You Can't Fail at Gardening

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Crazy gas can trim. You just watch him as
the world gods.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Many thanks to sup Brasys, gass, the club backs, not
a sound credit, the glass gas.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
The sun beam, and gas starting out.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Of a tree.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
All right, folks, we got a garden show to do here,
so let's just say that's just to get going. I'm
your host, Skip Rictor. You're listening to garden Line and
we're here to help you have a boutonful garden and
a beautiful landscape and most importantly more fun in the process.
Gardening is fun.

Speaker 6 (01:07):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:08):
It's a rewarding hobby. It is a hobby that helps
you physically, it helps you mentally. Did you know that
there is a ton of research up foot deep stock
of research papers that could file up on the desk
and I print them out over the years of what's
the latest research and stuff? And gardening is incredible. I
mean it, it is incredible. Kids with ADHD improvement score tests,

(01:33):
old folks dealing with dementia issues. It's beneficial people that
are in a hospital healing. The difference between looking out
a window at plants and looking out a window at
a parking lot. Measurable difference and rate of healing is
that amazing. I mean, I could go on and on
and on with all the benefits. But we gardeners already
know this. You know, when you're out there in the garden,

(01:55):
especially this morning, you're gonna hear the birds singing, you're
gonna be out and about doing some things. It's just
it's just wonderful, whether you're doing a lot of exercise
or whether you're just puttering around the garden, which is legit.
I love to putter around my garden. It's it's I
don't know, it's therapeutic. It's helpful in many many ways.
So you're in the right place. Welcome to Garden Line.

(02:18):
Nice to have you with us today. If you'd like
to give me a call, we're here to answer your
gardening question. Seven one three two one two kt r
H seven to one three two one two k t RH.
I was fertilizing my yard just this past week. Actually,
I say yard, one of my yards. I've I divided
my yard up. I have four different sections of turf

(02:39):
in my landscape, and I have four different turfs in
each section. I know that's weird, but it's what I
like to do. It allows me to try different things
out and learn about turf. So when you give me
a call and you ask me about a particular turf
or what about this or that or the other, it's
not like, well, I read a book somewhere that you're
supposed to know. I'm doing it to my own yard trying.

(02:59):
When I talk talk about a fertilizer, it's because I've
used it and because it works. I don't just like, Okay,
so and so wants me to talk about their fertile
I'll talk about their Furtilzer. No, it is a matter
of what does it work. And one that works, I'll
tell you this for sure, is Nitrofoss's Superturf. Superturf is
a nineteen four to ten fertilizer, so that is about

(03:22):
a four to one two ratio. Three one two and
four one two ratios are very very appropriate for turf.
If you were to cut grass clippings, healthy grass clippings
off and send them to a lab and say what's
in them, They're going to tell you there's a lot
of nitrogen, very little phosphorus, and a medium amount of potassium.
That's what turf takes up, so why not put that

(03:42):
down now. Nitrofoss Superturf nineteen four ten is slow released,
so for four months it's going to be gradually releasing
that nineteen percent nitrogen to your turf so you get
nice even growth. You're going to find this product as
well as other nit foss products it places like en
sheended forest down on FM twenty seven fifty nine in

(04:02):
the Richmond Rosenberg area at Ace Hardware Single Ranch on
Mason Road, Aspass up in the Woodlands on Kirkandall and
certainly the Arborgate on FM twenty nine twenty and Tombaal
carries some of the nitrofoss products as well. Say I
was fertilizing my lawn and when you put out nutrient,

(04:25):
you want to put it out in two different directions,
and I use north south and east west as just examples.
It doesn't matter which way there you're going. But when
you cross hatch your application like that, it smooths it out.
Have you ever seen someone with a striped yard. They
went through the yard with a spreader and maybe the
spreader overlapped, so some strips through the lawn got twice

(04:46):
as much fertilizer, as other strips through the lawn did
because of the overlap or lack of overlap. Well, you
can avoid that by going about half of your product
one direction, then go half your product the other. It
is all always better to under apply and then to
come back and touch it up. So I've done this before.

(05:07):
Don't tell anybody, it's just Jimmy listening red. But please
don't spread this around. I have gone out, build up
my hopper, set it like I thought it needed to
be set, and took off across the yard, and three
fourths of the way across the yard, I'm out a fertilizer.
Uh oh, so now what we'll load it up and
end up overfertilizing the rest just to make it look even.

(05:28):
But then you have the stripes also from that. Well,
what I'll do is figure out, you know what I
probably need. I'm going to go about under half rate
one direction, and then you can look and go, you
know what, I'm putting out too much and you drop
it down in the other direction. You go at the
appropriate rate, or maybe I'm not putting out enough. That's okay,

(05:49):
go over the other one the other way, and then
just if you have to make a third pass, you
know what, to diagnose them. Just do it and that
just smooths things out. That way, you don't mess up
because if you have extra leftover and you didn't set
it putting out fast enough, that's okay. It just means
you can make a nice, more even application. So just

(06:09):
a tip there. That's true with fertilizer, It's certainly true
with weed control, and it certainly is true when you're
dealing with insects and diseases as well. Coverage is key.
Coverage is critical. That's just a little tip for you there.
The folks at Spring Creek Feed up and humble, they
just continue to prevent to bring in and last time

(06:32):
I was there, the product line that they have for
your lawn and garden is amazing. You're going to find well,
you know, if you're doing lawn fertilizing, maybe you do
like a nitropost product. They've got them. They've got Nelson
Turf Star line, they've got the Microlife line as well.
All there at Spring Creek Feed they also have things
to control weeds and insects and diseases. When you go

(06:54):
into Spring Creek, you will be greeted by friendly courteous staff,
just like you would expect or hope when you go
in to any kind of a business. If you're an
FFA kiddo or four H kiddo, they have discounts as
well as for folks that are military and senior citizens,
a special deliver, they will deliver and they'll special order

(07:15):
to both. In fact, at Spring Creek Feed. They're located
in Magnolia on FM twenty nine seventy eight. You can't
miss them as you're kind of heading up in north
direction twenty ninety seventy eight on the left hand side
there is Spring Creek Feed and just minutes away from
Grand park Way and Highway to forty nine. Well, I'm
gonna take a little break here and we will be

(07:35):
back with your questions again if you'd like to be
first up this morning. Seven to one three two one
two kt r H. Seven to one three two one
two k t r H. Alright, we're back. Welcome back
to the garden Line. Good to have you with us today.
We've got plenty to talk about. It is spring. Let

(07:56):
me say it this way. If it is April and
you are not interested in garden two things. One, check
your pulse, make sure you're still alive. Number two, If
you have a pulse, then you're not a gardener. I'm
telling you everybody who is has one drop of gardening
blood in them anywhere. Boy, I hope you do. It's
such a great hobby. Spring is like everybody's a gardener. Now.

(08:19):
I understand we get to July and August and I'm
gonna have to talk into it some of you at
least at that time. But Spring, gosh, this is the
fun time. This is the easy time. You put things
in the ground and they just want to grow and
it's just everything. Everybody's happy, all right, So this is it.
I was just talking a minute ago about fertilizing the

(08:42):
lawn and what I forgot to mention to you is
it's not just the macro nutrients that our turf needs.
Turf needs, you know, about twenty different nutrients in order
to grow turf grass plants. So you pick a grass blade,
look at it, hold up, look at it. In that
grass plate is boron? Did you know that? And have

(09:02):
you ever seen boron on a fertilizer label before? It's
a big three that you primarily see on fertilizer labels,
but boron and zinc and iron, and manganese and molybthanum,
and there's a lot of things that grass has to
have to grow. That's why we put do a trace
mineral supplement, and we put on one called azmite. Asimite
is mined out of the ground up in Utah and

(09:23):
it is sold as a mineral supplement for micronutrients. It
doesn't make the grass turn green and grow fast like
nitrogen does. No, I bet it's needed. It's required. Asumite
is put down at a very low rate, about a
forty four pound bag will cover about six to twelve
thousand square feet. By the way, I use it in
vegetable gardens two ten pounds per thousand in a vegetable garden,

(09:45):
and it works. Azimite Texas dot com. That's a website
if you want to learn more about it. But I'll
just tell you this. You go to feed stores, garden centers,
ace hardware stores, Southwest fertilizer places like that, you're going
to find azamite. And it is something you do not
mix in the same fertilization application because the particle sizes
are different. You just do your fertilizing, then turn around,

(10:06):
load up with as mite and do it again with
the a's mite. You don't have to do it on
the same day. You can do as mite any day
of the year. You want to do as mite, okay,
but since you're out there and you got the machine
out running across the lawn, go ahead and do it
as mite. It works. That concept of micronutrients for some

(10:27):
folks is a little hard hard to follow. And you say, well,
is it a fertilizer. Well, yes, it's a fertilizer because
it is nutrient elements the grass has to have. But
it's not like the Big three that you put on.
That's kind of the difference. I think that's where the
confusion occurs. Our bodies are the same way. You know,
you need a lot of protein, you do in order

(10:50):
to do well. There's a lot of things in your
diet you need. But then there are these things like
tiny little micronutrients that you need too. There's nutrients, micronutrients,
there's vitamins and things like vitamin D. Well, you don't
need much of that, but you do need it. And
those are the things that we must not forget both
in our diet and then the diet of our lawns

(11:12):
as well. I was touching base with the folks at
pest Pros yesterday, just reaching out. We're having some conversations
kind of some more coming up here about things going
on out in the landscape and out around the house.
And you know, pest Pros is our pest control service
here on Garden Line. They cover a wide area. They'll

(11:33):
go all the way from Baytown across the Kadie and
from Texas City down south all the way up into
the woodlands, and they take care of the pests that
you have. It doesn't matter what it is. The number
one concern of us is termites because they damage our
homes to great financial significant damage. They can stop them

(11:54):
with very safe men. They know how to do this effectively,
and they know how to do it in the safest
manner possible. And with their termite treatment, it's like a
ten year guarantee treatment. It is a special technology goes
in little trench around the house and termites cannot get
across that trench or if they do, they die. And
it's in the ground, so it's safe. It's not something

(12:14):
sprayed up on things that your dogs are gonna eat
or whatever like that. It is an outstanding new technology
that really works. Now, if you have fire ants, if
you have mosquitoes, they if you have cockroaches in the house,
you know, if you've got silverfish crawling around, whatever kinds
of treatments you have, pest Bros Can do it. And
that includes things like wild varmts, you know, those possums

(12:37):
and the roof rats or whatever kind of rats crawling
around outside. They can handle all of those things. All
you got to do is head to the website thepestbros
dot com b ros d pestbros dot com, all right,
and you can also give them a call if you
like to get a quote. Two eight one two o

(12:57):
six forty six seventy two eight one two oh six
forty six seventy Make sure when you call them you
ask about their mosquito control buckets. Just say it that way.
That's the simplest way to put it. Let them tell
you what this stuff does. It is amazing. I've got
them at my house and that's a goolest new safe again,
safer technology. That's what we're all about. That pest Bro's

(13:20):
house fascinating. I keep checking my buckets all the time,
looking at you know, looking for a little larvae animus.
They make the mosquitoes lay, make them, they entice them
to lay their eggs in those buckets, and those mosquitoes
are never going to hatch. Plus when the mama mosquito
flies away, she takes a substance that will prevent mosquitos

(13:44):
in other areas from hatching as well. Super say, pets,
pets and birds and other things. No worries about that. Well,
I was looking online at I always check our garden
center and see, you know, what are they getting in,
what's going on there, what's happening there? And something is

(14:05):
always going on at a Plants for All seasons. That's
up on Tomball Parkway, which is FM two forty nine.
It's just north of Luetta Road right there on FM
two forty nine. Okay, not on Luetta on FM two
forty nine. If you have a brown thumb and you'd
like to see it turned green, well you need to
go to Plants for All seasons. Those of you have

(14:26):
a green thumb probably already been there, and that's part
of the reason why it's green, because the color of
our thumb is all about good information and good plants.
You pick up plant that wants to grow here, you
plant it right and take care of it right, and
Plants for All Seasons helps you do that and the
plant grows and everybody goes you got a green thumb, Well,
just have an informed thumb, because I went to a

(14:46):
place that is a full service garden center, family owner
and operated since nineteen seventy three, and they are true
lawn and garden experts. I mean you can take them
a picture or a sample or whatever. You know, here's
my neighbor, he's got this plan over there in the yard.
Or I was driving by a house and I saw this,
What is it? Does it grow here? And they'll they'll
tell you. They'll they will tell you exactly how to grow.

(15:08):
If you have an issue you're dealing with things, help
you with that. To solve an insect or disease or
weed problem, whatever you have, you can get your green
on there Plants for All Seasons, Plants for All Seasons
dot com. If you're want to give them a call
two eight one three seven six sixteen forty six two
eight one three seven six one six four six the

(15:33):
my front bed. Don't tell anybody that because I wouldn't
want the word to get out, but I had not
trimmed back my perennials in front of my house. I
just haven't. I keep walking by going, Yeah, I got
to get around to that. Actually, I'm thinking I'm gonna
do a little video on that for our Facebook account.
We have a garden line Facebook account and Instagram account too,
by the way, and I was post a little videos

(15:56):
on what's happening. I did one on fertilizing a week
or so ago. Anyway, I'm walking by it and I'm
not doing it, and it needs to get done. I
need to get those trimmed back. But I'm waiting till
I can get a camera set up and do a
little video showing you what we do and why on it.
And so that's a task that needs to get done.
I've got some maults replenishing that I just finished. If

(16:18):
you have mults your flower beds, and boy, I hope
you have. If not, you're going to spend a lot
of time weeding and fussing and being disappointed in all
the weeds. A good thick maultz blocks light, and when
you block light, weed seeds can't get a start. That's
how it works. So what you gotta do is you
need to keep that mault thick enough to block the light. People.

(16:41):
So how deep do you malt? Well, I usually say
about three inches or so four inches. Maybe it just
depends on what you're using though. If you were using
a very fine textured malts, you know, compost level kind
of texture, very fine texture, well, it doesn't take much
to block the light. But if you're using something big
and chunky, well, you know, it doesn't make a solid

(17:03):
covering unless you make it pretty deep because a light
goes past those chunks in between them and makes it
to the ground. So you have to put a little
bit deeper. So it's not a great answer to it.
Three inches is just a general guide. But whenever you
do mulch, and I've had people call here and say,
do I need to get that old mulch out of there,

(17:23):
as if the old mulch is a bad thing, And
the answer is absolutely not. Old mulch is a good thing.
Think about this, Think about how the forest was designed
to work. I mean, really the perfect place to grow
a tree. Right in the forest. We have soil that
gets better and better every year in the forest because

(17:43):
the trees drop organic matter on the ground and it
rots and it becomes soil. And now does someone go
through there and rake up all the old leaves at
the end of the year and put so the fresh
new fall leaves can fall on dirt. No, they drop
on top of the old stuff, and the old stuff
just decomposes faster because it's staying moist and it can

(18:06):
decompose faster, and that it gets better and better. So
when you've got mulch and it's getting thin and you're thinking,
oh darn, my mault is, then I gotta put a
new multch down on there. Well, yeah, okay, that's work.
It takes all the time to do it, Yeah, but
not much. But that old multch is decomposing away and
making your soil better and better and better and better.

(18:29):
Leave the old maults. Put fresh mult on top to
maintain the depth you need to maintain. But that old
maltch isn't gone. It's now become good stuff for the
plants themselves. Before it was just dry organic matter sitting
on the surface to block the light. That's kind of
what it accomplished. It blocks the light. It moderates the

(18:49):
soil temperature because it's a shading of the soil, and
it helps hold in some moisture as well, because again
the evaporation from the soil surface is decreased because you
got the mulch on there, so it has a lot
of good benefit. But when it decomposes, then you get
the good stuff released down into the soil. All right,

(19:10):
I hope I made sense of that. But anyway, Yeah,
don't remove your old mult that is important. Hey, if
you like to give us a call seven to one
three two one two.

Speaker 7 (19:22):
K t r H.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
Seven one three two one two k t r H,
feel free.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
To do that.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
We'd love to visit with you about the kinds of
questions that you might have. I uh, I don't know
how many years ago, not too many, maybe four or
five years ago. I discovered something called sweet green from Nitrofoss.
I say I discovered it. It had been around, but
I just ran across it and actually stopped to look
at it and began to work with it. And I've

(19:51):
got some right now about to put out in one
of my yards.

Speaker 6 (19:55):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
And it's time, by the way, to put the sweet
green out. Sweet green is a natural product sold by
Nitrofoss that dissolves away into the soil and feeds beneficial microbes.
Microbes love sugary materials. That's why they call it sweet green.
It also smells sweet by the way. It smells wonderful.

(20:17):
But it's eleven percent nitrogen, and when you put it down,
it dissolves in. The microbes go crazy. And when they
go crazy, yeah, they're taking some of it up, and
then as they do their a little quick life cycle,
they don't live forever. It releases that nutrient back into
the soice part of the cycle of the soil. And
sweet green you're gonna find at a lot of different places.
You go to a place like in Channa Gardens down

(20:38):
the Richmond Rosenberg area, or maybe Hiding and Feed on
Studenter Airline, Fisher's Hardware on Southomore down in Pasadena, just
some examples of places where you're going to find sweet
green and other quality products. If you put it down,
you want to, like any fertilizer, you will water it in.
You want to dissolve away, move into the soil and

(21:00):
get that good stuff down in to give your plants
a boost. And it's a great one to get a
good boost and get that lawn growing. The weather we're
having now is perfect for lawns. I mean, our lawn
southern turf grasses can take it really really hot, but
they are kicking into high gear. And a good nutrient
application right now, be very helpful. All Right, I'm gonna

(21:21):
take a little break here. When we come back, we're
going to start with Ronald and Lake Jackson. Look forward
to talking to you. Then stick around. Hey, welcome back, well,
welcome back to arbor Gate. As visiting with Jason over
at Pearscapes the other day and we're just talking about
some different kinds of things going on and how the
spring's going with them, and boy, they're having a great spring.

(21:43):
By the way, Piercescapes is our garden Line preferred landscaper.
They work an area about forty five minutes from Tomball
in all directions, so you know, with north, south, east west,
whichever direction you're going. Piercecapes is a prime quality company,
I mean, and go to their website Piercescapes dot com.

(22:03):
Piercescapes dot com. Take a look at the work they do.
It's unbelievable. They do landscape, of course, they do irrigation work,
they do lighting and drainage, a lot of things. I'm
telling you you ought to check them out for just
their maintenance. They do a quarterly maintenance four times a year.
They come by. They spruce up your beds, you know,
put new multch down if you want to have a

(22:24):
color change, like take all those flowers out and put
the new flowers the next season in that. They can
do that. Just make sure everything's in work in order.
You know, the irrigation's got to be in work in
order for things to do good. It's a general care
any kind of pruning, trimming, things that might be done,
and it just keeps your landscape beds looking good year round.
It's only come by four times a year to do that,

(22:44):
but it is a it is an excellent service. You
can go to Piercescapes dot com and find out more
or just give them a call. Two eight one three
seven oh fifty sixty two eight one three seven oh
fifty sixty. Let's head now out to Lake Jackson and
we're going to talk to Ronald. Hello, Ronald, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 8 (23:02):
Good morning, sir, Thank you for taking my call.

Speaker 9 (23:06):
Yes, I have a question concerning a tree that we
would like to plant in honor of someone's special I
pastor a church around here include actually, and the tree
would be likely planted within twenty feet of the front
entrance of the church. And so we're looking for something
that would stay green year round and it's not going

(23:29):
to make a huge mess with leaves or berries or nuts.

Speaker 8 (23:34):
And so just wondering about a recommendation.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
Boy, you want it ever green. It's not a deciduous right,
is that I'm understood, because we're just like.

Speaker 8 (23:47):
To not have a bear tree standing there throughout the winter.

Speaker 9 (23:51):
You know, we could have something that would I see,
stay green most of the time, if not all year round.

Speaker 5 (23:59):
That's a little bit. It's a little tough call.

Speaker 6 (24:01):
You know.

Speaker 5 (24:01):
We have evergreens that that don't get that big. They
get large, but they're not that kind of tree size,
you know, Holly's and different things, But that doesn't make
a shade tree kind of tree, if you will. Live
oaks can be a little bit. The mothers get too large,
way too large for that spot, so they're not going
to do as well. There are some columnar types of

(24:23):
live oaks that grow more upright than spreading. I just
don't think that's going to be a good fit for
you in that area. Some of the best trees for
that area are deciduous trees. There's some lots of lots
of good things. The red oaks, the Schumart and I
mean the I see this is in Lake Jackson. I
would probably do a nuttall. If I was doing a

(24:46):
red oak in that area. Oh gosh, let me think here,
evergreen tree that size I met, think about that one
a little bit. I'd probably try to talk you into
a tree that's more that's deciduous. That may he has
some attractive features. The the Chinese elm has beautiful bark
that's kind of a rusty coloring gray as it flakes off,

(25:10):
and it's a it's a very attractive pattern. So even
in winter time it looks pretty good. My brain is
drawing a blank here. I'm gonna have to back up
a little bit. Try to think of a good evergreens.
See the pines not a good tree for that area.
Certainly cedars there. You know, you can do a cedar

(25:33):
type tree there, but that's not the most attractive for
a spot like that. But that would be evergreen, a
juniper type ceed a type tree.

Speaker 8 (25:43):
A friend suggested a Chinese fringe tree.

Speaker 5 (25:48):
I was I would love to recommend that one, but
it's not evergreen. It has beautiful shaggy white blooms in
the spring. And it's a moderate sized tree, so that
that's another concern of being twenty feet away from the church.
That's pretty close, but not for a Chinese fringe. You
could get by with that. And if I think it's

(26:09):
one of the prettiest trees there is. In summer, it's
just a pretty green tree. But in the spring it's awesome, awesome.

Speaker 10 (26:17):
Really.

Speaker 8 (26:19):
And what was the tree you said they had the
nice bark on It.

Speaker 5 (26:22):
Was Chinese elm. And it gets quite large, So twenty
feet you're gonna have to do some pruning to keep
it from you know, the branches brushing against the roof
of the church or the eaves and things. Yes, sir, yeahead,

(26:45):
Did I say Chinese elm? I just heard Chinese fringe
echoing in my ear. Did I also say Chinese that's
the one with the pretty bark.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
Lace? Yes?

Speaker 5 (26:54):
Okay, good, good, Yeah. And I would suggest go online
to your search engine and just look at Chinese fringe
and look at Chinese elm, and I think you'll see
what I'm talking about.

Speaker 8 (27:09):
Yes, all right, well, I do appreciate your time. Thank
you today.

Speaker 5 (27:12):
Yes, sir, Hey, thanks Ron. I appreciate that very much.
Good cause too. It's always nice to plant a tree
for somebody. I just think that's a wonderful gesture antiq
Rosing Forium. Boy. They are hopping out there. They got
a lot of new plants on of course they got roses,
but so many more things than roses. Lots of new

(27:32):
things in their garden centers. Remember, they got the two
new roses that they bred exclusively available from antiqu Rosingporium,
Glass Slipper and Cupid's Sweetheart. Those are two brand new
roses that they have released. They'll be open, by the
way today from nine to five point thirty, close tomorrow.
Easter Sunday, April twentieth, coming up that Earth Day. Kids

(27:56):
activities are coming up. The Rose and Herb conferences coming up,
by the way. The Rosen Herb Conference is on April
twenty six from ten am to three pm and tomorrow
the tickets close for that. So this is a whole
day of educational seminars and workshops and more. But you
don't delay, I mean, go ahead today. If you're gonna

(28:18):
do it, go ahead to day and get your tickets.
Say close tomorrow Rose and Herb Conference April twenty sixth,
and then on May tenth. If you're planning ahead for
your mom, they're gonna have a Mother's Day tea and luncheon.
They have a wonderful little luncheon, a medley of like
things like finger sandwiches, fresh salads, fruits, vegetables, a variety
of hummus types of dips, and then some real cool

(28:40):
desserts too as well. They'd be a nice thing to
do for mom, with some special teas as well. Now
you need to go to the website Antique Roseanmporium dot
com Antique Roseanmporium dot com and oh you can give
them a call ninety seven nine eight three six fifty
five forty eight nine seven nine eighty three six fifty eight.

(29:01):
You need to make sure and register. You can go
see things going on on their website, but always register
and always follow them, you know, get information from the
sign up to get information from Antiqurosen parm so you
can find out about these things. But main thing is
just get out there. They're still blooming up a storm
out there. It's just beautiful place, really beautiful. This would

(29:24):
be kind of thing you grab some friends and family,
throw them in the car and go, hey, we're going
to have an outing. And you get out there and
you just really enjoy yourself. I promise you you will.
You will love that place. Well, I need to take
a little break here again for some business and when
we come back, we'll come back for your calls. Here's
the number seven one three two one two KTRH. We

(29:47):
got regulars in the water. And if you are dealing
with mosquitos, if you well, if you're living the Greater
Houston area, you're dealing with mosquitos. It's just how things
are down here. Mosquito dunks is a product you just
should have on hand. The mosquita dunks are little like
mini donuts, like those little white, little Debbie donuts, you know,
about that size, but they're hard and crumbly, and you

(30:11):
toss them in water and they float for about it
lasts about a month, and they release enough of the
disease of mosquitoes. Only mosquitoes doesn't kill other insects or
family pet or birds or anything like that. It's very unique.
They release it this substance in the water. It's a
type of bt actually, not the caterpillar type, but it
kills mosquito larvae. And so when the for about a

(30:33):
month that maybe hundred square foot of area will be
covered by it. You can break them up. You want
to crack them up and put them in little places,
you know, maybe the catch basin, under a watering container
to hold the water. You know, mosquitos breed, and that
old mosquitoes need is a teaspoon or a bottle cap
really of water to complete a life cycle. So you

(30:55):
got to take care of these things.

Speaker 8 (30:56):
Now.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
Mosquito dunks that they are the safest simple way to
control mosquitoes, just really really easy to do. Y'all always
should have them on hand. They come in a granule too,
But we talk about the dunks as a little doughnuts.
And again, if you want to take a dunk and
break it up, you can do that if you need
a little smaller amount of it. You're gonna find them everywhere.
Feed stores have them, Ace hardware stores have them. You're

(31:19):
gonna find them at Southwest Fertilizer. You're going to find
them at a lot of our garden centers. A lot
of our mom about been a garden centers carry these
as well. So just grab some have them on hand.
You're going to need them. And you know, if your
neighbor won't take care of their areas, just toss the
mosquito dunk across the fence and land in that puddle

(31:39):
of water that they have back there. Anyway, you get
the idea. Hey, We're going to head now over to
Dayton and talk to Kevin. Hey, Kevin, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (31:50):
Good morning, thanks for taking the calls. Want to call
and talk tomato plants this morning. I've got a container garden.
I've put together in four and a half yelling containers,
and I've planted the Roman tomatoes and the Early Girl tomatoes,
and all the plants are twenty four inches to about

(32:12):
thirty three inches tall right now. I've planted them in
jungle and soil, and I used the little as of mite,
and I'm starting to notice some foliage. Probably about five
percent of the plant is starting to get a little
brown on the ends. It's kind of I've got blooms
they haven't set yet. I was kind of worried about those.

(32:33):
Is there possibly something I need to worry about or
that I need to do as a solomon?

Speaker 7 (32:39):
Maybe?

Speaker 5 (32:40):
Yeah, Kevin, when you say I'm brown on the ends.
You mean the tips and edges of the leaf a brown, Yes, sir,
that's that's a sign. It could be drought, but it
also could be when you use salt based fertilizers, if
you put a lot on, you can get some tip
and margin burn on leaves from the salts in a
salt type fertilizer. Salt, a synthetic type fertilizer. Uh, it

(33:03):
could be that, or it could be the drought. It's
one or the other. And I would just if they're
growing at a good pace, but they look they look
pretty good overall, I would just hold on the fertilizer
for now, not add anymore. Try to keep this sow
moist but not soggy wet. And I think I think
they're going to outgrow this based on what I'm hearing

(33:25):
from you.

Speaker 7 (33:26):
Okay.

Speaker 11 (33:27):
Also, pruning tomato plants, is that something that's you know, recommended,
or do you kind of leave them alone and let's burnt, bloom,
set and hope you get some delicious tomatoes or I
guess I.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
Man, I will allow I'll allow maybe three different trunks
to come up and then remove the other suckers everywhere
there's a leaf you'll get'll shoot and as that plant
gets bigger, it'll have so many shoots that it's just
a wat of foliage in that cage or what however
you're growing them. And so I'll thin them out a

(34:04):
little bit, maybe three maybe four trunks on the tomato
plant and then after that no more uh. And so
that that kind of pruning, just snapping out those little
sucker shoots coming out of the where the leaf attaches
to the stem.

Speaker 8 (34:19):
Okay.

Speaker 11 (34:20):
I also have bell peppers in my my container garden
as well. Is there any any type of fertilizer maybe
you would recommend for the bell peppers. Again, I've planted
all this in jumble in soil, which was great and.

Speaker 5 (34:33):
Yeah, just a standard, yeah, just a standard. You know,
Nelson Nelson in their nutri Star line Nelson Plant Food
has a vegetable fertilizer that's excellent to use for that,
and I would use that. And if you can't get
to any you don't have any in a pinch, just
use some of your lawn fertilizer and moderate amounts and

(34:55):
you can do that. But if you can find the
Nelson vegetable fertilizer that would be the one. All right, okay, well,
good luck with it. Hey, thanks for the call, Thanks
for the call. Appreciate that you are listening to Garden
Line our phone number seven one three two one two
k t R H. We're about to go away here
for a little bit.

Speaker 8 (35:15):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (35:15):
Quality Home Products of Texas. You hear me talk about them,
hear me brag about them all the time. They are
where you can find that quality generaic automatic stand by generator.

Speaker 12 (35:27):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (35:28):
It just it gives you free power. You know, power
goes out. I say free power. It gives you the
free access to power when the power goes out. So
what's happening is the maybe a storm knocks your power out,
and boy, we can have storms. We didn't have to
be hurricane season for us to have storms, as we
learned last year. Again, but when the power goes out,

(35:52):
you don't have to get up. The automatic stand by
kicks on and you're in business just like that. Uh
and it turned it turns it right back on. The
thing Quality Home though, to remember, is they take care
of their customers from the time you call them. They
put you in the generator that fits your needs because
they talk to you about that. They find out what
is it.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
That you need.

Speaker 5 (36:10):
You know, what do you want your whole house air
conditioning and everything? Do you want just to keep the
freezers running? You see what I'm saying. I mean they
work with you on that. They make sure you get
the right generator. They take care of all the set up,
all the regulation or any kind of permit you might need.
They do the whole job, and then when they walk away,

(36:31):
that's when the service really begins. With twenty four three
sixty five, seven days a week service, I mean, you
can get help from them, and that's why so many
people swear by them. That's why they keep winning the
Better Business Bureau Awards. They've done it eight times now,
the Customer Service Award. That's why the Houston Chronicle called

(36:51):
them the best of the best in the home contractor
division in twenty twenty three. This is the family owned
operation since nineteen eighty nine. Financing options are available quality
TX dot com, Quality TX dot com seven to one
three quality Listen. It's a process to get a generator
set up. So don't delay. Don't wait until we are

(37:14):
in the big middle of hurricane season. Go ahead and
call them now. And because it's it's almost upon us.
Go ahead and call them now and start that process.
Find out, you know what it's going to take to
get you set up with some peace of mind. Those
once in a lifetime storms keep happening, happening, don't they

(37:35):
rough here last year. RCW Nurseries is the garden center
there at Tumbull Parkway in belt wag eight and they
have so many cool things.

Speaker 8 (37:47):
I was.

Speaker 5 (37:47):
I was there recently a for an appearance, had a
real good time out there, and I was just impressed
by I'm always impressed by the stuff they have. But
they had a really good selection of the Cajun hibiscus,
which is my favorite. In fact, I got me a
couple that day. I bought one last year too. The
Cajun hibiscus, the colors in it are just gorgeous and

(38:10):
you just have to go see just go look or
go online and just take a look at what the
pictures of what they look like. They have really good
selection of shrubs. We walk by and just intoxicated by
the Confederate or star jasmine, those little white flowers they're
blooming around town right now. Oh my gosh, they're awesome.
They are awesome, really good shrub selection. They grow their

(38:32):
own trees up in Plannersville at Williamson Tree Farm up there,
and so you get a quality tree, and you get
a tree species that wants to grow here, that's gonna
do well here. That's what they that's what they're all about,
and they know how to do it. They know how
to take care of things and provide you that. Nay,
if you want to planet yourself, you can't. If you
want them to come planet, they'll come professionally. Put that
thing in and the right way. Especially those trees are

(38:54):
too heavy for you to handle, you might want to
have them come out and do it. It's r CW
Nurseries dot com again Tomball Parkway and Beltway eight r
c W Nurseries the other day and doing some planting.
I always have Medina products on hand, and I got
this six twelve six, the Medina plant food has to

(39:15):
grow six twelve six. It's got course those nutrients in it,
the six twelve six. It's got Medina soil activator, it's
got humate, humic acid, seaweed extracts. Basically, it's a concoction
to help plants grow. Now, I think the number one
used for it is when you're transplanting water those plants
in with it, mix it in water, put it in

(39:36):
the water, and can like I do, and do it
again twice more about a week apart. You can use
this anytime of the year. It's not just for transplanting.
You meant folier with it if you want foldier spray.
But main thing is get it on hand so you
have it. I do, and that way whenever I plant,
I just reach for has to grow six twelve six
plant food from Medina. I hear music, that means I

(39:59):
quit talking. All right, folks, Well we're gonna take a
little break here. When we come back. Angelo and Kingwood
you'll be our first up today. Guess where I'm going
to be today, Warren Southern Garden in Kingwood. Come out
and see me out there. All of you out in
that direction, Kingwood and Humble and Porter and all the
way all out there, come out and see me at
Warren Southern Gardens. I'll be there from twelve thirty to

(40:21):
two thirty. Twelve thirty to two thirty. They've got some
great specials going on. I'll tell you about in a
little bit. I don't care where you live. Coming out
to Warrens today. You need to see that place. It
is awesome. All right, folks, we're back. Let's uh, let's

(40:42):
get busy here. We got it's spring. It's spring, and
there's so much to talk about. I mean, I could
do a monologue for four hours on this show much less.
The main reason we're here is that's to take your
calls seven one three two one two ktr eight seven
one three two one two k t r H. If
you are looking for a place where you can walk
in and any product you're gonna need for your garden

(41:05):
is going to be there. And I say product, I
mean products to control weeds, products to control insects, products
to control diseases. I mean fertilizers to provide that nutrient.
I'm talking about fertilizer spreaders. I'm talking about tools. Southwest
Fertilizer in Southwest Houston. That's it. But around since nineteen
fifty five, seventieth the anniversary year. So congratulations to Southwest Fertilizer.

(41:30):
And you don't stick around that long if you're not
doing a lot right, and boy they really are. If
they don't have it, you don't need it. It's as
simple as that. The largest selection of all kinds of
things like that in the greater Houston area, including for
those of you who organic gardeners, you're going, well, those
all sound like chemicals. Well, everything is a chemical. But
if you want organic products, go to Southwest Fertilizer, the

(41:54):
biggest selection of organic products in the entire region, right
there at Southwest Fertilizer, or Abisa, Nutt and Runwick in
Southwest Houston seven to one three six six six one
seven four four, or go to the website Southwest Fertilizer
dot com. But the main thing is just go check
it out. You'll see what I'm talking about. If you
look on my schedule, you hear me say things on

(42:15):
the radio about products or this or that. They're all
there at Southwest Fertilizer. We're gonna head now out to
Kingwood and talk to Angelo.

Speaker 13 (42:23):
Hello, Angelo, how you doing, Hey, Skip, how are you today?

Speaker 5 (42:28):
I'm well, thank you?

Speaker 13 (42:29):
Okay, Hey, here's what I got. I got a lemon
and a lime tree Myers lemon and a lime tree
bottom last year during thirty five gallon containers. I brought
them in during the winter when we had those couple freezes,
maybe a couple of weeks, but AnyWho. Both of them
were full of blooms. I mean full of them. The
lime tree produces lime. There's numerous lines on there. But

(42:52):
the lemon tree, after all the blooms fell up, not
one lemon is there. I just wondered, what's going on.
I've had orange trees and lemon trees in the past,
and they all when they blew them at least got something. Yeah,
but not one single lemon. And there were bees pollinating
throughout the late winter. But I don't know what's going

(43:12):
on there.

Speaker 5 (43:13):
Nothing Okay, well who knows? Who knows for sure? When
those trees get stressed, they drop fruit. They have bort fruit,
and so you know, if it went through a drought,
stress or sometimes cold temperatures can do that. But the
bottom line is something something stressed those trees. And I
can't tell you exactly what it was, because you know,

(43:34):
whn't they're watching them every day. But something stressed them.
Have have they produced crops for you in the past.

Speaker 13 (43:41):
This is the second year I put them in. I
bought them at one of the box stores, but they
were the same growers. I've had these trees in the past,
but they all froze. But I don't know. Like I said,
I don't think they were stressed. They were water properly,
they were put outside after the freeze was gone. Everything
I did I think was right, But just.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
I don't know if it's well, how big is the
pot that they're in?

Speaker 13 (44:04):
Thirty five gallons? Okay it was, Yeah, there was canisters
that the landscaper's plant a huge treason.

Speaker 5 (44:13):
Well, it seems like you're doing your part. So they
need to go out and give them a good talking
to because they're not doing theirs, you know, other than
you know, what I said about the stress is. It
is also true though that when a citrus is young,
it is more prone to a boarding than as it
gets older and better established. So that that factor is

(44:35):
in there, you should have you shouldn't have lost everything
though on that line, on that.

Speaker 13 (44:39):
Wag, I'm sorry on the tag itself that the first
bloom was in twenty three and I bought him in
twenty four and it's twenty five, So I don't know. Maybe,
like you said, it's just maybe a little bit too young,
but they're probably you know, waist high.

Speaker 5 (44:57):
Yeah, some very fact came in. Yeah, some factors came in,
I believe fully that if they're in good sunlight, you
can have a crop next year. I think you're going
to get a crop next year. I like a sign
that something's wrong.

Speaker 13 (45:14):
In the past, I've noticed that they would bloom again
maybe in July and August.

Speaker 12 (45:21):
You can.

Speaker 13 (45:22):
They have in the past. So basically what you're saying,
it could be anything. It just could be there may
be too young, or if I didn't do anything wrong,
it's just mother nature taken hold of things for whatever reason.

Speaker 5 (45:33):
But just moderate nutrition. But don't push them with too
much nitrogen. That's another thing that that can be a
problem with good fruit set on.

Speaker 13 (45:42):
Some certain types of plants have no fertilizer on them.

Speaker 5 (45:47):
Alrighty, all right, well hold your mouth right, clean living,
fancy gardening footwork, and we'll we'll see lemons before long.
I believe that.

Speaker 13 (45:58):
All right, Updated that happens. But thanks for the info.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
Sure, Hey, Angela, I'm gonna be at Warren Southern Gardens
today from twelve thirty to two thirty. Get a chance
to swing by there.

Speaker 13 (46:09):
I'll tell you what. I'll bring the tree and you
could bless them since it's Easter, or maybe that'll do
something Oh.

Speaker 5 (46:14):
My, now that would be if someone will bring a camera,
I will that will be a photo. Oh my gosh,
thanks a lot, Angela. All right, the Blessing of the
trees today live at Warren Southern Gardens. Oh my gosh.
All right, Well, at least we're sort of having fun here,
I guess slightly, Reverend fun. Nature's Way Resources up in

(46:40):
the tumble or excuse me, the Conro area is an
awesome place. Number one. They've got some of the best
quality soil products you're gonna find anywhere, rose soil, leafmo compost,
you know, special products for mulches, a number of options.
So what do you want to grow? Azelia, blueberry, something
likes acid loving soil. Tell them they'll point you to

(47:01):
that one. You can buy it by the bulk. You
can buy by the bag. You can go get it,
you can have them deliver it. You can swing by
garden centers and find Nature's Way Resources bags there as well.
Every Friday is Fungal Friday. That means fungal based compost.
High quality compost by the Way is available at a
lower price ten percent off bags the forty pound bags

(47:23):
and if you want to do bulk twenty percent off
of the bulk purchase itself. Nature's Way Resources dot Com.
That's a website. It's new, they've revamped it. It's gorgeous.
Check it out Nature's Way Resources dot Com. We're going
to go now out to know, we're not going to
go out. Ruth and Hockley your first up. When we

(47:43):
come back. I would have about ten seconds if I
took your call right now, So we're not going to
do that to you. Just remember, folks, come on out
to Kingwood to Warren's Southern Gardens today twelve thirty to
two thirty. I'm going to be there. I have some
cool things. I'm gonna give a way too. By the way,
all right, welcome back to the garden Line. Good to
have you with us. Hey, you hear me talk about

(48:06):
Nelson plant Food all the time. They've got so many
great products. Their Turf Star line is all kinds of
things for turf, basically what it amounts to. They have
a product called Bruce's Sprew. Bruces Sprew is a interesting
product because you know, we talk about fast release and
we talk about slow release. Well, Bruce's Brew is kind
of like all the above. It's kind of like both

(48:27):
you do get a quick release from it, but not
all the nutrients are quick release. Some of them will
gradual release over time and it'll take a while for
them to fully release their nutrients out. So you kind
of get the best of both worlds in many ways.
Bruce's sprew as this temperature now is warming up, it's
going to give you a good quick greenup of your grass.
And then as that nutrient release evens out over time,

(48:51):
you got a nice regulated growth rate. It really helps
the roots to develop to sustain good root depth and
resilience in summer heat. You know, we need a good
root system. And when you over fertilize with nitrogen, when
you overdo a nitrogen in one point in time, you
know too much at once. You get top growth at

(49:11):
the expense of root growth. But with Bruce's brew, you
don't get that because it's going to gradually provide it
over time, that carbon based nitrogen in it. It's going
to feed soil microbes, and you know, when you have
healthy soil, you have healthy lawn. And when you have
a healthy lawn, it's going to be less vulnerable to
a lot of the pest and disease issues that Alan's

(49:32):
a lawn can face here in the Greater Houston area.
You're going to find Bruces Brew and other Nelsen products
at many retailers across Ale across the whole Houston Greater
Houston areia. I would highly recommend it. It works. I
know because I've tried it. We're going to go now
out to Hockley and talk to Ruthie this morning. Hey Ruthie,

(49:54):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (49:56):
Hi Skip, thank you.

Speaker 14 (49:58):
I have a piggy ma and rose that.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
I bought at the arbor Gate last year.

Speaker 6 (50:03):
It's about ten feet tall and I'm thinking about transplanting it.
But if the transplant will kill it, I won't do it,
so I wanted your advice.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
It won't kill it, it'll it'll set it back because
it's putting all its spring growth on and then you're
going to wrap up a good part of the root
system no matter how much you try to get But
if you if you need to get it moved, go
ahead and move it. I would cut it back by
about maybe fifty percent something like that. Well it put

(50:36):
it in its because yeah, it'll it'll come back from that.
Put it in now. If you cut it back, yes,
fifty and put it in its new spot immediately. Don't
let the roots dry out one bit, and get them
moved over the new spot watered in really well. And
then if you have a way of draping something over
it to just give it a little bit of a
break from sun for a little bit as it recovers. Okay,

(50:59):
that would be hopeful. You don't want to you don't
want to put it in deep shade. It needs sunlight
to produce carbohydrates to recover. But just a little bit
of a break and after a couple of weeks you
can kind of pull that shading off of it, or
the break from the sun. That's what I recommend. Just
keep it, keep it moist. When you dig it up,

(51:19):
you'll see how big the root system you're moving is.
And that's where all the water has to go for
at least three or four weeks, uh, and then gradually
watering a bigger area. But it has only roots in
that area, and it's got to produce new roots, which
is within a couple of weeks it'll have a good
root system starting its way back.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
All right, very good bye, thank you, Skip, I appreciate it, all.

Speaker 5 (51:43):
Right, thank you, appreciate that call. I put a post
on Facebook the other day of my Peggy Martin rose
and in the photo our Tex and Ellie, my Golden Retrievers. Uh,
you know, Peggy Martin is an incredible rose. It survived.
The reason Peggy Martin, the reason we even know Peggy Martin,
the reason it even has that name is when Katrina

(52:04):
hit and New Orleans where this rose was living, by
the way, was under twenty feet of salt water for
like two weeks. I mean it was like, well, nothing
lives with that. When the saltwater subsided from Katrina, the
darn thing came back and kept going and kept blooming.

(52:25):
And the lady who had the place's name was Peggy
Martin and that's why they named it that. And so
that is a tough rose. Well, so I bring it
to my house. I put it in the back near
a little arbor area we have to sit under, and
it grew. And then my two Golden Retrievers, Tax and Alley,
they decided, you know what, why don't we chew that

(52:45):
off about a foot above the ground. And they did,
and I walked out and I talked to them about it.
That's a nice way to put it, and they looked
at me as if they had remorse and out. I see,
the first two years they did it twice. So at
some point they did it again, and it's like, okay,

(53:06):
you guys are just incorrigible anyway. So I put this
little ring of hardware cloth around it, you know, the
little half inch square hardware cloth, and then they couldn't
shoot through that, or at least they've decided not to try.
And now it's up over the trellis and it looks
just beautiful. I took a picture of it with the

(53:27):
two guilty parties who have no shame Texanlly underneath it.
So there you go. I love those dogs, but I'm
telling you they can try my patients. I thought when
I was getting a golden retriever it was like bread
for you know, retrieving birds for bird hunters or something.
Well I don't know what it was bred for, but
I know this. When I plant a plant in a

(53:48):
flower bed, they will retrieve it and bring it to
the back porch and set it there on the mat
going in the back door, as if they accomplished me
a favor, like, hey, skip, you forgot this plant while
you're out in the garden earlier. Yeah, Golden Retrievers. By
the way, Also, since I'm tongue in cheek lamenting about goldens,

(54:09):
we love those dogs. Whenever, there needs to be a
Texas law that if you sell Golden Retriever puppies you
have to give away a free Roomba vacuum cleaner to
everyone who buys one, because we have two. Rumba type
is not that brand, but Roomba type vacuum cleaners. They

(54:32):
work every day every day. Try to keep up with
those Golden Retrievers. All right, there, you go, enough about that.
If you've been to the Arbor Gate up in Tomball,
if you haven't, you need to go. It is one
of the premiere outstanding garden centers we have in our area.
You go in first of all, they for those of
you who haven't been in a while. They have a

(54:53):
new parking lot in back and you take Tresher Road
around the back. That's where you can park and get in.
Trough easy to get in and out, very safe, very nice,
and you need to take advantage of it. It's the
one I use all the time now. But anyway, Arburgate
is the place you wander through and your jaws, jaws
hanging open, you know, and if you're like me, there's
a little droll coming out of the corner of your

(55:13):
mouth because you're looking at all these awesome plants, beautiful
spread out everywhere. It's just great. But I think despite
all the beauty and all the just the fun of
walking around and seeing everything they have, I think the
strong point of Arburgate there's two things. Number One, they
bring in an incredibly wide selection all through the year

(55:36):
of everything you might want to grow or didn't even
know existed, that that becomes your new favorite plant. Number Two,
the folks that work there, Beverly and Kennon down to
the even the ladies at the checkout. Everyone is friendly
and helpful and doesn't mind. They don't point it like, oh,
go to the other side of the garden center. There's

(55:57):
one of those plants over there. They walk you to it,
they take you to if you want. If you need help,
like putting together a plant or something, they'll spend some
time with you. They'll answer your questions. You can bring
them questions and samples and pictures and things. It's service.
It is friendly service, quality plants. And you know, I
always say brown stuff before green stuff. Before you leave arbigate,

(56:20):
grab the three the one two three completely easy system.
That is an organic food complete, which is an organic
fertilizer with calcium two by the way, organic soil complete
and Organic compost complete. Those are the three. The latter
two have the expanded hiale in the mix, which our
clay soils need. Now, those three are the bags that

(56:45):
go in the back of the car when you bring
home the plants, brown stuff before the green stuff. But
if you want more than just bags of them, well,
the organic Soil Complete and the Organic Compost Complete are
available in bulk. They can bring a giant sack out
there and set it on the property, on the driveway
or whatever, so you can have it. You don't want

(57:05):
to eight hundred bags, we'll just buy it by the
bulk and they will deliver it. They will deliver it.
All you have to do is contact them, go to
the website, give them a call and find out about
how to do that. But the soil and the compost
can be delivered in bulk, and you should consider that
because getting the soil right is so important. As wonderful
as the plants are that they have, you got to

(57:28):
get the soil right for any plant to have its
best chance of success. And that's why we're buying plants
is to have success. You are listening to garden Line.
I am your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to
help you have success. We want you to have a
bountiful garden. We want you to have a beautiful landscape,
and we want you to have more fun in the process.

(57:50):
That's Gardening is fun. It is a great, great hobby
and you can have fun too as you do it.
Sweet Green is a product produced by the folks at Nitrophoss.
Sweet Green is gosh. It's a it's an organic product
that has eleven percent nitrogen nutrient in it. Now that's

(58:14):
a lot for an organic product. It dissolves away. It's
by the way. It's a sweet basically a sugar molasses
type base, and so it dissolves the way into the
soil and that carbon makes microbes go nuts. They love
that stuff and they release that nutrient out of there
and it makes your longo nuts. It makes it green.

(58:35):
It's sweet green. That's why it has that name. You
can put it down, water it in really good and
watch the results and it will be it will be
very fast and it will be very impressive from sweet Green. Now,
sweet Green, being a nitrofoss product, is available to a
lot of different places. If you go to Plantation Ace
Hardware out there on FM three fifty nine in Richmond, Rosenberg.

(59:00):
If you go to Langham Creek Ase Hardbare by the way,
that's one at Copperfield on FM five point twenty nine,
Barker Cypress right in that area, or RCW Nursery Tambo Parkway.
All places where you're going to get Nightcross products like
the sweet Green it works, absolutely works. Let's see our
phone number. Ought to give you a phone number here

(59:20):
seven one three two one two k t r H
seven one three two one two k t r H.
Give us a call. By the way, Craig called earlier,
and I think we got word back to him. But
he was asking for an evergreen tree that could be
used like in an entrance way to a church and
uh kind of close to the church. Uh, and I

(59:42):
was kind of drawing a blank on a good evergreen tree.
We talked about a number of different things, but uh
uh someone had called in. Excuse me, I'm sorry, Ronald
called got I get my name's crossed here Ronald called
about that lake Jackson. Craig called in and he goes, hey,
what about southern Magnoia is like, dah, yes, that's a

(01:00:03):
good idea. Thanks for that reminder, Craig. Southern magnolia grows
slow though, so it's not one that's gonna, you know,
be a big beautiful tree very fast. And they do
get quite large, okay, but in time that with some
you know, trimming of branches to protect them from rubbing
against the roof of the of the church or the

(01:00:23):
eaves or whatever. You don't want to get them too close.
That would be a nice one that would get beautiful,
beautiful blooms in the summertime and provide year round color.
The only thing about southern magnolia to keep in mind, Ronald,
is the the thing casts a deep shade all year,

(01:00:44):
and so it's hard to get things to grow under
southern magnolia. Monkey grass, mondo grass will grow under a
southern magnolia pretty well. That's something that you could do,
but in general it's kind of hard to get you know,
real good growth of other things show You may just
end up with a nice bark multched area underneath there

(01:01:05):
that would probably be the way I would go. Hey,
by the way, jungle Land from Nitroposs is a potting
soil for indoors and for outdoors. The flour and vegetable
planting soil is for outdoors. The water saber potting soil
is for indoors. Someone was mentioning planning citric or something
a minute ago in jungle Land and the stuff works
being a night Foss product. Fishers Hardware down on South

(01:01:27):
Broadway and Laporte and in Mott Bellevue, the Fishers on
thirty one eighty, as well as the M and D
Beamer in Sagemont. We'll be right back, all right, Welcome
back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. You'd
like to give me a call today, by the way,
seven one three two one two KTRH seven one three

(01:01:51):
two one two kt RH. We are here to help
you have success in your garden. That's what we want
to see. Gardening should be fun. You don't need to
fail at gardening. In fact, I'm going to be so
bold as to say this, and I hope, I hope
you hear this. You cannot fail at gardening. Now you go, well,
wait a minute, if you saw the plants I've killed over.

(01:02:12):
I know you can. You cannot have success in a
particular season. But you only fail when you quit, when
you give up trying, when you say I've got a
brown thumb, first of all, you don't. Then you fail
because you quit. But when it comes to gardening, every

(01:02:32):
year is a new year. Listen, look at nature. There
are plants. They come up from seed in a year
and then they die and they're gone, and then next
year other seeds come up and it starts over, and
it starts over. Perennials die to the ground and they
come back. Nature has a cycle to it, and there
is nothing wrong with replacing plants. If something doesn't do well,

(01:02:56):
you don't like how it's doing, maybe it dies. Replace it.
You can do that. They're thing called garden centers. They
will help you do that. They will help you do that.
But try new things start over. Give us a call
on garden Line. Go on to my website gardeningwi skip
dot com. Find out where you know. If you look
at the website, you'll find out everything from coal protection

(01:03:19):
to plants, to how to get rid of that's edge
to I mean, all the different things we deal with
this garden. One by one. We're adding them there to
the website to help you have success. And once you
learn what plants want, you just get better and better,
and what you think is a brown thumb becomes greener
and greener because you're giving plants what they want. That

(01:03:40):
is really the bottom line to successful gardening is making
plants happy, and we can help you do that. So
don't give up. Give it a try. And a great
way to do that is to go to places that
sell good plants and then have good advice. Okay, places
that sell good plants and that have good advice. You're

(01:04:01):
at if you're out in West Houston, Nelson Water Garden
and Nursery out and Katie, that is the prime spot
with that. Now, water gardens and nursery. Okay, that's what
Nelson's is. Well, they've always been water gardens. I mean
that they're nationally known for quality water gardens. If you've
got this giant container and you go, oh, that would
be pretty if water came out of the top and

(01:04:23):
went over the sides and recircle back. They invented that
they can take your container and they can make it
into something like that, or they can they can sell
you a beautiful. Gosh, their pottery is so gorgeous. One
of the kind stuff you can only get there. They
can do that, and of course the water plants, you know,
lolly pets and loaded all kinds of cool plants, and

(01:04:43):
then the fish shamunkins and and the kois and whatnot.
By the way, take your kids out there. They'll give
them a little bit of fish food and then go
out in the back. There's a pond they have toward
the back of the property. It's beautiful under shady areas.
Kids can go back and feed the fish. And these
koi come right out of They just kind of rise
up out of the water with big old mouths wide

(01:05:04):
open and you just drop the feet in and the
kiddos will love that. But anyway, I'm digressing. By the way,
today starting at nine am, they're going to have their
Easter egg hunt today going on out there. It's a
nice family event. They always have things going on. But
you also when you're out there, just look for some

(01:05:25):
of the planets that they have. I don't care what
kind of plant you're looking for. It could be a
copper canyon daisy. It's one of my favorite. If you
don't know Copper Canyon daisy. It's actually a type of marigold,
not a daisy, but it has little yellow flowers and
it has strong pine slash cetrus scented foliage. So get

(01:05:46):
your head around that pine and cetrus, very strong pine
and ctrus scented foliage. Some people don't care for it.
I love it, absolutely love it. They've got those. Do
you need roses, do you need hadranges? Do you need herbs,
do you need flowers? You name it, they've got it
at Nelson Water Garden in nursery. By the way, they
are on Katie Fort Ben Road. You turn north from

(01:06:08):
I ten, go north just a little bit and they're
on the right hand side. Nelsonwatergardens dot Com. We are
going to go now out and talk to Katie. Hello Katie,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
Hello Skip, I sent you picture.

Speaker 7 (01:06:26):
Okay, a new of.

Speaker 6 (01:06:28):
My newly sodded backyard. Weeks and I have a boxer
and he is destroying one section because he relieves himself
on the tree. What can I do?

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
Okay, well you can.

Speaker 14 (01:06:50):
I can't reach out, believe me.

Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
I I know I know about dogs and that so
a couple of things. If you put a bed around
the tree and just had some molts or something there.
Then he could still go there and you just wouldn't
have grass in that spot. I think it looks kind
of nice to have a little bed around a tree
like that, as far as you're not going to retrain him.

(01:07:15):
As you said, it's a tree. The boxer's a dog,
So you know, there you go if you go out
and rents down areas like that very well with water
and flesh out some of the ammonious salts and things
that are that are there that's burning the grass. But
you're not going to get out and do that all

(01:07:36):
the time every time the dog goes over. So I think, yeah,
it's it's that you could do that, but that's just
kind of the way the way that that is. So
I think it's a situation where, you know, life gives
you lemons, make lemonade, they say, I think turn turning
that area into something just a little bit different. And
he's not going to go that far away because he's
trying to hit the tree, so it's going to always

(01:07:58):
be kind of around the base. I would put anything
that's you know, like real thick, chunky stuff, so he's
afraid he doesn't like stepping on it. You know, let
him go and walk up to it. But but just
a little bit of a ring them all. It's probably
is the simplest thing that you can do.

Speaker 7 (01:08:13):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:08:14):
Is there anything I can put on like a like
a soil eight or anything for the other small areas
where he sometimes goes?

Speaker 15 (01:08:23):
You know?

Speaker 6 (01:08:23):
Is there anything like a.

Speaker 5 (01:08:26):
Yeah, it's just uh, it's just the primarily the salt
type things in the in the urine that is doing that.
I you know, I need to look into that a
little bit further. I think there's probably some products that
might discourage them from go to an area. But then
he's got to go to the bathroom.

Speaker 14 (01:08:43):
So you're just moving on that fat around the tree.

Speaker 6 (01:08:46):
The tree is his area, and I don't mind, but
i'd like to preventing like he's starting to do another
new spot and I want to prevent him from that one.
So I would love some some guidance on you know,
is there a parent that that's not And then the
other thing about the backyard, it's newly sodded six weeks.
I know you're supposed to let it establish routes, but

(01:09:07):
do you when should I fertilize.

Speaker 14 (01:09:10):
Do I wait till fall?

Speaker 6 (01:09:11):
Is there anything I put on it? Now that I
know that the it's you know, the roots have been established.

Speaker 5 (01:09:17):
Well, first of all, it looks really good. They did
a good or the or you did a good job
of sodding and they did well. Congratulations, you did good.
You obviously you watered it regularly, and I would it's
done in six weeks. You should be on a regular
watering schedule by now, I would. I would wait. I say,
wait a month, but really you wait longer. I'll be

(01:09:38):
honest with you. I planted some side last year and
I didn't fertilize it all summer just because I didn't
get around to it. And it looked good, and and
you know, I wish I had, but I just didn't
get to it. So your lawn's going to be okay.
But after six weeks, if you want to start in
maybe a slow release product, something that will drag out
over time. Do you do you use organic or synthetic?

Speaker 6 (01:10:03):
I do organic because well, one I do it because
I believe in it, and two I do it because.

Speaker 7 (01:10:09):
He's on it.

Speaker 6 (01:10:10):
And three I also almost all my plants or pollinator
plants or like, I have a ton of passing vine
and pipe vine and milkweed, so I don't do anything
that's going to hurt my pollinators.

Speaker 5 (01:10:25):
All right, So get the Microlife green bag, Microlife green
bag and put it down. And I would also do
the purple bag, which is humates plus that is those
two do different things for the grass and in the soil.
But go ahead and do that. I would do Microlife
probably now, probably in another eight weeks and then and again,

(01:10:49):
you know you can. You can do it several times
during the summer if you like to.

Speaker 6 (01:10:53):
Okay, Okay, I just don't want it to have a
hard time this summer, Okay, appreciate it, all.

Speaker 5 (01:10:58):
Right, Katie, you bet, thank you for the call. And
you should have mentioned this to them. You know you're
looking for a micro live product, you go to an
Ace Hardware store, you're probably gonna find it because Ace
Hardware carries everything that you need for your lawn, your garden,
your landscape, you name it. You can go to the website.
It's Acehardwaretexas dot com. Don't forget that, Texas. That's our

(01:11:18):
Houston area garden line Ace Hardware group here. Ace Hardware
Texas dot com. I've got a lot of good Ace
Hardware stores here in the Houston area, and that's how
you find them when you are looking for anything for
your lawn, for your garden, for success with those outdoor
living areas. That's the place you're going to find it.
You can find it in places like All Seasons Ace Hardware,

(01:11:39):
which is on Interstate forty five up in Willis. You
go out to Kingwood to k and m Ace Hardware
and Kingwood Drive, go down to let's say, Chalmers, Ace
and Galveston on Broadway. Those are just examples of the
many Ace Hardware stores you're going to find it. Ace
Hardware Texas dot Com. I'm gonna take a little break
when we come back, Chris from the Woodlands. You'll be first.

(01:12:02):
Alrighty folks, we don't quite have any sun out there yet,
but we're gonna. We're gonna. We will be soaking and
God to have you back with us. Hey or Hayes
Hidden Gardens. Have you been there? If you're down south
of Houston, you need to go by there. They are
out in Alvin. Actually specifically they are if you're in

(01:12:23):
Alvin and you're heading down six towards Santa Fe you
end up turning to the right to go out just
off the road there a little bit. That's what it's
called hidden gardens, I guess. But they have stunning Peggy
Martin roses still in full bloom. They look good. People
keep talking about Peggy Martin. I was just talking about
Peggy Martin a minute ago. Or Hayes Hidden Gardens has
got it. They've got lots of good seasonal color plants,

(01:12:45):
things like Vinka's and Angelonia. By the way, Angelonia is
one of the best summer color plants we can have,
and there's so many color options. They also have Vitex.
Vitex is a beautiful shrub slash tree, mainly shrub that
is awesome for the summertime blue flowers. If you share
it back after they bloom, don't let it go to seed,

(01:13:07):
it just makes it bloom more. And it's a great plant.
Got one in my own yard. I love by text
now or he's got plenty of He's got plenty of
other shrubs too. By the way, Hey, he's opened today
from eight to four and tomorrow he's closed it's Easter.
But swing out there to where he's Hidden Gardens on
Elizabeth Street in Alvin, Texas. All right, Elizabeth Street, alrighty well,

(01:13:33):
I am going to head to the phones here real quick.
We're going to go to Chris in the Woodlands. Hey, Chris,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:13:40):
Well, thank you, Skip, I'm good morning. I bought some hardware,
hardwood mulch, and put down on bear lawn out front
a couple of days ago, and two days later put
down some San Augustine side, and I guess it was

(01:14:03):
a day or two later. I picked up one of
them to see what was going on and if they
were rooting. But all I saw was teeny eats eats,
the teeny small worms everywhere under the one that I've lifted.

Speaker 5 (01:14:20):
Underneath the What was it that you lifted? I'm sorry,
what was it that you lifted.

Speaker 12 (01:14:26):
The side the San Augustine's side that I had brought them?

Speaker 5 (01:14:31):
Okay, well that's not a problem. Did they look like
earthworms but just tiny? Or were they white or some
other color?

Speaker 12 (01:14:39):
They were white, and they're just wiggling all over the place.
They're hardly even, they're less than a centimeter long.

Speaker 5 (01:14:46):
Okay, yeah, don't worry about that. Those could be baby earthworms, actually,
but I wouldn't worry about them. There's not a there's
not a problem that attacks lawns that fits out description
anywhere close. So your your gut. If anything, it's a
good thing probably to have them there.

Speaker 12 (01:15:02):
So yeah, all right, I was afraid it was termite babies.

Speaker 5 (01:15:07):
So now termites are going to be a little little
white larvae. You know, they'll look like a little tiny,
you know, termites. But yeah, don't don't worry about that.

Speaker 12 (01:15:18):
You're good, Okay, good, thank you. I appreciate that, you.

Speaker 5 (01:15:22):
Bet, thanks for thank you for the call. I appreciate
that very much. Lots of wild critters out there in
the landscape, and you know, we just have to kind
of realize that just because something masks six legs or
in this case, worms don't have legs. But just a
lot of times people see a quote bug and they
think it needs to die. And then that wasn't the

(01:15:45):
question Chris had. But I get these questions a lot.
People They see a bug and they think, oh, what
am I going to do? It's got to be bad. No, No,
if you were to make a pie chart of all
the insects, the vast majority, almost the whole pie, is
going to be things that are either beneficial or of
no consequence to whatever plant you're seeing this bug on. Okay,

(01:16:06):
a few pests for any particular plant are out there
that we're concerned about, but it is a fraction of
what's out there. So the first thing you think about
when you see something with six legs crawling around on
a plant is it's not a problem. The second thing
is it could be. We can look into it, but
probably not. Probably not. That's the best way to look

(01:16:29):
at it. I was talking with the folks that B
and B turf pros this week, and you know, BnB
is a family owned operation. BnB provides honest quality work.
You know, you want to do a compost top dressing,
you want to do aer ration, They got you covered.
And by the way, this is important, don't make a

(01:16:50):
note of this. Don't zone out on me. Here. Free
aerration with purchase of compost top dressing through May. Just
through May. So we we got them out a month
and so or so left in this. But if you
purchase compost top dressing, they'll just do aeration for free
during that time. Now, remember this compost top dressing and

(01:17:11):
aeration as a process. You hear me talk about this
a lot, but it's an expensive thing for the company
to get out and do. They got a haul equipment
to your site, They got to bring in composts to
your site, and they can't just run all over every place.
That's why our suppliers here on Garden Line cover a
certain area. BnB covers the air from Sugarland and Missouri

(01:17:32):
City on the north of the west side up down
Highway six and all the way across over to Alvin
and Friendswood and Dickinson and League City, you know, past
Pairlin and Manvel and all of that. That's the region
that they cover. Now, if you are going to do
this free aeration, there is a minimum of eight hundred
and ninety five dollars for top dress that you're going

(01:17:56):
to provide. Okay, so you get the cop dress done,
they do the free aeration and aeration. It does cost
to get it out there, but it is one of
the single best things you can do to a lawn.
Prices start around five hundred dollars for small yards for compost,
top dressing and aeration. But they're they're bringing expensive equipment

(01:18:16):
out and they're bringing cores of soil out of the soil,
dropping them on the surface and When that happens, then
they top dress and it falls down in those holes
and it gets oxygen into the soil and that is
what invigorates a lawn so much. Again, it's one of
the most things. Yes, it's important to water. Yes it's
important to fertilize and mow and all those are important.

(01:18:36):
But if you're looking at an area that's struggling, maybe
it's chinchbugs or drought from the past, or some cold injury,
or compost or compaction rather from foot traffic, or just
a heavy equal a soil kind of thing. Aeration and
compost stop dressing is important. They do it to golf courses.
If you want to have top quality turf, aeration and

(01:18:57):
top dressing is a way to do it. And that's important.
By the way. The website BB no end, BB Turfpros
dot com, Bbturfpros dot com seven one three two three
four fifty five ninety eight seven one three, two, three, four,
five five nine eight. Let's go now out to Friendswood
and we're going to talk to Mark. Hey, Mark, welcome

(01:19:19):
to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:19:20):
Hi scoop.

Speaker 5 (01:19:23):
My loan has large brown spots in it and I'm
sensing photos to email, wondering if you could healthy figure
out what's going on with it. You sent those to me, Mark, Yes,
you said, okay, let me get that in front of
me and open it up here and take a look. Oh, yes,

(01:19:44):
I did see these. You sent these yesterday, your day fords.

Speaker 6 (01:19:47):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:19:48):
So what I see there is primarily where riiseoctonia, which
is uh the disease that causes uh large patch or
brown pat. Those are circles that rise octnia caused, and
they're trying to green up, but they're not doing a
very good job of it. Now that we're having warmer temperatures,

(01:20:09):
you should be seeing more green up of it. And
I think you may also have a disease called take
all root rot that's in there. Now. You can't diagnose
these specifically, and one by looking at a photo. I've
just seen enough of this stuff that I think that's
what you're looking at. Take all and large patch are

(01:20:31):
both on my lawn care schedule. If you go to
my website Gardening with Skip dot com, you can find
my lawn care schedule lawn disease and weed schedule. That's
the one and just take a look at it, and
it tells you when they occur, and what to do
about them, when to apply it, and what to apply

(01:20:52):
and all of that. At this point, something like aeration
would be helpful making sure the lawn gets adequate moisture
when we get hot and dry here. That's very important.
And a modern amount of fertilization, a modern amount of
typical what's on my schedules to apply. That would be
the amount that you would put down. But other than that,

(01:21:15):
you know, what I'm seeing is just the signs I
think of those diseases. And so that's one you're just
gonna have to deal with according to this schedule. All right,
thanks long, all right, sorry to be the bearer of
bad news, but you can turn this around. It is
it is. Let me let me make one other suggestion. Okay,

(01:21:38):
are you there, Yes, Okay, there's a product called Disease
x e X. Disease e X and go to your
local ACE hardware store and just tell them you're looking
for disease e X and that is what you're going
to use for especially the tape called root rock, which

(01:22:01):
is the one that does kill the grass, but it'll
also work on other diseases. I would get it down
and water down asap, and then you're gonna do it
again this fall, but that's on the schedule. All right,
all right, thank you, Thank you, Ben, appreciate your calling
very much. All right, we're gonna take a break. Hey,
today Warren Southern Gardens twelve thirty to two thirty King

(01:22:22):
would be there by Square.

Speaker 6 (01:22:28):
Tween.

Speaker 5 (01:22:29):
Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to garden Line, folks. I'm
your host, Skip Richter. We're here to help you have
a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more fun in
the process. That is what we're all about here. We're
gonna talk about a number of things today. But the

(01:22:50):
first thing I want to do before I tell you what,
let's just do this. The first thing I want to
do is run straight out to the phone.

Speaker 7 (01:22:54):
Here.

Speaker 5 (01:22:55):
We're going to go to Southwest Houston and talk to Maxie.
Hello Maxime to garden Line.

Speaker 16 (01:23:00):
Hi, good morning, Happy Easter.

Speaker 5 (01:23:03):
Good morning you as well. We have a tree, little.

Speaker 16 (01:23:09):
Young tree that's dying back. Looks like it looks worse
today than it looked three days ago. And you have
a picture.

Speaker 5 (01:23:19):
I see it. That's a first of all, it's a
maple tree. Something is wrong in the plumbing of the tree.
You know, from the roots all the way to the
top where the leaves are supplied. Something is blocking the highway. Now,
so what can do that? Well, if you took a shoveling,
if you took an axe and cut off roots, that

(01:23:40):
would stop the flow. Right if you were to go
up to the bark, and if you had a canker
on the bark that was killing tissues that are translocating
water and nutrients up and down the tree, that would
cause that. If you had a disease that was plugging it.
I can't tell you what's causing it, but the fact
that most of it seems to be on shoots that

(01:24:01):
are toward the street compared to shoots that are in
other directions kind of makes me think maybe something on
that side of the root system happened, or maybe something
on that side of the trunk somewhere along the way
has killed tissues. But in the photo it's not evident
what is causing it. But I can just tell you

(01:24:22):
that's what happened. The growth came out and immediately collapsed
and dried and withered. Yeah, and that is an unusual thing.
My gut on it is that there's not a good
future for this tree. There's not a magical thing I
can tell you. Spray on it and it'll make all
this go away. If it stopped, If it stopped now

(01:24:43):
and the tree recovered, you know, you would still have
the tree, but it'd be very lopsided and it would
look look kind of bad. I don't see these branches
with the dead leaves coming back to life. But if
you want to give it a little more time and
wait and see, that's fine. The tree needs quite a
bit of pruning anyway, and after this it'll need some

(01:25:06):
additional pruning.

Speaker 8 (01:25:07):
And so.

Speaker 5 (01:25:09):
I guess kind of a wait and see. But if
you can go back in your brain and time and go,
you know, well we did this, or you know, we
dug something up over there, or I don't know anything
that might explain.

Speaker 16 (01:25:23):
Yeah, I don't remember anything going on, but we did
just prune big time. And I guess it was the
freeze that killed most of it. But then there's also
I guess what you say is something else is going on.

Speaker 5 (01:25:37):
Okay, yeah, something's going on in the plumbing. Cause see
that there was there was a nice flow of water
nutrients that caused all those leaves to grow out. This
spring to come out and start growing. Yeah, and then
all of a sudden that flow was cut off, but
not on the whole tree, just on certain branches. So
that's why. Yeah, we got to start at the dead
leaves and go backwards down to the ground, look for

(01:26:00):
cankers or something is happening there. It could be that
in the pruning a disease was introduced into the wounds
because you did quite a bit of pruning on that
tree and introduced that was there before the pruning.

Speaker 16 (01:26:20):
I mean, it's like last week we prune stuff that
looked like it was frozen back, and that stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:26:27):
Was already on there, and well take it, take a
good look at it and decided. I know, no one
wants to lose a tree, but if in fact it
is essentially gone or marred to the point of not
being worth keep trying to keep, then I would get
you get started a s a p with a new tree.

(01:26:49):
It could be in that location or it could be nearby. Uh,
so that you end up getting back in business, getting
a nice tree like you see throughout the neighborhood, a nice, big,
beautiful spreading tree going and don't put off the inevitable.

Speaker 16 (01:27:04):
Yes, sir, okay, I appreciate you trying very much.

Speaker 5 (01:27:08):
You have a great day, all right, thank you. That
makes me thank you. I appreciate that. Take care in
Chennit Gardens down in Richmond, Rosenberg is one of those
garden centers that is a destination. By the way, in
Chene Gardens is on FM three point fifty nine. It's
on the Katie Fulscher side of Richmond, so if you
head north, okay. Now, the website is something you should

(01:27:30):
write down and you should subscribe to the newsletter and
stay up the date on this place because there's always
something going on out there. They have a lot of
quality plans. Here's the website that I would suggest that
you go to and subscribe to their newsletter, Enchanted Gardens
Richmond dot com. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. When you

(01:27:55):
go there, you're going to find a lot of amazing things.
They you know, this place, it's just a leader in
the industry. You know, what, what do you need? Do
you want a plumeria, Well, they've got some beautiful ones in.
Do you want roses? Maybe some roses that are called
standards where you have a trunk and then the little
rosebush kind of at the top of the trunk, or

(01:28:17):
the same with boogabys. By the way, they have Booga
Beya standards there as well. Herbs they got them, pollinator plants,
they got them. Plants to attract butterflies or hummingbirds, they
got them. And they have expert service with very friendly, educated,
helpful employees there. That is very important. And this independent

(01:28:38):
garden center has absolutely all that. Lindermann family has been
doing this since nineteen ninety five. Again FM three point
fifty nine, Katie fulsher side of Richmond Chented Gardens Richmond
dot com. Let's go now to need Vue and we're
going to talk to Vernon. Hey, Vernon, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (01:28:57):
How you doing today? Hey, I have a question about
some trees. They're coming back real good from the freeze.
I just planned them last year. But I have a
lot of excessive growth at the bottom, a lot of
leaves and a lot of new sprouts. Should I remove
those and let it focus on the main stalks or
or let it go?

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:29:15):
Yeah, you can, you can remove move that stuff out
of the way. I mean, there's not really to be honest,
there's not really a right or wrong way to prine
a fact. Typically we allow a few major trunks to
come up just because training them to a single trunk,
we end up getting cold here now, and then that
kills it back. And so about the time he got
a un trained and a tree, you start over again.

(01:29:37):
So we do multiple trunks. But removing small things is
there's no problem with that.

Speaker 7 (01:29:43):
Okay, I have another question. I have an old man
out here.

Speaker 17 (01:29:46):
Tell me he used to plant his watermelons beside a
big concrectree slab and he grew on my poona concrete slab.
I was going to try that on an old war
shout driveway I have in.

Speaker 7 (01:29:56):
The back of my property. Do you think that's feasible?

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
Help help me out on that again? What was on
the concrete slab? What do you want to do on it?

Speaker 17 (01:30:04):
He would he would plant his watermelons beside the concrete
slab and then grow the vine stuff into the concrete slab.

Speaker 7 (01:30:12):
And raise watermelons that a way. How would you do
that on an old More South driveway?

Speaker 5 (01:30:18):
Yeah, you could totally do that. That'd be fine, no
problem at all.

Speaker 7 (01:30:22):
Okay, okay, all right, thank you sir.

Speaker 5 (01:30:26):
All right, hey, thanks for the call. Vernont. Have fun
out there a Neville. All right, folks, I gotta take
a little quick break here and I will be back. Hey,
welcome back to the Guardline, folks. Glad you're with us.
Good to have you with us today. Listen in our
clay soils around here. When it rains, they they swell,

(01:30:48):
get bigger, they literally expand. When it gets dry they
shrink literally again. That's why you drive downtown some areas
around Houston and neighborhoods and it's like you're going across
the rocky mountains. I mean the streets or heaving and
buckling and everything. Water lines crack every summer because of
that shrink and swell. It's a mess and it does

(01:31:11):
the same kind of damage to our landscape, driveways, our walkways,
and our homes. The home foundation Fix my slab foundation
Repair is the place to call. They can come in,
they will assess it, They will make sure and give
you an accurate assessment of what's going on. Is something
needed or not, and if so, what is it? And

(01:31:33):
the thing I like about Ty Strickland and Fix my
Slab Fundation Repair is that first of all, they'll do
free estimates for gardenline listeners. Don't forget that. Tell them
your guardenline listener. But they are committed to being on time,
to fixing it right, and to charging you a fair price.
And that is so important in any kind of service
that you have done. Fix my slab foundation repair. If

(01:31:55):
you see cracks in the brick, in the sheet rock inside,
or sticking doors inside, those are all signs of a problem.
They do driveways too, by the way, those are all
signs of a problem. And don't be an ostrich. Put
your head in the sand. It's not gonna get better,
it only gets worse. So call them, have them come
in and take a look at it. Fix myslab dot
com two eight one two five forty nine forty nine.

(01:32:18):
We're gonna now head out to Paul in Montgomery. Hey, Paul,
welcome in the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:32:24):
Good morning, Good morning. So I've got I've tried planting
cucumbers from seed that you know sprouted up and then
I transplanted them and just brought everything just goes yellow
leaves and then white leaves.

Speaker 15 (01:32:41):
And the guy.

Speaker 7 (01:32:43):
Never had any luck with cucumbers. And I'm curious how long.

Speaker 5 (01:32:48):
How long have you had this soil and that you're
planting them.

Speaker 7 (01:32:51):
In about two years at a bed mix.

Speaker 5 (01:32:54):
Oh okay, well that's yeah. Huh. Yellowing and dying is
the symptom, right, they come up, they turn yellow, they dye.
So something is definitely wrong in the soil and so
I you know, soggy conditions can cause problems like that

(01:33:15):
kind of a wed tree deficiency. Yeah, well that can
be a problem. So a raised bed where the gravity
kind of drains water downward in the soil, so I
think the roots or not in soggy conditions, I try,
I'd raise the bed up, bring some soil in. Also,
it could be an extreme issue with some nutrient problem,

(01:33:38):
although that description you're giving is a little extreme for
it to just be a nutrient kind of thing we're
dealing with there. And then there's always the possibility of
like a root disease something killing roots. And you know,
whether it's water drowning roots or whether it's disease killing roots,
you end up with can end up with some of us.

(01:34:00):
The more response I would bring in a fresh BEDMX,
get some bags or bulk or whatever and build it
up a little bit. I would also even before you
do that, I would send a sample into the soil
test lab text A and M. There's a publication on
my website, which is Gardening with Skip dot com that's

(01:34:21):
on soil testing and it tells you where to send
it and how to take it and all that and
the main the main bottom line is it's soil testing
dot TAMU dot E d U t A m U
soil testing dot dot T A m U dot E
d U. Use the urban soil test form that means gardening,
Urban means garden, uh and send a soil sample in

(01:34:44):
because what it'll tell you, Paul is I mean, yeah,
is whether maybe some nutrient is we had a whack
or the pH could be way out of whack.

Speaker 1 (01:34:55):
But it's only cucumbers. I have squashed that I'm growing
and it's growing iron. It's in a Yeah, it's in
a garden with other things. I have flowers coming up.
I have asparagus coming up. I have you know, onions
and celery and none of those seem to be affected.

(01:35:16):
Stupid cucumbers.

Speaker 5 (01:35:18):
That is very very strange. I don't know what to
tell you on that. Because squash and cucumbers are in
the same family, they get the same diseases, Yeah, the
same nutrients things. Yeah, that's I'm left with, going, hey,
go buy a different variety. Go buy some new, different variety.

(01:35:39):
Try it out. You know, there's no reason squash should
grow and cucumbers not in the same spot.

Speaker 1 (01:35:46):
And then another question I don't know is my apple trees.
I have two Einsheimer's and a golden dor set. There
said golden home, you want to pronounce it, and they flowered,
but no fruit sat.

Speaker 7 (01:36:03):
Very frustrating.

Speaker 5 (01:36:04):
Well, you know, so that the fruit set is all
about pollination from a separate variety in apples. So the
two varieties have the bloom at the same time, which
those two should. But if they bloom at the same time,
and then you have to have bees to take pollen
from one or the other, and if that happens, you
should have fruit fruit set. If either they're not blooming

(01:36:27):
at the same time or the bees aren't present for
whatever reason. Sometimes it's just rainy, cloudy weather. Sometimes it's
the bees, something killed them, they're not around or whatever.
So if that's happening, then you're left with taking a
little artist paintbrush and doing the pollination yourself. But yeah,

(01:36:48):
you've got some weird things going on there. Have you
checked for culture geist around the place.

Speaker 7 (01:36:53):
Because you know, I need to do a kind of
a dance.

Speaker 1 (01:36:57):
I guess when it stuff because they blastom at the
same time.

Speaker 7 (01:37:01):
And we do have bees.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
And I have a peach that I just planted in
the back and that put on like three peaches.

Speaker 7 (01:37:10):
It's a real young peach its first year.

Speaker 5 (01:37:12):
So yeah, the peaches don't need don't need pollinations, a
cross pollination, so okay, yeah, that's a weird one.

Speaker 7 (01:37:23):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:37:25):
Well, i'd heard have you heard of how can I
get worms naturally? You know, I've heard some place read
somewhere that if you put cardboard down on your yard,
the worms will.

Speaker 5 (01:37:39):
Yeah, when you have mult and organic matter, they do,
but that's primarily like nightcrawlers and things that that's bringing in. Uh,
And so it's just a matter of creating a moist
environment with lots of organic matter on the surface especially,
and good oxygen in the soil. Worms don't like to
drown whenever, So those are the things that bring them in.

(01:38:03):
If there's none around, well, then creating that environment it's
not gonna bring them in. But like they crawl across
the neighbor's yard to get to yours, all right, Hey,
I got to run. Good luck with those mysteries, all right,
thank you very much. That is really interesting, very strange,
very strange. Night to five Superturf is a product. I

(01:38:25):
was talking about it earlier. It is a nineteen four
to ten fertilizer that is slow release over four months.
You put nine to five super turf down. Now you
don't return, you do return your clippings. Don't remove your clippings,
and that combo will feed you all the way up
until I start talking about fall fertilization to the end
of the year. I mean, it really will. It lasts

(01:38:45):
a long time, and recycling those clippings, those two will
do the trick. Now, you're gonna find nine five Superturf
at places like the Plans for All Seasons on Luetta Road.
You're going to find it at Fisher's Hardware on thirty
one eighty done in my bellvue, the M and D
clear Lake on Bay Area Boulevard, and Stanton's Shopping Center

(01:39:06):
on North Taylor down there in Alvin. Let's head over
to Missouri City now and talk to Lauren. Hello, Lauren, Hey,
good morning, Skip.

Speaker 14 (01:39:17):
Taking off the speaker there, question, we got the webworms
in the same tree this year.

Speaker 4 (01:39:25):
You told me a.

Speaker 14 (01:39:26):
Product to get last year, and every place we went
was out of it, and so we ended up just
squirting it with water and which spread the camera around.
Of course, once he got hot, we got rid of them.
But what is the right stuff to get?

Speaker 5 (01:39:43):
There are two products that are less toxic organic products
for webworms. One is BT B as in boy Teas
and tom that's the ingredient sold in many mini brands.
The second is steno said and it's spin spi N
the letter O and then sad sad spin O sad

(01:40:07):
and either one of them. You got to get them
on the foliage. The BT only lasts a day or
two out there in the environment, so you may have
to reply it periodically, like once a week if the
webworms don't go away, but you get it out there.
The earlier you spray in the life cycle of the insect,
the better off you are. So if it's young caterpillars,

(01:40:28):
it's very effective. If the caterpillars are old and about
to turn into moths, then it's not as effective, so
catch them early. The spring generation is usually a light
one the fall late summer. The fall generation is usually
very heavy one, but nature can throw us a curve
in a year it chooses.

Speaker 14 (01:40:49):
I see, okay, Spino said, got you happy Easter, and
remember it's not about the bunny.

Speaker 10 (01:40:57):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (01:40:57):
Thanks, I appreciate that. Thanks a lot. Appreciate your call there, Lauren.
You take care.

Speaker 14 (01:41:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:41:03):
You are listening. Yes, sir, you were listening to garden Line.
And I still tell you about Buchannan's native plants. I
was talking z i can Head the other day and
they are excited. Their new Cash Barn area is now open,
like if you want to see it, he will be
the first people out to see it. This morning is
the time to go, by the way, which also by

(01:41:24):
the way, this morning is the annual Easter egg hunt.
It's a free event. It's only eight thirty to nine,
so we got about thirty minutes to get out there.
But the Easter Bunny will be out till ten thirty.
So even thirty minutes after garden Line's over, you can
go get a picture with the kiddos with the Easter
bunny out there. Now, the Cash Barn, What am I
talking about? Well, I tell you our heart goes out

(01:41:48):
to begins. Over this past year, twice they've lost their
checkout area to storms, just destroyed their checkout era twice.
So they decided we're putting up a nice strong structure
to avoid that problem. And it is beautiful. It ain't
going to go away. And also as you shop, especially
as the weather heats up, you're going to be not

(01:42:10):
only out of the rain, but you're going to be
out of the sunlight to a nice cool area to
check out. You got to go by and see it.
It is really really cool. And now coming up on
April twenty second, that's Earthday, and to celebrate Earthday, all
their drought tolerant perennials are thirty to fifty percent off.
You heard that right, Drought tolerant perennials thirty to fifty

(01:42:30):
percent off. Celebrate Earthday coming up April twenty second. They also,
by the way, you can go to the perennial section
on their website, which you always need to go to
Buchanan's Native Plants dot com. That website is awesome. You
need to sign up for the newsletter while you're on
there too, by the way, and when you're there, check

(01:42:51):
out the perennial section for all the different perennials that
They have thirty percent off rain barrels too. So if
you've been thinking about getting a rainbarrow to have to
save on your water bill and conserve some water and
provide your plants the best kind of water, well you
can do that if you can, as sneed plants. But
go see the new cashpoarn. It is beautiful. You ever
heard weird al Yankovi version of that song? It's pretty funny.

(01:43:15):
I won't go into it here, but just go to
your music app and check it out. Weird ow yank
of it. All Right, Hey, we're gonna I want to
talk a little bit about a year round Houston. I
was out visiting with them on a site where they
were doing some cor aeration and compost stop dressing this
past week. And these guys are specialist you know when

(01:43:38):
it comes to cor aeration in compost top dressing. Yeah,
you can do it yourself. You can go run a
machine and bring it home. You gotta dump the junk
on your driveway, the composter and driveway to spread it out.
It's a mess, and then you got to clean the machine,
get it back and all of that. Or you can
just hire them to come out and do it. They work.
That whole area inside the Beltway is what we talked
about with year Round Houston here on garden Line, and

(01:44:01):
the website is the name year round Houston dot Com.
Here's a phone number eight three to two eight eight
four fifty three thirty five. I took some video out there.
We were looking at a site one of the customers
that they have, and I'll post it to Facebook this week.
I think that'd be a good thing. I'd like you
to see how that works. But it is one of

(01:44:23):
the single most important things you do to have success
with your landscape, especially your lawn. Specifically, it gets oxygen
into the soil. They pop the low cores out of
the soil, drop them on the surface, cover it with
compost and it filters down into the holes. Holds that
those holes open that the compost decomposes further releases nutrients.

(01:44:46):
It's just it's like a spa day for your lawn.
It really is year Round Houston dot Com. They can
do it if you're inside the Beltway. Give them a call.
Year Round Houston dot Com. Eight three to two, eight
eight four fifty three thirty five eight three two eighty
eight four fifty three thirty five all right, we're gonna
go to Montgomery now and talk to Jim. Hey Jim,

(01:45:06):
welcome to Guarden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:45:07):
Hey, good morning. How you doing.

Speaker 5 (01:45:10):
I'm well, sir.

Speaker 10 (01:45:12):
Yeah, I would like to know if you know of
any plants that I can put on my back patio
that will help repel mosquitos.

Speaker 5 (01:45:21):
That's a great question. So here here's the bottom line
fast answer. No, uh, there are plants that mosquitos that
mosquitoes don't want to land in. Okay, so citronella is
the one you know that ever people talk about all
the time. Let's put citronella around. There are other plants

(01:45:42):
like a lemon thyme, some of the scented geraniums that
they they don't like that that it's like an oil
from a citrus kind of oil that's in there. They
don't care for that. But they're just not going to
land on that plant. But having a citronella on the
in the patio, on your little table there isn't going
to keep them out of the patio. They'll they'll fly

(01:46:04):
all around anyway. So there's not a there's not a
good effective way to do it with plants. But so technically,
is there a plant that repels them, Yes, from that plant,
but will it work in a sitting area? Not one bet,
Not one bet at all.

Speaker 10 (01:46:21):
Okay, Well, I guess that's not great news, but quite
known for you.

Speaker 7 (01:46:26):
No second question.

Speaker 10 (01:46:27):
Yeah, I live in Montgomery in the wood Forest development
near Lake Conroe, and I'm looking for a good nursery,
independent nursery that I can go to. Can you recommend one.

Speaker 5 (01:46:42):
Well out in your area. You've got an A Plants
which is right there on one oh five, so it's
just down the street from from you, on the edge
on the east side of Montgomery out there. It kind
depends on two what kinds of plants you're looking for
as you go from from your area, and you you know,
you kind of come south and you're you're in the
Tombol area, and you've got plants for all seasons. Down
south of Tomball, you've got arbigate they're in Tomball. So

(01:47:06):
those are some options for.

Speaker 10 (01:47:07):
You, okay, And in particular, I'd like to ask some
advice of the nursery. I've got a couple of trees
in my backyard that didn't fare well over the winter,
and particularly up at the top, have lost foliage. So
I wanted to go in and see if they could
tell me what's wrong with them.

Speaker 5 (01:47:29):
Well, are they big trees.

Speaker 10 (01:47:33):
No, they're young trees, maybe twelve feet tall. They were
planted a year ago and it seems like they didn't
fare that well in the winter. So maybe the top
two or three feet doesn't have any leaves on it.

Speaker 5 (01:47:50):
Okay, So there's not going to be a thing you
do to those trees. It could have been some coal
damage when the tree wasn't ready for cold. It could
be a lack of root system and not getting water
to the periphery of the tree. I mean, there's different things.
Bottom line is, as they as they're sprouting out, now,
look at where there's no growth up there and cut
that off back down to where there is growth.

Speaker 7 (01:48:12):
Uh, and just do that.

Speaker 5 (01:48:13):
Did that kind of pruning to them, and they'll do well.
By the way, while I'm thinking about it, Jim, you've
also got growers outlet over there in Willis That is
just south of Willis on seventy five towards Conroe, so
that's not too terribly far from you either.

Speaker 10 (01:48:27):
Okay, growers outlet, Okay, sounds great. All right, thanks so much.
I listened to you.

Speaker 5 (01:48:32):
Let yeah, okay, let me, let me recommend one other things.
You're you're kind of far north for them. I don't
know if they come out that far or not, but
you have to call them in. That's pest Bros. If
you go to their website, it's pestbros dot com. They
bring they can bring out a certain bucket system for
mosquitoes that is super uh. It attracts the mosquitoes to

(01:48:55):
the bucket, but then when the mosquitoes lay eggs, it
has stuff in the water that keeps them from laying.
And then when the mosquito leaves the bucket, wherever that
mosquito goes, it carries with it a substance. That number
one is a fungus that kills the mosquito in seven days.
But also when they go land in another water spot,
maybe your neighbor has a bird bath they're not cleaning

(01:49:16):
out when they land in that other mosquitoes can't breed
in that site. It's really unusual and cool and it's
very safe. I won't hurt birds and plants and things,
but if you have pestpers come out, that is a
That system is the way to go. We're talking about
the centranella kind of plants. But this other way is

(01:49:37):
it'll work all right.

Speaker 10 (01:49:39):
Sounds good, Thanks so much, appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (01:49:41):
All right, yeaes sir, you take care of Jim. Thanks
a lot, Bye bye, appreciate your call. Yeah, lots of
good stuff out there. Growers Outlet in Willis Is. That's
the website too. By the way, Growers outlet in Willis
dot com. Go to that website. They list their plants,
they list availability, so you don't drive a there and
then they don't have the plant. They list what's available,

(01:50:03):
and then they even give you the price of the plant,
so you can know right up front. So all of
you over there in Conrad and Willis the woodlands, even
as I'm saying over toward Montgomery direction, Grows out in
Willis a great place. They carry fertilizers from Microlife and Nitrofoss.
They carry products from Medina and the pest control products.
They have beautiful hanging baskets and flowers and vegetables and

(01:50:25):
herbs and fruit and everything you can need. Growers Outlet
in Willis just minutes away from forty five, just south
of Willis on Highway seventy five. Well, where are we here?
We are looking at yah I got a little bit time.
I'm going to go to Susan in Sugarland. Hey Susan,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 18 (01:50:44):
Hi Skip, thank you for taking my call.

Speaker 14 (01:50:47):
Quick question, two quick questions.

Speaker 18 (01:50:49):
I have a lot of construction in my backyard and
a lot of dry spots. And what I discovered is
I have what's called horse herb or straggler daisy.

Speaker 12 (01:50:59):
In my yard.

Speaker 5 (01:50:59):
Have you ever, yes, I have?

Speaker 10 (01:51:02):
How do.

Speaker 6 (01:51:04):
How do I?

Speaker 18 (01:51:05):
I mean, if do I just let it go and
it dies, it'll go away? I mean?

Speaker 14 (01:51:10):
Or do when I saw it?

Speaker 18 (01:51:12):
In some spots, the will the grass.

Speaker 6 (01:51:15):
Choke it out?

Speaker 5 (01:51:15):
Well, you almost have to dig it out. It is tough.
There's a There are some products that will kill it,
but they probably will kill your grass too. One is
pretty effective. But I have sprayed that with roundup and
it didn't kill it. That's how tough that way is. Now.
Native enthusiasts love it. It is a native drought tolerant

(01:51:36):
groundcover that if you have a high shade with decent light,
no sun, but decent light, it'll grow there. And so
you can say, well I like it because it's a
good tough drought resilient groundcover, or you can say I
want to get rid of it, in which case you
either go to Great Links or call your realtor and move.
That would be another way.

Speaker 18 (01:51:57):
Well, I looked out blaming, and I looked at thought,
what is it? Yellow stuff all over the yard, and
it's these flows anyway, So that's one question. A pree
emergent in the spring won't kill it?

Speaker 5 (01:52:09):
Correct, No, not at all. It's a perennial. Hey, Susan,
I've got to go to a break. Did you have
another real quick question.

Speaker 18 (01:52:17):
Yeah, my brand new growth on my lemon tree is
covered with aphids. I need something good to spray on.

Speaker 5 (01:52:21):
Okay. I would get a blast of water from a
gun on the end of a hose, you know, the
little spray gun, and blast them off. Or get you
some insecticidal soap and early in the morning go out
there and spray. You gotta get the aphi's wet. You
got to give him a bath and soap to kill
them with. Sup Okay, but that'll do a really good
job for you.

Speaker 10 (01:52:40):
All right, thank you.

Speaker 18 (01:52:42):
Ski's fine.

Speaker 5 (01:52:44):
Appreciate appreciate the call. All right, folks, you got around,
I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the garden.

Speaker 7 (01:52:49):
Line.

Speaker 5 (01:52:51):
Glad to have you with us this morning. Listen. I'm
going to be at Warm seven Gardens today now that's
out in Kingwood, Texas. I'll be there from twelve thirty
to two thirty. And they've got some great specials going
on out there. You know, Warren Southern Gardens, that's the
place that is. It's just it's just a wonderland. I

(01:53:11):
love walking through there because every time I go, there's
stuff that's new that I hadn't seen before that they've
gotten in. They're always getting in new things, whether it's
roses or whether it's beautiful salvia's. You need blueberry bushes.
You want some colorful foliage, you know, like the Cuban
gold Duranta has beautiful golden foliage. You got what is

(01:53:34):
the thing we plant underneath the trees? Kaladiums there couldn't
even come to mind. They are loaded with kaladiums. They've
got the Chinese a witch hazel with the purplish burgundy. Beautiful, beautiful.
You need to come out today and you need to
see the boogablias that they have the standards. They are
so beautiful, they really are. I mean, it's just breath

(01:53:55):
thinking it's like, do those things have leaves on them?
Because there's so many blims you can't even see the leaves. Plumerias.
Have you ever thought about growing to pulumeria the Hawaiian layflower.
They've got those there. When you go to Warrensted and Gardens,
you find the products that you're looking for. And I'm
going to be out there from twelve thirty to two
thirty today, and I hope you come out and see me.
I'm going to have some Texas Gardener magazines on hand.

(01:54:16):
If you've never seen Texas Gardener, you need to come
out and see that magazine. It is really good. I'll
be giving those way as long as supplies last. Have
some copies of my schedule out there. You can bring
me samples of plants or pictures of plants if you
want them identified or diagnosed or whatever. Let's spend some
time together. I love to meet people that listen to
Garden Line, and when you come out to one of

(01:54:36):
these appearances, I have time to sit, visit and kind
of go more in depth than I can here on
the air.

Speaker 4 (01:54:42):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:54:42):
Warrens is on North Park Drive. There's also Kingwood Garden
Center by the way. Two great garden centers out there,
Kingwood's on Stone Hollow Drive. I'll be at Warren's today.
Both of those are open seven days a week. But
come on and see me looking forward to it. I
really look. I love doing these. It's a lot of
fun for sure. Just a little tip something you might

(01:55:04):
want to think about. If you have houseplants that you
have not repotted in a while, you may want to
go ahead and do that. I had some the other day.
I turn them on the side and kind of you know,
squeeze the pot a littleit and then slid them out
to the side. By the way, that's how you remove
a houseplant from the pot, turn it upside down or
turn it on its side. And if you see a
whole bunch of roots going around in a circle, that

(01:55:24):
plant is pot bound. You need to move it up
to the next size pot, okay. And when you do that,
get you a quality potting soil like jungle land jungle
lands water saving potting soil specifically, I'm talking now, not
about the outdoor one, but the indoor one. Jungle land
water saving potting soil. It's got crystals in it, so
if you forget to water those crystals whole moisture for

(01:55:46):
longer than the soil itself does, and it provides a
little extra boost of water for those plants until you
remember to water them again. But repotting them with a
good quality mix it drains well but yet holds moisture
like jungle Land is a way to go. You're going
to find night foss products like jungle in many different places.
A Stanton Shopping Center down and Alvin Lake hard Hardware

(01:56:08):
in Engleton on Velasco as well as Lake Hardware Clute
on Dixie Drive all places to carry nitrofoss products. Let's
go to Tomball real quick here we're going to talk
to Keith. Hey Keith, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (01:56:23):
Hey you, good morning, Good morning. Always love to listen
to your show.

Speaker 10 (01:56:27):
Hey, I've got a question.

Speaker 19 (01:56:30):
My wife and i'd love to travel to Europe and
we have come to love a certain type of melon
over there, namely around the Portugal area. It's it's called
a Sapo melon or also called a Christmas melon. Have
you ever had that and re familiar with it?

Speaker 2 (01:56:49):
I have had a.

Speaker 5 (01:56:49):
Christmas melon from a grocery store over here one time.
It's pretty good melon.

Speaker 7 (01:56:56):
Yeah, it's kind of got a white pulp to it
and it's really good. I just didn't know is can
you grow it in Houston? And when?

Speaker 10 (01:57:04):
What time of year would you grow it?

Speaker 5 (01:57:06):
You can. You're gonna grow it just like you do
candlops and watermelons, same thing, same time. You just want
to yet to go find the seed somewhere. It's not common,
but you can probably hunt it down online and treat
it again, just like candlops and watermelons. Good sunlight, good drainage,
consistent moisture, and be ready. It's going to be a
little more prone to some foliage diseases than some of

(01:57:30):
our other things are. So powdery mildew or is probably
the main one. But just be watching for that and
at the first sign be ready to do a little
spray of that foliage to protect it, because without good
healthy leaves, you can't have a sweet melon on the vine.

Speaker 19 (01:57:46):
Right, Okay, good, awesome, Okay, yeah, thank you very much.

Speaker 5 (01:57:50):
All right, Hey, thanks for the call. That's an unusual one.
I hadn't had that one before, so good to talk
to you. I was talking to somebody the other day
about tree hugger sprinklers and the reason was they were saying,
you know, yeah, I just planted this tree, and I
don't know how to water it or where to water it. Well,
first of all, when you put a plant in the ground,
the roots are all there like they were in the pot.

(01:58:12):
You know, you have a little cylinder of roots, and
so you got to water it there. And then as
it grows, you know, over the weeks to come, the
roots are moving out in the soil, and over the
months to come, they're moving out in the soil, and
you water a larger and larger area primarily underneath the
branch bread of the tree, primarily. Okay, TreeHugger lets, you
do that. You hook it up to a hose, you
put it around the trunk. It comes in three sizes

(01:58:34):
seven inch, eleven inch, fifteen inch, and you when it's
a brand new plant, you just barely turn it on
where it's not really spraying out. It's just sort of
trickling out of the thing. That water's that root cylinder
at the base. As your trees gets bigger, you turn
it on more where it's you can water a huge
circle when you crank it up all the way. So
maybe you've got a tree that's been in the ground

(01:58:55):
five years. This summer, we're going to be one hundred
degrees without rain. At some point on your spree, your
tree hugger and you rescue that tree and you keep
it healthy and growing, and you're going to find these
products that places like Kingwood and Warren's Garden Center where
I will be today at Warren's. Come on out and
get you one there. RCW Nursery, Arborgate, Nelson Water Gardens

(01:59:15):
out in Katie down in Richmond both Enchanted and in
Chanted Gardens and in Chanted Forest have Themnia Defeed and
Tomball League City Feed down in League City Spring Creek
Feed Center up toward Magnoia direction Southwest Fertilizer and then
many Ace hardware stores like the one in Fullshire and
a Tascaseda and K and m Ace in Casseda, the

(01:59:38):
Katie Ace Hardware Sinkle Ranch. You see what I'm talking about.
They're widely available. You just need to get one and
you need to keep it because you're gonna need it.
Maybe next year. You plant a rose bush. I know
it says tree hugger. It's for a rose hugger too.
You can put it around a shrub or a tree
and save that plant, or at least help keep it
growing rapidly when we go into hot, hot weather. Keep

(01:59:59):
that in mind. Visiting with Jim Moss the other day
down at Moss Nursery in Seabrook, Texas. And first of all,
for those of you who haven't been to Moss, you
may go, I don't live in Seabrook. Well, if you did,
you've already been to Moss. But if you don't, it
is a destination. You know, you need to do horticulture
tourism during the week or on the weekends. What I

(02:00:21):
mean by that is, you know, go down the boardwalk
on Keema, you know, check it out, have some fun
down there. But swing by Moss Nursery, all right, or
just go to Moss Nursery. It is eight acres crammed
full of gorgeous plants. There are flowering things everywhere, all
kinds of flowering shrubs, you know, from azaleas to those
beautiful deciduous magnolias that were blooming early early in the spring,

(02:00:44):
first bloomer of the spring, by the way, to roses,
you name it. You want hanging baskets, they're galore, hanging
baskets galore. Down at Moss Nursery. Do you need bones eye,
you know, new hobby there or a gorgeous houseplant. They
have one of the most outstanding houseplants selections anywhere, and
more and more and more and more stuff. And when

(02:01:05):
you're in there, be sure to check out the quirky
t shirts that Jim Moss has designed and created, like
the eyeball plant. You just got to see it. I
can't describe it. But Moss is not just another garden center.
It's a seventy year old, family operated eight acre source
of everything that you could need. It's on Toddville Road
in Seabrook, Texas two eight one four seven four twenty

(02:01:28):
four eighty eight two eight one four seven four twenty
four eighty eight. When you're down there, you can find
a lot of quality products to you know, Microlife fertilizer's
an example of the of one of those prob I
was telling somebody to put some six to four down
the other day. I would suggest, when you can find Microlife,
get their orange label and get their blue label bottle.
Those are liquids. Biomatrix is the orange label, it's a

(02:01:51):
seven to one three. Ocean Harvest is a blue label
it's a four to two three. Both of them are great.
I use Biomatrix, the orange one in door and outdoor,
I use Ocean Harvest the blue one outdoor. Micro Life
products are per sale everywhere, but try those out. That's
a great way to liquid feed your plants with a
natural plant food that will make them do well. And

(02:02:13):
I say that because I've used them and I've seen
the results. For Microlife, you can go to Microlife for
lizer dot com find out more about their other products.
I wish, I wish i'd, you know, I could just
take a whole show just talking about all the products
that are available for microm I love that stuff. I
hate the sound of music when I'm doing this show

(02:02:34):
because it means I got a quit talking about things
I like talking about things like talking to gardeners. If
you want to get on the phone and be the
first up or one of the first s up. Next
hour seven one three two one two k t r
H seven one three two one two k t r H.
Don't go away. We'll be right back for our last
hour today. Alrighty, we're back. Hey, welcome back to the garden.

(02:03:02):
I'm good to have you with us. Looking forward to
visiting with you about the questions that you might have
so you can have success in your garden and in
your landscape. You know, one of the ways that we
have success in our gardens is by taking care of
the soil. And that means adding compost to organic matter.
It means building up raised beds, It means getting special

(02:03:23):
bed mixes that are designed for the kind of plants
you're going to grow. You know, a woodland acidic mix
for azaleas and camellias, for blueberries, many other kinds of
even roses like that, kind of soil specific blends for roses,
speaking of roses, specific blends for fruit trees. All of
that's available to Nature's Way resources. Nature's Way also, and

(02:03:44):
I don't talk about this enough, they have a two
acre actually I think it's bigger in two acres now,
nursery area that is just chalk full of fruit trees
and natives and houseplants and vegetables and one of the
largest varieties of native plants you're going to find in
this area. Now, remember every Friday is fungal based Friday,
which means they have their high quality organic fungal based

(02:04:07):
soils which are excellent for growing all kinds of things.
Ten percent off of the bags and twenty percent off
of the bulk. Those bags are forty pounds, by the way,
twenty percent off of the bulk. Now you can have
you can go get stuff from Nature's Way like bags
in bulk, if you have a little trailer or truck,
or you can call them and have them deliver it
to your place. Are you A lot of garden centers

(02:04:27):
will carry their bags as well. Nature'sway Resources dot Com.
That's the website. You need to go there. You need
to check them out. And by the way, jnr's Ace
Hardware is one of the newest retailers. J and R
by the Way is Importer was up there earlier in
the year. They're one of the newest retailers for Nature's
Way products. Jnr's carrying their fine leaf moll composts, their

(02:04:48):
double ground malts, their rose soil, their Garden and Flower
bed Mix, the blueberry mix, the citrus mix. All there,
Nature's Way Resources products, quality products available all over the
er Houston area. Let's head out to Pasadena and we're
going to talk to John this morning. Hello John, welcome
to Guardline. Oh well, how are you, good sir, How

(02:05:12):
can we help?

Speaker 4 (02:05:13):
Well, I have a Myers lemon that I bought about
two months ago.

Speaker 8 (02:05:18):
It was.

Speaker 4 (02:05:20):
It had a ton of balloons on it and very
few leaves, and I got it home and I've been
fooling with it, put it in a larger pot, and
it's still is the original ballooms dropped off with a
few little tiny lemons on it, little tiny huh. And

(02:05:46):
then it's now it's reblooming again, but no leaves. Now
I've got some leaves on it, but very few. And
I've checked the soil. I've been watering it. I've done
everything that I know how to do, other than teach
all that balloons. I don't know if I need to
do that or not.

Speaker 5 (02:06:07):
I would I just because you're not gonna let them set.
You don't want them to set really for the first
two years of a centrist tree to get the best growth.
But give it some fertilizer. Get you a good quality
fertilizer with a little nitrogen bution in that too, and okay, well,
if you've done that, then you don't need to do
it again. But it's a brand new tree. It's got

(02:06:28):
a very limited root system. Still just give it a
little time, make sure it doesn't lack for water. That
confined root system that came out of the container is
still pretty much confined to that container. And just give
it regular waterings without keeping it too wet. And make
sure it gets good sunlight. That's another important thing. And

(02:06:48):
you should be getting growth. Soon as it warms up,
that tree's gonna be more interested and growing. We've got
some cool snaps this spring that have slowed some things down,
So I think you're gonna be all right.

Speaker 4 (02:06:59):
I wouldn't you say peach off the blooms that are
showing up on it now?

Speaker 5 (02:07:05):
Yeah? Normally, you know, I don't tell people to remove
the blooms because they're going to fall off, but you can,
you can remove you can remove them just to get
you know, we want that plant to think about only
one thing, and that is growing a good root system
and putting on a lot of foliage. And it'll start that.

Speaker 4 (02:07:23):
Okay, okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 5 (02:07:27):
All right, all right, thank you. I appreciate you call
very much.

Speaker 7 (02:07:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:07:31):
That is a that's a situation, folks, that we have
to deal with from time to time. And it's okay.
I just remember new plants. You know, they it takes
a while to get started, and so be patient with them.
Weather is gonna warm up now and we're gonna be
fine going forward on centrus growth and stuff. Houston Powder
Coders is the biggest powder coder here in the greater

(02:07:51):
Houston area, really the whole region, to be specifically, I
mean six acres, seventy five plus employees. I mean that
they are into this big time. They can anything if
it holds still. But from your home gardening standpoint, we
talk about our outdoor patio furniture. We talk about any
kind of metal outside, whether it's a decorative art on

(02:08:12):
the walls, whether it is of course the patio furniture
aluminum or cast iron or wrought iron, anything like that.
You have a railing on a porch, you have a
light pole, metal light pole out in the landscape not
looking so good. Take it to them. Powder coating is
better than painting, and boy, can they ever do a
good job. Over one hundred colors that they can put
down a lot of colors. And if your furniture equipment

(02:08:36):
needs some help, you know, maybe it needs some a
little bit of welding to take care of something, or
maybe it needs a sling fabric, or the vinyl straps
are placed, or maybe the bolts in hardware is all rusty.
They can put stainless steel back in there, put new
plastic feet and the caps on it. That free pickup
and delivery in the Houston area. You can't beat that.
Take a picture of what you got and email it

(02:08:58):
to this place. Sales at houstoncoders dot com. Sales at
Houston cooders dot com. They'll give you a quick a
quick reply with a quote and go check them out
on the website Houston Powder Cooders dot com, Houston powder
Coders dot com. Let's go up to Magnolia. Now we're
going to talk to Ken. Hello, Ken, welcome to garden

(02:09:19):
Line morning.

Speaker 7 (02:09:21):
Skip.

Speaker 14 (02:09:21):
How you doing, sir, I'm good, can you hear me?

Speaker 8 (02:09:25):
Okay, yes, sir, okay.

Speaker 14 (02:09:28):
So I have I have some pepper plants. I have
a Carolina Reaper.

Speaker 20 (02:09:33):
It's one of the it's the sole survivor of something
that attacked my plants last year. And what it was
doing was, first of all, the leaves would start to
get speckles on them and they would die and fall off.
Now I do I water them correctly? I check the
soil and to make sure that I'm not overwatering or underwatering.

(02:09:54):
So I don't that's the issue. It's almost like what
happens is the stems start dying at the tip and
then they die all the way back.

Speaker 5 (02:10:04):
And okay, okay, so it could it could be a
soil issue like a root rod or anything that damages
roots could could cause that. But it also could be
a bacterial blight up on the plant and printing out
the dead areas that are dying back. Uh, dip your
or spray your printers with liesile between cuts just in

(02:10:25):
case it's a bacterial canker kind of thing going on.
You won't spread it that way. Good sunlight, good moisture,
moderate fertilizer, and warm weather and that that Pepperoni kick
back into gear if it starts happening again, though, Ken,
would you take a picture of it up close and
good sharp focus and email it to me and then
follow up with a call and uh, well, when I

(02:10:46):
actually see it, I can give you a more specific
answer than I can just you know, with that description.

Speaker 20 (02:10:52):
Okay, Now, I did just take pictures of it this morning,
so I'll send that to you and I did the
pruning thing, and what I was doing, I had looked
at your to dip the pruner in like a light
solution of bleach to make sure you don't get that.

Speaker 5 (02:11:06):
Yeah, you had that. You can do that, do You
just have to clean them after that because bleach really
rusts metal. And so that's why I like the lice
al better. But hey, I'm gonna put you on hold.
If you don't have my email, you can get it
from my producer and they'll take care of that for you.
Make sure you get you on the right page. RCW

(02:11:27):
Nurseries has loaded still with gorgeous roses, beautiful roses. I
was out there the other day and so impressed. And
I like being able to pick a rose out when
it's blooming on the bush. It's better than looking at
a tag. And they are the source. I mean, any
rosarian in the Houstonnario knows about RCW Nursery. By the way,
when you're there, you're gonna find nitrofoss and Microlife and

(02:11:49):
Nelson turf Star and a lot of other great products
to make sure you have success. They are the place
to go when it comes to any kind of shrubs
and trees and why not. From ornamentals to shade trees.
They grow on themselves and they look really really good.
Some people I was talking to you there, they just
go back over and over again for things from marcyw

(02:12:11):
because they told me is that every time they come
out and play something, every time I buy something here,
it grows. And there you go. There's a testimony. That's
what you want to hear. R CW Nurseries dot Com.
There on the corner where Tama Parkway comes in with
Beltway eight easy to get to. The main thing is
just go out there and check them out. And this
weekend it would be a good time to do that.

(02:12:33):
Time for me to take a quick break. I'll be
back with Melanie from Yoakum. All right, we're back, folks.
Let's do this. We've got a lot of garden line
to do here and a short time to do it.
Our last hour of the show. Looking forward to visiting
with you about the kinds of questions that you might have.
Wild Birds Unlimited. I want to talk a little bit

(02:12:57):
about this store. It is my favorite place to get
anything related to birds. I mean, they know what they're
talking about. We're in nesting season right now for many
of our songbirds and the folks at Wildbirds have designated
are just designated designed the perfect blend of seeds to
provide birds what they need most the season. It's called
Nesting super Blend and it's only available at Wildbirds Unlimited.

(02:13:21):
Nesting super Blend has got sunflower chips and peanuts and
dried mealworms, bark butter bits, sy flower tree nuts. It's
so in other words, it's providing that extra protein that
birds need. And it also has calcium too, by the way,
to support eggshell formation and skeletal development for nesting birds.
You can buy it loose and sea bags, or you
can buy it as cylinders a little compress centers look

(02:13:43):
like little fat candles sitting up there that the birds
have to peck the seeds out of. It works in
any kind of feeder. Now you can look for Nesting
super Blend. That's the one to look for right now
at any of the six Wildbirds Unlimited stores in the
Greater Houston area. That includes Kingwood, Kingwood Drive, clear Lake,
Eldorado Drive in Paarland, on East Broadway, in Houston on

(02:14:04):
bel Air and also in Houston on Memorial Drive and
then up in Cypress on Barker, cypress Ohen. While you're there,
pick up a wild Bird's Unlimited hy hyperch hummingbird feeder.
Just just go look at it. It's my favorite nectar
feeder for hummingbirds. And they also have this stuff that
helps extend that quality sugary water you put in to

(02:14:27):
not go bad so fast, and it just to ask
him about that's any little stuff you put in here
that keeps the water, you know, from that sugar sugar
water and warm temperatures, you know a few days and
you probably need to change it out. But with this
nectar defender, a yet little more time out of it,
and they have that at wild Birds Unlimited. Let's go

(02:14:48):
to Melanie now out in Yokum. Hello, Melanie, how are
things out in Yokum.

Speaker 12 (02:14:54):
Oh they're beautiful today. Thank you for taking my call.

Speaker 7 (02:14:57):
We're good.

Speaker 12 (02:14:57):
Did you get my email?

Speaker 5 (02:14:58):
All right? I did. It's a sad picture, I'm telling you, Melanie,
sad picture, uh, and I don't have great news about it. Basically,
Melanie sent me a picture of a plumb tree. It
looks like that is dying.

Speaker 10 (02:15:12):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:15:12):
Pretty much. All the leaves are just shriveling up and
turning brown. On it and Melanie the the two things
I see in the picture. First of all, it's like
there's two trunks and one of them is alive, one
of them is not. I'm wondering if that second trunk
is a root stock. Surely they didn't put two trees
in one in one pot. But when go ahead, I'm

(02:15:38):
pretty sure.

Speaker 4 (02:15:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:15:40):
And you don't want to keep that unless you are
good at budding plants and you're gonna graft it yourself
or something. But all the branch, all the little branches
that tried to leaf out and then die, I think
that thing is gone. And something happened in the roots.
It could have been that they dried out. It could
have been that they stayed too soggy, wet or something.
I don't know what it was. But that tree is

(02:16:03):
a goner, and you, unfortunately, I have to be the
bearer of bad news. You just need to pull it
up and put a new can and to have success. Okay,
Well I had four of.

Speaker 15 (02:16:15):
Them, and now I'm down to the three and that
third one and the one I just sent. You'll go
ahead and get rid of that guy. But the other
ones I trimmed them back because they're still new and
I want to, you know, get full and they're.

Speaker 5 (02:16:29):
Doing fine good. Well, here's what I would do. I
would make that multary around them wider, if you can
make them as wide as the branch spread of that plant,
maybe two or three feet out in all directions, you know,
just as a start. Don't overfertilize them. And if you
put fertilizer in the planting hole, that's another thing that

(02:16:49):
can cause the burn of the leaves like that. So
don't don't put the fertilizer in the planting hole, but
do fertilize them lightly periodically. I would say a cup
of fertilizer, like a lawn type fertilizer would be just
fine for those and sprinkle it in a big circle
and do that about every four weeks through the summer
season and you will get really good fast growth. Stop

(02:17:11):
fertilizing by the time you get to August.

Speaker 12 (02:17:13):
Though, Okay, we'll do.

Speaker 5 (02:17:15):
Thank you all righty, good luck out there, Yokum bye,
Thank you ALRIGHTY, haven't been to Yokum in a while.
That's good. Good to know.

Speaker 3 (02:17:26):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:17:27):
You know, enchanted forest is down in Richmond Rosenberg. And
when I think of enchanted forest, number one. I think
of a beautiful place because it's gorgeous. It is. I
love shopping Their big shade trees all around, and it's
just gorgeous. But I think about variety and incredible selection.
For example, if you're looking for let's say, herbs, well,

(02:17:51):
they have a whole structure that contains all of the
different herbs that they grow. And I mean we're talking about,
like I don't know, something like nine or more types
of base alone, plus every herb you can imagine, and
some you've probably never heard of that are there at
Enchanted Forest. And Enchanted Forest is on FM twenty seven
fifty nine. That's if you're heading toward sugar Land from Richmond.

(02:18:13):
It's off to the right down that direction, okay, FM
twenty seven fifty nine. But they have fruit trees, they
have roses, they have any kind of plant that attracts butterflies,
whether it attracts the adults to the blooms or the
larval to the foliage, they have them. In fact, when
you buy one of those plants, it probably already has
a caterpillar on it, because all the butterflies know to

(02:18:34):
hang out there and they lay their eggs there and
so you get like us, what do they call it
sourdough starter when you want to do sourdough, Well, it's
like a butterfly garden starter. If you want to take
a caterpillar home, they'll provide you with one if you like.
It's really cool. Enchanted forest, beautiful trees and shrubs too.
I'm always bragging about that spring blooming Chinese fringe tree

(02:18:57):
that I love so much, and they've got those there,
much much, much much more, of course, flowers, of course,
hanging baskets, of course, vegetables, and on and on and on.
Enchanted forest and excellent advice, people that know what they're
talking about. Go by and talk to Danny, Danny or
Clay or any of the people there. They're gonna be

(02:19:17):
able to help you. Yes, I said Danny twice on purpose,
kind of like my brother Daryl, my other brother Daryl.
Remember that Bob Newhart show. Anyway, there's two Dannys there,
enchented forest, expert advice, friendly service and unbelievable selection, and
a place that you just love to go hang out.
I'm surprised you don't have to run customers off because

(02:19:38):
you know, you go there and it's just it's just
so enjoyable to wander around looking at plants and enjoying things.
All right, that's a little bit tongue in cheek, but
I really mean it when it's that kind of place
in Chented Forest. We're gonna go up to Pinehurst now
and talk to Greg. Hey, Greg, Welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 21 (02:19:56):
Hey Skip, Hey man. I aer rated my yard on Thursdays,
two days ago, and then I put down some a's
and mite in some of the microlife humates. I didn't
do a full compost top dressing, just for my own
sanity and time. And I've had good luck with the
takings before, and so I want to get down my
spring fertilizer. I've got some sweet green for my backyard,

(02:20:19):
and I have some slow and easy for my front yard,
and I just want to I should put it down now,
or if I should wait till because of the rains,
or if I should wait a couple of weeks. I've
just kind of I put down my early green up
a month ago, so I'm kind of past that now.

Speaker 5 (02:20:34):
You know you can you can do it now now,
be fine. If you did it a month ago, you
know you could do it now again. Especially the slow
and easy because it's going to gradually release over time.
The sweet green's a little faster, and so there's not
a magic number on it. If you don't do it now,
if you underdo it a month from now, either way
it's okay. I would probably go ahead and do it

(02:20:56):
sooner rather than later, and then get it watered in
real good to get it into the soil so it
can go to work for you.

Speaker 7 (02:21:03):
Okay.

Speaker 21 (02:21:04):
And then on the sweet green, I'm assuming it is
slow and easy, I probably won't have to use that
one application get me through the summer. But on the
sweet green, when should I throw down another application?

Speaker 5 (02:21:15):
I would do it probably. Let's see where are we
are now, We're March, see May, June. I would probably
do it sometime in early July.

Speaker 21 (02:21:25):
Okay, okay, and that organic won't curtet so yeah, and
then do you have a sign.

Speaker 5 (02:21:31):
Because you're gonna water it in anyway?

Speaker 14 (02:21:34):
Right?

Speaker 21 (02:21:34):
Do you have a second for another unrelated question?

Speaker 7 (02:21:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:21:37):
Real quick.

Speaker 21 (02:21:39):
Do you know anything about climbing roses.

Speaker 4 (02:21:41):
My wife's heard about.

Speaker 21 (02:21:42):
These and she wants to use them.

Speaker 7 (02:21:43):
I don't know much about roses.

Speaker 5 (02:21:45):
Man so roses. Climbing roses are just a rose that
makes long shoots. They don't have any they don't twine
around stuff or grab onto stuff, but they're great plants.
Most climbing roses are only blooming the spring, and the
most famous one right now is called Peggy Martin. Everybody
loves it. It's clusters of pink blooms in the spring.

(02:22:07):
But there are many of the kinds of climbing roses
and they will do well here. But just keep in
mind that most of the time you're going to get
spring blooms and then they don't bloom until next spring.
That's the more common type of climbing rows.

Speaker 7 (02:22:21):
So they won't climb up like a.

Speaker 5 (02:22:25):
No, but you just lift them up to it and
tie them to it or kind of lay them across
it or whatever. They're great for you sun fences.

Speaker 8 (02:22:33):
Yeah, oh okay, okay, gotcha.

Speaker 4 (02:22:35):
Okay, Well that's super helpful.

Speaker 7 (02:22:36):
Thanks skip all right.

Speaker 6 (02:22:38):
Greg.

Speaker 5 (02:22:38):
Hey, thanks, sound like you're doing everything right out there
with that lawn. Especially thanks for the call. I appreciate
that a lot. Talking about all the you know, the
different options and things you're going to find products like
you're hearing me talk about there. Greg was naming a
whole bunch of them at ACE Hardware Stores. You can
go to ACE Hardware Texas dot com. That's my group

(02:23:00):
of garden line ACE Hardware stores here in the Houston area.
Ace Hardware Texas dot Com. And they're gonna have everything
you need, whether it's fertilizers, we control, pest control, disease control,
or just outdoor living like those great barbecue pits from
Traeger and Big Green Egg and Weber and all the
accessories that go with them, including power equipment and pruning

(02:23:21):
tools and hoses and sprinklers and hey, if you have
a beautiful yard, Acehardware Texas dot Com, find the one
near you. There are a lot of them here. It
makes it really easy pretty much anywhere you live. For example,
maybe you are in the Copperfield area, you got Langham
Creek right there on FM five twenty nine. Maybe you
are down in Bay City, well, Bay City Ace on

(02:23:44):
seventh Street. If you're in Port Lavaka or Rockport, you
got Ace Hardware Stores Calhoun Plaza and Port Lavaca and
Kirkandaal Excuse me, I said the wrong thing. State Highway
thirty five in Rockport. All right, folks, I got to
go be right back all right, I am back a

(02:24:05):
little Doobie Brothers for you this morning. Ciena mulch is
a place I like to talk about. And here's why. Well,
here's a bunch of whys. Number One, brown stuff before
green stuff. Always start with the soil, and Ciena mulch
has all the things you need to make the soil.

Speaker 8 (02:24:23):
Right.

Speaker 5 (02:24:23):
It is the brown stuff source if you will, and
we say brown cus soil is typically brown, compost is
typically brown. They have quality compost products, many different types,
whatever kind of blend. Even they even carry like the
heirloom soils veggie nerb mix for example. That's the super
high quality stuff there. But that's just the way Ciena is.

(02:24:44):
They sell quality. They sell mulches of all types, native
hardwood malts, a double ground mulch. Just if you need
it for the soil or on top of the soil,
they've got it. That includes nutrients like microlife fertilizers. Nelson
turfs are in Nelson plant food jars too. By the way,
products from Medina azumite. You hear me talk about azemite

(02:25:06):
all the time. And then nitrofoss nitrofoss fertilizers they deliver
within twenty miles of their location, which is near Sienna.
It's Highway six and two eighty eight. The specific location
is FM five twenty one. But you have to remember
all that. Just go to Siena mulch dot com, Ciena
maltch dot com. All of you down south Pearland, Sweetwater,

(02:25:27):
First Colony, Riverstone, Rose Sharing, Fresno, Quel Valley, Lake Olympia,
Sandy Point, Arcola. I will get downe you keep going.
Cianna Plantation, Pomona near Brasispen State Park, that whole region,
siennamulch dot com. When you start there, you end up
with success. That's how that works. We're going to head
out now to Tiki Island, Texas and talk to Jeff. Hey, Jeff,

(02:25:50):
how are you doing today?

Speaker 7 (02:25:52):
Good morning, sir. I'm doing quite well. So down here,
mangoes flower.

Speaker 22 (02:25:57):
And everybody's looking really good.

Speaker 12 (02:25:59):
But when I and covered by.

Speaker 22 (02:26:01):
Citrus after the mind a little freezes, everybody has turned
a very light color of yellow. The grapefruit, the car car, lemon, limes,
everybody have all done this. And even their new growth.

Speaker 5 (02:26:15):
Oh, new growth too, Okay. Usually when new growth turned yellow,
it's uh, it's it's usually because of sagi wet soil conditions, uh,
but not always, but that that can give them some trouble.
It can be a nutrient problem, you know, nitrogen, sulfur, iron,
lots of things can cause yellowing of the leaves depending
on which leaves you're seeing it on. I'm kind of

(02:26:37):
thinking that it's making an adjustment to some cooler conditions
and maybe a little bit of soil moisture uh involved
in that, and that it's going to green up and
be fine. If you want to be sure, you could
you could give it a little bit of a e
centrius fertilization uh to get it going again. You know,
if I if you're looking at a plant, would you
say it's the newest growth at the end of the leaves?

(02:26:59):
More so, are the oldest growth on the late on
the shoot the oldest leaves or is it just everything
the whole plant is yellow?

Speaker 7 (02:27:08):
It's everything.

Speaker 22 (02:27:09):
It lost probably about twenty percent of its foliage immediately,
and then the larger leaves turned that yellow. And then
as of the last probably three or four weeks, all
the new growth is coming out yellowing also.

Speaker 14 (02:27:22):
And they're all in the ground.

Speaker 8 (02:27:24):
They're all ten feet apart.

Speaker 22 (02:27:25):
I did a winter feeding forum before the freezes or anything.
But they're all just all looking like that right now.

Speaker 5 (02:27:33):
That is very weird. You didn't make any chance to
put any kind of our herbicide around them and the
lawn or anything there.

Speaker 7 (02:27:42):
Nothing.

Speaker 22 (02:27:43):
I just gave them the citrus food back in probably
that December January period of time, and they but they
are growing new growth all over the place. No flowers,
but all the sprouts and everything are all just that.

Speaker 7 (02:27:56):
Light yellow color.

Speaker 5 (02:27:59):
Is really weird, you know. It's the way you describe
it as being so widespread, both more than one plant
and all over the plant and stuff. I think it's
going to warm up and grow out of it. You know,
if it were a root rot, that would hit this
plant or that plant, but not all of them at once.
Just watch the soul moisture, I guess is the only thing.

(02:28:21):
Just be extra careful, dig down about four to six
inches and feel the soil and see if it's wet
before you do any watering. I think with a warming
weather they're going to get better. But if you wanted
to give them a light fertilization again, I think that
would be fine to do right now, Just go go
kind of light on it medium total.

Speaker 22 (02:28:40):
I've also got access to chicken in your and duckmanheir,
and I didn't know how much to put down of
any of that either my kids grow.

Speaker 5 (02:28:48):
You know what, I would hold off, Yeah, I'd hold
off on that for now. There's nothing wrong with manures,
but I'd rather feel like we're a little more in
control of specifically nutrients and stuff, and so let's stay
away from those for now. In time, you can do
light doses of those. Poultry manure compared to other manures

(02:29:09):
is typically a little stronger depending on how the poultry
and where they were raised. That you know, if it's confined,
they may have some salts there present in that material
as well, and so just go easy on that later.
But first, let's fix this problem before we start adding
complications to the scenario. We're looking at ten four.

Speaker 22 (02:29:31):
I'll send you pictures of the mango.

Speaker 7 (02:29:33):
It's beautiful.

Speaker 5 (02:29:35):
Oh yeah, I'd love to see that. Thanks. I always
appreciate the pictures, all right, you take care. Send me
pictures of that centrius too, though. I'd like to kind
of get a picture of the whole thing and then
maybe some of the close up. Maybe I'll see something
else on it that I'm not picturing right now, but
thank you, Jeff, I appreciate that very much. Greenpro Green

(02:29:55):
Pro is experts. They are experts at providing top quality
co post top dressing and fertilizing to keep your lawn healthy.
You know, green Pros serves about a forty five minute
area from the Tombaugh area, so they'll go up to
Magnolia and Montgomery, they'll go over to Springs, to Cyprus,

(02:30:15):
the woodlands, Conroe willis up in that area and down
to it ten, you know, Katie West West, areas like that, Houston.
They know what they're doing. That's the bottom line. They
got high quality equipment that does a job right. And
when you do compost top dressing, after you've put down
or after you've done aeration, you've got a combo there

(02:30:38):
that is going to open up the soil. It's going
to allow water to move into the soil better, it's
going to get oxygen in the root system. And I
always say brown stuff before green stuff. And usually I'm
talking about gardens and flower beds and things, but that's
true of lawns too, and the bronze stuff the soil
that lawn turf is rooting into needs oxygen, and it

(02:30:59):
needs organic and it needs nutrients and compost stop dressing
following a cororation will help do that. Greenprotexts dot com.
Greenprotexts dot com. That's the website. Here's a phone number
eight three two three five one zero zero three two
give them a call. Just keep in mind that this
is a process. It involves a lot of expensive equipment

(02:31:21):
and in some cases some distance. And so depending on
the size of your yard, you're probably looking at starting
around the five hundred range in there, and it goes
up from there depending on how far they have to
haul stuff and how much area they're having to cover.
But I'm telling you it is a single best thing
you can do to a lawn to bring it back,
especially when they's stressed, especially when you're dealing with sol

(02:31:42):
compaction in things. Correoration and compost stop dressing from Greenpro.
If you are looking to purchase some new houseplants, and
I hope you are, it's it is a lot of
fun to have beautiful loss plants. I love the colorful
foliage type. You always want to make sure get a
quality mix that we kill more houseplants with overwatering than underwatering.

(02:32:06):
And the primary reason is when you have a soggy soil,
roots can't get oxygen. You need a sole blend that
drains well, but it holds onto moisture. Right, Plants need moisture,
but they don't want to be oversaturated in this soppy,
mucky goo. Jungle Land jungle Land water saving potting soil

(02:32:26):
is a product that'll do just that. Now there's a
jungle Land also for outdoors, for the containers you got
out there on the patio, the flour and vegetable jungle land.
Either way you go, you're going to have success. Now,
jungle Land's available places. Actually, Nitrophoss in general is widely
available through the Eastern area, but places like Brenham and
Plants and things up in Brunham, Fisher's Hardware down on

(02:32:48):
Alexander in Baytown, Lake Hardware on Dixie Drive include as
well as the Lake Hardware in Angleton on Velasco. I'll
be right back, hey, welcome back to Guardline. You're with
us today. We are glad you're with us.

Speaker 7 (02:33:03):
Hey.

Speaker 5 (02:33:03):
Airloom soils, airloom cell products, their quality. I mean when
you say airloom soils, you're saying something that is going
to grow whatever plants you're trying to grow, and they
have a wide variety. They got the Vegian nerb mix.
They got products called the Rose and Bloomers product that
is perfect for roses and any kind of blooming shrub
or early flowers in general for that matter. They work,

(02:33:26):
They have leaf more compost. They've got pretty much every
kind of a soil for growing any kind of thing
that includes uphotting soil for indoor plants that includes a
cactus and succulent, kind of a gritty, grainy, really well
drained mix. They've got it. That's the bottom line. Now,
Porter Texas is where the product bulk is available. If

(02:33:47):
you want to go get it. You can also call
them and say, hey, deliver to me. Dumb it on
the driveway, bring me a bunch of yards of it.
I got a lot of work to do here. Or
you can be neat and clean about it and have
them bring a supersac out that's a cubic yard of product.
That is neat. They set the sack on the driveway,
and I've done it before. It is the neatest, cleanest
way you can get sold delivered to your house, and

(02:34:10):
then you can go pretty much all over the Greater
Houston area and find airloom soil products available in garden
centers near you. Quality garden centers carry this stuff. And
that includes feed stores, that includes you know the UH
plot places where you would expect to find and shop
for your quality gardening supplies. Now, Airloomsoils dot Com is

(02:34:33):
the website. You need to go there because they have
a calculator there that is awesome. It'll tell you, like,
here's a quiz question of the day and a QB
car to sol how many five gallon buckets is that?
Their calculator can tell you that answer. I mean, it's
a it's a really cool thing. Plus, you'll see all
their different products listed and I can tell you this,
I'm working my way through them. I've done pretty much. Oh,

(02:34:55):
I'd say three fourths of the airloom source products so
far that I've tried and has not been a one
of them that hasn't performed in an outstanding way. In fact,
if you come out to see me today, I'll be
in UH warrants at Warren Southern Gardens out in Kingwood, Texas,
and they have a lot of heirloom cell products on hand. There,

(02:35:16):
and I would encourage you to come out and check
them out. It's going to be a good day. We're
gonna have a good time out there. Twelve thirty to
two thirty. Come on out and see me and grab
you some heirloom saws while you're out there. Let's go
now to Lake Palestine and talk to Nancy. Hey, Nancy,
welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 23 (02:35:33):
Yeah, Hi, good morning. I'm trying to speak. I'm out
here fishing. I've got two fishings. I've talked since I've
been on the hold.

Speaker 5 (02:35:41):
Well should I should I let you go? You seem
to be busy. No, I wish I was out there fishing.

Speaker 23 (02:35:47):
I know said they're biting today and bad.

Speaker 5 (02:35:51):
I think, all right, there's the fishing report.

Speaker 23 (02:35:56):
Right right, Really this is for my pond. But yeah,
I think you some pictures of my mimosa tree and
how I had windows tree. I bet an hour an hour.

Speaker 5 (02:36:11):
I don't have pictures. Well you see, well know what
it is.

Speaker 23 (02:36:17):
It's the way I have it staked. I have like
a wire and then I have a noose at the top.
It's a two year old mimosa. It did not freeze
this last year. It's got growth on the top. But
you talk about a tree hugger or some kind of
You were talking to the other last weekend about a
better way to stake it so it can move a little.

Speaker 5 (02:36:36):
Yes, m Yeah, it's got three sixty tree three sixty
tree stabilizer. Three sixty tree stabilizer and uh, I just
put some on some little citrus trees I planted this
past week.

Speaker 2 (02:36:50):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:36:50):
And it works, It works super well. It's a it's
a basically a very reinforced plastic that attaches to like
a t post. It to any post, but they have
a fitting for te posts.

Speaker 15 (02:37:03):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:37:03):
And then it grabs the tree and holds it loosely
so that tree can move. And then you don't have
all those wires to trip over or wires to cut
into the bark of the plant.

Speaker 1 (02:37:11):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:37:12):
And so that's that's why I like that three sixty.

Speaker 23 (02:37:16):
And where can I get that? It's I know our
AHRD here don't care the same thing that Houston does.

Speaker 14 (02:37:22):
Then maybe I can order.

Speaker 12 (02:37:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:37:24):
Yeah, well you're far enough away from me that I
don't know the shops that are out there. Let's see,
we're trying to see. Let me give you a let
me give you a contact phone number. Okay, you just
need telling them you talk to me on garden line
and I don't know that. Let them tell you how

(02:37:44):
to go about getting one. But it is too eight
one okay two five six thirteen twenty two. I'll say
that again to eight one two five six thirteen twenty
two and just talk to them there. Uh, they'll they'll,
they'll be able to help you out, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:38:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 23 (02:38:06):
I was trying to find that Medina has to grow
up here and I couldn't find it and I and
I called Medina can actually called me back to some suggestions.
I couldn't find it on the website. But they're great people.

Speaker 5 (02:38:17):
They are unbelievable. Oh they're yeah. That who That whole
team at Medina is great to work with. Hey, thanks, Nancy,
I appreciate that. Good luck with the fish. You know,
normally if you listen to guard Line, you hear me
tell people they have to give me the produce when
I help them with. So h, just get that fish
frozen and send it to the K T r H
studios and we'll call it even all right, you give.

Speaker 23 (02:38:41):
Me waiting for it on the way bye by by.

Speaker 5 (02:38:47):
Oh my gosh, what do they say, there's no such thing.
What a bad day fishing is better than a good
day at the office or something like that. That's for sure. Hey,
Nelson Plant Food has products in jars. They've got the
nutri Star line, which includes pretty much anything you want
to grow plume areas and hibiscus and vegetables and Azelia's
acid loving plants and all that. Colorstar is their most

(02:39:10):
famous product. Color Star is sold across the country. Really,
I mean, I was talking to Dean the other day
and some other company outside the country. You got a
little sample of it and tried it, and they call
they go, okay, ship it. We need a bunch of
it here. This stuff works well. Colorstar also has a
version called color Star Plus that includes a systemic fungicide

(02:39:30):
as a preventative measure, gets inside of the plant and
protects a lot of disease issues. So you can go
either way with Colorstar. Colorstar or Colorstar Plus. Either way
has been going on for forty years now, and it
is super popular because it works, it has fast acting effects,
it gets it has a number of organic nutrients sources
too that help enrich that soil. So whether you're using

(02:39:53):
it on annuals or perennials or flowering shrubs or anything.
It's going to do well. It's going to give a
slow release for about three to four months. Also, the
color star plus that's one you need to look for.
That and the regular color star in jars from Nelson
Plant Food. We're going to go now to Joe and Galveston. Hey, Joe,
got about a half a minute left. Let's see if

(02:40:13):
we can help you quick question.

Speaker 24 (02:40:15):
Hedge hog or spider aloes. Amusing them underneath my beach
home here right on the Gulf. My plant. They're native
to South Africa, and the literature says that they bloom
in summer. However, mine bloom in January, right at the
height of winter, and I'm wondering if that's some sort

(02:40:37):
of genetic something in the plant native to South Africa
or what's going on.

Speaker 5 (02:40:44):
Yeah, it's one of the plants from South Africa that
does do pretty well here. A lot of South African plants.
It's kind of a head and miss on a lot
of those. But the hedgehog al is a beautiful little allo.
I like the narrow foliage and whatnot on it, and
it grows. I have reports folks in Corpus Christi, Texas
that have grown the things, and certainly Louisiana, like Charles Louisiana,

(02:41:05):
which is very similar to our conditions here. So you're
gonna have you're gonna have good results with it. You
don't need to fertilize it a lot, just a little bit.
It likes plenty of sunlight and it needs like any aloe,
it's gonna want really good drainage for it to do
its best.

Speaker 24 (02:41:20):
Why is it growing in winter and not in summer
like the literature a syst.

Speaker 5 (02:41:26):
Well Africa. Yeah, good, don galveson. You don't have winter.
I'm just kidding, but seriously, it's it's just our miles
mile winters. They can do that. Some not, you know,
not easy. Go further north. You're not going to see
that that kind of response. Okay, very good, All right,
thanks a lot, appreciate the call. You take care. Wow,

(02:41:49):
there's another show in the books. We are coming up here.
I ought to be hearing some music pretty quick. I
am on my way to Warren's Southern Gardens, warren Southern Guards.
I hope that you will come out out and see me.
I love going to Warrens. It is one of my
favorite places to visit. And if you live let's say
you don't live over there, you need something to go
do today, come across town, come on see me at

(02:42:11):
these appearances. We always have people that come from pretty
far outside of the area. So why not be that you?
Why not you be the one to do that. Today
You're going to find at One's some gorgeous points. I
want to show you the boo and BEEAs that they
have as standards out there, and then the color, oh
my gosh, and the hanging baskets. Hey, are you into strings?

(02:42:34):
You like strings? Come on out to Warrens. They got
some really good ones out there. By the way, today
you buy one hundred dollars or more of stuff, and
it's going to be fifteen percent off just today while
we're out there, either from twelve thirty to two thirty
today fifteen percent off purchases of one hundred dollars or
more out at Warren's Southern Gardens. So leave some room

(02:42:55):
in the car and the pickup because you're going to
want to bring some stuff back. Trust me, I'm sorry,
this gardening is addictive. I've warned you before. When you
get out there, you're going to see a lot of stuff,
and you can't live it out. I do every time
I go. Hey, bring me samples and questions you have.
BE happy to visit with you.