Starter Gardener

Follow these quick tips to make your garden glow and give your water bill a break. New Year’s may get all the glory, but to me fall always feels like another fresh start as kids head back to [...]

If you’ve seen a boastfully bright orange butterfly beating about your bushes, there may be a passionflower vine hiding in plain sight. Sometimes, uninvited guests can actually be helpful. [...]

Tired of endless watering and changing out bedding plants? There’s likely a perennial salvia that would love to grow in your landscape. There’s a salvia for every occasion in the Texas landscape. [...]

There are plenty of plants that don’t require a lot of water or maintenance. And many of them will bloom all summer long with very little attention from you. A hot and dry summer doesn’t [...]

Adding extra days to your irrigation system schedule won’t quench your landscape’s thirst. But it will soak your water bill. Central and South Texas have been blessed with an unprecedented amount [...]

In Texas, a lawn is a precious thing — not a default groundcover to be wasted on side yards and medians. But selecting the right turf type makes all the difference. Despite all the wonderful [...]

There are lots of plants with some degree of toxicity to pets, but most are not a threat except in extreme cases of allergy or unusual consumption.  By Calvin Finch, Ph.D. If your experience with [...]

Once-a-week watering is more than enough for your landscape, especially if it’s loaded with lush, drought-hardy plants.  With the chaos of the recent extreme winter weather, not to mention our [...]

There is a limit to how much water is actually beneficial to your landscape. Make sure you’re the one running the show.  Settling into a new home can be stressful enough without the added [...]

Hardy winter perennials like salvias and Turk’s caps typically thrive without any additional water. And they entice a spectacular show of some of the feistiest, freakiest hummingbirds of the [...]