Gardening Texas Tips and Tricks

Suburban Gardens Are Rising

2011-07-12T13:29:00.001-07:00

This is a news story by ABC News about how people are starting more and more gardens because they are trying to save a few bucks at the supermarket. I think this is a great idea, and is one of the reasons why I love gardening. It allows you to save money, and have fresh fruits and vegetables for your whole family. The most important part is to know whats in season to grow, and when to start growing. Good luck on the new gardens!

Dealing With Aphids on Your Plants

2011-05-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

Aphids are really bad here in Texas. They can take control of your plants quick and make them die a slow death. The best thing to do is to get something that is eco-friendly especially if you are using it on your garden that is going to yield fruits or vegetables that you are actually going to eat. Some poisons for bugs can end up hurting you, and your defeating the purpose of eating organic. I have found a solution and I have been buying off of EcoSmart and they provide an organic solution for killing these plant killing insects and keep them off your garden. I would recommend checking them out and consider using them. Don't believe what those people at Home Depot are telling you, they just want to sell their products. You can do what you want, but remember you want to keep things as organic as possible, and at the same time, make sure those aphids are gone. You also want it to be safe especially if you have little ones or pets hanging around. Here is a picture of the aphid/insect killer I use. Happy Gardening!

Great Tips On How To Win Yard Of the Month

2011-04-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

Every subdivision has one. It is one of the best feelings to receive yard of the month so all of your neighbors know that you worked very hard on your yard. Some people try very hard to reach yard of the month but simply never do. Here I will go over some tips that may help you to achieve this goal. The first thing you want to do is look at some of your neighbors lawns, and other lawns in your direct subdivision. Do they look a lot like yours? Sometimes in order to win yard of the month you have to break away from the norm. Most people try to manicure their lawns and use the same landscape design that came with their house when they bought it. You don't win yard of the month by just simply having a well cared for yard, you must also be different than the rest, but in a good way. You shouldn't remove all of your bushes and shrubs just because your neighbor has something similar....instead you should look for unique shrubbery that stands out and helps your shrubs and bushes pop. Try planting some crepe myrtles, or elephant ears or something that really stands out. This will be a perfect method to achieving your yard of the month goal. Make sure you pick a good spot for these plants so that they flow together with your existing landscaping. Make sure you get unique plants. Don't just go to the same old gardening section at your local Home Depot, or Walmart, think outside the box. Make sure you visit many gardening centers around your town, and find something that you think will go good with your lawn. Don't forget to start thinking about what plants you want early. You can start planting your plants indoors during the winter months, so that you can transplant them outside in the spring. Remember not to grow things outside in the cold during winter, some plants can't handle the cold. The last and most important thing I want to talk about is how green your grass is. Many people forget about this step. Make sure you use some fertilizer so your grass gets a kick start. The goal here is to always have green grass that is edged, and mowed very often. The key to winning yard of the month is also having green grass, you don't want yellow patches in your yard, and to have beautiful healthy plants. The idea here is to have your whole lawn looking perfect. After you have completed all these steps, you should be well on your way to reaching your goal. Make sure you contact your subdivision and enter your lawn if it is a requirement. Good luck!

Our Custom Garden Grow Boxes We Made Ourselves

2011-04-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted to wait until I had everything the way I wanted it for this season before I showed my fellow followers. These are custom grow boxes that we made with 2x4s and we even made a new fence so that the dogs don't get into the garden. We worked very hard moving all of this stuff out of our green house, and everything is now loving it! I have taken care of what I could, but there are still some things that I need to do. The Madagascar palm is looking very lovely, I think we are going to have to get it a new pot, because the pot that its in is a little small. The grape vines will grow over the arches, and it's going to look very nice. I hope you like it. Please leave comments and let me know what you think. Thank you.

P.S. We didn't cut the craig myrtle to get more shade, we cut them because it was casting too much shade on the grass, and killing it slowly. Lets see how well everything does. Please come back and check up for updates!

How To Build Your Own Drip Irrigation System

2011-03-07T10:53:00.001-08:00

With water bills going through the roof when you have your own home garden, you might want to consider building and installing your own drip irrigation system. This is the best way to water your garden, without actually doing it your self. You won't have to worry about water running off, or your water bill being too high. These drip irrigation systems are becoming more and more cost effective, and it even drastically lowers your water bill by delivering the water to exactly where it is needed. On your plant's roots. I recommend everyone that has their own custom garden to consider installing their own drip line. It is easy to add a timer so that you can turn on and off the water automatically. This makes growing your own vegetable garden a breeze. This video was made in Dallas Texas.

How to Make a Window Box Herb Garden

2011-03-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

These are great tips to start an easy do it yourself herb garden with very little cost. I love how she made her own pots out of coffee cans. This will really help you stretch your budget even further. Going to farmer's markets is a great way to get fresh starter herb plants so that you can have everything you use for cooking at your fingertips. Not only that its great because you only use what you pick, and the rest keeps on growing for another time. This will save you loads of money, and maybe your friends would like to buy some fresh herbs from you! I recommend everyone do this in the window that gets the most sun in every home. Be careful with your cats. They love to get into plants like this. Trust me I know from experience.

The AeroGarden System

2011-03-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

I have been doing a lot of research online about the AeroGarden system. Everyone loves the AeroGarden but the instructions it comes with can be a little confusing. I have posted this video of this guy in Colorado because he has great results with it. If you use the AeroGarden properly you can start your crops with a several week jump start. I would slowly get the pods use to the outside slowly, bring them out for a few hours at first, especially if you live in a place where it can get very cold and windy. It is important that your AeroGarden plants don't go into shock. This is the best tip I could give you. Other then that, the AeroGarden is a wonderful system that can help you get started planting a beautiful garden.

Here is an instructional video on how to use liquid nutrients with the AeroGarden.

Time to Keep the Plants Warm from the Cold

2010-12-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again, and I have been working frantically to keep all of our new plants protected from the cold weather that we have been having here in Texas. I have put up all the plants inside a green house and protecting everything from the cold. It has been a lot of hard work moving these huge pots inside the Greenhouse but I think it is much better than just covering the plants outside on the porch with plastic. It also helps to have a greenhouse. We have one so i figured I would put it to good use. Here are the videos showing how I have it setup if anyone is interested. Happy gardening! I hope you keep your baby plants warm!

Planting Tulips in Texas

2010-11-29T14:36:00.000-08:00

Its that time of year again to begin planting some pretty winter flowers. I love planting Tulips and what do you know we got a free box in the mail today. I got some potting soil, and some pots, and I am ready to rock and roll. I hope you like the video. If you like it please become a follower of this blog on the right hand side. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Night Gardening in Texas

2010-09-29T19:14:00.001-07:00

Baby Mexican Avocado Plant

2010-09-29T19:10:00.001-07:00

How to set Hunter Pro-C Sprinkler System

2010-09-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have been working on our sprinkler system at the Beach house. The Hunter Pro-C system is a great system if you know how to use it. I will be honest, the manual does not make it easy to understand and is in no way helpful, and even feels like its written backwards. I thank this guy for making an easy to do tutorial video that anyone can understand. Now our system is running every Wednesday at 4 a.m.

Making Paper Pots for Seedlings out of Newspaper

2010-08-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

This is a great idea if you are looking for a cheap and creative way for planting your seedlings in the rows of your garden. This is a great technique that i recommend to everyone. You can make a ton of them very easily and this way you don't have to buy biodegradable pots from any store. Just simply make your own!

Music Video Starring My Garden

2010-07-13T09:15:00.001-07:00

Rose bushes in the backyard at night

2010-06-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

These rose bushes are doing very well. I know this is a picture of them at night, but i was running out of sunlight, and just shot what i could. These usually don't bloom so big, and so bright but this year, I have been using that Miracle Grow water hose attachment, so that I can see a bigger bloom from these bushes. The other thing is keeping my little sisters from picking them....Believe it or not that is hard to do, even though they have thorns, they are so pretty that my sisters are definitely willing to risk a scratch, in order to get one of the pretty flowers. Hopefully that changes, but I think everyone is starting to enjoy the nice roses. Since the bushes are planted a long the fence line, it also helps with privacy, this way the neighbors can't see everything in the backyard when we are out there partying. :-)

Schultz seed starter plus to help with seedling growth.

2010-06-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

Seed starter was very questionable to me. I didn't believe that it was required in a lot of the planting process. Now I know its a very required step that must be done if you are planting any plants from any type of seed. Today we planted an alvacado seed outside in one of the bigger plants so we will wait and see what happens. I would have taken a picture, however there is nothing to take a picture of at the moment since we just laid the alvacado seed inside a pot with potting soil, and added a little bit of the seed starter plus. I know that the alvacado tree is going to require a lot of water, and care. I hope that I can some day yield alvacado from it. Let me know if you have any tips for growing alvacado tree in the comments. Thanks.

The Garden with New Night Lights

2010-06-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

The garden looks so pretty at night now! I have added lights in the garden, so that they automatically turn on at night. I believe that this will be good for the bugs, and the birds will eat them, and well you get the idea. Maybe next year we can start to use that greenhouse over there, but then where will we put the lawnmower? Oh well time to start selling stuff on craigslist i guess. Anyways lets check out another angle of this cool night scene from my garden...

Let me know what you guys think, or if you have any other ideas in the comments. Thank you for reading!

Shopping for Cucumbers in the Backyard

2010-06-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

I just pulled 11 cucumbers from the garden! I was looking for the ones that were ready to come out, and i just couldn't stop finding them. The work is finally starting to pay off. There is only 9 banana peppers shown, but last weekend we removed another 10 because we were going to the coast, and had to make some veggies on the grill. We haven't had any problems with other animals trying to eat the vegetation yet. I hope cats or some type of rodents don't come over and start to eat our stuff. We should be good, but you never know. I keep my BB gun by the window just in case. We can't have any of those animals getting the good stuff :-) I want to increase the yield next time we plant in the garden, i believe i am going to increase the size by twice what it is now. That way i can grow a wide variety of vegetables next time i plant. Everything that went in the ground is coming out very healthy and i am very happy with it. We took some plants to the coast last weekend, and we planted some palms over there. The grass that was removed, we brought back to the yard, so that we can fill in some of the blank spots. I feel that with a lot of watering we may be able to bring the grass back! Leave me some comments on what to do with some of these extra cucumbers! I would love to know some ideas, i think we are going to get a good amount of cucumbers from now on!

I have been really working hard in the garden, and on the rose bushes...

2010-06-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

The garden is looking very good. I have removed a lot of the cucumber plants that were shielding the lights from my tomatoes. This has been very nicely done. Now the tomatoes are loving the sun and are starting to get bigger. The picture above shows some of the cucumbers i picked last week. I am very proud of them. I have also been working on the rose bushes that are behind our cement water retaining wall, and they are also doing good. I am beginning to see the flower buds open up, and it looks very pretty. Here is a picture of what the rose bushes look like...

The sun always watches over everything, in time this place will be hopping with bugs and birds and everyone will be living the life. Hopefully they do there business and help the circle of life on our side of the fence :-) I have also added some plant food for the plants in the garden. The box says the plant food is for tomatoes, or atleast it has them on the box, but i put it on everything. This is what it looks like...

Welp thats about it for now, i hope your garden is starting to look as good as mine, ill post some more pictures of the yard and garden in a few weeks. One Love.

Our Beautiful Garden in the Backyard - San Antonio Texas

2010-06-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

I have been working on this garden for about 4 weeks now. It has been a lot of hardwork. We go to the beach every weekend, so there are 2-3 days every once in a while where i cannot exactly water it. I am very happy and surprised with how well its doing. There are a lot of veggies growing in our garden. The first to produce are the banana pepper, and the cucumber. They were both relatively fast at yielding an end result. Walking through the garden barefoot looking for cucumber is very hard to do. Sometimes i accidently step on a plant or too, and i feel bad, but im looking for cucumbers every week, I guess im going to make Friday my day to look for actual veggies, this way if we do have a lot we can take everything to the beach and make salsa! :-). The tomatillos have also gave tomatillos we made salsa with it, and it was amazing. I wish i could bottle it and sell it....LOL! Here are some more pictures...

I think i need more upright vertical obstacles that the cucumber can latch on to and grow. I have seen the cucumber in the upper right corner produce the most vegetables, because it is growing upwards on that iron thing. I am trying to come up with a better idea so that they all can latch to something, and at the same time not make it any more of a hassle to get in and out of the garden when looking for more vegetables.

I hope you liked the pictures of our garden, me and my dad have worked very hard on it. If you have any tips you want to share with me, or have any recommendations please feel free to comment. Thanks guys, I will be posting tons more pictures no worries :-)

Welcome to Gardening Texas!

2010-06-07T15:37:00.001-07:00

I have a small garden in my backyard, and i have a big enough yard to manage. Here i will document my adventures in trying to restore this old garden, and bring it back to its usual pretty state. The birds are already starting to chirp. I am going to bring my Home garden in to your living room, i hope your ready.