Gardening Through The Chill

two one two five eight seven four. Sometimes I hear people say, well I try to call in, but you know there's other people calling, and well, look a tip for those who want to get through fast and easy. It's call early in the day. It's awfully quiet this early in the morning. And you know, I've got plenty of things I'd like to talk about today, but if you'd like to get through, it's the best time to try to do that. So I'll just leave it at that. I have been gosh, there's so many projects I have

going on at the house right now. I have a couple of plant light stands that well, they're they're shelving that I'm putting plant lights on and starting seeds from, because you know, seed starting season is almost upon us. Well, actually, you could be starting seeds right now for the midwinter planting of things like broccoli and cabbage and cauliflower and

all that kind of thing. But when once we get I would say about well, for me, I start just after Christmas around New Year's I go ahead and plant for tomato transplants, things like that. I start a bunch of seeds. Then if for those of you that are not going to be able to plant them out until a little bit later, getting past that last average frost ate, then what you'll end up doing is bumping them up

into four inch pots and then into gallon pots. Now why would you want to do that, Well, here's why. We have a short season for tomatoes setting fruit. So the time between the last average frost date and it's getting too hot to set fruit, it's fairly short. If you go further north, you go far enough north of Minnesota, they have a long growing season that's reasonably mild. You know, some hot days, but they don't know what hot is.

But here, hot is like first thing in the morning, you walk to the car and you're sweating before you get to the car. That's hot in the summer here. So what we have to do is we need to get tomato. Is that produce fast, but we need to put in a bigger, better plant when we put them in so that we have that head start. And typically when I bump those up all the way to a

gallum pot and I have them indoors under lights. As we get into the spring season, I'll move them outside quite a bit and back and forth, but they already have blooms and sometimes fruit forming on them at that stage, and so that gives me a head start. And it's just what I like to do, and it's not the way everybody has to do it, but I just like to get that head start. So I've been setting up these lights. Got me some really good LED lights that

work well for years. I just used the shop light four foot shop light with a cool white and a warm white bulb. Two shop lights like that hanging over your plants. Those fluorescent tubes are kind of going by the wayside these days, and it's all LED now, so you kind of do the equivalent, but it it just depends on how well do you want them to grow. How fast do you want them to grow? Row? Uh?

And you can get some really cool lights, which would be I think a good gift for someone on your list, including yourself, if you want to, If you want to do some seed starting, just remember it starts Arlie. You know, those of you listening down in Galveston, for example. I mean you you're you're planning a lot earlier than people that are listening up in Huntsville, that's for sure. Anyway.

So I've been getting that set up. I've got my heat mats and things out, you know, going through the boxes and finding all the stuff that's been stored away over time. I mentioned I think I talked about this a little bit yesterday. But the importance of having a good lighting being number one. That's a number one mistake people make is they they settle for something less than good lighting. Uh. And that means a very bright light. The second mistake is is watering. Certainly too dry is

bad for a ceiling. It'll kill it once the seed starts to germinate. If it gets dry, it has no re zis. It dies. Once it gets roots in the ground, there's a little bit of resilience. It can it can wilt and then you water and it bounces back. But watering is important, but not too much water. A lot of people over water and they end up creating disease issues for their plants. And then finally, temperature. Each of the different kinds of plants you might try growing from

seed has its own temperature preferences. Many of them are very very similar in general. If you can keep the root zone at about oh, maybe say seventy eight degrees somewhere in there, somewhere in that range, eighty degrees even a little bit better for some of the warm season things for getting them up and growing. Now, that doesn't mean the air temperature in the room has to be eighty degrees. It just means just keeping the roots a

little warmer, getting the growing faster. That works pretty good, but plants are pretty pretty forgiving of some of those kinds of things. You always want to have fresh seed. Well, anyway, I'm getting all that set up and I'm ready to go on it. In fact, I have plans to do some rooting as well. The same setup that you're starting seeds in is a great setup for rooting plants, and there you do want a really good quality and quantity of light that is important on that And let me

just say that light. I talked yesterday about the fact that the blue and the red wavelengths are the key wavelengths for getting success with your seedlings or anything you're growing. That does not mean that plants don't use or need some green light or some toward the infrared end or you know, or told the auto violet end on each end of the spectrum. They don't need that. Well, those are helpful, but it blue and red are the keys to doing it. But I want to talk right now

a little bit about light. I tell you what. Let me let me save this till we come back after a breakwork, because I'm going to take just a moment to explain some of these things. Welcome back, Welcome back to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here today to help you have a bountiful garden and

a beautiful landscape. All you gotta do is give us call seven to one three two one two kt r H seven one three two one two k t r h H. If you are going to need some pruning work, or if you think you might need some pruning work, now's the time. I mean, now asap is the time to call Martin spoon Moore at Affordable Tree Service. Now here's a phone number seven one three six nine nine two six six three. Why do I recommend Martin from Affordable Tree Services. Well, Martin has been doing this for

a very long time. He has experience in the field, and he knows how to prune properly. He knows what needs to be taken out and what doesn't need to be taken out.

to be done, what doesn't need to be done. If you got any questions you know that you're wondering about if you're going to do any kind of construction around a tree, especially, you need to have him come out and look at that. And the printing season that is prime is this winter season when plants are dormant. We can prone twelve months out of the year and we do. But of all of all the times, now's the time to get on the schedule, and he stays busy. We

got a short window here. Give him a call, have him come out. And the sooner you do it, the better. Tell him you're a guarden line listener. Get you up there at the front of the line. Here's the number again, seven to one three six nine nine two six six three, Or you can go to the website a f ftree service dot com a ff tree service dot com. Now, I was talking about something when I went to break. I can't remember what the trial starting to see. Oh,

lighting lighting. I want to talk about plant lighting. In addition to the colors that are in light and how they affect the plant and how important they are, Uh there are there is uh two other factors. Actually there are several other factors, but let me give you let me I think I'll do two or three here. One of the important things in plant lighting is the quality of lighting, and that that is the color pattern that's there.

How what what quality of light you have? But another is the quantity, and the quantity of lighting means how much light does the plant get, and quantity can be done by a rain fall analogy. So think about this. If you were to get a gully washer rain for an hour in get an inch of rain, or let's say two inches of rain in an hour, that would be a lot, but that would be a certain amount

of water on your let's say lawn. Okay, on the other hand, if it rained all day, but at a very slow pace, you could still end up with two inches of water on your lawn, same amount of water, but at a different time. Now within reason, that applies to plants when it comes to light, because light or photons falling onto the plant leaves. That's that basically is what happens when sunlight shines of the photons of light

hit the plant leaves. So if you have a bright light, a good quality light, or a light that's closer to the plants, if it's not as bright as a light, you would be able to not run the light quite as long. But if it wasn't as good a quality, you may have to run it a little bit longer. Normally, I set my seedling lights to run about fourteen hours a day. You could run them sixteen hours a day, you could run them twelve hours a day. I mean, there's a range there on that. But just think of lighting.

Just remember that if you have not such a great light, you need to run it longer. I have a house plant that is it's a Norfolk Island pine. They like a lot of light and it's kind of in a corner. But I've got a plant light over it. But you know, Norfolk is a big plant, or it can be, and so getting light down in there instead of just a very dim light up on top is a bit of a challenge. So I run my lights a very long time.

They're on an automatic timer. They come on early in the morning and they stay on until I don't know about eight o'clock at night. Sometimes it just depends on what I'm going after. But it's achieving the quantity of light, that's what That's what it is achieving, and that is very important. How long do you run it and how do you run it? And then of course I mentioned the light quality, and getting those two things together is

important if you're going to have success. So when I used to use fluorescent tubes, those put out to our eye a lot of light, but to a plant, I would have to have the fluorescent shop light tubes about an inch or two from the plants. Yeah, that's right, literally an inch or two from the plants, and that would be the quantity of light. Our eyes adjust to light very well, but the brightest, most intense indoor light you're ever going to have is just a fraction of sunlight.

It's just a fraction of the amount, a quantity of light, quantity of photons hitting the leaves and stuff. So but we have plants that can take that, and many of our houseplants do. I'm going to run to the phones now and we're going to head to Magnolia and talk to Tim. Hello, Tim, Welcome to garden Line.

been a part of it. Oftentimes, when our grasses are stressed, though, take all root rot comes in and it also causes drought symptoms, and so it may have been a combination of those two. But getting a good soaking of water in,

especially during the intense heat, is very important. But the take all root rot would be a disease that you would have to treat for, and there are if you go to my schedule online at gardening with Skip dot com, there's a schedule that says it's the lawn Pest Disease and Weed Management schedule, and that one includes information on take all root Right now, if you if you're going to apply something for it, we're getting a little bit late for the take all applications. However, it is our

grass is still you know, out there and happy. So I think I would do one application still this year, and then when we get into the next spring, look at my schedule and there's a second application that you're going to want to do then. And the ingredients are listed on the schedule. There's one called a zoxystrobin a zo x. That's that's how you find and they are products that contain that that I would recommend that you would do that.

Really when when I have been in the past and and you know, just walked around, it's I feel like I'm in another world. It's beautiful shaded area, the buildings, the plant layout, everything. It just makes you want to wander. And there is so much right now to wander through. Lots of fall color, lots of fall color. And when we say fall color here, it can carry us into winter. Many of the plants will carry us into winter. Their point setus are unbelievable. I mean, you know what color

is a point SETA It's red. Well, yes, and no they've got double point settas. They just have a whole lot of extra red leaves in them. They've got kinds that have white sprinkled through them, almost look like peppermint candy. They of course they have the red and the white. They have types that are blotchy variegated on the sides

and a pink pink colors and they're gorgeous. And if you need a good holiday decoration ory gift for when you're going to visit, one of these point set is would be really really good, really good to do when you're out there and enchanted for us. Just keep in mind they have a wonderful shop with lots of good gifts. Again, you need to wander through that and check it out. It's still time to be planning herbs and vegetables, and

they always keep a supply of that on hand. And then of course when it comes to shrubs, well there's always plenty of shrubs and trees. By the way, they still have some Christmas trees, and Christmas trees include free delivery, so you pick out a tree, you don't have to worry about getting it home. They'll they'll bring it for you if you'd like to do that. And they have a nice supply still available, so check them out. That's at twenty seven fifty nine. Excuse me, FM twenty seven

fifty nine in Richmond, Texas. If you're in Richmond heading towards sugar Land, it's off to the right down farm to Market FM twenty seven fifty nine and Chenny Forest. Here's the website. You need it because it'll show you how to get there. It'll show you what's going on there. You can be signing up for their social media and lots of good information. Enchanted Forest Richmond TX dot com. Enchanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com makes it real easy to check it out. And they got a great website too.

While are out there, say hi to Danny and all the crew and make plans this spring to get out there. They're gonna have a whole bunch more of those plants that attract butterflies, both the ones for the adult butterflies and also the ones for the caterpillars that bring them to your house. If you build it, they will come. All right, We're gonna take a little break here. If you'd like to give us call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to the

guard Line. We are happy you are listening and looking forward to talking to you about the kind of questions that you may have. If you have not put down a mineral supplement for micronutrients to your lawn this year, you need to get that done. It is it is important to make sure that your lawn has all the nutrients that it needs, not just the big three on

the fertilizer bag. They're you know, sixteen to twenty depending on the plants and the part stages of a plant growth and different nutrients that those plants really really need. And azamite is one of those trace mineral supplements that is outstanding in terms of the response we see on our plants. It's used in turf at a rate of about forty four pound bag covering about six twelve thousand square feet six to twelve thousand square feet. Put it in vegetable gardens. I have it put in my vegetable

garden at about ten pounds per thousand square feet. And when you have that complete bank account of all the nutrients, not just the famous ones, but the ones that Rodney Dangerfield would say, get no respect, We don't talk about them well asmit does. It covers that and you can get it pretty much everywhere. Our feed stores, our garden centers, our ace hardware stores, you know, Southwest Fertilizer, all those

kinds of places are going to carry azamite. And if you want to learn more about it, just go to azmite Texas dot com and you can find out more about the product. You hear me talk about. It's on the schedule. Mineral sub elements, very very important. We need to make sure and put that bank account that we have in the soil. We need the bank account to be totally loaded up and ready to go. I want to talk a little bit about the time of year

we're in right now and doing a landscape evaluation. You know, when you go through a long, hot summer, we get toward the end of the year and you kind of look at how things are in the landscape. It is a it's a great opportunity to make some decisions and some changes if needed. So for example, this morning, you get up when the sunshine comes out, and well, I don't know if the sunshine's coming out when it's light.

How about that this morning and you walk around and you look at things like you don't overhear the lawn, I just it just doesn't do well. It's too shady. I keep trying to fill it in, but it's then it doesn't look good. Make a note. I need to put a shade loving groundcover in here, and that would really be beautiful and there's a lot of good options for that. You got a rose bush somewhere that is doing the same thing. It's not blooming really well. Will fall in winter are the best time to dig and

move plants. So make a note. This rosebush needs to be moved to this other location. Do you see what I'm saying? Or maybe something's in too much sun, or maybe something where you're depending on how your property is, the irrigation system just isn't really reaching over there very well, and maybe we need something more drought resistant in that area. Or you're looking around and kind of noticing as the leaves come off, you know what, everything over here is evergreen.

Everything over there is deciduous, and it kind of looks lopsided when we hit the winter season. That's the kind of things I'm talking about. Even just looking at the landscape and you know what is missing? What would I like here? How about that front door? How do I call attention to the front door? Put, you know, bring the eye to that spot, changing the shape of beds. There's a lot we can do with the late season

landscape evaluation right now. And I don't encourage you to get out and make some notes because some of the things you're going to want to do, like moving plants, planting new shrubs, trees and perennials, changing the shape of landscape beds. Winter times a good time to get that kind of work done in order to have success with what you're trying to do, because we want you to have a beautiful, beautiful landscape and take a look at it, get you a note. Another thing it's good to do

is drive around and pay attention to other landscapes. What do you like? What catches your eye? Maybe the way that they designed a bed that came around the side of the house and tied in to something else. You know, you just a little simple things like that, or hey, that plan is great, I need one of those. What is that? We'll take a picture of it and ask Google.

It'll tell you the image image searches scarily scarily accurate. Anyway, take advantage of a trip around town and make those plans in order to have a beautiful landscape like you want. That is important. Our phone number if you'd like to give a skull seven three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight

seventy four. I wanted to mention that this season is an important time to keep your soil mult Now, we all know in the summer it's hot and weeds are coming up, and the rain or erosion or crusting things like that, the overheating of the soil with the sun baking down on it. You got to get multa on your ground. Yes, that's true. But there are winter weeds also, there's winter rains also, and then there's even times when

it gets a little cold. And if you have a borderline tender cold tender plant, that's a perennial for example, something like what depends on what part of the area you're listening in. But those of you living up a little further north, the Pride of Barbados, that sometimes called red bird of Paradise. That plant is cold hearty in our area. But you get fur enough nor far enough north and we get a gold winter and you can

get significant damage to it. Multch helps protect the base of that plant, keep it moderated and get it through those kinds of things. Multch moltch. Maultch now black velvet mulch is an excellent opportunity. It's the one Landscaper's Pride has that is not dyed. It's naturally dark and its color and you need to keep a covering a mulch

on the soil. If you don't cover the soil, nature will, but nature's going to cover it with green things called weeds, so we can cover it with beautiful things like black velvet mult or. Speaking of landscapers Pride, they also have a cedar multch. Cedar multch is very attractive, you know, as you put it out in that fresh color, in the fresh sand and everything. That's a nice one, nice aroma to Greek guests as they come for the holiday visits.

And then if you're looking at your I was talking someone yesterday who is going to redo their lawn and the backyard. They've got some dips and low spots in it and it's half weeds and half grass and it's just a mess and they're going to be redoing it in the spring. Well Landscaper's Pride has something called topsoiled. It's a sandy loam and composted top dressing, and it'll

help you repair areas in your lawn. Of course, you can use it just if you're going to rejuvenate a landscape bed and you want to you want to get something that's a little more solid than just compost out there, and it's excellent for that. All that stuff is from Landscapers Pride. They got like two dozen plus different things and they're all over town. Easy to find. Just I guess I'll just just tell you go to Landscaperspride dot com.

Landscaperspride dot com. You're going to find more information there. You're also going to find where to get it, and it's really easy to find their products all around the area. That mulching is a good tip for this time of year. It's always a good time to maintain. Think about nature. Does nature uh not have mulch on the soil at times and then have multch on the soil to No, it's all year round. Nature is keeping a coating of organic materials on top of the surface. We can learn

from that. All right, I'm gonna take a little break here. I will be right back with your calls at seven, one, three, two one two kt RH. All right, folks, welcome back to Garden Line. Glad to have you with us this morning. We are talking about all kinds of things gardening. I've got a few topics i'm gonna be going through today.

And during our eight o'clock hour, we have got some special guests calling in with ideas for Christmas gifts, and I think you'll find that very interesting, So stick with us. We'll be back. The RCW Nursery, by the way, has gotten in. I want to mention this. They've gotten in a shipment of camellias. They got the the Camellia susanqua and the Camellia japonicas, and some of the sussanquas they

just got in are gorgeous, just beautiful. And I don't know how many of you are not familiar with camilla's, but it used to be. I just saw a lot more. It seemed like planted in the past, and they've always been popular, but I think they're making a comeback. And camellias have these gorgeous blooms at a time of year when other things aren't blooming. For example, December, the sussanka was blooming and the Japonicas one type in December, one type and more in January. Here in our area, they

look good. And RCW, by the way, also has ligularia ligularia. The only way I can describe it is a terrestrial lily pad. You know how lily pads grow in water, Well, imagine something looks like a lily pad growing in your shady, shady areas of the garden. They're very tolerant of that. By the way, they have still got twenty percent off now off their shrubs, Azelias and camellias, all kinds of shrubs on sale right now. If you're looking to purchase a shrub to fill in, you're not going to find

a better time to do that. R c W Nursery this is our December, so they're thirty percent off metal artwork and arbors and fifteen percent off all their trees. This is the best time to plant a tree or shrub. Get out there and do it. They're at the corner of Highway two forty nine, which we call Tombo Parkway and belt Wait eight. R CW Nurser you gotta check those out. Excuse me, I was talking about some different ideas and things that you know, we can do to

have success in our gardens and in our landscapes. And I just wanted to, I guess make a what an appeal for a plant is that it can I do like a personal appeal, like, please consider this plant. This is an awesome one. You need to plant it. Okay, are you wondering what on earth is he going to talk about right now? It's per lemons. Uh. Per Simmons are a plant that offers ornamental beauty and culinary flavor. And I think they may be the Rodney danger Fields

of the fruit world. You know, when you talk about fruit, you know, you think of apples and pears and plums and peaches and all that kind of stuff in nurseries. And but percimons are great. Let me tell you some reasons I like per simmons. They are number one, they're native fruit. The native per simon is an astringent, little small golf ball sized thing called Diasporus virginiana in Virginia.

do is you sit down about that. You get a good a stringe of per semon that is just essentially a sack of jelly, and you go after it, and you're gonna have percimon drip dripping off your elbows when you're done. Then you can just take a bath. There you go. The other kite is non astringent, and these can be eaten after turning fully orange. You don't wait on them to get you don't have to wait on them to try to get soft. And there are a lot of great varieties out there. You just need to

check them out. By the way, we have a Texas per semon Diasporus Texana, I believe is the number on that one or the proper name on that one, but it's a little black fruit. It's edible, but it's I don't know. It mostly seed, the big seeds inside and maybe dime size to nickel size fruit. But I just have to mention that one too. Per Simmons ripen in mid to late fall, and their bright orange fruit just hang on the tree like a Halloween And we have

Christmas trees. This is a Halloween tree. It looks really beautiful and goes all the way through Thanksgiving too. By the way, I think they're attractive. The foliage has nice fall color. Am I convincing you of this? If you never had per smon bread, you need to try per semon bread. It is awesome. So there I've made my appeal. You need to try per Simmons. Consider planning one in your landscape. Again, so many good attributes of this fruit that is way way underplanted. Just make sure and give

them a well drained area. They don't want to be in a swamp and a place with plenty of sun. They do okay in a little shade, but mostly they need good sunlight in order to do well. There you go. My appeal for per Semmons. Ace hardware stores are They're just a great place to find any kind of items that you're needing for the holiday season. For example, if you're looking for gifts, maybe it's some power tools for

the do it yourself for in your list. Maybe it's some houseware type items for decorating and cooking and other things like that. Maybe it is a toy for a child they have. Do you know Ace has some really cool toys, real retro toys too. I like those and right now, oh my gosh, holiday lights and decorations inside the house, outside the house. They've got you covered on both of it. For example, the one thing that I think is just really cool until I ran across Ace,

I didn't even know this existed. But it's called lights by the foot. So you know how you buy Christmas lights and their X feet long, Well, what if you needed lights to go twenty seven and a half feet long? I mean, you know what I'm saying That you can pick the exact length of light you're looking for there and provide that. You just have to go by and

see how they do that. But it's really cool. It's a great way to do because then you have lights that fit your home or fit your Christmas tree or whatever. You're putting lights on holiday decorations to just beautiful, you need to go into ACE and check it out. It is the place, as they say. And of course while you're in there, you're going to find all the landscape supplies. Now, there is an ACE Hardware store in Orange called Child's

Building Supply. For those of you out there in Orange, if you're Highway six, you know, near the Bear Creek area, Hamilton Hardware would be an ACE Hardware there. Aspas ACE up in the Woodlands is a wonderful location. And then the K and M ACE there's two locations, one in Kingwood and one a Tascas Sita. That's the K and M hardware that bunches of them. Just go to ACE Hardware dot com, find the store locator, find the store near you. I think that is the best way to

go about. It works for me. Let's see here, where are we on time? Yeah, I'm about to run out of time here. I believe I did want to. I do want to continue on with a couple of things that are kind of related to gardening tips and ideas and things like that. We will when I come back. I'm going to talk about some pruning mistakes some real common pruning mistakes that you definitely want to avoid. That

is I see a lot of malpractice. I'll say, when it comes to pruning, we need to make sure that we're taking care of our plants and pruning them in a way that helps them sets them up, if you will, for success. Plants for All Seasons is located on Highway to forty nine, just north of Luetta, So if you're going to Tombol out to forty nine you exit Luetta crossover Luetta. It's on the right hand side. Plans for

All Seasons has long been a great place. I mean, they've got every plant that you want that grows here. But most of all is importance of quality products and the advice just go to Plants for All Seasons. Check them out again. They've been here since the nineteen seventies, this family operated place. Those of you who go there, you know you know what I'm talking about, very very good place. And they also have some gorgeous gifts inside their gift shop. Well, I hear some music here in

the background. That means I need to be quiet, and we're going to take a break for the top of the hour news. We'll be back with your calls if you'd like to get on the board now seven to one three two one two k t r.

got it. They've got you covered. Their gift shop is stunning, stunningly outstanding. They you can get plants for example. Of course you can get things to decorate your house, you know, for the home. There's things for children in there. If you're a nature lover, they have things for you as well, perhaps a hummingbird feeder, little place for the tiny bees together, and those what do you call them, wood boring bees. They have low homes for them, some real cool spiceets

for gifts, gifts cards. Of course, it just goes on and on. I mean there's things for her, things for him. We're talking about jewelry and ideas. You can't just just loaded for the holidays. And it is a wonderful place to visit. And of course there's the beautiful landscape color like cyclomen Oh those are so beautiful. We ought to plant more cyclements in our landscapes in the cool season. They're really good. One even orchids that would be another

great gift idea. Mabbie Cannon's is located on eleven Street in the Heights. You know it, but you need to go to their website because it is the most outstanding educational thing I have seen. You go to their website and the resources that they have, the articles and calendar and garden guides and all kinds of videos and other things, very very helpful. Get on the newsletter too. While you there, I'm going to head out to the phones and we're going to talk to in US Hello, welcome to Guardline.

kind of ugly. Some of the others the vine you're talking about, believing heart and other things I would just make sure and multch the base very very well, and that if there is any die back on any of your plants, the base is protected and you get fresh new growth and they they will come back out of that base with that kind of protection. It's hard to protect a vine because it's you know, typically on a trellis, and trying to build some structure to protect it as difficult.

it holds that air inside there. If whatever plant you're gonna be covering is super tender, you can put a light bulb, one of those clamp aluminum lights with the bright one hundred and fifty watt light bulb in it at the bottom, shine it down and that provides just a little bit of heat, because all we need to do is keep them reasonably above the damage point, you know, below above freezing for example.

I don't know what their policies are in terms of where you how close you have to live, or do you have to be in the same county or anything like that.

one of those programs. But did they train you with an extensive course in gardening and an exchange you get back a time of volunteer time to help Extension reach more people. It's one of the reasons why Extension is one of the best deals when it comes to your tax dollars and things like that, is because they provide so much more return and through the volunteers. You know, some counties of volunteers put in ten thousand hours a year of volunteer time. So one agent ten thousand hours

of volunteer time. That's a good deal. It's a good program full of good people too. All right, well, it's time for me to go ahead and take a break here. We will be right back, and when we come back, I'm going to talk to you about making house plants feel at home. All right, Welcome back to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richtor, and we're here to help you have a more bountiful garden, a more beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. That is an important thing.

If gardening is not fun, we got to fix that because gardening should be fun, that's for sure. The folks at Medina have created a it's been around for a while. Now a product called humate humic acid. Humate humic acid so humate liquid humus is like it's like concentrated compost in a bottle. Everybody knows what compost is like. You know, it's this crumbly coffee grounds, maybe bigger size in that,

but it's all decomposed organic matter. If you let composts keep breaking down, its final stage is humus, and humus contains humic acid and fulbic acid. It's got a lot of different things in it, but it helps build the soil. It helps improve with moisture retention in some types of soils. It helps enhance the release of some of the nutrients that are there. Certainly it has micro and macro nutrients in it. It improves the soil's physical properties. So in a clay soil, humus is one of the keys to

helping loosen up that clay. Now, humate humic acid for medina is available in a quart jar, a gallon jar, even buy bigger if you want, But whenever your playing, you can put a couple of tablespoons of this liquid product in a gallon of water and just soak the root ball in it. Soak the root ball in it and then plant the plant. That's one way to do it. Another way people do it is that they plant the plant and then soak the area by using watering can or something to water it in. Well, you can soak

seeds in. You make acid in a mixture of one tablespoon per gallon of water and let that seed swell up and plant them and you'll get a very good head our pre Soaking seeds is a good way to get a good head start and all. This is just another one of the many quality products from Medina that we fortunately have a lot of opportunities to purchase here because it's available everywhere. Nice quality product from the folks

at Medina. I was going to talk a little bit about making house plants feel at home, making them feel at home, you know, the home environment. Well, let me put it this way. No plant is native to the indoors. Right, where are they native to? Well, they're native to places like a jungle where it is they're understories and a tropical rainforest. It's moist, it's humid, the light is a little is quite a bit lower there. It's light, but

it's lower light. And we bring those in our house because they do better in our low light indoor environment now because they like it indoors, but just because they feel it more at home there. There's a few keys to remember. Number one, the indoor environment has very low light intensities, and houseplants differ in their needs for light. So some plants can do better and significantly lower light.

Some plants are going to need more light, so you have to put them in areas in your home where they're going to get the amount of light that at least allow them to hold on and enough energy, enough food they make with light to keep them well fed enough to keep going. And as you go down and lower lights, you go less and less growth, less and less health less and less vigor So that's important now indoors. Also, our air has low humidity. Somehouse plants like to be

in areas with increased humidity, and it's very difficult. People talk about putting trays of gravel and water among plants. From what I understand, that just really doesn't do a whole lot, and certainly missing them doesn't do a lot. Now, you can put a humidifier or yeah humidifier in a room where you're going to have a lot of plants, and that will increase the humidity levels if you want to go to that trouble to do that. They don't

like temperature fluctuations that are wide. So let's say you know you've got them and there's event blowing on them and it's either air conditioning or heat blowing on them, and the temperature fluctuations. They generally don't like that very much. That's kind of problematic. Second thing is sudden changes in light. I've got a Vicus that was living outdoors that we are bringing indoors. It's time to get it done. I should have already done it. Well, when you do it

sudden fluctuation, it can cause problems. If you go from low light the plant light. The plant leaves grow in a way where they adapt to the low light as best they can, and then suddenly you put them in full sun, you're gonna get scorching. On the other hand, taking a plant from high light to low light can well. Number one, it will tend to decline if it needs more light. But on some things like Ficus, the standard little ficus trees that everybody used to grow everywhere. We

still see them a lot. They'll just drop their leaves that light change, they drop another grow new leaves, but you've got to gradually acclimate them. Third thing overwatering. Overwatering kills more houseplants than underwatering. Plants want moist soil, and you want to water them and then don't water again until the growing mix has begun to dry out. And one of the best ways I find to do it

is if you know your plants. You know, you pick up a container, most of the weight is the if if the container is like plastic, most of the weight is water that you're picking up in the soil. So when you water them they're heavier. You can tell the difference when they're lighter, when they're dryer, they're much lighter. Now if it's in a big old, heavy clay pot, well that's a little different. But just picking them aug and by and picking them up, you can tell, okay,

this plant's getting dry. Another way, and this is a little cool trick, sharpen a pencil, because you want the wood edge of it, the wood tip of it to be a sharpened raw wood, not wood that your fingers have gotten oil all over. Sharpen a pencil, stick it down in the soil to a depth of about two inches maybe three, dependent on the size of the pot,

and then pull it out and look. Either you'll see the water stain on soaking into that fresh wood, or you'll see bits of soil sticking to it, kind of like when you put a toothpick into a pound cake to pull it out and see if the pake cake's ready or not. That's a real quick way to check. If you don't know, Some people just stick their finger in there and feel it. Now, I just want to make a comment about the winter season. House plants just

don't grow as vigorously in winter. Our day links are shorter. Typically rooms tend to be a little bit cooler, but that lower light intensity is slower growth. So they're going to need less water than they would during the summer months and less fertilizer because they're not growing as much. So keep them supplied with nutrients, but don't overdo it in the winter time, especially salt based fertilizer. Don't overdo that on your houseplants. Just a few tips on helping

them to feel at home. I was checking out Neilson Water Gardens this past week, looking, Okay, what's going on out there?

are wonderful, but go check out their plants. They have got an awesome selection. They First of all, they got Christmas trees in that look really really good, points set us that just look awesome. But all the fall color plants, the winter color plants that you're talking about, Nelson Watergarden has you covered. They have an excellent selection. I purchased

some herbs there just a while back. Just really enjoy shopping the place and also getting to visit with some really fine folks, the Nelson family again, Katie Fort Ben Road, Katie, Texas. Nelson Watergardens and Nursery. You can go to their website if you would like to do that. Just go to Nelson Watergardens dot com. Nelsonwatergardens dot com. By the way, they do landscape design and build and they can put in fountains and the nice disappearing fountains or maybe a

waterfall and a pond or whatever you like. They can do that for you and they can advise you on it if you want to do it as a do it yourself project as well. Well, you're listening to guard Line. I'm your host, skip Ricktor and we're here to talk about all kinds of things gardening. So what I would recommend is you give us a call seven one three two one two kt RH. What do you want to talk about. We'll be glad to visit about any kinds

of those topics that you might find interesting. Let's see what are some Oh, I wanted to talk a little bit about screening with plants. You know, sometimes you don't want to see what's on the other side of a fence, or you don't want to see a view of some construction site that now you're having to look at from your landscape. Typically it's blocking views next door and things. Neighbor that finds the need to sunbathe in his speedos or whatever whatever insightly scenes you might see well, they

say good fences make good neighbors. But certainly time when a little screening, even above a fence, it's helpful. Now, how high should a screen be? I get that question a lot. I need something real tall. Well, think about this. Where are you going to be when you're looking in the direction you want screened? Are you going to be sitting in a patio outside? Are you gonna be looking at your kitchen window? Well, from wherever you are, there's

a sight line. So if you have a six foot fence and you are almost six foot tall looking at it, there's not much of a screen there. But if you're sitting down looking at a six foot spence, there's a significant screen there. Right. The closer you get to the screen, the higher the screen appears to be in terms of blocking of view. So even a six foot fence, if you're sitting right beside it blocks a two foot house next door because you see what I'm saying, the site line.

So remember that. Also, remember winter, you need evergreens when you're going to do screening. Otherwise in the winter you lose your screen and you don't need to just use one species. You could put a row of shrubs down low and behind them a row of shrubs that are higher. If you need something fast, you can put a cattle

panel on posts that's above the ground. And let's say now the top of the cattle panel instead of being four feet high, is ten feet high, if you want to go that route and put a vine that's fast growing on that. So there's a lot of ways to go about screening. Give me a call on guardline. We can talk about more how to take care of these things. But it is a good idea to think about screening and where the screen needs to be, how high it needs to be in order to achieve what you are

wanting to achieve on it. That is important when it comes to supplies for anything you need for your landscape, your gardens. Southwest Fertilizer has got you covered, you know, Bob uh He just makes sure that he keeps a stock of everything, including things that are new, keeps that stock on hand, so when you go in there, you know you're gonna find what you're looking for. I don't think I've ever said the name of a product or anything on garden Line that Bob wasn't already stocking there

at Southwest Fertilizer. They're on the corner of bus and Net and Runwick. While you're in there, grab some tools is Christmas gifts or for yourself, by the way, it's okay to buy yourself Christmas gifts, by the way. All right, well you get the idea Southwest Fertilizer corner of Businet and Runwick. Uh, if you want to call them seven one three two one two one seven four four seven one three two one two one seven four four. We're going to go to break and when we come back,

Darren and Kay will be our first two up. All right, folks, we're back here we go another segment garden Line. If you'd like to give us a call seven to one three two one to fifty eight seventy four. We're gonna go to let's see who has been online. We're gonna go to Willis and talk to Darren. Now, Darren, welcome to garden Line. Hey, good morning, Skip got two for you here.

down at that time. Now, So as far as the bermuda grass is concerned, if you're going to seed bermuda, first of all, that's a challenge. I realize you're covering a large area, so you're not going to sod bermuda because it costs and just the amount of work and stuff. But seeding bermuda is it. You gotta have moisture on it. It's got to sprout, and it's got to continue to have a little bit of moisture until it gets established.

So trying to get that done is a challenge. And what's happened to me before is you get a gully washer rain after your seed and it washes all the seed down into the little puddles and now you have clumps of bermuda coming up everywhere. So that's going to be your challenge on it. But another way is by sprigging it. You know, you can put bermuda little runners

of it just they touch dirt and they root. So there's you can put out sprigs that you basically lightly plow in, you know, just scratch into the surface and they root. And a lot of professional fields are done with sprigging. Okay, I lost you there for a minute. Okay, uh yeah, So those are some options for you. Finding sprigs is a little bit of a challenge depending on

the kind of bermuda. If you're going with more of a pasture type, maybe your county extension agent there in Montgomery County, could I assume you're in Montgomery, if you're in Willis, Yes, in the Conroe office, he should be able to get you off on the right start in terms of finding what you're looking for.

fungus or something. So is there any kind of something that I should be spraying on those right now, just as a preventative, whether it be insecticide or fungus side.

So you're going to on apples, you're going to deal with some leaf spots that are very significant, and you're going to deal with some fruit rots that are very significant, and those are the ones that you're going to need to be probably spraying for. Okay, okay, well, thank you so much that. Yeah, that'll be next year, next season when they start. Okay, yeah, all right, yep, thank you, all right, you take care, good luck with that. It sounds like a good project. We're gonna go to Paralan

now and talk to Kay. Hey, welcome to Gardanne.

want to dig them, that's fine. Put them in the garage, let them dry out, make sure they get good air circulation. Don't put them in a plastic bag or something.

commands its own space. Maybe you've got a coffee table and you put a little attractive papermia on there. And by the way, I often will put plants by the windows during the week, and then if we have company or something over it, you can bring them out and put them in other locations, use them to decorate. And I think that allows you to have plants in places where they wouldn't normally grow row row well by themselves. Secondly, plants work well in groupings. You can group plants. You

should consider different things. Number one, the light requirements. You want to group plants that had the same general light requirements and so that they all do well. Consider color of plants, the textures of plants, the plant forms, the plant sizes. Many of our houseplants now have really attractive foliage and that's one of my favorite part of a

house plant collection that I have. And I like Chinese evergreen because Chinese evergreen comes in many different versions and shades of color, from variegated green to some beautiful corals and reds and other things in it. Kalathia the rose painted Kalathia. There are Darsina marginata, the tricolor one has some beautiful color in it as well. And by the way, there's Dressina is a nice straped a linear leaf, almost a grass like leaf to the plant, compared to a

big fat leaf like a prayer plant. Or Moran for example, has big, large leaves, and I like combining them. Also in table arrangements, now you can plant plants together in a container. I find that to be a little more challenging, and I have a better way that I do it. I get a large container. It does not have to In fact, it shouldn't drain well. It does better if it doesn't drain at all. And then you want to take the plants in the plastic containers you bought them

in and set them in that other container. Maybe it's a large I don't know. You can go rustic and get one of those little galvanized metal oval buckets and put them in there. You may need to put some little rocks or some scrunched up paper or something down in the bottom, just to kind of I want this one leaning out that way or leaning out this way. And then when you're done, you fill in with moss, and when you get through that thing looks like a

beautiful planting. And you can create all kinds of combinations that way, something tall like or just seen in the middle, and then things spilling over the side, like a little ivy that's starting to grow. Now, so how do you take care of them? You just take the whole thing over to the sink, pull the moss back, pull a plant out, water it, let it drain, and put it

back in. And if one plant isn't looking good, Pull it out, get another plant, same species you just bought it, or a new different kind of species, put it in that same place, and that kind of combination gives you really really fast things. So, for example, for the holiday season, a cycloman is a great choice. Beautiful, red, pink and white cyclomans. Put some dusty miller in there with them.

Do you get the idea? We often see some little ornamental plants like a pepper with peppers on it, or other kinds of fruiting like plants like that that you can use combine plants, combining plants to housescape or homescape with plants using houseplants inside. We're going to go now to Brunham and talk to Mark. Hey, Mark, welcome to garden Line, Thank you, good morning. Two quick questions.

because it's easier to fill a smaller pecan. There's one variety called Mayheon that's long and big as your thumb and it almost never gets filled all the way because you lack water a little bit and it doesn't fill the kernel. But again, dealing with natives, those are typically smaller and they do feel a little bit better as a result, you're going to want to fertilize. I'll tell

you what. In order to help you the best mark, I want you to go to the Aggie Horticulture website click on fruit and nut resources and there is a publication called Pecans Native Okay Native Pecans And I don't know that things got like seven pages and it goes all the way through. You know, what do you do? How do you take care of them. You know, when you're culling out trees, which ones to keep, which ones

to get rid of, and cultivating them. The different you know, things from dealing with diseases to you know, fertilizing and harvesting. But you're going to want to put a higher nitrogen fertilizer out there. In fact, something that would be a ratio you would see for lawn care during the summertime would be a good A good type of fertilizer to put the pecans lots of nitrogen, not a lot of phosphorus,

a medium amount of potassium. That that's kind of what would be a general guess, not knowing what your soil already has got it well, no pun intended.

which is like a tomato relative. Oh uh, all but a buttlan is what I was looking for. A butlan. Those hang down and they're also called Chinese lanner. The leaves on al buttlan look kind of like a hibiscus leaf, So uh, not real cold hardy, but you're gonna need to protect it to be sure, especially if you're going to get a good cold hard freeze. Got it? Okay, thank you? They are beautiful.

to put the phones on hold. If you just hang with us, if you've got a question, come back after nine o'clock or nine o'clock hour and we will be back on the phones talking to you. Then, if you've got a beautiful color bed out front and you want to keep it beautiful, Nelson plant Food color Start is the way to go. Now. This plant food has been around for almost forty years. Now it's their most popular blend that they have. And when I say that, I

really mean that. I mean they professional landscapers use this. People in other states have tried it and use it. I mean they literally are shipping it out to a lot of different states as well. Because it works. It has fast acting effects, it's got some organic nutrients, and it also to slowly release things into the well. I'd say put it on about every three to four months. And remember that in order for your plants to keep blooming,

they need to have nutrition and have leaf growth. So like a pansy, for example, in this cool season, you want to invigorate it so that it grows and produces new leafs, solar panels to make carbohydrates to make more flowers. That's why you planted the thing. Color Star does that by Nelson. Color Star is available widely throughout the Greater Houston area. Some places even carry the little refill stations.

You know how you go to the grocery store and you want to buy peanuts and you pull the handle and fill the bag. Well you have that for color Star too. Nelson's color Star is available that way too in many places here around the Houston area. All right, we are going to head to the phones now, and first thing I want to do is talk to Danny Lenderman from Enchanted Forest Garden Center.

called how You Raise a Wild Child? And I thought maybe my parents wrote that, But come to find out, it's about raising kids with with a little nature involved, instead of being behind a TV screen or a computer screen all day. So I think that's a good idea. I think we've lost touch of that as as the kids go. Yes, wind spinners, that's cool.

plants that people gave me and I think about that person. Hey, thank you, thank you so much for going on that. I really appreciate that. Good luck down there. And if you haven't visited in Jenny Forest, folks, you need to go see it. It is a beautiful, wonderful place. Thanks Danny, thanks for having me.

hostess paper White and Amarilla's bulbs. And for those ornament exchange parties, You've got lots and lots of fun unique ornaments for those parties that you go to, for the kids who've got jellycat plushies, baby toys, and books, and you know, for those nature lovers, we've got insect houses, hummingbird feeders and bird houses that are really cool. So lots of shoes from Yeah, and for guys, you know, we've got barbecues, spice gift sets. That's a really cool addition to the buffalo.

getting cooler now. Mine are cos and I can't take credit for doing that. That's an easy plant.

videos and educational stuff. The website is just y'all have done an outstanding job on it, and I just congratulate on that trying to get people a look at it because it's.

So from the beginning, you give them a call, they talk to you, They go through the different options they have, ask you questions about your home. What do you want it to be able to do and not? Do you know, are we talking about power in the whole house or we just talk about keeping the freezers going when the power goes out, and they kind of walk you through that process. Then they deal with all the things that

the hoops you got to jump through. You know, maybe there's regulations from the city or some other entity that you got to go through. Those hoops. They do that for you, and then they come out and they put on a pad that is thick, not the little thin kinds that you bump them with the lawnmower and now you've knocked your thing out of whack. They do that, they make sure that everything is set up well, and then after they walk away and you're set up, you're

good to go. It's twenty four to seven three sixty five service. That is why eight times they've won the Pinnacle Award the Best the most Prestigious Customer Service Award the Better Business Bureau does twenty twenty four. They were next Door Neighborhood Fave that is outstanding service and that is outstanding products, recognizing them for that. If you want more information, go to Quality TX dot com, Quality t X dot comth or just call them seven one to

three Quality. This company is a family owned operation. They're dedicated to make a positive impact here in the community and they donate locally to food backs, food banks, but funding schools. They helped with the providing the COVID relief, and they just essentially just make our community a better place to live. Quality home Products of Texas. That is important.

I talk all the time about the soil and the importance of taking care of the soil and making sure the soil is in the best condition that it can be, and Microlife Products is all about that same thing. Microlife is designed with a lot of microbial content in whatever product you buy. You know, from their summertime green bag six to four fertilizers to the fall fertilizers we just got through putting on to the liquid products that they have,

and their liquid products are really outstanding. The Biomatrix, particularly because it's a higher nitrogen fertilizer product that isn't The label is an orange label, by the way, and I use it on houseplants. You can use it on outdoor plants for sure. It's not going to burn plants. I just mix it in some water. And the way I like to do it is just every time I water, I have a very low dose of biomatrix and the water or you can occasionally, maybe once a month, give

them a good dose a biomatrix. It works really, really well, and you're going to see the results from it. I can tell you this because I've used it myself. I know the product and I know it works, but it's

just one of many. I'd suggest you go to microlifefertilizer dot com and look at all the dry granular products by the bag and buy the jar, look at the liquid products that they carry, and I think you'll agree with me that when it comes to stimulating the biological activity, when it comes to fertilizing your plants naturally, they have really put together an awesome package for doing just that. It is time for me to take a little break and then we're going to come back to some gift

ideas to help you have a memorable Christmas. You know, there's the people that what am I going to buy them? They have everything? What's different? You know, what's different than the standard kinds of gift. That's what we're talking about today. So stay tuned. We've got more of that good stuff coming up. Welcome back to Garden Line, folks. We are glad you're with us. We're continuing with our theme this

hour of great Christmas gifts. You know those people that you're shopping for and it's like, what can I get them that's unique, that's different. Well, that's what we're all about here. We're going to go straight to the phones and talk to Beverly from Arburgate. Hey beb Welcome to Garden Lines. Good to have you with us.

be sound in the garden. You know, there's wonderful chimes called Music of the Spheres that are handmade in Austin, and they're lifelong chimes. They're just not decorative pieces. They're hand tuned to specific melon. Now one of the more popular ones is called pentatonic, and the notes of that wind chime are the notes of amazing grace.

fountains into a reservoir or a self contained fountain. And they can even be made with light fixtures that are remote control, so when you're outside in the evening, you can light up that fixture.

light catches it, it changes colors throughout the day. It is not susceptible to freeze damage, so we don't have to worry about gathering it up in bad weather.

so much for being on. It's wonderful to have you. Unfortunately I got to take a break here, but I appreciate you calling in today.

You know, brown stuff before green stuff. I just know that the most important thing you can do to have success with plants is to take care of the soil first and then put in your plants. That's how that works, and the plants then are happy where they are right. Ciena Multch specializes in the brown stuff, and by brown stuff I mean organic materials like native hardwood maltz, double ground malts, two inch screen malts. It like the soil products like a rose soil and a veggiean herb mix

from airlom soils. They carry that like Louis Louisiana excuse Landscaper's Pride black velvet malts, they carry that as well. In fact, they've got products from Landscaper's Pride from heirloom soils. And they also have fertilizers which is part of the brown stuff, to increase the nutrition in the soil. Things for microlife, the azamite that I talk about all the time, Nelson's turf Star line and other Nelson plant foods. Nitrofoss

products are all their medina products are there. So when you go into Cenamaltu, when you call them up and you get your r together, you're coming home to create the perfect environment. A soil with a bank account of nutrients, a soil that drains well, A soil that supports extensive root growth, which makes your plant more drought resilient and helps it to thrive. Don't PLoP a plant into an unprepared plot, A poor plant. I needed another p in there.

Don't PLoP a poor plant in an unprepared plot. Go to Cianimals, give them a call cnimals dot com. They are on FM five twenty one South Houston near Highway six and two eighty eight. They are open Monday Friday seven thirty to five Saturday seven thirty to two. They're closed today, but tomorrow would be a good day to get going, because you know what, as we enter this week, we've got some wonderful sunny weather. Take advantage of it. Get those gardens ready to go, because next thing you know,

you can be ready to plant. And if the soil is already ready, you're good to go. I have made that mistake before where I waited too long and all of a sudden, whoo, here we go, it's raining. And I got a plant. And like my friend, I used to have a fellow knew doctor or mister Alden Colston and Conroe, Texas at the community garden out there called the Friendship Garden at that time. Uh. And he used to say, you can always add water, but you can't

take it away. That's true. That's true. Make hay while the sunshines, make soil beds while the sun shines too. The sun is going to shine this week. So anyway, that was your public service announcement. I guess to get you off to a good start. Ace hardware stores are wonderful places to find everything you need for this season of the year, for example, holiday lighting indoor and outdoor,

holiday decorations indoor and outdoor as well. You want to make that living room beautiful, You want to make the front of the house beautiful with lighting and other kinds of decor. Do you want to create that same ambiance in the back at a patio, a sitting area, port, something along those lines. They can get you set up for that. They've got gifts for all including toys and tools and home furnishings and things that just make your place more fun and I think make life a little

easier too in the process. By the way, some of the really cool items for indoors that they carry now. Participating ACE Hardware stores offer you an option to round up for kids. It's called Round for Kids. It's a fundraiser for the Children's Miracle Network. It's a local affiliate here is our Texas Children's Hospital. So every time you check out, you can say round up and they take it to the next dollar. I mean, just pocket change

for you. But when you take all of the shoppers at all of these participating Ace Hardware stores, it makes us significant difference, and I appreciate the fact that they are willing to do that. You're going to find Ace Hardware stores all over go to Acehardware dot com. You can find many many locations near you, such as All Star Ace Hardware. They have two locations, one in Spring and one in Magnolia. If you're at in Kingwood or a Tascasida, you've got K and M Hardware at those

two locations as well. And then up in Lake Conroe. Lake Conroe Ace Hardware another place where you can find these things that I'm talking about here at ace. We are going to be going to a break here in just a little bit, and when we come back, I'm gonna I've got a couple of ideas that i want to talk about. First thing I'm going to talk about is nine pruning mistakes to avoid. Nine pruning mistakes to avoid,

So stay tuned for that. These are things. Listen. I've been doing this for forty plus years and I can tell you I've seen it all. And if you don't, promise not to tell anybody, I've done a lot of them too and learned the hard way. But weren't talk about nine pruning mistakes to avoid. That ought to make it a little bit, I don't know, more productive for you when to get out there, because we are entering the big time season for pruning. Intended Gardens Garden Center

is done in Richmond, Texas. It's on FM three fifty nine. I would recommend you just write down the website Intended Gardens Richmond dot com and that'll tell you everything you need to know, hours of operation, how to get there, where it's located, and other things. You're going to find what you would expect to find from a sprawling, full service independently owned garden center. It's really like no other.

And they also, by the way, are going to carry things like Microlife and nitrofoss and Nelson plant Food and Medina soil products from heirloom soils and Nature's Way and Landscapers Pride for crying out loud. Whatever you're looking for to make the brown stuff, it's sitting right there waiting for you now. The Lenderman family has been part of that community since nineteen ninety five when Chenna Garden first opened, and it truly is an unforgettable experience to go visit

with them. I am a especially appreciative of beyond the wide variety of plants, the very helpful team. They're about as enthusiastic as they come. You can bring in photos, and you can bring in pictures, applying samples or things, and they'll help you with them. They'll point you in the right direction. Right now is Christmas time. They are loaded up with all the things you need from Christmas for Christmas, from plants to things from the gift shop. So take advantage of that and go out and visit

them an intended gardens nursery again. They're on FM three point fifty nine it's on the Katie fulsher side of Richmond Enchanted Gardens regimend dot com. All right, it's about time for me to give up the microphone here as we get to the top of the hour, I want to remind you that my website, Gardening with Skip is where I put everything that I want to refer you to, such as the lawn care schedule such as the our

lawn pest disease and weed management schedule. Also up there is a publication I wrote a few years ago with a specialist from the Horn Department on protecting landscape plants from frosts and freezes from your vegetable gardens to your landscape. There's a lot of good information on there. Check it out now and read it now so you can get the supply so when that freezes forecast from its stringing around trying to get what you do leading. I've been.

I want to talk to you about some pruning mistakes that people may try to go through. Nine of them, if I'm able to hear that. I see commonly now people head out with printers and go after a tree or shrub, oftentimes really not knowing how to proNT it. And I understand that pruning is not just automatically intuitive

as as you have you go about it. I spent a whole show talking about proper pruning, but I still want to talk about a few things that you want to avoid in order to have success and for the results to be which you want. Number One, dull, poorly adjusted tools. A clean cut made with sharp printers, heels the fastest when your printers are dull, when they're not well oiled. Used to get some rust on the blades. It takes more wear and tear on your hands and

joints to do our shoulders. If you're using loppers to do that kind of pruning, I suggest you use the bypass type pruner. So think of a pair of scissors as opposed to the anvil type where the blade comes to a stop on a flat surface. I find that the bypass type seem to work a lot better for me. A good quality, well adjusted and sharp pruning tools. Number two, pruning plants that only bloom in the spring in the winter. Pruning plants that only bloom and spring in the winter.

Spring bloomers set buds in mid to late summer for the following year, like Azela's. For example, spyriea flowering quints, and so you burn them in the winter, you don't get the prunes. Now, I got a couple of calls here. I don't want to have to wait, so we got through two of them. We're going to continue back with that in a bit. Here we're going to go first of all to JJ and Paarland. Hey, JJ, how can we help today?

and they should do. Okay, if you want to take a pictures or sample of it, you know, into a garden center and independent garden center and have them take a look and see if they notice anything on that, that would be another option. Or you could send me a picture and I'll be glad to give you my opinion on it. If you want to go that way. It just looks exhausted.

use that. Follow the label. You'll be good.

Keep the top narrower than the bottom. Otherwise, if it gets top heavy, it becomes instead of it like a capital A, it becomes a capital V. If it gets top heavy like that, it shades out the bottom and you lose your foliage down low. So it could either be perfectly parallel sides or a little narrower on the top and you maintain good cover all the way. Through so there is one more tip and I'm about to

run for a break here. We will be back with some more Christmas ideas as well as at the end of the show today we'll take a couple more of you calls. This is your Sunday morning moment of Zen. We can thank me later. We like to have some fun with the music here, so you never know what's gonna happen. Keep listening. We're gonna go straight out to the phones now and continue with our theme of great Christmas gift ideas. And I think we have Louis on the phone. Is that correct, Louis, are you there?

in twenty twenty five. There's a lot of new things happening.

got bird houses. You've got there really cool Martin houses, both the kind that look like white gourds and the kind that are like little condos that they telescope down or the house itself comes down where you can clean it. You can you know, get all the old nests or whatever out of there. Each year, make sure everything's going good.

But you need to get those, and that'd be a good time to give one because in February we need to get those up because the Martins or purple Martins start to show back up as the scouts come looking for a place to live. At Wildbirds, there's some great gifts on birding, one written by the owner of the company that is outstanding. There is also high quality bird

feed If someone already has feeders and things. Some of the high quality blends or a gift certificate for the wild Birds Unlimited would be another good idea for you there. I find that every time I go in, you know, I may go I go in for bird seed. I like their Wildbirds Unlimited Winter super Blend for this time of year. But while I'm there, I find myself looking at all the little bird baths and a lot of the different accessories for bird feeding that they have at Wildbirds.

So keep that in mind as well. Well. I was going over some tips for pruning, so I'm just going to keep going on that. Another tip for pruning is to notice what kind of pruning a plant needs. If it's a shrub I'm talking about. So a lot of times people hedge plants that shouldn't be hedged, you know, Like there are plants that bloom on new growth, and if you keep hedging them, you get very little bloom production and you destroy the natural beauty of that particular plant.

Like Abelia is one like that. Abelias are beautiful and if you don't want one that gets big, by one that stays smaller. But I don't hedge those plants. Other plants can be hEDS they're designed for hedging. But when you do that kind of hedging, you create a lot of new branches that form that beautiful dense sides of the plant. But just because it's a shrub doesn't mean it needs to be hedged. Texas Mountain Urrel is an example of that. It is a beautiful form of a shrub.

And when you prune it instead of hedging it, you can just take those long, gangly wild hairs going out of the plant and cut them back to where they join another branch. And after pruning, it still looks natural. It doesn't look all chopped up like it just went to the barber shop. All right, Well, I'm getting to the point where I'm going to have to quit talking, but I am gonna say one more thing on pruning. But we'll come back to the list later at the

end of the show. Today, leaving stubs cut back to where a branch joins another branch. Don't leave a stub, and also don't cut it flush against the branch that it is attached to. There's a little thing called a branch collar at the base and right where that branch starts to spread out, that's where you need to make the cut. I'll be back in just a moment with more gift ideas. Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to the garden Line. We are glad that you're with us today.

We've been talking about Christmas gifts ideas for people that are gardeners or maybe people that aren't gardeners on your list related to plants and the whole outdoor environment we enjoy. And we're going to heading out of the phones and talk to Sherry Hara from Plants for All Seasons. Hello, Sherry, Welcome to garden Line.

You know, conversation pieces, but then all the fology plants. Maybe a little pot with some interior plants, soil and some fertilizer would be an amazing gift to open for really any age.

quality soils in this area. You're talking about John Ferguson and Nature's Way Resources. John and now his son Ian running the place produce quality soils. That's just what they do. Whether it is a compost, whether it is a mult to go on top of the soil, whether it is a soil amendment remineralizer. All the different products they have and they have a wide, wide variety of them. It's

there Nature's Way. You can buy many of their products in bags at local garden centers, or you can just go out to Nature's Way, take your pickup, take your trailer out there. They're located off Interstate forty five on the way to conro So where fourteen eighty eight comes in from Magnolia. You just turn right or turn to the east to depend on which way you're going, and cross over the railroad tracks and you're at Sherbrook Circle, which is where Nature's Way is. They have fungal Friday's

still on twenty percent off their fungal compost. Now they can also deliver it for you if you would like to give them a call, and of course there's a fee for delivery, but have them bring it out and put it right there on your property so you can just go to town making the beautiful garden beds, amending your garden beds, amending your soil top, dressing your lawn with fungal compost or leaf little compost, whatever you need

to do. They've got the product to do it that's been made in a quality way so that it has very positive, strong positive results. That's it Nature's Way Resources, Nature's Way Resources nine two seven three, twelve hundred. I'm gonna go to the phones now and we're going to talk to Barbara in northwest Houston. Hey, Barbara Hight, good morning.

sudden change in watering. Soggy soil creates root rots. Dry soil creates, you know, the drought symptoms.

wet it is, how soggy it is. And maybe you did that. Okay, yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to.

very effective against dollar weed. You may want to add a surffactant to it because dollar weed has a slick surface and you want the drops to really stick to those round leaves. So get you a quality surfactant. You're in sugar Land, Go to Bob in Gosh, I can't. I just want blanks. Yeah, he carries that, and he carries a surfactant. He can get you going on that. You got some of these hardware stores around you too that probably will have what I'm talking about. But Celsius,

like the temperature, comes in a little packet. You make a dollar a gallon of spray with it, and that goes a long way, and you may have to repeat it. That's not don't be surprised if you need to repeat it next year. But get it on as soon as possible because things are going to be getting kind of dormant here on us pretty quick.