Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skip Richter's
sho Crazy trim. Just watch him as many sets not a sun glass gas.
Good morning, Good morning on a great day for gardening. You are
listening to garden Line and I'm your host, Skip Rictor. We're here today
help you have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape. That's kind
of the goal. You know, we say the cereal I say this here
a lot on Guardline that there's no such thing as a brown thumb. My
point is that it's not the thumb that's the problem. There's just an If
we're gonna blame it on our thumbs, let's just say there's uninformed thumbs.
Okay, Because anybody can grow things if you just learn about what that particular
plant needs and you provide it. It's as simple as that. That's why
we talk a lot about places where you can get good quality plants that want
to live here. You know, I know you have tried things before that
didn't want to live here. Sit There are stores around the region that sell
things that should not be planted here. I mean, if you go to
Colorado for a vacation, don't bring back a blue spruce tree, a little
baby blue spruce, and maybe a blue Colorado columbine. The Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Plants is setting up way stations at the border between Texas
and New Mexico, just so that when you come across, they can confiscate
those things and send those poor plants back to where they came from, where
they can be happy. Good plants. That's number one. Good products to
help enhance growth, from fertilizers to soils, and you know how important soil
is. We walk you through that, We help you with the specifics.
There are things that go wrong. You know. Sometimes you may hear talk
or read articles that make it sound like, well, you just do this
and everything's going to be fine. Well, there are things we do that
are important, but sometimes nature gets in the way. You know, we
can do all the kinds of things we want to create the perfect environment,
but then all of a sudden, here comes soid web worms when summer to
attack our lawns, and that just you can't plan for it. You just
respond to it. But we help you with that. That's why I have
schedules on my website Gardening with Skip dot com schedules where you go by the
way. They're free. You can download them, print them out, and
I recommend you do. It tells you when to fertilize, what to use,
how to deal with pasts, how to deal with insects specifically, how
to deal with diseases in your lawn, how to control weeds in your lawn.
We do all those kind of things to help you out in those ways.
Let's head up to begin with up to Tom Ball and talk to Mel.
Hello, Mel, good morning. Hey, been runing against Kip listen,
Yeah, on your schedule along the line. I guess maybe I should
go there to see this. So I've had I got so sick and tired
of these stupid weeds, you know. Yeah, And so Tuesday, Tuesday
and Wednesday I put down some weed stop and uh not wearing any underneath trees
or anything like that. And I know that stuff didn't seem to help me
a whole lot. My problem is, and my question is, I know
this is about the time to put down some pre emergent too, but now
is it wasteful or you said, all right, to still put down my
pre emergent on top of all that other stuff. Well, now would be
the time. We're getting close to the time here where we do are our
pre emergent if you did one a little bit later. Yeah, we've been
doing the second application since really toward the end of April. But oh,
I thought that goes into May. Well it doesn't know. We've been doing
it since toward the end of April. It goes through May and goes through
June as well. There's not a specific time you have to put it on.
It's just that if you apply it in early to mid February, which
is prime time for getting those down, then after about sixty days ninety days
somewhere in that region, it's wearing out enough to where you probably could do
a second application. Things like graspers and crabgrass and whatnot can still sprout later
on. They don't only sprout in the early spring, and so I have
it on there for that. I just always encourage people to be careful because
you know, you got weeds, and so I'm going to double dose on
this stuff and really kill the weeds. And that's where we get into problems
with your grass. All right, So but you know I could still it's
all right if I still go ahead and put down my pre emergent, even
though I put that stuff other stuff down. Yes, if you have not
put down a pre emergent since back in February, you can do it again
now, okay, so it's still safe to do that. Yeah, all
right, I've got some weeds that it just doesn't want to kill. So
well, now, if you know, again, the pre mergent only stops
weeds that you don't see yet, and if you've got existing weeds, that's
called post emergent, which I'm sure you know. The post emergent information is
on my schedule too, if you choose to go that direction. All right,
appreciate it, all right, mil thanks, appreciate the call. Let's
see if we can move along here. We've got kind of people hopping on
by the way. We're talking about things to do on the lawn. Azamite
is a micronutrients source that we put down. You'll find it almost schedule,
and there's not a specific time when you would apply azamite. You can do
it at anytime. Think of it as a bank account, like when when
is a good time to put a deposit in your bank account. Well,
anytime you got some money, put it in there. Uh. And that's
kind of how azemite is. It's not like nitrogen where you put it down
at certain times to promote more rapid green growth. It is a bank account
of the trace minerals that every plant needs in order to survive. They are
not needed in large amounts, but they are absolutely essential. That's what makes
them essential nutrients. It's about twenty different nutrients by the way, that that
plants do need for one or another process. You can go to azmite Texas
dot com and find out more information, or just wherever you go shopping.
Pretty much, if I'm talking about a place here on garden Line, I
don't care if it's a garden center or a feed store, Southwest fertilizer,
ace hardware store. They've oh they carry. It's easy, easy to find
in the region. We go out now to Beaumont and talk to Dan.
Hello. Dan, Hey, good morning, good morning. I'm running into
a little issue. I've got tomato plants. Yeah, I called you up
last week and I was concerning the rotting from the inside. Will. I
was at my garden this last week and I noticed these little red bugs running
around. Now they look like a big, huge army ants, but they're
they're red and they have black legs, six legs, and I'm trying to
figure out what they are and how to get rid of them. And I'm
thinking, those are what's eating my tomato from the inside. Okay, they're
on the they're they're on your tomatoes. I yes, there are two things
that can fit that description. One is a past the leaf footed bug.
In its nymph stage when they're very young, they are kind of an orange
red color and they have black, long black legs. There's also a beneficial
called the assassin bug, and certain species of assassin bugs have the same coloring.
The difference between the two, just from a standback and look at them
without really studying them closely, is bad bugs tend to hang out in herds
when they're young. You'll just see a whole cluster of them, kind of
on a tomato. Good bugs tend to disperse, and you tend to see
those individually because they're predators and they know they're out hunting. Some types of
good bugs even eat each other, so that's if you're seeing more than one
of them on a tomato. That's probably the leaf footed bug, a bad
bug, and you can go online, you can send me a picture.
I can identify it for you too. But those you need to deal with
now when they're young like that, they don't have wings, they can't fly
away, and it's really you to manage them. You can take sometimes I'll
just take it like a little pale of soapy water and swat them into it.
Sometimes I'll just vacuum them off with a little handback. You don't have
to spray them, but at this stage they're most susceptible to sprays. Once
they get they turn dark colored and then they're flying around there. It's it's
a much much harder to control them. What if I put down like this
chemical that we put on our animals like horses and stuff, it's oh good
night, I forget the name of it. Now. Well, you as
long as it's labeled for tomatoes, you can do that. Just remember that
there are good bugs out there too, so make sure we are dealing with
a pass before you do that. Right. Well, I'm thinking these guys
are a pass because they were in they were in kind of a herded flour.
Okay, yeah, well so yeah, you can do that, just
just be cautious in what you use and follow the label carefully. Dan,
I'm gonna have to run. I've gone, I've bumped past a break here.
But good luck with those bugs, and I wish I do, wish
you well. We'll be right back. What two three Nicistic, Welcome back
to Gardenline. Good to have you with us today. We are talking about
all kinds of things today. Looking at the board, we got a lot
of topics up there. If you're planning on putting out a container of flowers
or vegetables, number one, congratulations. More people need to do that.
We do not grow enough things and containers on our patio. We have beautiful
containers. We can grow anything in a container. You can grow in the
ground pretty much. I mean, you know, within reason, you're not
going to grow a big shade tree, of course, but if you get
a big enough container, you grow anything. So what do you do in
a container though? You put a quality mix. And what makes a soil
mix quality? Well, a number of things, but two key things are
it needs to hold water, so the water doesn't just run straight through and
out and you got drought immediately. It needs to drain well though, you
don't want a mucky swamp in that container. And so jungle Land it was
created to provide just that. It's got several different types of decomposed organic matter,
it's got the microhizo fungi in there, and it will enhance your plants.
And just look for something called jungle Land flour and vegetable planting soil to
do just that for your plants. Now where do you get it? Well,
lots of different places. Jungle Land's widely available. Plants for all seasons.
Has it on two forty nine, All spas ace up in the woodlands
has it. You can find jungle landed plants and things in brennam A.
Jungle Land is a quality mix that does what you need to do so your
plants look good, so you have success. We're going to go to Paul
now on the southeast side. Hey Paul, Hey, yep, how are
you? I'm good, sir, Welcome to Guardline. How can we help?
Yes, sir, I've got a burgundy poem that I've passed numerous people
bathroom, They all draw a blank. This is plant I don't know,
ten fifteen years old. Used to when I first planet it of course a
year or two it produced at the wazoom and did real well, and I
had other golf variety clumbs next to it. I lost the two gulfs to
the boars, but the burgher did is done well. And then about four
or five years ago it just quit producing. Still looks good, still going
healthy. But I've got one limb at about chest Hide. This plant now
it's fifteen foot call at least, I've cut it back to the three times.
But I've got one planet about chest Hide that produces like crazy, one
limb. That's it. Have you ever seen anything like that? No?
There, I mean what I would like to tell you is that's impossible.
But obviously it's happening at your house, so I don't pictures of it just
for this reason. Yeah, well here here's the thing. And then this
year I've got two plums on the other side on the north side, tree
way apat two a tree Okay, but it's still just this one limb on
the south side. Yeah, it is the trend. Is it the full
sun? Oh yeah, lots of sun. Okay, Well, bergun to
yourself fruitful so that it's not a poll it's not a lack of pollinator uh,
the blues do have to be pollinated. Something has to move the pollen
from the miss Let me tell you this, for I forget, I'm old
man, that one limb is always flowers first the one lamb, and I
mean it's got a ton of bloons on them. And then about two weeks
later, of course, the pedals drop and stuff like that, and then
the rest of the tree explodes with the same flower. Okay, do the
plums look identical to the plums on the rest of the tree and the ones
that are on the other side now this time are up high and they're still
green. Because it's like I said this, the rest of the trees too,
a couple of weeks behind then through the whole process. Okay, but
I think I think in the same thing it might becoming maybe the rootstock mating
or something something. If it's a good edible plum, it's not the rootstock.
In fact, most plums are drafted onto peach rootstock. But I would
let me, let's do this. I'm going to put you on hold,
and I have h callum uh get give you an email address, and would
you send me photos of what you're seeing. One of one or two things
has happened. Either they double grafted the tree, which is very unlikely,
or there's been a genetic sport, which means that sometimes implants and we have
a lot of varieties that are because of this, and various kinds of plants,
flowers and fruit. But it changes genetically and suddenly that branch starts producing
something a little different, and that that happens a lot, and that probably
is what's happened on that branch. Why the rest of the tree isn't producing
good son self fruitful? I don't I can't tell you why that is unless
I mean, I guess you know if you spray it with insecticide every spring.
But that let me put you on hold. Would you give him you
would you get my email and send me some photos? All right? I
think that's that's the next step. I don't think we're get any further with
it here, but I think I think what I said is what's going on.
But let's see if we can figure out how to solve this and get
plumbs again. Thank you, Paul. I appreciate that call very much.
Talking about fruit trees and stuff. Anytime you're planning a tree, especially your
landscape, trees that young tree has a small cylinder of a root ball.
It's what came out of the pot, and that's not well stabilized. Once
the tree roots are out there and established well, it takes two or three
seasons to get good, strong root systems going. By the time you hit
that point, it's very stable. The wind's not going to blow it over
very easily, and it's not going to wobble around up until that point.
That's why we steak trees often early on, and tree stabilizer three sixty.
Tree stabilizer is a plastic arm that holds that tree very strong. Instead of
having to go buy wire, cut up garden hose and make those guy wires
to trip over in your lawn, you just hammer steak in near the tree,
I mean you know, foot and a half or so from the tree.
You attach the stabilizer to the steak in the tree, and it's made
to attach to a t post too. You can get them like that and
it holds it just fine. If you've got a lot of wind blowing different
directions, you can use two of them, one kind of let's just say
north south, one east west, so no matter which way it goes,
you got a strong arm holding onto that tree, but it holds loosely,
so there's a little bit of movement which is important for strengthening the development and
the stability of that tree. Three sixty tree stabilizers. You're going to find
them at Southwest Fertilizer, Jorges Hidden Gardens and Alvin Plans for All Seasons,
Buchanan's Nursery, RCW Nursery, and at the Arbor Gate, which is where
I'll be today at eleven thirty. After the show, I'm going to head
up there to the Arbor Gate and I will be answering gardening questions. I'll
tell you a little bit more about that a little later. Let's go up
now to Conroe and we're going to talk to Lee. Hello, Lee,
Good morning, yep, good morning. I've got a couple of spots in
my Saint Augustine grass that have got some small areas of bluish gray. I
don't know if it's some kind of mold or fungus or what it is.
And then in some similar bushes, and I don't know what kind of bushes
they are, there's several petals that seem to have a similar coating on them.
I've done some I've taken a couple of close up pictures that a picture
is worth a thousand words that I'd like to maybe send in if I could.
Then you take a look at them and too that that's the best thing.
Yeah, that's the best thing. Especially when we see a problem and
it's on different species of plants, that's not a common occurrence for it to
be the same cause. But it may not be the same thing on the
bushes the grass, but they're in the same where it is in the grass
as bushes right now? The same okay, well, similar nearby area.
And did you describe it like I hear bluish colored coats, well, kind
of on the grass, kind of a bluish bluish gray on several and two
or three different areas, taking pictures of okay, two areas in the grass
and a couple of a couple of the on on the petals. So so
they sorry to interrupt you. In the grass. Lead is this is this
like a coating on the on the grass blades itself? Yes, it is.
Okay, that's probably a little mold that can form on grass. It
is not a disease of grass. The only way it hurts grass is it
shades the light from getting to that blade. But you can just take a
water hose and blast it off if you want. It comes and goes uh
and it's a natural thing out there, and they just think of it as
a slimy mold climbing up on it. And then it goes through this stage
where it produces spores and that's when you see that gray look to it on
there. But let me I'm gonna put you on hold. Callum will pick
up and give you my email address so you can send me some good pictures.
Make sure they're in sharp focus of whatever plants you're talking about, and
I'll be happy to take a look at them. Okay, I will do.
And I appreciate your tending guidance once to see what I'm all right trying
to words. The picture is worth a thousand worse. There you go.
That's true. Thanks a lot ly. I appreciate that call very much.
When's the last time you were done it? In Shanna Gardens in Richmond?
You know that place is a showplace, and I'm telling you it is.
I mean, people come from all over to see in Jenny Gardens because number
one, it's it's large. I mean you wander through all the every kind
of plant you can imagine, beautiful pottery. Of course, they carry all
the fertilizers, soils and things you hear me talk about here in garden line,
annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs, beautiful, beautiful flowers. Right
now they have got If you're looking for something for mom, they have boogainvillias,
just gorgeous boogom villias, I mean, and you can get them as
a hanging basket. You can get them as a one gallon bush, or
two gallon or seven gallons. You can even get them on a little mini
trellis. They're already trellised for you in two, five and ten gallons.
And you know how beautiful boogom villas are. I mean, they just light
things up in summer. They've got that. Pretty much. Anything you can
imagine you would need as for a plant or as a plant, then Chanty
Garden's gonna have it. They really do a good job of having good stock.
They have knowledgeable staff Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com in Chenna Gardens Richmond dot
com. They are on the Katie Fullsher side of Richmond, so you just
head out FM three fifty nine. That's where you'll find them. Enchanted Gardens
in Richmond, Quality quality Place. Hey, welcome back to the Guardline.
Good to have you with us today on a great day for gardening. Really
looking forward to getting out and getting some good gardening kinds of things done.
The be Supply in Dayton, you've heard me talk about it before. It's
kind of like, you know, there's places where only people that are interested
in a particular kind of thing would go to buy this particular product or whatever.
I see the be Supply as almost a combination of several things. First
of all, the be Supply is for people that want to get into bee
keeping. They will walk you through. I was talking somebody just the other
day, and they're from away from here. I mean, I believe they're
up in Brian or someplace like that, Brian, Texas, And I was
just in look, just call the bee Supply. They had a question.
I said, they'll help you, even though you're not out there buying something
at the time. They will help you because they that's what they do.
They want people to have success. But the be Supply is also a place
where you can call. Maybe you don't want to have to keep bees,
but you want to have bees maybe for an agricultural exemption, Yes, bees
count for that. They can do a be rental program. If you have
five to twenty acres and you're within fifty miles of Dayton, Texas. They
come out, they set up the bees, they manage the bees for you.
Just go to the website and all the details of what's involved in that
is there. They have be classes, but they also for folks that I'm
not going to keep bees, well, okay, go there and just learn
about bees. Take your garden club, your master gardener group, your friends,
and definitely take your kids. They'll get to see the observation hive going.
You'll learn the fascinating world of beest and you get to taste several different
types of honey and it's just a wonderful event. It's an outing, it's
an experience. So no matter who you are, the b Supply is a
place you need to go. It's thebesupply dot com, thebsupply dot com.
It's where you'll find out everything you need to know. We are now going
to head to Jersey Village and talk to Dale. Dale. Thanks for being
a patient on whole person there, I appreciate that, no problem, good
morning, and thank you for you too. My question is I have some
patches of what I believe is Dallas grass in my lawnlan being Saint Augustine and
just and there's another one which I can't I don't know what it is.
I hope I can probably send you some pictures of those. We can,
just because those probably secondly right. But for the first one, which is
to Dallas grass, just your thoughts on the best way of treating it such
that if it's a herveside or whatever, something that yes, I can eventually
pull laid back some sat on at the spots where it comes out, so
you take it from here, okay. So Saint Augustine is your lawn,
yes, okay. So there's not a way to kill grass in grass by
and large, yeah, without killing your grass. So your options on something
like Dallas. It's a perennial, so we can't wait it out and use
pre emergence to get ahead of it. So you can use a wiper type
of an applicator to apply something that kills grass to it without getting it on
your desirable lawn grass. So instead of spraying, you're essentially letting Dallas grass
leaves come up above the lawn, which they'll do, and you're wiping it
on those leaves or dabbing it onto the center of the Dallas grass clump.
You can also just targeted spray just that spot. And I've seen people take
you know, little pump up sprayers and a like pop soft drink bottle,
the two liter bottles or a milk jug and attach them so that it's like
a shield over the end of your sprayer and you just set it down on
that weed and give it one squirt and it doesn't let the spray go out
everywhere on your lawn. It just targets it right there. And that way
you're gonna have some dead spots, but at least you're able to, let's
say, surgically remove those Dallas grass clumps and then let the Saint Augustine crawl
back in. Those would be your two options on that. Like you said,
wipe. What's an example of those. You can find online wiper type
of applicators. They look in different ways. I've got to get this put
online. You can build a wiper applicator yourself using a grabber tool, like
one of those little things you's got like a pistol grip and you reach out
and get a jar off a shelf way up high, and it like grabs
a jar and you pull it down. Or you can use it to pick
up trash those kind of things. But you could spin. Yeah, you
put spongers, go ahead. Yeah, when you say this, this is
something to put it on, not the actual chemical. What chemical do you
recommend? You could use a grass only killer. There's a couple of substances
that are grass only killers. Or you could use a general killer like a
glacyssate, which is the roundup as a brand everybody knows, but there's a
lot of brands of it. But either way is fine. But either way
you're using something that will cure your lawn if you get it on the lawn.
And as far as once that is done and I'm successful, is there
a timeline I need to wait for me to if I want to put down
some sod, because there's a section it's pretty big, so I wouldn't leave
the I wouldn't leave it for like the existence and august seed to then spread
back in. I would probably put some sod. Okay, well, so
if you're going to do that, I would just dig it out. I
you know, I would. However, you don't go about it hoe or
dig or whatever. Just get it out of there and then put the sod
down, because you're going to have to in order to put the sad down,
you're gonna have to get all that dead grass out anyway, any weeds
and stuff. So you might be best off just you don't have to dig
deep, but just get that, get those plants out of there, and
then put your sad down. So it's a little more labor, but you're
gonna have You can't lay sod on a bunch of dead multi organic material,
you know. Okay, yep, And like I mentioned, email if I
can probably send you pictures of all right, I'm putting you on hold right
now and and Calum we'll get online and he'll take care of that. I
appreciate your call. Soil is the most important thing we do for our garden
plants. It is the most important thing. It's a foundation. Would you
build your house on sand and have a flood come wash your foundation out?
Of course you wouldn't. Foundations are critical. They set the stage for everything.
Soil is a foundation for success with your plants and Nature's way resources.
They special and so and a half for a long time. John ferguson way
back when I mean when we use terms like leaf mo compost and rosesoil,
those kinds of things. Those things began at Nature's Way Resources, and John
and Ian have a wonderful selection of all kinds of quality products, all kinds
of quality products. They're available by the bag, they're available by the bulk.
I would suggest you consider their either fine leaf mo compost as a top
dressing. I would suggest that you also consider their fungal based composts. It's
that get a version of it that's screened down in very small particle size.
You can use that for a compost top dressing too. Fridays or Fungal Fridays.
That means ten percent off bags and twenty percent off bulk purchases for the
fungal based compost. You need to check them out Nature's Way Resources, the
website, nature's Way Resources dot com. They're up almost to Conro, Texas
on it off Interstate forty five. If you'd like to give them a call.
The numbers nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety nine three six
three two one sixty nine ninety talking about the importance of soil and that foundation.
Microlife fertilizers are nature's way of feeding the soil. We're taking organic materials,
we're putting them into the soil. They're chocolal of nutrients. The microbes
go nuts because I mean that's like feeding them their favorite foods. They break
those down. They take the nutrients in microlife and release it to your plants.
That's how nature works and microlife fertilizer. That the one that most people
are familiar with is a green bag. The green bag is we typically use
it for lawns. It's a six two four. They also have up fertilizers
just living some yesterday for acidic plants, acid loving plants. Now that particular
one is in a ink bag. There are purple bag that is the microlife
humates plus concentrated compost in a bag. Something you can do on a regular
basis to your lawn to continue to improve the soil, to improve in time.
As you do this, the soil structure improves. The microbial activity stays
high in the soil because microbes love these products. That's how that works.
Go to Microlife fertilizer dot com to find out more information about them. We're
gonna have to take a break here. I will be right back our number
seven one three, two, one two, five eight seven four. When
I come back, Steve and Sandy and Ralph, you will be the first
ones up. Welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you with us today.
I am going to make a B line for Sandy and Cyprus. Sandy,
I think you get the award for the most patient person on hold on
Garden Line, at least in the history of my time on this show.
Here. Thank you for being suppatient. Thank you, good morning. I
have a couple of questions. One is there's mushrooms, small itty bitty mushrooms
in my soil? Am I overwatering in? Is that good for the soil
or is that bad? And the other question I have is how do I
get rid of I found a green powder pillar crawling out of the soil in
my blueberries, so I'm wondering if they're in my other and that they're all
entertainers and they're crawling out, So I'm wondering if they're in my other plant,
because when he crawled out, you know they can just move across to
the next pot, right right. Well, first of all, the mushrooms
it is. It is a rare thing for a mushroom to be the sign
of a disease. There are a few oak root rot for example, will
pop up, but in general, when you see mushrooms, it's just decomposer
fungi turning organic matter back into soil. So I would consider them a good
thing and nothing to worry about. So that that is the case. Caterpillars.
There are a lot of caterpillars out right now. I pulled out a
few plants the other day and some flower things I was replacing, and when
I went back to the soil, there were inch worms just you know,
going all over the place, and they had been in those plants and I
hadn't even noticed it. So I don't get really alarmed just a few caterpillars.
If you're seeing a lack of foliage on your plants, like there's the
blueberries, the leaves are being eaten off or something, well then yeah,
throw some BT or spinosa out there and spray them. Otherwise, don't don't
sweat it. It's not a not a big concern. Okay. One more
thing, how do I know when to harvest my Brussels sprouts? Well,
you know, you would like them to reach what would be the normal size,
Like when you buy Brussels sprouts in the store, the you know the
size they would be. Sometimes they don't quite make it that far, and
it depends on growing conditions and when they were planted and whatnot. But if
you can get them up to that size, that's fine. They don't ripen
if you will, so you could you could eat a Brussels sprout from the
time it's the size of an English pee up to the time it's its normal
size. So I would just kind of give them a little time to get
the most size you can out of them. Sometimes it helps to cut the
tops out of the plant. We're about to get out of Brussels sprout season,
and you know how when you tip a plant, the buds along the
stem brake and you get new shoots that come up from from pruning. When
you cut the top out of your Brussels sprout, it it stimulates some of
the side bud development and you can go ahead and maybe get a little bit
of a bump on it that way, because we're summer's right around the corner
here, and it's good to get them to go ahead and produce for you.
Okay, thank you very much. A great day. All right,
Andy, if you get a chance, come on up to Arburgate in Tomball.
You're not too far away. We're gonna be out there this afternoon.
They're having one heck of a shindig with peach, Bellini's and all the above
stuff you would expect from Arburgate. Thanks for the call. Thank you so
much. I have a great day, all right. Bye bye. Yeah,
we're gonna have a really good time out there. Let's see, we're
gonna go now to Steve and Southwest Houston. Hello Steve, Oh, good
morning, thanks for taking me call. First question I am is what time
are you going to be at Arborgate. I am gonna hit Arbor Gate at
eleven thirty and I'll be there till one thirty today, a couple of hours.
Yeah. I mean, I'm giving away a lot of stuff. I'm
giving away four super Grow Ready to Spray. That's a new product I'm so
excited about from Medina. Three hast Grow Courts, Hastro Grow lawn seaweed samples.
We're gonna give Arbor Gay Is given away one bag every thirty minutes of
their that that one two three easy system. The organic soil, they're gonna
be given that away. We're gonna be giving away forest tree stabilizers. There's
free peach billinis frozen there. I mean, just come hang out. Okay,
Well, my primary question has to do with a grassy yard in Conro
area. Obviously, we've been a bit of rain in Conro lately, and
this lawn is sloped in two different directions, but one south and west,
and it's beginning to show signs that it's eroding. It's not big ditches or
anything like that, but small amounts. And I'm wondering about, Well,
first of all, we'll deal with some upstream type of situation like gutters on
the house, that type of thing. And yeah, what would you recommend
for for this mild type of erosion as far as going back into the grassy
lawn right type of a sand or top soil or just what's your idea?
Yeah, if you can find a decent quality top soil, sometimes that's hard
to come by, but if you can find that a sandy loam type of
top soil, that would be the best to top dress it with in small
amounts. You know, if you put three inches down. You buried your
Saint Augustine and that's not coming through. But just me you know a little
bit on let make sure the grass blades are sticking through. Do it a
little at a time and you can bring that level up. Some people will
mix a little bit of compost with that. Just remember compost decomposes away.
And so if you if you have three inches of compost two years from now,
you're going to have a half inch of composts. You see what I'm
saying it it disappears. So if you're trying to raise the level, it's
better to have the bulk of it be a sandy loam type top soil top.
So okay, yeah, because it had been my intention to before it
started to get too too hot, to use some pumppost on the law,
and I did that last fall and caught it just before rains and it settled
out really nice. But okay, maybe I need something a little bulkier and
bigger for all right, Well, good luck with that. I hope that
works for you. Well. I appreciate Steve very much that call. For
those of you who haven't been to plants for all seasons, you need to
get by there and check it out. They're on two forty nine high Way
two forty nine, but it's called Tomball Parkway. They're just north of Lueta
Now. They've been around since nineteen seventy three. And if you're looking for
a place that knows what they're talking about, that carries plants that grow here
and will advise you on them, that you can go in and ask questions
and have knowledgeable staff. All of that and more is Plants for All Seasons
Plants for All Seasons dot com. That's their website two eight, one,
three, seven six, sixteen forty six. When you go and to Plants
all Seasons, you know you're setting yourself up for success because you get the
right plants, you got the right products, and you got people that know
how to help you. Gardeners, expert gardeners, people that have been doing
this a very long time. Well, we're putting the first hour in the
books here. That went fast. It seems like that they say time flies
when you're having fun. From the frog says times fun when you're having it
flies. We'll be right back. Don't forget today. I'm going to be
a harbor gate up in Tomball. Now, what are we gonna do there.
We're gonna answer your gardening questions, bring in samples, bring in pictures,
just come in to talk. I'll be kind of giving some general Q
and A with a group of folks out there at Arborgate, they always put
on a good show. Bring your mom, Bring your mom. There's a
Mother's Day special at Arburgate on the brick house rows. This is a disease
resistant rose and it has a type of bloom that's open in the center so
these pollinators can get in there. And it's just a it's an awesome,
awesome road frozen peach. Bellini's giving away all kinds of stuff today today,
left and right, come on see me Arbaga eleven thirty to one thing.
Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skimp Richard. It's just watch him
as Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter is good
to have you with us. We are here for the ride today. We're
gonna be talking about a lot of things. This is a season to get
that lawn in top shape. That is one thing a lot of people love
is a beautiful, beautiful carpet of green grass out there. You know,
grass has a lot of good functions. Actually, it helps prevent a rose.
It also cools the air. Did you know that you can Actually there's
a BTU number. You know high AC units have BTUs. There's a BTU
number for the amount of cooling that turf does per thousand square feet because compare
it to you know, the reason we have this thing called the heat island
effect in cities is because asphalt and concrete and things like that hardescapes. They're
absorbing heat and it's literally warmer in Houston than it is outside in the countryside
for that reason. Now, turf benefits our homes that way. So there's
a lot of good things that turf can do in addition to just being beautiful
and a nice recreational area around your house if you don't have a dense lawn.
Nitroposs has put together a product. They had it for a while now.
It's a silver bag. It's nineteen four to ten. Half the nineteen
percent nitrogen is slow release, So about ten percent or about ten percent of
that night of the product is a slow release nitrogen. About nine or ten
percent is a release. It's a little faster than that. So what you're
gonna get is you're gonna get an even feed over time, and that is
very important going through summer. You want your grass to be fed gradually over
time. That's how you end up with the best grass plant, the most
resilient grass plant. Superterf will do that. It also has four percent iron
to help with that nice, beautiful uniform color that we're trying to achieve with
our lawns. Where do you get Nitrofoss super Turf, Well, pretty much
everywhere. Bearing's Hardware on Bissinet and on West Teimer has it. Plantation Ace
Hardware out there in the Richmond Rosenberg area has it as well as does Hidenen
Feed, which is on Stubner Airline. Easy to find Nitrofoss nineteen four ten,
the silver Bag. I'm going to head out now to talk to Ralph's
see here if I can there, we go, Good morning, Ralph,
how can we help today? Skip? Good morning? Good morning? I
sent you an email with a couple pictures. Yes, sir, I don't
know if you have that. I do and I looked at it and this
is in your lawn grass. It looks like is that correct? That's correct?
Sir? Well, yeah, very you have two very common perennial weeds,
and they're not super super easy to get rid of. The first one
with the little tiny yellow flowers is called horse herb now horse herb. I
have seen people spray it with roundup and it didn't kill it. That's impressive
for a weed. Native enthusiasts love horse herb as a groundcover in bright shade
areas. It's a native plant here in the area, but when it's in
your lawn, people aren't excited about it. But you're gonna have to use
a post emergent broad leaf weed control product on it. There are a number
of different ones out there that can be used and sprayed. You're just gonna
have to stay with it in order to get to get some success in control
of it. Some of the best our hardest on your Saint Augustine, though
unfortunately I got you. I did do I'm up to date on the schedule.
I'm not going to list everything, but okay, if it's on there,
I've done it. Okay, good, I'm I do need to do
the second of the pre emergent okay, but that won't do anything to the
items that I sent you the picture of. No, they won't. And
at your lawn. Well, I'm just seeing the areas with the weeds,
but things look pretty dense, and so if you if you don't have an
ongoing annual weed problem, the second pre emergent is definitely an optional one for
you. So just just think about that. But yes, we're at the
time where if you want to extend the pre emergen coverage, this would be
the time people do that. The horser would have to be sprayed with a
post emergent. The second one is called dollar weed, and it's called that
because they look like all silver dollars. They remight be of umbrellas. You
know, they've got the little stem in the back like an umbrella and what's
around. Yeah, yeah, and dollar weed. There are a number of
different things that will control dollar weed. It's it's pretty easy easy to get
a hold of if you're out in Katie. If you'll go to the Katie
Hardware on Pinoak, they have a number of excellent products that will work really
well. Okay, will it? Since I am about to do the pre
emergent, can I follow up a week or so later with the post emerging
again, you can do them both at the same time. The pre emergent
is going to be a granule that you put on and then water in,
and then after you've watered it in, you can just turn right around or
before you can spray with the post emergent onto the weed leaves themselves. And
I mentioned the katie on Pinoke. There's also one on Mason Road. If
you're out single ranch direction out there in DA, that's where I go.
Yeah, they're gonna they're going to carry those for you. And I've got
some things. You say you have the schedule, so I assume you also
have the pest control schedule pest disease and weed, and that has the things
that I would suggest you try for the post emergent. Broad leave, got
it, yep, That's what I used before. But for the post you
recommend liquid as opposed to granule, I'd prefer that, and it's it's easier
for me. It's easier to get it on the leaves, you know,
because you can direct it right to where the leaves weeds are. People that
have spotty weed problems. It's much easier to do with the spray. You
know, with the granule, you're essentially covering the whole lawn. You got
to get the weeds wet so the granules stick to the leaves for best results.
And uh so granules are fine. It's just I prefer to have the
spray so I can target it where I want beautiful. I'll get those today
after I cut the grass. Follow the label carefully. Ralph, and you
you ought to be in good shape. Appreciate your help, sir, you
bet, Thank you. Appreciate your call. Thank you. Take care.
Have you been down to Hoges Hidden Gardens? Those of you who live down
south? When I when I say down south, they're in Alvin, Texas.
They're on Elizabeth in Alvin, Texas, just south of Highway six.
But communities like Alvin and Santa Fe and Dickinson. I'll goa Arcadia, Alta
Loma or or what's the other hillcrest? That's enough. Hojores Hidden Gardens is
just a hop, skipping or jump away. They have got the three sixty
tree stabilizer for example, that I talk about. But they have a wide
variety of different conseplants right now. They have a they recently got a new
shipment of citrus trees and that includes satsumas, which is about this cold hearty
of an orange you're going to get. It's a satsuma type orange. They
have oranges, they have limes, they have lemons, and they have the
very popular Peggy Martin roses and three gallon sizes and a Mother's Day special on
roses still going on. So here's you know, kind of last call here,
folks. Guess what tomorrow is Mother's Day? So if you're down in
the Alvin area, stop in talk to the folks at rahe Siding Gardens.
Horay and his wife have really done a great job, just continuing to build
that place and add more and it just looks great. But anyway, go
buy there, Say hi Tori and grab you one of those three gallon Peggy
Martin roses or one of the other things many other things that Hoy carries down
there. Let's see here. I'm gonna now head to uh No, actually
I wanted to. I want to take a break. It's time. I
don't have enough time for another call. We'll be right back our phone number
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to the
Guarden Line. Good to have you with us today. We are doing our
best to guide you to success. You know, gardening is I think the
best hobby there is, and I can give you a lot of reasons why.
From argument number one, it's fun number two, you get exercise number
three. There are very few things that give you the mental benefits of getting
out with plants in the garden. And I've got a stack, a foot
high stack on my desk of research projects to prove it. We just keep
learning more and more about it. So how do we have success? Because
you know, we don't want to stress ourselves looking at plants at struggle.
We don't want to use words like I got a brown thumb. You don't
have a brown thumb. You have an uninformed thumb, and we're here to
inform your thumb. Now, we just had some storms come through here recently,
and in those storms we lost some big tree lambs. I'm talking with
folks out at Affordable Tree. They know all about storms and the effect on
trees and what you do to your trees to help protect them against storms.
Last summer was brutal. Maybe you lost a tree, maybe you lost branches,
a limbs of a tree. Call Martin Spoon Moore, have him come
out take a look at them. Because when those things come down. There's
a reason they call them widow makers. They can do significant damage to people
and to property. You're in your neighbor's fence, for example, being a
good example of that. Martin will come out and you do some selective pruning.
This isn't the big time to do all your print. We do that
primarily in the winter, but you can prune all year round, and selective
pruning right now is important, taking out dead areas, making those trees safer
in heavy winds, setting them up for the best they can do when it
comes to storm readiness. Martin spoon More has been doing this for a very
long time here. I trust him to do the job right. That's why
he is our recare sponsor here on guarden Line. Give him a call seven
one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three seven one three six ninety nine
twenty six sixty three, or go to the website afftree Service dot com.
Aff tree Service dot com. Martin charges about I think it's one hundred and
fifty bucks to come out to the property and do the consultation. If you
have him do the work, that one fifty just goes right into your price.
So but it's just a way to you know, not have to run
all over town people saying, well I want you to look at this.
Yeah, never mind, you know, they just wanted free advice. Hate
that. But anyway, Martin does a good job. And when he does
it, you know that your trees are in good hands. That's very,
very important. We're going to now go out to Laporte and talk to Elmer.
Hey, Elmer, Hey, Hi, how you doing it that.
I'm a limber radio. Real quick. I've got a big problem. I've
got three big oldfruit trees, and those buggers. They yield a lot of
fruit. Lemon tree and orange tree and a grapefruit tree. The problem I'm
having is every time they mature on the exterior. I can't explain it.
On the exterior of the fruit, it gets like a very rough dride.
It looks a cancerous type thing on it. Now, the fruit is very
sweet, I mean they're very juicy, but I mean they just don't look
like the way they do at the store, you know what I mean.
Yeah, And I don't know what the heck that is. It's just an
ugly looking thing on the exterior, and it looks very dry and ugly.
Yeah, I know, it's talking about omer. You don't need to worry
about it. Bottom line is it is a cosmetic damage on the outside.
You don't eat the outside, turn off the lights, close your eyes,
and enjoy your orangees. I guess there's one way to look at it.
I'm joking, but seriously, you kidding me? Yeah, no, seriously.
There are some different things that can affect the skin of ceterus. There
there is actually little mites that chew on the skin and cause that's what it
looks damaging to it. Sometimes you get a bird. There are birds that
do little tiny pecks all over it and it gets all just crusty and bad
looking. There's a lot of different things that can do that. But the
bottom line is, as you said, the inside tastes just the same.
So I I nothing is worth worrying about in spraying for if you're still let
me ask you, let me ask you something crazy. Does it make sense
at auto for me to throw something over it like a very very How can
I explain bean screen or something like that screen? I mean no, you
know, I mean you've put a burden that over and keep the birds off.
But that's not needed. You can You're not going to have anything like
that. If it were mites doing it, a type of mite that does
that it, the screen wouldn't help on that. Uh No, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't. I wouldn't worry about it. Right now, they're the
size of about a wall or peanut. They look beautiful, but I already
know when they get to the size about a baseball, they don't look terrible.
Yeah. Well, you know, if you get to that stage and
you want to send me a close up photo of the fruit, and then
I can get more specific with what is causing the cosmetic damage and we could
discuss things I don't know. You know, you could put like a horticultural
oil spray over it and that would help deal with like the mites, for
example. But we need to know exactly what's causing it. But again,
it's cosmetic, you know, so don't don't don't see Yeah, it don't
look like the ones at the store. Man. All right now, we
are we doing bragging rights in the neighborhood here? Is that? What's going
on on this? No? No, you know what. I'm proud of
my fruit. I'm gonna tell you why. Because the cost of food has
gone skyrockets. You know, my limitree yields so much lemons, I don't
know what to do with themselves. I just throw them white and my grapeful
tree. Forget that that thing's about thirty feet tall. I didn't do they
would grow that tall and they fall on the ground small. To be honest
with you, but if the price of fruit today, I'm fine with the
way they are. You know what I mean. I got you. I
got you. Sounds like you're doing everything right. Uh, Like I said,
you hit that stage of season. Send me a picture. We'll look
at it. But I would i would say ninety eight percent of the time.
I'm gonna tell somebody, don't worry about it. Don't worry, turn
off the close your eyes, and enjoy your situess. And one last thing.
During the summertime, is it appropriate water those trees three times? Excuse
me, once twice or three times a week? I really don't know what
the schedule is on water. You should not have to water a citrus more
than once a week. In fact, you probably don't need to water it
every week. These things have a good root system, and you know if
it if it's one hundred and five degrees, you know, for two weeks
and no rain. Yeah, you know they're gonna need some water. But
in general, we weigh over water our plants. Just I guess that's what
that's what I guess. That's why every time I come out and I see
that great for crear, another branch is coming out right, yeah that yeah,
you're all right, man, Hey, thanks for the call. Appreciate
it. All right, take care. If you live up in the Magnolia
area, just kind of northeast of tom Ball a little bit that direction,
Spring Creek Feed Center is your hometown feed center Magnolia on Highway FM twenty nine
eight, twenty nine seventy eight. They're right there on the side of the
road. I love going by their beautiful place. For example, you walk
in. I had a posted something to Facebook the other day just what it
looks like when you walk in. I mean it it is just makes you
want to run around and start shopping. And of course it's a feedstore.
They got all the feed for your animals, your pets and whatnot, high
quality feed. But they have a lot of bling in there too. And
then when it comes to your garden, if I talk about a fertilizer,
it's at Spring Creek Feed Center. If you need to control insects, diseases,
or weeds, it's at Spring Creek Feed Center. They cover that friendly,
courteous staff. One of the best things about shopping there too. I
should mention that they even do special orders and delivery, so check them out.
Spring Creek Feed is conveniently located in Magnolia on FM twenty nine seventy eight.
Our phone number if you would like to give us a call seven one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. I was in Spray Creek Feed a couple of weeks ago,
I believe it was. I have trouble going back in time going how
long ago was that? But anyway, it was really recently how about that?
And they had a good stock of Microlife fertilizer in as well as there
are other fertilizers, you know. I was looking at the Microlife and they
had the humates plus the purple bag. That is the numbers are zero zero
four. You're not putting it down to just put all these nutrients on your
lawn, although when you add it you are getting nutrients, but you're getting
concentrated compost in a bag. Think of it this way. You got a
bunch of grass, clippings and leaves. That's called organic matter. It decomposes,
that's called compost. The compost continues to decompose as far as it will
decomposed. That's called humus. And Humates plus is a concentrated compost product.
Concentrated compost in a bag. It is got microwhizl fungi that have been added,
as well as a lot of essential microbes. It will help improve your
turf by helping improve your soil by helping enhance the microbial activity in the soil.
It can help with these claysoils we're dealing with here. It's something that
I would suggest just on a regular basis. You know, each year,
do some concentrated compost in a bag, the purple bag Microlife Humates plus.
When you're out doing your fertilize, that's a good time to do it.
Same time as well, and yeah, you can get that sprint Creek Feet
and a whole lot of other places around the Greater Houston area. Makes it
easy to find, very easy to find. Have you ever noticed that sometimes
those landscape beds around the house don't look so good and you're like driving up
and looking at them like, oh man, that's not good. I got
to get out there. I gotta pull weeds. I need to put some
mulch down, I need to need to need to well. Pierscapes can do
that for you. Pierscapes Number one, they do beautiful designs. I mean,
if you want stone rockways, if you need any kind of a special
feature like landscape lighting, if you need to improve drainage, even if you
just need irrigation repairs and work done, they can do all that. But
quarterly maintenance is a service that I need to talk about more about Peerscapes because
what they'll do. You go in, you know, you sign up for
it, and every quarter they come out. They trim, they weed,
they fertilize, they check out your irrigation system, make sure it's looking right.
They do mulch on the surface. Of course you need to maintain the
mulch. And then they do seasonal color changes. You decide how many a
year you want, but they'll transition from one season to another with color all
at Pierscapes. And it's easy to get a hold of them. You know,
pierscapes, they're just professionals. They got their certifications, they got their
life. Since they know what they're doing, they do quality work. Piercescapes
dot com Pierceescapes dot com two eight one three seven oh five zero six zero.
We're gonna go now out to Matagorda and talk to Jesse. Hey,
Jesse, good morning. How are you? I'm well, sir. How
can we help today? Well? A couple of years ago we bought a
Texas mountain Laurel, at a nursery there in Houston. It is beautiful blue
blooms or blue flowers on it, and we planned it and she's doing wonderful,
nice green leaves growing taller. But I don't know if it's too windy
or because we haven't got those beautiful blue flowers. I don't know if it's
just too windy out here and they're blowing the blooms off early we water it.
Maybe we water it too much. Can you give me some advice?
Okay? Does the tree itself, as far as the greenery and stuff,
does it look good? It does? Sometimes it looks like something's maybe chewing
on it, because a branch or two will start to bear, and then
these pods come out but then more leaves, so okay, it's yeah.
Well, Mount Laurel sets its blooms in the late summer and fall for the
spring bloom show, and so stresses during that time could affect effective bloom set.
Mount Laurel is tough, it is. I mean it grows out of
a crack and the rock west of Austin in the hill country. I mean
you'll find it native in places like that. The biggest issue we would run
into with Mount Laurel here is going to be when we don't give it good
drainage, when the roots get a little on the soggy side. They don't
like that at all at all. And so you just need to make sure
that it drains well. That's the number one thing in your control. Okay.
And what would you suggest as far as a watering schedule for her?
You've had it more than one year in the ground. You should never have
to water Mountain Laurel here, Okay, I'm serious, you really, it's
that well established because it grows in the wild west of Austin where it rains
twenty three inches a year. Hey, I got to run. We're hard
up against a break, Jesse, But good luck with that. All right,
we'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the Garden Line.
Good to have you with us today. We are talking about lots of different
things related to gardening. Where's turf is always the elephant in the room.
That is the number one thing that makes phone ring at your county agro Life
Extension office and at Garden Line as well. After thirty six years of doing
Agrolife Extension horticulture work, I tell you turf is the king and trees are
right behind it. And then if it comes to vegetables, tomatoes are the
number one question that we get. And we used to say the three things
that make our phone ring or the three t's trees, turf, tomatoes,
And boy, that holds true. It definitely does hold true. If you
are looking for a quality blend of soil less mix, a quality blend of
media. We say soil less mix because it's not soil. It's a special
blend that's called composted potting soils. You know we talk about potting soils.
Well, what about for your indoor plants? What would be a good blend
for indoor Well, jungle land with water saving crystals would be a good blend
for indoor. It's got little crystal structures in it that absorb water, and
it's almost like think of a like a gelatin like imagine little tiny chunks of
jello, very small chunks of jello, and they absorb many times their weight
in water. So when you forget to water your plants and that potting mix
gets a little dry, those crystals hold onto the water and are able to
say, okay, plant, just you know, here's a little bit of
water to get you by. They will eventually remember to water you. For
crying out loud, it's happened at my house too. I bet it has
it yours. Jungle Land with water saving crystals, that's the stuff you need.
You can find jungle land with water saving crystals at a lot of different
places, for example in Chanted Forest down there in the Richmond Rosenberg area.
Growers outlet up in willis Or RCW Nursery where Tomball Parkway FM two forty nine
comes into bout Way eight all carry nitrofoss products. Nit fross widely widely available
here in the Greater Houston area. Speaking of RCW, RCW is the kind
of garden center where you walk in and if there's something you don't see that
you want that you don't see there, They can get it for you.
They really do their best to do that and they're very successful at it.
But I'll tell you this, when you walk in, you're going to see
what you're looking for. You know, tomatoes in vegetable plants, and when
it comes to herb plants, I'm not saying right now necessary tomatoes, but
you know what I'm saying. Through the season, when it comes to perennials,
when it comes to annual flowers, when it comes to beautiful hanging baskets,
definitely, when it comes to roses, like pages and pages of the
roses, they can get their RCW Nursery and then they grow their own trees.
They grow their own trees up to Plantersville, and they grow trees that
belong here, species that will thrive here in our area. That's what they
do. I call them to get it, got it nursery because if they
don't have it, they will get it. They absolutely can do that.
Now you're going to find the fertilizers I talk about on guarden Line at r
CW Nurseries, and you're going to find a lot of cool landscape plank,
metal art, little metal arches and things things to enhance and beautify that landscape.
Go to RCW Nursery. They're at Tomball Parkway where it comes into a
eight. It's easy to get to. The website are CW Nurseries dot com.
RCW Nurseries dot com. I always like to go in and visit.
Uh, there I was. Last time I was over there. My jaw
was just hitting the ground at the bougainvilleas that they had. They had the
standards by a standard. We mean, and we do this with roses and
bougainvillias and other things. Uh, but where you train the trunk up a
little steak and then you have this this head or this it billows out at
the top. So think of a rosebush. We'll think of a rose standard,
just like a little rose tree, a mini rose tree. They have
Booga Villa standards out there that were showstoppers, just unbelievable, beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful stuff. Hey. Our phone number is seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
Got an open board all of a sudden here. That's interesting. Not
a common occurrence. Uh, if you'd like to give us a call.
It be an easy way to get on. Some folks had to really hold
the day. We had a rush for the phones early on. And so
now if you don't want to have to wait a little while, it'ud be
a good time. Medina has a new product that I am really excited about,
and that is super Grow Plush. You've heard me talk about it a
lot. Sixteen zero two. Those are the three numbers, sixteen zero two.
It is a very unique product in that you hook it up to a
garden hose and it takes about I don't know ten minutes to spray your whole
lawn covers about four thousand square feet one of their low court bottles. It's
got nitrogen in of course the immediately released form. It's a quick acting green
up, but it also has iron in a slower release form. There's a
percentage of that iron that is going to release a little bit more slowly.
And it has things that are very important for giving your lawn green, like
iron that's keylated in it. It has that, it's got seaweed extract.
It's just a good product all around. It makes sense. It got molasses
and humic acid in it as well, so you can use it any time
of the season. You're not going to burn your lawn with it. And
by the way, this you know, we talk about it for lawns,
but I've seen some awesome pictures of a tomato patch where they were using it
as just a foldier feed and I put it on the ground in the patch.
A good fertilizer, high quality stuff and guess what you want a shot
at it? Well, I'm going to be giving away four quarts of it
today out at Arburgate. I'll be there from eleven thirty to one thirty,
and Medina is providing four quarts of that, three quarts of a hash to
Grow, three quarts of hashtra Grow lawn, three of their seaweed. I
got a lot of different kinds of samples out there. Appreciate the folks at
Medina providing those. This is your chance to come put your hands on some
of it and get you a free sample or in this case, a free
giveaway Medina super Grow Plus. It's part of the hastro Gro line of Medina
Hastrogro number of good quality products. Supergirl Plus that's the one, that's the
new one, that's the one I'm really excited about right now, we're going
to go out to spring Bronze. Hey, hurt, Oh, hey you're
here, you're live? Yes? Oh h yes, ma'am, I catch
you off guard. Boy, that was quick. I just said we had
an open line, So there you go. Oh sure, uh I we
celebrated money today early because they're going out of town. Well, anyway,
I got a call lily. Oh it's beautiful. They're about ten stems in
this part. I imagine that's too many for one thing. Uh, and
I need to know about that. But where are the LEAs? Were two
of them actually all leo yo gold yellow? Are they supposed to do that?
It's probably an older leaf. Kali lilies want even the moist soil.
They don't want to dry out, but and they'll turn yellow if they get
too dry. But they also want good drainage, and so make sure the
pot has holes in it that drain away because if it gets soggy wet,
you can get some root rot type issues in there that can cause that as
well. All right, now, I feel like ten stems is too much
for this five inch pot. How soon should I separate them? Well,
I mean you could do it whenever you want, but you could bump into
a little bigger pot. That would be another option if you want to do
that. People put them in the ground, if you've got a real good
spot, that gives them what they want. Bright light, but not just
blazing hot sun, but bright light and then good drainage and lots of organic
all right, all right, well, thank you very much. All right,
heard it, Thank you. I appreciate your call very much. Well,
we're hitting a break here. When we come back, we will get
to you out there that are holding Lee and Avida and Patrick and Laura Loretta.
Boy, the phone's lit up again. We'll be right back. Come
on, hey, welcome back to the Guardline. Good to have you with
us today. Absolutely good to talk with you about what kinds of things we
can do to help. I want to go now to Lee and Conroe.
Lee, I got your photos and that is a slime mold. That is
the stuff we were talking about on your grass, and it looks like it's
gotten on those plants as well. The one on the plants looks a little
bit like powdery mildew, but it looks a lot more like slime molds.
So bottom line, get your hose with strong last of water and just blasted
away. Nothing to worry about on the lawn and on the plants. Yeah,
I don't, I don't. There's no disease that looks like that other
than powdery mildew. And it doesn't quite look like powdery mil do to me.
Well, I appreciate you looking at both those, both the bush and
the grass blades, and I will get some pressure, puts the pressure nozzle
on my hose on the on both of them, and yeah, see if
we can. And I guess the good news is it doesn't doesn't sound like
it needs any application of no not at all. Okay, Well that's good
news, and I thank you very much again for your you're reviewing them and
feedback. Okay, so lee on the plants, not the grass plant,
but on the other plants you sent picture of. If the blasting away doesn't
make it go away, then I would shift over to treating for powdery mildew.
And there are a number of different fungicide type options for controlling that.
I think it's going to be okay without it. Okay, okay, if
I if I, if I find that it doesn't on the plant, and
I went I went to your website and powder and mildew whether there be uh
yeah, there there are a couple of options. There's standard synthetic fungicides.
Name oil, any kind of a horticultural oil will control powdery mildew as well.
You just want to follow, okay, And you just said name oil
and I've got a trigger court trigger of name oil on him, all right,
kyn off, and it doesn't do it from the yeah names normally we
use it for insects, but the any oil product is going to work on
powdery mildew as a as a temporary control. All right, thank you,
sir. I appreciate that call very much. People often will ask where can
I who can help me with aeration and compost top dressing because that's a heck
of a job to do it yourself. I mean you can, but it's
a heck of a job. Well if you if you live down in the
south and especially toward the south and west direction. B and B Turf Pros
is the company that you want to contact. B and B Customer satisfaction is
their number one priority, it really is, and they do high quality work.
They use quality products. They only use products in companies that I trust.
Here on guardline you're going to find if you're in sugar Land or Missouri
City, come out west direction. They can service that area. If you're
down in Ciena and or Cola and Iowa Colony and Manville, Fresno down south,
they're going to service that area about as far east as pear Land because
they've got heavy duty equipment, beautiful, beautiful equipment that does an excellent job
in the air rating and in the compost top dressing. Give them a call
seven to one three two three four fifty five ninety eight seven one three two
three four five five nine eight, or here's the website b B Turfpros dot
com. B B Turfpros dot com. They go above and beyond to make
a personal connection and make sure you're happy with the work they do. And
I can just tell you will be because of the kind of work that I
have seen that they do. We're going to go now to Patrick and Katie.
Hello, Patrick, Hey, how are you doing? I'm good sir.
How can we help fantastic? I've got a gardener we get is a
kinny planet in a couple of cucumber plants, and they've been doing great so
far, but now it looks like some of the next batch of cucumbers coming
up. They're starting to look a little they're not shaped properly. They're string
to bend over. Yes, and it looks like also on the main stalk,
it looks like, I don't know, we're kind of guessing at Scot's
vine bore or something because it seems like there's some damage and maybe some little
eggs or something that got laid in there. Okay, so well, let's
start with the Let's start with the fruit there, Patrick, that is due
to incomplete pollination. Seeds release hormones that make the fruit grow normally. And
if you have pollination in some seeds but not in others, you're going to
end up with a fruit of fruit that bends or twists or you know what
I'm saying. It's not going to be normal, and it could be due
to a lack of bees. It could be due to weather conditions as temperatures
heat up. Typically we often see a lot of the fruit where the tips
don't pollinate as well as the rest of the cucumber, for example, But
that's not something you really can control. As far as the insect, I'd
almost need to see a picture to be able to be sure what we're dealing
with. I suspect it's not a big problem on yours. It doesn't sound
like a common problem that you're describing. Okay, okay. And then the
zucchini has been doing great, but all of a sudden, it looks like
there's a lot more ants, uh that they are just kind of running up
on it. And and the last one we had, you know, before
it reached full size, it started to get mushy. And yeah, rainy
weather is a problem on our squash. When the balloom falls off, we
often get infection through the belly button end of the squash. Uh, something
is going on. And those just try to keep them picked as much as
you can. They produce so much that if you keep picking them and getting
the old stuff out of there, you cut down on some of the reinfection
that can occur. But I think that's that's probably the thing that's most in
your in your control on those. But well, that's awesome, sounds easy
enough, Yes, sir, thank you. I appreciate your call very much.
Good good to visit with you. We're gonna now head out to porter
and talk to Avida. Hello Avita, Hello, I have a house plant
if they call it a ZZ plant. Yes, I've had it for several
months. It's doing great. I have it next to a window. I
water it only when it's dry. But here recently in the last week,
my branches are falling now, and I'm wondering what could I do to take
care of the plant. You don't mean falling off, you mean drooping down,
drooping down? Yeah, yeah, it does that and mine does that
too. And I don't know if as new growth comes up that the older
growth kind of bends down because it's still looking for light, or if that's
just but it's not associated with any problem on the ZZ plant. They can
spread out like that. I would think probably the lighting environment might have an
effect. It does on how plants orient their growth, but in general,
it's not a problem that I would worry about. Okay, So just let
them fall and I'm trying to I'm trying to kind of kind of lean them
up against the other plants to support them. But they're there now. I
have Now I have two branches that are just you know, falling down,
right. And ZZ is a it's a great plan. It's it's super easy
to grow, uh, and it may be that maybe if it gets a
little on the dryer side, it would tend to sag down and then it
doesn't bounce back up. I don't know why they end up like that,
but I'm just telling you. I've got zz's that are doing great. But
that's just part of the deal that I've experienced with them as well. But
it doesn't lead to problem. I wouldn't cut them off. I just just
leave them alone. No, no, you could. I mean, there's
no no problem at all. If you want to cut one off it's too
low. I've done that before, where there's like one hanging out way off
to one side and just blunch the plant. I'll just cut it off back
at the base. You can do that. There's not a problem with that.
Okay, all ready, thank you, all right, thank you very
much. I appreciate it. Appreciate your call very much. Warrens and Kingwood
Garden Center out in Kingwood, they are excellent nurseries for the folks that are
out there in that region. There's always something going on out of Warren's Garden
Center. There are always new plants coming in. I mean, it's going
to be a great place to get your heirloom soils products. For example,
It's going to be a great place to get annuals and perennials. If you
want beautiful, beautiful color, that's a place to go. They absolutely get
you set up with the things that you need to have success. That's what
they do, that's what they specialize in. And so when you go out
to Warren's Southern Gardens, just tell them you heard about it on Guardenline and
that you're interested in seeing some of the color that they have. They have
an elephant ear that has a hot pink stripe through a purplish green leaf.
Now just imagine that you figure out what that might look like. Easy.
Easy to find them out there in Kingwood, an awesome austome garden. Say
wow, another one in the books, folks, I said, we had
open lines, and if you're filled up, we're coming back and we will
get to you. I see K and Steve out there. We will get
to you. You'll be the first up a Loretta and Texas city. In
fact, you, I believe are the very first stop when we come back
at eleven o'clock today, I will be in Tomball, Texas at the arbor
Gate Nursery. Come see me drive around the back. You want to drive
around the back on Treshal Road to park in that wonderful old weather parking lot
back there. Makes it easy. We're going to be giving away all kinds
of things. Arburgates providing some of their one two three system, the organic
soil, I'll be given a battle road for thirty minutes, the true Stable
visors and me Dina products. And there's a special on the brick house Rows.
Welcome to kt r H garden Line with Scape Richard. It's just watch
him as the world. Welcome back to the garden Line, folks. Good
to have you with us. We have got plenty, plenty more to talk
about today. It is time to do your summer fertilizing of the lawn.
If you haven't done it already, now some of you've done a pre I
mean a slow release fertilizer. Well, if you done that, you're you're
good for several months out that that's that's good. But if you have not,
you need to grab some Slow and Easy from Nelson. Nelson's Slow and
Easy is a nice slow release fertilizer. It puts that release out three or
four months. In fact, I would say if you do a Nelson,
slow and easy right now, You don't need to fertilize again until we hit
the fall. That it truly gives a long, gradual release. And why
is that important? Well, Number one, you just fertilize once you're done.
But for the plant, when you push a plant with too much nitrogen
at one time, it's not that the number is big on the bag,
it should be big on the back. It's how much of that do you
put out? And when you push it with too much at one time,
you end up with top growth at the expensive root growth, literally less roots
when you overdo the nitrogen on a lawn. But with a gradual release over
time, you get a good, deep, extensive root system. So when
we hit a drought, hot dry conditions, you're going to be better off.
Your plant's going to be more resilient. When a grub comes along and
chumps a root or two, it's not the end of the world. The
plant's got a big, extensive, robust root system. Slow and easy bills
that. It also has an acidifying effect on soil, and it just is
a product that's really designed to create the perfect soil environment. The mechanism of
its release helps feed the microbes in the soil, which then feed the plants
and enrich the soil itself. Slow and Easy by Nelson Fertilizer. Very very
good product, works very very well and you will be impressed with the gradual
release. Always remember, too, when you're doing this, return those grass
clippings. That's part of a complete lawn care system is to chop those clippings
up with a multi moor and put them back in the soil. Let's go
out to Texas City now we're going to talk to Loretta. Hello, Loretta,
Hello, Hi, thanks for waiting. Thank you well, thank you
for taking my call. I too, to make a long story as short
as I can. Two years ago, my son planted a lily garden for
me, and there's lots of lilies in there, and I'm not real diversified
on him. There's a candi lily and a calally. Okay. The candle
lilies, I think are the tall ones that have the flowers on top,
and the cal lilies are the ones that had like the cup yes flower.
Okay, I've got uh one of the catal lilies with the cup flower that
has like a seed pod coming out of the flower. This is the first
time I've ever seen that is Is that what it is? And can those
seeds be harvested and planted? It's probably a bloom stalk coming up out of
the center of that. Uh, it's it's uh marbled. I I mean
it looks like the inside of ah okay pomegran It's got the little seed pods
like the inside of a pomegranate. But it's all green, all right,
hmm, that's very well and it's not well. I guess you are seeing
a pod then if it's following back behind a bloom, Uh, that's interesting.
You don't get to see those a whole lot, at least when I've
tried to do those before. You don't see it. But I know what
you're talking about on the pomegranite type thing. So hopefully the seeds inside are
viable. Who knows whether they are or not. But if they are,
you can harvest them and you can sprout them yourself. You just have to
go online to read how to do that. There's got a lot of good
information online about that. But as Cala's growing in mostly shade, mostly sun,
or kind of a mix of the two. It's a mix of the
two. We've had this tropical rainforest kind of yes weather pattern this year,
and uh, you know, everything's doing beautifully. Ah, but this is
the first time I've ever seen this in this kind of flower. Well,
it happens, it does happen. Yeah, so you are correct, and
and what what you were seeing there? And yeah, I would try,
just for fun, sprinkle sum on a little potting soil, and but go
online first and read read what to do to successfully grow those. It sounds
like you're doing a lot good. If you've got a happy cali lilies canna's,
you can. It's hard to make a canna unhappy. They are tough.
Yeah. I've got the glady Ella's and the star lilies and the wow.
Yeah, it's a beautiful lily garden. My goodness, what a kind
thing your son did that. Yours of enjoyment, yours of enjoyment. Well,
Lauretta, thank you for the call. I appreciate that. Thank you
you, Pat take care. Yeah, that is just as an example of
another reason why we always want to consider plants as gifts. Such a good
idea. Let's go to Pairland talk to Kay. Hey k, good morning,
Skiff, Thank you for taking my call. I have a question.
It's again for a friend about fungus or mold naps. Okay, she has
her plants. They're infesting them, and she has a seven or eight foot
bed of amarillis and she said they have killed completely killed the leaves. They're
mushy and the bulbs are mushy, and they've invaded other plants and she's treated
them some with she found well, she's researched or tried to research that hydrogen
peroxide killed them, but she's afraid that the hydrogen peroxide may also kill natural
beneficial insects or things in the soil. You yeah, I wouldn't. I
mean, I've heard of people doing that. Fungus gnats are not that difficult
to get control of. This Is this in containers? You said, no,
it's no, they're in the ground. The ground usually when we have
if it is fungus nats, we have those because we're keeping the soil surface
too wet, and that's one step is just let it dry a little bit.
I don't know that it's fungus gnats. It could be something else,
but there's a lot of little tiny gnat like insects that this could be.
And it may be that the rot is not due to the things flying around,
the gnats flying around. It could be due to something else. So
we kind of got a lot of possibilities in that question. I would there
is a type of BT that will kill fungus gnats. And what it does
is it kills the larvae and the soil, so you drench the soil surface
and it larva just like it kills. There's a type that kills mosquito larva,
and there's another type that kills caterpillar larva oil caterpillars are larva. But
there's one that will kill fungus gnats. And so when you go you can
go to your you're down in the Pearland area. You know, you've got
your ACE hardware down there on Main Street, and I would just go in
and say I need a BT, not the caterpillar kind, but one that'll
kill fungus gnats, and they probably have that on the shelf. Okay,
we'll do, Thank you so very much. Have great day, you bet
you take care, appreciate your call. We're going to take a little break
here. We'll be right back our phone number seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to the Guardline. Good to have you
with us today. As always, you are looking for a quality tree,
a species that wants to grow here a proper planting of that tree, you
need to call the folks at Burden Tree Farm Verden has three locations around Houston.
There's one up in the Heights where Iten or Yale come together, it's
one out barker Cypress on the west side, and down in Pearland. There
is also a Verdant Tree Farm down there the website Verdant Tree Farm. If
you're looking for trees that are cold hardy, that are drought resistance, especially
palms for example, a palm tree that can take the cold, they've got
palms like that down there. They have a wide variety of things. Go
to the website too, Verdant Treefarm dot com and look at there's a list
of all the trees with descriptions of each one's really excellent information, as well
as all the palms. Also there they have trees all the way up to
seven hundred gallons. So yeah, they ought to give you a free hammock
with that, because it's time to hang a hamck in a tree that size
just about one your warranty included with their installation of the tree. They know
how to establish it, and there's never a better time to get the tree
done than now. Because the best time to plant a tree is forty years
ago. Second best time is today. Don't delay. Those trees can be
adding beauty and significant value to your landscape, and verdant tree farm trees will
do just that because they're going to be well adapted, well planted, and
they're going to last. I want to go out now to Deer Park and
we're going to talk to Steve. Hello, Steve Hello, can you hear
me? Yes, sir, I can I have a just one small question.
I have a pretty good pile of finished composts and I was wondering can
I mix that with potting mix to kind of stretch the potting mix? Yeah?
Absolutely, If it's a good quality compost, you can mix it and
stretch your mix out, mix it with mix, mix it with soil,
whatever you want to mix it with. What kind of ratio would I use
or I don't want to use? Straight? Yeah, well, it just
depends. I mean, let's say go conservative, not more than twenty five
percent of compost initially, because you know, I don't know the condition of
your compost, the quality level of it and stuff. So yeah, I
would say let's start with twenty five percent. Okay, well that's the only
question I had this morning. Okay, good well, good luck with that,
and congratulations on making composts. That that is a good, thank you,
good thing to be doing. For sure, absolutely, for sure.
Let's see, we're going to go now to James in Paarland. Hey,
James, Hey, Jiffy. I called you a couple of weeks ago and
you gave me some information. I'm planning a garden and I get these little
bugs that I can't see that are you know they're enjoying a good salad bar.
Okay, but you mentioned a product and I went down to the local
aid and I didn't write it down, but it started with an F and
they were like, well, we got lots of things to start with.
You do you remember what that was? I mean, I know you don't
remember. The phone call is in frank is what I thought. I probably
recommended spinosaid it's sp spin no sad. Yeah, that's an organic product that
kills things that eat leaves, caterpillars and beetles, for example. Spinosaid work.
It works on other things too, but primarily leaf fet is that applied
in the soil or is that a spray it? You gotta spray it on
the leaves so that it'll soak into the leaf and then when something comes along
and choose on it, it kills it. Will it wash away when it's
being water or well to some degree, but as it soaks in, what's
what moves into the tissue doesn't wash away. But I wouldn't do any spray
right for a rain Okay, So no rain, spray it on and then
what give it twenty four hours before watering or yeah? Probably so there's not
a black and white line on that one, but yeah, that'd be a
good practice. Okay. And I have one other question for you for my
wife. He has an orchid that she's been trying to get to bloom forever.
It's green and healthy, but it doesn't flower. Is there something that
she could see that or something that she should be giving it? She looked
online and done all the different tricks, but you know, is this healthy?
But it is? Yeah? Is this one of those supermarket orchids that
you see the called the moth orchid or calalea orchid. That's well, those
are pretty easy. They need good sunlight and then they need to be occasionally
repotted. And I can't go into detail on the air how to do it,
but you're going to cut away the old stuff down at the bottom of
the old roots. You're going to repot it, and then you're going to
do some fertilizing in very light doses. So think of it as mixing an
extremely diluted fertilizer and water extremely diluted, right, and watering with it a
few times to just support some growth. And if you have good sunlight for
that orchand I don't mean direct sun I mean bright indirect light, then you're
gonna be able to get that plan established so it produces the bud to be
able to do a bloom cycle. Again. That that's in a nutshell what
you need to do. All right, Okay, we'll go and research it.
And yeah, it says green, it looks healthy. It's just it's
in a vibrant area in the house where we talk. All that that happens.
It does happen a lot. I know what you're talking about. I've
had that myself. Changed. Hey, thank you for the call. Sorry,
I'm gonna I appreciate that call Ana Plants and Produces up there in Montgomery.
In fact, they're on the east side of Montgomery on Highway one oh
five. Now, if you've been to Ana Plants and Produce, you know
that you've got a wide variety of all kinds of plants. I mean,
if you're looking for turning your place into a beautiful place, Ana Plants is
going to have it. What they also have is every fertilizer I talk about.
I'm talking about all the different brands and products I talk about. They're
there. I'm talking out all the soils there there as well. Uh you
get they they pretty much they make it where you get to have your pick
of what you're looking for, A and a you just know you're gonna get
what you need. You know. Ana Plants and Produce. They're open seven
days a week for crying out loud, I mean seven days a week,
nine to five. All the fertilizers, take your pick, all the soils,
take your pick, Lots of beautiful plants. Always things going on there
at Ana Plants and Produce on the east side of Montgomery. You can go
to We'll go to the phone just give me a call nine three six,
five nine seven fifty seventy nine three six, five ninety seven five zero seven
zero. We're gonna go to Rufus in Cove, Texas. Hey, Rufus,
got a Rufous there? All right, I'm gonna put you back on
hold. We're gonna go to Susan in League City. Hello, Susan,
good line, skiff. How are you? I'm well, how can we
help? Thanks for helping with my question. Okay, I have a butternut
squash that has a mystery that I hope you can help me with. I've
been watching it growing and flowers coming out, and male and female flowers,
and what I can figure out is I never see the male and the playing
female flowers open at the same time, so I have no idea how they
poppinate, and the flowers keep falling off the Finally I got frustrated and I
went out there and took matters into my own hand, and I open up
a clothes male flower, took the stepmen, and I use that to geminate
the open female flower, and so far that's the only one that the food
will start growing. Okay, I can't figure that out. Well, normally
the way those things sprawl around the butternuts, and they they're going to have
open male and female. I don't know if some are hidden on or leaves,
maybe you're not seeing them. But I've never had a situation where you
would have a male flower one day and then and no females, and then
the next day females and no males. That that's very unusual. But what
you've done is the thing you got to do, and that is take matters
into your own hands to do that cross pollination. It might be a reason
to have more than one plant just so you have more blooms, so the
percent chance of having some of both open on a given day is higher.
But other than that, I think you've done all you can do. There's
no way to make the plant behave differently. All right, well i'll have
to that. I'll see if I can get another one. Well, hopefully
they'll still set fruit. I mean we're still you know, those squash.
You've got quite a bit of season left, so hopefully that will turn around.
Hey, thank you very much, Susan. I appreciate your call.
If you're down south of town and you are looking for quality products to help
set the foundation for success in your garden. See in a mulch is the
place you need to go. Now, what do we always say on Guardline,
brown stuff before green stuff? Right? Ciena Malts specializes in everything you
need for the brown stuff, for the foundation, for the soil, so
that when you put the green stuff in vegetables, plants, treat shrubs,
they're going to do success successfully. So for example, do you need composts,
do you need rose soil? Do you need any kind of a blend
to grow plants in? Do you need maltch to go on the surface.
Do you need fertilizers? Cienamultch carries all the fertilizers I talk about on Guardline
and then some. I mean, they really have a good selection. When
you drive off from Cienamulch or if you're within twenty miles, they'll deliver your
bulk supply. Then when you leave you have what's needed for plant success.
Now just take it home, make good soil and get good plants and you're
off to the races. For example, they carry that super By nitrofoss the
silver bag nineteen four ten fertilizer. Half of the nineteen is slow release.
That is a good thing. That's how you want to feed plants gradually over
time. It's got four percent iron for excellent color and green up. If
you've not done a slow release this summer, go ahead and do it.
Just head out to SI Animals gets you some of that nineteen four to ten
and put it down on your lawn at the recommended rate. You can find
it on my chart that I do online. It tells you when to fertilize
and whatnot. And Nitrofos super Turf nineteen four ten silver bag. That's one
that will give you beautiful results. We're going to go now to Cyprus and
talk to Clay. Hello, Clay, good morning. I've got a question.
I've got some tomatoes that are doing really well, fruits coming out.
But I noticed cavity in one of the one of the tomatoes. Something's been
eat eating at it. And I did notice some beetle looking things, ugly
ugly things kind of orange and black stripes. Okay, and it was is
that what beating the tomatoes? It could have been, but I suspect the
whole the cavity was done by a caterpillar and maybe the beetle is just in
there. Now, that is my my best guess on that. Typically that's
a good guess because I did see a caterpillar. All right, well,
I'm up against a hard break, but caterpillars, BT and spinosa are your
two best options on tomatoes to shut down those caterpillars. And again the beetle,
I wouldn't I wouldn't sweat it. But Clay sry to be in a
hurry day. We gotta we gotta take a break. All right, We'll
be right back seven one, three, two, fifty eight, seventy four
and come back to guarden line. Good to have you with us today.
If you have not been out to RCW Nurseries recently, you need to get
out there. RCW has got a wonderful deal going on for mom this weekend,
in fact, Saturday to day and Sunday from ten to two. So
when guard line's over, they're going to kick off out there from ten to
two, they're going to be doing a thing where for ten bucks you get
a pot, a paint and a succulent plant and you get to sit down
with them a little project, put it together. You paint up. The
pot is a beautiful little I'm just looking at some of the designs that they
have really cool and then you plant your cucculent and it makes a nice little
gift for mom. This would be a good one for maybe kids to go
out and do to give to mom or to give to grandmam. That would
be another good idea RCW. Just something they got going on this weekend,
both today and tomorrow. Out there. RCW is going to have an excellent
selection of anything that you're looking for, and they're going to have the product
to go with it too. You know, if I talk about a fertilizer
on there, they're going to have it. If you're going to be planting
a tree, for example, like one of their trees that they have,
they've got a little schedule for you, you know with they use like a
microlife every three to four months. They tell you with each size of container
how much that you put out and win. They've got the root activator that
you can use once a month during that first year, because you know,
the goal of the first year is to get that tree root system established.
That is the number one goal for success, not just survival, but for
fast growth and success. Rcw's got it. R CW Nursery. They are
the garden center right there where Tombo Parkway. Highway two forty nine comes into
beltwegh eight makes it easy. We're going to go now to Rufus, and
Oh, Rufus, I've already talked to you today. I just saw you
hanging out there on the board, So excuse me. We're going to go
to Joshua here in Houston. There we go, Hey josh Higo morning.
Thank you for taking my call. Yes, sir, last year, we
uh we got three apple trees. There's a couple of other ones, but
I got two anna apples and a golden apple. And the frieze last year
took kind of took most of the growth up top, and I believe they're
grafted trees and the I had to cut two of them down. Most a
lot of it died, but they lasted. They're they're green. I got
no buds or anything on them. But the one apple tree, which I
thought was dead this year, it's got quite a bit of fruit. But
uh, as far as I know, they were one year olds when I
got them. I know they grafted, and I don't know much about the
age on grafting trees. But producing the fruit this early at one year is
that? Is that? Okay? And and also my cutting down those trees.
I did a little looking online and it looks like there's a certain point
where I guess that used some kind of a dormit tree or something, and
they graft good tree onto it. If I cut all the what was grafted,
that is that tree pretty much going to be non fruit bearing now.
Yeah, so apples are grafted under rootstocks that do not produce good apples.
The rootstocks don't. The reason they graft them some there's certain soil conditions that
they do. It a graph for that, but also primarily it's to control
the size of the tree, because an apple tree just gets way too big
otherwise. And so everything above the graft is that is, the anna or
the Dorset golden or whatever variety they have, is above the graph. If
you cut that all away, and you cut it down where all that's left
is a rootstock, then you're not going to have trees. You would have
to regraft yourself or just dig it out better yet and buy a new tree.
But so don't don't cut the above the graft union completely off right.
I don't think I did. But it's just got big leaves now, and
there's no I don't see any kind of goods. Yeah, made me question
if I had gone I could still see the joint. But I mean,
I guess I could take and graft on from the good and apple free to
the either one of those two. I know you need a golden and you
need you to tie, you could you could do that if you do.
If you go online, you can learn how to do what's called a tea
bud and that's done during the growing season and just have to study it and
read it and figure it out. It's not easy, but it's doable.
Or during the dormance season you can use what's called a whip graft. Those
are the two easiest grafts probably for you. I would in general, though,
seriously consider just getting a new tree that's ready to go. And unless
you just want to play around, you know, with the hands on stuff,
but you're going to be way ahead of things to just get a new
tree and put it in in terms of getting it. And now, how
long does it take for edible fruit from a fairly young tree that three to
so many years, even if it's another third year, you should be getting
a decent amount of apples. But then it becomes how big is the tree,
you know, think of it like a Christmas tree. The bigger the
tree, the more ornaments you can hang on it. Well, the bigger
apple tree, the more apples you can hang on it. So that is
that's the real determiner of yield. Then at that point I appreciate it.
Thanks very much. All right, Josh, thanks a lot. I appreciate
it. Appreciate your call very much. We're going to go now to Katie
and talk to Ray. Hello, Ray, good morning, Skip, good
morning, and happy Mother's Day to all those moms in a listening area.
I just had a quick question. I mowed a lawn. I put the
imperial down the silver bag. How long should I wait to mow it.
I'm afraid it's gonna suck up those pellets and spread them all over the place.
Oh, I see more than that, more than I did. Hello,
it's growing. The grass is growing. I'm just afraid to cut it.
Well, are you using a bagger or something? Or no? No?
No, turning everything. I don't worry about. You mow right after
you fertilize if you want. Don't worry about Oh, okay, okay,
yeah, another question I have. I have a cabbage and it's growing.
I have three of them. Two of them are close to the ground on
on on on containers and the other one, the third one, is growing
like it's trying to reach for the sky. So whenever the cabbage grows in
it, will it be too heavy where it breaks the stem of the of
the plant? Or no, if it's on a stalk, it's not a
cabbage. Can you take a picture and send it to me by email.
I don't know what we're talking about here, but cabbage just sets right down
on the above the ground. Okay, yeah, so let me let me
put you on hold and kay yeah, Callum will give you my email address.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate that. Hey, if you need a
good Mother's Day gift, idea why birds has got you covered. I'm telling
you your mom may not be a gardener, but she will appreciate a beautiful
bird feeder like their eco turff. It's made out of recycled milk jugs.
But you don't know that. When you look at it, it looks like
it's made out of wood or something. Real beautiful, But what a cool
deal. A really nice feeder, one of the best or the best.
Actually hummingbird feeder I know of is the high perch feeder, and they have
those at mothers for Mother's Day gifting at Wildbird's or you know, you can
also buy you one for yourself too. I love mine. They also have
the Eliminator scroll proof feeder. They've got The Joy of Bird Feeding, a
book by the founder of Wildbirds Unlimited that is just really fun and it answers
all kinds of common questions things you might run into feeding birds. Wildbird's Unlimited
has got you covered. There's six of them all around the Greater Houston area.
Go to WBU dot com forward Slash Houston WBU dot com forward Slash Houston.
I'm telling you it is a can't miss place for your Mother's Day gifting.
You are trying to create some new color on your landscape, patio,
or maybe you want some vegetables to grow. Jungle land flour and vegetable jungle
land flower and vegetable soil. You put it in the container. It holds
water enough to help the things survive and do well, but it drains the
excess away, and that combination is very important. Jungle Land sold in a
lot of different places. You're going to find it in Lake Hardware done in
Angleton, Fisher's Hardware over in Baytown, or d and de Feed up in
Tombole all carry nitrofoss products. We are running up right up against a break
here, Rufus. You will be my first up when I come right back.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four
and we'll be right back in just a moment. Hey, welcome back to
the Guardline. I'm your host, skip Rictor're good to have you with us
today. Any plan you to talk about. Listen to Buchanans Buchanan's Nursery.
They're in the Heights. They're on Eleventh Street. You've probably been there.
If you haven't, well you got you gotta go. I mean, it's
one of those places everybody needs to check out because it's so cool. Buchanans
native plants. They specialize in native plants. But don't let that fool you.
I mean, first of all, if I know no place that carries
the selection of natives that the Buchanans does, they just it's unbelievable what they
have there. If you're trying to put in a let's say, a garden
for pollinators, that's a big deal right now. Well, they're going to
have things like Texas rock rose, Salvia, greggy ie, Brasis penstem.
And by the way, I was up in North Carolina at the Let's see
Ralston Arboretum in Raleigh, and I saw brass penstem growing up there. I
want to go, Hey, that's our plants from down here. Frog fruit,
Greg golden rod, purple cone flower. That's a good one for butterflies
too, by the way, turks cap blanket flower, gregsmithsflower on and Buchanan's
got all of that. That is what they specialize in. But they have
much much more houseplants vegetables. If you're looking for herbs, they have an
excellent selection for mom. By the way, houseplant wouldn't be a bad idea.
You know, they have stuff that is just amazingly beautiful. Mom will
not have seen the plant before because the selection is you know, it's not
just apotheos ivy, which hay, nothing wrong with that, but it's way
beyond that. Some really beautiful and exotic options on plants all available there at
Buchanans, So you need to go check them out. They are definitely worth
the stop eleven Street in the Heights Buchannansplants dot Com. We are going to
go now to Rufus in Cove, Texas. Hey, Rufus, can you
hear me now? Yes, sir, I can. All right, I'm
growing purple peace. And an old man tell me what it's all the little
shooters that's running off. They might runners that connect one road to another row
saying dead had them. And I'm out here doing that, and I'll see
a little holes of about tea plant. Turn out, I got little holes
of a tomato plants. So what's a little bug that's like a little hole?
Are you saying? Pea plant like southern peas? Yes, purple?
Okay, Well, if there are holes, individual little holes like babie holes
in a pea leaf, that southern pea leaf, that's probably a beetle that
did that. But caterpillars and beetles both chew leaves, as do grasshoppers,
for example. But a spinosid spray would be the one that I would use.
It's the least toxic. It also works very well on chewing insects.
However, that said, a few holes, in fact, quite a few
holes is not a problem. They took bean plants and a research trial one
time rufus and they had to pull forty percent of the leaves off before they
saw a significant reduction and yield. So a few holes is nothing. We
don't we don't provacating tomatoes. Well, it could be the same insect,
it could be a different one. There's a lot of beetles and there's a
lot of caterpillars out there, but the same is true with tomatoes. It's
not. You know, you could lose probably a fourth of the leaf area
on a plant and still be okay producing a good crop of tomatoes. Well,
I used seven dust. It's been raining so much. I hadn't put
any in and had been out guard about five days. Okay, Well that
I was putting seven dust down first. Okay, Well that's what I follow
the holes. Yeah, seven dust should control what eats the holes, beetles
and cattle, right all right? Now, the other part about the little
shooters on the purplele piece, is that true? Just go ahead and cut
them off because they're not going to provocate enough fruit. Yeah, I'm not
fully understanding what it is you're describing there, but uh, all right,
when your plant grows, it grows up, makes a nice bush and it
puts on the flies. All of a sudden, you'll see this little runner
shooter come out. Okay, yeah, he'll run across the road and he'll
climb up on my plant. No, then they'll put peas all over here,
but it'll be two months down the road. Yeah, yeah, that's
that's true. But some people just they'll even trell us certain kinds of peas
and let them just keep growing and producing. It's up to you. There's
not a right or wrong on that one. You can pick what you way
about it. Just chopping them off what dead Heading them off did not gonna
hurt me. No, it won't hurt them, but it'll just mean you
get one crop and you're done. That's what I'm hoping for. All right,
Rufe, good luck with that. I appreciate your call, Thank you
very much. ACE Hardware stores are all over the greater Houston area. There's
forty stores here in the Houston area that are ACE Hardware's. ACE is the
place for a lot of things. But you know, when it comes to
stuff for maybe mom. For example, for mom, they have beautiful gifts.
I mean the jewelry like a kinders, you know, types of jewelry,
purses, all kinds of indoor decorations and beautiful things. ACE is a
place for gifts as well. I know you already know. It's a place
for your lawn and garden and the fertilizers and pesticides and everything else you might
need we control, but it's also a place for some wonderful gifts. You
need to go check out. Each Ace Hardware store is independently owned, so
they don't all have exactly the same things in them, but so many of
them have really added just this beautiful indoor living and gifting and things like that
that you got to go check them out. Go to ACE Hardware dot com,
Acehardware dot Com, do the store locator, find which of the forty
stores are nearest you. I'm going to head out now to let's see,
We're gonna go to Missouri City and talk to Steve. Hello, Steve,
Hello, sir, how you doing today. I'm good, I'm good.
What's up? Well? So I've got what I think too. I think
it's like an American ELM, but I've got the gross the little stems,
the little shooters are shooting out and clusters on this thing, and I can't
keep up with them. Is there anything I can do to stop those from
growing out? Are you talking about coming out of the ground. No,
they're actually coming out of the trunk of the tree in spot. Oh oh
okay, No, I mean, well, there's a there's a product called
Florrel. It's a growth regulator. But I don't know anybody who sprays tree
sprouts on a trunk of a like an elm like that with it. Typically
we just will go in and cut those off, but try not to leave
stubs when you cut them off. I mean, when they're really young,
you can just break them off, but just get them as close as you
can. But if you want to do something to shut that down a little
bit, you can use something called Florrell. It's a growth regulator. There's
another one called sucker stopper, sucker sucker stop like that. Yeah, that
makes sense, doesn't it. But just go go go do that. I've
never sprayed for that kind of thing, but I know what you're talking about.
It's annoying. Okay, all right, the second question, is that
possible or yeah, very very very quickly, very quick. I have a
sago that's got a whole bunch of other sagos popping up underneath. It.
Okay, it looks really pretty that way as opposed to just having the big
stock and the pop at the top. Yeah. Is that safe for it
to be that way? Or should I be cleaning it? No? Perfectly,
perfectly okay. Most people like the look of a single trunk. But
in nature, segos grow clumps, and that's what you got going there.
Those are called pups at the bottom. That are they're coming in around mom
to fill in and make a clump. Okay, okay, thank you very
much. I appreciate it. Yes, sir, thank you. I appreciate
that. You know, Heirloom Soils is a place where you know you're going
to get a quality blend. And I Airloom Soils has the rose soil,
they have the veggie and herb mix, they have a fruit and citrus mix.
They've got things like leaf mold composts. I mean, I could go
on and on a dozen over a couple dozen products that Airloom Soils produces,
and they're all high quality, and you can buy them by the bag all
over the place. I mean, they are widely distributed by the bag.
You can buy it by bulk. You can drive up to porter and pick
it up yourself. You can call them and say, hey, deliver it.
Do you want them to dump some stuff in your driveway for you to
use to finish that flower bed? They'll do that. Do you not want
that much mess? Well, they can bring us supersack. It's like one
of those big old grocery sacks that you take to the store, so you
don't have to get a plastic bag. But imagine one so big it holds
a cubic yard. They can do that, drop it right off in your
driveway. Heirloom soils quality products that grow successful plants. And when I say
successful, I mean beauty, I mean bounty. Everything you're looking for it
all starts in the soil and Airloom Soils are specialists doing just that. Go
to Heirloom Soils of Texas dot com, Airloom Seals of Texas dot com.
Yep. Oh. When you're there, there is a calculator and you can
figure out exactly how much mult you need. I don't care if you buy
soil from or not. You need to go check out that calcula. Really,
I mean it, it is really really cool. But while you're there,
you're gonna you're gonna have to have some of their stuff because it is
high colalal putting an hour in the books. At eleven thirty, I will
be at Arburgate in Tomball, and I hope you will too. Arbrogate's gonna
be serving frozen peach billinis oho. I love these things. They are really
good. They're going to have a special on the brick house. Rows are
beautiful red rose, highly acclaimed, very disease resistant. I'll be given away
four tree stabilizers from the three sixty tree Stabilizer, both lots of products from
me Dina, including that new super grow. Arborgate's going to be given away
about every thirty minutes of their one two three system dot organic soil completely don't
miss it. Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Scip Richter's trim.
Just watch him as a world. Here we are. This is the last
hour coming up on the Saturday edition of garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to answer your gardening questions. Feel free to
give us a call and if you would like seven one three two one two
five eight seven four listen today. After the show, I'll be at Arburgate
Garden Center, Arburgate nursery at eleven thirty and I'll be there till one thirty
two hours there answering your gardening questions. So if you have a sample that
you want to identify it or diagnosed, or a bug you want to identify
it, put it in a plastic bag. We don't need those things going
flying around everywhere. Bring it to guard the arborgate and I'll take a look
at it. We will figure out what it is and what you need to
do about it. If you have photos on your phone, we could take
a look at those as well. Perhaps you'd like some advice on an area.
Maybe you need me to point you to a plant that is going to
fit that spot just perfectly. Well, we're at the right place, the
arbor gate. They have so many wonderful options of plants that grow here.
That's what they specialize in. I mean, they specialize in your success.
That's why they carry the stock they do. That's why they carry the products
that they do. They're one two three completely easy system. A soil for
anything, an organic soil, A fertilizer for anything with roots, an organic
fertilizer, the compost complete, which is a compost and by the way,
the soil and the compost both have expanded shale mixed in as well. So
when you do the one, two, three, those three products together,
it's the brown stuff. It's everything you need to have success. Quality soil,
quality post in it, and also a quality fertilizer as well. While
I'm there on to be given away four super grow ready to sprays, the
new product from Medina, I'm gonna give the three of the hast Grow quarts,
three of the hast grove lawn, I'm gonna be given away seaweed,
and I'm be giving away samples all from Medina donated by Medina. We're gonna
be given away four of the three sixty tree stabilizers you get if if you
don't do anything else, just come up and say I want to see that
thing, and let me show it to you because it's cool. They're gonna
be doing a special, a Mother's Day special on the brick House Rows.
Listen, when you give your mom a rose bush as a gift, year
after year after year, when those blooms appear, it's just like a dividend
on your gift. A remembrance too, By the way, I have plants
that I still remember who gave me that plant, and I just think plants
are a great gift. They're gonna have frozen peach bellinis. Yep, you
got to try those out there. Are awesome, awesome. Uh do you
see what I'm I'm saying. We're gonna have a good time out. Please
don't miss this park in the back their new parking lot off Trishall Road in
the back. It's easy to get to. So here's all you need to
know. Arburgate is out twenty nine to twenty. It's west of Highway two
forty nine out of Tomball to the west on twenty nine to twenty. When
you get out there, be looking to the left. Trishall Road leaves the
twenty nine to twenty before Arburgate, swings around behind it and the parking lot
comes back in after Arburgate. If you miss it when you see Arburgate,
just keep going. It's gonna be the next place to turn and you can
come around behind good good parking. So please do that. Please come join
me today. I would love to visit with you. I always like to
talk to folks that listen to Garden Line. Where you're gonna go Now to
Greg in League City. Hello, Greg. Good morning, Skip, and
thank you for taking my call this morning. Yes, sir, I have
a couple of black diamond craig myrtles in my backyard, very pretty plants,
but they have some type of white powdery substance on some of the leaves and
those wondering if you could point me in the right direction about it. Yeah,
yeah, that is powdery mildew and it is a problem on the crape
myrtle. In general. There's some varieties that are resistant, but in this
case you got one snot. So what you can do. There's a couple
approaches to powdery mildew. First of all, it likes humidity. Most diseases
like it when the leaves get wet, but powdery mildew likes a dry leaf
but high high humidity and welcome to Houston. So it's a problem here.
Now, you can use on an organic end oil type sprays. Horticultural oils
including neem oil will suppress the powdery mildew that you spray it on. It'll
kill it because it's a surface fungal strand you can use their synthetics like Belaton
Frigs semple that would would also move into the leaf and control it. There's
a number of ways to deal with it, but it's just one of the
things that tends to come and go with the weather. Especially it likes milder
temperatures. When it gets really hot, I don't see as much of it
unless there's just a lot of lower spraying that's increasing the humidity. Got it,
got it? Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it,
all right, good luck, Yes, you bet. I appreciate that
call very much. Nitrophos the silver bag what is it called. It's called
superturf. Why because it makes super turf. It is a nineteen four ten
fertilizer. Half the nitrogen and a slow release form iron added on to make
that deep, beautiful green that we're looking for. You know, iron deficiency
is very common. My neighbor I was looking at my neighbor shoard the other
day and there's a lot of little iron deficient areas. A little supplement like
that would be very helpful to use. And super turf silver bag nineteen four
ten. It's easy to find. They have it all over the place.
You can find in a lot of places. You go to a Southwest fertilizer,
for example, Bob's got Itchurse. Southwest Fertilizer. Bob's got everything he
does. I mean every fertilizer I talk about, and then some every pest
control, every disease control, every weed control. Bob and Aaron and his
team, Josh, the team there. They are experts. They know how
to identify, they know how to diagnose, they know how to point you
to a product that's gonna work. So if you're looking for a one stop
shop, I mean, you can take your lawn more bleeds are lawnmower equipment,
your power equipment in there for repairs. I mean they sell quality power
equipment too. By the way, they eighty foot wallle of tools. There's
another one. I mean, you just walk in there and you're gonna find
plenty of things. Fertilizer spreader for your fertilizer. They're gonna have products for
fireant control for example, and whatnot. Southwest Fertilizers on the corner Abysinet and
Run in Southwest Houston. So it's easy to get to Southwest Fertilizer in Southwest
Houston. You can go to the website Southwest Fertilizer dot com and while you're
in there, you're gonna find pretty much anything you could possibly need. I
like to say that if if a Southwest fertilizer doesn't have it, you probably
don't need it. Let's go now to Spring talk to Matt. Hello,
Matt, oh hi, good morning. Thanks for your time and I enjoy
the show. Thank you very briefly. I hope to visit your time at
Arbor Gate. You too here by night. Yeah, and I apologize.
I was kind of in the middle of when you were speaking of something called
Nelson slow and something slow and easy. That's right and easy? Yeah,
yes, sir, I'm right now finishing off complete Saint Augustine thought on our
front lawn. Okay, it's only in the been laid down a week now.
Okay, I was causing not to fertilize it for a couple week and
then cut it. And your team comment about once you use this product or
recommended not to worry to fall, right, if I heard correctly, Yeah,
and I don't hope you don't mind the listeners. The keep Maltz company
up there at nineteen sixty is just going wild with a good All right,
well let's say let me let me jump in there, Matt. Nelson slow
and easy is a good gradual release. The company that grow grass, they
put a fertilizer on it before they sell it to you, and so you
should be good for a month or more just in what is already in the
grass. But after about a month after you've put it down, put down
the slow and Easy and the next time you fertilize will be in the fall.
And if you go online to my website, gardeningwith Skip dot com,
find my fertilizer schedule, it'll tell you when to fall fertilized and it'll give
you all your options, including Nelson's Slow and Easy. I'm up against a
hard break and I got a run, but good luck with that. Congratulations
on your new lawn. I hope you will you have it with you?
What's that? Do you have a book out? I do, but I'm
not. I'm not gonna have it with me today, but I'll talk about
that more later. All right, We're going to take a break here seven
one three, two, one two five eight seven four. Welcome back to
Guardline. Good have you with us today. We are gonna head straight out
to the phones and talk to Joel from Conro. Hey, Joel, Hey,
good morning, thanks for kaking my call. How are you doing it.
I'm well, sir, I'm well sir. How can we help calling
about leaf cutter ants up here and trying to see what the best way to
control that is. Well, there is a concoction that you're going to put
together, and John, what I'm gonna need to do is give get you
to send me your email and I will send you the instructions for doing that.
You're going to buy two different products mixing together and a bucket, let
them sit for a couple of weeks, and then put it out. And
it seems to be as good as we can do to control those leaf cutters.
But rather than going through the whole nine yards on the on the air,
I'm just gonna put you on hold and Callum will get give you my
email. Okay, perfect, Thank you so much. Every great day.
You bet, you bet have a good day, yeah, leaf utter.
Leaf cutters are tough because they don't typically want to eat the baits and the
poisons we would put out, unlike fant for example, would would do.
Uh. And so it's a bigger challenge to get them because what they eat
is a fungus. They cut the leaves off your plants. Shame on them.
For doing that, and they take it to a big cavern underground that
they made and they stick them in there and grow fungus on them and eat
the fungus. Is that cool? So you can think of leaf cutters as
farmers because that's kind of what they are. And Yeah, I had a
peach orchard a while back up in Willis many years ago, and one night
I came out and two trees were defoliated overnight by leaf cutter ants. They
found them, they told the family. Everybody showed up and I mean literally
stripped them bare overnight. Wow, they're a mess, that is for sure.
Have you been to enchanted Forests down in Richmond Enchanted Forest is it's an
enchanting place. I always love to go to Enchanted Forest because they always have
things going on down there. They always have an excellent selection of plants.
They're doing a little thing where you know, you can make and take a
succulent arrangement for mom there. Of course, there's tons of game for mom
down in that area of whether mom likes flowers or maybe she wants a new
Vitex tree in the yard, something beautiful like that. Chenny Forest has quality
plants. They've got quality staff that can help you, that greets you,
that points you to what you need. And if you're thinking about a butterfly
garden, that'd be a good one for mom. By the way, they
have all the plants for the adults to attract the adult butterflies and all the
plants for the larvae to feed and create adult butterflies. You need to do
both when you're planning a butterfly garden. And Enchanted Forest and Richmond they're going
to have that for you. They are on FM twenty seven fifty nine in
Richmond, Texas. The website Enchanted Forest Richmond TX dot com and Chanted Forest
Richmond, TX dot com. We're going to go now to Chris in Conroe.
Hello, Chris, Hello, how are you today? I planted some
sant augustine grass about six weeks ago and immediately fertilized it. Now I'm not
supposed to now and it's kind of dormant. What can I do to make
it grow better? Seeing augustine dormant now that's unusual. I don't know why
it's done into growth. I guess did it have a weed control product in
it? Yes? It did? Okay, well, it may have been
that You're just gonna have to wait that one out. It will start growing
again, but for right now, let's not mess with it. It's not
a lack of nutrients right now that that's causing that. So let's just wait
it out. Uh, and it should start to grow again. Uh,
I don't know, you know, to the degree that it was set back
will vary the time that when you start to get back to normal again.
But uh, at this point, there's no product to fix the situation.
Just just make sure it has water when it head and rained for a while
and it's warm. Don't need a watered a lot. But it'll bounce back
here in a wall. All right. Well, I appreciate it very much.
Thank you very much, you bet, Chris, thanks for the call.
Sorry to hear about that. I know that is no fun, right,
no fun at all. Have you been Have you been to Nelson Water
Garden out in Katie, Texas. They're out there in Katie, Texas.
You just turn north off iten on Katie Fort Ben Road and it's just a
stone throw up the road there. Nelson Water Garden has an outstanding selection,
outstanding selection of plants. It's really Nelson Nursery and water Garden. I always
say Nelson Water Garden because I mean they are nationally literally, they are nationally
famous for their water garden work. They created that disappearing fountain that comes out
of a beautiful tall container. If you've never seen the you just gotta go.
You run out there to Nelson Water Gardening, Katie, and consider this
an outing, consider this a destination, because that is exactly what it is.
They got a Mother's Day sale going on, that's right, mother Day
sale, twenty five percent off azaleas and roses and magnolias and krepe myrtles in
the garden center. Oh the hibiscus. They have got beautiful hibiscus, beautiful
herbs as well, and even an herb bold gift. You know, it's
like all ready planted for mom right there. Uh, it's it's what you
would expect out of an outstanding nursery and garden center. But when you see
the water features, the kinds of fountains and kinds of waterfalls they can create,
you're gonna want to have them come out and do that for you.
And if you're doing yourself or they'll they'll advise you on how to do it
yourself. But I'm telling you the work they do is it's amazing. It
absolutely is. Nelson Water Garden and Nursery, Nelsonwatergardens dot com, Nelson Watergardens
dot com. That is what you need to know. And I'm telling you
any any time that you have a chance to just get out of the house,
grab a friend or two, take the kids, take the family,
take the friends, maybe get your garden club together to go. You need
to do some horticultural tourism around the greater Houston area. There are outstanding places.
I've noticed that people around Houston they kind of live in their little part
of Houston, whether it's downtown or way out west or north or whatever,
and they don't tend to venture around. It is worth a drive to go
see our garden centers that are north, south, east, west, central,
wherever you are, there is something that other big cities would die to
have. And I mean that I've been San Antonio, in Dallas and Fort
Worth and Austin. Yes they have good garden centers, but not like here.
Not the quantity, not the quality level that you will find here in
the Greater Houston area. Something to note, something you definitely want to for
example, for example, over in Seabrook. The excuse me in Seabrook.
Moss Nurserymaas. By the way, I always times forget to give websites and
things like that, and I think it's worth going to check out websites.
It's Moss Nursery dot com. Maas Nursery dot com. I was there yesterday,
as a matter of fact. I always try to swing by there as
much as I can, and they people were coming out with hadranga trees.
What is a hydranga tree, Well, it is a stand we call a
standard. I explained that yesterday. Think of a trunk and then up at
about three four inch three or four feet high, you just have this top
which has all the foliage and all the beautiful blooms. Very unique, very
cool. They have elephantears, gorgeous elephantears, not just green but deep burgundies,
pink stripe, and the leaf just all kinds of stuff for sun and
for shade. They have that. They were so loaded with hanging baskets still
that they're stunning beautiful cactus succulents they've got them. I wandered through the houseplant
greenhouse. I have to do that every time I go there. Because they
have an ex intensive selection of beautiful house plants. They have a butterfly and
hummingbird attracting plants. Do you want a garden that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds?
Just go to Moss Nursery and Seabrook Moss Nursery. They are They've been around
seventy years. Did you know that seventy year old family operated eight acres of
wonderfulness on Toddville Road down in Seabrook. I want to head now to Let's
go to NEF in clear Lake. Hello, Nef, Hey, good morning,
Good morning. How are you doing, Skiff? I'm good? What's
up with NEF today? Hey? So, I'm just listening to the last
few callers about the Saint Augustine side. I had some contractors come out early
in the year and they had tore up the lawn and then I had to
reside it. But I've always followed the Randy Lemons schedule for years. Have
one of the best lawns in the neighborhood. But aside from that, the
callers that you just got to be patient and just water it. Water it
water, don't overwater it, but just water it in good and it will.
It took about four weeks, and there was times that I thought like,
oh my gosh, it's not grabbing, you know, and there's pieces
of it, you know, that were just yellow and yellow. But now
after the last few rainfalls, it's all green and and looks like like brand
new grass. There. You got to be got to be patient, follow
and exactly exactly. Well, hey, it's a loyal listener and uh,
and I just want to give that advice to the callers. Thanks, you
have a great weekend. Thanks for being a longtime listener to guarden Line.
I appreciate that you take care of and I wish you well uh this weekend.
Uh. Landscaper's Pride produces a number of quality products to help your plants
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you're just able to head right out there to the garden without getting your feet
money. Pine bark malts is most popular in they have locally sourced pine bark.
It degrades very slowly. In other words, it decomposes very slowly out
there in the soil. It's a good one. Gardener's Magic Soil. This
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throw in a chicken pellet fertilizer to give you about three months of additional feeding
in that garden. Magic soil, Gardener's Magic. Excuse me, now,
it's been a heck of a good spring. We're in a whirlwind still going
on for that. But Landscaperspride dot com is the website you need to go
to to find out where to get the products because they're widely available. Well
here I am talking myself right into the news break. Sorry about that,
Jeff, it's all yours. Yeah, I need to set this guitar down.
I'll just have a little fun there during break. All right, it
was the Eagles. Welcome back to Gardline. Good to have you with us
today. We are entering our last half hour of the day and after that
I won't be at Arburgate. I hope you will come see me today at
Arburgate eleven thirty to one thirty, and they are throwing one heck of a
Mom's Day weekend party, and you need to come out there. You need
to be out there. In fact, when the show's over, I'm on
jumping a car. I'll head that way. I hope you will join me.
Last one, there's rotten Egg Drive safely. We are going to go
straight to the phones this segment and we are going to go to Richmond.
Talk to Alan. Hello, Alan, how can we help today? Hey,
I got a butterfly plant question for you. I got the I guess
it's called the butterfly weed. Okay, yeah, with a nice tiny little
yellow flowers. Well, I planted that a couple of weeks ago to hyday.
I got the ugly green box in my backyard and that thing has grown
over. It's probably like six feet tall. Now, what's the best way
to trim that? I don't want to trim it too much, but you
know what can be done with that? How tall is it? It's like
six foot tall? Now it's really grown. Well, I've got a couple
of milk weeds next to it and they don't grow at all. And I
also had a question about how to the best food for those. Well,
I'm trying to figure out what plant you have that you're describing that six foot
Uh. Well, I was at the Enchanted Gardens and I probably should have
asked them out there, but it said it was called a butterfly weed,
is what it was called. It's got the it was in their butterfly section,
and it's these tiny yellow flowers. Yeah. Yeah, I'm familiar with
the butterfly weed. We call it tropical milk weed or Mexican milkweed. But
six feet tall, that's a that's bigger than I've ever seen it. So
I'm kind of wondering if we're talking about the same plant. But anyway,
I've got I've got the name, the actual name of it is as salopius.
You're of course, Uh, well, it's a Sclepias currasavaca, and
that is the mexicmom tropical milk weed. I guess, uh, you just
must be grown things better at your house than I do at mine. But
that's a that's an impressive result of it. I know they can get tall,
But so are you wanting to know you threw me there initially? Are
you wanting to know about cutting it back or what? Yeah? Okay,
so you can cut them back. They will send up shoots from the base.
They also reseed profusely when they do finally form their seeds that float around.
If there's some people will do supports for tall upright plants like that.
You know, it comes up with just one single shoot coming straight up to
the sky, and they will put kind of some sort of a support thing
in. It could be a post with some things wrapped around it. When
I say post, I mean, you know, not a fence post,
but something to kind of hold it up. I don't you know. As
far as getting them to branch, I don't think you're gonna. I've never
tried that, tried cutting them and getting them to branch. But I knew
they will put out new stuff at the bottom. I should know that,
but I've just never had to cut mine back. I don't do as good
a job of growing them as you do. Hell, mine's up next to
one of those transformer electrical boxes. So maybe it's it's tied into that thing
and is just taking off. That's right to get the great power from.
Well yeah, as far as as far as the milkweed next to it,
what's a good plant food for that? Well? Uh, what kind of
milk weed? Is it? One of the real low growing ones? Is
it the orange one or a pink? What colors it's got? It's the
one with no color. It's just green with the green leaves, the green
leaves, the green Uh. Probably it'll probably eventually have some some light kind
of a creamy white looking bloom on it in time. Okay, you don't
really need to fertilize those things. I mean, if if your soil just
happened to be incredibly poor, which apparently it's not based on your other butterfly
plant, uh, then maybe adding a little bit, but don't don't push
it, you there. Things grow in nature in the wild, depending on
which specific type of asclepias or butterfly weed. You have, it should not
need much in the way a fertilizer of any Okay, well, I appreciate
it, Thank you. Well. I hope butterflies are listening because you need
to have the rechimond to Allen's house. Sounds like a good place to have
a good come on over guy. Thanks Alan. I appreciate that you know
had those storms recently which just dumped tons of rain through our listening area or
most of our listening area here, and those of you who had to endure
the worst of that and the flooding, our hearts go out to you,
and I hope things are I hope you're able to get things cleaned out and
turned around back on the other direction. During those storms, we had over
one hundred thousand people that lost power during the last time we had a really
serious, significant storm. And when that happens, you need a standby generator
that's going to come on automatically and just take over and run the power.
Maybe you have refrigerators and freezers, and you can lose a lot of food
when you don't have power. When it's summertime and this happens, and you
know, we have storm season takes us all the way into the fall.
Air conditioners. Who it doesn't take long in Houston without an air conditioner to
know that's tough. Certainly lights do you have a work from home business?
For example, electronic devices stand by generator just bounces right on when the power
goes out and it takes care of you. And quality home products of Texas,
in my opinion, is the absolute best place to get those. And
why do I say that? Well, Number one, they carry Generac.
Generak is an outstanding generator brand. We depend on it. We know it.
I mean, people know Generac is quality generators. But why quality home?
Well, quality home is a place that when I say they do customer
service, I really mean it and I can prove it. Eighteen thousand and
five star reviews, seventy seven thousand established satisfied customers. Eight times. They've
won the Pinnacle Award for the Better Business Bureau Most Prestigious Customer Service Award.
I mean eight times they've won that thing. Nineteen twenty three Houston Chronicle Best
of the Best for the Home services category. They're customer Support twenty four seven
three sixty five. That's right, doesn't matter when what hour, what day
you call, they're there. They walk you through the whole process. You
know these companies that come in and they go we do one week installation.
That is a myth. That's maloney. Don't even don't do that. Quality
Home works with you from the point of getting any kind of a neighborhood association
or whatever, you know, permissions and things, getting that pad poured and
out there, and to put the generator on, hooking it up. That
I mean. They it's a process that they work with you on. You
can call them now. Don't delay. By the way, don't wait until
hurricanes are in the Gulf. Now is the time to call them because it's
going to take time to get this thing set up with quality home products.
They do quality products, they do quality service so you can have a quality
life. They do have financial financing options available as well, but listen,
don't buy your home generator from anybody else. It is one thing to have
a quality piece of equipment, yes they have that, but very important to
have quality service. And their ratings and reviews absolutely prove that that is the
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Our phone number if you'd like to give us a call seven to one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. I'd be happy to visit with you. I'm back to
take a little break here. We're going to come back for our last little
segment on Garden Line. I always hate to say this, but we do
have an open field. I can't promise you when everybody else calls it,
you'll be the first up. But it is blank right now. So give
column a call. Welcome back to guard Line. Good to have you with
us today. Hey, we're running out of time today. We gotta get
some talking done here. We've got a lot more to talk about. Let's
just jump right in there and we're going to head out to Conroe and talk
to Bob. Hey, Bob, Hey, good morning morning. I have
a newly planted peach tree was planted back in early April, and it looks
like it's dying lost all its leaves. Oh, some of the branches are
green at the tip, but in the middle they look kind of brownish.
Okay, and there is a little play in some of the leagues. Okay,
can I get it back. We'll see Bob. There's a lot of
things that can kill a tree, So we're, you know, we're looking
at a lot of possibilities. Usually with a peach, a new peach,
you got to get them in. You got to keep the roots moist,
but you got to keep the oxygen in the soil too. Peaches, when
they are in anaerobic conditions, meaning the soil is water logged, the roots
can't get oxygen. The roots actually produce hydrogen cyanide. Of all things,
they are one of the least tolerant of soggy conditions of all the things we
can grow, So that is a possibility. Getting too dry, even for
a minute earlier on could have been a possibility. But with the spring we've
had, dry is unlikely because we've had plenty of rain to kind of keep
it going here so far. So I'm more worried about the drainage being a
possibility there. As long as you can keep oxygen in the soil, get
that excess drained away, but at the same time, don't let it go
dry. The tree should bounce back, but it's going to be kind of
a wait and see in the meantime. Okay, I went out this morning
and grabbed a handful of the mulch, and it feels kind of it's still
damp. Okay, you know, it's not really really overly wet, but
you know if all the rain we've had, yeah, you know recently,
I can see that. Well, you know, it could be you need
to dig down in the soil about four to six inches with a little hand
trout and then feel the soil there and if it is not you know,
if it is not damp, there water. But it's going to be damp
there for a good while, so probably too much water is my best shoot
from the hip of all the possible options for why is the tree dying?
Okay, sir, all right, you have a good weekend. I appreciate
your information absolutely absolutely, Thank you very much. We're going to go now
to Joe in Houston. Hey Joe, good morning, Good morning. Listen.
I want to get some bonze eyes, not pot size, plant size,
you know, like six h fet tolls. Where can I get that?
But they're in a container you're talking about, Well, I'm going to
plant them in the ground. Do you said? Bones eye? Though?
Right? Cut like bonsai? Oh? Okay, a pine tree that's cut
like a bonzai or some other tree. That's cut to look like a Japanese
I see. Uh, but I don't want these little things I see on
people's porches. Yeah yeah, Now this is just something that's six eight eight
ten tres. Okay, you know that's a tree. That is a good
question depending on where you are, If it's not too far to drive down
to Seabrook to Moss Nursery. They've got some things similar to that that might
do. You know, I've never I've never with you know, being around
the garden center has kind of looked for that. Really, what you're talking
about, the Japanese style garden. I mean you would you could buy regular
junipers and train them to that kind of style. So there it's not just
that it has to be a certain kind of plant only. But uh yeah,
so I want all cut in the style already, and I would continue
style. Uh, call Moss before you drive down. They just call them
and ask them if they have some some of those kind of plants that have
been trained already into somewhat of a style. Now, there's a lot of
places that will sell you junipers that are spiral junipers and the kind with like
the limbs go out and there's a little pomp poms of foliage on the end,
and those kind of I call them Doctor Seuss plants because they remind me
of Doctor Seuss books. But that's what my quick answer would be to start
with. I just got back from Vietnam and China. Oh yeah, they
a couple of hundred. Pause, they had them all over the place.
They just wanted to get rid of them. Beautiful. Well they can get
them out of the country. Any of our good full service garden centers we
talk about here, they're going to have plants that suit that. Whether they
have am already pre prune like that. You're just gonna have to call and
ask. But hey, I need to run. I got a few more
calls. I'm trying to get for the day goes away here. But good
luck, good luck, you bet, you bet. Thanks a lot.
Ace Hardware Stores or the place you go for everything you need and noy you
hear me talk all the time. If you want a beautiful lawn, a
beautiful garden, beautiful landscape, Ace has all the supplies for that. Everything
you need, fertilizers, pest, weed disease control, the tools you need,
garden hoses. Do you want to enhance your outdoor setting with some of
the little strings of lights, or all the things, barbecue pits for the
back patio. They've got that it's Mother's Day tomorrow. ACE is a place
for that as well. They have an extensive election of things, I mean
all the way from like purses and jewelry to beautiful indoor decorations. Now,
each ACE is independently owned and no tour exactly alike, So depending on where
you go, you're going to have a range of options. I mean,
I've seen ACE hard restores that do a little laser etching and cutting boards for
you. I mean, who thought about that, right? But that's the
kind of place ACE is. Go to your local Ace, talk to them,
find out what kinds of things they have. But you're going to find
that a lot of them have some wonderful things, wonderful gifts for mom as
well. Let's go to Kingwood and we're going to talk to Bill. Hello,
Bill, good morning. I have a question about granted for symmetry native
broodstock Japanese top And after several years in my backyard and good crops, all
of a sudden, the trees and a serious state of decline, and wherever
the limbs meet the trunk. There seems to be a uh, some kind
of disease that is creating a big problem. Yeah, there is fact and
the proad group is called Crottrot. Yeah, so I don't know what it
really It's a it's a type of canker there. There there was a precimine
arch probably still around kind of northwest of Houston that it got into. And
I mean it was extensive the damage that it had done in there. Uh,
there's not a spray for it that you can't just it's think of it
as like an infection down in the tissues, you know. So it'd be
like having an infected cut on your arm and just putting some little surface alcohol
on it to kill the surface. It wouldn't get down in there and kill
the disease. And and that I don't have an answer for you on that
one. I is there a is there a tape of fungicide that will be
absorbed by the planet and spread throughout the leaves, Not that I know of
that that fights that disease. That would require a little more investigating. The
last time I look, it was kind of a it is what it is.
There are certain kinds of disease situations where we just can't get the product
in there and in a way that's going to be effective. You might want
to do a little more searching online for that one, but it would take
a systemic and I don't know one that moves in the way through that plant
that is labeled for per Simmons to control a disease like that. So I'm
not hopeful, but I'm not saying you might not be able to find something.
But I do know that, I know, I know, I'm not
you sound like people I know. Yeah, Bill, thanks a lot,
Thanks a lot. Hey, that was worth every penny you paid for it.
Have a good weekend. Good luck getting ahead of that though, because
I love per Simmons and I can imagine how that feels. All Right,
We're gonna go to Neederland and talk to Lisa. Hey, Lisa, we
got just a short time, but let's see what we can do for you.
Oh. Yes, our little neighborhood and Needlane. During the storm last
week last Thursday, we had I'm in an old neighborhood, lots of trees
down. One was my oak tree in the front yard, completely uprooted.
That's my afternoon sun area. And I'm just wondering what I can replace or
what we can replace that with. It's not going to grow as huge as
an oak tree, but still provides that afternoon shade you know that we need.
Are you trying to shade a window or a wall or are you trying
to go over the whole house and shade the roof? Well, no,
just really one side of the house in the front, Okay, Well,
there's a lot of good trees where the bedrooms are, kind of where the
bedrooms are on this side. There are a lot of good trees. There's
a number of different oaks that grow pretty fast. The nut tall oak gets
quite large in time, but it grows pretty fast. It would be a
good one. You know. There are crape myrtles that get big niches crape
myrtle, yes, I thought about. The natches will get thirty feet tall
and the beautiful white blooms, beautiful cinnamon colored exfoliating bark, so that that
would be another option. The Chinese elm drake is one variety, but Chinese
elm grows pretty fast casts a light shade can be really beautiful. So there
are a number of good options out there. It just kind of guns on
what you're looking for, but the ones I mentioned are all fast grow Okay,
I appreciate your health. Thank you, all right, Lisa, Sorry,
ran out of time on that. Hey, guess what happens now?
You and I both jump in our cars. Last one, there's a rat
and egg. We're heading to arbor Gate. We're gonna be giving away Medina
products. We're giving away tree stabilizers. We're giving away arbor Gates, Organic
Soul Complete. There are one, two, three easy system. Every thirty
minutes, we'll give the bag of that a way. We're gonna be given
away enjoying frozen Bellini's. So come, bring your questions, bring your samples,
let's talk. Always love to meet gardeners. Can't wait to see at
Arborgate and be ready to buy mom a gift. In fact, bring her
with you to get one of those wrick House roses.