Spring Time, Green Time!

Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with SKIP Richter.

Good morning folks.

Man, we had a good time yesterday at Spring Branch Ace Hardware.

Thank you for those folks who came out.

Talked about a lot of stuff.

A lot of stuff.

A quarter culture class going on with a nice arrangement there where everybody could hear everything.

So you have a simpler question.

Everybody gets to hear the question in the answer, which is kind of a fun learning experience.

And boy, do we ever give away a lot of stuff?

Thanks to Erlensoils for providing a lot of bags of their wonderful products.

And you guys that got to take them home.

That was pretty cool.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that everybody went home with something yesterday.

So that's nice.

And also to Microlife, our sponsor in the event there with their products and the giveaways they provided.

Appreciate them coming out as well.

Well, I was just thinking about I've got a tree in my yard that is it's tall and the branch structure is good.

But I got a couple of limbs up in it that I need to take out.

Not just reminding me of the fact that here in Houston we have our summer storms that blast through.

And you guys have heard me talk about Martin Spoonmore Affordable Tree Service many times before.

But having somebody that knows what they're talking about, come out and look at the trees and assess them.

Do they need anything or not?

Every year that goes by, a branch gets bigger and the wound for removing it gets bigger.

And the time it takes for that wound to heal so that the interior doesn't start decaying gets longer.

So the sooner you make a decision in training a tree or correcting a problem, the better off you are.

And if you hadn't had anybody look at your trees in a while, you ought to call Martin Spoonmore at 713-699-266-3.

Have them come out, take a look at them.

He can do all kinds of services. Of course there's pruning.

There's also things like deeper feeding, pest, disease control, stump grinding, and here's a very important one, pre-construction care.

If you're going to have anything done around a tree, it is so important that you get an expert that tells you the things you need to know.

Like where do you put the fence around the tree to keep you from damaging it?

How do you do that? How far out do you do it? Where does it go?

All of these kinds of things, because when you start putting a trench in the ground or dropping a slab over the root system, it significantly affects that tree.

And so have Martin come out and advise you on that.

713-699-266-3.

Also, I want to thank Spring Branch Ace Hardware, Brian and the whole team there, for hosting us yesterday. That was great.

You know, Ace Hardware stores, they still continue to amaze me, and that they carry, of course, everything that a hardware store should have.

They've got that, but they have so much more.

Spring Branch Store, got a nice section for some really stylish clothing and decorations for the home.

They have a little fridge up front with wonderful local made coffee cakes that are just kept cool and ready to go for you right there in the fridge.

So many things like that, you wouldn't expect, well, I'm going to go to the hardware store and get this or that.

If you do etching, if you've got a drink cooler or you've got one of those turtle box speakers and you would like to have your name or something else etched in it, maybe you're a company that you want to give those out as kind of a customer thank you or something.

Anyway, bottom line is that, yeah, they do that there too. Their laser etcher is pretty cool.

Anyway, that's Ace Hardware though, you know, every Ace Hardware is independently owned and you start going to the various Ace Hardware we have.

And you can find them at acehardwaretexes.com. Acehardwaretexes.com. That is where you find your local Ace Hardware store.

And that may be the spring branch Ace that is there, you know, right there on Wurt Road, right off Wurt Road.

Spring branch, it may be the Lake Conroe Ace on one if I've west Conroe down in Rockport. There's an Ace Hardware Rockport Ace on 35 North.

The JNR's Ace Importer on 1314, League City Ace on League City Parkway. I've been there a cool store.

And Hardware City on Memorial Drive. I know the Ace Hardware stores, I mean, JNR's too.

Getting around to visit those Ace Hardware stores. Anyway, go check them out. It's pretty cool stuff.

Yeah, let's see here. We need to get, I'll tell you what, let me talk about something else this morning as we get going here.

There's a, there's a common question that I get in the spring is, should I scalp my grass? In other words, should I cut it off really, really low?

And my initial answer is yes. I mean, no, excuse me to that. Because if by scalping, you're talking about just taking almost everything off the top like a scalping would be, then I wouldn't do that.

But to mow down a little lower for the first mowing and get some of the extra debris out of there, my yard was completely tan from that hard freeze we had.

And so it, you know, but I could have green come through it, but then it would be just kind of a mix of green and tan.

So I set my mower lower. I've already done it. I got that mowing down low, got the material, the debris out.

Another time where that early mowing is important is when you have weeds that have gone to seed.

There's a lot of seeds in any individual weed plant. So what you want to do is set the mower down, put a bag or on it and catch as much as you can.

You're not going to get all the seeds when it goes through there, you know, slicing through weeds and grass blades and everything else.

And some are going to fall down, but get as much as you can out of there. That is another important thing to do.

Along those lines for other ornamental grasses, like pimpas grass, if you have that one, that one's a booger by the way. Be careful, that's sharp.

But maiden grass, penicitums, lots of cool ornamental grasses, you want to cut those clumps back as far back as it's practical for you.

Most people go about six inches, some go a little taller. It just depends on the size of the clump and everything.

But get all that extra debris out of there. Now, if you want to tip for making that job easier, because it could be a mess, right?

You got grass, tall grass blades and shoots, you know, laying all over the place.

Just have somebody help you kind of pull those all up and wrap a cord around them to hold them in place, do a couple of cords.

And then when you cut it off, they're all bundled together. And you can take them wherever you're going to take them.

If you're going to use them as a mulch somewhere, if you're going to put them in a compost pile, you probably need to chop them up a little bit more for that.

But anyway, whether you're discarding them or whatever, that's a simple way to get it done.

And then all the fresh stuff can come in, because just like you're lawn, when you got a bunch of old tawny colored grass blades in your clumping ornamental grasses,

it's not very attractive when the new green comes in among those. So get the old ones out.

Let's take a little break here, and we'll be right back.

Alright, folks, we're back. Let's do this.

Welcome to Garden Line. I'm your host Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have success. That's the simplest way to put it.

The way I like to say it is we want you to have a bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape, and more fun in the process.

That's what gardening should be. So if you've been struggling along and feel like, well, I got a brown thumb, I can't, I kill everything I get. Well, let's talk.

There's ways to fix it, and the way to fix it is to learn to see things from a plant's point of view. That's as simple as it is.

If you think about that makes a lot of sense. You know, if someone were taking care of you, and they had no idea how to take care of a human,

well, if they were able to understand when you're hungry and what you like to eat, and you know what I'm saying?

I'm cold, we need to turn temperature down here or turn temperature up because I'm cold.

Those kind of things would help you to thrive, right? And so we have plants that can't speak words to us, but as we understand what plants want,

we're able to give them what they want and suddenly they look good.

And our rose garden is full of roses. It is flow riferous. Our vegetable gardens are productive.

Those fruit trees that weren't bearing suddenly, now we're getting good fruit, we're able to provide what they need.

All right. Does that make sense? I hope so because it's an important principle. It's not complex, but it's just a matter of giving plants what they want.

One thing plants want is soil. Excuse me, good soil. If you provide a plant a nice, well-drained soil that is raised up so that it doesn't sit soggy when it rains and rains and rains,

the soil that has organic matter, which means lots more microbial content as well, those roots are going to thrive.

The sea in a mulch down southeast, and that's a place you can go and get quality, quality mulches, quality soil blends, bed mixes as we call them.

So for example, the heirloom soils, veggie and herb mix, they have that at sea in a mulch, and it's high quality mix right there.

You can go buy a bulk, have them deliver it within 20 miles, you can have them deliver it in a super sack, which is a cubic yard sack.

But you got to do three, sack minimum for delivery. Just call them and talk to them about all the details. Or you can just go buy them and pick it up.

And when you go buy, check out the shop, the pottery, the shroomies, all kinds of candles and soaps and lotions and things for guests.

And they also have quality tools for me and am Leonard, which is a good company, a real nice quality tools.

Ciena mulch.com, FM521, just out the Houston. Ciena mulch.com, go check them out.

I am about to put in a new raised bed, a contained bed, have one of those bego beds, the corrugated metal that is very rust and corrosion resistant and painted.

By the way, Ciena mulch has those, they sell those. And you can go there and see one that's set up if you're wondering what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I'm going to fill one of those. I've got ready to go and be planting some things in it.

I've got an area where it's a little too low for most fruit, most fruit to test wet feet.

So I'm using that bed as a way to get the plant up above the wet and also to provide it some soil that it can root on a small size fruit tree.

So we're going to get that planted. I've got a peach tree that needs to get in the ground too. So maybe that's a good project for early this next week.

If you can get all your planting of woody edibles and ornamentals done now, they will have a head start on spring.

And I'm telling you when hot weather gets here, it puts great demands on that plant. And in the nursery or the garden center, it was getting watered every day to keep it adequately hydrated.

But when you put it in the ground and you don't water pretty frequently, it dries out. And it's not just that the soil dries out.

That root zone is all wrapped up in the cylinder of the pot that it came in. And that's a very small volume for roots to draw water from.

So you need to give them small amounts of moisture.

Generally, I'll start off with even a daily, very careful not to make it a swamp, but just a little bit daily to keep that soil moist.

And as you go through the summertime, you're backing off away from daily. It's every other day. And then maybe it's twice a week.

And then maybe you get to once a week and so on. Just watch your trees and dig down and feel the soil.

But you know, the question, how you know how often to water? That's one that's like, well, the best way is just to get out on your knees, take a little hand trowel, dig down a few inches and feel the soil.

If it's moist, good. If it's not water. And the surface is always kind of dry. It dries fast. But as you get down a little bit, most of the roots are in the top foot of soil.

So as you get down in that zone and feel the soil, you'll get an idea and you don't have to dig a hole every time you're trying to decide to water.

You'll learn how to do it. And with each month it goes by that root system gets wider and bigger and stronger and has more volume of soil from which to draw water and nutrients. And it just goes well.

That's kind of how that works. I hope that makes sense.

Growers outlet up in Willis a great garden center for all of you up in the Conroe and the Lake Conroe area all up in Willis and up to New Waverly and all over.

That's the bottom line all over. Growers outlet in Willis is also the website growers outlet in Willis dot com. They're just out the Willis on 75 toward Conroe just a little bit outside of Willis.

And boy do they ever have a ton of peppers and tomatoes and veggies and herbs and flowers and fruit trees and shrubs and trees and everything.

Go to the website and look at their availability. They update. I know they update the vegetable availability of her Friday. But go there. I just want you to do this. Go there and look at how many tomatoes they have and you'll see what I'm talking about.

It's like whoa that's a lot of tomato varieties and it is that's growers outlet in Willis a great place to go to get whatever kind of plan you're looking for.

You can you can purchase them for pickup online if you would like to do that. But just just go go check it out. You'll be impressed because I'm telling you I was first time I went there to growers outlet in Willis.

I think it would be good for me to give you a phone number to call since this is a call and show seven one three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four give me a call.

Let's talk gardening Southwest fertilizers been a Houston tradition since cash nineteen fifty five I believe I know I'm the fifth garden line host to speak for Southwest fertilizer.

They're in their 70th year now. They're actually about to have their 71st anniversary and you don't stick around that long if you're not taking care of your customers and they're not finding value in coming to your place.

And when you go to Southwest fertilizer they're going to treat you right. They're very friendly going in there. The product selection is unbelievable and the kinds of products they have are high quality.

And you can take problems in the form of photos or plant samples in and they'll look at them and they'll direct you to what you really need.

You know sometimes you go in a store and you're looking at all the products to control insects or diseases or weeds and it's like I don't know which one to get.

Well they do and they'll point you at the right one and I'm telling you they have everything you need everything you need if they don't have it you don't need it.

That's how it is it's Southwest fertilizer because they have it corner of this net and Renwick Southwest fertilizer dot com.

Here is a phone number seven one three six six six one seven four four go by say hi to Bob and Aaron the whole team there.

It's Southwest fertilizer.

I when new things come out I always you know tell people well you can look for it is kind of hard to find but I guarantee Southwest got it.

If it's out there and it's worth having they've got it.

Someone was was asking me about getting aerating done when we're over there in spring branch and I told him this is yesterday at spring branch a hardware.

And I said we'll call green pro because green pro services kind of the northwest quadrant of the Houston area so imagine the I 10 east west I 45 north south.

So now you you you've crisscrossed the city and you got four quadrants north west.

That whole area so that spring in Cyprus and the Woodlands and Conor and Willis and Magnolia and Montgomery and Katie you know the west side and and so on.

But spring branch also they do core aeration they do compost top dressing and they do fertilizing too.

If you want somebody to come out and professionally fertilize your lawn do the whole nine yards all three.

If you want at one time it's okay to do that they'll bring their valuable very valuable high quality equipment to do the job right to spread things right to give the proper kind of aeration in your lawn.

Here's the website green pro Texas dot com green pro Texas dot com here's a phone number write this down because you may want to give them a call eight three two three five one zero zero three two I saw two.

Photos of yards yesterday and in pretty rough shape you know there's probably as much dead as there was grass.

And it you know it probably could have been initially drought related it could have been a damage from a chemical application.

Or whatever it just that led in to take all root rot and it looked bad and we got to bring that back we got to get some oxygen done in the soil gets some some compost materials to fall down in there and the granules and and get that root system to be very robust to thrive and that is what compost top dressing

core aeration fertilizing all or part of that process and green pro Texas they know how to do it right.

All right you need to hear this this is very important the arbor gate today today only they're having their 30th year anniversary celebration today Sunday marks first from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

You want to be there they're going to be giving away get this 30 dollar gift certificates every 30 minutes.

That's a lot of gifts are difficult to do the day a lot of winning is going to be going on swing by there grab a bellini you know their famous peach bellinis they'll have that thing rolling stroll through the gardens and stick around because who knows maybe that next 30 minute giveaways coming is not a problem spending 30 minutes

at arbor gate in fact it's a problem trying not to spend 30 hours at arbor gate because there's so much going on there now if you're interested in their vegetable class it's coming up on Tuesday marks third assist this Tuesday at 10 a.m.

You need to call them because space has gotten very limited in that people are starting to respond to that or they have responded to that and just make sure that you don't wait too long or there won't be a space for you.

At the arbor gate by the way those of you who don't know where it is it's west of tomball on highway 29 20 west of tomball on 29 20.

Just go out a little bit look on the left and you'll see it remember to park in the back off of Tricer road there's a road that goes around behind arbor gate all right let's take a break for the news.

Excuse me for a minute I'm having an have a moment.

Oh man brings back memories hey yeah do you have a gardening question let's talk about it 713-212-5874-713-212-5874.

Amy call we'll visit about the things that are of interest to you.

Let's see here I wanted I had a number of things I wanted to get you today if we if we can do this I want to talk a little bit about pruning one more time just a reminder that when you prune you don't need pruning paint you do not need pruning paint.

There is one exception of that rule here in Texas and that is if you live in an area where oak wilt is present and active in other words or what we call oak wilt centers there's places where trees are infected that can get other tree sick you want to paint immediately after you make a cut not prune one day and then come in the next day and paint the wounds there are beetles that smell that fresh wound.

And they come to it and maybe they just fed on an oak tree with oak wilt and now they're bringing their little infected mouth parts over to your tree and they therefore that's one of the major ways it spreads it also can spread through roots that have grafted together underground.

Do you know roots do that two trees have a little roots that go right beside each other imagine two little pieces of spaghetti one laying over top of the other one and then they get bigger and they get bigger and they bigger and actually they end up grafting together so the trees are connected so guess what oak wilt can do it goes from an infected tree to a connected tree nearby.

And that is a type of spread that's very difficult but I don't want to spend too much time talking about oak wilt because it's not common here it's not like every year we're watching all these trees die like they do in central Texas so generally speaking you don't need to put a pruning paint on anything but I just have to leave that exception you know if a neighbor had oak wilt or something and occasionally we do have these little centers that appear then that would be a reason to do the pruning paint.

Otherwise don't do it when you prune a branch if it's a bigger branch when it falls as you're cutting from the top downward it is going to strip all that bark and and strip it off the trunk where it was attached or another limb where it was attached that is a very slow to heal wound very slow to heal because if you were to go let's do this imagine you know vertical trunk and then here comes out this branch to the side.

As you follow that branch down it's a certain diameter but right before it gets to the trunk where it attaches it flares out it flares out at the bottom and so when you make your your pruning cuts you want to cut just about the place where it starts to flare out and that's kind of a general description.

But the reason is right around that attachment there's a little ring a raised bark ridge area and a ring around it and there's a very the tissues in there healed very fast compared to other tissues on the sides of the trunk and stuff so if you leave those intact it'll close back over that circular or oval wound that you made as quickly as it can and the fastest time of wound healing is in the spring that's why we like to do pruning in the winter time.

There is wound healing through the season spring is fast follows is pretty fast but and the rest of the time it's it's very very slow but anyway so you want to make that cut and you don't want it to strip off so how do you avoid that well the way you avoid it is look at a branch and say can I in one hand hold that branch up like if I grabbed the branch and hold it if it came if it was loose could I hold it there and if the answer.

Yes well then you can do it in one cut but if the answer is I'm not sure or no you first you cut you go out let's just say eight inches or so from the from where it attaches and it could be a little further for big branch and you cut upward about a third of the way through don't go too far it'll bind your saw sag down and bind your saw and then you come in from that and on the top you cut downward

and excuse me I did that backwards you go out from that and on the top you cut downward and when that limb breaks and falls that first cut you made has severed the the bark and the wood there and it doesn't strip off it just falls it breaks and falls now with your third cut you cut it off where it where it should be cut but you don't have this heavy thing to handle at that point so anyway that's a three point cut if that made no sense at all then just go online and look at the end of the way that you're going to do it.

You've got three point pruning cut and it'll show you a picture that makes it crystal clear it's not complex at all and if you're going to do any pruning on your own trees that and make that pruning cut just outside that branch color to it it's very important to do that trees are the single most valuable plant in your landscape and so when you've got a tree that has structural problems or that has not been pruned right or that is dealing with decay issues or anything.

That is a serious thing you can pull a rose bush out of the ground putting new and in and hardly miss a beat but when you got something that's 40 years old and beautiful shading the property or maybe has beautiful flowers on it you don't lose that one yesterday at spring branch ace we had a micro life giveaway of some products that they had and when I'm we're giving away

it's a six two four it is a it is a product to promote blooms it's in kind of a pinkish red bottle and that one is is very very effective and as I was visiting the folks about it I was talking about the importance of a phosphorus and building root systems and that you can mix it up and drench it down in the soil around any plant you put in and extra phosphorus in there's very helpful another thing in a Greg from micro life point of the South to me is that the

the forms that there's like phosphorus and calcium in there and they're in a form that is more immediately and readily available to the plant. So even with something like a tomato plant if you're if you're dealing with blossom and rot which is a lack of calcium to the tomato fruit it could be helpful with that but also getting that phosphorus up in the plant in a better form some forms of phosphorus just hardly it's very hard for them to move or be taken up out of the soil.

So that is another reason for that wonderful bloom product from the folks at a micro life and if you if you haven't used it before first of all there's a lot of micro life products and you need to start working your way through them because every time I try a new one it's it's fun I learn a lot of things and find out more about how to use a product I worked and everything like that by the way that's called maximum blooms in the three eight three.

Pinkish red bottle the liquid. So there you go from the folks at micro life dnd feed up in tumble we're there a while back dnd feed has a great selection of everything you need to make sure your garden looks good. So for example fertilizers they carry nitro phosphorus they carry micro life they carry Nelson the turf star and the jars they carry Medina and then they have soils like from the

folks at heirloom soils and by the bag makes it really easy to just go in there and you're set up and then any kind of deal you're trying to manage in the in the lawn or the garden you know insects diseases and weeds they've got some really good selections of products things that you're just not going to find in most places dnd feed is three miles west of tumble by the way on highway 29 20.

And so just head out there 281351 7144 281351 7144 let's take a little break and we'll be back in a moment if you'd like to be first up 713212 5874 just give them a call now.

Property in Arizona from my front for you.

Okay.

George straight means it must be time for the Houston livestock show and it is.

It is. I'm going to be heading over there today after I'm a show here.

We're going to be doing the horticulture contest for youth.

There's three weekends three Sundays of contest today next week and the next week but lots going on with the show musical venues.

It's just it's crazy. I was at the barbecue cookoff yesterday and it was that place is just.

Until you go it's hard to it's hard to adequately describe it but I just wouldn't ready for the number of tents and booths that are there with serving barbecue the teams that are competing and all of the shindig they put on it is something else.

So if you didn't get to it this year you got to make a note next year got to go to the barbecue cookoff because it is amazing absolutely amazing.

Jorge's hidden gardens is down south of Houston and some of you've been I talked to people all the time that tell me yeah they were there they loved it and you know it's just a.

It's just a good place to go Jorge has started off he started off just basically growing fruit trees not fruit trees ornament trees and it's expanded and it expanded and expanded and expanded and just keeps keeps expanding like that.

It is a really really amazing place I always like to see the roses that he's got he's got some wonderful.

Gosh my blood my head going blank here just second oh Peggy Martins that are on little tralysis that look really really good.

So you need to get out there to Jorge's hidden gardens now Jorge's hidden gardens is down there in.

Alvin in between Alvin and Santa Fe and if you are if you want to call him it's seven one three three one two fifty two ninety seven one three three one two nine fifty two ninety.

He is open Tuesday through Friday nine to three and on weekend Saturday and Sunday eight to four.

And so you got on a weekend and you may meet some of his kids just a family operation Jorge and his wife and kids they're all out there.

I mean this sometimes they'll come out and reach you should get out of the car.

He's got some wonderful geraniums that are blooming lots of nice colias it's just a good thing and if you need a fruit tree really good selection down there.

So all those communities out to Loma Arcadia Hillcrest Algoa Santa Fe and certainly Alvin or he's hidden gardens your backyard garden center go check him out.

I kind of keep giving you the last call on this warm season weed germination.

We've had weeds germinating in lawns now for weeks if you're down in the Galveston area in the warmest part of my listening area let's say down Corpus direction.

It's been warm enough there where you've had weed germination going on for a while.

And then as you move north you get up to 10 then you go further up Conroe and even further up you know Hansville College Station in those areas.

Well your weed germination is kicking off big time and to get barricade down now is important if you're going to use a pre-emergent to prevent weed seeds from germinating.

And if you think about it it's better to use a pre-emergent than it is a post-emergent and here's why now while some weeds come back as perennials from underground parts and a pre-emergent doesn't stop that pre-emergent or about weed seeds.

The weeds that come up at this time of the year or in the fall my other time if you look at my schedule for putting a pre-emergent down.

The weeds that come up at those times you got to get down ahead of them to prevent them because here's what happens.

You put a pre-emergent down and you prevent most of the weed seeds that are out there broadleaf and grass.

But if you wait and let them become weed plants and now the weather is getting kind of hot we're up in the 90s and you're saying Augustine lawn or whatever kind of lawn you have.

Now you got to spray them with something that will kill the weed but not hurt your grass and the warmer it gets the harder it is to find something that is going to work on the weed and not stress your grass because stress grass ends up with take all root rot and other issues.

So a pre-emergent is a safer for your lawn for sure way to avoid weed problems.

Just put it down at the proper rate. Always follow the label rate and tell you any kind of product you use.

Even in this applies to organics too. You can burn up, you know, in six hours a great thing but you make it too strong spread on a hot sunny day and you can burn a plant with soap.

So you don't want to do that. Everything needs to be done according to the label. That is important.

Okay, I know I'm preaching at you right now but hey, it's Sunday.

So listen, just follow the label and trust the label because if the label was not adequate enough to really kill something they just wouldn't happen.

They would tell you to put more on because the more you use the more they sell, right?

So when you see a label, there's a reason for that and the reason is that's the rate that works most effectively without damaging something else, whatever the something else is.

So don't be the guy that thinks a tablespoon is better than a teaspoon if a teaspoon's what's on the label. All right, there I go again.

So barricade. If you go put barricade down by night fast now's the time to do it. Now, you can get night fast products at places like Enchanted Forest on FM 2759 down in Richmond, Rosenberg, Langham Creek, Ace Hardware on FM 529.

Carries night fast products as does Ace Hardware City on Memorial Drive here in the Houston area. There you have it.

All right, so we were talking about pruning a little bit ago. I want to talk a little bit about shrubs yesterday.

People were, you know, bring brought me samples. They brought me pictures and stuff to look at. And the one picture I saw was a shrub and you I'm sure you've seen this maybe in your own yard, but the shrub came up and kind of went outward.

Think of it in the shape of a capital V. Okay, but all the foliage is up on the top and down below you're seeing the branches, but not very many leaves.

So you see through what was supposed to be a screen because of that shrubs were left to themselves will grow grow top heavy.

And if you want to maintain a screen of leaves all the way through, you've got to keep the top a little bit narrower than the base. That's the goal.

I mean, you're not making it like the letter A capital A, which is the opposite of the capital B, but you're keeping it a little bit either parallel or slightly narrower at the top.

And that way the sunlight is not being shaded out in the lower areas and you maintain a good foliage down there. Now when you've got a shrub that's gone this direction, you've got a home a little bit older home and you've had shrubs around for 20 or 30 years in there, you probably have some shrubs that have overgrown.

You can cut them back severely, cut them way back. And then as a resprout, they're going to sit there for a while, kind of going, what did you just do to me?

They're going to respr out. And as they do and begin to grow, then you want to lightly share that again. And then they'll send out more branches and you lightly share those again.

And you just keep taking what was maybe one shoot and turning it into two or three and turning two or three into six and turning six into

nine to 12 or whatever. And it just gets denser and denser. But now you got foliage down low and you just take care of that shrub and make sure as it grows, it's going to come up and want to go out, but you keep it in a slightly narrower at the top stage.

All right. Does that make sense? Now, that's for shrubs that are shorn. Okay. So if you are not going to have a hedge, a flat wall or a, you know, the creative, we call them landscape meatballs.

But it yourself like a little yopun or something that's been shared into a circle. That's fine. You can do that if you want.

Well, a lot of us read Dr. Seuss books growing up and the creatures in Dr. Seuss books. I see I see pruning jobs that look a lot like that, but that's your yard, that's your yard.

But if you want a more natural look, which is what I prefer, you just take the gangly shoots and follow them back into the shrub and cut them off where they join another branch.

And so when you get through pruning, the shrub doesn't look like it was pruned. It doesn't have that gangly wild hairs going out and look and stuff, but it has a nice softer look to it than that hard share.

One way is not right in the other way wrong. There's two ways to do it and everybody has their opinion. Some people, you know, I always wonder if an engineer lives at the house when I see everything in perfect right boxy angles.

You know, everything like that. Some of the beautiful landscapes of Europe, Louis, though, whatever's 14th, I don't know. Some of his gardens and things, you know, had that kind of share and that's fine. You can do that.

You can turn them into little creatures. I was at a place one time down south somewhere around Fulsure. I don't remember where exactly. This is a couple of decades ago, but as someone had shared their shrubs into little animal forms out in the landscape.

It's probably Yopan they were using for it. But anyway, it was very unusual driving by. So get creative if you want to get creative. There is a, there is a website and it's a Facebook page actually and it's, I think it's called crimes against horticulture.

I believe that's right. Crimes against horticulture. I'm gonna check that during break and you will see some hilarious creative pruning. I mean this light. I know you could do that.

Crimes against horticulture. Check it out. Hey, let's get us some coffee and meet back here. 713-212-5874. Give us a call. It's a good time to call. Quiet. Always gets a little busier as we go into the show.

You take care. Next weekend, I will be at the Montgomery County Home Show in Conroe at the Lone Star Convention Center. That's Saturday the 7th. So after the show, Saturday, next Saturday, from 12 to 2, Montgomery County Home Show in Conroe at the Lone Star Convention Center. All you folks up there, like Conroe, Willis, you know, that whole region up there, even coming up from south. Come on up, that is a great home show. Really is a great home show. Hope you can make it.

All right. We're back.

That was interesting.

All right, so we had a couple of callers come up there and if you were one and you're

wondering, well, why is he not taking my call?

Well, the reason is we had a glitch with the system that is now fixed.

So if you'd like to give me a call, feel free to do so.

We apologize for that, but I did not even know you were there over here in the studio.

It just couldn't, couldn't see who was there.

Now again, 713-212-5874, just another reminder, I'm going to be at the Montgomery County

home show in Conroe.

That's at the Lone Star Convention Center next Saturday, March the 7th from 12 to 2 to

great home show.

And I'm going to be given away a number of products from the folks at Nelson, fertilizer,

Nelson plant food, so you need to come by and see those.

We'll have some samples that are nice, sizable samples.

As well as some jars that we're going to be giving away on probably a drawing.

I don't know.

I'll figure something out when we get there.

But come on out.

The Montgomery County Master Gardeners will be active with the show.

I believe they usually are, but whatever you do, come out.

I'm going to give a talk to start off.

So if you want to get there right at about 12, I'll be doing the talk from 12 to probably

12 to 1, answering questions and doing the talk inside the room.

And then we'll switch over and I'll go out to a little table outside in the hallway,

where people can come by, remember you can bring me samples, whatever problems your plants

are having, or even what is this plant kind of sample.

We'll be happy to take a look at it and help you get to the bottom of it.

We want you to have success.

That's a bottom line.

Warren's in Kingwood Garden Center, two outstanding garden centers in Kingwood.

And I'm always amazed when I go in.

Let me put this one.

I'm always amazed when I go in because the selection and the quality of the plants that

they have, and also the service, folks know what they're talking about at Warren's

and at Kingwood Garden Center.

And so you're going to get taken care of and they're going to point you in the right direction.

So here's what you need to do.

You need to just get over there and check them out.

Right now, spring is exploding over at Warren's and Kingwood Garden Center both.

So just get over and check them out.

Look at the fruit trees that they have.

Look at the pottery that they have.

It's really outstanding pottery.

So if you'll do that, I think you'll agree with me that it's just a fun place to visit.

It really is a fun place to visit.

While you're out and about, just keep in mind that are all our garden centers are bursting

at the seams right now.

They've got these deliveries in of some really cool stuff.

And if you get by early, you get the best selection of everybody.

That is important.

And so the earlier you shop and get things, you can bring them home.

If you're not quite ready to plan them, that's okay.

Just set them out there where you'll see them, water them each day while you're getting

that finishing, getting that bed ready and whatnot.

I don't know.

I've got the gardening itch right now and I just can't wait to get out and play it some

more stuff.

I've got a number of things that I'm taking care of in a pot until I can get out there

and get it all planted.

We have a new sponsor on the show and that's Guardian Windows.

And before I speak for a sponsor, I need one of the first things I do is I go

and look at what do the customers think about them?

What do people say it?

And Guardian Windows is A plus, A plus with a better business bureau.

You go look at customer ratings, whatever the independent platforms are that are out there

for looking at, there's a number of different things like that.

They praise Guardian, the professionalism of the folks at Guardian, the communication

with them, of the folks at Guardian.

The superior results that Guardian Windows provide.

Do you see what I'm saying?

The way they clean up and don't leave you a mess when they're done.

They get the job done, right?

Marty started Guardian Windows way back and his son Robert is there, part of the team is

Senator John.

This is a family owned and operated operation since 1986.

Now they can do the standard Windows, you know, rectangular Windows.

They can do special custom designs as well, but their installation is one of the things

that sets them apart.

The installation is done right.

It needs to be done right because here's a deal.

You get this big old giant window in there and the house is going to move.

Your house moves.

It just does.

That's how we get cracks in things, but it does move.

And you can get damage to Windows and it needs to be done right.

And that's something that not everybody does.

Just trust me on that.

Also, it needs to be a quality product.

They have energy efficient Windows that are amazing.

I mean, there's double, they're double plane.

The glass is triple coated for things like glare, just solar.

There's just a lot of benefits to these quality Windows.

Inside is argon gas, which helps muffles sound a little bit.

And it also helps minimize cold transmission, heat transmission.

It's just a quality product.

So you take a quality product and you put it in in the right way.

And you've got something that is good for your curb appeal.

But also, you just, you just, it makes your house look better to have a good quality.

Not that though.

We used to have aluminum Windows.

We used to have single-bane Windows.

And those days are gone now.

This is something that every time you pay an electric bill, you're going to see a benefit

from that.

Now, they're manufactured here in Texas.

So call Guardian.

And here's what I want you to do.

Ask them to show you the options that you have.

And they will bring their showroom to you.

They come to your house with examples of what they can do.

You can have that discussion.

You can explore your custom options and everything all before you commit.

There's no cost on this.

They come out and they show you and all of that.

Here is the number 281-955-8994-281-955-8994-GuardianWindows.com.

Check them out.

I think it'll be as impressed as I was.

Happy to have them on board here as a sponsor, for sure.

In your lawn, if you want a quick green up, nitrophosphimperial, 15, 5, 10, the oil

orange red bag, orange red bag, this is an immediate release fertilizer that provides

a 312 ratio of nutrients, which is a good ratio for lawns.

Research has shown that to be true.

And you get it down now.

You water it in.

Now that we're in the March, definitely time to get this done.

And you get an early green up.

And then we'll be probably sometime next month starting with the slow release fertilizers.

But if you just want to something that the nutrients are there today, in fact, within

I was talking to a fertilizer and soil specialist at Texas A&M, and it was just describing to

me that within two or three days, that grass is taking up the nutrients that you have released

and put out there.

I mean, it's fast, and you get that good green up.

Now that's an optional application.

You don't have to do that to make your lawn better.

It makes your lawn prettier, more beautiful.

And then we go to the slow release fertilizers to take us through the summertime.

Nightfoss, lots of places carry it, you know, D&D feed, Tom Ball, I was just talking about

them.

They've got nightfoss products, plants, and things out there in Brunham also has nightfoss

products.

Let's take a little break here.

And we'll be right back.

Again, the number, 713-212-587-4.

All right, we're back.

Welcome back to Gardeline.

Man, I'm excited about spring.

Guess what?

It's getting bright outside.

The sun, here it comes.

All right.

What are you going to do today this afternoon?

What this afternoon?

What kind of activity out and about do you want to pick up some supplies and plants?

That would be a great way to spend the afternoon.

Do you want to maybe tend your indoor plants?

Do you want to get outside and start preparing some things?

Whatever you want to do, what's up for you?

I'd be curious to know what kind of gardening activities you have planned.

I do this often, but I just want to, again, challenge you to try something new this year.

Try something new.

Maybe that is a new variety of tomatoes, or two new varieties of tomatoes that you

want to try out.

Maybe that is, I've never grown roses before, and I'd love a rose bush.

What a great idea.

How's the time to go get them, too?

Really cool stuff.

Love roses, absolutely.

Maybe something new means you're going to take an area of the lawn that has been struggling

and replace it.

You have a different species of grass.

Say in Augustine, Zoizia, Bermuda, they all have their pros and cons, and if you have

a question about it, you can call me and I'll tell you what the pros and cons of each one

are.

Say in Augustine is the number one grass that we see in Houston.

It's the elephant in the room, if you will.

But Zoizia deserves a place and more lawns.

It is also a very good grass, and it has its pros and cons, too.

Here's another idea.

Maybe you're going to try a different trellis system for your tomatoes.

Most people do them to me to cages.

That's fine.

You can do that.

But I like to grow mine on a panel.

You know the livestock panels, the galvanized, the bars and metal, the size of a pencil

going around, and you can take those panels with boat cutters, take a 16-foot panel and

cut it into two panels, or you can do cut more if you want.

Cutting it into two panels, it makes them easier to carry around.

I'll just drive a tea post in the ground, and then I'll lean the panel against it.

Imagine this.

Those panels are about about four feet high, somewhere in there, sometimes a little higher.

At the bottom, you set the panel about a foot away from the post, so it leans up against

the post, and they're just tied to the post.

I mean, it's not going to go anywhere.

The plancher tomatoes underneath it, and as they grow, just sort of push the vines through

the panel from the front to the back, from the back to the front.

You don't have to weave them tight in there, but just kind of get them up, cover in the

panel.

They make a wall of foliage.

A lot of the tomato clusters will be hanging down in the shade underneath, which is good.

You can get sunburned on tomatoes, and it's very easy to harvest.

The air moves through there, and it drives the foliage quickly after it gets wet, and

that reduces diseases.

And then when you're done, those panels stack together off in a side corner very neatly.

If you've ever tried to take, maybe you got six or seven tomato cages, and what am I

to do for winter?

Most types, especially the homemade ones, it's kind of hard to store them, because they

take up so much space.

Anyway, cattle panel, that's just one way, just one way to grow tomatoes.

Not the right way, it's just a way.

But what are you going to do new?

What are you going to try that you haven't tried before?

All right?

I want to hear that.

I want to hear about it.

And I encourage you to do something like that.

If you head to Enchanted Gardens, which is down in the Richmond, Rosenberg area, it's

actually on the Katie Fulscher side of Richmond.

The Katie Fulscher side of Richmond.

You will find, first of all, your jaw hits the ground when you get out, because this is

the expanse of right now, just the color is unbelievable.

All kinds of annual color, they have a great selection of salvia, they have a great selection

of plants that, you know, won all American designation honors, just because all over

the country, they perform superior to do that.

You got to, though, go by and look at the iron baskets and the other hanging baskets

and standing baskets and things, standing planters that are, that you line with coconut

core and plant it, they are gorgeous.

I mean, they really are pretty, and go check that out, too, because that is amazing.

From time to time, they even have classes on how to make your own, they had a succulent

class a while back.

That was really good.

So, anyway, go by and check them out, see what they got going there at Enchanted Gardens.

Now, this place, you're going to get greeted, you're going to have an enthusiastic, knowledgeable,

helpful person come and help you have success.

So, if you got questions, you can bring them photos, you can bring them samples and stuff,

they got expert advice there.

And while you're there, you're going to be able to get microlife and nitrofocin, nelson

plant food, and Medina soil from nature's way and heirloom soil, both there at Enchanted

Gardens Richmond.

That is the website, too, EnchantedGardonsRitchment.com, EnchantedGardonsRitchment.com.

You're listening to Garden Line, the phone number, if you'd like to give me a call, 713-212-5874-713-212-5874.

We got our little phone glitch screen, that was a quiet first hour, because I didn't see

callers, sorry again, I hate to see that, I'd love to have you talk about the things

that are of interest to you.

Containers are a great way to add a really nice touch to any gardening area.

You know, you may have an area where maybe it's a patio, maybe it's a longer front driveway,

maybe it's a longer front porch or back deck, or wherever you want, containers are versatile,

they can be moved, I have a container hospital, it's around the side of the house, so when

a container is having problems and struggling, or when it kind of runs its course, and I'm

ready to replant it with something else, it goes around to the hospital, you don't have

to look at that ugly thing, and the one that's ready to go, it comes back out again, and

you just get your little dolly and you move more you want without any stress, without

any pain or struggling, and containers are good, but you need a good soil that drains

well, and Jungle Land is a soil that drains well, it holds moisture, it's got that blended

Canadian blonde peat and four different sources of age, organic matter, got micro-isled

fungi in it as well, of course, and you just pot it up, do your veggies and herbs outdoors

in Jungle Land, flower and vegetable potting soil, now you're going to find nitroposprot

delivery products, like this, at places like the Fisher's Hardware in Pasadena, the one in

La Port, and the one in Baytown, the one in Mount Bellevue, there's a lot of Fisher's Hardware

that carry nitroposprotox, I had a container that had a dwarf tomato in it, there's a number

of types of tomatoes that stay small and bushy, and I was, this is a number of years ago,

I was looking at the container, and I never, it was, it's like the tomatoes weren't ripening,

you know, they were, they were getting kind of there and thinking, oh, that one's going to be,

it's starting to develop that type of white green color that means they're about to turn

in a nice tomato blusher color, and they never did, and one day I'm sitting out there and I'm

looking out the window, actually, and the tomato bush was moving, it was just kind of shaking,

like somebody had his fingers on it and was shaking the bush, and I watched, and my,

our little multi-poo came around the bush and with a tomato in his mouth, and it's like the dog

is eating my tomatoes off the bush, and that's what was happening, and the dog happened to look

up and see me, and there was no shame, there was no shock, there was no guilt, it was just like,

you're there, I'm going to finish eating this tomato, so yeah, if someone said, what are the main

pests of tomatoes, I would say, oh, well, mocking birds, the birds like them, you'd get other

things to eat them, I wouldn't have thought to put dogs on the list, but I had a tomato eating dog,

Maddie's not with us anymore, I did not make the knot with us happen the way she was just an older

dog and past, but you got any pet stories? I've got a few, that pets and gardening, that's an

interesting thing, Nelson Plant Food has a number of great products, but one of the ones that's

newer on the list of Nelson products is called Genesis, it's a 613 fertilizer, and this stuff

is great, I just potted up a bunch of plants a couple days ago, and what do I do? I get the potting

soil, and I look at the label, and it tells you how much per cubic foot of potting soil or so that

you're going to put, and I just mix it in, get the potting soil all mixed with Nelson Genesis,

and then when I take my transplants out and put them in a bigger pot, or when, you know, anything

I'm bumping up, I just put them in that soil with Genesis, and they hit the ground running,

it really does work, if you're going to plant something outside, just mix it in the soil that you're

going to put back in the planting hole, and you're good to go, they did a study, Texas A&M did a

study, the Horton Department, a landscape trial at the Houston Community College, Katie Campus,

and they had some Mexican sycamore trees there, and they treated the trees with Genesis mix. Now,

in order to, you know, if you fertilize one plant and don't fertilize another, well, yeah,

you're going to see a difference because it got fertilized, so in this trial, they had Genesis

treating some trees, and then they got another fertilizer that gave the same basic nutrient content

to the other trees, and the Genesis trees were bigger. They had a 25% increase in the trunk

diameter over this period of the trial. They had a, they were three feet taller and 18% increase in

height, and it wasn't the nutrients in Genesis, because both sets had the same nutrients. It just

showed that the added biological components that are in Genesis, they boost beneficial bacteria,

mycorrhizal fungi, there's humates in there too, that helps with soil quality. It just helps

support stronger root development and improve nutrient uptake, and this was very eye-opening and

because I've always used it as something you put into the soil, and, and, you know, for your new

plants, but lots of uses for Genesis. Anyway, Genesis 613 comes in the jars, and a lot of places you

can refill those jars, I know as I was out at Nelson Water Gardens out in Katie the other day,

and I was looking at their refill station, and you just pull the handle and refill your jar,

and it does the significance savings in the cost of the fertilizer, but also you don't throw away

the plastic. So, I guess that makes sense. It does to me. I think it's pretty cool. I wish there

were more things like that, even at the grocery store, you know, you, we throw so much stuff away,

if you take your old one in and just refill it, I guess probably that just doesn't catch on with

most people, but it sure would with me. I like the idea. All right, so it is gardening spring.

It is here. We're ready to go. It is important when you are planning plants to plant species and

varieties that want to grow here. So, there are some wonderful peaches and apples that will not

fruit here very well because of the chilling hours. So, chilling hours doesn't mean it gets zero

degrees. Chilling hours means between, oh, around 40 to 45 is ideal. If you get a little above that,

it's okay. If you get a little below that, it's okay. But around 40 is ideal, really. And those

temperatures cause the chemicals that keep buds from growing. They cause them to break down.

And so, when they break down, now with the first warm weather, the buds can take off growing. So,

you want good chilling hours that match your area. So, it doesn't bloom too early or not bloom at all.

Very important when you pick your fruit trees. I know you're good mom and pop independent garden

centers. They know and they can answer the questions and tell you what they got. Let's take a

break and turn it over to Erica for the news. All right, here we go. Welcome back to Garden Line.

You got a question? Well, give me a call. 713-212-5874-713-212-5874. Let's talk gardening. Let's talk

about the things that are most of interest to you. That makes sense? Sounds good to me. Like the idea.

I was visiting with some folks yesterday when I was at the ACE Hardware store, the one in

Spring Branch. And we're talking about a number of different things. Weeds are a popular question

right now. And we had some samples of a lawn called Lombur weed. That was one. And there were some

others that the weeds you see right now are cool season weeds because they sprout in the fall.

They go through winter and then in spring they start growing really fast and they bloom.

That's what blue bonnets do. Blue bonnets aren't a weed to me, but blue bonnets sprout in the fall.

Go through the winter. Not so noticeable. And then they take off growing and blooming. And we

enjoy them. They cast their seed and they're done. And the green the green weeds in your lawn,

that's what they're going to be doing. They're going to cast their seeds and they're going to be done.

So early on before they are all full of seeds that have matured especially,

you can use a post-emergent weed control product to control them. If you got a lot of them in the

yard that makes sense. And in doing that, you can kill them before the seeds are viable.

Once they have viable seeds on them, number one, those products don't work as well on the weed.

And secondly, you've already got seeds. So you got a plant that's about to die and you're

killing it or trying to kill it a little faster, but all the seeds are there. And now where you

had one weed, you're going to have a hundred next year because they cast a bunch of seeds. So

what do you do? What I do is do hand pulling when I hit that stage. And I've got some weeds that are

like that. I've been walking past them in the lawn. They're here. They're there. They're not,

you know, I don't have a weed problem. There are going to be some weeds. And anywhere sunlight

can hit the soil. Nature's going to plant a weed. And so I like to go out in the morning,

give me a cup of coffee, a spill proof tumbler, five gallon bucket, and a weeding tool and a

kneeling bench and get out there and just get it done. I can get a lot done. And I don't know

there's something therapeutic to me about just going along, pulling weed by weed here and there

and being able to look back and see a beautiful weed-free area that I created. I think that's a good

thing. No, no, I know some people have physical limitations. I'll tell you that kneeling bench will

change your life. You can set on it, flip it upside down, and you can, the legs become handles to

help you get back up. That's very important. One of the greatest pain causers of older gardeners

is, and any younger gardener is getting down, getting up, getting down, getting up. As I

do in the squats, about a thousand times. So that's what I do. I just, just hand pull them like that.

And it makes it easy. But do it before the seeds are out, otherwise you wasted your time. So there you

go. Now, the warm season weeds, that's what, you know, we were talking about barricade.

Nitrofoss barricade prevents weed seeds from establishing plants. So you get a weed seed.

Well, let me do it this way. You put down barricade, you watered in with a third of an inch of water,

and it forms a barricade over the soil surface. It ties to the sweat. It does, it's designed to not

wash away. In fact, it's better than a lot of other pre-emergence and tying up and not washing away.

And so now when a weed seed sprouts, it sends its root out, and barricade says, no, you don't,

and it stops that root growth. And so the weed seed, unable to get roots down,

dries up and dies. It just can't live. And so you never see a weed plant. And if you wait until

after it's a weed plant, barricade won't help, because it's not a post-emerge, it's a pre-emergeant.

But it works in that way. And so when you put it down and prevent the weeds, then now your summer

weeds, you've taken care of, there are a few weeds that are perennials. They, you know,

they just come back year after year. And those kind of weeds, by the way, barricade is a

nightfoss product. And you can get it in places like heeding and feed, RCW nursery, you know,

the barricade up in Tom Ball, carrying nightfoss type products up there.

But for the broad leaf or for the perennial types of weeds, then you have to do individual

spray treatments to knock those out. Some of them also come from seed. Some of them are primarily

coming from the perennial parts that are survived over the winter. That's what our flowering

perennials do. They die to the ground. They come back. That's what weeds do as well. RCW nursery,

every time I think of RCW in the spring, I think of roses. They have such a good selection of roses.

But I'll tell you, when you get there, you're going to see so many nice shrubs and trees. It's

amazing. Habeskas, vegetables, herbs, flowers, even houseplants. They just have a good selection.

RCW is easy to get to. It's the garden center that's right there where Tom Ball Parkway and

Beltway 8 come together. Tom Ball Parkway and Beltway 8 opened up in 1979 by the Williamson

family who still run it. And boy, did they ever know their stuff? You go in and ask them a question

and their experts at this. They end their staff too. Their staff is very knowledgeable. You go

by RCW. If you're interested in a rose, get over there quick because they have a bazillion different

kinds. I really mean that. Last time I looked at their rose list, they got in this spring. It was

six pages single spaced. Wow. That's a lot of roses. Well, the longer you wait, the more people

have picked it over and gotten this one and that one and the other. Do yourself a favor and get

good selection. Get on over there to RCW. There they get it. Got it nursery too and that just

means that if they don't have it, you let them know. They'll try to, they'll do their best to

try to find it and bring it in for you. RCW. Love going out there. Let's take a little break.

We're going to take a slightly early break here and we will be right back. If you got a question,

713-212-5874. All right, so let's look back to the guard line. Hey, if you got some furniture,

outdoor furniture that is looking worse for the wear. I remember when we, when I was growing up,

we had those metal chairs that were bright primary colors and they had the tubular, typically a white

tubular thing that went around the back and it was your armrest and it went underneath and had

a little bit of spring to it. You know what I'm talking about? Those kind. Well, here's some

powder coders can make them new. I mean, maybe the bolts are rusty. They'll bring them in. They'll

get all the rest off everything and then they will do a powder coating on them and put some fresh

stainless steel bolts on there. So it just looks good and it doesn't matter what it is. I mean,

it could be one of those, maybe have a like a black metal table and chairs outside. They can make

them look new. Maybe your barbecue bits need a little bit of a upgrade. Rusty or getting a little

dull looking and stuff and you want to do a nice new thick coating on it that can take hot, hot

temperatures just fine. Houston powder coders. Houston powder coders dot com 281-676-3888. They'll

come get it. They'll deliver it back when they're through. If you want to get a quote 281-676-3888. They're

going to have you send them a picture by email and you get a really fast return on a good quote

for that particular project. You're listening to Garden Line, the phone number 713-212-5874.

Look forward to visiting with you this morning. Nitrous came up with a product called sweet green

and it basically was based on a molasses type base. There's some microbial activity that goes on

that turns that into an 11% nitrogen organic product. Now the nitrofoss sweet green smells good.

You put it out. You water it. It dissolves. It goes in the ground and it kicks that grass into

gear. It really does a good job. I've seen the results from it and it's good and you can do it now.

You can do it all summer off and on through the summer to continue to give that nitrogen boost

as needed. Nitrofoss sweet green. Nitrofoss products are available at Lake Hardware in Angleton,

Lake Hardware Include. They are available at Ace Hardware City on Memorial Drive just a few of the

places where you're going to find nitrofoss products like this sweet green. Very available. That's

important. You're listening to Garden Line and we are talking about various things as we go through

the day to day. I mentioned pruning. Discuss some pruning principles. Talk a little bit about

lawn weeds and the difference with the types of weeds and what to do. If you're seeing the weed

and you're having trouble killing it, it's not working. It's like, well, I tried that and this

product didn't work. That product didn't work. Well, send me a picture of that weed. You can call

the show 713-212-5874 and my producer will give you my email address. With that email address,

you just attach your photos. Make sure they're in sharp focus. If they're fuzzy photos, you'll get a

fuzzy answer and you want a good sharp answer. Get up close as you can. It often helps with weeds to

just go ahead and pull them up and lay them on a dark surface and take the picture. Then I don't have

all the grass blades and everything else in the way and I'm trying to pick the weed out of the photo.

So that is helpful. I'll be happy to tell you what it is and then what you might want to do about it.

Now, what I like is for you to call in the Garden Line after you've done that because I can't,

I just am not able to have the time available to do a penpal email back and forth all through the

week. I wish I could as I enjoy that, but I'm just not able to. So send me the picture and then

follow it up with a call into Garden Line and let's let's talk. Let's get to the bottom of it.

It is not unusual for some great products to not control a particular type of weed.

It's kind of like when you go to the doctor for medicine, there's not one medicine that fixes

everything that can go wrong in our bodies, right? There's target to medicines that actually work

best against whatever it is that the doctor is diagnosed. So the same thing is true when it comes

to weed control. We got some that in general, like barricade, it controls a lot of grasses and a lot

of broadleaf weeds by preventing the seeds from coming up. But everything, there's always exceptions

to the rule and so when that happens, that's where a good diagnosis can help and I'm happy to do that.

Of course, there's no charge for it and just let me know. There you go.

All right, if you're thinking about planning something and you're not sure if it belongs here

or if it will do well here, there's another reason either call in, maybe send me a picture of what

it is that you saw somewhere and you're wanting to know what about it and we'll be happy to help

you. There are a number of plants that people remember from where they grew up that when you come

to Houston, they just don't do well here and that's unfortunate. You know, if you came from the North,

at least halfway up the country or more, Forsythia was the harbinger of spring, yellow blooms,

gorgeous, gorgeous plant, early, early bloomer. It just doesn't perform well here,

hostas. Can you grow hostas here? Yes, there are people that grow some hostas here,

but it's not like where you probably came from and where they thrived and did so well.

That is another example of a challenge like that. Here's another one.

No, I just went blank. Right when I was about to say the name of it.

I can't think. Lilux, there it is. Lilux. Lilux, oh my gosh, I spent three years in Missouri.

That was my years when I was out of the country, country being Texas. Three years in Missouri,

had a good time there, but we had a lilac bush and oh my goodness, we had a lilac bush

that the fragrance was unbelievably wonderful. We just don't grow lilacs down here, not that well,

okay? So what do you do? Well, you get you a purple blooming dwarf,

crate myrtle, and you spray it with perfume. Merry Christmas. There's your lilac.

That's as close as we can get to them, but it does it does well. We have other plants like that,

but yeah, blue spruce, you went to Colorado. Oh, they're so pretty and you bring them home

along with those Colorado Columbines. Not here. They're one shot wonders here. You know,

they'll get something out of them, but not very well. They don't like it done here. Did you know

we have two native Columbines here in Texas? One of them has very long, they call them spurs.

The points that come out of the back of the flower and it's a golden color. It is beautiful.

It's called Hinkley's Columbine. It grows native here and you can grow it here. The other one

is a native Columbine that grows in central Texas along where you see creeks and things like that,

semi-shaded areas, and it is red and those two will cross two by the way. That's a story for

another day. But if you get either of those and you plan them in the fall, remember the cool

season plants? How do they grow? They grow, they germinate in the fall and then they grow up into

a plant and then in spring, you have this beautiful silvery blue foliage, silvery green foliage,

the bluish color actually is probably a better way to describe it. And these tall spikes that come

up with beautiful Columbines. And then when it's done, that plant might live a second year. They

don't live like five years one plant, but they make it, make it a second year, but they recede.

And then the seeds will come up and you just start that cycle. If you've got an area of dry shade

where you can't irrigate, throw some Columbine seeds out there. Our Texas Columbine seeds.

And they do really, really well. You like it. And if you plant both of them, you'll get to see what they

look like when they cross, which is pretty cool too. Yeah, those Columbines do well. So that's the kind

of plants I'm talking about. You know, we have a lot of different options for various kinds of

plants. And we have so many that don't do well here, but we usually have a substitute that we

can replace them well. We usually have that. So one other thing, if you are going to start seeds

indoors or if you have started, I mean, you're not having success, the key, the number one thing I see

go wrong when people try to start their own transplants, which is a fun thing to do, by the way,

is lighting. When a seed germinates, I'm going to talk beyond lighting here, but when a seed

germinates, the minute it makes a commitment and the biochemical changes start, the seed is

swollen up from water absorption. And here comes a root out. If it dries out at any stage in there,

it will die because it doesn't, hasn't established yet. So you got to keep the soil moist. It's very

important. Temperatures important. Typically indoor temperatures with temperature in your house

is good for growing seeds. They can even grow a little warmer, maybe 80, 70, 80 degrees. Most people

don't keep the house that work, but you can you can grow them in those temperatures. But if it's too

cool, you're not going to get the performance that you wanted. But lighting is is that bright lighting

and quality lighting. So quality and quantity. What does that mean? Quantity of light. Well,

it's two things. Number one, it's how bright the light is. You know, and with our bulbs for

our own lighting, you're sitting at a table and you got a little lamp there, those incandescent

bulbs, they measure in foot candles. That's how much light it is. But it's measured a little

differently with plants. But anyway, the brightness of the light and the duration of the light, how long is

it on? So when you're starting seeds, 14 hours. Go leave it on for 14 hours. As the seeds grow up into

plants, you can move back to 12 if you like. That's good. But you want a good quality light. And

finding the right light is difficult. If you go on my website, gardeningwithskip.com,

there is a publication on plant lighting. And it's really cool. It's got a little animation on it

that shows the further you get from a light, the light intensity drops dramatically. And it,

you know, if you thought, I got a light that's six inches above my plants. And I'm going to move it

to 12 inches. Well, that's essentially the same. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's like half.

Half the intensity. So read that publication. Learn how to do it. And then have fun growing your own

transplant. When you learn to grow your own plants, you can get seeds of obscure things that will

never be sold in a garden center. And you can try them out and see how they do. You know, some

maybe, uh, maybe you're going to grow 100 and 50 different varieties of tomatoes.

Good luck with that. You might want to notify Del Monte and Hines that they're about to be put out of this.

I guess the sun beaming down between you.

First starting in and out of the tree.

Oh man, oh man, what a day, today we're looking on my studio window at the sunshine and

got a few low wispy clouds out there, oh it's gonna be a good day for gardening, I hope

you guys have some plans this afternoon, at least stop by and visit some of our wonderful

garden centers that we have here throughout the great, greater Houston area. Yes, sorry,

if you want to give me a call 713-2125874, 713-212-5874, we'll talk about the things that

are of interest to you. Let's see, I was telling you about them before, they've got a good

selection of fruit in right now and you need to check them out. It really, really is an

amazing selection. They always do a good job there of making sure whatever's in season,

they're stocked up on. I was over there looking at the color a while back and it's like, wow,

that is so many cool things. And you know how it is with plants, you gotta have them and if you're

like me, it's like, oh, I like that plant, I'm bringing it home. Well, where are you gonna put it?

I don't know, I'm bringing it home. That's how it goes. And then you walk around the yard looking

for a place to put the plant. All right, well, there's true confessions on garden line.

If you have a gardening question, 713-212-5874, let's talk about it and get to the bottom of it.

I've mentioned earlier that I was at it, Nelson Nusher and Rottergarten's visiting with

Ralph and they have a new idea out there that I really like it a lot. And it's coming soon, very soon.

Large, dark black, light resistant, UV resistant containers that make a little pond on the patio.

I mean, you could dig a hole and sink them in the hole if you don't do that or just have a pond

on the patio kind of thing. It's, they come in three sizes and they're gonna have them as a kit.

So you go out and for a price, you get the container, you get a few plants depending on

how big the container is. It may be room for one or two. It may have room for three or so.

And then you get the fish that go in it as well. And you just have to let them tell you about it,

but it is a great idea, a really cool idea. So those of you who are like, yeah, I like a pond,

but you know, that's a big operation. You know, I don't have room for a swimming pool right now.

Well, then just go out and talk to them about it. But this isn't today. So don't misunderstand me,

it's not like they're out there today, ready to go. But the water lilies are moving slowly along

in the greenhouses and they're gonna have them out sometime mid-March. You just have to stay tuned

for that. Both the tropical water lilies and the hearty water lilies and they are so gorgeous.

And nobody knows more about water gardens than the Nelson's do. Ralph and Peter and Anita,

these folks have been eating and sleeping water gardens for a long time. And we don't know what

we have here out there in Katie, Texas. This is nationally known. In the water garden world,

we're talking about Hall of Fame folks, okay? They well-respected long before, you know,

the country song I was country when country wasn't cool. They were water garden way before

everybody knew about water gardening. I mean, you know, there's always been water gardening. But before

people really knew, that's them. And I go out, every time I talk to Ralph, I ask him 800 water

gardening questions. And when he gives the answers, it's just like amazing. It's cool. Now,

while you're out there, of course, it's a nursery too. Lots of cool plants. You've got herbs and

you've got vegetables. I was out the other day and picked up some calla lilies. My wife loves those,

brought those home. Nelson water gardens, Katie Fort Bend Road, just north of I-10 out there in Katie

should check them out. All right, we're gonna go to the woodlands now and visit with Ken this morning.

Hey, Ken. Welcome to Garden Line. Hi, Skip. Hey. Quick question for you. I need the

tweet green versus the 15, 5, 10 nitrophots. What's the, you know, which one should I use? I'm just

a little confused. They're both okay. The sweet green's more the organic version of it. Straight

nitrogen boost. You can use it now. But most people are starting with the 15, 5, 10, the imperial

and the red orange bag just because it's a very immediate release and it gives you the other

balance of nutrients in addition to just primarily the nitrogen, which is what sweet green primarily

is nitrogen. But I can use the sweet green kind of as a supplement later in the year then. Yeah,

you could do it supplement in the year. You know, if you did a soil test, you probably would find

that most of your nutrient levels are decent. And so in a lawn, if that were the case in a lawn,

it would primarily be nitrogen that you need in small doses because it doesn't stick around long.

Whereas. Right. So I can use the sweet green late last summer and it really seemed to help

prior to the fall application. Yeah. Of the winter. Right. So we're fertilizers. So anytime you

want to green up or boost growth on your lawn. In other words, during the growing season,

sweet green is a great, a great way to go. Okay. And then what is a good soil mix for a container

for a mire lemon? I'm getting ready to move one up in a pot. I would use a mix that is designed

for vegetables and herbs and all of my preferred soil vendors carry one that would be amazing.

It may be for like citrus and fruit, you know, but basically any blend like that.

Erlen Souls has those natures way resources that has those. And so does the ground up. Now you're

calling from up in the woodlands. So you are just in the backyard of natures way resources,

which is, do you know where that is, by the way? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I use them for my mulch. Yeah.

So ask telling what you want to do. You're just citrus. And you need a blend for that. And they'll

have that and put that in the container. Kind of settle it in as you put it down because all soil

that's been loosened up settles back down. And you don't want your container height to drop

dramatically. So I kind of push my now a little bit, settle it in and then make a little bit of a

dome, a crown over the top again to account for some settling that's going to occur.

So slightly mound it over just slightly. Okay. I appreciate the help. Thank you very much.

All right. Ken, you know the rule on garden line free advice, but you got to bring me the produce.

So we'll, if you bring half of the lemons, I'll call it even. All right. You got to deal. Thank you.

All right. 713-212-5874. If you got a question, give me a call. We'll talk about, you know,

whatever it is, it's of interest to you. He was talking about night fossa imperial, that 15-5-10

is the standard spring, green up that had been around a long time. Randy had it on his schedule.

And it's just a good one. It's a 15-5-10 is a 3-1-2 ratio that research has shown over the years.

That is the ratio that grass takes up nutrients. You may remember long ago, it was recommended to use

like triple 13, for example. That is a 1-1-1 ratio. And as turf scientists did more and more

research, they realized that's more phosphorus, the middle number than you need. It just isn't,

isn't going to show a dramatic improvement in your lawn to add more. In fact, you get too much,

and then you start to see our deficiency in higher pH cells especially. But 15-5-10, that's a good

ratio. And where do you get? Night fossa, 15-5-10. Where do you get it? Bearing sharkworm,

bisonette, and get it at Bearing sharkworm, Westheimer. Those are a few of the many places that carry

night fossa products. We were talking the other day when we had the appearance out there. We were

talking about trying to manage different kinds of weeds that are very difficult to kill. And

things like Virginia button weed, dollar weed is a pain in the neck too, and netted in the

lawns and in garden beds. And those three weeds, one characteristic they have in common is they

like it when you make it extra wet, especially when yellow nuts, I just suppose, to purple nuts it.

You keep your lawn too wet, or maybe it's a low-lying area that just doesn't drain well at all,

and you're going to see more problems with those weeds, also with doveweed. That's a big problem in

wet areas. So just changing the way we care for our lawn. You know, the heart of all good lawn

care is to provide a good deep soaking, and then let it dry out, and to focus on the cultural

practices. We don't first reach for herbicide. We first grow a lawn in the right way to minimize the

need for herbicide, to quit encouraging the weed so much. And then when we need to use one,

we can certainly use one. Let's take a little break here and we'll be right back.

Well, welcome back to Gardeline on a lovely Sunday. It looks so good outside. I'm being tortured,

staring out the window, but I'm going to get to it later after lunch today. I'll be out there.

Actually, today after, no, I'm wrong about that. I have to go to the Houston livestock show today.

That's what happens when you're a gardener. You start daydreaming. Who knows what's next?

Whenever people are wanting to provide their plants nourishment, we usually talk about it in the

way of fertilizers. And fertilizing is certainly legit. We do. We do a lot of it to get the most

out of plants. You know, it's not like, well, how do you fertilize to keep the plant alive? No,

it's how do you fertilize to get more flowers? How do you fertilize to have a denture lawn?

How do you fertilize to get more fruit or more vegetable production? That is the reason we're

giving these supplemental fertilizations. But it's also important to have microbial activity in

the soil boosted. And anything you do to boost it is very helpful. Medina has a product called

Humate, Humic Acid. It's like liquid humus or concentrated compost in a bottle. This is a liquid

product. And if you want to improve your soil quality, humus is how you do it. That's how nature

does it. Nature puts organic matter back in the soil, nobody bags the forest or the meadow

in nature. Nature recycles naturally. And those materials decompose into what we might call

compost. And then they decompose further into what's called humus. And at that stage, they are

really good for the soil, really good. And Humate, Humic Acid from Medina is a good example of that.

You're going to get some micro nutrients and macro nutrients as well. In it, you're going to

get nitrogen. And you're not going to get nitrogen. It's going to enhance the release of nitrogen

and other nutrients from your soil. So they're there. And the improvement, whenever you kick microbes

in gear, it just improves the soil's physical properties. It improves the exchangeable nutrients

through there, available to the plant. And Medina, Humic Humate is the actual name, Humate Humic Acid

is an example of that kind of product. Another Medina product that you ought to have on hand is Medina

Hashtagirlon. That's a 12 for 8 fertilizer. It hooks up to a garden hose. So you want to go out there

and give your lawn a quick boost. This is a Medina way to do it. You get out there, you hook up

the garden hose, you go with the lawn and boom, it gets its nutrients right then. It's ready to go.

After you've used up that bottle, get you a gallon on the next plant and refill your applicator

bottle that you bought the quirk that you bought to begin with. And you can just keep using it.

It's economical way to go. And you just keep using a good product through that applicator.

All right. I think that makes sense. At least it does to me.

I have not been out to Enchanted Forest in quite a few weeks. I need to get out there again.

Enchanted Forest is one of my favorite garden centers to go to. And we're so lucky here in

Houston, North-South East, West, and Central. Great, great garden centers that we have.

If you have not been to Enchanted Forest ever, you need to go in this afternoon to be a good time

to do it, by the way. If you have been, you know what I'm talking about. And you need to go again.

They are loaded up on roses and boogan villias. I mean, the color is so gaudy out there

that I'm telling you if they stuck a pink flamingo out among them, no one would notice the gaudy pink

flamingo because of the gaudy flowers that are everywhere. Beautiful roses, pink and yellow.

There's one called ketchup and mustard and it is red on the outside and just a golden yellow

on the inside. Really unusual, kind of cool. I think that's cool at least. There are other plants,

the calililis I was talking about before. They're ready to go on those. And if you need vegetables,

you won't believe the selection. Tomatoes, peppers, everything, everything and herbs,

everything you can imagine. So many good products and a fun place to shop. That's Enchanted Forest

Richmond. Clay and Danny and the whole team out there. They're knowledgeable. They can point you

in the right direction so you can have success. But I'm telling you, when you go, would you take

somebody with you? Take somebody with you? It is just a fun experience together. It's like,

you know, people go to botanical garden or they go to a park or something. Well, this is that and

I think even more. It's really, really cool. Now, where is it? Well, it's in Richmond, Rosenberg

up toward Katie direction on a road called FM 2759 South of Highway 59 or 69, depending on how old

you are. It's too much you remember it as FM 2759. And here's the website Enchanted Forest

Richmond TX.com Enchanted Forest Richmond TX.com. All right. Someone was asking about soils earlier.

I mentioned the ground up. The ground up is our soil purveyor that's primarily on the west side

of town. There's a location up at Wynne Furnk near the racetrack, not too far from the racetrack.

And there's one at Brentmore. Actually, they have three locations around. Depending on where you live,

you can have it shipped from or delivered from any of the locations to you. But if you want to go

out and get it yourself, the Brentmore location is one. And I would recommend at least once you

go there. It's only about open to the public on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon. Saturday morning,

7 a.m. to noon. You can give them a call 281 970 0 0 0 3 or good. Just go to the website dgroundup.com

and order it to have it delivered for you. But if you go to the Brentmore location, you're going

to see the plants. And that is another reason to check out the ground up. Aaron and his team

have very knowledgeable and they have put together curated, if you will, a selection of plants

that in many cases aren't that common here. And they should be more common here and a lot of

varieties. You know, like you like red buds. Well, what variety of red buds? He's probably got half

dozen. I don't know. I didn't count them last time I was there. But there's a bunch of them that

are out there. You can buy by their products by the bag all over town. Ace Hardware City on Memorial

RCWC in a mulch moss nursery down in Seabrook. Ace Hardware in Champions for the full list again,

thegroundup.com. Buy ground up by the bag. Go get ground up by the bulk or by the bag at the

Brentmore location on Saturday mornings. Or go to one of these retailers around town that carries

them by the bag. It's quality products. Organic compost, double-screened organic compost,

leaf mul compost, products for potting mixes, the Bohemian potting mix for containers,

veggie and herb soil, rose mix, hardwood mulches, on and on, be ground up. I promise you it's a

quality product. You're listening to garden line phone number 713212-5874-7132-258-7874.

Love to visit with you. If your lawn has been struggling, cultural practices are the way to bring

it back. Proper watering, that means a good deep soaking on an infrequent basis. Proper fertilizing

to boost with nitrogen and other nutrients and then proper mowing, mowing often. The more often

you mow the denture your lawn looks. It's like sharing a shrub. If you shared your shrubs once a year,

they'd be pretty ugly when you shared. But when you share them regularly, you have a nice dense

wall of foliage. When you mow your lawn, you're sharing the grass. That's basically what you're doing.

And the more often you mow the better. Now, when your lawn has died out in sections, I looked at some

pictures of someone that I very weedy lawn yesterday. It was basically 90% weeds. My recommendation

is just kill everything, kill the weeds, kill a little bit of grass that's there, get it all

out, rake all the debris out of there, and then lay new turf. The place I send people for new

turf is all seasons, turf grass. You can go to their website, allseasonsturf.com. This is a local

family company. It's out there. They got farms all over. In fact, there's thousands of acres

in grass. Did you know there was that much turf grass? There's a lot more than that turf grass

being grown on the Gulf Coast. But you can go to the Brookshire farm, which is 10 miles west of

99 north of Brookshire, the Brookshire farm, and pick it up yourself at the farm. Or they'll

deliver it to your house with the delivery charge. You have to call them and find out. Generally,

you need three pallets and so many miles away. They'll deliver and whatnot. But they'll take

area in this area. Just give them a call. 281-375-7505. Don't just replant what you have. Do some

research. Find out what's the grass you want most. I've got St. Augustine. I have two kinds of

St. Augustine in my yard. By the way, they sell St. Augustine, Bermuda, and Zoysia. Then I have

two kinds of Zoysia. Actually, the two Zoysia's I have. They carry a Xeon, which is very fine textured

and palisade, which is a medium textured. Both of those do better in shade than you would expect.

St. Augustine's overall the best in shade, but those two Zoysia's do pretty well in the shade,

actually. I'm impressed. The thing I like about all seasons turf, among other things,

is that they harvest and get it to you fresh. When a pallet sits around for two days and I've

planted grass that was sitting on a pallet for two days, it starts to go downhill. By third day,

it definitely is going down. You want to get it and plant it the same day it was cut, and they'll

hope you do that at all seasons turf grass. All seasons turf.com-281-375-75-05. I'm pretty excited

about that company. Dillotour, their fields, and look at how they grow grass and talk to my

lot of all the details. You know that Mike Borrio and the radio, but they're interested to a garden

nerd like myself, that all the details about the quality of turf. People love turf. Oh, owner

reminds you again, the Arbigate. Today is their 30th anniversary celebration. This is a big deal,

and starting at nine o'clock, which is 30 minutes from now, all the way to five o'clock. It will be

this celebration. They're going to give away a $30 gift certificate every 30 minutes. Is that

amazing? That's a lot of winning going on there at the Arbigate. So stop in. They got their famous

Balini machine going. Grab a Balini, stroll through the gardens, and stick around. Who knows? The next

30 minutes will roll by and maybe you'll maybe you'll win. They are very excited. This very

appreciative to all their customers who have got them through these 30 years. It's just I love

shopping there. Love visiting with the folks there. Good information too. The Arbigate out west of

Tom Ball on 29-20. Let's go to the news.

I am making a mess in this studio. Every piece of paper I touch falls off on the ground.

Oh well. Welcome back to Garden Line. Good to have you with us. Hey, do you got a gardening

question? 713-212-5874. Be glad to visit with you about that. It's talking to Randall at

the Pest Bros the other day. We're talking about termites and termite controls and what the options

are and the types of termites. Do you know there are several types of termites around Texas

for most in termite, subterranean, drywood. Those are three and they don't all occur in all places

but I'm telling you you need to know what you're doing when you deal with them. You typically the

termites we deal with here they get in our homes. They come in from the outside and they have

their mating flight and then they come in getting to your wood and so what you want to do here

here's something that's very important. You never want to pile soil up around the weep holes

at the bottom of a brick wall on the outside. You never want to pile them again. Sighting period.

You want to gap there in the foundation where people can walk around like Randall from Pest Bros.

They can walk and they can look and they see that little mud trail that's been built. Now you know

you got termites going inside the house and coming back into the soil. They have access. That's a big

no no. What he'll do is he'll come out and he there's different ways you can do termites.

Well on my house I went with a long term and that is a 10-year product. They dig a trench

around a very shallow trench around the house. They pour the product in the trench. They cover

their trench with soil again and now your product is in their work in for 10 years controlling

termites. Guaranteed. Guaranteed by the way. Whatever you're dealing with with the past

Pest Bros knows how to do it. They know how to do it right. They know how to do it in the safest

possible manner. So you don't have to worry about things. All right here is the way you get a

hold of them. How do you get a hold of Pest Bros? The Pest Bros.com is their website. The don't forget

the Pest Bros.com 281 206 4670 281 206 4670. I was talking earlier about lawn care and weeds

and preventing them and controlling them and also ask a question that's what are you going to do

different or new this year? It's not like what I'm doing that doesn't work. I mean I'm talking

about something new to try and gardening. I want to give you a few more ideas. If you have never

done plant propagation, we talked earlier about seed starting. That's a form of plant propagation

growing your own transplants but seed starting can also be collecting seeds that aren't available

anywhere. There's a little shrub that grows up in the woods up north of the Houston area primarily

and it's it's called Farcle Berry. Farcle Berry happens to be graph compatible with blueberries

isn't that weird? Farcle Berry grows in soil conditions that blueberries are not going to be

happy in it all and that's one reason they use the graft for it. But Farcle Berry develops a

beautiful burgundy color in the fall as a cool weather arrives and we don't have much fall color

plants around our area here. So I go on the roadside and during the fall I gather a bunch of

Farcle Berry berries which have seeds in them. By the way they are edible but then the right

home about and there's it's a tiny berry smaller than an English pea and it's full of seeds so

there you go. But anyway I gather them so I'm going to take them, plant them out, get them growing

and next fall I'll look at all the seedlings and the ones that have good fall color will keep the ones

that don't or out of here and we'll finally get it down to you know one maybe two different

Farcle Berry and I'll have a Farcle Berry that's much more maroon in the fall color much more burgundy

in the fall color so that's an example I'm talking about you know roadside seed collection things

like that. Cuttings are also a very fun way to go about gardening with cuttings you root them

and you get a clone of that plant and it's very important that if you want to keep the qualities

of that particular plant that you propagate it asexually meaning not by cross pollinating

but by taking cuttings so let's let's use a famous story here in America Johnny Apple seed right

you heard a Johnny Apple seed so this guy goes along and he finds apples as he's walking around

wherever he went you collect some apples for the tree you like and you just take the seeds and

drop them out in different places so you're you're taking a offspring of that plant that's not

identical to it and you're dropping them around and people see apples and there's maybe four or

five trees around they look and they go you know this is the best one and that is the way a lot

of our varieties in the old days originally came about it's just finding superior things out in

nature now the same thing can be true of a pecan years ago before there were all the varieties we

have now and before pecan breeding by the USDA and others came about you just look at the rivers

of Texas and the pecans growing on the alluvial soil around the rivers and someone would find one

that was superior and a guy had the the sense of having a contest where you send me x number of

pecans and it'll be a contest to who has the best pecans so they take them they crack them they

make sure they fill this the shell very well it's a good size pecan not the little tiny wild ones

and it has a thinner shell and so somebody would win that but

dear McDonald's your breakfast menu fire tens across the board I could be happy with anything

even though I ordered the same thing every time thanks for not judging me I'll try something new

next time maybe score a two for five dollar deal and a sausage McMuffin with egg and more limited

time only price and participation they vary cannot be combined with any other offer single item at

regular price they got it did that has those pecans pecans or seeds so you plant those out and you

see how they do and if you find one that's superior let's name it and one of the early pecans

was named Stewart that that's just one of the early pecans and so now you take cuttings off of it

and so when you graph those every pecantry you graphed is a Stewart pecan it's not an offspring

of two parents so if that's not quite making sense let me do it this way your kids may resemble

you are your spouse in one way or another but they're not identical neither to each other

or to you or your spouse although when they misbehave I've noticed that one spouse tends to blame

that on the genetics it's coming from the other spouse fair enough anyway so why not collect some

seeds of some things you want to try out and see how they do I do ochre crossing that's another

type of horticulture that could be something you try to try new this year so anyway you get the idea

try something new something fun there's a bazillion ways in horticulture to try things new and who

knows it may become your next addictive hobby let's take a little break and we'll be back with the

last segment of the hour I'll give you a minute to dance on the coffee table

all right welcome back to garden line I am excited about spring I bet you are too

oh boy every year every year I just get the itch to get out there digging the dirt that's first

so first remember that and get out and plant stuff and then try some new stuff I've always got

this year I'm going to do some things on a different type of truss than I've done before out in

the vegetable garden and so I'm looking forward to that for sure I'm going to revamp a flower bed

that the plants that I have are okay but I've got some others that I've run across and I need

a place to put them and that's where they're going to go could have some roses in that flower bed too

so if you're going to do some containers which I recommend you do you can pretty much grow just

about anything at a container that you can grow out in the ground with the exception of big old trees

for example but containers are a great way to garden you want to grow vegetables have a series of

containers on the patio and have a little drip line you can you can buy these drip systems where like

they screw into the water faucet and they got a timer on them and then they the line goes out

you can kind of have it even buried in the soil around the edge of the patio and a little line

goes up in there and dripping some water that way you don't have to worry about forgetting to water

your plants and it works really well but when you fill up with soil jungle land jungle land just

you're going to buy nitrofoss is a good mix it drains well and it also holds moisture and that

is very important you you want it to hold some moisture but you also want it to drain well you're

going to find nitrofoss products it places like plants for all seasons all spas ace in the woodlands

you're going to find it a court hardware done in Stafford in Chanted Gardens in the Richmond

Rosenberg area also carries some of the nitrofoss products down there so go check them out

you got a gardening question here is a number 713 212 5874 713 212 5874 so I was at the ace hardware

store in spring and and for appearance yesterday and just at the end I have to walk through I have to

look at all the stuff that's there and and whatnot go check out all the power tools you know I'm a

I happen to eat myself a fan of the wall but there's a lot of other good brands out there

I have a little Bego Unvego ego egeo electric or battery powered mower and some always looking

at the new ones you know the original ones they were good but they've improved that the ego a lot

where it's ability to mulch and whatnot has improved anyway they're there so I got to look at those

that's ace hardware for you and just looking at all the other things each owner can do what they want

I mean if they want to you know if they want to put a fudge bar in there if they want to have

you know that what do you call the decorations amount of my league right here that are kind of like white

new deck farmhouse farmhouse type decorations lots of beautiful pottery and they an owner can do

those kinds of things that's what's cool about ace hardware that in the fact that you pretty much

get everything you need we know there's seasons the year where we're looking at getting out and

staining the deck or maybe you need to replace that air filter by the way don't forget that ever

month so that you keep your unit in good shape maybe you're looking for a new fire extinguisher

do you know where yours is do you even have one just the thought keep it somewhere near where you can

get it from when you're in the kitchen that's that's one of the fires we definitely need the fire

extinguisher for but ace hardware has you covered on all that you can go to acehardwaretexas.com

and when you're there find your store and then get in your store because they're loaded up on

the fertilizers I talk about on garden line as well as everything you need to have a beautiful

landscape and a bountiful garden acehardwaretexas.com stores like for example all spazase on Kirkendall

up in the woodlands all seasons ace and willis on interstate 45 north on the east side of

Houston Evalde Ace on Evalde Road down in Galveston Chalmers ace on Broadway street in Galveston

and let's go southwest bay city ace on 7th street just to feel the great acehardware stores you'll

find at acehardwaretexas don't forget the Texas acehardwaretexas.com you're listening to garden line

and we're here to help you have success one way that we have success is by putting down quality

fertilizer someone asked earlier can you use sweet green as a green up you know you can you can

it dissolves away it goes in the ground and your lawns are gonna green up for it we generally are

pointing people toward the imperial which is great for that for early green up but sweet green that is

a that is a good one and I like it I like the smell of it I just like the idea that I'm putting

something out there watering it in and the microbes are getting really happy with those carbon

chains sugar molecules that are in sweet green that just really kick them in gear they get

excited about that if you if you listen real carefully put your ear to the ground you can hear

I'm laughing and jumping and yelling and okay maybe maybe not maybe like the voices in my head

well you're listening to garden line let's talk gardening seven one three two one two five eight

seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four uh birds oh my gosh the birds are

all over the landscape at my house I look out the window and I just see all these little all kinds

of little birds rins and it's just lots of different kinds of birds I've got a number of different

feeders I've got the eliminator feeder which is one that keeps squirrels out I posted something to

the garden line Facebook by the way if you don't follow garden line on Facebook you need to do

that if you don't follow garden line with skip on Instagram you should do that and see the things

we post but anyway squirrels trying to get in my feeder I was about to go out and feed and I looked

oh my gosh this is cool so I took a video of it he got the word tid he got the word tid it's a

silent video though because the language was oh my gosh I could I could not post it with the

language that squirrel was using unable to get in the feeder but anyway if you're looking for

an eliminator of your own or maybe one of the nice hopper type feeders that is I like wild birds

unlimited hopper type feeder because it has a little extra large size roof you know so when it

rains it doesn't tend to drip and get the seed is wet is one with a smaller roof on it very easy

to feel they got all kinds of like thistle feeders for certain kinds of birds they've got the

platforms that just are a flat tray out there that screened bottom so it drains out real well

wild birds unlimited has got you covered and their pole system is really cool it's a backpull

used to getting the ground actually it has a almost like a a screw on the bottom where you can kind

of twist it down in the ground and then you it has a leg that holds it upright and you have all

these hooks up above and you can add to them they are they're like playing with tinker toys for

those of you who remember tinker toys you you just if you want another level to it if you want

another arm coming out over here if you know or over there if you don't put a baffle on it if you

whatever you want to do that is so cool at wild birds unlimited and they have the quantity seed

I say this all the time but seed that doesn't go bad seed that does not excuse me see

dear McDonald's your breakfast menu fire tens across the board I could be happy with anything

even though I ordered the same thing every time thanks for not judging me I'll try something new

next time maybe score a two for five dollar deal and a sausage McMuffin with egg and more

limited time only price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer

single item at regular price but the birds don't kick out is what I meant to say the low red

babies birds have to be starving to one eat those things but at wild birds unlimited you get the

blends that are full of birds seeds that the birds eat see so if you want to truly have a 100%

of what's in the bag goes into a bird stomach get the no mess blends so then like the little black

all sunflower seeds they've been shelled already and you're not buying them with the shells so

everything in there is an edible seed that the birds can get really excited about does that make

sense okay well I get excited about it I think it's pretty cool stuff uh let's see here uh

wanted to oh I'm gonna be don't forget I'm gonna be at the Conroe home show this is the Montgomery

County home show at the Lone Star Convention Center on airport road and northeast Conroe

uh that is a great show lots of good stuff going on there uh I'll be their Saturday Nick

Saturday the 7th from 12 to 2 and I have got a bunch of Nelson plant food samples together way

and uh I think I have enough rabbi that shows up uh and also some jars a little two pound jars

of Nelson plant food products that we'll be doing uh drying or we'll figure some way uh to give

those out too I'll be answering questions after my brief talk at 12 o'clock if you want to hear

my talk get there at 12 o'clock uh I'll be talking about spring gardening tips and uh

answering your questions and after that I'll be out at a table I'm gonna bring some copies of my

book with me so if you don't have my book and would like a copy you can get assigned one by showing up

at where the Montgomery County home show at the Lone Star Convention Center next Saturday 12

to 2 I hope you can make it look forward to seeing you when you come out it's always nice to

meet gardeners people listening to garden line uh and it it's fun I it's so much fun yesterday

uh doing just that uh by the way always bring samples that you want diagnosed either picture on

the phone or sample in a plastic bag uh and let's let's find out uh what is going on at the house

there that we need to do some remedy on so that you can have better success nothing is more fun

than gardening and nothing is more frustrating as when things go wrong uh and things can be fixed

everything can be fixed we can end up with a really quality garden a bountiful beautiful

productive garden and we just have to to apply a few principles that is what plants want like

I've said before learning to see things from a plants point of view is the key to success for

gardening what is a plant want give it that and everybody says you got a green thumb all you got

was an informed thumb I hope you bring your thumb to with you when you're listening to garden line

we'll inform it and it gets greener powered by all

all right I'm gonna take a little break I need one more cup of coffee this morning

be back with you in just a bit go go away

this is the grass is like gas and again you dig

flowers but clothes like they can have a thing on a side

in the grass this is the grass is against and you dig it

the sun beaming down between you and me

this is the grass is against and you dig it

and it's both both both first starting and then out of the tree

this is the grass is like this and it's like you dig it

all right folks welcome back to garden line

well well what do we want to talk about you tell me I mean I got plenty of things I can visit

about regarding gardening probably know a few of the questions you might be asking because

just been doing this for a long time but boy it did fun it did fun getting to the bottom of things

and figuring out how to have success you should be enjoying yourself out there in the garden

you really should so what do we need to do to make sure you have the best success the best time

the most bountiful garden the most beautiful landscape you know all the all the things I say about

that what can we do to help you have that that's what we want to do right now if you want to get

something to fertilize anything really around the property that you want to give a boost to

sweet green from nitrofos it is a quickly available nitrogen source you put it out you watered

in it dissolves away and it does its work 11% nitrogen originally high for an organic

type product to do but we talk about it for lawns but you can use sweet green around your

factories you can use it around flowers and things because you know sometimes we get to go well

if I want to have blooms I have to I have to put phosphorus down well not necessarily I mean maybe

you've got enough phosphorus but it can help that's for sure but when you when you put on nitrogen

you encourage vegetative growth leaves to grow shoots to grow and that is required to have blooms

in fruit so here's the thing if you if a plant is going to make a bloom or especially make a fruit

it takes a lot of carbs to do that and to have carbs you have to have sunlight shining on green

leaves so when you fertilize with nitrogen not just nitrogen but the nitrogen and fertilizer

that promotes growth which builds food factories to give you more to give you more blooms to give you

more fruit works really good so that's my recommendation good boost to sweet green and sweet green

is available in a lot of places I stand in shopping center in North Taylor and Alvin you can get it

plants and things up in Brannum another good place to get nitrofoss products and heating and feed

on stupenda airline another good one up toward the Northwest by the way that works what what are

your favorite garden centers to shop at which was to you like around you here in Houston we have

the most complete set of garden centers I've seen anywhere in fact a lot of big cities when you go

around it's kind of like the mom and pop the independence they're not that many of them

people were going to the places that sell a lot of stuff other than than plants for example and

they typically are not going to get the expertise they need you know from the big box and so

what do you like which ones do you like here if it doesn't matter which direction you live like

for example moss is down south down towards Seabrook so the whole east side of Houston and south of

Houston and you know over toward toward the ship channel and whatnot this is a garden center

that is very unique and amazing eight acres first of all it's a family-owned operation

been run for a long time 70 year old 70 years old family operated eight acres by the way

everything you need for your garden your landscape your interior escape you know houseplants inside

oh they got a great house by green house whatever you're looking for but make this an experience

this is like going to a botanical garden in a way because when you wander through there's a

lot of beautiful plants there tons of beautiful plants but there's also some artistic things you

know maybe it is like a you know totem pole carved kind of face there's a carved wooden canoe hanging

in the air down there too lots of beautiful pottery little water features all the way around and

it's just a fun place to wander through moss nursery down in Seabrook on Toddville Road M-A-A-S

that's how you spell moss M-A-S nursery dot com 281 474 2488 281 474 2488 and if you have been there

get yourself out there they've got a lot of new shipments these got some really beautiful colias in

some beautiful petunias looks really good there's a food truck too by the way there periodically you

just have to call them find out when and where but oh my gosh and say hi to cat cat cat cat is pretty much

just a bum I'm sorry if he's listening but every time I've been that cat has has just been sleeping

and I don't know you know what he gets paid but I if that when the job opening comes again I'm

going to apply because basically you lay around you sleep all right that's that's the cat

at moss nursery that's funny you know cats are professionals that relaxing you know that all right

they are professionals for sure nightfights has a a protocol barricade I talk about all the time

the main thing you need to know right now is two things number one barricade is put down before

the weeds are there do not put it down expecting to kill weeds you see it prevents you from seeing

weeds by not letting the seeds make weed plants that's number one super emergent number two

every day that goes by more weed seeds are germinating and it is time time time time to get the

barricade down for those of you further south as you go even more important as you get up toward

you know conroe the woodlands area maybe over to college station and some of those areas up in

Huntsville yeah it's a it's a good time but then we're kind of hitting the point here where

weeds weeds are sprouting barricade is put down and it's watered in with third of an inch of water

and that way it can do what it's supposed to do and you're going to find barricade at many places

that carry night fosh products you know D&D feed and Tom ball carries it plants for all seasons

on 249 RCW nursery also carries night fosh products and those are just a few places that you can find

products like this barricade to prevent it's better to prevent weeds than to try to kill existing

ones that is for sure so you got a gardening question 713 212 5874 713 212

5874 be glad to visit with you about that now I want to kind of shift here and I want to talk

about another topic different than what we had and that is herbs herbs are so easy and fun to grow

and there's so many kinds of herbs out there if you go to the eggy horticulture website eggy

horticulture website just just google that or whatever browser you use to search eggy horticulture

and go to the the edibles the vegetables and herbs section there's a publication on herbs it's

many pages and it lists all the herbs it's got good pictures of them it tells all about them it

is a wealth of information way more than I can go into on the air check that out because you can

use them for ground covers many types have flowers many types support beneficial insects and then

there's the cooking thing how fun is it when families over something and y'all are doing all the

cooking to run outside and grab a sprig of rosemary or snip off a group of shallot tops to use

you see what I mean herbs are fun they're easy and they ought to be in your landscape in all kinds

of places from containers to landscape beds to whatever I used to in my vegetable garden at the end

of the rows put oregano as a little ground cover at the end of the of the rows and so it is

right there you know when you harvest your tomatoes you got to harvest your basil you got to harvest

your oregano whatever's going to go together to make a sauce or a pesto or whatever there you go

you can do that in your garden let's take a break we'll be right back

I think I could stay with you for a while

all righty we're back oh gosh we're still dealing with some things on the phone and uh

all of a sudden we got a bunch of calls coming in because we fixed another thing

that was keeping you from getting to me uh let's go to Angleton this morning we're going to talk to Larry

hello Larry welcome to the garden line

oh you got my aloe vera they got some yellow to green yellow to green and my not watering right or

what am I doing wrong I had 39 blooms last year this is like a three to five foot spawn of aloe vera

yeah aloe vera doesn't have many problems uh Larry I think it's probably a water problem if they

get soft and wet they don't like that they're not made for swamps they can get too dry but they tend

to kind of lose a little of the turgor of the leaves you know not as plump as they used to be

and and uh I think it may it's something wrong in the roots uh specifically I can't tell you

but my guess is it's a soil moisture problem they're getting lots of sun right yes sir

okay on the east side I don't think a thing is fun yeah all right huh well uh I guess just so

moisture if you want to take pictures of them and send them to me let me look get us some close-ups

and maybe I'll see something that I'm not picturing in my mind's eye right now but that's a pretty

easy plan uh to grow now it did get a little cold yeah right yeah I can ask you one more question

yes sir okay the box shows about two or three months or maybe longer you've talked about there's

a disease going around uh yeah uh um yes of roses and I just went blank on the name I'll

I can tell you in a minute Rose Rosette Rose Rosette is a disease uh yeah and once you have it

there's no curing it uh you can go online to Rose search for Rose Rosette and see symptoms

to know if you have it or not but there's no uh how can I now that we got our phone fix

they're lighting up here so Larry I'm gonna have to run but uh okay yes sir I enjoy your show my son

listen to you every weekend so thank you for your time I appreciate that thank you very much

hey heirloom soils has got quality stuff uh thank you heirloom soils for donating so many bags to

our event yesterday at uh at the ins hardware store leaf mo compost is outstanding veggie and herb

mixes outstanding if you've got a clay soil that is dense heavy sticky clay get some of their um

expanded chale or they're compost with expanded chale it's outstanding it really helps a clay

you can turn a clay into some wonderful with that now heirloom soils dot com's website uh you can

have them deliver it you can go get it up at Porter or you can buy their bags which are available all

overtown all overtown heirloom soils a quality soil mix uh if you haven't done your spring

green up night to fuss imperial 15 5 10 get it done today don't wait you wait another month

or so it's gonna be time to start doing the um slow release products through the summer so if you

wanted to a green up get it done now watered in today and I promise you you will see within just

a few days you'll see the green start to hit on that lawn it just looks good and it

happens really fast really fast all right let's go to clear lake now and talk to mark hey mark

welcome to garden line top of the morning to you sir hope you're doing well thank you you too uh

just sent you an email has three pictures i don't know if you've seen it yet i have not and i'm

gonna mark uh describe them to me because i'm having trouble actually getting to my email uh this

morning but uh i if you could describe it i think that would probably be the best

okay we'll give it a try um i've got a magnolia tree growing on one side of the front of the house

this side walk in between and then there's a brick planter that's part of the house it's kind of

attached to the found it's not on the foundation but it bumps up against the foundation okay

uh apparently i haven't been watering very well and a lot of the roots have come to the top

and they're going everywhere from the magnolia i've called you about that thing before i hated it

produces these leaves that you just can't deal with any rate um and it looks like it's coming up

between the sidewalk and the brick and pushing the sidewalk a little bit away from where it should be

so my question to you is should i call an arborist or a foundation dude

hmm well the foundation dude he deals with the foundation itself and he'll tell you yeah that

trees a problem uh but an arborist is who's gonna tell you how to care for the tree uh it sounds

like and i you know i can't see it exactly but it sounds like it it may be uh that something's

gonna have to do be done to like remove remove that tree uh oh but i i understand i'd love that

yeah i i just can't see it though and unfortunately and so um yeah i can't tell for sure

but well tell you what if you get a chance to see it when you were able to get back to your email

if you wouldn't mind dropping me a line i'd appreciate it i i will be happy to do that and i'll

reply to you on email uh when thank you thank you sir by the way i love you show thank you

appreciate your call uh let's go now to bill in houston hey bill welcome to garden line

hi there i have a question about my bokeh vias all right

i covered them they were blooming really well before the freeze i covered them up during the

freeze but they still all my leaves now are brown and dead looking and i just don't know uh

in or how far back to cut them back well if you can stand to look at the ugly you got you got

two options one you can use your thumbnail to scrape back and if it's tan colored underneath they're

not not green or uh plump cream creamy green uh to cut it off there but what i would recommend

doing is just wait and when it warms up more for a while then the bokeh video kick into gear

and you'll be able to know exactly where to prune that's the best way to go about it

so okay scraping scraping prune if you don't like the ugly top uh but our weight for green

and then you know where to prune that's the quick answer but it's okay to scrape and prune now

or should i wait a little bit longer no if it's if by now it will have either turned brown or not

and uh so yeah scraping prune is fine all right bill okay thank you all right thank you very

much you bet appreciate that uh Buchanan's native plants and the heights on 11th street

as a place you do want to go and you know nobody has the selection of natives at Buchanan does

are the knowledge about natives i mean they are walking in cycle PDs you go in there and they know

their stuff uh you need to sign up for the newsletter at Buchanan's uh Buchanan's plants.com

sign up for the newsletter but get by there this afternoon would be a good time they they'd have

everything i mean i could try to list plants but take the rest of the show uh Buchanan's native

plants in the heights we're gonna go now to friends wood and uh talk to Robert hello Robert welcome

to garden line good morning how are you uh doing well thanks you got two questions uh

got two questions for you i've got a repurpose flower bed that had pump it buying in it and i tried

to cut as much out of it as i could or dig up but it's just it's come back with a vengeance i've used

uh oh fine brush product to try to kill it but i think it's killing the the chemicals are killing

the plants that i want to keep okay besides just cutting out the shoots right as i see them

what's another way to go about getting rid of it okay uh do you know what chemical you use by any

chance or a product if it's a bear product uh doubt in the backyard okay where product it's okay

blue plastic okay let me let me just do this Dave the the thing you got to do is get the chemical that

kills them on the the woody vine itself or the woody plant uh and without getting it on the good

plant which is what basically you were saying uh and there's a couple ways to do that i put on my

website a thing for how to build a weed wiper and it's real simple yeah gardeningweskip.com

that's what i use it's got little foam pads and a little gripper thing that squeezes the pads

and so you can reach in there and you can dab it on the leaves the trichlopyr is the ingredient

you're looking for that's also on my website on a list of herbicides on the publication on the

website you put the trichlopyr on the sponge you reach in there and you just squeeze it under the

foliage of the the plant you want to get rid of it translocates down now one other way if it had

if the plant you're getting rid of has any kind of a stem size at all like if it's a size

your little finger or something you can cut it off and dab the trichlopyr right immediately on

that fresh cut you can you can just dab it right onto the fresh cut i use a little foam paintbrush

on one of the little tiny ones and dab it right on there and it'll translocate down to

and if it's a good sized plant it may try to come back a little bit and you can just do it again

but that that's a way to get it out without hurting the plant you got okay let me get it now

the second question is i've got a grafted red bud tree that we got from a reputable nursery

and i've had it for i can't remember if it was before harvier after harvier but that's at

least eight years okay and i can't get the somber gun to bloom did it used to bloom or it never

has bloomed it was no it's never bloomed it was blooming when we bothered in the spring and i can

i can probably count no more than 50 blooms that's individual little pink flowers okay what

how much sun does it get oh all day every day hmm and when it leaves all this beautiful it's a

beautiful tree red buds yeah red buds i don't know that they they get sunlight they bloom that

that's it sometimes we give them morning sun and afternoon shade to avoid stress on them

but uh the only thing and this wouldn't make them not bloom but if you prune them in the winter

you're cutting off bloom buds uh but you're not going to prune so much that you cut off all the

bloom buds so i don't know Robert that is uh that's weird i'm gonna have to look into that one uh

if the tree looks pretty healthy does it look pretty healthy overall yeah i mean there's some

dead that i need to cut out but overall i mean it's starting to leap out right now man i hate to

tell you i just don't know uh if it were mine you've waited for eight years it it should be blooming

for you the only thing i could think of is if it came from a seedling originally uh plants that

have to grow and mature can take more than eight years to really begin to grow bloom but this

well it's grafted because i can see where it was grafted okay well then i'm stumped again i don't

know what to tell you um you know pulling it out and pulling it out on the onion is is an option

but that ain't a good option so uh it's all okay maybe maybe all right well i appreciate your help

thank you so much and you have a wonderful day you bet you bet all right uh we're going to go to

add in Missouri City add i've got uh less than two minutes but if we don't finish you will carry

you over so let's let's see what we can get done here okay i'm real quick uh good morning to you

uh you know i got a question my legustrums are like skinny like no leaves and so i'm even looking for

a treatment or a product to uh you know for them to grow and i've got a nose and places like that and

uh fertilize or type products and just nothing to say to be working okay well uh the uh

legustrums uh they need a lot of light are they getting uh six hours or so of sun or not

yeah they get plenty of sun uh obviously all in the morning up to about uh 12 i mean

okay two or three o'clock okay now do you do you notice yellowing leaves with spots on them

on the legustrums no uh initially i did a uh chat gpt search and and and had saw some of that and uh

uh got some of the treatment for it yeah Edward graded yeah i i want to i want to cut to the chase

so i can really help you hold on my producer will give you my email send me some pictures

up close and in the distance and let's let's cut right to what what it is that's better than me

trying to guess uh here on the call but i'll put you i'll put you on hold so don't go away

all right uh we got to go to a break here uh elisabeth and hawkley and davin belayer you're the first

up uh when we come back uh in the meantime don't forget that i am going to be at the Montgomery

County home showing con row next Saturday from 12 to two that's at the Lone Star Convention Center

i'm gonna be giving away a lot of products from the folks that know some plant food i i think

unless we just have a thousand people you're gonna get something if you show up

all right welcome back to guard line let's get this going here hey if you got containers

and you want to spruce them up a little bit maybe this so i was sunk down a little bit and you

need to refill the pot because you're going to replant along as it didn't die of some disease

you can reuse that soil but just get you some jungle land mix it with it fill it up all the way

it drains well the jungle land outdoor version is called land it's called a flower in vegetable

planning soil flower in vegetable uh you can just build a whole pot with it and start over fresh

or you can mix it with the soil you got and just kind of improve things get it planted in again

it's going to drain well it's going to provide you what you need and like night fresh products you're

going to find these products at a number of places you know you go to fishers hardware there's one

in Pasadena one in Laporte one in Mont Bellevue also one in Baytown by the way they're going to carry

night fresh products at those places let's go out to Hawkely now and visit with Elizabeth hello

Elizabeth welcome to garden line thank you i skip high good morning um i recently moved

uh to a new build in Hawkely and i met Susanna Augustine grass but this is something different

if you think maybe it's permita but i'm not sure about the differences in care and you know

fertilization mowing okay well uh i'm going to assume that you're right about it being permita

if you want to send me a picture i can be sure about that but uh whether whatever it is the

lawns are taken care of the same way uh permita same Augustine and uh zoizio are all taken care of

the same way we fertilize them through the growing season and we water them with a good deep soaking

on an infrequent basis so they need to be watered you could say an inch a week or you can

there's part of my areas that are kind of shady that i don't water every week for sure

so give it that kind of care uh permita grass you need to be mode as often as you can with a sharp

mower the more uh the longer it is between mowings the more likely permita is going to not look good

after mowing because it's green up on top not down deep so if you let it grow up and then you cut

it back halfway you're going to have a bunch of brown twiggy and then it'll re green but it

looks ugly after the mowing so the more often you can mow your permita with a sharp light uh the

prettier it'll be okay you mentioned some um medina product uh was it the solar speed or

something to put on the lawn that was uh that was the that was the medina has to grow for lawns

and it would the numbers on the bottle are 12 for eight you hook it up to your garden hose and you

just follow the instructions go over the lawn and it'll provide a good blend of nutrients uh to get

it up and going okay so it being sought and everything that be a good thing i mean it i think it

was put in around October actually okay well uh yeah no it's not too soon uh but the most

important fertilizers coming in April when we do start doing the slow releases slow release

fertilizers uh and those are all my schedule you need to go to the website gardening with skip

and look for my lawn care schedules i got two of them on there it tells you exactly what to use

and exactly when to do it whether it's fertilizing pest control disease control weed control

it's all on there okay all right gardening with skip okay thank you lesbian thank you you bet take

care uh piercecapes our premier landscaper here on guard line uh it's just uh i every time i talk

about them would i tell you go to piercecapes.com look at what they do then you'll know i can't

describe what they do to the degree that the pictures on their website do or look at their Facebook

page at what they've been doing and here's a phone number because you're going to want to call them

281 370 5060 you can get an appointment uh and they can do a lot of things they can

picture irrigation system up they can get uh drainage uh to areas that are poorly drained uh they

can get landscape lighting that just make sure house look like a show place at night uh they can

do hardscapes they can do a lot of stuff the bottom lines you got to call them 281 370 5060

those piercecapes let's go to bella here we're going to talk to Dave this morning hey Dave welcome

to garden line hey skip thanks for having me yes a couple of questions the first one is i have some

cobalt saying the objecting that i had installed a little less than two years ago uh and of course

cobalt supposed to be you know more disease resistant drought tolerance so on and so forth but

i've been battling fungus into like the installed um i got it with the zachysobin and uh

hopefully however do you say the other version i'm just not sure why i keep i don't water it very

often you know the the improvement deep waterings have it on the system timer and i'm just

curious yourself i'm like what my next steps might be to try to figure out what's causing the

fungus yeah yeah Dave or what my what i might data picked it okay what uh describe to me the

disease what are you seeing is it big brown circles is it spots on leaves correct no no it's brown

patch it's not the great least spot it's it's definitely brown patch okay well uh huh you should not

have brown patch during the warm growing season unless you're really over watering and over

fertilizing uh but with just normal care brown patch is typically something we do with in the fall

and in the spring uh you know in the middle of winter degress it and do anything so you don't

re-notic it uh but in the fall and spring right that's what we do with the brown patch and that's

do you have a copy of my schedule have you gone online to get one or not i do

no i do i i've got both your schedule i just switched well i think i just switched over

like last year or whatever i was using the your predecessors um yeah yeah i'm going to switch over

their skills okay well if you look on it on the fungicide side at the bottom of the brown box

there's nitrofoss total brown patch control and nitrofoss eagle those are both good for uh

the brown patch they do well for that azoxi sorobin is a great fungicide but if you're not getting

results with that on this disease i might switch now uh and so try one of those two nitrofoss

products if you see it but again you shouldn't be seeing that in the summertime uh so there is a

summer patch that's a rhizoctonia which is the same genus uh as as uh okay the brown patch

but it's a it's a different species and but i don't know that that's my only suggestion

uh cobalt's a good grass it i didn't think it had much disease resistance that stood out

among other St. Augustines but it does have a good deep rooting resilience where you don't

have the watered as much i've got cobalt in part of my yard it's one of my test grasses that i'm

looking at right now and i've i've been pleased with it i just know that it gets dense fast and so

you got to be careful not to overfirmize and over water it or you end up with a thatch problem

okay well so my my next question kind of related to that is do they they work it to skip the quick

green up uh fertilizing and then just wait till the the slow release yes and if i'm worried about

it maybe being overnight and then that's a problem absolutely quick green up is just for quick

green up that's it the slow release is the stuff we use all growing season so if you want to

you know wait and then you know early let's see where you located pillar and early april or even

like large yeah you i would say early april you could put down your your slower release

all right sir i'm up against a break your new magic have to run all right thank you appreciate your

call hey micro life products are outstanding a number of good products out there right now

want to talk about their acidifying fertilizer acidifying fertilizer it's in a red bag

it is a 624 and you can use it on anything where you want to bring the pH down a little bit

certainly things that like acid like azaleas and camellias and purists and Virginia sweet

spire i use on roses myself to any kind of an acid loving plant you need to use it on there

blueberries good example but you can use it maybe have higher pH than needs to be and you just want

to gradually bring it down you could put her on your lawn if you wanted to if you got a real high

pH lawn i'm just saying the stuff is good and it works and it's a complete fertilizer from the folks

at micro life now we got to go to a break a dug in houston your first stop when we come back

we're in the downhill stretch folks here on guard line if you got a question you can't wait

till next weekend now it's time to do it by the way next weekend i will be at the mung

garmory county home show in conno at the lone star convention center that's the seventh which is a

Saturday from 12 to 2 entering gardening questions and giving away a lot of products from the folks

at Nelson plant food quality products you need to get in your hands and you need to try them

that way you're not taking my word for it you've done it yourself and you see the results

let's head out to houston here now we're going to talk to Doug this morning hey Doug

welcome to garden line thank you skip um you helped me recover from take all root rot last summer

uh had a real nice recovery after devastation so now i'm trying to figure out what do i need to do

outside of the the lawn care schedule i can see i've got some a mix of dollar weed and to be

murdered still and um and i see other weeds i've put down the pre-emergent a week ago

what's my next step well take all root rot as an opportunist so anything that stresses the

grass opens the door so going going backwards with that fact uh you want to make sure you do

water with a good deep but infrequent watering schedule you want to fertilize moderately

you want to uh mo regularly keep the grass in as good a condition it can be careful

using broadly if we control once the temperatures in the 90s they can stress grass which opens a

door to take all root rot don't overuse pre-emergence which can stress grass leading to take all root

rot uh and then finally the last two factors are shade which you can't re-change and uh irrig um

excuse me shade and oh compaction soil compaction so uh if you've got a compacted clay soil

aerating and compost stock dressing is another thing that would go a long ways but you

shouldn't have to treat for take all every year it's it's more when your grass gets stressed then

you better treat because it's coming so i'm on a corner lot kind of south east facing lawn primarily

um so cut the grass high it's far you know it's first it's it's it's ain't Augustine but there's

a lot of bermuda mixed in okay aside from pulling it by hands they're another way to

to go about removing that there is not or just shade shade it out there's not a typical homeowner

way uh there's some expensive products that a commercial company can get it's it's just too

expensive to justify for one person they can be used to selectively take the bermuda grass out

of saying Augustine uh but you got it you got to use them right and unless you got five neighbors

with the same problem and you want to share a bottle uh it's pricey uh but if you want to look

into that more i can you i can put you on hold now i'll send you information if you email me uh but

otherwise we we put up with both of them as it goes into shade saying Augustine has the upper hand

as it goes into droughty conditions periodically bermuda has the upper hand but typically they're

both going to live together and it's hard to get one out i understand thank you you bet you bet

all right all right there we go uh you know that that is a problem that there is a i

i almost say to talk about it because the solution to the bermuda in saying Augustine because

for 99.9 percent of the people out there you're you're not going to you're not going to drop that

kind of coin and uh it's something that a professional needs to do now you can have a landscape

care company do it for you if you want uh you know you just find out for me what how to do it and

tell your landscape care company this is what you want them to do uh and that would be an option

if they're willing to do it if they got a bunch of lawns they might be willing to do it because

they can justify purchasing that product well plans for all seasons full service retail garden

center family operated and owned since what 1973 uh the way i like to budget they've been there

since uh 249 tombo parkway was a goat path or a deer path going through the woods up there

been there a very long time now these are experts in loaning garden flirty family their gardeners

here they've been gardeners here for decades and so they know what they're talking about they know

how to take care of things so that they thrive and they'll tell you that they'll sell you plants

it want to be here not plants that aren't going to grow here they don't have a prayer of going

they'll tell you what to do and you have problems for example maybe maybe you have a uh a plant

that the leaves are yellowing or they're getting spots on them or they're just not thriving take

a picture of them take some example leaves in in a bag ask them about it they can tell you what to do

they got all the products you need they understand the green stuff before or the brown stuff before

green stuff concept that i talk about all the time uh and that means you build a soil first in order

to get to the checkout you got to walk through the fertilizers and the soils and all that kind of

thing so those are right out front you got to walk past them just to get in the store uh and it's

because that's the secret to success don't just go buy a plant buy a plant and get some good fertilizer

and so they're at plants for all seasons plants for all seasons dot com is a website here's a phone

number 281-376-1646-281-376-1646 plants for all seasons

let's see what do we got got a few minutes here left uh i had something that i wanted to visit

with oh i know what it was uh i get calls fairly often and i get emails and questions about

likens like an l i c h e n liken is kind of like a symbiotic relationship

between two different kinds of organisms uh one of them is a fungus uh and and it grows on

plants on the outer surface of the woody bark uh there are different kinds of likens some are flat

kind of grayish colored and the edges of the flat are frilled like ruffles on a skirt for example

others make little miniature trees that can be gray they can be golden they can be kind of a

bluish green gray uh color uh and they grow and people get alarmed about them

likens are not a parasite you'll see liken on a fence post and if it was a parasite and had to

suck juices out of a plant it couldn't grow in a dead fence post so they're not parasites uh but

when you see a lot of them it means that the um sunlight is getting through which is generally a sign

that the plant is struggling and just not building the dense nice canopy uh and i'm going to finish

that in a moment i don't want to miss a call here talking about that so we're going to go talk

to carol now in baytown hey carol welcome to guard line good thank you good morning

i am sending a lot of time in blind conversation with my parents now that they're older so i'm

going to go ahead and start uh my garden here and um where would you recommend uh i know all the

places in in the huge and area to go to for dirt for dirt um besides lows that's where i've been

going but there's got to be a better uh places here on brine call yeah there there's not there are

soil yards there's one south of town uh what's it called i just went blank on i'll think of it it's

where uh a business six and uh and bypass six come together uh right right there uh and uh so

they have some soil there uh there uh it's also a place uh it's it's the landfill place but it's

a different location than the landfill and uh they have compost uh that they used to sell by bulk uh

and i looked at it as a decent compost uh you know i it's it's a fair price so twin oaks landfill

is the name of it up there in college station they have some there uh but the yeah the other uh

it's probably you know probably the the best place you're going to get around that area it's

highway six is yeah sadder we take a home again and go to one of the places in use uh well

if you're putting your mind that's probably one of the closest one right there right two forty nine

yeah um yeah uh it is an arborate will sell you a blend uh they will sell you their their

compost complete and their soil complete uh both uh and they will they will deliver at bulk now

to have it shipped a distance from any vendor is that's where the money is but if you're okay

now i yeah i have to go home a couple of times you know a month and so i thought well

if it was here it's not always i guess to go home the the place on the south the south side by the way

Carol that i couldn't think of is site one it's a site one location there site one with the

s s i c e when you drive up in the college state when you drive up into college station on six

it's on the left hand side and you'll see big piles of beautiful rock stone for patios and all

that kind of stuff all right wonderful thank you so much you bet thank you a lot appreciate that

i know we have listeners out of the air i don't always know the air uh what's in an area but uh

try to keep up a best i can what do you do when you can't get the good good stuff that we talk about

here on guard line all right so i was talking about likens bottom line on likens um

that you just ignore them you leave them alone you fertilize the plant you pre-not any dead material

and you try to get that plant vigorous again and growing if you want you can use a copper base

product on them uh you can use something called moss max i think that works pretty good uh

and it kills them but dead likens looks like living like and and they're just going to come back so

i don't recommend spraying for them i just would say let's get that playing uh growing uh with

whether it needs a soil improvement some aerating around it a little bit or uh just a boost of

nitrogen and that's what you do and don't worry about it now then there's Spanish moss and

ball moss Spanish moss hangs down like in the movie south Louisiana and the swamps and the votes

going by with all that moss hanging down at Spanish moss uh ball moss that's a whole nother

creature maybe we'll try to tackle that one next weekend again it's along for the ride i got a

picture of ball moss growing on a high line if it was a parasite how would it live on the

high line it's not a parasite okay now you get enough ball moss in a tree and it shades the

lower areas so the plant doesn't get the sunlight it needs but that takes a lot but it can happen

physical removal that's one way oh boy that's a chore or an expense or spraying a copper base

product in spring just as things are starting to get going again uh you can use that as well

dead ball moss looks like living ball moss so you got to wait for it to rot and fall out of the tree

have a good week in the garden folks