[speaker001:] okay I'll let you start this time
[speaker002:] well how much do you like lawn and garden work
[speaker001:] well ah even though it's totally out of my ah my degree training I've been working as as in the horticultural aspect uh for the last you I don't know fifteen twenty years so uh I'm well I work for the state as as a groundskeepers
[speaker002:] oh oh for goodness sakes what do you do uh-huh well that's interesting um so at this time of the year are you doing much garden work
[speaker001:] no mostly snow removal which we've had a lot of but uh I don't know I I guess uh growing up on the farm and and that I I've always had a big interest uh I have a uh
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] when I have an area to do I I always had a big garden and
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] enjoy working on lawns and and everything
[speaker002:] well I love to work outside really and I enjoy flowers and stuff I don't do a whole lot of it um at this exact point in my life um because I have two teenage boys and so they do all the lawn all the lawn care
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] but I still take care of the yeah flower beds and things like that I was even planning to go out and to uh dig up some hibiscus plants that will not make it through the winter here but you know were planted in the ground since last spring
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and I was going to dig them up for a friend and for some starters for me and lo and behold about five days ago we had a freeze down to about oh twenty three degrees or something
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so the hibiscus hibiscus plants no longer exist and I really feel bad about it it's a plant that we've had for probably twenty five years that these were cuttings off of you know
[speaker001:] oh that's terrible twenty three degree yeah yeah
[speaker002:] so they're all gone at this point gardening in Texas is really interesting though I grew up in Illinois
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and um Texas is just so hot in the summer and so dry why you know everyone that lives in town and has yards practically has land um a watering system
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and so with that why our lawns do stay um you know pretty nice all summer if you water but in the winter we have Bermuda grass
[speaker001:] huh um-hum
[speaker002:] and in the winter it turns as brown as a grocery sack
[speaker001:] right yeah
[speaker002:] and and I just think it's ugly when I go back home to my parents in Illinois in the winter you know and their grass is fairly green
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah that's one one aspect of a lot of those grasses they go dormant yeah I think the ah Saint Augustine and uh centipede grass is another one you have quite a bit of down there yeah those two
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum yeah some people have I think it's fescue
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] that stays green all winter but they really have a heck of a time keeping it going in the middle of the summer
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] they have to water an incredible amount but um those lawn those lawns look nice during the winter but you know they almost stick out like a sore I guess not a sore thumb a pretty thumb but you know when you look at the neighborhoods and they're all brown except for one you know it's sort of like well
[speaker001:] yeah well I know my folks live uh in Arizona there and uh you know they just grow rocks and and stuff there well and that's their gardening there so uh I guess as long as you can have ah some grass there
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] so I know I was uh in uh Houston and I I was working for a company once and we were taking care of lawns out there and uh that particular year they had just tons of rain it was raining continuously so
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and then I know with all that moisture a lot of the lawns get a lot of disease problems
[speaker002:] yes that's true yeah Houston is a a lot um a lot wetter than than Dallas Dallas area that's where Plano is and um and just humidity
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] you know just all the time it's an awfully lot more humid
[speaker001:] are are you uh able to get uh sometimes a double crops of of certain things in your garden uh
[speaker002:] yes uh-huh I think people do yeah I don't have a vegetable garden haven't for I guess I never have here actually but um but yes uh-huh I'll we have Neil Sperry talks on the radio