Katie r h. Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or
services advertised on this program. Welcome to Katie r h Garden Line with Skip
rictor It's Crazy Trim. Just watch him as so many sept Crazy was backing,
not a sad good morning, Good Saturday morning. We're glad you're listening
to Garden Line this morning. Welcome. I uh, you know today we
got some rain this morning, and I know you've probably heard that. In
fact, you probably heard that by listening what's going on outside your winder right
now. But guess what, I think that's gonna blow over. I believe
this afternoon is gonna turn out really nice. I am excited. I'm looking
forward to it. I got to tell you this, I am so excited
about this spring gardening season. It is time. And you know, I
know we've liable to have another frost or freeze. It's just where we are
in the season. Depending on where you live. Some of you listening way
up in Huntsville or someplace. Others are way down in Galveston and then east
and west as well, and you know, depending on where you live,
the last frost date varies a little bit. I should say the last average
frost date. The average is important to clarify. Let me tell you why.
One year I wrote one of the newspapers where I lived, had called
and wanted an interview on gardening, and I made the statement that the last
average frost date was such and such date, which was about two weeks away,
and the paper printed that I said the last frost date this year would
be on such and such a date, which I did not say. I
spent two weeks trying to tell everybody I knew I did not say that.
I did not say that that was an average thrust date. Well, lo
and behold, that date came and we had a frost on that day,
and then we never had a frost again. And if I just kept my
mouth shut, I would have seemed like I was I don't know, I
had a crystal ball or chlairvoyant or something. Anyway, I should should have
just let it be. That's what average means. It means most or half
the time. If you take the last ten twenty years, when did the
last frost date occur? Well, what's the average in all those? Yeah,
that's that's the date. And pretty much I can guarantee you that the
last average frost or freeze will not be on the last average trust date because
it varies every year. It may land there a few years, but some
earlier, some later. We'll hope that this year it was earlier, and
that way we don't have such a late frost, which would be kind of
nice. Well, you're listening to garden Line. Our phone number is seven
to one to three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two k t r H. You'd like to be on the air to
ask a question, please do join us. We're going to head right now
out to Kingwood and talk to Charles. Hello, Charles, Hey, good
morning, sir. I called you last week about some varieties and blueberries and
gave me rabbit Eye and Southern high Bush and a couple others. I don't
have the list in front of me. I went to the Texas A and
M website and they said the frieze hours were four to five hundred hours.
How many? What is our average freeze hours down here? I always thought
it was in the high twenty earth two hundreds. No up in Kingwood.
I'd have to get a map in front of me, but I would say
in kingwood. You're probably in the five hundred maybe four probably four hundred range,
but that that's on the average. So what variety would be kind of
good for that because, like I said, I couldn't believe it was that
high. I didn't think we got that high. Yeah, well most of
them will do. Okay, you just have to each of the varieties is
going to have a chill hour. If you went to see the blueberry publication
on Aggie Horticulture, you're saying, yes they did. Yeah, So that
that gives you a lot of information. It goes into both types, and
the two general types are that you were referring to, or the rabbit eye
and the southern high bush. This also mentioned a true fly. I can't
remember t r I fly or something that was a variety they mentioned. That's
a rabbit eye. That's yeah. I think you're referring to one of the
rabbit eye types. Tribute. There's a tribute anyway. Just remember when you
get those, you want to get two varieties of that type of blueberry,
two rabbit eyes or to southern high bush. So you can't get let's say
one rabbit eye and one high bush. That would work, you know,
you're throwing me a curve on that, Charles. I'm gonna have to look
I don't know if they're cross pollinating or not. I'm gonna have to check
that, but i'll look into that. And the one I just told you,
I can't remember the name. I don't know why true fly trifly it
was self pollinator. They didn't need it. It said, well, there
are a lot of the blueberries will pollinate themselves, but they don't set as
many seeds and so the berries are going to be as large. So my
best bet is get two of the same Friday. I think you should head
your bet. I definitely do. Thank you again. I appreciate it all
right, Charles. Thanks. I'm going to look into that. Cross pollination
great, thank you? You take it by bye. Yeah, that's a
good question. I'm gonna I should know that, But off the top of
my head, I don't think i've ever thought about that before. You know,
for those of you who live in northwest Houston area and actually much further
area than that, you know about plants for all seasons. That's the nursery
that is on Tomball Parkway, which is highway to forty nine. Uh,
it's just if you're heading from Houston out toward Tomball, it would be on
the right hand side you exit Luata, cross over Luata and try it there.
If you're driven by, you've probably seen it. Plants for All Seasons
is a destination ursay. It's one of the places a lot of people go
because they know they're gonna get only the plants that will do well here.
They don't say your stuff, you know that's not for here. They just
don't. And when you go in, you're gonna get good information. You're
gonna get help. You know, you can find education there. In other
words, you can find the expertise to not only select the right plants,
but help plant them correctly and then deal with problems that may be occurring in
your landscape. Take them a picture, bring in a sample. They'll be
happy to do that. Plants for All Seasons dot Com. Just go there
Plants for All Seasons dot Com. You're gonna find out a lot of stuff
there. By the way, they just started getting in a lot of peppers
and tomatoes. I think over fifteen types of tomatoes and peppers as well.
The vegetables are flowing in and all those cool season vegetables, you can still
plant them. They got the transplants about things like lettuce and kale and all
the other cool season things. Go check it out Plants for All Seasons dot
com or call them two eight one, three seven six sixteen forty six.
Speaking of vegetables, I'm going to head up to Tomball now and talk to
David. Hello, David, good morning, sir. Hey uh. Speaking
of tomatoes, I'm gonna go ahead and probably plant mine, and I'll probably
growing them in five gallon buckets. Huh. But about a couple of weeks
ago, you spoke of all the different flavors they have of them, and
I can't remember which one you said was a real good one. I'm looking
for one that's going to be about size of a tennis ball. Celebrity,
celebrity, labor celebrity may have been one that I was talking about. They
it's dependable. The thing about celebrity is for gardeners who are growing in sandy
soil, we tend to have problems with root. Right. Well, that's
it that Tomball soil is real sandy and real easy to stick a shovel in.
I mean it's real easy. Yeah, the wrong word just came out
of my If I said root, right, I meant in nematodes, and
nematodes love that kind of soil. Now, when you're doing it in a
bucket, you can do special soil blends, quality soil blends, and you
don't have to use garden soil in the bucket. But you know, plants
for all seasons just down the street, and they do have celebrity. But
just remember you're planting a tomato this early in five gallons, that's fine.
You can pick them up and carry them in the garage. When we do
have a frost or freeze later on, you're gonna have to cover them up
and a good cover over them with a little light under them. We'll get
them through it just fine. But just remember, either you plant them or
you bump them up to a larger pot than you purchase them in and keep
them growing where you can bring them in and then don't actually put them in
the soil until after the last average frostate. That just another way to go
about it. Hey, David, I'm up against a hard break here.
I'm going to put you on hold. If you want to hang on,
we'll continue coming back. Otherwise, Thank you. All right, thank you,
thank you for the call. Appreciate that you're listening to guarden Line.
We'll be right back. Good morning, Welcome back to garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, and we are going to discuss all kinds of
things related to gardening today. You know, it is it is. Let's
say that. Let me put this. We are on the doorstep of spring,
and I always every year, you know, I get anxious. I
get ready to go anxious, not in a bad way, but just like
I'm just beside myself ready to get out there, aren't you. I mean,
this is this is going to be a good spring. I can just
tell you it is. And we need to be thinking about the things we
want to plant, the things we want to try. And I would encourage
you this year, what are you going to do new? Think about what
am I going to try that's new? What have you never done before?
Maybe it's a new variety of tomato, Maybe it is a new type of
flower. Maybe it's a new way of planting, a new kind of container.
You know, add some have you ever grown vegetables and containers before?
Or flowers? That's our herbs? Oh my gosh, that that works.
Really really well, a new type of rose bush. Do you see what
I'm saying? Something new? Maybe put in a new garden area, a
nice raised bed where you can grow all kinds of things. What are you
going to do this year? I mean it is time to start getting excited
about it because we're there and you know, every spring, the thing where
we're rolling the dice is on the weather. You know, that's where we
kind of go. Okay, when's the last freeze or frost going to be
this year? Well, I would say, heads your bet, head your
bet, and how do you head your bet? Well, for example,
if you right now the garden centers are starting to get in tomatoes and peppers
and all kinds of things, and it's a little early to just put them
out in the ground. But I do. And here's what I do.
I put them out in the ground. I get them growing, and I
just have a cover that goes over them. The nicher, a little chili,
a little cool. I'll sometimes put them under it. If I in
the garden beds where I have a long bed, I'll create PBC hoops down
the bed by just bending a piece of PBC sticking in the ground on each
side. And then put a plastic over it and open it up during the
day to let the heat get out because it gets too hot. Undo there
on a sunny day, and then close it down in the evenings if it's
going to get kind of chili and you just get a head start. Get
a head start that way. And I've seen one year I had had that,
and I put a milk jug full of water, you know what I'm
talking about, Just a milk jug filled with water, one on each side
of the tamato plant. It was like it was almost sandwiched right in there
between them. And we dropped down in the mid I said, was it
the mid maybe twenty seven something like that degrees? And with that plastic covered
and sealed and the milk jug there is just a source of a little bit
of warmth to protect it from getting cooler. It came through just fine.
And now twenty seven degrees and tomatoes don't go well together. But they did
a second way to head your bet. If you buy a little plant and
four inch pot or whatever container size it's in, bump it up to the
next size when you get it home. Go up to six inch, or
go up to a gallum pot. And keep it growing, keep it going,
put it outside during the day, keep it going. So when you
feel like it's safe to plant, you've got a much larger plant. Plus,
you shopped early and you got your varieties that you were looking for,
because some of the best varieties tend to disappear. People know about them and
they love them and they grow them. Just a tip for another way to
get a head start. But listen, the excitement of spring is here.
If you're not feeling it yet, you need to start thinking about it.
Do a little perusing online of plants and things. Go visit our Garden Center's
websites, subscribe to them, follow them on Facebook and Instagram, for example,
subscribe to their newsletters, and find out what's going on. Because we
are about to hit a big time gardening season. We get some sunny days
in here, get a little further into the month, and that garden fever
just grows and grows. Well, I'm telling you, for me, it's
already here. It is absolutely already here. Lawns, you know, our
lawns are still kind of sleepy heads. They're not moving yet. They will
be. They'll get going. They'll get you know, waking up as time
goes on, but right now in your lawn, especially if you suffered from
last summer's drought, you've got some thin areas and where sunlight hits the soil
nature plants of weed, and if you're dealing with things like hind bit and
chick weed and carpetweed or cleavers a belcrow plant, those kinds of weeds,
they're small still, and when spring gets here, just like our blue bonnets,
our state flower, they take off growing bloom and set seeds. And
when when they are blooming and setting seed, it's a little late to accomplish
anything with a weed killer on those weeds. And so now would be the
time. If you have a weed problem, a broad leaf weed problem,
now would be a time to apply a product to deal with those weeds.
And there's different ways you can go about it. You can just spray on
the weeds themselves. Nelson's has a product called Weedonator. Weedenator basically is a
broad leaf post emergent weed control that has a very slow release fertilizer with it,
and so it's not like you all fertilizers release now and in fact quickly
you know it's going to last oh six weeks there's one, and going further
there's past six weeks there's another type of nitrogen in there that's going to get
released. It's really really easy to do just one thing. Two things to
remember. Number One, the weeds need to be wet, so when you
put it out, the granule stick to the wheat. That's very important,
so that they can soak in and kill that wheat. Secondly, always when
you're using any kind of a pesticide, especially with a weed control in your
lawn, follow the label carefully. If a teaspoon's good, a tablespoon is
not better. Period. There's a reason the label says what it says.
Think about it. If it was better to put more, wouldn't a company
making that product want you to use more? Well, of course, of
course, but there's a label level that works well and does not do any
secondary damages that you might be concerned about. And always follow the label.
I don't care if it's insecticide, a fungicide, a herbicide, very important.
Well, anyway, weed nedor by Nelson, you can get it down.
Now it's going to provide feeding. As your grass starts to wake up,
it's beginning to release those nutrients for it, and it's something that you
may want to consider, especially if you get out there and you see,
yep, I've got those weeds coming up. That is definitely a problem.
That's for sure. You're listening to Guardenline. Our phone number is seven to
one three two one two k t RH seven one three two one two k
t r H. Feel free to give us a call, be happy to
visit with you about, you know, whatever is of interest to you and
your garden. For those of you living up in the Magnolia direction, Spring
Creek Feed is your hometown feed store. We love feed stores here on guard
Line, absolutely do. They are just minutes away from Graham Parkway Highway to
forty nine. I was up there the other day visiting with them, and
boy, they are the shipments of all kinds of things. Soils and fertilizers
and whatnot are all coming in. They're gonna be getting some plants in too.
I need to it. Just if you went last year, you got
to look at this year because it's it's even more coming in this year.
They got all the fertilizers that I recommend here on garden Line. They have
all the products to control weeds. And diseases and pests and things like that.
Of course, it's a feed store if you like backyard chickens, if
you've got pets at home, if you have livestock, they'll get you set
up for that. It's Spring Creek Feet again, just minutes away from Grand
Parkway and two forty nine on FM twenty nine seventy eight up there in Magnolia.
I'm going to head up to North Houston. Now we're going to talk
to Barbara. Hello, Barbara, good morning. How are you today.
Well, I'm excited about spring. Let's just say I'm beside myself. Me
too, I'm ready. Hey, I do have a question. With all
of the freeze, you know, in the weather that we've had. I
have some annuals that I planted sweet Alyssum verbinum. You know they look a
wet, soggy mess. Is that something I can cut back and hope it
comes back? Or are they done? If there's no green leaves on them,
probably they're done because they're annuals. They're not but you know, I
can't see the plants, but if they don't have any green leaves, they're
probably done. Now there are a few plants will re sprout from the base.
But if it's a cool season plant, it may be time to just
be thinking. Okay, look, let's let's just move into the warm season
planting a little bit later this month, okay. And then the other one
I had is an asparagus fern. They looked like they did okay, but
they lost a lot of leaves. Yep, that one share the porky,
you know, sharp little needles. They've lost a lot of them there.
But can I cut that one back right? You can? Asparagus fern should
re sprout from the base on all those kind of plants like that in the
future, just you know, come put a mulch over the surface and even
right up against especially the crown the base of the plant in the winter time.
That way, if you do get a hard coal freeze, you're gonna
save the base, and you want to be you want to be extra careful
for that. But I think they're going to be fine anyway. Okay.
And then one more on Boston ferns that I haven't pots outside. They've done
well. I brought them in the garage. Can I separate those You can
take them out of the pot and separate them and make them smaller. Is
it kind of out grown that pot? All right? Take them out of
the pot, get them at chetti or a butcher knife or something, and
you can cut them into I typically will cut mine into four sections, you
know, just north south east west. Just slice down through it and cut
off all the dead debris on the outside if there is a bunch of that,
and then pot them back up in a good mix and they should take
off going again. Okay, And can you cut them back or just leave
the fronds up? You can do either one. The fronds aren't that attractive,
probably at this point, but if they are, just leave them.
Otherwise I would let them begin to get growth and then maybe snip out the
old fronds. That'll be a little bit of a tedious surgery, but I
think I would leave them with some leaves on them if you can. Okay,
all right, well, good deal. Thank you so much. I
appreciate it, you bet, Barbara. Thank you for the call. I
appreciate that. We're going to take a break. If you would like to
give me a call seven one three two one two kt r H, we'll
be right back. Welcome back to guard Line. Glad you're in today listening
a good day to be inside this morning, but outside this afternoon. We're
going to get a break in this and it is a wonderful day. By
the way, tomorrow is gonna be unbelievable. It's gonna be sunny, wonderful
day to get out. Hey, it's time start stocking up and getting ready.
Are you excited about spring? I tell you I am. I'm ready
to go, raring and ready to go. In fact, today, when
this show is over, I'm going to head out to a couple of garden
centers just to visit and check things out. I love going out to garden
centers visiting, watching customer shop too. That's kind of a fun thing,
you know, people watching that kind of thing. Well, I love just
to go see what kind of new plants they have and whatnot. By the
way, while ago, Charles call from Kingwood and was asking about blueberries and
pollinating, and I just checked it out. The RABBITI blueberry is one that
we've had here for a very long time in the South, and I've grown
on myself, tried to grow them once and containers. I'll come in on
that in just a minute. But Florida developed a thing called the Southern high
bush, and the Southern High Bush is a smaller statuard plant than rabbit eye.
Rabbit eye can get huge. I remember one time I was at a
blueberry farm up in the Porter area, just north and east of Houston,
or mostly north, and the rabbit I blueberries there were like ten feet tall.
They were huge, huge, huge plants. Southern High Bush is a
little smaller. And according to the University of Florida that you do most of
the cultivars of both Southern High Bush and rabbit I need cross pollination. And
I always say they even if they don't have to have it, they needed
to do their best, the best size of berries and whatnot. But they
say that Southern high Bush pollinates Southern High Bush and rabbit eye pollinates rabbit eye.
So just keep that in mind when you're planting them. I'm not saying
there's no exceptions to that rule. I'm just saying, in general, you
go with one or the other. Now about the container. My rabbit eyes
in half whiskey barrels. They got big and it was hard keeping them adequately
watered. It was a big plant, a confined thing. Blueberries are not
prone to be so tough and drought resilient. They need moisture, and so
that was a challenge. Southern high Bush would be a better one for the
container. And you do want again to varieties. You know, the chilling
requirement is going it's gonna vary a little bit, usually around in the four
hundred range and so on, but you can just just check it out see
how they do. Remember that for blueberries, And I realize there are people
listening in a lot of areas, including places where water quality isn't so good.
You get up in College station and there's so much sodium in the water
that azaleas and blueberries just turned a toast. But if you want to grow
blueberries, do it in a container in those areas. A good high high
acidic and high high organic matter soil mix in the container and then use rainwater,
use rainmar captured. Everybody needs a rain barrel, at least a rain
barrel, if not a system, because that gives you the top quality water,
especially for things that are a little bit sensitive, and especially for those
of you who live in areas where water quality is not ideal. You know,
occasionally using that not so great water is fine, but in general,
especially in summer when they're really pumping water. You want a good quality water
farm to do their best. And speaking of College Station, we're going to
go talk to Denise up in College Station right now. Hello, Denise,
good morning, good morning. It's good to hear your voys. Well,
good to hear your voice. How can we help today? I have a
yard that looks it's absolutely embarrassing, and the weeds are trying to take over,
and we are going to have somebody come in and put new saw down.
And I know what Randy used to always say, but uh, I
want to get your input as far as do I go ahead and kill it
first so I know I'm finished with the weeds. Yeah, okay, Well
there's two kinds of we can group the weeds in two categories. One is
the annual weeds. They come and die and stuff there. When you chop
them off, when you even cover them up WITHSD, you've you've killed them.
Then there's the perennial weeds that will pop back through over and over.
Things like bermuda grass in the Saint Augustine lawn is a perennial weed. Yes,
and there are many other perennials. If you've got perennials, you need
to kill those before you plant. Now, if there's any unevenness to your
yard, that would be a good time to either a light rototelling or just
bring in some soil mix a quality moves and fill in the holes, you
know, level it out a little bit. Do you have any uh,
do you have any uh cypress trees in your yard? A lot of sun?
Okay, goodness, we'll avoid that. Okay, So in that case,
I would just level it out and then bring in the new sid if
you can stand to wait a little bit. You know, the more it
warms up, the better the sod is going to hit the ground root in
quickly. But you don't want to wait so long that it's real hot.
You can plant grass in July, there's no problem with that, but you're
just having to water water water regularly to give it time to get those roots
in so it can make it so I'd I like to plant in that area.
I'd probably plant in April. Plant my grass in April April, Okay,
yeah, And people plant earlier and people plant later, So that's not
I have to. It's just my preference. He says, he's gonna level
it out. We've got some foggy swats. So it's what he explained to
us was that he was going to take like off the top four inches,
okay, and then bring back in good soil. Okay. If you got
trees, they're taking the top four inches is gonna that's gonna Unfortunately we don't.
Oh, you don't, okay, all right, Fortunately, I guess
Well, I don't know that you need to do that. I mean,
down in the coast of Texas, they plant grass in black, sticky clay
the sowd fields. If you look at the grass that comes in the sod
on it is heavy clay, and so I don't know why they're taking away
soil. I can see am mending it a little bit or certainly leving it
out, leveling it out, but there may be another reason they're doing that.
But I'm okay, okay, yeah, I don't know either. All
right, Well that sounds good. And what products should I use for what
for killing the perennial the perennial weeds. If they're grasses, you can use
a grass only killer. If they're broad leaves and grasses, you would need
to use some thing like a glife to say product to get everything or digging
them out which is a lot of work, so I would I would probably
just do that. Just remember that any weed killer that's post emergent, if
the weeds are actively growing, it works well. If they're in droughtstress or
just dormant because of cold, it's not going to work well. So that
would be the only other thing. Okay, Hey, I got to run
against a hard break here, Denise, thanks for the call. Appreciate that.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two kt r H and
we'll be right back. Good morning, Welcome to garden Line. We are
having a good time today and we're excited about what's going on out and about
and the weather. We're gonna have some good break in the weather today,
so it's a good time to get out today. Make plans this afternoon.
You on't get out there, pick up some supplies and things while you're out
and about. Here's a couple. I guess this is your public service announcement
out at the China Gardens. I don't rich. My friend destin Texas garden
Guy is going to be given a talk on vegetable gardening. It starts at
ten am, right when this show ends. What a coincidence. That's good
but Destin will be out there talking about all kinds of things vegetable gardening.
Hey, when you're at Enchanted and by the way, those of you who
don't know where it is, it's on FM three fifty nine. It's on
the Katie Folscher side of Richmond on FM three fifty nine. Go to the
website Enchanted Garden Gardens Plural Richmond dot com. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com.
While you're there, check out their Valentine's Day succulent planters. It's a heart
shaped stone looking container that is just loaded with succulents. And what a cool
gift. And you know, succulents are tough, they're not hard to grow.
Give them a little sunlight and don't overwater them. They do just fine.
But those are gorgeous and they got them out there at Enchanted Gardens in
Richmond. We're going to go now to Bay City and talk to Hello,
Mike, Hello, ALiR Skip Hey, Yeah, we just got the front
come very cool off a little bit, got some more rain. The reason
I'm calling is I have an asparagus bed and it's kind of difficult to get
in around the crowns and pull weeds, right so, and I get little
weed seeds all the time in there and sprout. And then I was wondering
if I could put a pre emergence in the asparagus bed. You could,
You need to find one that's labeled for that, and off the top of
my head, I don't know a pre emergent brand that has vegetable gardens on
the label. There are those out. I've seen them before, and I
think I know what's in them, but I'm not gonna say out loud on
the air because I'm not sure. But in asparagus that works generally. In
vegetable gardens, I don't recommend them at all, because we have mults that
works just fine, and we can just use mulch. But with asparagus,
you're not disturbing the soil, which is another plus for using a pre emergent,
because if you're going to put a pre emergent down in your tomato patch
and then you're moving the soil around rototilling, you just broke it. Broke
up the thing. And if you're planting seeds and you viewed a pre emergent,
it'll affect those seeds just like it affects wheats. So in general,
I don't. If you can't get by with a good multch, like maybe
you've got some other issue that mulch is not handling, then you may need
to go with a post emergent product aimed for that like bermudagrass always gets into
asparagus plantings and that's the pain in the day. Well, I think I
might go just with the malts man because I didn't realize. I just thought,
well, it's not a seed. We're coming from the roots, you
know, so it wouldn't bother yeah plants, But I wasn't thinking about the
edible part of it. Well, you know, and it's kind of complicated.
There are plays where they can be used. In general, I don't
just use mulch. Uh And well, I think I'll go for the malt
then sound like a winter there you go? All right? Well, all
we ask when we help you with questions is that you bring half your asparagus
harvest KTRH Studio because I'm hungry for Okay, Yeah, I'm sure you just
keep looking for me. I'm not going to hold my breath. I like
you, Mike, but I I don't think I should hold my breath on
there. You have a good day, you too. That's funny. That
is funny. Oh my. You know it's it's time to be getting your
fertilizers together and ready to plant. And you know you can wait until the
day you're going fertilize whenever that is, and go get some and bring it
home fertilizer. But well, why not just go ahead and buy it now?
Have it sitting there so I don't know, you get a break in
the weather and you want to run out and put some fertilizer out, you
can do that. You're ready to go. Well, micro Life has got
you covered on all kinds of things, especially your plants that are bouncing back
from what the cold damage did a little bit earlier on this winter. Now,
Microlife has their Ocean Harvest that is a fish based fertilizer. You can
do a drench over the crown of the plant, the base of the plant
as it's coming through. You can use it as a foll of your feet
as well. And then they have the Microlife Green Bag that we normally talk
about as a lawn fertilizer. Well, it fertilizes everything. I use it
for all kinds of things beyond lawns. But the Microlife green bag will provide
a little bit longer term feeding for it, and then you can come back
with another drench as it's putting on the new growth with that Microlife the ocean
harvest that you've already purchased. There, those are products that are three of
the products that Microlife has. You can find Microlife all over the place.
Go to Microlifefertilizer dot com if you want to find locations. But I can
tell you this when we're talking about garden centers and ace hardware stores and beach
stores and stuff, you can probably find Microlife at any of those that you
shop at. Widely, widely available, and excellent product too. By the
way, for sure you're listening to garden Line. I'm your host Skip Richter,
and we're here to talk about all kinds of things that are of interest
to you on gardening. What do you want to talk about today? I've
got my things, but I bet you have some of your own. This
is a time to plant trees. It is go ahead and get your trees
and shrubs in the ground now. It is important to get that done now.
There's a product out there on the market, and I watched as they
developed this product it's very unique and it's for staking trees. It's called the
three sixty Tree Stabilizer. Now, this product is it attaches to whatever the
post is that you're using, and it attaches to the tree. And it
is a rigid product. You know, with wires, the wind if it's
blown away, the wire holes that if it's blown toward it. The wire
doesn't push. Wires only pull. They don't push. And so this tree
stable is one that will not damage your tree. It's got a soft strap
that goes around it that's better than wires, and it holds it, i'll
say firmly, but it allows a little movement, and that is important.
You want your tree trunks to move just a little bit because that bending and
stretching strengthens the tree trunk. That's true of plants in general. It's even
true of our muscles. You get out there, you work them, you
stretch them, you stress them, and they come back and they're stronger.
And the more times you go to the gym, the better it gets.
Right, Well, leave your trees a little bit loose, just allow a
little bit of movement, not a lot, just a little bit. And
this new product, the three sixty Tree stabilizer. You can use it over
and over and over again. You can find it at RCW Nurseries. I
know they got them at Buchanans Neded Plants. Arbrigade has them. Plants for
all seasons have them, and there's more places they are going to be carrying
this that are coming. Three sixty tree stabilizer. You need to check that
out. I think you will be very very impressed. I was when I
first saw the prototypes of it. I'm kind of excited to get to talk
about it right now. But it works very very well. I did.
I wanted to mention while Ago I was talking about vegetables and vegetable classes and
whatnot, Buchanans today at ten o'clock is going to have a spring veggie garden
class Spring Veggie Garden class free at Buchanans. You need to check that out.
If you don't know where Buchanans is, it's on East eleventh Street in
the Heights. You can go to Buchanansplants dot com and while you're there check
out the native plants that they have. They have got an unbelievable selection of
milkweed, the kinds of milkweed that are native that come come back over and
over again each year, and they can really help you out. I was
looking at some of those beautiful things. For example, the swamp milk weed
does very well here, the native perennial milkweed Asclepias tuberosa. They've got a
yellow version of it. That's pretty cool. So get out there, go
by and take tend the class. Check it out, and why you're there,
check out, ask them about the milkweeds and the other native plants that
they have out of Buchanans. I always love going by there. In fact,
I may run by there today myself. That's something I probably need to
do. Hey, we're going to take a break here and we'll be right
back. Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products
or services advertised on this program. Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with
Skip Rictor. It's crazy Trim. Just watch him as the sept Welcome back
to the garden Line. What are we going to talk about today? Can
you tell me? Give us a call? It's seven one three two one
two k t R eight seven one three two one two k TRH. I
sign about Buchanons before we went to break and the native milkweeds and stuff that
they have up there. I wanted to also mention they have a plant called
Lnton Lenton Rose, Lenton Rose lent as in the season lent Easter season,
lent well Linden rose. If you've never seen it before, it's a beautiful
little flower. It kind of reminds me a little bit like a dog wood
with the big flat petals sticking out in all directions. But Linton rose colors
have it's a rosy look. They're white to a rosy look and they are
beautiful little perennials that you can have go year after year after year. They
like partial shade, they like rich soil that drains well. You want to
make sure it trains well. But they have those and if they're also called
Heli bores. If you have not had one before, you ought to check
them out. If you're over there, you do need to check them out.
They are really really unique kind of plant. For those folks that,
yeah, I've got one of everything, well probably not one of those.
You need to check those out. I love Lenton Roads very beautiful blooms during
the lent season, so that's one reason it has that name. That's one
of the times you typically will see blooms on a lent and rose. Well,
the news today is we got some rainy weather this morning, but it
is going to clear up and we're going to have a good day and boy
tomorrow awesome day sunshine. And so if you're not excited about spring gardening,
let's check your pulse. It's it is time to be excited about spring gardening.
The vegetable gardens are busy right now, the flower gardens, color beds
are busy right now. Our lawns. If you are planning on doing preventative
weak control in your lawn, now's the time that you need to do that.
Because here's how this works. You put a product down that's a pre
emergent and it moves into the soil surface when you watered in with a half
inch of water, and it protects against weeds at that surface. So when
a weed seed tries to sprout, it stops it. You never really even
see the weed. It shuts it down right at the start. And you
have to do that though, ahead of the weed germination. So if you
waited until let's say April to put that down, well all the weeds that
are going to start germinating in sol temperatures of fifty five sixty sixty five in
that range, they're going to already have sprouted. And it's the analogy I
like to use is like you're playing baseball. By the way, last night
I watched the documentary on Yogi Bear. Oh my gosh, if you haven't
seen it, it's great, But anyway, I digress, it's like baseball
analogy, and that if you wait to swing until the ball's in the catcher's
mit, it's a little late right to hit the ball. That's how it
works with pre emergence, and we start putting those down. The best time
really is about the beginning of February to mid February. You can you can
stretch that out to the end of February something. Not all weeds eats germinate
as early as others. And on some years way south you can even go
a little bit below that. We're on waste South, you know, Galveston.
It just depends on sol temperature. That's really the thing that's functioning.
And it's not like you try to get it down the day before. Get
it down well ahead of time so that when we have those days, a
certain temperature for a certain number of days, and here comes, here comes
the crabgrass, Here comes the grassburgers, here comes you know, all the
weeds that are germinating for the warm season. So if you need more information
on that, if you go to my online my website skip gardening with skip
dot com Gardening with Skip dot Com. My lawn pest, disease and weed
management schedule is there. And by the way, I just updated it just
yesterday. We put up a version, not not any big changes, just
a little couple of tweaks or two. And I'm going to continue to do
that over time as we get more information and come up with new products or
new options for dealing with things. Also, the lawn care schedules on the
same website. They're free. You can download them for free. Let's go
out now to Tomball and we're going to talk to Ben. Hello, Ben,
Hey, this is Ben. How you doing? But good morning,
Good morning, Hey. I had a question for you. I don't want
to make this a long story, but I planted an asparagus plant. And
the reason why I'm asking is because I was listening to one of your callers
earliest and they said so there's something called an asparagus ferns completely and it got
me thinking about Yeah, it got me thinking about my asparagus plant, because
when I was a kid, asparagus used to grow wild all over the place
and we'd go out up there and my dad would get so mad at us
because we just plucked the whole thing out of the ground. And he was
like, no, you snap them off. He's you know, did you
grow up in did you grow up in the Midwest or where'd you grow up?
Uh? At the time, we were living up in Washington State.
My dad had you know, he went up to Washington State and you know,
we we would go out and but you know, I was a kid.
I didn't know any better or anything like that. So he got onto
us and said, you so fucked the whole thing out of the ground.
You snap it off. Yeah, So how can I help with asparagus?
Well, my plant doesn't seem to produce. I mean one year, one
year it actually grew, it grew a little piece of asparagus. I broke
it off and I ate it. My dad would be rolling in his grave.
Well let me let me cut right to vententer on that one, because
I know what I know what's about. That's why I ask if you grew
up in the Midwest further north, asparagus when it gets cold, it goes
fully dormant and it shuts down, and then in spring it's got all that
stored energy to come out. In the South, asparagus continues to about half
grow through our cool seasons, and it's not storing the carbohydrates. It's actually
using carbohydrates during the season, and then in the spring we just don't have
the same stored energy to produce lots of large spears for a long time.
So some people will cut their asparagus back when the first frost hits. That's
one strategy there. Some varieties do a little better than others, but you're
never going to see the yields that you saw up in Washington down here with
asparagus. So is there anything I can do to make it work better down
here? Yeah? Getting varieties, some of the Rutgers released varieties I can't
name them off the top of my head, do pretty good. And then
cutting it back when we get our first freeze, go ahead and cut it
back to the ground, and then just help we don't have too much warm
weather in the wintertime and that'll help out. Cut it down to the ground,
like to the roots. Yeah, produced a few inches above the ground,
Ben, But hey, I'm up against a hard break, but I
got it. That's the best thing. If you go to Aggie Horticulture website
Aggie Horticulture, there's a vegetable section and a whole publication on asparagus for Texas.
Asparagus for Texas Aggie Horticulture website, you're going to get a lot more
help there. And thank you for that call. Our phone number is seven
one three two one two kt RH. Don't let the weather bring you down
because at noon today it's almost like a switch goes off. I'm checking different
weather you know, prediction sites and whatnot, and it's like twelve o'clock,
the rain's gonna go away. We've got some part clouds, but it like
percent goes down to four percent or something this afternoon. If your is excited
about spring as I am, this afternoon is the time to get out,
get out and enjoy yourself. If you live out there in a Richmond area,
for example, you got enchanted forest also, you know enchanted forest.
I don't know how many of you've been there. I know a lot of
people go there. It's a very popular place. But if you have not
been, you've got to go see it. It is incredible. They've got
a good stock of the vegetables in and their herbs. Their herbs selection is
incredible. Right now, I'm just looking at some pictures of the herb area.
It's a huge new area for herbs and vegetables and whatnot that they built
out there, and oh my gosh, it is wall to wall cool and
every kind of thing like from the traditional herbs you're familiar with down to I
like the little dwarf times. I think they're really cute. You can put
them in a container. It's almost like you're putting a ground cover in the
container. The little time is growing around some other plant that's coming up.
Just another tip for doing it. But they've got the seed potatoes, you
know, for example, they've got peppers and tomatoes, egg plants, all
that kind of stuff. If you're going to do any seed starting, you
still can do that for some of the things that are a little later coming
on. They've got the selection of the supplies that you need. So and
by the way, if you're going to do potatoes, don't delay. Now's
the time get those we call them seed potatoes. You cut them into sections
with a couple of eyes on each section, and then just let them sit
for two days, maybe three, but the most. And that gives them
time to dry off that cut surface. You can put them in the ground
and get them growing. It's just real easy to do. All that's an
enchented forest. Go check them out today. Listen. At noon, we're
going to get a break. Wonderful time to get out and get some inspiration
because you can find it out there at enchanted forest. For sure. We're
going to go now to Northwest Houston and talk about Chris talked about Chris.
We're going to talk to Chris. How about that? Chris? How you
doing? That's fine? I'm doing well, sir. How can we helpe
today? Well, I'm fulfilling a promise this year to my wife to make
our front yard into something. And the basic problem we've had all the years
we've had the place is the soil is practically concrete. It is light gray
to it's actually dingy white in places and rock hard. Wow, So how
do I how do I fix that? All? Right? Well, first
of all, smart man on promising your wife and following through. You know,
if the lawn is in such bad shape that you just need to replace
it, renovate, that's that's one. Are you at that point or are
you just trying to fix what you have? Just raise it and start over.
Get you a good quality mix. You can buy a good quality mix
to come in, put a few inches over the ground and kind of mix
it in with the soil you have. You don't want to have like concrete
and on top of it is potting soil if you just to use an extreme
example, but you want to blend them together because the grass roots are going
to have to go down in that, and grass is pretty tolerant of a
wide variety of soils. You want to do that. When you have a
lawn growing, you want to do deep tine aeration as often as needed.
It just depends. But when soil gets hard, when you're not good drainage
and you're not getting oxygen in the soil, having someone come out and do
deep tinne aeration can also help. Top dressing your lawn with a leaf more
compost seasonally or annually rather, that can also help. But start by getting
a good mix in there. Spreading it out, mixing it in as best
you can do. You have a lot of trees, no just one,
okay, good, Well, then you're not going to have all the roots
in the way like you would if you had a yard full of old trees.
But you can use a rototiller, you know, that's probably the best
way because it's a large area to mix it up and just kind of you
know, loosen it up and mix that in and then by the sod,
lay the sod down and watered in. I would probably wait a little bit
to do the sod. You've got time then to get all your other stuff
done. If you've got any perennial weeds. Maybe you've got bermuda grass that's
growing in a Saint Augustine that that's a weed, then perennial weeds, you
would need to spray them, kill them and make sure they're gone before you
put the new grass in, or it they'll just pop up through that too,
right, okay. And then after you've got it in, you're gonna
water it daily. If it's a cooler part of the season, you can
get by with once a day as we warm up, I would do I'm
going to replace the section alawn this spring. I'm going to do mine in
April, just because it's warmed up and the grassroots will be growing faster and
hitting the ground running if you will. I'm gonna have to water it probably
once a day if it were summer, twice a day a week to help
it get those roots established, because that grass is coming in with a half
inch of clay soil at the bottom, and that's all the root system that
sod has, and so you've got to really keep that tiny bit of root
moist. And after about a week, you know, you can go to
once a day or once every other day, and then you know, work
your way over about three weeks into just watering it once or twice a week.
And so then after it's been in long enough to get established and you
can reach done and grab a SOD piece. If you tug on it a
little bit, you can tell if it's rooted or if it's just wiggling around
like a throw rug. And once it's established, then it's time to start
fertilizing. And to make it simpler for you, I'm just going to say
go to my website. It's gardening with Skip dot com, and there is
a lawn care publication. It's a one page sheet from January to December what
you need to do for your launch. There's also one for weeds and pass
us. But right now we're going to focus on how do you get your
long growing and that's the long care schedule. Okay, do you have any
recommendation for where to get this good top soil? Yeah? You're in northwest
Houston, Yes, sir, Okay, we got two great places really here.
The Nature's Way is up in the Conroe area on forty five. Heirloom
Soils is over in a porter direction not too far away, and both of
those can bring you bulk loads of equality topsoil type mix. Explain to them
what you're wanting to do and they can point you toward the product that will
do the best for what you're trying to accomplish. Okay, excellent, and
they'll do bulk delivery, which you're going to want to do that for sure.
Nice. Okay, all right, thanks Chris, good luck with it.
Oh just is your wife listening right now? She is not? Okay,
good Valentine's Day's coming up. Valentine's Day's coming up. That's my last
tip. Thanks a lot man. Appreciate the call. You take care.
Yeah, I do appreciate the call. By the way, all you guys
out there, Valentine's Days come in and I'm just saying, you know what
about a rose bush? You ever thought about that? That would be a
really really good deal. Hey, I was talking about Nature's Way Up and
they're having it's coming up way off in March. I'm just telling you about
it. Get on your calendar. March ninth, it's their Spring Garden Festival.
I'll tell you a lot more about that, but just you don't want
to miss this one. It's going to have all kinds of cool stuff going
on. We'll talk about it more as we get to it, but March
ninth is there Spring Garden Festival. Nature's Way Resources, they originated a lot
of the things we talk about all the time, like leaf mole compost,
like rose soil that they're the ones that created it, quality products, have
been doing it for a long time. If you're up there picking things up,
you can go out and buy bulk or buy the bag up there,
and it's nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety nine three six three
two one sixty nine ninety leave a little room in the car because they've got
a great selection of native plants, and you're going to want to check out
their expanding and growing a nursery area that they have there on site at Nature's
Way Resources, along with all the quality products that have. A while ago,
I was talking to somebody about blueberries. Well, Nature's Way has a
blueberry mix. It's for acid loving plants. That's really what it is.
Uh. And so azaleas, blueberries, camellias, gardenias, gardenias, hydrangeas
blueberry mix for all of that just an example of one of the great products
from Nature's Way. Uh. You're listening to Guardline. Our phone number is
seven one three two one two kt r H seven one three two one two
k t RH. I look forward to visiting with you about the things that
you are curious about. I was out at the Antiqurosingporium just a while,
and you know it's wintertime and wintertime things are a little slow. I want
to tell you that place explodes when spring explodes. And I'm you know,
March and April. You got to go drive by just to see it.
Go go just see it. The location is up there. It's just north
of Branham and not hard to find if you want to find them. If
you want more information, go to Antique Roseemporium dot com. Antique Roseemporium dot
com. The phone number is nine seventy nine eight three six fifty five seventy
eight. Listen, there's your tip for the best Valentine's Gay gift I can
think of is a rose We think of roses on Valentine's Day. How about
a rosebush? And you can even do that for a friend or maybe Grandma
or someone else in the family. When you give a gift like that,
year after year after year, every time they see that bush, they see
those roses, they smell the roses, they enjoy them. We're going to
think about you. That's why I make I think it's just a wonderful,
wonderful gift. Out at the antiqu Rosing Porum. By the way, they're
not just roses. There are roses and much much more. They got pansies
and Biola's and dianthus, they got all kinds of perennial plants. Just a
wonderful selection of those. Again, give them a call nine seventy nine eight
three six five five four eight, But definitely plan a trip up there this
spring. I love to go. Also during bluebonnet season another good time to
go, and the Roses are doing their biggest show of the spring during that
time as well. Just a tip, hey that there's another Valentine's Day gift.
Take them out to an antigu rose Impirum, oh yonder Jop that'd be
cool, and then throwing a lunch along the way, run lunch or some
nice little cafes up there, the Brennam Maria that we're getting a plan here,
We're getting a plan here. You can thank me later. You can
thank me later. But anyway, Antique Roses is always fun. I love
to go out there. And they got new owners be I'm not totally new.
I mean they've been a little while now, but it is just you
know, when at first I heard they were under going to be under new
ownership, I thought, oh man, I hope this place. I hope
this place sticks around. And boy did not only to stick around, it
is taking off. It's getting better and better and better out there. I
always love, love to go. I want to remind you for those of
you who are interested in vegetables, Fort ben County Vegetable Conference Thursday Next Thursday,
February eighth, forty bucks is a registration for a day full of training
and meal. Wow that I don't know how they afford to do it for
that reasonable of a fee, but they do, absolutely do. If you
want more information, you can go to Fort Bend dot Agrolife dot org,
Fort Bend dot Agrolife dot o ARCHI. Welcome back to Gardenline. We are
excited. We are officially excited about spring. We've been through the winter.
I've had enough winter. I know those of you who've moved here from further
northern areas going we never had winter. Well, I've had enough winter.
So here's the deal. Spring is coming, ready or not. Here it
comes. It's time to get excited. Our vegetable gardens are going to explode.
Our floral beds, our bedding, plant beds are just going to be
gorgeous. And you can make that happen. It takes what is first?
What is the first thing? If you've listened to Guardenline even one show,
you should know the answer to this. What is the first key to success
on anything that you want to grow? The soil bronze stuff before green stuff,
meaning you get the spot ready and then you plant the good plant.
That's the combo. But it starts with the soil. You can do a
lot to improve your show. We're talking about putting in a new lawn area,
Chris in the Northwest Seaston, putting in a new lawn area, What
did you start with It started fixing that soil. Whether it's a vegetable garden,
a flower bed, lawn, it doesn't matter. Soil comes first.
That's very very important to remember. And when you get a good quality soil
mix, you're gonna just find that it's everything goes much much better. Makes
it look like you've got a green thumb. That's what That's what we're talking
about. So at noon today we have scheduled the rain to end. This
afternoon is going to be wonderful and a good time to get out and get
some inspiration one of our local garden centers or pick up supplies. Pick up
the supplies we need. We're gonna go to sugar Land now and talk to
Greg. Hello. Greg, Yes, So when should I put my barricade
down at my fertilizer for the York Yeah? Done? In sugar Land,
I would do the barricade. Let's say the first week of February would be
a good time. You could do the second week probably, but go ahead
and go ahead first second week and they may be a little or we want
to get ahead of the sprouting. And you never know in a given year
when the soil warms enough because we don't know the weather specifically. But I'd
say the first or second week of February would be my ideal time for your
location. So it would be okay, like next Saturday, Friday something like
that. Oh yeah, that'd be fine, yeap. Just when you put
it down, Greg, Greg, two things to remember. Number one,
you need to apply about a third of an inch half inch of water somewhere
in there just to move the new the product off the crystals or the crystals
the granules into the soil surface. That's very important for it to work.
And then secondly, follow the label on how much you apply. That's important,
right. And then do I come back maybe a week later and put
my fertilizer down for the lawn or you know, you can do on my
schedule. We've got a couple of we've got a couple of options. There
is an fertilizing. It's done early, early, early in the season,
and that is something typically we're going to do at the end of February.
It could it could be on into March, mid March. H for a
quick green up. Now that's a that's a visual for you that we do
that when it comes to actually the grass is growing fast and it takes a
fertilizer and goes and goes through the season. That would be something we do
starting in the first Papril. Okay, okay, yeah, it's up to
you, up to you. Yeah, yeah, so make sure when I
put the barricade down next week's Saturday or whatever, make sure I water it
then. Yeah, just a little bit different there. Yeah, you don't
need much. It's not like your water in your lawn to soak the sweat
deep. We just need about a third half an in something like that.
And yeah, and go ahead and buy the fertilizer so you're ready to go
as well. But if you go on into my website it's gardening with skip
dot com, you can download that, print it out and then just take
it with you and that way whatever you're buying. In fact, go ahead
and download the lawn pest Disease and we'd management schedule too. That's what the
barricades on. Uh, and you can go right in and point at it
and say this is what I need. Okay, then hey, thanks Greg,
I appreciate your call very much. Yeah, it's it's it's important to
do things in a timely way, and it is time. We are now
in the time where if you're going to prevent weeds, this will be the
time to get that done. It's also the time to get planting done.
We have a lot of different shrubs and trees and woody vines and perennials,
all kinds of things can be planted now, and the sooner you do it,
the better. Folks out at Verdant Tree Farm v E r d a
Nttreefarm dot com Verdant Tree Farm the first of all, they got two locations.
There's one out on Barker, Cyprus and West Houston one down in Pearland
on Broad just a few blocks from Killing Steakhouse down there in Periland. They
have a wonderful selection of tree options. You know, they're known for just
having an incredible selection of the best palm trees you'd want to grow here,
but it goes way beyond palms. I mean, they have all the deciduous
trees that we're talking about. They absolutely can get you set up on that,
even some large shrubs as well. It's a turnkey service. You go
there, you pick your tree, you get to say I want that one,
and they bring it to your house and they plant it correctly, which
is important. You can go in, sit down in the office, take
a picture of your place and say hey, I need something for here,
and they kind of consult with you a little bit of a design consultation,
if you will, like, here's a good place to plant it. And
that way you know you're getting when you go to Verden. You know you're
getting a plant that is going to survive here and thrive here. That is
important. And you know you're going to get it planted right too, and
that is very important. Verdantreefarm dot com. We're going to go out to
South Houston and we're going to talk to Parker. Parker, Hey, how
are you? Yeah, Hey, I'm good, sir. Hey, I
got a question about pine needles used as a weed barrier around the trees or
maybe even in the garden. Is that the pros and cons of that?
Could you discuss that? And then also I'd like to report that the Crape
myrtle massacre is ongoing. I've used pine needles for years right now. I
don't live in a place where there are a lot of pines, but I
have in the past lived up in Conroe Willis area, and pine needles are
just fine. I may run over them with a mower just to break them
up a little bit kind of holding place. But they make a nice moltz.
People. There's this old rumor that it makes your soul to acid.
It's not. Study In Penn State years ago they mult of pine needles for
years and years and it barely moved the pH one tenth of a pH point
after all that time. So and you could fix that with a handful of
lime. If that happened, it's not going to happen to you. Well,
the neighbor kid has about they get fifteen or twenty pine trees on their
lot and they're selling He is selling one dollar bag of pine needles a garbage
bag, pretty good size, and it's pretty well packed. But it's a
dollar a bag, Man, Parker. You can't beat that with a wet
rope. I would jump over there and grab some of those. That's about
the most economical mults you're you're going to find. Yeah, it's fine to
use them. I like the look of them. I kind of like that
bronze color you know that they have, especially when they're fresh. But just
high up the trees. How high up the tree should you go with that?
You mean how high up on the trunk? Yeah, on the trunk
of the tree. Yeah. I wouldn't pile them against the trunk. I'd
go right up just to the trunk. But make sure that trunk is not
mulched on the trunk to keep them. You want that to dry out.
You don't want that to stay wet. But I I want to track the
ants well and just the moisture up against the trunk. People that do these
volcanoes, that's a bad practice. Hey, I've got to I'm up against
a hard break on it. But thank you for your question. And what
a deal? What a deal? Okay, we're going to take a break.
We'll be right back seven one three, two, one two fifty eight
seventy four. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter.
What do you want to talk about today? It is the time to
get excited about spring. That's what I want to talk about today. I
am excited about spring. Listen, the best garden I've ever planted is always
my next one. That's how I like to look at it. The next
garden is my best ever. My vegetable garden this year is going to be
unbelievable. I'm trying some new vegetables, some things I've never grown before.
You know, the more fresh vegetables we eat, the better off we are
health wise. That's that's a known fact. Well, I've got some new
things to enhance, you know. I'm always looking for new things for salads,
new flavors and things like that. Things that can take the summer.
We got vegetables for that. I'll talk about those and we get into the
warmer weather. But I'm excited about that. And flowers, Oh my gosh,
ready to go when it comes to flowers as well. Well. If
you would like to talk about some of these things seven to one three,
two, one two, five eight seven four seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four, give us a call and we'll talk about what you're
interested in. By the way, something I want to tell you, here's
a tip. Are you listening. I need you, I need your attention
just for a minute. Heirloom Soils has released their cocktail mix. Now what
the cocktail mix is. It's a special blend of a number of different high
quality so let's put together. We got leafmo compost, we got h pine
bark, we got cocoa koar, it's got shale pearl like humates, sand
worm castings, molasses, Michael rise a biotrap. I mean this is like
this is like soil on steroids. The cocktail mix superquality. Only seventy five
dollars a yard. Now that is it's a limited quantity, by the way,
So if you're thinking about it, don't delay. You need to do
it. You need to do it now. Now you only can get it
when you go pick it up or from delivery out at the Warren's Rock and
Mulch Yard importer. So you got to go out there and get it or
call them have a delivery of it. But here's where you need to listen.
The first ten people that text message them are going to get another fifteen
dollars discount if you go pick it up. So if you have a truck
or trailer and you can go out there and get it, we're going they're
going to take another fifteen bucks off per yard. Now, don't call them.
Only text messages and only people who have a truck or trailer. You
can go out there and get the thing. Okay, here's the number.
Ready. I'm gonna give you a minute to get your pen ready. When
you text them, they're going to send a text back if you are one
of the first ten uh and you can just take that to the customer service
staff when you go check out, and that proves that, yep, you're
one of the ones that won. Eight three two two ten seventy nine oh
eight eight three two two one zero seven nine zero eight. Now Airlom Soils
has a wide variety of quality soil products. You know, I just got
some of the works potting soil the other day. I've used that before.
It's an outstanding potting mix, really really cool. There's a lot of new
product going out in fact this week or next week. Places like Plants for
all seasons, Kata's Hardware, Nelson's Water Gardens out in Brookshire, Texas,
Mid County feed and Netherland Netherland Huntsville Farm Supply. I'll spase as Woodland's Kingwood
Garden Center, Ace Hardware, Memorial Ace Hardware City, a Memorial Drive,
Joe's Country Store in Santa Fe, War in Southern Guards. All these are
places you can get these heirloom soils, and boy are they ever And there's
a lot more places than that, by the way, are they ever about
to send out a good quality group? Now? Again, if you miss
the number for fifteen dollars off of this special cocktail mix, if you go
pick it up eight three to two two ten seventy nine oh eight. And
that's only the first text messages. And I guarantee you other people have grabbed
their phones already, so you better hurry if you're interested in that. We're
going to head out now to Spring Branch and talk to Herda. Hello,
Herda, good morning. How are you? My question this morning is about
can you hear me? I don't hear you. Oh I'm sorry, I
was pushing the wrong button. I am here, I am excited, and
I'm ready to answer whatever question you got. Let's go all right. This
is about a night blooming jasmine and it's, oh, I guess, about
ten feet tall, and it's five or six stems of the plant, maybe
not quite a quarter inch in diameter at the bottom. But at any rate,
I had a hard time covering it for the freeze, and it's it's
alive. The leaves are shriveled, yeah, but they're still dark green,
no problem. And when I scratched the trunk, there's green. Now if
I move it, well, I guess maybe I'm wanting to know. Can
it be divided if I move it earth? I have to see the base
of it to see Normally that's not something we think about dividing. But if
you've got stems and you can separate it and get roots for each section,
yes you could divide it, but you need to do any moving or anything
to it. If you're going to do it, you need to do it
real soon. And I would let the plant tell you where to prone back.
Wait until growth begins, and then you know exactly where to print it
back. Oh. I see. That was my next question, because I
thought, should I take maybe a quarter of it off to let the rest
have the nutrition? Yeah? I get it. I get it all right.
Hey, hurd it. Thank you for the call. I appreciate that
as always. Thank you, sir, Thank you for being there. You
have a good weekend. Listen if you if your plants like hurd us got
hammered back, you need to be ready as they come out to help them
out. And Medina has their seaweed and the Medina Plus. It's a combo
product. Seaweed is what it's this regular seaweed. Medina Plus is their standard
soil activator. Plus it has even more in it. And I would give
them a good drench of the Medina Plus. You could do that now as
a matter of fact, but especially when they begin new growth, and then
as they begin to grow and get foliage on them, some sprays, fullier
sprays, you can use the plus and also the seaweed, especially the seaweed
at that point in time will be very very helpful. Now Medina products are
widely available everywhere, many of them. You've heard them talk for Randy talked
about them for years here on Garden Line. In fact, I think Medina
may go all the way back to Dewey Compton days. I mean it was
one of the first advertisers on guarden Line, and a lot of really quality
products. By the way, those of you up in the Montgomery area A
and A Plants and Produce, you got to go by there. That is
a family owned business, been around thirty years. It gets better every year.
If you live out on the lake one of those neighborhoods, Waterstone Lake,
Conroe area, I'm talking about Grand Harbor, de Lago, all of
that. This is your backyard garden center. They carry the fertilizers that I
talk about, they deliver. They even do some landscaping around the lake area
there. Seven days a week is always a good time to go buy an
a plants and produce, starting this afternoon when that rain breaks, and all
day tomorrow is going to be a great day as well, nine am to
five pm. Their selection of some of the really cool stuff, you know,
the gazebos and arches and topiaries and concrete statuary, whimsical yard are they'll
get you fixed up on all that as well at Ana plants and produce.
Well, we're putting an hour in the books here. This is today's going
fast. But I'm telling you I'm excited. I hope you're as excited as
I am about this spring. We are about to enter a wonderful season.
And this is the season where if you're not excited about gardening, you don't
have a pulse, or you're not a gardener. I'll just make it real
simple like that. Our garden centers are more and more getting the stock in
and ready to go. Our suppliers, the folks we talk about here on
garden Line for buying your fertilizers and your products to control disease, and past
and leads and whatnot, gardening tools, new hope, new garden hoses,
all those kinds of things. It's time get out there and get ready for
spring. Get a little bit of inspiration. So I hope you'll head out
this afternoon and do a little bit of that. I am. I've got
a couple of garden centers in mind. I'm gonna stop by today because I
would love to do that. We'll be back. Kt r H Garden Line
does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program.
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip Ricter. It's so he just
watch him as so many foods. They're not a sad Welcome back to guarden
Line. We are glad you're with us today. Of course we are love
talking to you about the things that interest you. If you got a question,
we'd be happy to help. It is seven to one three two one
two k t r H. You want to give us a call seven one
three two one two kt r H. Yes, I am excited about spring.
What have you not grown before that you want to grow this year?
Really think about that. Do you grow vegetables? What is a vegetable you'd
never grown before? I can give you some suggestions, really cool things.
There's always a new tomato. I think the world would stop spinning on its
axis if there was a year where there wasn't a new tomato that appeared on
the several new tomatoes that appeared on the market. There's always like that.
But there's new things, things you've never grown before. Try some things like
that out. How about flowers, you know, do you maybe there's a
container around there or you need to get one that you could fill with beautiful,
beautiful flowers. I'm going to do that. There's some trailing types of
petunias that are just beautiful. One of them is called bubblegum. There's a
bunch of other varieties. They just they load up so many blooms. I
don't know how the leaves get sunlight. I mean, they're beautiful. They
kind of trail over. Put those on the edge of a pot and let
them spill over. We're talking about large container and then plant something else inside.
You know, when summertime comes, angelonia does really well. It grows
very upright. So you got something spilling, you got something upright. You
can put something in the middle that blooms as well, like one of the
more compact types of zinias that makes a little mound, a little short mounded
plant, unlike the big cut flower types. How about combining something like that
and try that out this year. Just get out, get outside, check
it out. This afternoon the rain's gone, be a good day to go
out to RCW Nursery. For example. RCW has loaded up on roses.
You know we're talking about roses in Valentine's Day. Well, RCW has one
of the largest selections I've seen, all kinds of beautiful, beautiful roses and
all the supplies you need to get them planted right. You know, they
carry the fertilizers I talk about, and they carry much much more. They're
at RCW. They got all kinds of plants and whatnot, but trees that
RCW has tree Farm Williamson Tree Farm up in the Plannersville area, and they
grow their own trees, and so they have an outstanding selection of container grown
trees as well. Remember, if you're going to plant a tree, don't
delay, get it done now. Now, RCW, where is it?
You've never been there? Where you need to go? It's on Highway two
forty nine, right where it comes into Beltway. A really easy to get
to there. RCW Nurseries dot com just as simple as that Highway two forty
nine right where it comes into beltwegha go to RCW nursery dot com, find
out they got a little map on there, find out where they're located,
and go buy and see them. Or maybe you're one of the many people
that already know about them and love them. They have quite a following,
that is for sure, and for good reason. We're going to go up
now to Burton, Texas and talk to John. Hello, John Hey,
Top of the day, Keith Skip, Yes, sir, I have I
have some tropicals. It's called kolanchewi. I'm not sure about the pronunciation of
that. Okay, uh, people you say klancho or kellancoe. I like
klancho, but but it doesn't matter what you call it. I know what
you're talking about. Okay, My Kolancho suffered some wilting freeze damage in the
garage next to the heater, and I just wondered, should I cut him
back or just let him go? They come back every year when this happens,
but they do. Uh, you can if they're if they're in a
place where you can protect them. Should another freeze come, you could go
ahead and take all the dead off, uh and and just kind of leave
leave it open to when it's ready to re sprout to sprout, or you
could just leave it ugly and uh, you know, when it warms up
a little more, we feel like we're past the freeze frost dates cut it
back then either way. But kaloncho often will come back. And it also
produces little plantlets on its leaves that drop to the ground and root, so
it propagates itself. Right. It's they're great. They're beautiful when they're gloom.
They are. And also with your theme, I was thinking about growing
some peas out here in this black land soil. I didn't know you can
do it, good idea or not. No, you can do it.
You can do that. I maybe mix a little bit of a compost in
not too much peas don't need a lot of extra nitrogen. I just planted
some sugar snap type peas the other day. I got them going in the
garden, and it's a good time to do that with peas. We got
this little window where peas can't take a hard freeze when they're very young,
and the blooms and the pods will also be frozen even when the plant won't
be frozen, and so we kind of get got to get them in early
because we don't want it to get too hot when they're trying to produce.
But if you are, if you haven't selected seeds yet, get a variety
that's somewhere between let's say fifty five and sixty five days to harvest. Those
are the faster moving ones. There are some that are seventy two or more
seventy five days or so. Go with a faster one, you have better
luck. Okay, appreciate you tip, Thanks sir. All right, have
fun with those, you know. I call peas garden food. Gardener food.
By the way, unless you plan a lot, you're always going to
have about a handful every day and not enough to take in and cook.
But while I'm working in the garden, that's my snack reward to just snack
on those sweet sweet peas. Sir, Thank you, thank you, bye
bye. That is good when you're out shopping for supplies. I'm talking about
all kinds of things. ACE Hardware is the place, you know. ACE
is the place for all kinds of things. I was out at Jnr's ACE
up in the Porter area just yesterday, visiting with Jeff and looking at all
the stuff they had in the store and talking about all the shipments that coming
in and everything. You know, they're gonna have every kind of fertilizer that
you need for your garden that we talk about here on guarden Line. They
got pest control products that we talk about on guarden Line. They got the
tools and the hoses and all kinds of things like that at ACE Hardware.
But ACE is more. If you go to our Facebook page, i posted
something about ACE is a place for barbecue supplies and pits. Oh my gosh,
they have some nice ones. And the supply for home furnishings as well,
you know, the beautiful little decorations to create your little farmhouse look or
whatever look you're going for. You'd be surprised at what they have at ACE.
Hardware. You can go to Acehardware dot com. Do this. You're
a locator, find the Houston area and it is you pretty much can throw
a rock from wherever you live to an ACE Hardware someone somewhere very very close
by. That's just how many they have out there. Well, we're gonna
have to take a little break right here. When we come back, Charlie,
you will be the first up for the rest of you. If you'd
like to call seven to one three two one two kat r H. Welcome
back to garden Line. What are we going to talk about today? Well,
it looks like a few things here. Got several folks on on the
line ready to go. Let's just jump right out there and find out what's
happening. We're going to start off with the Charlie and Lake Jackson. Hello,
Charlie, Hey, thanks for taking my call. You bet with my
granddaughter a bed to Roseberg my parents. But anyway, I was listening and
she loves listening to you. She loves listening about good and anyway, my
question is with ground hooking for uh, you know, the prediction? Does
that change? I'm doing some flower beds things down like tas. I'm just
curious about, you know, planting. Uh, it's just a different things.
But all right, hey Charlie, you're you're cutting out a lout a
lot on me. But I think I got the gist of it. So
basically, no, no groundhog does not uh affect in any way what we're
doing down here. In fact, I would say that's in Pennsylvania, right,
Puck Satani Pennsylvany. I don't know wherever it is. It's north of
us, and so we're not going to let those predictions affect what we're doing
here. We more go by our average frustrates and things, and uh,
you know, in general, we do a little cheating on the weather.
Sometimes we go as run out there and cover something up if we planted a
little a little bit too early, so that that's a better guide for us.
It's it's hard enough just based on the looking at the averages each year,
you know, trying to predict what this year is going to be.
Sometimes forecasters will give these long range forecasts, which I think are a little
bit dubious of that kind of thing. But anyway, Yeah, now,
no no groundhog information for us, don done here. And thanks Charlie.
I tell your daughter hello, and we're glad you're listening to garden line.
Gardening is one of the best hobbies and the most fun thing you can do.
And I know as a kid I had a garden. In fact,
your daughter's fortunate. She probably doesn't have this situation. But whenever I'm misbehaved,
I would be sent out to weed the garden. Yeah, that's right,
And let me just say we had the most weed free garden in Texas.
And I'll let you put two and two together and figure out what that
meant. We're going to go back out now on the phones to Sandy and
Side. Hello, Sandy, good morning, Skip. How are you.
I'm well, thank you. I have a question. I planted radish from
seed and unfortunately, once they sprouted, I kept them on my stove with
the lights that are on my stove and they started legging. So I put
them by the sunlight by my windowsill. Right, And is there any way
I can fix that legging or Johnny to pull them in we started, Well,
it depends on how bad. No, there's no fixing it other than
getting them in lots of sunlight and letting them continue to develop and that they
should take off with better growth. If they've been in that low of light.
I wouldn't put them in full sun immediately. I'd give them a week
or so out in a bright shade or maybe a little early morning sun,
and then move them into a more full sun location. And then also my
cluster beans and my celebrity tomatoes. My celebrity tomatoes sprouted up, but they
look very skinny and small. I've got them by my window sill as well.
And but my cluster beans, how long do you think that takes to
germinate? I don't know which bean you're talking about when you say clusters,
those long green, like do you eat the whole bean pod? Yes,
okay, yes, I know what you're Yeah, well, those generally germinate
in just three days or something. You should be seeing those. If the
temperatures are warm enough, they should germinate it fast enough. On January twenty
eighth, so that's why I was wondering, Like my okra came up,
my oh okra, Wow, Okay, Well tell you what you need to
get you one of those little plant lights. And you know there's you can
spend a lot. You can spend a little to get one. But I
used to to use a shop light a little four foot shop lights. Put
a bulb that's more of a warm white kind of bulb and one that's more
of a cool white. You can get led versions, but it's really hard
to get good seedlings in a windowsill. It just is, you know there
the light seems like a lot, but it's not compared to be in just
a couple of inches under a shop light. That would be one thing maybe
think about for future. Do you think I need a heating pad too to
put underneath? Well forgetting the seed to germinate. That helps, But if
you're okrah germinated, then you ought to be fine, because it's a little
picky about cold germination. But if it germinated, you should be okay and
not need a heating pad. Okay, all right, well, thank you
very much. All right, good luck with it. You take care all
right. Thank you. Appreciate your code. You bet you bet. Hey.
If you look outside and you you have got birds at your feeder,
and if you don't have a feeder, you need to have one. I
was just my wife and I were watching the bird feeder the other day,
and oh my gosh, there are so many kinds of birds that are coming.
You get a good quality blend. And while birds unlimited, they have
the best, absolutely the best bird blends that you're going to find. Here's
why I say that. Number one, they're not full of the little red
bebes that most birds are just not going to eat. So when you buy
a pound of bird seed, you get a pound of bird food, if
you know what I'm talking about. So that's number one. Number two,
if you want a mess free blend where there's no holes laying around like sunflower
seed holes and stuff underneath, they even have those as well. They have
blends for every kind of bird that you would want. You know, there
different birds eat different kinds of seed or they prefer different kinds, and they
can get you set up on that. Right now, though, you need
to know bluebirds are looking for boxes, So if you want to put up
a bluebird house, now's the time to go. Buy wilbirds, get one,
get it set up. Same with purple martins. When we in fact
we're in the season now where we look up at the sky and any time
now you're going to see purple martins coming through. And if you got the
house and it's up and ready, they'll stop and they'll live there. If
you don't have a house and you wait too long, you're going to have
missed the season. It's still good to put one up, but why not
get it done ahead of time. There's six stores for wild birds all over
the Houston area. Just go to wb U dot com, forward Slash Houston,
WBU dot com forward Slash Houston find a wild Bird's near you, and
I would highly recommend that you consider adding a bird feeder, a bird house,
birds, or just one of the additional thing. The music from their
songs and the beauty of them just adds to the garden as well as some
pest control. A lot of birds love insects and that's what they're all about,
and we need some of that in our gardens as well. Let's go
out to Baytown. Now we're going to talk to Henry Hey. Henry Hey,
how you doing a great show? Speaking of birds? Does the humming
birds they only come out certain certain part of the year. There's times when
they're here and times when they're migrating. And we had a fall migration.
Most of them left. You have a few sometimes that hang around, I've
noticed, but in general, you know, they they passed through in the
fall on the way down, okay south by the end of the Yeah,
the reason the mask? Could I notice my hummingbird feed? I know it's
getting lower and lower, So that's why I'm just curious. Well, here's
my call. Where reason I'm calling. Last summer when we had that big
draft, I had a lot of big brown spots in my front yard,
et cetera. And I believe my front yard is going to be okay because
I've been out there looking and I know it's a lot of the grass is
starting with green that's growing up through the brown, which, by the way,
I have Saint Augustine, Okay, finally coming up. So I believe
I'm gonna be okay. On the front lawn. Now I have a sidewalk,
then you have the little it's about three feet by maybe fifteen feet of
area. Then you have the street. Well, that particular area is completely
still brown, and I have not seen any of the green coming up.
What I have to replace that with sod or just wait, you could wait
a little while, but either chinch bugs or the heat and drought or a
combination probably took it out out there. But here's what I would do,
Henriette, I don't know what the HOA rules are and everything. But that
is a hard spot to water without wasting water, and it's hard to get
it on the grass and not on the street and the sidewalk, and a
lot of people will go to more of a groundcover type plant in that area
that's more drop tolerant. And there's different options that you can do for that,
and so you might just kind of stop and think about that. If
you do a search on line, you can do a search for plants for
hell strips they call those the hell strip yeah, hell strips or something,
and get some ideas on those. Some people will use succulents in those areas.
Some just use a groundcover. Maybe you have mulched area with some you
know, some plants that are a little more deep rooted resilient than the grass
would be. Okay, well, I appreciate it and you have a saving
happy day you as well. Thank you appreciate that call. Appreciate it very
much. You know, when you're looking to improve the soil, and we
do improve the soil first, that's first. Landscaper's Pride has a wide variety
of options for you. In fact, they've got probably twenty seven now different
bag products from mulches and soil mixes and whatnot. They've got a rose soil
mix. They've got the black velvet mulch, which is just beautiful. It's
black, but it's not dyed. We hate dyed mulches. Those are don't
do that. But black velvet is naturally dark colored. Malts is really beautiful.
From Landscapers Pride, you can go to Landscaperspride dot com. You can
buy them by the bag all over the place. If you're to Landscaperspride dot
com, you can find out where they sell in your area, and they've
got them. And by the way, we were just talking to Sandy about
starting seeds. Landscaper's Pride has a forty pound bag of potting soil, the
most budget friendly, fully customizable. So it's got the age, pine bark,
sand and different blended organics in it. But if you wanted to move
it, you know, with more gritty material toward kind of a soil for
cactine succulent, you could do that if you want to screen it out a
little bit and make sure find texture to be a great soil for seed starting.
In fact, it's already quite fine textured as well, and makes a
good seed starting mix as well. Landscaper's Pride wide variety, widely available Landscaperspride
dot com. Find out more from them. I love to I love to
always try out new things, and I'm always trying out new soil mixes and
blends and different stuff like that. In fact, you know talking about that
out at Ciena Maltz. They carry a wide variety of soa mixes and blends
and multi They got Landscapers Pride by the bag out there. For example.
They've got the products you heard me today talking about Microlife. You're talking about
Medina product. They got all that, the fertilizers, I recommend you're going
to find it Ciena Maltz. They're down in the north of Roe Sharon area
FM five twenty one. Just go to Sienna Multch dot com cienamultch dot com.
There's a big shindig coming up out there that I'm going to be at
later in the spring. I'll tell you more about that later, but Ciena
Maultch is a great place to go in to get set up and ready to
go for spring. They're open till two o'clock today. If you'd like to
run out there and get an early look. Maybe put your order in to
get ready for a delivery. They deliver about twenty miles from the area,
and that down in that Ciena Maltch area on five point twenty one near just
north of Ross Sharon. We're going to a break for Nicky in the news
and that's the next thing, right Nikki, you're you're ready to go.
I'm ready to go. Unless you want to switch. You do gardening and
I'll make up stories about the news. I don't know. I don't have
my finger on the pulse like you do. All right, we'll be back.
Welcome back to guarden Line. Glad you're listening today. What do you
want to talk about. I want to talk about spring. I want to
talk about the excitement of the gardening season. And listen, it is time.
It is time to kick in the gear. Don't wait until it's eighty
degrees outside and you know your garden fever starts to wake up. No,
it's time now. If it hadn't woken up, joshure yourself and you know,
I don't know, look at this, see catalog or something. Go
online, look at some of our garden Center's websites. Get some inspiration.
Because we want to get out there and get some gardening done. That is
for sure. We're going to go to Fort ben County now and talk to
Scott. Hello, Scott, Okay, good morning, Thanks for taking my
call. I got a question. I got two oak trees in my front
yard and one of them has brown leaves and shed all of its leaves.
The other ones still green. I'm wondering if that freeze didn't kill that oak
tree. Are they supposed to be the same species of oak? They are,
They're similar, but I've never seen them, you know, shed leaves
at different times like that. Yeah, so are the leaves closer to the
size of your thumb or your hand. They're a little bit bigger than the
thumb, not quite as big as a hand. Okay, Well, without
seeing a picture of it, I can't identify for sure which oak you have.
Some oaks hold their leaves like a live oak. They hold them almost
all year. There's a transition in the spring. Others go deciduous naturally,
So if one of them is green, this must not be one that's naturally
deciduous in the wintertime. The fact that they're the same oak species and one
has leaves and the other doesn't tells me there's probably something wrong with the one
that doesn't have leaves. It could have been cold damage. I would think
that's a long shot this year, but it's possible. Yeah, that freeze
a couple of years ago was a lot worse. Yes, much more so,
Yeah, much worse. The December freeze last winter was it hit when
a lot of plants weren't ready, and that was rough. And then in
February of twenty one we had the freeze where it just went in a polar
vortex for our area down here and so but this year we did have a
little snap of a frieze, pretty good one. But most of our oaks
and stuff should be just fine. If you want to, I can put
you on hold. You can send me some photos of the two trees,
preferably some close up of the leaves as well, so I can identify what
kind of hook you have, but one photo of them in their setting,
so I can come look for anything else I might see. I'll put you
on hold here. I'll put you on hold here, and if you'd like
to do that, just hang on Josh. Josh will pick up and get
you an email. Thank you, Scott. I appreciate, appreciate your call
a lot. Have you been to the Arborgate recently? I know everybody knows
what Arbrogade he other. I mean, that's just one of those destination garden
centers that you really need to go to. And you know what do we
mean by destination. We mean when you bring people from out of town or
if you live across Texas, it's worth thriving here to get to the Arborgate
to see the things that they have. Well, if you haven't been in
a while, they've got a new parking lot. It's been a while around
a while now, but a lot of people aren't aware of that. But
there's a really nice parking area behind back. You turn on Trisher Road either
before or after Arburgate, whether you're coming from the east or the west,
just go right behind it. There's the parking lot in the back. You
just walk nice all weather path just right back up into the garden center.
It is so easy, so easy to get to and get out of it.
You know, the Arborgate, they're going to have all kinds of things.
They got staff on hand that know what they're talking about. They sell
things that grow here. That is important. It is so important to have
a garden center where you know, when you buy something, you're going to
get a good plant, you're going to get good advice, and then after
the sale, if you need help, they help you with that as well.
While you're there pick up. They're one, two, three, completely
easy system that's a food that feeds anything with roots, that's a soil for
any application that you would want to use, a high quality soil mix,
and a compost that improves any soil. And the last two the soil and
the compost have expanded shale in them, which is really important for our heavy,
heavy clay soils around here. Go to Arborgate dot com. Arborgate dot
com. You can find out where they are. You can find out the
phone numbers, you can find out all kinds of things and follow them on
social media too. By the way, beautiful, beautiful selections, a lot
of stuff from Monrovia that's coming in now that is just outstanding. At the
arbor Gate, I have talked about spring and spring excitement and you know,
being ready to hit the ground running. I've already got my seeds started indoors.
I'm going to be starting some more. By the way, we have
things that plant a little bit later than others. We're starting those and getting
them ready to go outside. Have been cleaning up the garden, just kind
of a leftover remains of the of the last fall garden where we had some
freeze damage and stuff. Getting that cleaned up. I'm about to fill up
a I've got a veggo rolling bed that I'm about to fill up with saw
mix and get growing in that. One of my fun things. I think
this is cool. I don't know. You may go not in my neighborhood,
but I think it's cool. I plant in wheelbarrows. I've got two
or three wheelbarrows that have a quality soil mix on them, and I planted
them. You can have flowers spilling over the sides I was talking about,
like the trailing petunia. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. In a wheelbarrow
less some spills over the side well too, that would be another good choice
you can use. Just fill them with flowers. It's like a bouquet in
the bed of a wheelbarrow. I plant vegetables and wheelbarrows. If you want
greens planting. You know, we're talking about lettuce and spinach and arugula and
kale and all the different things you would eat as greens. Just feel a
wheelbarrow full of them and then just go out there with their scissors and mow
your harvest and it's easy and easy. The nice thing about wheelbarrows is if
it's a really hard freeze like we had, roll them into the garage.
If you need more sun, you just move the wheelbarrow to there. You
can move it to mow around it if you got it out in the yard.
But that's different, right, Why don't you try that this year if
you think that esthetically would fit the bill for you. It's just another way
to grow. And there's so many cool and new fun things we can try
that it really really is worth giving it a try. I think you should.
So what's new for you this year? Just let us know, or
what are you excited about after we come back. We're going to take a
break here after we come back. I'd like to know what are you excited
about growing this year? What if you never tried before, or maybe there's
something you want to try, and just ask us, hey, skip do
you think that'll grow here? I'll tell you what I think. And I've
tried about everything under the sun. As they say, to be a good
horticulture, she got to kill a lot of plants. Don't be afraid to
try something new. It's all right. Our phone number when we come back
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to guarden
Line. Glad you're listening today, and we are talking about all kinds of
things, things that you might be interested in. We are going to head
out to let's see Lake Jackson and talk to Steve. Hello, Steve,
Yes, Hi, skip, Good morning morning. So alrighty, I've got
an issue here. I want to get proactive with some damage that was done
to my front yard. I've got some Saint Augustine and I've got three or
four column crop circles, you know, just kind of anyway, that's the
way I think of it. But they're about three or four or five feet
in diameter. The Saint Augustine has gone brown. I don't know if it
was insect infestation, if it was fungal infection, you know, towards the
end of the summer there. Okay, but but I am going to you
know, adopt your schedule. I almost start taking over the long care myself.
I discharged long care company didn't seem like, you know things, the
results weren't all that great. So all right, what can I do proactively
to you know, repair those areas that are brown? Right, So those
are due to a disease called brown patch. It's now called large patch,
but we still call it brown patch the whole name. And it is active
when it is cool and moist, which is in the fall here and in
the spring as well. You can get a little bit of it in the
winter, but typically in the winter you're just left over with the brown circles
from fall. They're not going to regreen until the weather warms up and the
grass wants to grow, so you can't make it green now, just take
care of it. If you have my long pest disease and weed management schedule,
you'll notice that from late January all through mid March or times when brown
patch or large patch can still occur. And so if you were going to
put a preventative product on that schedule, it lists your options, both organic
and synthetic for dealing with disease like that, and so you just I would
go ahead and do it sooner rather than later. Let's get now that we're
through this rain, getting something down to protect the grass from a reinfection of
it in the spring would be helpful. To avoid over watering. Can't control
the rain, but avoid over watering. And don't push it with a lot
of fertilizer when you're going into a brown patch season, because it makes it
if it just makes it a little bit worse when you push it too far
with nitrogen. Yeah, that that section of the yard in context. About
a year a little over a year ago, I had chinch bugs that just
wiped me out. Yeah, in a good portion of the yard. So
I rested, and I'm just, you know, eager to keep this keep
this starring thing healthy. Well there you go. Well, good luck with
that. And you got those schedules, so they tell you everything you need
about making the grass happy and dealing with the problems that try to attack it.
Okay, And your schedule is is gardening by Skip, Gardening with Skip,
gardening with Skip dot com, Gardening with Skip dot Com. I just
put a little updated version up last night, and so you should be ready
to go. Thanks a lot, appreciate the call. Thank you, Steve.
We're going to run out to uh Missouria. BZ is it Randy yeah,
say, hey, thanks for taking my call. Sure, I've been
trying to get blue bonnets to grow along the fence line for a couple of
three years now, and I finally got a good stand of them, uh
growing. The problem is frame clover is coming up through the blue bonnets,
and I don't know what to do with about it other than get down and
pull it out by hand. Yeah. Is this a big large area?
Well, it's not the size of a pickup bed. It maybe a little
bit bigger than that. Yeah, okay, Well, you know, hand
pulling is not a bad idea. I mean, there are some gardening hose
that have a sharp corner. You can get in there and just pop.
The clover comes out of one single tap going underground, and so you can
pull out a big wide clover plant with just a little hoeing, uh,
just barely slicing underneath it. You could do some surgery like that or hand
pulling, or you could just ignore it. Yes, it's a competitor.
It's a weed to the blue bonnets. It's competing. It's not the end
of the world. But if you want your blue bonnets to perform a little
bit better, you could start taking some of that out just here and there.
You can't. You can't put out like a pre emergent back in the
in the wonder because that's right right. Yeah, I would prevent the blue
bonnets from germinating as well. Yeah, yeah, that that's one reason why
getting the clover out before it goes to seed. Uh. You know,
it just avoids more problem next year with it. It's not gonna It doesn't
mean you won't have any clover next year. It just means you won't have
one hundred thousand more clover seeds. Okay, thank you, all right,
Randy, I appreciate appreciate your call very much. Yeah, you know,
the the uh products and stuff like that. You're talking about pre emergence and
stuff. Southwest Fertilizer is going to have every kind of product that you need.
I mean, Bob and the team there, they know what they're talking
about. You can bring a problem in a picture in they'll direct you the
right product and they have everything. I've never seen the quantity and breadth of
selection like they have a Southwest Fertilizer Organic synthetic, all the fertilizers, all
the insects that, all the furniture sides, all the herbicides again, synthetic
and organic options. They've got you covered. They got a new seed not
a new an old seed display rack where you can go in and buy bulk
seeds, which is a very economical way to go about it. They carry
the folding kneeling benches that I rave about all the time. Southwest Fertilizer corner
Abyssinette and Renwick in Southwest Houston. Here's a number seven one three six six
six seventeen forty four. And my goodness, I was talking to some folks
that are suppliers of products, and the Southwest has got an unbelievable selection about
to hit the store. I guess there're gonna be trucks backed up down the
street. Just because they stock a lot of everything makes it really really easy.
Let's go to dinner in Alvin. Hello Dennis, Hi, good morning
to you. I need your wisdom on growing u citrus trees, you know,
like orange trees. I have a passion for them, and and I
live here in Alvin. And the problem I'm running into is I've got clay
is a soil, you know, I mean, hold on about put or
so? Now, is there any kind of what in your wisdom, any
kind of a way to you know, produce orange trees, you know,
to grow them in this kind of a soil, this kind of conditioner,
Yes you can. I would amend it with a quality uh citrus and fruit
tree type mix. Heirloom soils has that down for sale down in your area.
I know, ace hardware storers carry heirlooms, and there's a lot of
places to get it done in that area. I would amend it. And
I would also raise the bed, uh so that when it rains too much
in that clay soil, the citrus isn't sitting with its roots submerged in a
swamp. Uh So, so raised bed, a quality mix like that,
you could even put you know, a ring. They make little rings that
you put on the ground that ye pile the soil in. I would I
would do something I would do. Okay, Well, then you're you're you're
off to the right start. Okay. Maybe I'm just being a little bit
too impatient on the growing because I purchased a couple of these, uh you
know, at a at a nurse at a nursery or so, and well,
I mean they they produced leaves in that, but I've never gotten any
flyers on and I guess this is not the season for not yet. Yeah,
but okay, but just just keep it growing. There's some quality citrus
uh fertilizer mixes on the market that you could also choose from the organic kinds
of products, like Microlife has a centris type product. The folks at Nitrofoss
and Nelson's both have citrus type fruit tree type products. And wherever you shop,
whatever kind of thing you're looking for, are are supple, have got
you covered, and you want to fertilize gradually over time to have good success
with that. That's the bottom line, Kate, all right, one other
one other questions to the miniature orange trees, Okay, on the same on
the same basis, miniature orange trees, why are they not being sold on
the market in Texas. I'd have to see what you're talking about on miniature
oranges, or you're talking about a small tree or small flaps inside inside plan
not really outside. Oh, Kelimandan is the main one people use for that,
And I would think you can find Kalamandin's around here. I haven't gone
looking for them before, but that's a little decorative kind of centris you enjoy
the bloom fragrance and you get some fruit. But it does need light too,
so you know, it's not just like a lot of house plants that
can put up with a lot of low light. You're gonna have to get
go look for a klamandin for that Telman. Okay, okay, most helpful,
sir, and I thank you for all the input that wisdom that you've
given me. All right, done, very much, and have a great
day. Yeah, good luck with et cris. If it's successful based on
my advice, just bring me half the produce, drop it off at k
t r H and we'll call it even. Appreciate that, all right,
seven one three two one two k t r H. If you'd like to
get on the board with Josh, we'll be right back. Kt r H
Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this
program. Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Escape Richter's so Crazy Trim
just watch him as well. So many Petsy, Welcome back to garden Line.
We are glad you are listening today. It is always good to get
to talk to folks that you know are part of the Garden Line audience.
I love meeting gardeners. That's one of the things I've enjoyed for years,
thirty five years at Thiger Life Extension, answering gardening questions, and it just
keeps going now doing garden Line radio show and trying to help out. I
want you to have a more beautiful landscape and a more bountiful garden, and
I want to help you do it. That is what we're doing here.
Speaking of the landscape the lawn, we talk about azamite because azimite has micro
nutrients, trace minerals. You just need a little bit of them, but
they're absolutely essential you take. There are over twenty different nutrients that plants have
to have to have to grow. So if you were to take your soil
and remove all of the manganese out of it or all of the zinc out
of it, there's not one molecular zinc plants could not grow. That's called
essential. Azamite has trace minerals, nutrients essential, and you don't need to
apply it every time you fertilize, you just just I would do it about
once a year. If you have a soul test, you may find that
you need to do more than that. But uh in general about once a
year is good. You don't have to. You can fertilize with UH and
then put as mite down, or you can just do it anytime. You
do it right now. It's a little early to put nitrogen down on your
on your lawn, but you can certainly put a mite down right now.
It's a good time to do that. As amite Texas dot com. That's
where you can find more information on it. But do include that as part
of your lun care regiment. We're gonna go now out to uh, let's
see where are we going. We're going to Charlie and West University. Hey
Charlie, Hi, Hi, I have I have a very large oak tree
that and uh, I'm more a recommendation for who uh much service provider could
provide care for that as far as fertilizing and trimming. Yeah, absolutely,
that's that is an easy one. You want affordable tree service. Martin Spoon
Moore is the guy that runs it. Martin's been doing this. I didn't
take care of trees in Houston for decades. Now Here, let me give
you there's a website in a and a phone number. You got a pin
or pencil handy? I do okay. The phone number seven one three six
nine nine twenty six sixty three. Seven one three sixty nine nine twenty six
sixty three. The website is a FF tree Service dot com. A FF
tree Service dot com. Martin will get you fixed up there. I don't
delay, though, if you want some work done. I mean, he
stays busy. That's what happens when you do a good job. People call
on you, but make sure and get on the line. Tell me you
heard him on garden line because he puts guardenline customers to the front of the
lost. Okay, cool, all right, thank you, Thanks Charlie.
Good luck with the give them that tree taking care of and congrats to you
for getting on that and taking care of your trees. There is no single
plant as valuable in your whole landscape or as your trees. And people do
a lot of things that damage trees when they don't know what they're doing.
That's why we like to go with someone that knows exactly, you know,
what they're talking about. I have not we have not talked about moss nursery
in a good while on Arborgate, and I just wanted to tell you about
them. For those of you who don't know. You know, I always
say, we've got a state of the art, top notch destination nurseries in
the Greater Houston area in north south east western Central. Moss Nursery is southeast
of town, down in Seabrook, right down there in Seabrook, So you
know, swing by Chema, grab a bite to eat, run over to
Moss Nursery. Mix for a good day. The website is Moss Nursery dot
com. Now they're a destination nursery. They got people literally coming from all
over the state. They wander through. It's eight acres of gardening paradise,
eight anchors to one. Through you're going to find it probably the biggest pottery
selection I've ever seen anywhere. Huge pottery selection, every kind of plant you
can imagine, and it's just fun. You walk through. You see like
African wooden masks and mineral specimens and taxidermy mounts. Oh there's even some little
swords. Every time you turn a corner in Moss Nursery, it's something new.
They have houseplants. Let me just focus on that right now. I've
been in that house plant greenhouse over and over again, and I have never
seen it as stocked as it is right now. Cacti, succulents, common
house plants, and unusual houseplants. They've got more types of things like Aglinema
or the one we call rubber tree, the ficus or you know, everybody
knows those plants, but I bet you haven't seen the kinds. They have
a Moss Nursery, huge, huge selection. And here's another cool thing.
All the way down to four inch pots, all the way up to six
foot tall plants. So if you just want to get a little start and
maybe put together a little terrarium or something, there you go four inch pots
at Moss Nursery. They have everything else you can imagine. I mean,
you know, it's gonna take a while to just talk about all the things
that are available at mossners. If you're on Toddville Road in Seabrook, Moss
nurserymaas Nursery dot com. That's how you get there. Alrighty, We're gonna
go out to Jersey Village now and talk to Bill. Hey, Bill,
Hey, Bill, I mean, hey, how you doing? I am
doing good today. It is about spring and I'm a gardener and you can't
beat that. Oh that's perfect, Hey, I got a neighbor who has
a hose coming out of his garage draining something into my grass, well,
which was grass used to be grassed, and from that point everything from the
grass is dead. And then the tree trunk, there's a tree there,
I think it's an acorn tree, has a big at the trunk of it.
And I was just wondering if anybody knows what this got can be draining?
I have no earth of the idea. Is it not a situation where
you could go knock on the door, ask about it, talk about it?
Yeah, And I did ask him once and they weren't very come forward
coming. They didn't they weren't giving any information. Well, could it be
at softener draining salt or something? Well, if it were, that you
would see a lot of brown where it's coming out. That's a lot of
sodium, a lot of salts, and that that would do some damage directly
right there. But I mean that would be though, like you know,
spraying salt water on them. I mean a lot of plants can't tolerate that.
I don't know. I mean, if you can, if you can
get where you can kind of see the stuff coming out, kind of feel
it. And smell it, you know, if it had a petroleum kind
of smell, or if it just if it just felt a little slick,
like let you have a little soap on your hands, or something that could
be the drainage out of a water softener system. Uh, I don't know
what to tell you. It's a mystery. Most people don't have hoses out
of the garage. So hey, I've got to I've got to take a
little break just to close right quick though. The holes in the tree,
that's just something that can occur naturally. But I want to ask some more
about it. So could you hold on for just a little bit. We'll
be right back. All right. We're our phone number seven one three two
one two kt r H. Welcome back to the Garden Line. We're in
a conversation right now with Bill and Jersey Village. I've been talking about lawns
and uh, we're gonna come back here. Bill, you said about you
had a hole in the tree. Are we talking about at the base of
the trunk or are these little holes in the trunk up higher or at the
very at the very base of it and it actually goes beneath the ground.
Okay, you know well, that isn't necessarily a problem. That happens a
lot. Sometimes it's just you get two roots that you know they're they're coming
out from the base of the trunk in two directions, and sometimes an animal
will burrow under there. Sometimes it's just the soil washing away under there.
You know, it can get into inner wood if it's if the hole is
breaking through the bark part of creating that hole, you get some decay,
but there's no fix in that, so most people just ignore it. You
know, you can have somebody look at it, but it basically, you
know, who knows. It could have been old damage from something like a
lawnmower or a weed eat or whatever when the tree was younger. That just
grew and grew over time. But I think what I'm picturing, as you
describe it, as something I wouldn't worry a lot about. Oh yeah,
sir, all right, I appreciate that. All right, man, all
right, well good luck there in Jersey Village. You get into the bottom
of that misty substance coming out of it. Oh yeah, yeah, that's
the ongoing mystery. Thank you, all right, sir, Thank you appreciate
the call. It's very good. If you are interested in gardening organically,
or if you just would like to look at nature and recognize the fact that
nature knows how to grow plants. You know it does, doesn't it.
I mean, they do good out there because nature knows how to build your
soil. It knows how to take carry your soil well. Organic gardening and
organic lawn care is a process. It's not just a one time thing.
But the folks at Microlife have developed a wide variety of products that all point
to the same goal, and that is helping enhance the natural system around plants
to help the plants to thrive. And humates is one of the products.
Microlikes. Humates plus it's a zero zero force. It's got a little bit
of potassium in it. But it's not just for the potassium you're putting down.
You're putting it down for the fact that a humate substance is a soil
building substance and it does that. It's got over thirty different kinds of microbes
enhanced into that product to help your plants. Those of those thirty, it's
got over ninety different strains of all kinds of things. And I was just
reading research the other day about this or that microbe and how it works with
the roots, and how it affects the plants, and how it does all
that. It's packed into Microlife humtes plus zero zero four. And by using
that product, you can do that anytime of year you want. You could
do it following, you can do your regular fertilization follow it up. You
can do it right now. In fact, I would do it now ahead
of time because spring fertilizing season is coming. But go ahead and get that
down and you will find that as you do that, as you create soils
with organic matter, as you enhance the microbial activity, your plants just get
better and better, and it just gets better and better, and it grows
itself out of a lot of the problems that occur because plints are just stressed.
Microlife products are available widespread microlifefertilizer dot com. That's the website you can
find out where to get them in your area that they're easy to find at
Microlife fertilizer dot com. We are talking about being excited about spring today on
garden Line, and I just get enthused, and I think it's cool that
we have four seasons. We almost have four seasons here. Winter is two
days. We don't know which two days each year, but it's two days.
But we get to go through those transitions. And in the spring is
the time of new life. The blooms burst out of the spring, blooming
trees and other things, just the a rearrival of all the green, the
flush of green that comes up in nature, in the woods and our landscapes.
It's just the time of hope. It's a time of new life and
excitement. That is just, I think, a really cool thing going through
those transitions. You know life that way. I'm not going to get too
philosophical on you, but life has its transitions, it has its seasons,
and out in nature we get that annual cycle over and over again that I
think is pretty cool. We're going to run up to Cypress now and talk
to Bob. Hey, Bob Skip, how are you. I'm well,
thank you, good good Hey. I am an organic vegetable farmer and I'm
really feel defeated in that I mothballed my garden last year because of the heat
and I just didn't want to get out on the hunter of your weather.
And I had been battling a mulberry tree that has been sprouted out in the
garden and those those guys they are they're pretty pervasive. And you know,
again, maybe I want to make sure you know what tree. It's basically
short tree. They're like bushes, but they have pink ful hours and blue
berries. Is that a mulberry tree? No, that's not a mulberry.
That sounds like a type of lugustrum to me. But okay, you know
what, if you want to send me a picture of it, then I
can tell you for sure. But okay, I would guess you're talking about
a lugustrum. Now when you say blueberries, are they little round berries and
clusters or are they long and kind of bumpy like? Well, would describe
it like a pencil sized diameter, but maybe anywhere from an inch or so
long. No, o, they're not in clusters though. All right,
well let's let's go straight to that. You want to get rid of it,
right, yeah, Well, basically it's been spreading through the roots.
It's like it's like nutgrass. And last year, before he got so bad,
I was I wanted to keep it organic. I don't want to use
any herbicides or pesticides, And I was basically digging, pulling out the few
that popped up, and I was using boiling water to pour right on the
root, the tap root down below, okay, and that seemed to knock
it out. But then I covered it up and I really didn't go back
there because it's off in the back property. And all of a sudden,
I go out there this weekend, getting ready to do the exactly what you're
preaching today. Get out and you know, take care of things. Yeah,
and oh my gosh, there's there's like forty of them popped up and
they're everywhere. Okay, let's do this. I need you to send me
some pictures. Get as close as you can. Make sure they're sharp focused.
I want to put your thumb or a pencil or something in the picture
so I can see how big the leaves are, have some sense of scale,
and let me look at them. You're unfortunately I cut them all down.
Okay, Well, they'll be back, unfortunately, I know. But
I want to, like you said, you got to get going now.
Yeah, digging them out is the organic option. That's that is what your
organic option is. Now. There is a not organic option that is minimal
fertilizer application. That's the side application. And there's a product. The ingredient
is triy clop here t R I C l O p y R. When
you cut them off, you dab a tiny bit of trickle pier right on
the cut surface. You're not spraying it. You're not using it all over
the garden. You're dabbing it on the fresh cut surface. It moves,
it can be. Yeah, it's used ivy, it's used on hackberries coming
up in the fence line. It's used on you know, all kinds of
things. But it's not organic at all. But we're not talking about treating
a large air. We're talking about just dabbing a cut surface and that will
work. It's in a number of products like poison, ivy killer like you
mentioned. But if you can wait and get or when you do see it
again, send me some pictures. All right, well, let's let's take
a look. Because I may go, oh, that's such and such,
but I don't think it's going to change my answer either digging it or dabbing.
But let me. I'm gonna put you on hold. If you care
to stick around, Josh will pick up the phone and get you emails.
So when you have it, you can you can send it all right,
Thank you very much, Bob, appreciate that phone call a lot. Yeah,
So you know where do you get kinds of products like that? Well,
I'll tell you one place you can get them is Ace Hardware. You
know, Bob's up in Cyprus, he's got Ace Hardware up on Jones Road.
He's got the M and Dace just a little further north than that Langham
Creek down south of him. I mean, no matter where you live,
there are Ace Hardware's everywhere, and they're going to carry stuff like that very
unique product that has trauctal pairer for example. They're going to have all kinds
of organic products, all the fertilizers. While I go also Microlife. Ace
Hardware got Microlife. You can find anything that's a fertilizer that I recommend,
or products that I recommend, you can find them in Ace Hardware because they
keep a stock like that. Go to Ace Hardware dot Com and just do
the store locator and you can find all the Ace Hardwares near you. Makes
it really really easy. If you got any freezer pair you need to do,
they've got that. When you start water, you're going to find out
if you got any breaks in the line like where a sprinkler headers run over.
ACE Hardware has the plumbing repair parts to repair sprinklers and any other kind
of plumbing problems that you might have. It's the one stop. ACE is
a place. There's a reason they say that it's a way. ACE is
a place for you fell in the blank. All right, We are going
to head out now to Katie, Texas and talk to Deborah. You there,
Deborah, Yes, Hello, Hi. I have a firestick plant that
I've had for twenty three years. It's in one of those old school cast
iron earns. It's lived in the same pot the entire time. I have
never changed the soil. I will admit that that could be part of what
I'm experiencing right now, But this thing has always been so hearty. I
at one point, my family and I we had to move. I left
it with a relative who didn't water it at all for like four months,
and it was a hot summer. It was outside, so it lost a
lot of height. Years ago, when we had a freeze that had some
rain to it, I covered it, but then when the rain came and
refroze, I lost a lot of height, went down almost to the soil
again. This thing always comes back every year. I stick it in the
garage when we have our cold snaps now and that kind of thing, and
it usually when I put it in the garage, I'll usually see some new
growth, which is kind of interesting to me. But right now, no
matter what I do, it just seems to be shriveling more and more and
more. Like every little it's like all the moisture is being removed from it.
It's being watered. Okay, I'm not sure if you have any advice
on that. Okay, So first thing i'd check is make sure there's drainage
out of the bottom of the pot. As the soil decomposes and a container
of potting so grown a plant get pretty mucky, and plug the drainage the
holes that you have. And when that happens, when you water it,
you end up with a water table under the surface, if you will,
where roots aren't getting oxygen, and that causes problems for plants. I'd check
the drainage first, dig down the soil, feel it, see if you
really need to water before you water it again. Water use is very minimal
this time of the year. I think you're talking about fire spike. Is
that sound right, or if not, will you describe the blooms to me?
It really doesn't have any blooms. It literally just looks like once to
come off another. And what I will get our little tiny I mean maybe
one inch long leaves looking things at the top before it sprouts new sticks.
All right, I'll tell you what I'm hitting a heartbreak for the news.
Hang on, let's come back and talk about that a little bit more.
Well. Our phone number, if you'd like to give us a call,
is seven one three two one two KTRH. And here's Nicky in the news.
Welcome back to garden Line. We are entering our last half out half
hour of the day, so if you'd like to give us a call,
now's the time to do it. Seven one three two one two five eight
seven four or seven one three two one two ktrh. Just to make it
simple. I'll be back tomorrow from six to ten am. If you would
like to ask a question tomorrow, we can also do that as well.
We're herever Saturday and Sunday from six to ten am. I am. You
know a lot of people have talked to me in the last several weeks since
we had that bad freeze. About problems in the landscape. Plants are dying
plants, It don't look good and those kind of things. And a lot
of people also have discussed with me their landscape from last summer's drought that was
so brutal it just fly kills stuff. I mean, you know, lawn
and plants. If you need a renovation, your options. One of your
options that I think is if you're going to hire somebody to do it,
you need to call the folks at Peer Scapes because they know what they're doing.
They can do all kinds of things. Maybe you had damage to irrigation
system and the cold. Maybe that was part of the problem. You had
a poorly designed system and the sprinkler head reach was not uniform, and so
some areas stay too dry and died out. Maybe you need some tougher plants
that are more cold tolerant, that are more heat tolerant. Pier Scapes can
do that. They know how to take care of the landscape and turn it
into a showplace. That's the bottom line. If you want to get work
done, if you need to get worked done, you need to schedule it
as soon as possible. Listen, we're going to be watering again, believe
it or not. I know as training and I know it's cool, summer's
coming and your water system needs to be top notch. Peer scapes can do
that, but you got to call them. You got to get them scheduled
soon as possible so they can come out, so they can get that on
the schedule, get that to come out and actually work on your system ahead
of the heat to get things fixed up like they need to be. Maybe
you need a new timer, a better timer, more efficient timer, or
timer that saves water more efficient like that. Maybe you just have broken heads
or in my case, we moved into a house where two different kinds of
sprinkler heads on the same zone. That's a no no. Peerscapes can fix
that and they can turn your landscape into a showplace too. It's a good
time to call them and get that done at peer scapes. How do we
get a hold of pier scapes, Well, go to piercescapes dot com or
two eight one three seven oh five zero six zero. Let's see. We're
going to go now back to Katie, Texas and continue our conversation with Deborah.
Hey, Deborah, Hello, Yeah, we're trying to figure out what
plant you have, I believe so is it's not a cactus? Is it
doesn't have thorns? No, it has no thorns. Okay, it was
a hand me down plant. And when I've looked it up, it does
how you know, if I break a piece off, it has that white
liquid that really like irritates your skin. And from what I understand, that
would be a fire stick. But I'll be honest, when I look at
pictures of fire sticks, mine is has never been as large as some of
those. Okay, So what are the leaves look like? Kind of a
quick description of size and color, about one inch and normally they're like a
lime green and then they'll go sometimes red, they'll go sometimes dark green.
Do a Google search for something called a redbird plant and see if that looks
like what it is. It kind of doesn't matter what it is, because
taking care of a plant, you know, water and flies and things that
that's kind of standard. But I just am not picturing it. And I
can put you on hold. You can get my email from Josh and send
me a picture. Refer to this as a phone call question, and yes,
yeah, okay, I'm gonna do that, and and we will we
will get get to the bottom of this one way or another. I'm not
talking about a red bird of paradise, but there's another name for that.
Oh gosh, what is the other name for the red bird plant that that
name is? You're not going to find what what we're looking for here?
Uh it's a Euphorbia and uh I think that's what it is? Or do
it? Do you have a pin or pencil handy? Okay, do a
search for something U four e U p h O r b I A e
U p h O r b y A and the other The species name is
t I t H y M O L O I d E S. That's
a lot of I know, but Euphorbia tithymiloides, and that I think is
what you're referring to. There. Take a look at it. It has
the sticks, it has a balloom. It does have blooms on top though
if it's getting enough light. But in the meantime, I'm put you on
hold here, get my email and send me a picture. Thanks a lot.
I appreciate that. I hope we can help further with that. You
know, there's so darn mini plants out there. There are a lot of
different plants It isn't that the most fun part of it all, you know,
I know, when you're growing things, you're probably not thinking of the
word horticulture. You're thinking of the word gardening. But horticulture, the field
of horticulture is a fascinating, fascinating field. It is one of the broadest
fields that there is. Because here's why, there are things in You know,
if you're in the College of Life Science, it's on the university.
There are things called disciplines. There's entomology, and there's plant pathology, and
there's soul science, and there's botany, and on and on with soil and
crop science like weed management. When you're a horticulturist, you kind of have
to put all that together into one thing. So we need to know a
little bit about nutrition, we need to know about insects and diseases. And
then when it comes to plants, oh my gosh, we're talking about tropicals.
We're talking about cactus, We're talking about lawn grasses, we're talking about
trees, we're talking about shrubs, we're talking about houseplants. We're talking about
things like orchids. We're talking about vegetables and fruit and herbs. You see
what I'm talking about. And then when you look at a plant and it's
not looking good, you kind of got a drawback from all the disciplines.
Is this an insect problem? Is this a disease problem? Is this a
nutrition problem? Is this a lack of drainage problem? Is this a temperature?
It's a lot. But that's what makes it fun because it is it's
an art in addition to being a science, it's an art and that is
the fun thing. You Know, someone asked me the day, aren't you
afraid that you know somebody's going to ask you a question you don't know the
answer to. No, I'm not. There are a billion things I don't
know the answer to. It's okay. Hopefully after thirty five years of this,
I figured out a few answers, or at least a way to think
through them. But that's okay. That's a fun thing about gardening. You
could be oh, thanks a lot, Josh, I'm not going to repeat
what my producer does. No, seriously, It's part of the fun of
it all, and that's what makes X Spring, for example, such an
exciting season. Listen, there are house plans that you would die for,
but you don't know they exist until you get to a great play. I'll
talk about moss nursery. While ago all our garden centers have great, great
sections of house plants, moss has an unbelievable section down there in Seabrook.
But you walk in and you'll go, oh, I know what a rubber
tree is, but I I've never seen that pattern in the leaves, you
know, for example. And that's a fun part of it all. And
no matter what you're growing, there is a society built around it to find
a collection of ever possible type that you can't live without. That's part of
the fun. Hey, we're gonna take a break, phone number seven one
three two one two kt RH. I'll be right back. Welcome back to
guarden Line. You are you are here to learn more about gardening. I
hope you're here to enjoy the best hobby that there is. I hope that
is maybe to get good answers too. I'll worry about that end of it.
Like we used to say, there's no stupid questions, just stupid answers.
Well, I know, I know there is such a thing as a
stupid question, but we don't treat them that way. I'll worry about the
stupid answers call away, Let's talk. Let's have some fun and maybe learn
something in the process. Let's go out now to Cleveland, Texas and talk
to Ron. Hello, Ron, Hello scamp. I'm wanting to put in
so Silverado sage and I can find Texas sage. Are they both the same?
Silverado is a cultivar of Texas sage. Texas age, also called sonizo,
is a native West Texas, usually silvery leaf. Some of them have
a greenish more greenish than silvery leaf, but silverado is one that's more more
silvery and its color. Yeah, that I'm looking for the silvery one,
So I guess they're It seems like I look for them and nobody they are.
Well, we got the Texas sage and I really like that silvery look,
so I guess I'll keep looking for them. Yeah, Silverado, you
know, I just haven't noticed lately. It came out years and years ago
and it was a good one. You might try. You know, you're
out in Cleveland area, not far away from Kingwo Garden Center and more in
southern gardens. I probably would give them a call and see if they have
it or if they have a very silvery one. You can ask them what
varieties they have and go on line look at them, and then if not,
then you have to drive a little bit to find it. But I
bet there is either that or a very close equivalent available here. And tell
you great, I appreciate it. Well, listen to you next weekend,
all right, Ron, And just remember with the Sonizos or the Texas sages,
very good drainage, they'll grow here, but they cannot tolerate with feet.
All right, you take care, thank you, thank you for that
call. Yeah. Warren Southern Gardens out there in Kingwood, they have a
wide variety of all kinds of things. Right now. They are loaded up
with heirloom soils. You know, earlier I was saying heirloom made of fruit
fruit and ceentri soil. It's actually fruit berry in cetrius soil. They've got
that. They also have a lot of They have all the heirloom soil products
out there at Warren Southern Guards And this is new, this is new to
me. They now have supersacks of the heirloom aged leaf compost and veggie and
herb mix, both of those by the super sack. That's a cubic yard
in a giant sack. Think of one of those little, you know,
grocery sacks you get so you don't have to get the paper bags and the
plastic all the time. Imagine one of those big enough to hold a cubic
yard. That's what it is. And it's at Warren's Southern Gardens right out
there, so you can get a bulk, save some money on over,
you know, behind a whole lot of bags to do the same thing.
Warrens has just gotten in all the citrus trees, all the fruit trees,
and boy do they ever have a wide selection. We were talking about blueberries
earlier. They got blueberries, they've got peaches, they've got avocados. They've
got a number of different varieties of avocados thing all. And then in citrus,
grapefruit, lemon, persian limes, oranges, the Meyer lemon, the
improved Meyer lemon that is good, and other types of lemons and limes and
whatnot. They'll get you set up on all of that, as well as
some of the fruit like blackberries, for example, that you might want to
grow. There's a wide variety of nice blackberries and trees and on and on
and on. All at Warren's Southern Gardens and the sister shore over there Kingwood
Garden Center, two garden centers real close together out in the Kingwood area.
It's easy to find, easy to get to, and as always they're going
to have good quality products. That's a great thing to know. They got
that supersack now available from Heirloom Soils. Let's go to Spring, Texas and
we're going to talk to Bill. Hello. Bill, Hey, good morning
morning. We got a question for you. I have a rubber tree.
It's about ten fifteen. I covered it with a light bulb hundred. What
light bulb hundred if that al? Yeah? So now the Leaves Group dam
they had anything I can do for that, Well, not at this point
in the future. On a tree that size, that's a huge volume of
air that you're trapping underneath the cover. If indeed you got the cover all
the way to the ground and sealed it so the air couldn't escape from the
wind blowing it out, but that much area, you're gonna probably have to
go with two or three one hundred and fifty white bulbs and clamps down underneath
it, shining down at the ground, and then so they rise up through
the whole thing one other. I know it's after the fact, but I
just other people will have the question you had mounding up a bunch of compost
up against the base of the trunk in a cone temporarily just through the freeze.
If you did lose the whole top, it would re sprout like crazy
from the bottom because you protect the base of that trunk where there are also
buds that can grow. At this point, Bill, I think it's weight
and see you could scrape the bark with a thumbnail or knife work your way
down. If it's paper sack brown, it's dead. If it's creamy to
light green, it's alive. Or I like to just wait and let the
plant tell me where to print it. And when it warms up considerably,
that tree will start to sprout out some new shoots and then you know exactly
where you stand. Okay, I appreciate the help. All right, Sorry
to hear about that. Boy. Well, I know, I know.
Hey, if you if you want to have something, just bookmarkt on your
computer. But if you go to Gardening with Skip dot com, that's my
website, Gardening with Skip. There's a nine page full color publication with photos
and diagrams on protecting plants and cold and they have it. I wrote that
with a specialist remain and there is some diagrams that will tell you exactly what
to do for that rubber tree next time you run into this situation. Okay,
great, certainly make a note of that. Yes, sir, it's
free to download. Thank you, sir, I appreciate it very much.
Good good to talk to you. Uh well, it has been a busy
day here on garden Line. I want to remind you a couple of things.
I did mention the website again, Gardening with Skip dot com and the
reason I talk about it and so much. We got a lot of stuff
on there that I want you to have access to your call garden Line.
You have questions you want to see the turf or the lawn care schedule or
the lawn pest disease and weed schedule, or I was just talking to Ron
about the protecting plants and frosts and freezes. I just put up a new
thing on the website yesterday and it is the Soil Testing made Simple. Soil
Testing made Simple. It's an article. It tells you how to have your
soil tested, how to do it, It makes it really easy because what
is the most important thing on success with any plant, the brown stuff,
the soil, the compost, the nutrients. That is the foundation soil testing
made simple. It's on the website for you to download, and the updated
schedules are also on there. And I'm going to be having some other stuff
going up really soon. We're just going to continue to build it out,
just a place for me to hang things that will help you have a more
beautiful garden and a more bountiful garden as well. I want to remind you
that the thirty ninth Annual Fort Bend Regional Vegetable Conferences February eighth, next Thursday,
February eighth. It's forty bucks. That includes a meal and a day
full of awesome talks. I don't know how they do it for that price,
but they do. Fortbend dot Agrolife dot org, Fort Bend dot a
g R I l i FE dot org. That's how you find out about
it and register. There are going to be programs on bees and making honey
marketing produce. This is for both commercial and backyard gardeners. There's backyard gardening
and alternative gardening techniques. How to build your soil, how to grow mushrooms.
Isn't that cool? You ever thought about that? That's a fun one.
There's going to be integrated pest management topics, how to control pasts with
less toxicity to the landscape, all at the Fort Bend Regional Vegetable con Also,
I've been talking about roses and how roses are the perfect Valentine's Day gift.
Well, do you know that we are celebrating National Rose Day on February
seventh. That's not what day is that? If I say say Saturday,
Monday, Monday, Tuesday, I think that's Wednesday. If I'm counting in
my head, right, I can't walk in chew gone, but I think
that's right, February seventh Rose Day. So what a great day to go
out there and get a rose. You know, Valentine's Day is a fourteenth
When we think Valentine's roses is the picture plant that we think about. So
enjoy National Rose Day on February seventh. I'll be back tomorrow morning at six
am to answer your gardening questions.