Texas Gardening

Picture a shrub covered in white golf-ball-sized flowers that look like tiny pincushions stuck full of pins. That…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 14

Your crape myrtles worked hard all summer, blooming through triple-digit Texas heat while other plants gave up. Now…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 14

Tall, feathery grass along a fence line can make a yard look soft and full of motion. Pampas…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 14

Fig trees are tough enough to handle a Central Texas summer, but fall is when a lot of…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 14

You glance out the window and there it is again, a rough-scaled lizard stretched out on the fence…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 14

Many Texas homeowners notice one day that the roadrunner that used to dash across the lawn hasn’t shown…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 13

Picking a tree for the spot beside your driveway can feel like a gamble. Roots, shade, and slab…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 13

October is the secret season for planting trees in Texas. The soil is still warm, the brutal heat…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 13

A good privacy screen can make a Texas backyard feel like a calmer place to sit. Yaupon holly…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 13

A big, cone-nosed insect crawling near your porch light can make anyone stop in their tracks. In Central…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 13

Winter is planting season in Central Texas, even if the calendar says otherwise. Roots grow strong in cool…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 13

Texas sage is a silvery, heat-loving shrub that looks great beside a front walk. Some people say it…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 12

A noisy blue jay lands on your lawn, grabs an acorn, and flies off again. Minutes later it…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 12

A praying mantis waiting beside a hummingbird feeder sounds like something out of a nature thriller. Mantises can…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 12

Fig trees look tough, and in much of Texas they are. Still, a few choices made between October…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 12

Fall in Texas is when many gardeners grab the pruners and start tidying up tired beds. Some perennials…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 12

You flip on the porch light after dark and there it is again, a small gecko clinging to…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 12

Late in the season, a front yard can go quiet fast. One Texas shrub keeps pushing out bright…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 11

You reach under a flat rock to pull a weed, and something sharp stings your finger. Scorpions live…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 11

Bare foundation lines look rough, and nobody wants rats moving in next to the house. It is tempting…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 11

A porch pot can look tired by the time fall settles in, but pansies can give it a…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 11

Plenty of Texans have heard that one old-fashioned porch plant can keep hornets away from the front door.…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 11

Picture a clump of fine green grass that suddenly floats a cloud of pink and purple above your…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 11

When the summer heat finally breaks in Central Texas, most gardeners feel like the season is over. In…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 10

Every October, Texas gardeners line up before sunrise with wagons, coolers, and wish lists in hand. Fall is…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 10

Silvery leaves and purple blooms make cenizo one of the most recognizable shrubs in Texas. Once its roots…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 10

Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies funnel through Central Texas on their long trip to the mountains of…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 10

If your feeder suddenly got busier in October, you are not imagining it. A wave of northern birds…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 10

Triple-digit Texas summers make shade feel like a necessity, not a luxury. Many homeowners wonder which native tree…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 10

A small lizard keeps turning up near your front door, and you start to wonder why. In Austin…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 9

Some Central Texas homeowners are trading thirsty turf for a grass that grew on the plains long before…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 9

A bare strip of gravel along a Texas driveway soaks up heat and gives nothing back to the…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 9

Few Texas shrubs keep their red flowers coming when the summer sun is at its worst. Turk’s cap…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 9

When Central Texas nights finally cool off in fall, black widow spiders start looking for sheltered spots, and…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 9

Most Texas gardens look tired by the end of a long, hot summer, but fall is when the…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 8

Garlic is one of the few crops you plant in fall and pick months later, and it turns…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 8

Crossvine is a tough, red-orange flowering vine that can climb a Texas fence and offer nectar to hummingbirds.…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 8

Waking up to a patch of torn-up turf is frustrating, especially when it looks like someone came back…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 8

You walk past your live oak and notice leaves with veins that have gone yellow, then brown. Many…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 8

You step outside with your coffee and find a strip of lawn peeled back like a rug. Nothing…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 8

Late summer in Texas can leave garden beds looking tired and washed out. Flame acanthus is a tough…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 7

Many Texas gardeners hope one native plant can bring in graceful Barn Swallows and cut down on mosquitoes.…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 7

A plumeria that sat in full Texas sun all summer can be hurt fast when a cold snap…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 7

A bare chain-link fence shows your neighbors everything and gives birds nothing. Yaupon holly is a tough Southern…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 7

As Texas nights cool off, the orange-red flowers on a firebush can still be glowing in the garden.…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 7

Fall is the secret planting season in Texas, when cooler air and warm soil give new roots a…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 7

If you are tired of trimming a ligustrum hedge, you may be wondering what else could fill the…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 6

Every winter, plenty of Central Texas lawns fade to straw while the shady corners look worst of all.…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 6

Maybe you have heard a loud, scolding call from the oak tree and looked up to see a…

By Ella Brown T · Oct 6