texas-style tomato cages

Discover in detail about the Dallas Plant Zones that will give you an idea about which plants to grow in which area.

Looking to create a thriving vegetable garden in Texas? Explore the Best Vegetables to Grow in Texas that are in tune with the state’s warm climate.

These vines are also popular as some varieties producePassion Fruit. If you want to include ornamental flowers in your garden, then check out some beautiful Types of Passionflower Vines!

Do you know about the Texas State Flower? Well, it is a beautiful blooming plant with blue flowers! Read on to know all the details!

My daily commute to Sumter is a joy. Although I’m wary of logging trucks during the daytime and deer and wild hogs at dusk, mostly I am free to enjoy the fields and woodlands I pass. Calhoun County, my home, has rich farm lands that produce beautiful fields of cotton; so much that farmers are often still picking in December. As those fields lose their bounty, another plant that appears to be covered with cotton stands ready to become the showiest feature in the landscape.

Virginia copperleaf is a tall, branched summer annual that can grow three feet tall. It takes its name from the copper colored leaves of its late summer color. This weed is a North American native that is found from Maine to Georgia and as far west as Texas and north to South Dakota. It is a member of the spurge family and is poisonous, but it does not have the milky sap that is typical of other family members. The simple leaves are oppositely arranged on the stems when the plant is a young seedling, but they change to an alternate arrangement as the weed matures.

For years, Clemson Extension personnel in South Carolina have received claims from many homeowners that they have Japanese or Asian giant hornets on their property or nesting in their homes. They have not. They have either had native cicada killers, baldfaced hornets, or the exotic European hornet. All these wasps are large, but they are not as large or intimidating as the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia. South Carolinians often use the subspecies name Japanese hornet, Vespa mandarinia japonica, but experts have merged the two as just the Asian giant hornet. Unfortunately, now some in the news media are reporting them as “murder hornets.”

Perennial vines in the genus Vinca have proved to be sturdy and seemingly indestructible groundcovers for the Southeastern Unites States. However, over the past few years, vinca leaf-folder caterpillars have been ravaging landscape plantings of perennial vincas (Vinca major andVinca minor). Both can be infested, but V. major seems to sustain more damage. According to Dr. Matt Bertone, Entomologist at NC State University, this pest is likely Diaphania costata.

Discover the best picks for Fall Garden Vegetables for Texas that thrive in Lone Star State’s unique climate and conditions.

Start with a cold-hardy cultivar if you plant to try to overwinter rosemary in the ground in other than a truly frost-free hardiness zone. ‘Arp’ is the best known, along with ‘Hill Hardy’ (also known as ‘Madalene Hill’ after the late herb gardener from Texas; ‘Arp’ was her discovery, by the way, the result of her search for plants that could take not extremes of cold but the Texas heat). Oregon-based Nichols Garden Nursery’s owner touts ‘Nichols Select’ as being a toughie, too.It’s “as hardy as any I’ve grown, probably Zone 6B, and the flavor is terrific,” Rose Marie Nichols McGee in an interview one spring. “It was planted 25 years ago at our home and survived minus-7 degrees F once. I think this is your best for a long-lived rosemary.”The U.S. National Arboretum website trialed many cultivars, and how they fare on all scores. Even in USDA Zone 7A,

I SUPPOSE I SHOULD HAVE DONE AN INCANTATION of one of my favorite songs before things got to this point: 9 inches of rain in barely more than two weeks. I have a wildly eclectic collection of recordings of “You Are My Sunshine” (and thanks to a recent gift from blogger Sarah McColl, a vintage-style sign to accompany them).

The Deer’s Delicate Palate: We all wonder (often in loud expletives when something has been chewed) what it is that deer won’t eat. I loved this online tool created at Rutgers University Extension (based on observations in northern New Jersey) that rates things from “Rarely Damaged” to “Frequently Severely Damaged” (above) in a five-point scale that seems more sensible to me that saying anything’s “deerproof.” We could all benefit from this kind of thinking, a sort of risk-assessment philosophy of planting in the presence of these beasts. (You know me; I don’t. I gave up and got a deer fence.)Compost-Bin Envy: I have never met Ryan Boren, one of the lead developers (read: software engineer) for WordPress, the platform I so love and that this site is built on. Who knew that Boren is also adept with wood-working tools and built himself a composter-to-covet at the Texas home he shares with his growing family and some mighty cute goats. The “after” shot of his three-stage compost bin is here; the detail shots here.An Old Friend, Overplanted: