diy

This past Saturday we had our Creative Container Gardens talk. I enjoy giving this talk because making potted plant combinations is a treat – so easy & fun.

Contrast and repeat for plant selection is key for creating combinations with good visual impact. Choosing the proper container, potting mix, careful planting and using pot feet puts it all together. Timely watering, regular fertilizing, watching our weather, site consideration and pest monitoring helps keep it all going.

Container gardens are versatile. Along with the huge number of plant choices and container styles, you can easily move them around if you need or want to. They can be grouped for greater effect and also raised at varying heights for even more options.

Making a beautiful container garden can also provide more return benefits. They give us the opportunity to experiment, practice patience, engage creativity, see connections, feed curiosity, practice pragmatics, learn – unlearn, slow down, relax, share, play, re-evaluate “perfect”, and even be a little silly – hence the glasses on cacti!

Collect rainwater and pronounce names any way you want.

“I cultivate my garden and my garden cultivates me.” – Robert Braught

Beautifully contains it all.

-Merlien

Be a garden artist and paint your own fun and colorful garden art!

Supplies:

Cement block, single hole, 7 1/2″ square (McCoy’s)
Drylock Masonry Waterproofer – color white (McCoy’s)
FolkArt Acrylic Paint, 2 oz. size, your favorite colors (Hobby Lobby)
Inexpensive nylon paint brushes various widths (Hobby Lobby)
Water in a container to clean brushes
Krylon Matte Finish Clear Spray (Hobby Lobby)

How To:

Very thoroughly mix water proofer. Apply two coats over the entire block. Allow to dry between coats.
Draw your design onto block with a pencil and fill in with paint or go freehand.
Spray two coats of Krylon spray over entire block. Allow to dry between coats.

Fun options for your blocks:

Plant herbs or small flowering plants in the hole
Use singly or stack for plant stands
Stack for garden bench legs or table base or birdbath stand

Please share your own garden art block creations on our Facebook page!

-Merlien

This is a project I have been wanting to do for a while now, and it was a lot easier than I was expecting. So naturally, I want to share the project idea with our customers!

Staghorn ferns are eye-catching plants that make for a beautiful indoor addition to any home! This fern is naturally epiphytic, meaning that it generally grows on trees or other surfaces. In this case, a slab of wood!

The staghorn fern would be happy indoors in bright indirect light or in a shady area in your backyard. Watering requires a heavy misting and the frequency will depend on if you intend for it to be outdoors or indoors.

All you need for this project is wood, a hammer and 25-30 nails, scissors and twine, sphagnum moss, and a staghorn fern!

First you will want to assemble your wooden base.

This can be made of scrap wood, drift wood, or anything lying around. Before long, the plant will steal any attention away from the wood backing, so don’t worry if it’s imperfect. I used some scrap wood I found in my garage.

Next, you will want to take your fern out of the pot, and gently brush away as much dirt as you can to expose the roots.

Staghorn ferns don’t need soil to root in, so we will be replacing much of this with our sphagnum moss. Lay the fern onto the wood until you’ve got it in a place that looks best, making sure to try and leave the fern’s shield in tact. These will eventually grow over the sphagnum root-ball holding the plant to the wood.

Once the plant is set, trace your circle for your nails and get to work!

The nails encircling the plant will be what holds everything in place, so don’t be stingy with the nails! I used 25-30 nails and got them about a half-inch away from one another. Leave the nails half way out of the wood so you will have plenty of anchorage for the twine.

Next you’ll need to wet a couple of handfuls of moss in a shallow dish, and press it down over the fern’s roots, making sure to cover everything from the shield down.

I used the twine to anchor the plant until I felt it was completely secure, and then finished nailing the nails in all of the way into the wood. And that’s all, folks! Super easy and super fun project that only took about 45 minutes.

-Kady

Raised beds are great for veggie, herb, and flower gardening. Benefits include reducing weeds, help with drainage, easy maintenance, and easier on your back. We’ve seen really cool raised beds made from cinder block, rocks, wood, sheet metal, or a combination of materials. What’s most important is what goes in them… that starts with the soil.

Our soil recipe:

For raised beds, we like a blend of bulk sandy loam (or bagged topsoil) and Nature’s Blend Compost. Sandy loam is a mix of sand, silt, & clay to create a loam that will drain well. The Natures’ Blend Compost enriches the soil. Together they create an ideal soil for planting. You will use 1 bag of Nature’s Blend per 12 sq ft of space.

Once you have your soil and compost mixture, add organic Medina Growin’ Green plant food & dried molasses. Mix in, water, and let it rest a few days which encourages soil microbes (like beneficial bacteria and fungi). These microbes will have your soil teeming with life that will help plant roots fight off pests while maintaining growth.

If you have a small raised bed (or don’t have a way to haul bulk sandy loam), another great option is to use a combination of half Landscaper’s Pride Potting Soil & half Gardeners’ Magic soil blend. Both of these come in bags – just dump the bags in, mix together, and plant! The Gardener’s Magic is specially formulated for raised beds, and adding the potting soil makes it even better by improving drainage.

How Much Soil Do You Need?

Here’s the math:

Length x width x depth in feet = cubic feet. (example: 4’ x 8’ x 1.5’= 48cf)
Divide by 27 = cubic yards (48cf ÷ 27= 1.777cy)

Other numbers to know:

Sandy Loam = bulk (sold by cubic yard)
Nature’s Blend Compost bag = 1cf
Landscaper’s Pride Topsoil 40lb bag = .75cf
Landscaper’s Pride Potting Soil bag = 1cf
Gardener’s Magic bag = 1.5cf

If this is too much math, we can always help you figure out how much soil you need. If you’re not wanting to DIY, our landscape department can design and build your dream raised beds – just give us a call.

Happy gardening!

-Debbie

Still scratching your head 4 months post-freeze? Still trying to decide which direction to go with your landscape? You can visit Gill’s anytime and get guidance with your DIY landscape projects – here’s how.

Our garden center team, rather than designers, are plant geeks: they know how particular plants grow, what plants like (sun/shade, wet/dry soil, etc.), and what supplies you’ll need to be successful with your project.

The best way our garden center staff can help you is for you to:

Start small: pick 1 area of your landscape to start with.
Bring inspiration photos: drive around neighborhoods, take photos of landscape styles and plants you like, get ideas from magazines, Pinterest, etc.
Bring photos of your landscape: 1) zoomed out views of your home and landscape and 2) pics of the area you are working on with rough measurements.
Bring the basic plant care info: 1) About how many hours of sun does the area get? 2) Does the area drain well, or does it ever have standing water? 3) Is the area exposed to high wind?

All of the above will help our garden center staff point you in the right direction, select plants, get you what you need to prepare your soil, and teach you how to feed and water your plants properly for the best results.

Remember, Gill’s is also a landscape design and construction company. If you’re looking for a new landscape design and complete landscape overhaul, our landscape department handles the whole process from start to finish. This process takes time: call or visit Gill’s to schedule a landscape design consultation, one of our designers will visit your property, create a custom design, then our installation crews will bring it to life.

-Sally Gill

Here’s to summer garden fun! We’re making the transition to warmer weather with some intermittent rainfall and lots of good energy in the garden. Here are our top priorities this month, including what to plant, how to adjust watering, what to watch out for, and how to keep plant roots insulated and happy.

Check out our June 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. Plant Summer-Tough Stuff!

So many of our favorite plants for South Texas don’t just tolerate warm weather, they only begin to thrive and look their best in the summer. Think of blooming perennials like Firebush, Esperanza, and Pride of Barbados for awesome summer impact. Think of big purslane hanging baskets, Gomphrena, and Periwinkles for bursts of bright color. And browse our Texas native plant section for plants and trees that have thrived through hundreds and even thousands of Texas summers. If you’re still wanting to plant food, you can do that too – okra, basil, thyme, watermelon, peppers, black-eyed peas and more can be planted in June.

2. Water Low & Slow

We’re not talking about BBQ, although that sounds good too… We’re talking about watering low, as in as in low to the ground to avoid evaporation, and slow as in not with your hose open full-blast to decrease runoff and get more water down to the roots. Consider setting up your own automatic drip irrigation system – they’re easy to DIY and they operate on the low & slow principle. For spray irrigation sprinkler systems, be sure to follow current watering rules.

Pro tip: Use a moisture meter in your landscape beds and pots! We carry them for around $10 and can show you how easy they are to use. They’ve saved many plants!

3. Watch for Summer Bugs and Disease

Yes, bad bugs will be around more during the Summer, but don’t treat unless there’s significant damage. We can help identify the pest and if/how to treat. You don’t want to kill too many good bugs while trying to take care of the bad bugs! If you see brown areas in the lawn that are easily pulled up, it’s usually a sign of grubs eating the roots of your grass. You can control grubs with Bonide Insect and Grub Control. Chinch bugs love hot dry areas in lawns. They make the lawn look dried out along sidewalks and pavement. Spot-treat those areas with Cyonara in easy ready-to-spray bottles. For organic control, use Spinosad or Diatomaceous Earth. Remember that healthy lawns are less susceptible to damage from bugs, heat stress, and common lawn disease like Take All Root Rot. Water lawns deeply and fertilize every 3 months. If you fertilized in April, wait to feed again in July.

4. Hang Out with Your Houseplants

We just restocked the greenhouse with all kinds of unique and classic houseplants looking for their forever homes! Time to work on your collection! We can help you determine the best houseplants for different areas and different lighting in your home. Once again – invest in a moisture meter for your houseplants, too. In our experience, the main cause of houseplant death is too much love aka too much water. Keep in mind that houseplants can also be sensitive to tap water. We use as much A/C condensate, rainwater, and water from our dehumidifier as we can to water houseplants and keep them looking their best here at Gill’s.

5. Keep Roots Cool with Mulch

A good mulch layer (2-3″ deep) has so many benefits. It looks amazing, keeps weeds down, helps retain moisture, adds organic matter to the soil, AND keeps plant roots nice and cool in the summer. Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories shared amazing results with us from a mulch study they conducted in San Antonio. Soil temperatures were measured at 6″ deep (where plant roots live) on a 105 F summer day. Bare soil, 6″ down was 102 F. Soil under grass was 92 F. Soil beneath a 3″ layer of mulch was only 76 F!! Mulch for the win!

These days, we’ve been installing more and more drip irrigation systems on our landscape projects. With a few simple parts, you can set up your own super-efficient drip system to automatically water your landscape plants. – get water right to the roots, slowly, and with almost no evaporation. Drip systems are a great way to conserve water while keeping your landscape looking its best through the summer months. Join Gill’s Landscape Designer, Harry Villarreal, this Saturday, May 25th at 10am here at Gill’s for a talk and demo on DIY drip irrigation. This talk is free and open to everyone, and we’ll be doing some fun giveaways! Click to watch Harry’s invite video below and learn more:

Garden talks are back! Are you considering planting more natives that thrive in our weather extremes, require less water and TLC, support wildlife, and look stunning?! Join Wyatt Page, our native plant specialist, this Saturday, September 28th, at 10am here at Gill’s for his talk about how to incorporate more native plants in your landscape. He’ll show you lots of native alternatives to common landscape plants, and give you ideas for where and how to use. This talk is free and open to everyone, and we’ll be doing some fun giveaways! Click to watch Wyatt’s invite video below and learn more:

diy