Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised
on this program. Welcome to ktr H Garden Line with Skip rictor so Smell.
Just watching as so many well good Sunday morning. And by the way,
this is going to be a good We are looking forward to talking to
you today on guarden Line about whatever kind of questions you might have for guarding
plants, indoor plants, outdoor plants, edible plants, look at them plants.
It's just so many different kinds of wonderful things you can do. You
know, if you are if you are interested in taking up gardening is a
hobby. There are so many ways to go about it. Some people are
just lawn rangers. They're the weekend warriors, and their goal is to have
the perfect emerald green carpet and every square inch of their lawn that they can.
That is the goal. Okay, that's good, go for it.
If you are interested in vegetables, maybe you want to change the way you're
eating. Maybe you would like to grow things and so your produce you know
where it came from, came from your yard, or fruits and all kinds
of thing. People get into that. I mean, of course they do.
It's a wonderful it's fun thing to do. I think everybody ought to
grow a few vegetables, even if you have to do it in a container
on the back patio. Maybe you're into our gardening and that is really something
that pleases you, or you just love color. You want to paint,
like rim Brandt, your landscape with beautiful colors and carry it through the seasons
and learn more about what plants maybe bloom in the fall or other things.
That's a whole new world to gardening. For a lot of people, it's
house plants. You know, they don't have room for a garden. Maybe
you live in a high rise apartment or condos, some sort of thing like
that where you just you know, you don't have a back forty, but
you really are into house plants. Maybe you have a balcony. You put
some things on well, COVID broad house plants back to the forefront. They
were definitely on a backshelf, in a back closet for the whole town.
I've been in horticultures pretty much. I mean, there's a couple times where
houseplants had a little resurgence, but boy, now they are a front and
center and all these new and rare you can't live without at once or out
there to mess with. Maybe you would like to create a fairy garden.
What's a fairy garden? Well, you could do it as a little scene
at the base of a tree, you know, where you sort of create
like you would a mulch bed, but you just create a little bed where
you build a little miniature garden and you can buy all the supplies for it.
I know, I was out at well Act and Channing Forest and the
Channing Gardens both visiting them. They have these little scenes that they've created,
like that's summon containers and that's cool. That's a whole other little you know.
It's like people that create, you know, have a big tabletop and
they create maybe a battle of whatever scene where you know, you have a
little toy soldiers and they just with the bushes and all the trees. I
mean, they just recreate. That's a hobby for them. Well, this
is this would be example of a hobby. Maybe you like water gardening,
you like fish, and you would like to create bring in lily pads and
all the other great water gardening plants. You see what I'm saying. I
mean, there are so many ways to get involved with plants and gardening,
but they all have one thing in common, and that is that when you
interact with plants, you are gonna change your health and as well as your
mental health, your physical and your mental health. There is a piece of
mind, there is a release, and there is a stack of reef search
on all the benefits of interacting gardening. But even of course, going beyond
interacting with nature a walk in the woods kind of thing. Gardening is a
great hobby. And I hope if you are listening and you haven't dove in
yet, you're just kind of listening to see what kind of crazy music is
it going to play today or or whatever, well, I hope you'll consider
it because there is a type of gardening for everybody. If you are interested
in retiring, and maybe you're looking for a place where you can retire and
just enjoy life but not go out to pasture, but stay the active adult
that you are, well, that would be a Dell web community. You
know, they're designed for active adults age fifty five and better. Down in
Fullsher, two miles from downtown Fulsher on Highway or on FM three fifty nine.
Is a new dell Web community going in now. This dell Weeb community
has a community garden in it that I'm helping them with. And so you
get all the benefits of the beauty and the quality in a dell Weeb community,
plus the opportunity to have a community garden to visit with other gardeners,
grow some fresh produce for yourself our flowers if you wish, go to doeweb
dot com slash Houston for more information or just call them two eight one four
five nine zero six zero nine. I'm going to go to the phones now
and we are going to head to the heights and talk to answer. Hello
Nancy, Hi, how are you? Good morning? Good morning. I
have a question. I have a question regarding we'd beat complete. Yes,
I've gone to two different places. One said it's okay to apply it now
and another place said it's too hot to apply it. What do you think?
I think the tiebreaker? I think it is too hot. But here's
who your tiebreaker is. Is that that's the label because if it's on there,
if you read through it, it'll say something like don't use when temperatures
are above eighty five when you're Saint Augustine lawn, or maybe it'll say in
the up of the upper eighties or something. But once we pass ninety,
most things are off the table. The one product that can go above ninety
is called celsius, like the temperature celsius, but it's a less common product.
For sure, we'd beat or completes a great product. I would just
hold off plan on this fall when temps dropped down a little bit. If
you need to use it on some newly sprouted annual broad leafs, you know,
cool season broad leaves, or next spring as you're coming out of the
winter time, right before all those weeds take off and really become a problem.
Those are the times that are best to use it. Okay, what's
funny you should mention celsius because I actually got some applied some on when wet
Thursday. Okay. And then it's the person i'd went to Southwest spuratilizer and
they said if it's above eighty five, you shouldn't apply that either. And
then I applied it with a Guardian sprayer, and I noticed the spray was
like really was quite wide instead of like direct on the I've got something called
spurt trying to get rid of and um so then I'm like, oh my
gosh, I'm probably killing all my lawn. So I went and sprayed it
all off, or tried to, and then it did. Brain. So,
did you think that the celsius you have to apply it directly to the
weed? Right? You have to get it on the web? You know,
garden sprayers or I think they're okay. If you're putting out nutrient,
or if you're putting out insecticides or maybe even a fun decide for weed control,
that that can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you're trying
to go around your lawn and not get into the flower beds and other things.
So I usually go with a little different kind of applicator sprayer. But
anyway, Nancy, even on the celsius, just read the label and it'll
it'll tell you, it'll guide you in that. Now, do you say,
since it rained and I did water it down the celsius, it probably
neutralized itself. And you know, I think I think you're going to be
okay. I wouldn't worry about it, but just wait and see, because
there's definitely nothing you can do either way right now. But I'm just predict
right that I think it's gonna be okay. All right, and okay,
thanks so much, you bet hey, thank you. I appreciate the call.
We are going to break our phone number seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two ktrh right by with my
tail in the end. Okay, good Sunday morning. You're listening to garden
line. Hey, let's talk about gardening our phone number seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. If you are in the Kingwood area,
and I mean by area, I mean anywhere northeast of town especially, but
you want to drive from across town, that's a good thing too, because
Kingwood Garden Center and Warren's Gardens are worth a drive to check out. Here.
We have a lot of garden travelers, you know, they know all
the great nurseries they love to visit, and you know, just kind of
hang out like that for a lot of folks. Let's go to the nursery
in your neighborhood, well, in your Kingwood area. This is the nursery
in the neighborhood or nurseries. You're lucky you got two of them. Warren
Southern Gardens is on North Park Drive. Kingwood Garden Centers on Stone Hollow.
Both are open seven days a week, so they're open this afternoon if you'd
like to go out there. I open this morning. The thing that I
find really encouraging when I go into a quality garden center, and this describes
these two, is you walk in and you see the kinds of fertilizers and
the kinds of soils that you need to use on your plants, and so
you're not just there to buy plant, you get the whole nine yards.
They have beautiful containers, they have the soul that goes in the containers,
and they have staff that knows what they're talking about, so they'll direct you
in the right way. If you've got Microlife and Nelson plant food, the
little plastic jars, you can refill them at both Warren Southern Gardens and Kingwood
Garden Centers. Save a little money and avoid buying more plastic to go end
up eventually out in a landfill somewhere. The plants they have are just gorgeous.
I mean they are beautiful and all over the board. So I hope
you'll give them a check. They are one of the garden centers that I
would say as a destination place for anyone here in the Greater Houston area that's
a Warren's Garden Center. We are gonna be talking about a number of things
today. I'm gonna spend some time the next I'll see the eight o'clock hour.
We're gonna talk with a specialist and when it comes to insecticide and insect
management, and that would be Scott McGrath McGraph pest control. If you've got
some questions on pests around your house, or it could be issues up in
the attic, you know, rats or squirrels up in the eye. I
mean anything that is bugging you at the house that has more than two legs,
Like you can't count on four legs. Less they do eliminate those two
things that are bugging you, Scott McGrath is going to be the person that
can help you out. So I hope you'll you'll give us a call and
I'll tell you more about it as we go a little bit further into the
program. For those of you that live up in the Magnolia area, I'm
talking about the Grand Parkway Highway to forty nine up in that area. Spring
Creek Feed. Just just write that down. That's your hometown feed store.
Spring Creek feeds a beautiful place to walk in. You're greeted. The staff
is so friendly, they're courteous. They've got all the quality products for whether
you're feeding pets or feeding livestock, they have it all there. Maybe you
would like a delivery there is a delivery service also available through Spring Creek.
They carry the fertilizers who talk about selection of herbicides, fungicides and pesticides.
It's just minutes from Graham Parkway in Highway two forty nine. It's located in
Magnolia. On FM twenty nine seventy eight. Check out Spring Creek Feed and
I think you'll be impressed. It's a wonderful place, wonderful selection, and
wonderful staff. That's about as much as you can want in any kind of
a business. This morning, I was thinking driving over to the studio,
thinking a little bit about some of the issues that have come over the past
week in the phones and in the emails. I do it as a horticulture
extension agent, certainly do it here on the radio, and people right now
are concerned about trees and trees dying. It seems that in some areas,
certain kinds of trees are just here and there turning brown randomly. And I
always kind of sit back and sigh on those general why's my tree dying questions,
because sometimes it's simple, it's easy. It's like, here's the answer,
or here's what to do. But most of the time it's not.
Usually it's related to a bunch of factors that all come together and take down
that tree. It could be a drought that weakened the tree, and now
a disease it's moving in. Or then we had a freeze that killed tissues
in the tree and so now a canker is moving in. Or it's just
one thing ast another, and as the patient that be in the tree gets
weakened, it's more susceptible for things to take it out, and it's often
frustrating. I had a call a few weeks ago, and it was a
bunch of postalk trees. Those are common in the postoke belt that goes across
Texas, and they were they had three in the front yard, two look
perfectly fine, in one just they said overnight. Actually probably took about a
week to notice it, but it just turned brown. The whole thing turned
brown, And why that one? Why not? The other two don't have
an answer to that. Every tree, unless it is a variety, has
a variety name, every like crape myrtles have variety names. Every tree is
a seedling that's come from you know, planning an oak seed in the ground,
an oak acorn in the ground to grow that tree. Maybe the scrolls
did it, maybe you did it, but that's maybe the garden sent or
the nursery that grew it did it. But so they're all genetically different again,
excluding something that would be a clone that would be grafted or budded onto
a plant, And so that just adds more variation in what's going on.
What can we do. What we can do is before the fact, Before
the fact is when we would take care of, you know, those kinds
of issues that might crop up later by preventing the stress. So for example,
if it goes a long time without raining and it's very hot and at
least two weeks, then I would definitely give them a good soaking of water.
You don't have to water your trees every day, in fact, don't
do that, just periodically good soaking in the hot, hot weather as much
as you can give a young tree a big mulch bed where it's not competing
with grass that's going to grow faster. You just want to avoid keeping the
weed eater in the lawn more away from the tender bark of young trees.
That's another thing you want to avoid over applying some types of herbicides, especially
right before a gully washer rain, because there are herbicides that are labeled to
use in your grass, but they're hard on woody ornamentals like trees and shrubs
and woody vines, and so you just have to be careful and use those
carefully according to the label. We create a lot of the problems that we
see with our trees. If you're doing some summer planting or you're planting on
some fall planting, I think you need to look at has to grow six
twelve six. The has to grow six twelve six is a it's a quality
product. The way I use it is I would put it into a container.
Of course, you dilute it with water and then a container like a
watering can, and then I would water in my transplants with it. I
like to water in transplants with a fertilize. There's got a good amount of
phosphorus in it that helps with you know, the establishment of the plant and
the many things that the roots need. The Hastego six twelve six has that,
but it also has humic acid. It's got Medina soil activator, and
it's got seaweed extracts in It's it's the whole package. So if you want
to use it as a folery application, you can do that as well.
I just typically for me, it's water in your transplants when you plant them.
And that could be a little tomato plant, that could be a like
you know, marigold or some flour or I mean, it could be even
a shrub or a perennial that you put in the ground. Just water it
in, well, do it again a week later, and do it again
a week after that, so three times you're you're taking care of that plant,
getting it started. Now you can continue to use it after that,
but by that time we're hoping that it's getting some roots established in the soil.
It's gonna build up your biological activity. It's going to promote both blooming
and fruiting, and it's a it's just a good overall product low salt contents,
so you're not going to burn your plants with Medina's has to grow six
twelve six. I talking about different kinds of plants that people like and the
different things that they're calling about. One of the one of the other things
that I've been getting a lot of questions about is the lawn surprise, surprise,
right, and the summer issues that come in the lawn and a lot
of people. You know, if in past years you've been hit hard by
let's say the side web worm, you know, just eight ever leaf off
your grass. Grass bounces back, but boy does it ever look bad for
a while. Then you're kind of like, okay, are they coming this
year? And ever moth that flies by a suspect right, Well, it's
a very unique moth, the web worm, and you need quite a few
of them for them to do their damage. But when they have a explosion
of population, they can be quite significant. I generally keep an eye out
on them, know what I'm looking for, and in the earliest that you
notice them, you need to go ahead and get that treated. Now,
there are treatments that some people will put down that are very persistent that they'll
just put down to cover a long period of times should that pest show up.
But either way, you want to be watching for that. I want
to be watching for chinch bugs. We're starting to see chinch bugs and they
are the ones that start near a driveway, a sidewalks, some masonry structure
and bleed their way out into the lawn. Those are all things that we
need to be concerned about and we need to be dealing with. Another thing
that we might want to be aware of, or I say concerned about,
but at least aware of, is that our roofs are the most one of
the most expensive things that we take care of on our houses. And a
quality roofer is not just everywhere around the corner. You know, you get
people that put the business cards in your door, especially when a storm blows
through. I want to tell you about Brinkman Roofing. Brinkman has been around
for fifty years here and they warrant their work, the quality materials and quality
workmanship for twenty five years of service. You might want to consider their solar
shingles, which isn't one of those solar panels that's it's on the roof.
They are the roof that is a really unique and creative thing, and I
think very aesthetically pleasing. If a metal roof's what you want, delves custom
manufacture a standing seam metal roof on site that fits your home perfectly. Go
to Brinkman Quality dot com. Brickman has two ends at the end. Brinkman
Quality dot Com are two eight one four eight zero seven six six three.
We're gonna take a little break here, our phone number seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. Y'all the cream in my cally, y'all
the salt in my stewl you will all we be. I'd be lost without
you. Good Sunday morning. You are listening to garden Line and we're here
to talk gardening with you. Hey, our phone number. Write this down
seven one three two one two five eight seven four, give us a call,
and whatever horticulturally you're interested in, we'll talk about that. Okay.
I've got to limit myself to something I know a tiny bit about, rather
than venturing on and pontificating about all the other things in life. Although I
myself do that myself, but I won't subject you to it. You know,
the secret of a successful garden begins in the soil. But it also
begins with quality plants. When when we choose plants that are healthy, well
grown, but that are also adapted to where we live, it just makes
it easy to succeed. I mean it just the plants are gonna be adjusted
to the climate, to the heat, the cold, to the rainfall,
to the soils. Those are the things we're looking for when we get to
success. You know, you can go to great links to grow something that
doesn't belong here, you know. So like if you if you wanted to
grow a lilac and you built a little greenhouse, and you air conditioned to
the greenhouse so you could take it down below freezing in the winter. You
get the idea of what I'm saying. I mean, you could grow it
here, but you stick a lilac in the landscape, and well, you
know, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Plants will show up in
cars with lights spinning on top, arrest you and take you to the plant
jail. I mean, that's that is cruel and unusual punishment for plants.
Pick things that are adapted and they'll do well here. Natives are that way.
You know, Native plants do extremely well because they're from the region that
you're growing in, and so that that is one of the key to success.
Why not take it all the difficulties that you can out of growing and
just start right, get the soa right, get good plants, and then
take care of them right. And that's why we're here to advise you along
the way on that. We love feed stores here on Garden Line and one
of my favorite feed stores, and we have a lot of good favorite feed
stores here in the Greater Houston area. But it's up way north, up
in Grimes County. Grimes County is where Navasota is. Grimes County Feed and
Farm. They're in Carlos, Texas on State Highway thirty. So if you
come out of Brian College Station and head down highway, you'll get to them.
If you want to just go this way, go two miles west of
FM two forty four on State Highway thirty. That's how you get there.
So those of you who live in some of the neighborhoods up in that area,
this is your feed store. This is for your pet supplies, this
is for your fertilizers, this is for your garden pest management supplies. Places
like king Oaks and Merewood for example. They've got all the fertilizers that we
talk about here, and they have of course garden seeds and tools and sprayers.
They have quality dog and cat food and they, by the way,
if you have a pond, a farm pond, they do fish stocking twice
a quarter. They bring in fish that they also carry the fish food.
By the way, Grimes County Feed and Farm, that's your hometown feed store
for that whole region up there. So if you're listening anywhere up in that
area, that would be places like beat Eyes, and Iola, and Ron's
Pray. I love to sell all these names, Anderson and Shiro for example.
Those are your hometown feed store towns for Grimes County Feed. Say hi
to Chris and the team when you're in there. They're a great group,
and like all the feed stores we talk about here on garden Line, they
provide personal service and quality products as well. I was taking care of a
houseplant that I have the other day and noticed that I was getting like a
white crusty material on top of the soil. You may have seen that before,
but when you use if you use a salt based fertilizer, that happens
a lot, but they're sometimes just the water quality. In some areas,
you end up as the soil evaporates from the surface, it leaves whatever was
dissolved in the water behind, and you may end up with a white,
crusty kind of material on top. And I'm not quite sure how I got
it in mind, because I wasn't using a salt based fertilizer, but it
just reminded me of the fact that occasionally it's not a bad idea to just
drench our container plants with a lot of water. Hopefully in fact, you
have to have good drainage so it all drains through and out the bottom.
But to kind of wash some of those type of things out of the way,
if that is becoming a concern a truly easy to do. I usually
put mine in the kitchen sink and just, you know, give them the
good drenching there and they turn out to be just fine. Talking about fertilizers
and things, I I really think a lot of Microlife's fertilizers that are liquid
products. Of course, the dry products are great too, but the liquid
products we're talking about, like the orange label and the blue label. I
love to talk about the colors because it makes it easy. You know,
I can say the long name out there and I will do it, but
it's the color that makes it easy to find. So Microlife Biomatrix that's an
orange label. It's a seven one three fertilizer. Got plenty of nitrogen in
it to boost the foliage growth of your houseplants, and that's what you exactly
want to do with your houseplants. It's got beneficial microbes in it, which
is just going to be a benefit to the roots. And then for outdoors,
the Ocean Harvest that's a blue label. Okay. It's a fish based
fertilizer, A four two three. It does great on pretty much anything that
you've got outdoors. It doesn't burn. If you want to dilute it down
and do a foliar spray, a little folior feeding, you can do that
as well. If you're looking for Microlife or if you want to learn more
about these two products and others, Microlife Fertilizer dot com. There you can
find where you can purchase your Microlife products, and you can also learn a
lot about the specifics of these and these two liquids, the orange label Blue
Biomatrix, the blue label ocean harvest. Those are outstanding products if you want
to have good success with your plants, very slow natural way of feeding in
the In the big picture of fruit tree growing, I guess one of the
most important things to keep in mind is that fruit trees have to have good
sunlight to do well. We have a few fruit species that if you've got
some bright dapple shade mostly sun, but dapple shade, they'll do okay.
Blueberries will do okay in that. I found that it's interest us pretty okay
with that. That doesn't mean either of them wants to be an any amount
of shade. It just means they can tolerate it. But most fruit trees,
full sun is important at least six hours because fruit is sweet, sweet
as carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are made in the leaves when the sun shines on them.
So you turn the sun off, and which is what happens when you
move things or plant things in the shade, you just don't get the carbohydrates,
you don't get the fruit production. That's true tomatoes, a lot of
other things. The other thing it's important on fruit trees is drainage. It
rains a lot here. Have you noticed that when it rains, it pours,
and we have a lot of clay soils which tend to be poorly drained.
So with fruit trees, you always want to make sure, if possible,
to put them up on a raised a mound of some sort, just
so when there's excess water it drains away. You don't want to come out
two days after a rain and there's still a lake all around the fruit tree
that you planted. That would be bad news for sure. So good drainage
is really really important. And then of course picking the right varieties, that
is one of the things I a lot of times happens on fruit trees,
and I'll tell you one reason it happens. Well, let me come back
from break. I'll leave you wondering what is the what is the reason that
people plant the wrong varieties? Here our phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. We'll be right back. I saw miles of
jacks all the stars up in the sky. I saw miles and miles jass
good Sunday morning. It is a good Sunday morning, and we're having fun
talking about all things plants. We had a few calls on the line here
we're gonna go to in just one second. But I just want to remind
you that when it comes to success with plants, getting good advice is really
important. That's why we point you to companies, to independent garden centers for
example, that can really provide you that kind of accurate information. Really important
to do that, and I hope that's one reason you listen to garden Line
as well. Well, let's head out. We're gonna go to Mission Valley
and talk to Jobby this morning. Hello Jobby, Hello, Skip enjoy listening
to your program Saturday and Sunday every weekend. Well, thank you. I
got a question about cloning my determinate slice or celebrity. Can I do that?
Then? Would it producing the fall you wanted to do? What to
it? I missed the word take it cutting? Oh cutting? Yes you
can. Actually, if I'm not mistaken, I checked this to be one
hundred percent positive. But I believe sub celebrity is um what not indeterminate?
It's um determinate. It's I was gonna say, semidetermined. Is it not
semideterminate? Well it just says determined it Okay, then that's probably what it
is. Celebrity. Here's what I would do. By this time of the
year, we've got foliage diseases often on our plants. We can have spider
mites that are beginning to build up on our plants. So I take a
cutting off the top maybe let's say six inch cutting, remove the bottom couple
of leaves on it, and then put it down and just a sinkle water
and just slosh it around vigorously a few times. That could wash off spider
mites, a lot of them, you know, Just kind of get it
all cleaned up a little bit there, and then you can put it in
just water, just a glass of water, or if you want to put
it in a little container with some moist soil for it to root, that's
fine. And once it get some roots on it, it's ready to go
back out outside. Just give it a little bit of a break from the
full brunt of thee hundred degrees sun. You know, you if it's that
way when you try to go out there and planet it, if that's the
weather we're having, and it'll get off to a good start. I think
that's the easiest way to do it, if you're rooting it. The alternative
jobby would be if you've got your celebrity, and you can bend a branch
down and put about eight inches back, put a little soil over the stem,
pin it down so it doesn't move. It'll root right where you have
it. And then you just cut it loose from the mother plant and dig
up the mother plane and get rid of it. I have heard that this
plant is not got but just a few leaves left on it. Okay,
So okay, the leaves won't come back anywhere else, willie. You may
get some shoots where there was a leaf at the base of a leaf,
you will have a bud for making a new shoot on a tomato. And
sometimes that could happen, like if you cut it back. But I find
that in this kind of stressful weather, you cut a tomato back pretty hard
and it may just flat die, especially if you, you know, get
down way past the leaves. Well, I made a mistake and put them
in containers that were too small for this the heat we've been having it.
Yeah, so I guess I really, Well, that's how we Yeah,
that's how we learn. I'd say ten gallons. If it's a celebrity tomato,
I wouldn't go less than ten gallons on it. Oh yeah, Well,
I guess it's a little three gallon thing is just not quite up to
the ask. Well, you just you just didn't set a lawn chair beside
it and water it every hour through the day and it would have been fine.
I think it seemed like it needed. So yeah, thank you,
Joe, thank you. I appreciate back. You. Take care. Oh
my gosh, let's go to Mike and Lake Jackson. Mike, how are
you today and how can we help? Yeah? Going skip hope. You
had a what you were talking about past thirtier hun in the program, and
I had a dative the country came up volunteer and it was growing the nicest,
pretty straightest trunk until the squirrel's get to it and they pretty well to
shoot all the bark off of all the limbs. So it was about four
inches in diameter at the base and I cut it off about refit up,
but I didn't finish the job. Well, I got two good sized beams
that are coming out of just below where I cut it off, about two
inches in diameter. Well, okay, earlier I had crafted on some stock
from a tree that came from a red Dad's place, and they're doing really
well, okay, and so I used electrician tape to hold them in place.
And if they're busting out the tape, good, Yeah, I was.
I was wondering, when do you start trimming back some of the naighty
branches and how long does it take these things to really yea develop. I
would take everything below the graft off. How how long are the shoots on
the graft you did? Oh, one of them is about two and a
half feet yeah, another one it's not quite so big. Yeah, but
yes, for them all together, yeah, I would take I would take
all those off. You you have one other option that I might recommend,
Mike, and that would be to tip all of them, cut four inches
out of the tips of every growing shoot on the rootstock. We're gonna call
it the root stock, and that stops them from getting energy and vigor to
you know, take energy that should go into your graft, but it leaves
the leaves on them to keep supplying the roots system, to keep that root
system strong. Because if you took every leaf off and you just had the
graft, that's a pretty big shock knocking the tree back like that. So
I would do that. You could take them off one at a time,
in the next few months, or you could just wait until winter then to
take them all off. But if you just leave them all now, those
root stock shoots are going to really have the upper hand. And and you
want that energy that would go into them to go into your graft. Okay,
Yeah, I'd heard that if you're trimming back too much, that it
puts too much energy into the graft. And yeah, they don't form right,
But you got it. And then he kept real quick questions. When
you see a reet coming out the tree, you know, like they'll get
big, does each root supply a certain part of the tree or together?
Yes? In general, just think of it like highways of tubing that go
from the end of a route all the way up to some end of a
branch leaf area at the top. So in general that's true, yes,
okay. And in Buln every year there's patches that just after you know,
the springtime, they just start getting dull, same places every year. And
I've used everything you've talked about that seems to help. Well, Mike,
I'm gonna I want to put you on hold. Could you send me some
pictures of that. Josh will give you a way to send them to me.
Let me see the whole area what it looks like, and then get
as close as you can so I can see the leaves and what's going on
there, and that would that would be helpful. I appreciate your call.
We're gonna they're gonna move on, but I'd be glad to help if I
have those photos to help. You know, the folks at Verdant Tree Farm
are having their Christmas in July sale. Now, the Christmas in July sale
means ten to fifty percent off of the tree purchase itself if you purchase it
with an install that's not off the install cost, but off the tree itself.
But that is a huge discount, an excellent opportunity to get a quality
tree, which is what Verdant produces. They've got a location out on Barker,
Cyprus, west side of town, down south in Paarland on West Broadway
and in the heights at Yale and I ten. Verdant Tree Farm has those
kind of quality trees. And you know, I can't can't imagine buying a
tree without also buying a tree hugger sprinkler. Tree hugger sprinklers you put them
around the base of that new tree. Where all the root system is.
You just turn them on a little bit in water, that original rich cylinder
that's in the ground, and when you do that kind of thing, you
end up with a tree that not only survives, but thrives. You can
go to a tree hugg sprinklers dot com to find a retailer near you tree
Hugger Sprinklers dot com. But look at that as an insurance policy on that
quality tree that you purchase that has just been planted. Well, you've been
listening to garden Line this morning, and we're gonna be listening to guarden Line
for another couple hours. Let's see what is at seven, eight nine.
Yeah, we have three hours left on this. I want to remind you
that in the eight o'clock hour, Scott McGrath with McGrath Pest Control is going
to come in. So if you have any questions termites, or roaches,
fire ants, even chinch bug, I mean anything that is a pest,
rats and squirrels in the attic. Scott is an expert on all these things
and we're going to pick his brain. So I hope you'll give us a
call and you can ask a question about how do you manage this what can
be done about it? As you know, anything you have, Scott McGrath,
that will be in the eight o'clock hour, so please stick around and
please be ready with a few questions for that. In the meantime, we're
heading to break our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip rictors just watching
as well. Good Sunday morning, beautiful day outside. I hope you're enjoying
yourself, maybe getting a cup of coffee in your hand to kind of get
your eyes to open up and joined the rest of the world. Today.
We are talking gardening today. That's what we do every time on Saturdays and
on Sundays here on garden Line, and it's a Colin show. You're welcome
to give us a call if you have a question. Seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. Seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. I always enjoy visiting great garden centers and if you're looking for
a place this afternoon, I mean go out and kind of do a visit
and check out some garden centers. I would suggest you give a consideration to
Enchanted Gardens that's out in Richmond. If you're Richmond area and you head north
kind of toward Katie direction, that's where Enchanted Gardens is. They're on FM
three fifty nine on the Katie Fulsher side of Richmond. You can go to
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com, Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com and find out about
enchanted gardens. I'll tell you this, it is a sea of color as
far as the eye can see. Beauty color, herbs, vegetables, antique
roses, rose, hybrid roses, Yeah, just ever kind of plant you
can imagine. They have some beautiful bee bomb in the Jacob klined bbomb deep
red, beautiful, Oh gosh. It is a magnet for butterflies, for
hummingbirds. And the petals are great for decorating a garnish on salads. By
the way, I'm doing an article in Texas Gardener magazine next issue on ornamentables,
ornamentals that you can eat, and this would be an example of that.
A beautiful flower garden plant that also the petals are used in your cuisine,
or they can be making a tea or something along those lines. Anyway,
back to enchanted gardens, they have a super selection of a variety of
plants. If you're doing a little container maybe let's say you want to plant
a summer tough color container. Well, person is about as tough as you
can get. I mean, that is an extremely beautiful, extremely floriferous,
tough plant. Another plant that I really like, or the soree vincas if
you know vinca, or we also call it Madagascar periwinkle, and just imagine
a miniature version of that. That's soree. Great for filling it around the
side of a container as you have something taller in the center. That's also
available out in Channa Gardens out in Richmond. Maybe a good day to plan.
In fact, I know it is a good day to plan to visit
out to check them out. You're listening to garden Line. Our number is
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. If you've ever thought about keeping bees, if
you've ever you thought, you know, I'd love to have some bees in
the backyard. Can I do that. Well, yes you can. There
are guidelines to it, but yes you can. You need to know about
the B Supply out in Dayton. The B Supply out in Dayton is the
prime B supply store in this whole state. Now. Actually they have locations
a couple other locations around the state, but they have everything you could need
to. Number one, learn about bees. Number two, get equipped to
take care of bees, and then have that support day after day, week
after month after month as you're getting the feel of what it is to keep
bees and how to do that. The beginner classes once a month during this
warm season out in Dayton. The beginner class is super super quality classes.
They also have free honey tours out there at the B Supply once a month
also, and you can just bring your group out there. If you've got
a good sized group, call them ahead of time. Maybe you would even
need to schedule a special day for that, but groups can come out when
they have their tours and just learn amazing things about bees. Go to the
B Supply dot com the B Supply dot com and you can find out more
from that. Well, we're going to head out to Galveston and talk to
Bill. Hello, Bill, Hi, Rick, Hi. My question is
that you skip me if you get the photos I sent you yesterday, Yes,
the citrus tree, grape fruit I believe it was, Yes, Yeah,
I did. And there's a lot going on on that tree. The
cold, you know, initially killed a lot of limbs, but there's still
damage from the cold that the tree is just not recovering from. There's places
on the trunk that probably had a crack in them, and the tissues and
the cankers have gotten inside that, and that's what you said. One of
your pictures had the bleeding along the trunk that underneath there, if you were
to scrape back with a knife, there'd be a lot of brown streaked tissues
that are basically dying underneath that area. And the other thing overall, it
just it looks okay in terms of the leaves, but though some of the
leaves are really showing that they're just not getting a good supply from the roots.
And part of that could be because the pathway where water and nutrients come
up through the roots through the trunk out the branches to the leaves somewhere along
that's being disrupted, and it could be the cankers that I'm talking about that
are doing that, and that's why when the demands go up, you may
see a whole branch collapse. It's like it was hanging on, but now
the demands so high that it can't it can't pump enough water to those leaves,
and so you lose that branch. What do you do. There's not
a canker spray, So you just try to keep it as healthy as you
can with water, fertilizer as needed. But you wait and you hope.
But I think the long term potential for that tree is somewhat limited, and
so I wouldn't put money on that we can get this tree back going again.
If you don't want to give up on it for now, that's fine.
But there's just a lot going on in those photos. So you can't
do it about cankers. There's not a spray for the canker, No,
there isn't. It's a it's a it's kind of like having a cut on
your arm that got infected and then putting a little member mathiolate mercur comb.
Those things you just put over the top. That are what rubbing alcohol over
the top to just kill everything. It doesn't get down down there in your
arm and deal with the problem. And that's how cankers are. They're running
inside the tissues of the tree trunk or the branch, and the sprays we
put on superficially just don't do it. And there's not a systemic that moves
up there and does a very good job of that either. So cankers or
bugs, oh no, canker is a disease. It's a disease. Think
of it as a disease underneath the bark and the living tissues of the floum
and cambium that are underneath the bark that do all the transporting of everything through
the plant. Okay, So if I so, if I end up taking
that, you're digging that thing up with the cankers still being with the be
in the ground or no, they're those kind of things are ubiquitous. You
know. Again to use the cut on your arm analogy. If you have
a cut in your arm, it's not because you have diseases in you or
around you. It's because they're in the environment. And you know, bacteria
and things can get in that fresh cut and cause infection. And that's how
a canker works too. So you could plant real close just move over a
little bit to get away from the old stump location, and you could just
replant a new tree if you want to do that. Well, I was
thinking about having somebody come in and dig up the stump and the whole thing.
That'd be fine, that'd be a good way to do it. Yeah,
So it's it's kind of a flip of the coin, flip of the
coins your tree. Do you want to try to give it a chance or
do you want to pull it out? But either way, I don't think
there's a black and white answer on that one. Bill. Hey, thanks
for those pictures, and thank you for the call. I'm gonna have to
run to a break our phone number seven one three two one two five eight
seven four. Don't let the sound you still don't even try. Good morning.
You are listening to garden Line and we are talking about whatever you're interested
in. Here a phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. If you were thinking about retiring and you are looking what community do
I want to live in? What area part of the area would I like
to live in? I would suggest you take a good hard look at the
dellweb community, which is down in full shirt less than two miles from Fulsher
on FM three fifty nine. Now you know Dell weeb bills homes for active
adults age fifty five and better. They've got those lifestyle programs that are designed
around you. And that's what makes it more than just a house. I
mean, it's a community. And speaking of community, they're putting in a
community garden at this location that I am helping them with. And so I
hope you would check out that new Fullsher community and discover the Dellweb difference for
yourself. You can call them two eight one four or five nine zero six
zero nine, or if you want to go to dellweb dot com slash Houston
you can find out a lot more that way as well. That just sounds
like a win win when it comes to you know, just a if you're
a gardener and you just get all the benefits of all of that and a
community garden. Man, I can't wait to see that that dream fully finished
and realized. A lot of people are going to really enjoy that. It's
time if you have not done a summer fertilization to get one out. We
want to put something down that is slow release that gradually releases. What kind
of product does that well, A product designed to reduce the release and spread
it out over time, and that would be for example, Slow and Easy
from Nelson Plant Food. Slow and Easy. It's a twenty two two ten
ratio, awesome ratio, lots of nitrogen in it, but you don't get
a flush of growth because it gradually releases that nitrogen overtime, so thatch development
doesn't become a problem. Water consumption doesn't become a problem because over and fertilizing
at one time with nitrogen causes time growth at the expense of root growth.
Slow and Easy has all that fixed. They've got it taken care of for
you. It'll be the last fertilization you need to do until the fall.
Nelson Plant Food awesome lines of fertilizers, Color Star, Nutral Star, Turf
Star, Nature Star, Slow and Easy, and the Turf Star line is
the one that I would be putting on right now. Let's go out to
Memorial and we're going to talk to Cheryl Good or Sharon. How are you
this morning, Cheryl, I'm good, Thank you. Listen. I've enjoyed
your show yesterday and you were talking about trying to keep oxygen to the roots
during this hot weather. Yes, and about mulch, and I've got to
like plants in the ground are doing pretty good, but I'm having wilt with
the ones that are in pots. Yes, I wondered if there any kind
of mulch that he can put in a seven or eight gallant container that would
Sharon, you could do that, but I wouldn't bother. I wouldn't bother
in a container with trying to mulch them. What the problem in the container
is one of several things. The plant is big compared to the size of
the container. In other words, the container needs to be larger. And
you know, when it's the degrees all day here, and I mean it
is pumping water all day, it didn't take long to pump that container dry,
especially if it's terra cotta, it's also wicking things out of the side.
You just you know, whatever plant you're growing, I mean, you
can't go through all the possible plants here, but think about how big that
plant is and choose a container that is large enough for it. Really for
summertime. I just don't plant in anything smaller than a five gallon container,
and that would be small plants bigger containers, or even better, I've got
some that are like two thirds of the size of a whiskey barrel on my
back patio. I can give them a good watering and I don't have to
worry about if I miss a day even they'll be okay, there's just enough
moisture and all that soil. But now if that plant in the container was
a six foot high citrus tree, well that's too small of a container.
You get the idea, right, Yeah, I get it. Yeah,
so water more often in the meantime. Okay, well I can't. There's
no way I can put them in a bigger pot now, yes, so
I'll think about it, you know, during the winter. But anyway,
I guess I'll just but I think maybe just go ahead and try to water.
I'm real good in the morning. And then yes, water until you
see a little bit coming out of the drainage hole in the morning. And
then at the end of the day, when you know it starts to get
a little break in the heat where you feel like you can walk outside again,
you know, maybe six o'clock or seven o'clock, give them do the
same thing again, give them a good soaking and they'll be fine, or
you could do it a little earlier, and if you want to do it
five o'clock, that's just fine too. Oh okay, okay, good,
that's that's good. Thank you so much. And the other thing I was
going to ask about, it's like fall tomatoes. We have a greenhouse where
we can bring them in when it gets cold, and we had such a
good crop this summer in pots on the deck, So when would be the
best time to go ahead and start that with transplants? You're I'm sorry,
I'm not I guess I missed something that you said on that you're wanting to
start tomato transplants for putting in the house of the winter. Yeah. Well,
yeah, just just un chill they ripe and up. But I don't
need them in the greenhouse right now. I just wanted to get them started
outside. And then the fastest way to start is to take a cutting off
the plants. You have, take that cutting about six eight inches long.
Six inches is enough, slash it in the sink of water to just wash
off fall, the spider mites or anything tiny thing that may be on there,
and then put it either in a glass of water where it'll root or
you can put it in some very moist soil. You want it in a
bright area but not direct sun, and it'll form roots. Within a week.
You're going to see roots on that thing. And well, unfortunately my
husband already has removed them from the primitive alight, all right, and get
some seeds starting mix, get some tomato seeds of the variety you want,
and plant them today. I mean, whatever you want to plant them,
it's okay. Yeah, don't delay. If you're starting from seed, don't
delay because it takes six to six to eight weeks just to get a really
good sized transplant and kind of a shady place or very bright shade, very
bright maybe a little morning sun to get it going. But you really need
to watch those things that they don't dry out. So I'll put a tray
that doesn't drain underneath them where I can put some water in that tray that's
about a quarter inch up on the pots and it just wicks right up in
the pots for you, and that won't be over watering them. But they
also won't dry out that way if you forget the water for a day.
Okay, Well, thank you very very much. I appreciate the call.
Thank you our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
If you're looking for a one stop shop where you're going to find all
the fertilizers that we talk about here, a lot of the soils that we
talk about here, and a wide variety of products where the pesticides, fungicides,
its exticides, all of those kinds of things. That's Ace Hardware.
And the nice thing about Ace Hardware, well, one of the one hundred
nice things about ACE Hardware is there's one near you, thirty nine of them
in the Greater Houston area, so you you know you're not gonna have to
go far to find an Ace Hardware. Quality staff, quality employees that they
know what they're talking about. They can help you. They can take you
to the products that they need, and they're not going to sell you something
you don't need. You can visit with them there, can go out and
look at the different things that they have to offer, and you're going to
find so much stuff to turn your patio upside down into a beautiful, beautiful
place. We're outdooring, entertaining. If you have things that you need inside
the home, it's Ace Hardware Store. They've got everything. Go to ace
Hardware dot com or you can and you can find one of the thirty nine
new You just check the store locator and it'll it'll take you right to the
ones in your area. One of my favorite things, I said this earlier,
one of my favorite things to do on you know, weekend days,
is to get out and visit our local mom and pop garden centers. And
if you are at all a gardener, you get so inspired when you go
to one of those quality garden centers. And an example of what I am
talking about, a prime example would be the Arbigating Nursery up in tumble there
on two twenty one twenty, just about a mile and a half west of
two forty nine. The Arbigate is just a show place. You wander through
there, the plants, the gift shops, it's just outstanding. But while
you're there, look at their one two three completely easy system. What is
a one two three easy system. Well, first of all, it's an
organic food that's complete. That's a four four three organic food, so it's
got the micro nutrients as well in it. It also has ten percent calcium,
very high quality. Anything that you're planting that needs fertilizer. This would
be a great choice for that. They also have the Organic Soil Complete,
which is a mixture. It's got composts, got some large particle sand,
and it also has expanded shale. And then speaking of expanded shale, the
Organic Compost Complete has compost quality compost, two different types blended together, incredible
beneficial MicroB diversity in that, and it also has shale. What's the deal
with shale? Well, in a clay soil, shale, unlike compost,
doesn't just essentially oxidize away. It sticks around for a long time. So
we always want to add compost star plants. That improves the soil. But
let's say you're planting a rosebush or something and it's in a clay soil,
and you want to make sure the internal drainage is good. Adding the shale
in there helps improve that. And that's what I think is such a great
idea for ArBB gates soil and compost as they put the shale into both of
those products, and just over time, as you mix that in the soil,
that clay soil gets better and better with its aeration and internal drainage.
It's so fun to buy plants to bring home and be inspired to create that
beauty in your landscape. If you're someone who loves beauty but doesn't necessarily want
to be the do it yourself or hey, that's okay. Pure Scapes is
our garden line preferred landscaper, and they can be all that. Their designers
are outstanding. They can look at your place, they can work with you
to create a beautiful design that is just going to be inspiring. Do you
need a new garden? Do you want to put in a hardscape of some
sort? Do you need drainage improvement most people do. Does your irrigation system
need a little bit of repair, maybe landscape lighting or just mulching, trimming
things. They can do all of that. Peerscapes experience and professionally trained employees.
You know, I think that the average tenure for their employees is over
ten years. That these are people that stuck around. They know what they're
doing, and there's a reason for that quality. If you want to book
an appointment two eight one three seven zero five zero six zero, or you
can go to Piercescapes dot com Peerscapes dot com and again the number two eight
one three seven zero five zero six zero. Let them get you off to
a great start and then you can pick it up from there, bringing those
plants you just can't live without home to put in your landscapes and in your
gardens. Well, you've been listening to garden Line, and you're gonna hopefully
continue to listen. We'll be here until ten o'clock today. Our phone number
is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. By the way,
at the eight o'clock hour, we're gonna have Scott McGrath McGrath Pest Control
in so any kind of a pest problem or rodent problem that you have,
please call in at the eight o'clock hour. It's your chance to talk to
Scott and ask your question. Hey, welcome to garden Line. We are
here to answer gardening questions and let's talk all kinds of things plants with you.
Our phone number seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and let's visit about the kind of questions
you might have. You know, I was talking about fertilizing earlier, the
Microlife liquid products, and I just also want to remind you that they have
a great line of the bagged dry granular products. It's easy to put them
out, you know, with your fertilizer spreaders. You know, Microlife is
the number one selling organic fertilizer here in the Houston area. And there's a
good reason for it. I mean it is. Not only does it have
the three numbers on the bag by the way, for your law and I
would get the green bag that's a six to four, but it has dozens
and dozens of other nutrients as well, because your plant doesn't just need NPK,
it needs all the other secondary nutrients. It needs the micronutrients of what
we call trace elements, and it has them all in there. It also
contains lots of beneficial microbes and organisms and things that are important for the roots
system and important for the soil quality. So I would recommend if you do
the green bag, that you follow it up with the Humates plus, which
is the purple bag. The purple bag is the humans plus. Think of
it as concentrated compost in a bag. I mean, if you were to
take compost and just bring it right down to the basic concentrated content, that
would be the humates plus. So it helps with the loosening soil and of
course, adds so many nutrients and minerals. Your lawn overtime just gets better
and better and better. This isn't just like I need a quick fix.
This is like, how do I start taking care of my lawn and make
it get better and better over time? Microlife safe for humans, say for
animals, safe for the planet. You can go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com
and find out where to get these products or just read more about them.
There's lots of locations where Microlife is available in the Greater Houston area. Earlier,
I was mentioning writing an article Texas Gardner magazine. For those of you
who don't know Texas Gardener, you might not have heard. We had Jay
White, the editor here on the show a while back. In fact,
I'm gonna try to get him back in towards the end of summer here.
I believe we're gonna have him in as well. But Texas Gardener is the
only statewide independent gardening magazine that I know of in the country. A lot
of states have had gardening magazines that went by the wayside. Texas Gardener has
survived all these decades, and in fact, if you've been watching it,
lately it is just getting bigger and better and stronger all the time. I
mean the quality, the photography, the layouts, I mean the stories.
It's a gardening magazine by gardeners for gardeners, and I know that because I
know the people that write for it, and they know what they're talking about,
and I write for it as a matter of fact. And so if
you're just looking for a good local gardening magazine, you know you can have
the fine gardening magazines those kinds of things. Throw them on the on the
what coffee table there to impress your friends or whatever. Beautiful pictures, but
don't don't do what they said in them, because it was written in New
Jersey, for crying out loud. But Texas Gardener has written for Texas,
and we are fortunate to be the only of the fifty states that I know
of to have that kind of statewide private magazine. I think somewhere up in
the Northwest there's like a plant society or something. Plant organization has a state
wide magazine, but that's a different, different thing than an independent for profit
magazine. Texas Gardners really really great read. By the way, I'm going
to be at an event that I think you may be interested in the OBO.
The Organic Horticulture Benefits of Alliance is having an event called Let's Stock Gardening.
They are going to be at the Axelrad Beer Garden. That's at fifteen
seventeen Alabama Street, Axelrad Beer Garden and it is going to be on July
thirteenth. Hey, that's just around the corner right next Thursdy from five to
eight pm. If you would like to come, you'll get to I'll be
there and meet me. You'll also get to meet j White from Texas Gardener
if you want to, and Destinok, our Texas Garden guy will be there
as well. So lots of fun opportunity. It used to interact with us.
If you go online to OBA online, OHBA online, dot org,
slash register, you can save your spot. It's a free event. Free
to go again July thirteenth, this Thursday, five to eight pm at the
axle Red Beer Garden. That ought to be fun. Well, let's see
we Earlier on I was discussing some issues with trees, you know, the
importance of picking the right species, of planting them properly, and the tree
issues that we run into around here. And you know the trees are their
long term investments in the landscape. I had an older gentleman I knew up
in Willis, Texas. He showed me one time a picture of an old
house they had, and then he showed a picture of the tree when they
planted. This little tree looked like a broomstick out there in the yard in
front of the house. And then he came back forty years later and showed
me a picture and it was like that tree was worth or in the house.
I mean it, it was awesome. That's what we're going for.
But if you want to have trees that are like that, you need to
have somebody to take care of them that knows what they're doing. One bad
printing job, one ill advised treatment can cause problems for a tree. And
the people that know what they're doing are Affordable Tree Service, Martin Spoon Moore,
his wife Joe. They are the owners. They answer their own phones.
If you dial seven one, three, six nine, twenty six sixty
three, you're going to talk to Martin or Joe. They are a professional.
You can go online to Afftree Service dot com find out more from that.
But hey, the storm season, the hurricane season is upon us,
and do you have some limbs that may need to be removed? Is something
dead or broken up in the tree, Is it hanging over your house or
over that power line? Drop? Get it taken care of, and get
it taken care of by a professional, because remember, a bad printing job
is a permanent, ongoing problem for your tree. These folks know what they're
doing and they do everything else you need for trees, deep root feeding,
you know, just advising, consulting, you can harm to come out and
do that. It is nice hiring somebody and knowing that if they tell you
something's needed, they're being honest and it is needed and they know what they're
talking about, so it is needed, and that's affordable tree service. I
think I'm a broken record when it comes to soil, and I'm not ashamed
to be a broken record when it comes to soil either. You know,
we have so many different issues that can happen with plants, but starting with
quality soil and having a raised bed, a good mix and all that,
it just gets you off on the right foot. You are well on your
way to success. I would say you're eighty percent of your way to success
when you plant the plant because you either have a raise better you don't.
Drainage is good or it's not. It's shadi or it's sunny, and the
plant's going to have an opinion about that. But most importantly that soil is
a good soil. We hope right. Well, Nature's Way resources, that's
all they know how to do is create good soil. They were the originators
of the rose soil, the originators of the leaf mold compost. By the
way, on Fungal Fridays you can get ten percent off their bag products and
twenty percent off their bulk. They have like two to three thousand yards of
fungal composts out there, so they have plenty of that and you cannot get
a higher quality compost than a well screened fungal compost made like a leaf mold
compost for example. Now they also have a two acre nursery, fruit trees,
native perennials, houseplants, seasonal plants, one of the best selections of
native plants here in the Houston area. So there's just one stop shop.
While you're out there, check out that nursery while you're picking up your other
supplies. A Nature's Way always takes her time and They always produce a quality
product. They don't rush it out the door to make the cash register ring.
They take their time so when you get it, it is fully and
well composted in the proper way. Well, let's take a break. Our
phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Good Sunday
morning, on a beautiful day, and as every day is a good day
for gardening, we are here to talk about the things that interest you when
it comes to gardening. Our phone number seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I
love to visit with gardeners. I love to visit about gardening, and as
you probably noticed, I try to use the questions that we get as an
opportunity to kind of instruct and teach and help you get a concept of why
things happen out there in the garden and landscape. You know, I know.
We we go straight to the what is the problem, what I need
to fix it? And where do I get what I need to fix it?
And that's that's the simple ABC's of getting to the bottom of this.
But it also helps a little bit to know about why things are the way
they are. And here's why that helps. It's because when you know why
something is happening, you're better able to avoid it in the future or maybe
to take steps to prevent it in the future. There's a National Gardening host
that says, I think, how does he put it to know the why
do but behind the how to? I think that's how he says that.
In other words, instead of just how do you do it? Why do
you do it that way? And it makes you a better gardener overall learning
those principles and I lean on those kind of things all the time in horticulture.
You know, basic things that I've learned over the years, things that
I were taught and getting my masters in horticulture, the principles of how nutrients
work, how diseases work, how insects work, how plants work, and
it just it just helps you to get to the bottom of things overall.
So I'll try not to bore you with too much of the nerdy stuff,
but maybe just drop a little bit of it in here and there so you
can become a better and better gardener, because you know, one of the
things about gardeners is we're forever learners. I mean we are we it's you
never finished learning about gardening. There's always a new plant, always a new
way to do something. It's just new diseases and insects that arrive in the
area, a new technique. It's just garden. That's what makes one of
the things that makes gardening fun. We're forever learners. We're also forever optimists,
and I hope you will be that and not let a brown thumb that
you think you have discourage you because gardening. How many of you are old
enough to remember etch a sketches? Remember those things you you sort of had
two knobs and you had to go up and down or left and right,
and you trying to draw a circle on an etches sketches like But anyway,
if you messed up, you just turned it upside down and shook get and
the whole picture went away and you got to start over. We can do
that in gardening. It's called changing of the seasons. It's called using a
Rhodo teller to get rid of the thing that didn't work and start something new.
It's always a fresh palette, and that is one of the things that
I enjoy so much about gardening. Hey, if you guys have any kinds
of pest questions you. I hope we'll stick around for the eight o'clock hour
just around the corner, and we're gonna have Scott McGrath Pest Control on here
now. McGrath Pest Control. They've been in business since what nineteen seventy four,
I believe like over forty eight years. For sure, it is still
a family run business. It is a business that the owner is intimately involved
with. You know, it's still family run. They serve the whole Houston
area, Greater Houston area, and they when they tell you something, you
can take it as gold, like here's a problem you have. They're not
just making something up. Here's what we need to do for it. They're
telling you what act really needs to be done. It's you need to be
able to trust your service companies. And that's what I like about McGrath pass
Control. You don't have to sign a contract. You call them. They
may advise you and say, hey, next whatever month you ought to consider
having this done. But you don't sign a contract with them. You call
them when you need them. They schedule a time and they show up at
that time. You don't have to block half your day waiting and by the
way, wondering, as with many service companies, are they going to even
show up? They set a time and they do show up. Super highly
rated company. I just I think McGrath is the way I would put it.
It's old time customer service with today's technology. So stick around for eight
o'clock our we're gonna have Scott on and we're gonna pick his brains on bugs.
And if you have any questions about insects, pass rodents and things,
write that question down, give us a call an eight o'clock hour and we
will get right to it. Speaking of getting right to it, I think
we ought to head out to north Shore now and to Diana. Hello Diana,
thanks for waiting. Hi, no problem. I have a beautiful pecan
tree. It's probably six year or seventy feet tall, very well established.
About eight years back, I had it pruned because of a storm and since
then it has not produced any pecans. And the pecans are the paper shell
type. I don't know the name of the tree. Yeah, that's taking
good health. Well, that's very interesting. I don't know why pruning now.
I could see excessive pruning and a lot of igorish regrowth, maybe you're
you're not getting much of a production for lo Wante kind of settles in a
little bit. But pecans. The reason pecans don't produce is a lack of
pollination. That's the main reason. And so you know, I'm just sitting
here and here I am grabbing at straws. Going back to those horticultural principles.
If the pecans either come in one of two types type A type B
we call them. They have fancy words attached to them, but basically they
mean does it produce receptive nutlets first or does it produce pollen first. They
don't do those at the same time on a tree typically, So if you
have one that's produces nutlets first and your neighbor has one that produces pollen first,
then they take care of each other. Those trees make sure pollen nation
and pecans set happens. So if a neighbor had a tree and there are
no other pecans anywhere nearby and that tree was taken, well, that could
be a reason that yours might stop producing. That's a long shot, right,
but that is something that could happen. Pecans also alternate bear, so
if they were a really heavy crop one season, they will not have a
crop at all, hardly the next season. And but you're talking about more
than just a year out. So all I know to think is it just
needs to grow a little more and settle in. Maybe there's not it's not
because it's lacking a nutrient in the soil. There's no spray that you spram
pecans. It makes them produce. They just need good sunlight and they should
do okay, So do the leaves and everything look okay on it. Yes,
it's a beautiful tree. Well, you know, you may need to
go out and talk to it. You may need to go out and talk
to it. I have done that. I've done the plant's stakes. Now
I want to This is a true story. My Pecan culture professor, doctor
Story at Texas A and M. Told this story. There's an old timer
and whenever a tree didn't produce, he would go out there with a hatchet
and he'd walk around the tree, hitting it in the trunk with that hatchet,
and it just kind of fussing and cussing and telling the tree, if
you do not produce next year, I'm coming back and I'm cutting you down.
I'm gonna finish the job. And next year it produced like crazy.
Well a, it's that alternate bearing was already happening. But also when you
hit it with a hatchet, you're backing. You're cutting the tissues that take
carbohydrates down to the roots and you're backing them up and so you get a
better nuts set from now. But he thought it was his threatening talking to
But I wouldn't recommend that. But you know whatever, give it a try.
You've had good luck. I hope that tree produces for you fun stuff,
right, fun stuff. If you are interested in the birding world,
wild Birds Unlimited as a place you need to go. And I used to
not be a birding person until I walked in to a wild Bird's Unlimited,
bottle of feeder, bottle of bird house, bought some of their quality feeds
that they have and began getting into it. And like I said before,
guarding is a multi century experience. So that means we see beauty with our
eyes, we smell fragrance with our nose, and we hear wonderful things with
our ears and birds songs, our songbirds wonderful. You need to go to
wild Bird right now because our bluebirds, cardinals, chickens and rims are all
in their nesting season and get the nesting super blunt. It's perfect for summer
feeding all the way through August. That would be a great one for birds,
especially as a lot of them are going to be going through molting later
on. Go Towbu dot com forward Slash HOUSTONWBU dot com Forward Slash Houston.
You're going to find the wild birds all around near you, Katie Kingwood Cyper's
Parlam bel Air, West Houston. That also clearly, Hey you're listening to
Guardline. We are gonna go to our top of the hour break for news
and more. And I just want to remind you Scott McGraths coming up next
hour. So what are your questions? You got some about termites, You
got pantry pests. You know, there's those little critters that get into the
flower and the other things you have stored in the pantry. Maybe silver fish
are eating up your books inside, on and on and on. No limit
to the number of insects. Oh my gosh, that I forget about cockroaches.
We are the cockroach capital of the world right here in the Houston,
Texas area. Scott will tell you about how to deal with them. Let
us talk about some of the things that you might be interested in when it
comes to pest. But it would be best if you guys had some questions
that are of interest to you, because someone else will have those same kinds
of questions. Hang around, We'll be right back. KATRH Garden Line does
not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome
to KTRH Garden Line with skip rictor just watching as so many. Well,
good morning, good Sunday morning. We are glad you're listening. Had a
great time with Scott McGrath talking insects. The last hour we're our lines will
be open for things that you might be interested in talking about this hour.
Just give us a call seven one three two one to fifty eight seventy four.
By the way, if you were out and about today, I would
suggest first of all that you consider grabbing some azmite to take home put on
your lawn if you haven't done that before. And here's why. Now.
Fertilizers have a lot of nutrients in them. As amite specifically is a mind
products. It's a crushed mineral product that it has all of the trace elements
that plants need and more trace elements that we need. Maybe a plant doesn't
need it, but in our bodies, the processes and our bodies, we
need it well. Asamite is the product for that, and you need to
do it about once a year. If you haven't done one, you can
put it down, follow the label, follow the instructions. It'll tell you
you know about forty four pound bag. I believe is about six to twelve
thousand square feet, depending on just how much you're going to put out.
I use it in my vegetable garden because I like to make sure that the
produce I'm producing is loaded with all the nutrients that my body might need.
But you can go online to azamite Texas dot com asamite Texas dot com and
find out more information. That way, I think you will find that azamite
may be one of the missing links because if a plant is lacking any nutrient,
no matter how minuscule the quantity that's needed, if it's lacking at that
limits plant growth. So plants need plenty of nutrients to grow and do well.
Let's head out to Cold Springs this morning and we are going to talk
to Sandra. Hello, Sandra, good morning, good morning. I have
been inundated with caterpillars also, I guess referred to as worms on my tomato
plants that I can't identify. It had an orange head and it feeds in
the daytime. And most of them that I have researched were uh, nocturnal
okay. And I use hay for mulch in my vegetable garden and that was
the only change. But it was fresh hay, and it was good hay.
It's not we day and uh, and that's when the worms started.
Um. I've been able to control them by picking them off, thousands of
them and I used d e just around the stem of the tomato plant.
But they and I've I've got them under control now. But I've never had
them before. I want to identify them for sure. And um, and
wonder if they possibly came in with a oh, well probably not. I
mean it could be, but I wouldn't I wouldn't look to that as the
real issue. There are they feeding on foliage or on tomato fruits? Are
you there, Sander? Yes, I said, oh, both, okay,
excuse me, yes, yes, Well that is unusual. We have
a number of caterpillars that eat tomatoes. We've got the hornworms, which this
is not a hornworm, but hornworms the foliage. We've got tomato pinworms that
are a little tiny hole a small larva feeding. Typically they go in right
where the tomato attaches to the vine. We've got, uh, the corn
ear worm. It's also called the um Oh my gosh, it has about
three or four names. But it's a tomato fruit worm kind of insect that
gets into the fruit, creates a bigger hole. But what's You're just suscribing
the color and everything doesn't ring a bell. Let's do this if you will
take some close up pictures as close as you can get, and make most
importantly, make sure it's in really sharp focus, and email them to me.
I will take a look, and let's go about it that way rather
than me just guessing. I'm gonna put you on hold and Josh will pick
up the call and he will get you away to send me those photos of
the insect. Great, and one more thing. They stand on a stem
or a leaf and drill a hole in the bottom of a tomato hanging on
a stem above it. I gotta see it. Let me see some pictures.
I've got him, Okay, got him all right, well, okay,
great, thank you you, bat. I appreciate that call very much.
You know, the the great garden centers we have around here, I
brag on them all the time because, whether you realize it or not,
you are really, really fortunate to have the garden centers that we have in
the Greater Houston area. I mean, it's just it's truly, truly amazing.
They are absolutely outstanding. Buchanans is one of those kind of garden centers.
They're done in the heights. And you know, Buchannan specializes in native
plants. I mean, if you're looking for native plants, great source.
They even have a table that's just Harris County area natives. You know,
we could have a Texas native plant that's native and El Paso, but these
are they have plants that are native in this region and native specifically in this
Harris County area. Great opportunities for really quality plants there. Now, if
you need flowers, if you need shade plants, any other kind of plant,
they've got it. Outstanding selection of houseplants, by the way, which
this is definitely houseplants season. When the hot weather tends to drive us indoors
a little bit, But go to Buchanan's Plants dot com and you'll see what
I'm talking about. While you're there, sign up for their newsletter because that
is very helpful, very informative. Check them out on Facebook, check them
out on Instagram. You can get constant updates. By the way, I
saw just recently an update. They have the Vego garden beds. You know
I brag on those all the time. Well, Buchanan's Plants one of the
places you can get Vego garden beds in this area. Let's now go to
I'll tell you what, Kevin, I'm gonna have to hold on. Our
time is a little bit too short, but you will be first up when
we come back from a break. If you are dealing with a lawn that
just is not looking its best, you need to consider a Nitrofoss application of
super Turf nineteen four ten. That's the Silver Bags silver Bag super Turf nineteen
four ten. Gradual release over time cuts down on thatch. Therefore, make
sure the plant has a good root system therefore, and it just supports gradual,
healthy growth. You're gonna find nitro Foss Super Turf nineteen four ten at
All has hardware stores all the lot of the garden centers. We talk about
the mom and pops here are going to have that places like plants for all
seasons out there on Lutta or our c W nursery. Lots of places you
can get nitrofoss. But look for the silver bag for nitrofoss super turf.
We're going to take a break our phone number seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. We will get to you Kevin. First thing when
we come back from breaking my dreams to Skip crew about the places that I'm
not to see a speren du you think I'd ever get there? He just
stands there for mom back in me. Well, good Sunday morning. If
you're listening to Garden Line, I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're
here to answer your gardening questions. All you have to do is give us
a call seven one three two one to five eight seven four. Listen.
If you live in the Houston area with our shrinking swelling soils, what does
that mean? What it means? When the clay gets wet, it swells,
When it gets dry, it shrinks. We get cracks in the soil,
big cracks. You can look out in the ground as you walk through
the yard. But worse than that, we get cracks and foundations sidewalks,
driveways. What do you do? Well, what you do is you call
Tai Strickland at Fix my Slab Foundation Repair, or you can just go on
line Fix my Slab dot Com the phone number two eight one two five five
forty nine forty nine. They've been doing this for twenty three years. It's
a local small business with a foundation experience. You want. Maybe your doors
are sticking, you see a crack in the brick outside, or maybe a
sheet rock inside, you need to have someone come in and look at it
because foundation repairs are better best caught early and dealt with properly by somebody who
knows what they're doing. They'll do free estimates. Just tell me your gardenline
listener. You get a free estimate from them. They're committed to a fair
price, they show up on time, and they fix it right. Fix
my Slab dot Com two eight one two five five forty nine forty nine.
Let's head out now we're going to talk to Kevin this morning. Good morning,
Kevin, Hey, good morning. Now are you I'm well? Thank
you? So I've got some issues going on with the front of my lawn.
I've got patches that are just dead. And I'm pretty adamant about taking
care of my lawn. I use a real mower, I keep it real
short, I follow Randy's schedule to a t. And I'm not sure.
I'm just really not sure what's going on. Okay, I've got some pictures,
but yeah, let's talk. Let's talk about it first and see.
First of all, what type of grass is it? Bermuda zois here or
Saint Augustine zoysia grass? Okay, good? And you're mowing it low and
short. The spots that you're seeing the areas, are they next to a
driveway, a sidewalk, curb, masonry structure, or are they just out
in the middle of the yard a little bit of both there between the road
and and in between the road and the sidewalk. I've got a couple of
big patches, but then up towards the flower bed, I've got another patch.
So it's I don't know if it's spreading because I've got green in between,
but it's it's you know, it's just very confusing on what's going on.
Yeah, okay, well, um, the spots do they are they
very kind of neat and tidy, like it's a dark it's a dead spot,
but then it turns green right outside that or do they just sort of
blend into the grass going from dead to healthy? No, the first one,
okay, the first one, Yeah, this is it could be a
disease related issue, probably not insect related, but but it got me.
Yeah, I didn't see any insects around there. I was. Yeah.
And if you know what chinch bugs are, you get on your hands and
knees right between the healthy and the dead in that sick grade, well,
you're gonna find a lot of them. So if you can eliminate that,
that's good. That's one step I tell you from a photo. It is
very difficult diagnosing a lot of the lawn diseases accurately. The next step for
you on that would be to go to that zone between healthy and dead and
to take a sample there, put in a zip closing bag and mail it
to the state Plant Clinic up at Texas A and M. It's it's easy
to get the address. It's Plant Clinic dot TAMU dot edu. If you
go there Plant Clinic dot TAMU dot edu. You can get the submission forum.
It tells you how to take the sample. That's the real way,
because they're going to go down in there with a microscope, grow a culture
out the fungus and a Petri dish and really be able to identify it accurately
for you. I can get my best guests looking at a photo. But
I tell you, I may send you out for a fungicide when you need
an insecticide or vice versa, and I just I hate to do that.
But if you'd like to try a photo, I'll put you on hold and
Josh can get a picture just or get you the email address. Just know
that I think a sample it's probably a better way to go based on what
you're describing. Okay, what what was that? Or what was that?
Website again? The Plant Plant Clinic one word dot T A m u as
in Texas A and M University dot E d u as in education. Okay,
okay, and yeah, I would like to send you the pictures and
ballparking for me. All righty, you got it. I'm gonna put you
on hold. Scott will pick that up and we'll be ready to go from
there. Scott, I've been talking to Scott McGrath, All morning, I
call Josh Scott. Okay, well it's the last hour of the second day
of the weekend, so that makes sense, right. Hey, if you're
interested in having solar panels in your house, let me suggest something else you
might want to consider, and that's solar shingles. Did you know that Brinkman
Roofing sells shingles. They're not above your roof, they are your roof.
They protect your home while creating electricity. You know, Brinkman's been around fifty
years. Everything they do they give twenty five years fully warranted because they use
quality materials and they do a quality job. They know what they're doing,
and you need somebody that knows what they're doing. Their full service. If
it's residential, if it's commercial, if you need shingles, if you need
tile, if you want one of those nice custom manufactured standing seam metal roofs
built right there on site to fit your home perfectly, they can do it.
And you don't stay in business for fifty years without doing it right.
That's why they won in twenty twenty two the Better Business Bureau Pinnacle Award win
winner Brinkman Quality dot Com. That's Brinkman with two ends at the end quality
one word Brinkman Quality dot com two eight one four eight zero seven six six
three. You know, one of the things I enjoy about garden Line is
getting a visit with gardeners, and another one is just, you know,
getting to explore all things new. You never know when the phone rings,
what kind of question it might be. Kind of keeps you on your toes
as a result of that, so but that makes it, that makes it
fun. I've been visiting with a lot of different folks today and also talking
with Scott about insects and things that related to insects. We just got through
talking of Kevin about the lawn issue. And you know, sometimes it's a
mystery when you look at a lawn and you see browning. There's clues we
look for that help me go that's probably chinch bugs are well, that may
be sod web worms, or no, that's one of the Razactonia fungi,
or maybe take all patch. And it interesting how many things like to eat
our lawns. But we try to do our best job at getting to the
bottom of it. Because nobody wants to go out and spend money in order
to treat a lawn when you're buying the wrong products. So that's a waste
of money, that's a waste of time. Good diagnosis is so very very
important, and when you do get a diagnosis and you need a product,
you need to be able to go someplace where you're going to find what you
need. And no matter where you live in the Greater Houston area, I
would suggest considering an ACE Hardware. There's thirty nine of them, and their
selection of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides is excellent. I'm always amazed when I
go in there at the range of products. When I mentioned a fertilizer on
Guardline, they're going to carry it in ACE Hardware. They also have you
know, you can buy bags of mulches and composts and things there as well.
When you go into ACE, you have friendly, helpful associates that know
what they're talking about and they can direct you. By the way, when
you go into ACE, you need to join the rewards program where you can
earn money back on your purchase. I belong to that myself, and cumulatively
it's just a really good deal. As you do your purchases and what you're
going to find when you get in there, maybe you went in to buy
a bag of fertilizer or something. You're going to find there's only eight hundred
thousand other things that you've been looking for, and here they are all in
one place. That is ACE Hardware. Our phone number seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. If you give a Josh a call,
he'll get you on the boards and we can talk to you about the things
that are of interest to you. When I come back and in a bid
here, I'm gonna spend a little bit of time talking about the vegetable garden
and doing some transitions out in the vegetable garden. If anyone is a vegetable
garden or wants to be, I think that might be interesting. We'll talking
about some of the vegetables that do well for heat, some of the ways
we care for our vegetable garden in the summertime, and some of the pests
that you might be looking for out there as well. It's really interesting when
you get out in the gardens and you watch nature interacting. You know,
it's one thing. You know, you go out there's a tomato plant,
fertilize it. I pick a tomato. But when you go out and you
look at everything that's going on in the garden, it is really a very
interrelated, complex world of insects, plants and interactions that they have. And
I just find it to be a really fascinating thing. And this may sound
weird, but I can enjoy sitting down in the garden, get a cup
of coffee in the morning and just a little stool, sit out there a
minute and watch and look at what you're observing. I've learned more that way
then, and a lot of books that I've read about gardening, and it's
because you get to see the things coming by. I love to do that.
In fact, I will often see a p s that I don't know
what it is. One time, it was some caterpillars that were on some
kale and they had a unique striping. I wasn't familiar with that caterpillar.
So what did I do? Well? I picked some of the leaves with
the caterpillars on it, put them in a vase, brought them inside a
little short vase, and put them inside one of those salad mixed boxes.
You know how if you go to the grocery store, those clear plastic containers.
You can buy spring Max, you can buy kale or spinach or whatever.
When you're done with those, you can set them on end. That
means they have a little door. You can put your vase in there with
the insects and watch them grow up. If you have kids, that's a
really cool thing for the kids to watch. Maybe it's a butterfly go through
the caterpillar chrysalis an adult stage, or in my case, it was like,
what the heck is the name of this caterpillar and what's it going to
turn into? Because I want to see what his pupil looks like. I
want to see don't moths look like just kind of having fun out there in
the garden. I know it's weird, but Nikki, I love that.
I'll own weird. I love all things gardening and so and all things of
nature, all things of nature. Man, Nature is cool. It is
and nature wins, by the way. That's another thing that we've learned.
If you've ever seen a stop sign engulfed and eaten by a tree as the
bart grows around it, you learned that that nature wins. We just hold
back the forces and try to create this thing we called a garden and a
landscape, move away for five years and come back. Nature wins. That's
cool. Hey, let's hear about the news. Downtown Walking says is passing
away. Good Sunday morning. You are listening to Garden Line and we are
entering into the second half of our last hour this morning. We're gonna answer
your gardening questions. So if you got one, give us a call seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. In other words, what
do you want to talk about? Hey? I want to tell you that
this Thursday, July thirteenth, five to eight pm, the Organic Horticulture Benefits
Alliance is having a get together Let's talk gardening at Axel Red Beer Garden Axel
Red Beer Gardens on Alabama Street here in Houston. And again that's this Thursday,
July thirteenth, from five to eight pm. Now'll be there. Jay
White from Texas Gardener will be there, and Destin Noak as well will be
there. Get shifts to visit with us and just have a good time talking
about gardening. If you want to register for this, it's free, by
the way, but to save your spot, I would recommend going online to
OBA Online, OHBA online dot org, forward slash Register, Oba online dot
org, forward slash Register Thursday, July thirteen, five to apm Axel Red
Beer Garden on Alabama Street. I hope you can join us. It's gonna
be a good time just having some fun there by the way coming up.
This is kind of a almost a precursor to the Oba Palooza event that is
going to be on Saturday, August fifth. Now that's a little further out,
but make a point to put that on your calendar. Saturday August fifth,
Oba Palooza. What is Oba Palooza. Well, Oba Palooza has ten
amazing speakers on the topics of organic gardening. You can again go to Oba
online dot org, forward slash register, Oba online dot org, forward slash
Register. I'll be there. I'll be speaking, giving a keynote address Aris
well Jay. It'll be at the United Way of Greater Houston on WA Drive,
you know, kind of in the big middle of town there. Tickets
are for members fifty dollars for non uberse seventy five. But keep in mind
this is a loaded day of lots of really really great talks. This is
all day fair, lots to learn and a lot of fun too. I
always have a good time hanging out at those events, getting to meet some
of the folks that listen to Garden Line, getting to make acquaintances with old
friends I hadn't seen a while before. So two different activities. But first,
this Thursday, July thirteenth, five to eight pm, I hope you
can come out to the actual Red Beer Garden and have a good time with
us. We are going to be having a blast, that is for sure.
If you'd like to give us a call and ask your questions. It's
seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. I was talking about before the break, saying
I'd like to talk a little bit about summer vegetable gardening. When it's in
the summertime, a lot of our spring produce that was doing so well when
the weather was mild, it just shuts down. Trying to get a big
slice or tomato to set fruit, you know, trying to get your cucumbers,
and even the squashes, the summer squashes and things, they just don't
do as well this time of the year. But we have plants that do.
We have plants that love the heat. Okrah loves the heat. Southern
peas. What are Southern peas well? It is the black eyed pea,
the purple hull pea, the crowder pea, the zipper cream pea. Lots
of great delicious Southern pieces. By the way, if you've eaten black eyed
peas out of a can, you have never eaten black eyed piece. I
know a very few vegetables that is so dramatic between canned and fresh, or
between you know, cooked and frozen and fresh, super super good fresh.
You gotta you gotta try that. Then there's a lot of other vegetables vegetables
from places that are hot and humid that love that weather. Well, welcome
to Houston and summer right. Vegetable am rat that would be a leafy type
of amrath that we grow for the leaves that'll do well here, you know
we're talking about. Purslain is a beautiful hanging basket plant flowering and flowering.
There is an edible vegetable type of purslain. There are a number of different
varieties, gold gilber, red gruner you know as a numb mithra as another
one that I mean, they're basically they're weeds, so they grow like weeds.
You put them in a container and you can grow a lot of vegetables.
By the way, did you know that purslain is super high in all
of the omegas that we so need in our bodies. It's crunchy, it's
good in a salad, it's good cooked. I even will throw some into
a smoothie. You don't even know they're in there when you get done with
it, and you've just added nutrition to your diet. So those are all
summer plants. We have other summer plants we can be doing. If you've
got a bare area in the garden you're not doing anything with, consider doing
a solarization on it. Now, what is solarization, Well, you put
clear plastic over the soil after you've prepared the soil, and you leave it
for about four to six weeks. Then when it's time for fall planting,
you plant right in that spot. So the first step is prepare your soil.
If you're building a raised bed, get it built. If you're putting
in fertilizers or putting in anything composes into the soil, get that done.
Because when you're done solarizing, you don't want a spade or rototill the soil,
you'll just bring fresh weed seeds to the surface. Solarizing kills everything in
the top four inches of soil, all the bad stuff, you know,
weed seeds and insect larvae and things like that. But it didn't work real
deep into the soil because you know, it just can't affect the soil that
deep. But it works well, and you do need clear plastic. And
why it wouldn't it make sense that black plastic would get hotter than clear plastic.
Well, yes, the plastic, if it's black, absorbs all the
sun's rays and almost nothing goes down in the soil. But with clear plastic,
like that windshield on your car. You know how it is in the
summer. You park your car, you close the car, you walk away,
you come back, and it is only like between eight hundred and nine
hundred degrees inside the car when you get in, right, sun shining through
clear material to heat up the interior really sends the temperature up. That's why
solarizing works, and that's why we use clear plastic. Cover the edges with
soil or bricks or anything to hold the area in and just get everything ready
first. Again, you're not gonna want to mess with a soil. When
you're done with this, give it four to six weeks of good hot weather
and it will do a lot toward cutting down on some of the problems that
may be present there in your soil. So that's another summer activity. If
you're getting ready and you're thinking about maybe the fall garden things that are coming
up, now's the time to again get your soul tested. What do you
need? Do you have plenty of phosphorus or do you need some? Do
you have plenty of magnesium or do you need some? A soil test is
a way to find that out. Go to Soil Testing Soil Testing dot tam
dot edu. That's the state soil testing lab, soil Testing dot TAMU dot
edu. Click on the regular soil farm that says it's for urban soil samples.
Now that's not because you're in a big city Houston. It's because you
have a garden or a lawn or rosebeds or you know, vegetables and so
on. That's the urban test as opposed to the farm test, which is
going to be you know, grass pastures for cattle and things like that,
cotton and so on. Soil testing, get your soul tested, then you
don't know how to fertilize. Let's take a break. We'll be right back
for our last segment. Our number seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. There is your last chance to get on this weekend. If
you have a question and we can visit about it, be happy to do
that. A rollover will be told in and tells you gods get a new
I got the rock and newmania. I need to shout a rhythm and blue.
I called the rolling off the ride of thinking down at a rhythm review.
I see a dancing across the room that just gets you the hip hop
bebop ready to go, doesn't it. You're listening to garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to talk gardening our phone number
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. As we enter our
last segment, and we're gonna go straight to the phones and talk to Nate
in Columbus. Hello Nate, Hello, Hey, you're on What can we
do for you? Nati there? All right? I think I have putting
Nate on hold. We didn't connect right there, so maybe Josh you can
get him back so I want to I want to talk to you a little
bit about I'll talk a little bit to those of you who are interested in
a retirement. Maybe you're looking for where can I move, what kind of
what kind of area? Don't want to live in? What kind of house?
And all that. I would suggest you really seriously consider Dell Web.
You can online to Dellweb dot com slash Houston to find out about that company.
If anybody who's been around for a while knows, Dell Webb has been
building communities for active adults age fifty five and better for over seventy years.
The newest community is out there at Fullshire on FM three fifty nine, about
two miles from downtown Fullsher. Dell Web homes or beautiful homes, are quality
homes, but the communities have lifestyle programs built around you. They're beautiful.
But people that want to stay active, they want to just you know,
keep going. That is absolutely what Dell Web communities are all about. The
newest community at Fullsher has contacted me to help them with a community garden they're
putting on site for residents. If you're a listener to garden line, I
mean, great house, great community and a community garden all in one.
It is well worth checking out. Call them at two eight one four five
nine zero six zero nine to get a little more information and to discover that
Dell web difference. Well I believe we lost snake there, so all right,
Well let's continue on. I was talking about the vegetable garden and the
heat of summer and getting ready for the spring, about getting soil ready,
doing a sol task to doing solarizing. If you got an ongoing problem,
if you have an infestation of a noxious weeds like bermudo grass into your vegetable
garden, that is a challenge and it is best to get that taken care
of. But when you don't have a crop in the garden, if you're
going to spray it, if you're going to dig it up, whatever you're
going to do to get it out of there, just get on it and
get that done. Use the early morning hours when it's a little bit cooler
to get some of that kind of work done, because it is important to
not have to deal with bermudo grass in and among your vegetables. That is
just a it's very difficult to deal when you're not coming to spray it.
When it's in and among the food crops you're growing. By the way,
if you want to kill bermuda grass with a spray, the bermuda grass needs
to be actively growing. If it is the little winter and it's just kind
of an adormancy, those products won't kill it. If it's in a summer
heat, drought, stress and it's not growing, those products are not going
to work very well. So even if it means going out there and water
in your bermudograss to get it growing, give it a few days and then
sprite, that's a better way to go about it if you want really good,
good results. Now we're going to go back and talk to Nate again.
Nate, how's it going this morning, and how can we help it's
going good? See if you had any recommendations on artichoke in our climate.
You know you can grow artichokes very well in our climate. They are have
a little bit of cool tolerance and they're not going to take a super hard
freeze, but they work pretty well. You can start you can actually buy
seeds and start them from seed. A lot of people will grow their own
transplants, and you want to put those transplants in the ground as it starts
to cool off just a little bit in the fall, and get them growing,
get them growing fast, and they will go through winter. You may
have to throw a cover over them if we have one of those, you
know, good hard freezes, but then when they come out in spring,
they will take off and bloom, which is basically we're eating the bloom buds
when we eat a heart of choke, and they do really well. Occasionally
you can find garden centers that have them, I guess, I don't know
if root or crown of the plant. I guess for sale. You know,
almost like you would buy bare root plants in the winter, you would
buy these crowns to plant them, get you a little bit of a head
start overseating. But I just like to start my own transplants and go from
there. You're there, Nate, Okay, I'm here yet. Okay,
Yeah, So just remember they like cooler weather. They don't like the blazing
heat of summer, but a hard freeze can nip them. But here we
basically grow them from fall through spring. That's their main season, or maybe
early summer. Okay, well, what should I be doing with them?
Right now? I've got three of them that are still alive that made it
through the kind of sort of hard freeze we had. Well, yeah,
and they're looking okay, they're looking okay, they're hanging on. Okay.
Well, I would go out and say congratulations, y'all are amazing. First
to them. If you talk to your plants, Uh, just just adequate
water, but not too much. Don't don't make them swampy, saggy around
the roots. They need water, of course, but they have a very
extensive root system. You know, it's a it's a good Artichokes are good
sized plants, and and so you water a large area, keep them adequately
moist, and they may well hang on and keep going. I've had some
go through summer before. And if you can get them to do that,
well, all the better. I mean, that's fine. All right,
thank you appreciated. Hey, thanks for the call, Nate. I appreciate
that. We're gonna head out now to southwest Houston and talk to Carolyn.
Hello, Carolyn, good morning. I'm enjoying you. We're pretty weekend and
today I would like to know when do I know who to harvest my eggplant?
This is my first time to grow eggplants, so I'm not familiar with,
well, congratulations and good for you. That is a great plant.
The easy to grow, and lots of different ways you can use them.
I grew up not eating eggplant, and when I started to discover all the
different ways other than fried eggplant that you could make, it just made me
a big fan of those things. So here's the thing with eggplant eggplant.
The fruit grow in size, and assuming they have adequate water, they're gonna
move pretty quickly from small to medium to larger size, whatever large is for
that variety. Some make the big giant. They're like black beauty. They're
they're almost like a black beauty. Okay, let's gonna make a little melon
sized oval plant fruit, and you want to pick them while they're still glossy
and while the skin is still punctures to the touch. If they get too
old, they lose that gloss on the skin and they're not as shiny,
and that's a sign that it's gone too far and the quality is going to
be down. The skin is going to be as tough as leather, but
the quality will start to go down at that point. So I guess if
you know about how big they're supposed to be, let them get close to
that size, but then go ahead and get them picked, and I would
experiment you're gonna have more than one fruit on the plant, and you can
kind of test them out and get a fuel for it. So the next
time you grow eggplant, if you grow that variety, you know exactly what
to do. Oh wonderful, Yeah, go ahead, No, go ahead,
I'm sorry. No, Well, my favorite seed catalog is from Baker
Creek. Oh yeah, and they have a Chinese broccoli. Yes, it
sounds wonderful. Yes, can I plant that here? Now? You can't
do I make to wait? No, No, you would plant it in
the fall. I would plant it probably if you're gonna do if you're gonna
do transplants, you're gonna grow your own transplants. This is what I would
recommend. You can start those indoors and then move them out to a bright,
well lit spot, but not the blazing hot sun to grow them out
until you can set them out. I would put them out in late September
probably. You could probably do it a little earlier than that if you gave
them a little shade protection. But they're a cool season plant, and September
is still pretty blazing hot for them, but anytime September even October, be
okay to get your broccolio. They are Are they in the coal family,
Yes, they are, cold crop, they're they're in there with cabbage,
kale, collards, colerabbie, all of those kind of things. Wonderful,
All right, Carolin, Well, good luck with that. I appreciate your
called. Good luck with you. Thank you, Bronie, you bet,
thank you. Yeah. By the way, you've been listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Ricter. We're here every Saturday, and we're
here every Sunday as well, from six am to ten am. Now,
maybe you missed a show and you want to listen, Well, get your
podcast out and go look for garden Line. You can listen to past shows
that way. You can also listen, by the way, if you're heading
to another city and it's too far from the radio saying no, you can
listen online. I mean, you gotta have your garden Line fix with a
weekend, right, that assures you that's all's well in your gardens world.
All right, Well, we're having a little bit of fun today, but
you know they you know the routine garden Line six to ten Saturday and Sunday.
We're glad to visit with you. I just want to remind you about
that event coming up at Axel Rad Beer Garden this Thursday, July thirteen,
five to eight pm. It is a free event. I'll be out there.
Jay from Texas Garden will be out there. Destin No will be out
there. All you need to do is go online and register. That way
you'll know that you've got space and just OBA online OHBA online dot org,
slash register. It's free. I mean, we're gonna have some fun out
there, so I hope you can join us. That's just a precursor to
the big event I was talking about coming up in August, and I'll talk
about more about that later as we get a little bit closer to it as
well. Hey, thanks for being a listener to Garden Line. We really
appreciate it. You make the show so much more fun.