garden talk

Have y’all seen the forecast for next week?! Gardening weather will be back very soon! Join us this Saturday, 2/22 at 10am *INDOORS* for a super informative talk – all about starting your spring veggie garden! Wyatt Page, Gill’s Asst. Manager and expert veggie gardener will cover everything from planning your garden to starting seeds to bed prep to harvesting and eating! Click to watch Wyatt’s invite video and we’ll see you Saturday! This talk is free and open to everyone, and we’ll be doing some fun giveaways!

Join us THIS Saturday, September 13th at 10:00am here at Gill’s for Part 1 of our Fall Veggie Gardening series. Gill’s veggie gardening experts DeAnna Baumgartner and Wyatt Page will lead an informative talk on all things fall veggies. Part 1 will focus on growing early fall season crops like tomatoes, peppers, squashes, cucumbers, and beans. We’ll do some gift card giveaways and field all your veggie gardening questions!

FREE event – 10-11am – No RSVP required.

Click below to watch DeAnna’s preview video:

We can’t wait to see everyone! Stay tuned to our events page and follow us on Facebook and Instagram where we’ll continue to post updates about talks and events. We have lots more to come this fall!

Natural gourd birdhouses are the best! They host a wide variety of birds who use the seeds and pulp inside to make their nests. Join us at Gill’s this Saturday, September 20th from 11am-1pm for a fun garden art project – painting gourd houses! We’ll provide a pre-drilled gourd with a leather hanging strap plus all the painting supplies. Take home your creation and hang it up for birds to make their home this fall!

Limited to the first 50 guests of all ages – $10 per person. Reserve your tickets here, or purchase the day of!

Click to watch Ori & Caleb’s preview video:

Join us this Saturday, February 10th at 10am for Low Water Landscape Design with Harry Villarreal. If you know Harry, Landscape Designer here at Gill’s, you know he loves pokey plants! Yuccas, different Agaves, Mangave, and cacti can all serve as features and focal points in the landscape, but they’re far from the only plants that can help save water. Harry will cover lots of ideas for using drought tolerant blooming perennials, Texas natives, water-saving colorful tropical plants, reducing lawn space, and lots more. Conserve water and achieve your design goals! Click below to watch Harry’s video preview. See you Saturday!

We can’t wait to see everyone! Stay tuned here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram where we’ll continue to post updates about talks and events. We have lots more to come throughout the year!

Did you know that October is prime time to sow wildflower seeds here in the Coastal Bend? Bring the kiddos this Saturday, October 11th from 11-1 to assemble and decorate their own wildflower seed shaker! We’ll provide the shaker tubes, supplies to paint and decorate, and 2 different Texas native wildflower seed mixes to fill them up. Just sprinkle them wherever you want to see beautiful native wildflowers emerge next spring!

FREE event – No RSVP required.

Click below to watch Ori’s preview video:

Holiday season is happening at Gill’s – let the festivities begin! This Saturday, November 8th from 11am-1pm, kiddos are invited to come and create ornaments with real Xmas tree stump pieces! We’ll provide the pre-drilled wooden ornament pieces, art supplies, and ribbons for kids to make their fun creations. Just in time to hang on this year’s tree!

FREE event while supplies last – 11am-1pm – No RSVP required.

February is time to really get going on pruning, prepping, and planting to kick off spring! We always say – spring in the Coastal Bend starts on Valentine’s Day. We’re stocking up on veggies, Texas native plants, trees, lots of flowers and blooming perennials, and we’re hosting lots of garden talks and events starting this Saturday! Here are our top 8 gardening tasks to focus on this month as we head into an amazing garden season.

1. Join Us for James Gill’s Annual Get Ready for Spring Talk – This Saturday at 10!

If you want to make a really good gardening game plan for spring, join us here at Gill’s this Saturday, February 7th at 10am for James Gill’s annual Get Ready for Spring garden talk. James will go over proper pruning techniques, what to plant, how to fertilize, watering tips, and lots more. James is a walking encyclopedia of local gardening and landscaping knowledge – bring your questions! This talk is free and open to everyone. One attendee will win a $100 Gill’s gift card, and we’ll do some other giveaways too! Take a look at all our upcoming talks and events here. Next up is our Valentine’s Potted Arrangement Workshop on Thursday, February 12th at 6pm.

2. Prep Beds & Plant Your Veggies!

It’s time to start veggie favs like tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans, lettuces/greens, & more! Work some Nature’s Blend compost into your beds and get going. Or fill containers and raised beds with Gardener’s Magic soil and plant! Stop by and we’ll help you plan your veggie garden and get you everything you’ll need for a bountiful harvest. We’ve also got our Spring Veggie Garden Talk with DeAnna and Wyatt coming up on February 21st. Come learn and share with a group of seasoned and aspiring gardeners!

3. Start Your Spring Cleanup & Pruning Now

February is the time to get plants cut back to make way for big spring growth! Typically, we recommend waiting until February 15th to prune, but since the weather is warm and the forecast looks good, game on now! Most perennials like Lantana, Turk’s Cap, and Salvias need a good pruning back to about 4-8″ – don’t be shy! For any plants with woody stems/branches (like Esperanza and Hibiscus) that look dead or damaged from our recent freeze, do the scratch test before pruning. Start up high and scratch with your fingernail, a dime, or the back side of a knife. Don’t scratch too deep. If you see the bright green cambium layer (like the photo), that means it’s still alive! If you see brown/gray when you scratch, keep working your way down the plant until you see green. That will tell you where to cut. As always, contact Gill’s if you’re not sure or have questions about whether or how to prune specific plants.

4. Bring Back the Color!

All our favorite spring annuals, perennials, natives, roses, and bright-blooming tropical plants are arriving at Gill’s daily! We’ve entered February and the forecast looks warm and sunny, so it’s time to create bursts of color in the garden and landscape. Yes, there’s always a chance for a late freeze, but given our forecast this year, those chances are getting slimmer every day. Better to plant early and get a head start on root growth. Plus, small plants are easy to cover if need be.

5. Keep Feeding Veggies & Flowers on a Regular Schedule

Blooming plants need food! Veggies are especially heavy feeders – they need to be able to sustain blooming and producing fruit. We recommend mixing in a little Bio-Tone Starter when you plant, which contains mycorrhizal fungi that promotes root growth. Then feed with a good organic, granular plant food like Plant-Tone or Medina Growin Green once a month, and supplement with liquid organic Hasta Gro in between. An easy way to remember this is to set an alarm or calendar event for granular feeding on the 1st of the month, then Hasta Gro on the 15th. These will add nutrients to your plants and keep your soil alive and healthy too.

6. Keep Watch for Scale Insects

Scale is a variety of hard bodied sucking insects that range in appearance from white oyster shells to brown boogers stuck to the leaves of plants. Some of their favorites are Burford Holly, Bird of Paradise, Flax Lily, & Irises. They are easily controlled with a spray of organic All Seasons Oil Spray, but it must be done now before temps get too warm. The oil spray literally coats and suffocates the the eggs that are waiting for spring to hatch. It’s also good for treating houseplants that may have scale or spider mites.

Check out our February Garden Guide for more tips!

We are thrilled to host the first-ever book signing event here at Gill’s on March 6th from 3-5pm! Stop by Gill’s to celebrate the release of Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening by Shaun McCoshum, PhD and meet the author!

Shaun is a certified, Senior Ecologist and Wildlife Biologist with over 20 years of experience restoring habitats, conducting research, and gardening. His work includes published scientific papers, books, and restoring areas from coast to coast including lands with bison, endangered plants, threatened pollinators, black bears, and mountain lions.

Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening brings natural systems back to our neighborhoods. With gorgeous, professional photos throughout, the book explains how habitats persist in the natural world and the ways we can mimic key processes at home to benefit wildlife in beautiful landscapes. From adding pockets of mulch to replicate old trees to stacking rocks for safe harbor, this book will interest gardeners, land managers, nature lovers, natural science majors, and urban planners.

Preorder the book here and we’ll have copies at the book signing!