Gardening Blog Posts

Amongst the terraced olive groves, pine-forested hills, and craggy rock outcrops of my childhood, I had many choice “secret gardens” to which I retreated to read or just be alone. Alone-time was quite scarce in our bustling home.

If you follow my gardening tips every other Friday, you know that I’m an advocate of prying out and pulling up weeds by hand, and I’ve promoted specific tools to get the job done efficiently.

One good thing that has come out of our pandemic lockdown is that many more people have discovered gardening since they’ve been forced to slow down and stay home.

We’ve been breaking one heat record after another in Texas this summer starting was back in May. It seemed like we skipped spring altogether!

Did you know that one dragon fly can eat 100 mosquitoes a day?

Zinnias defy the Texas heat. They seem to shout, “You can’t get too hot for us!”

Through trial and error, I’ve figured out that the healthiest flowers for the extreme, spur of the moment, erratic, fluctuating Texas weather are cultivated either as hardy fall-planted perennials, or direct-seed in the ground annuals, preferably those that self-seed.

In Texas, we’re already experiencing a smattering of 90 degree weather days. Our super-charged spring flowers are fading, making room for the summer perennials, stalwart annuals, and ever-present volunteer seedlings. April showers have passed, so what are our May flower bed chores?