Ella Brown T

Most Texas gardeners have tried basil, watched it struggle through August, and wondered whether anything edible could actually…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 1

Dragonflies have been patrolling Texas waterways and backyards long before air conditioning made summer bearable for the rest…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 1

Somewhere in a sun-baked Texas yard, a silver-leafed shrub sits quietly through weeks of summer heat, then flushes…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 1

When your city cuts you to one watering day a week, most shrubs start looking ragged fast. But…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 31

Hydrangeas are gorgeous, but keeping them happy through a Texas summer can feel like a full-time job. American…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 31

Seeing your oak drop leaves, turn brown, or look generally rough during a Central Texas heat wave can…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 31

September is a turning point for Texas rose growers in Central and South Texas. A well-timed light trim…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 31

When most flowering plants give up in the Texas heat, a tough native shrub keeps producing the red…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 31

Most Texas gardeners already know Knock Out roses, and for good reason. But every summer, those roses slow…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 31

Your gardenia has brown, crispy leaves and you want to know if the late-summer heat killed it or…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 30

A headline promising one native Texas plant that eliminates rats without traps sounds almost too good to be…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 30

If you want to block your neighbor’s view of your yard without waiting a decade for results, southern…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 30

Spotting a large snake near your shed or garage can stop you cold, but that animal coiling through…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 30

Crape myrtles are one of the most recognizable summer-flowering trees in Central Texas yards, and nearly every homeowner…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 30

A bare wood or wire fence baking in the Texas sun is an invitation for the right native…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 30

Finding a perennial that actually thrives in a Central Texas yard without constant babysitting sounds almost too good…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 29

Spotting a scorpion near your back door or porch light can stop you cold, especially when you are…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 29

Greater Roadrunners are one of those birds that make Central Texas feel genuinely wild, even in a suburban…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 29

Somewhere in a sunny Texas garden bed, a plant with slender, wand-like stems waves clusters of white flowers…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 29

Something large and buzzing is excavating your lawn right now, and the sight of it can stop a…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 29

Every summer, Texas gardeners watch their hostas turn brown at the edges and slowly give up in the…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 29

That soft trill or deep hoot drifting through your backyard after dark is one of the most recognizable…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 28

Most Texas yards have at least one sunny patch where grass struggles and weeds keep winning. Texas frogfruit,…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 28

Texas summers punish yards, patios, and anyone sitting outside when afternoon heat turns concrete into a griddle and…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 28

Most Texas gardeners spend summer fighting to keep plants alive, but one native shrub quietly thrives while neighbors…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 28

Swallowtail butterflies are some of the most striking visitors a Central Texas yard can host, with wingspans that…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 28

Most front entries in Texas take a beating every summer, and the plants that survive often look scraggly…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 28

When summer temperatures climb past the point where most garden plants give up, Texas gardeners need a reliable…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 27

Esperanza is one of those Texas plants that earns its place by showing off right when summer is…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 27

Hard clay soil turns most flower beds into a frustrating graveyard of wilted, struggling plants, but one Texas…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 27

Every spring, roadsides across Central Texas turn electric blue, and that same show is possible in your own…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 27

A plain wooden or chain-link fence can feel like a missed opportunity, especially when Central Texas summers bake…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 27

Texas backyards can do more than just feed your family. The right native and heat-tough vegetables shrug off…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 27

Most fruit trees wave the white flag when a Central Texas summer really gets going, dropping fruit, shutting…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 26

West Texas front yards take a beating every summer, and most trees imported from cooler, wetter climates show…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 26

Texas summers can push triple-digit temperatures for weeks at a stretch, and the trees in your yard are…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 26

Spotting a bobcat slipping through your backyard as the sun goes down can stop you in your tracks.…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 26

Every spring, bags of mulch pile up on driveways across Texas and Florida, and homeowners haul them out…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 26

Walking out to your Texas garden in July and finding wilted plants, scorched tomatoes, and empty pepper stems…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 26

Growing lemons on a Texas patio sounds like a stretch, but a container tree can actually pull it…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 25

Most Texas gardeners watch their tomatoes give up by July, leaving raised beds half-empty through the hottest weeks…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 25

By late summer, a lantana that was full and flowering in June can look like it gave up,…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 25

Summer on a Texas porch can feel like sharing your favorite chair with uninvited guests – specifically wasps…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 25

Rosemary is one of the most popular porch herbs in Texas, and lately it has been showing up…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 25

Texas lantana is one of the toughest flowering shrubs in the state, blooming from spring well into fall…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 25

Most Central Texas homeowners who end up with a brown, stressed lawn after mowing never meant to harm…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 24

Water restrictions are tightening across Texas, and plenty of homeowners are tired of watching their landscape plants struggle…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 24

A tiny leafhopper called the two-spotted cotton leafhopper has been officially detected in Texas, and state agriculture officials…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 24

Scorpions showing up inside a Central Texas home can catch anyone off guard, especially when the weather outside…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 24