Classic Gardens from May 31st, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following is a p program.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and do
not necessarily represent the views and opinions of w e
r C management employees or advertisers.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
It's the Classic Gardens and Landscape Shuttle on the head
ready and if you want show up plants and grass
to grow.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Two usent Chris, Chris and Chris. No, Chris knows it.
Chris knows it. Chris knows it. Chris knows it. Chris
knows it. Chris knows it. Sure, Chris knows it. Chris
knows it.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
And now you're a host. Chris Joiner and Chris Keith.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
Good morning, Welcome Classic Guards the Landscape Show on w
e r C.

Speaker 6 (00:47):
I'm Chris Key, I'm Chris Joyner.

Speaker 7 (00:49):
Brandon, we got Brandon, we got a guest speaker on today.
Oh man, hope everybody's doing fine this morning, Classic Gardens
and Landscape Show. If you got any gardening questions and
call us at four three nine, nine, three seven two
and Brandon will answer them all.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
Yeah, I got all of them. Man.

Speaker 6 (01:08):
Hey, So Chris Keith our our garden center hours. I
want everybody know or Monday through Friday eight to four pm.
We have changed those. We kind of went into our
dog days this summer hours a little bit earlier.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
Well, once we get to four usually once we get
to about June, you know, that's kind of when we
just back off on it. You know, it gives anethem
time to get out of there a little earnier and
all that stuff. So yeah, and now our service, yes,
we're wide open now we forget that. But yeah, as
far as uh far as the garden Center, we're back
off on our hours every June, so it's time to

(01:39):
do that, yep.

Speaker 6 (01:40):
But our landscape cruise we're still staying out till you know,
till dark some days and then long Cares the same way.
It's just it's just the garden Center.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Man, it's been a challenge this month. So now here
we are, we've wound up the wettest May ever recording. Yeah,
so we're about five inches.

Speaker 6 (01:58):
I was looking, yeah, I was looking the rainfall data
from Birmingham Weather Service down at the airport and the
so far in May we've gotten eleven point two nine
inches of rainfall and the normal is four point seventy five.
So we're way we're way ahead of that. But you know,

(02:18):
it's it's crazy to think. And I was talking with
a lot of customers this past week about all the
rain that we've had in May. But once it shuts off,
that's it. You know, we're going to go super super hot,
super dry, and yards are really going to start to
dry out. I mean this coming week. I think that
towards the end there's some fifty sixty percent chances of rain,
you know, but that could be the scattered you know

(02:40):
summer thunderstorms where it's hit and miss. But all this
rain that we had, you know, back in May, once
we go dry, you give you give it a week
and grass will be grass will be drying out. So
all that being said, Chris Keith, if you if you
have not run your irrigation system, you are going to
need it. Yeah, it's, without a doubt, without failure, in Alabama,

(03:01):
you're gonna need a irrigation system. So turning on to make.

Speaker 5 (03:04):
Sure it works. Hey, Chris, I still see yards in
some neighborhoods where they have not cut their grass. Yeah,
isn't that I mean like literally burn weed like a
foot tall or I'm like, what is going on that?
Looks like folks? Sally out in the yard. You know
that should have been cut like three months. It got crazy.

Speaker 6 (03:19):
Uh huh.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
I was in Tuckweiller yesterday and uh, I was surprised.
This guy don't get kicked out of the neighborhood. I
don't know, you know, name wise, I don't know who
he is, but you're riding down the road and it's
like every yard out then the whole neighborhood's cut. And
then you got this guy looks like he moved out
three months ago, and uh, don't don't be that guy.
Don't be that guy. And you run over at least

(03:42):
once but now Yeah, but man, I probably cut all
my grass at least a dozen times.

Speaker 6 (03:47):
Yeah. In the past two weeks, I've been with some
I've met with some folks where their yards were still
real shabby, still had a lot of brown mix in
them because they never scalped them back in like late
February March, and so you had all that tall, dormant
grass that got laid over and it didn't let new
spring growth emerge and come up, and it just man,
it's a mess. And you know, I basically told them,

(04:09):
I was like, listen, I'm not going to do any
more treatments on your yard until you get it cut
and that's that's it into stories. So you know, we
try to make sure we look out for folks and
we give them the advice that they need to you know,
have a nice looking yard. But you got to listen
to us. Yeah, I mean we send out eating, we
send out we send out emails in February about you know,

(04:29):
kind of like tips of February March of tips of
what you need to do to your yard. You know,
in order for it to be successful in the spring,
you got to listen.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
Ninety percent of us mowing I mean, truth being on.
I mean we can come out there and put all
applications out, you know, back to back to back. You know,
get all the pre evergencey out, do all that stuff,
but if it doesn't get mode properly, it doesn't make
any difference. Yep. That's right. You got to stay on
top of moding. I mean, that's that's crucial. A lot
of weeds just in general. You weeds are you know, succulent,

(05:01):
you know, plants, and if you're mowing them all the time,
they just can't rebound, you know from that kind of stuff.
So you know it helps a lot with weed control.
You're just mowing properly. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (05:12):
Tree saplings are one of the biggest ones. You know
this right now. And you get a little maples and
pines and elms and and sweet gums that start popping
up and they grow so fast. Uh, you just got
to keep us cut and that'll take care of them.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
Let's get Tela right quick because we got our own
lige and morning Tela.

Speaker 8 (05:31):
How you doing, Hey, good morning guys.

Speaker 9 (05:34):
Well I have finally made it out to the.

Speaker 8 (05:35):
Garden Center Live.

Speaker 5 (05:37):
Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (05:43):
I came out there and she's amazing and met Jenny
and the place is absolutely gorgeous. If people have not
gotten out there yet, they really need to take some
time just go stroll through everywhere. I got to see
the famous Edworthy that y'all.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
Talk about pretty neat.

Speaker 9 (05:58):
And that was a highlight for me. Yeah, I've never
seen that plant before, so that was that was pretty cool.
And then I had to pick up some what do
you think insects drench systemic insects? Yes, and get it right. Yeah.
I had to get right on my friend's roads is
they were just it was so eaten up with those
little other are they aphids or something like that?

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Aphids?

Speaker 9 (06:18):
Y'all just tearing it up as a gorgeous roast bush.
But I put that on there when I got back,
and then I would say less than two days, probably
a day and a half, everything changed. They had just
been covered over everywhere and they're just gone and this
thing is flourishing. It's starting to bloom out all over.

(06:40):
It's really amazing. That stuff's amazing. I wonder why people
just keep that in their in their cabinet.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
Yeah, you got to have some around all the time,
for sure. If you've got a problem plant or like
of you know, a precious tree in the yard of
any kind, it's it's crucial you you go in there
once a year and treat with fertil on systemic insect drench.

Speaker 9 (07:02):
Yeah, it's amazing. Funnyway, I just wanted to tell y'all
that I finally got out there, and just how much
I appreciate all that y'all do, and which y'all have
going out there, and all all people interested in anything gardening.
They need to get right on out there to Carson Moade.

Speaker 5 (07:14):
All right, thank you, Taylor, you're checking the mail. Nice.

Speaker 6 (07:21):
Oh and we'll go. We'll go ahead and go to Mike.
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 8 (07:26):
Hey there, Chris Chief and Chris Joyner. How a y'all
this morning.

Speaker 5 (07:29):
Man, we're doing good living living life.

Speaker 6 (07:31):
I bet, I bet me and you, Mike, have gotten
more work done today than most people will get done
all weekend.

Speaker 8 (07:37):
Well, I was going to say, I'm up at the
lake and everyone as seen as you. Well, if you
have the lake, you're here to have fun. Nope, I'm
here to work. Well, you know, Chris, it's odd, and
maybe it's not odd, but I remember the first lake
cast we had. I'd spend a day or a week
building a nice outdoor swing set and everything, and once

(07:59):
it was complete, I'd sit down in and saying it's nice,
and sit there maybe thirty seconds in enjoy of you,
and then jump up and say, Okay, what's next. I
got more work to do. And I enjoy working. I
tell my neighbor the other day, you know, it's fun
to get this place cleaned up and so your grandkids
can come and enjoy it. But I've just always been

(08:19):
a I don't want to say a work aholic because
that sounds a drudge, but I enjoy it. So if
you enjoy it, why not do it? And that's what
I enjoy. So I'm here actually to talk about a
guy that does a lot of work with us in
our landscaping, Mark Whitfield Cahaba Tree. Many many times when

(08:40):
we're doing landscaping, there needs to be a tree removed,
and we'll call I'll tell the client I said, I'm
going to give you Mark Whitfield's name, and I'm going
to give Mark your name, and the two of them
get together. I don't get involved in the middle of it.
I let Mark Whitfield makers own deals Toba Tree and uh,

(09:03):
ninety nine percent of the time Mark gets the work.
Maybe one hundred percent. I don't know of the job
we've done that he didn't also do. But if you're
looking for a license insured, honest, hard working shows up
when he's supposed to. A lot of those things you
just can't find in a tree man or a landscape company,

(09:24):
call Mark Whitfield Cahaba Tree to zero five, four zero five,
one three three six. I've seen him take down super
dangerous trees very safely. Uh he's your two go guy
or go to guy. Mark Whitfield Cohaba Tree to zero
five four zero five one three three six. Well, now

(09:46):
that I said that, Chris and Chris, what are your
plans today?

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Well, I'm gonna be down at a customer of ours
we've had forever, Sarah Haney. I'll be down there working
at her place doing some odd n and stuff and uh,
you know, I'm like you, Mike, if there's any work
to be done, I'm gonna be doing it and uh
seven days a week.

Speaker 8 (10:09):
And uh hey, yeah, POAs you boys? Or how about
lehanda steel? Have you planned hers yet?

Speaker 5 (10:15):
What is it? I'm sorry, Chris Cheeth. Yeah, I did
Lynn's pots last Saturday. Her and Randalls they've got about
I guess they probably got about twelve pots around the
pool and uh man, I made them look like Southern
living I'm talking about I stuffed and full and they
look pretty.

Speaker 8 (10:35):
That's awesome, guys. I'll let you go. I know you've
got a show to do. Real nice talking to you,
all right, Mike, All right mate?

Speaker 5 (10:44):
Yeah boy, there's very few people. I've got a handful
of folks that I do sidework like that for, do
bedding plants for around their pool and Lenn and I
do them for Sarah. I've been doing her bedding plants
for over twenty years.

Speaker 6 (11:00):
But I did she pays you with brownies?

Speaker 5 (11:03):
Right, she could? She used to, right, she used to
make big, big pan of brownies. And uh and you know,
oh man, you couldn't. They didn't have of them to
make it to the house.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
Here we go, Brandon. And if you didn't, obviously you
probably don't know, because I don't think you can get
the show in South Carolina unless you go to this.
I guess I heart radio and stream it. But classic
gardens and what food show.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
This is a classic garden and cooking.

Speaker 10 (11:31):
I like to eat, not so much cook but I'm
in yeah, yeah, Well well Chris, we'll go ahead and
take that first break.

Speaker 6 (11:37):
You can give us a call four three nine, nine, three,
seven to two. Come into our garden center Monday through Friday
eight to four. We have a limited selection of betting
plants left, so like if you've got some pots that
need done, you know by the pool or uh, you know, entryway.
We have a very limited selection of betting plants left. Shrubs.
We're fully stalked on shrubs and we stay fully stalked

(11:58):
on shrubs year round. So if you if you need
to rip out your old overgrown landscape and replace it.
You can come into our garden center and do that.
You can give us a call eight five four four
thousand and five. Get set up for fertilization and we
control that's going wide open right now. Landscaping, night lighting, irrigation, patios,
retaining walls, any of those services. You can give us

(12:20):
a call eight five four four thousand and five.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
Chris.

Speaker 6 (12:23):
When we come back, we're gonna we're gonna bring Brandon
in on this because he used to do something really
cool on the coast and did like mosquito surveying from
helicopters and stuff for Rell You. We'll talk about that
a little bit when we get back.

Speaker 5 (12:34):
You must have a hell of a infestation of mosquitos.
You gotta fly, you gotta fly helicopter. This is the
class I gotta here. This is the Classic Gardens and
Landscape Show. We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
It's the Classic Gardens and Landscape Show. Get advice from
two of US South's premier plani guys, Chris Joiner and
Chris Keith on the Classic Gardens and Landscape Show.

Speaker 8 (13:00):
Russell Green Houge has been insuring my business, my home
and my farm for over twenty years. You see Russell
as an independent agent. He gets to shop the insurance
industry to bring me the best possible insurance and price.
Green Houge Insurance is a family run business, with his
wife Marcia and son Adam involved. As Russ eases up,

(13:22):
a little, Adam is stepping in. I remember when my
home on my farm burned down to the ground. I
called Russ that afternoon and the next morning I had
an adjuster standing next to me on my farm. My
memory is a little foggy, but the way I tell
the story is he wrote me a check on the
spot for the full amount of the policy. If it

(13:43):
didn't happen that way. It was so easy to work
with them that it seemed it happened that way. I
also remember when my house in Birmingham had tornado damage.
I called Green Houge, laid on a saddery prepared to
leave a message on the phone.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Russ answered.

Speaker 8 (13:58):
I said, Russ, why are you working so late on
a Saturday. He said, Mike, there is a storm and
I'm expecting some phone calls from my customers. It might
be hard to believe, but that's the kind of service
you get from Green Houge Insurance. Give Russ or Adam
a call today nine to sixty seven eighty eight hundred
and tell them that Mike sent you News.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Radio one oh five five WERC.

Speaker 8 (14:22):
The only way I will advertise for you on this
show is that we have to have known each other
for a long time, done business together for a long time,
and everything personally and professionally must be perfect well. Stephen
Sia meets all of these requirements. I can't even tell
you exactly how long I've known Stephen, but I can

(14:42):
tell you that anytime one of our landscape jobs requires
a deck, a pergola, a gazebo, or any other carpentry work,
Stephen is our go to man. My house had old,
worn out skylights in it. Siah Creations took out those
old skylights and put in very beautiful dorm Siah Creations
built my son's house from.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Start to finish.

Speaker 8 (15:04):
Then when Chris Joyner from this show, when Chris's brother's
house burned down, Stephen tore down the remains of the
old structure and built to a brand new beautiful house.
Stephen can even bring in his house design team to
help you create your dream house from small decks to
new houses. Siah Creations can do at all with thirty

(15:26):
years experience, properly licensed and insured. You can call two
zero five five six five one zero three five or
go to Siah Creations dot com. Give Stephen a call
today to zero five five six five one zero three
five and tell them that Mike sent you.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
Good for colone fer co alone.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
How you need some Yes, you need some pers alone for.

Speaker 5 (15:52):
To alone for a loan and we selled at the
garden Center. You got to calls eight five four four
thousand and five, or go buy the Garden Center eighteen
fifty five Courson Road, where we've been for forty years. Yeah,
and we're there eight to four. Uh, it's wearing our
new summer dog days hours eight to four Monday through Friday,
and we are closed on the weekends.

Speaker 6 (16:13):
You know, you glance through the hydrangea Ale Chris Keith
and you just see pink Man.

Speaker 5 (16:17):
It is now.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
They beautiful.

Speaker 5 (16:20):
Everybody's high drangers are good right now. And it's kind
of surprising to me that we're not seeing a little
more powdery mill to you and stuff like that going on.
Knock on wood, fongus on shrubs. Really hadn't been that bad.
Fungus and yards a different story. I mean, our grass
has been swampy, you know, not time temperature is still

(16:41):
cool and uh you know it's just like you know,
I mean you get athletes foot if your feet stay
with all. Let's say it's same thing, the same thing
with these yards that they can stay swampy like this
all the time. You know it's gonna get a cold.

Speaker 6 (16:57):
And dollar spot and brown patch of both started popping
up in the yards like crazy, I think. You know,
brown patch is usually one that you start seeing a
lot of in like March, but it was kind of
it was a little late to the game, I think.
So we're we're seeing a lot of brown patch and
zoysuer right now. Dollar spot all in Bermuda. So dollar
spot is like little small polka dots all over the yard.

(17:17):
You know, if you look at the leaf blade, it'll
have a little leopard print on it and that's a
type of fungus and it'll only get worse as you know,
as we moved through the season.

Speaker 5 (17:26):
So if you if you.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
Do have fungus, or you suspect fungus, go ahead and
get that tread with a fungy side in the yard.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
You know, there's a lake property we've been working on
up there in Lincoln. We go up there about once
a week and we're about done with it. You know.
We went up there and lay tractor trailer load of
side and then we we're out of there two weeks
on the counter rain and all that couldn't get any side.
And then we were back up there and lad another
tractor trailer load of sod. And the guy's not in
a hurry, so we've been just kind of going up

(17:53):
there in between jobs. You know what we were doing here.
He'd say, all just whenever you know you don't fit
me back in, I'll get you back out there. And
we've gradually laid about sixty pounce of sawd over there.
But the first saw that we laid over there probably
six weeks ago, it had fungus in it and looked poor.
So the last time we went over there and laid

(18:14):
the last batch of sawd, I took fung aside and
fertilizer and all that stuff over there and hit it
with a dose of it. So yeah, it's kind of
as stressful anyways on new grass like that, because if
you know you're even if we just laid your yard.
Just say, like we just did a job for Lynda
Baker over and trustful, and you know, we have to

(18:36):
set that irrigation where it runs in the morning and
in the evening. So we'll run it for a little
bit in the morning, a little bit in the evening,
just enough to kind of keep it consistently wet. But
doing that, you know you're still promoting fungus because you're
just constantly keeping it wet. It's kind of a catch
twenty two. You got to keep it wet like that
to get it started. But you know, as fast as

(18:57):
it gets you know somewhat a established a little bit,
we have to back off on that water because you know,
you don't want to be promoting fungus in that new
grass either.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
And so y'all are probably on new side. I mean
you're not watering it for forty five minutes or an
hour twice a day. I mean it's rolling like ten
fifteen minutes at a time.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
You back off of that duration. So like if if
you typically water established lawn forty five minutes, we're doing
we're doing about fifteen minutes. We're doing it at about six
thirty seven o'clock in the morning, you know, right at daylight,
and then you want to water it again at twelve
one o'clock in the day. That way, you're just kind
of keeping that consistently. Well, we'll do that about three weeks,

(19:36):
and then we'll call the homeowner and say, hey, take
that second start time out, you know, and just water
once a day. You do that for about three weeks,
and then you can back off about every other day
and give out about three or four weeks, and then
you can back off and do it about like you
do an established lawns. So within a couple of months,
you know, you should be pretty much on a on
an established lawn you know, watering schedule. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
Yeah, And so that's a question in a conversation. We
have a lot throughout the year, and so what Chris
is talking about is on a new soid want to
establish od We always like to water infrequently and deeply.
So basically you water like twice a week, and each
time you water, people will ask me all the time,
like how long should I water? And I always kind

(20:20):
of joke around and say, well, when we get into
a conversation about water, and it's almost like listening to
a politician, I'm never going to give you like a
straight answer, right because there's so many variables that go
into play. You take Linda Baker's soil at her house,
and it's like solid rock. It's a typical like new
development where there's zero top soil. It's basically laid on

(20:40):
a bed of concrete versus somewhere like my backyard, which
is it got a decent amount of rock, but there's
a lot of there's a lot of good top soil
back there. But basically, you water two times a week,
and each time you water, you want to get an
inch of water down on the yard. And so then
some people say, well, Chris, how the heck do I know?
Like when an inch of water is well, you can

(21:01):
take like you know, green bean cans or cat food
cans or whatever, just some kind of straight sided can
and set several of those out, you know, in and
amongst the yard. You know, water for thirty minutes. You
go out there with the ruler, you measure how much
water's in there, and when those cans average one inch,
you know, right then and there you know how long

(21:21):
you need to water. And so the variables that go
into play and Chris Keith knows this way better than
I do. But I mean, you've got, you know, dozens
of different types of irrigation heads, and on those irrigation
heads you can you can put different you know, different
nozzles on them that spray, that spray differently. And everybody's
water pressure is different, everybody's coverage is different. So you know,

(21:43):
you've got some irrigation heads that go like stream to stream,
and you've got some that go head to head. And
so how I water my yard may be completely different
than how Brandon water his water's his yard because it's
it's just a completely different setup. And then soil is different,
and you know, even like my upper backyard, my upper
back yard gets a lot of shade, so there's not
as there's not as much evaporation that happens up there

(22:07):
compared to my lower front yard. And then you factor
in trees. If you've got trees, you know around the area,
and they have those tree roots and they you know,
absorb moisture. You know, that can make you water you
know longer or more during the week.

Speaker 5 (22:20):
You got all rock out profits. Yeah, and depending on
where you live here, and you know, we always point
out mountain Brook. You know, you get in some areas
of Mountain Brook and they have like rock under the
ground big as your house. And uh, you know, you
get in one of those dry spells where it doesn't
rain for two or three then you know, two weeks
and the boom, you get those big, huge hot spots

(22:41):
in those yards.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
But to water deeply, Brandon, how you when you water,
when you water really heavy, that water basically penetrates and
goes deeper down into the soil. And that's what do
you think happens in Then the roots of that grass
follow that water, so it promotes a deeper root system.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
Gotch.

Speaker 6 (22:58):
We'll have a lot of customers that say, why water
my yard every day for you know ten minutes? Well,
when it's one hundred degrees or ninety five degrees outside,
ten minutes of water is virtually nothing. I mean, that's
basically just you know, that might not even get through
the thatch lader.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
That's just getting the grass blaze, that's.

Speaker 6 (23:14):
Just getting the that's just getting a tip wet basically.
And you know, you give that you know, thirty forty
five minutes and that that little teeny tiny bit of water,
it's it's evaporated and gone. Is that why it's better
to water in the morning, then we do we do
save it's so hot it did evaporate exactly.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
Well. Part of that and is you don't want to
promote fungus. So what you're trying to do is water
early in the morning and then the boom of the
sun pops out and it drives off the grass blee.
So you get a good water and you know early
in the morning, then you know, the sun comes out.
You think of it, you know every morning for the
most part, unless you're going to get a thundershower or

(23:49):
something like that. They're do on the ground. Well, it'd
be just like you, you know, having the natural dew
out there, you water you grass. You know it's it's
wet like a dew. Well, you know, once the sun
comes out, it drives that off by eight or ten o'clock.
You know you want him, know, you water the grass,
and we try to do that. You know, most people

(24:11):
water like Monday, Wednesday, Friday kind of thing. So that's
if you water in real infrequent they twice a week.
You're probably watering an hour and a half is on.
I mean, you just to get that inch and a
half down, you're gonna have to really, you know, run
it for a duration.

Speaker 6 (24:28):
Yeah, I mean really really soaking it.

Speaker 5 (24:30):
But most people are just stay kut on a Monday, Wednesday,
Friday regiment. That's kind of good practice, and it's just.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
A lot of common sense, you know what I'm saying.
If your yard, if you stick your finger and the
dirt and is dry, you know you need to water
at And if you're walking through a yard and it's
like and making footprints, you know you need to back
off on it. You know. Shrubs are the same way.
One of the things that we deal with a lot
is soil inconsistencies. So, I mean, we're sitting what the

(24:56):
three of us are sitting eight feet apart, and like
where I'm sitting versus where you're sitting versus where Chris
Keith is sitting, the soil can be completely different, gotcha.
So when we're landscaping, it's really bad here. Yeah, when
we're landscaping, you know, you might where I'm sitting, you
might dig and it's just a good black, rich soil
and then you go eight feet over to where Chris

(25:17):
Keith is and it's solid rock and you dang need
a jackhammer to dig through it, and you're planting, and
so you're planting like a foundation landscape, and you're planting
the same shrubs you know, in this line, and sometimes
like this shrub does better than the one that's just
a few feet away from it. And a lot of
that sometimes has to do with soil. Can see.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
We constantly have people asking us, uh, you know, they say, well,
you know, I planting a guardenil on either end of
the house, you know, and the guardenia on the left
is just killing it, you know, it's going crazy, and
the guardian on the right is just struggling and looks terrible.
And I'm like, you know, when you dug that hole,
you know, pick it up out of the ground, look

(25:57):
at the dirt over here, and then pick this one
up out of the ground and look at the dirt
over there. Yeah, sometimes it's a world of difference just
within three feet, you know, our four feet.

Speaker 6 (26:07):
And then you may factor in down spouts. I know,
there's a gentleman in trust all we did landscaping for
you know, he bought the plants and did landscaping himself.
But we fertilize the shrubs, and it's kind of the
same way. I think he had two tea olives, one
on either end of the house and the one on
the right has a down spout that comes right out
onto like the base of the plant. And over the years,

(26:29):
that water has basically eroded all the soil, you know,
around the root zone, and so it's basically hollow, and
so then you get all the air in there and
it dries out the root system of the plant, and
so that teaol have basically croaked, and uh, that's why
because it just all the dirt's getting washed away from it.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
Yeah, a lot of times we'll see chipmunks dig around
those those shrubs like that too, and it just allows
that that air to move around those those roots and
dry them out. It's pretty common. Uh, you know big
Japanese maples. Now, chipmunks are rough on plans, really, they'll
chew on those routes. But all the tunneling is really
the worst part. Well, curious, that's time for another break.

(27:08):
Let's go ahead and do that. Our number, if you
want to call us, it's two O five four three
nine three seven two. Again, that's two O five four
three nine nine three seven two. If you need a
seb some pointment for landscaping. If you need irrigation, if
you need light lighting, lawn care, if you need forest
mulching or land clearing, any of that stuff, you call
us eight five four four thousand and five. Will be

(27:30):
right back on the Classic Gardens of Landscape Show.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
These guys know they're dirt.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
It's the Classic Gardens and Landscape Show with Chris Joiner
and Chris Keith.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
It's the Classic Gardens and Landscape Show. All the hand
ready and come if you want sh up plants and
grass to grub twocent because Christie Chris.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
No and now you're host Chris Joiner and Chris Keith.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
Now we're back in second half of the class Guards
the lands get showing. If you want to give us
a call, you can't. It's two o five four three
nine nine three seven two. And we were talking about
apaches and mosquitoes are in area.

Speaker 6 (28:12):
So so Brandon's one of the North Carolina crew that
I mean South Carolina crew that I talk about on
the radio show all the time and got a little
flight experience flu apaches.

Speaker 10 (28:22):
Right, that's how you started out, yes, sir, Yeah, I
started uh. I started flying in two thousand and six
around there. You know, I started off with the army
and fortunate enough to get a flight slot with the military.
When the I'd say, when they getting was good because
I'm not that smart, so they were taking a lot
of people in and uh yeah, I ended up getting
a flight slot and running through that.

Speaker 6 (28:42):
And so usually when you see military movies right that
are like kind of based on I don't know what
they're called helicopter detachments or whatever, there's always a pilot
on there that's called like too tall or something like that,
because they're probably too tall to actually fly. And I
think you fit that. I think you fit that more old.
What's the average height of apache pilot or what's the limit?

(29:03):
I guess you would say.

Speaker 10 (29:05):
I mean we had a guy that was I think
he was six six and I'm six four, so I
was I was pretty tight. I mean, my legs just
don't really fit well.

Speaker 6 (29:13):
In the front I mean they were up to your knee, right, yeah, man,
I mean up to your ears. You're jammed in. And
that's just in the front seat. The back seat had
a lot more room.

Speaker 10 (29:19):
But I'd say the average height, I mean, you get
the you know, the six foot guys and plus or
minus a few, but uh yeah, anything six four and above. Man,
it's it's a struggle. Yeah, you're beating yourself up getting
in and out. So yeah, it's a good time though
many had a good run. So and and got and
got out of the military. Quit flying apaches. Yeah yeah,

(29:41):
I finished, uh finished flying. I had a friend of mine,
Mark Kennedy, he's an airline pilot now, but he, uh
he called me up one day and said, hey, man,
you want to you want to come try this mosquito
control stuff out out here in Charleston. I was like, man,
why not, let's do it? Because you like flying? You
missed you missed flying, right, And I mean, what what what?
You couldn't ask for a better job. You get to
fly around Charleston or due a Charleston, South Carolina. It's

(30:02):
a beautiful spot, right, You got the palm trees, you
get the beaches, you get the rivers, and so yeah.
I was flying the the Mt five hundred, which is
the small mash looking helicopter with the doors off, and
it was three hundred feet below so you didn't have
to talk to anybody, and flew out of a John's Island,
airport and just yeah, I mean essentially would go out

(30:22):
for two and a half hour bags and what we
would do we were doing mosquito control, not so much,
We're just inspecting, right. So we had these dread sites
around Charleston and dread sites in Alabama. You don't really
maybe down in Mobile, but you got the inner coastal waterways,
and we would have to keep those rivers deep enough
for boats to kind of navigate through, right, So they

(30:43):
would they would dredge and they would pull that sealed
off the bottom of it and throw it onto a
dread site on each side of the river and uh,
and would basically just fill up with mud and water.
And then that water would drain off, but the mud
would stay. And uh, if you got that heat in
the summer, it basically dries it up to the point
where it cracks. And you got all these cracks across
the top of this dredge site. And then you get

(31:03):
these mosquitoes. Saltwater type mosquitoes would come in and lay
eggs inside of that and those cracks and and those
eggs could lay dormant for years. That's what a lot
of people don't understand. And then whenever you get some rainfall,
the eggs wake up. Basically they start running through the
life cycle of a mosquito. And so, you know, the

(31:24):
job was we would we would take off we knew
we'd have rain. We'd check rain gages different different areas
across the county and we would see we had heavy
range in an area or heavy rain in an area,
and then we'd fly out and we would start looking
through the cracks. We'd look for sunlight glint reflecting off
the water and the cracks, and then we'd know we
had some good rainfall. And uh, you know, maybe the

(31:46):
next day we would come in and hover over the
over the dredge site. You can't land because it is
kind of soft like MUDs, you'd sink. So you would
basically come to a controlled hover skids just touching the mud,
and you'd have a guy unbuckle, hop out on the
skid and take a little turkey baster and squat down
and stick the turkey baster in the in the crack
and pull some water in and then throw in a

(32:08):
cup and start looking for larvae, and we'd see if
we had larvae or not. If we did, then we
knew within a couple of days we'd be treating that
that site. We'd come back attached boons to the helicopter,
you know, throw a mix in on the bottom of
the tank, and then just come out and start pounding mosquitos.

Speaker 6 (32:24):
So that's a pretty scientific turkey baser. Yeah, I figured
you just jump out when in shorts and the tank
top and see see how long it took you to
cover it up with mosquitoes.

Speaker 10 (32:33):
No, I mean, so there is a landing great count,
so you'd have, you know, live mosquitos. If it was
it was live, we'd put a different chemical down. But
if you're going for larvae, it's it's different. You're, yeah,
putting something like growth inhibitors or whatever on them to
so they never hit that life cycle or they can
fly away and come attack us humans. But uh so
we would, uh we would drop a guy off. And
I've been that guy where you'd have a net on

(32:54):
your head and you take a stick and you basically
beat the bushes after the helicopter takes off, and and
then you stick your arms out and you'd see, you know,
landing rate counts, and if it was one or two,
no big deal. But sometimes you get smoked by mosquitos
and then you'd see me on the ground like wavingning me.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
Tell them about the white flag. You know, give it.

Speaker 6 (33:18):
About five seconds.

Speaker 10 (33:19):
You don't need a minute, you know, like, oh boy,
these guys are going to carry me away.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
So yeah, that was it. Man.

Speaker 10 (33:24):
We'd come back and do our work, try to kill them.

Speaker 6 (33:28):
Sounds pretty fun.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
It was fun. Man.

Speaker 10 (33:30):
That was probably the best I've ever had in my life. Actually,
I mean, not not being able to not having to
talk to anybody, and I was listening to Hoodie and
the Blowfish on the Yeah, just flying cruising around right,
just hitting some of the prettiest spots in the United States.

Speaker 6 (33:45):
Really somece gorgeous man. Yeah, so I know mosquitoes are legit.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
I was.

Speaker 6 (33:49):
I've told the story before. But when we came up
there from for spring break, I actually think it was
no Seams, but we went to your son's baseball game
that was at James Island, and so we went. I'd
gotten there and I think Caroline had to use the bathroom.
So we walked past and through like the James Island
Blitz section and Chris Keith everybody's there, and everybody's holding incense,

(34:13):
you know, and I'm like, what kind of voodoo stuff
is this? Are they trying to like ward away the
bad spirits or something, you know, the calling on the
baseball God, God, what works?

Speaker 8 (34:24):
Man?

Speaker 6 (34:25):
And so I get back, you know. And and then
so your son plays with plays with Bishop England. I think,
I don't know if it was a it was a
JV game that he was playing that day, and uh.
And so I get back to the Bishop England side.
We're dealing plays and everybody on the Bishop England side
side is holding incense sticks as well. And then but

(34:46):
then I look at the you know, the backstop, you
know along you know along you know along the back
you know whatever home plate or whatever, and there's incense
sticks all over, and I think it I don't know
if it was one. I think it may have been been.
And I looked at Ben. I said, man, what what
the heck is going on? And it's I guess for
the bugs. So you have and they're just like incense sticks.

(35:06):
They're not They're not like centronella sticks or anything like that.
It's just something that you would buy one of, like
the head shops or something. Big ones too.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
Man.

Speaker 6 (35:14):
Sure enough. And then and the next thing you know,
all my girls are carrying around the incense. I'm like, hey,
you come sit next to me because no seams. Man,
they were hammering us. Yeah. So, I mean, you know,
mosquitos and no seams and stuff like that. They're legit
here in Birmingham in the southeast really, but man, you
get up there to you get up there to Charleston,

(35:35):
or you go down to Mobile or anywhere on the coast,
and man, it's serious, serious business there.

Speaker 5 (35:40):
It's rough. Man. Yeah, it's like chiggers in the sand
man does man. Yeah, well that's a neat story right there.
We don't do We don't do mosquito control. But I
thought that that was kind of related to guard. It
does kind of relate to you know, we do our
three step in secticide program. So people think that, hey,

(36:04):
look we just go out there, you know, April or whatever,
and we sling out the first step and then up
we go out there about June, we sling out the
second step. You know, we go out there about September, October,
we'd sling out a third step. It's calculated, y'all, no doubt.
I mean, it's and it's refined like every year because
we start you know, and we start in May, you know,

(36:26):
first of May, we start seeing you know, different types
of insects starting to like crop their head up. Chinch bugs. Man,
the last few years have been just just terrible. So
you know, we're putting out preventative insecticide treatments to combat
you know that stuff and trying to head that stuff
off of the past time we do the same thing

(36:47):
you know, around you know, May June at the time
for you know, the June time frame, we'll be doing
you know, different insecticides and then we follow it up
with another one. But it really the product that we
use the pens on really the the insects are scropping up.
So we try to get out a preventative for grubs,

(37:08):
you know, ahead of you know, when the cave for
beetles are flying and the june bugs are flying and
all that stuff. And uh so it's it's really strategic
on you know, when we put it out and what
we're trying to target, you know, to keep that out
of there. So our our customers that are on our
law care program, we offer this three step in secty

(37:28):
side program to them every year and it's basically like
an insurance policy for bugs, so you know, we go
out there and head them off the pass that they
never get any any insect problems.

Speaker 6 (37:39):
And it changes year to year, so like what I'm
spraying this year is completely different than what we did
last year, because you talk about chinchbugs. The last two years,
we've started seeing more and more chinchbugs in yards that
we hadn't seen before, so we had to kind of
change things up a little bit. And it is it's
it's very specific, I mean different than what y'all are doing.

(38:01):
So when you're doing mosquito control, you're not just going
out there blindly spraying now, because that's not environmentally smart
to do that. It's it's very targeted. So you know,
y'all are surveying, y'all are looking to see where y'all
need to spray, when y'all need to spray, so y'all
can probably use as little product as possible correct and
get the most effective results. And so that's I think

(38:21):
industry wide, for the most part, most professionals are that
way because obviously the more product you use, the more
expensive it gets versus a homeowner. And on our where
we used to do the radio show at our shop,
I think we had we had a bulletin board up there.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
What was it?

Speaker 6 (38:37):
Chris the apartment Agriculture did a survey and the average
homeowner uses four times more product than what they should
use or what the label says.

Speaker 5 (38:47):
Application. Yeah, yeah, because well most homeowners they go like
the glob globe theory. It's not like let me get
a let me get a you know, a tablespoon and
measure so many tables for gallon. They go glog glog
and for it in there. You know, it's like you
can't do that, you know. Yeah, they think, you know,

(39:07):
if you use if the label says, man, I'm going
to use a tablespoon per gallon, or it says you
got to use the tablespoon per gallon, like damn four,
I'll work real good. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (39:15):
If one glug is good, then two glugs has got
to be better.

Speaker 5 (39:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (39:19):
It's my approach when I when I apply with that
Scott spreader, I'm.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
Like eight, let's go with eight.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
I really, so you're the guilty one.

Speaker 10 (39:28):
No, man, you know, I was going to ask you
about you said chipmunks earlier, but I got like moles
in my yard, man, and these moles, I mean you know,
you caught there and you cut your grass, it's looking
pretty good. And then you got these talladega type streaks
arounder your yard and these moles running around it. And
I've been trying to kill these same moles. Man, I've
used the electronic you know, pulse things that beeping. My

(39:49):
dog looks at them pretty weird, which she can't really
hear well, but she can hear that, I think. And
I just I'm curious, man, what's the what's the approach
for moles?

Speaker 6 (39:57):
You guys have those here?

Speaker 5 (39:58):
Well, you got the sandy soul there too, sure, and uh,
I mean it's a struggle sometimes. I mean, we got
neighborhoods here. And lord, we were talking about Mount Brook.
There's there's certain parts like Irondale right there, you know,
you get off of Old Age Road and uh man,
there's colonies of chipmunks in there. I think they could
survive a nuclear blasts. I mean, they are terrible, you know,

(40:19):
but it's really it's sandy soils and things like that
that they can move freely through. It's uh, the first
the first thing you want to do is do all
you can to get rid of their food. Soorce obviously
they don't have a food source there, they have no
reason to be there, so they'll move on. Uh So
treat for grubs, prevent it for grubs, and then uh

(40:40):
you know castorle, believe it or not, works pretty good.
And you just take that stuff and mix it up
and use it on the lawn. We can carry a
products called mole Go. It's basically a gain a granule castorle.
But uh, even that product, you maybe there's there's neighborhoods,
you know, like we were talking about an Irondale over there, crisp.
Chris could drive right to it. Yeah, but you know

(41:02):
there's they've just perennially got chipmunks, I mean, uh moles
all the time.

Speaker 6 (41:08):
Homeowners will treat quarterly with that product.

Speaker 5 (41:10):
They Well, the thing is is, you know you kill
the grubs, but you still got a bunch of earthworms.
Well earthworms obviously there are environmentally most insecticide and stuff
for environmentally friendly. You don't want to kill your earthworms,
so you know you coat them with his castorle and
when they they eat that, they get dysentery and die.
I take that.

Speaker 6 (41:31):
There's there's different baits that you can put down there.
We sell some and some mole and gopher bait that's
like little pellets almost can almost kind of like a
rat poison more or less. And yeah, you find the
active tunnels and you put those little baits down there.
But moles, man, they can be hard. I'm not gonna lie.
There's not like one. There's not one silver bullet. Yeah,
I think twelve games. Now I'll be aeration too. That'll

(41:53):
that'll handle both two birds, one stone right or aeration.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
There you go heavy, All right, Chris, time for the
last break the show. Let's do that. Our number if
you want to get a last minute call you might
have a chance is two O five four three nine
nine three seven to two. Otherwise, you call us at
the Garden Center if you need landscaping, irrigation not lighting,
if you need a patio or ottaina wall, if you
need forest mulching or land clearing, and we do all
that stuff. You call us eight five four four thousand

(42:19):
and five and we'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
It's the show in the Know with all things that grow.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
It's the classic gardens and Landscape Show with Chris Joiner
and Chris Keith Russell.

Speaker 8 (42:31):
Green Houge has been insuring my business my home and
my farm for over twenty years. You see Russell as
an independent agent. He gets to shop the insurance industry
to bring me the best possible insurance and price. Green
Houge Insurance is a family run business, with his wife
Marcia and son Adam involved. As Russ eases up a little,

(42:53):
Adam is stepping in. I remember when my home on
my farm burned down to the ground. Called Russ that afternoon,
and the next morning I had an adjuster standing next
to me on my farm. My memory is a little foggy,
but the way I tell the story is he wrote
me a check on the spot for the full amount
of the policy. If it didn't happen that way.

Speaker 6 (43:14):
It was so easy to work.

Speaker 8 (43:16):
With them that it seemed it happened that way. I
also remember when my house in Birmingham had tornado damage.
I called Green Houge late on a Saturday, prepared to
leave a message on the phone.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Russ answered.

Speaker 8 (43:28):
I said, Russ, why are you work so late on
a Saturday. He said, Mike, there was a storm and
I'm expecting some phone calls from my customers. It might
be hard to believe, but that's the kind of service
you get from Green Houge Insurance. Give Russ or Adam
a call today nine to sixty seven eighty eight hundred
and tell them that Mike sent you.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
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(44:12):
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(44:36):
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(44:58):
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Speaker 6 (45:08):
Get stephen a.

Speaker 8 (45:09):
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Speaker 10 (45:17):
We weed keep them wed.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Ferd Ferdal birdalone, birdle, bird alone, burdle. Chris and Chris
every Saturday morning they make gusty.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
All ride.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Oh my yarders like.

Speaker 5 (45:45):
Up five.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Classy gardens and the classic gardens.

Speaker 6 (45:51):
And last, Chris Keith, I think we have inspired Brandon
Chill to become a gardener. I bet he goes home.
I bet and he's he's he's down. I got you
some good fertilizer. I got you some of my magic
mix out there.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
I don't know, man. You should see my corn right now.
It's about four feet tall.

Speaker 6 (46:09):
Chris Keith takes garden into a science.

Speaker 5 (46:11):
It's different, man. So yeah, so right now I've got
I've just got ball valves like on the ground, you know,
and I just turned the ball valve. This zone comes on,
and turn the ball valve. This zone comes on. But
I got me a I got me a six zone
irrigation box day before yesterday. So I'm about to go

(46:32):
go high tech redneck and I'll have like three zones
of irrigation and its just automatically come on like your lawn,
only be on my garden and tomatoes and corn. Man,
I tell you, the corn right now is about four
feet tall. So it's it's coming on quick. And uh,
I should have a mess of squashed by the first

(46:54):
of the week and pick some peblano peppers yesterday.

Speaker 6 (46:58):
Yeah, we've got we've got squashed. We gotta go pick
it came up volunteer. And you know sometimes volunteer squash
comes up and it's more like a Gordon than this
is straight. This is a straight yellow squash.

Speaker 5 (47:10):
Oh, you just got lucky.

Speaker 6 (47:11):
I got lucky. It was in one of my flower
beds where I plant my sun patients, and so before
it got too big, I dug it up and moved
it over to a compost pile and I got squashed it.
We've clear. We probably need to go pick in a
little bit.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
Man. Honestly, the first the first batch of fried squash
is gonna be epic. Yeah, yeah, yep. I love it,
And I tell you you know this time, when when
that stuff starts coming in, I figure I'll have some
good ripe to mate us by about fourth July.

Speaker 6 (47:38):
That's you. That's about right. Unless you start him in
a greenhouse in January, fourth of July.

Speaker 5 (47:43):
Nine right now, and probably you know, three foot tall,
they've kind of struggled. Man, we just hadn't got any
sunshine this month. I honestly, we haven't had any sunshine
in about a month. Like if you see today, today's
the prettiest day we've had in like I'm telling you
twenty days.

Speaker 6 (47:59):
But man, I'm not complaining because the rain has been fantastic.

Speaker 5 (48:02):
Oh no, we'll be complaining.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
You know.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
We'll hit a dry spell about mid July or something
like that, and we'll be complaining. Awe, man, we need
some rain.

Speaker 6 (48:10):
It'll be like a desert.

Speaker 5 (48:11):
It just drives up so fast. But I mean we
get rain like we did this month. I mean, you
got a five inch surplus or six inch surplus in
a in a month. All it really does is, you know,
hit the creeks and go to the ocean.

Speaker 6 (48:25):
Flows to the Golf of Mexico, right, you know, it
doesn't do you much Golf of America whatever, it's gone.

Speaker 5 (48:35):
Yeah whatever we named it this week, but yeah, I
mean it all either way, it's all going south, you
know what I'm saying. It ain't hanging in here.

Speaker 6 (48:43):
Yeah, reserv wars are full for sure.

Speaker 5 (48:45):
Yeah, running over.

Speaker 6 (48:46):
All, right, Chris Keith, Well, you gotta get if you
hadn't done pre merging, if you're on like the every
other month program, you go ahead and get that pre
mergent down. Got a good shot of fertilizer if you
do your If you buy the bag of gold like
Harold does and like most of the state does, you
just keep you like five sects of long plus you know.

Speaker 5 (49:06):
Yeah, everybody knows that the orange.

Speaker 6 (49:08):
The orange bag, keep the orange bag bag in style.
That's the world's most famous fertilizer branding. I mean, it'll
make your grass just as dark green as it can be.
And uh man, it'll make that stuff grow.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
Make your corn jump too.

Speaker 6 (49:21):
I have a corn, but I'll take the bag man
mowing proper mowing schedule, Like if you're not on that
right now, you're away behind the game. So you know
you need to be mowing weekly typically you want to
keep your grass cut about two inches here, you know, Charleston,
with all the centipede in Saint Augustine, keep the grass
cut a little bit taller. If you want a nice
looking Saint Augustine, keep it cut like three four inches.

(49:43):
It like a shag carpet, but with your bermuda and
as they as you hear two inches, it's kind of
that sweet spot three yards. So you got to you
got to make sure you get in good mowing habits
basically from here until October. If you want your yard
to look good nice.

Speaker 5 (49:58):
We're out of time, y'all. Y'all get in touch with
us at the Garden Center. Eighty five four four thousand
and five. Setup appointment from landscape, and I'd love to
do some work for you, irrigation, not lighting, any of
that stuff you call us. Eight five four four thousand
and five. Long Care is still going night and nothing's
to call us. We need long Care and we'll see
you next week on the Classic Guards Got Show. Thanks Brandon,

(50:18):
I appreciate it, buddy,