WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.480 --> 00:00:05.120 Well, welcome to garden's success. Today, I'm going to be going over 2 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.400 fifty common gardening and landscaping mistakes that I see people make. You know, 3 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:15.880 in thirty five years as a county Extension horticulturist and a radio host, I've 4 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.280 kind of seen it all. We even driving down the road sometimes I'll see 5 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:23.920 a landscape and oh, I gotta go take a picture of that is that 6 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:26.920 is legendary. And there are a lot of common mistakes we make, and 7 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:31.719 I've made them myself. So this isn't just a you know, only some 8 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:35.920 people make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes from time to time. But the reason 9 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:41.799 I'm spending time today on fifty common mistakes is hopefully to help you avoid making 10 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.880 them. What do they say, I learn from the mistakes of others. 11 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:48.240 You don't have time to make them all yourself. Well, here we go 12 00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:54.280 learning from mistakes of others. One of the common mistakes number one lack of 13 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:59.920 preparing the soil before you plant. The most important thing you do and having 14 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:03.640 success in a vegetable garden, a flower bed, an herb garden, whatever 15 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:08.799 it is, is preparing the soil first. And by preparing the soil first, 16 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:12.959 I mean mixing some compost into the soil, doing a soil test ahead 17 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:17.439 of time, making sure everything is ready to go, so when you put 18 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:22.280 that plant in the ground, it's ready to go. By the time you 19 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:26.760 walk away from planting, you are well on your way to success or failure. 20 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:30.159 And preparing the soil is one of the key things. I'm going to 21 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:34.439 talk about some others in this list of fifty mistakes, but preparing the soil 22 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:37.680 is really critical. Spend a dollar on your soil before you spend a dollar 23 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:41.599 on your plant. That's another way to think about it. When you get 24 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:45.599 the soil right, plants literally hit the ground running. Plants live in their 25 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:49.120 roots. Yes, they need sunlight, but essentially the root system takes up 26 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:53.680 the water, it takes up the nutrients, and the soil determines whether it's 27 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:57.159 well drained or not, whether it can whole moisture well, whether it also 28 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:02.319 can hold nutrients well, and making sure you take care of that is important. 29 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:08.520 Along with that, preparing the site first is getting rid of perennial weeds. 30 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:13.280 If you've got nutsedge and bermuda grass growing in an area and you want 31 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.599 to have a flower bed or a vegetable garden or a herb garden. You 32 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:21.000 got to get rid of that stuff first. You have many more options and 33 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.719 can be much more effective by getting rid of the weeds before you plant. 34 00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:30.199 Once you've got rose bushes and flowers and tomato plants and other things growing in 35 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:34.639 a bed, the products you can use to get rid of those pernicious weeds 36 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.800 are very very limited, and even at that you can still do damage. 37 00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:44.159 It's much easier to destroy weeds before there are plants in the bed. That's 38 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.479 just as simple as that, So prepare the soul first. That's number one. 39 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:54.159 Number two planting and poorly drained areas without building raised beds. Here in 40 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:59.400 the Greater Southeast Texas area, it rains a lot from time to time. 41 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:01.400 We wish we had that rain this past summer, but I'll tell you, 42 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.840 when it rains, it pours. And with heavy clay soils being predominant in 43 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:10.159 much of the area as well, poor drainage is a common thing. Low 44 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:15.080 lying areas where the soil or the water would collect after a rain can sit 45 00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:20.120 there for days, and that water logging is really bad for plant roots. 46 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:24.879 There are not many plants that can live with submerged roots and The reason is 47 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:29.439 when they're underwater, they can't get oxygen, and believe it or not, 48 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:34.919 roots have to have oxygen. That's part of them respiring, if you want 49 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:38.520 to anthropomorphize it, it's them breathing. And when you don't allow them oxygen, 50 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:42.240 they're not going to make it. There are a few plants that adapted 51 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:46.080 ways, like cypress trees to grow on a swamp, but by and large, 52 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:50.479 it is very important to fix the drainage first. Either har somebody or 53 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.400 do it yourself to come in and put underground drainage in we call those French 54 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:58.800 drains, where the soil goes into a pipe underground and then is taken off 55 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:03.080 by gravity or by pump to another location. Or Number two, you can 56 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.919 also just make sure you have a raised bed. It's as simple as that. 57 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:10.879 Raise up the soil and things do well. We tell people when you 58 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:15.719 plant azalea's set the plant on the ground and then bring in a bed around 59 00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:18.600 it. And the concept is that that plant is sitting above the soil level 60 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:23.720 and the bed is above of course the soil level, and that works well. 61 00:04:23.959 --> 00:04:26.639 Makes a lot of sense, and boy will it ever save you some 62 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:32.399 big time woes. Number three of our common fifty common gardening and landscaping mistakes 63 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:40.879 is choosing poorly adapted, disease and pest resistant species and varieties. There may 64 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:43.639 be plants you're in love with, maybe you move from the Midwest and you 65 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:46.360 love the smell of lilacs. Well, as close as we can get to 66 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:49.519 a lilac here is you buy a crape myrtle and spray it with perfume. 67 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:53.959 That's about as close as we can get. But there are a lot of 68 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.759 examples of plants that don't belong here. They're not adapted. Maybe they're super 69 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.600 super own to disease and insect pests. You know. Let's take roses for 70 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:08.680 example. Roses are notorious for getting leaf spots and all kinds of other issues, 71 00:05:09.240 --> 00:05:12.160 and so a lot of people have said, I just don't have time 72 00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:15.240 to take care of roses. Well, we have roses that grow in cemeteries 73 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:19.399 where nobody is taking care of them. Those old time we call them antique 74 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:24.279 roses. They're a great example. We have modern roses that are also pest 75 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:29.000 resistant. By the way, about the cemetery, one of my mentors used 76 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:30.720 to say that if dead people can grow a plant, you can too, 77 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:35.439 And I think that if a plant is growing in a cemetery, that's a 78 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:40.360 good sign that you probably can bring it home and keep it alive. But 79 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:44.680 that would be an example of a disease and pest resistant plant. The same 80 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:48.240 is true as I said with species, but choose wisely no matter what you're 81 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:54.360 planting, from fruit trees to ornamental trees to perennials that you hope to make 82 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:58.920 it hasta. There's a good example. Or what's the other peonies? Peonies 83 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:04.079 are beautiful in the Midwest, and so with you know, with choosing things 84 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:08.560 that will grow here. Maybe it means you don't get that plant from home 85 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:11.560 that you get to keep enjoying, but at least it means you have a 86 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:16.519 beautiful, resilient landscape. Number four overwatering. I don't know what it is 87 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:20.360 about us, but we love to water water water. We overwater our house 88 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:25.839 plants, and again in the water log soil, especially a poorly drained container, 89 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:30.279 they die. They just I think more houseplants die from overwatering than underwatering. 90 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:32.920 When it comes out to outdoors. Yeah, we water too much and 91 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:36.920 we waste water. So forget about the drainage and the water log. Roots 92 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:41.519 just considering the fact that you're paying for that water, and when you buy 93 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:46.480 water, you also get a little higher septic or sewer bill. They sort 94 00:06:46.519 --> 00:06:50.360 of tie those together a lot of times. So wasting water just doesn't make 95 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:56.040 sense. And plants need enough water, but once they have enough, any 96 00:06:56.120 --> 00:07:00.160 extra is just wasted. And we overwater our lawns all the time. I 97 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:04.920 mean, lawns really often get over watered. People want to have the water 98 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:10.040 come on three times a week. All that does is that frequent wetting is 99 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:13.240 not a good idea. In fact, that leads us to number five, 100 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:17.319 which is shallow frequent watering. If you water with a little squirt on a 101 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:20.879 frequent basis, you're just keeping the plants wet and you're going to have more 102 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:26.519 disease problems, and as a result, you are creating an issue you shouldn't 103 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:30.439 have to have. It's better to have good deep soaking, to wet the 104 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:33.879 soil deeply when you water. And when you wet the soil deeply, the 105 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:38.439 roots can get water from down deep. It encourages deeper rooting. Then let 106 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:41.639 it dry out. Let it dry out. When it dries out, oxygen 107 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:46.040 comes back down into the soil as the water is displaced and you just have 108 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:48.879 a healthier root system. You can apply the same amount of water that you 109 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:54.040 would have, but in a good deep soaking rather than light frequent waterings. 110 00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:57.839 And that is a mistake that we often make. We're going to take a 111 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:01.399 little break. We'll be right back with some more of the fifty common gardening 112 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:05.360 and landscaping mistakes. Well, welcome back to garden's success today. I'm going 113 00:08:05.399 --> 00:08:11.720 over fifty common mistakes that people make when they're landscaping and gardening, and we 114 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:16.240 are now on miscape mistake number six, and that is putting plants where you 115 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:20.240 want them rather than where they want to be. I realize you want that 116 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:24.199 beautiful rose bush or that azalea bush in a certain spot where you can enjoy 117 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:30.240 it. But if you don't consider things like the sun exposure and the light 118 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:33.879 level, that aalea will fry in the blazing hot sun and the only rose 119 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.279 booms you may see will be at the flower shop. The same can be 120 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:41.759 said for soul drainage. We do have plants that can take it, and 121 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:46.360 when the weather or when the soil conditions are very swampy, wet, Louisiana 122 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:50.159 Iris does really well they're a button bush is a native shrub that does well 123 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:52.919 in those areas, So there are plants for that, but you just have 124 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.080 to consider where does the plant want to be when you come up with the 125 00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:01.759 location. We always are trying to plan things that aren't from here, that 126 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.480 don't grow here, that have issues when we put them in our spot. 127 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:09.080 But just with a little planting like that, it can be very, very 128 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:13.879 very attractive. And you always want to be careful when you're planting things. 129 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:20.639 If something says that it recedes profusely or that it's a vigorous grower, beware 130 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:26.240 that means it's taking over your house and you'll look like an abandoned Southeastern homestead 131 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:30.559 covered in kudzu by the end of the summer season. You do want to 132 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:33.120 watch out for certain things. Mexican petunia is just an example of one. 133 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:37.679 I mean it recedes, they wash down the sidewalk and come up there a 134 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:41.840 little over vigorous. There's a reason they don't sell Mexican petunia with a little 135 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:46.519 combo pack with a pint of roundup or something, although they probably need to 136 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:52.879 because it's that vigorous. Anyway, don't plant plants in the shade if they 137 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:54.879 like sun, or in the sun if they like shade. Number seven, 138 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:00.519 trying to grow a lawn in too much shade. Now, we want to 139 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:03.080 have trees and we want to have grass, and if you were to interview 140 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.559 the grass, it would say, get the trees away from me. I 141 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:07.840 need sunlight. If you were to interview the trees, let's say get the 142 00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:13.240 grass away from me. It's stealing water and nutrients and they don't get along. 143 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:16.320 And so what do we do when we want to have a beautiful yard 144 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.519 with shade trees. Well, we have to brighten the shade. We have 145 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:22.320 to either do some thinning out of the trees so that there allows a little 146 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:26.480 more light through. That's a very short term solution though, but at some 147 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:31.240 point it just gets too shady in your yard when that live oak tree gets 148 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:35.120 bigger and bigger. Certainly the magnolia trees are that way, but any good 149 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:37.399 dense shade tree. So when you have that, you got to go with 150 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:41.080 a turf like Saint Augustine. Maybe right behind it would be some of the 151 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:46.399 zoisias in terms of some shade tolerance. But if Saint Augustine doesn't want to 152 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:48.840 grow there, you don't need a lawn there. You need to have a 153 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:52.440 shade loving groundcover. You need to have a molted area with some shade loving 154 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:56.399 shrubs or something else. But as you push a line into the shade, 155 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:01.320 it gets weaker and weaker, and then you're forever trying to get it to 156 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:05.879 be dense, and it just can't overcome the fact that it doesn't have the 157 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:11.320 fuel that basically pushes all growth, and that's sunlight. Sunlight is the energy 158 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:16.320 that makes carbohydrates, that makes growth, that makes blooms, that make fruit. 159 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:18.679 No matter what it is, you put it in the shade if it 160 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:24.120 needs if it needs sunlight for fold for the blooms, then you can't do 161 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:30.240 that if the light levels aren't there. Number eight. Planting vegetables and flowers 162 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:33.519 at the wrong time. You may move from another area where you plant tomatoes 163 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:37.600 in May. We don't here. We plant tomatoes at the end of February 164 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.360 or in March. It depends on how much of a gambler you want to 165 00:11:41.399 --> 00:11:46.200 be. But our summer comes early, and our big fruited tomatoes don't set 166 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:50.279 fruit when the temperatures above nineties in the day and certainly the upper seventies at 167 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.039 night, which is about half the year here, and so what we have 168 00:11:54.120 --> 00:12:00.159 to do is we have to plant them very early and choose fast varieties in 169 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:03.320 order to be able to have a productive garden. Now, when it comes 170 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:07.759 to flowers, there are also flowers that like to grow in the cool season. 171 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:11.519 There are flowers that like to grow in the mild weather of spring and 172 00:12:11.559 --> 00:12:15.840 fall. There's a few that can take the hot summertime. But think about 173 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:18.320 your planting time on all those. You know, if you wait too long, 174 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:24.399 let's say September October and you're planting warm seasoned vegetables, still you're gonna 175 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:28.279 have a very short season on those. So think about the best time to 176 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:33.399 plant, follow schedules that are provided and you'll have more success. The next 177 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:37.240 one is number nine. That is not training trees when they are young. 178 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:45.879 It is. It is critical if you want a long term beautiful, strong 179 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:50.759 shade tree to direct its growth when it's young, just to allow it to 180 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.320 grow whatever direction it wants and have split trunks and other things are a problem. 181 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:58.679 In fact, split trunks are the worst. That's too competitive upright, 182 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:03.840 shs growing together, each wanting to be the boss. Take one or the 183 00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:07.200 other out. It doesn't matter which one you take out. If it's much 184 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:11.440 better to just make a decision and a pruning cut and leave yourself with one 185 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:16.399 trunk. Then to have them become competitive, that'll be a weak joined union 186 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:20.120 between the two that will split out in a storm down the line, and 187 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:22.279 you wish you'd trained it when it was young. There's a lot of other 188 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.279 types of training we do with crate myrtles, making sure you know if you 189 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:31.559 want a multi branched, a multi trunked crate myrtle. The trunk comes up 190 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:33.559 and then it forks into two, and then each one of those forks into 191 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:37.919 two at someplace, and building that whole structure when it's young is easy. 192 00:13:39.399 --> 00:13:46.000 Later on you're left with bringing out saws, and that leaves trees just flat 193 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:48.720 ugly, especially with crate myrtles. That is that is not a good pruning 194 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:52.799 practice. In fact, one way I like to put it is if you've 195 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:56.840 planted a tree and later on you're having to use a saw, you it's 196 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:00.759 an emission at guilt you didn't do something back when you should. It's much 197 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:03.720 easier to snip out a young shoot because you know it doesn't have a future 198 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.840 in that spot. Then to wait until you have to use a saw to 199 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:11.320 take it off. And another example of that would be a tree that's a 200 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.519 shade tree and you've got a branch, let's say it's a little above head 201 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.320 high, and you think, well, I'm going to leave that. Well 202 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:20.200 think about that when that branch gets big and starts to sag down, or 203 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:22.679 are you going to be able to walk and mow underneath it? You see 204 00:14:22.679 --> 00:14:26.320 what I'm talking about. Don't wait until then to make the cut. Do 205 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.679 it when it's pencil size or the size of a golf ball at the most, 206 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:35.120 and make that cut when it's young. Number ten is training shrubs and 207 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:39.440 trees Incorrectly, some people go out with pruners. It's kind of like what 208 00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:41.720 they say, why does a man climb a mountain because it's there? Why 209 00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:45.320 do you plant prune a tree because it's there? Well, that's not a 210 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.919 good reason. You need to know what you're doing. It is so easy 211 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:54.159 to find out online how to train a deciduous tree, or how to build 212 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:58.399 a hedge or any other kind of thing like that that you're doing starting off 213 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:03.559 when they're young, and you being educated on how to make the pruning cuts, 214 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:07.480 then you're going to be able to end up with a really good, 215 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:11.559 strong tree. The branches are spread out properly. There's good branch angles by 216 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:16.639 the way, although species vary. In general, we would like the branches 217 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:20.240 to come out from the trunk at about a forty five to sixty degree angle. 218 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:24.519 That creates an open tree. We don't have a bunch of upright growth. 219 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:28.480 Some species, like pairs, for example, they are just determined to 220 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:33.600 send every shoot straight up to the sky. But training them when they're young 221 00:15:33.799 --> 00:15:39.080 is very important because if you spend the first five years training a tree properly, 222 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.919 you will not have a lot more pruning to do, and by the 223 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:46.000 time you hit about fifteen years, there should be very little to none that 224 00:15:46.039 --> 00:15:50.279 you're having to do. Although at times in certain situations, yeah, we 225 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.399 do have to come back, but training saves you a lot of butchering later 226 00:15:54.480 --> 00:16:00.480 on number ten, excuse me, that was I said ten with training them 227 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:04.879 incorrectly. Number eleven Pruning flowering trees and shrubs at the wrong time. If 228 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:11.440 something blooms in the summer or fall, it's because it produced those bloom buds 229 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:15.559 that year, and so later in the year, being the summer, they 230 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.279 start to bloom that would be like vitex or chase tree is a good example 231 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:22.799 of that. If it blooms in the spring, like a dog wood or 232 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:29.399 a red bud tree, or a spy rea bridles wreath or a flowering quint 233 00:16:29.559 --> 00:16:33.320 or any of those once blooming roses like lady banks, it blooms in the 234 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:37.480 spring but never blooms again. You prune those after they bloom, because if 235 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:38.799 you prune them in the winter, when we do most of our pruning, 236 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:42.559 you're cutting away all the bloom buds, so that spring season you're about to 237 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:47.919 enjoy will be less enjoyable. So if it blooms in the spring, it 238 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:52.200 sets its buds in late summer and fall, don't prune after I would say 239 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:56.279 midsummer, and because you want to have time for branches to grow and do 240 00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:59.840 that. And if it blooms in the summertime, then you can prune it. 241 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:03.639 Be An oleander's another example of a summer bloomer that you can cut it 242 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:07.000 back in the winter and it's still going to bloom in that summertime. Another 243 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.359 one is bad pruning cuts. Bad pruning cuts means you leave a stub that 244 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:17.039 dies and now the branch can't close that wound over or you cut so close 245 00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:21.640 to where the branch is attached that instead of a small wound, you've now 246 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:23.920 got a giant wound. I mean picture as the branch comes out from the 247 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:27.160 trunk. It's kind of a cone shaped and it hits a point where it's 248 00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:30.200 kind of the normal branch size. That's where you need to cut it off. 249 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:34.319 Don't leave a stub. Cut it off at the proper place. There's 250 00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:38.160 a lot of information online on how to do that, and also on how 251 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:42.400 to make a three point cut. I'm going to leave that one for you 252 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.759 to go hunt down. But a three point cut for any limb too big 253 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:51.039 for you to hold with one hand is very important. It avoids stripping away 254 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:55.519 material on the tree. Well, I think that we are going to take 255 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:59.960 a little break again and I'll be back continuing with fifty common gardening and land 256 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:06.880 landscaping mistakes. Welcome back to garden Line. I am going through fifty common 257 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:11.319 mistakes that people make when gardening and landscaping in hopes that if I can save 258 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:15.240 you even one or two of these, it will save you a lot of 259 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:18.680 pain and in many cases a lot of expense too, having to replace plants, 260 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:25.160 but we're now on number thirteen, and that is miss using weed killers. 261 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:30.039 Weed Killers are labeled for a reason. The label tells you what you 262 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.039 can use it on and what you can't use it on. The label tells 263 00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:37.160 you how much to apply, how to apply it, and when to apply 264 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:41.839 it, and when you ignore the label. I know that you know you 265 00:18:41.880 --> 00:18:47.640 are the uh specialist at all things lawn, but trust me, you can't 266 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:49.720 just ignore the label when things get hot. Our broad leaved weed killers that 267 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:55.160 work so well in lawns, they'll flat really hurt your Saint Augustine gress cause 268 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:59.119 it major problems. But that happens when we apply them at the right time 269 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:04.400 or at the at the wrong rate. Rather so, for example, if 270 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:10.119 a teaspoon is good, a tablespoon is not better a tablespoon of When you 271 00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:15.519 double or triple up on a broad leaf pre emergent or a grassy pre emergent 272 00:19:15.559 --> 00:19:21.039 weed killer, you can literally cause the grass roots to be stunted and those 273 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:25.359 runners not to peg their roots down into the ground because you misapplied the weed 274 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:30.200 killer. When you apply a broad leaf post emergent weed killer to kill weeds 275 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.359 in your lawn, and it's above eighty five, maybe ninety degrees. Some 276 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:37.759 will go above ninety, most won't. You will hurt your lawn. So 277 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:41.680 the rate and the timing are very important. If you don't put a pre 278 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:45.559 emergent down before the weeds are up, well, it's kind of too late. 279 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:48.640 It's like swinging in a baseball when the catcher's already holding on to it. 280 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:51.960 You missed your chiant, your chance. So do these at the right 281 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:53.640 time. By the way, if you go online to gardening with skip dot 282 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:57.839 com, I've got my pest disease and weed management schedule on there that will 283 00:19:57.880 --> 00:20:03.400 help you with a proper timing for cool season weeds and warm season weeds number 284 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:08.880 fourteen. And this is similar using a weed and feed combination in late winter 285 00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:11.599 and early spring. Now that is when we come out of the winter, 286 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:15.119 and I know there's a lot of weed and feeds on the market. They 287 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:19.000 can do their job. But here's the problem. We're putting a weed control 288 00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:25.720 pre emergent down typically about mid February in most of the listening area here. 289 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:30.880 You may go into early March as you go further north up Conroe and a 290 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:36.480 little further, but basically it's mid February when do we fertilize ideally, well, 291 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:40.440 ideally we'd like to fertilize when we've mowed the lawn twice, and that's 292 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:42.960 going to come later on. And if you look at my lawn care schedule, 293 00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:48.440 that main initial spring fertilizer application is based on that. We do have 294 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:52.519 an earlier one for quick greenup, but that is just for folks that just 295 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:57.319 demand getting an early greenup. The standard time to begin is going to be 296 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:02.839 when you've mowed the lawn about twice. The schedule reflects that. So when 297 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:06.279 you are fertilizing with a weed and feed, do you put it on in 298 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:10.480 February or do you put it on in late March or April whenever that would 299 00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:14.119 be. It's hard to find the right time with that combo. In the 300 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:17.759 fall, those times line up a little bit better. When we're doing off 301 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:21.920 fall fertilization is when we're doing off our fall pre emergent weed control, so 302 00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:25.599 that works a little bit better. I would rather that, even if you 303 00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:29.079 had a product that works, I would rather you pick a good quality fertilizer 304 00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:33.039 and then pick a weed control product that matches the weed problems you have, 305 00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:37.680 and let's put them on separately. In that spring season. That's a better 306 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:44.519 way to go. Number fifteen Planting invasive plants. I already joked about Mexican 307 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:48.119 petunia taking over the world. We have other plants to take over the world. 308 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:52.319 Mint wonderful herb takes over the world. I mean, if you don't 309 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:56.640 confine the roots, you got a problem. We have many plants that are 310 00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:00.799 like that. It just continue to spread. Then we have plants that in 311 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:06.119 nature, they tend to spread and be invasive. For example, Chinese tallow. 312 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:10.000 Years ago, somebody planted Chinese tallow down here. It's one of the 313 00:22:10.039 --> 00:22:12.480 best plants in the world for fall color, but it's just not a good 314 00:22:12.519 --> 00:22:21.319 one to use because it absolutely we'll recede and take over entire pastures with the 315 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:25.240 seeds from Chinese tallow. Some of the viburnums are the same way. They 316 00:22:25.279 --> 00:22:29.319 create the little purple berries that birds eat. And now everywhere in the woods 317 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:33.359 birds land, we got wild or burnham taking over as an invasive plant. 318 00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:37.200 So avoid those, just avoid them. Now, there's degrees of invasiveness, 319 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:41.960 and there's some plants that have the potential to be invasive but in our area 320 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:45.039 aren't so bad. But in general, avoid invasive plants. They're just a 321 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:49.279 problem. Nature has enough invasive plants of its own. If you've ever had 322 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:52.960 an elm tree around, you get to pull the little elm seedlings out of 323 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:59.519 the flower bed all the time because they love to recede. Number sixteen harvesting 324 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:03.920 vegetable too late. A quality green bean is a young green bean before the 325 00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:07.519 seeds are swollen up and you got strings on the pods where you know, 326 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:12.000 some of you grew up having to snap and string green bean pods. When 327 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.519 you let those go too late, they lose their quality. The taste isn't 328 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:22.680 good. They're stringy, almost woody textured, and it's just it's just terrible. 329 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:29.160 Don't do that. Some vegetables don't have a certain time when they ripen. 330 00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:30.759 You know, tomato has a time when it ripens, but like a 331 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:34.000 squash or a cucumber, the minute the bloom falls off, you could eat 332 00:23:34.039 --> 00:23:37.359 the thing. You wouldn't want to eat it at that stage. But it 333 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:41.079 doesn't have to ripe and it's ready to go. We're just waiting on them 334 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:44.279 to get the right size and then pick them before they get too old, 335 00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:48.759 because then the skin gets tough, the seeds inside start to become woody, 336 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.039 and so timing is very important. And I don't have enough time to go 337 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:56.359 over every single vegetable you might plant. But just keep that in mind. 338 00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:02.599 Don't wait too late to harvest is better than later, unless you're having to 339 00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:10.720 wait on something to actually ripen. Number seventeen planting too large of a garden, 340 00:24:11.799 --> 00:24:14.160 too much of a good thing. How much is enough? Well, 341 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:18.680 probably less than you think. New gardeners are notorious for planning a big garden. 342 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.279 You know, you get the garden fever, and this year you're going 343 00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:26.400 to be planning a vegetable garden and you end up creating this giant garden that 344 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:30.000 by June you're a wishing you hadn't because the crabgrass is coming in. You 345 00:24:30.039 --> 00:24:33.039 know, every square foot you choose to plant is a square foot you get 346 00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:37.400 to pull weeds on and water and fertilize and do all the other things we 347 00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:44.440 do mulch. So just have a nice sized garden that you can handle and 348 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.720 grow into it. That would be my recommendations. Turf is an example of 349 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:51.680 that. You know, just because you own property doesn't mean you have to 350 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:55.119 turf it from border to border. Those are areas that have to be watered 351 00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:57.759 and fertilized in mode, why not go easier care on some of it and 352 00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:02.759 put the turf where to most enjoy it, where the family gathers or you 353 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:07.519 know, everybody is different, so what suits you just don't plant turf because 354 00:25:07.519 --> 00:25:14.839 you own property. Another example would be the lost my train of thought here, 355 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:18.240 Oh, the bedding plants. Bedding plant annuals have to be changed out 356 00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:22.240 through the year. So if you have these giant beds and let's say they're 357 00:25:22.279 --> 00:25:27.799 full of violas and pansies in the winter time, and then comes summer and 358 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:32.480 you're filling them with petunias, and then it gets too hot for the petunias, 359 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:37.640 and now you're putting out summer plants like angelonia and vinc ar, madagascar 360 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:41.880 periwinkle. Each of those is time when you're buying plants, you're planting, 361 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:47.559 you're cleaning it out, you're adding some compos and you do those plant color 362 00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:51.400 changes several times a year, and that adds up in terms of cost and 363 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:56.440 in labor. So color is a good thing. But just remember that when 364 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:00.559 we're planting, consider the size. Don't go larger than you need to go, 365 00:26:00.759 --> 00:26:07.799 especially early on number eighteen. Planting too densely. That means not thinning. 366 00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:14.440 When when we plant carrots, or when we plant beets and radishes, 367 00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:18.200 for example, in the vegetable garden, and we don't thin them out, 368 00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:22.519 we have lots of tops with no roots. You'll have these big green carrot 369 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:26.440 tops and you'll think, man, I've got a carrot patch. And you 370 00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:29.799 pull them up and the roots aren't even the size of a pencil. That's 371 00:26:29.839 --> 00:26:33.000 because they're crowded. And so if you do plant, if they come up 372 00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:37.759 to dense from your planting, thin them out. Take some scissors and clip 373 00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:41.599 them off right there at the ground. And for root crops, about the 374 00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:48.079 width of that root at maturity maybe fifty percent bigger than that or wider than 375 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:49.519 that is where you want to plant. So, for example, if you're 376 00:26:49.559 --> 00:26:52.200 going to plant a beat and it's going to have roots, oh, I 377 00:26:52.200 --> 00:26:56.119 don't know to say three inches in diameter. When you harvest it, put 378 00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:00.160 them about four inches apart, or thin them to about four inches apart the 379 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:02.839 same way with a one inch carrot, then make them about an inch and 380 00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:06.720 a half apart. That way you have a chance of getting a really good 381 00:27:06.759 --> 00:27:10.559 stand. When it comes to flowers, a similar thing is true. They 382 00:27:10.599 --> 00:27:14.680 tend to compete with each other when we plant too densely, and so just 383 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.960 consider the space another thing that happens with density, And this would be like 384 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:22.960 even things like rose bushes. You've got this little bed and you want five 385 00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:26.680 kind of roses, but it's a ten foot bed, and that's too crowded 386 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.279 for a rose bush, and you end up with more black spot, more 387 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:36.200 powdery mildew, which are diseases promoted by poor air circulation and moist conditions. 388 00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:42.240 So make sure and give things room to grow. Finally, failing to malch 389 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:47.799 your flour and your vegetable beds, that is a big one. When you 390 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:52.039 fail to malt you are sentencing yourself to weed pulling or hoeing. So when 391 00:27:52.119 --> 00:27:56.599 you plant, just throw the moltch down two or three inches deep. Do 392 00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:00.640 not let sunlight hit the soil in your vegetable garden. Don't let it hit 393 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:04.119 the soil in your flower garden either, And by doing that you save yourself 394 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:08.240 a lot of weeding problems. Now, things like nutsedge and bermuda grass are 395 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:12.039 going to come crawling through any mulch or pushing up through any mulch in the 396 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:17.039 case of nutsedge, But there's no need for that to be the case. 397 00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:22.000 You can multch and avoid a lot of the annual weed seeds that you have. 398 00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:26.400 Keep that mulch going, it will thin out over time, so just 399 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:30.359 add fresh mulch to the surface and keep them covered. The only exception to 400 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:33.200 that is in early spring, if you're trying to get a tomato growing, 401 00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:37.359 I will leave the soil bear to warm the soil faster, knowing that I'm 402 00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:40.000 going to have a few weeds to deal with when it's time to pull the 403 00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:45.160 mulch back over the plants and around the beds. That would be the tips 404 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:48.000 as far as mulching and whatnot. And we're going to take a little break 405 00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:52.400 here we will come back to more of our fifty common gardening and landscaping miscap 406 00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:59.799 mistakes. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, 407 00:29:00.039 --> 00:29:04.880 and we are going through fifty common gardening and landscaping escaping mistakes today. By 408 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:08.359 the way, if you missed some of them, or if you have a 409 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:11.680 neighbor that you think would really like to hear this show, have them go 410 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:17.480 online and check out our podcast. You can do your whatever your podcast supplier 411 00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:21.160 is. Maybe you have iHeartRadio. Maybe you have a different kind of podcasts. 412 00:29:21.160 --> 00:29:25.680 Search for Garden Line and find this show, and it is all about 413 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:34.240 fifty common garden and landscape Landscape mistakes number twenty not controlling garden weeds early. 414 00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:38.000 When weeds are young, you can throw mulch on them and it kills them. 415 00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:41.079 I mean when they're a little bitty you know, one inch or two 416 00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:45.400 inch little plants coming up. If you most deeply, that will kill them, 417 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:49.240 and not just prevent weed, but kill young weeds. I use newspaper. 418 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:52.000 Not a lot of people, you know, take and have piles of 419 00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:56.880 newspaper around these days. But any kind of a paper cover over the soil 420 00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:00.119 where mulch is thrown on top, that will give you pretty much two or 421 00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:06.000 three months, if not sometimes four months of good weed control in that bed. 422 00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:08.880 So that works early. But once a weed is established, now we 423 00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:14.680 got a problem. It is competing already with water and nutrients. It's probably 424 00:30:14.759 --> 00:30:18.599 starting to shade out your desirable plants around it. Another thing is to get 425 00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:22.039 it out of there. If you pull it up, you may disturb the 426 00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:26.599 root system of the vegetable or flour that it was growing in, or the 427 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.200 herb garden that it was growing in, so trying to hoe it and cut 428 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:36.039 it out when it's young. It is so easy to take a hoe and 429 00:30:36.200 --> 00:30:38.960 just lightly scrape unto the soil and get rid of weeds. There's no work 430 00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:42.799 essentially at all to it. Basically, what you're doing is just slicing under 431 00:30:42.799 --> 00:30:48.839 the soil and disturbing that little tender seedling's root system, and it's easy once 432 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:55.400 it becomes a established weed. An established weed, now you've got a little 433 00:30:55.440 --> 00:30:59.400 battle on your hands. Those are harder to cut out with a hoe. 434 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:03.880 They're tough for two more difficult, and again trying to extract them when they're 435 00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:08.440 growing around your garden plants without damaging your plants is much more difficult. Don't 436 00:31:08.440 --> 00:31:14.480 delay. Either prevent the weeds before they start or deal with them when they're 437 00:31:14.519 --> 00:31:18.000 young. It's real easy to do. And there are special gardening hose that 438 00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:21.519 aren't the kind you grew up with that are more for moving soil around. 439 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:25.839 But they're very thin bladed. Some of them have sharp sides on all four 440 00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:27.799 a diamond shape, sharp sides on all four. Those are really good the 441 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:33.319 diamond hoe and instead of chopping stooping and chopping like you picture hoeing. Instead 442 00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:37.279 of that you're standing up. It's almost like you're sweeping or you're playing shuffle 443 00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:41.720 board or something like that. It's just a very upright slice just under the 444 00:31:41.799 --> 00:31:45.279 surface, disturb the soil as little as you can, and boy, that 445 00:31:45.319 --> 00:31:52.960 makes hoing really easy. Number twenty one Purchasing infested, diseased and stunted plants. 446 00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:56.640 I have been in garden centers before where I pulled a little plant out 447 00:31:56.640 --> 00:31:59.119 of the pot to check the roots, and there were nematodes on it. 448 00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:02.440 When you bring that home, you now have nematodes. Period. You're never 449 00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:07.160 going to get rid of all of them, and you could have avoided it 450 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.200 by the sanitary measure of just not bringing the problem in. If it's a 451 00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:15.480 disease, certain diseases can become quite persistent. There are some diseases of our 452 00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:20.119 coal crops in the winter, like broccoli and cabbage and cauliflower. There's one 453 00:32:20.200 --> 00:32:22.559 called black rot, and if it comes in with the plant, which it 454 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:27.440 can, it is difficult to get rid of. Next year you plant these 455 00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:30.640 crops and the black rot comes back from the residue that's left in the garden. 456 00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:35.240 So avoid bringing that in. If a plant is stunted. Like you 457 00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:39.000 go to buy a little vegetable plant like a tomato or something. It's kind 458 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:42.519 of purple colored, by the way, and a good, good mom and 459 00:32:42.519 --> 00:32:45.279 pop nursery, you're not going to have those kind of plants. But some 460 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:47.519 places that will go unnamed. I don't know why, but they're going named 461 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:52.079 for right now. They will leave plants out, they forget to water them, 462 00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:54.440 they get stunted. You get a purplish color to the leaves. Don't 463 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:59.039 bring that home. A cauliflower that's been stunted like that, just a good 464 00:32:59.039 --> 00:33:02.720 example. It will make a good cauliflower head. You'll get cauliflower if you 465 00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:07.519 like cauliflower the size of golf ball, but you won't get what you're looking 466 00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:10.279 for. Purchase healthy plants, get them in the ground, have them hit 467 00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:15.079 the ground, running watermen with a good quality fertilizer, and get going and 468 00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:20.839 you'll have much more success. Number twenty two Choosing bedding plants with the most 469 00:33:20.920 --> 00:33:22.839 or largest blooms. I know, I know, I know. This little 470 00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:25.799 plant than a six pack or a four inch pot, and it's got you 471 00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:29.519 wanted to have a bloom the size of your steering wheel on it. That's 472 00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:32.200 red right, don't do it. If you have a plant right next to 473 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:37.359 that that isn't supporting this heavy crop of blooms trying to you know, maintain 474 00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:42.480 and set and then develop those blooms. It will hit the ground running and 475 00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:45.759 you will get blooms and you have a stronger, better plant, which will 476 00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:52.079 end up being much more floriferous. That's a nice term, much more floriferous 477 00:33:52.119 --> 00:33:55.400 for you. So I know it's tempting. I do the same thing myself, 478 00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:59.880 but I keep reminding myself, Nope, I want the strongest plant. 479 00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:02.160 That's when I want to bring home because in the long run, I'm going 480 00:34:02.200 --> 00:34:07.119 to have the best crop of vegetables or blooms or whatever I'm going after. 481 00:34:07.360 --> 00:34:13.840 Number twenty three Planting seeds at the improper depth. Some seeds very few, 482 00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:19.079 but some are planted on the surface because they need the red rays of light 483 00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:23.840 from the sun in order to help them germinate and establish. Things like carrots 484 00:34:23.960 --> 00:34:29.719 would be that way. Lettuce isn't a good example. If you bury a 485 00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:32.039 lettuce seed a half inch into the soil, you're not going to have lettuce. 486 00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:36.800 It needs that surface and you got to keep it moist up there. 487 00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:40.360 Most seed are planted underground and they're planted. If you don't know how deep 488 00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:44.920 to plant a seed, look at how wide it is and plant it about 489 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.639 three or four times that deep. Okay, So if something is let's say 490 00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:52.199 a pento beean, that's when everybody knows what it looks like. You're going 491 00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:54.119 to plant something like that about an inch inch and a half deep in the 492 00:34:54.159 --> 00:34:59.599 soil as an ideal planting depth for that. And if it were a little 493 00:34:59.639 --> 00:35:04.320 tiny seed like a broccoli seed, which is third the size of a bebe, 494 00:35:04.639 --> 00:35:07.239 we're barely going to cover it with soil at all. Those seeds have 495 00:35:07.320 --> 00:35:12.360 their stored energy that helps them to sprout, grow a root, and get 496 00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:17.519 established so that it can collect sunlight and produce its own food. But if 497 00:35:17.559 --> 00:35:22.199 it has to burn its energy trying to find the surface of the soil, 498 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:25.519 you're just not going to have good establishment of seeds. So let's plant them 499 00:35:25.519 --> 00:35:29.559 at the right depth. That's important, and there's a lot more to seed 500 00:35:29.559 --> 00:35:32.159 planting, but that in and of itself is important. I had a bunch 501 00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:35.960 of people plant some seeds for me one time in a garden. We were 502 00:35:35.960 --> 00:35:39.320 doing a trial, and I gave seeds to each different person without thinking about 503 00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:43.119 this. They don't all plant the same way. And we had some plots 504 00:35:43.199 --> 00:35:45.199 that came up really well when they were planted at the right depth. The 505 00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:49.519 others I kept looking going why aren't they coming up? And I dug down 506 00:35:49.599 --> 00:35:53.039 and it's because they were planted too deep. They never saw the light a 507 00:35:53.119 --> 00:35:58.320 day. So plant them at the right depth. Number twenty four inadequate lighting 508 00:35:58.360 --> 00:36:01.519 when starting seeds indoors. I'm going to talk a lot about this and probably 509 00:36:01.559 --> 00:36:07.480 put a publication on gardening with skip dot com this winter when we get past 510 00:36:07.599 --> 00:36:10.360 the New Year's people are starting their seeds indoors, but I want to put 511 00:36:10.360 --> 00:36:15.920 more information up there. But just know this lighting is critical and indoors there 512 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:22.679 is almost never enough light to start seeds. You may have a very unique 513 00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:27.639 bright area, sunroom or something like that, but they need light otherwise they 514 00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:31.800 become spinlely seedlings, They stretch, and they will never establish quality plants. 515 00:36:31.800 --> 00:36:36.400 They'll break off when you plant them out in the sun. It just make 516 00:36:36.440 --> 00:36:39.599 sure you have really good lighting. And again what good lighting is I'll have 517 00:36:39.639 --> 00:36:44.920 to go and elaborate on later, but that is very if you do nothing 518 00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:49.159 else right on starting seeds, make sure that you've got a good quality light 519 00:36:49.239 --> 00:36:52.800 right down on the seeds. And let me say a little bit about that. 520 00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:57.159 When I say good quality light, I'm talking about a light that has 521 00:36:57.199 --> 00:37:00.559 a lot of the red and blue spectrum of all all the rainbow colors that 522 00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:07.519 when you refract white light into the red in the blue is the most important 523 00:37:07.559 --> 00:37:12.840 for seeds. The blue is primarily vegetative growth supporting. Now I'm not saying 524 00:37:12.880 --> 00:37:16.039 you put plants under just a blue light, but that's what the blue wavelengths 525 00:37:16.039 --> 00:37:22.320 support. The red wavelengths are most helpful when it comes to some types of 526 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:27.719 seed germinating like lettus. I mention that, but also in producing blooms and 527 00:37:27.880 --> 00:37:30.800 fruit the red wavelengths. So if you want to grow a tomato indoors and 528 00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:36.000 have tomatoes, you need some good red wavelength in there. Usually we aim 529 00:37:36.079 --> 00:37:39.639 for lights that are in a red and blue primarily that range of wavelength. 530 00:37:39.960 --> 00:37:45.400 There's a lot of great led lighting systems out there. They're very inexpensive to 531 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:47.960 operate, they don't produce a lot of heat, and which is good, 532 00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:54.079 and they will just create really good strong seedlings for you. Number twenty five 533 00:37:54.280 --> 00:38:01.000 Planting trees and shrubs too deeply dig a hole. They dig it too deep. 534 00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:05.880 And so maybe you pull this container of tree or shrub soil out of 535 00:38:05.880 --> 00:38:07.239 the pot and you've got about oh, I'm just going to make up a 536 00:38:07.320 --> 00:38:12.000 number like eight or ten inches, and you dig a hole fourteen or sixteen 537 00:38:12.039 --> 00:38:15.960 inches deep and you feel soiled back in. So that the plant sits at 538 00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:17.920 the right depth, that soil will settle and the plant will end up at 539 00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:22.280 too deep of the depth. Dig it as deep as the root system. 540 00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:24.840 And when I say that, when you pull it out, find the topmost 541 00:38:24.920 --> 00:38:30.079 root on the plant, that is the top of the root system, even 542 00:38:30.119 --> 00:38:34.199 if it pulls soil away and planet that depth. That is important. The 543 00:38:34.239 --> 00:38:38.559 topmost root should go right at the soil line. Just think of it that 544 00:38:38.599 --> 00:38:42.800 way, topmost root at the soil line. Don't dig the hole too deep. 545 00:38:42.840 --> 00:38:45.360 You can dig it wider, but not too deep. I see a 546 00:38:45.400 --> 00:38:49.639 lot of people make that mistake. Very important to do that. Well, 547 00:38:49.639 --> 00:38:52.079 we're going to wrap it up here again and come back. But you're listening 548 00:38:52.079 --> 00:38:57.840 to the fifty most common landscape and gardening mistakes steaks that people make. When 549 00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:05.880 we come back, we'll talk about number twenty six. Welcome back, to 550 00:39:05.960 --> 00:39:08.800 Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are walking through 551 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:15.639 fifty common gardening and landscaping mistakes that people make today. My hope is that, 552 00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:19.480 as they say, learn from the mistakes of others, you don't have 553 00:39:19.519 --> 00:39:22.840 time to make them all yourself. So here is your little tidbit of advice 554 00:39:22.960 --> 00:39:29.800 on avoiding things that not only create disappointment but also can be expensive when you're 555 00:39:29.800 --> 00:39:34.599 having to replace a plant because of some of these mistakes. Number twenty six 556 00:39:34.719 --> 00:39:38.039 is where we are now, and that is planting trees and shrubs without checking 557 00:39:38.559 --> 00:39:44.360 for and cutting circling roots. So here's what happens. You grow a tree 558 00:39:44.559 --> 00:39:46.360 in a container. Had that tree grown in the ground, the roots would 559 00:39:46.400 --> 00:39:51.320 have reached way out in all directions beyond the branch bread of that tree. 560 00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:54.480 But now it's in a container instead, And so where do the roots go. 561 00:39:54.719 --> 00:39:59.199 They hit the side and they go around and around and around. Well, 562 00:39:59.559 --> 00:40:01.960 okay, we can grow plants that way, but it takes a lot 563 00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:07.760 of TLC to keep those small, little confined root system roots happy. But 564 00:40:07.920 --> 00:40:10.280 instead, what we want to do is we want to cut those circling roots 565 00:40:10.280 --> 00:40:13.360 at planting. And I know you're thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm 566 00:40:13.360 --> 00:40:15.159 going to kill my tree. Well, no you're not, especially when you 567 00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:21.159 plant in the fall and the winter in the spring season that you want to 568 00:40:21.199 --> 00:40:23.960 cut those roots because when you cut them, they will branch out and form 569 00:40:24.119 --> 00:40:28.639 fresh new roots. I did a little test on this one time at a 570 00:40:28.679 --> 00:40:31.119 garden center where we pull some trees out, saw roots going around. We 571 00:40:31.199 --> 00:40:36.440 just cut them with a little handsnut with pruning snaps. You can also use 572 00:40:36.599 --> 00:40:39.760 a one of those box cutter knives that has a little one inch blade. 573 00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:45.599 Just slice vertically from top to bottom through that root cylinder in three or four 574 00:40:45.639 --> 00:40:47.559 places around the cylinder. If it's a bigger roots, you got to use 575 00:40:47.559 --> 00:40:52.000 handprinters to do it. We put them back in the container, came back 576 00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:54.440 two weeks later, pull them up and there were fresh white roots about two 577 00:40:54.440 --> 00:41:00.000 inches long already growing out of those cut surfaces. So why cut them? 578 00:41:00.199 --> 00:41:04.840 Well, that's one reason it establishes better. But another reason is if that 579 00:41:05.079 --> 00:41:07.840 container, let's say it's a one gallon or two gallon container, and a 580 00:41:07.960 --> 00:41:12.079 root's going around the outside of it, maybe it's the size of a spaghetti 581 00:41:12.199 --> 00:41:15.599 right now. Once it gets planted over the next eight to ten years, 582 00:41:15.639 --> 00:41:19.639 that root's going to get bigger and bigger, and the trunk's going to get 583 00:41:19.679 --> 00:41:22.760 bigger and bigger, and next thing you know, that root is embedded in 584 00:41:22.840 --> 00:41:27.960 the trunk, strangling the tree. It's like an anaconda, you know, 585 00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:31.119 wrapping around something to strangle it to death. And there's no fixing that. 586 00:41:31.239 --> 00:41:34.400 I mean, you can go in there with a hammer and chisel and try 587 00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:37.239 to take the root out, but by the time you see the problems above 588 00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:40.760 ground in terms of the way the plant's growing, it's a little too late. 589 00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:46.119 That could so easily be fixed at planting time by cutting any circling roots. 590 00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:51.400 Don't be afraid to do it. Number twenty seven planting a large plant 591 00:41:51.519 --> 00:41:55.000 under a window. I guess another way to put this is failing to consider 592 00:41:55.039 --> 00:42:00.719 the ultimate size of a tree or a shrub plants grow up right. Failing 593 00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:04.719 to consider that that little thin whip of a tree you put out there in 594 00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:07.920 the yard, it just looks like, oh, it's lost way out there. 595 00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:12.079 Well, someday that's going to be a forty foot wide and tall tree 596 00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:16.320 reach across the whole property maybe, And you got to consider that size and 597 00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:21.199 plant it away from power lines. You know, the power companies are so 598 00:42:21.320 --> 00:42:23.119 nice, so prune trees for you for free. You will not like what 599 00:42:23.159 --> 00:42:28.599 they do to them though. Their planning practices is how do we prune this 600 00:42:28.639 --> 00:42:30.679 tree enough to not have to be back next year, in fact for a 601 00:42:30.719 --> 00:42:34.960 long time, to keep it out of the power lines so people don't lose 602 00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:37.320 their power in a storm. Well, you don't want that, so just 603 00:42:37.559 --> 00:42:40.840 consider that. Consider the eaves of your house and the shingles on the roof 604 00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:45.599 of your house. You can't put a big, giant tree right there unless 605 00:42:45.639 --> 00:42:49.760 you're really careful in training and pruning it. In the meantime, that little 606 00:42:49.760 --> 00:42:52.480 compact shrub may be taller than the eaves of your house in a few years. 607 00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:55.679 I grew up in a house where we had red tip fatinias, and 608 00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:01.000 let's see, there was a a nandina and what was the other There was 609 00:43:01.320 --> 00:43:06.119 a beautiful summer blooming shrub escapes me now, but I remember years later going 610 00:43:06.159 --> 00:43:08.079 back and they were all above the eaves of the house. They were literally 611 00:43:08.159 --> 00:43:13.920 rubbing into the eaves. Now we have dar varieties that stay much smaller, 612 00:43:14.519 --> 00:43:17.960 and you would rather have those because you don't want to have to shear your 613 00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:23.199 way into keeping a big shrub a genetically large species small I mean otherwise that 614 00:43:23.320 --> 00:43:28.480 gives you the opportunity to get more practice at cheering than an Australian sheep rancher. 615 00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:34.280 Another common practice is to putent is to plant things too close to a 616 00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:37.199 sidewalk. That's another common one. You know, these little two shrubs on 617 00:43:37.239 --> 00:43:40.239 each side of the sidewalk look so far apart, and by the time they 618 00:43:40.320 --> 00:43:44.960 get half their mature size. People that visit you, the mom and dad 619 00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:47.480 are grabbing the kids by the hand and they're getting a running start to try 620 00:43:47.480 --> 00:43:51.920 to bust through the gauntlet to get to your front door because the shrubs are 621 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:57.320 encroaching on both sides. So other than adding byop to your party invitations, 622 00:43:57.639 --> 00:44:04.039 bring your own printer. Consider the mature with and half of that number is 623 00:44:04.079 --> 00:44:08.599 the absolute closest that you want to plant it to a walkway. So consider 624 00:44:08.679 --> 00:44:12.400 that there's a lot of versions of this. I've given you a few. 625 00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:17.800 Crowding plants together creates problems also, so just keep that in mind. Especially 626 00:44:17.800 --> 00:44:22.760 for evergreens, they only have foliage with their sunlight and when they grow together, 627 00:44:23.239 --> 00:44:25.679 and then you try to prune them to keep them off the sidewalk. 628 00:44:25.760 --> 00:44:30.920 Now you've got bare exposed interior, dead or bare branches, and they're not 629 00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:36.559 going to get good leaves on them again as a result. Another one I 630 00:44:36.639 --> 00:44:39.480 mentioned that was planning under a window. I said number twenty eight was planning 631 00:44:39.480 --> 00:44:45.320 them too close to your home or the sidewalk or power lines. So pick 632 00:44:45.400 --> 00:44:47.599 shrubs that get the size you want, or if you have a real low 633 00:44:47.639 --> 00:44:52.199 window, maybe you don't even need a shrub. Maybe it's an ornamental grass 634 00:44:52.239 --> 00:44:54.400 that's short, or maybe it's some perennial plants that are that are more compact. 635 00:44:55.039 --> 00:45:02.239 Twenty nine. Planting fast growing trash trees. Trees that grow fast typically 636 00:45:02.280 --> 00:45:07.599 die young. If it grows really fast, if it has awesome fall color, 637 00:45:07.840 --> 00:45:10.800 you probably don't want to plant. Those are both signs of species that 638 00:45:10.880 --> 00:45:15.519 tend to not do super well here. And a trash tree would be like 639 00:45:15.519 --> 00:45:19.559 an Arizona ash. You could go back to Neighborhood's planeted in the nineteen sixties 640 00:45:19.559 --> 00:45:22.880 about the nineteen eighties. They look like hat racks. They'd been pruned, 641 00:45:22.920 --> 00:45:29.079 and these giant trees just were stubbed off because they were falling apart. Bradford 642 00:45:29.079 --> 00:45:30.960 Pear is bad about that too. By the way, I wouldn't recommend that 643 00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:35.360 species. It looks great when it's young, but a day is coming and 644 00:45:35.360 --> 00:45:39.559 then you get to start over. So plant trees that are well adapted, 645 00:45:39.679 --> 00:45:44.800 that have a moderate growth rate, and then you can fertilize and water them 646 00:45:44.800 --> 00:45:46.960 and take care of them and get a fast growth rate out of them. 647 00:45:47.360 --> 00:45:52.519 But don't plant trees just because they grow fast. And if you read about 648 00:45:52.559 --> 00:45:55.760 it and the Sunday paper ad supplement and it talks about this tree grows ten 649 00:45:55.800 --> 00:46:00.119 feet a year, run the other way. Don't do that. Finally, 650 00:46:00.599 --> 00:46:06.000 number thirty, coming to thirty. Now buying the largest bear root tree you 651 00:46:06.039 --> 00:46:09.199 can find a lot of people will mail order bear root trees or they'll see 652 00:46:09.199 --> 00:46:12.760 some, you know, in a catalog, and they want to get the 653 00:46:12.760 --> 00:46:15.960 biggest one they can find. If you plant a small tree, I used 654 00:46:15.960 --> 00:46:21.000 to have a peach orchard and you could buy six foot bare root trees. 655 00:46:21.159 --> 00:46:23.639 I would buy mine about waist high, about three feet high, three and 656 00:46:23.679 --> 00:46:28.079 a half feet high, and plant those and I'm telling you they hit the 657 00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:30.800 ground running. A big tree has had a lot more roots cut off, 658 00:46:31.159 --> 00:46:36.679 and it just takes a while to get established. And sometimes that's true with 659 00:46:36.719 --> 00:46:39.920 containers. Let's say within the same size of container, maybe a fifteen gallon 660 00:46:39.960 --> 00:46:45.039 tree, or or for example, you may have one that's not as big 661 00:46:45.079 --> 00:46:49.320 and then one that's just giant. Well, remember you've got that confined root 662 00:46:49.360 --> 00:46:52.719 system. So don't let let me put it this way. You don't buy 663 00:46:52.880 --> 00:46:57.960 trees by the board foot. You buy them by the quality plant and root 664 00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:00.639 system. So we're going to drop it there for now. I'm going to 665 00:47:00.679 --> 00:47:05.920 take a break. It's fifty common landscape and gardening mistakes, and when we 666 00:47:06.039 --> 00:47:09.719 come back, we are going to be talking about some of the additional tips 667 00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:15.119 for you, including beginning with number thirty one. Welcome back to garden Line. 668 00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:19.679 I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are going through fifty common 669 00:47:19.880 --> 00:47:23.760 gardening and landscape mistakes that people make. In thirty five years as a County 670 00:47:23.760 --> 00:47:30.039 Extension horticulturist, I've seen a lot. I've made many mistakes myself, and 671 00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:31.519 I've seen a lot of other folks do them. And we're going to try 672 00:47:31.559 --> 00:47:37.400 to save you some pain and suffering and expense by giving you these fifty tips. 673 00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:40.639 We are now on number thirty one, and that is failure to mulch 674 00:47:40.719 --> 00:47:45.360 a wide area around new trees and shrubs. If you put a tree in 675 00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:49.920 the ground and you got a little maybe one foot area between the tree and 676 00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:52.880 your turf grass, a couple things are going to happen. Number one, 677 00:47:53.119 --> 00:47:57.000 the lawnmower and the weed eater are going to end up nicking the bark of 678 00:47:57.039 --> 00:48:01.280 that tree, causing large canker wounds and really setting it back. Number two 679 00:48:02.119 --> 00:48:06.880 is that tree is competing with the grass. And I mentioned earlier, but 680 00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:09.360 trees and grass do not get along. We try to make them get along 681 00:48:09.360 --> 00:48:14.400 in our landscape, but they they don't. They're competitors. So if you 682 00:48:14.440 --> 00:48:20.239 can mulch an area as wide as is esthetically acceptable to you do it. 683 00:48:20.639 --> 00:48:22.159 If you ask the tree, it would say, I want my mulchary to 684 00:48:22.159 --> 00:48:25.559 be every piece of property you own. I don't want anything but tree in 685 00:48:25.599 --> 00:48:31.239 that area. No grass. But that's not aesthetically acceptable. But mulch wide 686 00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:36.360 and mulch deep enough, three or four inches of a good quality mulch, 687 00:48:37.039 --> 00:48:38.840 and the if you can expand that a little bit, it's huge. And 688 00:48:38.960 --> 00:48:42.880 let me let me just put it this way. We've done this in studies 689 00:48:42.920 --> 00:48:45.159 with fruit trees and other things. But if you look at a tree that's 690 00:48:45.199 --> 00:48:49.880 growing with grass up to it versus a tree that's not. The growth is 691 00:48:49.960 --> 00:48:52.480 dramatic. I saw a pecan orchard one time, planted in a bermuda grass 692 00:48:52.480 --> 00:48:57.880 field. They killed half the field, killed all the bermuda grass, and 693 00:48:57.880 --> 00:49:00.000 half the field is baar dirt, and they planted pecon there, and then 694 00:49:00.039 --> 00:49:05.199 they planted them in the bermuda grass. Five years later, it was like 695 00:49:05.960 --> 00:49:08.119 the trees that weren't in bermuda grass are like three times the size of the 696 00:49:08.119 --> 00:49:13.119 trees that were growing with that competition of that of that turf. Now this 697 00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:15.960 was a field it didn't have, you know, just excessive amounts of irrigation 698 00:49:16.039 --> 00:49:20.360 available and things like that. But it's same as true at your house. 699 00:49:20.599 --> 00:49:22.960 If you will mulch a wide area and make that tree think it has a 700 00:49:23.039 --> 00:49:29.599 forest floor environment, it will do better that one thing. Wide Mulching on 701 00:49:29.639 --> 00:49:34.960 a brand new young tree will do more than all the watering and fertilizing and 702 00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:38.000 whatnot that you're wanting to do to make it grow faster. Just keep the 703 00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:40.760 weeds away and you'll be well on your way to that. Of course, 704 00:49:40.840 --> 00:49:45.320 it's important to fertilize in water, but people don't consider the fact that a 705 00:49:45.400 --> 00:49:52.039 wide mulch bed is really important. Number thirty two improper trees staking or waiting 706 00:49:52.079 --> 00:49:54.960 too long to remove the wires. People steak trees as if they're a rocket 707 00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:58.920 and they're afraid they're going to come blasting out of the ground. They put 708 00:49:58.960 --> 00:50:01.800 those wires on them, honker them down tight where they can't budget. All 709 00:50:02.679 --> 00:50:07.280 trees need to move a little bit. Many trees don't need staking. In 710 00:50:07.320 --> 00:50:09.960 fact, in many situations, you don't have to stake a tree if it's 711 00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:15.000 properly grown. That's step number one. Some growers have poorly anchor trees, 712 00:50:15.920 --> 00:50:20.320 and depending on the species, you may not need staking. But if you 713 00:50:20.400 --> 00:50:24.960 do, you want your wires or whatever you use. There's different devices that 714 00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:30.840 will avoid cutting into the trunk tree staking, tree holders that go from the 715 00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:35.400 stake to the tree. There's also people sometimes use a wire, but they 716 00:50:35.480 --> 00:50:38.960 just put it through a section of gardening hosts just to keep that wire from 717 00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:43.119 cutting the trunk. But then let it move a little bit. As the 718 00:50:43.159 --> 00:50:46.480 branch grows, it strengthens it. You know, a that is a actual 719 00:50:46.599 --> 00:50:50.599 principle of nature. If you want your muscles to get stronger, how do 720 00:50:50.599 --> 00:50:53.239 you do that? Will you stress them, you push them, you exercise 721 00:50:53.320 --> 00:50:59.199 them, you know, you bend and do that kind of a stress on 722 00:50:59.239 --> 00:51:01.760 your muscles. It makes them stronger over time. Right, Well, that's 723 00:51:01.800 --> 00:51:07.159 true actually of the way woody plants grow. If you take a plant and 724 00:51:07.360 --> 00:51:09.760 just strap it to a steak and it doesn't move in the wind, the 725 00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:15.159 tissues in that bark are not nearly as strong and able to be resilient in 726 00:51:15.199 --> 00:51:20.039 the wind as a tree that has been moving, because that movement creates strength. 727 00:51:20.039 --> 00:51:22.760 That even happens with little seedlings. I was talking about starting seeding seeds 728 00:51:22.760 --> 00:51:28.239 indoors, little tomato plants coming up in still air versus those you brush your 729 00:51:28.239 --> 00:51:32.039 hands over every day. It literally changes the strength of the stem of that 730 00:51:32.119 --> 00:51:36.559 plant. So let your things move. And then after they've been in the 731 00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:39.000 ground six months, those wires need to come out certainly by a year. 732 00:51:39.719 --> 00:51:44.280 Don't leave them longer than that. You only end up in problems. And 733 00:51:44.320 --> 00:51:47.199 I see it all the time plants now that the wires and steaks are cutting 734 00:51:47.199 --> 00:51:52.840 in there to the tree. Number thirty three lack of adequate watering for new 735 00:51:53.039 --> 00:51:59.480 woody plants during the first season. Remember I said that plant was grown with 736 00:51:59.559 --> 00:52:05.079 a very artificially confined root system compared to what would happen in nature. You 737 00:52:05.119 --> 00:52:07.639 put it in the ground, and in the nursery there were water in it 738 00:52:07.679 --> 00:52:10.199 every other day and warm weather, excuse me, twice a day in warm 739 00:52:10.239 --> 00:52:14.519 weather, probably to keep it going. Now it goes in the ground and 740 00:52:14.599 --> 00:52:19.239 we forget how to water it, and you need to water lightly and frequently, 741 00:52:19.679 --> 00:52:22.320 wetting that root zone and a little bit beyond it. You can use 742 00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:25.719 a berm of soil around it to do that. You can use something like 743 00:52:25.719 --> 00:52:30.440 a tree hugger sprinkler to water whatever width or size you're wanting to water of 744 00:52:30.480 --> 00:52:36.039 the area, but water that area regularly. Early on in the first hot 745 00:52:36.079 --> 00:52:38.760 summer season, you may be watering it a couple times a week if you 746 00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:43.480 plant it in the fall or the winter. If you plant it in spring 747 00:52:43.519 --> 00:52:46.199 or early summer, you're watering it probably three or four times a week the 748 00:52:46.239 --> 00:52:51.159 first week or two, not a lot of water, not keeping it water 749 00:52:51.239 --> 00:52:57.480 logged, but just supplying each day what it needs in that new planting situation. 750 00:52:58.079 --> 00:53:00.559 But going then on into the first summer the next months to come, 751 00:53:00.599 --> 00:53:05.320 you're probably still watering it a couple of times. The next months to come 752 00:53:05.360 --> 00:53:07.440 a couple of times a week. Eventually we back off and we don't have 753 00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:10.599 to a water tree like that. You know, established tree almost never needs 754 00:53:10.639 --> 00:53:15.559 watering, but during that first critical season with confined roots, you've got to 755 00:53:15.639 --> 00:53:19.480 take care of it. And whatever it takes to do that, you want 756 00:53:19.519 --> 00:53:24.159 to do that Number thirty four choosing containers that are too small for vegetables and 757 00:53:24.239 --> 00:53:29.440 flowers. Especially vegetables. You can grow a tomato and a two and a 758 00:53:29.480 --> 00:53:34.039 half gallon container. If you sit there dripping fertilizer water on it all the 759 00:53:34.079 --> 00:53:37.679 time, who does that right? Well, I would say with a tomato 760 00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:43.519 five gallons is really pushing it. Maybe if it's a small statue tomato variety, 761 00:53:43.960 --> 00:53:46.039 I like to put them in ten gallon containers. And why is that 762 00:53:46.280 --> 00:53:51.320 it's more soil for the roots to have to get water and nutrients. So 763 00:53:51.360 --> 00:53:54.559 if you could get to water one day, you're okay, it's still okay 764 00:53:54.599 --> 00:53:58.679 a day or two down the line. And depending on where it's located, 765 00:53:58.679 --> 00:54:01.400 how much sun high the weather is, that all affects it. But I 766 00:54:01.719 --> 00:54:06.360 watch gardening shows often that are filmed in other parts of the country, and 767 00:54:06.400 --> 00:54:08.679 I see these little containers and they're you know, they're cute and nice, 768 00:54:08.800 --> 00:54:10.800 but every time I look at them, I go, yeah, that plant 769 00:54:10.840 --> 00:54:15.199 here. You would need it to be up one or two sizes in container 770 00:54:15.599 --> 00:54:20.599 to have a good dependable sized container for success, because when you stress vegetables 771 00:54:20.679 --> 00:54:24.800 and flowers, you lose the production you planted them for, so big containers 772 00:54:24.840 --> 00:54:30.079 went in doubt go up a size and container number thirty five. Choosing poorly 773 00:54:30.119 --> 00:54:37.199 adapted fruit species and varieties for our area. Now, you can grow apples 774 00:54:37.199 --> 00:54:42.840 here, but we're far enough south that our number of apple options are limited 775 00:54:43.599 --> 00:54:49.880 because apples are really geared genetically for cooler areas of the country. But we're 776 00:54:50.280 --> 00:54:54.800 we're on one end of that range of genetic variety within the apple genus. 777 00:54:55.440 --> 00:54:59.960 So you can do that, but it's better to choose things that are more 778 00:55:00.119 --> 00:55:04.599 adapted to here. And that would mean don't try to grow hazel nuts here. 779 00:55:04.679 --> 00:55:07.400 They're not going to do well here. Don't try to grow filbirts or 780 00:55:07.440 --> 00:55:10.960 try to grow a what is the ras, black and yellow and purple raspberries, 781 00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:14.800 those three especially, There are a few reds that'll do well here. 782 00:55:15.159 --> 00:55:20.920 But pick your fruit species and varieties varieties is important with deciduous fruit, we 783 00:55:20.960 --> 00:55:24.519 have something called chill hours. What chill hours are is it's an accumulation of 784 00:55:24.559 --> 00:55:30.920 temperatures between about freezing and forty five somewhere in that range. Primarily that help 785 00:55:30.039 --> 00:55:37.760 break down the things that inhibit dormant fruit tree bud growth. So here's what 786 00:55:37.800 --> 00:55:42.679 happens. Think of these Think of these buds as having a little little countdown 787 00:55:42.760 --> 00:55:47.119 eggtimer inside. When we have temperatures in the let's say forty forty five degree 788 00:55:47.199 --> 00:55:52.559 range, especially, that egg timer is moving and for every hour of time 789 00:55:52.639 --> 00:55:55.079 you get an hour of chilling. When it gets too cold or when it 790 00:55:55.119 --> 00:55:59.320 gets warmer than that, it slows down a lot and you don't get that 791 00:55:59.440 --> 00:56:04.480 hour of chill for hour of time in the spring when it's time to grow. 792 00:56:04.679 --> 00:56:07.719 If it's a high chill variety, it hasn't had its chilling and it 793 00:56:07.880 --> 00:56:09.920 just won't take off growing. It won't do well. If it's a low 794 00:56:10.079 --> 00:56:15.880 chill variety, you wake up on early February late January morning and your peach 795 00:56:15.920 --> 00:56:17.719 trees full of blooms, and you got a problem because there's gonna be another 796 00:56:17.760 --> 00:56:22.760 frost. So pick the ones that are for your area. Finally, if 797 00:56:22.800 --> 00:56:29.079 you need a pollinator. Make sure you note that and plant more than one 798 00:56:29.239 --> 00:56:32.239 variety. Peaches do not need a pollinator, Apples do need a pollinator. 799 00:56:32.679 --> 00:56:37.599 Most pears really do need a pollinator. Most plums need a pollinator. Blueberries 800 00:56:37.639 --> 00:56:42.639 don't need one, but they make better berries when you have a pollinator variety, 801 00:56:42.920 --> 00:56:45.800 and on and on down the line. You can research that online and 802 00:56:45.840 --> 00:56:47.679 find out, but the bottom line is makes your first because you don't want 803 00:56:47.679 --> 00:56:51.199 to wait five years later and say it's a bloom and skip, I'm not 804 00:56:51.239 --> 00:56:53.559 getting any fruit. Well, you know you gotta have two to tangle. 805 00:56:53.719 --> 00:56:58.920 We're gonna do a tango. We're gonna take a break here fifty common landscape 806 00:56:58.960 --> 00:57:04.039 and gardening mistakes, and we'll be right back. Well, welcome back to 807 00:57:04.280 --> 00:57:09.440 garden success today. I am going through fifty common landscape and gardening mistakes that 808 00:57:09.519 --> 00:57:14.599 I've seen people make, that I've made over the years, in hopes that 809 00:57:14.679 --> 00:57:17.960 we will save you from some of the pain and suffering an expense that comes 810 00:57:17.960 --> 00:57:24.320 from making these mistakes. We are on now number thirty seven. Incorrect training 811 00:57:24.360 --> 00:57:30.599 and pruning of fruit trees and vines. Grapevines. There's a style of pruning 812 00:57:30.760 --> 00:57:32.920 that you do for success with grapes. Now you may have a grape arbor 813 00:57:32.960 --> 00:57:36.800 that would be a very different type of pruning, but in general, you 814 00:57:36.840 --> 00:57:39.159 have a grape trunk that comes up and then branches that go out each way, 815 00:57:39.440 --> 00:57:43.960 from which the shoots then year after year grow and they're prune back to 816 00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:46.800 those branches. Now, I know that didn't create a great mental image. 817 00:57:46.800 --> 00:57:50.920 So now you know how to prune grapes. But there's information online on how 818 00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:52.519 to do it, but it's important to do it right. When it comes 819 00:57:52.559 --> 00:57:58.360 to fruit trees, apples and pears, we typically prune to a central leader. 820 00:57:58.480 --> 00:58:00.480 In the case of pairs, may be more than one central lead, 821 00:58:00.639 --> 00:58:07.159 just because of how they're determined to grow, with branches coming out up and 822 00:58:07.199 --> 00:58:12.239 down the trunk spaced out apart. It's just the typical branch structure you would 823 00:58:12.239 --> 00:58:16.320 expect from any kind of a single trunk tree. With peaches and plums, 824 00:58:16.400 --> 00:58:20.920 we call those stone fruit because they have the pit inside. That would hold 825 00:58:20.920 --> 00:58:25.000 true for apricots as well. With those, we prune to an open bowl 826 00:58:25.039 --> 00:58:30.039 shape or a chalice shape, So the trunk comes up and then you may 827 00:58:30.079 --> 00:58:36.159 have typically about three scaffold branches that go in all directions. So you've cut 828 00:58:36.199 --> 00:58:39.079 the trunk off and chosen three branches to go out, and from there they 829 00:58:39.119 --> 00:58:45.960 branch, and then those branch and you're basically picture this big chalice slash bowl 830 00:58:45.039 --> 00:58:50.400 somewhere in between a chalice and a bowl shape, and you're cleaning everything out 831 00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:53.920 of the interior and anything going out and downward on the outside of the bowl, 832 00:58:53.960 --> 00:58:59.440 you're puning those off. That's a super over simplification. If you want 833 00:58:59.480 --> 00:59:02.280 to know more about how to prune plants, the Aggi Horticulture website, it's 834 00:59:02.320 --> 00:59:08.800 Aggie hyphen Horticulture dot TAMU dot edu. There is a publication on every type 835 00:59:08.840 --> 00:59:10.679 of fruit tree and they tell you how to prune it. They give you 836 00:59:10.679 --> 00:59:15.559 a little diagram showing what you're going for. So I'd recommend taking good hard 837 00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:20.440 look at that because beginning at planting the training process begins. So don't wait 838 00:59:20.599 --> 00:59:22.199 until your tree is four years old. And then, now, how do 839 00:59:22.280 --> 00:59:24.840 I make it look like the picture? It's not. They don't grow like 840 00:59:24.880 --> 00:59:28.880 the picture. But when you prune them that way, you have a strong 841 00:59:29.239 --> 00:59:34.559 structure to minimize breakage of branches and a heavy fruit crop and you end up 842 00:59:34.639 --> 00:59:38.320 getting light into the interior of the tree. When the interior becomes shaded, 843 00:59:38.559 --> 00:59:44.480 it doesn't produce bloom buds, which become fruit, and so you end up 844 00:59:44.480 --> 00:59:46.800 with this umbrella of fruit around the outside of the tree, the tops and 845 00:59:46.920 --> 00:59:51.800 sides, but no fruit on the interior. With proper pruning, you can 846 00:59:51.800 --> 00:59:54.400 have fruiting literally from almost knee high up to as high as you can reach 847 00:59:54.480 --> 00:59:59.400 and never have to get a ladder out. Very important Number thirty eight. 848 01:00:00.199 --> 01:00:06.719 Scouting for plant problems. Early detection and action is the key. When you 849 01:00:06.800 --> 01:00:12.199 wait until there's severe damage. Let's say a caterpillar has eaten almost every leaf 850 01:00:12.239 --> 01:00:15.159 off your broccoli. You know it's a little late then to do much good. 851 01:00:15.519 --> 01:00:20.880 Or maybe some beetles have decimated some of your let's say greens, cool 852 01:00:20.920 --> 01:00:24.960 season greens or whatever you're growing. But that can also apply to rose bushes 853 01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:30.320 being overloaded with aphids and diseases. It'll apply to any plant. You want 854 01:00:30.320 --> 01:00:34.800 to get out and check it out early. They say the best fertilizer is 855 01:00:34.840 --> 01:00:38.000 the footprints of the gardener. Well so is the best pest control the footprints 856 01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:42.679 of the gardener. You get out early, you see the problem because you're 857 01:00:42.760 --> 01:00:45.199 checking on it periodically. And you go, you know what, I think 858 01:00:45.239 --> 01:00:47.280 I need to step in and do something here, and at that time, 859 01:00:47.920 --> 01:00:53.719 the least toxic control options are also available to you. As pests get older, 860 01:00:53.800 --> 01:00:59.320 as diseases get more developed, it's a little late to do much to 861 01:00:59.360 --> 01:01:02.360 save the plant or save the crop. But when you catch it early, 862 01:01:02.760 --> 01:01:07.199 you have more options. Especially for those of you who are gardening organically, 863 01:01:07.400 --> 01:01:13.119 you're less toxic. Organic options are going to be more effective at that stage. 864 01:01:13.159 --> 01:01:17.679 Insecticidal soap, for example, when plants are when pests are very small, 865 01:01:17.760 --> 01:01:22.119 can be quite effective, especially small, soft bodied pests. But you 866 01:01:22.199 --> 01:01:24.199 let those same pests get older and it's just not as effective. The same 867 01:01:24.280 --> 01:01:29.800 is true with BT, which is an organic product. So scout check it 868 01:01:29.840 --> 01:01:31.960 out early, catch problems early, and you avoid a lot of problem. 869 01:01:32.039 --> 01:01:36.199 That's a good life lesson, isn't it. I just thought of that, 870 01:01:36.519 --> 01:01:42.920 Hey, number thirty nine, Spraying with accurate identification first of the pest diseases 871 01:01:42.960 --> 01:01:46.679 and weeds. A lot of beneficial insects who have been killed because they're guilty 872 01:01:46.719 --> 01:01:51.039 of having six legs? Do you even know what it is that you're spraying? 873 01:01:51.239 --> 01:01:53.760 Do you need to spray? Get an identification that's what we do in 874 01:01:53.800 --> 01:01:58.599 Guardline. I can help you with that. Your County AGROLFE Extension office. 875 01:01:58.599 --> 01:02:01.800 You can take samples into them. Are our super mom and pop garden centers 876 01:02:01.840 --> 01:02:06.519 all over the Greater Houston area that we brag on every week. They know 877 01:02:06.599 --> 01:02:08.559 what they're doing. Take them a sample, you know, I mentioned Southwest 878 01:02:08.559 --> 01:02:13.320 fertilizers. Another example. You take them a sample in there of a disease 879 01:02:13.519 --> 01:02:15.840 or a weed or a pest, even if it's a well focused picture, 880 01:02:16.320 --> 01:02:21.599 and it can be identified so that the product you get actually works, or 881 01:02:22.079 --> 01:02:24.599 you may find out you don't even need to spray that at all. Start 882 01:02:24.639 --> 01:02:29.760 with accurate identification before you reach for the gun, the spray gun in this 883 01:02:29.880 --> 01:02:35.800 case number forty. Not having soil tested periodically every week on Guardline, I'll 884 01:02:35.800 --> 01:02:39.559 tell you this is a good time to apply these, let's say, fertilizers 885 01:02:39.599 --> 01:02:45.559 to your lawn or something else. Those are good best estimate applications. But 886 01:02:45.679 --> 01:02:51.239 what if you and your neighbor each had a soil test and you had absolutely 887 01:02:51.480 --> 01:02:54.880 no potassium to speak of, and your phosphorus was through the roof and your 888 01:02:54.920 --> 01:03:00.880 neighbor had low phosphorus and high potassium with the same lawn fertilizer be ideal for 889 01:03:00.960 --> 01:03:05.639 both of your lawns. Well, not really. A soil test helps you 890 01:03:05.760 --> 01:03:10.559 know exactly how to gear your fertilization, but most importantly, before you plant, 891 01:03:10.599 --> 01:03:14.840 if you do a soil test, you can amend the soil and get 892 01:03:14.880 --> 01:03:19.760 the levels where they need to be so that going forward, those recommendations I'm 893 01:03:19.800 --> 01:03:24.480 making are exactly on target. We're not dealing with an unknown deficiency. So 894 01:03:24.480 --> 01:03:30.800 soil testing is not expensive. Go to soil testing one word dot TAMU dot 895 01:03:30.119 --> 01:03:36.119 edu. You can download the Urban Soil Test form, the Urban Soil Test 896 01:03:36.159 --> 01:03:37.960 Form. I don't care if you live in the timbuk two. If you've 897 01:03:38.000 --> 01:03:43.039 got a lawn, a rose garden, a vegetable garden, flowers, fruit 898 01:03:43.039 --> 01:03:47.320 tree, shrubs, trees, that's urban From salt testing standpoint number forty one. 899 01:03:47.880 --> 01:03:53.360 Over fertilizing, under fertilizing, misfertilizing. What are we talking about? 900 01:03:53.400 --> 01:03:57.599 Well, a little bit is good, but a lot isn't good. You 901 01:03:57.639 --> 01:04:00.679 know that comes true from my diet too, if I if I overdo, 902 01:04:01.039 --> 01:04:04.360 you know, Thanksgiving is notorious for that, but that's not good for your 903 01:04:04.360 --> 01:04:09.599 health. Right to live like that? Well, overfertilizing, even though fertilizer 904 01:04:09.679 --> 01:04:13.440 is a great thing, is not a good idea. Underfertilizing is not a 905 01:04:13.440 --> 01:04:16.559 good deal. Plants need nutrients supplied to do their best. They may survive, 906 01:04:16.719 --> 01:04:19.079 but do you want blooms? Do you want fruit? You got to 907 01:04:19.119 --> 01:04:26.159 fertilize some And misfertilizing means using the wrong product, adding a nutrient that's already 908 01:04:26.199 --> 01:04:30.360 in excess, and maybe not adding something that it needs. A lot of 909 01:04:30.400 --> 01:04:32.840 people do that, and I know we have fertilizers that say this is for 910 01:04:32.960 --> 01:04:36.039 citrus, or this is for roses, or this is for palm trees or 911 01:04:36.079 --> 01:04:41.039 whatever it is. That's fine, but knowing what's in your soil to begin 912 01:04:41.159 --> 01:04:45.760 with is very important to do. Now. Number forty two using snake oils, 913 01:04:46.079 --> 01:04:51.360 that is testimony or claims based as evidence. Someone comes out and says, 914 01:04:51.719 --> 01:04:56.320 hey, you know, I did this last year and my plants just 915 01:04:56.360 --> 01:05:00.039 did great. Well, maybe they did, but was it pause of the 916 01:05:00.039 --> 01:05:03.400 product they applied or was it in spite of the product they applied? Do 917 01:05:03.400 --> 01:05:08.840 you see what I'm saying? Claims can be made. It's best when we 918 01:05:08.880 --> 01:05:11.840 have things that are based on research, and that's what I try to focus 919 01:05:11.880 --> 01:05:17.119 on on garden line is university based research, which is evidence based information where 920 01:05:17.159 --> 01:05:23.599 they test a bunch of things under controlled, replicated conditions so that they can 921 01:05:23.639 --> 01:05:27.880 really determine. Yet it does seem that this is this work so that variety 922 01:05:27.920 --> 01:05:31.960 does do better, or whatever the question is. But just because someone says 923 01:05:32.199 --> 01:05:34.639 you got to use this, it worked for me, Well maybe it didn't. 924 01:05:34.719 --> 01:05:38.599 Heard a story one time this kind of gross, but it was a 925 01:05:38.599 --> 01:05:44.119 garden writer and he would sit and he would clip his toenails on the front 926 01:05:44.159 --> 01:05:47.239 porch and he would toss them onto a rhododendron bush, and that bush bloomed 927 01:05:47.280 --> 01:05:53.400 wonderfully. Now he joked about it, saying toenails did not make the rhododendron 928 01:05:53.400 --> 01:05:57.599 bloom, But he put them on it every few weeks, and by golly, 929 01:05:57.719 --> 01:06:01.920 that was a beautiful rhododendron. See what I'm saying. Causation does not 930 01:06:02.400 --> 01:06:10.039 necessarily mean the same as causation correlation, correlation. Excuse me. Just because 931 01:06:10.039 --> 01:06:13.039 two things happened at the same time doesn't mean one cause the other. Well 932 01:06:13.159 --> 01:06:16.639 that's what I mean. Look for research based information. Oh, social media 933 01:06:16.960 --> 01:06:21.360 is just loaded with bologney. Don't believe what you read. Maybe it's true 934 01:06:21.360 --> 01:06:26.639 in a different area, but not where you live. Number forty three planting 935 01:06:26.920 --> 01:06:30.599 a landscape without a plan. That is probably one we should have made. 936 01:06:30.679 --> 01:06:34.199 Number one. Oh, we love to buy new plants. You walk me 937 01:06:34.239 --> 01:06:38.519 through a garden center and I can show you dozens of things I just got 938 01:06:38.559 --> 01:06:41.920 to have. But I'm a recovering plant person. You see. We need 939 01:06:42.159 --> 01:06:45.960 a twelve step program for people in plants pretty bad. I'm like one of 940 01:06:45.960 --> 01:06:49.320 my daughters is that with house plants, it's like little shop of horrors. 941 01:06:49.320 --> 01:06:53.840 When you walk in the front door, it's hard to get in. People 942 01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:57.239 become plant collectors, you know. If we need one of everything, maybe 943 01:06:57.320 --> 01:07:00.159 two or three. Well, start with a plan, you know. There 944 01:07:00.199 --> 01:07:02.719 It just it always helps to have it. But what do you want it 945 01:07:02.760 --> 01:07:05.480 to look like when it grows up? Do you want your yard to look 946 01:07:05.519 --> 01:07:10.079 like a bomb went off in a garden center and everything rooted where it landed? 947 01:07:10.559 --> 01:07:14.519 Or do you want it to have a design and a beauty to it? 948 01:07:14.519 --> 01:07:16.119 It just makes sense. And I know it's fun to buy plants. 949 01:07:16.159 --> 01:07:19.719 I get that. I do it all the time. But you know what, 950 01:07:20.079 --> 01:07:23.800 ultimately, what is your goal? What do you want it to look 951 01:07:23.880 --> 01:07:29.519 like and plan that way. And one final thing is consider in considering those 952 01:07:29.519 --> 01:07:32.079 seasons. I'm gonna actually get to that one a little bit. But you 953 01:07:32.199 --> 01:07:35.599 want to have a plan. You want to design it that way where you 954 01:07:35.639 --> 01:07:42.039 can have success, where you can have success with your plans. I'm gonna 955 01:07:42.360 --> 01:07:45.639 take a little break here. Let's say we are on number forty three. 956 01:07:45.679 --> 01:07:47.599 There next will be forty four. When we come back. You are listening 957 01:07:47.599 --> 01:07:51.960 to garden Line and my fifty common gardening and landscape mistakes. We'll be right 958 01:07:53.000 --> 01:07:58.400 back. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, 959 01:07:58.559 --> 01:08:03.119 going through fifty common gardening and landscaping mistakes that people make. We are now 960 01:08:03.239 --> 01:08:11.519 on number forty four. Under use of drip or micro sprinkler irrigation. Now, 961 01:08:11.519 --> 01:08:15.199 the standard way we've always irrigated our shrub beds and other things is with 962 01:08:15.239 --> 01:08:18.439 a sprinkler. Sprinkler pops on, it wets everything, and that's how we 963 01:08:18.479 --> 01:08:21.920 do it. It's not an efficient way to water, and every time you 964 01:08:21.960 --> 01:08:29.359 wet foliage, you increase the potential for disease problems. Many diseases need a 965 01:08:29.399 --> 01:08:33.520 little thin coating of water over their spores that land on your leaf they need 966 01:08:33.560 --> 01:08:38.039 it for a certain number of hours a time at a certain temperature, and 967 01:08:38.079 --> 01:08:43.239 they germinate that spore like a weed seed sends its roots right down into the 968 01:08:43.359 --> 01:08:45.680 leaf. In fact, weed seeds a good example. You know, if 969 01:08:45.680 --> 01:08:48.840 you have dry soil full of weed seeds, you'll never see a weed until 970 01:08:49.239 --> 01:08:53.840 it gets wet, and all of a sudden, then that bare dirt area 971 01:08:53.920 --> 01:08:58.039 looks like a chia pet with weeds coming up everywhere. Well, when it 972 01:08:58.119 --> 01:09:01.000 comes to diseases and plants, if we can avoid wetting the foliage, it 973 01:09:01.199 --> 01:09:05.680 helps cut back on it. And also when you use drip and microsprinkler it's 974 01:09:05.720 --> 01:09:10.319 more efficient. Now drips water right on the ground where the roots are in 975 01:09:10.359 --> 01:09:15.920 the soil. Microsprinklers are down very low and they spurt the water out in 976 01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:18.199 a small area down low. They don't wet the whole foliage of the plant, 977 01:09:18.479 --> 01:09:23.159 but they're a little better than drip in that they wet a larger area. 978 01:09:23.279 --> 01:09:25.560 With drip, you have to have a lot of emitters, so you 979 01:09:25.640 --> 01:09:30.119 thoroughly keep the whole soil area moist. With microsprinklers or microjet, that's a 980 01:09:30.159 --> 01:09:33.880 little more efficient. You can do do it yourself. You can hire someone 981 01:09:33.920 --> 01:09:39.399 to put in a system. But drip and microsprinkler irrigation are wonderful, and 982 01:09:39.640 --> 01:09:44.560 especially when we get into water restrictions and we get into hot weather and we 983 01:09:44.600 --> 01:09:46.600 don't want to just dump a ton of water and have half of it evaporate 984 01:09:46.640 --> 01:09:53.359 off the plant foliage and increase diseases in the process. Number forty five not 985 01:09:53.560 --> 01:09:57.279 keeping a gardening journal of some sort. But you didn't see that one coming. 986 01:09:58.279 --> 01:10:01.359 And this is one it's a mistake I've made before. I go through 987 01:10:01.399 --> 01:10:04.800 a year and I'm planning all these different varieties of different things, and I'm 988 01:10:04.840 --> 01:10:10.920 not keeping track of stuff. And next year I'm going what was the variety 989 01:10:11.000 --> 01:10:14.199 that I grew that did better than others? Or what when did I plant 990 01:10:14.279 --> 01:10:17.800 last year? And you know, just trying to learn over the seasons and 991 01:10:17.840 --> 01:10:20.840 over the years. A journal is great. It could be a printed journal 992 01:10:20.880 --> 01:10:25.239 if you're a person who likes paper and pens and writing. It could be 993 01:10:25.279 --> 01:10:30.960 an online journal. There's some really good note taking apps that are absolutely great. 994 01:10:30.039 --> 01:10:33.439 I can name a few, but go find the ones you like and 995 01:10:33.640 --> 01:10:38.199 record things. The good ones will allow you to take a picture and put 996 01:10:38.239 --> 01:10:42.560 that picture in your journal online, in your notes, and so when you 997 01:10:42.640 --> 01:10:47.159 saw, like let's say this first year you've ever had cross striped cabbage worm 998 01:10:47.239 --> 01:10:50.119 on your broccoli, and you took a picture of it and you found out 999 01:10:50.159 --> 01:10:55.199 what it was. Now later when you go back, you have that reference. 1000 01:10:55.319 --> 01:10:58.399 You can see the days you planted, the fertilizer you use, the 1001 01:10:59.000 --> 01:11:01.680 pests that you encounter. An on and on a gardening journal is a way 1002 01:11:01.800 --> 01:11:05.680 to learn, and it's important to do that. Number forty six. Not 1003 01:11:05.800 --> 01:11:12.319 reading and following the pesticide label. Ah A teaspoons good, A tablespoons better? 1004 01:11:12.479 --> 01:11:15.119 No, no, no. The label is the law. It'll tell 1005 01:11:15.159 --> 01:11:19.560 you how strong to mix the spray. It'll tell you what you can and 1006 01:11:19.640 --> 01:11:24.439 can't put that spray on. And that could be a health issue. You 1007 01:11:24.439 --> 01:11:29.279 know, you spray your tomatoes with something not labeled for something like a tomato 1008 01:11:29.319 --> 01:11:31.760 that you're gonna eat, that can be a concern. Read and follow the 1009 01:11:31.840 --> 01:11:36.119 label, but especially don't feel like you need to overdo it. When you 1010 01:11:36.199 --> 01:11:40.439 mix things too weak or too strong, they don't do their job, and 1011 01:11:40.479 --> 01:11:44.960 in many cases they can literally damage your plant. Some plants are more sensitive. 1012 01:11:45.079 --> 01:11:47.960 Take horticultural oil for example, that's a very great product, good for 1013 01:11:48.039 --> 01:11:51.640 organic gardening or any kind of gardening. But some plants are very sensitive to 1014 01:11:51.640 --> 01:11:56.960 oil sprays. Plants with kind of a silvery hue of the foliage that's a 1015 01:11:56.960 --> 01:12:01.000 little like dusty material on the surface of the that gives it that silvery color. 1016 01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:04.319 You spray that with an oil and it just turns a muddy brown color 1017 01:12:04.680 --> 01:12:10.039 or muddy muddy green color. Rather, so follow the label, follow it 1018 01:12:10.079 --> 01:12:15.800 carefully and make sure you get the products applied early enough to do some good 1019 01:12:15.920 --> 01:12:24.359 Number forty seven mowing too low or too infrequently. So grass plants in general, 1020 01:12:25.520 --> 01:12:29.760 the top growth supports the bottom growth the roots. That is, the 1021 01:12:29.840 --> 01:12:33.039 roots support the top. So when you cut the top way back, it 1022 01:12:33.239 --> 01:12:38.279 means there's less carbohydrates for the roots. Okay, if you went along with 1023 01:12:38.279 --> 01:12:41.920 the shovel and cut roots, it would mean now your top is not getting 1024 01:12:41.920 --> 01:12:44.479 the water in nutrients that it needs. Do you see what I'm talking about? 1025 01:12:44.520 --> 01:12:49.359 The balance, So, whenever you are are going to mow your grass, 1026 01:12:49.560 --> 01:12:53.199 if you cut it too low, you're going to have a limited root 1027 01:12:53.239 --> 01:12:58.119 system and a less resilient grass plant. And when you mow to infrequently, 1028 01:12:58.600 --> 01:13:01.119 it grows a lot of top and you cut it way back, and it 1029 01:13:01.159 --> 01:13:04.760 looks bad because you cut off most of the green and then it grows back 1030 01:13:04.800 --> 01:13:08.920 again. Bermuda grass is the worst about this. It's just think of a 1031 01:13:09.199 --> 01:13:12.319 pine forest where you walk in the forest. If someone mowed all the trees 1032 01:13:12.319 --> 01:13:15.079 off at fifteen feet high, what would you have a bunch of brown sticks 1033 01:13:15.199 --> 01:13:19.960 until it regrew. Forests can't do that, but your bermuda can. So 1034 01:13:20.560 --> 01:13:26.720 mow frequently for the best lawn, more more often than you want to for 1035 01:13:26.760 --> 01:13:30.159 the best lawn, and mow at a height where you're cutting about a third 1036 01:13:30.239 --> 01:13:33.680 of the grass blade off with each mowing. So the taller you set your 1037 01:13:33.720 --> 01:13:38.439 mower, the less frequently you're mowing because it gets to grow a little more 1038 01:13:38.479 --> 01:13:40.960 before you have to mow it again. If it's a golf course green, 1039 01:13:41.199 --> 01:13:43.479 they mow them every day. You don't want to have to do that. 1040 01:13:43.960 --> 01:13:49.279 Number forty eight. Mixing too many colors into a color bed, or another 1041 01:13:49.399 --> 01:13:54.600 version of that is not using large swaths of color. So picture this with 1042 01:13:54.680 --> 01:13:58.279 me. When you're up close to a flower bed and maybe it's pansies, 1043 01:13:58.319 --> 01:14:00.840 and you've got every color a pansy in the world in there. It's really 1044 01:14:00.880 --> 01:14:02.800 interesting. Maybe it's a container. Right where you sit on the patio or 1045 01:14:02.840 --> 01:14:06.840 whatever, you can appreciate a lot of colors. But as you back off 1046 01:14:06.960 --> 01:14:10.520 and go, let's say, all the way out to the street and take 1047 01:14:10.560 --> 01:14:14.520 a look at that same bed, it just the colors blend together. It's 1048 01:14:14.560 --> 01:14:18.800 like the pixelation effect. If you use large swaths of color, as you're 1049 01:14:18.840 --> 01:14:23.439 looking further and further from the bed, at the bed, it looks more 1050 01:14:23.439 --> 01:14:27.319 beautiful and it makes more sense. So there's no wrong, nothing wrong with 1051 01:14:27.479 --> 01:14:30.239 large swaths close up. But the further you get away all those wonderful colors, 1052 01:14:30.560 --> 01:14:33.399 you just lose the effect of them. So you use large swaths of 1053 01:14:33.439 --> 01:14:40.319 color, don't mix too much in especially when viewing from a distance. Number 1054 01:14:40.359 --> 01:14:45.880 forty nine. Number forty nine is not considering all four seasons when you landscape. 1055 01:14:45.960 --> 01:14:50.720 In spring, everyone's a gardener. Everybody's got the bug. There's lots 1056 01:14:50.720 --> 01:14:55.079 of plants at the garden centers. You can plant just all kinds of things 1057 01:14:55.079 --> 01:14:57.760 that would never have a chance of making it through summer here, but in 1058 01:14:57.840 --> 01:15:01.119 spring they look good. But we got to consider all four seasons. What 1059 01:15:01.199 --> 01:15:03.439 does summer look like? Do you know we have things that bloom in the 1060 01:15:03.479 --> 01:15:09.119 summer very very well, lots of good blooming options. What about fall. 1061 01:15:09.600 --> 01:15:11.880 You know, we have plants at bloom in the fall. Typically those are 1062 01:15:11.920 --> 01:15:15.520 plants that are initiated into bloom by the shortening day length the fall, and 1063 01:15:15.560 --> 01:15:20.359 that would include things like Mexican bush sage for example, copper canyon daisy, 1064 01:15:20.520 --> 01:15:27.920 Mexican marigold, fall aster, beautiful plants. Include them in your landscape so 1065 01:15:27.960 --> 01:15:31.119 then in the fall you also have flowers and beauty. And by the way, 1066 01:15:31.159 --> 01:15:35.640 those are great plants for pollinators as well, including beneficial insects. So 1067 01:15:35.920 --> 01:15:40.720 consider the four seasons. How about winter. You know, we don't have 1068 01:15:40.800 --> 01:15:43.880 a lot of blooming things that bloom in the winter. We have a few, 1069 01:15:44.399 --> 01:15:46.920 But what about bark features like crape myrtles with the rusty colored bark, 1070 01:15:47.000 --> 01:15:51.039 a beautiful exfoliating bark, that would be nice. There are many plants that 1071 01:15:51.119 --> 01:15:56.960 have great features in the wintertime. I like to leave ornamental grasses unpruned until 1072 01:15:57.000 --> 01:16:00.680 the end of winter because as you get frost on those little sea heads and 1073 01:16:00.720 --> 01:16:04.279 the sunlight comes through, it's really attractive. But consider all four seasons when 1074 01:16:04.319 --> 01:16:09.319 you're landscaping. Part of that. One last concept about that is don't put 1075 01:16:09.319 --> 01:16:12.520 all your evergreens on one side of the house looks okay in the spring and 1076 01:16:12.560 --> 01:16:17.000 summer, but in the winter very lopsided. And finally, Drummer, will 1077 01:16:17.000 --> 01:16:24.920 please number fifty. Believing what you hear or read on TV, on radio, 1078 01:16:25.039 --> 01:16:28.640 Yes I'm coming to you by radio, in print, in social media, 1079 01:16:28.680 --> 01:16:32.159 and for crying out laout loud, on the internet, even Wikipedia. 1080 01:16:32.199 --> 01:16:35.560 We love to check out Wikipedia, but it's only as accurate as a person 1081 01:16:35.560 --> 01:16:40.760 who wrote it right. And maybe you read something that would be accurate in 1082 01:16:40.800 --> 01:16:45.439 New Jersey or Kansas or California, but not in this area, not in 1083 01:16:45.479 --> 01:16:50.439 Southeast Texas. So make sure that you check things out, find really good 1084 01:16:50.600 --> 01:16:55.279 sources, sources that are research based. We try to be that here on 1085 01:16:55.359 --> 01:16:59.439 garden Line for you. But there's a there is a Langrane University in every 1086 01:16:59.439 --> 01:17:03.720 state does research on agriculture, landscape, plants, production, vegetable gardens, 1087 01:17:03.760 --> 01:17:09.279 fruit. Take advantage of that knowledge. It's free and it's available to you. 1088 01:17:09.760 --> 01:17:13.960 Don't believe in it. Social media is about the worst. It just 1089 01:17:14.199 --> 01:17:17.279 lots of things that just ain't true. Someone once said, it's not what 1090 01:17:17.399 --> 01:17:20.520 I don't know that bothers me, it's what I know that ain't so, 1091 01:17:21.039 --> 01:17:26.399 And a lot of people know a lot of stuff that just ain't so when 1092 01:17:26.439 --> 01:17:30.560 it comes to landscaping. Well, that was a fifty common gardening and landscaping 1093 01:17:30.600 --> 01:17:34.239 mistakes that I deal with the most often. Thank you for hanging around with 1094 01:17:34.319 --> 01:17:36.520 us to Dave. Thank you for listening to garden Line too. By the 1095 01:17:36.520 --> 01:17:41.560 way, we really enjoy getting to visit with you and hopefully, in this 1096 01:17:41.720 --> 01:17:45.159 case help you not make some of those common mistakes yourself.