Take A Look At The Garden !

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skip Richard
Shoes crazy band in the bassis gas Baby, can't you trim?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
You just watch him as.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Work basis gas?

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Can you?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
There are so many breathings to sleep baas in the
bay the bassies like gass baby?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Can you did amos closed?

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Back to.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Sign the bassis a gas and.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
Sun beamon of a dream psing the gases like gas baby?

Speaker 6 (00:50):
Can you.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
First starting and dreaming gases?

Speaker 7 (00:57):
I guess you did?

Speaker 3 (00:59):
I mean, alrighty, good morning, good morning, Welcome to garden Line.
Glad you got up early enough this morning to do
this with us. Hopefully a cup of coffee in your

(01:22):
hand or got at least one eye open. That's what
we try to that's what we aim for, at least
when eye opened, and I'll try to be coherent and
then we'll have a gardening show about that. Let's do
it that way. You are listening to garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help you
have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape and more
fun in the process. That's the important part. Don't forget

(01:42):
it's supposed to be fun. Gardening is fun. It's supposed
to be fun. And when we get out there and
follow a few simple principles, the plants just they just
step right into line when you give them what they want.
If you are wondering, like what's the top of the
list items to get done this week? Or what do

(02:03):
I need to do out in the landscape, well, first
of all, you know the answer to that, because it's
your place. But I would just suggest that our lawns
are waking up, and this will be a really good
time to make sure that your lawn has all the
things that it needs. You need to do a first
mowing that down a little bit lower than normal. I
don't like to use the word scalping because that sounds

(02:24):
like you're cutting it almost to the ground, and that
you don't want to do that, but you want to
cut it back, get some of the old stuff out
of there if you haven't already done that. If you've
got weeds and you haven't mode yet, those weeds are
cool season weeds and they have seeds. And when you
do the first mowing, go ahead and bag the clippings
and get them out of there because they are full
of weed seeds and you're not gonna get all the

(02:45):
weed seeds out, but you get a bunch of them.
If you don't do that, all those weed seeds will
be back and next fall they'll sprout. So you're right
back in the same place actually, but worse next year. Now,
speaking of weed seeds, if you have not put down
something to prevent summer weeds, and you've got some thin

(03:05):
lawn areas where sunlight can get through and hit the soil,
well it's time to make sure and get that done.
Some of our summer weeds have already been sprouting. And
barricade is a product knight Foss puts out. It comes
in a ten pound bag, covers about five thousand square
feet and when you put it down and then watered in,
and by the way, with a pre emergent, you always
have to watered in because that gets the product into

(03:28):
the soil surface. And barricade sticks to the soil better
than most pre emergents I know, and it adheres up
there near the surface. So when a weed seed tries
to come through and sprout, it shuts it down. It
forms a barricade. If you will, you're going to find
barricade and other night Foss products in a lot of places.
You go down on Bissonet or West Teimer. There's bearing

(03:48):
hardware on Bissonet one on West Teimer as well. You
can head out to the Richmond Rosenberg area to enchanted
forest and run into a good opportunity to get some
night foss products there. Also. If one thing about the
pre emergency needed to realize though, is they last a
certain period of time, and so you forty five days,

(04:13):
typically sixty days kind of depends on the weather, how
much you put out and everything like that, and you
don't want to overdo them when you put them out,
But at some point they break down and then weeds
can begin germinating again. And so just keep in mind
that it doesn't mean you won't see another weed until fall.
So some people will repeat that application when they're in

(04:34):
a situation where weeds we say weed pressure is high,
meaning there's just a lot of weeds germinating and you're
having to work at it to keep them in line. Well,
I told you guys yesterday that I wasn't going out
to Warren Southern Gardens. I was originally scheduled to go
out yesterday afternoon. We have moved that to April. The

(04:55):
nineteenth April nineteenth, that's the day before Easter, and I'll
be out at Warren Southern Gardens. And you know, those
of you in Kingwood, you know you've got two great
garden centers. You've got Warren Southern Gardens which is on
North Park, and you got Kingwood Garden Center there on
Stone Hollow. And looking at the stock that they brought
in and some recent examples of some of the plants

(05:17):
and product that place. Both places they're just loaded up.
Kingwood Garden Center's got a wonderful little gift shop for
a lot of cool stuff that even non gardeners on
your list would be very interested in. When you go in,
you're going to find at these places Microlife fertilizers, nitrophoss fertilizers,
Nelson turf Star, you're going to find soils from heirloom soils.

(05:39):
You're going to find Nelson plant food, and the jars too.
And by the way, they are refilled stations for that
you can take your empty clear screwtop lid jars that
you purchase those fertilizers and and take them back in
and refill them there for a very economical rate. They
got the mosquito dunks and stock now too, and here
we are. It's definitely mosquito season. I saw a little

(06:04):
I have a water fountain that had been sitting stagnant
for a while, I know, I know better than that,
and had a little mosquito wrigulars forming in it. And
so that's where you put the mosquito dunks because they
float and they prevent mosquitos for about a month.

Speaker 8 (06:18):
Now.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
You can break a dunk up into little chips and
pieces for small areas like my little water fountain area,
because the dunk will cover you like one hundred square feet,
or you can just get the granules and do it
that way. But anyway, either way you go about it,
you're going to get those things at Warren Southern Gardens,
I know in Kingwood Garden Center to help you stay
out of trouble when mosquito season comes along. Check out

(06:41):
their roses when you're out there. Check out their villias
when you're out there. The annual color is outstanding, nice
selections of seeds. They are both open seven days a week.
Both Warren Southern Gardens and Kingwood Garden Center are open
seven days a week, so that's nice. Pretty much anytime
you want to go. You have got a place to

(07:03):
go out there. I think it's yesterday. I was talking
about Ciena Mulch as being like the one stop shop
for everything brown stuff, and on garden Line, I talk
about brown stuff all the time, brown stuff before green stuff.
I don't know it makes sense to me to put
it that way. If you don't know, well what does

(07:24):
that mean? Well, green stuff is plants. That's the fun
stuff you go and you buy and you put in
the ground. It's vegetables, it's it's fruit, trees, it's flowers,
it's your lawn. Brown stuff is the soil and everything
in it that essentially is a foundation for success with
the green stuff. Cina Moltch is the place you go

(07:44):
to have success with the green stuff because they have
the composts, they have the bed mixes. Then they have
the mulches that go on top of the ground to
fight weeds and moderate soil temperature and protect the soil,
and they have the nutrients that go in the ground. So,
for example, you go there, you're gonna get composts, you're
gonna get bed mixes and all kinds of things like that,
but you're also going to get the main fertilizer products

(08:06):
I talk about all the time here on garden Line.
Sienna Mulch dot com. That's the website. Go check them out.
I'm going to take a break and I'll come right back.

Speaker 9 (08:17):
Down.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Alrighty, folks, we're back. Welcome back to garden Line. Look
forward to visiting with you about the questions you have.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two
k t R H. And I'm going to run right
out to Port Arthur, Texas. We're going to talk to Alan.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
Alan, good morning, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (08:38):
Good morning, Skip. Hey, I got a question. I do
follow the fertilization schedule. But one year ago my house
is just it was even there was a cow pasture.
So back in February, when I'm sure I had to
start to skip, I did the pre emergent, I did
the fifteen five ten night your polls. Now recently I
went in and put out my nineteen fourteen league. Still

(09:01):
got your weeds? Is there something that can do now
or just wait for the next application of my barricade instead, Well.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
The barricade will prevent weeds, but not kill existing ones.
So tell me how long ago that lawn was put down.

Speaker 10 (09:19):
I believe in im about the house late in August,
so probably in August or July.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Okay, okay, so it's it's established, all right, gotcha. So
the weeds that you see now, go ahead.

Speaker 10 (09:37):
No, I'm sorry, No, I didn't mean, well, you're fi
go ahead please.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Okay. The weeds that you see now are cool season
weeds and they're gonna die anyway. Now. You may be
seeing some perennial weeds, weeds that you know just last
from year to year, but primarily you're looking at cool season.
And if you can do a fairly low mowing and
bag all the clippings to get all the weed seeds

(10:03):
out that you can, that would be good. And just
know that the clovers and the chick weeds and the
hembits and the bluegrass and your bluegrass and all that
that's going to all die out when the as the
weather heats up. So what you're concerned about is the
new weeds coming on and that's where the barricade would
stop that. And so what did you I'm sorry, in

(10:25):
your description, did you say that you had or had
not used barricade already this year?

Speaker 11 (10:31):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (10:31):
I did back in February.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
February. Okay, good, well you're good. Then don't don't put
any more down because you overdo it and you're your
damage your grass. So February at March, April probably actually February,
probably later this month you could do let's see, yeah,
later this month, go, you could do another application. But

(10:57):
I don't just use it all the time just because
I have a lawn. So if your lawn is down,
or if you're struggling with weed problems, then that's when
you need. It's going to help the most because it
gives your lawn a chance to fill in.

Speaker 10 (11:12):
All right, Yeah, I need to follow this.

Speaker 12 (11:14):
I follow the schedule. I just I know it's coming
up for another one, but I don't like it.

Speaker 10 (11:19):
Grasses already, grasses dice and green already, But so are
the weeds.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
So okay, yeah, yeah, well you know this won't this
won't comfort you, Ellen, But I have a friend in
Mississippi and he says the way to get rid of
all your weeds is to is to mow your lawn
and take off your glasses. And you can't see him
a right, Okay, well, all right, you very much, thanks

(11:50):
for the call. Yeah, I know some people you know
what we range in weed tolerance.

Speaker 13 (11:58):
We do.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
I mean, we're that way about everything life if you
think about it. But I'm not going to go there now.
But there are some people that they have to have
the perfect lawn, everything, everything, it's just perfect. It looks
like AstroTurf out there. And if there's one weed is
like a neon sign flashing on and off, and it
drives the nuts and it's got to die, you know.
And then there's other people on the other end of

(12:20):
the spectrum that as long as the ground is covered
with green, they're happy, and the weeds, some of them
flour you know, like chick weed is very attractive to honeybees,
and so are dandelions, and you know, the pollinators and
things like that. I mean, I don't know where you
are on that spectrum, probably somewhere in between the two extremes.
But wherever you are, it's your yard. Do what you want.

(12:44):
Most people are wanting to have a nice, pretty yard,
and so we kind of focus on that way. But listen,
I deal with a lot of different kinds of folks
and I'm not here to tell you how to live.
I'm just here to tell you if you want this
or that out of a plant to have it. And
if this planned is the lawn and you want it
to look good, first thing is to make that lawn dense.

(13:06):
I just finished a publication I'm about to put on
the website called lawn Care one oh one. And that's
the bottom line. The bottom line is not to just
spend your year spraying products or spreading products to kill
anything that might show up disease, insects, weeds, and so on.

(13:26):
It's to have a good, healthy lawn. And the number
one way is to have a strong lawn that's been
properly mode watered and fertilized. And it's hard for folks
to believe it, but mow water fertilized, that's a secret
to a successful lawn. And we have other things, Yes,
there's such a thing as brown patch and takeoff patch
and chinchbugs and sid web worms and grubs and I

(13:49):
don't know, weeds, annual perennial weeds. Yeah, they're there. But
first is mowater fertilized. First is a dense, healthy lawn
and that takes care of most of the problems. Then
when you got some weeds that show up, and they will,
there are there are weeds that can grow in a dense,
healthy lown. You deal with those. But that's that's more
the exception. That's not the way of life.

Speaker 14 (14:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
The way of life is not every Saturday you are
spray in or or spreading something to kill something. That
you can do that, but that comes at an environmental
cost and certainly as a cost of money and time,
and so we aim for a good healthy lown. All right,
there you go, speaking of a good healthy lown. The

(14:30):
folks at Nelson Plant Food have a product called Bruce's
Brew and it is an outstanding product. About about every
six months you can put it down because although it's
a it's a fast release, it doesn't release everything fast
and so over time you're going to get a spread
out release of the nitrogen in there to help with

(14:54):
evening the growth rate out. Now the products in Bruce's
Brew will help also in your root develop and by
keeping the avoiding the peaks of nitrogen, you know, the
flushes of nitrogen, you get a good root system. I
wish I could. I know this is radio but I'm
holding my hands up in the air trying to show
you something. But I saw one time a research thing

(15:18):
where they had three crocks of water and a little
lid on them with grass planted through the lid so
you could pick the lid up and see the roots.
And on the left hand side just had a picture
of this with me. The left hand side was grass.
It was not growing very much at all, and it
was kind of a sharp, trusee green. It wasn't a
healthy green. And then in the middle was a grass,

(15:41):
I'll just say normal looking. And on the right hand
side was a grass that was very tall and dark,
dark green. And when you pick the roots up, the
roots on the middle and the left, the proper fertilizing
and the not enough fertilizing were very deep and extensive.
That grass plant was sending those roots out to build

(16:02):
a big root system to pull in the things that needed.
But the grass that have been overfertilized with nitrogen that
look wonderful on top, by the way, you get to
mow it a lot when that happens. When you picked
it up, it had less root system than normally fertilized grass.
Now going into summer, when you got grubs chomping roots,
when you've got one hundred degrees when it's not raining,

(16:25):
you need a good root system, and so overfertilizing in
one point in time with nitrogen is not a good thing.
It's not a good thing to have any nutrient out
of balance, but especially when it comes to the nitrogen,
a gradual release is important. Now I said all that,
but I was talking about Bruce's brute. Now some plant food.
When you create a good quality bank account of nutrients

(16:48):
in the soil, you have a good, healthy grass plant
that's going to be less vulnerable to pests and diseases,
and it's going to have a beautiful it's going to
create that beautiful lawn that you want. But I say
it a lot here. If a teaspoon's good, a tablespoon
is not necessarily better. And so keep that in mind.
It is true with fertilizers too, the proper amount. And

(17:11):
that's why we like slow releases because they release for
us slowly. We don't have to go out there and
spoon feed the grass every day to get that proper
amount out. All right, Well, there you go, Nelson Plant Feed.
By the way, those Turfstar products from Nelson's are available
all over town, easy to find them, in fact, throughout
this whole listening area. You're going to find Nelson plant

(17:31):
products even settle across the state. There's people out of
state that order those things because they found that they work.
You're listening to Garden Line phone number this Sunday morning.
By the way, Happy Sunday morning to you. Seven one
three two one two kt r H. Seven one three
two one two kt r H. See I today when

(17:58):
I'm done with the show this afternoon. I've got some
tasks that I'm looking forward to getting to. I've got
some plants that have been sitting on the front porch
waiting for me to plant them when I'm not running
around doing horticulture business stuff. But anyway, they are ready
to go in the ground. And when I pull them
out of the pots, here's what the first thing I

(18:19):
do is I lay the pot over and slide the
plan out. And if it's a little tiny tomato plant,
well that's not as important. But even with that, you
don't want to just grab the plant and pull it
up out of the pot. Sometimes you can do some
damage to the base of the stem where it's attached,
and sometimes plant roots will stick to the pot. So

(18:41):
lay it over, kind of bump the pot and slide
it out and then look at the root system. And
that's what I'll do. If the plant's going to be
in the ground a long time, like a tree or
a shrub. If you see a lot of roots going
around in a circle, cut them because they don't unwind
underground and they don't move out and establish as well
as if you cut them. And it's hard to cut roots.

(19:03):
I know that you're thinking, I'm going to kill this plant.
No you're not, No, you're not. It's like pruning back
the top. If you prune a plant back, what happens.
It sprouts out several new shoots everywhere you prune to
shoot out, and it does. If you've seen that, the
same thing happens in the roots you cut those roots.
If you were to cut the roots and put it

(19:24):
back in the pot or put it in the ground
and then pull it up in about two or three weeks,
you would see all these new, white, healthy roots venturing
out from back behind where you cut them. That is
how a plant grows, and that helps avoid a circling
root growing bigger as the trunk goes bigger and ending
up strangling the tree. And I have seen that before.

(19:46):
But cut the roots before you put them in the
ground and a watermen really good. With a quality product,
you're going to end up having a good chance of
success getting those things off on the right foot to success.
I always talk about Medina's has to grow six twelve six.
That's an excellent product for that, and I want to
I want to talk to you a little bit about

(20:08):
that one when I when I come back here in
a minute. But that's one that I mix.

Speaker 8 (20:12):
It in water.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
I put it in a watering can and water the
plant in really good. Sometimes I'll even soak the whole
root ball in medina has to grow six to twelve six,
then put it in the ground. That way, you got
a good soaking, plenty of phosphors there for those developing roots.
Time for me to take a break. We'll be right back.

Speaker 5 (20:30):
There will be days like this.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
There will be days like.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
This, my mama say, all right, there will be days
like this. In fact, we're gonna have days like this
for the first part of this week. Folks. Take out
your weather app and look at it. Is wonderful. We've
got some cool temperatures to kind of give us in
a little chili side this morning. But that's okay. We

(20:54):
got sunshine, sunshine, sunshine. Going into this week, it looks wonderful.
The temperatures are mild. It is gardening weather, and we
are excited. I am excited about that because I got
a lot of things I need to get done out
there in the yard and garden. If you are looking
for a horticultural tourism experience for a garden center, Okay,

(21:18):
Moss Nursery and Seabrook is when you need to go
to it is. It's down there on Toddville Road in
Seabrook and it is eight acres cram full of gorgeous plants.
I mean beautiful things. Flowers everywhere. They're hanging baskets full
of flowers, the flats of flowers, the red bud trees,
the pink Japanese magnolias, you know, those are the ones

(21:40):
that bloom in the spring before they get leaves, and
then the leaves come on and they're one of the
earliest harbingers of spring.

Speaker 13 (21:46):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
I've been looking to use that word today, Harbingers of spring. Yeah.
I love Japanese magnolias, their gorgs and the amazing white
Chinese fringe tree. The Chinese fringe tree is my favorite
spring blooming tree. I know there's a lot of the
good ones. I just love it. Billows of white blooms,
and they've got them there at Moss Nursery. They have
all kinds of flowering shrubs. They have twenty different kinds

(22:07):
of azalias. They've got beautiful hedranges.

Speaker 14 (22:10):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
And I like hanging baskets. I like containers in general,
but hanging baskets too. You know, you just put them
wherever you want beauty and color. If you've got a
big beautiful area with you know, trees maybe spreading out,
you can put hanging baskets that tolerate the shade. It
could be ferns, it could be impatients in those areas.
I've even used houseplants for summer and hanging baskets like

(22:33):
Pathos ivy coming out underneath the trees in an area
like that, and then in the sun hanging baskets full
of color. Thousand flats of different color plants at Moss there.
I mean that they the trucks line up down the
block bringing them stuffs all the time. From Alyssam to
Zenia's a to z. They have bones eye, both mature

(22:54):
ones and starter plants, so if you like to try
that as a hobby. They probably have fifty eight hundred
different kinds of bones. I think that's really cool. And
while you're there, check out those quirky T shirt designs
that Jim comes up with. At Moss Nursery. Jim Moss
has a thing a series. It's the Eyeball Plant and
you just have to go see it. It's funky stuff,

(23:15):
all right. Moss Nursery, seventy year old, family operated eight
acre source of everything you need, Toddville Road, Seabrook, Texas.
Go to Moss Maas Nursery dot com or give them
a call to eight one four seven four twenty four
eighty eight. That would be a fun outing this afternoon
or anytime this week. Let's go back to the phones.

(23:38):
We're going to go to Austin County and talk to Terry. Hello, Terry,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (23:43):
Yes, hi, skip bro Richter. I know this is the
garden lot, but we got an environmental catastrophe in Alton County.
They we have a two hundred acre farm. They theem
the town of sam Philip Day.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Terry, Terry, Terry, I need to come in. There's not
going to be a topic that I can address here
on guarden Line.

Speaker 8 (24:12):
So thank you.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
I appreciate you calling me, but not one I can do.
All right, Let's see what was I Oh? I was
telling you about Medina while ago. The Medina products, they've
been around since nineteen fifties. They in fact, I think
from the time garden Lines started back in the Dewey
Compton days, Medina Products were a sponsor of the show.

(24:36):
They've been around that long. And I was telling you
about the six twelve six. It's the Medina has to
grow plant six twelve six plant food, and I use
it for transplanting. It's not the only thing you.

Speaker 16 (24:47):
Use it for.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
But it's got a real high phosphor's number and root development.
It's important to have good phosphorus content in the soil
as those roots begin to develop. It's part of that
whole process. Phosphorus serves a number of functions the plant.
But I'll start it off with a good soaking with that,
and then about a week later, ten days, two weeks, whatever.
Just come back to it. For me, it's about a

(25:09):
week soak it again, and then about a week later
soak it again with the Medina has to grow six
twelve six It's easy to do. You put a little
bit in water. You're not going to burn with it.
I'm not gonna hurt the plants. I mean, you can
use it a folio spray. It's that safe. But it works.
And so when you're doing a new plant in the ground,
the goal is to take that transplant and get it

(25:31):
off to a good start. I like to say you
wanted to hit the ground running, and medina has to
grow six twelve six days, just exactly that in my
vegetable garden. If you could see it right now, you
would probably wonder what happened. And it's because I just
did a major renovation of the whole thing. I've got

(25:52):
leaves in the walkways. I'll talk about that more maybe later,
and then in the beds I have shredded leaves and
it's all well, all barren. I've got a number of
different kinds of multiplying onions right now, but tomatoes, some
tomatoes are out there. I've got a pepper, of course
out there, some strawberries and things. But I'm getting ready
because I do a lot of okra breeding every summer.

(26:15):
It's just something I like to do. It's fun and
maybe maybe if you have never tried plant breeding on
your own. Sometimes it's really easy. There's some plants it's
not hard to cross. But anyway, I need a lot
of space for that, and I have enough for the
vegetables that we want to eat, for the for the

(26:36):
kitchen and everything. But I'm getting ready for all those
got the seeds out and one of the things I do,
and boy Okra would not be happy germinating and temperatures
like this morning. It likes it to warm up a
little bit. But I'll pre soak this seed the night before.
And I don't do this with all seed, but with
a lot of them I do. Some seed have a

(26:56):
hard seed coat. Some seed are a little slow to germinate.
But if you put them in pretty hot water. Let's
say you do that this evening, okay, and then the
next morning you're gonna plant, or the next day you're
gonna plant. You don't want to leave in the water
for a long time. Put them in pretty hot water
and then just let it cool down a room temperature,
and that speeds up the absorption of water into the seed.

(27:16):
The term is imbibing. The seed imbibes the water and
when water gets into that interior part of that dry
not dead. It looks dead asleep seed. It starts biochemical
reactions that wakes it up, and here comes a root out,
and then here comes a shootout, and all the things

(27:37):
that help a seed become a plant start to happen
once it soaks in some water. And so by doing
that the night before, you get a good head start.
Now sometimes this is just kind of me going on
for those of you who are interested. Sometimes with the okra,
I'll soak it overnight and then I'll put it in

(27:57):
like either moist paper towels in a zip closure bag,
or I'll put it in little jars of water with
a lid, but just a tiny bit of water enough
where the seed is sticking up and getting oxygen. It's
not completely submerged, but it's getting oxygen, but it's still
staying moist. And then just watch them for a few days,
and if your seeds are not all viable, if they're not,

(28:20):
like maybe it's an old package of seed and you're
wondering which of these is still going to come up,
you'll see it little rootles start out, and don't leave
it long. Go ahead and plant it. When you first
start to see the root come out, and you'll have
a better way of knowing how which seeds to plant,
which ones are going to come up, or how many
to plant or whatever. Anyway, that's just a little added tip.
Not something you have to do for sure, but something

(28:42):
I think that you may want to give a good try.
League City Feed is down in League City. It's on
It's on Highway three, just a few blocks south of
ninety six. It serves that whole region down there, and
it's that typical old time feedstore that I just grew
up in. I love nitrophos as, microlife, heirloom soils, you know,

(29:06):
Nelson platfood. It's got everything you need to have success
with your plants. They carry the bags out for you
if you want them to do that. They're open Monday
through Saturday nine to six. Are close today two eight
one three three two one six one two. This is
a third generation of Thunderbirds running League City Feed, and
the stores just as good as it ever was. I

(29:26):
love going in there.

Speaker 8 (29:27):
All right.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
I'm gonna take a break and I'll be right back
along night. All right, welcome back, Welcome back to the
guard Line. Hey, the phone number to write this one
down seven one three two one two k t r
H seven one three two one two kt r H
Nitrophas super Turf is designed to gradually feed your lawn

(29:52):
over four months. It's a beautiful blend four to one
two ratio basically four one two racio fertilizer. So it's
I got an extra pack of nitrogen in it, but
it doesn't release it all at once. It's good that
nitrogen is going to be released over sixteen weeks and
it works well. It's easy to spot in the store
because it's a silver bag silver Nitropas Super Turf silver

(30:12):
slow release. That's what you need to remember. Works on
all our southern turf crisis in Augustine, Bermuda and Zysia.
You're going to find it at places like in Chinned
Gardens down Richmond Rosenberg area, if you are around Court
Hardware on South Maine and Stafford, or m and d
up in Cyprus on Luetta Road, places that carry nitrovoss products.

(30:33):
I was talking about earlier, the idea of you know,
watering in our plants really well with a soluble fertilizer
food and just something you always want to remember and do.
By the way, now I wanted to just mention a
little bit more about that leaves in the walkway that

(30:53):
are in my garden. In the garden, I put leaves
in my walkways. I've got the beds, the race and
then the walkways. And rather than you know, having to
deal with weeds and mud and when it range too
much and stuff like that, I just pile leaves and
I gather them. In the fall season of the year,
I just gathered a whole bunch when all the the
live oak leaves came off the trees, and you know,

(31:16):
put those in and I put them really thick in
there and walk on them, and they just decompose away.
They go down over time, so you keep adding them
to it, just keep adding them and adding them. It's
a weed free walkway. It's an all weather walkway. The
end of the season, you're gonna still see dry leaves
on top. But if you'll rake those back, what you'll
see down below is chocolate brown decomposing leaf mold. It's

(31:37):
called leaf mold, not bread mold. It's just a term
used that means it's about a halfway to compost leaf. Okay,
you can still see little flat sections like oh, this
was a leaf broken apart, but it's good stuff and
that can go right into your beds. Mix it in
good organic matter and then just lay the old dry
leaves back down and start the process again. If you

(31:58):
want to speed it up, you can throw some fertilile
are on. It's some nitrogen, primarily rote a. Till it
in to break them up, chop them up a little bit,
make sure it stays moist during dry times when we
don't get rain. But that's a way you can make
a lot of compost in your walkways while having the
benefits of no weeds an all weather surface. Just a
tip for you to think about. One of my favorite

(32:21):
garden centers to go visit is Enchanted Forest. Jenni Forest
is down in Richmond Rosenberg area. In fact, it's on
FM twenty seven fifty nine. And in Chanted Forest always
always is an interesting place that is going to be
loaded with every kind of plant that you would want.
And I mean that because every time I go, I
am so surprised at the different things they carry. Now

(32:43):
they specialize in everything. I mean, really, how can you
specialize in everything? Well, they do. At Ingented Forest, you're
going to find plants for pollinators, they great selection. You're
going to find flowering trees like that Chinese fringe I've
been talking about. You're going to find plants for summer heat,
like Madagascar periwinkle, which most people call vinca. There's a

(33:06):
couple of incas, so I like to call it Madagascar periwinkle.
You're gonna find color plants like roses. Oh gosh, they
have an awesome selection of roses, great selection of containers,
and then really cool fun stuff. You know, the unique
canmade cedar houses for birds and bats and butterflies, and
the yard arc you know, the decoratives, the outdoor decoratives

(33:30):
and things. They've got everything you need there. Do you
have shady areas well? Go buy visit some of their kalladiums.
Look at some of the other shade loving plants that
they have. All this enchanted Forest in Richmond, And here's
the website you want to use. This website Enchanted Forest, Richmond,
t X. Don't forget the TX dot com Enchanted Forest Richmond,

(33:52):
TX dot com. Go check it out. Check it out.
You'll see what I'm talking about. Be a great place
to take some friends and go visit. This afternoon. So anyway,
I was kind of talking about some different tips as
we go through here. You know, I think that one
of the things that a lot of gardeners don't really

(34:14):
understand is what microbes are doing in the soil and
why we talk so much about microbes. And we talk
about microbes because microbes help build the soil, and microbes
also help the plants. Now this is mind blowing, but
did you know that there are microbes that can go

(34:35):
up to a root and communicate with the root and
cause that plant send a signal that causes the plant
to grow in a different way that helps it fight
a disease up on top.

Speaker 12 (34:49):
We have it there.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
In fact, there's a product you can buy. It's a Bacillus.
You know, we have bt Bacillis, the or in gensis
that kills caterpillars. Well, this is a different Basillius bacteria
in the soil. It's a native bacteria in the soil
and it's a long one Basillus amelo licopations gezantite.

Speaker 8 (35:09):
I know.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
But this basillis you can purchase it in different kinds
of products. There are several products on the market that
have it, and it has a you'll see on there
where you look at the basillis meato ecofacians. My apologies,
but that's the word. It'll say D seven forty seven.
So think of the airplane, a seven forty seven airplane
D seven forty seven. That's the strain that's sold and

(35:33):
you drench it into the soil and it actually communicates
with the roots and benefits the plant in that way.
There are microbes that connect, like fungi that connect one
plant's roots to another to signal between those. I could
do a whole show just on some of the basic
things that microbes do in the soil. It's really cool.
And so anytime we are helping our microbes to do well,

(35:57):
we're helping our plants. So, for example, when you keep
the soil adequately moist, when you make sure the soil
is where well air rated, not water logged. Water logged,
there are microbes that can't live submerged. There are microbes
that can live without any oxygen, but those are generally
not good microbes. Most of those are not good microbes

(36:18):
to have. So we want a well drained soil. That's
our preference. And then another thing is organic matter in
the soil compost. In the soil compost another whole show
just on what compost does. It's effect on soil structure,
keeping the soil open, keeping oxygen down in the soil, well,
aer orated water goes in and it drains through well,

(36:40):
it holds moisture better if it's a sand, for example.
And then the compost also is foodstock for a lot
of the microbes. Now, microbes need carbon, and there's a
lot of carbon in decomposing leaves, for example, but there's
also carbon in some products. Swee Green is an example
that one's from nitropost. It is basically a sugar, and

(37:01):
a sugar is basically a carbon chain, okay, And when
you put that down in the soil, and organic gardeners
have long known that molasses in the soil is good
for some of those beneficial microbes, especially the bacteria that
it's going to benefit the soil. And Sweet Green's eleven
percent nitrogen fertilizer, which is pretty high for an organic product,

(37:22):
but you put it down and so you're getting the
nitrogen in the soil, but you're also helping stimulate microbial activity.
And I was just giving you a few examples. There
are just a really random few, but there are hundreds
and hundreds of examples of what microbes do in the
soil and why we want to take care of them.
When your soil is full of microbes, your roots are

(37:43):
going to be happy because it's going to mean the
soil condition is suitable for roots also, and you're going
to see results. Oh by the way, if you're looking
for sweet green, you're going to find it at places
really nitfoss products are carried like at Langham Cree Case
Hardware on five point twenty nine m and d out
in Rosenberg and let's see where. Oh you could also

(38:04):
go to the Acid Single Ranch, Mason Road. Those are
just a few of many, many, many examples of where
you get nitrofoss products. So think about that. I guess
I could say, you know, hug a microbe today, but
that would be kind of weird. But they do so
much for us. Microbes rule the world. They do, they do,

(38:28):
And you get me talking about microbes and I just
won't shut up. In fact, I'm coming up on a
break here, so I'm just gonna talk until the music
makes me stop. Do you know that the microbes in
your intestinal tract through your intestinal track? Do you know
that they produce more serotonin, the feel good chemical, than

(38:50):
you do. So we benefit in just in our well
being from the fact that we have microbes. Did you
know that there are more cells in your body that
are not you than are you? If you can't the
number of cells that are you and the number of
cells that are let's say, microbes that are in through
your intestinal there's more of them than there are you. Basically,

(39:14):
you're a school bus for carrying passengers around. That's true,
but they all do good things they do, and it's
a cool, cool thing. Without microbes, we wouldn't have cheese
without microbes. That wouldn't have beer. Without microbes, we wouldn't
have a lot of things that we enjoy in life.

(39:35):
And when it comes to plants therein take a plan
into space and squirt fertilizer water on the roots hanging
in mid air, floating around in space, and shine a
light on it and grow a tomato. You can do that.
But in the natural system, it's all run by the microbes.
They're doing it all and when we make them happy,

(39:58):
we make the plants happy. That makes us happen. I'm
gonna take a little break when we come back. Mike
and Brenham. It'll be our first stop.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skimp Rickard's shop.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Just watch him as.

Speaker 14 (40:27):
Us.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
So many birthdays to supers.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Not a sound.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Hey, good Sunday morning. Good Sunday morning to you. Hopefully
you're getting a nice slow start.

Speaker 8 (40:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
I need time to wake up when I do Garden Line.
I mean may the show may start at six, but
I gotta start way before that because it just takes
me a minute, you know, a cup of coffees, some
quiet time sitting there and just kind of coming to
Otherwise I'd be snoring on the radio, and that's bad radio.
We don't want to do that. I was talking about

(41:15):
microbes and importance of microbes, and you know, Microlife Fertilizers
have built their entire company around that. That's why it's
called micro Life. Okay, Microbes rule the world, and Microlife
products are not only do they feed microbes, but they're
chalk full of microbes and they're loaded with microbes. And

(41:38):
so you take a product like a bag of Microlife
sixty four, the typical lawn fertilizer from Microlife. I say typical,
it's the standard one four lawns that they do. It's
a green bag, okay, and it's got billions and billions
beneficial microbes in it. It is a product that is
made in such a way that it is taking organic

(42:01):
matter and releasing the nutrients of organic matter back into
the soil as microbes break that down. When you put
microlife on the ground, it doesn't dissolve and the nutrients
just wash out like a salt based fertilizer. It is
a It is a product that microbes chew it apart
and turn all those nutrients release and some of them
go through their bodies and then as they die they

(42:23):
release them and it's just part of that organic cycle.
And that is how microlife basically works. That is that
is what it's based on the natural cycle. So the
six two four green bag, it's time to get that on,
by the way, and you can put it on several
times through the summer. It is a very gradual release,
not salt based, so you're not going to burn your
plants with the microlife product, and you can you can

(42:46):
feed accordingly. Now it's a lawn fertilizer, but I use
it in my vegetable gardens too. It's an excellent it's
an excellent product for plants period. When you're thinking about
the green bag, also think about the purple bag that's
humate's plus. The humates are basically concentrated composts. And the
way I like to put it is, you start with
leaves and grass clippings. Let's say you turn those into

(43:08):
compost as they decomposed, and then you let the compost
keep going and it becomes humous the final stage, and
humates plus is concentrated compost in a bag, and we
put it on for the benefits to the microbial life
in the soil and to the soil structure and everything itself.
So that's why we're doing that. So you can do
both bags, green and the purple bag. You're not going

(43:31):
to end up with, you know, overdoing it that way.
It's all right, you can do that. In fact, it's
a good idea to do that. Micro Life products are
sold all over town. They're easy to find, not a
problem at all, most garden centers, most speed stores, most
let's see Ace hardware stores, you know, Southwest Fertilizer for example,
what have them, And you're going to find them at
Ace hardware stores as well. Let's go out to Brenham,

(43:54):
and we're going to now talk to Mike. Hey, Mike,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (44:00):
Worn to skip.

Speaker 8 (44:00):
Thank you.

Speaker 17 (44:01):
Uh, I just had a couple of questions.

Speaker 11 (44:03):
Uh, particularly you brought up rhizomes and microbes.

Speaker 9 (44:07):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (44:07):
I've got an acre. I'm trying to clear weeds out
of my yard and stuff like that.

Speaker 8 (44:13):
I am using.

Speaker 11 (44:15):
Uh I believe a two four D product to kind
of sin out those weeds. Anyways, but I've also been
applying Balen's will that affect the microbes and rhizomes in
the yard.

Speaker 13 (44:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
Spell that word Balen's What.

Speaker 8 (44:34):
What are it is?

Speaker 11 (44:36):
It's it's uh it's a pre emergent for.

Speaker 17 (44:41):
Balans.

Speaker 11 (44:41):
Maybe a brand.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
Is a Baylan Okay, yeah, sure that's primer.

Speaker 8 (44:49):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
Well, you know, any kind of products have a potential
to do some damage. But you I would say, if
you're using it according to the label, it's not going
to significantly hurt the microbes anything in your yard.

Speaker 14 (45:01):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
The the microbes have an incredible ability to reproduce one
bacteria can become millions of bacteria in like twelve hours.
I mean their ability to just divide and multiply it.
It is incredible. So I wouldn't misuse it, and that'd
be bad for your plants also. But if you use
it at the right rate, and you use it according

(45:24):
to the label, you're you're okay on. Your microbes are
gonna they're gonna be fine.

Speaker 11 (45:29):
Will the grasses that that are their native grasses basically
is what I grow? Will they continue to spread through
the rhizomes? I realized the bayland will prevent prevent the
seeds from germinating. Uh, but will the grass continue to spread?

Speaker 3 (45:51):
Yes, Baylan a rhizome kind of pretty much a rhizome
indicates it's probably a perennial type of grass. And because
like Bermuda grass has rhizomes, Zusio grass has rhizomes, Saint
Augustine doesn't. But uh, yeah, so so that that would

(46:13):
not be affected by the treating.

Speaker 11 (46:14):
It with baylan okay or and the two four D
will will help limit extra weed growth.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
Broad Leaf two four.

Speaker 6 (46:25):
D is yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Two for D is primarily a broad leaf we control
product for existing weeds. You don't put it down, and
a broad leaf that hasn't sprouted yet is going to
be affected. It's it's a you get it on the
foliage of an existing weed. Now when the weather heats
up once we get to you know, upper eighties and
certainly nineties, two four D can really stress and damage

(46:48):
your Saint Augustine. So if you have Saint Augustine as
a lawn and so you want to avoid that. But
hopefully that answers what you were asking.

Speaker 8 (46:58):
It does.

Speaker 11 (46:59):
And I have one more question. Nigropas's wood Master. I'm
not finding a lot online, but do you like that product?

Speaker 8 (47:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (47:10):
I have some and I use it. It's a it's
used primarily for trees, that's why they named it that
h And it's a blend of nutrients. I don't have
the ratio right in my head right now on wood Master,
but it's a blend of nutrients designed for trees and
shrubs and it works. It's good stuff.

Speaker 17 (47:28):
Excellent, excellent.

Speaker 11 (47:29):
Yeah, this is my first year to try it, so
I was curious.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
Okay, I appreciate you calling excellent.

Speaker 8 (47:38):
Thank you, Skip, But.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Okay you take care, Thanks Mike. Uh time for me,
take a break. I'll be right back. George and Jersey
you'll be first, all righty, welcome back, Welcome back to
guard Line. Glad to have you with us. You know,

(48:03):
I talk about horticulture tourism on garden line. Basically, what
I'm saying is you're going places to see gardening, to
see gardens. And whenever I go to a town, I
always you know, where's the botanical garden. I want to
go check it out? And where are the best nurseries
in town? And I tell you, every time I go
to another city, and I've been to a lot of them,

(48:25):
I always they're some nice garden centers. But I always
leave thinking we are so lucky here in Houston because
we have north south east West the best garden centers
you're going to find anywhere in one specific place. In fact,
the local Chamber of Commerce to somehow grab on to
that and bring people in to see botanical gardens and

(48:46):
garden centers and whatnot. Inn Arburgate, you know, is just
a prime example of what I'm talking about. You go
out to Arborgate and allow yourself some time because you're
going to want to wander through. And there's a lot
of wandering to do there, from the gifts ops, to
the plants, to the house plant house, to the containers
and everything. It is a beautiful place loaded loaded with

(49:07):
all kinds of good stuff. When I go to out
to Arbrogate, I'm always amazed at weka what's in now,
because if you went last week and then you come
back this week, you're going to see some things that
weren't there because they're constantly getting in new stuff. Excellent
supply of succulents out there at the Arbrogate. The color
plants are just outstanding, and they have a landscape that's

(49:28):
landscaped with plants and you can kind of see the
things that they have and you kind of see them
in their natural hybitat if you will, meaning natural meeting
in a garden habitat. Arbrogate's a fun place and they
understand that there's such a thing as brown stuff before
green stuff. And they they have got you set up
with three bags. It's the one two three completely easy system.

(49:50):
It's a food that feeds anything for root. It's an
organic food. It's it's got a four four to three
plus calcium and you just put it in the soil
and you've got a foundation there for success with your plants.
And then they have a soil for anything any application.
It's got extra expanded shale in it to make sure

(50:11):
our clay soils stay open in addition to what the
organic matter does. And then they got a compost that
improves any in all soil. It's organic compass complete again,
it's got some expanded shale in it as well. One,
two three. You can buy these bulk if you go
buy arbrogate or call them and say hey, look I
need a delivery of these. They can deliver them. Buy
bulk to you wherever you live. So Arburgate Garden Center

(50:34):
just a mile and a half west of two forty
nine on twenty nine to twenty, just outside on the
edge of Tumble. It's a fun place to visit, and
this afternoon it would be a good time to go
by and do that. Let's head out to Jersey Village
and we're going to talk to George. Hey, George, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (50:51):
Good mornings, Kip, good to talk to you. So, anyhow,
a couple of weeks ago I talked to you about
a Chinese tallow tree that I was trying to kill.
Has put in our boots all over the backyard. So
you told me to scrape off the bark down on
the base and they're gonna rub some kind of junk on.
Remember what it was. His name was and what was again?

(51:13):
Let me.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
Yeah, first of all, let me clarify. If it's a
very young tree, you can put what I'm about to
talk about on the outside of the of the trunk
at the base. And now when I say young, I
mean something the size of your thumb or maybe golf
ball size. As they get older and get bark on them,
you're gonna need to cut that tree off near the ground,
just above the ground. And then you want immediately and

(51:39):
that fresh cut stump to paint on a product that
contains triclope here and I will spell that out for
you here in one second.

Speaker 8 (51:48):
That's come.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
Yeah, it's t R I c l O p U
y R right and right the way. Uh, I'm I'm
about to put a new up dated publication on my
website called Herbicide Products for various types of weeds. But
on that it tells you the kind of weed. In
this case, you got a woody tree you're trying to kill,

(52:11):
and if you go over it says trico paer and
then it lists all the different brands of triclopere that
are most commonly seen here. But the important thing, George
is to remember to do it when that cut is fresh,
when you just cut it off right right, the tree.

Speaker 8 (52:26):
Is probably two feet across, so it's not a kid anymore.
So what I did do was, like you suggested, at
the pace of the tree, and then I also drilled
a about a half control about a foot deep and
filled with triclo peer. So how is this tree going
to die or do something else? You got to cut

(52:46):
it off? Do you think?

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Well, you might watch and see the trees are living cylinders.
The if you've got a tree trunk of any size,
the interior is dead wood. And then as you get out,
just inside the bark is where all the life tissues
of the tree are the living tissues of the tree.
So that's where that tricle a peer needs to get.
So if you drill a hole and get stuff into

(53:09):
the center, it's not going to be doing much for you.
And you know you're gonna get as you drill the hole,
you're gonna have to go through living tissue. But that's
why we say cut off the stump and paint it.
And I even have a I have a publication of
woody Weeds in the Landscape. Woody Weeds in the Landscape.
It's on my webscare gardening with skip dot com. It
tells you how to do it. It has a picture

(53:31):
of how to do it, and it has tricle peer
information on that.

Speaker 8 (53:35):
Don't care.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
So that's it gardening with Skip.

Speaker 8 (53:40):
Yeah, I properly on a two foot tree?

Speaker 7 (53:43):
Is it?

Speaker 8 (53:43):
How long's going to take the guy?

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Oh boy? Two foot high tree? Two foot tall tree diameter?
Oh it, you got it? Okay? That I've never heard
of the Chinese teller that big.

Speaker 8 (54:01):
Yeah, that's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
Well, okay, so that's a good question. I think in
a few months it's going to be done. I think
you're going to see the results a lot, a lot
faster than that tree takes it in. Sometimes with a
big old tree, it may have some energy to reach sprout.
You know, you don't get it all with just that
one little treatment, and you may have to do it

(54:24):
a second time. But it will work. It does work,
and tallows are tough to kill. Thank you, sir, Thank
you appreciate your call. You take care. This morning at
five o'clock, my Robin, who I think when I turned
my lights on in the house, that starts to wake

(54:46):
them up. But about five o'clock, which is light to
have been on for a little bit. Uh, it began
to sing and I like that. I enjoy it. And
we also have some barn swallows that are at the
front door, and they come and go pretty fast each year.
But boy, those things when they get to chattering, I
wish I had a translator to hear what they were saying,
because they are giving it the business out there. Wild
Bird's Unlimited is the place you go to find out

(55:08):
all about birds, all the different birds you would want
to bring into your garden. For example, I just put
out my high perch hummingbird feeders. High perch hummingbird feeder
that is my favorite humming bird feeder. They got those
at Wildbirds Unlimited. It's got a red top cover. It's
a very flat feeder so when the birds gather around it,
the hummingbirds, you can see them better and you know
they're not hiding behind the feeder kind of thing. I

(55:30):
love that feeder. They also have the Eliminator. It's a
squirrel proof feeder. That is probably my favorite bird feeder
of all the ones I have. I just this year
I got a hopper feeder that's a recycled materials feeder.
The very tough, very durable. Got a wide roof so
that when it rains like it did yesterday, the bird
seed didn't get all wet. It's got a little bigger

(55:51):
roof on it to kind of protect a little bit
keep those seeds dry. Wild Birds Unlimited is also a
source of quality bird seed, whether it's it's the well,
the main one for right now would be the Nesting
super Blend. It's got the protein and calcium necessary for birds.
And you know, as they're laying the eggs they eat calcium.
As the younger growing and eat calcium for that.

Speaker 11 (56:13):
And the.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Nesting super Blend is designed for this season primarily, and
you can use anytime you want. But it's got some
really good stuff and the protein it's packed. I mean
stuff like sunflower chips, peanuts, meal worms, bark, butter, other
kinds of tree nuts and safflower. Lots of protein in
that and it's good for the birds. And then I
love the cardinal products too, you know they came out

(56:37):
this year. The Owner of wild Birds came out with
something called Cardinal Confetti and it's another great blend from Wildbirds.
And we had some cardinals come into our feeder like
they love that stuff again, it's got all the good
stuff in it, bark butter bits, peanut hats, meal worms,
striped sunflower, black ole, sunflour, and on and on. They
even have a feeder for it, a tube feeder. You

(57:00):
can use it in any kind of feederod It's a
good product too, but that's what you would expect from
wild Birds Unlimited. There's six stores. Wildbirds Unlimited stores clear Lake,
Texas on El Dorado, Cypress, Texas on Barker Cypress. In
the southern part of Houston's just south of downtown. A
little bit to the west is bell Air Boulevard Wildbirds,

(57:22):
and then out west on Memorial Drive is Houston Wildbirds.
In Kingwood Drive in Kingwood another one, and then in
Pairland on East Broadway. Six stores. If you want to
if you didn't write all that down, wbu dot com
forward slash Houston to find the wild Birds Unlimited store
near you, and I hope you'll do that, but I

(57:43):
warn you it's addictive. I've talked about this before, but
the garden, the hobby of gardening is so many things
put together. It is getting outside and playing with plants, yes,
but it's creating a multisensory experience outdoors. You wild bird's unlimited.

(58:07):
I was talking about them, well, birds, the songs they sing.
That is an auditory experience. And when you create the
garden that attracts birds, you get that auditory experience plus
the beauty of them. They're very pretty. Then there's the
visual experience of color. There's a visual experience of textures,
you know, the bold leaves of an elephant ear versus

(58:29):
the fine narrow textures of a moving grass in the wind.
And that movement too, by the way, is another aspect
of the visual taking in of the garden. Then there's
the sense the fragrant plants, and you do a publication
on fragrant plants. I think I'll do that, And because
I'm starting to add a bunch to my landscape. You

(58:50):
sit out there with your eyes closed New Year's plugged,
and you enjoy the garden, smelling the fragrance from those plants,
and then the butterflies flying by thought we call those
lying flowers. That's another aspect. So see, gardening is more
than just like Okay, there's a plant, there's a landscape.
Take a picture that's pretty. Yes it is, but it's
way more than that. It's sound, it's movement, it's sense.

(59:13):
It's creating that little bit of Eden in your backyard,
Creating that little bit of Eden that just makes it
a place that you want to go, a place that
you want to hang out. And you can do that
here in your own backyard, on your own property. I
don't care if you live, even in a little townhome.

(59:34):
You can create that beautiful outdoor area for sensory enjoyment.
If you're planting a tree, or if you have planted
a tree, you need to get what's called a three
sixty tree stabilizer. Now you've seen trees that were guy
wired down to the ground in three directions with wires

(59:58):
to hold the tree stable. It looks like they're afraid
it's a rocket and going to take off because they
they you know, they got that thing honkered down where
it hardly can move well. Three sixty tree stabilizers different.
You don't have to mess with the wires. You don't
have to cut sections of garden hose so the wires
don't cut into the tree. You don't have to have
steaks in the ground and wires to trip over. You

(01:00:18):
plant a you drive a t post or any kind
of post really into the ground, and the three sixty
tree stabilizer attaches to the post, and then it attaches
to the tree with a soft rubber strap that you
can leave a little loose, and you should, because a
little movement helps strengthen the trunk and the bracing roots

(01:00:39):
at the base of the trunk. That movement makes the
plant grow stronger. Plants respond that way, just the way
our muscles to being worked respond by getting stronger, more resilient.
Tree trunks do the same thing. It's a principle of nature,
all right. And if you most situations one tree stabilizers enough,
if you've got a bigger tree, or you got a

(01:00:59):
lot of you can do one kind of from the
north south side, or and then one from the east
west side, and then you have you've completely got it,
and you have that movement. And you can get tree
stabilizers at R. C W Nursery, Dunn and Alvin or
Haes Hidden Gardens over in Cenna see in a mulch
Buchanan's Native plants in the Heights Arborgate out there in

(01:01:19):
Tomball Plants for all seasons on the road to Tomball
Tomball Parkway, right where just north of Lueta or all
places where you can find the three sixty tree stabilizer. Well,
it's about time for me to go to a break
here point. This one came fast, you know, droning on
about some things. Well, thank you for being a listener

(01:01:40):
to Garden Line. If you'd like to give us a call,
you can be one of our first up when we
come back at seven one three two one two k
t r H. Hey, welcome back to the Garden Line.

Speaker 18 (01:01:58):
Good to have you with us.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
If you would like to give me a call talk
about gardening seven one three two one two ktr H
seven one three two on two kt rh. Nitropos Imperial
fifteen five to ten is a ratio that was developed
by university turf researchers many many years ago, and this

(01:02:19):
product's been around for about half a century now. But
that three one two ratio is perfect for what the
ratio of nutrients that lawns take up. You know, if
you were to look in a grass blade and send
it to the lab and go, hey, what's on this?
They would tell you there's about three times as much
nitrogen as phosphorus and about twice as much potassium as phosphorus.
Three or four times as much nitrogen. So anyway, it's

(01:02:42):
a good stuff. It's the same red orange bag that
they've always had, makes it easy to spot, and the
fifteen five to ten imperial nitropos Imperial can be used really,
it can be used for any kind of plants. I mean,
it's not just the lawn furtiliser, but if you are
putting it in the lawns, you can do small doses
about every six weeks as you go through the season,

(01:03:03):
or you can just use it once as a quick
green up and then switch over to a slower release product,
which Knight Foss also has those Knitrofas. Imperial and other
nitofas products are available at places like Plantation Ace Hardware
on FM three point fifty nine down in Richmond Rosenberg
In They're also available by the way at Katie Ace

(01:03:24):
Hardware on pin Oak and Hiding and Feed on Studenter Airline,
as well as many many other places I was visiting.
We were kind of working out the switch of the
Warren's appearance from Kingwood this pat this weekend. It would

(01:03:48):
would have been yesterday to the nineteenth, which, by the way,
albeit Warren Southern Gardens in Kingwood on the nineteenth from
twelve thirty to two thirty, and we were talking about
that and then just it just reminded me of the
Airloom Soils. Warrants always has an excellent supply of the
airloom soils products out there, as do many places. They
are widely available, but Airloom Soils has really perfected the

(01:04:13):
soil amendment process and the products that they have are outstanding.
They make a really good lead mole compost, They make
an outstanding veggie and herb mix. But they make mixes
for pretty much anything you're looking for that whether you're
looking for something just to go in a landscape bed
as a general bed mix, whether you're looking something for

(01:04:33):
roses and other blooming plants, they've got all of those. Now,
many of their products are available by the supersack. What
a supersac is is a cubic yard in a giant,
very strong sack, and they can basically bring it to
your house and set it on the driveway, or you
can go get one thing, put it in your trailer
for if you want it real neat, easy clean way
to go about it. They can also deliver and put

(01:04:55):
it dump it on the driveway if you want, like
I need ten yards. I often need ten because I'm
always doing a lot of soil improvement around the place.
All you got to do is go to the website
Airloomsoils dot com Heirloomsoils dot com. You can find out
more there about how to get their products and where
to get their products because their bags are widely available
in garden centers throughout this area. And the stuff works.

(01:05:19):
And I say that because I've used it. I've used
it and I know it works. Uh, if you are
interested in giving me a call, maybe a gardening question
today seven to one three two one two kt r
H seven one three two one two kt r H.
Plants for All Seasons is a garden center right there

(01:05:41):
on two forty nine at Luetta. So if you're on
two forty nine, you exit Luetta and it's just north
of Luetta, right on the feeder, and I mean just Northlake,
not even hardly a block north of Luettah, if you're
a green thun that takes pride in your lawn and garden,
you need to visit Plants for All Seasons on two
forty nine. If you're a bright and you'd like to

(01:06:01):
turn your thumb Green. You need to visit Plants for
All Seasons on two forty nine, family owned operated business
center since what a business center garden center since oh gosh,
nineteen seventy three, I believe is when they first opened
up up there. And these folks, whether it's education, whether
it's plant selection, delivery, planting, custom potting, they are true

(01:06:24):
lawn and garden experts. They know it all. They do
it all because they've been here, they've done it. They
are gardeners. They have pretty much seen everything. They can
come through the garden at one time or another or
many times, and they know what to tell you about it.
You can take them a picture, you can bring them
a sample in even if you didn't buy a plant
there and you have a problem bringing in and ask

(01:06:45):
them about it and they'll they'll direct you. And what
you'll find out is that it is well worth going
by Plants for All Seasons because the advice you get,
the quality plants that want to grow here, that they
have a available, and then the service after the sale.
It just it's a way to go. Absolutely is a

(01:07:06):
way to go. Plants for All Seasons dot com or
you can follow them on social media too. Two, eight, one, three, seven, six,
sixteen forty six in my vegetable garden. I was telling
you that I'd been mulching and created the walkways of
leaves for all season gardening. What I'm about to do

(01:07:29):
is start a whole bunch of marigolds seeds. I've got
some beds that have nematodes on them. I do not
know where the nematods came from. I'm pretty sure it
came from some soil I brought in a while back
that I shouldn't have, but I did, And I think
now I've got some nematods in there, So I'm gonna
grow marigols walled wall. Did you know marigos are a

(01:07:50):
trap crop for nematodes. It doesn't eradicate nematods by any
stretch of the imagination. But when when you plant not
just a marigold besides tomato plant like you'll hear sometimes
people say, do don't do that gon work, But I mean,
wall to wall, this whole bed will be solid miragles.
I want every cubic centimeter of soil to have a

(01:08:11):
marigo root in it, because when a nematod goes into
a marigol route it's not able to complete its life cycle,
and you don't get that proliferation, and you get a
little bit of a reduction therefore in the nemotoid content
in the soil. And there's other crops that will do that.
But that is about the only good strategy other than
nematod resistant plants for getting ahead of the nematod problems

(01:08:35):
in our landscapes. I'm gonna be doing that. I'll post
some pictures to Facebook as we get into this season.
We're going to go now to Pasadena and talk to Greg. Hey, Greg,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:08:46):
Good morning, Skip quick, A couple of quick questions. Number one,
I've had some mushrooms popping up in my yard, particularly
last year before the winter, and then now I'm noticed
from here in the early spring.

Speaker 12 (01:09:03):
What can I do?

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
Okay? Kind of control that don't need to Yeah, you
don't need to do anything. There's not a good control
for it anyway. Most of those, or the vast majority
of those, are just decomposer fungi that are breaking down
organic matter, whether it's the thatch of your lawn or
woody root materials in the in the soil.

Speaker 7 (01:09:25):
Not a problem okay, so I don't need to go
and try to pull them up by the roots. It's
okay to mow them.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
No, No, that won't that won't do anything. It won't
do anything. Yeah, just leave them alone, ignore.

Speaker 12 (01:09:38):
Them all right.

Speaker 8 (01:09:40):
Wonderful, wonderful.

Speaker 7 (01:09:40):
Secondly, I'm redoing my flower beds landscaping in the front
of my house.

Speaker 8 (01:09:46):
I'm pulled up from old.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
Edges and roads buis that I had in there.

Speaker 7 (01:09:52):
What kind of rep work do I need to do?
Do I need to pull out the old sod, the
old soil, and uh?

Speaker 12 (01:10:01):
What could I do?

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
Just just add up, add add quality composts to it
several inches, mix it in deeply, create a little bit
of a raised bed there, and then mix in some
good nutrients into the soil. The I'm a I have
to go to a break right now. But uh, that's
that's my fast answer on it. I may make a
comment or two when we come back, But Greg, thank you,

(01:10:25):
I appreciate the calls. We just ran out of time. Alrighty,
A little bit of fun from Ricochet this Sunday morning.
Welcome back to Guardlinem. Good to have you with us.
Quality Home Products of Texas is where you can get

(01:10:47):
the Generac automatic stand by generator that these are great.
When it says automatic stand by, it means power goes off.
You're sitting there in your easy chair reading the paper
and power comes right. You almost don't even know it
went off. I mean it's that automatic Generaic though. Awesome products,
but why quality home well quality home products. It's the

(01:11:09):
number one generator servicer in the Houston area and our
hurricane season is coming around the corner. But from last
year we learned it does not have to be hurricane
season to have a storm, and they don't have to
be a hurricane to have a storm. Rather, this is
a standout organization. We're talking about honesty, transparency, reliability, and
integrity with every client. They've served over seventy seven thousand

(01:11:32):
homeowners with award winning customer service and I do mean
award winning eight times. They've won the Pinnacle Award, Better
Business Bureaus Customer Service Award Most Prestigious one. Their products
are fully engineered, they're fully installed and fully monitored by
Quality Home Products themselves, which is rare. Twenty twenty three,
the Houston Chronicle made them the best of the Best

(01:11:54):
or awarded them the Best of the best in the
home contractor division. This is a family owned operation since
nineteen eighty nine. And oh, by the way, they do
offer financing options. They are available now. What you need
to do is go to the website QUALITYTX dot com
or give them a call. It's easy to remember the number.
It's seven to one three Quality seven one three Quality.

(01:12:16):
Talk to them. You know, this is a process. They're
going to Quality Home walks you through it. They get
the right generator for you first of all, after listening
to you talk about what you need, and then they
step out there and all those you know, any kind
of permits or whatever they are needed to do this,
they handle that for you. They have their own in
house electricians and so on. I mean they this is

(01:12:36):
a turnkey company. But after they walk off from having
put this great product genera automatic standby generator on your property,
that's when the service just continues. Twenty four to seven
three sixty five. That's why people rate them like they do.
We're going to go now out to Cyprus and talk

(01:12:59):
to you, Matt. I can get there.

Speaker 19 (01:13:02):
We go.

Speaker 3 (01:13:02):
Hey, Matt, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:13:04):
Good morning, Skip, Good morning, Skip. Did you receive my
picture of my sweet banana plant last Saturday.

Speaker 13 (01:13:14):
I sent it in the afternoon, I believe.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Let me go looking for it, Matt. I don't see
a Matt in the emails.

Speaker 12 (01:13:26):
It would be.

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
Tell me a little bit about it.

Speaker 12 (01:13:28):
Well, it has the swatches of brown on the leaves.

Speaker 3 (01:13:36):
Okay, go ahead, Okay, So that's a natural marking on bananas,
some bananas. It's kind of almost a burgundy brown color
that is just part of the leaf itself. Hey, Matt,
I need you to turn the radio. Turn the radio down.

Speaker 12 (01:13:59):
It's down, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
Okay, hell, all right, thank you. Yes, I can hear you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
I don't. I'm not finding your email. But without the
name popping up on top, it's gonna take a little while.
But that is a natural marking. And I think I
remember seeing your picture on banana leaves. It's a it's
a splotching. It's actually a streaking across the leaf. Yes,
from the center to the edge. Yes, okay, nothing to

(01:14:32):
worry about. Just want to It's actually an ornamental feature
of some type, some varieties of bananas.

Speaker 8 (01:14:40):
So just stay stay bad about it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
Yeah, no problems at all. You're good on that one.
You can go take care of the other plants. I appreciate,
appreciate the call. But yeah, nothing, nothing to worry about.
Just enjoy those bananas. Hopefully we'll have a good long
season and you get some some fruiting here for too long.
Thank you, Kin, appreciate you appreciate your call, sir, all right,
thank you. I appreciate that a lot. Nitropas Superturf is

(01:15:10):
their slow release fertilizer for the lawn for summer, and
it's easy to spot. I can give you the numbers
nineteen four s N but you don't have to go
around with the mag divine glass and looking at all
the fertilizer bags for those numbers. Just look for silver.
It's a silver bag, a big silver bag Nitropas superturf.
You put it down and for four months you're done.
And basically you put Nitrophs superturf down around now and

(01:15:34):
you're not going to be fertilizing again until we put
our fall fertilizations on. I'm pretty much, especially if you're
returning your clippings now. Nito five Superturf and other products
are available at places like Plans for all seasons on Luetta,
the d and d feed Store outside of Tomball on
twenty nine to twenty on the West side, and M
and D and let's see that's in Sagement on Beamer Street,

(01:15:58):
and many many other places. Those are just some examples.
Another place, you know, in general, when you're thinking, when
I think about night Foss, I go, well, they're at
Ace Hardware stores. Because Ace Hardware almost always you're going
to find all the night foss products there. You can
go to the website Acehardware Texas dot com and that
will give you a map. When you tell it where
you are, it'll give you a map of the Ace

(01:16:21):
Hardware stores in our Houston group that are near you.
It makes it really easy. Ace Hardware Texas dot Com.
When you go into ACE Hardware, you're going to find
a wide variety of pest control, disease control, weed control,
both the pre emergent and the post emergent, and fertilizers
for your garden. You're going to find the tools that

(01:16:41):
you need. You're going to find everything to make that
outdoor area that you love to go out and enjoy.
You're going to make it better and nicer, from barbecue
pits to lighting to you name it. Ace is the
place they've got you covered. And then the same thing,
by the way, is true on the inside too. Beautiful
things for the home and from turning your home environment

(01:17:02):
into a wonderful place. Many Ace Hardware stores throughout the
Greater Houston area, places like Aspas ACE in the Woodlands, Plantation,
ACE on Mason Road, down in the Richmond Rosenberg area,
j and ours as out there in Porter, down in
Bay City, Bay City Ace on Seventh Street. For those

(01:17:23):
of you out in Brenham area, there's ACE Hardware on
North Austin Parkway and then up in Spring on Rayford Road.
And again I'm just reading a few of the many
ACE Hardware stores that you will find at ACE Hardware
Texas dot com. Ace Hardware Texas dot Com talking about

(01:17:47):
taking care of these plants and different things to be
doing out in the garden. This time of the year,
it is time to get as much of your planting
for the spring and summer done as you can, because
every week that a plant has to get roots established
is a week that makes it better prepared for summer

(01:18:08):
heat and dry conditions. And that's especially true of what
you ornamentals. You're gonna plant a tree, a shrub, or
a woody vine, get it in the ground now. But
it's also true of things you know, like the perennials
and even our annuals that we're putting out. Plan them now,
get them done. Boy, is this week ever going to
be a good one for planting? And if you've not

(01:18:29):
been out to Enchanted Gardens, you need to go. This
is a destination garden center on the Katie Fullsher side
of Richmond. It's on FM three point fifty nine. Here's
the website. You'd write this down because it is an
awesome website with lots of great information and you can
stay up to day. Follow them on social media too.
By the way, Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Enchanted Gardens

(01:18:54):
Richmond dot com. The Lenderman family has been part of
that community since nineteen ninety five garden first opened, And
when you go there, it is just a wonderful experience.
You're going to find an unmatched, unmatched rather a selection
of every kind of plant that you can imagine. But
also you're going to find an enthusiastic team that is

(01:19:15):
knowledgeable and they can help you. They can look at
photos and samples to give you expert advice. They can
help you put together you know, you want to put
together a beautiful color combo planter. Well they can give
you some ideas, Oh, you want to put this in
the middle because you know it's taller, and then you
puture things around the side, or here's some colors that
go well together. All that kind of stuff. You get

(01:19:36):
that kind of service. You're going to find Microlife, Nitrofloss,
Nelson plant Food, Medina Products, Nature's Way, Heirloom Sauce. I'm
just telling you from brown stuff to green stuff en
Gentigardens Richmond dot Com on FM three point fifty nine.
You know, I always get sad when I hear the
music plan because I got to go talking about gardening

(01:19:58):
and I like to talk about garden with gardeners, which
reminds me. By the way, next Saturday, I'm gonna be
at r CW Nursery up there where belt Wait eight
and FM two forty nine Tombol Parkway come together. We
have got some really cool stuff going on at RCW,
and I hope that you will come out and see me.

Speaker 12 (01:20:21):
For sure.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
For example, we're gonna have they're gonna have the spring
flaying out there, and we're gonna have a lot of giveaways,
barbecues and refreshments. In fact, I want to tell you
a little bit more about that when I come back.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
Welcome to kt r H garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
Just watch him as.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
Many a sign s, well, good morning again. You're listening

(01:21:18):
to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're
here to help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape,
and more fun in the process. That's the way I
like to put it, because that's what gardening ought to
be like, no sweat, no worries. So talk about this
all the time. Don't worry. You can't fail at gardenings.
Yes I said that, you're going. Yeah, but I have no.
You haven't not unless you've given up. And if you

(01:21:41):
give up, well, I guess you could say you failed
at gardening. But you just keep you, just keep going.
You try it again. Listen. I can't tell you how
many plants I've killed in my life. Learning, trying things, experimenting.
It's okay, it's all right to do that. And you know,
I mean, if you want, you can revamp your garden

(01:22:04):
and landscape anytime you wish to. I mean, really, you
don't see people doing this much. But you literally could
take an old maybe at a landscape there's planeted in
nineteen seventies and the bushes are now pushing over the
top of the eaves, and a lot more dwarf, beautiful,
compact kinds of plants that are available now. I mean,
you can turn the whole thing to dirt and come

(01:22:25):
back with compost and beds and new plants and start
over again. Usually people do that, you know, a section
at a time. But I'm just trying to make the point,
and that is if you look at what If you're
looking at your landscape, you don't like what you see,
well then do something, do something different. You can get
out and drive around. I like to drive around and

(01:22:47):
take pictures of things that I think are interesting. Plants
I think are interesting. I find stuff online all the time.
There's a plant I haven't grown before, let's try that out.
You can do that. You can do it that way,
create it yourself, or I mean, if you want, you
can have somebody like Piercecapes come and do it for you.
You know, Pier Scapes. Those folks know what they're doing.

(01:23:07):
They've been doing this a very very long time. And
when you're looking for instant pizazz or whether it's a
complete renovation or whether it is just hey, I want
to improve on this a little bit. I'd like to
redo that flower bed, or can you make that area
draam better? Or what about you know, I've always wanted
an outdoor, shaded sitting area where we could enjoy in

(01:23:27):
the evenings, you know, with hard scapes and I don't know,
maybe even a water feature or something like that. Piercescapes
can do it. There are a preferred landscaper here on
garden Line. It's a one stop shop. Basically, all you
got to do is go to the website. That is
the most important thing is go look at what they
do piercescapes dot com. Piercescapes dot com. Now you're going

(01:23:49):
to see some stuff that's like, oh my gosh, that's
the taj mahal right and that doesn't quite look like
my place. Well, they can do anything at any level
that you need done to make your place beautiful, whether
it's just redesigning a flower bed to a turnkey front,
backside and everything. Redo pierscapes dot com. Here's the phone

(01:24:12):
number two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty to
eight one three seven oh fifty sixty. You need to
go check them out, and then you need to give
them a call. You're listening to Garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape. And the important thing
to know is the phone number seven one three two

(01:24:32):
one two k t r A. Let's talk about the
things that you're interested in. I don't forget I was
talking about RCW Nursery before we went to break next Saturday,
April twelfth. April twelfth, next Saturday, put that on your calendar.
I'm gonna be there from twelve to two, So from
noon to two. Now, you know you have to eat
before you come. RCW is going to have a barbecue lunch.

(01:24:54):
They're gonna have some refreshments there for you there. Also,
while I'm out there, they're gonna have a one, one day,
only ten percent off sale on their roses, and you
need to go see their roses. They're blooming. They look
great right now. So you know, if you're tired of
looking at a picture on a tag and going, well,
what does that flower really look like? Or was this
smell like, Well, there you go. They're on the plants.

(01:25:17):
Go look at them, go smell them, go check them out.
Ten percent off on the roses next Saturday. And now
I'll be there answering gardening questions. I'm gonna have some
cool giveaways for you as well, and we're just gonna
have a good time. I always love going to RCW Nurseries.
That is a fun place. So put it on your calendar,
come on out and see me. We will visit and

(01:25:37):
I have some handouts and as I said, some cool
giveaways as well. In your lawn if you have not
put a pre emergent down and you would like to,
especially if your lawn is thin, barricade from nitrofoss is
the product that does that kill. And the reason I
say it's the product is because it prevents both the
broad leaf and the grassy weed seeds. The vast already

(01:26:00):
of all grassy and broad leaved weeds will be controlled
by barricade. You put it down, you watered in about
a half inch of water, maybe a third of inch
of water just to get it in the ground.

Speaker 6 (01:26:09):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:26:10):
And a ten pound bag covers about five thousand square feet,
so most ones. That's enough to do that. Remember, follow
the label. If you've got a two thousand, five hundred
square foot lawn, don't put the whole bag on it.
That's double the rate. Follow the label very important to
do that. You're going to find products like this at
Plants and Things in Brenham Fisher's Hardware in Baytown on Alexander,

(01:26:34):
UH and down include Lake Hardware on Dixie and in Angleton.
Lake Hardware and Velasco are places that carry my nitroposs products.
You're listening to Guardenline if you'd like to call in
ask a question, that'd be a good time. Kind of
quiet out there on the phones for the moment. UH
seven one three two one two k t r H

(01:26:56):
seven to one three two one two k t H.
I would like you to go to a website. I'm
gonna give it to you, give it to you right now.
It's Houston Powder Cooders dot com. Houston Powdercoders dot com.
It is a very cool place. They take old metal

(01:27:22):
furniture and they do it just I al would say
make it like new. They make it better than new
in my opinion. They transform it and they can do anything.
And if you go to that website you can see
all the different kinds of powder coating that they do.
I'm primarily talking about the backyard here. I mean they
do stuff powder coating for all kinds of things. They've

(01:27:45):
got the equipment, they got the space to do it.
But they can refinish your in repair by the way,
your furniture, your metal furniture that's outside. They know how
to do that, whether it's you know, getting off some russ,
doing some welding, you know, to get it backwards, should
be putting new fresh stainless steel hardware in from all
that rusty stuff that you have, and then putting the

(01:28:05):
powder coating on it. Over one hundred colors to choose from.
What do you want your furniture to look like? Do
you have any rod iron? Do you have any artistic
rod iron in the back? Let them powder coat that
and protect it. Go to Houston Powdercoders dot Com two
eight one six seven six thirty eight eighty eight. Alright,

(01:28:29):
so we're back. Let's talk gardening. What is of interest
to you? What are the topics that you're interested in, Well,
let's find out. We're going to go out to Kingwood
and talk to John.

Speaker 12 (01:28:40):
Hello.

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
John, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:28:43):
Good morning, I have gotten too good morning. I want
to ask you about the steps that you have to
take to do a lawn aeration. I was thinking about
rent and one of those cororators going over my friend.
The lawn grows okay, except in two spots or I

(01:29:05):
don't know if there was a tree there before they
built the house, but it's kind of raised and there's
a lot of roots underneath the soil okay. And I've
had sod put out and it never.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
Would take all right.

Speaker 12 (01:29:19):
Oh, I was wondering if that would help any.

Speaker 3 (01:29:24):
Yeah. Once well, your side needs to be well rooted
in before you run the erraator over it. And it's
good to let it, you know, come out in the
spring and get well established, you know, before you begin
the process. But if you are ready to go and
you get an erraator, you're going to need to get
some compost top dressing to put over the lawn, and

(01:29:47):
I would recommend a leaf mold compost. You're fortunate, being
in Kingwood that you're just down the street from Warren's
Rock and Molts right there in Porter there on the
feeder Road fifty nine access road there and porter as
your Yeah, that's where the airloom soils products are. So

(01:30:08):
you can have them bring a super sack out or
you can go get it, or you can have them
dump it on the drive but you're gonna want to
spread it out about a third of an inch deep,
and so you know, you can use the calculator on
the Heirloomsoils dot Com website to see how much that takes.
I would get a little extra for sure, but first

(01:30:29):
I would airate when the soil is moist, not soggy wet,
but moist, because so if it's hard, you know, the
little machines bounce over it like you're trying to erate
your driveway. And if it's if it's just mushy, that's
that's not good either. You don't want to mess with
the soil when it's soggy wet, but medium consistency moisture

(01:30:50):
is the time you don't do that. Airate well. And
I'd go over all the areas, not just the areas
that aren't doing well, but maybe the areas that aren't
doing well. You'd go over them a second time just
to get a little more errors in there, and then
then put the compost top dressing down about a third
of an inch d you may you can go deeper
if you want, but about a third to a half
inch would be good. Since you're doing it yourself, maybe

(01:31:13):
go half okay, and then what that's it. That's it.
If you haven't have you fertilized for the season yet.

Speaker 12 (01:31:20):
Any Yeah, I put some scots like got weed and
feed down and the grass that does grow it looks great.

Speaker 2 (01:31:31):
That's probably.

Speaker 8 (01:31:35):
Maybe three weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
All right, Well, I would, I would say, so what
are we We're kind of sitting here in the first
week of April, probably late and later in April. Go
ahead and switch and put down a slow release fertilizer
you like Nitrophossi's super Turf, the silver bag, and that

(01:31:57):
will cover you through the summer, even though you're doing
the common post top dressing and the air ration. Go
ahead and put that down. In fact, I'd probably put
it down before I did all this, the aerration and
compost top dressing. And then when you watered in, you
should see your lawn ought to bounce back pretty quick
and it ought to look really good. I'd love to
hear about it too.

Speaker 12 (01:32:16):
If you end up doing all that, all right, maybe
I'll take it before and after picture.

Speaker 3 (01:32:23):
Hey, that'd be wonderful. That'd be very good if you'd
send me some of those. I'd appreciate. I seriously would
appreciate that. Well, John, thank you, and good luck getting
that place all right. You take care. Nelson Watergarden and
Nursery out there in Fort Bend, I'm not Fort Bend, Katie.

(01:32:43):
Fort Ben Road out in Katie is a wonderful place
to go visit.

Speaker 16 (01:32:48):
They.

Speaker 3 (01:32:49):
First of all, they have an awesome nursery, all kinds
of plants that you can see. But boy do they
have gorgeous pottery. And they have pottery for those water
disappearing fountains, you know, the ones that come on the
top of the container and spill over the sides and
then recirculate. They've got all of that. But the plants,
the plant selection in the nursery is just outstanding. They've

(01:33:09):
got Louisiana iris. In fact, I believe they got a
weekend special going on on Louisiana iris right now, So
don't delay on those. If you've got a wet, boggy
area that doesn't drain well, Louisiana iris will be happy there,
especially if it's a little bit of shade. They like
a little bit of shade out there. But all your
color plants that you're looking for are there, beautiful, beautiful

(01:33:31):
house plants. Everything from outdoor plants like combo hanging baskets
that just have like three or four different kinds of
flowers in them. I mean they are just color color
color out plus as they say, they got Chinese French
trees too, by the way out there, and herbs and
vegetables and everything you're looking for all right now coming

(01:33:52):
up on Saturday, April twenty sixth, from five to seven,
that's in the evening shelby from Nelson Plantfood. It's going
to be out there, gonna have a sipping stroll. That's
when they serve some drinks and life refreshments, have some
live music, and it's just a wonderful time to go out.
But anytime it's a wonderful not time to go to
Nelson Water Gardens and Nursery Katie Fort Ben Road just

(01:34:13):
north of the KT Freeway. We're going to head now
up to Cyprus and talk to Matt. Hello, Matt, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:34:23):
Yeah, good morning.

Speaker 20 (01:34:23):
How are you doing.

Speaker 3 (01:34:26):
I'm doing well?

Speaker 6 (01:34:26):
Thank you great Hey, two questions for you.

Speaker 7 (01:34:30):
One dollar weed.

Speaker 6 (01:34:32):
I have some some dollar weed that's kind of growing
in in some areas and I tried to treat it
with weed beater, and uh, I can't the name escapes
me on what else I sprayed on sprayed like the
stuff that's supposed to stick to the the dollar weed
for the weed beater and uh and yes, fact, sir fact,

(01:34:55):
that's right, sir fact. When I sprayed that on there
about four or five days, it just killed the entire
area that I'm at, Saint Augustine and everything.

Speaker 12 (01:35:05):
And this is the second time.

Speaker 6 (01:35:07):
So I'm looking for a different solution than.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
The than the wheed beater.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
There are several formulations of weed beater, uh some of them. Uh, well,
they don't all have exactly the same chemical in them,
so it may have been the formulation of weed beater
that you had. I don't know on that. But basically
for the dollar weed, Uh, there are several products that

(01:35:35):
will control it. Well, there is one that's a little
more expensive, but you buy it in little packets that
only make one gallon of spray because that's often enough
for what you need to do. But it's called Celsius
like the temperature celsius. Okay, and you go to a
good garden center there, You're probably gonna find celsius in

(01:35:57):
your area at some your local ACE hardware stores. You
have several there in the Cypress area Ace hardware stores,
but i'd call ahead of time make sure they have it.
It's a little packet, a little piece of cardboard with
a clear plastic over it and a little tiny packet inside.
But that works pretty well on dollar weed, and I

(01:36:19):
don't I'm trying to think that the celsius already has
its own surfacting in it. That's another thing to watch
your mix rates on both the herbicides and the surfactants
that you're putting on. But dollar weed has a slick leaf,
so the surfactants needed to get it to stick to
the leaf.

Speaker 7 (01:36:38):
Okay, Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:36:40):
The other thing is is, so I bought some it
looks like I have sedge moving in on some of
the area. I assume it said. It's kind of a taller,
real thin leaf grass. It's kind of fixed in now
with my Saint Augustine.

Speaker 12 (01:36:57):
Okay, And I bought some some.

Speaker 6 (01:36:59):
Sedge hammer, but I haven't used it yet. A little
concern is you know how to get rid of sedge
without burning my get up.

Speaker 3 (01:37:13):
Okay, sedgehammer is the product to use for that. I'll
tell you what. Just to be sure, if you would
like to take some good close up pictures, I would
even pull some of what you think is sedge up
and lay it down, like on a brown kitchen table
or something, and take a good picture of it so

(01:37:33):
I can see it up close. Make sure it's in
sharp focus. And let me make sure we know what
we're talking about, because the product you would use for
like nuts edge is maybe different than the product you
use for kai linga, which is a type of sedge,
or it could also be some other grass like plant
that looks that we're talking about. So let's just be

(01:37:55):
real sure. If you'd like, I'll put you on hold
here in a bit and we can you can get
my email to send me a photo to follow up
on this call.

Speaker 12 (01:38:05):
Oh that would be outstanding.

Speaker 20 (01:38:06):
Yeah I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:08):
Yeah, alrighty, well, let's do that and take it from there.
But you pick the right product. I have a publication
on my website called Nutsedge an in Depth Look, and
it goes into some detail. You may have yellow or
you may have purple if it is nutsedge, and so

(01:38:29):
you might want to read that just to kind of
get familiar with it. It goes into some detail that's
important to know.

Speaker 6 (01:38:35):
Okay, we'll do appreciate the advice here, all.

Speaker 3 (01:38:40):
Right, Matt, you take care. I'm putting you on hold
and Jonathan will pick up here and we'll be we'll
get you that email. Let's see. Yeah, it's always important
to identify weeds properly, and some weeds can look like
other weeds. They can't, I mean they do, and poor
identification means you're wasting money, you're wasting time, and you're

(01:39:03):
not going to get good results. I was talking about
Microlife products earlier and the microbes they contain. Microlife makes
a product called micro Grow liquid AF. Microgrow liquid AF.
You can buy it by the gallon if you want to.
I believe they have it more that they do have
it by the quart as well. But it contains eight
different specific microbes that are beneficial to the plants. They're

(01:39:28):
very beneficial in terms of helping protect those plants. So
whether you're solving a problem or or preventing a problem,
this is a good way to go. Streptomics trichodermas and basillis.
They have several different types of bacillis in there that
are all good and so you give a good drench
over your plant root system with that, and that really

(01:39:51):
does help a lot. They recommend that you put a
little bit of micro Grow liquid AF with a couple
ounces of molasses and a gallon of water and then
just d it over. Are you You can also spread
those products on the leaves as well. Micro Grow Liquid
AF from the folks at Microlife one of the many
liquid products that Microlife sells. Now. If you want more information,

(01:40:13):
go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com. I'm going to head
out to Katie now and talk to Shaho. Hey Shah
who welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 18 (01:40:24):
Good money. If Kip, how are you doing.

Speaker 2 (01:40:27):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:40:28):
Thank you? How can I help?

Speaker 13 (01:40:31):
All?

Speaker 12 (01:40:31):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
Yes? How can I help today?

Speaker 13 (01:40:34):
Well?

Speaker 18 (01:40:34):
I have some issue with my lawn basically since last
year it's kind of gone bald in many places. And uh,
I wanted you at Kai on that, you know, doing
the regular things with some linkedinin. I hired a lawn
management company. They spend I mean I spent money for
one year. Didn't really happen anything on that. So okay,

(01:40:59):
I I mean I'm kind of queen for a lost
source of you know, replacing the sword or something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:41:09):
Who I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we're about to
go to a break. Could you hold on and I'll
come back to you when we come back. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 8 (01:41:17):
Okay, I'll tell you.

Speaker 3 (01:41:24):
What's all right? Is the weather that we're having. Oh
my gosh, I got so happy looking at my weather
aut this morning. Actually kind of on the cool side
this morning. We're going to be a very cool day
as well. Nice to be out and get some things
done in the afternoon. By the way, tomorrow and the
next day and the next day it is sun, sun, sun,

(01:41:44):
and the kind of weather that you want to be
out in. So I hope you're planning on some things
to spruce up the garden and the landscape. Just a
little bit of word to the wise. And you don't
need me to tell you this. You already know this,
but I'll say it anyway. Kind of when your parents
did that, it's like, yeah, I know, I know, but
they have to say it anyway.

Speaker 8 (01:42:03):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:42:04):
Well, anyway, weeds are easier to control when they're young
than when they're older. When they're a little bitty tiny weeds,
you look at them and you go, oh, that it's
so bad. I'll get to them. And then the next
thing you know, they're knee high and it takes a
back hoe and a jackhammer to get them out of
the ground. And you'd be easier to control when they're young.

(01:42:25):
When they're young, I just throw a mulch on them.
I really do you know. You got a little weed
that's an inch even two inches high, and you just
throw a bunch of mult over the top, a good
thick layer to block all the sunlight, and it takes
care of it. And most of the time most cases
are some weeds that'll come through it. But then they
get a little older and you can take a hoe,

(01:42:45):
or even when they're young, you can take a really
good sharp hoe and slice right under the surface. Don't
disturb the so much, don't chop the soil, just slice
underneath it and that takes care of them, and then
throw a mulch on it. Wherever sunlight hits a soil,
nature plants the weed. And the earlier you decide to
control weeds, the more options you have. So let's say

(01:43:06):
you're an organic gardener, and you don't want to use
synthetic herbicides, well, vinegar will burn plant tissues. Vinegar is
an organic herbicide, but an established weed, vinegar typically will
kill the top but may not kill the whole weed.
It may re sprout from the bottom, especially a perennial weed.

(01:43:27):
But when you catch weeds when they're young seedlings, vinegar
kills them. It just kills them because they just don't
they haven't set up shop yet in a way that
they can. Okay, fry my top, but I'm going to
re sprout from the base. They haven't done that yet,
So that would be another reason why the earlier the better.
The earlier the better. I don't care if it's diseases, insects,
or weeds. The earlier you step in to do something,

(01:43:50):
the better it is. And not a life principle too.
About some of the issues we face in life, we
let them go a little too long and ooh boy,
out our hands full now. Well, anyway, you know what
I'm talking about. Without going philosophical, let's just leave it
at weeds. Earlier is better, and what's the best is

(01:44:11):
the earliest, which means you keep that soil molt because
wherever sunlight hits the soil, nature plants a weed. Just
remember that we were visiting with Shohop before we left.
We're going to get some pictures from him to take
a look at some of the issues that he has
so I can help him better. You know, on guard line,
I don't just give the email out because I can't

(01:44:32):
have everybody that listens to Guardenline send me emails. I
could never even begin to answer all the emails. But
when it's related to a call, either a call that
has come in or a call that's going to come in,
I don't mind you having an email to email me
the photos and the question so I can take a
look at him. Sometimes you're describing a spot on a leaf,
or a bug on a plant, or a weed in

(01:44:53):
the yard, and you know, I'm trying to picture it.
But I know that sometimes what you see and what
I hear are not the same thing, and so or
what I picture in my mind's I So a photo helps.
Photos when you send them should always be in good
sharp focus. Photos should be in good sharp focus. Photos

(01:45:18):
should be in good sharp They say threes the charms,
so I have to say it three times good sharp focus.
You send me a fuzzy photo, I'll give you a
fuzzy identification. You don't want a fuzzy identification, so check it.
You know your phone sometimes focuses on something that you
weren't intending for it to focus on, so make sure
it's good sharp focus. Photos should be close. Now, it's

(01:45:39):
good on like a yard situation, to see the whole yard,
just so I kind of get a big picture of you.
But let me get up close. The closer to the
problem the better, especially if it's something tiny in like
a little insect or something like that. Let me get close,
because there's even identifications that I need to get really
close on plant parts to be able to see and identify.

(01:45:59):
But I'll be happy to do. And then just follow
it up with a phone call and here to guardline,
and we'll be glad to visit with you, and I'll
give you a better answer that way. I want to
remind you too of something and I should talk about
this ever show, but I you know, things get by
on me. There's a thing called the Agrolife Extension Service
here in Texas. Now every state in the Union, back

(01:46:21):
in the days of Abraham Lincoln, were given a couple
of several things. Actually they were given. First of all,
there is a Land Grant College here in Texas at
A and M it's LSU. And in Louisiana, Oklahoma State
Cornell's a Lang Grant College, University of Florida, and so on.
There's lang Grands in each state. Now with the Lang

(01:46:43):
Grant College to teach the people, they also later developed
the Extension Service, which was basically to take the university
to the people. So farmers out on a farm aren't
going to go to the university and get a degree,
but people could come from there and bring examples of
new varieties or new ways of farming, and they would
do a demonstration on the farm, and then all the

(01:47:06):
farmers in the region could come to that farm and
see it. Did it work, did it not? You know,
what is a good new kind of corn to grow?
Or whatever it was. It's an ingenious system and it
helped create the agricultural system we have now that feeds
a lot of people. And then, of course there was
a research that was added to that too, a number
of different acts by Congress. In county of every county

(01:47:27):
of Texas is served by an Extension office. Now, if
you go way out into Texas, it may be that
one office serves two different counties. But over here, every
county has an extension office, and in some of the
counties you have a horticulture agent too. Other counties you
have ag agents that have to handle horticulture also. But
Montgomery County, Brass County, Harris County, Fort ben County, Galveston County,

(01:47:53):
over in Orange. Who am leaving out? I'm probably leaving
one out as I'm thinking through the area. Brazoria. Brazoria
County has a horticulturist as well, and you can go
there often. There's master gardening programs which you can train
and be a volunteer master gardner, or you can talk
to master gardeners to help you with some of the issues.
But take advantage of that. It's in your county and

(01:48:15):
it's good advice. That's connected to research based information at
the university level, and that is really important, and I
don't think people take advantage of that enough, but I
hope you will. We're going to head out to Houston
now and talk to Gary. Hello, Gary, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 16 (01:48:36):
Thank you very much. I got in the vehicle and
turned it on and I think you had just finished
discussing killing weeds in the yard. I don't know, but anyway,
I know I've had a hard time knocking them down.
I've got bownetal and clover and different weeds, and I
need to find a product that goes after that, not

(01:48:56):
just fertilizer.

Speaker 3 (01:48:59):
Okay, So the cool season weeds that you're seeing now,
like clover, for example, those are about to die, and
so trying to spray them once they're blooming and setting
seeds is a little bit of a difficult kill, but
it also leaves the seeds they've already set there. So
as much as possible, if you can pull those out

(01:49:19):
and with the seeds real carefully, put them in five
gallon bucket or something and get them off the property,
you will do yourself a huge favor for next fall
when the seeds sprout and you're back in the same
situation next spring. Now, next spring, much earlier in the year,
you can do stuff where you're not hand pulling them.
For things that are perennial, like nettles. Some of the
nettles are perennial, you need to put something on them

(01:49:41):
that will translocate down and kill the whole weed because
they're the underground plant parts. They'll come back from those
and broad leaf post emergent products will kill those. I
have a publication on gardening with skip dot com on herbicides.
I think it says right now herbicides for the weed wiper. Anyway,
if you'll go there, you can find the kind of

(01:50:03):
weed you have and it'll tell you the products that
will work. Gary, I got to go to a real
quick break. If you want to hang on, I'll continue
this discussion when we come back.

Speaker 12 (01:50:12):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:50:14):
All right, you are listening to garden Line. Oh you're
actually listening to Brad Paisley. Now you're listening to garden Line.
One way to get They glad to have you if
you if you've got questions about gardening, We're going to
be around until ten o'clock the day, so you got
time to call in and visit with you about the

(01:50:35):
things that interest you. Southwest Fertilizer has been a Houston
garden really tradition, a lawn and garden tradition since nineteen
fifty five. I'm the fifth garden Line host to speak
for Southwest Fertilizer. They've been around a long time supporting
garden Line and therefore helping you have an opportunity to
listen to gardening advice on the radio every weekend here

(01:50:58):
in the greater Houston area. Celebrating their seventieth year, So
happy seventieth birthday. Southwest Fertilizer. You know the products that
I endorse on garden Line, the products I talk about,
the things that I say, oh well, you need to
go get some of this, they're all at Southwest Fertilizer.
They carry everything. If they don't carry it, you don't
need it. That's how I like to put it, whether

(01:51:19):
it's a fertilizer, a weed control, insecticide, or a fungicide.
And if you're sitting there thinking well I'm organic, those
are all synthetics.

Speaker 14 (01:51:27):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:51:28):
Southwest Fertilizer hear this. Southwest Fertilizer has the largest selection
of organic products in the Houston area. So if you're
looking for any kind of organic we control, pest, disease,
insect you name it, They've got it there. They have
a ninety foot long wall of gardening tools, quality brands
like Felco and Corona. That garden kneeling seat that I

(01:51:49):
keep talking about, if you want to make a weed wiper, skipsweedwiper.
It's on my website gardeningskip dot com. If you want
to make that, they've got the little grabber tool that
you use to make it. And yes, there's a and
kind of grabber tool that works best for making those.
He's got those there. Baptist carries everything nice seed selection,
both in packets and in bulk. You can do the
little scoops out of the bulk seed and it's a

(01:52:11):
very economical way to get seeds. Do you need your
equipment serviced? They have an equipment shop there in the back.
They can sharpen your blades too, and boy is that
ever important. I just changed a blade on my my
lawn mower to a nice sharp blade and who it
looks so much better and it cuts easier too. It
works well. So quality products, expert advice and old fashioned service.

(01:52:32):
That's Southwest Fertilizer Corner Best Nutt and Renwick seven one
three six sixty six one seven four four. We're going
to go now out to Memorial and talk to Elaine. Hello, Elaine,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (01:52:46):
Good morning, skip Hard today.

Speaker 3 (01:52:49):
I'm doing well, thank you good.

Speaker 20 (01:52:53):
I am noticing a perennial weed called scurvy weed that
is raising its ugly head again in my flower beds.
And I've been dealing with it for years and really
have tried to choke some of it out just by
putting Asian jasmine things like that that will choke it out.

(01:53:14):
Is there any herbicide that I can selectively spray on
this to keep it at bay?

Speaker 8 (01:53:25):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:53:25):
Boy, that is a tough one. If the weed that
you're referring to is what I think you're talking about,
something in the wandering jew family. It's also called day flower.
That's another common name for these kinds of plants. And
it's like they're caught between broad leaf and grass. They're
neither really good a broad leaf or a grass in

(01:53:46):
terms of the way they function, So products that go
after one or the other don't work very well for them. Yeah,
of course hand digging, but they the pieces break off
in the ground, so it's very difficult to hand dig
them unless you just stay on it, and and that
that makes it very very difficult to do. I'm gonna

(01:54:07):
have to look and see what the best option would
be for those on my website I have let's see,
I have a thing called Skips weed wiper, and if
you go there, it shows you how to build one.
I was just talking about it. Southwest Fertilizer has the
tool that you build it from. It's real easy to build.
I mean, you don't have to have a shop or

(01:54:28):
any tool skills to do it. And that weed wiper
is a really really helpful thing for weeds like this
because you can wipe the product right there onto the
weed itself. Okay, And so you know, if you have something,
you know, if you're going to use a product that

(01:54:49):
would kill everything, you know, round Up kind of product
kills everything. Well, if if you have the weed wiper,
you can just wipe a product like that onto the
weed to kill it without getting it on desirable plants.
And so that's one of the reasons I had that
little publication on there. So what products are going to

(01:55:10):
be the best to use, I think probably other than
trying to continually handig and control them. And a post
emergent product like the glyphosate, which is one of the
brands is round Up. A Roundup no longer has glyphis eate.
I know that's confusing. It should be confusing because it's

(01:55:32):
silly that they would do that. There's another product called gluphoscinate.
Glue phoscinate is another ingredient. Now I'm going to make
it easy for you. Go to my website, Guarding with
Skip dot com and look for a publication called Herbicides
for Skip's weed Wiper, and they are there. Like so,

(01:55:52):
if you look for glyphas, it's no longer round up.
They're the products that contain it that are on the publication.
If you look for loop fascinate, it names the products
that you'll find in the garden centers too, that are
glue fascinate. For example, I would do one of those
two so that you know that some people get a

(01:56:14):
little benefit from two four D products on it, but
I would try those other two first. And just know this,
you're going to need to stay on it. You're gonna
need to stay on it, but don't spray these because
both of those will kill everything. Two four D will
kill any broad leaf weed you have or broad leaf
desirable plant that you have also. So that's why the weed.

Speaker 20 (01:56:34):
Wiper okay, very good, Well as I said, it has yeah, yeah,
it really does overtake. And the more you dig, unless
you can really dig down to the tap root, it
does break off, and then then it begins to spread
even more.

Speaker 3 (01:56:53):
So yeah, yeah, I know the physical control is you know,
hand removing anything can help. But in this particular weed,
you probably go crazy before you get rid of it,
that's for sure.

Speaker 20 (01:57:06):
Okay, well there'll there's another season for battle.

Speaker 14 (01:57:10):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:12):
There you go, all right, Thank you. Appreciate appreciate your
call very much. The folks at Nature's Way Resources they
know how to make quality soil products. That's where many
of our well known products were born, like leaf mol compost.
You hear about it all the time. That's where it started.
Nature's Way Rose soil, That's where it started. Nature's Way

(01:57:34):
Resources They no matter what you're looking for. Do you
need some quality malts to put down, They've got quality mulches.
Every Friday they have a Fungal based compost sale. Fungal
based compost sale and it is ten percent off for
the bags and it is twenty percent off for the
bulk from Nature's Way Resources. Now you can go get

(01:57:55):
it by the bag or bulk. You can have them
deliver bulk to your property, or you can go around
to the mini garden centers that carry Nature's Way products
and purchase by the bag. There go to Nature's Way
Resources dot Com. That's it, Nature's Way Resources dot Com.
If you want to give me a call nine three
six two seven three twelve hundred. It's good products, good

(01:58:18):
products that I've used. I got a bed that just
recently I did a lot of mulching with Nature's Way
products in it. I've been very pleased. I love the
look of a good natural, non dyed mulch, and that
is what they have there in many different forms. If
you're looking at creating a container with beautiful plants for
the outside, there's a product that Nitroposter distributes called jungle

(01:58:42):
Land Flour and Vegetable Planting Soil Flour and Vegetable. That's
the outdoor soil. Indoors, they have jungle Land water saving
potting soil. And the reason it's called water saving is
that as low crystals that swell up with water. Kind
they like little bits of jello is kind of what
they look like, the very tiny and the roots can
get around those, and when the soil gets dry, they

(01:59:04):
have an extra source of water. Right there, works really
well now, Jungle End product or nitrofoss products in general,
you're gonna find it places like Plants for All Seasons
on Luetta and I forty five North, excuse me not
I forty five Luetta and two forty nine, thank you.
On the northwest side. That's Tomball Parkway. You're gonna find

(01:59:24):
them at Fisher's Hardware on Southmore and Pasadena, the Fishers
on Broadway and Laporte, and the Fishers at Mount Bellevue
on FM thirty one eighty. And it works very very well. Alrighty, well,
let's see, oh I wanted to mention Nitrofos Superturf. Nitrofos
Superturf is a nineteen four to ten fertilizer in a

(01:59:45):
silver bag that works for sixteen weeks, a long time.
It's time to put it out. It's on my schedule
at gardening with skip dot com. Get you some super Turf,
follow the label, put it out, and you are set
until the fall fertilization comes, especially if you return those clippings.
And I already tell you night Foss products are available
all over the place, especially when you go to an

(02:00:07):
asardware store. You're gonna find typically a night Foss products
like the super Turf silver bag. Well another hours in
the books. We come back for our last hour in
just a moment. I want to remind you that next Saturday,
Next Saturday, the twelfth, I'll be at RCW Nurseries. RCW

(02:00:27):
Nurseries is at the corner of Tamba Parkway, FM two
forty nine and belt Way eight. I'll be there from
noon to two. But don't eat before you get there.
Show up. They're gonna have a barbecue lunch. They're gonna
have refreshments ten percent off all their roses. Oh my gosh,
right there. That that's cool. Bring your samples and pictures
and things. Let's have a good time helping you have

(02:00:48):
a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape.

Speaker 1 (02:00:51):
Welcome to KTRH Guarden Line with Scape Richt.

Speaker 21 (02:00:55):
It's son.

Speaker 1 (02:01:02):
Trip.

Speaker 2 (02:01:04):
Just watch him as.

Speaker 5 (02:01:10):
Us so many good thanks to spots.

Speaker 3 (02:01:18):
Us back again, not a sign.

Speaker 14 (02:01:26):
Sun.

Speaker 3 (02:01:29):
Alrighty, we're back. We are back for the last hour
of garden Line for today, last hour of guarden Line
for the weekend. For those of you who are new
to the show, first of all, welcome, glad to have you.
We are on from six am to ten am on
Saturdays and on Sundays every weekend and it's a calling show.

(02:01:52):
This is about you and your garden. So what do
you want to talk about? All you have to do
is give us a call a seven one three two
on to kt RH if you like to dial by
numbers seven one three two one two five eight seven four,
and we can visit with you about the kinds of
things that are of interest to you, if you are

(02:02:14):
interested in a diagnosis or identification or those kinds of things.
Sometimes it helps to send me a picture ahead of time,
and you can do that by calling the producer, getting
an email, sending the picture in, but then follow it up.
I will not be answering the question that you email,
but I'll have the picture there when you call and
we can enter it that way. Because I'm unable to

(02:02:35):
just time constraints, unable to really handle the volume of
emails and questions that would be coming that do come
in as a result of that. So that's another option
for you if you'd like to do that. My goal
here on guarden Line is to help you have success
that would help you have fun too, to make gardening
a hobby that you really really enjoy, and you know what,

(02:02:58):
one of the cool things one of them many cool
things about gardening as a hobby is is that you
can do whatever corner of the gardening world do you
want to do. I mean, you may be into the
big and the gaudy, the tropicals and just giant flowers
and colors and all of that. Good do that. Maybe
your gardening is all done indoors. You've got some moth

(02:03:20):
orchids and you're looking at new kinds. You're trying to
grow some unusual special plants under the lights indoors, like
African violets and a pieces. By the way, we never
talk about apieces, but that's a cool plant too, to
grow indoors. Maybe you're into edibles. If you can't eat it,
you don't want to grow it, so herbs and vegetables
and fruit trees are your thing. Maybe you would like

(02:03:43):
to try bones eye, where we take a tree and
make it a little miniature tree, and it's just kind
of a little tending hobby that's really fun. Do you
see what I mean? I mean, I'm just throwing examples
out from all over the world here. Gardening is a
great hobby, and no matter what you're interested in, that's it.

Speaker 14 (02:04:00):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:04:00):
Most people just want a pretty place they want to
drive by and be proud of the place they have.
They want to sit in the backyard and enjoy the
sights and the smells and the sounds of gardening. And
you can do that too, and we can help you
have success.

Speaker 8 (02:04:14):
So here we go.

Speaker 3 (02:04:15):
Uh oh, we left the gate open. Phone's let up.

Speaker 8 (02:04:17):
Here.

Speaker 3 (02:04:18):
We're going to go to Margaret first off the top
of the bat. Hey, Margaret, how can we help you today?
Welcome to garden Linehi, Well.

Speaker 14 (02:04:25):
Thank you Skip. I'm so glad to talk to you.

Speaker 4 (02:04:28):
I am recently one hundred percent in charge of my
yard and so I have two questions. The first, as
I do with the Zoysa grass that my Saint Augustine
was replaced I'd say about ten years ago, but it
looks like it's getting a few bald spots, and I'm
also getting some weeds in there as it's coming back,

(02:04:51):
and so I'm just trying to and I've also been
told that the best way to mow it is actually
with an old fashioned hand push mower. So I'm just
trying to get a handle on the best way to
take care of the zoisia.

Speaker 3 (02:05:06):
Okay, is there any chance you know the name of
the Zuysia variety that you have.

Speaker 17 (02:05:13):
No it was planted.

Speaker 3 (02:05:14):
It's okay if you don't. Yeah, do you know that
nows Zuysia has come in two types. One type has
a broader leaf, a little wider than bermuda grass. The
other type has a very narrow leaf, narrower than bermuda grass.
Do you know which of those it might be?

Speaker 4 (02:05:31):
It makes me think of bermuda when I see it.
That's more what I that's that's kind of where my
mind goes.

Speaker 12 (02:05:38):
I think it's.

Speaker 4 (02:05:42):
I think it's actually narrower.

Speaker 3 (02:05:45):
Okay, a fine texture. Zoysia, So a couple of things.
First of all, Zoeza is a very tough grass plant.
It's think of it more. Oh, this isn't a fair description,
but think of it more like jute twine. So you
need a good sharp mower to cut it, you know,
and for it to cut and do well. So a
good sharp mowing blade is important. And a moderate amount

(02:06:07):
of fertilizer, not even as much as you would use
on Saint Augustine, but it does need to be fertilized.
Zoisio grass. The more often you mow it, the better
it looks, and the shorter you mow it. The more
often you have to mow it. Now, because it's a
dense grass, you can get into certain types of disease problems.
You know, all grasses have the potential for disease, and

(02:06:30):
it could be that something like a take all patches
in there could be some other type of fungal disease
that's going on. Without seeing a picture of it or
seeing a sample of it, it's kind of hard to
know for sure. And I don't know what part of
the Houston area you're in, but wherever you are, all
up in the woods, okay, Well, it's an excellent grass

(02:06:51):
for your area. And it puts up with quite a
bit of shade too, not as much as Saint Augustine,
but pretty close, pretty close to it. So I don't
know if we're looking at some disease issues and I
should send you out to spray a fungicide on it,
or if this is just some other type of thing.
The little bare spots are they very small, and the

(02:07:14):
whole grass blade just turns tan brown, or its larger
and more irregular.

Speaker 4 (02:07:21):
You know, it's irregular, and it's almost as if the
grass is not coming back. And I did fertilize it.

Speaker 3 (02:07:27):
Okay, so okay.

Speaker 4 (02:07:30):
And then I noticed the other day when I was
raking up I have an oak that just dropped a
million leaves recently. And I noticed when I was raking
up some of the debris that it was almost like
it wanted to come up, like I could pull it up,
Like it wasn't well real.

Speaker 3 (02:07:45):
Good, yeah, all right, well, Margaret, I tell you, I'm
not going to be able to give you a definitive
answer here. My gut feeling is it's probably a combination
of shade that weakens the plant a little bit because
you can't get the energy, and maybe take All root Rot.
If you go to Gardening with Skip dot com. That's

(02:08:05):
my website, Gardening with Skip dot com, there is a
lawn pest, disease and weed management guide. Look at the
disease line at take All Root Rot, and I would
follow that. It won't hurt anything. If it's not take
All Root Rot to follow it. But I think you
may have some disease in there, and that would be
what you want to use, and the information is on there,

(02:08:26):
but I'm gonna have to run. I do appreciate your call, though,
and I wish you I wish you well with that. Well, wow,
this this is going kind of quick here on this
next or this first segment. Those of you out there,
Jim and Meadows Place, you'll be the first up when
we come right back.

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Speaker 3 (02:12:02):
Alrighty, we're back. Welcome back to the garden line. Listen,
it is time to do your spring fertilization. But generally
when we're talking about that we're talking about the big
macro nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, but it's also a
good time to get out azamite. Asamite is a trace
mineral supplement its mind out of the ground up in Utah,

(02:12:23):
and it contains trace minerals things like boron, for example.
You never see that on a fertilizer bag, but asimite
does contain that and many others. Now, a bag of
asmite covers about six to twelve thousand square feet ALA
because you're just using it at a very very low rate.
That's what trace minerals are, but that doesn't mean they're
not essential because they are. Build your soul bank account

(02:12:46):
with azamite. You can go to Azmite Texas for more information,
and you can pretty much go anywhere and find it. Nurseries,
garden centers, feed stores, ace hardware stores, Southwist, Fertilizer, all
these places are going to carry asmite. I was looking
in my back patio yesterday. I had a little stagnant
fountain there that I just kind of cranked up and

(02:13:07):
started running and didn't really get it cleaned out good
like I should, And it was sitting still because we
had the fountain off and I looked and because it
was still, mosquitos laid eggs in it, and there's little
wrigglers in the water. Now what do you do, Well,
you can treat that water. You can use a mosquito
dunk in the water to treat it, or you can
go long term and call Pest Brothers. And why do

(02:13:28):
I say long term, because they'll come out and set
up a bucket that not only attracts mosquitos to the bucket,
so they lay eggs there that will never turn into
mosquitos because it's got the substances in it to stop that.
And then when the mosquitoes fly off, they have something
that's a fungus attached to them that's going to kill
the mosquito. Not good bugs, just the mosquito. It just

(02:13:50):
works some mosquitoes. And then they can they carry something
to the little bits of water, like my little fountain
for example, it gets in the water. Mosquitoes can't reproduce
there either. That's pretty cool. Pest Brothers has it. Of course,
Pest Brothers does termites, they do wild varmits, they do
any kind of pest control you need, from the woodlands
all the way down to Texas City from Baytown all

(02:14:11):
the way across to Katie. Thepestbros dot Com thepest Bros
b r os dot com two eight one two oh
six forty six seventy. I'm gonna go out to Meadows
Place now and we're going to talk to Jim. Hey, Jim,
welcome to Gardenline.

Speaker 18 (02:14:29):
Morning. Skip quick question.

Speaker 2 (02:14:31):
I have about ten foot twelve inch high foxdale fern
in my flower bed looking to improve their growth. Uh
Internet recommends a three two one fertilizer. What's the best
granular or liquid fertilizer you'd recommend for those foxtale ferns.

Speaker 3 (02:14:53):
You know, Jim, the ferns are pretty flexible. You just
don't want to use a lot of AsSalt based type
on them. You can go with an organic product like
a microlife type product in there that would do fine.
You could go with a synthetic product that has mostly
the nitrogen is the more important, but has a little

(02:15:14):
bit of the other two numbers and it'll do fine too.
Just don't overdo it. And ferns they are especially happy
to live off of decaying organic matter and the soil
and getting the nutrients from that too. So just a
little boost with some nitrogen primarily is what they need.

Speaker 2 (02:15:31):
What about adding a little as of mite too, that.

Speaker 3 (02:15:36):
Wouldn't hurt, But just stay with the label rate. It
doesn't It doesn't take a lot of the azmite to
do that. I would probably say, And I realize your
area isn't this big, but on a vegetable garden, we
go ten pounds per thousand square feet, so one pound
per hundred square feet, and a pint's a pound of azamite,
So a pint of azamite per hundred square feet, and

(02:15:57):
then you just you know, take it down whatever size
your fern.

Speaker 2 (02:16:01):
Area is, Okay, Ok, appreciate the help.

Speaker 3 (02:16:05):
Good luck with that. Yeah, thanks for the call. Appreciate
that a lot. Let's go now to Bonnie and Claire Lake. Hey, Bonnie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 14 (02:16:15):
Well, good morning Skip. Yesterday I didn't work in the
garden because it was raining, and so I ended up
at Moss Nursery and ended up bringing home five Peggy
Martin Rose this they're about three to four feet. I
wanted to because they're gorgeous right now right, and so

(02:16:36):
I wanted to cover the fence line and thinking of
my thirty to forty feet a fence line in the
back of our house, and so just wondering give me
tips on planting. How far apart the plant do I
need lattice behind.

Speaker 3 (02:16:49):
Them, So that's the lattice tends to ride away, even
if it's treated wood and time, it kind of rides away.
I like to use any kind of a rail fence
I think looks especially attractive for them, or livestock panels.
I've used those as well, you know, in their wire
galvanized wire material, but just something to support them. But

(02:17:12):
something strong, because Peggy Martin puts out a lot of growth,
and any kind of a vining rose or any vining
plant needs a good strong support, you know, as far
as how far apart. In order to get a faster
coverage between them, I might put them somewhere between maybe
twelve and fifteen feet apart. They'll easily cover that and

(02:17:36):
then some but that that gives you a little bit
faster coverage. If you put them further apart, they cover
more area. But you know, it's just a trade off
between how many roses you're going to spend money on
and how far of an area you need to cover.
So there's not an exact number for Peggy Martin, but
she will sprawl. I've got one on my trellis in

(02:17:58):
the back and it's now going that's probably gone about
eight to ten feet and it's not at all finished
its growth.

Speaker 8 (02:18:08):
Okay, So a couple other questions.

Speaker 14 (02:18:09):
Should I untie them, you know they're all bound up
when I plant them? And also do you recommend fertilizers?
And how large the hole should be? I think I
have a gallon thought.

Speaker 3 (02:18:19):
Okay, yeah, make a make a hole about twice that big,
put in some compost material and the whole bed before
you dig the hole. Don't just put compost in the hole.
Put it in a wide band across there. Plant them
in the ground, same level, same depth that they were.

Speaker 9 (02:18:37):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:18:37):
And as far as I'm binding them, I wouldn't do that.
You know, go ahead and have those trunks come on
up and then at whatever level you can start to
train them out to the sides to make a wall
of foliage or whatever you're going after, whatever look you're
going after.

Speaker 14 (02:18:52):
Okay, perfect sounds great, Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (02:18:55):
All right, yeah, thank you. I appreciate, appreciate your call
a lot. Let's see here, I wanted to just a second. Oh,
I know, I want to tell you about Buchanans. Buchanans plants.
Buchanans plants has a specialty in natives. I mean that

(02:19:15):
nobody has as many natives as buchanan plant does. But
if you're looking about for annuals like gamprina and zinias
and petunias and Kleomis and Solosia, aageridam and cosmos in
Angelonia and large burn America, you see what I'm saying.
They've got all of that kind of stuff. You got
shady areas not a problem. Not with Buchanans. They've got
kalladiums and a bazillion other plants that do well in

(02:19:37):
the shape they have a whole area where it's two
shade plants that do well. How about house plants, every
kind of foliage you can imagine, cacti, succulents, trailing string
ofs fill in the blank. They've got all of that.
Did you know there is a spring cactus. You used
to call it easter cactus, but spring cactus that's like
Christmas cactus sorta, but it blooms at Easter time around

(02:20:00):
Easter time. They've got those there. You need to get
some of those. Those are really cool too. With Buchanans,
you know you're going to find good selection, you know
you're going to have good advice, and you know you're
gonna have a good time because it's a fun place
to wander through and no matter what question you have,
if you want to grow natives, you can walk in
there and go, hey, I want to grow natives, but
I want to grow natives that attract hummingbirds. They probably

(02:20:21):
have a list of I don't know, two or three
dozen plants that fit that bill. It's a place to go.
It's on eleventh Street in the Heights. Go to the website.
Please bu Cannons Plants dot com. Sign up for the newsletter. Please,
you will really appreciate it. So much good information. And
yes they know about brown stuff before green stuff. You

(02:20:44):
can get your full line of microlife and nitrophos and
Nelson products. You can get heirloom soils and their own
special soil blends. There to set the foundation for success.
We're going to head out to talk to Deb now
in the Woodlands. Hello Deb, Welcome to garden Mine.

Speaker 14 (02:21:05):
Hi Skip.

Speaker 17 (02:21:08):
I have a flower bed that has shamrocks in it,
and typically these shamrocks come up. They're very very green,
and they have the beautiful little white flowers, the little
dainty white flowers on them, except for this year. Okay,
this year they look terrible. They barely produce any flowers.

(02:21:31):
And right now they're looking very very yellow. And I
don't know, with the fluctuating weather that we've had, you know,
from ninety to now to whatever it is today, I
don't know what the problem is. And they seem to
be dying back, which is the case for them in
the summertime. They do die back because they get it
gets too hot.

Speaker 12 (02:21:54):
But are the.

Speaker 3 (02:21:59):
Go ahead? Are the leaves on them? Are the leaves
on them deb like very small compared to normal under
the blooms small compared to normal or are they this
normal size or close to it?

Speaker 17 (02:22:10):
Well, I'm not getting very many blooms at all, but
the leaves might be a tab smaller than what they
have been in the past. But they're not happy, and
there's there's something wrong there and I don't know what
it is. And they are starting to that's all.

Speaker 3 (02:22:29):
Okay, that's a hard plant to kill. So something is
wrong in the soil. Something something's wrong in the soil.
Deb It could be that conditions are a little too
wet for them. It could be some sort of a
root rot down in there. You might try taking a
shovel and digging one of the little clumps up and
just looking at it. They have low bulbs on the bottom,

(02:22:51):
and are they Are they nice and white and healthy?
Are they looking kind of like the brown gray black
like a cigarette filter stain, you know, that kind of
ugly stain color, And that would be a root rot
color of those bulbs. And if it's a root rot,
there are drenches you can put in the soil that
fight that root rot, but usually it's brought on by

(02:23:15):
conditions that are just too wet for them. I don't
know anything else that would kill those plants there. People
call me to ask how to get rid of them
because they're hard.

Speaker 1 (02:23:24):
To get rid of.

Speaker 17 (02:23:26):
Well, they are. They have been scattered throughout my backyard
and they were from a plant, one little plant pot
that I dumped out in the yard years ago, and
then we had to take down a pine tree and
they got scattered throughout the yard. I mean they're typically, yeah,
they everywhere, Yeah, And I have some along the that

(02:23:47):
are growing where they weren't put and they're growing just
flye but they're not blooming.

Speaker 12 (02:23:52):
Yeah, but they are green.

Speaker 3 (02:23:53):
Well, I'm going to put you on hold. I'm gonna
put you on hold as we go here, but if
you want to get an email and send me a
pickure of them, If I have any other thoughts, I'll
let you know on it. I kind of think you
need to do that dig up and check the bottom.
Why don't you do that before you send me the pictures?
And maybe if I think it's a root rot, I'll
recommend something in the email. Okay, thanks a lot, Depp,

(02:24:16):
appreciate your call. A lot. Up in tumble is a
feed store called D and D Feed. It's been around
a while. It's been around since I think nineteen eighty
nine when the Dovers opened it up up there. It's
west of Tumbull, about three miles from two forty nine
as you go in west and it is a store
that for gardeners carries everything you need in terms of

(02:24:39):
fertilizers from nitrofoss or fertilizers from Microlife or Nelson turf
Star or Medina products. If you're looking for the jars
of Nelson plant food. If you're looking for heirloom soils.
They even have lots of vegetables and vegetable seeds and
get various kinds of plants in there, seasonally high end
dog foods like Origin, Diamond, Victor Star Pro. And of

(02:25:01):
course it's a feedstore, all kinds of quality feed. Three
miles west of Tomball two forty nine D and D
Feed and spring is chick season. Go to their website
and look they tell you each week all the varieties
in Boy, are there a lot of baby chicks that
are coming in. So if you'd like to have backyard chickens,
you need to know about D and D Feed two

(02:25:22):
eight one three five to one seventy one forty four
two eight one three five one seventy one forty four.
I'll be right back. I'm going to take a little
break here and come back to your calls.

Speaker 2 (02:26:03):
You all agree, all.

Speaker 3 (02:26:09):
Right, welcome back to the guardenline. Good heavy with us.
We are going to dive back in here. We got
just a half hour of the show left today. Nelson
Plant Food produces a number of quality ingredients equality products
that just work. I mean, is as simple as that.
Every time I've tried a Nelson plant food product. I

(02:26:31):
found that it works well, it works successfully, It gives
the results that it's supposed to give because they're specially formulated.
Do you know, they use a lot of different sources
of nutrient, for example, nitrogen. Some of the products have
like five different kinds of nitrogen in them to give
that nice slow release to do the things that you
want done with your plants, where there's more flowers, more production,

(02:26:53):
more beautiful green foliage. They've got a line called Nutristar,
and that includes specifics for specific plants like the hibiscus
and tropical or flowering tropicals. Nutristar Hibiscus and flowering tropicals.
I don't care what kind of hibiscus you have. It's
even good for things like Zara, the rows of shareon

(02:27:14):
the hollyhocks and althea rows of Sharon, althea, the Texas sage,
some of the mallows mini mallows, those are all in
the hibiscus family. It does really well with those. Now
what happens is when you put it down, it's got
multiple acidifying sources to ensure not only an even nutrient release,
but also a moderation of that soul pH that these

(02:27:37):
plants benefit from. It's got high potassium levels which are
very important for not only hardiness and cold, but also
in water and nutrient uptake and flower quality as well.
So that's a nutri star line the hibiscus and flowering tropicals.
How about the color Star line. That's been their most
popular fertilizer for forty years now, and the color Star
Plus has an added systemic fungicide in it moves into

(02:28:00):
the plant and gives longer preventative protection than just a
standard type of fungicide in it. Of course, the color
Star is all purpose flowering food for anything that has flowers, annuals,
perennial shrubs, trees, really use on any of those plants.
It's got fast acting effects and it even has some
organic nutrient sources that really enrich the soil. You put

(02:28:23):
Colorstar Plus down, you're going to get a slow release
for about three or four months. Again from the folks
at Nelson Plant Food. Let's go out to Montgomery and
talk to Marie. Hey, Marie, welcome to garden line.

Speaker 24 (02:28:34):
Hello Skip, Skip, looking for the ideal NPQ or fertilizer
for my flowering vines. They are about two years old.
I have the Carolina jasamine star jasmine and coral howey suckle.
And I've been applying the six two four acid of fire,
but I'm wondering if I can improve on that.

Speaker 3 (02:28:58):
That's a good one. That's an microlife product you're talking about, right,
and kind of a yeah, pinkish bag, Yes, that's yeah, yes,
would I would just keep using it. It's got an
extra boost to the first number, nitrogen, and that keeps
vines vigorous, and it keeps them, you know, producing new growth.
And many of the types of vines produce their flowers

(02:29:21):
on the new growth or last year's growth, and so
it depends on which type of vine as to which
way it is. But the bottom line is you want
to keep them growing, so you keep them producing cycles
of flowers whenever their normal flowering season is and sixty
four the acidifying would be perfect for all of those.

(02:29:41):
I would just keep using that if I are you.

Speaker 24 (02:29:44):
How often should I use that?

Speaker 3 (02:29:48):
You know, I would watch my plants and see how Yeah,
I would see how they're growing. I mean, if it
looks like they're just growing wild, then they're happy. Just
let them be. But you know, as you want to
boost growth a little bit, go ahead and give them some.
You could do that as many as I don't know,
three or four times during the year on plants, or
you could just do it once or twice. So there's

(02:30:08):
not a black and white in the book description on
how often you would use that. But I would let
the plants tell me, Hey, I think I need to
give them a little bit more of a boost and
watered in real good.

Speaker 2 (02:30:21):
Okay.

Speaker 24 (02:30:22):
And I'm surprised that my Carolina Jessman is looking a
little bit chlorotic. Should I give it iron not? Or
should I give it maybe a little bit more fermilizer.

Speaker 3 (02:30:34):
When a plant looks chlorotic like that early in the season,
the soils tend to be a little on the cooler
side than they will be in summer. We often have
a little bit of that. If the pH is a
little high, it can make it chlorotic. If the iron
levels are a little low, that can make it chlorotic.
And if the soil is a little soggy and cool,
that can make it chlorotic. So I can't tell you

(02:30:55):
exactly why. When you look at the plant, and maybe
you I don't know this right now, but when you
go out and look at it, is it the new
leaves that are looking yellowish or is it the older
leaves that are looking more the old leaves. Okay, so
that's not iron. That is not iron, that's not acid
problem of highph that's not on iron deficiency. That is

(02:31:18):
just older leaves that are being cast off. And a
lot of plants that are semi evergreen to evergreen, they
have seasons where they cast off the older leaves. Now
certainly getting dry and then wet again whatnot can cause
that you and see that on Apotheus ivy in your house.
When it gets dry and then you water it, all
of a sudden after that the older leaves start turning
yellow and falling off. That's just part of the soil

(02:31:41):
moisture fluctuation. I wouldn't worry about it a lot unless
it's severe. Your plants are probably fine. That's a native plant.
It's tough Carolina adjustment, and I think it's going to
be okay, wonderful.

Speaker 14 (02:31:56):
Thank you so very much, Skipping.

Speaker 2 (02:31:58):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (02:32:00):
All right, Marie, thank you for the call. I appreciate that.
If you've got a hanker in to do some outdoor containers,
and I hope you do. I like that word hankering.
By the way if you got a hankering to do
outdoor containers, a couple of tips. Number one, a big container,
more soil volume, more growing media volume means so when

(02:32:21):
we get into our hot summer weather, you're not watering
three times a day to keep the darn thing alive
or out of stress. More soil is important. Good drainage
is critical. That's number two, and number three is a
good quality soil mix that also drains well but holds moisture.
Jungle land, flour and vegetable planting soil is just like
the name implies. If you're going to grow it in

(02:32:43):
the container outdoors, you want jungle l and flour and
vegetable planting soil. I don't care if it's a flower
or vegetable or not. That is the soil you're going
to use. And it's going to drain well, it's going
to hold moisture well. It works. You're going to find
it as well as other nitophce products in many places.
You go to a place like M and D Beamer
down in Sagemont, or you go to D and D

(02:33:05):
Feed and Tomball, or you go to Plants for All Seasons,
the one where Luetta and two forty nine come together.
Maybe Ace Hardware and Sinco Ranch or auspas Ace up
in the woodlands. These are all places that carry night
to FoST products. I'm going to go down to Eagle
Lake now and talk to Nancy. Hello, Nancy, Welcome to
garden line.

Speaker 2 (02:33:26):
Good morning.

Speaker 14 (02:33:28):
I have six or seven ten to twenty foot crate
myrtles and I went out to feed them, and there
are giant fire ant beds at the base of these trees.
Do I put the regular fire killer on it?

Speaker 8 (02:33:42):
Or is that going to hurt my trees?

Speaker 3 (02:33:43):
Yes, if it's a base or a drench that's made
for fire ants, it will not hurt your crate myrtles.
It will not. It will now what I would do.
It will not hurt your crate myrtles. If it's a
product or for fire ants, it's not.

Speaker 14 (02:33:57):
No.

Speaker 3 (02:33:58):
If you pour boiling water on it like some people do, well, yeah,
that's that's different. But the products won't hurt. Here's the thing, though,
Use a bait. That's the most important. It takes a
little longer to work, but it does a better job.
You can use mound treatments and they will kill that mound.
But around your yard, especially after the rain we just got.
You're gonna see fire ants popping up everywhere that you

(02:34:20):
didn't know we're there because they're working underground that they
hadn't boiled up to the surface yet, if you will,
and a bait gets even the unseen mounds, which is
why it's better to use a bait on an infrequent
basis A good good bait product over time to manage
your fireant problems.

Speaker 8 (02:34:38):
Okay, what's the bait?

Speaker 3 (02:34:41):
A bait and bait? Oh yeah, yeah, you're yeah, you
go to go to your u. Let's see how you're
not too far away from Uh, how far is Eagle
Lake from? I haven't done Eagle Lake on a map
ever since while so left the lake, I've lost track
of where they are. Remember while seed out there was

(02:35:04):
that cool or what?

Speaker 6 (02:35:06):
All right?

Speaker 3 (02:35:07):
Let me hang it, let me just oh okay, well
all right, so let's me okay, Well, you probably are
going to find a fire ant bait at Nelson's water
gardens and Katie, that would be a good place. I'm

(02:35:28):
sure that you could find it. Uh, it just depends
on you know what direction from Eagle Lake. If you're
pretty far out there, you go down to I know
in Wharton, there's an Ace Hardware store in Wharton, and
you got some other Ace hardware stores in that general
area that are going to carry them. And it may
be Andro, it may be called Extinguish, it may be

(02:35:48):
there's a lot of brands, but there are fire ant
baits and follow the label and you'll have success. Okay,
I've got to run. I'm up against a hard break. Yeah,
thank you. Have a good day. All right, folks, I'll
be right back, David. Your first s up? All righty,
welcome back to garden Line. We're going to jump right

(02:36:10):
in here. Last segment of the day and of the weekend.
Hey have you been to Growers Outlet? And Willis? I
tell you about it all the time on garden Line.
If you're in Conroe, the Woodlands, even up in New
Waverley out at Lake Conroe. Oh gosh, April Sound all
those neighborhoods out that way, that whole region. Growers Outlet

(02:36:30):
is a really cool garden center. They have a lot
of good stuff, everything you would expect from a good
garden center. Right now, they've got some beautiful Peggy Martin
roses that have come in. They have some beautiful Chinese
fringe trees that may be one of the most popular
trees this spring, and for good reason. Growers Outlet and
Willis has the things you need. Do you need flowering plants?

(02:36:52):
Do you need vegetables? Do you need fruit? They've got those.
Do you have a for example, a beautiful bugainbe hanging
basket or a giant macho fern hanging They have some
good giant macho ferns that get in every in the
warm season. As things warm up. They probably have a
few of men right now. As a matter of fact,
Growers Outlet in Willis Grower, that's the website. Growers Outlet

(02:37:17):
in Willis one of the few places you can go
to a garden center and you look and it tells
you here's what we have in stock, and here's how
much it costs. Really nice. I'm glad they do that.
I think that's a really cool idea. Let's head out now.
We're going to go to Tomball and talk. If I
can turn my mouse around the right way, talk to David.

Speaker 2 (02:37:37):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (02:37:38):
David, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (02:37:40):
Good morning, sir Hey.

Speaker 13 (02:37:43):
For the last two years I've been putting down the
barricade religiously and this year.

Speaker 3 (02:37:49):
Right now, it seems like they left at.

Speaker 13 (02:37:52):
An ingredient or something. I've got the healthiest weeds in
the neighborhood, and I'm going, did I do something wrong?
And what can I do with some right now? Because okay,
I put fertilizers down, I got the greenest grass and
the greenest weeds ever.

Speaker 6 (02:38:08):
So I mean, it just seemed like something went wrong
with me.

Speaker 3 (02:38:13):
You must have missed one timing somehow. I don't know.
Barricade stops the seeds from becoming weeds, and so maybe
the weeds you see right now you would have had
to do barricade in last October, early October to stop
them from coming up. Now, the post emergent you can
do post emergent products. But as we get further and

(02:38:34):
further into the season and all those weeds are blooming
and setting seeds, the post emergents don't work as well.
And so that leaves us with the unhappy task of
him pulling the weeds out to try to get all
those seeds out of there, or just wait, they're gonna
die quick anyway, and you know, mow and ignore them
and deal with the extra seeds next fall. With the

(02:38:55):
barricade application. Do you know that by any chance? Do
you know the name the types of weed species you've
got some.

Speaker 13 (02:39:02):
Of them I've got, I've got, I've got tons of
bullmetal I've got I've got these little grassy things that
got little purple flowers, and I got these.

Speaker 12 (02:39:11):
Little grassy things.

Speaker 13 (02:39:12):
I got some little yellow flowers, and then other stuff
as well.

Speaker 12 (02:39:16):
But I mean, it's like an infestation in my yard,
and I'm going, good, what did.

Speaker 3 (02:39:19):
I do wrong?

Speaker 8 (02:39:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:39:21):
Yeah, if it's if it's grassy, you know there's not
there's not a post emerging spray to kill the grass
in the grass without killing your lawn grass. In other words,
Uh so, uh, you know, David, I don't know on
this one. Probably the best thing would be for me
to look at some of the weeds, specifically pictures of
them and things. I'm going to be at RCW Nursery

(02:39:41):
next weekend from twelve to two on Saturday. Next Saturday
from twelve to two. If you wanted to bag up
a bunch of those, bring them down, let me look
at them, and let's let me have an eye on
them and really give you a better answer than I
can do. Kind of guessing at what you might have
out there well, and have the product on hand to

(02:40:02):
bring me your weeds. All right, now, I know, I know,
you know guys a lot of times, you know, they'll
get flowers and bring them to somebody as a gift.
Not many guys bring people weeds. But I'm asking you
to do that. All right, bring me a bouquet. I'll
see you next Saturday. Hey, don't eat lunch. Yeah, me too.

(02:40:28):
Don't eat lunch because they are going to have barbecue
sandwiches and some refreshments and stuff. So you get a
free lunch out of the deal. You bet, all right,
Bye bye. If you're looking for a product that is
organic that dissolves into the soil and really turns your

(02:40:49):
long green, Sweet Green is a product that can do that.
It is a molosses type based product. So it's carbon
chains which make beneficial microbes really happy. Smells great by
the way, and it's it's pretty s by nitrophoss and
it therefore, it's available all over town. I mean, you know,
you go to places like Langham Creek, Ace Hardware on

(02:41:09):
five twenty nine, Court Hardware on South Maine and Stafford
m and d out there in Rosenberg on Avenue. I
these are all places that carry nitopos products like the
sweet Green, and it does work. I do like the smell.

Speaker 19 (02:41:24):
You.

Speaker 3 (02:41:24):
Normally you don't talk about furlies. We don't talk about
how they smell, how we like the smell. But that's
a good one and with that eleven percent nitrogen you
get a really nice boost of green. I was mentioning
all those ACE harder strokes. You know, ACE is the
place that's their motto. ACE is a place. Sure, atleast
it used to be the motto probably still is, but
ACE is a place for it. You fill in the blank.

(02:41:47):
ACE is a place for lawn fertilizer if they carry
the products you hear me talk about on Guardline. ACE
is a place for pest control, disease control, preventative weed
control that's pre emergent, killing existing weeds that's a post emergent.
ACE is a place for all your outdoor equipment, power equipment,
you know, everything from extension courts to strings of lights

(02:42:08):
to a just beautiful ambiyonce creating things for your back
patio and indoors as well. ACE is the place for that.
You can go to the website ACE Hardware Texas. Don't
forget Texas dot Com. Acehardware Texas dot Com and our
local Ace Hardware group is there. When I say local,

(02:42:28):
I mean we got ACE Hardware's all the way out
in Orange and all the way up in Willis, and
all the way over in Victoria and Rockport and Galveston
and certainly all around the greater Houston area. Here find
your Ace Hardware. Maybe one like Brenham Ace Hardware out
there in Brenham, Texas, all Star Ace Hardware and Spring Victoria,
Acehardworo on Novarro Street, the K and M Ace Hardware

(02:42:52):
and Kingwood, Wharton Feed and Ace. I was there a
goodwill back when they had the grand reopening going on
out there, bake Cliff Lace on Grand Avenue in Bakecliff. YEP,
there's a lot of Aces, Ace Hardware Texas dot Com.
And when you come out of there, you're going to
have the stuff you need to have a beautiful, bountiful
garden and landscape. Always like going into Ace hard Restrict,

(02:43:16):
So it always surprises me what they have. You know,
I'm in there for gardening stuff, that's my primary reason.
But I'm telling you they have so much more. This
is not your grandfather's hardware store. This is all the
cool stuff from Grandpa's hardware store, but a lot lot
more new cool things. Year around Houston dot com is

(02:43:38):
a company that specializes in core aeration and compost stop
dressing and for our garden line listeners, they focus on
the area inside the Beltway. That's a big area, so
all of you and there's a bazilion of you living
inside the Beltway. Year around. Houston dot com is the
company that's also the website year round Houston dot com.

(02:44:02):
You can give them a call at eight three two
eight eight four fifty three thirty five eight three two
eight eight four fifty three thirty five or go to
the website year round Houston dot com and find out
more of the use quality screened compost that is, and
they do a good job of variation too. By the way, Uh,

(02:44:23):
it's no stink to it. I mean it just goes down,
looks good and makes your lawn come alive. It breathes
life into the soil by opening up those holes with
corrotion and then dropping some quality composts down on top
of it. One of the most important things we do
to our launch to have beautiful success if you've got compaction, corrooration,

(02:44:45):
compost top per center to go. All right, well that's
the last song of the day for me. That means
skip you better hurry up, time to go. I'm going
to be at RCW Nurseries next Saturday from twelve to two.
Come on out and see me. A barbecue lunch there
for you, provided by RCW and refreshments. They're going to
have ten percent off on their roses next Saturday only.

(02:45:08):
It's a one day sale, so come on out and
see me. Of course we'll do the diagnosis and the
identification and helping you the things we'll visit about the
plant things you want to see that you're going to
see a beautiful nursery. You have lots of beautiful plants
as well. Look forward. I hope you can make it
out there next Saturday, twelve to two. RCW Nursery