Texas Gardening

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

Spotting a gray fox slipping through your yard at dusk is one of those Central Texas moments that…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 20

Watching fireflies blink across a dark Texas yard on a warm June evening is one of those simple…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 19

Summer heat in Texas is no joke, and a shady yard can feel like a completely different world…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 19

Plenty of Texas homeowners have stepped outside after dark and spotted a small, pale lizard frozen near the…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 19

If you have a sunny fence line in Central Texas and want to draw hummingbirds into your yard,…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 19

Adding a native grass to the edge of your Central Texas pond sounds like a simple fix for…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 19

Every summer in Texas, a striking bird with an impossibly long tail shows up on fence lines and…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 19

A plain wood or chain-link fence in eastern Texas can become something genuinely worth stopping to look at…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 18

Spot a small, pale lizard clinging to your fence or skittering across the porch wall after dark, and…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 18

Fireflies have a way of making a summer evening feel like something worth stepping outside for, and many…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 18

Painted buntings are among the most striking birds in North America, and Central Texas homeowners have real reason…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 18

Every spring, Central Texas homeowners yank a small purple-flowering plant out of their lawns without a second thought,…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 18

Central Texas summers push plants hard, and most foundation shrubs struggle to keep up. Texas sage, also called…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 18

If you live in Central Texas and have spotted a small, pale lizard clinging to your porch wall…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 17

A single vine can turn a plain fence into a butterfly nursery, and in Central Texas, one native…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 17

Plenty of gardening tips promise that one plant will solve your pest problems, but the real story is…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 17

Cardinals have a way of stopping you mid-step, especially when you suddenly notice three or four of them…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 17

Every spring, Central Texas homeowners yank out a slender, purple-flowered plant without a second thought, assuming it is…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 17

Walk outside on a Central Texas evening and you might catch the quick, zigzagging silhouette of a bat…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 17

Barn Swallows are among the most recognizable summer birds in Central Texas, swooping low over lawns and nesting…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 16

Rosemary is one of those plants that earns its spot on a Texas porch without much fuss. It…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 16

Every spring, Central Texas lawns light up with clusters of tiny purple flowers, and most homeowners reach for…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 16

A Texas-native passionflower vine climbing a backyard fence is a genuinely beautiful thing, and the idea that it…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 16

Spot a flash of bright green darting across a wooden fence in the Texas Hill Country, and you…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 16

Greater Roadrunners are one of Texas’s most recognizable birds, and yes, they do eat scorpions. But the idea…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 16

Fireflies flickering across a warm Texas evening feel like something out of a childhood memory, and many Central…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 15

Few backyard sightings stop a Texan in their tracks quite like a Greater Roadrunner trotting across the yard,…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 15

Plenty of Texas gardeners have heard that certain plants can help keep pests from sneaking inside, and spearmint…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 15

A headline claiming that a Texas native vine sends ticks packing sounds like exactly the backyard solution every…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 15

Somewhere in a Texas yard, a Greater Roadrunner is jogging across open ground, head low, eyes sharp, looking…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 15

A fragrant native shrub called Texas kidneywood grows wild across parts of South, Central, and West Texas, and…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 15

Texas homeowners sometimes spot a Greater Roadrunner sprinting across the yard and wonder what it would take to…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 14

Step onto a Texas porch on a warm summer night and you might catch a small gecko frozen…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 14

Planting a patch of native Texas wildflowers will not make mosquitoes pack up and leave your yard, but…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 14

A plant called catnip has been making the rounds online as a natural roach deterrent, and the science…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 14

Yaupon holly is a tough, native evergreen shrub that grows across Texas and Florida, and it can do…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 14

American beautyberry has been getting a lot of attention lately as a possible natural defense against ticks in…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 14

Spotting a small lizard clinging to your porch wall on a warm Texas evening is one of those…

By Ella Brown T · Aug 13