KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on
this program. Welcome to KTRH garden Line with Skip Rictor, so please just
watch him as well. Good morning, Good Sunday morning on garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Director, and we're here to answer gardening questions.
What's interesting do you? What do you what do you wonder about? What
are your questions? What are you dealing with? Some plants giving you trouble,
you bring them with you, give us a call, put them on
the air. I'll give him a good talking to him. We'll fix us
saying how about that our phone number seven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Hey,
if you're a gardener, even if you're not a gardenerent, especially if you're
a gardener, and you're thinking about like a retirement community, something that would
just be a place where you can really enjoy an active life, you know,
through the rest of your life as you as you retire. We're talking
about a community for people fifty five and better that live active lives, that
want a beautiful home, a beautiful community, lifestyle programs that are designed around
you. Well, that would be Dellweb. And there's a new community in
fullsher on Highway three fifty nine, just two miles from downtown fullsher that I'm
helping them put in a community garden in this community. So not only do
you get all the pluses of a Dellweb community, you just get an extra
one here. And that would be a really cool place where you can gather,
where you can garden, where you can visit with your friends and things.
And I just can't think of a better way for retirement for a gardener
than a Dellweb community. Go to dellweb dot com, slash Houston or callament
to eight one four five nine zero six zero nine. We're gonna start right
out on the phones today and we're gonna go to Tom Ball and talk to
Mel Well. Good morning, Mel, Hey, good morning. Good to
hear your voice again. I got a question about aze. Is we planted
some last a year, but I guess it's in the fall, early fall,
and they're doing okay. I've been putting something down called Microlife acidifier,
Yes, six two four, and every pink pink bag or pinkish red bag,
right, Yeah, Microsoft. Yeah. So anyway, I was wondering,
they're not really they're doing okay, they but is it okay? Like
if in about a month from now, I just put it down yesterday again,
in about a month from now, if I add to that, Yeah,
something I think by nitrofosss color Express, it's a fourteen fourteen fourteen?
Is it okay? Mix those two? You can just be careful now when
you switch from like an organic fertilizer and a synthetic oftentimes you've got a salt
based situation. You will be real careful. If you're not watering enough and
you get a concentrated overdose of something like, you know, anything that's salt
based, you could burn the roots because it's how your roots are primarily up
very close to the surface of the soil. Is there any other thing I
might besides that a color express? Is there any other thing that I might
do to give it a little bit of a boost of nitrogen and all that?
A Well, it sounds like now you've done two of the Microlife acidifiers
in the last how many months? Oh? I think I believe it was
in the fall that we do maybe even earlier. Okay, remember, well
you know, it's fine and it's going to be releasing and you should be
getting enough nutrition. So if you're not seeing the vigor you want, yeah,
you could add a little bit more, but I might be wondering about
things like watering. You know, is it getting a little on the dry
side, and so they're slowing down and kind of putting it on hold,
waiting to see if it's going to rain again. Uh, that that may
be a factor as certainly as ey is. You know, we think of
a machade loving plants, but they want bright shade, and bright sha helps
drive growth. That's one of the things that does. Uh, And so
that may be a factor too. So you know, you kind of it's
it's up to you. I would depending on how I don't know how much
you put out or when or where you spread the fertilizer and all that,
so it's kind of hard to assess accurately, but I would just say,
uh, you know, if you felt like you didn't put on enough,
you can put out more, whatever kind of fertilizer you want to put out.
And if you feel like maybe that was okay and maybe it's just needing
a little more frequent watering, you could certainly do that. Is there?
Okay? Is there another why don't you call them what a natural uh fertilizer
other than I don't know what term you use other than the microlife? Yeah,
yeah, as in the microlife? Is there one that? Is there
something else that is natural fertilizer? You might say, yeah, there's a
number of them out there, But Lemondina makes a has to grow product,
several has to grow products that are that are natural. You might want to
try something like that. Some of those are available as a liquid most of
the mark Yeah, I do have some, okay, And so that when
you mix it according to the label again and you put it on, it's
like you're washing the right there into the roots and you get a pretty fast
response. So you may try that and see if that helps. If it
does, then that tells you, hey, a little I need a little
more nutrient and so that okay, Yeah, all right, you're not going
to burn with with the has to grow all right? Sounds cool to me.
All right, Thank you very much, you bet mel. I appreciate
I really appreciate that call. You know. We are we love our feed
stores here on Garden Line and Texas Feed stop out in Mont Bellevue. I
mean, if you live anywhere Mott Bellevue, even around the Baytown area,
this is your hometown feed store. It's on ninety five thirty four North Highway
one forty six and Mont Bellevue. Or let me make it even easier,
just go on Highway one forty six a few minutes north of I ten and
they'll be there on the right. Super duper customer service Brian and rope Hope
Roads. They make sure that customers are treated right. There's you know,
folks, young men still carry the bags out for you, probably because they've
hired a teenager from the Mont Belleview community. They are part of that community
out there. So wherever you are in that area, just remember you're gonna
at Texas Feed Stop. You're gonna find all the furlizers we talk about,
all the products we talk about, you know, like maybe you need mosquito
donks or something along those. They're going to have them. Whatever you want
to do to green up your yard, grow a citrus tree, plant a
vegetable garden. They've got the supplies there for all kinds of things that may
arise that you need to do with. That's at Texas feed stop again just
a few minutes north of I ten on Highway one forty six. Really convenient
through the Mott Bellevue even down into the Baytown area. I set out.
Now I'm gonna go to Brassouria County and we're gonna talk to Lewis this morning.
Well, good morning, Lewis, Good morning, Skip. My question
this morning is about magnolia trees, and I'm talking about the large flowered,
single specimen, big, big specimen trees, not the little gems. I
want to plant one this fall from my wife, and it's actually up in
brads County, not Gloria County, Okay. And I was wondering just two
questions, what wrote variety in nursery? Would you recommend another some selected varieties
of the Randall floras? Yes, and you know, if there's any arboretums
that may have the maybe David Creature is up and at Stephen F. Auston
or anywhere that Well, I was really looking for some Skip Ricker advice.
Thanks. They do up at the up at Creatures place up there in acadets.
They they do have occasional plant sales, but those are gonna be smaller
plants, uh, and I don't know that they'll that they sell Magnolia as
part of the deal. They might. Uh, if you're kind of up
in the Bryses County area, you've got several options. Williams. Some tree
farms out there in Plantersville, and they can provide a larger tree, give
you a head start. You know, it doesn't have to be huge.
It could be twenty gallons, but you know up to too. I don't
know, one hundred, two hundred gallons. They have some well, they
would have it there. You would just I would say, just give them
a call and see if it's something that are you wanting to pick it up?
Is this a duet yourself or do you want them to come planet?
No, No, no, it's a it's a duet yourself. And and
maybe I'm misled by a large sho I'm talking about the big grand of flora.
Right, you're a large tree and a container, but the grand of
floor of varieties. And I know, yeah, I would come right there.
There are some I tell you what, you know what I'm against a
hard break here, Lewis. Let's take a break and I'll come right back
and we'll it's this conversation the phone number seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. Good morning, you are listening to Garden Line and if
you'd like to give us a call our phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. Hey, I've got an educational public service announcement
for you here. If you have trees around your house, now is a
time to make sure that they are ready for the storms that inevitably will come
during a hurricane season here in Southeast Texas. And maybe you need some limbs
removed, or your roof line's cleared. Perhaps there's a dead tree that needs
to come down, a limb hanging over your roof, rubbing on the shingles,
or something of value, maybe your neighbor's yard it's hanging over there.
This is the time you got a power line drop. You know, during
a storm, if a tree limb falls on that, you are without power
and it's a mess to get that thing fixed up. Get a professional to
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four phone number seven one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three, Or
if you want, you can go online to aff Tree Service dot com and
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nine twenty six sixty three. Write that number down because a day will come
where you'll decide, you know what it's time. Maybe you're gonna do some
construction around a tree. Get them out there to look at it first before
the damage is done, and they can advise you on how to avoid that.
We're going to head back to Brassis County and we are now going to
continue our conversation with Lewis. Lewis, you had a southern magnolia you want
to plant out there, and you know I was I was trying to think
through during break that cultivars varieties of southern magnolia, and almost all of them
that I can think of, almost all along and think of are basically varieties
that they developed to be more compact, maybe to have a straight, straight,
narrow trunk really tall, and they're just in general. I think a
lot of the folks are going to be selling you either one of those kinds
like Little Gem or Teddy Bear being examples, are just the standard type,
probably without a variety name. But again, the closest tea out there is
going to be the Williamson Tree Farm in Plantersville. Did you indicate you want
to get it and plant it yourself or do you want to have somebody to
do it? No, I'm going to plant it myself. Okay, Okay.
What I was thinking, memory serve, was that at the Ruby masar
Aretum in Ecodoches, you knows, Jalia or Stephen F. Fauston, that
they had some granded flora selection collections, you know, just where you could
observe them, if nothing else, just for the flower size, the leaf
colorations, all many things that make the big trees look so cool. Well,
uh, you know, you might want to give them a call see
what they you know, if they do sell things like that, I can
say it's gonna be very small trees, probably just because it takes a good
while to grow a big magnolia, Southern magnolias. At least you might try
that. I guess the key is going to be finding them. Dave Creech
and his folks doing a wonderful ornamental what do ornamental research and stuff up there,
and I think a lot of the things are so cutting edge. You
know, you're just not going to go to your local nursery and find it
necessarily, but it's worth it's worth a call if you want to check into
that. But I do know that, you know, the closest to you
would be probably over at Williamson. You could certainly go to a garden center
as well. You know, Williamson's connected our CW nursery, that's their retail
end down here. But I'm pretty sure you can go give him a call,
r c W call. You can go directly to the tree farm.
I'm pretty sure they'll they'll arrange for that. A chant forest may have some
good advice, well, they would have good Yeah, they have good advice
there, there's no question about that. It's a little further of a drive
for you. I was just trying to kind of get as close as as
we could up to you. I mean, you know, if you're just
looking for advice, we got a lot of great nurseries, chanted forest or
chanted gardens, arbigade, all kinds of things are up kind of oh you
know on the west to north side of town here. Yeah, I don't
mind driving because this is a you know, lifetime selection to go buy a
magnolia tree. You know, next r hour grab won't make a difference.
Well I might, so I might, sorry by calling the arboretum up there
and get with somebody and maybe they would say, yeah, there's the new
righty we're really liking and here's the name of it, and then your phone
calls can be made with that knowledge. All right here, Okay, thank
you, Skip a good day you too, Thanks for Carl Lewis. I
appreciate that I have been bragging on Vego garden beds for a long time,
and it's because I'm telling you there's nothing like them. All my life,
I've made beds out of mounds of dirt. I've made beds out of with
center blocks around them. I made beds with treated wood around it. Ten
all kinds of things, you know, It's made one garden after another,
not like Vego vego Garden beds number one. There. First of all,
there they are treated in a way to prevent the rust from happening or the
corrosion from happening to the metal number one. It's a very thick metal,
but it is it is especially well coded to prevent that. And then they
put a USD approved paint on top of that and it just makes for a
really nice bed that way outlasts you're treated wood beds. I can tell you
that because treated wood is nice in terms of rot resistance. But when you
put something up against the soil, it's only a matter of time when it's
wood based. And so you can go online to vegogarden dot com. By
the way, when you're online looking at vegogarden dot com, you need to
check out there a little Oasis Garden planner. It's like a little three D
thing where you can say this is about the size of my yard and you
can just start to put together a bed or series of beds for that particular
thing. Vegogarden dot com. You need to check them out on their look
at their Oasis Garden Planner. They also sell through a number of our good
high quality home mom and pop nurseries here in the Greater Houston area. I
getting up early in the morning and you know, you look outside and it's
it's still dark outside, and it's just it's a nice quiet moment where you
can get some some clear thinking done. And I was doing a little bit
this morning, just you know, kind of considering some different things and what
would be what would be some good topics to talk about today, And of
course we hope you set the stage for that with your calls. By the
way, the number is seven one three, two one two five eight seven
four. But I would just trying to figure out what would be what would
be of interest and helpful to folks as they go through. And I know
one of the one of the questions we just get a lot of is the
fertilization for our lawns. Our lawns and our trees are the two things people
care the most about. It just is it's what makes the phone ring,
whether it's here at Garden Line or at the County Extension office. That is,
that's what people mainly call about, those two topics. And so we
want to have lawns that are beautiful. And I see people do a lot
of things wrong. I see people, you know, fail to water their
long properly. They wat are too often too little, or instead of a
good deep, infrequent soaking, they under fertilize, they over fertilize, They
fertilize with the wrong product. There was a time when triple thirteen was the
fertilizer everybody put out. Well, we've we've learned that when you do that,
over time, phosphorus builds up to levels that are so high it ties
up iron and now we have yellowing in the grass. Do you see what
I'm saying. What you need is a quality product, but you need one
that releases over time. And Nelson's has one just like that. It's called
Slow and Easy Nelson's Plant Food. It's a twenty two two ten, so
super low in the phosphorus. Very few lawns need phosphorus fertilization. I've looked
at a lot of soil tests, you know, over the decades, and
just rarely see a need for turf grass to have additional phosphorus added. So
the Slow and Easy is one that's going to release gradually over time. You
put it out and I know, you know, you think twenty two that's
a lot of nitrogen well, no, you're putting it out about five pounds
per thousand square feet, so you're just putting a pound of actual nitrogen pero.
But that pound is gradually released, so you don't get the flushes of
growth. That means you have to mow more. That means you have a
less extensive root system. Isn't that interesting that when you make the top grow
more, the roots become less developed, They grow less developed. Nelson's Slow
and Easy twenty two ten will carry you all the way into fall. An
excellent, excellent option for that kind of thing. Well, we're getting kind
of close to a break here, But Nikki, I think that if anyone
asks about my Christmas list, on my Christmas list is a Lansdown Moody Caboda
L twenty five one. That's all I'm asking. I'm not asking for much.
That's just right there. Yeah, now is a joking with Nikki about
it. But now it's a really good time to do that because they're having
they're extending that incredible deal where for eighty four months. Now, I'm an
aggie, but I can tell you that's seven years, zero down, zero
percent interest. Extending that incredible deal all the way I think into October,
you're not going to find better. And when it comes to originals, and
that would be Caboda and Lansdowne Moody hands down, it's Landsdown. You can
go to LM tractor dot com to find out more about it. But don't
delay. I mean, do you want something, Maybe you want a front
endloader. You can trick these things out with front endloaders, you know,
the little shredders behind them and everything, carrying those feedsacks to the barn,
you know, moving the soil material. You buy several yards of soil,
now you just scoop it out and take it right to the garden. Lots
of fun ways, but mainly you just need to ride around in one.
You know. It's kind of like having the top down on a sports car.
Are you just really having a good time out there? Cauboda L twenty
five one, hands down, it's Lansdown LM tractor dot Com. Well,
I think we got some news coming. Good morning. You're listening to garden
Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number is seven
one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. You know how to Arburgate. They're they're always coming
up with new ideas, new plants, just new ways to have success in
the garden. You know, it's one of those garden centers when you go.
Everybody that is they're greeting you and helping you. They know what they're
talking about. I mean, they provide the service. They do that you
know that hold your hand, walks through if you need that. Let me
come here, let me show you this. You ought to consider this plan?
How about this one for the spot you just describe. That's the kind
of place. Arburgade is a lot of fun to go there too, by
the way, but they also have a one two three completely easy system that
starts with an organic food. It's a four four three plus ten percent calcium
organic granular Fertilizer's going to release very slowly. It's got, you know,
of course, plenty of organic matter in addition to those nutrients. But it
works super super well. They also have a soil. Now this soil isn't
just any soil because they understand the clay soils we deal with here. This
has compost in it, large particle sand and expanded shale, all of which
helped to open up those clay soils and with the expanded shale to keep them
open. And then you can also include an organic compost complete that would have
two different types of composts blended together with all the great microbes that you get
when you do that, and an expanded shale component in that as well.
One two three food soil compost, all organic, all complete, and all
available at arbor Gate. See. I told you they're always coming up when
new and cool stuff. By the way, right now, they've got some
beautiful hidden gingers that they have a Brazilian tropical plants out there, but the
hidden gingers are just especially pretty in you. You need to check those out.
You got a bright, shady area and you want to add some interest
in color to it. Try that. Ask them up to see their hidden
gingers. Let's head out now to Cyprus and we're gonna talk to Daryl.
Good morning, Daryl, Good morning, Skip. How are you today.
I'm doing pretty pretty well for a Sunday morning. Were good? Good?
All right, Hey, I've got some lawn issues. I sent some pictures
into you. I don't know if you can pull them up, but I
did. Let me let me see if I can get to them. Go
ahead and keep asking your saying what you're saying. Yeah, I've got some
areas that I don't know if it's ginch bugs, I don't are a fungus.
I know i've got in one part of the yard. I sent a
close up and I think I've got some. I know I have some kind
of fungus. Go on, you can, you'll see that. But these
dead spots that are getting larger, I'm concerned. It kind of reminds me
of the solid web worms when they hit. But there's no malls flying around.
Okay, let's see is that Henley? Yes, right, okay,
good, Yeah, great pictures. By the way, thank you. So
one of your pictures shows one of the most photogenet cases of gray leaf spot
I've ever seen on Saint Augustine. Gray leaf spot's brought on by excessive nitrogen
by excessive water, keeping it wet. It's often worse than shady areas,
but it can happen in the sun too, and fungicide will shut it down.
You just you just bag up all the This is one time where I
might bag the clippings. Normally I say return them, but bag them,
use them in compost, use them as a molt somewhere, but just get
all that those fungal spores out of the lawn you're still gonna have at present.
But I don't know, this is just a lot, So I think
I would probably bag those clippings if I were you, And some of your
other photos that are out kind of by the street and things. You've got
a mix of things going on there. It looks like take all root rot
to me visually, But that's not a disease you can officially, you know,
diagnosed based just on looking at a picture, because drought looks similar to
that. Damage from certain kinds of herbicides look similar to that. And it
also being next to your sidewalk and your driveway curbs, things it. We
can't eliminate chinch bugs and they are active. Now have you ever have you
ever looked at or seen pictures of chinch bugs? I have? Okay,
so you, if you know what you're looking for, go down on hands
and knees to the zone between healthy and dead. Chinch Bugs will not be
in the dead grass anymore, but wherever the grass is declining, that's where
your highest population will be. And just part the grass, and do you
know, looking about four or five different spots part the grass, look at
the at the soil surface and the thatch and see if you see chinch bugs,
and if so, you need to treat them promptly. Otherwise we're probably
dealing with take all root rot, and that would be a whole different thing.
But I would eliminate the chinchbug first. Okay, Now, what kind
of fun on your side is good for the great leaf spot? Great leaf
spot, you can do a variety of different things. The products that contain
chlorothalonil chlorothalonil uh Dakanil is one brand example. UH products that contain my clobutanil.
There's there's a lot of them out there. You're in you're in the
cypers area, so you know, you head over to a place like Plants
for All Seasons on two forty nine. They have got all those kind of
products. They're gonna know what they're talking about, and they'll be able to
kind of walk you through like here's your two options, and this one's systemic
and that one's not and so on, and probably drill right down to it.
But there are a number of different fungic sides that will work on great
leaf spot. Okay, I'll give it much fun. All right, Well,
good luck with it, and thank you sir. I appreciate that.
I'm gonna send you a note requesting use of those picks if you don't mind,
because those are absolutely you are. You are a sick plant photographer for
sure. That excellent job on that. Thank you very much. They appreciate
the call. You know. Star of Hope has been around for a very
long time, making a big difference here in the Houston community. Star of
Hope is a christ centered community. Really, it's been more than a hundred
years. They've got the downtown Men's Center and then they have a cornerstone community
where if you are someone that is trying to turn your life around, you
need a place to stay. You know, when you hit rock bottom,
it's not just get a job. You got to be able to get to
the job, and you don't have money for a car. Maybe you need
to dress for an interview, and you're at a spot where that's not in
the wardrobe, because there isn't a wardrobe to draw from. Star of Hope
provides all that. They help people over a period of time get their feet
under them so they can make a life for themselves. And most importantly too,
for their children. Now six thousand meals a week, you can provide
a meal for just two dollars and eighty cents. It's the cost of a
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o H mission dot org learn more. I know you're compassionate and you care
about people, and you want to make sure when you give something that it
goes to a good cause, not just to hand out through a window on
a street corner, but life changing help. And that is exactly what Star
Hope provides. We are gonna let's see where are we now? About to
have to take a break. Sandy, you will be the first up.
When we come back, we'll talk to you a bunch of picks. And
if any of you would like to call seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four get by word the King of the world, tell you what
do good Saturday morning, you are listening to garden Line and we are here
to talk gardening. That makes sense right with a title like guarden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter and our phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. Listen. If you have been thinking about putting
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It's about to Cyprus and we're gonna talk to Sandy this morning. Good morning
Sandy, Hi, good morning Skip for are you. I'm well? Thank
you. I sent you. I sent you some pictures yesterday. I spoke
to you about my plant. Yes that I um don't know the names,
and I spent indoor and outdoor plants now my real name. So you're gonna
have to look under swatty Gallier. I've already got it pulled up. Oh
okay, I found you. So you're wanting that. You want to know
the one the Hawaiian t I just think you need to. You know,
as far as getting rid of it, I would just tilt the container over,
slide it out, knock off all the soil you can. You can
reuse that soil in the pot, mix it up with some fresh so you
can replant those pots. I think that's probably the most practical way to get
rid of it, unless you just want to dump the whole thing in the
trash. But I you know, there's probably a lot of good soil on
there. That. If you want to just stretch it a little bit,
you could do that. Uh, the plants. You've got a beautiful eggs
growing there out of a container, and some cannas in there behind it with
a egga with a golden Eggxora with the golden colors. Looks like you have
some gomprina, which is a bachelor button another name for it, with a
little reddish what is the magenta, I don't know, magenta colors. I
think it's kind of hard to see. On the other one, it looks
like a chrysanthemum too. That's a beautiful container of that. And then of
course you're blueberry, so you're having a lot of fun with containers. Yeah,
I just don't know how to like trimp up tap run Yeah, like
I want to, like I want to keep especially this um green with the
magenta or the purple all right, so on that, how do I trim
that? Well? I mean, it depends on your aesthetic preferences. I
think it looks great just spilling over the sides like it is, but you
could I would reach under and just cut off any branches that are sticking out
further than you want them to be, or that are hanging down further than
you want them to be, And so you decide what is the shape you
want, and then just snap here and there and go about it slow,
walk around, take a look at it, and then prune again. And
you can come up with a good, a good solution on that one.
As far as the blueberry, you want to get anything hanging really low to
the ground out of the way. But when we come to winter, that's
the time when you want to prune a little twiggy growth out of your blueberry
and it'll it'll rejuvenate in the spring. Okay, all right? And what
about the one inside the um? It's not a croton, but it's the
one that's going straight up. I think I missed that picture. Let me
look and see. I don't see that. I think it's one of the
first ones. Okay, I'm not seeing it right now. But when oh,
you're talking, are you talking about the Hawaiian t No? Not,
it's inside my house. Okay. It's the one with the green um.
There's a green plant that's growing straight up. And then right next to it
is another one that looks like we got maroon. And yeah, I don't
I don't see it in the pictures, but in general, on those when
you have a long stock going up with um, you know, no side
branching, you often can cut the tips out and cause them to branch,
But without seeing exactly the one, it's kind of hard for me to say
for sure. Okay, I'll resend those pictures to you. Then, all
right, well, thank you very much. I appreciate thank you. Okay,
bo bye. What I enjoy gardening for a lot of reasons. It's
good for your health, that's absolutely true. Good physical health, is good
for mental health. Lots of benefits to garden. We're made to garden.
I mean, did I really believe that? And those of you who aren't
gardening, you know who you are. You just haven't arrived yet. It's
time to grow up. Get a garden because it is wonderful for herod.
I was visiting with someone earlier about like a bird sanctuary that's connected to a
hospital and just you look at the window and you just see the trees and
the birds. There is so much scientific research showing that that makes people heal
faster. I mean plants, which is nature and people put together. It
changes things. It changes a cognitive ability of kids. Really, I mean
kids offer from add in a classroom where they can get out and see nature
versus not statistical difference between the two. One of the things that I think
makes gardening fun, one of the extras is the birds. They fly in
with the song. And you've heard me say before gardening is an aesthetic aesthetic
thing where we look at the beauty. But gardening is also affects our olfactory
where we enjoy the sense and the smells. And gardening effects are hearing the
birds songs that come in in the morning. I love sitting outside in the
morning hearing the bird songs. Well, Wallbird's unlimited as a place. You
need to know about it if you want to do that. I've got a
really cool new feeder that I got from Wall Birds that is a squirrel proof
feeder, and I tell you, it is so much fun watching squirrels not
get to eat my bird seed. It's kind of entertaining and boy do they
ever not give up. But I think I've got them thwarted with this special
bird excluding feeder that they have. It's nesting seasons, so your bluebirds,
cardinals, chickenees and ends need to be fed. And Wabirds has nesting super
Blend. Nesting super blend is just a super food. It's high quality.
It helps them during the nesting season, but also we're going to be doing
molting here as we get later into the summer, and birds need to mold
to get new feathers to replace their old damaged feathers, and the quality feed
helps them renew their plumage and keep it in top condition. So I would
feed nesting super Blend all the way through August. Now. Wahbirds has a
lot of other great great feeds bird seeds by the way, too, they
have some of those no waste type bird seeds where you know, rather than
having maybe sunflowers and shells, so when you know the birds are done with
them, you got this pile of shells underneath the feeder, which is fine.
If you don't like that, use one of the no mess feeds.
They have quality feeds. When you pay for feed, bird feed, bird
seed in a wall birds mix, you are not wasting money on anything that
the birds don't want to eat. The old red bbes you get in cheap
bird seed birds that's the last thing in the world they want to eat,
and they typically kick it out on the ground. So it can grow like
a weed underneath your feeder. Wahbirds feeds are not that way, and you
can get a feed designed for the kind of birds you want to feed.
Some cover a wide range of species. But go to WBU dot com WBU
dot com Forward Slash Houston. There's seven Wallbirds. You can find one near
you on that website. You can go to clear Lake, West Houston bel
Air. Maybe you're done in pear Land or up in Cypress Kingwood, or
over in Katie. Wallbirds for all of you guys. There just so easy
and it's fun to visit. And it's a great place too to buy really
cool gifts for that person that has everything, but you just don't know what
to get them. Well, check out Wall Birds Unlimited. It's kind of
hard to find somebody that just doesn't enjoy beautiful birds and beautiful songbirds in our
landscapes. Well, you're listening to Gardenline. I am your host, Skip
Rict and our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven
four. We're gonna take a little break here. If you would like to
give Josh a call, he'll get you on the boards and you'll be first
up when we come back by the way later today, real special deal here.
You need to note this. We are going to have the Peerscapes folks
in the studio. That's right, Peerscapes right here in the studio Jason and
I believe he's bringing a designer with him. So if you have any questions
about landscaping, maybe you know what can be done to fix drainage over here,
or you know, I don't know hardscaping. Any advice you want,
this is your chance to pick their brain and they are the experts on it.
I mean when it comes to landscapes, Peerscapes is just first class.
The designs, the services they offer pretty much anything you need. What do
you need, let's hear you give us a call about seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four, that's eight o'clock hour. KTRH Garden Line
does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program.
Welcome to KTRH Guarden Line with Scarre Rictor It's smell. Just watch him as
so many Well, good morning on a beautiful Sunday morning. This is the
time of day to be in joining outside. I'll tell you the early day
and late day. It's kind of when we get out there and get a
few things done. Hey, if you are thinking about retirement, maybe you'd
like to find a community where you know all the things you care about are
right there around you. Dellweb's building a new community in Full Shirt. It's
just two miles from Full Shirt Downtown. Full Shirt on FM three fifty nine.
Now, a Dellweb community is going to give you quality workmanship inspired designs.
The whole community is based around lifestyle programs built around you, h fifty
five and better active adults who want to continue with their activity going forward.
And you know that's the way to do it. And gardeners know that.
And this Dellweb community, by the way, has a community garden going in
that I'm helping them with. I just can't imagine. I mean, you
don't have to dig up your backyard to put a garden in here. So
here you have a beautiful community, great programs, great activities, beautiful walking
trails. It's just gorgeous. And on top of it all, you've got
a place you can go garden, you can visit with your gardening friends and
things there. I mean, it's just it's a perfect setup. Call Dellweb
at two eight one four five nine zero six zero nine, or just go
online to dellweb dot com Slice Houston and you can get more inform there.
Let's head out this morning to Cove and we're going to talk to Dennis.
Hello, Dennis, Hi, good morning. I have a question about fig
trees. Our pigs were through through producing probably two three weeks ago, and
my question is should I keep watering them? At some point do they become
dormant? You know, does it make sense to keep watering or do they
just kind of once they aren't producing to the trees, I'm asking that I'm
starting to notice the leaves or getting yellow. We only had measurable rain wants
about June tenth, right, I wouldn't worry about a lot of watering on
a fig, but I would do rescue watering if needed. So if the
soil gets really, really dry, the figs will cast their leaves off,
they'll turn yellow and drop right off. And you'd like to keep as much
of the carbohydrate producing leaf surfaces as you can on the plant for a good
vigor and health and so on. I think I would, you know,
just what I would call a rescue watering a good soaking on an infrequent basis.
You don't even have to do it weekly, but just keep the fig
in decent shape. There are other things that can be causing them to drop
leaves and decline. They're susceptible and nematodes in the soil. You know,
there's just other possibilities. There's some foliage diseases like rusts that will attack them.
But I think in general what you're describing is just a good soaking occasionally.
Just keep an eye on them, and if anything changes, you can
call us back with a description of exactly what's happening on the leaf. All
right, thank you, hey, Dennis, thank you, and good luck
with a fig. That's a wonderful, wonderful plant to have. I love
figs. I grew up eating fig jelly that was made with strawberry jello.
Now I don't know how Mom pulled that off, but yeah, it was.
It was basically strawberry jello mixed with fig and it made a really nice
dense jelly. I also grew up eating figs run around barefoot, climbing in
the tree, dodging wasps. We didn't have the nice closed eye type of
figs. Back then that you do have available now. And boy, if
you're ever going to buy a fig, make sure it has a closed eye
so it doesn't let all those bugs in to sour the fig. And once
it gets sour, it becomes a little wasp beer joint and they want to
hang out with all that fermented sap or juices coming out of it. This
is a time where you have a unique opportunity to buy a tree at a
super superprice, and that would be from Verdant. They have a Christmas in
July sale. I love that Christmas in July. It's going on at all
three of their locations. You know. They're out there at on the west
side, kind of near Bear Creek Park. It's on Barker Cyprus down in
Paarland on Broadway Street. They have their second location, and then they have
a location on Yale Street where it comes into E ten. Not hard to
find a Verdant around town. You can go to Verdant tree farm dot com
and find out more information. With Verdant, you get to pick out your
tree, they put a tag on it, they bring it out and they'll
install it for you. Now in this Christmas in July cl ten to fifty
percent off trees when purchased with an install, so they're not discounting the install,
but the tree ten to fifty percent off. And this is for trees
that they have there on site, which they have a great selection. They're
on site. So check out Verdant treefarm dot Com. Now would be a
good time if you've been thinking about putting in a tree, Let's get it
in and let's get it done right. Especially important to plant and care for
it right when you're doing it during the warm season, and Verdant knows exactly
how to do that right. That's one of the things I enjoy about our
companies that here on garden Line, we don't hire, or if we don't
hire, we don't take on ads for companies that don't have a reputation for
doing things right. It just I can't imagine steering you to a place where
you're not going to get treated right, or you're not going to get the
service that you need, you're not going to get selection where they don't know
what they're talking about. There's a lot of businesses that fill all those categories
around any town, but when you're hearing us talk about things on Guardenline,
those are companies that I personally either have utilized or have talked to customers that
we've we've we look into companies and we keep a close eye on things because
it's important to me to send you in the right direction. I mean,
how many times have you wasted money on something because you wish someone had told
you, Yeah, don't go there, don't buy that product that doesn't work,
or and so on. That's what it's all about. Microlife fertilizer number
one organic fertilizer, number one selling organic fertilizer in the Greater Houston area.
And Microlife they just build quality products. You know, They've got their their
Microlife Green Bag, which is a six two four. It's just all a
round. You pretty much choose on anything you grow, but we really focus
it on lawns because it does so well with lawns. But that's the green
bag six to four. Now, the purple bag is the Humates plus.
What does humates plus? Well, imagine taking compost and concentrating it down into
little granules that you can put out with a fertilizer spreader, Concentrated compost in
a bag that's Microlife Humates plus. Things like that, add a bazillion beneficial
microbes over sixty three essential nutrients. There's this nice gradual feeding as it releases
out and it just it's also improving the soil gradually over time. You can
go online to Microlife Fertilizer dot com and you can find out about the green
bag and the Purple bag and every other Microlife product, as well as find
the dealers in your area. And by the way, if it's a garden
center on garden line, if it's a feed store, if it's an ace
hardware store, you're probably gonna find Microlife Fertilizer and all their products there.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Feel free to give us
a call that you know. We're happy to answer your gardening questions. If
you need to send a photo, we can arrange a way to do that.
Sometimes with you describing something and me picturing it, they don't necessarily jive
right, So occasionally I'll ask you to send a photo so we can do
a little bit better job of diagnosing it. I was talking about verdant and
the trees and getting things established successfully, and I want to come back and
talk a little bit more about that right after the break, but in the
meantime, if you want to get on the board seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. Good Sunday morning, and you're listening to garden
Line. I'm your host, skip Rickter, and we're here to answer your
gardening questions, so feel free to give us a call. Seven one three
two one two five eight seven four seven one three two and two fifty eight
seventy four. I was talking yesterday about plants for summer that flower that are
dependable, that you can trust, and one of those plants is Russellia also
called choirecracker fern. It has this almost very linear, very narrow linear,
almost pine needle like leaves on it, and it grows long shoots that arch
over and load up with these beautiful red flowers that are just they're disgorgeous.
They're very showy. Hummingbirds go nuts over them, and I've seen them.
I saw him down at Moody Gardens one time, used in a boulevard,
and I mean they were just masked with firecracker fern or Russelia. It looked
it was a showstopper and The reason I thought about it is because at it
Warren Southern Gardens they got a shipment of those in and it just reminded me,
Oh, that's another plant that we need, we need to be talking
about in the summer. You know, I talked about plumbago yesterday and how
surprising it lee tough it is in the hot weather. Well this if you
have not seen a firecracker fern, you need to see it. It's not
a fern, but it is a very very tough plant that is very beautiful.
I mean it can reach up to five feet tall, but the limbs
just sort of or the shoots just sort of bend over and absolutely gorgeous.
By the way, Warrens is on North Park Drive in Kingwood, and also
in Kingwood is Kingwood Garden Center. They're on Stone Hollow Drive and both up
are open seven days a week. So now you've got something to do this
afternoon. Right. They've got that filling station. If you've got Microlife or
Nelson plant food, the little plastic judge, you can go refill them there.
Saves little money and it avoids buying another piece of plastic to put in
the landfill somewhere down the line. They do a great job of designing and
making combo containers too. Just beautiful. That's the kind of fortune you live
in when you live in the greater Kingwood area, I mean New Caney,
Kingwood, humble A, Tasca, Ceda. You were rich with garden centers
over there, Warren seven Gardens, Kingwood Garden Center. That's kind of place
that you love take family when they come in from out of town because it's
just fun even for non gardeners seeing all the beauty. Let's head over.
I think we're gonna go to Joel and Magnolia and what's up this morning,
Joel, Good morning, Skip, long time listener, first time caller to
you. Well, I'm glad you called. I've got a few questions for
you. As you probably heard um question regarding m I haven't heard you mentioned
Randy's fertilization schedule. You seem to be maybe from reading this my life Mark
thinking maybe you'd like to look and observe and then apply fertilizer. We put
on fourtilze a little late in the year April. We put on the supertur
from April, and we've been waiting. We listen to you, I mean
we haven't heard anything about schedules, So just wandering our grasses grown. Then
we're getting yeah, almost two times a week for cutting grass. What do
you what's your beliefs or feelings on the frequency or schedules of fertilization. Yeah,
well, number one, you need to keep using Randy schedule for now.
I am working on a newer one that I'm putting out. Just I've
been doing spending quite a bit of time researching with turf specialists, plant disease
specialists, entomology specialists, and a lot of others. Just said, okay,
what's the latest here, And I've got a new one that is on
the verge of coming out. It'll be out before certainly before we get very
far into August. If not, if we can put it out in July,
we're going to do that. But it's it's going to be coming out.
But in the meantime, there's nothing wrong with using Randy schedule. It's
a great schedule. So just keep keep operating. I've just been heading my
nose in the books trying to you know, get mine ready to go.
Okay, sounds good. He's a mite. You often talked about signals and
signs at your certain signals, I spend about two years since we'll put less
might last time all frequently or what kind of signals, what kind of spress
signals or signposts should we look forward or say hey it's time to do it
again, or just visit. Yeah, that's a tough one. If you
see the problems from a micronutrient or trace element deficiency, it's going to already
be pretty severe for you to see it. The most visible one is iron,
which shows up a lot in our Saint Augustine ones, especially when we
overdo the phosphorus and when our pH is high. Iron deficiencies real common.
But there's a lot of others. I was reading the other day that I
believe it was manganese is helpful in combating with take all patch issues. Well,
that's a new one, But that's a micronutrient you're just not going to
see on the list of the label of most fertilizers. And that's why the
trace elements like the aismite you're talking about are important. The real way,
Joel, that I would say, whether you need them or not, is
have a soul test done and have them look at all of the micros and
just see if anything's out of way, okay, all right, all right,
and then the that would go to textas A and M Extension Office or
something like that, or Tony Extension Office. Yeah, you can just go
straight. Yeah, you can just go straight to soil testing dot TAM dot
edut okay. And then the final question is regarding herbicides. Randy used to
talk about we'd beat her ultra and it was basically under eight three definite constant
a degree, so like in the webber through February marks. Then we beat
then the standard weed beater the warm seasons. And is that still pretty I
have a plenty dollars two hots hadn't touched it. Yeah, that's still pretty
good. And then where does where does weed beat her complete fit into that
schedule? And and then how does that number number one heard that before?
Yeah, number one, I would say that. I would say that it
depends on the weeds you're going after as to which combo of ingredients is going
to work best for you. Most herbicides, if you read the label.
And then when I say herbicides, I mean broadleaf post emergent herbicides, you
know, kill existing broad leaf weeds in your lawn. Most of them are
going to tell you eighty five or upper eighties you need to back off because
it's getting too hot. And there is one called Celsius that is you can
use it in hotter weather. It's harder to find a little price, but
it works very well. And so that's kind of what we try to do
in the new schedule I have coming out. We do a pretty hard push
for treating your warm season weeds early in the season on the schedule so that
you don't have to try to fight them. And then it's almost a chemotherapy
where you're killing the weeds, but you're making the Saint Augustine sick at the
same time. Right, Yeah, Because I've you Selsie the fahrenheit off brands
and that's worked well in the hot weather for you know, Virginia button weeds
and stuff like that. I know we beat or also works for everything in
its cold seasons, but the standard meat beater does not touch Yeah, Virginia,
that might be that would be where we have to go to some other
things and where we're going to end up with Virginia button weed. You're gonna
be timing your control different and that will come out in the new schedule as
well. Okay, sure, all right, it's fantastic. I appreciate the
information. I appreciate what job you're doing. Really good. Thank you for
calling. I really appreciate that. You know, we talk about all these
these products, these chemicals and different kinds of things. Uh, where do
you find something like that real close to you? Well, I'll tell you
where and Ace Hardware. Go to Ace Hardware dot com and do the store
locator and you can see the all thirty nine stores they are here in the
Houston area, and there's gonna be two or three really close to you.
Worth a drive to go get your stuff because they have it. They've got
the fertilizers we talk about here, they've got when you're looking for insecticide,
fungicide, you know, herbicides, those they have a great selection. I
was just in an ac other day looking down the line at all the products
they carry, and it always surprises me at lobit like, oh wow,
I did not know they had that too. It just keeps getting a better
and better place for you to pick up those kind of things, like I
was just visiting about there with Joel. Go to ACE Hardware dot com to
find out more. ACE Hardware is just a fun place to visit. Lots
of things available in the store. I could take the whole show just trying
to describe everything in an ACE Hardware for you or the general categories even go
see for yourself Ace hardware dot Com. We're fortunate to have so many nice
ACE stores here in our area. If you have been planting trees or shrubs
in the last few months, those trees are shrubs still have a very confined
root system, and if you're planning something now there's the whole system is just
still in that cylinder that went in the ground. How do you take care
of it? Well, they have to have water. The demands are high
on them. Now that doesn't mean drown them, but it means keep it
consistently moist. And tree hugger sprinklers enable you to do that. So you
put a tree hugger sprinkler kind it kind of folds in around your tree.
There's like a seven inch, eleven inch and fifteen inch diameter versions. But
you can turn the water on with a little valve there, hook it up
to your water hose and it turns it on. So it maybe it just
sprinkles two inches high or three inches just to water that area right there at
the base where all the roots still are, if you just planted it and
then you turn it up a little more to water a wider area in a
wider area. I did a little video for KBTX TV and Brian Coller Station
Texas the other day just talking about summer watering of trees and featuring that tree
Hugger Sprinkler's It is a quality product. You can go online tree Hugger sprinkler
dot com find out more information from them there. Let's head out to Base
City now and we're going to talk to Keith. Hello Keith, Hey,
good morning, Chris, thanks for taking my call. Hey. I had
some squash planted early in the spring and the bo's got a hold of it.
The worm bore and replanted some couple of weeks ago, and they've come
up. They're looking pretty and then the leaves are starting to turn yellow.
Okay, I would I'd follow that vine back toward the ground, study it
carefully, and you're probably going to see some little holes where you see that
wet, sawdusty looking stuff coming out, indicating that there may be a borer
in it. That's one of the things borers will do is it goes through
yellow and it's way to dead, So you might want to consider that one.
It also could be that it needs some nitrogen fertilizer that shows up in
the older leaves. If the new growth is yellow, it could be nitrogen
or sulfur. It could be a number of different things. These plants are
only like a foot high. Okay, wow, real old. Yeah,
I watched the watering. Don't over water and saggy soil. That symptom you're
describing can also happen, So those are you know, it could be a
lot of things. If you want to send a picture of it, I
can put you on hold and Josh can get you how to send me a
picture. Somebody something up a real closer. I can see what's going on
in good sharp focus, and I'll try to go a little further than that.
But as you can tell, there's just a lot of things that could
be. I've got three other plants right there in the same area, squashed
plants, and they're doing fine. No no yellowing, no nothing, nice
and green healthy all right. And I use a soaker hose and I monitor
the water with a moisture meter. Okay, and how to keep it right
in the middle of the green. Yeah, and you know we're about to
hit a break here in about the next fifteen seconds here, Keith, But
I send me a picture. Let me look at it and see. It's
gonna be something happening underground. And I don't know exactly what, but let
me let's start with a picture, because otherwise I'm just kind of shooting out
there and the air not knowing. Okay, thank you for the call.
I appreciate that. I'm putting you on hold, Josh. We'll pick you
up, all right. We don't monkey around on garden line. We're here
to answer your gardening questions seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
If you have not fertilized, you're long this summer. I have got
an idea for you, and that is Nitrofus. This is a silver bag.
I like colors because it makes it easier. I could tell you,
you know, like you need to go and purchase this particular name or brand
or whatever. Nitrofus super Turf nineteen four ten. The silver bag. That's
what you need to know. Nitrofus Superturf is going to gradually release it is
set up where it just the chemistry of the product does not allow those nutrients
to become available overnight, and that is what you want. We want to
gradually feed that thing, just like we eat. Plants eat every day.
Every day they're taking up nutrients, and so we want a fertilizer that is
feeding them day by day as you go out through the system. That would
be the nitro FoST Superturf. Now you're gonna find nitro fosts all Ace Hardware
stores, a lot of our home mom and pop nurseries and garden centers.
I mean they're located all over the place. It's easy to find nitro FoST
products here in the Greater Houston area. So check out the silver bag the
superturf. It's an excellent product that will gradually feed and you'll be set up
until it's time to do a fall fertilization. You know. Coming up in
the eight o'clock hour, I am going to have Jason or excuse me,
yeah, Jason from Peerscapes and he's bringing a designer with him. I believe
this morning you've heard me talk about peer Escapes. I mean, you know,
the one stop shop for all things landscaping. It doesn't matter what you
need. If they do, they do stuff like a rock border or a
hardscape. Maybe you need a walkaway. Perhaps your drainage isn't okay, Welcome
to Southeast Texas and they can fix that. Maybe your irrigation system needs a
little bit of work done on it, or you want to install landscape lighting.
I mean, I could just go on and on. These are experienced
folks, professionally trained employees and designers that know how to create that beautiful show
place. You can call peer Escapes at two eight one three seven zero five
zero six zero, or in the eight o'clock hour, you can just give
me a call here on garden Line because we are fortunate to have Jason and
perhaps one of his designers here. What kind of questions do you have?
Do you do you want to ask a question about design, about how to
deal with a wet area? You have just all kinds of things basically,
how to turn as landscape into a show place and what are the kinds of
things that could be done for that. Give us a call. By the
way, peerscapes dot com is their website. You need to check it out.
It's time to take your landscape up to the next notch. I always
say that a lot of us or plant collectors, you know, I see
a plant at the garden center, I want to have that one like that,
like that firecracker fern, it warrens the other that I was telling you
about a minute ago. Well, when plant collectors bring plants home, what
do they do with them? They just put them somewhere. Our landscapes look
up like a bomb went off in a garden center and everything rooted where it
landed. Right when you hire a professional designer like Peerscapes to come in and
create that little beautiful look, it didn't look that way. It's esthetically pleasing,
and sometimes us gardeners need a little bit of help with someone with a
little bit of design flare. As a result, Hey, let's go out
to the woodlands. We're gonna talk to Tammy. We got morning Tammy,
Good morning SKIPT. I have a question about Saint Augustine grass. My husband
and I mow our own lawn and we've kept it. It's really beautiful,
three inches three and a half inches once a week. It's very dense.
But we needed someone to help us out for a week. So we had
someone in our neighborhood come mow it, and before I realized it, he
had almost finished some front yard and his mower blade was too short, so
he cut off about two and a half inches of the grass and kind of
not scalped, but really crew cut a few areas, particularly by the curb.
So heartbroken because we worked so hard on it, and we recovered from
web worms last summer, so I'm wondering what we can do to make sure
it doesn't get damaged. I assume it's shocked. And interestingly, the grass
blades look a lot wider where he cut down so much, so I don't
know if we were already getting a problem, Profess, just the way it
looks when you cut off two and a half inches. Yeah, what can
we do? What to look out for? That is stressful? You're right,
and that does create a problem for the grass, but it will bounce
back. When was the last time you fertilized. We did the super turf
back in April. In April, okay, April, the silver back.
Yeah, you're you're probably okay. If you wanted to give a little bit
of an extra dose, that would be fine. We're stretching it out a
little bit. So this might not be a bad time to get a summer
application of the super turf again, if you can do that, just follow
the label. I would put five pounds of super turf per thousand square feet
here in the summer application. That'll be about the right am, okay.
And so in the meantime, you just got to wait and let it grow
back. You know, it took off all this big green foliage that was
kind of eating the runners and stuff. And so now the sun is blazing
down through and you're kind of looking at all the ugly stuff behind the scenes,
you know, down towards the ground line that you normally weren't seeing because
you had a nice high MOI. But your landscape will bounce back, your
lawn will bounce back from that, okay, And it's not too hot to
do more of the super turf. Now, maybe do it in the morning.
Of water at it. No, it's not because five pounds per thousand
square feet that is not a lot of fertilizer. I mean number one and
number two. It's a gradual release. So I mean it's not like putting
table salt and a glass of water and it all dissolves at once. And
you got salty water. Right, this is a very gradual release, so
it'll be safe to do. Okay, all right, we'll do that,
thank you so much. And from now and we'll mow our own lawn.
Yeah, well I understand. But you know, if you have problems in
the future, you can call us back. We can take a look pictures,
and you know, maybe something else is coming in. I mean,
we can't know that now, but I think it's awful coincidental that it's right
after the scalp that you're seeing in it. So yeah, well he had
a very dull blade too, we could tell. I mean, I've never
thought about it until I've heard you talking. The difference in having a blunt
blade and a sharp mulching blade clearly not mulching. We'll keep an eye on
it. Thank you for the call, and we're here if you need to
call back sometime. I appreciate that very much, Tammy. Star of Hope
is it's just a beacon of hope here in the greater Houston community. It
is a cause that I thoroughly believe in. I know Randy thoroughly believed in
Star of Hope as well. And here's the reason why. They don't just
throw a handful of money at people to go here, go fix your life.
That doesn't work when you have hit rock bottom. You don't have a
car to get to work, you don't have clothes to go for an interview,
you can't feed the family in the meantime while you're trying to find a
job, and maybe you don't have interview skills and know how to get and
hold a good job. There's a lot of things. There's no one face
of homelessness. There's many faces of homelessness. But I know folks that are
listening. I know you are compassionate people. I know you care about other
people. You don't want to waste money just throwing up, you know,
creating more of a problem. Maybe Star of Hope is a very opposite of
all that. It is hope, It is real life change that lasts.
Go to shmission dot org sh mission dot org to donate. They also there's
opportunity street to volunteer if you want to take it to the next level.
But I cannot think of a better use of money if you're trying to truly
provide long term change to people's lives than Star of Hope. And I mean
that, from the bottom of my heart, we are going to take a
break here. We'll be back in a bit. Our phone number seven one,
three, two and two five eight seven four and Bill, you will
be the first when we come back. Hey, good Sunday morning. Glad
you're listening to garden Line. I hope you're having a good time. We
sure are here. We're here to answer your gardening questions. Seven one three,
two one two five eight seven four seven one three two On two fifty
eight seventy four, I was talking about Bob at Southwest Fertilizer yesterday. We
were I was hunting down some really uncommon pesticide issues or pesticide products. Excuse
me that I just knew if anybody's got it, Southwest Fertilizer has it.
You know, they've they've been around since nineteen fifty five, and they do
have everything. If we talk about a fertilizer, they have it there plus
some. I mean, they have all the products we talk about. If
you're an organic gardener and you're hearing about, well, this is a place
that sells herbicides and sexicides, fungicides, you're not going to find it or
organic selection anywhere than Southwest Fertilizer. They've they've got it all. And that's
why I call Bob, because I knew here this is a product that's probably
not going to be found many places. Just want to make sure somebody around
town has it. And of course they had it. Of course they had.
I shouldn't even had to call. While you're there, get your more
blade sharpened. You know, we were just talking about Tammy had somebody come
in and you know, hack through their their lawn with a dull moor blade
that just you know, basically rips the ends off the grass blades. And
as a result, what do you do. You get a little brown tip
on the end of your grass blade and multiply that times eight hundred billion,
which is all the leaves in your yard, the grass blades, and it
takes away from the green. A sharp more blade makes your long greener.
Imagine that. It's not a huge difference, but it is a difference,
and it's better for the grass too. By the way, Now at Southwest
Fertilizer, you know you can take in samples, you can take in pictures
of stuff. They'll look at it, they'll get be an honest assessment and
diagnose the problem, tell you if you need anything, and if you do,
direct you to the product, and then tell you how to use it.
Right, Because I'm telling you it always scares me to talk to people
about herbicides and inseexicides and fungicides because I know when you know, essentially I'm
turning them loose to go fix this problem. I don't know how they're going
to use it. And when you miss use a product, you can cause
more damage than you do good. And that's why I go into a place
like Southwest where they can really direct you. But always remember the label is
the law. The label is a law. By the way, if you
want to find out more about Southwest Fertilizer, just go to Southwest Fertilizer dot
com. They're down on the corner of Bissonette and Renwick, Southwest Houston.
Really easy to find, easy to get to. Also, let's head out
to Conro. We're gonna talk to Bill. Good morning, Bill, Good
morning. Skip quick question on verbina. I love verbina. They grow so
well, but I come the leaves are turning kind of that gray coloratic.
It looks like powder eight mildew, and I don't know quite what to do
about it. Is there a specific fungicide I could use on them. I
think I'm watering them too much, and I thought maybe I need to prune
them back a little bit. But it doesn't seem like it's the right time
to hear for any kind of proud Yeah, in the in the summer heat,
I'm just going to assume it's powder and mildew, you know, without
drilling past it. It could be other things, but let's just go with
that. A lot of our organic products that will work. The horticultural oil
actually works pretty good on powdery mildew. There are some other organics that will
work pretty well on it. But in the heat, anytime you use like
an oil, you are increasing your plant burning potential, and so I hesitate
to do that. There is a there's a product. Do you have a
pen or pencil handy I do? The ingredient is try a dima fon so
tr i A d I m O N try diamonphon. It's also there's a
brain called or there's a form of it called baylaton, but there's some others.
But where you know, wherever you're going and getting your stuff, look
for a trimea diamonphon that's gonna be really good on powdery mill doing. It's
gonna be labeled for your ornamentals. Okay, all right, I'm out printing
the verbina. You can cut it back. It didn't hurt it to share
it back a little and have it grow. Just don't overdo it. You
know. It's kind of like the petunias. As petunias start to get into
summer and they're not looking so great, I'll share them back, fertilize them,
water them, and they bounce back with fresh new growth and therefore new
blooms. And that's what you would be doing. Just don't overdo it,
or you may find that the plants just really don't recover from that. Any
special fertilizer or is it just a general good one for any general good one.
I mean yeah, And just it's not hard on this. I know
people talk about you know, well it has blooms, so you need lots
of phosphors, you know, without a soil test and knowing what's in your
ground, I would just use the standard fertilizing. I'll tell you this.
Don't tell anybody. I hope no one's listening. I use a lawn fertilizer
for just about everything I do. I mean, I've got a lot of
fertilizers and I use them all. But there's nothing wrong with using lawn fertilizer
to fertilizer trees and shrubs and you know, all kinds of things. And
you're Verbena is not going to quit blooming if you use a little lawn fertilizer
on at one time. But yeah, you can go out and buy good
color products and things like that too, that's just fine. But in a
pinch, just fertilizer thuds are good, all right, all right, you
bet, thank you for the call. I appreciate that. I you know,
it's been a while. It's probably been over a month since I've been
to Quality Feed and Garden Company Downtown. That's just north of downtown, by
the way. You can go online to Quality feed co dot com and find
them. I used to go when they're at their older location. They have
moved now to a newer location about four and a half miles from where they
are. They're on Luzon Street, Luzio, and that's near the intersection of
Equipment and Alesion And if you want an old time feed store, I mean,
Quality Feed has been a Houston tradition since nineteen twenty eight. You know,
Ken and Chris have been operating it for thirty two years now. They've
If I mentioned a fertilizer, you're going to be able to buy it at
Quality Feed. If I talk about some of the potting mixes, they're going
to have him there. He also makes his own Kin's potting soil. He
even has plants available. They sell some bones eye trees and they have occasionally
have a little bones eye classes there. But any kind of fertilizer, pesticide,
they've got it all, by the way their feed store. I mean,
so if you if you got backyard chickens, this is the place you
need to go about. Ever two weeks they get new chicks in and of
course they have everything you need to have success with your backyard chickens at Quality
Feed, Quality feed coo dot com. I love talking about flowering plants,
and I'll love talking about heat tolerant plants and vegetables and things like that.
And just know that just because it's summer doesn't mean we can't be putting some
plants out there. And I think we need to do a better job overall
we being okay, all of us in the Greater Houston area need to do
a better job of creating summer color and our landscapes. And I've said this
before, but our landscapes when summertime comes, become a sea of green.
They just green grass, green groundcovers, green shrubs, green trees. We
can have color. And there's so many options. Go to any one of
the garden centers, so we talk about on garden line today. Go this
afternoon, take a look at them and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Oh wow, there's a lot of color. You know. There's there's hibiscus,
and there's uh, the zenias, various types of compact zenias. I
talked about, the the rizelia that and it's blooms, and the plumbago and
its blooms. And one of my favorite's Pride of Barbados, also called red
bird of Paradise. Oh my gosh, that thing is so gaudy. When
it blooms in your yard. You can put fifty pink flamingos and everybody that
drives by will not know they saw a pink flamingo. They will just see
the gaudiest thing in the landscape, and that is a red bird of Paradise.
Hey, if you're trying to water and take care of your landscape and
especially your lawn, you need to know about the water my Yard app.
You can get it on the Apple App Store, you can get it on
Google Play, or just go online to water my yard dot org. This
is free. It's a free app. You sign up, you follow the
instructions on what you know, you tell them, and that way they send
a specific to your location watering recommendation by email. So what does that mean.
It means there's a local weather station that's measuring solar intensity, that's measuring
humidity, that's measuring wind speed, that's measuring all of those factors in temperature,
everything that affects how much water grass uses. And because of research over
the years, they cry bunch it through a computer. I think tell you
exactly. I got one the other day said your lawn needs four your lawn
needs point four or five inches of rainfall this week. It's about a half
inch. Based on science and water my Yard app a wonderful free opportunity for
everyone in this listening area. Water myyard dot org or the app on Google
Play or on Apple. Well, you've been listening to Guardline Hey, guess
what. We have a special guest coming up. I've been talking about it
this morning, but Jason from Peerscapes is going to be here now. We're
going to talk about landscaping and landscape projects. If you have any questions,
here's your chance to pick an expert's brain and to get some suggestions, some
ideas, some explanation, information on what is done in creating a beautiful landscape
and some of the options that are out there for us. So I hope
you'll call back. That'll be in the eight o'clock hour. Right now,
we're going to take a break and go into some commercials. Our phone umber
is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. You can just give us a call,
Josh. We'll get you on the boards and as we kick off the next
hour, you'll be the first stop. Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarily
endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to ktr
H Garden Line with Scarre rictor so Many Trip. Just watch him as so
Many flies to day clubs back picking not a seven ye Well, good Sunday
morning, lovely looking outside. You're listening to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're to answer your gardening questions. Feel free to
give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven
one three two one two kat r h. If you are interested in having
an organic lawn care company take care of your lawn. We're talking about fertilizer's,
micronutrients, bug prevention, whatever you need. Org Lawn is the one
you need to call now, Oreglon, you've heard us, you've heard us
talk. You know about green Pro before, same company, Orglon, locally
owned and operated, same folks as green Pro. They know what they're doing.
They do fully organic and they do organic hybrid operations. Just go on
line to org Lawn, org lawn dot com, ARKI McCall eight three two
six five one zero zero three two. All right. Now, they're having
a summer special going on. It's called the garden Line Special for new customers
and they will provide an application, a liquid application of whatever they think you
need for your lawn. And maybe it's maybe you haven't fertilized, you need
a fertilizer. Maybe it's a micronutrient application. Maybe it's a bug prevention or
something like that. They're able to do that. They're able to provide that
kind of care. Now they serve Katie Cypress, Houston, sugar Land,
the Richmond areas. They know what they're doing. Ord lawn dot Com Summer
Special twenty nine ninety nine plus tax for one of their special liquid applications.
Let's head out to Cyprus and excuse me, We're gonna head out to Cove
to Rufus and I think we're going to talk about cypress. How about that
Rufus? Good morning, Stop morning. My second guy came by a while
back and told me that I need to kill this ball cypress tree that's twenty
eight feet away from the wall of my concrete setting system. He said,
it's gonna cause me problems. And I'm sitting goba. It's twenty eight feet
away and parallel with it in the house is my septic line sprinkler, which
is about forty put away from the septic tank and it sprinkles and it does
I have money? Am I in jeopardy there? I need to kill this
tree and get rid of it, like he said, Well, I wouldn't
ever make that assessment, you know, on the air, not seeing the
situation, not seeing the tree. If you've got a septic line that's you
know, squirting water all the time, it's gonna stay wet. If it
stays wet, cypress tends to form knees, at least some types of cypress
do. I don't know if yours is already doing that or not, but
the only thing that I would think is if you love that tree and it
sounds like it's a big, beautiful tree, I might consider having a one
of those root walls put in underground. I'm talking about, you know,
the barriers where they can come in. The folks that affordable tree. If
you talk to Martin spoon Moore an affordable tree, they do that kind of
service. You might just want to have him come out and take a look
at that and say what would it cost, you know, to just do
a wall, because cypress roots get in everywhere, and yes, there'll be
twenty something feet away. I have actually seen a cypress knee came up in
somebody's yard by their driveway, and I looked dry. I couldn't see it.
The nearest cypress was two houses down, and that knee was up.
I don't know how I did it, but it Yes, they'll go quite
a ways out there. Really. Yeah, Well, I like the tree.
My wife wants me to kill it. The guy wants me to kill
I want you three. I think it's guy keep all right. Well,
Well, like I always tell people on garden Line, horticulture advice is free.
Marriage counseling is three hundred dollars an hour. So I'll let you figure
out how you're going to settle out at the house. But seriously, there's
a way to keep the tree. And then certainly, you know, if
for whatever reason you want to get rid of it, you can affordable tree.
Let's see seven one three six nine nine two six six three seven one
three six nine nine two six sixty three. That's eight f F tree tree
service dot Com. Right, Yeah, talk to him and you know,
maybe maybe you could just send him a picture and say, you know,
what do you think about this situation? But y'all can work it out.
Well, the good thing is there's nothing path that tree going to another anteloda
where it's got going that way, okay, And it's kind of like dound
heel, so all the water goes that way. Yeah, I get it.
That makes sense, all right, guy, Well good luck with you,
yes, sir, you take care. Buchanan's Plants in the Heights is
one of those destination garden centers, and I, you know, I take
family to places like this just because it doesn't matter if you're a gardener or
not. You're gonna be fascinated and you're gonna find something you likes. By
the way, they've got a great gift shop, awesome kinds of stuff in
the gift shop. Their houseplants selection is unbelievable. It is really impressive,
and they really specialize in native plants. They're truly dedicated to that. They've
got native plants for pollinators, you know, simple low maintenance native plants.
If you want plants that are just from the Houston Harris County area, right
here, they've got a table for just those superlocal, hyperlocal native plants that
are available. Tropicals, perennial shrubs, roses, oh my gosh, the
herbs that they carry there. They've got so many different kinds of so many
different kinds of rosemary, for example. Buchanans Plants a wonderful place to visit.
Go to Bucanons Plants dot com and learn about more. But with all
the beautiful trees and stuff, it's just a pleasure to walk around there,
even on a hot summer day, to go out to walk around and just
see all the beauty and get some inspiration and also expert advice from employees that
know what they're talking about. We're gonna now head out to League City and
talk to Stephanie. Hello, Stephanie. Hy Um, I've bought a heirloom
rose there. It's been some rose and they're telling me um and instructions to
plant in the ground without any type of fertilizer and having trouble finding soil without
the fertilizer, finding soil without fertilizer. You are you looking? Are you
looking like it bags of putting soil kind of stuff or what are you doing?
Like the round soil m most of it has some type of you know,
slow release, and that's what they're saying that the well, the roots
can handle that. Yeah. I don't know exactly what kinds of brands you're
looking at or where you're shopping or anything, but you can. You ought
to be able to buy a good rosebed mix. Okay, And to see
you're down in the League City area. There ought to be somebody selling a
good rosebed mix down near your area there, but I think the feed store
Lake City Feed might have it. Well, they may have some things in
bags. They sure may rather that. They do carry a lot of our
products, and that's great, a great place to shop. You might just
talk to them about it and see what they can get in. But I
would look for just a regular roseau. If you get a soul with some
fertilizer, that's okay. But I'm more concerned about the quality of the soil
that's coming with the fertilizer, because I can't see the bags you're talking about,
and a lot of potting soils, they're just going to get mucky and
heavy and not be a good long term thing for your roses. Right,
Okay, okay, thank you, Yeah, you bet, you bet.
All right, We're gonna take a little break here and we'll be right back
phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Terry,
you'll be first up when we come back. Your kids. A good Sunday
morning. You are listening to garden Line and we're in our last hour this
morning. A while ago, we were just visiting with stephanieut in League City
and she mentioned the League City Feed and it just reminded me. If you
live anywhere down that direction. We're talking about Webster, Clay, Lake City,
you know Bay Cliff, Lamark, Dickinson, Santa Fe and League City.
League City Feed is your hometown feed store. And it's a great feed
store by the way where West and Madison Funderberg. They are really doing a
great job with the I ME and running it. They carry all the stuff
we talk about here. You know, if I talk about fertilizers, you're
going to have it at League City Feed. You can just depend on that.
They've got a good selection of pesticidal turbicides and fundicides, good quality premium
pet pet foods, and if you've got backyard chickens, they're going to be
able to supply you with everything you need to keep that going. They're on
Highway three, just a few blocks south of Highway ninety six. That's Highway
three, few blocks south and ninety six. Just give them a call to
eight one three three two one six one two two eight one three three two
one six one two one of our great guard Line feed stores. We are
going to now head out to Terry in Montgomery. Hello, Terry, good
morning. I seem to have developed a problem with mealy bugs on some of
my potted plants. Okay. I've tried insecticidal soap, I've tried spot dabbing
with seventy percent alcohol, and I just can't get rid of them. They're
a problem. It's a good thing they're outside, though, that's to your
advantage. They have a lot of natural enemies, and I would suggest,
you know, don't use any kind of a i'll say poison insecticide on them,
because those kinds of things, uh, knock out the natural enemies and
let the meaty bugs kind of keep going. So they don't really work well.
Now, is this a plant that blooms that they're on, No,
they're on my um. I have a croton, and I've noticed it on
an arrowhead ivy that I've got, okay, and even a halopano plan I've
got okay, So they just kind of aren't too picky about where they Yeah,
yeah, what I do. What I do with ladybugs is number one,
blast off as much as you can with a very strong stream of water.
You don't quite need a power washer, but you know, you want
to get a good strong stream of water and knock off all you can,
and that's not going to eradicate them, but it gets the numbers down.
It prevents them from proliferating even more. They do have natural enemies, I
mean, lady beatle larva they have. They have parasitoids that get inside their
bodies and kill them. There's just a lot of things, and what we
need is for the to build up a little bit around your place. And
when those when those good guys have bad guys to feed on, they will
build up around your place. And there are a lot of them for mealy
bugs. As far as a spraying kind of product, you know, a
horticultural oil can be helpful, but you don't want to use that in this
hot weather. You need to wait let it get down below the you know,
at least in the lower nineties before you start to look at a horticultural
oil so you don't burn your plants. And then finally, for something that
doesn't bloom and is not an edible plant, there are a couple of systemic
insecticides that will go up in the plant and will help reduce their numbers because
they're sucking juice Oude of your plants. So one product is the ingredient is
dino tepheron dino as in dinosaur. The other one is mic chlobutanil. Those
are systemics. You put them on the soil, soak them in the soil,
they go up in the plant and they do that work. We just
avoid those on plants at bloom just because of the effect on bees for example.
Okay, all right, okay, I'll give those a world Thank you
so much. All right, thank you. I appreciate that call very much.
Let's go out to surfside and we're gonna talk to Mike. Hello,
Mike, Hey, Skip, how are you doing today? I'm doing well.
What can we do for you? Hey, I've got a question of
guarding storage of seeds. I'm you know, I grow a lot of vegetables
and I'm starting to collect seeds from the vegetables, heirloom type vegetables I grow
over here. Do you have any recommendations for storage of the seeds so that
theyn't be yes good down the road? I mean absolutely, don't refrigeration or
what do you do? You bet so? Uh, it just depends on
how long you want them to last. But first of all, they need
to be fully dried. They can't be you know, contain moist content coming
out of the of the whatever fruit you picked them out of. You need
to make sure they're fully dry. Once they're fully dry, I would put
them in something that's air tight. You could use a glass jar. I
use those little rubber or plastic containers with a snap on lid, you know
where you can really seal it up and you put that thing under water and
no water gets in. You can use that and you can put them in
the refrigerator and that'll work well. If you want to kick it up a
notch, you can put the little desiccate packets that you often find, like
if you buy supplements or electronics, eve, when they come with your stereo.
You know that I didn't you put those that because moisture is your enemy
with storing seed. And then finally, if you put them in the freezer,
they will last even longer. I mean when when they want a store
seed for decades or something, Uh, they get it just really really cold,
and they keep it right there. You know, don't take them in
and yeah, if you does the freezing temperature, it doesn't kill the seed.
No, it does. I mean, I guess there's probably some seeds
that it would maybe, Man, I don't know, maybe a tropical kind
of seed. But if it's well dried, most seed is going to do.
But refrigerator is just fine. You store them as long as you probably
need to a refrigerator. Just remember this when you take them out, set
them on the counter. Let them achieve room temperature before you open them,
because just like if you take a soft drink out of the refrigerator and set
it on a counter, you get these beads of sweat forming on the outside
because it's cold. That'll happen on your seeds and your seed packets and the
paper that they're in or whatever. And so there, we just went the
wrong way on moisture. So let it achieve room temperature before you open it
up. Wow, all right, man, I appreciate it, All right,
mate, I appreciate that call very much. Hey, if you are
interested in a great place for a retirement home, you need to look at
the Dell web community, the new one going in down in full Sure on
FM three fifty nine. Just listen two miles from downtown Full Sure. Dell
Web bills communities for active adults age fifty five and better. They've been doing
it for over seventy years. This community has a community garden, which just
makes sense with Delweb. I mean, they do lifestyle programs designed around you
and this particular community. I'm helping them with that community garden and to learn
more about it, go to Dellweb dot com slash Houston or give him a
call to eight one four five nine zero six zero nine discover what that Dellweb
difference is all about. Let's head out now to New Katie and we're gonna
talk to William. Hello William, Good morning, sir. How are you?
I'm well, okay. I have two questions. Well, I got
a question a comment, And the first question is on my cantaloupees of God
in my garden. The majority of them are are maturing, but then in
their final stages they go ahead and just go flat before they ever have a
chance to really ripen. H Do you know what will cause is the cantaloupes
just flatten, flatten out like an air out of a tire. Huh,
yes, sir? How big are they when they do that? There probably
maybe the size of a small football. Wow, Well that is some sort
of an interior decay that's getting in them. Uh, you know, it
could be that something makes a hole. I know, you know, even
like pillbugs. Sawbugs will chew on them on the ground side up underneath and
get in there something for some reason, a decay is getting in those things.
That's not a It's not a super common thing to happen to candle ups.
I've seen it happen. Yeah, it's not common. And so I
would just if you see one that's starting to deflate, I would pick it
and turn it over, you know before it's just a rotted mess, and
and look for any way that something could have gotten in and then take a
knife and cut it open and look at the inside and see what you see.
I don't know what's going on specifically in there, but for them to
reach that full size and then start to collapse, um, I don't know.
Could it be that you're leaving them on too long and they need to
be picked earlier. No, because they're still attached to the vines, and
I generally kind of wait and you know, to where they they're trying to
separate from the vine as well. I took them. I just don't know
what's caused them to go flat. Well, um, yeah, that's that's
what I would suggest. I don't know anything else to tell you about it.
Okay, I've got one comment to make, and this is for your
people or your audience. They grow watermeltains and if they have a problem with
raccoons getting into the moltain patch. I was traveling along up in northeast Texas
and I run across a gentleman that was on the side of the road selling
his watermelons, and he had really nice watermelons. I asked him because I
had problems with raccoons getting into my melon, I said, I asked the
gentleman, how do you keep raccoon off of your meltain back? And he
laughed and he said what he does is he takes powdered lime out that's Lami
and mix up a paste and he goes ahead and he puts it on the
melons you know that are about ready to pick. You got you gotta be
real careful because them coon will get into melons that are green. I've never
heard that one, but he said he said that. Now, he said
that you can go ahead and take the lime and when you're ready to pick
the melon go ahead and just it'll wash right off. It doesn't hurt hurt
divines. But he said that lime goes ahead and burns the uh raccoon when
they come up there and you know, smell the plant. Well, I
said, yeah, but I tried it and it does warget. But it
looks kind of funny all those white blonds out they're painted that line. Yeah,
sure therese the tunes are not getting into them. Okay, Well,
thanks to that tip. I appreciate that. Appreciate the call very much,
William, thank you very much. Listen, if you've not been out to
Enchanted Forest before, I don't care where you live in town, you need
to. You need to check it out. Enchanted Forest is a unique nursery.
It's down in the Richmond area, but if you're going from Richmond kind
of up towards sugar Land, it's it's down south of fifty nine towards the
right. As you're going up that direction. Enchanted Forest is a beautiful place.
It has huge trees, so shopping in the summer is pleasant there.
You just walk through and you're in the shade and it's just wonderful, super
high quality plants. Right now, they've got white vain Dutchman's pipe. It's
an aristolochia from Briata. It's a kind of a litttle groundcover, a little
perennial groundcover, about six twelve inches high, about two three feet wide.
It's a magnet for pipeline. Pipeline swallowtail larva. By the way, you
better buy a bunch of them, because the pipepline come in after them.
Pretty good. But the folks had enchanted for us. They're knowledgeable, they
take time to help you. They've got a whole new shipment of jungle Jack's
plumeriat in by the way too. But going on visit with Danny and Clay
down there, give mu call two eight one three or nine three seven ninety
four forty nine. That's two eight one nine three seven ninety four forty nine.
It is a wonderland of plants. I love to walk through there and
shop. You will agree when you see it. Pretty cool place, enchanted
forest. But I think we got chink in the good Sunday morning. You're
listening to guard Line. I'm your host skip Rictor, and we're here dans
your gardening questions. We had some folks lined up to do just that you
know, I brag on ACE Hardware all the time, but somebody just texted
me from up in the Montgomery area and was looking for some you know,
particular product, and I suggested they go to the Ace Hardware up there Lake
Conrads In Ace Hardware, there's thirty night up all over town. And if
it's a product you need to take care of your plants and your property,
they're gonna have it. They're gonna have fertilizers, they're gonna have mulches and
things. They're gonna have a really good selection of insecticide, fun to side
herbicide, whatever kinds of things like that you want. Plus, when you're
at ACE, you can get all kinds of things power equipment, you know,
things that for outdoor decorating or entertainment whatnot, as well as indoor.
And of course it's summertime and we love to barbecue. You know, make
that cooking heat outside rather than inside the house. A webber, trigger,
Big Green Egg, and more, plus all the bling you need to go
with a good barbecue setup. It's Ace Hardware and more. Go to Ace
Hardware dot com. Find a store near you. There's only thirty nine of
them around here. I believe you can throw a rock and hit two or
three from wherever you live. We're gonna head now out to Friendswood and talk
to Claudia. Hello, Claudia, Good morning Skip. I don't have a
peach tree that I planted. I think it was in late March or April,
and it has not grown one millimeter. The leaves droop. It just
looks pitiful, and I water it every day it gets full sun. I
don't know what's wrong. Okay, how well does the soil drain. Does
it tend to stay a little moist after a rain, or do you feel
like, yeah, roal, good drainage or what's it like? I'm really
not sure. I don't think the drainage is all that good. Okay,
all right, well try to get it by with adequate watering between now and
fall. In other words, if it's getting dry, and I would dig
down, you know, just you know what size the container of soil was
it went in the ground when you planted it. Just dig down just a
little outside that and feel the soil, maybe dig three or four inches deep
and feel the soil and if it's if it's moist, don't water. If
it's not it, give it some water so you want to keep it right.
When fall comes, it may be worth digging that thing up. And
we're talking fall, I mean like November, we want all the stresses to
be gone. Digging it up and reworking that area, maybe creating a little
bit of a raised mound by bringing in, you know, a good quality
soil mix, even like a rose soil or something like that. You can
put a box on the ground to raise it up if you want, or
you can, you know, just create a pitcher's mound or however it works
at your house, and then reset that plant in the fall. Look for
any roots that are circling, going around in a circle. Cut those again.
It's okay to do in November, and then try resetting it. And
then when next spring comes, let's start to give it some fertilizer on a
light light application on a regular basis for a while and see if we can
get it to bounce back. Something's wrong underground right now, and that's what
we're trying to figure out. Oh one other quick check before we hit fall,
dig down around the base of the tree and make sure there's not a
tag. You know, those plastic locking nursery tags they put on fruit trees,
tell us about variety of or whatever. Make sure there's not one of
those that's fallen to the bottom of the trunk is now covered with soil or
malt or something, because those can strangle a tree that's trying to grow underground.
They don't photo degrade like they would above ground, and that plastic can
last forever. So just check for that. That's the last check, and
then I think fall would be when you try to fix this thing. Okay,
all right, I appreciate it. Skip, thank you, you bet,
I appreciate your call. Thank you very much. Good bye. So
we have we have rain. We live in the Houston area and when it
rains, water stands and all you need is literally about a thumblefull or a
bottle cap of water sitting there for a little while for a mosquito to lay
an egg in it. And here we go, that beautiful outdoor area suddenly
becomes invaded by little miniature vampires flying around trenda suck your blood and we don't
want that. Well, Mosquito Dunks fixes that. Mosquito Dunks is a little
beige doughnut floats on water, lasts about a month. It slowly dissolves and
releases a bacteria toxic to all species of mosquitoes. Now, this will not
harm fish, it will not harm pets, it will not harm people,
not harm birds or other wildlife. It's just a mosquito disease, and what
a wonderful thing to happen to a mosquito. You can also buy granules,
by the way, and if you got little, small areas where you want
to sprinkle a little in the bottom of a catch basin on a pod or
something, or maybe a large area that truly infested bad and you want to
just scatter granules all over it, that's another option. But mosquito dunk's easy
to find. All our independent nursery, speed stores and ace hardware stores carry
them, and boy does that ever save you some headache. Also, you
know, mosquito diseases are a significant concern, just another reason to keep those
darned things out of our landscapes. We're going to head now to Baytown and
talk to Annette. Hello, Annette, Hi there. I have a smith
fig tree and the leaves are starting to turn yellow. I'm worried I have
a fungus. It starts off with a green leaf and a brown spot on
it, and then it starts to get yellow around it, and then the
whole leaf gets yellow. I pulled off about thirty percent of the leaves yesterday,
but I've noticed on the green leaves there are a lot of brown spots.
Okay, So I don't know if it's humidity, if it's fungus or
what. Right, tell me that I miss the name of the plant that
Smith Smith variety of fig tree. Okay. When figs get those spots,
they could be fungal, they could be bacterial, and there's a disease called
rust that will get on Usually that creates a yellow spot that then can turn
brown. But there are some bacteria and fungus that will do that to a
fig tree. Most of the time, I find that they're not a big
enough concern to worry about, and our options for fungal treatment or bactericides on
a fig is pretty limited, so I would try to live with it as
much as you can. As long as those figs still have quite a bit
of green photosynthesizing leaves, they're going to be okay. And if you need
to go to a spray, one of the things that's been used in the
past is sulfur sprays. But the problem with sulfur when the temperatures up mid
nineties and above, especially as it burns plants, and so that kind of
limits our ability to use sulfur. That would be an organic option for controlling
it, but I would wait and watch. I wouldn't give up on it
just yet. If you're doing anything to spray the foliage, like an irrigation
system that squirts the foliage all the time, I would avoid that. You
know, keep that tree as dry as you can. But picking off the
older leaves, getting them out of there, because that's just going to be
a source for innoculum to reinfect. That would be a good idea. But
I think that's probably what you need to do on the fig. I would
have to really hunt far and wide to find a good fig fungicide, and
the last time I tried it, I came up pretty short. Okay,
that sounds good. I'll just leave it alone and and see what happens.
I think. So they are tough trees, been around long time in this
area. You know this needs to be a huge fig production area. Hey,
we're gonna take a break. Our number seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. When we come back, we will be with you.
Mary first. Well you're listening to Guardline. We are entering our last
little segment here before we end the weekend. We'll be back next week.
Of course, every Saturday and every Sunday six am to ten am. Answering
your gardening questions. Hey, have you've been thinking about putting a solar panels
on your roof? But you just don't like the way a solar panel looks.
You need to consider Brinkman's timberline solar shingles. That's right, shingles.
They're not on the roof, they are the roof. Now, Brinkman has
been providing service to the Houston area for roofing, oh well gosh, fifty
years now this year I believe this is actually their fiftieth anniversary, if I'm
not mistaken. They warranty their work, they stand behind it not they use
quality products and they do quality workmanship for up to twenty five year guarantee against
leaks on your roof. Now, don't just trust a company and knocks on
the door and says, hey you need your roof or place, let me
get you a claim. No, go with a local company. If you've
been here fifty years, if you won the Better Business Bureau Pinnacle Award in
twenty twenty two, that's a good sign, right, Well, that's Brinkman.
Brinkman Quality dot Com is a website or if you want to give them
a call to eight one four eight zero seven six six three. We're going
to head out now to north west Houston and talk to Mary. Hello,
Mary, good morning learning. How can we help? I'm having a serious
out by break up chamber bighter wheats in my backyard. Okay, what can
I do? It's in you, It's in your lawn. It's in your
lawn as opposed to you. Okay, Well I always say bag your clipping
or don't bag your clippings. This is time when I would bag my clippings
because all along the leaf structure of chamber better is our little balls that are
seeds. And it's really interesting when you turn it upside down. It's a
chamber bitter properly known as Philanthus urine area by the way, urine area.
Another name for it is peawater leaf flower. I don't know. I've never
crushed it and smelled it. I don't know where that came from but just
a fun fact that you're here here on garden light. It's a tough one
to control. In beds, we just say ham pull it, ham pull
it. And if you mulch, it's not going to come up because it
needs sunlight to sprout up through the soil. So work on for next year
building density into your Saint Augustine. That would be helpful, but for now
there are not many options. There are some post emergent weed killers that contain
like a three way at trimac type products, but when it's as hot as
it is now, you just can't use those things. I mean, it
hurts your Saint Augustine too. Next spring, before the temperature of the soil
gets up around seventy so let's say definitely by March, you want to get
down A product called Gallery. Gallery is a herbicide that's a pre emergent.
You put it down, you water it in, and it prevents weed germination
for a good period of time. You may have to do another application because
this one will often sprout a little bit late later than crabgrass and all the
other things we deal with in the lawn, But that would be the long
term solution and the short term, every time you mow bag the clippings,
you're getting every little seed thing structure underneath the leaf out of there, and
boy, that is what makes it proliferate and it makes it so hard to
control. Okay, okay, thank you very all right, thank you for
the call. I appreciate that very much. You know, Microlife has their
wonderful fertilizer life. I mean, they're the number one selling organic fertilizer here
in Houston. Lots of quality products. I like a couple of their liquid
products. In fact, I like a lot of their liquid products. But
the Biomatrix, which is the orange label, it's a seven one three liquid.
I use it on the houseplants. In fact, just use some the
other day. I got back here in town and houseplants we're saying, hey,
we could use some neat, so we did that. It's full of
beneficial microbes, which is kind of nice because roots need microbes, including house
plant roots, and the Biomatrix orange label is a great one for that.
Now, when you get into the outdoors, that's where the Ocean Harvests Blue
label. Microlife's Ocean Harvest Blue label. It's a four two three fish based
fertilizer and you can use it as a drench to fertilize your plants. You
can use it as a full leare feed. Just follow the label and how
to apply it. It works very very well. Those two products indoor and
outdoor, will really get your plants set up. You got color plants on
the patio, you've got house plants indoors. You need these two products to
work, and they do work very well. If you go online to microlifelizer
dot com, you're going to find all the places that you can buy Microlife.
But I can make it easy for you. If it's a home garden
center we talk about, I bet they have Microlife. If it's an ACE
hardware store, I bet they Microlife. Even our feed stores that we talk
about usually will carry a Microlife product. But these two orange and blue.
That makes it easier to remember. Orange and blue make your plants happy.
They will do exactly just that. Well. We've had a full day here,
lots of talking to lots of different folks, lots of different calls.
We always enjoy visiting with you guys. If you miss a show or if
you're wondering what was it that he said, you can go buy podcast,
go online to your podcast app and you can listen to garden Line. You
can go back and listen to past shows if you'd like. We're always appreciating
folks that are listening to us by podcasts, as well as the folks that
listen to us live from a distance online, which is another option that you
can do. I had several calls from out of state yesterday. I believe
in what was good to always visit with gardeners from all over the place.
If you live up in tumble anywhere near the Tumball area. As you go
west of town about three miles on Highway two forty nine on the left,
you're going to see D and D Feed and Supply. Don't pass by.
You need to pull in because the Dover family has really created a great food
store there. They just expanded. They got a lot more area now.
But all the fertilizers I talk about, you know the soils that we talk
about here. Do you need plants, there's plants out front. They have
hand tools available, just everything. They're feed store. So the high end
dog feed, Origin Diamond, Victor Starprote they've got that livestock feed, the
horsecare products, maybe you have rats rodents outside. If you live around here,
you probably have rodents outside. They've got products for that. Do you
need to clean the pool? Got that covered, get the idea, just
everything. I mean. I talked about mosquito dunks earlier. D and D
Feed's got them. We love those kind of feeds or they provide that family
service. It's been family and owned and operated by the Dover family since it
opened in nineteen eighty nine, and they just keep getting better and better out
there at D and D Feed. So if you're listening for me anywhere up
in that direction, D and D Feed, that's your hometown feed store.
You need to give them. Give them a check. Really really good place
to visit. I need to get back in there. My dogs love some
of their dog treats they have, like this little dog. I don't know
whether they call it a dog delicatessent or something where they have all kinds of
dog treats. My dogs like them. In fact, if they know I
went there and didn't bring them anything, they don't speak to me for thirty
minutes. They don't remember things long D and D Feed. You know.
Garden Line is here to answer gardening questions. To help you have success.
My goal and the whole deal is how do we help people to feel like
they have a green thumb instead of a brown thumb, Because you've heard me
say before there aren't any brown thumbs. There are uninformed thumbs, and that
makes your thumb look brown. You believe everything you read online, you're not
going to have a green thumb because a lot of it is just not true.
We provide research based information, the best of my knowledge, stuff that
I've either tried and done or that has been done by research throughout the South,
to prove that it's effective and that it's accurate. Because when I tell
you something, I want it to be the truth. I wanted to be
accurate, and I wanted to help you turn your place into a more beautiful
landscape, to turn your garden into more bountiful garden and good information and good
products or how we do just that, and that's why we're here. I
hope you'll tell your gardening friends about garden Line. Every Saturday, every Sunday,
six am to ten am. You can listen in or you can call
in. I know most of you listen and don't call. It's okay.
We're just slowly, one by one, getting you shy folks out there there.
It's a safe place. I don't think you've heard of me bark at
anybody yet or light their head off, so it's a friendly place. We'll
help you. Hey, if it's the question you think, the stupid question,
somebody probably else has it too. Don't worry about that. We'll handle
that. I'll worry about the stupid answers. Okay, we will take care
of that. Whatever the question you might have, that's what we're here for.
Hey, thanks for being a garden Line listener. I look forward to
talking to you again next Saturday.