Jesse Jenkins

Lots of fun to be had this Summer – holidays, BBQs, weekend trips, and landscape projects! Here are our top must-do’s to keep your plants healthy and happy this July.

Check out our July Garden Guide for more tips and remember that trees, shrubs, and perennials can be planted 12 months out of the year! The only difference is the amount of water they need depending on temperatures and wind!

1. Watering: Think Depth, Not Frequency

Proper hydration happens when you get water down to the roots of the plant. This means watering deeply, not more frequently. Run irrigation systems or sprinklers once a week before 10am or after 6pm per current city watering rules – this is what we’d recommend for summer watering even if there were no restrictions. Remember: long, slow, deep drinks for plants, trees, and lawns! Even when we get a summer rain, continue to watch your watering and maintain that depth moisture.

2. Train Your Plant Sitter

Be sure to have a trusted plant-sitter come water your plants while you’re away on summer excursions! It’s a good idea to spend a little time showing them how you water. Make them a list, draw them a map, walk them through it. You know your plants and which ones get tired and thirsty the fastest.

3. Collect Cool New Houseplants

Now’s a great time of year to work on your houseplant jungle. The greenhouse is restocked with all kinds of interesting choices, including the pictured Hoya macrophylla aka “wax plant” or “honey plant”. The variegated edges become vibrant pink with more sunlight, and it blooms beautiful fragrant star-shaped flowers. Great to hang/drape in medium to bright indirect light. Keep in mind that constant A/C indoors will dry out plants. Keep an eye on watering (use a moisture meter) and don’t place houseplants near an A/C vent. You might also try experimenting with a humidifier to help

4. Mulch to Keep Cool

Andy adding fresh hardwood mulch to the front beds at Gill’s

Studies show that a good 3″ layer of mulch will keep your plant roots more than 20 degrees cooler in summer! Not only that, a good mulch layer also helps retain moisture AND keeps weeds at bay. Healthy plants, less watering, and fewer weeds – that’s a win/win/win! It’s important to use natural wood or pine straw mulch that breaks down over time. As it breaks down, it adds nutrients and makes your soil more workable.

5. Watch for More Bugs in Summer

*This is what a mealybug infestation looks like!*

Not all bugs are bad, so it’s important to know your bugs before you spray anything, even organics. A few bugs here and there is most likely not cause for alarm. If you do get an infestation, cut the plant back first, give it some fertilizer, then treat for bugs. By pruning first, you won’t have to treat every leaf on the whole plant. We see plants come back better than ever using this method. If you’re not sure about bugs or pruning, we’re here to help.

The rains this week are excellent (!!!), but not enough to water your established, mature trees sufficiently. We spend a lot of time making sure our plants and lawns get plenty of water, but don’t forget about your big trees! Here’s what we recommend.

Trees, especially mature shade trees, provide huge benefits for our environment and they’re difficult and expensive to replace. How could you even put a price tag on a 30-year-old mature Oak tree?

With summer temps and a lack of depth moisture in the ground, mature trees need a slow, deep watering every 2 to 4 weeks. If your trees are showing signs of stress, (looking dull, dropping leaves), water them deeply once a week to rehydrate. You can accomplish proper, deep watering by placing a sprinkler between the trunk of the tree and the drip line (edge of the tree canopy) and running it for 45 mins. Then, move the sprinkler 1/3 of the way around the tree and repeat until you’ve watered all the way around. Check your sprinkler placement to be sure you’re not watering the street, the sidewalk, etc. Here’s a simple top-view illustration.

Speaking of stressed trees, I encountered a strange one this week. I noticed that the trunk of my old Ash tree in the front yard appeared to be “sweating”. Upon closer inspection, it was oozing a foamy, white substance that smells like rotting fruit or sour beer – not pleasant to me, but the flies and bees were loving it!

I called John Wood at Tree Amigos who confirmed that this is a bacterial infection known as Slime Flux or Bacterial Wetwood that typically presents when trees are stressed in the summer. Unfortunately this is a serious issue and a sign that the tree is nearing the end of it’s life cycle. John gave me a great piece of tree advice: don’t remove the tree yet unless it poses a risk to people or property. Once the tree starts to “take itself apart”, i.e. once a large branch falls unprovoked by high winds, then it’s time to cut it down.

– Jesse

Summer is here for sure! Stay cool, stay hydrated, and get started gardening early! Some plants need more love during the Summer, but lots of others don’t even start thriving and looking their best until temps stay above 90. Here are a few standouts to plant right now.

Firebush (Hamelia patens)

Blooms all summer, top hummingbird plant, easily pruned/shaped, and grows 6-8’ tall – perfect for a fence line. Loves heat and can handle cold too.

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)

If you’re looking for tough summer color in hanging baskets or beds, Purslane is for you. Loves full sun and can handle a variety of soil conditions. And Purslane is edible! High in omega-3s and minerals.

Esperanza (Tecoma stans) – all varieties

Loves summer temps and blazing sun. Classic yellow-blooming varieties that grow 6-8’ tall, or the pictured Sparklette variety that stays 3-4’ tall with golden-yellow trumpet flowers with red throats. Blooms all Summer and into the Fall, and the lightly fragrant blooms attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees.

Mangave (Agave macroacantha)

A succulent hybrid of Agave and Manfreda that love summer temps. More sun = more cool color variations. Great for containers or as a statement plant in the landscape.

Duranta (Duranta erecta)

Starting to bloom all over town with consistent summer temps. Can be treated as a shrub or pruned up into a beautiful small tree. Hummingbirds and bees love it.

Basil (Omicum basilicum)

Every gardener needs to have some basil growing for summertime salads! For bigger, bushier plants, pluck off the blooms. Or leave them if you want to attract more bees and butterflies!

Firecracker plant (Russelia equisetiformis)

Lives up to its name with big sprays of bright red blooms. Prefers high temps and works well in rock beds or spilling over raised planters.

Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) aka Dwarf Poinciana

Thrives in the hottest parts of summer, requires little water, feeds pollinators, and pairs well in the landscape with other tropicals and desert plants too. People in the Caribbean and South America have used the leaves of the plant to treat kidney stones, Malaria, and bronchitis.

Ben is an avid gardener and has been a regular Gill’s customer for nearly ten years. Sometime back, Ben came to Gill’s to seek advice on building a terrarium. He started with a couple small plants and some interesting moss that he found online. Then we came up with some good additions to take his terrarium to the next level. Over the next few years, he’d bring it in periodically and we’d help revamp it and add new plants and watch it evolve.

I ran into Ben recently and found out he’s moving out of state at the end of the summer. Bummer! We started talking about the terrarium, and he graciously offered to donate it to Gill’s! Now we’ll have something that will always remind us of Ben, and hopefully he’ll come back and visit!

So, if you want to check out Ben’s terrarium, we have it on display here in our greenhouse. We’ll continue to care for it and experiment with new plants. Most recently, we added a Waffle plant and a Rabbit Foot fern, and some moss that was growing on our outdoor waterfall. If you’re interested in building your own terrarium project, we’d love to help!

Thanks for being a great customer, Ben! You’ll be missed. We’ll take good care of your terrarium!

– Wyatt

It may not feel like it yet, but it’s time to start making the transition into an exciting new Fall planting season! There’s a lot to do in August to set yourself up for big garden success this Fall and beyond. Here are our top must-do’s!

Check out our August Garden Guide for more tips and remember that trees, shrubs, and perennials can be planted 12 months out of the year! The only difference is the amount of water they need depending on temperatures and wind!

1. Water Sufficiently AND Efficiently

With our temps and lack of rain, it’s vital to water your plants and lawn sufficiently AND efficiently. The goal with summer watering (with or without watering restrictions) should be to create depth moisture. For lawns and established plants and trees, this means watering less frequently, but watering deeply when you water. New plantings will require water every day for the first couple weeks to get the roots established. Use a water wand with a cut-off valve to make it easy on you and conserve water. Pro tip: Conserve water by watering at ground level, not spraying from above. This way, water soaks down to the roots rather than evaporating off the leaves.

2. Start Planting for Fall Pollinators!

Important fact: birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. Plants attract and provide food for them to keep the cycle going. For example – plant Zinnia and sunflower seeds now, and they’ll be ready to feed migrating birds this Fall. Plant salvias now, get roots established, and they’ll be gorgeous this Fall and covered in hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Take it a step further and plant Texas natives! They provide for pollinators and require less water once established. If you’re excited about planting natives for pollinators, check out Homegrown National Park! It’s a nationwide movement to plant natives and restore native biodiversity at home. Just by planting a few native plants, you can get your yard on the map and become part of the Homegrown National Park.

3. Pick Out Your Seeds!

Watching your plants grow from a tiny seed is exciting and rewarding! Our Fall Vegetable Planting Guide provides the specific seed-planting dates to help plan your Fall garden. In early August, we’ll receive the new 2023/2024 seeds from our favorite seed suppliers, including heirloom vegetables, new releases, and wildflower seeds. Use peat pots or seed starting trays to start seeds indoors this month, then move to a covered patio once they sprout. This will protect the seedlings and slowly acclimate them to outdoor temps.

4. Prepare Your Garden Beds

August is the time to start prepping Fall veggie beds! Finish your Summer harvesting, clean out your beds, and pull weeds. To get your soil ready, we recommend mixing Nature’s Blend Compost or Cotton Burr Compost into your soil to replenish nutrients and loosen the soil before planting. About 1 bag per 12 sq. ft. is good. Once prepped, add a thick layer of pine straw mulch, which will help retain moisture, keep weeds from sprouting, and keep the soil cooler until you’re ready to plant. As you plan your space, think crop rotation – don’t plant the same veggies in the exact same place you planted them last season, or you encourage pests and diseases.

5. Mulch for Moisture Retention

We know fresh mulch is the quickest way to refresh the look of your landscape. Proper mulching has other big benefits, especially during dry and hot weather. A good 3” deep layer of mulch will keep your plants and the soil moist and cool for longer after you water. Not just a little cooler – we’re talking more than 25 degrees cooler!! Give the main trunks or stems of your plants a little space – mulch 3” deep throughout the bed, but no more than 1” deep against the main trunks/stems of plants.

6. Houseplants: To Repot or Not?

You may have noticed some of your houseplants seem to need watering every single day this summer. That could be a sign that it’s time to repot! Houseplants get root bound, meaning that the roots coil and basket around inside the pot until there’s not much soil left. Without much soil, the pot doesn’t hold much moisture when you water. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Houseplants generally like to be somewhat root bound, and it can help keep you from overwatering. If you do decide to repot a houseplant, choose a pot that’s 1-2″ larger in diameter and use a good, well draining potting mix. If you jump up to a pot that’s too big, the soil will hold too much moisture and your plant won’t be happy.

Many of you requested, and for the first time ever, Gill gear is here! We printed Gill t-shirts, hats, tote bags, and stickers for the stylish gardener, and we worked with 2 of our favorite Texas artists to make it happen.

We’ve admired Houston artist, Sarah Welch’s work for a while. She’s a fabulous illustrator and nature lover who often includes plants and Texas coastal imagery in her drawings. We asked her to create designs around 2 of our favorite Texas native plants: Turk’s Cap and Blackfoot Daisy. And here’s what she came up with! She even took the time to hand-draw the Gill logo.

For our Passionflower tote bag, we asked Corpus Christi artist, Ashley Thomas to create something surreal and magical like the flower itself. She drew the Zone 9b text and created a halftone photo of a Passionflower for printing on fabric. She also reimagined the Gill logo and repeated the Zone 9b text on our new hats and bumper stickers! Ashley has a special connection to Gill’s – she’s a gardener and she’s married to Gill’s owner, Jesse Jenkins. She helps out with a lot of design projects here at Gill’s behind the scenes.

Gill hat – purple waterproof nylon – front

Zone 9b Gardener – 8×4″ sticker – green super gloss

Zone 9b Gardener – 8×4″ sticker – TX sage super matte

So excited to share these designs with you all! And thank you to our models – Rose, Debbie, and Caleb!

Most people (and I’m most people too) just guess how long to leave their sprinkler in one place, or how many minutes to set their automatic sprinkler zones for. 10 minutes per zone? 45 minutes? You don’t really know, and neither did I, I had just set them for 12 minutes per zone and 3 start times during the early morning of my watering day, and hoped that was good enough. I did see water reaching all areas, but I really didn’t know if it was enough or too much. Texas A&M recommends applying 1″ of water every 7 to 10 days during the active growing season, and they recommend splitting the watering into multiple applications during the same morning, so it can soak in rather than start to build up and run off (known as the cycle and soak method).

So after years of knowing I should do this, I finally ordered a 10 pack of sprinkler gauges, 1 1/2″ capacity, for under $20. I placed one in each of my automatic sprinkler zones to measure how much water the areas are actually getting. Now I know most of my zones need 15 minutes per cycle, one needs 10 minutes, and one needs 20 minutes. It really does vary, depending on how many sprinkler heads are on a valve, and how much pipe the water has to run through before it gets to that valve. And the same thing applies to a hose and sprinkler set up!

– James Gill

Are your mature trees struggling this summer? We’ve noticed a lot of stressed and thirsty trees around town, and we’ve been encouraging everyone to give them long, deep waterings, which is a commitment! Now there’s an easy way…

Enter the Treehugger sprinkler! Since trees need to be watered at the drip line (the outer edge of the tree canopy), we’ve often recommended starting a sprinkler in 1 position, then repositioning it around the tree until you’ve watered all the way around. Now it’s as simple as setting up the Treehugger and turning on the water! The Treehugger sprinkler sprays 360 degrees outward from the tree trunk. By adjusting water pressure at the sprinkler or at the faucet, you can target water right at the drip line. Great design!!

With summer temps and a lack of depth moisture in the ground, mature trees need a slow, deep watering every 2 to 4 weeks. If your trees are showing signs of stress, (looking dull, dropping leaves), water them deeply once a week to rehydrate.