Texas Gardening

Native toads are one of the most welcome surprises a Central Texas garden can host, showing up on…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 4

Spot a slender little lizard doing push-ups on your backyard fence and you might wonder whether it is…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 4

Reach into your okra row on a sweltering August afternoon and you already know the feeling: pods that…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 4

Scorpions are a real concern for Texas homeowners, and it is tempting to believe that one well-chosen plant…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 4

Barn Swallows swooping under a Texas porch or eave are one of summer’s more striking sights, and plenty…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 4

Every summer, Central Texas homeowners start finding scorpions inside their homes, and some wonder whether the toads living…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 3

Most Central Texas gardeners who spot a bright-green spider on their tomato plants reach for something to kill…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 3

That bright green lizard darting along your back fence is more than a cool summer sighting. Green anoles…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 3

Summer in Central Texas brings scorching heat, and with it, grasshoppers that can shred a vegetable bed almost…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 3

Spotted a quick little lizard darting across your porch railing and wondered if it was doing you a…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 3

Okra growers across Central Texas know the frustration well: you checked the garden two days ago, everything looked…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 3

Scorpions are a real summer concern for Central Texas homeowners, and the idea that backyard toads might eat…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 2

Aphids can show up fast on fall vegetable crops in Central Texas, and green lacewings are one of…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 2

Barn Owls are one of the most recognizable raptors in Texas, with their ghostly white faces and silent…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 2

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