Several folks asked for a LABELED produce chart showing pesticide levels, so here it is! RED means it is likely to have a higher level and GREEN means a lower level usually.
Lately, I’m getting more requests from my landscaping clients who’ve never considered themselves gardeners to grow their own food. And they want to do it organically. Horror stories of tainted greens drive many to question what else they might be buying in that bag of lettuce or spinach. Restaurants, bars, and even airlines blame skyrocketing prices for dropping lime […]
My friend Kylee announced last week she had contracted a common gardening disease. My exposure coincided with hers, although we live nowhere close to one another. And we aren’t unique this time of year. As seedlings emerge in the warm spring sun, so do we gardeners. For the 85% of Americans who react to some degree to a plant […]
We’ve put in some new plants this spring and wondered what type of fertilizer you’d recommend. Depends. What type of plants? What type of soil? The best fertilizer for all plants and all soil types is rich soil. Don’t have that yet? Here’s my favorite fertility Rxs for the plantings here in my Texas garden. Here goes: […]
If you’re like me, it’s tough passing up after-Christmas bargains. And since my drug of choice is plants, a trip to the nursery the 1st week of January means I’ll extend the season with HUGE, beautiful poinsettias for less than $5 each. I look at this as a quick high, a temporary fix, though. You […]
Recently I heard you speak and you mentioned using RoundUp could hurt more than the weeds in my yard. Can you explain? Happy to expound on this one. A few weeks ago a neighborhood association asked me to look over their contract with a local lawn maintenance company. Immediately I redlined a problem: it specifically […]
Help! We bought a house in the suburbs that needed new landscaping, but every time I put out plants, the deer come during the night and eat them. What can I do? Ask folks planning a move into the countryside how they feel about nature and they’ll express devotion. A year and hundreds of landscaping […]
My newest book is progressing nicely. All work on it has halted for the moment, however: the boss bumped me to a new office upstairs. In most worlds, moving up in the building = moving up in the company. Not so much here. I’ll have to actually MAKE an office before I can work in […]
My confession that rules were blatantly disregarded when I planted shrubs during July brought sorrowful bent heads and looks of disapproval. And those were just from Gus the Wonder Cat….. I can imagine what your thoughts on the subject might be. As a designer, I often myself tempted to The Dark Side, putting FORM before […]
To celebrate August, the end-of- summer (since schools start ever-earlier), I’ll have a FREE FRIDAY tomorrow. Go to my author FaceBook page and pick which one of my children’s books you want and I’ll pick you. Or Gus the Wonder Cat will pick for me. IF he’s in the mood for that kind of thing. […]
After it rains, our back yard takes forever to drain. It’s so discouraging to plant things and they drown. How can we get rid of the water without flooding our neighbors? Drainage dilemmas plague many folks, either with seasonal sinkholes where water collects after a rain or a spot that’s always spongy and nothing grows […]
This week I’ve been working with my friend Cindy Huey on the area in my front yard near the entrance. When we moved to this house a few months ago, there were two huge sago palms (which are highly toxic, by the way) and 20 shrubs in an area barely large enough to support one of the […]
This week I had great fun with the Ft. Bend Master Gardeners in Rosenberg, Texas. They wanted to hear about one of my plant passions: wildflowers. (I’m sharing a list of my favorite wildflowers at the end of this post, plus a FREE BOOK for a lucky winner!) Many Americans alive today were not around [...]
Head to my author FaceBook page if you want a copy of one of my books. Gus will do the drawing later today, so you better hurry!
This year has begun the same way last year ended: I’m behind. My intentions – like that of most other bloggers – are pretty straightforward. Most of us try and get a new post up every couple of weeks, if not weekly. My record does not reflect my intentions. Yes, it’s been a crazy year… [...]
This week I’m working on projects at my daughter’s house as we await the imminent arrival of my 1st grandchild. Her nesting has created a long list of honey-do’s and momma-do’s and at the top of her list was something she’d seen on Pinterest: an exterior coffee table made of wooden crates. Upon visiting the Abilene, [...]
Several weeks ago I got a package from Dramm Corporation, a great North American company that started out producing commercial landscaping products but known now primarily for their incredible hose-end watering tools, like the classic Rain Wand. They asked me to try some of their other products and sent enough for YOU to try them, [...]
We’ve moved. Again. For the last time. Again. People ask “how can you leave your gorgeous garden?” Those people don’t know me. I’m a garden gypsy. When I get close to being finished, it is time to move on and find a new challenge. It’s difficult to see things objectively with your own child. Someone says “oh, [...]
Tomorrow I’ll start the trek back to Texas after a month in Colorado in grad school and my posts on GardenDishes will resume. In the meantime, hope you’ll go to my Facebook author page for a FREE book give-away! If you have gardening questions, please send them my way. I’m ready to go back to work…. [...]
How to Grow Lemongrass in Your Garden One of the most exotic herbs you can grow in your garden is lemongrass. It’s extremely easy to grow and spreads rapidly, making it a great choice for even the novice gardener. You can start lemongrass from what you buy at the grocery store or a farmer’s market. [...]
Watching the nightly news is painful, isn’t it? I hate it in the same way I hate coming up on a bad car-wreck: I look but I always wish I hadn’t. From the newscasts, it would seem playing outside is one of the most dangerous things a kid can do. As a child of the 60′s, [...]
Powerful color can be powerful in the landscape. The impact of massed color makes a showy display, even from a distance. Don’t like the cottage garden look? No worries. Try a monochromatic scheme instead. Pairings of similarly hued plants – whether it’s the bloom or the foliage – fits well in any style landscape, from modern [...]
A few months ago my doctor put me on a LOW-FODMAP diet. The bottom line is I can’t eat lots of things I love anymore. Including figs. That might not be a big deal to you, but it is to me. Making fig preserves each autumn is a tradition for my dad and me to do [...]
Lately, I’ve gotten several questions about the best way to start seeds in the ground, also called straight sown seeds. (Of course, I don’t DO straight lines, so that is a bit of an oxymoron at my house…..) I don’t know that my way is the BEST, but it works well for me. I’m open [...]
Scary to see someone you love labeled as sick, isn’t it? The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming. However, after 5 days in the hospital with a family member who I almost lost, I’m back out in my garden, thankful for the abundance of life around me and recognizing its incredible fragility. What I labeled as “healthy” [...]
I would love a printable copy Cherie!! What have I had luck growing? Birds ate my nice tomato crop!! Lol. I need some tips and practice I guess :) Kerry
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Kerry, happy to get that to you. But don’t give up on growing tomatoes just yet. Buy some netting to put over your tomato plants before the birds make them lunch. (I also use netting over my strawberries for the same reason.) If you love having birds in your garden, too, plant a little extra so everyone can share the harvest. cc: