Ella Brown T

Central Texas summers bring heat, and with the heat come clouds of mosquitoes hovering over every backyard. Purple…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 22

Possumhaw holly is a Central Texas native shrub that can genuinely help Eastern Bluebirds by providing bright winter…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 22

Something is wrong with a lot of Central Texas oaks this fall, and homeowners are right to pay…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 22

Every fall, Central Texas homeowners start hunting for a shade tree that can survive scorching summers, rocky Hill…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 21

Holiday amaryllis bulbs are one of the easiest ways to bring bright color indoors during the winter, but…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 21

Spotting a Great Horned Owl perched in your yard as the sun goes down over Central Texas is…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 21

Central Texas oaks are some of the most valued trees in any yard, and watching one drop leaves…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 21

Purple Martins are one of the most eagerly watched signs of spring across Central Texas, and plenty of…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 21

Walk the edge of almost any Central Texas creek and you might notice a tree you can’t quite…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 21

Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies funnel through Texas on their way to wintering grounds in Mexico, and…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 20

Rock and gravel can look tidy in a planting bed, but exposed stone in a sunny Texas yard…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 20

A sweet-smelling yellow vine that can handle Texas heat sounds almost too good to be true, and the…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 20

Somewhere between the cedar and limestone of the Texas Hill Country, a fruit tree most neighbors have never…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 20

Snapdragons are one of the best cool-season flowers you can grow in Central Texas, but many gardeners watch…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 20

Lantana is one of the most familiar shrubs in Central Texas yards, showing up in front beds, highway…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 20

Fall spinach is one of the most rewarding cool-season crops a Central Texas gardener can grow, but getting…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

One native shrub has been quietly earning a reputation as a mosquito-fighter across the Southern United States, and…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Beneath a mature live oak in Central Texas, bare dirt is practically a rite of passage. Grass thins,…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Weeds in a Central Texas gravel driveway are not just an eyesore – they can crack edges, trap…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Every summer, Central Texas homeowners spot enormous wasps cruising low over their lawns and wonder whether something has…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Autumn sage, known botanically as Salvia greggii, is a Texas-native plant that has been refreshing sunny borders with…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Watching your tomato plants push out a flush of fall flowers only to see every bloom fall to…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

A live oak turning yellow and dropping leaves in fall can stop a Central Texas homeowner cold, especially…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

Stepping out to check your fall broccoli and finding marble-sized heads instead of full crowns is genuinely frustrating,…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

White fuzzy patches creeping across crape myrtle trunks, followed by a sticky black coating, are turning heads in…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

When summer annuals start looking ragged on a Central Texas porch, a garden mum can swap in and…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

Finding a cluster of shallow holes scattered across your lawn on a Texas morning can stop you in…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

Few things are more frustrating than watching your camellia fill up with fat buds in fall, only to…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Something feels different about September in a Central Texas yard – a rustling near the woodpile, a shape…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Fall pansies are one of the most satisfying cool-season plants a Central Texas gardener can grow, but when…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Sago palms are tough, dramatic plants that anchor Central Texas landscapes, but a spread of yellow fronds can…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Tucked into the limestone canyons of Central Texas grows a native oak that most nurseries rarely carry and…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Spotting a familiar backyard cardinal with a patchy, bare head can stop you cold, especially when the bird…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

If your potted lemon or backyard citrus tree has leaves that are curling, turning yellow, or showing strange…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Broccoli is one of those fall crops that Central Texas gardeners look forward to all year, but a…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Finding a shade tree that fits a small Central Texas lot without threatening your foundation feels like searching…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Walking out to your fall kale bed and finding the leaves chewed to lace is a frustrating way…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Walk past a Texas mountain laurel in late summer and you might hear a faint rattling from the…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Few things sting more than watching a pomegranate you’ve tended all season crack open just days before you…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Lantana is one of the toughest bloomers you can grow in Central Texas, shrugging off triple-digit heat while…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Finding a brightly colored, spiny caterpillar on your backyard shrubs can stop a gardening session cold, especially when…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Brown edges on your oak leaves in the middle of a Central Texas summer can stop you cold,…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Stepping outside on a cool fall evening in Central Texas and finding a cluster of dark beetles battering…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

If your Central Texas tomato leaves look shiny, feel sticky, or have developed a black, soot-like coating, something…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

If you have a clump of lanceleaf coreopsis growing in your yard, you may already own the materials…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Texas summers are brutal, and most shrubs planted in spring barely survive their first season before the heat…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

A woody vine that covers a fence with trumpet-shaped flowers and keeps its leaves through the hottest months…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

Warm Central Texas nights used to glow with tiny blinking lanterns, but many yards have gone dark over…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

A wildflower growing across Texas roadsides and meadows has picked up a reputation for keeping rats out of…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14