What’s Going On In My Garden? – August Update

The heat is still here, and the rains haven’t been consistent for quite some time. But the good news is that fall rains and cooler weather are right around the corner. Now is the time to get your garden ready for its fall glory. Flowering Plants Your summer annuals and hot weather perennials are likely done or nearing the end of their bloom cycle. For your flowering annuals, you can let them go to seed in hopes that they reseed themselves for you next year. Zinnias and marigolds are very reliable in this fashion. Other flowering annuals, you can dead-head some species such as coleus, begonias, and impatiens as the petals fall off. This spurs them into creating more flowers instead of devoting their energy to creating seeds. The same can be done for your flowering perennials like roses. Roses should also be pruned to stimulate new growth. Climbing roses…

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Surviving North Texas Summers: Tips for a Thriving Garden

This is the time of year when people find out if they chose the right plant in the right place with the right amount of water. The opposite of the deep-freeze of winter, this scorching summer heat and lack of rain is pushing plants to their limit. We are inundated with customers complaining about dead gardens and lawns. With water restrictions in place, it is really difficult to get your plants and grass enough water to withstand the onslaught of summer. It doesn’t have to be this way. Properly designed, with sufficient moisture from an irrigation system or obsessive hand watering, your garden can in fact survive the summers of North Texas. As part of this, it is critical to water your plants deeply and infrequently. Deep watering is critical to helping your plants establish deep roots. Plants that are frequently watered may have the roots find their way closer…

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Plant Focus: Turk’s Cap Malvaviscus arboreus

This North Texas native excels in our climate and should have a place in nearly every garden. This perennial can get over four feet tall and nearly three feet wide in the far north of it’s habitat. In warmer climates where it grows year-round it can tower over seven feet tall. The Turk’s Cap can tolerate a wide variety of soil and water conditions and it has adapted to a wide range of climates with a range that extends from USDA zone 7 all the way south to Florida, Cuba, Mexico, and the entirety of the Gulf Coast. In southern climates that rarely get freezing weather the Turk’s Cap is an evergreen plant and will flower year-round. Further north it will die back to the ground in colder weather and reemerge every spring as a woody perennial. Malvaviscus arboreus is often found as an understory plant where it thrives in…

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All About Mulch

Garden mulch is simple topic that is often misunderstood by so many people. Mulch is far more than just a decorative finish for a garden bed. Used properly, mulch is one of the key ingredients for maintaining a healthy landscape. Used improperly and mulch can actually kill plants and drive off precious moisture. Let’s start by discussing dyed mulches. Mulch that has been dyed red or black is some of the most popular mulch out there, and one doesn’t have to look twice to realize why. It looks fantastic and can really make a boring garden bed pop. It used to be the case that dyed mulches used toxic and unnatural dyes. On occasion, especially with the cheapest mulch from the big box stores, this is still the case. By and large however, most dyed mulches use iron oxide for red and carbon for black and darker brown mulch. The…

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