Tree Care in the Fall

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 Scared Ricter. It's crazy gas Trim. Just watch him as stas not a sad credit gas. Well, good morning on a Saturday that I think it's going to turn out to be a decent day. We got a little bit of rain here and there in the forecast, so you know, I don't know,

I actually like cooler and rainier weather. I think after suffering through this summer, it's like, yes, give me that next will be here and plenty of times, so let's just go ahead and enjoy something different. And that's the kind of day we're having today. So if it's a little raining, stay inside, get some gardening work done inside. You've certainly got seeds you

can start for transplants. You have your house plants and other things. And then my favorite activity is armchair gardening, where you're reading the book about gardening, or you're reading a magazine, or maybe going online and perusing some information just to kind of sharpen the skills. Yeah. Hey, by the way, today I was Toja. Last week I was gonna be at RCW Nursery

after the show today. Well, due to some of the weather changes that we've had, we're going to bump that until next Saturday, that's November eighteenth. November eighteenth, from eleven thirty to one thirty, that's when I'll be at RCW for their Fall Fling. And boy is that ever gonna be a fun time. They're going to have. First of all, they've got barbecue sandwich lunch. They're gonna have a sale on select trees. In fact,

all the shrubs fifteen percent off. We're going to be given away, you know, Nelson fertilizer, nitropost fungicide, microlife fertilizer, they're gonna give me away, flowers and of course frostcloth. You definitely want to have some of that on hand. And some seedlings like lace bark elm Mexican white oak and live oak. And when I say seedlings, these are robust seedlings that they will hit the ground run and they're grown in the right kinds of containers,

which is what RCW News how to do. For example, they have their own tree farm up there in Plantersville, and when it comes to trees, they have got a great selection of trees that you know are going to thrive and do well here. That is important to plant the right kind of tree. They can come out and plant them for you too, but just go by there and check it out. You know, the Wimso family has been

doing RCW since what nineteen seventy nine, it's a long time. They've been with Garden Line since back in the Bill Zach and John Burrow days and certainly through Randy Lemon's time here behind the Microphone. So RCW is just a great place to stop. It's the nursery that's where Tumball Parkway two forty nine comes into about way eight. You can go to the website RCW Nurseries dot com,

but first go to your calendar. Next Saturday, November eighteenth, from eleven thirty to one thirty, I'll be there and they're going to have a really cool shind It's called the Fall Fling, and it's a good time to come out. Plus we get a chance to visit, which I always enjoyed doing with folks that listen to the show. You know, the rain reminds me of the soil that we have around here, and when it's dry, it shrinks and when it's wet, it swells, and that movement is a

mess for our foundations, for our sidewalks or driveways. Someone's asking me the other day about tree roots going unto the foundation and cracking it, and I was explaining to them that the real problem with tree roots is they go all

around the foundation. Some go under it as well. But it's not that they're getting big and lifting up and cracking your foundation as much as it is they're drawing water from the soil, and so where it should be staying moderately moist, it just dries out even extra fast because the trees are pumping water. They need it. When it gets dry and hot, they need water, they pump it out, and so the soil around the foundation dries out and then it rains and it swells up and that causes the cracks. That

is why we have fixed my Slab foundation repair. Ty Strickland has been doing this for twenty three years and they are experts when it comes to fixing your foundation. Tell them your guardline listener. You get a free estimate from them. And one thing I like about fix my Slab TI is committed to number

one a fair price and number two showing up on time. And anytime you are hiring anyone to come out and do anything at your house, you want them to tell you when they're going to be there and then actually show up. And that's what they do. And they can fix driveways and they can fix sidewalks too. But if you see some cracks on your brick outside or certainly sheet rock cracks inside, you need to have them come out and look

at it. Don't wait until a small problem becomes a big problem. You can go to fix myslab dot com or call Tie at two eight one two five five forty nine forty nine. Yeah, boy, foundation issues. That is just such a mess. You know, some people live in areas with sandy soil, it's just not much of an issue for them, but boy, it is for the Gulf Coast. In fact, if you're listening to this this radio show, you probably live in an area that's got some clay

soils and it's just something to watch out for. Definitely, definitely. Well, we I want to just give you a little teaser right here in the eight o'clock hour, we're gonna have Chris Weisinger from Southern Bulb Company come by. He's gonna visit with us about all things bulbs. You know, fall is for bulbs, and there are the one shot wonders. You know, you go to the store and buy a bunch of tulips or hyacinth or crocus and things like that. Those are fine, they're pretty bulbs, but you

plan, I mean, they're not going to naturalize. They're like buying annuals. That's what it amounts to. They'll do their thing and then season's gone and they're kind of done. But Chris has got a number, a multitude of really cool bulbs that naturalize. So instead of being like an annual for you, they're an investment. You buy them, you put them in, and year after year after year they come back and they pay dividends in terms

of beauty and blooms for your landscape. So I'm looking forward to talking to Chris at eight o'clock. Make sure and stay tuned for that. By the way, if you have any bulb questions during the eight o'clock hour eight to nine, we are going to be taking bulb questions only We're not going to wander around on a lot of other topics. Those topics we can do in the other three hours. But we're going to focus on bulb questions. So if you got some, be ready to call in the eight o'clock hour.

And it would help if I gave you the number, wouldn't it seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four Simple as that call us in on guardenline. Josh will get you on the boards and we will visit with you. But the kind of questions that you might have, and this is a good time to talk about a lot of things, including planning for the future. You know, we're hitting the end of our fall season here now. Of course, you know

the months of fall and on the calendar September, October, November. Well, September is a summer month here and fall goes all the way into just about December, really it actually does. And Nitrofis has their Texas three Step and that is a fall application that you want to make if you want to help your lawn and prevent weeds and deal with diseases. And the three steps are the fall special winter riser designed specifically for our climate, our soils.

When we say winterriser here, we don't need something that's a winteriser in Minnesota or someplace. We need something that you would use for our southern turf grasses, and that's what they've designed it for. It's rich in potassium and absolutely helps that plant gets stronger going into winter, and if it goes into winter stronger, it comes out stronger. It's as simple as that. Number two nitrofoss barricade is a pre emergent. You put it down watered in about a

half inch of water. In fact, I'd recommend you put on the fall special and then the barricade and water them in together with about a half inch of water. You don't mix them in the hopper, just put them separately and then water both in with a half inch and then put down your nitrofoss eagle turf funge aside. If you have been plagued by large patch or brown patch in your lawn, take all root rot is also effectively managed with the

nitrofoss eagle funge aside, and that is a protective. It's a systemic. It moves in and you can find nitrofas at all kinds of places. You're going to find it at plants for all seasons. Two for nine enchanted in Richmond and Lake Hardware in Angleton. Well, we're going to take a break and we'll come right back to your calls. Seven to one, three to fifty eight seventy four. All right, a little kiss there. They're on

their final tour. That's kind of unusual. Those of you who are children of the seventies, I guess can really appreciate appreciate that in eighties as well, they're kind of timeless. Well, I tell you what. We are going to go straight to the phones, our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four, and we're going to talk to Toby. Hello, Toby, is Toby there? All right, put Toby on hold

and see if we can find Toby and come back to that. You know, I was talking about ago about the Nitroviss and A stores and places where it's available. You know, A stores. They're up to forty now in the greater Houston area. Orange, congratulations. Orange and Bay City you're the two new locations. And you know when we think about ACE, well we think about anything you need for your yard. Do you need fertilizer? Do you need pest weed disease control? Do you need tools? Do you need

hoses to and sprinklers and all everything you need for your yard. But ACE is also the place for your Christmas lighting and decoration needs, and that includes both things inside the house and outside the house. They've got all the accessories that you need to make it fast and easy to get all set up. They have box sets of various kinds of lighting, all kinds of multitude of

colors and sizes. They've got wreaths and garlands. They've got something called custom lights by the foot, and you just have to go by there and let them tell you about that. But basically it's kind of what you would expect it to be. So go buy Ace and let them get you set up. It is a kind of a wonderland to go in there. Now they're all set up for Christmas and when you want to get ahead of the game and get ready to go for Christmas lighting, Christmas decorations, any of your

holiday decorations in general. Ace is the place, that's for sure. We're gonna go back and see if we can find Toby. Now, hey, Toby there, Well, gosh, let's try that again. I'm gonna put them back on hold. We'll eventually figure out how to get to you. We always have some gremlins crawling through the wires here and there. Just give us a call back. Let's try it. Let's start over and try that

again. Well, you know, I was talking about the weather and how much I enjoy actually having some cool and rainy weather, and I know that's some people are like, I don't like that, But you know, going through summer is just it makes it tough. And this is an important thing for our plants. You know how I always say the best time to plant woody ornamentals and perennials is in the fall. Well, this is an example

of why I mean the amount of stress on a new transplant. Right now, when we got cool weather, we got some rain, and the soil's moist, it's like almost zero and it's so easy to get it established compared to trying to do that next July, for example. And the closer you get to summer, the more challenging it is to get that plant growing. You can plant twelve months out of the year here, but in the hot season you got to do a little more touch and go stuff to try to

keep it from getting too wet or too dry. Because of the demands on the plant. Are high. It's pumping water fast. The whole root system is still in that cylinder that you put in the ground that you pulled out of the container. And keeping that little thing wet without keeping it too wet is a challenge. So now's the time, and this weather is exactly the

reason why we love this kind of weather. It's a good time to plant all kinds of things to your annuals, annual color plants, you know, things like pansies and violas and stock and snap dragons and a lissome What am I leaving now, Dusty Miller is a good one I like to include, especially with blue flowering of violas and pansies, all kinds of color like that. Is a good time. All your vegetables, This is a good time. All your perennial herbs. This is a good time. And this weather

is setting us up for success. All right. Three is going to be the charm. I hope, Toby, are you there? All right? How can we help today? Skip? I'm looking for some fast growing, fast spreading bamboo that I can create some privacy between my neighbors and myself on a large piece of land. Okay, well you want to you wanna avoid a running bamboo. Bamboo comes in two types, just like our grasses do.

There's the type that runs that would be like bermuda grass, for example, and it takes over the world unless you have an underground barrier to contain it, and that's quite an operation to put in. But otherwise we go with clumping bamboos because they spread but gradually slowly outward, you know, like some of our ornamental grasses that just grow in clumps and uh, those kind

of there's a lot of different ones on the market. Go talk to your your garden center and you know, ask them what do you carry, what can you get and they can give you the details. Some don't get really tall, uh. Some get huge, very huge. Uh. And as far as fast growing, here's the thing with manamboo. Bamboo, Folks say the first year at sleeps, the second year at creeps, the third year

at leaps. And what that means is you're going to plan it and it's just going to kind of sit there and then it's going to start growing a little bit and once it gets its feet under it after a couple of seasons, then it just takes off really fast. So fast, after a little bit of time to get established is going to be how that goes. That's fantastic. Thank you, yes, sir, you take care. I appreciate

the call. Thanks for being persistent to getting in making it through. If you live anywhere near the north central part of Houston, in fact, I know people that drive a little bit of a distance actually to go to Quality Feed and Garden Company now Quality Feed. The address is eighteen thirteen Luzon Street. That's near the intersection Equipment and Allsion and they are open, you know,

Monday through Friday nine to six. So after working swing by their Saturday today nine am to four pm and tomorrow Sunday eleven thirty am to four pm. They've been a tradition here in Houston since nineteen twenty eight and it has that old time feel that I just love going in there. You know, they got that eighteen excuse me, nineteen twenty eight seed racks stocked with their heirloom seeds. And here's the thing, though, every soil product, every

fertilizer product that we talk about is there. Do you need fungicides, herbicides, insecticides. They're there. Of course, they have their feed story. They got livestock feed, they got premium pet food available and they specialize in chickens. In about ever two weeks, it seems like Ken and Chris are getting in another shipment of chicks out there. And so if you've thought about doing, you know, backyard chickens, well, this is the place Quality

feed qualityfeedco dot Com. They'll get you set up with those chickens and everything you need to have success with them, from feeders to lights to keep them warm in the wintertime. They got it all right there, Quality feed. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two five eight seven four are some people like the daw

By letters, So just ktr H makes it really simple. In the garden, I was talking about the things that we're planting right now, the importance of getting those trees and shrubs in, and you know, we get a lot of a lot of our places are having nice deals on trees and shrubs as well. Uh. You know, I'm going to be out at RCW coming up here next weekend. I know they do a lot of that. Every single mom and pop garden center we've got has got a good selection.

Right now. It's a good time to do that. If you've thought about putting in a vegetable garden but you just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe you don't want to plow up the back forty you know, turn your backyard over with a rototiller. Here, well, here's here's what you need to do. You need to get you a Vego garden bed, Vego gardenbed. It's vee g o garden dot com, vegogarden dot com. It's really simple these beds. The metal is top quality and it's treated in a way that

prevents rust and corrosion. Beyond just galvanizing kind of stuff. They go a higher level than that. Then they paint it with a beautiful paint that really fits into the garden. It's muted colors, you know, the greens and tans and things. They give you an option. They're modular. You put them together in whatever shape you want. Do you want a long, skinny bed, Do you want a big square bed? Do you want a C shaped bed to go or maybe an L shaped beed to go around the corner

of that patio. These are gonna last. They're in fact, they're going to outlast any treated wood that you would put out there. These are high quality, high level beds that just work. They have rolling beds as well. I mean, go to the website you'll see what I'm talking about. They're a Houston company. Don't be fooled by all the wannabe metal beds on the market. They're a bunch of them out there. Vego is the one with quality. Vego is our local Houston company and they have the best selection

and all the accessories to go with it. Vegogarden dot com. Go check it out and you'll see what I'm talking about. I love my Vego bit, that is for sure. In addition to the things that I was mentioning about planting, this isn't a bad time to go ahead and have your soil tested. Now. If you just fertilize your lawn, then don't test now, wait until about January maybe February to get that test done. But if it's a garden area and you know things just aren't looking as good as they

should, they're not growing right, or any do a soil test. You can go to soil testing dot T A m U, dot E d U. In fact, if you just if you just soil testing dot TAMU dot E DU, look for the urban soil test. Now you may be listening to me from some Timbuktu out in the middle of nowhere place. Urban soil test. What that means, I wish I hadn't use that term. But

what that means is it's for your yard. It's for your garden if you're going to grow it to eat, or look at urban soil test if you're going to grow anything to eat, or look at urban soil test form. When you get the results in, then you'll know this winter, when things are a little more dormant, what kind of amendments you may need to put in to get ready for spring. So don't wait until you know. Here it is spring, it's time to plant. And here we get rainy weather,

and now you're trying to fix your soil. Get a soil test done. It's ever months a good month to have a soil test done. But just remember if you just fertilized, don't do that. After you fertilize, that'll that'll be a little bit misleading. So give it a little time to mellow out and it'll do just fine. Hey, have you've been to the Arborgate lately? The Arborgate now has a wonderful little parking lot behind it. You can turn in before the arbor gate, or you can turn in after

the arbor gate on a little road that goes behind it. A trishel, as I pronounced it. I need somebody tell me how you do pronounce that. But it doesn't matter how you pronounce it. You get to a nice all weather parking lot and shopping is easy. And Beverly's got a bunch of cool camellias. Have you ever tried a camellia. There's some beautiful camellias that we can grow here for color in the cool season. Isn't that nice? Well, just go out to Arburgate and while you're there pick up their one

two three completely easy system. That is a food, an organic fertilizer four four three plus calcium feeds anything with roots. That's good for your lawn too, fall fertilization where we need to get that nitrogen a little lower and a potassium a little higher. That's an ideal food for that, now soil for anything you need in anything you're going to plant. It's got the expanded shale in it and then the compost complete. That's the third part, also expanded

shale and high quality composts. You take those three and put them in the ground and you're going to have success with your plants. Arburgate dot com. We're going to take a break. The number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Well, good morning on a Saturday morning, and we are talking gardening today here on guard Line of course, seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you would like to be on the air, we'd be happy to visit with you. Hey, uh,

I've talked to you about green pro right. I've talked about them before. They are the ones that will come out and they will do a corroration and a compost top dressing on your lawn. They will also come out and they will do a leveling. If you've got some areas that are kind of low and you need to spread a little bit dirt out. Maybe you've got an area where your grass just flat died and now you want now's your chance

to get out there and kind of level things off. They will come out and they'll bring a quality soul mix in and make sure that lawn is level. It's part of that kill till and phill that Randy talked about all the time, where you know, you get rid of what's there, you fill in what like you need it, or till it up if you loosen the soil and fill it in as you need it, and then you plant again

and Greenpro can take care of that now. Their price is start at five ninety nine plus sales tax depending on the location and the size, and that is for the aeration and the compost top dressing. The filling in that's a different thing, and of course each yard is going to need a little bit different mount and whatnot on that. But you can go to greenpro dot net.

Greenpro dot net they have high quality equipment that does an excellent job at pulling a very good core out of the ground and then they put a super high quality screen compost down and it it just makes it easier. And believe me, Rhuan could probably use a little bit of benefits right now. Even just having a little bit of compost on the top helps block the soil from getting sunlight and probably helps you with a little bit of weed sprouting as well.

But greenpro dot net that's who you need to call or need to go check out. We're going to go to southwest Houston and talk to Resa. Now. Hello, Resa, good morning, Thank you for taking my call. Yes, sir, I have an indoor plant, banana tree. It's turning and I was wondering how we take care of it, waterings, do we need to put it in the balcony every now and then, or how

to prevent the plant turning yellow? Okay? Now is the yellow starting mostly on the older lower leaves and the yubber ones are greener, so that could be. It could be a drought condition that causes that. If it gets a little dry, that can be a response. If it stays too wet and roots are are damaged by soggy lack of water conditions, it can do that. And sometimes leaves just get older and they start to turn yellow, and we see that. But the fluctuation of moisture is one of the things

I notice. Now. Banana wants a lot of light, so if you can give it some time outside, that's good. It also doesn't like cold weather, so putting it out when it's fifty degrees outside is not going to be very happy with that either. So that's one of the reasons why people purchase a quality light to put over them artificially light them when they're going to try to keep them indoors. Most people just let them go dormant and then you know, give them a little bit of light to keep them alive,

but don't try to keep them lush and growing now. And that's kind of the range of options that I would say, you have reasons, Okay, Also when should we change the pot? So when they grow bigger and bigger, do we need to put them in bigger pots? Yeah, it will if you want them to keep if you want them to keep growing bigger, yes, and if you want to make it a little easier to take care

of them. You know, if you have a big plant in a small pot, no matter what the plant is, you're having to water really regularly and fertilize because the root zone is so confined where it can take up water and nutrients. So you move it too a bigger pot and it's a little easier for the plant. As far as when I don't I don't know how to tell you like a black and white answer to well, when the pot when the plant gets as tall and whatever, but just kind of look at

it and if you see that it's the pot is small. Another thing that happens is when when the pot's small, it's easier for it to tip over. The base is a little smaller as well. But just kind of look at that and occasionally bump them up. I wouldn't probably bump them up now. I'd wait until you get ready for spring and growth is going to take off a little. You can move it outside for periods of time to get

to get some sunlight. That's when I would bump it up. Prior to that, Should we trim the yellow part of the leaves with the scissors or something? Yeah, you can trim them off if you'd like, because they're not They're just going to keep dying and turn brown. Okay, thank you very much. All right, reason, thank you for the call. I appreciate that. Let's see, we're going to go now out to Tim and clearly Hello, Tim, Hey, skip, how you knowing? Well?

I'm doing well. I have a few winding junipers that's been established for a few years, and a couple of those junipers are turning completely brown at the top. Okay, beautiful, but it's all like I researched a little bit of that and they said something I tiplight, but I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or what's the problem. It could be. There are a number of things that can cause browning on the junipers. That particular description you

gave me makes me think they got a little dry. There's also the possibility that there is a stem canker, and if you go down from the brown, going down toward where green is on the stem, and you see any like sores, wounds, cracks on the bark, that would be the canker, and you would print it out below that. But I think it's probably a soule moisture content issue. And once a juniper turns brown, that branch is never going to regreen. So you just have to take it out.

It's not I have to cut the So I basically have to cut the top ball. Yeah, J Wines And yeah, I know, I know it's it's but it just it is what it is. It's not going to get green again. So yeah, you just have to bite the bullet on that particular one. You probably figure out a way to get another shoot from below that's coming up and maybe somewhat reform the plant or just get creative. And

now it's a winding juniper with a round ball on top. You know, go read a doctor Seuss book and get some ideas for what you can do with that juniper. Awesome, Thank you for that information. Skip all right, Tim, I appreciate your call very much. You know, the folks at Microlife have got their fall package ready to go for you, and it's

available all over the place. And that is the Microlife Brown Patch. That's a five one three fertilizer and it's loaded with microbes like all Microlife products are you put it down. Is not only adding that the benefit of the microbes, it's adding the benefit of the organic matter being an organic fertilizer, and you get those nutrients, and those nutrients are important on keeping your turf strong going into the wintertime. You can combine that with a bioinoculant if you'd like.

This time of year is also time to plant and Microlife has the blue plus blue deal and what is that. Well, the first blue is a fertilizer called Ultimate and if you're going to put plants in the ground, you can put this around them. Normally, I say, don't put fertilizer in the planting all well, with an organic fertilizer like Microlife there's no salt base. You're not going to burn them. It's going to be fine. You can do that. You can also get their seaweed product, which is called

the Microlife Ocean Harvest. That's a liquid. Anytime you spray plants folli or drench them in the roots, you're going to benefit. And just go to Microlifefertilizer dot com and you're going to find out where you can purchase it. We're going to need to take a little break here. Our number is seven one three two one two five eight seven four. Karen from Richmond, you will be first when we come back. Well, good Saturday morning. You're

listening to garden Line. It's a good day to be on listening to garden Line right now. Got a little still dark outside, but a little chili and some rainy weather coming through here. I just love it. I was talking earlier about I actually love that. It's a good day to hold up inside. I don't know, you know here we don't have what's called winter. We do, but it's one or two days a year, and we never know which two days, but we just make any excuse we can.

It's time to I guess I brew up a pot of chili. That's what we do at our house in cold weather or when cool weather arrives, just for a good excuse to eat some chili. Maybe make some hot chocolate. That'd be a good good thing to do today. I know it's not freezing outside, but hey, we got to take every chance we can to enjoy that. We're going to go now out to Richmond and talk to Karen. Hello, Karen, good morning, Skip. How are you. I'm well, thank you. What's up with you today? Okay, So, back

in the spring, I planted an eggplant and it did quite well. I harvested some nice fruit. As the summer heat and drought came along and you just pull everything out of the garden, I just left it there and really ignored it. But anyway, it as the weather got better and I got back in the garden, it has flourished again, okay, and I probably have ten or twelve eggplant on it. I'm a little concerned that it'll freeze before they get ready, but then I don't really know. I don't know

how to tell when they are ready. Right now, they're about the size of a large orange, and I don't don't really know what variety I have. Maybe these are not supposed to get huge like the ones you see in the grocery store. Well, here here's the thing. They don't ripen per se like like a tomato would ripen. So what we do is eggplant starts off with a glossy skin. When that skin turns dull, you know, kind of a if you're looking at photos, there's the glossy versus the matt

photo. When it starts having that matte look, that means it's probably a little past. So you can pick it at any point in time now and it'll be fine in the weather we're having and we'll continue to have. It is not going to grow much. I mean, it's slowed down. It

does not like the weather. And so I would go ahead and just pick it and be done with it. If you feel like it's got a good size on it, then I would do that, because you believe it too long, skin gets a little tougher and it's just not the quality that you would get with the younger one. Well, I was a little surprised it even you know, made anything anything right, I get it. If you're going to live, go ahead, But so okay, well, I'll try to keep an eye on it. Yeah, so let me ask you what

what what do you do with an eggplant? Do you make like baba ganouche or what kinds of dishes do you like? Well, okay, I'm not a cook, and I've had friends suggest that you use it kind of like in a lasagna dish and place of newd and so we've enjoyed that, okay. And my mother wants everything fried, so we have fried a couple Okay. So I'm not a real creative cook. All right. I'm always curious. I'm always curious about how people use eggplant. But it's a versatile vegetable

that we don't use enough. Karen, thank you so much for the call. And have fun with their eggplant, I hope. So all right, you take care. Earlier I was talking about the veggo beds and I said I had a roller I don't know if I said I had a rolling bed, but I have a rolling bed of vega. And I just noticed that Buchanans native plants down in the Heights. They're on Eleventh Street, six eleven East eleventh Street in the Heights. They've got the vego beds too, and

they've got the big rolling bed. It's a it's a big oval bed on rollers and so it sits up in the air and it has little The floor of the bed, if you will, is such that it becomes a self watering bed. It'll wick moisture, it'll whole moisture and then wick it back up into the bed, so you're not having to water as often. But really cool. They've got them in gray and light green and the tan color. I just love those beds and you can get them right there at Buchanans.

While you're there, check out their Christmas cactus, the holiday cactus is that they have. Oh my gosh. They are loaded with buds and beautiful. Ready to turn your home into something for the holidays something. Also put this on your calendar. They are having one heck of an event. It's called a Holiday open house a Buchanans. They're gonna have live music, They're going to beer and wine and food. Santa will be there with kids,

crafts and local vendors everything. It's a free event. Saturday, December second, from ten am to three pm. Saturday December second, from ten am to three pm. So right after garden Line's over head, right over there to the Buchanan's open house on December second. It will be a very cool event. They put on a lot of great stuff over there at Buchanans. If you need a feed store and you are out east of Houston, your hometown feed store is Texas Feed Stop. They're in Mont Bellevue, So if

you're in Baytown, I mean this is just minutes away. In fact, if you want to know how to get there, you're on iten. You go north on Highway one forty six in Mont Bellevue, Highway one forty six, just a few minutes north and there you are. They'll be right there on the right. Brian and Hope Rhodes have created a store. It's kind of like they do everything. It's about the community. It's about family and the community, and they treat your lif family. There the hard kidtos from

the community that carry the bags out for you. They carry every product I'm talking about to fertilizing your lawn, do you have insects, disease and weeds. Their selection is really outstanding. I was surprised last time I was in there just the amount of things that they do carry. So anything that you need have a beautiful lawn and a bountiful landscape that's there right there at Texas feed Stop Highway one forty six, just north of Interstate ten in Mount Bellevue.

Well we are. We're talking about a lot of different things regarding gardening this morning, and one thing I hadn't talked about yet is fruit trees, and I wanted to mention that a little bit now. There's fruit trees can be planted pretty much anytime of the year. When it comes to dormant bear root fruit trees, that's going to be a January thing, maybe early February, but go ahead and get them in early rather than later because they're coming

in bear root, there's no leaves on them you put them in. But most people are just buying container grown trees these days, and our garden centers are stocked up with all kinds of trees, and no matter what kind of fruit trees you wanting to plant, you're going to be able to find them and get them in the ground. Everything I said about fall being the time to plant, that's true with fruit trees too, for container grown plants,

and you can plant a container fruit anytime of the year. Falls a good time fall and winter, So go ahead and pick them up while they still have a supply. And I say while they have a supply, because people are going to be out there going and getting their fruit trees. You want to plant fruit trees in an area that drains well. If you got a heavy clay soil, you may need to build up or raise bed with a

quality mix. You know something that a good bed mix from one of our vendors that we talk about here on garden Line and make a raised area so the roots are a little bit above that low lying heavy clay area. And good drainage is very important for fruit trees. They need sunlight. It takes sunlight to make carbohydrates and it takes a carbohydrate to make the fruit. So it's as simple as that. Can you grow a peach in the shade?

Yes? Will you get peaches? No? And it'll be a sparse tree struggling to stay alive sun son son So sun and drainage are the two of the most important things. The third thing is the number of chilling hours. Now, there are peaches that grow well in far North Sexes and peaches that grow well almost down to the valley, but they're not the same peaches. Each area has a certain amount of temperatures in the winter around forty five degrees

and each hour around that temperature counts as a chilling hour. And so no matter where you live, and I realize I have people all the way up in Buffalo listening to this and way down south of here too, But wherever you live, you have a certain amount of chilling hours, and you want

to choose varieties that match that. That's important. And if you go to a good quality nursery, a mom and pop, local garden center, independent garden center, they're going to have staff on hand that know how to direct

you to the right one. First of all, they're only going to grow the right one, and so you know when they're only growing the when they're say growing selling, when they're only selling stuff that grows in your area, well that's a plus, right, And then having educated staff, which our mom and pops do, to direct you to the one. They may go, oh, if you're going to buy one of these apples or whatever, you need to buy a pollinator for it, or if you're going to get

a peach you don't need to buy. They help you like that, They get you off to a good start, and that is so important. Because you're investing in that tree. I keep picking on peaches, but you buy that peach tree and you know you're just tasting that luscious peach. We want you to get to taste that peach a few years down the line. Do it right to begin with, because if you don't do those three things good drainage, good sunlight, and an adapted variety of fruit, you're not going

to have success. And we want you to. So there's your tip of the day. Make sure that when you are picking out your fruit, you get a quality plant from a quality place. 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 Richter's Shoesmill, the Crazy Gas can trim, just watch him at Woods, so many Tea, the Sea botasy

gas not a sad credits gas. You s well, good morning. We're We're happy you're listening to garden Line this morning, and we look forward to talking to you. You'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. That's the number that you call. We

are going to talk about a number of other things. But I've been kind of going around the I guess the hard landscape and garden talking about some of the things that are timely for this time of the year and just things that you might want, you know, to keep in mind the mowing and lawn care, you know, in terms of mowing and edging and all that. That season is kind of winding down, and if there's ever a good time to get your plant or your equipment ready to go into the winter season,

now would be it. And we do things like make sure that the underneath carriage, underneath the lawnmowers cleaned out. You don't have a bunch of wet grass stuck up under there. Get all that cleaned out. If you want to take your blade off and get them sharpened, this is the off season and a good time to do it. You know, places that sharpen your blade, they get kind of busy when we're about to start mowing. Everybody wants their blade sharpened at that time, So now'd be a good time to

do that. Drain the drain the gas out, run the engine until let's dry. Just talk to your local equipment maintenance folks, you know, wherever the shop is where you get maintenance done. They'll tell you what to do. They've got different ways that they you know, we used to to do. Just drain it, run it until it went dry, and leave it like that for for winter. I think they may have doing some other things

right now, but they can get you set up. That's not my expertise for sure, but now's the time to go ahead and get that done. If you've got garden tools that you're not going to be using over the cool season, uh, you know, knock the dirt off of them, take a wire brush, clean them off, get any rust off, and then coat the surfaces with metal. A good spray to coat the surfaces and protect against rust for the storage time. You know, a tool can last a

long time if it's a quality tool. That's true, especially with pruners, but it's true with a lot of things. Uh, just take care of them, don't let them get all rusted up. Take care of the metal, take care of the wooden parts, you know, putting some linseed oil or something along those lines. On the handles. I usually will take a sandpaper and kind of rub over the handles if they're getting a little rough, kind of smooth them out, and then put the oil on them to soak

in. And it's amazing how long a tool will last again when it's a quality tool and you take care of it before you put your lawn to bed for winter. If you hadn't done your fertilization, now's the time to go ahead and get that done. Nitrofoss's three step is a good way to do it. Here's what happens with the three step. First is a fertilizer. You put the fertilizer down and they have the Fall special and it's designed for fall. The numbers are different from what we'd put in the spring and summer.

It is an excellent product that works well. Then the barricade that is a pre emergent weed control product. Now you follow the label and put it out. Once you've put those two out, that's going to take one application for fertilizer, one for barricade, watered in with a half inch of water, and that moves both of them down into the root system. And don't let it just sit there, because the pre emergent doesn't work until you move

it down in the soil where the weed seed you're germinating. The fertilizer can't work until it gets down in the root zone so the plants can take it up. The third step is Eagle turf fungicide. It's a systemic It soaks in so when large patch or brown patches as we used to call it, or take all root rot occurs, you've already got something soaked into the turf

tissues to protect them. Now you're going to find the three step and other nitrofosh products at Gym's Hardware and Montgomery Ace Hardware and Memorial or Lake Hardware out there in Clute. We're going to go to the phones now and we're going to talk to David out in fullsher Hello, David Lauren Scarp, how are you today? I'm well. Thanks. A few minutes ago, I was stopped somewhere and I jumped in the truck and I heard you talking about peach

trees and chill hours and where to buy them. Yes, and RCW Nurseres got some really really good ones. And I bought a tangerine tree from there, maybe fifteen years ago. And planet of that planet of that thing, it got about twenty feet tall and about fourteen feet wide, produced eight hundred more than that tangerines a year, and that bad freeze got it, even though I tried my best to protect it. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, and I got another one now that's about five and a half feet tall,

and I protected it somehow. It stay protected and it's got about one hundred and twenty on them this year. Okay, now that's is that a tangerine? That also? Yes, sir, it's you know, I'm sixty nine years old and growing up, and I grew up in San Anton and for our Christmas stockings every year, we would get these tangerines and they have had lots of seeds in them, but they were really really good. Right, It's the same exact tangerine and just really really great flavor. Sounds a

little bit like it may be a chain shot tangerine. Those are pretty seedy, but yeah, there's a lot of them out there. I have three different time right now and they're growing and starting to produce a little bit.

But when I planted those things, I built a sixty two by forty metal building and it's twenty two feet tall, and I had a friend of mine come in with a dozer and he dug down eight feet and about twenty five feet wide, and we stacked that dirt up about fifteen feet higher than it was and let it rain on it for five years and it brought it back down to about two feet of where it naturally was, and everything I plant it there, My goodness it was. And now now whenever I pull like

oak trees. My son lives around the corner front of me. He's got five acres. I only got six and a half. But I ran a small back hole mans a hole. You go off, you go all out, sounds like, yes, go ahead of you ought to see You want to see these trees? You know? When I do that, I believe they just, my goodness, I believe. Well, Hey, I got to run to some other callers, but thank you for the call and the information. And next time you're planting a citru show to try a satsuma.

They're also a good choice. I have one, sir, and it's very good. But I thank you for the info and you're doing a great job. Thank you, sir. I appreciate your call very much. You know he was out in full share area. If you're out in a fulsher area, another great place to go is in Channi Gardens. In Chenni Gardens is right there on the Cadi full share side of Richmond. It is on three point fifty nine, so it's really easy to get to. You just head

north out of Richmond and you're there. It's Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. And they've got every kind of plant you could possibly want, you know, from fruit to vegetables, to herbs, to annual flowers, perennial flowers, ornamental grasses, shrubs, trees, on and on and on down the line. And it's a fun place to visit too. I always like to go by there, and if you need the fertilizer I'm talking about on garden Line, the soil I'm talking about on Guardenline, go by there. They're going

to have it Monday through Saturday, eight to five. Sunday from ten am to four pm, we're going to take a break. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you'd like to get on the board, and when we come back, Stewart and Sandy, you'll be the first two up. All right, well you're back on Guardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our phone number is seven one

three two one two fifty eight seventy four. I was talking earlier about if you want to plant fruit trees, the soil drainage is really important and one of the ways we do that if we bring in soil in a lower area and raise up the level. It's simple to do. And if you down south of the Houston area, Ciena Moltz is your soil place now. They're north of Roach Sharon on FM five twenty one, near where Highway six and

two eighty eight come together. They're open Monday through Friday, seven thirty to five today seven thirty to two pm, So after show today'd be a great time to run down there. They're closed on Sunday. But cenamultch dot com. That's a website just right down cienamultch dot com. They specialize in quality soils, quality compost, quality mulches. They've got bulk, they've got bagged, they have everything you need. While you're there, you can pick up

all the fertilizers I talk about here on garden line. And if you are going to plant this fall anything, take care of the soil. First. Brown stuff comes before green stuff. Remember that brown before green and Ciena Multch can make sure you get set up so that when you drop that plant in the ground. It hits the ground running. We're going to now head out to Stuart and Katie. Hello Katie, Hello Stuart, Hi Ski, good

morning. Had a question. We've got a magnolia tree and we have bricks around an area that you know, kind of a bat around it, and it keeps getting invested. It looks like nut grass or some kind of grass, and I keep repeatedly clean it out every three months or two months. Whatever I heard that vinegar and water sprayed on the grass would take care of that, not harm the magnolia tree. Is at any accuracy to that,

Well, what would you recommend? Vinegar burns the tops of weeds, but it works best in hot, sunny weather, but it does not burn the bottoms. And if this is nutsedge or any perennial grass, is not going to get rid of it. It's just going to fry the top and then it'll come right back off the ground. So on that particular thing, you're going to need to go to a product made for use on nutsedge. And if it's a sedge, the nuts edge is leaves are shiny, they're slick,

unlike most grasses. That's one way to tell the stems are triangular. If you got onto the bottom and cut it off and look at the stem, it's going to have a triangular shape. That also tells you you probably have a sedge like nutsedge and those kind of products. There's a sedge ender. There's one called image, there's one called Manage. But you have to look at the label to see you know which plant location it's labeled for summer, label for lawns. Some are labeled for flower beds also, and you

just want to grab one that's going to work on that. But but something for just sedges, you know, go to a place that knows what they're talking about and ask them about that. You probably got some ACE hardware is out there in the Kady area. In fact, I know you do. You have a good number of yeah out there. Go to ACE and just say, hey, I need a sedge product. But before you do that, go check what I just described and make sure you have sedge. Otherwise

you're you're probably using the wrong product for the week. Would be good to bring a sample skip? Would it be good to bring a sample of the grass and then tell them and then they can give me something that wouldn't harm the tree as well. Right, yeah, well, and using it right, most sedge products are not going to harm your tree. But using it right, all you have to do is we the foliage. You don't have to you know, drench the soil afoot deep. I mean that, get

it on the foliage. The other thing that I would suggest is if you can get a little shovel or a weed and fork or something, get down there and try to get below the plant. If it's got long, wiry, stringy things, not roots, but just dark brown stringy things, that's probably nuts edge. And if you try to pull it up in one of those pops loose, it's because the nut on the other end wouldn't slide through the soil and you just broke it. And that's another sign you probably have

nut sets. Gotcha, I appreciate it. Enjoy yourself. Thank you. I'm glad you listen. I was talking earlier about fertilizing, and you know, when it comes to nutrients, the big three nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, those are important. We need them in the largest amounts, but we need trace elements and very small amounts also, and that's what azemite provides. Azimite's a mind product that is ground up into various forms for applying into various

plants and various situations, and it works very well. It works well on your lawn. You just follow up your fertilization with an azomite application, and you can do that anytime of year. You know, we talk about fertilizing at certain times, certain times of the year because those are things that make the plant grow. As a mite, you're just stocking up your bank account

in the soil. So you can do that anytime you want. And if you haven't done it this year, and that'd be a good time to go ahead and get it done, you can go to as and Mite Texas find out more information about the product. But pretty much everybody I talk about here on Garden Line they're going to carry amite just it's widely available here in the Houston area from our better Garden centers. We're gonna head out now to Sandy and Cyprus. Hello Sandy, Good morning, Skip. I have a little

complicated problem. I have a pool in my backyard and I put the the Texas three thing, three step thing, yes back in the end of in October. Okay, good, that's a good time. And found out I've got so many weeds back here, and I thought, what's going on? And my grass kept staying wet, so my pool pipe busted and yeah, so everything whenever the sprinklers, I mean whenever the waterfall would come on, all the water would come out of the pipe and get the grass on the

side of my house wet. Okay, well, I didn't realize that until this past week, and the weeds are everywhere. Can I put some more stuff down or no? Well, if you see growing weeds, you've missed the window to use a pre emergent. It depends on what the weeds are. If they're cool season weeds, you know, then it's worth controlling them now. But if they're one season, yes you can let me. I'm going to put you on hold. Josh will get you the email to send

me some photos and make sure the photos are up closed. I can really see the weed in clear detail, and I'll be glad to take a look at them, and then either I'll answer you there or just have you call me back on the show. I get way more emails than I can answer the questions too, and so I've been asking people, you know, give me the information, give me the photos, and then call in and let's just talk about it, because trying to type out extensive answers I just did

not able. Yes, yes, absolutely, I'll do that. Thank you so much, Thank you, Sandy. I appreciate your call very much. Hey, if you're out in the Kingwood area, you know you got Kingwood Garden Center and you got Warren's Southern Gardens both right there. Their native plan of the month is Texas Beauty Berry. And boy, when those things that's a native plant, when it loses its leaves, those clusters of purplish berries

are just beautiful. They make good arrangements for indoors too. By the way, Now out at Kingwood Garden Center Warren Southern Gardens, you know they have airloom souls age leaf composts. Three bags for thirty bucks. That's good for the month of November, so only the month of November. Airloom sALS age

leaf compos high quality. Remember brown stuff before green stuff, Grab that before and when you grab your plants, so you can get the soil ready for the plants that you're pulling in. Now, package bulbs are on sale by

two get one free, except for emerialist bulbs. It's still time. By the way, in the eight o'clock hour a little ower thirty minutes from now, we're going to have Chris Weisinger from the Southern Bulb Company talking to us about bulbs twenty five percent off all fall decre They've got Christmas cactus in Christmas trees are coming just around the corner. They'll probably arrive sometime next week.

And I don't tell you about an event on November eighteenth, at ten am, they're going to have the Festive Container Planting Class with d Out at Warren's Garden Center. That's at ten am November eighteenth. They will show you how to create a beautiful, cool season planner. You know, it's got the blend, it's got the balance, it's got that look. They've got the artistic hand Deecon show you how to do that. And that's going to happen

on the eighteenth. On Thursday the sixteenth is Ladies Thursday the sixteenth through Sunday the nineteenth is Ladies Weekend at Kingwood Garden Center. You can sip, shop and sparkle at the Kingwood Garden Center. They're gonna have door prizes and giveaways and really really deep discounts. They're going to special sale some things up to forty percent off at Kingwood Garden Center. And again that's November sixteenth through the nineteenth. You don't want to miss out on that. We're going to go

now to Spring Branch and talk to Herda. Hello, Herda, mid morning, Skip. I have a Saint Augustine. But I would say for every four three to five blades of grass, there's one yellow blade all over the yard, all right? That what is that? Well, that can be a number of things. It can be a little damage to roots, you know, the drought can do that. As things cool off, grass will just start to do that some too. And I've seen that and they're bright

yellow, right, I mean they're not just yell. I've seen that. It could be the early start of some brown patch or large patch too. The ones I've seen around though they're not in circular areas. It's just all over. And so I'm thinking that it's just a change of seasons and some old tired grass that's casting off its older leaves. Those will be the oldest leaves on the little shoot of grass, and so I would not worry about that at this time. All right, Thank you very much, all right,

thank you for your show. Thank you, Thank you, Herd. I appreciate appreciate that call. Hey, if you're doing fall planting, what what's the rule brown stuff before green? Right? First you take care of the brown stuff, Then you take care of the green stuff. You put the green stuff in the well prepared brown stuff, and you're on your way to success. But there's one more step and that is has to grow six twelve six. You mix it in water and you drench it on the soil

right after your plant. You water the plant in with a solution of has to grow six twelve six. You're adding seaweed extracts and humic acid and Medina soil activator plus the six twelve six the nutrients and that hyphosphorus is good for establishing a root system. Do it five days, five to seven days later, do it five to seven days later, three times, about a week apart. Has to grow six to twelve six. Now, there's a lot of the ways to use has to grow. I mean there's a hose in

spray or type you can put all over your lawn and other things. There's there's you know, the ability to foldier feed with it. It's not going to burn. There's a lot of ways, but I like to use it as a way to water in I just think you should have some on the shelf so that every time you plant anything from a broccoli plant to an herb plant to a shade tree in the lawn water an in row with a has

to grow six twelve six. It's another quality product from the DIA. Well, let's see, we are give you a phone number if you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. How many of you have dealt with the power going out at your house? Maybe it's a storm, Maybe it's a tree limb comes down and it takes out a power line. Maybe it's just an undependable grid. You know, we go through the super

hot weather, super cold weather. Uh, and the last thing you want is number one, to be uncomfortable in the house. Number two to lose the food and your freezer and your refrigerator. And then number three, what if, what if your livelihood depends on being able to get on the internet. What are you going to do? Then? What you do is you call quality home products and get them to set you up with a Generac automatic standby generator. That means that they set it up outside by the way.

They do everything for you. They deal with the HOA, they do with a power company, gas company, everything that's needed to get that done, even pouring the pad. They set it up. First of all, they only sell you what you need. They don't over sell on products. And there's a lot of different levels of generators, so you need to go somebody that you can trust. Right now, they have a holiday blowout ten percent off up to twenty five hundred dollars off holiday blowout. It's an exclusive offer,

valid for new generator customers only. It can't be combined with other promotional offers. But just go to QUALITYTX dot com, QUALITYTX dot com or give them a call seven to one to three Quality. It's as simple as that. Quality products, quality service for a quality life. Well, we are bumping up against another break and Nicky's going to be coming in here for the news and just a bit. If you happen to live up in the Montgomery area, A and A Plants and Produce is your home town garden center.

They're in Montgomery on the right side of Montgomery, east side of Montgomery Highway one O five heading toward conrou and they serve that whole area, Lake Conroe area. What do you need? Do you need fruit trees, shade trees? Do you need vegetable plants or flour plant? Everything you need plus lots of landscape, bling for the holidays, seven days a week, nine am to five pm. Knowledgeable staff, all many, many reasons to go to

A and A Plants and produce. Check them out, tell them skip said high when you go in there, and you will find everything to make your lawn and your garden more beautiful and more bountiful. Well, we're going to turn it over to Nikki. Our phone number if you'd like to give Josh your call is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If your toes not tapping, I don't think you have a pulse. That is a great song. I love that, love that song. Hey, you've

been to Plants for All Seasons before, I mean everybody has. It's it's easy to find. It's right there on Highway to forty nine, just about where Louetta comes at, just north of there, and Plants for All Seasons is one of those hometown garden centers. That has staff that knows what they're talking about. And that is so important because they direct you to the plants you need. They'll listen to the question, here's what I need. I want this? What can you suggest? They'll direct you to the plant,

They'll tell you how to plant it. Maybe, if it's a product, they'll tell you how to use it. Bring them a sample of something. What do I do about this? They'll direct you to the product, and then afterwards, when you have questions, you come back in and they take time to help you. That is service like you just don't get from a big box store. That is why Plants for All Seasons is so popular now. They've been around since nineteen seventy three. You can go to the website

Plants for All Seasons dot com. You can call them two eight, one, three, seven six, sixteen forty six. However you go about it, go buy. Whether your thumb is brown or green, it's a place you want to go. We're going to head out to Katie now and talk to Kay. Oh I like that. Hey k from Katie morning, Good morning. I have a question about I'm looking for a shrub that will take center shade, and my problem is in the summer, I get the total

hot blazing afternoon sun, and in the winter I get total shade. So it faces north, but it gets the in the summer, it gets the sun from the west. Okay, Katie, Kay, what what other aspects of the shrub do you want? You know? Evergreen? Yes? No flowers yes? Know those yes? And evergreen evergreen about three or four feet tall and the space is small, it's about five by four by four. Okay. Well, you have a number of hot options. There's some hollies

that stay a little shorter. Chinese holly will stay short, has very sharp spines on it, very very perfectly, but it will take quite a bit of shade and it will take sun as well. That would be an option. You want to make sure the soil is well grained for that. Upine's going to be a little on the short side, yopine holly. The dwarf types are good for that, but they're a little on the short side. But they can take kind of the mix of the two, let's say,

shades sun shrubs. Sometimes the plants don't come to my head at that very moment, like it gets like total shade in the wintertime, so very very mean in area. You mean in the summertime. In the winter it gets total shade, and in the summer it gets the blaring hot afternoon sun. You know. Yeah, yeah, I think I would go with one of those. You're going to find that a lot of the other plants that I might suggest, they're just not going to be real happy with one or the

other. Uh. And so that would be the first, the first thing that I think about in that kind of environment. Ye, I just keep thinking of plants and one or the other is not going to be good. Yeah, I'll grow a deterre there, growd detur there. This which has done beautifully, But I want something ever grain, you know. Yeah, let me think about that a minute. I may say something on the air here in a little bit when one and suddenly something comes into my mind that

I should have thought of while I was talking to you. All Right, one it suggested a sunshine lagustrum, but I don't think that would work. Well. Sunshine lagustrum is fine, it'll it'll take some shade, I think it ought to do. Okay. The problem with the total shade, yeah, I know. Well, you're saying total shade, and then the winter the light levels are less than the winter too, which adds a little bit to that. But sunshine La Gustrum is a beautiful plant. I would need

to check how deep in the shade it can go. We always use it in the sun. And yeah, yeah, but where do you normally shop for your plants? Now? Since water Garden is close to me, I go to them. Oh good, okay, yeah, they're a good place. And I go to Enchanted Gardens. I go all over really okay, Well, you know, I last time I was down at in Jennet, they just had a ton of options, and I would I would talk to them. You can't even give them a call and talk to them and just

say what do you have? You know, what do you what do you have that might fit this bill? They're going to think of something that's not coming in my mind right now. So that's that's where I would go, beyond the suggestion I gave you. All right, all right, well, thank you very much, thank you. I appreciate appreciate that call. If you've not done your fall fertilization, I can give you a suggestion here that is going to give you an excellent fertilizer and a good secondary benefit. And

that is Nelson's carbo load. Carbo Load by Nelson is designed for fall application. Don't delay, go ahead and get it down. It has actually has two benefits. One is that it has a pre emergent in it as well as a fertilizer that helps prevent weeds from coming up. But the second benefit is every bag that's sold this fall, Dan Nelson is donating two dollars to memorial scholarship for horticulture students at A and M. And that's just a win

win. But you can only get that benefit by going ahead and doing it this fall now, and don't delay. Get that down. It's a quality product. Again, it's designed for fall, and it's got the pre emerging in it as well to help with those winterweeds sprouting and becoming a problem, especially when they take off in the spring. Just shut them down before they get started. But two dollars a bag for Randy's memorial scholarship. That's I thank you, Dean. I appreciate you doing that as well. Let's head

out now to Montgomery and we're going to talk to John. Hello, John, good morning. We have a family farm up here in Montgomery and during the summer when we had the one hundred degree weather days and no rain with our sandy soil, our Saint Augustine and a mixture with centipede grass is what my dad calls it is just almost been a limiting and now it's being replaced

by a bunch of weeds what I call them little circular flower. I'm just wondering what be the best way to get rid of those and hopefully get this Saint Augustine back to going again. It's uh, we're at a loss. Okay, now you say circular weeds? Is this? The leaves are round, right, is what you're saying? Yes? And does the does the stem attach in the middle of the leaf kind of like an umbrella stalk attaches to the umbrella? Does Okay? That's that's called dollar weed. You may

also have a dichondra. It's a similar leaf. Is a leaf shiny? Uh? Yeah? Okay, that's dollar weed. And a post emergent product done right away to it. Apply it, It'll soak in and it'll affect it. Those products in the summertime can be a little some of them can be a little hard on Saint Augustine. But a post emergent broad leaf weed control product can take care of that. And if you go over to Ana Nursery on the east side of Montgomery, they're going to be able to direct

you to the right one. But tell them you need a post emergent broadleaf product that can be used in a Saint Augustine lawn, and go ahead and hit it now, and then you're probably gonna have to do it again later, like next spring. And just try to get most of that done before it gets really hot once a days are up ninety degrees and you're going to have some issue with some of those products. Okay, got you much, Black. I appreciate you, you bet, thank you very much. I

appreciate that. Uh, we're going to have to take a little break here. Our number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Will be right back. Well, hello, and welcome back to Garden Line. Our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Remember how I keep talking about fall is for planting, and what do you do when you're going to plant something? First the brown stuff, then the green stuff. Heirloom soils has got a deal. Now, if you're doing

any kind of a landscape bed, maybe filling up a vego bed. You need to think about this because you're not gonna find a better deal than this. They're veggie and herb mixes on fall special. It's one hundred and nineteen dollars bulk. Or if you want the supersack, which is a cubic yard set on your driveway in a sack, that's one hundred and forty eight bucks. If you want roast soil, that's an excellent one for building beds and

all kinds of things. Seventy dollars bulk or ninety nine dollars for a supersack. They're both available on a special for this fall for Heirloom Soils, so you don't want to miss out. Go to Heirloomsoilsoftexas dot com and you can find out more about them right there. That's just super high quality product and a deal you're not gonna You're not gonna do better than that. We're gonna go now to Jersey Village and talk to Andy. Hello, Andy, Well,

good morning, Thank you very much for taking my call. Yes, sir, my question is I have lime sizzler fire bush, which I have for hummingbirds in the backyard, but freezes back every winter. Okay, is there another hummingbird bush that won't freeze back in the winter. Well, I don't know of anything that will give the hummingbirds flowers in the winter, so I'm not sure on the freeze. No, no, no, I want I want the bush to survive the winter, to survive. Yes, Well,

let's see. I was going to say Turk's cap would be a good one, but it loses its foliage a lot. It keeps some foliage, so it's somewhat evergreen as a shrub. That would be a good will stay. It'll stay at four feet or three feet or whatever it is. Actually it gets a little bigger than that. That's a little bit of a challenge. Oh good. What I need is I need to get I need to get one of our hummingbird people to call in and give me some ideas on

that. I'm trying to think of hummingbirds and wintertime. You know, our salvius can be attractive to them, but they're going to die back Turk's cap. Geez, I'm running out of ideas right here. Off the top of my head. Andy, I love that lime sizzler farbush, so that is a beautiful plant, but it does done yes, it is. It's tone like a going to the ground and it doesn't come back, you know, the four feet anymore. I mean, let me by the end of the

season. But let me see if I can find something out, or maybe we'll have someone call in that's a hummingbird enthusiast and we'll go from there. All right, I'll be listening, all right, thank you, thank you for taking my call. Yes, sir, I appreciate I appreciate that very much. If you're in Tombol and you need your hometown feed store effective you're anywhere near the region of Tomball, D and D feed is who you need

to know about. D and D feed is on twenty nine to twenty west of Tomball, about three miles west on two forty nine west of two forty nine. The Dover family has expanded it again. I went in the other day and there was this new little section back there that had bulk seeds where you know, just fill up your sacks. A great economical way to buy seeds for your garden. They carry the quality dog foods like Origin, Diamond, Victor Star Pro. They've got things to control pests and rodents, and

boy, here comes the winter season. And those rats and other things like to head up into the attic or just hang out around the house. They can take care of that for you. Anything you need to feed your animals, to take care of your lawn. The quality products, the nitrofoss, the bone eye, the microlife, the Medina products and Nelson plant food,

on and on. They got it all. They have it all there, plus all the products you need to deal with pest, weeds and diseases at D and D feed Again, they're on twenty nine to twenty three miles west of two forty nine in Tomball. I was just talking about that heirloom product. Yep, they have those at D and D as well. Let's make a quick run out to southwest Houston and we're going to talk to Ed. Hello. Ed, good, good morning, sir, good morning, thank

you for taking the call this cool day. All right, how can we help so well? You know, being the cheap skate I am, I'll wait until I knew it was going to rain to put down my winter fertilizer. But have I has it washed it all out or is it going to be okay what you use? I'm just curious, but not your fass. Yeah, probably not we didn't get the gully washer for days and days. You know that that we would worry about that. I think you're you're good

to go. I would not add it again. I think you probably did fine. Okay, thank you sir. Yes, sir, that's the toughest question of the day. I doubt it, but thank you byby. Yeah. You know, if you're done in the Richmond area, Enchanted Forest is an enchanting place that you need to go. They have a unbelievable selection of winter vegetables and herbs by the way they have loaded up. I mean, and they carry stuff. You know, everybody's got some spinach and maybe some

broccoli and lettuce and things. No, they go way beyond that. I mean they have things like bok choy and all kinds of other vegeta and then of course the herbs, so many quality herbs. It's a good time to plan them. You know. A while ago I was talking about hummingbirds,

and I don't know that much about hummingbirds specifically. Well, how about this today November eleventh, today at ten am, right after the show Martin hag Hagney, I believe is how you pronounce it from the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory is going to be there at Enchented Forests. They're going to have a pop up sweet Bee's Baked Box too, so you can get little munchies while you're

out there. But join Martin. He's going to teach you all about the extraordinary lives of hummingbirds and why you're out there at Enchanted for As you can say, hey, what is a plant that's evergreen in the winter, but that attracts humming birds during the season. They can probably fix you up because they know a lot. They're experts at all kinds of things out at Enchanted Forest. And again that's twenty seven to fifty nine FM twenty seven fifty nine

in Richmond, Texas. If you're heading from Richmond toward Sugarland direction and it's off to the right back in that way, you can give a call two eight one nine, three seven ninety four forty nine. It is as simple as that. Where you're listening to garden Line, I'm your host, Skip Richter, and next hour we're going to be having Chris Weisinger come in from the Southern Bulb Company and we're going to talk bulbs. So if you have

a bulb question. Between eight and nine, that's the time to call about it. We're not going to take calls on other things at that time because we want to focus on that topic and on people that have questions about bulbs. Also, I just want to remind you that it is the holiday season and if you need Christmas lights, if you need decorations, wreaths, if you need you know, all the different kinds of box sets and whatnot.

ACE is a place for your Christmas lighting and decoration. Yes, they're the place for everything you need to have a beautiful lawn and a bountiful landscape, but they are also the place that you need for your holiday decorations of options, box sets, various configurations, many different colors and sizes and so on. They even have something called custom lights by the foot and you just need

to go by there. It's kind of what you would imagine that it is, but go by there and let someone at your local ACE Hardware store tell you more about it. There's now forty stores in the Greater Houston area. Acehardware dot Com. Look at the store locator and find the ones that are closest to you. So convenient. It's nice to be able to go into one place just kind of everything you need is right there. Well, that's

what ACE is, that's what they're all about. I want to remind you that my lawn care schedule and my lawn disease, pest and in weed management schedule, they're both online at my website Gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening with Skip dot com. Also, I've put up there a free publication you can you go right to the web page and it's the top thing. Now that's the latest, if you will, And it is a nine page full color guide PDF on everything you need to know about protecting your plants in cold

weather. It talks about different kinds of freezes and frost, how we go about protecting, what works, what doesn't work, and the things that can work. But let's say like watering or spraying your plants with water to have ice on them, Well, that can work. If you're a professional citrus scorer, you know how to do it. If you're in a backyard homeowner,

don't do it. It just has all kinds of problems. But that and more and explains why is all there on that free publication and you can find it at Gardening with Skip dot com We'll be right back with Chris Weisinger after the break. Look forward to talking to you as well. KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Lines with Scape Richter. It's so crazy to trim.

You just watch him as works so many gives the seas. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter and our phone number if you'd like to give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Uh. If you want a place to purchase a quality soil mix, quality maults, those kinds of products, Nature's Way Resources is the place you need to know.

You know Nature's Way. They're sort of like the originator of a lot of the things we talk about as quality soiler when we say rose soil, when we say you know leaf, mo compost, and many many other products. They were the first to create. John Ferguson has done an outstanding job really changing the success of Houston gardens by creating the kinds of soil mixes that ensure success. Because remember first comes the soil. Second comes to plants.

You can fall in love with the most beautiful flower, but go home with soil to fix that bed that you have and make it the best it can be. And then that flower or whatever you purchased is going to do well. You can get them a call at Nature's Way at nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety. You can go buy there up there on Interstate forty five north as you go toward Conroe, right where fourteen eighty eight comes

in, turn right, go across the railroad tracks and you're there. Leave them in the car, though, because you're gonna also want to pick up some of the plants from the nursery that they've created. John and Ian have a nice little nursery going out there as well, all at Nature's Way Resources. I want to go now to Kingwood and we're going to talk to Charlie. Hello, Charlie, please kip you doing today? I'm doing well? Thank you great Hey. Years ago, I used to watch my dad grow

garlic, but I never paid attention to what he did he buy. You know, can you buy the clothes in the grocery store and plant those and secondly, will garlic grow down here through the winter. Well you could, but I would go to a garden center or a feed store and where you shop, and they're probably going to have garlic clothes. And yes, it

does grow through the winter. We plant it in the fall, it grows through the winter, and then in spring, that single clove that you planted is initiated to divide and make that cluster of clothes that we're aiming for. There are hard neck and soft neck type soft neck types of garlic, and some types do better than others here. So could you do one from the grocery store? Probably would it be one that would do well here? Yeah,

it's a roll of the dice on that. Okay, Well, if anyone out there is growing garlic, maybe they could chime in and see, because you know, I just bought some really big garlic clothes and I just started thinking, so okay, well, hey, let me give you a tip, Charlie. Go to the AGI Horticulture website. Just just do a search for Aggie Horticulture. I've been there numerous times after I heard it on your ear, So okay, and yeah, their vegetable section has a publication

just on garlic. Okay, Okay, thank you as usual, sir, Thank you, Charlie. Appreciate the call very much. Uh. You know, if you're up in Grimes County east of Nevnesota direction, Grimes County Feed is your hometown feed store. They're they're celebrated their five year anniversary and the Roy family they're all about public service. That means that you know from the store, I mean there they're sponsoring events with the local school district's f FA

four h volunteer fire Department, the Grimes County True Blue Foundation. Now, Grimes County Feed is going to have the fertilizers I recommend, and everything else you'd expect from a feed store. But this this is a fam that you know. Their past is in agriculture, their past is in the Houston Fire Department, in Houston Police Department. Service is what they're founded on a long time ago, and that's how they run their business at Grimes County Feed.

So anyone out in that direction, we're talking about Carlos, Texas Highway thirty two miles west of two forty four, you're just gonna when you go there, you're going to see why I talk about them being the place to go in the area. So folks that live in Kingwood and king Oak, excuse me, king Oaks and mere Wood, Reliant, Steep Hollow, Iola, beat Eyes, Rohnes, Prairie Shiro, all of that college station in Avasota. They're your hometown feedstore at Grimes County feed. Let's head to fullsher nowt

we're gonna talk to JD. Hello, JD? How did you get up? How you doing this morning? I'm well, thank you, sir? Good good, Hey, quick question. I had called you over the summer. We're in a newer house. It's about a year year olds, so our plants and everything are about that about that young. I wanted to transplant a crape myrtle from one bed to another bed, and I ended up moving. I think they're Texas sage around. I sent you an email with some

pictures. It was already after you had started your day this morning. But they look pretty, they look pretty peaked. I don't know if I've if they're in shock, or if I've killed them with my transplanting. I just want to get your opinion on things I could do to keep them from dying. On them all right, A couple of quick quick things that the crape myrtles are fine for transplanting this time of year. This is the time of year if you got dig some up, move it to get it done.

The Snizo or Texas sage is not very fond of that. And I see what you're talking about whether or not they'll come back. I'd say wait and see, but that that's the issue with them, is they're not real crazy about it being transplanted. By the way that those crape myrtles have some crape myrtle bark scale on them, and so you're gonna want to be dealing with that, making sure you treat for it, because it's what's turning the branches all all black and city park scale. Okay, yeah, I had actually

emailed you. I was supposed to call you a month or two ago because I had the black sooty mold on it and I had treated it with some kind of testicide that I got from one of the local stores. Okay, but okay, so so alrighty, so I'll treat that should I do any kind of soil. I got to be honest, I didn't do any soil prep or at any potting soil or anything. I just dug up the root balls, and yeah, pretty much just swapped them over and watered them.

That's fine. That that's fine. You picked two species that are pretty darn tough and don't have to be pimpered like some do with all kinds of special bed mixes and whatnot. They'll they'll do okay with that, So I think you're going to be okay there, alrighty, all right, any recommendations on

that that black kind of bark city mode. So in this in the spring, probably in your area about some time at the end of towards the end of March, the create murder bark scale crawlers are going to be coming out, and that's when if you're going to use an insecticide to spray the branches, you should. If you're going to use a horticultural oil, even in inexidal soap when you catch them at that baby crawler stage would be okay, But a in sex I'd probably be a better way to go at that time.

But it's when the crawlers are out, And I know most people aren't gonna want to do this, but if you put double sided sighted sticky tape on a branch or two and check it periodically, you'll know when the crawlers are out, because there'll be these little tiny red bugs stuck in the tape and that's your signal to hit them now, because once they've honkered down as a scale, they're very hard to control. Okay, So and of march treat them, yes, sir, and hey JD, I'm gonna have to.

I'm gonna have to run to a break. But good luck with that. And thank you for the email and for the call. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. When we come back, we will go to Rick in Spring and Mark in Sugarland. You're the first two up. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to answer your gardening questions. And one question I get a lot is well, where can I find such and such you

talk about this product or whatever? Where where do I find that? Well? One answer pretty much fits everything. As a Southwest fertilizer, Southwest Fertilizer has the best selection in town of fertilizers of pesticides, that's insecticides, fungicides, herbicides. Do you need tools? They got an eighty foot wall loaded with tools. Do you need to get that lawnmower blade Sharpen I was talking about that earlier, perhaps some small engine repair. They even got a shop

in the back that can do that. You can go to Southwest Fertilizer dot com. Or you can just go by there on the corner of bissin Nut and Runwick down there in Southwest Houston and Bob and his folks. He has trained staff. And you bring a sample or a problem in a photo of something in make sure it's in sharp focus. They can direct the identify it and then direct you to what you need to take care of it. And while you're in there, make sure and ask about their soil probe or give

them a call ahead of time see if they have it on hand. They'll loan it out. Do you leave a little deposit You can go do your soil testing that I was recommending earlier. Find out what's in your soil so you can fertilize even more intelligently based on your specific property. Southwest Fertilizer dot com. We are now going to go to sugar Land and talk to Mark.

Hello Mark, Hi Skiv, thanks for taking my call. The question I have for you is we've got to plant two trees in our front yard, and most of the trees in our neighborhood are live oaks, which are beautiful. But I'm looking for something that won't or I can still grow a good front yard, so I don't want to have to deal with the roots and the shade that live oaks give. And I was wondering if Chinese pistache trees would be a good option for us in this area. Chinese stash is

fine. Now, any tree is gonna have root issues. I mean, you're try to digging the ground and you're gonna have roots there. That's just part of the deal. Chinese pistache is good. It casts a medium shade. Occasionally you get a little decent fall color from it. It's kind of touch and go depending on the season. Another choice is Chinese elm. One of the varieties is called Drake elm. There are other varieties out there,

Athena and some others. It casts a very light shade and has a very attractive, almost muscular, smooth striated type bark with gray and rusty patches on it. You've seen these around town, whether you knew what they were or not. But when you walk up to a tree and you see this little like an almost an alligator pattern on the bark with gray and orange. That's a Chinese elm. I like them because of the fairly light shade that they cast. So either one of those would be okay on how you want it

to be. Chinese pistache probably is not going to get quite as big as Chinese elm will over time, but both of them will make a good sized tree. We saw them in well, what I believe is a Chinese pistache in Costco parking lot and it was in the fall last year, and they had a beautiful red color to the lead. Well, and they do they do that, They can do that. And yes, a parking lot is where you will encounter them because they do. They grow fast, they do

well under those adverse conditions. Okay, So do you like the the the Chinese and Drake elm better than those or kind of either, or well, I've got a Chinese pistache in my yard, and but I've had the Chinese elms before, and I guess I lean a little bit toward Chinese elm. But your fall color is going to basically be kind of a dirty yellow color rather than uh, you know, the potential for fall color. By the

way, there's about three Chinese pistache on my street. One of them mine turns just yellow, another one turns beautiful orange red, and another one. It depends on the year as to how it feels as to what it does. So it's a little bit of a roll of the dice on those. Gotcha. And last lastly, do you recommend Vernantry Farm for getting those? Absolutely? I don't know specifically all the species they carry, but they will.

They do a good job of whatever they carry. One other, uh, let's see what was oh one of the comment about the Chinese pistache. They're separate male and female plants, and I don't know how you tell the tell them apart until the fall comes. You get these very clusters on the female plants. They're actually kind of attracted. But when they start falling on the yard, they're painting the neck clean up. You know, it's constantly cleaning them up. So I'd try to go for a male tree if I

could, But that is one one factor to consider. Okay, great, I appreciate that. All right, So thank you, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. You met. Thank you for the I appreciate that. Yeah, if you have a piece of property and are looking for a tractor, now's the time to pull the plug and go for it. And here's why, Lansdown Moody has got Cabota tractor deal that is unmatched, the L twenty five oh two. First of all, that's

a Cobota Warhorse. It's an excellent tractor with a hydrostatic transmission. After you choose a tractor, you go to tractorpackage dot com and you pick out the package to go with it. You know, do you need a roadary cutter, front end loader, a box blader, a postthole digger. That's what I'm talking about. You sort of trick up the job there with some quality add ons and then the finance plan. It's a no brainer, no money down, no interest for eighty four months. That's seven years according to my

Aggie math and Lansdown Moody. They're a local company. They've been in Houston since nineteen thirty six, their hometown through and through. They got nine locations on the Gulf coast, So you're going to find one. Just go to l M Tractor dot com and don't delay. This deal is only through December and then it's going to be gone. So if you're thinking about buying a tractor, now's a good time. And maybe even you could, you know, drop a hint here or there that you would like what for Christmas?

If you go for big Christmas gifts that year would be a great surprise in Dermitrie. I'll tell you that for sure. Well, let's head out to Sweeney and we are going to talk to Mark. Hello, Mark, Hey, good morning. I got a question for you on my wife's plumaras. Can you hear me? Yes, sir, yeah, on my wife's plumias? When do I pull them out of the ground? Do I wait till the leaves fall off? Or pull up? Now? You know when it starts to get chilly like this pretty soon here, I would go ahead and

pull them up. You don't want them being exposed to forty degree temperatures for example. In fact, they're not going to like lower fifty degree temperatures, so you can go ahead and pull them up. You're going to hang them upside down in the garage or what's your plan? I put them in the garage it's not heated, or do I need to put it in the closet? Well, you need to put them where they're not going to get cold cold, you know, a little cool sixties is okay, but you don't

want to get tend to get too cold. So okay, well a let's make room closet and you say, hangle upside down? You can. You can just shake the soil off and hang them upside down. You can put them in a container. But they don't need water during the wintertime, They'll be fine. Okay. And when do I put them back in the ground, though it's first time I've ever pulled out of the grounds. I would I would wait until it warms up considerably where we're not anywhere near frost temperatures

where the night times or maybe in the sixties or something. Uh, but that that would be my suggestion on on the plumb areas. Okay, Yeah, it's the first time I've ever yanked plants out of the ground, and I'd like that. There are not many plants that will put up with that, but uh, we're just a little far north for plumber, and so that's what we have to do. All right. Well, I really do appreciate it. Okay, you take care, bye bye. Thanks for the

call. I appreciate that if your landscape's looking horrible and you would like somebody to come in and help. Pierce Scapes is that somebody professional designers. They can do everything too. I mean, fix your irrigation system, put in hardscapes, put in walkways, put in a rock border, or maybe improved drainage. Yeah, well a lot of us have that area that's low and

drains poorly. Pierce Capes can come in and fix that. If Summer has taken his toll on your landscape, callum, say let's look at some raised beds or some redesign here. Let's get some plants that are more drought resilient. They can take care of all of that. Go to piercescapes dot com or give them a call at two eight one three seven h five zero six

zero. They've got experience, they're professionally trained employees. They do the job right, and their designers know how to turn whatever you have into that showplace that you would love to have. Perhaps that back patio design would be really nice, maybe with a waterfall or something like that. Hey, go to pairscapes dot com. You can see the work that they've done and get inspired by that. As I have. We're going to head out to Sugarland now and talk to Susan. Hello, Susan, Hi, Skip, how are

you doing well. I'm well this morning. How are you? Thank you well? You know, looking at my yard thinking what in the world, I'm asking you some questions about Amarilla's bulbs. Okay, I have I don't know, maybe twenty bulbs in my front flower bed that bloomed beautifully for years, and then it seems like when we got the bad freeze, not this last freeze, but the big freeze. Yeah, nothing happened, They just kind of stopped. But also, my oak trees have really grown, and

I'm thinking they're not getting enough sun. Are these are these live oaks Susan, Yes, okay, So I'm thinking about possibly buying one not shallow pot, maybe twelve inch deep pot or less big, and putting all the bolts in the pot and moving it around my yard to find out where they're happiest, because obviously they're not happy right now. Well, they want they want a little bit of sun on the foliage so they can make the carbohydrates necessary

to produce the next cycle of blooms, the next year's blooms. So the live oaks just don't give them a break. I mean, it's always shade over them. And so that's a little challenge. I have grown them in container sport. It's a little bit of a challenge. But you can do it. You just have to. It depends on what kind of ameralis you have. There's the hearty amarillis, which is the john Sony I Johnson's amarillis,

and then there's the more florist types that you see. But if you can give them good sunlight, at least a half day sun they should do okay for you. All right, Okay, I thought about putting them in a pot and maybe bearing the pot a couple of inches because it's hard in the summer. We've had all this drought and you can do Yeah, so we've gotten this rain and all of a sudden they're like standing up and all happy, and I'm thinking, we've just not had rain. That's a big

problem too. Well, that's right. And you say, if you can put them through a late summer dormant period by getting drowdy, they actually can turn and put a bloom stock up a little earlier than you might have expected for you. So that's just another option, all right, help you. Bet. I appreciate your call very much. Let's see, we've got a bunch of folks on the board. I'm trying to get to all of you as fast as I can. Let's go to Rick in spring. How are

you doing, Rick, Good morning, Thanks for taking the call. Yes, sir, I had a really bad out of crab grass this summer and got rid of it all. But now I have all these bear spots, and I'm wondering if I should wait to the spring to plant grass or to put it down. Now. I noticed just recently all the big box stores. I'll, all of a sudden, you have all this grass, So yeah, I was curious. Well, don't make any decision based on what a box store is doing. I'll tell you right for sure, you can

put side down. Now we're entering the time when grassroots are going to slow to a stop, and so trying to get it rooted in well before winter. We're kind of on the line. So if you want to get something over the ground so you don't have weeds coming up in the bear spot, you can go ahead and try it. You may end up if we have a rough winter or freeze comes early, you may end up having to redo

it. Otherwise you would wait until the grass really starts growing. So let's say I don't know, maybe early April, and get the grass planted at that time. You just have to deal with whatever weeds were up at that time. Don't put out a pre emergent before you put the grass down, because the grass has got to get roots through there, and you don't want a pre emergent doing what it does to weed roots. It'll do that to grassroots, especially if you overdo it. And so don't put a pre emergent

down. Then try to grass or if you're going to lay it next spring, you know, don't do one. You know, within a month or so of trying to get the grass planted, got it? Got it. And I also have a the Bermuda seems to be in some places really be taking over the Saint Augustine. So I was just gonna also dig that up

and put Saint Augustine down. Is that usually success? Well, you're gonna probably you can probably want to spray the Bermuda grass with something that kills kills it because it's got underground runners and if you don't spray it, you may have to spread it more than once, but we're entering the cool season. It's quitting growing and it's also not responding to the sprays as it cools off. Rick, I'm hitting a hard break here and I'm gonna have to run.

But come back to that bermuda next spring before you reside your grass too. You're listening to garden Line, our number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Maria, Nathan, Susan, you're the first three up when we come back. Wellcome back to garden Line. I'm your host, Skiprechtor. We're here to talk about gardening. Surprise price. We look forward to you calling our number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy

four, and we got a few calls here. We're going to jump right in and talk to Maria and the heights. Hello Maria, good morning, Chip. Quick question. I have a Chinese elm tree in the front and every fall the squirrels love to just chew on those little limbs and just defoliate the whole thing. Yep. Is there anything I can do? Like if I put out food for them, will they leave my tree alone? Now

they're not chewing to eat, they're chewing to deal with their teeth. Their teeth are constantly growing and they're always needing to gnaw down to manage that, and that's what it's about. There's really not a good practical way that I know of to deal with that. Yeah, unfortunately not all right, yep, they eat all my shade away, so I know the darn things don't do that. Pecans too, you see that, we call them flags. It's like you got a green tree and these little brown branches here and there,

and it's where the squirrels have done their thing. They typically will chew right where a branch joins another branch, and that little yee uh, that's where they mostly like to chew. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't have a solution for you. The only solutions I can't recommend because they're dolistic and they're in the city limits. I hear you, Ma, thank you so much. You're bad. Thank you, Maria appreciate that call. Let's go to Kingwood and we're going to talk to Nathan. Hello, Nathan, Hi,

Skip, how you doing. I'm well, thank you, good well. I really let my art go during the summer, and the drought killed off very large sections of my grass and it looks terrible. I don't I really don't want to spend all the money on side right now. It would be quite a bit. Okay, I'm thinking of just spreading some bermuda seed when spring gets here and letting that take over. What do you think, there's your lung, Saint Augustine, it is okay, I wouldn't. I

wouldn't do that. You're gonna end up with a mix that you have forever, and the two textures are different, and it just doesn't look real great growing together. What I would do is, right now, i'd probably put down a pre emergent to prevent weed seeds from coming through all that dead grass,

so you just avoid that. Then in the spring when it when we really start to get some growth coming on, I would reside with the Saint Augustine, which is what you already have probably some living in certain areas as well still despite the drought, uh, and resided at that time, watered in really well, and don't do a pre emergent in the spring. Just

do it now for the winter weeds. Uh. And then because when you when you lay the side down, you want to don't want to lay it right on top of soil that recently was just treated with a with a pre emergent. Uh. But do that, and I think that's going to be probably your best bet for avoiding problems through the winter. You could have seed it to have grain during the winter, but then you're going to be mowing all through the winter and then when it comes time to plant, now you

got this overseated grass in the way. Okay, gotcha? All right, Well, thank you very much, sir. I appreciate your advice. All right, you bet, thank you. I appreciate appreciate that call very much. Yeah, Nitrophos has that pre emergent called barricade. By the way,

it's part of their three step system. The barricade is, of course one of the steps I was just talking to that with that about to Nathan, but it also includes the fungicide, which is a protectant fungicide systemic that deals with things like the brown patch that's about to show up, if not already, and the large patch or take all patch rather is another issue that can happen. When we get these nights done in the fifties, it starts to do its thing. You may not notice it now, but you'll notice it

next summer. When the grass starts dying out. And the third part of that nitrophas, by the way, is the fall special. It's just really easy, easy to do the one, two three, the fall specials the fertilizer that if you haven't done it yet, you need to go ahead and get it done. You can find that at Cyprusise. You can find it at Fisher's Hardware and Report, or go out to King Richmond Area Plantation Hardware Ace out there. They've got nitropost products out there as well. Let's see,

We're going to go now to sugar Land and talk to Susan. Hello, Susan. Oh wait a minute, I've already talked to you there. Susan's still hanging on. I believe we got the boord clear here, Josh, if I am not mistaken. This is a season when a lot of people think about birds because you know, in the winter time, people think wan need to feed the birds or just enjoy watching the birds even and Wabird's Unlimited is just your one stop shop for everything. And when I say everything,

I mean to quality everything. When you buy birds seed from Walbirds Unlimited, you're getting quality seed that the birds will eat, no waste. Some of these blends, sixty percent or more of the seed can be wasted because it's stuffed. The bird isn't going to eat those red bebes. That's junk. Birds don't want it. It's hard shelled. They don't like it. They kick it on the ground, and now you just have the sprouts coming

up in your lawn down below wa bird seeds. You can buy blends that are absolutely litter free, meaning if you like, if you want sunflower seeds and you know on all the little shells on the ground after the birds crack them open, you can buy blends that absolutely don't have any shelled. The seeds are already shelled in the blend right now. I recommend they're unlimited the wabbirds unlimited rather their Winter Super Blend. It's got a lot of fat and

protein, which birds need in these cold weather times. That's important for them. The days are getting shorter, the night's longer, there's less time to be out finding feed, and you know it's a bleak time out there, and that Winter Super Blend is a super choice for now. If you are thinking about the holiday season, Wildbirds is one of the best places a gardener can go get gifts for other gardeners or even non gardeners. How about a

beautiful bird feeder or some other thing. Wildbirds has a great selection of cool stuff for gifts. You can go to WBU dot com forward slash Houston to find the Wildbirds stores near you. We are going to take a break here, Lisa. When we come back, you will be first up. If you'd like to call in seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two kat r h give Josh a call, He'll get you on the boards and we'll be right back al right back the nineteen

eighty five. Well, you're listening to garden Line and we got a full board, so we are going to dive right into it. We're going to start off by going to Northwest Houston and talking to Lisa. Hello, Lisa Hik, good morning. My question is about fertilization. I purchased the barricade and nitrofalls eight twelve sixteen and as of MTE and I was hoping to get him down you know this weekend. This morning, you know, my lawn

is wet. Is it okay to spread this stuff on wet lawn? And would I still need to water it in knowing it's going to rain in the next couple of days, or what would you do? You don't want a synthetic type fertilizer, salt based fertilizer sitting just on top, sticking to the wet grass blades and just sticking there. But if you either, if you're going to do it today, go ahead and water it in a little bit. Didn't take much, just by third of an inch just to get it

off the blades and done in the grass. Okay, okay, Or you could just wait to before the rain. But I kind of like to water it in myself, so that's what I would recommend. But I could put it down this morning as long as I don't let it sit there. Yeah, don't just let us set a whole time. I didn't want to. I didn't want to put it down, and you know, dam well, I mean I wouldn't. It's not going to be a big damaging thing. It's just, yeah, you know, your sitting on a on a wet

leaf and not washing it off. Yeah, well then I will head out there and get that task done. ALRIGHTY have fun doing that. Thank you very much for the call. We're going to go to Rick now. And Alvin. Hello, Rick, Hello, thank you very much for taking card. I think you may have just answered your question. But I've got a Saint Augustine grass been here twenty years, a big lot, and it's about two ordered by a one hundred area of Saint Augustine. They got taken out.

I guess it's take aff patch. Okay, is there any other solution? I uh, it took twenty years for it to go out, you know, work its way out there. Yeah. Yeah, what what's going on here? Oh? Out? Well? I mean, would you say your lawn is more than half gone, three fourths gone or something? Yeah? Okay, so you're patches. There's a little patches around, but yeah, yeah, pretty ugly. You're going to need to replant it. I think at this point i'd wait until, you know, sometime in April to

go ahead and get the new restting done. Early April probably be good. And when you do, just keep in mind that getting it established well and avoiding stress take all. We can spray things that help fight take all, but it is so much better to prevent it rather than to try to treat it once it's occurred. So anything that stresses your lawn that could be misuse

of certain herbicides. It could be drought, you know, it could be excessive shade or soil compaction, and anything that stresses it sets it up for the take all infection. So for now, you know it is what it is. There's nothing you can do to fix it overnight, and then when we get into next spring, that's when you can hit the ground run and get some new grass in and get it back going looking like it used to.

Look, what are your thoughts of just for springing like every you know, several feet patches of it, let it grow over the next couple of years. You could do that. Yeah, you could do that. It's we're entering a time you could try it now, but we're ending a time where grassroot growth is going to be slowing. An establishment of anything you put out, whether it's sold or springing little plugs out, I think is the term what you were trying to use. That is not going to hit the

ground running right now. You could do it, but then you could also do that next year. It saves money because you buy a little piece of grass and you cut it up into sections and it goes further. But you've got beare areas and weeds can be a problem during that kind of thing, all right, Yes, I know that. All right, Hey, Rick, I'm trying to get to your fellow callers here, so I'm all run. But good luck with getting that in good shape, Cindy in spring.

How can we help today? Yes, sir, I am an organic gardener, and I have weeds coming up of course through my said Augustine, because of stress and all that. Justf is there anything I can use to help with the weed problem and still stay organic. It's a challenge. This is in the lawn you're talking about. Yes, Yes, a couple of options to go. One of them is existing weeds. You just mow them and you do everything you can to build your turf. And a good example for

organic will be microlife. Right now, you're putting down the brown patch. That's the five to one three microlife. Oh, you've already done it. Okay, good, And then coming out in spring, you're going to go to their green bag sixty four. And as you mow, water and fertilize properly through the season, you grow outside of your weed problem. In the meantime, you take your glasses off and green weeds and green grass well mode looks good. So in other words, I'm saying just be patient and tolerance.

That's part of organic gardening, is not just looking for a real quick fix on everything. But I would do that. Now. There is a product called corn glue meal that can be used to suppress weeds as they try to germinate. The problem with corn gluten meal is it's certain conditions that it works in and only against certain weeds. So you want to put it out watered in with a third of an inch half an inch at the most of water, and then not have any rain or irrigation for a period of time.

So the weeds that try to sprout, corn gluten mill keeps them from growing roots and then they dry out and die if it rains or if you irrigate. All you did was fertilized with corn glutenmeal, because it's also a fertilizer as neutral pH in my swiler. No, it won't, but I find most people don't have satisfactory results with it, although it can work. I need to put something on my website about how to do that. But

that's what I would recommend. But Microlife is your company, you know, Microlife Fertilizer dot Com tells you all the places that you can go on. That's all I use. So thank you so much. All right, thank you. I appreciate your all very much. Tell you what the fun Here we go. We're going to go to Waller and talk to Debbie. And what's going on in Waller? Debbie? Oh, well, just a dismal, chilly day as usual. All right, I'm heading to the quilt show.

But I heard the caller about the problem with squirrels. Yes and years ago, I was told and I've used it ever since to put used kitty litter around my trees and it keeps the squirrels away from them. And if you have a problem with deer, use hair from the barber shop, all right, human hair all right around wherever you don't want the deer to come. And I've had good luck with both of those methods. Well, I would say your good luck is probably what they call correlation, not causation,

meaning it just they happened not to come after you did that. But I tell you, the squirrels can jump in your tree. They don't have to through the kitty litter to get up into it and stuff. So I'm doubting they can smell it. Okay, they can smell the cats and they like cat. Okay. Well, if it's working for you, good good, luckily it. Thank you for the call. Hey have fun at the quote show today. Okay, plan to thank you. All right, you take care. Oh boy, we're running out of time here. We're going to

go Linda and Magnolia. Linda, how can we help hi? I have a question. I have pine trees and sweet gum trees in my yard, and over the summer the roots started showing up in the lawn and it's hard to cut my grass. Okay, is there something like mulch that I can put over the tree roots? All right, I'm gonna I'm going to answer that. I'm going to put your go ahead and put you on hold, but I'll answer that right right away. What you do when you have tree

roots sticking up is you can add soil around them. You're not adding soil to a huge area. You're just kind of putting it to bring the soul level up around the tops of the root. You can do that. You can turn it into a maltch bed area where you just put in a lot of mulch and let that be the area. Because grass is not going to grow there anyway with that much wood in the ground, the tree roots and everything. That would be your other option. Or you can plant a groundcover

that just kind of winds over it and hides the roots themselves. Those are basically the three options. Greg and spring branch or the last collar of the day. I got about one minute. How can we help? I have a pot of oakleaf point is that I can't get the bloom oakleaf adreingches oak leaf point SETI is, okay, I don't know what that is? Is it here about the Christmas riships? Okay? Well, a point seta blooms because the day length gets shorter, really the night length gets longer, and

it initiates the bloom. So they will bloom eventually. If you want them to bloom earlier, like when you would go bypoint set is if you want your own that you've been keeping to bloom, what you need to do is, starting about six weeks before then, cover them with a box to shade out all the light. The way I say it has set them out on your front porch. When you go to work, take the box off.

When you come back home from work at five o'clock, put the box on and if you can, if you can from eight to five, give them nighttime from five pm to eight am, give them darkness. You only have to do that for a few weeks and then take them off and they will

have initiated and those red bracts will start to form. That It takes a little time, but if you haven't done that, the day links are getting shorter anyway, and eventually you're going to get some color out of those things, the wall wills that have come up from seed to I'm sorry, Greg, I have run out of time. We'reabout to go to break, so I had to cut you off there. I just want to remind you all that we're thinking. I was going to RCW today because of the weather,

they had to make a call. We're not doing it today. Next Saturday, November eighteenth, from eleven thirty to one thirty, I'll be at RCW for their spring Fling, and you want to be there for this. They're gonna have barbecue sandwich lunch. They're gonna have sale on all their shrubs and on select trees. We'll be giving away fertilizers. We're going to a frost cloth giving them away tree seedlings, lay spark elm Mexican white oak, and

live oak, all at RCW Nursery next Saturday. Put that on your calendar and we'll see at six am tomorrow