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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

Six years ago, my wife Sally and I traveled to Madagascar, a beautiful and fascinating island off the southeast coast of Africa. Home to lemurs, Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, incredibly bejeweled chameleons, 10 foot tall and 1000 lb. elephant birds (now extinct), and magnificent Baobab trees.

Baobab trees commonly live for 400-500 years, and some reportedly have lived over 2000 years. They are used as wayposts, and were even planted to mark the grave of notable persons, as they will be around for so long. Known as the “Tree of Life” throughout most of Africa, and “Mother of the Forest” in much of Madagascar, their survival skills and adaptation to their environment is remarkable.

Their huge swollen trunks soak up and store enough water from their short rainy season to last through the long drought. They leaf out and grow for only a very short time, then drop those leaves. Also, with rains, the Baobabs put out a profusion of beautiful flowers, and bats, beetles, moths, and other insects feed on sweet nectar. The resulting fruit is about the size of a large coconut, and is eaten by lemurs, as well as being an important food for humans, high in carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals.

The bark of the baobab is used as a fiber for rope, cloth, nets, baskets, and paper. The tree provides welcome shade, even when leafless. So, while the brush surrounding Baobabs is frequently removed for agriculture or other uses, Baobabs are usually left in place.

Another important reason for leaving them in place is the Melagasy indigenous belief of “fady“. Baobabs are seen as either sacred, or taboo, or both. They are inhabited by spirits both good and evil, and if you cut down a Baobab, those spirits will be offended and very troublesome.

Unfortunately, higher average temperatures and more severe droughts seem to be resulting in decline and death for some of the oldest and grandest Baobabs. I fear that as the Baobabs, lemurs, and other marvelous Madagascar wonders go the way of the elephant bird, our children may be dealing with more and more offended and troublesome spirits.

-James

Beautiful Fall weather is ahead and it’s time to get started planting veggies! I’ve decided to expand my veggie garden at home and invite you all to follow me this season for some of my best tips, successes, and failures to overcome. I’ll be posting video updates here in the Garden News and on Gill social media pages.

Part 1 – Prepping a Veggie Garden Bed

A bountiful veggie garden starts with the soil! Check out my time-lapse video of creating a new veggie bed, and read my tips below for additional info and a recap:

A couple of things I didn’t mention in the video that are very helpful:

If the ground is dry and hard, you can water the area thoroughly for 2-3 days before turning the soil. This will loosen it up and make it a lot easier.
Get rid of all grass and weeds before prepping the bed. Pull them out making sure you get the roots.
The fork tool I’m using in the video is actually called a spading fork, not a pitchfork. Great tool to use!

Video recap:

Amend your soil with compost. Whether you are using an existing garden or starting a new bed it is important to use compost every season. Compost should be tilled (by hand and/or with a tiller) into the top 6-8 inches of soil. Compost helps build the soil structure and has great benefits for your plants including stronger root growth.

Create a barrier. I like to edge the garden with bricks or timbers, but you can use bendaboard, stone, steel edging, logs, etc. This stops weeds from creeping into the garden and helps keep things organized.

Top dress with mulch. Mulching is greatly beneficial to a healthy veggie garden. Mulch helps keep the weeds down, helps retain moisture in the soil, and when you use natural mulches like Hardwood or Pine Straw, they break down in the top layer of dirt building your soil structure even more.

Happy gardening!

–Wyatt

Part 2 – Starting Veggies from Seed

This Fall, I’m starting all my veggies from seed. Check out my video below to see how I start my seeds, and read tips below for additional info and a recap:

Video recap:

Timing is everything. Make sure you are planting your seeds at the right time! Check the Gill’s seed planting guide for the best times to plant veggie seeds this Fall.
Germinate overnight before planting. Put your seeds in a damp paper towel and leave them in a plastic bag overnight to help the seed germinate. (Don’t leave the seeds in the bags for too long or they may root to the paper).
Small containers + Potting or Seed-Starting Soil. I like to start my seeds in peat pots but using things like egg cartons or paper cups works just as well. Fill your containers with a good potting soil or seed-starting soil and plant seeds at proper depth according to the directions on the seed packet.
- Pro tip: Water the soil thoroughly, then plant the seeds. That way you don’t need to blast your new seeds with water and risk displacing them.
Tender young plants need love. Keep the soil damp, but not too wet. Gradually introduce the plants to more sun as the sprouts grow.
Transplant. Once the seedlings reach approximately 3 inches tall (this is a general rule of thumb and depends on the plant), transplant into the ground or a raised bed. Be gentle to keep the soil intact around the root.

Happy gardening,

-Wyatt

Next time you’re in the Houston area, stop by Nelson Water Gardens & Nursery in Katy – you won’t regret it. The Nelsons (Anita, Rolf and family) are good friends of ours who have been operating their unique destination since 1996. They grow aquatic plants like waterlilies and bog plants, and specialize in fountains, water features and hard to find plants and pottery.

Mike Swize joined Anita and Rolf early on and has been the propagation manager at Nelson for over 30 years. Mike studied waterlily hybridization under Dr. Kirk Strawn at Texas A&M in his graduate program. Mike recognized a new variety of waterlily growing in a tank at Nelson’s and decided to propagate it and name it the ‘Lindsey Woods’ variety after a 14-year old family friend who died from cancer. In 1999, Nelson’s introduced the new waterlily commercially, contributing $20 from the sale of every plant to the Texas Children’s Hospital – for a total of over $60,000 to date!

Mike is also a talented nature photographer who took these photos of frogs on the beautiful waterlilies at Nelson’s! I’m so thankful Mike captured these amazing shots; I bet there was patience involved!

-Sally

With quite a bit of rain in the forecast, what should we do? Let’s start with getting excess water off the roof and out of the yard. The short recent drought was enough to get some trees to drop quite a few leaves, so check your gutters and downspouts and clear them if needed.

Check downspout exits to see that the ends have not been crimped closed by wayward mower wheels, and that there are not bags of mulch or pots or bricks obstructing their flow. Same goes for drainage pathways away from rainfall off the roof, removing any boxes, bags, etc. that would slow the flow of excess rainfall trying to exit the yard.

A common problem is where the bottom of the fence has inadequate clearance above the ground, and so grass, leaves, and branches get caught at the base of the fence and create a dam that allows water to get high enough to flow into the house. Mow grass or use a weed trimmer along flow pathways, as water will move much faster over short grass.

If you have an automatic irrigation system, turn it off now! Assuming you get 1″ or more of rainfall, wait a week, then check soil to see if the lawn is ready for water again. Turn the system back on when it is hard to push a screwdriver into the soil because it is dry.

Mosquitos will be a problem on the other side of these rains. Be sure to turn wheelbarrows and other potential vessels over to prevent accumulation of water that would hatch mosquitos. Mosquito Dunks or Mosquito Bits (for saucers or birdbaths) will prevent mosquitos from hatching in standing water, without harming any other organisms. We will also have Mosquito Beater sprays and granules to help control adult mosquitos.

Caterpillars are also likely to be a problem after the rains. Some caterpillars will become beautiful butterflies, but others will become small nondescript moths that will then lay more eggs and eat until your lawn is gone! So, ask us about any potential problem you may have. We can tell you whether treatment is warranted or not, and if so, what is the safest and most sensible method of control.

–James Gill

Are you as anxious as I am to replace your summer annuals with lush Fall color? I bet yes!! Our guide below (click here for the printable version) shows the most popular flowers for our area and the optimum months to plant. Timing is everything! Many of these can be planted at any time during their season but waiting for the optimum month to plant will give you the best and longest show of color.

For now, trim your plants back a bit to improve their shape, lightly spade some Nature’s Blend compost into flower beds, mulch beds, and pull out tired Summer annuals and refresh pots with new potting soil…all in preparation for your Fall annuals. Get ready; it’s right around the corner!

-Sally Gill

We are lucky that we can garden year-round here in South Texas, but Fall is our best season for planting – especially for trees! Here’s why.

Trees (shrubs and perennials, too) get a great bonus when planted in Fall. South Texas enjoys relatively warm soil temperatures through Fall and Winter, and cooler air temperatures direct the new tree to grow roots instead of foliage all through this time.

So, a tree planted in the ground in Fall will grow much faster the following Spring due to having already developed a healthy root system. That root system will also help the tree take up deeper moisture and not suffer as much stress during its first South Texas Summer.

More Tips for Tree Success:

Consider size: starting with a small 3 to 15 gallon size tree makes planting easier and you get to watch it grow. Planting a larger tree gives you instant impact in your landscape, but planting is more involved. Be sure to choose a space suited for the size the tree will be once it has matured. We can help you choose the right tree and location and take care of the planting for you if you like.
Dig the hole as deep as the container & about 12” wider. Plant the tree so the top of the root ball is level with the surrounding ground or slightly higher. Don’t plant too deep!
Use Nature’s Blend compost to improve existing soil when planting. Don’t put the compost in the hole – mix it with the soil that you dig up, then back fill with the soil + compost mixture. Better yet, spread compost over the area where the tree will be planted, till it into the soil using a roto-tiller, then dig your hole and plant your tree in the middle.
Fertilize with Agriform tablets or Plant Tone mixed into soil around the root ball.
Mulch around trees & keep grass & weed eaters away from tree trunks.
Stake trees especially in high wind areas.
Follow watering instructions. New trees need TLC and W!

– James and Debbie

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Our soil recipe:

How Much Soil Do You Need?

A couple of things I didn’t mention in the video that are very helpful:

Video recap:

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