Interview with Enchanted Forest

I just gave a good soaking to most areas of the lawn yesterday, and that will carry me through a long way. And one of the reasons is I have developed a good, deep rooted turf grass. And what I mean by that is number one. I put the lawn in it did some soil prop but I have continued to do things to make the soil better and better. And as I watered my lawn, I do so is

deeply and infrequently as I can. So instead of watering three times a week, like a lot of watering systems are scheduled to do, I give it one good soaking really hardly once a week. Even there's some areas I've just watered a couple times this summer so far, but we've had some rain, but still that's not very often.

And when you give it a good soaking and really what that soil volume, and then let it sit and not water again for a lot while the water moves out of the spaces between the soil particles and air. Of course, it's not going to be a vacuum in there. Air moves in behind it, and oxygen is important to the roots and that helps that grass develop a deep,

resilient root system. So think of it this way. The roots are fingers going out into the soil around the plant, and the farther and more extensive that finger development, that root development is, the more volume of soil that plant can draw from. In this case, the plant is your turf grass, So by training it with deep and frequent waterings, you can have a grass that's really quite resilient, and

it's amazing how well that does now. In sun lots, more water is needed than in shade, so supplementally sometimes I'll have to hit a couple of spots in the sun just to water those areas because they're star to need it, and I don't even want the shade area. But that you know, that's just a technique. It's some thoughts for you to think about. The more often you water, the more disease issues you have because you keep the

leaves and runners wet. That is an issue. The more the lighter you water, the more your irrigation ends up basically being on the grass blades and on the in the thatch with very little getting down in the soil, very deep at all. So one way to save water and to have healthier lawn is deep and frequent, mowing deep and infrequently. That's the way you need to be thinking about it. I think about the fact that I'm paying for drinking water to put it on my lawn,

and then my sewer bill goes up. Because when you use water, they connect it in most communities connect it to your sewer rates as well.

is your backyard. They're having their grand opening and it will be Friday, August thirtieth, Saturday the thirty first, and Sunday September first. Three days they are given away incredible things. There's gonna be vendors they're demonstrating, like on on Friday, Weber Grill, On Saturday, Big Green Egg and something. The Goysney pizza oven. You got to see this, one of the top pizza ovens on the market and it's a little thing stands, you can put it outside whatever and

it cook a pizza in it. It's just like one of those little wood fired pizza ovens, you know where they slide things into the brick oven that has not made a brick anyway. There they'll be demonstrating those. They'll be demonstrating Trager grills on Sunday the first of September. Now giveaways. Check this out. Ego Power Plus Battery string trimmer two hundred and fifty dollars machine given away in a drawing on Friday. On Saturday, Weber Spirit to Gas

Grille four hundred and fifty dollars machine giveaway. Also on Saturday, by the way, they're having a still open house fifteen percent off all still equipment fifteen percent off all still equipment Monday only just Saturday, and then Sunday they'll be given away a paint room makeover two hundred dollars value.

They're at Langham Creek Ace Hardware. They were open before they kind of closed doors a bit to redo the whole store, and boy, here comes the new grand opening Langham Creek Ace Hardware at the intersection of arker Cypress and FM five twenty seven. So we get the end of this month, the weekend that is the end of this month. That's when you need to head over there, because that, like the forty other Ace Hardware stores, is a great place to find anything that you need.

a butterflower moth larvae. Well, there is another type of BT. Doesn't kill caterpillars. It kills mosquito larvae and fungus gnats. And that's what's in a mosquito dunk. So you can take these doughnuts. One of them covers ten by ten one hundred cubic one hundred cubic feet of water surface area. So if you have a little pond or something like that lasts about a month, slowly dissolves and it releases

this disease into the water. And when a mosquito eggs in the water, their larva never are gonna make it. That is a good thing. It does not hurt birds, It does not hurt ladybugs and other beneficial insects. It does not hurt pets like your family dog or cat. It is just a disease of mosquitoes. It won't kill other peests that you have don't try putting it on something else other than fungus knots, but it really really works.

Mosquito dunks are widely available. They also have a granular form, which is real handy when you don't need a whole dunk. You can also just take a hammer and kind of break up a dunk and use it make a granule out of it. Either way, you want to go, those bird baths, those rain barrels that hole up in a tree where water gathers and the mosquitos are breeding up in there. All of those areas are places where you

can use your mosquito dunks. I think everybody ought to have some on hand all the time because we always have mosquitos around here. And if you got some on hand, you're ready to go. Well, it's time for me take a little break. I will be back again the phone number seven one three two one two kat R H will talk to you in just a minute.

based product. And when you put molasses, which is basically sugar, which is basically carbon in the soil, beneficial microbes are benefited because that what they eat. If you look at the good guy bacteria that are helping your plant roots, they eat carbon. That's what they eat, and molasses carbon put down in the form of this sweet Green. It's not like a molasses, you know, like syrupy. Now, this is granules, and you spread them with a fertilizer spreader.

They're very good. Nice spreading. It works really well. It dissolves away and releases it's eleven percent nitrogen to the root system. It smells good too. You can put a bag of sweet green in the back of your car and you start smelling it, and you may decide to make another loop around six to ten on the way home just to enjoy the fragrance of the of the sweet green. Seriously joking aside, I would recommend putting it down. You would normally put about ten pounds per thousands of

core feet. I would split that in half. I'd put it down now, watered in real good, and about six eight weeks from now, do it again and watered in real good. And that spreads it out a little bit better, and it gets you right up to the time where you're gonna then your next fertilization will be the fall fertilization, which will find on my schedule on my website Gardening with Skip dot com. I encourage you to print those

schedules out. I think that'll be helpful for you. Now you're going to find sweet green at places like Plants for all Seasons on two forty nine. You're going to find it at d and Defeed out there in Tomball. You're going to find it also at Fisher's Hardware over in Baytown. Night Foss products widely available all over the place. Well, I was talking earlier this morning about water in the lawns properly. I think the next thing I want to remind you is mowing is one of the most important

things you do to create a beautiful lawn. A sharp mower blade, that's number one. Mowing as frequently as your life schedule allows you to do. For most people, that's once every seven days. Because we're in a weekly life schedule. That if you want a shorter lawn that's denser, you're going to have to mow it more often. Golf Course greens get mowed every day. Is that crazy? Can you imagine mowing your lawn every day? But seriously, that's how

they get that density down low. They're barely cutting in the off. When you let your long grow really big and then cut it way back, that is very stressful to the grass and it does not create density. In fact, it opens the turf cannot be up so that sunlight hits the soil all over the place. And wherever sunlight hits a soil, nature plants a weed. That's how that works.

So what do you want to do, Well, what you want to do is you want to be able to provide a regular mowing schedule that creates the most dense turf you can now, Watering, fertilizing, sunlight, all that's important. It's not like the only thing is mowing, but people discount the importance of mowing for turf density. It's like

shearing a hedge. The more often you shear it, the more little where you cut off one little shoot on the hedge with your shearers and it becomes two shoots, and then you cut off those two and they become four shoots and so on. That's what's happening in your lawn. You're you're building a good density down down low in the turf grass, and it just makes for benefits in many,

many different ways. If you're looking at your landscape and you're kind of thinking, man, I need I need a makeover, you know, maybe you just don't like the way it looks when you drive up to the house maybe you go out in the backyard and it's like, yeah, this is this is okay, but I'd really like to turn this into a place where i can really entertain friends and family in the back Pierce Caapes is a company that you ought to call and let me just let

them show you what I'm talking about. Go to Piercescapes dot com, piercescapes dot com, book around the website, look at some of the work that they have been able to do. That they do. It's their normal way. I mean, it's it's out hardscape patios with rock, it's rock retaining walls, it's setting up landscape lighting, it's improving drainage, it's fixing your irrigation system. They do all this and much much more.

They'll design a whole landscape for you, or they'll help you with a small section where you're trying to revent. Maybe you just want to put the front of the house on display and create a nicer beds and plantings there. They can do that. They also offer quarterly maintenance, trimming, weeding, fertilizing, irrigation inspection, seasonal color changes. You know, those old summer color plants are starting to go downhill because fall is coming and it's time for the next section or next

season of plants, a cool season. They'll do that, the mulching, making sure your malt stays nice and thick on the bed so you don't deal with weeds. All of that. Pierce Scapes again. The website is Piercescapes dot com if you would like to give them a call two eight one three seven h five zero six zero. You are

listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to talk to you about the things that interest you, about the questions that you might have, and you can call us at seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four and we can visit with you about any kind of thing that you might want to ask about. There's plenty of things to talk about

when it comes to gardening. I was talking to Sherry and Kelly from Plant Roll Seasons this past week at the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association Show and just just visiting with them. Their enthusiasm, their knowledge, it's really, it's really, it's amazing and impressive. The family has been in business right there just north of Luetta on two forty nine. They've been in business since I think nineteen seventy three

something like that. It's a long time and they know the area, they know the plants to bring in, so you don't buy something that has no chance of growth here right. They have the advice. So if you need suggestions for plants, if you need diagnosis, if you need something identified, either a photo on your phone or bring it in in a bag, they can help you with that. And if it requires a control can point you to

the many outstanding products. They have a very good section of disease, weed and pest management control products, both organic and synthetic. You can go to Plants for All Seasons dot com, or you can call them two eight one, three seven six, sixteen forty six. I'm going to go out to Spring now and talk to Rich. Hello, Rich, Welcome to guardliney.

during warmer temperatures to get a hold of that weed. Yeah, so that's it.

know that every one has its drawbacks. Celsius during the warm season, the hot season here is the best shot we got. I'm about to have to run its break time here, but thank you for the call. I appreciate that. Thanks Jving, Yes, sir, thank you. Talk to you later. Our phone number seven one three two one two k t RH will be right back. Good Sunday morning to you. I hope you are enjoying the day. It's a good day. Every day is a good day. We are gonna talk

all kinds of things gardening this morning. If you want to join in the fun, you can dial seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four on my website gardening with a skip dot com. There is there are some new publications two on nuts Edge. One that's a quick one pager. The other one is three pages, but it has a lot of information you need to know. Did you know there are two different kinds of nuts edge.

People call it nutgrass. H there's a purple and a yellow, and do you know that they are not equally susceptible to all control products that are out there. Do you know the way they set their tubers underground is different and it affects the way we go about controlling them as well. So there's a lot of information in there

to really help you get off your good start. There's also on the website I put a noop publication that's it Skips Weed Wiper, and I continually get calls from people that they have a weed problem where you just can't spray it. Maybe it's a grass that's growing in your lawn and it's sticking up above your lawn grass and you can't kill that weed with a spray and not kill your grass because they know it's the same same type of plant. But you can use a wiper

to wipe the herbicide on the weed. Only it's two it's sponges that wipe it on the weed, and I'm sure I show you online how to make that. It's not very expensive and it works good. There's also a publication that goes with it that is the different herbicides for different kinds of weeds. So it's categorized like do

you have brushy weeds what would that be? Or woody wheats that would be like the hackberry's coming up in your fence line, a poison ivy coming up the pepper vine that a lot of people have to struggle with. Or do you have a grassy weed that's a whole nother category. Or do you have a sedge like purple and yellow nut sets that's another category? Or is it a bulb like plant underground, which would be wild garlic and wild onions. There's a different herbicide that we would

recommend for that. Those are both online for you either look at online or print or do whatever you want with. But I would encourage you to take a look at them. That weed wipers made from a little grabber tool. It's a type with suction cups on the end. And I was just just the other day talking to somebody who is at a Southwest Fertilizer in Southwest Houston and they had those hanging on the wall there. Bob, of course, does that surprise you that Bob, there'd be something he

doesn't have right that he has everything. That's what they specialize in. I don't care if you're synthetic gardener and organic gardener. If you want to deal with weeds, if you want to deal with pass like insects, or do you want to do with diseases? Do you want to just fertilize your lawn. Every product that you will ever hear coming out of my mouth is a Southwest Fertilizer

because they carry it all. They have really nice fertilizer spreader options, from the little things that you push behind to the little whirligigs you hold in your hand to put out fire ant bait. They've got all of that. The kneeling bench, I keep talking about the folding kneeling bench. It's so cool. Southwest Fertilizer in Southwest Houston, corner Bissonett and Renwick. That's it. That's what you need to know,

uh it. If you want to give them a call, it's seven one three six six six one seven four four seven one three six six six one seven four four just go to the website Southwest Fertilizer dot com. One thing that you will know that you need to know also is you can take in pictures on your phone, like get up close, take a picture of a weed and go in there and say hey, guys, here's a weed, I got what kills it? And when do I apply it? And how do I do it? And then tell you

all of that. You can bring them a sample as well, but it's just a great place to shop. You are listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richtor, and we're here to help you hopefully have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape by giving you some good advice on things you need to do. A lot of times people approach gardening problems with starting with a spray. In other words, I got this, how do I kill it? And I always my approach is to start with the

cultural things we do. If you got plants that are in soggy soil and they're getting root rot, I don't think the solution is a fungicide drench to control the root rot. I think the solution is to fix the soggy soil and then you don't even need to treat. Otherwise you're treating and treating and treating. If you have there are things that predispose plants to problems. For example, we got the weeds in the lawn right they're coming

up in the lawn weed seeds. Well, our number one goal is to mow, water and fertilize and get the densest lawn we can. Now, there's going to be weeds that get in a dense lawn. I understand that, and we can recommend a product to kill those if you want to do that, But always start, always think about the cultural like why is this problem here? Why is this disease occurring? Why am my roses just getting black spot and all the leaves are falling off? Well, I'll

bet it's one of three reasons. Primarily number one, it's a variety that's susceptible, So we could choose resistant varieties, or we can choose to plant susceptible varieties, maybe because they're planning too close and there's not good air movement through them. So when the foliage gets wet, it stays wet for longer, and the longer you have wet leaves and more diseases you're going to have on your roses and many other plants. You know, it could be a

number of different things that are causing. Maybe you've got a sprinkler system that is wetting the foliage instead of drip irrigation. Underneath those roses. Do you see what I'm saying. So we can recommend a fungicide for black spot or powder and mildew, but first let's figure out what can we do to avoid the problem as much as possible. I love to be out in the garden, but I don't want to spend my Saturday afternoons out in the

garden at the end of a spray nozzle. For everything that happens, I want to sprend it walk, spend it walking around planting plants, harvesting things, enjoying the beauty of it all. And that's kind of the approach that I would highly recommend that you consider that exact approach, because that that just makes more sense, you know, it just makes more sense. We're going to head out now to Troy,

Alabama and talk to Paul. Hey, Paul, let's we've got a few few just about a half a minute here, and let's get us started and we'll finish after break. How about that?

feed over time. Then there are the jars, the canisters, the plastic clear plastic canisters with the screw top lids of all kinds of things. Color Star one of the most popular things on the market for making your flower beds bloom. Let me get fancy and say more floriferous. That is what color Star will do. Also, there's things

like the nutri Star line. There's tree and shrub fertilizer, for example, that helps if you've got a tree that you planted in the last i don't know, three or four months, boy, that you definitely need to be starting to fertilize that thing, and I would get some on now before we head into the cool winter season. You just sprinkle it around and keep that tree growing with little boosts here and there with that product Nutristar Tree and Shrub. There's also a product for tropicals that they have.

There's a product for blooming trees and things like the Crepe myrtle, for example. It's easy to find the quality products like the Nutra Star and the Color Star and the turf Star in garden centers all around all over the area. For example, up in Montgomery area, A and A Plants carries In fact, A and A carries ever fertilizer. You can imagine. A and A carries every product that

you need. They have beautiful plants, they've got there's always some good deal going on around there, especially through this summer season. A and A is just a good place to Visit's on the Highway one oh five on the east side of Montgomery. So all of you that live out in Lake Conroe area, all the neighborhoods around Lake Conroe, which it just seems like there's always more and more growing going on out there. This is your backyard garden center. And you're going to go in there and you're going

to find what you want. And if you're looking for things to kind of add some bling to your landscape, you know, like a metal archway or or chiminea for the patio, all those kinds of the other kinds of decorations. Any plants and produce has got you covered. Again, they're on the east side of Montgomery. They're east side of Montgomery on Highway one oh five, so just as you're coming in or out of Montgomery, you just pass right

by them. I think that one of the best things is seven days a week from nine to five, that you know it's always a good time to swing by there. They're going to be open and they're going to have what you need. Well, you are listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're trying to talk about the kinds of things that I think would help you have a more more success in your in your garden and in your landscaping. There are things that people

do that are just, let's just say, bad habits. Then we do them because we saw someone else do them, or we heard about somebody else doing them. And the worst place to hear about anything is in social media, where everybody's an expert, and you just need to take all of that with a grain of salt. You really do, because a that person may live in Timbuctoo and it's a different soil, it's a different climate than here, so

advice that may be true there isn't true here. They also may just think they know when they don't know. I think it was Mark Twain or Will Rogers, one of those guys said, have it. Being smart is knowing what you're dumb at. I like that because, you know, the older I get, the more I find that I'm dumb at. I used to think I knew it, I knew everything. Now no better. And that how it works

as we get a little bit older. But seriously, when you're looking, you know, for quality advice and good direction, that's what we're trying to do to steer you in the direction that you need to go. And so we try to provide a little bit of the why behind the what. In other words, I could tell you just go do such and such. That's the what, and I can also tell you the why. And when you understand the why a little bit, it helps you to do a better job of the what is that confusing or what?

What I'm trying to say is this, maybe you are going to control nutsedge or that's what your goal is, And I say, well, go do this, but here's what you need to know, here's why, and this is why we do it. Now that keeps you from using that same advice in a way or in a time where it won't work and everything has some yeah butt to it, and so that's what I try to kind of weed through as we're doing this. All right, Well, enough of that.

If that made sense to anybody, raise your hand. We're going to go out to League City now and talk to Suzanne. Hello, Suzanne, Hi.

in late spring. With our others. If you look at me laun schedule, it's got mostly we're doing the pre emergence in February. You could probably come in in March or even April maybe and do the pre emergence for the dove weed. That is, it's going to sprout when the weather warms up really good. I would say probably March would be a good time.

So I guess if you're not willing to jump on the sodding and going into the dense lawn thing, uh, then maybe living with it like you're talking about certainly an option. These people will not want to hear that that kind of statement, but that's that's the case, you bet, Suzanne. Thank you for calling me as a fella I know in uh uh, we're in Mississippi's name is Elder Russian. He comes over to speak every now and the scenario, and he says, the best way to get rid of

every weed and your lawn is take off your glasses. Hey, you know, I've got to admit. I've got a neighbor down the street who is lawn has more weeds than Saint Augustine's and he has if you want to, if you want to have a weed, I d class you could go to his because every weed in the world is in his law. Now he just mos mos most And you know, when you drive by, unless you really turn your head and look, it looks pretty good because

weeds are green too. I don't think I'm going to sell many people on that as an approach, but there is an option. I'll be right back. Take care of King Ranch has inspired the values to continue to guide King Ranch Troupe. Really looking forward to visiting with you to help with whatever the questions are you have so that you can have a more bountiful, beautiful garden and landscape.

That's what we're looking for here. If you'd like to give us a call, the number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.

Someone asked me the other day, can I do both that and the the sixty four And the answers yes, because they're for different purposes. The sixty four is providing microbes but also the nutrients six percent nitrogen, two percent phosphorus, four percent potassium into the soil to stimulate growth on your grass plant. The microlife humates plus the purple bag.

That one is concentrated composted in the bag. It's a humus type material that does have some potassium in it, but you're putting it down because humus is the final decomposition product of organic matter, and it helps build soil structure, it helps with microbial activity, and like all microlife products, it's got the microbes in it as well. Then they have their liquid products, the Biomatrix, the orange labeled Liquid sixty four. They've got the product that is basically a

seaweed top product. They got the product that's basically a fish and Molson product. That one's called Ocean Harvest, by the way, And there's lots and lots of others, and I'm gonna be talking about some new microlife products here as we go a little further along. But I'm just telling you it's easy to find great products for everything from houseplants to your outdoor plants, lawns to trees to shrubs to vegetable gardens. From Microlife. Microlif Fertilizer dot Com

is their website. Easy, easy to get to. Microlife products are widely, widely available. You're going to find them all over the place, not difficult at all. That makes it kind of handy, kind of easy. I was talking earlier about managing the nuts edge and other other kinds of weeds and whatnot. I just want to mention we've had some calls and a number of emails about people that are trying to fix areas of their lawn that had

weed problems. The typical question is I have nut I have maybe nuts edge or bermuda grass and my Saint Augustine, and I'm I want to the Saint Augustine is dying back. I want to redo that area, but I don't want the bermuda grass in there, for example. And so the way we do that is to apply something. If it's just a grassy weed, you can apply just a herbicide

for grassy weeds. That's on. If you need to know what is a herbicide for grassy weeds, I'm not gonna you know, name out the chemical names right now to you to make your eyes roll back. But if you go online to gardening with skip dot com. There is a sheet on herbicides that goes with the weed wiper, but it's true for not weed, it's true for spraying too. What are the weeds that you have and what herbicides

control them? And the grassyat products are listed on there a number of different brand names too that you'll find on the market, so you could go at it that way. If your lawn has broad leaf weeds that are perennials also in addition to the grassy, then you would have to use a general weed killer one that kills everything. But when you do that, you want to get the spray down.

that done. And that's very important because to just put your new Saint Augustine down and now you got that old bermuda popping up through it because bermuda can come from down deep under the ground and come to the surface. You want to get rid of it before you do that. If that is the goal that you have. Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven to one three two one to fifty eight seventy four. Uh, have you been out? Have you

been out to the Enchanted Gardens out in Richmond? That is the garden center that is on FM three point fifty nine. It's on the Katie Fulscher side of Rechmond. Let me give you their website because you want to write this down. They have an outstanding website with a lot of good, good information on it. That's Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Again Katie Follscher side of Rechimond. If you'd like to give them a call to eight one three four one twelve o

six twelve oh six. The Peach Truck it's called the Peach Creek Country Market. It'll be back out at Enchanted today from ten am to two pm. Today's August eighteenth. Yeah, that's it today. And boy that peaches and they got sweet corn and watermelons and whatever is in season, they're gonna have it there. At enchanted gardens, you're gonna find a lot of plants that are outstanding, but they're just not that widespread. You just don't see them enough. For example,

creeping wire vine. Creeping wire vine is a cool little plant. It is a vining plant with a little small leaves, but the vines are well. It has a name wire vine. There's a reason they're very They're very tough, and it makes an excellent, excellent groundcover even even take a little bit of food, foot traffic, although I would be a little careful, you know, to let it grow so tall that it wouldn't be a tripping hazard, but it can take a little bit of that. It's that tough, deer resistant,

drought tolerant, all the things that you want. Creeping wire vine milim Bechia is the proper name for it, but they got that there. That's just an example. Though. They have so many types of plants that you just don't see elsewhere, and there's things that we need to use more that we don't. And if you go to in Channa Gardens in Richmond, you're going to find it beautiful jacobinias. It's a it's a type of Justicia that has this

beautiful multi flower bloom on top that is absolutely gorgeous. Uh. It just it performs really well here in our climate. And there's others. I sit here, I want to tell you about every plant they have, because there's so many, but they sure do have those. Uh and again in Channa Gardens Richmond dot com. That's the website. Go check it out. If you haven't been there, you need to see it. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two

one two five eight seven four. I'm gonna take a little break, uh dow that number. Give cross the call and you can be the van listening to guarden line if you like to call in seven one three two one two k t R. How can we help you have better success in your beautiful lawn, your beautiful garden, maybe some more color around the house. I tell you that my uh son lives in the Houston area and these past two big storms we had there was the first one and then Barrel the hurricane came through and

they're without power for a long time. And a lot of you have experienced that, and I don't care if it's a hurricane. And by the way, this is predicted to be a very busy season or just other storms. When the power goes out, it creates major issues. Whether it's our losing food in the fridge, or not being able to have air conditioning in the house when it's blazing hot outside. Lots of other kinds of things that happen when we don't have power. Quality Home Products of Texas.

They are a local company. They've been around, family owned here in Houston since nineteen eighty nine, and they know how to take care of their customers. And right now, by the way, they've got a trade in special going on. So if you got an no portable generator, you need to call them and get the details on the trade in special because this may be a good time to get rid of that old jelappe really move into something that it works even better. When I think about quality

home I think about quality generators like Generak. They carry Generac, which is excellent generator. They also take care of their customers. They from the time you call them up, they are helping you to decide if in what kind of generator you need that works best for you, and they do the whole steps, all the the little permissions you got to get to do something like that, or to build something around the house and do other things. Generators require that and you need to let them take care of

it for you. They handle all those regulations. They put a slab down, they put a quality generator that fits what you need, and then after they walk away. That's just where Quality Home begins. Customer service a times winner of the Pinnacle Award by the Better Business Bureau for Customer Service fourteen thousand plus. It's way over that now, five star reviews online. It's because they take care of

their customers. They do have financing. Financing options available. Just give them a call at seven one three Quality seven one three Quality, or go to the website qualitytx dot com. Let's head now out to Magnolia and talk to Ron.

thick density. Early on, it can look a little bit leggy.

In fact, the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium you need a lot of That's why that's the three numbers on every fertilizer bag, those three ingredients. But when you get on in the trace minerals, they're equally essential for plants. And as mite is a mind product, a mind product that is put on your lawn to provide that addition to it, to add to that bank account in the soil. You can go to azimite Texas dot com find out more. You can do it on the same day you fertilize

if you want to. You can do it out of the blue, any day of the year. You can put down the asimite. It's not going to make your lawn take off growing. It's providing the bank account of what the lawn needs and plants in general need. You can use vegetable gardens and other places in order to thrive. Aszmite Texas dot com. That's the website. You're going to find azamite in a lot of different places, very widely, widely available product. Let's go now to Southwest Houston and

we're going to talk to Laurel. Hello Laurel, good morning, sir. Not can we help today?

than anybody I've ever seen. But fifty percent off of select roses. If they have fifteen percent off all of the trees, and that includes citrus. So if you're looking at getting satsuma orange or a Myer lemon or something one of the citrus, this is a time. Fifteen percent off, good time to do that. Get it in the ground now, let it get established before the winter arrives. Now it's

an excellent time. Fifty percent off Cajun hibiscus. Did I say fifteen or fifty on the trees, and it's fifteen fifteen on trees and citrus, fifty percent off Cajun hibiscus. I have a Cajun hibiscus. I love it. Those The breeder that created those had an imagination, and boy did they ever show it. They're beautiful. Ten percent off all of their shrubs. So maybe you need to replace some shrubs, or you want to get rid of something that's not doing well. Here's a good chance at rc W Nurseries

RCW nurseries dot com. That's your nork. This is your nursery where Tambo Parkway hits belt Way eight. See, we're gonna now go to Houston area and talk to Dell. Hello, Dell, Hi, Kiff.

going to settle where the stump was ground out. But you can just get a little bit ahead of it. But I'm not talking about a giant, huge mound. I'm just a little higher over that area and water the soil really well and then lay the sid Get it done now so it has the most so it has the most time possible. Before we hit h the cross, I'm gonna have to run Dell to a cancer You bet all right, folks, we'll be right back if you with us. We're going to run straight to the phones

this morning, head up to Huntsville. Talk to Charles. Hey, Charles, welcome to Guardline.

in this case, you need to have adequate water. If it's a little drowdy, it's not going to develop fruit size. It just won't. And you also need to have to have fenned the fruit so that it's spaced out enough for the tree to be able to make each fruit larger. If they're crowded too close, you're not going to get fruit size. Those three things that can cause a lack of fruit size. You could put the microlife on now

and that would be fine to do. I would get it done right away, though, because we don't want to push things with fertilizer as we get on into the fall, because winter is coming and you don't want succulent growth coming into the first freeze.

and pruning it and everything. And I think that would be helpful for you as you try to build that.

it this I can. But they the le what happens is the leaves start turning yellow and then uh, the branches even start kind of turning dark, and then the leaves start turning dark and they start to scribble up, and like I describe it, they look like they've been roasted, like roasted boccolini or Brussels shouts.

You might have a root rot in the soil. You might uh and when the roots you see symptoms like what you're showing above ground, you also okay, they just have some stem cankers, some disease is that are killing entire stems of the roses. When I see the few leaves I can see, I see like brown tips and sometimes edges or entire brown leaves, and that's a sign that water is not getting to the leaf. And again

both rot and stem cankers could be causing that. So that's as far as I can diagnose that one based on based on the photos.

those problems without knowing for sure which one you have. Okay, let's shift over to your lawn questions. What I see in your yawn looks to me like there may be some past droughty conditions that it went through, But it looks a lot like take all root rot, and that one has to be diagnosed with almost a hand lens getting up early close to it. But if you go to an area where the grass is dying, not dead, but dying, and you look at a runner, kind of pull it up, and new grassroots are nice and white

and plump and fleshy. Dead grassroots are just a pecan brown shriveled look. And if you see a lot of dead roots and there's almost no living roots out toward the end of the runner, that's probably take all root rot, and on my schedule, which is on my website Gardening with Skip dot com, you can find the products and the timing of what you need to apply for the

take all root rot. The main thing you can do for now is don't let the long get stressed, don't let it get dropped stressed, don't water it too often, but keep the lawn adequately moist. And if you haven't fertilized, a moderate amount of fertilizer would be helpful for that as well.

and you know, ruin our own yard. I mean, it was beautiful back in the spring in the early summer, but my husband and I both got really really sick. So we weren't able to really tend to our yard and take care of things like we normally would. And I appreciate your information and I'll certainly check on that.

and it's widely available. You're going to find super turf in places like Plantation, Ace Hardware out in the Richmond Rosenberg area. Growers Outlet up in Willis has it. For those of you that are listening inside the City of Memorial Drive, Ace Hardware City is going to be another place you can find that super turf. We're going to go now out to let's see here. We're going to head to Kingwood and talk to Joe.

that something's going on in the roots. But when I look at the plant as a whole, it seems like it's doing pretty good. It's just one area. So it may be that all those dead areas in the photo connect to one stem coming out of the ground. So kind of get on your hands and knees and figure that one out, get it pruned out, and then just

keep a watch on it. There are things underground that can cause the die back of the top like that, and we maybe be just seeing it at an early stage, but keep watching it and if if that pruning it out doesn't work, then maybe we take other steps to try to figure out what's going on.

these storm seasons. Now, it's always good to do proper tree career. There's our midwinter pruning and then selected pruning through the year that needs to get done depending on the species and the condition that it's in. But Martin spoon More from Affordable Tree is an expert at this. He's been doing it for a very long time. Call him seven to one three six nine nine two six sixty three. Let me give you that again seven one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three. You can

also go to his website Afftree Service dot com. He stays busy because he does a good job and people hire him to come back and do it again. Have him come look at your tree, and if you're planning on doing anything around those trees, like putting in a trench or some other issue that driveway over the part of the root system. You need to get Martin out there first to advise you on how to go about that and what to do to help that tree through

the process. These trees are valuable, very important, not just to the value of your property, but to you being able to get out in the shade and enjoy the garden. For you, being able to have that shade maybe on a roof, that helps cut down on your utility bills. A lot of reasons that we love our trees. Don't mess around and don't turn them loose to some guy that owns a pick up a chainsaw and sticks out business cards on your door. That does not mean they

are an expert. We're going to now go to Texas City and talk to Brandon. Hello, Brandon.

to be putting in. He can direct you to that. I haven't talked to him about all the services that they do on that, but I would. I would definitely start with him and see he probably can want to come out, do a consultation, look at the situation and tell you what they would need to do. And what it would cost to do a barrier like that. Perfect right, let me give you I'm going to give you his number at seven to one, three, six, nine, nine, twenty

six sixty three. When you're doing that kind of barrier you need, it needs to be a decent distance from the tree because trees have to have anchorage. It needs to go adequately far enough down in the soil and be a strong enough material to last and not Some people say, well, they're going to put a piece of ten in the soil, will ten rusts and so over time that that's not going to hold up. Okay, thank you, sir, you bet, thank you, thank you very much for the call.

Oh let's see here. Ace Hardware Stores are the place where you go for everything you need. And Langham Creek Ace Hardware that is at the intersection of Barker Cypress and FM five twenty nine over in the Copperfield area

of Houston. They're having a shindig Friday, August thirtieth, Saturday, the thirty first Sunday, the first They're giving away drawings like an Eco Ego powered string tremor, ten or fifty bucks trimmer, a Weber gas grill, four hundred and fifty dollars gas grill, a pain of room makeover two hundred dollars value. You need to get over there and see that just right. Write that weekend down, last weekend this month.

Get over there. They're going to have activities that They're going to have demonstrations of various kinds of barbecue grills and then a pizza oven. That's cool stuff and they've redone the whole store. That's why it's a gree grand reopening Langham Creek. Ace hardwe You know you can find Ace Hardware stores by going to Ace Hardware dot com and the store locator will show you all the stores and little red dots all over the word to use today.

Thanks for listening to Garden and I. We're gonna take a little break here for the top of hour for the news. I will be back and when I come back, we'll be back with your calls and Joyce. If you want to hang around till then you will be our very first caller up for the rest of your seven one three two one two K two.

were things that the plants liked. She used plants that wanted to be there, She took care of of them in the way they needed to be taken care of. And you can have the same success. So let's talk about things like that. I tell you what. Right now, I have a special guest that I've asked to come on today, Danny. Let's see here. I'm just gonna bring Danny right on here. Hello, Danny, how are you? Danny Lenderman from an Enchanted Forest Garden Center.

support the adult butterflies for nectar. You have a great you have a great selection of things out there, and so I wanted to pick your brain a little bit about what are some of the plants that you think are that you like best for attracting the adult and then some of the plants that might go along with that that would be good for feeding the caterpillars, because you got to take care of the babies if you want them to grow up and be butterflies.

the swallowtails. You know, there's a there is a it's called Mexican sunflower tithonia that the swallowtails really love that one too, but they like a lot, right, Yeah, so those are cool.

so many different ones. So me, milkwheed is the main thing you got to have for the for the monarchs.

pretty butterflies. Those are the dark almost black kind of purple butterflies, really pretty.

talk about some hummingbirds too. We'll be right back. Are talking with Danny Linderman from Enchanted Forest Garden Center down in the Richmond, Texas area about butterfly gardens. And we've been talking about the plants that attract the adults in and plants now we're talking about that attract the larval, the butterfly larvae in. Danny, welcome back, and again thanks

for agreeing to come on. I have one thing I've always kind of gotten a kick of over at your place is that when people go there to see these plants, there's butterflies all over the place. So, as you said, they can just walk around and see what butterflies like.

I'll tell you. Uh, but also you got a little larvae that are on these plants, and it's almost like a sour dough starter situation where if you want a butterfly garden starter, they buy one of your larval food sources and they you stick a larva on it to take home if they want, if you got one at that point in time, they're right, Hey, Danny, I'm sorry I had your mic off. You are back on now. Uh did you hear what I said?

plant these things. Salva is one of my favorites. You'll you'll see you'll see the humming birds on the salvia religiously really really good and a really good plant on top of that, right, so you're you're you can't go wrong. Yeah, for sure. Turk's cap is one of my favorites as well. It's a it's a Texas native, you know, it's a it's a really really tough plant, and it can grow

in the sun or the shade. So if you you know, have a shady yard, that that's probably one of your better bets to track the humming birds in really really hard.

with hummingbirds. You know, the thing gets it can get about four feet or some more tall, right, and it has those deep, deep blue to purple kinds of flowers. There's a type that's kind of sky blue, but the hummingbirds really go for that.

sure you go. Butterflies and hummingbirds. Uh, and you you guys are really set up to do that kind of thing. There any other plants we haven't talked about with the hummingbirds or the butterflies that you think people ought to be aware of or ought to ought to consider.

season for certain certain things. You know, our hummingbirds are here feeding and they're about to do their migration in many most of the time, and so that'd be good to think about all the seasons and make sure you got something blooming or at least the foliage for the caterpillars at all those times.

or even moss. You know, we we we we think about butterflies, but the poor little moss, which are basically the same same family, they get left out, but they're probably one of the better, better pollinators. Not as pretty, but they're a very very good pollinator.

it'll let you. They're not even afraid of you, like a hummingbird would. You'll fly away. But these hummingbird moths you can almost put them in your hand while they're flying. It's a it's amazing the watch.

hundred and twenty five different species of hummingbirds exist. That is the second largest bird family in the world. Is that amazing? A hummingbird weighs about a tenth of announce, about the weight of a penny. A hummingbird braid is about the side of a bebee. They're the only bird that can fly backwards and even hover upside down due to the ability of their wing their shoulder shoulders to move, the freedom of motion in their shoulder. Is that amazing

stuff right there? I just think it's a sack. Here's one more a hummingbird. You've seen the little bills on them. They have long, skinny bills. Their tongue will go that much further out from the bill, about that far, and they can move their tongue in and out lapping up nectar from a big, deep flower twelve times a second. So just imagine a sewing machine running at full throttle. That's what a hummingbird tongue can do going out and they're just pulling all that nectar up out of the flower.

Cool stuff. I won't bore you anymore. Oh one more. They can fly up to sixty miles an hour. Typically they're around half of that little or half of that. But the amazing little birds. And by the way, if you're into hummingbirds, you need to be into Wallbirds Unlimited. Wallbirds Unlimited has six stores in the Houston area. You can go to wu bu dot com forward slash Houston. There you're going to find hummingbird feeders. Look for the high perch feeder. It's my favorite one, the high perch.

But they have others that are also great, also awesome. They have the hummingbird food that has something that helps it not go bad so fast in it it lasts. It doesn't you know, turn bad. When you put sugar water out in hot weather, I mean it's going to ferment and do all kinds of things not good for the health of the hummingbird, so you need to change yours out every few days just to keep good fresh material there. While you're at Wilbirds, you'll find every other

thing you might want for birds. They stock it all and they have the top quality, top quality of food, top quality of houses, feeders, whatever it is at Wildbird's Unlimited. We're going to now go out to Bissooria and talk to Steve. Steve, thank you for waiting, and welcome to garden Line. I think Steve is either making lunch or chopping wood. I don't know what's going on out there.

We're going to come back. Let's see Stevere there. Hello, Hello, all right, go ahead, I put that on hold, Chris, if you can see if we can get Steebeck on there, we'll move go on into that. Uh Landscaper's Pride. You've heard me talk about them before. They have quality, locally made organic materials, from compost to bed mixes. They've got something called gardener's magic. It is a garden a gardening

saw mix. It's got organic pine based, it's got humids, it's got screen pine and composted rice holes too, and even a little bit of a chicken pellet fertilizer. That'll give you about three months of feeding. So if you've got a raise bed or a container garden, great for that mushroom compost. All the gardeners over in this part of Texas have probably tried mushroom compost and boy is

out of a rocket fuel for plants. They have a healthy soil compost made with composted plant materials, a new neutral pH and as compost releases it's nutrients, as that further decomposes, it adds them to the soil over time. That's why we're always wanting to mix in composts like Landscapers Pride healthy soil composts. They have a black humus that is a very dark and rich organic mix of

compost at, bine, bark, and loamy topsoil. So it would be good for established beds, It would be good for most growing conditions that you would have because it's got some soil in it. You could even use it out in the lawn in little lower areas to provide a little bit of an additional depth. That all of these are at Landscaperspride dot com you can find out more

about them. They're widely available in the area, and while you're there, pick up landscapers pride mulchs because if there is ever a season where we need to have molt soil, thickly molt SOI to moderate soil temperature and prevent weeds. Now is it. I'm going to head out now to the Galleria area and we're going to talk to Suzanne. Hello, Suzanne, welcome to gode morning.

There are beetles that will attack if you wanted to just go with something a little on the safer side, more natural side. Spinosid it's spi n sad. It kills things that eat leaves. It kills things that eats leaves, so caterpillars and beetles are both target pests for spinosid. And it soaks into the tissues of the leaf, so it sticks around a little bit longer than some of

the other products that might be out there. But I would watch and maybe even look at an area and kind of okay, what leaves are there and not there? Come back the next day and see if this is an active problem, or if it happened but now it's not continuing to happen, because you'd hate to spray the pest has already gone.

you so much, Thanks a lot, you bad. I appreciate appreciate your call. See here, where are we? Yeah, time for a little break here Ron in Cleveland. You're gonna be first when we come back. The phone number if you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to Gardenline. We're I do with us today. I'm your host, Skip Richtor, and we're here to talk about the things that you

are interested in and having garden success. So let's head out to Cleveland, Texas, and we're going to talk to Ron.

it up and been keeping it wet. And then I heard yesterday on your show about you were talking to got it to about a guy about how the truck is split vertically, and I noticed the sections on my plant that are dying have those splits in the truck. Do I just to rip the whole plant out, cut those sections off, or just keep hitting it with medina or what are your thoughts?

I believe, and we suffered some damage that often. Then later shows up when the real demands are on the plant, and it shows up by the plant branch is just dying out because it can't move the water fast enough due to that loss of some of the tissues that move the water up and down the stem.

and let's see what it does. Anything dead, go ahead and print it out once there's no green underneath the outer bark layer.

is the soil activators. It's basically different microbial compounds and other substances that are stimulant for plant growth and microbial activity. Then there's a medina that has to grow for lawns, which you can use on this plant, by the way, that has a three one two four one two ratio of nutrients in it that you could use.

a sudden it feels like you hit concrete underground. That's the dry soil, And so you can go around and when we say give it a good soaking wet it's six inches deep. That's a good goal for your lawn. By the way, and people want to know how long do I water and everything well with all the different sprinkler heads and not all fish efficient symptom systems. Not all systems are efficient. It's kind of hard for me

to answer that. But a screwdriver trick. Don't lie. When you push a screwdriver in the ground, you know how deep that is wet. Now, just be aware that you may hit a root, so you may try it in two or three places. Make sure you're not hitting a root underground. But that works pretty well for it's another way. It's a little quick, easy way to find out if you're wetting your soil adequately deep when you water. Now, if you're trying to water for trees, you would even

want to go a little deeper than that. You'd like a little deeper soaking than just six inches. All right, well, here we go. We are nearing the end of this segment. If you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two kt r H seven one three two one two k t r H. Well, go ahead. Danny Linnerman on talking. He's from in Jenni Forest, Donna, Richmond.

He was talking about butterfly plants, both the ones that attract adults, the ones that attract larva, and hummingbird plants, the ones that attract hummingbirds in and I fail to tell you where the where in Jenny Forest is And Jenni Forest again is down in Richmond. It's on FM twenty seven fifty nine. So if you're heading from Richmond towards sugar Land, it's off to the right FM twenty

seven fifty nine. The website, write this down. They have an awesome website and they always have things going on there. I think starting on the twenty eighth of September, Danny's going to be giving a talk about fall gardening, and like for six weeks, every Saturday there's another talk out there and they usually have a food truck and stuff. But anyway, the website enchanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com. Enchanted Forest Richmond, TX dot com. That's how you find

out more. For those of you who are interested, I recommend you go check it out. It's a real cool nursery. I love walking around out there. And you got to see the butterflies. I mean, every butterfly in town already knows about the place, right, so if you don't know about it, well, you're behind the curve. Ask a butterfly. Sometimes I humor myself ridiculous things to say. All right, well you are listening to Gardenlane. I want to remind that you can go online to gardening with skip dot com.

You know, I say this all the time, and I'm still surprised how many times I talk to people and say, no, I didn't know you had a website gardening with skip dot com. There you'll find the lawn care schedule. There you'll find the pest disease and weed management schedule. There you will find the information on nutcrasts controlling nut grass. You will find how to build your own weed wiper,

a little thing I invented that works really well. It's not expensive to build, really cool, and the products that you would put on the weed wiper to control various kinds of weed. Hey, I want to remind you the second annual Strawberry Jamboree is going to be down in Lake Jackson, Texas at the Lake Jackson Civic Center the Brazoria County Extension Office Horticultures and Folks. They're putting this on and this is on September on the twenty first,

all morning from eight to noon. They're going to have a strawberry shortcake contest. Awesome exhibitors, awesome speakers. October is when you plant, and you'll be able to order strawberry plugs. They're at the event for more information. Nine seventy nine, eight six, four, fifteen fifteen.

there is a way to do that. No matter what the plant, no matter what the situation, there's a way to turn it into something nice, to make gardening more fun, to make it more rewarding, to make it more what successful. I think that's probably the best way to do it well. If you'd like to give us a call. By the way, our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two

five eight seven four. I got a call or someone had asked me about the what was the number for that Strawberry Jamboree? So here we go. The second annual Strawberry Jamboree is in Lake Jackson, Texas on September twenty first, from eight am until noon. You can call get all registered up for it. If you want to give them a call, it's ninety seven nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight. When you go there. There's going to be some outstanding speakers. I've been to this. I went to

this the first one and it was excellent. They are going to be having a number of different things that I think will be interested in, such as exhibitors. There's a strawberry shortcake contest. For those of you who feel like you are the king or queen of strawberry shortcake making. Well, here's your chance to defend your throne. You can just call them nine seven, nine, eight, six, four fifteen fifty eight. At the event, there will be an opportunity to pre

order some plugs for strawberries for October planting. That is the best time to plant strawberries in our area is October. Learn how to do it, make your order, have fun all in one second annual Strawberry Jeenboree Lake Jackson, Texas put on by the Brazoria County Extension Office the Horticulture Section. So good job Kimberly that the first one was awesome, and iss use your horticulturist there in Risoria. Kenny. By the way, if you all need anything, Kimberly in the

Master gardener programmer or excellent down there. I'm going to now go to let's see Hockley, Texas, and we're going to talk to Ron. Hello. Ron, Okay, this is Rob. Oh Rob Okay, Rob. We'll go with Rob.

it's better. When a tree goes in the ground, it should flare as opposed to like a telephone pole goes in the ground and just it's the same diameter all the way down to the ground on right, the tree should flare out a little bit, So check that, check that depth. But that's not the issues that we're talking about,

although it could be contributing to them. Some of your branch is that were prone appear to have gotten some sort of a canker in them, And a canker will take that fresh wounded tissue and it's a disease of it and it causes it to die back even more, to get a little gnarly and everything. If you clean the dead bark out of the areas that are like that. By the way, there's a lot of good photos you sent to clear the dead bark out of it and

it'll close back over. There's one photo where you actually show a single wound that see the callus coming in from both sides. That shows me that your tree has some vigor and it's trying to heal. But the healthier you get the tree, the more it's able to overcome that canker to close back in with healthier tissues. There's not a spray to put on it for the canker, but that's what I would do. Just when you do any kind of pruning, make sure you're making the cut

in the right place and the right way. Generally we don't recommend that you prune and then paint the wounds. That's usually not necessary. So I would just say in this case, there is something going on in the tree, and the best thing you can do is get the tree healthy so it's able to fight the problem off. Otherwise, those cankers can just be a nagging, ongoing thing.

that out and then provide some nutrients. There is a product Nelson makes a product tree and shrub fertilizer. It's a little canister. Nit Fross makes a similar type product for trees and shrubs, and you could just sprinkle that around the tree and water it in really good, just to give it a little boost, continue to give it a little boost. I do it now. I wouldn't do it again late in the fall, but you could do it now to carry you into fall and then again

in the spring. Give it a little fertilizer and try to invigorate this tree and get it going okay. And you were talking about the dark spots. Should I go in there with a knife and kind of clean out some of the bad stuff. What you would be doing is where there's loose bark that's in the way of the callous, closing in from both sides and closing over that wound. Take all the dead out because it's of course not going to come back to life, and it's

just in the way. And it also helps that inner wood to dry out faster after it gets wet, and that that is helpful in general. Hey, I'm gonna have to run round. I hope that helps. Good luck with it. I hope you have good results from that tree. It's time for me to take a break. I'll be right back. All ride, all right, welcome back, Welcome back to gardenline.

Good heavy with us today. Hey, if you are dealing with chinchbugs or if you're dealing with sidewebworms in your lawn, Nitropous bug Out Max is a granular product by Nitropiss. You put it out in the lawn, You water it then and it washes the product that kill see insects off the granule and into the thatch area. And that's where chinchbugs hide all day and night, and then the sadweb worms come out at night to eat, but they're

hiding in the thatch during the day. It's very effective and within forty eight hours it has knocked them out. It's really easy to find. It's all over the place. Like nitrofoss products, You're going to find it at places like Bearings Hardware on Abusinet and the one on Westtheimer, both of those carry it. RCW Nursery on I forty five North, Shades of Texas up there in the Woodlands on fourteen eighty eight are all examples of where do

you get bug out Max. Once you put it on, it's going to give you many weeks of coverage, so you're not gonna have to do it again and again. You do it now and shut those things down when you see that they're there. That's all on my schedule too, by the way, online my insect pest disease or pest disease and weed management schedule for the lawn. You'll be able to find that kind of information there, as well as the timing of all of this. We're gonna head out now to Missouri City and talk to Lauren.

is seasonal watermelons, whatever is seasonal at the time. That's in chender Guards. That's today though. Uh it's August eighteenth, today from ten am to two pm. So they're going to kick off here in about thirty minutes plus. Right when garden Line is over, you can head that way and you'll be right in the big middle of it.

and I can't get to all the calls. And uh so, if you're planning on calling today, don't wait until the end of the show, because that's when things sometimes get a little too busy, and I'd like to be able to get to everybody's questions. I think that's very important, don't you. We're going to go back. I want to talk. I haven't talked about Buchanan's native plants yet today, and I want to because to be Canons. It's one of

those garden centers that is just so unique. Number One, they specialize in natives, and they have the best selection of natives anywhere that I've seen when it comes to just the breadth and the way they're divided up. For example, you can say I want a native just from the Harris County area, and they can tell you about those. They have those. But don't let the word native plants fool you. Yes, they have more than enough native plants,

but they've got vegetable plants. Like right now, tomato plants are in that garden center waiting for you to come home, take them home and give them get home house plants. They've one of the best selection of house plants anywhere in the Houston area. Is it Buchanan's Native Plants, By the way, It is on a Eleventh Street and the Heights. If you want to go to their website, I encourage you to do that, by the way, Buchanansplants dot com. And the reason is because there's a lot of good

educational material on their website. Plus you'll find out about different kinds of events going on at the garden center. On August twenty fourth, For example, they are going to have a program called Midsummer Flower Grown Workshop. It's with ponderosa blooms coming in and it's from twelve to one, so it's over the noon hour on Saturday, August twenty fourth, And this one costs and you just need to call Buchanan's Native Plants find out the details and how you

participate in it. Their phone number is seven to one, three eight six, one fifty seven to twelve seven one three eight six, one fifty seven to twelve are Go to Bucanansplants dot com. You need to sign up for the newsletter because you get a lot of great information there, and boy do they ever know what they're talking about. Very knowledgeable people, outstanding selection at Buchanan's Native Plans. I'm going to head now out to Spring, Texas and talk to Steve. Hello, Steve, Hello.

not bloom and get a little pot bound. If the pot is really large and it just has a lot of extra space, it tends to want to grow vines rather than produce flowers.

soil and as optimum of shape as you can. That way, when you put the plants in, you're going to have success, assuming those are plants that want to grow here, right, and assuming they have the am on of sunlight they want for that particular plant species, and so on. But before you put the plants in the ground, you have

determined whether you're going to have success or not. By and large, I would say seventy five percent of your success is determined, maybe eighty percent is determined by the time you walk away from planting the plant, because the soil is what it is. You've either improved the drainage or you haven't. You've either built up a raised bed for drainage or you haven't. You've either added all the nutrients down in the mix well or you haven't. It

either has good organic matter content or it doesn't. You see what I'm saying. You've chosen a variety whether it's a seed or a transplant that you're putting in. You've chosen a species in variety that is going to do well here. You've chosen a spot with full sun, parts on or no sun, and all of those affect it. So the soil comes first. Take time to get the soil right and you will have success with your gardens.

That is as simple as that, and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about how to do that when we come back, as well as we'll head off the League City and talk to Terry, as well as whoever else calls during this break. Seven one three two one two KTRH will be right back. Welcome back to Garden Line. Glad you're listening with us on a great Sunday. Good sunday to be out and about this afternoon, maybe visiting a garden center pick up some of the

good deal. There are great deals going on around town at our independent garden centers during this late summer season. It's a good time to take advantage of those. We're going to head out now to League City and talk to Terry. Hello, Terry, Hi, how are you. I'm well?

that you do that. Give them follow the label, give them a dose don't overdo it and mix it into the soil and let's get those things growing because once the weather breaks, once we get out of this you know, mid ninety all day kind of stuff, they're going to start setting fruit again and you can get a little crop in before our first frost.

form roots really quick. Give them some directs on, but just give them a good bright area with a little inderecs on. Once they get roots formed, you can take them out and plant them in a container and they will just keep growing and be your fall plants. That's another option. So that's why I was asking all the questions about how healthy are your plants, because if they're

in bad shape. Cut the ends of the branches, cut them about eight inches long, take the bottom leaf or two off and do what I said and start over. If the plant looks okay, which is sound like yours did, uh, then you probably don't need to do that.

The brown stuff, the green that is the soil, that is the compost that is the nutrients, the fertilizer, good drainage that is critical, and then the green stuff. The great plants will hit the ground running. You have created a nirvana for your plants to do well when you build the soil first. Nature's Way Resources has been doing this for a very long time. John Ferguson, you know out at Nature's Way Resources. They have created quality mixes

for many many years now. They when it comes to things that we talk about all the time like roast, soil on leaf, more compos and vegetable mixes, they invented those things out there at Nature's Way Resources, those blends. This is a place with a two acre nursery and garden center too, with fruits and native perennials and houseplants, seasonal vegetables. But what do you need to know right now is this is the time to build your soil

for fall. Fall planting is coming really soon. You need to get these supplies, whether it's compost or whether it's a bad mix like a veggian herb mix or whatever the mix, and you need to get it done now. And now is also a good time because if you tell them you heard about them on garden Line, there will be a significant, significant discount on all soil and

multch based products. So if you're looking at veggie and herb mixes, if you're looking at just a quality compost, you're going to find all of that on a really good special deal right now just by telling them you heard about it on garden Line. Here's their phone number, nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety Nature's Way is located off I forty five as you head up

toward conro Uh. It is a Sherbrook Circle. That's the street if you want to put it into your maps app Sherbrooks Circle. Conro Tepe says, here's the website, Nature's Way Resources dot com. Nature's Way Resources dot com. You need to give them a call, you need to stop by there. They have bulk, they have bags, but make sure you tell them that you heard about on Guardenline. You can get that great discount on all the products,

and don't delay. Get that done. Get the soil building done now because when fall comes, who knows, maybe you go into a rainy period right at the time you're wanting the plant and you can't because you haven't fixed up the soil yet. Get it done now. What they say, make hay while the sunshines. Okay, let's say make soil quality mixes while the sunshines. Build your soil while the sunshines. That's what you need to do.

them for years. They've been sponsors of garden Line. Probably the oldest sponsored, longest sponsor of garden Line is Medina Products. In my opinion, I'd have to check that to be sure, but I'm about ninety five percent sure of that right. They've long time supported this. You know, back in the Dewey Compton days, Medina was sponsoring this show. And by the way, do you know you get to listen to garden Line because we have sponsors that are making it

possible for you to listen to garden Line. So you always want to thank our sponsors for sponsoring the show because that's what makes it possible. And thanks Medina for such a long support. They have their has to Grow line. There's regular has to Grow you can put on your plants a foliar feet, put them in the soil, however

you want to go about it. There is the Medina has to Grow for Lawns, which is a bottle court bottle hooks up to your gardening hose and you spread out over your lawn and it's got a good three one two. I believe it's a four one two ratio of nutrients that is just right for the lawns and really helps. But the newest one is super Grow Plus has to Grow super Grow Plus. It's a sixteen zero two fertilizer. Now in it, you're gonna find some really special extras like a keylated form of iron that means

the soul can't just tie it up. It's gonna last, a seaweed extract, molasses, humic acid, all these things that are just extra boosts in the concoction to make it successful. One couark covers four thousand square feet. It's available all over the place. Medina supergrol Plus. I'm gonna take a little break. We'll be right back for our last segment. The phone number is seven to one three two one two KTRD line. Glad you're listening and believe it or not.

I have openings here on the screen if you would like to call in. We've got about ten minutes listen, ten minutes left on Guardenline, so I can take another call somebody who's quick to call in. I wanted to talk about a couple of things before we shut down the show for today. First of all, if you know people that might be interested in Garden Line, tell them about it. Tell them about it, Tell them that it is six am to ten am on Saturdays and Sundays

that they can listen in. Tell them that they get the iHeartMedia app or whatever kind of app they used to listen to the radio and listen and queue into garden Line so that they can listen live, or they can listen to past show podcasts. You know that you can listen to past show podcasts, like if you heard me say something today and it's like what did you say, Well it'll be posted and you can go listen to what I said. And that is a nice extra, I

think as well. But we have a lot of folks that listen not just in the Houston area but far out from here, so I think family and friends would be interested in knowing about the show. And we of course welcome them to have them as a listener. I have online and will continue to put online educational materials to help you have success in your garden. I've talked to you today about the Nutsets publication. That's new publications. There's two of them, the weed wiper publication, the products

to use on a weed wiper publication. There are my garden schedules on there, and seasonally I bring stuff up and put it online to help you with it. I'm working on a couple of other things right now. I'm working on some things to help people with particular garden questions. You know, as I hear a question over and over and over and over again, if I can put something online, that sure saves a lot of time and trouble trying to re explain the same thing every time. It'll be

right there where you can see what it is. If you are a new listener to Garden Line, just know that you're free to call in at any time. I'm seven one three two one two K t R H. And We'll be happy to answer whatever kind of gardening questions that you have. I did want to close today by talking just a little bit about some herb gardening. Most people are not wanting to put in a formal

herb garden. Now, formal herb gardens are gorgeous, they're beautiful, and you know, typically they're geometrically balanced, where it's like one side is the same as the other side, a mirror image of the other side. Those are all fine, But I find that herbs can be used in a lot of ways in the landscape. Chives make a good thing to line a walk like let's say you're going to plant a riope down a walkway, or to border a bed in the sun. In the sun, the chives

make a good border for that. There's the garlic chives and the onion chives. They have their pros and cons each one, but I think that would be something to consider. Plus, they bring in a lot of pollinators when they do bloom. The blooms off when they occur when before they go to seed and throw those seeds everywhere because they do

receed profusely. Groundcover herbs like a regano like time are excellent to use in any beds where there is good sunlight put I have typically will put those kinds of things at the end of the rose in my vegetable garden because they do so well. There's herbs that bloom like pineapple sage is a late summer and fall blooming sage with pineapple scented leaves. It's a salviet attracts hummingbirds,

and it's just another multi use herb. Rosemary shrubs are about the most drought tolerant of plants that we have, and just as long as you give them good drainage. You can have a trailing type to spill over a wall, you can have an upright type to just be an evergreen shrub. And I could go on and on and on. You ought to consider some herbs that you haven't grown before. They're not hard to grow, and they just add a

real zest to your cooking. And it's so nice to be able to walk out, take a snif and come inside and go to town cooking up a dish because it's so handy right there. You can grow them in containers as well. If you don't have room for a garden, try them out. All right, I'm going to run out here. We got a couple of calls, and you see if I can take care of here. Rode up Santa Fe and talk to Mike first, Hey, Mike, Hi, Hi, how can we help.

issue that's going on. You know, when you say not look good, there's a lot of versions and not look good. So I don't know the specifics of the look, but in general, I would just make sure that if you can reduce competition around them by creating a mulched bed, a mulched area as wide as you can to keep the grass away, to keep the lawnmower and weed eater away from the base all of that. That would be

very helpful for them. You could do a light fertilization now and watered in really well, but I wouldn't fertilize past definitely, not early September. I think I'd stop the fertilization of them at that time because you don't want to push a lot of really late season succulent growth right before the first presents.

generally helps a little bit. That if you know somebody with a pear tree that's not pineapple, you can ask them when they bloom to snip a limb off, put it in a like a coke can and with water in it, and hang it in your tree and the bees will go back and forth. That'll only hold up for a few days before the blooms are not good yeah, that is one way you could test. If you do that and you get really good set, then that means that's what's most needed, and that'd be the little trial.

And it also helps hold you over until a new tree you buy finally starts blooming.

confined root system. By next spring it'll be spread out into the soil better or right now. If you want to go now to get a good deal on a plant, that's how you take care of it. Thank you, Chip, Thank you John. I appreciate glad we could work that in before we ran out of time today. All right, folks, you've been listening to garden Line. We'll be back again next Saturday. In the meantime, check out the website gardening with Skip dot com find the things that are available there.

I'm working on several new things that are now going to go up, hopefully to help you have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape. In the meantime, have fun out there in the garden.