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 Scared Ricter.
It's crazy gas Trim. Just watch him as stas not a sad credit
gas. Well, good morning on a Saturday that I think it's going to
turn out to be a decent day. We got a little bit of rain
here and there in the forecast, so you know, I don't know,
I actually like cooler and rainier weather. I think after suffering through this summer,
it's like, yes, give me that next will be here and plenty
of times, so let's just go ahead and enjoy something different. And that's
the kind of day we're having today. So if it's a little raining,
stay inside, get some gardening work done inside. You've certainly got seeds you
can start for transplants. You have your house plants and other things. And
then my favorite activity is armchair gardening, where you're reading the book about gardening,
or you're reading a magazine, or maybe going online and perusing some information
just to kind of sharpen the skills. Yeah. Hey, by the way,
today I was Toja. Last week I was gonna be at RCW Nursery
after the show today. Well, due to some of the weather changes that
we've had, we're going to bump that until next Saturday, that's November eighteenth.
November eighteenth, from eleven thirty to one thirty, that's when I'll be
at RCW for their Fall Fling. And boy is that ever gonna be a
fun time. They're going to have. First of all, they've got barbecue
sandwich lunch. They're gonna have a sale on select trees. In fact,
all the shrubs fifteen percent off. We're going to be given away, you
know, Nelson fertilizer, nitropost fungicide, microlife fertilizer, they're gonna give me
away, flowers and of course frostcloth. You definitely want to have some of
that on hand. And some seedlings like lace bark elm Mexican white oak and
live oak. And when I say seedlings, these are robust seedlings that they
will hit the ground run and they're grown in the right kinds of containers,
which is what RCW News how to do. For example, they have their
own tree farm up there in Plantersville, and when it comes to trees,
they have got a great selection of trees that you know are going to thrive
and do well here. That is important to plant the right kind of tree.
They can come out and plant them for you too, but just go
by there and check it out. You know, the Wimso family has been
doing RCW since what nineteen seventy nine, it's a long time. They've been
with Garden Line since back in the Bill Zach and John Burrow days and certainly
through Randy Lemon's time here behind the Microphone. So RCW is just a great
place to stop. It's the nursery that's where Tumball Parkway two forty nine comes
into about way eight. You can go to the website RCW Nurseries dot com,
but first go to your calendar. Next Saturday, November eighteenth, from
eleven thirty to one thirty, I'll be there and they're going to have a
really cool shind It's called the Fall Fling, and it's a good time to
come out. Plus we get a chance to visit, which I always enjoyed
doing with folks that listen to the show. You know, the rain reminds
me of the soil that we have around here, and when it's dry,
it shrinks and when it's wet, it swells, and that movement is a
mess for our foundations, for our sidewalks or driveways. Someone's asking me the
other day about tree roots going unto the foundation and cracking it, and I
was explaining to them that the real problem with tree roots is they go all
around the foundation. Some go under it as well. But it's not that
they're getting big and lifting up and cracking your foundation as much as it is
they're drawing water from the soil, and so where it should be staying moderately
moist, it just dries out even extra fast because the trees are pumping water.
They need it. When it gets dry and hot, they need water,
they pump it out, and so the soil around the foundation dries out
and then it rains and it swells up and that causes the cracks. That
is why we have fixed my Slab foundation repair. Ty Strickland has been doing
this for twenty three years and they are experts when it comes to fixing your
foundation. Tell them your guardline listener. You get a free estimate from them.
And one thing I like about fix my Slab TI is committed to number
one a fair price and number two showing up on time. And anytime you
are hiring anyone to come out and do anything at your house, you want
them to tell you when they're going to be there and then actually show up.
And that's what they do. And they can fix driveways and they can
fix sidewalks too. But if you see some cracks on your brick outside or
certainly sheet rock cracks inside, you need to have them come out and look
at it. Don't wait until a small problem becomes a big problem. You
can go to fix myslab dot com or call Tie at two eight one two
five five forty nine forty nine. Yeah, boy, foundation issues. That
is just such a mess. You know, some people live in areas with
sandy soil, it's just not much of an issue for them, but boy,
it is for the Gulf Coast. In fact, if you're listening to
this this radio show, you probably live in an area that's got some clay
soils and it's just something to watch out for. Definitely, definitely. Well,
we I want to just give you a little teaser right here in the
eight o'clock hour, we're gonna have Chris Weisinger from Southern Bulb Company come by.
He's gonna visit with us about all things bulbs. You know, fall
is for bulbs, and there are the one shot wonders. You know,
you go to the store and buy a bunch of tulips or hyacinth or crocus
and things like that. Those are fine, they're pretty bulbs, but you
plan, I mean, they're not going to naturalize. They're like buying annuals.
That's what it amounts to. They'll do their thing and then season's gone
and they're kind of done. But Chris has got a number, a multitude
of really cool bulbs that naturalize. So instead of being like an annual for
you, they're an investment. You buy them, you put them in,
and year after year after year they come back and they pay dividends in terms
of beauty and blooms for your landscape. So I'm looking forward to talking to
Chris at eight o'clock. Make sure and stay tuned for that. By the
way, if you have any bulb questions during the eight o'clock hour eight to
nine, we are going to be taking bulb questions only We're not going to
wander around on a lot of other topics. Those topics we can do in
the other three hours. But we're going to focus on bulb questions. So
if you got some, be ready to call in the eight o'clock hour.
And it would help if I gave you the number, wouldn't it seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five
eight seven four Simple as that call us in on guardenline. Josh will get
you on the boards and we will visit with you. But the kind of
questions that you might have, and this is a good time to talk about
a lot of things, including planning for the future. You know, we're
hitting the end of our fall season here now. Of course, you know
the months of fall and on the calendar September, October, November. Well,
September is a summer month here and fall goes all the way into just
about December, really it actually does. And Nitrofis has their Texas three Step
and that is a fall application that you want to make if you want to
help your lawn and prevent weeds and deal with diseases. And the three steps
are the fall special winter riser designed specifically for our climate, our soils.
When we say winterriser here, we don't need something that's a winteriser in Minnesota
or someplace. We need something that you would use for our southern turf grasses,
and that's what they've designed it for. It's rich in potassium and absolutely
helps that plant gets stronger going into winter, and if it goes into winter
stronger, it comes out stronger. It's as simple as that. Number two
nitrofoss barricade is a pre emergent. You put it down watered in about a
half inch of water. In fact, I'd recommend you put on the fall
special and then the barricade and water them in together with about a half inch
of water. You don't mix them in the hopper, just put them separately
and then water both in with a half inch and then put down your nitrofoss
eagle turf funge aside. If you have been plagued by large patch or brown
patch in your lawn, take all root rot is also effectively managed with the
nitrofoss eagle funge aside, and that is a protective. It's a systemic.
It moves in and you can find nitrofas at all kinds of places. You're
going to find it at plants for all seasons. Two for nine enchanted in
Richmond and Lake Hardware in Angleton. Well, we're going to take a break
and we'll come right back to your calls. Seven to one, three to
fifty eight seventy four. All right, a little kiss there. They're on
their final tour. That's kind of unusual. Those of you who are children
of the seventies, I guess can really appreciate appreciate that in eighties as well,
they're kind of timeless. Well, I tell you what. We are
going to go straight to the phones, our phone number seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four, and we're going to talk to Toby.
Hello, Toby, is Toby there? All right, put Toby on hold
and see if we can find Toby and come back to that. You know,
I was talking about ago about the Nitroviss and A stores and places where
it's available. You know, A stores. They're up to forty now in
the greater Houston area. Orange, congratulations. Orange and Bay City you're the
two new locations. And you know when we think about ACE, well we
think about anything you need for your yard. Do you need fertilizer? Do
you need pest weed disease control? Do you need tools? Do you need
hoses to and sprinklers and all everything you need for your yard. But ACE
is also the place for your Christmas lighting and decoration needs, and that includes
both things inside the house and outside the house. They've got all the accessories
that you need to make it fast and easy to get all set up.
They have box sets of various kinds of lighting, all kinds of multitude of
colors and sizes. They've got wreaths and garlands. They've got something called custom
lights by the foot, and you just have to go by there and let
them tell you about that. But basically it's kind of what you would expect
it to be. So go buy Ace and let them get you set up.
It is a kind of a wonderland to go in there. Now they're
all set up for Christmas and when you want to get ahead of the game
and get ready to go for Christmas lighting, Christmas decorations, any of your
holiday decorations in general. Ace is the place, that's for sure. We're
gonna go back and see if we can find Toby. Now, hey,
Toby there, Well, gosh, let's try that again. I'm gonna put
them back on hold. We'll eventually figure out how to get to you.
We always have some gremlins crawling through the wires here and there. Just give
us a call back. Let's try it. Let's start over and try that
again. Well, you know, I was talking about the weather and how
much I enjoy actually having some cool and rainy weather, and I know that's
some people are like, I don't like that, But you know, going
through summer is just it makes it tough. And this is an important thing
for our plants. You know how I always say the best time to plant
woody ornamentals and perennials is in the fall. Well, this is an example
of why I mean the amount of stress on a new transplant. Right now,
when we got cool weather, we got some rain, and the soil's
moist, it's like almost zero and it's so easy to get it established compared
to trying to do that next July, for example. And the closer you
get to summer, the more challenging it is to get that plant growing.
You can plant twelve months out of the year here, but in the hot
season you got to do a little more touch and go stuff to try to
keep it from getting too wet or too dry. Because of the demands on
the plant. Are high. It's pumping water fast. The whole root system
is still in that cylinder that you put in the ground that you pulled out
of the container. And keeping that little thing wet without keeping it too wet
is a challenge. So now's the time, and this weather is exactly the
reason why we love this kind of weather. It's a good time to plant
all kinds of things to your annuals, annual color plants, you know,
things like pansies and violas and stock and snap dragons and a lissome What am
I leaving now, Dusty Miller is a good one I like to include,
especially with blue flowering of violas and pansies, all kinds of color like that.
Is a good time. All your vegetables, This is a good time.
All your perennial herbs. This is a good time. And this weather
is setting us up for success. All right. Three is going to be
the charm. I hope, Toby, are you there? All right?
How can we help today? Skip? I'm looking for some fast growing,
fast spreading bamboo that I can create some privacy between my neighbors and myself on
a large piece of land. Okay, well you want to you wanna avoid
a running bamboo. Bamboo comes in two types, just like our grasses do.
There's the type that runs that would be like bermuda grass, for example,
and it takes over the world unless you have an underground barrier to contain
it, and that's quite an operation to put in. But otherwise we go
with clumping bamboos because they spread but gradually slowly outward, you know, like
some of our ornamental grasses that just grow in clumps and uh, those kind
of there's a lot of different ones on the market. Go talk to your
your garden center and you know, ask them what do you carry, what
can you get and they can give you the details. Some don't get really
tall, uh. Some get huge, very huge. Uh. And as
far as fast growing, here's the thing with manamboo. Bamboo, Folks say
the first year at sleeps, the second year at creeps, the third year
at leaps. And what that means is you're going to plan it and it's
just going to kind of sit there and then it's going to start growing a
little bit and once it gets its feet under it after a couple of seasons,
then it just takes off really fast. So fast, after a little
bit of time to get established is going to be how that goes. That's
fantastic. Thank you, yes, sir, you take care. I appreciate
the call. Thanks for being persistent to getting in making it through. If
you live anywhere near the north central part of Houston, in fact, I
know people that drive a little bit of a distance actually to go to Quality
Feed and Garden Company now Quality Feed. The address is eighteen thirteen Luzon Street.
That's near the intersection Equipment and Allsion and they are open, you know,
Monday through Friday nine to six. So after working swing by their Saturday
today nine am to four pm and tomorrow Sunday eleven thirty am to four pm.
They've been a tradition here in Houston since nineteen twenty eight and it has
that old time feel that I just love going in there. You know,
they got that eighteen excuse me, nineteen twenty eight seed racks stocked with their
heirloom seeds. And here's the thing, though, every soil product, every
fertilizer product that we talk about is there. Do you need fungicides, herbicides,
insecticides. They're there. Of course, they have their feed story.
They got livestock feed, they got premium pet food available and they specialize in
chickens. In about ever two weeks, it seems like Ken and Chris are
getting in another shipment of chicks out there. And so if you've thought about
doing, you know, backyard chickens, well, this is the place Quality
feed qualityfeedco dot Com. They'll get you set up with those chickens and everything
you need to have success with them, from feeders to lights to keep them
warm in the wintertime. They got it all right there, Quality feed.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven
one three two one two five eight seven four are some people like the daw
By letters, So just ktr H makes it really simple. In the garden,
I was talking about the things that we're planting right now, the importance
of getting those trees and shrubs in, and you know, we get a
lot of a lot of our places are having nice deals on trees and shrubs
as well. Uh. You know, I'm going to be out at RCW
coming up here next weekend. I know they do a lot of that.
Every single mom and pop garden center we've got has got a good selection.
Right now. It's a good time to do that. If you've thought about
putting in a vegetable garden but you just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe
you don't want to plow up the back forty you know, turn your backyard
over with a rototiller. Here, well, here's here's what you need to
do. You need to get you a Vego garden bed, Vego gardenbed.
It's vee g o garden dot com, vegogarden dot com. It's really simple
these beds. The metal is top quality and it's treated in a way that
prevents rust and corrosion. Beyond just galvanizing kind of stuff. They go a
higher level than that. Then they paint it with a beautiful paint that really
fits into the garden. It's muted colors, you know, the greens and
tans and things. They give you an option. They're modular. You put
them together in whatever shape you want. Do you want a long, skinny
bed, Do you want a big square bed? Do you want a C
shaped bed to go or maybe an L shaped beed to go around the corner
of that patio. These are gonna last. They're in fact, they're going
to outlast any treated wood that you would put out there. These are high
quality, high level beds that just work. They have rolling beds as well.
I mean, go to the website you'll see what I'm talking about.
They're a Houston company. Don't be fooled by all the wannabe metal beds on
the market. They're a bunch of them out there. Vego is the one
with quality. Vego is our local Houston company and they have the best selection
and all the accessories to go with it. Vegogarden dot com. Go check
it out and you'll see what I'm talking about. I love my Vego bit,
that is for sure. In addition to the things that I was mentioning
about planting, this isn't a bad time to go ahead and have your soil
tested. Now. If you just fertilize your lawn, then don't test now,
wait until about January maybe February to get that test done. But if
it's a garden area and you know things just aren't looking as good as they
should, they're not growing right, or any do a soil test. You
can go to soil testing dot T A m U, dot E d U.
In fact, if you just if you just soil testing dot TAMU dot
E DU, look for the urban soil test. Now you may be listening
to me from some Timbuktu out in the middle of nowhere place. Urban soil
test. What that means, I wish I hadn't use that term. But
what that means is it's for your yard. It's for your garden if you're
going to grow it to eat, or look at urban soil test if you're
going to grow anything to eat, or look at urban soil test form.
When you get the results in, then you'll know this winter, when things
are a little more dormant, what kind of amendments you may need to put
in to get ready for spring. So don't wait until you know. Here
it is spring, it's time to plant. And here we get rainy weather,
and now you're trying to fix your soil. Get a soil test done.
It's ever months a good month to have a soil test done. But
just remember if you just fertilized, don't do that. After you fertilize,
that'll that'll be a little bit misleading. So give it a little time to
mellow out and it'll do just fine. Hey, have you've been to the
Arborgate lately? The Arborgate now has a wonderful little parking lot behind it.
You can turn in before the arbor gate, or you can turn in after
the arbor gate on a little road that goes behind it. A trishel,
as I pronounced it. I need somebody tell me how you do pronounce that.
But it doesn't matter how you pronounce it. You get to a nice
all weather parking lot and shopping is easy. And Beverly's got a bunch of
cool camellias. Have you ever tried a camellia. There's some beautiful camellias that
we can grow here for color in the cool season. Isn't that nice?
Well, just go out to Arburgate and while you're there pick up their one
two three completely easy system. That is a food, an organic fertilizer four
four three plus calcium feeds anything with roots. That's good for your lawn too,
fall fertilization where we need to get that nitrogen a little lower and a
potassium a little higher. That's an ideal food for that, now soil for
anything you need in anything you're going to plant. It's got the expanded shale
in it and then the compost complete. That's the third part, also expanded
shale and high quality composts. You take those three and put them in the
ground and you're going to have success with your plants. Arburgate dot com.
We're going to take a break. The number is seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. Well, good morning on a Saturday morning,
and we are talking gardening today here on guard Line of course, seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you would like to be
on the air, we'd be happy to visit with you. Hey, uh,
I've talked to you about green pro right. I've talked about them before.
They are the ones that will come out and they will do a corroration
and a compost top dressing on your lawn. They will also come out and
they will do a leveling. If you've got some areas that are kind of
low and you need to spread a little bit dirt out. Maybe you've got
an area where your grass just flat died and now you want now's your chance
to get out there and kind of level things off. They will come out
and they'll bring a quality soul mix in and make sure that lawn is level.
It's part of that kill till and phill that Randy talked about all the
time, where you know, you get rid of what's there, you fill
in what like you need it, or till it up if you loosen the
soil and fill it in as you need it, and then you plant again
and Greenpro can take care of that now. Their price is start at five
ninety nine plus sales tax depending on the location and the size, and that
is for the aeration and the compost top dressing. The filling in that's a
different thing, and of course each yard is going to need a little bit
different mount and whatnot on that. But you can go to greenpro dot net.
Greenpro dot net they have high quality equipment that does an excellent job at
pulling a very good core out of the ground and then they put a super
high quality screen compost down and it it just makes it easier. And believe
me, Rhuan could probably use a little bit of benefits right now. Even
just having a little bit of compost on the top helps block the soil from
getting sunlight and probably helps you with a little bit of weed sprouting as well.
But greenpro dot net that's who you need to call or need to go
check out. We're going to go to southwest Houston and talk to Resa.
Now. Hello, Resa, good morning, Thank you for taking my call.
Yes, sir, I have an indoor plant, banana tree. It's
turning and I was wondering how we take care of it, waterings, do
we need to put it in the balcony every now and then, or how
to prevent the plant turning yellow? Okay? Now is the yellow starting mostly
on the older lower leaves and the yubber ones are greener, so that could
be. It could be a drought condition that causes that. If it gets
a little dry, that can be a response. If it stays too wet
and roots are are damaged by soggy lack of water conditions, it can do
that. And sometimes leaves just get older and they start to turn yellow,
and we see that. But the fluctuation of moisture is one of the things
I notice. Now. Banana wants a lot of light, so if you
can give it some time outside, that's good. It also doesn't like cold
weather, so putting it out when it's fifty degrees outside is not going to
be very happy with that either. So that's one of the reasons why people
purchase a quality light to put over them artificially light them when they're going to
try to keep them indoors. Most people just let them go dormant and then
you know, give them a little bit of light to keep them alive,
but don't try to keep them lush and growing now. And that's kind of
the range of options that I would say, you have reasons, Okay,
Also when should we change the pot? So when they grow bigger and bigger,
do we need to put them in bigger pots? Yeah, it will
if you want them to keep if you want them to keep growing bigger,
yes, and if you want to make it a little easier to take care
of them. You know, if you have a big plant in a small
pot, no matter what the plant is, you're having to water really regularly
and fertilize because the root zone is so confined where it can take up water
and nutrients. So you move it too a bigger pot and it's a little
easier for the plant. As far as when I don't I don't know how
to tell you like a black and white answer to well, when the pot
when the plant gets as tall and whatever, but just kind of look at
it and if you see that it's the pot is small. Another thing that
happens is when when the pot's small, it's easier for it to tip over.
The base is a little smaller as well. But just kind of look
at that and occasionally bump them up. I wouldn't probably bump them up now.
I'd wait until you get ready for spring and growth is going to take
off a little. You can move it outside for periods of time to get
to get some sunlight. That's when I would bump it up. Prior to
that, Should we trim the yellow part of the leaves with the scissors or
something? Yeah, you can trim them off if you'd like, because they're
not They're just going to keep dying and turn brown. Okay, thank you
very much. All right, reason, thank you for the call. I
appreciate that. Let's see, we're going to go now out to Tim and
clearly Hello, Tim, Hey, skip, how you knowing? Well?
I'm doing well. I have a few winding junipers that's been established for a
few years, and a couple of those junipers are turning completely brown at the
top. Okay, beautiful, but it's all like I researched a little bit
of that and they said something I tiplight, but I don't know if I'm
doing something wrong or what's the problem. It could be. There are a
number of things that can cause browning on the junipers. That particular description you
gave me makes me think they got a little dry. There's also the possibility
that there is a stem canker, and if you go down from the brown,
going down toward where green is on the stem, and you see any
like sores, wounds, cracks on the bark, that would be the canker,
and you would print it out below that. But I think it's probably
a soule moisture content issue. And once a juniper turns brown, that branch
is never going to regreen. So you just have to take it out.
It's not I have to cut the So I basically have to cut the top
ball. Yeah, J Wines And yeah, I know, I know it's
it's but it just it is what it is. It's not going to get
green again. So yeah, you just have to bite the bullet on that
particular one. You probably figure out a way to get another shoot from below
that's coming up and maybe somewhat reform the plant or just get creative. And
now it's a winding juniper with a round ball on top. You know,
go read a doctor Seuss book and get some ideas for what you can do
with that juniper. Awesome, Thank you for that information. Skip all right,
Tim, I appreciate your call very much. You know, the folks
at Microlife have got their fall package ready to go for you, and it's
available all over the place. And that is the Microlife Brown Patch. That's
a five one three fertilizer and it's loaded with microbes like all Microlife products are
you put it down. Is not only adding that the benefit of the microbes,
it's adding the benefit of the organic matter being an organic fertilizer, and
you get those nutrients, and those nutrients are important on keeping your turf strong
going into the wintertime. You can combine that with a bioinoculant if you'd like.
This time of year is also time to plant and Microlife has the blue
plus blue deal and what is that. Well, the first blue is a
fertilizer called Ultimate and if you're going to put plants in the ground, you
can put this around them. Normally, I say, don't put fertilizer in
the planting all well, with an organic fertilizer like Microlife there's no salt base.
You're not going to burn them. It's going to be fine. You
can do that. You can also get their seaweed product, which is called
the Microlife Ocean Harvest. That's a liquid. Anytime you spray plants folli or
drench them in the roots, you're going to benefit. And just go to
Microlifefertilizer dot com and you're going to find out where you can purchase it.
We're going to need to take a little break here. Our number is seven
one three two one two five eight seven four. Karen from Richmond, you
will be first when we come back. Well, good Saturday morning. You're
listening to garden Line. It's a good day to be on listening to garden
Line right now. Got a little still dark outside, but a little chili
and some rainy weather coming through here. I just love it. I was
talking earlier about I actually love that. It's a good day to hold up
inside. I don't know, you know here we don't have what's called winter.
We do, but it's one or two days a year, and we
never know which two days, but we just make any excuse we can.
It's time to I guess I brew up a pot of chili. That's what
we do at our house in cold weather or when cool weather arrives, just
for a good excuse to eat some chili. Maybe make some hot chocolate.
That'd be a good good thing to do today. I know it's not freezing
outside, but hey, we got to take every chance we can to enjoy
that. We're going to go now out to Richmond and talk to Karen.
Hello, Karen, good morning, Skip. How are you. I'm well,
thank you. What's up with you today? Okay, So, back
in the spring, I planted an eggplant and it did quite well. I
harvested some nice fruit. As the summer heat and drought came along and you
just pull everything out of the garden, I just left it there and really
ignored it. But anyway, it as the weather got better and I got
back in the garden, it has flourished again, okay, and I probably
have ten or twelve eggplant on it. I'm a little concerned that it'll freeze
before they get ready, but then I don't really know. I don't know
how to tell when they are ready. Right now, they're about the size
of a large orange, and I don't don't really know what variety I have.
Maybe these are not supposed to get huge like the ones you see in
the grocery store. Well, here here's the thing. They don't ripen per
se like like a tomato would ripen. So what we do is eggplant starts
off with a glossy skin. When that skin turns dull, you know,
kind of a if you're looking at photos, there's the glossy versus the matt
photo. When it starts having that matte look, that means it's probably a
little past. So you can pick it at any point in time now and
it'll be fine in the weather we're having and we'll continue to have. It
is not going to grow much. I mean, it's slowed down. It
does not like the weather. And so I would go ahead and just pick
it and be done with it. If you feel like it's got a good
size on it, then I would do that, because you believe it too
long, skin gets a little tougher and it's just not the quality that you
would get with the younger one. Well, I was a little surprised it
even you know, made anything anything right, I get it. If you're
going to live, go ahead, But so okay, well, I'll try
to keep an eye on it. Yeah, so let me ask you what
what what do you do with an eggplant? Do you make like baba ganouche
or what kinds of dishes do you like? Well, okay, I'm not
a cook, and I've had friends suggest that you use it kind of like
in a lasagna dish and place of newd and so we've enjoyed that, okay.
And my mother wants everything fried, so we have fried a couple Okay.
So I'm not a real creative cook. All right. I'm always curious.
I'm always curious about how people use eggplant. But it's a versatile vegetable
that we don't use enough. Karen, thank you so much for the call.
And have fun with their eggplant, I hope. So all right,
you take care. Earlier I was talking about the veggo beds and I said
I had a roller I don't know if I said I had a rolling bed,
but I have a rolling bed of vega. And I just noticed that
Buchanans native plants down in the Heights. They're on Eleventh Street, six eleven
East eleventh Street in the Heights. They've got the vego beds too, and
they've got the big rolling bed. It's a it's a big oval bed on
rollers and so it sits up in the air and it has little The floor
of the bed, if you will, is such that it becomes a self
watering bed. It'll wick moisture, it'll whole moisture and then wick it back
up into the bed, so you're not having to water as often. But
really cool. They've got them in gray and light green and the tan color.
I just love those beds and you can get them right there at Buchanans.
While you're there, check out their Christmas cactus, the holiday cactus is
that they have. Oh my gosh. They are loaded with buds and beautiful.
Ready to turn your home into something for the holidays something. Also put
this on your calendar. They are having one heck of an event. It's
called a Holiday open house a Buchanans. They're gonna have live music, They're
going to beer and wine and food. Santa will be there with kids,
crafts and local vendors everything. It's a free event. Saturday, December second,
from ten am to three pm. Saturday December second, from ten am
to three pm. So right after garden Line's over head, right over there
to the Buchanan's open house on December second. It will be a very cool
event. They put on a lot of great stuff over there at Buchanans.
If you need a feed store and you are out east of Houston, your
hometown feed store is Texas Feed Stop. They're in Mont Bellevue, So if
you're in Baytown, I mean this is just minutes away. In fact,
if you want to know how to get there, you're on iten. You
go north on Highway one forty six in Mont Bellevue, Highway one forty six,
just a few minutes north and there you are. They'll be right there
on the right. Brian and Hope Rhodes have created a store. It's kind
of like they do everything. It's about the community. It's about family and
the community, and they treat your lif family. There the hard kidtos from
the community that carry the bags out for you. They carry every product I'm
talking about to fertilizing your lawn, do you have insects, disease and weeds.
Their selection is really outstanding. I was surprised last time I was in
there just the amount of things that they do carry. So anything that you
need have a beautiful lawn and a bountiful landscape that's there right there at Texas
feed Stop Highway one forty six, just north of Interstate ten in Mount Bellevue.
Well we are. We're talking about a lot of different things regarding gardening
this morning, and one thing I hadn't talked about yet is fruit trees,
and I wanted to mention that a little bit now. There's fruit trees can
be planted pretty much anytime of the year. When it comes to dormant bear
root fruit trees, that's going to be a January thing, maybe early February,
but go ahead and get them in early rather than later because they're coming
in bear root, there's no leaves on them you put them in. But
most people are just buying container grown trees these days, and our garden centers
are stocked up with all kinds of trees, and no matter what kind of
fruit trees you wanting to plant, you're going to be able to find them
and get them in the ground. Everything I said about fall being the time
to plant, that's true with fruit trees too, for container grown plants,
and you can plant a container fruit anytime of the year. Falls a good
time fall and winter, So go ahead and pick them up while they still
have a supply. And I say while they have a supply, because people
are going to be out there going and getting their fruit trees. You want
to plant fruit trees in an area that drains well. If you got a
heavy clay soil, you may need to build up or raise bed with a
quality mix. You know something that a good bed mix from one of our
vendors that we talk about here on garden Line and make a raised area so
the roots are a little bit above that low lying heavy clay area. And
good drainage is very important for fruit trees. They need sunlight. It takes
sunlight to make carbohydrates and it takes a carbohydrate to make the fruit. So
it's as simple as that. Can you grow a peach in the shade?
Yes? Will you get peaches? No? And it'll be a sparse tree
struggling to stay alive sun son son So sun and drainage are the two of
the most important things. The third thing is the number of chilling hours.
Now, there are peaches that grow well in far North Sexes and peaches that
grow well almost down to the valley, but they're not the same peaches.
Each area has a certain amount of temperatures in the winter around forty five degrees
and each hour around that temperature counts as a chilling hour. And so no
matter where you live, and I realize I have people all the way up
in Buffalo listening to this and way down south of here too, But wherever
you live, you have a certain amount of chilling hours, and you want
to choose varieties that match that. That's important. And if you go to
a good quality nursery, a mom and pop, local garden center, independent
garden center, they're going to have staff on hand that know how to direct
you to the right one. First of all, they're only going to grow
the right one, and so you know when they're only growing the when they're
say growing selling, when they're only selling stuff that grows in your area,
well that's a plus, right, And then having educated staff, which our
mom and pops do, to direct you to the one. They may go,
oh, if you're going to buy one of these apples or whatever,
you need to buy a pollinator for it, or if you're going to get
a peach you don't need to buy. They help you like that, They
get you off to a good start, and that is so important. Because
you're investing in that tree. I keep picking on peaches, but you buy
that peach tree and you know you're just tasting that luscious peach. We want
you to get to taste that peach a few years down the line. Do
it right to begin with, because if you don't do those three things good
drainage, good sunlight, and an adapted variety of fruit, you're not going
to have success. And we want you to. So there's your tip of
the day. Make sure that when you are picking out your fruit, you
get a quality plant from a quality place. Kat 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 Richter's Shoesmill, the Crazy Gas can
trim, just watch him at Woods, so many Tea, the Sea botasy
gas not a sad credits gas. You s well, good morning. We're
We're happy you're listening to garden Line this morning, and we look forward to
talking to you. You'd like to give us a call seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. That's the number that you call. We
are going to talk about a number of other things. But I've been kind
of going around the I guess the hard landscape and garden talking about some of
the things that are timely for this time of the year and just things that
you might want, you know, to keep in mind the mowing and lawn
care, you know, in terms of mowing and edging and all that.
That season is kind of winding down, and if there's ever a good time
to get your plant or your equipment ready to go into the winter season,
now would be it. And we do things like make sure that the underneath
carriage, underneath the lawnmowers cleaned out. You don't have a bunch of wet
grass stuck up under there. Get all that cleaned out. If you want
to take your blade off and get them sharpened, this is the off season
and a good time to do it. You know, places that sharpen your
blade, they get kind of busy when we're about to start mowing. Everybody
wants their blade sharpened at that time, So now'd be a good time to
do that. Drain the drain the gas out, run the engine until let's
dry. Just talk to your local equipment maintenance folks, you know, wherever
the shop is where you get maintenance done. They'll tell you what to do.
They've got different ways that they you know, we used to to do.
Just drain it, run it until it went dry, and leave it
like that for for winter. I think they may have doing some other things
right now, but they can get you set up. That's not my expertise
for sure, but now's the time to go ahead and get that done.
If you've got garden tools that you're not going to be using over the cool
season, uh, you know, knock the dirt off of them, take
a wire brush, clean them off, get any rust off, and then
coat the surfaces with metal. A good spray to coat the surfaces and protect
against rust for the storage time. You know, a tool can last a
long time if it's a quality tool. That's true, especially with pruners,
but it's true with a lot of things. Uh, just take care of
them, don't let them get all rusted up. Take care of the metal,
take care of the wooden parts, you know, putting some linseed oil
or something along those lines. On the handles. I usually will take a
sandpaper and kind of rub over the handles if they're getting a little rough,
kind of smooth them out, and then put the oil on them to soak
in. And it's amazing how long a tool will last again when it's a
quality tool and you take care of it before you put your lawn to bed
for winter. If you hadn't done your fertilization, now's the time to go
ahead and get that done. Nitrofoss's three step is a good way to do
it. Here's what happens with the three step. First is a fertilizer.
You put the fertilizer down and they have the Fall special and it's designed for
fall. The numbers are different from what we'd put in the spring and summer.
It is an excellent product that works well. Then the barricade that is
a pre emergent weed control product. Now you follow the label and put it
out. Once you've put those two out, that's going to take one application
for fertilizer, one for barricade, watered in with a half inch of water,
and that moves both of them down into the root system. And don't
let it just sit there, because the pre emergent doesn't work until you move
it down in the soil where the weed seed you're germinating. The fertilizer can't
work until it gets down in the root zone so the plants can take it
up. The third step is Eagle turf fungicide. It's a systemic It soaks
in so when large patch or brown patches as we used to call it,
or take all root rot occurs, you've already got something soaked into the turf
tissues to protect them. Now you're going to find the three step and other
nitrofosh products at Gym's Hardware and Montgomery Ace Hardware and Memorial or Lake Hardware out
there in Clute. We're going to go to the phones now and we're going
to talk to David out in fullsher Hello, David Lauren Scarp, how are
you today? I'm well. Thanks. A few minutes ago, I was
stopped somewhere and I jumped in the truck and I heard you talking about peach
trees and chill hours and where to buy them. Yes, and RCW Nurseres
got some really really good ones. And I bought a tangerine tree from there,
maybe fifteen years ago. And planet of that planet of that thing,
it got about twenty feet tall and about fourteen feet wide, produced eight hundred
more than that tangerines a year, and that bad freeze got it, even
though I tried my best to protect it. Yeah, yeah, but yeah,
and I got another one now that's about five and a half feet tall,
and I protected it somehow. It stay protected and it's got about one
hundred and twenty on them this year. Okay, now that's is that a
tangerine? That also? Yes, sir, it's you know, I'm sixty
nine years old and growing up, and I grew up in San Anton and
for our Christmas stockings every year, we would get these tangerines and they have
had lots of seeds in them, but they were really really good. Right,
It's the same exact tangerine and just really really great flavor. Sounds a
little bit like it may be a chain shot tangerine. Those are pretty seedy,
but yeah, there's a lot of them out there. I have three
different time right now and they're growing and starting to produce a little bit.
But when I planted those things, I built a sixty two by forty metal
building and it's twenty two feet tall, and I had a friend of mine
come in with a dozer and he dug down eight feet and about twenty five
feet wide, and we stacked that dirt up about fifteen feet higher than it
was and let it rain on it for five years and it brought it back
down to about two feet of where it naturally was, and everything I plant
it there, My goodness it was. And now now whenever I pull like
oak trees. My son lives around the corner front of me. He's got
five acres. I only got six and a half. But I ran a
small back hole mans a hole. You go off, you go all out,
sounds like, yes, go ahead of you ought to see You want
to see these trees? You know? When I do that, I believe
they just, my goodness, I believe. Well, Hey, I got
to run to some other callers, but thank you for the call and the
information. And next time you're planting a citru show to try a satsuma.
They're also a good choice. I have one, sir, and it's very
good. But I thank you for the info and you're doing a great job.
Thank you, sir. I appreciate your call very much. You know
he was out in full share area. If you're out in a fulsher area,
another great place to go is in Channi Gardens. In Chenni Gardens is
right there on the Cadi full share side of Richmond. It is on three
point fifty nine, so it's really easy to get to. You just head
north out of Richmond and you're there. It's Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com.
And they've got every kind of plant you could possibly want, you know,
from fruit to vegetables, to herbs, to annual flowers, perennial flowers,
ornamental grasses, shrubs, trees, on and on and on down the line.
And it's a fun place to visit too. I always like to go
by there, and if you need the fertilizer I'm talking about on garden Line,
the soil I'm talking about on Guardenline, go by there. They're going
to have it Monday through Saturday, eight to five. Sunday from ten am
to four pm, we're going to take a break. Our phone number is
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you'd like to
get on the board, and when we come back, Stewart and Sandy,
you'll be the first two up. All right, well you're back on Guardenline.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number is seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I was talking earlier about if
you want to plant fruit trees, the soil drainage is really important and one
of the ways we do that if we bring in soil in a lower area
and raise up the level. It's simple to do. And if you down
south of the Houston area, Ciena Moltz is your soil place now. They're
north of Roach Sharon on FM five twenty one, near where Highway six and
two eighty eight come together. They're open Monday through Friday, seven thirty to
five today seven thirty to two pm, So after show today'd be a great
time to run down there. They're closed on Sunday. But cenamultch dot com.
That's a website just right down cienamultch dot com. They specialize in quality
soils, quality compost, quality mulches. They've got bulk, they've got bagged,
they have everything you need. While you're there, you can pick up
all the fertilizers I talk about here on garden line. And if you are
going to plant this fall anything, take care of the soil. First.
Brown stuff comes before green stuff. Remember that brown before green and Ciena Multch
can make sure you get set up so that when you drop that plant in
the ground. It hits the ground running. We're going to now head out
to Stuart and Katie. Hello Katie, Hello Stuart, Hi Ski, good
morning. Had a question. We've got a magnolia tree and we have bricks
around an area that you know, kind of a bat around it, and
it keeps getting invested. It looks like nut grass or some kind of grass,
and I keep repeatedly clean it out every three months or two months.
Whatever I heard that vinegar and water sprayed on the grass would take care of
that, not harm the magnolia tree. Is at any accuracy to that,
Well, what would you recommend? Vinegar burns the tops of weeds, but
it works best in hot, sunny weather, but it does not burn the
bottoms. And if this is nutsedge or any perennial grass, is not going
to get rid of it. It's just going to fry the top and then
it'll come right back off the ground. So on that particular thing, you're
going to need to go to a product made for use on nutsedge. And
if it's a sedge, the nuts edge is leaves are shiny, they're slick,
unlike most grasses. That's one way to tell the stems are triangular.
If you got onto the bottom and cut it off and look at the stem,
it's going to have a triangular shape. That also tells you you probably
have a sedge like nutsedge and those kind of products. There's a sedge ender.
There's one called image, there's one called Manage. But you have to
look at the label to see you know which plant location it's labeled for summer,
label for lawns. Some are labeled for flower beds also, and you
just want to grab one that's going to work on that. But but something
for just sedges, you know, go to a place that knows what they're
talking about and ask them about that. You probably got some ACE hardware is
out there in the Kady area. In fact, I know you do.
You have a good number of yeah out there. Go to ACE and just
say, hey, I need a sedge product. But before you do that,
go check what I just described and make sure you have sedge. Otherwise
you're you're probably using the wrong product for the week. Would be good to
bring a sample skip? Would it be good to bring a sample of the
grass and then tell them and then they can give me something that wouldn't harm
the tree as well. Right, yeah, well, and using it right,
most sedge products are not going to harm your tree. But using it
right, all you have to do is we the foliage. You don't have
to you know, drench the soil afoot deep. I mean that, get
it on the foliage. The other thing that I would suggest is if you
can get a little shovel or a weed and fork or something, get down
there and try to get below the plant. If it's got long, wiry,
stringy things, not roots, but just dark brown stringy things, that's
probably nuts edge. And if you try to pull it up in one of
those pops loose, it's because the nut on the other end wouldn't slide through
the soil and you just broke it. And that's another sign you probably have
nut sets. Gotcha, I appreciate it. Enjoy yourself. Thank you.
I'm glad you listen. I was talking earlier about fertilizing, and you know,
when it comes to nutrients, the big three nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,
those are important. We need them in the largest amounts, but we
need trace elements and very small amounts also, and that's what azemite provides.
Azimite's a mind product that is ground up into various forms for applying into various
plants and various situations, and it works very well. It works well on
your lawn. You just follow up your fertilization with an azomite application, and
you can do that anytime of year. You know, we talk about fertilizing
at certain times, certain times of the year because those are things that make
the plant grow. As a mite, you're just stocking up your bank account
in the soil. So you can do that anytime you want. And if
you haven't done it this year, and that'd be a good time to go
ahead and get it done, you can go to as and Mite Texas find
out more information about the product. But pretty much everybody I talk about here
on Garden Line they're going to carry amite just it's widely available here in the
Houston area from our better Garden centers. We're gonna head out now to Sandy
and Cyprus. Hello Sandy, Good morning, Skip. I have a little
complicated problem. I have a pool in my backyard and I put the the
Texas three thing, three step thing, yes back in the end of in
October. Okay, good, that's a good time. And found out I've
got so many weeds back here, and I thought, what's going on?
And my grass kept staying wet, so my pool pipe busted and yeah,
so everything whenever the sprinklers, I mean whenever the waterfall would come on,
all the water would come out of the pipe and get the grass on the
side of my house wet. Okay, well, I didn't realize that until
this past week, and the weeds are everywhere. Can I put some more
stuff down or no? Well, if you see growing weeds, you've missed
the window to use a pre emergent. It depends on what the weeds are.
If they're cool season weeds, you know, then it's worth controlling them
now. But if they're one season, yes you can let me. I'm
going to put you on hold. Josh will get you the email to send
me some photos and make sure the photos are up closed. I can really
see the weed in clear detail, and I'll be glad to take a look
at them, and then either I'll answer you there or just have you call
me back on the show. I get way more emails than I can answer
the questions too, and so I've been asking people, you know, give
me the information, give me the photos, and then call in and let's
just talk about it, because trying to type out extensive answers I just did
not able. Yes, yes, absolutely, I'll do that. Thank you
so much, Thank you, Sandy. I appreciate your call very much.
Hey, if you're out in the Kingwood area, you know you got Kingwood
Garden Center and you got Warren's Southern Gardens both right there. Their native plan
of the month is Texas Beauty Berry. And boy, when those things that's
a native plant, when it loses its leaves, those clusters of purplish berries
are just beautiful. They make good arrangements for indoors too. By the way,
Now out at Kingwood Garden Center Warren Southern Gardens, you know they have
airloom souls age leaf composts. Three bags for thirty bucks. That's good for
the month of November, so only the month of November. Airloom sALS age
leaf compos high quality. Remember brown stuff before green stuff, Grab that before
and when you grab your plants, so you can get the soil ready for
the plants that you're pulling in. Now, package bulbs are on sale by
two get one free, except for emerialist bulbs. It's still time. By
the way, in the eight o'clock hour a little ower thirty minutes from now,
we're going to have Chris Weisinger from the Southern Bulb Company talking to us
about bulbs twenty five percent off all fall decre They've got Christmas cactus in Christmas
trees are coming just around the corner. They'll probably arrive sometime next week.
And I don't tell you about an event on November eighteenth, at ten am,
they're going to have the Festive Container Planting Class with d Out at Warren's
Garden Center. That's at ten am November eighteenth. They will show you how
to create a beautiful, cool season planner. You know, it's got the
blend, it's got the balance, it's got that look. They've got the
artistic hand Deecon show you how to do that. And that's going to happen
on the eighteenth. On Thursday the sixteenth is Ladies Thursday the sixteenth through Sunday
the nineteenth is Ladies Weekend at Kingwood Garden Center. You can sip, shop
and sparkle at the Kingwood Garden Center. They're gonna have door prizes and giveaways
and really really deep discounts. They're going to special sale some things up to
forty percent off at Kingwood Garden Center. And again that's November sixteenth through the
nineteenth. You don't want to miss out on that. We're going to go
now to Spring Branch and talk to Herda. Hello, Herda, mid morning,
Skip. I have a Saint Augustine. But I would say for every
four three to five blades of grass, there's one yellow blade all over the
yard, all right? That what is that? Well, that can be
a number of things. It can be a little damage to roots, you
know, the drought can do that. As things cool off, grass will
just start to do that some too. And I've seen that and they're bright
yellow, right, I mean they're not just yell. I've seen that.
It could be the early start of some brown patch or large patch too.
The ones I've seen around though they're not in circular areas. It's just all
over. And so I'm thinking that it's just a change of seasons and some
old tired grass that's casting off its older leaves. Those will be the oldest
leaves on the little shoot of grass, and so I would not worry about
that at this time. All right, Thank you very much, all right,
thank you for your show. Thank you, Thank you, Herd.
I appreciate appreciate that call. Hey, if you're doing fall planting, what
what's the rule brown stuff before green? Right? First you take care of
the brown stuff, Then you take care of the green stuff. You put
the green stuff in the well prepared brown stuff, and you're on your way
to success. But there's one more step and that is has to grow six
twelve six. You mix it in water and you drench it on the soil
right after your plant. You water the plant in with a solution of has
to grow six twelve six. You're adding seaweed extracts and humic acid and Medina
soil activator plus the six twelve six the nutrients and that hyphosphorus is good for
establishing a root system. Do it five days, five to seven days later,
do it five to seven days later, three times, about a week
apart. Has to grow six to twelve six. Now, there's a lot
of the ways to use has to grow. I mean there's a hose in
spray or type you can put all over your lawn and other things. There's
there's you know, the ability to foldier feed with it. It's not going
to burn. There's a lot of ways, but I like to use it
as a way to water in I just think you should have some on the
shelf so that every time you plant anything from a broccoli plant to an herb
plant to a shade tree in the lawn water an in row with a has
to grow six twelve six. It's another quality product from the DIA. Well,
let's see, we are give you a phone number if you'd like to
give us a call seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. How many of you have
dealt with the power going out at your house? Maybe it's a storm,
Maybe it's a tree limb comes down and it takes out a power line.
Maybe it's just an undependable grid. You know, we go through the super
hot weather, super cold weather. Uh, and the last thing you want
is number one, to be uncomfortable in the house. Number two to lose
the food and your freezer and your refrigerator. And then number three, what
if, what if your livelihood depends on being able to get on the internet.
What are you going to do? Then? What you do is you
call quality home products and get them to set you up with a Generac automatic
standby generator. That means that they set it up outside by the way.
They do everything for you. They deal with the HOA, they do with
a power company, gas company, everything that's needed to get that done,
even pouring the pad. They set it up. First of all, they
only sell you what you need. They don't over sell on products. And
there's a lot of different levels of generators, so you need to go somebody
that you can trust. Right now, they have a holiday blowout ten percent
off up to twenty five hundred dollars off holiday blowout. It's an exclusive offer,
valid for new generator customers only. It can't be combined with other promotional
offers. But just go to QUALITYTX dot com, QUALITYTX dot com or give
them a call seven to one to three Quality. It's as simple as that.
Quality products, quality service for a quality life. Well, we are
bumping up against another break and Nicky's going to be coming in here for the
news and just a bit. If you happen to live up in the Montgomery
area, A and A Plants and Produce is your home town garden center.
They're in Montgomery on the right side of Montgomery, east side of Montgomery Highway
one O five heading toward conrou and they serve that whole area, Lake Conroe
area. What do you need? Do you need fruit trees, shade trees?
Do you need vegetable plants or flour plant? Everything you need plus lots
of landscape, bling for the holidays, seven days a week, nine am
to five pm. Knowledgeable staff, all many, many reasons to go to
A and A Plants and produce. Check them out, tell them skip said
high when you go in there, and you will find everything to make your
lawn and your garden more beautiful and more bountiful. Well, we're going to
turn it over to Nikki. Our phone number if you'd like to give Josh
your call is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If
your toes not tapping, I don't think you have a pulse. That is
a great song. I love that, love that song. Hey, you've
been to Plants for All Seasons before, I mean everybody has. It's it's
easy to find. It's right there on Highway to forty nine, just about
where Louetta comes at, just north of there, and Plants for All Seasons
is one of those hometown garden centers. That has staff that knows what they're
talking about. And that is so important because they direct you to the plants
you need. They'll listen to the question, here's what I need. I
want this? What can you suggest? They'll direct you to the plant,
They'll tell you how to plant it. Maybe, if it's a product,
they'll tell you how to use it. Bring them a sample of something.
What do I do about this? They'll direct you to the product, and
then afterwards, when you have questions, you come back in and they take
time to help you. That is service like you just don't get from a
big box store. That is why Plants for All Seasons is so popular now.
They've been around since nineteen seventy three. You can go to the website
Plants for All Seasons dot com. You can call them two eight, one,
three, seven six, sixteen forty six. However you go about it,
go buy. Whether your thumb is brown or green, it's a place
you want to go. We're going to head out to Katie now and talk
to Kay. Oh I like that. Hey k from Katie morning, Good
morning. I have a question about I'm looking for a shrub that will take
center shade, and my problem is in the summer, I get the total
hot blazing afternoon sun, and in the winter I get total shade. So
it faces north, but it gets the in the summer, it gets the
sun from the west. Okay, Katie, Kay, what what other aspects
of the shrub do you want? You know? Evergreen? Yes? No
flowers yes? Know those yes? And evergreen evergreen about three or four feet
tall and the space is small, it's about five by four by four.
Okay. Well, you have a number of hot options. There's some hollies
that stay a little shorter. Chinese holly will stay short, has very sharp
spines on it, very very perfectly, but it will take quite a bit
of shade and it will take sun as well. That would be an option.
You want to make sure the soil is well grained for that. Upine's
going to be a little on the short side, yopine holly. The dwarf
types are good for that, but they're a little on the short side.
But they can take kind of the mix of the two, let's say,
shades sun shrubs. Sometimes the plants don't come to my head at that very
moment, like it gets like total shade in the wintertime, so very very
mean in area. You mean in the summertime. In the winter it gets
total shade, and in the summer it gets the blaring hot afternoon sun.
You know. Yeah, yeah, I think I would go with one of
those. You're going to find that a lot of the other plants that I
might suggest, they're just not going to be real happy with one or the
other. Uh. And so that would be the first, the first thing
that I think about in that kind of environment. Ye, I just keep
thinking of plants and one or the other is not going to be good.
Yeah, I'll grow a deterre there, growd detur there. This which has
done beautifully, But I want something ever grain, you know. Yeah,
let me think about that a minute. I may say something on the air
here in a little bit when one and suddenly something comes into my mind that
I should have thought of while I was talking to you. All Right,
one it suggested a sunshine lagustrum, but I don't think that would work.
Well. Sunshine lagustrum is fine, it'll it'll take some shade, I think
it ought to do. Okay. The problem with the total shade, yeah,
I know. Well, you're saying total shade, and then the winter
the light levels are less than the winter too, which adds a little bit
to that. But sunshine La Gustrum is a beautiful plant. I would need
to check how deep in the shade it can go. We always use it
in the sun. And yeah, yeah, but where do you normally shop
for your plants? Now? Since water Garden is close to me, I
go to them. Oh good, okay, yeah, they're a good place.
And I go to Enchanted Gardens. I go all over really okay,
Well, you know, I last time I was down at in Jennet,
they just had a ton of options, and I would I would talk to
them. You can't even give them a call and talk to them and just
say what do you have? You know, what do you what do you
have that might fit this bill? They're going to think of something that's not
coming in my mind right now. So that's that's where I would go,
beyond the suggestion I gave you. All right, all right, well,
thank you very much, thank you. I appreciate appreciate that call. If
you've not done your fall fertilization, I can give you a suggestion here that
is going to give you an excellent fertilizer and a good secondary benefit. And
that is Nelson's carbo load. Carbo Load by Nelson is designed for fall application.
Don't delay, go ahead and get it down. It has actually has
two benefits. One is that it has a pre emergent in it as well
as a fertilizer that helps prevent weeds from coming up. But the second benefit
is every bag that's sold this fall, Dan Nelson is donating two dollars to
memorial scholarship for horticulture students at A and M. And that's just a win
win. But you can only get that benefit by going ahead and doing it
this fall now, and don't delay. Get that down. It's a quality
product. Again, it's designed for fall, and it's got the pre emerging
in it as well to help with those winterweeds sprouting and becoming a problem,
especially when they take off in the spring. Just shut them down before they
get started. But two dollars a bag for Randy's memorial scholarship. That's I
thank you, Dean. I appreciate you doing that as well. Let's head
out now to Montgomery and we're going to talk to John. Hello, John,
good morning. We have a family farm up here in Montgomery and during
the summer when we had the one hundred degree weather days and no rain with
our sandy soil, our Saint Augustine and a mixture with centipede grass is what
my dad calls it is just almost been a limiting and now it's being replaced
by a bunch of weeds what I call them little circular flower. I'm just
wondering what be the best way to get rid of those and hopefully get this
Saint Augustine back to going again. It's uh, we're at a loss.
Okay, now you say circular weeds? Is this? The leaves are round,
right, is what you're saying? Yes? And does the does the
stem attach in the middle of the leaf kind of like an umbrella stalk attaches
to the umbrella? Does Okay? That's that's called dollar weed. You may
also have a dichondra. It's a similar leaf. Is a leaf shiny?
Uh? Yeah? Okay, that's dollar weed. And a post emergent product
done right away to it. Apply it, It'll soak in and it'll affect
it. Those products in the summertime can be a little some of them can
be a little hard on Saint Augustine. But a post emergent broad leaf weed
control product can take care of that. And if you go over to Ana
Nursery on the east side of Montgomery, they're going to be able to direct
you to the right one. But tell them you need a post emergent broadleaf
product that can be used in a Saint Augustine lawn, and go ahead and
hit it now, and then you're probably gonna have to do it again later,
like next spring. And just try to get most of that done before
it gets really hot once a days are up ninety degrees and you're going to
have some issue with some of those products. Okay, got you much,
Black. I appreciate you, you bet, thank you very much. I
appreciate that. Uh, we're going to have to take a little break here.
Our number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Will be right back. Well, hello, and welcome back to Garden Line.
Our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Remember how I keep talking about fall is for planting, and what do you
do when you're going to plant something? First the brown stuff, then the
green stuff. Heirloom soils has got a deal. Now, if you're doing
any kind of a landscape bed, maybe filling up a vego bed. You
need to think about this because you're not gonna find a better deal than this.
They're veggie and herb mixes on fall special. It's one hundred and nineteen
dollars bulk. Or if you want the supersack, which is a cubic yard
set on your driveway in a sack, that's one hundred and forty eight bucks.
If you want roast soil, that's an excellent one for building beds and
all kinds of things. Seventy dollars bulk or ninety nine dollars for a supersack.
They're both available on a special for this fall for Heirloom Soils, so
you don't want to miss out. Go to Heirloomsoilsoftexas dot com and you can
find out more about them right there. That's just super high quality product and
a deal you're not gonna You're not gonna do better than that. We're gonna
go now to Jersey Village and talk to Andy. Hello, Andy, Well,
good morning, Thank you very much for taking my call. Yes,
sir, my question is I have lime sizzler fire bush, which I have
for hummingbirds in the backyard, but freezes back every winter. Okay, is
there another hummingbird bush that won't freeze back in the winter. Well, I
don't know of anything that will give the hummingbirds flowers in the winter, so
I'm not sure on the freeze. No, no, no, I want
I want the bush to survive the winter, to survive. Yes, Well,
let's see. I was going to say Turk's cap would be a good
one, but it loses its foliage a lot. It keeps some foliage,
so it's somewhat evergreen as a shrub. That would be a good will stay.
It'll stay at four feet or three feet or whatever it is. Actually
it gets a little bigger than that. That's a little bit of a challenge.
Oh good. What I need is I need to get I need to
get one of our hummingbird people to call in and give me some ideas on
that. I'm trying to think of hummingbirds and wintertime. You know, our
salvius can be attractive to them, but they're going to die back Turk's cap.
Geez, I'm running out of ideas right here. Off the top of
my head. Andy, I love that lime sizzler farbush, so that is
a beautiful plant, but it does done yes, it is. It's tone
like a going to the ground and it doesn't come back, you know,
the four feet anymore. I mean, let me by the end of the
season. But let me see if I can find something out, or maybe
we'll have someone call in that's a hummingbird enthusiast and we'll go from there.
All right, I'll be listening, all right, thank you, thank you
for taking my call. Yes, sir, I appreciate I appreciate that very
much. If you're in Tombol and you need your hometown feed store effective you're
anywhere near the region of Tomball, D and D feed is who you need
to know about. D and D feed is on twenty nine to twenty west
of Tomball, about three miles west on two forty nine west of two forty
nine. The Dover family has expanded it again. I went in the other
day and there was this new little section back there that had bulk seeds where
you know, just fill up your sacks. A great economical way to buy
seeds for your garden. They carry the quality dog foods like Origin, Diamond,
Victor Star Pro. They've got things to control pests and rodents, and
boy, here comes the winter season. And those rats and other things like
to head up into the attic or just hang out around the house. They
can take care of that for you. Anything you need to feed your animals,
to take care of your lawn. The quality products, the nitrofoss,
the bone eye, the microlife, the Medina products and Nelson plant food,
on and on. They got it all. They have it all there,
plus all the products you need to deal with pest, weeds and diseases at
D and D feed Again, they're on twenty nine to twenty three miles west
of two forty nine in Tomball. I was just talking about that heirloom product.
Yep, they have those at D and D as well. Let's make
a quick run out to southwest Houston and we're going to talk to Ed.
Hello. Ed, good, good morning, sir, good morning, thank
you for taking the call this cool day. All right, how can we
help so well? You know, being the cheap skate I am, I'll
wait until I knew it was going to rain to put down my winter fertilizer.
But have I has it washed it all out or is it going to
be okay what you use? I'm just curious, but not your fass.
Yeah, probably not we didn't get the gully washer for days and days.
You know that that we would worry about that. I think you're you're good
to go. I would not add it again. I think you probably did
fine. Okay, thank you sir. Yes, sir, that's the toughest
question of the day. I doubt it, but thank you byby. Yeah.
You know, if you're done in the Richmond area, Enchanted Forest is
an enchanting place that you need to go. They have a unbelievable selection of
winter vegetables and herbs by the way they have loaded up. I mean,
and they carry stuff. You know, everybody's got some spinach and maybe some
broccoli and lettuce and things. No, they go way beyond that. I
mean they have things like bok choy and all kinds of other vegeta and then
of course the herbs, so many quality herbs. It's a good time to
plan them. You know. A while ago I was talking about hummingbirds,
and I don't know that much about hummingbirds specifically. Well, how about this
today November eleventh, today at ten am, right after the show Martin hag
Hagney, I believe is how you pronounce it from the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory
is going to be there at Enchented Forests. They're going to have a pop
up sweet Bee's Baked Box too, so you can get little munchies while you're
out there. But join Martin. He's going to teach you all about the
extraordinary lives of hummingbirds and why you're out there at Enchanted for As you can
say, hey, what is a plant that's evergreen in the winter, but
that attracts humming birds during the season. They can probably fix you up because
they know a lot. They're experts at all kinds of things out at Enchanted
Forest. And again that's twenty seven to fifty nine FM twenty seven fifty nine
in Richmond, Texas. If you're heading from Richmond toward Sugarland direction and it's
off to the right back in that way, you can give a call two
eight one nine, three seven ninety four forty nine. It is as simple
as that. Where you're listening to garden Line, I'm your host, Skip
Richter, and next hour we're going to be having Chris Weisinger come in from
the Southern Bulb Company and we're going to talk bulbs. So if you have
a bulb question. Between eight and nine, that's the time to call about
it. We're not going to take calls on other things at that time because
we want to focus on that topic and on people that have questions about bulbs.
Also, I just want to remind you that it is the holiday season
and if you need Christmas lights, if you need decorations, wreaths, if
you need you know, all the different kinds of box sets and whatnot.
ACE is a place for your Christmas lighting and decoration. Yes, they're the
place for everything you need to have a beautiful lawn and a bountiful landscape,
but they are also the place that you need for your holiday decorations of options,
box sets, various configurations, many different colors and sizes and so on.
They even have something called custom lights by the foot and you just need
to go by there. It's kind of what you would imagine that it is,
but go by there and let someone at your local ACE Hardware store tell
you more about it. There's now forty stores in the Greater Houston area.
Acehardware dot Com. Look at the store locator and find the ones that are
closest to you. So convenient. It's nice to be able to go into
one place just kind of everything you need is right there. Well, that's
what ACE is, that's what they're all about. I want to remind you
that my lawn care schedule and my lawn disease, pest and in weed management
schedule, they're both online at my website Gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening
with Skip dot com. Also, I've put up there a free publication you
can you go right to the web page and it's the top thing. Now
that's the latest, if you will, And it is a nine page full
color guide PDF on everything you need to know about protecting your plants in cold
weather. It talks about different kinds of freezes and frost, how we go
about protecting, what works, what doesn't work, and the things that can
work. But let's say like watering or spraying your plants with water to have
ice on them, Well, that can work. If you're a professional citrus
scorer, you know how to do it. If you're in a backyard homeowner,
don't do it. It just has all kinds of problems. But that
and more and explains why is all there on that free publication and you can
find it at Gardening with Skip dot com We'll be right back with Chris Weisinger
after the break. Look forward to talking to you as well. KTRH Garden
Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program.
Welcome to KTRH Garden Lines with Scape Richter. It's so crazy to trim.
You just watch him as works so many gives the seas. Welcome back
to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter and our phone number if
you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Uh.
If you want a place to purchase a quality soil mix, quality maults,
those kinds of products, Nature's Way Resources is the place you need to know.
You know Nature's Way. They're sort of like the originator of a lot
of the things we talk about as quality soiler when we say rose soil,
when we say you know leaf, mo compost, and many many other products.
They were the first to create. John Ferguson has done an outstanding job
really changing the success of Houston gardens by creating the kinds of soil mixes that
ensure success. Because remember first comes the soil. Second comes to plants.
You can fall in love with the most beautiful flower, but go home with
soil to fix that bed that you have and make it the best it can
be. And then that flower or whatever you purchased is going to do well.
You can get them a call at Nature's Way at nine three six three
two one sixty nine ninety. You can go buy there up there on Interstate
forty five north as you go toward Conroe, right where fourteen eighty eight comes
in, turn right, go across the railroad tracks and you're there. Leave
them in the car, though, because you're gonna also want to pick up
some of the plants from the nursery that they've created. John and Ian have
a nice little nursery going out there as well, all at Nature's Way Resources.
I want to go now to Kingwood and we're going to talk to Charlie.
Hello, Charlie, please kip you doing today? I'm doing well?
Thank you great Hey. Years ago, I used to watch my dad grow
garlic, but I never paid attention to what he did he buy. You
know, can you buy the clothes in the grocery store and plant those and
secondly, will garlic grow down here through the winter. Well you could,
but I would go to a garden center or a feed store and where you
shop, and they're probably going to have garlic clothes. And yes, it
does grow through the winter. We plant it in the fall, it grows
through the winter, and then in spring, that single clove that you planted
is initiated to divide and make that cluster of clothes that we're aiming for.
There are hard neck and soft neck type soft neck types of garlic, and
some types do better than others here. So could you do one from the
grocery store? Probably would it be one that would do well here? Yeah,
it's a roll of the dice on that. Okay, Well, if
anyone out there is growing garlic, maybe they could chime in and see,
because you know, I just bought some really big garlic clothes and I just
started thinking, so okay, well, hey, let me give you a
tip, Charlie. Go to the AGI Horticulture website. Just just do a
search for Aggie Horticulture. I've been there numerous times after I heard it on
your ear, So okay, and yeah, their vegetable section has a publication
just on garlic. Okay, Okay, thank you as usual, sir,
Thank you, Charlie. Appreciate the call very much. Uh. You know,
if you're up in Grimes County east of Nevnesota direction, Grimes County Feed
is your hometown feed store. They're they're celebrated their five year anniversary and the
Roy family they're all about public service. That means that you know from the
store, I mean there they're sponsoring events with the local school district's f FA
four h volunteer fire Department, the Grimes County True Blue Foundation. Now,
Grimes County Feed is going to have the fertilizers I recommend, and everything else
you'd expect from a feed store. But this this is a fam that you
know. Their past is in agriculture, their past is in the Houston Fire
Department, in Houston Police Department. Service is what they're founded on a long
time ago, and that's how they run their business at Grimes County Feed.
So anyone out in that direction, we're talking about Carlos, Texas Highway thirty
two miles west of two forty four, you're just gonna when you go there,
you're going to see why I talk about them being the place to go
in the area. So folks that live in Kingwood and king Oak, excuse
me, king Oaks and mere Wood, Reliant, Steep Hollow, Iola,
beat Eyes, Rohnes, Prairie Shiro, all of that college station in Avasota.
They're your hometown feedstore at Grimes County feed. Let's head to fullsher nowt
we're gonna talk to JD. Hello, JD? How did you get up?
How you doing this morning? I'm well, thank you, sir?
Good good, Hey, quick question. I had called you over the summer.
We're in a newer house. It's about a year year olds, so
our plants and everything are about that about that young. I wanted to transplant
a crape myrtle from one bed to another bed, and I ended up moving.
I think they're Texas sage around. I sent you an email with some
pictures. It was already after you had started your day this morning. But
they look pretty, they look pretty peaked. I don't know if I've if
they're in shock, or if I've killed them with my transplanting. I just
want to get your opinion on things I could do to keep them from dying.
On them all right, A couple of quick quick things that the crape
myrtles are fine for transplanting this time of year. This is the time of
year if you got dig some up, move it to get it done.
The Snizo or Texas sage is not very fond of that. And I see
what you're talking about whether or not they'll come back. I'd say wait and
see, but that that's the issue with them, is they're not real crazy
about it being transplanted. By the way that those crape myrtles have some crape
myrtle bark scale on them, and so you're gonna want to be dealing with
that, making sure you treat for it, because it's what's turning the branches
all all black and city park scale. Okay, yeah, I had actually
emailed you. I was supposed to call you a month or two ago because
I had the black sooty mold on it and I had treated it with some
kind of testicide that I got from one of the local stores. Okay,
but okay, so so alrighty, so I'll treat that should I do any
kind of soil. I got to be honest, I didn't do any soil
prep or at any potting soil or anything. I just dug up the root
balls, and yeah, pretty much just swapped them over and watered them.
That's fine. That that's fine. You picked two species that are pretty darn
tough and don't have to be pimpered like some do with all kinds of special
bed mixes and whatnot. They'll they'll do okay with that, So I think
you're going to be okay there, alrighty, all right, any recommendations on
that that black kind of bark city mode. So in this in the spring,
probably in your area about some time at the end of towards the end
of March, the create murder bark scale crawlers are going to be coming out,
and that's when if you're going to use an insecticide to spray the branches,
you should. If you're going to use a horticultural oil, even in
inexidal soap when you catch them at that baby crawler stage would be okay,
But a in sex I'd probably be a better way to go at that time.
But it's when the crawlers are out, And I know most people aren't
gonna want to do this, but if you put double sided sighted sticky tape
on a branch or two and check it periodically, you'll know when the crawlers
are out, because there'll be these little tiny red bugs stuck in the tape
and that's your signal to hit them now, because once they've honkered down as
a scale, they're very hard to control. Okay, So and of march
treat them, yes, sir, and hey JD, I'm gonna have to.
I'm gonna have to run to a break. But good luck with that.
And thank you for the email and for the call. Our phone number
is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. When we come
back, we will go to Rick in Spring and Mark in Sugarland. You're
the first two up. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to answer your gardening questions. And one question
I get a lot is well, where can I find such and such you
talk about this product or whatever? Where where do I find that? Well?
One answer pretty much fits everything. As a Southwest fertilizer, Southwest Fertilizer
has the best selection in town of fertilizers of pesticides, that's insecticides, fungicides,
herbicides. Do you need tools? They got an eighty foot wall loaded
with tools. Do you need to get that lawnmower blade Sharpen I was talking
about that earlier, perhaps some small engine repair. They even got a shop
in the back that can do that. You can go to Southwest Fertilizer dot
com. Or you can just go by there on the corner of bissin Nut
and Runwick down there in Southwest Houston and Bob and his folks. He has
trained staff. And you bring a sample or a problem in a photo of
something in make sure it's in sharp focus. They can direct the identify it
and then direct you to what you need to take care of it. And
while you're in there, make sure and ask about their soil probe or give
them a call ahead of time see if they have it on hand. They'll
loan it out. Do you leave a little deposit You can go do your
soil testing that I was recommending earlier. Find out what's in your soil so
you can fertilize even more intelligently based on your specific property. Southwest Fertilizer dot
com. We are now going to go to sugar Land and talk to Mark.
Hello Mark, Hi Skiv, thanks for taking my call. The question
I have for you is we've got to plant two trees in our front yard,
and most of the trees in our neighborhood are live oaks, which are
beautiful. But I'm looking for something that won't or I can still grow a
good front yard, so I don't want to have to deal with the roots
and the shade that live oaks give. And I was wondering if Chinese pistache
trees would be a good option for us in this area. Chinese stash is
fine. Now, any tree is gonna have root issues. I mean,
you're try to digging the ground and you're gonna have roots there. That's just
part of the deal. Chinese pistache is good. It casts a medium shade.
Occasionally you get a little decent fall color from it. It's kind of
touch and go depending on the season. Another choice is Chinese elm. One
of the varieties is called Drake elm. There are other varieties out there,
Athena and some others. It casts a very light shade and has a very
attractive, almost muscular, smooth striated type bark with gray and rusty patches on
it. You've seen these around town, whether you knew what they were or
not. But when you walk up to a tree and you see this little
like an almost an alligator pattern on the bark with gray and orange. That's
a Chinese elm. I like them because of the fairly light shade that they
cast. So either one of those would be okay on how you want it
to be. Chinese pistache probably is not going to get quite as big as
Chinese elm will over time, but both of them will make a good sized
tree. We saw them in well, what I believe is a Chinese pistache
in Costco parking lot and it was in the fall last year, and they
had a beautiful red color to the lead. Well, and they do they
do that, They can do that. And yes, a parking lot is
where you will encounter them because they do. They grow fast, they do
well under those adverse conditions. Okay, So do you like the the the
Chinese and Drake elm better than those or kind of either, or well,
I've got a Chinese pistache in my yard, and but I've had the Chinese
elms before, and I guess I lean a little bit toward Chinese elm.
But your fall color is going to basically be kind of a dirty yellow color
rather than uh, you know, the potential for fall color. By the
way, there's about three Chinese pistache on my street. One of them mine
turns just yellow, another one turns beautiful orange red, and another one.
It depends on the year as to how it feels as to what it does.
So it's a little bit of a roll of the dice on those.
Gotcha. And last lastly, do you recommend Vernantry Farm for getting those?
Absolutely? I don't know specifically all the species they carry, but they will.
They do a good job of whatever they carry. One other, uh,
let's see what was oh one of the comment about the Chinese pistache.
They're separate male and female plants, and I don't know how you tell the
tell them apart until the fall comes. You get these very clusters on the
female plants. They're actually kind of attracted. But when they start falling on
the yard, they're painting the neck clean up. You know, it's constantly
cleaning them up. So I'd try to go for a male tree if I
could, But that is one one factor to consider. Okay, great,
I appreciate that. All right, So thank you, thank you so much
for your time. I really appreciate it. You met. Thank you for
the I appreciate that. Yeah, if you have a piece of property and
are looking for a tractor, now's the time to pull the plug and go
for it. And here's why, Lansdown Moody has got Cabota tractor deal that
is unmatched, the L twenty five oh two. First of all, that's
a Cobota Warhorse. It's an excellent tractor with a hydrostatic transmission. After you
choose a tractor, you go to tractorpackage dot com and you pick out the
package to go with it. You know, do you need a roadary cutter,
front end loader, a box blader, a postthole digger. That's what
I'm talking about. You sort of trick up the job there with some quality
add ons and then the finance plan. It's a no brainer, no money
down, no interest for eighty four months. That's seven years according to my
Aggie math and Lansdown Moody. They're a local company. They've been in Houston
since nineteen thirty six, their hometown through and through. They got nine locations
on the Gulf coast, So you're going to find one. Just go to
l M Tractor dot com and don't delay. This deal is only through December
and then it's going to be gone. So if you're thinking about buying a
tractor, now's a good time. And maybe even you could, you know,
drop a hint here or there that you would like what for Christmas?
If you go for big Christmas gifts that year would be a great surprise in
Dermitrie. I'll tell you that for sure. Well, let's head out to
Sweeney and we are going to talk to Mark. Hello, Mark, Hey,
good morning. I got a question for you on my wife's plumaras.
Can you hear me? Yes, sir, yeah, on my wife's plumias?
When do I pull them out of the ground? Do I wait till
the leaves fall off? Or pull up? Now? You know when it
starts to get chilly like this pretty soon here, I would go ahead and
pull them up. You don't want them being exposed to forty degree temperatures for
example. In fact, they're not going to like lower fifty degree temperatures,
so you can go ahead and pull them up. You're going to hang them
upside down in the garage or what's your plan? I put them in the
garage it's not heated, or do I need to put it in the closet?
Well, you need to put them where they're not going to get cold
cold, you know, a little cool sixties is okay, but you don't
want to get tend to get too cold. So okay, well a let's
make room closet and you say, hangle upside down? You can. You
can just shake the soil off and hang them upside down. You can put
them in a container. But they don't need water during the wintertime, They'll
be fine. Okay. And when do I put them back in the ground,
though it's first time I've ever pulled out of the grounds. I would
I would wait until it warms up considerably where we're not anywhere near frost temperatures
where the night times or maybe in the sixties or something. Uh, but
that that would be my suggestion on on the plumb areas. Okay, Yeah,
it's the first time I've ever yanked plants out of the ground, and
I'd like that. There are not many plants that will put up with that,
but uh, we're just a little far north for plumber, and so
that's what we have to do. All right. Well, I really do
appreciate it. Okay, you take care, bye bye. Thanks for the
call. I appreciate that if your landscape's looking horrible and you would like somebody
to come in and help. Pierce Scapes is that somebody professional designers. They
can do everything too. I mean, fix your irrigation system, put in
hardscapes, put in walkways, put in a rock border, or maybe improved
drainage. Yeah, well a lot of us have that area that's low and
drains poorly. Pierce Capes can come in and fix that. If Summer has
taken his toll on your landscape, callum, say let's look at some raised
beds or some redesign here. Let's get some plants that are more drought resilient.
They can take care of all of that. Go to piercescapes dot com
or give them a call at two eight one three seven h five zero six
zero. They've got experience, they're professionally trained employees. They do the job
right, and their designers know how to turn whatever you have into that showplace
that you would love to have. Perhaps that back patio design would be really
nice, maybe with a waterfall or something like that. Hey, go to
pairscapes dot com. You can see the work that they've done and get inspired
by that. As I have. We're going to head out to Sugarland now
and talk to Susan. Hello, Susan, Hi, Skip, how are
you doing well. I'm well this morning. How are you? Thank you
well? You know, looking at my yard thinking what in the world,
I'm asking you some questions about Amarilla's bulbs. Okay, I have I don't
know, maybe twenty bulbs in my front flower bed that bloomed beautifully for years,
and then it seems like when we got the bad freeze, not this
last freeze, but the big freeze. Yeah, nothing happened, They just
kind of stopped. But also, my oak trees have really grown, and
I'm thinking they're not getting enough sun. Are these are these live oaks Susan,
Yes, okay, So I'm thinking about possibly buying one not shallow pot,
maybe twelve inch deep pot or less big, and putting all the bolts
in the pot and moving it around my yard to find out where they're happiest,
because obviously they're not happy right now. Well, they want they want
a little bit of sun on the foliage so they can make the carbohydrates necessary
to produce the next cycle of blooms, the next year's blooms. So the
live oaks just don't give them a break. I mean, it's always shade
over them. And so that's a little challenge. I have grown them in
container sport. It's a little bit of a challenge. But you can do
it. You just have to. It depends on what kind of ameralis you
have. There's the hearty amarillis, which is the john Sony I Johnson's amarillis,
and then there's the more florist types that you see. But if you
can give them good sunlight, at least a half day sun they should do
okay for you. All right, Okay, I thought about putting them in
a pot and maybe bearing the pot a couple of inches because it's hard in
the summer. We've had all this drought and you can do Yeah, so
we've gotten this rain and all of a sudden they're like standing up and all
happy, and I'm thinking, we've just not had rain. That's a big
problem too. Well, that's right. And you say, if you can
put them through a late summer dormant period by getting drowdy, they actually can
turn and put a bloom stock up a little earlier than you might have expected
for you. So that's just another option, all right, help you.
Bet. I appreciate your call very much. Let's see, we've got a
bunch of folks on the board. I'm trying to get to all of you
as fast as I can. Let's go to Rick in spring. How are
you doing, Rick, Good morning, Thanks for taking the call. Yes,
sir, I had a really bad out of crab grass this summer and
got rid of it all. But now I have all these bear spots,
and I'm wondering if I should wait to the spring to plant grass or to
put it down. Now. I noticed just recently all the big box stores.
I'll, all of a sudden, you have all this grass, So
yeah, I was curious. Well, don't make any decision based on what
a box store is doing. I'll tell you right for sure, you can
put side down. Now we're entering the time when grassroots are going to slow
to a stop, and so trying to get it rooted in well before winter.
We're kind of on the line. So if you want to get something
over the ground so you don't have weeds coming up in the bear spot,
you can go ahead and try it. You may end up if we have
a rough winter or freeze comes early, you may end up having to redo
it. Otherwise you would wait until the grass really starts growing. So let's
say I don't know, maybe early April, and get the grass planted at
that time. You just have to deal with whatever weeds were up at that
time. Don't put out a pre emergent before you put the grass down,
because the grass has got to get roots through there, and you don't want
a pre emergent doing what it does to weed roots. It'll do that to
grassroots, especially if you overdo it. And so don't put a pre emergent
down. Then try to grass or if you're going to lay it next spring,
you know, don't do one. You know, within a month or
so of trying to get the grass planted, got it? Got it.
And I also have a the Bermuda seems to be in some places really be
taking over the Saint Augustine. So I was just gonna also dig that up
and put Saint Augustine down. Is that usually success? Well, you're gonna
probably you can probably want to spray the Bermuda grass with something that kills kills
it because it's got underground runners and if you don't spray it, you may
have to spread it more than once, but we're entering the cool season.
It's quitting growing and it's also not responding to the sprays as it cools off.
Rick, I'm hitting a hard break here and I'm gonna have to run.
But come back to that bermuda next spring before you reside your grass too.
You're listening to garden Line, our number seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. Maria, Nathan, Susan, you're the first three
up when we come back. Wellcome back to garden Line. I'm your host,
Skiprechtor. We're here to talk about gardening. Surprise price. We look
forward to you calling our number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four, and we got a few calls here. We're going to jump right
in and talk to Maria and the heights. Hello Maria, good morning,
Chip. Quick question. I have a Chinese elm tree in the front and
every fall the squirrels love to just chew on those little limbs and just defoliate
the whole thing. Yep. Is there anything I can do? Like if
I put out food for them, will they leave my tree alone? Now
they're not chewing to eat, they're chewing to deal with their teeth. Their
teeth are constantly growing and they're always needing to gnaw down to manage that,
and that's what it's about. There's really not a good practical way that I
know of to deal with that. Yeah, unfortunately not all right, yep,
they eat all my shade away, so I know the darn things don't
do that. Pecans too, you see that, we call them flags.
It's like you got a green tree and these little brown branches here and there,
and it's where the squirrels have done their thing. They typically will chew
right where a branch joins another branch, and that little yee uh, that's
where they mostly like to chew. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't have
a solution for you. The only solutions I can't recommend because they're dolistic and
they're in the city limits. I hear you, Ma, thank you so
much. You're bad. Thank you, Maria appreciate that call. Let's go
to Kingwood and we're going to talk to Nathan. Hello, Nathan, Hi,
Skip, how you doing. I'm well, thank you, good well.
I really let my art go during the summer, and the drought killed
off very large sections of my grass and it looks terrible. I don't I
really don't want to spend all the money on side right now. It would
be quite a bit. Okay, I'm thinking of just spreading some bermuda seed
when spring gets here and letting that take over. What do you think,
there's your lung, Saint Augustine, it is okay, I wouldn't. I
wouldn't do that. You're gonna end up with a mix that you have forever,
and the two textures are different, and it just doesn't look real great
growing together. What I would do is, right now, i'd probably put
down a pre emergent to prevent weed seeds from coming through all that dead grass,
so you just avoid that. Then in the spring when it when we
really start to get some growth coming on, I would reside with the Saint
Augustine, which is what you already have probably some living in certain areas as
well still despite the drought, uh, and resided at that time, watered
in really well, and don't do a pre emergent in the spring. Just
do it now for the winter weeds. Uh. And then because when you
when you lay the side down, you want to don't want to lay it
right on top of soil that recently was just treated with a with a pre
emergent. Uh. But do that, and I think that's going to be
probably your best bet for avoiding problems through the winter. You could have seed
it to have grain during the winter, but then you're going to be mowing
all through the winter and then when it comes time to plant, now you
got this overseated grass in the way. Okay, gotcha? All right,
Well, thank you very much, sir. I appreciate your advice. All
right, you bet, thank you. I appreciate appreciate that call very much.
Yeah, Nitrophos has that pre emergent called barricade. By the way,
it's part of their three step system. The barricade is, of course one
of the steps I was just talking to that with that about to Nathan,
but it also includes the fungicide, which is a protectant fungicide systemic that deals
with things like the brown patch that's about to show up, if not already,
and the large patch or take all patch rather is another issue that can
happen. When we get these nights done in the fifties, it starts to
do its thing. You may not notice it now, but you'll notice it
next summer. When the grass starts dying out. And the third part of
that nitrophas, by the way, is the fall special. It's just really
easy, easy to do the one, two three, the fall specials the
fertilizer that if you haven't done it yet, you need to go ahead and
get it done. You can find that at Cyprusise. You can find it
at Fisher's Hardware and Report, or go out to King Richmond Area Plantation Hardware
Ace out there. They've got nitropost products out there as well. Let's see,
We're going to go now to sugar Land and talk to Susan. Hello,
Susan. Oh wait a minute, I've already talked to you there.
Susan's still hanging on. I believe we got the boord clear here, Josh,
if I am not mistaken. This is a season when a lot of
people think about birds because you know, in the winter time, people think
wan need to feed the birds or just enjoy watching the birds even and Wabird's
Unlimited is just your one stop shop for everything. And when I say everything,
I mean to quality everything. When you buy birds seed from Walbirds Unlimited,
you're getting quality seed that the birds will eat, no waste. Some
of these blends, sixty percent or more of the seed can be wasted because
it's stuffed. The bird isn't going to eat those red bebes. That's junk.
Birds don't want it. It's hard shelled. They don't like it.
They kick it on the ground, and now you just have the sprouts coming
up in your lawn down below wa bird seeds. You can buy blends that
are absolutely litter free, meaning if you like, if you want sunflower seeds
and you know on all the little shells on the ground after the birds crack
them open, you can buy blends that absolutely don't have any shelled. The
seeds are already shelled in the blend right now. I recommend they're unlimited the
wabbirds unlimited rather their Winter Super Blend. It's got a lot of fat and
protein, which birds need in these cold weather times. That's important for them.
The days are getting shorter, the night's longer, there's less time to
be out finding feed, and you know it's a bleak time out there,
and that Winter Super Blend is a super choice for now. If you are
thinking about the holiday season, Wildbirds is one of the best places a gardener
can go get gifts for other gardeners or even non gardeners. How about a
beautiful bird feeder or some other thing. Wildbirds has a great selection of cool
stuff for gifts. You can go to WBU dot com forward slash Houston to
find the Wildbirds stores near you. We are going to take a break here,
Lisa. When we come back, you will be first up. If
you'd like to call in seven one three two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two kat r h give Josh a call, He'll
get you on the boards and we'll be right back al right back the nineteen
eighty five. Well, you're listening to garden Line and we got a full
board, so we are going to dive right into it. We're going to
start off by going to Northwest Houston and talking to Lisa. Hello, Lisa
Hik, good morning. My question is about fertilization. I purchased the barricade
and nitrofalls eight twelve sixteen and as of MTE and I was hoping to get
him down you know this weekend. This morning, you know, my lawn
is wet. Is it okay to spread this stuff on wet lawn? And
would I still need to water it in knowing it's going to rain in the
next couple of days, or what would you do? You don't want a
synthetic type fertilizer, salt based fertilizer sitting just on top, sticking to the
wet grass blades and just sticking there. But if you either, if you're
going to do it today, go ahead and water it in a little bit.
Didn't take much, just by third of an inch just to get it
off the blades and done in the grass. Okay, okay, Or you
could just wait to before the rain. But I kind of like to water
it in myself, so that's what I would recommend. But I could put
it down this morning as long as I don't let it sit there. Yeah,
don't just let us set a whole time. I didn't want to.
I didn't want to put it down, and you know, dam well,
I mean I wouldn't. It's not going to be a big damaging thing.
It's just, yeah, you know, your sitting on a on a wet
leaf and not washing it off. Yeah, well then I will head out
there and get that task done. ALRIGHTY have fun doing that. Thank you
very much for the call. We're going to go to Rick now. And
Alvin. Hello, Rick, Hello, thank you very much for taking card.
I think you may have just answered your question. But I've got a
Saint Augustine grass been here twenty years, a big lot, and it's about
two ordered by a one hundred area of Saint Augustine. They got taken out.
I guess it's take aff patch. Okay, is there any other solution?
I uh, it took twenty years for it to go out, you
know, work its way out there. Yeah. Yeah, what what's going
on here? Oh? Out? Well? I mean, would you say
your lawn is more than half gone, three fourths gone or something? Yeah?
Okay, so you're patches. There's a little patches around, but yeah,
yeah, pretty ugly. You're going to need to replant it. I
think at this point i'd wait until, you know, sometime in April to
go ahead and get the new restting done. Early April probably be good.
And when you do, just keep in mind that getting it established well and
avoiding stress take all. We can spray things that help fight take all,
but it is so much better to prevent it rather than to try to treat
it once it's occurred. So anything that stresses your lawn that could be misuse
of certain herbicides. It could be drought, you know, it could be
excessive shade or soil compaction, and anything that stresses it sets it up for
the take all infection. So for now, you know it is what it
is. There's nothing you can do to fix it overnight, and then when
we get into next spring, that's when you can hit the ground run and
get some new grass in and get it back going looking like it used to.
Look, what are your thoughts of just for springing like every you know,
several feet patches of it, let it grow over the next couple of
years. You could do that. Yeah, you could do that. It's
we're entering a time you could try it now, but we're ending a time
where grassroot growth is going to be slowing. An establishment of anything you put
out, whether it's sold or springing little plugs out, I think is the
term what you were trying to use. That is not going to hit the
ground running right now. You could do it, but then you could also
do that next year. It saves money because you buy a little piece of
grass and you cut it up into sections and it goes further. But you've
got beare areas and weeds can be a problem during that kind of thing,
all right, Yes, I know that. All right, Hey, Rick,
I'm trying to get to your fellow callers here, so I'm all run.
But good luck with getting that in good shape, Cindy in spring.
How can we help today? Yes, sir, I am an organic gardener,
and I have weeds coming up of course through my said Augustine, because
of stress and all that. Justf is there anything I can use to help
with the weed problem and still stay organic. It's a challenge. This is
in the lawn you're talking about. Yes, Yes, a couple of options
to go. One of them is existing weeds. You just mow them and
you do everything you can to build your turf. And a good example for
organic will be microlife. Right now, you're putting down the brown patch.
That's the five to one three microlife. Oh, you've already done it.
Okay, good, And then coming out in spring, you're going to go
to their green bag sixty four. And as you mow, water and fertilize
properly through the season, you grow outside of your weed problem. In the
meantime, you take your glasses off and green weeds and green grass well mode
looks good. So in other words, I'm saying just be patient and tolerance.
That's part of organic gardening, is not just looking for a real quick
fix on everything. But I would do that. Now. There is a
product called corn glue meal that can be used to suppress weeds as they try
to germinate. The problem with corn gluten meal is it's certain conditions that it
works in and only against certain weeds. So you want to put it out
watered in with a third of an inch half an inch at the most of
water, and then not have any rain or irrigation for a period of time.
So the weeds that try to sprout, corn gluten mill keeps them from
growing roots and then they dry out and die if it rains or if you
irrigate. All you did was fertilized with corn glutenmeal, because it's also a
fertilizer as neutral pH in my swiler. No, it won't, but I
find most people don't have satisfactory results with it, although it can work.
I need to put something on my website about how to do that. But
that's what I would recommend. But Microlife is your company, you know,
Microlife Fertilizer dot Com tells you all the places that you can go on.
That's all I use. So thank you so much. All right, thank
you. I appreciate your all very much. Tell you what the fun Here
we go. We're going to go to Waller and talk to Debbie. And
what's going on in Waller? Debbie? Oh, well, just a dismal,
chilly day as usual. All right, I'm heading to the quilt show.
But I heard the caller about the problem with squirrels. Yes and years
ago, I was told and I've used it ever since to put used kitty
litter around my trees and it keeps the squirrels away from them. And if
you have a problem with deer, use hair from the barber shop, all
right, human hair all right around wherever you don't want the deer to come.
And I've had good luck with both of those methods. Well, I
would say your good luck is probably what they call correlation, not causation,
meaning it just they happened not to come after you did that. But I
tell you, the squirrels can jump in your tree. They don't have to
through the kitty litter to get up into it and stuff. So I'm doubting
they can smell it. Okay, they can smell the cats and they like
cat. Okay. Well, if it's working for you, good good,
luckily it. Thank you for the call. Hey have fun at the quote
show today. Okay, plan to thank you. All right, you take
care. Oh boy, we're running out of time here. We're going to
go Linda and Magnolia. Linda, how can we help hi? I have
a question. I have pine trees and sweet gum trees in my yard,
and over the summer the roots started showing up in the lawn and it's hard
to cut my grass. Okay, is there something like mulch that I can
put over the tree roots? All right, I'm gonna I'm going to answer
that. I'm going to put your go ahead and put you on hold,
but I'll answer that right right away. What you do when you have tree
roots sticking up is you can add soil around them. You're not adding soil
to a huge area. You're just kind of putting it to bring the soul
level up around the tops of the root. You can do that. You
can turn it into a maltch bed area where you just put in a lot
of mulch and let that be the area. Because grass is not going to
grow there anyway with that much wood in the ground, the tree roots and
everything. That would be your other option. Or you can plant a groundcover
that just kind of winds over it and hides the roots themselves. Those are
basically the three options. Greg and spring branch or the last collar of the
day. I got about one minute. How can we help? I have
a pot of oakleaf point is that I can't get the bloom oakleaf adreingches oak
leaf point SETI is, okay, I don't know what that is? Is
it here about the Christmas riships? Okay? Well, a point seta blooms
because the day length gets shorter, really the night length gets longer, and
it initiates the bloom. So they will bloom eventually. If you want them
to bloom earlier, like when you would go bypoint set is if you want
your own that you've been keeping to bloom, what you need to do is,
starting about six weeks before then, cover them with a box to shade
out all the light. The way I say it has set them out on
your front porch. When you go to work, take the box off.
When you come back home from work at five o'clock, put the box on
and if you can, if you can from eight to five, give them
nighttime from five pm to eight am, give them darkness. You only have
to do that for a few weeks and then take them off and they will
have initiated and those red bracts will start to form. That It takes a
little time, but if you haven't done that, the day links are getting
shorter anyway, and eventually you're going to get some color out of those things,
the wall wills that have come up from seed to I'm sorry, Greg,
I have run out of time. We'reabout to go to break, so
I had to cut you off there. I just want to remind you all
that we're thinking. I was going to RCW today because of the weather,
they had to make a call. We're not doing it today. Next Saturday,
November eighteenth, from eleven thirty to one thirty, I'll be at RCW
for their spring Fling, and you want to be there for this. They're
gonna have barbecue sandwich lunch. They're gonna have sale on all their shrubs and
on select trees. We'll be giving away fertilizers. We're going to a frost
cloth giving them away tree seedlings, lay spark elm Mexican white oak, and
live oak, all at RCW Nursery next Saturday. Put that on your calendar
and we'll see at six am tomorrow