But if you bag and get rid of it, that those nutrients and the perfect ratio that you put down in your soil. Now they're being taken to the curb in a black plastic bag, and somebody's hauling them away for you at a cost. Of course, that comes at a cost. Well, anyway, we want to always recycle those nutrients. I saw a few bags of leaves the other day at the curb somebody doing spring cleaning and tea in my neighborhood. I know what happens to those leaves they
go to my place. Just throw them in the back of the truck and go home with them and use them as malts in my gardens. You can get composts with them. You can shrud them up and make a really attractive little malts too. Some people like to just use leaves whole. If the leaves are blowing around on you, you don't like that, just run on with the lawnmower with a bagging attachment, capture those leaves and then go dump the bag out there under that.
You know.
Someone one time called me and asked me can I use oak leaves as molts? And I laughed and I said, well, God, does I mean, go to the forest, the native natural original you know, condition of the forest is the leaves drop and rot, they melt, and they feed the soil. And that's why when you go to a place like a tropical rainforest, been there since dirt and you stick your hand down the ground, it is the richest stuff
on earth. And how did that happen? It was built that way by the plants and by the way nature is designed to work. So yes, you can use oak leaves as mults, no problem at all. Now, some leaves are slower to decompose Magnoia leaves. I'm pretty sure you could shingles. You could roof your house with them and they'd last to buy as long as thirty years. Shingles now, seriously, they're slow to break down, but you run over them with them ower, open up some more surface area on them,
and those microbes will do the job. You know, we're not looking for them to decompose them fast. We're just looking for it to be a mault as slowly decomposes pine straw.
Same way.
Pine needles kind of slow to decompose until they're broken up. But that's okay. We want them alt so use them. Take advantage of that recycle those things.
Anyway.
That's just some of the things I'm gonna have to do. I've got some weeds that popped up, and when I looking out there at them, I'm thinking, I have got to get out and get those things out of here.
If I leave them, they're.
Gonna make seeds, and then I get to pull up their children. Think of it that way, that's a good I have never put it that way before.
I like that.
If you leave a weed, you get to pull up all its children next year. That is the fact. That's how it works. You are listening to Gardenline. By the way, our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four r ktr H. If you want to do it that way. You've heard me talk about quality home products before. They are the They are the
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Life and won'll take a break. I'll be right back with you.
Welcome back, there we go. Some of you guys have been sending me pictures and boy, I'd like to give me a call on those, because you know one thing about I'm not able to answer emails. Just do the volume and my time limitations on it. But what I do ask you to do is send me a picture and then call in and let's talk about it. Because
other people are going to have the same question. And if you've listened to Gardline very long, you know that I treatus, I treat our clientele nicely, and so don't worry about, you know, saying something silly on the air, not a problem at all. We got you covered on all that. But I do like to describe things because you know, we're always having new things coming in, always new.
Maybe it's a pest or disease we haven't had before, or maybe it's just hadn't been around a while and now here they are, they're back, and so it's always good to kind of have heads up on things that are going on, just so you can, you know, get get ahead of things. Well. In our Houston clay soils, boy, they are swollen now. All this moisture, those soils have swollen out. They they're pushing in all directions. When they do that that's what by the way, heaves your sidewalks
up and your driveways, and also it's cracks foundations. When the soil gets real wet, it swells, when it gets dry, shrinks and there you go, and that can cause a lot of damage. That's why ty Strickland, who owns Fixed My Slab Foundation Repair, does what he does. And by the way he does it was he's been doing this twenty three years native. He's stony in fifth generation Texan. He knows Houston soil. He knows Houston slabs, whether it's
a sidewalk, a driveway, or your foundation. If you got door sticking, if you see cracks in the sheet rock, if you see cracks in the brick on the outside, walk around your house, take a look at that.
Especially.
One commonplace, not the only by far, but one commonplace is you notice the windows. At the base of a window, there's a crack going down to the ground from that window. That's pretty common. Give him a call. The number is two eight one, two five five forty nine forty nine. Tye will show up on time. He will fix it right, and he will give you a fair price. That's how it works. Tell him you're a Guardline listener, you get a free estimate, or go to his website and do
it this way fixmslab dot com. But whatever you do, don't put it off. If you see signs of problems like I described, don't put it off. Have him come by. It may not even be really bad news. You never know, I mean, but he does know, and he'll he'll shoot straight with you. We're going to go now out to the phones and talk to Hines. Hello, Heines, Welcome to garden Line.
All right, skip, how can we help listen the way back? When do we come to his online.
Oh my gosh, all right, take us back to.
The well, it'd be early seventies when I started. But I have a situation with growing. Starting my plants indoors. I have to make the plants that I started when you started yours. It's beautiful, and then all of a sudden they started trying to get too tall, too quick, and they're losing their green. They're green, that's so okay. What kind of can I use before reset them in bigger pots?
All right?
You know the first thing is yeah, I get you. Uh. The lack of green probably isn't due to a lack of fertilizer. It might be some but typically when the water when this, if the soil stays too wet, they get real soggy and they can have some issues.
Uh.
Sometimes temperatures can affect that. I would be very slow to apply fertilizer. If you want to get you know, there's organic and synthetic options of liquid fertilizers, and you can dilute them a whole lot.
Read the label.
Dilute them down to the you know, most diluted form uh and and just water water with that.
Uh.
The the the other thing though, I think really you probably could use more light on those things. And even if it meant sticking them outside during the day. Now you know, if the temperature is even fifty degrees they can go outside and they can That will help slow the growth rate down so they can be a little stock here the wind moves them around the little bit slight.
We haven't been having too much sunlight. I've been using the plant light, but that's not good.
Sometimes the plant lights don't have the right wavelengths to do their best job. Sometimes they're a little too far from the plants also, and you need to run a plant light about fourteen hours a day for those seedlings. But the main thing you got the world.
Outside until they got about two inches and then everything starts changing on me.
Well, believe it or not. They need to sleep at night like we do. So about fourteen hours a day is a is a good time and the amount of time, yes, sir. And then you, like I said, I don't think the problem is fertilizer.
But use a soluble fertilizer at the lowest miracle grove, the lowest.
Okay, yeah, okay, but but I think the main thing is the sunlight. And then uh, watch that watering keep them moist but not not soggy. And I think I think they'll not soggy wet, no, sir.
Uh. And then I think too much water.
Okay, but anyway, I think I know the cat water on small plants.
Well you sounds like gets to it.
They prefer rainwater if you got it, or even just still water.
I have my bucket out there to catch it, all.
Right, heines. Now I gave you free advice, so all I ask in return is that you bring me half the tomatoes you grow the year and we'll call it even.
How about that I can call you can come get them.
You're not going to deliver them, man, I don't.
Drive too far.
I think you might be. We're downtown.
But I'm just joking with you. Man, Hey, I appreciate the call.
Down.
I'm not there. I'm not you take care of Thanks to the call, man, I appreciate it. Good luck with those, Bobby, Yep, that's that's true. There are a lot of things that can go wrong raising a little seedling, but don't let that stop you from trying, because once you get the hang of it, it is. It is not hard, and there's a lot of fun, and you can I don't know you can do it just for the fun of it.
I guess you save a little bit on transplant costs, But I still buy transplants even though I raise seed But I'll raise the seedlings and start my own transplants, especially with things I can't buy locally. And you know, if there's nine hundred types of tomatoes out there, do you think a garden center can carry nine hundred to mate?
Of course not that's crazy. But they your local garden centers, the one you hear me talk about here on guarden Line, the mom and pops, the independence, They know what to carry and they're going to have the best cultivars for our area for you, Like I said, so you can trust what you get there.
They'll tell you about them.
You know, if there's any aspects about them you need to know, they'll tell you that. But I'm telling you that if you want to try starting some things yourself, just do that and find you know, there's a I don't even say the varieties and things on there, because you know then everybody's going to go looking for that one thing and there's nothing particularly like you got to have this one. But I've got certain types of peppers that I like to grow that you're just okay here,
I'll give one example. I don't know that you can buy habanada hobbanaros here in there. Maybe so one of our local garden center is libable to be carrying those because they're always expanding. But habanada is a hallowpen habannaro that has no heat. That's what nata means, not a nun no uh, and habanata that's name pepper I've ever heard.
I grow those because they are virtually heatless, and your I know everybody's out there that eats hobernaro is going to what's the purpose of ab arrow without heat?
I'll tell you the purpose.
If you can't handle a full habornaro pepper and you got a habanada, you can mix one or two hot peppers with a bunch of habanadas and create a hot sauce that is mild enough for you to be able to handle, and you just decide how much you want.
See what I'm talking about.
That's what I mean when I say there's some things that I'll grow just because I want to have those in the garden. Anyway, other examples out there. By the way, it is getting we're getting closer and closer to the time when we're going to put those tomatoes out in the garden. If you haven't started some, you still could, but at this point I don't know. It'd probably be good just to plan on going to your local garden center where they're going to carry a lot of different
varieties for you. Land fertilization's coming up not too long from now, and so it's time to be getting set up and ready to go for that. By the way, microlife is going to be back in swing with that big green bag that we love for our lawns. That's the six ' two four that they have. I just want to suggest if you would consider Microlife Humates plus that is kind of a bluish purple bag. Humates plus is a zero zero four. We're not putting it down for the big three nutrients. It is not something you
use instead of your regular fertilizer. It is a supplement to that that provides the humates the substances that help improve your clay soil. They improve the structure of your clay soil. Instead holding water like a farm pond, it drains internally even better. The roots get oxygen deeper because
the soil structure is better. So just to remember, with microlightshum mats plus, you still get that six two four microlife the green bag, but the purple bag, the blue purple bag, the hum Mats plus, that is an addition to that, and it serves other purposes in your lawn that will help. So as you're out there purchasing throwing a bag of that Microlife hu Mats plus, we are right on the verge of doing this fertilization and don't wait until the last minute to run it and get
it to go and get some right now. By the way I was talking about talking with the Hinds about you know, some of the liquid things that you can put down. Microlife has a lot of good things, like they've got Ocean Harvest that is a liquid fertilizer that is a fish based. They also have the Orange label. I don't know if you've ever purchased their orange label before, but that is a good one. I'll mention something about that when we come back. It's it's about time for
me to run to a break right here. When you are out and about and you're you know, doing your shopping and things like that, because it's pruning season, why not buy yourself a set of quality pruners this year, A quality you know, not cheap of things, things that you're going to have forever. The kinds of brands, and you know, I can sit here, there's a lot of good brands out there, but things like Corona, you know, there's a good example of a brand like that, fell
Cos another good example of a brand. Some of those you can replace the blades on. They got good strong steel, you can sharpen and they're just quality. Do yourself that favor. I'm gonna take a break and I'll be right back with you with your questions at seven one three two one two ktr hut stars Way. Good morning, Good morning, gardeners, Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a bountiful garden,
a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. Well, if I could accomplish those three things, I would be happy, You would be happy, and the world would be a greener place. So let's let's get go in and do that. You know, we like feed stores here on Garden Line and League City Feed down in League City, Texas is one of the old time feed stores that you just love to go into. You remember those when you're a kid, maybe going into a feed store at League City Feed.
By the way, they're on Highway three, just a few blocks south of ninety six in League City Highway through a few blocks south of ninety six. So they served that whole area. So whether you're in Webster or clear Lake City, or Baycliffe or San Leon, Lamark, Dickinson, Santa Fe, League City, Elqamin area, all those places, that whole region right there, this is your hometown feed store and they're open Monday through Saturday. Nine to six closed on Sunday.
I like that nine to six because that way on the way home from work, you swing by there and grad what you need on the way back. They've got of course feed they of course they had that. It's including some premium pet food. But they also carry the products you need to manage pests and diseases and weeds and things like that. You hear me talk about fertilizers like nitrophoss and azemide and microlife and Nelson plant food. They've got those there. You hear me talk about heirloom soils,
for example, they've got that there as well. At League City Feed again a few blocks south of Highway ninety six on Highway three in League City. They I always like it. There's a Madison has a dog named Rorschach, which is a Dalmatian, and I think I think Roshak is the best name for a Dalmation. You know, like you've gone to a psychiatrist and they bring the dog in and say, study those spots and tell me what you see. All right, what I see is a dog,
and I like dogs. If we were looking at the top of the list of two Deus things you need to get done right, now, if you're starting any transplants, go ahead and hurry up and get that done. It's time to get those done so that they're ready to go in time.
Now.
If you're going to do things that are slower developing transplants like tomatoes and peppers, those are going to take about six weeks, maybe even a little longer. I grow
mine a little longer in the house. If you are going to do things that are fast, like cucumbers and squash, for example, if the water meltains kendalops is, you can start all those cucurbits as transplants, but they're not going to take a couple of weeks to get them going, because you don't want them to get pot bound if they get real unhappy, if you let them fill the sides of the pot with roots and you know, start to get a little stunted, they're not gonna be happy
getting stuck out in the garden like that. So you don't want to leave them too long. But you can also do that. Generally speaking, we just direct seed those because it's just so easy to just direct seed them out in the garden. But however, you won't go about it. You can do you can do both of those. I am also suggesting if you got any pruning left to do,
you get it done. All it's gonna take is some warmer days here, and our trees are gonna pop back out again, trees and shrubs and woody vines, And so if you're gonna get pruning done on those, get it done.
Now.
That includes most roses. Now, if you have any plant that only blooms in the spring, only in the spring, wait until after it blooms to prune it. So that would be I said, most roses. That would be like the roses that just bloom once in the spring. A lot of our climbing roses are that way. Peggy Martin, for example, is that way. She blooms in the spring
and not much through the rest of the year. And there are other plants like sparea or bridles reath like flowering quints and azaleas or another example, well except for the repeat blooming azaleas. And so you want to wait until after they bloom to prune them. And why is that? It's because right now those plants have all their bloom buds there in the branches, and if you prune them, you're cutting away bloom buds, so let them bloom and then after bloom, do a little pruning if it's needed
on them. I'd highly recommend you learn how to print a plant before you go out and start hacking on it. Drive around town and see these trees that have just been butchered by bad pruning practices. Crp myrtle's the poster child a bad pruning. Just landscape crews. They don't know what they're doing when they do that. I'll just say that just directly. Anybody that butcher's a crate myrtle. They just don't know what they're doing. They're doing what other
people do, and that will get you in trouble. Remember when you're a kid and you said, yeah, but Johnny gets to do this, Well, I'm not Johnny's mother. Just because somebody else does it doesn't mean you should do it. Don't but your crepe myrtles, you don't learn how to prone one to go online and learn. They're a good information out there. And there's a lot of people that are just ranting about great murder because they're so tired of seeing it. I am too. I just got so tired of ranting.
I kind of.
Don't rant much more about it, but I should I guess, But printing properly a couple of the tips for printing properly. You want sharp printers. Sharp printers make clean cuts that heal faster. Dull printers you end up with stripping the bark and uh, it just makes it doesn't make us clean a cut. Also, the main thing with dull printers, it's hard to cut through a branch when the printers aren't sharp, and you to wear and tear on your
joints and muscles. And you do a little bit of pruning with hand printers or loppers, and either your hand muscles or your shoulder and elbows and stuff, or they're going to tell you about it. If you have much pruning to do, get sharp printers. That's the only way to go. Sharp printers in quality, quality printers as well. But go ahead and get that done. Now, get your printing done. Now, learn how to make the proper cut.
I've got a little thing I put on Facebook a long while back about how close to the trunk do you print off a branch? Just kind of guiding a little bit on that. Again, there's good information out there if you'll learn more about it. But go ahead and get that done. It's time. Now here's the big question everybody asks every year, do I paint the printing cut?
And I want you to listen carefully to me, because I realized I have people listening all the way almost to Austin and almost to San Antonio, and so there's a lot of region here that we cover. So your basic answer is, do not paint printing cuts. It doesn't help the branch heal. It doesn't. And in time, they've done studies on this. A guy named Alec, doctor Alex Schigo, years ago, decades ago, did studies that prove that you do not need to paint the cut because those even
those coatings, the coatings they put over there. When I say pain, I mean shellac or pain or pruning pain or anything, don't do it. They crack and then you get moisture and you get decay underneath. The exception to don't break the pruning cuts are oak trees because of oak wilt. Okay, when you make a wound, especially if you don't do it in the cold winter time, you
wait a little too long. The beetles that transfer oak will spores from an infected tree to your new prunting cut they're out inactive and they can transfer it in. And the pruning paint isn't to make it heal, it's to block out the beetles feeding on that fresh wound. So if you're in an area of folk, will then use the prunting paint on oak trees only. Okay, otherwise don't do it. All right, I think I've said that enough.
We're going to take a little break here for the news again, and I will be right back with your phone calls seven one three two one two ktrh you So the daughter says.
This is a stalker song.
All right, folks, welcome back to Gardenline.
Good to have you with us today.
Hey, the Super bowls coming up, y'all know that, and that is that is the time to get together and have some fun. If you would like a grill to do some outdoor grilling, which I think is pretty required if you're going to watch the super Bowl. But anyway, Ace Hardware stores have got you covered the best selection of grills. And we're talking about quality grills, you know, things like the Big Green Egg and Rectech and Weber and Tragger. They've got all of that incredible amount of
grilling supplies to go with them. Everything you could possibly want to go with your outdoor grilling. Is that Ace Hardware it is.
Now.
Maybe you're like me and you're doing some garage cleanup spring cleaning. That could be indoors or outdoors. By the way, Ace has got all kinds of storage and organizational needs from shelving to you know, the bins and boxes and whatnot. If you're outdoor garbage can the one on wheels, you know, if it's not looking real good or just not working falling apart, how about a brand new thirty two gallon rubber made on wheels for twenty six ninety nine at Ace Hardware.
They've got that.
I just saw that Ace Hardware has their steel still trimors on sale right now for thirty percent off starting right now. I mean, get out there. This is a good time if you're going to do any kind of a power equipment purchase like that, swing by Ace. Check out there still trimmers.
Now.
You can go to Ace Hardware. There's one all seasons Ace up in Willis, Texas. And guess what, I'm going to be there on February twenty second, So anyone up in the Willis area, just marketing your calendars. February twenty second, I'll be at that All Seasons Ace in Cyprus, Texas cypress As. There's J and R Ace up in Porter, Texas and I'm going to be there later this spring. And Kilgour Lumber down in clear Lake. All great ace hardware stores for you to get the things you need
for spring. I finally am getting more birds to my feeder. I had a lull in the birds arriving at the feeder and kind of trying to figure out what's going on with that, and visit with some of the wild birds managers that they know what they're talking about. You know, you go to a wild bird store and you can ask them any bird question and they've got an answer to it. I've tried to stump them before, but I can't.
You know, it's visiting one of the owners the other day and talking about the birds and you say, well, you may have a he named a certain kind of hawk that may be hanging out and they'll come, you know, sit in your trees and if birds come around, they'll birds are smart, they don't but I don't know what was doing it, but they're coming back to my feed now I'm still feeding the winter feed that we plant
that we recommend, the Winter super Blend. It's got lots of fat and protein in it to get those birds through a time when there's not much out there in nature farm to peck on. But you got to know about the new Cardinal Confetti Cardinal Confetti seed blend, the Cardinal tube feeder, the good Evening cardinal feeder. It's all part of the package. But it's got sunflower oil and
black oilflower safflower. Excuse me, black oil sunflower, got something called nutrisaff and bart butter bits, peanut halves, dried mealworms net Right now, if there are any birds listening, they are, I promise you they're slobbering right now they are. And also stripe sunflower seed. It is great for cardinals. They'll tract other birds too, by the way, But that Cardinal Confetti Blend's gonna be around all the time. They're going to keep it year round. But you got to go
get some of that and try it out. Nothing more beautiful than a cardinal Nothing more beautiful than a cardner out there at the feeder. While Bird's unlimited. You can find the six stores in our area by going to WBU dot com forward slash Houston w BU dot com forward slash Houston. Don't don't miss out on getting to enjoy the beauty and the sound and everything birds in your landscape. That is a part of landscaping. It is, you know, we think about landscaping is just flowers and things,
but we have lots of other aspects to it. Bringing the song of birds, in bringing the sound of water into the landscape, that's another plus that goes beyond the plants. And another one, how about flying flowers that would be called butterflies. Why not put in a landscape features especially in your gardens that attract butterflies, or that attract pollinators, some of our native bees and things. There's a lot of ways to go beyond plants in creating that beautiful
eden in your backyard. And I think you ought to sures you how to consider that and do that. For example, just swing by Buchanan's Native Plants and they can get you set up with native plants that do whatever you want them to do. I mean, do you want low maintenance,
They've got that. Do you want plants that require less protection from a freeze, that are more dependably freeze hardy that are more dependably heat and drought tolerant, that are ideal for pollinators, or just going to be canon and saying I want, I want to I want to know what you have that'll attract hummingbirds to my yard. I want some, you know, like the red tubular flowers, but not all hummingbird flowers are red and tubular. Buchanans can
get you fixed up. They're the garden center on Eleventh Street in the Heights and their website, and this is the most important thing to write down right now is Buchanansplants dot com. Buchanansplants dot com. If you go there, you're going to find lots of good information, educational videos, educational sheets, lists of different kinds of plants.
It's just good.
And when you're in there, you're going to be able to get your products like Microlife and Nitroposs and Nelson and Nature's Way and Heirloom and Landscaper's Pride. They've got their own Life Below, which is an all purpose soil blend with compost and expanded shale. They've also got their own Tropicore, which is a peat free container mix designed for your favorite tropical plants or indoor plants. Tropical ores excellent for that. Buchanansplants dot com. You need to swing
by there this spring for sure. In fact, why not just do that today. I always love going in there. They just have It's a I put it. It's like whatever your landscape location or dilemma or whatever it is, like, Oh it's too wet and I can't make it drain better. What plant will go there? Or oh this is so shady, Well we'll grow in a deep shade. They've got all that group together for you, and it makes it really
easy to do your shopping. You're listening to Gardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Look out the window, still dark outside. If your neighbor's lights aren't on, go bang on the door, tell them they're missing Garden Line. They will rise up and call you blessed. They may call you something else this morning, but eventually
they will appreciate that. I never had anybody tell me they tried that, or maybe that's the ones that tried it didn't live to tell the story, that's a possibility. I mentioned we're gonna be doing fertilizing in our lawns pretty soon, and that is certainly the case. But there's a little bit of confusion sometimes when I talk about azemite with people. And this is really simple, asamite is
a trace mineral supplement. Now it's certified as a fertilizer, but it's a naturally mind out of the ground dug out of a mountain in about two hours south of Salt Lake City. If you want to know, volcanic ash and lots of freshwater mintals in fact to have seventy seven known trace elements or micronutrients in it. And with azamite, you're putting it down in addition to your fertilizer. It goes with the fertilizer. Now, don't mix the two together in the same hopper because the part of size it's
going to be different. But put out your fertilizer and put out your azamite. You can put out asm at anytime of the year with fertilizer. We have regular fertilizers. We have certain times of the year that are on my schedule, which is online at gardening with skip Dot com certain times of the year that you want to put those on. But with azamite, you do that anytime you want, at least it once a year. You can do it twice year if you want, depending on the
levels of nutrients in your yard. You know, that's what fertilizing is all about, is what is in your yard?
What do you need?
And let's supplement that and keep our plants performing at their optimum. And asm I will do that. A forty four pound bag is going to cover about six to twelve thousand square feet of the lawn. I use it in vegetable gardens about ten pounds per thousand square feet and a vegetable garden. If you want more information, just go to Azamite Texas dot com. Azamite Texas dot com. You can learn a whole lot more about it there. Well, we're gonna take a little break here for the top hour.
This time is the news. Last time I said it's the news, and it wasn't. But we'll be right back after the news with your phone calls. And when we come back, we're going to start with Mike and Lake Jackson and go to Dan and Crosby right after that. Well, I want to remind you that I'm going to be at the Enchented Gardens Garden Center on February fifteenth. That's
a little bit out there. That's my next appearance out there in the Shanny Gardens from twelve to two, and I'm going to be talking about basically making gardening less work. The way I like to put it is how to have gardening success with less sweat and less ibuprofen. Were has some fun out there, Jenny Gardens, twelve to one, February the fifteenth. I'll do that right after the show. Well, actually I'm gonna be a twelve pm.
It's when I'm gonna start out there, twelve to two.
Come on out and see me. Plus you could see a wonderful mercy if you've never been so, I don't care where you live.
Play on out there. I'll have a bit all right.
Time for me to get a cup of coffee and out there.
That Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skip Richard's.
Trip.
Just watch him as us so many good things to suit bay.
Not a sign.
All right, folks, we're back. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Rictor, and we're here to help you have success and whatever you do.
Out there and your lawns and garden.
Uh, if you are looking at your place and it's just kind of drab looking, you know, I know it gets up.
Things get that way.
Wait, this is the drab season as we get into the latter part of winter especially, Uh, why not get Peerscape's a call. Peerscapes is our garden line preferred landscape at the durance is nineteen eighty eight. And they have professionals. I'm talking about employees that have distinguished landscape, irrigation, drainage, backflow pesticide certifications, licenses. They know what they're doing and their employees stick around. So you're dealing with a company
that does things right. They got folks that have been there twenty six years working for Peirscapes, and you can reach them at Peerscapes dot com. And I would recommend you go about it that way Piercescapes dot com. The phone number is right there on the website two eight
one three seven fifty sixty. But you can see the kind of work they do on landscape design, landscape in this excuse me installation, the work they do on customer custom sprinkler systems and sprinkler repair, beautiful landscape lighting, improving the drainage on those areas that are soggy and don't drain well so the plans aren't happy. Pierscapes dot Com they can do all of that. I want to go out to the phones and talk to Mike and Lake Jackson. Hello, Mike, Welcome to garden Line.
Yeah, good morning, Skip. I've got a Greek fruit tree that I bought through one of these county agent sales where all the gardeners get together, and I've had it about seven years and it really it does look like it wants to die, but it really just hadn't grown. Yeah, the leaves are all green, never has blooms, you know, about twenty feet away from it. I've got five lemon trees that are just blooming their heart out right now.
And yeah, that's been going on several months. But this regfruit tree, you them both to say, and I'm not sure it was just time to kill it, like you say, and.
Just another wather.
Well, let's let's see how long did you said it had been in.
About well, I've had it about seven years. In about three years, I had it in one place and then dug it up and moved it to a place where I thought, well, you could get maybe better drainage. And it looked like youah, the truck started thicking it, but it never really has grown. And okay, yep, leaves green.
But you you're pretty sure the soil is well drained there. If you were to dig down like ten inches, you're not going to have water in the bottom of the hole.
Well, yeah, it's hard to say, you know, it's uh, you know, the soil is kind of your clay. But you know, when I dug it all out, I may have dug it too deep. I don't know. But you have mixed in, you know, a little bit of a compost and as bite and a few other things in there that you packed it all in tru the side of the hill, you know. So it's not like you said a basin or anything.
And so I got you. Okay, that's good to know. So uh, as far as uh, it used to be at the right planning depth, and so you mentioned, may I dug it too deep? Sometimes I'll settle down. But here's what I'd like you to do. Go to the
base of the trunk. Get you a little trial or something, and dig down about three or four inches if you can, and look for anything wrapped around the base of that trunk, and it could be something like you know the little plastic tags that come with plants that tells you what planet it is. Sometimes those will drop down and get covered up with soil and then they end up strangling
the trunk and really shutting things down. That's a long shop, but that's a possibility if the roots aren't still in a If they were in a pot that was circling a lot and you didn't take them out, that will hamper establishment. Yours has been not performing for so long though, that it's kind of a bit of a mystery. I'm giving you ideas to look for any one of those normally is not causing as much of a lack of development as yours has. Have you tried fertilizing.
It, Yeah, yeah, And I use the natrophilus, you know, the pekind citrus mixture, and you I've used meda okay else.
And I do that over weird.
You're doing everything you can do for that tree. Check the base of the trunk, I guess, and then go out about a foot away from the tree and just just dig down if you probably don't have a posthole digger on hand, but anything that would make a little vertict oh you do, Okay, go down about go down a little over a foot and just dig that soil out and just set it aside, and then just wait and watch and see if water comes up. And if it comes up, how far down from the surface you're
seeing water. I know it's on a slope, and I don't think that's the problem. But we're here, you know, Like I said, this is a bit of a mystery as to why that one didn't do it well. So we're just checking all these things to be sure.
Uh.
If none of those turn out to do anything, I guess time keeping the grass away. Put a mulch on top of the ground so there's no competition for the tree, you know, in at least a couple of feet around it in all directions, and that that would be my best advice at this point.
About how far out does the root system go on citrus trees, you know, assuming they're healthy.
Once a tree is established and has been there for a few years, quite a few years, you're going to have a root system that's about twice the height of the tree in all directions. Now there're going to be a few roots ago, maybe a little further than that. There there's you know, the closer you get around the branch spread and stuff is where the biggest concentration of roots will be. But you'll have roots that reach way out past that.
One of the quick questions. I've noticed that they look like lady bugs and they're orange with black spots, and if they can tell you, they'll actually bite you. And I didn't know it was a true lady big but they're all over the place, you know, on the on these plants too.
Yeah, okay, well, well that's that's good information. It doesn't it doesn't explain why the tree hadn't grown. But those are ladybugs, probably the har Harmonia species of lady beetle. But if you if you look, they're there for something. There's either scale or aphids or meae bugs or something like that. If lady beetles are around and most likely scale, uh on your on your citrus trees. But check that out.
I'll turn the leaves over, look for specs. If you see any black city mold, that's a sign that you know you've got one of those pests on your plant and you would need to treat those. And depending on what you find, you can send me some pictures if you don't, take some pictures up close, so what you find, if you're not sure what it is, and we can
we can go from there. In case you'd like to do that, I'm gonna have to go to a break right now, but I'm going to put you on hold, and if you want to send a photo, just let my producer give you the email. Thanks, Mike, I appreciate that call. Folks will be right back. Alrighty, let's get that going here and we're gonna continue on where we
left off there on the guard line. Hey, if you are looking for a great hometown feedstore down maybe you're live out west to Tomball on Highway twenty nine twenty that region. We're talking about D and D feed store. D and D has been your hometown feed store out there since what nineteen eighty nine. I believe D and D stocks all of the products you need to have a successful beautiful lawn and garden. They've got the fertilizers you know, like Nelson plant Food and Nitra foss and
well Nelson specifically the turf Star for your lawn. They got Microlife, they have Medina products, they have soils from heirloom soils and from Landscaper's Pride. You're going to be able to buy vegetable seeds. They carry some plants out front also as well, and when you go inside you're going to be treated right. That's just how it is with d Defeat. I was in there just the other day visit with Jeff, and I'm telling you, the stock
that they have is outstanding. I was going through, you know, looking at the different products to deal with all kinds of plant problems, and I was surprised several times, Oh they had that. I did not know they carry that. That is good. And that's how it is at D N Defeed. Again, they're on twenty nine to twenty three miles west of two forty nine in Tomball. If you want to getm call two eight one three five one
seventy one forty four. While you're in there, pick up some of the quality, high quality dog food such as Origin, Diamond, Victor Starpro. They've got all of that for all of your pets really, and of course it's a feed store, so for your livestock and by the way they are. I mean, they chicks are going to be arriving, and they do a great job of keeping a good stock of baby chicks all the time. Wow, I say all
the time, all the time. In the springtime, I went r out there, and they're they're gonna be getting those in uh. In fact, on February twelfth, they're getting here. Let me just I'm gonna read you some names of chickens Guardline. Can you believe that? Yeah, I'm gonna do it. The Golden Lace, Wyan Dots, the Rhode Island Reds, the bard Rocks, the buff or or Pingtons, the lavender orpingtons. He got two different Orpington choices, Speckle Sussex, staff our
Gym Americana, Amaracanna, the buff Brama. I thought Bramo was a cow buff Brama and the lavender. Why does see what I'm talking about? D and de feed. That's where all the chicks hang out. I'm telling you. I'm just saying, all right, let's go to the phones. I'm gonna go to friends with We're gonna talk to Jake. Hey, Jake, welcome to garden Line.
Hi, schip.
We have a tree that to a pot brought it in the garage for the freeze, then took it out and Wednesday all the leaves fell.
Off of it.
They didn't turn color anything, they just fell off.
Any suggestions, Well, that could have been something that happened right before you took it out of the pot. For all the leaves to fall off a tree, either it is a very severe drought in that pot, or it is extremely soggy conditions where the roots can't get oxygen. I don't know anything else that just knocks all the leaves off a tree other than fall. But so that that is very strange. You feel like it didn't dry out before you planted it.
No, sure, I don't think.
Okay, tell me the type of tree again, please, it's.
A Persian lime tree.
Lime, Okay, I can't think of another.
Yeah, there's two or three lives that are still on the tree, but no leaves right.
Well, as long as the stems are still green and you know, supple and things, I think it the leaves are going to come back out. Other than drought or sagi, I don't know what would not quickly knock all the leaves off that lime tree. So that that's a bit of a mystery. You know, we talk about something called transplant shock that happens when a tree is moved from a container into the ground. Typically it occurs because some sort of a stress happens in the transplant process.
But I'm sorry that that would be.
The only.
We put it in a pot when we bought it, and that was back in October, I believe, and it's been at a big fifteen gallon or larger pot ever since then. We just moved from outside into the garage for the freeze and then back out after the freeze.
Oh okay, are you sure that it didn't get hit with some temperatures around thirty two but in that prior to the move or or after.
It didn't before I mean, I don't think it did. I mean, because it was in the garage around forty.
But I mean, yeah, well, now that you know I asked that, But now that I'm now that I'm thinking about it, that would just mean the leaves kind of turned bleached out and dried dead on the tree. One other thing, if it's in a lack of light for a period of time, you can get a leaf drop, but you wouldn't have had it that amount of time. I don't know we got it. We've got a mystery on that one. But it will releaf out again. I'm pretty convinced to that. I think you're gonna be okay.
I think you're gonna see new shoots whenever we get whenever the temperature allows that tree to grow. You know, citrus likes warmer tempts. But here we get, we can get almost an eighty this week. You may start to see some little sprouts occurring pretty soon.
Okay, all right, all right, Jake.
Quick question, different, different subject, real quick question.
Seed leaves that started, seeds for a variety of flowers and tomatoes. And how long I heard you say that the real wits need to be on for about fourteen hours a day.
And how close should they be.
To the dirt close to what?
Say say that again? How close to what?
How close to that should they be to the seeds to the dirt?
Well, on a on a tomato, you're going to bury them about a quarter of an inch deep, and it could be a little more, but not much. Uh and pressed kind of pressed down a little bit so there's good contact between the seeds and the soil or the growing mix, and keep it moderately moist. And that that's if I understood your question right, that's right.
Should the grow lights I've got grow lights on them, led grow lights with all three different colors?
I see? I see, Okay.
It depends on the power and quality of the grow light. For example, back and well back in the day, when we use fluorescent, I put the fluorescence about an inch above the seedlings because they didn't put out that much light, and to get them close. Some of the LEDs now have a lot more power, some don't. Some are just kind of like a fluorescent in terms of light output quantity.
But I would start off probably about six inches above the lights, unless you feel like you know, this is like a runway light bright, and then maybe go up to about a foot. But know this that for every time you double the distance between the plant and the light, it's the amount of light coming to the plant is it goes to about a half believe it or not, and that's it varies a little bit, but basically moving the light a little further away makes a big difference in the amount of light it gets.
That's the bottom line.
So I start off a little close, watch those ceilings real close, and then move it accordingly.
Okay, thank you sir.
All right, yes, sir, good luck with that. Sounds like like fun love grown those things. Yeah, I wrote, I wrote something. And by the way, I should have mentioned this to Jake. It's on my website and it's called lighting for Growing Transplants. So all of you out there you should write this. Please bookmark my website Gardening with Skip dot com, because every time I have a show, I'm gonna be referring to things that are on that
site that will help you. And this one's called lighting for Growing Transplants and it goes into the details of like quality, like quantity, how long to leave them on, the difference between you know, different kinds of lighting, and it will help you have success. So go to Gardening with Skip dot com look for the Lighting for Growing
Transplants article. If you want a quality mix, just swing by Heirloom Soils, which out importer, or go buy your local garden center, feed store, you know, Southwest Fertilizer, ace hardware store. You're going to find airloom soils in a lot of places around the Greater Houston area and they have quality things. They have things like the leaf mole composts. They have things like the veggie and herb mix. They have things for indoor plants that you know, special blends
that are for your well. It could be containers on the patio, or it could be you know, an indoor house plant, and they have mulches and they just.
Whatever you need.
If you want a bulk of it, maybe you're putting in a whole garden, or you're going to top dress your lawn or something, you can get them to deliver for a cost. Of course, you can get them to bring it in a supersack which holds one cubic yard, and that's a neat and clean area. You don't have to sweep up the driveway and have this pile in the driveway. They'll just bring it out, set that in your driveway and you just shovel it out of there. I've done that before myself. It works really really well.
But Airloom Soils that's what you need to do. Airloomsoils dot com. When you go there, you're going to find a lot of good information. If you want to get a bulk delivery, I'm going to give you a different website. Go to rock in Malts dot com. Slash delivery. The word rock the letter in the word malts All is one word dot com slash delivery and they I think I have about a three sack minimum for delivery, and there are fees on delivery, but whatever you want to
go about it. They also have a premium lawn mix by the way, that is really good for side prep. It's a topsoil list. It's made with masonsand and compost and some of their bedmechs and it's good to mix in there to fill in some holes that you might have in your yard from heirloom soils. I mentioned earlier that I'm going to be at Chini Gardens. If you haven't been to Chenna Gardens, you need to go. It's
a great nursery out there in Richmond area. In fact, it's on the Katie Fullsher side of Richmond, so those of you up Katie direction or down down Richmond through that whole region. They got folks was out there one day talk to somebody that was from Austin, Texas that had drove all the way to in Chenna Gardens in Richmond, Texas because of the kind of place it is. That
just tells you a little bit right there. I want to remind you that I'm going to be out there on February fifteenth, that is two weeks two saturdays from today. I'll be out at Enchanted Gardens in Richmond from twelve to two and I'll be given a talk and answering your gardening questions. But my talk is going to be on making gardening less work. How's that for an intriguing topic. The way I put it is how to garden with less sweat and ibuprofen. That is another way to look
at it. Go to Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. That's their website. And I'll just tell you this. When you're in in Chended Gardens, you're going to f and the fertilizers that talk about on garden Line. You're going to find quality, quality soil blends from heirloom soils, Nature's way and Landscaper's pride. I mean, that's a trifecta right there. They have any kind of plant you're looking for. I'm telling you you want a great selection of vegetables or herbs,
or flowers or shrubs or roses or trees. They've got it all, as well as an enthusiastic team that knows what they're talking about. So you can bring your photos and samples in there, have them look at them to give you some expert advice, identification, diagnosis, whatever you need at Hairloomsoils dot Com. All right, it's time for me to take a little break here. I'll be back with your calls at seven to one three. Hey, welcome by, Good to have with us, Good to have you with
us on garden Line today. We have got plenty that we can be talking about whatever your interests are. That's what you should call about. If you've got a question for plant identification, for a suggestion for a plant, for diagnosing a plant issue or a problem, we'll help you with that. And there are no stupid questions on Guardline, just stupid answer. So the pressure's on me. Let's just think of it that way. How about that. That's the
way I like to put it. If you are looking for compost top dressing and you happen to be in that northwest quadrant of Houston, and when I say northwest, I'm talking about you know, I tend I forty five roughly roughly that area. Greenpro is your company. You know, they serve an area about forty five miles from Magnolia in all directions basically, so we're talking about Spring Cyprus, the woodlands, Conroe, Willis. If you're up northwest Magnolia, Montgomery
down to Katie West Houston, Central Houston, North Houston. Basically that quadrant Greenprotexas dot com is a website and you ought to go there and check them out. They can put that compost top dressing down and the core aeration, and when you do that, you're helping to feed the soil biology. That is what our clay soils desperately need is good microbial activity and organic matter to improve that clay,
make it not so dense and poorly drained. It helps alleviate compaction in fact, but the only good thing that you can do for an instant basically effect on compaction is to do a core aeration. You know, we know, getting humates and humans and organic matter dye the soil. Yes, that helps, but corretion is critical really for improving a
serious compaction issue. That improves your soul's internal drainage. And maybe your lawn was hammered by chinchbugs last summer, or by take all root rot or by brown patch a great way to get it back in shape is core aeration and compost top dressing. If your lawn is thatchy, you know all those lawn grass runners that are just creating a sponge. You walk across it and it's real spongy.
Well correration compost top dressing helps break down that thatch layer fast faster and just leaving that stuff sitting on top of the yard. You know, get some compost on it, get some soil from the cores on it, and it will help. It'll increase your rooting depth and increases the water absorption ability of your lawn. All of this is gonna save some money on your water bills by not watering that lawn so much. Greenprotexas dot com, Greenprotexas dot com.
If you want to give them a phone call eight three two three five one zero zero three two eight three two three five ones ere zero three two. You're listening to Guardline. I'm your host, Skip Ricker and our phone number if you'd like to give me a call seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t r H.
Uh.
If you have never put in, never grown herbs before? Uh, I want to encourage you to try that this spring. Why not now, it's a good time to plan it. By the way, you can plan herbs right now. Uh, And you can plan them all the way through the spring and summer pretty much any almost the time year. I almost all the herbs. But I would say once the weather warms up a little bit, you can plant things like basil, which are a little picky about that
cold weather. Our garden centers carry wonderful supplies of herbs, they do, and there's so many good herbs. You know, if you want to enhance your cooking, can imagine this. You're you know, you're you're making a meal for family or for friends that have come over, and you just walk outside and you strip off some rosemary leaves, or you pick a few sprigs of time, or you gather some chives from the top of a chivee. They grow so fast and easy. Maybe it is a regano that
you need for your cooking. Do you see what I'm saying. It's just right there. And you don't have to have an herb garden. I mean, if you want to have one of those little geometric herb gardens, you can do that. They're gorgeous, very formal looking. But you can put herbs in a pot. You can put herbs around plants at the end of my tomato rose. I often will plant like aregano and basil at the end of a tomato row.
Know why is that?
Well, I can think of some ways that tomato, sauce and oregano and basil all go together. Right, you can do that. It doesn't matter. In fact, things like basil when they bloom are attracting many of the pollinators and some of the adult beneficial insects to your garden. So you have a place for herbs. I mean, even if you don't have a garden, you can grow herbs. And you ought to try that. It's not hard to do, and it's fun to do. Just make sure they have
good drainage and good sunlight. That's the two things that herbs need most. Good drainage and good sunlight. Mosts of soil. Keep this all moist. That's helpful, of course, But a good drainage, good sunlight, and you.
Can grow up.
So I'd like you to try that. I keep telling you, what are you gonna try new this year? What are you gonna try? You haven't done before this year. Gardening is too much fun.
Listen.
I've been I have been professionally in horticulture for thirty five years. I've been gardening the whole lot, and every year I learned something new. Every day almost I learned something new every year. I'm trying something new. And maybe it's a new plant, maybe it's a new way of growing, maybe it's a new type of pest control. You know, if you've never used a garden mesh over your your beds, your plants, it's like putting a screen porch over your plants.
The water goes through, the air goes through, the sunlight goes through. The pest can't get through it. It's blocking them out. So that would be a new thing. I bet you haven't tried that. I bet eight ninety eight percent of people listening to this show right now have never purchased garden mesh to cover your plants and have natural pest exclusion from that. That's just an example of an idea. So I was, yeah, I've been gardening my whole life, and in fact, when I was a kid,
and that I hope nobody's listening to this. But when I was a kid back in Jordans and Texas. I got sent out to pull weeds when I missed behaved. Yeah, it's a wonder I turned out to be a horticulturist. With that kind of child abuse, I had to go out and pull weeds. I let me just say this. We had the most weed free garden in town. And I'll let you figure out why that might be. We're gonna go to the phones right now, head up to college station and talk to Andy. Hello, Andy, welcome.
To garden line.
Hey, how are you doing?
Skip?
I'm good, sir. How can we help?
I've got a horse trough kind of a planter, one of those kind of rectangular galus galvanized planters you see at the hardware store or ace hardware wherever.
Yeah, feedstore.
Uh.
That thing holds a lot of dirt. What it's maybe what two or three feet tall? What would probably a couple Yeah. Is there is there something to put in the bottom of it?
Uh?
And then put dirt in because it you know, it holds a lot of dirt? Or or should I.
That's a great question. Yeah, that's a great question. I got about a sixty seconds chair for my brake, so I'm gonna give you a quick answer, and if you want to hang around talk about it more, we can do that too. Basically, don't put anything in the bottom. Things about putting rocks and stuff that isn't isn't true. You gotta drill holes. You just gotta drill some holes in there. I would probably do quarter inch holes or something, just so the water can get out at the base.
Do a bunch of them all around. The other thing you're going to need to do, Andy, is put that trough up on something. If it sits on a clay soil, and you got quite a few clay soils up there in College Station. If it sits down on the soil, then it's like that clay is sealing the holes and it doesn't drain downward any faster than it can drain down in clay. So if you put it up a little bit so that let's just say there's a little bit of airspace underneath there, then the water can get
out better. So it doesn't have to be tall, It just has to be tall enough to hold that floor of the planter up off the soil surface. I'm is that Does that make sense? Yeah, I'm gonna put you on hold.
Thank you. For the call.
If you want to hang around, we'll come back to you when we get back and James and Spring you will be next. But exactly all right, we're back on garden. We are here to answer your gardening questions. Ia, just give me a call. Seven one three two one two ktr h. Nelson Plant Food has got a product called Bruce's Brew. It is there faster releasing lawn fertilizer. Now, when I say faster, I mean you get an initial fast release of nutrients for it, but then it evens
out over time for regulated growth. And when you slow down grass growth, you feed grass. You want nitrogen, You want plenty of nitrogen, but you don't want a ton all at once. And with Bruce's Brew you get a quick green up, but then you continue to get the development of growth as time goes on because it's releasing gradually and that helps in root development. You overdoe nitrogen at one time on a grass plant, you get top growth at the expense root growth not good for the summertime,
not at all. Bruces Bruce got carbon based nitrogen sources to feed the microbes in the soil and it basically healthy soil means healthy grass, less vulnerable to pests and diseases. And if you get my schedule and look out, we got a green up period coming up here real quick. And Bruce's Brew would be a great one to use.
Just for that.
From the folks at Nelson's, we're gonna head up to College station again. Andy, you're hanging out, So I'm assuming you got a follow up question.
I do, Yeah, I appreciate that. I guess two quick things. We moved into June and we cut some but cut a few bushes down that were in the front flower bed. What what is a good product to put on top of those steps so they don't grow?
Okay?
Uh?
Trichlop here, that's an ingredient comes in many products. T R I C l O P y R butt. You need to cut and then treat right Then you can't come back two days later.
Uh.
The amount of benefit you get decreases dramatically if it's not a fresh cut. So you may want to recut them, uh and then do the treatment right away. But here's here's what you should do. Go on my website it's gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening with Skip dot com. And when you go there, you're going to see as you as you go through. It's on the front page now it's controlling woody weeds and landscapes and garden and it tells you exactly how to do it. Uh, And
so just go to gardening with Skip dot com. I've written a fact sheet up just for that, right right.
And the last thing is, I've I've got a krpe myrtle that's in the back but it had, like just last year, had ants growing up and running up and down it and it just hasn't been good the neighbors.
From the through out before.
Okay, could have been.
Cut it down or is there a good product for that?
Uh?
Well, don't worry about the ants. They're just there because their scale up on the crape myrtle plant or aphids on the plant. But the ants aren't aren't really the problem. I would fertilize it. I would make sure and mulch around it to keep the grass away enough to kind of help it get some bigger and see if it improves. And if it doesn't, you can send me a picture of it and we can talk again more about that.
And I'm gonna have to.
Run to another call here, but appreciate your calling. Good luck with all that, and don't hesitate to call back or send a photo if we can pursue further on that one. You know, Ace Hardware stores have got you covered on your spring cleaning. Do you need do you need some shelving you're putting in? Do you need some of those toats, those rubber toats to store all your stuff? You know, they've got you covered on that.
Uh.
They also have right now. They got their garden garden printers on side. These are power things.
You know.
There's actually a garden printer that's got battery and just powered. Buy one, get one free, or no, get a free battery. Excuse me, buy one, you have the battery, they'll give you a free additional battery. You know you always need more than one battery. If you are looking for fiberglass handled yard and garden tools, those are super things. I mean they they flax, they work well, they last forever. Fiberglass handle yard and garden tools. They're on sale twenty
one ninety nine. Ace Hardware stores places like Paco Aesinalvin, Brennam, Ace Hardware, Katie, Ace Hardware, go down to League City League City Ace Hardware and Child's Building supply in Orange, Texas. That's three of many many ACE Hardware is in our area. Five of many mini in our area. You can go to Acehardware dot com, find the store locator, and find the store that's nearest to you. We are now going to head to Spring and talk to James. Hello, James, Welcome to guarden Line.
Good morning.
I have a Arizona cypress tree that I planted about a year and a half ago. This bring me two years and it started to get dark at the tips, and.
Then when I went out and touched.
It yesterday, it was like kind of pulling on it just seeing what it felt like. It's drying, cracking and breaking off. I don't know if it's a fucus or if it's getting too much water, or something's wrong.
With the soil.
Yeah, yeah, it could be a number of things. When something happens on the tips, it often points to a plumbing problem, meaning that the water flow through the plant is hampered. And you know, we can do that to plants by putting way too much salt based fertilizer on. And we can do that by having drought, by having root damage and other things. There are also some cankers that will get on Arizona cypress. One is called seridium canker,
and those are fungal diseases. And typically with those you said black, and typically with the cankers, it's like the leaves bleach out and die. You know, they die, but they're almost a tan brown kind of color. So one of those things is going on out there. Yeah, Okay, so that would require fungal preventative sprays, and I might I might start off with gosh, I wouldn't really need to check on the specific fungus for that specific canker.
I think I think that you're going to have success if you were to try something that contained either mic clobe buttenil mi clobe buttennil or see Belton would be another one you might want to try B A Y L E T O in those two fun fungus product. Fungus control products are pretty broadly effective on them.
Okay, thank you very much.
Yeah, but but just just know this that some of the kinkers that get on these junipers and cypress Arizona cypress, they don't have a good spray control. So what I'd like you to do is go out and neverwhere there's a brown tip. Take your hand pruners and snip it out and then have some lyesol and spray those pruners in between cuts so you don't carry the disease from one cut on your pruners to cut into another place
and be spreading it more that way. But prune them out and use lifestyle between cuts and get all of that out of there. Don't drop it on the ground, and that'll that'll get some of the innoculum or the disease causing issue out of that site, so the next time it rains, it doesn't just splash that disease all over the place and.
You're right back in business. Okay, thank you, Thank you, sir. Appreciate that.
Appreciate that call. RCW Nurseries is loaded with roses right now. I was talking to David the other day and oh my gosh, they are like four pages or more of roses. In fact, it's more than more than four pages. I was looking at their list and it just goes on and on and on. I don't care what kind of rose you want. Flora bunds grand to, Flora's cutting roses, shrub roses, climbing roses. They have got it off. It's six pages. I'm just listening here looking at the thing.
Six pages. So you're not going to find a better selection than right now. And they only last as long as they last, you know. It's not like they run out of one rose and they order that one rose back in. So if you want the best selection, I'd get out there today. I would because, I mean, people know, when RCW gets their roses, you head out there and you get those things because it is time to get them in the ground. Now's a perfect time. Why are
you out there? You're going to find other shrubs and annuals and perennials and navy plants and all kinds of things. You're gonna have fertilizers like nine to fiss and microlife turk Star RCW, RCW nurseries dot Com. There at the corner the intersection of Beltway eight and Hearty Toll Road. No, it's belt Way eight, Bel eight and two forty nine. I can't even get my map in my head here belt Way eight and timeball Parkway two forty nine. Go ahead, hit you a rose, don't wait this time?
All right?
Well, music means I got a quit talking. That means that's the translation of that is you got quick talkings. We're going to be back, though we're taking some time for the news here. When we come back, we'll get your calls. I got an open board right now, so if you'd like to get on the board with Jonathan, you can be one of the first ones up when
we come back. It's seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t all right, I need to load up on a note, cup of coffee, and we'll be right back.
Welcome to kz RH guarden Line with scamp Ricks.
Just watch him as so.
Many Welcome back, Welcome back, gardeners. We got a lot of gardening talk to be doing here on garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and if you'd like to give me a call, it's seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t r H. Hey, do you have some metal furniture around your landscape? Maybe back patio, that kind of thing. Uh And and this can be like wrought iron furniture, cast iron furniture. Maybe you got some aluminum
patio furniture, you know, any anything metal out there? Houston Powder coders can turn it into like new. I mean, it is amazing what they can do. I was visiting their operation not not too long ago, and they're the biggest powder coder in this whole region. I mean they are. I mean, if you can hear my voice, you're probably within their realm because they get people from way out bring their stuff in for Houston powder coder. Sure, they're located belt Wag eight and Hardy Tow Road near that
area of town, on the north side of town. You know, if you've got some old furniture, maybe it needs a little weldering repair, they can also do that to it for the powder coat it. They can fix you know, slings and straps and things.
I've got some.
In fact, I'm gonna post a picture to Facebook today. I want you to see some of the work that they can do. And this could be. This could be metal stairs, metal railings, metal fencing, light poles, you know, you name it, benches, metal, We've got some of that metal furniture that you put the cushions on, you know, those outdoor seating sets. They can do that. They do the re finishing, they do the repair and get this over one hundred colors so I mean, if you wanted to.
I saw a piece and I go, is that just you know? Is that coated yet? And because it had this beautiful iron look to it, and he said, oh, that's a coating color. You can choose that as your coating color. So whatever you want, and they do it right. They take their time. And I don't care how big something is. You got a goose neck trailer you want coated? They can do They can do that. They got a sixty five foot a little room, they can put that thing in to do the job. It's good work. They've
been around since twenty seventeen. Here's the website, Houston Powdercoders dot Com. Here's the phone number two eight one six seven six thirty eight eighty eight to eight one six seven six thirty eight eighty eight. Give them a call. And now that old furniture, maybe it's starting to rust out there, stop that, get it in. Let them take care of that rust, Let them get it coated, let them get it looking really really good. I was so amazed when I saw the kind of work they can do.
Let's it out to a base city. Now we're going to talk to Terry. Hello, Terry, Welcome, to garden line.
Hello, Skip, Okay, I need some information on Peggy Martin roses. I have some that are on a fence line and they're massive, and I've never trimmed them, and I don't want to trim off anything that might be blooms for the spring. But everyone says it's time to prune your roses.
Okay, Well, I'm glad you called before you did that, because now is not the time to prune a Peggy Martin. Peggy does almost all her blooming in the spring. That's her big show of the year. So let's let that get done. And when it's done, then you can go in and trim as you see fit. You know, we could train Peggy Martin to an arbor, we could have her go down a fence or lots of different things
and you just do the trimming you need. But after the blooms are done, that way, she has time to regrow new shoots, set buds in late summer and fall to put on an even better show next year.
And sometimes they do blue in the fall, don't they.
Two they can, yeah, you can with some climbers, you can get you know, some sporadic blooms. You know at other times of the year, but spring is the big time. But either way, even if it was a fall bloom, you would you would be best to do that after your spring bloom.
That's the time.
Okay.
Could I add one more little question for you?
Yes, okay.
All my fruit trees are in the she shed where they've been protected from the winter cold, and they're in containers. But i'd like to put a couple of them in the ground. Is now the time to do that?
Are these citrus?
Yeah?
Okay, I would just for your own. You know, if you planted them now, you're probably going to be just fine. But what if we were to get one of those you know, twenty two degree things come through and that's still possible, So let's get past the biggest danger, or to get into mid February. You're probably okay to start putting them in, but they're not going to grow till it warms up anyway, right.
Yeah, And it's forty seven today in Bay City, so it's still cold.
Yeah, it's still cool.
The only thing is when you pull them out the container, you're gonna see roots going around the circle around the pot. Take your hamprinters and cut those, or take a box cutter knife and cut those because they will branch underground. Don't be afraid to cut them. You're better off if you do. You have a much better anchored well and a faster establishing tree if you prim the roots that are circling before you plan it.
Great.
Thanks for the call, appreciate that very much. Let's see here. We are going to go out to Kingwood now and talk to Fred. Hey, Fred, welcome to garden Line.
Good morning, Skip. Thank you so much. One can question. I've been following the guardline schedule for over two decades now, and my lawn is healthy and good. One of the things that I changed in the past year and a half, I think is listening to you recommending that we mulchmoe more often to get those nutrients back in the soil. So I've been doing that as well.
Yeah. Good.
My biggest My biggest problem, and this is something that I'm struggling with, is I know it's so important to have a well sharpened blade on my mulch mower, and I have a very difficult time finding a reputable place to take my mower to have the blade sharpened and oil change and that sort of thing. I'm wondering why some of these big garden centers, and we have a couple of them here in Kingwood don't offer that service and as opposed to me having to drive across town
to another town to have that service done. So I'm wondering if you can speak to some of your you know, mom and pop places and see if that's not another business line they can set up.
Yeah, I'll bring that up. I would if I were you, I'd go to your your local Ace hardware stores and just talk to them and see, you know, maybe they can point you at a good reputable place.
Uh.
You know you are ask your garden centers. You've got Warren's and you got Kingwood out there, but you also have can m Ace Hardware right there on Kingwood Drive.
Just ask them.
They may know a good local one that they would recommend.
I've done that and usually you speak to the workers there and and they kind of look with the blank stare on their face and they don't and they don't know what to do. I think this has to be a question addressed to some of the owners of these places.
Okay, well you can you know, ask to speak to the manager owner, uh, and see but anyway, that'd be my best guess. I could go into why they don't do blade sharpening and stuff. It just basically it doesn't doesn't it's not it doesn't pay it. It's hard to have somebody that knows what they're doing on hand and things. But that might be a good service. I'll bring that up and.
Ask thank you for the call, but for your listeners.
Hello, yeah, I'm here, I gotta I gotta run for your listeners.
It's a good idea to remind them to have those laid sharp and the least annually correct.
Yes, that's a good point. Hey, Fred, thank you for your call. I appreciate that. Evelyn and Katie you'll be first up when we come back from break. You know, it's it's just the same that Tina Turner can't bring a little bit of energy to your user.
What I'm saying, love that.
All right, We're going to run out here and talk to Evelyn in Katie first thing this segment. Hey, Evelyn, welcome to garden Line.
Good morning, Skip.
I have two quick questions for you, Well, I think they're quick. I have some stone fruit trees and I'm trying to get ahead of the bugs that get on and lay those eggs whatever they put those worms in them. So I'm trying to know. You want to know when it's the best time to spray, and what should I use on these trees to prevent that if possible?
All right, well as far as what there are different products out there labeled for insect control on fruit trees, and so depending on where you go to your shopping you're at in Katie, got a couple of good Ace hardware stores out there by you.
You've got the.
Nelson Water Gardens out there by. Wherever you go, just ask them for an insecticide labeled for fruit trees, and not a horticultural oil, not an oil or a soap or anything, but an insecticide that has a bug killing product in it. And the time to spray is very critical. It's a good thing you asked the question. These pests start attacking toward the end of bloom and they go all the way up until almost the time you're picking
the fruit. So once at least three fourths of the blooms have fallen off, you can do the first spray. You don't want to kill bees, so let those blooms fall off and then you can begin that spray, but right away, and you may have to do it again a couple of weeks later, and maybe a couple of weeks later. It just depends on how much pressure you have. That's an insect called the plum curculio. So any kind of stone fruit like plums and peaches and nectarines, they're
going to attack those. And they do. They lay their egg under a little flap in the fruit skin when it's still small, and that larva tunnels down to the seed and there you have the worm in the peach.
It's okay then.
And my second question is that I have some of my older fruit trees. I have this. It looks like some kind of growth, looks like moss or something. Should I scrape that off? Is it killing my tree? Or is it natural?
Or what is it?
Can you describe it to me the shape, the size, and the color.
It's like a gray color. I think I heard one time that it's called I may not be pronounced its right, lichen or something like that, lichen or something like that.
That's what it is. Lichen, that's correct. Lichen isn't a parasite of the plant. It grows on the plant. You can have lichen on rocks and dead fence posts, so it's not taking anything from the plant, but it's a sign that the plant probably isn't growing very vigorously, and it's also a sign that there's human conditions around it. But I would it's not something we spray for on fruit trees. If you want to take a little glove on your hand, kind of rub some of the if
it gets real big, rub it off. But mainly it just means I need to be you need to be pruning those trees during pruning time a little more vigorously, and you need to do some fertilization and stuff to keep the vigor good, and that that is what the tree needs. The goal isn't to get rid of the lichen.
Okay, Dan, Okay, great, okay, do those things.
Thank you all right, Thank you appreciate calling on Evelyn. I don't charge for advice on garden line, but I do expect to see half of those peaches at the radio station.
We'll call it even.
Okay, I'll bring you quite a few of them. And also this year I planted a fruit cocktail tree, so I cannot wait. So if I have a oh my gosh, there you come by you okay, thank you?
All right, now I'm joking about that. I'd say that to Evelyn. Everybody will don't be showing up at the station with you know, I guess everybody else their would like it. By the time I got there, there wouldn't be any left, all right. Hey, our phone number seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t r H. Have you been to Jgees Garden Center? You know rages hidden gardens is what they call it. Uh Horay has got a new shipment of roses. In got some beautiful ones.
One it's a white Flora bunda, which means it has clusters of blooms called iceberg. It does and get really huge. It's a manerly bush, and it's got a lot of good disease resistance. And you know white is a color too, and it can be really beautiful on a landscape. Of course, He's got a lot of other kinds of roses there. He's got a good shipment. By the way, on Centris. This is the last weekend that they're going to have their meyer lemons on sal for only twenty five bucks.
So if you're looking for a Meyer lemon, which is kind of the standard lemon we plan around here because it grows well and it just does well. It's got a little bit of cold heartiness too, which is great for citrus. But go by there check out the folks at Jorges Hidden Gardens, which the folks basically means Jorge and his wife run that place and they do a
great job at it. And when you're going by Horaees Hidden Gardens, his winter hours that he has are Friday's from nine to three pm and Saturdays and Sundays from eight to four. He'll change out as we get a little in the spring, but not Friday ninety three, Saturday and Sunday eight to four. By the way, they are down there in down south of the Houston area, and
it's an eleventh excuse me, eleven man. I'm looking at seventeen and saying eleven one seven seven two one Elizabeth Street in Alvin, just south the highway six one seven seven Elizabeth Street and Alvin. So if you're listening to me from Alvin and Santa Fe, Dickinson Hillcrest, Algo al Gooa Arcadia, Alta Loma, this is the Backyard Garden Center right there, Jogeshedon Gardens, Go and check those out. Or he's a great guy too, by the way, very enthusiastic,
very very nice, nice fella to work with. He's got great landscape trees too, by the way, if you need a kind of shrub or tree down there, he's got a great selection of those. Speaking of trees, uh, there is a product called the three sixty Tree Stabilizer three sixty Tree stable. What you do with that product is you attach it to a post and then to your tree. It's a stiff like a plastic stiffed arm that is very very strong and lasts a long time. It's got
soft connectors. One that's even made on one end for the t posts, but it could be a wooden post as well. The other end is a soft strap to go around your tree. You want to set it where it's loose and it allows a little bit of movement in that trunk. Movement creates strength. You tie a tree trunk down without any movement. Tight tied down, it's not going to develop the strength of the trunk is if
you allow a little movement, just a little bit. And you're going to find these at places like RCW nurseries. A Jorge has them down a horaries, hid and gardens. I'm just talking about that. Seeing a malt down South also has those. You can find them, Buchanons and arborgate and plants for all seasons, a lot of other great locations around the Houston area. But don't plant a tree without getting a three sixty tree stabilizer. It will last.
And you go, well, I just want one tree, Well, loan it to your neighbor, loaning to a family, remember whatever, But get you a three sixty tree stabilizer. Getting that tree stable and well, you know, loosely anchored in the ground, there is an important part of having it established quick and strong, and you want both of those. Let's see, we're going to go now to Joel and Katie. Hello Joel, welcome to garden Line.
How are you doing. Thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir, question, I have a plumera plant. It's about the stems about two and a half feet and it's in a potter in a pot And for this last coal snap out here in Katie, I put my plants in the garage. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, they noticed there's a blackness that's developed along the leaves and basically it's killing those leaves.
What can I do about that?
Yeah, you know it could be. You know, you could add cold weather on it. You could sometimes there's like a bacterial infection or something that'll kill a leaf. But I doubt it's the ladder thing I said there, Although it could be. I would just as soon as we get some warm weather, get it outside. Plumerias are very unhappy with the weather we're having now. Even in your garage. It's too chilly for a plumeria to be super happy.
So I think it'll be okay, just just get you know, those leaves come off, just pull them off and then get you a However you're going to plant it, you're going to go in a container. You're going to go in the ground outside.
No, I'm going to keep in a container for a little bit longer.
Okay, good, good, Well, when when you can get it some warm sunshine, do that? You know, if we have some eighty degrees this week, almost, let's see you're done. In case you might admit a there that kind of weather will give you make it a little bit happy, and get it some good quality sunlight. But otherwise, don't worry about it. People hang They pull up plumerias and shake the soil off the roots and hang them in the garage from a rafter all winter time. They just
they go completely bare and dormant. Plumerias are pretty tough plants. And I think here's gonna be all right.
Thanks for the advice. Appreciate it, you.
Bet, you bet, Joel, thanks a lot, Thanks a lot. Hey, if we got any Plumeria Society folks that are listening, and I know we got folks that listen, feel free to call in about that. You may have some other thoughts on that one. Certainly welcome that as well.
Uh.
Microlife fertilizers, they have so many options, from granular to products that are liquid that you would drench your plants with. Microlife has a huge line of products. Best selling organic fertilizers in the Houston area Microlife products. So you're going to have some quality stuff that doesn't happen, you know, automatically. I was talking earlier, someone wanted we're talking about liquid for starting your plant seedlings and getting them going, give
them a little boost. And Biomatrix is an orange label. It's a seven to one three fertilizer, and it you dilute it down, dilute it well down. If you're talking about little seedlings, if you're talking about house plants and outdoor plants and stuff, you're not diluting it as much. But Biomatrix Orange label it's outstanding. I mentioned earlier they have the Ocean Harvest that's a four to two three organic sea fish based and then the Microlife super Seaweed
seaweed based. Mix that Ocean Harvest with the super seaweed and you've got an outstanding product to spray on plant foliage to get those little things growing, to use as a foli your feet outdoors, or to drench in the soil for a fertilizer for those young growing plants as well.
Well.
I'm hitting the hard break here for another break, Philip and Magnolia, you will be the very first up when we come back from this break. In the meantime, Owner, remind you of the website Gardening with Skip dot Com. When you go to Gardening with Skip dot com, you're going to find all these things I keep talking about that are written to help you out. I even put something up on pasteurizing soil. Maybe we'll talk about that when we come back, all right, I'll be right back.
Folks.
Thank you, hey, welcome back to Garden Line. Thanks for joining us today. We're here to help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process.
That's what we did.
And I tell you, if you want to do those kind of things, which I think every gardener does, they want it to be productive, they want it to be beautiful, and they want to enjoy gardening. You need to know about plants for all seasons. They're on Highway to forty nine two forty nine tom Ball Parkway north of Luetta. If you're a green thumb gardener and you take pride in your lawn and garden, or if you're a brown thumb gardener and you'd like to see that thumb turn green,
you need to visit Plants for all seasons. This family owned company's been around since nineteen seventy three and it's a full service retail garden center. I mean from education to selection, you need delivery, you know, custom potting. They're true lawn and garden experts. You can take pictures in there, you can take samples in there, and they will shoot straight. They'll tell you what it is, and if something's needed,
they'll tell you what's needed and what to do. I mean, whether it's killing a bug or preventing a disease, or just coming up with a plant that wants to live at your house. You know that's important. Adapted plants and that's what they sell there. Plants for all seasons, things that are for our area. Because they're gardeners themselves. They
know what grows, they know what doesn't grow here. And if you've moved in from outside of the area, definitely need a quality garden center that knows what they're talking about. And that's what they're all about. It Plants for all Seasons. The website is Plants for All Seasons dot com. The phone number two eight one, three seven six, sixteen forty six. Get your green on it. Plants for all seasons. That's how they like to put it there.
I like that.
We're going to go now out to Magnolia and talk to Philip. Hello Philip, Welcome to garden Line.
Good morning, how y'all.
Doing well? What's up?
Put a yard in probably about two years ago with new set set Augustine before ten, and it's done. Roll well in part lined and during the seasons like maybe part lined, but right there there fall I started getting perfectly round s brown circles, and they started to go with different areas of the yard. And okay, treated I treated it with try said spray, But I don't know if there's grubs or chits bugs. All right, did I treat it right? But partalized also and got a good
rain on it before my winter. But I need to know when my grass starts coming back, did I get rid of it or what I needed to get rid of the brown lane perfectly circle?
All right, Philip, Yeah, those rings are brown patch. They're also called take all excuse me, brown patch or large patch. They typically happen in the fall, they can happen all through the winter, and they can happen in early spring too. If you've got ongoing problems with that, you can put a fungicide down now all the way into early March if you need to, uh to fight that particular disease.
The good news is that when the weather warms up, those spots are gonna go away and they're gonna regreen because the grass isn't dead, it's just the leaves that are dead. On the on the runners, so you can do nothing and it will it will regreen, or you can use a funger side. Now, I've got a schedule online at my website Gardening with Skip dot com, and
it's a January through December. The insects, the disease, the weeds you want to prevent, the weeds that are already growing that you want to kill, and it gives you the organic and synthetic options that the whole nine yards is right there and it's free to look at on the computer or download if you want to print it out. But that's the gardeningwith Skip dot com and it'll give you the products that you can use for that brown patch of control or anything that's attacking your line.
Okay, good deal.
Check it out.
Thank you so much, Thanks sir. I appreciate the call. We're going to go now to mail and Carmi and hey Mel, welcome to garden Line.
Oh thank you Skip.
It's a pleasure to talk to you.
Certainly doing love your shows.
And I had a quick question.
I help, and I hope it won't be what I'm thinking you're going to tell me, and that is I planted some loa blallly pine trees in my yard about the last spring winter, and they were doing great all summer, and this fall or maybe two months ago, I noticed we were getting a lot of deer coming in and we had a young buck who just a small rack. He came and just decimated them by scraping the bark off of the young pine trees.
And yeah, what do I do?
Are they gone now? I mean there's still green on top there still seemed to be hanging on. But can I save them or just trimm below the bark?
Well?
Well, first of all, you know you can eat venison. Yeah, seriously, joking aside, joking aside. If they just knocked part of the bark off going around the tree, the tree will probably survive and close gradually close that wound back over. If they've taken it like two thirds of the way around the tree and stuff, there's no future in those. They will not reach sprout. They pines aren't aren't able
to re sprout. Other trees, you could chow them off, waste, chop them off waist high with a chains on, they'd re sprout.
Not a pine.
So, uh, just have to look at the extent of the damage, because what's going to have to happen is if there's a living strip of bart from the base to the top that the deer didn't kill, then that can start to slowly creep back around the tree. And only young tree there's it's reasonable to think that that might happen. But if it's you know, over halfway around or something, I don't think. I think you'd be better
off starting over. And then get you some tall like wire fencing, like a two by four size holes in the wire, you know, something real sturdy wire, Put some teepots in and just make a little ring around it, and that'll keep them away from doing that.
All right, Well, it's not what I wanted to hear, Skip, but I'll.
I know it.
I know it, all right, Well right, thank you, you bet you take care.
All right.
Now we're gonna let's see, we're gonna run to I left the gate open.
There we go.
Okay, we're gonna go out to Katie and talk to Dennis. Hey, Dennis, welcome to garden Line.
Yeah, well, thank you, and good morning to you, Skiet. Two questions in Katie, what USDA zone are we? And I'm looking for some recommendations of varieties of peaches and plums that would grow in the zone.
Okay, I believe you're a you're gonna be eight B up there, but I need to check. You're gonna be kind of close to the line on that.
Uh.
But as far as peaches and plums are concerned, there's a lot of good varieties. You go to a garden center. You're in Katy, so I'm gonna give you a handful. Around your area. You've got Nelson Water Gardens and nursery right there. You've got if you go south, you got enchanted gardens down south toward Richmond Rosenberg.
Uh.
And both of those are going to carry things that grow in your area. So you can go online to the Aggie Horticulture website look at the fruit tree section, and there's a free publication on peaches that lists some varieties. But I would say just go to your local garden center those places both and know what they're talking about. They're going to only carry things that grow in your area, and that would probably be the best way to go about.
It, Okay.
And would they have varieties of peaches that I know they ripen at different times early spring and late spring, which would be preferable. So I could if all goes well, I could get continuous fruit harvests.
Yes, they should.
They should have a range, and it is good to pick if you're gonna like plant three peaches, don't plant three that all ripen at the same time, and that they should be able to tell you that. Also, you can go online. If you know the varieties, you can go online and there's some charts online that show the order of ripening of peach varieties.
You just have to do a search for that.
All right, thank you, I appreciate it.
All right, thank you very much. I appreciate appreciate your call very much. Uh, listen, Medina products or what you need when you're doing this transplanting you're doing right now, and that would be like hastro grow six twelve six plant food, high quality nitrogen, phosphorus, Potassium's got an extra load of potassium to help that plant develop roots. It's got Medina soil activator to stimulate biological activity around the roots and then humate humic acid which improves sol structure,
which improves nutrient update. It's got seaweed extracts in it. It's all good, it works, and it's not just for transplanting. It's just this is the season where a lot of people are planning. So if you put a plant in the ground, get your watering, can mix it according to the label, drench it in. You're not going to burn your plants with Medina haster grows six twelve six. Drench it into the ground and if you got extra leftover, you can use it all year as a folier feed.
You can use it as a drench. I mean, it's good stuff from the folks at Medena and it works, and so what more can you ask for than that. I'm gonna take a little quick break here. I got a few folks on the line that we'll get to right when we come back. All right, welcome back to Garden Line. Glad to have you guys with us today.
Lots of things we can talk about and calls and whatnot. Hey, if you are south and south and west of the Houston area, we're talking about from Missouri City and sugar Land all the way across to Pearland and down a Manvil on Highway six. That whole region is served by B and B Turf Pros. The website is BB no end in the website BB Turfpros Dot com Bbturfpros dot Com.
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They'll serve you.
Bbturfpros dot Com one of the best things you can do for your lawn. I'm going to go now to Tomball. We're going to talk to John. Hello, John, welcome to garden Line.
Good morning ship. Quick question for you. I've got your typical what right with about nine thousand square feet and I want privacy. So I was looking at Eagleson's Eagleson hollies. Okay, I don't have a real large, wide flour bitch. Should I get a tree form or bush form?
You see?
What would you suggest?
Well, it kind of depends on what you want. If you want foliage all the way to the ground, that's fine. If you've got some shrubs or in front of those eaglestones that are shorter, then it doesn't matter as much.
But I would it's up to you.
This one is one hundred percent up to you whether you go tree or shrub. But Eagleston's a good holly. Just remember hollyes need good drainage, so you need a well drained bed. If that means building up a mound a little bit, do it. And the first three years of a holly's life, I would focus on hand watering and not just depend on a sprinkler system. A lot of things can block sprinkler water from reaching all the
root zone, and you don't want that. When you handwater, you go all the way around the plant and give it a good soaking, and the roots are all going to be close to the base where that root ball went in the ground and it's gradually getting out, So always focus your watering around underneath the plant there at least for the first couple of years.
Okay, would it be easy to maintain I wanted to trim on the bottom side to keep it or I can maintain it as far as not getting so wide.
As far as depth, yes, you can do that. Yes, you can do that.
You just want to do it often because if you let it grow I'm going to be exaggerated. If you let it grow a foot out and then you cut it foot back, you're going to be cutting back into an area where there aren't any leaves, and it's going to be twiggy and it'll re sprout. But yeah, so regular printing so that you're not having to cut too many inches off those shoots, that's that's what you want to focus on.
Okay, Okay, would you go real quick?
Would you go four or five feet wide on those? Because they grow pretty they're pretty hardy you.
Yeah, you could do that. It's up to you.
I mean, when we fight a plant too much, you know, when we try to keep a plant half the size it wants to be, that's a challenge. Uh, and so but you could try four feet and keep it at that. I think I think that would be doable. Yep, that'd be up to you again on that one. All right, John, Hey, thanks for the car. Good luck with those, hope you
have good success with that. For those of you got in Kingwood, Warrens Southern Gardens and Kingwood Garden Center, I was talking about those just a minute ago.
Uh.
They are open seven days a week, and I'm telling you those places stay stocked up.
It is beautiful.
You know you got there and you know Warrens and you need vegetables or herbs or flowers or shrubs, trees, roses, whatever. It is a full service garden center and I love walking around those. Both Warrens and Kingwood Garden Center are fun places. I don't know how one town got two great garden centers like that, but you did. Warrens is on North Park Drive, Kingwood is on Stone Hollow Drive, So both of them are very handy. And again, seven
days a week. Hey, I just gave you an idea of something to do this afternoon or maybe this morning. Get out there and enjoy yourself, and you're going to find good folks that are interested in helping you. You're going to find good products like you hear me mention soils products, fertilizer products, and pest management.
It's all there.
They stock up and they do a good job of it. We're going to head now out to Fullshre, Texas and talk to Ken. Hey, Ken, welcome to garden Line.
Good morning to Skip.
So we're in a new build house out here in Fullshire and last fall we had our bermuda grass top dressed and ariated and such and with where we don't understand bermuda yet and do you defach it in the spring and should we top dress it again this early?
Uh?
You de thatch it is needed. The probably the best time to do a de thatch would be you know, you could do it in the spring time. You can you can kind of do it anytime of the year, but a lot of people will do that to clean things up before that first mowing bermuda. The more often you know it, the better it looks. So if you let it get tall and then cut it way back, you're gonna have some brown twiggy that'll regrain but looks bad for a while. So regular mowings import on a
good sharp mower. That that would be one of the secrets to success with bermuda.
Okay, and then we were looking to plant some trees.
One of the trees we've chosen is a Chinese French tree because we have five rooftops we're.
Trying to mask. But we okay, limited limited yard space.
So what are some other small canopy trees that would give us a little a little visual block that would complement a Chinese fringe.
Well, Chinese fringe is great. It's a spring bloomer. So if you went in with a tree form of crape myrtle, there is a type called oh gosh, I just went blank. Natches Natches like Natches Mississippi. It's white blooms, it's very disease resistant and has a gorgeous cinnamon exfoliating bark. And so you'd have to find somebody that grows it in the tree for him, notchz gets it. It'll get a thirty feet tall in time. But basically it would be a really good tree because it would extend your bloom
time and it also has good fall color. And there's a lot of reasons.
To like that.
Like that, plant anything else evergreen, evergreen? My brain just drew a blank on trying to them up with one. Yeah, right there, I'll think of some if I do, I'll just say it on the air. Hey man, thanks a lot. I appreciate your coot, you take care all right. Time for a break, Russ. You will be first up when we come back. I know you've been holding. Thank you for being patient. It's just like somebody left the gates open and everybody called with per you call. You are
listening to garden Line. I want to remind you the website Gardening with Skip dot com is where I put all kinds of helpful things. Right now, if you go up there and look at the website, what you're going to see. First thing up is Randy Lemon Scholarship. I mentioned that again. Just look at it on the website. Why not consider donating that. Randy is a great guy, serve this area for over twenty five years, and uh
it's a good cause. It'll also find some other very interesting things like quality lighting for growing transplants.
Welcome to kt r H garden Line with skimp Rickard's shows.
Just watch him as so many birthdays to Zuppasy.
Not a sorry.
Hey, welcome back to garden Line. Good to have you with us.
Good to have you with us.
A Neno and garden Line I'm always saying brown stuff before green stuff. What does that mean? That means get the soil right. That's the brown stuff, that's soil, that's composts, that's fertilizers. Get that right, and then put your plants
in the ground and that way you have success. Just just do that right, don't wait until your plants are struggling and then try to Sometimes you know, you can fertilize on the top, but you can't go down in the soil root system and improve drainage and stuff when you got a plant growing on it not fast at least well. Nature's Way Resources up in the Conro area, they are experts. They really they're the leader in terms
of when things were when soil became cool. John Ferguson and Nature's Way Resources was leading the way and Ian his son, who has run their operation now continuing the exact same tradition. By the way, did you know that Nature's Way Resource is celebrating their thirtieth year anniversary And there's a reason, and that's because they're taking care of
the customers and they're creating quality products. So you go to Nature's Way and you're going to find a garden center with lots of things like fruit trees and native plants are really good on lated plants up there too, seasonal vegetables and house plants and everything else. I want to remind you that they have the They were the creators of rose, soil and leaf more compos that was
born at Nature's Way, super quality products. But when it comes to mulches, medium multius, coarse mulches, double ground mulches, mulchus for azaleas, they've got it all. All you got to do is give them a call. Nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety or depending on what area you're listening in, here's another one nine three six two seven three twelve hundred nine three six two seven three
twelve hundred. The phone systems come up in that region's kind of different. The way it works anyway, nine twelve hundred Nature's way resources. Give them a call and they will help you have success. Let's see here. I'm gonna go now and we're going to talk to Russ. Russ, you must be the most patient caller I've ever had. Thank you, sir, Sorry for that weight, but appreciate you hanging on.
Yeah, not a problem. We live up to the Kingwood area and have been here for several decades, and we used Warrens forever in a day on all our landscaping, and now they don't really do landscaping anymore. And uh, I was wondering if you had any suggestions for people that do work in our area to do some planting and redesigning on some of the.
Areas we have in our yard.
Yeah. Uh, you know our the folks. I'm almost tighten rites puirscapes and they they tend to stay to the east of forty five, so you're you're far out.
Of the area there.
If you tried talking to Warren's and saying, who do you recommend, because they would know the landscapers that are in the area.
Yeah, they didn't recommend anybody. I went to both the North Park store and the store that's over here closer to Kingwood Drive, and they just didn't want to recommend anybody, honestly.
So okay, all right, well that's fine.
We tried one and they they didn't when they realized it was Kingwood, they weren't going to come over here either.
So.
You think it would be working. I went to the Home and Garden show to find somebody or.
Do you know anybody?
Well, I mean you could do that, I mean you can. You know, you do a search for landscapers in the area too. As far as finding somebody that I would, I would say these are good.
I know they're good. I don't have one up in.
That area, so I wish we did, okay, yeah, to get us one.
I don't.
I don't have one in that area. When you're looking for a landscaper, you know, see if you have any friends or neighbors in the area that you like what has been done on their yards? I would start there, find out how they did you know, they do what they say they're going to do? Did they did they clean up? Robably take care of things?
And I would get that route probably on it.
I don't. I just don't have another suggestion for you up there. One other thing, you're not too far from Porter, why don't you go to Warren's Rock and Mulch, which is up in the Porter area. That's where that soils comes. Yeah, and heirloom soils are used by landscapers, and so uh, they may have some good suggestions for you. That'd be my next suggestion if you're if you're looking, you know, for for for someone like that, Hang on one second, I'll give you a telephone number or for them.
Uh, pulled this.
Up Warrensrock and Mall. It's one two three, Come on, let's do it. Okay, there we go Porter the Porter location to eight one three five four nineteen fifty two eight one three four nineteen fifty they're on on Highway fifty nine on the right side as you're heading up toward Porter.
Yeah, I know exactly where they're at.
Thank you.
I'll give them a call. Appreciate it, you bet, you bet?
Good? Good luck with that. Thank you.
Oh here, Yeah, let's take a call from David and Tomball. Hey, David, welcome to garden Line.
Well, good morning, sir.
Hey.
I've got some high dranges that look like it's just got stick sticking up by them with no leaves on them at all. And my instinct wants to just cut them all the way back down to the ground. Should I do that or can I do that?
Well, they'll come back out if you do that. If you got anything living above ground, I'd probably leave it. Uh and uh, just that's normal. Are these the have the big like pump pump ball blooms, you know, the clusters of bombs rounded mound. Okay, because there's some other kinds of grandes. Uh yeah there you know they you may get some cold damage on top. But I would leave them and let them come back and just go up. Go about it that way.
Okay, they just look bad, that's one.
Want to get rid of. Well, you know it.
People go about it different ways. I usually like to leave mine if they have them, and kill back. And so maybe maybe don't go over there. Don't go over there, spring when they look better. Thank you, David, all right, appreciate that you yes, sir, all right, bye bye. That's a good one. Oh man, we ran out of time on Charlie for this segment. Charlie, you'll be our first s up at in West uh when we come back from this break.
Uh.
Appreciate you guys listening to garden Line. You know we're here on Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings from six am to ten am. Now, I think the best way to listen to Gardenine if you got to radio. That's great and it's a radio show, but you get you the iHeartMedia app on your phone. The iHeartMedia app on your phone downloaded. You can see past shows on there, but you can listen live. And if you'll take your phone, I turn Here's what I do when I'm out in
the garden. I'll turn my phone upside down in my pocket so the speaker, you know, hear the speaker or either way, and crank it up and just go out and work in the garden and listen to guard line. And if you see a bug or something, you can take a picture of it and send it to me. Who knows, we may be able to talk quick about that. I'll be right back.
All righty folks, This son is out And what a great day. Looks good outside right now. Good day to get out there and get some garden work done. Hey have you been doing?
Send it for us?
Have you ever been there?
If you haven't, you really got to go. If you have, you already know why you need to go there. I mean, it is the incredible full service garden center with everything you can imagine. Plus it's pretty and cool and I just like walking aroun around there. It's like you well, it's like you've kind of walked out into another world, another like in some cases back in time. The way the buildings look. I love the look of that. But you're there for plants, and they have got plants. Oh
my gosh, everything right now. They are loaded up. They've got a Dave Wilson nursery order coming in that is probably one of the biggest shipments that Dave Wilson makes to Texas. Goes straight there to Enchanted Forest Garden Center. So here's the deal. You got low chill varieties of apple, peaches, and plums, so you need a variety that is going to do well. You know in the Houston to all the way down to the Gulf Coast, really that whole area and even a little further north than that. They
carry those varieties. They do, and they have got when it comes to apples, there's low chills and we need that because you go buy a red delicious apples, stick it in the ground and you'll never see an apple that it doesn't work.
Done here.
But they know the ones that do. They have something. This has got ed by a buzz in three in one trees. Three in one tree, So here's the deal. There are certain things that are compatible, like three different kinds of apples could be grafted together. You could graft three different kinds of peaches, or even peaches and plumbs are cross compatible as a matter of fact. But one tree grows you a bunch of different stuff. Is that
great or what? So that tree pollinates himself in the case of an apple, because you know, one bloom is pollinating the other varieties bloom because they're on the same tree. They make sure that you get the varieties that do. If you want citrus, awesome, awesome selections oft cetrus, especially satsumas. I think they have about twenty different varieties. Now, satsumas are cold hardy. Once they're well established, they're cold heating
down to the middle teens. Actually, now that's not the week or the year after you put them in the ground. They have to establish well. But there are very few citrus trees that can match a satsuma for cold heartiness. So it's a great choice. Plus it they're the fruit is baggy. They're like those little if you're about the little qut oranges in the store, you know that just peel your fingernails can pull them right off and peel them.
That's a satsuma. That that kind of fruit is what they have, and so do you need tools, do you need fertilizers, do you need soils?
Whatever?
For your fruit trees. They've got them there at the enchanted forest now in Channet Forest is in the Richmond Rosenberg area, but it's US. It's to the south and east of Interstate or Highway fifty nine. So in other words, if you're in Richmond, go in toward sugar Land. It's off to the right. You go off to the right out there, and when you're out there, say hi to them. I mean, you know what Danny Milliken's knew. They got him on staff. Now that's a great a great win
for them. But the highways or the road is fifty seven twenty seven, fifty nine twenty seven to fifty nine. Tongue tied here. But you really need to go, really really do and check out their fruit trees. I'm going to go now to the phones and we're going to talk to Charlie and west U. Hey, Charlie, welcome to guard Line.
Hi. Could you explain to me again how and when to trim loliope? Is it too late to do that?
No, it's not in the spring, early in the spring, and I may even be starting in your area.
I don't know.
Loiope starts to send up new shoots out of the new leaves out of the ground, and if you trim after that, you end up with a bunch of stubbed off leaves, which is a little bit unsightly. So I would do it right now asap.
Get that.
Just cut them back as low as you want to cut them back, and fresh new growth is going to come out in spring and you've gotten all the old growth out of there. You know, whatever diseases or just wear and tear ragged leaves, they're all out of there. But do it as soon as you can. If your plants are looking really bad late in the summer, then in late August do it again. You can do it again and they will come out and you have fresh
fall growth or fresh growth forefall. It looks good. The riope is it can be cut back to the ground twice a year if you want to.
And and do I cut it to the ground or that a couple of inches of the ground or what comes can I use a well? I do it.
I do it a couple of inches of the ground. I like using them more because, uh, it just makes a clean cut. A weed whacker is fine if you want to use that, because what you're weed whacking is not what you're going to see when the new growth comes out. That's why I said, don't wait until new shoots are out. If you weed whack it and it already has its new shoots, it's going to.
Look pretty rough, okay, And the new shoots will be coming out soon. I guess.
Very soon.
They came out early. That's all about the weather. Yeah, all depending, All right, good luck with that. Yeah, send me a be for and after picture if you get around to it. I'd i'd like to see how your place looks. Hey, thanks a lot, Charlie, appreciate the phone call. You take care and good luck with getting that in good shape. Let's go to Jeff and Spring Branch. Hey, Jeff, welcome to garden line.
Hey skip Man, thanks for everything. Yeah, great day to be outside working in the yard.
Hey.
I have some azalia's, probably twenty five year old azalias. I never cover them, you know, during the ice they're they're fine. But this year I'm noticing that I got a bunch of rest rest on my leaves and they're turning yellow.
Is that something to do?
With the cold or another deficiency.
Well, azaleas are evergreens. But every evergreen, whether it's a pine tree or southern magnolia or an azalea, those leaves only last a certain amount of time. And typically as we get new growth coming out in the spring with fresh growth, some of the old growth will start, you know, start to fade and drop. On various types of evergreens, it could, you know, azaleas could be doing that due to a droughty condition. We have not had droughty conditions, uh,
you know, soggy wet soil. They don't like poor drainage, but they do want constant moisture. But I wouldn't worry about them at all. I think they're gonna be okay and just continue to provide good care. When they start to put on new growth. Get you an acidic fertilizer
to put on them. A quality acidic fertilizer. Microlife has one that's in a pink bag for acid loving plants like blueberries and azaleas and camellias and Virginia sweet spire, those kinds of plants, And I would just sprinkle that around them and get some fresh new growth going.
Awesome.
Awesome.
So they'll bloom with these rest colored leaves on if they don't fall off before the bloom, and then after that.
Just trim it back and take good care of it.
Perfect.
Thank you ski.
Yeah, your bloom. Your blooms are gonna be out at the ends of the branches and they'll look beautiful.
I think that. I think they'll be just fine. All right, Thank you, sir, Thank you, sir, thank you, you bet all right.
Uh. You know, Southwest Fertilizer on the corner of Businet and Runwick is the place to go for whatever you need. I don't and I mean whatever you need. If there is a product that controls pests like insects, that controls diseases that can that prevents weeds, that kills existing weeds, if there's a product that is a fertilizer that will help your plants look their best. Southwest has it, I mean the whole nine yeard. Go by there and check it out. You see what I'm talking about. Corner Businet
and Runwick in Southwest Houston. Here's a phone number seven one three six sixty six seventeen forty four. Seven one three six sixty six seventeen forty four. You know, they've got a little shop there where they can do more blade sharpening, where they can do small engine repair and stuff. So that's another reason to swing by there. But when it comes to options, products and expertise to point you at what you need and not sell you what you
don't need, you're not gonna better in Southwest Fertilizer. I'm going to head out now to clear Lake and we're going to talk to Mark. Hey, Mark, welcome to garden Line.
On top of the morning to you, sir. Are you sure that what you're calling the sun isn't a mirage? I don't know.
If somebody liked their lights on, I don't know.
Yeah, maybe my toes are starting to grow together at any great, did you get the email about what might be mold crickets?
Oh yes, yes, I sure did. And what you sent me was a picture of mold crickets. And I can't remember when the last time I had a mold cricket question was, so I was. I was glad to see that, Uh, moult crickets. Everybody knows what a cricket looks like. And I know you because you sent me the picture. But moult crickets just think like a cricket that had just got big, big broad feet, almost like webbed feet with
claws sticking out, and they crawl underground. They pushed just under the surface of the soil, so you'll see little raised tunnels like sometime as you see with voles or moles. But they make these little tunnels and then then make a little poles of dirt and they eat. They eat grass, They eat the parts of the grass plant, and so you gotta control them. You need to get something through the surface of the soil and down to the mole cricket. So an insecticide that can be drenched down in there
would work pretty well for mole crickets. And if you look on my schedule, I don't have mole crickets on the schedule, but whatever you're using to treat for the chinch bugs and grubs, I think would be very good, certainly for.
The mole crickets.
They're a product that contains carbaryl or seven could be drenched down in there. It'll move down into the soil very well. And also there's one called BioAdvance twenty four hour grub killer plus that's one that would control mole crickets.
As well.
From an organic standpoint, a pyrethern, a pirethern insecticide might work on them, but you got to get it down below the surface, and that is the key, because they're working primarily underneath the ground.
Well, that comment that she mentioned about it's too late for the soapy water and knem oil, yeah that was a comment because she thinks I'm totally organic and I had the correct her. I'm organic about where we might be growing edibles, but you know, if I need to put some poisoning to get some of these, I'm okay with that. She mentioned this trias the side or something like that.
Is that a tryside?
Does that work?
Yeah?
I think let me look at try aside and see what is what is in that? I think that should work. I'm trying to remember. I can't remember the ingredient in it right now, but anyway, triside should should do pretty good. These companies don't always. Sometimes you have to jump through hoops to figure out what ingredient it is because they don't just come out and tell you triside, Oh, it's a synthetic. It's a synthetic pyrethroide. So yeah, that would work.
You could use it.
So that's the soap just irritates them and makes them come to the surface and it doesn't work real great at that. So I wouldn't bother with the soap. I would I would use you know, like if you have tricide, that would that would work well.
She said when she treated the lawn, that she went out one morning and there were twenty of them on her porch.
So that's how she wow.
Well, they were coming up. They hadn't been fed in the while, and they wanted They were knocking on the door wanting something.
So you said something called biodense b io d n c RESI.
Oh, I said, bio advanced. It is a grub killer. Plus it's just an example. There's none magic about that. And trysadle work just fine. Hey, I'm hitting a heartbreak, so I'm going to run. But good luck getting those under control. They make good fish bait too if you're a fisherman. I'm just saying, take care mark All right, folks, we'll be right back, all right, Welcome back to guard Line. Hey,
thanks for listening today. I hope we're helping out with that beautiful landscape and bountiful garden that you dream of. We can make it a reality. Welcome to give me a call ife you'd like to ask a question. Seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Tree hugger sprinklers have been around now for a couple of several years. I guess I know I've been talking about them for a while. They are a really unique little gadget.
And if you haven't seen one before, what it is is it's a little round sea shape type device with a hinge in the middle. So you put it up to the tree trunk and then it just bends and goes around the trunk to create a circle around the trunk. You hook it up to your water hose and you turn on the water hose to get three hundred and sixty degrees of watering around that tree. And if you're putting a new plant in the ground, you can barely turn that on just to water. Soak that rootball. Leave
it there for a while. Soak that rootball real good. If you've got one, maybe you planted last fall or last spring. It's getting some roots in the ground. You turn it up a little more to what a larger area. I mean you can do this all the way up to a good sized tree. In the middle of summer. You're trying to rescue that thing. It's it's dry, it's
hot head and rained. Tree huggers will do that, and they'll put water in a spot where the tree has lots of roots, which is underneath the branch spread of the tree. They come in three sizes, a little seven inch for new plants, an eleven inch, and a fifteen inch. The fifteen inch, you know, cover a big wide area
now at treehuggersprinkler dot com is the website. You're going to find these at places like the Arbor Gate, NRCW and Warren Southern Gardens, Nelson Water Gardener and Katie and Channy Gardens and Channing Forest and a Richmond Kingwood Garden Center out there with Warrens in Kingwood. Feed Stores like D and D, Sinkle Ranch, Ace, Katie ace K and M. A. S. Fullshire. A's Southwest Fertilizer has of of course BROD has everything.
Spring Creek Feed Center up north Tomball just east northeast of Tombull and League City Feed down in League City. All places you can get the tree hugger sprinklers. Go to Treehuggers sprinkler dot com to find out more information finder retailer that's close to you. Let's see here. We're going to go now to Who's up next? George in Jersey Village. Hey, George, welcome to garden Line.
Thank you, Skiff welcome. Nice to talk to you. So I've got a couple of questions for you.
Thank you.
During the freeze, the bogle bea, we had covered it and I thought we treated it properly, but it doesn't look too healthy now. So that's the first question. The next one is my wife is wife is Korean, and she's about to plant some garlic tribes are called bouchou in the Korean language that they are used for everything. They cook everything with them. They're delicious. But so we've got a bag of a miracle grow and I suggested mixing some of that with worm castings. I don't know
what proportion to do it too. So that's the other question. She says, I'm going to wait till springtime to plant them, and I don't know springtime to twin discovery marching right now, all.
Right, let me try to let me try to tackle those two. The boom and villia. Get your little thumbnail or a pocket knife and just scrape the bark a little bit on it, and it should be creamy, creamy white, or maybe a light green underneath the bark, just right under the bark. That's a sign that it's alive. If you see paper sacked brown or brown, that it's dead, and you just have to that's going to get pruned out.
If I were you, if if it at the base you see some green, I would just wait and let that tree, let that bush tell you where to print it. As you see new growth, then cut it back to where the new growth is. Uh And and that is simple, and it's gonna take some warm weather for it to want to grow, so be very patient with that. As far as the garlic chives are concerned, you can plant
them anytime of the year. Just remember garlic chives, they reproduce, they receed profusely, and they'll they'll take over the bed. So whenever they have their little flowers up on top, you want to snip those off and don't let seedheads form and cast out their little black seeds or you'll you'll have too many, it'll be too thick.
No such thing as too many?
All right, dish, Well, all right, you have a lot of plants. I just you know you want to have a little clumps of garlic chives other than them just being like grass through the whole bed. So I'll leave that up to y'all. But you've been forewarn Thank you, Thanks sir, I appreciate the call. Good luck with that good question. We're going to go to Susan now in Beaumont. Hey, Susan, welcome to garden line.
Well their skip, oh, hello, Skip, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great?
How can we help you?
Sir?
I am wanting to utilize a ladybug in my vegetable garden. And my question is is there a certain time I need to put them out there? Do I need to wait until there's a certain amount of vegetation established? Do I put them directly on the vegetation or on the ground?
Okay, so what if you're going to release them? And by the way, you've got ladybugs, you don't need to buy them. But if you want to buy them, it's not something I wreck not something I recommend. If you get aphids in your garden that lady beatles will show up. If you're going to release them, don't release them until you got aphids. They need to have something to eat or they'll fly to your neighbor's house, and so they're they're looking for food. The adults and their larva both
eat aphids, so have some aphids. I like to use a plant called tropical milkweed. It's a milkweed and it brings butterflies and you know, monarchs in and stuff. But I like to use it because it gets a yellow aphid on it. And if you go to somewhere or buying milkweed, it's tropical milkweed, not other milk weeds, but specifically the tropical in this case, it'll load up and you'll have lace wings and lady beetles and parasitoid wasps and other things that eat aphids right there in your garden.
But lady beetles aren't philanthropic and they're not going to lay eggs where their babies will starve. So in other words, you need to have pests to keep them around. And if you have a that's why I like to use milkweed, because it always has aphids on it during the growing season, and it just pulled them up there and they'll be around. Yeah, if you build it, they will come.
Okay, wonderful.
Thank you so much.
All right, thank you.
I appreciate appreciate your call very much. Nelson Plant Food has so many great products.
You know.
They've got their turf Star line, the nutri Star line, the Nature Stars line, it's an organic line they have. They've got the Color Star which is great for beautiful color. Under the turf Star line, they have a product called Weedenator, and Whedenator is a fertilizer, but it's going to last up to six months. But what it has in it is a post emergent herbicide that will kill existing weeds existing weeds, So you have you have to have wet
leaves of the weeds. In other words, if it hasn't rained, turn on the sprinter just long enough to wet the foliage and then put the turf Star Weedenater out where it'll stick to the leaves.
Does better that way if you do that.
But it also has a turf growth regulator, so instead of getting a lot of vertical growth where you're mo mo mowing your lawn, it's more horror it's not as fast as vertical growth. And as a result, you're gonna have really good results in terms of not being out there mowing so much to keep up. And that's a
good idea. Plus the fact that it's a slow release and it's going to control chickweed and clover and dandelion, dollar weed, grasper personally and ragweed spirts, all kinds of things that you gotta you gotta get it on before all those weeds become reproductive.
So what's in your yard right now?
The chick weed and dandelion and the hand betten things you need to get that down if you're going to do it right now. The strip star weed eater from the folks at Nelson. Well, it looks like I got to take a quick break here. Vincent and Jonathan, you'll be our first two up when I come back. I know it's summer between strip. Each voice you ready for you ready for a little bit of warm weather. Let's speak up, all right, Welcome back to Gardenline.
Good to have you with us.
If you are looking for a wonderland to visit in a garden center, you need to see Arburgate Nursery. I know pretty much Eby lives here, has been to Arburgate Nursery because it's such a showplace and a one stop for all kinds of things. But it's up there in Tomball, Texas. It's to the west of Tomball for those of you
knew to the area, on twenty nine to twenty. So you go up two forty nine to Tomball, turn west on twenty nine to twenty, and not too far outside of town on the left, there'll be Arburgate right there there. You want to drive around something called Trichel Road that goes around behind Arburgate because the back parking lot's the best one to park in. But anyway, that is neither here nor there. When it comes to talking about the plants,
that's why you're going there. Extensive selection of fruit trees, berries, and grape vines. And I'm talking about When I say extensive, I mean fruit you would never dream to plant. And they've got one there like a goji berry or something like that. But all the standard stuff in the varieties that grow here, that's right, the varieties that grow here. You need to get the right chilling hours of some types of fruit. Arburgate can direct you. Listen the whole
group from Beverly, the owner all. You know, Kennon one of the main main folks there at Arburgate, the whole team. Really. I visit with folks all the time when I'm out there, and I'm so impressed with their knowledge and they understand and they carry the things you need to grow. They're always getting in neose new deliveries of color plants for
those flower beds, vegetables and herbs, seed starting kits. You you're talking this morning about starting your own seed, Well, the seed and the seed starting kit is they're waiting for you. At Arbrogate. They got roses that are blooming and they have their one two three system that is the soil for anything with roots, a compost that is awesome. It's got some expanded shail in it which really helps
with the clay. And then they have the fertilizer. The organic fertilizer's part of the one two three easy system. And did you know the soil and the compost can be delivered in bulk. So if you're putting in a you know, a big area and you need more than just bags, call them up say hey, I'd like to on getting the soil and compost delivered. I don't care where you are, they will deliver it. If you're hearing my voice, they'll deliver it. And you can get the
bulkloads of it right like that and arbigate plus. Just go out there this afternoon. It is so fun to walk around. Really, it's cool. You will be so inspired. Allow yourself some time. Take a friend with you too, By the way, that would be a great outing. We're gonna go and talk to Vincent now on the phones. Hey, Vincent, welcome to garden Line.
Thank you, sir, Good morning. How are you doing.
I'm well, sir.
Thanks great. I've got a question. I've got several bird of paradise playing in front of my house, and pretty good sized ones. I mean they took a hit with a freeze. I mean we're all covered. But I wanted to know do I need to cut them back down all the way to the ground or and if so, when and and then what do I do with him? Should I cut them down?
Or what do you think I should do?
Just to make sure I got the plant?
When you say bird of paradise, you tell them lunges with orange and yellow clusters of flowers.
Up on top, Yes, sir, yes, sir?
Okay, uh there the tops are dead from the freezes you had, and so you can just cut them back essentially to the ground, you know, maybe an inch high or something, and then be patient because they are more sleepyheaded than a teenager on a Saturday morning. It's gonna be way past noon before you see them, right, uh. And so these it may be May when they start saying okay, it's warm enough for us, and they start
growing again. So don't give up there. They're there. They'll come back up out of the ground, especially if you moltch the base.
Great.
Let me ask you, what's the best fertilizer to put on those.
Well?
Any kind I would you know? A furtilizer like color Star would do real good from Nelson Platt Food. It comes in the jars and you can just sprinkle it around, follow the label. But it would work really good. Anything it's gonna bloom. Color Star is gonna be a good fertilizer.
For alrighty, sir, Thank you very much. Great help, love your trail, take.
You bet, Thanks for the call. Good luck With that, We're going to go down to Cypress and talk to Jonathan. Hey, Jonathan, Welcome to Guardline.
Good morning, SKIPT.
I meet with my wife, Lily.
We've got a question regarding we have a Mexican petunia that we planted I don't know, maybe ten years ago in the corner of our flower bed that lines our driveway, and this plant is out of control, invasive. I mean, we've tried, we've tried to maintain it and keep it cut back, but it just keeps growing and growing. And we've got a row of knockout.
Roses, and.
Okay, we don't know what to use without killing.
Okay, is this the Mexican Is this the Mexican petunia that forms a little mound of foot high or is this the kind that gets up near your waist high?
Yeah, this thing goes really hot.
Okay, okay, good.
So hand digging all the rhizomes out is the least toxic option that you can have. But that's a lot of work and you will have to redo it a couple of times because you never get all of them. But that's one The second step would be to treat them with a herbicide that contains triclop peer tri c l O p y R. Now I want you to go to my website that's gardening with skip dot Com
Gardening with Skip dot Com. And if you click on if you click on publications, it says all publications you'll see on there herbicide products to use with Skip's weed wiper. And there's another one, Skip's homemade weed wiper. And you make it out of a little grabber tool that you would use to get a jar off a shelf. It's
real easy to make. And on that list of herbicide products, you want to use something on the list that is for woody tree shrubs, vines, and perennials with storage tubers, roots and rhizomes.
That's what it says.
So this would the plant you have, you need that, and the ingredient is tricle Peer and it lists all the different brands of tricle Peer that are most common
in our market. And with that weed wiper, basically it's sponges on one of those grabber tools, and so you just put the tricle Peer right on that and you squeeze it at the base of a shoot of your plant and you pull it up the Mexican petunia leaves and you're just wiping it on the leaves and you're not getting it on your knockout roses, and you're not getting it on anything desirable. Now you're going to do that, and there's gonna be some you don't get because they
don't have a shoot sticking up yet. Just be patient and keep that. I have one hanging on my shelf and I use it in the yard for weeds. And by the way, that herbicide to use on the weed wiper sheet has what you use for nuts edge, what you use for wild onion and wild garlic, what you use for broad leaf weeds in the yard, what you would use for grass like weeds that are perennials that you can't get rid of, and what you use for the woody stems and the max and petunia and pepperbine
and other things. It's a very handy thing. It's very easy to build, and this is a way to do it.
Go ahead.
What was it?
What was the name again?
Tritle Pierre.
T ri I c l O p y R. That's the ingredient and it comes in a bunch of brand names and they're all on the website. You can go on your phone right now and look at the gardening with skip dot com and it the two publications are there. One is how to build a Weed wiper. The other one is what to put on it?
Okay, perfect, all right, thank you, you bet, thank you?
All right, thanks for the call. Appreciate that. Take care all right, folks. Well we just kind of time that one out right here hear music in just about twenty seconds. Uh, we're out a show, We're out of calls, and I'm out of words. All how did that all happen at the same time? Anyway, thanks for listening today. Check out that website. I'm telling you there is so much good stuff, and I got more comment I keep adding stuff to
it all the time. I put something up the other day called pasteurizing growing media or garden soil in an oven. So do you want to reuse growing media for whatever reason? You know, and maybe you're worried about it and they have some diseases in it and you don't want that to get on your plants. I tell you in there how to pasteurize it in your oven.
You can do that.
And some of you are going, ain't no way that's happening in my house. All right, Fine for you. Other people will try it. They care about it anyway, Just to kind of unusual publication, it's there, got something up on controlling, controlling nut set, and boy, it's about to pop up and start.
Start next here.
You got to get ahead of it. That said just ended up to Look, that's the one on.
The west that said you have a good day in the garden.
Mm hm