Image

Happy 2023! January is time to get started on garden resolutions. Planning a veggie garden? New landscape beds? More Texas native plants to support wildlife? So many possibilities, and we’re here to help. Here are our top must-do’s this month to set your projects up for success.

Check out our January 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. Prep Beds for Spring Planting

January is our month to plan and prep for Spring. Clean up, remove weeds, and prep your garden beds by adding some compost! We love Nature’s Blend Compost for veggie and landscape beds. A good ratio is 1 bag per 12 sq. ft. of space. If you make your own compost, that approximate ratio works well. It doesn’t have to be exact. Turn the compost a few inches into the soil with a shovel or garden forks for a good full-body workout!

2. Yes, You Can Plant in January!

Trees, shrubs, and perennials will build healthy root systems during their winter dormancy making for stronger, healthier plants in Spring and Summer. Just a few days after the freeze, we planted a butterfly garden with Texas Lantana, Mystic Spires Salvia, Texas Frogfruit, Skeleton leaf Goldeneye, and more. Yes, we plan to cover it if we get any more cold weather, but those plants are getting a head start now and will be ready to burst with growth this Spring!

3. Feed Your Citrus Trees

Meyer Lemons on the left with fertilizer, Meyer lemons on the right without!

Fertilize your citrus trees in January for more blooms, again in May/June for better fruit set, and again in September/October for nutrients. We recommend fertilizing with Espoma Citrus-Tone – all organic. Remember to fertilize trees, including citrus, at the drip line. That means spread fertilizer in a circle where the rain naturally drips down from the leaves, not right up against the trunk.

4. Start Veggie Seeds!

January is time to start tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, chard, onions, carrots, beets, parsley and more from seed. We carry seed-starting trays, peat pots, and special cutting/seedling soil for starting seeds indoors or on a protected/covered patio. A good rule of thumb is that once the seedlings have made their first true set of leaves, they are ready to be transplanted into a larger container outside or directly into the garden bed.

Check out our full Spring planting guide here.

5. Start Your Post-Freeze Clean Up, but Not Too Much Pruning!

Remember – wait to do any major pruning of freeze-damaged plants until February. You don’t want the plant to think its time to start putting on new growth since we still may have another cold snap. However, there’s definitely some clean-up that can be started now. As a general rule, if freeze-damaged plants are mushy and slimy, go ahead and clean out the mushy parts. If freeze-damaged plants are dry and crunchy, leave them alone. That dry, crunchy foliage will help insulate against any more possible freezes.

Ornamental grasses, like Pink Muhly or Purple Fountain grass, are an exception. They should be cut back this month. Trim them straight across (no cupcakes) 3”-4“ from the ground. Use a bungee cord or piece of rope to gather them up, then cut straight across.

6. Spend Time with Your Houseplants

Most houseplants will need more light and less water this month. Keep their leaves clean to help them take up sunlight and prevent bad bugs. Experiment with lighting/placement, and take them outside for a sunny day or 2.

FYI – the Gill team (Ori, Debbie, and Jesse) are headed to the Tropical Plant International Expo in Tampa this month. We can’t wait to tour houseplant growing operations and get the scoop on new varieties!

Spring in South Texas starts around February 15^th– only 33 days away! We may or may not have another cold snap ahead of us, but it’s time to start planning our Spring projects and starting veggie seeds. The first day for planting Spring seeds is January 15th give or take a few days – aka RIGHT NOW! We are expanding our selection of seeds to include lots of open-pollinated and heirloom varieties like rainbow beets from Sow True Seed and Bosque blue tomatoes from Baker Creek, plus tried and true staples from Botanical Interests.

Simple Method for Starting Seeds

Starting veggie seeds indoors is great because you can keep the tiny seedlings protected until they’re ready to move outside. I’ve tried a few different methods for starting seeds but have been most successful using a damp paper towel, then folding the seed inside the towel and placing it in a sealable bag or dish. This will create a “mini greenhouse” effect and will help the seed germinate. I leave them in the bag for no longer than 24 hours, then plant them in light and fluffy seed/cutting soil in a seed starting tray or peat pot. When planting new seed be sure the soil is damp at the time of planting and always water with a light sprinkle. This will prevent your seeds from floating/washing out of the soil. I make the hole about a fingernail’s depth, gently place the seeds in the hole, and cover lightly with the damp soil. Check out my video demo of this process – quick and easy!

After the seeds sprout, you can slowly acclimate them to outdoor sunlight by moving them to a covered patio or other protected area. Be sure to keep them damp so the tiny roots don’t dry out. Then, a good rule of thumb is that once the seedlings have made their first true set of leaves, they are ready to be transplanted into a larger container or directly into the garden bed out in the sun.

Seeds to Start in January

Tomatoes!
Cold Crops and Greens: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, and mustard greens
Root Crops: onions, carrots, beets, and potatoes
Herbs: parsley

Check out our full Spring planting guide here.

FYI: If you want to skip seeds and start transplants outside now, you totally can! We’ve got broccoli, cauliflower, celery, spinach, onions, potatoes, and lots of herbs that are ready to go. We even brought in a few early tomatoes this week 🙂

-Wyatt

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!

Windsor Park Owls, Trevor and Stuart Gill

Are you as ready as we are to get outside and garden?! If the Mesquite trees are right, Spring is just around the corner. Here’s our top 6 to focus on in February to kickstart an amazing Spring season.

Check out our February 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. Be Ready for Cool Weather and Start Planting!

Keep your eye on the forecast for cold snaps like we’ve had this week, but don’t delay your planting projects. We are already seeing Mesquite trees start to bud up, which almost always means no more hard freezes! As James Gill shared with us at his garden talk last weekend, he’s only seen 2 years out of almost 70 where the Mesquites were wrong on this. That’s a lot more accurate than the weather man!

2. Start Your Veggies!

Beloved tomato growing is rewarding and can be challenging. Planting them early this month is important. Tomatoes need cooler nights to have good fruit set. When you plant tomatoes, be sure to install a tomato cage while they’re small. It can act as a frame for cold weather protection (a bag or blanket) if needed and a frame to support your plants as they grow. You can go ahead and start other favs like squash, cucumbers, beans, & lettuces/greens either by seed or transplants too. Stop by and we’ll help you plan your veggie garden and get you everything you’ll need for a bountiful harvest!

3. Come Learn and Share Houseplant Tips This Saturday!

This Saturday, 2/4/23, we’ll be inside greenhouse here at Gill’s, having an open and interactive discussion about how to care for your indoor plant friends. Join us for Houseplant Jungle with Ori Roldan, Gill’s houseplant connoisseur and assistant buyer. Ori will share lots of care tips and demonstrate easy ways to propagate. Bring your questions or share your plant knowledge as we hang out and talk about everything houseplants. One attendee will win a $100 Gill’s gift card, and we’ll do some other giveaways too!

4. Feed Veggies & Flowers

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.

5. February = Time to Prune!

February is the time to get plants cut back to make way for big spring growth! 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, 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.

6. Keep Watch for Winter Insects

Scale is a hard bodied sucking insect that looks like a brown booger 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. The oil spray literally coats and suffocates the the eggs that are waiting for spring to hatch. It’s also good for treating indoor plants that may have scale or spider mites.

Check out our February Garden Guide for more tips!

Our February garden talks wrap up this Saturday, 2/25/23 at 10am! Join us here at Gill’s for Planting to Support Our Local Ecosystem with Sara Jose, Preserve Manager at the Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve & Education Center. Sara is an avid gardener, birdwatcher, and environmental educator who encourages the community to think of nature as something that happens IN our yards, not something we visit on vacation. She’ll discuss how to choose and incorporate native plants, why we should be growing “bug food”, and the importance of creating habitats that support birds, bees, and other plant pollinators. If you want to learn how you can make a big impact on our local ecosystem, even in small spaces, don’t miss this talk! As always, Saturday’s talk is free and open to everyone, and one attendee will win a $100 Gill’s gift card!

Spring is here!! Look around and you’ll see lots of happy and healthy plants enjoying the sunshine and putting on fresh new growth. We hope you feel the same way! Here are our top must-do’s in the garden this month to help you have the best Spring season and beyond.

Check out our March Garden Guide for more tips!

1. Plant Level – Not Too Deep!

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. Most 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, remember that plants need long, deep drinks of water. Watering often does not equal watering well. Use a moisture meter to be sure you’re getting moisture down into the ground when you water.

2. Start Your Spring Veggie Garden!

It’s time! We are thrilled to have a big healthy selection of Spring veggies and fruit trees this year. One thing we recommend for starting all veggie gardens is Nature’s Blend compost – the closest thing we’ve seen to ‘magic in a bag’! One 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. Remember that you can grow food almost anywhere! Re-watch James Gill’s container gardening video for tips and inspiration.

3. Invite Pollinator Friends to Your Garden

Now is a great time to incorporate plants into your garden that attract & feed the birds, bees, butterflies, 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 Hummers 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.

4. Fertilize Now – Except Lawns

Spring’s here and plants are actively growing. That means they need food, just like us! 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 ornamental plants as well. Apply a good all-purpose organic food like Plant Tone or Medina Growin Green 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 nutrients. After you’ve applied your granular food, circle back every 2 weeks to supplement with liquid Hasta Gro. Almost everything should be fed this time of year, except lawns. More on lawns below…

5. Apply Pre-Emergent Weed Control Now and Wait to Fertilize Lawns

Lawns are coming out of dormancy and just now starting to actively grow, which means we need to wait a few more weeks before applying fertilizer. But right now is the time to apply pre-emergent weed control to kill weeds before they emerge. We recommend Hi Yield Weed and Grass Stopper with Dimension. Remember that pre-emergent weed controls are root growth inhibitors. They work by penetrating down into the top layer of soil where weed seeds are, but not down deep enough to affect grass roots. They should only be used in areas where you have thick, healthy grass with established roots, not areas where you plan to plant more grass this spring or thin areas where you want grass to fill in. If you have weeds that have already sprouted, spray lawns with Weed B Gon, Image, or organic Captain Jack’s Lawn Weed Brew. All three are safe for Floratam St. Augustine lawns. Or you can spot treat weeds with organic Captain Jack’s Dead Weed Brew. Bottom line: control weeds now BEFORE you fertilize in late March/early April. This is why we don’t recommend using “weed and feed” type products.

Nothing says Spring like planting flowers! Our South Texas climate gives us lots of options for blooms through the Spring and Summer. Here are our tips for timing, planting, and care to get the healthiest plants and brightest blooms.

Timing – What to Plant, What to Expect

Plant Impatiens, Petunias, Begonias, Gerbera Daisy, and Geraniums right now for intense, amazing color for the next 2ish months. Since Spring temperatures warmed up earlier this year, we already have warmer season annuals like Vinca, Zinnias, Moss Rose, and Purslane that will last and bloom through the Summer. Right now is also a great time to plant blooming perennials like Salvias, Coreopsis, Lantana, and Penta that will bloom again each year and look their best for 2-3 years.

Planting – Tender Plants, Tender Roots

For small, tender annual flowers like Geraniums and Marigolds, use a good fluffy potting soil in pots to allow tender roots to penetrate. When planting in the ground, amend existing soil with Nature’s Blend Compost to loosen up clay soil, and add worm castings for extra nutrients and better root development (worm castings can be used in pots too). Whether planting in pots or in the ground, be sure not to plant too deep – plant level with the surrounding soil so the tiny feeder roots on the surface are not buried. Allow adequate spacing between plants for good air circulation and healthy growth. Spacing depends on the flower you’re planting. For example, Petunias should be about 8” apart, while Periwinkles should be 12-16” apart.

Feeding and Care

Flowers (annuals and perennials) use a lot of energy to create beautiful blooms, so they need good, regular meals! We have the best success using liquid Hasta Gro every 2 weeks and Rose Glo once a month – both are organic and excellent for promoting new blooms. Add a calendar reminder in your phone: Rose Glo + Hasta Gro on the 1st of the month, then Hasta Gro again on the 15th. For annual flowers, pinch off any old/faded blooms to encourage new blooms!

We’ve been talking to lots of local gardeners who are totally rethinking their landscapes this year. After 2 cold winters in a row, you might be wanting more cold-tolerant plants. Understandable! We think that’s a great idea – start with some good bones, then add color and accents to suit your style. Here are some options to consider.

Small Trees Make Good Focal Points

Crops of blooming ornamental trees like Texas Mountain Laurel, Yaupon Holly, Vitex, and Redbud look fantastic this year. All of these will attract and support birds, as will other interesting native trees like Spiny Hackberry and Kidneywood. They can handle freezes and hot summer temps too. In nature, these are understory trees, so they can tolerate some shade. Look for a spot with good sun to partial shade where you’d like to create a focal point in your landscape. For example, plant a Yaupon Holly and add a birdbath where you can see it from your living room window and you’ll have live Mockingbird TV!

Add Structure with Cold-Hardy Shrubs

You can’t go wrong with cold-hardy, tried and true shrubs like Indian Hawthorn for creating structure in your landscape. Yes, they may still get a little browning on the tips after a freeze, but not severe damage. Shrubs frame the house and give you that classic evergreen look. Other classics like Wax Leaf Ligustrum, Viburnum, Pittosporum, and Dwarf Burford Holly are great for our area.

Bring the Butterflies with Cold-Tolerant Perennial Color

Lantana, Blue Daze, Salvia ‘Love and Wishes’, Salvia ‘Black and Bloom’, Gregg’s Mistflower,
Blackfoot Daisy

Once you’ve got some good structure, you can make your landscape sing with blooming perennials! If you already had plants like Lantana, Salvias, Blue Daze, you’ve probably saw them look rough this Winter, then start to grow back rapidly this Spring. If you cut them back in the wintertime, they’ll look even better in Spring and Summer. Expect most blooming perennials to look their best for 2-3 years, sometimes longer. Keep in mind, if you’re planting to attract pollinators like hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees, plant several of the same plant in a group. For example, plant 6-8 Gregg’s Mistflower together in 1 bed to help butterflies easily find it. Mass-planting like this tends to look really nice to humans too.

Accent with Tropical Plants and Annual Color

Jatropha, Bougainvillea, Mandevilla, Hibiscus

If you’re adventurous, creating an all-tropical landscape can be lush and beautiful. Just know that you’ll likely need to replace plants if we get too cold, or wait a while until they grow back from the roots. Instead, you might consider building the bones of your landscape with cold-tolerant trees, shrubs, and perennials, then accenting with tropical plants. A Bougainvillea splash against a background of evergreen shrubs, or a small area full of philodendrons and Jatropha can create a tropical feel with less risk. And don’t forget about annual flowers! Pots or beds exploding with Zinnias, Begonias, Celosia, and Sweet Potato Vine will look amazing this season, then you get to pull them up and plant something new.