Your Garden is More Than Just Pretty!

the Garden Line. Hey, if you would like to give us call this morning, Well it's always you know, Sunday mornings, first thing is always the best time to get right through. So there's your little tip for the day. But anyway, you can give me a call seven one three two one two ktr H seven one three two one two k t r H. I am looking forward to a good day to day. Yesterday was great thanks to Southwest Fertilizer Bob having us out there. It was it was really fun. Got to talk to a lot of good

folks and we had a lot of fun too. Actually did some walking around the store and whatnot, and Bolly, I tell you, every time I go into that place, I'm just surprised at all of the product and at the tools. A ninety foot wall of tools. That's just amazing. I don't know how they I don't know how they do that. It's it's a lot. But he also carries

those specialty things, you know, the Skips weed wiper. If you go on my website Gardening with Skip dot com, I have a thing called Skip's Homemade weed Wiper, and it's a grabber tool that you put sponges on and make a tool to apply herbicides directly to a weed, so it doesn't put a lot of chemical and environment and it doesn't hurt the plants around it anyway. You just got to go see it. Anyway, Bob's got those grabber tools in there so people can do that. We

had some folks picking them up yesterday. And then he's got that kneeling bench that I talk about a lot in there. I love kneeling benches. I fell in love with them sometime after forty when I woke up the first morning and realized that I was sore, but I had no earthly idea why some of you are not and going, yeah, I know which do well. Anyway, He's got those, but he's got all kinds of other good stuff in there as well. So it was good see see them, and thanks again for those of you who

came out. I want to remind you or tell you for the first time. Next Saturday, from twelve to two, I'm going to be at Memorial City Ace Hardware, and so I hope you'll come out to see me. I'll talk a little bit more about that as we go through the day, but anyway, just kind of make a note for those of you in that area come on out. Look forward to seeing you. In my own yard and garden today i'd see I think probably later afternoon today. I'm going to get outside and put her around just

a little bit. No big projects, just a couple of things. I have a lime tree that is sitting in the pot. It goes in and the soil is right beside it, and so I just need to put all that together and get that thing potted up. I've been holding on to it for a while, you know. It's one of those things that ends up. You bring it home and it sits there for a little while because you're running around doing other things. Time to get that in the ground or in the pot. That is one thing I

like about pots is the convenience and the versatility. Number one. The containers are beautiful, or they can be, and you can move them around. And you're thinking, yeah, have you ever tried to pick up a pot full of soil?

pots to sunnier or less sunny spots. If you decide, you know what, this is a little too much sun, I'm gonna give it a little afternoon shade. You just roll it over to that spot. It's easy to do. And anyway, the thing I like about pots or containers with this plant is Cetrus has fragrant blooms, and I love to smell the blooms of citrus. It's to me, it's almost as it's almost equal to the benefit of

getting the citrus fruit themselves. But anyway, so this pot will go by my patio where when I sit out there, I can enjoy the fragrance. And yesterday I was talking about some nice fragrant plants that we can put out, or that I am putting out. I've put out some ginger, some hedicium white butterfly ginger. Oh my gosh, it's heavenly the fragrance. I have some confederate jasmine, also called star jasmine that's about to go in on a back fence.

That is heavenly fragrance as well. I have something called lemon verbina no excuse me, almond verbina. Lemon verbenas an herb almon verbina, and it makes a shrub a bush. You can share it back, and the more you share it, the more terminals you get. And that's where the flowers are. And these white, long, almost like a bottle brush type flower, but smaller, are very fragrant too. I love that one. I've got a sweet osmanthus that I also put in

the bed. These are mostly on the southwest side of the patio because that's where the prevailing wind comes in the summertime across there. So when you sit on the patio, you know, you tend to get more of the wind blowing from that direction, not always, but some, And so we'll enjoy those fragrance. And now this citrus tree and a container is going to go as be part of the mix too. I like to compare visual and audio using the adjectives for the other. Like I mean, for example,

it's going to be a cacophony of fragrances. Yeah, I know, cacophony means a sound thing, but it's going to be a cacophony of fragrances on that patio, and so I'm looking forward to that anyway, Just some thoughts for you there. You may want to create some of the same things. There's a lot of other great plants that could go into the same mix as well. If you've not doneation on your lawn in a while, you need to get out there and do it. And a great product for

that is sweet Green from nitrofoss. Sweet green has eleven percent nitrogen which is one of the higher nitrogen organic type products you're gonna ever find. You put it down, it dissolves into the soil very easily. Those carbon chains and sweet green are loved by beneficial bacteria and you're going to get a nice green up of your lawn. You goun to find sweet green at plants and things up in Brenham. You can find it at Fisher's Hardware down in Baytown or our Lake Hardware clue on Dixie Drive.

I'm gonna take a little break here real quick and I'll be right back. Stick around when we come back. Chris and nasa Abe you'll be our first up. Well, good morning, welcome back to the guard Line. Glad to have you with us this morning. You can go straight out of the phones here and talk to Chris in nasa abey. Hey, Chris, welcome to Guardline. Cool you know, yes, sir, yes, sir.

the door. Uh, And you can take those and you cut them up and cut one of them up and maybe three different pieces if you want, and that way spread them out in those different patches and holes that you have watered in real good. Remember the water at twice a day each one twice a day the first week, once a day the second week, and then after that you can start backing off. But that will fill in really fast with a nice mature plant and make a natural blend into what you already have.

come back and start water. And just go ahead and water it as you're getting it laid down, and then again twice a day for the first week, once a day the second week. Okay, Well, good Jill, thank you for your help, sir you bet, Chris, thanks for the call. Appreciate that heirloom soils is really a source of all kinds of good products. I was talking to somebody the other day and they I can't remember what was it. Oh,

I know what it was. They were wanting to plant some rose bushes, and I said, well, there's some thing called rose and Bloomers blend from heirloom soil. It's excellent for that. And it says and bloomers because you know, you may have even remembered Randy talking about way back, you know, rose soil for don't just use it for roses, usually for all kinds of things. Well that I think that's this title Rose and Blue is just say, hey, this is not just for roses. It's good for all

kinds of bloomin plants, and it works well. The veggie and herb mix, yes, great for veggie and herb, but if you want to put it in a flower bit, if we find for that too. It really is sometimes we put names on things just so people, you know, feel they can identify. Okay, that's the one I need for this, and it is. Those are all for the things they say, but they can expand out to other things. Airloom sauce has got fruit bery and citrus mix. They've got a nice landscape ped mix too, by the way.

And then if you're looking for special things to maybe improve your soil in general, kind of a you're going to kind of be a do it yourself or in putting certain things in. You can buy expanded shell from you can buy expanded shell blend to a compost, or you can buy aged leaf mole compost by the bag from them. Airloom Soils can be delivered to your house too, or you can go get it if you want to

go get it. The thing you need to check out this if you would write this down Heirloom Soils heirloomsoils dot com and check out the products they have, look at where they are, look at the calculator that's on there. That was another question I get. Sometimes people say, well I don't know how much to get You know, well,

here's what you do. You figure out, go to the calculator, put in how much, how wide, how deep, how long the bed is, and it will help you know exactly how much you need, whether you need to buy it by the cubic yard, which if it's any sized job at all, you do, or whether you know you just go get some one cubic footbags and fill it in that way. Anyway, Heirloomsoils dot com. That's what you need to know. And just know this that every time I've gotten one of their products and used it, and I've

done it a bunch. I see really good results, and I wouldn't be recommending. I don't recommend things that I have not had personal experience with or seen direct research on. And to know that when I'm telling you something, you're going to have good results with it too. Used as directed as they always say, I never kind of had commercial whatever flyer that you see anyway, heirloom, so you're

not going to go wrong with it. And if you've listened to Guardenline one time, you've heard me say more than one time that you got to start with the soil. Get the soil right, and then the plants you put in are going to have better success. That's how that works. Along with doing good soils, doing quality nutrient additions. You know, the nutrients are part of what I call the brown stuff, the soil, the compost, the nutrients, all of that, the fertilizer,

that's all the foundation. And Neilson Plant Food has some really cool products that They've got a line called Nutristar that comes in screwtop lid jars, and the nutri Star is named by the plant that's it's really designed for and again there's some variability there. You don't have to just use it on that one kind of plant. But there's a nutri Star for hibiscus, there's a nutri Star for vegetables, there's nutri Star for plumerias. I mean, on

and on and on. The one I want to tell you about right now is the hibiscus and flowering tropicals food. If you don't have hibiscus in your landscape, you need to. Whether it's the perennial hibiscus it dies to the ground, comes back and has flowers as big as dinner plates that are either pink or red or white or swirled or some version of those three colors, or a tropical hibiscus which are absolutely sleunningly gorgeous. Nutristar Hibiscus and flowering

tropical food is great for all of that. And you know, if it's got flowers on it, Hibiscus and flying tropicals can do a good job for it. It gives you multiple acidifying sources to make sure that the nutrient release is in it is given out over time, but that the pH of your soil is adequate for those plants that you're growing. Get a good high potassium content make sure it's resistance. Potassium helps build a better how do

I say, drought resilience within a plant. It's one of the functions of potassium, cold heartiness and other function of potassium. But however you want to go about it. Nutra Star Hibiscus and flowering tropicals, one of the many nutri Star products by Nelson's is something you need to check into. And by the way, there's about a dozen places around

town where you can take your empty jars in. Instead having to buy more jars and throw away plastic, you just refill them and it's it's more economical, but it's also helps keep that plastic out of the environment, which I think is a great way to go. You're listening to Gardenline my phone number seven one three two one two KTRH seven one three two one two KTRH. Give us a call. We'll help you with the kinds of

plants you're wanting to grow. I was mentioning fragrant flowers and some of the ones we're doing around the landscape. There are many other good examples of flowers that have a nice fragrance. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's overwhelming. You know what a gardena is or example of one that's just it's perfume, but it's a good, strong fragrance. Then there are things that are a little more subtle. Some of the old time petunias, old fashioned petunias, kind of

the cottage garden type. They're wild and lanky and probably not gonna make it in a lot of flower beds because they don't have the neat, clean appearance that our modern petunias do. Some of those old ones have a lovely little fragrance. Earlier this spring, when the Chinese fringe was blooming, it was just my favorite spring blooming tree.

Chinese fringe has a nice little honey to me. It's a kind of a honey like fragrance, and it has so many blooms, just shaggy all over the plant that when you get one of those and the breeze is blow in the right direction, it's another nice fragrant plant that you can enjoy. Remember, in gardening, we have not just the visual. You know, people think about, well, I want to have a landscape, and what you think as well?

You picture this front of your house or backyard and you see all the beautiful plants and there's all these colors. Maybe you've got evergreens and deciduous But that's all visual, right, And also part of the visual is big bold leaves like an elephant ear or a kalladium, or narrow leaves that are a fine leaf grass clump of grass for example. Those are all parts of the visual. But gardening also includes the sense that you smell and choosing to put

some nice fragrant plants that you love in. That's a wonderful thing. A lot of us grew up with fragrant memories, you know, maybe it was the smell of cookies in grandma's kitchen, you know, when you're a kid growing up, or something along those lines. Smells are one of the things we remember best throughout our lives, to the very end. I mean we smells are a memory that sticks in our brains. And you may have some fragrances of the past of flowers that maybe grandy grew or something like that.

You can bring those in and you can re experience that. So anyway, that's a freak. Another aspect of gardening is movement and sound. Do you know that plants make sounds, Well, sometimes they do. Movement would be like the swaying grass in the breeze. There's a beauty to that and the grass sea head's coming up above it. And I'm not talking about long grass. I'm talking about big clumps of

grass like maiden grass, Miscanthus or mules or others. And the sounds if you've ever sat underneath the clump of bamboo. And by the way, I would plant clumping bamboo, not running bamboo, because running bamboo can out run you. It's like putting bermuda grass in your flower bed. It takes off. It's a great plant. But if you don't have room, or if you don't it contained underground, it don't do that.

But anyway, sit underneath bamboo and the breeze. Summer breeze is blowing and the bamboo leaves are kind of stiff and paper, if you will, and it almost sounds like it's raining as you're sitting under there, as those leaves rub against each other. That's a really interesting sound of the garden. And then there's the butterflies what I call flying flowers coming by that you can attract in. There's watching the pollinators work on the flowers. There's hummingbirds that

come in. So there's that visual that can be added to it and the songs of the birds that come in. So I'm kind of droning on here, but I want you to think of your garden as broader than just oh, here's a prettiful, pretty flower. Beautiful flower. I'm gonna put it in this front bed. That's fine, But garden goes way, way way beyond that. Speaking of in Channy Gardens out in Richmond, Rosenberg is an awesome garden center and be

a good place to visit this afternoon too. By the way, the website if you'll write this down Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com in Chennigardens Richmond dot com. When you get there, you're gonna be greeted by an enthusiastic team that's as

helpful as they come. They know how to help you have success, and you're going to have every part and piece that you need to put together to make beauty, whether it's a flower bed, a combination container you're creating, or maybe rose bushes and shrubs along the periphery of your landscape as backdrops. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Go there, have a good time and take some friends with you,

because it's really a great outing for everybody. I'm going to take a break and I'll be right back after the news. All right, Welcome back, folks, Welcome back to guarden Line. One of my favorite garden centers to visit is down there in Seabrook. It's way southwest in Houston. Those of you in that whole region, you know it. It's Moss Nursery. And Moss Nursery is not just another garden center.

It looks great no matter what you're looking for. Beautiful shrubs like you have twenty different kinds of azalias that they have their beautiful blooming shrubs, you know, talking of that white Chinese fringe tree and ping Magnolia's the Japanese Magnoia is the ones that were blooming. They're the first things to bloom just about in the spring. It's beautiful and the house plant selection is outstanding. You're not going to find anything if you're looking for something different, you know,

like I don't have one of those already. It's a great place for that. Jim has some really quirky T shirts designs that he's come up with. He has a thing called the eyeball plant and you got to go see it. It's cool. But anyway, you can get a T shirt with that on it. Like I said, you never know around the next corner what you're going to find. At Moss Nursery, Toddville Road, Seabrook, Texas, Mosnursery dot com and here's the phone number two eight one four seven

four twenty four eighty eight. We're going to head up to Willis now and talk to Sherry. Hey, Sherry, welcome to garden.

it up to do your harvesting tomatoes. Now, bees that go and buzz the flower, especially bumblebees, they can help with pollination by shaking the flower, but they're primarily pollinated by wind moving the plants. This isn't a pollen that the bee takes from one flower to another, but inside the flower, when wind moves them or a bumblebee buzzes them, it shakes pollen loose and it falls inside that flower to the pistol where it's received and pollinates. So you

can just you can do that. If your tomatoes are in a very protected spot. Sometimes you need to go out and shake the cage every now and then to help them with that process. But out in the garden with wind blowing, and wind will blow to some degree through that mesh fabric. Okay, so that's an option. The other thing I recommend on stink bugs and leaf footed bugs is learn go online and do a search and find out what their eggs and their nymphs look like.

The eggs are going to be little barrel for stink bugs. They're gonna look like little barrels that are all stacked together. And I say little, I mean tiny, you know, way smaller than a beebe way smaller. But you can see them in clusters and you go, that's a that's a true bug egg, like a stink bug. And then when they hatch out, the nymphs herd together. They hang out together in little groups on the leaf and at that stage they don't have wings, they can't fly away, and

you can pull up. You just have a little pale or whatever, a bowl of soapy water under them and swat the branch and they all fall in the soapy water and you just took a dozen of them out that way. Once they're adults and they're flying around, now we're having to grab some more potent products to spray, and it's hard to it's hard to have as effective of a control without just nuke in the whole place.

by the bride gives them out or something. But if you go online and do a search for Organza bags, you just need to buy them the size that you need to go around your tomatoes or your tomato clusters, and you just slip them over and pull the draw string. You don't even have to tie it, just pull it and it stays there and it helps keep birds away from them, and it also keeps bugs away from the fruit. And they're very cheap. You can buy them online by the hundred and they're not much money at all. So

I would try that also. But you got to bag every tomato with.

I'll answer it according to what you're really asking. But I just needed to address that word poison. The Ciflutheran is a synthetic pyrethroid. It's one of the synthetic pirethroids that's labeled for a lot of applications in the garden and landscape and whatnot. And so if you follow the label. The research that was done is to like how long do you need to wait after you spray whatever the product is, before you re enter that garden area and

also before you would be able to harvest it. It's called days to harvest, and that's the time that's deemed to be acceptable to use. People have strong opinions about what they spray on their plants, and a lot of people don't want to mess with something that is a synthetic ex ecticide. And I understand that it's fine, but you got to follow the label if you're going to

use something like that. That's where we get into trouble is when we mix things too strong, when we spray them one day and then we harvest the food the next day, and you're supposed to wait seven days maybe or you see what I'm saying. You just got to follow the label and then and wash your produce. I think in my gardens, I just don't try to spray stink bugs. I just don't. I use Arganza bags. I use the mesh covering over tomatoes and just block them out and make it simple that way. It's for some

people that's too much trouble. I understand that, but it's up to you. But if someone's labeled for use on a product, you got to follow the label.

the flower bed, they can do that. Uh, and pruning, you know what, whatever's needed. It's it's quarterly maintenance and you can get it from Pierscapes And the website is Pierscapes dot com. Piercescapes dot com. Go there see when you see the pictures of what they do, you'll get the idea of why we love them here on guarden line two eight one three seven oh fifty sixty two eight one three seven oh five zero six zero, i'na take a break and I'll be back. Walk off the earth.

You never listen to them there. You're kind of cute, kind of different Welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. It is time to put on the summer fertilizations on your lawn. If you have not fertilized last let's say six weeks or so, go ahead and get this summer fertilizations on now NIGHTE five Super Turf, the silver bag. It's on my schedule at gardening with Skip dot com. Just check out the schedule nine to five. Super Turf is an outstanding product because it feeds for

a very long time. You're gonna get like four months out of the thing, and so when you return your clippings. In addition to the fact that it's gradually releasing nutrients, the clippings are decomposing and gradually releasing nutrients that'll carry all the way into the fall. Really, it's it's an excellent, excellent product. Design firstils, design for a climate. It's a silver bag. Easy to identify in the garden centers where you go, in the feed stores, in the Ace hardware stores,

they've got it. You can find it in places like Lake Hardware and Angleton out Sand and shopping Center there in alvin em d Clear Lake on Bay Area Boulevard. Another place where you'll find nite foss products like the super turf really does works. Talking to someone the other day that was asking me about that quote that sprinkler you talk about. At first it was like, I don't talk about long spring, what are you talking about. Well, come to find out they're talking about tree hugger sprinklers.

Tree hugger is a sprinkler that's like a hinge. It sort of looks like pac Man. You know how pac Man goes across the screen and it's like opening and closing his mouth. Well, imagine, you know, take put your two thumbs together, curve your hands and then bring your your fingers together to make a circle, and then use your thumbs is the hens to open it up. That's what a TreeHugger sprinkler looks like. And you hook it up to a hose. You can get a little one

seven inches. They have eleven inch and fifteen inch sizes. If you just planted a plant, you can barely turn them on and it'll wet that root ball, which is right where all the water needs to go when a new plant goes in the ground because it doesn't have roots further out. And then as you turn it up more,

you water a larger and larger area. So maybe you're saying, well, I didn't plant a plant, Well do you have a young tree, maybe a tree that's I don't know, been in the ground five years, and we're going to get into summer, it's going to get hot, it's gonna quit raining. At times, you crank that sprinkler up and you rescue the tree. Or if you're trying to get it to grow fast, you can hang a hammock in the tree.

That's my goal. When I plant a tree, you can make it continue to grow fast by continuing to ply water and avoid that stress. Tree here or sprinklers aren't just for trees. They're great for planting a rose bush or a shrub. And you can find them in a lot of places. For example, you can find them in D and D f Eden Supply. You're going to find

them at Southwest Fertilizer. I saw some just yesterday there, kt Ace Hardware, K and M Hardware, A Task Cassida, Uh, You're going to find them at Inchinna Gardens and Forest, and you're gonna find them at Warren Southern Gardens out in Kingwood, RCW Nurseries Arborgate, Nelson Water Garden and nursery out in the KT area. Lots of places carry the

tree hugger sprinkler. I would suggest you get one because you're going to have a use for it again anytime you plan something, and then for the years that follow you can it'll water. You get that large one and crank it up, and I mean it'll water a very large area underneath the tree. They work cool invention in my opinion. You're listening to garden Line our phone number seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t r H.

Buchanan's plants. Have you heard they? You know they last year twice during storms their whole checkout area was crushed by falling limbs and things. And they have rebuilt. Now they've got there what they call the barn the barn, and it is a very solid structure. But one of the cool things about it is, first of all, congratulations to Buchanans for continuing to essentially dig out of the rubble and come back and just keep that place in awesome shape.

Their houseplant selection is outstanding. For example, you know those aren't native plants typically. Cannons is an awesome place. It's fun, and it's in the Heights. It's on Eleventh Street in the Heights. You can go to Buchanansplants dot com. Bookmark that website, sign up for their newsletter and you will find it to be extremely informative as well. I always love to go. They're talking to to them the other day, Zach and Heather, and they're excited. You know it's again,

I don't. Those are some resilient folks because they have been through it in the last twelve months and now it's a hopeful new thing and the place is just better. It's just better. That's what it amounts to. Let's see here we are, we are talking to next to James in Spring, Texas. James, if I can find the right button, there we go. Hey James, welcome to garden Line.

a lot of great butterfly plants over there. I would suggest swinging by there and just say what would you recommend as a group in general for butterflies. And they're going to have a lot of options, And again, you and I could talk for an hour about that because there's so many, but most people want some milkweed for monarchs. Maybe a passion vine for gulf fritillary caterpillars to bring those in if you've got a zenias. And oh, what's the other one that is escaping my brain right now?

I'll think of it a little bit later. Oh the summer bloomer with orange and yellow flowers called Pride of Barbados that attracts the swallowtails one type of the swallowtail that's a yellow and black and really well, So talk to a good nursery like that and I think they'll get you off to a good start.

type ingredients. And then they have things like micro grow Liquid af micro Grow Liquid AF is packed with eight extremely dominating beneficial microbes that you need and want to be there present in large numbers in your soil. Now, it's not a fungicide, but those bacteria actually act as fungus defense for your plants. There's one called Basillis subtlest, and you can buy products that the whole product is Basilla subtlest, just like we buy Bacillis thuringiensis for caterpillars. Well,

Basilli subtless fights diseases. There's some streptomyces and their trichoderma and other basillis that all work to defend your plants. That's micro grow liquid AF. Go to Microlifefertilizer dot com and you will find a long list of all the great products they have and they're widely available. All right, folks, music is here, which means skip gets to quick talking. But not until I tell you that next Saturday, albe at Memorial City Ace. Memorial City ACE is on Memorial Drive.

Memorial City Ace A Memorial Drive, Saturday, May third, twelve to two, twelve to two, noon to two. I'll be there. Come on out and see me. Memorial City ACE Hardware. You get to see a really nice ace hardware store. I'll be doing the things we usually do, answering questions, looking at samples, identifying plants, and just visiting with you to solve problems. By yesterday people brought me a lot of plant problems and we had a good time in the process. I'm gonna take a little break here. We'll

be right back after the news. Hey, welcome back. Good to have you with us. You're listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape. That is what we're all about. And if we can give you some advice along those lines, if you've got some questions about things like that, seven one three two one two KTRH, give me a call. We'll visit and hopefully

get to the bottom of this thing. I have to I've been answering gardening questions for over thirty seven years now. I worked for thirty five years as a county agrolife extension horticulturist. Every county in Texas has an extension office that serves that county. Two hundred and fifty four counties in the state. I think two hundred and fifty or

fifty two actually have offices in the county. And if you get out in West Texas where they're more jack rabbits and people, you may have two counties served by a single office. But bottom line is you have a county agent and your office. In urban areas, there are in addition to agriculture agents and family and community health agents or for age agents, you also have horticulture agents. Sometimes there's a few of us around the state. Here in the Houston listening area, if you've got an orange,

you've got a horticulturist. If you're up in Conroe, you've got a horticulture. Rises County has a horticulturist. Houston has a horticulturist, a couple of horticultures. I believe they are now for bengk County, Brazoria County, Galveston County. I'll leaving out. I think I covered it all. My apologies, I forgot someone in that group. But anyway, you got county horticulture so you can call on. That's where you go to find out information about getting your soil tested. That's where

you go to get general gardening advice. And I encourage you to take advantage of that. They have a connection to the specialists at the university. So you may walk in and go, I heard this thing is called mole crickets in the yard, And what do I do about that? And do I need to worry about it? That's a good question. I don't think I've had a molk. I've had one or two molkirk. But anyway, they can put you in touch with church specialists, with entomologists, resources that

will help you with that. So call your county extension agent, take advantage of them. Look, Abraham Lincoln created the Extension Service in the United States. He signed into law the Extension Services. So every state in the country has through a number of laws over the time. I know I'm doing a history lesson here, but it is worth noting every state has a Langret college at A and M. It's for Texas, LSUS for Louisiana, Oklahoma State, Mississippi State,

Auburn University, un City of Florida, University of Georgia. Those are all lang Grant universities that was created by a federal act. Where the common folks back in that day maybe couldn't go to Harvard or some of the place to a private school. And these were schools that were available to the people that other purposes in doing them. And then there was the research out wing created by

a different act. That means we have horticultural, agricultural, whatever kinds of research going on at these universities so that we get good answers that have been tested, improven, not just somebody's opinion. That's important. And then they said, well, okay, we've got the university where we can teach kids and train people for the next generation. We've got the research where we can learn more and have locally proven good answers to things, improve the life of people through development

of research. Now we got to get the word out to people, and that was the Extension Service. We say it was taking the university to the people. That is kind of an old motto, if you will, of the Extension Service, taking the university to the people. And so back in the old days you would have a wagon. There's a guy named semen Nap here in Texas. Actually Texas is where the Extension Service was created, and now it serves all the states. But seman Nap, I say

where it was created. It's where the idea and the functioning of that really began from the extension being created. Seeman Nap would take a wagon, he'd go out to the countryside, go to a farmer, have a big farm day.

All the farmers in the area come. See. They would plant let's say they were growing cotton there, and they would plant some new varieties of cotton that were more productive that had been developed by research, and so you'd have the regular cotton, then you'd have these new varieties, and then later on you have a big farm day

and all the farmers come and see. You know, it's kind of like Missouri, the show me state, when they're looking at Joe, their fellow farmer, and he's got it on his place, and it's clear this works or this doesn't work. It spreads the innovation and as a result, through the decades and America's ability to feed his population, to feed the world in many ways really changed. You know, farmer doesn't just feed twelve people anymore like in the

horse drawn plow days. Maybe that amount we're talking about forty plus people and more depending on the crops. And all that innovation happened because of that system that our leaders back in the day, including Abraham Lincoln, signing that Extension Act into law that they had the vision to do that, and the benefits are there. So now I doubt you have a cotton patch that you're taking care of.

There very few farmers in our world today compared to the population, but everybody's got a garden or a lawn or has questions about other aspects of life. And those resources are there at your Agricultural Extension Office your Texas A and M. They call it the AGRA Life AGRA as a combination of Agriculture and Life Agrolife Extension Office, and you should take advantage of that. And they have a lot. I'm a horticulture so I'm talking about gardening,

but they have information. The four each program is done out of there for youth development, the Family and Community Health program. It does things related to everything from diabetes and heart disease prevention, you know, exercise and all kinds of things. And back in the day it was about how to can vegetables and soak clothes and they still do that kind of stuff. But it's a good resource and it's there for you, so you should take advantage of it. Well, that was a I guess you could say,

a long commercial for the extension service. But I spent thirty five years doing it. I believe in it, and it's something that what do they call things, the best kept secret? We like to not have it be in any way, shape or form a secret. Well tell you what. I've been talking so long. I'm going to take a little break here. We'll be back with your question. Seven one three two one two kt r H. I guess that means I need to start talking. We're back. Thanks

for thanks for enduring my long extension description. I just uh, I'm always amazing how many people I find that don't have access to some good information. I guess I should throw out there one more thing about that. There's a website called that aggrolife has and it's there. It's essentially just to be called the bookstore. I'll tell you a little bit more about it in just a minute. But a lot of the publications you can download from up there.

So maybe you have I don't know, some kind of indoor pest, silverfish or whatever is in indoors you want to deal with, you can go find a publication on it and read about it. And it's all part of that same service. Speaking of service, BnB, turf pros bnbturf pros dot com. That's the website, or excuse me, the website doesn't have the end in it. It's bb bbturfpros

dot com. If you want to get m a call seven one three two three, four, five, five nine eight seven one three two three four, five, five nine eight. It's a family owned business.

dressing of your lawn. So you you have them do a compost top dressing and they're going to throw in a narration with that, but only through May, and they stay busy, so don't delay. Call them, get on the schedule and get them out there to do that. They serve the area kind of south of the Houston area a little bit primarily south of the Beltway. But if you go from sugar Land and Missouri City all the way across to forty five League City and Dickinson and

everything in between, Pearland, Alvin Manville or Cola, Siana. Friends, would you know that that whole region down there, that's that's their home turf and that's where they do their work primarily bb turfpros dot com seven one three, two, three, four fifty five ninety eight. Give them a call. And if you go to the website too, by the way, you can see the kind of work they do and it's it is gorgeous stuff, really really nice. First you look at it and you go, Okay, I want that

at my house. I want it to look like that. We'll call them they can do that. I was stopping by yesterday. I went by Plans for All Seasons up on Highway to forty nine visiting. Was Sherry there and uh, just talking about what's going on, how this spring has been, the different plants and things that they have, and you know, there's so much knowledge in that Flowerty family that started Plants for All Seasons back in what nineteen seventy three, I believe, So they have been in that spot since

Tomball Parkway was hardly a goat path. I mean, they've been there for a very long time. They know the area, they know the soils, and people there know them. They go because they depend on them. They know I'm going to get a good answer. I'm going to get a good plant. I'm going to get good service at Plants for All Seasons. That's what it's about. And they'll do that. Now. If you need a specific location where they are is

they are where Luetta comes into two forty nine. They're on Highway two forty nine Tomball Parkway, just north of Luetta, right there on the right hand side going north two eight one three seven six sixteen forty six two eight one three seven six sixteen forty six. You can follow them on social media and go to the website Plants for All Seasons dot com. But go check it out.

The place is gorgeous or it is spring. I mean, if there is a time when garden centers are just opulent with plants, is that a private way to use to wear it opulate? If there's a time when they're opulent with plant, now is it? And oh my gosh, that place is gorgeous, loaded ready to go. That is true. My some of my family members were purchasing some plants that they're going to take home and turn their landscape

into something beautiful and you know the color. We were talking about different kinds of plants that they might want to put in. We're hitting a season now where the things that looked good in spring in the next let's say two months, maybe about about two months from now are going to be struggling with summer. A lot of them, but not all. We have summer hardy plants, plants that can survive in the heat and in the intense heat

actually that we have here. And as you're out there landscaping your yard and you go buy a quality garden center, and I hope you will go to an independent garden center. There are a lot of places you can buy plants in town, but a good independent garden center is going to give you the most knowledge about plants and the most service after the sale that you're going to get,

because that's what they're about. That's what they do. And we have them north, south, east, and west here in the greater Houston area, oh in central and you go in you can find the things you need and the advice you need, and that is worth a lot. I see people taking up plants home from certain places, not independent garden centers, and I just, you know, am thinking, okay that you're going to get about a month out of that, and it's gone, so let's go back and let's get something different.

termites in your house and it'll spoil your day. There's no need for that. You can have them come out and treat for that. They'll deal with fire ants in the yard while varmint's in the yard. Cockroaches running through the house. You know your maybe your mother in law came over and now she's screaming running through the house because there's cockroaches chasing her through. Well, you can fix that, or they can. Pest Bros. Thepestbros dot com. That's their website,

thepestbros dot com. Here's a number you want to write this one down two eight one two oh six forty six seventy two eight one six forty six seventy And they also are the place I keep talking about the mosquito control buckets that they provide. You just got to go ask them about I have them tell you about the mosquito control buckets. It is a wonderful service. They put them at your house. They do it through during the mosquito season. They come out each month and service them.

And those buckets don't just control the mosquitoes that go in the bucket, uh, they spread that control to other places where mosquitoes will be laying eggs. So you can always kill an adult mosquito. But what about where they're laying eggs that you don't know about. You know, some place that holds water for a little bit. Mosquitos are

very adept at that. With the buckets, you got mosquitoes that are working for you to prevent mosquito breeding around your landscape and actually some to your neighbors on each side. I was visiting with the folks at Affordable Tree Service a while back, and you've you've heard me talk about Affordable Tree Service. Randy talked about Affordable Tree Service. In fact, this family business, Martin Spoon Moore's company, Affordable Tree UH,

is still going strong. You can give them a call at seven one three six nine nine two six six three and make an appointment. The team is out, they're busy, they're active. Tell them you're UH from Garden Line. Garden Line customers are their priority. When you call, you probably talk to Martin's mom Toji is a family known business. Martin, his wife, Joe and now Martin's mom all part of the team there.

power out for two weeks around this area. Uh, get ahead of time. They'll do trimming, they'll do feeding, they'll do everything you need to make your trees survive and don't fall on your house or your neighbor's house too. By the way, Affordable Tree Service seven to one three six nine nine two six six three. I get to talking and I lose track of the clock, so I have to stop every now and then. Look, you get me talking about plants or talking too gardeners, and I

tell you, I, uh, yeah, I can. I can drone on ask my family. I was out at Nelson Watergarden and Nursery the other day, Uh, visiting with Ralph out there, and uh, you know that family has been in the business, if you will, for a long time. And he has a water garden. He's just saying, Nelson Water Gardens. They're nationally recognized experts. People know them and they their contribution

to the industry is incredible. If you want to have a beautiful water garden, if you want to have a little waterfall designed and installed in your landscape, if you would just like a pond, or if you would like something they invented, which is the disappearing fountain. It's like a large you have a large, beautiful piece of pottery, and you know the water comes out of the top, goes to the bottom and then recirculates. They can make that for you and they can turn any pot into

one of those. They've designed the system to do it, and it is so nice. The birds will be glad that you did it. The sound of rushing water is absolutely therapeutic, and they can do that. But remember it's Nelson Nursery and water gardens. So what do you want

in the way of plants? House plants inside. When you walk through the building, on your way to the back, you pass by some of the most beautiful splints you're gonna find, really pretty, and then you hit the section where there's the herbs and vegetables and where there's flowers and all kinds of ornamental plants all the way up to shrubs and trees and fruit and you name it.

It's a great place to go. I think my favorite thing, and I'm a plant person, but my favorite thing is just here in the sound of water, when you're walking around so beautiful. They've got a koi pone in the back. And if you take your little kids with you, and I hope you will tell them that you would like to get some koifood, they'll give you a little packet

of koyfood that the kids can take. And these koi come up out of the water a few inches and open their little round mouths and the kids can drop the koyfood in them. Trust me, the kids will like that. They will love it. It's just another reason to go out there to Nelson Water Gardens. That's the website too, by the way, Nelsonwatergardens dot com. Nelson Watergardens dot com.

It's a little quiet on the phones right now. If you'd like to gave me call seven one three two one two k t r H. Seven one three two one two k t r H. We'll be glad to help you with the kinds of questions you might add. I am adding things to the website now. If you haven't been to my website. Uh, I would encourage you to go.

oh one, Long Care one oh one. And if you want what are the basics, what are the key things to have a gorgeous lawn, it's going to tell you on there. It talks about mowing and watering and fertilizing and weeds and aeration. You can download it and print it out if you want. But if you're just looking for how do I do this well? Gardening with skip dot com, that's where you want to go. And long Care one on one is the latest of things we put out there. I've got a publication on nuts edge.

We've talked about nuts edge a lot. Yesterday at Southwest Fertilizer. People they that weed is ubiquitous and It is one of the most difficult weeds that we have to control in our landscapes, and so in order to control it, we got to be able to understand how it grows and use the right products with the right timing. And that's on that publication as well. Again, it's free, getting cheaper than free. Hey, Naevias Superturf silver bag by Natropos,

It's time. It's time to put it down. It's going to take care of your lawn from now all the way to the fall. Fertilization nightfis. Superturf is a silver bag. It's a nineteen four to ten fertilizer that really works. You're going to find it at D and D Feed and Tomball Fishers Hardware out in Pasadena as well as the Fishers in Laporte and Mont Bellevue. It works. Look for the silver bag. All right, I'm gonna have to

take a little break here. When we come back from break, Dwayne in Mont Bellevue, you will be our first caller up seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Hey, we're back. Welcome back to the garden line, folks. Good to have you with us. We are here to help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape and more fun in the process. And boy, that last part is important. You should be enjoying things out in the garden and there are a lot of things we can do to

make it more enjoyable, and we'll talk about those. We do talk about those each day. We have garden Line Saturdays in Sunday six am to ten am. And as you call with your questions, we can also go into some specifics on how do you have success that helps things be enjoyable. How do you make less work for what you get out of it that makes it more enjoyable. How do you avoid pest problems that makes it more enjoyable?

And how do you create something that when you step back and look at it, you have a sense of accomplishment, just a job well done right that makes it more enjoyable. Well, we're going to head out now to Mont Bellevue and talk to Dwayne. Hello, Dwayne, welcome to garden Line.

As before you make the planting, use the soil from the that you dug out of a hole to go back in to plant the mulberry. Don't put a bunch of composts, and don't put fertilizer in the hole. And then as it begins to grow, once you see new growth happening on it about six weeks later, give it just a little bit of fertilizer and you can just use a lawn fertilizer on that to help it get going. That you already you know, if you're going to fertilize the lawn, you already got a big bag of it.

And it's very economical compared to smaller doses or smaller containers of fertilizer per pound of nutrients. So I would just use that. I mean, you can go out and buy something that's for trees and shrubs, but I find loan fertilizer works just great on that new tree. It's primary of the nitrogen you're looking for.

Isn't that interesting? Just a disease mosquitoes, actually mosquitoes and fungus gnats, which happens when you overwater your houseplants and other plants. But anyway, mosquitoes, they won't hurt lady beetles. They won't hurt birds or cats, or dogs or any other insects, good or bad insects. They don't hurt any of them except mosquitoes. That's what they go after, and

fungus gnats. So you put a mosquito dunk in each of those little round doughnuts, dissolves in about gives you about thirty days, and it covers about one hundred square feet of water surface. So if you've just got some little areas, like you know you got to catch basin under your pots, mosquitoes breed there. So you can break one of those dunks up and just put a few granules in that area. You put it in bird bass, you put it in a lot of things, and it works.

And let me tell you this, the mosquitoes are already land eggs. They're already regulars out there. So the sooner you get that in water, the better, because we're about to have mosquitoes everywhere with the rains. We just had mosquito dunk. Grab some, keep them on hand. I'd keep them, you know, in a cool, protected spot, not in a super super hot outdoor area, because it is a disease of mosquitoes, and they work. I don't know what else to say about it other than that they work.

in the ground where I want. I wanted to move into a different spot, and I put them in the ground. And I was just watching the sun pattern yesterday, and I don't have that many hours of sun. There's probably four five hours or so of sun that these are getting. That's not quite enough for tomatoes. And you can look at how they're growing and how they're producing, and yeah, it's not quite enough for tomatoes. If something is going to bloom and fruit in your garden, think of it

as fruiting vegetables. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, squash. Those are all fruiting vegetables. You need to give them at least six hours of sun and more is even better. Okay, if it is a rooting vegetable, it's not carrot season, but things that grow roots like a turnip or a carrot, or a radish or a beat it needs to get lots of sun too, because and why is that. It's because in order to grow a tomato or a squash or a carrot root or whatever, you need a lot

of carbohydrates. And you get carbohydrates when sun shines on leaves and in shade, the plant can't do. It's like putting a solar panel in the shade doesn't work very good. If you've got an area that's a little too shady for those, But you still want to grow vegetables, put your leafy greens there they can grow and do okay with less sun than is required by the fruiting and rooting vegetables. So there's just a little tip for you to keep in mind.

this generator, you're protecting your power supply. And you know we say there's things like once in a lifetime storms, Well we had two of them last year, took out power for two weeks each. Don't depend on a power grid that can be unreliable. You want to make sure you have power. Rain, snow, we don't have snow much or sunshine. No matter what it is, you got your power so life keeps going even when the power stops. When you get a generator from Quality Home, the main

reason to go to Quality Home. A lot of people sell generators. The main reason in addition to that Quality Generator is that they take care of their customers honesty, integrity. They from the time you call them and they're helping you determine which generator you need based on what you need it to do. I know, keep the power on, but do you just need to keep the freezer going so the food doesn't go bad? Or or do you know, do you have a job, Well, you have to work.

You have to have the internet going. You got to have AC going, you know what I mean. They'll get you in the right one. They'll go through all the requirements to get it set up, the regulations to set it up. They'll set it up and that's just when Quality Home Service begins. Three hundred and sixty five days

out of the year, twenty four hours a day. They're there to serve the customers and to help you have success and that the reviews they have show it over fourteen thousand and five star reviews from this family owned local company been around since nineteen eighty nine. Go to QUALITYTX dot com, QUALITYTX dot com or dial seven one three Quality seven to one three, Quality I'm gonna take a break. I'll be right back with our last segment of the hour. All right, having some fun here on

garden Line, making sure you're with us, dozing off. I mean, do you remember Alvin and the Chipmunks. Yeah. I don't know what to say about that other than it was unique, that's for sure. Welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. And I wanted to talk about Growers Outlet up in Willis. Grows Outlet is a garden center that's on seventy five, just south of Willis Highway seventy five,

just minutes away from forty five. And that whole region up there, whether it's New Waverley or Willis or Conroe or you know, like Conroy area, they serve that while area. People even drive up from the Woodlands to go up to it. You can go to that website and you should a garden. Excuse me, growers with drive one more time. Growers Outlet in Willis. Growers Outlet in Willis dot com. You'll find what they have for sale. They put their availability online. They put the prices of things online. If

you want to go there. When you get there, you can find fertilizers from Microlife and Nitrofoss and Medina to make sure you have success with plants. But you are going to be very impressive with this place. Have a nice little gift shop inside. They at their products that they sell to go with your plants. When it comes to plants, from betty plants to herbs, to vegetables, to

fruit trees, to shrubs and trees. Beautiful hanging baskets. They have some mato fern hanging baskets that are just breathtaking, gorgeous and beautiful flowering hanging baskets. It's all there, but you got to go to see it. See what I'm talking about. Growers outlet Willis dot com. That's it. That's as simple as that. Today when I get to this afternoon, I'm gonna head out in pot up a couple of things that are waiting on me and jungle land outdoor potting.

So it's called jungle l and Flower and Vegetable Planting soil Okay, Flower and Vegetable Planting sail comes in the bags distributed by Nitrofoss. It's a blend of Canadian blonde peete with four different sources of aged organic matter. And basically with the microwrise of fungi that revitalized potting plants, I'm gonna get really good lasting color. That's how that stuff works. It rains well, but it holds water also, and that combination is a sweet spot that jungle nd hits.

You put it in a good sized pot, You put the right kind of plan in there that wants to be in the spot where you're gonna put it, and you're gonna have success. You're gonna find jungle Land and other nitrofoss products at places like Bearing Hardware on Bissonet or the Bearing Chardware in West Teimer. Go out to Enchanted Forest on FM twenty seven to fifty nine out in the Richmond Rosenberg area. They carry nitrofoss products out there as well. So anyway, gonna get out and gonna

get that done. I love putting my hands in the dirt, and I don't want to get into a lot of work and stuff today, but I will get into doing those things. If you've got metal furniture, like let's say the aluminium or rot iron or cast iron types, maybe even decorative things outside and they're not looking great, you need to call Houston Powder coders. And here's what I want you to do. Don't you take a picture of it? Email that picture to sales at Houstoncoders dot com. Sales

at Houston cooders dot com. They'll give you a quick quote. This is what it costs. If you're in the Houston area, they'll come pick it up and when they're done, they'll bring it back to you one hundred plus colors that they can powder coat that to look it is gorgeous. It ren news it and they do all the other things that are needed to get it fixed up, whether it's rusting, or need a little bit of welding here or there, or new hardware on it, they can do

all of that. Here's the number two eight one, six seven, six thirty eight eighty eight. If you want to learn more about them, you can go to Houston Powdercoders dot com Houston Powdercoders dot com and you will see the work that they do, and it is very very good work, very good work. The other day, not too long ago, I was down visiting with Jorge a while back here and just looking at all the operation that they got set up down there, and you know, they just keep

it just keeps getting better. Down there. Harny grows a lot of trees. He grows larger shrubs and things. So if you if you want to get a quality plant planted for you like that, he'll come out and do it. That's all part of the system. Now. If you're looking for things like maybe Peggy Martin roses, he's always got some of those on it. It seems like he's got

a lot of beautiful ones. And when it comes to fruit trees, oh my gosh, last time I got there, he had like nine different kinds of peach trees, a lot of the low chill ones that are that are better for growing down there. By the way, he's in Alvin, Texas, way south of Houston on Highway six. You just from from Alvin, you head down six like you're going to Santa Fe and he's off down to the right. So that's kind of the specific region where you'll find him.

Jes Hidden Gardens. He carries the three sixty tree stabilizers that are there. He asks some of his own fertilizer from Nelson Plant feed folks that they make up there, and whatever you're looking for, I mean lots of good citrus. I saw blueberries, I saw bedding, plants, vegetables, herbs, everything, Jorgce Hidden Gardens. So I just need to go out and see him again Elizabeth Street and Alvin Oryce Hidden Gardens or he's a character too. He's a lot of fun.

He's got a good sense of humor and it is a real upbeat attitude about things like enjoy hanging out with Horay, you're listening to the guard line. We're gonna take a little break here in just a bit. But I did want to remind you first of all that I'm going to be at Memorial City Ace Hardware. Memorial City Ace Hardware that is on Memorial Drive in Houston, Texas, of course on the west side. So if you let's see her so I can get I'm trying to pull

something up here on my computer. Yeah, get a little map here right off Memorial Drive. When you go there, you're gonna find what you would expect from an Ace Hardware store, and that is a lot of products to help you have a more beautiful indoor your house indoors, but also that outdoor area. You know you want a beautiful landscape. Ace Hardware is the one to give you that because they carry the fertilizers I talk about on guard line. They carry products to control pests, weeds, and diseases.

You go into an ACE Hardware store, you're going to find the tools and other supplies for gardening, such as garden hoses and a watering devices, tools for pruning, tools for digging, tools for dealing with weeds, or whatever. Ace Hardware has got you covered. You want to enjoy your patio, why not go to ACE Hardware and get a string of lights to create that ambiance outdoors. They've got that there and a lot lot more and perhaps my face

favorite addition to the patio or quality barbecue pits. You know, I'm talking about things like Big green Egg. By the way, there's probably I think Big Green Egg may well be a cult. And then there's Trager, Oh my gosh, the pellet fed grills and Weber grills and every kind of supply you would need to go with your barbecue. And I mean, you're gonna want to just live outside when you've been to ACE Hardware and you get your patios set up like that. And ACE Hardware's are all over

the place, it's easy to find them. Here's the website. ACE Hardware Texas dot com, Ace Hardware Texas dot com. Check it out. Come see me next Saturday. What is that may third be there from twelve to two answering your gardening questions. We'll have some giveaways there as well, doing that we usually do that. Come on out, all right, folks.

I'm gonna take a little break here, fill up my coffee cup, and we'll be back for our third hour of the morning at eight o'clock hour with your gardening questions. If you would like to be one of the first up at that time, seven one three two one two k t RH talk to Alejandro, get you on the board, and we will visit with you out the things that you want to know about regarding success and fun in the garden. Be right back, all right, folks, we're back.

What are we going to talk about today? I got some things in mind, but why don't you set the agenda here with your questions? Seven one three two one two k t r H seven one three two one two k t r H. Simple as that sweet green by Nitropuss is a it's an outstanding fertilizer. It's eleven percent nitrogen, which in an organic product is a lot.

You put it down, you watered in, it goes into the ground and sugar basic product type things are basically carbon chains, right, and that carbon is very important to beneficial microbes. That's part of what they do in the soil is feed on decaying organic matter, that carbon that's in it, because it's a fuel source for them. So sweet green provides that kind of boost for beneficial microbes in the swam. Now you're gonna find sweet green. Oh gosh,

it's at a lot of places. For example, if you went to Plants for All Seasons on two forty nine, I saw some in there just yesterday. RCW Nurse Trees carries night foss products, hiding and feed on. Stubner Airline carries night foss products, and as do many many many places all over there, all over town. But let's do this. Let's head to Roast Sharon this morning, and we're going to talk to Kim. Hello, Kim, welcome to garden Line.

put the grass in. But uh, because even with spreading those those ground up woodships and things, you're gonna have a lot of weeds come through and you're gonna be out there brush hoogging it or doing something for it. So I would say, think about what you wanted to look like, or if you're not sure, I think a grass pasture would be at least a good way because you can mow that and it's a lot more attractive

than you're gonna have shrubs and brush coming up in there. Anyway, even after the grinding, you're gonna have a lot of dormant weed seeds that have been laying there waiting for this, and now they're gonna come up. So uh, just think ahead on that and save yourself a little bit of trouble. But as far as can you do the spreading with with your box blade and whatnot, yes, you could do you could do some of that, Okay.

feeder is UH in that case was the UH. It's a hopper type feeder that has made a recycled plastic and very durable. And it's from Birds Unlimited, which is where you get anything that you want if you want it to be quality and if it's for birds' that's what it amounts to. You know, you buy birds seed a lot of places and typically those seeds, those bags of seed are filled with I call it the little red bebies. Birds don't like that stuff. I few birds will eat it a little bit, but I mean basically

it gets kicked out on the ground. When you go to wild Birds Unlimited you can buy seed. It's going to go into birds tummy, not second rate. We're not gonna eat this stuff. They fill those bags with stuff that birds eat. You can even buy no mess blends. So maybe something had sunflower seed in it, which is a great seed for birds, but you don't want the shells because they crack them open to get the seed in out of the inside. Well that's called a no

mess blend. Now, the folks at Waldbirds Unlimited have a perfect blend for this time of the year. It's called Nesting Super Blends, only available at Wallbirds Unlimited. It's got everything that birds need during the nesting season. You know, when they're laying eggs, when they're hatching young, when they're developing that skeletal development inside the bird that needs calcium. It's got that. They need protein, They've got that in there.

You can find Nesting Super Blended any of the six Wilbirds and Limited stores here in the Greater Houston area. Go to WBU dot com, forward slash Houston WBU for Wilbirdsunlimited dot com forward Slash Houston, Kingwood, Clare Lake, Pearland, Cyprus, Houston on bel Air, Houston on Memorial Drive. Those are all wild Birds Unlimited stores. You need to check them out. Time for me to take a little break here. I will be back with your calls, and Melanie and Helen

you'll be our first two up. And alrighty, when this is the last time you hear at barbershop, do you know how hard it is to find a barbershop song that talks about gardening. We're a full service here at Garden Line, Arbrogate Garden center up in Townball is a destination and if you haven't been there, you've got to go.

I mean, this is a place. It's like going to botanical garden, except a botanical garden filled with knowledgeable people that want to help you have success and are willing to take time and walk around with you to find the right plants or the right plant combination that you're looking for. Arburgate's outstanding. It just is what do you want to grow? Maybe you want to put fruit trees. They carry fruit trees twelve months out of the year

at Arburgate. They have shrubs, they have roses, they have perennials. Do you have shady spots? Go into the little shade area and they've got all kinds of wonderful plants there in the shade. That's where I got one of my endiction. What butterfly gingers was maybe two of them came from Arburgate and the great great plants and again service, that is what it's about. Knowledgeable people that are friendly, that are helpful. And now they've last year, they are recent,

not too long ago. Last year they added the back parking lot which is off Trichel Road, so instead of parking in the front or parking along the road two forty nine, don't do that, go around Trasher Road in the back. It is an awesome parking lot with the best entrance accessibility into Arbigate. You're going to get try it out and before you go home. What's the rule on guarden line, brown stuff before green stuff? Right, That means nutrients and that means organic matter for your soil.

Get their one two three completely easy system, organic food complete, anything with roots, it'll feed it Organic soil complete, which has expanded jail in it an organic compost complete, which also has expanded jail. Now, if you want the soil and the compost, but you want it in volume, you don't want to buy eight hundred bags, call Arbrogate, tell them I need a bulk delivery and they will do that.

They can deliver those bulk to you as well. Arburgate, for those of you who didn't know, is a mile and a half west of two forty nine on twenty nine to twenty and Tom Ball and I don't care where you live. If you live way out of Houston and you're hearing my voice right now, you got to come to Houston and see the arbor Gate people drive. I know people in Briancott Station drive down all the time for Arburgate because it is just awesome, great place to go. All right, let's head out here. Let's go

to Cyprus this morning, and we're going to talk to Melanie. Hello, Melanie, welcome to garden.

decompose faster. But the most important thing is that hole brings oxygen down deeper into the soil. The compost top dressing will fall partially of it will fall down in that hole and will decompose away, and microbial activity just goes crazy. I mean, it really really thrives in that situation. One of the best things you can do not only to feed the soil biology in your soil, but to alleviate compaction, to help the soil take in moisture, rainfall,

irrigation better. And if you're trying to rejuvenate a lawn that's been struggling, what did it diseases like brown patch or tinchbugs or take all root rod or drought or whatever. A good corporation in Kappa stop dressing. We'll do it now. Greenpro serves about a forty five mile area in northwest Houston. I think of it as the northwest quadrant of Houston. That's a rough guide like Interstate forty five and Interstate ten.

The northwest quadrant that's primarily the area they service. Give them a call eight three to two three five one zero zero three two, or just go to the website greenpro Texas dot com. Alrighty, We're gonna go now to Humble and talk to Helen. Well, Hello, Helen, Welcome to garden Line.

and burn roots as they try to grow. The plant you're putting in has already got fertilizer in the root zone that it's in in that pot. They've they've been doing. That's how they grew the plant. They put you see the little round bbies up on top sometimes from that. But when you put it in the ground, we don't need to put fertilizer right then, I mean to me, I guess an analogy is like giving a baby a t bone steak. What are they going to do with that?

based fertilizer in the planning hole. I usually say don't put it in the planning hole because it's hard for people to hear all that I just said and remember all that, and you know, keep tracking. So I just said, can't put fertilizer in the planning hole.

carry fertilizers from Nelson, Turf, star Line, Microlife, nitrofoss. They have herbicides for weed control, fungicides, pesticides, and a very friendly, courteous staff that will greet you and point you at the things that you need. Of course, when you're in there, if you need some pet food and products, they've got good quality pet food and products in there. If senior citizens, military and youth from FFA and four H programs get

a discount, so let them know about that. If you need special order, they can do that and they also offer a delivery service. Another good reason to go to Spring Creek Feed FM twenty nine seventy eight. Let's head to Austin County now and we're going to talk to Doris. Hello, Doris, are you I'm doing well? Thank you.

I will go ahead and open this up. There's a lot of bad stuff going online and I'm extra super careful as a result of that. Okay, you send me a picture of your tree ivy. I see the tree ivy right, all right. Tree ivy is a unique plant. It is a cross between Japanese aurelio, which is called a fatsia. You see those growing outside in the Houston area as a little shrub like plant, and English ivy, which crawls all over creation. Tree ivy is used a lot of times as a houseplant or very very very

shady outdoor areas. I think you were wanting to know how big it gets? Is that correct? Yes, it'll get about six feet high roughly, if you wanted. It tends to start as a as a single trunk coming up and if you tip that, if you take a little snippers and cut the kind of two or three inches out of it, it will start branching out, which is what happens when you pretty much cut the end off any branch and a plant, and it'll make a little bit bushier and you can maintain pain that size lower.

So let's say you wanted I'm just gonna make up numbers here, but you want to be about four feet high only, okay, So then you would when it gets about two feet high, you would tip it and it would branch, and then as those branches get up close to three feet or so, you would tip it again, and you can kind of make it to be a little bush here that way.

was developed I think in France or something. Somebody crossed those things to come.

doing it. That's what we try to do. We take out the idea that you have a brown thumb, because you don't. In fact, I'd like you to pause with me right here. I'm only going to do this once. Say to yourself, I do not have a brown thumb. Now you didn't do it. I do not have a brown thumb. There you go, all right, you don't. And here's why. A brown thumb is simply an uninformed thumb. Now you may go, well, grandma could drop a pencil in the ground and it would rint and grow into

a pine tree. Okay, all right, Number one, I don't believe that. But number two, Grandma was just doing things that plants want. You knew how to make plants happy, and that's why it looked like Grandma had a green thumb. There's no natural It's not like some people. I just kill ever plant I touch. Well, maybe in the past, but not in the future. Let's talk. I've got a website gardening with skip dot com to help you have success.

We do a garden show four hours each day Saturday and Sunday over the weekends six am to ten am. You can listen to past shows. By the way, uh, if you go to the ktr CH website. In fact, if you go to my website gardening with Skip dot com, there is a listen to garden line button. It's brand news right up at the top or near the top, and if you click on it, you can go listen to pass shows or you can listen live. Both of them are available through that button right there. So let's

do this. Let's get you some good resources and get you some good advice, and then if you've got questions, we're not covering them. There's not a publication for everything up there, that's for sure. Give me a call. Seven one three two one two ktr H seven one three two and two k t r H. All right, that

was a soapbox. Thanks for bearing with me. One of the most important things we do, in fact, the single most important thing we do to have success with plants is to put them in soil that they can thrive in. Plants live in their roots. Okay, so that's a term that yes set Plants eat sunlight and you got to pick the right ones, and got to fertilize the water. I get all that, but the biggest mistake I see people making is they PLoP a poor plant into an

unprepared plot. And that's too many peas for one sentence, and you shouldn't do that. You go out, you get your good quality compost or bed mix. You mix it in the soil or pile it up on top of the soil. You get fertilizer that is the nutrients those plants want, and you mix it into the ground and as the plant grows, you continue to do the fertilizer to it. And when you do that, your plant's going to hit the ground running and thrive. Ciena Maltch is

the one stop shop for all things brown stuff. Cenamulch is located near Highway six and two eighty eight on FM two or excuse me five twenty one FM five twenty one south of Houston in the Sienna area. Go to the website cnmultch dot com cnamltch dot com find out about them. When you get there, what are you gonna find. You're gonna find great composts. You're gonna find blends like airloom, soils of veggy nerve mix, for example. You can find rose soil there, for example, you can

find mulches and all kinds of things. They deliver within about twenty miles of their location. But you're also when you're there going to find microlife products and Nilsen's Star Line and Nilsen's plant food jars, products from Medina, products from nitrofoss products like asomite. Remember I said it was

all things brown stuff. You go to see aemalt, you get the stuff you need or have them delivered if you're within twenty miles and you have gotten yourself prepared to set the foundation for success, and you will see that your thumb is greener this year simply because you took that first right step. I'm going to head out now to Spring, Texas and we're going to talk to Mark this morning on garden Line. Hey, Mark, welcome to the.

a whole lot. And so it's just a tip. The other thing that you can there are there is a way that commercial landscapers can do a combo of two different products. Uh, and they're very expensive to purchase, so like a person with one yard, it's probably too much. But if you wanted to email me, I can put you on hold a give you my email and if you'll send me that and say need info on the Bermuda and Saint Augustine, I can tell you a little

bit about it. But like I said, it's it's not cheap and typically it's going to be something that you have somebody to come in and do. But I can give you more info if you'd like me too, Just hang on and let me.

It's trace minerals. So do you need a lot? No, you don't need a lot. You need a little. It's not like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that you need a lot of. You need a little bit. It's called trace, that's why. But they're essential. A grass plant can't grow without boron. Did you know that without without molybdenum. Did you know you can't grow? You say, nexting long without boron,

zinc or molobdinum. You can't because they're essential. Asmite carries trace minerals and you can find more information at asmite Texas dot com. And you can find azamite all over town so many places. Pretty much every time I go into a place, I see asmite there. All right, let's see here, we're hitting up against a break. So I tell you what I'm gonna do in order to have a little more time for the calls coming in here.

I'm gonna go ahead and go to break. At this point, I just want to remind you that next Saturday, May third, from twelve to two, I'll be at Memorial Ace Hardware. Memorial Ace Hardware a Memorial Drive in West Houston. Now, if you want to find any Ace Hardware store like that, that's part of our group here on garden Line. You go to Ace Hardware Texas dot com. Ace Hardware Texas dot com and you'll find places like the Memorial Ace Hardware. I think it's called Hardware City on there, Hardware City

on Memorial Drive. All right, hope to see you next week. Take a break, Skip from Webster. You'll be first up when we come back. All right, little Western swing from asleep at the wheel this morning. Let's head straight out to the phones this segment and we're going to head to Webster and talk to Skip. Hey, Skip, welcome to garden Line. Good to have you with us.

mosquito larvae. Uh, and so they shouldn't be hurting the plant. Now, the there is there are roots maggots that come out of the soil that do feed on roots, and so that would be you know, if you if you feel like these things are causing the plant a problem, any kind of an insecticide in the soil of that plant would would take care of it. But I'm a little unsure, you know about the id for sure. And yeah, I just don't think that it's going to be a problem. If it truly is a rat maggot, I don't think

I would worry about it a lot. So anyway, now, the cilantro cilantro is a plant that does best here if you plant it in the fall and it takes some cool weather. Does pretty good in the spring. As our day length gets longer, it bolts. And when it bolts, that means it sends up a little umbrella like white

flower head on it. They're kind of attractive flowerheads. But at that point the cilandro quick it's producing that you don't get the leaves, and the reason you grew it, you know, to season your freeholism chara freholis or whatever. Then you don't usually have the foliage to do that. So that is a problem that is caused by day length,

and we can't change that. If the cilantro itself is not doing well, let me ask you this, is it looking a little on the sharp truce light green side, or that is showing its concern or what are you seeing when you say you're having trouble with it?

of some nitrogen into the mix. It could also be missing Typically that doesn't call it to cause it to just dye, but it will cause it to lose color, heading toward yellow from green. But that I would just get me a good solution. Of a liquid that you could put that down. There's a product called Biomatrix from Microlife. It's an orange label and a quart bottle or a gallon, and I would try that and you put it in water. Put it in water and can drench it over your

cilantro and see if it perks up. And if that's the case, then it was the nitrogen that was lacking.

of hibiscus that I like so much. They're there. They're there, annuals, perennials, groundcovers, herbs, vegetables, they always have it.

and talk to Matt. Hey, Matt, welcome to garden Line.

really do appreciate your call. Yesterday I was at Southwest Fertilizer and Southwest Fertilize has been around since nineteen fifty five, seventieth year. Happy anniversary to them. That is quite an accomplishment. They got everything you need in the way of controlling pasts, dealing with you know, whatever, you're dealing with weeds? Do you want to prevent weeds? Do you want to control weeds? I was in there looking at their tools yesterday. They got that grabber tool that I used to make my

homemade weed wiper. They have got some really nice pole saws and just every kind of tool you can imagine. The wall is ninety feet long that they have their

tools on. So what do you need? I'll tell you this, If Southwest Fertilizer doesn't have something for gardening that you need, you don't need it because they have everything to control things, to manage weeds, to fertilize your lawn, the tools you need, the spreaders for fire ants and are a uh, fertilizers in the lawn, and on and on and on down the way southwest. Fertilizers on the corner of the Byssinet

and Runwick. Corner of Abyssinet and Runwick. They got a little shop in the back to the fixed small engines.

ACE Hardware Memorial Drive. I think they also call it Hardware City. I believe that's correct.

You're listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process. Let's just make it simple. That's that's basically what we're about here. You can give me a call and let's say we're in our last segment of the day of the weekend. In fact, we're here Saturday and Sunday's from six am to ten am, and we are entering the last hour of Sunday here the Sunday Show. I hope you're having

a good Sunday. By the way, uh, if you would like to give me a call, now would be a good time to do it. Seven to one three two one two k t r H seven to one three two one two kt r H. I I was making sure that we're getting some plants planted properly in a bed that I was working on the other day. And part of that process is to make sure that when

you plant, that plant is set up for success. And I've talked about brown stuff for green stew, you know, getting the right uh soil amendments in making sure it drains well. I've got one spot where it was a little bit low for the plant that I was going to plant, uh, so I brought in some organic matter built up that bed to give it a little bit better drainage in there. Uh and then getting those nutrients tried.

And we have so many good products that we can you know that you take microlife for example, Microlife has got a lot of granular products. We've got the sixty four for typically for long. They've got the humans plus, which I encourage you to do with your fertilization. That is a purple bag zero zero four. You're basically putting it down to improve soil quality and microbial activity.

with it, uh, And you can drench plants in. You can spray the foliage if you want, or you could do for outdoors especially UH, I would do the Ocean Harvest which is a four to two three blue label, and super seweed, which is a green label. It is a little bit of potassium in it, but you're primarily putting it on there for some of the growth regulators and other things that are present. And that combination organic gardeners for a long time. You know, they don't want

to use the salt based fertilizers of blue water. If you will that, you know, you mix up and drench your houseplants with. So they would use a combination of fish and motion and seaweed well, that or Ocean Harvest blue plus the super Seaweed green. Those two together. That's what organic gardeners have been aware of, its good product combination for a very very long time. It's all from Microlife. Gosh,

Microlife so widely available. I mean, you know, go to a hardware store, go to our ace hardware stores, go to a feed store. You hear about me talk about on Gardenline. Go to our independent garden centers. You hear me talk about certainly. I was in Southwest Fertilizer yesterday. My gosh, that had a whole wall of that stuff there. It's easy to find the Microlife products, both granular and by liquid. But the main thing is don't just hear about it. Actually go get some and start trying it

out and see the results that you get. I've been pleased when I've used them. Let's head now out to Lake Jackson and we're going to talk to Ron this morning. Hey Ron, welcome to garden Line.

a week. If you can get on that schedule about an inch down, it's not gonna make dollar weed go away, but at least now you're not encouraging it at the same time you're trying to fight it. So I would let things dry out like that. If you get a product that is a combination product, you know, the trimech kinds of products, they work, They work well on the

dollar weed. You just want to watch once our temperatures are in the upper eighties and especially in the nineties, some of those products can be a little bit hard on your turf, your Saint Augustine turf, And so what I would suggest is spray that early in the morning while it's still cool the coolest time of the day, and do it sooner rather than later, because these things heat up it's harder to control. You can also use a product called Celsius on it. It comes in little

pockets that make one gallon of spray. And you want to use a spreader sticker or a surf factant that those are basically the same thing. Spreader sticker, insurfactant. Dollar weed. It's got a shiny leaf and you want your spray to spread out and not just roll off the leaf. Okay, so that's what the spreader sticker that you put with it.

was a very sweet serpy drink. Yes I bought it. Yes, I put it in my mouth and my tummy because I have to experience things right growing up. If you tell me don't touch that, what's going to happen? I touch it and then I learned and why you told me not to touch it. But anyway, it was too sweet for me, but I just thought, yeah, there you go. You know, with weeds, one thing I like is if you can't beat them, eat them. Well, in this case, drink it. Yeah. You know, you can eat chick weed,

you can eat dandelion greens. There are other weeds that you can eat as well. I won't go into all the edible weeds, but just fun facts, I think. So I'm amused by them. At least Warren Southern Gardens and Kingwood Garden Center out there in Kingwood. I don't know how you got two in the same town, but you're fortunate. Great garden centers. You know, they're not cookie cutters at all of each other. Each one has its own unique features and you know, and so you need to see

them both. Warren's is on North park Stone Hollow Drive is where you'll find Kingwood Garden Center. Both of them are open seven days a week. They have Microlife and Nelson plant Food filling stations. Remember I said, like you go to the grocery store and you get peanuts and put them in a bag by pulling the handle down. Microlife fertilizer and Nelson plant food jars both can be filled at those places. And I think that's really cool.

That's a really added bonus or reason to go. You're gonna find all the fertilizers from Nitrofossion, Microlife, and Nel, some turf star bags, and heirloom soils and nail some of course, and now some plant food. Uh, mosquita dunks too. Time to grab some of those. You should always have those on hand. You're gonna find them at both. But what you're mainly going to find is a lot of beauty,

a lot of beauty. If you want your landscape to be transformed, and you need color, and you need hanging baskets, and you do flowering shrubs and all of that, go to warn Southern Gardens are Kingwood Garden Center, both open seven days a week out there in Kingwood. I'm gonna take a break and I'll be back with your calls at seven one three two one two KTRH. All right, folks, let's go seven one three two one two KTRH. Youd

like to give me a call. I hope you are planning on putting some containers on your patio if you don't have room for vegetable garden, and especially if you've got kids, little kids, get a big container and grow some vegetables in it. There are a lot of vegetables. Pretty much any vegetable can be grown a container. Some of them you need a larger container, but you can do that. If you want to grow flowers with kids, that's fun. Let them plant some zinnia seed or sunflower

seeds and watch the whole thing grow. It's a wonder that they just need to experience as and that is the wonder of growing things yourself. You know, groceries, vegetables don't come from grocery stores. They come from the dirt, and they come from farms, and they come from our backyards. And if you're going to do a container jungle and flour and vegetable planting, soil is a good choice because

it drains well and it also holds water. You don't want it all the water is run out but at the same token, you don't have to become a soggy, boggy mess, mucky mess. So Jungle ms designed for the It's got four different sources of aged composts. It's got Canadian bloon pede, it's got microiel fungi in it. And whether you're grown vegetables, foliage or color plants, it's a good choice for that. You're going to find it at

a lot of places carry night foss products. You know, you can get night frost at Ace Hardware, Citium Memorial Drive up in the Woodlands, you go to Aspa Ace Kirgandohl Road and find it out in Katie a Sinkle Ranch and Katie Hardware Ace on Pinoak. Both of those are going to carry nitro FoST products like Jungle, and just being an example, let's head out to Cyprus and we're going to talk to Fred. Hey, Fred, Welcome to garden Line. Hello, good morning, good morning.

then apply something called sucker stopper. Sucker stopper is a hormone that tells a plant don't do that. Okay. Now, it's not to be one hundred percent, it's not gonna last forever, but that's step one. When you feel things back in, then get a really thick ground cloth like you see at a garden center, that black stuff on those ground that they set plant pots on. That kind of stuff, A real good, thick, dense one, not something cheap,

but a quality one. You you know, you can just ask go to your retailers there and make sure you're getting the thickest one that they have. So put that down and then put any kind of a somewhat heavy cover over it. Some people will use kind of a like a riverstone or some other decorative kind of a rock material on it. But that oak will send up more shoots in the future. It's genetically in that tree to do that.

others not. And that's why anytime you rototill around or disturb the roots or make wounds, you're gonna get suckering popping up. So trying to minimize that. Putting in a flower bed and watering it a lot and all that kind of stuff tends to promote suckering as well, So try to avoid those things. But there's no way to make that tree change its ways other than excavating all your and then yeah, to the route to wherever it's coming.

It's going to be coming out somewhere near the surface, somewhere near the soil surface, so you sho didn't have to go very deep. Yeah, all right, yeah, yes, sir, thank you, all right, Frett, you bet, thanks for the question. Yeah, that is a problem that we have to deal with ACE Hardware stores throughout the area. You hear me talk about ACE all the time in our garden Line group of ACE Hardware stores. There's thirty plus here in the group.

And ACE Hardware Texas dot Com is the website. And I say that right up front because that's pretty much what you need to know. The second thing you need to know, other than go to ACE Hardware Texas dot com to find your local ACE store, is that you unless you've been in ACE recently, you are not aware of all the good stuff that they have. I walk into Aces, and you know, each one's independently owned, so

the local owner. It's all. It's going to be an ACE Hardware store with all the typical stuff you'd expect from ACE Hardware, which is everything you need for beauty and bound and everything in the lawn and the garden, and some really cool indoor decorations too. But each one can set it up their own way, and you're gonna walk in. You're gonna go, well, I didn't know you could do that. You know, maybe you are wanting to

beautify your kitchen and dining area and you love the farmhouse. Look, let's just say you're gonna go into ACE and go, oh, I didn't know they had that kind of stuff here. No, No, we didn't. And every time I walk into an ACE, I see more stuff that I didn't know they had. Ace. The motto ACE is a place is true. It really is the place, and just go check some out. Go to Acehardware Texas dot com. That's the website. Find your

ACE Hardware store. Go check them out. I think you'll be surprised, and especially if you're trying to do your lawn fertilization and flower beds and just all the stuff you need to have a beautiful, bountiful place. Ace is a place you're listening to Guarden Line. Our phone number is seven one three one two kt r H seven one three two one two k t r H. Nelson Plant Food has a fertilizer part of the Turf Star line. That's all Nelson's bags of turf promoting fertilizers called Bruce's Brew.

And Bruce's Brew is a unique creature and here's why. We have fertilizers that are sol based fertilizers. You put them down, they dissolve away the nutrients. I mean like within a couple of days, the plant roots are taking that nutrient up because they're immediately available. They're not long lasting, but they are immediately available. We use those in our spring green up often. Then they're the slow release that lasts for months and months and months they go through summer.

Bruce's Brew lives in the border between those It is got. It does have the immediate release feature, but it also has nutrients that will release evenly over time for a good while, and so you're kind of getting both with Bruce Brew. It helps with root development, which is so important in the summer heat for our lawn turf grasses. The carbon based sources of nitrogen in Bruce's brew help feed soil microbes, and so microbes rule the world and

they basically are why your plants are happy. If they're happy, because microbes are in there making that root zone what a plant wants. So anyway you get healthy soil, you get healthy plants, you have less problems with pests and diseases, and that includes your lawn. And you'll check out the Bruces Brew from Nelson plant Food, part of the turf Star line. Good stuff.

tree as well, and your figs do so. Did you know that figs used to be an industry on the Gulf Coast, hundreds of acres of figs. Imagine that if you have one fig tree, you know how productive they can be. One hundred acres of figs, Oh my gosh. And all the soils west to Houston, you know, the clay soils that became rice patties. In time, there was an industry there where we grew figs. And you know, you get some really bad freezes ever now and then they can take a fig past the ground and kill them.

I don't know if that happened or if it was just the fact that other parts of the country began to grow, like California figs in large quantities or whatever. Anyway, we don't see that industry, but that didn't change the fact that figs put up with our soils. I had a fig tree.

and that fig tree's roots went down five inches. This a huge fig tree five inches deep, and they went sideways. If you'd flipped it upside down, it looked like a tabletop. I'd never seen that before, but it told me something. Even in bad soil, you can grow figs here, and you ought to try that. They do really, really well. Maybe you're heading out to in Jenniforest, for example, they carry figs. They carry other fruit trees as well, but in Chenni forest can get you set up on that.

I want to tell you that they're really good. That one of their fortes in addition to having everything is native plants like Salvia's and lantanas, and plants that attract pollinators specifically and are locally sourced and do well in our soils here, beautiful, drought resilient, huge range of varieties, bees, butterflies. What do you want to bring in? Hummingbirds? They got it. Their plants thrive in this climate. They carry premium locally

made composts too. That really makes our local soils come alive for the plants. Enchended Forest FM twenty seven to fifty nine, FM twenty seven to fifty nine. If you were in Richmond, you're heading towards sugar Land up fifty nine or Ice sixty nine. Now it is, it's off to the right twenty seven to fifty nine. Go there, but check out this website. It's awesome. Enchanted Forest, Houston, TX. And I'm saying that right, enchanted forest. I just went blank right at the time I was starting to say

it enchanted forest Houston. No, that's not right, intended Forest Richmond. I'm sorry, TX dot com. There I finally got it. Enchended Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. I don't know why I kept trying to add Houston to it. Go to that website. It's awesome. I take a little break here. We'll be back with your calls in just a moment. There you go. Welcome back to garden Line. Good to

have you with us. If you would like to give me a call seven to one to three, uh seven to three two one two k t R H seven one three two one two K t r H. Feel free to do so. In fact, now it would be a pretty good time to call Medina products. Gosh, there's so many of them, uh, and I'd like to tell you about all of them, but I can't tell it ever. One that's out there. You hear me talk about has to grow six T six plant food a lot because it's an awesome product, it really is. I use it.

My primary use for it is i'd mix it in water and drench in my new transplants, uh, and do it when you plant, do it a week later, do it a week later, three times, three drenches. Got good phosphorcinate to help that root development and help the plant get off to a good start. It's got humide, humic acid, it's got a Medina soil activator, stimulate biological activities, got seaweed extracts, and it's just good. You can also use

as a foldo if you want. But there are many other good Medina products out there on the market, and I think you ought to explore some of these. There is some really outstanding, in my opinion, effective products for having success with whatever you're trying to grow. So, for example, maybe you are interested in creating beautiful flowers. There are Medina products that will fit every kind of flower that

you possibly could want to grow. Right, So for example, let's just see, I'm going to try to open with these up. I've got to issue going there, we go grab the wrong, wrong one. I was giving away some samples yesterday of Medina products and they were it was the fish emulsion type product, it was the seaweed type product, and it was that hast grow type product when I was a Southwest fertilizer and I love those. They all work super super well. And the hastro grow is the

one that I was just telling you about. Whatever you're whatever you're wanting to try to grow, whatever kind of every kind of plant, Medina is designed to number one, build the soil. That's what they do. They create all kinds of from compost nutrient liquids that they put out there to beneficial microbes that can be sprinkled out and used to really pretty much all the products that they have. If you are wanting to get your lawn boosted, there's

two excellent things. And by the way, I say for lawns, but you can use these on a lot of different kinds of plants. One of them is Medina has to Grow Lawn. It's a twelve four eight liquid hooks up to a garden hose and you just go to town. It's got Medina soil activator also in it in addition to the twelve four eight, and it's got humakuemic acid in it. So it's like getting a lawn cair kit in a bottle really and it works. I've used it. It works. Medina has to Grow Lawn twelve four eight.

That's one of them. The other one and this product is Medina has to Grow super Grow. There's a lot of grows going on here. Medina has to grow Supergrow Plus. That one has a little like a green band across the product that says super Grow Plus. It's a sixteen zero two no phosphorus. And I won't tell you this. They've done a lot of studies on lawns. I did a study in Austin, Texas and a neighborhood of two hundred homes. And it don't think Austin's different than Houston

in this regard. It'd be similar here. Two hundred homes. We did a soil sampling of all those homes. Not one home needed phosphorus in that neighborhood. When you you know, back in the days of Dewey Compton, they were saying triple thirteen all the time for everything, and that middle number thirteen builds up. Nitrogen washes away and it volatileizes away.

Potassium will move down through the soil with a good drenching rain, but phosphorus sticks to the soil and as you use it, it builds up, and when you overuse you end up with a lot. So that Supergirl plus the sixteen zero two, it's fine. Don't worry about the phosphorus not being there. I would say it is extremely rare that not putting phosphorus on is going to cause

your lawn of problem. Okay, it's extremely rare. We recommend three one two four one two type ratios because that's what the turf scientists tell us the grass would like to have. But I would say, get a sol sample. You may not need that metal number early at all. Anyway, supergro Plus, hook it up to a garden host, spray it on your lawn. You get results. People spray it in their vegetable gardens. That boost of nitrogen you can do that. You can spray it however you want to

use it, just use it. It's an excellent product from Medina. I know I'm droning on about Medina now, but I just want to tell you there's a lot of great products and they're widely available here in the greater Houston area. All right, well, let's head out to spring right now. We're going to talk to Chris. Hey, Chris, Welcome to garden Line.

so that could be part of the factor. The way cold comes, you know, and it can also be go ahead and cut them back to a couple of inches high, and then take your thumbnail and scrape the bark at the very base and dig back the molts or whatever's around them, and scrape the bark with your thumbnail again. And if you're not getting something that looks creamy or green green is in there, you probably lost that one. If you see some, give them a little more time,

they'll probably send out a bud. Okay, that's what I was wondering.

You know, way before compost was cool, uh, and there were so many places producing compost here. Nature's Way was leading the way and creating things like roastsoil and like leaf mold composts. Those are two examples of things born at Nature's Way. They still have those, and they have much much more. Every Friday they have something called fungal

based compost. Now, when you decompose wood and woody products and things like that, grind them up and decompose them and stuff you get, it's fungi that do most of the work for you. And fungal based compost is on sale every Friday at Nature's Way. You can buy bags for ten percent off or you can buy bulk for twenty percent off. So that's a good deal. You can go out there and get it with your truck. You can have them deliver it to your house. You can

go find it in garden centers. Go around to garden centers and you're going to find Nature's Way products in mini garden centers. I was at Plants Fall Seasons yesterday and solved Nature's Way Products there Nature's Way Resources dot com. That's the website, Nature'sway Resources dot com. You need to go check it out. It's a cool They redid the website and it's very good, very helpful. By the way, if you want to give them a call. Nine three six two seven three twelve hundred nine three six two

seven three twelve hundred. I'm gonna take a little break here and when we come back, we'll come back for your calls. If you would like to give us call seven one three two one two kt RH and uh your questions hang around. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Garden Line. Guess what we're in our last segment. This thing hole, this whole thing shouts down low before ten o'clock and I'll be back next week on Saturday morning, bright and early, bright eyed and bushy tailed. You can

rise and join me. Then, even if you refuse to shine, you don't have to rise and shine. Just rise. Turn on the radio, by the way, a good way to listen to the garden Line. And I keep telling people to do this.

me down here. Just put it down and you know, I don't know. You subscribe or whatever you do to it to follow that show, and you can take your phone out and listen to Guardline on your phone. Maybe you got earbuds in and you turn your phone and you set in your pocket as you go out and work in the garden and you can listen to garden Line live. And the cool thing about that. And this hadn't happened yet, but one of these days somebody's going.

when I can listen live. I love that and past shows too. By the way, all right, tip of the day, Anti Grows and Porium. Since nineteen eighty three, Antigros and Porium has been a must visit destination for gardeners and families in general alike. It's beautiful. They are roses because it's the Rose and Porium, but they are so much more. They've got navy plants and herbs and flowers. They carry free trees and houseplants, and then there's their nursery and

display gardens. It it's fun to walk through there. It just is, and I would recommend you do that. A plan outing and if you're going to drive out, there's not far I depend on where you live. It's not that far up in the Independence, Texas area. It's just a little north of Brenham. It's a good out. I always love it during wildflower seasons which goes long around here, especially Blue Bunnet, and it's a great place to visit.

Now when you're there, a couple things. You need to walk through the gardens and see all of the plants that they carry. They are awesome, absolutely awesome. I want to remind you about a couple of things going on out there. They're going to have their twenty twenty five Spring Photo Contest and if you want to find all the details the prize details. First of all, how about this. One of the prizes is a one hundred dollars Anti

CROs im Porium gift certificate. If you want to find out how to enter, go to their social look for Anti CROs impoum and Instagram or Facebook and find out how to enter and take part in this. That's fun right there now. On May tenth, Saturday that's coming up not too far from now, from eleven am to one pm is a Mother's Day tea and luncheon. They're going to have a special Mother's Day tam luncheon right out

there in the gardens themselves. They're going to have finger sandwiches and salads and fruits vegetables and hummus dips and it's just a nice setting with some really cool, dainty desserts, as they put it, for a sweet finish. One other reminder is May twenty fourth through twenty six is water conserving products weekend. Santa Texas sales tax is held off on water conserving products that weekend, so that's Memorial weekend. Don't forget about that, so follow them on social media,

follow their newsletter. Go to Antique Roseemporium dot com, Antique Rosenporium dot com. Lots of good information there at your stock have a bib on because when you see their roses, you're gonna start drooling and you mess up your shirt. But I love going to antiqu rosing Porium. Really cool stuff. By the way, they still have those two new roses they just released called Glass Slipper and Cupid's Sweetheart, So you got to check those out. I've been mentioning it.

Today I'm gonna remind you once more. It's time to get the summer slow release products out on your lawn. And Nitropos's silver bag makes it easy. Stand across the store. Maybe you're in ace hardware store and you look way over there and there's gardens, and you see that silver bag from across the store. It's easy to spot. Nineteen four to ten slow release, four months of feeding. You do it, now you're done. You take care of summer fertilizing all the way up until it's time to start

talking about fall fertilizing. Nitrofos super turf. So why would you put that out?

it's greener and greener and wonderful. You got to mow it, but the root growth actually is less than on a plant that is fertilized properly. Night five super Turf is designed to put a gradual release out through that whole summer season, so you don't have to do the mo moo moo. And now you've got a few grubs chomping on the roots, and your root system is already smaller than it should be. And you see the problem with drought and other things. All right, you have been I

have explained it as best I can. Night five superturf, silver bag. Find it all kinds of places. If you were, let's say, at RCW Nursery, Tombo Parkway, you can find that kind of thing. Plants fell seasons on the wet I know they carried it there. D and de feed and Tomball is another place you're going to find night fish products like this silver bag is super turf. Well, let's see. I wanted to mention. There's one other thing I'd like to talk about before we're all done with today,

and that is including herbs in your landscape. A lot of people think when they think of herbs, they think of an herb garden, and those are beautiful. They're typically geometric designs and they're all cool. That's fine, you can do that, but herbs can be grown anywhere. My wife has herbs in a flower bed that's raised and the oregano is spilling over the sides. It looks really good. By the way the time is spilling over the sides, it looks good, and then they're the flowers in the bed.

You can put herbs in a hanging basket or a container if you want. They work really well for that. Some herbs even give you flowers. For example, Salvia pineapple sage. It's a type of salvia and it has red tubular flowers mostly in late summer and fall. But when the hummingbirds find those, they go crazy. They love those things, and the leaves smell like pineapples. Another herb that has

blooms that attracts palms especially would be trailing rosemary. Trailing rosemary blooms more than upright rosemary, and yes she has trailing rosemary and her flower beds is what raised flower beds as well. In my vegetable gardens, I have chives because chives bloom and they bring in beneficial pollinators and other insects. I like to put a regano at the

end of a row, you know. I think a cool combination is if you've got a road tomatoes and you put some oregano in one end and some basil inter mixed in the other, you just got your pesto garden ready to go right there. I mean, throw some tony tea's in at the other end if you want. But it's all right there. There's no rule that you can't plant herbs in a vegetable garden. I do it at the end of the rose because I don't want to have to go through let's say I was gonna spade

or till the bed. I don't want to have to work around all the herbs, so I do them on the end of the rose. But you can do that however you want to grow them. You ought to grow some herbs. There's herbs that are wonderful for culinary, herbs that are wonderful for attracting and supporting beneficial insects, and then of course herbs that bring in the pollinators. And we need to do a good job of supporting those because those guys are working for you. You know, they

are actually out there. You don't even know it. But right now, out in your garden, there's some aphid that is getting a wasp, landing beside it and laying an egg in it, and it'll be like the movie Alien that eggle hatch. The larvae will grow and eat out the inside of the aphid. If you want the gory details. It's used through the aphids chest and it sticks the aphid to the leaf because dead aphids don't hold onto

leaves very well. And then it grows up inside the aphid comes out as a wasp to go and lay eggs in a whole bunch of other aphids. What does that wasp do for nourishment? Nectar and pollen, that's what it does for nourishment. Now, if you've got I'll just use tomatoes as an example. We got a lot of plants to get aphis, and if you've got some tomatoes with aphids, wouldn't you like to have nourishment for Mama

was right there? And when I say was, I'm talking about something size of a nat almost it's very small. That's just an example of why we need to mix our gardens up. Listen, a farm needs to be monoculture so you can go across all the acreage and get all the cotton out of there, or the sorghum or whatever you're growing out of the farm. Our gardens should not be monocultures. They should be mixed. We can do that with containers. We can do that by mixing up

the plantings. No one said flowers can't be in a vegetable garden. And by the way, herbs are very attractive, and some herbs are really cool to use in flower beds or lining a pathway like solid burnat cucumber flavored leaves, little mounds rupertty lining a pathway chives another one that does that. All right, I got quit talking, but there's an idea for you. Have fun out in the garden this week and go visit some garden centers this afternoon.