Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skip Richter
Trim. Just watch him as well. Good morning, Good Sunday morning.
You look outside, it's very dark, and if your neighbors lights aren't on,
go bang on the door. Tell them they're missing guard line and they'll
be so happy they'll rise up and call you. Bless it. It is
going to be a good day for gardening. We have ordered one whole full
day of sunshine and I believe it's going to be delivered here. I don't
know, about an hour or so. We will be outside doing all kinds
of gardening. I myself this afternoon have a list of things that I want
to get done, including inside the house plants. I've got a number of
things I'm growing and need to be bumped up. I've got some couple of
house plants that just need to move to the next size container, a little
trimming and pruning. There's always something fun to do, you know. That's
one one cool thing about gardening is I mean, if it could be pouring
down rain outside and you're inside, there's a lot that you can be doing
to enhance your garden, both indoors and outdoors, and that is I think
a wonderful thing we are looking for today to talking to you about the questions
that you might have regarding your garden, your landscape, your lawn. I
know we'll be talking about lawns quite a bit today. If you would like
to give me a call, the number is seven to one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four seven to one three two to one two kt r
H. It's always good to talk to you and hear the different kinds of
questions that we have. You know, I've been doing this kind of thing
for over thirty five years now. It started with an agrolife extension career as
a horticulturist a number of different counties around. Started in Montgomery County. As
a matter of fact, shout out to those of you up there in Montgomery
County. I'll be up at the Home Garden show there later this spring.
And then headed over to Travis County in Austin about fifteen years over there,
spent about ten years here in the Houston area in the Harris County office,
and it finished my career in college station. Now retired from Agrolife Extension,
continuing to do radio and really loving it. And the fun thing is,
you never but someone asked me one time, you know, aren't you afraid
of what people are going to ask? Like you wouldn't know it? And
it's like, well, you know, someone once said is probably I don't
know. It sounds like a Will Rogers maybe, or Mark Twain or something.
I said. Have of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.
And I'm dumb it a lot figured out a long time ago, and that
sure takes the pressure off. It's of course, over the years, I've
learned a lot a lot of things, but there's always something new. Every
time I turn around in plants, there is something new, and that is
kind of kind of cool. I remember a couple of years ago I discovered
the African blue basil, and that was actually about five years ago and I
had never grown it before. And African blue is a magnet for pollinators.
And I love basils. I grow a lot of basils. I prefer some
of the more culinary genoes types and whatnot, making that pesto and things,
but African blue is beautiful. I mean, you can also use it in
seasoning. It's got a very different flavor. But the blooms are a magnet
for honey bees and some of the other beneficial insects, and so I always
have one. I like to put it in a corner of a garden and
just let it go crazy. And just especially when we get into hard times.
You know it's summer, it's hot, bees are looking for nourishment.
It'll be covered up, they'll be very covered up. And Buchanans plants.
I was just seeing something the other day. I get the newsletter they send
out. They've got African blue basil featured in there. And once it really
warms up, you know, if you get one a little early, just
keep it inside, give it some light, and keep it growing. I
was talking about that with tomatoes and whatnot the other day. That is an
awesome, awesome plant. While I'm talking about Buchanans, they have a lot
of other things. The boog and villias are just gorgeous that they have.
They've got some hibiscus in that are really just showstoper beautiful. And you know,
if you've never been in there. Their gift shop, you ought to
check that out too. They've got a lot of beautiful things, things for
the home, even things for the kids, like they have a whole section
of children's books in the bungalow on plants. So you got a small child,
you got a grandchild that you would like to give a gift to.
You know, the gift of gardening is for life when it comes to kids.
I as a child worked in our garden and got to watch things grow,
and you know, I guess the rest is history. As they say,
it is a wonderful thing to do. But Buchannan's always got plenty of
stuff going on. They're on Eleventh Street in the Heights, by the way.
They also have a lot of great programs going on there. It's an
educational place. It's a place where you follow their website and you can learn
a lot about gardening. You go in and talk to their staff and you
can learn a lot about gardening and they'll match you up to the plant you
need. Do you have shade, do you have sun? What do you
need? They can fix you up on that because they have a wide selection
really of everything. Got some great strawberries that have come in Channeler Quinault and
ever sweet. I love Chandler. That's one of my favorite strawberries that there
is, and Quinault's an older variety, it's also a good one. I've
not grown ever sweet. I guess that's something I need to try this year.
But strawberries are just fun to grow too. So I would encourage you
to swing by Buchanans. Be a great day for it. I'll tell you
this. This day of sunshine is just it gets some gardening to enjoy yourself
outside. You know, gardening. I like to say, gardening is not
work. Gardening is fun and even walking, even if you break a sweat,
you know you're doing some chores. It's good for you. It's just
a it's a filler upper. It's a filler upper day. And we were
made to garden. I'm convinced of that. Uh you know we You've never
heard any of the cubicle of Eden. Right, it was a garden for
crying out loud and and I think gardening is probably the best therapy that there
is. I'm biased, but that doesn't mean i'm wrong. That's true.
Right while you're out in the garden too, enjoy yourself with attracting birds to
your landscape. That I talk about this a lot because Gardening is more than
just creating and looking at colors and beauty. It is that that's huge.
Gardening is producing food. It's producing spices for indoor cooking and for enhancing the
flavor and more fresh food and more health as a result of that. It
is for the sounds of gardening, like the sound or running water, the
sound of birds. Those are important aspects. It's movement in the garden,
swaying grasses and all of the movement that's there. It is also the visual
of different textures, the fine lines of grasses, the broad lines of something
like an elephanty or the broad leaves of an elephanty. It's all of that
and above and while birds is really the place that I would say you just
you have to go to if you want anything related to birds. They carry
top quality seed. They absolutely have seed where you buy a pound of seed
from all birds and you're getting a pound of stuff that a bird's going to
eat, stuff they're kicking off on the ground, which a lot of cheapbird
seed. That's that's what it amounts to. And I would say cheap bird
seed is too expensive. I would because the bird seeds you're getting out for
the birds you're getting a fraction of the bag you bought, and so that's
one thing I like about Wilbert. I also like the fact that they keep
us up to date on everything going on, like right now. I was
talking to one of the wild Birds store managers the other day and we were
talking about it's time for bluebirds to come in and find a box a house.
If you want to put one up. If you want bluebirds, those
beautiful birds, you should go ahead and do that. The SAME's true with
purple Martins. Get that done now. I'm gonna take a little break.
We'll be right back with your questions and some more thoughts. Seven one three
two one two KTRH. Welcome back to garden Line. Glad you're with us
this morning. I hope you've got you a cup of coffee and at least
one eye open this hour of the morning. We're going to head over the
phones right now, and first thing is talk to Paul in the Woodlands.
Hello, Paul, Hello, good morning. I'm well sir, Thank you
good. I wanted to talk to you about hydroponic gardens and get your opinion
of I got one for my birthday, one of these towers. Yes,
and I'm going to try it, so I wanted to get some tips from
you and what's the best way to do it, and what you would plant
and what you wouldn't plant in one okay, Well, first of all,
those kits usually come with some pretty good instructions on getting everything set up and
also on getting you know your plants started. It's easiest to grow leafy greens
in the system that the key is light, and they come with lighting.
Sometimes I think some additional lighting can be helpful, but they do come with
lighting. I hope yours did. If not, we need we need you
to get some lights for it. Did it? No, kid not come
with lights? Okay then, but I do have it outside? Oh okay,
well then you're all good. You don't have to worry about lights.
The leafy greens are the easiest and fastest to grow, so things like lettuce
for example, or if you like some of the sea I call them seasoning
greens. But something like a regula would be an example of that. Cilantro
would be a green that can be used in seasoning as well, seasoning soups
and whatnot. But leafy greens are the easiest. As you move into fruiting,
plants. You want to make sure that you are growing things that are
somewhat compact. So you wouldn't want a tomato that vines from you across the
neighbors properties. You want one that's pretty compact or grow and I would provide
it. Again, make sure it's in a spot that gets good sunlight.
Followed the nutrients. Did it come with nutrients or does it have you buy
additional nutrients? Now, it does come with two different callon jugs that you're
supposed to combine in the tank. Yeah, good, stick with that.
That is a blend of nutrients and the right ratio. And people often will
go, well, I'm just going to go buy some of that soluble liquid
plant food that you water your plants with, and that is going to not
be as good of a solution for providing plants everything they need as the solutions
that they sell you or include with your kit. Make sure they watch the
water level when you're outside. Those leaves are transpiring water. There's some evaporating
out of the unit, not much, but a little bit, and with
the warm warming weather, it will use up water and you do not want
it to go dry because those roots are totally dependent on you for all the
water and nutrients they need. Gotcha. Gotcha. So you wouldn't recommend you
think I should stay away from plants like the tomatoes, the peppers, the
no. I don't think you should stay away from them. It just I
think you should find more compact types. Like a bush type cucumber doesn't have
vines that go as long. They're they're more compact. And like eggplant,
there are some type that they promote them as good container eggplants because of the
stature and productivity of the bush. And tomatoes the same thing. If you
can find a variety called tumbling tom that would be outstanding in a unit like
that. It's very compact, It naturally drapes down, hangs downward, and
produces a lot of tomatoes. I would do those kind of tumbling tom It's
not very widely available. You will occasionally find it, but any other kind
there's another patio choice is another one that would be good for that patio choice.
But anyway, just where you know where you do your shopping, being
up there in the Woodlands area, you're not too far away from A and
A plants to head up that way. There's also a lot a lot of
places down south of you to take advantage of. I would grow some basil
in it too, Wait until the web warms up to put it out there.
Basil does not like fifty something degrees, but basil would be a good
one to grow in there as well. All right, okay, all right,
thank you, Good luck with it. When you get it going,
send me a picture of it. Pardon yoh yeah, of course that's a
standard on garden line. My advice is free, but I do expect to
be paid in produce and flowers. So yeah, that's it. Thank you,
Thank you, Paul, appreciate that very much. Yeah, let's head
out now to Conroe and talk to Michael. Hello, Michael, Hey,
how's it going, Bud? I'm good, sir. All right, I
got a front yard, was staying Ougustine. I just bought this house four
years ago, and it got hit with chance buds and then got hit with
least milk. So I'm thinking that's killing all these clovers in their ear and
going with bermuda. Okay, uh, And I was you can figure out
what's the best way to go about it, all right, Well, you
can do that. The thing to remember about bermuda is it does not understand
where you expect the yard to end and the flower bed to begin. It
tends to invade whatever's nearby, so you have to deal with that. If
you want a pretty bermuda lawn, it needs lots of sun, not shade,
and it needs to be mode frequently at a lower level. That's what
makes it pretty long. You know. The extreme of that is a golf
course green, which is literally mode every day, and that's why a golf
course green looks like a golf course green. That and the fact that it's
a different kind of bermuda then you're going to put in your yard. But
regular mowing with a good sharp blade is important. And yeah, bermuda makes
a beautiful lawn if it provides. I should kill the clover all first and
then stuff here in this seated Yeah, now the clover is really not a
perennial. I'd be more concerned about the clover going to seed. And then
you've got the clover seeds coming up next fall in your bermuda lawn. So
if you're going to set it, I would I would get the clover out
before it goes to seed, and it'll be blooming and going to seed really
fast. Okay, all right, all right, all right, appreciate it.
Good luck with that. Yeah, I appreciate your calling. Thank you
a lot. If you live up in the Tumbol area and are looking for
a top quality feed store, well D and D Feed is it. I
love stopping by to visit with Jeff and the dovers out there at D and
D Feed because they always have something new going on. Right now, they
are loaded up with micro life fertilizers, They got plants coming in and there
they are for that area. They are your one stop shop for all things
back your chickens. I mean, do you need feeders, do you need
you know, all the supplies you need. Of course, our feed store
they got the feed for it, and they get shipments in all the time.
They got one in just not too long ago. They I think the
next one is Thursday, the twenty second, So this Thursday they're getting over
a dozen different kinds of chicks in at D and D Feed and you can
get everything you need to get set up there. You may want to go
buy get your supplies, get them home, get them set up and everything
like that, because when the chicks come in, you want to be there
early because they are a popular ode and people know to go there to get
their chickens. Now, if you need anything like the potatoes and onions and
things we put in our gardens, the transplants, the fruit citrus trees,
they're going to get those in. If you need airloom soils, they have
a wide variety of airloom soils that'll help you have success. So give them
a call. It's two eight, one, three five, one seventy one
forty four. Or just go up to D and D Feed and Supply.
They are west of tom Ball on twenty nine to twenty. You just head
out that way, be looking off to the left and you will soon come
to D and DE Feed. I encourage you to check out also some of
their seeds and supplies for gardening. They go beyond just you know, some
of the fertilizers and soils that I talk about, because any pesture run into
they're going to help you take control of. We've had some questions come in
about weeds and lawns. I think I had a couple more coming up here.
I just want to remind you that the folks at Nelson Fertilizer, Dean
and his team have created a product called turf star weedinator, and turfstar weedinator
does two things. It gives nutrition, but it gives nutrition over a long
time, and it also has a product in it that kills existing weeds.
So if you have broad leaf weeds like clover, like chickweed and hen bit,
those kinds of weeds, and they're going crazy right now because here comes
spring, that's what that's when they grow set seeds that plague you for weeds
for next year. Turf star weedonator, you dampen the weed. You have
the water the lawn with an inch of water. Just dampen the lawn and
then immediately put it out. The granules stick to the weeds. They kill
the weeds, They move into the weeds, that is, to kill them.
Wait about a day or two and then water your lawn to move the
fertilizer down into the soil. The product will have already moved into the weeds.
Now move the fertilizer into the soil. It's as simple as that.
And it is such a slow release that you're going to get weeks and weeks
of release from that product. And so if you do that, you have
fertilized your lawn. At the same time. Let's see here, I'm going
to go out to Deer Park and talk to Joe. Hey, Joe,
good morning, sir, good morning. Glad to hear that I got a
problem with clover and my lawn. Okay, tell me how I get rid
of it? Yeah? What would be that product that Nelson's puts out Nutristar
Genesis Genesis. I'm talking about another product that they have there, the nutri
Star turf Star Weedenator, turf Star Weedenator. And did you hear how I
describe putting it out making sure the weeds are damp first? I did?
Yeah, I would try that. Trouble finding that? Okay? And in
the Deer Park area, let's see. I think you should try your local
Ace hardware stores out there. I have found that they tend to carry those.
It's a fairly new product, so you may have to look just a
little bit for it. I'm going to see if I can find out where
you would get it out there in the in that particular area. Can you
tell me from Deer Park, Well, let me just give you one.
Try the deer Park Lumber Ace Hardware that's on Center Street and Deer Park.
Thank you try it? Okay, all right, Well, let me I'm
going to do a little legwork on this and see if I can find out
where where to get that out in that area. The alternative to that,
and they will have this at the Deer Park case is a spray that's for
broad leaf weeds. Uh. And it's a post emergent spray for broad leaf
weeds. And just explain to them I need to kill the weeds that are
already growing in my lawn that are broad leaves and they can provide you a
spray that will do that. Hey, Joe, I got to run take
a break here. Thank you very much for your call. I appreciate that
you're listening to garden Line seven one three two one two kt RH. Welcome
back to garden Line. Glad you're listening to us today. I was working
on trying to find a source for that Nelson product. You might try fish
or shard out in Baytown. They do carry some Nelson products. You have
to call around. I'm gonna keep working on that and if I can find
that for you, Joe, I will I will let you know. We're
going to head right now out to Judy Incline. Hello, Judy, good
morning. I know used so many expertise. Well, I have two off
full three questions. Number one, I have a page mendering that is going
to have for so many flowers. But the pot a kind of small regional
one three quotes. So can I tans plan to a little bigger pot when
is booming? This is my first question. Yeah, yes you can.
You want to be a little gentle with it, not to shock it.
Do you know you don't want to damage roots or let the exposure its dry
out. Go ahead, and when you pull it out of a pot,
get it in the next one and you're right, the next size up,
go up to a little larger pot. Don't make it a pot that's like
three times as big as the one you pulled it out of. Just go
up a spot because I think you're wanting to not have to move a super
super heavy pot and you want to keep that a little bit compact the plant.
Is that right? Yeah? Thank you? I think one. Yeah,
I'm an old lady. Number two, I have a I have a
caf of pear. It has it's called a five bright disease. You know,
the black collar leaves forever for so many years. Okay, and so
weird and I'm headed the one They say it won't not survived, but actually
it didn't have so many flowers. And one year you even got a twenty
flute. For the last year has so many flowers, only got to three
fruit left over. But little still mommle, still not walking? Wow?
Can I keep? Oh? Should I cut out? Well? Under your
teeth pair? The fire blight is a bacteril disease and as you know,
it turns the leaves of chocolate brown. You want to go below where the
brown on the stem is about six inches and you want to print it out
there and then get some lies all spray disinfectant spray and spray your prunters and
then make the next cut. And what you're trying to avoid with the spray
is spreading the bacteria to new cuts as you make the pruning. There is
there are sprays that have an antibiotic that can be used to control fireblight.
It's a very small amounts you mix in water and you have to follow the
label very carefully. And if you're up in the Klein area, L's Handy
Hardware is an ace store up there on Aldine Mail Route that little north of
you. That would be a possibility for trying to, you know, shut
down the fire blight. I think they might carry that over on Champions Spring
Cypress road Ace Hardware of Champions is also in your area, and tell them
you need the antibiotic spray for fire blight a disease that and follow the because
you're going to want to spray it in the spring as the new growth and
the ballooms come out. That's when fireblight does most of its damage. Oh
okay, thank you so much. Do need to kill you? Thank you?
Love your program? Well, thank you, thank you. And by
the way, you're not an old lady. When you're a gardener, you're
forever young, all right, you take care of Jennie. Yeah, I'm
not an old guy. Come on, man. If you live in the
Tumbol area, all the way down into Houston, you pass by RCW all
the time when you're going down two forty nine or belt Way eight, you
go right past it every time you go around that side of Houston. RCW
has got a wide variety of things. I mean, you can always get
what you want there if you're going to plant something. They even have the
fertilizers. I recommend they have other products to help you have success when you
plant. They grow their own trees. And so if you're looking at planting
a tree, by the way, do that right now, because the hotter
it gets, the harder it is to get a new tree established. It
can be done, but why not make it easier on yourself by getting it
done now. They have trees that grow well here and they can complant them,
but they can also sell you the tree for you to plant. I
would recommend if the container is very large, you don't attempt at yourself,
because let's just say, your chiropractor will have to find another way to put
their kids through college. RCW has roses, a list of roses a mile
long, and we are in the big middle of the season where we are
doing all things roses. We're pruning and we're planting. And a rose bush
is just a beautiful gift that just says thank you year after year after year
in your own yard. Imagine you're able to walk out and see beautiful roses
growing, to cut roses and to bring them inside and enjoy the fragrance and
enjoy the beauty. That way, RCW can get you set up on all
that stuff. They absolutely know what they're talking about they can advise you well
again, they're at the intersection of tom El Parkway, which is two forty
nine and belt Way eight. Go to their website. Check it out there.
R CW Nurseries dot com. RCW Nurseries dot com. Need to get
back out there and say hello to David. It's not what I want to
go up to the tree farm that they have and take a look at how
they grow these things. It's it's kind of cool, you know, being
able to purchase from people that are local, that know what grows here,
and that even grow their own trees, and that that is a that is
a plus plus win win for sure. You're listening to Guardenline. Our phone
number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I've talked about ACE Hardware about
four or five times, trying to help somebody find a product this morning.
Acehardware dot Com is the website and if you go to Acehardware dot com,
they have a store locator and you get this little map and the map has
red dots all over the Greater Uson there's forty stores in the in the Greater
Houston are ACE Hardware Group, and they're going to carry everything you need.
You know, do you need a fertilizer, Have you heard a brand on
guarden line that you'd like to get that? They're going to have it that
they work to carry that. Do you need stuff for insects, for diseases,
for weed prevention, Yes, they carry those as well. ACE Hardware
is just the place to go to get pretty much anything you need. Make
sure when you go though, go ahead and sign up for their ACE Rewards
program. You earn money back on your purchases. That way, I belong
myself. Every time you go into an ACE and make a purchase, you're
earning money back, So I mean it's a win win again. Why not
why not join that? ACE Hardware is going to be a place to where
you get wonderful indoor and outdoor. The decorations for indoors, the outdoor.
Oh gosh, it's barbecue season right on the doorsto. I almost went out
on barbecue last weekend. This is the time to get going on that and
man a man alive. They can get you set up with some really cool
sweet let's just say sweet barbecue pits. We're talking about things like Big Green
Egg and Treeger and others, Weber and others as well. So you need
to go visit local ace. Today. We're gonna take a little break here.
You're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter and our
phone number if you'd like to give me a call seven one three two one
two K T R H. Welcome back to garden Line. Glad to have
you today. Hey, we are going to talk about whatever you're interested in.
If you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. I'll tell you what I'm interested in. I'm interested
in trying to convince everybody listening to garden Line that brown stuff comes before green
stuff. And what that means for those of you haven't heard me say that
the eight hundred thousand times I've said it so far, is that if you
want to have success with plants, I don't care if it's seeds, transplants,
annuals, perennials, vegetables, roses, trees, lawns. Getting the
soil right eight prior to planting is very important. It is It is the
most one of the top three most important things we do, but it comes
first. We can't control sunlight except for choosing where to plant a plant,
but we can control soil drainage. We can control the aeration in the soil
by taking a heavy clay and loosening it up. And every product you need
for that. For the brown stuff, you're gonna find at Ciena Mulch.
Ciena Mulch has the soil mixes. It's got the compost, it's got the
bed mix They've got the bed mixes. They have them by bag. They
have stuff by a bulk for sure. They deliver within twenty miles of Ciena
Maltch, which by the way is on FM five point twenty one just north
of Roach Sharing down south of Houston. You can go to the website Sienna
Mulch dot com Cienamultch dot com. Now they're closed on Sunday, but they
will be open Monday through Friday from seven thirty to five and on Saturday seven
thirty to two pm. It's really easy to get the stuff they need.
They also have the fertilizers they talk about on gardland. That's part of the
brown stuff. It's the soil. It's giving the plants a foundation for success.
And I know it's exciting to talk about vegetables and flowers and whatnot,
but you need to get excited about the brown stuff because that is really the
secret sauce to success with your plants. And Ciena Molts can get you fixed
up at that. With that, it's Sienna Maltz dot com. Give them
a call see what I'm talking about. Will you will be glad you did.
I'm going to head out now to Katie and we're going to talk to
Matt. Hello, Matt, Hey, thanks for taking the call out.
I just wanted to know if it was time to put applications on for the
grass to green it up or is it too early or do I need to
wait or fertilizer? Uh no, you can now is when we put the
green up on that that's the early greenup. It's not a fertilization that's going
to make your grass grow. It's a fertilization that's going to green your grass
and as it warms up, have the energy to take off growing even better.
Perfect and so yeah, because that needs to go on now. Yeah,
when it when it's we're a little chili still and Saint Augustine is not
really wanting to take off and grow for today. But but the early application
will do that. And Nitrophoss Imperial is an example of that kind of an
application. It's a fifteen to five to ten. That's it's their red bag
that makes it really easy for you to find. And you've you've got tayor
out in out in your area. It's really really easy easy to find it.
The Ace Hardware stores carry it, for example. So the Ace Hardware
it's sink Sinkle Ranch, Ace Harbor on Mason Road they've got and exactly where
that is. You want to follow it one more put it on at the
right put it on the right rate, and go ahead and water it in.
Uh. And then later on we'll talk about your warm season summer fertilizing
and stuff. But this is the first thing of the season. Perfect.
And I've got one more quick question if you have time. Yes, it's
we bought some crimson and clover from that Wild Seed Farms in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Yes, the whole pack of these seeds. And it tells you the
ground is supposed to be a certain temperature, you know, but it doesn't
say really what time to plant. That's when it's going to bloom. Is
it too early to plant these? Typically we would plant clover in the fall.
Now they would come up. I don't think you're going to get what
you're looking for for it, Okay, wait maybe until next year, though.
I would take that pack of seed and put it in something air tight,
is apot bag, a jar or whatever. Put it in the frigerator.
You can put them in the freezer, but either way, just store
them so that they don't use viability between now and the next fall. Perfect.
Thanks for the answers. Appreciate it all right, Matt, appreciate appreciate
that call. Thank you very much. Let's see, I wanted to tell
you the Arbigate in Bryant, Brian. Oh my gosh. Arborgate up in
Tomball, just west of Houston on twenty nine and twenty. That is one
of those destination garden centers that you just have to see. I can describe
it to you, but just go look. You'll see what I'm talking about.
Those of you who know the Arborgate, I bet you are excited about
the new parking lot they just put in. It goes Trisha Road makes a
loop from twenty nine to twenty behind Arburgate, and back to twenty nine twenty,
So either east or west, just look for Trisha Road, get on
it and'll take you to the back parking lot. Oh my gosh, it
is so nice because now you know if it rains, you're not walking through
mud. You get right in there. They got wagons at the entrance where
you can grab a wagon and just take off shopping. Makes it easy easy.
When you get to the arbor gate, then you're going to find all
the things you're looking for. Do you want vegetables, do you want herbs?
Do you want flowers? Do you want shrubs, trees, roses?
I mean they have everything, fruit tree, They have fruit trees twelve months
of the year out there at the arbor Gate. And while you're there,
pick up their one two three system that is the organic food complete, organic
soil complete, and organic compost complete. With those three bags, you've got
the magic stuff to make the brown stuff, the foundation that all your plants
need to succeed. I want to head if I can. Now I've got
so many I want to get calls and talk about different things. Let's just
go ahead and go out to Wharton and talk to Mike. Hello, Mike,
Hey, listen, what's your opinion on hydros Mike, your connection is
pretty rough, but I'm able to I think get it. Hydroponics is fine
if if you want to grow in a place where you couldn't otherwise grow a
plant, it would be fine. So you could grow with lights and hydroponics.
You could grow stuff in a closet in your house. Not that I'd
recommend that, but you could do that. The challenges of it is you've
got to have a good solution so that has the right ratio of nutrients,
and you have to have you have to create adequate light if you if it's
not a unit that's already sitting outside, I like to grow in the soil,
that's my preference. But I would definitely put in a hydroponic unit just
for the curiosity and the fun of it and to try it out. A
lot of our vegetables that you buy in the grocery store, especially during the
winter season, are grown hydroponically somewhere and brought in. Well, that sounds
good. I think I'll try it all right, Well, do your homework,
do a little investigating. You know what, if it sounds too good
to be true, it probably is, So be be a little skeptical about
it, but find a good unit and that look at the ratings and whatnot.
There's a lot of tabletop units that are very small. They work okay.
My daughter has one that sits on the countertop and it works okay.
But if you're really wanting to grow more vegetables, you probably need one of
the towers where that drips the water at the top and it goes through all
the root systems on the way down. All right, thanks a lot,
all right, thank you, I appreciate I appreciate your call a lot.
I was thinking yesterday when I get back to the house today and actually do
some of my own gardening, I'm one of the things that I'm really looking
forward to doing is getting some fruit trees planted. And I have a bed
that I'm going to be putting together that's a little bit raised because I've got
a very heavy clay soil on one side of my house and it just grass
struggles there and it just a it's not a great great place, but has
good sunlight. And putting in a little bit of a raised bed, so
though those plants have root systems is important. Fruit trees need good drainage of
the soil. If your area stays soggy wet and there's no oxygen done in
the root system because of the heavy clay and the excess water, you're not
going to grow fruit successfully. And so bringing up a raised bed, even
if you bring it up just like twelve inches you know, a foot high,
and provide that amount of soil for it, you can have success.
And that's one of the things I'm going to be constructing because this is a
prime time to plant fruit trees. Oh my goodness, the apples, pears,
certainly, peaches and plums. Another one that gets neglected is per simmons.
Per Simmons really are a great fruit. They do very well, and
they're one of the ones you can grow really easily without a lot of spraying,
which is a plus. If you live in an area that doesn't have
acidic soil, you can put in a bed like that on the ground and
grow blueberries to the cows come home. They will absolutely thrive in that special
soil that you have. So consider planting some fruit trees this year. Just
check into things, make sure that perhaps it needs a pollinator. Peaches don't
plums generally do. Pears generally do better blueberries do better, but some of
them don't require it to do some investigating like that. Apple is another one.
We to pollinated because we want you to have success, and so go
get the soil ready first. Get you a good quality plant, and our
garden centers are stocked up with them right now, and bring those home follow
the instructions. If you go to the Aggie Horticulture website and click on the
fruit section, there's a free online publication on every fruit you can imagine growing,
even things like avocado. They're kind of outside the box. Go check
those out and follow that carefully, because when you start right, you're much
more likely to end up with success. Hey, we'll be right back.
KATRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on
this program. Welcome to kt RH Garden Line with skip rict. It's just
watch him as the world not a sign. Welcome back to the guarden Line,
folks. We're glad you're listening. Look to the eastern sky and here
we go, here comes the sun. That'd be a good song to play
because the sun is coming up and that means we're going to have look at
the sky too. Then how many clouds up there. We're going to have
sunshine today. This afternoon will be a great time to get out and do
some gardening. Pick up your supplies and be ready to go. Those of
you up in the Montgomery area, But you've got A and A Plants and
Produce right there on the east side of town. Uh, if you're in
anywhere around the Lake Conroy area, this is your backyard nursery. Really,
that whole that whole region up there, there's a there's a lot of folks
that go to A and A Plants because they know that Ana Plants and Produce
is going to have what they need when you show up. Do you need
vegetables, do you need herbs? Do you need flowers? Do you need
some really cool bling for the landscape? Boy, they have that for sure.
They have a landscape crew that'll clean up your houses. And are not
your houses your landscape your home landscapes up there in the Lake Conro area.
You could ask them to come inside and clean up the house. I'm pretty
sure they wouldn't need that. They got my schedule at the counter. So
if you forget to bring your schedule, which you should take when you go
shopping. They got them right there at the counter for you. So do
you need nitroposter or Nelson's, do you need microlife? Do you need airloom,
soil, Nature's way, leaf more complex? They've had all that right
there at A Anda Plants and Produce. They've got seed potatoes and onion sets,
and fruit trees and citrus trees. I mean, I could just go
on and on and guess what next Saturday. Please put this on your calendar
if you live anywhere up in that area, Saturday the twenty fourth, from
twelve noon to two I'll be at A and A Plants and Produce, and
I'm going to be giving away eight bags of turf Star Weedenator turf Star Weedenator
eight bags, one over fifteen minutes. So that's another reason to come.
Bring pictures are samples of plants, of problems to identify, to diagnose,
to make recommendations for Let's take a look, let's talk, and let's get
you headed in the right direction with your garden. I want to head up
now to Craig in Centerville. Hello Craig, good morning, to tell you,
how are you? And well? Thank you? Yeah, got a
quick question for you. My wife and I bought five acres up in Centerville
about a year ago and we had it stand out. It was solid Yopon
amongst all the they're oh, I'm not sure that I've heard it called pen
oaks. I've heard it called post oaks. I'm not exactly sure what kind
of All I know is they lose in the Okay. The question is around
that after we had it all root brake and everything, well, Yopon,
as you know, comes back with a vengeance, and I've heard remedy works
really well at getting rid of that. My question is how concerned should that
be any of that actually being on the bark of an oak tree that it's
close to. I've heard some horror stories about killing the tree with overspray,
and what's your thoughts on that. Yeah, remedy, that's one that you
definitely don't want to get on or near anything that is desirable for you,
So I would be I'd be a little extra careful with that. I think
the label let me let me see, I think that the label me.
I'm just trying to I believe the label has an application that you put directly,
you put it on the foliage, but does it have a trunk treatment
I'm not sure about that. That's what I really need to be able to
see it's true remedy. Yeah, theyopond that's it's not with the brand I
bought. It wasn't actually remedy. But the open's all just coming back.
It's probably six st eight inches tall, and you know, got the leads
back on it just from coming back to life. I've been root breaking,
ground down and everything else. And they said you can spray it on the
leaves, or you can spray just a trunk. So my fear is anything
gets on these oak trees. Am I gonna you know, am I gonna
kill them? Or should I just stay away from them completely? Yeah?
I was gonna mix it with water, and somebody suggested dish soap as a
factant, but I'd listen to whatever you have to say. Yeah, I
don't use the dish. Well, you can spray the foliage, that's fine,
just be careful the drift doesn't get onto the desirable plant, So don't
spray when there's any wind at all, and follow the label carefully. If
once you've dampened the foliage, stop spraying. Don't you know you don't drench
the plants with it? If you want to use the bark treatment, i'd
have to see the remedy label for sure, but typically we will mix it
with a little bit of diesel oil and it's just something that's essentially painted onto
the basal parts of the trunk. And with painting, you could use a
sprayer with a straight stream, not a spray, and very low pressure,
so it's it's not shooting out a long distance. You're just putting the nozzle
up against the base and just getting that on the base and the oil,
the diesel oil, that helps it to stick and to soak in better.
So either way would be fine. I wouldn't worry about planting later on.
This isn't like one of those color pyrolid herbicides that are used in pastures for
wood woody plants. It's not going to stick around that long. Okay,
well great, I just I've heard the horror stories. I appreciate the advice.
Just yeah, do my best to stay away from them. And like
I said, don't drink it, just just damp it. Yeah, if
you're spraying the leaves, no win and just damp. And if you're spraying
the trunk, uh, then you're just basically getting a little bit of that
product on the tender trunk tissues, and it soaks in. Now, if
it's a big, old, giant tree with thick woody trunk sticking out,
it's not going to soak in there. But the young plants that have a
thin trunk, like things like your pond, it's going to soak in fine,
perfect, perfect. Well. I had a gun jib about going getting
going on it because I heard the horse first. But I feel a little
more comfortable, thank And remember up there in Centerville, are you listening on
the radio, by the way, or are you listening on the computer our
phone. I was listening on my radio. I was You've got a county
extension office up there and an ag agent, and he's better able to help
with anything like a pasture type question, farm ponds, pastures, you know,
the kind of question you asked me today. Uh. That they would
be a good source of that kind of thing too. Where would where would
I find those you're county agro Life Extension service. I don't have the specific
name of the fellow in that county, uh, but call your county basically
your county government, and they can tell you where the extension service is.
Or pretty much most people up there should know perfect all right, all right,
Craig, Yeah, keep listening. If I end up with an answer
to that, where are they, I'll say it on the air. All
right. I appreciate that call very much. Uh. You know, brown
stuff before green stuff. We talked about that over and over and over again.
I'm going to come back and I want to talk to you about a
line of products that will help you with that brown stuff getting it right so
your plans will thrive. Our phone number seven one three two one two K
t R H. And I'll be right back. Welcome back, and boy
is the sun on its way. It's going to be a great day,
an awesome day for guarding. I hope you have plans this afternoon to get
out and do that. By the way, Craig, up in Centerville.
Your agent, you're in Leon County, and your agent I should have thought
of this as a friend of mine, Richard Parish. He is excellent.
He is actually Richard Parish the extension office up there in Leon County. He's
the ag agent that you have up there. So that's in Centerville, Texas.
They're on Main Street. In fact, i've been up there several times
to give talks for the Master Gardener group up there. But if the rest
of you listening are interested in, like how do I know, how do
I find my extension office? How do I find one? Because we've got
a lot of counties that are covered by garden Line and all you have to
do is go to Counties plural dot Agrolife dot org, Counties dot Agrolife dot
org and if you live in one of the two hundred and fifty four counties
in Texas, your county extension agent is aguents are right there available to you.
That includes four h program for kids, that includes the Family and Community
Health program, that in includes the agriculture program and others as well. So
I hope you take advantage of that. It's a it's definitely a good resource.
Now I was talking about a product line that I think you need to
know about, and that's Landscaper's Pride. Landscaper's Pride has twenty seven different bag
products. Now you can also get their products by bulk. You just need
to go to the store locator Landscaperspride dot com and you can find out exactly
where in your area you can get Landscaper's Pride Products. This is this is
a local East Texas company that has top quality resource. They've been doing this
for twenty years. So a premium roadmix rose mix. That's an example for
those who plant in roses, and this is a time to get that done.
A quality potting soil for all kinds of potting. And I like the
fact that you can take it and you can amend it one direction or the
other. Maybe you want to grow cactus and succulent. Put some gritting materials
in there, like sand for example, or expanded shale, you know,
to improve the drainage of it. You can take the black velvet mults and
have one of the most beautiful dark, naturally black, not an artificially diamultious
that you can have. And it's all from Landscaper's Pride. I'm gonna go
now out to northwest Houston. We're gonna talk to Ralph. Hey, Ralph
good and more in there a good good program. Yes, I'm up to
Centerville. I love for Centerville. I hunt up there, deer hound anyway,
I got my going all ready to go, and I need I needed
up medina plus right and put in it. Yeah, if you're gonna medina
plus when you're putting in transplants, would be a good one to drench them
in or spray as a folio feed. And what other kind of other side
of glaze. Uh, well, it depends. It depends on what's in
your soil. But a good quality blend I generally in gardens, I generally
use something with the three one two ratio. I know that's the lawn fertilizer
ratio, but it works pretty good in gardens. So depending on whether you
want to, you know, just if you're wide open any fertilizers, if
you just want an organic fertilizer, there's plenty of options out there. I
got all my trees, five diving trees and fall and into my garden,
So you want something, you know, that's all I would get a I
would get a fertilizer that's got the numbers in a three one two ratio.
So an organic would be like micro Life six two four. You know,
a synthetic could be like nitrofoss Imperial fifteen five ten. Uh those are all
fertilizers in the three one two ratio. Many others, many other good fertilizers
on the market. But I would go for that ratio. It's good for
the trees and for most things in the vegetable garden. It's fine. You
want to be careful if you're growing beans or peas not to overdo the nitrogen
the first number beans and peas, not too much nitrogen. But everything else
go for it, all right, all right, right, Well my neighborhood
hit groo. There you go, there you go. Have a good afternoon,
very good afternoon. I'm going to go now to Needsville and talk to
Steve. Hey, Steve, how you skip love your show? Real quick?
What I've got my front flower beds and on the side of my home
mixture of sun and shave. I am looking for some type of a bush
that I can plant. I have tried numerous things, and last year I
thought I had the right thing, which is the Japanese you They all started
to turn brown on the edges and eventually died, So I thought that would
be a hearty one to put out there. Yes, I'm thinking it might
be my soil. I'm going to remove all this soil, and should I
replace that with rose soil or like a garden mixer? Doesn't matter? Well,
Steve, I don't know if you need to remove the soil. That
wouldn't that would be the case if you had some serious contaminant down in the
soil, which it just takes might okay, Well, it would be very
very unusual in a home landscape where it floods. You know, well,
that's some contaminants in there. No, I don't. I don't think so.
If I were you, I would get a quality mix, like a
rose soil. I would lay about three or four inches of it down,
and I would spade or rototail or however you can mix it with the soil
you have, and then I would bring in another you know, build it
up with additional rose soil, probably to about a ten inch height, because
it is going to settle down. And so first first you're spreading it out
over a wide area, not just where the holes of the shrub are,
but a wide area. You're mixing it in that, and then you're putting
more rows on top. And what that does is you have a natural transition
from the quality rose mix down into the soil that you have. It's not
like you're just laying rose mix right on top of a soil that is not
growing things. Well, the other thing is to watch the watering it because
the browning you described, especially last summer, oftentimes we're not getting enough water
to where the roots are. Okay, well planet these before the major drought
hit. Oh boy, okay, well that's well, I'm thinking maybe it
was a fungus you know that came in there from what I read up on.
Well, it's unlikely, I'll just say that. And there's a lot
of good shrubs to choose from. I mean, you know, it's not
it's not you know, just a specific one. Do you want evergreen or
deciduous? You want flowering or just just yeah, well, yo, pons
are a good one. Southern wax myrtle is a good one, but you
do need to provide it water for it to do good. It would it
would make a nice little shrub for you. Think Southern wax merdle. There's
one that's more compact than others. Go with that one for your spot.
But the the uh, the plants you just had or just fine, the
Japanese you uh, they do do just find you just they just need some
so moisture to do well. You might want to put a drip irrigation line
over there. You can do it, even a do it yourself, or
you know, buy some some drip irrigation tubing and get your little hose end
timer, set it on the hose and you know they have kits that you
can put togethers like tinker toys and get that on there and then that way
you can say, hey, three times a week, I want you to
give a good soaking for this amount of time and it just doesn't or you
don't have to remember to do it, and then another real quick one,
real quick on my back, paddy. Or it gets so hot in the
summertime? What do you recommend for a hanging basket plant? If the sun
is going to be hammering it you you might want to look at something like
a uh, well it don't really get a lot of sun. It's okay,
heat from a metal roof, okay, yeah, oh boy, lots
of different options probably, you know, if it doesn't get a lot of
sun, that's a little bit of a challenge. You're probably gonna want to
go with a foliage type of plant rather than something that that blooms, because
most things that bloom need pretty good sunlight. So what do you whatever?
You like the looks? I mean, if you can put a fern there
if you watered enough, it'll be open and its smoother ings. Is it
getting direct? Is not getting direct? Soun? No, then it's a
lack of water. It's got to be that then. But yes, the
best luck I've had is something like some of these garden centers, the thick
waxy type leaves. Those seem to do pretty good. I don't know the
name of them. Okay, Well I would go I would go in one
of the quality garden centers we talked about, go by and visit them and
describe to it so that they've got on hand. I'll go out there forrest
and see what they say. Well, yeah, I think they they definitely
will know, and they'll have plenty on hand for you too out there.
Right. Thank you very much, you bet, Thanks Steve. I appreciate
the call. Hey, for those of you who are out in the Kadi
direction, or really those of them anywhere around Nelson Water Garden. I had
been going to Nelson since they we're way out in Brookshire years and decades ago.
But their new site, I say new, they've been in in a
long time. Just to my recent visit to it was like whoa, it's
a big, beautiful selection of the most beautiful pottery that you can't get anywhere.
They have special types of beautiful glazed potteries, and they have a bazillion
different kinds, and they're the ones that created that disappearing container fountain. So
you probably have seen these where it's a big, giant, beautiful urn like
pottery and the water's running out of the top and it's running down, maybe
it's spilling over the sides, and it hits a bunch of gravel at the
base and it disappears, but it's going into a container underneath that pumps it
back up through again. And when you have the sound of water, it
is so relaxing. And there's nobody that does this better than Nelson Water Gardens.
They've they are nationally known for creating beautiful water gardens. So if you
like koy and other unusual types of gorgeous fish, if you like lily pads
and just all kinds of water garden plants, they've been the leader for a
very long time, and again they're nationally known for this. Now they're out
in Katy on Katie Fort Ben Road, just north of Katie Freeway, almost
a stone's throw away, and all of the things I mentioned you're gonna find
there. So how do you want to transform your front yard? Your backyard
a bed a plat bed, Yes, you can put a disappearing fountain in
a flatbed a plant bed. They have it all there, and I'm just
telling you you got to go see it. This is a show place.
This is the kind of place where people come visit you. You go,
hey, I'm going to show you something, and you drive out to Nelson
Water Garden and Katie. Let them see this place because they're going to wander
around and go, what a paradise. I want one of these at home,
and they can help you do that simply that let's see here. I'm
going to go to Clear Lake and talk to Don. Hey, Don,
I got about a minute. Uh yeah, I think pretty quick. Ficus
trees. I've tried two of them inside the house and they both died.
And I know the seasons coming up in the spring. Here. What am
I doing wrong? Is this the the biddle leaf fig with the giant leaves
or is this a little ficus that you know has leaves that are the fourth
the size of your hand, the one but the little leaves, Okay,
the big We've got to in finn Yeah, ficus needs good sunlight, not
direct sun, but really bright light to do well. Otherwise it's spinley.
It struggles and it doesn't do well. Also, it needs you to not
change the light on it suddenly. You know if you move it from a
bright outdoor porch or patio to an indoor vice versa, that it's gonna drop
its leaves. It needs adequate water, but but but not drowned roots.
We tend to kill more plants with houseplants with too much water then when not
enough. But if you give it good light and give it so moisture,
it should do well. I suspect just guessing that maybe your light levels aren't
quite high enough. Okay, and do dirt make a get you, Yeah,
get your good quality mix. Airloom Soils makes a potting plant mix that
will do very well for you. And I would recommend you just you're going
to find it in a lot of places. It's called the works. But
go by and get that. I'm going to have to run. I'm sorry
against a hard break, but I think make sure that you do those things.
I think you're going to have success. We're going to take a break
for the news our phone number is seven one three two point two KTRH.
Welcome back to guard Line. We are talking gardening because we are in primetime
season for gardening. I hope you're as excited as I am about it.
It is time, It is time, certainly time. It's always time to
get the soil ready. But before you go planting this year, make sure
you take care of the soil. That means, I like to say brown
stuff for green stuff, just to make the mindset that before I get that
wonderful plant that is going to just be the most beautiful productive thing I've ever
seen. Before I put it in the ground, what am I putting it
into? You know? Do I have organic matter? Does it have good
drainage and that's something we need to create around here in most cases is better
drainage. And does it have good nutrient levels? And for example, Microlife
fertilizers have a wide variety of products. They a number of different bags,
beautiful colors, widely available everywhere you can go Microlife Fertilizer dot com, Microlife
Fertilizer dot com. You can find the local Microlife places around you where you
can do your shopping and get those products. You can put them in the
soil. They're not going to burn the roots or not salt based. So
the standard product is a six two four that's a green bag. That's the
one we think of as a lawn fertilizer. I use it am I vegetans,
gardens. I use it in other places as well, and so don't
just think it has to be on lawns. It's a wide variety of things.
But if you want something that's more designed for cetrus or if you want,
you know, something that's more designed for particular things, they have those.
They have one for azalias and acid loving plants, for example. But
it's time to get that in the soil, so before you plant. In
this case, with a product like this, you can just mix it into
the soil all through an area. Don't just dump it in the bottom of
a hole, but mix it into an area, dig your hole, put
the plant in, and take off growing. It's as simple as that.
If you drop it in a hole, it's not going to burn the roots.
I just like to create a larger volume of soil that's had a quality
product like the microlife that's amended it. When you're putting in transplants, it
is important to get those off to a good start. A lot of people
swear by the ocean harvest that's a fish based fertilizer, and also they well,
a microlife ocean harvest you can use as a train, you can use
it as a folier spray too. It's not going to burn the plants.
Microlife has a wide variety of both dry, granular and folier products or products
that you mix in water liquid products, and they're all going to do the
same types of things, and that is enhance the nutrient content, enhance the
microbial activity of the soil. And that is where the plants live. They
live in their roots, and microbes rule the world and make plants what they
are. That I could spend a whole show just talking about how important microbes
are to your plant's success and the roots. And that is why you want
to take care of the plant. That is why that foundation, the brown
stuff is so important, and how Microlife can help do that. I hope
you will take that to heart and consider that because it really is the key
to success. You know, don't tell me you have a brown thumb.
I'll just tell you no, you've got an uninformed thumb. And once you're
informed, and you know how to make plants happy. That thumb suddenly starts
looking cond of green. Well, let's head out to Sandy and Cyprus.
Hey Sandy, Hi, good morning, Skip. How are you? I'm
good? How are you good? Good? I have a question I wanted
to see about my like what the lowest temperature outdoors? Forties, fifties?
Like when do I put it out my okras, my eggplant, tomatoes,
bell peppers, pilipinias, all of those, what's like the lowest temperature?
Those are good questions. It's not a black and white line as you would
expect. It isn't. It's a matter of where we get in the spring.
Number one, we got to get past the frosts, or we've got
to be ready to cover them up. You want to go a little early.
I usually go too early because I'm going to go out there and cover
it. I just like to get an early start. But for most people
we say wait until the last frost date. But even at the last frostate,
then you've got some really cool nights where we can be in the low
fifties, the wind blowing, and that doesn't make a tomato plant very happy
or a pepper plant and definitely not an okra plant, So we wait until
it warms up a little bit more. If you can get your plants outside
prior to planting them, and when it's not going to be cold cold outside,
just move them out a little bit, let them kind of get acclimated
to that. If they've been grown in a greenhouse, living the life of
Riley and suddenly they're out in the cold, windy night conditions, that's a
shock. So you can gradually introduce them. That would be another tip to
help a little bit. And then with the okra, it just needs to
warm up a lot more. I probably wouldn't plant my okra until about April
April, ok and it could be planted later than that too. Sometimes they
don't get around to it until May or June. But anyway, Oh wow,
yeah, okre can take the heat. Yeah, okay, sounds great.
Thank you so much. That a great day. Thank you, Sandy.
Thank you appreciate that call very much. Let's see where are we going
to John in Spring Branch? Hello John? Hello? Skip. Last year
I planted green beans pole green beans Kentucky wonder and I just got kind of
average production with that variety. Huh. So I was wondering what your favorite
pole green bean was. Oh boy, Well, you know, if you're
looking on a local seed rack, you're just gonna have a few of the
standards, which are fine. Uh. You know, the Kentucky Wonder pole
is okay. There's a Blue Lake pole that's okay. My favorite poles over
the years. I like McCaslin mc c A S L I n. You
don't have to mail order that one. I like fort for tex pole is
a pretty good one. If you can find that. Okay, Rattle you
can order that online or something. Yeah, Rattlesnake has been a decent pole
being for me. It's a little long to heart to reaching harvest, and
so I'd rather it be a little faster if you can. Here's the thing.
We plant our beans after it's warm enough to plant them, and then
we got summer that shows up and really messes up production. And so you
need a green bean that moves faster to have the most production that you can.
There there's a number of different good poles out there. I would look
when you're looking, if you're looking at like an online catalog for seeds,
I would look for a pole that's going to be seventy days. Maybe in
terms of how long it takes to reach harvest, sixty five to seventy five
would be kind of the sweet spot if you can find that. Oh okay,
yeah, And there's the there's the typical roundish pole being like a green
bean roundish, and then there's the big flat ones. And the flat ones
do very well. In fact, I think the first one I said is
a flat potted bean, and the name A lot of the others are around
it, and that's true. Your bush beans, you know, there's there's
the flat potted, and then they're rounded potted. Do you have a favorite
bush bean or something you like to recommend? You know, I plant Contender
for an old faithful. Contender has been around a long time, and it's
a good bean. There's a lot of newer beans that are popular. Derby's
a good bean. Oh gosh, Blue Lake is one that's very famous.
You're probably gonna find Blue Lake seeds on a local seed track that does well
and Contender as well. But Contender is just one of those. It's kind
of like celebrity tomate A. Every year I've done trials, it's never been
the winner of the trial, but it's always up up near the top and
it's dependable and that that is important. Hey, I got to run.
We're out of time here, but thank you for those questions and good luck
with that. Our phone number is seven one three two one fifty eight seventy
four. Welcome back to garden Line. How you doing that. I'm running
around the studio here. Hey, we are going to talk about lawns just
a little bit. And here's the thing that I would like to just have
you aware of to day about your lawn There's two things going on. There's
weeds and there's new nutrient needs. And as far as the weeds, we
got cool season weeds that have gone over the season and they're sitting there,
they're growing and they're about to start blooming and setting seed. If you don't
want the seeds, you got to shut them down now. And that's with
something that kills broad leaf weeds after they've begun to grow. If the second
thing are the weeds that are warm seasons that are germinating, and we've got
to get down now. If you're going to use a pre emergent herbicide,
you got to get it down now. And the analogy is like a catcher's
mit. Right in a baseball, if you want to hit the baseball,
you can't swing after the catcher has it in the mit. You got to
swing at the right time, and the right time is now. If you
wait and the weeds are up and grow and it's too late for a pre
emergent And that is why it is so important to get something like nitroross barricade
down. Get it down now. You put it down, you put about
a half inch of water in it. And when you do that, what
you're going to have is a force field on the surface of the soil because
you've washed the granule product into the soil surface. And when a weed tries
to germinate and establish, it can't. It's as simple as that. And
nitrofoss products are widely available. You can get them at Lake Hardware, Clute
Up, Indeed Defeat and Tomball, for example. You can get them at
Plants for All Season on Highway two forty nine. They're widely available, easy
to find. And the barricade products specifically for broad leaf and grassy weeds to
prevent germination. Now is the time that you need to do that. As
far as fertilizing, now's the time to do the nutrients. So again the
nitrofoss imperio, the fifteen to five to ten red bag. Now's the time
for the early greenup. Follow the label. Put a little bit out there.
It'll tell you how much water it in and you'll get a green up.
And then as the weather warms of grass is going to have the nutrients
and things. It's kind of the energy and ready to go to kind of
hit the ground running. That's kind of what we're up to here. All
right, Well, I hope that, hope that is helpful for you as
we talk about it. I want to head out to Katie now and talk
to John. Hello, John, Hello, Skip Actually calling from my daughter
who has mint growing all over her backyard. Okay, it's very aggressive and
we've tried, I think everything that you suggested. So I was wondering what
a plan B would be. Okay, Well, if it was in a
little spot, I'd say, just get some spades, get out there and
dig it up. You're going to miss a few pieces when it shows up.
Dig it up again. And you know that repeated. We tried that
last year. You can get it's yeah, yeah, the piece that always
leaves a few in the ground. The next step would be to put a
broad leaf herbicide on it that will translocate down and kill the weed. You
this is in grass, right, it's in your lawn, yes, yes,
yeah, yeah. Well, Nelson Plant Food they've got a product.
You know, I keep talking about it here. You probably heard me talking
about it. But the Nelson Plant Food has something called weed in Atre and
it's a fertilizer that's gradually released over time. But it's also a post emergent
weed control. So if you water the lawn just enough to wet the leaves
of that mint and then put this out, the product gets on the leaves
and sticks because the leaves are wet, and it translocates that product in to
the mint and it's going to move down. It's going to do serious damage
if not kill it out right now, mint is so resilient with so much
underground storage that one application of anything is not going to do it. There's
also products that you spray after the fact. Bon Night has one called weed
Beater Ultra. That's what we just purchased. We haven't put it down.
Okay, follow the label carefully it don't overmix it, and and watch on
that product, don't You can repeat later with it. But once the weather
warms up into the nineties, you want to be real careful with broad leaf
weed control and lawns because you can damage your Saint Augustine. But I think
that John, this is just going to be a series of things and you're
You've got a problem that is resilient. Two attempts to control it, but
it can be controlled. It can be controlled, all right, Good luck
with that. Hey, when you use the weed beater, ultra, get
a little bit of spreader and sticker. I don't know if you go there's
a Katas Hardware out there that you can go to and ask them if they
have a spreader and sticker, follow the label, mix it just to make
sure it sticks to that leaf. Some types of ment have a little bit
of a glossiness to the leaf. Okay, all right, all right,
thank you appreciate that call. I was done in League City recently and swung
by a League City feed visiting with West Thunderberg down there. You know his
family, his dad or grandfather actually started it forty years ago in an ochre
patch League City feed and it's that old time kind of feed store. I
love going in Toto the I just love the way a feed store looks and
smells and everything else. I just love it. And part of that old
time is they give you the old time service, you know, they carry
the things to the car for you. But they have a selection of products
that is really amazing for feed stores. All the fertilizers, I'm talking about,
the soil type products, airloom, soil type products. We're talking about
everything you need to control pass weeds and diseases is all there. Of course,
they're a feed store. They got quality feeds for your pets, for
other animals. They also your chicken supplies. You know, backyard chickens are
popular. They can get you set up on that. If you leave if
you live down in the League City area, and I'm talking Lamark and Bay
Cliff and clear Lake City, I'll come into real Santa Fe all that area.
They're just a few blocks south of Highway ninety six on Highway three north
south Highway three, just a few blocks south of Highway ninety six, and
you're going to find when you go there that you'll be surprised at what they
have. And it's always good to go buy and they treat you like family,
their League City Feed. Say hey to Wes or if his sister Madison
is there, say hey to them. It's the kind of place that you
want to make a habit of going to because by the way, they're open
every Monday through Saturday all the way to six o'clock, closed on Sunday,
so after work you can swing by there and grab whatever you need. League
City Feed. There you have it. We love our feed stores here on
guard Line, that is for sure. I've talking the other day about peer
scapes and pierscapes. I don't know fully how to give you the clearest picture
of what they do, because what they do is everything pretty much. Do
you need irrigation work done? You know our system are typically inefficient. Maybe
you got a broken head. Do you need some work? They can do
all that kind of thing. Do you have a drainage problem? So now
instead of talking about adding water, we're talking about how you get rid of
it. And that is a problem when we have too much water getting rid
of that water and peerscapes can help you with draining an area, creating an
underground drain system that will work to drain that area for you. Do you
want a rock patio do you want landscape lighting, do you need a water
feature? And stuck? They do all of that and Peerscapes they've been doing
this a long time. They know what they're doing. Their designers are excellent.
Maybe you want the full fledged taj Mahal version. Maybe you just want
to take a more modest property and do some outdoor beauty like that patio area
with nice lighting. They can do all of that. What I would recommend
you do is go to their website, take a look at what they're capable
of and it's amazing. Peerscapes dot com or give them a call at two
eight one three seven zero five zero six zero Pure Scapes. I can recommend
them without hesitation. I've seen the kind of work they do and it is
it is outstanding. We're going to take a break here for the top of
the hour. In the news. Oh I want to I did want to
mention one thing. Uh, you guys have heard me talk about Southwest Fertilizer
before and bragging on them, and what do we always say, if they
don't have it, you don't need it, And that is so true.
Uh, checking with them recently, the stock of supplies of every fertilizer we
talked about in every product you need to control anything is amazing there. They
have the seed boxes where you just scoop out seeds, the most economical way
you can buy seeds. And they also have the seed packets. I mean,
just go by and see them there at Bissonett and Runwick. You can
go to the website too, Southwest Fertilizer dot com. That makes it really
easy Southwest Fertilizer dot com. Or just drive over there. You've got to
see this place to recognize why we say they got it all, because they
do have it all, including knowledgeable people that will direct you to the product
that you need, and that is critical. You can go a lot of
places and buystud people don't know what they're talking about. Not Southwest. Well,
here we are putting another hour in the books. I want to remind
you that next Saturday, twelve noon to two pm, I'm going to be
at A and A Plants and Produce up in Montgomery, Texas Highway one oh
five. So if you're up there in the Lake Conroe area, or Conroe
or Montgomery or Willis or wherever you are, come by and see us at
A and A Plants and produce. Bring me samples of plants for diagnosis or
for identification. Maybe you got some weeds you want to talk about. You
know, if you tell me what I got weeds, what kills them?
Well, it would be helpful to see the weed and we can do that.
We can identify them for you, take a look at them, tell
you what to do. Got a lot of options. Maybe you want some
suggestions for your landscape. We can do that as well. Come see me
a and A plants and produce next Saturday, twelve noon to two pm.
Katie r h. Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or
services advertised on this program. Welcome to Katie r H. Garden Line with
Skip Richter show the Crazy Trip. Just watch him as many takes the supt
basic insolub not a sidred glass gas sumon tweet. Hey, welcome back to
the Garden Line. Give us call if you're interested in asking a question.
We'll be happy to help in every way. We can help turn that brown
thumb green. That's what information does. Seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. If
you have not been to moss nursery recently. If you've never been, you
definitely need to go. This is a landscape nursery, a landscaped nursery.
I'm talking about eight acres of wandering through every kind of plant, all kinds
of blame. You see water gardens, you know, just flowing or some
water fountain feature just flowing along there. You see all kinds of cool stuff.
I'll go to walk by a carved out wooden canoe, for example,
and just just eclectic stuff. It is really cool. But the main reason
why you're going is because of the plants that they have and the people that
will help you. They are gardeners with years of experience in their gardens.
They will help you get it right the first time. That's the goal.
Get it right the first time. Soil property, taking care of water,
properly applied fertilizer in the right rates at the right time. They can help
you with all that. Do you like herbs, probably forty or fifty different
kinds of herbs. I think I saw ten different kinds of mint down there.
Get those plants now and get them in. It's time for that.
Do you love fruit? Okay, they got the standards. Apples peaches and
so on. But maybe you want to get a little unusual something with you
don't have to protect it, but you can grow it and they have it
like guava or papaya or dragon fruit or how about an apology. Yeah,
the old opuncha type prickly bear in an edible form, the leaf itself,
they're edible when they're young. Really cool herbs and hanging baskets too, blackberries
without thorns. They've got it all. And gosh, you have to go
into the houseplant greenhouse if you love houseplants, if you love succulents, you
are gonna you spend some time in there because there's so much cool product all
there at Moss Nursery. Moss Nurseries Done and Seabrooks are really easy to get
to. You can go to their website Moss Nursery dot com on Toadville Road
in Seabrook. Mosnursery dot Com. I always love to go because I always
see some cool stuff that I've seen before. Let's now go to Cindy in
Bagnolia. Hello Cindy, Hi, Skip, how are you this morning?
I'm great? How are you doing? Just fine? The question that I
have for you is when is the best time to fertilize the roses. I've
got a lot of fresh growth. I had on the black mold on it
last year and I was able to fortunately be able to bring them back from
that and I've got a lot of fresh growth now. I'm really happy with
that. So I'm trying to take as good of a care of them as
I can. Right well, remember when we fertilize, we're building the soil's
bank account of nutrients. Now the nitrogen is going to give a quick boost
of growth if the plant is in temperature conditions where I can grow. So
now it would be an excellent time to fertilize roses. But I fertilize mine
more than once year. In fact, when they finish typically April is a
big rose bloom month for me. When they finish blooming, that's the time
to give them another fertilization. Sometimes you can share them back a little bit
to get some fresh new growth. Toward the end of August, I'll often
do another shearing and a fertilization for that great fall blooming season. So I
would say fertilize them as needed, but not just once a year. But
now's a good time to start. I'm glad that you tell me that,
because I wondered about the summertime, but I was concerned that it would burn
the plants. So I'm glad that you tell me so now April, in
August, April August, after the bloom peak bloom cycle that occurs in the
spring, that would be a good time. But remember you burn plants when
you use a salt based fertilizer and over apply it, and especially without adequate
soil moisture. That combination of things will burn. But fertilizing in general does
burn. It's either been over okay, I always water always water it in.
You was watered in really good, and you always apply it at the
right rate, you know, don't don't try to apply a whole year's with
the fertilizer at one time and watered in. I mean, yeah, you
could burn with the salt based fertilizer that way, but there should never be
a concern about burning. When you're doing doing it at the right rate and
watering it in, well, you should be good to go. Is there
a fertilizer you would suggest to use for the roses? There are many great
fertilizers for the roses. Do you prefer an organic or synthetic or how do
you how do you grow your your thing? I really haven't had a preference
up to this point. Normally I go to the garden center and I look
for one that specifically says roses. Okay, well that's fine. I'll give
you a little tip though. There are fertilizers that sell roses. Nitrofoss has
a rose fertilizer. Nelson Plant Food has a rose fertilizer. But you can
use a fertilizer that is for your lawn on your rosy and they want it's
not gonna the roses can't read. They can't read the bag. So you
know, yes, go get a rose fertilizer. But listen, you talk
to ten people, You're going to get ten different answers on what their favorite
fertilizer is. And I'm just telling you that we got a lot of great
options. Every every product that I'm talking about here on Garden Line is a
line of products that is going to be fine for your roses. They're going
to have something for your roses and do just fine. You know. From
the organic Microlife would be another example that's an organic product that works just great.
On roses too. I'm sorry, what's that name again? Microlife line,
that's the organic line. That's an organic line, and and the Nitrofosh
product. They have a specific little rose care jar. It's the Houston Rose
Society has helped them design that specific ROAs and you're not going to go wrong
with that, that's for sure. Okay. Yeah, wonderful, Thank you
so much. Yeah, you bet, good luck with all those. Don't
forget the the Nelson's as well, that's another great one for that. Let's
head tell you what. Let's go to Mike in League City. Hey,
Mike, I've got about a minute. You think we can get it done?
Oh yeah, Lee County. I'm sorry, okay, good morning,
Hey hedges, red tip fatina if I'm pronouncing it correctly in my area.
I just need to know what soil preparation or is that a good hitge for
what I'm looking for. Red tips are fine. They grow in almost any
kind of soil. Anytime you improve it with organic matter, you're going to
make plants happier. So compost or a rose soil, a bed mix,
whatever you have up there in Lee County, well you can get a hold
of I would mix it into the soil and improve it as best I can
with that. Also, the red tips fell from favor because of a disease
called intimasporium leaf spot. So you want to be careful about watering the foliage
a lot. Every time you wet the foliage the chances those problems. But
for a long time it was a great shrub and it's just fallen out of
favor because they were getting plagued with that, and I think that was one
of the reasons. Hey, I got to run. If you want to
continue the conversation, just hang on. We're going to take a little break.
Seven one three two one two k t RH Welcome back to garden Line.
Let's talk gardening. What are you interested in? Give us a call
seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Last summer was dry.
There's no news there. When it's dry, our soil shrink. And
now it's wet. We've been getting good rains. When it's wet, our
soils swell. And that movement in the soil is what rex havoc on sidewalks
and driveways and the foundation of your home. If you look at the wall
of your house inside and you see a crack in the sheet rock, something
moved. If you see cracks in the brick outside, something moved, that's
the time you definitely want to give Ty Strickland Fixed mice Lab Foundation Repair.
Give him a call. The phone number is two eight one two five five
forty nine forty nine. Now, you don't want to delay on this.
The problem is not going to get better, but you need to have them
come out do an assessment. What is there, what is a degree of
damage, and what is the appropriate solution to fix that. And if you
tell them you're a guardline listener, you're going to get a free estimate from
him. And Ty is very committed to making sure that he gives you a
fair price. He's also making sure that he's on time. When he tells
you he's going to be there, he's going to be there. You can
you can trust this they show up on time, and also that when they
fix it, it's fixed. They did it, they did it right,
they know what they're doing. You can go to fix myslab dot com or
call two eight one two five five forty nine forty nine. If those doors
are sticking inside, by the way, that's another sign of movement. Don't
wait if you've got a problem, let's go ahead and look at it.
Don't stick your ahead in the sand like an Ostrich and just put it off
thinking it's going to get better. Call Tie Strickling two eight one two fi
five forty nine forty nine so they can fix it right and on time for
a fair price. You are listening to garden Line. If you want to
talk about some topic that maybe is most of interest to you, well too.
Eight you can give us a call at seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two uh five eight seven four.
Or Some people like the daw buy letter, so KTRH I probably should
just use KTRCH. I'm not a letter dialing fan. I don't know.
I always find myself looking trying it. Okay, where's the K and so
on? I just like the numbers, but I know everybody's not that way.
All right, Hey, I want to talk a little bit about tree
planting. Now is the time to get that done. And making sure that
you plant your tree properly is very important, and that's why a lot of
times I'll just say, look, have the people you bought the tree from
plant it for you? And that's one of the good things about Verdant Tree
Farm is Verdant Tree Farm. They number one, they got trees that grow
well here. Number two. They're very knowledgeable about it. They know if
you show them a picture here's my home, what tree does good? They
can tell you the best options you have. And they when it comes to
palms, they also have a very very good selection of some hardy palms,
palms that went through the February twenty one freeze where it killed a lot of
palm trees. Palms that went through that. They've got those there. You
can go to the website Verdant Treefarm dot com. They have locations down in
Paarland on Broadway. They've got a location in the Heights where Yale and I
ten come together. Got one out in West Houston on Barker Cyprus. They
will do it right. They'll come out and they'll plant it for you correctly.
That is very very important. They'll guide you in the early care the
sooner you plant, whether it's a giant holly or you know bush or one
of these trees. Talking about the better off it'll be this first summer.
By the way, at Verdant, they also had that three sixty tree stabilizer
and stock. I saw those I was by there. The three sixty tree
stabilizer is a really cool new invention. And when I say new, it
is very new on the market. Just think of a plastic bar, but
a reinforced like can take any kind of wind that might your tree might face.
Very strong bar with soft straps on each on the ends, and so
you can attach it to a post you're can attach it. It's designed where
even fit on a t post, a metal tea post as well. The
other end that plastics, plastic strap, rubber strap, excuse me, gives
And so it's important that the tree trunk be allowed to move. You do
not want to stake them down tight where they can't move at all. Movement
strengthens the trunk. And three sixty tree stabilizers designed to allow that movement,
but not too much. It gives good security. You can put two of
them on a tree, you know, one kind of pointing east west and
the other point in north south, so no matter which way the wind blows,
you've got good protection. You can find them in a lot of places.
The just talking about Verbin Tree from they've got them there. RCW carries
them plants for all seasons, Arborgate Jorges Hidden Gardens down south of Houston,
Buchanans native plants, all these places, and I suspect there's going to be
some more because this product is going to be popular because it works, and
once you buy it, once you have it available for whenever you're going to
plant a tree, and that would include like a multi trunk great myrtle as
well. Let's head out to League City and talk to Lewis. Hello,
Lewis, how are you doing good? How are you? Okay? I'm
doing fine. So I got I think it's king Ranch bluestem coming up in
my yard. I think it's been blown through the neighborhood and you trying to
get rid of it without filling my my grass. Okay, you can't kill
a grass and a grass in most cases without killing both of them. King
Rinch bluestem is considered a grass. Yes, it is a grass for sure.
What I would do if I had that number one, I would assess
it. And if it's just widespread all through the lawn, you may be
best to kill everything and start over with the lawn. That's drastick. But
if you have extensive blue stem infestation. You're probably that that's one option you
probably need to think about. If it's here and there, you can use
a dabber type sponge type applicator to put either a grass killer or something that
kills grass and broadly so that would be a glife and say type product,
dab it just right on the blue stem, trying to avoid having contact with
the grass. There are also things called wick applicators that you you could think
of a hockey stick with a sponge or rope on it that has the product
and you go past over the top of your lawn, but that king ranch
is going to stand up higher than your lawn does. And you just wipe
the king ranch and it's not going to be a one and done. You
just be ready to go back out on every Saturday, every other Saturday for
a while and just more and more getting rid of it and minimizing it down.
Or go with the just kill everything right there have some dead spots and
let your grass fill back in. Okay, all right. I want to
tell you though also in the meantime, lewis the more you create density in
your lawn, the less problems like this are going to occur because if the
lawn is thin and last summer thinned a lot of lawns, then that bare
spot a seed is going to come up, and now you're fighting a weed.
So work on lawn density with mowing, watering, and fertilizing. Hey,
if you go online to my website, it's gardening with skip dot com.
My lawn care schedule is on there and that that guide will help create
that density. So we're startifighting two battles. We're killing the weed, but
we're also building the lawn, and those two combined I think as your long
term solution. Okay, I have followed that in the past. And what
when it really started to become prevalent was after the freeze a few years ago.
Is one I noticed it? Okay, you know when it really came
up. Okay, well all right, yeah, good luck with it.
It is a booger. We wish it had never been brought in, but
it's here. Yeah, okay, well, thank you very much. All
right, thank you, I appreciate your call. Yeah, King Grant kr
boost him not that great of a cattle feed either. It was brought in
as something we might use for pastures, which it'll grow and make a pasture.
Not the most nutritious, the best of grasses out there for it,
but boy, I tell you it can be a weed, that's for sure.
All right. Quick quiz on garden line. What is the formula for
success with plants? What comes first? Brown stuff? What comes second?
Green stuff? Right? You get the soil right, And I don't care
if it's a planting bed that you're doing roase soil in, or if it's
a potting soil for your house plants or plants on the patio. Airloom Soils
has got you covered on each of those. And they have a wide variety
of products. For example, the works potting soil. You can buy that
in a lot of places. You know they're going to have it. Plants
for all seasons. Nelson's Water Garden I were just talking about earlier. They're
gonna have it there, Mid County, Feedniderland. Those of the listening,
shout out to Neederland, Huntsville farm Supply. There's another shot out you're looking
at Kingwood Garden Center. Well, yep, they're going to have it there.
A lot of places weren't. Southern gardens too out in Kingwood has it,
but they have a wide variety of products, and their products are made
right. You can go to Airloom Soils of Texas and look at the list
of products and look at the places that they carry them in eye telling you
that they are everywhere. It's not hard to find heirloom soils. For example,
they're at Warre in Southern Gardens. Were in Southern Gardens is a great
place to get your heirloom soil products. In fact, I counted the heirloom
list just recently and it was over fifty five different places in the Houston area.
You can find Airloom Soils and Warren Southern Garden. Sure, that's absolutely
one of them. Really really good place. Now at Warren's you're gonna find
every kind of plant you're looking for, every kind of plant that you're looking
for. They have a wide variety. But right now they're having a leapier
sale. The rose soil, the azamite ten pound asamite, the Nilson plant
food, and the Microlife plant food, those jars, all of that is
on an incredible leaf leapier sale. And that's both that Kingwood Garden Center and
it Warns Southern Gardens. So you need to go to both either or both
of those places, and see both are excellent nurseries out there in the Kingwood
area. Yes, you are rich with nurseries out in the Kingwood area.
Really really cool stuff. By the way, my Skip special I was talking
about that last weekend. Today's the last day of it. And what you
do is you walk into Warren or Kingwin you say, hey, I want
the skip special. That means you get three bags of airloom soils. One
cubic foot are larger, not a little tiny bag, but a cubic foot
are larger, and you get one free and you can mix and match.
You want a roase soil, you want to you know, the quality mixes
that they make for veggie and herb those are one of my favorite ones.
But you can do that. But you just need to go out there and
look the incredible, incredible sale going on on all those combination of products rose
oil, asimite, Neilson plant food, micro like plant food in the last
two in jar form. We are Now let's see I want to go.
Yeah, we got a little bit of time here. We're gonna go out
to Spring and we're gonna talk to Rich. Hey, Rich, I got
about a minute or so let's see what we can accomplish. Fine, good
morning. I have volunteered to take care of the clubhouse for all the apps
for the lawn as well as I help other neighbors in the neighborhood with their
lawns. So I'm looking to upgrade from a hands prayer to a battery powered
backpack sprayer. Wondering if you have any ideas. Boy, I am not
an expert on the new brands abouttery prayer. Know some lines will sell you
the product in a jug with a little battery powered sprayer, but that's not
for covering a big area like you're having to deal with. I'm not sure
what to suggest you on that. You might talk to one of your a
stores nearby and just see if they have any kinds of a product like that,
or if they have some suggestions. You might talk to the folks down
at Southwest Seed and Fertilizer. It's a little distance from you, but just
give them a call, go to Southwold Fertilizer dot com see what they have.
My gut feeling is I would think i'd either prefer one of the little
pump up backpacks that you have, the little lever that you you keep it
pumped, or perhaps there are the battery I mean the engine powered ones.
You probably don't want to get into the noise of that, but that'd be
the best I can suggest to you on those ridges. Okay, appreciate it,
skip, thank you. It's a very legit question and I just am
not an expert. So we're going to take a little break. It is
time for the news, and so we are going to give you the phone
number and leave it at that. You can give us a call at seven
one three two one two k t RH. Get on the board with Josh
and we'll talk to you when we come back. All right, here we
go on Guarden line. We are here to talk about the things that interest
you, and that's why I give you a number where you can give me
a call if you would like to ask questions. It is seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four are KTRH if that's simpler for you to
do. I was discussing earlier the importance of getting the pre emergent out.
Now, if you're going to use a pre emergent to prevent the summer weeds,
we're talking about weeds. You don't see the weeds you see now,
that would require a post emergent herbicide application to do that. The weeds you
see now, that would be a pre emergent. I mean, you don't
see now. I don't know how I said that. The weed you see
now post emergent. The weeds you haven't seen yet, that's a pre emergent.
And that's what barricade does. You put it down at the proper rate.
Follow the label there. The label is the law. There's a reason
there's a rate on the label. Follow that and that will include incorporating it
into the soil surface. And that's a fancy word for put about a half
inch of water down and that dissolves antri the compounds. To put them in
the soil surface. When a weed seed sprouts, it doesn't let it establish
a weed plant. It shuts it down right there. It's really easy.
I mean, nitrofoss has made it really easy with this Barricade product. And
if that's including grassy weeds like crabgrass and graspur for example, that's also including
our broadleaf weeds that are warm seasons that come up as well. So that
makes it kind of neat neat. Where can you get this, well,
how about in Chene Gardens down there in Richmond Rosenberg. How about Shades of
Texas. Shades of Texas is up in the Woodlands. How about the Hiden
and Feed on Stubner Airline. Yep, they have it as well. There.
There's a lot of places that carry these products, the Nitrofis products,
including the specific one you know, the barricade. The barricade is the kind
of product. The reason that I prefer a pre emergent over a post one
reason is that it's better to deal with the weeds before they get started.
Once they get started, it the weather warms up and you're trying to spray
a broad leaf in Saint Augustine and it's ninety degrees, it's kind of touch
and go. We're dealing with those kinds of things, so we just prevent
them, prevent them ahead of time. I mentioned having it down in Chane
Gardens, you know, in Chenne Gardens in Richmond. If you've not been
down there, you've got to go. It is another one of those quality
we say, mom and pop independent garden centers, not part of some big
national chain, especially national chains, so you know, other things. They
focus on the fact that This is a garden center. It's stuff for your
garden. It's gonna have the plants. Do you need roses? Oh my
gosh, what a selection they have of roses. It's really outstanding. Fresh
herbs and vegetables. They are loaded up and in stock with fresh herbs and
vegetables, even seeds. They're gonna have seeds for that. Do you need
shrubs or trees? Do you not really know what you need? Do you
know? I got to call earlier a hand, need a shrub to go
over here on this side of my house. You can do that and they'll
walk you over and say, well, here's some good option. They'll ask
you some questions like is it sunny or is it shady? Do you want
flowers or do you want evergreen? Whatever, and they'll point you at the
plant that they know grows here because they are experts in that. And Enchined
Gardens in Richmond's the website Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot
com. They're on the Katie fullsher side. So if you're in Richmond heading
toward Katie direction, they're on three point fifty nine north of Richmond. It's
real easy to get to and you need to get out there and buy by
the way, look out the window. Is it is this afternoon not going
to be a wonderful day of Chamber of Commerce weather to get out and visit
your garden center. That is, I don't know. That's the tip of
the day. It I can't imagine being cooped up this afternoon. Let's go
to John over in Baytown. I'm gonna quit talking and let you ask a
question. John. How about that? Yes, sir, this is I
got a new home and the saw was laid back in November and there's like
a sad laid on top of its, like aud, I mean like a
black play or something like that. Anyway, it Saul Brown, What no
lock can I do to bring the saw back to life? Okay? Good,
good, good question. And yes, it definitely is laid on black
clay, likely down in that area. But the black clad, the grass
itself can grow in a black clay. The sod farms are on black clay
soils. When you buy side, you get that little sliver of soil with
the grass, and that's a black clay and it holds together real well,
so it's easy to move the sod pieces if it was sand, it would
fall all apart. But that's just a sign that grass can thrive on a
black clay soil. It needs nutrients, and it needs adequate watering, and
it does help to have aeration done in the root system. So since this
has been in for a while, you can do a core aeration, and
core aeration goes down in the soil and it pulls a plug of soil out
and drops it on the surface. I always kind of joke that it looks
like you had a small dog convention on the lawn the day before, because
there's all these little doggie dropping looking pieces of soil all over the place.
You can follow that with a compost top dressing of a quality screened leap more
compost or small particles. They fall down in the holes. Your water moves
down in and soaks in the soil better, and your nutrients can also move
down. But most importantly, oxygen can get down in the root system.
And green Pro is a company that does that. They work more north.
You're way down south. Green Pro tends to stay north, but you may
check around down there, talk to your garden centers and say, who do
you know down here that does a good job of deep time core aeration,
not just a roller that pushes holes in the soil, but one that pops
the plugs out, and that is what I would recommend you do. You
may want to wait on it a little bit, let the grass kind of
get going, but cororation with compost top dressing is the best thing you can
do for that longny type of fertilizer on now, you absolutely should put fertilizer
also. Now that's the nutrient levels, and so we would recommend a lawn
type fertilizer, and we want to put it out. You can do an
early green up right now of an immediately available fertilizer. If you look at
my schedule online at Gardeningwithskip dot com. You can look at it on your
computer. You can print it out and have a copy of it and carry
with you and say, hey, point to the fertilizer on there when you
go into shop. So I need some of this, but they that schedule
will guide you on the various ones you put. The early spring greenup is
now the once you've mowed the lawn twice. When we get into let's say
early April in your area, maybe late March, you can go ahead and
put down a longer release fertilizer that will carry you on through the summer.
Thank you. Yeah, do you do you have? If you do,
you have places that you know down in Baytown that you go. I know
you've got a lot of really well I would I would go to one of
your your ACE hardware stores down there. They got a Yeah, they carry
the ones I recommend. That's why I'm saying that. All right, thank
you, Yes, sir, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Yeah.
Greenpro is a company that if you live let's say north of Itan maybe
Central Houston and North especially, you know as you get up the street a
little bit we're talking, Well, they like to not go more than about
forty five miles from Magnolia in any direction, so they can go north and
they can take care of this. They do such a good job. They've
got the equipment that does deep time aerrations. So those of you, for
example, Conrad Willis, the Woodlands, Cyprus, Texas, Spring Texas,
Magnolia, Montgomery, even out to Katie West, Houston, Central Houston,
North Houston. They go to all those areas and they can do the proper
kind of aerration because they have the right equipment to both airrate and to spread
an even supply of a quality mulch on top of your soil. And you
need to give them a call to a one three five, one forty seven
thirty three or greenpro dot net, greenpro dot net. Simple as that,
We're gonna take a little break here. It is time for that. And
when we come back, K, you'll be the first up for the rest
of you. Seven to one three two one two K t R H.
Wellcome back to garden line. A little bit of nice harmony going on there.
I wish I had a bass voice like that guy boy, I'll tell
you what that is. Kind of cool stuff. Here we go. Hey
K in Parland, how are you this morning? And I'm good? And
how are you? Y'all say, I hear you're good. I'm doing wonderful.
I'm at spring. I'm a gardener for crying out loud. In fact,
I was hoping I could just have Josh play music and I could get
out of here and go play in the garden because I'm ready to roll.
You had to go boogie in the garden, that's it. I don't think
that would go over well, but you know, I could do that.
What's up? Okay to the gentleman who was looking for a spryer, I
have a five gallon rechargeable electric sprayer and I went online. It's called It's
a Country Way. But when it came it was in the packaging of Rural
King, and I went online and it's under both and the Rural King has
a backpack. I'm not sure about it, but he might contact down and
they might give him a hint. How do you like it? How does
it hold a charge? I've used it once, I've had it for quite
a while, but it gets pretty heavy. Course you don't have to put
five gallons of liquid in it, but it's a little little inconvenient. I
thought, oh my gosh, that's awesome. It's electric. You just plug
it in and charge it and you know, and you go wherever. But
rolling a heavy item like that, I'm over eighty of the years years old.
It's hard on graphs, and I don't have a lot of walkway around
my house, so it's a little inconvenient for me. All right, Well,
hey, Kay, I appreciate that. And so if Rich if you're
listening, Kay just gave you some information on one that she's tried. Hey
kay, thank you very much. Okay, you take care. I was
talking about tree planting. This is the time, get it done, get
it done. It is also the time to get any tree work done of
pruning, Like maybe your tree needs a lot of pruning, maybe it just
needs a little bit hopefully just a little bit. When you take care of
them right, they don't need a lot at any one time. Well,
Affordable Tree Service I'm talking about Martin Spoon Moore, He's the one you need
to call. Martin's been doing this for thirty years. He knows how to
take care of trees. He will give you an honest estimate of what's needed
if it's not needed. He's not going to tell you have to do something
you need to do something you don't need to do. But proper pruning is
critical. People that don't know it they're doing can ruin a tree for life,
and one day that tree goes from potential to it's just a mess,
and it's it's going to always be weak wooded. You're gonna have issues and
storms and whatnot. Hire somebody that knows what they're doing. That's Martin.
You can go to Afftree Service dot com. Aff Tree service, or you
can just give him a call his phone number. Write this down seven one,
three, six, nine nine twenty six sixty three. Now he stays
busy, so don't delay in giving him a call. And also when you
call, tell him you're a garden line listener, so you can go to
the front of that line and make sure that he's able to get out to
your place. Take a good look at it, because we're in a big
time to get a lot of work done. Now he'll work all through the
year taking care of trees, but proper care is critical for long term success,
for your tree to be strong and for it to be beautiful, storm
resistant, and if you're doing anything around your tree, have him come out
and look first. If it's a trench or a driveway or something being poured
over the over part of the root system, you need to let him advise
you on that, so again you don't just cause problems that have a long
term a long term problem for you and for that tree. Let's go out
to Spring Brands and we're going to talk to Sharon. Hello, Sharon,
Hi, how you doing. I'm well, thank you good. I'm about
to fertilize my lawn and I have weeds. Okay, and every year I've
always used the nitrophile swede and feed with trimac. Okay, does that work
the same as that new Nelson plant food. Both of them go after existing
especially broad leaf weeds. Yes, that will also control those. And again,
if you're going to use a product like that, you need to make
sure that the weeds are caught at an early stage, which get it done
quickly, don't delay, because once the weeds start blooming and setting seed,
then the effectiveness of our broadly post emergence goes down. Okay, Okay,
well, I appreciate the good advice. Well, good, good for you,
and that's also going to have basically the equivalent. There are a couple
of nitrofoss products that have we we control things like that in them, but
one of them basically is the equivalent of the fifteen five to ten the Imperial
fertilizer. It just also has that broad leaf post emergent in it. Okay,
because you mentioned Imperial now, but that's if you don't have weeds,
right. Imperial is a fifteen five ten fertilizer, and the one you're asking
me about is a product that has fifteen five ten fertilizer plus the weed control
in it. Yeah, I'm not saying yeah. I want to be real
clear. Imperial does not control weeds, but it's just fertilizer. But the
other is fertilizer and it has a post a. Right, Okay, well,
thank you so much. All right, you take it. Thank thank
you, appreciate your call. Have you been to the ANTIQ rose in Porium
before? I always look forward. I went out and gave a talk out
there earlier in the season. We had a Tomato conference Texas Gardener held out
there, and in fact, I'm going back again in March, not pretty
early in March. I'm gonna be back out there for another talk that I'm
doing. I'll tell you more about that later. But antiqu rose in porium
is not just roses. They are roses, but they are so much more.
Right now, they've got Gerbert daisies. Those are gorgeous. The galvinia's
and all the gerbers are just beautiful Dahlias. They've got those. I bet
you've never grown one of those before. Boogainvillias. They got ferns and shade
loving plants, a wonderful selection of perennials if you like natives. How about
some native perennals like purple cone flower, white lantana, pink skull cap,
coral, honeysuckle, yarrow, Salvius one of the best genera of plants areas
or Salvius for Texas. Here, make your pollinators with those. Now.
They're going to have their spring celebration March ninth and tenth. That is when
I'm going to be out there. I've got artists and market speakers. You
need to plan to go out at that time. It's going to be busy
out there because it's spring and people love to go out in the spring to
the ANTIQ Rose Imporium. You need to bring a group with you too when
you go. I'm telling you this is a destination Antique Rosanmporium dot com.
That's the website if you want to give them a call. Nine seven nine
eight three six five five four eight nine seven nine eight three six fifty five
forty eight. Trust me on this one. That is a place that you
will love visiting. It is so cool out there and so many great great
products. It's an inspiration. Uh. We've I've bought roses out there on
more than one occasion, and one of my daughters. We were out one
time. She had to get some roses out there, hauled them off to
Atlanta, Georgia, I believe, and actually one of them went to North
Carolina. I've had roses go to North Carolina from them as well. I
won't take it a microlife product. I've talked about it before, but I
don't mention it as much as I probably ought to. And that's microlife hum
mates plus hum mats plus is a zero zero four fertilizer, so it's got
some potassium in it. That's a third number. But the main reason we're
putting it down is because it is a humous product that's a final degradation stage
of organic matter that is so helpful in improving soul structure. We're talking earlier
about a clay soil and what do we do about it. Microlife's hum mats
plus is what we do about it. When you use that over the years,
over time, you know this isn't an immediate fix, like you put
it out there and suddenly clay isn't clay. We're talking about something that you
use as part of your annual schedule as you go through i'd say one even
two times a year, about ten pounds per thousand square feet. It will
do wonders for the garden. And that's from the folks at Microlife. Just
go to micro Life Fertilizer dot com and you can find out where you can
get it. Excellent. Well, here goes another hour. I'm flying this
morning. They say time flies when you're having fun. Permit the frog says,
time's fun when you're having flies. I'm sorry, I'm a dad.
You can thank me later for the dead jokes. Don't forget. I will
be at A and A Plants next Saturday, twelve pm. That's new to
two pm. Twelve pm to two pm. I'll be answering your questions and
guess what I'll be giving away A bag's a turf star every fifteen minutes.
The turf Star we dena tour, specifically the weed Nator. So come out
and see me. Let's take a look at samples of plants. If you
live anywhere up there around Montgomery or the like Conroe area, anywhere up north,
I hope you drive out and see me next sight. This is my
first appearance at a garden center this year, and I am excited about getting
up there and seeing the place. And meeting you. Kat r H Garden
Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program.
Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Scamp Richter's Crazy trim. Just
watch him as so many sup welcome back. I want you to take a
look outside, and then I want you to fill your pulse. If you
have a pulse, if you've ever thought about growing anything, Today's a day
look at that. It is unbelievably beautiful day to get out. I hope
this afternoon you get out and visit some of these awesome, awesome independent garden
centers in the Greater Houston area that we have. They're just it's just we
are so fortunate here to have places, you know, places like enchanted forests
for example, that's down in the Richmond area. In fact, if you're
in Richmond, you're heading up toward Sugarland direction, Well, all you have
to do is head off to the right from there, FM twenty seven fifty
nine twenty seven to fifty nine will take you right to enchanted forests. In
enchanted forests always has good deals going on, and they always have beautiful plants
and super health and great condition. That grow well here and people that greet
you and say how can I help, and know what they're talking about that
is really really important. These it's just a it's a wonderful place to go
to now. In fact, they are still having a special right now that
is unbelievable. It's a pre spring pottery sell. If you buy one or
two pots, you get twenty percent off. You buy three or four potch
you get forty percent off. If you buy five or more fifty percent off.
You cannot beat that. And I'm telling you we need more containers.
And they have beautiful containers out at the Enchanted Forest for sure. Need you
need to get by there. You need to check them out if you want,
if you want to see the complete list of all the plants and roses
for example, they have. And by the way, they got floral Flora
bundas, the Grande Flora's, they got anti croses, hybrid tes. You
know, they have everything. That's the way to think about it. Enchanted
Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. Enchanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com.
Just look under their plant lists and you're going to find the things that
I'm talking about. I love going out to Chanted Forest and live visiting with
Danny Clay and they just they make you welcome, they make you feel happy
to be out there. By the way. Next Saturday, Mike Surrant from
micro Life Fertilizer, it's going to be out there talking about organic gardening.
That'll be from eleven to two next Saturday out at the Enchanted. I'm telling
you every weekend something is going on out of an Enchanted for us a food
truck and a great, great presentation, educational presentation to help you have more
success. Have you ever any questions about micro Life products? Next weekend at
Channey Forst. The way to find out our phone number if you'd like to
give us a call today is seven to one three two one two kt r
H. Seven to one to three two one two kt r H makes it
really easy to get a hold of us. We're here to answer your gardening
questions, to help you. My goal is to help you have a more
bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape. And in the area where we live,
that can be done. Every place you live in the whole country's got
some issue. It gets too cold, it gets too hot, it's too
dry, it's too wet, the soil is too sandy, the soil is
too clay. I mean, we all have our excuses, but I'm telling
you we can and clay soil here and we can plant things that take the
summer and we can grow stuff all winter that you go fifty miles north you
can't grow. And this is a great place to garden, a great place
to have that beautiful garden or the bountiful garden and the beautiful landscape. Azamite
is a product you've heard me talk about before. In the spring we think
about fertilizing, and that always brings to mind the idea that it may be
a time to put azamite on as well. Now, azamite does not have
to be put on when you put on fertilizer. You can apply it any
time of the year. What you're doing with azamite is not making the plants
grow. It's not a nitrogen fertilizer that boosts fath growth. It's a it's
a bank account building trace mineral supplement doesn't take a lot of azamite to have
success. A forty pound bag will cover six to twelve thousand square feet launch
it goes a long long way. Now as mite is going to provide those
trace minerals so when the plant needs things that are obscure, which are essential.
And that's the part people think, well, if it's a minor nutrient,
I don't. It's not as important as a macronutrient. No, it
a micro nutrient is equally important. It is essential. If you could take
every bit of manganese out of your soil, plants could not live. If
you took every bit of zinc out of your soil, plants could not live.
Those are trace minerals and it's important that we have a full stock of
trace minerals to have success. And that's what azemite's about. So don't put
it in the hopper with your fertilizer. The particle size is different and it
won't be applied evenly. Do it separately. Do your fertilization and do your
azimide application separately. But just know you can do it anytime, but now
is a great time to get out there while you're buying your products and getting
ready to go, go ahead and bring it back home so you can put
it on now. You can put it on anytime you want, but you
got it ready to go on hand. That is an important thing to make
a note of if you'd like to give me a COVID action. You got
open lines right now, so this would be a good time to give me
a cough you'd like to ask a question seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I
was talking earlier with someone about the nitrophoss, the Imperial product, and nitrophos
Imperial is an immediately available fertilizer. So when you put it down and you
watered in, those nutrients are released and move out into the soil and they're
available to your plant. And we're hitting the time where we do what is
called a spring green up application. Now that you know, when we warm
up, the grass will be growing actively and we'll be doing all kinds of
fertilizing at that time. But right now is an early greenup, so the
grass takes up the nutrient and it just is going to show in an earlier
greenup for your lawn more attractive, and that lawn grass plant is strong and
ready to go. So as it warms up and the growth gets faster and
faster, it's got that nutrient supply, and that's nitroposs imperials fifteen five ten.
That's a three one two ratio. The three one two ratio products that
created over half a century ago, TEXA, A and M turf scientists doing
research found that's what grass needs. In fact, if you cut off a
clipping of your lawn and send it to the lab, if it's a healthy
lawn, they're going to tell you I found in this nutrient in this clipping
a nutrient ratio of those first three numbers NPK three one two. That's what
it is. We're feeding grass the ratio that plants eat. You probably,
if you've been around for years, you've heard triple thirteen recommended or triple ten
or so on, that those are nutrients and they are available to plants.
But our plants take up nutrients in a three one two type ratio in most
cases. So that's why nitroposs imperial is a great way to start. And
where do you get it? You can get it in a lot of places.
Plantation Ace Hardware out there in Richmond Rosenberg area, if you're up in
Willis Growers Outlet has it. If you're a we're in Kingwood, Kingwood Ace
Hardware has it. It's easy to find nitrofoss products all around and the nitrofoss
Imperial. This is the time to get that done. We're going to take
a little break. We'll be back. We got some calls here waiting.
We'll be getting to those right away. Dope or Derek, you will be
the first up. Welcome back to garden Line. Glad to have you listening
in today. We've got lots of things still to talk about in this our
last hour of this weekend of garden Line. I want to remind you those
of you who are interested in bee keeping and those of you who just are
interested in learning about some of the fascinating things in the world of bees,
and trust me, it is absolutely fascinating. Well, the folks out at
the Bee Supply and Dayton they can get you set up. They have the
products you need. They get in bees. For example, you want to
buy bees to stock a hive. They have a couple of strains that they
work with out there and they're getting shipments in pick up dates all the way
from April eleventh through May twenty fourth this year. Go to the b Supply
dot com vbsupply dot com. They also will get you into their classes,
which are incredible. It's about six hours for the class they go through the
lunch there that they will provide you a barbecue sandwich. They're about every two
weeks February twenty fourth, that's coming up this next week, March ninth,
March twenty third, April thirteenth, April twenty seventh, and both two more
weeks as well in May. Dbsupply dot COM's where you find that out.
You learn about bees in a classroom and then you go outside and you get
some hands on experience with bees and they get you all suited up and everything.
It's safe. You can learn a lot. So if you've even been
thinking about it, go out and just experience that class and learn and see
if it's for you. They also have interactive honey tours that are going on
out there. This is people for example, maybe you're not interested in bees,
but you just want to learn about bees, and they will fascinate you.
With bees, you get to taste all these different types of honey to
see the difference in the different types of honey. You will learn a lot.
It is really cool. They also are available to come out and speak
at your garden club or other organization meetings. Just give them a call.
Out there at the Bee Supply. Again, it is easy, easy,
easy to find out about them. They're a little ways out there in Dayton,
but it is so worth it. I love going out to the be
Supply. I find the store cool because I used to keep bees myself,
so that's pretty cool. But anyway, maybe you need to participate in the
b rental program. If you're a landowner and you've got five to twenty acres,
you want to use bees to help qualify for your ag exemption. Yeah,
that's right, ag valuation. Well, they have a rental program put
bees on your property and make it an agricultural venture. So again you just
go to the website, thebesupply dot com. That's where you find out everything
you need to know. I'm going to head out now to Southwest Houston and
talked to Derek. Hello Derek, the EG morning, Skip morning. The
question I have is this past May, we had to build up the backyard
because it became a lake when it rained heavy and we didn't have any grass
to speak of. So we built it up with some pretty decent top soil
and went to Houston Grass and bought oh I half a pallet a saw.
It laid it down fertilized, it did everything that you say. Now here's
my concern. From October till even now. The backyard is only ten foot
from the house to the fence and about thirty foot long, so it's not
a real backyard a large backyard. And the grass took really well. I
was surprised. And we watered it even through the drought time. Okay,
And it did take really well, was really nice and green now since October
because we have all that shade in the backyard. And I've heard you say
that Saint Augustine is pretty shade tolerant, but n of it since the freeze
that we had is now just brown grass blades. But there is some green,
and my wife says she has faith. We still don't have any sun
in the backyard yet. It's about a foot above the foot above the ground
along the fence, so it's probably another month before we really start getting any
sun in the backyard. Okay. Do you think it's going to come back,
yes, even with the fertilizer program, or do we have to look
at some other option. Yes, it sounds like you have a good pattern
where if you're going to have shade, you have it in the winter when
the grass is not very active. The grass can capture some sunlight in the
winter and help maintain the strength. I think it's going to be okay.
I would go ahead and either get down your early spring green up application or
for sure make sure when that grass starts need to be mode that you're getting
an application of a slower release fertilizer over time down uh. And the sun
pattern is going to give you a little more sunlight as we get into summer,
right right, okay, And so I think the middle of the middle
of the middle of the summer it's full direct sunlight. Yeah, okay,
I think you'll be okay. They get they get some light and the you
know, even when the sun isn't shining directly on it, it's getting enough
light to hold on. And then summer is a great time to grow and
rejuvenate. And so you just need to make sure it has good nutrients.
And and that's the fertilizer we talked about here. If you haven't gone online
to my website to get my lawn care Guide, just go ahead and get
it. It's free. You can look at it or print it out.
A lot of people print it out and put it on the refrigerator, put
it out in the garage where they have that they're fertilizers and things. It's
gardening with skip. Oh yeah, yeah, I know. I've been there.
We've got it. I've looked at it. Okay, good, Well,
that that is the schedule to follow. I took a lot of time
to put that together, uh, to where it's as accurate as possible.
Okay, I'm just down the road from Selfless Fertilizer. So if I go
over and explain to them what's going on, they'll have the same mindset as
you and absolutely help me. Tell them you talk to us on guardline and
and that you know, yes, and they're going to have all the options
I talk about. And then some A's Southwest Fertilizer. Sure are that's too
handy. That's not fair. I have to drive a distance to get there.
That is not fair that you live down the road. I'm only I'm
only three three four miles from r Okay, very good, all right,
Derek. Uh, let's let's stay on it. And I think you're gonna
I think you're going to find that the grass does really well this summer.
Well, I hope so, because it wasn't it wasn't cheap to redo.
Yeah, I know that I have had to do that before. Hey,
thanks a lot for the call and good luck, good luck with getting that
thing back in tip top tiptop shape. I have been doing repotting at my
house. I've got some outdoor plants that need repinting. I actually haven't gotten
to them yet. I'm working on indoor plants, some houseplants that I have,
and I had some tomatoes that I bumped up. You may have heard
me mention yesterday that if you buy tomatoes too early to put outside, that's
okay. Bring them in, put them in a larger container and just keep
them growing. Put them out during the day when it's mild temperatures and sunny,
and bring them in in the two cool chili chili night times, and
you will get a much better plant. Well that's what I do, and
that's what I did. I potted up my tomatoes and put in a nutri
Star, which is their Genesis transplant mix. It's a six to one to
three fertilizer. It is loaded with micorizo fungi and then has that nice ratio
six one to three that is going to give your plants the boost that they
needs, got humates in it to help condition the soil. And when I
do, I'm telling you those little tomatoes that came out of a small sell
pack and went into a larger container where I'd mixed nutristar genesis transplant mix into
the soil at the recommended rate. When those roots get out there and start
accessing that stuff, they take off and really really grow. It's just another
one of the good products that you're going to get from the folks at Nelson's
Plant Food. I'm going to go now to Memorial and talk to Agnes.
Hello, Agnes Hie. I wanted to ask you Skip. I bought five
gladiosis bolbs, okay, and put them over an arbor. Are they're going
to run rampant in my yard? You're talking about bulb on an arbor bolb?
You know, I don't think they are. They do pretty well here
if you give them good care and give them the kind of the kind of
sunlight, moisture, a little bit of nutrient and stuff that they need.
But I've never known one of those to run rampant all over the yard.
Would you put all five in one spot to go over the harbor. You
know what I am not. I'm not sure we're talking about the same plant.
It's a lily, right, and you're saying it finds it findes enough
to go across an arbor. Yeah, it's multi colored and including that's all
springing into the I mean somewhere in into the fall. Hmm. I should
know what you're talking about. It's not it's not ringing a bell with me.
I'm sorry. Uh, let me let me do this. Can you
can you look? Do you have a tag still for them? Is there
a name tag? Will you spell spell that gladiosis for me if you have
it there? Okay, l A g I owe us. Okay, I
tell you what. I'm gonna put you on hold. I want you to
email me, email me a picture of that tag and let me take it
from there because I'm I'm kind of stemmied here. Glor gloriosis. Thank you?
Okay, now now we're now we're getting somewhere. Yeah, gloriosis.
I tell you what, I gloriosis. I have not grown those before,
but I've known people that have, uh, and it is it's a beautiful,
a beautiful ball, beautiful plant. Uh. I just have never messed
with them before, but I don't think of them as something that vines.
I just don't think of them as something that binds and covers an arbor here
in our area. I've not tried that. Maybe some other folks that are
listening have have grown these before. I know the glory we call them gloriosa
lily's, that's the specific thing of them. But they're they're I don't know
if anybody has had success growing those this far south. I know they've grown
a lot more farther north, but if if they've had success with them,
please let me know about that. And I'm going to look into this a
little bit, and then I will comment on the air agnes about these particular
bulbs for this particular air. Okay, great, thank thank you very much.
I appreciate that. Well. We don't play stump to jump here a
lot on garden line, but we just did one there. So I'm gonna
have to look into this one a little bit and try to get a little
more information here on those particular bulbs. We are getting close to take a
little break here, but I did want to mention that Nature's Way Resources is
having their Spring Garden Festival March ninth. That's coming up. Write that down
March ninth, from nine to two. Now when they throw a shindig up
there, it is a shindig. They're going to have, you know,
a bright spring sangria. There's gonna be local vendors that you can shop with,
lots of they call them hot plant sales available to They have gardening education
going on so you can learn in the process. For kids. They have
a story time. They have a giant sandbox. They have coloring book activities
and scavenger hunt and everything. It's all at nature's way resources. While you're
up there, leave room in the car. You need to pick up some
of their rose soil, or some of their leaf mold composts, or some
of the many products that they sell by the bag, or put in an
order and pick up. If you've got a trailer or a pickup, you
can pick up some bulk if you want, or have them deliver it.
Nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety. We'll be right back at
seven one three two point two. Kih. But that is absolutely true.
And a fiddle and a isolin are not the same instrument unless you believe they
are. I don't actually They are the same instrument, it's just who has
them in their hands. There you go, by the way. Getting back
to Agnes's question about the glorios Lily, I did a little checking with some
resources that I do trust. Doctor Arnold has some good information of a text,
A and M and apparently to have success with them down here, they
will do well. Down here. They the super blazing hot heat like a
western wall or the late day signs a little much for them. So if
you can give them a spot where they get a little bit of a break
from the heat, that's better. Make sure the soul stays moist but not
soggy wet. They need to have good drainage. And I'm gonna have to
try these things. I have never I've never grown one before. And the
more I read about them and look at them is I'm gonna give that a
try. I'm sure they have their challenges, but it doesn't seem like there's
any major flags where Yeah, I don't grow that here. I think that's
interesting. I learned one today. That's a good deal. Hopefully we both
did. We're going to go up to Conroe and talk to Sue. Hello,
Sue, Hi, what's up in Conroe. In Conro, Oh,
it's a beautiful day. It's a little cold, but anyway, we bought
a house that's been long neglected. I don't think anything's been done in the
yard for five years or so. It's about twenty years old, and so
we need to start doing some long care right now. And we have no
idea if it was ever fertilized or whatever. So okay, my husband said,
let's go to Lowe's and pick up something. So do we want fertilizer?
What do we want? Well, the first thing I want you to
do is to turn the car around and go to A and A Plants and
Produce up there in Montgomery. It's on one oh five, so she's down
the road from you. They're going to have a really good selection of the
things you need need for here, and the products I talk about on guard
line and whatnot, they're gonna they're gonna have all those. So anyway,
I had to throw that in. By the way, I'll be up there
next Saturday from twelve to two. I hope if you all have time,
you come out and let me meet you. Bring some pictures, Bring me
some pictures of that lawn area from different angles, and let's look at it.
Because you know, on the air, I can do only so good,
but if I see it, I can do better. If you got
some particular weeds that you're concerned about, put them in a bag and bring
those with you. We'll do a little consultation. Okay, we have a
lot of that bottle but brush or whatever. Okay, I don't know,
Okay, okay, so we'll just I don't need to go buy anything today.
I'm GOODA you can't go to day. Well, do you have a
lot of weeds in the lawn when you look at it? Yeah? Okay,
yeah, yeah, we need to look at those. You could go
today and get the like Nelson's. Uh. They have a weed in Nature
product. Uh. And if you dampen your lawn, were just just enough
irrigator irrigating to wet the leaves and then immediately put that weed inator down.
It's a fertilizer with a broadly post emergent we control, meaning the weeds you
see now is what you'd be killing with it. There are other products that
prevent weeds. Okay, tell me again, weed or what w weed dnator
like terminator, but with weed at the beginning, we donator. That's a
good name. It kind of makes you think of an Armo Schwarzenegger movie.
So yeah, I am the pot and so anyway that there you go.
That was free, but get some of that we the leaves put it down.
You need to have the leaves what so it sticks. Give it a
day or two because that granule is going to stick to the leaf and release
the chemical endo the leaf that kills that weed. And then water the lawn.
And because you want to dissolve the granules to go down into the soil
for the fertilizer. That's a slow release product, take a long long time
to feed, meaning you're going to get benefits right away, but you're also
going to benefits over time as the weather warms up and as the nutrient releases
and as the grass is needing it. So I would start with that then
and let me take a look at some photos next week. Okay, thank
you. One more thing that okay, So we go home today. I'll
buy it. We'll go home today and we'll water the lawn a little bit
just to get it wet, and then we're going to put it, spread
it out, and then we're going to water the yard again. Yep,
yep. Okay, yeah, you're going to water it again a day or
two later. You need to let let that granule sit on the weed leaves
for a day before you water it again. You're going to get it in
there. And wherever you're going to go, just make sure and call first,
make sure they got that weed natter on hand, and you know if
you have it, because you don't want to make a long trip and then
then not be able to get it. And if you run, if you
run dry on that just when you and I talked to you, we'll find
your place for it and we'll make sure. In fact, I bet you
A and A could get it in. If they don't have it in they
probably already have it in good deal. Okay, thank you so much.
All right, Thanks Sue, look forward to seeing you. Take care.
You know, the folks at Medina have a wide variety of products, and
Medina's been around. They've been advertising on Guardline since Dewey Compton day. So
we'll go back to the fifties, the nineteen fifties. You were hearing about
Medina on the show back in those days, and it's because people love these
products. They have something called has to Grow six twelve six. And it's
got the nutrient the six percent nitrogen twelve phosphorus six potassium. But it also
has Medina soil activator for stimulating that biological activity that is there in your soil.
It's got hum humic acid which proves soil structure, it improves nutrient uptake,
and then seaweed extracts as well. It's all combined in the hast Grow
six twelve six. If you're going to transplant something into the ground, go
ahead and give it a drench of the has to Grow six twelve six.
Just follow the label, mix it up and drench it over. You can
use it as a folio spray too if you like. But those plants have
got hammered by last summer, the plants that got hammered by the freeze this
year that really knocked a few of your perennials back pretty good, and maybe
some other things. A good drenching of has to Grow six twelve six.
That's a good place to start for spring, for rejuvenating them, getting them
back up on their feet, or in this case, back back up on
their roots. We're going to head out to West Houston and talk to Mari
jen Am I saying that right. It's Marianne. Oh, Marianne, Okay,
all right, Marianne Hi. I boy three alis last year and it
loomed and has scrone to about four feet right now. But the leaves got
turned brown during the heavy frost that we had. Do I just trim off
some of the branches on the tip ends where it's brown, off the leaves
down. As you get south in this part of Texas, the Trialis can
often survive partially above ground, depending on the winter we had. But I
find it's up to you how you go about it. But I find that
often they're left kind of scraggly where they get a little bit of damage and
stuff, and it just isn't as pretty. I will cut mine back to
like two or three inches above the ground and they will come back like crazy,
and you'll have a fresh new bush that you know you can trim and
shape if you wish to do that. And Triallis just blooms and blooms.
I don't know that I know another plant that blooms many months out of the
year as Trialis does. It just goes and goes until weather shuts it down
at the end of the season. Okay, I notice that it's not particularly
a fast blooming shrub either. It likes to warm up a little bit,
but it'll I would share mine back. I would give at furlizer. Get
it growing, and it's a great shrub. It's probably one of the top
ten underplanted plants that we have try Alis and you see it around. So
if the stems themselves are stiff and they break off, just trim underneath that
and let it go. Yeah, I would. You could take if you
want to keep part of the top growth, which I just cut my back,
whether it's frozen back or I cut it back and get a fresh news.
But if you won't take your thumbnail and scrape the bark, and if
you see green or cream color underneath a white cream or green, then that
branch is alive and you don't have to print it off. If you see
paper sack brown when you scrape with your thumbnail or a knife, that's dead
and you might as well pune it out because it's not going to come back
to life. Okay, I appreciate it, Thank you very much, Marian,
appreciate that call. We're going to take a break right here. If
you'd like to call us seven one three two one two kt r H.
Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're
here to answer your gardening questions. What question that I get often is you
know where can I find you? Fill in the blank? You know where
should I go for whatever? Well, I want to tell you if you
ask a lot of gardeners where they go, especially those folks that are north
central of North and above a central part of Houston, they're going to answer
plants for all seasons because it's one of the most popular garden centers we have,
and there's a reason for that. They've been around since nineteen seventy three.
There's one they have well trained staff, and of course the whole flowery
family is there taking part in helping you find the right plant and know how
to take care of it. That's what they specialize in. If you've got
a green thumb, you probably have already been there. If youve got a
brown thumb, you need to go and they will turn it green for you,
because remember, good information is what turns of brown on thumb green.
Learning what a plants want, what plants belong here, how do I care
for them? Your thumb gets greener as each of those questions gets answered.
And that's what they can do. Plants for all seasons dot com. Plants
for all Seasons dot com or two eight, one, three, seven,
six, sixteen forty six. They are easy to get to. They're right
there on to forty nine, in between Houston and Tumba. They're just north
of Luetta Road. So if you're going toward Tomball from Houston, exit for
Luetta and they're just past Luetta on the right hand side. Really easy.
Take them plants, take our pictures, take them samples, help them,
let them diagnose for you, let them identify, and let them turn you
loose out in their garden center where you're going to find pretty much everything you
could possibly want, in good quantity and in great great health and shape.
That's another important thing about a quality garden center. I want to go up
to Champions now and we're going to talk to Don. Hello, Don,
Well, good morning to you. Thanks for taking the Yes, sir,
I'm calling about the possibility of pine beetles. I have a lot that I
guess I have probably twenty five or thirty very large pine trees, maybe eighty
feet tall, trunks, probably around twenty five inches in diameter. I've noticed
one of my pine trees the bark seems to be slipping off, letting go.
When I pull off what is is loose there? Then I see what
looks like larva in their worms of some sort or whatever. I'm wondering if
that's something that's pine bark beetles, And should I contact an arborist to come
take a look at that sort of thing, or what would you recommend I
do other than cut the tree down if that's what it is. Yeah,
that's a good question. Are you seeing globs of sap on the outside of
the trunk? No, okay, I don't think you have pine bark beetles.
There's something going on in there. There are a number they're five different
beetles that are our most common pine tree attacking bark type beetles. And so
some of them are when you get them, the tree's gone. Others others
can kind of be a nagging problem and not so much. You may want
to. You know, these are incredible tree that the size you described is
unbelievable. I think big. Yeah, you might want to. You might
want to call Martin at Affordable Tree Service and just hav him come out and
take a look at him. Possibly he may have you send him some pictures
you know, of what you're seeing too, But I I would have him
take a look. I don't want to tell you it's no problem, and
I definitely don't want to tell you it's the end of the world either.
It just what you're describing does not sound like pine bark beetles. By the
way, do you have a pen or pencil? Let me just go ahead
and give you a number, just to call him seven to one three six
nine two six six three, telling me you talk to me and you just
have some questions about these trees. Uh, tell me that number again,
the last four digits, two six sixty three. That's right, you got
it, Okay, that's correct, one six nine nine two six six three.
Yeah, I'd have him. I'd have him take a look. The
bark shouldn't just be falling off. Maybe you know a little hour bark pieces
here and there. But if no, this is it looks like it may
be girdling. Uh. It it's not just falling off, it's just letting
go. And and when I pull it off, there looks like a bunch
of all For lack of better choice of words, maybe some ashes underneath.
Assume that is from the whatever's eating it is it's their defecation or whatever.
Uh, let me ask you one more question about done. When you look
at the wood underneath where the bark came off, or if you look at
the backside of the bark that came off, do you see lines like in
a pattern like a main highway with little side highways at ninety two angles going
well, any other kind of pattern like that. I'm not sure. It's
been a while since I've looked at it, so I'm just already not sure.
Better there's someone else today to look at its far. Yeah, that's
good. And it is the canopy green, Yes, yes it is.
I think my gut feeling is that it's not a serious thing. But with
the tree that size and the value and what it's going to cost you to
take it down on that size, I would go ahead and have somebody look
at it. Yeah. I just had to take one down that was leaning,
which are not affected this way, but it was leaning, and one
night it just fell over. After all the excessive range we had and the
bill to take it down was well, it ended up being thirteen hundred dollars
because I had include some other things. But yeah, that's not inexpensive.
No, I mean you could take your wife. I had to eat more
than once without too with affordability tree service, affordable tree service, affordable service.
Okay, and Martin, Martin spoon More is the guy you know.
Okay, Well, thank you so much for you ad bus and maybe a
little bit of reassurance there. So we'll do that and we're safe where we
go from here. There you go, thanks a lot, have a nice
weekend, yes, sir, good luck with good luck with those trees.
Wow, those are those are nice pine trees. Nice pine trees for sure.
I you know a lot of people pines. There are people that love
pines, and then there are people that do not care for pines. Usually
what if, they say, familiarity breeds contempt. If you got pine trees
all over your yard and they're dropping needles constantly and you're fishing them out of
the gutter and everything else, you're probably not a fan of pines. But
I find people outside Pine country are always on the planet of pine tree because
they think they're beautiful, and they are beautiful. It's a wonderful tree.
But anyway, I understand, we get these neighborhoods where you know, the
trees get older and older, and you got all these houses everywhere. It's
hard to bring a tree like that down without doing damage to something. So
anyway, that's the way that goes. Hey, I just want to remind
you as you're out and about this weekend, and I hope this afternoon you
will get out and take advantage of some of the things you've heard about today,
some of the products you need to get to the places that have those
products and plants. Remember that it begins in the soil. So if you're
going to go out and buy some beautiful plant, you know, I don't
know. Maybe you're out at Warrens Garden Center and you decide, I've got
to have one of those Saucer Magnolias he was talking about. I talked about
those yesterday. Unbelievably gardeous, the earliest harbinger of spring we have in this
area. They're gorgeous. Maybe you decide you want one of those, make
sure you go home with the soil that'll make that site more hospitable for that
plant, because you want them to hit the ground running. And you got
to give them a good spot. I know, I'm a broken record on
this. I talk about it all the time. So it comes first sprown
stuff, then green stuff, the soil and the nutrients you put out.
That is very important. Now our good and garden centers around here, and
we do have a lot of great ones. They are going to have all
kinds of gorgeous plants. By the way, now is a good time to
get out and get some roses. That is an inspiration. And you know,
I like there are a lot of kinds of roses. There's the kind
that are cut flowers, and they're the kind that shrubs. I like them
all. They do really well. They do really really well if you give
them a good soil and good nutrition. Hopefully get some that are a little
more disease resistant. If not, make sure you're ready to go when diseases
show up that you've got to spray to prevent those diseases. You can do
that. I can just tell you there are a lot of good ones that
you don't have to spray a lot. They're going to be just fine,
and they are naturally disease resistant. So maybe if you view roses as a
prima Donna that you got to hold an umbrella over and squirt every day with
some fungicide to keep it from getting set. You need to relook a roaches.
They are wonderful dwarfs, climbers, pet you need to get a climber.
Peggy Martin awesome, awesome road. Earlier I had to call him trying
to remember who called me. We were joking. She said she was an
old lady. I can't remember now who that was it caused it. You're
not an old lady. I'm gonna let Thomas Jefferson answer that for me.
Thomas Jefferson said that although I am an old man, I am but a
young gardener eighteen eleven. He had it right. Thomas Jefferson really loved plants.
He was quite a horticulturist. But then at times I kind of wonder
because he says an acre of peach trees can keep you in far wood all
winter. Maybe he wasn't such a good peach grow if that's the case.
Thanks for listening to Garden Line. We're done for this weekend, putting this
one in the books. Remember you can listen to podcasts if you missed something
on the air, and tell your friends about Garden Line, because we're going
to be back next Saturday, and bright and early at six am.