July 25, 2026 • 39 mins
What you should be doing in you yard. Teresa's Dirty Word of the Day.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning, Welcome back to the second hour of Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, my landscape designer, garden author, horticulturist, consultant.
I love to help people with their gardens and just
learn how to plant a beautiful flowers here in Florida,
or trees or shrubs, or grow vegetables. We can do
(00:31):
it all here in Florida. We're really blessed to have
gardening all year round, whether you like to grow flowers
or vegetables, which is great. So we have a warm
day ahead of us weekend. We're coming up next week
a lot of rain. We're going to get about six
inches throughout the state of Florida. So you want to
make sure your irrigation system is turned off or has
(00:55):
it with a automatic timer on it rains shut off
device shuts it off after you've had an inch and
a half of water in your landscape. So whether it's
rainfall or irrigation, your landscapes and then this has established landscape.
These are landscapes that have been in the ground for years.
(01:16):
Does not need a lot of water. It needs about
an inch and a half of water a week. Okay, Now,
if your landscape is new, or you have planted new
shrubs and flowers in it, they're going to need a
little bit more. And I would do it through the
summertime into the fall, where you water it handwater it
(01:36):
maybe two three times a week, just to make sure
that it's getting off to a good start, especially in
this heat. And this heat is very stressful. We can
plant year round, but you want to make sure that
when you're watering, and especially when you're planting it, if
you're planting a shrub or tree, I would soak the
(01:56):
hole that you dug for the plant three times. Let
it fill up and percolate. Let it fill up and percolate.
I would do that three times and then put your
root ball in the ground and then water it well again.
What that's going to do is it's not going to suck.
If it was dry soil around the root all, it
(02:18):
would suck the water out. So now you've saturated that
that hole, it's got enough water in it that when
you put the root ball in it and you rewater
it again to water it in, it's going to stay
there and at least get that plan off to a
good start. So let's go to the dirty Word of
the Day. And now it's time for the dirty Word
(02:40):
of the Day on the Better Lawns and Gardens with
Teresa Watkins. So the dirty word of the Day I
learned this week and I've never heard of it before,
so I wanted to bring it to you. And I
have two other words that I want to make sure
that you understand the meaning of. So the dirty word
of the day is glomalin g l O M A
(03:02):
l I n. Glominin are durable proteins that contain sugar
and they're produced by our arbuscula arbuscala. Say that correctly,
good Arbuscala micurrhyzol fungi. Okay, So I think everybody knows
what microhyzi fungi is, and that's the little white filaments
(03:23):
that you see in the root system as you're digging
up a root or you're seeing it in the compost,
that white microhyzol fungi and so our buscla is means
it's tree like. So these glomalin is tree like fungi.
When they form symbiotic relationships with most terrestrial plants, they
(03:46):
extend their reach into the soil through tubular filaments called
hiphi hu high phay okay h y p h a
e high phae globalin coats These high phae protecting their
nutrient transports structures while simul simultaneously strengthening soil systems. Its
(04:06):
persistence can last ten to fifty years, making it a
fundamental contributor to long term soil health, carbon strategic storage,
and erosion resistance. So this is a very important discovery
that happened in nineteen ninety six by doctor Sarah Wright.
She's with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. She's a soil
(04:30):
scientist who observed a distinct heat stable protein tightly bound
to the fungi hi fay. Her work revealed that the
sustance was responsible for much of the soil stability previously
attributed to organic matter. So this fungi extends far beyond
(04:51):
the nutrient depleted zones surrounding roots and root hairs. This
expanded network allows plans to access in mobile nutrients, particularly phosphorus,
making it more efficiently absorbed. As hyphae grow, they create
a physical framework upon which soil particles accumulate. Glomalin acts
(05:12):
like a glue, binding these particles into stable aggregate. So
the soil structure. This is kind of a kind of metaphor.
Soil structure can be compared to building a wall. The
high phae, those little filament roots are the boards forming
the frame. Soil particles act as insulation, filling the spaces.
(05:36):
Glomalin and fungal bacteria serve as the wallboard holding everything together.
Then glomalin's protective coating functions like paint, ceiling and protecting
the outer structure. So all in all, this globalin is
very very important to your plants and to the root system.
(05:58):
So there are many on Michael rhizol crops like canola, cabbage, broccoli,
cauliflowers that do not produce glomalin, and so glomalin is
we still don't know everything about it. We don't know
what causes it to react, and so you're gonna want
to stay glued to your seats to learn more research
(06:20):
as we learn more about glomalin and how it works
for and with plants. So the dirty word of the
day is glomalin. It is a glue like substance that
helps protect the root system. So I'm very excited about that.
So we're going to be back with more of better
Lawns and Gardens. This Saturday morning, you're listening to Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, and this is Florida's
(06:43):
Talk and Entertainment Network, And welcome back to Better Lawns
(07:08):
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. And if you have a
gardening question, you can give us a call one triple
eight four five five two nine sixty seven, or you
can text two three six eight zero and we will
get the correct answers. Pinky and port Orange, she says,
when should I order and plant Issium red garlic? She
(07:31):
had great success with it last year, but she forgot
when she planted it. She said, thanks for all you do.
And so Lizzie, yeah, thank you. We're she really appreciates
the show. Yes, so Pinky is a long time listener.
So Pinky garlic needs to be planted in the fall
so that you can harvest it next summer. So get
the seeds now and then go ahead and plant them
(07:53):
in August and September and you will be read really
harvesting the garlic next summer. That'll be great. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I've been doing garlic the last couple of years and
I absolutely love that and they have a thing called
elephant garlic. Yes, that was that. That's a game changer.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Okay, So do you eat the green stalks that come
are called scapes? As the plant grows, do you do
you cut that off?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
No, because I am such an amateur at gardening that
I go by the I'm afraid that if I did that,
then I'm not going to know when to actually pull
the garlic because I go by the browning of the leaves.
So I'm afraid if I cut it off, then.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, what's going to happen? Okay, really really good point.
So so let me just tell people how you can
from the store. You can plant a clove of garlics.
So you want to break apart a healthy garlic bulb,
and then you pick the largest outer clusters and you
want to keep that paper sheath on them, so you
(08:55):
don't want to remove the kind of like the skin
on the outside. Then you go ahead and you plant
it in the ground two to four inches deep, and
you want it pointing up, so you want the base
of the garlic to be down in the ground. And
then as the green stalks come up, that's called escape.
(09:15):
That's when you start to remove those scapes and you
can use them in your your salads or your soups
or your your recipes. And Lizzie, that's going to help
push all that energy into growing bigger garlic. So when
you grow the stems, when the escapes come up, that's
going to take away energy from the garlic. And then
(09:36):
how do you know when to harvest it? Is we'll
go ahead and put it on the calendar so that
when you plant it, then you know, you know nine
months later you're going to be harvesting it. Okay, okay,
and then just bark on the calendar. And then then
if you tell me, I'll tell you to go ahead
and harvest it routine.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Okay, exactly here, Okay, see again them a na, I'm
sure I've always taken the time to peel off that silk. Okay,
obviously that's not what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
No, you don't need to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So I did that, and you still got great garlic.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, but not big.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Garlic because I didn't realize how. And then all the
energy was going into growing the steams. Yeah, the escape okay, yes,
So and where I got my garlic I've always got
my garlic from is like in this this is so silly.
But I go to Public's and I find the garlic
that I like there and got the elephant garlic.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, and so yeah, that's a great place to get it. Yeah,
you know, especially if you like cooking with it. You know,
you enjoy it, Go ahead and buy one and grow
your own so you can just pull all those pieces
apart and get four or five, you know, you want
to get the biggest pieces. And yeah, and get the
elephant garlic. What do you cook with the garlic? Everything?
Do you? Actually?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I put garlic in just about everything, just for health purposes.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. I do that with
onions too, onions and garlic.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Just it's a guarantine.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Go go, everything goes in onions and garlic. Yes, I agree,
there you go. So you want to make sure you're
watering it so well to its well, and then you
can remove this. You could let this the stems come
up just to wee bit so, but in early spring
you want to remove them.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Okay, so just pretend we're not saying this is going
to happen. Say we have a freeze in January ish,
what are we supposed to do anything other than just
covering like we would our normal plane.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Don't even need to cover them. They can take the cold, okay,
they can take the cold. They can take Florida cold. Yes, okay,
so they'll be just fine, okay, okay. And then then
as it comes up you know, six inches, then you
go ahead and cut it off. You don't want it
to put its energy into those stems.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It was crazy. My last one of my biggest uh
elephant garlic that grew this last this last season. Instead
of having the little cloths, I guess is that what
you call it, It was one big, gigantic cloth I
could fit in the pole in my hand. Wow, just
one wow.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
It was.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I was very proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Sure, I was like, thank you, Dear Jesus, you.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Should be, but it was I was like, what am
I supposed to do with this?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Eat it like an apple and garlic sandwiches? There you go,
all right, one triple eight four five five two nine
sixty seven. You will talk about what your garlic looks like,
or you can text two three six eight zero. And
the heights in August average around ninety two degrees, okay,
and the loads are in the low seventies. We get
(12:35):
six and a half inches of rain during a during
the month of August on a generally general rule. But
this next week, we're hoping that we're gonna have about
six inches for the week, and if that is the case,
then that's gonna bring our over up and we really
definitely need it. And so then knock on wood, no
(12:57):
tropical storms in the in the near future or hurricanes,
So that's uh, that's gonna be great. So what can
you be planting this month? We're getting into August. Cantalopes
and collars and corn, cucumbers and eggplants, lima beans and okra,
peppers and pumpkins, snap beans and southern peas, squash, talmatillas, watermelon,
(13:21):
and tropical spinaches. Tropical spinaches are really really very good
and they really have a lot of nutrition in them.
Tropical spinaches like malabar spinach, malabars spinach, Okinawa spinach, longevity spinach,
(13:42):
and while they're not true spinaches, they are leafy greens
and they will grow all year rounds because spinach is
the true spinach. Spinachia alaricia is a win ter vegetable okay,
but tropical spinaches can be grown and harvested all summer long,
(14:07):
all year round, you know. So that's good. So Malabar
spinach has a couple of different names, Salon spinach, climbing spinach,
gut alciga a brittana, lobato vine spinach, and Malabar night shade.
Don't worry about the name this finding plants edible leaves
resemble those of spinach and can be used the same way.
(14:28):
It's originally from India, and when cooked, spinach is less
flick in texture, and in Bengali cuisine is popular. It's
popularity goes with chopped onions, hot chilies and a little
mustard oil. Now why does that make me think of
doctor Gary Bakman, you know, chopped onions, hot chilies and
(14:51):
a little mustard oil. And so he's going to be
here in October, so I'm looking forward to that. So
Malabar spinach goes well from Eire's seeds or you can
do cuttings and the vines perform best when grown on
a trellis two plants. All you need are two plants.
Two Malabard spinach. Plants can produce enough quantities of leaves
(15:13):
to provide a small family with greens during summer and fall,
so you just keep cutting the leaves and then they
grow back again and you cut it some more. So
it's a really great way to have an edible landscape.
It's a pretty vine and then it gets to feed
your family. It's a great thing, a great thing for
(15:33):
children to know. Now, Okinawa with spinach and longevity spinach
are also heat tolerant and they grow low though, which
means they can make a great edible groundcover. The flavorful
leaves can be juiced. They can be added raw to
fresh salads, smoothies, or steamed and cooked in stir fries,
(15:55):
soups and kishas. That's an interesting spinach of malabard spinach
or Okinawa spinach kish okay. And so the leaves can
be reddish colored, and they are two species of okinawa spinach,
so they have a bicolored one which has green and purplish.
I say red because it looks red to me, but
(16:18):
it's in the same family as sunflowers. It's native to Japan,
northeastern India to Nepal, Mayamar and then also southern China.
So again you can grow them in full sun. They
kind of do like a little bit of shade. If
you've got really really hot hot areas down in South Florida.
(16:42):
Treat them as annuals. But you can go ahead and
before the wintertime you cut off a vine and you
start growing in in a pot, and then over the
winter in early spring, then you can plant them in
the ground again, So you really don't need to buy
a lot of plants. They do get to be two
to three feet tall, but again when you're cutting them
(17:03):
often it won't get to be that tall when you're
eating it a lot, yes, and so it's really good
one triple eight four five five, two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero and
we will get to everything that you would like to discuss.
Let me see here, I've got some more on my
what to do lists. So I told you what vegetables
(17:25):
to plant herbs, you can go ahead and be planting
those now. Annison, basil, bay laurel and chives, dill, ginger
and lemon ball, Mexican tarragon which can take the heat,
mint which you can't kill, oregano and rosemary, sage, sweet marjoram,
and thyme. And if you're growing them in pots, you
(17:46):
can put them in the shade the herbs will do
really well and will you know, not get as wilted
from the sun as they do in the summertime. But
you can plant them and put them in the shade
and they will grow just as well. So what should
you be doing well right now? Over the last few weeks,
I'm walking through my client's yards and I see sod
(18:08):
webworms coming up. So you may not see the decline yet,
but those sod webworms are laying eggs and those larva
are hatching, and they're going to eat the roots of
your plants. So you do have to put down some
grub aside. Uh, just when you go to the store,
(18:28):
just look for sod webworms on the front of the
bag or the container and it will it will take
care of those sod webworms for you. Do it now
so that your grass does not go into decline. And
saying that, I just you know, especially during the summertime,
we need to be walking our yards at least once
(18:50):
a week just to catch a major problem before it,
you know, gets out of hand. And so in working
with clients, they just sometimes let it go so long
that there's a lot of landscape or a lot of
sawd that needs replaced. When you're seeing a part of
(19:11):
your sad declining, check to see whether it's chinchbugs or
sod webworms and or other kinds of disease issues. You
want to catch it before it becomes a severe problem.
You can also take a soil sample to your local
extension office. Your extension office is one of the best
(19:32):
things that Florida has. Check them out in your county directory.
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.
(20:00):
Welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. We really want
you to go to Peterson's Nursery today at ten thirty.
They are going to have a repotting orchids six inches
or less in size and they will repot two orchids
for you. That's a really great service.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh definitely, and everybody, and I'm included of being scared
of orchids because I'm like, ah, they're just going.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
To die or they never bloom.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
But you know, definitely go talk to Howie and Karen
and they will help you get over that hump of
being scared of this.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yes, I will tell you, Lizzie. I was at a
house yesterday that he was growing orchids and they were huge.
They were like they were almost two feet wide. Two
feet wide, yeah, and they had leaves all coming out.
And all he did was have them underneath the tree.
And they were underneath trees and hanging baskets and they
(20:54):
were huge. And he doesn't do anything to him. I
mean they didn't. They didn't look like you would put
them in a you know, a multimillion dollar house. But
they were growing beautifully nice. And I was wow. I go,
your orchids are beautiful. And he says, I don't do
anything to him. They just stay out there all year.
I'm going, wow. So that's interesting. So here's some more
(21:15):
things to do in August. You want to make sure
you've had a good six months of mowing right now,
so you want to make sure that you are changing
and sharpening your lawnmower blades. You do not want your
lawnmower blades to be dull where it's ripping off the
grass blades. Okay, that's not good for your grass and
(21:35):
it's going to lead to insects and disease issues. You
want to also check your irrigation system, especially as we're
coming this next week and we're getting rainfall and you're
seeing the gauge and you know you've gotten at least
an inch and a half two inches and your irrigation
still comes on. That means you need to check your
timer and shut down your You know, you either need
(21:58):
to re fix readjust the level of your range shut
off device. It should be set at one and a
half inches, or you need a whole new system. And
a new range shot off device is going to cost
you between forty and fifty dollars, but it will save
you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year in
(22:21):
irrigation bills, water bills. That's very very important. Plus you're
going to make your landscape healthier by not watering as much. Okay,
So check your system, check your pop up, sure your
emitters to make sure that they are rising above your
grass blades. Okay. So as our grass grows more sometimes
(22:44):
and even our shrubs and you know other perennials that
we have in the garden, you want to make sure
that your irrigation is hitting the root system. It doesn't
need to be on risers three foot risers. That's not
good either, because overwatering and star bring the leaves can
lead to disease issues. Roots are the only thing that
(23:04):
absorb water. The leaves do not need water, okay, and
so you want to get that those roots the water
that it needs. If it's on the leaves, it's going
to viborate and not get into the ground. You also
want to make sure if you're putting in a new
sawd new law lawn, that they're more likely to get
(23:25):
fungus when they're new, because you're watering every day. For
the first week, you're watering every two days, the second week,
you're watering every three days. A third week, and by
the fourth week you're on that schedule of twice a
week watering. And so new lawns can get fungus. So
apply a fungicide after you lay your new sawd okay.
(23:48):
Or if you're used to or you're seeing fungus in
your landscape now, then you want to make sure you
put on your schedule that next year in June and July,
you spray a funge aside to prevent it. Okay. Once
you have the fungus, there's nothing you can do about
it but let it dry out. It will eventually go away,
(24:09):
and hopefully before it takes all of your yard. But
if you spray the fudge aside before it will prevent it.
So that's when you need to do it. I've been
seeing a lot of mushrooms in the soil, so in
your lawns mushrooms how in your yard too? Oh?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yes, definitely, and in the turkey run areas too.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Really you know, so they're not the edible mushrooms, are they?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Ah, they're pretty I don't. I mean, it's not like
I mean, I wouldn't eat them.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, I wouldn't need them in the turkey pen either.
It's a good, good decision right there. That's a good decision. Okay.
So mushrooms, if you're seeing it, that just means you
have a lot of organic material in the ground and
those airsportes, those fungi are taken root and they're going
to go ahead and spread. They're going to be gone
once the rainy season gets over with, they'll be gone.
(24:56):
No reason to do anything. Now, if you see the
ones that are called well stink stink mushrooms, the stink horns,
then you want to go ahead and get rid of those.
Those are poisonous. You don't want those around also too.
You can be pruning time for azaleas. No, you do
not want to be pruning azaleas now. You do not
(25:17):
want to be pruning camellias. Or you're guardena's. Now it's over.
You want them to go ahead and start the blooms
for next spring. If you're azaleas, you're only getting blooms
on the inside of the shrub, then you're pruning it
too often. And this happens a lot when you have
a landscape maintenance company, because by God, they love to prune. Okay,
(25:43):
and prune, prune, prune. They want those shrubs straight, and
you're cutting all the blooms off. If you're cutting the
blooms off, or you can get across your sidewalk. When
that shrub grows out and starts to get big, then
it's the wrong plant in the wrong place. So don't
prune azaleahs. Communities are guarandina's for the rest of the year.
(26:04):
Give your palms a break. You only want to remove
dead fronds, so only brown fronds remove. Palm trees need
their leaves to go through photosynsus. This create chlorophyll. They
need those fronds, do not cut them off. Sometimes you'll
see landscape companies doing hurricane pruning. Do not do that.
(26:26):
Palms are used to be in hurricanes, and the more
frauds they have, the more green fronds they have, they're
going to be able to withstand a storm. So don't
worry about that. But if you cut it and you're
cutting off too many fronds, it may snap in the wind.
Those fronds hold back the wind, so mother nature knows
how to do it also, So if you have your
(26:50):
inside point settius, Lizzie, now's the time to go ahead
and pinch them back. You can prune them back, and
so you can cut beck wisteria now and point setiis okay, Okay,
So when you go home, the ones that are still
living indoors, you can go ahead and just cut the back.
They'll get nice and thick that way. Yes, okay, avoid
(27:12):
trimming sheer plants back to the same height. So when
you're cutting your hedge, okay, think about this. You want
the top of the shrub to be smaller than the
bottom of the shrub. You want to cut at a
slight angle. That's going to allow the leaves on the
bottom to stay nice and thick. If you cut the
shrubs straight, and most people cut shrubs in August. You
(27:36):
can cut your hibiscus back. You can cut all of
your thrialis back, your plumbago back right now if you want.
If they're too big, you can go ahead and cut
those back, but you want to make sure that if
you're doing the photocarpus, if you're doing the lagustrums and
the viburnums, you want to leave the bottom of the
hedge larger than the top. And you don't want to
(28:00):
cut straight down. When you cut straight down, the leaves
at the bottom don't get any sunlight, and it creates
what I call bare bottom syndrome, where you can look
through the bottom of the shrubs, and so you don't
want to do that. Cut them at a slight angle
from the street that looks straight, and they will be
nice and full and you'll be very happy. We've just
(28:20):
got fifteen minutes more you can get your gardening questions answered.
One triple eight four, five, five, two, nine, six seven.
It's Saturday morning. You're listening to the award winning Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, and this is Florida's
Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back to better lawns and gardens.
(28:52):
So what can you be doing in the month of August.
You can be calling one triple eight four five five,
two nine sixty seven or you can take two three,
six eight zero with your gardening questions. But you can
also divide your bromeliads, your shasta daisies, day lilies, and
other perennials. You can be transplanting palm trees and sagos.
(29:13):
Now's the time of the year to do it. Also too,
you can start your point Setia cuttings. If you have
a point settias and they're nice and large and they
do very well here in Florida. You can make extra
point setiis now and then you can also to make
sure that you are pinching back this month your chrysanthemums.
(29:37):
If you're growing chrysanthemums in your yard or in pots, August,
April and August is the time that you pinch them,
and that's gonna lead to a much denser plant and
they're gonna look beautiful for the fall. This is also
the time of the year to feed your water lilies. Okay,
you will take a little pellets, and you will put
(29:58):
them into the pot and then you and put them
back in the water. You can go ahead and check
your pineapples. The fruits are ready, when they're very fragrant.
You gotta get them before the raccoons and the also
the birds. They get them in the squirrels. You want
them to when they turn yellow to orange, Get them
(30:21):
before that and they will ripen on your counter. You
also want to feed your bananas and figs monthly, but
very lightly so keep moist and mulched. Okay, so the
rain we have no problem with, but you want to
mulch them, and that's going to keep the moisture in
the ground. Also too, you can give your grapes and
(30:42):
apples and peaches. Now's the time to be fertilizing them
as well. You can also be planting seeds of melons
and pumpkins. So lots to do in the month of
August as we get ready to go back to school.
Lots of things to do in your vegetable garden, in
your landscape. And we can you know very easily, you know,
(31:05):
have a wonderful fall garden. One triple eight yep. Okay,
let's see it didn't move up. Hold on just a second. Nope,
do not see them? Hun, what's the question?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Okay, it says it's a georgette. We have volunteer sweet
potatoes from sprouted kitchen potatoes planted last year. They were
not successful then, but have taken over our garden. Now,
when do I harvest them? And when to put them
in for the next season?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Okay? So you want to harvest them in the fall,
you can September and October. So I would say, how
do you know when to harvest them? Pull one up
and see how big it is, Okay, and then if
it's a nice size for you and you think that
you know you're ready to harvest them, go ahead and
pull them up. Then you can also plant them again
(31:56):
in the springtime. Okay. So you want to save some
and in some of the eyes, and you can put
them back in the ground. So harvesting them if they're
all over your yard. I don't know what they look
like or how big they are, but you can harvest them.
Pull one up and see if not, stick it back
in the ground for a little while longer and uh,
and then try in another two to three weeks. Great question.
(32:19):
Great question, so Ivy We've heard of growing ivy and
sometimes I see it growing up trees. You don't want
to let the the ivy do that. It attaches to
the bark and if you have to remove that ivy,
which you should, then it's going to pull that bark
(32:39):
off that that hard layer that protects the cambium. So
you want to make sure you're pulling it up that
it looks romantic growing up bricks, but again, the roots
get into the grout of your brickwork and it will
loosen the bricks. They start to hold onto moisture. That's
going to cause mild in your house. You don't want
(33:02):
to do that mildew on the outside to as well.
So you know, keeping ivy in the ground, make sure
you're just going ahead and weed, eating it or mowing
it and then keeping it off of your trees and walls.
Let's go to Brad in winter Haven. Good morning, Brad,
how can I help you?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Good morning? Have a question. I have these huge Norfolk
Island pines in my yard. I grew them up from
Christmas trees. Yes, they're probably fifteen to twenty years old
and I live in winter Haven and they got very
damaged during the freeze uh huh, and summers starting to
come back at the top a little bit at the side.
(33:43):
There's some that are completely no growth, and I was
gonna be having some tree work done. I don't know
whether to have them cut down to the ground or
if they have a little green at the top. Do
you think they'll come back?
Speaker 1 (33:54):
So they're going to come back, Brad, But it's not
going to be a pretty tree, Okay. So they're gonna
look scraggly, and the brown branches you can go ahead
and cut them off. Now, if when you're doing the
tree work they cut the brown branches off, you'll see
it recover a little bit faster, so you'll see the
growth coming out. So I'm just gonna say it's an
(34:16):
aesthetic issue and it's up to you. Okay, Okay, got it.
So they're not dead, so they will come out, but
it may take you know how slow they grow, and
so it may take a couple two to three years
for it to fully recover. And do you want to
look at it that long? So it's it's strictly they
(34:36):
are they will recover, they're they're growing. Now, just how
long do you want to wait? Especially when they're that tall.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Okay, So let's say there's one that has absolutely no
green on it right now, right, do you think that
one's probably dead? Yes, okay, okay, if I.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Take that one down, yeah, I would go ahead while
you got the arborist there, get you get your money's
worthn't have them take them down. But if it's got
some green on it, you might want to leave it.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Got it already, I'll do that.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Thank you Brad for listening. Appreciate you calling in.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, we're still seeing a lot of those norfolklon pines.
I'm even seeing mango tree on our street. The mango
is all dead on the outside, but it is chuck
full on the inside of brand new leaves. And I
just I don't think those brown mango leaves are going
to fall off unless we have a storm or something.
So it's just an issue aesthetics, you know. Do you
(35:31):
want it to grow through the dead branches, you know?
Or do you want to go ahead and cut it
back and let it flush out correctly, which it will
do and it will not need that shade. Mangoes don't
need shade, papayas don't need shade, and Norfolk Island pines
don't need shade, so they will all grow in the
full sun. So Lizzie, I'd like everyone to go to
(35:54):
our Facebook page please and like us, and you can
also see today the top five wacky and offbeat art
pieces that I saw in Buffalo, New York. And then
also too they can sign up for my newsletter on
my web page which is www dot she dash consulting
(36:18):
dot com. She dash Consulting dot com and will be
talking about.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
We have another text asking a recommendation for fungus products
on grass a large area Port Saint Lucie, about one
hundred square feet under oaks.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, any fung aside on the shelf will be fine.
You can use a name eighty five to two as well,
name oil, but fung aside, dacanil or any of the
products that are on the shelf that say fung a
side will work on grass in Port Saint Lucy in
the shade. So just go see what's on there, what's
(36:54):
the best price, and follow the instructions to the letter.
That's very very important. Yeah. Yeah, more is not better, right,
more is not better. No, you can do some damage
with it, but you're wasting the product to as well,
So follow the instructions. It's not going to it's not
going to stop that fungus you just wanted to dry out.
(37:15):
So if I had your irrigation system on, it should
only come on once or once a week. Right now,
I think a port Saint Lucy is underwater restrictions from
the South Florida Water Management District, so they only can
water once a week if no range. So they're coming
up from rain. You want to let it dry out.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yes, we also learned to stop asking AI your questions.
Either ask Teresa okay, because you can always email her
Teresa dot Watkins at live dot com. Or if they
were to search on their search engines on the internet,
what do they need to put in?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
So they put their question, you know, like how to
grow this or how do I prevent spiders? But always
put the three letters E DU which stands for Education EDU.
And that's going to bring up university extension sites in
the United States that will have the correct information. I
will tell you I see a lot of misinformation on there, yes,
(38:14):
and I see half of it's correct and half of
it is wrong. And you know, you shouldn't have to
google three websites to get the correct information.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And also whenever you do that, it all show. Whenever
you go to those websites, it'll bring you to the
right zone. Yes, your ends.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, or you can just put in your ZIP code
in it. So question edu zip code and you'll get
the right one for the state of Florida. It is
the University of Florida, EDI edis and Garden Solutions. You
can get the right answers. Thank you so much for
all our callers today. We certainly do appreciate you listening.
(38:52):
I'm glad to be back. And Lizzie, thank you so much.
Your work and your production helps make this show award
winning show, so I certainly do appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Thank you, Thank you for our listeners.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yep, if it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watcaz and this is Florida's talk
and entertainment network.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
If you miss any of the show or want to
recap any other shows, go to Better Lawns dot com.
This Better Lawns dot com.
Good morning, Welcome back to the second hour of Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, my landscape designer, garden author, horticulturist, consultant.
I love to help people with their gardens and just
learn how to plant a beautiful flowers here in Florida,
or trees or shrubs, or grow vegetables. We can do
(00:31):
it all here in Florida. We're really blessed to have
gardening all year round, whether you like to grow flowers
or vegetables, which is great. So we have a warm
day ahead of us weekend. We're coming up next week
a lot of rain. We're going to get about six
inches throughout the state of Florida. So you want to
make sure your irrigation system is turned off or has
(00:55):
it with a automatic timer on it rains shut off
device shuts it off after you've had an inch and
a half of water in your landscape. So whether it's
rainfall or irrigation, your landscapes and then this has established landscape.
These are landscapes that have been in the ground for years.
(01:16):
Does not need a lot of water. It needs about
an inch and a half of water a week. Okay, Now,
if your landscape is new, or you have planted new
shrubs and flowers in it, they're going to need a
little bit more. And I would do it through the
summertime into the fall, where you water it handwater it
(01:36):
maybe two three times a week, just to make sure
that it's getting off to a good start, especially in
this heat. And this heat is very stressful. We can
plant year round, but you want to make sure that
when you're watering, and especially when you're planting it, if
you're planting a shrub or tree, I would soak the
(01:56):
hole that you dug for the plant three times. Let
it fill up and percolate. Let it fill up and percolate.
I would do that three times and then put your
root ball in the ground and then water it well again.
What that's going to do is it's not going to suck.
If it was dry soil around the root all, it
(02:18):
would suck the water out. So now you've saturated that
that hole, it's got enough water in it that when
you put the root ball in it and you rewater
it again to water it in, it's going to stay
there and at least get that plan off to a
good start. So let's go to the dirty Word of
the Day. And now it's time for the dirty Word
(02:40):
of the Day on the Better Lawns and Gardens with
Teresa Watkins. So the dirty word of the Day I
learned this week and I've never heard of it before,
so I wanted to bring it to you. And I
have two other words that I want to make sure
that you understand the meaning of. So the dirty word
of the day is glomalin g l O M A
(03:02):
l I n. Glominin are durable proteins that contain sugar
and they're produced by our arbuscula arbuscala. Say that correctly,
good Arbuscala micurrhyzol fungi. Okay, So I think everybody knows
what microhyzi fungi is, and that's the little white filaments
(03:23):
that you see in the root system as you're digging
up a root or you're seeing it in the compost,
that white microhyzol fungi and so our buscla is means
it's tree like. So these glomalin is tree like fungi.
When they form symbiotic relationships with most terrestrial plants, they
(03:46):
extend their reach into the soil through tubular filaments called
hiphi hu high phay okay h y p h a
e high phae globalin coats These high phae protecting their
nutrient transports structures while simul simultaneously strengthening soil systems. Its
(04:06):
persistence can last ten to fifty years, making it a
fundamental contributor to long term soil health, carbon strategic storage,
and erosion resistance. So this is a very important discovery
that happened in nineteen ninety six by doctor Sarah Wright.
She's with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. She's a soil
(04:30):
scientist who observed a distinct heat stable protein tightly bound
to the fungi hi fay. Her work revealed that the
sustance was responsible for much of the soil stability previously
attributed to organic matter. So this fungi extends far beyond
(04:51):
the nutrient depleted zones surrounding roots and root hairs. This
expanded network allows plans to access in mobile nutrients, particularly phosphorus,
making it more efficiently absorbed. As hyphae grow, they create
a physical framework upon which soil particles accumulate. Glomalin acts
(05:12):
like a glue, binding these particles into stable aggregate. So
the soil structure. This is kind of a kind of metaphor.
Soil structure can be compared to building a wall. The
high phae, those little filament roots are the boards forming
the frame. Soil particles act as insulation, filling the spaces.
(05:36):
Glomalin and fungal bacteria serve as the wallboard holding everything together.
Then glomalin's protective coating functions like paint, ceiling and protecting
the outer structure. So all in all, this globalin is
very very important to your plants and to the root system.
(05:58):
So there are many on Michael rhizol crops like canola, cabbage, broccoli,
cauliflowers that do not produce glomalin, and so glomalin is
we still don't know everything about it. We don't know
what causes it to react, and so you're gonna want
to stay glued to your seats to learn more research
(06:20):
as we learn more about glomalin and how it works
for and with plants. So the dirty word of the
day is glomalin. It is a glue like substance that
helps protect the root system. So I'm very excited about that.
So we're going to be back with more of better
Lawns and Gardens. This Saturday morning, you're listening to Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, and this is Florida's
(06:43):
Talk and Entertainment Network, And welcome back to Better Lawns
(07:08):
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. And if you have a
gardening question, you can give us a call one triple
eight four five five two nine sixty seven, or you
can text two three six eight zero and we will
get the correct answers. Pinky and port Orange, she says,
when should I order and plant Issium red garlic? She
(07:31):
had great success with it last year, but she forgot
when she planted it. She said, thanks for all you do.
And so Lizzie, yeah, thank you. We're she really appreciates
the show. Yes, so Pinky is a long time listener.
So Pinky garlic needs to be planted in the fall
so that you can harvest it next summer. So get
the seeds now and then go ahead and plant them
(07:53):
in August and September and you will be read really
harvesting the garlic next summer. That'll be great. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I've been doing garlic the last couple of years and
I absolutely love that and they have a thing called
elephant garlic. Yes, that was that. That's a game changer.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Okay, So do you eat the green stalks that come
are called scapes? As the plant grows, do you do
you cut that off?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
No, because I am such an amateur at gardening that
I go by the I'm afraid that if I did that,
then I'm not going to know when to actually pull
the garlic because I go by the browning of the leaves.
So I'm afraid if I cut it off, then.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, what's going to happen? Okay, really really good point.
So so let me just tell people how you can
from the store. You can plant a clove of garlics.
So you want to break apart a healthy garlic bulb,
and then you pick the largest outer clusters and you
want to keep that paper sheath on them, so you
(08:55):
don't want to remove the kind of like the skin
on the outside. Then you go ahead and you plant
it in the ground two to four inches deep, and
you want it pointing up, so you want the base
of the garlic to be down in the ground. And
then as the green stalks come up, that's called escape.
(09:15):
That's when you start to remove those scapes and you
can use them in your your salads or your soups
or your your recipes. And Lizzie, that's going to help
push all that energy into growing bigger garlic. So when
you grow the stems, when the escapes come up, that's
going to take away energy from the garlic. And then
(09:36):
how do you know when to harvest it? Is we'll
go ahead and put it on the calendar so that
when you plant it, then you know, you know nine
months later you're going to be harvesting it. Okay, okay,
and then just bark on the calendar. And then then
if you tell me, I'll tell you to go ahead
and harvest it routine.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Okay, exactly here, Okay, see again them a na, I'm
sure I've always taken the time to peel off that silk. Okay,
obviously that's not what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
No, you don't need to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So I did that, and you still got great garlic.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, but not big.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Garlic because I didn't realize how. And then all the
energy was going into growing the steams. Yeah, the escape okay, yes,
So and where I got my garlic I've always got
my garlic from is like in this this is so silly.
But I go to Public's and I find the garlic
that I like there and got the elephant garlic.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, and so yeah, that's a great place to get it. Yeah,
you know, especially if you like cooking with it. You know,
you enjoy it, Go ahead and buy one and grow
your own so you can just pull all those pieces
apart and get four or five, you know, you want
to get the biggest pieces. And yeah, and get the
elephant garlic. What do you cook with the garlic? Everything?
Do you? Actually?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I put garlic in just about everything, just for health purposes.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. I do that with
onions too, onions and garlic.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Just it's a guarantine.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Go go, everything goes in onions and garlic. Yes, I agree,
there you go. So you want to make sure you're
watering it so well to its well, and then you
can remove this. You could let this the stems come
up just to wee bit so, but in early spring
you want to remove them.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Okay, so just pretend we're not saying this is going
to happen. Say we have a freeze in January ish,
what are we supposed to do anything other than just
covering like we would our normal plane.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Don't even need to cover them. They can take the cold, okay,
they can take the cold. They can take Florida cold. Yes, okay,
so they'll be just fine, okay, okay. And then then
as it comes up you know, six inches, then you
go ahead and cut it off. You don't want it
to put its energy into those stems.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It was crazy. My last one of my biggest uh
elephant garlic that grew this last this last season. Instead
of having the little cloths, I guess is that what
you call it, It was one big, gigantic cloth I
could fit in the pole in my hand. Wow, just
one wow.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
It was.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I was very proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Sure, I was like, thank you, Dear Jesus, you.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Should be, but it was I was like, what am
I supposed to do with this?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Eat it like an apple and garlic sandwiches? There you go,
all right, one triple eight four five five two nine
sixty seven. You will talk about what your garlic looks like,
or you can text two three six eight zero. And
the heights in August average around ninety two degrees, okay,
and the loads are in the low seventies. We get
(12:35):
six and a half inches of rain during a during
the month of August on a generally general rule. But
this next week, we're hoping that we're gonna have about
six inches for the week, and if that is the case,
then that's gonna bring our over up and we really
definitely need it. And so then knock on wood, no
(12:57):
tropical storms in the in the near future or hurricanes,
So that's uh, that's gonna be great. So what can
you be planting this month? We're getting into August. Cantalopes
and collars and corn, cucumbers and eggplants, lima beans and okra,
peppers and pumpkins, snap beans and southern peas, squash, talmatillas, watermelon,
(13:21):
and tropical spinaches. Tropical spinaches are really really very good
and they really have a lot of nutrition in them.
Tropical spinaches like malabar spinach, malabars spinach, Okinawa spinach, longevity spinach,
(13:42):
and while they're not true spinaches, they are leafy greens
and they will grow all year rounds because spinach is
the true spinach. Spinachia alaricia is a win ter vegetable okay,
but tropical spinaches can be grown and harvested all summer long,
(14:07):
all year round, you know. So that's good. So Malabar
spinach has a couple of different names, Salon spinach, climbing spinach,
gut alciga a brittana, lobato vine spinach, and Malabar night shade.
Don't worry about the name this finding plants edible leaves
resemble those of spinach and can be used the same way.
(14:28):
It's originally from India, and when cooked, spinach is less
flick in texture, and in Bengali cuisine is popular. It's
popularity goes with chopped onions, hot chilies and a little
mustard oil. Now why does that make me think of
doctor Gary Bakman, you know, chopped onions, hot chilies and
(14:51):
a little mustard oil. And so he's going to be
here in October, so I'm looking forward to that. So
Malabar spinach goes well from Eire's seeds or you can
do cuttings and the vines perform best when grown on
a trellis two plants. All you need are two plants.
Two Malabard spinach. Plants can produce enough quantities of leaves
(15:13):
to provide a small family with greens during summer and fall,
so you just keep cutting the leaves and then they
grow back again and you cut it some more. So
it's a really great way to have an edible landscape.
It's a pretty vine and then it gets to feed
your family. It's a great thing, a great thing for
(15:33):
children to know. Now, Okinawa with spinach and longevity spinach
are also heat tolerant and they grow low though, which
means they can make a great edible groundcover. The flavorful
leaves can be juiced. They can be added raw to
fresh salads, smoothies, or steamed and cooked in stir fries,
(15:55):
soups and kishas. That's an interesting spinach of malabard spinach
or Okinawa spinach kish okay. And so the leaves can
be reddish colored, and they are two species of okinawa spinach,
so they have a bicolored one which has green and purplish.
I say red because it looks red to me, but
(16:18):
it's in the same family as sunflowers. It's native to Japan,
northeastern India to Nepal, Mayamar and then also southern China.
So again you can grow them in full sun. They
kind of do like a little bit of shade. If
you've got really really hot hot areas down in South Florida.
(16:42):
Treat them as annuals. But you can go ahead and
before the wintertime you cut off a vine and you
start growing in in a pot, and then over the
winter in early spring, then you can plant them in
the ground again, So you really don't need to buy
a lot of plants. They do get to be two
to three feet tall, but again when you're cutting them
(17:03):
often it won't get to be that tall when you're
eating it a lot, yes, and so it's really good
one triple eight four five five, two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero and
we will get to everything that you would like to discuss.
Let me see here, I've got some more on my
what to do lists. So I told you what vegetables
(17:25):
to plant herbs, you can go ahead and be planting
those now. Annison, basil, bay laurel and chives, dill, ginger
and lemon ball, Mexican tarragon which can take the heat,
mint which you can't kill, oregano and rosemary, sage, sweet marjoram,
and thyme. And if you're growing them in pots, you
(17:46):
can put them in the shade the herbs will do
really well and will you know, not get as wilted
from the sun as they do in the summertime. But
you can plant them and put them in the shade
and they will grow just as well. So what should
you be doing well right now? Over the last few weeks,
I'm walking through my client's yards and I see sod
(18:08):
webworms coming up. So you may not see the decline yet,
but those sod webworms are laying eggs and those larva
are hatching, and they're going to eat the roots of
your plants. So you do have to put down some
grub aside. Uh, just when you go to the store,
(18:28):
just look for sod webworms on the front of the
bag or the container and it will it will take
care of those sod webworms for you. Do it now
so that your grass does not go into decline. And
saying that, I just you know, especially during the summertime,
we need to be walking our yards at least once
(18:50):
a week just to catch a major problem before it,
you know, gets out of hand. And so in working
with clients, they just sometimes let it go so long
that there's a lot of landscape or a lot of
sawd that needs replaced. When you're seeing a part of
(19:11):
your sad declining, check to see whether it's chinchbugs or
sod webworms and or other kinds of disease issues. You
want to catch it before it becomes a severe problem.
You can also take a soil sample to your local
extension office. Your extension office is one of the best
(19:32):
things that Florida has. Check them out in your county directory.
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.
(20:00):
Welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. We really want
you to go to Peterson's Nursery today at ten thirty.
They are going to have a repotting orchids six inches
or less in size and they will repot two orchids
for you. That's a really great service.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Oh definitely, and everybody, and I'm included of being scared
of orchids because I'm like, ah, they're just going.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
To die or they never bloom.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
But you know, definitely go talk to Howie and Karen
and they will help you get over that hump of
being scared of this.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yes, I will tell you, Lizzie. I was at a
house yesterday that he was growing orchids and they were huge.
They were like they were almost two feet wide. Two
feet wide, yeah, and they had leaves all coming out.
And all he did was have them underneath the tree.
And they were underneath trees and hanging baskets and they
(20:54):
were huge. And he doesn't do anything to him. I
mean they didn't. They didn't look like you would put
them in a you know, a multimillion dollar house. But
they were growing beautifully nice. And I was wow. I go,
your orchids are beautiful. And he says, I don't do
anything to him. They just stay out there all year.
I'm going, wow. So that's interesting. So here's some more
(21:15):
things to do in August. You want to make sure
you've had a good six months of mowing right now,
so you want to make sure that you are changing
and sharpening your lawnmower blades. You do not want your
lawnmower blades to be dull where it's ripping off the
grass blades. Okay, that's not good for your grass and
(21:35):
it's going to lead to insects and disease issues. You
want to also check your irrigation system, especially as we're
coming this next week and we're getting rainfall and you're
seeing the gauge and you know you've gotten at least
an inch and a half two inches and your irrigation
still comes on. That means you need to check your
timer and shut down your You know, you either need
(21:58):
to re fix readjust the level of your range shut
off device. It should be set at one and a
half inches, or you need a whole new system. And
a new range shot off device is going to cost
you between forty and fifty dollars, but it will save
you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year in
(22:21):
irrigation bills, water bills. That's very very important. Plus you're
going to make your landscape healthier by not watering as much. Okay,
So check your system, check your pop up, sure your
emitters to make sure that they are rising above your
grass blades. Okay. So as our grass grows more sometimes
(22:44):
and even our shrubs and you know other perennials that
we have in the garden, you want to make sure
that your irrigation is hitting the root system. It doesn't
need to be on risers three foot risers. That's not
good either, because overwatering and star bring the leaves can
lead to disease issues. Roots are the only thing that
(23:04):
absorb water. The leaves do not need water, okay, and
so you want to get that those roots the water
that it needs. If it's on the leaves, it's going
to viborate and not get into the ground. You also
want to make sure if you're putting in a new
sawd new law lawn, that they're more likely to get
(23:25):
fungus when they're new, because you're watering every day. For
the first week, you're watering every two days, the second week,
you're watering every three days. A third week, and by
the fourth week you're on that schedule of twice a
week watering. And so new lawns can get fungus. So
apply a fungicide after you lay your new sawd okay.
(23:48):
Or if you're used to or you're seeing fungus in
your landscape now, then you want to make sure you
put on your schedule that next year in June and July,
you spray a funge aside to prevent it. Okay. Once
you have the fungus, there's nothing you can do about
it but let it dry out. It will eventually go away,
(24:09):
and hopefully before it takes all of your yard. But
if you spray the fudge aside before it will prevent it.
So that's when you need to do it. I've been
seeing a lot of mushrooms in the soil, so in
your lawns mushrooms how in your yard too? Oh?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yes, definitely, and in the turkey run areas too.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Really you know, so they're not the edible mushrooms, are they?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Ah, they're pretty I don't. I mean, it's not like
I mean, I wouldn't eat them.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, I wouldn't need them in the turkey pen either.
It's a good, good decision right there. That's a good decision. Okay.
So mushrooms, if you're seeing it, that just means you
have a lot of organic material in the ground and
those airsportes, those fungi are taken root and they're going
to go ahead and spread. They're going to be gone
once the rainy season gets over with, they'll be gone.
(24:56):
No reason to do anything. Now, if you see the
ones that are called well stink stink mushrooms, the stink horns,
then you want to go ahead and get rid of those.
Those are poisonous. You don't want those around also too.
You can be pruning time for azaleas. No, you do
not want to be pruning azaleas now. You do not
(25:17):
want to be pruning camellias. Or you're guardena's. Now it's over.
You want them to go ahead and start the blooms
for next spring. If you're azaleas, you're only getting blooms
on the inside of the shrub, then you're pruning it
too often. And this happens a lot when you have
a landscape maintenance company, because by God, they love to prune. Okay,
(25:43):
and prune, prune, prune. They want those shrubs straight, and
you're cutting all the blooms off. If you're cutting the
blooms off, or you can get across your sidewalk. When
that shrub grows out and starts to get big, then
it's the wrong plant in the wrong place. So don't
prune azaleahs. Communities are guarandina's for the rest of the year.
(26:04):
Give your palms a break. You only want to remove
dead fronds, so only brown fronds remove. Palm trees need
their leaves to go through photosynsus. This create chlorophyll. They
need those fronds, do not cut them off. Sometimes you'll
see landscape companies doing hurricane pruning. Do not do that.
(26:26):
Palms are used to be in hurricanes, and the more
frauds they have, the more green fronds they have, they're
going to be able to withstand a storm. So don't
worry about that. But if you cut it and you're
cutting off too many fronds, it may snap in the wind.
Those fronds hold back the wind, so mother nature knows
how to do it also, So if you have your
(26:50):
inside point settius, Lizzie, now's the time to go ahead
and pinch them back. You can prune them back, and
so you can cut beck wisteria now and point setiis okay, Okay,
So when you go home, the ones that are still
living indoors, you can go ahead and just cut the back.
They'll get nice and thick that way. Yes, okay, avoid
(27:12):
trimming sheer plants back to the same height. So when
you're cutting your hedge, okay, think about this. You want
the top of the shrub to be smaller than the
bottom of the shrub. You want to cut at a
slight angle. That's going to allow the leaves on the
bottom to stay nice and thick. If you cut the
shrubs straight, and most people cut shrubs in August. You
(27:36):
can cut your hibiscus back. You can cut all of
your thrialis back, your plumbago back right now if you want.
If they're too big, you can go ahead and cut
those back, but you want to make sure that if
you're doing the photocarpus, if you're doing the lagustrums and
the viburnums, you want to leave the bottom of the
hedge larger than the top. And you don't want to
(28:00):
cut straight down. When you cut straight down, the leaves
at the bottom don't get any sunlight, and it creates
what I call bare bottom syndrome, where you can look
through the bottom of the shrubs, and so you don't
want to do that. Cut them at a slight angle
from the street that looks straight, and they will be
nice and full and you'll be very happy. We've just
(28:20):
got fifteen minutes more you can get your gardening questions answered.
One triple eight four, five, five, two, nine, six seven.
It's Saturday morning. You're listening to the award winning Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins, and this is Florida's
Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back to better lawns and gardens.
(28:52):
So what can you be doing in the month of August.
You can be calling one triple eight four five five,
two nine sixty seven or you can take two three,
six eight zero with your gardening questions. But you can
also divide your bromeliads, your shasta daisies, day lilies, and
other perennials. You can be transplanting palm trees and sagos.
(29:13):
Now's the time of the year to do it. Also too,
you can start your point Setia cuttings. If you have
a point settias and they're nice and large and they
do very well here in Florida. You can make extra
point setiis now and then you can also to make
sure that you are pinching back this month your chrysanthemums.
(29:37):
If you're growing chrysanthemums in your yard or in pots, August,
April and August is the time that you pinch them,
and that's gonna lead to a much denser plant and
they're gonna look beautiful for the fall. This is also
the time of the year to feed your water lilies. Okay,
you will take a little pellets, and you will put
(29:58):
them into the pot and then you and put them
back in the water. You can go ahead and check
your pineapples. The fruits are ready, when they're very fragrant.
You gotta get them before the raccoons and the also
the birds. They get them in the squirrels. You want
them to when they turn yellow to orange, Get them
(30:21):
before that and they will ripen on your counter. You
also want to feed your bananas and figs monthly, but
very lightly so keep moist and mulched. Okay, so the
rain we have no problem with, but you want to
mulch them, and that's going to keep the moisture in
the ground. Also too, you can give your grapes and
(30:42):
apples and peaches. Now's the time to be fertilizing them
as well. You can also be planting seeds of melons
and pumpkins. So lots to do in the month of
August as we get ready to go back to school.
Lots of things to do in your vegetable garden, in
your landscape. And we can you know very easily, you know,
(31:05):
have a wonderful fall garden. One triple eight yep. Okay,
let's see it didn't move up. Hold on just a second. Nope,
do not see them? Hun, what's the question?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Okay, it says it's a georgette. We have volunteer sweet
potatoes from sprouted kitchen potatoes planted last year. They were
not successful then, but have taken over our garden. Now,
when do I harvest them? And when to put them
in for the next season?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Okay? So you want to harvest them in the fall,
you can September and October. So I would say, how
do you know when to harvest them? Pull one up
and see how big it is, Okay, and then if
it's a nice size for you and you think that
you know you're ready to harvest them, go ahead and
pull them up. Then you can also plant them again
(31:56):
in the springtime. Okay. So you want to save some
and in some of the eyes, and you can put
them back in the ground. So harvesting them if they're
all over your yard. I don't know what they look
like or how big they are, but you can harvest them.
Pull one up and see if not, stick it back
in the ground for a little while longer and uh,
and then try in another two to three weeks. Great question.
(32:19):
Great question, so Ivy We've heard of growing ivy and
sometimes I see it growing up trees. You don't want
to let the the ivy do that. It attaches to
the bark and if you have to remove that ivy,
which you should, then it's going to pull that bark
(32:39):
off that that hard layer that protects the cambium. So
you want to make sure you're pulling it up that
it looks romantic growing up bricks, but again, the roots
get into the grout of your brickwork and it will
loosen the bricks. They start to hold onto moisture. That's
going to cause mild in your house. You don't want
(33:02):
to do that mildew on the outside to as well.
So you know, keeping ivy in the ground, make sure
you're just going ahead and weed, eating it or mowing
it and then keeping it off of your trees and walls.
Let's go to Brad in winter Haven. Good morning, Brad,
how can I help you?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Good morning? Have a question. I have these huge Norfolk
Island pines in my yard. I grew them up from
Christmas trees. Yes, they're probably fifteen to twenty years old
and I live in winter Haven and they got very
damaged during the freeze uh huh, and summers starting to
come back at the top a little bit at the side.
(33:43):
There's some that are completely no growth, and I was
gonna be having some tree work done. I don't know
whether to have them cut down to the ground or
if they have a little green at the top. Do
you think they'll come back?
Speaker 1 (33:54):
So they're going to come back, Brad, But it's not
going to be a pretty tree, Okay. So they're gonna
look scraggly, and the brown branches you can go ahead
and cut them off. Now, if when you're doing the
tree work they cut the brown branches off, you'll see
it recover a little bit faster, so you'll see the
growth coming out. So I'm just gonna say it's an
(34:16):
aesthetic issue and it's up to you. Okay, Okay, got it.
So they're not dead, so they will come out, but
it may take you know how slow they grow, and
so it may take a couple two to three years
for it to fully recover. And do you want to
look at it that long? So it's it's strictly they
(34:36):
are they will recover, they're they're growing. Now, just how
long do you want to wait? Especially when they're that tall.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Okay, So let's say there's one that has absolutely no
green on it right now, right, do you think that
one's probably dead? Yes, okay, okay, if I.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Take that one down, yeah, I would go ahead while
you got the arborist there, get you get your money's
worthn't have them take them down. But if it's got
some green on it, you might want to leave it.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Got it already, I'll do that.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Thank you Brad for listening. Appreciate you calling in.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Yeah, we're still seeing a lot of those norfolklon pines.
I'm even seeing mango tree on our street. The mango
is all dead on the outside, but it is chuck
full on the inside of brand new leaves. And I
just I don't think those brown mango leaves are going
to fall off unless we have a storm or something.
So it's just an issue aesthetics, you know. Do you
(35:31):
want it to grow through the dead branches, you know?
Or do you want to go ahead and cut it
back and let it flush out correctly, which it will
do and it will not need that shade. Mangoes don't
need shade, papayas don't need shade, and Norfolk Island pines
don't need shade, so they will all grow in the
full sun. So Lizzie, I'd like everyone to go to
(35:54):
our Facebook page please and like us, and you can
also see today the top five wacky and offbeat art
pieces that I saw in Buffalo, New York. And then
also too they can sign up for my newsletter on
my web page which is www dot she dash consulting
(36:18):
dot com. She dash Consulting dot com and will be
talking about.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
We have another text asking a recommendation for fungus products
on grass a large area Port Saint Lucie, about one
hundred square feet under oaks.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, any fung aside on the shelf will be fine.
You can use a name eighty five to two as well,
name oil, but fung aside, dacanil or any of the
products that are on the shelf that say fung a
side will work on grass in Port Saint Lucy in
the shade. So just go see what's on there, what's
(36:54):
the best price, and follow the instructions to the letter.
That's very very important. Yeah. Yeah, more is not better, right,
more is not better. No, you can do some damage
with it, but you're wasting the product to as well,
So follow the instructions. It's not going to it's not
going to stop that fungus you just wanted to dry out.
(37:15):
So if I had your irrigation system on, it should
only come on once or once a week. Right now,
I think a port Saint Lucy is underwater restrictions from
the South Florida Water Management District, so they only can
water once a week if no range. So they're coming
up from rain. You want to let it dry out.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yes, we also learned to stop asking AI your questions.
Either ask Teresa okay, because you can always email her
Teresa dot Watkins at live dot com. Or if they
were to search on their search engines on the internet,
what do they need to put in?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
So they put their question, you know, like how to
grow this or how do I prevent spiders? But always
put the three letters E DU which stands for Education EDU.
And that's going to bring up university extension sites in
the United States that will have the correct information. I
will tell you I see a lot of misinformation on there, yes,
(38:14):
and I see half of it's correct and half of
it is wrong. And you know, you shouldn't have to
google three websites to get the correct information.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And also whenever you do that, it all show. Whenever
you go to those websites, it'll bring you to the
right zone. Yes, your ends.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, or you can just put in your ZIP code
in it. So question edu zip code and you'll get
the right one for the state of Florida. It is
the University of Florida, EDI edis and Garden Solutions. You
can get the right answers. Thank you so much for
all our callers today. We certainly do appreciate you listening.
(38:52):
I'm glad to be back. And Lizzie, thank you so much.
Your work and your production helps make this show award
winning show, so I certainly do appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Thank you, Thank you for our listeners.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yep, if it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns
and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watcaz and this is Florida's talk
and entertainment network.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
If you miss any of the show or want to
recap any other shows, go to Better Lawns dot com.
This Better Lawns dot com.
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