Gardening Blog Posts

Several of you have commented on my Christmas Cactus picture I had posted on facebook and asked me follow up questions.

One of the most reliable flowers for Central Texas is the Coleus Plant, which truthfully only has spindly, scrawny flowers! The showy, drop dead gorgeous parts are its ornamental leaves that can carpet the moist, shady spots in your yard where nothing else thrives because of lack of sun.

Fall is on our doorstep which in butterfly life means that the great Monarch Migration is underway and gardeners are anxiously waiting to see if they planted the right flowers to nurture these butterflies on their trip to and from Mexico. Just such a plant is Butterfly Weed.

Instead of giving you an extensive to-do list for your September garden, I’d like to concentrate on one task, culling your perennials, whether self-propagating by seed or root.

It’s over 100 degrees in the afternoon and the plants are drooping their greenery as if to curl up and protect themselves from the brutal late summer heat.

What’s a partner plant and why are French marigolds the best choice for any garden? Companion or Partner Planting is a tried and true old-timey technique of intentionally cultivating plants together symbiotically to help each other.

Perennials are the roller coaster of the amusement park, the thrillers and architectural giants of the cottage style garden. They are plants that live for three years or longer. Most go dormant, returning better than before each season. Perennials operate like loyalty customer schemes where the longer they are planted, the more they reward you with spectacular profits year after year.

On those perfect, just right May days, we’re content to putter in the garden, because the actual work has already been done. The fruits of your labor are vying for attention as they show off their splendor! There are only a few maintenance chores and selective plantings to take care of this month.