Gill Garden Center + Landscape Co.
Corpus Christi, TX Garden Center
Bring the kids to Gill’s on Saturday, July 11th to celebrate our favorite summer flowers – zinnias! We’ll have stations set up for the kiddos to make their own mud cookies, sprinkle some zinnia seeds into the mud mixture, and cut out cute cookies in the shapes of butterflies! Once you get them home, these zinnia seed cookies can be planted in pots or beds – just water them in, and in a couple weeks, your zinnias will start to sprout and grow!
Free event for kids 12 and under!
Happy National Pollinator Week! Gardeners know that planting to support and protect pollinators like hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and good bugs creates a healthy local ecosystem. And pollinators return the favor by making our gardens and landscapes so much more beautiful with healthier plants and tons more blooms. Here are our top 11 summer-tough plants to create a pollinator-friendly habitat in your yard – in stock at Gill’s and ready to plant right now!
Why We Love It: Pentas are often thought of as just being a gorgeous and easy bedding plant, but they actually attract a ton of pollinators!
Planting Tip: Plant in full sun to partial shade. Excellent in beds or containers. Mulch with pine straw to add a bit of acidity to the soil.
Pollinators: Hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees
Why We Love It: Bright orange-red blooms all summer long!
Planting Tip: Loves full sun. Foliage dies back in winter. Cut back hard in early spring and it grows back very fast.
Pollinators: Native bees and small butterflies
Why We Love It: A low-growing, drought-tolerant succulent with vivid blooms in lots of different colors. And Purslane is edible! High in omega-3s and minerals.
Planting Tip: Tuck it into hanging baskets, borders, or between rocks—just give it sunshine and dry feet.
Pollinators: Butterflies, hummingbirds, carpenter bees
Why We Love It: Cultivar of our South Texas native retama, but without the thorns and a longer blooms cycle. Blooms all the way into the fall!
Planting Tip: Plant high for better drainage, especially in clay soil. Berm or mound up so water runs off and away from the tree. Loves hot and dry. Grows to about 20′ tall and wide.
Pollinators: Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds
Why We Love It: Comes in several different varieties from the tidy, dwarf ‘Sparklette’ with orange blooms to the large ‘Yellow Bells’ with bright yellow blooms.
Planting Tip: Full sun and low water needs. Plant in your sunniest spots.
Pollinators: Bees, Butterflies, Sphynx Moths
Why We Love It: Delightful and plentiful white blooms, extremely tough, very low water
Planting Tip: Full sun + good drainage. Excellent for rocky beds or containers.
Pollinators: Monarchs (host plant!), bees, and other butterflies
Why We Love It: Orange or yellow blooming varieties + life support for monarch caterpillars = must-have native!
Planting Tip: Full sun, well-drained soil, and very little water once established.
Pollinators: Queen butterflies, monarchs, skippers, bees
Why We Love It: Soft lavender puffs that butterflies go wild for.
Planting Tip: Likes part sun to full sun and moderate moisture. Plant about 3 feet apart and it will spread and fill in beautifully.
Pollinators: Bees and butterflies
Why We Love It: Lavender blooms that pop before and after rain, and it’s practically unkillable.
Planting Tip: Plant in your hottest, sunniest spots and avoid overwatering. Choose the right variety for the right space – some stay 3-4′, while some grow 8-10′.
Pollinators: Hummingbirds and butterflies
Why We Love It: Cascading coral-red blooms that hummingbirds can’t resist.
Planting Tip: Likes moist, well-drained soil and full sun. Looks stunning in containers or hanging over walls.
Pollinators: Nectar source for bees in the spring and food source for birds (especially mockingbirds) in the fall/winter
Why We Love It: Grows wild all over our area. Versatile and sculptural in landscapes. The only plant native to North America that contains natural caffeine! The leaves can be used for tea.
Planting Tip: Thrives in clay or sandy soil. Full sun to partial shade. Keep bushy or trim up to create a tree form.
Pollinators: Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds
Why We Love It: Tropical drama with vivid red-orange blooms and feathery foliage.
Planting Tip: Needs full sun, good drainage, and a little patience in spring—it doesn’t start to perform until temps reach 90!
Pollinators: Hummingbirds and bees
Why We Love It: Red tubular flowers that keep hummingbirds zipping around all summer.
Planting Tip: Drought-tolerant and easy-going—cut back in winter and it bounces back fast.
Pollinators: Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds
Why We Love It: Spiky deep blue blooms and non-stop action from all pollinators. Our best-performing blue salvia for South TX.
Planting Tip: Plant in full sun and deadhead for more blooms.
Pollinators: Butterflies (especially Phaon Crescent), bees, and skippers
Why We Love It: A native groundcover with charming flowers and big ecological value.
Planting Tip: Use as a ground cover in beds, lawn alternative, or spilling out of raised beds and containers. Thrives almost anywhere – sun or shade and spreads quickly.
Yay for May! Everything’s growing and blooming and supercharged by recent rains! We hope you are too. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which is a good time to think about the peace of mind that gardening brings us. Gardeners know all the research is true – gardening is one of the healthiest, most satisfying, and most fulfilling things humans can do! Here are our Top 7 Must Do’s this May to keep you and your garden feelin’ good.
We’ve got a big May planned here at Gill’s with another round of fun workshops and events. Next weekend, on Saturday, May 9th, we’re inviting kids to come pot up a free flower for Mom for Mother’s Day. The following week, we’re hosting our first ever Ikebana workshop led by our fav local floral designer, Julia Prohorova aka Wild Veggie Bouquet! We’ve got Bigfoot’s Rockeaters coming for a cactus growing talk later this month, plus round 2 of our Nightbloom Market after-hours shopping event – this time with more vendors! Click here for more info, RSVPs, and tickets!
It’s time to plant lots of different blooming perennials and blooming trees. Get them established in May so they are rooted and acclimated to withstand warmer temps this summer. Staples like Esperanza, many varieties of Salvia, Lantana, and tons more are all blooming beautifully right now. And blooming native trees like Retama and Wild Olive are looking great right now. Added bonus: blooming perennials and trees attract lots of butterflies and hummingbirds!
Warm weather veggie time! Plant all kinds of peppers, zucchini, squash, melons, and okra this month for continued harvesting into the summer months. If you planted tomatoes, cucumbers, and other early spring veggies, you’ll be harvesting now or very soon. Be sure to harvest often! It keeps birds & insects from finding them first, and helps redirect energy to produce more fruit. If you do have insect issues in your veggie garden, our go-to organic control is Spinosad soap – safe for food but takes care of a lot of common bad bugs.
We all know that fresh mulch is the quickest garden makeover! But did you know that applying a proper 3” layer of natural mulch keeps underlying soil temps more than 20 degrees cooler?! A good mulch layer keeps weeds at bay, and as it breaks down over time, it add nutrients to your soil. And perhaps most importantly right now, a good mulch layer retains moisture, which means big water savings.
Speaking of watering, despite long-term drought conditions and potential water emergencies in the news, we need to continue to water smartly. Watering consistently now (just enough) will help maintain depth moisture, make the most of rainfall, and help plant roots grow deeper – all of which will reduce water needs and save water in the long run. Does all of our plant water need to come from the tap? Nope! You can conserve a lot of city water by collecting rainwater, A/C condensate, water from dehumidifiers, and re-using gray water from washing machines and dishwashers. If you’re interested in collecting a lot of rainwater, the Gill’s landscape team installs custom rainwater collection systems using stainless steel cisterns that are very attractive in the landscape and last a lifetime. Just 1″ of rain on 1,000 square feet of roof space can catch 600 gallons of rainwater. Get in touch!
We are big fans of the simple bucket mosquito trap. Just fill a bucket 3/4 with water, add a good handful of lawn or plant clippings, and toss in a Mosquito Dunk or Mosquito Bits. These dissolve in the water and release bacteria that target mosquito larvae and kill them before they hatch. And they’re organic and not harmful to birds, bees, pets or humans! Set a few of these traps, sprinkle some organic Mosquito Beater granules around walkways and patios, and use Skeeter Screen incense sticks near where you’re working or hanging out outside. Remember that using chemical mosquito foggers kills all the good bugs too, some of which help control mosquitos and other bad bugs.
Let us help you find something pretty, useful, or both for the gardening moms and grads in your life. Pottery, birdbaths, wind chimes, quality garden tools, hats, gloves, garden decor, plantable greeting cards, gardening books – lots of options. You can purchase Gill gift cards online here. Or come find the gift that gardeners love most – plants 🙂
Rain in the forecast, wonderful temperatures, holidays with family and friends = AMAZING time to garden! We’re all busy planting, re-designing, fertilizing, and getting ready for outdoor fun with guests. Here are our top tips for making the most of a very important month in the garden.
Feeding your plants this month is a must. This includes lawns, trees, and most plants. Everything is actively growing, which means they’ll need more food to continue looking their best. Medina Growin Green is a great multi-purpose food for landscape plants, shrubs, trees, veggies, lawns, you name it! For blooming perennials, annual flowers, and veggies we really like using a good organic granular food like Medina Growin Green, Plant Tone by Espoma, or Rose Glo in combination with Medina Hasta Gro liquid. Feed with the granular on the 1st of each month, then follow up with liquid Hasta Gro on the 15th. Add these reminders to your calendar and you can’t go wrong!
Yes, you can still fertilize your lawn, even though our lawn watering is limited. Using a good organic lawn food, like our go-to Medina Growin Green, promotes root growth and long-term health, which makes lawns more tolerant of less water. Ideally you’d want to water the fertilizer in, but you don’t have to. Medina Growin Green is gentle and won’t burn your lawn. You can apply it now and water it in slowly over a few weeks. If you have trees in your yard, keep in mind that fertilizer and water need to be applied at the drip line, aka where rainwater naturally drips off the outer edge of the canopy. Therefore, if you apply fertilizer to your lawn and water it in for the trees, your lawn will get the benefit too. You can also try to time your lawn fertilizing with a light rain. We typically don’t recommend waiting for rain to fertilize since a heavy rain would wash most of the fertilizer granules away. But, given the watering limitations, taking advantage of a light rain is a good solution.
Hand watering with a watering wand that has a cutoff valve is the most efficient and best way to water, especially for new plantings. Watering plants low to the ground keeps water from escaping via wind and evaporation and keeps water off the leaves which can invite fungal issues. Watering slowly (by turning down the pressure on your watering wand or kinking your hose) ensures that more water gets down to the roots instead of running off the surface.
Keep in mind that hand watering and drip irrigation are allowed during current watering restrictions. You can hand water any day before 10am or after 6pm, and you can supplement with drip irrigation once every other week. We carry the pro watering wands that we use here at Gill’s as well as moisture meters, timers, and other supplies to help make the most of your water.
For any new plantings, including turfgrass, you can apply for a temporary exemption to watering restrictions and use sprinklers and irrigation systems in order to help get plants, lawns, and trees established. We can help you file for the exemption if you like – it’s a straightforward process.
April is time to add some blooming perennials to attract pollinators like butterflies, bees, and birds to your garden. You support pollinators (and the planet!) and in return they help you have more blooms, better production on your veggies, and a more vibrant landscape! Remember – April is when we start seeing hummingbirds! Add a few of their favorites like this native salvia greggii, native flame acanthus, red yucca, or firebush and make your backyard a preferred stop.
It’s time to plant hot peppers, squash, zucchini, basil, beans, and more! When starting veggies, the trick is to get the soil as active and alive as possible. Amend your existing soil with Nature’s Blend Compost (about 1 bag per 12 sq. ft.), then add a little Bio Tone starter fertilizer with mycorrhizal fungi and a good handful of worm castings when you plant each plant. Then follow our trusted fertilizer schedule – granular food (like Medina Growin Green or Plant Tone) on the 1st of the month and liquid Hasta Gro on the 15th! Remember that veggies use a lot of energy and need these regular feedings to produce – you WILL get more and better-tasting fruit with a good fertilizer schedule. Plus, strong, vigorous veggie plants are less susceptible to pest damage.
We all know that fresh mulch is like a fresh coat of paint for your garden – instant makeover! But did you know that applying a proper 3” layer of natural mulch keeps underlying soil temps more than 20 degrees cooler?! A good mulch layer keeps weeds at bay, and as it breaks down over time, it add nutrients to your soil. And perhaps most importantly right now, a good mulch layer retains moisture, which means big water savings.
Get outside and enjoy the gorgeous weather and prep for gathering with family and friends! For the quickest and easiest impact outdoors, think hanging baskets full of periwinkles, coleus, hummingbird falls salvia, bougainvillea, and more overflowing with color. Some pops of color plus fresh mulch in your beds and you’re ready to host! For indoors, our favorite flower arrangements are those cut fresh from the garden and landscape, or we have some cute dried arrangements too!
We are absolutely thrilled to host Stephanie Lopez, Executive Director of the National Butterfly Center for a garden talk here at Gill’s this Saturday, March 21st!
Discover how to transform your garden into a vibrant butterfly haven using native plants. In this engaging talk, the National Butterfly Center will explore why native species are essential for supporting butterflies at every stage of their life cycle. Learn to create a beautiful, resilient garden that supports local biodiversity. Perfect for gardeners of all levels who want to make a meaningful impact right in their own backyard. And guess what – Stephanie is bringing plants for sale! The National Butterfly Center grows lots of cool native varieties that are rarely available commercially. Pick up a few this Saturday at the talk and the proceeds from those plants will go back to supporting the National Butterfly Center!
Free event – no RSVP required!
Spring has SPRUNG!! Gorgeous weather, rain in the forecast, and the nursery is bursting at the seams with all kinds of blooms! Here are our top must-do’s in the garden this March – time to get planting!
We must say…our veggie and herb section is looking mighty good right now! We’ve got tons of different tomatoes, jalapenos, super hot Carolina Reapers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, asparagus, lemongrass, basil, and lots more ready for your garden. Be sure to get your tomatoes going early this month so they have time to produce before it gets too warm – don’t miss your window. The rest of these can be planted any time this month, but you don’t want to wait much longer. Take advantage of the perfect weather!
The time to fertilize is when plants are actively growing. That’s when they take up nutrients and get the most benefit from a good feeding. Flowers and veggies are especially heavy feeders because they’re working to produce a bloom and fruit. And you will certainly notice a difference with your landscape plants as well. Apply a good all-purpose organic food like Plant Tone, Medina Growin Green, or Rose Glo once a month for great results. Don’t sprinkle your granular fertilizer right up against the trunk of the plant. Instead, sprinkle at the drip line, aka where rainwater would drip off the outermost leaves. That’s the zone where plants take up the most nutrients. After you’ve applied your granular food, circle back every 2 weeks to supplement with liquid Hasta Gro. Almost everything should be fed starting now, except lawns! Wait to fertilize lawns until late March/early April.
Added bonus: When planting, add a little Bio Tone starter fertilizer to the soil when you backfill. It contains all sorts of beneficial organic matter, including mycorrhizal fungi which help stimulate better root growth. Amazing stuff!
Whether you’re starting a veggie garden, planting trees or shrubs, annual flowers, or blooming perennials, add some compost to improve the quality of your native soil. We love our Nature’s Blend or Cotton Burr Compost. Whichever you choose, 1 bag improves about 12 sq ft of clay or sandy soil and gets it ready for planting. That’s a good approximate ratio if you make your own compost too. Adding compost not only improves the consistency of your soil, it adds LIFE! All those beneficial microorganisms help turn your soil into the perfect environment for plant roots.
When planting this Spring, DON’T PLANT TOO DEEP! Plant level with the surrounding soil (or even slightly higher) and don’t cover the top of the root ball with soil. Plants have tiny feeder roots on the surface of the root ball that are critical for taking up nutrients and for oxygen exchange. If you bury these surface feeder roots, the plant will suffocate and decline. After you plant, use a moisture meter to be sure you’re getting moisture down into the ground when you water.
Now is an important time to incorporate plants into your garden that attract & feed the birds, bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. They need your help finding food and shelter, and you need their help pollinating your blooming plants, increasing your veggie production, and eating bad bugs. Bees are drawn to most anything with a bloom but some fav’s are native Gregg’s Mist Flower, Esperanza, & Lantana. Butterflies love Salvias and Mexican Flame Vine too. Native plants like Turks Cap and Yaupon Holly produce berries for birds, and Hummingbirds love Duranta, Mexican Honeysuckle, & lots more! Keep in mind that pollinators need help locating these food sources. Think about planting several of the same plant together to help make them more visible to our pollinator friends.
p.s. If you want to learn more about bees, join us here at Gill’s this Saturday, 3/7 at 10am for a special garden talk: Beekeeping & Honey Processing with Hebert Honey!
Q: Can I use far less water and still have a gorgeous landscape bursting with color? A: Absolutely, you can! Given our drought situation, we’re sourcing even more of the tried and true, top-performing plants that don’t require much water once established. Think about a rainbow of Coreopsis (pictured), native Blackfoot Daisy, Mexican Heather, Bulbine, and all the different color Salvias and Lantanas – all very tough and water wise perennials that will carry you through the seasons. Think about creating some areas of interest in the ground or in pots with Gomphrena, Bluebonnets, and Pentas, all of which thrive with little water. Speaking of pots, even bright sweet potato vine is a low-water winner.
Keep in mind – turfgrass lawns are by far the thirstiest part of our landscapes. Now’s a great time to reduce lawn space by creating or expanding planting beds, converting to native groundcover like Frogfruit, or adding pathways and other features. How much of your lawn space are you actually using?
Did you know we’re hosting our first-ever night time shopping event at Gill’s next Thursday evening, March 12th?! Stop by and see the nursery lit up at night – it’s magical! Stay tuned to all of our upcoming talks and events here, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook for updates.
p.s. Now you can sip and stroll at Gill’s any time – we’re stocked with cold drinks including beer & wine 🙂
Back in late December, Gill’s had the pleasure of donating the planting of a new pollinator garden at Windsor Park Elementary School for kids, parents, and teachers to enjoy this Spring and for years to come. James Gill designed the garden in an empty parking median using mostly Texas native plants like Kidneywood, Texas Lantana, Frogfruit, Skeleton-leaf Goldeneye, and more to attract different birds and butterflies. This is a very special project for us, and we chose to dedicate it to Gabe Velasquez, long time Gill landscaper and friend who passed away.
A few words about Gabe from James Gill:
“Very early in the growth and evolution of Gill’s, we were so fortunate to connect with a wonderful young man, Gabe Velasquez. He quickly learned the basics of landscape installation and became quite a craftsman, with high personal standards of quality work and materials. His good nature and work ethic made him a favorite of our Gill team and our customers.
We lost contact with him for several years, but managed to lure him back, and he not only retained his high personal standards, but was so willing to mentor younger crew members.
Tragically, we lost Gabe during the Covid pandemic, and the folks at Gill’s have been looking for some kind of worthy tribute. We think Gabe’s Garden at Windsor Park Elementary School, which will bring butterflies, humming birds, and thousands of smiles to children and their parents, would suit him just fine.”
The volunteer team for Gabe’s Garden included current Gill landscape crew leaders Arnold Charles and Jimmy Chavira, who both worked with Gabe for many years, Aracely Negrete (Master Naturalist from Kingsville), Sara Jose (Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve Manager), Jesse Jenkins (Gill’s new owner), and the whole Gill family; James and Sally, son Stuart, wife Anne, and granddaughter Bea, + son Trevor and girlfriend Catherine in town for the holidays!
Gill’s has had a connection to Windsor Park Elementary for many years. Stuart and Trevor Gill both attended! Here they are helping plant Gabe’s Garden all these years later!
Start your engines…fall planting season is here!! September is the best time to plant almost everything – veggies, trees, shrubs, natives, hummingbird plants, and more. Here are our top 7 must-do’s in September as we head into fall, our favorite South Texas gardening season!
It’s time! Tomatoes, peppers, & warm weather edibles should be planted early in September at the latest. Plant cool weather veggies & herbs anytime in September and remember to shelter them from still-intense sun and keep watered. When planting, you can’t go wrong with organic BioTone starter fertilizer + a good handful of Earthworm Castings. Neither of these require precise measurement, and they make an incredible combo for building stronger, deeper roots, preventing pests, and creating an active soil environment for plants to thrive.
Here’s our Fall veggie planting schedule. And save space for citrus trees, figs, and other fruit trees to round off your garden grocery store! They’ll all be arriving before or right around mid-September.
Chances are you have established plants that could benefit from a clean-up after working so hard all summer. Wait until about September 15th and give them a light pruning to make way for new growth this fall. A good rule of thumb for most plants is to prune up to 1/3 (not more) in the fall, then wait until January to do a heavy pruning/cutback. If you have questions about how to prune specific plants, you know who to call!
Plants that are cold hardy (trees and woody shrubs) will benefit greatly by planting during our fall season. They’re under less heat stress, and they grow more roots through the fall and winter, making them stronger and ready to take off next spring. More roots, stronger plants, and less watering! Oak trees, Crape Myrtles, Hawthorns, Yaupon Holly, Plumbago, Boxwoods and a host of other trees and shrubs should be planted starting this month for the best possible start.
We’re bringing in lots of new plants this month with our pollinator friends in mind! While you’re choosing what to plant, consider adding Texas Natives like Turk’s Cap and Lantana that birds and bees love. If you want to attract and support butterflies, try native butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Gregg’s mist flower, and lots of different blooming salvias. So many gorgeous options! Bring in some pictures of your outdoor space and we can help you plan the perfect pollinator garden – big or small. You can DIY or we can plant it for you!
Keep in mind that you can hand water all landscape plants, gardens, and trees on any day under current city watering rules. The good news is, hand watering is the best way to water as long as you’re doing it effectively. That means making sure you water at ground level, not over the top of your plants. This gets more water down to the roots, prevents water loss due to evaporation, and prevents fungal issues that can arise from too much moisture on leaves and stems. When hand watering, be sure you’re giving your plant roots a deep soaking. Water once, give it some time to soak in, then water again. Keep in mind, under current rules, you can also use drip irrigation systems for landscaped beds every other week on your watering day. The same principal applies – deep soaking!
Ruby-throated hummingbirds will soon make their way through for the fall migration! These tiny birds are BIG eaters. They stop here in the Coastal Bend to fuel up before their non-stop flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Host them in your yard by planting some of their favorite foods! Hummingbirds find plants using their excellent vision and are attracted to bright colored blooms, which indicate a high-sugar food source. Some of our favs for South Texas are Flame Acanthus (aka hummingbird bush), Salvias (like native Salvia greggii and Salvia leucantha), Cape Honeysuckle, Firebush, Firecracker plant, Coral bean – the list goes on! Plant a few of these and hummingbirds will find them. And don’t forget to visit the Rockport-Fulton HummerBird Celebration September 18-21!
Gill Garden Talks and Events are back this Fall! We’re kicking it off with DeAnna and Wyatt’s Fall Veggie Gardening Talk on Saturday, September 13th! Based on your suggestions, we decided to do 2 veggie talks this year. Part 1 will focus on early fall veggies like tomatoes, peppers, and squash, and part 2 will focus on cooler season crops like broccoli, greens, and cabbage. Stay tuned on our events page and on Instagram and Facebook for details of each event. We can’t wait!
