April 11, 2026 • 39 mins
Teresa Watkins, host of Florida's most popular syndicated garden show, Better Lawns and Gardens, with April being Water Conservation Month, talks with Cheryl Harris, Executive Director of the Florida Irrigation Society, and the future of irrigation in Florida. Teresa also answers gardening questions from callers and texters.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios. Welcome to
the second hour of Better Lawns and Gardens. We love
having you join us. We're so happy that you're here,
and we have a great show planned for you today.
But let's go ahead and take care of the dirty
word of the day.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My computer just did a little flip flop on me bad.
It literally just did a blink and so, okay, well,
let me do no music.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, oh, no music, okay, So I'm gonna sing. Wait,
hold on, let me see if I find something. You know,
the dirty word of the day is related to the
word we had last week answers, and so today's dirty
word is pollen. Pollen is a powder from seed plants
(00:54):
that carries male genetic material for reproduction. Each grain contains
cells that will become sperm, protected by a tough layer
called sporopollenin against harsh conditions. Pollen grains differ in color, size, shape,
and features depending on the plant species, and they range
from a size of ten micrometers to over one hundred micrometers.
(01:19):
Pollen supports biodiversity and ecosystems. About seventy five percent of
global food crops rely on animal pollinators, mostly bees. Without them,
crop yield and quality drop sharply. Wild pollinators continue roughly
half of crop pollination services, boosting environmental health and resilience. Now,
(01:42):
there are different types of pollination. One are the biotic agents,
and that is insects, which is called etemophili Bees, butterflies, moths,
ants and beetles transfer pollen in plant species such as
sunflowers and water hyacinths. Bird pollination which is called ornithofoley.
(02:06):
Hummingbirds and sunbirds pollinate flowers with bright colors and nectar.
Example of plants hibiscus orchids, birds of paradise, and wildflowers.
Cairotophile is the pollination by bats at night. Nocturnal pollination
often deals with white, fragrant flowers examples such as organ pipe, cactus, agaves,
(02:31):
mangoes and guavas, and certain banana species. Now, an abiotic
agent is a non living way of pollinating, so that
would be wind pollination, which is called anomi foley anemo
folly fi anemophyley. There you go. Sorry. Light free swinging
(02:52):
pollen is carried by wind, example coconuts and palm trees
and corn. Water pollination is called hydrophily, and this is
pollen transported through the water. Common plants are eel, grass
and hydrilla, and pollination promotes plant diversity, soil health, water retention,
(03:13):
and honey production as bees collect alongside pollen alongside the nectar.
So those the dirty word of the day is pollen,
and it's so appropriate right now with all the allergies.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Here's my routine, okay, is that before I go to bed,
obviously I take a shower, but before I go to bed,
and whenever I get the shower, I blow my nose
and then I use that like the saline nasal spray,
just that and there's a noe medication added to it, yes,
and you know, blow everything out. And then in the
morning when I wake up, I still do whenever in
(03:49):
the whole routine back over again, and just to try
to help combat Now I use my other medications too,
like I take my allergy mess and whatnot in the
nasal sprays. But those are my two. That's the things
that's helped me keep from getting sinus infections. And I'm
not a doctor, but this is just what's worked for me.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well. I've had a lot of clients over the last
two months. Tell me they've had to do the same thing.
And one of the things that if you are allergic
to plants, and we can't always do this because Florida
has so many plants and shrubs and trees, but get
only purchasing female plants for your yard and landscape.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Wait say that again.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Female plants.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
We know we look up with skirt.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I mean female plants are the ones that have the berries. Okay,
that's how you can tell a female plant from a
male plant. Now, sometimes depending on the species, male plants
will have the berries that has male and female in
the one plant. It gets technical. But if you have
the female plants, they won't have the pollen. Oh okay,
(04:55):
that's you. The male plants carry the pollen.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Okay, that's actually that's that makes sense. I love the
fact that you're journey ward of the day fits in
right with my nostril problems that I have. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
We are going to have a great show for you.
We're going to take your phone calls at the bottom
of the hour. It's going to be a great gardening week.
This is National Gardening Day on Tuesday. We're going to
celebrate that. But it's also National Gardening Week all week
long and National Gardening Month for April and also Water
Conservation Month. April is a very big holiday celebration month
(05:30):
for gardening. And one of the issues in our landscape
is water, and that is the one that causes you know,
some of the issues, whether it's underwatering or overwatering, whether
we're in a drought or you know, facing a storm
coming up that's going to drop you know, six to
ten inches of rain in a day, so that we
have flooding. Water is very important here in Florida, and
(05:53):
so it really is very important to know that we
don't need to overwater. And group good indication that you're
overwatering is that you have dollar weed in your yard.
And Nikki had such a great example with the dollarweed.
It's also called penny wart. But then there's also spider warts.
We have different types of plants that are called wartz WRT.
(06:19):
And those are usually found in wet areas. So I
love the spider ward. It's a beautiful, beautiful plant here,
native plant here in Florida. So I appreciate that if
it's Saturday morning, you're listening to better lawns and gardens,
I'm Teresa Watkins. This is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
(07:01):
Welcome back to better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins.
April is recognized as Water Conservation Months in Florida, a
designation made by the Florida section of the American water
Works Association and coordination with Florida's water management districts and
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This month serves as
(07:22):
a reminder for residents and businesses to conserve water, especially
during the dry month of April. Cheryl Harris serves as
the president of CRG, Inc, a company established over thirty
five years ago that delivers services to national, state, and
local trade and professional association associations with a primary focus
(07:42):
on the construction industry. She is also the executive director
of the Florida Irrigation Society, a role she's had for
more than thirteen years. In this capacity, Miss Harris provides
a guidance on irrigation matters to members and consumers at
both local and state levels, and oversees the development and
delivery of educational programs for contractors. I'd like to wish
(08:06):
her a good morning, thank you for joining u's Good morning, Ryl,
Good morning. How are you this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
It's a beautiful morning in Florida.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It is thank you for taking time out of your weekend.
So tell us what the Florida Irrigation Society does.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The Irrigation Society, known as FIS, was established about sixty
years ago actually this year by professional irrigators or contractors
in the irrigation industry, along with manufacturers and distributors, and
the main mission is to conserve Florida's water and to
(08:47):
promote best practices in irrigation throughout the state of Florida,
and to provide education to contractors and consumers.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Excellent, it's a great organization. So what should Floridians know
about why water conservation matters?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think it's probably pretty obvious that we can't live
without water, and in Florida it's a limited commodity, so
we have to conserve it if we are able to
at least provide for all of the residents and businesses
that are here already much less the growth that we're
experiencing right now in the state, and we're kind of
(09:29):
pushing them the end of our water here if we're
not conserving it. With the additional growth that we've got,
so it's really important to conserve what we have.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
So what agencies do you work with?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
There's a multitude of agencies that we work with. Are
on the political side, some are just kind of in
the background and not political. Those include like the water utilities,
the state, water management districts, other trade associated as who
support the water conservation in various forms. And we work
(10:06):
with state and local regulatory bodies, the cities and counties
as well as local excuse me with water Star, which
is an important part.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I was part of the team that developed Florida water Star.
I think it's very important. So so legislation has been
a topic over the last decade, and so how can
legislation contribute to sustaining Florida's economic growth? You know is
in regards to water conservation.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Sure, and it has been probably since the sixty years
FIS has been in existence. But part of the problem
is that the state of Florida does not have legislation
or any regulations that are consistent throughout the whole state.
There's patches of ordinances at the local level, and some
(11:05):
water management districts have some regulations, but it's not consistent
enough that everybody knows what the rules are, which does
not promote best practices. So that's why it's important that
we try and get some type of legislation in so
that we know how to install proper irrigation equipment. And
(11:26):
some areas have no regulation whatsoever. And somebody like me
to put in an irrigation system. I'm not the technical person.
I'm a management side, So you don't want me putting
in the system. And that's what's happening.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, Or people try to do their own repairs and
put their irrigation systems in and they don't know what
they're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So culture, although they may be better than me, I.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Can appreciate that. And so how can builders and developers
support water conservation?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Well, builders and developers have notoriously been on the side
of we've got to conserve our expenses versus what's best
practices for irrigation. So they put in a very basic
system that may or may not be on the best
(12:16):
practices side and conserve water. But they have a system
in and they can say can promote it that way,
We would really like to influence them to get on
board with us so that they can support best practices
and consistency throughout the state and how irrigation systems are installed.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I think that's so important because especially in production homes
that you know, the cost is the bottom line. They
don't want to go, you know, over that bottom line
that they need to produce homes. But they put emphasis
on refrigerators. This refrigerator that's going to cost you, you know,
seven thousand dollars is only going to you know, cost
you eleven dollars a year in electricity. And they really
(12:57):
push these appliances and you know, it's extra special parts
of the home. And yet the irrigation system could cost
the homeowner thousands of dollars a year in water bills,
and they don't see the side to, you know, put
in a proper irrigation system to help them conserve that money.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Very true. And then it's also going to start limiting
their ability to develop because they can't get water permits
to be able to build new developments. So they are
kind of running up against that. So it's in their
best interest now to think about it.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So what do you say to you know, Florida residents
that blame agriculture and recreation as for using too much water?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
That's an interesting comment. I don't think i'd ever heard it,
but well.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
They talked about the golf courses. True, yeah, the golf course.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, I'm sure. Part of the problem is that the
residential side is probably the least informed about how the
conserve water. We set our controls and let it go,
or if it's a day that we can water, we
water as much as we can, whether we need it
or not. What happens with the agriculture side and the
(14:12):
recreational side, they have professionals, so we're seeing all of
their irrigation systems. They keep them tuned up, they make
sure that they're not overwatering or underwatering, and appropriate watering.
So they're better prepared than we as homeowners are in
terms of conserving water.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And they usually don't use potable water for that. Usually
it's reclaimed or recycle or well water that they have
right on their on their property.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So that's true, although well water is still part of
our our ecosystem, and so it's still important not to
drink all.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
No, no, I agree with that. I agree with that.
So so how can homeowners know if they have an
efficient irrigation system.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Well, one, we would recommend that if they're particularly if
they're unquotable water that they get a water audit. And
if they've had their system in for ten twenty years,
likely all of the plannings have changed and they need
to look at it and see if they're watering appropriately efficiently.
(15:18):
And there's some new technique count controls are different, so
they could get an audit from a contractor, they could
sign somebody that is a certified water auditor. And also
some of the water management districts and utilities are offering
audit services just to check and see if their system
(15:41):
is efficient or not.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And they can go on the Florida water Star program
and see certified irrigation people professionals on there that will
do audits for them as well, and that's floridawaterstar dot com.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yes exactly, thank you for the reminders.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That's all right, No, that's great. So where can where
can irrigation contractors for looking for the legislation that could
be coming up next year? How can irrigation contractors and
homeowners Florida homeowners and voters support legislation that will help
make you know, keep water priority in Florida.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
The it's surprising that a lot of our legislators are
not aware that there are no regulations in place. That
was kind of surprising this year that there was legislation
on the table. Didn't go too far. There was some
issues with the wording of the legislation. We'll try again
next year, but they were surprised. So I think the
(16:44):
homeowners that are aware and understand the importance of water
conservation and the legislation that they talked to their local
legislators and inform them saying, hey, we're interested in this.
We really want you to take a look at it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Long run, it's going to save everybody money and it's
also going to save our water supply, and that's that's
the important part. Where can homeowners and irrigation contractors find
out more information about Florida Irrigation Society and also an
efficient irrigation system.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
They could go to www dot f I S State
dot org. That is our website and it also has
our phone numbers on it. They could call and talk
to us if they want additional referrals to certified auditors.
And also you've got water Stars, so but they could
(17:36):
go to our website and they can pull down a
pamphlet that's they're looking at you know what kind of
contractor what kind of questions you should ask if you're
getting an irrigation system and solved. So that should help
as well.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And the website again.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Is www dot f I S State dot org.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Thank you so much, Ryl. Your position, your help to
all of these providers and resources and associations is so important.
The Florida Irrigation Society is very worthwhile organization. Thank you
so much for taking your time to come on today.
I certainly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Thank you for the invitation.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
All right, take care. So that's Cheryl Harris. She is
the executive director of the Florida Irrigation Society and you
can go on their website to see more information. You
can also go to Floridawaterstar dot com all one word
Floridawaterstar dot com. It talks about landscaping, it talks about
(18:36):
irrigation systems, it talks about indoor water conservation two as well.
It's a very important program and it's there for homeowners
and also commercial contractors too as well. And if you
have a Florida Waterstar certified home, you know you're doing
the best thing you can for Florida's water resources. It's
(19:00):
very important and anyone can do it. The landscapes that
I design always qualify and can be certified as water
saving and a very water conservation is important. Thank you
so much to Cheryl Harris. I certainly appreciate it. We're
going to be back with your phone calls one triple
(19:21):
eight four five five two nine sixty seven. You can
text two three six eight zero and we'll be right back.
If 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.
(19:49):
Welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm your host,
Teresa Watkins. I'm a landscape designer, garden author. I love
to help people with their gardens. I also take people
to beautiful gardens around the world. If you're interested in
traveling with me, you can check out all of our
garden tours on art in bloomgardentours dot com, art in Bloomgardentours,
(20:13):
one word dot com. And we have some wonderful trips
coming up to the Newport Flower Show and Martha's Vineyard
and then also to Buffalo to the largest garden walk
in the United States. It is the most fabulous garden tour,
zero lotline homes with beautiful residential gardens. You will get
(20:36):
inspiration galore. We also visit Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.
Then we're going to France in August and visit villas
and chateaus, beautiful gardens. And in September we are going
to the beautiful brandy Wine Valley Chanticlear Longwood winter with
her and visit some gorgeous private gardens to as well.
(21:00):
And last but not least, we're going to spend the
month of October, not the month, but a tour in
October to New Orleans to check out the beautiful ethereal
gardens for Halloween.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
This is so exciting.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I'm so excited. R.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
But while you were out here at Galvan across the world,
Tom mccoven will be sure.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Tom is gonna he is so good and kind and generous,
and he he's the plant doctor, yes, and he is
going to be filling in so we I'm not worried
so at all, and we're gonna have a great time.
So one triple eight four five five, two nine sixty seven,
or you can text me two three six eight zero.
(21:40):
Let's go to one of my favorite people in Polk City.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Eileen.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Good morning, Eileen, how are you?
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Good morning?
Speaker 4 (21:47):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I am great. How did your African violence? You don't
have him outside. I have my African Violence in a
kind of terrarium outside, and they did not do well
this winter.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
No, they're doing fine. I have a light, one of
those lights, yes, yes, the heat lamps.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yep, I should do and and that works, okay.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Yeah, And on one of them. I have like four
new babies coming up.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Oh that's okay. You've inspired me. Okay, I'm going to
I am going to work on them this weekend and
get some going. All right, So how can I help you?
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Well, I have a story to tell you, okay. And
we have a squirrel that's kind of wacky.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
He got up on the front porch, he got up
on the screen. Oh no, oh yeah, and he traveled
along the screen door. And then I got my brow
out and I'm like, you're gonna get down. Well, he
(23:04):
didn't get down. He traveled all along the path of
the front screen.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Oh no.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
And then I went outside and chased him. Okay, and
their hunt was on. And then Grainger got out. Oh no,
it was not what I needed. But he did chase
him up the pole.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Oh good.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
So we have tin now up on the bird feeders.
Oh so he can't get up there. But I went
and took a cup of bird seed over by the pole,
so he won't get up on the bird feeders or
(23:47):
on the screens anymore. So I'm going to get peanuts
for him.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Oh my goodness, you're gonna spoil him. Well, So here
here's one thing I want you to think about. Okay,
So that he kept traveling along the screen when you
had the broom, and were you hitting the screen? No, no,
you weren't hitting it. Okay. So you got to be
concerned when an wild animal is not afraid of you
or comes close into areas that they shouldn't be in. Yes,
(24:17):
because of rabies. And we do have rabies in the
area for Central Florida right now. So be careful when
you go out with your broom that they don't turn
on you, or that they're not afraid. Oh okay, good, okay, good.
So I heard the rooster.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
I should get there, you go.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
I think.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
But when I put seed out, let me tell you something.
The chicks come out needed.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Oh my goodness, Oh my gosh. All right, well, thank
you so much for your story, Eileen. I'm so glad.
Thank you for the advice on the African violets. And
we'll talk to you next week. Thank you so much. Ton,
Let's go to Carrie and Melbourne. Good morning, Carrie, how
can I help you?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Good morning Teresa. I am a longtime, longtime listener, but
a very infrequent caller. I have a question regarding a panther. Okay,
they're commonly called picture plans, and I've been trying to
grow them outdoors. Okay, they get I would say five
(25:32):
hours of sunlight between the morning and afternoons. I know
they need a lot of light. I have a Florida
room that doesn't have sufficient light on right. I was
wondering if I can if they will flourish outdoors.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yes, they will, in full sun, they will do very well. Okay.
You just got to make sure they have the water
supply that they need. Okay, and they do. They do
very well outside. Push yep, that's where they grow outside.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Wonderful. Thank you so much to Reso.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Thank you for listening all those years. I'd certainly appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Oh, I love it. I'm a subscriber to your newsletter
and everything. I think you're wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Oh, thank you so much oday they made us our week. Okay,
thank you so much, Kerry.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I love whenever we have our listeners to call in
and they've listened for years, but they just now given
us a call.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That makes me so happy.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
It does well. We'd love to hear for more one
triple eight four five five, two nine sixty seven, or
you can text two three six eight zero. So again,
this is water conservation month, so this is a good
month for checking your irrigation system. Make sure you're not watering.
The sidewalk cement does not grow better when it is watered.
(26:53):
And also to you want to make sure that you're
watering enough that you have a rain shut off device
on your irrigation system, which means I don't mean timer,
I mean rain shut off device that turns your irrigation
system off when we've had enough rain. So it should
(27:14):
be set for one and a half inches of water,
and then when we get two to three inches of water,
the irrigation system will not come on. If you only
get a sixteenth of an inch Yeah, it's still gonna
come on even if you had rain, so don't worry
about that. If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins from the Summit Respon
(27:36):
Responsible Solutions Studios. This is Better Lawns and Gardens and
Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back to Better Lawns
(28:04):
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. If you have a gardening question,
we'd love to hear from you. One triple eight four
five five, two nine six seven, or you can text
me two three six eight zero. This is the month
to be growing vegetables, but you want to make sure
tomatoes and your peppers and your eggplants you need to
(28:24):
use transplants. Don't be planting seeds right now for those
because by the time the tomatoes are ready to produce fruit,
it's going to be too hot. Only use transplants right
now and then you can harvest the fruit all the
way through June July. Now, if you want to plant
cherry tomatoes or Everglades tomatoes, those will produce fruit all
(28:45):
year round, so you can go ahead and use those
with your fruit trees. Your banana trees, cut them down.
If they're all brown. I planted about five banana trees
yesterday and they had plus stalks that we're completely all brown.
Go ahead, you can cut those off and let the
new pupps on the new suckers at the bottom of
(29:07):
the bananas you start to grow. You can also to
the new growth on citrus. You're growing citrus trees, you
need to make sure that you are not getting the
citrus silid on the plants or leaf minor. And what
you need to do is you need to spray kneem
oil and I recommend NAM eighty five, which is a
(29:30):
Summit Responsible Solutions product and it's excellent. Spray it at
each growth of new growth, and that's going to keep
the insects down and you will be able to keep
your citrus tree healthy each new flush of new growth
new leaves. Go ahead and spray with NIEM eighty five
(29:51):
and it will be just fine. Also, too, you want
to make sure that you are starting your sweet potatoes. Okay,
so you start your sweet potatoes your eyes so that
you can do transplants in May. You can apply a
minor nutrient spray to your citrus trees. Too as well
at each new flush of growth. And then also too,
(30:14):
you can plant tropical vegetables that don't mind that summer heat.
And we're talking about the spinaches, the Asian spinaches, also
malabar spinach, those will do very well in the heat.
And also the Caribbean fruits and vegetables like the chayote
or Mexican the ones with the southern from the southern
(30:34):
hemisphere that can then they don't mind the heat. Also too,
you want to feed your vegetable plantings every three to
four weeks, and then you can also use a slow
release fertilizer. Your blueberries. My blueberries, Lizzie, are my plants
are full of berries. I am so excited. I am
(30:56):
going to have it. And I'm not telling the birds
or anything coming through that I have them. But they're
doing very well. You want to make sure you're planting
them with acidic soil acidic pH. You can use aspoma,
a soil acidifier to lower the pH to four point
five to five point five. That's very important. You can
(31:18):
also right now, if you're doing papayas and you've got seedlings,
you can plant those in the landscape too as well,
and so This is just a great time National Gardening Month.
You can go ahead and connect with nature. It's a
good time to introduce children to gardening two as.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, definitely, And you know, the what's what I've done
in the past is I find out what they like.
So like one of our grand brats, we call him
seven fifteen, he loves pickles. I'm like, do you know
where pickles come from? He's like a Now, So the
last couple of years we've been kind of growing pickles,
cucumbers there you go, yeah, y'all to know there's seeds
(31:58):
out there there, pickle seeds anyway. But so yeah, we've
been growing cucumbers. We haven't made it to the canning
process yet because they either get eaten and we only
get him like every other weekend, so it doesn't work
out always perfectly. But we're working so hard this time
to make sure that he can actually can them and
make his own pickles.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
So that's that's gonna be so cool. He will love that.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yes, And also he also is like he has he's ADHD,
but he also is kind of OCD to a point,
so he really does like to go out and he
helped me weed the our garlic and our onions, which
we have a lot of, and I just had time
to get around to it this last week. And he
loves it because like the one sprig of grass that
he pulls out by the root actually has like two
(32:42):
nodules or three nodules. He's like, I got three this time.
I'm like you, go, boy, but there's one in there before.
Just keep on digging.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Oh good for him. That's great to introduce them to that.
And also doing the pickles will get him to cook,
you know, it'll introduce them to cooking.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yes, yes, And and I do little projects with him
and his brother.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So yeah, that is wonderful. That is wonderful. And so
we want to thank all of our callers today. Thank
you so much for calling in and texting your messages
and for the photographs. If you'd like to get a
hold of me, you can go to Better Launs dot
com and send me an email through that or notification
I'll get and I'll respond to you and I would
(33:23):
love to hear from you. Also to go please go
to our Facebook page and like it and give us
five stars. We do enjoy it, and we also get
messages through through Facebook too as well. Yes, definitely. And
I'm getting a lot of you know, questions on I
have ken in winter Haven. He's saying he has the
(33:44):
same issue with his avocado that is sprouting. I'm sorry. Yes,
he's got several plants that I've gone through the winter
and they're sprouting out from the bottom. And what should
they do. Well, that's a decision on how big the
trunk is, how big the plant is so, and it
will depend on the species. If it's a grafted species
(34:05):
like your citrus trees are grafted, you want to cut
the suckers off below the graft and see if it
will sprout back out from the top. If it's an avocado,
it may be an avocado that is not grafted, but
anything that is grafted, you want to make sure you
remove the suckers from the bottom. And then if it's
(34:26):
a tall tree twenty to thirty foot tall, I would
suggest calling an arborus to come check it out because
it still may be growing and it's just taking a
long time to produce the leaves. The leaves should start
to drop off, but I tell you if they don't
with the next storm. Did you hear about our hurricane season.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, it sounds like it's going to be a joy.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
It does, but it seems like it's not going to
be too bad. El Nino is starting and that's going
to keep them down.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
However, that's the second that they say that, and that's whenever,
because I mean they predicted last year where we were
just have one hundred thousand hurricanes.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Not really, but we didn't have any.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
No, by the grace of God, thank you Jesus. Yes, literally,
but we're kind of suffering because of the drink out Exactly.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We do need the tropical storm rains, we do, and
so we can't pray them off. We need them. You
want to finish your granular spring feedings of all your
fruit trees right now. You want to get them fertilized
before the heat of the season and so they can
start producing fruit. And then also to again check your
irrigation systems. It's so important check to make sure you
(35:29):
have a mandatory. If you have an automatic irrigation system,
you have to have a rain shut off device. Open
up your timer. It will say you know, water shut
off and you can manage it. Turn your timer on
and off with that, and the rain shut off device
is in there too, and make sure it's working, and
(35:49):
if it's not working, you need to replace the cork
or whatever it is that you need to replace to
get it back working again. You have to have a
working rain sensor. That is a state law on all
automatic irrigation systems, and it's just for your benefit. You
don't want to pay a large water bill. You don't
want to use the irrigation when it's not necessary. And
(36:11):
the more you use it, the more likely your plants
are going to have fungus and disease issues and insect issues. Yes,
so definitely. You know, water conservation, landscaping, it all works.
You want to have it based just on rainfall. And
if you have vegetables then sometimes you need to fruit trees.
You need to use the irrigation system, but then you
want to do it efficiently when you do need it.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Did you answer the text stuff from rick By about
the orange tree? No, I didn't see it where it
says a high tree. So I have a lanky orange
tree that has approximately ten to twelve foot tall. Is
it okay to top the tree? It's about four years
old and I live in Havana, Florida.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Okay, yes, it's okay to top it, and I would
do that right now as you're coming into the spring season.
If you top it off, you're not going to get
flowers at the top of it, but you'll have flowers
on the rest of the tree. So if it's something
that you want to be able to reach, you want
to keep it tall, that would be fine. I wouldn't
top it off, which means I wouldn't cut it straight across.
(37:12):
I would just cut the branches individually and make sure
you cut right above a node. Okay, don't cut below
the node. The on the stems, So find a branch area,
cut right above it and cut it diagonally and it'll
be just fine. Yeah, you can cut those. You can
cut trees back anytime that you have an issue, like
(37:34):
if it's too big, if it's going to hit somebody,
if it's going the wrong the branches are going the
wrong way, you can cut those branches back anytime. Just
realize that when you cut it back, it's not going
to have flowers or fruit. Probably that the next year.
Now next season it will, but not this year. So
if it's an issue, you can do that. We'd like
(37:55):
to thank Nicki Monroe from Indian River County she is
the environmental horticultural agent down there. She had some great
advice on watering efficiently. We do appreciate her coming on.
And then also Cheryl Harris with the Florida Irrigation Society.
She's the executive director and her important words please support
(38:16):
water conservation legislation next year. It's very important talk to
your local local politicians, your local Chamber of Commises about
promoting water conservation through legislation. It's very very important. Thank you, Lizzie.
You always do such a fabulous job. You are my guru,
my genius. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Thank you to our listeners have the best listeners and
not only do you call on your text, but she
also make us laugh in the process.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Thank you so much. Of It's Saturday morning. You're listening
to Better Lawns and Gardens from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios.
I'm Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
If you would like to recap any of the show
or any other shows, go to Better Lawns dot com.
That's Better Lawns
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Characteristic distinct directors to t
Good morning from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios. Welcome to
the second hour of Better Lawns and Gardens. We love
having you join us. We're so happy that you're here,
and we have a great show planned for you today.
But let's go ahead and take care of the dirty
word of the day.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My computer just did a little flip flop on me bad.
It literally just did a blink and so, okay, well,
let me do no music.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, oh, no music, okay, So I'm gonna sing. Wait,
hold on, let me see if I find something. You know,
the dirty word of the day is related to the
word we had last week answers, and so today's dirty
word is pollen. Pollen is a powder from seed plants
(00:54):
that carries male genetic material for reproduction. Each grain contains
cells that will become sperm, protected by a tough layer
called sporopollenin against harsh conditions. Pollen grains differ in color, size, shape,
and features depending on the plant species, and they range
from a size of ten micrometers to over one hundred micrometers.
(01:19):
Pollen supports biodiversity and ecosystems. About seventy five percent of
global food crops rely on animal pollinators, mostly bees. Without them,
crop yield and quality drop sharply. Wild pollinators continue roughly
half of crop pollination services, boosting environmental health and resilience. Now,
(01:42):
there are different types of pollination. One are the biotic agents,
and that is insects, which is called etemophili Bees, butterflies, moths,
ants and beetles transfer pollen in plant species such as
sunflowers and water hyacinths. Bird pollination which is called ornithofoley.
(02:06):
Hummingbirds and sunbirds pollinate flowers with bright colors and nectar.
Example of plants hibiscus orchids, birds of paradise, and wildflowers.
Cairotophile is the pollination by bats at night. Nocturnal pollination
often deals with white, fragrant flowers examples such as organ pipe, cactus, agaves,
(02:31):
mangoes and guavas, and certain banana species. Now, an abiotic
agent is a non living way of pollinating, so that
would be wind pollination, which is called anomi foley anemo
folly fi anemophyley. There you go. Sorry. Light free swinging
(02:52):
pollen is carried by wind, example coconuts and palm trees
and corn. Water pollination is called hydrophily, and this is
pollen transported through the water. Common plants are eel, grass
and hydrilla, and pollination promotes plant diversity, soil health, water retention,
(03:13):
and honey production as bees collect alongside pollen alongside the nectar.
So those the dirty word of the day is pollen,
and it's so appropriate right now with all the allergies.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Here's my routine, okay, is that before I go to bed,
obviously I take a shower, but before I go to bed,
and whenever I get the shower, I blow my nose
and then I use that like the saline nasal spray,
just that and there's a noe medication added to it, yes,
and you know, blow everything out. And then in the
morning when I wake up, I still do whenever in
(03:49):
the whole routine back over again, and just to try
to help combat Now I use my other medications too,
like I take my allergy mess and whatnot in the
nasal sprays. But those are my two. That's the things
that's helped me keep from getting sinus infections. And I'm
not a doctor, but this is just what's worked for me.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well. I've had a lot of clients over the last
two months. Tell me they've had to do the same thing.
And one of the things that if you are allergic
to plants, and we can't always do this because Florida
has so many plants and shrubs and trees, but get
only purchasing female plants for your yard and landscape.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Wait say that again.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Female plants.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
We know we look up with skirt.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I mean female plants are the ones that have the berries. Okay,
that's how you can tell a female plant from a
male plant. Now, sometimes depending on the species, male plants
will have the berries that has male and female in
the one plant. It gets technical. But if you have
the female plants, they won't have the pollen. Oh okay,
(04:55):
that's you. The male plants carry the pollen.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Okay, that's actually that's that makes sense. I love the
fact that you're journey ward of the day fits in
right with my nostril problems that I have. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
We are going to have a great show for you.
We're going to take your phone calls at the bottom
of the hour. It's going to be a great gardening week.
This is National Gardening Day on Tuesday. We're going to
celebrate that. But it's also National Gardening Week all week
long and National Gardening Month for April and also Water
Conservation Month. April is a very big holiday celebration month
(05:30):
for gardening. And one of the issues in our landscape
is water, and that is the one that causes you know,
some of the issues, whether it's underwatering or overwatering, whether
we're in a drought or you know, facing a storm
coming up that's going to drop you know, six to
ten inches of rain in a day, so that we
have flooding. Water is very important here in Florida, and
(05:53):
so it really is very important to know that we
don't need to overwater. And group good indication that you're
overwatering is that you have dollar weed in your yard.
And Nikki had such a great example with the dollarweed.
It's also called penny wart. But then there's also spider warts.
We have different types of plants that are called wartz WRT.
(06:19):
And those are usually found in wet areas. So I
love the spider ward. It's a beautiful, beautiful plant here,
native plant here in Florida. So I appreciate that if
it's Saturday morning, you're listening to better lawns and gardens,
I'm Teresa Watkins. This is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
(07:01):
Welcome back to better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins.
April is recognized as Water Conservation Months in Florida, a
designation made by the Florida section of the American water
Works Association and coordination with Florida's water management districts and
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This month serves as
(07:22):
a reminder for residents and businesses to conserve water, especially
during the dry month of April. Cheryl Harris serves as
the president of CRG, Inc, a company established over thirty
five years ago that delivers services to national, state, and
local trade and professional association associations with a primary focus
(07:42):
on the construction industry. She is also the executive director
of the Florida Irrigation Society, a role she's had for
more than thirteen years. In this capacity, Miss Harris provides
a guidance on irrigation matters to members and consumers at
both local and state levels, and oversees the development and
delivery of educational programs for contractors. I'd like to wish
(08:06):
her a good morning, thank you for joining u's Good morning, Ryl,
Good morning. How are you this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
It's a beautiful morning in Florida.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It is thank you for taking time out of your weekend.
So tell us what the Florida Irrigation Society does.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The Irrigation Society, known as FIS, was established about sixty
years ago actually this year by professional irrigators or contractors
in the irrigation industry, along with manufacturers and distributors, and
the main mission is to conserve Florida's water and to
(08:47):
promote best practices in irrigation throughout the state of Florida,
and to provide education to contractors and consumers.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Excellent, it's a great organization. So what should Floridians know
about why water conservation matters?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think it's probably pretty obvious that we can't live
without water, and in Florida it's a limited commodity, so
we have to conserve it if we are able to
at least provide for all of the residents and businesses
that are here already much less the growth that we're
experiencing right now in the state, and we're kind of
(09:29):
pushing them the end of our water here if we're
not conserving it. With the additional growth that we've got,
so it's really important to conserve what we have.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
So what agencies do you work with?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
There's a multitude of agencies that we work with. Are
on the political side, some are just kind of in
the background and not political. Those include like the water utilities,
the state, water management districts, other trade associated as who
support the water conservation in various forms. And we work
(10:06):
with state and local regulatory bodies, the cities and counties
as well as local excuse me with water Star, which
is an important part.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I was part of the team that developed Florida water Star.
I think it's very important. So so legislation has been
a topic over the last decade, and so how can
legislation contribute to sustaining Florida's economic growth? You know is
in regards to water conservation.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Sure, and it has been probably since the sixty years
FIS has been in existence. But part of the problem
is that the state of Florida does not have legislation
or any regulations that are consistent throughout the whole state.
There's patches of ordinances at the local level, and some
(11:05):
water management districts have some regulations, but it's not consistent
enough that everybody knows what the rules are, which does
not promote best practices. So that's why it's important that
we try and get some type of legislation in so
that we know how to install proper irrigation equipment. And
(11:26):
some areas have no regulation whatsoever. And somebody like me
to put in an irrigation system. I'm not the technical person.
I'm a management side, So you don't want me putting
in the system. And that's what's happening.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, Or people try to do their own repairs and
put their irrigation systems in and they don't know what
they're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So culture, although they may be better than me, I.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Can appreciate that. And so how can builders and developers
support water conservation?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Well, builders and developers have notoriously been on the side
of we've got to conserve our expenses versus what's best
practices for irrigation. So they put in a very basic
system that may or may not be on the best
(12:16):
practices side and conserve water. But they have a system
in and they can say can promote it that way,
We would really like to influence them to get on
board with us so that they can support best practices
and consistency throughout the state and how irrigation systems are installed.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I think that's so important because especially in production homes
that you know, the cost is the bottom line. They
don't want to go, you know, over that bottom line
that they need to produce homes. But they put emphasis
on refrigerators. This refrigerator that's going to cost you, you know,
seven thousand dollars is only going to you know, cost
you eleven dollars a year in electricity. And they really
(12:57):
push these appliances and you know, it's extra special parts
of the home. And yet the irrigation system could cost
the homeowner thousands of dollars a year in water bills,
and they don't see the side to, you know, put
in a proper irrigation system to help them conserve that money.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Very true. And then it's also going to start limiting
their ability to develop because they can't get water permits
to be able to build new developments. So they are
kind of running up against that. So it's in their
best interest now to think about it.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
So what do you say to you know, Florida residents
that blame agriculture and recreation as for using too much water?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
That's an interesting comment. I don't think i'd ever heard it,
but well.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
They talked about the golf courses. True, yeah, the golf course.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, I'm sure. Part of the problem is that the
residential side is probably the least informed about how the
conserve water. We set our controls and let it go,
or if it's a day that we can water, we
water as much as we can, whether we need it
or not. What happens with the agriculture side and the
(14:12):
recreational side, they have professionals, so we're seeing all of
their irrigation systems. They keep them tuned up, they make
sure that they're not overwatering or underwatering, and appropriate watering.
So they're better prepared than we as homeowners are in
terms of conserving water.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And they usually don't use potable water for that. Usually
it's reclaimed or recycle or well water that they have
right on their on their property.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So that's true, although well water is still part of
our our ecosystem, and so it's still important not to
drink all.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
No, no, I agree with that. I agree with that.
So so how can homeowners know if they have an
efficient irrigation system.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Well, one, we would recommend that if they're particularly if
they're unquotable water that they get a water audit. And
if they've had their system in for ten twenty years,
likely all of the plannings have changed and they need
to look at it and see if they're watering appropriately efficiently.
(15:18):
And there's some new technique count controls are different, so
they could get an audit from a contractor, they could
sign somebody that is a certified water auditor. And also
some of the water management districts and utilities are offering
audit services just to check and see if their system
(15:41):
is efficient or not.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And they can go on the Florida water Star program
and see certified irrigation people professionals on there that will
do audits for them as well, and that's floridawaterstar dot com.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yes exactly, thank you for the reminders.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That's all right, No, that's great. So where can where
can irrigation contractors for looking for the legislation that could
be coming up next year? How can irrigation contractors and
homeowners Florida homeowners and voters support legislation that will help
make you know, keep water priority in Florida.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
The it's surprising that a lot of our legislators are
not aware that there are no regulations in place. That
was kind of surprising this year that there was legislation
on the table. Didn't go too far. There was some
issues with the wording of the legislation. We'll try again
next year, but they were surprised. So I think the
(16:44):
homeowners that are aware and understand the importance of water
conservation and the legislation that they talked to their local
legislators and inform them saying, hey, we're interested in this.
We really want you to take a look at it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Long run, it's going to save everybody money and it's
also going to save our water supply, and that's that's
the important part. Where can homeowners and irrigation contractors find
out more information about Florida Irrigation Society and also an
efficient irrigation system.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
They could go to www dot f I S State
dot org. That is our website and it also has
our phone numbers on it. They could call and talk
to us if they want additional referrals to certified auditors.
And also you've got water Stars, so but they could
(17:36):
go to our website and they can pull down a
pamphlet that's they're looking at you know what kind of
contractor what kind of questions you should ask if you're
getting an irrigation system and solved. So that should help
as well.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And the website again.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Is www dot f I S State dot org.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Thank you so much, Ryl. Your position, your help to
all of these providers and resources and associations is so important.
The Florida Irrigation Society is very worthwhile organization. Thank you
so much for taking your time to come on today.
I certainly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Thank you for the invitation.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
All right, take care. So that's Cheryl Harris. She is
the executive director of the Florida Irrigation Society and you
can go on their website to see more information. You
can also go to Floridawaterstar dot com all one word
Floridawaterstar dot com. It talks about landscaping, it talks about
(18:36):
irrigation systems, it talks about indoor water conservation two as well.
It's a very important program and it's there for homeowners
and also commercial contractors too as well. And if you
have a Florida Waterstar certified home, you know you're doing
the best thing you can for Florida's water resources. It's
(19:00):
very important and anyone can do it. The landscapes that
I design always qualify and can be certified as water
saving and a very water conservation is important. Thank you
so much to Cheryl Harris. I certainly appreciate it. We're
going to be back with your phone calls one triple
(19:21):
eight four five five two nine sixty seven. You can
text two three six eight zero and we'll be right back.
If 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.
(19:49):
Welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm your host,
Teresa Watkins. I'm a landscape designer, garden author. I love
to help people with their gardens. I also take people
to beautiful gardens around the world. If you're interested in
traveling with me, you can check out all of our
garden tours on art in bloomgardentours dot com, art in Bloomgardentours,
(20:13):
one word dot com. And we have some wonderful trips
coming up to the Newport Flower Show and Martha's Vineyard
and then also to Buffalo to the largest garden walk
in the United States. It is the most fabulous garden tour,
zero lotline homes with beautiful residential gardens. You will get
(20:36):
inspiration galore. We also visit Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.
Then we're going to France in August and visit villas
and chateaus, beautiful gardens. And in September we are going
to the beautiful brandy Wine Valley Chanticlear Longwood winter with
her and visit some gorgeous private gardens to as well.
(21:00):
And last but not least, we're going to spend the
month of October, not the month, but a tour in
October to New Orleans to check out the beautiful ethereal
gardens for Halloween.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
This is so exciting.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I'm so excited. R.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
But while you were out here at Galvan across the world,
Tom mccoven will be sure.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Tom is gonna he is so good and kind and generous,
and he he's the plant doctor, yes, and he is
going to be filling in so we I'm not worried
so at all, and we're gonna have a great time.
So one triple eight four five five, two nine sixty seven,
or you can text me two three six eight zero.
(21:40):
Let's go to one of my favorite people in Polk City.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Eileen.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Good morning, Eileen, how are you?
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Good morning?
Speaker 4 (21:47):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I am great. How did your African violence? You don't
have him outside. I have my African Violence in a
kind of terrarium outside, and they did not do well
this winter.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
No, they're doing fine. I have a light, one of
those lights, yes, yes, the heat lamps.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yep, I should do and and that works, okay.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Yeah, And on one of them. I have like four
new babies coming up.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Oh that's okay. You've inspired me. Okay, I'm going to
I am going to work on them this weekend and
get some going. All right, So how can I help you?
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Well, I have a story to tell you, okay. And
we have a squirrel that's kind of wacky.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
He got up on the front porch, he got up
on the screen. Oh no, oh yeah, and he traveled
along the screen door. And then I got my brow
out and I'm like, you're gonna get down. Well, he
(23:04):
didn't get down. He traveled all along the path of
the front screen.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Oh no.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
And then I went outside and chased him. Okay, and
their hunt was on. And then Grainger got out. Oh no,
it was not what I needed. But he did chase
him up the pole.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Oh good.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
So we have tin now up on the bird feeders.
Oh so he can't get up there. But I went
and took a cup of bird seed over by the pole,
so he won't get up on the bird feeders or
(23:47):
on the screens anymore. So I'm going to get peanuts
for him.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Oh my goodness, you're gonna spoil him. Well, So here
here's one thing I want you to think about. Okay,
So that he kept traveling along the screen when you
had the broom, and were you hitting the screen? No, no,
you weren't hitting it. Okay. So you got to be
concerned when an wild animal is not afraid of you
or comes close into areas that they shouldn't be in. Yes,
(24:17):
because of rabies. And we do have rabies in the
area for Central Florida right now. So be careful when
you go out with your broom that they don't turn
on you, or that they're not afraid. Oh okay, good, okay, good.
So I heard the rooster.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
I should get there, you go.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
I think.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
But when I put seed out, let me tell you something.
The chicks come out needed.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Oh my goodness, Oh my gosh. All right, well, thank
you so much for your story, Eileen. I'm so glad.
Thank you for the advice on the African violets. And
we'll talk to you next week. Thank you so much. Ton,
Let's go to Carrie and Melbourne. Good morning, Carrie, how
can I help you?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Good morning Teresa. I am a longtime, longtime listener, but
a very infrequent caller. I have a question regarding a panther. Okay,
they're commonly called picture plans, and I've been trying to
grow them outdoors. Okay, they get I would say five
(25:32):
hours of sunlight between the morning and afternoons. I know
they need a lot of light. I have a Florida
room that doesn't have sufficient light on right. I was
wondering if I can if they will flourish outdoors.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yes, they will, in full sun, they will do very well. Okay.
You just got to make sure they have the water
supply that they need. Okay, and they do. They do
very well outside. Push yep, that's where they grow outside.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Wonderful. Thank you so much to Reso.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Thank you for listening all those years. I'd certainly appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
Oh, I love it. I'm a subscriber to your newsletter
and everything. I think you're wonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Oh, thank you so much oday they made us our week. Okay,
thank you so much, Kerry.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I love whenever we have our listeners to call in
and they've listened for years, but they just now given
us a call.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
That makes me so happy.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
It does well. We'd love to hear for more one
triple eight four five five, two nine sixty seven, or
you can text two three six eight zero. So again,
this is water conservation month, so this is a good
month for checking your irrigation system. Make sure you're not watering.
The sidewalk cement does not grow better when it is watered.
(26:53):
And also to you want to make sure that you're
watering enough that you have a rain shut off device
on your irrigation system, which means I don't mean timer,
I mean rain shut off device that turns your irrigation
system off when we've had enough rain. So it should
(27:14):
be set for one and a half inches of water,
and then when we get two to three inches of water,
the irrigation system will not come on. If you only
get a sixteenth of an inch Yeah, it's still gonna
come on even if you had rain, so don't worry
about that. If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins from the Summit Respon
(27:36):
Responsible Solutions Studios. This is Better Lawns and Gardens and
Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back to Better Lawns
(28:04):
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. If you have a gardening question,
we'd love to hear from you. One triple eight four
five five, two nine six seven, or you can text
me two three six eight zero. This is the month
to be growing vegetables, but you want to make sure
tomatoes and your peppers and your eggplants you need to
(28:24):
use transplants. Don't be planting seeds right now for those
because by the time the tomatoes are ready to produce fruit,
it's going to be too hot. Only use transplants right
now and then you can harvest the fruit all the
way through June July. Now, if you want to plant
cherry tomatoes or Everglades tomatoes, those will produce fruit all
(28:45):
year round, so you can go ahead and use those
with your fruit trees. Your banana trees, cut them down.
If they're all brown. I planted about five banana trees
yesterday and they had plus stalks that we're completely all brown.
Go ahead, you can cut those off and let the
new pupps on the new suckers at the bottom of
(29:07):
the bananas you start to grow. You can also to
the new growth on citrus. You're growing citrus trees, you
need to make sure that you are not getting the
citrus silid on the plants or leaf minor. And what
you need to do is you need to spray kneem
oil and I recommend NAM eighty five, which is a
(29:30):
Summit Responsible Solutions product and it's excellent. Spray it at
each growth of new growth, and that's going to keep
the insects down and you will be able to keep
your citrus tree healthy each new flush of new growth
new leaves. Go ahead and spray with NIEM eighty five
(29:51):
and it will be just fine. Also, too, you want
to make sure that you are starting your sweet potatoes. Okay,
so you start your sweet potatoes your eyes so that
you can do transplants in May. You can apply a
minor nutrient spray to your citrus trees. Too as well
at each new flush of growth. And then also too,
(30:14):
you can plant tropical vegetables that don't mind that summer heat.
And we're talking about the spinaches, the Asian spinaches, also
malabar spinach, those will do very well in the heat.
And also the Caribbean fruits and vegetables like the chayote
or Mexican the ones with the southern from the southern
(30:34):
hemisphere that can then they don't mind the heat. Also too,
you want to feed your vegetable plantings every three to
four weeks, and then you can also use a slow
release fertilizer. Your blueberries. My blueberries, Lizzie, are my plants
are full of berries. I am so excited. I am
(30:56):
going to have it. And I'm not telling the birds
or anything coming through that I have them. But they're
doing very well. You want to make sure you're planting
them with acidic soil acidic pH. You can use aspoma,
a soil acidifier to lower the pH to four point
five to five point five. That's very important. You can
(31:18):
also right now, if you're doing papayas and you've got seedlings,
you can plant those in the landscape too as well,
and so This is just a great time National Gardening Month.
You can go ahead and connect with nature. It's a
good time to introduce children to gardening two as.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, definitely, And you know, the what's what I've done
in the past is I find out what they like.
So like one of our grand brats, we call him
seven fifteen, he loves pickles. I'm like, do you know
where pickles come from? He's like a Now, So the
last couple of years we've been kind of growing pickles,
cucumbers there you go, yeah, y'all to know there's seeds
(31:58):
out there there, pickle seeds anyway. But so yeah, we've
been growing cucumbers. We haven't made it to the canning
process yet because they either get eaten and we only
get him like every other weekend, so it doesn't work
out always perfectly. But we're working so hard this time
to make sure that he can actually can them and
make his own pickles.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
So that's that's gonna be so cool. He will love that.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yes, And also he also is like he has he's ADHD,
but he also is kind of OCD to a point,
so he really does like to go out and he
helped me weed the our garlic and our onions, which
we have a lot of, and I just had time
to get around to it this last week. And he
loves it because like the one sprig of grass that
he pulls out by the root actually has like two
(32:42):
nodules or three nodules. He's like, I got three this time.
I'm like you, go, boy, but there's one in there before.
Just keep on digging.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Oh good for him. That's great to introduce them to that.
And also doing the pickles will get him to cook,
you know, it'll introduce them to cooking.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yes, yes, And and I do little projects with him
and his brother.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So yeah, that is wonderful. That is wonderful. And so
we want to thank all of our callers today. Thank
you so much for calling in and texting your messages
and for the photographs. If you'd like to get a
hold of me, you can go to Better Launs dot
com and send me an email through that or notification
I'll get and I'll respond to you and I would
(33:23):
love to hear from you. Also to go please go
to our Facebook page and like it and give us
five stars. We do enjoy it, and we also get
messages through through Facebook too as well. Yes, definitely. And
I'm getting a lot of you know, questions on I
have ken in winter Haven. He's saying he has the
(33:44):
same issue with his avocado that is sprouting. I'm sorry. Yes,
he's got several plants that I've gone through the winter
and they're sprouting out from the bottom. And what should
they do. Well, that's a decision on how big the
trunk is, how big the plant is so, and it
will depend on the species. If it's a grafted species
(34:05):
like your citrus trees are grafted, you want to cut
the suckers off below the graft and see if it
will sprout back out from the top. If it's an avocado,
it may be an avocado that is not grafted, but
anything that is grafted, you want to make sure you
remove the suckers from the bottom. And then if it's
(34:26):
a tall tree twenty to thirty foot tall, I would
suggest calling an arborus to come check it out because
it still may be growing and it's just taking a
long time to produce the leaves. The leaves should start
to drop off, but I tell you if they don't
with the next storm. Did you hear about our hurricane season.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, it sounds like it's going to be a joy.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
It does, but it seems like it's not going to
be too bad. El Nino is starting and that's going
to keep them down.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
However, that's the second that they say that, and that's whenever,
because I mean they predicted last year where we were
just have one hundred thousand hurricanes.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Not really, but we didn't have any.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
No, by the grace of God, thank you Jesus. Yes, literally,
but we're kind of suffering because of the drink out Exactly.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We do need the tropical storm rains, we do, and
so we can't pray them off. We need them. You
want to finish your granular spring feedings of all your
fruit trees right now. You want to get them fertilized
before the heat of the season and so they can
start producing fruit. And then also to again check your
irrigation systems. It's so important check to make sure you
(35:29):
have a mandatory. If you have an automatic irrigation system,
you have to have a rain shut off device. Open
up your timer. It will say you know, water shut
off and you can manage it. Turn your timer on
and off with that, and the rain shut off device
is in there too, and make sure it's working, and
(35:49):
if it's not working, you need to replace the cork
or whatever it is that you need to replace to
get it back working again. You have to have a
working rain sensor. That is a state law on all
automatic irrigation systems, and it's just for your benefit. You
don't want to pay a large water bill. You don't
want to use the irrigation when it's not necessary. And
(36:11):
the more you use it, the more likely your plants
are going to have fungus and disease issues and insect issues. Yes,
so definitely. You know, water conservation, landscaping, it all works.
You want to have it based just on rainfall. And
if you have vegetables then sometimes you need to fruit trees.
You need to use the irrigation system, but then you
want to do it efficiently when you do need it.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Did you answer the text stuff from rick By about
the orange tree? No, I didn't see it where it
says a high tree. So I have a lanky orange
tree that has approximately ten to twelve foot tall. Is
it okay to top the tree? It's about four years
old and I live in Havana, Florida.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Okay, yes, it's okay to top it, and I would
do that right now as you're coming into the spring season.
If you top it off, you're not going to get
flowers at the top of it, but you'll have flowers
on the rest of the tree. So if it's something
that you want to be able to reach, you want
to keep it tall, that would be fine. I wouldn't
top it off, which means I wouldn't cut it straight across.
(37:12):
I would just cut the branches individually and make sure
you cut right above a node. Okay, don't cut below
the node. The on the stems, So find a branch area,
cut right above it and cut it diagonally and it'll
be just fine. Yeah, you can cut those. You can
cut trees back anytime that you have an issue, like
(37:34):
if it's too big, if it's going to hit somebody,
if it's going the wrong the branches are going the
wrong way, you can cut those branches back anytime. Just
realize that when you cut it back, it's not going
to have flowers or fruit. Probably that the next year.
Now next season it will, but not this year. So
if it's an issue, you can do that. We'd like
(37:55):
to thank Nicki Monroe from Indian River County she is
the environmental horticultural agent down there. She had some great
advice on watering efficiently. We do appreciate her coming on.
And then also Cheryl Harris with the Florida Irrigation Society.
She's the executive director and her important words please support
(38:16):
water conservation legislation next year. It's very important talk to
your local local politicians, your local Chamber of Commises about
promoting water conservation through legislation. It's very very important. Thank you, Lizzie.
You always do such a fabulous job. You are my guru,
my genius. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Thank you to our listeners have the best listeners and
not only do you call on your text, but she
also make us laugh in the process.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Thank you so much. Of It's Saturday morning. You're listening
to Better Lawns and Gardens from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios.
I'm Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
If you would like to recap any of the show
or any other shows, go to Better Lawns dot com.
That's Better Lawns
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Characteristic distinct directors to t
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