Butterfly and St. Augustine grass talk

diseases and all kinds of things. There's always something going on out in the garden. That's a fun part about it.

Spring brings, bring spring blooms, Summer bring summer blooms, fall brings fall blooms, and a landscape like that is always evolving, and it's just an ongoing work of art. In my opinion, I like that about it. I think that is really cool that it is an ongoing work of art. And as I've said before, don't worry about failing when it comes to gardening. Just don't give up. Because you may plant something and it doesn't do well, well, pull it up,

put something else in there and it probably will. Hopefully you picked a plant that was adapted to the area. But listen, this is our fund. It's like, I don't know, finger painting in the first grade. Get you get to just take your fingers, dip them in paint and smear them all over the place. And hey, mom and dad thought it was gorgeous, right what you came up with This is for your own esthetic pleasure, So just have

a good time. If you're someone that want to get out and mess with the garden, you just want done, well, you can have it done for you. But I think part of the real healing and just mental health benefit of gardening as well as physical is just getting out there and having fun doing it all. Right, Well, you've called, you're listening to the right place.

into that, nor can water very fast. Right, But as you break it up at organic matter at expanded hill, those kinds of thing, you increase the amount of air that can move down deeper and deeper into the soil and therefore the root system thrives. So that's how we do it. That is what I would say would be an organic approach to soil care, because when it comes to organics, it's all about the soil. People think, well, something's organic, so I'm going to use an organic fungicide

or an organic pesticide or an organic herbicide. No, that's not where organics begin. Organics begin and still is in the soil. You get the soil, right, that's number one. Now, yes, there are organic controls for diseases and pests and weeds and things. We have those options, but it's not just changing the bullets in the gun. Organics is not just changing the bullets in the gun. It is a whole

system approach. It begins in the soil. That's why Microlife when they design their products, they included a lot of soil microbiology. The product itself is former plant material. I mean it is materials that were taken from nature to create the fertilizer in the first place. But whether it's the green bag, the six two four, the one that most people put on their lawns, I use it all

over the place. It's not just launs or the purple bag, which is hum makes plus the final decomposition stage of compost is humous, so it's concentrated compost in a bag. All of those are done not just to put the nutrients out there, but to help continue to build the soil better and better. And when you do that, plants thrived. That's what it's based on, as simple as that. By the way, if you're interested in Microlife fertilizers, you can

find them. If you go to Microlife fertilizer dot com, you can find out all the places where you can get it in and it is so widely available. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a place that I talk about a source, A feed store, a garden center, and Southwest fertilizer, ace hardware stores all right, everybody carries micro Life, easy, easy to find. So anyway, I was talking about the importance of, you know, starting

with the soil, getting that right. That is a mantra that we do talk about here a lot on the garden line because it is the foundation for success. It's where we want to begin. It just makes things easy. And so if you look at a landscape and you see beautiful flowers and you go, oh, my gosh, I wish my house looked like that. I can promise you one thing. Go to the go to the below the flowers. Go to the ground level, dig down in that soil and look at it and feel it. And I'll tell

you this. That is the reason those flowers look good.

plants for another place, not for here. But I can tell you this. We have our plants for here, plenty of them. You just want plants that want to be happy here, all right, If you would like to give us a call this morning, it's always good.

is seven one three two on two. I was out enjoying the birds that are at my feeders, and I every time a new bird comes to the feeder, I have to go look it up because I'm not a bird specialist, but I go look it up. And when I come back, I'm gonna take a little break here. I want to come back. I want to talk a little bit about some of the some of the things I've been noticing that I've learned from uh regarding backyard birds. We'll be right back seven three two two five eight

seven four. We're going to go now out to Richard and Katie. A good morning, Richard, welcome to guard Line.

hard to worry about pinpointing each weed. And once one gets away, now you just sentenced yourself to another decade of dealing with those seeds.

is it's a kind of a big rangy grass. People like a really tight, nice dense lawn, and Saint Augustine already is, you know, big old fat leaf blades and runners and everything. Florida Town was even more that way. So if you wanted, you know, if you wanted the maybe you came from the north and you know a nice little bluegrass lawn or something. You want something nice and tight and everything floor toown was a little bit

rainier in its growth habit, but it was. It was a good grass and and developed by Florida and Texas and m together many years ago.

they had. After that really cold weather came through. Then a fellow named doctor Moy and San Antonio developed arctic frost, and oh gosh, the other name is it's another frost. It's escaping me at the very moment. And those we were more cold hardy as well, and so we really have several varieties. There are a lot of other citrus varieties that are good, and I'll make it through the vast majority of your winners down in this area. But yeah, I think that's what you're referring to.

I really enjoy your show. Thank you, Gary, appreciate your call. I appreciate that a lot. You know, I'll tell you one place that you're going to be able to get things like the hardy types of citrus, and a wide variety is up at the arbor Gate in a tumble. Beverly prides herself on carrying plants that are adapted to here, getting plants that maybe are not as that people would want. And so I guarantee you they can get those kind of plants for you if they don't already have them.

She carries fruit trees year round up at the arbor Gate, and I'm talking about peaches and other things. I mean, they always have something there at the arbor Gate, and so you just go if you haven't been there. It's on twenty nine to twenty west of Tumbull, just a little bit outside of town, and there's a road called Trishel t R I c ch e L Trishel Road. It goes behind Arburgate. Think of it as a loop.

So as you're heading west on twenty nine to twenty, you'll you'll pass Trishel Road, then you'll see Arburgate, then you'll see Trishele Road again. So before or after, if you miss it, you're going to be able to just turn back and get to the back parking lot. And I'd recommend you do that. While you're out there, just first of all, take friends with you and you go This is a fun place. This isn't like you know,

the grocery store. You walk in, I load your basket and run out because it's all just meat and potatoes. That's a good knowledgy. But this is a place where you're gonna want to hang out and shop and look at the displays and look at the yard arts, the beautiful things they have there and the gift shops and everything. So grant a friend, run out there to the Arborgate and you're going to see what I'm talking about. I

always love to go. I always see plants I haven't seen before because there's always something new coming in to Arburgate. And the folks there know what they're talking about. They'll point you in the right direction. They absolutely you go in and you need help, and they can help you because they know what they're talking about. And that is so important when you go to a garden center. That's for sure. See I'm going to head out now to

North Houston and we're going to talk to Paul. Hello, Paul, welcome to garden Line.

base of the dirt. But this year is the worst I have ever had. And picking it as an orkan, no, no, you can't.

get up above eighty five degrees. A lot of our broad leaf weed control products are stressful to the Saint Augustine. They weaken it, they injure it. They don't kill it out right, but they weaken it. And so what you're going to want to be able to do is apply it early on. You can apply these earlier during the lawn spring green up period, uh than a lot of other products without damaging the lawn. But it's going to take more than one control. You don't have to treat

the whole long. Just where you see the virginia button, we'd treat that. And again, these aren't cheap. It comes in a little packet of like a dust and an envelope that you dump in I think it probably usually they make about a gallon of spray, which is your spot reading. So that's more than enough. But that is the one that is going to work. But again, don't expect one application and don't wait until the end of the year to try to treat it. Catch it early and then about four to six weeks later.

plants flowers for hummingbirds, Well, I don't know. I think Buchanans probably has about two or three dosten different plants that will attract hummingbirds, because a lot of native plants are very good at that, things with long tubular flowers. Some of the ones that aren't native but do very well, very well adapted here. They'll attract them. By the way hummingbirds are here, they're coming back. Buchanan's got you covered on those kinds of things. They always have a good

stock of everything. They've got knowledgeable folks and points in the right direction. And if you're going to do any kind of native plant gardening, you need to talk to them because it's more than just buying a plant. It's how do I use this plant, how do I include this plant? It's what plants would be good for hummingbirds and whatnot. There is also today at Buchanans Plants, August twenty fourth, from twelve to one pm over the noon hour is a Midsummer Flower Grown workshop. I would call

them first make sure it's not full. But a Midsummer flower grown workshops. It's a cost because you're going to get a lot of you know, there's a lot of materials that go into this that you get and get to do. It's eighty five bucks a person. But that's today from twelve to one. I would give them a call to find out more about it and find out what you're interested in. While you're out there, you know, all the other plants you want, from vegetables to herbs

to house plants, do you name it. You're going to find there at buchanans Plants again there on Eleventh Street in the Heights. But you really ought to go check them out. Also check out the website Buchanansplants dot com. And the reason is there is a ton of educational material on the website and that's where you can sign up for the newsletter that is so informative. Really that alone is worth the price permission. As they say so earlier,

I was talking about birds. I just mentioned hummingbirds, about the birds at my feet aer and I noticed this spring that my birds are looking scruffy. I mean when I say scruffy, it's like they had a fight with a weed eater and lost. I mean, they're just like a red bird is only about fifty percent red because all the a lot of feathers have fallen out, the

outer pretty feathers and stuff. They just look horrible. And so I sent a picture to Rich who is a Waldbird's Unlimited store owner, and I know, when I go to one of the Wallbirds store owners, I'm going to get really accurate answers. And he goes, yeah, they're still molting and This was very late in the season. I thought, gosh, I think they'd be through by now. But they are, and they're about to get their new feathers in and

look beautiful. If you are interested in birds, you need to go to Warbirds Unlimited and learn and ask questions because they can absolutely you get right on the right track. And you don't have to, you know, go get the whole nine yards of all the supplies and everything at once. Just go out there and get your feeder, or get you a bird house, or get mainly get some of the quality feed that they have. Their feed is not filled with stuff the birds won't eat, like cheap bird

seed is cheap bird seeds full of red bebies. Red bebies get kicked off on the ground. It's milow and they get kicked off on the ground, or sort them. The birds don't care about them. So you buy this bag of feed, you get about what half of it that's actually stuffed birds eat other than maybe some doves that pack around on the ground. You need to go to Wildbirds and get quality products and quality advice. And I'm going to tell you, I'm warning you it is

at an addictive hobby. I was never a bird person until I got my supplies at Wildbirds. And now suddenly I'm hearing a song and I'm I got a little app that it listens to the bird and it tells you what the bird is and is this cool stuff? Wb dot com Forward slash Houston. That's all you need to know. W b U dot Com Forward Slash Houston helps you find the six war Birds unlimited stores so you can find the one that is nearest to you.

And birds are a lot, a lot of fun. I I have a number of them that I use an app called Merlin m R L I N. It's a free app from Cornell University. They've got an outstanding ornithology department up there, by the way. That's the fancy word for I'm learning about birds or anthology. Okay, let's head out to Manville, Texas and we're gonna talk to Kurt he Good morning morning. What's up Menville?

In other words, as in the center, it stays green the main the veins in the center, and then as it gets out towards the edge of the leaf, it kind of loses color, and so it looks like you're looking at a green Christmas tree and a leaf. That's the best way I can describe it, because it's that same shape. If that's the case, then any magnesium fertilizer epsom salts does have a lot of magnesium in it would help. But if a plant already has all the

magnesium it needs. Giving it more isn't going to help.

for the week. That would be ridiculous, right, And well, sometimes we think about we're gonna put some nutrient on the ground and expect, especially something volatile like nitrogen to last for months at a time, and it doesn't. But in a slower lease form it can. And that's what that's what super turf does. But there's nothing wrong. I mean, it's made for lawns, that's the main reason we use it. But you know, if you want to use that on your fig tree, that would be just fine. It would

give you a gradual feed all through the summer. There's no problem with that. Again, I'm not saying it's made for fruit, but still it works. It does, and you can find you're going to find it where you find other nitrofoss products. Hide and feed hiding and feed up on Studient Airline. They carry it up there. I think you can also find it at Bearings Hardware, both the one on Bissinet and the one out on West Timer. It's easy to find Plantation Ace Hardware. Another place. Adam

Richmond Rosenberg carries nitrofoss products like Superturf. By the way, that's a silver silver bag if you're going by bag color, which makes it really easy easy to identify. I've mentioned before that you know gardening in fact, first thing this morning, first thing this morning, I was talking about gardening being a a h that we grow into and we learn and we change things, and it's just it's enjoyable and you can do that yourself, but you can also hire

somebody to do it. And Pierscapes peerscapes dot com is the website. They can take care of everything for you, from design to hardscapes, to fixing irrigation to landscape lighting, to quarterly maintenance, trimming, weeding, fertilizing, checking the irrigation, doing seasonal color changes, making sure the mulch is kept up. They can keep those flowerbeds looking really good. So maybe

you don't want anything added, you just want it maintained. Well, they can do that too, Pierscapes dot com two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty. I'll be right back. Hey, Welcome back to Guardline folks. On what is gonna be a nice Saturday. I'm looking forward to getting out and getting some things done after the show today. For those of you who you know, I don't know if how you listen to garden I'm always curious that you know, are people listening on the radio or they're listening on

an app that they're listening on their computer. And there's a lot of ways you can listen to garden Line. One of the ways I think makes a lot of sense is to get a radio app like the iHeartMedia app. It's free and you can just put in garden Line on there and you can listen to past shows a podcast. Once I finish a show, they put it online so that you can listen, re listen if you missed the show for the first time listen, and you can also

listen live on that app. And so you know, if I were not in here in front of a microphone talking to you. Once you get a little sunlight outside, I'm going to be outside getting some gardening done.

to build your soil, get it done now. Maybe you want to plant broccoli this fall, or maybe you're looking forward to planting some cool season flowers like between our pansies. Well, build the soil now, because whenever the soil is not wet, or when it's moist not soggy wet, is a great time to mix in organic matter and make it better to bring in mixes and stuff. Then when planting season occurs, even if it's rainy and wet, you're ready to go.

What did they say, make hay while the sunshines, right, Well, make garden beds while the sunshines while it's not rainy and things. That's just a little tip for you to think about. We've been talking about fertilizers and you know, we were discussing magnesium with the previous collar and I mentioned it had a little Christmas tree shape in the center, and it was a secondary nutrient. You know, we have primaries.

It's nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Those three, the three numbers on a fertilizer big are primary nutrients, and all primary means is not they're more important, it's that they're needed in more quantity than other nutrients. There's twenty something nutrients that are all essential. They're all important, they're all essential. The secondary group would include things like magnesium and calcium for example. Those are secondary nutrients. Then we have the trace minerals,

the ones that are in azumite. I've talked about asmite before. Those be things like molybdenum, manganese, copper, zinc, iron. Those are trace minerals. And we put the azamite out on our soil to build up the trace mineral content, and a soil test will tell you exactly where you are on all the different nutrients. And I always recommend starting with the soil test because that way you fertilize intelligently

based on your soil. You know your soil and your neighbor's soil can be different, even though originally they're probably the same type of soil there, but they've been fertilized and amended in things, so the nutrient levels aren't the same. And soil tests a good way to do it. But as mite is those trace minerals, and generally I'll say just you know, once a year, do an as and mite application to your lawn to provide a bank account there. You know, those trace minerals don't make the grass grow.

You know, nitrogen pushes new growth. That's pushes is not a good word, but it it basically, it stimulates the new growth. But these trade minerals they're not going to do that. But to support new growth, you have to have them. And so think of it as a bank account. You put the money in the bank account so when you need it you can make a withdrawal. That's what asamite is doing for your soil. It's putting trace minerals

in the bank account. You can go to asimite Texas dot com find out more about it, and it's widely available. It's all over the place. It's much if I talk about some feed store, garden center, ACE hardware stores, you know Southwest fertilized all those places, or you're going to be able to get asamite there. They are set up to do just that. But soil building while the sunshines.

That is something to remember. And I know you know, when you're having temperatures that are forecasts to be really hot outside, it's kind of hard to get excited about going to get soil or bringing soil in and going through all the amendments and whatnot. But this is a time to do it. Get it done in the early morning. You can take you can take a better part of a week just working just a little bit in the mornings to get those those things done, because then later

you are going to have success. Remember it all begins in the soil, brown stuff before green stuff, and what that means is decomposed organic matter and fertilizers in the soil to create the best possible soil condition you can get. That's it I'm talking about. As mit Ace Hardware stores is a great place to get anything you hear me talk about here on Guardline. The fertilizers, including as might the micro nutrient or trace mineral application. If you have

pests and diseases and weeds go to ACE Hardware. They've got it. They carry it all there, and you know, we've got forty of them in the Greater Houston areas. So close your eyes and throw a rock and you're probably going to get an ACE Hardware store. There's the minium around here. But seriously, you can go online to ACE Hardware dot com. That's the website Ace Hardware dot Com and find the store locator and you get a little map with the red dots all over it, and

you can find every Ace Hardware store around you. Maybe you're you know, you're out visiting family and some other outside the Greater Houston area, you can find the ACE Hardware store near you. That I mean, they're everywhere, and they carry all the things we're talking about. Especially our Houston group. Those stores around here, we work together, and you know, so that I don't just start naming some

product that they've never heard of. They are going to carry the things that I talk about on Guarden Line, and that's important. It's a one stop shop. And you know when you go onto ACE, you're gonna have You're gonna have everything else you could possibly need for setting up that beautiful area. You know, barbecue pits. It's still barbecue season, and hey, here comes football season, and what do we do. We have to put some burgers and

hot dogs on the grill. Well, Ace Hardware can get you set up with grills, including grills on steroids like the Big Green Egg and the Traeger grills and the Weber. Weber's a great brand of grill and all the supplies that you need. Of course, I love outside to have those little strings of lights that create the ambiance.

the show. It's always a good time. I'm going into a break if you want to give us a call, if you're even to be right up on the boards there when we come back. Seven to one three two one two k t R seven to one three two one two k t R H. I want to remind you that if you're interested in the second annual Strawberry Jamboree and Lake Jackson, Texas, you're going to have a day full of speakers. You know, October is the best

time to blent strawberries down here in our area. And if you go to this, it's September twenty first, from eight to noon, so all morning, September twenty first, Lake Jackson Civic Center. Want more information, here's a phone number nine seven nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight. Nine seven nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight are called the Brazoria County Extension Officebus taken Welcome back, Welcome back to Guardline. Good have you with us today. We've got

plenty things to talk about today. If you'd like to give us a call, if you have a question or want a plan identified or whatever. The question is seven one three two one two kt r H. Seven one three two one two kt r H. It's as simple as that. I'd be glad to help you have a I like to put it this way. We want you to have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape. That's kind of a goal here on garden Line to

guide you in the right direction. And if I can just rant for a minute, I just we allow me just a real quick rant here. Social media is not the place you need to get all your gardening information unless you really know the source. Unless you really know the source here. Here's why. What I find is that when you go on social media, anybody who has a computer can be an expert. And you see stuff. There's several categories. There's stuff that is just clickbait and it's

a waste of your time. You know, put beer on your lawn. That was an old one, used to be real popular, and if it's weird, it's going to be popular. The second category are people that kind of know what they're talking about, but not really and so you know, you can start with the truth and end up in a lie. Okay, that because it's been or it's applied in a way that it doesn't apply, or you know,

anything like that. That's that's the second category is like, Okay, I know why you're saying that, but what you're saying is wrong, or it's wrong for the Houston, Texas area, or it's wrong for a different version of the planet you're talking about or whatever. That's the second hutter. And then there are people that just wing it. And I'm always amazed when I see things posted and someone says, oh,

what bug is this? And these people are just throwing out all these answers, and it's like, what where do you even come up with that? It's good to I've had to learn this. It's good to know when to keep your mouth shut right and just not be the expert out there. But that's social media for you. And so I always cringe at it, and I can. Boy, I wish we had a slide show I could put up right now for you to see of all the examples.

A cluster of tomatoes where one tomato is primary blue and another one is primary red, and another one is primary purple. I mean not Cherokee purple tomato. I'm talking about purple tomato and another one is yellow and they're all on the same cluster. That doesn't happen. It's a lie. And they're selling seeds for this, and you know people are going to buy it. It's like, Oh, wouldn't they be cool to have that plant? Don't do it, don't believe it. It's just does that mean there's no truth

on social But of course not. Of course not. Guardline has a Facebook page. I mean, so I'm there and I have an Instagram to you, but it's just saying that in general, it's it almost seems like the people that most don't know what they're talking about have the loudest boys, or at least they're they're ubiquitous and everywhere, and that that's just not a good a good way to get good gardening advice. You have a number of options. We've got garden Line Radio, we have got your local

county Agrolife Extension office. Where in the greater Houston area you got, like I mek six different horticulturists. There's one in Montgomery County, Brises County, Harris County, Fort benk County, Brazoria County, Galveston County, Orange, out in Orange out there? Who am I leaving out? Don't want to leave anybody out. But anyway, there's a lot of horticulturists done here in the greater scenario too. There's way garden centers, the mom

and pops, the independent garden centers. You go in there with your your picture or your question, or maybe you saw something on social media, you know, take it in on your phone and show it to them and say is this true? And just wait a minute, because it's gonna they're gonna have to get up off the floor where they were rolling around laughing. Answer your question, but seriously, don't don't be fooled by all that stuff. All right, Well that was my little soapbox. Thank you for allowing

that to Hope you didn't turn off the radio. Uh A word of the wise, though, I'm telling you, what did Pt. Barnum say there's a sucker born every minute? Yeah, don't be that one when it comes to gardening. Uh, Martin Spoon Moore. Someone is asking me the other day whould I recommend for? And I can you know, I'm not going to finish the question, but it was a tree question and I just set Affordable Tree Service Martin

spoon Moore. It's as simple as that. You need somebody that knows what they're talking about to deal with your trees. When someone shows up on your property with a chainsaw or any kind of saw and they don't know what they're doing, they can do damage that never gets fixed. Once you turn a big beautiful tree into a hat rack or some other version of that, it'll never be the same. I mean, and it's you gotta you gotta have somebody who knows what they're talking about. That's Martin

spoon Moore an affordable tree. You can go to the website aff Tree Service dot com a fftree Service dot com, or you could just give him a call. Give Martin a call at seven one three, six nine nine twenty six sixty three. You know you should always listen to Garden Line with a pen and paper around, because I'm gonna give out websites and brand names and products and plant names and things that you want to write down.

So hopefully you've grabbed it by now here. It goes again seven to one three six nine nine two six six three Affordable Tree Service. Uh, get ready for storms. When when storms hit, if a tree is properly pruned, it's less likely. Doesn't mean it guarantees you want have damage, but it's less likely to have damage. Have them properly proved, Have your trees trained right, anything you need done around a tree, trees living the roots. You put a trench by a tree and you have cut a huge section

of the roots off. Call Martin first, how do we go about this? Have him come out. He charges for a consultation to come out. If you hire him to do some work. That consultation fee goes into the price of what you hired him to do. But have him come out and take a look at it before you

make a mistake that you're gonna definitely regret later. It always I cringe driving around town and seeing the kinds of damage that had been done to trees, because I know, you know, so one the other day took a picture of it and it was like, that tree, just go ahead and take it out. It's over. It's over. I don't know, you know what kind of two jerks on a chainsaw tree service drove by. You know you own a pickup and and a chainsaw. You can call yourself

a tree service. Anyway you get the idea. Well, let's take a little break here. I'll be right back. The number if you'd like to call in seven one three two one two KTR eight. Then if you would like to ask a gardening question, you can give me a call seven one three two one two k t R eight seven one three two one two k t R h nightro fives has a product called Sweet Green, and I've talked about it before. Here here's the thing that I think is really cool about sweet Green. Sweet Green

is a molasses based product. That's where that's what it began with is molasses, and molasses is basically a bunch of carbon. Sugars are basically long chains of carbon, and UH, microbs need that, especially some of the beneficial backter we're talking about. That source of carbon is very important for them in order for them to proliferate and grow, and Sweet Green does just that. Organic gardeners have known for a long time that molasses can be beneficial for the plants.

There's products that are just molasses that you put out. Sweet Green is eleven percent nitrogen fertilizer for your lawn and it releases those nutrients pretty quickly into the soil where microbes then do their work and the plant roots get access to that nitrogen that they want. Well, sweet green can be applied. It's about a ten or eleven percent nitrogen. So you put about let's see, ten pounds per thousand square feet. But right now, how I would

recommend you use it. Listen to me here please, as I would put half of it down now, and then I'd weigh about a month and put another the other half of it down, so about five pounds now, about five pounds about a month, and kind of spread that out a little bit over time. After that we're going to be you know, it's really time to be doing our fall fertilization here, so you can go ahead and

follow my schedule. And by the way, if you haven't seen my fertilizing schedule online, it's at Gardening with Skip. There's a schedule for mowing, watering, and fertilizing. That's the how to take care of your lawn schedule. Then there's a schedule for insects, pest diseases, weeds, all those kind of things, the things that want to attack our lawn or infest our lawn. That's a different schedule. Both are free.

They're both there and if you look at them you'll see when we do fertilizing and the different products that I think will do a super job for you. So sweet Green from nitrofoss it smells wonderful. I like to kind of half tongue in cheeks say it smells so good you want to throw a bag in the back of your car and drive around the Loop in Houston one more time, just to enjoy the fragrance on the

way home. Hey, where do you get sweet green? Well, you're gonna get it in Channa Forest Adam Richmond Rosenberg Growers outlet up and Willis carries it as well as RCW Nursery on Tomball Parkway right where it comes into built Way eight. Sweet Green. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two and two five eight seven four if you would like to give us a call. I'm a broken record on garden line about preparing the soil.

anybody is Nature's Way Resources. John Ferguson Ian Ferguson out there at Nature's Way, uh for a long time now, Nature's Way has been producing quality materials I'm talking about. You hear me talk about rose soil. Well, Nature's Way is where rose soil was born. You hear me talk about leath Moore composts for a lot of things, including top dressing a lot. Nature's Way is where that was born. They've been long. John is a walking encyclopedia and has

been for a long time of all things soil. And all you need to do is head out there there on Sherwood Circle up as you're going up Interstate forty five where fourteen eighty eight comes in from Magnolia, you just exit their turn right instead of turning left toward Magnoia, turn right, go across the tracks that sherwood. Circle back in there, and that will be Nature's way. Take a truck, take a trailer, call them to make have them deliver

it for you. Go buy and pick up bags of it, bags of composts, bags of these different soil mixes, bags of mulches to go on top of the soil surface. But here's something you need to do. You need to tell them that you heard about it on garden Line. All of these products, all these soil based products are on a special if you will a really good special if you will tell them that you heard about it on garden Line. So don't forget that. Make sure and

mention that when you talk to them. Here's the phone number if you just want to give them a call. Nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety Right now is the time to get your soil ready because if you're gonna plant herbs this fall, perennials this fall, woody ornamental shrubs, trees, vines, if you're gonna plant vegetables, flowers,

whatever it is, do the bed prep now. And Nature's way resources helps you do the bad prep so that when it's time to plant it doesn't matter if it's been raining for three days. You can get right out in there and get your plant in the ground because you've prepared good soil using nature's way resources products. I think about this a lot. I always think about things that are hard to convince people of. For example, fall planting in spring. Everyone's a gardener. Everybody wants to be

a gardener in spring. And when it comes to planting, though, the best season of the year for planting is in the fall. That means it's the only season we can plant twelve months out of the year here. But if you plant in the fall, let's say October November, for example, the plant has all winter when there's essentially no demands on it at all to speak of, to get that root system growing out of what was the cylinder roots

and the container into the soil around it. So when next June comes, or when it may, when summer begins here in our area, when it heats up, that plant has a better root system than one that was planted in the spring. It's just a way to get there faster and easier. The recommend that you do your soil prep and you're planting, get that done in the fall. It's the best season of the year to put these

things in. And I wish I could convince you that, just like trying to convince people to buy brown stuff when they're staring at all these plants with big, beautiful blooms on them, Well, just make a new Year's resolution and at the end of summer, and that resolution is if I buy a plant, I'm going to buy something to make the soil better. With that plant, go and fix the soil better, but always better. It's not a one and off. You're always improving it, fertilizing, compost, things

like that. And then when you put that plant in, it's going to thrive. And you know, you go to a place like Plants for All Seasons, which is on let's see Tumball Parkway Highway FM two forty nine. Going up the Tamba Plants for All Seasons, you exit Luetta and it's just path past Luetta, just north of Luetta on two forty nine Tumbo Parkway. They have tons of plants there, but they also have all these soil products there.

I mean, when you walk through the you know the stories you're heading toward checkout, they just all around you. There's soils there's fertilizers, there's everything you need to make the brown stuff right. Don't just grab a plant and head to the car. Grab something else to so that that plant is happy. If it's happy, it'll make you happy with blooms and fruit and whatever you're wanting to get out of that plant. Plants for All Seasons is the website, by the way, is Plants for All Seasons

dot com. The phone number two eight one three seven six, sixteen forty six. Listen, when you go into there and you bring that stuff home, the plants and the soils and things, your brown thumb is going to get really green. And they also are experts on helping you with any kind of question that you might have for success with your plant. We're going to head now to Cyprus, Texas and talk to Ed. Hello, Ed, welcome to garden Line.

probably gonna hurt the desire marble plants too. But that is one morning glory. The white stuff is a meai bug UH, and it's probably the mealy grass meaie bug. It attacks a lot of different types of mealy grass and other ornamental grasses too. By the way, UH and meali bugs are very difficult to get rid of. They hide and so products don't get to them. They have that protective fluffy coating, so your spray doesn't get down there to the bug. You know, it gets caught up

on the outside. So what I would recommend is, if you've got those in there, which you do in the pictures, I would cut that grass all the way back down to the ground and I would get all the debris out of there, put it in a trash sack and get it off the property because it's going to be full of meai bugs. Your grass is going to send new growth up out of the base the crown of

the plant. And then I would use a product that's a systemic insecticide to get in the plumbing of the plant so when those mealy bugs suck juices, they get the poison. It's like your that becomes a bait station. Now with a lot of plants, I don't recommend the systemics because we got bees coming to the flowers. With newly grass, we don't have that concern, So I would use There is one called Immido Cloak Bred some welcome back.

Good to have you here with us on Guardenline. Hey, we're looking forward to talking to you about the things that are of interest to you. We also direct you to good sources for the various supplies that you need for your success, whether it's lawns, gardens, tree shrubs, vegetables all that.

down there. I mean, I'm talking about not just a League City, but Santa Fe, Clear Lake City, Elkaemeno, Reale, San Leone, Lamark, Webster Bay Club, all of those communities. This is your hometown feed store and they're open Monday through Saturday from nine to six. Are closed tomorrow, closed on Sunday, but with the nine to six. If you're at work all day and you're swinging by on the way home, just stop in and grab what you need.

It's that old time service. They carry the sacks out for you and they carry everything that I talk about on guardline, as well as quality pet food supplies for your backyard chickens, whatever you need. Here's a phone number two eight one three three two sixteen twelve two eight one three three two sixteen twelve to get to get a hold of the folks there at Leak City feet I'm going to head now out to Cypress again. I believe we're going to talk to Ed.

You see what I'm saying. So as there are bumbling, they're they're not smart, and so you kind of force them in. Here's a little trick that wildlife management specialists told me a long time ago works, and that is to get elbow macaroni, little elbow pasta and boil it in a beef boo yon. I guess that makes it taste like a tasty grub or something. I don't know.

And you can don't put too many of them. You don't want to fill up the armadilla, but you can kind of put one and then a little further forward put another one, and you can kind of lead them into the trap that way, and once they get in there, then it closes behind them and you have to relocate them somewhere else. All right, thank you, all right, Okay, I was going to offer you recipes for armadilla, but I figured that probably wouldn't go over it. All right,

take care of it. Thanks for the call. Appreciate that. Yeah, I'm told people eat those things. I cannot imagine that. That just doesn't work for me. Mental block. I'll try a lot of things. I'll try a lot of new things, but that one I'm gonna die domb on that impossum. You know, you can call me if you if you love either of those, to tell me why that's wonderful,

But I'm not gonna go there. All right, Uh, we've had storms, this sprank, we had one heck of a one that put power out for a very long time. Then comes hurricane Barrel power out for a very long time. People are interested in getting a generator, and you by generators a lot of places, and you know, Generak is an outstanding brand. But I'm telling you, if you're going to get a generator, please listen to this. Quality Home Products of Texas is where you need to get it.

They carry Generac as well as another brand of generators, but Quality Home it's all about the way that you're treated and the service you get before and after the seale. You walk in there you go, hey, I need a generator. They're not just going to be like, well here's the Cadillac, go buy this one. They're going to ask you what do you need it for? I mean, are you just trying to keep a refrigerator going? Is it a whole house that you need to get going?

and the city codes and whatever. They do all that. All their technicians are in house. They don't have to subcontract out to some electrician to come in or some other technician to come in. They have those in house, and then after you they're there for service after the sale. That's why they've won the Pinnacle Award, the Better Business Bureau's most prestigious award for customer service eight times eight times over five fourteen thousand, five star reviews. Last time

I looked. It's a family owned business since nineteen eighty nine, right here in Houston, Texas. Quality tx dot com. That's the website. Quality tx dot COM's really good website. You can learn a lot, but you need to call them. Ay it's seven to one three quality, seven one three quality and find out they have financing options right now. If you trade in an old portable generator, any brand or size, five hundred dollars off of what you are

about to purchase, so you can't go wrong. And if you're going to get one, talk to the folks at Quality. They know what they're talking about and they do take care of their customers. You're listening to Gardenline and we're here to answer any kinds of gardening questions that you may run across, for example, tables, lawns, weeds, trees, shrubs, whatever your questions are, just give us a call. Seven one three two one two kt R H seven one three two one two k t R H.

It is enchanting number one. You get there and it's like, oh my gosh, this is big, and there's there is every kind of plant you can imagine, and the best varieties, new varieties, things you've never tried. Do you want to bring in hummingbirds? They've got every kind of hummingbird thing you can imagine there at Enchanted Gardens and Richmond. They have beautiful pottery out there, gorgeous pottery. And I think

pottery is an investment. And if you buy cheap pottery, you get what you paid for, get you a quality piece. You have to buy it all at once, but gets you some quality pieces of pottery. And there's pretty is the plant you put in them out and Enchanted, you're going to find things that aren't so common, like, for example, creeping wiregrass or wire vine. Excuse me, creeping war vine. It is a really cool little groundcover that you don't just find everywhere. They've got that. Do you want to

bring in butterflies? They have every kind of butterfly plant you can imagine there at Enchanted Gardens and much much much more beautiful garden. Blame everything all of the above at Enchanted Gardens. Here's the website, Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Go out there, but take some friends when you go, because this is a destination place to visit. I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back in. Good to have you with us. Good to have you

with us here on garden Line. Looking forward to visiting with you about the things that are most interest to you. I did a post to our Facebook page the other day where I'm talking about Medina has to Grow supergrow Plus. Now Medina products, you've been familiar with them since the nineteen fifties. I believe they may even go further, but I believe that's when they begin, in other words, a long time, and they've been on garden Line for just

about that minut of time too. Medina has to grow, there's the has to grow lawn, and there's the has to grow supergrow Plus for lawns. Also, the supergrol Plus has a sixteen zero two fertilizer content. A lot of things have fertilizer content in them. This one also includes a keylated form of iron. Now, when your long grass, when you're Saint Austine starts a yellow that's an iron

deficiency and it can be due to various reasons. But by applying the supergril Plus, which by the way, it's a quart bottle, hooks up the garden hose, covers four thousand square feet. It takes about ten minutes to do it. By applying that, you're getting the folier nutrient on the plant, the grass plant, the grass blades, but you're also getting it done in the soil and it really helps with that iron chlorosis. It also has molasses. I was talking

earlier about molasses and why we like that. It also has humic acid for example, and seaweed extract that is just a concoction. Now it's made. You know, it's promoted as a lawn fertilizer, but you can use it on a lot of other plants and gain the same kinds of benefits from it. Widely available like all Medina products here in the Greater Houston area. We're going to go now to the phones. I'm going to head out to Kingwood and talk to Bill. Hey, Bill, welcome to garden Line.

it less and less efficient. So it just looks like it needs to be watered and fertilized as it declined down. Typically that doesn't kill it. Boxwoods are pretty tough and they're able to survive with the nematods, but they don't look good then there's a boxwood blight, which is a disease and it can cause the complete death. And so I can't tell you what you're seeing on this one. You would have to have somebody take a look at it.

One thing you can do is if you have one that's dyed the plant is it, but right before it's completely gone, while there's still some green in it, you can take a knife and slice the trunk. Slice into the trunk vertically like down the direction of the trunk, and underneath the outer bark you'll see some brown staining. The way I describe it as it's almost like a cigarette filter, you know, that has that tar staining in it. That's what it looks like. That's an indication of the

soil born fungus problem. Now the blight itself, that's going to be something that's attacking above ground, and it just is what it is. Occasionally you get broken branches. Occasionally, had we just had a row coal winter, I would suspect coal damage splits to the trunk as well, which can happen. But so in other words, the answer to your question could be several answers, but those are some ways you can try to just tell between the two nematodes.

You wash some soil up with a good strong blast of water, and the roots will have little bumps and knots on them, almost like an ugly sing string of pearls or the michelin Man kind of look.

water all the way up to the top. It affects some and then it affects others, and as it affects them, everything that those roots are feeding starts to turn ten and die. And if it's the blight again, you would need you can take a sample of a box would and that's probably the best thing to do. Get one that is dying but not dead. The plant clinic at an m will do diagnosis, but they can't do autopsies. So get one that's sick and you can see this

one's going out. Pull it up, shake some soil off the roots, get some good roots with it, put it in a bag box. You can drive it up to the clinic. That's probably the easiest way. It's about an hour and fifteen minutes up the road and the clinic address is plant Clinic, Plant Clinic dot t a m U dot e edu, plant Clinic dot HAMMOU dot edu. And that way you can have them diagnosed. It's not

that expensive to do. And if you're looking at a lot of boxwoods, it's cost effective to do that because then you know what the next step to take is instead of meet giving you all the possibilities.

Right now, they have a hot summer sale going on any plant forty percent off, thirty percent off all their metal and pottery. And if you've ever been to Ana, you know they got tons of cool blaying up there. Metal and pottery, thirty percent off. Ana Plants and Produce on Highway one oh five on the east side of Montgomery, Texas.

You got to go visit if you haven't been there, because this is a really cool place and there's always something new coming in at Anta Plants and Produce, And boy do they ever have a great selection of all the fertilizers I talk about, I including soil amendments as well. Let's see here, I'm going to Greg and Trinity. Greg, we're gonna hear music in a minute, and if we have to quit talking, I'll finish with you after the break. But how can I help?

to have you with us. Glad you're listening in today. I'm going to take you about thirty minutes here and I'm bringing a special guest in that is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to things related to monarch, butterflies and milkweed. And I say that because, well, I'm talking about Howard and Amarov. Howard and I have been I guess, penpals in a sense in terms of, you know, communicating through our emails and whatnot over a number of years now. Howard's a certified master gardener text here in

Texas with an advanced entomology certification. So when he's not research and Howard's out in his garden, his yard, the laboratory, right, he, like me, is forever curious, wanting to learn more and learn a good information. As part of his entomology research, Howard has read a number of peer reviewed papers, recent peer reviewed papers about monarch butterflies, about their migration, and about this plant, tropical milkweed that you've heard a lot

about and you hear people say, don't plant it. You hear people say cut it down and the end of the year and it carries some disease of the monarchs. We're going to get to the bottom of all that here. I'm holding calls during this next thirty minutes. Once you get past about eight thirty or so, we'll be taking calls again. But first of all, I want to go to the phones and welcome Howard to garden Line. Hey, Howard, it's good to talk to you again. Welcome to garden Line Radio.

and disappear from this cycle. So when they push new leaves out from their roots, those leaves are clean, and if a monarch comes along and eats those leaves, then they won't get infected.

to complete the migration. And that's really what we want to support, is that migration that's been going on for thousands of years, right.

some issues. You know, I've had tropical milk weed for a very long time and I love the plant, you know, for a number of different reasons, and so this is kind of interesting to put it in a spotlight here and talk about it a little bit and some of the issues that maybe people weren't aware of. That's one reason I wanted to have you on, just so people get a chance to hear a little bit more, a little bit more about that. So now, what what what is a gardener?

gonna jump right in here into the music. We want to get right back out to talking with Howard Nemoroff, Howard Numerff, Certified Master Gardner, Advanced Entomology training and we're talking about monarchs and tropical milk weed, and Howard, I kind of cut you off there in the middle of a native milkweed a spiel. We've got some great nursery Sharon Houston that really focus on native plants, and we can find a few of the natives here. They're a little bit of a challenge though. You kind of have

to adjust your thinking in that. You know, they don't sit there and look pretty all year. You know, they like you said, they do their bloom and then they drop leaves, and so you may want to elaborate just a bit on that.

in spring. It could be Zenya's for example, that you buy at the stores. It could be popular natives like Greg's mist flower, or verbinas or echinaesia, the you know, purple cone flower. There's there's a lot of options that are really doable for pretty much any gardener.

late summer fall season, so it spreads it out. Verbinas Joe pieweed, golden rod another full blooming plant. Purple cone flowers another native plant that does well. And then you mentioned the misflower, the Greg's missflower, and another one called shrubby bone set that's another type of misflower that does well. I just want to get some names out there for people to consider.

the spot in that. Uh And we talked about this before, but uh, I'm aware of the fact that people listening to the show, everybody's not gonna go out and pull up their their tropical milk weed. It just doesn't quite work that way.

arrive from Mexico, they'll have fresh leaves. And if you cut it down to the ground again in late September before the monarchs arrive on their way to Mexico, you will also help the migration because research has also found that some of the females drop out of their reproductive dormant cycle to lay eggs when they find tropical milk weed.

What we really want to do is we want those females to travel all the way to Mexico, where they will come back from in the spring and lay eggs as they start their natural journey north.

by getting the flowers that fuel them. But I know, we got a lot of different versions of gardeners out there that that uh uh, you know, are going to to one degree or another change the way they garden or not. Wow, well, we got about three minutes left here.

And it's a very very helpful article.

been wonderful. I know, I'm gonna I'm gonna hear a lot about you know, the talk, the information that you provided, and one thing that I just wasn't aware of was the issue of just feeding on that plant is not, as I'm gonna say, not as nutritious, not as helpful for the butterfly development or whatever is specifically that and that that was kind of interesting as well. I'm gonna have to run to a break, but thank you again.

I appreciate look forward to future corresponding with you on this and a lot of other topics as we have in the past. So thank you for being a guest on Guardline.

It's two weeks from today and it's over the weekend two weeks from day, September seventh and September eighth, and this is always a great show up there. In the Montgomery County area. It is at the Lone Star Convention and Expo Center and I'm going to be there on Saturday, So all of you listening up in the like Conroe area up Conroe, willis just that whole direction, come on out.

I'd like to meet you. I'm going to be given a talk on fall gardening, not just vegetables, but fall gardening in general, and then I'll be answering your gardening questions. I'll be having a lot of different kinds of products, supplies and stuff. We're going to be given away some different things that I think you would be very interested in, and just there for the Q and I always like

to meet the folks that listen to garden Line. That's the Montgomery County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show September seventh and eighth at the Lone Star Convention Center and Expostcenter. Now you can find out more by going to techswood Shows dot com, Textwood, t exwod Shows, all one word dot com. I'm going to be there on Saturday, and i'll get there I believe about noon. I believe that's what I've got scheduled to show up and be there for a couple hours actually out at the show, so

twelve to two. Yeah, that's correct. All right, folks, I'm going to head straight out to the phones now. No, we had some folks that have been waiting to talk. We're going to go to Cyprus and tuck to Nick. Hello, Nick, Welcome to garden Line.

called thinning. So if you imagine this kind of bushy plant that has never been trimmed, and you got a gangly shoot going out here on the left side, and so you go back and you cut it off where it joins another shoot. And so when you get through pruning, it doesn't look sheared. It just looks smaller. Do you see what I'm saying? And so, okay, there's two ways to do it. One is shearing, which is kind of

unnatural and I don't like the results. The other is to bring things back by cutting a long shoot back to where a side shoot occurs, and you just kind of bring it into a little better shape that way. So those are your options.

hasn't been watered. It shrivels up, it starts to die back slowly as the chinchbugs just more and more increase their population and march out into the lawn finding new grass runners to suck the juices out of. That's kind of how they work, so they almost always start in the sun next to a curb. One specific thing I noticed in your photo is that there's a couple of places where the tree branches probably tend to shade more,

and the grass looks better there. So that makes me think not so much chinchbugs, but maybe the watering isn't as good, so the demands are less where they're shade. But my bottom line is my best guess is you've got chinchbugs out there, and they will cross over the sidewalk and start into the rest of the lawn. You need to part the grass, get on your hands and knees in the zone between healthy and dead. You know, once they kill grass, they move on. They won't be

in dead grass, they'll be in living grass. Part it. Go online. Look at a chinchbug. What they look like. They're really tiny. They're very small. They're like an eighth of an inch long, black and white. The younger ones are kind of a bronze red color with a white

stripe across their back. But once you see them. Another way to check for them, Larry, is to get some soap, like a dish soap ivory liquid kind of thing, or better than that, actually better than that is the lemon scented soaps that you wash dishes in and put it

in a watering can with water. Just squirt a little soap in there, you don't need a lot, and then pour that watering can into that zone between healthy and dead where we think the chinchbugs are most feeding, and you'll see them come crawling up out of the truck. They hate that wet soapy material. It brings them crawling straight up out of there.

Way eight come together. RCW Nurseries dot Com is their website. RCW Nursery dot com. Right now, they have an August sale that you need to listen to. This fifty percent off select roses. And they carry more types of roads than anybody I know. They've got certain ones that are off fifty percent and that is unbelievable. Fifteen percent off all the trees and then include citrus trees. So if you've thought about putting in a citrus, now's a good time to get it in because you wanted to settle

in and establish before winter comes. Fifty percent off all Cajun hibiscus, my favorite type of hibiscus. Really, I just I love my Cajun hibiscus. And ten percent off all the shrubs. So what kind of shrubs do you need to replace in your landscape or do you want to add to your landscape. This is all part of the August Island Listen, August is almost over. Don't delay if you want to take advantage of this really really good deal. It's got to happen either this weekend or next week.

And RCW Nurseries is a place to go for that and a lot of other things. What a deal, What a great time to get that done. Let's head out now. We're going to go to Larry and sugar Line. Hey Larry, we are back now, and I think you kind of had a follow up question. Could you repeat that for folks who just joined out.

some trimming back, that would just be fine. A lot of people will cut them back because they bring them into the garage or some greenhouse or something in the winter and they'll prune them back just so they can get them in the door and not take up so much space.

that we deal with those. Now you're going to find bug Out Max at Ace Hardawar City of Memorial Drive, a hiding and feed up on student or Airline has it plants for all seasons. On Highway two forty nine. Talk about Parkway is another place that you can find that bug Out Max when we're when I'm talking about all these things today. By the way, I hope you enjoyed our visit with Howard Nemerov on monarchs and tropical milkweed.

I think it's really good to learn about that and to understand that we try to have some guests on periodically. That's something I'd like to do a little bit more. I know, you know we're all about calling in and things like that, but I think guests really help bring in a new person, effective and some new information to the show. So I hope you're enjoying that that we do.

a week when you're Saint Augustine lawn. Okay, so I'm going to water four times. I'm going to a quarter inch on each time. That quarter inch of irrigation would what the grass blades that thatch and not even get into the surface of the soil, and then when the irrigation goes off, it all evaporates away. But by doing that four times, you've increased the problems with diseases on any plant. Wetting the foliage repeatedly is not a good thing.

If you put that inch on it one time, and that may require what we call cycle and soak so that it doesn't run off. Most soils, especially clays here in the Houston area, you can't put an inch on at one time. It starts to run off faster than can soak in. So you water for a while, let the irrigation go off for forty five minutes, and have that cycle come back on again and water again, and you can cycle it soak two or three times and

get that inch in the soil. Now, the surface is still going to dry out the grass blades of thatch and all that. That water is always going to evaporate away no matter how you water. But you've put the rest of it into the soil and wet the soil deeply, and that creates a deep, resilient grass plant. And you

are using drinking water to put on your lawn. When you irrigate, you waste less money on your drinking water, which also saves you in most communities on your sewer bill as well, because it's tied to the water build in most communities. So that's just a tip of the wise. A good deep soaking on an infrequent basis, deep soaking on an infrequent basis, that is the secret to proper watering. And I've explained the reasons why it's so important. I used to live in Cypress area and I had a neighbor.

The water came on, I don't know three times a week, which is way too much, and it he just was watering too often, and the irrigation heads were so misaligned. That one head was spray in my car and my driveway. So I'd park backwards on some days so I could wash the other side of the car. But that's not the way to water well. I talk about bronze stuff, and you're not going to find a better place to get quality things to make your soul the best it

can be than Cienamulch. Cienamult is down north of Roe, Sharon. It's on FM five twenty one. Here's the website. Just just write this down Sienna dot com. They carry the best soil mixes. They have things like the Veggie nerd mix from Heirloom Soils for example, many many others soils and mulches and blends and bed mixes and composts and they just you can buy stop bulk. You can buy stop by the bag. I think they deliver within about

twenty miles for small delivery fee of the area. But ever fertilizer I talk about is there at Cienamultch and including a lot of other things composts and whatnot by the bag. Now, so when you go into Cienamltch and you drive away, or when you call them and have them bring it, if you're close by. You have taken care of the brown stuff, and now you're ready to put plants in and have success. Cienamltch sets your garden

beds up for success. That's as simple as that. I was driving past D and D Feed up there in Tumble the other day, and D and D Feed is just it's an awesome food store. Their phone number if you like to get them called two eight one three five one seventy one forty four. They carry every fertilizer I talk about on guardline everyone, and you need to swing in there to see it. They also have a great selection of everything you need to take care of

your lawn. You hear me say, we'll use this for ince X, or use this for diseases and use this control week. Go to D and DE feet they get you set up there. They carry age leaf, more composed and rose, soil and fruit, very citrus, very veggy, and irg sails all from airloom sauce. It's a great place and they have plants out fine too. Go by and say hi to them in there, and you got to

go inside that that is it is really really cool. Well, it looks like I'm about to put another hour in the books here, So I'll just say see in a minute if you'd like to give us a call. We got the phones open again here seven one three two one two K.

the garden gardening. It is fun and it promotes our health in any ways. I talk about that all the time, but it should be fun. You know people that It just breaks my heart when I hear somebody go, yeah, I got a brown thumb. I can't grow anything. I tried that it died.

to grow there, planting them properly. If it wants sun, give it sun. If it wants shade, give it shade. Do you see what I'm saying, All of those aspects, that's just the basics. And that's how you have success with plants. And you can too. You can too. And gardeners are always trying to do stuff that's outside the box. And that's okay, that's part of the fun of it. We're here to help you have success. That's what we want to see because it's fun. It's a fun thing.

Something that's not fun is mosquitoes. You know, all that rain we had a while back, Oh my gosh. I walked outside and it was like any of you ever see the hitch Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. If you haven't, well, it probably probably doesn't hold up over time, because now things are so much more horrific in the movies in a scary movie. But oh, that one was frightening. Back

in the day birds it flocks of birds attacking. Well, I thought it was in the movie the Birds, except it was the mosquitos was the name of the movie. They were coming in from everywhere. Mosquito dunks is what you need to always have on hand. Now, there's a lot of ways to manage mosquitos. You know, people have foggers that they go out there and do that and all that. Mosquitoes breed in water, and they don't need

much water. A thimbleful of water is enough for certain species of mosquitoes to be able to do their life cycle in And it's just a matter of days. They lay the egg turns into a larva. The larva's there for a bit, it comes out, and here we are another mosquito. You put mosquito dunks in water, and mosquitoes cannot grow up. They will die. It is a disease only of mosquitoes. Won't hurt birds, won't hurt pets, it won't heart beneficial insects water. It's a disease of mosquitos

and fungal fungus knots. By the way, it Lossoo kill fungus nuts. So you take a dunk, it's a donut. You throw it out there in the pond and it'll cover one hundred square feet and last a month. Or break it up, or just buy the granular form of mosquito dunks from Summit Responsible Solutions and throw those into that. Maybe you got a hollow up in a tree where water stands and mosquitoes are breeding up there, a saggy

roof drainage channel. I can't even say the properly. Throw them up in there, underneath the catch basins, underneath the pots where water stands. Throw it in there, a bird bat throw it in there, won't hurt the birds. Mosquito dunks easy to get, available in a lot of different places. For example, they're almost all independent nurseryes, feed stores, and ace hardware stores carry those mosquito dunks, so just keep them on hand. I mean, welcome to Southeast Texas. Mosquitoes

are part of life. It rains a lot here. If you were in Elpaso, you wouldn't have so many mosquitoes. But who wants to live in Opaso? And you can live here and grow all kinds of good things. Here in the Houston area, a mosquito Duk's what you need to know. I mentioned Ace Hardware. Ace Hardware. There's forty stores in the Greater Houston area and that is so convenient. No matter where you live, there's an ACE Hardware store.

So for example, you know, go to Acehardware dot com, forward sled, go to Aceharbor dot com and find the store locator and you can find the stores near you. I want to tell you this though, for those of you anyone out west, kind of west northwest. Langham Creek. ACE Hardware is on Highway five twenty nine in Cypress, that's near the Copperfield neighborhood. It's at the intersection of Barker, Cypress and FM five twenty nine. Langham Creek Ace Hardware.

You can find it by going to Acehardware dot com. On Friday of this coming week, Friday the thirtieth, they're going to have a giveaway of an Ego Power String Trim or two hundred and fifty dollars machine. They're given away because this is part of their grand reopening at Langham Creek Case Hardware. They're going to do demos on Weber grills Saturday, they'll be giving away a four hundred and fifty dollars Weber gas grill. That's a big giveaway.

They'll be demonstrating Big Green Egg and the Goseny Picha pizza oven. Those are cool. You got to see that. They'll have fifteen percent off all still units only on Saturday thirty first. Hear me clearly still open house only on Saturday the thirty first for the still unit fifteen percent off. Then on Sunday they're giving away a painting room makeover worth two hundred dollars and they'll be demoing trigger grills. So it's going to be a lot of

cool stuff. I was there earlier this year and we had a great time there, and then they just they kind of shut things down a little bit, did a complete revamp, and they're opening up again at Legham Creek Ace Hardware, one of the forty eighth hardware stores here in the Greater Houston area. Well, you were listening to Garden Line. Our phone number is seven and three two one two k t r H. Seven to one three two one two k t r H. While I was out at the TNLA show, I got to meet a

lot of different folks. You know, a lot of our sponsors go out to that show, and then there are a lot of folks there's really from all over the country. Just about people are coming in. People that wholesale plants of different types and products and all kinds of things, equipment. It's a great, great for horticulturists. It's a great, great show. I was out there visiting with Dean Nelson and Shelby and some of the team out at Nelson Fertilizers, Nelson

Plant Foods. Nelson's has been making quality plant food for a long time and they have a number of really good good products. I wish, I wish I could talk about all of them, but that would take about three shows, I think, to really do a good job of that. But Bruces Brew is something you can use as part of the turf Star line. It's grand or fertilizer anytime grass is growing for a quick green hu Now it's not just quick. It does have a gradual release component

to it also. But you can do bruces brew right now. If you have not fertilized this summer, go ahead and do the Bruces Breu. Now, I just do a light application of it and it'll carry you forward. It's an

excellent fertilizer. But while you're purchasing products from Nelson, nutri Star and the color Star line lots of different options for tropical plants, for viining plants, for flowering trees and shrubs, for just general trees and shrub The nutris Star Tree and shob will give three to four months per application of release of that nitrogen in the nutrients, and that helps get your trees and shrubs growing faster, helps the established.

All of these plus a couple dozen of the products available from Nelson Plant Food which are available widely throughout the Greater Houston area. Okay, here, let's see. I was gonna what was I want to tell you guys. Oh, just another reminder. I know what it was before I forget, because I tend to get the end of the show and forget something. The Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show September seventh and eighth. That's two weeks from today, September seventh.

I'll be there on September seventh. This is the Montgomery County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show. It's at the Lone Star Convention Center up on the North side Airport Road in Conroe. I'll be there from twelfth to two and I'm going to be given a talk on fall gardening, and then I'm going to be entering. I'll answer garden questions to the cows come home. So bring your questions, bring me samples, bring pictures on your phone. Let's talk. I'm giving you a two week warning there the Fall

Home and Outdoor Living Show September seventh and eighth. I'll be there on the seventh Montgomery County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show. Hope you'll come see me. That's always a fun time. A lot of folks up there in that region that really love gardening. Time for me to take a break. When we come back, I'll be talking with Randy and Richard first and your call as well. We're gonna go straight to the phones and just get down to business. Right here, We're gonna head out to

let's see Randy. Hello Randy, and welcome to Garden Line.

in the ground. You would know then all the water and has to be done right where that cylinder is right, because there's no reats can get outside that container. Well, that's kind of how it is, is it slowly spreads out, so it'll pump that cylinder dry. Even though the soil around it is kind of moist. It can't wig in fast enough, and so you've got to continue to water that cylinder area. And that's the best thing you can do.

you back off the watering a little bit. But it's just as important to be watering in September and October, for example, November, even if we're not getting the rain to supply an adequate amount.

on guardline? Jevon, I turn off the radio if it's on.

have too many plants to do that. So I'm kind of I don't know what to do.

on the surface. It's drenched in the roots. And so I think that you know, probably those options get real limited for mealai bugs. They're difficult to kill. It's hard to get them all. So things like soaps and sprut and oils and whatnot, that all just you know, it just you just can't get it on all of them, and that that is one of the problems with you using any kind of a product on the mealy bugs.

Cutting back the top growth, like on an ornamental grass or something that's invested, you can just cut the top growth off at the ground just a few inches above the ground and get all that out of there with all the old meea bugs and eggs and larvae that are in it and kind of start over coming up. You're still going to have them, but you kind of gotten it under control. Where then spring is a little

easier because you have better access to them. For some plants that you can't do that with, sometimes people just go ahead and make the decision to pull the plant because they're not going to be able to get get good control.

is fine. Uh, just just stay with it, uh and and realize that there's the decision. It's an effective product. But mealy bugs are difficult to get control over and get ahead of, and you may have to reapply it. And there are times when pulling a plant is the best thing just because you can't get ahead of them, and there's times when cutting it off and getting all that old growth out is the best thing. Is there's not a one size cuts all, but you can win.

And that BioAdvance should that should do it. That should help a lot.

anything that kills the top of the plant. They don't have a underground system to bounce back from like bermuda grass would for example. So there are you know, burn down products that things like vinegar would be an example of that, but there are others that you can purchase and sprown and mchillum, or you could just use a

grass killer. There's a couple of grass killers. If you go to my website Gardening with Skip dot com Gardening with Skip dot Com, there is a publication that says herbicides that you use with my weed wiper, and there it lists weed killers by the kind of weed they kill, and there's a group for grasses and they're all listed

right there. That would work on life with those if it's if what you have is crabgrass that is going to come back from seed every year, it's an annual so using a pre emergent in the spring, which is on the same website on my Pest Disease and Weed Management schedule for lawns, it tells you what and when do you do it that'll prevent the grab grass from coming in next year. So that would be that. Now as far as the coral snakes. I don't know a

great way to control those. There are some products that you put out that are they they smell to the snake. One of them. One of them have oh gosh, what's the ingredient. It's like essentially mothballs kind of thing, that kind of odor. Another one is based on the napthalene, is what I was trying to say. Another one is based on like oils like clove and cinnamon oil, cedar oils and things. They're going to give you a certain amount of repellent. But they mainly work on pit vipers

like rattle snakes, and I guess watermarks and snakes. I don't think they work on coral snake. You don't have to get a label and look at it. I'm definitely not a snake expert, as I'm proving on the air right now.

good general guess on those kinds of things. It's not like you can't use the tomato food on a citrus for example. I mean they're nutrients and they will help. It's just and if you're trying to cover your bases and not buy ten products for ten different plants, I would just go with a standard like that.

with plants. It's just sometimes well we have operator error as they call it, you know, where someone gets a great product and they'll dump it on and do damage when the product is not the product's fault, right.

call very much. Landscaper's Pride produces quality soils and mulches and they have many many types out there. Every month of the years is a good time to maltz. You should always keep bear soul covered with mult and Landscaper's Pride has twenty something products, including several quality multch products. But they also have soil products and now's the time when whether you're putting a container for a fall color, whether you're putting in a new landscape bed. Things like

Gardner's Magic. It's an organic pine based product. It's got humus screen, pine composted rice sools and a chicken pullet fertilizer that's going to feed for about three months out as it decomposes a way in the soil. It's good for raised beds, good for containers. They're mushroom compost I mean, gardeners, No, mushroom compost is rocket fuel for plants, and they have a mushroom compost product that provides a wide variety of nutrients.

They've got healthy soil compost that is an excellent recycled composted plant material. And then the black humous, beautiful, dark, rich composed. It's basically composted pine bark and some loamy topsail mixed in together. It's good for creating a new established bed or even just kind of building up an existing bed that you have. All from Landscaper's Pride. You go to Landscaperspride dot com and they'll tell you where you can find these and they are widely available here

in the Houston area. We're going to take a break right now. When we come back from break, Shay and sugar Land, you'll be our first show in this today. Looking forward to I don't know, it's a few more calls here, maybe maybe certainly plenty of things we need to be talking about here as we go forward. I'm gonna first I just wanted to talk a little bit about a company I haven't talked about in a good

wall and that's green Pro. Green Pro is a company that will come out and they will do core aeration of your lawn and compost stop dressing, and they basic service the service the area. Basically service the area, oh, let's say between I ten and Interstate thirty five. They kind of handle the northwest quadrant in a little north central as well. But Greenpro is one of those companies that does it right. I don't care if it's heat or dry spells, or foot traffic or take a root

rot or chinch bugs or whatever. When your turf is stressed, getting a good deep time aera to get pull that plug a core arash and pull the plug out of the sole, leave it on the surface, and then follow that up with the compost top dressing. It's an It costs to do that, but it's still cheaper, especially than resotting. And when you're trying to take the grass you have and bring it back as best you can. This is a regimen that I would recommend. Aerating and compost top

dressing now right now through fall. They've got a deal where they will aerate your lawn for free when you purchase the compost top dressing service. Now there's a two yard minimum, so they can't come out and you know, I just want one yard to compost and then aerrate. No, it's a two yard minimum to do this, but they'll airate for free when you purchase a compost top dressing. Prices start at about five seventy five plus tax. It depends on how big of an area, how far they

have to drive. You know, they're carrying a big multi product all over the place. But Greenpro knows how to do it, and they do it right. Greenpro always does a proper job. So one I was, you know, visiting, I think I was talking to you guys. Somebody called the other day and we were discussing the whole idea of compost stop dressing and why that, why that helps

and why that's important. And I'm telling you it just really really matters that you get somebody that knows what they're doing and that you get it done, because you can improve it a lot that way. If you want to go to the website, it's greenpro dot net, greenpro dot net. If you need a phone number, it's two eight one three five one. Let's see forty seven, Yeah, forty seven thirty three two eight one three five one

forty seven thirty three. I'm going to head out now to sugar Land and we are going to talk to say hello, sh and welcome to Gardenline.

that is an option. As far as sprays, I'm going to give you my best guess idea here and I have not tried these, so I'm not saying anybody listening that I know this will kill Ala famire, But I would think that one of two things would work. Either applying a general purpose week killer to them. That would include like a glyphosate type ingredient. You know, people are all familiar with that and have different opinion about using that product that but the key to it is having

a spreader sticker. And wherever you go shopping for your products, like you're in sugar Land, you're not too far away from Southwest Fertilizer on Businet and Runwick, Bob's got spreader sticks, all of our garden centers, all our ace hardware, stort

they got spreader stickers and stuff. But put that on there because if you've ever noticed, when it rains, the water just balls up and rolls right off the leaf and you need the spray to spread out and stick, and the other thing would be a triclope here ingredient. And if you go online to my website Gardening with Skip dot Com, I put something up about how to build your own weed wiper, and with it there's a

publication on herbicides to use. And what it does is it says, if you've got woody weeds, use this product. If you've got grassyweeds, use this product. You know, if you and so on and on. There you'll find out what are the products that contain life, I'll say, or what are the products that contain trici peer we People used to always just say, well round up glycas Well, round Up's not glyphs it anymore. For most home and garden centers where you go in when you buy roundup,

you're not buying glavasate most of the time. So that's why I've made that where you can find the products that contain either of those ingredients. So Gardening with Skip dot Com.

and knowing what you're dumb at. I'm learning that I'm dumb at a lot of things as I get. When I was young, I knew everything all right. Hey, if you're out in sugar Land and you haven't been to Chanted Forest, you ought to go. Enchanted Forest is an outstanding garden center. If you're in let's say you're in rosenbur I said sugar Land. That it's near sugar Land too. If you're in the Richmond area and you go towards sugar Land up up fifty nine, it's off to the right.

The actual road is FM twenty seven fifty nine, twenty seven to fifty nine. Awesome garden center. Their selection of plants is unbelievable. Coming up on September twenty eighth, Danny Linderman, owner of the Chanted Forest, is going to be talking. He's giving a talk call the Fall Kickoff. There's going to be all kinds of festivities. I'm going to be speaking out there this fall. They have something almost every weekend from September twenty eighth all the way, I don't know,

maybe November two. There's something going on every weekend out an Enchanted Forest. The ninth thing going on there is great plants, great selection, just outstanding. And if you're looking for a pottery, if you're looking for blame for the garden, you know, a herd, a bird bath kind of thing.

It's it's fall planning season. They're loaded up on shrubs and herbs and perennial him in and Chanted Forest before you need to go and all you need to do if you want to you want to go out there is remember en Chentedforest, Richmond, TX dot com