Ella Brown T

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

Texas summers test every tree in the yard, and water restrictions can make it even harder to keep…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 24

Most Texas gardeners walk past bougainvillea at the nursery without giving it a second look, assuming it belongs…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 24

Texas lantana is a tough, sun-loving native shrub that blooms in bursts of orange and yellow across central…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 23

Red-tip photinia was once the go-to fence shrub across Texas, but many homeowners are watching their hedges turn…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 23

Texas lantana is built for brutal summers, so when it stops flowering in the middle of July, something…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 23

Some Texas water providers will pay you to pull out your grass and replace it with a drought-tolerant…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 23

Most Texas homeowners with a hot, rocky slope have already tried something that failed – turf grass that…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 23

Late August is a good moment to take a close look at your crape myrtles and decide whether…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 23

Every Texas neighborhood has at least one street lined with crape myrtles, and for good reason – they…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 22

Finding a foundation shrub that holds up through a Texas summer and still looks good planted against heavy…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 22

Most Texas gardeners spend money every spring replacing plants that didn’t survive winter, but there’s one native shrub…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 22

Every spring, a cheerful yellow flower pops up across Central Texas lawns, and most homeowners yank it out…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 22

That shaded corner of your yard where nothing seems to grow might finally have a solution. Wishbone flower,…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 22

A popular claim circulating among Texas homeowners says that placing a certain porch plant near your front door…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 22

Bare borders in Central Texas are a real problem. The summer heat, thin rocky soil, and unpredictable rainfall…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 21

Rosemary shows up on a lot of Texas patios, and it earns its spot. It handles brutal summer…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 21

Pulling weeds from a Texas flower bed in July is nobody’s idea of a good time, and most…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 21

When a Texas summer turns brutal and most of the yard looks scorched and spent, finding a plant…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 21

August in Central Texas is brutal, but it is also the month that decides whether you get a…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 21

Every summer, Texas porches become prime real estate for wasps looking to build their next nest, and plenty…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 21

Every summer, Texas homeowners start spotting scorpions in places they really did not expect – inside a shoe,…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 20

Texans who spend time on a covered patio know the frustration of sweeping up a constant mess of…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 20

A bare chain-link fence is one of the least inspiring sights in a Texas yard, but star jasmine…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 20

Rosemary is a Mediterranean herb that many Texas gardeners are discovering works surprisingly well in bright, sunny spots…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 20

When a Texas summer turns brutal and watering restrictions kick in, most yards start looking rough fast. Orange…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 20