building soil for fall with Luis!

give us a call. It's seven to one three two one two k t R H seven one three two one two k t R as simple as that. I have noticed a lot of questions lately about there are issues related to trees and tree safety. And here's how they often go. I've got a tree, and at the bottom of the tree trunk, here's a picture. Look at these mushrooms coming out of the side of the tree. What do I do about that? In other words, can

I spray it? Is it a concern or whatever? Another version of it would be that I have a tree that on one side it's like the interior is eroding away and the bark is peeled back, or I have a loose bark on the outside. What do I do about it? And these are all versions of basically one question, and that is what do I do when the structural strength of my tree starts to be deteriorated away. So if you think about a tree, remember that it is a living cylinder. I know, we think about it as

the trunk is solid all the way through. Everything inside is just wood, it's two by fours, Okay. On the outside we have tissues called floum and xylum and cambium, and that's where all the living occurs. That's where the things produced in the leaves, the sugars are translocated down through part of that. Another part is translocating water and nutrients up for the ground to the top of the tree. But it's a living cylinder. Now, the interior of that cylinder,

hopefully is good, strong, sound wood. But whenever you break through that outer living cylinder, you expose the interior dead wood. Now, add to that some thyme, some moisture, and some microbes, and we start to see what can eventually end up being a hollow tree where the interior is all decomposed away, just like a log in the forest would decompose away and the exterior still living. The problem with that is

struckly that tree gets weaker when that happens. If you see mushrooms, that's a sign that there's a fungus in the tree that is decomposing organic matter and is essentially fruiting. We say that mushrooms are like the fruit if you will, of the of the fungus inside, the my ceilium inside, and so just a sign of mushrooms, I mean, yeah, there's something growing in there, just like in your lawn when you see a circle of white mushrooms. Number one, if you've got a golf club, you can have a

lot of fun with those. Number two though, that is just a fungus. It's decomposing the thatch away through the lawn and like a wildfire would spread from where the match hit the ground outward in all directions. Well, this fungus is moving outward through the thatch in all directions. That's what you tend to get circles of those mushrooms.

Mushrooms in and of themselves aren't necessarily a problem. In fact, we're entering real quick here the fall season, and when we do we get some cool weather, maybe a front comes through and some moisture that break in temperature, we're going to see a lot of mushrooms coming up in flower beds and the mulch and lawns and other things. Just know this when it comes to the tree, the more you leave the interior wood exposed, the more time

and opportunity there is for decay to set in. Now, when lightning splits down the side of a tree, when coal damage splits the side of a tree, when your truck bumper hits the tree and breaks kills part of the bark right there, knocks it loose, there's nothing to do to fix that instantly, But just know that that

is the process that's going to be going on. What we do have in our power is to get the loose bark out of the way, just peel it off, and then leave that inner wood more exposed where there's not something holding moisture in. You know, when it gets wet and rainy, if you got dead bark sitting over the top of it, that's just holding it in. We'd rather it dry out a little bit faster, and so cleaning out the dead bark is helpful and then good

vigor the tree. That means water and fertilizer, water, especially during the summer season, fertilizer periodically just to keep its growth. And callus grows over and it's like a lava flow coming from both sides, and it just crosses right over that deadwood and closes back over that wound in time. So the big, big wound probably never close over small wound,

probably pretty quick. You're listening to garden Line. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. I talk about azamite here on the garden Line, and you hear me mention that it is a trace mineral, and I find that people people are often just not really clear you know what what we mean by a trace mineral. Well, what I'm talking about there is something that the plant needs in small amounts, So a trace

mineral or a micro nutrient tracemental or micronutrient. Probably if you were to compare to macronutrients, just imagine needing a minuscule amount versus needing a whole lot, but it also being essential, and that's hard for people to get their head around, because if I don't need much, how can it be as important as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It

is essential. If you could take every molecule of manganese out of the soil, A plant could not live if you would take and it just needs t any bits of mangaies same with boron and iron and zinc and other things. Azmite is a micronutrient supplement, So what we're doing there is not fertilizing the grass to make it grow. We're building the nutrients and the soil so as the grass grows there's nothing lacking, because when one thing lacks, that's where it stops growing. It's as simple as that.

Asimite can help with that. We typically will put it on about once a year through the lawn. I use vegetable gardens and other good place you can use in flower beds, whatever wherever you want to build up that content in the soil. Asimitexas dot com that's our website. It's real easy to find the kinds of things you're looking for. I was out yesterday and a mosquito had the gall to come up and land on me and start to take my blood. And if I wanted to get blood, I go to the South Texas Blood Bank,

not into my backyard. While mosquito dunks are a product the disease and mosquitoes, well here's what you do. You just throw them out in a pond or any area where you have standing water, and they last about a month and slowly dissolve away, releasing mosquito disease into the water. It's as simple as that. You can find mosquito dunks everywhere. If you got a little small area, like a little gutter, you want to toss some in, or underneath the catch basin under your plants, you can break up a dunk

and toss a few crumbles in there. They also sell a crumbly form of it as well. Mosquito dunks, though, is step one in making sure we get ahead of those credits in our backyard. Well, it's time for me to take a little break. I will be right back guard line. It is a it's gonna be a good, a good Sunday. I am looking forward to maybe this afternoon getting out and getting a couple of things done plenty to do in the garden and in the landscape,

that is for sure. You know that our garden centers are chalk stocking up when it comes to getting ready for fall. Summer's been We're still at the end of summer, but it is getting to be time where if you want to put some things out, like put some petunias out and some other things that will carry you up into the first frost, it'd be a good time. Miracles another good one. You plant maragols in the fall and they do so much better than they do in summer.

Spider miight populations are going down as we as the days get shorter, when the day and the temperatures cooler, and those marigols just glow in the in the cool, crisp nights of fall, right up until the first frost. Then it's time to switch them out for something else. And Chaney Forest down there in Richmond, they are the garden center that is on FM Twine and Richmond going toward sugar Land. It's off to the right twenty seven fifty nine. Enchanted Forest is a well is the name

in place. It's an enchanting place. I just love walking through there. There's so much stock. They are loaded up on all kinds of things that you know, the real popular one of the newer plants that's kind of catching on is desert rose. Desert rose is beautiful old plant. They got plenty of those there. Have you seen those yellow esperanzas around town? They have yellow. They have other colors too. There's also kind of some orange versions of

that that are really beautiful. There's just a lot, there's a lot. I maybe we could talk on and on. They're starting to get in the first of the cooler weather annuals. Dianthus is a good example of that. Dianthus does really well. Also, well, they're gonna be open, by the way, they're gonna be open today. They're going to be open also tomorrow today until five tomorrow or excuse me today from ten am to four, my mistake, excuse

me ten am to four. They'll be closed tomorrow Labor Day, which is not unusual for businesses to be closed on Labor Day. So I hope you'll check them out. Go to the website. The website makes it really easy Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX. There you'll find everything you need to know how to get there, the upcoming events, and they always in the fall or having educational activities. I'll be out there at some point this fall, but in Gendi Forest in Richmond.

If you'd like to speak to me about some sort of a disease or insect or suggestion for a plant or diagnosis, you know whatever. Seven one three two one two k t RH. Glad to visit with you. And we've got some special things coming up today. I'm going to do a little bit of a visit with someone on soil and building raised beds and growing mixes and things like that. And you hear me all the time

the broken record brown stuff before green stuff. Well I'm gonna get some support in here for that concept as well. You know, when it comes to building the soil, the organic approach to soil building is are to gardening in general, is to make the soil as healthy as you can. And healthy means it's it drains well so it's not water logged. The good microbes that are in the soil have everything they need. That includes oxygen due to building

up good soil structure. It includes the carbon materials, the organic materials that they chew on. That's their energy to break down and microlife. Fertilizer is designed around just that. See, the goal in designing Microlife was to create a fertilizer that was natural, that had a ton of microbes even added to it, and that functions in a way that

builds the soil. So for example, humtes plus that's a zero zero four hu must is a mature that just helps build soil structure and it helps and doing so what it's doing is it's helping microbial activity as well.

find pretty much every where. You hear me talk about on guardenline and they're going to have microlife there very widespread.

I think you probably makes sense if you think about it, for me to try to answer every email that comes in, and the millions of people that live in the greater Houston area and even out where Garden Line's heard further away than that, it just would be impossible. And so what I ask is send me the photo. You can send it ahead of time, preferably, but sometimes we talk and I'll put someone in contact with Chris to get an email, and it's just so that I can see

a picture that helps me answer your question better. That sometimes your description and what minds I sees is not the same thing, and that doesn't lead to a good outcome. So that is the reason we do that. But you're certainly welcome. You're certainly welcome to do that as well. For those of you who follow us on Facebook, thank you garden Line on Facebook. We have a lot of folks that follow and put out a lot of information

on that regarding a number of things. We've added an Instagram page to garden Line, so you can also go to the Instagram version of it.

this spring and early summer. Even the midsummer has been a stormy one. You know, we had a couple of really rough storms, one being a hurricane that knocked out power. And everybody wants a generator now. And I would tell you this, I certainly understand the insurance and the peace of mind that comes with having a generator there at the house. If you work from home, you got to have power. If it's going to be power out for a week and it's ninety five degrees, a generator comes

in really handy, those refrigerator and freezer foods. It could be lost. Quality Home Products sells generators. They sell also the specifically to the GENERAC generator, which is a high quality one, but there are a lot of models of it, and you've got to get the one that fits what you need and with quality. From the time you call them until the time they walk away, and beyond that, you're getting service. They're hoping you find what you need.

They're helping you jump through all the rule hoops of your city or whoever in terms of doing any kind of an addition like that to the home. They're talking about the whole house generator right now they are having a special trade in and if you bring your old portable generator in you you can get a lot off of your whole home generator that you're wanting to purchase. Just talk to them. Their reviews and everything, the Better Business Bureau ratings are all through the roof. They take

care o the customers. Twenty four seven three sixty five Go to QUALITYTX dot com, or you can also go to or get them a call at seven one three quality Quality TX dot com or seven one three Quality head out to northwest Houston. Now we're gonna talk to Ralph. Good morning, Ralph, welcome to Girdline.

hot weather, give it a rescue. Watering is needed to keep it going.

going on right now. Always have good color, and they are always loaded up on every fertilizer and soil product that you might need. In fact, they got some deals going on that right now. So but you just have to give them a call. It's A and A Plants and Produce, and I am going to have to take a little break here and back to the guard Line. Good to have you with us as always our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four, or if you like to dial by letters seven one

three two one two KTRH. As simple as that. I was talking about Ana Plants and Produce. Where we went to break, I just wanted to let you know. This is kind of like your public service announcement. There is This is day three of a three day sale they've got going on. It ends today. Is today's the last day five percent off all their bagged products, and that would be fertilizers from like nitrofoss and Microlife for example.

If you're looking for soil, are also Nelson's too. By the way, if you're looking for soil, there is materials like Nature's Way Resources and airloom soils. There is stuff from Landscaper's Pride their quality mixes and mulches and things, and then azum I too. All of these and more is all part of this three day sell that ends today. So twenty five percent off. Here's the way to think

about it. Maybe you're thinking, well, I'm not doing anything right now, go ahead and stock up on it, because remember fall is the time that you want to have your beds in shape already. Okay, it's if you wait until it gets too late. It Typically what has happened to me in the past is I get busy, I don't get around to it, and suddenly it's like, oh, I want to go plant broccoli, and now it's raining for three days and then that's cooler, and so the

soil stays wet longer. It can't work the soil when it's sopping wet. But if you get those beds built now, this would be a good time to do it. So I would recommend that you stock up, even if it's just topping off some beds, not building them, and is ready to go for it. I mean, they got it out there, and they're giving you a good deal you should take advantage of, especially all those of you who

live up there in the Lake Conroe area. In my own yard and garden, I was noticing that I've got some areas around my trees where the grass is struggling a little bit. As those trees get denre and denture through the years, as the light levels at the soil get lower and lower, there's just less energy for that grass to be able to grow and stay thick and lush and healthy and everything. And it just starts getting spindly, and as it starts to go down, it's hard to

get it turned back around. So what are you going to do? I mean, you can go up and trim a lot of branches out of the tree, that's really not the best of all practices to do, and it's only going to be temporary because grow back in time. So that's an opportunity to transform some of those areas that are a little too shady into something that will thrive in that kind of setting. Some plants are a better able to utilize the limited sunlight and still thrive and do good. And we've got a lot of great

shade gardens. So do you want a groundcover, do you want to put some color in? You know, in the summer, we use kalladiums in the shady areas, and we have flowers that grow in the better shady areas. We're about to enter the cool season where the leaves fall off of deciduous trees, and so areas around those could support some cool season flowers because they're getting sunlight in the

wintertime like they don't during the summertime. Those are just some things to think about, but just remember that we can try to fight the nature out there, but oftentimes it's better just when life gives you lemons make lemonade sort of thing. You know, we just go ahead and that area. I've talked to people before that had areas that were just sopping, soggy wet, and it didn't drain well, and all the plants we want a plant wouldn't grow there.

Kind of thing, Well, why not plant something that wants to grow there? Button bush is a native that grows in wet areas, and it's really attractive. Big old bush was really very attractive. There are other things like Louisiana irises, and there are other plants that grow in a wet area, So why not just go with that because that opens a palette up to some new things to put in

the landscape. Just a few thoughts. Hopefully that'll be helpful to you if you'd like to give a skull here on Guardline seven to one three two one two KTRH. By the way, I always listen to guard Line with a piece of paper and a pen somewhere nearby, because I may give a phone number or a website or mention a product and you missed it. Of course, you can always listen to the podcast afterwards, but it's just better to keep a pen or pencil handy because a

lot of things are very timely, like that sale. It was just timbat Medina has a product called has to Grow. It's a six twelve six plant food. Now that higher middle number the phosphorus is telling you that you know, that's going to help with root development and also with some of the other functions in the plant, like blooming and like producing the carbohydrates and whatnot that it needs.

That's part of the deal. Well, Medina has to Grow six twelve six has not just that nitrogen phosphor potassium. It's got Medina soil activator for stimulating biological activity, humates, humic acid to improve soil structure. I've been talking about that today, and just even sea read extracts are in there, and all of that helps to stimulate health. It helps to stimulate fruiting and blooming. You can use has to Grow six twelve six as a folier. It's not going

to burn your plants. You can and I would recommend you use it when you're doing any kind of transplanting, when you're putting your fall flowers, winter flowers in, when you're putting in shrubs and trees. Just mix it up in a big old canister or a watering bottle, or sometimes they just chose a five gallon bucket and then just use as a drench to water in those plants. When you're trying to get a lot done, it's helpful to do it that way. Medina has to grow six

twelve six plant food, very convenient, widely available. Like all Medina products, It's available in quart bottles that have a little measuring cup at the top of the bottom built into the bottle. It is also a convenient hose in sprayer quart size gallons and of course even larger if you want to go for that. It's a good product and it works. You are listening to garden Line and

I'm your host, Skip Richter. Our phone number if you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven to one three two one two five eight seven four. For those of you that live down south of the Houston area, you're fortunate there when it comes to taking care of building a foundation for any kind of success in your lawn, garden, landscape, you name it, and that is building the soil. And the place is Medina Medina. I'm not just talking about Medina.

They have Medina at this place. I'm about to tell you to Ciena Maltz. Ciena Maltz is down on FM five one just north of Roast Sharon. Here's the website. You go here and you can find out everything you need to know, including how to get there, how to call them Cienamaltz dot com, CNA Maltz dot com. And I always say start with the brown stuff before you put in the green stuff. And Ciena Maltch is the place where you get all the brown stuff stuff that

you might need. Do you need composts? Do you need veggie herb mixed from marlom soil? Do you need some expanded shale? Do you need fertilizers? And I'm talking about all the ones you hear me talk about Azemie and Microlife and Nelson's and the nitroposs Medina. Do you wont landscapers, Pride? Do you want airlooms? They have all of it there And so when you drive away, you have everything you

need to set a foundation for success. You're gonna plant fruit trees as fall, You're gonna plant shrubs or trees. Do you have some perennials that you want to put in? Start it with the soil and see Enumulch is a place. They're down south again. They're just north of road sharing On five twenty one. By the way, they're open Monday through Friday seven thirty to five and Saturday seven thirty to two. Close today, closed on Sunday, but they'll be open again tomorrow for you to get going. And it

is definitely time to get going on that. It's time for me to take a little break, So I'm gonna pause and do that, and I'll be right back the phones that start this last segment of the first hour, We're gonna go to Fairfield and talk to Marty. Hello, Marty morning skip. Hey, I'm ready to prep my beds for my fall. Bengis my coal crops.

more time. And we have these spring and fall traffic gems in the garden, and especially at the spring, but we also have it in fall, you know, and so you just kind of have to make a decision on what you want to do. One way to head your belt a little bit is to take your fall plantings and put them in small, smaller containers. Like let's say you bought a little six pack of broccoli, but you didn't really have room for it. You weren't ready for it yet. You could move them into four inch pots

and even bigger if you wanted. But that way you're keeping the fall crop growing and at the same time getting just a little bit more out of your warm seasoned crop. So that's about the only strategy I can think up to help a little bit.

what about those of you from other areas. You know, we have so many great garden centers here that I think we all need to be doing a little bit of what we call horticultural tourism about that, go visit some new places, and Buchanans is one of those unique places. And we are so blessed here to have such awesome independent garden centers. Buchanan's Native Plants they are most known, I would say, for the fact that they have a huge variety of natives and lots and lots of information

and whatever kind of gardening you want. You know, it's not just give me a native plant. It's like, give me a native plant the hummingbirds will be attracted to, for example, or one that bees or pollinators will be attracted to. Give me a native plant that can grow in the shape. They can do all of that at Buchanan's Plants. The websites Buchanans plants dot Com, knowledgeable staff, full line of products to take care of your plants to have success with them, including those brown stuff things

that I've been talking about. Buchanansplants dot Com is a website. Go to the website, sign up for the newsletter. It is outstanding, as is the website when it comes to being able to just learn more and more and get better and better. And that is the kind of garden center we're looking for, and you find it there are Buchanans Native Plants. I'm going to head now to Kingwood, Texas and talk to Janey. Hello, Janie, I skip.

like that. But let me take a look at the picture and be.

the world of fungi. And I just read a book, a really interesting book about fungi across the world and all things they do and what they've what they've learned about them, and how they interact together and connect plants to communicate between plants, and what they do in the soil, and how they can do things that know other microbes than the microbes aren't able to do, and it is

just really interesting. But anyway, the bottom line on it was that what I'm trying to say is when fall comes and we get the weather break, we start see all kinds of weird stuff. There is a mushroom. There is a fungus, I must say, fungus that grows on malts that looks like the dog threw up on the molts. It literally looks like that. There's another one that looks

like scrambled eggs up on top of the molts. And people call and they get all freaky and weird and say, there's this yellow thing like I don't know what it is on top of my mulch. And bottom line, it's nature making organic matter turn into soil. That is why we're not a mile deep in tree trunks here in the Gray Easton area. Every tree that ever lived on this place for going back in time if there wasn't

something to decompose them. And mushrooms are the one or fungi are the ones that can really do the lign and the toughest part of the tree. But it's just part of nature and we can relax. You know what people call about ferry meushrooms in the yard all the time, And I don't think you need to use a fungus to try to stop that. I think you need to get a golf club and realize it's going to go away on its own. But in the meantime you're going to have some fun. That's my two cents worth for

whatever that is worth. Plantrall Seasons is a garden center that's right there on two forty nine and Luetta two forty nine and Luetta. It's easy, easy to find, easy to get to. But when you go in there, you're going into garden center. It's been family owned and operated since nineteen seventy three. You're going into the place where the Flowerty family and there's a number of Flowery family members that work there, including their other employees, are knowledgeable

and they can answer your questions. They can point you in the right direction. They can direct you to the product that you might need, or make suggestions. You buy a plant, you come back in, you go, hey, I see this on it is this okay. They're knowledgeable, they can do that, and that is so important. Here's your phone number one three seven six sixteen forty six or go to Plants for All Seasons dot com Plants for

All Seasons dot com. I love going to gardens. I've been talking about that this morning, but I just love going to new garden centers, even ones I've been to, because you know, every time the seasons change, the things that are in the garden center changes. I like going I going to Ace Hardner shows all the time because each one's independently owned and so you know, you never know, I mean you don't, you know, go into one that

has a laser that cuts that etches cutting boarders. You know, you may go into one that has a fudge bar or whatever. It just makes it fun. I enjoy doing that and I love, especially in the garden centers, to see the changes through the seasons and kind of always new plants. Listen so many plants, so little time. My goal here on guard Line is to help you have success.

I want you to feel like gardening is fun and you can do it, and the Wheel want to guide you in that and advising and diagnosing and assisting in any way we can. And that's why we're here. Here's the phone number seven one three two one two k t r H if you want to call during break and be one of the first ones up to come back.

on the guardline. We're talking about all the things that we need to know in order to have a beautiful landscape, bountiful garden. And that's kind of the goal here when it comes to having beautiful lawns, making sure trees stay healthy. You know, trees are so valuable and very important part of the landscape. That's why I like to send people to Martin spoon Moore an affordable tree because Martin knows what he's doing. He's been doing this a very long time,

and he can come in. Maybe you need some printing done. You know, the next storm that comes through. And by the way, you don't have to have a hurricane to have a storm. The next storm that comes through, is your tree ready for it? Have you done all you can? You know, there's a storm that'll take down any tree no matter what, But why not make them as resilient and as strong as possible. Why not minimize the risk? And Martin can do that. He can help advise you

on what to do around the tree too. I see pictures all the time, a beautiful tree and they build a house around it and put a sidewalk over it and run trench besided for utilities, and I just think, Okay, well, I guess the next step is pay somebody to take it down and hallered away because it's going to die because they didn't do the things they need to do. Martin knows how to take care of trees. So go

to Affordable Tree. You can go aff tree Service dot com, aff tree Service dot com, or give them a call at seven one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three. Seven one three six nine twenty six sixty three. Listen, just because someone owns a chainsaw and a pickup does not mean they need to touch your trees. You need somebody that knows what they're talking about. It always breaks my heart to see damage that's been done, and now

what do we do? How do we fix it? So much you can do ahead of time, so little that can be done after the damage has already been done. I was talking with a neighbor the other day that had a drainage system issue in the backyard. And when you when you have areas that are low and you have soil that is clay. When you have features in the landscape that take water and move it to another area, like your roof, your roof gutters like a hardescape, the

water washes off. I've suddenly you got areas that are really poorly drained, and pierscapes can fix that. I talk about pier scapes all the time, but they can fix those drainage areas. We're about to get into the fall season. It'd be a good time to give them a call. It's time for planting. What kind of beds do you want to put in? What kind of designing do you want? Do you is your irrigation system still working? Okay, so

they need to be checked over. Do you need somebody to come through quarterly, quarterly, every quarter and revamp your beds. I'm talking about trimming them, weeding them, fertilizing them, making sure irrigation is working, putting the mulch down seasonally, as how many times a year you select to do. Doing a color change. You know, we've got a lot of summer plants now, but there's a freezer for us coming and at some point we got to switch to another

one or color changes Piercecapes can do that. They can do that too if you want to go all out. How about a beautiful outdoor for our place? Oh when a crisp, cool nights get here? Can you imagine how nice that would be. Peercecapes knows how to do it. Here's the phone number two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty. Or just go to the website Peerscapes dot com and see the kind of work that they can do. You are listening to Guardline our phone number seven one

three two one two ktrh. How can we help you have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape? That is what we like to do.

to go see the place because it is gorgeous. Everything you need are you getting ready for fall, maybe some fall decorations, fall plantings, but also you know with the Halloween and Thanksgiving and holidays coming up, all kinds of things to decorate your landscape and your home. When it comes to plants, if you want combination planters, maybe something combined into a beautiful basket of beautiful wire basket planting,

they can do all of that. Their selection of plants and trees and their knowledge of this area is unmatched. I mean, they really really do a good job. Fallows a time for vegetables and roses, and also for herbs. Follows a time to plant your roses. If you need antique or hybrid, they've got them there, specimen types of trees, and then the products that you need to go with them.

They know also brownze stuff before green stuff, so microlife, Nature's Way, nitrofoss, Nelson plant food, heirloom soils, landscapers, pride, medina and other things that I recommend here on garden Line are all there and enchanted gardens. If I'm three point fifty nine on the Katie Folsher side of Richmond. They are open today by the way, ten am to four pm. So this afternoon be a good time to

get out there. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. I am going to head to Southwest Houston now and we're going to talk to Carolyn. Hello, Carolyn, welcome to garden Line.

Going forward to kind of a sanitary measure, you know, like cleaning house, getting all the junk and yeah, fertilize and water and when it cools off, it's going to get real happy and the flavor gets a little bit better too, when it gets crisp and cool.

wish you will and thank you for the call. You bet, when we come back from break, we will take your call at seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Do you have well, give me a call seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. When it comes to preparing your soil, landscapers pride folks,

they have got you covered. They have a number of different products, many different products to build soil to make it a stronger, healthier, more effective medium for growing your plants. Also for mulchs to go on the surface, you always need mult In the summer it's hot and they cool the surface in the cool season and really twelve months out the year they're fighting weeds, which is a problem in stopping erosion and other things. For example, a landscaper's

pride is one called black velvet. It is not dyed maults. We don't recommend that on garden line, but they do have one black velvet, naturally dark colored, velvety black beautiful malts and it works really well. They have a top soil that is a blend of a sandy loam soil with some composted material in it. Compost in it. You can use that for topping off, maybe you got some low spots in the lawn, or maybe you just want to use it in building into a bed. It works

really well for either way. Their premium potting mix is like potting soil on steroids. It's got a Nelson plant Food color star ingredient in it that just gives like three months of color feeding, fertilization all in that potting mix. It'd be good for indoor plants, be good for outdoor plants, it'd be good for vegetables, flowers, whatever you want to grow. And then, of course the rose mix Rosemex kind of

a standard here Nelson or excuse me. The Landscaper's Pride rose mix has a nice blend of all the things necessary to create a beautiful, healthy rosebush. That foundation that when you add additional nutrients, roses just take off like a rocket. All from Landscaper's Pride Landscaperspride dot com. That's their website. If you want to go check out where you can find them. They're pretty widely available. In fact, it's most of the places I talk about are going

to have landscapers Pride products available for you. You are listening to Garden Line. If you like to give us a call kind of quiet on the phones this morning, uh seven one three to KTRH. We'll be happy to visit with you, answer your questions. Otherwise, I'm just going to be talking about the things that I think are important. And really, you know when I do that, what I'm doing is I'm addressing the questions I get during the week, the questions I get seasonally every year, at whatever time

it is. There's a cycle. There have been doing this thirty five years, actually thirty six now, and so I've kind of gotten used to the common questions. But you know, the fun thing is there's always something new. There's always some other thing that I hadn't heard of it before. Some new plant now, everybody's got to have it, that kind of thing. If you have not fertilized your lawn this summer, you can still do a Nitropos Superturf application.

Superturf is a gradual release fertilizer releases over time. It's the silver bag, the silver bag from Nitrofoss. So you're going to find Nitropas super Turf at a lot of different places. You go to d and De Feed up in Tumball and they're going to it there. You go down to Angleton on Velasco at Lake Hardware and Angleton they're going to have it there. Go to Baytown Fisher's Hardware on Alexander, they're going to have Nitroposs super turf

there as well. Excuse me. Someone was talking to me the other day about returning grass clippings and just they were kind of looking at it as if it were like a controversy, you know, should you return grass clippings or not? And there is no controversy. Nature returns grass clippings, right. Have you ever seen if I have a T shirt that I had designed, it's got Holstein cows and they're mowing a meadow and putting the bags of clippings out

at the roadside. So nature recycles naturally. Yes, you can return them now if you don't mow for a while and it gets you real tall, if it gets wet, maybe the rain has kept you from mowing. There are times when you don't want to leave your long looking

like a hayfield, and you pick them up. I do that but I use them as small in the garden beds, just a light coating of malts over the beds, use them in a compost pile, whatever, But in general, more regularly and with a multi more and return the clippings. Do you know here's a fun fact. You need to

listen to this one. If you were to take all the clippings that you produce in your lawn for the whole year and send them to a lab and say, I want you to tell me how many pounds of nitrogen phosphorsym potassium there are in these, it would be more fertilizer than you fertilize. If you follow the full schedule fertilizing all the times that are on the schedule, your lawn more puts out more nutrients than your fertilizer sprouder does. Does that mean you don't need to fertilize, No,

of course not. It just means if you bag your clippings now you have to fertilize even more because you're taking nature's perfect slow release fertilizer, which is a grass clipping. This is going to decompose and not just give you nitrogen phosphorsympth tasting. It's going to give you all the micros, because remember I said they were essential. It takes micros to build a grass plant. So when you hold up in your hand a clipping, let's say you have a

Saint Augustine clipping. In that clipping, there's manganese and there's boron, and there's all the micros as well as the macros that are needed in order to have successfully grow a clipping. So here's the decision. Your lawn needs mowing this afternoon. Let's say, okay, you're going to do that. Where the where is all the organic matter and free already purchased nutrients going to go in a bag to pay somebody to haul them off to hold the ground somewhere or

is it going to go back into your landscape? That makes sense, follow the way nature does it. And you should return your clipping. And if you don't, be ready to fertilize a little bit more. And I understand there's times when we don't. I understand that. Another time when you don't return the clippings is when you have a whole bunch of weeds that have gone on to seed, bag those up and get them out of there. Don't return the weed seeds back in. But in general return

the clippings makes sense. We call that don't bag it? Well, you're listening to garden line. The number seven one three, two, one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Warrens and Kingwood Garden Center are both out there in Kingwood. So you guys are really fortunate to have two great garden centers that you can visit out in the Kingwood area. Kingwood Garden Centers over there on Stone Hollow, Stone Hollow, Warrens Gardens.

I bet you've been to Warrens. I probably don't even need to tell you this, and be probably into both of them, but Warrens is on North Park Drive. Both of them have an outstanding selection of everything you need for success. Do you need fertilizers? Do you need soil? Do you need great plants of all kinds? I'm talking about shade plants, sun plants, native plants, ornamental trees and shrubs, vegetables, herbs, just on and on tropicals. There's another one. Do you

need a good fertilized genie succulents? Do you need containers? Their statuary, their pottery collection is beautiful and then vines, you know, ornamental grasses, blooming vines, groundcovers. They've got it all and it always looks good out there. They're always doing an excellent job when it comes to bringing in quality stuff and then advising you properly on that you can take your problem question in there and they can

help you with it. They're happy to do that. They've got some great sales going on right now, what we call the yellow dot sales. You put a big yellow dot on the on the container and you can pick up some really nice plants that they have on a special going on out there. So take advantage of that. Don't let this, don't let this slip by. If you haven't been to Warren Southern Gardens, get out there and enjoy yourself because it is fun. I've been in there

more than once with my wife. She loves shopping in there. Warren Southern Gardens. Going to go now to the phones and we're gonna go back to Northwest Houston. Talk to Ralph. Hey, Ralph, what's up?

I would do that, and then I would add a little bit of compost leaf mold, compost top dressing, and you're gonna be able to find a lot of different places.

West is up to five games. Coverage of this afternoon's game starts at noon on Sports Talk seven ninety The Eye. He's lost to Notre Dame twenty three to thirteen. Ut shut out, Colorado State fifty two Nothing news on demand at KGRH dot com. Ortext update is coming up at eight o'clock with breaking information as it happens now or garden Line. I'm Cliff Saunders on Houston's news, weather and trafficstation News Radio seven forty KGRH, the.

take a look. I'm not gonna be able to give a very elaborated do this for this and that for that and all the whole thing, but I'll take a look and go, Okay, you know, maybe on the on the photos, say just put them as a number like one, two, three, four, and that way I can go photos number one, three and five. You know, here's what you got.

bad guys. Kind of like the old Western movies, you know, where the bad guys wore black cowboy hats and the good guys wore white cowboy hats and they shot each other from behind the rocks up in that box canyon, that kind of thing. Well, our weeds don't wear hats, but we have assigned them the bad guy status. But in reality, a weed is just a plant growing out of place. And whenever the soil gets bare, nature covers it with plants, and those we call weeds to us

because nature knows you've got to protect the soil. And I like to put it this way. Wherever sunlight hits the soil, nature plants a weed. Okay, so weed, a corn plant growing in a Saint Augustine law is a weed as corn a weed? Well, it depends on where it's growing. Do you see what I'm saying. So whenever we approach things, I like to just take a step back and not look at everything having to have a spray solution. We have a lot of spray solutions, and

there's times so we need to use them. But if you start with low water, fertilize and make a dense lawn, you have less weeds. If sunlight cannot hit the soil, a huge portion of the potential weeds will be taken out of the picture. Not all Virginia button weed can grow in dense Saint Augustine. Dollar weed can grow in dense Saint Augustine, But I'm talking about the majority of things. If your long gets thin, you are going to learn a lot about weeds because wherever sunlight hits the soil,

nature will plant one. And so just think of it from a cultural standpoint in our flower beds. Mulching. Put a mulch down so that sunlight can't hit the soil. That's one of the many benefits of mulch. Makes it just makes sense.

Today they're giving away a painter room makeover US two hundred dollars value. They're drawing for it, so you got to go buy and register. And they're doing demos on their trigger grills today. But they have a lot of other stuff going on out there. They you know, a lot of vendor demonstrations, a lot of fun activities and things. But you got to go buy. Stop in, say hi, how you guys doing. Heard about your on guard line

and just see what all is going on. It's a really nice little revamp that they've done out there at the Ace Hardware on at Langham Creek, Langham Creek Ace Hardware. You are listening to Guarden Line, and we're here to help you have a more bountiful garden. We'd like to have a more beautiful landscape, just with some basic tips for success. That is important to be able to provide those those basic things that plants need, sunlight, drainage, soil,

starting with good plants. You know, it's hard to make absolute statements in nature because nature is not a black and white thing. At Nature has a lot of gray areas as one thing goes to another. But I think that your and my approach to gardening, whether you are synthetic or organic or whatever, should always be to start with avoiding problems. That would mean building up good soil.

That would mean choosing plants that are adapted to hear in some cases, choosing plants that are resistant to problems. Here and as we start there and build good soil and so on, mults from all that stuff I've been talking about, you avoid a lot of the problems and so we don't even have to have the question of what do I do for filling the blank insect or disease or whatever or wet we can avoid it, and we always want to try to start it that way.

That's why you hear me talk about things like cororating the lawn and compass top dressing the lawn, and building density through mol watering and fertilizing in a lawn. Those are all steps to create beauty by avoiding problems. SAME's true in flower beds and vegetable gardens and herb gardens and whatnot. As gardeners, we're always trying to grow something

that probably doesn't want to grow there. You know, I don't know how many little unsuspecting blue spruce trees get hauled out of Colorado every year when Texans come back from vacation. But they don't belong here and they're not going to grow here. We always try to do that. But the more you can focus on things that want

to grow here, the better. And of course native plants or the ultimate in that, I mean native pants are if they're native from this area, they're from here, so they do very very well, easy, easy to grow those Nelson plant food, you know, has they're the ones where we get things like the Slow and Easy, the summer long fertilization of Slow and Easy, and Bruce's Brew that

you can do anytime of the year. It's going to give you a lot of quick green up and it does have some slow release components in it as well. But I want to talk a little about about the jars, the Nutri Star and the color Star. Color Star then it's the best name for a product because if it does it have color, yes, it is color Star. There's a good answer. It makes it that easy. But also the Nutri Star line. The Tree and Shrub is part

of the Nutri Star line. And if you've got a plant, a tree or shrub and it's been planted in your first five years, you need to be using that on a regular basis to keep it growing. And there are many many other products. There's tropical products, there's blooming products, there's indoorhouse plant products, all in the Nutri Star line. And when you get those jugs, you can refill them. There's a dozen areas in Greater Houston where you can

go and refill your plastic jars. It becomes more economical when you do that, and you don't throw away all the plastic, which we are already know. We got plenty of issues with all the stuff we discard that didn't want to break down really fast. All right, it was time for me take another break. I am going to be back here for our last segment this hour, and then we have a special guest to lead off in the eight o'clock hour. We're going to be talking about

dirt stuff. Okay, just hang around sure, and we're here to answer your gardening questions. Help you have a more beautiful, beautiful garden and a more bountiful garden as well as

well as a beautiful escape. Our phone number is seven to one three two one two KTRH seven to one three two to one two kt r H. I was visiting Southwest Fertilizer the other day, visiting with Aaron and some of the team there, uh and just I had some things I needed to pick up, and you know, I know when you go in there, it's always it always takes me a while because I have to go up and down the aiss and look at what's new.

Try to stay up to date on what's going on in the market, because there's always new products and changes in products and things and you can know that Southwest Fertilizer is always going to have the latest stuff as well as stuff that's long proven that you've used for years. They still keep it around there as well. So think of it this way. If Southwest Fertilizer does not have it, you don't need it. And that is pretty much black and white true right there, because they have it all.

They have it all. Eighty foot wall of tools, eighty feet of tools. I was looking. Oh, by the way, you know I made that weed wiper. If you haven't seen the little weed wiper that I designed, or I mean it designed as a fancy word for it, but uh, go to my website gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening with Skip dot com. You'll see the weed wiper and you'll see the products that you use on it to wipe on whatever kind of weed you have. Do you have poison ivy that's a certain product. Do you have

grassyweeds that's a different product. Do you have sedges like nutsedge that's a different product. Anyway, that's how that works. It's all free, it's all online. You can see it. Bob's got those little suction cup devices grabber tools that you use to build your weed wiper, and it makes it so easy, makes it very very easy for all to do it yourself. Or you can figure this one out. You probably even design a version of it that's better

than what I got up there. But that's just an example of what I mean when I say Southwest Fertilizer has everything they've been around since nineteen fifty five. Corner of Bissinet and Renwick. Southwest Fertilizer dot com and for a phone number seven to one three six sixty six seven four. That makes it real easy. Anyway, I was in there doing some shopping. I picked up some things.

I am in a ongoing battle to learn about nuts Edge, to find the kinks in its armor and to go after those, and that's a lot of the information I've put up is about that. But i have a number of places in the yard where I've got a little bit Nutsedge going and I'm working with it. So I'm in a little xeon zois a lawn and Nutsedge sticks it set up above the fine textured xeon and shows up really well better than i'd like it too. So I'm looking at controlling it there. I'm looking at controlling

it in flower beds and always trying something different. That's why I came up with that weed wiper device that works really well in certain situations. Not for everything, but certain situations works really well. Well, you're listening to Garden Line've got time for a call here. In fact, I see one coming in there and take that in just a second. When was the last time you went to

Nelson Water Garden and Nursery out in Katie, Texas. Now, if you haven't been before, that's a great idea for this afternoon, run out there and check out Nelson's Nursery and water gardens. You know, they've been long known nationally known for the water gardens they created. They invented that disappearing fountain where you know it runs down the side of a big beautiful pottery piece in the garden and just recycles up through the pottery piece.

ahead and visit. I'm always surprised, you know. I always find that it's like, oh, I didn't know you guys carried that too. And I think they're expanding a little bit. But right now they have an end of summer sale. Three gallon roses, fifteen bucks, pothus ieties four inch and six inch pots, magnolia trees hibiscus the tree form of hibiscus and the standard form fruit trees, not citrus, but other fruit trees. Twenty bucks, Citrus thirty five bucks. Crape

myrtles three gallon twenty bucks. Do you see what I'm saying? A lot and lot while supplies last, So if you wait around, somebody's going to get it. But Nelson Water Garden and Nursery and Katie it is just north of Ien. You turn north on Katie Fortman Road and you're right there. It is your West Houston destination garden center. That I'll just make it like that. It's as simple. It's as simple as that, you're West Houston Destination and garden center.

I keep trying to get you to take your friends and go out there. And just sit. I think I don't know if the folks at Nelson Water Garden and Nursery you're listening, but I think that they ought to have lawn chairs that you can rent up front and you just go back and sit in the shade underneath the trees to the water, and uh, you know, the first ten minutes is free. After that we're gonna you know, I think I think i'd pay it. When I sit and listen to the sound of moving water, it is

so relaxing. I mean, it's just peaceful. The cares of the world go away when you go back into into that area of the Nelson Water Gardens at nursery. Well, we're running up to where the end of our time here on guarden line. For this hour, when we come back, we have a special guest. I'm going to focus on the details of why do I always say brown stuff before green stuff? And why do I always say you

know it says mate. Some of you from probably from Texas, know the old phrase, hey, you got to make hay while the sun shines. Well there's also one that I just said, well you got to make garden beds while the sun shines. And now's the time to get that done too. We're going to talk about those kind of things, some of the aspects of soil and soil mixes and

different things that to have success. So instead of just me telling your brown stuff before green stuff over and over and over again, we're going to dig in get a little bit nerdier on it as well. If you are planning on doing any kind of landscape or re innovations this fall, now would be the time to begin prep for that, and I would suggest something. You know, we're at the end of summer. This is typically about the worst our landscapes look all year when we get

to the end of summer. Like, if you're going to have drought issues, this is when you see them. If you're going to lose plants, this is typically when the plants are struggling. Midwinter can be a little rough, but in general, this is a tough time. So drive up to your house and look at it from the road, just I mean, look at it like you don't live there. Look at it like what do I think about that? When I want to do that at my house? It is your house. But we're just playing a game here.

What would be nice?

season color and whatnot. Typically those cost more per square foot of ground because you're changing them out several times a year, so there is a cost there, whereas with the shrub you pay once and you have it pretty much for the rest of time. But what kind of color changes do you want? Do you want to Is there an area that's really hard to mow because you got a right angle? Maybe you could do a curved

bed edge. Maybe you don't have a bed edge, and having a really nice set of stones or pavers going around a bed would be really attractive and set things apart. Do you see what I'm saying. That's the kind of questions that I think you ought to be asking this time of the year, and you got to look at it like it's not your house. I mean look at it like I like that. If I were going to buy this house, what would I want to be different

that front and I opened the door. You don't have to do it all at once, step by step that by b we need to do it that way you do a turnkey all at once, or you can just enjoy getting it done a little other time. Maybe there's a rosebush that's not blooming, it's not in enough sunlight, the trees have gotten bigger over the years. Time to move it. This fall is the time you're going to

do that. So think those thoughts now. Maybe there's some other opportunities for it, maybe like hummingbirds and see you know what I'd like some plants and bring in hunting birds. Well, the fall is coming, it's the prime planning season of the year. Now's going to be it thrall ready and now's the time to do that walk through assessment and see what you would like to change. At your point, I'll be right back.

mind waiting. Welcome to do that. So you're first up, but we're going to take a little time away from that phone for just a bit.

airloin soils all the time. But I'm bringing Louis in here to discuss some specifics about why we do what we do this soil, how we do it right, some of the ingredients that are part of having success with soil, and the importance of a building soil at the time of the year. Luis, that was a long introduction, but welcome to garden Line.

it would be too wet. And it's also kind of important, isn't it, to get soil built up, so it has time to kind of settle in and mellow. You know, when you put in a new bed, it's going to settle a little bit. That's just inevitable. But now would be a good time to get ahead of it. So what are some thoughts you have about that?

you can actually have a plan to better the soil. Right, So, one of the main components of improving that soil is using compost add in organic matter to the environment.

looking to ariate and have more airflow. Right, so, if you follow the advice that you give everybody on a on a regular basis, areating the soil and breaking down the clay particles that bond with compost or with expanded shell because that's why you're dealing with expondential and compost. You're pretty much creating the eruption between those clay particles, and that's what's creating, you know, the pockets of the air. The more water retention, more and just more flow, better,

better nutrient. How do I say this, more nutrients going through the soil and stay there because.

then that's just going to take care of it for a long, long, long time. And in reality, plants are eating a little bit every day, and so they need nutrients that are available three hundred and sixty five days of the year, you know, and maybe not applying it at one time then is going to work. You're gonna have to spread it out. But you're talking about putting compost in.

So it composts. We don't think of it as a fertilizer, but it does provide nutrients like a fertilizer does, just in a little bit a lower dosage. So anyway that I'm trying to get people to recycle their organic materials.

discussing composts in general. But when you look across a line of products, you see a lot of different things, you know, Like I mean with you guys, you got the rose and bloomers blend, and then you've got cactus and succulent, and then you got veggie nerd mix and

fruit and berry and citrus mix and so on. Uh, tell me a little bit about as you guys formulate a soil, what are some of the key components in addition to just the fact that there's some decomposed organic matter in there that that create these different products as you as you blend them. Hey, Louise, Uh, did you hear my question just now?

micro is fungi, riiser is root. So when you go into the soil and you put michroysm, what they do is they actually create a very thin and almost microscopic root that attaches to the root system of the plant and it goes to places where the plant, the plant's root system will not be able to distract any nutrients. So I was just having a smoothie and I got my little ball and you know, I get to the bottom of the smoothie cup and I can access all

of it. You know, when you drink a SMOOTHI, the last bit of this smoothie is the best part because you get really sided when.

the fall planting season. I'm trying to get people going on this as soon as possible, because fall planting is just around the corner. And so, what are some components that you would recommend if someone wants to have success, let's say on a landscape bed. What are some things you would suggest that they do. How would you go about it in.

the market. Add compost, make sure you mix the compost. Or if you don't want to add the compost and want to add a soil, find a good soil that

has good ingredients and add it to your bed. Because what you're doing there is adding the food the macronutrient, and in the soil, if the soil has mineral components, you're adding the trade mineral, which is the micro When you have a balance of those two, Your plants are going to have better performance because now you have food minerals and a new soil to complement what's there already.

not oxidized away. But that happens in our landscape beds too, So I think topping off landscape beds with quality mixes according to the plants you're going to grow, there is something that needs to be sort of part of our annual cycle as well.

really well. And I think that's something you know, and a lot of flower containers. I sometimes you start with us, well maybe it's a cheap potting soil, and it just kind of settles in and gets real thick and mucky, almost gooey, you know. It just you don't have airspace down in there in the soil and things that open that up. And as you do a potting mix is like you guys have the works and cactus and succulent.

You've got components that you can reuse. I mean, you know, you finish the year and you pull that plant out, you can mix some fresh stuff in and continue going with it as long as you don't have a disease issue going on in there. But those those components of drainage I think are really important.

And one thing that people need to realize is if they go to that website, now even if you're not going to buy an heirloom soil or that's you know that maybe that's not what you're going justifind go there for the soil calculator alone, because the soil calculator is so good. That's that's in the website. By the way, is Heirloomsoils dot Com makes it real easy, but you can put in if you don't know how many one foot bags, how many wheelbarrows, how many five gallon buckets.

Do I need to do such and such. It's all there and then they can plan accordingly. And of course, you know, I know, you guys have a lot of great products that we hope they would choose one of. But uh, that's that calculator is amazing and the website's very helpful.

seconds or so here. Any closing quick thoughts on getting ready for fall by getting your soil right.

Those are your three components keys to successful garden, whether it's a flower bed or a or a vegetable bed.

t RH. I want to remind you that next Saturday, September seventh, I'll be at the Montgomery County Home Outdoor Living Show. That Home and Outdoor Living Show in Montgomery County is at the lone Star Convention and Expo Center out there north north northeast on Airport Road. Now, I'll be there from twelve to two on Sunday. I'm going to give a talk on fall gardening, and then I'll stay there and answer questions till the cows come home.

I don't know what time the cows get home, but I'll stick around and we'll answer questions as many as you have. Bring me samples, bring me pictures of things that you want to ask about. We'll go through it, and I'll be giving away a lot of micro Life fertilizer giveaways while we're there. So just another reason to show up and be part of the fun while we're out there again. Next Saturday, September seventh, Lone Star at Convention and Expo Center on Airport Road. All right, let's

head out to the phones. Now, we're going to go to New Caney and talk to Bill. Hey, Bill, good morning, Skip.

It's Aggie hyphen Horticulture dot TAMU dot edu. But if you just do a search for Aggi Horticulture, on the front page is a fruit and nuts section and you click on that and you can pick publications on everything from avocados to I don't know what fruit begins with the but it's all a to Z and pairs is one of the publications, and in that it lists the varieties and knows you about each variety. And so I would turn you loose on that because you're gonna get

a lot more information. I'm giving a little quick answer here, but that would be pairs grow. They're not much of a challenge. Yeah, and so did you have more of the questions?

up in the Woodlands is going to carry it. You're going to find it at Plants for all seasons on two forty nine. You're going to find it at Plants and Things up in Brunham on Highway three sixty five. Sweet Green from Nitrofoss. I love the smell of it. I like to kind of tongue in cheeks say, you know, it smells so good when you throw it in the back of the car, you're going to want to make an extra loop around six ' ten on the way home, just so you can enjoy the fragrance of sweet Green

a little bit longer. You are listening to Guardline and our phones are seven to one three two one two k t r H. Seven to one three two one two k t r H. Feel free to give us a call. This morning, been kind of a quiet day on the phones. Typically what happens when this happens is the whole day's calls. Try to call it the last minute. We got a little over an hour left in the show, and I would encourage you if you want to talk, it's always better to do it sooner rather than later.

Towards the end, things get kind of crazy, just because I don't know, maybe more people are waking up, or they're thinking of questions that they want to ask. We're here to help you with all the above. And then some one of my uh daughters has a beautiful rose bush that you got here in the Greater Houston area, and we were I was at her place a while back.

We were doing some training on some climbing type of rose and UH, just getting it pruned and taken care of, and I was just noticing, you know that when she gives a good care, very good care, and the thing is very healthy and it's very vigorous, and UH, just a little a little tip on roses. Roses the queen of the garden. They say, right, uh, it is so popular, and roses put on a great spring show. Some roses climbers often are once bloomers, and some other types of

roses are what we call once bloomers. They bloom in the spring and that's it, and that's okay. I've got the Peggy Martin rose on a arbor at my house and it's a spring primarily bloomer. The rest of the year, it's given me shade, so that's okay. But then there's others that repeat over and over again and just giving them good care. Fall is the best time of the year to plant a rose, and I encourage you to give them a good close look this fall. When we come back, I think I'll talk a little bit more

about the keys to success with roses. In the meantime, I'll be right back.

you have on any plant. So good air circulation, good sunlight, good soil, and then pick some good roses. By the way RCW. I almost forgot to mention this Today RCW Nursery that is the garden center that is where two forty nine Tumble Parkway comes into bout Wagh eight. They are having a Labor Day weekend Rose sale on their Star roses and Weeks roses. Now you may not know what a star in Weeks mean. Well, Star rows is huge, huge rose company across the United States. Weeks Roses another

one produced tons of quality roses each style. Only ten bucks Star and weak roses at RCW. But that's the Labor Day weekend sale only, so don't mess around. As soon as you get there, the better choices you're going to have. But this is unbelievable opportunity by rosebus ten dollars and I'm telling you fall planning is coming the best playing time of the year. So there's a little word to the wise. I'd get out to RCW Nursries. You can go to the website RCW Nurseries dot com

find out more about them. But that is a call public service announcement. Let's go to Perland. Now we're going to talk to Kay. Hello. Okay, good morning, Skip.

give it some time, let's see uh it. Typically there should be some decent storage in the ground and it shouldn't just be dead.

release to it. As soon as we get into fall, I'll be telling you about Carbload, the fall fertilizer from Nelson's Turf Star line, the Nutri Star line, but that's another one, the Nutri Star. It comes, people buy it typically buy it in jars, plastic jars or screw top lids, and there's a Nutri Star for trees and shrubs, There's a Nutri Star for tropical plants. There's a Neutra Star for different kinds of blooming plants, depending on you know,

the particular plant you have. You can refill those jars at twelve different places around the Greater Houston area. Makes it very economical to do a refill and save on the plastic. Just another smart move by the folks at Nelson Plant Food. Also don't forget the color star. Color color color. You want color this fall, you want color this winter. We're looking at pens and violas and whatnot.

It's just some color star. Put it down, mix it in the soil, and then plant your plants, and you're going to see those results last all through the winter season. We're going to head out now to West Houston and talk to Gary. Gary, Welcome to guard Line.

all deteriorate there. And okay, of course it's got a healthy weed population all along the whole thing. So it's fairly green with nothing but weeds. But I want to know, is it okay to build a bed. Kill all those weeds, kill them up, let it deteriorate and compost, and then put real compost and stuff on top of it and build a bed that way?

just gonna multiply it and it'll be right back. If it's just annual weeds, you can do that if you want to. Just remember you're gonna have weed seeds in there. But if you want to turn old Saint Augustine grass into I've thrown where I cut out a section of Saint Augustine to put in a bed, I'll throw that in a compost pile and just got a little soil attached to it and it just composts away like anything else.

When I go to kill the weeds and I'm gonna wait until let's say late February or whatever to start the rebuilding process, is there a vegetative killer that's not one of those wait a year type of things that might help me, because I'll kill the nuts that's special, right, but I'll do the rest just with something to zap everything that's safe for every build here.

lists the herbicide ingredients for different kinds of weeds. So depending on whether you're going after grassy or sedges or broad leaf weeds or weeds that are coming out of a bowl out of the ground, like wild onions and garlic. It's got a list of all the product ingredients and then you just go find a brand that has that in it. I think that'll be helpful for answering your question when you get back into spring.

cradgrass try to sprout, they're not able to. We might have to repeat it again part way into summer, but in general, the pre emergent is the easiest way because killing grass and grass with a post emergent is pretty much not possible for most things. So you can't spread and kill crabgrass and not kill the Saint Augustine. Thank you, all right, Well, that's good. Didn't know we get all that's a that's good what we did. Thanks for the call, man,

appreciate it. Uh Don in Beaumont. You're gonna be our first when we come back. First up for the rest of you, if you'd like to call it was our last hour coming up seven one three two one two k t r A. I want to remind you I'm going to be at that Montgomery County Fall An Outdoor a Home An Outdoor Living show next Saturday, September seventh. I'll be there from twelve to two. I'm gonna give a talk on fall gardening and then I'm gonna answer

your gardening questions. Look at samples you bring in, look at pictures you bring in. We're just gonna help you have the adountiful garden, beautiful landscape.

have crabgrass again and again and again. We always say that one year of weeding is twenty years of seeding. In other words, when you let a plant go to seed, you may have one weed, but it's producing one hundred thousand seeds that are coming up next year and the next year. Who knows. Depends on the plant, but don't let them go to seed if you can. But if you have crabgrass issues or other annual weed issues in the spring, you want to put down something that prevents

the seeds from germinating and establishing. You know, our number one goal is to build a dense lawn where the sunlight doesn't hit the soil so that weed seeds are choked out that way. But if this is an ongoing problem, it means that there's some thinness in the soil, and therefore we probably are going to want to prevent that, and you can do that with something like barricade from

night frost, for example. But if you get my schedule online, it's at gardening with Skip dot com Gardening with skip dot Com on there there is a lawn care schedule that's the how to take carry your lawn b water fertilized, and also a schedule that's pest weeds and disease management, and that's how to deal with things that go wrong that things that want to eat your lawn or infect your lawn, and so weed seeds, weeds are on that schedule.

And you just look at it's January to December. It tells you exactly when to do what on all both schedules, on all these things, it makes it easy. You can print them out. If you're an organic gardener, if you're a synthetic gardener, there's options for both of you on both of these schedules. And so in spring, it's gonna be in February, we do this the pre emergence that prevent crabgrass and other weeds. They need to go down before the weed sprout.

Thank you Donna for the call. I appreciate that. All right, folks, yep, that's the pruning time. I guess we need to create another schedule for I hadn't thought about that. If there's enough interest in it, I may do that a pruning schedule through the air. That would be kind of good.

I'm making a note to myself, note to self. Here we go, all right, Our phone number if you'd like to give me a call seven to one three two one two kt r H. Seven to one three two one two kt r H. We are entering our last hour of the season, or of the show rather for today, not for the season. No, no, although would you be would you be happy if we could just go ahead and call it on summer and say okay, that's enough, stop and then we go ahead and get into fall.

I think that'd be a good a good thing. Maybe we'll get hold of a weather man see if we can arrange that. If you've been dealing with bugs in your lawn, chinch bugs, the sod webworms, for example, mole crickets. Did you know there's something called a mole cricket? Yes, there is nitropuss. Bug Out max is for that. And I had someone call earlier and they ask a question, how do you apply bug out? Well, bug out max as a granule, and so what you do is you

spread it like you would spread fertilizer. You just have to follow the setting on the bag for the kind of spreader you're using. And it's gonna get in the ground. You're gonna water it in then with just a little bit of water, not a gully washer, just you know, third of an inch something like that. Just get it wet, move it off of that granule and into the soil thatch and the soil surface. Now, when that happens, chinchbugs are hiding in the thatch all day and night. They

love it in there. That's where they work. That's where you apply and get them with nitrovass bug out max. Side weeb worms are spending their days in the thatch and they come out at night to chew on your grass blades. That is where you get them, catch them in the thatch. Now you're gonna find Nitrofass bugout Max in a lot of different places. If you go up to Woodlands fourteen eighty eight Shades of Texas, it's gonna

have it up there. If you go to Fisher's Hardware, both the one in South Houston on Southomore and the one in Laporte on Broadway Street or both places, you can find night to fash products like that bug out Max. And finally let's go down to Angleton to Lake Hardware on Velasco. And they're gonna have it down there as well. I think I'm gonna head now out to the phones and we're gonna head to Katie and talk to Henry. Good morning, Henry, Welcome to Guardliner.

I bet they have them down there too. That would be another in terms of how close, starting with the closest.

just fine. Hey, I'm hitting a hard break. I got to go ahead and and I head to a commercial. But thank you, Henry, appreciate your call. Thanks for being on guarden Line. I'll be right back. Folks, glad you are listening in today. You know anything that you need for your lawn, your garden, your landscape. I'm talking about fertilizers and pest control, disease control, We control any tools, garden hoses, and if you want to beautify that outdoor setting.

You know fall is coming, yes, yes, yes, I can't wait. And when it gets here, I'm going to be hanging out on my patio out back. And I got some beautiful little lights I have strung up around there to give that ambiance. I call them beer garden lights kind of what they look like. Ace Hardware's got all of that stuff and more. If you need quality, quality brands of barbecue equipment like Treger and Weber and Big Big Green Egg and whatnot, they've got that now right now.

I just need to point this out for those of you up in northwest area of Houston, the Langham Creek Ace Hardware is having their grand reopening. It's been three days. Today's the last day of it. They'll be doing a drawing for a paint or room makeover two hundred dollars value, so that in and of itself as worth showing up to put your name in the hat. They'll be doing demos on craiger drills, grills as well. And I'll tell

you I love that store. I've been in there. I was in there this spring, and then when I heard they were going to kind of revamp some things and do a grand reopening, I was pretty excited about that, and I think you should be too. Go to the Intersection of Barker Cypress in five twenty nine. The Intersection of Barker Cypress in five twenty nine. It's kind of on the backside of Copperfield neighborhood up there and stop in say hey to the folks at Langham Creek. Ace Hardware.

You know, wherever you live, you got an ACE Hardware nearby. All you gotta do is go to Acehardware dot com find the store locator and what There are forty stores in the Greater Houston area, so there's going to be one close to you. I'm going to go now out to Bay City and we're going to talk to Carrie. Hello, Kerriy, Welcome to garden Line.

You're going to get it off the site there and just call them and say, look, I got a problem and I could use some helpier, can you help me? And I promise you they'll be more than happy to help you get to the bottom of that one. What was your second question?

you could use. I would have to get a good look at the palm granite to determine what it is, so we would recommend the right spray. But most people just kind of tolerate that and just go on. Just make sure they have good drainage because they also want that.

I wanted to talk a little bit about Nature's Way Resources. You hear me, You've heard me talk about them before. Nature's Way is where a lot of the premium quality soil products that I talk about on Guarden Line were born. Rose soil was born in Nature's Way. There's other folks that make rose soil, but Nature's Way is where that came. Quality leaf mold, compost top dressing, Nature's Way. I mean, I could go on and on. There are a number

of other products that really started there. John Ferguson knows more about He's forgot more about soil than most people know. And Ian running the shop. Now up there, they're producing quality products. They have quality plants too, by the way, So if you show up to pick up some bags or pick up bulk, go walk over and check out their plants. They got some really nice ones over there

up at Nature's Way Resources. Just to remember, if you're going to buy any kind of a soil product, composts, soil, blends, mult to go on top of the soil, tell them you heard about it on garden line. Say, Skip was talking about ure Nature's Way and you get a discount off of what you're purchasing. And this is the time to prepare the soil now while the sunshines. Prepare soil while the sunshines. Fall planting is coming. Don't wait to see if it's too wet and rainy at that time

to do the soil. Do it now and go out to Nature's Way. You can buy by the bag, you can go out and pick up bulk. You can have them delivered to your house bulk. However you want to go about it, just get it done. That is the number one tip I could give you for success is plant in the fall into soil that has been properly prepared. They're on Sherbrooks Circle, which is off of Interstate forty five, right where fourteen eighty eight comes into forty five from Magnolia.

If you would like to learn more, check out their new websites really Cool, Nature'sway Resources dot com, Nature's Way Resources dot Com. We're going to go now to the heights and talk to Larry.

So Sunshine Lugustrum, it'll make a little bit larger shrub than Golden Euonymous, but that would be another one that doesn't have those same issues that Golden Euonymous has.

you know. If they don't happen, they could probably get them in in time for your fall planting too.

out there. I would do it in late winter unless if there's a reason, you got to get those things up from where they are sort of we say that's lifting up the skirt of the tree. You know how the branches hang down and you're kind of lifting it up.

to do that. Hey, Jim, I got a run. It's time for a break here, but thank you for the call. I appreciate that. When we come back, Joseph in the Woodlands and Jazz you're listening in today, We've got plenty more to talk about and some folks to talk about it too. Just want to remind you that if you are looking for product to help give boosts to your new plants, that you're going to be putting in this fall,

and you will be. There's fall gardening for vegetables. It's a time to plant herbs, it's a time to plant flowers, shrubs, trees, and whatnot. Microlife Fertilizer line of products has got you set up. They've got a number of liquid products that work really, really well in providing the kind of boost that I'm talking about. We have the orange labeled to seven one four mix called Biomatrix. It does very good

for a fertilizing to give a boost to plants. It's loaded with microbes like all Microlife products are, and it does super well for that. There is liquid humus that you can put in as you're planting your plants and it does super super well. Another product, it's kind of a newer one to me. It's one I haven't used as much, but I am starting to use it now, and that is one called micro Grow Bioinoculant. It is

a granular product. When you put it out, you are adding just an untold number of microbes to the soil to help create those relationships with microbes and plant roots that help the plant to thrive. It's as simple as that. It really really works. Another good one is Microlife Soil and Plant Energy. That is a liquid. It is in a buying a quarter a gallon bottle and it works

super well. Also. You know, really all of these products by Microlife, they're designed to do what nature is already doing, and that is building soil over time with microbes, with nutrients and making that root system so healthy that the plant can't help but succeed. Widely available in microlife products. You don't find them everywhere, pretty much every garden center and ace hardware store, feed stores, a Southwest fertilizer down

at you know you go all the wayside. Just went blank on My brain just just went blank for a second. Oh my gosh. I'll come back to it in a minute. When when it jumps back in the mid you know, after eight hours of talking in the morning, the first thing in the morning, I can kind of run run into a blank pretty quick. All right, Well, anyway, I'll come back to it in a second. Let's for now get my brain out of this situation and go talk to Joseph in the Woodlands. Joseph, how are we doing fine?

it kills a shoot. You have this dead spot that doesn't fill back in on the tree. So what was a beautiful shape tree now is all blotchy. And then if you one of them just flat dies. Now you've got all these tall ones and you're gonna put a little bit of bitty one in to replace one that died. It doesn't match. And so I think in the long term, due to foliage diseases, a little insect called a bagworm that attacks them, and also spider mites, I just don't

recommend them for here. I think in general it tends to not do well and I know you drive around Houston, you're going to see a few that look great, and that's possible. But I can't tell you how many people I talk to that have them, that have started to go south and wish they hadn't planted them.

and you see it around Houston. Some you see this. Really it's a deciduous so it's only going to be green in the growing season, not in the winter. But that would be another narrow thing that might fit into an area like that.

will kill it. If it doesn't kill it completely, when it tries to resprout, do it again and it will kill it. T R I c l O P y R. Now, if if you don't get all that written down, go to gardening with Skip dot com. And one of my newest publications is Herbicide. It says herbicides for a weed wiper, but it tells you the ingredients that kill each kind of weed, including woody weeds and brush and trees and

things like that. And so it's it's right there, and I even give you brand names that you're going to find in the garden centers of Triclo Peer.

to break here. When we come back, Jasmine and Jersey Village you'll be our first up, and Jim and a Tescasita you're right behind her. We'll be right we are in our last segment of the weekend. Just remember, you can listen to guard Line by podcast. If you want to go back and listen to past shows, you're certainly welcome to do that. And anybody who lives anywhere and can't get a radio signal for garden Line can listen to us on computer or on their app. I have

the iHeartMedia app on my phone. It allows me to listen but not only the podcast, but even to live radio Live katrh right there on the Heart Media app. And that's just another way. If I were you, I would be outside right now messing around in the garden, I think, and I'd have my phone with me listening to guard Line. So who knows you may see something, take a picture, send it in. Next thing you know, we're in a conversation. Let's head out to Jersey Village

now and we're going to talk to Jazz. Welcome to garden Line, Jasmine.

and more interested. I was sitting this morning before garden Line started, just listening to a bird in the darkness start to wake up the world with its songs, and I just love that. Now you can can go to Wallbirds Unlimited his website for Houston. It's called WBU dot com, but then add forward slash Houston and you can see all of our six stores.

that are slower to mold. You know, when you're feeding your hummingbirds, can't just leave it that's sugar water out there in the feeder for a week or two. It's going to go bad. That's what happens. That's called fermenting. So you need to clean it out and change it out. Just put enough to feed them until for a few days, and then put some more out. You don't have to fill the whole thing up, and it doesn't have to have the red dye in it. In fact, I wouldn't

even bother with that at all. Wilbirds Unlimited can get you set up on that. It can get you set up on the other feeds. I'm feeding their super blends. Still my birds have been molding. Oh my gosh. They look like they got in a fight with a weed eater and lost. You should see those birds. But they are sure happy that I've got the food right there, because it's kind of hard to fly around when you're in the middle of molt. Anyway, go to Wallbirds learn more.

I just got to warn you it's an addiction. You will get more and more into birds the further along you go, especially when you get to kind of help and advice that they'll give you there at Walldbirds. I'm going to head out to a Tesca Seda. Now we're going to talk to Jim. Hey, Jim, welcome to Guardline.

to sink down as it decomposes again anyway. But if it's inch and a half two inches, that's a pretty big gap. I might fill it myself. And yes, the grass will crawl back over it. We're getting near the end of the season, so it may not fully fill in everything, but I think it'll by and large if you just keep taking care of it, you may have pretty good filled by the end of the season for such a small area that has to crawl over.

is a great one. It's a great one. It's up at the Lone Star Convention and Expo Center, and we always have a good crowd that comes out for that one. I'm going to be given a talk on fall gardening, and then I'm going to be answering your questions, as I say, till the cows come home, whenever the cows

decide to come home. If you would like to get some free microlife product, I'm going to be given away a couple of really cool micro life products, some samples of that, and more than just a little samples, a nice little container of it, and just show up and we will have a big time out there. If you've got samples of plants, if you've got things you want to ask questions about, and maybe you got some photos on your phone. Some weeds, boy, I always get bag

fulls of weeds at these things, but that's okay. Just bring them, pull them up, put them on a ziplock, let me look at them. We'll talk about what to do. I am going to tell you this, a lot of my answers are going to be go to the website Gardening with Skip dot com because I keep adding more and more stuff up there that helps us. So I'm not sitting here away with my hands in the air trying to describe something to you. Just go right up there.

And it's a free publication. You can download it, you can print it, you can just look at it on the screen, whatever you want. We're adding more and more to that. But anyway, come on out. Any of you up north. If you want drive across town, that's great too, But any of you up in the north direction. I love to meet my listeners, So come on out at the Montgomery County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show. I'll

be there Saturday, September seventh. Yes, that's a week from yesterday ten or excuse me, twelve o'clock to two o'clock. So I mean spend a lot of time up there, and I look forward to helping you with that, as well as meeting you out and about one other thing real quick to Benson is the second annual Strawberry Jamboree is going to be the Extension Office in Lake Jackson,

Texas Bressori County. I said, at the Extension Office. No, no, no, no, no, it's by the Extension Office, that's who's putting it on. It is at the rec Center ninety one Lake drive in Lake Jackson. It is September twenty first, that's a Saturday from eight to twelve.

County Extension Office. You can call nine seventy nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight. And guess what, it's my favorite part. There's gonna be a Strawberry short Kate contest. They haven't asked me to be a judge yet, but I would probably peg out and nobody else would have anything to eat. But anyway, if you think you're a strawberry short Kate expert, all right, step up to the plate man enter the contest. Nine sevent nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight.