Helping aspiring gardeners in and around Austin achieve their perfect yard!
05/24/2022
Love sunflowers! A bee favorite 🌻🌳🐝
03/05/2022
With warm weather come the bugs! First is the Orange Assassin Bug looking for prey on my Meyer lemon tree blossom and the second is the Hickory Borer up on my roof terrace. Neither are a threat to my plants, in fact the assassin bug is a useful beneficial as it preys on other bugs. Live and let live and enjoy the amazing diversity of life around us 😊
11/13/2021
Got funny looking white fuzz on
your Mexican Petunia? There's a
lot of it about! It's caused by the
eriophyid mite. Best thing to do
at this point in the year is to cut
it down and put the clippings in
the trash. If you see it next year
use insecticidal soap to get it
under control
10/13/2021
Fall color capsicum-style 😁
07/27/2021
Just a very cool Lynx spider hanging out on a cactus flower. It didn’t take long for my rooftop garden to start getting colonized by critters 🕷🌵🌼
07/23/2021
Squash vine borer alert! This is what the adult moth looks like. If you see one of these in your garden check your squash carefully for eggs! Using a pheromone trap can help control them but it’s not 100% solution. Row cover, Bt also help - growing squash is a struggle in Central Texas!
06/17/2021
This is what sun scorch looks like! I thought my loquat babies were tucked away in the shade but hadn’t realized the sun had crept round 😱 - this heat and strong sun are brutal on young plants. This one is now in a shady spot recovering though it will lose a lot of leaves 😔 If you don’t have a shady spot then invest in shade netting to protect vulnerable plants.
04/12/2021
Native prickly poppies and bluebonnets putting on a show out in the Hill Country - seeds for these plants should be sown in late fall/early winter but there’s no reason not to start planning now. Take a trip out to the Hill Country and see what flowers you could have in your yard next spring!
03/28/2021
Ceanothus or California lilac - it grew beautifully in my garden back in England, not one for Austin TX though. Lovely to see it in its home setting
03/26/2021
I love aloes! Thanks to sharp freezes getting them to grow like this in Austin is hard but it’s doable with protection from light freezes and moving them inside for severe cold. They color up when stressed! This photo was taken in LA
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