Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised
on this program. Welcome to ktr H Garden Line with Skip Rictord, So
smell a trip. Just watch him as who so many a sun be.
Good morning, Good morning on a good Saturday morning. It's dark outside.
If you look next door and you see the neighbors lights are off, go
ahead and bang on the door and tell them they're missing garden Line. They
will rise up and call you blessed. Maybe not today, but someday after
they listened for a while though you saved my yard. Oh well, that's
a little overselling, isn't it. Oh my guys, you're listening to garden
Line. I'm your host, Skip Ricter, and our phone number is seven
one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. You know, if you have not done summer fertilizing
yet, you need to get that done. And we have this long hot
summer season. By the way, we're going to some rain this week according
to the weather. I'll talk about that a little bit more later, but
that's good news to know. But anyway, you need to get that fertilizer
put down to carry your lawn all the way through into fall. And that's
why in the summertime we shift over to slow releasing fertilizers. There's a lot
of different ways that that's accomplished. The organic fertilizers microbi league decomposed and that
takes a little while to do. They over time are going to release our
new and if there are different kinds of technologies for synthetic fertilizers where they release
gradually over time, that's what you're looking for, because here's what you don't
want. You don't want to put on a bunch of fertilizer and then have
a lot of growth that you're momo mowing trying to keep ahead of. And
in that excessive amount of nitrogen pushed growth, you end up with a shallower
roots system, so less of a resilient plant. You end up with a
grass plant that's more interesting to ginge bugs. Different types of diseases, gray
leaf spot being one of them. In the summer, large patch used to
be called brown patch. In the fall, that is all a no no,
we don't want that. So we put a slow release on and it
gradually feeds it over time. Which makes sense. That's how all organisms typically
are going to eat, including ourselves. You don't need a month supply of
food and then not eat for twenty nine days, right at least the hope
not well. That is the kind of fertilizer that Nitrofoss has produced. When
they have their nice beautiful silver bag, that makes it real easy to see
it and know what we're talking about. Pick it out. I can just
say silverbag, but it's nitrofoss is superturf. That's a nineteen four ten,
nineteen four ten silverbag. Nitrofoss superturf is the kind of fertilizer it's going to
release like that. That's what we're looking for. And where do you find
Nitrofoss will pretty much everywhere. If you go to an ACE hardware store,
you're going to find nitrofoss. If you go to the garden center, as
we talk about here, places like plants for all seasons, for example,
our CW Nursery, the arbor Gate, all of those garden centers, among
others, are places you're going to find nitrofoss. Down at the Enchant,
it's down in Richmond Rosenberg. It's easy to find Nitch Fuss products, and
just know that you want to follow the label carefully, put on the right
amount, like for the nineteen four ten, I would put on about five
pounds per thousand square feet and that will get you right in the ballpark of
what you're looking to be able to do. We are just looking at some
different things going on. This week. It is going to rain, and
my recommendation would be if you're fertilizing, wait until you know we're getting close
to the rain and then put the fertilizer down. And that way, when
you put it down, it'll get washed down. Now, if we feel
like it's going to be a gully washer, we'll get three inches or something.
Well, it'd be better or not to do it. But with another
reason a slow release is good is unless it just literally through erosion washes the
fertilizer off the yard, it's going to be okay because it's not gonna be
immediate release. Immediate releases or think of something like sugar or table salt.
You put them out there, you get them with they dissolve. All the
nutrients are right there, and so you can lose your nutrients in those through
a gully washer. Not so much with a slow release. I would just
watch the weather and if it's going to be an inch of rain, that's
okay, go ahead and go ahead and get that down that way. You
don't have to turn on the water. It'll just take care of it for
you. Well, let's head out to a league city and we are going
to visit with John V. This morning. Well, good morning, good
morning, Good morning, Skiven garden Line. My question this morning is on
the difference between the jasmine and the gardenia. And it's an edible flower and
is it under the same species. Wow, well it's not the same species.
You threw me with the edible. I have never you know, I
would lean away from it being edible just because I haven't heard that it is.
But it may it could be. I have to look into that.
The jasmine being a vine and beautiful fragrant flowers, and then the gardenia being
a shrub with beautiful fragrant flowers. You know, it certainly would would seem
like a wonderful thing. I don't know though, what it would taste like
to eat. Perfume that might even if you even if it was not poisonous
or whatever, that would be kind of an interesting I don't know. I
love the smell. I don't know if i'd love to eat it, but
yes, well I'm a gourmet chef. I wanted to decorate my cakes,
cupcakes and cookie with it, so so you can decorate it. They say
that you cannot eat this and I can take it off. Yeah, well,
yeah, I know that's that's an idea. I could look at it.
I'll try to if I get a chance. He can calls and stuff,
just check on it and see. I just have never heard of them.
I know you can put daylily flowers on there. You can put pansies
and violas on there. There's uh, let's see Calendula's nastartiums. Just trying
to think of there's a lot of good edible flowers out there that who would
be nice decorating. But yeah, that's a good question. Okay, thank
you so much. I'll have a wonderful Saturday. Goodbye. I appreciate that.
Thank you very much. You know it's it's always interesting. I can
get questions after how many years now, I guess I've been doing this about
forty almost forty years of answering questions. That's one I haven't heard before.
I haven't heard that how much that out though? As we get going here
this morning, well, really good news that we're getting a little bit of
a break in the temperatures finally this week, I think tomorrow, and as
we get into the week, it's just going to get down in the mid
nineties. Which isn't it funny that we're happy with the mid nineties. Well,
I guess when you've been in a hundred degrees with no rain, it's
it's you're happy with a lot of things. But yeah, it's going to
drop down even a little below that according to the weather reports. So if
you are water in your yard, this would be a time to, you
know, kind of think about, Okay, no, wait a minute,
do I really need to water today? Because watch the weather reports and if
we're like two or three days out from getting some water, I think I'd
hold off unless the grass is just absolutely wilted and suffering. But we overwater
our lawns here. We do. We do, we do, and I
wish we wouldn't, but we do. I lived in Cyprus for a number
of years and my neighbor water to yard every other day. Um, and
you know the spring I joke about this, but the sprinkler heads were so
misaligned that they sprayed my car. Well, I'm gonna talk a little bit
about watering the yard when we come back here from break. If you'd like
to get on the air with me, I'd love to talk to you.
The number seven one three two one two five eight seven four day Sunshine,
goodbye. Range. Just turned my school ring on a Chaine. She's my
steady her man, all right. I just said to let that one play
a little bit longer. Oh, that is a blast from the past.
Hey, you're listening to garden Line. Our phone number is seven one three
two one two five eight seven for I was talking before we went to break
about you know, proper watering and if it's going to rain in the next
few days, well you don't need to water now, I mean, think
about this. You spend money on drinking water, you soak your soil with
it, and then the next day it rains. Well, well, the
rain, which is the best water of all. You know, you just
kind of didn't take advantage of that great water. You already soaked the soil.
So why do that. Well, there's an app called water my Yard,
and water my Yard app helps you conserve water. By the way,
it's free, absolutely free. You can go to water my yard dot org
rg water my yard dot org, or you can go to the Apple app
Store, Google Play and get it here. I have it on my phone,
and here's what happens. I give my address, here's where I live,
and they find a weather station near my house, near your house,
and that weather station measures the temperature, the humidity, the solar radiation.
You know, is it a catty day or sunny day, the wind speed,
et cetera, et cetera, and it crunches them all together with scientific
data on what they know turf uses under whatever conditions that week provided, and
they'll send you an email. I got one the other day. I said,
you need a point four or five inches of water on your lawn.
That's how much your lawn has used this past week. And you can't get
more scientific and specific than that. And for example, if it rains this
week and next week, you may think, well I need to rain.
Well, we needed water once a week. That's about enough, maybe twice
a week in some situations, but in general, and so it would it
would tell you, hey, you got this amount of rain near your house
and so you don't need to you don't need to water, so they just
I think it's a great thing. Watermyard dot org. I'm going to have
Guy Phips from the water my yard dot org group. He's an extension engineer
or agrilife engineer at Texas and M He's going to come in talk about how
this all works and the whole system, the statewide in the science based watering
recommendations that we get to enjoy for free. Let's head up to Willis now
and we're gonna talk to Stephen. Good morning, Stephen, Good morning.
Skip. First of all, I knocked on my neighbor's door and telling me
you're on and I've never heard them. I've never heard them talk to me
like that before. Yeah, well, you know it takes it takes a
while for them to appreciate the gift that you gave them by going over there,
you know, So I would, I would, I would keep an
eye on my trees for toilet paper and other things like that for a little
while. Um. I use in Nelson plant foods, you know, high
biscuits, color star and so forth. Now are those all organic? And
my question is is it too hot to feed them now? Am I going
to do any burning or anything if I feed them? That's good questions.
Nelson's has an organic line. The color Star are in general is not an
organic line. But look look at the fertilizer you buy because they have the
color Star, Nature Star, the Turf Star. They've got a number of
lines, including their organic line, and it will tell you on the bag
if this is a slow release or not. And if it's a slow release,
you don't worry about it. You put it down and it gradually releases.
If it's not, you just do it in small amounts. You know,
don't overdo it. But like if you put three months a fertilizer down
at one time. Being salt based, I mean, I use salt and
sugar as an analogy, but that's a good one because that's essentially what's happening.
It dissolves and you get that fertilizer salts to the roots of the plant.
And we think a salt is like a bad thing, but in and
of itself, it's not there. They're a number of Even in nature,
you have sometimes combinations that would technically chemically be called a salt. But the
fertilizer you put down, if you do it moderately is going to be just
fine. And we don't quit fertilizing just because it's hot. Okay, I
just didn't want to burn them up. That's good information. Thank you very
much. You bet and enjoy those plants, and good luck with the neighbors.
Thank you. Let's take care bye bye, hey. We got to
have a little bit of fun here, right at least, that's what I
think. You know, if you if you have not been out to Warrens
Garden Center out in Kingwood, that is a place you gotta go. I
keep saying this to the folks out all around Kingwood. You know, Valley
Ranch, New Caney, Atasca, Seeda, Porter or Humble, all those
areas. You are rich Wood Garden centers. You've got Warrens Garden Center,
and you've got Kingwood Garden Center. Warrens is on North Park, Kingwood's on
Stone Hollow. Excellent selection of products. Just everything you would need from soils
to plants, products to deal with pests and things are all available there.
It's a wonderful place to go through. And you know, just because it's
hot in summer doesn't mean that they're not some great plants to put out.
There in the garden and the landscape. You know hibiscus for example, the
red bird of Paradise. Oh my gosh, it is never happier than when
it's hot and humid like it is now, and that plant would take off
grow and instead of your landscape being green, your landscape becomes beautiful. Now.
Out at Warren's Garden Center and Nelson or Nelson at Kingwood, you're going
to be able to fill your Nelson's and Microlife jugs. They have that little
filling station where instead of buying a new plastic jug and putting more plastic in
the environment, you just pull the handle. I like some grocery stores.
You know you're buying peanuts or different things, you can fill a little container
with them. That's exactly the same thing. So in addition to all of
the other things they offer, you're going to be able to find that all
the products we talk about, the fertilizers and things we talk about, beautiful
combo containers. They really excel at combo containers out at Warren's Garden Center out
there in North Park Drive in Kingwood. I always love it when I get
to go out there. You are listening to garden Line and our phone number
is seven one three two one two five eight seven four. If you would
like to get on the air, I would be happy to visit with you
about any kind of thing that is of interest to you. When it comes
to gardening. With this break in the weather that we have coming, that's
kind of a chance to get out and do a little bit more. But
in the meantime and really on through summer, I encourage you to take extra
care. I posted something to Facebook, our garden Line Facebook page the other
day about being careful in the heat of summer and what is the difference between
heat exhaustion and heat stroke and what are the signs of those? And there
was a time in my life when I was young and invincible. Can any
of you relate to that? You just kind of did what you thought you
wanted to do and figured that your body could take it and keep going right.
Well, I learned one day I didn't have heat stroke, but I
did experience a moderate heat exhaustion and it scared me. And it should have
scared me, it should scare you. It's not something to mess around with.
And there are signs that we can watch for, and as we get
older, we find that we already know our limits pretty well and we're a
little more careful. But even at that, I would just encourage you.
We want to keep you around. And gardening is a fun hobbying. You
don't have to overdo it when you get out there and it is blazing hot.
Drinking a lot of water is really important, taking breaks and just staying
out of the hottest part of the day. You know, here we get
a little light forming out there. We could actually see some plants walking outside.
It's a good time to be outside. Getting some of those things done
ahead of time, shortening your work time out in the garden, and just
just enjoying it. Take it, take it easy. And also, oh
my gosh, skincare. Sun damage is cumulative. You know, It's not
like you have to go out and stay so long you get a sunburn to
have a damage. I mean, you we need sunshine on our skin,
but just know that it is a cumulative thing, and so when it's not
necessary, avoid the damage. You know, you think about what summer I
want to wear a shirt sleeve shirt when I garden. I wear a long
sleeve shirt in the summertimes especially, and it's actually cooler A long sleeve cotton
shirt is very cool and comfortable. It works pretty well for it keeps the
blazing sun off your skin. So just well, however you want to go
about it. Of course I always wear a hat. That's that's my love
hats, and so I'm always wearing a hat in the garden. But I
encourage you to please take care of yourself. Don't don't just assume you can
get away with what you always got away with. We want to keep you
around as a as a listener to garden line. If you live up in
the Carlos area, now you know we're talking. You're thinking where is Carlos?
Well, first of all, Carlos is up in God's Country. It's
near Rones Prairie, Shiro Richards, Anderson and bead Eyes and Iola. You
know. Now, well, okay, how about this. It's up by
Navasota. If you're up in the Navasota area, maybe live in Kingwoods or
Murewood subdivisions, Grimes County. Feed is your hometown feed store Now. It's
about two miles west of FM two forty four. It's a locally family owned
and operated story. Stop buy and become part of their family. They're going
to carry the fertilizers we talk about. They carry things like the mosquito dunks
and the tree hugger sprinklers, and they really work at keeping all of those
kinds of things in stock. It's a great feed store. You're gonna find
quality dog and cat food, livestock food, and so on. If you
have a little pond and you would like to stock you're pond with fish.
Twice per quarter, they have arranged for a fish stocking. You just get
in there and check out, find out from them when it's going to be
You can find out what you need to do to be ready to go.
They carry all the hay products you need, the syrup tubs, local honey
for example. Also their livestock minerals, Grimes County Feeding Farm. If you've
got a little piece of property, you need to know about them. If
you even have a yard, you need to know about Grimes County Feeding Farm
up in Carlos. Love to stop in and visit with the family, become
part of their family. Well, we're getting a little close to a break,
but we got a little bit of time here before we do head to
break. Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three, two one two fifty eight seventy four. You know
the other day we had Paul Fagala from the B Supply on I know a
lot of I got a lot of comments on people just loved that interview.
And I don't blame you. I always love visiting with the folks at the
B Supply up in Dayton. They've got that second largest in the world indoor
b observation hive. You can go see. It's like a plexiglass small room
up in the air in the middle of the store. I don't know,
you just got to go see it to know what I'm talking talking about.
They got beginner classes out there once a month in Dayton, so you can
become a beekeeper. Go to thebe Supply dot com or Hey, they have
honey tours also out there at the b sup Supply that are free. It
is a fascinating thing for to take kids groups too, to take your garden
club, any group that you have, to see the free honey tours that
they have, and to learn a lot about the fascinating world of bees,
even if you don't want to be a beekeeper. Plus you can bring home
some tasty honey. Seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Give Josh a call. We'll be right back. Come on you three.
Good morning on a I don't know what partridge slash Brady Bunch slash who knows
where we're going from this Saturday morning. You're listening to garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter and our phone number. Write this down seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two k
t r H. If you'd like to die by on letters, I'm gonna
tell you a little bit about RCW Nurseries and it's kind of an update on
what's going on out there, and you're familiar with them. They're the nursery
that's there where Beltway eight and Tombo Parkway. Have we two forty nine come
together. You can find more information on RCW nurseries dot com. Right now
out at r CW Nurseries, they're having their Independence Day sale fifteen percent off
the perennials out there, so a great time to get some perennials to put
in. Maybe you've been enjoying other people's echinatias past this spring. By the
way, they're still blooming out there. I got some in my yard that
are bloom and great. Perennial. Well, that's an example. That's a
perennial that comes back year after a year. It's a good one. Another
thing, they have a really impressive supply of his crepe myrtles and crape myrtles.
Everybody knows crepe myrtles. They were familiar with them. But one thing
that I think people often do that they shouldn't do, and that's just buy
whatever crepe myrtle they see for sale. When you buy crepe myrtle, I
think there's several things you should know. Number one, how big does it
get? They don't sell them with saws for a reason. You could buy
crepe myrtles they get three feet tall. You can buy crepe myrtles get thirty
five feet tall. What size do you want? Do you want a twelve
foot Do you want one that's seven to ten feet somewhere in there? Do
you want one that's fifteen to eighteen? You see what I'm talking about.
Number two, pick your color. There are beautiful colors. Red as the
standard, but oh my gosh, the lavenders and the white crepe myrtles.
Number three, look at the bark if you care about that. There are
some like Gnatches is one of those thirty five footers that has beautiful will cinnamon
exfoliating bark. And then if when at all possible, choose one that's powdery
milder resistant. And a lot of the varieties now are powdery milder resistant,
so you don't have to mess with that disease. RCW Nurseries has a wide
selection of great myrtles and they can get you set up with ones you want.
I've got some at my house that we're planted years ago by somebody,
and they're so tall now and they're right at the back patio that they provide
shade, and I appreciate that very much, but I can't see the blooms
because they're way up high across the yard. I need to put in some
that are about seven to twelve feet tall somewhere in there so when I'm sitting
on the patio I can enjoy the blooms. You see what I'm talking about.
There is a crepe myrtle for everybody. In fact, there's a bunch
of great myrtles for each person that will do well in our CW Nurseries is
an excellent source of those RCW nurseries dot com. We are going to talk
a little bit about a number of things regarding gardening this morning. I think
the most exciting news is is the break in the weather that all gardeners are
glad to see. If you've got a vegetable garden and it is starting to
look worse for the wear, this is the time of year where this is
now the more of a traditional garden. It's a large garden area as opposed
to maybe a container or a single bed or something like that. But if
you had a larger area, this is a time where you may want to
think about what areas do I want to put to rest for a little while.
That's called fallow in the farming world. So maybe you pull out some
old slice or tomatoes that are now full of spider mites, some leaf spots
and they just aren't setting fruit because it's too darn hot, and they won't
for a long time now, So you pull those out, Mix some nutrient
in the soil, mix some compost in the soil, throw a blanket of
mulch over the surface to deter weeds, and just let it set. Tell
us time for fall planting. That's an option if you've got an area and
you want to keep going. There's a lot of good summer vegetables that we
can keep growing that if you just make sure they get water. They can
handle being out in the sun and the humidity. You can stay inside.
They'll be fine if you're getting water. And that would be like sweet potatoes
and black eyed peas, purple holes, crowders, all those southern peas.
The yard long beans another one in that group that they do fine. Of
course, okra does well. If you want pumpkins for the fall, for
Halloween or for just fall decorating, this is your not last call, but
it we're getting towards the end of the time when you want to get those
in. And here's why pumpkins can take like one hundred and twenty days to
mature. You want them to be mature before it starts to cool off and
the day length gets shorter and the growth slows on the pumpkins. You would
like to go ahead and get them to a harvest time so you can harvest
them and bring them in. So don't delay much longer if you want to
do that. Just remember when you plant pumpkins and any kind of a squash,
winter squash in the summer. I mean you plant those. You need
to protect the foe ledge because they need they need have foliage in order to
produce pumpkin of whatever type, or winter squash of whatever type, acorn squash,
you kennie squash, butternut squat, all those different kinds of winter squashes.
So we get powdery mildews, we get leaf spots, spider mites,
all kinds of things on the foliage. Take care of the foliage so that
you have plenty of carbohydrate production, so you have a really good harvest going
forward. We're going to head out to northwest Houston now and talk to Ralph.
Hello, Ralph, good morning. You got a great program on your
water and you guys were all to score over that again. I'm just missing
part of my yards. Look like it's my Saint Augustine. Looked like it's
the big climbing. Okay, Well, it could be due to lack of
water. If you're watering at all, I would say it's probably not due
to a lack of water at this point. It could be, but it's
probably not. But we want to give our lawns a good soaking once a
week and if need be, If the soil is a little sandy, the
area is one sunny and so on, well then you can go twice a
week. But once a week I found to be enough, you know,
believe it or not, Ralph, I watered my yard the first time this
year this past week, and I've got a good deep root system on the
grass. I don't every time I, you know, it's a little hot,
run out there and squirt it with water. I watched the grass and
it was getting to where it was starting to wilt during the day and then
bounce back at night, and I kind of watched it a wall, and
I went ahead and watered it. Now. I'm not saying nobody should have
watered before now, but I'm just saying we overwater. So anyway, good
soaking and then followed by drying out. And Ralph, when you do that,
you wet that soil. If you were to look at a cross section
of your soil, it's full of water because you gave it a good soaking,
and then that water slowly kind of sinks down in the soil. Just
like you're drinking. You through a straw and you're you're taking the Maybe you're
drinking a coke through the straw and you watch that water or the coke level
drop down in the glass. That's happening in the soil because it's evaporating and
the roots are pulling it out. But as it does that, it brings
oxygen back in the soil. You know, behind the what was once filled
with water and now you have airspace and that's good for the roots. And
if you keep it water logged, it's not good and it wastes water.
And that's why we like a good soaking on an infrequent basis to have the
best line you can. Okay, I've been stingy on that. That's what
I have to get straight. Well stingy is okay. I mean you know
we we over water, so yeah, go ahead. Yeah. I got
a bunch of through trees and I got a big seag tree. Do you
I have Do I have to trim that it down? You said, a
fig tree with a fig don't worry about pruning it during the summer unless you
know it's just absolutely overgrown and you didn't get it done earlier. I would
wait, let that tree go into winter, and then when we get toward
the end of winter and it's ready to come out, but not quite yet.
I would go ahead and trim it at that time because when you prune
something, it causes it to try to regrow. And figs are a little
on the coal tender side. They're one of the plants that if we have
pretty bad cold, they're going to be one of the ones that has damage.
And so I don't prune figs after about August first because I don't want
to encourage late season flushes of growth because those will be very coal tender,
they're not hardened off. Okay, okay, good information, Thank you,
Thank you, sir. I appreciate that call. You're listening to garden Line.
We are going to be back after a little bit of a break.
Here's the number if you want to get on the board. Seven one,
three two and two fifty eight se four. All right, you're listening to
garden Line. We are here to talk gardening. Surprise, surprise. I'm
your host, Skip Ricter and our phone number seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. Give us a call. Let's talk about whatever you
are interested in. I just want to tell you a little bit about the
Trusted Labs weekend or fourth of July weekend. Sale. They have a special
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It is the highest quality extracted by the way it's extracted using CO two,
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Lab. You can go to the Trusted Lab dot com the Trusted Lab dot
com and while you're there you have the opportunity to pick up on a really
great fourth July sale, So don't delay on that. Talking about gardening,
we were mentioning. I was talking about vegetables a moment ago. Flowers is
the same kind of thing. You know that just because it's hot doesn't mean
that we have to give up on gardening it. Maybe we don't want to
be outside during the heat of day, but we can have plants that really
beautify our landscapes. And I've said this before, but our landscapes will become
of sea, a sea of green. And the summer green is a pretty
color. But there's a lot more colors out there. So why not have
crape myrtles lighting, lightening things up. What about putting out vitex where we
get some good early summer color and it will continue in waves as we go
through. Why not a red bird of Paradise one of my favorite summer plants.
It's also called Pride of Barbados. It's the gaudiest thing in the landscape,
and that includes if you fill your front yard with pink flamingos and put
a Pride of Barbados out there, it'll be gaudier than the pink flamingos.
And I know some of you like pink flamingos, but we need to talk
anyway. The red bird of Paradise is just beautiful, beautiful plant. Hibiscus
both a tropical types and the summer blooming perennials that are native along the Gulf
coast in the US, big old dinner plate sized blooms. They can take
the heat. Thryalis can take the heat with it. It's a shrub like
plant with yellow blooms. Very pretty. We need to talk about that one
more. It can take the heat on and on. Angelonias in the flower
bed can take that kind of heat as well, and many many other kinds
of plants. I guess what I'm saying is, don't give up on color
for summer. You can continue to have a beautiful, beautiful lawn and landscape
in through the summer season. All these plants ask, they say, we
can handle the heat, We can handle the humidity in this blasting sun.
Just keep us moist. And moist means moist, it doesn't mean soggy.
And there's a mindset in gardeners, and I see it here in Houston a
lot as well as elsewhere where. It's like it. My plants have been
water they're moist, but now it's hot, so I have to water more.
And when you add saggy conditions to blazing heat, you will severely injure
plants, if not kill them. If you overwater a plant in the cool
season, the demands are low, it is able to handle that pretty well
usually, but when you get into the heat of summer and that plant is
pumping water as fast as it can just to stay cool, and that's one
of the main reasons are pumping waters to stay cool and supply the processes and
the plant. And then you water log it, and now the roots can't
get oxygen and they have to shut down. They have a respiration process,
they have to have oxygen in the roots, and so you water log it.
And now you've got a plant that is demanding water, and you're making
the roots unable to take it up even though they're sitting in standing water.
I know that's counter intuitive, but it's what happens. Don't overwater, Yes,
consistent moist water enough to keep the soul moist. But if you think
that because it's one hundred degrees for five days, you have to water every
day, then you're making a mistake and you will watch plants collapse faster than
at any other time of the year when you do that. Kind of watering.
I love vegetable garden. I was talking about it earlier. I love
vegetable gardening in traditional gardens and beds and containers and all kinds of things.
But a lot of folks don't have room for a garden, or maybe they
don't have sunshine for a garden in the backyard, and they would look to
a community garden. We have many good community gardens around the Greater Houston area,
infects one of the big cities with an excellent supply of community gardens here
in the US. There's also a neighborhood going in Sadelle Web neighborhood down there
in Full Shirts two miles from downtown Full Shure on FM three fifty nine,
and I love number one. I love Dell Web. You know they've been
building homes for active adults. I shouldn't say homes, I should say communities
for active adult It's fifty five and better for over seventy years. Dellweb communities
have lifestyle programs built around you. But this Dellweb community, they've contacted me
to help them with putting in a community garden. So imagine all the pluses
of living in a Dellweb community Plus there's a community garden where you can go
where you can grow food and flowers and you can enjoy that time that we
have a gardeners. You know how gardeners are. We love to get together,
we love to talk, we love the social events, the social interaction
Dellweb will provide that. Go to delweb dot com slash Houston to find out
about this community or call two eight one four to five nine zero six zero
nine to eight one four five nine zero six zero nine and find out about
that dell Web difference and why I'm so excited about it. I was doing
an educational program up in College Station the other day and we were talking about
planning trees and shrubs and taking care of trees and shrubs, and I was
talking to about that the first summer that a tree or shrub is in the
ground is a critical one. And here's why. In the container at the
garden center, at the nursery where it was grown, all the root system
of that plant is in that container. And so those folks that are taking
care of the plants and growing and selling the plants, they're watering them regularly,
maybe every day some situations, maybe twice a day because that is not
a natural spread of a root system. That is an extremely confined spread.
But that's what we have to do in order to grow the plant. And
when that happens, you put it in the ground. And now all those
roots are still in the cylinder, and day by day, week by week,
month by month, the roots are moving out in the ground around it.
And with each little bit of more soil gained by the root system,
it becomes more resilient and less needing to be pampered. You know, an
established tree, we only rescue water them during extended summer droughts. We don't
have to water them all the time. But a new plant, it was
being watered, let's say it was water daily. Well, now it's in
the ground, and how long does it take to pump that cylinder dry?
A day? I mean a little water is wicking in from around the roots
cylinder, from the moist soil around it, but it pumps it dry and
you can get into big trouble fast, and so you have to keep that
moist and it's a little touching go. You don't want it's soggy, but
you do want it moist. The best way to do that, I think
is a tree Hugger sprinkler because you know you can buy those in seven inch
diameter, eleven inch, fifteen inch diameter. Go online to TreeHugger sprinkler dot
com so you can see what I'm talking about. But it's a little device.
It wraps around the tree. You've got a lottle valves, so you
can turn it to just water right there where the sprinkler is, or you
can turn it on more and more and more where it's watering a very large
area. Maybe you've got a tree that's been in the ground three years or
five years and you're still watering. To take care of it and help it
get growing faster, because that's our goal when the trees are young. Tree
Hugger will save your investment. They're found at ACE Hardware's, are found at
the feed stores we talk about, the garden centers we talk about Go online
tree huggersprinkle dot com. You can find out more. But it is really
really a cool thing that will save you not just having to replace a tree,
but we'll make that tree you have grow faster, or the shrub or
the rosebush, you name it. Hey, give us a call seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Josh, you'll get you on
the board, and when we come back from break, you will be the
first one we talk to. What kind of gardening questions do you have this
morning? We can talk about herbs, flowers, containers. A lot of
people late leaving getting a lot of questions about different kinds of fertilizer and which
one do you use and how do you use them? And things like that.
We can we can drown on about that. If you want, you
like some suggestions for plants, maybe we can talk about that. I just
love visiting me gardeners and I hope you enjoy listening to Gardenline. By the
way, if you ever miss a show, you can listen to us on
podcast. We're available on podcast as well. Just go to your podcast supplier
I hope it's iHeartRadio or whoever you use and look for garden Line. Go
back and listen to past shows and remember the things that you heard but you
can't quite remember. This time has passed. Hey, we'll be right back
after break. Look forward to talking to KTRH. Garden Line does not necessarily
endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH
garden Line with scip director, just watching as so many crazy. Well,
good morning on a beautiful Saturday morning. Outside, I see sunshine, I
see breeze. I see a good chance to be outside getting some stuff done.
You're listening to garden Line. If you go outside, please take the
radio with you. We are going to talk gardening all morning. I'm your
host, Skip Richter, and our phone number if you would like to give
us a call is seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
Talking about the breeze out there in summertime. You know, once we hit
June and July and August September, what is that called hurricane season here on
the Gulf Coast. And we know that when hurricanes come blasting through, our
trees often take a hit. So if you've got a tree that has maybe
some dead limbs in it, maybe it's hanging over a fence or over your
roof, maybe you're hanging over your neighbor's driveway, and you don't want it
to fall on the maserati, that might get interesting, right, Well,
you need to call Affordable Tree Service now. Affordable Tree Service is the go
to tree service for garden Line. And if you give him a call.
By the way, tell them that you heard about him on guarden Line.
Because Guardline customers go to the front of their line. Martin and Joe owners,
they still answer their own phone. So when you call Affordable Tree Service
seven one, three, six, nine, nine, twenty six sixty three,
Martin or Joe will answer. If they don't, you've called the wrong
place. Hang up, find the number right and call again. Affordable Tree.
On the web, you can go to Afftree Service dot com and they
can take care of all those let's just say pre hurricane kinds of issues that
may be in your tree. I mean, it doesn't take a hurricane to
need to clean up a tree and get it wrong, or get it wrong,
get what's wrong fixed so that it's strong, so that it has the
resilience and the ability to stand. Do you need deep roof feeding? Do
you need trees removed? You need trees planted? Are you going to do
construction anywhere near a tree? Absolutely call Martin. Haven't come out and advise
you because once the damage is done, we are limited on what we can
do to help a tree recover and bad pruning jobs. By the way,
don't if someone sticks a business card in your door to pruna tree. Just
throw it away, use it from mulch and your house plants. How about
that, throw it on top of the ground it. You don't need to
jerks on a chainsaw tree service coming by and butcher in a tree because you
screwed up once and it's done. I mean, it's a very, very
seldom that we can recover properly from bad pruning. Martin and Joe Affordable Tree
Service, they will not do that. They will They know what they're doing,
and it is well worth contacting them and getting that kind of advice.
We're gonna head out to Galveston and go to the phone's down talk to Jackie.
Good morning, Jackie, Hi, good morning. How can we help
today? I have plamary a tree, that is it a pod? I've
had it for about two years, beautiful green leaves, but I can't seem
to get the flowers to bloom. What am I doing wrong? That's a
good question. You know. I had folks from the Plumeria Society and the
other day and we were talking about things like that. Well, there's there's
a handful of things and I'm gonna tell you what they are. And you're
gonna tell me you're doing all of them. That's usually how these calls go.
They need sunshine, they need really good sunshine in order to bloom.
They need moisture, but they don't need to stay too saggy wet. They
don't want that, and they are, you know, they're a resilient plant.
But they do need adequate moisture. They need moderate nutrition, so a
good quality plumeria fertilizer applied to encourage growth and blooming. And then of course
the warm weather they like. They don't bloom in the winter much unless you
haven't been a very warm indoor place. But seriously, they that's what they
need. And I bet you're already providing yours with those things, yes sir,
yeh, yeah, all three of those. Yeah, Well that's that
is for me. The frustrate I am not a plumeria expert, and that's
a frustrating thing about plumeria is for me is trying to get those darned things
to bloom. If we got some folks plumarious society listening in, you can
call in. Maybe I left something out, but that that's basically what it
takes. And then then it's just a matter of time, I've noticed,
and I don't know. I don't know how much is cultural and how much
maybe differences and varieties, some being a little more prone to bloom well than
others. Maybe it could be a factor his years bloomed in the past.
Um well, I snipped it from my grandma's tree in Florida, and so
when I snipped it, it was beautiful. It's pink and white and bloom.
But ever since i've had it here in Texas the last two years,
it's it's no blooms. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think of what
else. Yeah, I know, I know, And that's why we grow
those things. I mean, how are you ever going to make a lay
to get on a plane and go to Hawaii with if you If you don't,
yeah, I'll let me think about it a little bit more. But
those are the keys. When I've talked to primary people before, those are
the things I hear from them, and I just don't know another another secret
to it. I think maybe just a little more time settling in. I
know that's not what you want to hear, but that that's probably the best
the best I can give you on this right now. If I come up
with something else. Just keep listening in I'll say something about that. All
right. Well, we love your show. Thank you well, thank you
Jackie. I appreciate that you take care. You know the we I was
talking to earlier about the nitrofoss UH nineteen four ten, the super turf product
that they have, Nitrofos has another couple of products that deal with some of
the pests that get on our lawns. One of them is the nitrofoss Fiant
Killer N Fiant Killer. It works quick, the queen can't escape. It
kills the whole colony to prevent new mounds. So it's a it's a good
way to shut pesky fireants down as they as they come into our lawns and
landscapes. And I don't know what to say, pesky fire ants like a
redundancy all fire incher pesky. But they also have something called bugout Max.
Now Bugout Max kills up one hundred and thirty different species of insect. It's
an advanced formula. It targets all those pests that invest your lawn. So
when we're looking at the sideweb warm and when looking at the chinch bug,
for example, when we're looking at grubs when they're feeding up near the surface,
which is let's see what we are July. They're about to head down
south at this point, coming up real quick here, so it would be
an excellent time to get out bug Out Max to shut those grubs down as
well. These are all Nitrofos products which are available where Nitrofos is sold,
which is everywhere. That would be the garden centers you're here on garden Line,
the feed stores, the let's see mom and pop nurseries all around on
garden Line, places like RCW nursery paces like the K and m Ace out
there in Kingwood are J and R a s up in a porter for example,
plants and things out in Brenham. Nitrofoss Summer Essentials that includes the nineteen
four ten fertilizer Slow Release and also the Bugout Max and the fire Ant Killer,
all quality products that nitro Foss produces and sells throughout our Houston area.
You know, if you're listening to garden Line, you hear me talk about
some of the favorite places that we have in the sponsors. And by the
way, you don't just call garden Line and automatically you show up with a
checkbook, and you get to be a sponsor. We're very selective in the
sponsors that we pick up here on Garden Line. I need to believe in
the product. If at all possible, I need to use the product,
for example, to test it and know that it's going to work. I
visit with the owners. I look at the if it's a storefront, I
look at the storefront, and I make sure that it is something that I
can put my name on and say to you, this is quality and know
that that's the kind of results that you're going to have. We're gonna take
a break. Our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. Give us a call. We'll be right back. You did love
true. My goal in music is to play something you didn't expect. How
did that work? You're listening to garden Line. We're having fun and this
is the good time of the day to be outside getting some gardening done,
or inside talking about gardening, which is why we're here. Let's start by
heading out to League City and talking to John V. Hey John V.
By the way I live morning. I looked into those flowers. I could
not find anything that I would I found Trustworthy online about gardenia's But the jasmine
um that seems to be one that is an edible flower, the awesome blossom.
Yeah, yes, great. And then my question is on the avocado.
I keep keeping the avocado seeds and putting them in a little planter before
my mother finds them. Una, So I wanted to see how tall will
one avocado seed grow? Or what foil should I use to put it temporary
and in a pot and then plant it. I'm sorry I asked that again.
I didn't catch that. Okay, Yes, which which? So once
I have the avocado seed, which type of soil mixture and nutrients do I
need to put it temper in a pot for it to grow and then transferred
into the ground. I would I would use a rose soil. That's in
general, that's a pretty good blend. I mean, there's more than one
blend that could grow an avocado but seed, but the rose soil would be
the one I would use. By the way, I want to go back
to that flower thing. The jasmine, it's edible, is the official jasmine.
It's called jasmine aficionale. That's edible. But the fault we call jasmine.
There's a girl's gall semium semper varians. It's a it's a called a
false jasmine, but that is not edible. So you want to make sure
that you're really dealing with something that's in the genus jazz jasminum, not the
other one. And what is the what is the color of that jasmine?
Official, it's gonna be white. It's gonna be white. Wow, you're
white. And after I told you I couldn't find anything on guardinia, I
did find one that they're the fragrant blooms are used in jams and preserves and
can be added to cakes for extra flavor. For there you go with your
little culinary, ready to bake. Have fun. Okay, thank you,
I'll have a wonderful Saturday. Goodbye you bet you two, thank you very
much. Appreciate that call. Let's go to Cyprus now and talk to Susan
hellus morning, good morning. I have two questions. The first one is
is it too hot to use an a spray like on the hose the spray
in sexicide on my yard like triaz side? Can I use that? That's
fine, it's not too hot. It just follow always follow the label and
you'll be fine. You can I ask what you're trying to go after.
Okay, so we have these little gnats, little flying gnats everywhere in our
yard. And my sudden law used it on his yard. He lives a
couple of houses down and it worked on his yard, but he used it
a month or two ago. But I want to use the same thing to
kill those little flying things that are in my yard. Okay, they're not
they're not side wood. We're in mos there's some little kind of gnat or
moth, little natty thing that's flying everywhere. Huh Okay, well, yeah,
that would be fine. A tryside is going to have kind of insecticide
that it hasn't It don't kill about anything, so that will work just fine.
And then my second question, please, we need to tell us to
water deep in our grass almost like once a week. How many minutes do
you mean for a deep watering. That's a good question. So here's how
that works. Rather than me giving you the minutes that is needed, we
need to look at the volume that you put down. And if you will
take a rain gage or some kind of a can with straight sides like pinto
beans, cap food, tuna, fish, those kind of cans, they
can be a little rain gauge. Put them around the lawn, turn it
on, and how long does it take to catch an inch of water?
That's a good deep soaking. In most soils, now clay soils, you're
not going to get an inch down without it running off. So you have
to run it for a while and then let it soak for about forty five
minutes, and then run it for a while and then let it soak for
forty five minutes. So let's say that today's Saturday, Saturday was your watering
day. You would get up early this morning with or have the the clock
set to come on early this morning, maybe you know, six o'clock,
and it waters for a while and then it goes off. Then it's seven
o'clock, it runs again and goes off, and the eight o'clock until you've
caught that inch and that gives you the good deep soaking that you're looking for.
Sound good, Thank you very much. All right, Well I hope
that helps. Thank you very much. I appreciate that call. We are
talking about all kinds of things, and you know she's talking about triaside any
kind anytime you're looking and you're wherever you are around the Greater Houston area.
If you're looking for products that control insects, controlled diseases, controlled fungus,
fungi, control weeds, ACE Hardware dot Com is near you, and it's
going to carry what you're looking for. They have a great selection of all
these products. They also carry. ACE Hardware carries the fertilizers we talk about.
They carry the bags of soil that we talk about. Everything you need
for the inside the house, outside the house, you got it. I
mean we No hardware store has paint, light, bulbs, and plumbing and
all those things that you would expect from a hardware store. When you walk
into an ACE you're going to find out, Oh my gosh, I did
not know what all they have in these store. I mean, it is
plan some time, because I mean some ACE hardware stores have beautiful lines of
in fact, most of them beautiful lines of house decorating, personal beauty,
just decorations, and it's just amazing. I get hung up in the barbecue
section. I can't get out of there because there's so many good quality items,
including the actual pits like Webber and Draeger and Big Green Egg and more.
But when it comes to gardening, if we name a fertilizer. You're
going to find it at ACE Hardware. It's going to be there. And
when you're there, sign up for ACE Hardware Rewards program. I Belong myself.
You earn up money, you earn money back on your purchase. Just
go to Ace hardware dot Com, go to the store locator. I usually
scroll at the bottom of the page and find store locator and click on that
and you find all the stores, thirty nine of them. Can't be that
hard to find one near you. And that's the way it is with Ace
Hardware. This past week, I have a bird feeder that has a little
camera and that my kids gave it to me for Christmas, and I get
emails all day about who visited my feeder. So I have to kind of
silence the thing because birds are coming and going all day. But I love
backyard birding, and maybe you do too. That is one of the things
that I would consider one of the important enhancements to your outdoor gardening enjoyment is
to bring in birds, songbirds, things that get up in the morning and
you just enjoy the beautiful songs at the time of day when you actually want
to be outside right now in the heat of summer. You can enjoy that.
You can watch them at the feeder, put a little bird bath out
for them. Birds need water right now. And if you need anything regarding
birds, while Birds Unlimited is the place to go, it's the only place
to go. I mean you can find it wall birds near you if you're
in Katie, are you up northeastern Kingwood, or you northwest and Cypress down
in pair Land or bel Air or West Houston or even over in clear Lake.
While Birds Unlimited go to WBU dot com. You'll get a lot of
quality advice there too. They don't just like here's a product, by it
and they go home. They actually educate you and help you understand. This
is nesting season still. Bluebirds will usually nest through July. Cardinals, chickadeese,
wrens all still nesting. We're about to go through molting season for a
bunch of birds, and it's important for them to have a supply of quality
feed. Their nesting super blend is exactly that they have no waste bird seeds.
You know, where you buy cheap bird seed, about half of it
gets kicked on the ground, if not more, because they're not going to
eat those little red babies. But with a quality feed from wall birds unlimited,
they eat what you put out and you get to enjoy that as well.
Talk about it raining later this week. You know, the rain is
going to be a very welcome thing. But it arrives here because not just
is the best quality water in the world dropping from the sky, but we're
getting a little bit of a break when it comes to the temperatures. And
that is important. But if you're new to Houston, let me tell you
something. Our soils have something called high shrink swell potential. That means when
they get wet, they swell up. When they get dry, they shrink
up. We give it cracks, cracks big enough to lose a two year
old in the backyard. And when it's hot and dry for a long time,
well what happens. Why is that important? Well, it's important because
our slabs really take a beating. I mean, if you're driven down through
Houston on some of the streets and it's like you're going across the Rocky mountains
driving down the street, that's that shrink swell. It's that breaks water lines,
it does all kinds of things, and it recks havoc on our driveways
and our sidewalks and our slabs of our homes. Fix my Slab is a
found dat repair company that can do quality work under They've been doing it for
twenty three years here, local small business. They've got that experience. Go
to fix my slab dot com if you want more information or write down this
phone number two eight one two five five forty nine forty nine. Tell them
you're a guardenline listener. They get free estimates for garden line listeners. They
show up on time, they have a fair price, and it's not just
your foundation, although it is for sure foundations. They'll fix a cracked driveway
or a cracked sidewalk as well. They're on time, they have a fair
price, and when they fix it, they fix it. Two eight one
two five forty nine forty nine fix myslab dot com and boy, if you
live in the Houston area, you need to write that down and keep it
handy because if you don't need them today, you will tomorrow. Unfortunately,
that is what we are dealing with here. I always enjoy talking about product
that I believe in in products at work, and one of those kinds of
products are Microlife. The Microlife group of fertilizers. You've heard me talk about
the green Bag six two four and the humans plus and stuff for summer.
But the something I've been really interested in lately, I use their Biomatrix.
This is a liquid. They have a number of liquid feeds, the Microlife
Biomatrix. It's in an orange bottle. Orange, remember orange. Seven one
three is the nutrient ratio, so it's a high nitrogen organic liquid. It
will not burn your plants. It has beneficial microbes added to it which are
important for the soils, including for our house plants and the Microlife seven one
three. Because it's higher in nitrogen. Our houseplants are primarily foliage plants,
it will take care of that. The second is the Blue Harvest or Ocean
Harvest blue label four two three, a fish based fertilizer. Go to Microlife
Fertilizer dot com and learn more about these two products and more and find out
where you can buy Microlife near you. Well, let's take a break here
for some news and information seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
And that's for all the folks listening over in Louisiana. Actually it's for
everybody in Southeast Texas. We love that kind of music. You're listening to
garden Line seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I'm your
host, Skip Richter, and we're here to talk about things related to gardening
today. You know I love plants. Is that a surprise? I hope
it's not. And I suspect you love plants too, if you're listening to
garden Line. Uh. And those of us at love plants were really good
at put bringing plants home because we see them, we want them, We
see a picture, we get this dream in our mind's eye and we want
to bring it home. We plan it and we take care of it,
and we're we're good at that. We know how to pick out a plant
and bring it home, take care of it and have it grow and do
well. But does it look good when you look at the overall landscape.
That's the challenge and that's where I know I am challenged, and driving around
town, a lot of people are challenged as well when it comes to designing.
The way I like to put it is you could give me rim brands,
canvas and paint and brushes, and what I paint would not be worth
hanging up with five year olds, finger paintings in kindergarten or whatever it is
you get. You know what I'm talking about. In other words, it's
one thing to have the tool. That's another thing you know how to use
them. Well, when it comes to landscapes, I'll tell you who has
the tools and knows how to use them, and that's Peerscapes. Peerscapes is
our preferred landscaper here on garden Line. They're a one stop for anything you
need. What do you need designed? I mean even to the basics of
like, hey, we got to improve the drainage here, I need a
hardscape, I need a walkway to go back in there, a rock border
along the bed. They've got the designers and they know how to do that.
Give m a call. It's two eight one three, seven zero fifty
sixty or just go online. Pierce Scapes one word, Peerscapes dot com.
Quality, quality, quality, experience, staff professionals that are trained that know
how to do these things. They will take your garden and that plant palette
you love so much, and they can turn it into something that is outstanding,
that is a showstopper. Whether you're sitting in the backyard with family or
friends enjoying the landscape or driving by on the street. Peerscapes knows how to
do that. I'm thankful for people that know how to design. Oh my
goodness, let's head to Cyprus and we're going to talk to Sandy this morning.
Well, good morning, Sandy, Hi, good morning. I have
a question. I water my grass right now because the hundred degree temperature.
I'm pretty much every day for five minutes in each station at my smunklers,
okay, and I see a lot of burnt like burnt grass. That's what
I can classify it as. Okay, burnt. I don't know what to
do, okay, and that's why I do another round. Yeah, well,
it could be. It could be a couple of things. First of
all, Sandy, I'd like you to take that watering schedule and gradually move
it to where you're soaking it deeper less often. You Twice a week is
the most that anybody should need to water if you give it a good soaking.
What happens when you water regularly is you keep it wet, and diseases
like wet, so you may be seeing the effects of a disease like gray
leaf spot, for example, that loves it. When we over fertilize and
we water too often, it could be some other disease. There are other
diseases that can cause that. Now, I don't know that the browning,
the dry that look is by the watering, but it could be. So
it'd be better to give it a good soaking, let that soul dry out
a little bit. And the grassroots system just gets deeper and deeper as you
move from watering every day or every other day to watering twice a week or
even once a week. As you get there without seeing your grass, it's
kind of hard to tell exactly what's wrong. But I'm gonna do something here.
I'm gonna put you on hold as we finish talking, and Josh will
pick you up the call and he will tell you how to get some pictures
to me. And I want you to send me a picture of the overall
yard from a couple of angles, and then get as close as you can
to an area that you were describing as being brown with a camera and make
sure it's in good sharp focus. Check that before you send it, and
let me see a couple of pictures as close as you can get them,
even if it means picking a few blades of grass and laying them on a
dark table to take a picture of them or whatever. Let me look at
it, because I may see a disease, or I may see something else,
because it could be anything from insects to ease. Okay, all right,
sure, all right, I'll put you on hold here and Josh,
we'll take it from there. When I actually today, I'm heading out to
a garden center and purchasing some plants. My wife is a fan of blue
plumbago, baby sky blue flower and plumbago. And they come in white too,
by the way, but there's a white it's it's just the old time
memory of us. See, I mean, we've had those things in the
past and really enjoyed them. I'm gonna pick up some of those and some
other things. But when I plant my plants, the product one of the
best ways that you can get a plant off to a good start is to
water it in with a soluble plant food, something that's liquid. You mix
it in water or dilute it in water, whichever, and you water it
in. And I can't think of a better product than has to grow six
twelve six. That's a high phosphorus number. To help get those roots going
and started. But a six twelve six has to grow. You mix it
water. I put mine into watering can after it's diluted, and then just
drench it over the new transplants. It's got the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
in it, of course, but it's got medinas soil activator to stimulate biological
activity. It's got humat humic acid, and it even has seaweed extracts lots
of good different things to stimulate and help those plants get established. Now you
need to keep a brand new plant moist, not saggy. Remember we overwater
not saggy, but keep it moist. And I will do something like the
has to Grow at planting. But then you need to repeat it about a
week later, and repeat it about a week after that. So you're helping
as that gets roots out in the soil to establish successfully and quickly. Now
you're not going to burn plants with has to grow. It's a low salt
kind of combination and it just stimulates that biological activity in the soil that promotes
fruiting and blooming. If it's a little set of flowers like my plumbago is
about to be when I finally get it home and plant it. Excellent product
and it really works well. I like it has many uses, but I
like to use it as a water in your new transplants. Just always have
some one hand for that kind of thing. I love gardening, and I
think everybody ought to have the opportunity to garden. And some of you have
big property, you have big sunny areas where you can plant a garden or
put your flower beds or whatever. Some of you have to use containers on
the patio because the yards too sunny, are too shady. Excuse me for
good, good bloom production. We have plants a bloom in the shade,
but not as many as bloom in the sun. And when it comes to
vegetables, you pretty much need sun at least six hours of sun for them
to do well. A few things will do okay and a little less.
But so what do you do well? What I think you need to do
is growing containers in your patio. But if that is not an option,
you can't grow enough. Maybe you really would like to grow enough food produce
for the family, Well, you need room to do that. And he's
in his fortune's have a lot of community gardens. You know the urban Harvest
farmers markets. Here, we've got the community garden system that Urban Harvests sponsors
or supports and create created here in the Houston area. But if you live
out from there, maybe you want to retire, you want this piece of
property, a police place to retire, something like that maybe you've looked at.
I would like a community where I can just take it easy. It's
a beautiful community that has kind of lifestyles that I want to live. Well,
that would be Dell Weeb talk about them before. But Dellweb's got the
new community out in Fullsher a couple of miles from downtown Fullsher It's on FM
three fifty nine. And this new community, the reason I'm bringing it up
is because they are putting in a community garden and I'm helping them with that
community garden. And that community garden means that in addition to all the good
dell Web things. And if you don't know about Dellweb, go to dellweb
dot com slash Houston find about that Dellweb difference or just give him a call
at two eight one four five nine zero six zero nine. But I can't
think of anything better than a community of quality homes, beautiful setting that has
those lifestyle programs designed around the residence like you, ages fifty five and better,
active adults that enjoy that, that want now a community garden. That's
a win win win. That is, I don't know how you do better
than that, and I would encourage you to check out web two eight one
four to five nine ZERL six zero nine. I think you'll find that it's
very very attractive place and a wonderful lifestyle for you as well. Let's take
a break here our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. Good borne in on a beautiful day, and as every day is
a good day for gardening. You're listening to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we are here to answer your gardening questions. If
you want to give Josh call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. We will get right on talking about the things that you are interested
in. Hey, if you don't have anything to do this afternoon already,
and if you do, I got something better right here that is to go
by Buchanan's native plants. They're in the heights they're at East eleven Streets six
to eleven East eleven Street in the Heights. You can go online Buchanan's Plants
dot com. By the way, when you're there, sign up for their
newsletter. So informative, so helpful, so much good information. They really
focus on native plants, and I mean they have they have those plants that
support our local pollinators, They have those plants that support our local birds.
Do you know that a lot of the things we put in our landscapes are
of real no ecological value to things like birds and native pollinators and whatnot.
But you can do that with many of the select native plants that they grow
there at or they sell there at Buchanans on One of my favorite plants,
and you don't see this for sale in a lot of places, but it
is at a little plant, a little groundcover type of plant called frog fruit.
Excuse me, frog fruit, and it's a weed basically. I mean
you find it everywhere growing as a weed, but when you put it into
a landscape. I saw a yard in Houston that was all frog fruit.
It was a side yard, and it's not the kind of thing you want
to go stomping all through all the time and rolling on and like you would
do grass. But if you need a groundcover and you don't want to have
to water it, oh my gosh, it's beautiful as these little match stickhead
little bulbs that are not bulbs, a little round things that stick up on
stalks. How's that for a horticultural description, that have little white flowers on
them, and the tiny parasitoid wasps love those. So here we are now
we're supporting some of the things that are helping us in the gardens. Front
fruit is excellent, excellent, excellent choice. It does so super super well.
Here. Another one is inland sea oats. Now that if you have
a shady area and you want something of a couple of feet high with a
little it looks like oat clusters, but they're large and flat compared to what
true oats would look like. This is a groundcover that spreads underground, especially
if it has moisture, spreads pretty well. But those hang over and when
they dry they are so attractive in floral arrangements as well, you get the
idea of what I'm talking about. The red yucca that we see everywhere.
I mean, you almost can't kill that plant when you get quality plants from
a place like Buchanans, you're going to end up having success and you're going
to create that landscape that you want. Now, they don't just have natives.
They've got every kind of thing in the world you can imagine, herbs
and whatnot. By the way, did you know that rosemary is one of
the most drought tolerant shrubs lash ground covers that we have. The uprights make
a good shrub. The trailing types make a deep groundcover as well, and
they bloom better. The trailing types bloom even better than the kinds that are
that are very very upright. But either way, you're not gonna go wrong
with rosemary. Not a native plant to hear, but one that thrives like
it was from here. Let's now go out to Woodland Hills and we are
going to visit with Arthur. Hello, Arthur, good morning, Good morning.
Yeah. I have a question about my son just bought a new house
and I'm helping them. But I noticed a yard the side A lot died,
okay, and they didn't go back and patch them up, but there's
a lot of like gaps between them, and it's kind of lumpy when you
walk on it, so when he cuts this going to have a hard time
trying to cut it. Yeah, Now when you say gaps, you mean
like they didn't put the side pieces next to each other, they left a
gap or okay, yes, well shame on them. Well, so side
should be laid side by side so that you get a good solid cover unless
you're just trying to save money, and there's a technique for that, but
that creates other issues. But it also has to be watered in well.
And when if I were laying side anytime, you know, once we get
into June, for sure, I'm gonna water it a little bit, just
a little bit every day. Now, I know that's the opposite of how
I've been telling people to water all morning. But I'm talking about that was
talking about established side new side. You know, it comes in with just
a little what a half inch of soil and the roots are all right there.
So you gotta water lightly and frequently until they get roots to dawn.
So I'm watering it every day for I don't know, maybe almost a week,
every other day for another week or and then maybe two to three times
a week for a while, and you just you're getting it established and then
you eventually end up watering it once a week, but early on it sounds
to me like that one of two things happened. Either it didn't get the
regular water or when they laid the side, they didn't roll it and press
exactly what it looks like. They need to press the sod down in contact
with the soil. Otherwise you have side. Then there's an air gap between
the side that was laid in the soil and that where the how are the
roots going to get to the soil right there? There's an air gap in
That's what I'm having. I'm having now. What I did is it was
real dry, like almost like play, so I soaked it and I'm having
to like walk on it to push it down to straighten that out and get
it. Yeah, I've done that. There is like an air gap I
build. Yeah, I've done that. And you know for a small area,
that's fine. You know, you're you're the size of your foot,
you know, it's kind of you're doing a lot of stomping to try to
get it all down in there. And I say stopping, I don't mean
stomping, I mean pressing on it. But the little rollers you can bring
on rount and put a little water in them and it gives them a little
eight and you roll over it. Those are fast and easy and uniform.
But whatever you got it, Where would I get one of those? You
the hardware store, you know, I don't. I don't know who rents
those in your area? You can, yeah, it would be something you
would rent. But you know, just as you lay it, you can
also kind of press it down, and just you want the soil underneath to
be moist before you lay side, because it's hard to wet it after if
it's dry, and now you have side on top of it, and then
you want to lay the side. You want the sail to be raked smooth,
so there's not hills and valleys and you want to lay the side and
press it down. I think you're on the right track. And at the
very end of this, once it gets established and gets going, you can
come in with a little bit of a top saw mix and if you truly
do have some low areas that you want to dust a little top soil over
just here and there to kind of smooth it out, you can do that
and the grouse will grow up and over. This isn't the way we want
side to go, but you got to deal with what you got, and
that's where that's where you are. No, well, what happened when a
lot of it died before they could move into it? A lot so they
they pack them up. But it's not good at all. I'm having a
good Well, good for you, but I really appreciate the info. Yeah,
fortunately you're there and you're taking care of it. I appreciate that call,
and I wish you well. Arthur. Hey, by the way,
once it's rooted in, maybe two weeks, three weeks after you got it
was laid down, and you got it rooted in, go ahead and do
a fertilization on it. Okay, well, what could I put anything on
it? Now? I would wait, let's let's let it get some roots
down and lets it's kind of established. It's not like it's starving right now.
There's some nutrient there and it's able to get established. But then pretty
quick, go ahead and give it something to encourage regrowth and better. Fkay.
One more sense. I actually saturated because it was really really hard to
get it kind of soft. So now just start let that drying. It's
water it lightly every day. Yes, that's it that's it, and then
then go to every other day. I mean, we don't water water every
day, but we have too early on and then every other day. But
as quick as you can wean it back. All right, thank you very
much. I appreciate appreciate that call. Let's see here we are gonna I'll
tell you what marine. I would like to get to your question, but
I'm running short on time. If you will hold through the break, you
will be I promise, first one up when we when we come back.
You know, this is the fourth of July weekend, the extended weekend coming
up here and Verdant Tree Farm, the folks out of Verdant, they have
a Christmas in July sale. I like that Christmas in July. It's at
all three of the locations. You know. They got the original out there
on Barker Cyprus and West Houston. Down in parallel on Broadway they've got one.
And then up in the heights where Yale Street and ten come together,
there is a Verdant Tree Farm. What is this sale? Ten to fifty
percent off the trees when you purchase them an install and you need to purchase
with an insult. Hopefully you're buying a good sized tree. Your chiropractor's kids
can find another way to go to college. You need to have Verdant install
another fifty percent off or ten to fifty isn't off the install, it's off
the tree, but you purchase it with the install and in the tree and
you get that discount. Don't delay. This is a great time to take
advantage of that. Go to Verdant Treefarm dot com. Verdant Treefarm dot com.
We'll be right back. We're going to take a little break here and
again, Maureen, I can't wait to talk about Okrah with you. We'll
be doing that when we come back. If you would like to be on
guarden line and ask some questions seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I just want
to remind you that tomorrow I'm fortunate I've been able to get a guy Phipps.
He is the creator of water my Yard, that free app I talk
about each weekend. He's gonna be here here online and we're gonna talk about
the science of watering soil. Now, I promise you this will not be
boring. It is fascinating. You know, you think about well I need
how often do I need to water my yard? And how long do I
run the water? That's the question I always get. I can't answer how
long because I don't know how much your system is putting out. We're gonna
learn all about that tomorrow. Hang around tomorrow with Guy Phipps. KTRH Garden
Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program.
Welcome to KTRH Guarden Line with Scared dictor just watching. Good morning,
Good morning on a beautiful, beautiful Saturday morning, Good day for gardening.
Good day to listen to garden Line. If you'd like to give us a
call, the number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
Be glad to visit with you about the things that are of interest to
you. Well, we are going to head out now to Lakeside Estates and
visit with Maureen Marine. Thank you for waiting. Yes, yes, if
I listen all the morning, why shouldn't I wait? Okay, Well,
I'm glad you're looking at it that way. Okay, So the Okrah is
doing very well. But this is the very first time that I've planted it
it's good, is about four foot high. I'm having a little problem keeping
up with understanding when I should be cutting them. So okay, while I
was waiting on the phone, I quickly went out and picked about six.
Okay, they the ones that I picked are between four and about five and
a half inches, because I know there if you wait too long, they're
not really as good. So I've been told, right, So what is
the fact? Plus now I'm seeing the beautiful cream colored flower with a sort
of a purple center, but I didn't see them right away, and so
my next sort of question is how do I tell the difference between a pod
developing and one of the flowers? They look very similar. It's all the
same. Ochrah only has one kind of flower, and that is the flower
that produces pods. There's not like a male flower and a female flower like
on squash. Oh okay, okay, every flower potentially should should have a
pod at the bottom if it gets pollinated. So okay, now, okay,
Now the next part is not really so much focused on the okra.
It is going to be focused on sugar pod peas, which I planted,
and um, they are getting beat up by the sun. But the okra
is protecting them in a sense. They're they're they're really not great. But
it looks as though the okra is uh sort of an umbrella. And now
that I'm going to plant new pea pods, um, I just am confused
as to it's just too hot? Yeah, ahead, and do it?
Are you talking about the like a sugar snappee that you would eat the whole
pod and everything? Okay, those exactly those are cool season. I'm amazed
they're even alive for you. Right now, this is way too hot.
We have little windows for those here in the Greater Houston area. For example,
you would plant those sometime maybe toward the end of September even early October,
to have them fruit when the weather is cool, but before it gets
hard and hard freezes, because a hard freeze will burn the pods and blooms.
The plants are pretty tough, but the pods and blooms. Okay,
So then tell me a name of a pea pod or or just a peas
because I do enjoy fresh Okay. Now are you saying for when you plant
in the fall those kinds of things or no for summer? No? No,
right now, right now, because you have been talking about it.
Now I've been listening. Okay. The only peas for summer are the Southern
peas, and so you could plant a black eyed pea, a purple hall
pee, a crowder peeple, a zipper cream pea. What else? Crowd
a crowd or zipper cream purple hall I'm leaving something out. Oh the yard
long beans that literally are like a yard long. Those are also a type
of southern pea. And it's the same kind of plant. It's different than
green beans. It's different than the cool season peas we were talking about earlier.
Okay, in my final question is not about this. I did plant
watermelon, a sugar small watermelon, dark skinned, and I think they refer
to it as a personal size. It's not a big oblong one. I
planted it made it tints. I have lots of plants. I also have
several watermelons. So I measured one the girth. It's only six inches round.
Okay, what's going on? Is that kind of normal? Well?
It First of all, the genetics of the plant, there's a variety will
dramatically affect how big that melon gets. It may still be growing. Are
you familiar with how to tell when a watermelon is ready to pick or not.
Oh no, oh no, but I'm nowhere near there. Okay,
I'm still teeny tiny and so I have I watered it or I am watering
it every single day. Okay, Oh, I know this is going to
stand strength, but just for three minutes, because I'm looking for consistency.
I'm not looking and I'm home so I can check on it all day long
if I choose, Just give it a good soaking on an infrequent basis.
Just keep the soul moist. Watermelons don't want to go through drought, or
you will. It'll affect the several things can happen with the fruit if you
go through drought. So just keep a moist. But you don't have the
water every day, even every other day, like twice a week's enough for
watermelons if you give them a good soaking. Now, if you are you
are you on Facebook? Do you go on Facebook occasionally? Okay? If
you go on Facebook, look for garden Lions facebook page. We put a
post up a week or ago, maybe maybe in a little further on watermelons,
and there's pictures of what you're looking for on the part of the watermelon
that's set on the ground. When you turn it over, you call it
the ground spot. If you look at those pictures, you'll know exactly when
to pick your watermelons. That will tell you. Another clue is that there
where the watermelon attaches to the vine, there's a little tendril, a curtecue
where it would normally grab on and hold onto something. When that turns brown,
that's another cueue that it's probably right, but you kind of have to
use several things. The color of the ground spot, the dried tendril.
Some people even go to the thumping, but the thump sound is different for
different sizes of melons, and not everybody knows exactly what they're listening for,
so no one of those cues is alone the only way to go. So,
dude, hey, can I go back to the ochre just for a
minute. Please? Do you know the variety of ochre you have? No?
Okay, I really, I really don't. The other thing was I
had them sitting here right in front of the several are sort of purple red
and on the ribby portion that's still green. Okay, So yeah, well
whatever, I was just trying to nail it down a little closer but you
probably should be picking the ochre between three and four inches long typically, but
I also don't care to use just length. And by the way, I'm
just about to have to take a break here for a commercial, right,
it's about three or four days after the blooms fall off is when you pick.
So you can have ochre that just doesn't grow and it doesn't get four
inches as fast as another one does. But it's about four days after three
to four days or three to four inches long for the best tender okre.
Some varieties you can let them get bigger than that, but you'll know when
you cut through them with a knife. You can kind of tell you're cutting
through some tough tissues rather than it's like you're just real succulent that you're cutting
through and that that's an indication that's gone too long and it really hurts the
quality. Hey, thank you so much, Marine. I appreciate that we're
going to take a break. The number is seven one three, two one
two fifty eight seventy four. Sue and spring. You'll be the first step
when we come back from break. Boo Please, guys, sticking rocket lack
of boogie will get you to trade it's okay today, it's a screaming all
right. Don't listening to the garden Line. We are here to answer gardening
questions, and if you'd like to give us a call, the phone number
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you were looking
for a source of quality mulch, especially for those of you down south of
the Houston area, CNA Malch. You're not going to do better than CNA
Malch. I love that place. Go to cinamulch dot com, cnamulch dot
com and they serve. They're down there Arthur Rochera near Highway six and two
eighty eight. They're actually on FM five twenty one near Highway six and two
eighty eight. If you are in sun Creek Estates, Manville, Meridian,
First Colony, Sweetwater, Pomona, you get the idea. If you're out
there near Brows Spend Steak Part Siena, malt is your place. They've got
bulk maltz, they've got bulk compost, they have it in bags. They
have every fertilizer we talk about here on Garden Line, they've got it at
CNA Malts. They've got tools, they've got gravel and aggregates. They've got
stone, an unbelievable selection of stone there at Siena Malts. They'll deliver within
a twenty mile area. You know, it costs a little extra to have
anything bulky delivered in this world we live in, and for good reason,
but a very reasonable cost. But they will deliver within twenty miles of the
area if you would like it dropped off, or you can just go by
there and pick it up. I recommend going by and picking it up,
especially if you're buying by the bag or you know, fertilizer bags and things
like that. You will love Sienna Maltz. You will love the product,
You'll love the prices, you will love the service that you get there.
I always enjoy getting to drop in and visit with Ashley and the whole team
there at Sienna Malts. Let's see where were we going to go next?
We're going to go to Sue in Spring. Hello, Sue, how are
you this morning? I'm doing well? How about yourself? Well? Thank
you? How can I help? Well? We had our roof washed by
a professional roof washer about three or four weeks ago. Okay, and the
day we had it washed, we have one holly that's in our front yard,
a hollyheadge and which it's been there about thirty years, and it immediately
turned brown on the top and it's green on the bottom, okay. And
they said this would be temporary or whatever, and you know, this should
be expected. And since then we've had other shrubs around the foundation of the
house that the tips of the shrubs have looked like they're singed. I mean,
that's what it looks like. I guess it's probably a chemical sine or
something. Any chance they told you what they used to wash the roof.
They said it was just a bleach. Okay, Well, just a bleach
on plants is not a good thing, right, I uh, you know,
I don't know the company, and I don't want you to tell me
of the company for sure on the air. But if they know that that
can happen, why don't they cover your plants before they do the roof?
Well they did. They did cover the plants. They covered with these thin
plastic tarps. And they said that the the singing was from caused from the
tarts you know whatever, It wasn't from the chemical, which, okay,
debate that. So I just want to want to what do I need to
do going forward? Do I need to remove these plants? Will these plants
come back? Give them a chance. I think they'll come back now with
the tart's clear with okay, Well, why did they do that? Well,
what happens when you walk out on your car on a sunny day.
I mean you could fry an egg on the dash right because the sun shines
through a clear windshield and it cooks inside. Why would they use clear tart.
I'm gonna quit griping and just try to help you if that's the case.
Yeah, you burn the foliage, but it should be that new shoots
come out. I would give it some time. You may have to do
a little shearing back, you know, to just get get rid of the
old brown. I doubt it. If it's holly, it's probably not just
gonna fall off real fast, but it might. But I would just give
them time. I think they'll be okay. But again, I that just
it's frustrating to hear, and I know it's trust straining for you to have
it happened to your plants. So I'm sorry that happened. But yeah,
well, particularly since we have what we really work to keep our yard,
you know, maintained now the one holly bush. I mean, we have
several hollies that have a little finged edges, and then we have some u
ponds that the tops look like they're singe, and then I have one azalea
that and these are all kind of like except for the one I have,
the one holly, the one that got singed first. The rest of them,
it's just like right on the tips. Yeah, and it's just you
know, it isn't very deep. The one that was originally had the problem.
It's the shrub. It's probably oh about waist high, you know,
about four feet tall, three feet tall, three or four feet tall,
and it's probably two thirds of the shrub. Okay, it's brown. Okay,
Well, bottom line, nothing you can do about it now. And
so I would just wait and watch or the one, especially the one that's
got that much damage, I might do a light sharing of it. Do
you get all the dead off so when the fresh comes out you don't have
dead brown stuff in there among it. It won't It doesn't require you to
print it back like that, but it just aesthetically that may help a little
bit, but yeah, that would mean cutting off about you know a foot
of yeah, well, or let let's wait and see. Why don't you
wait and watch it and see how it's looking. I don't want to.
I don't want to overreact until we know for sure what's going to come back
out. And I think it's going to be okay. Uh, still shame
on them, but here we go. Let just give it some time before
you you rush out and do something drastic like pulling them out and replacing them.
I don't think that's going to be necessary, although on the one planet
might be. But we'll see. You'll know pretty soon. You should know.
Are there any of these um, you know products uh that Microlife makes
that I could put on there to like treat the soil and yep, yeah,
you want to get that's kind of a reddish pink bag. It's the
acidic product that they make. It's a six two four. You put that
on, hey, scratch it into the ground a little bit just under the
surface and then watered in well, and that will that will provide a boost
of nitrogen to get fresh new growth coming and as well as a lot of
the plants you named are going to be happy to have a little bit of
an acidic fertilizer around them as well. Okay, okay, thank you very
much, you bet, thank you. I appreciate that call very much,
very much. Hey, earlier I was talking about fertilizing your lawn and the
importance of using a slow release over time. There is something we do along
with the fertilizer, and actually it's an application of nutrients, but I prefer
not to call it fertilizer, and that's azamite. Now, azamite is it
certainly is certified as a fertilizer, but what it basically is is a ground
owned mind material that has trace elements, lots of trace elements in it.
And when you use azomite, you provide all of the things that don't typically
appear on those three numbers on a fertilizer bag. So I'll do a regular
fertilizer application, but then follow with an azomite application. You can do that
about once a year is generally enough. Now, soil test tells you exactly
what you need and it's the best way to do with any kind of fertilization
schedule. But with the azamite, if you haven't done it yet this year,
I would recommend you go ahead and do an application of the azamite.
It's asomite Texas dot com if you want more information, really interesting story behind
the product. But that's something that will help make sure your trace elements,
whether it's a lawn or even in your vegetable gardens and flower beds, that
your trace elements are up there where they need to be. Let's head up
to Cypress now and we are going to talk to Maureen Hello, or Marsine.
Excuse me, Skips, that's okay. No one knows how to pronounce
money. Well, if I could just read, I could pronounce it.
I really enjoy your pocket, your radio show. Thank you so much for
all that you do for us. I have a question about my lemon trees.
So I have four big lemon trees that have been in pots for probably
fifteen years, and in October we moved and instead of them now being on
the south side of my house, they're on the west side of the house,
and so they're getting a lot of intense sun right well this summer,
even though I'm loaded with fruit on all of the lead all of the trees,
the leaves are turning brown at the very edge and kind of rolling up.
I don't see any pests. I don't see any pests. I just
see just the leaves that are turning brown and rolling up. Is it the
heat? Is it water? Is it lack of water? Well, heat
brings on a lack of water by increasing the demands, but it's it's probably
a lack of water. If you use a salt based fertilizer and over apply
at a synthetic salt base, you can burn plants like that. I suspect
you haven't done that. And it's just a matter that in those containers,
now that they're on the west side, the whole root system of the tree
is just in the container soil. So that's a challenge. And now you've
got one hundred degree sun shining on the sides of the container, heating the
container and the soil up, which speeds of operation. But maybe it could
even damage some roots around the edge of the container right on the outside where
they touch super super hot temperatures. And the combination of all that just means
you're gonna have to water a little more often in order to keep them,
keep them happy. I will do that then, And so one of the
one of the particular plants it's in actually an orangetrea instead of a lemon.
It does have the kind of pale leaves on some parts of it. What's
the best fertilizer if I shouldn't do a salt based line, what's the best
fertilizer to put on those for for a lemon tree? Right we're talking a
Yeah, if the pail is a new growth, that's a sign of iron
deficiency or could be a sign of iron deficiency, and any of our fertilizers
that are complete are going to have that. So something like a microlife we're
talking about earlier, A microlife would provide not just the big three numbers,
but it's going to have some micro micros with it. And a number of
our fertilizers do. Many of the brands we talk about here, Uh,
they have a variety of fertilizer options. Microlife has a citrus food for example,
the Nelsons and the nitrofiles, they're all going to provide you with an
option for feeding plants like that and that that will have more than just the
three nutrients. But go beyond those. Okay, what about that medina has
to grow? Since we're you know, don't want to worry about the salt
that would be fine as well. Yeah, you could use that. Hey,
we're hitting on a break, but thank you. I appreciate that call
very much. Our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. Hey, what's going to be happening in the news now we're about
to find out? Well, good morning, beautiful Saturday morning for gardening,
for talking about gardening. Hey, if you'd like to give us a call
and talk about gardening, seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Hey, if you live up in the Montgomery area, we're talking Lake
Conrow area, I want to tell about your hometown garden center up there,
and that's A and A Plants and produce. Now, this has been operated
for what over thirty years? I know Kathy now has taken over from her
parents, Adam and Alice Flores, and the place just continues to grow,
develop and get better. We're talking about three acres of plants. We're talking
about every kind of I call it gardening bling or patio bling, but chemineas,
terra cotta metal structures, Trellis's gazebos, Topiari's deck, furniture, you
know, patio furniture, whimsicle yard, are. I mean, I need
to go on. But plants, plants, plants all over the place.
Also when we talk about fertilizers and things, you're going to find them there
at A and A Plants and Produce or open seven days a week from nine
am to five pm. That's a great thing to get out and do today.
So those of you in April sound the Woodlands Magnolia up in Walden Water
de Lago anywhere up in that region. A and A Plans and produce your
hometown garden center with knowledgeable staff, friendly service and a super super selection of
things that you get to choose from. We got some weather coming along here
that's going to be a little bit on the wet side, I hope later
in the week. But more important than the rain is a little bit of
a break in the temperature. So you may want to do some shopping this
weekend. If you don't have time to get it planted this weekend, that's
okay. Just hang on to it, keep them watered, water them once
maybe twice a day if they're in the sun. I usually put mine in
a little bit of a shady area when it's gonna be a few days before
I can get them in and get them planted. They get some morning sun
to keep them healthy, but not just you know, blazing through the day.
They could survive that if i'd water them. But you know how things
are. You get busy and it's oh, I didn't water them this afternoon,
and next thing you know, you go out in the morning, they
don't look so good. Perfectly okay, to get plants ahead of time.
Just take care of them and get them ready because the conditions are coming and
as we enter into that break from the heat and hopefully some rain with it,
you can't get a better time, especially in the summer, for plants
to be able to get established. So get them planted ahead of that.
Now weekend is a good time to get out and purchase plants wherever you do.
You're purchasing and be ready to go when here comes the nice spring weather.
Well, let's go out to spring and talk to Jerry. Hello,
Jerry, Hi, Skip, I sure enjoy your show. Thank you.
We're about to have our beds cleaned out and remulched, no dyed mulch.
Randy, if you're listening anyway, I don't worry. I'll carry that on
like I can drone and gripe about it, just for good old time's sake,
right, Okay, I hate anyway the guys are doing it. I've
done it several times before, and this time they recommended that we use humus
instead of mulch. I went online, I had I saw kind of mixed
reviews that it's it's good, but it could almost be too nutrient rich and
not not too much of a a good thing. I just wondered how you
feel about it. Well, I will use compost, for example, as
a surface mulch in addition to a soil amendment. But just put it on
the surface as a malt. That's fine. Humus is pretty rich stuff,
but it's always compost over time. I mean, I guess, you know,
depending on what you were growing, you could give it too much of
a boost. But you know, I would say my biggest concern about using
humus as a surface mulch is that you're putting a lot of humus on and
it's a valuable, not too cheap product that you would rather mix in the
soil where you get the most benefit out of it, because that's that's its
plus is its ability to stimulate the root system to open up soil to release,
you know, the humic and fulvic acids and things that are beneficial to
the plants, the soil and the roots. So I guess I wouldn't be
so much worried about it being too much as I'm worried about. Yeah,
that's not the best use of humus. Oh okay, let will be about
twenty five dollars a yard more. But yeah, yeah, I would.
I think it's a great product. I just I would use as soil amendment.
And then for the mulch, we would like something that's not going to
just decompose overnight, that's going to last you a little while, and then
as it decomposes, we had fresh mulch on top and let the old stuff
decompose. And it's kind of like nature does in the forest floor. Just
okay, So the hum humus U decomposes pretty rapidly, is that right?
Well, it actually has, if it's truly humus, it's almost at its
last stage of decomposition. I mean it's it's gone past composed into a little
further along. So we might be better advice just to go with the standard
mulch. That That's what I would do, And I don't know all the
areas you might be using it in. But a good shredded hardwood mulch works
just fine. There is a fungal leaf mold compost that works really well.
That is a super high quality product that you could use as well. And
that's one that will feed your plants. It's it's ready to go in terms
of doing feeding, but at the same time it is a good product for
use as a mulch on the surface. Okay, all right, thank you,
Skip. I really appreciate it. All right, Jerry, thank you
for the call. I appreciate that very much. Hey, if you live
up in the Magnolia area, we're talking about FM twenty nine seventy eight,
had to stop and think a minute, what's that? What's that Farm Market
Road twenty nine seventy eight that's up near your Grand Parkway Highway two forty nine
that area. Spring Creek Feed is your hometown feed store. They carry the
fertilizers we talk about here, the full line of you know, things like
the Nelsons and the microlife and the night five. They've got all that and
then some. They've got plenty of lawn and garden supplies, you know,
the herbicides, fungicides, pesticides. I like the way they treat you when
you walk in Spring Creek Feed. A very friendly, very courteous staff like
you would expect from a Garden Lines recommended feed store. They're going to carry
the livestock feeds, the pep feeds, all the things that you need.
They also have a delivery service. If you have a bulky thing you need
to get delivered, they can help you with that. If you're a fair
for h if you're military for Senior citizen, their discounts for you. And
if they don't have it, ask them. I bet they can special order
it at Spring Creek Feed again and Magnolia on FM twenty nine seventy eight.
I want to head out to Stafford now and we're gonna talk to Robert.
Good morning, Robert, good morning. I'm concerned about my I think it's
a California ash so big tree has been there thirty years, okay, and
the roots are you know coming up from the yard, got plenty of shade.
But should I be concerned about that or should I cut them off or
what? I wouldn't cut them off. I mean, you can take a
route off here and there over time, but I would bring in some kind
of a mix fill in between them, or use a very thick layer of
mulching in there to kind of smooth it out. You're not going to get
grass to grow when you got roots up like that. Anyway, you could
also put a ground cover in there, like an Asian jasmine or something that
can kind of crawl around and fill in as a green sort of hide those
roots. That's probably the best approaches that I would suggest. Please put big
mulch around the tree itself. Yeah, a little bit of you know,
a woodchip mulch or I can't see the scene that you see, but I'm
just giving you ideas for what I do around the base of a tree.
It's always big tree roots sticking up. But Robert, I'm gonna have to
take a break. If you want to hang around talk. If you've got
more questions, we can do that. I'm gonna go ahead and take a
break and put you on hole for right now and you're good to talk to
you seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you'd like
to give us a call, we'll be right back. Is right back again
the saddle again. Whoopee, tie back in the saddle. Whoopee tie,
good morning, hanging out with a singing cowboys this morning. You're on garden
Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. Our phone number if you'd like
to give us call is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Now, if you're looking for maybe you're looking at moving. You like
a place where you can kind of retire, kick back and have an enjoyable,
very relaxed life in a beautiful environment where you're not going to do better
than a Dell Web community. They've been building communities for over seventy years for
active adults age fifty five and better. A new community by Dell Web here
in our area is out there in Full Shure Effect. It's less than two
miles from downtown Fullshre on FM three fifty nine. Out in that community,
you're going to find the a community garden that is being developed. I've been
working with them on that and I'm really excited about it because you know,
when you take the Dellweb, the kinds of houses, the kinds of homes
that you get with a Dolleweb community, the lifestyle that you get with a
Dollweb community, the programs that they have for residents, just the beauty of
the whole thing, walking trails and whatnot. Adding a community garden. You
know, as a gardener, I don't know what else, what else you
could want. You don't have to plow up the back forty in the backyard
to have a garden. You got a community garden where you can hang out
with friends and just enjoy yourself there at the new Dellweb community. Go to
dellweb dot com slash Houston. You can get more information there or just give
him a call to eight one four five nine zero six zero nine find out
about that Dellweb difference and especially this really cool community out that way. You
know, talking about being out in the full Shore area kind of reminds me
one of our best garden centers in the whole Greater Houston area is out there
in pretty close to that area. It's actually Enchanted Gardens. Now that's on
FM three fifty nine. Did you just hear me say FM three fifty nine
with the Doe Web community. The Lenderman family has been part of that community
since nineteen ninety five Enchanted Gardens opened. Now, this is one of those
destination garden centers, you know, Enchanted Gardens is going to carry all the
products we talk about, you know, the fertilizers and the soils and mixes,
things like that. They're going to have that. But you need to
see the plant selection. You need to see the garden bling that goes with
it, you know, the things like fountains and chimes and garden art.
I was talking earlier about, Hey, it's time. If you want to
have pumpkins, it's time to get those things planted. Well, just head
out to Enchanted Gardens and Richmond and they've got pumpkin plants are ready to go
for sale. I mean you can buy seeds and stuff, or you can
just grab the plants they've already got going for you and get a good head
start. If you're like pollinator gardens, they are an excellent source of all
kinds of plants, you know, for butterflies, for pollinators and other things
like that. Enchanted Gardens, it's just it's worth a visit. Trust me
on this one. You take family and friends out there and walk through the
place, check it out, and you're going to find it to be absolutely
an enchanted wonderland. When it comes to plants, let's head out to friends
Wood and we're going to talk to Hello, Claudia to turn off the radio
and let's talk about what you're interested in. All right, let me turn
it down. Hi skip. My husband was supposed to talk to you,
but he's too shy, so all right. Um. We have a climbing
rose on a trailis in our backyard. It faces the afternoon heat and it's
just not putting out in a roses. Now. A few years ago it
did you know? I wish I didn't know. It's the kind of climbs
up trails, okay, I well, most climbers are once bloomers, are
spring only bloomers. There are some that repeat bloom and so if it's a
spring only bloomer, it shouldn't be blooming right now. Lady Banks is a
good example of big old yellow blooms. Personall yellow blooms on Lady Banks.
But you know it, if it's a repeat bloomer and it's not blooming,
I would look at sunlight. I would look at what condition is the plan
in it? Has it got good vigor? Is it growing well? But
mostly is it getting really good sunlight? And that would oh yeah, yeah,
it faces the afternoon sun and all believes look healthy. They're green.
I don't see anything yellow. They're not dropping. It's yeah, it's and
it's tall. Okay, it's just roses. Well you know, I mean
roses bloom on terminals, so that means if it's growing, that means you
have new group growth. That means you have terminal shoots, and the roses
occur on those. I would I don't know. I'd give it more time,
I guess. But if you could find out the name of the rose,
it may be that it's just not Have you had it for years,
Yes, we have, and it blooms through the summer in the past.
We haven't seen it bloom now in a couple of years. Oh okay,
all right, wow. Yeah. If you have a rosebush that's healthy and
getting good sunlight, and if it's healthy, it means it's got decent nutrition
good enough to bloom, then I don't know why it wouldn't be blooming unless
it's just a once bloomer. But if you could figure out the name of
it, or hunt down the name, or if you got any pictures of
the blooms, you could email me a picture of the blooms from past years.
If you happen to take some and I could take a look at the
bloom and probably identify it that way and then know at least what we're working
with here. Okay, Now you know that when you're doing everything right and
a plant won't operate, the last resort is you you get you a bottle
of round up, okay, and you just walk out to the rose and
you point it at the plant and you say, see this stuff, I
don't mind using it. I'm coming back in three weeks if there's no blooms
on you and I find that that usually they start blooming. Sorry, you
know, I've run out of good ideas, so we'll try some humor on
this. But seriously, I you know, sunlight, adequate water, a
blue a plant that's genetically geared toward blooming at the time of year we're talking
now beyond that, I don't know what to tell you that. I was
told once that you shouldn't over water roses. You need to be careful about
how much water you give roses. Do you agree with that? Yes,
they don't want to be in a swamp. They're they're not native to swampy
areas at all, and that is they don't want that. But if that's
the case. You should be seeing some other signs and problems above ground.
It's not like overwater and makes them not bloom. It's over water and causes
root rods, causes the wilting because the roots can't get oxygen, start dying
and things like that. All right, Okay, thank you so much.
All right, thank you. I appreciate the call very much. Hey,
do you have pest problems. We're talking about cockroaches, We're talking about fire
ens, We're talking about all kinds of things regarded the creepy crawleys. Well,
McGrath pest Control. They're the folks you need to talk to. Scott
McGrath as Scott's dad started this back in nineteen seventy four. But McGrath pest
control over let's see forty nine years or over forty eight at least. It's
a family run business. It's the old fashioned kind of business where they say
I'm going to be there at a certain time and they show up. They
don't go, well, I'll try to be there on Saturday afternoon sometime.
You got to hang around all day and wait and see if I'll show up.
No, they tell you when they're gonna show up and they show up.
They're highly rated company. They serve the whole area. If you're dealing
with pests, if you're dealing with rodents, that's an issue that we deal
with from time to time, you know, as we go through the season.
We got our termite seasons February through March, big termite peak. But
they'll do year round inspections all year. I mean, the termites don't go
away after March. They're there in your house. If they're there you want
to take care of that. They can walk around the house and look at
it and see issues you may have going on around the weep holes and other
things. Call Scott McGrath have them come out. You can go to McGrath
pest control dot com or just give him a call to eight one four six
nine eight two four. Oh. The kind of company you call, a
service company that you can trust, you can believe, and they do what
they say and it's a reasonable price. Man, with that combination, I
don't know how you can do better than McGrath Pest Control for those kinds of
issues that you're dealing with. Hey, we're about to take a break here,
we're about to end the hour. But I just wanted to say that
as we come back the next hour, we're going to be talking about a
number of different things that important in terms of what we do at this time
of year in our gardens and in our landscapes. So I hope you will
hang around for us a little bit. I also want to take your gardening
questions if you have some. This will be now our last hour coming up
here at nine seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I just want to remind you
that we are going to be interviewing tomorrow regarding this water my Yard app that
I keep talking about. Doctor Guy Phips from Texan m University is going to
be in for the interview and he's going to be talking about the things that
are going on in the science of watering and how now we have the technology
available to help us know how much and when the water and I mean it
is some really cool stuff. We're going to talk about stuff you don't have
to worry about. Takes the worry out of watering. I do the water
my Yard app. By the way, I get emails all the time to
tell me, yeah, this week you don't need to water this week,
you need to water a half answer this week, you need to water an
ch. It's really cool service to have available, so save some questions you
might have Tomorrow when we have Guy PEPs on, you'll definitely want to listen
to. Katrh Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip rictor just watch
him as well. Good Saturday morning, and boy is it ever a good
Saturday morning. Oh my gosh, makes Saturday. It makes you happy to
be alive and certainly happy to be a gardener. To get out there,
enjoy some of that and get out perhaps stop by a garden center pick up
some plants. Hey, why you're at it, why not stop by someplace
and get you some of the supplies you need for your plants. And I
can't think of a better place than that, for sure than a Southwest Fertilizer.
You know, Southwest Fertilizer has been around since gosh, I think nineteen
fifty five. I believe, I believe that I am the fifth garden Line
host to speak for Southwest Fertilizer. Now it's not like Guardenline goes to the
host very fast. I mean, you know, this is a long tradition,
going back in the fifties. Randy was doing this show for over I
was twenty six, twenty seven years. I believe that that's a that is
a long time institution, and certainly the importance of that is not lost on
me. I'll tell you that for sure, that this show has been important
for the city of Houston, for the greater Houston area, really the southwest
Southeast Texas region for a long, long, long time. Guardline reaches a
wide area. I was listening to Guardline on the other side of New Bronfels
the other day, and I've had callers calling that listen from Louisiana and up
north of Bryan College Station. Even it's a wide area and it's a show
that our goal is to make it educational and helpful to you. I think
gardening is the best hobby of all I know I'm biased, but that doesn't
mean I'm wrong. I think it's an important hobby, and I think it's
a wonderful hobby for all ages. There are not a lot of hobbies.
You can say that when you're eighty years old, you can still be doing
this, certainly not playing flag football, although I'm sure there's some out there
doing that now. But seriously, gardening is a wonderful hobby. But we
want to give you facts because there's a lot of bologna out there. I
mean, I have to limit my time looking at social media just because it
drives me nuts when it comes to gardening stuff. The things that are said
and claimed and they're just not true. And I don't want someone spending time
and money and then saying they have a brown thumb just because someone misled them
on gardening information. And that is one of the things I think is important
and I take it seriously. And I was talking about, you know,
the importance of products and Southwest Fertilizer. I kind of drifted off here a
little bit. But when you go to Southwest, any kind of fertilizer that
we talk about and more, you're going to find there. Any kind of
an insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, you're going to find there. If you're
an organic gardener and you want the widest selection of organic products, you're going
to find it at Southwest Fertilizer. Bob Patterson and his team have created a
institution. I mean, and if you've been around since nineteen fifty five,
you're doing a lot right. They're down on the corner of Byssinet and Runwick.
Just go on line to Southwest Fertilizer dot com and find them. If
you need to pick up any kind of supplies for the garden, the landscape,
any kind of pest control, any kind of fertilizer, anything like that.
Maybe tools eighty foot wall of tools that you can purchase. Go in
there. Take your dull more blade, let them get that sharpened for you.
Maybe you get some power equipment and needs a little work. They got
a shop in the back. They can take care of that at Southwest Fertilizer.
Love going in there, Love visiting with Bob and the team. Really
quality folks that know what they're talking about. Hey, let's go out to
Richmond and we're going to visit with Michael. Hello Michael, Yes, good
morning, Good morning. I've got a question for you. I've got a
tomato plant that's doing quite well, cherry tomatoes, and over the last couple
of weeks, i'd notice I'm getting these what I would call a stink bug
looking creature that's crawling all over it, but they're not like eating the fruit.
Okay, How big are they? And what color are they? What
is their shape? So their ship kind of like a maybe like a shield
in a sense, okay, and they're usually like a gray black color.
Okay. And I don't know if you know what I mean when I say
a stink bug. They kind of look like that, and they're they actually
look like they're mating too, because they could be backed back. Okay,
yeah, okay, Well, so it could be a stink bug. There
are many types of stink bugs. It could be a leaf footed bug,
and it really doesn't matter which it is. They're the same thing. They
put their mouthpart in your tomato. They spit caustic spit. It dissolves the
cells. They slurp it up, and they leave yellow, hard spots on
your fruit. So you need to deal with them when they're young. The
ones that aren't mating are the younger ones that don't have wings. You can
just swat them, knock them off into a pail of water. You can
vacuum them up, are you can spram if you want to spram. The
ones that have wings can fly away, and they're a bigger challenge and it
takes a little stronger insecticide to kill them. The hemiptra, the stink bugs
and leafooted bugs, they're they're not just killed by insecticidal soap or BT or
some other little simple stuff like that. Uh. And so it's going to
take something more powerful to get rid of them. But you know you're gonna
be able to find that. You know, you're down, You're out in
Richmond, So I mean you're close to the enchanted nursery, You're you're close
to there's some some good ace hardwares out that way. Plantation Ace probably one
of the closest one to you. And and Mickey and the folks out there
have got a good selection of pesticides to choose from, and they can direct
you to whatever's on their shelves that might be good for you know, more
powerful bug. It's probably gonna be a perrethroid of some type or a parrethren
if you want the organic version that you're gonna have to hit them with.
I'd go out early in the morning when it's still cool and spray them,
try to knock them out at that point in time. So, now,
are they are they doing anything to the fruit at this point Yeah, from
the time they're young, they are piercing, sucking mouthparts are doing their work.
Yeah, you need to get on those and knock them out. But
hey, I appreciate the call, and I wish you good luck with them.
They're not an easy one to deal with, so don't delay any longer.
Remember the morning, they're a little bit more sluggish, a little easier
to get them sprayed than they are later in the day. All right,
well, thank you for that call. Hey, if you are looking for
a quality source of mulch, of composts, of any kind of a soil
amendment, Nature's Way is a place to go. Nature's Ways up on Highway
forty five, up toward Conrow where fourteen eighty eight comes in. If you're
going north, just turn across the railroad tracks right where fourteen eighty eight is
and you'll you'll find Nature's Way. They've got rose soil, they've got leaf
mold compost. In fact, they've got a large supply of fungal compost,
and they have a thing called fungal Friday now ten percent off bag, twenty
percent off bulk to move a mountain of that super souper high quality stuff that
they have. They've also got a native plant nursery. They in fact,
they have other kinds of plants as well, but they really focus in on
some native native plants, native perennials. There at Nature's Way. While you're
out there by the way, there are summer hours Monday through Friday, eight
to five today, Saturday's eight to two, closed on Sunday. They do
deliveries. You will find their products also bagged in some of our garden centers.
But whether you go pick them up yourself or give them a call Nature's
Way Resources, you're just not going to do better in terms of a quality
mix, whether it's composed or garden soil or whatever. A lot of our
folks that are gardeners like organic gardening. They like to garden organically and there's
a lot of reasons for that. And one of the companies that's been kind
of the leader in organic products here in the greater Houston area and now across
Texas is Microlife. Microlife has fertilizers for the lawn. The two that I'm
really talking about right now a lot are the Orange label liquid the Microlife bio
Matrix. Just look for the orange labels. A little quart bottle seven and
one three. It's got beneficial microbes. I use it for my houseplants.
It works super super well that high nitrogen your houseplants or foliage plants. It
helps them ocean harvest. Blue label four two three is a fishing motion base
that I use for outside the guard outside of the house. It can be
a folior spray if you can do some folior feeding. It's not gonna burn
your plants. Go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com to learn about these or to
find out where to buy these products in your area. Hey, we're gonna
take a break. We'll be right back. Seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. In the summer time, when the wind is high,
you can stage fine up bands this sky when the weather is fine.
You got women, You got women on your mind, Have a drink,
have a job, go out and see why you get fine. And good
morning. It's a great morning. Great morning for gardening, great morning for
talking about gardening, great morning for getting out to Guard center. And hey,
listen, if you are anywhere near the two forty nine and Louetta intersection,
that is where Plants for all Seasons is and at EVA you need drive
cross towns Worth going to check out. Plants for All Seasons is one of
those hometown nurseries that they've been here a long time. It's a family run
nursery. They have the expertise you need. And I'm really serious when I
say that. The folks that Plants for All Seasons they know what they're talking
about. You bring a problem in, they identify it correctly, which is
important, so they can point you to a product that will work against against
that problem, that will solve that problem. That's the kind of place this
is. If you're a green thumb, you already know about it because green
thumbs go there. I mean, it's right there two forty nine and Luetta
Plants for All Seasons. If you're a brown thumb, you need to go
there and turn that thumb green. And they can do that because remember,
we don't have brown thumbs, we have uninformed thumbs. And a place like
Plants for All Seasons is going to inform your thumb. If you will talk,
if you will take it that way, bring up sample, bring in
a picture for diagnosis, let them help you. Listen. This is summer
season. No reason to not have color in your landscape. They are loaded
with color. Do you want a multicolor combo container, say that five times?
They can provide it. Do you just want some pizzas, something that
can get out there in the heat and laugh at Houston heat and humidity.
They can provide that for you. Perennials, annuals, tree shrubs, groundcovers,
herbs, vegetables, soil, pottery, on and on and on.
Plants for all seasons. You are not going to find a place that has
more trained staff, that has more quality product that just continues to be stocked
up in beauty and bounty to make your place more beautiful and bountiful. That's
plants for all seasons. Love to go there, love to visit with them
too. I mean, it's just it's just refreshing, you know, to
go to a mom and pop garden center where people know what they're talking about
and they it's it just excites their plant nerds like me, and boy do
they do they ever have the experience to help you out. I am just
I did some fertilizing along in this summer and one of the products that I
just think one of the product lines actually that I just think is an outstanding
one is the Nelson Plant Food Turf Star Line now Nelson. In fact,
they're loaded with quality products or Color Star Line, their Nutrastar Line, their
Nature Star Line for those of you who want more of an organic type fertizer.
Turf Star Line is designed for lawns and the summer. One that I
always focus on is slow and easy. I love those words. Slow and
easy. That's the kind of fertilizer you need in summer. You want to
gradually feed over time, cut down on thatch development, cut down on the
insect and disease problems that a fast release can provide in the summertime. Slow
and Easy twenty two two ten is the one we're talking about. While you're
picking up slow and Easy, you might as well grab some Bruce's Brew.
That's an eighteen four nine. You can use that year round. Now,
I know it's a lawn fertilizer. Don't tell them, don't tell them I
said this, But it's an everything fertilizer, right, I mean Bruce's Brew
eighteen four nine. You're gonna have a fruit tree, you can put it
on that. I know they have fruit tree food too, but it works
good for everything. For your herb gardens. For your vegetable words. I
use it for all kinds of stuff. I know it's a lawn fertilizer and
it's good for that. But this line of fertilizers, you're not going to
go wrong with Nelson plant food. They're sold all over the place, easy
to find Nelson, and it's one of those products that we believe in here
on Garden Line because we know that it's going to give you a quality,
quality result in terms of your lawn, in terms of your flowers, in
terms of whatever you're wanting to grow. You know, Dell Webb, I've
talked about him a couple of times today, but I just want to mention
one more. Maybe you just joined us and you didn't hear me discussed this
earlier. Del Webb is one of those institutions now because for over seventy years
been building these neighborhoods. When I was a kid, I went to a
Dellweb community out near south of Phoenix, Arizona. Believe not, that's a
long time ago. Dellweb has been building these communities for active adults age fifty
five and better now for over seventy years. Down in Fullsher less than two
miles from downtown fullsher on FM three fifty nine is a brand new Dellweb community
going in. I'm helping them. They contacted me to work with them on
a community garden. A community garden is a wonderful opportunity to gather with friends
to visit. You know, gardeners. They're the gardeners are just good people.
I mean really, I I don't know how many master gardener classes I've
trained over the years. I don't know how any gardening talks I've given over
the years, And it's just it's amazing to me. You can't walk into
a group of people and do better than a group of gardeners. They're friendly,
they're hopeful. You know, gardening gives us that hope and tomorrow,
that belief that it's going to get better, the belief that that nursery cat
lug that seed packet. It just sets your dreams ablaze right as to how
beautiful your place is going to be. Well. Community gardens are like that.
Dellweb provides that for you if you're looking for a place for a place
retired, but to have that community with lifestyle programs, dellweb dot Com Slash
Houston is what you need to check for more info or just call them two
eight one four five nine zero six zero nine. I wanted to mention a
little bit about some of the pests of summer. You know, we talked
about stink bugs and leafooted bugs. In fact, I was visiting with Michael
lid and Richmond about that a minute ago, and those that's just a it's
one of the problems we have in the summertime. If you grow fruits and
vegetables, they love those especially. They love your tomatoes, they love your
peaches, I love your pecans, and they love a lot of other things.
We also have spider mites that are a problem. Now. Spider mites
are really easy, I think to take care of. And you know,
you can go try to find a mita side, and that's fine. You
can use that. A lot of times. Insecticides make spider mites worse than
they were before, and that's a whole nother story. I just use a
blast of water upward from underneath the plant, just spray the heck out of
the foliage and blast them right off, and it dislodges them. It gets
them wet, which causes disease problems, and their bodies and it messes them
up. I mean, you can use insexticidal soap, but boy, when
that's one hundred degrees and the sun is blazing down, you can burn a
plant withinsexticidal soap. I you mix it too strong and spray it at that
time of day. But just a blast of water is a pretty good way
to go about. It makes it a lot easier if you're looking for products
like that. You know the ACE hardware stores. We talked about them over
and over because I don't know, I can't get enough personally of ACE hardware.
Every time I go into an ACE, I find something else I didn't
know they carried that I would love to have myself. Now. They got
all the fertilizers that we talk about, They've got the pesticides and products that
you need for your garden. They've got the grills. I mean they've of
course, they've got haint and plumbing and electrical and everything else. But they
have a lot of beautiful things for your home and for your garden that once
you get into an ACE and check it out, you'll see what I'm talking
about. It's like a one stop shop for so many different kinds of things.
So ACE Hardware dot Com is how you find one of those thirty nine
ACE Hardware stores near you, and I would encourage that you do that.
Hey, fourth of July is coming up. It's time to go get you
a grill. It's to get you some grill supplies. It's to get stuff
or outdoor entertaining. Maybe you need some outdoor furniture, some outdoor bling,
You're going to find it there at the Ace Hardware. All was good.
Hey, by the way, earlier I was speaking who was I talking with
about? Oh my gosh, somebody had a plumaria that wasn't blooming. And
now I am trying to remember, Oh it was a Jackie out in Galveston,
and I said I was going to look into that. Jackie and I
have and you know, pretty much what I told you is what the plumaria
experts seem to be saying. Does it if your plumaria is not blooming,
it's getting enough sunlight? Is it just young plumerius take a few years typically
to mature and reach a size where they settle in and start blooming. Really
well, they just need a little more time. Of all the things that
we've talked about, I think Jackie that's probably the one that most applies to
your situation. Now, if you're nutrients or way out of whack, or
maybe you don't have a phosphorus plenty of phosphorus in the soil that could affect
it. We typically will prune a plumeria in late winter early spring before new
growth emerges, and that will help stimulate the blooming. So proper pluning,
pruning at the proper time is important. Certainly sun in shade and the things
we talked about, But I think with yours maybe it's just a little bit
on the young side, So that's something to consider. Don't overwater them,
don't underwater them, keep them moderately moist, actively growing, and I think
you're going to do as good as you're going to do with a plumeria with
those kinds of cares, and my gosh, what a gorgeous, unique flower,
fun one to be able to grow. If you don't have a plume
area, you need to go out and grab one. Speaking of going out
and grabbing one, if you're up in the Tomball area, are just feeling
willing to drive Acrosstown Arburgate dot com. Arburgate is one of the nurseries that
we love to talk about. Here, we got a whole handful of fact.
I've said this before, but those of you in the Greater Houston area
are so fortunate to have some of the best, and I mean that the
best home garden centers in the state of Texas right here and Arburgate absolutely one
of those kinds of places. Arburgate dot Com. There you're going to find
a plume area that you're looking for herbs, flowers, all kinds of things.
But also they're one two three completely easy system. What is that,
Well, that's a food, a four four three plus tim percent calcium organic
plant food that will absolutely make your plants thrive. Anything with roots is going
to be happy with that. You're going to find a soil, the organic
soil complete from Arburgate. That is not the amendment that we use in our
clay soils. You need compost and you need shale. And guess what's in
Arbourgate Organic Soil Complete. You're gonna have compost, you're gonna have some large
particle sand, and you're gonna have the shale that helps open up those clay
soils. As you continue to add shale over time, it just gets better
and better. And then you're going to have the compost complete two different kinds
of compost. You're talking about incredible beneficial MicroB diversity. You're talking about a
very well balanced soil with plenty of macromicronutrient content, and also again the shale
content in the organic compost. Complete Arbourgate one two three food soil compost all
together in one package at arbourgate dot com. Hey, you're listening to Gardenline
and we're going to take a little break. We will be back our phone
number seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Well, I
told you we'll always surprise you with songs that actually came in by request.
First time I've had a request on garden Line for music, by the way,
Thank you appreciate that very much. A fan of the unusual and eclectic
on garden Line when it comes to music. Anchors away for all those folks
that you out there, I have family and friends in the Navy. Fourth
of July certainly a good time for remembrance of all those people that stand in
the gap for us, for those that have given their lives for us over
the years as well, and all of the armed forces. You're listening to
garden Line, your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. We're coming up on the last
less than thirty minutes of garden Line for today. We'll be back tomorrow from
six am to ten am. But if you'd like to get a question in
today, this is a good time to go ahead and do it. And
let's head right out to Highlands and talk to Warren. Hello Warren high Skip.
Enjoy your program, Thanks sir. My problem is I have a couple
of large fig trees that are the the what we used to call is sugar
figs, and this is the first year I've had a major black fly infestation.
What do you recommend to treat this? Well, what are they doing?
Are they getting in the fig in the hole in the end of the
fig or what are they doing? Yeah, they're they're just it's like a
big hive of bees all over the tree. And you know they get on
when the figs are right, you know, they get on the juice and
uh yeah, and then the riotings that fall on the ground. But they're
just all in the tree itself. Oh boy, that's a that's a problem.
That is one of the reasons. We generally recommend figs that have a
closed eye because they can't get that juice and they you don't get souring,
you don't get wasps and other things in there. Uh. When you know,
if you got an insect, it's either a matter of living with it,
uh, you know, and trying to get the figs you can,
or using a spray. Now, the course, these figs or things were
one to eat, so we're gonna be real careful with what we would use
it as spray. But you might try, uh a product containing pyretheran that
that happens to be an organic insecticide that kills a wide variety of insects.
And the reason I would recommend it is because it breaks down really fast.
In a few days out in the sunlight, it's broken down. So when
you pick those figs, joys want to wash anyway, just to be sure
when you've sprayed. But that would probably be one of the less persistent products
that you could use that would work. Okay, what about the difference between
pireth and pre permethrin or Okay, Okay, so that's that's a good question.
It gives me just a little bit chance to get nerdy here on horticulture.
But it's important. Okay, Pyrethrin is and pyrethrum is the natural insecticide
that comes from a daisy like flower plant. Okay, they grind up the
flowers into a powder. They call that pirethrum. They extract the ingredient,
natural ingredient from that, and that would be pyrethrine. Now, as it
gets confusing, pyrethrin ends in th r i n. Every other thing that
ends in t r i n is a synthetic perethroid. So here we go.
Pyrethrin the only natural one, uh res meth thrin, uh silo,
cyphlutherrian, lambda silo hathrin. What all of those threads are synthetic parithrids.
They range in toxicity, they range in persistence. By fen thrin a is
a synthetic parrethroid, you would not you want to use that on your figs.
And that's why I say the pyri thren because I know that one is
going to break down. I know it works good. The pyrethroids are more
effective is insecticides because they've been designed that way. But that's probably the safest
way to go if you just absolutely can't live with the bugs that are on
your figs right now, now, what would that material also kill the larva?
And are the eggs that say are laying in the in the trees.
It would kill larva that gets sprayed with it, but probably at the eggs.
No, okay, so you recommend just that would if I have to
take one shot in the dark, because I'm not totally clear on which insect
it is you're seeing the black flies you're talking about, but one shot in
the dark, it would be go ahead and go with the pirether and if
you want to kill them, I think probably all right. Thank you,
yes, sir, thank you very much. I appreciate that very much.
Hey, by the way, if we are if you are looking for a
quality blend of soils, and you especially you know those of you out in
the Porter direction, Porter area, that's where airloom soils is. But you
don't have to live out there to have airloom soils. They deliver all over
the area. They also have bag soil that is available. And all the
places we talk about here, the mom and pop garden centers, the ace
hardware stores, the feed stores and things, a lot of them are going
to carry the Heirloom Soils line of products and They have a product for pretty
much everything you can imagine, from building a flowerbed to maybe putting a potting
soil in for indoors, a potting soil for outdoor. I mean they've they've
got all kinds of stuff like that available. Airloom Soils of Texas dot Com
is where you need to go to see the products that they have. They
offer a one qbic yard supersack. Think of a giant you know those those
sacks people get so they can bring home groceries without getting another bag or something
in a plastic bag. Imagine one of those so big that it holds a
yard of soil and it's strong enough to lift the yard of soil. They'll
drop that on your on your driveway and you can just go to town right
there, neat clean, easy, easy to do. Give them a call
see what products they have in the supersacks that you might be interested in.
Go online Airloom Soils of Texas dot com. They can deliver for you.
They can bring you know, a load up, put it in your driveway
if you just want soil dumped there. They have a qbcard calculator, and
the nice thing about a qubcard calculator is you know, maybe you want to
build a flowerbed and you don't know how many qbyard? What's at I know
a qbcard is three about by three, But how much soil do I need?
How many qubcards do I need? The calculator will tell you that.
You tell, I mean, how deep it is, how wide it is,
how long it is? How many wheelbarrows is in a qubcard? How
many five gallon buckets for crying out loud as in a Qubcard's all on their
calculator. Heirloom Soils dot Com. You'll be amazed at the variety of products.
And I've experienced many of them firsthand myself. They are super super quality
products. You won't go wrong with an heirloom soil. Now we're gonna head
all the way out to San Antonio and talk to Cleveland. How are you
doing, Cleveland? I'm well, are you really in San Antonio? Well,
not right now, but I'm living in San Antonio, Okay, right
down the Louisana all right east and west. How can we help today?
Well? I thought, how big funks all all over the country. And
I was in Indiana and I saw grass that were very pretty called Kentucky blue
Yes, sir, So like I want to beg grass and survive, and
so I use the Google machine and to say there's something called Yes, sir,
you know anything about that? Yes, as far as you know,
San Antonio, Houston, Louisiana. No Kentucky blue grass, that's for sure.
If you got all the way up into Dallas and even a little further
north, you could get by with a blend that has fescue Kentucky bluegrass kind
of mixed in it, especially if you had a really shady yard, because
it takes shade even better than Saint Augustine, and you you could use it
there. But it's going to struggle. It's on the opposite schedule of our
southern grasses, all right, like all the use Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine
is all happy all summer and then it just kind of sits through the winter
and then it's all happy all summer. These Kentucky blue grass and rescue those
are cool season grasses. So they're going to do really well in the fall
when it cools off and in spring when it cools off, but they barely
may get through summer, and they struggle Cleveland. I'm gonna put you on
hold. I've got a hard break I have to do. But when I
come back, I'm gonna finish answering this about the Texas blue grass. Sorry
for having to do that, but thanks for hanging on seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. If you'd like to give us a call
and be on right after Clevelands dot com boy, you know the rule of
shot on his almost eating see dragon. Good morning, good Saturday morning,
beautiful day, beautiful day for gardening, beautiful day for talking about gardening as
well. Hey, let's go back to talk to Cleveland in San Antonio,
but actually Louisiana Cleveland. We were talking about blue grass, and you would
ask about Texas blue grass. That's actually a native Texas grass. Now it
is a type of bluegrass. And so if you were to throw it out
here in Houston, Texas or San Antonio, Texas and in the full brun
of the sun and say good luck, it's probably not gonna do real well
for you. But it has been used, and they've they've tried using it
and breeding. The Texas A and M turf breeding program up in Dallas has
messed with it a little bit. We still haven't come up with one that
is just you know, one percent dependable, but in the right spot,
you know, a real bright shade, especially as you get a little further
north. But you might be able to get it to do. Okay,
you're not gonna, to my knowledge, you're not going to find it for
sale as sad anywhere. So I'm so good. Thank you very much for
your help. All right, well, hey, thanks for calling, and
you take care out there on the roadways. Thank you, Yes, sir,
Bye bye. Let's go out to Katie now and we're gonna talk to
Andre. Hello, Andre, good morning. Take them a call. Yes,
sir, how can we help Well, hopefully this is a simple one
for y'all. Um. So we've been in our home for going on four
years. They have some beautiful knockout roads pus just in the front footen plampet,
they have race plampet. They've been doing great. They've gone through the
freezes, uh, trimming them back. They come back and just full force
and absolutely stunning for you know, turn part of the year. Recently though,
I just fertilized because I was overdue with that and didn't have what I
was using So I just picked up some miracle grow the rose foot and treating
with that, and all of them look good except for this one that is
browning up bad. The leader brown and looks almost like it's dying. Well,
I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, I've seen some problems on roses
in general, but since knockouts are everywhere, we certainly notice it on knockout.
I don't think it's a knockout problem so much, but there's some scorching
of the older leaves, and there are different things that can cause that.
Certainly, dry soil can cause that. Overwatering and killing roots by not giving
them oxygen can cause similar kinds of problems in time, burning them with fertilizer
excessive salt based fertilizers, which I doubt at all that's what you did,
but that that can cause a problem in terms of tip and margin burn.
There's sometimes diseases involved the older leaves turning yellow from like black spot on the
leaves, but I think it's more of a heat and a moisture related problem
that you're seeing that in most cases, that's what I've noticed on the knockouts.
Okay, yeah, it's it's kind of a strange thing. You know,
just try to get that sole moisture moderate. And roses are not prima
donna plants really, but something like a knockout. You shouldn't have to worry
a lot about getting the water just right. But one hundred degrees for days
and days on end. I mean that's stressful to any plant. And and
you know the all the biological processes in the plant, the respiration and the
photosynthesis and all the things that plants do to stay alive. As a temperature
goes up, they hit a place where some of those things start to shut
down, and so things can get kind of complicated. So that that may
be part of what we're dealing with. Okay, would it be just God
be there just one and knock the other four? That makes sense? Well,
it could. Is this a sprinkler system or a drip system that they're
on sprinkler? Okay? Yeah, I um ah boy. If something is
blocking a sprinkler, you can have an area, even a section of a
bush that just doesn't get water. Uh. You know, when I've noticed,
you know, I'll turn the sprinkler on like the other up at a
sprinkler on my yard, and I don't know something had kind of blocked a
little part of it, and so there was this whole slice of the pie
going out from the sprinkler that wasn't getting watered, you know what I'm saying.
And that can happen in the sprinklers in our bed. So you maybe
want to turn the sprinkles on and look at where the water's going and just
make sure that it is actually getting water in that spot. That would be
a possibility. Plants all can be somewhat different. Now, all your knockouts
or clones of each other, so genetically they're the same. But if the
roots system had any kind of issues on this one plant, then it could
look different than the plants next to it. So that could be another thing
going on, something underground related to that. But at this point, Andrea,
I'm you know, I'm starting to play Colombo and dream up, well,
it could be this. It could be that. It could be this
because I can't be there to see it. But check out the sprinkler,
making sure the things I've been talking about, making sure they're happening. And
if all is well, it's good, even coverage, everything is getting watered
the same, then I'm not sure why that is happening to that bush.
Maybe you would want to send us some photos. Let me take a look
at them. Just make sure it's not a disease or that I don't see
something else in the photo. A picture of the whole rosebush, maybe a
picture of some of the leaves that are showing the symptoms of what you're talking
about. Make sure they're in good sharp focus. I'll be glad to take
another look at it just to see. But do let me know, especially
if you send me the photo and you get out there and you turn the
water on and find out that that blocking the sprinkler thing or whatnot is going
on, or maybe the sprinkler has a plug in it. That happened to
my launch sprinkler two by the way, where there's something kind of gets in
the way, like a chip of lime or you know whatnot, breaks loose
from the hose and goes in there and plugs it. Anything like that.
Just check that out first. But if you want me to take a look,
hang on, I'll have Josh pick you up and get you the information
you need to send me the photo to take it from there. Thank you
very much for that call. I appreciate that. Well. We are too
far along for another call, so we're about to finish up our day here.
You've been listening to Gardenline, and hey, I've had a good time.
I hope you have too. We're here to answer your gardening questions.
We're gonna be back in again tomorrow. Be here from six am to ten
am. If you didn't have the guts to go knock on the neighbor door
this morning to wake them up, maybe now they're awake you can go over
and tell them, hey, have you heard about this thing called Gardenline,
Especially if they've got one of those yards where they don't take care of it,
or you hear me talking about things like how to water, how to
mow whatever, and they're not doing that. You don't have to be ugly
about it, but you could just say I got a great show to listen
to, and who knows, maybe they'll do what maybe you can accomplish,
and I can help with what the neighborhood association can get done themselves. I
joke about neighborhood associations, but I'll tell you I think my neighborhood association has
a stack up envelopes with my rest on them, just so they can grab
the next one for the next crazy thing that I pulled off in the yard.
Like, yeah, it is not okay with us for you to you
to do that in the yard here in this place around here. Oh,
gardening is fine. You know. We have rules of gardening, like you
have to have colors from opposite sides of the color palette or from the three
corners like tertiary colors three like a triangle across the color palette. We have
rules about you know, how you plant this or where you plant that,
or you design the beds this way. That's all fine. I mean,
if you want to follow those, they're based on good reasons because it's esthetically
pleasing, but it's your yard. If you and the neighborhood association can get
along on it, then go for it and do that. Is there a
reason we don't have vegetables and flower beds? Nope, no reason at all,
just we don't do that. But think of all the ornamentals we have,
the trailing herbs like oregano for example, or an upright rosemary areas a
shrub or a multicolored Swiss chart for a beautiful plant, or the herb calls
solid Burnett. It makes a little mound of leaves that are cucumber flavored leaves.
It's an herb. Why can't it be used where you would have used
lariaty or something else. Hey, just some ideas. Have fun. Talk
to you tomorrow.