worked for my crve, myrtle finally hanging in there
(31:05):
likes a cat. But when you got time for all that, so,
thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Oh that's great, Gordon, thank you so much. Check in
with me more often. That's wonderful. So klepto parasitism, and uh,
it's it's that they're just like cuckoos and Lizzy, did
you know that cuckoo birds lay their eggs in other
birds nestses because.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
They're jerk faces and they are not responsible.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
They're not responsible. Well that clept are the klepto parasites
for the cuckoo bees and cuckoo watts. They're two different types,
but there are both. They're both cuckoo in the fact
that they use other bees nests and they let they
feed off of the other bees eggs and stuff like that.
(31:49):
So that's kind of cruel.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
That's that's yeah. I know a few people.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Like that, you klepto parasites. You know, I will start
calling them that.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The bad words that I say every once in a while,
kleo parasite.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
So it's a great time to get fruit trees you
want to. This is nice because you can see the
flowers right now that are blooming. I know the peach
trees are blooming right now. Nectarines are blooming, and this
cold weather did them a lot of good apple trees.
That's all doing well. So the sunny days for the midweek,
it's going to be sunny's. We're going to be getting
(32:26):
rain this weekend next weekend, which is good. And this
is why you want to get things planted right now
because we do have these wonderful temperatures that are less
stressful on the plant and that's important. What kind of
flowers can you be planting right now? Well, you could
be planting asters and butacopa, bogonias and cone flowers. I
(32:48):
love cone flowers Coreopsis, which is our state wildflower. And
the Florida Wildlife Festival is going to be March twenty eighth,
so you want to definitely check that out. Cosmos and
then Dichondra Dusty Miller's false heather. Four o'clocks. I love
four o'clocks, Guyardias and gharas, whirling butterflies, gazanias and geraniums.
(33:12):
Geraniums here in Florida we use them as basically annuals.
They don't live year to year here in Florida just
gets too hot for them. Gerbra, daisies, million bells, caliber
coas look beautiful right now in the nurseries. Roses and
salvius stoke asters and yarrow can be planted right now.
(33:33):
You could have a lovely wildflower garden, a native flower garden,
and it will look just lovely. Herbs you can be
planting right now, annas and basil, borage and chide, dill
and fennel, lemon, balm, mint, oregano. Then also parsley, rosemary, sage,
sweet marjoram, tragon and thyme, and so basically what's in
(33:57):
the nurseries right now, you can go ahead and plant,
get your tomatoes out there, your peppers out there, and
also all your herbs and just have a lovely, lovely garden.
You can plant them in your yard. You don't need
to put them in a raised bed. But if you
don't have the room, if you're in a condo or
town home, you can put them in containers, and if
(34:18):
you have at least six to eight hours of sunlight,
you can plant them.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Okay, So I have a question, yes, okay, So on
our sister stations here there is a young family, probably
late twenties, maybe early thirties, and they have two young children.
One of them is enamored with dirt worms and growing stuff.
And I think that this child is probably maybe about
(34:42):
four okay five, absolutely eat cucumbers handfuls.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Okay, so that's a good start.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
How deep of a pot?
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Because I like to give them, you'd give them a garden.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I'd like to do stuff like that, like will screendom
stuff that these that these children don't normally get from
other people, so you know, they get toys and stuff.
So I've got the Boston cucumbers. They've already started their
little growth. Now how deep of a pot?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Because I would do a five gallon or a seven
gallon pot, okay, okay, So you want it to be
at least a foot, you know, eighteen inches to twenty
one inches okay, Okay, that's gonna give them enough soil
to get a good root depth and it's not gonna
be too crowded. But you can put a lot in
that pot because it's going to be about two foot
(35:30):
wide and that's enough to put a lot of plants
with a lot of root space.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Okay, yeah, because I plan on putting lattice or whatnot
back of it for to grow up.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
So yeah, that was that was that was my question.
And how how many do you think we should plant?
Because we have I've got plenty of this, okay.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
A seven gallon I would probably put five, four to
five okay, And you know you could make five year
olds are perfect for this and get popsicle sticks and
make a trellis and glue them all together to make
a trellis.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, we don't have time for that, but that would
be great for next year. So okay, than you.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Well, I love that you're doing it getting children involved
in growing. You know, they may not appreciate it now
when they're little, but it's a great way to get
them started. Gotcha, And oh no, thank you for doing it.
I'm going to be at the garden fair today speaking
at ten am on how to create a terrarium, and
I will be giving it away at the end, so
you definitely want to come see that. We want to
(36:32):
thank all of our sponsors. Okay, we do have wonderful,
wonderful sponsors here, Black Cow Manure, Great Summit, Responsible solutions.
Mosquito bits and dunks. If you're new to Florida, Okay,
you want to get mosquito bits and dunks. They get
rid of the mosquitos without hurting the wildlife, without hurting
(36:55):
your pets or children. People. It is wonderful. It's an
organic product and it is really good to use and indoors.
If you're getting those fungal nets, one you're keeping your
soil to what okay, and two you can get rid
of them with the mosquito bits. That's a really good solution.
Peterson's Nursery in Lakeland is I will be there March fourteenth.
(37:20):
I'll be talking about color and I can't wait to
meet everybody. And we always have a good showing and
it's doing a great time.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
We have a lot of listeners there in the Polk
County area, and so yeah, it'll be nice to meet
a few of you. Because I play on tagon along.
So if you're one of the few, oh, I would
love that, that would be great. And we also want
to thank our listeners overseas. We have a lot of
listeners in China, Singapore, Australia, even in UH India and
(37:52):
then also overseas in UH, Ireland, Germany, Norway.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Is that norm Hey?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
You know, like you said, you go across the world,
so you see the different things that we potentially can plant,
yes and grow here. So yeah, excellent.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
And once you know gardening basics, you can garden anywhere.
And you know, once you know what the plant needs,
which is the right type of soil, the right sunlight, conditions,
the right pH and then moisture, then you can grow anywhere.
So I really really really love that we're going to
have wonderful weather this week. It's good time to get
(38:27):
out there and garden. I want to thank Dana Vendrick
with Quality Green Specialist Nursery for coming on and for
sponsoring the program, and Mark Can for coming on and
discussing our lawnch You can hear it all on the podcast.
If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns and
Gardens I'm Teresa Watkin's producer who I can't live without,
(38:48):
Lizzie Steele. We're going to be back next week with
more Better Lawns and Gardens. This is Florida's talk and
entertainment network.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yes, I thank the listeners to you, guys rock If
you've missed anything, our website Better Lawns dot com, Better
laws dot com, check out all the social media pages.
Which is Better Lawns and Gardens or Teresa Watkins
Welcome back to the second hour of Better Lawns and Gardens.
I'm Teresa Watkins. Thank you for joining us this morning.
We have a great show coming up for you. We
have the director of the Florida Operations for SOD Solutions,
Mark Can and he is going to be talking to
us about lawn recovery. Let's go to our dirty word
(00:30):
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
klepto parasitism. Klepto parasitism or parasitism by theft, is a
feeding strategy where a creature takes food from another, usually
(00:50):
through confrontation. But this behavior persists when stealing is easier
than hunting, especially if potential victims are weak or plentiful.
But I'm talking about the insect world. Cuckoo birds in nature,
they put their eggs in other birds' nests and the
(01:10):
same thing with klepto parasites are They can be arthropods
such as bees, wasp flies, beetles, bugs, and spiders. Like
most bees, cuckoo bees are solitary, meaning that they do
not dwell in social hive communities. They are called cuckoo
bees because they lay their eggs in the nest of
(01:31):
other bees in a manner similar to the cuckoo bears,
which lays eggs in the nests of other birds. Cuckoo
bees is a notable example, so what you want to do.
Cucko bees are more robust and less hairy than most
solitary bees, sometimes resembling wasp. They lack pollen baskets since
they don't gather pollen for the offspring, and species vary
(01:54):
significantly in color, some displaying iridescence. Cuckoo wasp target target
potter and mud dauber wasp nests. Cuckoo bees visit various flowers,
but show preference for Spanish needles, frog fruit and Florida
sunflowers and dotted horsemen. They do not collect pollen. They
visit flowers solely to collect nectar, and that's how they
(02:17):
get pollinated. It's not uncommon to find a cuckoo bee
snoozing on a flower petal. They simply tuck their legs
under their abdomens and relax with their antenna straight out,
before falling fast asleep. Ninety nine percent of the klepto
parasitic bees descend from a single bee that lived ninety
(02:38):
five million years ago, and there are three species of
cuckoo bees that are endemic to Florida. So the dirty
word of the day is klepto parasitism, living off of
somebody else and stealing it.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Through confrontation, I'm gonna have to rally and save the
cuckoo bees because I have seen these before, have you yes,
and I've killed them?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Oh my god, No they're not. They're very, very cool,
and so yeah, I do appreciate it. I am going
to be speaking at the Sweetwater Oaks Garden Club Garden
Fair today which is being held from ten am to
five pm in the Protegrity Plaza to sixty wa Kaiva
Springs Road, Longwood, and then also tomorrow's Sunday, March first,
(03:23):
ten am to four There's going to be lots of
plant vendors, lots of art and also children's activities, food,
food trucks, and lots of great speakers. So come out
today to the Protegrity Plaza ten am through five pm
today to sixty Wakaiva Spring Road in Longwood, and that
(03:45):
will be a lot of fun and then also Peterson's Nursery.
I will be speaking there March fourteenth. I'm looking forward
to it on how to add color to your garden. Yes,
and then the roses. They have a great, big, huge
rose say all coming up, but they just don't know
exactly when the roses took a hit, but they're coming
back beautifully and they literally have hundreds and hundreds of roses.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And that's the thing though, the good part about it
is that those that were saved so get I mean
whenever whenever we announce or you go, you should go
to their website and you should enlist our sign ups,
so this way you can get their newsletter and when
they're going to be selling the roses because it's it's
a first come, first surf and they go fast and
it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
It is really these are roses that do beautifully here
in Florida. If you think growing roses is hard, you
should try them because they're very easy to grow and
and do well here. So I that's going to be wonderful.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Also too, if you'd like to get my newsletter, it's
coming out. I promise I got sick this one.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
You got very sick. And then we had all the
freezes and we did just it was obnoxious.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
It was it was, It was obnoxious, annoying, And so
you can go to my website www dot g s
H E. Hyphen Consulting dot com and sign up for it.
We still have some spots left on our Art and
Bloom Garden Tour to the Best of English Gardens and
the Chelsea Flowers Show, and we have a couple more
(05:17):
spots left on the Revolutionary Tours, so if you'd like
to check that out, It's Art and Bloomgardentours dot Com.
For all of our tours this year, we have about
eight of them, and we will love having you along
going out and enjoying all these beautiful gardens together. Yes,
they will uplift your spirit and get lots of inspiration
and design ideas. It's where I get my design ideas
(05:40):
from just traveling around the country and overseas and bringing
it back here to Florida so that we can have
beautiful gardens.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What I love is my favorite is I like when
she actually goes away because when she comes back, there's
just this freshness, this fluff in this rosy you read,
just exclodement and there you glow when she comes back
and she's just like, Okay, this is what I learned,
this is something new.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I'm gonna try that.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I'm just I love it saw Tony feels and so
imagine if you went on these tours with her, how
you would feel coming back.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's just really exhilarating. And I have found lots of
flowers in gardens up north and overseas that will do
well here in Florida. So it's always it's always a
great way to go and we're going to be right back.
We have Mark can He is the director of the
Florida Operations for Soft Solutions. He's also the president of
(06:38):
Florida Turf Grass Association. Is your lawn going to recover?
Mark's gonna tell us how and if it is or not.
Stay tuned if you're listening to us on Saturday mornings,
Better Lawns and Gardens from seven am to nine am.
Here Florida's I'm Teresa Watkins, Florida's Talking Entertainment Network. Welcome
(07:06):
back to Better Lawns and Gardens. Joining me right now
is Mark cam He's the president of the Florida Turf
Grass Association. He has over thirty years of experience in
Florida's turf grass industry, holding both MS and BS degrees
from the University of Florida Go Gators. As Director of
Florida's Operations for Soft Solutions, Mark supports turf grass professionals
(07:29):
across Florida, South Georgia, and South Alabama and collaborates with
researchers on sustainable turf grass varieties. Mister Can earned the
Florida Golf Course Superintendent Association Distinguished Service Award in twenty thirteen,
and he is a longtime member of the Golf Course
Superintendent Association of America and the United States Golf Association.
(07:53):
He is an excellent resource for helping homeowners help their
lawns recover. Good morning, Mark, Good morning, you are quite distinguished.
I loved learning all about your background, so we appreciate
you spending the weekend with us, justin for a few minutes.
And the winter freeze in twenty twenty six has caused
(08:13):
significant damage. How have the golf courses been affected?
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Well, you're definitely seeing a lot more color change than
you have in previous years. This cold weather. This has
definitely been a lot different from years in the past
where we've had not just colder temperatures, but just longer
durations of temperatures. So, you know, a lot of golf courses,
you know, they've gone from the traditional receding of rye
grass to more lipid programs such as pigments or dies
(08:41):
to kind of keep the color throughout the winter. But
so where they're having misses or skips and things like that,
you're definitely seeing the color differences that you don't normally
see in the previous years.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
No, I was up at the village for Wow, the
health of.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
The grass be just fine. For menio grass is tough,
and they'll come out of the winner is just fine.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh, I'm sure they will. But I was up with
the villages and the golf courses up there. You could
see it was a striking difference. You could tell that
they were really they were they had gotten hit. So
I see brown lawns in residential communities. In a few areas,
some of the lawns are green. Do all grasses go dormant?
Speaker 5 (09:17):
So all grasses can go dormant, but they don't always
go fully dormant. You know, some grasses can go dormant
sooner than others. You'll see certain grasses like seeing augustine
or scentipede, they'll they'll go dormant a lot faster than
sea bermuda grass or behead grass or soys of grass.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Okay, and so the soil does we talk about Florida
and we don't get wintertime in our our soil are ground?
Does it really freeze like it does is up north?
But does it get colder and does that affect the grass?
Speaker 5 (09:52):
Oh, it definitely does affect the grass. You know, we're
unique in Florida where we get these cold days. But
you know we also warm up pretty well during the day.
So you know, when we're thirty degrees in the morning,
it's sixty or seventy degrees in the afternoon, you know,
grass is going to be just fine. It's those days
where we stay in the thirties or forties during the
day time. You know, that's really what kind of shuts
(10:13):
the grass down.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So so give it the presence of dead grass in
homeowner's yards right now, how can they determine whether they
have just winter dead grass or it's thatch.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
So really it's not good. It's good thatches your dead
decaying matter. So you know, some of that grass that
looks brown. Now, yeah, that's going to die off. It's
kind of I can kind of relate it to say,
like skin on your arm. You know, we we have
dead skin on our arms all day long, and you
know it kind of just sheves off, but doesn't mean
our arms are gonna die.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Or our skinstead So that's true.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yeah, So I mean everything's gonna be just fine. You know.
Thatch is more you know during the during more of
a concern during the spring and summer. You know, you
want to get rid of that that material. I always
kind of recommend taking a leaf wreak and just kind
of rik it out at the top of the grass
and get some of that dead stuff off, just like
you would just kind of wipe the dead skin off
your arm.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Right, And that just is for basically older grasses, right,
older lawns, because it's an accumulation of over growing with fertilizers.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Yeah, the more fertilize you put out, you know, if
you go too higher rate, you need to produce more thatch.
You mean, the grass is always going to be growing,
so it just always it's always replacing itself as new
tissue grows, old tissue dies and just kind of replaces itself.
So as long as you're not over fertilizing and pushing
the grass too much, you shouldn't have too much of
the accumulation of thatch.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So we talk about you know, on your website it
says spring performance begins in the fall, and we talk
about maintenance all year round, but what does it mean
spring performance begins in the fall.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
I am a huge believer and how your grass goes
into the winter is how it's going to come out
in the spring. So you know, I always say, you know,
prep your grass in the fall, so you know, we
tend to increase our potassium, which is a good base
for for your grass for over the winter. Just gives
it enough energy and fuel to kind of survive through
the winter and keeps in good health. You know, when
(12:15):
you when you go in, if you have grass is damaged,
you're we going into the winter. You know, it's not
going to recover over that winter time. It's just grass,
this isn't growing enough. So pretty much how you go
into the winter is how you're going to come out
in the spring. So you definitely want to give yourself
a good head start, you know, coming in the spring
by having healthy grass in the fall or winter.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So when should homeowners start to fertilize their lugs, because
if it's not growing now, if it's still dormant now
and brown, should they should they fertilize now or should
they wait until late March April?
Speaker 5 (12:48):
So you know, the late March April ideas, it's a generalization.
You know, it's based on historical data, you know. Okay,
these are when the temperatures go up. So it's really
depending on temperature. You know, grass really starts to grow
and soul temperatures around sixty degrees fahrenheit. So when you
start getting in the fifties in the morning, seventies during
the day, grass will start greening up. And then when
(13:08):
we start getting in too like the sixties in the
morning and the eighties at night or during to day.
You know, that's that's pretty much when you'll see grass
start growing again. So I wouldn't rush to start fertilizing
or do too much until you may we have those
ideal temperatures.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Okay, And so when they do start to see this
growing and mowing, because I know my landscapers they haven't
been mowing a lot because the grass hasn't been growing.
But when it starts to mow, what should they do
with that dead grass clipping? Should they just make them
or leave them on the on the ground.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Like I said before, you I really recommend just you know,
depending on the size of the yard. Obviously it may
not be feasible. But if you've got a smaller yard,
go out there with like a leaf raight and just
kind of raak the surface and get some of that
dead stuff off. Sometimes you can just take a mower
and set it down a little bit lower than normal,
like no more than maybe a quarter inch of whatch
your normal mowing height is. And sometimes you know, if
(14:01):
you put the put a bagger on there and sometimes
it'll step up some of that that dying material and
just kind of find it out a little bit, gets
a little bit more sunlight down to that tissue. It
gives a better time to recover that.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's great idea, and so guidelines homeowners how can they
determine what the appropriate fertilizer is for their lawn.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
So I always refer to the university recommendations of that.
I know, if you get a store nowadays, a lot
of the brands still actually have UF recommendations on the
bag here in Florida that I'll tell you what's put out.
So my biggest caution in the spring time is not
to put out too much nitrogen, especially you know, looking
at the weather now, it's going to warm up here
(14:44):
in the next week or so, and people are going
to get anxious and want to put out fertilizer. And
if we have another cold snap and you've got access
nitrogen out there, that could lead to some disease issues.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, that's true. Oh please, no more cold snaps. I
hope not so so. Over the last two years, Mark,
you have gotten really in a severe drought. I haven't
seen this since twenty twelve. So what steps can homeowners
do so they can ensure that their lawns are getting
properly watered?
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Yeah, so, I mean even during the winter, you know
a lot of times people just shut their radiation off
and grass is dormant or semi dormant, But even that
needs to be watered. I mean, just like a you know,
hibernating beargats and oxygen. You can't shut off the essential
you know, things that people that grass needs. So, you know,
(15:33):
I always talk about in the springtime, you know, roots
are a little bit shallower, So you always want to water,
you know, more frequent with less volume. And then as
time goes on throughout the summer, you know you want
to try to decrease your your frequency, but increase your
volume because you want those roots to get deeper. So
roots are going to chase water. So if you're water
(15:54):
and every day there's roots are going to stay at
the surface. They're never going to get very deep. So
if you start watering a little bit deeper, roots will
follow that water down.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
So water less often, but water longer. Yes, that would
be great. Okay, And so tell us about SAD solutions
and how you collaborate with the universities to research turf.
I would love to hear that.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
So we work with land grant universities, and you know,
our biggest idea is we just we want to develop
grasses that are are more sustainable, that are better for
the environment. So we're looking for grasses that require less
inputs such as fertilizer or irriation. You know, a lot
of things we're looking at are better cold tolerance, better
shade tolerance, better drought tolerance. Obviously with the droughts that
(16:37):
are happening, So so that that's kind of what we're
always looking for. We're looking for something that's different from
what's on the market. It's better for homeowners, it's better
for turf producers to produce, and that's kind of what
we look at.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Okay, And so you have a great website. It provides
a lot of information, So tell us what we can
find on your website and what that link is.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Sure if you go to Thought solutions dot com. We
have turf grass guides for all of our different varieties. Yeah,
these are kind of general guides, so I always cast people.
Then if you live in South Florida, you know you'd
probably want to go on the higher end of whatever
we recommend for that particular grass. I mean, we have
grasses all over the world, so you know, when we
(17:23):
have our maintenance guides, they are kind of general wise,
so you have to take it a little big grain
of salt, but they're they're good guides, good general practices
for each of our grasses. And then each of one
of our grasses it actually has its own website, so
if you want to get into more specifics the it's grass.
If you just type in each of our grasses, you
can find that. But if everything's on our website, if
(17:44):
you give us saw Solutions dot.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Com, well I will tell you I've been pleased with.
I have been installing Citra Blue in some shadier lawns
for clients and it's done very well. Tell us about
Citrup Blue.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Such a blue is phenomenal. As far as Shaye Torrance
and disease tolerance, I don't think there's another grass in
the market with the disease tolerance, especially seeing August team wise,
it's done really well, especially in areas where you know
the lethal environ of crosis is attacking Forarktam down in
South Florida. It's actually we found a case up in
Jacksonville recently. So this this is a grass that's just
(18:21):
attacking Fortam and it's killing it off. And Citric Blue
has actually done really well. It's been one of the
options for replacement. We haven't said it's resistant, but after
almost eight years of being in LVN sites, it's done
very well. So there's been a lot of Citra Blue
installed in South Florida, especially in these LPN areas.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Thank you so Mark so much. Mark. I do appreciate it.
Saw Solutions is a great company and I love how
your environmental and you're looking for more sustainable solutions. So
I do appreciate it. Thank you for coming on this morning.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Oh you're welcome. And that's a saw solution dot com
and you can find out about their grasses on there
and you can ask for them too, so your landscaper
will be able to get them out to the state.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I was love the fact that he kind of reassured
us like, hey, you know, look, this is how it
looks whenever he goes into the winter.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's exactly. So now we're ready for next year exactly. Well,
you can take care of your lawns this year. So
I do appreciate that's Mark Canhey, uh, director of operations
for Florida for SOD Solutions dot Com. We're going to
be back with more of your phone calls. One triple
eight four five five two nine six seven. It's Saturday morning.
(19:34):
You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkas
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Good morning,
(19:56):
welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. We're taking your
phone calls. One triple eight four five five two nine
six seven, or you can text two three six eight zero.
I want to give a big thank you to Mark Cann,
the director of Florida Operations for Soft Solutions, and all
they do for research on turf grass. It's very very important.
(20:19):
Let's go to Dick in Central Florida. Good morning, Dick.
How can I help you?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Good morning? We listen love your program, try and listen
to it every week. I've got in central Florida. I've
got a very large avocata tree and a medium size
just the tip ends are burnt, probably eight inches to
foot and a half of dead on the end of
the limbs. Do I cut that brown off back to
(20:45):
the green?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yes? Quote, yeah, go ahead and do that right now.
Anything that is dead you can cut off very easily.
I wouldn't worry about the tips so much. I would
leave as much of the leaves, the green leaves on
as possible. But if you have dead areas, go ahead
and cut them out.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
You're welcome, sir. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it. It's
so nice to hear, isn't it. So we have some
wonderful text messages. So let's see. Oh, this is very
good klet in winter Haven. Thank you for a perfect
text message. She gave me her name, she gave me
her city, and she asked a great question, how long
(21:25):
after actressine is applied to a yard is it saved
for chickens? Again, My baby chicks won't be here until May,
and we'll move to their coop and run in July. Okay, cleet,
So here's the answer. If your chickens are free range
and they roam, I would not put down actressine. Okay.
It is not labeled for use in poultry farms or
(21:48):
in areas where there are birds, okay. So as far
as chicks, if they are in a run and they're
in a coop and they don't get out, then you
can put the actressine down in areas where you have
lawn okay. But if they are free range, I would
not use it. Okay. And there is label instructions on
(22:10):
the chemical and on the products that you can read.
And then also there's an eight hundred number there anyone
has any questions about any of the chemicals they want
to use in their yard, there's a great eight hundred
number on all labels that you can call the company
and ask them directly and they will give you a
good response. But I would not use the actressine if
(22:32):
your chickens are free range. Great question, so Laurient Palm Bay, Hi, Laurie.
She was wondering if I speak at any local nurseries
in Palm Bay or Melbourne. I don't, but I could,
so if you go to a nursery there, you can
let them know. I'd be happy to come down and
talk at any nursery. And are there any nurseries in
our area that you might recommend? I don't know the
(22:54):
Palm Bay area nurseries, I'm sorry to say, and so
I can't help you, but I would just go visit
all of them, just I mean, there has to be
quite a few, because it is in the south and
they on the coast, and they do have wonderful weather there,
so there should be several and go and see and
talk to them, look at their plant selections and see
(23:16):
how they do, how they respond, how helpful are they.
And you'll find a good one, I know you will.
So just check them all out, yes, and see what
gives you the best. Brand one triple eight four, five, five,
two nine sixty seven, or you can text two three
six eight zero, So Gene and down they sent me
(23:37):
some wonderful pictures of this bee. And it says, what
is this bee? Is it good or bad? Good bug
or bad bug? And she found it in a pot, uh,
And it is a good bee. It's beneficial. It's a
sweat beek. And they're very pretty. It's not a pretty
name for a for a pretty bee, but they are beneficial.
(23:59):
So thanks, thank you for the pictures. That was great.
So then Susa she sent me and I don't know
if it's a he or she because the first name
is it's just an initial. Uh, sent me great photographs
of a native winged elm that they planted about six
(24:20):
feet tall, and it looks kind of peaked. It doesn't
look happy. And she said, what can they do for
her wing dowm? She says, hih, Teresa attached to the
photos of my wing elm planted around September. It's about
six feet tall. Should I dig it up and plant
it deeper? And it's very prominent that you can see
(24:40):
these roots around the top. They're literally out of the
ground about two inches and they're kind of curving and
so and so, thank you for the great pictures. It's
going to need to be replanted, and this is a
good time. It's still kind of young. It hasn't been
in the ground a year. It's been in the sid September,
(25:01):
So what you need to do. What I noticed first
of all, is there's no mulched area around this winged elm,
and that means the grass is going to compete with
the tree for the nutrients. So that's why we have
a mulched area around the tree over the root ball,
(25:22):
so that the tree can absorb the nutrients it that
you put down from fertilizers from the rain, that it
will be able to get the water that it needs
in the nutrients. So I would create a mulched area
around it. I would say probably three to four feet
out around the tree, all the way around in a
(25:43):
circle around the tree. But I also then would dig
up the elm tree and see how girdled it is.
The roots do look girdled, so I would take it
out of the ground. I would literally wash all of
the dirt off of the root ball so you can
see an open up that root system, and then replant
it again. Replant it. I sent her pictures where you
(26:05):
wanted to leave it out of the ground a few
inches so that it can settle properly, mulch it, and
it should do a great recovery in the spring.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
See And that's see, that's I didn't learn this till
last week. Okay, all right, So anybody thinks that they're
out there and they're just like, I'm dumb le whatever hear,
you're not, okay, because if I am learning.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Itself, anybody killer stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
But the girdling like I've had, I couldn't understand why
I would go through and clean out some of my
flower beds or even you know, my vegetable beds. And
it seems like I literally just took the plant, stuck
it in the ground and then it's just still there
and I can pull it up because it died, and
it still looks like it just came right back out
of the pot. But it had produced a little bit,
but it didn't, you know, make it No, But that
(26:46):
makes sense. It is because I'm not taking the time
to break the rooting like you spread it.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, you want to gently tease it, open it up,
and stimulate it, because if it stays in the same
shape when it's planted in the pot, some of these
plants are in a pot for months and months and
months and they don't realize that they've been planted. And
so when you put them in the ground or in
a new pot, open up that root system and that's
going to kind of tenderly break some of the roots
(27:15):
that you that it goes, oh my goodness, something's happening.
I got to survive and it starts to grow new leaves.
So always gently open up the root system, make sure
it's not girdled, and you can replant. So thank you
for those great text messages. We're going to be back
with more of Better Lawns and Gardens this Saturday morning.
This is where you are. We love to hear from you.
(27:35):
I'm Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
(28:00):
Welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. We'd love to
have your phone calls one triple eight four five five
two nine sixty seven, or you can text two three
six eight zero. I'll be speaking at the garden Fair
of the Sweetwater Oaks Garden Club, which is gonna be
at Protegrity Plaza today ten am to five pm and
(28:20):
tomorrow it is on ten am to four pm. They're
gonna have plant vendors, garden accessory and art vendors. They're
gonna have speakers all day long today and tomorrow. I
am speaking at ten am. They're gonna have hands on
children's activities, educational books, and food trucks. Yay for the
food trucks, and so please come out and see us.
(28:42):
And I will be giving away the terrarium. So uh,
you have an opportunity to do that. What can you
be planting right now? Well, for getting ready for spring
and summer. You can be planting beans and candalope and corn, cucumbers, eggplant, lufah,
pepper's pumpkins, squad tomatoes and watermelons. Bulbs. You can be
(29:04):
planting African irises ammarillis. And I will tell you my
amaryllis bloomed like we didn't even have winter. They are
gorgeous and they are blooming right now. This is where
you want to look for lubber grasshoppers to hatch. Lubber
grasshoppers love amaryllis and crinum lilies and all of the
spider lily families. They love the bulbs, So look for
(29:27):
those lubber grasshoppers need to be killed immediately. I will
just tell you though the bay of my existence also too.
Amazon lilies can be planted right now. BlackBerry lilies, I
love those blood lilies, bulbines, palladiums, cannas, crinums, day lilies,
Gladiolis gloriosa lilies is a wonderful, wonderful bulb Louisiana iris society, garlic,
(29:51):
spider lilies, and rain lilies. So it is a great
time to be planting right now. We're going to get
the rain this weekend. If you've got rain yesterday, today, today,
and tomorrow, this next week will be perfect for gardening
and planting in the garden. Let's go to Gordon and
plant city.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Hey treats a long time to see.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Hey, if everyone enjoys your dirty word of the day.
This time I was not able to understand how it
was pronounced or spelled.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Okay, okay, great apolo.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Oh no, my apologies. I only have a few just
a short time to talk about it, and I sometimes
get it's different. Klepto k l e p t.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
O to lie, to tell a lie, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yes, to steal and parasite so klepto paraticism or klepto parasites,
which is what the cuckoo bee is.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
A klepto parasite, a kleptomaniac, and some of the steel, yes,
lines of steels. Oh oh now I got it now, yeah,
I would tell you some tall tales about how the
cold slowed down the use of glass. Okay, and it
finally worked for my crve, myrtle finally hanging in there
(31:05):
likes a cat. But when you got time for all that, so,
thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Oh that's great, Gordon, thank you so much. Check in
with me more often. That's wonderful. So klepto parasitism, and uh,
it's it's that they're just like cuckoos and Lizzy, did
you know that cuckoo birds lay their eggs in other
birds nestses because.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
They're jerk faces and they are not responsible.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
They're not responsible. Well that clept are the klepto parasites
for the cuckoo bees and cuckoo watts. They're two different types,
but there are both. They're both cuckoo in the fact
that they use other bees nests and they let they
feed off of the other bees eggs and stuff like that.
(31:49):
So that's kind of cruel.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
That's that's yeah. I know a few people.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Like that, you klepto parasites. You know, I will start
calling them that.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The bad words that I say every once in a while,
kleo parasite.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
So it's a great time to get fruit trees you
want to. This is nice because you can see the
flowers right now that are blooming. I know the peach
trees are blooming right now. Nectarines are blooming, and this
cold weather did them a lot of good apple trees.
That's all doing well. So the sunny days for the midweek,
it's going to be sunny's. We're going to be getting
(32:26):
rain this weekend next weekend, which is good. And this
is why you want to get things planted right now
because we do have these wonderful temperatures that are less
stressful on the plant and that's important. What kind of
flowers can you be planting right now? Well, you could
be planting asters and butacopa, bogonias and cone flowers. I
(32:48):
love cone flowers Coreopsis, which is our state wildflower. And
the Florida Wildlife Festival is going to be March twenty eighth,
so you want to definitely check that out. Cosmos and
then Dichondra Dusty Miller's false heather. Four o'clocks. I love
four o'clocks, Guyardias and gharas, whirling butterflies, gazanias and geraniums.
(33:12):
Geraniums here in Florida we use them as basically annuals.
They don't live year to year here in Florida just
gets too hot for them. Gerbra, daisies, million bells, caliber
coas look beautiful right now in the nurseries. Roses and
salvius stoke asters and yarrow can be planted right now.
(33:33):
You could have a lovely wildflower garden, a native flower garden,
and it will look just lovely. Herbs you can be
planting right now, annas and basil, borage and chide, dill
and fennel, lemon, balm, mint, oregano. Then also parsley, rosemary, sage,
sweet marjoram, tragon and thyme, and so basically what's in
(33:57):
the nurseries right now, you can go ahead and plant,
get your tomatoes out there, your peppers out there, and
also all your herbs and just have a lovely, lovely garden.
You can plant them in your yard. You don't need
to put them in a raised bed. But if you
don't have the room, if you're in a condo or
town home, you can put them in containers, and if
(34:18):
you have at least six to eight hours of sunlight,
you can plant them.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Okay, So I have a question, yes, okay, So on
our sister stations here there is a young family, probably
late twenties, maybe early thirties, and they have two young children.
One of them is enamored with dirt worms and growing stuff.
And I think that this child is probably maybe about
(34:42):
four okay five, absolutely eat cucumbers handfuls.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Okay, so that's a good start.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
How deep of a pot?
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Because I like to give them, you'd give them a garden.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I'd like to do stuff like that, like will screendom
stuff that these that these children don't normally get from
other people, so you know, they get toys and stuff.
So I've got the Boston cucumbers. They've already started their
little growth. Now how deep of a pot?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Because I would do a five gallon or a seven
gallon pot, okay, okay, So you want it to be
at least a foot, you know, eighteen inches to twenty
one inches okay, Okay, that's gonna give them enough soil
to get a good root depth and it's not gonna
be too crowded. But you can put a lot in
that pot because it's going to be about two foot
(35:30):
wide and that's enough to put a lot of plants
with a lot of root space.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Okay, yeah, because I plan on putting lattice or whatnot
back of it for to grow up.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
So yeah, that was that was that was my question.
And how how many do you think we should plant?
Because we have I've got plenty of this, okay.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
A seven gallon I would probably put five, four to
five okay, And you know you could make five year
olds are perfect for this and get popsicle sticks and
make a trellis and glue them all together to make
a trellis.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, we don't have time for that, but that would
be great for next year. So okay, than you.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Well, I love that you're doing it getting children involved
in growing. You know, they may not appreciate it now
when they're little, but it's a great way to get
them started. Gotcha, And oh no, thank you for doing it.
I'm going to be at the garden fair today speaking
at ten am on how to create a terrarium, and
I will be giving it away at the end, so
you definitely want to come see that. We want to
(36:32):
thank all of our sponsors. Okay, we do have wonderful,
wonderful sponsors here, Black Cow Manure, Great Summit, Responsible solutions.
Mosquito bits and dunks. If you're new to Florida, Okay,
you want to get mosquito bits and dunks. They get
rid of the mosquitos without hurting the wildlife, without hurting
(36:55):
your pets or children. People. It is wonderful. It's an
organic product and it is really good to use and indoors.
If you're getting those fungal nets, one you're keeping your
soil to what okay, and two you can get rid
of them with the mosquito bits. That's a really good solution.
Peterson's Nursery in Lakeland is I will be there March fourteenth.
(37:20):
I'll be talking about color and I can't wait to
meet everybody. And we always have a good showing and
it's doing a great time.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
We have a lot of listeners there in the Polk
County area, and so yeah, it'll be nice to meet
a few of you. Because I play on tagon along.
So if you're one of the few, oh, I would
love that, that would be great. And we also want
to thank our listeners overseas. We have a lot of
listeners in China, Singapore, Australia, even in UH India and
(37:52):
then also overseas in UH, Ireland, Germany, Norway.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Is that norm Hey?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
You know, like you said, you go across the world,
so you see the different things that we potentially can plant,
yes and grow here. So yeah, excellent.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
And once you know gardening basics, you can garden anywhere.
And you know, once you know what the plant needs,
which is the right type of soil, the right sunlight, conditions,
the right pH and then moisture, then you can grow anywhere.
So I really really really love that we're going to
have wonderful weather this week. It's good time to get
(38:27):
out there and garden. I want to thank Dana Vendrick
with Quality Green Specialist Nursery for coming on and for
sponsoring the program, and Mark Can for coming on and
discussing our lawnch You can hear it all on the podcast.
If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns and
Gardens I'm Teresa Watkin's producer who I can't live without,
(38:48):
Lizzie Steele. We're going to be back next week with
more Better Lawns and Gardens. This is Florida's talk and
entertainment network.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yes, I thank the listeners to you, guys rock If
you've missed anything, our website Better Lawns dot com, Better
laws dot com, check out all the social media pages.
Which is Better Lawns and Gardens or Teresa Watkins
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