House Plant Focus

Katie r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skip Richter's show Crazy Guys Trim. Just watch him as got us so many get dasyasked, we're not a salad credit. Well, good morning on a good Saturday. We're looking forward to talking gardening today with you. We're glad you're listening. Thanks for tuning in. By the way, if you got some gardening

questions and would like to give us a call, our phone number. My phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. What do you want to talk about? I'm going to talk a little bit about house plants this morning. I'm going to talk a little bit about lawns. Again, believe it or not, it's still a season to say a few things about lawns. Of course, with the holidays upon us, a lot of people's brains are heading

off in that direction, and that's certainly understandable. I'll talk a little bit about some Christmas gifting that might be on folks in your list. If you're getting gifts for any holiday huh hanikah, any kind of holiday that you would want to be giving gifts for. Horticulture. Gardening has a lot of great, great ideas and I'll talk about that a little bit more as we as

we get on into the show today. I want to just start off by discussing the the lawns that are out there outside the door that we have been I don't know, probably ignoring a little bit in these last few weeks. It is getting a little bit late to do. You a lot of major stuff to the lawns. But you know, if you haven't done your fertilizing, it's always a good time to do that. If you haven't. If you've got leaves fall on the on top of the lawn, gohead and get

those raked up. You know, not to get done the next day, of course, but to leave them there for several weeks is not good. And here's why. The leaves block sunlight. And you know we most the soil so we don't come up right block the sun from reaching the foliage of a germinating weed and you kill the weed well your lawn on mild days like we've been having and we will continue to have in spells through the winter.

Your lawn is taking in sunlight, making carbohydrates and getting stronger and stronger, are maintaining its strength, at least going into the winter and then coming out of the winter. So get the leaves off, get them raked off, do not throw them away. They are valuable three fourths or more of the nutrients that tree took up during the year or in those leaves, lots of carbon in the wood, the trunk, the branches, those kinds of things.

But when you get out to the leaves, we're talking about a lot of the things we call fertilizer and phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, all that kind of stuff, and micro nutrients. They're all there. So chop them up with your lawn, mowrp, use them as malts, make compost out of them, whatever you want to do. Some people will even mult them right back into the lawn. You can do that if you want to do that. I wouldn't do a ton of it, a lot, but you

certainly can't. I've done it before, but they're just too valuable. I generally don't MultiMate of the yard. I save them, make molts, make composts and other things. That is a free organic fertilizer for your lown. It really is. I mean, think about what fertilizes the forest. How does the forest grow without anybody running through their fertilizing well, aside from a little parrot poop here and there, we've got tree leaves on the ground that

is recycling those nutrients and sending them back through. Now, we in our gardening will add fertilizer because we want more than just mediocre survival. We want we want them to thrive at the top level in our lawns. But when you take organic matter out of your landscape, whether it's grass clippings or tree

leaves, you are renting fertilizer the words you're buying it. You're growing grass, blades and tree leaves and other things with it, and then you're chopping those off, putting into a bag and paying somebody to holler it away. We're going to head straight out to sugar Land right now and talk to Michael. Hell Michael, good morning, Skip, Hope everything is fine in your world. Listen, I got a problem and I'm hoping you can answer some questions. All right, I've got a tree. I'm not sure what type

of tree is that? I've done a little bit search it not nothing to help me. This thing is roping acorns all over my driveway and I mean tons of them. It's never done that before. Is this some sign of the tree is suffering of some sort of what can I do to I'm doing it? Yeah? No, it's just part of nature. That's called the heavy mast year m ast. It means the oak trees are putting on a heavy crop of acorns, and we've had a lot of of that this year,

not just here in Houston area but around Texas. Uh. And it's part of it is the cycles. Some oak trees go through a one year a two year cycle as to when they have their heavier crops of acorns. But then also the genetics, the weather, a lot of other things factor in and it just happens. And for people that have them all over the place, it's an annoyance, but there's really nothing to do about it, and it's not a sign that the tree is dying. Yeah. I had

looked up a little bit. It said that the weather could sometimes cause it, and I was wanting to maybe the heat the way we went through it, but I mean there, Yeah, they're just so they may fall on the concrete that they stain. Yes, I guess it's something I go through, all right, man, Yeah, that that happens. There's a lot of tannins in acrons. Tannins are well, you hear about people tanning like a cattle hide or something like that. Those tannins are it's a it's a

thing. If you ever picked a pecan up and it just still had the green chuck on it and got it on your hands, you have brown stains all over your hands from that pecan truck the green they're leaving wine stains, you know when you keep on them all all over this, all over the concrete are Yeah, somebody, it'll kind of go away. But you could also, you know, you could put some something on there if you wanted to later. But let's get through all of this and get it all out

of the way because there's probably fe more to still drop. Thanks for your advice, man, you have a great weekend, all right, So thank you. I appreciate your call very much. Hey, if you're doing any fall planting, any fall planting, I'm talking about perennial herbs, flowers, vegetables. Yeah, it's still time to plant vegetable garden trees and shrubs and ornamental grass, all of that you need to get a hold of. Some

has to grow. That's a six twelve six has to grow. It's got seaweed extract, it's got Medina soil activator in it, it's got humic acid in it. And plus it has a six percent nititigen, twelve percent phosphorus, six percent potassium. And water your plants in with that. Mix it up according to the label. Put it in a water and can when you plant, water and in with the has to grow, and it will help them get off to a good start. And don't just do it once.

Do it again a week later, and again a week after that, three times. Apply that in a good soaking water and get those roots going and establishing, and you just end up with a better plant, not just in the long run, but even in the short run. It establishes better, it takes off better. And that's our whole reason for taking advantage of this great false season for planting, is to get things established and has to grow by Medina. We'll do it. We'll do exactly that I was talking earlier

about. You know the importance of taking care of the lawns getting the leaves off and whatnot. And I'm going to come back and talk a little bit more about lawns and a little bit. I will give you a phone number here if you would like to give us a call. We're gonna take a little quick break seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. When I come back, Rick, you will be the first up. Welcome back to Guarden Line. Glad you're listening this morning. We're here to talk about

gardening the things that are of interest to you. Now. The holiday season is upon us, and I know that I talk about ACE all the time because ACE is a place to get everything you need for your lawn. If you need fertilizer, if you need pesticide, fungicide, herbicides, tools, water hoses, outdoor bling, maybe a string of lights for that backpadio. They've got it all out there. That's Ace. But did you know ACE

is also the place for Christmas lighting. That's right. They've got the indoor light sets, the outdoor light sets, different colors, sizes, and shapes. If you can imagine it, they've got it at ACE. But they also have something called custom lights. By the foot you need to go into an Ace Hardware and ask them to show you the deal custom lights by the foot. That is a really great idea. In other words, you got a little section on your mantle there, and you need a light about that

long and a certain type. Why not build it to fit. That's what we're talking about. They'll tell you more about it. You'll see what I'm talking about. Do you need some garlanded, a wreath for the front door? All of that and more as at Ace Hardware and Ace Hardware's are all over the place. Forty now in the greater Houston area. Go to Ace Hardware dot com, look at their store locator and find the one closest to you. It's as simple as that. We're gonna head out now to Huffman

and talk to Rick. Hello, Rick, Yes, sir, how you doing. I'm good, sir. What's up with Huffman? Uh? The same old, same old. I was wondering about. I got some grass birds. I was wondering if the business easy way to get rid of them, or if there is a way to get rid of them. And we are talking about grass birds, not some other kind of plant with thorny seeds, right now, grass bird? Okay, all right? They germinate when the weather warms up a little bit in the in the early early spring.

So when we get to about mid February, you're gonna want to have a pre emergent herbicide down on the surface of the soil and it and water it in and then when the weeds went the graspur seeds try to germinate that herbicides there and it doesn't let them establish and grow into plants. It kills them. And so but you got to get Germany. That's why we say mid

February. But if you go online to my website is gardening with skip dot Com, I've got a lawn pest, disease and weed management schedule and tells you exactly when to put it on and it even gives you a list of products. Alrighty sir. And one more quick question. Hey, I got a dead pine tree. What's the Hell's the longest time I could wait for? Get got to get a job down. Well, it's you know,

for a couple of months probably. Yeah, the sooner the better. The bark starts popping off of these things pretty quick, and nobody wants to go climb them. If this is one they can just drop if they got room to drop it, that's one thing. But if they're gonna have to climb it and take it down from the top, yeah, they're gonna have to climb and take it down from the top. I would, I would, I would call someone pretty quick. You probably want to give Mark Martin Spoon

more Martin Spoon, Yeah, affordable Tree. Give him a call because, uh, that is that is not something you want to mess with. Okay, alrighty, I sure appreciate jimpul sir, Thank you, you bet, thank you. Do you need a number for that, by the way, yeah, yeah, yeah, just just just in case our guy's name man, just a number, Yeah, you give me a number, all right. It is seven one, three, six nine, twenty six, twenty six, sixty three and sixty three. The website is a fftree service dot

com. Go ahead and give him a call soon. Uh, even if you're not gonna have the work done right away, but make sure you get on the schedule. But tell him what you got and he'll he'll he'll he'll give you the straight on it. All right. Sure, I sure appreciate jimpo. All right, thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you for that call. All right, I'm having trouble finding the buttons on my computer

here. Uh. If if you're out in the Kingwood area, you know you got Kingwood Garden Center and warren Southern Garden there, and there's always stuff to see there. There's always stuff right now, I think one of the coolest things. First of all, the gift shops are awesome, you know, and this is the season for gifting, so you're gonna you're gonna do well finding a nice gift. Even plants. I think plants. Houseplants are one of the best gifts you can give because they brighten up the room instantly.

They look good right away. If you want something with color, Warrens has got their ethereums out there. They got the pink and kind of a reddish orange and red and different colors of the little spaths coming up. That's that's it looks like a leaf, a colored leaf, but it's up at the top. It's the equivalent of the bloom structure. They're beautiful. Of course, there's holiday cactus and points that is, and all those kinds of

things for holidays. You know, everybody's out looking at the Christmas trees and everything else. But think about too when you're out there at Warrens, think about the different color plants for the landscape, because this is still a good time to create some color. Maybe families coming over for the holidays get you some color out there. Maybe some violas or pansies or a lissom or stock or there's just a lot of good options for the cool season, both at

Warren's and at Kingwood Garden Center out there in Kingwood. So don't don't miss out on that great, super great opportunity. You are listening to garden Line, I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to answer gardening questions. That's what it's about. Give us a call at seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. I was it's been a while since I've been out to visit with Wes out at League City Feed. I need to get back down there.

Last time I went. I just I always like going because it's that old time feed store that I don't know. It's just you walk in and it just has that that feel of a feed sour. It's been around a long time. This one's been around for forty years and it's started in an Ochre patch down there in West and his sister Madison now run the place that their dad started. It's on Highway through a few blocks south of ninety six. So do you need quality feeds, of course they got them. It's a

feed store. Do you need fertilizers that I recommend on guarden line, Yes, they got that. Pesticides it's exercise fundicides. They've got all of that kind of stuff. They always are making sure you are served well. They carry the feed sacks out for you. It makes it easy. You know, they're open Monday through Saturday, nine to six Clothesland Sunday. But you get through with work one day and you just want to head by there. They're still open. You can pick up everything that you're going to need.

They even have local honey out there, which also I think would make a nice little gift for somebody. So check them out at League City Feed. Their phone number is two eight one three three two sixteen twelve. So all of you folks out there in Webster and Lamark and Dickinson and clear Lake City, League City, all of those areas, this is your hometown feed store. League City Feed. I like going in there. They have a dalmatian and guess what his name is, Rorshak. So you stare at the dog

and a psychiatrist ask you what you see. That's a great name for a dalmatian, Rorshak. I gotta go ahead and see Rorshaks when you're out there. Well, I was talking about taking care of your lawn, to make sure you get the leaves off of the lawn, anything that you need to do to get your lawn ready for the cool season. That includes things like fertilizing. And you can go ahead and still do that. You know, the sooner you do it the better. If you look at my schedule,

I've got you doing it, you know, back in October. But does that mean you can't do it now. No, No, you can still do it now. Just get it done. You get the greatest benefit by doing it earlier on. But you still get a benefit because, as I said about raking leaves off the lawn, the grass is still taking in some sunlight and therefore able to take up some nutrients and make carbohydrates and get stronger and stronger and stronger. And that's what we're aiming for when we do this.

That is exactly what we're aiming for and you know the folks at Nelson's Plant Food, Dean Nelson, they have got a really nice fertilizer for fall and it's called carbol Load carbo Load, and the reason for that is you put it down, you get the right ratio of nutrients with fall fertilizers different than spring and summer fertilizer. You get the fall ratio of nutrients. You get it in the plant. The plant makes carbohydrates, it's more winter hardy

and it comes out stronger in the spring. Carboload also has a pre emergent herbicide in it, so if you get it down and watered in any weeds that have not germinated that any seeds that are there, it's going to prevent those and carry on really in through the winter. Really well, it lasts a little while and that's what you want. And carbo Load for every bag that they sell this fall, you're going to get a two dollars donation made

to Randy Lemon's More Scholarship. That's what Dean and the folks that Nelson's are doing. And that is a wonderful cause. As if you knew Randy knew how much he loved a and m and how proud he would be to know that his memory lives on, his legacy lives on in that scholarship. So two dollars per bag, So grab some have it on hand, use it, go ahead and get it done. Don't delay when you put it down.

Watered in with half an inch of water. And the reason we do that is to dissolve the nutrients and get him in the soil because remember we're not delaying here. We want to get him in today if we can, or tomorrow or as soon as possible. And secondly, you're moving the pre emergent herbicide into the soil surface when you watered in with a half inch of water. Also, and that way it's set up there. When any weed tries to come through, it shuts it down. It prevents the weed seed

germination. That's what we're going for with the quality product from Nelson Plant Food. We are going to talk about a number of things. I was mentioning how plants earlier, and I just I would like you to think about you. What is your indoor room areas? What do they look like? Just kind of picture your living room, picture a kitchen area or a bathroom area. By the way, bathrooms one of the best place to put house plants. It though often you have a nice little light coming through a window.

You have an area that tends to get steamy or high humidity, you know, just from bathing bathing and showers and things, and it's really a good spot if you got enough light, it's a great spot for plants. But think about those areas. What do you need? We put some hangers in above a bathroom window. We have all those big kind of glass block type windows, and that kind of window provides a diffusion of the light and it's really good for plants. By the way, we put some hangers in,

put some hanging baskets in. I just put some in the other day. I say hanging baskets are actually containers a little macro may hangers. But it's really beautiful in there. And what about other rooms? Do you need a very upright like a Norfolk column pine? Those are always nice to decorate during the holidays. Do you need a fiddly fig or some other plant? There's a lot of good houseplants. Where in your house would you benefit from one

of those? And if you're going to give a gift plant, consider one called the z z plant like zebra twice zz zz plant is tolerant of a variety of lights. You let it dry out really good between waterings and it just does well. So if you forget to water and it's not the end of the world. It's a good, tough plant. It's a great gift plant. And chances are people you know don't already have one. It's not like Apotheus ivy that everybody owns, but that would be another good idea for

a gift plant that you might want to consider. Well, we're hitting the end of a segment here. We're going to go to Nikky for the news that if you'd like to give us a call, Josh, we'll get you on the board seven to one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two K t R H will be right back. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and you are listening to a show that's about what you want to talk about regarding gardening.

You can give us a call at seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I want to congratulate the folks that plants for All Seasons. They are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. I don't know if you've been by there recently, but you need to go check it out. That fifty years right there where Luetta comes into Highway two forty nine Tomball Parkway, just north of Luetta, as you're going

up north toward Tomball, it would be on the right hand side. And they've been there a long time. You know. It started selling Christmas trees just basically young men selling Christmas trees had a family on the way and looking to get going on supply or providing for his family. That was back in nineteen seventy three. Now at this point in time, now we're looking at a place that's got everything you need. I mean, you've been in there,

you know it. I think one of the best things about Plants for All Seasons is that when you go in there, you know you're going to find quality plants in top shape that belong here, that grow well here, and you're going to find a group of folks that know what they're talking about.

So when you go in with a question, maybe it's a bug or a plant you want identified, or a problem you want to they're gonna be able to help you with that, and they're gonna be able to point you to the right product or the right plants to fit a particular spot in your landscape or a particular need that you have. Check out the point sets too, by the way, they're that unbelievably beautiful selection of some points sets. There at Plants for All Seasons. It's just just north of Luetta Road again

on Highway two forty nine. Check out their website Plants for All Seasons dot com. And when you're in there, say hey, happy fiftieth anniversary. That's quite an accomplishment. When it got started was basically a goat trail through the woods up there. I mean, it was not much to it. When you look at the old pictures, I think that's pretty cool. They've grown with the community, and the community knows and the community respects them,

and that's why people love to go to Plants for All Seasons. I've been talking about things to do in the garden or in the lawn. I want to talk a little bit about the garden too. This is an important time in your flower beds and in your vegetable gardens, because now it's a good time to be providing the nutrients that those plants need to make sure they stay

strong and healthy as they go into the cool season. For example, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, lettuce and spinach takes nutrients to grow that foliage, and providing some fertilizer to give them a boost to get them going is helpful. You don't need to dump a lot on there. Go gradually move into it slowly, but providing a little gradual feeding over time helps maintain good vigor and good health and production. Most of the things we're growing to eat

right now in the cool season garden, we're growing for the foliage. Now, there are some that we grow for the flower buds, like broccoli and cauliflower for example. There are other things we grow the for the fruit, and in this case, like cool season peas, we grow for the fruit themselves. Anytimes it's a bean or a pea any year, I mean any

month of the year. You want to be careful not to overdo the nitrogen because they make their own nitrogen in association with microbes on their roots, So when you push them with a lot of nitrogen, you get vining at the expense of fruiting, and we grow cool season peas, sugar snap peas, now peas of those things we've grown for the fruit, for the pods, and so just go a little light on those for everything else. You just

want to push them along with regular applications of a good quality nitrogen. There's a lot of good products out there that can do that. One product that I think you'll find to be very effective is Microlife Microlife fertilizer. They've been you know, I've been using Microlife for a good while now on my lawns, my gardens and other things. But if you get you any of the

quality Microlife products, it's gonna go well in your gardens. It is I mean, you could even use the brown patch for lawns in your gardens. To be honest, I mean, it's not a chemical in there to kill brown patch. It is a microbe rich fertilizer and organic fertilizer. To do that, you could use a green bag. You could use I probably if it were me, I would use the blue bag. I like to say the Blue plus Blue. There's a Microlife Ultimate that is a blue bag.

It's a dry granular fertilizer, organic fertilizer. And then with that is the Microlife Ocean Harvest that's the Blue bottle that is a fish based food. Those two, whether it's a flower bed of a vegetable garden, an herb garden, those two will provide a really good boost. The Blue plus Blue Microlife Ultimate that's an eight four six and the Microlife Ocean Harvest, which is a fish based fertilizer. You can use it is a folier feed if you want.

But they work, They work very very well. Well you're listening to Gardenline. Our phone number is seven to one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Give Josh a call. Let's talk about the things that you are interested in today. I was talking about house plants while ago, and some some good ones. I mentioned the zz plant is a great gift plant, and theoreums are too. I find in theorems a little bit more of a challenge to keep going.

Uh. But you know, we we purchase plants for decorating indoors all the time that we typically don't keep you around, although we could like a point SETA for example, Christmas cactus I think is a great one because you do keep it year round. But even in theoreums, if you provide them just the moderate care meaning good dependent so soul moisture without keeping them soggy wet

and their container, give them adequate life. They don't need full sun for sure, but they do need adequate light, a very bright light location, and they're going to do really well for you. And I just think indoor plants, in addition to being a good gift plant, they change your home.

They change the environment in your home. We had doctor Charlie Hall on the other day, and doctor Hall does research into the effects of plants and people, the effects of nature and people and the change in everything from blood pressure to mental acuity to he just listed on and on down the line all the things plants do for us physically, psychologically, mentally in general our sense of well being and so on. Put those in your house. Put them

in your house. People talk about putting plants in your house to make oxygen. Well, yes, plants make oxygen, but you're not going to appreciably change the oxygen level in your house with a few plants. Still a good reason to plant plants, But mentally, the effect of being in nature, of being able to see living plants, it really does affect a wide variety of things, including well being. So what about that corner. I have a corner that's a little too dark. It's a window, but it's not

a very bright window. And so we bought one of those tall lamps that's a standing lamp, you know, that has kind of an elbow. It's kind of like a Gooseneck lamp, but a big giant one. And we put a light in it that's a plant light, a nice bright plant light bulb raised it up all the way. I've got a Norfolk olumn pine in that corner and it shines on it. I have it on a timer, so it comes on and goes off and I never have to worry about turning it on. It's on through the day most of the day, and it

supplements and it helps that plant do well. And that plant is thriving there. And that corner now, which was just a lifeless place, now suddenly has a living plant in it. And that's what I'm talking about. And I would encourage you to think about that, whether it buying for a gift or buying just for your own home, because you're going to be having folks over holiday of activities and things. Why not go ahead now and get some plant and beautify those areas. We're going to take a break. Our phone

number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Will be right back. Welcome back to garden Line. Hey, we're glad you're listening today. We're going to talk about gardening. Whatever you're interested in. Give us a call seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Listen. I've been telling you all fall that fall is the best time to plant woody ornamentals. That would be trees and shrubs and woody vines. Verdant Tree Farm v E R d A n T. Treefarm dot com. Verdant Treefarm

dot com. They've got trees. They have a wide variety of trees. Everything that you would want to plant here that's going to be a high quality tree, even really large things, you know, like large hollies, shrubs and things. They've got that. You want a giant tree up to seven hundred gallons, they can do that for that instant pizaz. You can find

them on in West Houston out there on Barker Cypress. Then they're done in Paerland on Broadway Street, kind of close to Killin's Steakhouse and they're up in the Heights A ten and Yale area. They've got a verdant there as well. Now you go on the lot, you tag the tree you want, they bring it and they plant it correctly. And that is very important,

very very important. Tempers that discount for military and first responders. And if they do the installation for you, they give you a one year warranty as well. Again Verdant treefarm dot com check them out. Don't delay. The sooner you get a tree planted, the better off it's going to be when next summer arrives, and the sooner you're going to be on your way. Let's just say to hanging a hammock out there and enjoying yourself. We're going

to go now out to sugar Land and talk to Larry. Hello, Larry, good morning morning. I've got several hibiscus plants in the pots and I'm wondering they're they're all very full. Should I be trimming those back right now? Are these the tropical types of hibiscus or the perennial or the plate or the flowers as big as a dinner plate in red, pink or white? Or are they multicolored and flowers. They're not dinner plate size, no,

but yeah, you're probably talking about a tropical biscus. Then you can cut them back. One thing about pruning is it stimulates growth. So if we have some warmer temperatures and you do some pruning, you're going to have them try to regrow. And they're not a hearty species, so we want to I probably would avoid pruning them unless you have to to get them into a protected area. You know, some people have a little greenhouse they got to

fit them into or something. You can prune for that. But otherwise I would wait until spring and do the pruning at that time. Okay, okay, very good, Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Welcome, welcome to you. It's first time I've ever called. Well, thank you. I appreciate you calling. Larry. Don't don't be a stranger call us

back. Thanks for the call very much. If you are interested in a generator, and I know some of you are, you know I've if you've been sitting there going you know, we one of these days we need to get a generator. You usually think that when the power goes out, you know, our grid is not that reliable at times, especially when we get into cold weather. We went through that already once before. It can be

true in the heat or true with a storm. Well, the folks at Quality Home Products or they're the ones you need to know for a generator. And here's why they sell generat an awesome generator. They can get you all set up with that, but it's the service. A lot of people will sell you a generator, but who sits down with you and make sure you get the one that accomplishes what you want? What do you need to protect? Do you need internet all the time for the business you're running? Do

you need just to protect that freezer? And when it power goes out you want to lose your food. They have all kinds of generators, but they walk you through it. They deal with all the things of the you know, the homeowners says, siation and the city ordinances and things and putting something like that in. They put the pad down for you. They walk you through the process and after the sale, they stick with you and you can have them come out a couple times a year to make sure things are running.

Because these things pop on when the power goes off, you could be in timbuck Ti. When your power goes off, your generator comes on and it protects your home and you want to make sure it's in top order. And that's what Quality Home Products is all about. They have a holiday blowout ten percent off up to twenty five hundred dollars off for new generator customers only.

It can't be combined with other promo details. But if you're a new customer, up to twenty five hundred off, ten percent off all the way through the rest of this month to the end of the year. Now the Quality TX dot com. That's the website, QUALITYTX dot com. The phone number seven to one three Quality seven one three Quality. There is a reason why they have won the Better Business Bureau Award. I think it's eight or nine times now. It is amazing how many times they've been awarded the highest

most prestigious award that's given for customer service. That's why I like to recommend that we're going to go now out to Dayton and talk to Steve. Hello, Steve, hey, ship Hey, I got a question about growing squash, and more so winter squash rather than summer squash. I you know, the plants start off great and then the leaves just start to will it look like they are drying up. Okay, I get some fruit, not a lot of fruit, But then like right now, I mean, all my

plants are potentially dad. There is some young growth coming off, but it's just not really making any bag. So I'm kind of curious what might be going on. Yeah, Well, when you get to the end of the season. Even though the name winter squash is in the name, it's not a winter plant for sure. It's just we call them winter squash because the fruit on those types store well, like a pumpkin. You can put it out there, and that's a type of winter squash. It stores a long

time the summers. We eat when they're immature squash. But what you're describing on the leaves sounds to me like it could be powdery mildew, and there are some other leaf diseases that cause the leaves to just not look good and then they shrivel up and die. Sometimes you see a white, powdery growth on them. Sometimes you don't because it's other things. But that's just part of you know, the plant going through its season. Winter squash take a

long time. Unlike zucchini and yellow squash. It may take you, you know, three months to get some fruit off of those things, or at least seventy days. And so that's also some older leaves that are having trouble. I would say a little bit of fertilizer for vigor to make sure you have new leaf growth coming. That's important because even if the old leaves are to look ragged, you've got some fresh leaves out there that are capturing sun

to put all those carbohydrates into the fruit you're wanting to harvest. Yeah, I use the microlife. I mean that stuff does wonders. The summer squash grow great. I mean I have blossom in right, yeah occasionally, but I mean I get a good amount of fruit off right. But the winter squash, and actually they produce really quick. I mean I'm doing like a butter nut huh and an acorn. Yeah, and they put on fruit pretty

quick. It's just the all of the fruit doesn't get large. I mean it gets various sizes, but the plant it just acts like it gives up. Okay, well that those are fast for the winter squashes, butternut and acorn. You know, Larry, I guess what I need or Steve, I'm sorry, what I need? To see is some photos of it. Now at this time of year, squash leaves should be looking horrible right now,

just with where we are in the season. Definitely do Yeah, but if you're having the earlier on, if you can send me a photo, I can look at it and say, well, this is the disease or this is what's happening. Uh, it's going to be something like that. You can use fungicides on the leaves to you know, help protect them, but that you know, that's about what I would have to say about it. Yeah, try various various bone eye products to spray on it. Yeah,

nothing seems to be very effective. And I also put mouth on it. I just said, yeah, well I've got to I've got to run for a break here. But when this happens, let me see some photos and let's see it early in the process, because that's when we can do the most to help protect those plants. Okay, okay, great show, all right, thank you sir, and and I do look forward to talking to you again and getting to the bottom of this. We are we are here breaking for the news at the top of the hour. Boy, that

hour went fast. Hey, guess what at a clock Paul Fagala from b Supply, Texas B Supply is going to be in and we're going to be talking about bees. Now, if you've thought about being a bee keeper, if you're curious, if you just have questions about bees, we're talking about an encyclopedia of information on two legs coming into the studio. And so I hope you will give us a call. That's not next hour. That's the

eight o'clock, eight to nine o'clock hour. We're gonna have Paul. I believe he's bringing some folks with him here to talk about all kinds of things related to bees that I think you will find very fascinating and interesting. So if you've got a call like that, that's for the eight to nine hour. In the meantime, we're going to get out of here and we'll be back for the seven o'clock hour seven one three, two, one two fifty eight seventy four. Give Josh a call. We'll get you on the boards.

Katrh Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to Kate the r H Garden Line with Skip Ricter. It's just watching as many things to see not a side. Well, welcome back to Garden Line. We're glad you're listening, and we've got a lot to talk about today. I been going over some of the different types of plants and areas and what we might need to be doing right now,

giving some ideas perhaps for holiday decorating, holiday gift giving. Will continue to do a little bit about that. I just want to remind you that if you are in the Baytown area, the Mont Belleview area, your hometown feed store is Texas Feed Stop. Texas feed Stop is It's the kind of place you go in and they treat you like family when you walk in the door. That's just the kind of business that Brian and Hope Rhodes have built there,

hiring teenagers from the community. They're supporters of their community. They can still carry the bags out for you. I mean, remember the days when there was service like that. People would carry your feed sacks or whatever out used to be groceries. That's a while back when people actually carry the groceries out for you. But you know what I'm talking about, it's that kind of feel that feedstore. When you go in there, you're going to find

ever fertilizer I talk about. If you need a disease, pest, weed control product, they've got it. If you need supplies for hunting, it's hunting season coming out, and boy are they ever stocked up on everything you need there, in addition to all the quality feeds you know, and the other items. Maybe you heard me talk about mosquito dunks or something along those lines, Well, they've got that kind of stuff there. They make sure

they stock up with the stuff you need. They are on Highway one forty six, just a few minutes north of I ten, So if you head up one forty six from MY ten to the north, they're on the right hand side. Good customer service. Texas feed Stop your hometown feedstore both mot Bellevue as well as the Baytown area. I always like going in there. It's just a, i don't know, just a fun place. I enjoy looking around all the different things they carry in them in Texas fe Stop Man

getting to visit with Brian in Hope as well. If you're looking for, you know, a quality gift, something maybe that someone doesn't have, you know, what do you what do you give somebody who already seems to already have everything. You know that kind of you know that kind of problem. I know I deal with that. I deal with that all the time. And it's like, what do you do? How do you you know, how do you give somebody like that? Well, I'll tell you one thing.

You give them something from Wallbird's Unlimited. That is something I bet they don't have. It is the perfect place for a gift for any nature lover on your list. Lots of great items for Christmas and everything. You know. A quality bird feeder that is just here's of enjoyment. And they have quality ones, not cheap old things are going to fall apart. Quality bird feeders. I have a squirrel excluding feeder. You need to see one of

those. They are really really cool. Every kind of feeder you can imagine, platform feeders, thistle feeders, every kind of feed you can imagine. Quality bird seed, quality bird seed. It doesn't end up on the ground being kicked out because it's full of those red bebies like cheap bird seed is. Now, this is quality seat. You get what you pay for. That is exactly what I'm saying. Do you need books on birding? Do you need any kind of accessories decorations even for the home, related to that.

That's all at Wildbird's Unlimited. And while Birds Unlimited there are stores all over the Greater Houstonario. It's really easy to find to Wildbirds near you. You just go to WBU dot com forward slash Houston, WBU dot Com forward Slash Houston. It's as easy as that. I mean, whether you're in Cyprus, Memorial or Katie or bel Air or Pairline or Kingwood or clear Lake, there's Wildbirds Unlimited everywhere, super convenient and trust me on this one,

you will find the perfect Christmas gift. I don't care who it is out there at Wallbirds Unlimited. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. For those of you out in the Richmond area, enchanted forest is just loaded with cool season color right now. I mean the pansies, for example, yellows and blues and whites and scarlets and purples, every color you can imagine.

Do you want to build a beautiful color container. They've got They've got the flowers for that. Do you want to plant a beautiful flower bed to really spruce up that place before people start showing up for the holidays. They've got that. Do you need some micro Life Ultimate I was talking about that one earlier, the blue bag, Or do you need some color Star,

They've got that to help create a beautiful show through the winter. You know, you got to keep feeding those flowers to get the vigor in the plant to keep the blooms coming. Do you need gifts for gardeners, for nature lovers, anybody that just wants to add a little whimsy in their lives. You have to go into their gift shop there at Enchanted Forest and see the things. They have. Lots of cool stuff. I mean, even things like just a jar of local honey, maybe a cast stone, a statue

or a bird bath. It's just whoever's hard to buy for on your list, you're gonna find it there. And if nothing else, just get them an Enchanted Nurseryes gift card. I mean, it's as simple as that. Then they can go buy whatever they want. And at Enchanted Forest you are going to absolutely find everything you need. By the way, it's still time to play at the herbs, and boy do they have selection cool season color

vegetables all out there at Enchanted Forests. If you haven't been before. If you're in Richmond heading up toward sugar Land Way, it's off to the right that is enchanted forest and there they're not hard to find. They are your local hometown, your hometown garden center out in that area, and it's always fun to wander through and check them out. You are listening to garden Line and I'm your host, Skip Richter, So tell me what you want to

talk about. We'll visit about that. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. In fact, I'm going to jump right over to talk to Jim here. Jim out in Meadows Place. How are you doing? Do it fine? Skip? A quick question for you. I gone through all the processes. I started out with some eagle funge aside for some brown patch. Then I'll through the three step got everything down, including some azemite barricade.

Did the fertilizers. My question is my yard seems to be doing fairly well right now. My question is with the carboloads, you should or would an application of carboloade helper? Well? You recommend it now or not? Well, it's a good fertilizer. But if you've done the three step, you've already done Nitrophossi's Fall Special, which is a fertilizer, and the barricade which is the preventative for weeds, so you don't need to come back and

also put more preventative and fertilizer down in the carboload. You just hold on to that. You've gotten it done, so don't overdo it. You always want to when you use these weed preventative, the pre emergence, you never want to overdo them. You want to follow the label carefully because overdoing them can create problems to Okay, well that's what I needed to know. Appreciate comments all right, simple as that. Thanks for the call, Jim.

I appreciate that you take care into garden Line seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I'm gonna take a little break and be right back. Well, good morning. I think you probably have already woken up if you're listening to this gardening show. Hey, welcome to garden Line. Let's talk about things that you're interested in at seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Seven one three two one two five eight seven four.

If you are noticing a crack in your sheet rock or a crack in the brick as you walk around the outside of your house, and you check that out periodically, by the way, see what's going on. If you see that, that is a sign that you may be dealing with some significant foundation problems. And I know we don't want to face that, but don't put it off. It doesn't get better. It does get worse. It absolutely does. And the sooner you deal with things, the better off you're going

to be. And fix my slab foundation repair. That's Ty Strickland's place. Fix my slab foundation repair. They've got you covered. You can go to the website fixmyslab dot com, Fix myslab dot com, or call them two eight one two FI five forty nine forty nine. Tie has been doing this for twenty three years. He gives free estimates for garden line listeners. He gives you a fair price, he shows up on time, and the same thing, by the way, for the foundation, goes for your sidewalk and

your driveway. He can fix all of that. They they're on time, their price is fair and they fix it right at fix myslab Fix myslab dot com two eight one two FI five forty nine, forty nine. I know we don't want to face those things, but if you're seeing those cracks, don't put them off. Go ahead and have them come over and look at it and see what's going on and see what they can do. That is

very important. You know, service service companies are well, there's a lot of them out there, but ones that provide service are few and far between. And I'm always excited when we get to talk about a quality service company here on guard Line. And by the way we do pick and choose our sponsors. We don't just take somebody because they show up with the checkbook.

We got to believe in them. I've got to believe in them. I've got to believe that they do a good job, They follow through, they do the work they say they're going to do, and that enables me to brag on them. Because you've had people out before, You've hired people, or you've called people who said, well, we'll show up on Saturday sometime block your whole day and who knows if we get there or not. I hate that. I can't stand that You've had people that don't clean up,

they're not courteous, they don't do good work. That is not the kind of sponsor I'm going to have on guard line. It's just not And that's why, for example, Scott McGrath just like fix my slab. Scott McGrath is another example of that. Scott shows up when he says he schedules a time, not a half a day or a day where you're supposed to sit around. It's been doing this. The company's been going now for almost fifty years, since Scott's dad started in nineteen seventy four. Still family run,

highly highly rated because of the service that they give. The owner actually gets involved in day to day operations and is accessible to the customers. Scott serves a whole Houston area with Scott. It's modern technology and techniques combined with old fashioned customer service. You can go to mechgrathpestcontrol dot com or give Scott a call two eight one four six nine eighty two forty. The holidays are coming. They need to get out there. You don't want Grandma is sitting there

while some cockroach runs across the floor for cride out loud. Oh and by the way, in the winter season, that's when we deal with the varmints up in the attic and other things. And yes, whether it's six legs, eight legs or four legs, Scott can handle it at McGrath Pest Control. That is for sure. You're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number is seven to one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.

I just want to remind you that my schedules are online for you to take a look at, and I would hope you print out. In fact, if you've got family over for the holidays, tell them about garden Line and tell them about the lawn care schedules. They cover this whole area, this whole southeast region of the state. You can find my lawn care schedule. It talks about fertilizing, mowing, watering, supplemental minerals, aeration of the soil and whatnot. That's all on the lawn care schedule. You can

also find the lawn pest disease and weed management schedule. So do you want to know when chinchbugs or sid webworms are likely to occur? Do you want to know what to use on them? Do you want to know what's an organic option, what's a synthetic option. All of that are all my schedules, and they're free. They're right, they're free. You can't beat that

at skip Gardening with skip dot com. Gardening with skip dot com. I don't know, this is a little presumptuous of me, but why not print a couple of them out and have available out of it, maybe a stocking stuff or you know, if you rolled it up, it'd kind of hold the stocking open a little bit so you could get candy in there. Okay, I'm going I on, am. Hey, it's valuable stuff. Take

advantage of a chair with your friends, a chair with your family. Let's go to the phones now are we're going to go talk to Gary and Crystal Beach. Hello? Gary, Hey, how are you doing this morning? I'm well, sir. Good. So I'm living down here at Crystal Beach and north of Galveston, and I'm wondering if are there any fruit trees that can grow down here that would put out edible fruit? Oh? Absolutely, absolutely. You can grow figs down there. You could grow for simmons down

there. You can. Let's see what else are we doing. There's some very low. I don't see any fruit trees down here alrightly. Well, they grow down there, that's for sure. The Galveston County Master Gardeners have a little demonstration site there in Carbide Park and not in Crystal Beach, but just down down the road from you a little bit, and they have a little orchard where you can go and see the different kinds of fruit that they grow. And that is one thing I would do just so you can go

buy and see it. They often have workdays out there we can go buy and visit with them. But there are some low chill peaches that will grow in that area, and you certainly can grow citrus. There are a number of different types of citrus, satsumas or a quite a hearty citrus. It would take a real cold winter, unusually cold winter down in Crystal Beach to do damage to a satsumme tree, but they can take that. There are a lot of other citrus shooting plant. Some people even go out on limb

and try avocados. We will get some winters in here that are too hard on avocados, but in general, even if they freeze back, they'll come back, so that'd be a little more of a stretch, but that's one you can grow kind of freakake. I wanted to put orange up yea talking about Yeah, Republic of Texas orange. And there's some other good ones that'll do very well down there. Well good. I appreciate that, I really do. Give me, gives me a line of what to think about.

Yeah, find find the website for the Galveston County Extension Office and I'm gonna trying to remember how that goes. But at the Galveston County Extension Office, the horticulture agent there, mister William Burgerhoff. Uh, will Steven. I'm sorry, Steve, Stephen Broger. I'm mixing two different people. Stephen broger Hoff has a lot of information online and that you can walk into the office. You can pick up free publications and it's very very helpful to get you

off you want to get off on the right foot. Okay, absolutely, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. All right, Gary, you take care. Thank you for the call. Appreciate that very much. If you are if you're looking for supplies for anything you need for your lawn and garden, any garden. I'm talking to vegetables, flowers, fruit, everything, Southwest Fertilizer has got you covered. Southwest Fertilizer is a place that carries literally everything. If they don't have it, you don't need it.

That's how I like to put it, because that is absolutely the fact. If you need a herbicide, a funge aside, an insecticide, a fertilizer, they've got it. An eighty foot wall of tools. By the way, you want to do some holiday shopping, a quality set of pruners or lappers or something along those lines. Maybe a soil knife if you've never seen a soil knife, go check those out there. Really cool. There's a lot of really good tools that Bob and his team has there at Southwest Fertilizer.

They're on the corner of Byssinet and when Renwick in Southwest Houston. The website is Southwest Fertilizer dot com. And anytime you have a problem, you just take a picture of it, make sure it's in sharp focus, or grab a sample of it, put it in a bag. Go down there. They're good at identifying and they'll take you to the product that works. They won't say something you don't need. At Southwest Fertilizer been around since nineteen

fifty five and there's a reason for that. Everything you need is there, including great advice at Southwest Fertilizer. And I always like to remind people the best gardening gift, one of them that I've ever had is a kneeling bench. A kneeling bench folds up. They have the folding type there. You can sit on them while you're working in the garden. You can kneel down. They got little the legs turn upside down and it's a handle to get

up and down and it will change your gardening life. As Bob to show you the kneeling benches that they have, and I guarantee you any gardener you know north of forty will appreciate that gift very very much. I love mine, that's for sure. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. If you live up in the Tomba area, your hometown feed store is D and D Feed, D and D Feed and Supply awesome place. Dover Family's

been operating this since nineteen eighty nine. They just expanded this summer. They've in fact, they've expanded a second time now. They have another little enclave where all of the bulk seeds are. You go in a very inexpensive way to buy seed. By the way, you have a little scoop. You scoop it out and depending on the size of the scoop, you know, you pay that much for the seeds and put them in a little envelope and

take them with you. Real easy to do. Now. They have all kinds of supplies for your garden, the fertilizers and all the different pest and disease and weed control products that are there. High quality dog food. I'm talking about high end lines, you know, like star Pro and Diamond Origin and others they've got. Of course, they're a feed store, so livestock feed, horse care products, things to control pests and roadents outside. They've

got all of that and it's so easy to get to. They are on FM twenty nine to twenty outside of Tombol to the west, about three miles west of two forty nine. Go check them out at D and D Feed and you will be impressed with all of the different things that they carry there. I've talked about house plants a little bit this morning, and some of the ones that you might want to try and grow. I mentioned the zz plant is one that is it's close to fool proof ZZ plant and mother in

law's tongue. I know what a name, sense ofaria. That's a proper name for it. Those two plants. If you can't grow them, I can't help you. I mean, they're just one step above silk plants when it comes to can you keep it going? Yes you can. They take high er light, lower light. They take moisture, and they take drought. You forget to water and they're still okay. And no plant wants to sit in a swamp, so you can't overwater anything. Don't do that.

But these are easy plants to grow, and as easy as an easy one. Mother in laws tongue thats ave area is an easy one. I also would recommend you consider some of the ones called Chinese evergreen aglao neema is the other name for them. Beautiful coloring in the foliage. The standard types green and silver, lots of version of those available, and then the types that have the coral and pink splashed colors in the leaves are just absolutely beautiful.

There are just a lot of plants out there. I mean, I'm just naming a few, uh, but you can really beautify your home and it makes such a great gift to give someone that. And don't forget too the Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus because those you enjoy them now, they easy to grow through the year, and then next fall here you go again with more blooms. What a beautiful, beautiful plant to grow. Well, it's time for

Nicki and the News. We're about to move to that. If you'd like to give us a call, Josh, we'll get you on the board and you'll be first up when we come back at seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to Garden Line. We're glad you're with us today. We're gonna be talking about lots of things gardening, including your calls. He can give us a call at seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.

Now I've talked about greenpro a number of times. Green Pro the folks that'll come out, they'll do deep tyne aeration, the core aeration that pops a little plugs out of the ground. That's the way you need to do it. Don't get the kind that just pushes a hole in the ground and squeezes the sides of the clay hole apart. That's helpful, but it's not the most helpful. Deep tye aeration pulling cores out of the ground as a way

to go. That's what green Pro does. They do compost top dressing as well, which really helps to improve especially at heavy clay soil areas that are compacted. Very very helpful for that. But they also do some lawn leveling. If you're gonna have to go through that kill till and filled maybe your lawn. You lost some areas, so you just need some leveling done. You got some holes out there. They can come out with a quality topsoil mix and do that for you as well, and you can find out more

at greenpro dot net. Greenpro dot net check them out. Prices start at five ninety nine plus sales tax for the area and compost top dressing. But ask him also about that bringing in a little topsoil to level out some areas for your lawn. For those of you that will be replanting lawns because you lost some, that is especially especially important. We're going to now go out

to Spring and talk to Bernie Hello Bernie, Good morning Skip. I was wanting to know is it time to start planting seeds in the garage for like tomatoes, peppers and things like that for the spring spring season. It's a little early. I usually do mine between Christmas and New Year's You can certainly do it on into January. There's no rush. But I tend to grow mine mine larger, move them up from the seedling trade or four inch pot or six inch or even a gallon pot. Uh, in order to get

the biggest, strongest plan I can for planting time. But you are you're a little early right now. Yeah, you would end up something and pretty pretty big to keep it alive all the way until planting. All right? How about putting the soil in the in the vegetable garden? When should I do that? Anytime is good? The sooner the better anything. Yeah, put soil in, Mix it in, blend it, you know, get it right if you need, if you need your soul testing done, do

that ahead of time before you fertilize. Uh. If you you know, just are raising the bed up. Always get a quality mix. That's the most important thing. Yeah, sure, nature Nature's way is pretty good for that. Oh, Yeah, they got excellent, excellent they're up in your neck of the woods and they've got excellent, excellent products. Uh, you know, tell them, tell them what you're going to grow. Is it a vegetable garden, is it a flower garden or whatever. They'll they'll have

a blend for you that will do super super well. And don't be fooled by some of the names too. Even something like a roast soil is not a bad soil for a vegetable garden. That's what I've always used. Yeah, it's good stuff. And the raise the seeds in. I use that. The rose oil too, to put down I would use. Ask them for something for more of a potting soaw mix, a seed starting tight mix. Huh, get one of the blends they have for that. You want

that to whole moisture, but to drain well. Sometimes I'll even add a little bit of pearlite or vermiculatee to a compost blend that I get to use it for container growing. Okay, I appreciate your help. All right, Bernie, Thanks good luck with a vegetable garden. You take care if you are in the area of RCW nurses And by the way, that's where Tombol Parkway comes into boat Way eight. You need to stop buying check them out. RCW is the get it, got it nursery. Now they're going to

have everything like vegetables and flowers and herbs and all kinds of things. The thing I want to talk about today is they're woody ornamentals. The roses that they have, huge roses, huge selection. The trees they have from fifteen gallons to two hundred gallons. They have every kind of tree that needs to get planted here. They're not going to sell you something like a blue spruce that has no business being in this whole state of Texas. But they will

sell you stuff that grows here in the Greater Houston area. They grow it themselves at a twenty acre farm ount in Plantersville, and you will find an excellent selection. Every time I go by there and visit with David about the different kinds of trees and things they have, I'm always impressed with the selection that they have in the quality of trees as well. RCW Nurseries Tomball Parkway at belt Way eight or go online to rc W Nurseries dot com, RCW

Nurseries dot Com and find out more. Remember fall is the best time to plant trees. Don't delay, go ahead and go buy there are different You know you're gonna find some really good prices too on the trees there at RCW Nurseries. Let's head out now to sugar Land and we're gonna talk to Mary. Hello, Mary, good morning, Skip, good morning. My question. My question is I had the yard people put in some cycle them around my trees up front. Yes, and I've watered it in and everything,

but I'm wondering how cold are they? How cold resistant are they? They're pretty cold resistant, but they're not like violas or pansies, so if we get a pretty hard freeze, it's gonna pop them pretty good. They're not they're not quite that cold party, but it's really easy to protect them. I would just set something in the bed to hold a cover up off the plants. So that might be little, it could be a little steaks, it could be I mean, you can put some Mason jars upside down out

there. You see what I'm saying. It's just you're gonna lay a cover over it, and you don't want to crush those little blooms sticking up. And then you put your cover over it and make sure and seal the edges around it. And that cover could just be a it could be a bed sheet, it could be a lot of things, you know, a piece of tarp or something. But just don't crush the plants, right, Okay, thank you so much, you bet you bet. Mary, Thank you.

Hey. By the way, Mary, if you go to my website, Gardening with Skip dot com, I have a nine page full color publication you can look at it online or download it for free that talks about everything you need to know about coal protection from everything from your little cyclemans up to citrus trees and whatnot. And it's all on there. So you may just want check that out maybe help. Oh, thank you, yes, I will. Okay, Gardening with good Day dot com you bet you take care.

Appreciate that call very much. When you're looking for supplies for your garden, you know, ACE Hardware is a place for that. I mean, no matter what you need, even you know, you got to get that out there for coal protection. In the season of coal protection. I like those little clamp on lights with the little aluminum shield you can put. You

don't need to even put a heat lamp in it. You can put like one hundred and fifty water bulb, shine it down toward the ground, put a cover over the plant with that, and that little bit of heat makes a lot of difference. And in my publication at Gardening with Skip dot Com on cold protection, it talks about that Ace Hardware's got that stuff. They got everything you need. They also have everything you need for your Christmas lighting and decorations. Do you need a wreath, do you need garland? Do

you need Christmas lights? The box sets, you know, the kinds, different sizes and colors. Ace has a great supply, great selection of that, and they also have something called custom lights by the foot. Now, custom lights by the foot are just what it sounds like. You design a light string, the length you need to be, the kind of light you

want it to be, and just go buy an ACE. Let them explain to you how it works, and you'll think to yourself, now, why didn't somebody start doing this before, because it really really makes a lot of sense. Ace Hardware is all over the place, forty stores in the Greater Houston area. Ace Hardware dot Com find their store locator and you can find two or three stores that are close enough to you to go get all of those Christmas holiday decorations done. Really simple, nice nice that it's not easy.

We're gonna take a little break. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to garden Line. Hey, we're glad you're listening today. Looking forward to talking to you about what is of interest to you. What do you want to talk about cold protection? Do you want to talk about house plants, you want to talk about fertilizers, maybe some vegetable gardening. This is a great time of year to

be getting out and getting your gardening plants. I know right now everybody's thinking about holidays and color for the landscape and color for inside the house and all of that. But our vegetable gardens are going strong out there. This is wonderful weather. You know, cool seasoned plants like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower out in the vegetable garden. They don't want freezing weather. They can tolerate freezing weather, but they like mild temperatures, not hot, but mild.

That's when they grow their fastest. And so days like today they are just moving at a really good pace, and so we want to keep them well fed, provide a good quality fertilizer mix in there. Keep that ground mulched. By the way, if you keep the soil surface covered with mulch, it could be shredded leaves, it could be a store bought mulch. Keep it covered with mulch. It fights the winter weeds hindbit and chickweed and all those things that just give us trouble in the cool season. They don't give

you trouble when you cover the soil. Those are annual weeds. They come from seed every year, and it's as simple as that. Just block the sunlight and you prevent the weed problem. It makes it so easy. Plus it's prettier. I just think it's a well moltzed garden just looks really really good. If you are in the Montgomery area. Ana Plants and Produce, that is your hometown garden center. Now, Ana Plants and Produce. They've been around a long time, I guess thirty years ago. Over thirty years

ago. Now Kathy has taken over from her parents, Adam and Alice Flores, and that family owned and run garden center just keeps getting better. Every time I go by there. I'm surprised, you know, I go along and I think I know what's there, and then I come back another time and here's a whole new kind of group of plant. They really specialize in bling two to go with all of the kinds of plants I sell. So do you need a chiminea for the patio outback? I'd be a nice place

to gather. You know, we don't have winter here, We just have cool weather. So when you have holidays and family are around, why not a chiminea out there on the back patio. Well, that's the kind of thing that they have. Lots and lots of things. They're open seven days a week, nine to five. They're in Montgomery on the east side. That's the Conro side, just outside Montgomery on the north side of the Highway. A and A Plants and produce. If you've ever driven through there,

you've seen them. It's time to stop in and check them out. And boy do they ever have plenty on hand for all the things you're gonna want to be purchasing or having on hand for the holiday season that were already into the big middle of I was like going by there. It's a lot of fun to wander around and see what's new now. Out of a plants and produce. So I was talking earlier about my schedules that are online and the

frost control freeze control management publication that's online. In other words, here comes a good, good coal freeze. It's not here tomorrow, but it's coming. And when we hit one of those, you want to be ready. You want to have your supplies on hand, and you want to know how to do it. And people in general don't know how to protect plants.

They think in terms of what would make people warm. For example, if I wrapped in a blanket and stood out in the yard, I would be warmer because I have that blanket around me, because my body produces heat and the blanket holds the heat in. That's why a blanket makes you warm, unless it's a heating blanket doesn't produce any heat itself. It just holds in heat. Well, if you wrap your plants like a landscape lollipop, that's going to be very little help. It'll slow the cooling a little bit,

but plants don't produce heat. What you need is the heat of the soil or heat from an artificial source to protect that plant. So we put the cover over the plant, drape it all the way to the ground on all sides, and seal that cover to the soil with rocks or bricks or soil or whatever. I'll hold it down so when the wind blows, it doesn't move that warmer air underneath the cover out. It holds it in as dead air space. The soil itself provides a nice amount of rising heat on a

cold, cold night. If it's not enough, you can add a little source of light. I mentioned going to a hardware store grabbing you one of those little clambon aluminum shielded lights one hundred and fifty white bulb in it. I mean, if you really had a night where it was going to be unbelievably cold, you could put a heat lamp in it. But shine it

at the ground. Don't shine it at your plants. That heat. If you ever put your hand in front of a heater or a radiant heater, you know the kind that have electric heaters, that's radiating out and you can just feel the heat building up on your hand from that radiant. Well, that happens to a plant stem too, and you don't want that. You do not want to overheat a plant stem. So never shine a light or let a bulb come into close contact with your plant, it's just going to

cause problems and you can avoid that. That's not that not that difficult to do, but it's always a good time to get out take care of your plants. Multing your perennials, tender perennials especially, you know something like a duranta for example, golden showers, a what's a seyeselpinia redbird of paradise is another one kind of marginally hardy. You want to take care of those.

There's a number of perennials that are that way. Well. If you live south of town, see in a mult can get you all fixed up. They've got the multches, they've got the composts, they've got the soul mixes, all in bulk. You can buy them in bulk, native hardwood, double ground, two inch screened, all kinds of good quality stuff there. And they're just north of Roach Sharon on Highway six and where Highway six and two eighty eight come together. They are on FM five twenty one FM five

twenty one. They're open Monday through Friday, five or seven thirty in the morning to five. Saturdays seven thirty in the morning to two closed on Sundays. But they have everything. If you're within twenty miles of them, they'll even deliver for a reasonable little fee of delivery. They also have the compos the I'm sorry, the fertilizers that I recommend, wide variety of quality fertilizers.

There a lot of other products as well. Hey, if you're wanting to kind of create a back patio or something, you need some quality stone. Maybe you want to create a dry river bed with some river rock. They have a wide selection of rock and stone products as well at CNMO. Go to the website cienamultch dot com. Again there on FM five twenty one

near Highway six and two eighty eight. Truly easy to find. So all of those folks listening out there in First Colony in Fresno and Quell Valley, Sandy Point, like Olympia, Iowa Colony, Siana Plantation, Sun Creek Estates, pear Land, I need to go on. This is your hometown place to get quality mulch products, quality rock products, and the fertilizers I'll talk about here on garden Line. We're glad you're listening to garden Line today.

Today is we're getting close to the holidays, and I just always look forward to this time of year. It's kind of a restarted chance to kind of take it slow, enjoy things. I remember, we're going to be seeds starting once we get through the Christmas season here, it'll be time for the seed starting as we get to the first of the year. I start my little earlier than that, but it can go a little bit a little bit later. Hey, if your landscape took a beating this year, Purescapes is

you need to call. And here's how you call them. Two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty artists. Go to their website piercescapes dot com. You will be very impressed with the kind of work they do. And they got pictures on their jobs they've done from other people. They do small jobs, they do large jobs. I mean, you can renovate the whole backyard, create patios and hard escapes and all kinds of things. Landscape lighting. Does your irrigation need work? They can do that. Do you got a

poorly drained area, Those are a pain in the neck. They will help provide subsurface drainage to fix that. Pierce Capes can do all of that again. Two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty. Give Jason and his team a call. They will turn your landscape that just survived the summer into something of beauty. That's a p where you're listening to Gardenline. I'm your host,

Skip Richter, and guess what happens next eight o'clock hour. Paul Fagala from the b Supplies to be here and we're gonna be talking about all kinds of things bees. It will be fascinating even if you're not a beekeeper, if you are interested in maybe dabbling and beekeeping, which backyard gardener should because

it helps pollinating your crops and it's just a lot of fun. Plus, imagine if you made your own honey and gave away jars of the honey you built, You built that you created with your bees in your own backyard, giving away as gifts for the holiday. Wouldn't that be cool? Well, Paul will tell you all about that, the classes they offer and everything else. Just stay tuned. Give us your calls on bees. The next hour we're going to focus on calls from people interested in bees.