Grass advice and fertlization troubles

a beautiful nursery. Oh my gosh, I took all the pictures. I'm sorry posting some of them here to our Facebook account, our gardener and Facebook this week, I just want you to see the police. It looks so beautiful, lots and lots of color. Thanks for the folks that came out. We had a lot of good discussion, plenty of things to talk about. Kind of became a fireside chat where we just kind of all sat around and one question after another, samples and whatnot. It's what we do it

our appearances. It's your chance to get out and kind of get eye to eye and talk, ask your questions. Have a lot more time than we do on the air to visit with you about things. Plus we can put our hands on pictures and also on samples and get a better look at things like that. I want to remind you that on Guardenline here, if you would like to send in a photo, you can call the the producer and get an email to do that. I

don't just open email wide open. With six million people around Houston and me being one, there's no way I can can take the general through the week email onslaught because it's just too many, too many other activities as part of my horticulture tasks that I do my horticulture business, so just not able to you know, just do all the emails. But if you would like to send an email with a photo and then call in, we can certainly handle it that way and be happy, happy to

do that. So if you if you have a question and you think you know it probably would be helpful if he could see this, that's the best way to do it. Give Chris a call, let's get you the email, send me some pictures. I had several people yesterday that send emails requesting to send in photos and whatnot, and so looking forward to those calls today as well. Being out yesterday and just enjoying a little bit of a break in the temperature. Hadn't it been great? Haven't you

just really enjoyed that? I sure have. I you know, it's summers long, listen. I've been living in Texas for uh, let's say, a lot of years, a long long time, other than a three year stint out of state. I know what Texas summer is like, and it's long, and it's tough. I understand that, but hey, it's not that bad. I mean, we we survive it, and here comes some of the best seasons of the year. I love love fall. I love winter too, by the way, I actually do.

I don't know. My mindset is. You know, when it's blazing hot, it's just kind of hard to not be sweating outside, and in the wintertime you oist throw on another coat and get warm. So anyway, that's one that's one man's perspective of it. While I was out at the in Chanet Forest yesterday, I had a conversation with somebody about microlife microlife products. They were asking me about different things, and in fact I was visiting also with Danny a little bit about it and you know, we

were just talking about different things. You know, Microlife has their fall special me the fall Special. That's funny. Microlife has the brown Patch. And when you read brown patch, it's like, okay, well that's a that must be a fungicide or something, and it's not what it is. It's

a fall fertilizer that's loaded with microbes. And it's the microbes in it that we're putting out and you put on irrigation or rain splashes things around and you just get microbes all over the surfaces of the plant, whether it's plant roots or plant plant tops and things, and microbes are beneficial. I would say that if you're going to do the fall fertilizer from Microlife, which is called

brown Patch, I would also do their bioinoculant. And this is what I was visiting with them about out it and Channey forest Yestordy is that bioinoculant has sixty three different beneficial strains in it. And you know, if I tell you, well, there's bacteria all over that, there's microbes all over it, one may think, oh, well it's diseased. It's no. Most microbes are not out there to cause some plant disease we have a problem with a lot of them are beneficial to the plants. Bacillus. There's a

you know, bt is a Basillis Basillis thuringiensis. There's also a Basillis melikopatians. Isn't that a word? Becauzon tite, And there's four different strains of it, and that particular basillis helps fight disease and it even gets get this, it gets on plant roots and it causes the plant. It communicates with the plant and causes the plant to develop in a way that makes certain diseases less able to attack the plant. Is that weird? I mean that is cool? Cool? Cool.

There's also a basilla subtlest, Basilla subtlest. You can actually purchase basilla subtlest. I don't know still in the market, but there used to be a brand called Serenade that was a fungicide and basically the ingredient was basilla subtlest. Well, these are two of sixty three things. And micro grow bioinoculant. It's a kind of a maroon colored bag, kind of

a burgundy maroon colored bag. Micro grow bioinoculant. So when you do your Microlife brown Patch do micro grow bioinoculan and also bioinoculant is not a fertilizer, it is an inoculant. You're putting a bazillion different microbes that do good things to plants out there, and that's the combination for microlife. Any we're visiting about that, and if you want to find out more about microlife products, you can go to microlifefertilizer dot com. They're they're pretty much for sale everywhere,

real easy to find them. You hear me talking about garden centers and feed stores and Ace hardware store, Southwest Fertilizer, those places you're going to find it. But I just think that stuff's cool. I don't know, maybe maybe i'm a nerd. Well I actually am a gardening nerd, But I just think that's some really really cool stuff. Maybe one of these days I need to get a guest in a microbiologists just do some digging into that kind of thing, because it is really really interesting and cool.

Driving through some neighborhoods and noticing the differences in landscapes, have you noticed how many landscapes are basically just a sea of green, Well, you don't need to have a sea a green. If you are tired of a boring landscape, call Piercecapes. If you want a small job done, you know, just some major revamping done. On the other hand, either way they can do it. They can do it. They can do irrigation repair. They can put on hard scapes

and plant lighting or excuse me, the landscape lighting. Lighting not for plants, for you just makes your place magical in the evenings. They can do that. They also have a quarterly bed maintenance which is really nice because just once a quarter they come out and fertilize and weed and airate and multch and change out your seasonal color. And you can find all of that at piercescapes dot com. I go to that piercescapes dot com. Look at the work they do. You'd be very impressed if you want

to get them a call. Two eight one three, seven oh fifty sixty. And with that, I'm going to take a break here for the news and I'll be right back to your calls. Starting you a morning. Good to have you with us. Hey, listen, uh, if you would like to give us a call, it would help if I gave you a phone number wouldn't it. Well, let's

just do that. Seven one three two one two k t r H. Seven one three two one two k t r H. By the way, I wanted to let you guys know I will be at RCW Nurseries next Saturday, Next Saturday. Uh, and I'll be there from twelve to two. So come on out over the lunch hour and let's visit. Do you bring me samples, bring me photos. You know how we do it, you know the routine. Uh, And that's what we'll do. We'll walk around out there too,

if you like. I want to. I want to show you some of the plants that they have, some of the trees and they oh gosh, they're outstanding the amount of plant material and the quality and it just says fall when you walk out there. They got great fall vegetables, they got good fall color and everything. It's good. Now, guess what's going on out there? A barbecue lunch. They're going to do a barbecue lunch out there. So we grab a bike. Yeah, twelve to two, So don't worry

about eating. Just come on out. We'll visit with our mouthsful as we talk. We can. We're also going to have some prizes, you know, just there's games for kids and stuff like that again next Saturday, October twenty six, from twelve to two at r CW Nursery. If you're new to the Houston area, RCW is the garden center that is where Tomball Parkway Highway two forty nine comes into belt Way eight, just northwest corner of Houston.

to do the sound effects again. Well that's all. That was all big big milk production company country. In fact, right where ARCW sits. I was talking to David a good while back and he was just telling me, you know, there's these big old giant, beautiful sycamores on their property. Oh they're gorgeous. And that also was, you know, right there in dairy country. And of course that's back in the days when nineteen sixty was a goat path way

outside of town. But anyway, fun fact about Houston. Did you know those of you out there in Jersey Village, in Cypress and all of that, there was a time when you would be walking through a dairy cow pasture to do what you dry do driving down the street. Right now, you're listening to Garden Line, and I'm wanting to talk to you this morning about a few things, just kind of some heads up stuff. First of all, falls for planting. I love saying that. I hope you

don't get tired of listening to it. But it is the most important planting season of the year. Please take advantage of it. If you're thinking about putting in a tree, do a tree now. Now's the time. It's the best time. If you're wanting to put in perennials like ornamental grasses

or perennial flowers or anything, do it now. If you want some beautiful color, not only the warm season color that goes into fall, which we're planting those still right now, but also the cool season color and we're on the edge of cool season planting season two. All the things that can take cold but they're beautiful. You got to do it, but first you got to build the soil. And for those of you that have been out to Nature's Way Resources, you know the products that they have

out there in high quality. They are you know, John Ferguson years ago, I started that place, and Nature's Way Resources is where a lot of quality soil materials were born, such as the rose soil. You know a lot of people have rose soil now. It started there at Nature's Way Resources. Leaf more compost it started there at Nature's Way Resources, and now they have the fungal compost by the way on Fridays. That's Fungal Fridays at Nature's Way

twenty percent off, twenty percent off fungal compost. Do you need a top dress your lawn, grab some of the fungal composts or their leaf mold, But with the fungal compost you can just top dress off save quite a bit there on Friday. It just makes sense. And when you're out at Nature's Way Resources, remember that they are having right now a plant sale, and this is a

big deal sale. It's the year end sale nursery discount, fifty percent off the huge variety native trees and fruit trees, houseplants and shrubs, but it does exclude native sun perennials. All the rest we're talking about on sale and it ends December first, so here's your chance to get those plants. It's the best time to put them in the ground. So in Nature's Way, you go home with the brown stuff and then take advantage of that sale and go

home with the green stuff and get sat up. They've got a nice selection of natives and non natives out there as well at Nature's Way Resources. They're out at the where fourteen eighty eight comes into Interstate forty five. If you'd like to give them a call. Nine three six two seven three twelve hundred. We're going to go now, let's see where are we on time? Yeah, I always have to watch my clock because I get going here.

We're going to go out Cyprus and talk to John. Hey, John, welcome to garden Line.

Because number one, when you fluff up soil, it sinks anyway, just like if you've ever dug a trench and tried to fill it in and then later you find out it's like you didn't have enough soil. But also that decomposition of the wood cause additional sinking. So I would get all that out you can and then leave it, mound it up a little bit, just a little bit of a mound, knowing that it's going to sink. And

then when you put your side down. Hopefully you'll end up pretty close to level at the end of all that process, after a few months of the settling.

The roots get bigger and bigger. And if you ever looked like even in the forest around a tree that it's like the sool goes up, and it's because all this underground expansion has occurred of roots and the soil sort of pushes up and then it sort of washes away too, and that leaves roots exposed. But that process of getting rid of an old tree and getting something new in it's just part of part of how that works.

If you are looking to do your fall fertilization or if you're looking to do a fall weed prevention, all you have to do is go to ACE Hardware and they're going to have every one of the fall fertilizers I talk about. They're also going to have the products like the barricade from night Fuss that you would put down to prevent weed seeds from germinating. And here's the thing.

The sooner you get the fertilizer down at this point in the season, the sooner it is the better because it goes down and to the degree the grassroots are actively growing and the plants growing and it's mild temperatures, you're going to get a lot of nutrient that's taken up into that plant to make it stronger and hardier. If you wait longer and longer and longer you're getting. It's slows down more and it's just not taking it

up as fast. So get it done now. If you're going to do the barricade and get it, go to Ace Hardware. They're going to have it. Knighte Fuss barricade. Put it down asap because it prevents weeds that are sprouting from establishing. A seed sprouts and it can't get going. Barricade shuts it down. Well, do that now and Ace Hardware is loaded. You know there's forty Ace Hardware stores around the Greater Houston area. It makes it really easy to get whatever you need for your lawn and garden.

Maybe you're looking to do disease prevention, maybe it doesn't matter what it is. You need to make that lawn. Its best to make your fall flower beds their most beautiful. Now's the time to be planting those two. By the way, Ace Hardware has got you covered on that. While you're there, grab that fire ant bait because you know you need it. And fire ant control is best done by bait, and it's best done by fresh bait. So if you got some fire at bait that's been sitting out in the

garage for a year and probably not that appealing. So go ahead and get you some fresh bait and let's knock those things out before we go into fall. Well, it's time here for me to take another break, and I just wanted to mention one more time. Next Saturday r CW Nursery, I'll be out there for their fall Fling. They always put on a good party there at RCW.

They're gonna have barbecue, lunch, prizes, and games. We're gonna have a good time, and I hope you'll come out and I can help you with some of the questions you might have about some of your landscape plans, or maybe we'll just sit and visit. We had a good time doing that Yesterdayt's do that again. Look Saturday, Hey, folks, I'll be right back back. Welcome back to garden Line.

Glad you are with us today. I was talking a while ago about how Ace Hardware Stores carries you know, your your products for fertilizing and for disease control, weed prevention and things. I mentioned the nitro Foss Barricade. You know, barricade is part of Nitrofoss's Fall three Step Texas three Step program. What is the Texas three step Well, it's a dance. You doing your lawn the first the first time around, you're doing the Fall Special win a riser

that is a fertilizer design for fall. It is rich and phosphate to help promote your healthy root system. It's also high on potassium for winter heartiness and really vigorous initial growth when it comes out in the spring. Second one step is the barricade that prevents weeds. You put it down, you have to water it in always of the pre emergent. You've got to get it into the

soil surface where it does its work. Ties up there at the soil surface, and when the weed comes through, it says, uh huh, not going to happen, Not on my watch. That's what barricade does. Third step Eagle turf fungicide. Egle turf fungicide is a systemic fungicide goes into the plant and it protects it against disease attack from brown patch or large patch as it's now called, and also from take all root rot, Take all root rot m large patch. Both can be controlled with the nitrof Egle

turf fungicide. Three steps Fall Special Fertilizer barricade, pre emergent and nitrofos Egle turf fungicide. Step three. Now you're going to find these that in Chenny Gardens Downer Richmond. You're going to find them in Shades of Texas in the woodlands plants for all seasons up on Tomball Parkway as well. Easy to find these three products. But remember the time is short. Look at my schedule. Let's do it this month,

and this month is well on its way. And you wait too long, and if we get a cold front and you get some weed sprouting, you get some brown pat showing up, you can still treat, but you've kind of missed the boat on some of those things. So don't delay. Get those things down a SAP that is important. We're going to go now out to Houston and talk to Dave. Hello, Dave, welcome to guarden Line.

for fall. Get a fall type fertilizer, put it down and then water it in with about a half inch of water, and you're good to go. You put a little more than a half if you want, but about a half something like that.

It is beautiful out there. I mean, they just have tons of color, and the butterflies are going nuts and the bees are going nuts. You know, pollinators are they're really honkering down getting as much of the pollen and nectar and everything whatever kind of pollinator what they're looking for as they can right now, because they know the days you're getting short, and they know that they gotta you know, it's kind of like an old bear that gets all fat before hibernating for the winter. Well, it's

a similar thing. They're they're busy. They are staying very very busy and outed in Channe and four. They have some outstanding beautiful plants too. I was looking at some of their trees yesterday and wow, they are beautiful. They've got some red buds that they just got in out there that look really really good, a number of different kinds of red buds. Of course, the herbs and the veggies always have to walk over to that area, and they are really stocked up with herbs and veggies and

the cool season color even is coming in. You know, pansies and violas is what we start to put out when it really gets cool. And they're loaded up on that and Enchanted Forest. But those of you haven't been there. That's if you're in Richmond, you're heading up toward sugar Land direction. It's off to the right on FM twenty seven twenty seven fifty nine. Enchanted Forest. When you go in, check out the gift shops, check out the houseplants too.

They look really good right now. I was really surprised at the selection that they still have, and it's an outstanding shape. And you know, this is house plant season. So we got holidays coming up even just you know, where are you going for Thanksgiving dinner? How about taking somebody a plant from Enchanted Forest or maybe taking them something from the gift shop. They've got some really cool

stuff for a houseplant too. All there in Channing Forest, go check them out, and there's something going on there pretty much every Saturday. Now. They're staying keeping things, hopping makes it a lot of fun. I know D was out there talking about shade plants yesterday. And then I was out there and they got stuff always going on in Channing Forest. Hey, here's the website. Would you go look at it because it's really good. It is really

really inspiring and good to check it out. Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. So it was helpful when people put together a really good quality website. All right, it's time for me to take a little break here. I will be right back. Our phone number if you'd like to give us a call

and be on the board when we come back. Seven one three two one two k t r H if you'd like to give me a call seven one three two one two k t r H. Seven one three two one two k t r H. I was visiting with someone this past week about black velvet multch. You know, black velvet is the maults from Landscaper's Pride. Uh, and it's not dyed. And they were they were going, I know you don't like dyed malts. Yes, I don't, neither did Randy, by the way.

that you know, lose the landscaper's pride, folks. This is a this is a local company here in our region. It's a company that takes wood bait, wood type products and turns them into stuff that's garden gold. An example of that would be their planting mix. It's a blend of locally sourced pine barks, got sandy loam in it, so it's got that structure of soil in it and organics. And you can use it to revamp any garden bed.

You got a bed that's kind of sinking down, you want to bring it up a little bit, go ahead and do that. You make a bed out of it too, Just choose that to create the bed. But it is an excellent product. It's very suitable for most growing seasons, really growing situations, growing conditions, I should say all seasons and it works well. Another one compass Pete that's locally screened pine excellent soil additive. It's going to improve structure and it's going to hold up for a good while too,

and it also adds as decomposing materials. Are those essential organics that are so important for having success with your soil. You can go to landscapers Pride dot com. I'm feeling to find out more. It's widely available. You're not gonna have trouble finding Landscaper's Pride products, but Landscaperspride dot com can tell you all the places where you may find

them in your area. And as they say at Landscaper's Pride, let's row together and boys fall ever a good time to get some of their products and get off to a great start. I'm going to head out to pair Land and talk to Pam. Hello Pam, open to the garden line.

Is there any practice I could implement that would achieve the same result.

seeds and dense lawn stops weed seeds too. Secondly, compost top dressing at the end of the season going into fall or in the spring coming out early. Either one of those puts a little bit more of a shade cover over the ground. You know what I'm saying. Even though you don't top dress deeply, it is blocking a little bit of light. So that also helps. And then finally, there is a product called corn gluten meal. Corn gluten

meal is kind of a hit and miss. It can stop weed seeds if you get it out there and water it in. The problem is, we're not in control of rainfall, and if after putting on corn gluten meal you just get ongoing small amounts of rainfall, it's not going to be as effective. But that is the only organic pre emergent that I know of as corn gluten meal.

have beautiful fall color. Listen, we talk about pansies and viola's in the fall. Those are they're very hearty, very good cool season color. But Dianthus is another one, just beautiful. There's the shorter types of dianthus that we've always had, and then in recent years we started seeing these just neon glowing tall dianthus like Amazon is a series example of that, and the colors are just amazing. They make good cut flowers too, by the way, but Dianthus is

a good one, cold cold, cold, hearty. Things like kale, ornamental kale and ornamental cabbage are also available. And then we have things like snap dragons. We got stock that's a really underplanted stock is a wonderful cool season color, plant, colangulas, nasturtiums. There's a lot of things we can do for some color as we go into the fall season. Alyssam isn't a good example. It's all there Buchanans. You know, they are Buchanans native plants. I mean, so they totally stocked

up on natives. Last time I was out there, they had a great selection of strawberries. If you want awesome, Let's say February March April May through that region. Depending on where you live in the area that strawberry season, especially March, April and early May. Go to Buchanans, pick up some of the strawberries, get them in now, and you will have a really, really nice strawberry season. Let's head now to Mike in spring. Hello, Mike, welcome to garden Line.

to grab one. Ay Fftree Service dot com. Martin stays busy, get on his schedule. It's fall and spring, see well, actually falling in winter. Important time to get some of that pruning done, and we're now in that season. Get it done. Seven one three, six nine nine two six sixty three. Tell him your Gardenline listener, get on far up in the line as you can. He is booking up. And stay in busy, don't delay. You want to get that printing done if you can by February. It's the

best time you can prune all year. But call him now, don't don't lose the opportunity to get on this window and get that done. You want your trees to be well taken care of, in properly prune. Don't turn them over to somebody who knocked on the door and left your business card. Go with somebody knows what they're doing. That's Martin Spoon from Amal Trip. Well, we're going to take a break here for the news marine. I will put you up first, then we come back. Look forward

to talking to you, savings. Just watch him as.

maybe grub or whatever else they find edible. But as I was passing by Low's or another big box store, I thought that they had on sale some sod, So my question is this should I put down some type of chemical But I'm not really seeing anything.

my hands and really examining it. That is kind of the best shot I can do for you on it. I wouldn't use an insecticide with an area of that size. I just am not real concerned about it. If it were a disease problem, I would expect to see more areas of the lawn showing the problem.

meaning inside the company. They don't just contract everything out. And so when you have Quality Home, come do it automatic standby home generator for you. You know, the electricians coming, the plumbing coming, whoever's coming to do stuff. It's Quality Home employees doing that. And that is another reason why they're so good. Now, if you are an electrician or plumber, you're looking for an opportunity well, competitive pay, comprehensive medical,

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Time for me to take a little break here and when I come back, Tim and Bill, you made my first two up. Welcome back to garden Line. We are glad to have you with us today. Someone I get this question a lot, and here it's it's varying versions of it, but basically here's the question, Uh, when do I When do I put out asmit? You know it's fertilizing season? Do I put out as Is now the time to put out as mite? And the answer is you put out as might whenever you want to put

out azmite. As might is a micronutrient supplement. It is not something you put down like the standard fertilizers with lots of nitrogen in them that make your long take off growing and be green. It is a boy It is a bank account deposit. That's what you're doing of trace minerals. Okay, So when you put asmite down, any month of the year you put it down, it goes in. It attaches to the soil. The trace minerals attached to

the soil, and when the plant roots need them. Whatever the mineral is, you know, maybe it's something like iron or zinc or whatever is it's needed in the trace mineral group, Well it's in that bank account and the plant can have it. So you could do it when you fertilize. You put your fertilizer oute, turn around, fill up with these might put the AZMTE out. However you want to go about it is up to you. The month doesn't matter, and so most people will do it

when they fertilize because it's just easier. You're already out there running the spread or across the lawn, so why not just go ahead and do your asimite at that time. Either way you go about it is fine. Just just once a year. A good application of ASEM is usually what I would recommend for most long say you have a saw test just to check and make sure what levels of what you need. But as might goes a long way because it's a tracement or you're not putting

the quantity out that you're putting of other fertilizers. So about forty four pounds bag is going to give you six to twelve thousand square feet of coverage? Works really well, It's as simple as that. All right, So let's go to Tim now in Oh gosh, Tim, where are you located?

them well watered. But check for those nematodes, just to make sure that's not on that because there's no cure in that. And you know, it's like having a dog with a thousand ticks on it. It just really just sucks the life out of of the fig tree to have all those nematodes on it.

the fertilizer. Then if your fig is growing healthy and it looks good, green, healthy, then I wouldn't wouldn't bother with it.

Star of Hoope Mission's website. It's real easy. It's shmission dot org and there you can learn more and you can donate there, and I would encourage you to consider that. You know, Star Hope, when you put a dollar into Star Hope, it's a dollar that goes into changing lives. It really is. They don't just give people a nickel and say good luck. They actually bring people in. There's housing, there's food available. If mom or dad is dealing with

substance abuse, they help with that. They have programs for that. If they're trying to get trained for a job so they can get on their feet, Star Hope has training like that, and then they have instructions on how do you get a job, and they help you through that process. That time at Star Hope is when you're saving your money, you're getting established, you're finding some dependable transportation, and you're

getting the chance to actually turn your life around. And when you do that, you turn your children's life around. And that's the hope in Star of Hope. They provide Christ centered counseling and instruction and spiritual guidance as well. Star of Hope Mission is something that I hope you will put your compassion to work by providing a donation on an ongoing basis. Join myself and others and be a supporter of Starve Hope. I want to head to Westside, Houston and talk to Bill.

that cause the price to go up. A slow release tends to cost a little more than an immediate release, but it works a lot better and you end up getting more efficient use. So yeah, you paid more for it, but you're getting more of what you paid for it, you know what I'm saying. And so there's a lot of trade offs there. Organics in general or lower concentration because they're natural. Nature does not pack, you know, thirty

percent nutrient into a product like you can synthetically. But yes, in general, the more concentrated, the more bang you get for your buck.

You know, for decades triple thirteen and ten twenty ten, we're fertilizers that were recommended and it didn't kill the lawn to do it. But turf science and research throughout the South over the years has showed us that that middle number phosphorus tends to build up over time. And so if you constantly use something that has a lot of the middle number, over time, it builds up. Okay, it's not going to happen in five years or something,

but it will happen. And so you see variations. Each nutrient has things it does for the grass, and so you can make a case for phosphorus being good for a root system. You can make a case for potassium being good for cold heartiness. You can make a case, you know, for nitrogen of course being good for supporting growth in general. A three, one two are something similar. Type ratio is what we use through the growing season, and it can be a little higher nitrogen, it can

be a little lower. But you know, if you and ten of your neighbors or nine of your neighbors all did a soil test, you would find the results to be a little different in each yard. And so when I recommend a fertilizer, I'm giving you a good general ninety percent of the time, ninety five percent of the time probably a good fertilizer to put down. But each person's yard is different. And so for example, if you were overloaded with phosphorus, I would say use something with

zero phosphorus. If you didn't have enough, I would use, say something with more than a three one two ratio. So it's a little more complicated than that. Or your questions are good, it's just in general. And what I would recommend finally, is just and I've got to go to a break here in about ten seconds. I would absolutely do the soil test periodically every three or four years, and then you know exactly the fertilizer that's best for you. And if you want to call into the show with

your results, email them to me. I can help guide you in doing that. But for most people we give them a good general guide that's going to work and buy and large be you know, a great way to go. So if you want to hang on for after break to continue, I'll be happy to do that. I gotta run right here to take a break, folks, I'll be right back. I wanted to talk a little bit about

birds and Wildbirds Unlimited. You know you hear me talk about them a lot, because I really believe in wild Birds stores and the products they carry as being superior. And here is an example of that. They're bird seed. It is quality seed. They don't throw the kinds of bird seed into the mix that are cheap, and that way they kind of make the bag bigger and make it look like more seed, but the birds aren't going to to eat it. They put the things in the

birds eat And you could get blends. You know, what kind of birds are you trying to attract? Well, there's different mixes and blends that are options there at Waldbirds. You know, they have a standard blend that's contract pretty much everything, but they've got the special blends for different kinds of birds as well, and different times of the season as well. Right now, my feeders are stocked up

with a couple of different options from Wildbirds Unlimited. You know, Wabird's Unlimited is not just the place for the quality seeds, but it's also the place for quality products. And if you're looking for a bird feeder that's quality, that's gonna last, that's gonna provide better access or maybe exclude squirrels. That's that's My favorite feeder is the squirrel excluder, and boy

does it ever work. Although you have to put on earplugs because the language of the squirrels use when they try to encounter that feeder and can't get in, it'll make a sailor blush. It is horrible, But I appreciate the fact that the feeder works so well. They've got you know, we're going into the winter season and pretty soon we're gonna be looking at things like those little packages of suet, you know that you put inside a little warkage for the birds to peck out the sewet

from and the seeds. They have seed that or feeders that fit any kind any kind of bird that you're trying to fix or to supply.

you will too. Go to WBU dot com, forward slash Houston, WBU dot com forward slash Houston, find one of the six wild Birds stores and just swing by there. Go go this afternoon. Go check that out. I think you will be very impressed. I'm going to go back here. Bill, we were in the middle of a philosophical question about fertilizer I believe, and so I wanted to continue that. I was mentioning, you know that the best way to know how to fertilize this have a soil test done,

and it really is true. I one time when I was in Austin, Texas, we had a neighborhood we were working with from a water quality standpoint. They were concerned about runoff into some of the surface and groundwater they had up there, and we did a survey of two hundred homes in this particular neighborhood. It was a black clay soil and of those two hundred homes, I think one or zero needed phosphorus, and it's because they'd been

using high fertilizers for years now. Just grass need phosphors, yes it does, but because of the soil and because of the fertilizer history, two hundred homes, not one needed phosphors. And it's normal that phosphorus is one we tend to not need to supplement for grass. I don't want to say grass didn't need phosphors. I mean we don't have to add more because there tends to be enough there for it. But every lawn's different. Bilso you know, for you to do a soil test is the best way

to do it. And you know you ask a good question at the beginning, and that's why not buy a stronger fertilizer rather than one that's not as strong. That's a good question. Some people, though, have other goals other than just how cheap can I get a nutrient? You know, so if you're an organic gardener, you're going to want to use an organic fertilizer and those tend to be lowering concentration.

so we try to keep it simple. We try to make it easy. But you know, someone like you calls in and wants to drill down a little for well, further. Well, we'll go ahead and do that too.

virtually every bit of life on the planet. When I come back from a little break here, i'll talk about that just a little bit. But I think that is pretty amazing stuff. All right, folks, the number seven one three two one two k t R H. Give me a call. We'll talk about the things that interest you.

it's the cool season. Color, it's vegetables, it's herbs, it's all the woody shrubs, trees and vines that you want to be planting now, and the perennials that you want to be planting now. When you go out there, you're going to find the products to go with it. Products by microlife, Nature's Way and nitrofoss and Nelson and airloom soils and Landscaper's Pride and Medina and so on. They

are always stocked up on the things you need. And then they have the people on hand that can answer your questions in a way that sets you on the path to success. Very very important. Plus it's just fun. In fact, this afternoon, why run out and in Chanted Gardens. It is on the Katie Follsher side of Richmond, on FM three point fifty nine. Here's the website. Just go here and you'll find out everything you need to know Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com in China Gardens Richmond dot com.

When you go, take someone with you, because this isn't just like you're going shopping. This is like you're going for an experience. Oh and you get to come home with cool plants too. That's a good way to look at it, you know, visiting with Bill, just thinking about the fact that you have this plant and it takes up water and nutrients from the soil, and it takes them to the leaves, and sunlight shines on those leaves, and carbon to oxide goes into the plant and out

of it comes what supports all life on earth. It's pretty amazing that animals can't produce their own food. We have to eat food that has been produced because something can capture sunlight and make food. And that's true with plants. It's truth. Animals is truth with everything. It's a big cycle, but the whole thing runs on the fact that the sunshines. And another way to put it, I like this one. I don't know who said this, but man, despite his

artistic pretensions his sophistication and his many accomplishments. OSE's existence to a six inch layer top soil and the fact that it rains, and I would add to that in the sunshines. All right, we're gonna go now to Bill in uh let's see do do no Gordon, excuse me, Gordon and Beaumont, Hey Gordon, welcome to garden line.

it really. I mean, there's things we can do to minimize it, but it's really hardly worth spraying for because not much watch or is labeled. Uh yeah, and that causes leaves to defoliate. Figs are so darn tough they can defoliate from rust and next thing you know, they're putting on new growth again. So I think in your case, just keep taking good care of it, keep it mulched, and and in the hot, hot summer weather, just give it enough water to keep it going. Yeah. I watered twice.

and Triple eight fertilizer besides mulch. And it's I got, like I said last time I called you, Hope, I'm over two hundred pounds on that.

out strong in the spring. New spring grass growth is based on stored energy carbohydrates from the fall season, primarily the fall season, and so it's so important your fall fertilization, perhaps the most important fertilization of the year. Now, in carboload,

you also have a pre emergent herbicide. So when you put carbo load out, you need to water it in like any fertilizer would anyway, but you especially need to water it in soon because you want that pre emergent to be at the soil surface preventing cool seasoned weeds which will be germinating very very soon. So get the carbon load out watered in about a half inch of water, so you put a little more if you want, and then next thing, you know, when those seeds try to germinate,

the pre emergence they are preventing it. Plus you got those nutrients there for your turf. Now, some plant food products are all quality. The turf star Line is excellent and carbol Load is the product for fall fertilization. I was hitting down. In fact, I've got just got five thoughts went through my head all at once. There. So the folks at s the aenemalts, I'm heading down that direction here in about another week, I'm heading down that way, and I always like to stop in it's the animals,

because it's the enimaltch. You just have every product you need to have success. And I work and work and work at trying to convince listeners that start with the soil the way put it as brown stuff before green stuff. You get the soil right, and then you put good plants in and they naturally grow. They just do well because you've created the foundation for success. Ciena Maltz is

the place for everything related to the brown stuff. That would include composts, that's embed mixes like the rose soil that we talk about, like the veggie and herb mix from airloom soils. I carry that there and it is also the place for fertilizers Nitrofoss, Nelson, Medina Microlife, Azamite, Nelson's Turf star Line, airloom soils. They carry all of that, and then they carry the stuff go on top of the ground. Native hardwood, multch is double ground Malta. Do

you like Louisiana price black velvet. They got it there at Ciena Maltz. When you leave Ciena Malts, which is by the way on FM five point twenty one near where Highway six and two eighty eight come together, just north of Road Sharon, when you leave there, you've got the foundation for success. Don't put a plant in the ground without putting the foundation for success in place. From cienamlt cnamults dot com is the website. Easy, easy to get in and get out, and when you go in,

you're going to be greeted. I love going to that place. It's just fun. You've ever heard Amon say a soil place is just fun?

are having their Fall Fling and I can't wait. I always love going out there, especially when they're having one of these shindigs. They're gonna have a barbecue, lunch and prizes and games for kids, and I'll be their entry your gardening questions and as you know, who knows what's gonna come out of my mouth, But we're gonna have a good time. We're gonna have a very good time. Bring me some samples to identify, to diagnose. We'll get

all that taken care of. Next Saturday from twelve to two at r c W Nurseries.

That's one way to look at it. One way to look at it. If you've not done your fall fertilization yet, Nitrofoss has got you covered with their Texas three step program. You do the two step on the dance floor, you do the three step in your lawn. And here's the three steps. Fertilizer weed prevention, disease prevention. First fertilizer that

is Nitrofoss Fall Special Winneriser. Nitro Foss Fall Special Winneriser provides the nutrients, especially that a very important potassium that's needed in order to create cool cold hearting and also to help the plant come out stronger in the spring.

And here's how it works. When the plant takes up a little bit of nitrogen, not as much as in the summertime, but in the a little bit of nitrogen with the potassium, it is essentially like anaphreeze in the plant because it produces carbohydrates and carbohydrates are the anafreeze of the plant, and so it gets through winter better. But then in the spring, new growth begins with stored carbohydrates. And that is what you provided when you put your Nitropostphall special down as a winter riser.

or applied to them. Get it done now. Second step that I skipped over is a barricade. That's weed prevention. So let me quit confusing you and just make it simple. Nitrofuss fall special winter riser number two, barricade for weed prevention. Number three, eagle turf fungicide for disease prevention. Water them all in, get them in the soil. Even the fungicide will be taken up by the roots and you're ready to go for fall. But here's what you shouldn't do. Delay.

If you wait until weeds are up, if you wait until diseases have attacked, if you wait until it's cooled off so much, grassroots aren't taken up nutrients very much. Well, you just missed the opportunity. So get that done.

You are listening to Guardenline and the phone number is seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t R eight. A little slower on the phones today. Maybe it's because we're getting philosophical. So either people's eyes are rolling back in their heads or it's just interesting. They're they're enjoying listening. I don't know. You tell me which which of the two that is. I know I'm interested, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else is. What is my uh?

Mom used to say a German phrase to me, and it was yetis tirkin zine plasier kid. It means ever creature has this pleasure for me, that's plants and talking about plants or one of my one of my pleasures. Plants are All Seasons on Highway two forty nine, Toma Parkway right up just north of Plants for All Seasons

have been around since nineteen seventy three. This family owned operated, family owned and operated garden center has long been just a fixture in that whole area, that whole region because people know when you go there, you're going to get good plants, of course, but you're also going to get good service and knowledgeable service, and that is so important.

I'm saying. When you go into Plants for All Seasons, you get directed in the right direction to the plants and the products that you need to have success. They help you with the diagnostics and the advice. Even if you didn't buy a plant there. You know, you may show up and go, I got this such and such roads. I didn't buy it here, but it's doing that. They'll

they'll talk to you about it. They'll tell you what you need to do and hopefully put even a better plant in your hands to take home to have success. That's how it works at Plants for All Seasons Plants for All Seasons dot com. That's the website. Here's the phone number two eight one three seven six one six for six. I shouldn't have said the phones were slow, because here we go. Okay, well, let's go to Spring Branch. We're going to talk to Jeff. Hey, Jeff, you're first in line. What's up?

for that particular weed. But putting it down earlier is fine too, Okay.

they're they're kind of the opposite of each other. One of them is we want to water it often to keep it wet to get those roots in successfully. Number two, we want to we don't want to water very much because we don't want to promote brown patch and fall disease. And so oh you kind of you kind of have to choose between the two. So I would back off of that watering a little little bit. Once a day

should be fine. And you shouldn't have to put a whole lot of water on when you water, you don't don't put an inch on every day, you know, for example, just just a little bit to get it going. Kind of watch and see. You can also grab the turf and real gently kind of pull on it, and you can see, well, this is pegging down.

products they have. Right now, I want to tell you about a limited time deal they've gotten, and I mean very limited. This deal ends next Saturday. Okay, so you got to get it done. But it's a one cubic yard super sack. They've got a new branded one cubic yard super for airloom, soils and worms, rock and mulch, and you can get it full of age leaf mold compost and the sack you get to keep itself for only ninety nine dollars. That's seventy five dollars savings per sack.

Again only through next Saturday. So this is perfect for guarding and landscaping. But leaf Mo compost, it's excellent for top dressing your lawn. It's excellent for use as compost just any bed you're doing and redoing and mixing and you know planting, you're gonna mix some composts in the soil. Leaf Mo Compost is Cadillac stuff and you either have to go out to porter to pick it up or they'll deliver it. But there's a three sack minimum for delivery. They're not going to say one sack and haul it

all over town. So you know then their spees for delivery as well, of course, but whether you got a truck or trailer, you can go out there and they'll set it right in the in the truck. And there's nothing neaterer and cleaner than a supersack. I mean, it's just like big old grocery sack, but it holds a qbyard of soil. Out there on fifty nine Access Road and Porter, that's where you find Warrens Rock and Moltz.

That's where you pick up your airloom source products. They're open from seven am to three pm on Saturday and on close today, but they're open Monday through Friday from seven am to four pm. So if you want a book a delivery, go to Rock the letter in and the word Maltch Rockendmulch dot com slash delivery or call this number two eight one three five four nineteen fifty two eight one three five four one nine five zero.

We're going to go now to Paarland and talk to Hal. Hello, hol welcome to garden Line.

a shrub. There's a lot of things from Dorf, Jopond, others that could kind of be a suitable substitute and go with something different than the box Would that would be my sub question?

When you get beneficial microbes around plants, they have different effects. Some just populate the plant surfaces and they make it hostile for a disease sport of land and be successful. Some of them actually interact with the roots. Several strains and this bioinoculant interact with the roots to cause the plant to become more disease resistance. It's kind of cool stuff.

It's science we've been learning about in these last few years a lot, and it's a pretty amazing thing the way the natural system works out there about micro grow bioinoculant. Just do your brown patch and then come back load up and do a micro grow bio inoculant application and water it and really good. Give it a good watering, and you're good to go for fall with your organic lun care system. I'm going to head now to Katie and talk to Scott. Hey, Scott, welcome to guard Line.

just a moment back to the phones. I wanted to mention a Star of Hope again to you and if you you know, I consider people to be basically compassionate, and but you want when you help someone for that help to really help and not maybe just be part of the problem or maybe just be a drop in a nocean that doesn't accomplish much. Well, when you help Star through Star of Hope, you are making a difference. At last. Star of Hope takes good care of every

dollar and make sure it goes to changing lives. I've seen the work they do. I have visited with folks that have been through Star of Hope. I know what I'm talking about on this. And for two dollars and eighty five cents, you can provide a meal for a homeless man or a woman or a family with kids. You can go to Shmission dot org Sohmission dot org and be part of providing over six thousand meals a

week that they do their at Star of Hope. Go to Shmission dot org and would you join me and being a supporter of Star Hope and putting your compassion to work in a way that truly transforms lives and not only helps the people, but certainly their children and overall helps us in the Houston community as we turn lives around Christ's name. Star of Hope does all that they do. I'm going to move over now to Scott. In Katie and Scott, we were talking about application rates

for barricade I believe when we left last time. So the barricade bag does have a little bit of a range on it. If you go with the higher end, it lasts longer, It gives you more months or more weeks if you will, of the protection out there. I'm a little bit hesitant ongoing too strong on that stuff because the way that a pre emergent works, almost all the pre emergence on the market work by inhibiting root

growth in the grass. And so if you get the levels up high enough, and especially during the growing season when your grass is out there putting out runners and trying to send roots into the ground, it can affect that rooting in and people that overdo it can damage their grass that way by preventing good root development. And in the heat of summer that's very much needed this

time of year. I would say go probably with the lower rate, and you're going to be okay, it's going to carry you all the way up until spring anyway, but you're going to be putting it on again as part of the schedule that I have online, you'd be putting it on in February. And so if you want to go medium rate, that's fine, but I wouldn't go high rate at this particular time of year. I don't think it's needed. We're just not having to get it

to hold on. If you did a February application and you wanted to last further into the summer, you could go with a higher rate, but even then I like to go more moderate on it.

to Arburgate right now, you're gonna find fall decorations. You're going to find gift shops that are brimming with really cool stuff, but you're going to find plants that are perfect for our climate, perfect for the season, whether it's fall vegetables and herbs, whether it's annual color. You know, to spruce up those beds and make it look good somebody coming over for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I get things looking good out there. Arburgate can help you do that.

You know, there's no better season than fall for planting perennials, tree shrubs and herbs. Why not go out to Arbrogate and get the plants you need at the best time to get them planted, and that is in the fall. This is the season when garden centers should have a line backed up two blocks down the street because this is the season when you should be planting for the best success. Why you're at Arbigate, grabbed their organic food complete,

their organic soil complete, and their organic compass complete. Three bags that I'll call the brown stuff. Get them in the ground, get that bed ready, and then when you get an Arbigate plant, put in the ground. Number one, you got the soil ready. Number two, you got a good quality plant. Number three, you've got advice and service there at the garden Center to help you have success before and after the sale. Arbrogate dot com. That's their website.

They're located about a mile and a half west of two forty nine on twenty nine twenty they're in Tumble. And now we come to Marty, who gets the award for waiting the longest time all day of anybody. Thank you, Marty, Welcome to garden Line.

of rototilling or mixing of the surface. If you're able to get a piece of equipment out there and do that and then smooth it out to lay your sod on, that would be kind of finalizing it and getting it ready for the planting.

bonny weed beatter ultra you know at that time. But anyway, I think you've done what you need to do for now, and so it's just a matter of of waiting until it's time to plant in the spring and then getting that down maybe a light rototilling. You'll get a few winter weeds that have come up in there. You could put a pre emergent down now on the bear soil because winter weeds are going to sprout and you're going to end up with some winter weeds when you're ready

to plant. The rototilling could fix that. But if you wanted to put down some barricade, now, go with the lower rate, the lower rate of barricade, and that would kind of help hold it until you get ready to plant next March or April.

I was talking to someone the other day that was talking about, you know, listening to the radio back when Ben Oldagg and Dewey Compton and different folks like that were on before it was even called garden Line before Randy Lemon certainly for me and Medina's sponsor since then. And you know, a lot of you use their products. Medina Soil Activator has been around for a long time and a lot of people love it and swear by it. And now they've got the Medina Plus, which is Medina

Sole Activator Plus. Over forty different trace elements. It's got natural growth hormones from seaweed extract. It's got a number of different mineral elements in it, you know, magnesium, iron, zinc, things like that, as well as a lot of other important ingredients that are part of plant growth support, things

like hormones, vitamins, different different things along those lines. Medina cel Activator Plus will increase blooming and leaf growth, of course, and promote fruit set on plants that do set fruit. I would suggest right now. The front stage for Medina Soil Active Miniina plus is transplanting. You put some of that in water, follow the label. Mix it up. It's not salt based. You will not burn plants with it. You can use it as a foli or spray if you want, but mix it in a can of water.

And when you put a plant in the ground, whatever the plant is, just have your Medina so ILCTI beta plus right there to drench over the top. Drench it right over the foliage water that plan in. Soak it good, get it all the way down in the root system to get it off to a very very good start. That may be an herb or an ornamental grass or a perennial herb. Or it may be a vegetable or a flower of a bedding plant flower or cool seasoned flour. It may be a shrub or a tree, a rose of vine whatever.

effective herbicide as opposed to mergent. I would I would say when you see the virginia button weed making its space show again, that would be a time, you know, to go ahead and do a treatment like that for it. I have you used Blindside before you on your lawns or anything.

just popping up in there. Then it jump back into my yard, so I'm having to kind of treat their yard too.

they give you in terms of using it. Sometimes you get a little discoloration and yellowing from that particular product. But just just be careful with it. But yeah, and for right now, what I would do on Virginia button weed. I know you don't want to be on your hands and knees, but if I had it in my lawn, which I happen to not have that weed, thank goodness currently, but getting it out of there by hand pulling some

I know, breaking it off. It's going to break off, and you're not You're not eliminating the plant by pulling it. It breaks off. But you're all those seed pods that are along the stem. You can get those out of there, and so you're really cutting down on the amount of seed for next year by doing the best you can getting as much of it out as you can. And I know that's difficult because it intertwines with your grass. Yes,

like a carpet. It's your eyes, doesn't it. Yeah. And finally, Jackie, just keep that watering down, you know, a good soaking on a very infrequent basis. The more you water, the happier and more vigorous Virginia button weed is. So we tend to water more than our Saint Augustine needs. Too little, too often is what's typical. But if you can let it dry on a little bit between waterings, it will at least slow down the Virginia button weed, making it

easier to get ahead of it. Okay, all, well, thank you very much, sir, have a good we Thank you. I appreciate appreciate your call. You bet, you bet, you take care. Uh. You know, if you're looking for any kind of product, especially ones that are harder to find, like we've been talking about, Southwest Fertilizer has got them, you know, Bob doesn't have it. You don't need it,

because he has everything. If I talk about a fertilizer and a sect a side, a fungicide on guardenline, Bob's got it, and including things like as might if you need a tool, if you need hoses, garden hoses, if you need the law on more blade sharping, by the way, go ahead and get that done now before there's a rush in the spring. He can do it. Small engine repair they got shopping back. Tell him you need one of those kneeling benches. I keep telling you about that

of Southwest Fertilizer. That's the tool. You're gonna you give that as a gift, and you just wait. People are gonna love it. They may look at it and go hmm, okay, just tell them. Don't tell them I said, it's because they're old, because as you get old, you need you need a kneeling bench more. But don't tell them that. But anyway, how about one for my sister who is significantly older than me, A fact that I like to point out to her whenever I get a chance.

things that could be done right now. I've got a couple of flower beds I'm fixing to get planted. Do you know, by the way, did you know that that means you're from Texas if you say fixing too. I didn't. I grew up saying it and I didn't know that was a thing. And until someone goes what is fixing to me? Well, it means the same thing as calling a reservoir a tank, and you all grow up doing that. It's a tank. Okay. Anyway, I'm fixing to get out

there in the flower beds and get them planted. I've got some beautiful gingers, two different kinds of ornamental ginger, and if you haven't grown ornamental ginger before, you ought to. It is a great plant. A lot of the gingers, well, there's many different species and they each have their pros and cons. The kind I'm planting is butterfly ginger Jadicium. That's the genus, and there are a couple of different

ones that I have that I'm really looking forward. I've never grown before, so I'm looking forward to getting those planted out there. They are typically a late summer bloomer, early fall, and so those need to get done. There's a lot of other plants that are just waiting on me. You know, they're in pots, and hopefully I remember to water them, keeping them alive long enough time get out there and get them planted. But I do practice what I preach in this. I'm not going to put a

plant in the ground without preparing the soil. If you want a Peter piper tongue twister is don't PLoP a plant into an unprepared plot. That is the way to remember it. Don't pop a plant into an unprepared plot. So anyway, I am getting it ready and here we go. This week's the planting week. We're going to get it done. I mentioned, you know, I was talking about south As fertilizer before we went to break. Bob is going to

provide you. I mentioned fertilizers and pesticize. What I always want to remind people is when you hear people talk about pesticides and fertilizer, organic gardeners often are like, yeah, I don't use that stuff, Well you do? You just use your organic versions of it, Okay. And when it comes to the best supply of organic products in town, the widest supply, Sophist Fertilizer is going to have it. They stock a wide selection of things that are natural

as well as synthetics in their products. So just keep that in mind. I'm going to go now to Katie, Texas, and we're going to talk to Wally. Hello, Wally, Welcome to garden Line.

cheaper rug. That stuff's amazing. Yeah, that question is. And I've got some of these are in some low depression areas and my intent is to backfield what's some new top soil, then put more augustine down sod what you know once that when you pull this stuff up, it seems like the you know, the top and that most of the roots come with it with a lot of the soil. But is there still some root systems stuck in the ground. Do I need to till that up before I put the.

or who knows what. Uh, just be ready to treat as needed.

unimproved clay. All the sod farms, we got thousands of acres of sod around Texas, and all these sod farms down on the Gulf Coast they're on basically a lot of them are on clay soil, some not, but and the sod grows just fine on pure clay. So there's not a real need to have to do major amendments to it. You just want to get the nutrition right in the soil and that's what our fertilizing does.

They'll do their best to find it. You're going to find a great selection right now really of herbs, perennials, coo season annuals, shrubs, and native plants. You know, they got those specials going on where we're talking about fifteen percent off of trees at RCW Nursery. I mean that is a good deal, right, a good deal. When you go to RCW, you're going to find everything that you need to have success in your lawn, your garden, your landscape.

That is just what they specialize in. And when you get good advice from a good nursery like RCWU are going to have success with what you do. Come out and see me next Saturday from twelve to two. Twelve to two RCW Nursery, They're going to have their fall Fling. That means we're gonna have fun. We're gonna have a barbecue lunch, we're gonna have some prizes, we're gonna have some games, and then just you and I visiting talking about plants. So we had a great time when we

go out to those kind of places. I had a great time last time I was at at RCW Nursery. I always love folks coming up. Gardeners are so enthusiastic and hopeful. And let's just kick off the rest of this fall with a good fall fling out there RCW next weekend. I want to go now to Leslie in a Missouri city. Hey, Leslie, welcome to garden Line.

like you have to fertilize right now. Wait until spring, and then when you've mowed the lawn twice, put out some fertilizer and it'll be good to go.

wider in about maybe eight inches or so deep. And then what I do to keep from hurting my back is I'll dig around a circle kind of almost like a little trench maybe eight inches deep around it, and then take a flat shovel and go underneath that and slide a tarp underneath it, and you kind of lean the plant one way, slide the tarp under, and then lean the plant the other ways. You cut roots and slide it up onto the tarp. And that way you never have to pick You never have to pick it up.

You can just grab that tarp and drag it to the new spot and slide it right into the spot. If there is an obstruction where you can't drag it. Two people grabbing the four corners of a tarp can pick something up that's quite heavy without hurting your back. You don't stoop at all.

at the proper rate, follow the bag label. Put out the barricade at the proper rate, even a little on the low end of the rate. At this point in the season you can do that. It just stays within that rate and then the Eagle Turf fungicide put it out at the proper rate, watter it all in, get it in the ground. Even that even the fungicide will be taken up by the roots of the plant and it will give you protection against weeds sprouting for fall. It will give your turf the strength that needs to

go through winter and come out strong. And it'll prevent diseases like take all root rot and like brown patch or large patch in your lawn. Now you're gonna find this type of product Night FoST Products at D and D Feed and Tombaal Plantation, Ace Hardware, and Richmond Hiding and Feed on Stubner Airline. You're going to find it at Ace Hardware and Sico Ranch, the Arborgate and Tomball and Shades of Texas down in southeast Houston on Genoa Red Bluff will also carry that. We're going to head

now to sugar Land and talk to Patty. Hello, Patty, Welcome to Guardenline.

get it, keep it watered in. And I think I think next spring you'll be back in the blooming business.

Do you need weed control? Do you need disease control? Do you need garden hoses and sprinklers and hose and shovels and rakes and everything else you could possibly want for your landscape and for your lawn. They've got it there at your local Ace Hardware store. You know, there's forty Ace Hardware stores in the Greater Houston area, so it's really easy to find yours. If you want to see a little map, kind of cool map also to find the ones near you. There may be some fairly

close you're not aware of. Go to Acehardware dot com and find the store locator and just put your zip code in there, and what you're going to see is a lot of red dots all over the place. And that's true here in Houston, of course. It's true. You got friends in Austin that need to know where an ACE Hardware is with they can use Ace Hardware Store Locator. It's all over the country, but here in the Houston area we are really fortunate to have some awesome, awesome

Ace Hardware stores. While you're there, grab if you've not put out bait for fire ants yet, get that out too, because fall is the best time to get those baits out. We say fall is football season, right, So AGR Life Extension Entomology used to have a program called tackle fire Ants in the Fall, just reminding you it's time for football season. It's time to tackle fire ants. You put a bait out and knock those things down severely. If not a removing them in your spring's gonna be a

lot better as a result of that. Nobody likes ants in the pants, that is for sure. All right, let's see where are we heading now. We're heading to Baytown to talk to Sandy. Hello Sandy, welcome to garden Line.

and everything as you can. That will not eradicate it. You're always going to have some behind that will pop up, so you just have to have to deal with that. But the alternative to that is to apply a herbicide that kills it in a way that doesn't damage of the plants, and a wiper applicator is the way to do that. Products containing trichlope here t R I C l O P y R are very effective for doing that. For doing that, if you spray will carefully, you can do it, or you can do a wiper applicator to

put it on there. Some people say that it helps to get like a weed eater, a mower or something and kind of chop it up real good and then and then spray on it that exposes some cut surfaces and things. However you want to go about it, just know you're going to be doing it again. One thing is not going to fix it all. Hey, Sandy, I'm gonna have to run to a commercial if you want to hang around and keep talking. If not, thanks, Thanks

for calling Garden Line, folks. I'll be right by. Good to be back here on guard Line with you, and we are going to jump right into the phone calls and go to Bill in Galveston. Hey, Bill, welcome to garden Line.

happy to have you take a look. If you'd like to go that route, Okay, I'll do that.

you know, just first of all, thanks for listening. I appreciate that we want to help you do that, and we do that by giving you good advice. If we can, you know, help you in some way, well then that is exactly what we would like to do. So give me a call. Seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two kt r H. Have you noticed cracks in your brick on the outside of the home or maybe cracks in the

sheet rock inside. Typically those cracks are going to start at a window corner and go down or up to the floor or ceiling, maybe a door that's sticking inside. Those are all signs of foundation movement. And you need to call fix my slab foundation repair. That's Tai Strickland's company. He's been in business for over twenty three years now, and ty knows what he's doing. I would, if I were you, I would just give him a call two eight one, two five five forty nine forty nine, have

him come out and look. Tell him you're a guardline listener. It's a free estimate for garden line listeners. And ty is not one who jumps the gun. You know, Oh, I see a tiny crack. You got to have all this foundation repair. He'll look at it and he'll tell you whether it needs it or not. You know, it's not unusual for foundations to get older to have a little movement that just welcome to the soils and climate

we live in. That happens, but at times it is something you need to jump on before it becomes a major problem. And Ti is a native Houstonian, fifth generation Texan by the way. And one thing I like about Tye is his goals are to show up on time. Oh my gosh, don't you wish every service person that came to your house showed them on time. That's one of Ty's commitments and secondly, to price it fair.

He knows how to do it, and he can advise you on all the other things about how to minimize foundation damage, things that are in your power, not in your power to do. Give him a call two eight one, two five five forty nine, forty nine. We're gonna head now to the heights and talk to Clark. Hello Clark, welcome to garden Line.

If it mine, I think i'd if there's any work to be done. You know, you got some roots sticking up above the surface. You got to kind of smooth that out and get soiled up there where you don't have roots sticking up out or low areas things. I'd get all that work done now. If you got any perennial weeds that have been giving you trouble, maybe bermuda is invading your Saint Augustine or some other weed issue, I'd take care of all that and then in the spring,

gets you some grass down. Otherwise you can plant it now. You just have to, you know, find good local source on grass. We got a number of them throughout the Greater Houston area. Here where you can get some turf and put it in is the area pretty shady.

for grass, then replant. But those shade trees, they're beautiful, and you know in the heights you got some gorgeous trees in there. But sometimes it's just the dense that lawn ceases to become an option. So that's the only caveat that I would throw out there for you to consider.

and the grass is the same way. And as that's something that is being more and more taken away, you kind of hit a point where suddenly it's going downhill and then diseases are worse and it's more susceptible to drought and other things. So anyway, just.

on hand there off the top of it. Okay, okay, good luck with you, sir, Thank you appreciate your call. Bye bye. UH Nelson Plant Food. You know, they're the ones that have the turf Star Carbolode, which is a combination of a fall fertilizer and a pre emergent that you put it down, you water it in, and you covered both bases weed prevention, so those cool season weeds

which are sprouting soon aren't able to get established. And then finally they are secondly the UH fertilizer that's an ideal blend, perfect for fall, perfect for helping your grass go into winter strong and come out strong. From Nelson Plant Food. Now they also have Neuster Star Genesis, which is what I would recommend for fertilizing new transplants in. So here's here's the way I would use that, and no way I do use that. You you wrinkles some into the potting mix of what you are going to

use to repot a plant. Okay, so you've got a plant, you're going to move it into bigger pot. This putting soil you're gonna put in there. Mix some carbel load in a carbon to no not carbon genesis, mix some genesis into it. It is a natural fertilizer loaded with microizo bacteria and other fungi that kind of helped that soil microbiome. It's not a salt based product, and so you can use it in the planting hall without burning

plant roots. In fact, it really helps if you're gonna put a rose bush in out in the garden bed, mix some genesis into that soil and then plant the rose. It just it just works. It works very very well. It comes in the jars with a screw top lid, doesn't take a lot. You're just kind of mixing it in.

So when those new roots come out, they've got some good stuff loaded with good microbes that are there to help them to thrive, and your plants just get off to a better start, much less transplant shock and issues, better early growth. All of that from neutral star genesis from Neilson Plant Food. We are going to go out to Terry Sue in the gallery and now, hey, Terry Sue, welcome to guard Line.

and then modeled it around. You would have clay with a few pieces of kitty litter in it, and that wouldn't accomplish much. But what if you put as much kitty litter as you had clay and mixed it around. Now you've got something chucky that breaks apart. It doesn't stick together so much because it's got so much of the kitty litter in it. Right, Well, expanded shale is basically like a super hot fired former clay dried material that now has big pores in it. And it works

really well. But the more you get on the soil, the better it does. And it lasts longer than organic matter because it doesn't break down like organic matter. It stays open a little bit better. Yeah, well, so that's that's the principle. There's not a magic number like you have to put this much out, but I can just tell you two or three inches as best.

to have that good effect. So, yes, their organic materials not just fine in compost, but like a chunky you know, decomposed pine bark and things like that. Mix that in as well as you can as also, and it's also very helpful. You're going to create a real good bed when you do all that.

appreciate appreciate your call very much. Folks, you've been listening to guard Line and uh I just to tell you about something. It's a little news item here before we go for the day. You know how we complain about modern tomatoes don't taste good like an old time tomato does right well. Texas A and M Research and Vegetable Improvement Center. That's a real cool place, by the way. They are in they are breeding vegetables to be healthier.

Onions with more cancer fighting corcetan and carrots that have more beta caroteene and stuff like that. Isn't that a nice change? There is a project where they got an eight point four million dollars grant from USDA, and they're

working with a number of other universities. University of Florida, Michigan State, California, Cornell, Arizona, Washington, North Carolina, University of Georgia, Oregon State, and A and m's leading the charge on this, and they are breeding tomatoes that have exceptional heat tolerance, water use, efficiency, flavor and quality as well as human health properties and disease resistance. Can't wait till that project comes to its truition. This is gonna be a long

term thing. But imagine that breeding tomatoes that are heat tolerant, that use water better, that have better flavor, and that help fight disease. They have the compounds that are naturally occurring in these tomatoes, like lycopene and a tomato that helps fight disease.

You'd be interested in hearing about it. Experts from five major tomato breeding programs are going to be part of that multi university collaboration that's going to develop these regionally adapted disease resistant water proof, water use efficient, heat tolerant, nutrient rich to mate us that's good news, all right. Thanks for listening to the Guardenline. Next Saturday, I will be at RCW Nursery for the Fall f Lin from twelve to two. Barbecue, prizes, games, and you and me visiting.

Come on out. I can't wait to see at RCW next Saturday