Spring is in the air! I love seeing the trees bud out and the lawns green up, and I’m enjoying the nice weather.  Unfortunately, this beautiful spring weather has created perfect conditions for large patch in our St. Augustine grass and zoysia grass. Rhizoctonia solani is a fungus that is present in the soil year-round, but it takes advantage of cool temperatures and wet soil to cause a turfgrass disease known as large patch (sometimes referred to as brown patch in cool-season grasses.  The first symptom of large… Read More →

It only seems right that March should usher in springtime weather, but this year it brought a strong cold front through Central Texas. Of course, the cold front came just in time to endanger the young tomato transplants that we passed out at a recent Tomato Lunch and Learn at the AgriLife Extension Office. Despite the cold, I am very excited to see how the tomatoes perform. This year we are trying out two new varieties at the Demonstration Garden, Celebration and Super Sweet 100.  Two very dedicated… Read More →

It is almost spring in Texas, and the gardeners are getting busy! A few weeks ago, I shared information about pruning to help train plants, remove dead or diseased branches, and improve the quality of flowers and foliage.  As I drive around Williamson County, I have noticed that the crape myrtles in some landscapes are pruned a little too much.  In fact, we call this kind of pruning Crape Murder! Crape myrtles are a beautiful flowering plant that can be grown as a shrub or shaped into a… Read More →

It’s officially winter in Texas! Warm one day and cold the next!  This time of year is challenging for gardeners because we worry about protecting plants from freezes, getting enough chill hours for our fruit trees, and trying to control winter weeds like henbit, dandelion, and wild carrot.  Unfortunately, it’s also time to think about preventing our warm season weeds like crabgrass, carpetweed, pigweed, and many others. Mid-February is the time to put out pre-emergent weed killers if you have problems with weeds in your lawn. A pre-emergent… Read More →

Planting Trees   Earlier this week, the Williamson County Master Gardeners and I got to visit a third-generation nursery in De Leon, Texas, that grows and sells many of the pecan and fruit trees that are grown throughout Texas. Winter is a great time of year to plant pecan and fruit trees, so the staff at the nursery were running to fill orders. If you are thinking about planting trees this month, you need to know some important things about properly planting your tree. You can do everything… Read More →