Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip Rictor. It's
so crazy, Trim, just watching so many takes backing a s well.
Good Sunday morning, Good Sunday morning, on a good day to be outside
this morning, A little bit certainly a good day this afternoon to get out
and visit one of our mom and pop local garden centers around the Greater Houston
area. There are some some cool plants in stocked in I'm looking at some
of the new things going on Buchanans Nursery. They actually have a nice selection
of hummingbird plants all right now. The hummingbirds are flying through by the way,
they're starting to arrive. Their big month is going to be September here
as they do their migration. But they will eventually head on out most of
them. A few we always have a few scragglers. But now's the time
to get out hummingbird feeders if you have them. But I tell you now
is also the time to plant hummingbird plants because that just sets you up for
a lot of years of success. And I think I always get excited when
I look at lists of quality plants that do well. I have some turks
cap in my yard. That's that's one of the ones that Buchanans is keeping
in stock. In fact, I think they keep that thing in stock all
the time. Firebush Amelia pattens is another one of those kinds of plants.
The coral high cuckle is really nice in the spring, and of course this
esperanza will take you through summer. The red yuca does amazingly. You know,
that's a plant that looks like, well, this ought to be in
West Texas own, but it just does well everywhere as long as you don't
drown it. Uh, and it its flowers are really loved by by the
hummingbirds. There are many other of these we could just keep going on and
going on with with things like a pineapple sage. That is one that blooms
in the fall season, primarily late summer and fall. You can get blooms
at some other times, but that's it's that's it's at least for me when
it's done its best. And just another reminder to always have things that are
blooming at different times of the year. You know, your your cigar kafia
that is a good one for hummingbirds in it. It'll bloom fairly late in
the season. That's when they're coming through, and that's when you want to
have them because once they find your place and they realize, hey, this
is a good wayte station, uh, then they're going to be back.
And I guess the way I look at it is turn your landscape into a
horticultural Bucky's for hummingbirds and they will pull in there, you know, uh
in the fall season, which is what we want. Buchanan's has a lot
of a lot of other good things like that. You know, they've got
their shade plant collection is really one of the best I've seen. I really
am always amazed. I always going there and I see some new plants I
haven't seen before, and it's just like, yeah, you know, it's
been a long time, but that is that would be an awesome plant to
plan here. Of course, they specialize in natives. That's the that's their
big deal, the thing that uh yeah, I guess they're known for its
in their name. But don't just think natives, I mean think everything.
Right now, They've got a lot of carnivorous plants that they are making available,
and this would include a lot of the thing you know you may have
known of venus flytraff you know, you put inside in a little glass bot
or plastic box and and of course feed it flies. But they have outdoor
carnivorous plants as well, some that actually will survive here in the right location
and the right situation. They'll survive right here and do well. And so
I would encourage you to get by. I can tell you this there.
I defy anybody to walk through Buchanans and not find a hundred plants that they
absolutely would love to have that they don't already have in there and their landscape
a good time for doing just that. I was talking to somebody the other
day about plants that are fragrant, and in fact, I'm going to be
doing an article coming up here on some fragrant plants. And you know,
we walk out in the landscape, we look at our plants, and we
just you know, there's the visual that we buy far you walk into nursery,
there's a big giant red hibiscus flower. I want that plant. But
there's also the sense of smell, and there's also the sense of sound and
of course, the sound can come, especially when we bring in our songbirds,
but it also comes with some of the plants. You know, a
clumping bamboo. As the wind moves through and kind of rustles the leaves,
it almost sounds like a raining when you sit underneath a larg clumping bamboo.
By the way, plant a clumping if you're gonna plant one, don't the
runners unless you go to great links to keep them confined. You do not
want to get started without at least in my experience, and your neighbors that
if you plant it on the property line don't want you to do that either.
I guess I ought to give you our phone number. That's what we're
here for. Seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you haven't done a fertilization
in the last couple of months, or maybe three months at the most,
I would say you need to get that done. Fall is coming, and
so you know, a product that will give you a good three one two
ratio would be a great way to go. You're not going to do better
than a microlife. There's a six two four green bag. It's a good
ratio. Of nutrients. You of course get the big three six two four,
but because it's made of organic materials, there's everything that was in the
organic matters is there, and then that includes secondary nutrients, that includes the
trade setlements are the micronutrients as we call them. It's all they are packed
into that bag of Microlife. You can throw in a purple bag of the
humates plus and then you're adding something that is the equivalent of composted or concentrated
compost in a bag. You can find Microlife products all over town. If
you want to specifically look for places, go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com Microlife
Fertilizer dot com and when you're on there, check out the green plus purple
combination that we recommend through the summer. And really you can use it all
all year round, just about whenever you're fertilizing anything about. For right now
we're talking we're talking lawns, and that would be the sixty four green bag
purple bag Humates plus from Microlife. I was talking about cents and things that
have a nice fragrance. One of my favorite plants is sweet almond verbina a
Loisier Vergatta and I grew up in South Texas where there's something called whitebrush and
whitebreg makes a wonderful honey The honey bees absolutely love it because you get down
in the hot, dry South Texas area and anything's got a bloom on it,
bees will take advantage of it. But this is a relative of it.
But it makes a shrub slash tree. It gets quite large. In
fact, the one thing I'd like them to do to Sweet album of Verbena
is come up with a more compact form, something about four or five feet
tall. But it's still well worth planting. It has this wonderful vanilla almond
kind of fragrance that you just have to smell it. I know what I'm
talking about. Bees love it, absolutely love it. I've mentioned it began
as a minute ago. They've they've got a good stock of it in and
I would plant something like that maybe on the south end or west end or
west side of your outdoor sitting area if your landscape layout allows for that.
And the reason is, you know, the during especially the warm gardening season,
our primary wind is out of the south west, and so that way
it wafts the fragrance toward wherever you sit. It just makes sense to me.
Well, I believe it's time to take a break. If you would
like to get on the boards, give Josh a call at seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. This will be, this will be,
will be. Well, good morning, good Sunday morning. You're listening
to garden Line. We're here to talk about gardening. That makes sense,
doesn't it. If you'd like to give us a call, our phone number
is seven one three two one two five eight seven four fifty eight seventy four.
We'll talk about whatever you're interested in related to the garden. Could be
vegetables, lawns, trees, I don't know, maybe even let you brag
on the bestimated patch you've ever grown before this summer. Well, it's just
a fun time to get out in the garden and enjoy ourselves. You know.
The gardening is I think that the best hobby that there is because of
all the benefits that it has, and and folks that are interested in gardening
but feel like, yeah, I don't know how to do that. Well,
that's why we're here. Give us a call. We will get you
on the right start so you can have success. Because I think everybody can
garden. I think it's just a matter of learning some basic principles, weeding
through some bologna that's out there, and coming down with Hey, here's how
it's done. Here's some tips, here's some suggested plants, and we can
get you off to a good start. And that's what we want to do.
We're speaking getting off to a good start. This morning. We're going
to head out to Spring and talk to Daniel. Hello, Daniel, Hey,
skip a great show. A love it. So I've had an issue
with lantana. I've got a lot of it on the south side of my
property. It was blooming like crazy for a while and then all of a
sudden it stopped booming. I took a look at it yesterday. It looks
like I've got a lot of mealy bugging in its space. You know,
it's a little cottony. Look at these bugs. Okay, well they're tough
to get rid of. Um. You know, using a systemic on that
would probably not be good because lantana is one of the plants that it'll even
attract hummingbirds, but it attracts, you know, some beneficials that we would
rather not put the systemic in the beneficial insects through the nectar. I guess
that that kind of leaves us with the you know, the old Really a
couple of options. One is cutting a plant like that bat and getting all
the debris out of there, to get as much of it as you can
out, and then as a new growth comes out, doing some treatments on
it to try to shut down the problem. So you may want to go
through a period where you're not blooming just to get ahead of this one.
All the other things we do form mealy bugs, like it's excital soap,
horticultural oil. Getting coverage inside the canopy of a lantana plants pretty tough,
and you absolutely have to give the bath the bugs a bat in that stuff
for it to work. That they aren't poisons the oil and the soap they
coat the bug and kill them physically like that. So that's not really practical.
Go ahead, I don't know that's it's just say yeah, yeah,
it's a it's a problem. Now. Mealybugs have their enemies, and so
one thing you want to kind of avoid is getting on an insecticide treadmill where
you know you're just treating and treating, because when you kill the things that
attack mealybugs. They can be worse. We have that even a worse situation
with white flies, the same kind of problem. We spray and we end
up helping the white flies in the process. But I would you know,
you might try something like a perretheran based insecticide, something hopefully that's not super
long lasting. The goal is to spray them, get it done, and
then you know, have have that product no longer killing insects so that the
beneficials don't they're able to recover. Got it, Okay, yeah, not,
I'll get whatever it is what it is. I'll just get up the
shears today and start cutting back, right. Yeah. And after you cut
back, then you can use you know, whatever you want to. Just
shut down, you know, get the blooms off there. Just shut things
down and I think you can get ahead of them. Okay, I appreciate
it. Hey, Daniel, thank you for the call. I appreciate that.
Yeah. Some of these pasts they are just I mean, they are
they are tough. They're very tough to deal with. Hey, if you
are interested perhaps in getting a new roof, maybe you had some damage to
the old roof, maybe it's just getting old, or maybe there are some
new technologies you would like to take advantage of. Well, Brinkman Roofing would
be the the the company you need to talk to. And here's why I
say that they've been in business here for fifty years. This is not a
fly by nice night stick, a business card in your door, storm chaser
that goes all over the country. These are people that live here. This
is their home. Their reputation is built here. They weren't for twenty five
years, and they're recognized for this twenty twenty two Better Business Bureau Pinnacle Award
winner. You can't do better than that. Now they provide all kinds of
roofing. I'm of course the shingles that have the standing seam metal roofs that
they literally can put together custom manufacture right there on you for your home to
fit perfectly. They also have a solar shingle, which I think is pretty
cool. So instead of a big panel on your house, now you got
a shingle that it itself is the sun collecting energy making device. And boy,
can you ever make some energy these this summer with all of these blazing
sunny days. Well, if you want to find out more about Brinkman,
just go to the website. It's Brinkman Quality dot com Brinkman Quality dot com.
Or you can give Jason and his team a call at two eight one
four eight zero seven six six three. We're gonna head now out to stagecoach
and talking to Jerry. Hello, Jerry. Hey, it's a Terry with
the team and that's okay, Terry, all right, we'll talk to Terry.
Yeah, I got a question. You know what this for long heat
dry, So we got going on looking for the truth about water in the
lawn. All right. I've always been told with doing water tonight, Joe
getting molden fungus, and then don't water during the heat of the day because
that'll shock and burn it up. But I go out to the golf course
and they're watering during the heat of the day and green Step says, oh
no, that's fine. It depends on what kind of fertilizer. And then
is it, you know, better to do five minutes a day every day?
Are you better off? You know, soaking it's for twenty minutes every
fourth day. So it look just fun to have all these conflicting comments by
people who claim that they're right and other people are wrong. That's why I'm
calling an expert to get the lowdown. All right, well, thank you,
but folks, at a twenty dollar bill, we'll get you that kind
of compliment. By the way, now, I would put this way number
one, The idea that if you water during a sunny day you're going to
burn your plants is absolutely false. Now if you had, you know,
if you lived up in College Station where there's so much sodium in the water,
it'll fry plants. Yes, that may be a possibility, but in
general, no, I mean think about this way. When it rains,
raindrops are left sitting on leaves of whatever plant, and then the sun comes
out. And that's one of the things people say is the raindrop acts like
a magnifying glass. And you know how a magnifying glass with a sun will
burn things. Well, every time it rained down, our plants would have
burn spots all over them. So that's not true. The way you take
care of a lawn is you give a good deep soaking on an infrequent basis.
So if you can fill that soil profile. Let's say you apply one
inch of irrigation and fill that soil profile, and then over the coming week
the water starts to move out of the soil, whether it's evaporating or moving
into plants or moving down with gravity, And as it does that, it
brings oxygen back into the soil, which is really important for the root system.
And then you water again when it's needed again. The little squirt every
day or every two days, or even every three days really is more than
you need to water. Now. I know some people like to water twice
a week, and I'll let me just say, I'll go along with that
to a degree. I mean, that's okay, but I don't water my
lawn hard to even once ever seven days, and I've got a good,
deep rooted lawn and i just don't need to. And every time you water,
you increase the potential for disease problems. And if you don't water very
long, you end up just wetting the thatch and the grass blades and very
little goes into the soil. So that's why I like to put on an
inch when I water. That may have been more of an answer than you
were asking for, but hopefully that is what you want to know right now.
That helps, thank you. Huh you bet, yep, that's it.
So if you want the most efficiency, water when evaporation is the lowest
and that would be about right now before the sun comes up. All right,
sir, all right, thank you, Hey, thanks Terry, appreciate
the call. Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Hey,
do you have a little piece of property that you purchased outside of town.
Maybe it's not a little, maybe it's a big, but you're needing some
kind of equipment, you know, to help you get the jobs around the
property done. Maybe you're building fence and hauling fence post. Maybe you're just
a gardener wanting to haul compost and mulch and different things like that, and
a big front end loader. You need to check out the Caboda L twenty
five oh one. The Caboda L twenty five oh one is a first class
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I mean all kinds of things. Go to Lansdown Moody because that combination
Lansdown Moody and Caboda that is a winning combination on both sides. You can
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not want to pass up. You can contact Lansdown Moody at LM tractor dot
com. There's Lansdown Moody's all around the Greater Houst scenario. Or just go
to Caboda USA and you get more information there as well. Yeah, that's
it man. I love doing stuff on a tractory. Used to have a
little property up in Willis excuse me, and uh just getting out and you
know, working on the land and moving things around and planting and all the
kind of stuff. It's just a lot of fun, I guess. Uh
like Eddie Eddie Albert from Green Acres. Do you remember green Acres? Nikki?
All right, Green Acres is the place to be a place to be.
Farm living as a life for me land spreading. All right, Well,
enough of that, it's time for the Nicky News Network. We call
that NNN around here. Hey yeah, Curtis CNN, but you don't know
you want NNN for me spreading out keep man, hadn't just give me that
country man? How many of you remember green Acres? So that was a
lot of folks in reduction to a county agent, which is what which is
what I do as it done it for forty three years county extension agents with
Agrilife Extension. That we cringe when we see green Acres because I don't know,
mister Kimball was not exactly the best representative of the field. Let's say
he was outstanding in his field, but he wasn't outstanding in his field.
If you know what I'm saying. All right, you're listening to Garden Line
our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one
three two one two five eight seven four R just K T R H.
That makes it simple and easy. We're here to talk about all kinds of
things gardening with you this morning, and that's what we were going to continue
to do. I was talking about fragrant plants a little bit earlier, and
I mentioned alman Verbino, which is one of my favorite. Another good one,
and it does so well as we move east in Texas. The further
east you go, the better it seems to do. Is the gardenia gardinia
just has a heavenly fragrance. I mean it, it's a perfume that is
just unbelievable. I really enjoy that. Sometimes it give me a little bit
of a challenge to grow, especially if you have a heavy clay soil or
high pH soil, and some of those conditions can give it a little bit
of a challenge. But it's a good one. It is a very very
good one. Another one that I love is white butterfly ginger. And by
the way, that one is late summer and fall is when it does most
of its blooming early fall. The white butterfly ginger is a type of hedicium.
It's a very upright stalk with just a cluster of beautiful white flowers.
There's other hediciums, other colors that are very pretty, but I love the
fragrance of just the plain old white butterfly ginger. We I think I've told
you this before, but when one of my children was born. I cut
a flower from the garden, brought it into the hospital room, put it
in the vase, and nurses were walking in from the hallway trying to figure
out what that smell was and where was it coming from. I mean it
literally is that fragrant and wonderful and enticing. One of our main I guess,
almost a poster plant for native plants here in Texas is Texas Mountain Laurel.
It's got those big clusters of purple flowers in the spring, and it's
a native. Of course, it needs really good drainage to do well over
here, but you can grow it over here. It just, you know,
you just don't need to. It needs to think it's still up on
a hill in West Texas rather than a swamp in East Texas. And so
you treat it accordingly and it'll do pretty good. But it has it's fragrance,
I would say, would be gaudy. If you can call a fragrance
gaudy. Think of the old grape bubble gum, remember that superbubble bubble gum
in that strong grape grape flavor. That's what it smells like. And it
again will knock you down when you walk around the corner and that breeze wafts
by, you will really really know you've got that plant. As many other
good fragrant plants, but the nose nose some of those wonderful plants. Let's
head out to Katie and we're gonna talk to Hank. Hello, Hank,
good morning. I have doorga grass. It's on the east side of the
house. Plenty of sun and there's a patch of its just discoloring and it
may be a little brown spot or two, but for the most part it
is continued to discolor. H And it's a it's just a pretty large area
of kind of irregular, no pattern to it. Yes, yeah, it
may be. On an average Zoysia can become a very dense grass and a
lot of times if you're water infrequently, you could be creating just a disease.
Have an environment in there, and you may be seeing one of the
several diseases that can attack zoysia that's going on. That that's a possibility,
of course, me hearing a description and diagnosing a disease that's not that you
know that, that's a very best shot kind of approach. Um, Well,
of course I did the opposite. I thought it was a lack of
water. So I'm found a water more okay issue, Um, well,
you know that could be the problem. It could be that it's a lack
of water. Next time the water's on and just kind of go look at
how your sprinklers are distributing. Sometimes our systems there's areas that just don't get
as much water as the rest of the yard, and so that could be
a factor. But over WHI trying to say. Yeah, what I was
trying to say is it's definitely not a lack of water at this point.
Okay, Okay, well then we'll then we'll go back to the maybe too
much as being a possibility. There's a disease called take all root rot.
They can affect zoysia. I don't I've never noticed chinch bugs as a big
zoysia problem. I suppose they might feed on soysia a little bit, but
I don't think Okay, yeah, I pulled it up. Okay, yeah,
I think we're probably talking about a disease of some sort in there.
I would let's back off. Let's water if we can soaking once a week,
but but not too often. Try to try to have that grass spend
most of its week dry, meaning not wet foliage. You know, the
soil will have moisture from your watering. It takes a while for that to
move out. But that's what I would recommend. The only other thing would
be to take a sample and send it to the state Plant Clinic and have
them put it under a microscope and officially diagnose it. They could name the
disease and what to do. But I I'd try backing off on the water
first and see if it gets better. If that doesn't work, you bet
you, you bet you, and and thank you for the call, Hank.
But if that doesn't work, give me a call back. We can
switch over and we can move to a funge decide if we think we need
to. Okay, what did you us? Okay, it's one turf side
or something I don't remember. Okay, it's like a hundred dollars a bag.
Okay, and how long ago would you do that? Yesterday? Oh?
Okay? Well, hey, you know I was gonna say, just
calling garden line will make it get better. And since I know you just
put a fungicide down, maybe I can take credit for that. We don't
eat a way. I feel better all right, Yeah, that's good.
Well, let's see how it does. If it was that particular product you
mentioned, we may need to possibly shift to a different kind of product depending
on the disease. You know, not one product, just like one medicine
doesn't fix all our woes. We may have to switch. But I think
the combination of that and backing off the water, I believe you're gonna be
okay. Hang, thank you, sir. All right, you take care.
Thank you for the call. Appreciate that our phone number seven one three
two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. When you need stuff for your lawn and garden, I don't
care where you live in the Greater Houston area. Where can you go?
Well, I'll tell you where you can go. You can go to Ace
Hardware. There's thirty nine locally owned Ace Hardware stores. That means each one
is in its own way a little unique. Of course, they're all Ace
Hardware stores, but each owner gets to kind of create the type of store
they're looking to create. Carry you'll find some very unusual things that, you
know, someone decides to focus on a particular type of thing. I know,
some of them have like fudge bars in them. Can you imagine that?
Go to hardware store and I mean it is outstanding the selection that they
have. There's all kinds of things in Ace, but most importantly there's fertilizer.
There's products that you need to control disease, insects, weeds on your
lawn, and then there's everything else you need for indoor and out or living.
It is the one stop place. If I mentioned it on garden Line,
go to ACE Hardware and you'll find it there. Go to Ace Hardware
dot com to find one of those thirty nine store and probably two or three
near you. Just look for their store locator and they'll be all set up
to go. Well, we're gonna take a break. It is seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you'd like to give Josh
a call and get on the boards. Is it's still over? We still
drew, that's my poltid ain't ringing I as soon it stid ain't. I've
hadn't mind to take time to buy somebody into but I'm not too sure that
I'm still over. Good morning on a what is to be a beautiful Sunday,
I am seeing a little light gathering outside start to make out some things.
I think if you get out today in the early morning hours, you're
gonna find it to be downright pleasant. Okay, now, isn't it interesting?
How you know? If I were to see the high for the day
it was going to be ninety six, I would get really excited. And
that's a sad, sad situation when ninety six is exciting, But it is
what it is. It's where we live. But the morning hours are a
good time to get out there and get some work done. I like it
because it's quiet, and I like it because the birds are singing. They
get up and they do their thing, and I get to be out there
and enjoy. Let's just say, that's kind of a therapy, right,
I think that you might agree with that, may be able to identify with
that. And we start messing around with plants and we start puttering along and
trying to grow things and do different things. It just, I don't know,
it's fulfilling. It's a renewal, renewal process. You know. Gardeners
are always hopeful because we always know that next season is going to be the
best one we ever had. Best tomatos we've ever grown, the sweetest peaches
we've ever had, the most beautiful landscape we've ever had. If you're interested
in retiring, maybe you're looking to move and find a community where you can
live a very active, enjoyable lifestyle. You know you've you've done the work,
thing you've been through that you would like to just kick back and really
enjoy yourself. Well, Dellweb is that kind of community. They design them
for folks that are fifty five and better. They design communities that have programs,
active lifestyle programs designed around you. They design communities of beautiful homes with
beautiful walk places. The one down in full Sure that's going in less than
two miles from downtown Fulsure on three fifty nine. That Dellweb community has a
community garden in it as well. Now you can go online to dellweb dot
com slash Houston and find out more information about it, or give him a
call two eight one four five nine zero six zero nine. You need to
go buy there and look at it, because that way you can discover that
Dellweb difference for yourself. And I think as a gardener, that is one
heck of a great idea to have a community garden right there in the community.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I was talking yesterday
to a group of folks at the Opapalooza and we were talking. I was
talking about the two teas that make the phone ring. Trees and turf.
That's the two main ones and all the things we do to take care of
our trees. And you know, trees are resilient. They have extensive root
systems. An established mature tree has roots reaching out maybe two and a half
times the height of the tree in all directions. Ferries with soil and species
and whatnot, but the bottom line is the root are way out there,
way past the branches. Now there's there's roots from the trunk all the way
out. So when you're taking care of a tree, maybe you've just planted
one, maybe you planted one last winter or last fall or even a year
ago. Those trees have very limited roots system. Still they're working their way
out and you know, the day after you plant it, the whole root
system still in that cylinder. How do you take care of it? Well,
the way you do it is you keep that root ball moist with small
amounts of water really on a day or every other day basis for the first
week or two or three or four, and then not large amounts. You
don't want to create a swamp. You want to keep the soil just moist
for the roots. And because the roots are confined pumping all the water out
of one spot, you gotta water that spot. And then as the tree
gets bigger, you water in a larger and larger area. Someone call me
the other day and they add a tree about the size of a coke can,
about three inches across, and I was telling them, what you need
it. You're probably gonna need a water about a twelve foot wide circle once
the tree is hitting about that stage. And that's why I like tree hugger
sprinklers because you can do that. Yeah. Tree hugger is it's a little
sprinkler. You put it up around your tree. It has a little hinge
so it goes around the tree. You can turn on the valve to you
know, of course you have your faucet at the house, but the valve
on the sprinkler you can turn on to just barely put water out or to
water a wide area. Now you can find tree Hugger everywhere. I mean
every time I go into one of our sponsors, I see tree Hugger in
there. Whether it's a home nursery or whether it's a feed store, whether
you know an ace hardwarester, you're gonna find tree Huggers. You can go
online to tree Hugger Sprinklers dot com and find out more information. I'd recommend
you do that, but I'm telling you, when you invest in a woody
ornamental plant, and when we go into this kind of hot and very little
rain, it is very important to keep the soil moderately moist. And that
requires some thinking and some doing. Where are the roots. Now it's a
new plant, they're all at the bottom. It's an established plant, they're
all way out beyond the branches. And if it's somewhere in between, well
you get the idea. But you've got to make sure they don't lack for
water, because when a tree gets stressed, then you're going to end up
with all kinds of problems. If it's an oak tree, hypoxylan canker can
come in and kill it Upoxyland is out there across Houston and all the oak
trees. It's there, but when the tree gets weak, it moves in
and it kills the tree. So how do we avoid hypoxylan. We can't
spray for it. We keep the tree out of stress. That's what we
do. And speaking of trees and deep root watering is important. You can
put the same as deep root feeding, but it's getting water down there in
the ground. Sometimes you put the sprinkler on for the lawn and you just
don't get it wet deep enough to really benefit that root system. And the
folks that Affordable Tree, Martin spoon More, they know how to do this.
They have the equipment to do this. You can give them a call
at seven one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three seven three six nine
twenty six sixty three. They can come out and during these hard times.
But remember, don't wait until the tree looks like it's having a problem,
because you are way past when you should have saved that tree. When you
get to that point, now, folks like Martin and Affordable Tree, they're
going to be able to do all kinds of heroic things to do whatever is
necessary to help your trees, but avoid the problem rather than hitting the crisis
stage. And you know, there's no tree ambulance to come out and save
the tree, and you need to take care of it. And that's why
having them come out and do deep root feeding is important. Go to aff
Tree service dot com, I said deep root feeding. I'm at deep root
watering. In this case, they also do deep root feeding. Give McCall
also seven month, three, six nine nine, twenty six sixty three.
Pretty simple, pretty easy, And it's nice hiring somebody who shows up when
they say they'll show up, and does a good job and doesn't sell you
something you don't need. Oh my gosh. I mean whether you're going to
the mechanic or hiring a landscaper or hiring a treecare person. I just want
somebody who will tell me the truth and do what needs to be done for
a reasonable price. That's why I like Affordable Tree so much. I talk
about how important it is to take care of our soil, and yesterday I
was visiting with some of the folks from Nature's Way and they are really the
originator of a lot of the quality soils we enjoy here, whether it's rose
soil, whether it is you know, a leafmol compost. They're the ones
who they started it, they know how to do it, and they have
plenty of supply of all of that on hand. They also have a two
acre nursery that is being expanded with one of the better selections of native plants
in the Houston area. Pretty impressive. Nature's Ways up there on forty five
forty five. As you head toward Conrow about where fourteen eighty eight comes in,
you just turn to the east to the right if you're going north,
cross over the railroad tracks and you're there. They sell bag, they sell
bulk, and you can get deliveries. Always start with a soil, and
always start with quality composts, not wood chunks. We're talking about quality material
and Nature's Way. They don't know how to do anything other than quality material.
They don't know how to do anything other than take the time that is
needed to make quality. Anybody can grind up some wood, throw it in
a pile, keep it wet, get it to turn dark, and then
start selling it. That is not quality compost, and then it's not on
Nature's Way goes about doing their business. Well, you are listening to Gardenline.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are going to take a
little break here to the noon news, not Noon the news, top of
the hour, if you would like to give us a call seven one three
two, one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. A little bit later this morning, in the next hour,
the eight o'clock hour, we're gonna have Dean Nelson come in. We're
gonna talk about the Randy Lemon Memorial Scholarship. Maybe I'll pick his brain a
little bit for some of the fertilizer technologies that are out there. But we're
gonna really go into a little bit deeper dive into this scholarship. And I
know a lot of you listen to Randy for years and years, very beloved
lots of lemonheads out there, And I can't think of a better cause for
those of you who really enjoyed listening to Randy, who appreciated the way he
helped you for decades, stick around for the eight o'clock an hour for that.
KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised
on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with scarp Rictor. Just watch
him as a wood well good Sunday morning, the sun has broken through.
It is beautiful outside, and I would suggest taking advantage of the cooler part
of the day to get a couple of things done and then being ready to
make plans to head out and visit some of our garden centers this afternoon.
I know it's hot. I know it's hot outside, but there's stuff to
be doing. Now. We're preparing for fall. Now, we're taking of
our lawns. Now, we're making sure that our plants have what they need
to get through this heat. And go to a quality garden center, a
mom and pop that knows what they're talking about. They hire people that and
they train people to know what they're talking about. And you get service,
You get help, you get what you need, You get answers that are
correct, you get a friendly folks knowledge before I mean, can I go
on and on? They're just there is no better way to save money than
to go to a quality garden center by a quality plant that has adapted to
your area, with advice on how to take care of it. That is
the package right there. I mean people think that you know, you save
a nickel here on some plant. It may be a plant that shouldn't even
be planted here. Some of the pot I'm not going to name names.
Maybe I should, but I'm not going to name names. There are some
national companies out there that have garden centers all over the place. But I've
gone in and seeing red rad bras for sale in Houston. I've seen,
let's see conquered grapes, well, just grape, juice, grape. I've
seen those for sale here. They don't they don't grow here. You don't
plant those here. But same package of plants, I guess, goes all
over the place. Who knows. That's why I like to go to a
quality home mom and popping garden center. Plus, it's just fun. It's
just a lot more fun plants that are being taken care of. Well,
here I go. I'm just drowning on our phone number seven one three two
one two five eight seven four, and we are going to head out to
the woodlands and talk to Brian. Hello, Brian, Good morning, Skip.
I got a question about three East Pilatka holly trees that I planted in
the spring. They were thirty down and I saw my watering system sprinklers were
taking care of them. But I noticed yesterday that one of them is losing
a lot of its leaves. I've done a more of a deep watering to
it, but I need to know is there anything else I should do as
far as maybe any kind of fertilizer to help it out. No, not
fertilizer right now, Let's just keep the roots hydrated. The first year or
two for hollies is very critical once they're established. You know, we're not
so worried about a little bit of drought here and there. They're pretty tough.
But the first year or two is critical, and they don't really have
a way of showing you they need water other than turning brown. And it's
a little late, you know what I'm saying. And so we want to
always just dig down in the soil about six inches four inches, feel the
soil, and then you know for sure. I mean, I could tell
you put on this much, you know, a week. I could tell
you a lot of other kind of rules of thumb, but the bottom line
is in your soil, which may be anything from a sandy soil to a
heavy clay to a really quality rosebed mix or something. There's a lot of
variation, and all the spot could be sunny or shady, and it just
varies so much. That's why I just say, look, get down there.
You don't have to do it every time you water, but just get
on occasionally and feel and see how are things going? Am I keeping this
adequately moist? And that's about the best advice I can offer to you on
those East polatkas that you're dealing with. That's a beautiful holly. Okay,
great, Yeah, that's that's what I'll do. I'll just be more diligent
and checking the water level. I think that's the most important thing now once
they're established and they're growing. Yeah, I'm a little bit of fertilizer,
A little acidic type fertilizer especially would do well. So if it's made for
azaleas and gardenias and blueberries and stuff, that'd be a good one for hollies
too. That works pretty well. But right now it's not a lack of
nutrients, and we don't want to complicate things with especially a salt based product
and overdoing it during a dry, hot, dry period. Okay, great,
I appreciate the advice. All right, thanks sir, appreciate the call.
That's uh, you know, taking care of our plants is really important.
I was, I have a you know, I kind of spend part
of my day, part of my day, part of my week up in
the Brian College Station area and come down here. I'm here all weekends.
It's it's kind of a interesting doing see in both places because you see a
lot of variation in things. But anyway, I got house plants in both
places. And I came back the other day and I was checking out my
house plants here in Houston, and some of them were not very happy with
me. I had let the temperature get a little warm in there, and
they were kind of like, where have you been. But every time I
come back, they always get excited to see me because I show up.
I get my watering can out, and I put in some Microlife bio matrix.
That's the orange label Microlife. It's a seven one three. I like
that higher first number in this liquid fertilizer because house plants or foliage plants buy
and large, even if they have a few of them have a bloom on
them. But in general, this is a super way to get vigor to
support vegetative growth, which is part of the beauty of the house plants.
Microlife Biomatrix orange label. Outside, you can use the Ocean Harvest blue label.
That's a four two three fertilizer. It's a fish based fertilizer. It's
essential for taking care of all of your outdoor family plants. Now. I
love it for containers because you know, you mix it up, follow the
label, it's not going to burn infect You can dilute it down and even
use it as a folior spray if you want to. By the way,
the other thing about that orange label, the Indoor seven one three is it
has a lot of beneficial microbes that are in that product itself, and just
another reason for that product to be successful or your plants to be successful when
you use it. That's why I use it. Go to Microlife Fertilizer dot
com, Microlife Fliser dot com. Check out where you can buy Microlife.
Check out the products that I just talked about, learn a little bit more
about them. This is a good time for indoor gardening. Hey, when
it's one hundred degrees outside, why not mess around with your house plants?
Right. I think it's so cool that we have a hobby that we can
do indoors, we can do outdoors, you can do inclement weather and nothing
stops us. Well, let's head out to Alvin and we're gonna talk to
Debbie. Hello, Debbie, I skip. I had a fifty year old
water oak removed from the front yard because it was rotten. They did a
great job with the removal and the stump grinding. Well, now I have
the opportunity to have someone with an excavator come in and remove the root ball,
okay, and I'm wondering if I should do that or just leave it
be and wait until next year to replant a tree. Well, if you
can get it out of there, that's good. You know, stump grinders
can come in and chomp it all up, But then you end up with
a lot of raw wood mixed all in with the soil in that spot.
And so that means it's going to settle a lot more over time, because
that wood is going to decompose away over time and tie up the nitrogen for
a while when it starts that decomposition. So I mean, if you got
somebody that can pop as much of that trunk and or you know, stump
and root out of there, I would do that. Otherwise, you know,
you can do everything from just leaving it in place and turning the stump
into a feature in the yard to having it ground or you know, whatever
is most convenient for you. Okay. I just didn't know what would happen
to if there was a sewer line nearby. Oh, that's a good question.
That's a good question. Yeah, I don't know that. I mean,
you would need to make sure on that one, the chances of them
running that right under that oak or even really close to the oak or slim.
But if the house was old enough, it could have predated the tree.
But I doubt that's the case. Yeah, yeah, all right,
Well on that one, I don't know. You have to get somebody out
there to you know, try to figure out where these lines are and where
they're going if you don't have a map with the property, so to just
kind of be careful. All right, thank you, you bet you take
care of Debbie. All right, it's time for a break. Our phone
number seven one three two one two five eight seven four give Josh call,
get you on the boards and we will talk to you when we come back.
Well, good morning, good Sunday morning, on a good day for
gardening, for talking about gardening. Maybe some of your awake and shuffling around
the house, a cup of coffee, getting ready to go to church,
or whatever you are is in your plans for today. We are glad you're
listening. Thank you for listening. We enjoy getting to visit with you about
all kinds of things. Plants, you know, it is it is summertime,
and sometimes when you know, I've been talking all day about protecting your
trees, taking care of your trees, watering your trees, all those kind
of things. Well, it's also a time when you can steal plant trees.
Now, if you go to a verdant tree farm, for example,
you get to wander through there and pick the tree out you want. It's
kind of like shopping in the grocery store. Go down the aisles and I
want that, I want this. Well, they'll tag the tree for you,
and they'll bring it to your house and they'll plant it. And they
know how to do it. They know how to successfully plant a tree.
And this kind of weather if you'd like to do that, If you want
a palm tree, this is a great time for planting palms. You know,
palms actually are best when they're planted in warmer weather. And verdant tree
farm has a selection of palms, like I mean, nobody's business. All
kinds of wonderful palm trees that they carry. They got the Florida sable in
the Midjule and Canary Island, and the mule palm, the windmill palm,
and on and on. When you think about palm trees, you need to
think about Verdant tree Farm. But not just palms. Verdant carries all kinds
of trees that are quality and they know what they're doing. So you can
take a picture of your house in there and say, hey, what do
you think would be good in this spot in the yard, and they can
help you with that. They can advise you on that. That is Verdant
Tree Farm. And I know the word is pronounced verdint, but for some
reason, in my head, Verdant as someone always comes out. So if
I'm using it like I'm trying to say the word greening, I guess I'd
say verden. But that doesn't make any sense, does it. Hey,
let's go out to Montgomery. We're gonna talk to Jim. Good morning,
Jim. Hey, how are you doing? I'm well, thank you?
How are you today? Oh man? Loving the dream? There you go?
What's up? I got a question about about rose a rose and also
have a comment after that if you don't mind about the music. But there's
a heard of a rose, a purple rose called a B Tide. Have
you heard of that? I was wondering how hardy that would be? No,
I have not. I have not heard of that EBB Tide. We
had him in in Tyler, Texas. They said that some nursery up there
had him. And I was just told about it because I was I was
wanting a purple rose and they said that that's not you know, real you
know, there's not real purple or something. But uh, but you know,
they said an EBB Tide would be the one. And it was about
sixty five bucks for one. You know, it's three gallons size, I
think is what they said. Okay, it was just a friend of mine
talking about it. It had been up to Tyler and saw one or something.
I don't think you gonna have to go Tyler to get one. R
c W Nursery carries EBB Tide that they have a lot of four pages long
of roses and they do. Okay, EBB Tide. Arc W is the
nursery over there where two forty nine, tom Ball Parkway comes into BELTWAYE.
I know where it is. I was like to make a comment about the
music. There's a song by the Beach Boys called a Sloop John B.
I know that. And every time you have one of those that caller that
calls up pretty regular, her name is John B. It always reminds me
of that song. Okay, John B. If you're here, and if
you're listening, you heard that, Yeah, slop John B got on the
sloop jomb Yeah, my grandfather and me, I remember that. Yeah,
that's a great tune. Well, thank you. Well, we try to
surprise you with music so you never know what's coming next. I heard a
rumor already that we might we might actually I don't know, play a yodeling
or a barbershop song every night. We try not to. Well, we
have fun here. Come on, have some fun with us, all right,
Jo, thanks a lot, and yeah, give our CW call.
They'll get in today. I don't know that. I know it's on the
list of the roses they carry. Then if they don't know it, they'll
get it. That's our CW. All right, I'll talk to them about
it, all right, all right, you take care. Our phone number
is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. Yeah, you can give us a call.
We'll talk all kinds of things gardening with you. If you'd like to.
Josh, you get you on the board too. By the way,
Hey, if you live up in the Spring Creek area, we're talking about
Magnolia Magnolia on FM twenty nine seventy eight. Your hometown feed store is Spring
Creek Feed Center. They carry the fertilizer lines that I talk about here.
They carry lawn and garden supplies. They carry things like herbicides, pesticides,
fungicides, those things. They carry all the kinds of feed stuff you need,
quality food for your pet and for your animals. They are I'll tell
you. When you walk in there, you are greeted. It's friendly,
courteous staff, just like you would expect from one of our garden line feed
store favorites that we have around the community. If you're FA, f H,
Military, senior citizen, there's discounts for each of those groups. They
even special order products and they have a delivery service. I don't know what
more you could ask for Spring Creek Feed and Magnolia on FM twenty nine seventy
eight. I love going into feed stores. So I don't know, there's
just something just something unique about it. Maybe it's because I grew up and
going to feed stores and you know, they're just that that feed store smell
that I love it, you know, the smell of fresh feed and things
like that. I think that's cool. I was talking earlier about the importance
of getting your lawn fertilized if you haven't already, the importance of continuing to
provide a gradual supply of nutrients over time, and that over time, the
that is the key. You want to gradually feed your lawn over time when
you do that. Now, nitro Fole Summer Essentials has a product, it's
a sweet Green product that I think is an excellent choice. It's a it's
an organic fertilizer. It's made from a molasses base, and so when the
microbes get ahold of anything that's sugary like molasses, that makes them very very
happy, really kicks them into high gear. The Sweet Green is eleven percent
nitrogen and it will just dissolve away into your lawn and you will see the
results from it. Now You can get sweet green every where you get nitro
files, so Ace hardware stores, Mom and Pop, Garden Center's feed source.
It's available in a lot of different places, but that nitrofos sweet green.
By the way, you want to put about ten pounds per thousand square
feet on your lawn when you fertilize about ten pounds of the sweet green per
thousand square feet has a wonderful fresh sweet smell. That's why they call it
sweet green. I think you ought to try it out. They got a
great stock in this year because the demand has been so high on that product,
and for good reason. We're going to head out now to Huntsville and
talk to Charles Well, good morning, Charles, Good morning. Yes,
I'm in Huntsville about forty miles north and my pear trees last year were just
loaded and this year not a pair. And I had a neighbor that had
a huge pear tree and it was the same situation. Last year. They
were loaded. This year, no pairs. Is that normal for them to
produce every other year? Well, there can be a little bit of that,
not as much as with pecans, but you can get a little bit
of that because pears do ripen a little bit later in the season. They're
not as late as pecans though. That's why we don't have that alternate bearing
so bad. Let me ask you a question. Did your pears get a
little stressed from heat and drought last year and then maybe bloom a little bit
on the fall. Did you notice that, Well, we didn't have the
heat and stress that y'all did down there in Texas. Okay, so you
didn't have a fall bloom on your pears, No, I did not.
Okay, in the spring this year, did your trees bloom? No,
they did not. Okay, the apple tree, the apple tree did great,
it's loaded. But the pear trees were just void of blooms, even
blooms. Okay, well, there we're getting to the bottom of the problem.
Then for some reason, they didn't set blooms in the previous year,
and your pear trees have been setting blooms since a little a little bit earlier
in the summer, and it'll go on into the next month or so.
And so this is a critical time that they're adequately watered, that they're not
in stress, because you want to get those blooms made now, because by
the time we get to a late fall all the way up until bloom time,
you know they've either done it or they have it. And so next
spring for you to have a bloom show, that means July, August,
maybe early September, mid September. Those trees are needing to do that bloom
set. So that's when we really want to avoid any kind of stress.
That would be about the only thing I can think of. There's not a
disease or an insect that causes them not to set blooms. So it's going
to be something along one of those lines. What can you spray an apple
tree with? I noticed that that the apples I'm getting have little black holes
in them, and some of them are turning rotten and even when they fall.
Yeah, we have a problem with that. Apples are a challenger because
of our heat and humidity. And there I'm not there. I'm north.
I'm north of Huntsville, Alabama. Oh, Huntsville, Alabama. I miss
that. I'm sorry. I think in Huntsville, Texas. I missed that,
all right, So hunts I'll now, Okay, Well that helps you
know. We've got a Paris, Texas. So if you come told me
you're calling from Paris. I wouldn't think France, all right. So anyway,
yeah, there there are home fruit labeled spray products that have fungicides end
them that you can spray for the black rot and for some of the leaf
spots on apples that apples are prone to foliage issues. And so I would
I would go to wherever your local garden centers are out there in the Huntsville
area, and uh, you know, see what they have on hand.
But you're going to have needed to start that a little bit earlier if you
if you've got fruit, you're needing to spray for the sake of the fruit,
But when you have leaves, you're having to spray for the leaves too,
because if you get a lot of leaf drop on your apples, then
again same thing. They're setting their bloom buds now, and there's not the
carbohydrates they need to do as good a job on that either. So I
wouldn't delay anymore. I would go ahead and get out there and try to
protect whatever you have left, because even if you don't, you know,
an apple that already has disease is a goner, but you do still have
the potential for setting those bloom buds. For next year, or protecting any
apples that haven't gotten infected yet. The problem we have is a lot of
the garden centers up here don't carry the line of products that that we I
used to live in Houston, So yeah, we just can't get the products
that you carried down there, right right. I understand that there are some
ways to mail order some stuff in you can you look online for that kind
of thing. That's a possibility when you just can't find it local. Yeah,
I think Amazon. I just how about one name, one, one
thing that you could tell me for the the apple tree that I could order
online from Amazon. Well, you're catching me off guard in that. I'm
trying to think of. You know, what is labeled for the apples for
that particular fungicide. Probably a product that had either manab or manko zeb in
it that was labeled for apples would be a good one to try. Those
are pretty effective fungicides. Let's see the leaf spots. Something with a dacannil
in it would do that. But I think the app the apple, I
don't think the apple rots Dacannil's gonna work on. So I may look for
the manab manca zab maybe something would have like a propocondazole type product, But
again it's all going to be about is it labeled for it or not.
You can find those products. If they don't have apples on the label,
don't use them on your apple. I'll look for those deals. Okay.
I appreciate your insight and thank you for your information. All right, Charles,
thank you for calling, and have a good time out there in Huntsville,
Alabama. I was talking about fertilizing in your lawn a minute ago,
and when you fertilize you always need to think about micronutrients as well. And
asamite is a mind product that is a basically a crushed mineral mind up in
Utah that is chock full of all kinds of trace elements, trace elements that
your plants need. Certainly the lawn is well as other plants. I put
it in vegetable gardens because I want my produce to be as packed with quality
nutrients for my own human health as I can, and asamites that that's what
it is. Go to Azamite Texas dot com to find out more information.
I wouldn't mix it with my fertilizer and apply it at the same time because
particle size is different. But I would follow up first with the fertilizer and
then asamit, vice versa, and make sure you take care of those things
and get that done. Well, it is time for the Nicki News Network,
so I'm going to bow out here. Our phone number is seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. Give Josh a cold who'll get
you right on the boards. Well, good morning, good morning, and
welcome to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here
to talk gardening. What is your question? What are you interested in?
And we'll go from house plants to orchids to I guess that would be a
house plant. You know, that's an interesting thing. I just just occurred
to me. We call things house plants, but no plants are native to
the house, right. House plants are typically jungle plants, not always,
but oftentimes we find them in some tropical rainforests somewhere and we figure out,
you know what, they're living here without hardly any light with due to the
heavy tree canopy, you know, so maybe we can bring them home,
grow them in the house, and that's how they get there. But it
helps to remember that and because then you realize the environment that plant is used
to being in the temperature environment, the kind of moisture, and other things
that are kind of a clue to how to take good care of it.
If you are interested in redoing some beds, and I hope you are,
because fall is coming and fall planting is coming, you need to go to
the arbigate and you need to get there one two three, completely easy system.
And here is why I say that. The first part is a food
that feeds anything with roots. They have a four four three ten percent calcium
added. Additionally, it's an organic food, a complete organic food that you
can mix into your beds to provide those nutrients to create that bank account.
In the soil. They have an organic soil complete. Now that would include
a compost and expanded shell and large particle sand. So this is a soil
that's going to stay loose. It's going to stay open each time you add
it. You know, the compost breaks down as all of our composts do,
that's how nature is. But the particle sand and the expanded shale,
each time you're adding it, you're redoing that bed and you're building it up
better and better. And the soil just gets really really good, perfect for
plant growth. And then finally there's their organic compost complete that's a third of
the one two three and has two different kinds of compost blended together again shale
component inside of it to promote aeration and to promote drainage. If you have
a black play, so you absolutely have to be using some expanded shale when
you're mixing up your soil. Always we want to add compost. It's always
a good idea to add compost, but expanded shale as well is important.
So Arburgate's got it all put together with a one two three. So you're
getting ready for those fall flower beds. Maybe even plant marigolds or something for
the fall. You're getting ready for the fall vegetable garden. You need something
for containers. Even this stuff works, it just it works. And when
you're out at Arburgate, pick up that one two three and do it again
and again over time, and just watch your soul get better and better.
And when the soul gets better, production is better, more bountiful, more
beautiful. Well. Our phone number is seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four and I
was out in the front yard yesterday and not yesterday, earlier this week,
and I we have a Vitex tree, and this vitex has bloomed, but
now it's in another cycle of bloom. And I was just standing there.
Number one, I like the fragrances. You know, the regular blue purple
Vitex has fragrance. It sure does. I was enjoying that, and I
just noticed motion in the tree and I looked and it was bees. All
kinds of pollinators were just going through. There's three or four. There was
two that I didn't even know what they were. I mean, they weren't
honey bees, they weren't bumble bees, and they were just working those blooms.
And it just reminded me how important it is to take care of our
bees. Bees are the thing that keeps this world fed, if you will,
and it's really important to take care of them. If you've never put
bees in your backyard, you ought to consider doing that. You know,
it is really not that difficult at all. You can improve your pollination in
your garden. You can also have a source of honey right there. Bees
are fascinating, fast, senating world to learn about If you have never been
to the Bee Supply in Dayton, you really need to go. First of
all, just go to their website and learn therebe supply dot com. They
have once a month now during this time of the year. Once a month
they have beginner classes out at the Bee Supply where if you're interested in getting
into bees, you learn the whole nine yards and they hold your hand and
walk through the process. Even after you purchase products, go home, set
them up and you run into some issues. They are there for you and
they will see you to success. That is their goal. Now, if
you just want to learn about bees, go to one of the free honey
tours there once a month out in Dayton, and you get to learn all
kinds of stuff. Kids have got to go do this, but I'm telling
you as an adult. Last time I went out there, I talked to
them for I think two hours, and I'm still learning more about bees as
a result. They have a honey tour where you get to sample a lot
of honey too, which is another kind of fun and cool thing to be
able to do. Let's head out now to clover Leaf and we're going to
talk to Gordon. Hello, Gordon, Hey, good morn. How are
you doing today. I'm well, thank you. I called you a while
back. Uh, planting my side in my yard okay, and used all
your helpful tips and everything is looking green except the parts that I didn't plant.
But my question is, when Randy was still alb God bless his soul,
he said that there was a something called carbo load with a and it
contained a pre emergent harbicide in it. Yes, And I don't know if
that was Nelson's or whatever it was Adams or that was Nelson Nelson. Nelson
Nelson's has a carbo load and it's designed for the fall application. And so
when you put that on, uh, it's not super high nitrogen because we
do not want high nitrogen in the fall like we do through the rest of
the year. You know, we do the three one two or four one
two ratio products during the year, but when we get to fall, we
back that nitrogen down to closer to or even a little under the potassium levels.
And so the carbo load is that kind of product. It's designed for
that and it works very very well. That gets your grass nutrient wise packed
up and ready to go to move into winter. So that when it comes
out in the spring, you have a healthy grass coming out because people don't
think about this, but they think about you know, here's the spring and
my grass is growing. The roots are all out there taking up stuff.
No, actually, initially coming out of the winter, it's what the grass
went into winter with that's supplying the energy and the growth. So that's why
that shop that should keep a green throughout the winter. Well it's not.
It's not so much that it keeps it green. It's that think of it
as this. It's anti freeze. It's carbohydrates in the plant to protect it
against cold, but to have that energy when spring comes to take off growing
when the plant doesn't have the same root system that it did during the growing
season, it's that initial Now this the greenness over winter is based more on
the temperature. You don't want to push a high nitrogen fertilizer onto your grass
going into winter. That would that would be not the ideal scenario. That's
why we like things like Okay, so I've been putting the Medina, not
the lawn fertilizer, but the Medina soil activator. I've been using that since
a plant the grass and yeah, well so that's don't think of that so
much as a fertilizer. Think of it as a stimulant. Okay, but
the fertilizer would be separate from that. But there's I called them and they
told me that I can't overdose my law and I'm like I can't. Right,
Oh good, I'll use I'll use a lot of all Right, Hey,
Gordon, I have run out of time. I've got to go to
a break here. But I hope that I hope that helped you. Sounds
like Randy got you on a good track and you're still going than you can
I ask you. Or we're gonna have to hold on till after break,
So I'm gonna put you on hold. Our phone number is seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. We'll be right back. Well,
good morning. You are listening to garden Line and we are here to answer
your gardening questions. Hey, have you ever heard when life gives you lemons,
make lemonade? Right? Well, what do you do when life gives
you blazing hot sun? Day after day after day? You make electricity?
You put you put a solar device on your roof. Man, maybe you
don't want to look at one of those big old panels sitting on the roof.
Well, brink And can fix that. Brinkman has something called a solar
shingle. Is that cool or what it's Actually, it's not on the roof
above the roof, it's it is the roof. And they know how to
do this. I mean they protect your home while they create electricity for you.
Fully warranted twenty five years now. Brinkman is the quality roofer that we
brag on here on garden Line because fifty years in the business, they know
what they're doing. This is their home turf. They have a reputation and
they keep that reputation in fact to be a twenty twenty two Better Business Bureau
Pinnacle Award winner. That doesn't come easy, but they make sure that they
do the kind of work and use the kind of materials that earn them that
kind of respect from their customers. You can go to Brinkman Quality dot com,
Brinkman Quality dot com or dial two eight one four eight zero seven six
six three. I'm going to head out back now to clover Leaf. We
were talking to Gordon Guard and I think you had a follow up question.
Yeah, I just have the thing with the medina has to grow. I
have a bottle of that. Yes, when is a cutoff date to where
I should not use that anymore? There's not a big cutoff date. As
we head into October, our grass is slowing down quite a bit, and
it just kind of, you know, it's still taking up some things to
prepare for winter. But I would say once we get passed about October,
that's probably long enough to be using something like the medina has to grow.
I would at that point I asked you before, this will not burn my
grass in the heat. But if I use it likes first thing in the
morning, right, it should be Okay, yes it won't. But just
follow the label on any product you use. Always follow the label, you
know. All right, Okay, all right, you guys have a blessed
day, and you too. Thank you for the call. I appreciate that.
If you're thinking about retiring and you're interested in a quality community, you
want a beautiful home, you want a beautiful setting, walking trails, you
want active programs, active programs, lifestyle programs that are designed around you.
That's what Dell Web's all about. I mean, they've they've been doing this
for seventy years now. Dellweb has a new community out in full Shirts on
FM three fifty nine, just about two miles from downtown Full Shure, and
it has all the things you would expect from Dell Web. Plus it has
a community garden that I've been helping them with and I can't imagine a better
place. You know, you go live and you get all the stuff I
just mentioned, Plus you have a place to go garden where you don't have
to dig up the backyard, where you get to gather with friends and visit,
you know, gardeners. I don't know whether we get more gardening done
or more visiting and opining and pontificating about plants done, but that's the fun
of gardening, is getting together and just enjoying it with other people. And
that's what you would do in a Dellweb community like that one down in full
Schre dellweb dot com slash Houston. You can get more information there or you
can call him two eight one four five nine zero six zero nine. Our
phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four. We're
gonna be taking a break in a minute, and when we come back at
eight o'clock hour, we're gonna have Dean Nelson from Nelson Plant Food here.
We're gonna talk about the Randy Lemon Memorial Scholarship. Now, I know we
have a lot of listeners that listen to Randy, many of you for almost
all twenty six or seven years that he was doing this, and Randy was
an icon when it comes to plant I mean, there are people that would
not go to the garden center without checking with the Randy first, because that's
just the reputation that he built. He helped a lot of you in your
landscapes and in your gardens and just provided that week to week entertainment on the
weekends, you know what I mean. Randy was beloved here. I can
think of a not a better way to honor and recognize Randy than this scholarship.
And we're gonna spend some time talking about it next hour, but I
just wanted to kind of give you a heads up that that is coming.
Let's head out now to Spring, Texas and we're gonna talk to Rich.
Hello, Rich, good morning. Skip. Following up on the diesel exhaust
fluid. Yeah, I called in last week about yes, yes, did
did you have a chance to look at it? I sent an email with
a couple of links I did. I saw that, and I glanced at
it, but I bookmarked them so I could come back. At the time
I was looking at it, I was having to run and do something else.
But yeah, that's something I did not know about. I had never
I'd never heard about that before. But you do it all right. But
it seems it seems interesting based on the you know, cost per gallon for
a fifteen zero zero So that's why I was interested. Well, it is,
and you know, I still want to look into it a little bit
further. You know, I when I see something like that, I always
think, okay, wait a minute, where's the yeah butt in this?
And I interest in glancing at it. I didn't see that, but that
that is interesting. Just remember though, that we use a quality for alizer.
You're getting a lot of other ingredients, a lot more things you got
the Big three, of course, but you often have a lot of micros
that are there, sometimes microbial activity as well. So I just understood.
And I use azomde and some other things and the normal nitro fosl sortalizers.
This would be something that was interested in just to spoon feed, you know,
once a month a light application. Well that's interesting, yeah, that
you know, and doing this forty three years. There are not many things
I haven't heard of, but that was one I have not heard of.
So it's a good day without it to learn something else, right, it
is. Thanks, good, Hey, Thanks. I appreciate the call,
Rich and thanks for sending me that information. And this is just a reminder.
I need to go back, but I did bookmarket so I could come
back and study that a little further. Appreciate your call, right, Thank
you. You take care. If you live in the Kingwood area, you
are fortunate in that you have two out standing mom and pop garden centers out
there that would be Kingwood Gardens and Warrens Southern Gardens. Now, these folks
they carry the products we talk about. You know, if I'm talking about
a fertilizer, they're going to have it at Kingwood Garden Center and at Warren's
Garden Center. They have those Microlife and Nelson Plant Food filling stations for your
jugs. You know, how you go into a grocery store and you can
buy peanuts and stuff. You pull the little handle down and fill up a
bag. That's what we're talking about, except you take your empty canisters from
those products. You go in there and you fill them up. Saves a
little money, saves a little bit on putting more plastic out there in the
environment. Now, right now, the weekly special this weekends. This weekend,
it is called the Hibiscus Happy Hour. And I don't want to be
clear. This is at Kingwood Garden Center. This is at Kingwood Garden Center.
One gallon Cajun hibiscus, that's my favorite tropical hibiscus, nineteen ninety nine,
from two pm to five pm. And that happens on Saturday. And
that happens on today Sunday. Okay, so that's your opportunity. Now.
Both locations have Mandevilla on sale, the beautiful tropical blooms of Mandevilla. Here's
your chance to pick those up. And we got a lot of Mandevilla weather
still to come. An interesting thing out at Warrens Garden Centers are having a
fall garden soil prep it's a cultivate a harvest of abundance. That's August nineteenth,
so it's coming up in a couple of weeks. Nine am to ten
am. It's free nine am to ten am. But you will learn all
about preparing your soil. Space is limited, even though it's free, space
is limited, so reserve your spot at Warren's Garden Center out there in the
Kingwood area. Kingwood Garden Centers on Stone Hollow Drive Warren's Garden Centers on North
Park both are open seven days a week, so just a good time to
get out there. See the beauty. The gift shops are amazing for those
places. But here's all the other reasons. Now more reasons to want to
head out to Kingwood and Warren's Garden Center out there the Kingwood area. Let's
see, I am going to Jim. I'm gonna go to you next out
in Conro. We've got about a minute, so let's see if we can
get it done in a minute. Okay, okay. I planted a large
red maple tree last fall or head. It done by RCW, and it's
having some issues with this heat. I think it's though that it's been overwater
rather than underwater, and I wonder if I could send you a couple of
pictures and could take a look at it. Yeah, but as we finished
talking here, I'll put you on hold, Josh. We'll get you the
email so you can do that. Make sure they're in good sharp focus.
Maybe some close ups of some leaves or any other symptoms, but also of
the whole tree. We'll take a look. Yeah, overwatering or underwatering,
but either way you could do it. It's a new tree, still putting
roots out there, so it's easy to overwater. Still confined, somewhat confined
root system. But if you got it, if you got it from our
CW, those folks know they were quality trees, and they plan them right
and get them established. And so if they did the planning for you especially,
we know all that was taken care of. We just got to figure
out, you know, what's going on and turn them around, right all
right? Jee O, yes sir, here you go on hold and Josh
we'll pick it up. We're gonna be taking a break here run I see
out there in League City. We're gonna have to hold on until after the
news at the top of the hour. If anyone would like to give us
a call seven one three, two one two five eight seven four, maybe
you just want to tell about something that Randy did that you just really enjoyed,
that really helped you some ways, that he was helpful to you.
We would love to take some calls like that. During the eight o'clock hour,
we're gonna have Dean Nelson here and we're gonna be talking about the Randy
Lemon Memorial Scholarship. And but I would just like to take some time to
remember Randy, just to remember the impact that he had. And I think
there's no better way than to hear from you as to what was significant,
what was important? How is that helpful? Randy was beloved by a lot
of folks. And you know, I didn't meet Randy until about nineteen eighty
three when we were in college, but I've known him. I've known him
since that time, and he was always a character. I was enjoyed visiting
with Randy. That was a lot of fun. But he was also an
important icon in the hoard industry here. So let's let's talk about that a
little bit. Give Josha call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. I will be right back and we look forward to talking to you
more. KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Scared Victory, just
watching well, good morning, Good morning on a beautiful Sunday morning, and
we are glad you are listening today. Hey, if you need to get
your landscape taken up a notch, you need to call Jason and the team
out there at Peerscapes. Now, Peerscapes is one of those places it does
at all, and they do it right. They've got designers that know how
to design beautifully. Do you need a rock border, do you need a
hardscape? You got an irrigation problem that needs fixing, or maybe a drainage
problem that needs fixing, that's important here in Houston. All you have to
do is go online to Pierscapes dot com and leave an online enquiry, or
you can give a call. They'll be back open again tomorrow morning. Two
eight one three seven zero five zero six zero. Don't delay, though,
go ahead and get that done because fall is coming and there's a lot of
things that may be involved in that landscape renovation. You want to get it
started now so you can really enjoy the show place that you're going to end
up with when you do that. I'm here with Dean Nelson Nelson Plant Food,
and we have been talking about the Randy Lemon memorial scholarship, And I
do hope those of you who are here would would agree and consider that a
very worthwhile thing to donate some money toward. You know, normally I talk
about Dean, I talk about your fertilizers and online, but here I got
the man himself. You know that featherlight, the eighteen to eight, that's
such a good one through the summer. Why is it that when you put
the feather I'm sorry, featherlight, I'm sorry, slow and east twenty two
two ten is the one I met. Yeah, the featherlight's the next one
I want to try out, by the way on then, but twenty two
two n Why is it that that nitro did and just available? Because fertilizers
often we call them flizer salt, so you put salt and water and the
whole sodium chloride is right there in the glass and ready to go. What
about it? What's the technology that makes up twenty two percent nitrogen release over
time? Well, there's there's different ingredients we can use to make the fertilizer
release different ways, and the nitrogen, of course is the big one.
It's slow. Rely, he have nitroc cycomonium sulfate urea. It's it's immediately
available, especially in potasium nitrate, and it's gone also in about six weeks.
But then you've got the you know, the bio solids that last longer.
And it's all about the nitrogen cycle is what it is, and the
nitrogen cycle any kind of there's all. The plant doesn't care where the nitrogen
comes from. Yeah, it can come from manure, it can come from
lightning, you know, the air in slow release or fast release. But
the bacteria in the soil is what converts all of it to plant available.
It has to be nitrateed. Nitrite is the N O three n O two
molecule for the plant to start using it. But other than potassium nitrate,
it's it's it's a maniacal nitrogen or it's urea, and so the materia has
to convert that, okay, and in slow and easy. The blue stuff
and the green stuff you look at as a bunch. I mean, it's
like eighty percent of the nitrogen is slow releasing. That nitrogen is the only
nitrogen in the world that is man made, and it is it is broken
down with the bacteria that makes it released slowly. That is good it's it's
carbon and nitrogen. That's what we call carbon based nitrogen. And as the
bacteria want the carbon for energy, it releases the nitrogen. And they've they've
designed that stuff so it'll last six months. And it's a really even slow
even curve. I showed you the Courage yesterday. It's just flat, it
goes up and it's just really slow, and neutraline is a little faster.
And then we put in some some bacteria inhibited nitrogen which is slow release,
slow release. Also it slows the bacteria down, breaking it down right okay,
And then we put in ammonium sulfate to make it up front of nitrogen.
So it's got five different nitrons in there. Well that and that's what
makes it. That is the way it does that is interesting. And the
other advantage of a product like that is, you know, if you if
you put out a regular immediately available and you get a gully washer for a
couple of days, it's just going to dissolve and wash away. And but
thus the grandiles, you know, they it's gonna take them while where they're
willing to give that nitrogen up. And in the process that you just talked
about, and you talked about a salt. You know, there's a good
salt, bad salt, you know, passing SOULFI it's a good salt facing
cords of bad salt. The nitro form is zero salt none zero, yeah,
and so that that helps the plant. All right, good Dean,
thank you so much for coming into Dre. I appreciate having you here,
and thank you again for what you're doing and getting this Randy Lemon and Scott
we it's been industry has been good to Julie me for forty years. We
still enjoy getting up going to work every day, and and we're gonna keep
on doing it. And if we can help out Aggie Aggies anytime anywhere and
put Randy's name on it, then uh, we'll do that. All right.
Well, thanks again, I appreciate that. By the way, you
know you're gonna find a nitrofoss and pretty much anything you're looking for at Southwest
Fertilizer Bob down there. They have got everything. I mean, if you're
an organic gardener, if you're a synthetic gardener, if you need tools,
if you need your law more blade sharp and if you need small engine repayer,
if you need any kind of a product for controlling pass for controlling diseases.
I don't if Southwest Fertilizer doesn't have it, you don't need it for
your lawn and garden. I mean they have it all. They're in the
corner of Bissonette and Renwick. You can go online to Southwest Fertilizer dot com
and find out more about them. But the main thing you need to do
is just go in there. You got a plant sample, you got a
picture of a problem. They'll take a look at it. They'll identify it
accurately because they know what they're doing, and then they'll take you to a
product that'll fix the problem because they understand the different products, how they work,
and what's needed. That in and of itself is well worth a trip
down to Southwest Fertile Leisure. I enjoy going to good garden centers and on
the way back, I was down in El Campo the other day and on
the way back I stopped in it and Chanted Gardens up in Richmond. They're
out there on FM three fifty nine outside in Richmond on the Katie Fulsher side
of Richmond. If you will, and you by the way, you can
go online to Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com.
You can find out more about them, you know how to get there and
all the things going on. They've got a lot of good information online,
I mean really really informative information online for you to learn more about it,
so you can find out for yourself. You know what it is that you
might want to grow, what you might want to do, if you need
supplies, if you need plants, whatever you might need, they have got
it. There, got some really nice ornamental grasses that are just looking beautiful
right now. Fall is a beautiful time for ornamental grasses. It's also a
place where you can get frog fruit one of those native groundcovers. It's really
becoming popular that are here on the market, all out there at Enchanted Gardens
out north of Richmond toward Katie three fifty nine. I know that some of
you live way up north and they're listening to the show, maybe Navasota Bryan
College Station, anywhere up there. Well, you need to know about your
hometown feed store, and that is Grimes County Feed now Grimes County Feed.
The family. Chris served for fifteen years in the Houston Fire Department Public service
has always been his passion and that shows up daily at the way they do
business there at the feed store. He puts his personal cell phone number on
the business card. See that The idea isn't to get your money and get
you out the door. The idea is to continue to help you have success
because that's what makes you want to come back. And that's the kind of
service that we all appreciate in any kind of industry. The roy family has
been living in Northern Grimes County for the last twenty years now. They just
celebrated their fifth anniversary for Grimes County Feed and Farm, and in fact,
they have a customer appreciation Week August seventh through August twelfth. So there's ten
percent off on that tree hugger sprinkler that I keep telling you you can't live
without, ten percent off on their plant foods like the Nelson's Medina, nitro
Fos Microlife, ten percent off all of that at Grimes County Feed. You
need to check them out. They are well worth it. Hey, here's
a phone number if you want to give them a call. Two eight one
eight one four twenty four ninety four. We're gonna take a break. We'll
be right back the phone number seven one three two one two five eight seven
four. Well, good morning, good Sunday morning. You are listening to
garden Line and we are here to talk about whatever is of interest to you
in gardening. And I'm gonna I just want to tell you something. If
you are putting in transplants and it you know you can be planning things now,
but falls coming. We've been planning a lot of things and you need
to know about has to grow. It's a six twelve six liquid product.
Now has to Grow is from the Medina folks. It's got Medina soil activator,
and it's got humate humic acid, and it has seaweed extracts and at
all things to help stimulate not only rooting, but fruiting and blooming. You
can use it as a folier application. It's not gonna burn your plants.
Just follow the label on that. I like to use it in a can
of water mixed up to drench on my transplants. When I plant, I
water them in with a has to grow water. Then about five to seven
days later I just do it again, and then five to seven days later
do it again. Those three applications will get your plant off to a good
start. In fact, I would say when you plant them and you water
them, don't don't stand over the plant because they're gonna grows the fast.
I come up and hit you in the chin. Okay, that's a little
bit. That's a little taking it too far. But seriously, a good,
strong, healthy start for plants is really important, and the has to
grow. Six twelve six will do just that. I'm going to head up
to northwest Houston now and we're gonna talk to Maggie. Good morning, Maggie.
Do we have a Maggie there? All right? I'm put Maggie back
on hold, Josh. Maybe we can get her back and get going again.
I think it was it yesterday or this morning. I was talking about
birds and being out and in the backyard and thinks I got a brand new
bird bath, a bird watering a bath, and boy watching their antics and
that is just a blast. You know, it is so hot and drying
out. You've got to have water for your birds and other wildlife. You
gotta have water for your beneficial insects. For your bees, for example,
a little bird bath where they can come up to the edge, they can
do that, and where do you get it. Well, wild Birds is
going to have a selection like you just haven't seen of all things related to
birds, including bird best. They even a little mister and dripper up there.
The mister the hummingbirds fly through it, just get their wings that they
love that. The little dripper. You'll see birds it's drinking right out of
the dripper itself over the bird beat. They have quality food were our birds
are dealing with molting right now at the end of summer and so all through
August. That nesting superblend is really perfect. It works good feeding all the
time. One thing I like about wall birds food is that it is designed
with the birds in mind, with the things that the birds eat. A
lot of these feeds that you see out there, bird feed it's got the
little red babies. That's a milo and they kick it out. They don't
want it. It's hard to crack. They don't care for that. And
a huge portion of what you paid for is that kind of I don't care
about it. The birds say Milo babies, And with wallbirds, you don't
get that. You get one hundred percent of what you buy is what the
birds eat. You can even buy mess free feeds. They don't drop the
shells all over the place. They're real clean and neat. Maybe your feeder
is over a patio and you don't want to breathe all over it. Wilbirds
Unlimited. Go Towbu dot Com, forward slash Houston and you can find one
of the seven wilbirds in our area. Well, let's head back out to
northwest Houston. I believe we have Maggie. Now, is that correct?
Okay, where's Maggie. We're gonna try to get you one more time.
Maggie. I'm gonna put you back on. Okay. Oh, there you
are, there you are. I'll be real still with my phone. Okay,
Okay, I have a question. I have an agga tampus. I
have three of them. I bought them the first of the season. Yes,
they get sun from noon the rest of the day. They are just
burning up a water about three times a week. I get about ten minutes
when a water, So dude, I need to move them. Well,
they they need bright light, but they don't need to sit out in the
full brunt of the sun. So yeah, well just kind of look at
the sun's pattern through the day and a little bit of sun is okay.
But not full blazing all day. If that's what you have, then I
would I would try to just keep them going for now. Don't move them
right now. But when fall comes, then try to move them. Let's
get a little pressure off of them before we rip them up and do the
root damage it's involved in moving. Okay, how much watering should I water
them? Keep the soil moist depending on your soil, depending on the temperatures,
depending on the amount of light watering will vary a lot. But you
just dig down and feel the soil about four or five inches deep, and
you'll know when it's not moist. Agapanthus does not want to dry out completely,
nor does it want to be in a swamp, so you just find
that sweet spot. Oh that's great, that's good news. I enjoy your
show. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Maggie.
Thank you very much as well forgiving us a call. Hey, if you're
interested in a place where you can retire and have a beautiful home, a
beautiful community, and a very nice active lifestyle to enjoy those years, well,
that's a delleweb community. There's one down in full Sure, about two
miles out of downtown Full shure. It's got everything a Delleweb has, which
is everything. And plus they have a community garden, and so here we
are, we're gardeners, and I can't find a better package of benefits than
a Dellweb home, a Dellweb community, and a community garden to enjoy as
well. Go online to Delleweb dot com slash Houston. You can find out
more information there or you can give him a call to eight one four five
nine zero six zero nine. We were somebody who is not listen, see
not from this part of the state, was at the house and looking there
was actually a cockrow treant out yes in my house at Cocker Trend, and
there was just a reaction to them like, oh my gosh, it's like
it was this giant flying alligator about to attack the world. Well, it
doesn't bother me so much, but I do need to get that under control.
What I need to do is call Scott McGrath over at McGrath Pest Control
McGrath Pest Control and by the way, their website is macgraff pest Control dot
com. They have been in business since nineteen seventy four, oh you know,
forty nine years now. Still family run They're one of those good old
time service companies that say, you know, not, hey, take off
your whole afternoon. I may be there sometime in the afternoon, like a
lot of service companies. No, they tell you when they're going to be
there, and that's when they show up, super highly rated. They cover
the whole Houston area. Scott is involved in day to day operations and is
accessible to all the customers and he knows his business. Give him a call
two eight one four six nine eight two for zero. You know, every
season has the issues. When you get into September through February, we're going
to be dealing with a lot of rodent calls, a lot of that's when
rodents are kind of peeking out. February through March is the peak of the
termite season. There's always something to go on. I need to get them
right now, to get some cockroaches out of the house. For crying out
loud, Apparently not everybody enjoys living with those little buggers crawling around everywhere.
Scott knows what to do, he knows how to get it done, reasonable
price, and he does what he says he's going to do. Let's go
now and talk to Chris. Good morning, Chris, good morning. Thank
you for taking my call. You bet, how can we help? I
got well, I have a compost pile that I've been throwing different things into
all summer long, and one of them was a sweet potato. And I
think going out, you know with the thing on the apps that tell you
what something is. At first it said morning glories. There's never been any
flowers, and now the leaves are really big. There's a lot bigger than
a morning glory. And now it's saying maybe it's sweet potato. Okay,
well those are related. And a sweet potato, if it ever bloomed for
you, it would look like a morning glory. That's what the flower is,
just a little bit smaller than the ones that are bred for fines and
are ornamentals. But that's probably well. If you want, I can put
you on hold and Josh, you'll give you an email. You can send
me some pictures up close. Put your hand or something that shows me the
size of the leaves in the picture. Could be a pencil or you know,
you know what I'm talking about, and let me take a look.
I'll tell you what it is. But from what you're saying, I think
you probably have either a sweet potato or a morning glory, and they are
almost the same thing. They're very closely related. The morning glory leaves should
not be glossy. The sweet potato leaves may have just a slight sheen to
them, kind of a glossy sheen to them. The sweet potato, the
morning glory is more of a heart shape than the sweet potato. Sometimes there's
a little sort of lobes on the sweet potato leaf, not completely, but
a little bit, so those those also may help you distinguish it. All
right, Well, what I'm wondering is if it is sweet potatoes, should
I go ahead? And when should I harvest them? Or just let this
go? I would wait Wherever they come out of the ground. The ground
will start to heave up as those large roots which are very near the surface,
as they start to swell up, it sort of pushes the ground up
a little bit, and you see some light cracks in the soil around the
plant as it's heaving up. There's not a ripening for them, but you
want to give them time to fully develop. Otherwise you have little finger sized
sweet potatoes instead of nice sweet potato sized sweet potatoes. So I would wait,
let it get a little further along. I don't how long would you
plant? How many months ago? Well, I didn't plant it intentionally,
compost pile, and I've been heading more and more stuff into that. Let's
just wait until sometime in October. Then chriss and dig them. Then there's
no harm in waiting. It may or may not be sweet potato, but
you'll know at that time. All right, Okay, we'll go ahead and
send a picture just a few minutes. Then who do I send it to?
All right, I'm gonna put it on put you on hold, and
Josh's gonna give you the email address to send it. Just make sure it's
a good, well focused photo. Thank you very much. Okay, already,
that is a good deal. Hey, if you need anything for your
garden, I mean we're talking about fertilizers, We're talking about pesticide like insexicise,
fertilized. How about soil, bags of soil mixes. How about some
outdoor furniture to beautify your garden, outdoor living areas. Maybe a barbecue pit.
Oh my gosh, is this ever barbecue country? And barbecue kind of
weather that we're having here? Ace Hardware has all of that. ACE Hardware
is the stop for everybody because they're everywhere. Thirty nine ACE Hardware stores from
the Greater Houston area. There's one near You go to ACE Hardware dot com,
Ace Hardware dot Com find their store locator and find the ones that are
close to you, and there will be ones, in other words, more
than one that's close to you. And when you're there, joined the ACE
Rewards program. I belong to it, and every time you go in and
buy something, you get money back on your purchase. So it just makes
sense because, believe me, you're gonna want to go back because they have
everything you need, they got a reasonable price, and you know the old
time hardware field where the person that greedid you was friendly and they knew what
they were talking about. That's the modern ACE Hardware as well. But when
you walk into one, if you've not been into an ACE in a long
time, you are going to be amazed at all the different things. I
mean, it's pretty much. I guess if they threw groceries in, you
never have to go anywhere else other than an ACE Hardware. No. Seriously,
they really stock a lot of things and it's a great, great deal.
We're going to head out now to Katie and talk to Katie. Hello
Katie from Katie, Hi, how are you doing well? I'm well,
thank you. I have a question about using the half to grow six to
twelve six fertilizer on my potted plants on my patio. Okay. I have
always used that like on the first of the month, and I have not
done it in July or August yet, just simply because I was worried about
doing that during this heat. Is it safe to do? Should I do
it? Should I not? It would be it would be okay. You
could go ahead, just just follow the label, do it the end moderation,
follow the label and you'll be fine. Okay. I pacifically that my
hybiscus are really struggling in this heat. So it's just mainly water is what
they need. I mean, if you're in a container, you can move
them where they get a little bit of afternoon shade that gives them a little
bit of a break. But no, you're you're on a good track there.
It'll do just fine. All right, Okay, I will do that
act. That's the other question I have. Is it better to do this
in the morning or in the evening, because I've noticed I've been watering a
lot of times in the evening, but some of my souls are beginning to
get that white, you know, like no step. Yeah, I just
just keep it moist. It doesn't matter when you water. I usually water
in the morning when I'm on my way out of the house, or in
the afternoon when you're coming home. It doesn't really matter. Just keep the
soil as evenly moist as you can. And depending on the size of the
container, that may be watering more than once a day or every two days.
Hey, I got to go to a break, Katie, but I
really appreciate the call. Thank you very much. It is time for NNN,
not cnn NNN Nikki News Network. We need some news music like remember
that. Okay, good Sunday morning. You are listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number is seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two and two K t
our h give us a call. Let's talk about the things that are interesting
to you, the things that you care about that you're interested in. Hey,
if you if you are planning on putting some fertilizer out on the lawn,
and you were looking for an organic product with a fairly high content of
the nitrogen. For example, that would be Sweet Green. It's eleven percent.
The first number of the bag is eleven I believe eleven O four zero
four, and that will provide not only the nutrients, it breaks down really
quickly with the microbes that are in the soil they get on that sugar stuff.
They love a molasses based fertilizer, and you will too. By the
way, it smells a wonderful none named sweet Green is for a reason.
That's exactly what it smells like. When you do the Sweet Green on your
lawn, you're going to feed the lawn. You're going to stimulate the microbial
activity in the soil too, which is really important. And the Sweet Green,
remember that was a product that last year we were looking at trying to
find enough of it to go around because how popular it is. This year,
they're stocked up and they're ready to go. But I wouldn't delay.
It didn't hurt to have a bag ready to go in the garage at any
time. So you may want to grab two. Hey, where do you
get nitro foss well pretty much everywhere. If it's ace hardware store, if
it's a feed store, if it's a garden center, we talk about I'll
bet you they have nitro foss widely carried through the area, easy to find,
and that's sweet green. For those of you who are looking for an
organic option, or maybe you don't care about whether it's organic or not,
you just want a good fertilizer, that's sweet green. Sweet Green by Nitrofoss,
really really good stuff. I was talking about earlier about bragging on my
Grimes County Feed and Farm out there in Carlos, Texas. And I don't
think I told you exactly where they are. They are about two miles west
of FM two forty four on State Highway thirty. So those of you who
listen up there, and by the way, I've been very surprised at how
many people back up through that part of the country. I call it God's
Country out there. Listen to garden line up there. A lot of folks
out in that country. Beat Eyes and Iowa and Shiro and Anderson all through
there. You know, if you're in the Brian College Station area, that's
your hometown feed store as well as as if you're in the Navasota area.
Also, I just love going in there. I need to get back in
there. It's been a few weeks since I've been in there, and I
need to get back in say hello to those folks. But again, two
miles west of FM two forty four on State Highway thirty, locally owned and
operated, we are going to head out of the phones and we're going to
talk to Gerald. Good morning, Gerald, Good morning. How are you
doing well? I'm well today. How are you? Oh, I'm doing
pretty good. Stand in the heat, yes, sir, hang in there.
It's fall is coming. I don't know when it comes. It may
be December third, but it's coming. Yeah, that's why I'm afraid of
all right. Yeah, what I need to know two quick questions is it
is it okay to put down some fertilizing all this stuff? And if so,
what numbers shoot I put down? All right? Well, in general,
we want a fertilizer this time of year that has a larger first number,
a small second number, and a medium third number. That's why we
say three one two ratio, so a four one two ratio, and it
doesn't have to be exactly that, but that's what you're aiming for. So
I just I was just talking about the nitrofos sweet Green that's an eleven zero
four that would be a good one. That's an organic type fertilizer that is
based on the molasses, and so it's it's an excellent choice. If you
want something that's gonna last longer out there, then I would consider nitrofists super
turf that's a nineteen four ten fertilizer and nineteen four ten and the chemistry of
it, it's designed so that that nutrient is not just immediately released. You
know, some fertilizers we call them salt based. They it's like, you
know, you put table salt or sugar in water and it just designs and
suddenly the water is filled with what was in the granules, right uh,
And when fertilizers can be that way. But this type of fertilizer, the
nineteen four ten, that has got a chemistry that the microbes just can't break
it down right away. It takes a little while for the full release of
those nutrients. And so if you want a longer term feed, that would
do it. Either way, you're not going to go wrong with either of
those two nitro Foss products and that was a nineteen Yeah, nitro foss n
I t ro dash pho s nitro foss. And you're gonna find it everywhere.
You know, if you've got an ace hardware, new you you got
nitro fiss. You know, the feed stores carry it in a lot of
things. But it's the easy way to remember it is it's the silver bag.
They put it in a silver bag, so right when you walk in
the store you can see it right there. Okay, all right, one
more quick one. Sure all the plants I had out for the spring or
burnout? Now? So what what's good? What's a good plant right now
that will last till a Paul were talking flowers a vegetable, No flowers in
a pot. Flowers in a pot. Uh Angelonia will carry you on into
fall. We get a little further into the season, and I would probably
put out marigols, the big old pom pom types. You know, there's
little small marigoles size of a quarter. There's other blooms that are size of
a tennis ball. That's the palm palm, the African marigoles. And boy,
when they go into fall, they just get brighter and prettier. And
the spider mites don't bother them. But I would wait until the end of
August probably to start doing those. But the angelonia would look really good right
now. Hibscus, the tropical hibiscus, absolutely awesome right now. Manda villa
is a little bit of a vine. If you've got a little small trellis.
It's not a vigorous vine. You can put in in a container and
it'll look really pretty too, just a few choices. Zenias, the compact
typese angelonia. It's like a N G E L O N I A.
You go to a good garden center and tell them you need an angelonia.
Some people call it summer snap dragon. It's sort of snapdragon ish, but
definitely not a snapdragon. But it definitely is a heat tolerant plant. You'll
see them all over the place and commercial landscapes. They're good in pots.
They do good in pots. Yep. You just you know when it comes
to plants in pots, Gerald it's how big is a plant, how good
of a quality mixed you have in the pot, and how big is the
pot. Those are the three important things to in getting it set up.
If you have a big plant and a small pot, you're gonna water it
three times a day trying to keep it alive. If you know, if
you've got a good sized pot with a good soil that holds moisture but drains,
well, you made water it every other day. I mean, you
know, it's the key is to get that right so you're not having to
remember every few minutes to go out there and water the thing. Yeah,
okay, well I appreciate it. Well, I appreciate your call. Thank
you very much. We're going to take a break right now. Our phone
number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four and Sam,
when we come back from break, you are the first up. Well,
good Sunday morning. You are listening to garden line. Let's sad, nice
day out there. Good day to get out and put around a little bit
in the yard early this morning. Good day to get out and visit some
of our garden centers to this afternoon as well as some of the other sponsors
that we have that have the quality products that you need. Remember, this
is a time it's fall. It's falls on the doorstep. I know it's
one hundred degrees and it doesn't feel like fall, but you need to tell
your brain this is fall, because now is when you would be planning to
make some peppers and eggplants, for example. Don't delay one more day because
those things need to get in really quick. If you're going to get a
crop out of the things. Very soon, it will be playing in green
beans in the vegetable garden and squash and cucumbers and things like that. And
then next thing, you know, in September October, really October two,
we're putting in coal season things like the coal crops, the blue leaved vegetables,
cabbage, cauliflower, kale called Robbie. What am I forgetting broccoli?
Of course I couldn't forget that one? Collards? You know, the time
to start those though. If let's say, have a packet of broccoli seed
and you want to grow your own transplants, now's the time to get those
things started. You know. The our weather here it is quite unique,
because a lot a lot of places have unique weather, but here we just
have this blazing inferno where we're having to get ready for some things that don't
like a blazing inferno, and so you just kind of have to take care
of them. You need to keep them watered, you need to get ready
to go, because when it comes time to have the fall harvest, all
this stuff needs to have been done a long time ago, and a long
time ago as now. So what that means is, for example, you
put out, let's say you plant a new tomato plant, or an egg
plant or a pepper something along those lines. Well, they may need a
little bit of a shade for a week or so just to kind of help
get them acclimated to the full sun and the new soil and the roots are
getting established. You need to water them carefully so they stay moist but not
saggy wet. So that's kind of a touch and go thing, but that's
what we do so that we can enjoy the benefits later on. You know,
we were just just visiting about flowers and flowers that could go in a
container now, and there's so many options out there, lots of good ones.
But we're still planning our warm season flowers now. It'll be probably October
before we really start to think about things that might be more cool season,
you know, a lesson and snap dragons and the many many cool season flowers
that we have to plant. We'll be getting to those, but not for
just a little while. In the meantime, you want to keep your law
and healthy moderate fertilization, always having some gradual amounts of nutrients that are being
released. The best way to do that is a slow release fertilizer. I
talk about them all the time. If you don't have a slow release furtilizer,
maybe you've bought something that's an immediate release, immediately available fertilizer. Will
just take what you would have put down in an application and divide it into
two or three and make two or three small applications about four weeks apart.
And if you do that, what you're going to do is you're going to
gradually release those nutrients because you're only putting them on gradually. And that's a
way to kind of turn a fast release into a slow release, if you
will. It's not the best of technologies, but it sure is a good
way to you know, if you've got some fast release on you go ahead
and use it that way and get that done. In the meantime, the
most important thing for your lawnch right now is to be watered adequately, not
overwatered, not watered every other day so that the grass spends half its time
wet. You're inviting diseases, you're inviting chinch bugs, and when the cool
weather hits, you'll be inviting the large patch which we used to call brown
patch, those big circles. You want to water with a good soaking on
an infrequent basis. And my new chart that's coming out on lawn Care talks
about watering and I've got in there January through December, how much on average
we get per week and rainfall here in the Houston area. So like on
the summer months, it's about an inch that our plants are needing, but
when we get into the fall in the spring, we drop down to a
half inch. And then when we get in the cool season, the very
coldest season here, we don't water the lawn at all, and so we
need a water accordingly. And the best way I know to do that is
a free app called water my Yard. You can visit water my yard dot
org online sign up there, or go to the Apple Store, the Apple
App Store or Google Play if you have an Android and download the free app
and you sign up and it's free, and it's free science based watering recommendations
to promote a healthy lawn that's tailored for your yard and how could we say
that it's tailored for your yard. There's little weather stations you would need to
notice them. They may be out at a golf course or somewhere and it's
a low weather station and it's it's measuring the temperature, the wind speed,
the humidity, the amount of solar radiation. You know, cloudy days versus
sunny days. We got those things. Well, it's a small or fires
coming out of Canada or whatever it was with you know, all the particulates
in the air that actually affects solar radiation and cuts down on the amount of
water that plants. You use in areas where something like that would happen.
These weather stations figure it all out for you and they send you an email
say you need to water this much this week, and that's so much better
than me, sayan water an inch a week. Water an inch a week,
Well that's a good rule of thumb. But water myyard dot Org gives
you the full value of tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and science
and sends it to you for free. I got one the other day and
it's at water point four eight inches this week. That's what my lawn used.
Based on all of that, I wouldn't have known that without water myyard
dot org. I really encourage you just try it out. You don't have
to keep using if you don't like it. I think you will find it
really really helpful. Well, let's go out now to pair Land and we
are going to talk to Mark. Mark, how are you doing out there?
I'm doing okay, all right. I have a question about how to
get rid of day flower and it's taking over my front flower bear, particularly
around my plumbago. I've tried a lot of things, and it's been proaching
into my yard, into my lawn. Yeah. It's a it's a demon.
Yeah, yeah, I day flower is. It's one of those Um,
it's one of those weeds that you know, normally we talk about broad
leaf weeds and grassy weeds, right, and so with the broad leaf weeds,
we use broad leaf herbsides. With the grassy weeds, your grassy herbicides,
and day flower just seems to be kind of caught in the middle of
the whole whole nine yards. Uh. There is a product called Speeds on
Southern that has day flower, that has some day flower activity and it'll it'll
do a pretty good job. Fertilham has a weed free zone also that does
a pretty good job. The problem with those is when it is over the
mid eighties, even the upper eighties and above, especially above the upper eighties.
Uh, these products can hurt your lawn. And so if you can
find really really early time of the day, I mean the coolest moment of
the day and right now, we're lucky if we make it to eighty degrees
right overnight. But that if you can treat then and get it dried up
before the temperature is up there ninety and above especially, and do spot treatments
where you just as much as possible squirt the day flower weeds and don't just
like treat the whole lawn with the product. That's probably your best bet to
try to minimize damage to your Saint Augustine. I normally don't recommend those products
right now, if you know, if there's any way to wait and treat
at cooler times of the year, But that day flower loves warm weather.
It's like dove. Doveweeds the same kind of thing. Basket grass is another
one that challenges us to work with. There is another product called Celsius like
fahrenheit and Celsius. Celsius is a little better when the temperature gets warmer,
now one hundred degrees, I think that's asking too much of any herbicide,
But Celsius might give you a little better, a little less of a temperature
negative effect, like most of the other broad leaf we control products will.
So you might want to go for that one. You can buy that in
a lot of places. You're done there in Pairline, you probably got an
ACE hardware. In fact, Pairline does have an ACE hardware, more than
one in that area that would probably carry the Celsius. You'll find it in
a little little packet. It's almost like, you know, like a sugar
packet or whatever, but something about twice that size, and it's made to
just mix up and use. It's a one off. You know, you
don't want to buy a bottle of celsius. I mean number one, you'd
have to. You'd have to, you know, sell the family jewelry and
rent the kids out to pay for the thing. But just a little packet's
very affordable, and it's it's a one and done. You get it done
and you're done. I think I would try that one and see how it
works. As long as day flour is actively growing, it ought to do
a pretty good job on it. But with these kind of tough weeds,
we often find that one application usually is enough. We have to come back
and here again. So just be ready to get after it. Yeah.
When I didn't know what it was, I just dug it up. But
it comes back with a bench in. Yeah, I know, I know,
I know. I hate that. Hey, Mark, thank you,
thank you for the call, and thank all of you for being listeners to
garden Line. We are wrapping up another weekend or the garden Line call in
show. Remember you can listen to us by podcast. We got the iHeartMedia
podcast app or other podcast apps. Look for garden Line. I think there's
two garden lines in the country. One is a lady somewhere and need to
figure out where she is. She does a show called garden Line. The
others meet and so we can provide you with past shows that way, if
you want to go back. I was just talking to Gerald here. We're
talking about you know, day flower weeds and stuff, and you go,
what are those things? He just said, Go back and listen to the
podcast. You can hear it there, but remember you always listen to guarden
line with a pen and a paper handy because you need to write stuff down.
Hey, we look forward to talking to you again next Saturdays, starting
at six am