Winter Prep For Your Lawn & Garden

your front yard. Right now, we will be having a great season. I have determined, just decided by myself that this is going to be one of the best gardening years ever. I mean it, I really am looking forward to this gardening season. You know, every year throws us its own curve. Some years it's awfully hot and dry. Some years it just doesn't seem to want to quit rain in some years it tends to give us a pretty good coal snap. We got one of those coming

by the way, but not too terribly bad. We'll talk about that a little bit as we go on through the show today. But no matter what happens, there's a lot that we are in control of when it comes to gardening in the weather that once we understand how to properly take care of plants, meaning get plants what they want, that's kind of what it amounts to. We'll talk about having a green thumb. A green thumb isn't

there's no such thing as a green thumb. I like to put it that way because it makes a point, and that point is that it's not like some people just have a green thumb. And if you feel like your thumb's been brown and every time you try to grow something it doesn't work, you have these problems or issues or things, don't worry about that. We will fix it. Because a green thumb is i'll just say, a myth And if you want to think of it as a green thumb, well, let's do it this way. Then there's

no such thing as a brown thumb. There's just an uninformed thumb. So we will inform your thumb, and amazingly, it will start to turn green. That's how it works. Garden line seven one three two one two kt r H. I'm your host, Skip Richter and really looking forward to twenty twenty five. Out in the garden. We are entering that season where everybody gets gardening fever. You know, people that aren't really even into gardening when spring comes here and it's just on a doorstep. When it hits, people

get gardening fever. And gardening fever causes us to want to go out and buy and plant and do all kinds of things. And I think that's great. I think that's great. But if you're going to do it, let's do it in a smart way. How about that? What does that mean? That means don't just grab a plant that doesn't belong in the Greater Houston area. Plant something that wants to be here. Maybe you just move from Colorado. I love blue spruce, they don't grow here. Maybe you

love that blue Colorado columbine. Yeah, I know, you went ski in, you saw a seed packet, whatever, Just put it on the shelf and enjoy looking at it, because that's as close to a Columbine flowers you're going to get here in Texas. From the blue Colorado are the ones that are you know all those multicolors that they'll sell you up there. We have two native columbines down here, the Hinkleys, which is a yellow, beautiful columbine yellow. And then our native that's in central Texas is a small

red columbine that's a native here. Plant those they'll grow. See what I'm talking about. Maybe you move from the Midwest. Oh my goodness, for cythia anywhere really, anywhere further north in the country. Forsythia is gorgeous, the first harbinger of spring, just about in the springtime. Don't plant it here, it's not for here. Do you like lilas? You know that fragrance of lilacs. Just let your memory tell you how wonderful they smell. Because they don't belong here, but lots

of things do. And by planting plants that want to grow here, you can have success. That is step one. Plant something that wants to grow. Step two is prepare the soil. Actually, that is step one. We always talk about brown stuff or green stuff on garden line. Make that your number one New Year's resolution this year. If you want to be a gardener, number one resolution is to choose things that want to grow, but plant them

in soil they want to be in. So, for example, we have native plants Central Texas native the Texas Mountain Laurel, beautiful clusters grape like clusters of blooms that have a gaudy grepe, bubblegum, grape, kool aid, whatever fragrance to them. A wonderful, wonderful plant. We also have plants, excuse me, their native to the eastern parts of the state, more acidic soils. Those two plants, even though they're both Texas plants, don't want to be in the same soil, and so

you got to give them what they want. And that makes it even easier to have success is you're not trying to swim up stream. You're actually planting things in the soil they want to be in. So that's number one New Year's resolution. Get out there and fix your soil. Now's the time to do it. Anytime in the cool season, soil is dry enough to work, it's a good time

to do that. Raised beds are always a good idea because you can always add water, but you can't take it away when you have excess soggy wet, which I've gotten some of my right now, I've got an area I'm trying to redo and I'm just having to wait on the soil to dry out enough to be able to work it. But you can always create raised beds, you can always amend the soil, you can create more provide more organic matter for your soil. All of that kind of stuff will help you have success. And that's

what we want you to have. I want you to have success in your garden, and so we will harp. I'll be a broken record on preparing the soil, preparing the soil, taking care of the soil, getting it right, making the plants feel at home, all of the above. And when we do that, we will have success. It just sets us up for success. Now, there's a lot of different things that can happen that you know will throw you curves and challenges. I don't mean just you know,

you prepare the soil and nothing goes wrong. Well, there's a lot more to it, but seriously, that is step one, and that's where most people go wrong. Most people go wrong by not preparing the soil ahead of time. So courage you to do that and I'll perhaps I'll spend a little time on that today. I know I will week by week here as we go through here on Garden Line. Well, thanks for listening, thanks for rejoining us here in twenty twenty five. We're coming up on a

little bit of a break here. If you'd like to give me a call, get on the board. We can visit with you about the kinds of questions you might have. Seven to one three two one two five eight seven four. That is seven one three, two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you have a question that might involve a photo, give my producer Jonathan a call and get an email so you can send me a photo and

then call and we'll talk about it on the air. Sometimes, you know, you're describing a weed and what I'm picturing and what you're describing isn't the same thing. Or maybe it's a flower or a fruit or something. Go ahead and just let you know, send me a photo, Let's let me look at it, then let's talk about it. Because I guarantee you this, other people will have the same questions that you have. Well, I'll be right back in just a moment with your questions and with more a garden Line.

come out of that thing. It's actually going to come to life, grow and produce stuff that we really want to see or eat or whatever. That's an optimist. We believe in the future, and twenty twenty five is going to be a great gardening year. I can just tell you that we're going to start off by going straight to the phones and this hour or segment, and we're going to go to talk to Michael and Montgomery. Hello, Michael, welcome to garden Line. Hello, Hello, I'm here, all righty,

Well there he is. Hey Mike, how are we.

and they're not ready for it. Now, nine chances out of ten, youre tree's gonna be fine, but just to be safe with it, I would wrap up the trunk around the base of the trunk. There are some some wraps that you can put around them to protect the sun from warming up those trunk tissues. And what happens is the sun will warm it during the day and a brand new This is true with red oaks, it's true with grape myrtles, and several other kinds of trees up.

The sun shines on that trunk and it warms up warmer than the air around it, Just like if you stood outside on a cold, cold winter day that you could feel the warmth of the sun on your face. Well, that's what happens. Those tissues start to flow sap a little bit, and then that night it freezes and you get freeze damaged, typically on the southwest side of the trunk. So normally I don't recommend trump rock trunk wraps, but

for that I would. You could. You could use different things to do it, but there are some papers you can wrap around to kind of crinkly. There's some plastic wraps and things, but I like the paper wraps. Just until that tree gets a year or so on it, a year or two on it more, and that trunk starts to get a little heartier. Then the bark gets a little thicker and it's not so likely to suffer that southwest injury on a freezing night.

that in mind. You know, it's like like, you know, if you were to say, you know, skipped, are we gonna get damage to all our tree trunks this freeze? Well no, probably not not at all, but there's a possibility. And when a tree is young, it's it's a paper thin bark. I mean it's very very thin, you know, it doesn't have those deep ridges. It's very smooth, and a maple tree bark is not smooth normally, but when a chung it is. I was in Atlanta, Georgia walking.

They have a I don't know what they call it. It's like a beltway that goes around the city, but it's a walkway. It's a big, giant wide sidewalk, you know, maybe fifteen feet wide or something. It goes around the city. You can walk the whole thing, and walking through I just noticed every little tree had a wound. On the

southwest side at the base, I say, little tree. Now, those things the first time I went there were probably the size of a of a golf ball, and I saw the wounds in Now these things, I've been going for several years, but they're probably a lot of them are four to six inches thick, and when you look at them, you can see that old wound where the southwest injury occurred when they were a little thin trunk, thin barked young trees. And that's exactly how it happens.

People call. When I used to work with the Agro Life Extension Office, people would call and go, so, I've got this split near the bottom of my tree trunk, and I would say, is it on the southwest side? And there would be this pause where, you know, nobody knows off the hand what size side of the trunk. They have to stop and think, okay, this is north and suddenly they'd go, yeah, like how did you know that? And who cares what side it is. That's exactly what happens.

A nice mild winter day and the sun at the latest part of you know, what's the hottest time of the day. Look at the temperatures through the day. The hottest time of the day is going to be around four o'clock, okay, somewhere around there, depends on the day.

In the coal front coming through or something. But anyway, that's the warmest part and it warms up and with the sun shining on it, it warms up even more more than the rest of the tree trunk around all the other sides of the tree, and so that's where the sap starts to flow. And so then a coal snap that night. Typically that's going to happen when it gets down, you know, mid twenties, lower twenties or even colder.

That's where we start to get that, even the teens, and you get that damage and you don't see it right away, but boy, you do see it when it starts to grow in the spring. And will the tree survive, Yeah, the tree will make it fine. But now you've got this big wound that's got to heal over. Perhaps you get some decay into the inner bark there is that splits open and exposes the inner bark. So why not just avoid it. It's easy to avoid. And the way we do it is put a little wrap around the tree.

I've known people to paint the bases of their trees white. The trunks were parts of the trunk white to reflect some of that heat. That helps a little bit. Looks kind of strange, although you go to some places like in Mexico, it's very popular even in large tree trunks and parks and stuff, you know, painted white on the

lower part. But there is a place for that. I have known people to put some aluminum foil around the trunk, just wrap it around, just kind of crump it and so it stays there, just to reflect that sunlight out to keep that trunk cool rather than encouraging it to grow. Oh, let's see, it was it two decembers, three decembers ago. Now, we had a period where, especially for those of you

up in the northern part of the listening area. When I say that, I mean you know, like Tomball up to College Station in Huntsville and everything up as you go north, A lot of crape myrtles got killed to the ground for the same reason. It went down to the upper teens in December, and they were not ready for it. They were not hardened off, and some flat to the ground and they came right back out. Of course, the base survives that you lost the above gun growth

and it was the same principle going on there. They weren't ready for it. Crepe myrtles grow much further north than here. You know, the one of the major crate myrtle breeding programs in the country for decades past has been up in Beltsville, Maryland. That's a little further north than here. Well, that's the USDA breeding program. And so if they can grow up there, why are we having them killed to the ground here for the reason I just described. So, better safe than sorry is what I say.

If I flipped a coin and had to say is it going to be needed or not? I would say no. But I wouldn't risk my own trees if I wasn't sure. So there you go. That's my advice. I'd rather spend a little time going out there and protecting the trunk, and then even if I didn't have to. Right, all right, Well, we got some cold weather coming. Last time I ed, we were looking at temperatures down in the upper twenties.

For those of you who are up north of the Houston area, and for those of you that are down kind of even horizontally even across you know, with Houston, sugar Land and across there, we're looking probably down around thirty degrees twenty nine degrees, and that'll vary. I can't predict the weather. The people that predict the weather sometimes miss. But anyway, so we've got to do a little protection

for that possibility of getting some pipe damage. You know, they say the three peas or plants, pipes and pets, and you got to take care of all three of those, of course. And when it comes to plants, if you've got plants that are very sensitive to cold, we have plants that are perennials here and in a mild winter they'll just come right through without being killed on the ground. And in a hard winter than they can be killed all the way to the ground or killed out right,

depending on the plant. You know, perennial is a geographical designation. Let me give you an example. You know, yellow bills esperanza, beautiful yellow blooms. Had those around for a good long time. Now. Those are a good tough plant. But you go up the Dallas and they're not You go to Dallas, they're gonna be killed the ground and could be killed outright. Same with Pride of Barbados. Barbados pride, some people call

it red bird of Paradise, gorgeous summer bloomer. But you get cold enough and it's not a perennial kill it out right. So you got to take care of your plants depending on where you live and how cold it gets. And Ace Hardware has got you covered. They have the plant frost blankets to protect your plant. It's a thick woven material spun bound actually material. They come in different forms, but you put them over your plant and secure them to the ground and that holds the warmth of the

soil rising up to protect that plant. It's very helpful, especially for frost because frost can't form on the leaves when you got that cover over it. They have fawcet covers to go over your faucets. They have something called the freeze Miser fatt protection. It's a little short thing you screw onto your faucet. You turn on the faucet just wide open and no water comes out. But as it gets cold, it starts to let water trickle through. And when you have water trickling through, the water doesn't

just sit there to freeze. No, it's not going to take you through timblow zero, but it'll take you through the kinds of freezes typically that we have here. They've got pipe wrap as a type of insulation to go around your pipe. You plug it in, Well, there's the insulation for your pipe, but there's also an insulating tape, and there's wires that you can plug in that provide just a little bit of heat to protect pipes and things. In fact, there's a couple dozen different things that ACE

Hardware carries to help you prepare for the cold. So I'm going to be talking about some of those other things as we go through the morning, because we got that coming up today, are coming up soon, the freeze. Once you get through this weekend, I got a little rainy weather ahead of it, and then sky's clear, and when the sky's clear, the temperature can drop a lot further, and that's what we're going to be experiencing all right. Time for me to take a little break. I'll be

right back. If you'd like to give me a call and get on the line. Seven to one three two one two kt r H.

some good and and you can absolutely have success. Gardening is not rocket science. I don't even know what that means, even the rocket science anyway. Nothing's rocket science if you know what you're doing, not even not even rocket science. So just give us a call seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you want to send me a photo, I headed ahead of the call. That's fine. Just call my UH number here seven one three two one two fifty eight to seventy four till Jonathan.

You want to send a photo, He'll give you an email. Send it to me, we can talk about it. I'm not able to answer all the emails by typing out the answers to them, but I do appreciate when you can send a photo. Being able to talk about the question that you have and having something visual to look at so I can help you diagnose or help you

identify or whatever it is that you're trying to do. Well, let's see here I was discussing the importance of coal protection in you know, someone's saying, well, ACE Hardware, where do you Where is my ACE Hardware? Well, they're all over the place. Go to Acehardware dot Com, find the store locator and there's all there, all over the Greater

Houston area. You can find one near you. For example, you go up to Porter Texas j N R. ACE Hardware right there in Porter up in Willis all seasons, ACE up in Willis, down in Clearly Kilgore Lumber and Clear Lakes an ACE hardware store. And then Cyprus says right there in Cyprus, Texas. Those are all examples of

ACE hardware stores that are near to you. I was outside the other day looking at my bird feeder and I hadn't seen a lot of birds come into it, and I was going, you know what's wrong with that? And what happened is it's one of those feeders that when something sits on it, if it's too heavy, the bird feeder closes. It's it's the squirrel excluding feeder from Wabbird's Unlimited. Squirrels can't get in because when they sit down on it, it you know, closes the door. They

can't get to the food. But anyway, the food had kind of gotten stuck up in there. I don't know if some moisture or whatever had kind of gotten it stuck. And I kind of bumped on it a little bit and it dropped right down, and it just reminded me check those feeders out. I'm using Wildbirds Unlimited Winter super Blend in my feeders. I sometimes mix a few other things in there. You know, depending on what birds you want to attract, there's different kinds of seed that are

most attractive to them. But Wibirds Unlimited Winter super Blend is important because it has the fat and the protein that birds need for fueling. You know, the days are shorter, the temperature a little colder, sometimes the weather's inclement, and they're not out able to do the feeding they're looking for a lot of those things that went to seed

in the fall have now been picked over. The birds are getting hungry, So go buy Wilbirds un Let me get you some of the Winter super Blend or one of their other you know, just talk to the folks there. They are so knowledgeable. I love going into wild birds. It's like you're going to visit a friend because you talk to him and say, hey, I'm interested in this, and they're enthusiastic. Listen, they've got the they've got the wild bird bud themselves, and they feed at their houses.

They know what they're talking about and you can just strike up a conversation and they can talk to you about it. You know, it's not all about just buying a product, it's about learning how to do it. They want you to have success because birding in the backyard is a lot of fun. You know, you may not be the guy with the you know, the stereotypical birder that's got the little safari hat on and shorts and these binoculars and walking around looking at birds in the

wild and songs that's fun, by the way, too. But in the backyard you just feed them and you enjoy the music. It's as simple as that, and warbirds can help you do just that. Let's go out to the phones now. We're going to head to pair Land and talk to Belinda. Hey, Belinda, Welcome to garden line.

over the whole tree, that's good. But a cover needs to drape all the way to the ground and be secured to the ground with soil or rocks or bricks or boards or whatever holds it down securely, because you want to create dead air space underneath it for the warmth of the soil to rise up and make a difference on the kind of coal we're going to have.

Our cold is going to be pretty minor considering you know, when we're just talking about you in the upper twenties, that's minor freeze compared to when you get mid twenties, low twenties and teens, and so that'll be enough. I don't think your fig is going to need anything unless it's a brand excuse me, your plum and palm granite. Unless they're brand new trees very thin bark and stuff. Yeah, you may want to protect them a little bit. Uh,

but they're probably going to be just fine. And then the fig, if it's in a growing state, can get some cold damage. If not, it's going to come through just fine. I'm not worried about figs right now myself on the kind of gold that we're about to have.

that makes a difference. And so this is a kind of phrase where it's not maybe we're preparing and warming up for a significant one later, but for right now this is a moderate one. So still protect and just remember what I'm saying about one plant doesn't apply to another. You're talking about like figs or or more cold tender than Belinda's a plum, for example, or palm grantite, those those are not as cold tender as fig But just depending on where you live, do what you need to do,

take care of it. Let's we're gonna go, actually I have to take a break here. We're gonna come to Marty in Fairfield right when we get back in the meantime, if you like to give me a call. Seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.

weather stage. I've got some that are still showing good strappy foliage. Or do you or your amarellas still have green foliage.

as gorgeous. It's a showplace. And they've only put the plants in. They're going to plant that need to be there. They don't overcrowd them and things. And then there's the rest of us, the plant collectors. Our places look like a bomb went off in a garden center and everything rooted where it landed. It's just we see a plant we got to have there. You know where am I going to put it? That's silly to worry about that. Buy the plant, take it home, then figure out where

to put it. But you know what, it's your yard. It's to you and the hoa. So I guess in the backyard, you do what you want to do. The hoa has an opinion about the front yard. Believe me, they do.

that cause roots to grow in certain directions. Can you believe that there are microbes that get into the root system and cause the top of the plant to be better at resisting disease? Can you believe that there are microbes in this case the fungi that link one plant to another, that communicate from one plant to another about hey there's a bug eating us, watch out, get ready for it, and all kinds of other things. It's an amazing world. Micro Life's built around those kinds of things.

It's taking advantage of what nature is already doing and helping you do a better job of that in your yard. Micro grow bioinoculant is a maroon bag, a burgundy bag, very beautiful bag. Of course I'm biased, but anyway, it is loaded with sixty three different beneficial micro organism strains. Now, all the microlife products are going to have MicroB xenom. I mean they just do. They keep them stocked with

all kinds of good things. The micro grow biinoculant. Don't think of it as a fertilizer, think of it as what it says, a bioinoculant, those kinds of things that are helpful to your soils or your plant's root system. Now there's also micro grow liquid AF. These are two different products. They both have a dark kind of a burgundy colored label, a little different in shade. But micro Grow liquid AF is loaded also with eight extremely dominating beneficial mind grobes that live in the soil and help

your plans. Hey, where do you get microlife? Everywhere? It's pretty much everywhere, feed stores, garden centers, the hardware stores, Southwest fertilizers down Southwest Houston. Okay, well, there's the first hour of twenty twenty five in the books. Boy, we got a lot more to talk about, and I'm telling you this is going to be your best garden year ever. Trust me on this one. Believe me on this one. Just keep listening in. Don't forget my website too. By

the way, gardening with skip dot Com. I remember, I'm going to talk about some new things that are up there on the dep side when we come back.

sometimes I forget. You know, you grew up someplace and use certain kinds of terms and language, and you recognize other people don't always do that. Head from New Jersey when I went to college, it lived seam arm as Randy and I as a matter of fact, back in the day, and I remember the first time he goes fixing, what do you mean fixing and it's like, I mean, I'm about to do something didn't realize. Not everybody talks like that anyway, just an observation. But we are here

to help you have a good success. And what I like to say is I'm here to help you have a more beautiful garden and a more bountiful garden and the same At the same time, gardening is fun, and gardening gives us a connection in nature that we are made. We're designed for nature, we really are. It is our happy place. It's where we find relaxation. It's where we

find a lot of reward too. You know, there is something when you grow your own tomato and you pick that thing right off the vine and you enjoy that fresh, homegrown flavor that is so rewarding. When you smell the fragrance of a wonderful flower, that just I mean, it's just like nature's perfume that is rewarding. When you esthetically look out there and you see a well trimmed lawn and a beautiful landscape, there's something esthetically rewarding about all that.

And gardening gives you all that kind of stuff. Now, how do you end up having all that? Well? Number one. You start with the soil. And I'm a broken record on this, but brown stuff before green stuff, meaning you fix the soil and then you plant the plant. That's how it works. Brown stuff before green stuff. And if you go into a garden center today, which I think would be a great thing to do it just come home with some soil bags some Maybe you're starting seeds

and you need a seed starting mix. Maybe you are putting in a bed and you need a quality bed mix. Maybe you need some multch to go on top of the soil to protect the base of the plants. We're talking earlier about some coal damage and some plants are very cold sensitive. But when you throw a good thick layer of mulch over the top of them, it's like putting a blanket over you. I mean it holds in the warmth of the soil and it protects the crowns of those plants. Where do you do that, well, Cienamal

should be a good place to do it. It's kind of the one stop shop for everything that's let's just say everything brown. When it comes to brown stuff, the composts for the soil. The soil blends like the vegion or bix from heirloom soils. They've got that there. They carry products from landscapers Pride to They carry products from heirloom soils. Of course. They also are a place where you're going to find fertilizers from nitrofoss from Nelson, plant food from

for example, azamide and microlife. They carry all of that, and then products from Medina as well. They deliver within twenty miles now. They're located down south of town on FM five point twenty one, near where Highway six and two eighty eight are south of Houston. Go to the website Sienna multch dot com Sienna multch dot com. There you can find it where they're located. You can find it when they're open. By the way, they're open today Saturday from seven thirty to two, So good day to

get out and do that. Get that stuff at your house on the ground, in the soil, on top of the soil, whatever you need to do with it, and get ready because planting season is upon us. It is still a good time to plant woody ornamentals and perennials to give them a head start on the spring. Those spring gardens, whether it's flowers or vegetables, or herbs. Get the soil right, because whenever that's dry enough to work the soil, there's a good time to work the soil.

It is, it's always good. You always amend and improve your soil. I don't care how good the soil is, you're always in time going to be needing to do some amendments and improvements on the soil, unless you're just growing a native plant in a soil that it's very adapted to. In that case, yeah, I get it. You get it set up, and you forget it. But for a lot of things, including containers, you've got to keep improving the soil in order to keep that at its

top functioning ability. Because plants live in their roots they do. Quality soil means it's got organic matter. It means it's got nutrients, and remember all of this is available cinemals. And it also quality soil means that it drains well, that excess water runs right through it, but that it holds some water. It's not just like a sand that water runs right through. It holds water, but it also drains the excess water. Cinamals cannot you do all of that,

and if you're smart, you will get that done. Because I'm telling you the the the wise gardener, I'll put it that way. The wise gardener knows that you get the soil right and it makes you look good. It makes your thumb look green, if you know what I'm talking about. All right, that's that speaking of the animals and products and things, you know that cienumalch also carries Nelson plant food products. Now, Nelson is a it's just a long term, outstanding purveyor of some quality blends of

nutrients for your plants. You know, there's a Nelson plant food for just about every kind of plant you want to grow, from lawns to things like let's say hibeskas or things like plumeria or things like roses. Nelson has their color Star line, probably one of the most popular lines now for almost forty years. Color Star is an all purpose plant food, So you put it down on anything. Just think about this way. If it gives you color,

put color Star on it. That's easy to remember. So all the flowering plants, annuals of perennials, even shrubs and trees that can you can use it on that It acts quickly, but it also has organic nutrients sources to slowly release into the soil over time, so about every three or four months put your color Star down on your beds. You can also get it with a funge side involved in a mixed in call Colorstar Plus to

help with the root issues that you might have. A Color Star has been popular for landscapers for a very long time, and even out of state. You know, they ship that stuff all over the country to people that have discovered it and now they use it and again landscapers. Professional landscapers no to use color Star all from Nelson

Plant Food. Nelson Plant Food is a Houston area homegrown basically homegrown company that produces whatever kind of nutrients you need for the plants that you want to grow and have success with. It's time for me to take a little quick break. I'll be right back.

fruit tree, I can just already taste the fruit. I mean, listen, you got to be an optimist as a gardener, and we do everything we can to have success. The bottom line is that's a fun part of gardening because you know, even when things don't work out like you want, you just adjust. You just adjust and you figure it out and it's okay. If this year ends up being a little hot and dry, that's all right. We know how to water plant if it gets a little cold. We

know how to protect plants. I'm going to come back and talk about plant protection here in a little bit. Right now, I'm going to run out to the galleria and we're going to talk to Forest. Hey, Forrest, welcome to garden Line.

protected spot helped a lot. And then the next step would be to bring them into protect a garage, or to cover them up and put some heat underneath them. I think any of those things would be fine if it were mine. I wouldn't take chances on leaving them out. Once we drop below freezing, you're gonna get some damage to a lime and then probably to a lemon too.

space is very important. Now, creating dead air space means dead air space connected to the soil. So here's what I mean. Don't wrap the top of a plant like a landscape lollipop. Allow the cover to drape straight down to the ground as if you put an umbrella over it, and where the rain would drip down off the umbrella. That is where the cover goes straight to the ground. Secure if you're it there so the warmth of the

soil can rise up underneath that cover. You create dead airspace, and you make a difference in the cold temperatures and the rate of cooling inside that cover. We're gonna have freezes coming up here that are going to be fairly brief. It may if you live far enough north, you're gonna have two or three days of freezing, but it warms up during the day into the forties, goes back down again. All you need is a little bit of protection slow

the cooling and your good. If you want to add one more measure of protection, you can put a clamp light underneath. Now these are those aluminum shielded light fixtures that have a clamp, so you can attach them to the side of a container. You can attach them to the trunk of the plant, but don't shine the light on the trunk. Shine the light down toward the soil and that it'll rise up underneath that cover and make

a huge difference and protect them. Now, if it's going to be seventeen degrees, no, not one little incandescent bulb is not going to do that. But even just a bright one hundred and fifty wat bulb, you don't have to have a heat lamp in. Those will provide enough warmth to make a big difference underneath the cover. If the cover is not secured to the ground, wind is

going to blow. It's going to displace that air that you've warmed, or that the soil warmth that has risen up to warm the air, and you're gonna be right back down just as cold as it is outside the cover. You gotta secure it to the ground. However you want to do that, soil, bricks, boards, whatever works for you. Make sure it's secure to the ground. You're gonna have some breeze. You really need to make sure that that

cover stays down there on the ground. And then that little addition of one heat lamp for minor freezes like we're having now, is enough. I put one hundred and fifty watt flood light bulb in mine. You can use a heat lamp bulb. You're not going to need that

much heat. Now, if you're trying to cover maybe a satsumetry that's eight feet tall and you're going to get heat under that, well okay, yeah, but we're not going to have satsuma freeze damage kind of weather in this particular type of freeze, other types of a lot of other types of ceterric. Yes, we will. So anyway, provide that protection and you can make a huge difference, and you just have that on hand. I've got mine in the they're in the garage. The clamp light is clamped

to the wall and the bulbs in it. It's ready to go and whenever I need them, they just come right out and go straight out there. Make sure to protect those electric connections. If you were to have rain, which we're not supposed to have rain with the cold that we're having, it's supposed to to get dry before we have the cold. But if you do, you got to cover that connection. It's electrical connection there. Don't drop

a connection into dry grass either. Should you have some sort of a spark or something like that, you can set grass on fire underneath there. So you got to you got to use your head on that stuff. But by the way, I've got a publication online at Gardening with Skip dot com. It's protecting plants from frosts and freezes.

It's a publication I wrote with one of our specialists at Texas A and M Horticulture Department a number of years ago, and I think it really covers well frosts and freezes, how they occur, the information about them you may not have been aware of, and that leads you to how to protect them correctly. And so I just gave you one little example of what's in the publication there. Just take it out, check it out. It's like nine pages of color pictures and all kinds of Information's very

good Gardening with Skip dot com. Will you write that website down because I refer to it just about every show because I'm always putting something up there to help you to have to success, and in this case, it's that publication. Go check it out. It's free. You tak me down on that price. It's free. You can download it, you can look at it online. You can send it to your cousin and Tim bucktoo, who has a question about freezing just downloaded. Email it to him. Let them

know about her. Just send them the link to it. If you go about that that way. Gardening with Skip, that's me gardening with Skip dot com. I'm gonna tomorrow, I'm gonna spend a little bit of time, a little more in depth talking about my predecessor in this chair, Randy Lemon. You know, garden Line has been around a long time, even before it was called garden Line. Doy Compton probably the first in about five of us now that have had been hosts of garden Line through the decades,

goes back to the nineteen fifties. Randy was prior to me, was in this seat for over twenty five years, and Randy was well beloved and well known throughout the greater Houston area. A scholarship was set up a while back for Randy at Texas A and M for a horticulture student. If you knew Randy, you knew how proud he was of our university that he and I went to, and also how proud he would be to know that a scholarship was set up in his name there for horticulture student.

You probably are one of the many, many, many people that benefited over the years from Randy's advice here on garden Line. I'm gonna tomorrow talk a little bit more about the scholarship and about Randy, but I just wanted to mention it today. Tomorrow, I believe, is the two year anniversary of Randy's passing. That came as a shock to all of us, everyone in the Greater Houston area gardening world. Uh and it it's it's been something that well,

like I said, it was just a shock. You know, you never you never would expect something like that all, although we all know our time here on earth is is not infinite. But Randy was bigger than life.

It's really easy to do. First of all, the easiest way is just go to my website and it tells you how to do it there. I'll tell you briefly right now, but the bottom line is, just go the website and I'll tell you. If you want to give online, you go to a website called Texas A and M Foundation websites txamfoundation dot com. There is a little more to the url than that, but on my website, I tell you how to find and send the money to

the right place. If you want to do it by check, you can mail the check to the Texas A and M Foundation. But in the memo you got to write Lemon Scholarship. Lemon has two ms L E, M, M O N Scholarship, but that's the Texas and M Foundation, and the address for that is also on the website Gardening with Skip dot com. It's the most recent thing that I've put online on the Gardening with Skip dot com website. Would you consider that? Would you join me

in considering supporting that scholarship. Time for me to take a quick break here. When we come back, I'll be back with your gardening questions. If you'd like to call and get on on board with that, just kive Jonathan call seven month three two one two k t r H. We'll get you online. We'll talk to you about the things that are of interest to you, and I'm going to continue to talk about cold protection for plants, how to protect your plants from cold. We'll be right back.

landscape lollipops. People that put a cover around a let's say a little small tree or shrub, and they bring it all the way and wrap it around the trunk. That's like a lollipop, right, and that all that does is keep the warmth of those branches in, but that they're going to cool off too fast. It'll slow cooling a little bit, but not much. Taking it all the way to the ground and allowing the warmth of the heat to rise up, or putting a heat lamp underneath it,

or a light underneath it. An incandescent bulb is a heat lamp. They produce a lot of heat if you are a touched one, you know what I'm talking about. Providing that extra warmth underneath that helps a lot. Now, there's several variables in how much protection you're going to need. Number one, how cold is it going to get. The colder you get, the more more heat you're going to have to produce in order to protect that plant. Number two, how cold hardy is the plant? Some plansts don't need

protection at all. There are plenty cold hardy they don't have to worry about that. Some you know, you take a lime tree for example, it's going to get down twenty eight degrees. You got a problem for sure. So you got to protect those a lot. So it's the how cold is it going to get? How cold hardy is the plant? Another one is what kind of freeze

is it? Now? There are several types of freezes too, specifically radiant and convective freezes that I talk about in the publication that's online at Gardening with Skip dot com. But one of them is just a cold, still night and heat is radiating up from the soil. It's radiating up off of the plants. That's why we end up getting frosts on the leaves of the plants. And those are easy to protect because you cover them up, you

provide some warmth in you're good. The freeze where you get a cold blue northern wind blow and throw that just super chills things quickly, you know. You know that when you walk outside and it's cold and the wind is blowing, you cool off way faster. And those we definitely have to create dead air space, and we definitely need extra warmth to provide the protection for them. Some things that are important to consider when you're protecting your plants. Now,

dead air space is your friend. I use the warmth of the soil and then finally provide extra heat as needed, and I do that with clamp on lamps. If I were if I had a let's they had a citrus tree, something a little bigger orange tree, or even a setzuma. If it's going to get cold enough. I may put a couple of lamps under there, earth three lamps under there. I may use an actual heat lamp bulb that generates a lot of radiant heat underneath there, but don't shine

it against the trunk. You can damage tissues. Those things get really hot. Turn all those on and hold your hand about three feet away and just to the side, not above it, to the side, and you can feel that radiant heat coming out. We're going to send it down and warm the soil, and that will rise up underneath the cover and provide a lot of protection. Most of my freezes. A little flood light one hundred and

fifty white bulb. I know people that use little mechanic lights, you know, those little things that are in a cage and you hang them up underneath the hood. When you open the hood of your car, you hang them up underneath there so you can see down those mechanic dumb of lights. Something like that with a hunter white bulb

is good. If you just had a little, let's say, a small lime tree or something in a container or in the ground that you want to provide a little bit of protection when we're going to get down to what twenty nine, twenty eight someplace is only thirty degrees depending on where you are in the listening area. And that's enough. But it's a matter, it's a relative thing, and so keep that in mind when you're protecting plants.

And do look at that publication online. I took a lot, a lot of time to write that with one of our anim specialists, very knowledgeable fellow, and we put together a really helpful publication that you should just have it printed out or at least save it to your computer so you can look at it and it reminds you of the different things. You know, what people ask questions like what about water? I see people's spray plants with water and the ice breezes and the ice insulates the plant.

And the answer bottom line is that no, that's not true. That's not true. If you want to get nerdy, I'll be very brief with this, but very briefly. Ice as water changes from liquid to solid, each milli liter of water cubic centimeter of water gives off one calorie of heat. That's nerdy stuff. That's for your next garden party. So you can impress people and bore them to death. Okay,

so one centimary. So as long as there's liquid water freezing on the surface of the ice around on the plant, the interior temperature doesn't go below, not much below thirty two degrees. But the minute you have liquid water freeze, stop having liquid water freezing, and it's just ice. That temperature plummets, just like the ice wed in there. Because ice does not insulate in the sense of protecting the interior buds from going colder. The ice gets colder, the

buds get colder. So for ninety nine percent of the home garden situations, putting ice putting water on plants in a freeze is not a good idea, even a breaking limbs, you end up with all other kinds of issues, sometimes even worse because all right here we go, I said one nerd thing. We're gonna give you one more. Because when it switches and now you have the ice thawing and changing from ice to liquid water, it pulls a

calorie of heat out. When water goes through that state chain from liquid to ice solid liquid, you're either gaining or losing a calorie there. And so if you got to the morning and let's say it was thirty degrees thirty two degrees. It's starting to thaw there, and you quit sprinkling, and that ice began to melt, the interior would actually get colder. Now you're thinking that, how can ice be melting on the surface and the interior getting colder.

Well it does. And I'll give you one quick example that suddenly making ice cream makes sense. Remember when you had the old hand crank ice cream makers, what did you do? You filled them with ice, and then what did you put on the ice? Salt? Remember that you had to sit on those things, so that whole steel while somebody cranked it, or you cranked it while someone sat on it. Why do we put salt on? Salt

melts the ice. Why do we want to melt the ice if we're making ice cream, Because when the ice melts, it draws heat out of the ice cream on the inside of that han crank ice cream maker. That's why you put salt on, because it makes the ice cream colder. See what I'm saying. You get ice on your plants, the sun comes up and you start to thaw, you're not out of the woods. In fact, it can get worse on the inside where those buds are. All right, I try not to do too much nerd stuff for you.

But chew on that one for a while. I think it's pretty cool. Stop pretty interesting. We're gonna take a little break here. I'll be right back with your gardening question. Seven one three two one two ktr H. All right, welcome back to garden line. Hey, if you want to get me a call, talk about whatever's of interest to you. What are the kind of questions? Maybe you got a gardening there's a good one. Maybe a gardening resolution. What do you want to do different in twenty twenty five

than you've done before? Now I'm not a big New Year's resolution person. I know it's all that we think if we decide we're resolving something that therefore we're going to do it, and it happens. And I mean, you know, everybody knows what happens to New Year's resolutions by about the second or third week at January. But seriously, what would you like to do different in gardening? What would you like to grow that you'd never grown? Let me

encourage you to do something different, try something new. Have you never grown vegetables? Okay, get you a five gallon bucket, drill holes in the bottom, get you a tomato plant. Put it, fill it full of a quality of veggie and herb mix from heirlooms, soils or something like that, maybe a quality mix from nature's way, and grow you a small tomato plant in that bucket. You could do that. You can do it with a klopenion pepper if you like calopenias. Maybe since we're in the cool season, how

about a broccoli plant. My wife just picked the first broccoli from some plants she planted back in late fall and brought it in yesterday. We killed the fatted broccoli and enjoyed it a roasted Oh my gosh, that was good last night. You can do that. Why not do it? You don't have to have a whole garden to do it. You just need to, like I said, just to make a point, a five gallon buggy with holes drilled in the bottom of it. You can do that. Or you can get you a really nice container, or you can

go all the way and make a nice garden. Raise bed. I hope you go all the way on it. But seriously, what is what is your resolution? Maybe it's to mulch and not be dealing with weeds all the time, Or here's a good one. This isn't a fun one, but it's a good one. I'm gonna not let nuts sedge show its face this year when it comes up and

as three to five leaves. I'm gonna follow skips Guide online Gardening with skip dot Com the nutsedge Guide and end depth the look, and they'll tell you exactly how to shut nutsedge down before it proliferates and gives you all kinds of headaches. Maybe that's a resolution for you this year. Maybe I'm gonna redo the lawn and I'm gonna make it a nice dense lawns so I'm not constantly having to fight weeds all the time. Maybe that's a resolution. Maybe it's to grow a new kind of houseplant,

something different, something beautiful. Perhaps it's to put in herbs in your flower beds or your vegetable gardens, or to make an herb garden. What's your resolution for this year? How about a fruit tree? Oh my gosh, those are so good. We have fruit trees that are challenged to grow, and we have fruit trees that are easy to grow. I love citrus because citrus number one, you get to eat the centrus. But number two, the fragrance of the blooms is outstanding, and I'm planning a satsuma this year

right off of our patio. I've got the spot already ready to go. I just need to get out there and get it done. But I'm gonna put a satsum in because I enjoy the fragrance of citrus blooms in general. Some are more fragrant than others, but they're all good and it's just fun to do. What's your New Year's resolution? If you will give me a call seven to one three on to KTRH, let's talk about it. Or if you just have questions and things, we can visit about

that too. You are listening to Guarden Line and we're here to help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape and more fun in the process. Bountiful garden, beautiful landscape, more fun and the process. The cold is coming. We're gonna have a little, our first significant, little coal snap of the year. For those of you who are used to living up north, it's like, wait, it's not even gonna get to the mid twenties. What are you talking about? Well, okay, it's cold for here, Okay, so

what are we gonna do? We can grow things you can't grow up north, you know. I mean, how many avocado trees and citrus trees do you see even in northern Texas? None? Right, So we can do those, but we got to protect them. So go by Ace Hardware Store. They've got everything you're gonna need for it. You know, I was talking about those clamp lights and the bulbs that you put in them. Whether it's a flood light one fifty water, whether it's an actual heat lamp, you

can get those. You can also get the plastic covers, the tarps that go over plants to make sure you create that dead air space underneath. Now we got to deal with water protection too. Those of you are going to get into a little harder freeze. You want to have something to cover your faucet, like a faucet cover or maybe the freeze miser. That's right, freeze miser. It's a whole the thing you screw into the faucet. Then

you turn the faucet on. It doesn't allow any water through until it gets cold, and then it starts to trickle water through, and moving water is it's much more reluctant to freeze. Gotta get much colder to freeze moving water than stagnant water, and so as a result, you get your pipes through on a very very cold night. They've got tape for wrapping pipes that they have, the

foam covers over pipes. They've also got the little wires that you put around your pipes, like an electrical type of a tape that just barely warms it enough to protect it everything else you need. You need some duct tape. Do you need something for maybe, you know, de icing the windshield to your car if you've got the frost freeze or whatever is on it, and it's not just this freeze, it's the ones coming up as well. Do you need to keep your hands warm. They've got some

really good gloves as well as handwarmers. Also in there, fireplace logs, the firewood. Do you need a propane heater? There's always a good kerosene for a backup or for those kinds of heaters. Whatever you need is that ACE Hardware. Remember it's the three p's that we worry about. Plants, pipes, and pets. You got to take care of those, and ACE Hardware's got you covered. Just go to acehardware dot com.

You can find the ACE hardware store near you that is going to be your source for everything when it comes to cold protection, and that would include let's say you're in Alvin, Patco East Hardware down there, up in Brenham, Brenham Ace Hardware, Katie Ace Hardware out west of town, Hamilton Hardware off Highway six, your Bear Creek down south off Highway six. Hamilton Hardware is an ACE store. And then out in Orange for those of you, first of all,

thanks for listening out in Orange. Child's building supply Ace Hardware out there in Orange, Texas. We're going to heading out of the phones and talk to Loretta out in Texas City. Hello, Loretta, good morning.

a bird of paradise? Is like the tropical type that have the little kind of flower that comes up and goes horizontal, or are we talking about the kind that has big orange and yellow flowers in long, tall clusters.

ground and get fresh new growth out. If it's looking a little on the ragged side. But none of those need covering.

to be outdoors. And you start off on the end of the shovel when you get out, even when you graduate, you know, you're out out there with the folks, working with the land, helping improve flowers and plants for your customers. And and it's a service. It's basically a service.

And as an employer, being able to hire somebody that's coming out, you know, with the already a head start on the industry, sure is a good thing, isn't it.

that an iron deficiency? Why is it an iron? Is there a lack of iron? Is the pH two highs or too much posphors? I mean you see what I'm saying. That the thinking process. But it's fun. I love it, Yeah, I think, yeah, a lot of fun.

lost him here in the Southeast Texas area. Such an influence, and I do want to say this before I forget, and we'll come back to it at the end. But if you would like to participate in supporting this scholarship for the sake of horticulture students, supporting horticulture students coming out in the industry, you can go to my website Gardening with Skip dot com and right there top thing

I've got posted is the Randy Lemon Scholarship. You can give online or you can give by check, and it tells you how to do all that right now, Dean, I'd like to, first of all, welcome back. I'd like to just talk about Randy a little bit. He was bigger than life and quite the character. I can attest to that. He and I used to joke that we were never going to tell our kids what happened in Moses Hall at Texas and University. That Randy was just he ruled the room, right.

was certainly loved and followed and appreciated. And you know, you and I each have a personal connection to Randy. And I can tell you this. I'm a product of that program that he came out of. And this scholarship that you guys have set up up there is really important because they'll come a time and I'm not sitting in this chair, and there needs to be somebody else to come and to take that chair. And just the memory of Randy is is I don't know, there's not another.

As they say, they broke the mold.

lot of money. But when you're looking at a college education, someone some could you know, not going to become a rocket scientist or a physician or whatever, and the future of moving into the degree of horticulture help goes a long way and maybe makes the difference between a very

good person making it into the industry and not. And so I really encourage everybody listening to my voice to consider being part of this, because we need to get that thing up, like you said, two one hundred thousand in the endowment so that we can be given four thousand every year to a student.

the way, you know. That's Zike and Burrows, you know, back to the day when Dewey Compton was doing the show in the fifties, and it is unheard of that, we have a show that's that's continued this long and also eight hours a weekend. That's something you go run the great the whole country. You're not going to find that guarding show eight hours a weekend, but that's a

fortunate thing for folks that are listening here. So when you know, thinking about Randy, I don't put you on the spot or anything, but do you have a favorite story of Randy or any any would you? Would you tell us one?

right there. I love that. Yeah. Well, uh, the scholarship again, you've made it where it's easy to donate to people can go online. You know, I tend to not read out the whole u ur L because nobody's gonna be able to write it down or remember it. But it is the A and M Foundation, Texas and M Foundation. The scholarship is called the Lemon Scholarship of two ms L E M, M O n uh. And you can send a check by mail to them, or you can

go online and give online. Either way you want to go about it, And again I've made it easy by just on my website, the very top thing that's there, Randy Lemon Scholarship. You click on it and it has a direct link in there to go straight to the scholarship of people want to want to go about doing it that way, and I again I would encourage people to do this. Number one, just out of appreciation for what Randy meant to this area and to gardeners into

this area and to horticulture businesses in this area. And number two because it's just a good cause. Like you said, horticulture as a degree, it's a challenging thing. It's not the kind of thing that typically you know, it's gonna people gonna get rich, quake off, to say the least, but it is something that by supporting it, you're making

a difference. And what you have enjoyed for twenty five plus years of Randy and a couple of years of me here doing this, that is all because of the horticulture knowledge and training that's been provided to students as we speak up there, and like you said, there are a lot of good horticulture programs around around the state, but this one is dear to both your mind, heart and I know certain certainly to Randy's heart as well.

I got about a minute, Dean, any final thoughts here before we have to take a break.

I know I'm going to be spending a little more time talking about some of the topics we have discussed today, different angles on them, like uh, coll protection of plants, it's time for proning and and things along those line. Seeds start. We spent a little time talking about that as well. Just want to remind you if you go to our Garden Line Facebook page, and I hope you follow us on Facebook, I have posted something there that's a publication on freeze protection for plants. It's actually the

long title. This is an official Texas A and M Horticulture Department publication called Protecting Landscape and Horticulture Crop horticultural Crops from frosts and freezes. And it's nine pages, full color pictures. It's beautiful. Got to just click the link on Facebook and you go right to my website where you'll find that publication available. Talks about every aspect of protecting plants from the cold. What do we do, why do we do it, what works, what doesn't work? Should

you spray prints with water? What are the different kinds of freezes that we have? And then the approaches that we have to take. If you're going to cover plants, how do you do it? What about adding heat? All kinds of good stuff. I just think you ought to have a copy. If you've got a plant that's outdoor, you need to have a copy of this publication on hand. So when we have these seasons where we're going into cold, you're ready to go. Now, the cold we're about to

get into is not that bad. I'm not saying it's not freezing. A lot of areas are freezing, but it's just not that bitter cold. We're not talking about the mid to low twenties or even teens here. We're talking about a pretty minor cold, and it's going to warm

up pretty quickly. Have you ever noticed that, you know, maybe it gets down to twenty nine degrees at the bottom of the night, at the end of the night, and then by the time we get up, before the sun even comes up, it's already warming back up again, and first thing you know, we're right up above freezing again. Not that long. So this is going to be an easy one in terms of protecting plants, not as big

of a challenge as we sometimes space. I'm going to head out now to Kingwood and we're going to visit with Pamela. Hey, Pamela, welcome to garden Line.

thanks a lot. You take care. There are a lot of ways to go about covering and protecting plants, and I'm telling you I have used everything from bed sheets to bed blankets, to tarps to plastic to you name it. She mentioned bags of least. I know people that take a big old ring of wire mesh wire, fence wire and put it around something like a fig tree, when we're gonna get really cold, and they just fill that thing up with leaves to create as much of a

protected space inside there. It's not the best way to do it, but it is a way to do it. And remember this, and we're not going to have this kind of cold, but I'm just going to tell you to remember this. Anytime you've got something like let's say a citrus that's grafted, and you've got to protect the top of that graft. Even if you lose the whole tree, if you protect a few inches above the graft, that tree will re sprout and come back faster. You want to buy a new one that way, but you got

to protect it. And so pile soil up, pile and I always tell you don't make multi volcanoes, don't do that. Well, no, you don't do that for a long term, but for a frosty night, you pile soil up against the trunk of the tree, make this big ConA soil, or you can use very fine textured compost and pile it up there. You protect that and even if you lose the top, that tree will come back, and it'll come back fast because you got this big root system. Now pushing new

growth to re re establish that top. Time for me take a quick break. I will be right back with your phone calls at seven one three two one two k t RH. Alrighty, alrighty, we're back back on garden line.

Got lots of plant things to discuss today. We're going to go back to phones here in just a second if you would like to call seven three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one two kt r H. So, when you think about needing something to do your gardening, whether it's taking care of your lawn or your vegetable garden or flowers or seed starting or any of that. Maybe you need a tool for pruning, what do you think of? First? Well, how

about Southwest Fertilizer. You know, every time I go into Bob's store there, Southwest Fertilizer, it's on the corner of Bisinet and Runwick in Southwest Houston. Every time I go in, I see something like, Oh, I didn't know you had that, And then my second thought is, oh, why didn't I You have everything in here. If Southwest doesn't carry it, you don't need it. And whether it's you know, we've been talking about freeze protection and things. It's pruning season.

Do you need a quality saw, a quality handprint, or a quality looppers. Don't buy junk from some national chain store. Just go to Southwest Fertilizer and grab you some quality tool because it's time for that. They carry that kneeling bench. It's a sitting bench. You flip it over, it's a kneeling bench. It helps you get up. If you're north of forty you know what I'm talking about. You gotta you can't do that up and down all day without paying the price. With the kneeling bench, you can. Bob's

got that. He's got that there. Do you need a fertilizer spreader? Do you need a spreader for putting out fire ant bait? Do you need the fire ant bait? Insecticide, funge aside, herbicide, fertilizers, they're all there. If you're an organic gardener, you're not going to find a bigger selection of organic products than Southwest Fertilizer carries in the whole region. That that's just a fact. They've been around since nineteen fifty five, and there's a reason for that.

foliage on there. Now. My question is, with the weather turning, is that going to finally kill that off?

of pruning. To it. That would be my advice. Now, if you want, you can have someone who knows how to prune come out there and take a look at it, but their jaw is going to hit the ground and they see it. But they could kind of help bring it back to a shape that may stay away from the garage. But that sounds like it's close enough to be kind of an issue with foundations and who knows what else. Maybe well, that way going up into the.

get rid of it, you can do that. I can tell you how to do that too. If you maybe plant a tree that doesn't get so big right there, that might be another option. But it's up again.

them from killing it. Is there anything any fertilizer we can put or turf builder down there or something.

We do not take that for granted. I know You've got a lot of other things you can be doing with your time. I hope this is entertaining for you. I hope it's educational for you, and I don't know, maybe we're helping you have a little bit of success at least. That's what i'd like to think, you know. Way I like to put it is, we're here to help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. That's what I like to have.

That's what i'd like to accomplish. So let's see if we can do all those three. Just want to remind you one more time. We have our garden Line Facebook page where I have posted a link to the Frost Freeze publication protecting your landscape Plans, and you click right on it on the Facebook page and get to it, or you go to my website gardening with Skip dot com.

Gardening with Skip dot com, lots of other good information information on lighting for seed starting, information on randylant on scholarship, and a lot of other things that are up there as well. All right, don't take a break, you stick around and we'll be right back with your calls.

the acidic side. Although they can take higher pH they prefer it a little on the acidic side. So adding a lot of composted materials to the soil, loosening up that clay a little bit, getting it on a good mound. You might even see a benefit from putting some expanded shale in a very large area around them. And it takes quite a bit of shale to do that, but that helps open up that clay soil, provide a little bit better internal drainage. But those are all be things

in your power. Keeping a mulch on the soil all the time. You know, in the forest the leaves fall on the ground, pile up and just rot year after year after year. Make and the soil better and better. So do that around your magnolia tree, and as wide of an area as you can, to try to make it as at home by creating that forest floor environment as you can.

good time of the right time? Should have wait a few weeks, a few months to grab the con trees and some fig trees.

to graft the fig. I guess you could. I've never I've never even heard of grafting a fig. I don't know why you would, but most people just just stick them in the ground and root them as far as the pecan could.

inlay bark graft on those that that's the best way to go about that particular graft. And have you seen how to do those somewhere?

in Texas for pecans. You want your graft would to be you want your graft would to be dormant with the inlay bark graft. But you want to wait until the tree you're grafting it onto the sap has started to flow. Like right now, if you went out and tried to peel back the bark on that existing tree, the bark is firmly attached to the wood. But once a sap flows, the bark peels like you're like you're peeling a banana. It just comes right off. That's the

stage where you do the inlay bark graph. But but the wood you're using needs to be dormant, stored in the in the refrigerator to stay dormant.

graft properly. You don't you don't. You can use things like grafting wax and whatnot to it, but bottom line is just uh, you know, just get you uh, some plastic bag to wrap around them, uh, and you tie it to the branch and you tie it up on the grafted piece, so you create a complete air tight section underneath there to hold the moisture in and then wrap the whole thing with foil. This is all in

the publication that's on Aggie Horticulture. Wrap it in foil to reflect any sunlight outside of that clear bag.

name of the band? Send them that the Wonders a k a. Theaters. You have to look that one up. Eaters. They spelled Wonder O n E. One was O ne so when people looked at Wonder, it looked like, okay, you heard it here first on Garden Life. Let's go to Gary. We're going to talk to Gary now on Guardline. Welcome to the show. Gary, good to have you with us.

go ahead and cut the root. It's okay to cut it. Within two weeks it'll be sprouting new side roots from behind the cut, and it'll be a much better established tree as a result. So don't if you've got circling roots unwrap them or cut them. More likely it can have to cut them. So what about the frequency of water in them at this time of the year. Is is it important that you water them on a pretty frequent basis this time of year? A good watering in

when you plant them should be sufficient. They're going to be dormant if they have mari lost their leaves, they will this week, but you shouldn't have to water them until they begin new growth, and then you can begin to provide some water. Just always remember the first months, even the first summer after planting, the roots are still

quite confined. They haven't fully stretched out into all the soil around them, and so regular watering is a little more important for a newly planted tree during its first two or even three years, especially the first year.

That's that's their favorite.

and I take that off. And the width I don't really have a set marker, but because i'm trimming from a step ladder, I usually wind up trimming the width so that I can reach the center on top, you know, and stay safely balanced on the step ladder. And what I've noticed this year is that the shrubs seem to have spread width wise much more than they've ever grown before. And while I still would I would estimately be taken off about a quarter of the total wood of the tree.

Because the foliage is typically only on the outside of the tree. On the interior branches aren't really any leaves. I'll be taken off a lot more of the leaves I think, percentage wise, I normally do.

foliage all the way down to the ground. So you kind of have to work to keep the top at least vertical. The side's vertical, if not a little bit narrower at the top, like I had mentioned a capital V, think more toward to capital A, not like a Christmas tree shape. But just get the top narrower and that allows good light up and down all through that shrub, and as a result, you have good foliage all through

the shrub. So don't be afraid to hack back as much as you need to do that, because that shrub is constantly going to be fighting you trying to be top heavy, and we need it to not be top heavy for the aesthetics of an ice full shrub.

in the root, they live in their roots. I like to put it that way because we sort of forget about the below ground part, but keeping the roots happy is important. The medina, the folks at Medina makes something called humate humic acid. What is humic acid, Well, that's basically the final stage of decomposing organic matter. So we have organic matter like leaves and grass clippings and things. It decomposes into what we would call compost, and then

that decomposes into what's called humus. It's the final stage, and the humic acid is one of the natural ingredients that are in humus. Humus does a number of good things for the soil, and the humic acid helps with soil structure. It helps with the way that the plant has access to nutrients in addition to the fact that they're nutrients in and of itself. But you make humte

I'm in trouble saying. Humane humic acid from Medina is the kind of thing you just mix a little in a gallon of water, and when you plant a plant, you just pour it on the root ball as you replace the soil, apply it again, give it another good drench. It is very helpful. I will soak seeds in humus or humic acid rather, and all you have to do is put about a tablespoon per gallon of water of the humane humic acid and then soak the seed until that penetrates the skin and the seeds swell up and

then anthem right away. Don't let them set like that, plant them. So I'll typically do that the night before I'm going to go out and plant. And that's one of the quality products there from the folks at Medina. Medina also produces something called has to Grow six twelve six. Now has to Grow six twelve six is a high quality products. Got the six percent nitrogen, twelve percent sassium, six percent excuse me, twelve percent phosphorus six percent potassium.

That is very useful to a plant trying to develop a root system, to a plant trying to produce blooms and foliage. Phosphorus very important for that. And it also contains Medina Soil Activator, which we know been around a long time, one of the most famous products from Medina. There is also present in the has to Grow six twelve six. Again, I will use it when I'm transplanting. I will use it anytime that you're wanting to apply a drench into the soils, even a folier spray. You're

not going to burn with that. Just two examples of quality products there from the folks at medina that are white available here in the Greater Houston area and have been for ages.

We'll come back to your calls though. Hey, by the way, if you'd like to give me a call, the phone number is seven to one three two one two ktr eight seven one three two one two KTRH. Earlier, I mentioned that tomorrow we were going to talk about more about Randy Lemon. The host of garden Line, Dean Nelson is going to come on the show in the morning and we're going to talk a little bit about a

scholarship for Randy and just some memories of Randy. Actually, today is the anniversary of both Randy's birthday and his passing to years ago. The came as a shock to everyone in the gardening World here in Southeast Texas, and we'll be talking more about that then. I just want to remind you, though, one more time, that Randy's scholarship is still around at A and M. They've got it funded to a level now where there is some funding

going to New A and M horticulture students. New A and M horticulture students can receive the Randy Lemon Scholarship. We want to get it funded better. I just think we can do better than this. You can go online and you can donate online toward it. You can do it by mail if you'd like to. There's a lot of details to that. I make it real simple on my website. Just go to gardening with Skip dot com Gardening with Skip dot com. The top item on there

is the Randy Lemon Scholarship. It tells you how you can give and if you're one of the folks that listened to Randy for years that appreciated the help that he provided you, why not consider making even a small donation toward that scholarship. I know Randy would be so proud to know that we were doing this now. And thanks to Dean for getting that all set up.

old etches sketches. I've used that analogy before, but how many of you remember an etch a sketch? You know, you had two knobs, one went up and down, one sideways, and you tried to draw something. Inevitably, you went left when you should have gone right or whatever, and it messes up the drawing. What do you do? You turn it upside down and shake it and you get a blank slate. Again, that's gardening. Every year is a blank slate.

In fact, halfway through spring, if you don't like the way that garden looks, you can just get you your roto teller, the equivalent of a shake in the edges sketch and you get to start over again. It's okay. You can't fail at garden you only give up. We're not going to give up. We're going to have the best year ever. And I really believe that. I think it's gonna be a good year. Right now, we're going to go out and talk to Gary and Humble. Hello, Gary, welcome to garden Line.

amazing how that works? Well, the way I like to put it is, I'm gonna tell jokes that make me laugh, even if they don't make you laugh. One of us has gotta have fun here. Thanks for being a listener to Garden Line. Hey, you probably have noticed that here in the Houston area we have a heavy clay soil. We call it gumbo soil because it's a thick black clay. Not everybody does. You may have sandy soil or sandy loan where you live, but by and large are Houston.

Black clay is predominant in this area. And when you have a clay that has a high shrink swell potential. What that means is when it's wet, it swells. When it's dry, it shrinks. When you have that, you'll notice in the summertime, when it's dry, you get these big cracks in the yard. You know, big old cracks open up in the soil because it's dry and it's shrinking, and then it gets wet and it closes back up again. Well, that wrecks havoc on your sidewalk and on your driveway

and on your home foundations. And you may notice that your doors are sticking. They didn't stick before and I was under sticking again.

He understands this issue, and he knows how to assess it and what to do about it. The things I like most about Ty's work. Number one is an honest fellow. Number two he shows up on time when he tells he's going to show up. That's part of being honest by the way. He fixes it right, and he charges a fair price. And what more can you ask for any kind of a service industry come in to your house, especially when they're dealing with the foundation of your home.

And he's been doing this for twenty three years. He knows what he's doing. You give him a call, tell him your guarden line listener. Free estimates for garden line listeners. You can go to the website fixmislab dot com, or you can call him too. Eight one two fi five forty nine forty nine two eight one two fi five four nine four nine fix my slab foundation repair listen. If you think you may have a problem, don't be an ostrich. Put your head in this end. Call him

if it's not a serious issue. If it's okay, there is such a level of concern that's not worth worrying about. He'll tell you that. But it's not gonna get better, so don't put it off. Go ahead and give Tay a call two eight one two FI five forty nine forty nine. All right, folks, we've got one more segment in the first show of the year coming up, and I'll be right back with your calls at five excuse me, seven to one three two one two kt RH loved.

Welcome back to guarden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richer, and we're here for our last segment of today, the first garden Line show of twenty twenty five, which is going to be the best gardening year we've ever had. I really really believe that. You know, nature throws us curves, but that's okay, we just continue on. We were resilient. Gardeners are resilient. You know, gardeners have to have faith. First of all. I mentioned this earlier. But to take take a hand full of seeds, I mean, they look

like detritus. They look like debris on the ground, little chips of wood or whatever they are, and they look dead. And you put them in the ground, you give water to them, and a miracle starts to happen. Water soaks into the seed and starts a chain of biochemical reactions that ends up with you getting a tomato or a petunia flower or whatever kind of seed it is. Is

that amazing? I mean, you know, someone once said that anybody can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God knows the number of apples in a seed, and that you know, it's really true. I mean, think about that, that one little seed in the case of an apple, just countless, countless production from it. All right, I'm gonna get a little This isn't nerdy, this is philosophical.

But somewhere years ago, you know, the guy Johnny apple seed that went through the countryside, just scattering seeds everywhere, and all these apples came up here and there and yonder. Well, people would find one. That's a hap hazard, just genetic occurrence. That's what seeds are, just like people are all different genetically. Well, apples are all different genetically. Any kind of seed is going to do that. So they would find one and they would go, you know what, this is a really

special apple. Let's take cuttings and let's graft them, and let's name it, and that way we can produce more of it. That's how the first red delicious apple occurred. And many of the oldest apple varieties were just haphazards. Same with pecans pecans years ago. Some day I'll tell you the story of pecans, but that's a whole nother story.

But anyway, so red Delicious just and other varieties. Now, we breed varieties like that intentionally by crossing apple parentage lines, but they just occurred and someone said, oh, I like that, I'm gonna save that one. So think about this. I don't know how many Red Delicious apple trees have been created over the years. I mean, you know, we don't grow those down here in Texas, but apple producing country.

That's kind of like an old standard variety that for years rule the roost because it was longer, and it was darker red, and it just it just had features that were desirable. A seed sprouted, even if it was an intentional collapse. Of course, one seed and one apple produced the first Red Delicious tree, and after that it was a matter of grafting and grafting and grafting to where there's thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of

genetically the same red Delicious apples. Because in nature, one seed sprouted and it had the superior qualities that someone chose to select. So I just find that to be amazing. I find plant genetics and just the you know, you cross this, you cross that, And there are people that do that as gardeners do I do that with okra myself, creating new varieties and things. So it's kind of a fun fact something that they about maybe get you excited

about doing some plant crossing yourself. We're gonna go out of Bayliff and talk to Sue. Hello, Sue, Welcome to garden line.

some source of heat underneath there. But what's going to happen in these coming freezes this week is it's going to drop down below freezing and then it's going to come right back up when the sun comes out in the day. We'll be up in the forties and so we don't have to survive for twenty four hours below thirty two degrees. So we're just protecting them a little bit, and that ought to get them through.

you're going to be all right. If you want to be careful, just put her on dolly running in the ode and bring it back out. But I don't think that's needed for a kalamand And in the freeze, we're about to have.

earlier in the morning when it was later on. All right, take care