KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on
this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with skip rictor just watching well,
good Sunday morning, on a good day for garden. You're listening on Sunday
morning. Oh my gosh, I'm getting a day ahead of myself Saturday morning.
Let's let's not rush things. The weekend goes fast enough as it is.
Oh, you know, we're supposed to have some rain later today,
but I think we got some time to get a few things done in the
meantime. It's not supposed to hit until later. So let's see. Let's
see how much gardening we can get done. We'd hate to lose, you
know, good opportunity on a nice temperatures and just a good day to be
outside and we have to go inside. There's a number of things I want
to talk about today, but first of all, I want to start off
give you our phone numbers so you can give us a call. Seven one
three, two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. I was thinking about kind of the to do list
that I've got going out there in the garden. And one of the things
that I've not gotten to and I need to is to put some color into
my landscape, you know, spraying. There is just a riot of color
available the warm season, annual and perennial flowers and things, you know,
things along those lines. As I visit the garden centers, I'm just amazed
at how much color and how much beautiful not just plants, but containers and
plantings and things like that are are being offered right now. It's it's just
it's a good thing on the day before Mother's Day to have so many opportunities
to buy mom some cool gifts. And we'll suggest a few as we go
through the program today. There's a lot, you know, there's plants,
and I guess a rose would be a real common one because most people like
roses, right, almost all people like roses. There's some really good opportunities
to get a rose and give it to mom, get it maybe as an
extra part of the gift, to go out and plant it also, or
have some my planet for just to be able to enjoy for years. The
nice thing about gifting plants that are perennial, shrubs, trees, perennial flowers,
those kinds of things. Is that each year it's just a remembrance of
the fact that someone gave them that gift. It's a fond memory. A
fellow who was at the time I knew him years ago in Conro, Texas
at a community garden, mister Alden Colston. I remember he had a few
sayings that have stuck with me over the years. But one of them was,
and this is not his quote, it's quoting somebody else, but he
used to always say, flowers leave part of their fragrance in the hand that
bestows them. And I think that is a nice a nice thought. And
so you think about a rose. You buy a quality rose, one that's
going to be disease resistant, one that's going to provide beautiful flowers and dependability
over time. And every year when mom sees that rose, or whoever you
give something like that too, they remember where that came from. And it's
just a connection, a relational connection that goes long past a vase full of
cut flowers. As nice as a vase full of cut flowers is. Well,
we're going to go to the phones this morning. The number is seven
to one, three, two one, two fifty eight seventy four. I
think I'm going to hold my comments and just kind of scatter them out here
through the morning. Let's start off this morning going to League City and talking
to Skip. How are you well, I'm doing well today, wonderful.
Well, my question is about the rose bush. It's got to leaves or
the yellow and black spots on them, and I'm not quite sure what to
do about that. Yeah, yeah, Well, you know, you have
to spray preventively. If you've got a variety of rose or cultivar rose then
is prone to either pottery milder or a black spot. It's just a matter
of protectively spraying that foliage. And so what I would recommend is, especially
for the black spot, anytime we have a little rain following it, go
out and spray the foliage because the rain starts the process of the disease spores
infecting the leaf, and so you when you come right behind that with a
spray, you kind of shut the process down before it even gets started.
So I would I would recommend that there's a number of good of hung side
sprays. I don't know if you've ever been out to make city feed,
but they're they're in your neck of the woods, and they carry quite a
few products and I think they can direct you to something that would work well
for the black spot and powdery mildew on your roses. That was wonderful.
We'll have a beautiful day and happy Mother's Day. Yeah, thank you for
the call. Hoping you have a wonderful weekend as well. Let's see,
we're gonna head now out. Let me just make a comment on roses before
I grab the next call. That roses when it comes to diseases, you
know there we have a wide variety of options. It used to be that
almost all roses were just prima donnas, and we're spraying them all the time,
it seemed like. And then rosebreeders. Two things happen. Number One,
the antique roses, the old cemetery types of roses began to more and
more move into the market. UH Texas Agrilife Extension began their earth Kind Rose
program, which is selecting roses, testing them across the state for ease,
not just of disease resistance, but also you plan them, you get them
started, and then you forget it and they take care of themselves, the
earthkind roses. But now, breeders are more and more developing disease resistance.
There's a breeder in Germany, Cordells, for example. They when they do
their plant breeding, and you know, plant breeders are putting thousands of new
crosses out into a field to watch them, and only a rare percentage is
going to ever make it as a name rose. But in their fields they
don't spray, and so any roses disease prone automatically doesn't get selected. And
that's kind of an interesting new twist. And so as a result, we're
getting a lot more types of roses than we used to have that are just
dependable. Maybe they have a little bit of this or that disease, but
not much, and I think that's a good thing. Well, let's head
out to Mission Valley and we're going to talk to Jobby. Hello, Jobby,
Hello, Skip, I'm enjoying your program. I have fire iNTS.
You know, they mound up the dirt. I was wondering if I can
use that dirt put it in pots and grows stuff in it. Absolutely you
can, as long as you're not bringing the fire inants with it. But
no, I float them out. Yeah, I've already got a couple of
pots, and I'd run them out with just water. Yeah, you know,
you put water in there, right. So so when you say the
dirt you're are you talking about the dirt in the pot that they were in,
or are you talking about soil from your yard that's come up above the
ground with the fire amount soil in the yard. You know. So the
only caveat on using it is, you know, if you have a very
heavy clay soil or something like that, we don't want to put too much
of that in a container usually. And you know the reason we have the
nice mixes for containers is that they drain well. They hole they whole moisture,
but they drain well. And the high organic matter content and all that.
So a little bit mixed in, especially in a little bit larger container
would be fine. But it's just just moderation. Great. Thank you,
Thanks Skip all right, thank you for the call. Appreciate that. Let's
see our phone number seven one three two seven two five eight seven four.
We'll be back with you right after break. It's Western Sway and watches like
Queret your boots. It's horse hair Vords at Louis Lord. After they hold
the shoes well, good morning on a good Sunday morning. We're glad you're
listening to garden Line. I am your host, Skip Rector, and we
are here to talk to you about whatever you're interested in, your gardening questions,
if you need time identified or diagnosed, or just some suggestions for planting
in a particular place. That's why we're here. You know, before we
went to break, we were talking. I was visiting with Jobby about putting
soil from the yard that firens have mounted up adding that to containers, and
I mentioned to do it very much so in moderation. And the reason is
our container mixes need to be perfect. And you think, well, plants
grow in the soil, why can't well, because we're trying to get more
out of a plant and a container. And think of it this way.
In the soil, that plant would have roots way out everywhere beyond the plant,
I mean reaching way out, and the roots are primarily up near the
surface where there's good oxygen out in the soil. But in a container,
we can create a mix that has excellent oxygenation, good drainage, but yet
holds moisture and holds nutrients. And that's exactly what the folks at Nitrofiles have
done with jungle land. If you have a potted plant on the container,
maybe you're gonna put out a special hibiscus or something like that to really beautify
your patio. Jungle Land provides that good drainage. It also has micro rhizal
fungi in it, which is which is really good a good idea because they
help the roots do what they do indoors. Jungle Land there's a version that
has root crystals, so if you don't if you do forget to water for
a little while, it's a little more forgiving. It just is holding a
little extra moisture in those crystals themselves. So jungle Land by nitro Fist you're
going to find it everywhere that their products are sold, which is pretty much
everywhere. Lake Hardware and Engleton has it under Gym's Hardware, Montgomery and a
task as Seed Hardware. Three examples where you can get the jungle land.
Having success with plants does always begin with the soil, whether it's a container
plant or whether it's a plant out in the yard. When you build the
soil, you sort of think of it this way. You set the parameters
for what that plant can or cannot become it's going to be well aerated,
or it's going to be poorly drained and soggy and water logged at times,
and that has a huge effect on how plants perform the nutrient levels they build.
Leave this sole to whole nutrients. Uh, there's just a lot that
we do. And when we put the plant in, we want to put
it somewhere it's gonna thrive. I mean, really think about it that way.
It'd be like bringing a penguin to Texas and turning it loose in the
backyard and going, hey, have fun, I got a yard pet.
Well not for long, not for long, because that's not its environment.
That's you know, what it needs and everything is not there. But sometimes
we do that to our plants, and so that's what we're part of what
we're here for. We're trying to kind of correct that. Let's let's now
head out to let's see Leo. Back Leo. If you called back in,
I'm here, all right. Did you have some follow up on your
question or no, you were gonna ask me a different kind of question.
I am a happy mother. Say to all the mothers out there, skip,
thank you for all you do. Quick question. I noticed that my
mother was a big fan crape myrtles, and so they've now introduced a die
in series. Are you familiar with that type of plant now or three?
I'm sorry, yesologize, yes, I am is developed by a guy named
doctor Whitcomb up in Oklahoma. So how can I plant that? So that
way, it's um deals with our our, our clay. I live in
a clay soil area environment, so I just wanted to make sure I can
plant it well. So I'm considering buying that, And so in honor of
mother's steak good. That's a good idea. Well, cray myrtles are actually
they do pretty well in a clay soil, but the mechanical physical conditions of
the soil will determine how well they thrive. So if your clay is very
compacted so there's not good airspace, good water infiltration, they're not going to
do as well, for example. And so what you want to do is
mix the best quality bed mix you can up on top of the surface.
What I'll usually do is put a little bit down and mix it in with
the surface, just to break that sudden transition from wonderful bed mix to heavy
dense clay, if indeed clay is what you have, and mix it a
little bit and then add more bed mix to create a bed. And so
things like the rose soil would be an excellent choice for a crape myrtle.
Pretty much everything that's fun. Yea, thank you, you're always great.
Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it. And happy by the
stakes everybody out there, thank you. I appreciate that. Go uh yeah,
the soil is really important and you know it's so easy to make a
good soil. I mean, if you've lived in Houston for very long,
you know that when it rains, it pours, and there's times and we
go through a lot of rain and our plant roots have to have oxygen.
They do. They are very few plants that can survive with submerged roots for
extended periods of time. And the sail mix that's an easy fix. And
you know a lot of times you will think, well, you know,
I don't want to spend money on that. I'm in love with this giant
crape hubiscus flower, this beautiful crape flower. Will just know that when you
don't prepare the soil, what you're going to get out of that plant is
less than you dreamed you When you buy a plant, whether it's a tomato
or a rose or whatever, in your mind's eye, you picture the beauty
and the bounty. Right when you buy a tomato, you imagine that slice
of summer tomato or whatever. Well, you're never gonna get that if you
don't take care of your soil first. And it's just an easy, simple
thing, but it's hard to get excited about the brown stuff. It's easy
to get excited about all the color or all the bounty, but you gotta
take care of the brown stuff before the green stuff will thrive. Let's go
to the phones. We're gonna head to Westberry now and talk to Diane.
Oh hello Diane, good morning, Skip power you well, thank you.
I have a question about barriers. I've had an engineer suggests that a way
to deal with some of our foundation issues is to put root barriers on our
existing older oak trees. So I want to know what your guidelines might be
for doing something like that. I'm sorry, what? What? Who?
Who recommended this? A home engineer? Okay, he came out and took
all the measurements, looked at drainage, all of that, yeah, and
instead of suggesting some foundation work which has already been done in the past,
that maybe putting some root barriers in would would be of assistance. Well,
if you have if you have a quality root bearer installed by someone who knows
what they're doing, then a root barrier can pretty much prevent the roots from
going across the barrier to where you don't want them. Just know that when
it comes to foundation issues, it's not so much the physical growth of the
route that is the problem, but it's the water uptake of the plant there
that's the problem. Because you know, our clay soils and the Gulf coast
have a lot of shrink swell potential, meaning when they get dry, they
shrink and when they get wet they swell. That's why you get those big
cracks in the summertime. But so what happens is the roots take all the
water away from that part of your foundation and so you get a lot of
movement and that therefore we get the foundation foundation damage. So a barrier would
need to be far enough away to to deal with that that problem. And
so I guess my only concern is, you know how much of the plant
roots system is going to be destroyed in this move, and if it's a
lot, then at the very least I would wait and do it later in
the season when the demands are going to go way down in the fall,
because if you take too much of a plant's roots, a tree's roots out
at one time and then it hits summer and all the demands, you may
see some die back or other issues on the tree. Okay, Yeah,
that's my main concern obviously, is the health of these great I've got a
beautiful red oak, for example, that would be a shame to lose that
for twenty five years. So you're not thinking exactly, you know, how
far away from the trunk of the tree the barrier needs to be. Yeah,
which is I'm sorry, go ahead, no, I cut in.
Which is they give a general guideline of at least eight feet away from the
tree, and we're doing further away from that, but it's probably still within
the canopy of the tree necessarily, because you know it's getting that close to
the foundation of the house. Well, imagine you're looking at bird's eye view
down on the tree, and you see where the trunk is, and you
see where the canopy is. The closer you bring a line in from the
edge, the more percentage of roots you lose. If you want all the
way the trunk you live half the half the roots loose the roots on the
tree. So it's just a percentage game. But if you get out not
too far from the edge of the canopy, that'll be okay, that's not
going to be a significant amount of damage. All right, okay, all
right, I have good luck with that, Diana. I appreciate, appreciate
that call, you know, talking about trees. Affordable Tree Service. Martin
and his wife Joe have long time been a supporter here of garden Line.
I mean the family's been in the business fifty two years. You can find
more out by going to aff Tree Service dot com or call seven one three
six nine nine twenty six sixty three seven one three six nine nine twenty six
sixty three. Tell them that you are a garden Line listener. You go
to the front of the line and they will do everything you can imagine you
might need to do to your tree, from deep root feeding, stump grinding,
pruning. You get the idea Affordable tree Service. If you call and
Martin er Joe doesn't answer, hang up. You've called the wrong company with
affordable in the name Affordable Tree Service seven one three six nine nine two six
six three Good morning, Good Sunday morning for gardening Sunday. What is the
deal with me? It Saturday and sunny. I think I'm thinking so much
about Mother's Day. I've got some big, big plans for tomorrow, but
I just can't get Sunday out of my head. It is Saturday. Let's
slow the weekend down. Everybody calm down. I knows I'm of your reaching
for the phone to remind me that this is the planet Earth that I'm on
and today is Saturday. You know. In the garden, there's a lot
of things that we can be doing right now. But I want to talk
about a few things to keep in mind. If you've got a spring blooming
shrub now, that would be something like an azalea, roo camelia, or
a rosebush that only blooms in the spring, like lady banks, for example.
A lot of the climbers they bloom in the spring, and then they
don't bloom much. Not all climbers, but a lot of them. They
don't bloom after that until next spring. All of those spring only blooming roses
and another example is flowering quints and Speria, two more spring blooming plants.
They set their buds for next year's bloom in the late summer and fall.
And so if we're going to have to prune them, we need to do
it now or we're cutting away next springs bloom. And I said, if
we have to prunt them, not all plants need to be pruned, but
if you have azalea with maybe a wild hair branch going out to one direction
and you kind of want to balance it out or something like that, any
kind of pruning, and these are the spring only bloomers that I'm talking about,
go ahead and do that that pruning right now. And if you need
to snip a branch or two here and there going into summer, that's okay.
But just remember once we hit about midsummer, let it take it from
there, and that way you have a much much better bloom. The speaking
of roses, I've got a old garden rose at the house and it is
it's blooming well, but it, like many of our roses, is going
to go through flushes of bloom now. April is a huge, huge rose
bloom time. Roses still blooming in May of course each month of the year.
But after a good flush of blooms on a plant, I would shear
them back just a little bit. You can hand prune it back to the
first compound leaf with five leaflets. I don't know if you've ever looked at
your roses, but follow the branch down from a bloom and you'll see a
leaf with three leaflets. And as you go further down you'll see the first
beginning of five leaflet leaves. And if you're going to hand prune and just
do a real hands on job like that, cutting back to about the first
five leaflet, or if it's a rose bush, a sheer back is just
fine. Just a little bit sheared back, give them a fertilizer, get
water that fertilizer in real well, and here comes new flush of growth.
So why is that? Why is it important that we do something like that?
Well, roses bloom on the terminal the end of a shoot. A
lot of plants are that way. If you have a bodleia, a butterfly
bush, if you have a salvia, most salvia's they're blooming at the end
of shoots. So what do we want to do? Make a lot of
end of shoots. Right, So when you shear a plant back, which
what was one shoot now becomes two or three as it regrows. That's how
a hedge works. That's why a hedge gets a denser the more we shear
it. So we're not creating a hedge with these plants. But when we
cut them back, we get a more compact, tidy plant, and we
get more terminals, and therefore we can have more blooms. And I think
blooms is what we're doing at all for right now that it's warming up good,
we also need to be taking care of our turf us with a good
fertilization to carry us through summer. You know, I was talking about that
a moment ago, mentioning that you know the Nelson's slow and easy gradually releases
over time. Well, those are the kinds of fertilizers that we want to
use in the summertime because we don't need a flush of growth over Fertilizing creates
shallow roots, and summer is a time for deep roots and resiliency, if
any other of all the year the most important time. And so we want
to fertilize gradually over time. But but make sure and do that. Now,
if you've if your lawn suffered from a really significant die back this past
year during the heat and summer drought that we experienced last summer, it could
be you know, some diseases that are in there thinning it out. The
most important thing you can do is mo water and fertilize correctly through this season.
And if you've got at least living sprouts, you know, within a
foot of each other, and you get that lawn healthy and grow and it'll
cover over by the end of the year. If it's bigger than that,
i'd suggest patching in some grasp some sections aside to kind of fill it in
again. But again important time, adequate moisture, adequate nutrients, and mowing
regularly to provide a good a good dense law. And that's that's what you're
aiming for. And now that summertime is coming long us, we're going to
be looking at planting some of our heat tolerant vegetables and our heat tolerant flowers
if you haven't already. And I'll talk about that more in just a moment
when we come back from break, but I just want to mention that don't
delay if you're wanting to put out some beautiful heat tolerant flowers. If you
want to get your your vegetable garden going so that it carries on through summer,
now is the time to do that. And there is no reason that
our vegetable gardens have to become, you know, a food desert during the
summertime. We have all a lot of really good plants that we can grow
that keeps it productive and keeps providing us good, healthy, fresh produce as
we go in well, show well good Sunday morning, Saturday morning. You
know what, Josh, I think you need to make a sign and the
word Saturday is in letters one foot high, and just cover up everything I
got in here with us so I can remember. I'm still on my way
to Mother's Day. And by the way, today a great day to get
out there and do something. Buy something for mom. Our garden centers are
loaded with things. Maybe she's not a plant person, but go to the
gift shops, unbelievable gift shops. You know. Later today I'm going to
be out at Arburgate. I'll be there from eleven thirty to one thirty out
at Arburgate making an appearance. And Beverley is going to have peach Billini's available
as if you already didn't have enough reason to go to Arburgate and I'll be
there to answer your questions, and I hope you'll come out to see me.
But while you're out there, you need to check out the gift shops.
It's unbelievable the amount of material, everything from yard art to really beautiful,
fine things for inside the home. You're gonna find that. And the
day before Mother's Day an important day to get that. I'm gonna talk to
Jim now up in Cyprus, Texas. How are you doing, Jim?
I'm fine, say thank you. How can we help? Yeah, I've
got some some week that's taken over my backyard and it's real spiky, it's
with you can't walk like my animals can't walk on it at all. And
it's just just spreading. And I stopped in a my Ace hard Word yesterday
and they identified as something called maybe cockle burr or sandburg okay, and I
bought some image spree. I just check and see if you think that will
take care of it. And when's a good time to apply that. Well,
we need to know the correct identity of the weed because A cockle burr
is a broad leaf weed, and I can pretty much guarantee you that's not
the weed you have in your lawn. Sandburr is what we grew up calling
grass burrs, and it's a grass plant, so that would be a different
control product. If I'm gonna you know, as we get done on a
conversation, I want you to hold on. I'm gonna have Josh come on
and get you some information where you can send me a pretty close up,
well focused picture of the weed and I'll respond to you with a with a
better answer. I'd rather not just guess as to what the weed is right
now, Well, the image I bought is for sandburg, or says on
the back. Okay, when was talked to me, he mentioned cockbur but
he saw me something for sandburg. Okay, did he see the weed or
did he just yes, okay, saw the weed. Okay, Well,
well we're going to believe him then, whoever he is. And you just
want to follow the label on the image and spray it on those on those
weeds. I do not have an image label in front of me, so
whether what it's labeled for and control and whatnot. And by the way,
there's more than one type of image out there with very different ingredients. I
wish companies wouldn't do that. But if it's a grass weed, then you
need a plant that's going to be able to take it out an image or
do a pretty good job on some of some of the grasses. But I
do that today even though it's going to rain later. I would not.
Uh. Yeah, I think the label will tell you like and give it
three hours before a rain at least, or it'll tell you something else.
All the compounds are different in that regard, but I think I would hold
off and apply it when you don't have a rain coming right up, or
it has more time to sit there. Well, if I can't, let
me go ahead. Let me talk to your your your assistant there, and
I'll send the picture. All right, hang on, I'll put you on
hold and Josh, I'll pick you up. Yeah, you know, I
I always want to see the weed or be sure of identity of a weed,
because we could be you know, I could be wasting Gem's money sending
him out and saying yeah, to do this or do that, or it
may not be effective the product for the weed that we're dealing with, and
so I need check the image label on that. Normally we put image down
for sedges. It's not the only thing it works on, but it's really
good on sedges in the in the landscape, and that would include a nut
what we call nutgrass is not a grass. Nutsedge is probably a better name
for it, but that's typically what we would use the old standard type of
image on. I was talking about Mom's Day and the good things come in
tomorrow. Just take advantage of this time and get something for your mom.
We have a we have so many awesome nurseries and also garden centers. You
know, the the the Ace Hardware group. They're all over town. I'll
talk about them a little bit more later, but you know, like if
you're not in the Porter area, you need to check out your Ace hardware
out there in the Porter area. You're gonna find and I'll mention them in
a moment. But there's a lot of Mother's Day gifts in our Ace hardware
stores. Because Ace doesn't just stop with a you know, a few what
we'd think of as hardware things paint and whatnot, plumbing. They have garden
centers and they have gifts centers too, that it just excellent. It's kind
of like a one stop shop. You get to everything that you need out
there. Anyway, you're listening to Garden Line, We're gonna take a little
break here. I will be coming back in a moment. But in the
meantime, if you will call Josh at seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four, he'll
get you on the board and we can talk to you about whatever you are
interested in. Coming out of the break, I've got a lot more things
I want to talk about too, So just hang on. We'll see you
in just a moment. KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the
products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip
rictor just watch you were good morning day, on a good day, get
outside and get a little gardening done. I know, get a little rain
coming. That's okay, we're asking it to hold offs along, but it's
it's a good time to get outside. It's a good time to get outside
and shopping for mom too. And I was talking earlier our garden centers,
our ace hardware stores, the wild Birds, unlimited, all kinds of good
places to get some really cool things for mom, like a bird feeder I
was talking about earlier. The hummingbird feeders are. There's so many beautiful ones
now, and just to be able to look out and enjoy that. I
just think that's that's a cool and relaxing thing. You're listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter and our phone number if you will write
this down seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three
two one two k t r H. What was I talking about while ago?
I was in the middle of something that I know it's very very interested
in and in sharing with you. I Oh, I was time about the
vegetables for heat and the flowers for heat out in your vegetable garden. A
lot of our spring, well our winter vegetables are pretty much gone. Our
spring vegetables that things like tomatoes, they tend to get kind of unhappy when
it gets really hot. They don't set as well. Cherries do better than
slicers, but they don't set as well when it gets hot. The same
thing is true with cucumbers and squash. Summer squash like yellow and crooked neat
and other things. We just don't have as much success with them at that
time. But we can switch over Oprah, the king of the summer garden.
Awesome, awesome option to plant it now. Sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes
love the heat. And by the way, do you know you can eat
sweet potato greens as well as the underground storage roots that we normally eat sweet
black eyed peas, that would be crowder peas. Also purple hole zipper cream
those are Southern peas and they love the heat. Malabar is a vine that
is a very summer tolerant vegetable. Amaranth is a good one for summer.
Moloquia. Molocquia is another good summer green. As long as you give these
plants adequate moisture, they will do well in the summer. And they're not
going to go into summer with no soil moisture and survive, right, but
you water them adequately. It's kind of like our lawns when when we water
it adequately, not too much, but adequately, it's able to take the
heat and they just do amazingly, amazingly well. I'm going to continue on
with some heat tolerant flowers here in a moment. But right now we're going
to go to the phones by the way, the number seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. Let's head out to the cypress and let's
talk to Sandy. Good morning, Sandy, going um, I wanted to
ask you about my okram. I planted four seedlings, I mean eight seedlings,
four sprouted at in four different little small containers. I've had them in
the house for a little bit when I first canted him, and then I
said, well, I'm sure I should put them outside. So for the
past two days I've had them outside and it hasn't rained, so I've just
been watering them myself outside. But since it's placed a thunderstorm and stuff,
should I bring the tray back in or should I just leave it out there?
Well? You can, you can leave it out there as long as
there's not a wind that's gonna blow your little seedlings over or something that like
that. It would be fine. Sandy. What's the long term home of
these okra? Are you gonna put them in the garden soil or are you
gonna container in a container in a larger container. Okay, Well, if
you're gonna do that give them a container that has at least five gallons of
soil. You know probably pardon this one is probably about twenty gallons. Oh
that's perfect. Okrah will be very happy and that container. Yeah, And
I would do that as soon as you can, because as long as they
stay in those cups, the roots just get you know, more wrapped up,
and the plant is going to get a little stunted if it stays in
there too long. And you know, you can see how big the plants
are. I can't, but just just know that don't leave them too long
because once they're up and growing, you can put them right out into their
final home. Well, these are just planted four days ago. Oh okay,
I'm I may miss that. Well, yeah, they can stay like
that, but I'm just I'm just telling you. Also, you could also
just could and put them into the end of the container and get a little
faster growth rate. But it's up to you either way. Oh okay,
So with this rain, I can still um pot them in my container and
that'd be okay, you could, Yeah, I would know since it was
four days ago, I'd give them a little more time, give them a
week maybe maybe okay, maybe two even but then get them out of there.
I've grow okra as transplants all the time, but I don't. I
prefer to direct seat at into where it's going to grow. So in the
future, for example, in your situation, you could take that big twenty
gallon container and you could plant your eight okra plants in there and just plan
on weeding out the ones you don't want. And yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, I did that the first time that I gave some to my
girlfriend and some to my sister, and then I noticed mine weren't thriving,
and I the name wasn't keeping the bugs off as fast as it was coming
because it gets so hot, and so I ended up pointing those and I
did about twelve ten to twelve seats in that big container already out there.
But I just did that yesterday. Okay, So these I wanted, these
four that I have in my house, I want to protect guard it.
All right, fair enough, I've got both them, all right, Thank
you so much, Skip, All right, thank you for the call,
and good luck with your Your Okra is one of my favorite plants in the
summer garden. I just I really enjoy okra. And if you are from
the South. Okra is a staple part of the Southern diet. It's a
summertime vegetable originated somewhere. There's a debate exactly where, but either of Africa
or over in Um let's see kind of toward India direction like that. Anyway,
Okra is so tough and easy and easy to grow. And if you
if you've tried okra and you found it to be slimy, you didn't care
for the texture of it. There are ways to avoid that. Okra gets
slimy when when you get water on the interior part, it releases that mucilage.
So what I do is I brush pods with olive oil, sprinkle a
little sea salt on them, and when I'm out grilling burgers or grilling a
steak or chicken or whatever, I just throw it on there two minutes on
one side, flip it two minutes on the other side, and you're done,
and you've got an oak or that's not gonna be slimmy. You can.
You can grow it a lot of other or cook it a lot of
other ways too. Hey, we're gonna take a break right now. The
number to get on the air is seven, one, three, two,
and two fifty eight seventy four. Man, if your head isn't bobbing or
your feet tappy, I would grab my wrists and check my pulse. Just
make sure I'm so long that are you love that thing you do? Gosh,
you know. I'm going to be out at arbour Gate today from eleven
thirty to one thirty, and I hope you'll come out there and see me.
Bring a sample of a disease, a sample an insect problem, a
sample of a weed, or just some photos on your phone we can take
a good look at. Just make sure they're in sharp focus, and we
will be glad to help direct you again. Arburgate what a place for a
Mother's Day gift. You're going to find unbelievable plants for Mother's Day gifts,
from house plants to outdoor plants. You're going to find indoor accessories that just
beautify the home. You're going to find outdoor blay that beautify the yard and
garden. Come out today to Arburgate eleven thirty to one thirty. Let's visit.
Always love to meet people that are listeners to the show. I think
first thing we're going to do now on the phones is go out and talk
to Bill in Conro. Hello, Bill, how are you please? Skipt?
Good morning? Good morning. Another question about fungicide. This one is
I put fungicide down on my grass, and I know fungicide doesn't work well
with compost top dressing because it kills all the good stuff in the compost.
At least that's what I understand. I could be wrong, but I put
the pungicide down. How long do I have to wait before I put down
some compost top dressing. Well, you know, I'd give it probably a
week, a week or two. The fund at all fungicide you're going to
soak into the plant. They're gonna some of them sit on the surface.
But if you were recommended a fungicide for that lawn problem, it probably is
a systemic that's going to move into the plant, and so then you're not
so worried about any competition on the leaf surface or other things. In fact,
you may find that the top dressing additionally helps with the problem you're talking
about. Okay, I always thought it was it was a long period of
time. So that's that's a real big helpful clarification for me. Yeah,
the fung side, the compost top dressing is not gonna destroy the fungicide on
the plant, especially with the systemic that's moved in. Do you remember offhand
what product of what you were dealing with on the fungicide. Um, yeah,
I've got it right here. It begins with a peep thro Yeah,
okay, yeah, that just that that is not as systemic. I think
it will move into the tissues though, But I would I would do that
and then i'd give it a week or two and then then put your top
dressing on, watered in really well and just watch. You may have to
do another treatment later on. Some of these diseases are pretty persistent and difficult
to deal with. You're You're fortunate Bill to be in the you're in the
Contra area. I don't know. Have you ever been out to Nature's Way
Resources? Oh? Yes, I use them, Yeah, just south of
town. They've got that leaf mold compost that is the best for top dressing.
And that's why I said you're fortunate to be out there, because they're
the originators of the leaf mold compost. All right, very good, very
good. Thanks. I know we're talking about I'm talking about yesterday now,
but I'm talking about next Friday too. On they have a Fungal Friday sale
every Friday, ten percent off their bad products and twenty percent off their bolt
And so if you're doing a top dressing, Friday would be a great day
to visit Nature's Way and get that done because you save some money on it.
Okay, that's great, But what about the fung side begins with an
a as a large axy st Yeah, is that very similar. It's actually
more of a systemic moving into the plant and it works well it, you
know, for takeall root rot. It is probably the best single fun decide
that you can use. Good to know, good to know. So yeah,
I could put it down and then wait a few weeks and then I
could do a top dressing. Yeah, that'd be just fine, no problem
at all. Right, Great, thanks a lot, Yeah, thank you,
Bill, appreciate the call. Yeah, it is the compost. Top
dressing is best done with a quality leaf mold compost. And that was you
know what we're talking about at Nature's Way. But you know what, I'm
sitting here talking about products like that at Nature's Way. Nature's Way has a
lot of native plants. They have one of the largest varieties of native plant
selection in the Houston area. They have a two acre garden center and nursery,
fruit trees, native perennials. They carry house plants, seasonal vegetables,
and the Mother's Day sale out at Nature's Way was wonderful. We passed that
buy now, but oh my gosh. They had all kinds of decorative pots
and things. But if you need bags of rose soil, bags of leaf
mold compost, you know they're going to be able to provide it for you.
But I would suggest you go out there just to see the plants,
if nothing else at all, because you will be surprised. In fact,
the first time I went and they had started their plants, and the second
time I went and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe
how many native plants you guys have. That was really cool. Well,
you're listening to Gardenline and I'm your host, Skip Richter, and this is
a call in show. So hey, here is a number so you can
call in. It is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Okay, I
was talking about heat tolerant vegetables a moment ago and now I would like to
talk a little bit about heat tolerant flowers. In the spring, everything is
willing to bloom in the spring. We have a wide variety of colors and
hues and available to us. And then summer comes and it changes the plat
palette a little bit. Now, there's some things that bloom in the spring
all through summer, certainly, but there are a lot of things that summer's
kind of hard on them. You know, petunias. If you take good
care of them, you can carry petunias on into summer. You need to
shear them a little bit and fertilize them to get fresh new growth for more
blooms. But it's a little bit of a challenge. But look at the
roadsides, all the pretty pinks and blues and things. When summer comes,
they give way to the yellows and oranges, you know, of the composite
types of flowers. But just some thoughts. Angelonia is my newest favorite summer
flower. We all know lantanas do well. Periwinkles, madagascar perie winkles.
We call it vinca, but it's not vinca Madagascar perie winkles, portelaca and
purslain, and those hanging baskets or as a ground cover look really good.
Fan flowers also called scavola. It's a blue flower, which is unusual.
In the summer, our blue blooming options are greatly reduced, but scavola will
provide that firebush does well through the summer. Certainly, Hibiscus, the perennial
hibiscus the tropical hibiscus cannas love the hot summer weather as long as it gets
a little bit of water. But I like the phasian. It's also called
tropicana because the colors of the foliage are just amazing. There's also some cool
yellow and green striped cannas like Bengal tiger, but Tropicana is my favorite.
Blackfoot daisy, if you've got a nice, well drained area, is another
little tiny daisy flowers white. If you have enough of them, you can
actually smell it. It's a honey fragrance. And then Zenia's would be another
good one. But now's the time to start transitioning over so that your summer
garden is just as beautiful and flooriferous as your spring garden was. Let's head
over to Alvin now and we're going to talk to Craig. Good morning Craig,
Good morning Skip. I've got a question about a chilly pikeine. I've
had it for about five years, have not had much luck with it.
It's in a container probably five to seven gallons. I still haven't had much
of fruit off of it. The only thing is I was wondering, do
we have male and female pepper plants? No? Okay, that's not well,
good sunlight providing it good full sun yes, well, I don't.
I don't know what to tell you next. How about the look of the
plant? The green color is? How healthy? Does it look anything there?
Well, it's struggling to come back from the winter right now. I
was thinking about pruning it, bruning it back, and then maybe repotting it,
basically just changing all the soil out on. My other question is maybe
is that not a large enough container? Well, I guess that's possible.
Your description of the container though five to seven gallons you ought to build,
but grow a pikein in that. You could put it in a larger container,
certainly, but you should be able to get it to grow and something
that size. I don't know, I would, you know, consider the
nutrients, try to get good vigor and growth, but don't overdo the nitrogen
because you don't want to just push it into total vegetative growth. But that
chili pikin is a pretty generally, pretty easy you know. The birds eat
them and poop the seeds out, and they come up in the wild and
do just fine there. So we bring them in take care of them nicely
like you are, and they're not cooperating. I don't I don't know what
to make of that. Okay, all right, all right, thank you
so much. All right, Greig, thank you. I appreciate that call.
Yeah, chili pekins are they are a very hot pepper. I remember
the first time I got a mouthful of one. Ouch. The heat doesn't
last as long, but oh my goodness, it is hot. Have you
ever had a chili pekin? No, I've had hatch green chili. That's
a good pepperless tasting. It begins in a little bitty things. They'll typically
put them in like a little jar with vinegar on him, and then use
the vinegar as a seasoning in the food. But I'm just not a big
pekin fan. I love pepper though, well. I love your phraseology vigoring
growth. That's what we're going for. That's right, that's what we're all
about. Oh gosh, well, Nikki, I guess it's time for the
news. So here here's the baton whist and now I was deep water somewhere
about the boost guy breeze and adults in the world is a time. Don't
reach my chair, sunrise, the fire never been so good. Sunny morning.
You are listening to Garden Line and you're here to answer your gardening question.
Help you have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape? Number
write this down seven one three, two one two five eight seven four give
me a call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Just
reminding you again that I'm going to be out at Arbourgate Nursery today eleven thirty
to one thirty. If you've got plant samples for identification, for diagnosis or
bugs, just put them in a zip block bags, zip them up and
bring them to me. Let me take a look at them. I always
love meeting people that listen to the show. If you've got photos on your
phone, by the way, that's a great way for identity, getting things
identified, and also a great way for a diagnosis. Of some problem you
might have, or just hey, here's a picture of an area in my
yard. I need some color in there. What do you think would work
well in that area? We can do all that. It's the day before
Mother's Day, and when you're at Arbourgate you are gonna not have a problem
finding all kinds of things that your mom would love. And as I mentioned
earlier, I was talking about you know that when you plant a plant,
when you gift a plant that's a perennial, it's going to live year after
year. The memory of that gift lives on. I still can tell you
exactly who gave me plant. Even someone gave me a cutting of a plant
that I rooted myself, I can tell you who did that. And I
always remember that. And I think that's why plants are a great gift,
a great gift. And when you go to a quality garden center that knows
what they're talking about, they can direct you to things that are not going
to be a Prima Donna in the garden that's got to be scorted with spray
every other day to keep it alive. They're going to be Texas tough plants,
and they're going to be beautiful plants, dependable plants. And that's why
I love to send people to our independent garden centers. You know, there's
a lot of places in town where you can buy plants, but you're not
going to find the educated staff. You are not. I've been into them.
I've asked questions of people in those stores, and I can tell by
the look in their eyes when I asked the question, I'm fixing to just
get a bunch of smoke blown at me because they don't know what they're talking
about. One time I was I was in a big box store and I
was looking at the pesticide aisle and as lady walked up and said, may
I help you? Yeah, I just had a question. I asked him
a question and their answer was just wrong. And this is these are chemicals
that people are putting out, and they're being sent out without information on how
to use them and what to use them for. And I said, well,
how long you've been working here? And they said, well, just
this my first week. What did you used to do? I used to
cut hair and a beauty shop that qualifies you to sell chemicals, right?
You know it? It is worth going to a place that can direct you
right, because number one, maybe you don't need a spray and they can
tell you that, or if you need a spray, which one works,
because you know, just because something says weed killer doesn't mean it kills all
weeds at all stages of growth. In fact, it probably doesn't. But
you need to be directed right. And I know that I'm a broken record
on this, but our independent garden centers not only are they the most inspiring
places to go to, but they're the places where you get set up for
success. And when you're going out and you buy this beautiful little plant,
maybe it's a rosebush, and you imagine just how beautiful and floriferous it's going
to be, and then you get at home and it doesn't do well because
they sold you a one that doesn't do well here. They didn't provide you
with the encouragement to get some soil to make that rose happy from day one.
You see what I'm saying. Your money is hard earned and it needs
to be well spent, and independent garden centers are the ones they can do
that kind of thing for you. I just I love, I love just
going to them to visit. I was checking out one the other day and
had a I was needing a container to plant my to transplant one of my
house plants. It's gotten a little big for the container, so I was
going to bump it up to the next size. And the biggest problem that
I had was trying to figure out which one, which one that gets uh
you know, traveling by the arbrigade looking at their container selection and it's like,
oh my gosh, that is it's just all kinds of containers and that
you know, our independent garden centers are so good about that. They really
are good about putting quality products out there so you can have that kind of
success. Well, you're listening to garden Line, and I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're going to take a break here in a second,
write down our number seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
By the way, give that number to your neighbor who doesn't take care of
the yard. Maybe we can help make the neighborhood live more beautiful and drum
well, good Sunday morning on a good day for gardening. And apparently Linda
Ronstad as well. You are listening to the garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Rictor. Our number is seven one three two, one two,
five eight seven four And let's see we are going to head out to spring
and talk to mo. Good morning, MO, good morning. I want
to know what to kill sumac and poison name it's mixed on my fence.
Uh so I if the plants are small, like the poison navy is coming
up from seeds because the birds poop the seeds. There, you can you
can do a foliar spray with a product containing trichlope here, do you have
a pen or pencil handy? All right? T R I C l O
P y R. Now if if they're bigger plants, you know maybe you
know those you mentioned? Okay, well you can cut them off at the
ground, just above the ground, and then immediately dab the Tricola peer product
right onto the cut wound. Just dab it right onto that cut surface and
it'll soak in. You don't cut them one day and then go dab the
next. Just do it right away, and that's great. You know.
I know a lot of folks listening have like hackberries coming up in the fence
or tallows, trees and other things, and that cut cut I call it
a cut stump treatment. But that works really well. And I can get
that arbigate today. Yes, they do have a triclopier out there. Absolutely,
and I hope you come out. I'm glad to hear you might be
coming out. Good. Yeah, I got tick as she sat there.
Yeah, they have a good selection. Thank you. Well, good luck
with that, and we can talk more about it when you come out.
If you have any questions, well you too. Thank you. Now let's
go out to Bellevue and talk to Jerry. A good morning, Jerry,
thank you, good morning. Skip. Got a question. I'm getting started
slow or behind schedule on my yard right now. It's covered pretty much with
weeds and we're trying to pick them out and everything. So I'll put some
of that pre emergence barricade on it, okay, And I was wondering,
since I'm so far back in the schedule, how long do I Is there
any way I can speed it up, you know and be kind of caught
up by fall. Oh yeah, just you know, just continue to follow
it, like for example, maybe you haven't fertilized as much as as you
should or whatever. You can still do it. You know, we'd rather
you do it a little sooner. But no, they nature it's nature.
It's flexible and we just we just pick it up and continue on for where
you are. If you've got exists, if you've got existing weeds, though,
you're going to have to have something that kills existing weeds. The barricade
is a good pre emergent to prevent them from establishing, but once they're established,
switch over to something that kills existing weeds. Well, would you recommend,
right? I mean we're trying to pull them up and spot the spot,
kill them with a herbicide, you know, and pull them up that
kind of stuff, and it's pretty slow going. Yeah, I got you.
Well, there are a number of products out there. I know there's
a there's a weed beater product, a weed beater ultra I like, but
on these broadleaf products now, and they only work on broadleaf weeds. You
just want to get it done before temperatures are in the mid to upper eighties,
which we are. We are on the verge of that now. You
kind of day by day. Some days are warmer, some days aren't.
But don't delay anymore because in a few weeks from now, it's going to
be too hot to use the without damaging your line. Okay, And it's
a weed beater. Yeah, there's one called weed Beater Ultra. Uh that
weed Beater series. Just when you when you purchase it, go to one
of the quality nurseries, the garden centers ace hardwarees that we recommend because they
can direct you. Because there's some that aren't for Saint Augustine. Some products
they say it'll kill Saint Augustine. Just make sure they direct you to a
good quality product so you don't do damage. Now, this is that just
to kill weeds or is that a weed and feed kind of thing? No,
it's it's just to kill weeds. I generally do a lot of weed
and feed. Talk on here. Well, I didn't think so, I
just want to be sure. Okay, So it's a it's a spot kind
of yes products. Okay, all right, and how long after go ahead,
I'll put this emergence down here? Do I have to wait any time
before I come back with the nitro file spartal other No, non fertilize right
away. I'll just just know that that pre emergent needs to be watered in
a little bit to move into the soul surface where it does its work.
But yeah, you can, you can fertilize whenever you want to fertilize.
Okay, that's what I needed enough, all right, I appreciate it.
Enjoy the program. Thank you, Thank you, Jerry, I appreciate that.
Let's head out now before we have to take another break, we're going
to talk to Mike and Lake Jackson. Mike, I think you have an
interesting question. Yes, I have a squirrel sitter stripping the bark off of
young the country and I didn't know if that's harmful if the tree recovery.
Is this anything be concerned about. I have a question about the balls.
Yeah, we've got just a short time here, but if we need to,
we'll hang over through break. Squirrels do that, especially in the spring
when they're you know, they're teething, the young squirrels, and they go
up to where there's a little v and the pecan branch and they the bark
off and typically that branch will die and you'll get a little we call them
a flag. But these you see, these little brown shoot branches out at
the around the canopy of the tree. We'd rather the squirrels didn't do that,
but we have no way of stopping them from doing that. So you
just this was this was going to work on most all of the branches because
it is a young tree and they're just I mean there's several feet of that
they pull out at a time, and yeah, yeah, that's that is
unfortunate. Hey, what was your other question about neim? Well, I've
been using nemol on a citrus and I've noticed there's two types. There's a
hydrophobic and then there's like a first press kind of like alleyball, and one
groups more expensive than the other, and the first press they're supposed to have
one of the chemical in it that the bugs that will kill the bugs that
try to eat it. That is, I've never heard you talk about nemol,
so I was kind of curious your house them. I haven't seen the
difference in the two presses on kneem oil. That's kind of interesting. But
knemoil it works like an oil and does well. You know, if you'd
like to continue the discussion, we're about to go to break here, I'll
be happy to come back with you on it. But just a good quality
knemoil will coat insects and do what a summer oil would do. That would
be spider mites and apids and some scale insects, especially when they're crawler stage.
And it also is pretty good on powdery milde to prevent power. Ohianna,
if you mind, I'll pull out a bottle so reach you. What's
on the label? Yeah, thanks a lot, I appreciate that. Okay,
Well you're listening to garden Line. We are putting another hour in the
books this morning. I'm going to be Doshelner mind you, I'm going to
be out at Arbogad today from eleven thirty to one thirty. I hope you
come out to see me. I always like to meet the listeners. And
while you're out there, if you cannot find ten awesome Mothers Day gift,
you're not trying. It's a great place to go for that. So we'll
kill two birds with one stone. Are You can just bring your mom and
have her as part of the process too. It doesn't have to be a
surprise gift. The outit Arbergate eleven thirty, one thirty. Come out and
see me in the meantime if you'd like to get on the boards seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four KTRH. Garden Line does not necessarily
endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH
Garden Line with Skip rictor just watch him as we're good Saturday morning. I
got it right. That time's good Saturday morning on the day before Mother's Day,
and a good day to get out and get some gardening done. I
know there's clouds and we got some rainstorms coming through, but hey, that
just means it's even more pleasant to work out there. We're not made of
sugar. I mean, some of you may think you are, but we
are not going to melt in the rain. Right. Well, it's a
good day. Hey, let's go back to talk to Mike and Lake Jackson.
Mike, let's continue this nemoil discussion. I do not know about a
first pressed nemo. Now there's a cold pressed cold press. That's direct term.
Oh coal press, okay, yeah, cold press nemoil. It just
means cold press processes just mean that when they're squeezing the oil out of seeds,
they make sure that keep the temperature down, don't let it get hot
and heat up, you know with some of Yeah, the other they referred
to as a hydrophobic process, and apparently it takes some of the beneficial stuff
out of the knee boil. I don't understand. I was reading it out
a lot and uh, okay, but apparently you know, I don't know
that you can be a little bit more research. Is it okay to use
that in the summertime to kind of supplement the insect sets for you know,
the white clothes and sort of thing. Yeah, So kneem oil is it's
an oil, and we have other oils called summer ol. We call them
summer oils or sometimes well dorm Yeah, there's Dorman oil, which tends to
be a heavier, more viscous. You used to have a lot more impurities
in it, but they're getting better about that now. But the summer oils
are more lightweight. So think of the difference. And this is a great
exaggeration, but just to understand the difference between like a motor oil and an
oil that is just almost watery when you when you when you use it,
and the summer oils tend to be towards this second uh type of oil,
and so nem oil is that kind of oil. But when you use oils
and the temperatures above ninety, you risk the chance of burning the plants.
Some more sensitive than others, and so you just want to be careful.
Don't don't spray them out on a ninety five degree day with the sun bacon
down on the leaves. That would be a recipe for problems. And if
you heard the sectical insecticidal soap, yes, yes, particular thoughts on the
ants. Yeah, okay, so insecticidal soap. So I'm going to nerd
out just a little bit here, but I'll be brief. Soaps are basically
chains of fatty acids, and there can be different links of chains. They're
all different chemicals, but it's a chain of a fatty acid. There's some
soaps that are herbicidal. They burn plant tissues, and that you can buy
a weed control soap that's herbicidal. Insecticidal soaps are designed to be the most
effective against insects, but the least damaging to your plants, the least phyto
toxic to your plants, and insecticidal soaps are a really good good thing to
do. Again, ninety five degrees sun bacon down, I wouldn't use soaps
on them. But if you can get in real late in the day,
if you come out real early in the day and spray a soap spray.
That's just fine. In any insect that's small, soft bodied, like a
spider mite or an aphid, insecticidal soap is going to work well. But
you have to spray upward from under the plant to coat the under surfaces of
the leaves, because that's where a lot of the aphids and almost all the
spider mites are hiding. And it seems like a good luck I'm a citrus
that it suffered into freeze and all the new leaves are coming out. I
don't seem to see all the spider mite or the miners in that strat thing.
Well they'll they'll be back, yeah right. They love new growth.
They don't like the old growth. But so the tender growth is where you're
going to find the leaf miner attacking. Okay, well, great, every
right, Well I appreciate your answerships. All right, Mike, I appreciate
your call. And good luck with those squirrels. By the way, you
know you can eat squirrel meat, right didn't Some people are having a heart
attack right now. All right, thank you very much. Yeah. I
did not grow up eating squirrel but my dad did. They would go out
and hunt to feed the family. In anyway. I think ballistic control measures
for squirrels are frowned upon in the city in general. Oh gosh, let's
talk a little bit. I was being going through some you know, some
different topics and things that I just found of interest today. Leaf spots.
When it's rains, you're gonna get leaf spots that follow the rain. But
whether they're bacterial or fungal, rain makes those diseases happy. And so when
you have diseases like that, you need to deal with them. No,
powdery meal is a little different. Powdery mildew likes high humidity. If you
kept your leaf surface constantly wet, powdery mildew would not be a problem.
But it's the humidity which welcome to Southeast X is right. And so with
the powdery mildew, we're definitely wanting to use preventative sprays, and in general
for diseases, preventative is the way to go, because you can't bring a
dead spot on a leaf back to life with a spray, So why not
spray before we get the dead spot? And that's preventative types of spraying.
And you know, powdery mildew, A lot of roses get it. Crape
myrtles. Get it rock rose, which is not a rose. It's an
hibiscus family called Povonia. You put it in shade and you get a lot
of powdery, mildew, squash and melons if you're growing like let's say a
pumpkin, or the long term squashes, spaghett the winter squash, spaghetti squash,
acorn squash, butternut squash. What usually happens is the mildew and some
other diseases get the foliage, and when they do that, they take away
the carbohydrate production. And that's what those fruit are all about, is stored
carbohydrates in there, and so we need to protect that foliage. So I
would preventatively spray. Now there's a lot of synthetic sprays. They're very effective
against powder and mildew. There are also a couple of organics Potassium bicarbonate I
guess somewhat similar to baking soda, which is sodium bicarbonate, but we don't
need to be adding the sodium out there. Potassium bicarbonate, and kneem oil
neem oil sprays. I remember when doctor Larry Barnes at TEXA and m at
the Plant Clinic did a study on gerber daisies, and he found that knem
oil was about as effective as some of the systemic synthetic fungicides were. But
with all of those you have to reapply. So you get a rain and
it washes the potassium bicarbonate off the server, you gotta respray it again.
But anyway, those are ways to avoid it, and by avoiding it,
you're keeping your foliage there. When the foliage is what makes all the things
we want happen. I mean, if it was a let's say it's a
a rose bush and you want flowers, or if it's a vegetable and you
want production, we got to have the foliage to do that. And that
is also true for any other plant. Even the lawn is essentially the new
healthy growth is sustained by a healthy foliage. Hey, you're listening to Garden
Line. If you would like to be on the board, give us a
call. Seven one three two one two five eight seven four. God all
are you probably thinking, Hey, that's not Simon Garfuncle. Well tell you
who it is. It's a band called the Lemonheads. Now isn't that appropriate
to play on Garden Line? You know? Randy Lemon twenty five years a
host of this show. He really established the show as it is today.
And if you are, if you are a fan of Randy, sfew enjoyed
listening to him. There's a scholarship that Dean Nelson set up up at Texas
A and M. And you can contribute to that. It goes to a
horticulture student. And I can guarantee you Randy Lemon would be proud to know
that his legacy lives on in this scholarship for horticulture students. So if you
appreciate the things that Randy did for the Houston gardening community over the years,
go to give dot am slash Randy Lemon. Give dot am slash Randy Lemon
and it will direct you to just what to do from there. You're listening
to garden Line and I'm your host, Skip Richter. We are here to
answer your gardening questions. The number seven one three, two one two five
eight seven four, and we're going to go to Joan in bel Air.
Well, good morning, Joan, good morning. I have I think they're
called either wild garlic or wild onions that have kind of taken over a portion
of my flower bed. And I was digging them up to just throwing them
away, of course, but some of the bulbs have the little tiny bulbs
and those things just fall apart, and I try and scoop them up and
get rid of those also. But if they were another way I can kill
and then control those kinds of weeds. You know, Joan, you're you're
calling from Belair, and if you will go in to Southwest Fertilizer is not
very far from you. They are going to have every kind of product and
they can direct you to the products they sell that are effective against that.
It may be a two four D type product that you're putting out, but
you're going to be very careful with your application of it because you've got desirable
plants nearby. That's the caveat that I would say about that. But yes,
there are the products that will control wild onions and wild garlic, which
are two different kinds of plants. You're doing the right thing digging the bulbs
out, I mean that is a first step. But if you do need
to do the spraying, then I think one of those kinds of products is
going to be the one that helps you. And I can tell you for
sure. The folks at Southwest Fertilizer are going to direct you too, and
their selection is the best in town. Okay, thank you, okay,
thank you very much. Well, let's see we are now going to head
out to League City and talk to John V. Hello John V. Good
morning skids. I don't know the species. It's three three purple dark purple
with in the center and then light flowers. I've got one with my amorillas,
two amerllas in a pot and one in the beds. They're doing really
well. But do you know what I should do about maintaining their abundancy?
Well, I need to. I'm not following you on what plant that is.
Can you give me a little description again on it? Yes, sir,
it's three leaves that are dark purple and centered with like a violet,
and then the flowers are like a light pinkish. I think you're talking about
an ax salus. There are do the leaves sort of look like if you
had a four leaf clover, but there's not four of them, right,
and they're in like a triangle shape. Yeah, yeah, okay, that's
that's Oxalis. There are some ornamental types Vocsalus. There is xalas weeds and
they throw their seeds all over the place, the little pods. If you
have oxalis and it's a weed and you want to get rid of it,
you need to get it out of there before it has low seeds. If
you have the good type, you know, the kinds that like you're describing,
that are beautiful, they can be divided. You can divide those clumps
and replant them and spread them out, or you can just go buy some
others. And there's several types. One is all purple, deep purple,
and this is gorgeous, wonderful. Thank y'all. Y'all have a wonderful day,
and happy Mother's Day. Thank you, John, you appreciate that call.
Yeah, Axalis is a very interesting plant. It's persistent. You know,
if people that have gardens and or nurseries where they're growing the plants,
it'll be on the floor of the greenhouse, and when it pops those pods,
it'll throw seeds up into the pots on top the benches. I mean,
it's a it's a persistent little booker and kind of a kind of a
pain, you know, to deal with anyway. But I love I love
the ornamental types. The only thing about the ornamentals, I just want to
warn you thous oxalis and purple heart, which is another wonderful plant. Plant
them where you want them, because they're kind of hard to get rid of
after you plant them. They they don't always respond to products. But they
also it's kind of hard to not leave some in the ground when you try
to dig them up. No reason not to use them. I mean,
they're still good, but it's just a little bit of a challenge with those
talking about some of the weed killer products you are mentioning earlier, different kinds
and stuff. If it's a broad leaf weed killer that kills an existing weed,
it is best to get those applied before temperatures rise above the mid eighties.
Certainly, if they're up to ninety, a lot of those are going
to really stress your lawn and it predisposes the lawn to other problems. Maybe
the lawn kind of is unhappy for a while and eventually comes back, but
then you find a disease like take all root rot moves in because you've weakened
the host, and now take all the opportunists can move in and do that.
So I'm mentioning this because we're kind of at the end of that window
to have good effect without damage to the lawn. There are other pride There's
one called Celsius that actually will let you go up to about ninety ninety two
without getting the damage. But why wait, go ahead and get things taken
care of, because once those broad leafs enter their reproductive stage and they start
blooming and setting seeds, products are not going to be very effective on them
anyway. Well, let's so let's head out to golf golf Gate and talk
to Kennedy. Good morning, Kenney morning, How are we doing well?
Thank you? Good good. I've got some questions. I've been trying to
grow for a couple of years. A few things. Last year it was
too hot, and the year before it rained too much. But I have
questions on route stop or rod stop for the for calcium. Yeah, yes,
the foliar sprays. If you start them, you know, as the
plant is just blooming, setting setting the little fruit and periodically put those on.
They can help circumvent that lack of calcium problems that causes blossom undrot.
But you have to get on and do those. The other thing to keep
in mind is widely fluctuating soil conditions really predisposed of the plant towards blossom undrot,
so try to keep your soul moisture even okay um, I guess I
have another question too, Would you use EPs and salts with potasimine magnesium?
So EPs and salts is magnesium sulfate and uh it is good to use if
you don't have enough magnesium in the soil. A lot of times you'll read
things and it says when you plant tomatoes, put in epps and salt,
when you plant roses, put in ups and salt. Well, that's true
if you need magnesium, but if your soil already has plenty of magnesium,
then the apps and salt is not helping and use too much and it can
actually hurt. So I don't have any problem with using it, but I
would use it if it's needed, and a soil test would tell you that.
Or if you look at the leaves of your plants that you would have
put the ups and salts on, and there's like a green Christmas tree in
the middle of the leaf and it's light green to yellow outside of that,
that's a magnesium deficiency symptom. The little green Christmas tree inside the leaf centered
on the mainium thing. So I wouldn't just say use ups and salt because
you're planting a tomato. I would use it if it's needed. Okay,
I've got microlime Ocean Harbors four three. It does apply every two to four
weekles on the soil. Leaves would get better, so it's better to apply
to the soil. Plants can take up some nutrients through their leaves, but
the efficiency of leaf uptake is not as good. Plants were designed to take
up nutrients through their roots, and so while fully your feeding can be helpful,
especially to deal with certain nutrient deficiencies, you need to do it early
in the day. You need to spray upward from underneath the plant while the
little openings in the leaves called stone mates are open to get the most in
the plant that you can. But in general I would soil apply. Okay.
I've also got some microlife eight four six, and apply that in every
three to four months. So that's only like once during the growing season for
vegetables. Yeah, for a vegetable crop, that would be once. But
you want to build your soil up and that does it. Hey, Kennedyan,
I have to go to break. We're about to go to news here,
but I appreciate your call. You're listening to garden line seven one three
two one two five eight seven four, Lord, how it rang nude hair
talk fude here and saying, all right, good morning, I'm a good
day for gardening, good day for talking about gardening too. Give us a
call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. We're gonna go
now out to a Tasca cita and talk to Thomas. Well, good morning,
Thomas, Good morning. How are you? I'm well, thank you?
Okay. Three questions. One the nitrogen. I'm using the microL life
maximum boom three eighth three. I'm getting great results from it, but I'm
also getting a tremendous amount of foliage. I mean, more than I would
expect. Well, what did the numbers you just said? Three eight three
Okay, yeah, that's the micro life maxie by. So I worry about
that. I mean, you know, I guess if you overapply something,
you're going to get more vigorous vegetative growth than you want. But used at
the proper rate, you should get some vigor. And remember, when you
have a blooming plant, some vigor is necessary because you've got to keep growing
good new foliage to help provide the carbs needed to set the buds for those
blooms. So foliage growth and blooms can go together. In fact, they
do go together. So I don't know, okay, whether you know,
I don't know how much you're putting out, but just don't overdo it.
But it's good I'm doing. I started. I started in spring with one
ounce of gallon, just from the beginning en April on, starting like every
two two and a half weeks, four ounces to a gallon. Okay,
well, only you can judge your growth. I can't. I can't see
the play. No, no, I understand it. Yeah, okay,
next question. I just refinished, rebuilding my walk. God, and I
want some things to the hang around for a while, some perennials, and
I've got some plants here. I know they grow bigger. I want to
know if the handle pruning. I'm bobina, the butterfly ginger and night blooming
jasmine. I know those grow pretty tall. Yeah, what was the middle
butterfly? What the butterfly ginger? Oh, butterfly ginger. Well, the
butterfly ginger can take that more sun than most gingers, but it still does
best with some late day shade to mid day shade. What can be in
a bright all day shade and do just fine, But just be careful that
in a rock garden in that location it's not getting too much. Maybe put
it on full sun. Yeah, I don't know, you can give it
a try. I think you're gonna see some ragged looking leaves and maybe if
you got another spot it's a little bright shade, I think i'd move it
over there. The others will do just fine. The I'm of verbina,
as you said, does get large, and so you're gonna need to do
some prunting on it to keep it in a smaller size if that, If
that's what you want, it ed handle being pruned and kept a two feet
no, no, no, I mean I've never tried it, but this
is a plant that wants to be twelve feet, you know, and so
okay, I would not expect that you're gonna like what you get now.
It does bloom on new growth, so you know, as you shear and
get shoots, you should get blooms. I don't know, that's a good
question. That's Thomas, that's a stumper. But I don't think it's going
to do well with that. I'd love to try it though, now that
you mentioned it, Just see what would happen if you just really pruned that
thing back a lot. I wish they say say that again, they're gonna
try one and see, and it's in my front yard. But it'll let
you said, if you don't kill plants, you're not learning. That's it.
Absolutely, there's a spirit. Well, I would you give it a
shot if you want. I guess I should never say never, but you
just you want to be careful that you don't um take all the foliage off
each time you're trying to prune it to keep it down that low. I
think two feet If that works for you, will you call me back?
I would like to know that. I will see I've lined over them.
They're doing my punting more like a Bonsi type of things. So I'm really
careful and just do small and you know, trying to shape it all the
time as it's growing. Yeah, good idea. Well, it sounds like
you're an adventurous gardener, so I do wish you well. Right, Okay,
so Lantana um Mexican Heather, Hey, Tom, I'm gonna have to
take a break if you want to hang on through the break. I'll pick
you back up after break. You're listening to garden Line seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. Well, good Sunday morning. I'm sorry.
I was dancing around the studio there. I had to get back to
my chair. Oh gosh. You know, garden Line is an institution throughout
this greater Houston area, in fact, way way beyond the Houston area.
And for all these years, since back in the days of Dewy Compton,
this show has been around and it is provided education, it's provided assistance,
provided device for gardeners in this area. And I hope you'll tell other people
about garden Line. I think everybody that has a yard or a house plant
ought to give us a call on garden Line. Let them help, let
us help you with the questions that you might have speaking of give us a
call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. And I'm going
to head out out to a task caseda Hello Thomas, I think in the
middle of a big conversation. Right, um my rock garden it gets full
sun east west. I want to put some bushes in there. Well,
I'm gonna I'm gonna try the Alma bovina and see what happens here. But
I need something with some other colors, some rids or whatever, something bright.
Is this an area that you can irrigate or is that kind of on
nature? Oh? No, it's irrigated. It's actually a TERRISTI three three
steps in the rock garden, okay, And I've got my sprinkle system there,
so I control and it's excellent soil that I put in. I've got
six inches of quality soil. Well, when I think about red blooms and
the full sun, I think about roses. First of all, there's there's
a lot of great roses that you could put in, but they take work.
Uh you know what, if you get you a shrub rose, it's
not gonna take much work. You can leave a shrub or is on print.
I share mine back periodically just to get more blooms on them. But
anyway, that that would be one one option that comes to mind. I'm
trying to think. The red color has kind of throwing me. My brain
isn't clicking on all cylinders here to just spit out the name of a plant.
Perhaps one of our listeners has therefore that they would want to share with
us. But you know, in a rock garden, are you looking for
a more of a western garden kind of look, arid garden kind of look
or because then you would have things like oh gosh, the I'll think of
it in just a moment. My brain just went't blank on that one.
But anyway, what kind of look are you trying to get? Well,
it's it's rustic I've had for years. I've had land tana on one level
and Mexican heather on another level. Okay, and all they look really nice
whenever, really full bloom and trim nicely, and I want to keep that
look. But I'm just getting tired of the land. Will they die anyway
from this frost? Okay? Would I would consider some salvia's. There are
some red blooming salvias and others. Salvia is always a good, dependable plant.
I would probably look at salvia Greggy. I where they it's called cherry
sage because the originals were all red. They have other commas now, but
I think I would try that. Hey, Thomas, I've enjoyed the visit.
Thank you. Gonna have to move on. We're running out of time.
I appreciate it. Thank you, at a time. Thank you,
sir. Let's head to the heights and talk to Brenda. Hello, Brenda,
Hi there, how are you. I'm good? How are you doing
good? Thank you? Listen. I bought some rosemary and some basil.
And how do I prepare the soil to plant both of those herbs in a
pot, maybe an eight or ten inch pot. And what do I put
at the bottom of the container so that it can drain? You know,
I don't don't put anything at the bottom of the container. I can go
into it. I don't have time to day to go into it. Maybe
I'll do that tomorrow's show. But that doesn't that stuff doesn't help drainage.
To just use a quality potting saw mix. And you go into a place
like you're you're close to b Cannons, for example, they're going to have
blends that are just designed for container growing. If it's a big enough container,
I just often would use rose soil. But we have a lot of
other blends that will do well. And then when wherever you go shop at
a good independent garden center, they're going to show you the things that they
carry that fit that very well. But you pick two great plants, rosemary,
got some drought tolerance that is really really nice, and then the basil
is an easy one when you have good sunlight. Okay, Well, one
other question, though, Do I not need some sand mixed into that.
I've gone online and kind of looked around a little bit, and no,
if you get a good quality mix, you don't need Dad's sand to it.
No. Okay, h well, thank you very much. I appreciate
it. Thank you very much for the call. I am going to now
vernon. We're gonna give a quick we have just a matter of seconds left.
But you're trying to get rid of some po poison ivy. Yes,
okay, growing, and it's growing in my hedge. Okay, what you
need to do. If you spray something on the poison ivy leaves, you're
gonna hurt your heads. So go down where it's coming from, cut it
off and treat that that little stem at the bottom of the fresh cut.
Treat it with a product containing triclopier t r I c l O p y
r. I'm sorry, I'm sort Can you repeat that from me slowly again?
Yes, t r I c l O p y r tric pier that's
the ingredient. You're gonna find it in a lot of products. You know,
you're up in the Northwest house scenario. So if you go to plant
for all seasons, I go to Arborgade. If you go to one of
one of the ace hardwares, like, for example, the cypress area that
you're going to find products with triclopier, they'll steer your steer you right,
Okay, we are. We are out of time today, Susan in Baydown,
I've support unfortunately could not get to your call today. Will you call
back tomorrow? I would be happy. Oh, I'm sorry, you got
the next hour. We can hang on. I'm gonna hold you on through
break and we'll come to you right when we come back. Our phone number
seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one
two. Ktr H give us a call. KATRH Garden Line does not necessarily
endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH
Garden Line with Skip Rictord. Just watching a good Saturday morning on a good
day for guarding. Yes, I know it's cloudy. I know I can
get some rain showers here and there, but it's still a good day to
get out and get some stuff done in the garden. We are going to
now head out to Baytown and talk to Susan. Susan, thanks for hanging
around. Colin Skip, thank you for taking my call. How can we
help um? I'm helping my friend with her along. She's eighty six years
old. Her son sold rye grass in the winter and she had Saint Augustine.
Then he put Scott's turf builder on it about three weeks ago. Okay,
the rye grass is certainly healthy, but it did not kill the weeds.
So now what can we do to kill the weeds without hurting them on?
Do you know offhand if the weeds are grassy type weeds or broad leaf
type weeds broad leafs when I'm seeing, Yeah, you need to use a
post emergent weed killer product, and there are a number of them out there
by you know, all the different manufacturers of those kinds of products I mentioned
earlier, the weed beater, ultra concentrate. That's just one example. That's
a bond product that is out there that they will do a good job,
but they need to do it soon because once the temperature is up in the
mid to upper eighties, then we can start to get some damage to the
Saint Augustine, and you definitely don't need that when you're trying to bring the
lawn back and it's already not that great, right, So get that,
get that done. If you look at the weather, you're gonna see the
days where it's a little bit cooler, go ahead and put it out on
one of those days. Uh. And it's a spray, I would put
it out as a spray. You can direct spray individual weeds or if it's
solid weeds all over the lawn, you can spray the whole area. Okay,
all right, Well, thank you very much. Hey, and thank
you for helping that person out with their lawn. Sounds like that's a good
colleart. I'm proud to do it. Well, thank you. Have a
good week you two. Thank you, Susan. Speaking of the weeds and
things, when when we're dealing with the weeds in our lawn, you need
to just keep in mind that they are different kinds of weeds, grassing broadly
same product, don't go both. Yeah, the option of doing a pre
emergent pre emergent like a barricade product I was talking about earlier by nitrifiles that
will prevent the seeds from coming in. And then there's the post emergence that
kill the existing weeds. And with our Saint Augustine, which is most of
the lawns are on here. When you use some of these post emergents and
it's getting hot, you really weaken the plant and set it back. So
don't delay. It's always better to kill a weed when it's younger than to
wait until it gets older, because at some point when it becomes reproductive,
meaning blooming and setting seeds, you're gonna you're not gonna have any effect to
speak of. Or maybe it's too late, there's already seeds on the plant.
But you can keep your lawn in good shape by just taking care of
it like that. If if you are listening and is the first time to
hear Garden Line, welcome, We're glad you're here. We'll hope you'll tell
your friends and family about Garden Line. If you've been listening for years,
then you know this is a strange new host that's on the show. But
we are carrying on the tradition that began back with the Dewey Compton all the
way up through Randy lemon and just a really I guess I get to stand
on the shoulders of giants in terms of people that were there were forerunners that
created a really, really excellent show for this community. I want to go
out to sugar Land now. And by the way, our phone number seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four, we're gonna talk to Don.
Good morning, Don. Hey, Skip, appreciate letting me talk to
you, and I appreciate all the calls you're able to get in during your
show. I've got a little raised garden with tomato plants in it, and
I got these little green caterpillars. I finally found a couple of them,
but they're kind of devastating all the leaves and even now and into the small
church tomatoes. What can I put on there that wouldn't be toxic for me?
You could use a BT product, a product containing BT that's the ingredient,
and the BT products will kill the caterpillars best. When the caterpillars are
young, they only last about a day or two in the environment, so
you may have to reapply because you wouldn't get them all or maybe one hatches
out of an egg the next day after you spray, so BT would be
probably the simplest solution for that. This serves one brand that in case somebody
didn't know what it is, Oh gosh, if you go to a good
supplier, they're gonna know what it is. And there's there are so many
brands. BT stands for it's the name of a bacteria, Bacillus thuringiens.
But everybody, don't don't go to a big box store spect then to know.
But you know you're out. You're out in the sugar Land area.
So you've got enchanted forest down out in that area. You got Plantation Hardware
and Richmond M and D Supply in Richmond, those are ACE hardware stores.
I think you're you're just gonna it's gonna be real easy. They're gonna direct
you right to it because I promise all of those folks CARRYBT. And this
stuff in't toxic at all. No, No, it's it's organic. But
it's a disease that just affects caterpillars. So if you had a beetle or
a grasshopper or a snail or slug eating those leaves, it wouldn't affect them.
If there's a ladybug on the leaf. It's not going to affect it's
not gonna hurt the dog and cat. It's a caterpillar disease, specific disease
that you're spraying on those foliage. Yeah, got it. Thank you so
much. All right, don thank you. I appreciate that call. Our
phone numbers seven one three, two one two five eight seven four seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I've been visiting about a lot
of different things going on at this time of the year and in the summer.
And one of the challenges, and I've had a number of different emails
about this one, but one of the challenges in to have color is shady
areas. You know, in the sun, we get the carbs on the
made by the leaves that produce blooms easy. When you get into shade,
it's a little more difficult. But we have plants that will do well in
a shady area, and examples would be wishbone flower also called Taurinia. Taurinia
would do well in a shady area. We've got let's see a persian shield
that's a foliage color purple, foliage color purple, silvery. If it's a
bright shade, you get good purple coloration in there and it would do well.
It's another good choice that you can try. Uh, there is let's
see what's some other examples. A chicken gizzard plant, there's impatience, there's
colladiums, lots of good things for that area, Johnny, I see out
there in Pasadena. We're going to catch you right after break. For those
of you that you'll like to call seven one, three, two and two
fifty eight seventy four school Soldiers musicality, Josh is continuing our tradition of who
knows what we're going to play next? Right all over the board, from
country to pop, you name it. We like to stretch the musical world
a bit. Let's head out to Pasadena now and we're gonna talk to Johnny.
Hello, Johnny, Hey, how are you doing today? I'm well,
thanks. So I've got a flower bed in the backyard. That's it's
pretty pretty heavy with mulch, and it's got plants and trees and sorts of
different sorts of items. But the nutgrass I cannot get rid of. It
keeps coming through the mulch and I pick it out all the time. But
as quick as I pick it out, there's new sprouts coming out. Yea,
And I wanted something I could get rid of that nut grass that's coming
to the moltraduct killing nut plants or my trees. Okay, well, they're
a product call Image is one that you can use. Image is very effective.
There are there's another one that is better. Are really designed for the
flower beds And I'm trying, I think though the name is escaping me right
now of it. The thing you want to remember about nuts edge is you
want to spray it once it gets three to five leaves. Don't let it
sit there because if you, for example, in the spring, when it
comes up, if you have one nuts edge plant, by the time we
get to today to May, it has already made eight daughter plants, and
so you have eight times the problem you did in the spring. So with
nuts edge, you never let it grow because it's getting a lot worse.
When you do. It's better to even just break it off and pull it
up and get that sunlight off the you know, don't let it have sunlight
and have to regrow. That doesn't get rid of it, but at least
there you're slowing down its reproduction. Uh, You're you're out in the down
in the Pasadena area. I think of you. You probably from a moss
nursery down there are one of the ACE Hardware stores. We've got a number
number of ACE Hardware stores down in that area that are gonna be able to,
uh, you know, supply you with those kinds of products that you
need for nuts edge. But the product does need to be specifically for nuts
edge, and image is an example of that. Okay, I appreciate that,
Thank you very much. All right, appreciate that call. Thank you.
I haven't managed that was the other one. I was trying to think
of image and manage. Let's head out to Sugarland. Now, we're going
to cross town down to southwest sugar into Sugarland area and talk to Denise.
Hello, Denise, Yes, good morning, skit, good morning. My
problem. My problem is I have probably three dozen Agapanthus plants, most of
we're put in right after well two years ago, after our big freeze.
I cannot get them to bloom again. I cannot. There's like one or
two that bloom otherwise. Any suggestions on that. It could be a number
of things. Agapanthus likes to be in a semi shady area, but in
too much shade, it's not going to have the energy to bloom well.
So maybe the plant came in it had the energy initially, but now it's
not struggling in any way. You know, droughts and things like dry soil,
things like that, we'll mess up with the blooming cycle. Over fertilizing
with nitrogen, that's another one you probably want to avoid. That tends to
push plants and more vegetative and less settling down and fertilizing a little nitrogen very
important essential. Too much is not a good thing. And so one of
those things is going on there with your agapanthus. And I can't tell you
for sure which one, but you're familiar with the setting. You may have
an idea what maybe more are likely? Are you there? Yes, I'm
here. They're on a store to the west side, so they're getting afternoon
sun now. Otherwise it's semi shade. They've what can I tell you?
Is there anything? I don't fertilize them. I'm not pouring nitrogen on them.
Is there any kind of supplement? Do you think the plants are very
healthy? I mean, it's not like they're struggling. They look great.
I just can't get them to bloom. Is there any what about a bulb
food? Would I do that? Or no? No? I think what
I would do along the lines of what you're asking. I would probably get
one of the products that's made just for annual flower plants, you know,
like the color Star for example. That would just be one example, but
it's something that's got a little more of the phosphorus. It certainly need a
little nitrogen potassium, but a little more of the phosphorus in there. You
might try that, start using that on them and see if that kind of
kicks them into gear to do a little bit better. But I think that
would be the next thing. Well, one of those kinds of Well,
it's frustrating we drive around our neighborhood and people who don't take care of their
lawns don't have agapanthus and they're blooming mine art. So is there any hope
to get them to bloom them? Yeah? Well I think there is.
I think what we're saying would would help on that. You need to dig
up your agapanthus, take them for a ride around the neighborhood and say,
now I'm gonna take you back and plant you. But if you don't look
like this in a week, I'm coming back with some spray and you're out
it. Maybe that'll scare an. If I do have color Star, I
use it. If I start using that. Is there any hope for the
year? Are we done? There an option? Do you think they might
bloom if we Yeah, I wouldn't give up hope. I think there's a
chance. I believe there's a chance. So we just need to see what's
going on with them. You know, for a plant to bloom, it
has to have enough light to make carbohydrates to set the blooms, and it
has to have the growing condition that it needs, and it needs the nutrient
package that is required to set the bloom. So we've talked about the nutrient
package. You can't change the sunlight unless you go up and tremble limb on
a tree or something or move the plantation. Yeah, I think here's just
need a good talking to. That's that's oh well, I need to I'll
go do that. Today's skip, Thank you very much, and I'll get
some pillar star out here. If that works, called back, I'd like
I'd like to hear that. All right, let's go to Baytown and we're
going to talk to Misty now Hello a misty. Hey y'all. Hope everybody's
having a good morning. I'm having a great more. Hope you are.
That's good I am. I'm calling today's because essentially email two weeks ago about
this possible sport on my flower boos. Okay, I'm a yeah, I
missed that. Yes, you sent it to my show my heart address,
right, I will, sir, I will go back and I will find
it after the show here and I will get you an answer to that.
I somehow missed it. I haven't seen that one, so okay, go
ahead. Sorry, I think you're going yesterday, Yes, about the real
roses that come out. And then I have a couple more that I think
or sports as well. So I'm really excited about this. Uh you know
what I've gone in and I've found it. Um so this the ones in
your picture are pretty rad or is that like one is normal and one is
a sport picture of the red. Yes, the one of them has teens
at the very center and the rest of its read. Oh, I see
that could be a sport. The only other thing that I could think I've
missed he is that um as a rose bloom ages it color off usually changes
in some way, and the only thing would be if they were not the
same age. You know, number of days since the blooms opened. Uh,
that's about it. But I'm having trouble picking out the difference in those
in those photos, I think I see what you're talking about, the pinkish
pedals. I'm sorry. Go ahead. The email that I sent like two
weeks ago have the more defined white in them because they start out white.
Mum. I have a little trouble finding that and on the air, probably
not cana able to do that. I will take a look at it,
and if you want to hang on, when we get past this break,
we can continue talking about it, or I can just talk about what I
see when I find your email and get back to that. Okay, you
can do that, That's fine, Okay, Yeah, I don't want to
everybody in the world to wait on me trying to find an email. And
one day and one day he killed the show. But Missy hang on,
Oh gosh, and Nikki Nicky is laughing at me in the studio that I
can so relate to that. I'll be right with you. Let me just
check my Emi dog just scrolling real quick. Just hang with me gripping radio.
I need to go fill my coffee cup. Y'all hang out. I'll
be right back, I promise. Oh gosh. Yeah. Well, this
is garden Line, and we try to keep it exciting and interesting. Seven
one three, two, one two five eight seven four. Give me a
call seven three, two and two fifty eight seventy four. This is our
last hour for today. By the way, we're here on Saturdays and Sundays
six am to ten am. So tell your neighbors, tell your friends to
give us a call or at least listening on the show. Hopefully there'll be
some good information that helps them have a beautiful lawn and bountiful garden. Man,
I've been everywheremen across the deserts, I breathe them, Mountain a man,
I've been everywhere. I've been Arena, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota,
Buffalo. All right, good Sunday or Saturday morning. I'm trying to make
it Sunday, oh day today, because Sunday's Mother's Day and that's a special
day. But it is Saturday. We are welcoming you here to Garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number. Write this
down seven one three two, one, two, five, eight seven four.
We are going to start off by going to West Houston and talking to
Paul. Hello, Paul, Hi are you doing. I'm well, thank
you. Hey. So y'all had just talked about qualities, feed and garden.
Yeah, I'm actually on my way to them right now. Also Ken
that owns that place. Um Ken is also a member of the Bonds Eye
Society and every other month he hosts a um A deal out at his place
on Saturday morning. So I'm in the Bondsaye Society team UM and you can
go out there and he helps people. Different people come out there that are
you know, they're Bonds Eye great people and and help us beginner guys,
you know, learn how to do it. So there's something else that they
do out there. I mean they're they're just great people, can good guys,
it is. And they'll sell you bons Eye too if you want to
buy one. So well, how exactly how can we help today? Paul?
So, I have an oak tree that is it's probably at least seventy
five years old. I know that, Um I cannot put my arms around
it. And it has started putting up, started about two years ago,
started putting up shoots from the roofs now I have and and quite a few
um that kind of makes my grass look ugly. And I have done some
research on it. I've read that it says that that's the DNA of the
tree. But everything that I've read said that if it's going to do that,
it's going to do that early in its life cycle. And like I
say, this has never happened. It just started happening about two years ago.
And I don't know if there's something I'm doing wrong with watering it or
feeding it or okay, yeah, something to deal well. What you fraud
is basically true. The oaks have different gene pools that they come out of.
If it's a like along the southern Gulf Coast, those tend to be
single tree type of oaks. As you get into the hill country of Texas,
you see oaka moths where there's many trunks coming out of the ground in
the same place. The thing I think that's happened with yours, and this
is my best shot at it, is I believe something has has affected the
roots there. When you put in a flower bed around a tree, you
often see a lot of new shoots coming off the roots that you wouldn't have
had before. When you rote hoteil or do something. You know that that
injures a route, you tend to get a lot more of those as well.
So, but the only solution to that would be to either put a
ground cover around it that you could just you know, as um over the
top of the groundcover, m over the little ceilings coming up, or a
really heavy duty landscape fabric weighted down and that that could cut down on that.
But then you're not gonna be able to grow anything in that spot unless
it's a vinding groundcover coming in from the sides, right, Okay, Well,
you know, I just I'll just deal with it, Okay, I
have to do Yeah. I mean, there is a big azalia area all
around it, but it's been there since we moved in right thirty years ago,
So it's nothing that I put in. It's just it's always and I
haven't touched the roots since we've been there. But well, if you if
you eliminate that, I'm not sure why they're suddenly just starting to pop up
then right now, that is a little bit unusual, but anyway, it's
it is what it is, and so your options are just to do some
of the things I mentioned, or to if you do cut them out,
try to go down and cut them more where they attached to the route,
because when you just mow them off, it just rebranches from the base and
you get two shirts. Yeah yeah, and become spikes that you can't walk
over. Baret oh Man, No kidding, Hey, Paul, thank you.
I appreciate that call very much, and good luck with that situation.
We're gonna go now to Texas City. Danny, we got about a minute.
How can we help? Hey morn to skip and Nikki got white power
recepts. Its all of them crooked neck, straight neck squash. Okay,
it rubs off with your finger, yeah, but it's spreading from one plant
to the next. One time to stop it. Okay, powdery mill do,
that's what it is, and it can be controlled with a foliar spray
of kneeme oil. There are also some fungicides that will work on powdery mill
do. So if if that's if that's what you're dealing with, uh,
then I would consider either a synthetic fungicide or something like kneem oil as being
probably two of your best bets. Okay, one last question, what's the
general fertilizer for all the vegetable plants? Oh, gosh, a lot of
things will work. I often just use lawn fertilizer on most of my vegetables.
But I've been running. Yeah, n uh yeah, yeah, you
can uh, you know pretty much. The lawn fertilizers we talk about,
I often use them a vegetable garden. Now, you can buy a mix
just for vegetables, but you know, we we package these mix is based
on what a plant generally mostly wants, but it doesn't account for what's already
in the soil. So, you know, it could be that a vegetable
food isn't the best food for your vegetables because of what's already in your soil.
But in general, you can depend on those and go with it.
Hey, if you got some follow up, hang on, I'll talk to
you after break. But I'm gonna have to take break right now. Danny
our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. All
right, quick quiz question. Can you name three monkeys? I'm talking about
human monkeys singing with monkeys. I'm not talking about like monkeys in the in
the wild. Yeah, if you can i'd like to know. Hey,
we're gonna head out to spring and we're gonna talk to Andrew. Hello Andrew,
Hey, how are you doing? I'm well, thank you. I
got a question. So my front yard, I had a mostly Saint Augustine
yard. I used to credit at five inches as real, thick, full,
beautiful, and then this last winter we just had bermuda started taking over,
so I started cutting it short. And now Saint Augustine is trying to
make a comeback, and I actually like the bermuda better. Okay, what
kind I do to get rid of that? Saint Augustine? Andrew? Do
you think this is a turf type bermuda? Like, is it coming from
another bermuda lawn or what? I have no idea. I just know that
whenever they it's kind of a new Bill twenty nineteen, and so whenever they
did the saw it it was a mixed palette. Ah. Okay, well
that then the chances are it's a turf type bermuda because the turf farm grows
one and then the other one. But I just had to ask that because
just standard old bermudas are not necessarily the best for a lawn, Like if
you want to bermuda lawn. I'd probably tell you to purchase a good semi
dwarf type of bermuda that that would do best for you. But assuming that
this bermuda is a decent type, what you want to do is you want
to mow low, and you want to mow often. If you let the
grass get real tall, Saint Augustine has enough advantage to survive in the bermuda.
If your areas are too shady, it's going to be hard to get
rid of the Saint Augustine because the bermuda can't take that shade as much.
But if you mow low and mow often, that's the way we have a
beautiful bermuda lawn. And you know, you can also just grab Saint Augustine
runners and kind of rip them up, so it's not too easy to have.
Yeah, yeah, you can do some of that, but mo low
more often. I think that's going to be your best bet, assuming that
it's a good full sun location. All right, I appreciate it in the
crib grass. What's the best way to get rid of that? The best
way is to not have it, and that's by using arricade as a pre
emergent you put it down, you watered in. The crabgrass is never able
to sprout and establish a weed. Once you have crabgrass, if it's in
a lawn, there's not something that kills a grass in a grass in that
sense, you can't kill cry grass without killing your lawn. And so there
I would just mow again more regularly, mow low, and the crab grass
is gonna get choked out eventually by a healthy lawn. Now, if your
lawn is struggling and you've got spots where sunlight hits the soil, you're gonna
have weeds like crab grass that pop up. So work on mow, water,
fertilized those three key elements, do them right and increase that density and
crab grass is not going to be as much of a problem. But a
pre emerge is always a good way. It's going to give you know,
sixty days or so of protection against grass crabgrass germination. Perfect. All right,
thank you, all right, Andrew, thank you for the call.
I appreciate that call. Let's see a little bit of time here, if
we can get a quick call in seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one, two, five, eight seventy four.
I want to remind you that after the show today, which is really
soon, I'm going to be heading out to Arbigate. I'll get out there
about eleven thirty and I'll be there to help. I'll be there and we'll
pass one thirty, but officially to one thirty. This is the day before
Mother's Day. Come out and they will direct you to a plethora of wonderful
Mother's Day gifts, from plants to bling to indoor decorations. They've got it.
Come see me. Let's see some samples of plants or bugs or diseases.
Put them in a ziplock bag. If you've got your phone camera going
and you can take a picture of some things up close and sharp focus and
sharp focus. I'd be happy to look at those and see if we can
identify, if we can diagnose, or if we can make some suggestions for
plants free area. But I'd love to meet you. I love to get
to visit with and talk to the listeners of the show. So come out
Arburgate today. We'll be out there and it is a wonderland of cool things.
And you know I say this all the time about Independent Garden centers.
But they've got people that know what they're doing. You know. It's they're
not making guesses. They understand growing in Houston. They understand which plants do
well and don't do well. So I hope to see out at Arburgate.
We're gonna go the phones now, we've got time for one more. We're
gonna talk to George. How are you doing? George doing pretty good.
Hey. Look, I'm working on the yard over here in Baytown and it's
covered up with bermuda grass and it has a little bit of Saint Augustine mixed
in, and I was thinking about trying that liquid actrazine to mark that formu
to down. I don't know. I wouldn't do that. I'm not a
big fan of that. Just wouldn't do it. You know, there's there's
not a great way to get bermuda out of Saint Augustine other than turn it
into a very shady area, which gives Saint Augustine the edge. I think
if you, yeah, I think you're gonna have to get rid of all
of it. And what I would do is spray a general weed killer to
kill everything, and then I would wait and give it a couple of weeks
because you're going to see some ree sprouting because you never get it all the
first time. Hit it again, hit it again, with that, with
that spray. Just be patient and then bring your Saint Augustine in. Try
to get all the dead material off the surface, by the way, so
that your your new side sit. I said, bring your Saint Augustine.
You want Bermuda, No, you want Saint Augustine. Bring the us In
Augustine in and put it where it gets good side to soil contact. You
need good contact between those two so the roots can move from one to the
other readily. I understand. Yeah, then I'll do it that way.
Then all right, Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we
just don't have the miracle product that will be that selected yet. I guess
some way someday they will. We'll figure that out. Well, you've been
listening to the garden Line. We are here to answer your gardening questions here
every Saturday from six am to ten, every Sunday from six am to ten.
Give us call tomorrow. We'd love to visit with you about what's going
on in your lawn and in your landscape. In the meantime, come out
to our arbigate today. I'll be there eleven thirty to one thirty and I
can't wait to meet you and to see how we can help you with some
of your gardening questions. Thank you for being the listener. Tell your friends
and neighbors about it. By the way, if you miss a show,
you can listen to the podcast to catch up on something that you might have
missed. Also, if you haven't followed us on Facebook, please do that
our Facebook page garden Line Facebook page. We keep it busy with a lot
of good information. And so I think that we are going to put this
show in the cans. We'll see you tomorrow