Texas Gardening

Beneath a mature live oak in Central Texas, bare dirt is practically a rite of passage. Grass thins,…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Weeds in a Central Texas gravel driveway are not just an eyesore – they can crack edges, trap…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Every summer, Central Texas homeowners spot enormous wasps cruising low over their lawns and wonder whether something has…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Autumn sage, known botanically as Salvia greggii, is a Texas-native plant that has been refreshing sunny borders with…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 19

Watching your tomato plants push out a flush of fall flowers only to see every bloom fall to…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

A live oak turning yellow and dropping leaves in fall can stop a Central Texas homeowner cold, especially…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

Stepping out to check your fall broccoli and finding marble-sized heads instead of full crowns is genuinely frustrating,…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

White fuzzy patches creeping across crape myrtle trunks, followed by a sticky black coating, are turning heads in…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

When summer annuals start looking ragged on a Central Texas porch, a garden mum can swap in and…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

Finding a cluster of shallow holes scattered across your lawn on a Texas morning can stop you in…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 18

Few things are more frustrating than watching your camellia fill up with fat buds in fall, only to…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Something feels different about September in a Central Texas yard – a rustling near the woodpile, a shape…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Fall pansies are one of the most satisfying cool-season plants a Central Texas gardener can grow, but when…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Sago palms are tough, dramatic plants that anchor Central Texas landscapes, but a spread of yellow fronds can…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Tucked into the limestone canyons of Central Texas grows a native oak that most nurseries rarely carry and…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

Spotting a familiar backyard cardinal with a patchy, bare head can stop you cold, especially when the bird…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 17

If your potted lemon or backyard citrus tree has leaves that are curling, turning yellow, or showing strange…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Broccoli is one of those fall crops that Central Texas gardeners look forward to all year, but a…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Finding a shade tree that fits a small Central Texas lot without threatening your foundation feels like searching…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Walking out to your fall kale bed and finding the leaves chewed to lace is a frustrating way…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Walk past a Texas mountain laurel in late summer and you might hear a faint rattling from the…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Few things sting more than watching a pomegranate you’ve tended all season crack open just days before you…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 16

Lantana is one of the toughest bloomers you can grow in Central Texas, shrugging off triple-digit heat while…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Finding a brightly colored, spiny caterpillar on your backyard shrubs can stop a gardening session cold, especially when…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Brown edges on your oak leaves in the middle of a Central Texas summer can stop you cold,…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Stepping outside on a cool fall evening in Central Texas and finding a cluster of dark beetles battering…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

If your Central Texas tomato leaves look shiny, feel sticky, or have developed a black, soot-like coating, something…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

If you have a clump of lanceleaf coreopsis growing in your yard, you may already own the materials…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 15

Texas summers are brutal, and most shrubs planted in spring barely survive their first season before the heat…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

A woody vine that covers a fence with trumpet-shaped flowers and keeps its leaves through the hottest months…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

Warm Central Texas nights used to glow with tiny blinking lanterns, but many yards have gone dark over…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

A wildflower growing across Texas roadsides and meadows has picked up a reputation for keeping rats out of…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

Gardenias are one of the most rewarding plants you can grow on a Texas porch, but summer in…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

Look up on the right September afternoon in Central Texas and you might catch dozens of hawks spiraling…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 14

Something unsettling happens when you walk out to your garden one morning and find a rose bush that…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 13

Pecan trees are a proud fixture across Central Texas yards, and watching one shed leaves ahead of schedule…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 13

Every fall, Central Texas fig owners walk outside to find their tree stripped bare and start wondering if…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 13

Watching half-formed pecans hit the ground before they ever fill out is one of the more frustrating things…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 13

Bermudagrass has ruled Central Texas yards for decades, but some homeowners are taking a hard look at what…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 13

If your hummingbird feeder is going empty faster than you can keep up with in September, you are…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 13

Step outside on a Central Texas morning and you might find a scattering of fresh, cone-shaped holes punched…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 12

Brown patches spreading across a Central Texas lawn can feel alarming, especially when the grass that was green…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 12

Spotting a chunky, warty toad near your garden beds on a warm Central Texas evening is one of…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 12

Summer in the Texas Hill Country is no joke, and most flowering plants tap out long before August…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 12

Walk through your Central Texas yard on a late-summer morning and you might come face to face with…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 12

By late summer, most Central Texas flower beds are looking pretty rough. The petunias are leggy, the zinnias…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 11

Spotting a bobcat slipping through your yard just before dark can stop you in your tracks. These spotted…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 11

Dragonflies darting over a backyard pond are one of summer’s most satisfying sights, and they do eat mosquitoes…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 11

Blue plumbago puts on one of the most cheerful flower shows in a Central Texas yard, but come…

By Ella Brown T · Sep 11