During Texas’ extreme drought, it’s easy to wring our hands over our stressed-out ornamental plants–maybe we’ve babied that rosebush from a cutting, or your neighbor gave you those coneflowers, or you’ve had those maiden grasses for years and they’ve always looked so beautiful! But I’m here to tell you that, although I feel your pain, [...]
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Tomorrow, September 6, marks the first day of Phase II Water Restrictions for Austin. What does this mean for gardeners and homeowners? Once a week watering, no exceptions! Here’s what you need to know: Residences with odd number street addresses–Water on Saturdays with automatic irrigation system before 10:00 a.m. Residences with even number street addresses–Water [...]
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All of Texas has been experiencing record heat and drought–here in Austin, we’ve broken records for the most consecutive days of 100+ temps (over 70 now). We’ve also had very little measurable rain since April, resulting in dry, brittle grass and plants, and soil that’s hard as cement. Along with all of this is the [...]
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How’s this for garden innovation? A BBQ grill that looks like a planter! The Hot Pot BBQ is brought to you by a UK-based company, black + blum. I think it would be perfect for an apartment or condo dweller, don’t you? Patios, terraces, fire escapes–lots of people have very limited spaces for growing and [...]
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Last month when I was at the Garden2Blog at P. Allen’s Smith’s place in Little Rock, AR, one of the event sponsors was Corona Tools, and they invited bloggers at the event to participate in their new project. The “Strawberry Fields for Everyone” project was created as a contest to show gardeners that however small [...]
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I’ll admit it–the time-honored tradition of forcing spring-flowering tree branches is new to me. That’s right; I’ve never done it. Until two weeks ago. I don’t know what my problem is–I sometimes get it into my head that something is too fussy and won’t try it, when in fact it’s super-easy. So if I can [...]
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Happy Valentine’s Day from J. Peterson Garden Design! I love it when there is a very specific time in the garden to do a particular garden chore–like pruning roses on Valentine’s Day! Now, I know you have a lot to do on Valentine’s Day, so just promise yourself you’ll prune your roses this week. I [...]
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On Monday, I posted information for my Austin-area readers about how/where/when to recycle your Christmas tree, and then I saw that my friend Teresa O’Connor had written about creative Christmas tree recycling on her blog, Seasonal Wisdom. I love Teresa’s ideas, particularly the one about making your own potpourri! I’m sure you’ll find a use [...]
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I’m not generally a pink kind of girl, but Pantone has gone and picked a Color of the Year that I believe I can rock with a genuine level of excitement–Honeysuckle! Drumroll, please! This is not a cotton candy pink, a little girl pink or *gag* a Barbie pink–it’s a luscious pinky red that has [...]
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Last week I wrote about 10 Christmas Gift Ideas for Gardeners and in the process, had a Eureka! moment. I asked my Facebook fans to name what one plant they’d want for a Christmas gift, and then opened up the question on Twitter. I got an awesome response and couldn’t wait to write this up [...]
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