KTRH GardenLine | 8-20-23

Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to ktr H Garden Line with Skip Rictor's smell the Crazy. Just watch him as Wood tell us so many tass. We comes back kicking a sign. Well, good morning, Welcome to garden Line. We are here to talk all things green and red and blue and purple and yellow and every other color other flowers that we have around us. Garden Line is been around for a long time. You know that you go back in

the nineteen fifties and this show was on the air. The folks familiar names to me in the gardening world, like Dewey, Dewey competent excuse me. You know, when I think back through the history of garden Line, there are a lot of names that are on the plate. I think I'm maybe the fifth or sixth host of garden Line. But the elephant in the room, the one that just stands out in my opinion above all the others,

has been Randy. You know he was here at Randy Lemon was a host of garden Line from twenty six twenty seven years, somewhere right in there and really made this show what it is in many many ways, and we're really grateful for that. I know a lot of you as listeners, Miss Randy,

lots of good relationships there. I'm as Randy going back even to her day's when we met in college, and I also like to take a moment every now and then remind us from where we came and that that is something I'm certainly really grateful for and the contribution that that made to Houston horticulture. Houston is the Greater Houston area is a amazing place when it comes to growing plants. We certainly have challenges in the way of soil and weather and whatnot,

but there's also a lot of opportunities. You know, a lot of folks couldn't even consider growing citrus or maybe azaleas in many parts of the most parts of the state, but you can grow things like that here if you prepare the soil right, take care of things, and it's just really an opportunity. I always brag on her mom pop garden centers, but it's just true. I mean, there's just so many really cool places with really cool

plants, and it makes it a pleasure, a lot of fun. Perhaps this afternoon be a good time to get out and do some visiting at some of our great garden centers that we have, are picking up supplies for gardening. You know, fall season is just out upon us, and as fall season hits, we're going to be in full swing with finishing our warm season plantings, with turning into the cool season plantings, getting those planted and in

the ground. But now fall season had already started before now, but we're in the middle of it right now in terms of this is the time to get a lot of things planted if you want to enjoy them in September, October, November, some cases December, and the cool season plantings will start soon, not right away, but we're still in the big warm season. But if you wanted something like broccoli plants, you want to grow them yourself, now it's the time to plant those seed to be ready for that,

and it's always a good time to prepare the soil. So I would contend that the success of your fall garden, whether it's vegetables, herbs, flowers, whatever, is based on getting started now and doing things right to be ready so that you can have success. You know, there are a lot of ways in life where you just sort of get instant success. You know, I mean instant tea if you will, which no southern or worth their weight and salt whatever drink. But with gardening, it's not that way.

Nature is not that way. Nature develops, nature evolves and unfalls, and it just is. It's a wonderful thing. Speaking of nature, you know that the top organic fertilizer in terms of sales here in the Greater Houston area is Microlife Fertilizer. They have the traditional six two four in the green bag that has always been just a leader in terms of organics in the industry.

The six two four. If you haven't fertilized your lawn in the last couple of months, you really ought to go ahead and just do that, and sixty four is a good way to do that. It provides a somewhat gradual release being an organic product. But that didn't mean you have to wait to

get some green You're gonna get some pretty quick greene from it. But that would you know, that kind of material, when it goes into the soil, you not only get the nutrients out of it, the big three six two four, you get all the micronutrients as well, because it's organic matter, organic matters filled with all the nutrients that are taken up by plants that are needed because it's plant products that help us create those those kinds of fertilizer

products. They also have the purple bag that's the Humates Plus and that just think of it as composted composted concentrated compost in a bag. When you do the Humates plus, what you're basically doing is enriching the soil each time you do it. You're enriching the microbial content each time you do it, and it also has nutrients as well to help enhance. So you ought to go online to Microlife Fertilizer dot com and see where you can find these products and

learn a little bit more about them. Right now, we're going to go out to Montgomery and talk to Albert. Good morning, Albert, and today I am going to plant some trees after this heat's over wood maybe me first October. And I'm looking at I think it's a Schuemar oak tree and versus a nut All oak tree. And I'd like to know the kind of the pluses and minuses in which one you'd recommend over the other one. Okay, is your area well drained or does it tend to hold a little water after

a rain? It's it's well drained. And do you know is your would you call yourself clay sand or loamy or how would you describe it? Clay? Okay, well, you could go either way. Schumart does best on deep loamy types of soils. It will grow in a clay if but the nut all oak does all that as well. But in addition it can put up with wet feet for periods of time. So having a clay sometimes the soil can you know, sometimes rains too much, and not all is adapted

to that better than Schumard. But I think based on what you described, you probably could go either way. Okay, I generally point people to nuttall, but you know, if you if your soil is decent, the Schumart will be okay too. Okay, would that be a good time? After all these seats over with October? The plan them the absolute best time to plant any woody ornamental of the whole twelve months is in the fall, and

so October would be fine, November would be fine. I mean, you could do it now, but it's just a little more touch and go because the demands are so high now in the fall, there's not many demands. So if he gets a little short on water, well, first of all, it's not going to get short on water because it you know, the temperatures down and the water use is down and so on. It's just an

easier time. But it's up to you. You know. Sometimes other issues, Hey we got to get this plant in because we've got to do such and such, they may outweigh just what's a perfect time? All right, all right, well, thank you, Shary. You have a good day, Albert. Thank you for the call. I appreciate that we're going to take a break. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Well, good morning, it is still dark. I'd

side by the way, look at your neighbor's house. If the lights aren't on, go bang on the door and tell them they're missing garden line. They will rise up and call you blessed. Not this morning, but eventually when they realize what a favorite did for them. You know, it's all about the soil. It's all about the soil. That is a broken record. I'm willing to be because it's all about the soil. When I think of soils. Nature's Way Resources has been and soils for a very long time

here. I mean they know what they're doing John Ferguson and Sunny and they operate the place and it's just it's it's almost like a compost historical site. John's been making originator if things like rose soil originator if things like leafmo compost and so on. And they take their time to make things and make them right, and that is really really important. Time is important when it comes

to soil type products. And a lot of times you go into the story you buy some off brand thing that you open it up and it's full of wood chips. It's that it's called soil, but it's full of wood chips are called compost. It's full of woodchip. That's not going to happen with Nature's Way. You know, they have their their Fungal Fridays, which is ten percent off all their bag products and twenty percent off all bulk products that they can deliver to of course, and they have a lot of fungal compost

on hand and that is really good rich stuff. Now they carry a wide variety of other things. But if you're interested in getting ready for fall, it's time to get those beds made. It's time to improve the soil, whether it's a vegetable garden, a flower bed, a future garden site. Maybe you're wanting to top dress your lawn at some point, leaf more compost. They've got that on hand too. They also have one of the best selections in eighty plants. You're in the Houston area. Now Nature's ways up

there. If you go up Interstate forty five, like you're going to Conro, but about where fourteen eighty eight comes in, you exit across the railroad tracks and you are there. They're open Monday through Friday, eight to five, Saturdays eight to two, closed on Sunday. So make your plans this coming week. Go ahead and get their materials and get ready for fall, because it's all about the soil. Let's head out to spring and we're gonna talk to Rich. Hello, Rich, good morning. Skip two things.

Wondering if you had a chance to look at those videos on the diesel exhaust fluid as a source for spoon feeding nitrogen. I have not. I have not. Okay, fair enough, I've been on the road for two weeks now and I'm it's on my list and I'm honestly intrigued by it. But I just well, I went to I went to Walmart. I bought a container, and I'm going to do a little test patch in my backyard and hopefully i'll have some data for you. I'll share. Well, I would

like that, right, will I'll share. The next thing is I have a neighbor. His lawn is very thin because the previous owner did not thin out trees, et cetera. We're trying to get his lawn in shape. I'm wondering, in addition to normal fertilizer water, would I hear things like a plank growth regulator helps to spread of stolens and that to move very quickly. Do you have any information on that. I don't know a PGR that

it would speed up the growth of your grass. I know there's a lot of plat growth regulators that cause things to be a little stocky or more compact. You know, people in the nursery industry, they don't need a big, lanky plant they're trying to sell. They want something that's compact and full of blooms and whatnot, and they use PGRs for that. As far as on turf, I would say and I've talked to a lot of turf specialists over the years. I've never heard them promote anything like that for a turf

success. Okay, very good, thank you, skid. All right, thank you for the call. I appreciate that, rich very much. You're listening to Garden Line our number seven one three, two, one two, five eight seven four. I talk about me cannon plants a lot. I realize that, but I'm telling you it is just it is just a great place to visit. I love going there, shopping beneath the big trees, especially nice and the heat of summer. Right they have a selection of indoor

plants. It's just incredible. If you were interested in succulents, and that's a hot item right now. People are into succulents. I mean, when it's one hundred degrees and it won't rain, that makes your mind go towards succulents. But people just love them little succulent gardens. I got some of my my kids are really into succulents, and they're cool. Plants, are easy care, and they're beautiful too. Well. They've got that. They have a lot of native plants as well. I was thinking about one the

other day. Barbados cherry and Barbados cherry is a little native South Texas plant may even reach into the Harris County being part of its actual native area. It has a little crape myrtle like or crape paper like pink blossoms and it goes all spring through fall or produces low berries that the birds just really like. Let's think of a little cherry like fruit and other wildlife etem as well. Barbados chair is one of those native plants that just looks good in the

landscape. And of course they're going to be a mechanic's plants. They have those. While you're there, make sure it's sign up for their newsletter. By the way, they are at East eleventh Street and the Heights for those of you who haven't been there before, or just go online to Buchanan's Plants dot com and you can find out all about them and learn you know why I think it's such a great place and when you visit you'll really know that

for sure. We're gonna head out now to Cyprus and we're gonna talk to Mike. Good morning, Mike, good morning. How can we help? Yes, I just bought a desert willow tree. And you know, I with this heat, I just wasn't want I wanted to know when is it? Why is it to plant it now? Or should I be waiting to plant this? Well, I would plant it now since you bought that, because to try to keep it adequately watered through this kind of heat. You know, you you go away for a day or forget to water one day

or something, it's just a little more diligence required to do that. Then to just go ahead and get it in the ground, make sure it's watered in well, and then you know, every day or two give it a little bit of water. It is a drought tolerant plant, but it's got to get some roots in the ground to become what its genetic potential is, and that's drought tolerant right now, all the roots if you planted it today or anytime, or in that cylinder you took out of the pot, and

so there's a period of time there where it's establishing. And don't let the drought tolerance of any any plant fool you. You've got to help those babies along until they get established. Then there's tough. They're tough as nails. I appreciate it. Thank you all right, Thanks Mike, appreciate that call. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four, seven one three two and two fifty eight seventy four. You know,

we love our feed stores here on Garden Line. And if you live up and let's say the Magnolia direction, Magnolia area, Spring Creek Feed is your hometown feed store. They're on twenty nine seventy eight up in Magnolia FM twenty nine seventy eight, so there's minutes away from if you're near Grand Parkway or Highway two forty nine, they're not too far away from you. In fact, they are your hometown feed store. They carry the fertilizers I talk about.

They carry all the gardening supplies you would need to deal with pests or diseases or fungal infections and things like that. Always friendly, courtious staff that. I just love that about a business, and I love that about Spring Creek Feed. I also think it's really cool when you drive up just check it out. Sometimes you see what I'm talking about, really cool, big

barn looking operation. You go inside and it's a whole new world, I mean everything you can imagine that you would need, and a lot more is there. Do you need hay or shavings or betting They will deliver to by the way. But spring Creek Feed on FM twenty nine seventy eight. If you are a gardener, you're going to find what you need there. If you've got pets or livestock, you definitely go find what you need at that Spring Creek Feed center. Well, you are listening to garden Line and we

are here for another day of discussing all things gardening. I realize right now you've got a cup of coffee in your hand probably and one eye open, so we won't hit you with any yodeling music this morning, but but we hope you're having a good time. It kind of help you ease into the day. It's gonna be a good day for gardening. It always is a good day for gardening. Lots of things to do this afternoon. You want to make sure and check on your lawn. If you know we're about to

go into the fall. We'll be putting fall fertilizers down here in another two months or so. And you know nitrofoss is nineteen four ten, that's the silver bag that is like I would almost say it's like their prime product because they have a bazillion options of products. I mean everything that you have that you grow. There's a fertilizer from nitrophost for that. But Nitrofos Superturf is a nineteen four ten mix and that nineteen four ten provides a gradual release.

So you know, we always say don't overdo the nitrogen, and this has almost twenty percent nitrogen. Well you apply it at a different rate and it gradually releases, so you aren't overdoing the nitrogen. And by putting on a quality product that's got the chemistry is designed to gradually feed that lawn over time, you avoid problems like promoting chinche books, promoting large patch or brown patch and having to mow all the time. Look for the silver bag wherever you

shop. I don't care if it says hardwarees, if it's feed stores, garden centers. Nitroposts is easy to find here in the greater Houston area and it really really works well. We are about to head into a low break here. The Nikki News network is getting prepared for. Yes, what more news. Well, we're going to talk a little bit about Russia's space Graham, are they growing plants and special otherwise I'm not in No, it's a moon shot, Oh, moonshot shot. Okay, good, good, well,

here we go. Hey, thanks for listening and give us a call. Seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Joshua gets you on the boards. Good morning on a soon to be beautiful day for guardening. I don't know, maybe some of you are running around out there with headlights on to get a little bit of gardening done. While it's I don't know, do we say cool at least cooler? Right? Cooler? It's

a good idea. I've never tried it myself, but I'm sure the neighbors have something to talk about now, as if they did, are ready. When it comes to a beautiful landscape, you are not going to find a more qualified, more experience, more professionally trained group than Peerscapes. Peerscapes knows how to put together that little plot of eden that you want. No, No knows how to make the front of your lawn look awesome. You know, dry by look up, look at the lawn, beautiful, gorgeous,

always always in beautiful condition. The backyard where we gather with friends and things, they can do that. They can do hardscape, They can fix your irrigation, they can provide walkways and rock borders. Maybe a new garden you want to put in. Do you need a particular kind of landscape lighting? You know, get some beautiful lights out there so those evening hours when we tend to gather, especially during warm weather like this, or just even more

enhanced. Skip m a call. It's two eight one three seven zero five zero six zero two eight one three seven zero fifty six or Pierce escapes dot com. Give them a call, talk to Jason and talk to Bob or Candice there about the ways that you want to enhance your landscape. Maybe even go in and bring some pictures of your landscape from different areas and say, hey, what do you think here? What would you do here? This is something I'm thinking about. What do you think about that? Let's design

it. They know what they're doing, they'll get it right. And fall is coming, so it's not time to delay for sure, because you want to get everything prepared, designed and ready. First you got to design it, and then you got to get the materials in, get the soils ready, to get the plants in. That's all a process. So don't take don't take any more time. If you are interested in taking your landscape up to another level. We're gonna go out to Paarland now and talk to Archie.

Hello, Archie, morning, Chip. I'll talk to you yesterday about the angelonia. I sent you two pictures. I don't know if you got those are not I did? I did, Okay? And what you've got on your angelonia or some little pierced sucking insects that are they hide underneath the leaves and they put their mouth in and they suck on the leaves and take out the chlorophyll and you end up with all these little specs all over the

leaves. Now, different things can do that. There's there's some little tiny plant bugs that will do it. And that's what I think it is. Uh, spider mites can cause somewhat a similar effect. I don't see signs of spider mites though on your on your sample under big live boat, too big libul Okay, Well, so your options, you know, I hate

to go out and just nuke everything. You certainly could spray. It's gonna take more than one because these little buggers, I mean, you're not ever almost going to see them because when you turn a leaf over, they're already gone, just the movement, and so they drop to the ground or do something else. So spray is a little bit of a challenge, but it could be done. I might consider doing a good shearing of the plants. Uh. And and then if you're going to spray, then spray after that.

Give them some fertilizer, give them some water, and get new growth coming on. And that new growth will cover up all the old And every new terminal on an angelonia is capable of blooming. So when you shear, you get more blooms in the long run. Okay, because I put out about a three pound jar of color Star just about a month ago. Yeah, and nothing happening. Well, I mean you can see vigor on them. I see new shoots trying to grow. But you know the nutrients that

are there in the soil. It's just the plant needs to have all these Brazilian little bugs sucking all the life out of it. Needs to get rid of those and you will see a good response. Color Store will give a great push and will Malithon do uh, probably for these It probably will do. Any kind of a product labeled, you know, for use in a flower garden like that or there. There's just a number of different specific ingredients, but a good insect control role product. It's probably gonna gonna work on

them. One other thing just to kind of be watching for, is this new growth comes on. Just check it periodically and see if this is still developing, because sometimes insects will run their course. Uh. Different things we do can often help that process along. And you don't want to be spraying when the culprit's already gone, right right, But I think they've been there all summer. Oh well, I bet they have. It looks like it

based on those plants condition. The other thing you mentioned the chemical to spray on the grass for the possible you know, take All patch. I only found that it's Southwest Fertilizer. Ace didn't have it. And then uh, and I saw I'm going to get some of that Monday from me. Okay, Uh yeah, that will do it. I would probably, I believe I'm a new schedule. We're aiming that for late September, early October, mid October somewhere in there. As it cools off a little, that's when

take All does some reinfection. So in the especially and somewhat in the spring. I've got a bag. If h makes plus two, should I put that out? Oh? Yeah, it's always a good time to put that out. You know that it's not going to cause a flush of growth. You know, it doesn't have this boost of nitrogen to do that. It's gonna You're gonna get the concentrated composts down in the soil and it's gonna do good. Yeah, okay, Oh, thank you, thank you very much,

Archie. I appreciate that. Call our phone number seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you are out in the Richmond area, actually, if you're anywhere around the listening area, you need to know about enchanted gardens in Richmond. If you're done in Richmond, it's north toward Katie. It's up that direction. It's on FM three fifty nine, FM three fifty nine north of

Richmond toward Katie again. And in Chenny gardens is again one of those places you go and allow some time because you are going to want to wander. They everything you can imagine, you know, do you want succulents, do you want color plants? Do you want vegetables, Do you want fruit? Trees? Roses, vines? Oh, beautiful, beautiful selection of perennials.

And then there's all the blank you know, the containers, the fairy gardens, the beautiful stuff inside their gift shops, which anytime you need a gift to check out that gift shop you are gonna, I don't care if you have a non gardening friend. There is some cool stuff in that gift shop that would just be an excellent choice. Something outside the ordinary, if you

know what I'm talking about. And Channey Gardens is just the kind of place that we like to go to. You know, the letterments have been going there since nineteen ninety five, and you're just not going to find in anywhere around the kind of unique product, the unique plant materials, and just the

fund environment. It's just a blast. It's one of those that I think another reason I think Houston Chamber of Commerce ought to have a gardening tour because we could keep people busy for three days with our wonderful places and enchanted gardens would definitely be on that list of you gotta go see. If they have people drive from way outside the area just to come, that's how special. It is enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com is what we're talking about. Enchanted Gardens

Richmond. Go check them out. While you're there, you can pick up all the products we recommend here on garden Line. They are open Saturdays, Monday through Saturday eight to five thirty and on Sunday from ten am to four pm. Hey, there's something for you to do this afternoon. It's time for an outing. Well, we're going to take a break. Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Hey, you're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we

are here to answer your gardening questions. Seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two and two fifty eight seventy four. You know the sun's blazing down on our rooftops. I mean days and days and days of blasting sunlight. Why not turn that sunlight into a little cash in your pocket. That's what a solar panel does, right, Well, I got a better idea than a solar panel. Having something setting on your roof.

I mean that's fine if that's what you want. What about a Brinkman solar shingle on your roof? You heard that right a solar shingle. There's actually a roofing shingle that's not on the roof. It's it is. It is your roof. It's not on top of the roofs it is your roof. Now they protect your home like shingle wood while creating electricity. They're weren't it For twenty five years of service and you know, Brinkman's been in the

Houston area providing professional roofing services for over fifty years. They have made their reputation here. They stand behind their workmanship. If you if you want a regular single roof, if you want a standing scene metal roof, that's you know, put together right there on the spot to fit your roof like a glove. They can do that. Don't trust companies that bang on the door claiming you've got storm damage and they're going to help you get your money from

acclaim. They fly all over the place chasing storms and then they're gone. Brinkman's is here. Brinckman Quality dot Com is the website, the phone number two eight one four eight zero seventy six sixty three. We're gonna head out to Columbus, Texas now and we're going to talk to Brian. Hello, Brian, Hey Skip, good morning, Good morning. Hey, I got a five acre ranch out here, and I'm wanted to do a four acre lavender field in sandy soil. Will that work? Uh? Well, sandy

is good. Lavender needs drainage. We have found lavender to be kind of hit and mess here because our weather is so dead fluctuating. Uh, there's a decent little lavender fields as you get over you know, Fredericksburg direction, where there's a little bit of a little more arid climate, little less often rainfall and good drainage. But even in those we do see some rots in the case or you're gonna you're gonna have your job cut out for you keeping

it up. But you could grow lavender. As far as whether it'll be economically profitable in Columbus, that I'm not able to tell you. Yeah. I just wanted for the look and to keep the deer away. Oh okay, Well, hey, there you go, go for it. Just be aware there's there's many different kinds of lavender, and not all are equally susceptible to issues that might happen. But good drainage is going to be critical. In the sand you described ought to help with that for sure. Okay,

I appreciate it. Yeah, good luck with it. Keep us posted if you get it planted. I'd like to hear about that. I'll send your pictures, all right. Sounds like a deal, Thank you, Brian. I appreciate that. You know, there's always a lot of new there's always new plants people are planting and wanting to plant. I know right now some people are getting into looking at pineapple, guava or for joa. Is that

how you say at for joa fahoya fajoa as a edible crop. There's some varieties that it's been an ornamental shrub for us for a long time, but it does produce an edible fruit, and boy, there's some superior types. But it seems like I've been doing this for you know, well over thirty years, and there's always something new. There's always some new thing that we're trying out, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But hey,

that's part of the fun of gardening. If you're doing any transplanting this fall, or even now putting in some of your vegetable transplants, your herb transplants, you know we're going to be when it cool season kind of starts to get in here in midfall. We'll be looking again at prime time for a lot of the woody ornamentals and things we plant has to grow. Six twelve

six. That is a liquid fertilizer that contains of course six percent nitrogen, twelve percent phosphorus, six percent Potassium's got that phosphorus load for developing a new plant's root system. Now, in addition to that, you've got Medina soil activator to stimulate biological activity. You've got humic acid in there, improoves soil structure, improves nutrient uptake. You've got seaweed extracts in there to stimulate both

fruiting or blooming of the plant. That's a real concoction there. That is just rocket fuel for that new transplant. You can use it for foli air application. I like to put it in a water watering bottle watering can and just sprinkle it right on the transplant after I put them out, and do it again five to seven days later, again five to seven day after that. So three applications based about a week apart or a little less, and

your plant will be well on the way. It'll be hit the ground running as we say no't worry about burning plants with has to grow six twelve six. Our phone number if you'd like to give us a call on Guardline is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. You know it's it's it's bird season. It's always bird season. What's happening now, Well, our birds are finishing up some molting they've been doing. They are really needing water. I mean,

it is a stressful time to be a bird out there. I mean imagine flying around trying to find a little water to be able to drink and survive. Take care of those birds. Put some water out for them. You will find that that brings them in as good as a feeder does. I mean, if birds are thirsty, they are come into that water once they

find it. And I mean it's just like a bird attractant. Not just the compassion of hey, they're they're needing water out there, but the joy of getting out in the morning and late afternoon those are my favorite times and just enjoying the birds coming in. They also need food and nesting. Super Blend from wild Birds Unlimited is the product that you need to go for right now that all the way through August. That is a prime product for your

birds, and then they'll eat it all year. But it's a quality product. I have some myself that I've been using. By the way, there's a number of different wilbirds here in the Houston area. Katie Kingwood, Cyprus, Pearland, bel Air, West Houston, Clear Lake. Go to WBU dot com forward slash Houston and find the wild birds near you. And by the way, they are a wealth of information as well you find I'm warning you birding is addictive. Backyard birding, I've given you your warning, but

when you go into wild Birds it is like a Kidney Candy's store. We're gonna take a break here pretty quick. I do want to remind you that we're here every morning on Saturday. Every morning, we're here on Saturday, and we're here on Sunday from six am to ten am. So tell your neighbors about garden Line so they can listen in and enjoy that as well. Passing by an ACE the other day, every time I walk into ACE, I go, oh, I didn't know they carry that, because that's the

kind of store that Ace Hardware is. You got thirty nine of them to choose from in Houston, So you pretty much throw a rock from where you live to an ACE Hardware store. You can go online to ACE Hardware dot com and look for the store locator and find the stores nearest to you, putting your zip code there and it'll give you all the stores, little nice little map, and you will be surprised if I talk about fertilizers, if I talk about soils, if you have needs for fertilizers, pesticides, those

kind of things, They've got it all there. Ace Hardware has it all. And you can earn money back on your purchases with the ACE Rewards program, which I belong to. It's a really good additional thing that they offer there at Ace Hardware. Well, we today are fortunate. We're gonna have Luis tomorrow from Heirloom Soils come in and the eight o'clock hour, and we're going to talk all the nerdy stuff about soils. You know how I always say soil, soil, soil. You gotta start with the soil. We're

going to pick his brain. He's an expert on all kinds of things soils. When I say soil, I'm including compost I'm including bed mixes, you know, mulches that go on top of the soil. Lots of important facts to know about. We're gon we're gonna really tease a lot of that information

out of Luis this morning, and I look forward to that. So make sure you're listening in the eight o'clock hour, and if you have questions about soil, anything related to bed prep or soil or mulching or new technologies in that area, let's put Louis on the spot and let's let's Luise tell us exactly the things we need to know, because when you get the soil right, you have beautiful gardens. You have bountiful gardens, you have beautiful landscapes.

It's all about the soil. Hey, we're gonna take a break. We'll be right back. Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to ktr H Garden Line with Skip Rictory. Just watching as good morning on a good Sunday morning or gardening, whether it's walking through the yard this morning, just kind of enjoying an early morning cup of coffee, whether it's getting out this afternoon, visiting

some garden centers. I don't know driving around. You know, you can learn a lot about horticultures about driving around. And here's what I'm talking about. You're sitting there, you're looking at your yard, just like, what can I do? I don't know what to do? I don't know what

to plant here? How can I improve this? And drive around town and you see things it's like, oh, I like the way they did that that bed, and the way maybe they put in colladiums or some sun loving flowers or something, and it's like that would really look good at my place. I do that all the time. In fact, my head is often swinging from left to right going down the road, probably when I admit that.

But that's how it is with gardeners. You know, we are we notice plants and if you notice other people's landscapes, just really as you go about, lots of good ideas, a lot of fun stuff. Plus I just love it. It's a very enjoyable. Hey, maybe you have a little piece of property and you are interested in a tractor, you know, something to help you move multz, to help you carry some feedbags back and forth, or maybe you're doing some fence work. Well, I've got the

deal for you. And that deal is between Cuboda Tractor and lens Down Moody. Here in the Greater Houston area. You know, there's a several lens Down Moodies. You're not gonna have trouble finding one close to you. But they have a Caboda twenty five oh one. It is a hydrostatic transmission cool cool tractor. I call it a sweet ride, and that from a horticultural

agricultural standpoint, that is absolutely true. The deal is this zero money down, zero percent interest, eighty four months, eighty four months, seven years. Now you're not going to do better than that. Number One, you're getting a tractor from Lansdown which is a great company, great service, you know, just they treat their customers right. Number two, you're getting a Cuboda, which is an awesome tractor, especially it's twenty five l twenty five

oh one is a very nice tractor. And then on top of it all, you're getting a deal of no down, no interest for seven years. How do you do better than that? Now, this is gonna last forever, So go ahead and give him a call. Landsdown Moody Tractor. That's l M Tractor dot com. You can find the store near you. You can get the number to swing by. Sit on one one of those L twenty five excuse me, L twenty five, Oh ones, I came on numbers in my head today. Sit on a L twenty five one. Find

out. Just experience what that feels like. And I know you will be sold because they are workhorses and they do a great job. Well, we're gonna head out now to Leake City and talk to John V. Hello, John V. Good Morning's Kissing gardenline. Yes, yesterday was National Happy National Honeybee Day, and yes, yes, and so basically they're says that the

wild bees advocate for them. Native bees are known as bees if facing increasing of thestiction there's more than twenty thousand species of bees worldwide, my goodness. And so I would want to do is I know you had talked earlier this summer about going to Dayton, Texas for the certification classes for being becoming a beekeeper. Yeah, yeah, and so I just wanted to know, like what kind of like throughout the year, what kind of season, and what

kind of setup do we do for each season for the bees? Okay, well it depends on the bees. You're going after From a standpoint of all bees, minimizing pesticide use is important. Planting plants that attract them, to supply them with the pollen and the nectar that they need, and to also help you with your pollination. By the way, any time is a good time to be adding those kinds of things to the landscape, and so that would be important. You can go out to the bee sup b supplies a

great place. I brag on it all the time. The first time I was there, my jaw was dropped most of the time just looking at all their supplies and products. But anything we do to enhance our habitat around our house for bees is going to be very helpful. And honey bees are very important. I mean they are like amazing. You just think about momentlessness like farm animals that are providing us with lots of good services and with good food

too in the process. So those are planting for bees and probably the one thing that I would recommend people think about and do more because we can select plants for that. Oh that's a wonderful. Yeah. Because I was thinking for a job may trail on chardine, I thought it would be nice to be able to have people come with me to get trained so they can have them in there. They're garden is too. Yeah, and it's it's really

not even a certification, it's just education. So if you want to be a beekeeper and have some boxes in the backyard, for some people it's like, oh no, that's these are going to attack me. No, they're not a good, well kept hive. Not only do you get the honey out of it, but you get the services of those bees. And then just to go out there for a tour is awesome. What's a month out there at Dayton at the supply you can go out and get a cool tour.

I was amazed at all the knowledge that they have, of all the product that they have. I mean, like that tour you get to try six different kinds of honey I had. I had a heck of a good time out there when I went, Yeah, well, wonderful planet for a

September, then that will be great. Oh absolutely, Yeah. Just give him a call, make sure that you know when you're you're going, you know when they're going to have it, and arrange and if anyone's listening and has a bigger group, then you want to go out there, give him a call because they do it once a month, but they may be able to schedule a tour if your group is large enough for a time that's convenient

for both you and that they're able to accommodate. But anyway, just so, since we're talking about B supporting, the website is the B supply dot com. Bb supply dot com to check out. Hey, John V, thanks for that question. I hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to go out there. Oh yes, have a wonderful Sunday to all of you. Thank you, all right, thank you very much, appreciate that call. Let's see. Yeah, that boy, that is so cool.

I you know, I always brag on our feed stores, and a feed store that is a place I just love to go visit is Grimes County Feed. Grimes County Feed is up there in Grimes County. So if you think about Navasota and College Station and then put another point off to the right to make a triangle, that's where it is. To be more specific, I mean, we can give you the details. Two miles west of F two

forty four on State Highway thirty out in Carlos, Texas. And you know all the communities out there, lots of wonderful low communities, the Kingwood and Merewood subdivisions. They're your backyard feed store. If you live in bead Eyes or Iola or Shiro or Richards or Anderson, any of those places, they're your backyard feed store. Now. They have ten percent off all tree hugger

sprinklers in stock. They have a great supply of fertilizers, and they're having let's say, they just finished their customer appreciation Week, which was really a lot of fun. But the roy family has lived in Northern Grimes County for the last twenty years. In its personal service, for example, you get Chris's business card, it's got his personal cell phone on it. So this isn't a company that like, go away, we're about to close. This is a company that sticks with you, not only in the sale, but

after the sale, to make you have success. That's what they're about at Grimes County Feed and that's why they stock up like they do you on the materials that are most important for you as a gardener, as well as anyone who's interested in feed, feed supplies, animal supplies. We're going to take a break. Our phone number is seven one three two, one, two, five, eight seven four. Give Josh a coult. We'll get you on the board and talk to you right after we talk to Ralph in Paarland.

When we come back. It's well, good morning on a beautiful day for gardening. Lovely out there. I always like when the sun comes up and got that early morning sunlight. I don't know, It's just a peaceful time of day, good time to be out in the backyard, enjoying the sounds of birds, feeling the general breeze at a time when temperatures are not so blazing hot. If you haven't fertilized your lawn in the last couple of

months, you ought to consider sweet green from nitrofoss. Sweet green is one of the highest concentrations of nitrogen in a organic fertilizer that you're going to find. It's eleven percent, so it's eleven zero four fertilizer. It is a molasses based fertilizer. So what does that mean, Well, it means that they start with molasses. They have some microbial activity in that molasses. Anytime you have sugar, microbes are going to be happy about that, and that

combination creates that organic nutrient blend that is just excellent for your lawns. That low phosphorus, a low middle number is really important for a lawn because most lawns have too much of that already. If you haven't a soil tests done, I'd assume you have plenty of phosphorus, but sol tests it's a way

to know for sure. But sweet green, it smells fresh. It's really popular by the way, this year they have stalked up on it, so because last year the popularity of it was through the roof, and so now you're going to be able to find it. You just go to all the places we get nitro FoST products. That would be feed stores, that would be hardware stores, that would be home mom and pop garden centers that we

brag about so much here on Garden Line. Sweet Green from Nitrofists is an excellent product for a natural way of fertilizing and a gradual release that will provide you with what you need right now as we prepare for the next application of fertilizers, as we move into fall to get our launch ready over the winter, we're gonna head out and out to pair Land and talk to Ralph. Hello, Ralph, good morning. I've got a question about eagles and holly.

I planted it three or four years ago. It had a few berries, and when I planted it birds got on ourselthing. But anyway, it blooms every year, but I never get a Berri's hoorn. Is it one of these plants that I have to have another one with it? Yes? Yeah, Holly's in general are separate male and female plants, and so it's one of that groups of plants that's that way. So eagle Stunt is capable of putting on beautiful berries, a lot of them. But you've got to

have some mail holly nearby and nail pollinator kind. And I don't know where you got yours, but wherever you got it, that you could go in if they know what they're talking about and just ask them, you know what, it would be a good mail holly that you guys carry. That would be a partner for eagle Stun. All right, okay, I appreciate it, all right, thank you for the call. I appreciate that, Ralph. Yeah, hollies are a great plant. A couple of tips, since

we're talking about hollies, a couple of thoughts about that. Hollies need a little extra TLC when you're getting them going, I'd say for the first two years you don't want them to lock for water. Now, once they're well established, it's not it's not a worry. I mean, it's not like they're prima donnas. You got to sit there every day and squore them when they scream, I gotta have water. Now. They're they're tough plants, they are, but early if you let them get dry, we see some

considerable problems. Hollies don't wilt, so you look out and go, oh, I need to water my holly. They're suffering and they're not showing it, and so you got to take care of them early on. The growth rate is often slow to medium on a holly in general, but proper care they can become a beautiful plant. And they're being an evergreen, you get the year round benefits like we're talking about berries, for example, visiting with Ralph, the evergreen foliage and then the berries. So if you need to

screen of view, there's hollies of ever size. There's just a lot of options out there that are worth considering. But just know that with that particular kind of plant, the early first two years of care and adequate moisture. Consistent adequate moisture is very important, and after that you are off to the races. I love love holly plants. So we're still doing summer lawn fertilizing

as needed, and we're about to do our fall fertilization. We put a different kind of fertilizer down in the fall, one that's beefier and the potassium content a little much less in the nitrogen content. But in order to fertilize properly, you know, I talk about a lot of good fertilizers, and boy do we ever have an abundance here on garden Line to choose from. But really the best fertilizer for your soil depends on what's in your soil,

right. You know. We could say that something is a tomato fertilizer, for example, and the blend in there is good for tomatoes. But let's just say your phosphorus was through the roof high or almost none, which is rare. Then you would need to fertilize accordingly to what your soil says. So if you go out to Southwest Fertilizer, Bob has got a soil probe out there that he will loan you out. You have to leave him a deposit because those things, like many things, tend to sprout legs and walk

off. But it's free to use. Just go in and get it. It'll allow you to take a proper soil test, which is a vertical core of soil from the top of the soil down six inches deep. Take a bunch of cores, mix them together, and send them to the soil lab for analysis. That is something you should do about every three to five years because just periodically checking on things, you know, as we add nutrients and

as plants use nutrient it varies, that really works well. Of course, you know, you would expect that kind of customer service, community service from Bob out of Southwest Fertilizer. They've been around since what nineteen fifty five, or actually they may have been around longer than that. I need to ask Bob of that. I think it's been nineteen fifty five they actually went in.

They're serving the community. They have every product you can imagine. If they don't have it, you don't need it, whether it's fertilizer, pesticides, even tools. They've got to an amazing eighty foot long wall of tools. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com is the website. The location down in Southwest Houston is corner of Bissinette and Renwick. But just go to Southwest Fertilizer dot com. When you walk in there, you're gonna walk out with everything you need

for your lawn and for your garden. We're gonna head out now to let's see pair Land and talk to Kevin. Hello, Kevin, Hey, good morning. All right. So I've planned at some roses, all kinds of different varietals. After the twenty one freeze that killed everything. They've been doing very well. Use the medina has to grow fertilizer on them, and I

mean they've been great, lots of pretty flowers. Now they've just kind of gotten all these different kind of crazy off shoots and kind of going every which way. When is it good time to thrown them back? Or should I wait? I'm not a rose expert. I just wanted to get something to replace the it did plants that I had. Okay, yeah, good question.

And these are kind of a shrub type rose. I bought shrub type roses for the front, and then I got a couple of that, you know, I don't know, long stem ones you know, for the back. Okay, they're they're all kind of small, but the ones in the fun are definitely starting that shrub. Okay, So for those shrubs, you want to give them a shearing back by about a third uh in late August or early September in order to well follow that with fertilizing them and watering the

fertilizer in. I even scratched my fertilizer into the surface about an inch, you know, just kind of raking over it in the soil, because that way it when you watered in, it dissolves the materials, or in the case of an organic fertilizer, it's stimulating that microbial activity that will break that fertilizer down and release the nutrients. And with that that light shearing and the fertilizing and then watering, you'll set yourself up for a really good show in

October when roses really come on strong again. Okay, yeah, I appreciate the help. Right now, they just need a break from this blazing heat and for you to make sure they don't get too dry or definitely not stay soggy wet either. All right, thank you, yes, sir, you take care, you take care. Yeah, taking care of our plants is important, and during this heat, it's really tough. You know, the folks had affordable tree Martin and his wife Joe. I talk about him all

the time. They are our premier tree care service for Garden Line Radio, and there's a reason for that. They number one. They do what they say they're going to do at a reasonable price, so you don't have to wonder whether they're going to show up. When you ask them to come, they'll tell you and then they'll be there. That's the kind of business they are. They've had employees with him for fifteen to twenty years. I mean, these are experienced folks. These are knowledgeable folks. When you make a

phone call, Martin or Joe will answer. And by the way, that phone number seven one, three, six nine nine, twenty six sixty three. Now's the time to get out there and get some deep root watering done to really fill that soil of volume. The little sprinklers that you put on your lawn don't do trees a whole lot of good. I mean, unless you just run it and run it and run it to get us soaking. With a deep root watering, you can get the water right down to where

the roots are. You can make sure your trees have the resiliency to get through this time. It's also time to be looking at storms. You know, storms come and they're welcome to the greater Houston area. I mean, we are down in Hurricane Alley here. They could do the trimming you need done. If there's any weak branch structures, they can fix that. You just it's always better to prepare things rather than to react to things. Okay, so prepare for the storms that are coming rather than Okay, Martin,

the storm just split my tree all apart. Could you come take it away? That's not what we're after. They know how to take care of your trees and do it in a way that really helps your tree to thrive. Trees are so valuable to the value of your home. And just like you go outside now and have a beautiful shade tree on one hundred degree day,

Boy, that's worth something. A tree that shades the west wall of your home and cuts down on heat and just that radiant heat that comes in in the evenings or shades over your roof, those are all important affordable tree and Martin, they know how to take care of your trees and they will be honest with you, they will be direct with you, and they will do what they say they're going to do at a very very reasonable price. We're gonna have to take a little break here for the news quickly. I will

be back. Our number is seven one three, two one two five eight seven four in David and Lake Jackson. When we come back, you will be the first up. Good Sunday morning, on a great day for gardening. You're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Ricter and let's taught gardening. We're gonna start by going straight out to David and Lake Jackson. David, thanks for hanging on. How can we help? Good Sunday morning. I've got fallen up on the conversation about Holly's. Okay, I

have a Tunny's holly, actually two that are very well established. I don't know how old they are, but they're twelve to fifteen foot tall, about ten foot in diameter or so. But they're I don't know, twenty plus years old. But they've started growing shooters is what I call them, or new growth from the roots, and they're fairly can be fairly far out from the trunk too. So I was wondering what causes that and what to do about it. It often happens like if you try to cut one of them

down and then you'll start seeing these little things pop up. But it'll even happen while the tree is growing without it being cut down. But it's just it's just the fact that that particular kind of holly has the ability to send up sprouts from the roots, rich suckers or something along those lines, and you just have to cut them out and remove them. You definitely don't want to spray them because they're attached to the mother plant. And so yeah,

that's just a factor with some hollies. Oh goodness. Okay, Well there's like dozens and dozens of them, oh boy, wow. Yeah, and you never had that problem before. Well, it's just, you know, it's been that way for a little while. We just have we have cut them, actually have gone through and we needing them, uh huh and taking them down. But then if you don't stay on top of it, then yeah, they get pretty wooty, and then there's other vegetation things you don't

want to weeded around it. So that is to be it's been that way. I just used a sharp shovel, uh David and gone in you know between the up shoot coming out of the ground and the mother plant and just shoved it in the ground to cut that loose and then grabbed it and kind of drug it, pulled it out with the root. I mean, you kind of figure out how to do it. But just tiny, tiny, even like a six think that nicks is how they start. Yeah, when

they when they get started. There are sometimes people will use a ground cloth. I'm not a fan of groundcloth at all, but they'll use that covered with some kind of a multuay to be able to just block them out that way, like is done with some of the live oaks that tend to really sucker bad around the base. Any soil disturbance that you do where you're cutting roots and things. Though, it also is going to stimulate new growth and time of those kind of things. So it's just part of the trade off.

This must be not a real stiff holly or is it is? Like it it's very stiff. You get into it, it'll pricky pretty well. Okay. So that nice bread card deep forest green okay, with the little pointers on it. Okay that yeah, that's like there's a dwarf version of that one to call rotunda that stays real compact, and boy, they are versatile. They are versatile plants. Yeah, if any, if any listeners have daughters, this is one of the top five plants to put underneath their

bedroom window. It is. It will make sure that I love the plant. I've amazed how much shade they can take too. You know. I think of plants like that should be out in the sun, but they'll put up with quite a bit of shade. Dude, real, real tough. The only thing you don't want to do is have to get in there and prune hand brune on it or something, because you will get blood. Yeah, you got some long sleeves for sure. Yep, that's right. But

they're a good plant. Yeah. So if we want to if we just get tired of dealing with it, and we go to cut it down and pull it out. I mean, the trunk on this thing's probably for four inches at least, right, it's great to make to kill all of it. Besides, you just cut it down because the roofs will just continue to go. Yep. Well, if you decide to get rid of any woody

plant, if you when you cut it down. If you dab that cut surface with a product containing tricloper, it's t r I c l O P y R. So if you go into a garden center and something says it's like poison ivy, poison oak killer, that's going to have triclo peer in it, and you don't have to dilute it a lot. You just just dab it right on that fresh cut. Don't wait the day after you cut it. Cut it right. Then it'll soak inn and it'll go a long

way toward killing it. And it's just a matter of how big is the plant and everything as to whether you need one or two applications to do that. Oh, I'm sure Lake Hardware down here has it. Oh yeah, they're going to have more than one product that has triclipar in it, that's for sure. Okay, all right, Well, I'm gonna keep looking at if anybody else has tips and ideas. One of the thoughts I had David was maybe a plant growth regulator. There are things you can spray that kind

of regulate plants. Maybe that would help minimize it. But I just don't think that's going to be worth your time in trouble. But maybe there's another solution out there we can figure out. I'll keep my eyes open. Okay, all right, thank you, sir. Appreciate that call. You're listening to Garden Line. We're here to answer your gardening questions, but that would require you giving us a call seven one three two one two five eight seven

four. I just want to remind you, first of all that we are going to have Louis Tomorrow, Louis Chamorrow from Heirloom Soils in for the eight o'clock hour, and we're going to pick his brain on all things related to

soils, mulches, compost bed mixes. You know, we talk about things like leafmode composts, and we talk about things like you know, fungo composts and materials mixes that are used for container plants, and all those kinds of blends you know you want to put in a herb garden or vegetable garden. The kinds of blends we need. We're going to pick his brain about that. So if you have any questions, this is your chance to ask the man. Heirloom Soils produce a lot of products, a lot of quality products

that are available in a lot of places. So here you can pick the brain and the guy who knows all about it, and we're going to do just that at eight o'clock during the eight o'clock hour, So stick around, get check up a questions ready for us, and give us a call. You know, I talk about fertilizing your lawn, and I talk about soil test, and I'll talk about the importance of nutrients and everything like that. We also mentioned a product called azamite, and some of you may be a

little confused. What is azamite? Is that fertilizer? Well, let's put I don't think think of it as a fertilizer, even though it's you're putting it on for its nutrients. But it's not like an NPK at fifteen five, ten sixty four or those kinds of products. It's the micros. It's

those trace elements that are so important. And when you put down trace elements, what you're doing is you're loading the bank account of the soil with the many things that are essential for plant growth but are just needed in very small amounts. And if you haven't done an azomite application this year, now is a fine time to do it. I mean, you can do it at anytime. Often people will just fertilize and then azamite. Don't put them in

the same bind. The particle size is a little different. I prefer to do the fertilizing and then following with the azamite. It just makes it easier to get it all out evenly like you want. But it works really well. You can use it in your lawn. I use it in my vegetable gardens because I want the things that I grow and eat to have the full package of nutrients, because we need a whole lot of nutrients. Plants do, but we do too for our own bodies. Asamite can provide just that.

You can go to azamite Texas dot com if you want to find out more information and just see what we're talking about when we brag on asmite. Well it's here. It is time for another break seven one three, two, one two fifty eight seventy four. Give Josh a call and he will get you on the boards for when we come right back. Well, welcome back to garden Line. We are continuing on with your gardening questions, and I don't know if you tips and tricks that I might offer here and there.

For example, you need to return your grass clippings when you mow. Did you know that grass clippings contain the perfect blend of nutrients for grass? How can we say that? We'll think about this for the plant to make a grass blade. At clipping, it takes all the important big nutrients like nitrogen, phosphors, potassium, the secondary nutrients like sulfur, magnesium, calcium, and all those trace elements. You think of something as obscure as zinc

or molebdanum or manganese or those kinds of things. It takes that too, and in that clipping those nutrients are there because otherwise it couldn't have grown. These are essential for plant growth, even though you didn't trace amounts are essential. So when you return the clippings, you're fertilizing. Now that doesn't mean you don't also fertilize. It just means you're taking the nutrients your fertilizer put you put down that have now grown clippings, and you're returning them to decompose

them to the lawn. That's how nature does it, and it makes sense. So if you don't, if you bag your clippings, if you don't mulch and return them to the lawn. You're gonna need to double your fertilizer applications in order to be able to make up for what you just paid somebody to haul away because you didn't want to you wanted to bag your clippings. So there's a little tip of the week. Hope that makes sense and and

hope it helps. Speaking of tips, we are in the season when we tend to get hurricanes coming through, and you know when you have a storm, the fly by nighters are going to be banging on the door saying we're going to replace your roof, and we know how well they'll be gone and you'll be left hold in the bag. That's just kind of how that works. Instead called Brinkman Roofing. They've been here fifty years. They were a

twenty twenty two Better Business Bureau Pinnacle Award winner. That means those two facts both mean customer service. You don't get there without customer service, without a good product, quality workmanship. And I guarantee that if anything goes wrong, they'll be back to take a look at that because they want you to have success. That's how they have success by creating happy customers. That's how it works in business. And boy Brinkman gets it well. Brinkman Quality dot Com

two eight one four rado seven six sixty three. Do you need shingles? Do you want their new uh solar shingles? Do you want a metal roof, a standing sea metal roof that they put together right on your property. They can do it all commercial residential Brinkman two eight one four eight seven six six zero. We're gonna head out and nowt to clear Lake and talk to Theodore. Hey Theodore, Yes, sir, good morning. How are you. I'm well, thank you? Yes, I have a quick question.

I'm growing in avocado tree plant uh and a planet about two months ago and it's it looks like just keeps growing straight up as it normal or that I had to trim it and and and keep it down to tours. It's not going to break. Uh. You can you can trim it down it when you trim where we're like you have one shoot going up and when you cut it off, so you come down six inches or so from the end and cut it, you're going to have several shoots to come out. And that

that is branching. You don't want to do that so much that it's just this thick bush, but you can't do some training. But early on avocado, as is the case with many of our trees and plants like the Chinese elm, is this way. They just are lanky teenagers when they're young, and and then the full little better. Just remember this though, Theodore avocado is a cold sensitive species, so we're kind of marginal here on. Sometimes we have cold, it'll kill them back. And I was just gonna say

I'd avoid pruning this late at this point. I would just wait because let's say in September you pruned and you got all this fresh, new succulent growth, and then we get a good hard freeze in late November, early December or something that would be a disaster. So I would avoid those stimulating process of pruning. Once we get past about the first of August really, and when we come out of next year, then do some of your pruning and training. Okay, okay, now, and of course it is it right

now? I have it inside? That is that a times turn that I have to take it outside? Well, that would be yeah, that may be one reason why it's kind of lanky. It's because we never can have enough light inside for you know, could be happy. So yeah, I would put it out. Let it get good sunlight. Just watch that it doesn't go into droughtstus being out in the heats. But and I probably wouldn't

move it like suddenly from indoors to full sun outdoors. I might put it in a little morning sun and the rest of the because even the shadiest spot outdoors is brighter than most indoor environments. And so you know, gradually, oh, let's say, over the next three or four weeks, working into full sun. Okay, perfect, all right, okay, well, thank you, you bet, thank you. Good luck with that avocado hurt. Yeah. Avocados, boy, they're so good, aren't they good? And

we have the avocados that will grow here. You know. It's not the black, bumpy, fruited thing you buy in the store, you know, like hass avocado, that kind of thing. It's a thin skinned, a greenish avocado, but very very high quality. Many good varieties do well here. It's a lot of fun and it wants to be a giant tree. And you just have to accept when you plan it that every now and then a winner's going to come through and it's gonna kill it back considerably. It's

just part of the deal. But we can grow and fruit and produce avocados here in the Houston area. I talk about lawns a lot, talk about lawn fertilizing a lot, and when when I think about a good quality, slow release fertilizer for your lawn, turf Star fits that bill. Turf Star by Nelson and the particular product slow and Easy. It's a twin two two ten. It's got a I love that ratio of nutrients. You know,

it's like a very low phosphorus, plenty of nitrogen, medium potassium. That's the way you go about it. And the technology in all Nelson products is such that it provides what your lawn needs gradually over time. It provides a good, let's just say, technologically advanced designed way of releasing those nutrients over time for optimum growth. And Nelson's turf Star is you know, they have

a wide line of it. Bruce's Brew is in eighteen four nine. It's more of an immediate release kind of product, but very appropriate year round however you want to fertilize. They've got their feather Light it's an eighteen two eight, and of course with Nelson's you've got color Star Nutrostar, turf Star and their organic Nature Star fertilizers all available widely available through garden centers here and there later Houston area. It's a quality product that gives quality results, and that's

what we're looking for. You know, don't be a person who let me how do I say this? Don't be a person that just looks at what you think is the cheapest product available. I mean, we all want to

save money. We don't want to waste money. But when whether you're talking about a plant from a garden center, whether you're talking about a fertilizer product, whether you're talking even about certain pest disease and weed control, you want to get the one that works, because that's the cheapest product there is. I mean, if you put something down like I was just talking about Nelson sturf Star, you put something down and it gradually feeds for months and months,

A good quality mix like that, that's worth it. There are a lot of really cheap products that immediately release. You get a flush of growth, You get chitchbugs get excited enough to cross Interstate forty five to come to your yard. The brown patch, large patch of the fall goes crazy. You get to mow a lot because you've created flushes of growth and then it all washes away when it get a gully washer rain. That's why we avoid

that. That's why we go to quality garden centers where they know what they're talking about. So when we buy it, we take it home and it does well. That is what we're looking for. We're looking for places that give us advice, that direct us properly to go to someplace and they don't know what they're talking about, and they grab something off the shelf and they absolutely don't know what they're talking about, and they sell it to you to

go home. You've spent time, you've spent money, and you may not have accomplished anything. So, I mean, this is a big broad statement I'm making, but what I'm just saying is the cheapest product may well not be the most economical product that there is. Whether it's a plant but it's fertilizer, whether it's oh my gosh, mulch and composts. There is a lot of trash out there on the market. You know, to open a bag of something that says it's composting, it as wood chunks in it.

That's not what you're looking for and with each kind of plant, with this kind of bad, you're gonna use different kinds of products. And hey, we're gonna be back in just a minute with Louis Tomorrow from Heirloom Source to talk about just that KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip Rictor. It's so crazy just watching as so many pleas to come. Well,

good Sunday morning. You are listening to garden Line. Thanks to Louis for coming in. We got kind of already about all kinds of things soil, because soil is where it all starts. Well, thank you for those of you who hold had been holding on our number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Let's head out to Jersey Village and we're going to talk to Michelle. Good morning, Michelle get Marie Skid, thank you so

much for taking my call. You're bad. So I'm into Jersey Village area and we live in town homes which are in pretty close proximity of each other. We all have crepe myrtles that are close to the street. I feel blessed because I haven't experienced this problem, but I'm calling on behalf of four of my neighbors, the crepe myrtles, and it seems like this happened like within a period of two days. All of a sudden, the crepe myrtles of their branches have turned all brown. Okay, not the whole tree,

but like a good, good chunks of the tree. Best I can tell is maybe something like I read about it, like a crape mortal blight. I don't know of anything like that. The heat, the demands, the stresses. We are seeing crepe myrtles that are that are turning brown around the edges and in some case lose the whole leaves. I would first start with soil moisture and just dig down four or five inches, feel the soil around them, and just kind of get a feel for that, because that's the

most likely thing. There's not some major crape myrtle disease. It just blights and kills the whole bush. We don't okay that problem. So I think it's going to be a combination of water related because even if water is moderately there, the demands are so high they have trouble pumping it fast enough to cool the plant to do all the things the plant needs to do function wise. And so I think that's probably a lot of what you're dealing with. Oh okay, well, thank you so much. All right, well,

thank you. I appreciate that call. Thanks for being patient with us today. UH. Let's go out to Jim and clear Lake. Hey, Jim, I understand you got a question as well. Yeah, I'm I'm about ready to do some landscaping here. I've suffered some root rod on my isalia on the front. Uh and UH. I had to pull one plant last year, and now the other two are not looking good, and so I'd like to start over, but I don't want to start with soil that may

have some problems with whatever type of damaging UH and UH systemic product. What would you suggest that I do after I pulled these other three bushes out and cleaning up that soil. Good question. There's not a whole lot to do at that point, but I would get a good quality bed mix that is does well with acid loving plants and build it up a little bit, get some fresh soil in there, and then that also helps the drainage and most

azalia root rots are related to saggy conditions. There's even the main diseases we deal with on azalias and the roots actually have spores that swim like a tadpole and literally through the soil. So when you provide a wet, saggy condition, it proliferates that kind of a disease. So I would say that would

be the number one goal. Create a bed where you cannot overwater, I mean, where drainage is excellent, put in some good fresh soil and then get some good healthy plants to go in and by the time you get all that set up, it'll be time to plant azalias this fall okay, So just a soil amendment and add possibly the airline hairloom soils to what I've got. Yeah, do I need to as set fallow for some period of time. No, No, that's not gonna accomplish anything. These things are persistent

and so you know, time is not really the fix of it. But yeah, a good quality soil for air or for airline, for acid loving plants, it is what you're looking for. And getting those beds up, depending on your site and how low it lies in the type of clay or whatever you have, blue get them up high enough so they drain well and then then you're ready to go with the new planting. All right, well, I appreciate that, Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate that call very much. For those of you out here who haven't put down your lawn fertilizer for mid to late summer, that would be an option to put down Sweet Green. Sweet Greens a nitrofist product. It's a molasses based product, and due to a combination of the molasses and microbial activity in the production of this product, you end up with a very high nitrogen

organic material. It's eleven zero four and it smells great too. By the way, just put it down about ten pounds per thousand square feets about what you need, and you will see a very distinct improvement in your lawn. Because it's still summertime. You have to walk outside to know that. And we will be doing our fall fertilizations later on, but now it would be a good time to put on something like a nitrifice product. Call Sweet Green.

Let's go out to Bay Town and we're gonna visit with Bruce. Bruce, you get the award for patiently hanging on. Thank you. Thank you. Louisa's such a valuable resource. I learned a lot listening to him and to you, Well good. I've I've got a bottle brush at my house, and this is the third one that I've planted. They go in all the preparations there. They're properly watered, in my opinion, and they do absolutely great for about three years, and then they begin to die out and

within the year's time they're they're dead top to bottom. I've got them in two different locations and had this problem with him, and I'm wondering if it's a root and Inmato or perhaps a root rot. There are other shrubs they're about Japanese clear in that area. They're doing terrific okay, but bottom Broche, as much as I like, it seems to be a challenge. That's interesting. You know, I can't know for sure if there's a root right

on them or not. I assume that if your other shrubs are doing okay like that, you probably are not creating a very soggy, continually saggy condition that would lead to root rod issues, So I would lean away from that being the thing I tell a bottlebrush they're very cool, sensitive and we had the February twenty three freeze, we had the December freeze this past December twenty two, and that hammered a lot of those kind of plants. And then

you throw in last summer's heat and drought this summer's heat and drought. I think there's a lot of things like that that could be a play which we're not in control of. So just keeping the soil adequately moist, putting a good quality soil in the bed that they're going to grow in, those are within your power. The only other thing is if one starts to die, you could go ahead and take a sample before it's dead, send it up to the plant clinic and get the definitive answer if there is a root disease

it's affecting it. I think that's a longer shot. I don't think that's the most likely thing going on, but it is something that's available. Well. Thanks, that's good advice, Kip, And how'll follow that all right, sir? Well, good luck with those bottlebrush are great plants, good for pollinators too, by the way, and beautiful. Yeah, thank you, yes, sir, thank you for the call. I appreciate that very

much. Thanks a lot if you're looking for a quality garden center, one where you go and I mean everything from gift shops to vegetables, herbs, flowers, trees. They sell fruit trees year around. That's Arbourgate Nursery up in Tumble. Arbourgate is on twenty nine twenty just about a mile and a half west of two forty nine in Tumble, and they have ever kind of plant that you can imagine. I mean the stock of annuals and perennials and

everything is always amazing at Arbourgate. The place always looks beautiful. It's a place you always want to take friends when they visit from town just to see it because they don't have anything like that in their hometown, that's for sure. Now. The Arbogate one two three completely Easy system is a food that's a four four three organic food. It's got calcium added to it as well, and it feeds all your plants that you know you're putting a flowerbed,

shrubbed, vegetable. It's great for all of that. There's a soil for almost anything you can imagine because it contains a quality mix. It's got the microbes in it, it's got even some expanded shale in it as we're talking about earlier, and then compost complete that is their organic compost complete step three, compost complete again more of the expanded shale. Two different kinds of compost microbially just rocket fuel for your plants and your gardens. Organic food complete,

Organic soil complete, Organic compost complete one two three completely easy. Right up there at Arburgate in Tumball. Well we are see we've been talking soil all day. I guess we're gonna shift around and talk about a lot of other things going forward. Our number seven one three, two one two five eight

seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I was I got on my weekly email from water my Yard this past week and it was I think it said I needed point nine inches was essentially an inch of water. The thing about water my Yard two things. Number One, it's free, and there are not a lot of things that are quality that are free. And this is because you can go to the water my yard dot org website and sign up for free. You just give them your location.

They find the nearest weather station to you. Do you know there's little weather stations all throughout this area. I mean I'm not talking about big I'm just on a little weather see. It could be on a golf course or someplace. They measure solar already, sun intensity, humidity, windspeed, all the stuff that makes plants use water, and they shoot you exactly what you need via email to water your yard that week. I've had weeks where it said

you need point four inches of water this week. They're at the Apple app Store, They're at Google Play Water. My yard is free and it works. It's designed by an M extension Agrilife engineers and they have created the perfect tool that, again is free. I don't know how to do much better than that. I don't know how you do much better than that. I have a shrub that I need to put out in the landscape, and in fact, if I can ever quit traveling around and sitting here on the radio,

I need to get it planted. But when I do, I've already purchased my tree hugger sprinklers. That's the little thing that goes around a shrub. It could be a tree, a shrub, a bush or rose bush whatever. You hook it up to the garden hose. You got low valve there so you can make it just put on a little bit of water for that newly planted shrubs can find roots system and then as it grows, you just turn it up more and more until you water a very large area.

It gets your plants through drought, It gets your plants through the transition of heat related stresses while they're trying to get roots systems in. It just makes sense not just keeping them alive, but having them thrive. That's tree Hugger Sprinklers. You can go to tree Hugger Sprinklers dot com and find out more information and where you can buy them, which is most places that I talk about here on Garden Line. And with that we'll turn it over to the

Nikki News Network NNN for the latest. Well, good morning on a beautiful Sunday morning. Gosh, it just looks great out there. Looking forward to getting out this afternoon. There are so many good things you can do in an afternoon here in Houston, Texas. When you've got the kind of garden centers we have, when you have the kind of suppliers we have. We

would talking about soil this morning. I'm talking about fertilizing this morning, getting ready, getting your lawn ready, getting your garden beds ready planting things right now and he's still time you can be planting things. It's a little stressful, a little tough for things touch and go, but you can do it. You can do it anytime of the year you want. Here in this area where we have an almost three sixty five growing season, and I guess

in some ways we do have a three sixty five. If you need any kind of a supply, I'll tell you what's near you that we'll provide that, and that is Ace Hardware. There's thirty nine of them here in the Houston area. You can go to Ace Hardware dot com and go to their store locator, put in your zip code, find the stores near you. It's easy to find them. I recommend fertilizers, and if I do, they're going to have them an Ace Hardware. We talk about soil mixes.

We're talking about to airloom a minute ago as an example. They've got that and more at Ace Hardware stores. The products you need to control insects, diseases and pests, the things you need for outdoor living and making that outdoor place a beautiful place to sit and enjoy. And by the way, the weather is going to break here and we're gonna want to be spending more time

outdoors. You can provide everything from barbeque in to you know, just outdoor lounging and enjoyable, just any kind of encouterment you might need for that outdoor setting. You're gonna find it there at ACE Hardware, as well as everything else you'd find at an Ace Hardware store, which is quality products and good service. And I always I'm glad to walk into a place that's going to treat me right, know what they're talking about, and help me find what

I need. We're going to go out now to Lakewood Estates and talk to Maureen. Well, hello, Maureen, Hello, let me just get away from my radio. All right. My question is this is my season ever to grow okra. And I have so much okra and I'm picking it as fast as I can. Okay, but now I have all different sizes. So I went online and looked at whatever I could produce recipe wise, and so I know I can do some small sizes in the oven. That's good, I know, because I love soup, so I can put them in

the soup. Yes, But is there a point where I should say this is like a stone, because I do come into those, I can't cut it. I throw them out. No, he's what else. Here's what I do. I've just been the pod. If you've been the pod about a third away back from the end, and if it doesn't just snap into that is too mature of a pod. If you have a little like almost woody strings holding the thing together, when you try to bend it, it

just collapses. Ye that throw it away. There's life's too short for eating bad okra. And I just didn't believe that this would happen. So go ahead. Well it grows fast. And here's the deal. It's not the size of the pod. People talk about that, but it's not. It's the age of the pod. About three days after it is the bloom has fallen off, maybe four days, but about three days after the bloom is

fallen off, you need to be picking that pod. Now, you're not going to keep track of ever pot on the plant, but as you regularly harvest, you're going to be able to kind of get a feel for what you're doing. Another thing you need to do with okra if you haven't, if you got a barbecue pit, just take a pod. Yes I do, I do smear a little olive oil on each side, sprinkle it with sea salt, put it on the pit two minutes on one side, flip it over two minutes on the other, and it will be a non slimy,

delicious okra for you. It's just yet, Okay, no problem with that to enjoy ore. Okay, my last question, I've had to put a shirt on in order to pick my variety. Yes, it seems that there's something prickly, yes, all over the leaves, and I come in and it's irritating. So what else can I do beside I watch it off. Yeah, but I'm thinking I should maybe wear gloves than a long sleeved shirt. Definitely, a long sleeved shirt. Gloves, definitely, because they

are itchy. That's just part of the deal with yeah planning. Your plants are close together that you're having to rub through them and it's hitting your neck and everything. You don't do that. So that's about what you do, is you just dress right and make sure when you plant them you give yourself enough space to get in there and do the work. Okay. Okay, love your show. Everybody wants to talk to you. That's a good sign. Well, thank you. I appreciate marine, appreciate your call. You

take care for sure. If you are looking for a tree for your landscape right now, Verdant Tree Farm has got a great selection in stock now. They are the place to go for palm trees. I mean that is, they just have everything you need in the way up a palm tree. Lots of good quality varieties, and they know how to grow them. They know what to do with them. When it comes to other trees though, they are also a great place to go. They have trees up to l seven

hundred gallons in size. Have you on a real big instant impact. Go on line to Verdant Treefarm dot com Verdant or I should say Verdant Verdant Treefarm dot com Verdant means green. On one of these days, I'm gonna learn how to pronounce it and just check them out. There's two locations, oh actually three. Now there's the Barker Cyples location in West Houston down on Broadway Street in pair Land they have a location. And now in the Heights where

Yale and I ten come together, there's another d location. Take some pictures of your place, walk in there, tell them, hey, I'm looking for a flowering tree for here. I'm looking for a shade tree for here. What do you got? What do you think? And they will help guide you. You can picture tree out on spot, they'll tag it, they'll bring it to you. They'll plant it properly, which is critical. They know what they're doing. That's all Verdant Tree Farm. I am going

to now head up to rich Mend and talk to James. Hey, James, how are you today? I'm doing fine about yourself. I'm doing good. Listen. We got about a minute, so let's see if we can do it. If not, I'll hold you over after break. Okay. I've got an oak tree in my front yard, and the roots or push every time I planted the pile a little dirt up and put mulch and planted some print meals around it, and they always die. Yeah, I'll put gerber daisies in and they didn't last, right, So what I'm wanting to

do? And the roots are pushing the blocks up that I landscaped around it, Yes, some of them moved those out. Yes, a larger circle

around the root, the root line. And I was wondering, what's the best way for me to put flowers on top of bad there, and yeah, James, I don't want to kill I don't want to kill the flowers, right right, Well, I found it almost impossible to put a little flower bed around a tree as it gets older because the roots are so big and there's so many that the soil is basically all wood and very very source

space for roots to grow and thrive. And in addition to being the competition with the tree pulling water and the tree pulling nutrients and the shade from the tree, it's just a challenge. And I would go to a shade loving groundcover, and that could be things like and Asian jasmine. It could be there's a lot of great native sedges, there's a cast iron plan, a lot of things that will grow there, and just move the flower bed a little bit further out. I'm gonna have to take a break. If you

want to hang around, I'll come right back to you. But thank you for the question, and thank you for holding. If you would like to hold seven one three, two one two fifty eight seventy four, let's get on the board and we'll talk to you as well as James when we come back. All right, good morning, good Sunday morning. Thank you for listening to garden Line. We love visiting with you about all kinds of things gardening. We want you to have success and the key to success, as

I say all the time, a green thumb is an informed thumb. A brown thumb is an uninformed thumb. That's the only difference. And we're here to inform, advise, suggest, give you the tools you need to have a beautiful garden and a bountiful landscape. That's what we love to do here. If you happen to live out in the Kingwood area, you were fortunate because you have two outstanding garden centers. That's Warren Southern Gardens and Kingwood Garden

Center. Both of them are well worth a visit now right now out there, a house plants are a big item they you know, of course, they have all the kinds of plants we need. But are you looking for some hard to find exotic house plants. Maybe you know our intour home can be transformed into a cool oasis of tranquility when we have houseplants. It just gives you a different feeling and a lot of people can attest to that. Silken scientific research by the way, that are being around plants, it just

has effects on us in many, many positive ways. They also have a compost sale going on. Three bags of heirloom soil the aged leaf compost and you get one free. Sounds like a twenty five percent deal. Compost is always needed. Aged leaf mold compost is the cadillac of the group. And buy three bags get one free. What a good deal. If you're looking for a vine, rangoon creeper, I don't know if you've ever seen it before, go look it up. Rangoon creeper. It is a quite vigorous

vine annual. It tends to be an annual in our areas, but it can return in a protected spot. They just have an outstanding selection out there as well in Kingwo. You know the thing I like about it is the blooms are a combination of pink and almost light pink whitish and then red and they change or is the age little clusters of flowers. Go look at it up online. You I can't describe it on the air. You'll see what

I'm talking about. But Rangoon creeper this far south is a plant that you can take through year after year with a little mulching of the base of the plant now Kingwood Garden Center. Their gift shop is loaded now with Halloween and fall decore. It is beautiful and all the things you want to do for your decorating for autumn, you know, to create that enchanting scene of autumn. You've got it there, I mean captivating fall decore at the Kingwood Garden

Center's gift shop coming up. Let's see we are nope that do that one. I was about to talk about a program they just had. I hope you didn't. Hope you got to go to it last night August nineteenth, on soil prep. But I love going to those garden centers, love walking around, love seeing what they have, and they always have good quality stuff. They also they haven't folks that are trained. They know what they're talking

about, and that is so important. If you have my lie for Nelson plant food jars, they have the filling station there to fill them up. Save a little few bucks and also save on putting plastic out there in the landscape. Just another another good thing. So if you live out there in New Caney, if you live in Porter Valley, Ranch, Ambelatasca, Seda, Kingwood, these are your hometown garden centers that is Warren Southern Gardens on

North Park Drive, Kingwood Garden Center on Stone Hollow Drive. Both are open seven days a week. Hey, now you got some fun trip to do this afternoon to get out and about. Well, let's go to Annie in the Woodlands. How's things going this morning? Annie? It's very hot I'm

here this morning. Well, good morning. Yeah. My question for you is not so much about plants, but all of the different products that we use for our plants, you know, like the insect and side of Stokes, which would sponge, asides the Noh's color star granules, mastedral dust, zipples dust or whatever that's called. You know, I store an these stuff in my garage. Okay my garage, he says, is you know it could be out there, right, I mean we're talking about year after year.

Yeah, what is the shelf life and what how does that affect? Yeah, there's there's not a good, one size fits all answer on that one. But I can tell you this. If it's a pesticide, especially like a synthetic typesticide or a organic maybe that would have the potential of living organisms in it, like a BT product or something like that, they are not going to do well in terms of shelf life when it comes to that kind of storage. Temperatures and so they don't like light, and they don't

like the heat. The heat hot temperature are are freezing cold for that matter. I put a lot of that kind of stuff in a little cabinet we have on the little mudroom going out to the garage in order to have a little bit of a better break for them. When it comes to fertilizers, those are pretty resilient. I mean, yes, over time there is some decline, but in general I consider those pretty resilient. Now, I don't know, four years in the garage of storage, Yeah, that's probably stretching

things. But in general, it's just a little bit of warm temperature in and of itself for most of those is not going to be a problem. Now, if you have microbial content and it gets hot enough, a lot of our organics and even some of the others have some microbial content there. I would avoid, you know, that excess. It's still going to be a good fertilizer, but you can at certain temperatures start to shut down that

microbe. Okay, I don't know if that's I was most concerned about I'm most concerned about some of these, you know, models of different things. Yeah, not so much. The bags of soil or composts or low or anything like that. Are masquito gulfs? Are they affected as for a year or two? Well, I know the devil's in the details on that question. So how hot, how long? Mosquito dunks are BT, which is an organic compound that is a strain of BT that kills mosquito larvae. And

so I would put anything like that indoors. I would just store it indoors. I mean, you know, if you had some super toxic compound or whatever they didn't want in the house, that would be different. But the heat doesn't do those bottled products any good. Alrighty, right right, thanks you so much. All right, any appreciate you got. Thanks for the

call. I hope that helps. Speaking of bottled products, the product I use for fertilizing in my house plants is a Microlife Biomatrix that's an orange label. The nutrient content is seven to one three, which means seven percent nitrogen, one percent phosphors, three percent potassium. Anytime you see three numbers on a fertilizer bag, it's the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium in that

order. This product has beneficial microbes in it. So again, you know, we're talking about storing something in blazing heat for an extended period time. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. I keep it in the house. I keep it under the sink in the house as a matter of fact. And when I water house plants, I put some of that the right amount into water and just water. With that water, it works super super well. And all those beneficial microbes are also helpful for the soil because

roots need microbes. There's a relationship there that is very essential, and we want to not destroy it, but even enhance it in order for our plants to do their best. You know, house plants are basically foliage plants for the most part, So that's seven percent nitrogen. That's a good level to help keep them healthy and green and good beautiful vegetation. Now, outdoors, that would be the Ocean Harvest Blue label. That's a four two three fish

based fertilizer. I again mix it in water and water with it. You can also mix it up and use it as a folior spray. It's not gonna burn your plants. Just just follow the label. It works super well. I like to use it outdoor because being fish based, there's a slight odor to it. But we've known for a long time that fish based fertilizers are rocket fuel for plants, very very very helpful for plants. So Harvest label, Ocean Harvest Blue label, Biomatrix Orange label. Those are the two

I think you should have on hand. You can get them from Microlife. You know, Microlife fertilizers are available on a lot of places. If you go online to Microlife Fertilizer dot com you can find out the different places that they have and you can buy it. And that is in most of the places I talk about here on garden Line. Well, you've been listening to a good show today because we had a great guest today. We've got a

lot of good information. You know, on guarden Line we are here every Saturday and Sunday six am to ten am, so that's eight hours a weekend that you can call in and get gardening advice or just listening for gardening advice. I hope you tell your friends about it. We always love to have more listeners, more interest in the show. You have people that live somewhere. I'd had a call from Georgia today. I'm crying out loud coming in.

Tell your friends and neighbors about garden Line. If you miss a show, you can hear us by podcast. Whether you have the iHeartMedia podcast app or some other podcast app. Search for garden Line here in Houston, Texas, and you can listen to past shows. Maybe you heard me say those two fertilizers just a minute ago, and you go, what was that? I didn't write it down? We go listen to the past. Sure you can hear that. You hear me give advice to people and recommend things.

Another good reason I love podcasts because gosh, these past two weeks I have driven all over Texas for various sort of culture of and boy, I listened all wins. Your time is education time for me when I hit somewhere because of all the great podcasts that we can listen to. Thank you for being a listener to Gardenline. We look forward to talking to you again next Saturday morning.