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 Scape Richard.
It's so crazy grim you just watch him as so many give things the
septasys well. Good Saturday morning. We are glad you're listening today. I
hope you are. We're going to give you a lot of good advice today
to help you have a beautiful landscape, a bountiful garden, whatever it is
that you're interested in growing, for trees to turf, to tomatoes, to
herbs and everything in between. Some flowers as well. Our phone number if
you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one two KTRH. As simple as that.
I put something up on the website the other day and just wanted to make
a mention of it this morning. Doctor Lorry Stein, who is a fruit
specialist with Texas and m Agrolife Extension, put together some really good information that's
available online. I call it sage advice. Doctor Stein's been working with Fruit
Gosh for a long time. I think I probably first met him back in
about nineteen eighty three or so, and he's just really an expert when it
comes to that. And what basically you put on up online is advice on
planting fruit trees. But it's not just like how to dig a whole advice.
He talks about plant the timing for planting, he talks about deciding what
fruit tree to plant. You know, there's just there's a lot of information.
There's bear root trees, there's container grown trees there, you know,
a lot of different kinds of fruit. And where you're going to plant fruit
goes into that, goes into how to plant fruit properly, that that's important,
believe it or not, very important. Maintaining a weed free zone around
the plants, how to go about that, and just basically everything in caring
for your plant and getting it off to a good start. Again. The
link to that is on my website, which is gardening with Skip dot com.
Gardening with Skip dot Com, I send your link right over to it.
By the way, on the website there you can also find our updated
lawn care schedule and our lawn pest disease and weed management schedule. And October
is a big month in the lawn in fact, you're going to need both
schedules in front of you to really look and see the things that are going
on and what you need to do, what you need to get done,
and so on. But well, for example, one of the things,
get some a's mite down there on the ground. If you have not put
asimite down this year, you ought to consider on an application. Now,
we typically tie it to the fertilizer time, but it doesn't have to be.
You can put as might down any time of the year you want.
It's not nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, it's not the big nutrients on the
fertilizer bag. It's trace elements. And trace elements are as essential as are
the ones that are needed in large quantities. But as the word trace implies,
we just need a trace of them, but they're absolutely essential as well.
So that's why we say that don't mix it with your fertilizer, apply
it separately. And that's really true. Anytime you fill your fertilizer hopper with
anything, you probably need to separate the two things you're going to apply and
make two applications because the particle size is almost always different between two different things.
Maybe you're putting down an insecticide or a fungicide, or a fertilizer or
a herbicide. Those are all different or maybe two different kinds of fertilizer if
you were wanting to do that, And some people do make it separate because
the particle size is different and you want to get good even application. That
is very important unless you like a striped yard. And I've seen some pretty
interesting stripe yards of my time where the the application overlapped and you kind of
got bands of double applied nitrogen versus normal applied nitrogen. But yeah, Azimite
Texas dot com is a website where you can learn a lot more about as
mite. It's it's uh. It is a quality product and very popular product
and widely widely available. Uh. Buchanans plants and the heights. I wanted
to mention some things about them. First of all, Buchanans really specializes in
native plants and uh, they were on one of their social media they were
talking about fragrant missed flower Adgertina have an incest that is a flower that really
provides beautiful blossoms and we don't talk about it enough, but it's a large
kind of evergreen shop very prolific white blue clusters. It's a Central Texas native
as a matter of fact, And oh my gosh, is it ever a
butterfly magnet? And they have it there. They of course, they have
a lot of things there at Buchanan's Native Plants, that is for sure.
This selection I find, you know, I've been doing this thirty four years,
and you'd think I'd heard every plant there is. But every time we
turn around, it seems like Buchanans has come up with some new native that
they now have available. Used to be natives were hard to find, not
anymore. I just go to Buchanans Plants and you can find them and a
whole lot more. They have a lot of good information at Buchanansplants dot Com.
They're on East eleventh Street in the Heights, so it's not hard to
find them. We're centrally located. I always say, we got the best
garden centers in the whole state of Texas and really beyond. You know,
if it's the best in Texas, it's gotta be the best in the world
inherently. Right well, here in Houston, we've got north, south,
east, West, Central Buchanans Plants is when I'm say Central, That's what
I'm talking about, just a really high, high quality garden center with a
lot of good information. I filled up a bird feeder the other day and
make sure that our birds have plenty to eat, and also I made sure
that they have plenty of water. Water is really important for your birds.
As we move into these fall months, the days get shorter, the nights
get longer. There's just a little bit less daytime hours for our birds to
fuel up. They spend a little more time on the roost at night.
Well how do you get them through that? Well, Wabirds Unlimited has the
Winter super Blend, and the Winter super Blend is packed with fat and protein.
The birds need that, you know, to build up the reserves to
get them through the winter season. I still have a few of the roofous
hummingbirds hanging out around here. I don't know if you've seen them at your
house, but they'll occasionally come by and so leave a hummingbird feeder out through
the holidays. You might be lucky enough to have one of those winter visitors.
Now, Wibirds unlimiteds all over town. You can find them in Katie
Pearland, Kingwood Clearlake Cypress Memorial bel Air seven locations. You can go to
WBU dot com forward slash Houston, WBU dot com forward slash Houston and find
out where the wild burgeon near you is. By the way, holidays are
coming, and I'm telling you if you've not thought about this before, Wabird's
unlimited awesome place for holiday gifts. I mean, even if you're going over
someplace for Thanksgiving, it may be somebody maybe across another state. How about
a bird feeder from Wabirds Unlimited or some other really cool thing. Anybody would
appreciate having something cool like that, and they have the quality products there.
We are going to take a little break right here. Our phone number is
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. When we come back,
Maureen, you will be the first up. Good Saturday morning, Good
Saturday morning. You're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and we're here to answer gardening questions. Our phone number is seven to
one three two one two KTRH. Simple as that, seven one three two
one two kt r H. If you've not been to Quality feed ever,
or if you haven't been in a while, you need to go. I
used to go all the time, and they're in their older location. Now
they're in the new location. Really nice. It's still that same old fashioned
feed store feel and everything you could possibly need, ever fertilizer I talk about,
and then some anything you need for pest disease, weeds. They've got
it all there. They specialize in chickens too. By the way, I
don't know if you're into backyard chickens, but this is your place. I
mean they are constantly getting shipments and new chicks in. They got all the
supplies you need to do that. And they're they're in central north central area
of Houston. That's on Luzon Street eighteen thirteen Louzon that's near the intersection Equipment
and Allsion. They're open Monday through Friday nine to six, Saturdays nine to
four, and Sundays eleven thirty to four pm. They've been a Houston tradition
since nineteen twenty and boy are they ever stocked up on cool season vegetable plants.
I mean, they've got a If you implanted garlic before, you ought
to try their Dutch valley softnt neck garlic. It is one that is well
worth growing and then all the other cool season plants. Now's the time cool
season plants for vegetables that is, and also the perennial herbs. They've got
those, and now's the time to get them planted. So don't delay.
Just run over there, not too far away from you, Quality Feed and
Garden. You can go to qualityfeedco dot com you want to find out more
information. We're gonna now head out to Lakeside of States and talk to Maureene.
Good morning, Marlene Marine, Good, good morning to you. I
sort of know the answer, but my live oaks are just dropping the egcorns.
And it happened really intense as it is now, several years back,
and I just raked bookoos of those big, large black bags. But I
couldn't remember whether I can do anything. I know that they've been shocked by
the intense weather, but I just don't remember. So what do you do
other than race? Yeah, you've got it. Unfortunately, there's just not
a way other than that to deal with it, you know, unless you
do out of one of these. There is such a thing, by the
way as a yard vacuum. Vacuum, yes, vacuum. The reason I
don't like to use those though, is there. They're pulling up all the
organic matter on the sole surface as well. Anything looser, all right,
now, I won't want that. And so what do I do to help
the tree? Obviously it's in stress. Yeah, well, what has helped
the tree is getting some rain. That is the most important thing, getting
those soil reserves. And it's got that. It doesn't need a lot of
fertilizer right now. I mean you could put some down if you want.
The thing you put on for your lawn the fall fertilizer would be fine for
live oaks as well at this time. When we get into next spring,
you know, when you start seeing new growth appearing, that'd be another good
time if you're going to do some fertilizing. But you know, as that
livo gets bigger and it becomes a large, stately tree, we're not wanting
to push a lot of new growth. And so that that's right, No,
it is, it's there now. No, I have my lake Fide
estate was developed in the early seventies. So these little babies aren't These are
Grandpa, Grandpa and grandma. These are huge all right. Well, in
that case, I wouldn't fertilize it. And yeah, Okay, I'm not.
I don't think I will. I have a short question, which is
my dianthus or in the ground. I bought them a couple of weeks back,
with your guidance, and so I put nutrients in the soil and they're
happy, some of them. Because we'd had some rain. Look as though
I could start taking off the flowers that are getting not attractive, straggly.
So should I feed? How soon should I feed them? Again? So
they went in the ground three weeks ago. Three weeks ago. Have you
have you put a has to grow a treatment on? Yes, that's what
I started. Okay, yeah, I did that on you know, plant
them, but I didn't know when to do it again, and figuring the
flower they're hungry. Yeah, yeah, absolutely well. And and the first
goal is to get that root system built, the plant ready to go,
because when you've got a robust plant, then it's going to flower. You
know that it's ready to go. On there, I would do has to
grow again. I normally do it three times. You do it right when
you plant, to water the plant in and I'll do it maybe a week
apart, but you you know three weeks are still fine, go ahead and
do it again. I think that'll be fine for them, and just watch
how they're looking, you know, if they if they just seem like if
they don't have good color, they need a little boost. We could switch
over to something with a little more nitrogen in it. But in general you
shouldn't have to do that. They ought to be okay with just the has
to grow good enough. And I assume that I can treat my cosanthram moms
the same way. Yes, they went in the same time, same has
to grow and they're looking great, but I know that great doesn't last if
you don't help them out, So that has to grow again for them too.
That would be just fine. I use it for any kind of anytime
I'm transplanting, I'll do it several times just to help that plant get established.
Because it's got more than just the six twelve six in it. It's
got the salt medina soil activator, it's got humic acid seaweed extracts, so
it's really good. You can even use it as a folier. It's not
going to burn the plants. So if you want to mix it in a
little water and I use a watering can, I guess you could use a
sprayer, but I just drench it over the plants, get it on the
leaves, and let it run to the ground. Good enough, Okay,
I'll just hang on listen to the rest of the show. Thank you so
much. Hey, thanks for joing Mari. You take care of by bye.
Yeah. That's an excellent, excellent product. And we're in planting season.
You know, I've talked about this a bunch of times this fall,
but there is no better planting season than fall. Now, you can plant
twelve months of the year here in the Greater Houston areas, Southeast Texas,
or Texas for that matter, but fall is the best. And here's why.
You have all the months of winter and early spring to mid spring to
get roots established and roots grow. When the soil temperature is around, not
below, maybe well around it's fifty to fifty five degrees, that's just fine
for root growth. And as it gets to sixty and so on, and
our soil didn't get cold here. This isn't the north where you know the
freeze line goes a foot deep in the soil or more. Our soil stays
mild here. And that woody ornamental, that shrub tree, woody vine,
the perennials, the ornamental native are the perennial and native types of grasses,
the perennial herbs, and just anything like that. When you plant it in
the fall, you have a head start on spring. And everyone remembers what
this summer was like. It was brutal. It was brutal. Well,
plants that got planted at the beginning of summer versus a plant they got planted
the previous fall is a huge difference, huge difference. So if you're thinking
about putting those in, go ahead and get them in now. You have
a great head start on the spring. We are going to now head out
to Tomball and talk to David. Hello David, good morning, sir.
Hey, it's about two weeks ago. I talked to you about a Myer's
lemon tree and fig. Well, I went to RCW and I got a
fig and a Myer's lemon put them in the ground, and I asked him,
I said, do y'all have anything that will just that I can water
in and kickstart these things to really make them get going. Yes, they
sold they sold me some stuff. I can't remember what it was, but
I remember on the they sold it to me In bulk and it was Yeah,
it said fruit and citrus on it. You can take it back and
pay half price to fill the juck up. That may tell you what it
is. I don't know. I don't know what exactly what. It looks
like rabbit food to me, but anyway, I put it down watered in.
Uh. The citrus doing great. It looks like it killed the fig
and maybe did I The leaves have kind of withered up and everything. Do
I need to just pull that thing out of the ground and start over or
is there something to do with it? Well, it did not kill I
guarantee you that product does not kill the fig. But it is excellent.
They sell a root stimulator that they have there, uh, and they have
several other products that they will sell you for helping a plant get established.
And they're excellent, excellent products that you're not gonna You're not gonna kill a
plant with them. I don't know what would have done that to you said
it was a fig that died, right, Yeah, it was the I'm
willing to say the celeste celestia hunt and it it doesn't look like I mean
the leaves that just withered up, like like the tree just got dying on
me. Well, something happened to the roots. I don't know what.
Uh it too wet, too dry? H who knows? You know?
I can't. I don't have a crystal ball to look backwards and see what
that was. But don't not use that product. Now, follow the label,
that's for sure. Anything you put down, you want to follow the
label. Well, I followed their strokes well in this case. Yeah,
and this came about a cup, but take about a cup ful? About
a cup fool springing around it, watering in or yeah? But well,
is that a pretty resilient enough that it may come back? Or just when
do I just jerk it out of the ground and start over. I wouldn't
give up on it just yet. Take your little thumbnail and scratch the bark.
Just scratch right underneath the brown bark. And if you see creamy light
green to white, creamy color, that's good, that's alive. If you
see paper sack or pecan brown, that branch is dead. But I would
wait because it may come back on you. And I think probably what they
sold you was was a microlife product that they often sell for planting, and
you cannot burn a plant with that and you can't. You know, it's
a good, good product. So we had some good rain out there and
it's I planted it with them, and then we've had some good soaking,
so maybe it's getting too much water. I don't know. Well, if
you know our clay soils, a hole in a clay soil is an underground
bathtub and it holds water really well in a clay soil. And that's just
one of the things we have to deal with. And the figs aren't usually
that picky about it. But I don't know. I can't predict what happened
or diagnosed backwards what happened, but I can tell you this, those products
are good and I would just be ready to go again if you wanted to,
you know, get another fig. I don't know if you have plans
of planting another fig or not. You keep oneting a container, but if
not, just go back there and get one when you're ready. Give it
until spring, let's see if it comes out. And you have to be
patient with it because things wake up a little bit slow, and before you
see some new growth popping out, to know if it's if it's still alive
or not. All righty, thank you all right, David, thank you.
I appreciate that call very much. Yeah, the folks at RCW they
know when it comes to planting trees and shrubs and anything, they know what
they're talking about because I mean they grow their own trees in Plantersville wide selection.
By the way, this was a fruit tree call. But I'm telling
you, if you need an ornamental tree, RCW has everything that you need.
And you know, every weekend in October they still got their little funning
games show going on out there. It's a little fall festival. There's refreshments
and snacks for the families, and so I guess there's but your last chance
to go out and do that. But while you're out there, you'll enjoy
also a fifteen percent discount on all those trees. So fifteen percent discount at
RCWS if if you've never been there before. That's the nursery where Tambo Parkway
two forty nine comes into Beltway eight. Just go to RCW Nurseries dot com.
You can find out more about them there. We're gonna take a break
now, and our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one two k T r H. Give us
a call. Let's talk gardening about whatever is of interest to you. When
we come back, let's see Sandy and Ken. You will be the first
two up and I'm going to turn it over to Nikki for the news.
Well, good morning. You are listening to Gardenline and we're here to talk
about gardening. Obviously our phone number seven one three two one two k t
r H. Seven one three two one two k t r H. If
if you have not fertilized your lawn yet this fall, let me suggest that
you take a good hard look at Nolson plant Food carbo Load. Now,
Carboload is designed exactly for this season. Nelson Plant Food has been producing quality
products since they started forty years ago. In fact, October fourteenth was our
fortieth anniversary when they open for business, and they just keep adding one quality
product after another, and Carboload is the fertilizer for this season. It's a
ten ten twenty, so it's got the really good pack of potassium in it.
It also has a pre emergent herbicide, so you need to That would
be a reason it's time to fertilize anyway, but that would be a reason
to go ahead and get it down as soon as you can. You want
to get a hold of all the winter weeds. They as temperatures cool off
and germinate. Are cool off and we get some moisture, they're going to
germinate. In fact, here comes these cooler temperatures, a little bit of
rainfall, we will see a lot of things happening in our yards, and
one of them is the sprouting of winter weeds. Carbo load will prevent that
as well as providing a quality fertilizer, as all fertilizers from Nelson Plant Food
It are. I'd highly recommend that you do not delay, because you know,
it's kind of like playing baseball. If you swing after the ball goes
over the plate, it's not going to go well right. Well, it's
the same thing. You don't want to put a pre emergent down after the
weeds are already up and growing. You want to get it down before.
So just another reason to do that. Let's head out to Cyprus and we're
going to talk to Sandy. Hello, Sandy, good morning, Skid,
good morning. I wanted to ask you a question about aphid. Okay,
do they bite number one and number two if they get on your skin.
What do you do? They don't bite, they don't have that kind of
mouth part. They have a little mouth part they stick down into the leaf
to suck the juices out of it. So there's nothing to do about them.
Just brush them off with your hand or the water. Yeah. Well,
I washed my hand and then took a shower. O know what else
to do? Because it happened yesterday. Okay, And and if they get
on your like, the reason they got on me is because I was picking
my hot ki and peppers and they were so close to each other and I
didn't realize that apids were on the back of them, the leaves, and
so that some of them got on me. But can I just wipe them
off the peppers and eat them? Still? Learn it? Oh? Yeah
yeah, just rent them off, squirt them, you know, put them
under running water and just blast them right off of there. Uh. They're
easy to dislodge with a squirt of water. Okay, Yeah, thank you
so much. You great day you as well. Thank you. I appreciate
appreciate your call. Uh. Listen, the folks up at D and D
feed in tom Ball. I was out there just yesterday visiting with Dover family.
The place just keeps getting better. It just they had opened a whole
new little section that I wouldn't even aware of. And I mean they had
all kinds of supplies in that section. You need a garden hose or or
a handgun squirt. They have one of those bulk seed bin dispenser, so
you can go along and if you don't want to buy a little packet of
seed, you can just grab them, get a little scoop and buy them
by the bulk. Lots of good quality seeds in there, and that is
a very economical way too, by the way, to pick up pick up
seeds, those tried and true varieties they have done well locally. Now they've
also got other kinds of seeds. They've got anything you need for your lawn.
I'd keep telling you this time fertilized time, put on a per emergent,
if you're going to do that, well, they've got all of that
and a lot more at d and defeed, they're three miles west of two
forty nine on twenty nine to twenty down there in Tomball. You just head
out west and look over to the left. About three miles out you'll be
there. And when you go inside you'll know why I always am bragging about
d and defeed your hometown feed store up in the Tomball area. And speaking
of the Tomball area, let's go up and talk to Ken. Hello,
Ken, Hey, good morning, good morning, thanks for talking my I
had a question on my pine trees. A couple of my pine trees for
the past year or so, like the ends of the neagles will turn a
kind of a bronze orange color, and it's like the the one third there
towards the end, and then the rest of them are green. And then
I'm just curious if you've heard of that before. So, so the end
of the shoot is green and it's it's it's bronze. Back from that,
it's green. Yeah, from the from the like the branch to the two
thirds. First two thirds is green and then the bronze orange color. That's
a stress response. You know, we have things that are evergreens, but
evergreen leaves don't live for those leaves have a life cycle. Your live oaks
will drop leaves when we go into spring and get new growth because those old
leaves are being cast off. That's true of magnolia trees and pine trees and
a lot of things but when you go through stress, that's a little more
aggravated and it's just casting off those old leaves. Probably the drought conditions we
had this summer. If anything damaged the roots, compacted the soil, you're
in a trench around it. That would also be an example of something that
could cause that kind of damage. But it's nothing to worry about. Yeah,
they got water now, they ought to be good to go and just
continue on from here. I don't the fact that the ends of the branches
are still green, that's a good sign. I think you'll be okay,
all right, okay, thank you, all right, thank you. I
appreciate that call to Let's go now to South Houston. We're going to talk
to Jim. Hello, Jim, Hey, thanks for taking my phone call.
I have an issue with an asparagus spern It's been planted in this bed
for probably four years. Never had any problem with it, even during the
draft that survived, and now all of a sudden, I know they're not
frands, but for the practical purposes, I'm gonna call them frants. It
should be dying one by one by one. I don't know what's going on
because it looks like that should be a pretty easy plant to grow. Can
you tell me? I use hash to grow by the way, about three
weeks ago, and it's just I don't know what's going on out there with
it. Any any advice. Well, we can eliminate the has to grow
as a problem. You're not going to burn a plant with it. And
I mean unless you just you know, quadruple you know, applying it.
But even at that you're not I don't think you're gonna burn a plant with
has to grow. That's something's wrong in the crown or roots of the plant.
And I can't tell you exactly what it is. It could be a
root rot, it could be certainly if it goes through a stress like dry
conditions, that can happen, but those are pretty resilient. They've got those
underground little storage. It looked like little potatoes under there that store moisture.
And it takes an extended drought to really do some damage to them. But
that's a possibility. It's a possibility. I guess if it was very water
logged for a while that could happen, or just a disease itself. I
don't want to send you out to get some fungerside to drench over it,
not knowing what's wrong. If one looks like it's about to die out,
and you know, you just realize this one's probably not coming back, I'd
go ahead and dig it up and pull it up and take a look,
take a look at the roots in the bottom and see if there's a lot
of rock there. It's dying in sections, it's not like throughout the entire
plant. So those roots are not easy to get up. They are very
extensive, and they are extensive and very difficult to dig out. Yeah,
I did plant about two weeks ago, I did plant a crpe martle not
too far from that plant. So perhaps I damage the roots when I dug
the ground for the crape myrtle. But you'd have to do like you I
think. You know, they are so resilient. You see them in in
in esplanades and all, which is one of the ways I choose my plants
because I figure they can grow on an esplanade. They're going to pretty grow
easily for me. So I think, apologically, I'm just going to end
up digging this thing up and planting another one in its place. But actually,
does I agree, And I know it's a booger to dig I got
to go to a break here. But if you do pull one up,
look and if you don't see any rotting, just put it back in the
ground. It's probably fine because this is fall, it's time to plant.
It won't hurt to dig it up and put it back in the ground.
But if you see rotting, give me a call back and we can talk
about next steps. All right, Sorry, I got to run. It's
time for another break here, but our phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four will be right back. Well, good Saturday morning.
We're glad you're listening this morning. We are talking gardening on garden Line.
Our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four falls
for planting. I'm going to say it again and again and again, but
I'm also going to say when you are going to have success with plants,
you got to take care of the brown stuff before you take care of the
green stuff. And what does that mean. That means first, fix the
soil. Get the soil where it is right for the kind of plants you're
going to plant. And that is exactly what Ciena Malts can help you with
now. If you're down south of the Houston area near highway let's say Highway
six and two eighty eight north of Roe Sharon. They're on FM five twenty
one FM five twenty one Ciena malts Do. They have quality products. Absolutely,
every fertilizer I talk about they have in stock and plenty of it,
by the way, plenty of it. They also have bulk in terms of
moltch and composts, things like that. They've got bagged mulching, compost anything
you need to get your soil ready so you can have success with your plants.
That's Maltch. You can go to Sienna Multch dot com and find out
a lot more. By the way, I'm going to be there next weekend,
so I'll tell you more about that later. But I'll be there next
weekend. Dynasyna Moltz. They're open Monday through Friday seven thirty to five and
Saturday seven thirty to two. Closed on Sunday. But remember it's so important
take care of the brown stuff before you take care of the green stuff,
and Sienna Multch will hope you do just that. We're going to go now
to Humble and talk to Helen. Hello Ellen, Helen, good, good
morning, Good morning. I am interested in your pros and cons on me
planning a mimosa tree over. I'm trying to get some quick shade. Okay,
well it'll give you that, and momosa will give you the Mimosa is
one of those plants that a lot of people don't like, and there are
a lot of people that do like it. If you want something that grows
fast and gives you some quick shade, that's it. But uh, they
tend to not be long lived in general. Now, you always can have
plants that are exceptions to the rule, but they have several issues that can
be a problem. They're not super strong wooded, but when it comes to
some pretty low flowers, they certainly can produce that. So it's kind of
up to you. Just realize that there's a day coming after you plant it
where you're going to be pulling it out and doing something else in that spot.
Okay, do you have a suggestion for any other tree that would give
me some quick shades that would be a little bit How big of an area
do you need to have shade in out there? My god, I can't
come up with dimensions. Okay, that's fine. Well, you know,
some of the larger types of crape myrtles will grow pretty fast and give you
some decent shade, the kind like, oh gosh, I can't say it.
Natchez is a white blooming type, has beautiful cinnamon bark. That would
be an option you could do. Out there, trying to think, usually
when we say fast and long lived, those don't go in the same sentence.
And I'm trying to try to come up with some exceptions to that general
rule, and there are some out there. Oh gosh, that would I
would start with a considering a crape if you want some beautiful color as well,
three months of color as a matter of fact, So that would be
one that would be the first thing comes to mind. Okay, okay,
I certainly appreciate it, all right, thank you. I appreciate your current
good luck with that. Yeah, mimosa is. I like mimosa. I
grew up with mimosas and I just think they're cool. But you know,
you just have to realize, even though it's a tree, think of it
more as a medium age short to medium age tree in terms of it how
long it lasts. And again, I know somebody's going to call and say
I've had one for thirty years or something like that, And there are those,
There are those out there, but I can tell you there are a
lot of other people that have had issues that have come up over the years
with them. The folks out at the Arbrogate and Tomboal have loaded up on
everything you need for your fall plantings. I mean they have you ever heard
of ornamentables, ornum metables, that's right, ornamental and edible. Put together
something like a beautiful Swiss chart with the colorful petioles, the red petioles and
orange and gold like varieties like bright lights and vulcan and whatnot. Those are
gorgeous. We have mustards that have beautiful burgundy color in the foliage. There
is a red red vein sorel for example, another ornamentaal lots lots of them
out there. Arbrogate's got that. They got so much more. I mean
they're loaded up with mums, everything you need for you know, holiday plantings
and gifts and whatnot. When you're at Arbigate, though, go ahead and
grab you when you grab the plants. Remember brown stuff before green stuff.
Organic food complete, that's a four four three organic fertilizer. Organic soil Complete,
that is a mix that is blended for our soils for our area here.
And then organic compost complete and you know what compost is. This is
a blend of more than one type of quality compost. Those last two,
by the way, also have expanded shale and every time you turn the soil
and add that to your clay soil, it just keeps getting better and better
in a long term way. All of that's at Arburgate. You can go
to Arburgate dot com. They're just a mile and a half west of two
forty nine on twenty nine to twenty up there in Tomball, and it's always
a fun outing to go to Arburgate. By the way, check out their
new parking area behind Arborgate. You turn in before or after the store and
go around behind the store and it is an all weather wonderful access for everything
that you might need out there in that area. While you're at Arbrogate too,
by the way, you might want to pick up some Microlife fertilizers.
You know, Microlife is a quality fertilizer. Microlife has the blend of nutrients
that do well here in our conditions. If you are into growing things organically
that Microlife is a quality mix for that. It's available widespread all kinds of
different places. But Microlife Blue plus Blue is one of the combos that I
like to recommend. What is that well the blue The first blue is Microlife
Ultimate that is an A two four fertilizer. It is good for anything you
want to fertilize. It does super well. The second blue is Microlife Ocean
Harvest. That is a fish based liquid fertilizer. So if you're going to
be doing some tree planting, you want to mix some of that into the
soil. You're not going to burn the roots with it. You can do
that if you want to water your plants in with that, they do well
with that. If you want to use it as a folier spray, the
Ocean Harvest, it works super well. That's the Microlife Blue plus Blue.
By the way, you can get Microlife anywhere that you shop just about go
to Microlife Fertilizer dot com and you will find all the place you can get
it. Also, you can learn more about these specific products that I just
talked about. It's super good stuff. I use it in a lot of
different plantings that I have and I've always had good success with the microlife products.
You just want to water mind, so they get into the soil and
the microbes go to town because that's what's going to be happening. Well,
we're running out of our first hour here. I want to let you know
that I'm going to be at Southwest Fertilizer today. Southwest Fertilizer on bissin Ut
and Runwick. They've got everything you need. You know. I always say
if they don't have it, you don't need it. I'm going to be
there. They're going to be giving a drawing for two door prices. They'll
draw them at the end of my appearance there from eleven thirty to one thirty.
There'll be a Toro battery blower is that cool? A Touro battery string
trimmer as well. You don't have to drag a quarter around, you don't
have to far up a motor. They're going to be giving both of those
away and a drawing at the end. I'll be giving away SKIP certificates.
What's that. Well, that means that if you purchase something today at it's
only available today October twenty eighth, ten dollars off the purchases and I got
plenty of those to get out. So everybody stops in, stops by the
table, asks the gardening question. I'll just add you a SKIP certificate and
you'll be well on your way to getting the quality products that they carry with.
They're gonna have Medina samples and bags that they're given away. They're gonna
have some other products. They're going to popcorn, cold drinks, and lots
of Halloween treats. My gosh, what a what a fun time. Bring
me in a bag, any samples you want identified or diagnosed, bring me
photos on your phone. Let's talk. I always love to meet the folks
that are listening to garden Line. We'll be right back. 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 Richt. It's
so just as so many Welcome back to garden Line on what is going to
be an outstanding, outstanding Saturday for gardening. This is a time of the
year. We survived summer. Everybody's breathing a fresh breath of air, a
sigh of relief, whatever you want, and here comes some cooler weather coming
out pretty soon. By the way, it's just a good time to be
getting things ready to go out there in the garden. I mean, you
actually want to go outside now right and get a little bit of work done.
I wouldn't even mind working in the rain, you know it just when
you do without it for a long time. It's just kind of nice to
run around outside when it's raining and enjoy the fact that it is raining.
I was talking about Arburgate earlier and their organic food complete that four four three
plus ten percent calcium that they have. It's really a unique, unique fertilizer.
It's got the nutrients, the four four to three mix the nutrients,
which, by the way, for your lawn is an excellent blend for this
fall application that you're about to put down or hopefully have put down. If
not, go buy and get some because it's what you need. It's got
all the trace minerals in it. Forty five percent of it's just organic matter,
and it is what is the microbial content, that's what I couldn't put
my finger on. Microbial content in it is outstanding. They add eleven species
of micariza into that fertilizer. Eleven different species of micariza. So it is
very safe, very non toxic, environmentally friendly, and you can use it
on all kinds of things. I mean, if you're planting herbs, if
you're planting vegetables, if you're putting it on your lawn, if you're going
to you know, we've established some shrubs and trees and you want to do
some fertilizing around them. It's a good one for that. So that I
need to talk about that more than organic food complete. I've got some at
the house. I've used it before. I find it to be a very
effective product to By the way, as far as I was talking about lawns,
as far as lawns go, if you are having some issues with your
lawn due to let's say compaction of the soil or just the grass is just
really struggling. Green Pro the folks at green Pro they're still doing what they
do well, and that is specifically I'm talking about their aerration, the deep
time core aeration. And what does that mean. Well, it's not all
of those little units it rolls over the lawn and punches a little shallow hole
in the ground. No, this one goes down and pulls a plug out
and drops it on the surface. I always say, it looks like you
had a little dog convention on the lawn without these little droppings everywhere on top.
That opens up. And then they follow it with a compost top dressing
of quality screened, finely screened composts to fall down in those holes and that
just opens up the soil. It allows air down in, It improves water
infiltration after a rain, and it puts the organic matter in the soil.
And anytime you have organic matter in the soil emulating root growth because the microbes
just go crazy. You can go to greenpro dot net. Green pro dot
net. Their price is start at five ninety nine plus sales tax and it
depends on your location. Drive from here to timbukto that'll be a little different.
But it's also the course of the size of your lawn. But as
far as getting your lawn in a place where it can thrive, a good
deep time core aeration followed by compost top dressing, that is a very very
good start for creating that environment. Because you know what, a plant is
only as happy as its root system. That's why preparing the soil first is
so important. And we always talk about that. But when you make the
roots happy, you make the top happy. I used to say plants live
in their roots, and that it's true, but that I think for some
folks is a little bit confusing as to what I was saying. But really,
when you create the soil volume and the soil content and the soil aeration
and the nutrients and the microbial activity where roots can thrive, the plant can
thrive. And that's why the brown stuff before the green stuff. Folks at
Airloom Soils, by the way, hey, if you need to if you're
planning on doing some major soil work, they've got a deal going on you
need to not miss. And that is the bulk specials that they're offering now.
They're veggie and herb mix. I guess that's one of their most popular
products, and for a good reason. By the way, it says veggie
and herb. If you want to use it on a flower bed, it's
good for that too. It's just it's an excellent product. If you buy
it by bulk, it's one hundred nineteen dollars a cubic yard. And if
you get the supersack, which is a nice, neat, little one cubic
yard sack, set on your driveway, neat clean. You don't have to
own a pickup to have a supersack. You don't have to clean up your
driveway when you're all done. One hundred and forty eight dollars for that.
Now, the roast soil another widely used soil, not just for roses.
I know it says roses. Rose growers help design that soil, but you
know the the rose soil is going to be good for anything, any kind
of shrubs and things that you want to grow. Seventy dollars for a QB
yard book, ninety nine for a supersack. You're not gonna find a better
deal than that. So if you're trying to fill up a big old vego
garden or a raised bed, if you're trying to create a new bed,
or just raise the height on a bed to improve drainage, go to heirloomsoilsoftexas
dot com where you can find out more, how to order it, how
to get it. If you don't go pick it up, I to porter
you can do that as well. But heirloom soils the import on brown stuff
that comes before the green stuff. That's what we're talking about. Hey,
our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven
one three, two one two five eight seven four. Want to make sure
and take care of your soil and then your plants just thrive. What do
they say, if you build it? They will come talking about baseball stadium
or whatever you're building. Well, if you build the soil, your plants
will thrive. It is absolutely as simple as that. Not a problem at
all. Hey, I think I mentioned this earlier, but I'm going to
be out at Southwest Fertilizer today from eleven thirty to one thirty, and the
Southwest Fertilizer that is where you find anything you need when it comes to taking
care of your plants. Yeah, they're going to have bags of soil mixes
and composts. They're going to have every fertilizer I talk about, every single
one is available and then some at Southwest. Do you need disease control,
insect control, weed control? Do you need tools? Do you need to
get your mower blade sharpen, your your weed eater tuned up? I mean,
whatever you need. Southwest Fertilizers got it. They have expert folks that
know what they're talking about. You go in with a sample. They help
you. They know exactly how to take care of that. While I'm there
by the way, I'm going to be given away. This is a great
day to go Southwest. I'm going to be giving away skip certificates for everybody
that comes up to the table and ask a question, ten dollars off your
purchases made at the store to day again. This is eleven thirty to one
thirty. I'll be at Southwest. They're going to give away There'll be a
drawing at the end of this time at one point thirty Toro battery blower and
a Toro battery string trimmer. You don't have to be present to win,
but you do have to be present to fill out the form to try out
for that. Now they're going to be giving away a lot of other products.
They're gonna have Medina bags. The folks at Medina are putting away giveaway
bags of some goodies that they have, popcorn, cold drinks, Halloween treats.
We're gonna have a good time. I hope you'll come out to see
me. I am looking forward to visiting with you answering your gardening question.
So grab those samples for identification and diagnosis. Put some pictures on the phone
so we can look at them and see how we can help you have a
more beautiful lawn and a bountiful landscape. It's time to take a break.
Our phone number is seven to one to three two one two k t RH
And when we come back, Jose and Joe, you'll be the first two
up. Good Saturday morning, boy. The glow is beginning in the eastern
sky. That means we're about to kick off a great day for gardening.
Speaking of great for gardening, if if you live up in the Montgomery area,
A and A Plants and Produce is at Hometown feed Store just down the
street from you. You know it's on the east side of Montgomery. Is
you're heading toward Conroe Highway one oh five, you've driven past it one hundred
times. You probably stopped there. This is a full service garden center,
family owned for over thirty years. Kathy took over from her parents from her
parents, Adam and Alice Flores, and the place just keeps getting better and
better. So anyone out in the Lake Conroe area Conroe willis all back up
in there. Well, this is your hometown, Hometown Garden Center. They
carry all the products I talk about. The fertilizers that I talk about,
you can find them there. Hey, cool weather's coming. How about stopping
in at A and A and grabbing a chiminea. They've got all kinds of
bling for the landscape, for outdoor living, pottery, different things like that.
You're going to really be able to create a beautiful patio with the many
things they offer. And you know the case of a chimney, that'd be
kind of cool as you get a little bit cooler afternoon weather, cooler evening
weather, get outside and enjoy that on the patio. They can fix you
up there at A and A plants and produce again. They're in Montgomery on
Highway one oh five, just on the east side, open seven days a
week from nine am to five pm. Let's head now out to Katie and
talk to jose Hey, Josey, sir, my grass is still brown?
What can I do to make it? I mean, I got some patchy
spots where it's green, all right? WHOA, Well, you know i'd
get down close and look at that. Is this Saint Augustine grass by the
way, probably yes, Okay, get down on kind of hands and knees,
and look at the runners. If the runners have some grain in them,
there may be some re sprouting that it can do. If they're brown,
that area is dead. If the area that's brown is really wide,
you're probably going to need to plug in some grass there. Put in some
reside in those areas. If it's oh, let's say foot apart or things,
you've got some green, living sprigs, then it'll fill back in when
the weather worm's up next spring. You can get some pretty quick coverage if
the grass is healthy coming out in the spring. But what I would do
right now for sure is put down a fall fertilizer application if you haven't already,
because whatever grass you have, you want to get it as strong as
you can going into fall. And that's why we have those fall fertilizers that
have lower nitrogen but good potassium levels in them. Okay, yeah, where
can I go buy that at? You can buy it at any kind of
ACE hardware out there in the Kadi area, no problem at all finding those.
Just go to ACE Hardware dot com and look for their store locator,
find the ones closest to you. They carry everything that we talk about when
it comes to fertilizers. I don't know what direction you are from Katie,
but you drop down to in Chantic Gardens just north of Richmond. They've got
it there too. They're not too far away from Katie as well. Okay,
all right, thank you, yes sir, Hey go online, hose
write this down gardening with skip dot com. Gardening with skip dot com on
there is my lawn care schedule and I list all the organic and synthetic fall
fertilizers that I would recommend, and so just print that out take it with
you. It's really easy to find. Or if you happen to be out
today, it's a little bit of a drive, but not too far.
Come see me at Southwest Fertilizer in Houston and they've got everything there. We
can also talk about if you got any kind of questions you want to bring
a picture or sample of that'd be another option there at the corner of bisinat
and Renwick. Okay, all right, all right, thank you, yes
sir, you take care appreciate that call. You know, our trees are
the most valuable plants in our landscape. They add a lot of value to
your home and when you have a quality tree, it is not only valuable
for the home. It's beautiful and it may shade your house. It may
shade you in the summer sitting outside. Lots of good reasons to have quality
trees, but you got to take care of them and if your trees need
pruning. Martin Spoon Moore Affordable Tree Service, they're the ones that we recommend
for that. It's easy. The phone number is seven one three six twenty
six sixty three. When you call Martin or his wife Joe, all answer.
If you don't hear Martin or Joe, you've called the wrong place.
Hang up. Seven one three, six nine nine twenty six sixty three are
If you want to go online Afftree Service dot com. Now you can just
have them come out and do an assessment. Does the tree need pruning or
not? They'll tell you if it does or if it doesn't. If you're
going to do anything around a tree, disturb the soil, put in a
sidewalk, dig a trench, build a house for crying out loud, you
got to hire a quality person like Martin to come out first and talk to
you about what to do. Don't let some guy that just drives by and
sticks a card in your door saying I've got to pick up in a chainsaw.
I'll trim your trees. Don't let them touch the trees. The damage
it gets done by people that don't know what they're doing is for the life
of the tree. I mean, it's always going to be marred and have
issues when it's done wrong. Call Martin now and get on the schedule.
They stay busy because they do things right. Tell them. You listen to
garden lines, you get at the top of the list. Affordable Tree Service
aff tree service dot com. Let's go out to Freeport and talk to Joe.
Hello, Joe, Hey, how you doing. I'm well, thank
you, Yes, sir. My question is I have a house in some
Ravel, Texas in the front yard is just full. Nobody's lived there like
six years. So the frontyardn't you know, had a lot of fertilizer or
anything. But I'm overran by. We call them cocker birds. They if
you walk outside, the barefoot or the dogs and they were real spiky.
Uh and uh. I was watching the YouTube and it was talking about using
a pre emergent yes, uh during the fall time and maybe a post emergent.
Uh. In March and April, I was wondering what's your thoughts on
that? How can I get rid of these or at least control them?
Do you know? Do you know if do you know what grasspurs are?
It's a grass plant? Is it that a different kind of bird? It
must be that because it's like a weed. But if you get on in
there and you pull one out, it's just like a bunch of spikes,
you know, during the summer. It's real hard spikes. Well, there's
there's there's grass birds that well, definitely they have got sharp spines. Uh.
Then there's there's several others or something called burr weed. Uh, And
there are other things that can have the pokey seed pods on them. So
knowing which one you have would be good. It'd be good if you catch
them and take a picture of it, you know, email it to me
or something. We could be more specific. But here's the deal. All
of those things are warm season weeds, and so you're going to want to
put the pre emergent down in February to prevent the warm season weeds. If
it's certain ones of those, and if it's grassbur you could wait a little
bit later and get it down in March because grassper germinate early march. Grassper
germinates a little bit later. Okay, that's a pre emerging in temporary.
Yes, and a product like nitrofoss barricade would be an example of a quality
product. And the nice thing about it is it works on grassy weeds and
broad leaf weeds both to prevent. But you got to get it down and
water down ahead of time. I cannot think of a winter weed that's a
burr in your yard so that I wouldn't do the fall like like you heard
online or something w eight and do it typically. February is when we get
our pre emergence again. If you will go to Gardening with Skip dot com.
That's my website, Gardening with Skip. I have a lawn, pest,
disease and weed management schedule and it tells you exactly when to apply those
and it tells you exactly the products that you can choose from that will be
very effective. Fantastic, all right, Yeah, but the barricade barricade is
something you need to have on hand. Have you have you fertilized your lawn
yet for the fut No, sir, I haven't, like I said,
you know, of course, I live down here on my life, and
uh, you know, I plan to retire here in a couple of years
up there, and I'm trying to get the yard and everything where I can
take my dogs up there without yeah, stepping all over these things. Yeah.
No, I understand that if I were you, I would I would
stop by you know, Ash Hardware or something near you where you can get
the Nitrofoss Texas three step. Uh. That what you'll get is you'll get
the fall fertilized that you need to get on right away. Very effective,
very effective products, got the right blend for the soils including up there in
some of the area. It's also got the barricade that it has talked about.
And then it's got the nitrofoss Eagle turf funge side if you need to
fight a large patch brown patch as well. But you can find it in
all kinds of places, I know, you know, in your area.
I would look to a ACE hardware store probably to find it. Some of
the feed stores we talk about here on guarden Line they carry it too down
there. Okay, all right, fantastic, I appreciate it. You bet
appreciate good day you too, Thanks for colling. Yeah, you can find
the night foss three strap. Lots of places I know plants for all seasons.
Carries it on two forty nine in Chanted Gardens out in Richmond, they've
got it out there. Lake Hardware down in Angleton has it as well.
Not hard to find nit fross products, but that one two three RESTEP is
a good combination do a good job for you on preventing things. And you
know, in general in gardening, in horticulture, prevention or early interaction is
absolutely the best way to go. Think of it this way. You can
put something down and prevent a weed from ever showing up, or you can
wait until they're up. And now you've got to find a product that'll kill
the weed but not kill your grass. So see what I mean prevention being
better. If you are looking at a disease like brown patch and you've had
it year after year. Number one, we need to talk about how to
get your lawn healthy and on a good schedule to be able to avoid that
problem most of the time. That will include not watering so often, not
overfertilizing with nitrogen soluble nitrogen that's fast released overdone in the fall can aggravate that.
Not mowing your lawn too short in the fall prevention prevention, or putting
a product down so that when the disease would show up, it stops it.
Because once you see the big brown circles, you've got them all winter
into the spring, till the grassery greens again. When it comes to diseases
and issues like that, or insects in your garden, catching them early the
first time you see them, you know if you want a garden with less
toxic options, if you want a garden organically or just the what we call
the softer products. It is most important that you catch pests early because as
the pest gets old, or something like a stink bug when it first hatches
out is much easier to kill than something than a stink bug that has wings
and is flying around everywhere laying eggs. So you get more stink bugs.
Your options are softer and they're more effective when you catch things early. So
what do they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound to cure
the early bird gets the worm. May nikki, give me some more.
We have a thousand and adages out there saying, hey, wake up,
get it done. Don't wait until your house is on fire to decide to
call the fire department. You know, prevent fires, don't try to put
them out after they start. I wonder who invented the word stink bug.
Stink bug the first person that grabbed one and smell their fingers that said,
Hey, you're listening to garden Line. We're gonna turn it over to the
Nicky News Network. Our phone number is seven one three two one two k
t RH to give us a call and joshall get you on the board.
Well, good Saturday morning on a great day for gardening. You know,
every day's a great day for gardening, right it is? It just absolutely
is. It could be pouring rain outside, freezing, it could be in
the middle of a hailstorm. You still can go inside. You can plant
seeds for growing your own transplantch you can take care of your house plants,
you see what I'm talking about, or just do some armchair gardening. That's
one of my favorite things. Sitting down, gets some seed catalogs, or
go online and look at things, read up about stuff, learn about gardening.
You know, they say that when you are sawing trees, you need
to take time to sharpen the saw. I don't know if you've ever if
you ever used a dull saw before. But it's a lot of work.
Whether it's an axe or a hatchet or a saw, you got to keep
it sharp. Same thing when it comes to us gardeners. We've got to
keep ourselves sharp, stay on top of things, learn more, come up
with new ideas. There is always some cool new thing going on in the
gardening world. I mean, it just is. It's it is a hobby
that you just never finished learning. I've been doing this professionally for thirty four
years. I've been guarding my whole life, and there hardly a week goes
by that I don't learn something new that makes me a better gardener, that
makes you know, my gardening more successful, or maybe a new idea,
a new plant that I haven't grown before. That's one of the things I
so enjoy about gardening as a hobby. It's fun. It just really is.
We say it's a good exercise too. You get out there and you
know you're walking around. These days, we've learned that you sit at a
desk for a long time, just get up and walk around for a while.
Over thirty minutes, it is actually a health benefit to doing that.
Well, imagine getting outside and doing yard work, doing some things here,
planting some plants, trimming some trees, walking around doing stuff. It's good
for you. And I like to say gardening is a good exercise, and
if you are a bad gardener, it's great exercise because you get to pull
more weeds up and down on your hands and knees more. You get the
idea. It's kind of a joke, but hey, have fun out there
in the garden. That is important. Well. Our phone number is seven
one three two one two k t r H seven to one three two one
two kt RH if you would like to give us a call and talk about
gardening. If you have a piece of property and you've thought about getting a
tractor, now is the time to do that. And here's why. It's
the Kebota deal. It's the Lensdown Moody deal. The combination of the two
pick click and go orange. So the pick pick a Kebota tractor at Landsdown
Moody. The L twenty five oh two is an excellent machine. It's the
Kbota workhorse. Now, Cabota has a wide range attractors at Lansdown Moody,
but the L twenty five O two is the one I would recommend first you
take a good hard look at. Secondly, click on your package deal.
You go to tractorpackage dot com and you choose the implements that you want to
go the package that you want to go with your tractor. Maybe you need
a rotary cutter for mowing a big area. Maybe you need a front end
loader for moving malt or carrying feedsacks or whatever else getting them from here to
there. It'll do it. Do you need to dig postholes? Do you
need a box blade for smoothing out soil? You get the idea, the
package, and then finally go orange with a great finance plan, in fact,
the best I've ever heard of. No money down, no interest for
up to eighty four months. Lansdown Moody is your deal. They're locally owned,
they've been here in Houston since nineteen thirty six. This isn't some big
out of town corporation. No, this is hometown through and through at Lansdown
Moody nine locations here on the Gulf Coast. So just go to lmtractor dot
com and find the lands Down near you. Go buy there, hop up
on one of those kbodas, and I think you'll see what I'm talking about
when we're talking about a quality tractor and something that don't tell anybody, especially
if you're trying to convince a significant other you're going to make this purchase.
But it's also a lot of fun. It just it just is. It's
a big toy, but a big toy that knows how to go to work
and will make your work a lot easier. I always have enjoyed the times
that I can get out and get some work done on the tractor. You're
listening to garden Line our number again seven to one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four for the
vegetable garden. This is the time when we need to be getting all the
cool season stuff out there. Spinach you want to plant spinach, let us
any kind of greens or regular and whatnot. All those blue leaved vegetables that
we also call coal crops, that we also call cruciferous vegetables. They are,
by the way, you know what they're called cruciferous vegetables. Fun fact.
You can share this with your family and friends and be the horticultural cliff
Claven of your neighborhood. They're called Cruciferus vegetable because the blooms have four petals
in the shape of a cross. Cruciferous across the shape of a cross.
That's why they're called that. Hey, those are super healthy. I mean,
we know the compounds that are in those. We're not just talking about
nutrients. We're talking about things that are even cancer fighting in green and a
lot of the vegetables. Do you know onions, by the way, it's
time to plant some onions too. Onions have corcetan, which is another ingredient,
another nutrient, another compound that helps our bodies stay healthy. So when
you grow your own vegetables, eat your own vegetables, it's just good all
the way around. If you got kiddos and you don't have a garden,
now'd be a good time to get one. I'd suggest getting a vego bet
I think it's the best way to go. I've gardened in treated lumber boxes,
I've gardened in mounds on the soil no sides, I've gardened in cinder
block sided boxes. Vego garden is the best way to go. And it's
the metal is treated in a way where it's not going to rest in Corrode.
It's painted with a quality paint that is beautiful. I mean, do
you want kind of a tan, or a green or a gray. They
have all colors for you to do that. They're modular. You put them
together with a little stainless steel screws so you can make them any shape you
want. You know, do you have a patio and you want something to
go around in an L shape or on the edge of the patio. You
can do that with a Vego bed. They're really easy to do. Go
to vegogarden dot com you can find out more vegogarden dot com. You will
be stunned by how beautiful they are, how complete, because of the modular
nature, how versatile they are. And it's a Houston company. Now,
there are impostors out there, the wannabes in the metal gardenbed business, but
Vego is the original one here in the States. It's the one that's local,
Houston company, and it is the one that I would highly recommend.
I've got Vego beds. They work, they're easy, they're attractive, and
for any organic gardener there you have a completely safe sided bed to grow whatever
kind of food that you want to grow in at Vego garden. It's as
simple as that. But yeah, vegetable gardening right now, this is a
time to do all kinds of good things. We can grow a lot of
stuff in the cool season. You know, I just mentioned it few things,
Sarah, But there are a lot of great veggies to grow. Our
garden centers are chock full of those. You can get the seeds and get
to town, get the kids involved, or at least just grow in a
five gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom and get a start on gardening.
I think you will find that it is a very rewarding hobby. We're
going to take a break. Our phone number is seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three two one two KTRH. Give Josh
a call. Let's get you on the board so we can visit with you.
Next referencing Cliff Claven, remember the the uh mailman on Cheers that knew
everything. Sometimes You got to read his explanation of how beer makes you smart.
That is one of the funniest things that man ever said. Typical typical
Cliff Clavin. Uh, you know, it is time to take care of
your lawns and it is the month where everything's going on in the lawns and
Nitrophus has put together their Texas three step for just that. Now. The
Texas three step is a fertilizer, a weed preventative, and a disease preventative.
And here's how it works. She got the Nitrophosphall special that's a brown
bag that is designed nutrient wise, the concentration, the ratios and everything for
our soils for fall, because fall is when we strengthen our grass plant to
go into winter for more heartiness. And by the way, potassium also helps
with drought of resilience and that way it comes out in spring stronger. Your
early spring growth on your grass is based on the nutrients stored in the plant.
And that's why fall fertilization is the most important one of the year.
It really really is. Now. The second step barricade, that's a pre
emergent I was talking about it earlier. It controls grassy weeds and broad leaf
weeds. But you have to put it down and you have to water it
in about a half inch of rainfall or irrigation. You don't want to wait
on that. These winter weeds are going to be germinating. This little coal
spell coming in and cooling things off, cooling the soil off. We're going
to see a lot of things like chickweed and hand bent and clover and annual
bluegrass coming up. Get that barricade down to form a barricade on the sole
surface. The third step is eagle turf fungicide. That is a fungicide that
soaks into the tissues so that when a disease like brown patch, the big
circles we see in our Saint Augustine lawns, when it shows up, it's
there to help prevent it rather than waiting until now you've got big circles,
well, you know you're going to look at big dead circles until spring comes
and it regreens again. So get ahead of all of these things. Go
ahead and get the fall fertilizer down so you have as much time as possible
before the weather cools off in growth slows to strengthen that plant. Go ahead
and get the barricade down before the seeds come up. And go ahead and
get the fungicide down. If you're going to prevent large patch, not everybody
has large patch problems in their lawn or brown patch but if you do,
if you see those circles, you definitely want to prevent rather than try to
deal with it after they already appear. That is not going to be very
effective to try to do the latter. That is something to keep in mind.
You know, the feed store that we talk about down in League City
area is League City Feed and I don't know if you've ever been there before,
but it's really easy to get to. They're on Highway three, a
few blocks south of ninety six Highway ninety six. So if you live in
clear Lake or League City, or Santa Fe or Lamark Baycliff, Webster,
Dickinson, all those areas, this is your hometown feed store. Now.
The Thunderbergs have been running this store since they created it forty years ago,
and Wes and his sister Madison, they are doing a great job around there.
By the way, if you they're on a Saturday, I think you
might even get to meet the dalmatian Rorshak. Is that a good name for
a Dalmatian or not? You know, you stare at the dog and the
psychiatrist says, okay, what do you see when you look at this downmation?
I love that name, but anyway. They carry all the products that
we talk about on guardline. You know the nitrophoss, the azimite, the
microlife, the heirloom soils, you know, Nature's creation, Nelson plant food,
it's all there. Any kind of pest disease and weed control product is
there. You need a quality pet food, it's there. Do you need
stuff for your chickens or any other kind of livestock, They've got it at
League City Feed. Here's their number two eight one, three, three two
sixteen twelve Monday through Saturday nine to six, closed on Sunday. So any
day from Monday through Saturday, get off work, heading home, swing by
there. They'll get you fixed up. That old fashioned service and a great
selection as well. One of the reasons or two of the many reasons that
we say League City Feed is your hometown feed store down in that area.
Just want to remind you if you have not downloaded the lawn care schedule and
the disease pest or pest disease and weed management schedule, go ahead and do
so. They are at SKIP or gardening with Skip dot com Gardening with Skip
that's me dot com and you can get those schedules also at Gardening with Skip
is the information I was talking to you earlier about what you need to know
before you plan a fruit tree. Excellent article linked on there. Go check
that out. We continue to add more and more new stuff to that as
well. You'll also see on there coming soon on there, as a matter
of fact, is the talking about the Texas Tomato Conference that's coming up Texas
Gardener magazine. Jay White and those folks have put together an excellent conference.
I'll be speaking at it, lots of other great speakers that will be there.
It is going to be an awesome day coming up here in January,
and you want to get signed up for it before they sell out. It's
going to be out at the antiqu Rosing Pium. You do not want to
miss that Texas Tomato Conference. I know we're thinking, why are we talking
tomatoes in November, Well you got to learn about them because not long after
January. In fact, in January, you'll be starting your own transplants.
If you're going to do that, getting ready for a great tomato season.
Fall is for planting, and fall is for planting, especially anything woody ornamental,
and for that tree farm. The folks at Verdant Tree farm. They
have got a wide selection of trees and they have locations that are easy to
get to out on Barker Cypress and West Houston, down in Pearland on Broadway
Street, they're there. Up in the heights where Iten and Yale Street come
together, they're there as well. Now they have trees of all sizes.
I mean you can get a tree up to seven hundred gallon tree. They
may even have something larger than that. They will beat any advertised retail price.
If you need palms, they've got that as well, one year warranty
included and don't forget ten percent discount for military and first responders at Verdant Tree
Farm Verdant treefarm dot com. We're talking about a lot of different things gardening
today because it's just a gardening show. But we're going to take a break
here in a little bit. But when I want to talk before we do
just a bit about herbs and the importance of fall for herb planting. Now,
you may want this traditional herb garden where it is just all's what you
know, symmetrical, the beautiful little traditional herb garden, or you may just
want to put herbs and containers or you may want to put herbs like I
do, in the vegetable garden or in the flower beds. Herbs can be
ornamental chives that bloom. Just think of them as a little dwarf type of
loriopy. I guess bordering a bed you can do that. You can use
oregano and time as groundcovers. They're just a lot. They're versatile plants.
They're easy, easy, easy to do, and you can get them.
You know. For example, it's Forest ad in Richmond. They've got an
awesome selection of herb. They just built the new vegetable and herb houses out
there now. While you're out at Enchanted, of course you're going to want
to go home with some of their moms with all the other decoration of the
pumpkins and all the fall decorations. But don't forget that they also have an
excellent selection of perennials, trees and shrubs along with the herbs and fall veggies
there. I was out recently and I'm really impressed with the herb selection and
everything else. You know, Danny and Klay Linderman out there at Enchanted Forest,
they absolutely are the best when it comes to customer service and knowledge.
And helping you have success. That's what you get at a hometown, mom
and pop kind of garden center, and that's what this is. But don't
expect it to be some little limited thing when you go out there. Enchanted
is in its name for a reason. It is beautiful, it's wonderful to
walk through. It's gorgeous, it's inspiring. They have a white variety of
products. Hey, do you need to refill let's say your microlife or your
Nilson plant foods. You know you need a little those where you take your
containers out and you just refill them. It's a little more cost effective and
you don't throw away a lot of plastic that way while you're out there.
Bring your empty containers and get them refilled. Out there an enchanted forest,
easy to find, easy to get to. You just all you have to
do is head out to the right when you're going from Richmond up towards sugar
Land, going up fifty nine. They are on FM twenty seven fifty nine
f twenty seven fifty nine en Richmond Enchanted Forest. I want to remind you
again that I'm going to be out at Southwest Fertilizer after the show today,
so you definitely want to come out. Hey, do you have a sample
you'd like to bring by for identification or for diagnosis? Put it in a
bag and bring it out there. This is going to be a really cool
deal. It's not just a chance to meet me and for me to meet
you and for us to talk gardening. Course, here's your one I to
eye one on one kind of opportunity to do that. But they're gonna be
given away two really cool tools at the end of the appearance. You just
have to sign up and register to win Toro battery blower and a Toro battery
string trimmer. Got a lot of value in those two right there. Now,
I'll be giving away Skip certificates to everybody that comes by my table with
a gardening question. Ten dollars off anything you buy in the store today today,
only ten dollars off your purchases in the store. So we may be
talking about something and I go, well, here's the product you need to
fix that. Well, there you go, here's ten dollars off. You
can do that, and we're gonna have a good time. They're gonna be
giving away bags of Little Medina samples products. We'll be having popcorn, cool
drinks, Halloween treats. You don't have to dress up for Halloween that you
can still come by and enjoy the treats at Southwest Fertilize You. They're in
the corner of Bissinetta and run with south West Houston, So I don't care
where you live. Uh, this is not a hard drive to get to.
Come on out. Let's see, let's see you, and let's help
you solve those problems. Hey, it'll be eleven thirty to one thirty,
so just make your plans. Good day to get out, good day for
that good day for gardening and everything else. Our phone number is seven one
three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k
t r H. And hey, I have a special guest calling in after
we begin the eight o'clock hour. You don't want to miss this. KTRH
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 so crazy.
Just watch him as the world gold. The blocks the clubs not a
sign. Well, welcome to garden Line. We are glad you're listening today.
I'm your host. Skip Richter, and we are happy to visit about
any kind of gardening stuff that you would like to talk about. Just give
us a call. It's seven one three two one two K T R H.
Simple as that you you Uh, I've got a special guest coming up.
I was kind of given a tease for that before we went into the
break, Felder Rushing. Many of you know who Felder Rushing is. Uh.
He has from Mississippi. He is as as I. He's been a
horticulturist with the Extension Service in his case in Mississippi, but for many many
years now has just been going on all over the country, very very highly
sought after speaker, a very entertaining person too. By the way, I
get the biggest kick out of Felder And I don't know how many books the
guy's written, but a lot. He just is very prolific. And he's
the ubiquitous Felder Rushing, I would say, because every time I turn around,
I see Felders coming to some place. He comes textas a lot too.
And that's coming up and I'm going to save that. Let that be
the mystery about what we're going to talk about when he does give us call
in We're going to probably talk to him here at about I don't know,
thirty minutes or so. But in the meantime, we want to talk plants
about. Here are plants and things here in the Greater Houston area or just
the whole KTRH listening area and Plants for All Seasons is a place that if
you've never been, you need to go. You need to be aware of
it. It is a icon when it comes to home town garden centers in
this area now Plans for all Seasons. The Flower family has been in this
business since nineteen seventy three. Their experience really shows because when you go into
Plants for All Seasons, you're greeded. Not just with family members, Cherry
and others coming up to you and helping you with your questions, but their
staff, who's highly trained. They know what they're talking about. Do you
need to take in a picture for a diagnosis, or hey, I saw
this flower when I was in Mississippi does it grow here? And you know,
do you have it? And so on. They carry all of that
kind of stuff and they have that kind of knowledge. You can go to
Plants for All Seasons dot com, Plants for All Seasons dot Com, or
you can call them two eight, one, three, seven, six,
sixteen forty six. They are truly lawn and garden experts. Now, whether
you are a brown thumb gardener needing a turn it green or a green thumb
gardener, this is a place to go and plants for all seasons. Always
has a great supply of everything, including the fertilizers we talk about here on
garden Line. You hear me talking about you got to do this, you
got to do that, and you know getting how important October is. They've
got everything you need out there. It plans for all seasons, simple,
simple as that, not at all difficult to do. Gardening in this season
is perhaps one of the most pleasant things that you will have done all year,
because we went through summer and it was rough and we got winter coming
and I don't know, winter is not that bad here in Houston. We
know it's going to come, we just don't know which day or two winter
is going to be in any given year. And we have such a nice
mill climate so we can grow things all year round. That is one of
the benefits of being down in this area, this far south, where we
can grow things like citrus, for example, and we can grow a wide
variety of things that even in other parks of Texas you can't grow. You
know, you head wes to here and trying to have an azalea or a
camellia or a blueberry or something like that's a big challenge. But we live
in an area where you can do a lot of that and then some and
our goal is just to kind of help you have success with that. If
you are out in Bellevue or if you're out in the Baytown area, your
hometown feed store is Texas feed Stop. And I always talk about the hometown
feed store because you know what it's like. You go into a place,
they treat you like family, They carry your bags out for you. They've
got everything you need. That's what I mean when I say a hometown feed
store, and that is exactly what Texas feed Stop is. If I talk
about a fertilizer, nitrofoss, microlife, you know, Nelson plant food,
Medina. If I talk about products like heirloom soils, or you need to
get a mosquita dunks for yours, They've got it all there. And then
all the pest control, disease control, weed control. If you are a
deer hunter, you need bags of corn, if you need things for feeding
your animals, your dog, in your livestock, that's what it's all about.
Texas Feed Stop. Brian and Hope Roads have made this a part of
the community, hiring the local teens to work there, supporting their community,
being part of the community. That's what they're all about. And when you
go to Texas Feed Stop, they'll treat you like family, and that in
and of itself is worth something. Now they're on here. Here's how you
get there. If you're on iten you head up Highway one forty six,
just a few minutes up one forty six and they are right there on the
right hand side. And again, anyone even out in Baytown, it's just
a it's just a hop, skip and a jump away to your hometown feedstore,
Texas Feed Stop. We are going to now head to a Taska Sita
and talk to Mike. Hello, Mike, Hey, how's it going,
buddy? Well, how are you pretty good? Pretty good? I'm calling
because I'm putting down a new side in my front yard and we had some
new new waterline come through and they tore the grass up. I forget this
be a good time to do it. Okay, I've got two big,
giant red oak trees in my front yard and they provide a lot of shade,
and I'm guessing that's the reason that I've got patchy grass growth underneath the
canopy there right. And I'm going to put a new side down. In
fact, I'm going to do it on Monday. I just need to know
what kind of preparation I need to get done to it before they put the
grass down. Yeah, you want to if there's any perennial weeds, like
if there's some bermuda grass in there, or Virginia button weed or any kind
of a perennial weed, you need to eradicate it right away, because that
just is going to be something you have to deal with once you've got your
new side in. If it needs leveling, if you got any holes or
dips or things, you need to bring some soil in, go ahead and
fill those areas and get it, you know, get it laid out nice
like you want it prior to lay in the sod. And then just when
you put the sad down, make sure it contacts the soil well. I'll
often water the soil if it hadn't rained recently before I put the sod down,
lay the sod on it, and it's just because you want there to
be moisture under the surface. So when those sod roots start to go into
your soil, they've got moisture right there. And so when you lay it,
press it down so you have good sod to soil contact. And then
water lightly and fairly frequently, probably once a day or so, just to
help it survive until it gets some roots down into that soil. That takes
about a week or so to begin that process, and within two weeks it
ought to be rooted in pretty well. Do I need to scratch up the
grass that is there? Yes? Before? Yeah, you want the you
want the soil that comes with your sod to touch the soil that you've got
in your yard, got it, okay, Yeah, get that. Don't
leave a gap of airspace under there with that that old debris, okay.
And what about fertilizing. I would go ahead. Normally I'd say wait a
couple of weeks to fertilize, but I would say about a week after,
go ahead and put down your fall fertilization. And you can find that at
gardeningwithskip dot com. I've got the lawn care schedule with all the organic and
synthetic options and the formulas are there for the Yes, yes, I have
a number of I think I've got oh gosh, probably eight or so different
fertilizer applications for fall for fall. Okay, yeah, all right, buddy.
Well I really appreciate it, and I'm glad I was able to get
through so quick. Yeah, good you were. You called it just the
right time because it's loading up. Hey, I've got a run to a
break, but thank you, Mike. I appreciate that. Call. Our
phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Jim,
you'll be first up when we come back. Welcome back to garden Line.
Our phone number if you'd like to give us a call seven one three two
one two five eight seven for Hey. If you are looking for a place
to get the things I talk about here on Guardline Ace Hardware, You're not
going to go wrong. Acehardware dot Com find the store locator. There's thirty
nine stores near you. I mean, so there is one near you,
thirty nine stores in the Greater Houston area. The Ace Hardware Group has made
a commitment to if we recommend it on Guardline. They're going to carry it.
That's at fertilizers, that's pest weed disease, insight control products. Anything
you need for your lawn and for your garden to have success. Anything you
need for that outdoor living area that you want to enhance for now that we
got weather worth being outside in the afternoon and evening, well, they'll set
you up. Do you need grilling equipment? Do you need outdoor patio furniture?
Do you want to string our lights to kind of create that beautiful ambiance.
They've got that in way way more at Ace Hardware. Acehardware dot Com,
find the store locator, find the store near you. Go check them
out, and you'll see why I'm always bragging on Ace Hardware stores here in
the Greater Houston area. Now we're going to go out to Cold Springs now
and talk to Jim. Hello, Jim, Hey Skip, thank you so
very much for taking my call. I got a question. I've got property
there in Cold Spring and I want to plant some fruit trees and I'm thinking
about doing some peach, peared lemon, and maybe a plum tree, and
I just wanted to know what variety do you think would grow well? Out
there. I got a lot of red clay and gray clay in that land.
And what do I need to prepare for that? Peach, pear,
lemon, and plum. So the lemon, you're gonna to be ready to
cold protect it. Either you get a mar lemon put in a very large
container where you can dolly it into the garage on cold winter nights, or
just have a structure ready to go where you can set it up to protect
it it get a little too cold. In cold springs. With that kind
of soil, drainage is going to be critical, so making sure it's a
raised mound. You can mix a quality compass bed mix into a large area
and create that raised mound so drainage is ensured. Because those trees don't want
to sit in a swamp, so hilly where I'm going to plant the trees.
Okay, so I'm not really worried about it. Good runof full sunlight,
the most sun at least six hours the most sun you can get them
now as far as varieties, if you go to the Aggie Horticulture website,
just search it out. Aggie Horticulture front page is a fruit and nuts section
and there is a free publication. You can look at it on the computer
or print it out on every fruit you can imagine, including the ones you
mentioned, And so I would go there. It'll talk about the varieties.
It has bands across Texas. So you find your county and you go,
I'm in this band and here's the varieties they recommend for you. That's the
fastest way I can get you to that answer. That is absolutely awesome.
That's exactly what I need to know. Thank you so much. Skip.
All right, Hey, thank you for the call. Appreciate that and good
luck, love growing fruit. Oh Jim, I should have said this when
we were on the phone. But go to if you go to my website
gardeningwith Skip dot com. It's not quite up yet, but it will be
later today. A link to an article by doctor Stein on preparing for fruit
planting, how to have success in planting fruit and you definitely want to check
that out for sure. Listen, do you live out in Kingwood, Well,
you've got the Kingwood Garden Center, you've got war in Southern Gardens.
When you were out in the Kingwood area, You've got a lot of options,
quality options for that mom and pop, local, hometown, full service
garden centers. You're always going to find plenty of color, and boy,
is this ever the time to plant color in your landscape? Do you still
need to pick up some moms? Yep, they're going to have that.
Do you want to go visit their gift shops outstanding gift shops for really really
quality things for not only gifts for other people, but things you might want
to add for your own place. There they've got a lot of new arrivals
of different kinds of woody ornamental trees, like maybe you want a Chinese fringe
tree or a red butter or are you time to put in a live oak,
or they've got it all there. Do you need onion and garlic transplants
or bulbs? Do you need spring bulbs for your garden? That you want
a plant? Now? Do you want to buy some of that pink mullygrass
that's their native of the month. Pink mulely grass is absolutely beautiful. Go
online look at a picture of it. When the sunlight comes through those little
seed ons, it's like a pink mist floating over the tops of the plants.
Just an example of the quality things that they have. It worre in
Southern Gardens and Kingwood Garden Centers out there in Kingwood. We are now going
to head out to Northwest Houston and talk to Ed. Hello, Ed,
good morning, good morning. Question. The day is a planning day of
some jazmine and various other things, maybe some flowering stuff. Good. I
need to add some soil I believe in the air to the bed. I
want to plan it in. Okay, I've got pretty good soil. I
long ago got down deep enough to get rid of most of the old clay.
Yes, So now I want to know what would I put on top
to kind of help make sure I've got good soil. Do you ever?
I want to go get some bags of something, probably at Southwest Okay,
well, hey, come come today. I'm going to be there from eleven
thirty to one thirty. I might be there, Yeah, soccer at eleven
third. I'll see you afterwards. Okay, Yeah, get bye by one
thirty because hey, I'm going to be giving away skip certificates worth ten bucks
off. Okay, save you some money there if you come to the table
and ask a question, I'll be giving a gift certificates out. That's what
i'd recommend. They've got a wide variety of things. I mean, we
have you know, you've you've got garden centers up in your area too.
If you were you've missed getting down to see us today, you can do
that. But yes, you're you're on the right track. I'd get you
a good quality like an heirloom veggie and her blend mix would be a good
one for what you're talking about. Roast oil would be good too. Roast
so will be excellent. I put some rose soil down several weeks ago because
I killed that bed, and I went up to mister Ferguson and picked up,
oh, some roast oil. There you go. I got a question
about the rose soil. It seems to be fairly sandy. Is that such
a thing as getting too much of that down because of that sand content?
No, that's to help improve drainage. That's to help, okay, the
drainage. And I don't know what your soil is specifically, but I would
venture it's probably got a lot of clay in it. Oh yeah, and
when you are at organic matter, another thing you can mix into the soil,
not just put on top, but mix in is expanded shale, and
that that also gives you a very long term benefit to the clay organic matter
is great, but it tends to break down in time. Now that expanded
seal, if I put it in, I need to kind of bury it
down some or what, Yeah, it mixed it in. I would put
several inches of it generally. The research up in Dallas by Agrolife Extension,
they said three inches. They were doing roses in a heavy clay soil like
we have down here. They put three inches down and mixed it in,
and it did wonders for internal drugge Because you're getting a lot of that porous
material that holds up over time. I need to be especially careful about how
far down I get it to actually mix in. As far as you can
practically go most moto tillers, you're not going to get definitely more than about
six inches at the best. Yeah, notice would be stricted by hand with
a little okay, the old the old fashioned way. Yeah, yeah,
it is, well, anything like that would be good. Okay, all
right, more likely I'll see you later on today, I hope. So
you take care of it. Than yes, sir, you take care.
If you're up in Grimes County, you're fortunate to have Grimes County Feed around
Grimes County Feed owned by the Roy family, has been a really a mainstain
now for a while there in the Carlos, Texas area. They're two miles
west of two forty four up in the Carlos area. So if you're in
Navisota, if you're up in College Station, this is a great place to
drive down and get your supplies. They carry the fertilizers I talk about here,
they carry the soul products and things they carry you know, if you
need a tree hugger, sprinkler, if you need mosquita donks, all those
kinds of things, they've got it there. Plus they have great feed of
course, So those of you in rohdes Perrie and shiro Iola Reliance Community Anderson
Bete Eyes or neighborhoods like Kingwood's, king Oaks and mere Wood, this is
your hometown feed store and they do a great job. You know. The
family has a tradition of service. I mean we're talking about people that work
in the Houston Fire Department, people that worked in the Houston Police Department.
They're background and act culture is there. They support the local four H and
FFA kids and it's just that's just the mindset. Public service is what they're
founded on, and reinvestment in the community is what they're about at Grimes County
feet. Hey, the phone number is two eight one eight one four twenty
four ninety four. If you're up in that area, swing by today and
check them out. Let's see we're running. We got a little bit of
time here. Let's go out and talk to Robert in North Houston. Hello
Robert, good morning, scoop. Yeah, I've got a question about these
fire ants. I have battled them forever, yes, and it seems like
everything I use moves them, but they don't kill them. Okay, what
is a good fire ant bait? Do what you recommend? Where are the
fire ants? Are they in the yard of vegetable garden or what? They
are in the aerobic septy tank, they're in the water well, they're in
the air conditioning unit. Okay, I got you, all right, So
you're gonna do You're gonna do a couple of things here, Robert. Number
one, you want to use a bait as your mainstay, and do it
as soon as possible, because when it gets too cool, they're not going
to be out and is actively feeding and they're not going to be as effectively
controlled could. There are a lot of products out there. There are andro
products that do very very well that you can use there as Oh my gosh,
I can't think of the other. The name of the other begins with
a knee bait. Heck, anyway, I'll think of it extinguished, extinguish,
that's it. But I would always extinguish, yes, But I would
also put some kind of a contact like dust around any electrical boxes that you
have that they're going to crawl through. They'll short those those electrical connectors in
there, and so I would go an extra extra step and have kind of
a dust type product that is just a contact killer for ants because they can
do a lot of damage to electrical units as well. They're attractive. Okay,
the dust, would that be like that guy tamacious Earth, No,
I'd go I'd go with something stronger than that. I'd probably use like an
orthene or a seven dust or something along those lines. But you're not treating
your whole yard with that. You're just using it around those electrical features because
in addition to the baits, you want to make sure any ants that go
in there are killed before they get to the contact points in your electrical equipment.
Another thing is urban legend thing grits. The people say, sprinkle grits
around, they kill fire insny truth to that, you know, let me
let me answer that when I come back. I have to go to a
break here, but I will say that out loud on the air when I
come back. We'll talk about grits and fire ants. All right, Okay,
thank you, thank you. I appreciate your call very much. We're
gonna have some fun with grits and fire ans. Yeah, we are.
Just stay tuned. That's the teaser. Hey, it's time for Nicky News.
Seven to one three two one, two fifty eight seventy four is our
number. We're gonna have filter rushing at some point when we come back,
and you do not want to miss that. We'll be right back. Welcome
back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are
here talking all kinds of things gardening. I'm gonna run right out to Brunham
here and we're gonna talk to Leonard. Hello, Leonard, Howdy, howdy.
I was real sympathetic to the guy that was talking about the ants and
his electrical equipment because I haven't had a big building when I had a business
here. They had three big air conditioners in it, and ants just love
to get into contact points and that I don't know why, but they do,
they do, they do. Finally, one of the farmers out here
told me, he said, well, you just get one of these rings
that they put on cows this furbal. I don't know what they do,
it's been a long time ago, but sure enough I went and got some
from the feed store here and you put them in each one of those compartments
where the contact points are, and by golly, it kills them. They
don't come around, and uh, they work for you. What do you
mean by rings? I'm not following you, But there's something, and like
I said, I'm getting really old. I can't remember, but it's something
they used on cattle and it's you know, it's it's a ring, like
a rubber ring or something. And I assure you that the peach store person
people would know what it is. And it kills the things that get in
the cows, ticks or whatever. Does the same thing to the answer and
keeps them away. Then I had a question. I said, well,
while I'm on the phonem I'm going to ask you, and that is,
what's the best vegetable for winter time? Like lettuce or something like that.
That's what I like. Yeah, it depends on what you want to eat.
But I grow a lot of all the blue lee vegetables. I think
they're the best overall growing and that I call him blue leaf. It's the
broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower called robbie kale collards. That whole group of Brussels
sprouts is in that group. Uh, those are all good, and it
just kind of depends on what you like to eat from them, but they're
they've got good, really good. Do you have lettuce? You have a
lettuce you like or you're asking no? Yeah, I had a butter lettuce
that I grew one time. It was delicious. I was wondering if there
was any other kind. Oh, there's a lot of good kinds of lettuce.
In general, avoid the head lettuce here in our area, avoid the
head lettuce and go with bib or leaf lettuce. I grow strictly leaf lettuces,
and I've never had a lettuce that didn't do good. I have one.
Oh gosh, it's what is that town in central Texas where second President
Bush has his ranch. Gosh, because of the sea, I can't say
the name of it anyway. That's the name of this lettuce because it comes
from that area. I can't believe. I can't think of the name of
that town. Anyway. It's a leaf. It's a Romain type lettuce,
and I like Romayne's a lot too. I've never had a Romaine that didn't
do well. Hey, Leonard, I might have to run, but thank
you very much for the call. I appreciate that. Take care you take
care. Well, We're gonna run now out and talk to mister Felder Rushing
Felder. Thank you for waiting. Hey, Skiff, good to hear from
me again. You don't know, but I've heard you many times over the
years in different national gardening groups and all, oh my gosh, and you're
still willing to call in after that. Well, you know, I live
in England half a year, live in Mississippi f year, but I spent
about a third of my life in Texas. I know you do. Every
time I turn around, you're coming to speak somewhere. No, and it's
not just it's not just a horticulture guarding but you know, and I hate
to say this, because I'm not from Texas, but y'all have aptitude and
that counts more than anything in the garden we do. We usually greet people
saying, welcome to Texas. What country are you from? Because by the
way, that last caller, Leonard, he was asking about things. Have
you ever do you ever mix lettuces up different kind you know, reds and
greens and all make a little little like a mesx gloon mix. I do,
And you know the mescaline mixes that you buy. I've not had success
with because different crops don't grow well together. So I grow mine separate and
then mix them in the slad bowl. There you go, There you go.
But one of my favorites, and it's partly because my partner hollers at
me all the time, because I grow a lot of different things in the
winter because it's easier than in the summer. You know what I mean,
Yes, but I grow a lot of I grow a lot of different kales.
And one of my favorites is the blue kale, the Tuscan blue called
Larsonato. Yes, and it is so pretty. It'll take zero degrees given,
I mean, and it's a pretty plant anyway. She hollers, in
me because it's so pretty with the blue foldies at all in a tasty that
I won't pick get to put in soups because I like, you know,
it's one of those elemental things I grew up as ornamental and edible. But
it's so pretty that I think every winter garden flower pot should have so of
this lass and opto kale is an important, pretty blue structural plant middle of
the winter. It is a good one. And I like red boar too
for the same reason. Uh, you know, I would say the tuscano
or the dino kale you're talking about is a better one to eat. But
they're, boy, they're so pretty. Well. You know, you've been
to extensions for a long time. I'm retired extension, and we both know
that people are gonna do what they're going to do. But you know a
lot of people plant collars because the's traditional. But kale you don't have to
have bacon grease to eat it. That's rights. Speaking of which, I
had a call before you came on a fellow I don't it's his fiant day
on garden line. But anyway, someone asked about using grits grits for fire
ants and I always tell people that these are Southern fire ants, and if
you put grits on a Southern fire might mound, they'll come to the top.
And ashra Acon grease to go with that, and so yeah, it
doesn't do any good at all. They've actually did some research at A and
M on grits. You know. The idea is they eat the grits and
then they swell up and explode the fire aunt. Well, fire ants don't.
They don't eat dry food. They liquefy it and drink it. So
that doesn't work. Yeah, yeah, And who wants running grits? Right?
Who want grits? Hey? Well, you know I can talk for
two days to you. We have a good time. By the way,
I listen to your podcast. If anybody is looking for a good podcast,
Felder's got one over a Mississippi Public Radio and I have the best time.
That's my local that's my personal entertainment. You do a great job on that.
Well, you know, skip a lot of what we do, and
there's a real serious aspect of horticulture, crop production, you know, getting
fill in the freezer all like that. But a big part of gardening is
psychological and social and it's about you know, so it's gardening is not production
ry, and it it's the process of doing things. And you know,
if you can't have fun, there's something terribly wrong. So my program,
even though it's on National Public Radio, it's more of what I call infotainment.
It is as it actually had a lot of fun. Well, speaking
of speaking of infotainment and Veelder being ubiquitous, tell us what's about to go
down over here in Texas with you? Well, I guess sort of let
me set it up by mentioning this skip. You know, I've and by
the way, I go back with Bill Welch and Greg Grant and Jerry Parsons
even oh my gosh, yeah, yeah, you could get thrown into jail
just for mentioning those names in connection with your presence. I have a bumper
sticker on my nineteen eighty eight four pickup truck that says, what would Jerry
do? Oh my gosh. You know, I work at a garden center
down at Corpus Christie back in the seventies. Is not there anymore, but
it's called Curry's down at six Points. But last week I was with Master
Gardens in Dallas. Uh enchanted gardens in Richmond, Arbor Gate, Barton Springs.
You know all these kind of places. Yeah, one of my all
time favorite destination places, not just a shop, but just to go is
the Antique Rosing Porium between Brenham and Collie Station, Independence and Mike and Jeans
shoot and I go way way way back. I usually stay with him when
I'm in Texas. But Jim and Kim Keeter just bought the antiqu Rosing Porum
Mike retired and they're having their first fall Festival Roses that they've had in years
because of COVID and all but fault. Festival Roses is this coming weekend.
And they got me on three times as I know, I know, Hey
Felder, I have to take a break. Could you hold on and we
continue those? Sure? Heck Ki, I'm sorry to do that, but
you know how it goes. We're going to We're going to take a break
seven one three two one two kat r h if you'd like to give us
a call and we'll be right back with Felder in just a moment. Well,
good Saturday morning on what could not be a better great day for gardening.
You're listening to the garden line. I'm your host Skip Richter, and
we are talking with Felder, Rushing and Felder. We were before we went
to break. You were starting to tell us about this fall festival of roses
and I'd like to hear a little bit more about that, okay man.
And then, by the way, I know what our job is to help
Texans get dirty, So you got to get back to the phone calls.
But in a nutshell, the Anti g Rosing Porum, which is now owned
by Jim and Kim Keeter, yes, having the first fall rose festival that
we've had this before COVID and it starts out Friday night with a fabulous Texas
style farmed a table event. It's a ticketed event. You got to get
tickets for it ahead of time and you can go to Anti Rosingporium dot com
and getting information about that. But it is going to be incredible food,
incredible music. Of course, me and I'm gonna be talking about what they
call Sola Stylishall don't know if you've heard of that, No, I have
not. Well, it's a take on nostalgia. Remember wishing things were way
back in the day. Soa stagia is when people are uncomfortable things are changing,
we don't. We feel like we don't have control of our lives and
politics in the weather and all that. Sol Nostalgia is that anxiety you get
when things are changing beyond your control, and gardening is sort of like a
foot grip in that by gardening and sharing plants and connecting with other gardeners collectively,
we help each other get through this anxiety of a rapidly changing world.
You know, this weather is weird. But by working with pass along plants
and earthkind plants and sharing with other people, it makes us connected to community,
into the earth and using plants that we know do well in Texas that
help us get a grip I guess, and sort of get through and connect
with other people in safe way. So I'm gonna be talking about pass along
plants, earth kind slow gardening, which is really just savoring what you do
all seasons and using all your senses. And that's gonna kick off Friday night.
This is a ticket event for Friday night, this farm to table,
which I cannot emphasize how cool, how Texas this is. But but Saturday
and Sunday I'm giving talks. What Mike Shoot is gonna be there. Chris
Wisinger of the Bulb Hunter and uh and those are free. So I hope
people come out to the antique rosing form. It's in Independence, which is
really a cool place between Brenham and College Station. But the Friday night thing,
the farm to table is an incredible opportunity. But the anti Rosing port
book all the places I visit in a lecture in Texas, it is the
place where I feel the most comfortable and secure and at home, surrounded by
beautiful plants and really cool people. And it is such a it's such a
site. If you've never been out there, it's a site for the eyes,
I'm telling you. And then there's good. It's it's the destination.
And by the way, last weekend I drove out to San Antonio. We're
having Oklahoma weather in Mississippi. I'm thinking, if that's where it's gonna be,
we're gonna have an Oklahoma or North Texas gardens. I went to Fort
Worth Botanic Garden to see what grows well there, because if grow well in
Fort Worth, it'll take the weather I just had. And the roses play
they got there, the earth kind roses and all the asters and all the
other fault Paris. You know, Texas, everybody talks about Texans wildflowers in
the spring, but this time of year there's some incredible fault perennials out there.
So anyway, that's the kind of stuff I savor. I'm getting ideas
to bring back to Mississippi. But I'm gonna share what I've learned from people
who've learned to cope with life and society and the personal issues through guarding.
That's going to be the ANTIQ Crosing poart of this weekend. Well, and
that's what gardening does for us. You know, I personally believe that we
are all supposed to be gardeners there. If you've ever noticed, it wasn't
the cubicle of Eden that God grid, He knew where we belonged, right,
So gardening is the place where we ought to be doing and enjoying and
getting away. And there's so much research to support that too. So I
grow stuff in the back of my for nineteen eighty four pickup trug. It
has been to Texas. I grow plans that will take one hundred and six
degrees, they'll take nine degrees and according to Highway Patrol, that takes seventy
nine miles an hour, just to prove that anybody can garden. I mean
even growing fungus on some chilia back to the refrigerator. That's gardening. Oh
my gosh, that's good. Hey. By the way, for those of
you listening now, you're going to get to hell Herefelder several times, and
trust me, you will enjoy that. Mike Shute who used to own the
rosen expert on roses, Chris Weisinger when it comes to old Southern bulbs,
the ones you buy once and you get the dividends year after year, he's
the king of that. David Byrne is breeding trying to work on roses that
are resistant to one of the diseases that is an absolute you know, game
ender for roses, and that's rose roset virus. This is going to be
full of great opportunities to learn. But remember this that the farm to table
dinner Helder was talking about, that's on Friday night. But there if you
don't get your tickets this weekend, I think they may go until Monday night
before that closes. But don't delay because this is limited quantities. Antique Roseemporium
dot com or give them a call. Ninety seven nine eight three six fifty
five forty eight. Hey, Skip, I know you got callers on the
line and got some other stuff, so I'm gonna get av you way.
But I'm saying that my job is to knit these plants and processes and the
people into a tapestry that we're all part of. I think is an important
thing. So look forward to being an anti grosing porum. Skip. Thank
you for having me on garden line. And meanwhile, you get busy.
Your your job this morning is to help keep Texans getting dirty. That's that,
says ZS. Felder likes to put. Hey, and by the way,
one of these days, when you come to Texas and are speaking,
I'm not going to be pre committed somewhere else. I'm gonna come see you.
Oh man, we're gonna whoop it whooping it up as we say.
All right, thank you, Skip, I appreciate you all. Everybody.
Oh it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much. Felder. I appreciate
that you take care. Yeah that trust me. You if you've never heard
that guy before, oh my will be you'll be inspired. You absolutely will
be inspired, that's for sure. You know the nitroposs three step that's the
one two three. That's the fall special fertilizer. That is the pre emergent
to prevent weeds which are about they're actually starting to germinate and with this cool
weather we have come and they will be Germany the cool season weeds. It
prevents them. The third step is the eagle to our fungicide. For Lonza
had been plagued by a large patch or used to be called brown patch.
That's what everybody still knows it by. It helps prevent that disease. And
that's that disease. You've got to get ahead of it because once the circles
appear, it's too late. Nitroposs three step takes care of each of those
steps and it is time to get that fall fertilizer on the lower nitrogen levels,
the good potassium levels that make your lawn come out of go into winter
better, survive hard winter through greater heartiness, and then come out in the
spring and do better as a result. You can find it at Warren Southern
Gardens in Kingwood, Ace Hardware and Sinco Ranch. Even the Girls outlet up
there and Willis has the Nitroposs three step. It is as simple as that,
real easy, easy, to do. I've been talking about fall is
a time to plant. You got to get these plants in the ground.
This is the time. It's the most important time. And just remember this.
When you get a woody ornamental, whether it's a tree, whether it
is a shrub, a woody vine, you need to have a tree hugger
sprinkler on hand. Just consider it one of the tools in the shop there
with your spade and fork and the hoe and all the other tools you have.
Put a tree hugger sprinkler on the wall because anytime you plant a woody
ornamental, you're going to want that, and especially those that going into next
summer that have less than five years on them getting established, you definitely are
going to have the tree hugger because it waters the tree itself, the whole
area beneath the branch spread very very well. There's seven inch, eleven inch,
fifteen inch versions. Just go to tree Hugger sprinkler dot com and you
can find where to get them. And by the way, they're available,
widely available, all kinds of places. Well, there we go, another
hour in the books. Just another reminder. Eleven thirty two day after the
show, I'm heading to Southwest Fertilizer to corner Abyssinet and Runwick. I'll be
there from eleven thirty to one thirty. We'll be doing a drawing at the
end of that time. You don't have to be present to win for a
Toro battery blower and a Toro battery string trimmer that Bob has put together.
As prizes. I'll be giving away SKIP certificates worth ten dollars off purchases made
today. So you come see me, Come to the table, ask a
question, you get a ten dollars certificate, and believe me, there's only
ten thousand things in that place that you're gonna find that you need. Because
if if Sethwist Fertilizer doesn't have it, you don't need it. That's as
simple as that. We're gonna have some fun popcorn, cold drinks, Halloween
treats, ladinas, putting some old sample bags together. It's gonna be a
good time. Make plans. Come on out and see me. KTRH Garden
Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program.
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Scamp Richt. It's so trim. Just
watch him as welcome to garden Line. We're glad you're back. We're glad
to be here. Our phone number seven one three two one two kt r
H if you'd like to give us a call. It is always a good
opportunity to get to talk to gardeners. I love that, my favorite thing
to do, so that's why we're here. That's why we're doing it.
Listen, if you are interested in fertilizing your lawn, which you should be
if you've not fertilized it yet, this is a month you need to do
it, the most important fertilization of the year. Now, Nitrophus is put
together their Texas three Step Now that is a as the name implies, is
three steps. First, is a fertilizer Nitropus Fall Special designed for our soils,
designed for fall application to our turf. Here, it's got what you
need to make the lawn strong going into winter, which means it's strong coming
out of winter. The growth in the spring is based on the stored reserves
and your grass plant, your lawn plant, so when you strengthen it,
it just comes out stronger in the spring. And boy do our lawns ever
need some strengthening right now after this summer. Second step is a barricade that's
a pre emergent that prevents grassy and broad leaf weeds. You put it down,
and this is important. Watered in with about a half inch of irrigation
or rainfall would work too. It moves it to the surface so it can
form a barricade that when a weed seed tries to come through it, it
never sees the light a day shuts it down right. Then third step Nitrofoss
Eagle turf fungicide. This fungicide is a systomach. It soaks into the tissue
so when large patch or brown patch shows up, when take all root rot,
which will begin to become a problem when we consistently are having our knights
down around fifty five degrees, that's when Takeoll also likes to infect. It
helps prevent that as well. Texas three step from Nitrofoss is available at Worn
Southern Gardens out in Kingwood, at the Grower's Outlet up in Willis, at
Ace Hardware, at Sinco Ranch. You can find it at Katie Hardware RCW
and the Arbor Gate in Tombol. Many places carry a night of Foss.
Texas three step. We're going to go to the phones now and we're going
to head up to Fred in Cyprus. Hello Fred, good morning, Thank
you for taking a call. Yes, sir, the subject came up when
I turned the ratio on. It was the fire ans. Yes, I
started thinking. When I worked at Ace Hardware many years ago, the question
was raspberries or fire ants. Ah, there is, Yes, there is,
that's sure. But boy there I won't take debate and they don't will
take abate. Yeah that's true. But the raspberry fire ants they don't crawl
halfway up your pants leg and all at once started to bite. They may
crawl all the way over your body in real fast form, but yeah,
they don't bite. No, they don't. I can live with creepy crawley.
But I was in Louisiana one time in a peach orchard working on my
master's degree printing some peach trees are actually thinning peach trees, and I swear
these fireants got together and they were almost up to my waist when they all
together said now, and let's just say that. The pants did not stay
on, and modesty kind of went out the door because I was under severe
attack. I went to work one morning and having to walk into the line
of the back indoors. Yes, the floor was moving, those billions of
these things. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. All right, hey,
well, thank you. I appreciate. I appreciate that. Call Fred,
appreciate thank you. Yeah, you take care. Bye bye. We're
going to go now to Jersey Village and talk to Clara. Hello, Clara,
are you there? All right, I'm gonna put Clara back. It
would help, It would help if I actually made it where you could talk
to me. Welcome Clara, Good morning, Skip, and thank you for
following in Randy's footsteps and help thumbs green. All right, I have become
smitten by border lilies. Uh huh So what I'm wondering if it's if they're
good for this area and putting down the bulbs and do they stay down?
What? What wisdom can you share with me about border lily? Where did
you? Where did you? Did you grow them before? Someplace? No?
I you know I got the famous bait of a catalog. Okay,
all right, all right, well, uh so the border lilies. I
have not grown that plant before. That is a that is a new one.
As far as growing them, I know that you there are different types.
There's the the oriental lilies, the asiatic lilies that are pretty common.
As far as how well they naturalize, since I haven't grown them, I
don't know, and I don't see them a lot on the on the lists
of plants that we recommend when it comes to bulbs, so I would think
that they're definitely gonna do good for a while for you. Again, as
far as really naturalizing and sticking around, I think it probably is also going
to come down to what varieties you choose. And I've seen some beautiful border
lilies around here, and boy do they ever put on a show with those
tall stalks and just gorgeous multi pedal flowers. But as far as the varieties
that stick around best, I just don't know off the top of my head.
Okay, well, I think I'm just gonna have to jump in and
give it a whirl. Yeah you should. You know, it's always a
good time to try things out. And I found too that plants can't read,
and so it may say that they don't grow here or they do grow
here, that doesn't mean it's true. You may get lucky on that.
So all right, well, thank you for giving us a call. I
appreciate that very much. Thanks you, bet hey. In Chenni Gardens out
in Richmond, I was out there just a couple of weeks ago. The
place is it's a showplace. I mean, it's outstanding. It's on the
Katie Foster side. So if you're in Richmond, you head up toward Katie
right where you get to FM three point fifty nine sixty four twenty three fifty
nine to be specific, is in Chenni Gardens and when you arrive you'll know
it. And it is a wonderful spread. They're open Saturday from eight am
until five pm, Monday through Saturday, and on Sundays ten am to four
pm. Every kind of fertilizer we recommend, they've got it. When we
talk about soil products, by the bag, they've got it. Anything you
would want to plant right now, fall vegetables, fall flowers, getting the
shrubs and trees and perennials in. I keep saying it's time to do that.
They have the selection there at Chandit Garden. In fact, when I
was out there the day, I even noticed that they had a veggo garden
beds as well. So just another reason to swing by in Chenned Gardens,
the web site is Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Okay, we are hitting
up on a break, so I'm gonna have to hang on here to come
back to the next calls. Butch and Jeff and Joel you'll be first up
when we come back. Our phone number seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. Well, welcome back to garden Line. We are ready
to roll here, got some calls on the board. I just want to
mention Dee, if you are dealing with any kind of pests in your house
and you know how that goes. I mean, maybe you got you know,
cockroaches running around the place, or pantry pests. Maybe you've got mosquitoes
outside, maybe you know anything in the lawn firing. We're talking about fire
ants today. McGrath Pest Control can take care of it. I mean McGrath's
been around since what almost fifty years now, started by Scott's dad. Still
family run covers any kind of pest problem you have. I don't care if
it's got six legs, eight legs, four legs, like a road and
control you know, rak UNEs and stuff like that. They'll cover it.
They don't require you to sign a contract. They show up on time.
They schedule a time. Isn't that nice for a service company, not just
to make you block your whole day waiting on when they might show up.
Highly rated McGrath Pest Control because they take care of their customers. The owner
still involved in the day to day operations and is accessible and they cover the
whole Houston area. With McGrath, it's modern technology and techniques with old fashioned
customer service. Mechgrafpesscontrol dot com. That's the website, or if you'd like
to give Scott a call two eight one four six' nine eighty two forty
two eight one four six' nine eighty two forty we are going to head
out to let's see Butch in Channel View. Hello Butch, Hey, good
morning, Rick. How you doing good. I've got a problem. I've
got some I think side web worms up. Seeing the malls flying out of
the on what I've been mowing yet, I've done three applications the BT spread
out a week apart, and I'm still seeing them alls line up. Okay,
Now, the BT won't kill the moths, but what it will do
is if you have living caterpillars that are feeding on the grass, it'll kill
those when you're seeing the moths. But if you get down and look at
your grass, or you see in sections where it's like there's no grass blades,
just runners or anything like that, I hadn't seen anything like that.
I just thought the moth was an indication, and yes, I just went
with that. Yeah, moths are usually a sign that the caterpillars are coming,
and because they're laying the eggs, I would walk through the grass take
a closer look. But we are really late to be dealing with soidweb worms,
and I'm inclined to think that's not what they are. It may be,
but if you look around and you're not seeing grass that's been chewed on,
you get up close to a grass blade and you can see where they
just been chomped on from the sides. I wouldn't worry about them because we
should be out of their season right now. But if they're still there,
you know, it may be that another application is needed of the BT,
or you could switch over it. Since BT's organic, I assume you'd prefer
that you could switch over to spend No, said s P I N s
A D. But I would put about a ninety five percent chance that you're
not going to need to do that. Okay, I hand done with a
pump up prayer, so I'll do one more. Yeah, yeah, you
could do that, or you could put on a hose end too, and
that gets it not only on the grass, but a little bit goes down
in the thatch where those little boogers are hiding. Okay, all right,
so thank you, you bet, thanks for the call. I appreciate that
very much. You know, when whenever someone is looking for products, like
the Spino said, like the BT like you name it, if you need
it for your yard, Ace Hardware has it. Acehardware dot Com find the
store locator. There's thirty nine stores in the Greater Houston area and they carry
it all. They carry all the fertilizers that I talk out here on guardline
and when it comes to pests, disease and weed control, they have lots
of products. They are stocked up, they're accessible, they're easy to find.
They're in your neighborhood. Acehardware dot Com. While you're there, make
sure sign up for the ACE Rewards program. You can earn up money back
on your product on your purchases. I've done that before, you know,
you go there, you shop, they ring you up and it goes on
to your account and it adds up. And believe me, it is just
another great reason to go buy Ace hardware. We're going to go now out
to Jeff in Brink. Jeff, where is Brink? Do I have Jeff?
All right, We're want to put Jeff on hole. We'll come back
and try him again. Let's go to Joel in Fort ben County. Hello,
Joel, Hello, Skip, Yeah, I just I had fertilizer question,
but just a ataboy. I was a part superintendent and belonged to the
Texas Turf Grass Association, was a certified turf grass professional and in Galveston County
where I lived at that time for fifty three years. And I want to
say that I think that you and Randy worked with Nelson Clint Food and Texas
Turf Grass to develop some of our great fertilization schedules. And I use those
religiously and they are the greatest things on the face of the planet. To
all your viewers out there, use your fertilization schedule and you'll have a wonderful
lawn or wonderful turf grass. Well, I appreciate that those are kind words,
Joel. The other one was you were talking about fire ants stories.
Yes, in nineteen seventy five, me and the co workers FE were rebuilding
fence along Catalan and we got a lot of rain and it was about six
inches deep and it was cooling up. And I didn't know it back then,
but fire ants could float, Yes, they can. And I got
them just exactly like you did all the way up. And I was along
the Highway three in Galveston County on a tracker when they all decided to bite
me. Oh boy, and I had to pull over on the side of
the road and strip down. I had cars honking at me. Yep.
It was quite an experience. Yeah, it'll humble, you won't it.
Yeah, the way getting Oh but I don't know if you and Randy were
back in the mid eighties working with Nelson uh on their you know, fertilizers.
But I seem to recall that at least one or the other of you
were Yeah that that. I guess that would have been Randy at that time,
Uh, I was. I was still in finishing up grad school,
I guess, or or just finished grad school about that time. But yeah,
Dean has been. He he worked closely with TEXA, A and M
and designing his fertilizers for the turf and making sure that the blends, the
chemistries the you know, making sure things released, that the right schedule and
things is all done right. Of course, he does well with Texas turf
grass. You know, it was because we were such a wide group.
You know, there was West Texas and South Texas, Southeast Texas and North
Texas, and everybody had different kinds of grasses that they were dealing with.
Ye and Nelson called in some of us, uh you know, golf course
superintendents and park superintendents from the Houston Southeast Texas areas, and uh, you
know, we we compare saul types and deficiencies and whatnot. There. I
really I guess it was Randy. Yeah, this would have been in the
late eighties, but good time in my life. Yeah, that's true.
That is true. Hey, thank you, Joel. I appreciate that info.
Well, I appreciate all that you did. Well, thank you.
I appreciate that. Thanks a lot, very much. Yeah. I don't
talk about this when I talk about my schedule, but I just do want
to mention that when I put that thing together. It wasn't just like you
know, sticking a wet finger in the wind to see which way the wind's
blowing on what to do. A lot of time and effort went into this
based on research by the sol and Crop Sciences Department or the Turf Department,
the lawn pest weed Disease Management schedule, consulted entomologists, consulted weeds specialists,
gonerant looking at the sole temperatures in the Greater Houston area through the year,
because sole temperature affects weed germination. And so if you see something on my
pest Disease and weed management schedule and it's said at a certain time, it's
because that's when that happens. Here with historically based data, and we really
work hard, and I'll just tell you this. I will continue to update
them. There'll be little changes made over time as we learn more and we
get better and better at all these things. So thank you very much for
the kind words, and I appreciate that. Let's go back now to Jeff.
Jeff, are you there, hey, jere Is Brink No, this
is show in spring? Oh spring? Okay, gotcha? How can we
roll? Okay? So, last month I put the pre emergence and bag
of the eagle fungus side down. Now that things are getting even colder at
night, is it time to put a second bag down? Or or thirty
days ago we're still good for the season. And you said, which product
the eagle the eagle funder side that is going to last a while, You
shouldn't need it again a month later. It wouldn't hurt to put something down.
But if you've got it down and got it on the lawn at that
time, it should be still doing you some good. But like I said,
if you wanted to beef it up. With our mild temperatures, we
can have large brown patch attacking in November even December, depending on where you
are, and you know the temperatures that particular season. So it wouldn't hurt
to do a second application. But in general we don't generally worry about having
to do that. Okay, next question. The spring would be a different
thing, you know, But as far as this year, okay, every
year I try to throw at least one bag of microlife down on the yard,
thinking get some of those microbes into it, you know, instead of
using the other fertilizers. Right, is it best just to do one application
just straight all organic or like split the bag half have like nitropoles, half
microlife, and then the next application do it again, split it fifty,
go one way or the other. Don't. Yeah, you don't need to
do a split or anything like that. Just if you like microlife product,
do that. I probably you know you're talking about that fungdricide. When you're
looking at microbes and whatnot, different products can affect affect the health of those
and so I wouldn't I wouldn't combine those things together, you know, like
put the fund your sick down, then spray spray top over it, or
put the microlife down, spray the top over it. But either way you're
gonna you're gonna have good success that there's no need to mix them up.
Okay, all right, thank you, all right, thank you. I
appreciate your call very much. Yeah, the microlife products I like to uh
this time of the year is when I would do the Microlife brown patch,
which is a five to one three. It's a good one for fall.
Got a lot of microbes in the product. And then I like to combine
the Microlife bioinoculant. Really you can use that anytime of the year. But
it's just an inoculant. It's not the fertilizer, but it's adding a bazillion
different kinds of beneficial microbes to the soil and then they splash up on the
surface of the grass plant and are helping outcompete problems that might be there on
the grass. Now, the Microlife brown patch five to one three, that's
an orange bag. The Microlife bio inoculant is a violent colored bag. And
just go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com. You'll find out more about those and
you'll find out where you can get them, and they are widely available here
in the Greater Houston area. We're going to take a break. It's time
for the Nicky News Network. If you want to get on the boards with
Josh seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to
Gardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are having a blast
today talking about all kinds of things gardening. Our phone number is seven one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. If you have been thinking about getting a generator, now's
the time. To do it. And it's not just getting a quality generator,
as important as that is. I mean, Generak is a super quality
generator, but it's where do you buy it? Where do you buy it?
And that makes a difference because like any product, you got to have
service after the sale. But all Right gives you service before and after the
sale. Generak works with you to choose the generator that fits what you need.
They're not going to say you more generator than you need. They are
going to do all the steps involved in getting it done. I mean from
pouring a slab to put it on out there, to getting all the arrangements
done with a HOA or the city Electrical, all that kind of stuff they
take care of that, they walk with you through that. They've got twenty
four to seven three sixty five customer service. That's why they win the Better
Business Bureau Pinnacle Award more times than really anybody can imagine. And I used
to say it was seven times. I just found out they want it again
eight times. The most prestigious customer service award the Better Business Bureau offers.
They just take it home all the time. Seventy seven thousand plus established customers
satisfied fourteen thousand plus five star ratings. They engineer it, they install it,
they monitor it, they take care of it, they make sure it
continues to work right. They come out more than once a year check on
your generator because when the power goes out and you're not at home, especially,
you need something that's going to come on and it's going to back up
your entire home or just some more essential items that you want. And why
do I say now, because late fall and winter is a slower time when
it comes to generate the generator world. And to call in now, you
get it done, you get it faster. It's kind of like, you
know, five o'clock in Houston, everybody's going home. And yes, you
can get on the roads and deal with traffic. It takes forever to get
where you're going, or you can go in there in traffic on the road.
That's kind of what I'm talking about. Now's an excellent time if you've
been even thinking about it, give them a call start that process. It'd
be a great gift for the whole family really to add that to your home
for protection because the many storm seasons we have are an issue. But hey,
with our grid, you don't know when power is going to go out,
and you need to know that you're going to have everything you need to
keep the air conditioner running, to keep the heater running, and to make
sure you protect all that food in the freezer. For example, Quality Home
Products not just a place to buy generators, but the place QUALITYTX dot com,
QUALITYTX dot com, or give them a call seven to one three quality.
Well, we got a board full of folks here. Let's get moving.
We are going to go to Missouri City and talk to Ruben. Hello,
Ruben, good morning, Good morning. I've got I've got six gardens
of race bedguards each on sixty square sheet us some per light to add to
it. What is a spread rate? No one seems to know. Is
it a clay soil? Well morever the years I've developed, but it's not
very arable, so I just want to keep some per light in there.
Okay, Well, there's not a particular rate. You know, I would
probably mix two inches of it two inches of it down, But we have
a lot of other things we can do for clay. That expanded shale is
probably the best overall product in the world for helping your clay, and you
would need about three inches of that to do good. Anytime you add good
quality organic compost, you're going to be benefiting that clay as well. Okay.
And also I have the Maringa trees, three of them growing like a
triangle, and they're kind of tall, about ten foot tall and lanky.
Well, I damage them if I top of them all No, no,
no, you can cut them off. They'll reach sprout, but I wouldn't
do that. Now, that's a tropical type tree. They will come back
here they survive most of the time, or die back near the ground.
If we have a bad winner, I would wait until spring growth begins to
do that topping. If you're going to do the top. Okay, and
final question, I've got some basil that is developing a lot of black spots
on it, and I just maybe you are covered this, but what can
I do? So what you do is nothing. Right now, basil is
going to be going out with the first frost that we have. I've got
some on mind, and you don't want to be spraying a funge a side
or back to your side all over your basil that you're gonna eat. I
would just ignore it. And that's what I'm doing. Right now. Okay,
Rubin, I appreciate that. I appreciate your call. We're going to
keep rolling here. We've got a lot of folks hanging on. We're gonna
move to Katie now and talk to Greg. Hello, Greg, Hello,
Skip, Good morning morning. We have tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage. With
it getting down into the thirties this week, is there anything we need to
do to protect them? Well, if you if you can put a cover
over them and keep it pretty darn warm under there, you know, in
the fifties, preferably, you can keep going on the tomatoes, I would
seriously consider if it's going to drop down in the mid thirties, even I'd
seriously consider just going ahead and harvesting the biggest ones. We'll ripen indoors on
the counter. But otherwise, if you can provide heat underneath the cover,
prevent the wind from blowing up under there, you can get them through.
But with the way our weather's going, as we cool off, ripening just
slows down to a crawl. And even if it got you another week or
two, it's probably not going to make a whole lot of difference. Okay,
how about broccoli and cabbage. Broccoli and cabbage or plenty cold hardy for
the thirties. Yeah, even down to freezing, they're fine. If you
get in the up mid upper twenties, then you got to do something for
the brocc leaf. It's got heads on it. Okay, appreciate it.
Thank you, you bet, thank you for the call. I appreciate that.
Let's see, we're going to go now to Austin County and talk to
Doris. Hello, Doris, Hello there. How are you? I'm well,
how are you fine? What's that question? I don't know? Okay,
go ahead, Okay. Is it okay to put fertilizer down today with
all the rain we had? That's fine perfectly, Okay. You just want
to get a little water on the fertilizer so it dissolves and moves on down
into the ground. Okay. They know if we were to go a week
or so without rain, it would just be sitting there like a granule,
not dissolving away. Right, Okay, I didn't hurt If it gets stuck,
well, the water will wash it off when I water it in on
you, Yeah, well we'd wash washes it off. Just just sweep your
driveways and you know, sidewalks, anything like that. Just to get the
fertilizer back into your grass. Or you can use a blower to do the
same thing if you don't okay, if some gets over on those hard escapes,
because that just runs off into storm water and that doesn't do us any
good. Okay, thank you so much. You have a good day,
all right, Thank you very much, Dorius. I appreciate that we are
going to have to take a break here our phone number seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. When we come back, Gene, you'll
be my first stop. Welcome back to Guardenline. We're in our final segment
of the morning. I just want to mention that if you went through this
summer in Houston and you have a clay soil, we had a heck of
a time of it. Because what happens is when it gets so so dry,
the soil shrinks. That's where we get the big cracks in the soil,
big enough to lose a two year old in the backyard. And then
it rains and the soil swells and it gets big, and that movement is
very hard on foundations. It's very hard on driveways and sidewalks. Fix my
slab foundation repair that's what they're about. Ty Strickland has been doing this for
twenty three years. You can go to fix myslab dot com to find out
more information, or you can give them a call two eight one two five
five forty nine forty nine. They are on time. They tell you when
they're going to show up, and they show up on time. They fix
it right, and they're fair priced. And what more can you ask for
than that. If you see cracks in the brick outside, you see cracks
in the sheet rock, don't allow. It doesn't get any better, it
just gets worse. Go ahead and call fix my Slab Foundation Repair and have
them come out take a look at it. And when they do it,
they do it right. We're going to head out now to talk to Gene.
Hello, Gene Hello. I'm trying to find that when the per simmons
are gonna be right. Okay. There are two kinds, two groups of
per simmons. One is the kind that's non astringent. They don't make your
mouth pucker when they're not fully ripe. The other kind is a stringent that
they've got to get really soft and go through some cold weather even to break
down that astringency. Those it's going to take longer. We got to get
further into the fall and cool off to do that. There are stringent types.
Once they turn pretty orange, you can go ahead and eat them,
even almost crunchy level. They're okay, But it depends on which kind you
have. So the non astringents would you could eat them a little earlier.
These are pretty orange. But when I was a kid, that lady cross
Street had one, and she always told me that we had to wait till
the first fast was over. Yeah, that's true. But some people will
pick them and they'll put them in the freezer, let them get cold,
and then they'll bring them out and they'll do that two or three times,
and they'll kind of cheat on it and get ahead of it that way.
Okay, I'll try at least because they're pretty orange. Okay, so I'll
pick one and try it and see if it worked. Do you know what
variety you have? No? I sure don't. Okay, they just pretty
orange out there. Now. Well, if they're a stringent, you will
definitely know it. They will get your attention, but I would you know,
it doesn't hurt to leave them longer, So it's not like they're going
to go bad or anything like some fruit would just leave them a little longer
if you don't want to lose one, you know, for no good reason.
All right, okay, thank you very much, Thank you, Jean.
I appreciate that call. If all us for planting. We keep saying
it over and over again. And what comes first? Green or brown?
Brown? If you've been listening to garden line, what is brown? It's
the soil, it's the compost. It's taking care of the foundation that that
plant is going to grow in. And that's what Nature's Way Resources is all
about, and that's what they've been all about. John Ferguson is a long
term leader in the soil business here in the Greater Houston era. He knows
how to make composts, he knows how to take his time, he knows
how to make it right, and he and his son Ian at Nature's Way
Resources can get you set up with a quality rose soil with a leaf mole
compost. They sell stuff by the bags, they sell stuff by the bulk
they deliver, and by the way, fungal Friday is any kind of a
fungal based compost, they're going to have ten percent off the bag product and
twenty percent off the bulk product on Fridays, ongoing on Fridays until they tell
me it's over. That is a deal you don't want to miss out on
because that is a super quality product. They also have a quality selection of
native plants in their garden nursery out there. Every time I go out there,
I'm surprised at how it's expanded and how they just have more and more,
and often I'll see something and it's like, Oh, I didn't know
you could buy that here locally. They got it out there at Nature's Way
Resources. They're on Highway forty five as you go north toward Conroe. They'll
be on the right hand side, right where fourteen eighty eight comes into forty
five. Just cross over the railroad tracks and you're there nine three six three
two one sixty nine ninety nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety for
Nature's Way Resources. You've been listening to guard Line today and we've been talking
about all kinds of things, talking about vegetables, talk about fruit, talked
about lawns, talk about soil. I just keep you know, telling people
October is the important time to take care of your lawn. It's the time
to get the fall fertilization. Now it's the time to get the uh any
kind of a disease issues that you're going to be dealing with. If you've
got a long plague by brown patch, how do we deal with that?
Well? Number one, Culturally, we need to get that lawn in a
healthier state. We need to avoid late applications of high amounts of nitrogen.
A little bit is needed and a good quality fall fertilizer, but not excessive
amounts of nitrogen. So a fertilizer like Nelson's carbo load. Why don't they
call it carbo load? Here's why. It's got the nutrients that the plants
need, primarily the potassium with a little bit of nitrogen to go into the
plants, so they are strengthened. The sunlight hits the grass and carbohydrates are
produced. That's where carbo load comes from. What a carbohydrates do? They
make it more cold hardy, and with a potassium they make it more disease
or drought resilient as well. And with carbo load you also have a pre
emergent in there, so don't delay winter. Weeds are going to be germinating.
We're about to get some cool weather, and when that temperature drops down,
all of those cool and weeds, the ones you fuss about in the
spring when they really are big and a problem and by the way, already
blooming and going to seed, and it's too late to do anything about them.
Well, why not deal with it now with carbo load. You get
the fertilizer down there, and you get a pro emergent weed control product.
Just apply it and go ahead and watered in in. Don't wait for a
rain that may come a week later. God, and watered in about a
half inch of water, and it does what it's supposed to do. It
goes to work. Hey, Nelson's been doing this since well it's been forty
years now. October fourteenth was a fortieth year anniversary of the kind of quality
products. And we were talking about this earlier on the show, that Dean
Nelson has been putting together making sure that his research based information on how they
design the fertilizers, the nutrient ratios like this carbo load, for example,
and that's exactly what they then create that you can then benefit from if you
have any kind of plants here. You know, Carboload's part of the turf
Star line, but they got the Color Star line, got the nutri Star
line. Nelson Plant Food had just kept adding to their lines all the time.
I mean they have a Nature Star line of organic fertilizers from Nelson Plant
Food. It's just a it's a good series of products that works very very
well. So if you're going to get any kind of thing done on the
lawn, now's the time to do it. This is the big important time
where we get ahead of the problems and we don't wait and then react to
the problems. You get so much more accomplished when you do things in a
timely way. And now's the time. Go online gardening with skip dot com.
That's my website. The lawn care schedules there, the lawn Pest Disease
and we'd management guide is there. Both of them give you both the synthetic
and the organic options for getting the most out of your lawn care. Everybody
wants a big, dense, beautiful lawn. It's got to be cared for
in a quality way with quality products, and that's how we achieve that.
You know, we're running, we're running close to the end here. But
just one other thing that I wanted to add is if you got any house
plants outside, you need to get those things moved in before we have the
cold weather. A lot of our houseplants spend their summers outside on a shady
porch where they got a lot of light. If you got things like ficus,
you want to move them in gradually. Don't just all of a sudden
one day there and lots of light, and the next day there and almost
no light somewhere inside. Try to do that gradually. Check them over for
insects and problems. If you've got spider micce or avids or scale or anything,
deal with it before you bring them in, because once they come inside,
you don't need to be spraying stuff all inside on them. Take good
care of them, get them ready to go, get them inside. And
if you don't have houseplants, now'd be a great time to go pick them
up. Our garden centers have a lot of good options out there for houseplants.
There are so many good new ones. If you're a beginner and you
want something you can't thank ill mother in lost tongue Sensavaria our zz plant,
yep, that's right, two z's z Z plant. Those are good and
tough plants. High light low light, getting a little dryn't it's not the
end of the world. They can handle that and they get going again.
Those are the two. If you can't grow those two, I can't help
you. If you have a lower light area, but you want some colorful
plant in it, I would get the Chinese evergreen Agleonema comes in the standard
green and green, silver splotchy types comes in kind that have kind of a
reddish pink coral colors and everything. I've got two of those, and I
just love them because it brings color to the indoors and it puts up with
a little less light. There's a lot of tips there. As you're out
and about shopping today. Speaking of out and about today, I'm about to
jump in a car and head to Southwest Fertilizer in the corner of Bi Sinet
and Runway. I'll be there from eleven thirty to one thirty. Come on
out. I don't care if you have to drive across town. Come on
over and see me. I'm to be giving away ten dollars skip Bucks for
purchases made there at the store today. By the way, when you're there,
you need to check out that folding bench. I keep talking about that,
Bob has. You can use your ten dollars on that if you want.
You just have to use your ten dollars today. You come to the
table, you ask me a question, You get a ten bucks Skip certificate.
Sign up because at the end of the day you don't have to be
present to win, but get signed up for a Toro battery blower and a
Toro battery string tremor. Those are big deal gifts to draw for. Medina's
gonna have bags of their samples there. We're gonna have popcorn, cool drinks,
Halloween treats. Come on buy. We have a good time. Hope
to see you there.