Freeze Soon, Cover Up!

group they were. I don't know, you know, I love talking to gardeners and people that want to be gardeners. And there's just what an optimism, a positiveness about things. You know, every year is different, but when you when you buy a packet of seeds and you see the picture on them, you just get excited. I'm gonna have something like that. That's I can't wait to taste that tomato or to see that flower or whatever. And then

you take this little piece of detritus. It looks like a tiny wet piece of bark, chip or something you put it in the ground and suddenly life comes out of it and it pushes out of the ground into the sunlight, and I just every time it happens, it's just like that's a miracle. That is That is really cool stuff. And with gardeners, the best garden we're ever going to have is the next one, right, isn't that true?

I hope it's true. Of you. We want to do everything we can to realize the hopes that we have for our gardens, and that's one of the reasons we do what we do here on guarden Line is so that you can enjoy that. Gardening should be fun. And I was telling the group yesterday that to be a good gardener, you got to kill a lot of plants. In other words, you have permission to kill some plants. And not on purpose, I'm saying, but just you know,

it happens. You try this, you try that, nature throws its curves and every here some different curves and that's okay. You always get to start over. And I just just out looking at the energy, just feeling the energy of the group and the and the hope and stuff out there.

Well that that is cool. There's a they were loaded up and stocked up out there at Nelson Nelson my goodness, at Enchanted Gardens, and I was just kind of perusing through and wandering through and looking at all the vegetables and herbs and flowers and shrubs and trees and just everything that they had, and some of the really beautiful pottery too. And by the way, the gift shop looked

good too, as it always does out there. But thanks for everybody that came out, Thanks for going along with all my craziness, and we having a good time with the rest of us. Well, this normally is a call in show, So how about I give you a phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four, or if you like to dial by letters or that makes it easier to remember seven one three two one two kat r H. Well, we're going to go straight

out the phone this morning and talk to Ralph and Katie. Hey, Ralph, welcome to garden Line.

of the weeds are still wet. That helps the products stick to the weed leaves because they're wet, and you get much better benefit from it. So don't you know, don't put it all on and then water, put the barricade on, water the barricade in, and now take those wet weeds and go right immediately, Just go right back in there and do the other one.

of times we don't follow directions, right. I mean, if you've got a bad headache, you take more of that title and al or ibuprofen or whatever you're talking about. And sometimes we don't follow the label, and that can get us into trouble. When you underapply something, you don't get the benefit that it should provide for you. When you over apply something, you can introduce your plant, whether it's a lawn grass plant or a flower or whatever, you can introduce it to some damage that you don't

want to have. There's a reason the label says what it says, and just this whole thinking like if a teaspoons good, a tablespoons better is not true and will get you into trouble. And so you want to be really careful with that. So if the label says put a certain amount on, that is the amount that has been determined by research to work the best for that product without causing unnecessary damage to a plant. And so you got to follow that. Always follow that carefully, because

well it's important and you don't need secondary issues. And you know, it's what we call operator error. It's not the product's fault. It's the fact that you know the way we put it on, put it on evenly. You know you're applying let's say you're playing a herbicide and you you know, you spread it across the yard this way, you come back through and you over double, overlap, you know, on those on those applications. Well, now you've got areas

that have too much of the product put down. So be careful, apply it properly and you get the results you're hoping for. Time for me to take a break. I'll be right back. All right, We're back back with your gardening questions at garden Line. By the way. The phone number if you like it, I like it to

give a call in and ask a gardening question. Seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two K t r H. I was talking with someone out at enchanted gardens yesterday and they were asking questions about nutrients and just basically about micro nutrients and trace minerals. And I think it's kind of surprises, is me. It catches me off guard the confusion that can be there over nutrients. It's because you know, I went through school, learned all this stuff and got

quizzed on it and everything else. Make sure we understand it. Uh, But I can see how it can be a little bit confusing because we talk about macrotriants and micronutrients and trace minerals and what does all that mean. Well, basically it's this our I'm gonna use lawns as an example, but plant or plants. Okay, So in your lawn, there are three things that you need a lot of, and

that's nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Now, oftentimes the soil has enough potassium because it doesn't wash away like some of the other nutrients can. But anyway, those are the quantity that you need. Then there's nutrients that your lawn needs a medium amount of, and things like sulfur and magnesium and calcium for example, would be examples of a medium amount.

And then there's things that your lawn just needs a tiny amount of, and those are trace minerals, and that would be things like zinc and manganese and boron and all kinds of stuff like that. And the misconception is if it needs just a tiny amount, that that's not as important of a nutrient as some like nitrogen, and that is false. It is equally important to the plant because these are required by the plant. So like if

you were gonna how would I do this? If you're gonna build bricks and you you have to have some clay, and you have to have some water, and you know, I don't know, some other ingredients in there to create this brick that holds together, drys and works, right, you can't do without any of those, even if something was needed in tiny tiny amounts. If it's needed, it's needed. And that's how it is with trace minerals that in

order to have a plant, let me do this. Pick up a grass blade, hold it up and look at it. And in that grass blade there is zinc, and there's there is a silica, and there is a boron and there and you never hear me say it's time to put boron on your lawns, but it has it's required to make a plant, required to make a plant part.

Just tiny amount, but it's essential. And that's why I talk about asmite all the time because that is a product that is utilized to put some trace minerals into the soil so that when our plants need them, they're there. And you can do asmada anytime of the year. A lot of people do it when they put their other fertilizer down because it's easy to go through the yard, put on your fertilizer, go back through the yard, put on your as mite, and then just water them in.

You can do it that way, but you could do it at any time of the year. These are not nutrients that are going to evaporate and go off into the atmosphere. You know, they don't easily wash out of the soil, and so it doesn't matter when you do it, but you just want to do it. And as far as how often you need to do it, that's that's kind of up to you, and it's up to your soil. What is your soil need. Soil tests are a good

way to find out that kind of thing. But you can do azmite once a year some people do it twice a year. But the bottom line is it is it is important to recognize it. Just because something is a micro I need just a little of it doesn't mean that it's not absolutely essential. We have We used to always say sixteen nutrients that are essential. Now we're looking at probably close to twenty, depending on the plant

and the plant growth stage. But anyway, that's how it works with ayse might And by the way, that it's for sale everywhere, you know pretty much the feed stores, the garden centers, ace hardware stores, you know, Southwest Fertilizer, all these kinds of places are going to carry the a's of min I.

in there, and you know, I just walked through. I look at the plants, I look at the brand new kinds of annuals and perennials that they bring in, and it's like that is cool, you know, visiting with Beverly or some of the other staff out there, it's it's just like wow that I hadn't seen that one before. It's a very new one and they're going to have that kind of thing at Arburicate because they're always stand up to date. Twelve months out of the year. You

can buy fruit, fruit, trees, berries, grapes at Arburgate. They keep them in stock right now. They have lots of beautiful color, beautiful color, and vegetables, all the vegetables that you need and herbs. The roses are just gorgeous in bloom and here comes Valentine's Day. Be a great place to stop in. You see the whole building that they have dedicated, a roofless building dedicated to two herb roses. Then they're just gorgeous. They're lotle gorgeous. Remember that when

you're there, bronze stuff before green stuff. So when you go home with the plant, go home with one of their one two three or their one two three easy system. It's a soil, it's a fertilizer, and it is a compost. The soil and compost have a extra bonus in that you get some expanded shale in those which really helps our clay soils and the nutrients organic organic plant food for anything with roots, so you can and by the way, the soil in the compost can be delivered in bulk.

So if you live somewhere and you hear my voice on this radio show, they probably can deliver it from Arburgate. And I realize that's going pretty far out, but they do deliver in a wide area and you can buy that in bulk. So remember to use that back parking lot. It is really nice, all weather, easy access and a very safe, very safe to get in and out, and

I basically love to use it myself. Well let's see here we are on garden Line and we are a call in show, so if you like to call in seven to one three two one two kt r H seven one three two one two k t r H. I was visiting with someone with a from ACE last week. In fact, I was visiting with a number of different employees from ACE and some of the managers and they just are stocked and ready for spring, and they've got

some really good deals going on right now. For example, they're going to have a President's Day sail on all kinds of painting supplies. So if you need to paint or maybe stained some wood or you know that deck, don't forget your deck needs a wooden deck needs to be resealed periodically or before you know it, you're going to get decay and then you get to build a whole new deck. And Ace Hardware has got you covered on that as well as the paints and things. They're

Mowen faucets this month February are twenty percent off. So if you're going to replace a foster it in a bathroom or in a kitchen or wherever you have it, stop by Ace. This is a good deal, good opportunity to do that. I need to replace my air filters. I was just thinking the other day, I need to put this on my calendar because you know you're supposed to replace them about monthly, especially when the unit's are running a lot, and you can buy three and get

one free. So that's also a good deal at Ace Hardware Store. And these things don't last forever. So go ahead and take advantage of it. Anything you need to make your home more beautiful, more enjoyable to live in, to make your outdoor areas better. The fertilizers I'm talking about for your lawn, the pest and weed and disease and everything else. They've got it at Ace Hardware. And we have so many Ace Hardware is here in the

Greater Houston area. You can go to a place like Sinkle Ranch, Ace Hardware, or k and m Ace Hardware in Kingwood or Lake Conroe, Ace Hardware, Wharton Feed and Ace Bay City, Ace on and on to go to Acehardware dot com and find the store locator and you can find the ones near you. They make it easy at ACE. I think I said this yesterday, but I

got my eyes on a Trager barbecue. They had the top of top brands, you know, Big Green Egg, Trager, Weber and on, then Minimal Well and others, and then all the stuff you need to go with your barbecue pit, all the the peripheral things that are part of just having a great time out there as the girl master of your own neighborhood at least of your own patio. That Ace has got you covered so earlier on I had, you know, talking about nutrients and the importance of trace

metals and other things like that. The big three nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. It's important to get those out at the right time and in the right amounts. And nitrogen is the single nutrient of all the nutrient insider out there. Nitrogen is a one that we most often are really needing to supplement. Now there's others that we do need to supplement for sure, but nitrogen will volatilize as a gas and go in

the atmosphere. It can it can dissolve and wash away down through the soil, across the surface of the soil. It is a nutrient that's always on the move. Bacteria, microbes take up nitrogen and when they do it becomes, you know, part of their bodies. Then they die and they release that nitrogen back into the soil, and so nitrogen is always on the move. There's several different forms of nitrogen in the soil and it's always going from one form to another, and our goal is to continue

to add it in small amounts. And if you're looking for something for an early greenup for your lawn, well, nitrofos has got you covered with nitrofos imperial. That's the fifteen five P ten. We say that's a three one two ratio, three being the nitrogen the most of that, less of the phosphorus, and a medium amount of the potassium. It's designed based on research at A and M over the years that have proven that is the blend that

you most need for your lawns. If you're going to replenish what typically is needed in a lawn, A three one two four one two even those ratios are, you're in the right ballpark there, and nitroposs imperial is going to release quickly. So if you use it as a green up, if you follow my schedule, there's a green up on there. You can do that. That's an optional one, but you can do that and get that early green that a lot of people are looking for with the

nitrophoss and pear. That's a red bag, by the way. Red bag, by the way. But remember this above all that if you're going to try to prevent summer weeds, you got to get the barricade from nitroposs down. Now, barricades put down watered in with a half inch and it goes to the soil and it ties up to the surface. Barricade does a better job of that than a lot of pre emergence do it ties up, and then when a weed tries to sprout and go through there, it sets it down and you never see the weed.

But if you wait too long and the weeds are all up, well, barricade is not going to do what it should do for you. You gotta do it ahead of time, and now is ahead of time. Now now, now, all right, time for me to take a break, and I'll be right back. Alrighty, welcome back to garden Line. Very glad to have you with us and looking forward to visiting with you about the things that are of interest to you.

What are your questions? You got a bug and got a leaf spot a disease, plant diying, and you don't know why need a suggestion for the best tomato on earth? Boy, that would be a controversial answer, right there. Everybody has their favorites, right I do too. I bought a sun gold yesterday. Sun Gold is a cherry type tomato that's kind of a golden orange color. Golden yellow orange color, really pretty and good night, that thing is sweet. There's gold and sun sugar are two of my favorites there.

But I think there's probably a thousand varieties of tomatoes out there on the market, or have been over the years, and there's so many good ones, so many good ones, and you need to try different ones. I never plant just one variety. I always try maybe two or three at least. Sometimes I go crazy and do a whole bunch of them just in a trial. But I always try something new because you never know each variety. It depends on the season, but it also depends on the

particular growing conditions and pasts that you're dealing with. For example, Celebrity tomato that's been around since the nineteen seventies. It's an All America selection from way back then, and it's one of the few tomatoes that is nematode resistant, not proof, but resistant celebrity. There just aren't a lot of tomatoes that have Nema toad resistance in them. But anyway, that

is an old time tomat a long time. It's not what we would call an antique heirloom tomato, but I guess if it hangs around long enough, it will be. But I love that tomatoes. They're a good one. But I don't just plant celebrity. I plan all kinds of things, try different ones out and see how they do it, and I would suggest you do that too, try something fun. One year, I planted every stuffing tomato I could find. So,

what's a stuffing tomato. Well, you know when you cut open a bell pepper, it's hollow inside, and then you have all the seeds kind of wided up at the top of the bell pepper where the stem attaches. There are tomatoes that are sort of like that, and they're made and even stuff any tomato, but they're made to basically clear out and stuff them, put them on a plate with I don't know what, you know, chicken salad

or whatever you want to put in your tomato. And I tried all those and I'll tell you this, it was fun. It was kind of cool, but most of them took so long to reach harvest that I only got a few off each bush. You know, in tomatoes, when we get into summer it gets hot, they quit setting.

The big slicers, especially small free to types, are better setting in the summer, which, by the way, is another reason why you should have some cherries when you do have your slicers, because the cherries will carry you further into summer. And I say cherry also mean grape. Grape types. Both cherry and grape will carry into the heap better. But anyway, I try some different ones. But if you're looking for tomatoes, always look at the days to harvest.

If it's a faster tomato, you're probably going to get more production out of it because it'll start producing sooner, so that when that hot weather and it's both hot days and hot nights too, when that arrives, you have gotten more of a harvest off that plant than something that takes a long time. And some of the most famous tomato names like brandywines probably one of the most well known names of heirlooms. Brandywine takes a long time, and I know people that grow it because they love

the tomato. I get it, go for it. But I'll tell you this, if you were to say how much harvest do I get out of a celebrity and how much harvest do I get out of brandywine, it is hugely different because brandywine about the time it starts setting, it quits setting because of the heat. Thing. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but just something to think about when you're out there looking at varieties. Well, I

love paste tomatoes too. By the way, I'm droning on here about tomatoes, but I want to paste tomatoes are very meaty. Instead of having a lot of that like jelly around all the seeds in between the sections of the tomato, they have more of actually the tomato wall, the solid part of the tomato in a paste tomato. And they're used for making paste and other things. I like to take them and cut them and dry them.

I think they make a really good dried tomato, and I sprinkle different kinds of herbs and spices on them. You want something that's a little bit of like maybe a taco type seasoning at maybe a little spicy. If you want something that's more of I want some rosemary or thyme or whatever. You can do them however, you want whatever flavor you like. Season all these one of

those seasonal type products. But boy, dried tomatoes last a long time, and when you dry them and you have a little bit of seasoning on them, it really concentrates that flavor down. So I always grow paste tomatoes not to make sauce, which is kind of what they're for, but to use this dried tomatoes. So there you go. I droned on out loud about tomatoes because tomatoes are the queen of the garden. You know that they're the

queen of the garden. And that means that when it comes to vegetables, that's the number one vegetable people want to grow. That's what we obsess over. That's what every year we have to try some new varieties of is a tomato especially, And that's just the way it is. Nelson Water Gardens and Nursery is out there and Katie, and if you haven't been, you ought to go. You

just had out I ten. When you get to Katie Fort Ben Road there you turn north, turn right right if you're going out from Houston, and it's just a little bit up the road, not very far at all. On the right hand side, when you go to Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens, you're going to find just an unbelievable selection of both the nursery items, the plants, and the things associated with water gardens. So for example, one of a kind fish fountains, water plants and pots for water.

In fact, Nelson's can help you. You can buy a beautiful pot there and Nelson's can help you. Have them turn it into a disappearing fountain, you know. That's the It's like a tall pottery and the water runs over the sides and then recirculates. They invented that system and they are experts at it, and you can have them do it, or they can help you with your do it yourselfing. If you want to do some do it yourself, get some help from the Nelson's experts. They can help

you with that too. For those of you who are so inclined, I like to walk through Nelson's just for the inspiration number one, the sound of water. I've told them this and I still think they have a charge admission because it's cheaper than therapy. You go out there and you just sit and listen to the water all around you. There's water splashing out of waterfalls and containers and everything else, and it's just it's cathartic. It's really nice.

They are nationally known have been for a long time for all kinds of things water garden, but don't just think of them as water. They have a very good nursery with everything that you would want to you know, your vegetables, your herbs, you know, your fruit trees, your shrubs, and it is a place you got to go and check out the house plants that are inside. You kind of walk through that on your way in beautiful selection,

which would be a great Valentine's Day gift as well. Well, I'm gonna have to take a little quick break here. When we come back, I will go to Pam in Pearland and John in fullsher and maybe your call if you want to give us a call it seven one three two one two. Katie r h. All right, welcome back to the Garden Line. Let's run straight out to the phones. Now we're going to go to Pearland and talk to Pam. Hey, Pam, welcome to guard Line.

the weed inator. Uh it's it does also cause your grass to not grow upwards as much to it still has horizontal growth, but it has a growth regulator, so you're not mowing quite as much uh in it.

course they got you covered on that. Maybe you're looking for some indoor potting soil like called the Works. That's what they call. There's the Works, and it worked really really well for all those tropicals we grow indoors. They have things for cactus and succulents, they have things maybe you're gonna plant fruit and berries or citrus. They have stuff for that. They have rose soil, they have whatever

you're looking for, They've got it, and you can. They give you the option because it's widely available around town by the bag. Wherever you shop, buy by the bag. Or you can go out and get it on your pickup or your trailer, go out to porter and get it out there, or you can have them deliver it and they can dump it in the driveway, or they can bring it cubic yard at a time in supersacks not too long. I got two supersacks of products for

my gardening and whatnot. So all you have to do is make the decision how you want to go about it, and call Airloom Soils, you know, go check them out. I like to go to the website because there's a lot of good information there, including a little calculator that will help you determine how much of a product you need. You know, you're going to put in a bed that's so wide by so long, Well, how many cubic yards is out? Well? The calculator does all that. All that

for you makes it really easy. Airloom Soils good products, widely available and they work. That's about as simple as I can put it. Let's go out to full Shore now and we're going to talk to John. Hey, John, Welcome to garden Line.

what I would say. Biffen is not something that just washes all over the place. It sticks pretty good and uh so wherever you put it, unless you just get gully washers, it's gonna it's gonna pretty well stay around in that spot and it does last a while. It's a fairly persistent insecticide.

them over. The top ten shrub in Flora bunder roses for the Houston region starts off the list with Belinda's Dream, probably one of the best all around roses in my opinion that you're going to have because it makes a shrub, which is nice. It has beautiful flowers that look rose like you know some rose flowers. If they're single blooms, people go, well, that's not a rose. Well it is a rose, but some people like that look of a

kind of a hybrid t thing. But this is on a bush and it has a nice, nice fragrance and really good disease resistance as well. But anyway, they've got a whole list of the top ten shrubs and floor bunder roses. They also have the top ten best selling and best smelling roses. What do you want a plant to get that wonderful fragrances that roses offer, Well, just

run out to Encented Forest and Richmond. They got a good stock of roses and that really helpful lists and that will kind of get you going off to the to the races with I guess what you need in order to buy a wonderful gift for Valentine's Day in Chenny Forest is on FM twenty seven fifty nine. And when you're out there, check out their fruit trees. They now's the time to plant, by the way, They've got

load chow varieties of apples and peaches and plums. They even have trees that are called three and one where they've grafted three different varieties of something onto the same tree. That's kind of cool for those of you who don't have room for a lot of trees. They've got some really nice satsumas. They got brown select and Arctic frost

and others. And when you're there, you're gonna find everything you need for any part of your yard and garden, from herbs to vegetable transplants to flowers, you name it. Enchanted Forest Plus it's fun to go. That's on FM twenty seven fifty nine in between Richmond, Rosenberg and sugar Land, just south of fifty nine. Alrighty well, I think I'm gonna hear music here in my ear, which means I got quit talking. That's okay, I can talk for a

low while. Don't forget my website, and you know I talk about it all the time, because that's where I put the stuff that you asked questions about. So here comes another freeze. And by the way, we're going to talk about that this morning, so stay tuned. Here comes another freeze. I have a publication that I wrote with a specialist at AY and M and doctor money Nesbitt, and basically it tells you everything you need to know about protecting plants from frost and freeze problems. It's there

on the website. Everything they're free. My schedules are there if you are calling. When do I fertilize, what do I use? How do I control weeds? What do I use? When do I put it on? It's all on the schedule. If you're organic, if you're synthetic, there are options for everyone on that speed Go grab a cup of coffee, but come on back. I'll be here in just a moment.

uninformed thumbs. So bring both your thumbs with you this morning, and let's talk about gardening so they can learn something and turn green in the process. How's that all right? Well, I wanted to talk a little bit about some things that go on in the soil that I think are important. I've talked about nutrients and the important you know, macronutrients and micronutrients and whatnot. But the thing that really runs the whole plant system or the microbes in the soil.

You know, in nature, it is basically decaying organic matter and microbes that are making everything happen to keep plants growing and happy and healthy and so on. Microbes break down organic matter. Different ones have different jobs. Bacteria work on simple things, simple carbohydrates, like those grass clippings that you return to the lawn. Then you got actinom seeds, which work on a little bit more difficult to decompose substances. Certainly,

we have bacteria and fungi. Fungi break can break down almost anything. They literally bone, you know, fingernails, rock. You know, fungi can exude an acid substance to dissolve away the mineral in rock. Now that's pretty cool. So all of these things are also doing things like fighting disease. And the soil we have bacteria that fight other bacteria and from infection. Let me do this. Have you ever used triple anaboutic ointment, the neomyce and neo mix and all

that kind of stuff. Well, those are substances by soil bacteria. Now the pharmaceutical company is making them in a big vat in a different way, but that those were created if you will buy the bacteria and the soil, that's where they started. And they do that kind of for our plant roots. So anything we do that enhances the

microbes is going to enhance plant growth. And you know that's why years ago Mike Curant decided to create a fertilizer called Microlife and to focus on something that's natural, something that is enhanced also with additional microbes in it. And now there's a wideline of Microlife products. You know, we're looking at everything from the standard green bag that is good for pretty much everything. The six two four.

They have fertilizers for acidic plants and kind of a pink hot, pink kind of colored bag that I will cover your blueberries. Your gosh, I just went bland on the plant. I was trying to say, oh, azalias, thank you azaleas, and things like Virginia sweet spire. We want to grow more of that here. It's the nice attic plant, loving plant uh and hydranges. You know, whatever it is, that product is good for it. They got products for fertilizing fruit trees of various kinds. They just have a

lot of products. They got them dry and granular that you can spread with your spreader or however you want to you know, spread them out there. They also have liquids that you can spray both as a folier feed. Because microlife products are not going to burn, they're not salt based or not. You're not going to burn your plants with them. You can use them as drenching into the soil however you want to use them. There's a Microlife product for pretty much anything you want to do,

including their humus. The humate is. I think probably if I were just to kind of look at one of the less understood of the microlife products, it's probably the hum mats plus and the humites plus is basically constentrated compost in a bag. You take leaves and grass clippings, you compost them down. That's called compost. You take compost and you let it break down to its final stage, and that's called humus. And humus is very helpful in

opening up our highly resistant to drainage clay soils. It helps form structure in the soil and so it benefits in that way, which of course in turn makes the microbes happier. So all around, with Microlife, you're getting something that is going to make your microbes happy. And if they're happy, your plants are going to be happy. And if your plants happy, you're going to be happy. That's kind of how this works. Microw Life products are available widely.

You can go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com find out more. But whatever you do, hug a microbe today, because they are running a lot of things down there in the soil forests. I was talking to the group out it in Chinna Garden yesterday about the role that microbes play. You know, they were kind of listening and stuff like that, and then when I mentioned that you couldn't have beer without microbes, suddenly a bunch of people perked up, and

now microbes became important. All right, well whatever, we can go that route. If you want to go that route too, that's buddy Plants Fall Seasons is the garden centersman around since nineteen seventy three, right there on Tomball Parkway two forty nine where Luetta comes in. So if you're if you're heading from Houston going north out toward Tumball, you exit Luetta, cross over Luetta and it's right there on the right hand side. These folks are true lawn and

garden experts, the Flowerty family. They've been around as a as a garden centers nineteen seventy three. But I'm telling you they are gardeners. So not only they have they seen everything in the many decades now of helping gardeners have success, but they grow things themselves, and so they're experts. You can take stuff in there, show them something, Hey

what is this? What do I do about it? Or walk in and you go, you know, I got this area and it's real shady, and I need some plants that would do well, and they'll just take you right to them. They know exactly what it takes, they know exactly what grows here. They're not going to say you a plant that doesn't belong here, because they are garden experts.

The website is Plants for All Seasons dot com. If you want to give them a call two eight one three seven six one six four six two eight one three seven six one six four six and you can get your green on their Plants for All Seasons. Someone was asking me the other day what to do about an area that doesn't drain well between two houses and it's a it's kind of a low spot where the water from both houses sort of drains down into a

weather and it just stays soggy all the time. And what I told them was, well, give Pier Scapes a call. The folks at pair Escapes they know how to fix drainage problems. Put in those French drains underground, whatever's going to take, get that water out of that area so you're not dealing with a bog and then you can plant things that are gonna do well in that spot. Peerscapes dot com is the website. Uh, just go there. The phone numbers there, the information's there, and a lot

of really really good pictures. These are experts their license. They're experienced from design to whatever you need. Peerscapes is the place you need to call. I gotta take a little quick break and I'll be right back with your call. Seven one three two one two ktrhu.

getting paid twice. So let's break it down. Orchard unlocks cash from your old home so you can buy your new one. That's payday one. Then Orchard sells your old home for top dollar and you pocket the profits. That's payday number two. Selling your home just got smarter, faster, and stress free. Find out how much you could make with the free home valuation at Orchard dot com.

that's ever been asked? Because I've you know, I spent thirty five years as a county extension horticulturist, and basically that just means the answer grape. Remember that California raising commercial, the answer person for all kinds of questions people call in. I've done radio shows now garden Line, and it's it's just questions and questions. And first of all, I really enjoy doing that because I can help you have success and not waste your money by doing that. But no,

I haven't heard every question. I always find new questions that people have come up with. It's like, yeah, well I haven't heard that one before. That's a that's a new one for me. So it is kind of a challenge to, you know, kind of take a phone call and wonder what people are going to ask because sometimes I think folks like to play stump the chump and that that is a possibility here. Well, anyway, when you want to when you want to have success with plants,

it comes down to some simple principles. You know, it can get complicated. We can you know, make it complicated. Uh, and we can go into all the details and whatnot, and I try to avoid going too much into that. But the bottom line is plants want sunlight. A. Plants want sunlight. Are they in a spot where they get them out of sunlight? They want b Plants want water. Are they getting the right amount of water? Some plants, you know azaleas, they like to be kept moist all

the time to do well. But if you overwater them and put them in a swamp, then you create problems. So the right amount of water, sunlight, water, and then plants need soil. And that soil is a huge category because it includes the type of soil, sand, silk, clay, It includes the structure of the soil. Is let's you say you have a clay. It could be like modeling clay where you take your fingers and you make a little bowl and fill it with water and it holds

water like a farm pond. Or it could be a clay that has nice structure so that you grab a clod when it's drying out and it just crumbles apart in your hand. So that that's important. Does it have organic matter in it?

are the first three things. And you can keep most plants happy if you give them the three things that they want each of those and so it's not that hard to do that. Now the curve comes when we deal with weather, and when we deal with you know, not just the heating cold, but excessive amounts of rain. When we deal with insect invasions. You know, some years we just have a ton of insects of various types, and other years it's like they're not there where they go, Well,

they're there. They just aren't having an outbreak. Have you Have you ever noticed that if you have a Saint Augustine long, especially sid web worms can take a releaf off your grass. And when they occur, and you can go to my schedule and see when they occur, it's a it's a summer thing later in the summer. But some years we don't even see side web worms. It's like they're they're there. You know, the species doesn't take a plane off to another continent and then come back

in three years from now. They're there, but they just don't have an outbreak. And so it's constantly a dance with all the aspects of nature and our desire to grow good plants. But I just don't want to let you get it too complicated. Remember it is simple. Sunlight and soil and water. Those three things are the keys to success. Now in your lawns, right now you're at a crossroads. We are getting rid of the existing weeds,

the ones that are cool season weeds. Ever weed you see in your lawn right now is a cool season weed. Right now. You do not see warm season weeds right now. They're about to sprout and barricade stops that process. You put barricade from nitrofoss down follow the label. It goes a long way. One ten pound bag of barricade will cover up to five thousand square feet and then you have to water it in. It's called activating it. It moves the product down to the soil where it sticks

to the soil surface. It doesn't go very deep into the soil because up at the surface that's where the weeds are coming through. That's where the seeds are sprouting up in that area, and barricade is sitting there waiting. Then when that crabgrass tries to sprout or whatever the weed is, barricade says no and it shuts it down and you never even see the weed. But if you wait too long, the weeds are all going to be up and growing and then it's too late because it's

a pre emergent. It's not a post emergent. It works very well. It's run the folks at Nitrofoss. So you're going to find it all over the place. You know, night Foss products are widely available through our Greater Houston area here. You're going to find them at places like in Chinted Forest down in Richmond, Rosenberg Ace Hardware, Sinko Ranch, allspas Ace up in the Woodlands, or the Arborgate in Tomball. Those are all places that carry nitrofoss products. Let's go

to the phones now. We're going to go to Kingwood and talk to Sammy. Hey, Sammy, welcome to garden Line.

garden centers out there in Kingwood. Un let's say go over to Warren's than Gardens and explain to him you've got that, and they'll point you to the some of the product options that you have there in their store for that. But that and also ACE Hardware is you've got some good Ace hardware is out there too, So I would I want to focus on that. I would focus on that.

out there for it. But there are there are a lot of products that contain various things that will do a pretty good job on dollar weed. So it just uh, you know it. That's why I said, you know, go to your ace, go to your worn Southern gardens, and let them point you at the things that they carry. Some of the three way weed control products, you know, like the trimech is a three way uh that does pretty good on controlling dollar wee. In fact, it does actually a good job controlling the dollar weed.

succulents in addition to that. Right now, I was looking at some photos from their social media out there, and it's like the whole ground is covered with like vegetables and herbs and flowers just by the flat. They're everywhere there. And the fun thing about Moss, if you haven't been, you got to go. I don't care where you live, you need to drive down there and see it because it is amazing. It's eight acres eight acres, been around

for seventy years as family owned operation. And when you walk through, it's like, I don't know how to describe it. You turn a corner and you see some carved mask, wooden mask, like a totem pole. There, you see unusual art for the yard. You see fountains everywhere. You turn around a corner, they have a lot of pottery. And then you turn and all of a sudden, there's this big greenhouse that is huge and it's loaded with all

kinds of houseplants and it is cool. It's fun to go there and walk through, and you need to do that. It's on Toddville Road down in Seabrook, Texas. All right, Toddville Road, Seabrook, Texas. Mos Nursery dot com, Maas Nursery dot com. Here's a phone number having any questions for them two eight one four seven four twenty four eighty eight to eight one four seven four twenty four eighty eight. And by the way, they have a nice selection in

Japanese maples right now down there too. It's time for me to hang up the microphone for just a second here, because we got some some how do they say we got to pay the bills. We got some that to do and a little bit of new too. Yeah, were at the half hour, got a little bit of news as well. I want to remind you that I will be now this is a next Saturday at All Seasons Ace Hardware and Willis from twelve to two All Seasons Ace Hardware up there in Willis. You need to come

up and see it. We're going to be given away quite a bit of products that some of our suppliers are donating. It is a really cool place. I'll tell you more about it as we go through the day. I could just listen to Pure periodly. All right, folks, you are listening to guard Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. We're here to help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. That would be one of my goals in doing this show. Gardening

is a great hobby. It's a greatest hobby in my opinion. I may be biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. It is the best hobby. Gives you exercise, it gives you mental benefits that are just outstanding. A pile of research I'm foot deep sitting on my desk. Literally that that expouses all the benefits of gardening, from helping kids with ADHD to seniors that are struggling with the dementia, to across your life, peace of mind, lowering blood pressure,

just on and on and on. There have been studies hospital patients sitting in a hospital room bed looking out the window at a parking lot or looking out the window at nature, and the healing is measurably different. The benefits to physical healing is measurably Do you see what I'm saying? You know, I could do literally, I really could do a whole four hour show and not not finish covering all the benefits that gardening has for us. I think it's important. I talked to someone yesterday out

in enf or A Chanda Gardens. They were saying how they were getting their kids involved in gardening, and that is so important. You know, if you want your kids to eat well, to have a healthy lifestyle, gardening is a way to do it. Help them get excited about that, to find ways to get them involved in gardening where they get something out of it. And there's there's strategies and ways we can do that. There's a great amount of resources up and the Junior Master Gardener Program at

Texas A and M. That is an international program. Literally other countries come and I've been part of their trainings before and it's just outstanding. It's JMG. That's that's the initials for it. The JMG. When you go and look at some of the material they have on hand, it is great. Now it's designed. If it's designed so that you could use it in a classroom, they have curriculums, but it also is just fine for a family to use. And the website is called JMG kids dot com JMG

kids dot com and it is cool. When you go there, you see what I'm talking about. You need to check it out. They have a number of different curriculum and stuff. But if you've got a little homeschool group, if you've got a you know, a public school that is interested in participating with JMG, a private school that's interested, you need to get in touch with those folks because they have got it figured out, research based information on teaching kids to garden. And when you do that, in the

process we teach kids how to eat right. And you know, broccoli may be one of those things that kids are like, Eh, broccoli. I remember when the first George Bush was president, he made a statement that now that he's president, he doesn't have to eat broccoli. In the words, his mom couldn't make him eat broccoli anymore, and people got all upset. A guy in a giant broccoli outfit looked like gumby marching in front of the White House protesting that the

president senters get a life anyway. But if you grow something, you're more likely to eat it, And that's true with kids. Let them grow something to try out to eat themselves. You'll find that it helps. And what is our number one Well I'm not a medical expert, so someone can correct me on this, but I would say one of our number one health problems that we have is because of what we put in our mouth. That's the bottom line.

If it goes in your mouth, it can lead to health or it can lead to long term health problems. So we want our kids to you right all right? There? That was a commercial. I guess I don't know anyway. It's true, it's true. Yes I'm a gardener. Yes I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. Just remember that, just I used to have a teacher. Oh gosh, I'm really wandering here. I used to have a teacher in high school and he said, just because you're doesn't mean they're

not out to get you. That corrects me up anyway. That's it, Hey, it's time to furtize your lawn. Time to do post emergent weed control on weeds that are already growing cool seed. It's time to do per emergent weed control, that is, to prevent the warm season weeds. Those are all things we do at this point. This is like the traffic jam of the lawn going on right here. But I'll tell you something else that is one of the practices actually too that will help your lawn.

And that is core aeration, where you pull a plug of dirt out of the ground and drop it on the surface. Plug a soil. For those of you who are out there correcting me and your mind's already plug a soil, dropping it on top of the ground. As it as that, core washes a part in the rain and irrigation. It covers thatch and causes it to break down faster. So core iration is the single best thing

you can do to get rid of that. It is the single best thing you can do to get quickly air down in the soil to enhance the root system. And then you follow that with a compost top dressing. A lot of that composts will fall down in the hole and it just enriches the soil. You know, you can't rototill your lawn to improve the soil, right, but you can core air rate and year round Hoston is

one of our garden line Core aeration companies. Now, core aeration companies tend to serve a certain area because they have very expensive equipment to haul around and they have the bulk of hauling something like a quality compost around Year round Houston serves inside the Beltway and they serve out in the Richmond Rosenberg area as well. The website is what I just said, year round Houston dot com. Year round Houston dot com. Go there, you find the

phone narming, you find out more information about them. They use quality screened composts. It's plant based. There's no smell to it. They're not gonna make your yard smell by putting composts all over it. In fact, I like the smell of fresh, earthy composts. But again, if you're inside the Beltway, or if you're on the west side, this

is the company to call. Save yourself the hassle of renting equipment which will be inferior to what they use, transporting it, cleaning it, returning it, big pols of composts delivered into your driveway, and having a shovel it around. Just call your run Houston having come out and take care of it, and they will. They do a good job of that. Someone had called earlier was asking me about Weedenator. Weedenator's and Nelson product an unusual product. It's

not like your typical weed and feed type fertilizers. Weedenator does have nutrients in it, of course, it's a fertilizer. It has a turf growth regulator in it too. Our long grasses grow up, and the faster they grow up, the more often you have to mow with weed Enator. It causes a suppression of that upper growth, but it still spreads. The runners can still go out. It just doesn't take off in you're momo mowing because you're fertilized your lawn. It works well for that. It is a

post emergent that controls a wide range of weeds. Chickweed, clover, dandelion, dollar weed, we were just talking about dollar weed, graspbur person lane, ragweed, sperch, all these. You first wet the lawn and the weeds. What you're really wetting is wanting to wet as the weed leaves. You put weed itter out a dry granular fertilizer. It sticks to those wet leaf surfaces and it soaks in. It soaks in, and when it soaks in, then you have the weed control

going in and taking care of those weeds. Now the fertilizer is going to release with three different groups of types of nitrogen. In other words, it's not just dissolves and it's all there. You're going to get some initial release of ammonium and urea types of nitrogen to stimulate growth. You're going to get a little bit later or continuing on, I should say, a slowly available water soluble nitrogen UH

with sole microbes are very active in that. And then finally later you're going to get water insoluble nitrogen, which is about the time that our turf grass really is putting on the fast growth as warming temperatures kicking into gear. All right, that's how it works. That's the details. The bottom line as it works turf grass weed edor by Nelson. It does work. It gives you about six months up to six months of feeding of your lawn. Time for

me to take a break. When we come back, I'll be back to your calls if you want to join the group seven one three two one two KTRH.

been building quality soils for a very long time. When you when I think about Nature's Way products, I think about the ones that were born at Nature's Way, for example, roast soil. Now everybody talks about roast oil, Well that's where it first started, is that Nature's Way Resources I think about things like leaf mold compost, you know, for your compost, top dressing, for mixing into the soil to improve the soil. It's really good for that that was

born in Nature's Way. But they have many other things they have composted. Native multz double aid or native aged double ground maltz is a two time grinding process to get the particle size really nice. And then there's Azalia multz for example. It doesn't matter are you gonna grow blueberries, just go in there and say, hey, I need a mix for blueberries, which also, by the way, is good

for azalias and caboos and gardenias and hydrangees. No matter what plant you have, Nature's Way has a quality product for it. Now you can find them in some of our local garden centers retail outlets. By the bag. You can go out to Nature's Way with your vehicle and bring back a bulk amount home, or you can call them and say, hey, I need you to deliver it and they will deliver it also wherever in the reasonably

close by area to our Houston here. You know, I think about sometimes I do these these shows and people are listening. Somebody called the other day is listening almost in Austin to that far out and then certainly towards the Louisiana board it well. I doubt that they're going to drive out to Austin, although they might if you're willing to pay the delivery fee. But the bottom line is when you go with Nature's way soil, you're going to improve the soil health. That's the bottom line, and

that's what it's all about. Nature builds soil very slowly over time. With Nature's way, you can take the processes of nature and get there in it almost in a daytime. You bring in a quality mix, you mix it into your soil. You bring the bed mix. It's ready to go. You fill your beds with it. However you go about it, that is the secrets of success. Remember I said plants, it's simple. They need three things. They need sunlight, they

need salt, they need water. Soil the middle one. Nature's way is all about improving the health of your soil and therefore the health of your plants. Brown stuff before green stuff. Start with Nature's way, and you end up with the plants that you purchased, that's called the green stuff doing much much better as a result. We're gonna go out to Tomball now and we're going to talk to David. Hello, David, Welcome to garden Line.

I don't think that this freeze is going to be one that kills those plants for you or kills them back, but I'm not certain of that, and so I would just be a little extra careful. All you have to do is throw any kind of a cover over them, in a bedsheet, even anything that just protects them a little bit. If you got some row cover fabric from one of your local garden centers there, you can go

that route. But the bottom line is probably be a little extra extra careful when plants are young, when they're newly planted getting established in things, they're somewhat less cold hearty than one that's very well established. But yeah, so the answer is we'll see. But I wouldn't take a chance on it. I would just be sure about covering them.

you need to get a cover over them. It might not even hurt to put a little clamp light with a with a one of those one hundred and fifty watt floodlights or even a heat lamb shining down at the ground, not up in, not against the plant tissues, the trunk and the branches. It may even help to do that. But again, I'd rather be extra conservative and not wish I had been, than just take a chance.

And recent memory is a couple of years ago in December, we had a drop in temperature that went down into the teens upper teens, and we saw crate myrtles killed all the way to the ground in the northern part of the listening area here up you know, when you get up Conroe College Station, huntsvilleup in that direction, we saw some loss of crape myrtles. And create myrtle is a hardy species. It should we should not have to

worry about crape myrtles freezing here. But those crape myrtles had had warm temperatures and they had not gone fully dormant, and it just reminded us that dormant, Yes they're hardy, but they're hardy when they're dormant, not you know, you go in the middle of spring and drop the temperature down to twenty and you're going to cause a lot of damage to plants. So that's kind of the question

right now is how much are these plants moving? And you know, David indicated that starting to see some little green buds pushing out, and so that tells me right there it's not dormant. If it was dormant, it wouldn't be pushing new growth. They cannot push new growth until the plant comes out of dormancy. Let me just give you a real quick description on that. I think this may be helpful for you. When a plant, when a fruit tree, let's say, goes dormant, there are chemicals that

inhibit the budge from growing. So if in the middle of January we have eighty degree weather, it doesn't just immediately pop out and start growing because it's dormant. Those chemicals break down in cold weather conditions, cold really actually being forty to forty five degrees and that range and over hours of that that inhibiting chemical completely breaks down, and when that happens, then then it can begin growth

and come out of dormancy. You have a few warm days and boom, the peach trees are covered with blooms because the chilling that's what you call chilling hours, because the chilling hours had been received adequate to bring it out of dormancy. And that is the key to whether a plant is hardy or not. It's has it had its chilling hours. And sometimes we don't get enough chilling hours in the winter and a plant comes out in the spring and doesn't really begin growing. It just sputters

and doesn't do well. And that's because of a lot of chilling hours. That's why when you pick your fruit trees, you need to pick ones that are for this area or for the area you live in. What you plant in Huntsville and what you plant in Galveston are vastly different when it comes to peach varieties, for example. But anyway, that's what's going on, and I'm just a little concerned about that this week. So when in doubt, be conservative with it. Those are valuable plants to you, even if

it turns out you wouldn't and needed to. It's better safe than sorry, as they say. So there we go. All right, Well, I believe that I'm probably running out of time here. In the next couple of seconds, I want to remind you about my website, Gardening with Skip dot Com. On the website you will find my law and care scheduled tells you when and what to use and fertilizing to have success in your lawn. Also tells you about mowing and watering and adding the micronutrient supplements,

erraating the soil, things like that. The other schedules, the plant disease and weed management schedule and that. Basically, if I were to reword it, make it simpler, I would just say things that go wrong in your lawn, things that go wrong? So what about those? How do you How do you know when chinchbugs might show up?

fruit trees, fruit plants, little strawberry plants. Strawberries are getting ready to burst forth and produce those blooms and the tasty berries we have from those of you who got them planted last fall, and for those of you who planted them in the spring, keep them growing, keep them moving, because they are also going to begin to produce for you pretty soon.

a good thing. When I was talking earlier about weather and things like that, I just I do want to just kind of go remind you again that last week was warm and some plants are starting to push new growth. And when a plant does that, it's no longer dormant, which means whatever the normal minimum temperature that that plant can take is whatever it is when it starts to come out of dormancy, it's it's not able to take as much and it's easier to kill something that may

take it in the mid twenties. When it's coming out of dormancy, you know, you get a low below freezing and you can get damage on it because the plant just isn't isn't ready for that. So if you don't know what to do with a plant, I say air on the side of caution, go ahead and covered up. If it is a mounded soil plant like a perennial or a ornamental grass or whatever like that. First of all,

ornamental grasses are pretty they're they're pretty much fine. If they're perennial here in our area, but I have seen people are cutting them back, and that's fine. You can go ahead and do that. Perennials throw a little mound of whatever compost or mult over the top of them, just to kind of insulate that, especially if they're starting to push new growth. If you see new growth coming out of that mound, that base, that crown of the plant,

go ahead and covered up and let's protect it. Because some areas are going to get down twenty if you're far enough north in the listening area, down in the upper teens, and we don't want to mess with that. Too cold for these plants. So little extra cost is just remember that if you're going to cover a plant, don't wrap it like a landscape lollipop. You want to put a cover over it, drape it over it and straight to the ground. And whether you use some support

underneath the cover, that's okay. You can use bent PBC pipe or make you a PBC box if you want to cover with, but go all the way to the ground and seal it so air can't blow underneath it, wind can't get underneath it, and that way you create dead air space. The soil warmth comes up and helps. You want to throw in a clamp light or two or three, depending on the size of the plant, you can add even more heat. So there's the regular one

hundred and fifty what floodlights. They produce a little bit of heat, not a lot, but a little bit, and sometimes all you need is a little bit. Then there's the heat lamps, the red shining radiate radiating their heat out and they produce a lot of heat. So anyway, whichever way you want to go about it probably ought to be a little more cautious than normal because of the weather we just had. Let's set out to West u and we're going to talk to Jonas. Hey, Jonas, welcome to garden Line.

or sink the container in the ground. You know, if the container has holes in the bottom where the roots can come out, you can just sink the container in the ground and let them grow and either leave them as a landscape plant until the first cold gets there, or if they're in a container, then when you approach the holidays, you're going to start making the plant think the days are shorter than they are, and so for holiday blooming plants, typically in September, I will start to

cover them up. I like to say, use the normal eight to five work schedule. When you get up in the morning and go to work, you take the cover off, leave it off all day, and then when you come home five o'clock put the cover back on. That means it gets dark sooner than it normally would for that plant. And by doing that for a few weeks, that initiates the development in the case of Point Settus of those

red bracts that we enjoy. If you don't do that, it'll be very late to start to develop its color. When nature itself gives the plant shorter day length. Sounds it sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it.

and all that. Do you think they can tolerate thirty two degrees? And I'll put covers around their roots and all that kind of stuff.

will come back to you. There you go, all right, Billy, you gotta do a gardening show. Here you are listening to Guardline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we are here for your gardening questions. If you want to give me a call seven one three two kt r H seven three two in two ktr H. All right, if you live south of Houston in that whole region, really, Cienamalch is the place you need to know about. Cianamalch dot com. That's the website. Go to that website. You'll

find the phone number, you'll find the location. They're on FM five point twenty one, kind of close to the Highway six two eighty eight that area. But just cianimals dot com. That's it. They serve all that region. Sweetwater First Colony, sun Creek Estates, Iowa Colony, Sandy Point League, Olympia, Pomona, Fresno, Cuoa Valley. Do I need to keep going? They serve

that whole area. They have premium hardwood mulch in bulk native hardwood double ground mulch two inch screened mulch, a nice dark chocolate colored, not dyed, I died, but nice dark chocolate colored, smells great, no manure in it and it just smells really nice. Also in bulk you can get things like roast soil and organic compost. And you know they also carry the other things we use in our landscapes, like sand or gravel. If you need stone, you should see their collection of stone. It is gorgeous

rocks of every kind. Are you going to make a little dry creek riverbed in your landscape, They've got the stones for that. Are you going to lay a patio or have a walkway, They've got the stones for that. You're gonna build a little retaining wall or a bed around or a border around a bed. They have the stones for that. They deliver within twenty miles for small fee. And while you're there, as we're taking care of the

brown stuff to make our green plants happy. Microlife Fertilizer, Nelson Turf star Line, Nelson Plant Food Jars, the little screw top lids, Medina Products, nitrofoss Products, Azamite, heirlooms. They got it all at Siena Molts Sienamoltz dot com. Go check it out, go see them. It's a friendly, it's just a pleasure to do to do business with the folks there at cnmulch. All right, I'm going to go back to Jonas in West U and Jonas, let's continue

on with our questions. You were talking about a hibiscus. You're thinking you're going to get to about thirty two, and I was saying, well, if you can get it underneath the eves up against the house, it's probably going to be okay there. If truly thirty two is what it hit, what you hit, Yes.

products that they have. One of the ones I just want to feature right now is Medinas has to grow six twelve to six plant food six twelve six, so that's six percent nitrogen, twelve percent phosphors, six percent potassium. It also has Medina Soil Activator to stimulate biological activity. It's got humate, humic acid, humus, humic acids full of the gs. All of that improves soil structure, improves nutrient uptake as a result. It's got seaweed extract in it.

Now it's not a salt based product, so you can spray it on foliage and do folier applications as much as you want. I would say, at this time of the year, this is big time planting season. We're still planting trees and shrubs. And by the if you've got a plant when you need to hurry up and get that done, because them every week you give that tree or show before summer is an extra week for it to start getting some roots established. So get those done.

If you're gonna do any kind of transplanting like that, including your flowers, your vegetables, your herbs, everything, just take the medina has to grow six twelve six, Put about one ounce in a gallon of water, put in a sprinkling can, and just soak that root ball, soak that base of the plant roots with it. That especially that hyphosphorus the middle number is very important for roots. And

I like to do that at planting. And then I repeated a week later, and repeated a third time another week later, and that will get you off to a good start. Now this is used all through the season. It's not just used for watering implants. But that is how I would recommend you look at it. At this particular time of the season. Medina has to grow six to twelve six plant food. Let's head out now to New Caney and we're going to talk to Banina, Hey, Banina.

them for six years. They bloomed beautiful. That's the first time they've ever bloomed since we started doing that. So I just wanted to piggyback off of that.

cannot cover them. You cannot cover them, but if you wanted to have gorgeous color at Thanksgiving, cover them a little early and speeding up that arrival the short days helps a little bit. How tall are your plants now?

the website Growers Outlet in Willis. They're on Highway seventy five in Willis, just a few minutes away from forty five, and they serve that whole area. So whether you live you know, out in Woodlands or up in Willis or some of the lake neighborhoods, you know bunt Water, April Sound out there a republic grand ranch folks that are living out there, moving out there. Seven coves. These are all in the region where shoppers come to the Grower's

Outlet in Willis. Now they've got fertilizers that you hear me talk about on there, like microlife, nitroposs and medina for example. It's a garden center, so they have a variety of other products that you need for your gardens. You're going to find a really good selection of betting plants and vegetables right now. They've got perennials by the one gallon size and ferns and they're hanging baskets are amazing.

I saw some of the biggest burn baskets I've ever seen last time I was out there at grows Outlet in Willis. Other kinds of color plants, you know, teraneums, urbina. They grow a lot of that in house. They have a greenhouses there and they grow it themselves. They got a good gift shop. It's just a fun place to visit now it's on Highway seventy five in will It's just minutes away from Interstate forty five. Go to the website, learn more about it and find out everything you need

to know. They have a really good on their website. They have a really good list of plants by type, for example, do you want fragrant plants? Do you want deer resistant plants? Do you want plants that are t bird bees and butterflies. They've got all that and you can find a nice selection. It's very educational. Website. Growers outlet in Wellis and then go by there and get you some good plans. We're gonna go now out to Laporte and talk to Brenda. Hey, Brenda, welcome to garden Line.

is showing a little bit of iron deficiency. So that could be due to a lack of iron, but it also could be due to the so being too soggy there for for the aeration not good enough for the roots to thrive, and therefore not taking up the iron that may even be present. So you may want to look into that a little bit. If you if you decide it's not soggy soil, then get you an iron key late or sometimes the other way around, keylated iron and apply it to that. Your your plant performed as expected,

that particular rose. It is primarily a spring bloomer. That's when we get our most blooms out of it, and you don't get a lot out for the rest of the year, and that's true of a lot of climbers. It looks I think it looks fine. In what you're describing about losing some older foliage and stuff, that's normal.

I have one of those Peggy Martins and I don't spray mine at all, and you are going to get some spots here or there, but generally not enough to worry about, So you might want to consider just backing off of that. It has really good vigor and your plant looks good. It's obviously happy and growing. So what's going to happen in the spring is you're going to

get crazy amount of blooms on that plant. And then after the blooms are gone, that's when you may want to decide are you going to trell us it or are you gonna, well, how are you going to grow it? And go ahead and prone it and get it into the form you want and then let it grow through the summer and then next spring it'll have all its bloom show. But don't print it in between don't print it after mid to late summer for sure.

I say Belinda's dream? I think I just heard myself say Belinda's dream. No, we're talking about the Katrina Rose. Okay, all right, Well anyway, let's go to San Leone if I can find my mouse here. There we go San Leone. We're going to talk to Ted. Hey, Ted, welcome to guard Line.

wasn't anoyed, I shouldn't say that on there. I would not put Medina molasses on your pancakes. I don't know that that is okay, or I don't know that it's not okay. But I got to watch what comes out of my mouth, that's for sure, because I'll try it. I guarantee you someone will try it. Well. You are listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and almost most important of all, more fun

in the process. I was talking about Houston powder Coats yesterday, and they're the biggest powder coat by the way, in this whole region of the state. They they they've got the staff and they got the equipment to powder coat pretty much anything you have. I mean, if you're talking about looking at let's say, you know, goose neck trailers, they got like a sixty five foot area that they

can run it into. They have smaller ones as well, but with powder coating it's better than painting because this stuff, through an electrical process just naturally at hatches into the metal and it is so beautiful. If you've got cast on or wrought on aluminum, patio furniture, anything metal. I talk about their furniture stuff all the time because they do things like fix a little weld if you need that done, they can do that. They can fix a weld, They can put new screws and bolts and things that

are rested in there. They use the stainless steel on there. They can fix the feet and the end caps. And maybe you've got a tubular metal furniture and they that kind of those wear off on the sidewalk or drive patio rather. They can fix all of that. But they can also do landscape art that's metal. They can do light poles. You have a little light pole out front, they can powder coat that rails to a porch or patio.

They can powder coat that. I mean the benches. You know, you go to these parks and things and you see the little metal benches. Powder coating that works great on those. Just write this down. Sales at Houston Coders dot com. Sales to Houston Cooders dot com. Just send him a picture and say, hey, what would it cost to Can I get a quote on what it would cost to do this? You only have one hundred plus colors to choose from, so they can give you exactly the color

you're looking for. Houston Powdercoders dot Com. Houston powder Cooders dot Com. Get a whole new set of decades, a new life for your furniture with a powder coating. Time for me to quit talking. When I come back, I'm going to go out to Wharton and we're going to talk to Angie. Alrighty, welcome back, Welcome back to Gardenline. We are gonna head out to Ken in the Woodlands. Hey, Ken, welcome to garden Line.

in the woodlands. It The only way to know for sure, Ken is to send a sample into the plant clinic. And do you have a pin or paper handy and end paper? Okay, plant clinic one word dot t a m U, dot e d U plant clinic dot TAMU dot ed U. Go there, download the form. You could drive the plant up there. You're in the woodlands, you're not that far away from college station. Or you can

mail it. If you mail it, you really wanted to get there early in the week so it doesn't just set in a you know, as a mail box over the weekend. Get a plant that is alive but dying. If it is completely dead, they can't do autopsies, but if it's sick, they can culture out the disease that's causing it. So you want to get a plant that

isn't completely gone. You can cut some of the top off to make it fit in a box and kind of shove those in with it, or if you can take the whole thing up, put a trash bag around the whole thing, But you want it to be in a fresh state so that they're able to culture out the problem and they'll tell you what the disease is. Now, depending on which root right it is, you may or may not be able to control it with a fungicidal

drench over the plants. But I could I if I knew what it was, I could tell you what to use, But I don't, and we don't want to go wasting your time and money trying things that are not going to work. But with that, with that analysis, you will know exactly what you need to do before you put more money into more plants for that area. Laura, Pedulum's a wonderful plant. It should do good in your area, and so we just got to figure out what's going on with.

then they know what medicine to give you. That's kind of how this works.

basically their foliage. I don't have any fruiting or flowering houseplants. I mean you could use it on those. But biomatrix works really really well, doesn't take much of it, and you just apply it as per the label. You can use it outdoors too. I just used my houseplants as a foliage example. But any kind of plant you want to give your tomatoes a boost, you can even mix it in water and folio or spraym and then drench the soil. Biomatrix from Microlife works. I'll tell you that

because I've used it. I know. Microlifefertilizer dot com is where you go if you want to find out more information about that. Let's go out now to Wharton and talk to Angie.

chimes and their plants, and they have everything. And while you're out there, you know brown soft for a green stuff, they got microlife, they got nitrophoss, they got Nelson plant food, and Medina, soils from Nature's Way, soils from heirlooms, soils. I mean, they have everything you need. Where is it. It's on FM three fifty nine. Those of you who didn't come out is thirty f M three fifty nine. Try that Katie foolsher side of Richmond. You will enjoy it.

But go to the website. It's full of good information. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Alrighty, well there you got it. We sure had a good time out there. That was that was fun. I always like going to that place. Uh, why don't we do this. Let's take us a little break here. You get some coffee, I'll get some coffee and we'll come back and we'll keep talking about the things that are of interest to you. How do we

help you have success? Well, you got a question seven one three two one two kt r H. I got an open board. Hurry you might be one of the first ones out.

on the iHeartMedia app. So I was telling the folks out at intended gardens yesterday. Download the app. Just when it's garden Line time, open it up and start listening on your phone. Put your phone in your pocket and go out in the garden and do what you do. I mean, maybe you're out there and you see a weed and you're wondering, well, how do I get rid of this? It's all over the place. Take a picture of it. Call up the show, talk to my producer.

He'll give you an email. You can send it to me and then follow up with a phone call and we'll talk about the weed. So live from your garden. It's garden line. You know, that's how that works. We can do it that way as well. However you want to listen though, I do welcome you and glad you're here. Tell you friends and neighbors about it, and family. We've got people that listen, even out of state. So certainly the more the merrier, love to have more folks listening in.

I talk about and brag on Southwest Fertilizer all the time because Southwest Fertilizer is it's just an institution here in the Houston area in a been around since nineteen fifty five, so this is there. Basically, they're celebrating their seventieth year. So happy birthday to Bob and the whole crew out there Southwest Fertilizer. Glad so glad to see that kind of staying power. And you know what, you don't last seventy years if you're not doing a whole

lot of things right. And what do they do right? Well, first of all, they have every fertilizer, every insect aside, every fungicide, every herbicide that you need, every kind of a supplement. You know, I talk about medina and use this and that supplement in microlife and other things. They've got all of it. Everything related to plant growth they've got. Do you need a tool like a quality pruning tool

by Falco or Corona, show up there. Southwest Fertilizer and they've got a ninety foot long wall of tools to choose from. They do carry that kneeling bench that I talk about all the time. They do carry the grabber gadget that you use to make my homemade weed wiper, my Skip's homemade weed wiper. If you don't know what that is, go to gardening with Skip dot com and look at it. It's the coolest things. And slice bread. In my opinion, I'm biased, but I'm not wrong on that.

there is, and they've got that also there. But of course they have that there. This is Southwest Fertilizer. If they don't have it, you don't need it. And if you have a question, maybe maybe there's a weed and it's Wednesday and we're not doing garden line to call in. Go into Southwest Fertilizer, take the weed with you, show it to them. They'll tell you exactly what you need

to do to manage it. They are experts when it comes to that kind of service, and they are also specialists when it comes to that good old fashioned service that you know we all used to appreciate so much and nowadays is a little less common than it used to be. Friendly service, great products, great selection. Corner of Bisonette and Renwick. Southwest Fertilizer Southwest Fertilizer dot com. Say hey to them from SKIP. When you go in there,

you are listening to Guardenline. The phone number if you'd like to call in have a question seven one three two one two k t r H. Seven one three two one two k t r H. So Valentine's is upon us. Actually we just passed it, but we're going to pretend we didn't because there's still time. There's still time to redeem yourself. You need a good gift. How about a rose? A rose bush is a wonderful gift. You know, February's for roses. We all know we punum

in February. We plant them in February, although we can do it in other months as well. But if you want a great selection of roses, RCW Nursery has got you covered. They get in more roses than anybody I've seen. I mean six pages of different rose cultivars that are available from RCW Nursries. That's the garden center that's at the corner of belt Way eight and Tomball Parkway, Hiaby two forty nine. You can go to the website RCW Nurseries dot com or just go buy there Tomball Parkway

belt Way eight easy to get to RCW Nurseries. Whether you want roses or pretty much any kind of plant, you're gonna find it there. They also carry fertilizers from nitrofoss and Microlife and Nelson Turf Star Line. They just make sure they have on hand what you need for success. Now, when it comes to trees and shrubs, hurry up, get it done. If you're going to plant one, don't do it two months from now when it's hotter. Do it now. You can plant a tree or shrub twelve months out

of the year. The hotter it gets, the more touch and go it is, the more difficult it is to make sure you don't let it get too dry or too wet or whatever. Now it's a great time. They grow their own shrubs and trees. They grow the species and varieties that do best here and they can advise you with professional advice. They're at RCW Nurseries. By the way, there a tree farm, Williamson Tree Farm. You can go to Williamsontreefarm dot com and it's open to the public

on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. You just have to make an appointment on the website. Don't just show up out there. This is a wholesale nursery and they're busy. They're not set up to just have five hundred people show up at once and want to buy a tree. Make an appointment with them, and they're happy to greet you out there and you get to see a really beautiful selection of some cool stuff, or just go buy RCW Nurseries

and get them there. Well, I in my yard right now, out in the I've got a little bit of cold damage from the last cold because I tend to let my plants kind of fend for themselves unless I know cold is gonna take them out. So I need to get in there and clean them out. But I'm gonna wait. All that dead material on top is just a little bit of help with insulation for the next freeze it

may occur, and we got one. I got one coming this week, so I'm going to wait a little bit, get past it, and then I'll get my crystal ball out and decide if there's any more freezes and then go from there. I think I may have one more still to come. We'll see. You never know, but that dead material is helpful in protecting the base of the plant, so my coufia or Mexican heather is an example. In

my lantanas. They look horrible right now, but I've learned to embrace ugly and be patient because there's plenty of time to prune them back before the new growth comes out and gets in the way of that. I'm going to take a break. We'll be right back with your calls. All right, we're back. We are back. Welcome to garden Line. Welcome back to garden Line. We're continuing on today answering gardening questions and getting ready for some cold weather coming up.

Just remember if you need advice on any kind of plant covering and how do I protect a plan against a freeze and all the whatnot of it. Oh, you have to is go to my website Gardening with Skip dot com. Find the publication that is protecting landscape plants from frosts and freezes and it will guide you in doing that. It's free, It is absolutely free. Can't tap me down on that price, So check it out. I hope it will be helpful. That's why we put those

things up there, is to help you to have success. Also, my schedules are up there, the lawn care schedule, the lawn pest disease, and we'd management schedule both of them full color, easy to follow, and they tell you what to use, when to use it, whether you're organic or synthetic. There are options for everyone on that schedule. I was outside yesterday and just noticed the song of some birds and I love I love listening to the different songs.

And by the way, if you there's an app, and it is called the Merlin App, as in Merlin the Magician me r l I N. It's done by Cornell University's Department or of Ornithology, which I think is a word designed because it was too hard to say birds anyway. Orentthology is a study of birds. I've got a good orthology joke. But you got to see it's it's a performance jogging. I see me perform anyway, Department of Ornithology.

It's a free app and you can take a picture of a bird and you'll tell you what kind of bird it is. You can listen to a bird sing, and there's also a little like a microphone thing on the and you click that and you can watch it as it goes across the page, listening to the sounds that it's hearing, and all of a sudden, a bird pops up and a tas your what kind of birded? Is that cool? And guess what? How much does it cost? Free? Free the Merlin app? So there you go, Now I learned.

Where did I learn about the app? Well, it's about birds, right, Where do you learn about anything birds? Where do you get anything you need? Birds? Wild Birds Unlimited, wild Bird's Unlimited. That's the place they just came out with their new Cardinal Confetti Blend. It's got all kinds of things that make birds absolutely. If they're open the windows and let

birds hear this and you watch them, they're gonna start slobbering. Safflower, black oil, sunflower, sunflower chips, nutrisaft bark, butter bits, peanut halves, dried mealworms. Okay, I was with them up until. I don't know if I'll eat dried mealworms, but the rest sounds tasty and striped sunflower all in this Cardinal Confetti Blend. They even have a Cardinal evening feeder and a cardinal tube feeder. You just got to go buy wild Birds

and check it out. There's six stores here in Houston that are Wildbirds, so you can find one near you. They're fun to go into because it's not just you know, stacks of bird seed, although they have plenty of bird seed of all different types, but there's beautiful things that you would decorate your home with. There's books, there's bird houses, there's bird feeders there, but mainly there are people in there that know all about birds and they can help

you have success. So one thing I like about wild bird seed is it is designed for the kinds of birds you want to attract. And they even have something called They're no Mess blends, which means there's not going to be a bunch of debris under the feeder because they've already shelled the sunflowers, for example, and it's no mess. And the other thing I like about it is listen, you go buy cheap bird seed anywhere and you're going to see a lot of the little red bebies, and

that is not a favorite of birds at all. Wildbirds see is one things that are going to go into the bird's mouth and tummy and help them with getting through winter weather, with help them getting ready for nesting season, which we're there, we're there at nesting season. It's quality feed that goes into the bird that is important at wildbirds. Now, I could go on and on and on about wildbirds, but first of all, go download that Merlin app and check it out, and then go into Wildbirds and let them.

You can say, hey, look, Merlin said, I've got a tufted tip mouse here. Well that's an unusual bird. How do I track those? And they'll just go follow me. They'll take you right to the seeds and show you exactly what you need to do. That's easy, that's fun. That's wildbirds, that's for sure. Nelson Plant Food has a number of products. I've been talking about their turf Star line, and I will off and on as we go forward, but I want to tell you a little about the

Nutros Star line. Nutris Star is generally people purchase it as a canister of food with a little screwtop cap like a jar, but a plastic clear jar with a screwtop cap. And they have things like the Tree and Shrub, which is for guess what, trees and shrubs five different sources of nitrogen that gradually feed those plants over the coming months to provide them what they need to grow fast. And when you've got a young tree or a shrub, you want it to fill in. It also has micronutrients

in it. By the way, they got their citrus fruit and avocado feed, which provides the nutrients that really any kind of fruiting plant needs. They could just say nutri star fruit, but so people understand that includes citrus, that includes avocados, but it also includes pomegranates, any kind of fruit that you have nutri stars, citrus fruit and avocado. Again, about every three months, give it some food with that. Just the label tells you how much to put on,

but it really does make a difference. You will sprinkle these around beneath the branch spread of the plant. So if it's a little fruit tree how far the branches go, primarily focus on that area underneath and your plants will respond with good growth. Those are from the folks at Nelson Fertilizer and they are widely available throughout the Houston area.

Some places even will allow you to refill your jars of certain kinds of Nelson plant food that comes in the jars, and that saves you some money because you just buy directly the fertilizer right out of a dispenser kind of like those in the grocery store where you buy peanuts and different things. Well, it's that way saves them the plastic too, I think i's smart way to go. You are listening to Garden Line, and we're here to help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape.

That is my goal. That is what I hope happens for you, because I want you to have fun. Listen gardening. Okay. You know how at the end of commercials they have to have a lawyer talking so fast you can't understand the words, and it's their disclaimer. Here's my disclaimer. I won't talk fast. Gardening is addictive. It can be habit forming.

People have been known to get so into gardening that it's like it's the only thing that exists, and then it's contagious and then their spouse gets the fever, or their friends or you know whatever. Next thing, you know, you're going to gardening clubs, You're visiting nurseries. Every time you go to a town where someone else is you know, you go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you know, or Philadelphia? How about that Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to see that crack in the

liberty bell. But all you want to do is go find all the cool garden centers up in Philadelphia. I know you, I know you, I am you. Gardening is addictive, but it's the best addiction that you could have. That is for sure. That is for sure. Let's go out to Cyprus. We're going to talk to Mark. Hey, Mark, welcome to garden line.

are several of the pollinators like bees do too. I would recommend when you get cold weather, come and mount something up around the trunk at the bottom, just to protect that for sure, And that good root system is still not frozen back. It's still intact, and it'll send up press new growth and you'll be back in business pretty quick.

pull them up. But I would if you don't want to sprinkle the seeds right there, at least take those seed heads inside and you break them up, get the seeds out of them, put them in a glass jar that seals well. Write down the name if you know the name of it. If you send me a picture of the seed stalks, I might be able to tell you the name if you'd like that. Oh but anyway.

between Trump's senior officials and Russian and Ukrainian negotiators. French President Emmanuel Macrone is calling for an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss President Trump. One man is dead another is injured following a late night shooting in Midtown, and a smash and grab crew is arrested after multiple thefts at Houston Supermarket jewelry stores. News on demand at k HIM. Our next update is at ten I'm Sure at Lewis News Radio seven forty KHRH.

I want to talk about a plant type I haven't been discussing a lot of today, and that's fruit trees. Fruit trees are wonderful to grow here in the Greater Houston area. We have a lot of good ones that we can grow. You can grow pretty much, can grow almost anything down here. But when it comes to peaches and pears and plums, there are even some apples that

will grow down this far south. When it comes to figs and per simmons, those figs and percimons are two of the most pest free and disease free problems that you can have figs and per semons. They do really well. Here. We have berries like blackberries and strawberries. There are some raspberries that you can get to, but yeah, I wouldn't start a raspberry farm. You're not gonna make a lot of money off that, just not that much production. And

then there's the tropical and the semi tropical fruits. You know, citrus. A lot of people move here and they're just excited that you can grow citrus in the Greater Houston area and you can. There are citrus it's very cold, tender, and then there's citrus it's very hearty. One of the hardiest types of citrus is the kind that is often used for marmalade, and it's called kumquats. The little oranges look like the end of your thumb. One type is round.

One type's a little more elongated, and the skin tastes better on the inside even and people like those in they're extreme hearty and it's a bush. Then there's satsumas. Satsumas are a mandarin type citrus. So if you're going I don't know what a satsuma is, I don't know what a mandarin type citrus is. When you're in the grocery store and you see those little oranges that are called kuties I think is one of the brand names for them, and you grab them and the skin just

comes right off. It's not even attached to the fruit hardly. It's just loose, a baggy skin. Well, that's what a setsuma's like, a baggy skinned fruit that is hardy when established down to the upper teens. Even some people have told me they made mid teens. But that's crazy hardy. Now, No brandy setsuma stuck in the ground this last year is not going to be that hardy in your yard. And how the cold arrives determines how hardy it is.

So if we slowly cool off and we don't get that thing growing again during the wintertime, it's gonna have more heartiness. So anyway, satsumas, if you're listening up in Huntsville or in Conroe or in College Station, you know, low further north. I guess I could call those the northern hinterlands, but people up there would laugh at that, right, But anyway, satsuma may be the one for you. Now, it doesn't mean, you'll never have to cover it. You

will need to cover it occasionally. But they are moderate sized trees. They're not they don't as big as like a grapefruit might get. So a satsuma can easily be capped in maybe a six to eight foot range something like that easily, and they'd taken a long time to get eight feet. But anyway, those are things you can grow down here too. Avocados if you're down south of by ten, especially avocados or something you may want to

try now in a very protected spot. If we can get a few winters that aren't that bad, they'll go right through the winter without a problem. I was looking at somebody sent me a picture the other day of an avocado tree that was near the eaves of the house on the south side, and he said it's frozen back twice, and I was looking at it was way taller than the eaves, and he was starting to get avocados again. So even if they freeze back, you protect

the base of it and you're back in business. So avocados are a little iffy, but oh my gosh, they're so good. Now, do not plant fruit trees. Here's your advice on fruit trees for the day. Quick quick tip, don't pick your fruit varieties out of the in the supermarket. Haas avocados are not for here. There are avocados varieties that are for here, And if you go to a good independent garden center, that's all they're going to sell you is the heartier, smooth skin type of avocado that's

grown here. But don't pick those out of the supermarket. You see bing cherries in the super Mario, you see other things in the supermarket. You'll see high bush blueberries in the super market, regular high bush, not southern. Don't plant those here. Pick your varieties based on information that's local. All right, we're gonna head out to Conro now and talk to Jim. Hey, Jim, welcome to guarden Line.

will plummet. Now you can use something like a barricade to prevent warm seasoned weeds from coming up. You're gonna put it down and then you're gonna water it in with about a half inch of irrigation and that will move it down into the soil. And then once those plants dry off, the dogs can go out there on it because it's you've moved it down into the soil.

If you spray existing weeds, Jim, that herbicide product will be present on the leaves because that's what you're spraying on to kill that existing weed that you may see out there now. And if dogs go out and eat those, then they're going to get exposed to it.

that's what they do. If you can keep the dogs off of the grass for let's say a week and so so, just as an example, let's say you go out and you spray, and once it dries, give it about a week. Don't let the dogs go out and be unsupervised out there on it. Don't let them eat anything. After about a week, that products moved down in the weeds to kill the weed, and then you could go out with a mower and mow that all off and get all the weeds everything that got sprayed up there

you're mowing it away. Then that would be another safety measure for a post emergent spray. But it needs it needs some days to be able to move down in the weed and do its job before you let the dogs out.

and everything. Well, Ace has got you covered on things like that. If you're doing true cleaning, they've got the cleaning supplies. They've got every everything that you might need. Maybe it's outdoors, maybe you're redoing your deck or or resealing your deck rather, uh, they've got the supplies for that. Of course, he has stains and paints. In fact, they've just announced a President's Day sale on all kinds of painting supplies. Just stop by there and see it for yourself.

Propane tanks, barbecue and season coming up here, folks. They have the exchangeable propane canisters. Sometimes propane vfills also available. And it doesn't matter which of the ACE stores you are looking at, they are going to have you covered and set up. Maybe it is the Baycliff Ace on Grand Avenue in Bakeliff, Maybe it is the Uvaldi Ace on the east side U Valley Road in Houston. Perhaps the Langham Creek Ace Hardware in Cypress, Texas, or the

East Hardware Champions on Spring Cypress. Those are just examples. You can go to ACE Hardware dot com find out the ones near you, and there's a lot of them here in the Greater Houston area. While you're in there, check out this is a twenty percent off Mowen Fawcetts. This month. So any faucets that you've been thinking about replacing with something nice, something more attractive, or that his works better, well go for it. Grab some air filters

while you're in buy three, get one free. Whatever you're doing. It's spring. It's time to get all kinds of things done. And then outside in your yard, fertilizers, test control, we control disease control, tools for the garden hoses, time for new hos ace hardware. As you covered on everything indoors and out, well, let's see here. Uh okay, I was thinking we had a all right, excuse me while I

think out loud to myself. Here you are listening to guard Line, and we come every Saturday and every Sunday morning from six to ten to help you have success. The way I usually say it is, I want you to have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. Those are the three goals that we try to have, and in order to do that, you need good advice. Because green thumbs are only thumbs that are informed. That's the difference in green thumb and

a brown thumb. Is a brown thumb has been informed about what plants want. I made it simple. Earlier today, I said basically the big three. I want sunlight, I want adequate soil moisture, and I want quality soil, and that's important. Well, A fourth I want is a plant that wants to grow there. And you know, you can't do more local in terms of a plant wanting to be here and grow here than a native plant. And when I think of native plants, I think of Buchanans.

They're in the Heights. In fact, it's in their name Buchanans Native Plants Eleventh Street and the Heights, and they specialize in natives, not just Texas natives. They have that, of course, but they even have a table where it's the Houston native plants that are native right here where you live, and then plants that are from the region we live in and so on. They're excellent for that, and you can go in. They know what they're talking about. They know how to help you find what you need.

So you could go in and say something like, okay, I want to I want native plant, but I want native plant that attracts hummingbirds, or I want one that attracts butterflies, for example. They just walk right over and show you what you need. They know what they're talking about. They also know that brown stuff comes before green stuff, and they stock up on fertilizers. Soils, composts, have full line of microlife. They got nitrophoss, they got Nelson plant food.

They carry soils from Nature's Way resources, carry sols from airloom soils, for example. They have their own life below soil blend, and then one called Tropicore, which is a peed free blend for tropical and indoor plants. The pottery selection is awesome. The gift shop is awesome. If you're looking for any kind of gift, any kind of occasion or no occasion, you can't go wrong at Buchanni's Plants. You just can't. And I say this when I talk about Buchanans, but I really want you to hear me.

Go to the website Buchanansplants dot com. Sign up for the newsletter. Go to their YouTube page. They have instructional videos. They have lots of good information at Buchanans Plants dot com. Sign up for that newsletter. That newsletter will let you know the latest things that have come in that I'm just looking at one right now. They just got a bunch of really rare houseplants. Columbia philodendron. Let's see escualletto monstera silver and amidrium a midrium that's a new one

even to me. Seed starting mixes are in lots of cool stuff. If you want companion planting, Buchanans has got you coverage, says right here in the newsletter. What's the native plan of the week. The hairy tube tongue. Isn't that interesting type of Justicia? We grow other Justichias in

our landscapes. Here sign up for the newsletter. It's free and it'll tell you things like right now four inches four inch winter veggies or two dollars four inch winter annuals, or a dollar fifty percent off their chimneyas and pinion would to go in your chiminya to enjoy outdoors. And then the classes and on and on. I'm just telling you go check them out Buchanansplants dot Com. We're going to go out to Cove, Texas and talk to Rufus. Now, hey, Rufus, Welcome to garden Line.

There's an onion chives and a garlic chives that do very well here. So those are a few examples.

Follow us on our social media. We have a garden Line Facebook page, lots of good info on there. We have a garden Line Instagram garden Line Instagram as well. Follow us on those. Go to my website gardening with Skip dot com. I just met with my website guru the other day and we are planning a bunch of new cool stuff to go up to the website. So we're just here to help you have a success in

your garden. Let us do that. Stick around and tell your friends and family about it, and we'll talk to you next weekend.