Freeze Soon, Cover Up!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden Line with Skip Richards.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Just watch him as pats to seep bats not a
sign s beamon.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Alrighty, let's do this. Welcome to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Rictor, and where you're to talk gardening. The way
I like to put it is, I'm here to help
you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more
fun in the process. My goodness, gardening should be fun.
By the way, we had a great time, a fun

(01:04):
time out there at Engented Garden Yesturdy. Thanks to everybody
that came out. It was great. Quite a quite a
group they were. I don't know, you know, I love
talking to gardeners and people that want to be gardeners.
And there's just what an optimism, a positiveness about things.

(01:30):
You know, every year is different, but when you when
you buy a packet of seeds and you see the
picture on them, you just get excited. I'm gonna have
something like that. That's I can't wait to taste that
tomato or to see that flower or whatever. And then
you take this little piece of detritus. It looks like
a tiny wet piece of bark, chip or something you

(01:51):
put it in the ground and suddenly life comes out
of it and it pushes out of the ground into
the sunlight, and I just every time it happens, it's
just like that's a miracle. That is That is really
cool stuff. And with gardeners, the best garden we're ever
going to have is the next one, right, isn't that true?
I hope it's true. Of you. We want to do

(02:13):
everything we can to realize the hopes that we have
for our gardens, and that's one of the reasons we
do what we do here on guarden Line is so
that you can enjoy that. Gardening should be fun. And
I was telling the group yesterday that to be a
good gardener, you got to kill a lot of plants.
In other words, you have permission to kill some plants.
And not on purpose, I'm saying, but just you know,

(02:36):
it happens. You try this, you try that, nature throws
its curves and every here some different curves and that's okay.
You always get to start over. And I just just
out looking at the energy, just feeling the energy of
the group and the and the hope and stuff out there.
Well that that is cool. There's a they were loaded

(02:59):
up and stocked up out there at Nelson Nelson my goodness,
at Enchanted Gardens, and I was just kind of perusing
through and wandering through and looking at all the vegetables
and herbs and flowers and shrubs and trees and just
everything that they had, and some of the really beautiful
pottery too. And by the way, the gift shop looked
good too, as it always does out there. But thanks

(03:22):
for everybody that came out, Thanks for going along with
all my craziness, and we having a good time with
the rest of us. Well, this normally is a call
in show, So how about I give you a phone
number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four,
or if you like to dial by letters or that
makes it easier to remember seven one three two one

(03:44):
two kat r H. Well, we're going to go straight
out the phone this morning and talk to Ralph and Katie. Hey, Ralph,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Skip, Good morning, good morning.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Tell you what Hey Ralph?

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Ralph?

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yes, Ralph, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I'm I didn't
hear any of that. You're kind of coming across garbled there.
Can we try that now? Is this better, a little better,
a little better, yes.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
All right?

Speaker 6 (04:21):
The nitrophoss with UH in the purple bag that had
the extra wheat killer, is that okay to yes? Okay,
and put that in the barricade down, now, can we use.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
You're talking about the one with trimec right, it'll say
on their trimec yes, okay, so it is uh you
want to But here's how what you want to do.
You put the barricade down, and then you want to
water the barricade in with about a half inch of
water to get it down into the soil surface. And

(05:05):
then you're free to put the the ncrofoss with the
barricade on it right after you water while the leaves
of the weeds are still wet. That helps the products
stick to the weed leaves because they're wet, and you
get much better benefit from it. So don't you know,

(05:26):
don't put it all on and then water, put the
barricade on, water the barricade in, and now take those
wet weeds and go right immediately, Just go right back
in there and do the other one.

Speaker 6 (05:37):
All right, fantastic. Well, when the sun comes up, I'll
be out there, thank.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
You, all right, you bet have fun take care. Yes, sir, well,
that is that is true. You know that. I let
me make a couple of comments since the topic of
you know, herbicide came up. One thing that I often

(06:03):
think about here on Garden Line is that we're talking
about utilizing various kinds of products to control various kinds
of things. Could be insects, could be diseases, could be weeds.
And I always wonder because I know that a lot
of times we don't follow directions, right. I mean, if
you've got a bad headache, you take more of that
title and al or ibuprofen or whatever you're talking about.

(06:26):
And sometimes we don't follow the label, and that can
get us into trouble. When you underapply something, you don't
get the benefit that it should provide for you. When
you over apply something, you can introduce your plant, whether

(06:48):
it's a lawn grass plant or a flower or whatever,
you can introduce it to some damage that you don't
want to have. There's a reason the label says what
it says, and just this whole thinking like if a
teaspoons good, a tablespoons better is not true and will
get you into trouble. And so you want to be

(07:08):
really careful with that. So if the label says put
a certain amount on, that is the amount that has
been determined by research to work the best for that
product without causing unnecessary damage to a plant. And so
you got to follow that. Always follow that carefully, because
well it's important and you don't need secondary issues. And

(07:33):
you know, it's what we call operator error. It's not
the product's fault. It's the fact that you know the
way we put it on, put it on evenly. You
know you're applying let's say you're playing a herbicide and
you you know, you spread it across the yard this way,
you come back through and you over double, overlap, you know,
on those on those applications. Well, now you've got areas

(07:55):
that have too much of the product put down. So
be careful, apply it properly and you get the results
you're hoping for. Time for me to take a break.
I'll be right back. All right, We're back back with
your gardening questions at garden Line. By the way. The
phone number if you like it, I like it to
give a call in and ask a gardening question. Seven

(08:16):
one three two one two k t r H seven
one three two one two K t r H. I
was talking with someone out at enchanted gardens yesterday and
they were asking questions about nutrients and just basically about
micro nutrients and trace minerals. And I think it's kind

(08:38):
of surprises, is me. It catches me off guard the
confusion that can be there over nutrients. It's because you know,
I went through school, learned all this stuff and got
quizzed on it and everything else. Make sure we understand it. Uh,
But I can see how it can be a little
bit confusing because we talk about macrotriants and micronutrients and

(09:01):
trace minerals and what does all that mean. Well, basically
it's this our I'm gonna use lawns as an example,
but plant or plants. Okay, So in your lawn, there
are three things that you need a lot of, and
that's nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Now, oftentimes the soil has
enough potassium because it doesn't wash away like some of

(09:23):
the other nutrients can. But anyway, those are the quantity
that you need. Then there's nutrients that your lawn needs
a medium amount of, and things like sulfur and magnesium
and calcium for example, would be examples of a medium amount.
And then there's things that your lawn just needs a
tiny amount of, and those are trace minerals, and that

(09:45):
would be things like zinc and manganese and boron and
all kinds of stuff like that. And the misconception is
if it needs just a tiny amount, that that's not
as important of a nutrient as some like nitrogen, and
that is false. It is equally important to the plant

(10:07):
because these are required by the plant. So like if
you were gonna how would I do this? If you're
gonna build bricks and you you have to have some clay,
and you have to have some water, and you know,
I don't know, some other ingredients in there to create
this brick that holds together, drys and works, right, you
can't do without any of those, even if something was

(10:29):
needed in tiny tiny amounts. If it's needed, it's needed.
And that's how it is with trace minerals that in
order to have a plant, let me do this. Pick
up a grass blade, hold it up and look at it.
And in that grass blade there is zinc, and there's
there is a silica, and there is a boron and

(10:51):
there and you never hear me say it's time to
put boron on your lawns, but it has it's required
to make a plant, required to make a plant part.
Just tiny amount, but it's essential. And that's why I
talk about asmite all the time because that is a
product that is utilized to put some trace minerals into

(11:11):
the soil so that when our plants need them, they're there.
And you can do asmada anytime of the year. A
lot of people do it when they put their other
fertilizer down because it's easy to go through the yard,
put on your fertilizer, go back through the yard, put
on your as mite, and then just water them in.
You can do it that way, but you could do
it at any time of the year. These are not

(11:31):
nutrients that are going to evaporate and go off into
the atmosphere. You know, they don't easily wash out of
the soil, and so it doesn't matter when you do it,
but you just want to do it. And as far
as how often you need to do it, that's that's
kind of up to you, and it's up to your soil.
What is your soil need. Soil tests are a good
way to find out that kind of thing. But you
can do azmite once a year some people do it

(11:52):
twice a year. But the bottom line is it is
it is important to recognize it. Just because something is
a micro I need just a little of it doesn't
mean that it's not absolutely essential. We have We used
to always say sixteen nutrients that are essential. Now we're
looking at probably close to twenty, depending on the plant
and the plant growth stage. But anyway, that's how it

(12:14):
works with ayse might And by the way, that it's
for sale everywhere, you know pretty much the feed stores,
the garden centers, ace hardware stores, you know, Southwest Fertilizer,
all these kinds of places are going to carry the
a's of min I.

Speaker 5 (12:29):
Know they.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Most places that are going to carry the quality good
fertilizers are going to under I have that on hand.
All right. Well that was a long drawn out explanation,
but after the conversations that I had yesterday, it's kind
of like, well, maybe I need to talk about that again.
One of my favorite places to go just for fun

(12:53):
is Arborgate Garden Center. And why do I say that, Well,
every time I walk around arbor Gate, I see something
I hadn't seen before because they're always getting something new
in there, and you know, I just walked through. I
look at the plants, I look at the brand new
kinds of annuals and perennials that they bring in, and

(13:13):
it's like that is cool, you know, visiting with Beverly
or some of the other staff out there, it's it's
just like wow that I hadn't seen that one before.
It's a very new one and they're going to have
that kind of thing at Arburicate because they're always stand
up to date. Twelve months out of the year. You
can buy fruit, fruit, trees, berries, grapes at Arburgate. They
keep them in stock right now. They have lots of

(13:36):
beautiful color, beautiful color, and vegetables, all the vegetables that
you need and herbs. The roses are just gorgeous in
bloom and here comes Valentine's Day. Be a great place
to stop in. You see the whole building that they
have dedicated, a roofless building dedicated to two herb roses.

(13:57):
Then they're just gorgeous. They're lotle gorgeous. Remember that when
you're there, bronze stuff before green stuff. So when you
go home with the plant, go home with one of
their one two three or their one two three easy system.
It's a soil, it's a fertilizer, and it is a compost.
The soil and compost have a extra bonus in that

(14:19):
you get some expanded shale in those which really helps
our clay soils and the nutrients organic organic plant food
for anything with roots, so you can and by the way,
the soil in the compost can be delivered in bulk.
So if you live somewhere and you hear my voice
on this radio show, they probably can deliver it from Arburgate.
And I realize that's going pretty far out, but they

(14:42):
do deliver in a wide area and you can buy
that in bulk. So remember to use that back parking lot.
It is really nice, all weather, easy access and a
very safe, very safe to get in and out, and
I basically love to use it myself. Well let's see
here we are on garden Line and we are a

(15:03):
call in show, so if you like to call in
seven to one three two one two kt r H
seven one three two one two k t r H.
I was visiting with someone with a from ACE last week.
In fact, I was visiting with a number of different
employees from ACE and some of the managers and they
just are stocked and ready for spring, and they've got

(15:28):
some really good deals going on right now. For example,
they're going to have a President's Day sail on all
kinds of painting supplies. So if you need to paint
or maybe stained some wood or you know that deck,
don't forget your deck needs a wooden deck needs to
be resealed periodically or before you know it, you're going
to get decay and then you get to build a
whole new deck. And Ace Hardware has got you covered

(15:51):
on that as well as the paints and things. They're
Mowen faucets this month February are twenty percent off. So
if you're going to replace a foster it in a
bathroom or in a kitchen or wherever you have it,
stop by Ace. This is a good deal, good opportunity
to do that. I need to replace my air filters.
I was just thinking the other day, I need to

(16:11):
put this on my calendar because you know you're supposed
to replace them about monthly, especially when the unit's are
running a lot, and you can buy three and get
one free. So that's also a good deal at Ace
Hardware Store. And these things don't last forever. So go
ahead and take advantage of it. Anything you need to
make your home more beautiful, more enjoyable to live in,

(16:35):
to make your outdoor areas better. The fertilizers I'm talking
about for your lawn, the pest and weed and disease
and everything else. They've got it at Ace Hardware. And
we have so many Ace Hardware is here in the
Greater Houston area. You can go to a place like
Sinkle Ranch, Ace Hardware, or k and m Ace Hardware
in Kingwood or Lake Conroe, Ace Hardware, Wharton Feed and

(16:55):
Ace Bay City, Ace on and on to go to
Acehardware dot com and find the store locator and you
can find the ones near you. They make it easy
at ACE. I think I said this yesterday, but I
got my eyes on a Trager barbecue. They had the
top of top brands, you know, Big Green Egg, Trager,

(17:16):
Weber and on, then Minimal Well and others, and then
all the stuff you need to go with your barbecue pit,
all the the peripheral things that are part of just
having a great time out there as the girl master
of your own neighborhood at least of your own patio.
That Ace has got you covered so earlier on I had,

(17:42):
you know, talking about nutrients and the importance of trace
metals and other things like that. The big three nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.
It's important to get those out at the right time
and in the right amounts. And nitrogen is the single
nutrient of all the nutrient insider out there. Nitrogen is
a one that we most often are really needing to supplement.

(18:05):
Now there's others that we do need to supplement for sure,
but nitrogen will volatilize as a gas and go in
the atmosphere. It can it can dissolve and wash away
down through the soil, across the surface of the soil.
It is a nutrient that's always on the move. Bacteria,
microbes take up nitrogen and when they do it becomes,

(18:27):
you know, part of their bodies. Then they die and
they release that nitrogen back into the soil, and so
nitrogen is always on the move. There's several different forms
of nitrogen in the soil and it's always going from
one form to another, and our goal is to continue
to add it in small amounts. And if you're looking
for something for an early greenup for your lawn, well,

(18:48):
nitrofos has got you covered with nitrofos imperial. That's the
fifteen five P ten. We say that's a three one
two ratio, three being the nitrogen the most of that,
less of the phosphorus, and a medium amount of the potassium.
It's designed based on research at A and M over
the years that have proven that is the blend that

(19:09):
you most need for your lawns. If you're going to
replenish what typically is needed in a lawn, A three
one two four one two even those ratios are, you're
in the right ballpark there, and nitroposs imperial is going
to release quickly. So if you use it as a
green up, if you follow my schedule, there's a green
up on there. You can do that. That's an optional one,
but you can do that and get that early green

(19:31):
that a lot of people are looking for with the
nitrophoss and pear. That's a red bag, by the way.
Red bag, by the way. But remember this above all
that if you're going to try to prevent summer weeds,
you got to get the barricade from nitroposs down. Now,
barricades put down watered in with a half inch and
it goes to the soil and it ties up to

(19:51):
the surface. Barricade does a better job of that than
a lot of pre emergence do it ties up, and
then when a weed tries to sprout and go through there,
it sets it down and you never see the weed.
But if you wait too long and the weeds are
all up, well, barricade is not going to do what
it should do for you. You gotta do it ahead of time,
and now is ahead of time. Now now, now, all right,

(20:13):
time for me to take a break, and I'll be
right back. Alrighty, welcome back to garden Line. Very glad
to have you with us and looking forward to visiting
with you about the things that are of interest to you.
What are your questions? You got a bug and got
a leaf spot a disease, plant diying, and you don't
know why need a suggestion for the best tomato on earth? Boy,

(20:37):
that would be a controversial answer, right there. Everybody has
their favorites, right I do too. I bought a sun
gold yesterday. Sun Gold is a cherry type tomato that's
kind of a golden orange color. Golden yellow orange color,
really pretty and good night, that thing is sweet. There's

(21:00):
gold and sun sugar are two of my favorites there.
But I think there's probably a thousand varieties of tomatoes
out there on the market, or have been over the years,
and there's so many good ones, so many good ones,
and you need to try different ones. I never plant
just one variety. I always try maybe two or three

(21:21):
at least. Sometimes I go crazy and do a whole
bunch of them just in a trial. But I always
try something new because you never know each variety. It
depends on the season, but it also depends on the
particular growing conditions and pasts that you're dealing with. For example,
Celebrity tomato that's been around since the nineteen seventies. It's
an All America selection from way back then, and it's

(21:44):
one of the few tomatoes that is nematode resistant, not proof,
but resistant celebrity. There just aren't a lot of tomatoes
that have Nema toad resistance in them. But anyway, that
is an old time tomat a long time. It's not
what we would call an antique heirloom tomato, but I

(22:04):
guess if it hangs around long enough, it will be.
But I love that tomatoes. They're a good one. But
I don't just plant celebrity. I plan all kinds of things,
try different ones out and see how they do it,
and I would suggest you do that too, try something fun.
One year, I planted every stuffing tomato I could find. So,

(22:25):
what's a stuffing tomato. Well, you know when you cut
open a bell pepper, it's hollow inside, and then you
have all the seeds kind of wided up at the
top of the bell pepper where the stem attaches. There
are tomatoes that are sort of like that, and they're
made and even stuff any tomato, but they're made to

(22:45):
basically clear out and stuff them, put them on a
plate with I don't know what, you know, chicken salad
or whatever you want to put in your tomato. And
I tried all those and I'll tell you this, it
was fun. It was kind of cool, but most of
them took so long to reach harvest that I only
got a few off each bush. You know, in tomatoes,
when we get into summer it gets hot, they quit setting.

(23:06):
The big slicers, especially small free to types, are better
setting in the summer, which, by the way, is another
reason why you should have some cherries when you do
have your slicers, because the cherries will carry you further
into summer. And I say cherry also mean grape. Grape types.
Both cherry and grape will carry into the heap better.
But anyway, I try some different ones. But if you're

(23:29):
looking for tomatoes, always look at the days to harvest.
If it's a faster tomato, you're probably going to get
more production out of it because it'll start producing sooner,
so that when that hot weather and it's both hot
days and hot nights too, when that arrives, you have
gotten more of a harvest off that plant than something

(23:49):
that takes a long time. And some of the most
famous tomato names like brandywines probably one of the most
well known names of heirlooms. Brandywine takes a long time,
and I know people that grow it because they love
the tomato. I get it, go for it. But I'll
tell you this, if you were to say how much
harvest do I get out of a celebrity and how
much harvest do I get out of brandywine, it is

(24:11):
hugely different because brandywine about the time it starts setting,
it quits setting because of the heat. Thing. That's a
little bit of an exaggeration, but just something to think
about when you're out there looking at varieties. Well, I
love paste tomatoes too. By the way, I'm droning on
here about tomatoes, but I want to paste tomatoes are
very meaty. Instead of having a lot of that like

(24:34):
jelly around all the seeds in between the sections of
the tomato, they have more of actually the tomato wall,
the solid part of the tomato in a paste tomato.
And they're used for making paste and other things. I
like to take them and cut them and dry them.
I think they make a really good dried tomato, and

(24:55):
I sprinkle different kinds of herbs and spices on them.
You want something that's a little bit of like maybe
a taco type seasoning at maybe a little spicy. If
you want something that's more of I want some rosemary
or thyme or whatever. You can do them however, you
want whatever flavor you like. Season all these one of
those seasonal type products. But boy, dried tomatoes last a

(25:17):
long time, and when you dry them and you have
a little bit of seasoning on them, it really concentrates
that flavor down. So I always grow paste tomatoes not
to make sauce, which is kind of what they're for,
but to use this dried tomatoes. So there you go.
I droned on out loud about tomatoes because tomatoes are

(25:38):
the queen of the garden. You know that they're the
queen of the garden. And that means that when it
comes to vegetables, that's the number one vegetable people want
to grow. That's what we obsess over. That's what every
year we have to try some new varieties of is
a tomato especially, And that's just the way it is.
Nelson Water Gardens and Nursery is out there and Katie,

(26:00):
and if you haven't been, you ought to go. You
just had out I ten. When you get to Katie
Fort Ben Road there you turn north, turn right right
if you're going out from Houston, and it's just a
little bit up the road, not very far at all.
On the right hand side, when you go to Nelson
Nursery and Water Gardens, you're going to find just an

(26:21):
unbelievable selection of both the nursery items, the plants, and
the things associated with water gardens. So for example, one
of a kind fish fountains, water plants and pots for water.
In fact, Nelson's can help you. You can buy a
beautiful pot there and Nelson's can help you. Have them

(26:43):
turn it into a disappearing fountain, you know. That's the
It's like a tall pottery and the water runs over
the sides and then recirculates. They invented that system and
they are experts at it, and you can have them
do it, or they can help you with your do
it yourselfing. If you want to do some do it yourself,
get some help from the Nelson's experts. They can help
you with that too. For those of you who are

(27:04):
so inclined, I like to walk through Nelson's just for
the inspiration number one, the sound of water. I've told
them this and I still think they have a charge
admission because it's cheaper than therapy. You go out there
and you just sit and listen to the water all
around you. There's water splashing out of waterfalls and containers

(27:26):
and everything else, and it's just it's cathartic. It's really nice.
They are nationally known have been for a long time
for all kinds of things water garden, but don't just
think of them as water. They have a very good
nursery with everything that you would want to you know,
your vegetables, your herbs, you know, your fruit trees, your shrubs,

(27:47):
and it is a place you got to go and
check out the house plants that are inside. You kind
of walk through that on your way in beautiful selection,
which would be a great Valentine's Day gift as well. Well,
I'm gonna have to take a little quick break here.
When we come back, I will go to Pam in
Pearland and John in fullsher and maybe your call if

(28:11):
you want to give us a call it seven one
three two one two. Katie r h. All right, welcome
back to the Garden Line. Let's run straight out to the phones.
Now we're going to go to Pearland and talk to Pam. Hey, Pam,
welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Good morning, yep.

Speaker 7 (28:29):
I have a question about the native product. Was going
to put down the barricade, but I'm thinking the whedon
nator has a little pre emergent in it or is
that not the case?

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Could I do this?

Speaker 3 (28:42):
It's it, Yeah, Nelson's we enator is primarily we're putting
it down as a post emergent to stick to stick
to the weeds and whatnot. Of course, it also has
the nutrients in it, the nitrogen, you know, nitrogen poster
for some potassium things like that. So that's that is

(29:03):
the primary a thing that we're going to accomplish with
the weed inator. Uh it's it does also cause your
grass to not grow upwards as much to it still
has horizontal growth, but it has a growth regulator, so
you're not mowing quite as much uh in it.

Speaker 7 (29:19):
Yes, I used it last year and I was satisfied.
I didn't get that forced growth that cost fungus later
in the years.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
So satisfied with that.

Speaker 7 (29:29):
But I do want it to do the bear paid
now and wait a few weeks to do the weed in.

Speaker 8 (29:37):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Well, yes you could uh the bear If you're going
to do primerging, you've got to do that now. Now's
the time, you know, you want to get it ahead
of as many of the weeds as you can the
uh weed enator. Don't wait too long on it because
it kills the broad leaf weeds. But as all these
winter weeds are going into spring, there to be blooming

(30:00):
and setting seeds soon, and all post emergent products work
better on a weed before it gets too far into
that process. Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (30:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (30:11):
I don't know which what to do. To do the
barricade or the whedonator.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Do the barricade now and after we get you know,
past this freeze, and in the next week or two
or three you need to get the weedinator down. I'd
say week or two if you could.

Speaker 7 (30:33):
Okay, okay, that'll look okay, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
All right, thank you appreciate your call very much. Okay.
I hope that. I hope that makes sense. I hope
that makes sense for you. Airloom Soils is one of
those companies that does things right. You know, all through
life you have these companies and you go you know,
those people have it together. They know how to do it.

(30:58):
And Airlom Soils is that way. You look at their
products and whether you want to grow vegetables and herbs
and they're using their veggie and herb mix, well, of
course they got you covered on that. Maybe you're looking
for some indoor potting soil like called the Works. That's
what they call. There's the Works, and it worked really
really well for all those tropicals we grow indoors. They

(31:21):
have things for cactus and succulents, they have things maybe
you're gonna plant fruit and berries or citrus. They have
stuff for that. They have rose soil, they have whatever
you're looking for, They've got it, and you can. They
give you the option because it's widely available around town
by the bag. Wherever you shop, buy by the bag.
Or you can go out and get it on your

(31:43):
pickup or your trailer, go out to porter and get
it out there, or you can have them deliver it
and they can dump it in the driveway, or they
can bring it cubic yard at a time in supersacks
not too long. I got two supersacks of products for
my gardening and whatnot. So all you have to do
is make the decision how you want to go about it,

(32:04):
and call Airloom Soils, you know, go check them out.
I like to go to the website because there's a
lot of good information there, including a little calculator that
will help you determine how much of a product you need.
You know, you're going to put in a bed that's
so wide by so long, Well, how many cubic yards
is out? Well? The calculator does all that. All that
for you makes it really easy. Airloom Soils good products,

(32:27):
widely available and they work. That's about as simple as
I can put it. Let's go out to full Shore
now and we're going to talk to John. Hey, John,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (32:39):
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
Morning.

Speaker 8 (32:42):
I was spraying ant hells on my ten acre tractia
the day using bison. It it works well, okay for
killing It doesn't matter if it's a fire ant or
a leaf cut or ant. It works well. Had a

(33:02):
neighbor stop and ask me what I was using and
I told her, and she called me yesterday and asked me,
can I use this around my fig trees? And I
said I wouldn't recommend it. She also has a garden that.

Speaker 9 (33:25):
Is on the ground with you know, wood around it,
and the ants have made ant holes or ant beds
around the garden.

Speaker 8 (33:36):
Bed, and she, you know, she's concerned about using it there.
Wanted to know if the plants would suck up the poison.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Okay, Well here's the answer to Can I use it
in filling the blank where the labels the law and
so that I can never tell you, oh, it's okay,
just use it on that even though it's even though
that location is not on the label, uh, the label's law,
and so that I would just read the label on

(34:07):
your bike in this case Biffen, But it's true of
anything you buy, uh and see what it says, and
that that is where it has been determined to be
safe to use according to the label. So that that's
what I would say. Biffen is not something that just
washes all over the place. It sticks pretty good and

(34:29):
uh so wherever you put it, unless you just get
gully washers, it's gonna it's gonna pretty well stay around
in that spot and it does last a while. It's
a fairly persistent insecticide.

Speaker 8 (34:43):
Well I know it works well very well.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Yeah, well that would be.

Speaker 8 (34:52):
I take a stick with a survey stick, you know,
and poke a hole in their ant bed and then
let them come up. They not spray all them and
it's amazing, Okay, how well it kills these ants? Thank you?

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Alrighty, thanks for the Carl, appreciate that, John. Take care
out there, and for sure Intended Forrest Garden Center down
in the Richmond Rosenberg area is stocked up on all
kinds of things. And you know what Valentine, Valentine's Day coming,
we think about roses and they've got they've got a
couple of lists. I just wanted to share with you

(35:33):
Iran in these the other day. I think Danny sent
them over. The top ten shrub in Flora bunder roses
for the Houston region starts off the list with Belinda's Dream,
probably one of the best all around roses in my
opinion that you're going to have because it makes a shrub,
which is nice. It has beautiful flowers that look rose
like you know some rose flowers. If they're single blooms,

(35:53):
people go, well, that's not a rose. Well it is
a rose, but some people like that look of a
kind of a hybrid t thing. But this is on
a bush and it has a nice, nice fragrance and
really good disease resistance as well. But anyway, they've got
a whole list of the top ten shrubs and floor
bunder roses. They also have the top ten best selling

(36:14):
and best smelling roses. What do you want a plant
to get that wonderful fragrances that roses offer, Well, just
run out to Encented Forest and Richmond. They got a
good stock of roses and that really helpful lists and
that will kind of get you going off to the
to the races with I guess what you need in

(36:35):
order to buy a wonderful gift for Valentine's Day in
Chenny Forest is on FM twenty seven fifty nine. And
when you're out there, check out their fruit trees. They
now's the time to plant, by the way, They've got
load chow varieties of apples and peaches and plums. They
even have trees that are called three and one where
they've grafted three different varieties of something onto the same tree.

(36:57):
That's kind of cool for those of you who don't
have room for a lot of trees. They've got some
really nice satsumas. They got brown select and Arctic frost
and others. And when you're there, you're gonna find everything
you need for any part of your yard and garden,
from herbs to vegetable transplants to flowers, you name it.

(37:18):
Enchanted Forest Plus it's fun to go. That's on FM
twenty seven fifty nine in between Richmond, Rosenberg and sugar Land,
just south of fifty nine. Alrighty well, I think I'm
gonna hear music here in my ear, which means I
got quit talking. That's okay, I can talk for a
low while. Don't forget my website, and you know I

(37:40):
talk about it all the time, because that's where I
put the stuff that you asked questions about. So here
comes another freeze. And by the way, we're going to
talk about that this morning, so stay tuned. Here comes
another freeze. I have a publication that I wrote with
a specialist at AY and M and doctor money Nesbitt,
and basically it tells you everything you need to know

(38:00):
about protecting plants from frost and freeze problems. It's there
on the website. Everything they're free. My schedules are there
if you are calling. When do I fertilize, what do
I use? How do I control weeds? What do I use?
When do I put it on? It's all on the schedule.
If you're organic, if you're synthetic, there are options for

(38:20):
everyone on that speed Go grab a cup of coffee,
but come on back. I'll be here in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
Welcome to kt r H garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Just watch him as spray.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
Hey, good morning, Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape. That's what I would
like to see happen because I want you to have
more fun in the process. Gardening should be fun. Let's
figure out how to make it fun for you. And
one of the main things we need to do is

(39:15):
to help you have success on garden line, I say
that there's no such thing as a brown thumb, only
uninformed thumbs. So bring both your thumbs with you this morning,
and let's talk about gardening so they can learn something
and turn green in the process. How's that all right? Well,
I wanted to talk a little bit about some things

(39:38):
that go on in the soil that I think are important.
I've talked about nutrients and the important you know, macronutrients
and micronutrients and whatnot. But the thing that really runs
the whole plant system or the microbes in the soil.
You know, in nature, it is basically decaying organic matter
and microbes that are making everything happen to keep plants

(40:01):
growing and happy and healthy and so on. Microbes break
down organic matter. Different ones have different jobs. Bacteria work
on simple things, simple carbohydrates, like those grass clippings that
you return to the lawn. Then you got actinom seeds,
which work on a little bit more difficult to decompose substances. Certainly,

(40:23):
we have bacteria and fungi. Fungi break can break down
almost anything. They literally bone, you know, fingernails, rock. You know,
fungi can exude an acid substance to dissolve away the
mineral in rock. Now that's pretty cool. So all of
these things are also doing things like fighting disease. And

(40:45):
the soil we have bacteria that fight other bacteria and
from infection. Let me do this. Have you ever used
triple anaboutic ointment, the neomyce and neo mix and all
that kind of stuff. Well, those are substances by soil bacteria.
Now the pharmaceutical company is making them in a big
vat in a different way, but that those were created

(41:10):
if you will buy the bacteria and the soil, that's
where they started. And they do that kind of for
our plant roots. So anything we do that enhances the
microbes is going to enhance plant growth. And you know
that's why years ago Mike Curant decided to create a
fertilizer called Microlife and to focus on something that's natural,

(41:31):
something that is enhanced also with additional microbes in it.
And now there's a wideline of Microlife products. You know,
we're looking at everything from the standard green bag that
is good for pretty much everything. The six two four.
They have fertilizers for acidic plants and kind of a
pink hot, pink kind of colored bag that I will

(41:54):
cover your blueberries. Your gosh, I just went bland on
the plant. I was trying to say, oh, azalias, thank
you azaleas, and things like Virginia sweet spire. We want
to grow more of that here. It's the nice attic plant,
loving plant uh and hydranges. You know, whatever it is,

(42:16):
that product is good for it. They got products for
fertilizing fruit trees of various kinds. They just have a
lot of products. They got them dry and granular that
you can spread with your spreader or however you want
to you know, spread them out there. They also have
liquids that you can spray both as a folier feed.
Because microlife products are not going to burn, they're not
salt based or not. You're not going to burn your

(42:38):
plants with them. You can use them as drenching into
the soil however you want to use them. There's a
Microlife product for pretty much anything you want to do,
including their humus. The humate is. I think probably if
I were just to kind of look at one of
the less understood of the microlife products, it's probably the

(42:59):
hum mats plus and the humites plus is basically constentrated
compost in a bag. You take leaves and grass clippings,
you compost them down. That's called compost. You take compost
and you let it break down to its final stage,
and that's called humus. And humus is very helpful in
opening up our highly resistant to drainage clay soils. It

(43:23):
helps form structure in the soil and so it benefits
in that way, which of course in turn makes the
microbes happier. So all around, with Microlife, you're getting something
that is going to make your microbes happy. And if
they're happy, your plants are going to be happy. And
if your plants happy, you're going to be happy. That's
kind of how this works. Microw Life products are available widely.
You can go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com find out more.

(43:45):
But whatever you do, hug a microbe today, because they
are running a lot of things down there in the
soil forests. I was talking to the group out it
in Chinna Garden yesterday about the role that microbes play.
You know, they were kind of listening and stuff like that,
and then when I mentioned that you couldn't have beer
without microbes, suddenly a bunch of people perked up, and

(44:07):
now microbes became important. All right, well whatever, we can
go that route. If you want to go that route too,
that's buddy Plants Fall Seasons is the garden centersman around
since nineteen seventy three, right there on Tomball Parkway two
forty nine where Luetta comes in. So if you're if

(44:29):
you're heading from Houston going north out toward Tumball, you
exit Luetta, cross over Luetta and it's right there on
the right hand side. These folks are true lawn and
garden experts, the Flowerty family. They've been around as a
as a garden centers nineteen seventy three. But I'm telling
you they are gardeners. So not only they have they

(44:49):
seen everything in the many decades now of helping gardeners
have success, but they grow things themselves, and so they're experts.
You can take stuff in there, show them something, Hey
what is this? What do I do about it? Or
walk in and you go, you know, I got this
area and it's real shady, and I need some plants
that would do well, and they'll just take you right
to them. They know exactly what it takes, they know

(45:12):
exactly what grows here. They're not going to say you
a plant that doesn't belong here, because they are garden experts.
The website is Plants for All Seasons dot com. If
you want to give them a call two eight one
three seven six one six four six two eight one
three seven six one six four six and you can

(45:32):
get your green on their Plants for All Seasons. Someone
was asking me the other day what to do about
an area that doesn't drain well between two houses and
it's a it's kind of a low spot where the
water from both houses sort of drains down into a
weather and it just stays soggy all the time. And
what I told them was, well, give Pier Scapes a call.

(45:53):
The folks at pair Escapes they know how to fix
drainage problems. Put in those French drains underground, whatever's going
to take, get that water out of that area so
you're not dealing with a bog and then you can
plant things that are gonna do well in that spot.
Peerscapes dot com is the website. Uh, just go there.
The phone numbers there, the information's there, and a lot

(46:15):
of really really good pictures. These are experts their license.
They're experienced from design to whatever you need. Peerscapes is
the place you need to call. I gotta take a
little quick break and I'll be right back with your call.
Seven one three two one two ktrhu.

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All right, we're back. Welcome regard line. What do you
wanna talk about today? What are you curious about? What
are you having to deal with? That's kind of the
you occur. Maybe maybe we can help out with that.
We certainly would be more than happy to visit with
you about the kinds of questions that you have. Someone

(50:08):
asked me one time, have you heard every gardening question
that's ever been asked? Because I've you know, I spent
thirty five years as a county extension horticulturist, and basically
that just means the answer grape. Remember that California raising commercial,
the answer person for all kinds of questions people call in.
I've done radio shows now garden Line, and it's it's

(50:30):
just questions and questions. And first of all, I really
enjoy doing that because I can help you have success
and not waste your money by doing that. But no,
I haven't heard every question. I always find new questions
that people have come up with. It's like, yeah, well
I haven't heard that one before. That's a that's a

(50:51):
new one for me. So it is kind of a
challenge to, you know, kind of take a phone call
and wonder what people are going to ask because sometimes
I think folks like to play stump the chump and
that that is a possibility here. Well, anyway, when you

(51:11):
want to when you want to have success with plants,
it comes down to some simple principles. You know, it
can get complicated. We can you know, make it complicated. Uh,
and we can go into all the details and whatnot,
and I try to avoid going too much into that.
But the bottom line is plants want sunlight. A. Plants
want sunlight. Are they in a spot where they get
them out of sunlight? They want b Plants want water.

(51:35):
Are they getting the right amount of water? Some plants,
you know azaleas, they like to be kept moist all
the time to do well. But if you overwater them
and put them in a swamp, then you create problems.
So the right amount of water, sunlight, water, and then
plants need soil. And that soil is a huge category

(51:58):
because it includes the type of soil, sand, silk, clay,
It includes the structure of the soil. Is let's you
say you have a clay. It could be like modeling
clay where you take your fingers and you make a
little bowl and fill it with water and it holds
water like a farm pond. Or it could be a
clay that has nice structure so that you grab a

(52:18):
clod when it's drying out and it just crumbles apart
in your hand. So that that's important. Does it have
organic matter in it?

Speaker 8 (52:25):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (52:25):
And that you know, our good our good mixes by
the way, they are designed to have high organic matter content. UH.
To hold water, hold the extra water especially I mean
to hold enough water for the plants, but drain away
the extra water. So sun water and soils. Those those

(52:47):
are three of the most important things. Now there are
other aspects. You got bugs and diseases and things like
that that can attack and whatnot. But those three things
are the first three things. And you can keep most
plants happy if you give them the three things that
they want each of those and so it's not that

(53:08):
hard to do that. Now the curve comes when we
deal with weather, and when we deal with you know,
not just the heating cold, but excessive amounts of rain.
When we deal with insect invasions. You know, some years
we just have a ton of insects of various types,
and other years it's like they're not there where they go, Well,

(53:28):
they're there. They just aren't having an outbreak. Have you
Have you ever noticed that if you have a Saint
Augustine long, especially sid web worms can take a releaf
off your grass. And when they occur, and you can
go to my schedule and see when they occur, it's
a it's a summer thing later in the summer. But

(53:49):
some years we don't even see side web worms. It's
like they're they're there. You know, the species doesn't take
a plane off to another continent and then come back
in three years from now. They're there, but they just
don't have an outbreak. And so it's constantly a dance
with all the aspects of nature and our desire to
grow good plants. But I just don't want to let

(54:12):
you get it too complicated. Remember it is simple. Sunlight
and soil and water. Those three things are the keys
to success. Now in your lawns, right now you're at
a crossroads. We are getting rid of the existing weeds,
the ones that are cool season weeds. Ever weed you
see in your lawn right now is a cool season weed.

(54:34):
Right now. You do not see warm season weeds right now.
They're about to sprout and barricade stops that process. You
put barricade from nitrofoss down follow the label. It goes
a long way. One ten pound bag of barricade will
cover up to five thousand square feet and then you
have to water it in. It's called activating it. It

(54:55):
moves the product down to the soil where it sticks
to the soil surface. It doesn't go very deep into
the soil because up at the surface that's where the
weeds are coming through. That's where the seeds are sprouting
up in that area, and barricade is sitting there waiting.
Then when that crabgrass tries to sprout or whatever the
weed is, barricade says no and it shuts it down
and you never even see the weed. But if you

(55:17):
wait too long, the weeds are all going to be
up and growing and then it's too late because it's
a pre emergent. It's not a post emergent. It works
very well. It's run the folks at Nitrofoss. So you're
going to find it all over the place. You know,
night Foss products are widely available through our Greater Houston
area here. You're going to find them at places like
in Chinted Forest down in Richmond, Rosenberg Ace Hardware, Sinko Ranch,

(55:42):
allspas Ace up in the Woodlands, or the Arborgate in Tomball.
Those are all places that carry nitrofoss products. Let's go
to the phones now. We're going to go to Kingwood
and talk to Sammy. Hey, Sammy, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (55:55):
Well, actually it's Sandy, but I'll answer almost anything.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Skiff, Sandy, sorry to butcher your name.

Speaker 18 (56:04):
Yeah, I have a bed that I talked to you
previously about.

Speaker 17 (56:08):
It's underneath the live oak and I killed the grass
underneath it, and I plan a dwarf Mundo grass and
a bunch of composts and it's done.

Speaker 19 (56:17):
They're all living, which is a.

Speaker 18 (56:20):
Big success for me. But I now have dollar weed
all in it, and I wanted to know what could
I put on the bed to get rid of the
dollar weed obviously, but keep my dwarf Mundo grass.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Okay, you need a post emergent product that will control
broad leaf weeds, and there are a number of different
things out there. Dollar weed can be a little bit
of resistant to our attempts to control it, and so
you may have to reapply. But there are a lot

(56:54):
of good products and you can go to your local
garden centers out there in Kingwood. Un let's say go
over to Warren's than Gardens and explain to him you've
got that, and they'll point you to the some of
the product options that you have there in their store
for that. But that and also ACE Hardware is you've
got some good Ace hardware is out there too, So

(57:15):
I would I want to focus on that. I would
focus on that.

Speaker 17 (57:18):
You want to grow?

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Say that one more time?

Speaker 4 (57:24):
Do I need to know?

Speaker 3 (57:25):
It does? Find it? Yeah? It does fine without it,
but it doesn't hurt to put a little bit on.
You just don't have to overdo it. It's going to
grow slow. That's the way that is. It's a wonderful plant.
It's very dark, beautiful green, puts up with more shade
than almost anything. But it's just gonna grow slow. And
so a little fertilizer is fine. I just wouldn't try

(57:46):
to overdo it. You're not going to make it cover
fast with fertilizer, okay.

Speaker 18 (57:50):
And what I'm trying to do is while it takes
time to cover.

Speaker 17 (57:54):
The ground, and I've been planting a little flowers in it,
like I had some impatience last did it okay in there,
and I actually have some blue bonnets that's got to
come up from the seeds, so that weed killer won't
bother those blue bonnets, right, it.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Will kill the blue bonnets. The weed killer for dollar
weed will kill the blue bonnets. So you dollar weed,
you might want to wait then let the blue bonnets
finish their cycle, you know, go to see it or whatever,
and then when the plants are declining. Uh, that would
be the time that you would you would do the
dollar weed. Let me ask you, this is dollar weed

(58:34):
widespread throughout that area?

Speaker 4 (58:38):
Well it beginning in other.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Words, do you have do you have just like a
one square foot of it? Or do you have a
thousand square feet of it?

Speaker 18 (58:45):
Or or I know what you're gonna tell me to
pull it?

Speaker 3 (58:52):
No, no, I'm not No I did, okay, No I was.
I wasn't gonna make you go pull. It is not
that effective to try to pull dollar weed. It just doesn't.
It doesn't cooperate with that.

Speaker 19 (59:05):
It's really.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
Well, if it's a small area, you can dab products
on it with a sponge type applicator, uh and and
take care of it that way. But what you may
want to what you may want to try. Excuse me.
Nitrovis has a product for lawns that is a fifteen
to five to ten fertilizer and it has trimec in it,

(59:32):
and so if the if the dollar weed was wet,
then the granules would stick to the dollar weed and
probably do a good job. That would be an option
out there for it. But there are there are a
lot of products that contain various things that will do
a pretty good job on dollar weed. So it just uh,

(59:54):
you know it. That's why I said, you know, go
to your ace, go to your worn Southern gardens, and
let them point you at the things that they carry.
Some of the three way weed control products, you know,
like the trimech is a three way uh that does
pretty good on controlling dollar wee. In fact, it does

(01:00:17):
actually a good job controlling the dollar weed.

Speaker 17 (01:00:21):
Okay, well, thanks for the info, Skips, and I'm glad
I asked about the blue bonnets. I would be sorely
disappointed if I killed them before they.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Bloomed, that's right. Well, you know, weeds can all be
divided into three groups. They're either sedges, their broad leafs,
or their grasses. And if you buy a broad leaf
killer every plant is a weed to that broad leaf killer.
You spray that on your zalias, you spray that on
your blue bonnet, you spray that on anything broad leaf,

(01:00:49):
and it's going to have some effect on it. So
you have to be real careful.

Speaker 18 (01:00:54):
Good luck, Thank you, and you have.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
A good day.

Speaker 8 (01:00:56):
Bye bye.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
Thanks Sam, you too, take care Yep, that is the case.
Well let's see here, Oh Moss Nursery. I wanted to
tell you about Moss. Moss has stocked up on so
much stuff. They're getting like six to eight shipments a day.
I said that, right, six to eight shipments a day.

(01:01:19):
I mean while back they just got like three shipments
of small cacti for those of you who loved the
succulents and cac and by the way, four shipments of
succulents in addition to that. Right now, I was looking
at some photos from their social media out there, and
it's like the whole ground is covered with like vegetables
and herbs and flowers just by the flat. They're everywhere there.

(01:01:42):
And the fun thing about Moss, if you haven't been,
you got to go. I don't care where you live,
you need to drive down there and see it because
it is amazing. It's eight acres eight acres, been around
for seventy years as family owned operation. And when you
walk through, it's like, I don't know how to describe it.
You turn a corner and you see some carved mask,

(01:02:02):
wooden mask, like a totem pole. There, you see unusual
art for the yard. You see fountains everywhere. You turn
around a corner, they have a lot of pottery. And
then you turn and all of a sudden, there's this
big greenhouse that is huge and it's loaded with all
kinds of houseplants and it is cool. It's fun to
go there and walk through, and you need to do that.

(01:02:24):
It's on Toddville Road down in Seabrook, Texas. All right,
Toddville Road, Seabrook, Texas. Mos Nursery dot com, Maas Nursery
dot com. Here's a phone number having any questions for
them two eight one four seven four twenty four eighty
eight to eight one four seven four twenty four eighty eight.
And by the way, they have a nice selection in

(01:02:45):
Japanese maples right now down there too. It's time for
me to hang up the microphone for just a second here,
because we got some some how do they say we
got to pay the bills. We got some that to
do and a little bit of new too. Yeah, were
at the half hour, got a little bit of news
as well. I want to remind you that I will

(01:03:05):
be now this is a next Saturday at All Seasons
Ace Hardware and Willis from twelve to two All Seasons
Ace Hardware up there in Willis. You need to come
up and see it. We're going to be given away
quite a bit of products that some of our suppliers
are donating. It is a really cool place. I'll tell

(01:03:26):
you more about it as we go through the day.
I could just listen to Pure periodly. All right, folks,
you are listening to guard Line. 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 would
be one of my goals in doing this show. Gardening

(01:03:50):
is a great hobby. It's a greatest hobby in my opinion.
I may be biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
It is the best hobby. Gives you exercise, it gives
you mental benefits that are just outstanding. A pile of
research I'm foot deep sitting on my desk. Literally that

(01:04:13):
that expouses all the benefits of gardening, from helping kids
with ADHD to seniors that are struggling with the dementia,
to across your life, peace of mind, lowering blood pressure,
just on and on and on. There have been studies
hospital patients sitting in a hospital room bed looking out

(01:04:36):
the window at a parking lot or looking out the
window at nature, and the healing is measurably different. The
benefits to physical healing is measurably Do you see what
I'm saying? You know, I could do literally, I really
could do a whole four hour show and not not
finish covering all the benefits that gardening has for us.
I think it's important. I talked to someone yesterday out

(01:04:59):
in enf or A Chanda Gardens. They were saying how
they were getting their kids involved in gardening, and that
is so important. You know, if you want your kids
to eat well, to have a healthy lifestyle, gardening is
a way to do it. Help them get excited about that,
to find ways to get them involved in gardening where

(01:05:20):
they get something out of it. And there's there's strategies
and ways we can do that. There's a great amount
of resources up and the Junior Master Gardener Program at
Texas A and M. That is an international program. Literally
other countries come and I've been part of their trainings
before and it's just outstanding. It's JMG. That's that's the

(01:05:42):
initials for it. The JMG. When you go and look
at some of the material they have on hand, it
is great. Now it's designed. If it's designed so that
you could use it in a classroom, they have curriculums,
but it also is just fine for a family to use.

(01:06:04):
And the website is called JMG kids dot com JMG
kids dot com and it is cool. When you go there,
you see what I'm talking about. You need to check
it out. They have a number of different curriculum and stuff.
But if you've got a little homeschool group, if you've
got a you know, a public school that is interested

(01:06:25):
in participating with JMG, a private school that's interested, you
need to get in touch with those folks because they
have got it figured out, research based information on teaching
kids to garden. And when you do that, in the
process we teach kids how to eat right. And you know,
broccoli may be one of those things that kids are like, Eh, broccoli.

(01:06:47):
I remember when the first George Bush was president, he
made a statement that now that he's president, he doesn't
have to eat broccoli. In the words, his mom couldn't
make him eat broccoli anymore, and people got all upset.
A guy in a giant broccoli outfit looked like gumby
marching in front of the White House protesting that the
president senters get a life anyway. But if you grow something,

(01:07:12):
you're more likely to eat it, And that's true with kids.
Let them grow something to try out to eat themselves.
You'll find that it helps. And what is our number
one Well I'm not a medical expert, so someone can
correct me on this, but I would say one of
our number one health problems that we have is because
of what we put in our mouth. That's the bottom line.

(01:07:32):
If it goes in your mouth, it can lead to
health or it can lead to long term health problems.
So we want our kids to you right all right? There?
That was a commercial. I guess I don't know anyway.
It's true, it's true. Yes I'm a gardener. Yes I'm biased,
but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. Just remember that, just

(01:07:53):
I used to have a teacher. Oh gosh, I'm really
wandering here. I used to have a teacher in high
school and he said, just because you're doesn't mean they're
not out to get you. That corrects me up anyway.
That's it, Hey, it's time to furtize your lawn. Time
to do post emergent weed control on weeds that are

(01:08:13):
already growing cool seed. It's time to do per emergent
weed control, that is, to prevent the warm season weeds.
Those are all things we do at this point. This
is like the traffic jam of the lawn going on
right here. But I'll tell you something else that is
one of the practices actually too that will help your lawn.
And that is core aeration, where you pull a plug

(01:08:33):
of dirt out of the ground and drop it on
the surface. Plug a soil. For those of you who
are out there correcting me and your mind's already plug
a soil, dropping it on top of the ground. As
it as that, core washes a part in the rain
and irrigation. It covers thatch and causes it to break
down faster. So core iration is the single best thing

(01:08:55):
you can do to get rid of that. It is
the single best thing you can do to get quickly
air down in the soil to enhance the root system.
And then you follow that with a compost top dressing.
A lot of that composts will fall down in the
hole and it just enriches the soil. You know, you
can't rototill your lawn to improve the soil, right, but
you can core air rate and year round Hoston is

(01:09:17):
one of our garden line Core aeration companies. Now, core
aeration companies tend to serve a certain area because they
have very expensive equipment to haul around and they have
the bulk of hauling something like a quality compost around
Year round Houston serves inside the Beltway and they serve
out in the Richmond Rosenberg area as well. The website

(01:09:38):
is what I just said, year round Houston dot com.
Year round Houston dot com. Go there, you find the
phone narming, you find out more information about them. They
use quality screened composts. It's plant based. There's no smell
to it. They're not gonna make your yard smell by
putting composts all over it. In fact, I like the
smell of fresh, earthy composts. But again, if you're inside

(01:10:00):
the Beltway, or if you're on the west side, this
is the company to call. Save yourself the hassle of
renting equipment which will be inferior to what they use,
transporting it, cleaning it, returning it, big pols of composts
delivered into your driveway, and having a shovel it around.
Just call your run Houston having come out and take
care of it, and they will. They do a good
job of that. Someone had called earlier was asking me

(01:10:25):
about Weedenator. Weedenator's and Nelson product an unusual product. It's
not like your typical weed and feed type fertilizers. Weedenator
does have nutrients in it, of course, it's a fertilizer.
It has a turf growth regulator in it too. Our
long grasses grow up, and the faster they grow up,

(01:10:45):
the more often you have to mow with weed Enator.
It causes a suppression of that upper growth, but it
still spreads. The runners can still go out. It just
doesn't take off in you're momo mowing because you're fertilized
your lawn. It works well for that. It is a
post emergent that controls a wide range of weeds. Chickweed, clover, dandelion,
dollar weed, we were just talking about dollar weed, graspbur

(01:11:08):
person lane, ragweed, sperch, all these. You first wet the
lawn and the weeds. What you're really wetting is wanting
to wet as the weed leaves. You put weed itter
out a dry granular fertilizer. It sticks to those wet
leaf surfaces and it soaks in. It soaks in, and
when it soaks in, then you have the weed control

(01:11:30):
going in and taking care of those weeds. Now the
fertilizer is going to release with three different groups of
types of nitrogen. In other words, it's not just dissolves
and it's all there. You're going to get some initial
release of ammonium and urea types of nitrogen to stimulate growth.
You're going to get a little bit later or continuing on,
I should say, a slowly available water soluble nitrogen UH

(01:11:55):
with sole microbes are very active in that. And then
finally later you're going to get water insoluble nitrogen, which
is about the time that our turf grass really is
putting on the fast growth as warming temperatures kicking into gear.
All right, that's how it works. That's the details. The
bottom line as it works turf grass weed edor by Nelson.

(01:12:16):
It does work. It gives you about six months up
to six months of feeding of your lawn. Time for
me to take a break. When we come back, I'll
be back to your calls if you want to join
the group seven one three two one two KTRH.

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That is an energized version of rolling from the River.
I like that. That wakes us up here on this
Sunday morning. Nature's Way resources up in Conroe. Actually there
on the way to Conroe, as you're going up forty five,
right where fourteen eighty eight comes in from the left,
you turn right and you go across the railroad tracks

(01:16:50):
and that is going to be Sherbrooke Circle. Turn right
in your Nature's Way. They're right there and they have
been building quality soils for a very long time. When
you when I think about Nature's Way products, I think
about the ones that were born at Nature's Way, for example,
roast soil. Now everybody talks about roast oil, Well that's
where it first started, is that Nature's Way Resources I

(01:17:12):
think about things like leaf mold compost, you know, for
your compost, top dressing, for mixing into the soil to
improve the soil. It's really good for that that was
born in Nature's Way. But they have many other things
they have composted. Native multz double aid or native aged
double ground maltz is a two time grinding process to

(01:17:33):
get the particle size really nice. And then there's Azalia
multz for example. It doesn't matter are you gonna grow blueberries,
just go in there and say, hey, I need a
mix for blueberries, which also, by the way, is good
for azalias and caboos and gardenias and hydrangees. No matter
what plant you have, Nature's Way has a quality product
for it. Now you can find them in some of

(01:17:54):
our local garden centers retail outlets. By the bag. You
can go out to Nature's Way with your vehicle and
bring back a bulk amount home, or you can call
them and say, hey, I need you to deliver it
and they will deliver it also wherever in the reasonably
close by area to our Houston here. You know, I

(01:18:15):
think about sometimes I do these these shows and people
are listening. Somebody called the other day is listening almost
in Austin to that far out and then certainly towards
the Louisiana board it well. I doubt that they're going
to drive out to Austin, although they might if you're
willing to pay the delivery fee. But the bottom line
is when you go with Nature's way soil, you're going

(01:18:36):
to improve the soil health. That's the bottom line, and
that's what it's all about. Nature builds soil very slowly
over time. With Nature's way, you can take the processes
of nature and get there in it almost in a daytime.
You bring in a quality mix, you mix it into
your soil. You bring the bed mix. It's ready to go.

(01:18:57):
You fill your beds with it. However you go about it,
that is the secrets of success. Remember I said plants,
it's simple. They need three things. They need sunlight, they
need salt, they need water. Soil the middle one. Nature's
way is all about improving the health of your soil
and therefore the health of your plants. Brown stuff before
green stuff. Start with Nature's way, and you end up

(01:19:19):
with the plants that you purchased, that's called the green
stuff doing much much better as a result. We're gonna
go out to Tomball now and we're going to talk
to David. Hello, David, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 25 (01:19:34):
Good morning, sir, Hey oncoming greens. I've got some sit
trees that I always partet real well.

Speaker 6 (01:19:43):
And but I kind of a big a pomegranate.

Speaker 25 (01:19:48):
And a plum that are kind of immature ground about
six months.

Speaker 5 (01:19:52):
Are they any.

Speaker 26 (01:19:52):
More resilient than are they?

Speaker 27 (01:19:56):
Are they spreads or are they living more resision.

Speaker 4 (01:20:01):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
As species are more resilient to cold. The thing that's
worrying me about the freeze this week is we had
some really warm weather last week and a lot of plants.
As the weather gets warm, they come out of dormancy,
and as they come out of dormancy, they lose their
natural cold heartiness that that species might have. And so

(01:20:25):
we're kind to kind of watch and see and learn
from this. But I would just say in general to
people that it doesn't hurt to be a little extra careful.
I don't think that this freeze is going to be
one that kills those plants for you or kills them back,
but I'm not certain of that, and so I would
just be a little extra careful. All you have to

(01:20:46):
do is throw any kind of a cover over them,
in a bedsheet, even anything that just protects them a
little bit. If you got some row cover fabric from
one of your local garden centers there, you can go
that route. But the bottom line is probably be a
little extra extra careful when plants are young, when they're
newly planted getting established in things, they're somewhat less cold

(01:21:09):
hearty than one that's very well established. But yeah, so
the answer is we'll see. But I wouldn't take a
chance on it. I would just be sure about covering them.

Speaker 27 (01:21:22):
Bob three, I got a little budd just popping out.

Speaker 8 (01:21:26):
All over it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
Well that then I'm even more sure you need to
cover it up. Listen, the last time I looked at
weather up in Tumball, I think you guys were going
to get down to about twenty degrees or twenty three.
Have you looked lately? How cold is it supposed to
get there? Okay, okay, well, mid mid twenties and below

(01:21:59):
is too low. And so for things that are butting out,
you need to get a cover over them. It might
not even hurt to put a little clamp light with
a with a one of those one hundred and fifty
watt floodlights or even a heat lamb shining down at
the ground, not up in, not against the plant tissues,
the trunk and the branches. It may even help to
do that. But again, I'd rather be extra conservative and

(01:22:20):
not wish I had been, than just take a chance.

Speaker 14 (01:22:26):
All right, all.

Speaker 3 (01:22:30):
Right, David, take care, Thanks for the call. All right, man,
that is the way it is. Yeah, I you know,
I always I would hate to tell somebody something like, yeah,
I don't worry about it'll be fine. Maybe it will
be fine. But this last week kind of got me wondering.
And recent memory is a couple of years ago in December,

(01:22:56):
we had a drop in temperature that went down into
the teens upper teens, and we saw crate myrtles killed
all the way to the ground in the northern part
of the listening area here up you know, when you
get up Conroe College Station, huntsvilleup in that direction, we
saw some loss of crape myrtles. And create myrtle is
a hardy species. It should we should not have to

(01:23:17):
worry about crape myrtles freezing here. But those crape myrtles
had had warm temperatures and they had not gone fully dormant,
and it just reminded us that dormant, Yes they're hardy,
but they're hardy when they're dormant, not you know, you
go in the middle of spring and drop the temperature
down to twenty and you're going to cause a lot
of damage to plants. So that's kind of the question

(01:23:40):
right now is how much are these plants moving? And
you know, David indicated that starting to see some little
green buds pushing out, and so that tells me right
there it's not dormant. If it was dormant, it wouldn't
be pushing new growth. They cannot push new growth until
the plant comes out of dormancy. Let me just give

(01:24:02):
you a real quick description on that. I think this
may be helpful for you. When a plant, when a
fruit tree, let's say, goes dormant, there are chemicals that
inhibit the budge from growing. So if in the middle
of January we have eighty degree weather, it doesn't just
immediately pop out and start growing because it's dormant. Those
chemicals break down in cold weather conditions, cold really actually

(01:24:27):
being forty to forty five degrees and that range and
over hours of that that inhibiting chemical completely breaks down,
and when that happens, then then it can begin growth
and come out of dormancy. You have a few warm
days and boom, the peach trees are covered with blooms
because the chilling that's what you call chilling hours, because

(01:24:48):
the chilling hours had been received adequate to bring it
out of dormancy. And that is the key to whether
a plant is hardy or not. It's has it had
its chilling hours. And sometimes we don't get enough chilling
hours in the winter and a plant comes out in
the spring and doesn't really begin growing. It just sputters
and doesn't do well. And that's because of a lot
of chilling hours. That's why when you pick your fruit trees,

(01:25:10):
you need to pick ones that are for this area
or for the area you live in. What you plant
in Huntsville and what you plant in Galveston are vastly
different when it comes to peach varieties, for example. But anyway,
that's what's going on, and I'm just a little concerned
about that this week. So when in doubt, be conservative
with it. Those are valuable plants to you, even if

(01:25:32):
it turns out you wouldn't and needed to. It's better
safe than sorry, as they say. So there we go.
All right, Well, I believe that I'm probably running out
of time here. In the next couple of seconds, I
want to remind you about my website, Gardening with Skip
dot Com. On the website you will find my law
and care scheduled tells you when and what to use

(01:25:55):
and fertilizing to have success in your lawn. Also tells
you about mowing and watering and adding the micronutrient supplements,
erraating the soil, things like that. The other schedules, the
plant disease and weed management schedule and that. Basically, if
I were to reword it, make it simpler, I would
just say things that go wrong in your lawn, things

(01:26:17):
that go wrong? So what about those? How do you
How do you know when chinchbugs might show up?

Speaker 6 (01:26:23):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:26:23):
Will they be here next month? No, they won't be
a next one. There's a time when they occur. What
about soid web words? What about brown patch? What about
take our root rot? When do the seeds sprout? So
you need a pre emergent in your lawn if you're
going to prevent that, when do you use a person emergence.
It's all on the schedule. And again we give you
organic and synthetic options wherever available, and it's free. Don't

(01:26:47):
be at that time, It's free.

Speaker 1 (01:26:53):
Welcome to ks RH garden line with scip Richter's.

Speaker 28 (01:27:05):
Just watch him as so many gives to soup.

Speaker 3 (01:27:22):
All right, we're back. Let's keep going here on our
morning of talking all things plants. What kinds of questions
do you have about lawns, flowers, vegetables, herbs, shrubs, trees,
fruit trees, fruit plants, little strawberry plants. Strawberries are getting
ready to burst forth and produce those blooms and the

(01:27:46):
tasty berries we have from those of you who got
them planted last fall, and for those of you who
planted them in the spring, keep them growing, keep them moving,
because they are also going to begin to produce for
you pretty soon.

Speaker 23 (01:27:59):
Here.

Speaker 3 (01:28:01):
One of the fun things to grow is strawberries. We
used to have a strawberry patch up in Willis, Willis, Texas,
half acre half acre of strawberries, which is a lot
of work to grow, uh, And it was it was
good though. I enjoyed that and my kids enjoyed it,
their faces around their mouths were pretty much stained red

(01:28:22):
the whole time during strawberry season because you can just
run out there in grayze on the strawberry patch. That's
a good thing. When I was talking earlier about weather
and things like that, I just I do want to
just kind of go remind you again that last week

(01:28:42):
was warm and some plants are starting to push new growth.
And when a plant does that, it's no longer dormant,
which means whatever the normal minimum temperature that that plant
can take is whatever it is when it starts to
come out of dormancy, it's it's not able to take
as much and it's easier to kill something that may
take it in the mid twenties. When it's coming out

(01:29:04):
of dormancy, you know, you get a low below freezing
and you can get damage on it because the plant
just isn't isn't ready for that. So if you don't
know what to do with a plant, I say air
on the side of caution, go ahead and covered up.
If it is a mounded soil plant like a perennial
or a ornamental grass or whatever like that. First of all,

(01:29:25):
ornamental grasses are pretty they're they're pretty much fine. If
they're perennial here in our area, but I have seen
people are cutting them back, and that's fine. You can
go ahead and do that. Perennials throw a little mound
of whatever compost or mult over the top of them,
just to kind of insulate that, especially if they're starting
to push new growth. If you see new growth coming
out of that mound, that base, that crown of the plant,

(01:29:48):
go ahead and covered up and let's protect it. Because
some areas are going to get down twenty if you're
far enough north in the listening area, down in the
upper teens, and we don't want to mess with that.
Too cold for these plants. So little extra cost is
just remember that if you're going to cover a plant,
don't wrap it like a landscape lollipop. You want to

(01:30:11):
put a cover over it, drape it over it and
straight to the ground. And whether you use some support
underneath the cover, that's okay. You can use bent PBC
pipe or make you a PBC box if you want
to cover with, but go all the way to the
ground and seal it so air can't blow underneath it,
wind can't get underneath it, and that way you create

(01:30:32):
dead air space. The soil warmth comes up and helps.
You want to throw in a clamp light or two
or three, depending on the size of the plant, you
can add even more heat. So there's the regular one
hundred and fifty what floodlights. They produce a little bit
of heat, not a lot, but a little bit, and
sometimes all you need is a little bit. Then there's
the heat lamps, the red shining radiate radiating their heat

(01:30:56):
out and they produce a lot of heat. So anyway,
whichever way you want to go about it probably ought
to be a little more cautious than normal because of
the weather we just had. Let's set out to West
u and we're going to talk to Jonas. Hey, Jonas,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 29 (01:31:13):
Good morning, Thank you Skive for taking my call. I
have two questions once a little bit of an off
season question. At Christmas time, I bought two point sets
and they're beautiful, big, and of course all the red
leaves have fallen off now and what I have and
now are just the twigs and everything else. Is there
any merit in me keeping these? We're taking care of

(01:31:34):
them or growing them for next season. They're indoors right now.

Speaker 3 (01:31:38):
Yeah, yeah, most people don't go through the process of
doing that because it's months and months of caring for
them in order to have them again for the next year.
But you can they can't take cold at all at all.
But once the cold is gone and passed behind us,

(01:32:00):
you can put them outside, move them up to a
bigger container, or some people plant them in their yard,
or sink the container in the ground. You know, if
the container has holes in the bottom where the roots
can come out, you can just sink the container in
the ground and let them grow and either leave them
as a landscape plant until the first cold gets there,

(01:32:22):
or if they're in a container, then when you approach
the holidays, you're going to start making the plant think
the days are shorter than they are, and so for
holiday blooming plants, typically in September, I will start to
cover them up. I like to say, use the normal

(01:32:44):
eight to five work schedule. When you get up in
the morning and go to work, you take the cover off,
leave it off all day, and then when you come
home five o'clock put the cover back on. That means
it gets dark sooner than it normally would for that plant.
And by doing that for a few weeks, that initiates
the development in the case of Point Settus of those

(01:33:05):
red bracts that we enjoy. If you don't do that,
it'll be very late to start to develop its color.
When nature itself gives the plant shorter day length. Sounds
it sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it.

Speaker 29 (01:33:20):
It sounds like a lot of work. It sounds like
it's yeah, that's.

Speaker 3 (01:33:24):
Why most people don't do it. Now. I saw two
or three folks this year that had that are doing that.
But most people it's like and if you e even
with the best of intentions, you know, get to water
them or something. But anyway, right, it's an option.

Speaker 29 (01:33:39):
That's an option. The other question is I have about
maybe eight post hype biscuits. You're in about ten gallon pots.
And during the cold episodes that we had a big
two ones we had, I had them brought indoors and
they're just tooing beautiful. They're big. I've haend for three
or four years, and so the question I have a
couple of questions. Number One, now we're is prognosticated to

(01:34:01):
be about thirty two degrees in Houston around midweek or so.
I don't want to go through the lake brought indoors
and all that. Do you think they can tolerate thirty
two degrees? And I'll put covers around their roots and
all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
All right, okay, So if you can put them on
the south side of your house, right up against the house,
underneath the eaves, or in an entrance way that has
a cover over it, they'll probably be okay. In terms
of the plant dying, it won't be happy, but you
can get away with that. On the continue on this question,
I'm going to need to come back from break. We

(01:34:37):
need to take a break right here, Jonas. If you
want to continue, just hang on and we will. We
will come back to you. There you go, all right, Billy,
you gotta do a gardening show. Here you are listening
to Guardline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are
here for your gardening questions. If you want to give

(01:34:58):
me a call seven one three two kt r H
seven three two in two ktr H. All right, if
you live south of Houston in that whole region, really,
Cienamalch is the place you need to know about. Cianamalch
dot com. That's the website. Go to that website. You'll
find the phone number, you'll find the location. They're on

(01:35:18):
FM five point twenty one, kind of close to the
Highway six two eighty eight that area. But just cianimals
dot com. That's it. They serve all that region. Sweetwater
First Colony, sun Creek Estates, Iowa Colony, Sandy Point League, Olympia, Pomona, Fresno,
Cuoa Valley. Do I need to keep going? They serve
that whole area. They have premium hardwood mulch in bulk

(01:35:41):
native hardwood double ground mulch two inch screened mulch, a
nice dark chocolate colored, not dyed, I died, but nice
dark chocolate colored, smells great, no manure in it and
it just smells really nice. Also in bulk you can
get things like roast soil and organic compost. And you
know they also carry the other things we use in

(01:36:04):
our landscapes, like sand or gravel. If you need stone,
you should see their collection of stone. It is gorgeous
rocks of every kind. Are you going to make a
little dry creek riverbed in your landscape, They've got the
stones for that. Are you going to lay a patio
or have a walkway, They've got the stones for that.
You're gonna build a little retaining wall or a bed

(01:36:24):
around or a border around a bed. They have the
stones for that. They deliver within twenty miles for small fee.
And while you're there, as we're taking care of the
brown stuff to make our green plants happy. Microlife Fertilizer,
Nelson Turf star Line, Nelson Plant Food Jars, the little
screw top lids, Medina Products, nitrofoss Products, Azamite, heirlooms. They

(01:36:48):
got it all at Siena Molts Sienamoltz dot com. Go
check it out, go see them. It's a friendly, it's
just a pleasure to do to do business with the
folks there at cnmulch. All right, I'm going to go
back to Jonas in West U and Jonas, let's continue

(01:37:10):
on with our questions. You were talking about a hibiscus.
You're thinking you're going to get to about thirty two,
and I was saying, well, if you can get it
underneath the eves up against the house, it's probably going
to be okay there. If truly thirty two is what
it hit, what you hit, Yes.

Speaker 29 (01:37:28):
Sir, Unfortunately these pots are facing north, and yeah, I
think maybe you can bring them intoors. They're very cool sensitive,
weren't they.

Speaker 3 (01:37:36):
Yeah, they are free sensitive. They're very free sensitive. Yeah.
I had some that I've left outdoors. I covered them
during the last good phrase we had and they're still going.
But uh, if you want to make them happy, you know,
bring them to a warmer spot.

Speaker 29 (01:37:53):
Right right, they're even blooming now. The other question that
I have is I have not pruned these at all.
Have these big branches. They're big and a little bit
out of control, but they're beautiful. When should ahibiscus be pruned?

Speaker 3 (01:38:07):
If ever, if you need to do pruning, I would
do it after we're past the cold weather and the
hibiscus is about ready to start growing again, because you know,
the temperatures are warm enough to support new growth. You
can do your pruning at that time. However, maybe you
need to shorten the height of the plant, or shape

(01:38:27):
it a little bit, or remove some branches that are
going in the wrong direction. That's kind of up to you.
There's not just a standard hibiscus pruning regiment.

Speaker 29 (01:38:37):
That we have, so maybe ap or so it might
be a good time around that time.

Speaker 3 (01:38:42):
Yeah, that'd be fine.

Speaker 29 (01:38:43):
Sure, Okay, Well, thank you very much. This has been
most important to man. All right, Okay, thank.

Speaker 3 (01:38:50):
You sir, You take care, appreciate the call. Thanks a lot.
Medina products have been around, well, how about this, they've
been around. It's dirt. Dirt's been around a long time.
Medina literally was a sponsor of what was not called
Garden Line, but when Gardenline began back in the Dewey
Compton days, Medina was a sponsor and people over the

(01:39:13):
years have come to depend on Medina's many kinds of
products that they have. One of the ones I just
want to feature right now is Medinas has to grow
six twelve to six plant food six twelve six, so
that's six percent nitrogen, twelve percent phosphors, six percent potassium.
It also has Medina Soil Activator to stimulate biological activity.

(01:39:34):
It's got humate, humic acid, humus, humic acids full of
the gs. All of that improves soil structure, improves nutrient
uptake as a result. It's got seaweed extract in it.
Now it's not a salt based product, so you can
spray it on foliage and do folier applications as much
as you want. I would say, at this time of

(01:39:55):
the year, this is big time planting season. We're still
planting trees and shrubs. And by the if you've got
a plant when you need to hurry up and get
that done, because them every week you give that tree
or show before summer is an extra week for it
to start getting some roots established. So get those done.
If you're gonna do any kind of transplanting like that,
including your flowers, your vegetables, your herbs, everything, just take

(01:40:19):
the medina has to grow six twelve six, Put about
one ounce in a gallon of water, put in a
sprinkling can, and just soak that root ball, soak that
base of the plant roots with it. That especially that
hyphosphorus the middle number is very important for roots. And
I like to do that at planting. And then I
repeated a week later, and repeated a third time another

(01:40:40):
week later, and that will get you off to a
good start. Now this is used all through the season.
It's not just used for watering implants. But that is
how I would recommend you look at it. At this
particular time of the season. Medina has to grow six
to twelve six plant food. Let's head out now to
New Caney and we're going to talk to Banina, Hey, Banina.

Speaker 9 (01:41:03):
How are you.

Speaker 3 (01:41:05):
I'm doing well. How can it help?

Speaker 29 (01:41:09):
Well?

Speaker 19 (01:41:09):
I just wanted to piggyback off that point setup. We've
for six years. I have been taking care of our
point setus and they are beautiful. But we leave them
out in a big old pot and we putn't leave
them outside until the first freeze, so when the time changes,
that is the same way as covering it. We don't

(01:41:30):
bring them in the house. We leave them outside into
first freeze, then we bring them into the garage. Okay,
and so but they have been this is I've had
them for six years. They bloomed beautiful. That's the first
time they've ever bloomed since we started doing that. So
I just wanted to piggyback off of that.

Speaker 8 (01:41:50):
Good.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
Yeah. And you know, different kinds of holiday plants bloom
at different day links and if you do leave them,
the days will get short enough in time. Sometimes people
like to get an early start on them. And that's
you know, like we have Thanksgiving cactus, who have Christmas cactus.
And the difference basically there for all practical purposes is

(01:42:13):
the days don't have to be as short for Thanksgiving
cactus to bloom as they do for the Christmas cactus
and your points out us the same way. Yeah, you
cannot cover them. You cannot cover them, but if you
wanted to have gorgeous color at Thanksgiving, cover them a
little early and speeding up that arrival the short days
helps a little bit. How tall are your plants now?

Speaker 19 (01:42:35):
Oh my goodness, they're probably about four foot tall. And
my husband cuts them back into here and they get
that tall. Okay, but mine start blooming about the end
of October to November. They bloom all that time until
I put them on. Well, they still continue blooming, but
they bloom all that time. And I don't know what

(01:42:57):
furtilizer he uses. I don't know any of that. I've
just I just look at the beautiful flowers, to be honest.

Speaker 3 (01:43:05):
Well, and I know, I know some people like to
keep them, but y'all must be very faithful and keeping
those things watered in the summer and carrying them through
the long season as we get ready for the next
holiday season. Well, Benita, thank you for that call, Thanks
for that information.

Speaker 19 (01:43:22):
Every year we have to buy five more because we
just love Point settus, so we just we just have
whole bunch of them. But I just want to tell
that guy that you can leave it out to you know.

Speaker 3 (01:43:32):
Yeah, So so you need to start. You need to
become a tourist attraction around there. And you know, some
people during the holidays decorate with lights and every room
in the house is covered with Christmas stuff. And well,
you can just be the point setter ranch that everybody
goes and visits.

Speaker 19 (01:43:50):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (01:43:52):
I'm all right, thank you, Benita, appreciate that. That's interesting.

Speaker 13 (01:43:58):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:44:00):
One thing you never do, one thing you should never
do is tell somebody they can't do something. That's for sure,
they'll prove you wrong. There's probably someone who's got a
blue spruce tree in Houston that's keeping it alive somehow,
I don't know. And I tell but don't bring those
things back. They're not going to grow here. I've seen
attempts at it though, that's for sure. Well up in

(01:44:21):
Willis is a place called Growers Outlet, and that is
the website too, Growers Outlet in Willis, that's part of
the website Growers Outlet in Willis. They're on Highway seventy
five in Willis, just a few minutes away from forty five,
and they serve that whole area. So whether you live
you know, out in Woodlands or up in Willis or
some of the lake neighborhoods, you know bunt Water, April

(01:44:43):
Sound out there a republic grand ranch folks that are
living out there, moving out there. Seven coves. These are
all in the region where shoppers come to the Grower's
Outlet in Willis. Now they've got fertilizers that you hear
me talk about on there, like microlife, nitroposs and medina
for example. It's a garden center, so they have a

(01:45:05):
variety of other products that you need for your gardens.
You're going to find a really good selection of betting
plants and vegetables right now. They've got perennials by the
one gallon size and ferns and they're hanging baskets are amazing.
I saw some of the biggest burn baskets I've ever
seen last time I was out there at grows Outlet
in Willis. Other kinds of color plants, you know, teraneums, urbina.

(01:45:30):
They grow a lot of that in house. They have
a greenhouses there and they grow it themselves. They got
a good gift shop. It's just a fun place to
visit now it's on Highway seventy five in will It's
just minutes away from Interstate forty five. Go to the website,
learn more about it and find out everything you need
to know. They have a really good on their website.
They have a really good list of plants by type,

(01:45:55):
for example, do you want fragrant plants? Do you want
deer resistant plants? Do you want plants that are t
bird bees and butterflies. They've got all that and you
can find a nice selection. It's very educational. Website. Growers
outlet in Wellis and then go by there and get
you some good plans. We're gonna go now out to
Laporte and talk to Brenda. Hey, Brenda, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (01:46:18):
Thank you for.

Speaker 30 (01:46:18):
Taking my call.

Speaker 3 (01:46:19):
Skip.

Speaker 30 (01:46:20):
I sent an email in with a picture and the
subject was Katrina Rose. I had some questions about my
Katrina rosebush.

Speaker 3 (01:46:32):
Oh this has been a few days ago. Yes, okay,
I got it.

Speaker 30 (01:46:35):
Yes, yeah, well okay, really two questions. One is is
I'm having a lot of problem. It looks to me
like black spide on yell leaves, and so I'm using
fung aside and I can keep it under control. But
it looks like I have large areas of the cane.
The cane appear healthy, but I have no leaves on there.
All the leaves are now on the outer portion, so

(01:46:57):
I'm not sure one where the got you do the
bud start on new growth or old growth on Katrina Roads?

Speaker 3 (01:47:05):
All right, gotcha, I'm gonna hit a hard break right now.
All right, folks, we are back back on guard line
and we're going to continue the discussion we're having with
Brenda out in Laporte. Brenda, we were talking about your roses,
and it took a look at the photos and the

(01:47:25):
things you described. One thing before I forget the rose
is showing a little bit of iron deficiency. So that
could be due to a lack of iron, but it
also could be due to the so being too soggy
there for for the aeration not good enough for the
roots to thrive, and therefore not taking up the iron
that may even be present. So you may want to

(01:47:46):
look into that a little bit. If you if you
decide it's not soggy soil, then get you an iron
key late or sometimes the other way around, keylated iron
and apply it to that. Your your plant performed as expected,
that particular rose. It is primarily a spring bloomer. That's

(01:48:08):
when we get our most blooms out of it, and
you don't get a lot out for the rest of
the year, and that's true of a lot of climbers.
It looks I think it looks fine. In what you're
describing about losing some older foliage and stuff, that's normal.
I have one of those Peggy Martins and I don't
spray mine at all, and you are going to get

(01:48:28):
some spots here or there, but generally not enough to
worry about, So you might want to consider just backing
off of that. It has really good vigor and your
plant looks good. It's obviously happy and growing. So what's
going to happen in the spring is you're going to
get crazy amount of blooms on that plant. And then
after the blooms are gone, that's when you may want

(01:48:50):
to decide are you going to trell us it or
are you gonna, well, how are you going to grow it?
And go ahead and prone it and get it into
the form you want and then let it grow through
the summer and then next spring it'll have all its
bloom show. But don't print it in between don't print
it after mid to late summer for sure.

Speaker 16 (01:49:09):
Oh okay, good.

Speaker 30 (01:49:10):
So I was going to go out there as soon
as it warmed up and with my with my sheares
and start cutting back, but I'm afraid I'd becotting any
new growth with potential buds.

Speaker 3 (01:49:21):
Yeah, the buds are there for this coming spring, So
don't hold off and enjoy it because you're going to
see a lot of nice, beautiful blooms on it. But
you're going to need to give it something to grow
on because that that lady is going to want to
take off here even more. Okay, yeah, I.

Speaker 30 (01:49:35):
Didn't realize how fast they grow. But well, thank you
so much. So I have some planning to do. I
really appreciate taking my call.

Speaker 3 (01:49:42):
Okay, bye bye, you take care. Than is the case.
I love I love Belinda's dream. It's a it's a
really nice rose. And of course there's a lot of
nice roses out there, but that one became famous after
after the hurricane down in New Orleans and it's surviving underwater.
It sort of became a legend of a rose, and
now everybody loves it and wants to plant it, and

(01:50:04):
it is worth planting. But there are a lot of
other great roses out there as well. So anyway, did
I say Belinda's dream? I think I just heard myself
say Belinda's dream. No, we're talking about the Katrina Rose. Okay,
all right, Well anyway, let's go to San Leone if

(01:50:26):
I can find my mouse here. There we go San Leone.
We're going to talk to Ted. Hey, Ted, welcome to
guard Line.

Speaker 25 (01:50:33):
Hey, you're so cool.

Speaker 5 (01:50:34):
Y'all got my name on call there? You know who
I am?

Speaker 19 (01:50:38):
Just want to there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:50:40):
Hey.

Speaker 5 (01:50:41):
Yeah, my good friends at Texas City Feet ordered me
five gallons of the Medina plus seeing by in a
five gallon container and it saved me about you about
twenty five you know, run out of it. It's aggravating, said,
I don't run out now, man.

Speaker 3 (01:51:02):
Right, how can I help today?

Speaker 5 (01:51:03):
Ted, I've got about three quarters of a gallon of
Medina molasses and I'm on to get rid of it.
Is it more of a folier feeder?

Speaker 2 (01:51:16):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:51:17):
Molasses is basically basically sugar. When sugar is basically carbon,
and when you put that in the ground, in the soil,
it stimulates certain types of microbial activity that can be
very helpful. So I would generally use the molasses more
as a soil amendment or as a soil addition. Some
people do put it on as a folier spray, but

(01:51:40):
I would primarily focus on the fact that it's a
good soil amendment.

Speaker 5 (01:51:44):
It'd be okay to go ahead and water it in
then I guess, huh, Or I can put down and
the spray the medina plus on top of it.

Speaker 3 (01:51:56):
Yes, yes, you could do both.

Speaker 5 (01:51:59):
Okay, okay, all right, that's what I wanted to know.

Speaker 3 (01:52:04):
There you go. Well, I'm glad you found the bulk
bulk supply of it. I don't I don't talk about
that a lot on the air because most people aren't
going to buy five gallons, you know. But it sounds
like you said.

Speaker 5 (01:52:17):
Randy used to say, when you use it, saturated, saturated,
that's what Randy used to say.

Speaker 3 (01:52:23):
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Horticultural molasses that they have
is a it's a it's a very good product. All right,
you take care, all right, right, Yeah, you're listening to
Guardline the phone number seven one three two one two
k t r H. Seven one three two one two
k t r H. The molasses is a it is

(01:52:48):
like a rocket fuel for a lot of the microbes,
microbes that are in the soil that benefits your plants.
That is for sure not bad on pancakes. Although I
wasn't anoyed, I shouldn't say that on there. I would
not put Medina molasses on your pancakes. I don't know
that that is okay, or I don't know that it's
not okay. But I got to watch what comes out

(01:53:10):
of my mouth, that's for sure, because I'll try it.
I guarantee you someone will try it. Well. You are
listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and
we're here to help you have a bountiful garden, a
beautiful landscape, and almost most important of all, more fun
in the process. I was talking about Houston powder Coats yesterday,
and they're the biggest powder coat by the way, in

(01:53:31):
this whole region of the state. They they they've got
the staff and they got the equipment to powder coat
pretty much anything you have. I mean, if you're talking
about looking at let's say, you know, goose neck trailers,
they got like a sixty five foot area that they
can run it into. They have smaller ones as well,

(01:53:53):
but with powder coating it's better than painting because this stuff,
through an electrical process just naturally at hatches into the
metal and it is so beautiful. If you've got cast
on or wrought on aluminum, patio furniture, anything metal. I
talk about their furniture stuff all the time because they
do things like fix a little weld if you need

(01:54:14):
that done, they can do that. They can fix a weld,
They can put new screws and bolts and things that
are rested in there. They use the stainless steel on there.
They can fix the feet and the end caps. And
maybe you've got a tubular metal furniture and they that
kind of those wear off on the sidewalk or drive
patio rather. They can fix all of that. But they

(01:54:35):
can also do landscape art that's metal. They can do
light poles. You have a little light pole out front,
they can powder coat that rails to a porch or patio.
They can powder coat that. I mean the benches. You know,
you go to these parks and things and you see
the little metal benches. Powder coating that works great on those.
Just write this down. Sales at Houston Coders dot com.

(01:54:59):
Sales to Houston Cooders dot com. Just send him a
picture and say, hey, what would it cost to Can
I get a quote on what it would cost to
do this? You only have one hundred plus colors to
choose from, so they can give you exactly the color
you're looking for. Houston Powdercoders dot Com. Houston powder Cooders
dot Com. Get a whole new set of decades, a

(01:55:22):
new life for your furniture with a powder coating. Time
for me to quit talking. When I come back, I'm
going to go out to Wharton and we're going to
talk to Angie. Alrighty, welcome back, Welcome back to Gardenline.
We are gonna head out to Ken in the Woodlands. Hey, Ken,

(01:55:43):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (01:55:45):
Good morning.

Speaker 25 (01:55:45):
Skip sent an email this morning. Uh, just a few
minutes ago. Yes, I have an issue with Laura Pebbulham.

Speaker 23 (01:55:55):
And I.

Speaker 3 (01:55:58):
Yes, I got them. Got them.

Speaker 25 (01:56:00):
Uh you can take a look at that.

Speaker 3 (01:56:03):
Yeah, so let me let me comment on them, because
I have. I've been looking at your pictures. They you
the Laura pedlums were growing nice and healthy, nice long
shoe growth and everything, and then the collapsed. You know
what I'm saying that. You know I had three.

Speaker 25 (01:56:22):
Of those that were just beautiful, and they have over
the past about three years, they've all died and now
I've got the fourth one doing the same thing, and
I cannot figure it out.

Speaker 4 (01:56:36):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:56:36):
Here, here, here, here's what's going on. There is a
root rot in those plants. Now, if the area stays
a little on the wet side, there are certain root
rots that are that the plant is going to be
more prone to and extra wet conditions. But there are others,
you know, so it could be something like what's called
oak root rot. It doesn't just attack oaks, but but uh,
it certainly is present in your area up there, uh

(01:57:00):
in the woodlands. It The only way to know for sure,
Ken is to send a sample into the plant clinic.
And do you have a pin or paper handy and
end paper? Okay, plant clinic one word dot t a
m U, dot e d U plant clinic dot TAMU

(01:57:25):
dot ed U. Go there, download the form. You could
drive the plant up there. You're in the woodlands, you're
not that far away from college station. Or you can
mail it. If you mail it, you really wanted to
get there early in the week so it doesn't just
set in a you know, as a mail box over
the weekend. Get a plant that is alive but dying.

(01:57:49):
If it is completely dead, they can't do autopsies, but
if it's sick, they can culture out the disease that's
causing it. So you want to get a plant that
isn't completely gone. You can cut some of the top
off to make it fit in a box and kind
of shove those in with it, or if you can

(01:58:09):
take the whole thing up, put a trash bag around
the whole thing, But you want it to be in
a fresh state so that they're able to culture out
the problem and they'll tell you what the disease is. Now,
depending on which root right it is, you may or
may not be able to control it with a fungicidal
drench over the plants. But I could I if I

(01:58:30):
knew what it was, I could tell you what to use,
But I don't, and we don't want to go wasting
your time and money trying things that are not going
to work. But with that, with that analysis, you will
know exactly what you need to do before you put
more money into more plants for that area. Laura, Pedulum's
a wonderful plant. It should do good in your area,

(01:58:52):
and so we just got to figure out what's going
on with.

Speaker 10 (01:58:54):
These Yeah, they are.

Speaker 25 (01:58:55):
I mean, like I said, I had them there for
ten or fifteen years, and then a couple of years ago,
nothing's I haven't changed watering or anything else, and suddenly
they started dying. I tried caf cam on them, you know,
a branch of capcam on the ones in the past,
and it just you know, didn't seem to right.

Speaker 3 (01:59:16):
Yeah, just hold off on all treatments. Hold off on
all treatments because I won't captain won't work on this,
as you already know. But your description that had started
with a couple of branches and then the whole bush
was gone. That kind of progression that's real typical of
some types of root rots. So that's the bottom line.
You just got to get it analyzed because when you
know what the culprit is kind of like a doctor.

(01:59:37):
You know, they send stuff off to the labs and
then they know what medicine to give you. That's kind
of how this works.

Speaker 25 (01:59:43):
Does that also that type of disease also affect elm trees.

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
Depending on which root right it is. Yeah, depending on
which root right it is, it can affect a number
of different kinds of species. Oak root rot, for example,
kills a lot of different kinds of woody plants.

Speaker 25 (02:00:04):
Okay, well, I've had some elm trees and horn beam
and uh, you know, I call them ironwood or whatever.

Speaker 3 (02:00:14):
That you know, they're natives that.

Speaker 25 (02:00:18):
Have done fine, you know, I mean they're mature tree.

Speaker 14 (02:00:22):
Uh.

Speaker 25 (02:00:23):
And then and they're getting you know, plenty of water.

Speaker 8 (02:00:26):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:00:27):
And it varies. But I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I have
to cut it short, but I'm gonna I'm gonna have
to run here. We got the top of the hour
coming on. But uh do that. Feel free to send
me the results, email me the results of what they
tell you, and call back and we'll be we'll be
happy to continue this on.

Speaker 31 (02:00:47):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:00:48):
I've talked about micro life products many times, many types
of microlife products, and I just want to tell you
a little bit about the Biomatrix. That's the orange labeled
liquid product. You can get it in a quirk, you
can get it in a gallon, and I use it
on my houseplants because it is a seven to one
to three fertilizer. It has a good boost of nitrogen.
So anything that where you're wanting to enhance the foliage

(02:01:10):
growth that would be a good choice. Biomatrix and houseplants
basically their foliage. I don't have any fruiting or flowering houseplants.
I mean you could use it on those. But biomatrix
works really really well, doesn't take much of it, and
you just apply it as per the label. You can
use it outdoors too. I just used my houseplants as

(02:01:32):
a foliage example. But any kind of plant you want
to give your tomatoes a boost, you can even mix
it in water and folio or spraym and then drench
the soil. Biomatrix from Microlife works. I'll tell you that
because I've used it. I know. Microlifefertilizer dot com is
where you go if you want to find out more
information about that. Let's go out now to Wharton and

(02:01:54):
talk to Angie.

Speaker 23 (02:01:55):
Hello Angie, good morning, Skip.

Speaker 32 (02:01:59):
How are you today.

Speaker 3 (02:02:01):
I'm doing well, Benjie. Let's see if we can get
you here in about a minute and a half before break.
If not, we'll we'll continue on after break.

Speaker 32 (02:02:09):
All right, Well, my Texas Mountain larrel is covered in
little bloom buds, and I'm really worried about them with this.
You know, trees that's coming up. Should I cover that
whole plant and protect it or will they be okay?

Speaker 3 (02:02:25):
You know, how is this supposed to get what's the
latest on the weather for your area down there? Do
you know?

Speaker 6 (02:02:32):
Thirties?

Speaker 32 (02:02:33):
I think it's going to be in the thirties.

Speaker 3 (02:02:34):
Thirties, it doesn't go below freezing, Mountain Laurel'll be fine.
If it goes below freezing, the new growth pushing out
is going to have a problem with it. I don't
think if that's the case that in the thirties, I
think you're okay. It's got it close, But I think
you're okay, okay.

Speaker 32 (02:02:52):
Well, I just don't want to lose that wonderful smelling flower,
you know, Oh, I know, as you.

Speaker 3 (02:02:59):
Know, I think that Mountain Laurel fragrance is probably the
only thing that we smell with our nose that I
would call gaudy. Gaudy is usually a visual comment. It
has a gaudy fragrance, But I love it. Thanks for
the call.

Speaker 19 (02:03:17):
It's the backyard.

Speaker 32 (02:03:18):
Thank you, Chip. Have a wonderful.

Speaker 3 (02:03:20):
Day, all right, you take care. That is absolutely true.
You know, I was out at uh I was out
at the in Chenned gardens yesterday, and that's just a
great place to go. You really need to go there
in Chennet Gardens Richmond dot com. That's the website. It's
been around since nineteen ninety five when the Lenderman family

(02:03:42):
formed it. It's an unforgettable experience. I was walking around
looking at their garden art and their fountains and their
chimes and their plants, and they have everything. And while
you're out there, you know brown soft for a green stuff,
they got microlife, they got nitrophoss, they got Nelson plant food,
and Medina, soils from Nature's Way, soils from heirlooms, soils.
I mean, they have everything you need. Where is it.

(02:04:02):
It's on FM three fifty nine. Those of you who
didn't come out is thirty f M three fifty nine.
Try that Katie foolsher side of Richmond. You will enjoy it.
But go to the website. It's full of good information.
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Alrighty, well there you got it.
We sure had a good time out there. That was

(02:04:24):
that was fun. I always like going to that place. Uh,
why don't we do this. Let's take us a little
break here. You get some coffee, I'll get some coffee
and we'll come back and we'll keep talking about the
things that are of interest to you. How do we
help you have success? Well, you got a question seven
one three two one two kt r H. I got

(02:04:44):
an open board. Hurry you might be one of the
first ones out.

Speaker 1 (02:04:55):
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip Richter's so.

Speaker 2 (02:05:01):
Crazy trim.

Speaker 28 (02:05:07):
Just watch him as many.

Speaker 2 (02:05:15):
Birthdays to Sup bazas.

Speaker 29 (02:05:23):
Not a sign.

Speaker 13 (02:05:29):
S.

Speaker 3 (02:05:31):
All right, folks, good morning. Guess what. We're entering our
fourth and final hour of the Garden Line this morning.
For those of you who are new to the show,
first of all, welcome. Second of all, you can hear
us every Saturday and Sunday from six am to ten
am here on kt r H seven forty uh. The
way I suggest people listen if you're a gardener is

(02:05:55):
on your phone. Download the iHeartMedia app and you can
listen to garden Line both both past shows and live
on the iHeartMedia app. So I was telling the folks
out at intended gardens yesterday. Download the app. Just when
it's garden Line time, open it up and start listening
on your phone. Put your phone in your pocket and
go out in the garden and do what you do.

(02:06:17):
I mean, maybe you're out there and you see a
weed and you're wondering, well, how do I get rid
of this? It's all over the place. Take a picture
of it. Call up the show, talk to my producer.
He'll give you an email. You can send it to
me and then follow up with a phone call and
we'll talk about the weed. So live from your garden.
It's garden line. You know, that's how that works. We
can do it that way as well. However you want

(02:06:38):
to listen though, I do welcome you and glad you're here.
Tell you friends and neighbors about it, and family. We've
got people that listen, even out of state. So certainly
the more the merrier, love to have more folks listening in.
I talk about and brag on Southwest Fertilizer all the
time because Southwest Fertilizer is it's just an institution here

(02:07:02):
in the Houston area in a been around since nineteen
fifty five, so this is there. Basically, they're celebrating their
seventieth year. So happy birthday to Bob and the whole
crew out there Southwest Fertilizer. Glad so glad to see
that kind of staying power. And you know what, you
don't last seventy years if you're not doing a whole

(02:07:23):
lot of things right. And what do they do right? Well,
first of all, they have every fertilizer, every insect aside,
every fungicide, every herbicide that you need, every kind of
a supplement. You know, I talk about medina and use
this and that supplement in microlife and other things. They've
got all of it. Everything related to plant growth they've got.

(02:07:44):
Do you need a tool like a quality pruning tool
by Falco or Corona, show up there. Southwest Fertilizer and
they've got a ninety foot long wall of tools to
choose from. They do carry that kneeling bench that I
talk about all the time. They do carry the grabber
gadget that you use to make my homemade weed wiper,

(02:08:05):
my Skip's homemade weed wiper. If you don't know what
that is, go to gardening with Skip dot com and
look at it. It's the coolest things. And slice bread.
In my opinion, I'm biased, but I'm not wrong on that.

Speaker 26 (02:08:16):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:08:17):
And they carry everything you need. They carry soils, multious
soil amendments, you know things well, nutrient products like azemite two,
of course Nature's Way Resources, Landscaper's Pride, heirloom soils, Medina
more wonderful selection to seed. They've got those big old
that package to seed, but they also have those big
bins where you take a little scoop and you get

(02:08:37):
your seat out of that and put it in an envelope.
That is the most economical way to buy seed that
there is, and they've got that also there. But of
course they have that there. This is Southwest Fertilizer. If
they don't have it, you don't need it. And if
you have a question, maybe maybe there's a weed and
it's Wednesday and we're not doing garden line to call in.
Go into Southwest Fertilizer, take the weed with you, show

(02:08:58):
it to them. They'll tell you exactly what you need
to do to manage it. They are experts when it
comes to that kind of service, and they are also
specialists when it comes to that good old fashioned service
that you know we all used to appreciate so much
and nowadays is a little less common than it used
to be. Friendly service, great products, great selection. Corner of

(02:09:22):
Bisonette and Renwick. Southwest Fertilizer Southwest Fertilizer dot com. Say
hey to them from SKIP. When you go in there,
you are listening to Guardenline. The phone number if you'd
like to call in have a question seven one three
two one two k t r H. Seven one three
two one two k t r H. So Valentine's is

(02:09:45):
upon us. Actually we just passed it, but we're going
to pretend we didn't because there's still time. There's still
time to redeem yourself. You need a good gift. How
about a rose? A rose bush is a wonderful gift.
You know, February's for roses. We all know we punum
in February. We plant them in February, although we can
do it in other months as well. But if you
want a great selection of roses, RCW Nursery has got

(02:10:08):
you covered. They get in more roses than anybody I've seen.
I mean six pages of different rose cultivars that are
available from RCW Nursries. That's the garden center that's at
the corner of belt Way eight and Tomball Parkway, Hiaby
two forty nine. You can go to the website RCW
Nurseries dot com or just go buy there Tomball Parkway

(02:10:28):
belt Way eight easy to get to RCW Nurseries. Whether
you want roses or pretty much any kind of plant,
you're gonna find it there. They also carry fertilizers from
nitrofoss and Microlife and Nelson Turf Star Line. They just
make sure they have on hand what you need for success. Now,

(02:10:49):
when it comes to trees and shrubs, hurry up, get
it done. If you're going to plant one, don't do
it two months from now when it's hotter. Do it now.
You can plant a tree or shrub twelve months out
of the year. The hotter it gets, the more touch
and go it is, the more difficult it is to
make sure you don't let it get too dry or
too wet or whatever. Now it's a great time. They

(02:11:09):
grow their own shrubs and trees. They grow the species
and varieties that do best here and they can advise
you with professional advice. They're at RCW Nurseries. By the way,
there a tree farm, Williamson Tree Farm. You can go
to Williamsontreefarm dot com and it's open to the public
on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. You just have to make

(02:11:31):
an appointment on the website. Don't just show up out there.
This is a wholesale nursery and they're busy. They're not
set up to just have five hundred people show up
at once and want to buy a tree. Make an
appointment with them, and they're happy to greet you out
there and you get to see a really beautiful selection
of some cool stuff, or just go buy RCW Nurseries

(02:11:51):
and get them there. Well, I in my yard right now,
out in the I've got a little bit of cold
damage from the last cold because I tend to let
my plants kind of fend for themselves unless I know
cold is gonna take them out. So I need to

(02:12:12):
get in there and clean them out. But I'm gonna wait.
All that dead material on top is just a little
bit of help with insulation for the next freeze it
may occur, and we got one. I got one coming
this week, so I'm going to wait a little bit,
get past it, and then I'll get my crystal ball
out and decide if there's any more freezes and then
go from there. I think I may have one more

(02:12:32):
still to come. We'll see. You never know, but that
dead material is helpful in protecting the base of the plant,
so my coufia or Mexican heather is an example. In
my lantanas. They look horrible right now, but I've learned
to embrace ugly and be patient because there's plenty of
time to prune them back before the new growth comes

(02:12:54):
out and gets in the way of that. I'm going
to take a break. We'll be right back with your calls.
All right, we're back. We are back. Welcome to garden Line.
Welcome back to garden Line. We're continuing on today answering

(02:13:15):
gardening questions and getting ready for some cold weather coming up.
Just remember if you need advice on any kind of
plant covering and how do I protect a plan against
a freeze and all the whatnot of it. Oh, you
have to is go to my website Gardening with Skip
dot com. Find the publication that is protecting landscape plants

(02:13:36):
from frosts and freezes and it will guide you in
doing that. It's free, It is absolutely free. Can't tap
me down on that price, So check it out. I
hope it will be helpful. That's why we put those
things up there, is to help you to have success. Also,
my schedules are up there, the lawn care schedule, the
lawn pest disease, and we'd management schedule both of them

(02:13:59):
full color, easy to follow, and they tell you what
to use, when to use it, whether you're organic or synthetic.
There are options for everyone on that schedule. I was
outside yesterday and just noticed the song of some birds
and I love I love listening to the different songs.

(02:14:19):
And by the way, if you there's an app, and
it is called the Merlin App, as in Merlin the
Magician me r l I N. It's done by Cornell
University's Department or of Ornithology, which I think is a
word designed because it was too hard to say birds anyway.

(02:14:41):
Orentthology is a study of birds. I've got a good
orthology joke. But you got to see it's it's a
performance jogging. I see me perform anyway, Department of Ornithology.
It's a free app and you can take a picture
of a bird and you'll tell you what kind of
bird it is. You can listen to a bird sing,
and there's also a little like a microphone thing on
the and you click that and you can watch it

(02:15:02):
as it goes across the page, listening to the sounds
that it's hearing, and all of a sudden, a bird
pops up and a tas your what kind of birded?
Is that cool? And guess what? How much does it cost? Free?
Free the Merlin app? So there you go, Now I learned.
Where did I learn about the app? Well, it's about birds, right,
Where do you learn about anything birds? Where do you

(02:15:24):
get anything you need? Birds? Wild Birds Unlimited, wild Bird's Unlimited.
That's the place they just came out with their new
Cardinal Confetti Blend. It's got all kinds of things that
make birds absolutely. If they're open the windows and let
birds hear this and you watch them, they're gonna start slobbering. Safflower,
black oil, sunflower, sunflower chips, nutrisaft bark, butter bits, peanut halves,

(02:15:48):
dried mealworms. Okay, I was with them up until. I
don't know if I'll eat dried mealworms, but the rest
sounds tasty and striped sunflower all in this Cardinal Confetti Blend.
They even have a Cardinal evening feeder and a cardinal
tube feeder. You just got to go buy wild Birds
and check it out. There's six stores here in Houston
that are Wildbirds, so you can find one near you.
They're fun to go into because it's not just you know,

(02:16:11):
stacks of bird seed, although they have plenty of bird
seed of all different types, but there's beautiful things that
you would decorate your home with. There's books, there's bird houses,
there's bird feeders there, but mainly there are people in
there that know all about birds and they can help
you have success. So one thing I like about wild
bird seed is it is designed for the kinds of

(02:16:35):
birds you want to attract. And they even have something
called They're no Mess blends, which means there's not going
to be a bunch of debris under the feeder because
they've already shelled the sunflowers, for example, and it's no mess.
And the other thing I like about it is listen,
you go buy cheap bird seed anywhere and you're going
to see a lot of the little red bebies, and

(02:16:55):
that is not a favorite of birds at all. Wildbirds
see is one things that are going to go into
the bird's mouth and tummy and help them with getting
through winter weather, with help them getting ready for nesting season,
which we're there, we're there at nesting season. It's quality
feed that goes into the bird that is important at wildbirds. Now,

(02:17:21):
I could go on and on and on about wildbirds,
but first of all, go download that Merlin app and
check it out, and then go into Wildbirds and let them.
You can say, hey, look, Merlin said, I've got a
tufted tip mouse here. Well that's an unusual bird. How
do I track those? And they'll just go follow me.
They'll take you right to the seeds and show you
exactly what you need to do. That's easy, that's fun.

(02:17:45):
That's wildbirds, that's for sure. Nelson Plant Food has a
number of products. I've been talking about their turf Star line,
and I will off and on as we go forward,
but I want to tell you a little about the
Nutros Star line. Nutris Star is generally people purchase it
as a canister of food with a little screwtop cap

(02:18:06):
like a jar, but a plastic clear jar with a
screwtop cap. And they have things like the Tree and Shrub,
which is for guess what, trees and shrubs five different
sources of nitrogen that gradually feed those plants over the
coming months to provide them what they need to grow fast.
And when you've got a young tree or a shrub,
you want it to fill in. It also has micronutrients

(02:18:27):
in it. By the way, they got their citrus fruit
and avocado feed, which provides the nutrients that really any
kind of fruiting plant needs. They could just say nutri
star fruit, but so people understand that includes citrus, that
includes avocados, but it also includes pomegranates, any kind of
fruit that you have nutri stars, citrus fruit and avocado. Again,

(02:18:48):
about every three months, give it some food with that.
Just the label tells you how much to put on,
but it really does make a difference. You will sprinkle
these around beneath the branch spread of the plant. So
if it's a little fruit tree how far the branches go,
primarily focus on that area underneath and your plants will

(02:19:09):
respond with good growth. Those are from the folks at
Nelson Fertilizer and they are widely available throughout the Houston area.
Some places even will allow you to refill your jars
of certain kinds of Nelson plant food that comes in
the jars, and that saves you some money because you
just buy directly the fertilizer right out of a dispenser

(02:19:30):
kind of like those in the grocery store where you
buy peanuts and different things. Well, it's that way saves
them the plastic too, I think i's smart way to go.
You are listening to Garden Line, and we're here to
help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape.
That is my goal. That is what I hope happens
for you, because I want you to have fun. Listen gardening. Okay.

(02:19:53):
You know how at the end of commercials they have
to have a lawyer talking so fast you can't understand
the words, and it's their disclaimer. Here's my disclaimer. I
won't talk fast. Gardening is addictive. It can be habit forming.
People have been known to get so into gardening that
it's like it's the only thing that exists, and then

(02:20:16):
it's contagious and then their spouse gets the fever, or
their friends or you know whatever. Next thing, you know,
you're going to gardening clubs, You're visiting nurseries. Every time
you go to a town where someone else is you know,
you go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you know, or Philadelphia? How
about that Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to see that crack in the

(02:20:36):
liberty bell. But all you want to do is go
find all the cool garden centers up in Philadelphia. I
know you, I know you, I am you. Gardening is addictive,
but it's the best addiction that you could have. That
is for sure. That is for sure. Let's go out
to Cyprus. We're going to talk to Mark. Hey, Mark,
welcome to garden line.

Speaker 4 (02:20:57):
Oh, thanks so much. Take them a call. I have
a bottle brush that are planned. The last fall blown beautifully,
but now the freeze hit it pards So is it
going to come back from the bottom or is it dead?

Speaker 3 (02:21:16):
Probably? Yeah? Probably? So is this one of the little
short ones that's like waist high or lower? Or is
this a taller bird?

Speaker 4 (02:21:23):
Yeahst tie?

Speaker 3 (02:21:27):
Okay, that may be one called little John. But anyway,
bottle brush is marginally hardy. And when we have warm
weather and then get a good cold especially, you're going
to get frozen back on it. Usually you get a
re sprout from the bottom. Uh. And if you love
bottle brush, and there's lots of reasons to love them,
are several of the pollinators like bees do too. I

(02:21:49):
would recommend when you get cold weather, come and mount
something up around the trunk at the bottom, just to
protect that for sure, And that good root system is
still not frozen back. It's still intact, and it'll send
up press new growth and you'll be back in business
pretty quick.

Speaker 4 (02:22:04):
But not in my case, since I didn't mound anything up.

Speaker 3 (02:22:10):
I think it's going to come back. I think it's
going to come back anyway, based on where you live
and based on the kind of cold we've had. But
don't give up on it. It's gonna sit there and
look dead and pound for a while. But when the
weather worm's up, I would say, by May you should
be seeing new growth, and if you're not, then maybe
you lost the plan. You're probably gonna see new growth

(02:22:31):
though in March or April.

Speaker 4 (02:22:33):
Okay, okay, good, thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (02:22:36):
Right, all right, thank you sir. Appreciate that call very much.
Let's see here. Let's go to Michelle in Webster. Hey, Michelle,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (02:22:47):
Hi.

Speaker 33 (02:22:48):
Ask if I have a question about Texas lawflower. In
my flower bit they're long stalks with a little purpleish
like all at the end they're dried up, including the
flower and the stalk, and the homeowners don't like this
dried plant here. So I was just wondering do if
I pull up the entire stock. Well, it looks like

(02:23:10):
the little flower seeds. Will they come back or do
I need to them?

Speaker 3 (02:23:15):
Okay, okay, Michelle, I'm having a little trouble hearing you.
What I didn't catch was you said Texas and then something,
what kind of plant is it?

Speaker 6 (02:23:26):
Wildflower?

Speaker 33 (02:23:27):
It's a Texas wildflower?

Speaker 3 (02:23:29):
Oh, oh, wildflower. So in those pods up there there
should be seeds. If it's truly a wildflower and not
a special hybrid type variety, you can just crumble those
up and sprinkle them around and get those stalks out
of there. Now, some kinds of dried stalks people like
to use in arrangements. They sounds like what you're describing

(02:23:49):
sounds kind of pretty. That may be worth keeping the
stalk itself, but sprinkling the seeds around, then the wildflowers
will come back up.

Speaker 33 (02:23:57):
Okay, So I need to probably pull out the entire
stalk then, because they're kind of looking like they're dry.

Speaker 3 (02:24:04):
Guess that's why you don't like you Yeah, and well yeah,
and you know it looks like you know, there's a
lot of ways to garden. Some ways it's just always
looking perfect, and other ways it looks like nature and
nature does not look perfect all the time. It's got
dead things, you know, in it, and stuff like that.
So if there's not a tolerance for that, just just

(02:24:24):
pull them up. But I would if you don't want
to sprinkle the seeds right there, at least take those
seed heads inside and you break them up, get the
seeds out of them, put them in a glass jar
that seals well. Write down the name if you know
the name of it. If you send me a picture
of the seed stalks, I might be able to tell
you the name if you'd like that. Oh but anyway.

Speaker 33 (02:24:44):
Yeah, okay, all right, well, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (02:24:48):
Enjoy your show.

Speaker 30 (02:24:49):
Very informative.

Speaker 3 (02:24:50):
All right, thank you appreciate that very much. All righty well,
here we are. It's time for me to turn it
over for the news and other infor and I'll be
back with the last thirty minutes of garden Line. If
you would like to ask a question, times running short
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Speaker 3 (02:29:45):
Right, folks, I believe if I'm not mistaken, leugh to
waltz so without being in the living room and enjoy yourself.
Welcome back to garden Line. We are here to help
you have success in what you're growing. And if you'd
like to give me a call seven one three two
one two kt RH seven one three two one two

(02:30:07):
k t r H. I just had a call and
I think something went wrong and it got cut off there,
so feel free to call back in if you like.
I want to talk about a plant type I haven't
been discussing a lot of today, and that's fruit trees.
Fruit trees are wonderful to grow here in the Greater
Houston area. We have a lot of good ones that

(02:30:29):
we can grow. You can grow pretty much, can grow
almost anything down here. But when it comes to peaches
and pears and plums, there are even some apples that
will grow down this far south. When it comes to
figs and per simmons, those figs and percimons are two
of the most pest free and disease free problems that

(02:30:50):
you can have figs and per semons. They do really well. Here.
We have berries like blackberries and strawberries. There are some
raspberries that you can get to, but yeah, I wouldn't
start a raspberry farm. You're not gonna make a lot
of money off that, just not that much production. And
then there's the tropical and the semi tropical fruits. You know, citrus.

(02:31:13):
A lot of people move here and they're just excited
that you can grow citrus in the Greater Houston area
and you can. There are citrus it's very cold, tender,
and then there's citrus it's very hearty. One of the
hardiest types of citrus is the kind that is often
used for marmalade, and it's called kumquats. The little oranges
look like the end of your thumb. One type is round.

(02:31:34):
One type's a little more elongated, and the skin tastes
better on the inside even and people like those in
they're extreme hearty and it's a bush. Then there's satsumas.
Satsumas are a mandarin type citrus. So if you're going
I don't know what a satsuma is, I don't know
what a mandarin type citrus is. When you're in the
grocery store and you see those little oranges that are
called kuties I think is one of the brand names

(02:31:56):
for them, and you grab them and the skin just
comes right off. It's not even attached to the fruit hardly.
It's just loose, a baggy skin. Well, that's what a
setsuma's like, a baggy skinned fruit that is hardy when
established down to the upper teens. Even some people have
told me they made mid teens. But that's crazy hardy. Now,

(02:32:18):
No brandy setsuma stuck in the ground this last year
is not going to be that hardy in your yard.
And how the cold arrives determines how hardy it is.
So if we slowly cool off and we don't get
that thing growing again during the wintertime, it's gonna have
more heartiness. So anyway, satsumas, if you're listening up in
Huntsville or in Conroe or in College Station, you know,

(02:32:42):
low further north. I guess I could call those the
northern hinterlands, but people up there would laugh at that, right,
But anyway, satsuma may be the one for you. Now,
it doesn't mean, you'll never have to cover it. You
will need to cover it occasionally. But they are moderate
sized trees. They're not they don't as big as like
a grapefruit might get. So a satsuma can easily be

(02:33:05):
capped in maybe a six to eight foot range something
like that easily, and they'd taken a long time to
get eight feet. But anyway, those are things you can
grow down here too. Avocados if you're down south of
by ten, especially avocados or something you may want to
try now in a very protected spot. If we can
get a few winters that aren't that bad, they'll go

(02:33:27):
right through the winter without a problem. I was looking
at somebody sent me a picture the other day of
an avocado tree that was near the eaves of the
house on the south side, and he said it's frozen
back twice, and I was looking at it was way
taller than the eaves, and he was starting to get
avocados again. So even if they freeze back, you protect
the base of it and you're back in business. So
avocados are a little iffy, but oh my gosh, they're

(02:33:50):
so good. Now, do not plant fruit trees. Here's your
advice on fruit trees for the day. Quick quick tip,
don't pick your fruit varieties out of the in the supermarket.
Haas avocados are not for here. There are avocados varieties
that are for here, And if you go to a

(02:34:11):
good independent garden center, that's all they're going to sell
you is the heartier, smooth skin type of avocado that's
grown here. But don't pick those out of the supermarket.
You see bing cherries in the super Mario, you see
other things in the supermarket. You'll see high bush blueberries
in the super market, regular high bush, not southern. Don't
plant those here. Pick your varieties based on information that's local.

(02:34:34):
All right, we're gonna head out to Conro now and
talk to Jim. Hey, Jim, welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 4 (02:34:43):
Oh yes, good morning.

Speaker 26 (02:34:46):
I have ways in my yard, but I also have
a dog, and I was wanting to know if there's
something I can put on to kiel the weeds. But
not a fact my dog.

Speaker 3 (02:35:00):
You said you're you're wanting to kill weeds, not fleas.
Right first, I thought you said, please.

Speaker 26 (02:35:06):
I don't want to put anything that's gonna harm my doll.

Speaker 3 (02:35:10):
Okay, all right, well let me start with what your
long term UH effort should be and that is growing
a denser, healthier lawn by mowing and watering and fertilizing.
Mowing as often as you can. The more often you mow,
the denser the lawn. Watering only with a good soaking periodically,
not don't water three times a week uh and UH.

(02:35:33):
Then fertilizing moderately, and I talk about all the fertilizers
every every day on guard line. UH and and grow
the densest lawn you can get, and those weed problems
will plummet. Now you can use something like a barricade
to prevent warm seasoned weeds from coming up. You're gonna
put it down and then you're gonna water it in

(02:35:54):
with about a half inch of irrigation and that will
move it down into the soil. And then once those
plants dry off, the dogs can go out there on
it because it's you've moved it down into the soil.
If you spray existing weeds, Jim, that herbicide product will
be present on the leaves because that's what you're spraying

(02:36:15):
on to kill that existing weed that you may see
out there now. And if dogs go out and eat those,
then they're going to get exposed to it.

Speaker 26 (02:36:24):
The dog won't be exposed of us.

Speaker 3 (02:36:26):
Go ahead, yeah, I mean it'll be present. It'll be
present on the surface of the plant. Now, everything breaks
down after a period of time, and the different broad
leaf control post emergent broad leaf control products vary in
their toxicity, their persistence, and other things. But just know

(02:36:46):
that if your dogs like to go out and eat leaves,
then a sprayed leaf is gonna get eaten, just because
that's what they do. If you can keep the dogs
off of the grass for let's say a week and
so so, just as an example, let's say you go
out and you spray, and once it dries, give it
about a week. Don't let the dogs go out and

(02:37:09):
be unsupervised out there on it. Don't let them eat anything.
After about a week, that products moved down in the
weeds to kill the weed, and then you could go
out with a mower and mow that all off and
get all the weeds everything that got sprayed up there
you're mowing it away. Then that would be another safety
measure for a post emergent spray. But it needs it

(02:37:32):
needs some days to be able to move down in
the weed and do its job before you let the
dogs out.

Speaker 4 (02:37:40):
Okay, I appreciate it.

Speaker 26 (02:37:42):
Thank you all hard much.

Speaker 3 (02:37:44):
Okay. I hope that helps Jim. Thanks a lot. I
love Conro used to live in Conroe. I lived in
Conroe and I lived in Willis during my ventures around
the state as a Horticulture Texas and Eggerlife extension. Well,
it's time for me to take a quick break. Let's
do that and we'll come back with our last segment

(02:38:05):
and your calls at seven one three two one two
k t R H.

Speaker 7 (02:38:11):
Store.

Speaker 3 (02:38:14):
Let's do this last segment of garden Line. You got
a question, got room for a caller here seven one
three two one two k t R h Uh. Ace
hardware stores are stocked up for what you need to
take care of spring. I don't I don't care what
it is you're doing. I am in the middle of
some spring cleaning. It started several months ago, way before spring.

(02:38:36):
But I'm trying to get my my garage in shape.
And you know, I got shelving out there, got some
of those binds to put things in and organize it
and everything. Well, Ace has got you covered on things
like that. If you're doing true cleaning, they've got the
cleaning supplies. They've got every everything that you might need.
Maybe it's outdoors, maybe you're redoing your deck or or

(02:38:56):
resealing your deck rather, uh, they've got the supplies for that.
Of course, he has stains and paints. In fact, they've
just announced a President's Day sale on all kinds of
painting supplies. Just stop by there and see it for yourself.
Propane tanks, barbecue and season coming up here, folks. They
have the exchangeable propane canisters. Sometimes propane vfills also available.

(02:39:19):
And it doesn't matter which of the ACE stores you
are looking at, they are going to have you covered
and set up. Maybe it is the Baycliff Ace on
Grand Avenue in Bakeliff, Maybe it is the Uvaldi Ace
on the east side U Valley Road in Houston. Perhaps
the Langham Creek Ace Hardware in Cypress, Texas, or the
East Hardware Champions on Spring Cypress. Those are just examples.

(02:39:42):
You can go to ACE Hardware dot com find out
the ones near you, and there's a lot of them
here in the Greater Houston area. While you're in there,
check out this is a twenty percent off Mowen Fawcetts.
This month. So any faucets that you've been thinking about
replacing with something nice, something more attractive, or that his
works better, well go for it. Grab some air filters

(02:40:04):
while you're in buy three, get one free. Whatever you're doing.
It's spring. It's time to get all kinds of things done.
And then outside in your yard, fertilizers, test control, we
control disease control, tools for the garden hoses, time for
new hos ace hardware. As you covered on everything indoors

(02:40:24):
and out, well, let's see here. Uh okay, I was
thinking we had a all right, excuse me while I
think out loud to myself. Here you are listening to
guard Line, and we come every Saturday and every Sunday
morning from six to ten to help you have success.

(02:40:46):
The way I usually say it is, I want you
to have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more
fun in the process. Those are the three goals that
we try to have, and in order to do that,
you need good advice. Because green thumbs are only thumbs
that are informed. That's the difference in green thumb and
a brown thumb. Is a brown thumb has been informed
about what plants want. I made it simple. Earlier today,

(02:41:08):
I said basically the big three. I want sunlight, I
want adequate soil moisture, and I want quality soil, and
that's important. Well, A fourth I want is a plant
that wants to grow there. And you know, you can't
do more local in terms of a plant wanting to
be here and grow here than a native plant. And

(02:41:29):
when I think of native plants, I think of Buchanans.
They're in the Heights. In fact, it's in their name
Buchanans Native Plants Eleventh Street and the Heights, and they
specialize in natives, not just Texas natives. They have that,
of course, but they even have a table where it's
the Houston native plants that are native right here where

(02:41:49):
you live, and then plants that are from the region
we live in and so on. They're excellent for that,
and you can go in. They know what they're talking about.
They know how to help you find what you need.
So you could go in and say something like, okay,
I want to I want native plant, but I want
native plant that attracts hummingbirds, or I want one that
attracts butterflies, for example. They just walk right over and

(02:42:12):
show you what you need. They know what they're talking about.
They also know that brown stuff comes before green stuff,
and they stock up on fertilizers. Soils, composts, have full
line of microlife. They got nitrophoss, they got Nelson plant food.
They carry soils from Nature's Way resources, carry sols from
airloom soils, for example. They have their own life below

(02:42:33):
soil blend, and then one called Tropicore, which is a
peed free blend for tropical and indoor plants. The pottery
selection is awesome. The gift shop is awesome. If you're
looking for any kind of gift, any kind of occasion
or no occasion, you can't go wrong at Buchanni's Plants.
You just can't. And I say this when I talk

(02:42:55):
about Buchanans, but I really want you to hear me.
Go to the website Buchanansplants dot com. Sign up for
the newsletter. Go to their YouTube page. They have instructional videos.
They have lots of good information at Buchanans Plants dot com.
Sign up for that newsletter. That newsletter will let you

(02:43:18):
know the latest things that have come in that I'm
just looking at one right now. They just got a
bunch of really rare houseplants. Columbia philodendron. Let's see escualletto
monstera silver and amidrium a midrium that's a new one
even to me. Seed starting mixes are in lots of

(02:43:38):
cool stuff. If you want companion planting, Buchanans has got
you coverage, says right here in the newsletter. What's the
native plan of the week. The hairy tube tongue. Isn't
that interesting type of Justicia? We grow other Justichias in
our landscapes. Here sign up for the newsletter. It's free
and it'll tell you things like right now four inches
four inch winter veggies or two dollars four inch winter annuals,

(02:44:01):
or a dollar fifty percent off their chimneyas and pinion
would to go in your chiminya to enjoy outdoors. And
then the classes and on and on. I'm just telling
you go check them out Buchanansplants dot Com. We're going
to go out to Cove, Texas and talk to Rufus. Now, hey, Rufus,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 27 (02:44:23):
Yes, yep, I'm looking around my garden and you know,
during to freeze my onion and my childs did real
good with the snow, and I even had some cilantro
that survived. Is there anything else I could plant this
time of the year? Was really the cold that will
survived in the herb sessions.

Speaker 3 (02:44:43):
Yeah, Oregano goes through our cold just fine. Rosemary does
okay here in cold uh. The uh time is another.
Those are all perennial herbs, as is time that does
well going through the herb season. Most of our herbs,
most of the good herbs that you think about and
use and whatnot, are going to be okay here. Basil

(02:45:05):
does not even want to be at forty degrees much
less freezing, So basil's one for the warm season. But
a lot of the other herbs do well. Chives is excellent.
There's an onion chives and a garlic chives that do
very well here. So those are a few examples.

Speaker 27 (02:45:22):
Can can mint hang in the cold temperatures too?

Speaker 3 (02:45:27):
Unfortunately? Yes, I say unfortunately. Mint will take over underground.
It's like it's like putting more mutagrass in your beds.
It just takes over. So you got to contain mint.
But yes, it can freeze it to the ground and
it just comes right out of the ground. You're not
going to kill mint with.

Speaker 27 (02:45:44):
Okay, but does it ever put a flower on?

Speaker 32 (02:45:50):
It?

Speaker 3 (02:45:50):
Can? Some types of mint will flower, and I just
off the top of my head, I can't tell you
which types flower better than others, but some types will
generally fly. I have not seen peppermint flower, but somebody's
gonna call and say, yes it does. But anyway, there
there are dozens of kinds of mint. I'd never I
had no idea how many kinds of mint there were

(02:46:12):
till I went to places that carry on all of them.
Chocolate mint, who ever heard of that? It is?

Speaker 27 (02:46:19):
I'm like you, I never heard chocolate either, but it's
out there probably.

Speaker 3 (02:46:23):
But yeah, but if you live in the South, you
gotta have peppermint. You can have spearmint too. Spearmint is good. Uh,
there's many other good mints, orange mint, and like I said, chocolate,
but I like peppermint. Go ahead.

Speaker 27 (02:46:39):
Does the smell encourage good bugs or bad bugs?

Speaker 23 (02:46:45):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (02:46:45):
Well it doesn't. It doesn't encourage good bugs. There may
be some insects that are repelled by that smell. I
don't you know. I just you don't really associate it
with bugs, because there are there. I can't think of
any significant pests of mint, so you know you never
have to spray your mint, that's for sure.

Speaker 27 (02:47:07):
Okay, well those are the good.

Speaker 3 (02:47:09):
But I tell you what, you you can't make a
Southern mint jule up without it or put a sprag
in your iced tea. You know, it's a law in Texas.
You have to be an iced tea drinker. You can
drink coffee if you want, but you got to drink
ice tea. It's it's an official law. Yeah, lighter, there
you go, Thanks, Ruth. Appreciate that. All right, folks, we

(02:47:33):
put another garden line in the books. Thanks for listening.
We're here every Saturday and Sunday six am ten am.
Follow us on our social media. We have a garden
Line Facebook page, lots of good info on there. We
have a garden Line Instagram garden Line Instagram as well.

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Follow us on those. Go to my website gardening with
Skip dot com. I just met with my website guru
the other day and we are planning a bunch of
new cool stuff to go up to the website. So
we're just here to help you have a success in
your garden. Let us do that. Stick around and tell
your friends and family about it, and we'll talk to

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you next weekend.