Trees mayham!

skiptakes your calls!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
T r H Garden Line does notnecessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome tokat r H Garden Line with Skip rictor
crazy gas trim. You just watchhim as so many bird things to sup

(00:27):
botazing gas jobs not a sound gassun bemon. Well, good morning start

(00:50):
it'd Saturday morning. Glad to haveyou with us this morning. Boyd we
ever have a lot to talk about. There's you know, the two storms
now have just been well basically rightat records, if not records when it
comes to number of people without powerand the effects driving around towncy and the
trees down the limbs. Just thinkabout the loss that people have had and

(01:15):
the expense of course that follows that. Our hearts go out to everybody out
there, including the many that includingsome in my family, do not have
power during these days afterwards for extendedperiod of time. You know, this
kind of thing happens in the summer. It's blazing hot, makes it a
little bit extra tough, But weare definitely gonna, like I said,

(01:40):
our hearts go out to everybody that'sin that situation. If you've got an
issue with plants that's related to that, I think we're going to be talking
about that a lot today, sofeel free to give us a call.
We'd love to love to talk toyou at seven to one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four seven toone three two one two five eight seven.
I'm going to be discussing trees andsome other things, tree training,

(02:05):
tree pruning, how to decide ifa tree is worth saving or not.
We can cover all of those things, and we do welcome you. Just
give us a call. We getright on that. Just a few things.
First of all, I wanted tomention a League City feed down there
in League City, Texas. Theyare open, they've got the power up
and going, and they're ready toserve you. You know. League City

(02:28):
feed is the one just a fewblocks south of Highway nineties of Highway ninety
six on Highway three. So you'reon Highway ninety six, go south on
Highway three just a few blocks andyou're right there. If you'd like to
give them a call, the phonenumbers two eight one three three two one
six one two and everybody in thatregion, you know, the League City,

(02:49):
Baycliff Webster Ol Community, Real Dickensonsounding on all of you. This
is your hometown feed store. They'reopen Monday through Saturday nine to six,
so yes, today, they're openclosed on Sundays. If you need any
of the fertilizers I talk about onguardline. If you need any products to
control pests, weeds and diseases,they've got them. They also have a

(03:09):
good selection of some soils as well. You know, if you have are
looking for a quality pet food,a Leake City feed carries the premium pet
food. There's always available, includingeverything else you would expect from a feed
store. Again the phone number twoeight one three three two sixteen twelve.

(03:29):
Well, I tell you that thinkingabout some of the issues that are going
on outside as we as we dealwith this. I had a number of
plants my vegetable garden that lodged over, and so we often get questions with
things like that. Typically it's cornin the spring, but what happens is
the plants fall over. You know, can you straighten them up? Nanchers?

(03:52):
Well yeah, if they're just leaningover, you can. This is
just part of what we live withwhen we get when and rain, and
especially when plants are just not inthe super strong, sturdy shape. We
see that sometimes, but I wasdealing with that of getting some plants moved
around and taking care of some otherthings, and you know, the life

(04:15):
goes on in the garden. We'vegot very warm weather and we have adequate
soil moisture, and I guess prettymuch every area should. Right now,
we continue to monitor those plants thathaven't been in very long, even though
we got some gully wash and rainmany inches. For many people, the
soil dries out in time and asit's hot and the demands are high for

(04:39):
a new plant, it just doesn'thave the root system to reach out into
all that bank account of sow moisture. So you still want This is hard
for folks to believe. You know, maybe you got nine inches of water
high many days ago, and nowyou've got these little plants that are out
there welting. What's going on.Well, the little rootball is confined.
That's the only place can get water. So you have to hope some kind

(05:01):
of wicks in from the sides.But basically you're still watering the root ball
and continue. I don't care ifit's a little tomato transplant. It's time
now be planting tomatoes and peppers forthe fall. Garden. Just treat them
like they're still in a pot.So I like to put it for the
first for little annuals like that,probably for the first week. If you

(05:24):
can give them just a little bitevery day or so, just watch the
plant. It'll tell you if it'sgetting a little wilty. For trees and
shrubs and other things, that supplementalgoes on a lot longer. In fact,
you know, it takes a year, two or three years even for
trees and shrubs to get the rootsystem that they need to be resilient.

(05:46):
So remember that I've talked to someonea good while back about their planning some
drought tolerant plants, and I don'tremember what it was, might have been
a Texas Mountain Laurel or I justdon't recall the exact plant, but they
were talking about planning it, sayingthe water all the time, and I
told him, well, yeah,you you know, once they're established over

(06:11):
in southeast Texas where it rains,we're talking about not having to worry about
the water on those hardly at all. But when they're little, you know,
they're like the example I use isJohn Wayne. You know, when
he's an old guy who's a toughombre and he can go through the desert
without very much water and survive everythingelse that came at him. But when

(06:34):
he was a baby, his mamahad to nurse him and change his diaper
and take care of him. Andthat's what your Texas tough drought tolerant plants
are. They're babies, So helpthem get established. Don't mean over watering
them. That's as bad as notwatering them. But it means helping him
get that root system out so thatthey can perform like their species and genetics

(06:57):
and everything make them capable of performing. It's one way to look at it.
You know, I said our soilthere's a moisture bank account. There's
also a nutrient bank account in thesoil. And whenever you buy fertilizer bags
you see three numbers. That meansthat fertilizer has nitrogen, phosphorus, and
potassium in it if those numbers areanything other than zero. But there's also

(07:21):
secondary nutrients like calcium that are needed. There's magnesium and sulfur and whatnot.
There's also micronutrients. Micronutrients are traceelements that the plant needs a very small
amount of, but they are essential. So even though they don't need a
lot as with the Big Three,they need them. They have to have

(07:41):
them to grow and survive. Andasamite is a fertilizer mind in Utah to
provide trace minerals for the plants.And that's exactly what you do. You
don't every time you fertilize, youdon't put out asimite. You don't need
that. Just maybe once a yearif you get a sol test done,
you can see exactly the kinds ofthings you need. But if about once

(08:03):
a year you were to go outand whatever time of the year you want
put some asmit down, that willhelp build that soul bank account. So
that's what we're aiming for with amYou can go to Azamite of Texas dot
com Azamite of Texas dot Com findout more about the product. It's widely
available a lot of stores. We'regoing to go to a break right here,
and when we come back, ifyou would like to be on give

(08:26):
Chrysal call at seven one three twoone two KTRH. Here's what's trending from
the Iheartsports Network presented by Draft KingsFantasy. All right, welcome back to
Guarden line. Glad to have youwith us this morning. We are going
to talk about all kinds of thingsgarden. There's a lot going on out

(08:50):
there. I have a flower bedin front that I had maltzed and really
that it was in good shape,and I just noticed that there's these little
weeds coming up here and there.And as I walk up to it,
I see that those are the areaswhere the multch somehow got bump moved off,
or maybe I didn't cover it wellin that spot. But wherever sunlight

(09:13):
hits the soil, nature plants ofweed. That's the way I like to
put it, because it's an issue, you know, to deal with weeds
in the summer that nobody wants tobe out there working doing weed pulling on
a hot summer day. All ittakes is a little more mult You got
to cover the surface of the mulchwith a mulch. And what is a
multus is decomposed organic matter that itshould be at least. I mean,

(09:37):
there are a lot of other thingsthat are sold for mulching, including rocks,
even but we're talking about natural,organic, decomposable mulches. The folks
at Landscaper's Pride have got a selectionof mulches. They are like a number
of different ones you can choose from, for example cedar mulch or cypress mulch.

(09:58):
Those are the is naturally beautiful redcolor as you put it out of
the bag and has an aroma initiallythere until you know, breaks down a
little bit, but it's a verygood mult You can use cypress mulch which
really kind of has a heaviness whenit's wet that it sort of stays in
place and instead of floating just floatingaway everywhere. Very light colored mults.

(10:20):
Pine Bark's the most popular course hasbeen for a long time, very slow
to decompose. And then shredded hardwoodmulch that is an excellent option from Landscaper's
Pride. It's not ground up paletteslike some cheap old companies will do to
you. Now, this is aquality ground up hardwood tree materials that makes

(10:41):
an excellent It locks in really welland stays in place. Black velvet mult
is there molts, its not dyed, but it's naturally dark in colored vet,
very velvety, very dense, butall from Landscaper's Pride. You can
go to Landscaperspride dot com find outmore information on these. They're widely available,
so wherever you go you find one, but make sure check your beds

(11:01):
and see what is the condition ofthose, because it doesn't malt breaks down,
it goes away and you want tokeep it. I would say on
most mulches, probably about three inchesdeep is a pretty good two and a
half three inches deep. Some chunkyour mulches a little deeper because there's more
airspace in there for light maybe lightbeams to get through. But basically,

(11:24):
any good quality mults you put down, including just leaves ground up from your
yard, are an excellent option.Save yourself the trouble later, the watering
later. You know. One otherthing mulch does that I guess I don't
talk about enough is the soil temperaturemoderation. It is a huge factor here

(11:46):
in Texas in summer. Listen,walk out on your driveway barefoot on a
ninety five degree day. If you'rebrave, go to the asphalt out of
the street that is blazing hot,and maulch over the surface makes a huge
difference in soil temperature and roots can'tfunction. You know, if the soil

(12:07):
gets up to ninety eight one hundreddegrees. That's too hot for roots to
function properly, and you've got tokeep a mulch on it. So that
would be a good thing to puton the to do list to get out
there and try to get that done. Ana Plants in Produce we got word
from them that they are up andrunning. Everything's good out there. They've

(12:30):
got some really kind of cool dealsgoing on. For example, just starting
today, so you're hearing this firsthere, just starting today, all of
their plants are on sale forty percentoff. Yeah, you heard that right,
forty percent off all of the plants, all the pottery that includes metal
trellises and also metal trellises and gazebosand arches. If you've ever been out

(12:56):
there to Ana Plants in Produce,they have beautiful selection of all kinds like
metal furniture and these arches that goover your walkways and gazebe. They've had
all that. It's all thirty percentoff, So forty percent off all plants,
thirty percent off all pottery, andall those metal items, trellises,
and then any kind of a sidein other words, a herbic side,

(13:18):
fun just side and sect to sideand fertilizers. Well you're talking about twenty
five percent off those as well,So just give them a call out there.
Check it out it listen, youneed to stop by. It's on
the east side of Montgomery on oneoh five, just on the edge of
town. Really easy, really easyto get to, get in, get
out, and boy, you arenot going to find better deals than right

(13:41):
now. In fact, that'd bea good thing to do today. Let's
say after ten am we get throughthe garden line, head out there and
get you some of those things.All those folks listening up in the Lake
Conroe area, this is your hometowngarden center. You are listening to garden
Line. I'm your host, SkipRichter, and our phone number is seven
to one three two one two ktRH seven one three two one two kt

(14:09):
r H. Give Josh call.Let's talk about the things that might be
of interest to you. Otherwise Igot plenty of things of interest to me
that we can talk about this morning. I mentioned working out in the vegetable
garden. Also the flower We havesome flower beds that my wife actually has
put together and growing things in andthey just are looking outstanding. The plants

(14:33):
are happy, they're growing. She'skeeping them well watered. That's an important
thing. But just remember when youplant something in a raised garden bed,
it may dry out a little bitfaster. That is one of the characteristics
if the depending on the bed sizeand the bed height and everything. I
find that up near the surface withthe high organic matter materials we use in

(14:58):
growing mixes and bed mix it's youknow, things like rose oil, veggieerics,
those kinds of mixes that they drainreally well, but up near the
surface that can get kind of dry. So if you're planting any seeds.
There are seeds we can plant insummer, like sunflowers and zenias for example,
that do just fine, but yougot to keep a moist. You

(15:18):
have to keep a moist and Idon't care if you've put an okra in
the vegetable garden or zenias in theflower beds. With seed, just remember
that when a seed starts to germinate. After that point, when it starts
to germinate, biological processes begin andthat initiates the formation of a root to

(15:41):
come out, a shoot to comeup, and all of that. Once
that starts, just before you evensee any root or shoot, if the
seed dries out, it dies,it has no resilience, and it takes
a little bit to get a rootin the ground where it has some resilience.
So moist soil continue. Moist soilis very important. If you're in

(16:03):
a container or whatever. You canget the water for a day and it
dries out, you lose that seed. And so just to remember that you're
bathing it along as it's getting started, and as a result, you end
up with a really, really niceplant provided you give it that kind of
care. We're going to go nowout to Palacios and talk to Craig.

(16:25):
Hello, Craig, good morning,Welcome to guard Line gorn to Skip.
How are you? I'm good,I'm good. How can we help today?
I got a question about an orangetree that's going to be producing later
in the later this year or small. But I've got a small I'm pretty
sure it's a set suma. It'snot very big. It's probably six probably

(16:47):
six feet tall and five feet across, and the current day it's got forty
nine oranges on it. For goodoranges for taste value. Sit up,
take some of that forty nine offof a tree that's as small as it
is. Or should I leave themon it? Give me the dimensions again,
please, probably six six just aharrow over six feet tall and five

(17:11):
feet across. I'm trying to pictureforty nine on them. That size about
as well as you are, andyou know, up to your neck sideways.
It is a good load. ButI don't think you need to.
And the reason is Cuchrus trees arenotorious for if they get a little too

(17:32):
much of a load or they gointo a stress, they will abort fruit,
especially early on, right after bloot. So the fact they're all on
there, I think I think you'regonna be okay with that size tree.
Now, if I walked out thereand saw the thing, I might change
my mind a little on that,but I believe that if they're holding on
to them, I think you're gonnabe fine. That sounds the little the

(17:59):
limbs seem so small and diameter comparedto two oranges, for example, on
the end of a limb that's goingto mature into a side of my fist,
that seems like, okay, that'spretty heavy. So you're talking about
a little willowy tree. This isn'ta like a well I don't know,
Okay, Well, go ahead,say if you feel like there's too many,

(18:22):
you're you're welcome to take those off, and you can see it.
I can't. But so if there'slike little willowy growth, like when you
say six feet is like a wholelot of air, but one little branch
reaching up to six feet versus areally thick bush, then the thick bushes
at more than than the little willowything. So if you see that there's

(18:44):
they're weighing everything down and you feellike the whole tree is going to be
basically have limbs on the ground withall this heavy fruit, then yat them
somehow. Yes, sure, maybeI could have said that differently or set
it up differently. I've got it'sgot quite a few limbs, and some
of the limbs have zero fruit.Some of them have quite a few fruits.
Yeah, on the quater few,then that may be a place,

(19:08):
you know, to do a littlebit offending on it. That's that's the
problem with trying to answer without seeingit. A lot of times I'll have
guests just send a photo in andthat way I got a much better look
at it. Actually I took photos, but my cell towers are not working
very good. Around here, andI'm not getting picture photos out. I
was so I knew, I didn'teven try. I've been I learned that

(19:30):
through work during the week you're notgoing out. But okay, so the
value if if the if the limbseems like it's going to be able to
support the weight. At the sametime, there's three orders on the same
limbs. Should I worry about valueof taste them? Craig, I've lost
you here. Yeah, that figures, okay, Jiff, thank you very

(19:52):
much. All Right, thank you, Craig. I appreciate appreciate your call.
Right, we're gonna take another littlebreak here. I will be right
back if you would like to befirst up when we come back. Seven
one three two one two K tR H. All right, welcome back

(20:15):
to garden Line. Glad you're withus today. We're here to talk about
the things that you would like totalk about in your garden. So let's
see here, We're gonna head outto spring and talk to is that skip?
Hello? Oh? Yeah? ThisMark? Oh? Mark? Okay,

(20:37):
Mark, you're in the guarden line. How can we help? All
right? I sent you an emaillast week on the High Biscus, the
Hardy High biscus. Okay, youget it. Well, I'm gonna look
and see here. Tell me alittle bit more about it while I'm hunting
this one down. Uh, it'snot growing very big. It's it's staying

(20:57):
small. It's not like my otherones. The leaves are small and and
it's long, alrighty Mark, Iam not seeing it. Would it have
come under a different name? Uh? No? Do? Okay, So

(21:21):
it's as a hearty hibiscus, right, yes, yeah, And the leaves
are smaller than they should be,like like how much smaller half the size
or what are we talking? It'sit's a core of the size. Uh
huh wow. My my other twohigh business are like three feet taller or
smaller. This thing here is onlyabout eighteen inches mm hmm. Well something

(21:48):
is yeah, something's wrong underground.A few questions. Did you use any
kind of a weed killer around itor in the yard right beside it?
No? No, I got itin a okay. And secondly I put
a good poty soil in there.Okay. Well if the pot is at

(22:10):
all limiting, well, if thepot is not big enough, it will
limit the size of the plant becauseit's a big pot. Okay, Still
not getting anything. Did have youever had success with that and now it's
getting smaller leaves and things, ordid it just never? I transplanted it
last year. Okay, yeah,I put it from a smaller pot to

(22:34):
a bigger pot. You know,mark basically from what I'm hearing, assuming
it's getting good sunlight and you arenot letting it go into drought, and
the drainage is good in the pot, meaning the holes aren't plugged up so
that it doesn't stay too wet,although that Hibiscus is pretty tolerant of that.
But I would say I'm kind ofwondering if maybe in the transplanting some

(22:59):
nema toads may have come in withit and now they've proliferated on the roots,
because they're a very stunting effect onplants nemotods. And the way you
would check that is kind of takea hose and try to wash up some
soil some of the roots, orpull it out of the slide it out
of the pot. If it hasn'tfilled the soil yet, that's going to

(23:21):
pull it out of the soil.But try to look at the roots,
is what I'm trying to get at. And if you see little games and
knots on it. You're kinda justneed to throw away the soil and the
plant and start off fresh with newsoil and a new plant, because there's
no curing them. It's no curein that not nematods, no, sir.
There's things we do that suppress them, but they will be there and

(23:45):
you're never going to get the performanceyou want if that's the case. But
don't don't jump to the conclusion untilyou see or it looks like a string
of pearls but not why heat kindof the root kind of a Yeah.
Another thing I've told you was likea snake that swallowed a rabbit. You
got this little bump in the middleof the snake. That's kind of okay,

(24:07):
okay, okay, then all right, okay, that's what I see.
Other than that, send me sendme a picture. If you want
to do that, I can putyou on hold. Have the producer you
know, get your information, giveyou the information to send me some photos.
Happy to do okay if you want. Okay, thank you, sir,

(24:29):
Thank you. You have a wonderfulday, you too. All right,
there you're listening the guardline. Ourphone number is seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four sevenone three two one two five eight seven
four. Medina has a number ofplants, I mean of plants products out
there that you know about. Imean you've heard about Medina has to grow.

(24:52):
The Medina has to grow for lawns. Uh. Now they have Medina
has to grow super grow plus,super grow plus. That is a sixteen
zero two fertilizer hooks up to agarden hose, a little quart bottle.
You just hook it up to yourgarden hose. It'll take about I don't
know, ten minutes to cover thefour thousand square feet you should get out

(25:15):
of a quart bottle. That's alot and that's fast. Of course,
it has a sixteen zero two fertilizer, which is a good ratio for our
lawns here in the summertime. Andwhat you'll find in there is a keylated
form of iron that'll help keep yourgrass green. That supplement of the keylated
form of iron is excellent. Theyhave seaweed extract in it, it has

(25:37):
molasses, and it has humic accident. It's just got a lot of things
that stimulate the soil and then thereforestimulate the plant and the plant's performance,
and Medina has to grow widely availablehere in the Greater Houston area. They
pretty much you hear me talk abouta garden center and a hardware store,
a south Its fertilizer feed stores thatyou're going to find Medina astra grow in

(26:00):
most places. And it is anexcellent product. I love it. I
really love the design of it andthe ease of it, and certainly the
results that you get when you useit out in the lawns. I'm seeing
a lot of iron chlorosis this year, speaking of the has to grow having
kilaid iron in it. Iron chlorosisis when areas of your lawn just start

(26:23):
yellowing, but they're not any pattern. It's not like a straight little strip
or a circle or anything. It'sjust generally yellowing. And you go grab
a grass blade and hold it upto the light and you see streaks of
yellow and green. That's iron deficiency. So the question becomes, why is
the grass iron deficient? Maybe there'snot enough iron in the soil. That

(26:45):
most likely is not the case,but it's very possible that is not enough
iron in the soil. You needto add it. But generally what happens
is either something affects the roots ofability to take up the iron, maybe
a drop period where roots actually you'restarting to lose some roots and then they're

(27:07):
coming back, or maybe a diseaselike take all root rot that kills roots
and when you kill a root,you can't take up a nutrient. So
those are possible things that will endup in iron deficiency. But another one
is extra high phosphorus levels and highpH and that Medina hashcro was just talking
about, that's a sixteen zero twozero phosphorus in it. And a lot

(27:30):
of states are kind of going inthe direction of limiting just indiscriminate use of
phosphorus for various reasons. But Ithink that if you have high pH and
high phosphorus, you're going to haveiron deficiency. But a soil test would
tell you that. And that's wherea soil test comes in handy. And
you can go to the website soilTesting dot ta MU dot edu, soil

(27:59):
testing dot dot edu, and youcan find out how to get your soil
tested. Just remember when you gothere. By the way, if you
download my lawn Care schedule soil Testingdot TAMU dot edu, the whole URL
is there to get right to theurban soil test form. You need the
urban soil test form. I don'tcare if you live in timbukt and you

(28:19):
haven't seen a human being in tenyears. You need the urban soil test
form for your yard, garden,landscape, orchard, et cetera. That's
the one you want to use.All right, we're gonna take a little
break here. We'll be right backwith your calls. Good to have you
with us, Glad to have you. Hey, we're going to go straight

(28:40):
out to the phones. We've gotsome folks here that are waiting to talk.
See here, all right, we'vegot some glitches with the system.
Yeah, the storm's affecting us too, So I'm not going to know your
name, but welcome to garden Line. Who are you hello? All right?
For some reason, I'm not ableto go there. We gollo.

(29:03):
I'm here, I'm here together.Is it's me? All right? I'm
Candy from Spring And in areas ofmy flower bed, the mulch has turned
black, and I have black onthe trunks of my crape myrtles, and
leaves of the mandevillas and periwinkle,and do I need to just clear it
all out? And start over,treat it or what do I need to

(29:26):
do? Are the periwinkles and mandavilla'sclose to being under some some crape myrtle
or what? Yes they are okay, yeah, I have lots of flower
beds and they're on a stand,you know, hanging baskets, and they
have black leaves. The mulch underneathis black. Okay, Here here's the

(29:47):
deal. The crape myrtle has acouple of pets that are capable of producing
sugary water. One is aphids andone is great myrtle bark scale. The
bark scale shows up on the trunkas little white specs. You'll see that.
Okay, that's what it is.That is what is there. It
is, And so what they dois basically there's drinking sugary sap and excreting

(30:11):
the sugary part. They don't wantthe sugar, they want what else is
in the sap, and so itfalls on surfaces and then a black city
mold goes. So it's like youif you make sugar water up in a
spray bottle and squirt it up oversomething, you would see that kind of
mold type thing for me. Butthe bottom line is you've got to get
rid of the scale, to getrid of the sooty mold, and they

(30:32):
think some the scale are very difficultto control. You can use a systemic
product that goes into the roots andup into the crpe myrtle and kills the
scale because they're sucking the juices out, and you're basically putting a poison in
the plumbing of a plant a tree. Okay, do that now. The
problem with the systemics is that honeybees need crape myrtles in the summer.

(30:56):
It's one of the number one plantshoneybees go to. These plants are all
over town, and so you don'twant to toxify the nectar of the flowers
either. If you can, ifthe crape isn't too big, and you
can prune brent it blooms off andjust go to the treatment stage here for
a while, that would be good. Wait until it's lost at least most

(31:19):
of its flowers, if not all, and then do the treatment at that
time. That's another option. Okay, yeah, Do I need to pull
up the mulch and put new downor no? No, no, that
black is it. Don't worry aboutthat. It's not a pot it won't
hurt anything. Okay, that's whatI was worried about. The only thing,

(31:41):
the only way it would hurt likeyour periwinkles and other things, is
that it's like putting a shade clothover the leaves. The sunlight reaching the
leaf is less. So some peoplehave tried using like an insectidal soap up
spray and then washing that off.I don't find that that works super well
and definitely don't want to do itwhen the sun is baking down. It'll

(32:02):
burn, you can burn. Okay, all right, now these are kreite
myrtle. These are almost like treesinstead of bushes. Okay, we can't
them. Okay, that's the bestthing I can suggest you at this time.
All Right, Okay, thank youso much. Bye, Thank you

(32:24):
very much. Appreciate that here.All right. Uh, if you're up
in Tomball D and D Feed Storeout west on twenty nine to twenty,
that is just a hop, skipand a jump outside of Tomball, very
easy to get access on and offfrom twenty nine to twenty and boy do
they ever load up on everything thatyou're going to need for your garden.

(32:46):
So if I talk about a fertilizer, they're going to have them. They
do. They have the soil mixesand blends, especially airloom soil, rose
soil, a leaf, more composts, a berry and ctrus, the vegetable
and herb. That's all there.They carry some plants outside as well,
and inside they got all the productsagain, like I said, the fertilizers

(33:07):
and some of the soils. They'vegot insects, side, pesticide, bungeicide,
whatever kind of things you're dealing with. They're going to have it there
at d and Defeed Store just outsideof Tomball on the left side of the
road as you're heading away from town. They're not too far there. If
you want to give them a calltwo eight one, three five, one

(33:29):
seventy one forty four. I'm goingto run to the phones now and we're
going to talk to who are wetalking to today? I don't have your
name? All right, let's trythis again. Are you there? Put
that call on hold. Maybe theystepped away from their phone for just a

(33:52):
second. If you're heading up anddown two forty nine Tomball Parkway goes to
Tomball in Houston. Plants for AllSeasons is just north of Luetta on the
east side of two forty nine,you exit Luetta if you're going north and
cross over the Luetta Street and you'reit's right there on the right hand side.

(34:14):
Plants for All Seasons is a placeyou're going to go if you want
plants that are well adapted to here. Because listen, the Flowery family has
been doing this since nineteen seventy three, so they know what grows here and
what does and it's a place yougo when you want excellent service. It's
a place you go when you wantexcellent advice. You got a bug,
a plant, some picture of Hey, my neighbor has one of these?

(34:37):
What is it? And how doI get one? They can help you
with all of that kind of thing. Plants for All Seasons dot Com is
the website and here's the phone numbertwo eight one three seven six one six
four six. They are loaded withreally quality plants that can take our blazing
hot, blazing hot summer heat.And that is an important thing, because

(35:00):
you know, just because it's gottenhot doesn't mean that we have to give
up on planting all together. Thereare things we can plant now. And
I always have to try to remindpeople that summer is a long time and
I mean in terms of the numberof months, it includes September in my

(35:21):
book. So we're looking at thebeginning. We're here in July, and
the mid July, you've got August, you've got September, and even on
endto October. You're going to havecolor from the things you plant now that
can take the heat. That's importantand just providing that kind of a little
added benefit of a good successful establishmentwill provide color. There's no sense that

(35:46):
your landscape has to become a seaof green, no sense at all just
because it's hot. And listen,landscapes do become a sea of green,
green grass, green trees, greenground covers, green shrubs, and it
is just yeah, green's are prettycolor, but why not all the other

(36:07):
colors in summer we can have them. One of the main ways we do
it is with foldage plants. Ooldageplants have bold colors, but blooming plants
as well. So don't let summerget to you. Hey, get some
work done earlier in the morning,and you can have a beautiful garden,

(36:27):
beautiful landscape. Well you're listening togarden line. We're going to take a
low break here for the top ofthe hour. I will be back if
you'd like to get on the boardwith christ seven one three two one two
K to our age three thousand openbeds. They could have put these criminals

(37:34):
in, but instead they let themgo. The men accused of killing Jocelyn
face the death penalty after it wasdetermined during the investigation that a sexual assault
had occurred. The manslaughter charges againstactor Alec Baldwin have been dropped by a
new Mexico judge due to the prosecutionwithholding evidence. Dismissal with prejudice is warranted
to ensure the integrity of the judicialsystem and the efficient administration of justice.

(38:00):
Your motion to dismiss with prejudices granted, Judge Mary Marlowe Summer. Baldwin was
accused of shooting a cinematographer on theRust movie set in twenty twenty one.
Our next update comes at seven thirtyNow Sign for more of the Garden Line
with Skip rictor. I'm Jared Lewison Houston's news whether and traffic station News
Radio seven forty k r H ktr H. Garden Line does not necessarily

(38:21):
endorse any of the products or servicesadvertised on this program. Welcome to kt
r H. Garden Line with SkipRictor it's Trim. Just watch him as

(38:45):
stray sun. Thank you. Allright, welcome back to Garden Line.
We are back in rolling again foranother hour here. We actually we're going

(39:08):
to go for several hours, butwe're starting the new one. I'm going
to head straight out to the phoneson this one and we're going to go
talk to Jim in Conro. Ibelieve. Hello Jim, and good morning
Yip. How are you? Yes? Hello? Yeah, I was calling
because I almost lost a new twohundred gallon live oak that was put in

(39:31):
a couple of months ago in thestorm, and you had advertised a tree
support system. I was calling tosee what that was and where it could
be found. Well, it's calledthe Tree Stabilized three sixty tree Stabilizer butt.
It's not for a two hundred gallonsized live oak. You know's a
trunk trunk diameter on that tree probablyabout five inches. Yeah, yeah,

(39:58):
it would help. I just thoseI've never tried to take that strap that
far around. It may work.I need to actually go. Maybe I'll
I've got one handy and I'll takea look at. But generally it's for
when you're planning a little bit smallertree to get it in the ground.
But if you use more than oneon it, that would provide you with

(40:19):
some strength. Okay, Well,I plan to put in some smaller ones
anyway, so maybe I'll look atit for those. Yeah, you should,
because it's excellent. In fact,I would suggest you could do one.
But if you do two at rightangles, then north south, east
west, whichever way the wind blows, and you've got really good strong support.

(40:39):
It's an excellent product, that's forsure. I just tree and live
oak and things. I'm just notcertain that it will hold that I need.
I need to find out I needtype. Okay, I haven't thought
question before on Yeah, thanks Jim. I appreciate you. Appreciate your calling

(41:02):
a boy. Take care. Ifyou haven't fertilized your long this summer,
Nitrofoss has got you covered. Theyhave something called Superturf. Superturf is a
silver bag that's the easiest. Idon't think I've ever seen anything in any
kind of plant supplies store or ofany kind that is in a silver bag

(41:25):
other than Nitrofoss Superturf. It isan excellent product. It provides a gradual
release. If you apply it now. If you haven't fertilized yet, go
ahead and apply it now. Ifyou have, you're then you're okay.
But it'll carry all the way tofall and that's that is a gradual release.
And that is nice because you know, we just had a gully washer

(41:45):
rain and other than particles getting washedoff the soil surface instead of it just
dissolving and going away and you lostyour fertilizer because it rained so much.
Well, this one is going togradually over time. It doesn't just dissolve
away. There is a chemistry toit that slowly, gradually, often with

(42:06):
microbial activity, help releases those particlesand the nutrients into the soil. Ninetri
five super turfs available, many manykinds of places. You're going to find
it out at Plantation Ace Hardware inthe Richmond Rosenberg Ad area. Katie Ace
Hardware has it as well as doesthe Growers Outlet up in Willis. Head

(42:27):
back to the phones now and allright, here we go. So this
is another case of I don't knowwho's calling. So who are we talking
to? Hello, Hey, you'reon gard Yeah, you're on goodline.
Who are we talking to? Good? Morning. This is Kelly. Hey,

(42:47):
Kelly, I am calling. Ihave a property and sergeant on the
creek and we experienced saltwater storm sergeduring burrow and right now all of our
vegetation, our mature trees, pecandtrees, apple trees, pear, citrus,
bi tech, all of it,even my Peggy Martin, they all

(43:09):
look dead. And I didn't knowif there was something we should could do
to treat or mitigate the salt waterthat came on our property. Well,
salt itself, you know, it'sdissolved in water. That's how it comes
in with the water, and sothe way one way to move it out
of there is to do some majordrenching of the soil to dissolve and move

(43:32):
it either down lower in the soilprofile or whatever it takes. But that's
that would be the solution of salt. Now, anything that you could put
some organic matter in the soil,some decomposed compost that we talk about a
lot of them. We have bedmixes for vegetables or roses. We've got

(43:52):
straight composts that you put in yourlawn as a top dressing, some deep
tying aeration. But ultimately you don'twant to keep the soil so soggy that
the plant roots can't get oxygen.But at some point you're going to need
a good drenching, and it shouldn'tbe that just salt water briefly like we
had it. The storm surge shouldshould be totally wiping them out. So

(44:16):
I'm kind of wondering did they getsubmerged underwater or was it just wet on
the soil. It was submerged.We probably had a foot of water on
our lot. We're about a milefrom the beach, so we got storm
serge. It probably didn't last toolong, and of course the wind,
you know, probably damaged the leavesquite a bit and that may be part

(44:36):
of why they look so bad.But we were we're pretty shocked. Yeah,
I wouldn't have expected that. Alot of folks down there on the
beach, you know, they plantthings that are salt tolerant, and there
are plants out there you got andhunt them down and plant things that because
you have the salt spray, theirsalt coming through the air, even when

(44:58):
you're really close to the the coast, and just being able to have tolerant
plants is important. But I thinkfor now, I think you got I
think you're right. I think thewind played a big factor. Certainly the
salt isn't helping. But your soilcan be leached out. You can leach
it out of soil and then beingsubmerged in water. Do you know how

(45:20):
many hours that that was? Wasit like two or three hours that it
was submerged or how long I'm justguessing. I'm going to say six to
ten, but I don't really knowfor sure. Yeah, I don't.
That's submerging. Shouldn't shouldn't have killedeverything? Okay, okay, help you
get a new re sprouting on them. But you know, I'm not there

(45:43):
on site walking around scratch and barkand everything, but I think that most
of them should come back. Butanyway, what's in your power is to
add the organic matters as you canto the soil. We have some liquid
products that are you. I wastalking about the the product has to Grow
Supergrow plus is an excellent one,but I would just use Medina's has to

(46:07):
Grow or has to Grow lawn eitherone on those those. Give them a
good deep soaking with it and seeif you can get some benefit from that.
Okay, I will try that.Thank you so much for your help
with this, and we listen toyour show every weekend. We appreciate all
the good advice that you give us. Well, that's kind. Thank you,
appreciate that very much. We aregoing to take a quick break here.

(46:29):
We'll come back. We got acall on the board. It's kind
of fun today. I'm playing mysterycaller. I look at the board and
I see someone called, and Ihave no idea who it is. Every
now and then I do. Allright, we're gonna take a break.
I'll be right back by the way. So just give us a call if
you'd like to talk and maybe aska gardening question. Seven to one three

(46:51):
two one two kt r H.Seven to one three two one two kt
ur H. We want you tohave success. We're going to run straight
out to the phones here. Seethere we go. Who are we talking
to today? By the way,Welcome to Guardland, missus Linwood. All
right, Lynn, how can Ianswer? I've got a vine growing in

(47:20):
my garden and it may be amorning glory. I'm not sure. It
wraps around my other plants and causingproblems, so I've been plucking it out.
Well. I went to help mydaughter the other day, and she's
got that vine or another vine growingin among her ground cover, and we

(47:45):
need to get it out, butit's gonna be hard to get out of
ground cover. Do you have anysuggestions? That's a good question. Boy,
I wish I knew a little moreabout it. Can you describe the
leaves to me? Small leaves andand it it produces a pretty flower,
kind of a purple flower, probablyan inch and a half in diameter.

(48:12):
Now my wife thinks it's a morningglory. Okay, it could be a
morning glory. That is, thatis for sure. Morning glories have an
underground storage root, and so ifyou pull them up, they if it
breaks off, they just come backagain. And you got to get something
to translocate down into that route todo the damage. Uh, these these

(48:37):
are you said they're grown in groundcover? What other kinds of things are they
growing in? Just so I canmake sure not recommend the wrong thing.
Well, it was going around atree, but she lost that tree.
I had reason, I was old. I took my chainsaw and cut it
down. So the tree is nolonger an issue. But that that vine

(48:59):
was growing around that tree. Okay, Well, since it's a mystery bind
to me is to just the exactname for sure. I think you're going
to need a product that contains triclophere tri I clo p y R.
And it may be called poison ivykiller, it may be called stump and

(49:22):
brush killer or something like that.But triclop here is the ingredient now that
will kill anything that has broad leaveson it. So if it's in a
groundcover those are ninety nine percent broadleaf plants, it would hurt them.
So you would have to use awiper type applicator to put it on,
so you get it on the weed, but not on the good plant because

(49:44):
the spray will get on unintended targets. Yeah. I make my own wiper
using those little tools that you graba jar off a shelf with those a
little three foot long, got apistol grip on one hand and the other
and grabs the jar. Do youknow what I'm I'm a I do.
What do you use for the theYou can find one of those that has

(50:06):
a suction cup on each side,uh, and they're available. They have
a little boat through them and I'llput a little flat metal plate or something
behind it. Anything that gives somefirm, you know, rigidity to that.
And then I attach a kitchen sponge, a little normal sized little kitchen
sponge about size of a deck ofcards, cut it in half, attach

(50:28):
each to each side. Through that, I put a little washer in that
boat, and you can squirt whateveryou want on it. You could put
glavasat round up, you could putthe triclip here that I'm talking about,
uh, and then you just reachdown and kind of squeeze it gently on
each leaf and it it works veryvery well. All right, thank you
very much. Yeah, it's onething that allows that surgical leaf weed removal.

(50:53):
And so I wish you well withthat project. All right, thank
you, thank you very much,appreciate it. You're listening to Guardenline our
number seven one three two one twofive eight seven zero seven to one three
two one two fifty eight seventy.You know that Southwest Fertilizer is always going

(51:17):
to have everything you need. Itdoesn't matter what it is, they're going
to have it. And way Ilike to put it is, if Southwest
doesn't have it, you don't needit. You can go to their website
Southwest Fertilizer dot com. The storeis located in Southwest Houston at the corner
of this Net and Runwick bin Neetand Runwick. And when you go to

(51:37):
Southwest Fertilizer, you walk in andfirst thing you think is Skip's right.
There's a lot of product here.Each aisle is loaded, and you know,
it doesn't matter if it's insecticide,pesticide, fungicide, herbicides, fertilizers.
Their selection of fertilizer is huge,quality soil balloons in a bag.

(51:59):
You're going to find everything organic andsynthetic. In fact, if you're an
organic gardener, you probably won't finda bigger selection of organic products in one
place than a Southwest Fertilizer the cornerof Bess and Nutt and Runwick. You
know, you can go to thewebsite Southwest Fertilizer dot com find out a
little bit more, but you needto run by their good selection of tools,
all kinds of things that you mightneed. Once you walk in and

(52:22):
see it, it's like, oh, okay, yeah, this is it's
true. If they don't have it, I don't need it. And I
really believe it when I say thatwe're gonna head out now to Tom Ball
and talk to David. Hello David, Hey, good morning, sir.
Hey. I've been buying these Thesethey're called black palms at ATB and they're

(52:44):
just probably a little bit smaller thana tennis baller, but that's a big
plum. And man, they areso sweet and juicy, and I've saved
some of the pits. And I'mwondering, does that variety of plum do
well down in this area, andif so, how do you get it
from seed to tree? Or amI waste my time? Most of the

(53:05):
time when you get it's a storebought fruit, right, yeah. Yeah,
So when you do that, you'regetting a variety that was bred very
carefully over many many years, crossingthis and that and testing them and stuff.
And so when it's pollinated, theoffspring of that seed are going to

(53:27):
be different than the planet came offof. So the plum may be close
to the same, maybe almost identical, but it may be more disease problem.
It may be a little different sizeor color. And it's kind of
like kids, you know, youkids never look just like one parent or
the other, although I have noticedthat when they misbehave usually one parent is

(53:49):
identified as the cause of that.Genetically we know which one that is t
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wedo don't. We generally does not agree
with that assessment. But seriously,just like your kids are not identical to
either you or your wife, thefruit from a store bought tree, which
is an improved variety, is likelyto be in a little inferior in some

(54:15):
way. That doesn't mean Okay,let me change well, let me change
my question. Then if I wantto narrow that choice down to get a
good variety of plumb what what typedo I get at the nursery that's going
to do well in this region?David, you're there, and Tomball and
arbigate out into they have fruit treesyear round and they're going to have a

(54:38):
number of good varieties for so ratherthan me, just name one. If
you go there, if Arbur GatesKaren, a variety is going to be
a good one for you and they'llbe able to give you your choices.
And that's what I would recommend.Alrighty, thank you man, all right,
thank you. I appreciate enjoy yourshow, all right, bye bye,
appreciate it, David, thank youvery much. I appreciate that.

(55:00):
All right, folks, Well,I don't need to tell about a million
of you out there. That powercan go out, and when power goes
out, things shut down. Ofcourse, you got that refrigerator full of
food, you got that freezer fullof food. You're working from home,
and you have to have access tothe internet to work well. You need

(55:22):
you need dependable access. Quality homeproducts can put you in a Generac,
which is a quality brand of generator, and they're called automatic standby generators.
So here here's here's what that means. It means it sits there and never
does anything, and to the minutethe power go out, it comes on
and you're just like hardly missing abeat. You're you're going They do everything

(55:45):
from helping you find the right oneto coming out working with whatever codes and
requirements and permissions are needed to dothis. They put the slab down,
put the generator down, and that'swhen the good stuff begins. That's when
you start to learn about why theyhave fourteen thousand and five star reviews.
That's why you learn about why theyare eight time winner of the most prestigious

(56:09):
Customer Service Award the Better Bus BusinessBureau gives out. They take care of
their customers. You have twenty fourseven, three sixty five service. Now
they do financing options also available.This is a family owned company since nineteen
eighty nine. Go to Quality txdot com to learn more qualitytx dot com

(56:30):
or call them at seven one threeQuality. A lot of places will sell
you a generator. You will notfind service like Quality. They have the
best generators available and they have servicethat is unlike any And listen, when
you're talking about a problem time,you need a company that is going to

(56:50):
provide very good, very fast service. And that that's why I like to
recommend Quality Home fact, no questionabout that. And listen, This hurricane
season is now projected to be abad one because we have that really early
storm barrel. Uh. It doesn'ttake a hurricane for the power to go
out. So I would give hima call. It's a process to get
this set up and done. Givethem a call and let them help you.

(57:15):
Quality we are. Let's see here. I'm going to go to Brian
and Richmond. Hello, Brian,what can I get more thing to skip?
Hey? Just trying to figure outwhen it's going to be safe to
trim my lava tree? Uh?Brian, can hear me? Yes?

(57:37):
Can hear me yes? We're runningout of time. Why don't you go
ahead and ask me the question,and then when we come back, I'll
answer it. Yeah, when isthat safe to trim my lava tree?
Okay, you can do it now. That's an easy one. You can
do it now. Okay. Ifyou want to hang on to discuss that
further, I'm put you on hold. Uh, feel free to im I

(58:00):
know what the issue is. Ijust there's a bunch of young shoe marks
and cherry bart in my neighborhood,and I don't want to start spreading wilt.
Well, wilt, if there's wiltin your neighborhood, that's an issue.
I'm not aware of wilt down there, but if it is, will
that's the one time I would say, paint a cut. If you want
to be absolutely sure, you canpaint those cuts immediately after you make them,

(58:22):
not the next day, and youshould be okay, Okay, great,
thanks you bet all right? Wellyou're listening to the guard Line.
We're gonna take a break and I'llbe right back Houston's News. I've been

(58:42):
on my own for long. Maybeyou can show me. Maybe I'm gonna
go back to the guard Line.Good to have you with us today.
We got plenty of things to talkabout for those of you down in Richmond
area in Channon, for it isa wonderful place to visit. It is

(59:04):
out there on FM twenty seven fiftynine, So just kind of picturing it
as the crow flies. If you'rein Richment and you're heading up toward sugar
Land, it's off to the right, FM twenty seven fifty nine. And
Chenna Forest always has a good selectionof things, and I'm telling you right
now their selection of hot weather plantsis outstanding. It really is. I

(59:25):
keep telling you this. We needto keep planting now for summer color.
So there is a Helianthus sunflower calledSunbelievable. They have that in stock out
there, and it is unbelievable.It makes a small, little bushy annual
plant that has little sunflowers all overit. It's's gorgeous and it just blooms

(59:46):
and blooms, producing flower after flowerafter flower. They've got that. Plumbago
lantana, lots of different kinds ofSalvias, Tacoma stands or yellow bells does
very very well. Hibiscus, boththe tropical types and the perennial mallows.
They've got that, lots of nativeplants. They're at the Enchended Forest,

(01:00:09):
Boogavillia's plumeria. Boy, those plantscan take the heat. And thrialis trialis
is an outstanding when also all ofthose things are among many plants you can
get right now. It enchanted foruts, get them in the ground,
and you've got color to take youall the way up to fall, which
is unfortunately still well a ways away. No reason you count plan this time

(01:00:30):
of the year. Get out inthe morning when it's cool, get out
there and joy making your place somethingbeyond just a sea of green. We're
going to head now to Missouri Cityand talk to Kay. Hello, Okay,
Hello, Hi, can you hearHi? Can you hear me?

(01:00:52):
Okay? I just moved into anew apartment complex and I'm on the first
floor. So they're going to allowme to have a flower When is the
best time of year to have aflower bed? Put in any month of
the year is good. Kay,You could do it right now and have
them plant some things that take theheat, like periwinkles and angelonia. There

(01:01:15):
are zenya bush types of zenny as. You can put in lots of good
plants. It can take the heat. Now In fact, as you drive
around and you see those little plantingbeds maybe entrances to guard to subdivisions,
and look at the flowers that arein them, and those are all good
exactibles for this time of the year. Yeah, okay, I was thinking

(01:01:36):
about more. I was thinking aboutmore after the beginning of next year.
Is that still Okay? Maybe aroundFebruary you could actually so in February,
as we get past pretty soon they'rea final frost in whatever it is in

(01:01:58):
your particular, you can begin plantingsome of the things that are good spring
flowers. Petunias do well at thattime of the year. That's just an
example. In the summer, weneed things that can take the heat and
that that would well. I wasgonna let incanted gardens take care of the
for me. I'm not going tochoose. I'm gonna let them. But

(01:02:20):
thank you so much. I justwanted about the time of year. Okay,
all right, well you'll get goodYou will definitely get get good advice
from them. Okay. Thank you, have a good weekend. Thanks for
the call. Now you're listening toGuardline and we're here to help you have
a more bountiful garden. A morebeautiful landscape. Nelson Plant Food is up

(01:02:44):
to the same thing. By theway, if you need your lawn to
look good for a very long time. Slow and Easy that's their turf Star
product that is slow released for summerSlow and Easy from Nelson, and Slow
and Easy is going to give youfeeding all the way up to fall.
Slow and Easy is going to giveyou a slight acidifying of the soil as

(01:03:06):
well, which is helpful for someof those pesky diseases like take all root
route that likes high pH soil.Slow and Easy is going to gradually release
the nutrients so you don't have thispeak of mowing and trying to water to
keep up with it, or theeffect on roots that over apply applying nitrogen
can cause. That would be anexample of something that can make the plant

(01:03:30):
not develop as deep of a rootsystem as it should. Slow and Easy
fixes all of that. It avoidsall of that. Slow and Easy from
Nelson one of the many excellent productsfrom Nelson, such as their nutri Star
line and their color Star line.Well, you're going to find it all
over the place, and I canguarantee this I've used it. You will

(01:03:50):
not be disappointed. It works veryvery well. I'm going to head out
now to talk to Sky in Magnolia. Hello, Sky, Hey, good
morning. How are you doing thismorning? It's actually ski but uh,
good morning Si. I appreciate that. Well, I'm a little polished,

(01:04:12):
so that's where it comes from.Uh. But uh, I was wondering.
I have a pool and I waswant want looking for a palm tree
to go behind the pool, Acouple of them. What would you recommend
for our Texas heat and our winners. We have a lot of good ones
I like. I like the sablepalms. There's a Texas Mexican tables that
are s A B A L sA B A LA. They are.

(01:04:36):
They're about as cold hearty as you'regoing to get. They're going to do
very very well for you. Likethat, But I tell you what you
need to contact Verdant Tree Farm.Verdant Tree Farm is one of the best
that I've ever seen selections of palmsthat are good for this area. You

(01:05:00):
know when you go there, you'regoing to get something that's gonna do well
here. And if you go totheir website, it's Verdant Treefarm dot com
or let me check that one second. All right, that's bad radio for
me to have all that dead airspace. But I had to reach and
grab grab a phone number for you. Uh uh. The Verdant Tree Farm

(01:05:26):
phone number is two eight one threefour five sixty seven eighty nine. Two
eight one three four five sixty seveneighty nine. Uh. There's there's a
store in Barker, Cyprus and WestHouston. There's one in Paarland off Broadway,
and there's one in the heights atYale kind of where Yo comes into
Itan right there. But Verdant rightthe website Verdant Treefarm dot com. That's

(01:05:51):
where I'd start, because they're gonnahave a thing where you can look at
all kinds of trees that they have, and then another button where you cook
at all the palms and it describedit tells you know the benefits of them
and the specifics on how big they'llget and all that kind of thing.
But it's really a good website.Patrick has put together an excellent site there.

(01:06:11):
But Sable you said, would bethe one that you might recommend.
Yeah, Texas or Mexican Sable,those that do really well. When we
had the bad, bad freeze inwhat February twenty one, I believe I
was up in the College Station arealooking at a lot of dead palms and
some nice living Texas sables that sothat that impressed me a lot. Yeah,

(01:06:39):
I'm actually a magnolia, so yeah, we're familiar with cold weather once
in a while. Yeah, youdo. You get some cold up there.
I do appreciate that, and gladto hear you on line trying to
get back to normal out here.All right, Well, good luck with
that. I know it's been abooger of a storm again, but thanks
for the calls. Oh yeah,we're thank you. Have a good day.

(01:07:01):
Yes, sir BOBBYE, you're listeningto Garden Line. I'm gonna take
a little break if you would liketo give us a call, give call
of Chris. Give Chris a callat seven one three two one two.
Katie. Back to Guarden Line.Good have you with us today. We
are talking about the things that helpyou have a bountiful garden and a beautiful
landscape. That is our goal isto help you have success with that,

(01:07:26):
and one of the key elements ofsuccess is being able to get a hold
of the products that you need inorder to have success with your plants.
Products like fertilizers for the lawn andfor the garden, fire ant control,
mosquito repellents, mosquito control, allof that. Ace Hardware is loaded with
all of the things that you mightneed for success with your plants. You

(01:07:48):
know, right now, Ace Hardwarehas got their generators in stock, the
little gas powered ones you fire upto be able to run something during the
power. They've got that. They'vegot all kinds of things for cleaning up
around the house from the storm.You know, you need a chainsaw,
Do you need any kind of ahandsaw or pole pruners or whatever. Everything

(01:08:12):
like that is going to be atAce Hardware. They always have all the
things that are needed for the season, air conditioning unit. You know,
there's a lot of things that wehave to deal with going through the year
when we're trying to have a beautifulgarden or even a beautiful outdoor area.
And Ace Hardware has all of thatcovered. They specialize in that, and
there's forty stores around the Greater Houstonarea. It's really easy to find one.

(01:08:35):
Just go to acehardware dot com,look at the store locator and find
the store nearest you. When youget there, you're going to be able
to stock up on all the thingsyou need, and one thing I would
highly recommend you go ahead and stockup on, get your mosquito dunks,
get your mosquito repellents. And becauselisten, with all this rain they're coming,
in fact, they're already here.It just encourages them to enables them

(01:08:58):
to reproduce even more. We haverainfall like we've had before. Oh,
but that's part of the deal livingdown in this area. But ACE is
your solution to those mosquito problems aswell. You are listening to garden Line.
Our phone number is seven one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four
seven one three two one two fiveeight seven four. Give Chris call.

(01:09:20):
Let's get you on the boards andtalk about the things that you like,
the things that you are interested in. That's definitely what we want to be
able to do here on garden Line. I talked a little bit earlier about
yellowing in the turf and the factthat it's usually an iron deficiency, but
an iron deficiency that's brought on notnecessarily, in fact, not likely by

(01:09:45):
a lack of iron in the soil, but by either high pH and hyphosphorus,
which locks up the iron making itunavailable, or by take all root
route, which is a disease thatkills roots. And when you have that,
then you proceed into all kinds ofof issues, including iron deficiency being
a pretty common thing that we runacross. I wanted to just spend a

(01:10:11):
little bit of time talking about plantcare. During the summer season, when
we are dealing with the issues ofheat and humidity and often drought, we
need to make sure our plants havewhat they need. And water is the
single most important thing. But thatdoesn't mean you just water water water.

(01:10:31):
It means you water enough to keepthe soil adequately moist so that very you
know, I get calls a lotor emails where it says where they say
how often do I water and howlong do I water? You know,
and that kind of depends. Iwould the fastest answer to that is apply
water enough to put an inch ofwater down a week on your lawn.

(01:10:57):
One inch a week on your lawn. So every kind of lawn sprinkler will
put out water at different rates.There's the pop up sprinklers, there's the
rotors, there's the multi stream rotors. Several times and they all put water
at at different rates. So youtell me how long put a rain gage
in your lawn. Take some straightsided can like a tuna fish can,

(01:11:17):
a cat food can, a pintobean can. Whatever you got straight sided
so it measures a little more accurately, and put it out there. Turn
on the water. How long doesit take to apply Let's say a half
inch or a quarter inch. Thatthen you can just multiply at times four
with a quarter inch, find outhow long you need to run your system.

(01:11:40):
Most cases, you're not going tobe able to put a whole inch
on at one time. You're gonnahave to have it water and then go
off for a while. We callthat cycle and then soak, and then
repeat it with another cycle and soak, and you can get the inch down
in the soil that way. See, we're going to run out here to
again a mystery caller. Welcome togarden line, who were talking to Hello,

(01:12:08):
Hello, Yeah, you're welcome togardener. Oh I didn't realize.
Is there any way to get missa pygmy bamboo that's taken over my Saint
Augustine? Is there a way tokill that without it's from coming over from
my neighbor's yard? Yeah, theylike a more, they like a more

(01:12:31):
natives look. Yeah, yeah,I get it. I get it.
So I would recommend you get aproduct, either a grass only killer,
but probably for more effective control.I would get a glyphosate which brand name
examples round up and put it ina wiper applicator and just wipe it on

(01:12:53):
that bamboo because it's taller than yourgrass. And you can get it on
the bamboo without getting it on yourgrass, because both of those products will
kill grass. Okay, Well,I mow the grass, and of course
it keeps all the same leaks.But I think I can probably I don't

(01:13:14):
take a little paintbrush maybe, andit may take a while, but it'll
take a while, but if youstay on it, you'll drive it back.
But the only other thing to dowould be to put some sort of
a trench in a barrier in theproperty line so that the battery couldn't crawl
underground. It would like hit anunderground wall so it couldn't come in.
But yeah, those are your probablyyour best options for travel. Well,

(01:13:39):
thank you so much, Okay,I appreciate it. Take care. Yeah,
that's just one of the things thatwe have to deal with, you
know. It just we we endup with a lot of different kinds of
issues and they don't all have goodsolutions. That's something you probably have noticed
listening to Garden Line is sometimes there'snot a good solution, or the solution

(01:14:02):
is not one you want to hearor do, or is not practical.
We try to kind of guide youand line you up with the right kinds
of products and the right kinds ofapproaches, but sometimes there's just not a
great way to get there from here, and so sometimes drastic measures are needed.
And believe me, I've I've hadto take drastic measures, including you

(01:14:23):
know, like a replace my wholelawn this past year due to some issues
that we had with diseases and insectsand me being away for several weeks and
unable to see them happening and stopthem early on in the process. I
wanted to I want to talk alittle bit about RCW Nursery. You know

(01:14:44):
RCW is it's the garden Center,that's where Tomball Parkway two forty nine comes
into belt Way eight and it's justa it's just an outstanding place. But
right now you need to see thesale that they have going on. They
have fifty percent off all their trees. That is huge, fifteen percent off
all their trees. Now they're opentoday from eight to four. Normally it's

(01:15:09):
seven to four Monday through Friday,and then tomorrow from ten am to four
pm as well. It's easy toget by there. RCW grows their own
trees. They grow their own treesup in Plannersville. So they have chosen
varieties that are gonna be successful hereand that listen, trees are a long
term investment. Don't just plant atree because you saw it somewhere else and

(01:15:31):
like it. It needs to besomething that is going to be able to
grow here. And that is whatthey specialize in at RCW Nursia Chris.
They have everything else. They gotroses, they got every kind of plant
you might want. If you canget by there and find their Cajun hibiscus,
I don't know if they have anylaugh, but that is an outstanding
type of hibiscus. So RCW.They're on the access road there, two

(01:15:55):
forty nine access road right where twoforty nine comes into belt Weigh eight.
Just go to the website RCW NurseryDot, nurseries dot com, RCW nurseres
dot com you can find out whatwell looks like. We're about to put
another hour in the books here.Hey, I hope you stick around with
us. We got plenty of thingsto talk about when I come back.

(01:16:15):
I'm going to dive in head forheadfirst into tree issues, from broken limbs
to bent trucks, to uprooted trees, to split tree trunks, you name
it. We're going to talk aboutall those kinds of things. And for
those of you who are recovering fromthe storm, or maybe you got to
enaghbor the tree covering and you couldgive them a tip or two if they're

(01:16:38):
open to that, We're going tofill you in on all of that.
It's right after we come back.If you'd like to get on the board.
In the meantime, give us acall at seven one three two one
two k t r H. That'sseven one three two one two k t
r H with Skip Rictor. It'sjust watching as all right, we're back.

(01:17:29):
We are back here on Guarden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and we are going to talk aboutthe things that are most of interest
to you. That is how wewould like to do this. Have you
been out to Nelson Water gardens that'sout in Katie. So think of it
as your West Houston garden center,really your West Houston destination garden center.
It's quite the place. If youhaven't been by there, you got to

(01:17:50):
go. I keep telling people this. So we're having some hot summer days,
what a wonderful time to go outto Nelson Water Garden. Strolled through
the shade back there and look atall of the beautiful water features. Listen
to the sound of the water,just sit down a while on it.
Think of it as free therapy.When you go out there, you're going
to get inspired and want to putsome of that in your landscape because there's

(01:18:13):
nothing like the sound of moving waterto just help you rest and just be
a piece. It is a veryvery soothing thing, and it attracts birds
too, by the way. Tohear that sound. While you're out there,
you need to check out their rosesale. All the roses they have
are essentially half price. That's basicallyat about half price on the roses.
You're not going to do better thana deal like this. Excellent opportunity to

(01:18:38):
grab you some roses. While you'reout there, you're going to find every
other kind of thing that you're lookingfor. They have got a collection of
beautiful hibiscus, and the hotter itgets, the more hibiscus just laughs and
loves being in Houston. Give alittle bit of water and it is happy
to go. There are a lotof other great plants that we can put
out there, and you're going tofind them an excellent selection at Nelson Watergarden

(01:19:00):
and Nursery. They're out on KatieFort Ben Road. So head to Katie
on I ten. When you getto Katie Fort Benroad, turn right just
a little north of Ien. You'llfind them there on the right. Nelsonwatergardens
dot Com. Nelsonwatergardens dot com.Don't go by yourself, take some friends
with you, because really this willbe an enjoyable outing that you will love.

(01:19:25):
I'm going to head now out tothe heights and we're going to talk
to Nancy. Hello Nancy, goodmorning. Hi there, My wife is
gamy phone. Quick question for y'alland of course enjoy your show, Thank
you for it. And quick question, before you know the hurricane, we

(01:19:45):
got some crep myrtles out front thatgot twisted up and some of the I'm
not going to say the trunk,but right above the trunk where some of
the major branches branch off, theysplit, and I'm one wondering can I
just screw those things back together andhope for the best. Tell me again

(01:20:05):
the type of tree and the diameterof the trunk below the split. Okay,
I'm going to say, well,it's a crape myrtle, and it's
probably about six inches the diameter ofthe split branch slash trunk. Okay,

(01:20:29):
Well, vaulting is possible, andit can help. It's not easy to
do, but if you're doing yourself, or you can pull it off.
What you need to do is tohave some way to pull those two branches
together, those two trunks together,so that you close off that split as

(01:20:50):
much as possible, right, andthen put a you can drill a hole
through and put a bolt through withwashers on each side, and like you
use what's like an all thread materialor or there's different ways to get figure
that. I didn't explain. Ididn't explain it good enough. It's just

(01:21:11):
it's just it's just as it's oneof the as the tree brand. It's
just a single brand, so thetrunk isn't split. It's just a brand
that split a limb, okay,But it's just I get what you're saying,
and I'm thinking if it shouldn't beshouldn't be that barred famous laugh words.

(01:21:31):
Well, because of the angle ona limb, sometimes you don't have
a lot to hold up there,so I can't quite picture it. I
think I see what you're talking about, but I'm a little more hesitant about
the bolting working with that. Butin general, there are other things we
can do. You'll see professionally donejobs where a tree branch is going to

(01:21:54):
hang too low and they want tohold it up, or where there's a
split, but they go out alittle bit and you put a bolt through
the trunk and a bolt through thebranch with a little cable between the two.
You can go that route too,where you're not you know, if
you if you thought about if youwere to reach with your hand and grab
that if you could have it thatbig of a hand, grab the trunk

(01:22:15):
and and try to hold that branchfrom sagging down, you would have no
ability to do that because of theleverage on the branch. So going further
out on the branch and a littlefurther up on the trunk allows you to
pull them together and have more strengthbecause you're getting further out to pull it
to. I got you, Igot you, okay, all right.

(01:22:36):
It was just I was looking outthe window looking at and that that just
popped into my head and my wifeso well, I know the guy who
can answer your question. Well,I appreciate that, Thank you very much.
And any anything else that is that'llbasically what y'all call about. That's
it. Thank you. All right, well, thank you very much.

(01:22:59):
I appreciate the Take care, okay, bye bye, bye bye. You
know, we got a lot oftree things going on right now, a
lot of messes. And you know, after the mess what you do as
you go in and you just cleanit up and you do the best job
you can. And believe me,there is a right and wrong way to
clean up a mess on a tree, to fix when you have split trunks,

(01:23:20):
broken limbs, bending trunks. Affordabletree service. Martin spoon Moore is
our go to arborist here on GuardenLine, and Martin's been doing this for
many, many years. He knowswhat he's doing. If you survive the
storm, I would encourage you stillto have him come out take a look
at the trees and see if anyselective pruning needs to be done, because

(01:23:44):
you know, there were things thatwent down in this storm that didn't go
down in the last storm. Whyis that weather? It's all different,
okay, And so just because youdodge this bullet doesn't mean you know you're
going to dodge all the others inwhat's predicted to be a very busy hurricane
season. You can call Martin atseven one three six nine nine twenty six
sixty three seven one three six ninenine two six six' three, or

(01:24:09):
go to the website Afftree Service dotcom. Telling me from garden line helps
you get up the list. Therethey put his garden line listeners up at
the top of the list, tellingme from Guardenline, he's gonna he's a
busy guy. I mean he doesa good job and boys are lever a
lot of work out there right nowto get done. But get a hold
of him, get on the scheduleso he can come by and you have

(01:24:30):
him take a look and do thatkind of assessment for you at your place.
Affordable Tree Service seven one three sixnine nine twenty six sixty three.
We're gonna now head out to Kingwood, Texas, and talk to Joe.
Hello Joe, Good morning, skipUh. I have a question about recovering
from storm damage. Among the damageI got was my double knockout roses were

(01:24:57):
just absolutely had all their leaves strippedoff of them. They're about four foot
tall, and I have six orseven of them grouped together, but they're
just sticks right now, What wouldyou recommend I do to help them?
All right? So, in orderto give you a little better answer than
just a quick one, I'm goingto put you on on hold or I'm
going to hang on to you untilwe come back from the break I have

(01:25:18):
to take right now, and wewill continue this discussion. But I got
several good ideas. All right,thank you, you bet. All right,
folks, we are just going tobreak here and we will be right
back seven to one three six orseven one three two one two kt r
H if you'd like to call in, all right, welcome back to Garden

(01:25:42):
Line. Hey, you hear allkinds of music on this show. I
doubt you've ever heard that one before. I don't know, maybe you did,
but it just reminds me about thefact that with this rain we're going
to have an increase in mosquita issues. That's the way it is. Wherever
there is a thimble full of water, a mosquito can lay an egg in
it, complete its life cycle andcome out and run and fly around,

(01:26:04):
bite biting you and your friends.You got to make sure that any areas
that have water are dumped out.If you've got catch basins under your flower
pots, dump them out. Ifyou you know you got a bird bath,
squirt it out with water. Blastall the old water out. If
the water is moving, and there'sgadgets that move the water to avoid mosquitos

(01:26:26):
being able to lay eggs or wantingto lay eggs in there, that's okay.
I've got a little fountain that's circulatingall the time. I don't worry
about that. But stagnant water,maybe it's in a tire somewhere sitting around.
Maybe it's in another kind of container, like the gutters in your house.
That's a place mosquitoes can breed.And you don't need to be a
squitter breeder. Stop it. Don'tbe a mosquito breeder. Get some mosquito

(01:26:49):
dunks. Mosquito dunks are the simplest, safest thing you can do to control
mosquito larvae from hatching out and addingto the popular All it is is a
little beige d beige dunk. It'sabout the size of one of those little
little debbies white powder sugar doughnuts,you know, the little bity things.

(01:27:13):
But you put it in water,it floats. It covers about one hundred
square feet per dunk, and itlasts for about a month. They also
have little granules that you can purchase, or you can take a dunk and
just hit it with a hammer andmake your own granules, however you want
to go about it. But itworks really well, the little granules.
I've got a neighbor's got some water, just a little bitty thing of water,

(01:27:33):
and they're gone on a little tripand it's not something it's like at
the top of their rainwater collection system. So I'm just gonna sprinkle some little
granules out of that later today whenI go by there. It's really easy,
easy to do. Mosquito dunks is. They're available at almost all your
independent nurseries, their feet stores,ace hardware stores. So if it's fertilizer,

(01:27:56):
easy to find mosquito dunks here inthe area. Don't be a skeeter
breeder. Let's head back out.Now we're going to go back to Joe
in Kingwood, and Joe you hadthe roses with all the leaves blown off
or yes, sir, so thoserose bushes will put on new leaves just
fine. They're okay. They're goingto bounce back quickly. It's a time

(01:28:18):
when you're looking at them. Ifthey need any pruning done here and there,
some twiggy growth, a broken branchor, or however you might want
to trim them a little, goahead and do that because it's easy to
get access without the leaves on them. And then just give them some fertilizer
and if we go into a dryer, hotter spell, make sure they continue
to get adequate moisture. But agood boost of fertilizer. You could use

(01:28:42):
a addition to providing nutrients for yourroses, you could use some medina aster
grow to put on those roses togive them a good drench to help the
soil. That works really well.Microlife has a number of different products that
work. A seaweed product, afish type product called ocean harvest, but
a little concoction of those mixed upand drenched into the soil around the rose

(01:29:08):
will also be helpful, but primarilyright now, it's going to be just
a little bit of time and alittle bit of nutrient. So find something
with a good nitrogen level in it. And I'll tell you this, Joe
a lot of times, just becauseI have it handy. I always have
some bags of fertilizer around. Ijust use a lawn fertilizer around them.
You can do that, or youcan go buy a little canister of something

(01:29:30):
made specifically for roses. Either way, that's great. Yeah, I've got
some nitrofoss rose fertilizer. There yougo. Well, then that's an outstanding
product. I think the Hoastern RoseSociety was actually in on that, but
it's an excellent one. Thank you, Skip. I appreciate it all right,
Thank you. Appreciate your call verymuch. If you'd like to be

(01:29:55):
on the air, ask a question, don't be afraid. I like to
tell people that us there. AndI know this is a stretch, but
I like to say there's no stupidquestions, just stupid answers to put you
at ease, like, don't worryabout it, if even if it's even
if it were a stupid question.There are other people that have it and

(01:30:16):
I'll worry about the stupid answers,the pressures on me. You relax,
give us a call seven to onethree, do one two ktrh and we
will help you work it out.Don't be afraid to ask your questions.
That is why we're here. Uh. There is a product that we were
just talking about, Nitrofos with therose fertilizer. It reminded me. Nitrofos

(01:30:38):
has a natural type plant lawn foodcalled sweet green. Sweet green is made
from a molasses base. So youknow, with molasses base, you're putting
a carbon material in the soil thatis going to stimulate a lot of happy
microbes because that's what they go after. That's why we use molasses in the
garden. Well, sweet grain iseleven percent nitrogen, so it will release

(01:31:01):
that nitrogen quickly as it dissolves away. So what I would recommend is buy
your bag of sweet green. Iwould split the amount you're going to apply
in half. So at eleven percentnitrogen, you're going to put about ten
pounds per thousand square feet. ButI would cut it in half and I
would do five pounds now and thenabout six to eight weeks from now,

(01:31:23):
I do the other five pounds,so, in other words, same amount
total, but spread it out.It's not a slow release, but you
can do that and achieve the slowrelease effect by doing that with sweet Green
from Nitrofoss and Nitrofoss products. AsI always say, they're really easy to
find. If you're up in thewoodlands all Spa ace HASM up there.

(01:31:44):
If you're down in Memorial area,ACE Hardware City a Memorial Drive has them
easy to find. The fertilizing productsfrom Nitrofoss like sweet Green. We're going
to go now out to Richmond,Texas and talk to Nancy. Hello,
Nancy, Honey, h skip.I hope you're doing well. I've got

(01:32:05):
a hurricane related question. We havea pineapple guava that fell over. We
had one that split, so wecut that away, and we have one
that fell over. The root ballis halfway exposed, it's not all the
way up, so do we weneed to remove it? How old is

(01:32:26):
the pineapple gava? Twenty five yearsold on a little bush like that.
I think you're going to get bywith this. What you're going to find
is the wind and the rain thatblew it over also washed soil in underneath
it. So what was what lookslike a hole was once a much bigger

(01:32:47):
hole where it kind of lifted up. So you may have to move a
little soil out of there just tobe able to set it back down and
then watered in real good. Andyou're going to need to put a steak.
I would you could do different things. I might try try the tree
stabilizer three sixty tree stabilizer. It'sa little steak. You put a you
put an iron post in, hammera t post in right there beside it,

(01:33:09):
and it'll hold it in place.Because it is going to take a
long time for that tree to redevelopthe roots that can anchor it. This
is going to be like at leasta two or three year process. I
said, pineapple, pineapple, globbabush. So they're trees there, Yeah,

(01:33:30):
they're like tall. Okay, wellif you if you get it in
his place, just plan on leavingthat thing there for a long long time
because it it takes a while todevelop roots that reach out far enough and
achieve the diameter to be able tobe really strong and hold on to things.
And that's not going to occur inthe first two years. Okay,

(01:33:53):
is there any kind of roots stimulatoror anything I need to put on it.
You think the tree, and yeah, you could do that. There's
a number number of different kinds ofproducts that you can put out there.
There are things that are hormone type, things that have other ingredients in them.
Uh. If you're you're out therein Richmond area, you got a
couple of great nurseries out there.You got some hardware stores like Plantation Ace.

(01:34:15):
You can get by there and justlook for something along those lines and
that will help. But the timeis the main thing that you're going to
need to do. All right,Well, I've got a little bit of
time. They'll take care of it. I appreciate it. All right,
well, you take care. Thanksfor the call. I want to I

(01:34:38):
want to continue that discussion that wewere just having there. Uh, there's
so many things to talk about regardingplants that have blown over and whatnot.
But there's a lot of trees,young trees have been bent. I had
an email this past week from itwas a new cypress tree that have put
in and the whole thing it wascoming straight up out of the ground still,

(01:35:01):
but the whole trunk just bent.It was like you grabbed the top
of a fishing pole that someone waspointing toward the sky, and you just
bent that top all the way tothe ground, made a big U shape
with it. That's what this treelooked like. And the cause of that
was that the trunk wasn't strong enoughto support the top in the wind.

(01:35:23):
Now, sometimes when it's a newtree, it's because it was grown in
a very non moving environment. Youknow, the trunk is staked firmly up
against a rigid steak, and sothat trunk doesn't bend in the wind as
it would in nature. And whentree branches trunks tree plant tissues, I'll

(01:35:44):
go that far. When plant tissuesare bent and kind of stressed, they
get stronger, and in response tothe wind, it gets stronger. A
lot of times in greenhouses they'll havea little ocilating fan going back and forth
across tiny seedlings coming up, andthat's to just move them a little bit.
Because your little tomato seedling that growsin perfectly still air is going to

(01:36:06):
be a spindly, easy breakable plantwhen you put it outside. If you
move it around a lot, itgets stockier. And the same is true
with the woody tissues. On atree trunk, and so that is the
cause of the bent trunk. Whatdo you do. You stake it back
in place with a tree stabilizer,but you make sure that it can move
some, which tree stabilizers will do, because you do want it to get

(01:36:30):
stronger. But just holding it stiffin one spot doesn't achieve that very well.
Now, whenever the tree blows over, that's a whole another matter.
And when we come back from thenext break, perhaps we will talk a
little bit when I can give thata little more time. I just answered
a caller by saying, yes,you can lean it back up. You

(01:36:53):
may have to take a little soilout so it leans upright and stake it
into place. But this was avery small plant. We were talking about
U pine apple WIV I believe,and so it's not like a big tree
that uproots. But if a littleplant does that, a little shrub or
a very small young tree, that'slet's say within the first two years of

(01:37:15):
that tree being planted, then youcan straighten it up, hold it in
place. But know that it's goingto take at least a couple of years,
more like really three years before ithas enough strength to really give it
some support, and it may eventake longer than that. All right,
I'm gonna stop there, but whenwe come back, we're going to continue
this discussion about storm damaged trees.Welcome back, Welcome back to guard Line.

(01:37:44):
I'm your host, Skip Richter.We're here to answer gardening questions to
help you have a more bountiful gardenand a more beautiful landscape. That's what
you want to do, right.Gardening is fun. Gardening is an enjoyable
hobby. And you know, wewe have the vicissity of nature. How's
that for a word for the day. The vicissitudes of nature to deal with,
like storms, like freezes, likedrought, like heat. Yes,

(01:38:08):
we do. It's a challenge.Every year is different. Sometimes things do
better than others, and that's justpart of the learning experience and part of
the resilience that gardeners have and beingable to stick with it and do it.
It is an enjoyable outlet. Though, don't worry about success or failure
in terms of oh, I triedto grow something, but it died.
Let's help you grow it successfully.That's what I'd like to do. I

(01:38:30):
want you to have success because thereis listen Gardening is for your mental health,
gardening is for your physical health,and gardening is just the just the
joy and peace of mind that comesfrom being out in nature and a garden.
You don't want to miss that.We're going to head out now to
the phones, and I don't haveyour name on the board. So who

(01:38:50):
are we talking to? Yeah?Hello, Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, sir? All right,my name is the R and I'm
calling from out in catch Spring Bellevillearea. All right, good dar,
welcome to guard Line. All right, question for you. Yeah, so

(01:39:11):
I've inherited a I've purchased a placeout there, and it had inherited a
tremendous number of rose bushes that areall around six seven years old and super
healthy. They're all good. ButI've noticed that and there's like three different

(01:39:34):
varieties of rose bushes that are onthat are on the property and the ones
that are at the front of theproperty that are like on these really long
flower beds. Uh. There's probablyan excess of one hundred rose bushes,
and the top two thirds of themare pretty and green, and they're putting

(01:40:00):
out flowers, you know, puttingout the actual roses. But then the
bottom third, the bottom third ofthem are kind of you know, they
they're they're brown. There's no there'sno limbs. There's no limbs on the
property. I'm excuse me. There'sno limbs on the rose bushes. No

(01:40:23):
limbs, there's no leaves. There'sno leaves on the rose bushes. They're
just brown, like you know,twigs. So I'm trying, and I
don't know anything about rose bushes.But like I said, the tops healthy,
pretty and green. I just don'tknow what to do with that bottom
section. Got you, gotcha?All right? Well, here's the thing.
Whenever a rose bush is stressed,it could be a drought stress,

(01:40:44):
you know, it could be anykind of a stress like that. Oftentimes,
and this is true not just roses, plants in general. Oftentimes they
will cast their older leaves off,and you just see that sort of thing
happen. It be diseases, theoldest the leaves lower in the bush and
further down any shoot, or theoldest leaves on the plant, and so

(01:41:09):
sometimes you just see a casting offof that older foliage. You can do
a couple of things. You couldjust live with it for now, and
then in the fall season you couldexcuse me. In the winter season,
you could do some serious pruning tothose roses and bring them back, let

(01:41:29):
them re sprout up from a littlebit lower than you trim, and restore
them that way. If you likethe shape that they're in now, I
might be tempted to leave them asthey are a little bit of pruning.
I often will do a little bitof pruning to mine when we get into
the late late summer early fall season, like late August, for example,

(01:41:51):
and do a shearing back then,because October is a big blooming month for
roses, and if you fertilize themand water the water that fertilizer in,
you'll get a stimulation of growth andthey'll fill in and look good again.
So there's a couple of pockets whereyou can. Yeah, So if I
just want to leave them, ifI just want to leave them as they

(01:42:14):
are, if I just want toleave them as they are right now,
you're saying, let them be,and then uh, maybe like October,
you say, prune them and hitthem with a little fertilizer. No,
in late August, at the endof August, the little fertilizer and watered
in really good for October blooms.You're gonna have really good blooms season October.

(01:42:40):
And also just one other thing,you are when you shade leaves out,
they fall off. They can't.If you look at any head shrub
and you just pull the hedge apartand look inside, it's all twiggy brown
inside. It's only out there wherethey get sunlight that you have the hedge
leaves. So roses, these rosescould be overgrown enough to where they're doing

(01:43:00):
some of that to themselves. Somaybe just leave them as they are.
Yeah, leave them as they areright now late August. Uh, trim
trim, trim the the lower partsI'm talking about when you say prune them
back. How far do I pruneback on yours? I would do it
by about a third. You coulddo a third. You could also normally

(01:43:24):
I would just do a fourth.Uh, prune them back by about a
fourth to get new growth. Withthe fertilization and the pruning, you get
new growth, and roses produce onnew shoot at the end of shoots.
So the more ends of shoots youhave, the more roses you're gonna have
on the plant. But also inmid in mid to or late winter,
that's the time to do a heavypruning if you want to reshape them,

(01:43:48):
and you know, because they're ina semi dormant state, right then uh
to get fresh new growth in thespring. Ah, okay, all right,
you answered my question. I reallyappreciate it. All right, good
luck with those sounds like you gotyour hands full. You might need to
join the Houston Roads Society. Whatmean? Yeah? Hey, thanks so

(01:44:11):
much. Right by the way,Houston Roads Society is a great organization anybody
that wants to learn more about rosesand enjoy meeting people who love roses.
They're a great a great group forthat. I've been to their meetings more
than once and I always enjoy dealingwith folks from the Road Society. Soil

(01:44:32):
is important. Soil is critical ongarden line. One of my mantras is
rom stuffed before green stuff. Whatdoes that mean? That means if you
get the soil right, that meansgood drainage, good internal drainage, good
oxygen done in the soil for theroot system, and a good nutrient content
and pH plants are going to thrive. And Cienamulch is the place for all

(01:44:58):
things related to this brown stuff thatI'm talking about Cinmulch has composts, they
have bed mixed blends like heirloom soils, veggie and or mix. They've got
that. They have out the blendsas well. Cienamulch also has every fertilizer
I talk about on Guardline. Sowhen you drive into Cianamulch and drive out,

(01:45:18):
you have in your vehicle what's neededto set the stage for success.
That is so important. So ifyou're going to plant, let me just
talking about rose. You don't puta rosebush and don't just PLoP it into
an unprepared plot. Don't just stickit into heavy clay soil and no amendments.
The drainage hasn't been improved. Stopin and get you some good products.

(01:45:41):
And for all those of you southof Houston, that's where Cenamulch is
there at FM five twenty one.You're where Highway six and two eighty eight
come together, just north of RoastSharing. If you want just write this
down Ciena Mulch dot com. That'sthe website and that'll tell you everything you
need to know. You can buyin bulk, you can buy by the
bag, and by the way.They got their power back on they're rolling
full force. Open Saturdays from sevenpoint thirty to two, closed on Sunday.

(01:46:05):
Of course, open Monday through Friday. But if you want to get
this stuff started and done now,it'd be a good day to get out
there. Just do it four twoo'clock today and get the supplies you need.
They'll deliver within twenty miles of theirlocation, so that's another option for
you. We are gonna now,let's see here where we're going to run

(01:46:25):
out to spring and talk to herto Hello, Herda, good morning.
I have a couple of questions ofmy cheffelera, which is outside, it's
not in the house. Two stemswith about like five leaves to a stem,

(01:46:47):
they're turning yellow. What's wrong withit? Cheffleara leaves turning yellow is
usually due to a fluctuation and sawmoisture. Maybe it got a little dry
and then then you watered it again, or maybe it's say a little too
on the web side. Uh,those are possibilities. Older leaves turning yellow

(01:47:08):
can be a lack of nitrogen.Usually on a cheff falara that doesn't they
don't turn yellow, they just lightentheir green color. So I think it's
a sole moisture issue. While wehave a lot of rain. Uh huh
yeah, well maybe too much.I don't know how well the drainage are.

(01:47:30):
Well that that's a possibility now yeah, yeah, if you got if
you lean a pot over, justlay it on its side and see if
water starts running out. That's asign that it definitely needs a little bit
better drainage. Hey, hurd it, I got to run to a break.
You want to hang on and wecan ask We can answer your other
question when we come back. Well, take all call back. Thank you

(01:47:56):
all right, that sounds good.Thank you very much. I appreciate the
call our phone. If you'd liketo call, Welcome back to garden Line.
Have a little bit of fun withthe music this morning. Hey,
we are glad you are listening.I appreciate that, and I hope that
it is helpful for you. Iwant to be inspirational, I want to
be encouraging. I want to provideyou the tools you need to have success,

(01:48:17):
because gardening is the greatest hobby inthe world. And no matter what
you like, maybe all you wantto mess with is houseplants. Maybe you
want to be a rose enthusiast,and maybe you want to grow fruit trees
and you just want to learn allabout that, whatever it is. Most
people, I just want a beautifulplace. Well, we can help you
with that. Problems with the trees, problems with the lawn and other things.

(01:48:40):
Give us a call seven to onethree six or seven one three two
one two k t R H sevenone three two one two k t R.
As simple as that. Hey,the Enchanted Gardens down in Richmond,
they are stocked up on plants andthey are ready to go. I mean,
if you need boog and villias,they've got them. You know.

(01:49:01):
They say, when life gives youlemons, make lemonade, maybe a little
spider loly to go in some wetareas, you know, that's right.
There are things called rain gardens,and basically it's places that don't drain well
after a rain. There are plantsyou can put in those, and they
have those an Enchanted Gardens Nursery.There's always something fun going on there too.

(01:49:23):
Lots of good educational materials that theyprovide. And I'll tell you this,
the kinds of bling that they havefor your garden, I just love
it, absolutely love it. Andby garden bling, you know all the
things like a little metal oh gosh, flamingos, you know that kind of
move up and down in the wind. You got to have stuff like that.

(01:49:44):
It's important. Plus the more youput in, at some point the
neighbors start to talk and that isreally fun. You definitely need that if
you're looking at doing containers, andChenny Gardens has an outstanding supply both the
containers and the plants that go inthem, and they can tell you to
put that all together. Enchanted GardensRichmond dot com. That's the that's the

(01:50:05):
website, Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. They're on FM five excuse me,
three fifty nine, FM three fiftynine on the Katie Fullscher side of Richmond,
and today it would be a greatday to go out there. We're
going to go to the phones nowand let's see, all right, welcome

(01:50:26):
to garden Line. Tell me whoI'm talking to. This is Larry.
Hey, Larry, how are youdoing well? I have got I have
about a twelve or fourteen foot appletree that uh just has leaned all the
way over touching the ground. Theroots haven't popped out of the ground or

(01:50:49):
anything, but I wonder can II've bought a come along and I was
going to look it up to theback of my truck and gradually pull it
over and stake it up. Isthat a Is that a possibility to do
that? Yes? It is,and let me make it. It's a

(01:51:11):
pretty, pretty, pretty big tree. Is probably big tree. I'd say
about eight inches in diameter on thetrunk, right. But what I'm hearing
from you is it's basically the trunkhas bent. It's not that the tree
has leaned and the root pulled rootsout of the ground. Right. It
has not pulled the roots out ofthe ground. Thow. Okay, yeah,

(01:51:31):
I would bring it up in place. I would get what is a
trunk diameter about let's say chest tie. Uh, it's the trunk about chest
tie is probably five six inches.Okay, that's a good, good tree.
You're gonna need a good strong supportto do that. Probably two of

(01:51:53):
them, if you use the treestabilizers. I would put two on them
and bring it up in its place. And to those two steaks. If
you're going to use the come alongkind of approach you mentioned, then you
could you could use a wire witha steak or U and I would do
two of them. Kind of comingin like in a V shape toward the
trunk. So in other words,if it blows left or right, you

(01:52:15):
used to have some support there.Okay, close wires up, and then
if you can move them a littlebit later a little further do that.
I just kind of go easy,because that trunk has been really stressed and
the tissues have probably suffered a littlebit of damage in it, and so
for you just to yank it rightback up straight, I'd go a little
slower, move it as far asyou feel like you know you can,

(01:52:39):
uh, and then wait a littlewhile, and then if you can pull
up a little more, do that. But it's going to take a while
for it to grow enough new stronglignant tissue to where it's not going to
need the steaks. Okay, Okay, it's worth it. It produces a
ton of apples, so I'd liketo keep it if I can. Well,
good, what do you know whatvariety it is? Oh, it's

(01:53:02):
a to me, uh, it'slike a gala apple. It's like a
gala apples. I thought it atI got it at arbor Gate. Okay,
do you have something to pollinate itor is it? Well? Yes,
I have three other small apple treesthat are blooming. Okay, good
good, I'm always curious. Yeah, I probably got two hundred apples off

(01:53:29):
of it this year. Holy moly. All right, well, Larry,
thank you for the calling. Goodluck getting that tree back in shape.
Okay, appreciate it. All right, there we are. Now, you
know what I would like to justjust briefly talk a little bit about some

(01:53:50):
more on the tree thing. Imentioned when a branch when a trunk bends,
and we just had a call fromLarry about that. What did you
straighten him back up? And justknow that you're gonna have to hold those
supports for a long time. Whentrees blow over and the roots are up.
If that happened in the last twoyears, that I mean, if

(01:54:11):
the tree has only been in twoyears, then you can probably lean it
back up keep it place in placefor a long time. It's going to
take a while to not only growroots, but grow strong, thick roots
to support that tree. But youcan do that. If the tree's been
in longer than two years, certainlylonger than three years, you probably are

(01:54:32):
going to need to replace it.And I hate to say that, but
a lot of people have big oldtrees that bring roots up out of the
ground. You got all these brokenroots now sticking up in the air.
You know, they lift up thesod and everything else, kind of like
a pancake of soil and roots comingup. You're just not going to straighten
those out and have any kind ofstrength to them. For various reasons,

(01:54:54):
it's just not going to work well. So on established trees that do that,
i'd call it, I just pullthem out. It's a good tree
to put back in. I hatethat, that's the fact, but you
just need to think that way.We'll be right back. Let's just jump

(01:55:21):
right in here and get this thingrolling for our upcoming hour, the last
hour this morning on guarden Line.By the way, we'll be back six
o'clock in the morning tomorrow, allthe way to ten am. So lots
of opportunities for you to call in, tell your neighbors about garden Line,
have them give us a call too. We'll be happy to answer their gardening
questions. I think about a lotof different things when it comes to garden

(01:55:45):
success, because people basically are wantingto know, how do I have six
how do I grow tomatoes? Howdo I have a beautiful lawn. How
do I what's wrong with my treeand how do I make it better?
Let me just tell you the singlestarting point of all gardens success is the
soil. It is. And ifyou're heading up Interstate forty five toward Conro
right where fourteen eighty eight comes infrom the left, you go to the

(01:56:10):
right, and that's Nature's Way Resources. They're on Sherbrooke Circle right there.
Nature's Way has been a leader fordecades, for a very long time when
it comes to quality soil blends.They that's where. That's where things like
rose soil and veggie mixes and leafmold compost and things like that. That's

(01:56:33):
where they were born. That reallyJohn ferguson Nature's Way that that is the
start of a lot of these mixes. And now we know our standards.
Nature's Way is having a deal rightnow that you need to know about.
It's thirty percent off in the nurseryall the plants except native sun perennials.

(01:56:55):
That's only one thirty percent off everythingelse at Nature's Way Resource. Yes,
they have a nursery right there.You can go in and check out lots
of good native plants. By theway, twenty percent off. Now,
listen carefully to this one. Twentypercent off all composts, all soils,
and all mulches. If you mentionedthat you heard about them on guard line,
you have to say that. Yousay, hey, I heard Skip

(01:57:15):
say on guardline that you had twentypercent off of your molt or your soil
or your compost, and you'll getit. And they make quality mixes.
You can go pick them up bythe bag. You can go pick them
up by the bulk. You canhave them deliver it. Just get a
hold of them there at Nature's Wayand check it out. Start do yourself

(01:57:36):
the favor of starting off by makingthat brown stuff magical so your plants thrive
nine three six three two one sixtynine three six three two one six nine
nine zero. Another thing that Idid want to talk about is our garden

(01:57:58):
centers being open, are closed orwhat's open what's closed? You know,
just like houses around the Houston area, some people have power, some people
don't. But a lot of ourplaces, from ace hardware stores to garden
centers and other places, even ifthey don't have power, they're they're on,
they're open, they're still going.But I would suggest you give them
a call wherever you're going to go, just call first. Just make sure

(01:58:21):
I know, ace hardware stores thathave full power and they know as hardware
stores that don't, but they're open. You can go in there. You
can you know, you can stillgo and do that. Just give them
a call, make sure that theyare able to have customers come in.
And I think that in almost allthe cases when I'm talking about these sponsors

(01:58:42):
that they are. I know BuchanansPlants is for example, by the way
Buchanans is, it is a wonderfulplace for plants. I mean, you're
not going to find a selection likeBuchanans of natives anywhere nearby. You absolutely
native plants, that's what they specializein. They also have summer tough plants

(01:59:02):
that are non natives, and oneof my favorite plants like that is redbird
of Paradise. It's also called Prideof Barbados. That's probably a better name
because there's another plant called bird ofParadise. It's also just gone by the
proper name Sey Sulpinia pool karam opul Karima means beautiful and it is.

(01:59:23):
It is gaudy. It has theseorange yellow red blooms. That are just
gorgeous. I mean, it's likesticking a pink flamingo out in the front
yard. You got to notice it. You can't not see it well that
they have that there. It's awonderful plant, and many many other plants
as well. With Buchanans Plants,you do also want to do this.

(01:59:45):
Check out their website Buchanansplants dot comand when you get there you're going to
find that the opportunities for education arelimitless. They always have new programs going
on at buchanans Plants dot com.For example, let me just give you
some examples. We're they're coming upon a tomato excuse me, not a

(02:00:10):
tomato class. Oh gosh, Ican't say. Had the class in my
head just a minute go, andit jumped and jumped right out. Starting
a cutflower garden on August tenth,that's the one I was trying to think
of. Starting a cut flower gardenon August tenth. Get that on your
calendar. Ten to eleven am onAugust seventeenth is the tomato class. Tomato
one oh one. Yes, youcan grow tomatoes here and fall at Buchanan's

(02:00:33):
Plants. But I'm not gonna readall the things they have going on.
Just go online Buchanan's Plans dot com, sign up for the newsletter and check
them out. Always something happening there. We're gonna let's see here are We're
gonna head out now. Talk toour mystery caller. Who's calling this morning?

(02:00:55):
Who am I tell you? Opengarden line? Well, welcome to
guard line. I didn't have yourname on the screen, so how can
we help? I was calling becauseI'm having a problem on my pepper plants
with caterpillars, and I was justwondering what type of the herbicide or natural
organic item to help get rid ofthem. Okay, the simplest thing is

(02:01:21):
something called bt B as in boyTeas and tom. It's a caterpillar disease.
It doesn't hurt anything else. Goodbugs are bad bugs other than caterpillars.
It doesn't hurt them. It justhurts caterpillars, and you spray it
on there. It only lasts aday or two in the environment where it
breaks down. But if you canget it on there and get them feeding
on it, it's good. Youmight want to try spring upward from underneath

(02:01:43):
the plant to coat the bottle ofthe leaves as well as the top of
the leaves, because sometimes caterpillars areunder the leaves, hiding and feeding when
they're real young. Exactly. Okay, so it's BT. Yeah, look
any product with B T b Asand boy Teas and tom. I don't
know what where area are you locatedin. I'm in East Parrace County over

(02:02:09):
here in the Sheldon area. Okay, Well you're gonna find you know,
met is widely available. You're gonnafind it in our feed stores, in
our garden centers and Ace hardware stores. We got a lot of feedback coming
in there, so I hope thatyou Hey, thanks for calling this morning.

(02:02:32):
I appreciate that very much. We'regoing to you bet we're going to
go to a break right quick.When we come back, Lee in Sharpstown
and Hurt you'll be our first twoup for the lazy days of summer.
This is that song? But whocan tell me who sang it? Well,

(02:02:53):
I won't wait for an answer.The rem Brands, the rem Brands,
Yeah, that is one of them, proby the biggest song they did.
Welcome back to Guardline. Good tohave you with us today. I
want to talk to you a littlebit about microlife products. Microlife Fertilizer is
a Houston area fertilizer company. Theyare local and they have been a leader

(02:03:13):
in organic fertilizers for a very longtime. Certainly, we have all the
bag fertilizers, like their multipurpose greenbag for lawns and things. They have
the Humans plus, the Purple bag, which is concentrated compost in a bag.
They have an acidifying fertilizer a sixtwo four acidifying. It's in a
reddish colored bag. But right now, with a lot of things we're trying

(02:03:34):
to do. As someone called earlierabout had some questions about, you know,
salt that come into the soil andplants that were struggling along and stuff,
it's always a good time to doa liquid over plant root systems.
For example, the Humante plus isavailable by liquid, the super Seaweed is
available by liquid. The Ocean Harvest, which is a fish based fertilizer,

(02:03:55):
available by liquid. And there's severalmore that they have, including just the
point on old microlife molasses and molassesstimulates biological activity, and biological activity is
good, good for the soil.All available for microlife. You can go
to Microlife Fertilizer dot com fu willlearn more about it. Easy to find
microlife products. They are ubiquitous.There's another big word for the day,

(02:04:17):
meaning they're everywhere. You can goto feed stores, you can go to
garden centers, you can got ace, hardware stores, office fertilizer. All
kinds of places are going to carrythose microlife products. And we are going
to go out to Sharpstown now andtalk to Lee. Hello, Lee,
Hey, how's it going. Well? Well, I'm about trees. Okay.

(02:04:41):
I got a lot of trees inmy art, I mean, and
I got two questions about them.Amusingly enough, the sick tree that I
was really worried about didn't lose theleave my totally healthy pecan. However,
lost a big old branch way highup. And my first question is how
important is it that I get allthe way up there and see up that
and I don't know, pat withsome pain for something, or is it

(02:05:02):
safe to just leave it and letit heal naturally? The tree is healthy,
it just you know, so typicallywhen branches break off, they don't
break off in a good way forthe tree to heal over that area.
So coming back and making a freshso you're not leaving this. Did the
branch break off right against the trunkor you know, a few inches or

(02:05:27):
a foot out or something? Yeah, a little ways out. Yeah,
it's about it putting a half asplit coming out. You know, it's
not a clean break at all.Yeah, So follow that branch back to
where it attaches to a bigger branch, and you'll see that the diameter of
the branch starts to flare out rightas it attaches. Right at the beginning
of that flare. Cut it offthere, so you're not leaving a stub,

(02:05:49):
but you're not flush cutting it upagainst which makes a much bigger wound.
So just cut it off there.There's no need to treat it.
Make a fresh, clean cut,and that's that's what's in control of the
tree. I'll take it from there, okay. And my second question is
the tree that I was worried about. It's the older Arizona ash was.

(02:06:10):
I spent the entire storm worrying aboutit falling over. I really need to
take it out, but I kindof like to keep a memento of sometimes.
Do you know of any tree trimmersor anybody that has a portable sawmill?
So I could turn one of mybeloved trees into furniture when it's time
for it to go, and Idon't have to, you know, totally
let it go. Boy, Idon't And I don't even know where to

(02:06:32):
start looking for that kind of thing. If it was an Arizona ash,
I probably would not use it forfurniture because just the nature of the wood
is not that great. But asfar as your question, I don't.
I don't know where to get asawmill kind of source. But hopefully if

(02:06:53):
we put it on the radio,someone'll call and say, hey, I
know this, There you go,There you go. Well, I don't
know, maybe even a little localGoogle search or something would turn something out,
but yeah, we can. Wecan do that. Hey, thank
you, La, good luck.Take care. Well, let's see,
I wanted to talk to you aboutinsects in the lawn. We're in the

(02:07:15):
season where chinchbugs are on the We'reon the lookout for them. It's a
little early in the season, butnot too early for them to occur.
Uh, we'll fall webworms. It'sanother one that can occur early earlier,
but generally a little bit later.Nitroposs bug out max is a granular product.
You put it out there after recommendedrate, and you watered in and

(02:07:35):
these things that live down in thethatch and around the base of the grass
plant like chinchbugs, side web wormsare done in that area too. Ants
and fleas and ticks and things.Nitrofoss bug Out Max will work for those,
and you put it down once andit's it's gonna work for the rest
of the summer season. So ifthese pest show up a little bit later,

(02:07:56):
you've already got it out there inplace you're gonna find that. Like
other nitrofoss products, it's easy tofind. The Bugout Max. RCW Nursery
carries those products plans for all seasonson two forty nine out in Kingwood Ace.
Kingwood Ace out there as well asa Taska seat to Ace are going
to be places you can get nitropossproducts like this bug Out Max. We're

(02:08:18):
going to head back to the phonesnow and we're going to talk to Hurta.
Hello, Hurta, welcome back.Let's thank you. Let's see.
My second question is about my Calilily I putty in a little bit of
a larger pot, but it hasoh less than a quarter of inch blue

(02:08:45):
white streaks all along the leaves,and it hadn't bloomed since I first started.
That's interesting. I kind of needto see a picture to know for
sure what you're looking at with thewhite streak. No, I don't think
I can do that. That's okay, I think right now you're kely with

(02:09:11):
Keller lily is. The secret isthey need good light intensity, but not
too much of the brunt of thehot sun. They don't they're not real
fond of that. They need conn. Yeah, well, I had been
taking it in after you told methat. The last time I leave it
out in the morning shune. ButI bring it out on the porch for

(02:09:33):
afternoon. Oh boy, Well,you don't have to go do all that.
I don't know if there's a wayto give it a morning sun or
whatever, but just just that's alot of moving and a lot of trouble,
but try to try to provide itgood light. Light is essential for
bloom production, and it is theyare somewhat seasonal, so uh, just

(02:09:54):
stick with it and hopefully it'll turnaround and you'll get you'll get some blooms
in time, probably next spring.All right, thank you very much,
take care. You've heard it,Thank you back call. I appreciate that
Peerscapes is a professional landscape service.You can go in there and say I
want you to do the whole thingeverything, and they'll do it. You

(02:10:16):
could go in there and say Iwant to redo this bed. I need
you to design something that's beautiful.Maybe I want some maybe you want drought
tolerant plants or native plants or whatever. Work with them on it. They
can do that. They do hardscapes. They do irrigation work. They
help areas. If you've got baddrainage and you ought to know it by
now, if you do with thatrain we just had, they can take

(02:10:37):
care of that. They also havea quarterly maintenance program where they come in
they do seasonal color changes in yourflower beds. They make sure everything's mulched,
weeded, fertilized, check the irrigation. Pierscapes is an expert in all
of those and many more things.You can go to the website, and
I highly recommend you go to thiswebsite, pierscapes dot com. It is

(02:10:58):
inspiration and all to see the kindof work they can do, or give
them a call. Two eight onethree seven o five zero six zero two
eight one three seven oh five zerosix zero. I'm going to go back
out to the phones now, andI don't have your name on the board.
But who do we have today?It's calling? Yes, this you're

(02:11:22):
on garden line. Who am Italking to? My name is Ken.
I live out near Beasy. Ihave a I have a burrow tree.
Looks all healthy, but it hasit's starting to grow a little fungus.
It's real hard, sticks out kindof like a half moon from the bark,
and I'm wondering what I should dowith that. Is this on the

(02:11:43):
small twigs, No, it's onthe main trunk and the little fungus mushroom
type thing is growing out about aninch and it's about half moon about three
inches is wide. And there's othersgrowing along it. The largest one is

(02:12:05):
that. I think that is adecom decomposing fungi. But if you want
the best answer, I would putyou on hold and have you send me
a photo to an email that youcan get from my producer, and then
I would know for sure. ButI think it's probably Is it white you
said, you know, it's kindof a darkish tan, light brown.

(02:12:31):
I need to see it. Ihave ideas, but I don't want a
wild guess, so uh, canI put you? Can I put you
on hold and get that picture andI will get you and yes, yes,
I'll do that. Okay, ohgee, uh that we're having we're
having issues at the at the stationdue to all these storms and things.

(02:12:58):
Just a second, let me putI'm an to put you on hold for
one second and I'll come right.I'll tell you what. Let's just do
this, could you could you callback? Try calling back tomorrow and and
let me get to get it toyou. Then I don't have a way
of getting you to the producer rightnow. Sure, I just don't know.

(02:13:20):
It's ten three inches half moon.It's I want to say it's a
decomposer of fungi. It also,yeah, I just think that's the most
likely, but but I just it'sreal hard. Yeah. Yeah, are
there dead limbs on the tree around? Okay? How do you treat that?

(02:13:41):
If I do that? There's nota treatment for either one of those.
But we're kind of we're kind ofstuck on high center here, So
give me a try back tomorrow.Let's let's see what we could do.
All right, Thank you? Okay, thanks so much. Yeah, we
too are dealing with a storm hereand trying to get through some technological hurdles

(02:14:09):
that we're having to jump through.Uh. Ace Hardware stores are all over
the place. They're just widely,widely available, forty of them in the
greater Houston area. You can goto acehard Hardware dot com find the one
for you. What do you needright now? You know, do you
need do you need a little smallgenerator, you know you power up and
do run some equipment or runner fridgeor something like that off of They have

(02:14:31):
those a little gas powered things.Uh, if do you need perhaps an
air conditioning unit that can run offa generator and keep those nights that are
just not very comfortable right now?Are they a little less stressful? They've
got that new gas cans, They'vegot that evaperative cooling systems. They've got
that just make your list and stopby before the next hurricane shows up.

(02:14:54):
Ace Hardware has been getting truckloads ofthese kinds of let's just say hurricane relief
type items in and they're stocked outand ready for you to come in and
help you get off to a betterstart here. Ace Hardware Hurricane preparation,
ACE Hardware, Blondecair, ACE Hardwarefor pest and disease and weed management.

(02:15:15):
ACE Hardware. ACE is the place. Acehardware dot Com is where you find
the store locator so that you canfind the ACE Hardware store nearest to you.
We're gonna take a break. Wewill be right back. James.
You'll be our first caller up youlive. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back

(02:15:39):
to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richt. Good to have you
with us. We're going to runstraight out this segment and we're going to
go talk to James in Spring,Texas. Hello James, and thanks for
waiting. Good morning, Skip.This is the first time I'm spoken with
you that you took over that position, and I have listened a lot.

(02:16:05):
I enjoy your program. My questionon a tree I've got. I'm sitting
on about acre and a half inSpring, and I lost the six pretty
good sized trees in this storm.Fortunately it didn't hit anything but a fence.
But I noticed when I was cleaningup the yard near one that fell

(02:16:31):
that I've got this real tall pinetree. And I looked at the ground
around that pine tree the dirt andyou can see where that trunk wiggled and
it moved. I'm going to saythere was like a one inch gap in
the dirt around the base of thattrunk. Now the roots or nothing is

(02:16:56):
lifted up, but it definitely didsome rocket. Yeah, nothing to do
about that right now. I mean, you don't want that thing to happen.
But evidently that tree took one heckof a strong push from the storm
and remained upright, apparently unbroken,not uprooted. So I think I think

(02:17:18):
right now you wait and watch andsee. It should be Okay, a
one inch move is not good,but it you know. I think the
the one thing that concerns me isthat this is right on the property line.
If it fell to the south,it hit my neighbor's house. If

(02:17:39):
it fell any other direction, itwouldn't hurt anything. And I'm kind of
wondering, time wise, how longwill it take that tree to re establish
itself if it's been you know,shook like then we don't know. And
my gut is that nothing got broken, It just got moved and the tree
held on. Understand the risks thatis always the case when you've got a

(02:18:03):
big tree like a pine, Theycan fall if they're big enough, thing
fall pretty much any direction and dodamage you don't want done. H So
you could call Martin Spoon Moore fromAffordable Tree to come out and take a
look at it and see if hesees anything that is of concern to him.
Are not there on site. SoI can't give you a final call.
I gave you my opinion, butthat Affordable Tree would be you know,

(02:18:26):
if you want a number, Ican give you one for him,
but that that would okay. Butis it likely that that given time,
say by next season, if theresnothing nothing else disturbs it, that it'll
get his grip back. I guessfor lack of a better way. Well,

(02:18:50):
if my if my best assessment basedon a phone call, you know,
a description is true, then itis okay, and it it will
just continue on. It's okay.Yeah. So I didn't hear anything in
your words that made me think there'ssomething broken that needs to be regrown or
fixed or whatever. Now it didn'tseem to lose. It could have been

(02:19:15):
a limb or something come out ofthe top of it. I haven't really
looked at that. But there's nothingbroken, there's no split, and it
seems to be. It hasn't movedthe ground up, you know, were
some of those trees when they pushover, well the roots will lift up
the ground that's all flat. Sookay, all of a sudden watch it.

(02:19:35):
Yeah, that's nice. Essment Justremember this, a pine tree that
came through this storm just fine,could go down in the next one.
Not even a hurricane, just agood stormy thing. It's strange, you
know, we had those bad stormsthat knocked out power before a few weeks
ago, and then this storm camein and we lost trees that made it
through the other one. And that'sjust the nature of things. We even

(02:19:56):
have trees that, yes, suddenlimb drop the middle of summer on a
still night. It's weird. ButI'm just saying, based on what you
described to me, I don't seea damage that needs to be fixed.
But that's all right. Well,good luck with that. Thank you.

(02:20:16):
Thanks appreciate that call very much.We're going to now go out. Okay,
Color, I don't have your nameon the board, but welcome to
garden Line. Who am I talkingto? Christine? Hey Christine, how
can we help? I was listeningto your show about somebody wanted to use

(02:20:37):
all this wood for maybe making furniture. And I just wanted to give a
reference that there's a Whitney Wolf inAtlanta that has a sawmill. The public
park system there when they are pruningand cleaning trees, or when there are
disasters or at any time, theybring him the wood and he mills it.
He has the kiln he makes foranture from this wood and the shavings.

(02:21:03):
Other people come that grow mushrooms commercially, people that grow or want,
uh the shavings for their garden,and so it's a completely economically and ecologically
balanced system. But he's got youknow, I don't know of one here,
but there could be an affiliate,That's what I was saying. And
his name is Whitney Wolf. Idon't know if there's an affiliate here in

(02:21:24):
Houston. All right, Well thanksfor that information. The ultimate recycler.
They're they're like they say, whatsomeone says, they're using everything from the
pig except the oint, so itsounds right. And he makes beautiful furniture
from the wood that he uses.And that's online too that they sell tables,

(02:21:46):
you know, things. So it'sreally a neat idea. And I
didn't know if we had one here, but I thought to pass them along.
Well, I appreciate you calling himto do that, and thank you
very much for the key. Havea good day, Christine. Where are
we here? Let's see we're goingto head to Wow. Okay, I

(02:22:07):
just are you their color? Ican't see who you are, but if
you give a you hello, welcometo Yeah, good morning Clark and Heights.
Hey Clark, how can we help? Well? I have sort of
related questions. I have uh,one big of coontry in the backyard,

(02:22:28):
and I think because of this drowthat we had. It's just my grass
is dying like crazy in my backyard. And also have the same problem in
my front have a big red oaktree there that the grass. I've been
here, I've been here many years, and yes, sir, we've never
had a problem before. And thento add to that on the area between

(02:22:52):
the sidewalk and curb, about fiftyfifteen foot squares spot, it's just bad.
I mean, it's just I don'tknow how to replant that or what
I should do about that. Allright, Well, that's that is good
information. I'm hearing in my earthat we got to run to a break.

(02:23:13):
If you will hang on, Iwill address the grass under the trees
and the grass at the curb.Uh. Basically, just hang on for
a little bit. I'll be rightback. Uh. If you'd like to
be able us to call the phonenumber seven one three two one two K
T R H. I will beright back. Good to have you with

(02:23:37):
us today. I tell you,have you been out to Arbigate lately.
I'm telling you the place looks awesome. I know we're entering summer, but
it is still time to plant things. Arbigate's got some outstanding summer color plants.
Uh. You know, there's manyplants we're familiar with. Of course,
the perennial hibiscus. You're familiar withthat. You know, it does

(02:23:58):
good. It's excellent here in thesummer heat. But there's another plant that
they have out there called some believableand some believable, like as an unbelievable,
but it is believable when you seeit. I've got one in my
guard I need to post that toour Facebook garden on Facebook page. Some
believable Helianthus. It's a type ofsunflower, but it makes a bush.

(02:24:20):
It's a bush. It only getsmaybe a couple of feet tall and maybe
two and a half feet wide somethinglike that, somewhere in that range,
and it just blooms and blooms andblooms. They say it produces a thousand
blooms during the season, and that'sbecause it's always blooming for a very very
long time and it is gorgeous,some believ That's another example. They also
have a plant called Pirate's Pearl.It's a little white blooming plant, looks

(02:24:41):
really good outstanding. You're gonna findit there, and you will find that
it just is just keeps going.It just keeps going through summer. Maybe
you're interested in a foliage plant,the colorful cannas, they've got those at
Arburgate Salvia's excellent selection of Salvia's.Arburgate is west of Tombull on twenty nine

(02:25:03):
to twenty. You just head outwest from Tombull on twenty nine twenty and
on the right hand or left handside, you'll see Arburgate. Before you
get there, Trishell Road leaves offof twenty nine to twenty, circles around
Arburgate and comes back to twenty nineto twenty. So I would recommend turn
down Trishel to go to the newparking lot in the back. It's all

(02:25:24):
weather and it's the easiest, safestaccess you can have. You know,
when you go to Arburgate, you'regoing to excellent advice from people that know
their stuff, and you know you'regoing to get a plant selection that is
just unstoppable. Don't let summer stopyou from gardening. Hey, we got
two and a half more months hereof blazing summer weather. Let's get some

(02:25:46):
plants out there and color things up. Let's break up the sea of green
at the Arborgate. We're going tonow go out to the phones here and
pull up, so welcome to gardenLine. Tell us your a Clark.
Hey, you glad to have you. But oh that's right, I had

(02:26:07):
you on hold. Sorry, yessir, Yeah, no problem, my
brain. My brain was busy wellduring a break, So going on.
Yeah under whenever you get shade,even Saint Augustine, it gets shady enough
to where it just doesn't have energyto do much and if it starts to
h it's hard to get it tocome back. You know, you need

(02:26:30):
extra energy to regrow and get thickand all of that, and that just
doesn't happen in the shade very well, So it may be the area is
too shady. Now. Selective limbremoval can help that, but it's only
a temporary fix, and it costsquite a bit of money, you know,
to get somebody up there to dothat. So the only thing I
would suggest or be considered transitioning thatarea into something other than turf grass,

(02:26:54):
something that can take the shade.And you got a lot of options for
that, but I think that's aboutall you can do in the shade.
I tell people set the more ashigh as you can to get as much
grass blade as you can, keepall the foot traffic off of it to
give the grass every chance. Andif that doesn't work, then let's transition

(02:27:15):
to another kind of plant, like, for example, OKH groundcovers. There's
a number of different groundcover plants thatwill do well of varying heights. I
mean, some people in areas thatare moisture in the shade, they'll put
ferns in there to cover over theground. A cast iron plant will be

(02:27:35):
part of a large bed that doeswell. Aztec grass looks like you're wiape,
but it's white and green striped andit does well and shape. It
just depends on how bright the shadeis and what kind of plant you want
to look at. A juga isanother shade tolerant groundcover that you can have
do well, it's a little bittolerant. In the part that I'm most

(02:27:58):
concerned about is the grass that actuallydied and there's brown dirt left there is
out on the street in a hotsun. I mean, have been there
for many years. We saw thatas it's been going well for years,
and you just lost it. Ilived here for fifty years, okay for

(02:28:18):
some reason, Yeah, I wouldreside it soon. Is there no living
grass at all in that area?No? Sure, okay, there is,
but not not in this cup ofspots. Okay, Well, if
on the edges of what's dyed,you can get on on your hands and
knees and get your face down therenear the grass level part the grass and

(02:28:41):
look for little chinch bugs crawling aroundin there. They're little black and white
bugs, smaller than a grain ofrice, about half the size of a
grain of rice. And if that'sthe case, then you need to treat
those because just putting new grass in, they're going to move right back into
the new grass. But if youdon't, but I would get that sided

(02:29:01):
a S A P. Because you'vegot a lot of time for the stay
to get well established. And agood place to buy grass would be I
have a truck, so I cango get it. Yeah, you know
there's a number of grass suppliers throughthe area. Yeah, I might ask
it. You know, what whatarea are you in right now? In

(02:29:22):
the Heights Downtown Houston area, that'sright just north of downtown. I'm about
six blocks from Buchanans. Well,I would go by there. They probably
sell some sod there. I don't. I haven't, but if not,
they could tell you. They couldtell you where we're lovely. Yeah,

(02:29:43):
there's a country cowboy or something likethat, Alcle Brigmore on the west side.
That this huge place. But okay, well I'm gonna have to run.
Thank you though for Colin. Iappreciate that. Uh going to a
new call here, Welcome to gardenLine. Tell me who I'm talking talking
to? Ronda? Hey, Ronda, how can we help? Hey?

(02:30:05):
I live in Austin County and Ihave a huge water oak tree and part
of it is still alive, butlike the top part is completely dead.
Does that mean the rest of thetree is dead. No, it means
that just the top died out.That could be anything from a lightning strike

(02:30:26):
to a anytime you get a severelystressed tree, root damage, droughts,
other things, the peripheral parts ofthe first to go, and that it's
like the tree loses that and you'lloften see trunk sprouting below that where it's
trying to send out new foliage becauseit has to have leaves to survive and
do well, so it's trying torelease what it lost. But that's what

(02:30:48):
that sounds like to me. That'stypically not any particular disease doing that.
Okay, thank you so much.All right, Ron, thanks, I
appreciate your call. All right there, Well, gosh, we've run out
of time here. We've got anothershow coming up tomorrow six am to ten
am. We appreciate you listening toGuardline. I'm just going to end this

(02:31:11):
with talking a little bit about treesagain. Things that you may see.
I mentioned that if a tree hasblown over and you want to straighten it
back up, if it's a youngtree, let's say one to two years
old, you can do that.You just got to leave those stakes for
a very long time. You canuse the three sixty tree stabilizer. I
would get two of them and dothem at kind of an angle coming in,

(02:31:33):
so whether the tree blows toward itthe stakes away from the steaks left
or right, it's going to bestabilized. That would work. If it's
let's say five years plus. Forsure, you're not. It's just not
going to make it. When yousee a bunch of broken roots up in
the air now because the tree's blownover, you put it back down.

(02:31:54):
Number one, it takes an incredibleamount of support to hold a bigger tree
when the wind blow, and it'sjust not practically to do. It's going
to take those roots forever to reestablish and be strong enough to where it
doesn't just blow over again. Sodon't bother with it. I hate that
that happened to your tree. Puta new tree, get it out of
there, get it cleaned out,and put you win out. That's just

(02:32:16):
the bottom line. You're pruning offbranches on your storm damaged trees. You
want to go follow that branch backto where it attaches to the trunk,
and as it gets close to thetrunk, it flares out a little bit.
That's the base of the branch attachment. You want to cut it off
right outside that where, right wherethe branch shrinks down to about the size

(02:32:39):
it's going to be. Cut itoff right there. That way, you
don't leave a stub which will dieand prevent closure of the wound. Nor
do you cut it against the trunk, which creates a bigger wound. Because
this is flaring out. So thefarther in you go to cut it,
the more you're going to have alarger wound. So that'd be my best
advice. No need the truth itswounds. I need to trade him.

(02:33:01):
We'll be back tomorrow and talk somemore about tree damage. Then