fertilizer

The Potting Shed is up and running at Gill’s, so we thought we’d go over a few pro tips to help ensure success with indoor and outdoor potted plants.

1. Pick the right size pot

Generally, it’s good to pick a pot that allows for some room to grow all the way around the root ball when you plant. You don’t want to go too big because the soil will hold too much moisture.

2. Use a good potting soil (potting mix)

Potting soil (potting mix) is made for use in pots – its’ specially blended to have the right drainage. You notice that it’s a lot lighter and looser than topsoil or soil you dig out of the ground.

3. Give your plant some food!

We recommend using organic Bio-tone fertilizer when planting to help your plant get a great start. Then use a good organic such as liquid Medina Hastagro once every 2-4 weeks.

4. Plant at the proper depth

All plants have surface level roots that you do not want to cover up with soil, so don’t plant too deep. You also don’t want soil all the way up to the lip of your pot or it will overflow when you water!

5. Use a Moisture Meter

Quick and easy way to tell if you are watering too much, not enough, or just right!

Happy Potting,

Wyatt

Meet Frances, the Garden Coach here at Gill’s! Frances, along with Josh and Larry (the planting dream team), is ready to help you with small landscape projects like designing and planting a new bed or two, creating a butterfly garden, or planting new trees and shrubs. Here’s how the process works.

Frances is an avid gardener and plant lover who’s been working in the garden center world for 10 years. She knows how to choose the right plants for the right space, which is the most important part. She’ll take you through designing your garden area, choosing plants and materials, and scheduling the planting team to come to your home to do the work.

Getting Started

Bring your ideas! Be sure to bring pictures and rough measurements of your space. Pinterest boards, sketches, and other photos can help Frances get a feel for your project too. She’ll walk the garden center with you, show you plants, and create a simple drawing to help you visualize the area. No need to make an appointment, just visit Gill’s on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Saturday to work with Frances.

What to Expect the Day Of

Josh and Larry will arrive at your house with the plants, trees, fertilizer, soil amendments, supplies, and watering/care instructions for you. They can help with last-minute placement decisions and answer any questions you may have. You can decide whether to be there to watch the magic happen, or they can take care of everything while you’re out and about.

And, as always, Frances and the rest of the Gill’s team are here to help whenever you have questions going forward!

Keep in mind that Gill’s has a full-scale landscape design and construction department that tackles larger projects. If you’d like to explore a new landscape design, call or stop by any time.

Join us this Saturday, 5/14 at 10:00 am for our first May talk – Houseplant Care Tips! Ori Roldan, houseplant collector/researcher here at Gill’s, will share and demonstrate her best indoor jungle care tips. One attendee will win a $100 Gill’s gift card AND all houseplants are 15% off! Here’s a preview from Ori of some topics she’ll cover.

Different Plants/Different Light

Classic houseplants like Monsteras, Fiddle Leaf Figs, and Money Trees require bright indirect light to thrive. “Bright indirect” typically means near a window but not directly receiving sun. Think ‘bright overall’ in the room.

Other plants like Dracaenas, Prayer Plants, and African Violets prefer medium light. Think dappled sunlight, a little farther from the window. A sheer curtain can help control brightness.

Pothos ivy varieties, Peace Lilies, most Hoyas, and Sansevieria can thrive in low light. Low light does not mean no light! Place them several feet away from the light source/window, but where it’s still bright enough to read small print and cast a fuzzy shadow.

More Roots = More Water

Potted plants that have more roots than soil in the pot will require more water (a heavy soaking at each watering). Let plants dry between waterings, for the most part. Some plants will prefer to be watered when they are still lightly moist (ferns, Peace Lilies) while others would like to dry out completely between waterings (Sansevieria, Cordyline glauca).

Repot When Your Plant is Ready

Plants will usually tell us when they need to go into a larger pot. If you notice that you’re needing to water daily (or a lot more than usual), your plant might be getting root-bound in its pot. Roots may start to grow out of the drainage holes and eventually create a tight “root basket” at the bottom of the pot.

Its time to repot into a slightly larger container, 2 to 4 inches wider in diameter than previous pot. And loosen/unwind any bound roots when you repot.

Houseplants Need Food Too!

Fertilize your houseplants when they are actively growing. This usually means when they are putting on new leaves or growing noticeably. We love liquid organic Hasta Gro for houseplants – all the nutrients without the fertilizer smell. You can use Hasta Gro as often as every 2 weeks while you’re noticing growth.

Growing food organically promotes life – you get delicious and rewarding veggies by keeping it simple and working with nature, including the beneficial organisms in the soil. Join Wyatt Page this Saturday, March 5^th at 10am at Gill’s for his talk on organic veggie gardening tips. Here’s a preview from Wyatt!

Amend the soil. Great gardens start with great soil. Our Corpus Christi Clay (and Padre Island Sand) need a little help. The key is to incorporate beneficial microbes, enzymes, and fungi that create a perfect environment for plant roots to grow.

Nature’s Blend Compost. Till in 1 bag per 12 sf of garden. Helps break up clay soil and adds a bunch of beneficial organic material. Excellent for veggie gardens and all other plantings.
BioTone Starter fertilizer. Add a small handful of BioTone when you plant each plant. A key ingredient in BioTone are mycorrhizal fungi which attach to plant roots and help them grow.
Worm castings and Dried Molasses help encourage soil life too.

No chemicals! Chemical pesticides, fungicides, and weed killers damage beneficial life in your garden. Here are some organic solutions that work:

Bad Bugs and common pests: Treat bad bugs like aphids, mealy bugs, or leaf miner with organic Spinosad Soap or Neem Oil as needed. Even better than that – let nature do the work and let lady bugs, spiders, and lizards eat them!
Fungal issues: Fungal problems like powdery mildew and rust can be treated with Neem Oil or Bee Safe Garden Spray. You can use horticultural cornmeal when planting to prevent fungal problems like blight.
Weeds: Proper mulching (2-3” thick) is the best way to prevent weeds! Make sure you stay on top of hand pulling as weeds pop up. Spray horticultural vinegar to kill new weeds on contact.

Get help from pollinators: Attracting pollinators like bees and butterflies will help increase vegetable production. In my garden I like to plant Salvias, Turk’s cap, and wildflowers mixed in with all the veggies to attract more pollinators.

Start small: Veggie gardening is lots of fun, but it does take time! If you are new to veggie gardening, I would encourage you to start small and build your garden little by little each season. A simple 4×8’ area, raised bed, or a few large pots/containers can produce quite a bit of food!

See you this Saturday!

-Wyatt

We are beyond excited to host you all in person for our first Garden Talk of 2022! James’ ‘Get Ready for Spring’ talk is a long-standing tradition. If you’ve got questions or just want to learn more about how to prep your garden and landscape for big Spring growth, join us at 10am this Saturday. Here’s a preview from James of some of the topics he plans to cover.

Prune Old Growth to Make Way for New Growth

Clean, sharpen, and lubricate your pruning tools before starting, and before putting tools away. Remember that once you have cut it, you can’t put it back on, this applies to tree limbs, and to human digits, so proceed carefully! My feeling is, cut old growth before new growth has started, to avoid wasting carbohydrate reserves of the plant, and to minimize damage to tender new growth when dragging cut branches out of the plant.

Prepare Your Soil and Get Planting!

Before planting new shubs, vegetables, or annual or perennial flowers, we should prepare the soil with compost. My favorite is Natures Blend Compost, the closest thing to “magic in a bag”. It keeps clay soil lighter and looser, or in sand, helps hold moisture and nutrients available for roots, and provides slow release organic fertility and growth stimulants. Cold tolerant trees, shrubs, annuals, and perennials benefit from being planted as far away from summer heat as possible, so NOW! And it’s time to get your spring veggie garden planted too. Follow up with a good organic mulch after planting, such as our hardwood mulch, that will suppress weeds, retain moisture, moderate soil temperatures as it gets hotter, and contribute to soil texture and fertility as it decomposes.

Early Spring Lawn Care

Do not apply lawn fertilizer on grass too early. When lawns are actively growing and need mowing once a week, that is the time to fertilize grass, usually around the first of March. Some weeds will be coming up in beds and lawns, and some of them can be controlled by hand pulling after a rain, some by mowing regularly so they don’t get tall enough to make seed. But some will be best controlled by applying Bonide Weed Beater Complete, LAWNS ONLY, to kill existing broadleaf weeds and prevent new weeds from sprouting. Or in beds, Bonide Crabgrass and Weed Preventer, which will not kill existing weeds, but prevents new weeds from sprouting. Always read and follow label directions for best results. I like Ortho GroundClear Weed & Grass Killer to help control emerged weeds in flower beds. It is organic, and safer to use around desirable shrubs.

Feed Your Fruit Trees

Now is time to fertilize fruit trees with Espoma Organic Citrus-tone, or Fertilome Fruit, Citrus, and Pecan Tree Food. The nitrogen in both is critical to production of healthy foliage, which is what provides necessary carbohydrates for fruit. You will repeat application later in spring, and again in fall. Also, citrus trees should have sprouts removed that come from below the graft, as they will produce only sour fruit.

When to Remove Stakes from Newly Planted Trees

If you have trees planted in the last year or two, with stakes still holding it upright, late winter/very early spring is a good time to check that staking. Loosen the ties, then try to rock the tree. If the rootball stays stable but the trunk bends, remove the staking and ties. If the rootball still moves, the staking should stay another season, but the loop around the trunk may need to be loosened so the new growth is not choked by the staking tie.

Check Your Sprinkler System and Hoses

If you have an automatic sprinkler system, hopefully it has been turned off most of the winter. It would make sense to do a run-through now, to take notes and make repairs on any plugged, sunken, or missing heads, line breaks, or non-functional valves. You may need to start watering once a week in March. If you use hoses and sprinklers, now is time to mend hoses and replace missing hose washers.

Fire Ants and Other Pests

If you are seeing fire ant activity, you can apply Come and Get It Fire Ant Bait now, but my favorite times are at the spring and fall daylight saving time changes. All Seasons Horticultural & Dormant Spray Oil is best applied before new leaves emerge to control scale, mealybug, and other problem insects that may be overwintering on your shrubs or ornamental trees, such as bicolor iris and bird of paradise.

-James

Tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow, but you need to get the timing right. Typically, you’d want to get them in the ground in August, but since it’s been so warm, it’s ok to wait until early to mid-September. But don’t wait longer than that! Here are a few tips for getting the best (and the most) tomatoes this Fall.

Start with a quart size or even a 1 gallon because you can wait a little longer to plant and it is easier to keep them watered in the heat. Add some organic Bio-tone starter fertilizer when you plant, add a tomato cage, water well, and watch them grow! On the first of the month, fertilize with Espoma Plant tone and on the 15^th use Hasta Gro liquid. Vegetables are heavy feeders and will reward you with a bountiful harvest if fed regularly.

Celebrity and Tycoon are 2 of the most popular larger tomatoes. Red Snapper, Red Deuce, Ruby Crush and Better Boy are also very good tried and true varieties. Most of these take about 70+ days from fruit to harvest.

If you’re looking for big flavor in a bite size, cherry or grape tomatoes are the ticket! Some of the tops, are Large, Red Cherry, Sweet 100, Juliet, Yellow Pear and my favorite… Sweet Cherry Surprise 968 aka BHN 968. Great for growing in a container, a raised bed, or in the ground. It is 4 times sweeter than any other cherry tomato on the market – almost like eating candy. Cherry tomatoes produce an abundance of fruit in a short period of time. One plant is plenty to keep several people supplied in tomatoes.

–DeAnna

Just like us, plants can’t live on water alone. To thrive, plants must have food, especially in Spring when they are actively growing. Rather than try to carry every fertilizer imaginable (there are hundreds!), we focus on the ones that we can really stand behind. Here is our menu of favorite plant foods, tested and used by the pros here at Gill’s.

Medina Growin’ Green

Our most versatile plant food. Organic and great for lawns, trees, shrubs, veggies, flowers, potted plants, you name it! Use a spreader to spread over your lawn. Each bag covers 3,000 sq. ft. Or sprinkle a small handful of granules on the soil around your plants, then water it in well.

Gill Lawn and Garden Food

Back in the 80s, James worked with Texas A&M to create a fertilizer formulated specially for South Texas lawns and gardens. It’s been a fav ever since. Each bag covers 6,000 sq. ft. of lawn. Or broadcast under trees and shrubs and water in well.

HastaGro

Another amazing organic food. Also very versatile. Mix the liquid with water (or use the hose-end sprayer) and use almost everywhere. Great for veggie gardens, blooming plants, succulents and more. HastaGro provides excellent nutrients for houseplants and none of the smell! You may not want to bring stinky granular plant food inside the house 🙂

Espoma “Tone” Foods

We love organic foods by Espoma. BioTone starter fertilizer with beneficial microbes is great to use at planting time to stimulate root growth. PlantTone is an excellent granular for veggies and flowering plants, CitrusTone is specifically formulated for citrus or other fruiting trees, and AzaleaTone for Azaleas, Magnolia, and Gardenias.

Pro tip: Fish Emulsion is another very popular and effective organic that works great for leafy veggies. Just be aware that cats go crazy for it too!

Our first reaction to make it all better is to water our grass and plants. Do not water unless the ground is close to dry. Watering damaged plants will encourage fungal and bacterial growth, which we want to avoid. Stick your finger in the soil and check for moisture. If it is moist, do not water yet.

You can mow your grass if it is taller and needs to be mowed. Place your mower setting one setting lower; do not cut too short. Cutting too short will add stress to grass that’s already stressed from the freeze.

Do not fertilize your lawn until it is greened up and actively growing. That is when the grass can best absorb the fertilizer in its roots and benefit from the nutrients.

Start removing the dead/damaged portion on your plants. Some examples below are:

If the plant is mushy (tropicals like ginger, Moses in the boat, bird of paradise) trim back to firm stem or to ground. Watch video: “Freeze Remedy: Initial Assessments”
Plants like salvia, plumbago, firecracker plant, and flax lily, trim down to within 4” from ground.
Plants like ixora, duranta, schefflera, hibiscus, and bougainvillea: scratch trunk and trim back to where you see green in the cambium layer of the trunk (maybe to ground).
Philodendron – Watch video: “Freeze Remedy: How To Save Philodendrons”
Palms – Watch video: “Freeze Remedy: Palm Trees”
Citrus– if you scratch a branch and there is no green underneath you can remove it, but no hurry. Keep any suckers that arise from below the graft cut off, they will grow fast but produce sour fruit. If your tree is frozen all the way to the graft, fertilize with Citrus Tone now, May 1st, and September 15th to promote plenty of healthy regrowth from freeze damage.

We know it looks bad but we are here to help you get your landscape back as best we can. We are bringing in new, healthy plants from California, Florida and all over Texas. Our Texas growers learned from the 80’s freezes how to protect plants.

Thank you for your questions on our website, Facebook, Instagram, on the phone, and in person! We will continue creating videos as we see the need and as always, we’re open 7 days a week to help you with your garden!