Frost Damage? Here Is What To Do

And of course those are your calls. You have some questions about identifying things or diagnosing some issues that you might have, or even some suggestions for how to have more luck with your lawn or your garden, perhaps trees and the landscape. You name it, you get to make the call. The only thing I can help you with is getting your spouse to do more work outside in the garden. I am not I can't do that. I've told people more on one occasion over my career. Listen,

gardening advice is free. Marriage advice is three hundred dollars an hour, so we'll see it's probably not worth what you'd pay for it from me, but anyway, that's what we're here for. Seven one three two one two ktrh. That's the number. You'd like to give me a call, we will talk gardening with you.

had some fun in the process. We always try to do that as well, So thanks for coming on out and visiting with me about those kinds of things. Just kind of as a reminder. My next appearance coming up is going to be February fifteenth at Enchanted Gardens, and I'm also going to be giving a talk out there. I'm going to be talking about ways to have more

success with gardening for less work. Okay, the way I like to put it is get more out of your garden with less sweat or less ibuprofen, if you know what I'm talking about there, And we're going to I've got a lot of ideas on that. So we don't want our physical limitations to stop us from gardening. And

it's so cool, you know. It used to be that there was not the help out there to help someone who maybe had was dealing with arthritis in their arms or bad knees or whatever you know condition that kind of limited their ability to garden. And now we have so many helpful tools, lots of ergonomic tools that work really well. Depending on what your limitation is, it need not necessarily be a limitation anymore, with some really really cool things that help a lot. I've talked about the

kneeling bench before, but that's a simple little thing. It's just a folding up bench you because it folds its stores real easily. But it's it's something you can sit on and you flip it upside down. It's something you can kneel on, and the legs that were holding it up when you sat on it become the handles that help you get up and down. I think that is

pretty cool, you know. I remember how many of you remember, those of you who are somewhere north of forty remember the first time you woke up sore and you didn't know why do you know what I'm talking about? It's like, Wow, I'm sore? Why am I sore? Did I hurt myself sleeping? And by the way, that can also happen somewhere north of forty, but anyway, you know, and then you get to thinking, I seriously, I've had that happen more than once, and I just couldn't figure out what was it that

I did. And then finally it dawned to me, Well, I walked around the yard all day. But then I kind of realized, No, I walked around the yard and I got on my hands and knees to pull a weed or to plant a plan, or to dig a dirt or you know, whatever we're doing, and up and down and I kind of did the numbers, and it's like, yeah, probably about ten thousand times getting up and down and up and down. And if it's not muscles you normally

use well, you gets sore in the morning. So good tools like that, like that kneeling bunch, they're really helpful. This is one of my top five tools. Another one is I guess we're just gonna talk about tools here this morning. Another one is the soil knife. Soil knives imagine a big, old giant butcher knife, but sharp on both sides, not you know, like blade on one side

and no, you don't cut on the other side. This is like both sides, and it's slightly scalloped so you can use it almost like a imagine a knife that's kind of scalloped a little like a shovel, so you could use it to dig out a hole. I do it for planting. You know, I'm put a transplant on the ground, a four inch pot or something. Just take that knife and dig it right out. One side has a serration on it, and so when you run into roots. I talked yesterday about my no dig no till garden,

excuse me, no till garden. And so when I take out cornstalks or tomato plants or whatever. I just use that serrated side of my soil knife good on there, and a couple of stabs into the soil, and that thing comes right out and leaves all the roots behind, which is helpful. Roots decomposed roots open up pathways down into the soil, and nature leaves roots in the ground. That's what nature does and what happens to those roots they decompose. The microbes get all happy because they got

something to break down. That's their food and it works well. But anyway, sol knife is good for that. They have markings on them, so you know one inch deep, two inches deep, three inches if you own to do that. And then some of them, most of them have a little scabbard too to put them in, which looks cool. You know, you kind of feel like you got your bowie knife there walking around the garden. But some of them even have other features like a little hook that

will cut twine, a little sharp hook. And perhaps important as well, especially for some of you, is a little bottle opener. So you're out there in the garden and you need you get some refreshment out of a bottle, you can just pop that lid right off and there you go, you're intent, you're in business, so anyway, so knife's good, good duol. That's another one. Our quality pruners are very important. If you're gonna get quality pruners, you're gonna have things that last and that are easier to get.

The cheap o's the cheap prunters, you will pay for those. You'll pay for them in two ways. Number One, it's more wear and tear in your hands, and you'll just notice it, even if you don't have authortis or anything. Just pruning with cheap prunters is harder in your hands. The way they cut, the way they move, the way they kind of get sprung out where they don't cut right, that's not good. And when they quit working well, and when you're trying to keep them sharp and having trouble

with that, you just get tired of them. Throw them in a bucket, throw them in the trash, and then you go buy another one. And after you bought a few cheap pruners, you could have just bought a nice pair of punters that have replaceable blades that are easy to sharpen. The quality brands, you know, a brand like Corona just being one example. Those kinds of things. They will sell you replacement braids. I'll eave and sell you a little tool for sharpening them as you use them.

They come in length that you can get a nice leather scabbard for them. They're just worthwhile. So whether it's a big lopper that you cut en off larger limbs with, or a hand printer, or even a good quality printing saw for removing small limbs, that is that group. I'm gonna make those one group, that group of quality cutting tools very very important. Well, I'm gonna take a little break here. It looks like the first quick break that

always come so fast. Every hour's time for that. I just will be right back with your calls if you'd like. You know, early in the morning is the time when the phones are a little quieter. So if you were some of folks yesterday, we're having to wait a while if you'd like to get a good quick start, and now'd be a time seven to one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t r HW. Right back there you go. When's the last time you heard that? Welcome back to

garden line. Ah, let's see here, we're gonna go run out to the phones. Now, I think a few people took some good advice. Get get in early in the morning and get a first first end of the phone. We're gonna go to Copperfield and talk to Donna this morning. Hey, Donna, welcome to garden Line.

say we do have another real hard cold snap. So you can leave it or let it dry out, or you can just pull it out because it is not going to get better. There's no problem of pulling it out other than just exposing the base. And now you want to throw at a mult over it, and you're still good to.

just going to turn to mush. Well, you know it's gone, so it's going to need to come out at the ground eventually. It's just a question is do you do it now or do you do it later? And like I said, either one is really okay.

It'll be very mushy, as you say, like walking on sifted flour is very soft, and then it decomposes and sinks down. So whenever you do a stump grinding, the more of the wood you can get out of there, rake out of there kind of you know, use a little pitchforky kind of scoop, whatever it takes to get some out of there, the better off you'll be. But then I usually recommend getting some good soil and just making more of a mound like a pitcher's mound on

a baseball field over that area. How high, I don't know how. It depends on the size of the stump

and thing. But basically you're saying, I know you're going to settle, so I'm going to mound you up just a little bit, just a little bit, so that when you settle your you're close to level and that that would be what at this point, Donna, that I would suggest you do is put a little bit of soil in there, maybe a little bit mounded up a few two or three inches up a little bit because it's going to settle some more, and you that way, you're closer to ending up level than the depression in that

tart around.

it settles down. So you could go that route. If you're going to plant another tree there, yeah, then the settling is more of a problem, and so I would probably if you could go a little bit to the side for a shrub or a tre tree, I would do that. It sounds like it may be a little too close to your house for a tree anyway.

there are a number of them out there. We'd beat her. Uh, we'd beat our ultra those kind of things of a fertiloam. Oh gosh, I'm trying to think of it. We'd free zone. There's a number of brands out there on that. And so you get yourself over to one of your I think you've got some ACE hardware stores over there in the Great the Orange area, and just just talk to them and say, I need a broad leaf weed control here.

Here's why you would want to do that now. But yeah, you've got Child's building supply over there on sixteenth Street. You would when it gets hot, spraying weeds in your Saint Augustine is hard on your Saint Augustine, and hot means in the upper eighties, even mid to upper eighties is when we were starting to go, hey, let's let's watch out for these things. They could hurt our grass.

Well we're far from that right now. So A secondly, once those weeds start to get those burrs on them, they actually have a tiny bloom you don't even notice, and then they get the burrs on them. Then it's harder to kill them with those products. We said. I. The way I put it is, once the weed becomes reproductive, it starts producing blooms and seed. Uh, it's hard to kill them. So now's up is your window where you can do the most good with the least damage.

and the grass is really never taken over. Okay, do I need to redo that area or I think there is something you recommended, a mulch or something to cover that with, and then when the season starts again, I guess in the spring that would be in better shape.

in Magnolia. Jeff, sorry for that interruption. We had to pay some bills, but let's continue on with you with your questions.

The next step would be to bring soil in and raise the area up so the water naturally has to go somewhere. But you kind of have to watch because you maybe just be moving a problem from one spot to another when by bringing soil in, you just we have another spot that was fine now it's web. So those are those are two options. The other is just to live with it if it's not too bad, and it's pretty much lawns are pretty tolerant of wet conditions.

By and large, they do okay on that. In that case, it's just a matter of you know, getting good aeration in the soil if it's a little compacted, and that's part of the issue, having a core aeration done, doing some compost top dressing on it, and trying to get that lawn is healthy, the root system is healthy as you can. So those are kind of the three levels of addressing that. Now, why it died, it could have been due to to just compaction and excessive moisture, but

it may also have been a root disease. It could have been a lack of sunlight due to shade. It could be you know, some droughty periods that open the door for for some issues like disease related. So it's kind of hard for me to know the answer to the why right now.

If you can get it at least six hours of sun, that's good. If you can't do that, then with each hour less you get, it's going to be marginally weaker in order to do. And when I say sun, it's a matter of total light. So if you have a very bright dapple shade all day, that's pretty good. If you have a few hours of direct sun and then deep shade, you know, there's an equivalency in there somewhere.

So it's not just direct sun. But the more direct it is, the more light you're going to get to that grass.

just south of Conroe. So you're a Magnoias so right where fourteen eighty eight comes into forty five is yeah, And I would call talk to Ian over there or one of the folks at Nature's Way and say, you know, what do you what do you have for something like this?

a call. Let's do that. I one of the things I've said this before, one of the things that that makes me sad is to have a gardener or someone who wants to be a gardener who just throws their hands up, throws in the trowel in this case literally the trial, not the towel, and says I can't, I can't, I can't do this, I'm not good. I got a brown thumb, and all those kinds of things we say when we can when plants die on us. Look, I just want to let me comfort you. I'll try to

use my most soothing voice. You are not a brown thumb person. You're not. You do not have a b I promise you you do not have a brown thumb. Plants need certain things. They need sunlight, they need moisture but not too much. They nutrients and a balance. They need soil that drains well but wholesome moisture. And as we give plants those things they want, suddenly let's just say go back to the thumb color your thumb starts turning green. Okay, and you can do this. It is

something you can do. And gardening it, you know, people are in it for a lot of reasons. Some people it's like I want a pretty place. I'm gonna pay somebody to come make it pretty. And that's okay, that's legit. You can do that. We can help advise you so you can help guide the people that come to make your place pretty. Other people want to do it all themselves, and they want to walk through it step by step by step, build their own perkilas. I mean, lay their

own side. I mean you can go that route too if you want to, and we can help you with that. My goal here is for you to have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape. And the third one is very important and more fun in the process. Gardening should be fun, it should be rewarding. But know this, to be a great gardener, you got to kill a lot of plants. So if you've been getting frustrated because you're killing plants, you're just on your way to being a

great gardener. Because each time something goes wrong, we learn from it and we get better at it, and so that's my encouragement for the morning. You can do this.

This is really not all that difficult. Well, it's getting close to time for me to take another break, and I want to give you the phone number one more time seven one three two one two kt r H. And I want to remind you that my website, Gardening with Skip, I just keep adding more and more things to it that help answer the questions I get here.

I've been doing this for over thirty five years gardening advice and quite a few years in Radio two, and I've heard a lot of questions, and I know the kinds of things people are going to ask, and so I put these things together on the website so that you can get the help you need. So Gardening with Skip dot com, go check it out and find some things that can be helpful to you. All of them are free downloads up there be right back. Alrighty, we're

back and we mugging around on caurn line this morning. Hey, give me a call seven one three two one two kat r H. We'll talk about the things that you are interested in, try to help you have some success with your garden. As I was saying, you do not have a brown thumb. You really have a green thumb. You just haven't informed your thumb enough to get it to turn green. And that's what we're gonna do right now. We're we're gonna talk about the things that help you

have success with garden, because that's what's all about. Who wants to buy a plant go to the trouble of planting and watching it die. That's discouraging. We don't want to have that. So we got to get the soil right. We want to make sure the plant's in the spot it wants to be. Does it like lots of sun or not too much sun? Does it need certain conditions of soil, like acidic soil like a blueberries and azaleas and camellias and puris. I never talked about puris. Puris

is a wonderful plant. Virginia sweetspar there's another one I don't talk about. A native plant to the southeastern parts of the US, including parts of Texas, that has beautiful little long blooms on them, little clusters of long blooms, and it's a great one. But it likes the citic soil conditions, and you can create that for your plants. So when you do that, you make them feel at home. If you make them feel at home, they will be happy and they will grow and perform for you, kind

of like the show field of dreams. How many y'all remember that if you build it, they will come. If you build the soil and the site, your plants will thrive. That's just how it works. It can happen. So that's my encouragement for the day. Our garden centers are loading up out there on plants. Just going and visiting some of our great garden centers that we have here in this area. Oh my gosh, I was getting spring fever

just looking at the plants that they have. And it is time to get going on that now.

the soil ready. Remember brown stuff before green stuff. So when you go to someplace, get a bag of compost or molt or bed mix or whatever you're going to do. Maybe you just need to mix a little compost into the soil and that'll do it. Maybe you want to build a whole raised bed, and that's a good idea. You know, for years my vegetable gardens were down in the soil. In other words, you go in the backyard, scrape off all the grass or weeds, whatever you got,

and your rototilet up and you plant in it. That's a vegetable garden. Well, since then I have learned that that first of all, that's fine. I mean, can garden that way. That's how we farm, by the way. But I now have raised bed boxes. And whether you I've done it with just a mound of soil, you know, where you create a mound of soil that's like uh, you know, maybe eight ten inches high and it'll settle a little in time, but kind of packed the sides a little bit as you're making it, and it makes it.

It makes a decent bed, or you can put it in a container of some sort. Maybe it is wood that is that is rot resistant, wood, that's a box. Maybe it is one of the nice corrugated metal containers that are painted and they're very attractive and they last forever. They're very they're rust resistant. That you know, all of that,

you can do that. Maybe you want to do a rock bed and do a beautiful stone on the sides of the bed, or those little landscaping bed stones that are for creating a little retaining wall in the landscape. It doesn't matter. Plants do not care what they're growing in. I want you to think about that fella I know in Mississippi a lot of you probably heard him. He comes over here and speaks every none. Then I fell

to rushing. He made a statement. He said, you cannot embarrass a plant with a pot, And that is true. I mean literally, You get you a toilet fixture, stick it out in the garden, drill holes in the bottom, get ready for letters from the hoa by the way, and put a plant in it. And that plant will grow because it's a container and it holds a toilet holds a lot of soil. My point is not to do that. My point is that they didn't care where

it's growing in. It says how much soil do I have so I can get through the Texas summer days. Number two, do I have good drainage? And number three did you put a good soil in me? And it'll grow? So when you're going to grow in something, it doesn't matter what I mean. You can lay logs on the ground and make a box bed. There's a lot of work and they will ride away and you'll be doing it again. So it's not what I would recommend. The

plants don't care. I like now growing and raised box beds because when you do that, you can put the best quality soil mix in there and from day one you're growing and you're having good luck with it. To get out and bang through on a rototiller and try to improve the soil and you can that it is more work, and I just find that I have my best performance and a good quality boxed bed and it's

so easy. And like I said, if you were to decide I'm going to have a garden this week, and you're going to go do it today, and you go out there aside from any drizzlies, and you put a box anywhere. It could be on the soil, it could be on the driveway, it could be on a patio plant. I didn't care what it's on, and you felt it full of good mix. Later today you're planting your garden and it's a ranky tat and it's as easy as that. That's what I'm talking about. And so that's one way

to have good success. Now in flowerbeds, you're not gonna have boxes all out in front of the house everywhere for flowers, but those we do build up. Those we get a good bed mikes in to have success. But start with the soil. Start with the soil it. I guess one analogy was if you're going to build a house and you went out there and you just laid a bunch of two bay fours on the ground and started hammering up walls and making it. How long is

that house gonna last? Not very long. You get a good solid foundation and then you build right on it and correctly on it, and you're gonna have a house that lasts for decades and decades. Okay, that's what we do with the garden if we want to have success, not waste money. You can have success that way. My phone number is seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two k t r H. I'm going to be taking our top of the Hour

break here for the news in just a minute. But if you'd like to be first up, that'd be a time to call and talk to Jonathan. Say, hey, get me on there. If you've got some pictures of something you want to talk about, call us up and get the email to send those two and then follow that up with a phone call of the show.

Starting your transplants, getting good, healthy transplants, growing all of that kind of stuff. Now's the time to do it. I can't think of anything better than the one day to be inside growing your own transplants.

We're talking about gardening on the radio, but maybe starting some seeds, starting some cuttings, getting out a seed catalog and doing some planning and thinking or a little online research, reading up on some stuff. You know, they say in order when you're cutting wood, when you're you know, logging the forest, if you will, you got to keep the saw sharp sharp. But it's not just about cutting down trees.

It's about keeping the saw sharp because the dollar of the saw gets the harder it is to cut wood, and the less you get done. I guess the same thing is true about gardening. Making sure that we are continually learning more, growing more. I guess sharpening the saw, this saw beeing the gardener in this case that is important, and it makes gardening more fun and it's exciting. You know, there are so many kinds of plants in gardening that

you're never gonna get the end of it. And you may start and you're all about, I just want a good lawn, I want a perfect, beautiful lawn. But then you discover I don't know, it could be something really random, like orchids. Enjoying growing orchids. The moth orchid is the one that you see everywhere for sale, and it is an easy one to grow. I neglect, don't tell anybody this, I neglect mine and they still bloom as long as I don't just like kill them. I mean they're easy

to grow. Maybe you get into that and you want to do that. Took somebody the other day that was into African violets, and I mean they grew miniature African violets, they grew the large type African violets. They were into something else called a pieces that's another related cousin of African violets that is really cool and beautiful. And they

just get all into that, and that's cool. Maybe you are about eating and you want vegetables and you want fruit, and you want to grow herbs, and that's your new thing on guarding. It always is something new, always something new. A couple of days, a couple of shows ago, I mentioned terrariums and how you know that used to be a really popular thing, terrariums, and they kind of waned. And I see an interest coming back in that now too. And that's a whole other thing. So somebody, I mean

somebody that is completely shut in. They can't get out and do anything, maybe physically, you know, for whatever reason, a little terrarium to put some plants in and to grow, get a little light over it, and stuff that is a kind of gardening that is also kind of fun to do. You can get some really creative designs that way people go to great links, kind of like building a ship in a bottle. You know you can. You can kind of let the sky be the limit. But

find something you like and try something new. Hey, twenty twenty five New Year. Time to try something new. Do something you haven't done before in gardening. Try something you haven't tried before in gardening. There is for the rest of your life. You live to be five hundred years old, you are not going to run out of new things to do and try and learn when it comes to gardening. That's just how that works. Well, let's do this. Let's head out to Brenham, Texas, and we're going to talk

to Mike. Hello, Mike, Welcome to garden Line.

got to be really careful with spraying those things. If you've got broad leaf weeds, those are winter weeds and you can spray them. Now, there are a number of products out there. There's product blends from fur loam and from Monterey from a high Yield and what's the other one on bone eye is another one. There's those blends like that for controlling a variety weeds. They put more than one product together and that way it covers better range of weeds out there. But uh, do all that

before it gets temperatures get up above mid eighties. Up it definitely up in the upper eighties. Get that done before then, because then you can damage some types of grass depending on the product you use and the type of grass that you have. Anytime you can spot spray, Yeah, anytime, eating spot spray Mike is good. And also make your spray. Don't pump up your sprayer very much. You would like

of course droplets going out from the spray. If you pump it up a lot, you end up almost creating like a foggy mist that will drift off site under that higher pressure spray. So keep this, keep the spray pressure down a little bit, and that that is also a safety factor.

to do that. A normal acre, it's not like you can just turn the water on out there. So that's where a spray is a little more helpful because you can target it. And we're talking about killing the existing weeds. Now, preventing weeds. You put a granular down and the next time it rains, it moves into the soil and then it's there to prevent weed seeds from coming out.

post emergent, that's a that's a different thing. All right. Hey, I'm up against a heartbreak, Mike, but good luck getting getting that under control. Thank you, Bett, Thank you for the call. All right, folks, I'll be right back.

we got the super Bowl coming. I was talking to somebody that about that the other day, and I realized that we broke our heart to have the Texans drop out of the running for it. But it's still coming, and it is the super Bowl, and you know super bowls or parties and grilling. I love to grill outside. Ace Hardware Store has got the best selection of quality grills and grilling equipment many place you're gonna find, for example, uh trade names like Trager, names like Weber and Rectech

and Big Green Egg and Blackstone. You know those are those are Cadillacs. And I'm telling you they have all kinds of supplies to go with them, everything you need if you are an ACEH Rewards member. Some of the stores now each each a store is independently owned. So call your local a store if you're going to get a grill. A lot of them will assemble and deliver it to your home for you. Not IFBA does that, but some do, and so ACE Rewards is well worthwhile

for many reasons, I belong to a rewards. It's simple. You just sign up, you get the card. You can just give me a phone number if you want to use it, and you don't have to carry the card around with you or anything. But the bottom line is you're gonna get points and it's gonna save you in the long run. And it's it's absolutely painless, effortless. Just just do it. And every time you go into Grace,

Grace ace you Sunday morning. I guess everything you go into Ace, you are you are doing yourself a favor by having that uh A rewards members own. Now it's also time to do spring cleaning in the house and in the garage. So do you need some spring spring cleaning supplies? Do you need some shelving? Do you need some toats to get that garage in order? Isn't it

weird how our garages just collect junk? You know, you get it all cleaned up, and it's like it's like a junk magnet in the garage and next you know you're climbing over stuff and having to turn sideways to get from your car to the back door. You know what I mean, the garage door. Well, ACE has got you covered on getting all of that back in order, and they can do that. Now you're gonna find an

ACE all around the place near you. There are a whole bunch of stores here in the Greater Houston area all the way, you know, throughout my whole listening area there are ACE stores. But places like Champions Ace Harbor up in Champion Forests, northwest Houston, Langham Creek. ACE Hardware is right there in Copperfield. We're just talking to somebody this morning, Donna, that lives over near Champions Area, And

excuse me, the Copperfield area. She goes to Langham Creek all the time, Memorial Ace Hardware on the Memorial area, and you go out to Richmond and you got, for example, the Plantation. Ace Hardware a great store out there. Have been there more than one time, really enjoy that store. But go to Acehardware dot Com, find the store locator, find a store near you, And that is how you

go about it, because Ace is the place. And I'm telling you not long when we talking about go get this fertilizer, Go get that product or control weeds or insects or diseases or whatever, and Ice is going to have it ready to go for you when you just show up. All right, I'm gonna talk about a couple of things this morning, And first of all, I'm going

to talk about a little bit about transplanting. I had some questions yesterday down at the Fort beIN County Home Show about transplanting plants, and as a question was evolving, I kind of realized this person had a plant that the roots were all wrapped up in the container, wrapping around, and that's what happens. It's a round container that most plants are grown in and the roots hit the side and they just have to turn left or right or something,

and they just start going around in circles. And when you pull that plant out of the ground and put it in out of the pot and put it in the ground, the plant the roots are not going to unwind underground.

and don't be afraid to cut them. People buy this big old plant and it's probably too small of a pot and you pull it out and it's just white with circling roots, and they don't want to cut those roots. I'm gonna hurt my plant. I got this big beautile cut the roots. You if it's you know, something smaller, a little shrub, The roots aren't that big. Take a box cutter knife, push that little one inch blade out there and slice vertically down through that root system in

three or four places around it. Here's what's going to happen. Wherever you cut a root, roots are going to branch out new roots. Just like if you have a branch above ground and you were to lop it off or snip it off with punters, what happens. New shoots come out from behind the cut. That's what roots do. One time, I was at Arbigate Garden Center up in Tambol and visiting with Beverly, and there were some trees that they've gotten in and I noticed a circling root on them,

because that's what happens at pots. If you've got a plants grown in a round pot, it's gonna have some circling roots. And I got a permission and went in there and took handprinters and just snipped the roots on one of those plants. Came back two weeks later and there were fresh white little roots, several three or four coming out of each cut surface. Everywhere I'd cut a root, there were three or four fresh, tender white roots coming out.

That's what's going to happen underground for you when you cut the plant roots before you put them in the ground. Don't be afraid to do it. Another reason why it's so important to plants sooner rather than later. If you do that in July, it's a little more stress on a plant than if you do it now in January.

So get that done, but ruthless. Now, if you have a little maybe a bedding plant, a tomato or a petunia or whatever you're gonna put in the ground, you will often see those when they've been in the pot for too long, have a massive roots. The whole site. You can't even see dirt. The whole side of the pot is just solid white right in most cases tan brown roots because they typically start dying out when they're that pot bound. Cut those two or just kind of

tease them apart. Sometimes I just with a little tiny transplant, just rip the roots on the outside with my fingers off and stick it in the ground and watered in really good. Get some get some roots stimulator in there. Get the kinds of products you know, you hear me talk about things well, For example, nutri Star Genesis. That's a great one, a great one by the folks at Nelson. I mix that every time I'm going to transplant a plant.

Nutri Star gets mixed in with the soil in the planting hole, or in the case of a container plant, it gets mixed in with the potting soil that's going to be put around that new plant in the container, and it takes off and it grows fast. There are products that you can dip them in. You know has

to grow by medina. That's when you can drench it with a watering can or like I mentioned yesterday, I'll often take put a little has to Grow in a bucket or something and then just dip the set the plant in there while I'm getting the whole dug and then pull it out. Now you got a root ball soaked with the has to Grow six twelve six plant food and you just put it right in the ground. And we have other examples of that. But take care of those roots. Don't expect it to fix itself underground.

It won't. And trust me if you do. If you bought two plants and they're both equally root bound, and one of them you just put in the ground, and the other one you did what I've been saying to do, come back in June and look at those plants, and then give me a call and tell me how they're doing, and you're going to see that difference. Trust me on this one. It is important to do that. Now we have the ability to buy a plant that's not so terribly root bound, take advantage of not doing that, buying

one that's not so terribly root bound. But if you have them and if you cut them, the plants will survive and they'll do well. All right. I spend a lot of time on that. But that is again one of these days, I think I need to come up with maybe the top twenty five mistakes gardeners make. That sounds like such a negative list, but it would help you not make those mistakes. And one of the ones is planting root bound plants without doing something for that

root system. That would belong on the list. All right, you're listening to Guardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter our number for gardeners to call in. This is a call in show. Seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two kt r H. By the way, that nutri Star that Genesis Nelson Plant Food has, they have their fertilizers are kind of grouped. There's a nature Star that's more organic types of fertilizer. There is a turf Star that's products for your lawn.

Turf Star. There is a Nutristar line, and those tend to be things like fertilizer for your plumeria, or fertilizer for your fruit trees, or fertilizer for your vegetable. That's the kind of the nutri Star line. But there is a Nutristar genesis that I've been talking about, and it's got the reason it works so well and the reason I use it well. The reason I use it is I tried it and I was shocked and how well it worked. It really surprised me how well it worked.

But it's got the endo and the ectomiciza. You're sitting there going, what the heck does that even mean? Well, micariza are little. There are fung fungal strands that live in an association with roots, that's called a mic orhizal association. And these fungi go into the root, doesn't hurt the plant, it helps the plant, and then they go out in the soil and they may grab a phosphorus molecule from way out in the swell that the plant can't reach

and bring it back to the plant. Or they may cut act two plants together like a telegraph line or a telephone line between the two plants for communication. But this has both the ones that are on the outside of the root and the ones that are in the root as an endow versus ecto. It's got those, it's got bacteria and other fungi that benefit that soil microbiome, and then it's got the humantes and of course it's got some nutrition in it as well. Now you mix

them in the soil. You do that, then as those plants are growing, then you do your regular fertilizing like you would do. The genesis is for the transplant mixed potting soil or soil or whatever you're putting in. It's specifically designed to be mixed in the soil. Okay, but don't forget. Get you some color Star or other nutri Stars or nutri Star whatever you're going to use, and

have those on hand for ongoing fertilization. But before you put a plant in the ground, have that nutri Star genesis around because I'm telling you it works, and I'm telling you that because I have used it. Della experiment with it a while back. Alrighty, well, I am up against another hard break here. If you would like to get us a call and be on garden Line to ask your question seven one three two one two KTRH. When we come back, we're going to start off with

Brad out there in Pasadena. Brad will be right with you in just a bit. Here, I want to remind you my website, Gardening with Skip dot com, is where you're going to find things that I'm often referring to during the show. Someone asked me nuts Edge was all over my garden last year and now it's all frozen back.

Hello Brad, welcome to garden Line.

Do you see what I'm saying. I mean, they only last a certain amount of time before they break down and you have to reapply them. So I would probably do mine maybe a next maybe next week after something like that would probably be about ideal for your area. Could could even come a little bit later now.

wouldn't put them out too soon. I'd give them a little more time. What I would do, though, is go ahead and lift them up out of there and pot them up. Pot them up into something, you know, whatever size. It doesn't have to be a giant pot, but just

get them, get them growing. With a little more root space, you can get them off the heating mat, provide them a little continue to give them the light that they have, and then once we get past the freeze damages, let's say we get somewhere into oh, I don't know, maybe mid March or something like that, then then go ahead and put them out or gradually acclimate them like, pot them up, get them growing, set them outside, and let

them let them experience the cool weather we're having. But that way you can bring them in if it gets freezing cold. If you plant them, you're going to definitely go ahead.

in and they'll continue to develop roots. Even if temperatures are in you know, the highs in the fifties and at night it's in the low forties or upper thirties. They'll be okay, and they'll be developing root systems and getting acclimated. And then when you plant them out, your chance of success is going to be even better.

I appreciate the call very much. Well, oh my, Barbara and Hempstead, you're gonna be our first up when we come back from a break here. I don't have time to give your question the time I would like to provide it, So we're gonna hold you over and come back to you right when we get back from break. Remember on plants, plants go through a hardening off process as as things cool off in the fall, and that makes them more winter hardy. When we don't allow that,

a plant that should be hardy won't be. For example, crate myrtles. A couple of years ago in December we had warm temperatures, they were not hardened off and ready. We had a seventeen degree I believe temperature where I live and crate myrtles killed the ground that re sprouted out of the base because they weren't ready. All right, I'll be right back in just a moment. All right, folks were back. Let's do this. You are listening to

garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. We're here to help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape that is as simple as I can put it. Oh and one more thing, and have fun in the process. And never forget that gardening is supposed to be fun, and it is. You know, it's like getting to play in the dirt when you're an adult. And it's a good excuse for that. Right, Calvin and Hobbs, you remember the Cavin and Hobbes comic strip, The Little Tiger and

the Little Boy. There's one of those, and it said, at the end of the day, if your genes aren't grass stained, you need to seriously reconsider your life. I love that one.

that's what's making it so hard to crank. So the more often you turn it, the less that's going to have happen, and you'll be able to continue to do turning as you need to.

And and that tree it'll look like it's living for a while, But what's happening is the roots are getting starved for carbohydrates and it will go downhill and you won't be able to turn it around. Now she has a couple of options. The simplest, easiest thing is just get new trees, because then you know where you are

and you know you're gonna do it. But if she wants to try to save those, she might try planting it a little bit deeper in a pot and getting some soil up against the bark, living bark that's still on that stem. Take a little pocket knife and make some little vertical slits in it, like the direction of the trunk, Just little slits with that little wound will callous.

And where you get callous, you can get roots, and you may be able to get the top part above that chewed to go ahead and root and save the tree.

girdled by rabbits. Now, what happens sometimes in areas where you get lost snow is the rabbits go hopping up to the trunk. They're hopping up on snow, and they chew the bark all the way around the trunk. They literally girdled the tree that way. And this was a sizeable probably about a four or five inch trunk on

this apple tree that they had chewed off. And so there's a thing called a bridge graft where you cut a branch and you essentially connect the top part that was to above where it was chewed off, to the rootstock part below where it was chewed off. So you have these little bands of branches going across there. It's called a bridge graft. And I was sitting there doing this for him for free, just to help the guy.

And I looked up and there's a little bunny rabbit like twenty feet away, and I go, there's your culprit. And the guy laughed and he goes, yeah, he's our pet rabbit. He hangs out around here. And I'm sitting here. I'm not helping a guy. I'm feeding a rabbit. Why am I doing this? Anyway? Fun story, all right, we're

at the end of an hour here. We're gonna be back in a little bit, and when we do, we're going to talk to Glenn in Lake Jackson, And if you'd like to be up then just get Jonathan m call seven one three two one two kat r h and we will talk to you about that too. You know, I'm talking about grafting. Grafting is kind of a fun thing and so is budding and it's not hard to learn. Now early on you're going to not have great success because you kind of to get the neck of it.

But as I was talking earlier, what have you never done that you're going to do a new and try this year? How about trying to bud? Budding doesn't cut off the whole branch, and so if you fail at it, you haven't lost much. Do you know you could bud four or five different kinds of peaches on your peach tree? Would that be cool?

and that is Peerce Scapes. I'm just every time I go to their website and I would ask that you just go look at it. Please go look at it. It's Piercescapes dot com. Piercescapes dot com. Look at the work they can do. It is amazing, it is outstanding. You'll you'll look there, maybe you'll look at the hard escape work that they do and you just go, oh my gosh. I have to have a pat or a walkway like that. I have got to create a water feature like they create. I've got to create that outdoor

barbecue pit area like they show. Landscape lighting unbelievable, the difference it makes in your home, both in safety, you know, we can see around the house kind of a security thing, but also just in beauty, and Pierscapes does all of that.

They also do maintenance. So maybe you just want somebody to come out and four times a year, I want you to get in here, get the flowerbeds, put some new flowers in, put some mulch in, make sure the irrigation's work, and right, do a little trimming here and there, I mean fertilizing. They do all that. That's part of their quarterly maintenance program. But you got to call them and connect and get you know, get them on board to do what you need done. Now, if it's a

big landscape job, it's gonna take some time. Sit on with the designers, show them some pictures and let them do it. Maybe it's just a bed you want to redo. Maybe you just want to have them come in quarterly and do the maintenance. Whatever it is you need. Two eight one three seven fifty sixty two eight one three seven o five zero six zero are better than that. Phone numbers on the website to Pierce escapes dot com.

Take a look. See what you think. We're gonna go now to Lake Jackson and talk to Glenn this morning. Hello Glenn, and welcome to garden Line.

can rise up, it does more good. Then the next thing would be adding heat underneath it, like a flood lamp or a heat lamp underneath to provide warmth underneath the cover would be another I've got a publication online, Glenn on my website Gardening with Skip dot com that tells you how to do it. But when you look at pictures of that on the publication, suddenly it'll all makes sense. But it's a matter of that how cold. Go ahead, I had lollipopped. They were all lollipopped. Yeah, yeah,

Well check out my publication. I'm telling you, when you look at it one time for now on, you'll know how to cover a plant. And it's a matter of how cold does it get, how tough is the plant, how well do you cover it, and do you add heat and it you know, if it's going to be thirty one degrees, we're not so worried. If it's going to be you know, low twenties, we got a big problem. And you're gonna have to do a lot to save a tropical, very cold sensitive plant like you described.

But when you pull that cone dirt away from the base, you would have had living tissues that could re sprout, and at least your plant will be back in business pretty quick that way. So that's another tip I'll throw you. Of course, you can't go backwards in time, but going forward. Keep that in mind.

Appreciate that a lot. You take care alrighty. Yeah, that is the case, folks. It's on the website. It's on the website. Please take advantage of it and check it out.

have him come out and look. Listen. If you can't remember the last time you hid your trees pruned and evaluated for their health, right now is the time to call Martin. And here's a number seven one three six nine nine two six sixty three. Seven one three, six nine nine twenty six sixty three. Here's his website, Afftree Service dot com. Aff as an Affordable aff Tree Service dot com. Seven three two six six three. Martin does

pruning and maintenance. He removes trees, He grinds stumps. He does barricades under the ground to keep your tree roots from getting into trouble going off somewhere they don't need to go. He does planting. It is transplanting. He does, like I said, deep root feeding. He does it all but right now have him come out. He stays busy. He does a good job. People call him to come back. So give him a call. Tell him you're a Guardenline listener, by the way, and have him come out and check

out your tree, see what needs to be done. He'll shoot straight with you, tell you what you need, do an evaluation for you and then let you know and you can make a decision on where you want to go from there. Affordable tree service, Martin Spoon More time for me to take a little break. When I come back, we're going to talk to Karen in West Houston and Ryan in Brazoria. Alrighty, alrighty, we're back. Welcome back to the garden Line. We're going to run straight after the

phone's got Spookes have been out there waiting. Head to West Houston and talk to Karen. Hey, Karen, welcome to garden Line.

then next week and the next week. And I haven't looked at the weather, but we have temperatures up in the seventies and then it drops down and we have another hard freeze. You're going to get damage from that hard freeze. So I try not to invigorate a fig treek since their marginal in their heartiness anyway, So I would wait to do it. But yes, you can do it.

That's fine as far as rooting. Just find you some of the ends of the shoots, you know, the sections that are about the size your little finger, the branches and that that's last year's growth. And if you cut those off, I would wrap them, put them in some moist sand, or wrap them in moist paper towels in a zip lock bag, put them in the refrigerator upside down, literally upside down. You can do that. You don't have to,

but you can do it that way. And then when you bring them out and stick them in the ground to root, they're they're going to root very easily. Figs are easy to root. The only thing you don't want to do is use older wood, the gray wood, you know that grew the year before. You want to use the more recent growth. That's why I said the size.

bit of moisture. Figs are pretty easy to root. I know people that go under the eaves of their house, maybe on the north side where it's kind of shady but still bright, and they're just stick them in the ground there, and the ones that managed to root and come up, then they dig them up move them. I like to use the one gallum pots myself.

You got a lot of flow going outward. It's not that the herbicides won't do any good, they're just not as effective then, and so you may want to wait, let it want to get some growth and settle in and do it a little bit after the weather warms up pretty good, and try it then and get because you don't want to wait until you don't have to wait until next fall to try it again.

just do a search for Aggie Horticulture. There's a page on fruit and nut fact sheets, and on that page you're going to find information on there's a publication on improved pecans that's grafted ones, publication on native pecans, and either one of those can help you understand a little bit about caring for your trees. What it's basically going to amount to is you want to keep the grass down low, keep it mode around them very low, so that you can minimize the competition from that. If you're

able to water, that's good. If you're not, that's okay. There's a lot of unirrigated pecans, especially in the south and east parts of Texas where it does rain quite a bit. But I think you'll find some help on those websites as well.

the time out there. And if you're a gardener at Brazouria County, you need to you need to get a call, get on the schedule, find out what are the master gardeners up to, what kind of programs are going on, what kind of programs is extension putting on. They've done everything from you know, programs on figs to a really good annual strawberry program they put on out there every year.

That's excellent. Uh so yeah, I would, I would definitely get involved, find out at least at least be notified of what's going on so you can take advantage of some really good educational opportunities. And by the way, extension offices are all one hundred excuse me, all two hundred and fifty four counties in Texas are served by an extension office. The vast majority have their own extension office.

If you go out west, we're so far west that there's more jack rabbits than our people then that you may have two counties out there they're served by one office or something. But around here in our area you got an extension office. Around the Greater Houston area, you have a horticulture agent. All office is going to have

an agriculture agent which covers horticulture. But in Brass County, in Conrad, Montgomery County, in Harris County, in Houston, in Orange County, out east Brazoria County south for ben County to the west, southwest, Galveston County down south. I'm probably leaving them. I leaving out. I think that's it. Anyway, all those counties have a horticulture agent too, and they have a master gardner program. In master gardner put on

educational programs. They're volunteers trade by extension to serve the public. They help extension reach more people. They extend extension. The way I used to say it when I was a horticulture agent is extension takes the university to the people, and master gardeners take extension to the people. You know what I'm saying. They help extend what one horticulture agent can accomplish or one agriculture agent. In counties that just have an agriculture agent. So that is a resource that

you should take advantage of. That's where you go get information on soil testing. That's where you get help with all kinds of things and really cool educational programs too. All right, that was your little extension commercial for the day. Southwest Fertilizer is the one stop, go to place for anything you need to have a more bountiful gardener, more beautiful landscape. And do you need to control weeds? Do you need to prevent weeds? Do you need to control

insects or diseases? Do you need to get your plan it's growing, Get the pah right, get the fertilizer nutrients you need down. Do you need a tool it's pruning season. How about a high quality tool from Southwest Fertilizer. Bob carries good stuff there, and he carries everything you need. If he doesn't have it, you don't need it. I'll trust you trust me on that one. He doesn't. He has like pruning tools from Falco and Corona and Barnell. He's got the largest organic selection in the entire city.

And if you hear a product name come out of my mouth, you're gonna find that product at Southwest Fertilizer great service, expert advice, friendly service, quality, quality products and excellent selection. I mean, what else do you need there in Southwest Houston corner of Bisinat and Renwick. Been around since nineteen fifty five. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com. Here's a number if you want to give me a call, seven to one three six sixty six seventeen forty four. I

love going in there. I can tell you this. When you go in there, you're going to learn something to take them a sample or take them a picture on your phone and say, hey, what is this weed? And how do I control it? And what do I do and when do I do it? And they're gonna get you off on a good start. They got a real cool They got a lot of seeds too, and they have one of these old time time seed cabinets, you know where you have a little scoop and you open

the drawer and you scoop out seed. That is the most economical way to buy seeds. And they've got that there, so it's really cool. All right. Time for me to take a break, if you would like to give me a call seven one three two one two kt.

lots of goodness. I mentioned I shouldn't even have mentioned one because there's a whole bunch of them and they're awesome. Well, Plants for all Seasons. Has got them in and they got them in and the big tubs are bear root. Now bear root, this is the season, bear root fruit trees, bear root roses. You can plant bear root plants, bear root pecans this time of year. But you don't want to delay because at some point they're gonna have to pot them up, and when they pot them up, the

price goes up. And that's makes sense. I mean, they're putting time and money into doing it. But if you would like to get a David Austin Rose and a really nice one. Now's the time to swing by Plants for All Seasons and grab you one of those. It's a family owned operation. It's right there at Luetta and Tomball Parkway two forty nine just north of Luetta, actually Tombo Parkway high Way two forty nine, which is Highway two forty nine just north of Luetta for all seasons.

They're lawn and garden experts. They can help you out and get you up to speed on whatever you need to know. They help diagnose. Oh, by the way, they also have strawberries in stock and their blooms already on them. I mean to get those things. Don't delay, you know, we plant strawberries in the fall. We can still plan them now, but get them in the ground, get them going, and go ahead and start. Find you a strawberry shortcake recipe because you're going to need it. Grab you some

strawberries there too. While you're at Plants for All Seasons. Plants for All Seasons dot com. That's the website Plants for All Seasons dot com. If you want to give them a call two eight, one, three, seven, six sixteen forty six and they have a giant wall of seeds and it is seed starting season. So go in there while supplies are good and grab you some seeds when you swing by. Plants for all seasons. I'm going to head now out to Willis and we're going to talk

to Kim. Well, hello Kim, and welcome to garden.

a little trench around the tree. Let's just say you were going to go two feet out in all directions, just as an example, you would dig a little trench two feet out down about ten eight eight inches ten inches deep, and then you would use your shovel horizontal it's better here for a flat shovel, and go underneath it and cut maybe halfway under as you kind of pull on the plant, leaning it to one side you need some help with us, and then slide a tarp

underneath that half then go to the other side and cut underneath it toward the tarp and you can just slide it up onto the tarp when you get far enough under there, and a very little soil disturbance, almost no lifting, because you literally can drag it with the tarp from one spot to another, or if you have a cup maybe four people, two to four people, you can grab corners of the tar and it's very you don't have to stoop, and you just lift it up

and carry it like you're carrying a stretcher over to where it goes. You slide it right in. And that's the minimum damage, the minimum back injury, and the greatest success chance that you're going to have trying to move that because they're not they don't like being moved.

your shopping. You know what you were up there in Willis You got all seasons Ace Hardware right there on I forty five north up in Willis area. I would just turn by there and grab some of their stuff. By the way, put it on your calendar. I'm going to be heading up that way. Let's see what a want to be up there February twenty second, Saturday. So come out and see me. If you get a chance, Tell your neighbors to come on out. I'll be up

there at all seasons as then. But anyway, grab a root stimulator solution if you can get some something called medina has to grow six twelve six medina. It's a liquid, and then water your new plants in with that with a good he just you put you mix it in a watering can and just drench, drench the plants and that'll give you one more little bit of a measure of success.

have success. I was mentioning the fact that I'm going to be at All Seasons Ace Hardware a little bit ago with a caller, and that will be coming up later on. I've got a number of pretty busy spring of appearances going on out there, and I hope some of you will get a chance to come out and see me one or two places surprise me. Sometimes people to more than two or three places just to ask the next question that they might have. And that's all good,

and that's all fun. By the way, Ace Hardware's you know, the super Bowl coming up. Time to get the grills out. You know, you got to have that Super Bowl party. And when it comes to grills, you're not going to do better in Ace Hardware. I'm talking about grills and quality grills like Big Green Egg and Blackstone and Weber

and Trigger Rectech. I'm talking about grilling supplies and seasonings, even really amazing grilling seasonings and all kinds of things you need to be the true barbecue champion of your street. That's it. Now, Remember if you're an ACE Reward member, which everybody should be, because anytime you buy something at ACE, it goes on your rewards and it builds up and it matters. But ACE Rewards member at a lot of stores, they'll even assemble and deliver the grill for you. You

just have to talk to your ACE store. Each one's independently owned. They're each different what they choose and able to do. But that's a super extra plus. Now, if you want to get your garage in order, which I need to do. If you saw mine, oh my gosh, it was in order at one time. Have you noticed how garages have a tendency to collect junk. I mean, you know, you have this big expense of a well

cleaned garage and you're soper out of it. Next thing you know, you're having to walk sideways to get to the garage door to go in the house because it's so filed with junk. ACE will fix that. They got shelby units, they got storage toads, they got any kind of cleaning supplies you need for inside and outside the home. ACE hardware and where are ACE Hardware's everywhere? There's Victoria Ace Hardware. There's Bay City ACE Hardware down in Galveston,

Chalmers Ace Hardware. It's easy to find an ACE Hardware store near you by going to Acehardware dot com and finding the store locator. Simple as that. I was also just talking to him up in Willis and I mentioned that she's transplanting a couple of things, and you want to water those plants in with a roof stimulator. You also want to have things that provide the nutrients that plants need.

phosphors and six percent potassium. That is very helpful for helping a new plant get off to a good start as it tries to rebuild a root system, whether you took it out of a pot, maybe you did some root trimming because of circling roots, or if in the case of transplanting, you dig it up and you're cutting all these roots off. It needs to get new roots started and has to grow six twelve six helps that has to grow. Six twelve six isn't just fertilizer. It's

got medina sool activator simulate biological activity. It's got humate humic acid which improves soil structure. You know, when organic matter decomposes, it starts off as grass clippings or leaves or whatever form of organic matter. It turns into compost, which is broken down, and then compost keeps going and it breaks down until it's just humous the final decomposing stage.

It's got acids in it, good acids that help. First of all, microbes get real excited about that and they rule the world when it comes to improving our soil for our plants. But also those humic acids help with soil structure and the creation and the release of nutrients from the soil. And then it's got seaweed extract. Do you see what I'm talking about. This is a concoction that is very helpful and people use it for folio applications all through the year. I'm telling you right now

you're planting. This is planting season. Use it when you plant, put it in a watering can, mix it up according to the label. Watered in a little bit goes a long way. When you put that plant in the ground, soak it with Medina, has to grow six twelve six mixed up in water. A week later, Do it again, a week later, do it again. When you do that three times, you're giving that plant it's best chance. It's starting and having trands planting success again from the folks

at Medina. I was Disney with Andy from Medina out in four Bank County yesterday at the home and Garden show that we had out there. We were just talking about some of their products and they have a large line of really really cool stuff. So there you go again. The phone number here if you'd like to give me a call seven one three two one two fifty eight

seventy four. We are entering our last hour of the weekend, not just today but the weekend here on garden line and so if you got some questions, can't hold till next Saturday, Well this would be a good time to give me a call so we can help you have success. That is what we want. We want you to have fun. We want you to have success. Listen, Gardening is not rocket science. You know if you are, if you're trained in rocket science, rocket science is not rocket science either.

It's just a simple matter of formulas and facts and physics and all kinds of things like that. Same with the gardening. You know what you're doing, you know what plants want, you know how to give them what they want. It sort of gets simple. But to people on the outside it may seem like, I don't know, you got to hold your tongue right and have some magic dust to sprinkle on to make everything work. It's not the case, just a matter of knowing what you're doing, even if

it's rocket science that works. I want to visit with you a little bit about pruning our plants. Late winter is the best pruning season of the year, the best. That's when, especially if you need to do a lot of pruning, that's when you need to get it done. It's important to have quality tools that are sharp, whether it's a saw, hand pruners, or looppers that you're cutting off a larger limb with what Always keep your tools sharp because sharp tools make good clean cuts that heal

fast and or less strain. They put less strain on your joints and muscles when you're doing it, so sharp tools are important. I like the bypass prunters that is like a pair of scissors. There's one side of the printer is more of a flat ish surface to kind of hold the branch. The other side is the blade that cuts through the branch. That's a bypass prunter. The other kind of printer is an anvil prunter, and it has a flat bar and the blade comes down on the bar as if you took a hatchet and chopped

down on top of an anvil. You know, it cuts that way. I don't anvile printers don't print as well for me. I don't care for them as much. Biprisced punters work really really well. Keep them sharp, keep them sharp. Prune near where the branch attaches. And I have a little video out on this. It's on our Facebook page and you have to kind of scroll back to find it.

It's been a while. But if you leave a stub, the stub dies and the branch can't close over because there's dead wood in the way, and so you have this entryway decay to get into the stem or trunk or branch or your plant. So you don't want to leave a stub. On the other hand, as a branch approaches where it attaches. Like picture a vertical trunk with

a branch coming in from the sides. That branch is a certain diameter as it approaches the trunk, and then right when it gets near the trunk, it flares out at the point of attachment. When it starts to flare, the closer you get to the trunk, the bigger the wound you're making, because it's getting bigger, the branch is getting bigger, and you want to leave the tissues in that ring that's called the callous I mean, excuse me,

the collar of the attachment point. You want to leave those tissues because they heal fast, and it's actually the trunk that is healing over that wound, not the branch tissues themselves, So leave the collar.

starts to flare out cut there. Now that's a generalization. Lots of different kinds of plants, but at least I get you in the ballpark. All right, love of that, you want to take a break top of the hour, I'll be back with our last hour a garden Line.

agal that they used to treat lumber. And the nermans tend to move less much less in the soil because you know, if something leached out of the board, it wouldn't be there to protect the board, So they tend to not leach out as bad. If you're concerned about it, I would say the concern it potentially could be, well, what if a root grows up against the board and takes up something and it gets in your tomato kind of thing, And I understand that concern. That hasn't been

shown to be a significant factor at all. Now, if you're concerned about it, the couple of things you can do. First of all, there's a question does it leach out? And second is the question does the plant take it up? And third is a question is does that plant move it to like Let's say that let's say it was a tomato, but does it actually put it in the tomato or not? And those are three levels of things that in general there doesn't seem to be a big

concern about it. But again I respect folks that are concerned. So here's what you can do. You can line those beds with plastic. It gets you a good thick plastic sheeting something six metal or more, and line the beds with the plastic. You can also paint over them some sort of a se lunt to kind of hold that on. That would be another option that you could do, or you could just go with something that's not treated.

much are you're getting and how concerning is that? Because we're exposed to a lot of things that we would rather not be exposed to every day, and so that's where you kind of have to balance it out. And I think most people land on the hey, I don't want to be I don't want to add that to my life. You know, I don't want to add that chemical to my life. And that's fine. You can do

that direction as well. Another factor with treated wood is in an advantage of a treat of wood bed as you can sit on the sides as opposed to a little piece of tin you know that you can't sit on. But when you have treated wood, then there is the skin contact too that you could get from it, and so you know, you're out there. Little kids are out there in their shorts sitting down on the side of the bed or or something. There's a small potential for

that being an additional concern. But it's a complex issue and nobody's going to be happy with the answers. But you do what you what you're comfortable with.

just said there is what I what I believe. And so did I tell you to use it or not use it? I didn't tell you either one of those. I said, you do what you want to do. Here's here's how I understand it is. I've read research and all these things. This is what I picked up, and so you do it. Do it that is you wish to do. Most people are not going to want to be in contact with any kind of a chemical treatment,

and so I get that. So that's fine. I'm talking about ACE hardware stores before and all kinds of places to get it. You know, as you get over on the east side of Houston, there are still ACE hardware stores over there too, not as many in that area, not as many general commercial places over there. But Deer Park has got a really good Ace Hardware store if you if you head out, it's just kind of where belt Way eight and two twenty five that region, that's

deer Park on Center Street. In deer Park, they've got a nice little Ace Hardware store. For those of you out in the Laporte area, this is not too far away from you, anyone along Beltway E south of Buffalo Bio over that direction. Deer Park Ase Hardware is one you need to definitely know about. And if you haven't been by there, you need to go check them out.

That's a good one out in the Deer Park area. Well, between talking about treated timbers and I don't know what else I've been doing, kind of running short on this first little segment. If you have not been to Buchanan's recently, you need to go Buchanan's Nati Plants. It's just an outstanding place right now. You know, a daylight today, Go see them, I know it training. Go see them and check out the greenhouse. It's all covered, you know, Gota rained on in there. You will not believe the quality

house plants and things that they have. By the way, they've also got plenty of vegetable transplants, they got seeds, they got all kinds of things. You know, they specialize in Nati plants. They got every Nata plant you can imagine. Excellent advice. But I like Buchanans has come up with some really really cool things. A little small plants, a little miniature like two inch houseplants, foliage plants and you

can put those together make your own little terrarium. I think that's a really cool thing to do, and they'll get you set up on it. They are loaded up on really cool little small tropical two inch plants. You put your terrarium together, and what a great idea for a rainy DAA. All right, we're gonna take a break. I'll be right back with your phone calls. Hang around. All right, we're back back for the last hour garden line.

And by the way, if you'd like to give me a calls seven one three, two one two five eight seven four, kind of quiet on the phone right this moment, so it'd be a good time. Whoever can doll the phone fastest to not have to wait when you call in. I was talking about Buchanans Plants and just the incredible selection of everything that they have. By the way, their website is Buchanansplants dot com. You need to go there, and you need to sign up for the newsletter. Sign up.

Trust me on this one. They will send you incredible helpful information about things going on, about events that are going on to Buchanans, about special products and fun facts too, and a lot of good educational things. It is a very valuable newsletter to do. They are on Eleventh Street in the Heights. For those of you who are new to Houston or have been here but just living under a rock and don't know where Buchanans is, well, eleventh Street in the Heights, and you gotta go. And again,

I'd go today. This afternoon would be a great time to go because I'm telling you they've got that beautiful greenhouse where you're completely dry and you can pick out a project to build your own terrarium or whatever you want to grow. I mean, they've got it all there, truly really good stuff at Buchanna's Plants. I talked about Affordable tree earlier and Martin Spoon Moore. The way I would put it is this, he knows what he's doing. Martin knows what he's doing, and your trees in time

can develop some bad habits. Let's say that's why we have to train trees if we want to develop the strongest branch structure. So if we have another storm God forbid, like the two we did last season last summer, your trees are strong and they're better able to withstand or at least have the best chance of with standing that

kind of windstorm. Now, if you have not had your trees looked at, if you can't remember the last time you've had your trees looked at, and I mean prune evaluated for their health, how they doing, what do they need and so on, You've got a callm maartin now.

and give you a professional advice on it. Because narrow branch angles, trees that have issues that are developing. Don't wait until a storm tells you you should have had that done. Call him now and get on his schedule. This is prime time for getting printing done and it's very important that you not delay because he does stay busy. He does a good job, affordable tree service seven three six n nine two six six three. I have been working on getting my seeds organized inside. I collect seeds.

I've I've got seeds that I purchased years ago. Unfortunately, I store them as best I can to extend their life. And you know, each type of seed has a different lifespan under good conditions, even that it's going to have. You know, like a lettuce isn't the same as corn, isn't the same as a tomato isn't the same as a petunia, and so on. They each have their lifespan. But good storage is important. And good storage means air tight,

dry and cool. One two three air tight, dry and cool. Okay, if you store them where moisture can't get in, they're gonna last longer. And you know what I do when I get a you know, you buy some electronics, some sort of electronics. You get that little packet of desiccon in it. I save those because you can warm them up, kind of drive some of the extra water out of them, and put them in with your seeds, and they do

the same thing. That little tiny area where you've got air around your seeds in the glass jar are in the one of those little pop down sealable containers. It's completely water tight. They're good for doing it, and that keeps them dry. If you're saving your own seeds, let them fully dry out. Let them dry out, give them a couple of weeks and nice mile warm temperatures to get as much moisture out of them as you can

before you store them. And then put them in your refrigerator. Now, if you were the International Seed Bank trying to save seed forever, you would put them in a very deep, deep, deep freeze. But that's not necessary. Just put them refrigerator. That's good. Even your air conditioned home space is good for storing seeds. Not as good as a fridge, but it's good. And so store your seeds right. And I've got these boxes and boxes of seeds. I collect seeds, you know, I'm on the road side. I'll see some

plant and I'll gather some seeds off of it. And I'm always getting bringing seeds home. By the way, write your name on I write the name of what you collected on the seed when you save it. Otherwise you'll never remember. Trust me, I know the hard way. But anyway, save your seeds, store them well, and it's time to get them out and start doing that. We got lots

of things we could be planting right now. And my favorite gardening season of the year, I think is that springs season where you're getting the fever and you're starting siege and you're rooting cuttings, and you're planning things out and you're buying transplants from the garden center and plants from the garden center and you're bringing them home. Oh gosh, that is a fun, fun time and we're right now

in the big middle of it. Let's see, you've heard me talk about Microlife products a lot, and I'll talk about a specific this or that or the other product. I just don't talk about Microlife just a little bit, can I do that? Microlife is the number one selling organic fertilizer in Houston. That's the specifically, that's their six to four lawn fertilizer and it sells a lot. The number one selling organic lawn fertilizer in Houston quantity wise,

is that Microlife the green bag. But Microlife has so many different kinds of products. You know, Microlife has the humates plus that helps with soil condition. Microlife has the bioenoculant that's got sixty three different strains of microbes in it. Good guy, microbe that help your plants. Microlife has micro growth liquid AF six or excuse me, eight different strains of known disease fighting microbes. There's not a fungicide. It's microbes that fight disease naturally. And I could go on

and on. There's dozens of Microlife products that are out there at your feed store, at your ACE hardware store, at your garden center, at your Southwest fertilizer. Microlife products are widely available, and there's so many, and a lot of gardeners call me and they want to garden organically, and they want help gardening organically. That's why Microlife was developed.

And it works. I started ten years ago. I believe first time I ever used a Microlife product, and it was there green Bag sixty four.

And I wanted to talk about that germination testing. When you've got seeds, I've been sitting there and sitting there, and it's like, I don't know how these are. And if you turn a pack, if it's a sal a package you bought, you turn them over, it'll tell you when they were packed for what year. But is it still good? I don't know. And so you gonna what are you gonna do?

and put it in a mild, warm space. That could be the counter in your kitchen if you want to do that wherever you'll see it, and every three or four days, just check it and see see how what's sprouting. Some seeds will sprout in two days, some seeds maybe two weeks. But just watch them and check them. And if you put ten seeds, then you get the percentage real easy, because if eight sprout and two don't, that's eighty percent germination. So what does that mean. Let's let's

make it even worse. Let's say two sprouted in eight didn't. It's twenty percent germination. That means you're probably going to a plant five times as much of the seed in order to get the number of plants you want. Do you see what I'm saying how that works? So the germination test a do you want to use the seed or not? Be If you use it, do you need to add a few extras, because you're gonna need some

extras because not all are going to come up. Another thing that I do on germination is I start seeds in a little small container and I like to get the little containers that you may bring home the sauce from a fast food restaurant or ketchup you ketch up in those little things. I like the ones that are a little bigger, about too inches across. They got will pop down plastic lid, but little seed starting mix in there just a little bit and sprinkle your seeds in it.

Mix them in just a little bit, and then moisten it and pop the lid on it to hold the moisture and set that on your counter. And once they start to sprout, they've got to have good light. You need to get them under a plant light. Whatever you can do to put the most amountain light you can on those things to help them sprout and grow. And what will happen is that they'll come up and it'll

be just like a little forest of seedlings in there. Well, once they sprout, before they get their first true leaves and get very big at all, you can very gently lift them up and grab them by one of the cottle leadings. That's the little seed leaves. That's the first thing that comes up. That's called a cottle eating it's

not a true leaf. You can hold on by that, not the stem, because you'll crush the stem and just kind of gently tease them apart and then put those into your planting containers that you're going to grow them in. Maybe it's a big flat seventy two, you know, one of those big flats. Maybe it's a little six pack. Maybe it's a Dixie cup with holes sponged in the bottom. But you know, then you can pick your seedlings out, and even if only half German ad, you're gonna have

plenty extras. And we always have more seeds than you know to do with. But that's another way you can deal with seeds that may not germinate real well. Is that way the ones that do come up, then you quickly move them and they do not miss a beat. They hit the ground running and do really really well. All right, I'm ready imbling on here, and I gotta stop. I will be back with your phone calls from Paul and Mark in just a moment. All right, open your window.

You can do just that. If it's not raining at your house. Now, I will be pretty same here. A little bit of rain coming in, but that's a good thing. Glad to have that. Plenty we can do for gardening in the meantime, that's for sure. Hey, let's add straight out to the phones and go to Clear Lake and talk to Mark. Hey, Mark, welcome to garden Line.

And I've pretty much fixed that because I've got some one hundred thousand heat unit cayenne pepper from Central Market, and I put the bird heeds in there, shake it up, and then put it in the feeder. That's control of the squirrels. But sometimes I'll wake up the next morning and it'll be empty. But the only thing I think that goes with those is the rats have another feeder out. It's a bluebird feeder, has one in three eight square hard mesh, and that kind of repels the squirrels. But

I've seen a rat in there. So the question is is there any I get the sensation or the sense, the sense that the rats aren't bothered by the heat by the peppers. And I was wondering if there's anything similar to that, or if I've got it wrong. They are repelled if it's hot enough, And is there somebody make a spray out of I'd like to make a hot spray that I can put all around the area where these things are coming in. Help.

hot pepper. The capsation oil that's in pepper, and you can buy like directly by seed from walbirds that already has that in it. They also there's also the oil that you can buy and you can treat your own seeds. And those are the two things as far as squirrels are concerned, and I think this would this would apply to rats too. I've got a feeder called a squirrel eliminator.

Now I realize you already have feeders and you're trying to solve the problem for those, But that squirrel eliminator has a little anything of any weight, and you can set the tension as to how heavy can something be at the feeder. But I've got mindset so even a blue jay lens on it and it closes the door and it can't get in. It keeps squirrels out well, and it will keep rats out well too.

You know, there are treatments to kill rats and so taking the necessary safety precautions, you might try that as well.

at Wallbirds. It's a little mine is a it's a small bottle, uh, that you have, And I was using it to try to talk my dogs out of chewing on something they were chewing on, you know, and so it was like, yeah, you know, it's kind of like me, you grab the wrong pepper and I'm not going to eat that pepper again.

your question. I talked to Waldberds and see they're going to be the experts on that.

So here we go. We're going to go talk to Steve in south West Houston. Hello Steve, Welcome to garden Line.

If a sprout came out of the bottom of a trunk of a seedling tree, a seated tree, you could root that easier, but the older wood you can't. And so when you buy an apple tree, what you're buying is mature wood drafted onto a rootstock. So I mean, from the get go, it's going to be hard to rout, even though it's new shoots that spring maybe or something.

case here. Boy, that was. That was a That was a fun time and a hard time at the same time. It's a lot of work to put in an orchard and take care of an orchard. Well, let's see here, we're so close to the end of the show that I'm not going to even give the phone number out again.

I was talking yesterday to Rich he's a Wildbird's store owner over in the Memorial area, and we were talking about different kinds of things Wildbirds and their new deal right now, he's over in the Memorial driver the cardinal product that they've come out with, it's called Cardinal Confetti. It's a blend. Now there's also a Cardinal tube feeder and a cardinal. It's called Good Evening Cardinal Feeder. That's

part of the Cardinal Confetti collection. But this Cardinal Confetti is an amazing mix of stuff that most of which I would eat, like sapphire, black house, sun black oil, sunflower, sunflower chips, nutrisaf, bark butter, pecan have striped sunflower, and dried meal worms. I haven't quite made it to eating dried wheal worms, but the rest of it makes my mouth water, I tell you this. It all makes a cardinal and many other types of bird's mouth water too.

And you can get it. It's a new products, not just a spring product, a winter product. They're gonna have it all year. They're as unlimited. It's brandy. You got to check it out. It is cool and cardinals are so cool, you know, they're so beautiful, the birds, and there's such a lore behind cardinals. It is really really interesting. So gets you some of the Cardinal confetti. Grab those feeders while you're out there, make sure and get you

some bark butter. That's a product created by Jim Carpenter, who's the founder of Walberds. Bark butter is something you literally like peanut butter. You would just smear it on a tree trunk and birds come and just they go crazy. They have documented over one hundred and fifty species of birds coming to Jim's birdaceous bark butter. Bark butter is easier to say. They have bark butter bits, little bite sized nuggets. They've got bugs and bits Yep, they got

meal worms in the bark butter. You can buy those. It's super high in calcium, helps egg development and bone growth. And listen to your birds are going to be nesting and raising young soon. And a high quality food like bark butter very good one to have on hand. Plus is kind of cool. You can smear it wherever you want. You have to put a feeder out if you don't want to. All right, there's the music. I kind of get sad at the end of every show in the

music place because that means we're done. I'm gonna talk about gardening anymore. Thanks for listening, appreciate that. I want to remind you that if you go to my website gardeningwiskip dot com, that's where you're gonna find my lawn pestiseaes and weed management schedule, my lawn care schedule also is on there. The information on protecting plants from cross and freezes, how to control nutsedge, how to take a soil sample, and on and on and on. We just

keep posting more to it. It's there. It's free to look out online or a download. Have a wonderful weed pout in the garden and we'll talk to you next Saturday.