Preparation is Key for Cool Weather

Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip Ricter. It's crazy Rim. Just watch him as us so many stays clubs. Well, good morning, good morning on a Sunday morning. We're going to talk things today. Talk about things today that relate to your garden, to

your house, plants, to whatever you're interested in. Maybe the yard, perhaps you're doing some renovations, or you'd like some suggestions for ways to improve on an area and the aesthetics of an area. We're going to talk about all that kind of stuff. But most importantly, we're going to talk to you about your questions, and that would be by calling this number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two KTRH.

Give us a call and we can get down to the bottom of the things that you are most interested in asking about. I get a lot of emails, and in fact I get more than I can answer, uh, just to be honest, and I hate to sometimes and when someone emails, there's part of the question that is just not there that I need to know. And so that that would start a back and forth and I'm just not

able to. So what I ask of listeners is if you would email me any photos related to what you're going to ask, and then just call the show, just as simple as that, and we'll talk about it and I'll have the photos there to look at ahead of time. A lot of times with calls, I wish I could see the situation a caller's asking about. But if you wish, if it's something that we need to do a question

on, we can certainly do that. And typically the way I handle that is when somebody calls in, I'll I'll just have Josh send them an email connection where they can get a photo to me. But again, my apologies, but I just cannot physically find the time or to type in all the entwers and texts or rather emails from people that call in. But I would love to help you with the situation. So again, that's what I would

ask. We're in the holiday season, and holiday season involves a lot of gift giving, right A lot of people are scampering around trying to find the perfect gift for people in their list. Maybe you're going to a gathering or a party, and you're like a hostess gift. You know, maybe you're just looking for ideas for some things you yourself would like to have that you can drop a subtle hint around the house and perhaps accomplish the goals that way.

Well, horticulture, gardening, this whole world is just a wonderful place to find all kinds of things for people. Now, certainly for gardeners that's easy, absolutely very easy for gardeners. But when you think about non gardeners, then what do we do there? Well, there are so many things related to gardening that would that a non gardener would enjoy it. And I'll just give you an example, like a hummingbird feeder for example, that would

be that would be a simple, simple one. There's some gorgeous, beautiful hummingbird feeders out there, and people that aren't into gardening and all of that, maybe not really that much into birds, could enjoy a hummingbird feeder, a beautiful one that enhances a home. And there's many other examples. I'm gonna give you a few as we go through the day to day. But don't don't forget that most of our good garden centers that we talk about on

garden Line. They have wonderful gift shops, and those gift shops are just loaded with the really cool stuff, and so I would encourage you to swing by and check out some of those because it's a great way to find the perfect gift for someone that otherwise seems to have everything already. You know how difficult that could be buying for people that already have everything that they would need. Well, I want to talk this morning just a bit about the vegetable

garden and the herb garden. To start off here, in the cool season, we have the widest range of things that we can grow in the vegetable garden, and the easiest time of the year to do it. Temperatures are cool, you're not having to water as much. You've got, really, again, a wide variety of great things that you need to grow or you could grow, and it just is it's the best time of the year I think for gardening. Most of our most nutritious grains are available during the cool

season. That's just a fact. There's things like broccoli that you can grow now depending on the winter we have. There are marginally hardy cool season plants as well. There are things like let's take turnips and carrots and radishes, those are all pretty darn hardy. Actually, beats are marginal. They generally are not considered an over the winter crop unless we just have a mild winter,

or you can protect them. And that's kind of where I was going with that, is if you prepare ahead of time for whenever cold weather might arrive, it's really simple. In my garden. What I do is this is just one way to do it. There's a lot of ways to go

about it. But I purchased some little short pieces of rebar that are I don't know, eighteen inches twelve inches long, something like that, probably eighteen and drive them into the ground on each side of the bed in pairs, so as you go down the bed there's a pair in, but another four foot there's a pair, and so on. And then just take a piece of PVC pipe and bend it and slip the openings over the rebar, and

that holds that PVC pipe as an arch over the bed. I'll attach a couple of PVC down the arch using zip ties or twine, and then you've got your perfect little quantcet hut that whenever you have inclement weather you just run out there and throw a cover over it and make sure it's secure on both sides, and you can go through anything that comes here. Back in February twenty one when it was where I lived, it was seven degrees with that,

and of course we had a little snow cover over it. My plans just went through it, which it should have killed everything seven degrees right just about. But that's real simple. It's easy to do, and I encourage you to be thinking about that now because you know, maybe this winter we

go through without a bad one, but maybe not. And when suddenly realize we're going to have a cold freeze and you're running the store trying to buy the supplies that everybody else on earth is buying, that can be a little frustrating. Now, I don't know if this qualifies as a Christmas gift, but boy, sure would be a good one. And that is a generator. Have you ever thought about getting a generator? Perhaps you have thought about it, but just keep putting it off. Well, now's the time to

quit putting it off. And the reason is Quality Home Products has a generator on their generators on sale. It's called the Holiday blowout. Last till the end of this month ten percent off up to twenty five hundred dollars off. So you pick your generators, sit down with them, they find you the one you need. They do all the stuff in terms of getting the permits

all aligned so you can put it up. They pour the slab, they put out the generator, They make sure things are working right, and you can even have them come back a couple times a year to just service it and make sure it's in top notch shape. Because these generators, when the power goes off, you don't have to do anything. They come on automatically. They come on and they start running whatever it is that you need, run from refrigerators to keeping the internet, going to I don't know, watching

that football game you don't want to miss. Generaic generators are quality product, but more important than that is quality home products. Quality home products is a company can depend on and their customer service is second to absolutely none. QUALITYTX dot com. That's the website seven to one three Quality. That's the phone number for Quality Home. Now's a good time to go ahead and contact them and get set up to begin the process of getting a generator at your house.

We're going to take a break now. Our phone number is seven one three, two one two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to the garden line on a It's going to be a great Sunday. It just is. I can tell it already, even though it's dark outside. It's gonna be a good one. And I hope you are ready to this afternoon, get out, do a little bit of gardening, perhaps do a little bit of gardening shopping. That is important and one place you might want to go,

especially if you have kiddos is RCW Nursery. RCW is open today from ten am to five pm. That you can go to their website RCW Nursery dot com. And today from twelve to two they've got Santa out there, so haul the kids out for some pictures with Senna. And that is from twelfth to two pm today only at RCW nurses While you're out there, take advantage of signing up for their twenty five Days of Giving. Do you know that every day for twenty five days through the advent calendar, they are pulling a

tab and a customer is winning something cool from RCW Nursery. And I've been following it day after day looking at the different things being won and there's some really cool stuff, So go ahead and put your name in that hat. I mean that would be that would be fun to win too. And also while you're out there, ask them about the various kinds of trees they have and any sales going on, because they're always there's always something going on at

RCW Nursery. They are the nursery where Tomball Parkway two forty nine comes into belt wagh eight. It's really easy to get to from wherever you are. They carry all the fertilizers I recommend here on garden line and again a super selection of trees and roses and many many other kinds of plants. We're going to head out now to Conroe. We're going to talk to Roy. Hell yeah, good morning, skimp follow you. I'm well, sir. What's up today? You're up? Holy man? Good to hear you. Yeah,

it'd be a quiet radio show if I wasn't here. I guarantee you. You were talking about bee keeping last weekend. I didn't get that phone number of information to call. Uh. I was wondering if I could get it from me today. Oh yeah, you're talking about the folks at the b supply right, Yes, yeah, that was a great show. By the way, that's on it's on our podcast. So if you go to KJRH and look at the garden Line podcast, you can go directly to it.

The phone number is one eight hundred three five six forty two twenty nine, so it's three five six forty two to twenty nine. And I think you put in extension three if they ask you there on that. But they're out in Dayton. It's theb Supply. Okay, thank you. Yeah, good. You have a good day and you're you're doing a good, good program there. I mean, you know, I've been a listener to this

program. You know I live in the Virgin Islands. Oh wow, I've been I've been a listener to this program for a lot of years, you know. Yeah, no kidding, Okay, well, thanks for listening. I appreciate that. Okay, thank you, bybe you take care bye bye. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands. Yeah, we had the folks that the Best Supply on the other day and that was that was a fun show. We enjoyed, really enjoyed visiting a boy. What they know about bees?

It's amazing, it is absolutely amazing. Hey, our phone number is seven one three, two one two, fifty eight seventy four. Now I've told you for months and months that ACE Hardware is a place to go for everything you need for your lawn and garden. You know, all the fertilizers, I talk about everything like that, supplies tools, garden hoses, past sides, they have it all. ACE has also been the place for your

Christmas lighting, which a lot of people didn't know. But I want to tell you that ACE is a place for getting gifts, for getting gifts, and there are so many great ideas at ACE. The ACE Hardwares have a wide variety of things. So maybe someone on your list would like a chainsaw or a blower, or a power tool like a drill or a saw from quality companies like Milwaukee and du Walt for example. Also tool sets from Craftsmen.

That's another good example of something. Maybe you're into a still brand Tremor's high quality products still and they also even have Ego power tools. I actually have an Ego mower. I really like it. It's a battery powered mower, but boy, it's not your grandfather's battery powered more. Those things last and the battery charge lasts, and they go a long time, and your neighbors appreciate, you know, if you're out mowing on a Sunday morning,

not waking them up early in the morning with an ego power. But they got all that and a lot more. There's there's gifts for men, women, and kids and everything else at Ace Hardware forty stores in the area. Not hard to find one. Hey, just a suggestion, just try this. Walk into one, go into one today and look around and see what's there. And I promise you there is going to be something for everybody that you may be buying a gift for. That is just how diverse, widespread

and cool the product content are at ACE Hardware stores. Really really like that. Someone was asking me the other day about their their lawn. It was it was in really bad shape, and after looking at some photos, I basically said, Okay, look, you're gonna have to replant. There's just not enough grass left there to cover back in in any reasonable amount of time. And whenever you're going to have to replant, oftentimes you want to. You know, you're going to clear out the dead so you can put the

new grass down. But leveling is also important, filling in low areas, that is important and green Pro, who we've talked about for a long time now. They're the folks that come out and do the deep core aeration that pulls a little plug of soil out, followed by a compost top dressing a finely screened, high quality compost on top of that. That's great for lawns, but they also do the filling areas. If you need to bring in some soil and level off an area or do anything like that, they can

take care of that as well. And that is important because if you're going to put a new lawn in, let's go ahead and fix things. Let's get them right before we lay the new grass down. That would even be areas with like holes and bumps and roots sticking up or a little covering of soil would help out a little bit. Just go to greenpro dot net greenpro dot net and there you can find out exactly all the things that they do and how to connect with them to get them to come out to help you.

When we get this is it's planting season for all kinds of things, trees and shrubs. I generally wait until it warms up a little more to lay a turf. You can lay turf at different times of the year. It's just in the cool season, the root growth is very slow and the establishment is very slow, and so generally I will use that time to get the yard ready to lay turf. And that's exactly what Greenbrook can help you with. So just something to think about. You are listening to Guardline,

we're talking about things related to gardening today. By the way, today we're going to have an upcoming hour. We're going to have Martin Spoonmore from Affordable Tree Service. I've asked him to call in. We're going to be talking about general tree care and some things you need to know about how do you care for a tree properly. A lot of people buy a saw and have no idea what they're doing, or they have a tree that they think, you know, is fine, but it may have some issues going on.

And Martin's going to walk us through things like you know, on tree pruning, some important concepts about some of the things people may be aware of about preparing for storms, about doing construction around trees. Boy, that's that is that can be a risky, a risky endeavor. And Martin knows all about

that stuff. We're gonna have him in here I'm gonna pick his brain and see what we can all find out that will help everybody really about trees, because a professional tree service fella, he absolutely knows what he's talking about. If you happen to live out in Mont Bellevue or Baytown, your hometown feedstor is Texas feed Stop. That's as simple as that. Brian and Hope Rhodes have built a wonderful feed store that it has that sense of family. It's

family owned, but it makes you feel like family. You go in, you're greeted. They have teens from the community they hire and work very hard there to carry your bags out for you. And it's just that good old day feeling of where you walk in and you're treated like family. That's what you get at Texas Feed Stop. Now. They're located on Highway one forty

six, just a few minutes north of I ten. So you know, if you're coming from Baytown or from anywhere around the Mont Bellevue area, you just come down Ien to Highway one forty six, turn north and just a few minutes there on the right hand side, they're there. They're going to have every fertilizer you hear me talk about They're going to have many many other products. Do you are you into hunting. They have all the supplies that

people load up on for the time of year when it's hunting season. Texas Feed Stop is just a place where you're going to find everything, all the pest and disease and weed controls, whatever you need, and certainly quality feeds for your pets and your livestock right there. So again, just go up Highway one forty six from Ien, just a few minutes in Mont Bellevue, and when you get there, you'll see what I'm talking about about the way

you're treated and the kind of product variety that they have. It's really really excellent. On garden line today, I'm gonna be visiting with you a little bit more. I said I was going to start off with vegetables, and we did that. I want to talk just real briefly a few things about herbs. Herbs are so easy to grow. I don't know why more people won't grow them. As long as you give them good drainage, they're good.

I grow herbs and containers, I grow them in the ground. I grow them and raised beds, and almost any herb can be planted now to carry you on through the winter and into fall and have a head start on spring. There are a few, like basil, for example, that absolutely won't tolerate cool temperatures at all, But most of the others are perennial herbs like thyme and rosemary and a regano. All of that kind of thing meant, all of those herbs are very cult arty and we'll do just fine for

our climate down here. We don't have to worry a lot about them. So I would encourage you to think about putting in an herb garden, maybe putting in an herb container. I like to use herbs trail around the outside of a container. Let them trail over the sides. Then maybe in the middle you would plant something like a little bay tree if it's a very large container, or a rosemary bush or something more upright in the middle. Could

even be flowers for that matter. But herbs are fun and I would encourage you to try them out this year. This is a great time to plant them and get creative. And by the way, that's also a great gift when you purchase a little herb along with a planter and have a little windowsill herb set up for someone on the list, good idea. Hey our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. We're going to turn our attention to Nicki and the news. Now. Welcome back, Niki,

what's up? Welcome back to garden Line. On a Sunday morning, it's a dark outside. Look around. If your neighbor's lights aren't on, go bang on the door, tell them they're missing garden Line and they will rise up and call you blessed. Maybe not today, but eventually they will appreciate that very much. We're talking about vegetables and herbs this morning. I almost shift gears a little bit and talk about some cool season color. The

cool season can be somewhat of a drab season. Of course, we way down south ear it's not like we live up in the Arctic tundra, so we can grow a lot of things through the cool season. But there's no reason to not have color in your landscape. We have very dependable cool season plants. Of course, everybody's familiar with pansies and violas. They look very similar and they are among the most cold hardy flowers that we have. We

also have things like snap dragons. We have alyssum that does very well in the cool season. We have stock that's a good cool season plant. And one of my favorites is Dianthus. They used to the little compact types generally referred to as sweet william. We have some real tall types with tall. When I say really tall, I mean like knee high and a little above maybe that have long stalks. Be good for cut flowers. But they just

beautiful colors. The Amazon series of Dianthus is knee colored. I mean you just have to see a picture of them, or go look at some in a garden center. They're beautiful and they do good through the cool se All of the diantheesis that's just a good choice. I mix Dusty Miller in I've mentioned that before, but when I have blue flowers, the silver foliage of Dusty Miller, which is also could hardy, is a really nice addition.

Outdoors. They're cyclomen that are outstanding for color. You've got kind of a bright, shady area or a little bit of morning sun, those kind of dapple sun through the day. Cyclomone just does really well outdoors, and it takes a pretty cold snap before you have to cover them up, so that'd be a good choice as well. Just remember when you're transitioning your flower beds,

always build the soil a little bit. So maybe you had I don't know, marigolds or petunias growing this past fall, and now you're transitioning to something cooler, Well add a little compost maybe a half inch to an inch of composts mixed into the soil, assuming the bed was in good shape to begin with. If not, you may mix a little bit more and make

sure it has any additional nutrients that it needs as it grows. I like to do light doses of nutrient applications through the season just to keep those plants vigorous because think about this. You think about a flowering plant and you go, well, why would I want to push it along with nitrogen. Well, when you have growth, you have foliage which captures sunlight, which makes carbohydrates which sets blooms, and blooms are what you're looking for. So you

do need to have a good healthy plant with moderate vigor. You know, don't overdo it, but moderate vigor is important in order to continue to have that bloom season carry on and on for you going forward. So cool season color is something that we should be having I think everybody should have cool season

containers. It is so easy to make a little cool season container. And the nice thing about it is you can just strap, you know, slip a dollar underneath underneath the plant, strap a strap around it to hold it to the dolly, and wherever you build it, you can just move it right around to where you want it to be without any backstrain or any whatsoever.

And the nice thing about containers is if they get to look in bad, you just move them out of the way, do some resprucing up, maybe replanting a plant or two or the whole thing, and then when it's ready, bring it back out to be on display again. So it's very versatile, very very versatile. It'd be a nice thing to put it a front entrance, for example, there's people coming in to visit and having that color splash that's also there. There's just some things to be thinking about.

And when you're looking for plants like the ones I've been mentioning. If you're out in the Kingwood area, you've got Kingwood Garden Center and you have Warrens Southern Gardens both right there in your doorstep, and they are just well stocked. That was our with color, but right now they're well stocked with cool seasoned color plants. You can go out there enjoy yourself while you're It's always

fun to go out. By the way, I was seeing the other day, Kingwood Garden Center they have fifty percent off all their gift shop items through twelve thirty one through the end of this month. Well, and that's why all supplies last, because, believe me, people are going to be going in there to get some of the great deals on really beautiful things. And you can't bring out other discounts and coupons and things. It's just fifty percent

off of all the things in their gift shop. And if you've ever been in there, you know how cool the things are that they have out in the gift shop. And Warren Southern Gardens, you know, I always tell you to you know, when you buy quality plants from a quality place like Warren's or Kingwood, you're going to get good plants. But take home soil as well. And boy, they have plenty of options for various heirloom soil products out there. Oh my gosh, whether it's a potting soil or a

soil but you're putting in a bed garden bed. They it's just just outstanding selection at both of those places. Well, I wanted to mention another thing today. Someone asked me that about trimming shrubs, and when we're out trying to make a shrub a nice hedge, the more often you trim them, the better the denture it gets. Every time you cut a shoot off, two shoots sprout from behind that cut to replace it, A maybe three or

whatever. But you multiply the number of terminals the number of ends of shoots, and that creates that hedge you're looking for. Now, in the cool season, things aren't growing very fast, so you don't need to trim a lot, but you always want to keep your shrub tops more narrow than the base, at least vertical, but preferably more narrow, because shrubs grow top heavy. When you're pushing the top in and trying to keep the base wider,

they're trying to do the very opposite. You're trying to create the letter capital A, they're trying to create the letter capital V. If that makes more sense for you, And so we're all always trimming to maintain that. So most of your trimming is done higher on the hedge. To be honest, and the top of the hedge, because when it gets too big on top, it shades out the bottom, you lose the foliage and it's very

difficult to get foliage back in lower areas. Once it's been shaded out, you basically are having to go to drastic measures and do a major pruning back of that shrub to start back over and recreate that nice wall of foliage. Now's not a time that we do a lot of shrub trimming, but if you need to, a little trimming is fine. We just want to avoid it in general because when you prune, that stimulates growth. Now, for a dormant plant, it's not going to start growing to the weather worms up.

But for things that are evergreen shrubs, trimming with a period of warm, like a week of real mild, warm winter temperatures, it can begin to put out new shoots. And when that happens, then the next hard coal freeze, those shoots are not going to be as cold hearty as the rest of the plant end up getting burned back. So hold off on that if you are thinking about doing it now, But when you do start,

I would wait until the danger of freeze. It's pretty much passed here in the spring, and then go ahead and start your trub shrub trimming, that is to maintain that beautiful wall of foliage. Well, it's time for us to take a break. Our phone number, by the way, if you'd like to get on the boards is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. And when we come back, James, you will be the first up. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter.

We're talking about all kinds of things gardening today, including your calls at seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Hey, Fall and winter prime times for planting trees and shrubs. Absolutely, I just say woody ornamentals. I guess that would include woody vines as well. It also includes, by the way, ornamental grasses that are perennials and other perennial flowers, but especially those woody ornamentals that are about to go in next summer into the

first critical brutal summer season. The sooner you plant, the better they have more time. Verdant Tree Farm has an awesome selection of all kinds of drought hardy and cold hardy trees and shrubs. Large shrubs that you can plant in your landscape, or better yet, have them plant it for you, because some of these plings are huge. They have trees up to seven hundred gallon sized containers. That is a big one. I wouldn't try lifting that.

But they can come in and do a true turnkey service. You can go in there, you sit on in the office, they do a consultation, they recommend the plants that would do best for your situation. You pick out your tree, tag it, and they bring it and install it. It's as simple as that, really really easy to do. Now. They have palm trees, a wonderful selection of palms as well. They offer a one year warranty when you have them install the tree. That makes sense. They're

going to plant it correctly and they'll warranty it for you. Verdanttreefarm dot Com is a website. You need to check them out and don't delay, because you're not gonna have a better time to get these things established to ensure their best chance and their ability to survive tough conditions which are coming. By the way, when you're purchasing a tree, you always should grab a tree hugger sprinkler if you don't have one, and The reason is you put the sprinkler

around the tree. It's like a think of it as like a pacman a hinge that goes around the tree. There's a seven inch diameter, eleven inch and a fifteen inch. You turn them on when you have a new tree. You just turn them a little bit. You're just water in that little root ball and a little beyond it. As they get bigger, you crank

it up and you can water a very large area. So that tree could be five ten years old or more and you're still watering the prime zone of where you can do most of the good and watering the roots on a tree. Tree Hugger Sprinklers dot com. By the way, that makes a good gift too. By the way, everybody needs one of these hanging in their tool shed because even though it says tree hugger, are you going to plant a rose bush? That's good for that too. You get the idea.

We're going to head out now to Spring and talk to James. Hello, James, good morning. The question is I've moved to Spring from South Louisiana and I used to plant a lot of mint grass, peppermint, spearmint. Will that work here? Or is it too cold here. No peppermint and spearmint, and there's a chocolate mint, and there's a pineapple mint. There are all kinds of mints and they all do well here. Yeah, fantastic. They just thank you. They need like they didn't lose, and they're

gonna need adequate moisture to do their best. And just remember that they have subtle intentions of taking over the world. So keep an eye on them, because mint will get out in your lawn. The only good thing about mint invading your lawn is every time you mow, you get this wonderful aromatic fragrance coming up in the air. But yeah, that mint is very invasive, so watch out. Thank you so much, Thank you, James, appreciate

that call. Yeah, boy, is it ever. You know, I was joking with somebody the other day about the things we want out of plants. You know, we want a plant that you plant it and it just fills in the area immediately, you know, it just suddenly it's the size you want it to be. And then we wanted to stop growing right there.

You know, we wanted to understand where we want the extent of its growth to be, which, of course we want it to grow fast, but we don't need to be invasive, and we don't want it to set seeds and throw them everywhere and become a weed either. And you know, by the time you get through with all these I needed to do that, I needed to do that, I needed to do this, well, I

kind of run out of plants. The list that starts off with one hundred thousand plants ends up being down to one and a half maybe or zero, And I'm finally left with saying, Okay, it's the first time I've ever done this, but I suggest you go to a hobby store and by silk flowers. That's about as close to care free as you can get. But you know, there are such things as silk worms and dust mites, so I guess the attacks silk Wow, I don't know. Anyway, Yeah,

we try to get a lot out of our plants. If you're up in the Tomba area, your hometown feed store is D and D feed Now D and D is three miles west of two forty nine on FM twenty nine twenty and Tombull. You go drive on about three miles out there to be on the left hand side the dovers open that in nineteen eighty nine. They expanded this summer a couple times. I went out several times and I just say,

oh, there's a whole new section here. And now the last time I went there was another little kind of a cubby area there where you walk in and there's things there as well, including bulk seeds where that's a very economical way to buy seed. You just scoop. You pick us different sizes of scoops cost that amount of seed costs a different amount, but it's way way cheaper than buying seeds by the package. It's real simple too. They've

got that, and they have a lot of other things. Do you need disease and pass and weed control products of course, high quality pet foods, very high quality pet foods, and livestock foods as well, and just pretty much everything you're looking for is out there at D and D Feed Again there on twenty nine, twenty three miles west of two forty nine in Tumble,

that's your hometown feed store up in that area. I want to remind you that later this morning, I'm going to be visiting with Martin spoon Moore from Affordable Tree Service and we're going to be talking about everything related to tree care. What are the things you need to know about how to maintain a tree and top health. You know, from the standpoint of planting all the way up into pruning, certainly training in the in the mid section there and then

as the tree gets older, it's more of a just just pruning. It's developed its form. What do you do when you need to do construction around a tree? What are some of the trees that you know Martin likes in this area, is more resilient, more dependable. We're just gonna pick his brain because he's been doing this for a long time. He knows his stuff in the Houston Greater Houston area, and so that opportunity will be there. We'll ask for your calls at that time as well about anything related to tree

care. So in the meantime, if you'd like to call me, our number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four. I want I want to tell you about Star of Hope again. I've talked about them before because I really believe in Star of Hope. My wife and I volunteered for Star of Hope. I don't know it had to have been two decades maybe more ago, when we were first living in the Houston area. Star of Hope changes lives.

It's not just a handout now they feed folks. In fact, one of the best ways you can get involved is by donating toward that. They for two dollars and eighty cents, they can provide a cre meal for folks. And at Star Hope mission, you're going to find that people are there living there as well as just being helped out in a short term. They bring folks in, they help them turn their life around. Listen, when you're homeless and you've lost everything and it's rock bottom, you don't just like go

quote get a job. It can be much more complicated than that. Maybe it's a mom that's living in a car with kids. Maybe it's someone who substance abuse and other things have essentially destroyed their lives. Starve Hope gives them a chance. It gives them the recovery programs, It gives them the training to get a job, It provides the ability to get to the job, which is a huge part of holding a job right, and it provides they

even have clothing store there that's really nice. It's like a little boutique in my opinion, and these people can come in and then they can dress for the interview. And you see what I'm saying. It's just all around. How do we turn a life around? And that's not done by handing to a dollar out of window at a stop sign. That does not turn a life around. Star of Hope does so. Ohmission dot org. Take your compassion and put it to good use for just a small amount of whatever you

can afford. Shmission dot org. Go there. You find other ways you can volunteer and be involved. Uh, it's well, it's an outstanding cause and I truly believe in it very much, sincerely, Very few things I find in that category of giving opportunities and that where I just believe a dollar makes a huge difference. In Starfart, were listening to Gardenline. We're gonna take a little break here. Our number is seven one three two one two

five eight seven four. If you'd like to get on the phones with me, we can talk about whatever is of interest to you. We're glad you're listening today. By the way, I appreciate the fact that you listen. If those of you who have emailed me and sent photos. You're welcome to give us a call. We can follow up on that now. I always appreciate a well taken photo. I can't tell from a fuzzy photo, but I sure can when it's crispin and focus and shows me the problem from a

couple of different angles. We'll be right back. Katie r. H. Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with scip Rictor. It's crazy. Just watch him as well. Good morning. We're glad you're listening this morning. The sun is brightening the eastern sky. I hadn't peaked up yet, but it's about to. I was like that time of day

looking out. Everything is silhouetted against that slowly glowing sky. I think it's kind of cool, cool time of the day today. By the way, it's going to be a great day, an awesome day to be out doing things in the garden and maybe going out this afternoon do a little shopping around for various items, certainly for Christmas items and things. Hey, by the way, if you have been to Buchanan's Native Plants in the Heights and you are still doing some shopping. Boy, is this ever a good time to

go by? They're having their end of the year sale, so their select plants, outdoor living and gift shop items marked down thirty fifty percent, which is really good. And if you haven't been in their gift shop, it is outstanding, lots of really cool stuff. I was checking out their su succulence. I can't even say that word. I was checking out their succulents the other day and they houseplant selection and their succulent selection and all of that

is just unbelievable. It's outstanding. And this is a time of year, you know, when we're doing a lot of our gardening indoors. And I guarantee you this. You go to Buchanans, you're going to find houseplants that are gorgeous that you've just got to have one that you don't have because their selection is so wide. Every time I go in there, it's like, wait a minute, I got to read the label on that. What is

that? You know? A good example? They have a gove? Is it a gove or is it a I'm trying to remember for sure what the name. Oh it's an aloe. I'm sorry. Alo aloed diablo and it's just imagine it almost looks a Goviy like but it's silvery with green and then the edges are the little blunt spines on the edges are a reddish color. That's just whoa that that is so unique. So if you're into succulents and a cacti and like that, or even if you're not, you got to

go buy Buchanans. Check out the aloed diablo that they have and all the other house plants that they have, and while you're there, take advantage of the sale. They're at six eleven East eleventh Street in the Heights. Six eleven East eleventh Street and the Heights, and it's just really easy to find something that you love or that someone on your list would love. They're at Buchanans. I always like to, you know, it's fun going into garden

centers. I'm doing a list of things that kind of New Year's resolutions for gardeners. It will air it as we get close to the weekend for New Year's I guess, but anyway, one of the things is this year, go to a garden center. You've never been to go to a botanic garden. You've never been to. If you go to another town, let's say you're in you're going to go to San Antonio, You're going to go to Dallas or Austin. Give me a call and say, hey, what is

a good garden center, what's a good botanic garden there? And I'll tell you the ones that I would go to that I have gone to. Every town has its own, but just remember this. No town has the number of quality garden centers mom and pop outstanding places to visit that we do in the greater Houston area. It's hands down here. You go in north, south, east, west, central, everywhere there is going to be a

garden center that is just outstanding. And so we're fortunate. But as you travel in twenty twenty four, that's one of the resolutions that I put is, hey go to a new one this year, a new garden center, new botanical garden. Let's visit we have botanical Oh, if you've been in the Houston Botanic Garden, that would be a great one to go to here in the Houston area. Really nice to get out and do those kind of

things. If you're looking for gifts, I want to give you a place that I think you are going to have no trouble at all finding a gift for pretty much anybody. And that is Waldbird's Unlimited Wall Birds is the kind of place where you walk in and everything it looks cool, it's quality, and they're bird feed, for example, is designed for the kinds of birds you're feeding, and it's full of what the birds eat. It's not full

of the little red bebes that the birds kick out. And so if you find some bird seed and you go, that's a better deal on bird seed. No, it's not. No, it's not because the amount of stuff that goes into a bird's stomach or craw if you will, that's in that bag is a fraction of the bag. It's a lot of it's wasted. You go to wild Birds and you buy a quality seed and it's one hundred percent bird food. Do you need a feeder? Those are so cool?

A little feeder sticks on the window with a suction cop a feeder that hangs outside. I have the squirrel excluding feeder. Whichever time they try to get into it, they can't. And that's kind of down the line of what I'm trying to accomplish it. I'm trying to feed the birds not the squirrels, but they even have squirrel feeders if you want to go into that.

Books and just indoor decoration and things. Wild Bird's Unlimited has a wide variety of everything that you would want to do, and even if someone's not a gardener, you're going to find some really cool gifts there at Wildbird's Unlimited. Now there's seven stores. There's one in Memorial, one in Cyprus, Katie bel Air, down in Paarland, up in Kingwood, and even down in clear Lake. There's a store and they're easy to find. Just go to WBU dot com, WBU dot com, slash Houston. That's as simple as

that. Can't get much easier than just doing that. You're listening to garden Line. Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I just give us a call. We'll talk about the things that might be of interest to you. If you are looking at renovating your landscape or fixing some things in

the landscape. Maybe your irrigation system is on the blank, it's not got good coverage, and now you've lost a section of the word because of that. Maybe you've got areas that are so poorly drained that no plant wants to be done in the swamp drownding. I know who can fix that. That's Peerscapes. Jason Garretty and his team at Peerscapes. They can do it all they do. You need hardescapes, do you need landscape lighting? Do you

need a redo in an area of your landscape? But you want to go in and say, hey, guys, I need some drought tolerant plants, They can do that for you. The website is Piercescapes dot com. Piercescapes dot com. Go look there and see an example of the kind of work they can do, or give them a call two eight one three seven zero fifty sixty. Take a picture of your landscape, go in, sit down

and say hey, what can we do here? They can come up with a professional design, a professional design that just really enhances any area outdoor entertaining areas especially boy, you can turn that outside part of your house into just an extension of your home where people love to gather and pier scapes and knows how to make exactly that type of thing happen. Well, you're listening to garden Line again our phone number seven one three two one two five eight seven

four. I'm going to go to a little break here and I'll be right back. Give Josh a call and we'll talk to you when we come back. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. We're here to answer gardening questions and talk about things related to gardening to help you have more success. That's exactly what it's about. That's why we're having Martin spoon More this morning, Colin from Affordable Tree Service, and we're going to

talk about all kinds of things related to trees. You're going to learn a lot about what your trees need, what they don't need, and get some wisdom on how to maintain and just keep them more and more beautiful over time. Maintain good structure in your trees, good health on your trees. That's very important. And so Martin. You know Affordable Tree Service, They've been around a long time. Martin's been doing this. He's no rookie when it comes to taking care of your trees. I mean, the guy's been I

don't know how many years, I mean decades. Martin has been doing this in the Greater Houston area. But I think thirty years now as a matter of fact, through the whole area. Does your tree need pruning? Are you concerned about storm damage? Do you need a tree trained or planted, or do you need you know, a stump ground even I mean the whole thing, from start to finish of a tree's life. Martin can take care of it and do that. Now you need to call to get on the

schedule because they stay busy. That's what happens when you treat your customer's right. You do good work for a reasonable price, you stay busy, and he does tell him you're a guardenline listener when you call and the phone number is seven to one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three six nine nine twenty six sixty three. Never let anyone who isn't properly trained and experienced touch your trees because damage can be done by I call it the two jerks on

a chainsaw tree service. You know, two guys have a chainsawn a pickup and they run around butchering trees. More damage can be done by that. That just it'll never be the same after that. And so make sure you let someone like Martin Spoon Moore. Uh, you know, be the one who essentially touches your trees. It doesn't allow anybody else to butcher things up. We're gonna head out to San Antonio, Texas and talk to Andy this morning. Hello. Andy, Hey, how are you doing skip. I'm

good, sir, Yes, I've got it. I know we're a little bit different soil than than Houston. We used to live in Houston, and we moved here almost five years ago. Now I've got I've got five pinoaks in my backyard and then uh, and they're all doing just well. Uh, I've got a cedar elm that's in there, and and and for the past I'm gonna say two to three years. And these trees are all about

four to five years old, same as we've been in the house. It's kind of how it looks in the fall, kind of when the leaves kind of yellow. It's that almost all year long, all summer long. Well, it's kind of weird. I don't see any anything going up and down the stalk any you know, for anything. I didn't know if it was some kind of disease that you would think of. And is this a tree that was planted from a container or is it a native grown tree planted.

I planted everything from a container. These are new houses. Okay, sometimes in a container. As the trees being grown and moved into bigger containers. Early in the process, you get a root going around the outside of the container, as you know, a little spaghetti sized root, and then it gets bumped up to a bigger container as it's being grown, and that root gets bigger and bigger, and the trunk gets bigger and bigger, and the two end up coming together. And it's as if you put a cable around

the trunk, it just litterally. He sinks into the trunk as both expand and strangles it. That can cause over time a decline in a tree where you're going, man, it looks like it needs water, something's wrong, and usually that takes about eight years, could be a little longer, but usually it takes about that long before you start seeing the problem. So I

think you're early for that. But I would at least go to the base of the tree a little handspade or squirt of water to blast soil away, and just look for any kind of a strangling route going around the trunk. That would be one thing i'd look for. Cedar elm is incredibly resilient. I mean you'll see those things. I didn't quite catch it. Or is the elm in Austin or is it in Houston? I'm sorry, San Antonio or HOUSTONI okay, we're the far west side of San Antonio. Yeah,

okay, I know that area. I grew up in Jordan and thirty miles south of there over the Alma Ranch area over here. Okay. Well, so it's a resilient tree. I mean you put it on these clay soils that shrink and swell and it survives for a few other things. Big cedar realms and hackberries can both take that kind of abuse, and so I don't worry about cedar ealm. We don't have major foliage diseases or insects that threaten

the life of a seedar realm. Every tree is going to have certain things that'll chew on it, or maybe a disease it hits here and there. But it's just a resilient plant now hidden that fall color through the year. Something is stressing the tree. I don't know if the roots didn't escape the planting hole well, and a clay even have some coliches out in that area here and there roun. Yeah, it can be a real rough hole to

dig and then the roots get out and survive in that. You know, if it had grown there as a seedling, it'd probably be better off than if it was transplanted, just because sometimes you have a hole that becomes underground bathtub and the roots don't escape it, And that could be one of the issues you're seeing. But it sounds to me like a water problem. But

why isn't it getting water? That's the question because cedar realm, again, it's a tough species that it can make it through brutal conditions that we have here. So we water quite a bit. It's probably our our highest bill out here, Okay, And in our grass we fertilize. The grass is good, the tree, the other trees are good. Yeah, everything is green. I don't overwater it, like you know, like at the very first you water quite a bit. I don't. I don't have to do

that anymore. But it's getting plenty and the rest of the trees are getting plenty too, so that root thing might be it might be the deal then, yeah, And I don't know how to fix it at this point. You know, it's been in a while, so yes, the only thing would be yeah, I just don't know. Maybe thinking back to when the hole was dug, did that sound like what we may be dealing with as a slick side hole in a clay soil, And boy, it's difficult to

come in later and fix that. I'm going to have Martin spoon Moore here on the phone here in a little bit, and you may just keep listening. This morning. I may pose that question to him and see what do you do when you've got a tree that's been put in a hole and the roots aren't venturing out. So that in and of itself makes it drought prone because it doesn't have the root system and the volume of soil to draw moisture from. So maybe he'll have an idea on that. Okay, thank you

very much for your time. I appreciate it. Yeah, Andy, one other thing you should be aware of. You got one of the best horticultures in the state. And David Rodriguez there at the Bear County Extension Office. It's on the northwest side of town, kind of where six fourteen and intersect ten leaves out of town Military Highway up in there. He's very knowledgeable and he knows the area very well too, so don't hesitate to ever call on

him as well. What's his name, David Rodriguez. He's the Horticulture Texas A and m Agrolife Extension. Yeah, good friend and a very knowledgeable guy. And I've thought about about taking nanny, just cutting a little cutting a little piece off of it with the leaves like it is, and I'll probably do that in the spring then after it starts turned, because it'll be green

in the first in the spring and then it'll start well. In addition to that, take a good photo of the tree from a distance so he can see that, and you can just email it to him too, but tell him I sent you and that he has to treat you right. Yeah, definitely, so all right to take care, all right, thanks, you bet, you bet. We're going to head out now to David in northwest Houston. Hello, David, Lordy Skip, thank you for taking my call.

I have a question with regards to some hybrid roses that I want to plant in the spring, and my question is focused around the planting hole. I want to be able to maximize the health of the roses and so that they'll reproduce significantly during the spring and summer months. Okay, can you walk me through how you would prepare that planting hole, Yes, to maximize its help and growth. Yes. I'm going to back up for two quick comments

before we get to the planning hole. Roses need as much sun as you can give them, So the area needs to get at least six hours of sun and really does better with more than that for the bloom production to be good. Secondly, they are not a swamp dwelling species, so if the area, if you have a clay soil, the area is a little low lying and it tends to be on the wet side. Getting them up into a bed that's raised to facilitate that drainage that's critical. So now we can

go to the planning hole. I would prepare a bed with lots of organic materials. There's a thing called rose soil sold here in the Houston area that's designed and approved by the Houston Rose Society. Originally it was done by Nature's Way Resources. Now there are some other sources that carry a roast soil blend that is an excellent mix if you're going to use it to amend your current

soil like mixed some in. I would add more roasts soil even on top of that mix, so you have a blend from top to bottom, and then dig the hole in that to plant. In other words, don't dig a hole in clay and then fill it the whole with rose soil to plant. The plant have a blend so when the roots go out, they easily go out in all directions. Does any is there any necessity for any kind

of areation media to be part of that soil that we put down. Well, No, the rosse oil in and of itself is going to have the organic matter to hold the soil open. Now, if you're if you're dealing

with a very heavy clay cocius, amounts of expanded shale are helpful. Think of kitty litter, the little gray kitty litter that's been super fired at a hot temperature and literally expands so when you look at it under microscope, it almost looks like those lava rocks you see in the bottom of a barbecue pit, you know, with all the holes and things in them. And that shale has a structure. It's very hard, it's like a little rock,

and it holds the soil open. So even after organic matter decomposes the way the shale is still remaining there and it's providing you a longer term benefit of internal drainage, aeration and whatnot. But it takes about three inches of that shale over an area mixed in to be enough quantity to make a big difference in a clay. You know, just a little bit here and there doesn't accomplish a lot. Okay, well, I appreciate that very much and I'll

look forward to that endeavor one springtime comes. And thanks so much for your time. Well good call us anytime we can help with it. Roses or the queen of the landscape. And that's a beautiful, beautiful plant chive shows. Thank you all right, sir, Thank you appreciate that very very much. I've talked about ACE Hardware a number of times in the past, and usually I'm telling you, hey, it's the place to go for your lawn

care because it is. It's got all the fertilizers, I recommend, disease control products, all the tools for taking care of your garden and your landscape. I've been telling you that's great Christmas lighting. Most of you purchased that by now, but just know that they have that there and it's outstanding. But ACE is a place where you can do some very important Christmas shopping as well. ACE has all kinds of things, especially for that let's say the

do it your sulfur on the list. You know what do they need to do what they enjoy doing out in the landscape and garden, like a chainsaw, a blower, a time or a tremor from still and ego power to those electronic battery operated. I've got one ego mower. Those are outstanding. Maybe a saw from Milwaukee or to wall Uh, tool sets from Craftsmen. Lots of gift departments for men and women, gifts and kids too. By

the way, at ACE Hardware stores, there's forty around the area. Go to Acehardware dot com and when you get there, look for the store locator and you can find one of the forty. Actually, you're going to find three or four of the forty that are near you because they're everywhere. It's time for news with Nikki, and I'm going to give you a phone number one more time seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four her too. We'll come to you when we get back. Welcome back to guard Line.

We are glad you're listening today because we're talking about gardening. I always enjoy talking about gardening. I guess I ended up right in the right business. It's fun talking about gardeners too. You know, everybody who is a gardener is a learner. That's just the case. At least if you're going to stick with it in gardening, you better be a learner because there's always something new, always things we don't know, and it's fun. I enjoy I learned from callers, I believe it or not, I sure do.

The everybody who's been out there and had experienced gardening has something to offer, something useful to offer, and it's it's just fun to get to interact with folks. I'm going to go straight out now to Spring Branch and talk to her to Good morning, Good morning Rick. My question is about acorns. Well, the yard is just full of them. Yes. Do I have to break them all up? Can they break down into the soil? They

will break down and be just fine. Some of them are going to try to sprout, but when you mow over them, it chops them off and they're not going to be a problem. You don't have to weed your lawn out of acorns. Oh well, good, good there. I don't know how many millions are out. The other question is I want a Texas Mountain Laurel, but I have ten trees along across the front of the front yard. They need a lot of light, don't they. They do. They

will tolerate a little shade, but they won't bloom as much. Okay, Oh no, I want those blooms. I grew up with San Antonio and I love them. Oh yeah, they're all over Santonio. Let's see. Wow. Okay, I guess I'll plant them on the east side. Get more sun there. Yeah, give them in the most sun you can. But the most important thing is give them good drainage. If you have to build up a raised mound to do that, whatever it takes. They they're

not a swamp dwelling species, as you know from San Antonio. They'll grow out of a limestone outcrop. Cropping out in the hill country is fine, but they don't want to grow down in a creek bottom. So just go ahead and make sure they have good drainage and you can have success. They grow slow, but as you know from growing up with them, when they bloom, I mean that's the most syrupy, grape smelling, greape bubblegum smelling

thing in the world. I love it. I love it well. I want to wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. Well like you heard it, and the same goes to you as well. Thank you. I appreciate your call very much this morning. Our phone number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three

two one two fifty eight seventy four. And I've been telling you all fall that you need to get out there and get your fall fertilizing done, and you need to put down if you're going to prevent weeds, you need to put a pre emergent down as soon as you can because you want to get ahead of the weed germinating well. Nelson Plant Food has a product called carbo Load, and carbo load has both the fertilizer in a ratio does lined for this time of the year, we're not trying to push growth with nitrogen.

We're trying to provide cold heartiness and really drought resilience too for that matter, with a potassium and a little bit of nitrogen, and that's what carbolod is. It also has a pre emergent in it. So when you fertilize the carboload, do it and then turn on your sprinklers. I know it's already moist out there, but you want about a half inch of water to move the fertilizer down into the root zone and to move the weed prevent down into

the soil's surface. And once that's done, any weed after that point that tries to germinate is not going to be able to establish. Now, for every bag of carboloads sold this fall, Dan Nelson from Nelson Plantfood, they're going to donate They are donating two dollars for each bag to Randy Lemon's Memorial Scholarship at Texas A and M Horticulture Students, a cause that I know was dear to Randy's heart, and he would be so proud to know. I

think that his legacy lives on like that. But here's an opportun to do something good for your lawn and something good for future horticulture students, of which I was one at one point in time. And so carbolode from Nelson's at this time of year, two dollars per back goes to Randy Scholarship. Please take advantage of that. I'm going to go out now to Memorial and we're going to talk to Sharon. Hello, Sharon, good morning. Skip listen.

I did a really stupid thing yesterday. I wanted a Christmas cactus really bad. So I went out and I found a beautiful one. It just absolutely green and had these about ten or twelve scent balloons on it, Okay, and I bought it, bought it home, and it does not have one but not one. They all fell off. No, there weren't any when I bought it. Okay, that's all right, that's all right. Yeah. So I just don't know what a much was to do because it's already. Do I put it back in the dark or what? No,

No, it's done. What you need to do is make sure it gets a lot of light as much as you can give it. I know, when you're decorating indoors, we don't give them a lot of light, but that that's for that period of time. But for the plant itself, give it a lot of light. I put mine in a very bright southern window and keep them there really during the year. I have some that I keep

outside too. Once we get past. Once the night times aren't dropping into the low to mid fifties or a little above that, you can put your Christmas cactus outside and just keep it moist. Despite the name cactus, it doesn't want to be very dry for an extended period. A little dry and out it's okay. But don't think of it as a cactus. Think of it as a normal plant that needs water. And keep it, keep it moist, and it will do fine. A little dilute fertilizer over time.

And here's what's going to happen. Then next fall, when you get the next fall, and this is not a hard plant to grow, I mean i' really I neglect mine and they do fine, But next fall you're going to cover it up. I tell people that you know are out working a job that when you go to work in the morning, when you come home from work at the end of the day, you put a box over the

plant to exclude all light. So that's going to be some time around five or so, five or six you put a box over it, and then when you go to work in the morning, you take the box off. And so what you've done is you've lengthened the length of the night, and you do that for about three weeks in the in the fall, and we get some cooler temperatures where the nights are dropping down in the upper fifties, and that thing will start putting on buds and you'll be right back in business

next year. And do you think that it may when this year or do you just think it's finished If you don't see buds. Probably not. You may get a butt or two, but typically they start their outsize of bb and then they fall off. They just don't make it. But you can, you can give it a try. You could try the thing I just said. However, the fact that it just finished blooming, I don't know if you can bring it right back into a bloom cycle immediately. But try

it and then let me know how it works. Okay, do the box? All right? Okay, you take care. Hey, it's time for a break. Our number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Stick around. We're gonna be talking to Martin spoon Moore and picking his brain in the eight o'clock hour about all things trees. Welcome back to garden Line. We have the sunshining on a beautiful Sunday today, and I'm glad you're inside listening to Guardenline, or maybe you took the radio with you

outside. But however you're listening, whether it's by pie by not podcast but live online or by radio, we want to welcome you here. Our phone number if you'd like to ask questions is seven to one three two one two five eight seven four. And I tell you I've been talking about Christmas gifting today and holiday gifting in general. And if you're looking for or an outstanding place to pretty much get anything for anybody, Arborgate Garden Center up in Tomball,

you need to go see their gift shops. It is. It's unbelievable the amount of stuff they have. I'm talking about little simple gifts like maybe an arbigate mug, which are really cool, by the way, I got one, along with some hot chocolate mex or cider spices for making apple cider. Maybe a gift for decorating in the home. Maybe it's a food based gift, like they have some seasoned salts of various type. I don't think of seasoned salt from the store. Think of something way more cool and special

that is actually gift worthy. A garden tool, some gloves. They've got all of that bling for the outside. Some of the glasswork they have there is just unbelievable. Anybody on your any gardener in your list, will love this kind of glass work for decorating outside. And of course when you're at arburgate everything I would say about cool season plants, vegetable plants, flower plants, getting a good quality mix and fertilizer for planting your plants, remember brown

Stuff first. That would include a food for anything with roots, their four four to three organic food fertilizer. It would include their Soil Complete, which is a quality soil mix that also has expanded shale in it, as does their Organic Compost Complete, a blend of two different composts with expanded shale. When you start treating your yard like that, when you start taking care of your soil like that those products from Arbigate, you're going to end up with

plants that just hit the ground running. And that's why I always say brown Stuff for green stuff, because when you get that right, it is easy to have a green thumb. I'm going to head out now and we're going to talk to k in Paarland. Hello, okay, hi, I'm back again. I have another question. I called you yesterday and spoke with you about my newly planted tree. We allow repig callers. Welcome to the show. Thank you. A little later, you were speaking with a gentleman about

his tree. He had a tree he had planted, I think, and it wasn't growing. He said, it wasn't really doing anything. And you asked him if he had loosened the dirt around the dirt ball, the root ball, and he hadn't, and you suggested that he augur it. I was. I watched the men planting my trees, and I didn't notice that they loosened the dirt around in the dirt ball, So I was wondering if

maybe I should augur around my trees too. Well, I just don't have enough information to be able to really tell you on that based on your specific situation. If trees are grown right, they tend to not have the degree of circling root problems that a tree that's not grown right as they well they were from Verdant. Okay, Well then that was grown right, so don't right. Yeah, Well, if they Verdant planeted it, it's fine. I wouldn't worry about it. Again, I I don't have X ray vision

to go look in the soil and see what's going on down there. But just telling me, Harden planted, I wouldn't worry about that tree is gonna be fine. Okay. Well, you know, took the recommendation from you and mister Williamson yes yesterday on these medina has to grow or ocean harvest or some of those things you know, yes, to do periodically. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of things k that we can do for trees, and there are things that aren't essential, but they're hopeful, okay.

And so everybody that plants or you know, goes about that may do it a little differently. It doesn't mean one's wrong. It just means there's there's different systems. But the goal is to get that tree in soil and get those roots expanding outward as soon as possible and by plenting. And when you did, you did a good thing. Okay, very good. Well, thank you so much. Merry Christmas to you, and thank you. I appreciate your call very much, that is for sure. Let's see,

we're going to go out to Montgomery and talk to Matt. Hello, Matt, morning, you had a quick question about a brown spot put down the fungus side, and I was curious what you would recommend to kind of revive the areas that have that have died off. Okay, well, when when the brown patch occurs, it rots the leaves off the runner, and the runner remains alive and somewhat green. Uh, And there's nothing you can do

until the weather promotes growth of the grass. So if we have some warm winter weather, it may begin to regreen a little bit, but in general it's going to I say, we'll just live with the circles until spring,

because additional treatments would only be to prevent additional brown circles. So when we go into the spring season, we often can have another brown patch period where we tend to get some new circles, and so you might want to retreat after we get oh I don't know, probably into about late January, early February, something like that, if your lawn is prone to the brown patch circles. In general, I don't tell everybody. Just everybody spray every year

because most lawns don't have that problem. Good well, thank you very much, you bet enjoy that, and good luck with your lawn. I'm sure it'll come out fine, that's good. All right. Well, let's see, I'm going to go take another call. Here. We've got Flow in northwest Houston. Hello, Flow, how are you, sir? I'm well, thanks, nice to listen to you this morning. Well and good to have you call. I was telling him I've got a crape myrtle in the

back. I had two of them and actually went ahead and had one of them cut down. Of course, you know, it's got about four major shoots coming off that one route. Okay, to be, it's about thirty feet are more tall right now, and have had some problems with of course, I had problems with the other one's disease. But anyway, I wanted to come down and cut. It's never been cut, and it's got a

lot of branches, of course, all up at the top. But I wanted to come down as much as maybe eight or ten feet off the top all the way across. Can I do that? Well? You can. Uh, it's gonna You're gonna end up with a tree that has kind of a not the beautiful crape myrtle structure that a crepe properly prune could have. Well, it's just kind of it's kind of a whisky at the top. You know, the branches just go like they're small and they go in there

a different direction. Well, if you're gonna if you're gonna lower the height, I would make my cuts where one branch joins another. In other words, don't just at stumpy back at a y at a why exactly, And that way the growth is redirected. The amount of re sprouting isn't as much as if you just cut it off like the top of a broom handle, and then you just get this crow's foot of growth that's going all up and

it's a it's a wind that doesn't heal well. And uh so if you can do we call that what I'm recommending a thinning cut, because is I just used the highway pattern as a way to explain it to people. It's like you got a highway with an exit ramp. You you block the highway just past the exit ramp, and it redirects traffic down the exit ramp. Correct. That's kind of how we're pruning when we're doing any kind of pruning really, but especially with the crape myrtle. But when you got one that's

real big and you try to make it much much smaller. You're still gonna have some pretty big cuts, and you're gonna have to trim off a lot

of regrowth to trust to be sprout. Okay, So I could say, when when the guy comes, I'm just going to have him, you know, just work across the top and just to cut because Scott, I'm looking at a lot of hide, so I'm saying it, and a lot of branches, That's what I'm saying, going in every direction from off those it's got it's got maybe three or four, it's got maybe four come off that

route, that main route course. It's real old. Well, I got the magical music playing that says I'm about to have to leave this this segment. Okay, it's not gonna hurt the tree. In other words, it won't hurt the tree. No, it's just my I do a lot of things for to keep small trees or to keep shrubs of crape. Martle, I do that all the time. I go, hey, Phlo, thank you, thank you very much for the call. I appreciate that we're gonna

have to run. Unfortunately. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. When I come back. I'll be talking to Martin spoon More from Affordable Tree Service and we're going to pick apart all the world of tree care, tree pruning, tree planting, and just in general, all across the board. Here's your chance to pick an expert sprain about it. Give us a call for the next hour and we're going to be talking trees.