Texas Gardening

Summer evenings on a Texas porch come with unwanted company, and plenty of homeowners are looking for a…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 2

A bright-green spider hiding among your broccoli leaves is not a pest to sweep away. The green lynx…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 2

If you spend summer evenings on a Central Texas porch, you have probably spotted a small green lizard…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 2

Spotting a Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovering at a bloom in your Central Texas yard is one of those moments…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 1

Texas summers are brutal, and most plants either give up or need constant watering to survive. Texas lantana…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 1

Walk barefoot across a gravel yard on a July afternoon in Texas and you will know exactly why…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 31

Most hummingbirds are not looking for a feeder when they pass through your yard. They are looking for…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 31

Bougainvillea is one of the most dramatic plants you can grow in Texas, but that explosion of color…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 31

Gardenias are one of those plants that stop people in their tracks with their creamy white blooms and…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 31

Spotting a roadrunner trotting through your Texas yard after a long stretch of quiet is the kind of…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 31

Texas summers are relentless, and most flowering shrubs wave a white flag long before August is over. Esperanza,…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 31

A yellow wildflower with a dark, button-like center has been quietly showing up in Texas pollinator gardens for…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 30

Fall gardening in Texas is not a single starting gun fired across the whole state. Depending on where…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 30

Texas sage is one of the toughest shrubs growing in Texas yards, but a few wrong cuts can…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 30

Aphids can show up fast on Texas roses, vegetables, and ornamentals, and the urge to reach for a…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 30

Texas summers push plumeria to its limits, but these tropical beauties are tougher than most people think. The…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 30

Greater Roadrunners are one of Texas’s most recognizable birds, and yes, they really do eat scorpions. Making your…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 30

Late July heat is brutal in Texas, but for gardeners in the northern part of the state, it…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 29

Every summer, a leafy little plant starts showing up at Texas nurseries with a bold promise printed right…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 29

Step outside on a July afternoon in Texas and you might notice a lot more wasps buzzing around…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 29

Most patio plants in Texas give up sometime around mid-July, when the concrete radiates heat like a skillet…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 29

A Texas backyard can feel like a safe haven for kids and dogs, but ticks can show up…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 29

Rosemary is the fragrant, tough herb that Texas gardeners keep tucking near the front door every summer, and…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 29

Pickerelweed is a native Texas aquatic plant that blooms with blue-to-lavender flowers from June through October, and it…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 28

Rosemary is a fragrant, sun-loving herb that can thrive on a Texas patio through brutal summers, and plenty…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 28

Scorpions are a fact of life across most of Texas, and plenty of homeowners spray regularly without seeing…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 28

When that August heat dome parks itself over Texas and the temperature climbs past 100 for days on…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 28

A Texas patio in July can feel like a frying pan, especially when the concrete soaks up sunlight…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 28

A blank wooden fence baking in the Texas sun is basically a wasted opportunity. With the right climbing…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 28

Texas gardens face some brutal conditions, from triple-digit summers to strict water restrictions that leave lawns thirsty. The…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 27

South Texas summers can feel like an oven that never turns off, and a lot of pretty fruit…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 27

Your salvia looked great in spring, covered in flowers, and now it has gone quiet in the July…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 27

Knock Out roses get planted everywhere in Texas, but they often struggle once the triple-digit summers and water…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 27

Crape myrtles show up in half the yards across Texas, but they are not actually from here, and…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 27

Texas summers can punish roses fast, and what you do in the weeks before serious heat settles in…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 27

Texas weather does not play nice, with triple-digit summers, stubborn drought, and water restrictions that can leave a…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 26

Lantana has been the go-to border plant in Texas yards for years, but it can spread where you…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 26

A single shrub with fiery red-orange blooms can make your yard a much more welcoming place for hummingbirds…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 26

Every Texas gardener knows the disappointment of watching hostas melt in the summer heat, turning yellow and crispy…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 26

Gardenias are not easy plants to begin with, and a Texas July can push even a healthy one…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 26

A small, furry caterpillar found in Texas yards and gardens can cause a burst of pain that stops…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 26

If you have ever watched a shrub wilt into a sad brown pile by the middle of July,…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 25

Purple Martins are one of the most celebrated summer birds in Texas, swooping and chattering over neighborhoods from…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 25

Barn owls are one of nature’s most efficient nighttime hunters, and plenty of Texas homeowners wonder whether attracting…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 25

When temperatures push past 100 degrees in Texas, the birds visiting your yard face real challenges finding water…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 25

Scorpions have a way of showing up exactly where you don’t want them: on the back porch at…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 25

If hummingbirds have been missing from your yard lately, the fix likely involves more than one plant, but…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 25

Late summer in Texas can leave even tough lantana looking tired, with long leggy shoots and fewer fresh…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 24

Scorpions are a real concern for Texas homeowners, especially in summer when the striped bark scorpion turns up…

By Ella Brown T · Jul 24