TEXAS

If your Texas porch is missing something and you can not quite put your finger on what, lemongrass would like to make its case. This tall, grassy herb is striking enough to work as a genuine statement plant, smells like a fresh citrus dream on warm summer evenings, and carries a reputation for making outdoor…

Texas homeowners are pretty good at staying alert to the obvious summer hazards. Scorpions near the porch, wasps setting up under the eaves, the occasional snake along the fence line: these things get attention and rightfully so. But here is something worth stopping to think about. One of the most popular ornamental shrubs in Texas…

Hornets near your front entry have a way of making every trip in and out of your house feel a little tense. That nervous glance upward before reaching for the door handle, the careful scan of the eaves before stepping outside. Most people deal with it through sprays and nest removal, which works temporarily but…

Everyone in Texas knows about fire ants. They’re infamous, they’re everywhere, and nobody needs convincing that they’re a problem. But there’s an invasive species doing arguably more damage to Texas native habitat every single year that barely gets talked about at all. It doesn’t sting. It doesn’t swarm. It just grows, quietly and relentlessly, crowding…

July is not the month most Texas gardeners think about planting perennials. The heat is intense, the ground is tough, and the idea of putting new plants in the soil during the hardest stretch of summer feels counterintuitive. But here’s what experienced Texas gardeners know that beginners often miss. Certain perennials actually establish remarkably well…

Rats in backyard garden borders are a problem most Texas homeowners discover at the worst possible moment. Chewed produce, disturbed mulch, tunnels appearing seemingly overnight. And once rats find a comfortable spot along your garden borders, convincing them to leave becomes a real project. Most people go straight to traps or bait stations. Those work,…

Lilacs in Texas are a labor of love. They don’t have it easy in this climate, and anyone growing them here already knows the extra effort involved. But when a Texas lilac blooms, even modestly, it feels like a genuine reward for all that patience and attention. The fragrance alone makes it worth it. The…

If you have ever stood in your backyard swatting mosquitoes while wishing something would just eat them, you are not alone. Dragonflies are one of nature’s most effective mosquito hunters, capable of catching prey more than 95 percent of the time. They are faster, more precise, and more relentless than any spray or citronella candle…

Guinea Fowl are one of those backyard additions that sound like a brilliant idea the moment you hear about them. Tick control? Check. Pest management? Apparently yes. Entertainment value from watching a flock of dramatically opinionated birds roam your property? Absolutely, and that part is completely free. Texas gardeners and rural property owners have been…

If your Texas porch could use a little more life this season, and honestly, whose couldn’t, Autumn Sage might be exactly what you have been missing. Known botanically as Salvia greggii, this native Texas plant produces tubular, nectar-rich flowers that hummingbirds find genuinely hard to resist from spring well into fall. The best part is…

Have you ever walked out to your Texas garden in the early morning and locked eyes with a coyote standing right there like it owns the place? That moment of stillness before it turns and disappears is equal parts thrilling and unsettling. And once it happens, the questions start. Why was it there? Will it…

Dragonflies are one of the most effective natural mosquito controls available to Texas gardeners, and most people walk right past the opportunity to attract them without realizing it. A single dragonfly can take out an impressive number of mosquitoes in a day, working through your yard quietly and continuously without any effort from you. The…

Texas gardens can be tricky, especially when you’re dealing with blazing heat and heavy clay soil. Many plants struggle under these conditions, but there are foundation plants built to handle the challenges and still look beautiful all year long. Choosing the right varieties means your garden can thrive with less effort, providing structure, greenery, and…

If armadillos have been tearing up your Texas yard night after night, you might be starting to feel like they have a personal grudge against you. The same spots getting dug up repeatedly, the same areas looking like a small excavation crew came through while you were sleeping. It feels random, but it is anything…

Something is moving through Texas vegetable gardens right now, and it’s spreading faster than most gardeners are prepared for. Plants that looked healthy just days ago are suddenly showing damage that’s hard to explain at first glance. Yellowing leaves, stunted growth, distorted stems, produce that never quite develops the way it should. And by the…

Texas gardeners know the nursery aisle routine. Tomatoes, basil, citrus, maybe a peach tree with a hopeful tag. Easy. Familiar. Then you search for the plants that actually taste like Texas history, and suddenly the shelves get strangely quiet. The wild chile your grandmother mentioned? The tart berry shrub birds seem to guard? The dark…

Roadrunners have been part of the Texas landscape for as long as anyone can remember. Darting across caliche roads, hunting through brushy yards, showing up in places that make you stop and smile. But across the state, sightings are becoming less common, and the reasons have a lot to do with what’s happening in Texas…

Texas sycamore trees are facing a quiet threat, and it’s spreading through both riverside landscapes and residential yards at a worrying pace. These towering trees have long been a familiar sight along Texas waterways and in shaded backyards, offering shelter and beauty that’s hard to replace. But an invasive pest is putting all of that…

The Texas Hill Country is home to some of the state’s most beautiful and ecologically important native plant communities. Rolling landscapes filled with wildflowers, native grasses, and trees that have supported local wildlife for generations. But right now, a fast spreading invasive vine is tearing through these landscapes, and the damage is happening faster than…

Deer, ticks, and rabbits all in one garden is enough to make any Texas gardener want to give up entirely. Deer browse through carefully tended beds overnight. Rabbits nibble seedlings down to nothing. And ticks lurk in the vegetation waiting for their next opportunity. Dealing with all three at once feels like a full time…

Lantana has been a Texas garden staple for years, and it’s easy to see why. It’s tough, colorful, and laughs in the face of summer heat. But if you’ve been growing lantana for a while, you might have started noticing its downsides. It can get scraggly, spread aggressively, and in some parts of Texas it…

A flash of brown and white darts across the fence line, gone before you can fully process what you just saw. Maybe it started with that strange clucking sound that definitely did not come from your neighbor’s house, or a quick glimpse of something moving low and fast through the yard at sunrise. If you…

Texas summers are no joke. The sun blazes, the ground bakes, and most plants wave a white flag by July. Gardeners who chose the wrong flowers spend half the summer replacing what the heat finished off and wondering why they bothered. The right flowers change everything. Texas has a lineup of heat-tolerant bloomers that do…

There’s a plant that used to grow in almost every Texas grandmother’s garden. You might remember seeing it without ever knowing its name. A familiar presence in the backyard, maybe climbing a fence or sprawling across a sunny bed, blooming reliably every season without anyone making much of a fuss over it. It was just…

Most of the time when someone warns you that a plant spreads aggressively, it’s bad news. You end up with something taking over your garden beds, crowding out everything you actually want, and showing up in places you definitely did not invite it. But every once in a while, aggressive spreading is exactly what you…

A south facing Texas patio is not for the faint hearted. The sun hits directly, the concrete absorbs every bit of that heat and radiates it back upward, and the temperature in that space can run significantly hotter than the air around it. Most plants placed in these conditions don’t last long. A few weeks…

Texas heat waves are brutal for everyone, and backyard birds are no exception. While humans can retreat to air conditioning and cold drinks, the birds visiting your yard have no such luxury. They rely entirely on what’s available in their environment to get through the hottest days of the year, and in many neighborhoods, that…

Purple martins are one of the most sought after backyard birds in Texas, and for good reason. They’re beautiful, they’re social, and they have an impressive appetite for flying insects that makes them a genuine asset to any yard. But attracting and keeping purple martins is not as simple as putting up a birdhouse and…

Big box garden centers are great for grabbing tomato starts and hanging baskets, but if you want the plants that actually belong in Texas soil, you usually have to look somewhere else. Native plants are tough, beautiful, and built for Texas heat, drought, and wildlife. They feed pollinators, support birds, and cut your water bill…

If a bold, bright blue bird has been showing up in your Texas yard with the kind of confidence that suggests it owns the place, that is almost certainly a Blue Jay, and honestly, it has earned that attitude. These birds are hard to miss and even harder to ignore, with vivid blue feathers, loud…

Bare patches of soil in a Texas garden bed are basically a welcome sign for things you did not invite. Fire ants, in particular, have a well-documented appreciation for sunny, disturbed, open ground, and if your beds have gaps between plants, those spots are going to get noticed. Not exactly the garden vibe anyone is…

Finding a scorpion near your front door is the kind of discovery that changes how you approach every single entry and exit from that point forward. Shoes get checked. Door frames get inspected. That casual barefoot step outside before bed becomes a thing of the past. And if you live in Texas, this is not…

Spider mites are one of those garden problems that can sneak up on you fast, especially in July. One week your plants look fine. The next, you’re noticing a subtle dullness to the leaves, some faint stippling, maybe a delicate webbing tucked along the undersides. By the time most gardeners realize what’s happening, spider mites…

Most Texas gardeners think of July as a month to just survive, water everything, and hope the summer garden holds on a little longer. But experienced Texas growers know that July is actually a critical planting month, not for summer crops, but for fall ones. Get the timing right now and you’ll be harvesting fresh…

Mice in a vegetable garden are a quiet disaster. They work at night, they’re hard to catch in the act, and the damage they leave behind is beyond frustrating. Chewed tomatoes, hollowed out squash, seedlings that simply disappear. And once mice discover your vegetable garden, they share the information with every other mouse in the…

Carpenter bees have a way of making themselves very much at home around Texas wooden structures. Decks, pergolas, fences, eaves, wooden furniture. If there’s untreated wood nearby, carpenter bees will eventually find it. And once they do, they drill those perfectly round holes with a confidence that suggests they consider your woodwork their personal real…

If you have ever tried to enjoy a peaceful Texas porch moment only to have a wasp show up and completely derail the situation, you are in very good company. Sweet drinks, outdoor meals, flowering plants nearby: it does not take much to attract some unwanted buzzing company on a warm afternoon. Here’s where things…

Looking to add a touch of tropical flair to your Texas front yard without taking over the space? Small palms are the perfect solution. They bring a sense of elegance and charm while staying manageable in size, making them ideal for walkways, patios, or garden beds. Texas weather can be intense, with hot summers and…

Have you ever walked out to your Texas garden in the morning, coffee in hand, only to find your plants curling their leaves inward like they’re trying to protect themselves from something? It’s one of those garden mysteries that can send you straight to Google looking for answers. And the answers, it turns out, are…

Finding a fire ant mound in your Texas garden bed is enough to ruin a perfectly good morning. That sudden sting, followed by several more before you even realize what happened, is a uniquely Texas experience that nobody enjoys twice. Most people’s first instinct is to reach for the strongest treatment available and get rid…

July in Texas is the month that separates the survivors from the strugglers. Most gardeners have learned which plants can handle the heat with confidence. But even experienced Texas gardeners are sometimes caught off guard by how quickly certain plants can go from healthy to heat stressed when temperatures really dig in and refuse to…

Shady side yards in Texas are tricky spaces. Too much shade for most flowering plants, too dry for true shade lovers, and often left bare or covered in mulch that doesn’t really solve anything. But there’s another problem with bare, shady side yards that doesn’t get talked about enough. They’re exactly the kind of environment…

Many garden centers sell the same plants every single season.You walk in expecting something new and leave with another crape myrtle or a flat of petunias. The selection looks familiar because it is familiar, the same reliable sellers that every big-box store orders from the same regional wholesalers every spring. Texas native plant nurseries are…

Texas wildflower meadows are some of the most beautiful and ecologically valuable landscapes in the entire state, and something is quietly working against them. King Ranch Bluestem, a non-native invasive grass, has been spreading across Texas roadsides, prairies, pasture edges, and restored grassland plantings for decades, and it is not doing so quietly anymore. This…

You head out to check on your Texas tomatoes, everything looks promising, and then you notice it. The leaves are curling. Cue the mild panic. Curling tomato leaves have a way of sending gardeners straight into problem-solving mode, especially when those plants are loaded with fruit and the summer heat is already making everything feel…

There are bird sightings that are pleasant, and then there are bird sightings that genuinely stop you in your tracks. Seeing a painted bunting for the first time falls firmly into the second category. The colors on this bird are so vivid and unexpected that most people’s first reaction is to question whether what they’re…

Scorpions hiding along fence lines is a fact of life for a lot of Texas homeowners, especially once the weather heats up. Those shaded, cluttered edges where the yard meets the fence are exactly the kind of spot scorpions love to tuck into, and finding one while doing yard work is enough to make anyone…

July in Texas pushes most plants to their absolute limit. The heat is relentless, the sun shows no mercy, and a lot of garden color simply gives up until conditions improve. But while ornamental favorites are wilting and fading, a select group of Texas native plants are just hitting their stride. These are plants that…

July in Texas is no joke. The sun blazes, the air shimmers with heat, and most people head indoors to cool off. But out in the garden, some incredible animals are just getting started. From tiny ladybugs crawling through your vegetable beds to hummingbirds darting between bright blooms, Texas gardens come alive with creatures that…

Water restrictions are becoming a regular part of life in Texas, and they’re putting a lot of gardens to the test. Plants that looked great under regular watering are now showing real stress, and a lot of homeowners are scrambling to figure out what can actually survive on significantly less water without falling apart. There’s…

Your lantana has a secret, and it is hiding in the one place you never bother to check. The plant might look a little washed out, a little less colorful, or just not as full of blooms as it should be by midsummer, and the usual suspects get blamed first. Too much heat. Not enough…

Basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme: great herbs, all of them, no complaints. But if your herb garden is starting to feel a little predictable, it might be time to make room for something that will genuinely surprise you. Meet lovage, a tall, leafy herb with a bold celery-like flavor that most Texas gardeners have never even…

Walk through any Texas nursery in late spring and there it is, butterfly bush practically glowing on the shelf with those long purple flower spikes. Hard to walk past without stopping. And honestly, the appeal makes total sense once you have seen a yard full of swallowtails and monarchs nectaring away on those blooms. But…

There was a time when spotting a horned lizard in a Texas yard was completely unremarkable. These spiky little creatures used to be everywhere, sunning themselves on warm patches of dirt and scurrying away the moment kids got too close. But for a lot of Texans, that changed. Horned lizards became scarce, and seeing one…

A great front yard doesn’t have to mean a high maintenance front yard. But somewhere along the way, a lot of Texas homeowners ended up with landscapes that demand constant watering, trimming, and attention just to look presentable. And in a state where summer water bills can already feel punishing, keeping up with thirsty shrubs…

Rats and roaches showing up around your Texas porch is one of those problems that feels deeply personal. Your outdoor space is supposed to be a place to unwind, not somewhere you’re sharing with uninvited pests. Most people respond with traps, sprays, or calling an exterminator. Those things work, but they’re also ongoing, expensive, and…

Finding a scorpion in your raised garden bed is the kind of discovery that makes you want to garden with full body armor from that point forward. And if you’ve had the experience, you know it changes how you approach every morning harvest. Gloves on, shake everything out, check twice before reaching in. It gets…