Category Archives: Horticulture
Squash Vine Borer
May is the fun gardening month when vegetable gardens seem to grow overnight! Just this week we have enjoyed fresh lettuce and spinach salads, the last of the Texas Superstar Green Magic broccoli, and a homegrown blackberry cobbler from the garden. The onions are getting close to harvest, and I cannot wait to try out the purple potatoes that I planted this year. Unfortunately, a few garden pests have also started enjoying the daily buffet found in our garden spot. Warm weather brings out the garden pests, including… Read More →
Take All Root Rot
Springtime weather brings beautiful wildflowers, lovely weather for picnics, and lots of fungus among us. I wish I was talking about tasty mushrooms that we can sauté with a good steak, but the fungus that is popping up in many lawns this spring is Take All Root Rot. Take All Root Rot, gaeumannomyces graminis var. garminis, is a fungual disease that causes weak, dead patches in turfgrass. St. Augustine grass is most affected by take-all root rot, but it can also affect bermudagrass and Zoysia grass. The symptoms… Read More →
Spring Pruning
One of the first signs that I look for to know that spring has finally arrived are blooming shrubs like bridal wreath spirea, forsythia, and quince. The red flowers on quince seem to pop out just when I am starting to think that winter will never end, and my bridal wreath spirea gets the season going with showy white flowers. These early spring blooming shrubs are great to have in the landscape to add color to your landscape earlier in the year. If you have spring-blooming shrubs, one… Read More →
Hummingbirds
One of the best parts of gardening is sitting back to enjoy the garden and all the garden visitors. As much as I love to plant new things and tend to my veggies and flowers, the ultimate reward is relaxing in my garden chairs to watch the hummingbirds visit the Turk’s Cap for their early evening snack and see the fat bumblebees in the comfrey. Hummingbirds are so fun to watch, and I have worked to add plants to my landscape that will provide nectar for hummingbirds and… Read More →
Spring Lawn Tasks
Spring is in the air! Well, spring was in the air last week, but this is Texas, and we never know when that last bit of winter will hit. Even if the weather is confused about which season it is, the calendar tells me that it is time to get outside and start working in the lawn. This cold snap is a good time to start making a to-do list for your lawn. If you need to fertilize your lawn, now is a good time to take a… Read More →
Cucumber Beetles
This week I had a conversation with a newcomer to Williamson County who was interested in plant recommendations for our area and lawncare guidelines. I have those conversations fairly often, and usually some of the questions are focused on the weather and how different it is in Texas. Lately, I have to laugh and say that it has been a weird few years, even for Texas! The weather already feels like spring, and we are just in the beginning of March. I love warm weather, and I am… Read More →
Tree Damage Assessment After the Ice Storm
As I write, the roads are slick with ice and tree crews are out clearing broken limbs from the road. This week feels a little bit like a flashback to Winter Storm Uri, at least as far as ice and tree damage. Before you lose all hope for your trees, let me give a few tips and some encouragement to be patient. The good news about this winter storm is that the temperatures did not get much below freezing.
Garden Journal
One thing I love about gardening is the camaraderie and conversations that you get to have with other like-minded plant lovers. I always learn good tips from other gardeners, and they are usually willing to share plants, too! You know you have made friends with a gardener when they offer to let you take cuttings from a plant or give you some bulbs that they divided. Several great gardeners that I admire recommend keeping a gardening journal, and that is one tip that I plan to try out… Read More →
New Year Garden Tasks
January 2023 has started off with beautiful weather and sunny days. This kind of weather makes it nice to get outside and work in the lawn, and there is always something to do in our lawns and gardens. If you made a New Year’s Resolution to get more exercise, then yard work is the perfect opportunity. The winter months are a great time to prune trees. Most of our trees have lost their leaves, making it easy to see the limb structure, and it is better for the… Read More →
Free Compost
Trees offer a lot of great things in our world. They provide shade on hot days, they are beautiful points of interest in the landscape, and they put off oxygen. Trees go one step further by providing free compost every fall! We have really had some beautiful fall color during the last few weeks, and the trees are starting to lose their leaves. Before you purchase landscape waste bags and start raking, consider using the leaves for mulch or compost in your landscape. Leaves can be used in… Read More →
