seeds

Temperatures don’t feel like it yet, but it’s time to start making the transition into an exciting new fall planting season! There’s a lot to do in August to set yourself up for big garden success this fall and beyond. Here are our top must-do’s!

1. Pick Out Your Fall Veggie and Flower Seeds!

August is the time to start your fall veggie seeds! Next week, we’ll receive the new 2025-2026 seeds from our favorite seed suppliers, including heirloom vegetables, brand new releases, and wildflower seeds. Try Cow Pots (cattle manure pots) or seed starting trays to start seeds indoors this month, move to a covered patio once they sprout, then into your garden beds once they’re robust enough to live outside. This will protect the seedlings and slowly acclimate them to outdoor temps. Our Fall Vegetable Planting Guide provides the specific seed-planting dates to help plan your fall garden. Remember – if you want bountiful fall veggies, you need to get an early start!

2. Start Planting Now for Fall Pollinators!

Don’t wait until fall arrives to start planting for fall pollinators – start cooking now so their meal will be ready when they arrive! Important fact: birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food worldwide. Plants attract and provide food for them to keep the cycle going. For example – plant Zinnia and sunflower seeds now, and they’ll be ready to feed migrating birds this fall. Plant salvias now, get roots established, and they’ll be gorgeous this fall and covered in hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. If you want to provide the best benefits for the most pollinators, plant Texas natives!

3. Prep Your Garden Beds

August is the time to start prepping fall veggie beds! Finish your Summer harvesting, clean out your beds, and pull weeds. To get your soil ready, we recommend mixing Nature’s Blend Compost or Cotton Burr Compost into your soil to replenish nutrients and loosen the soil before planting. About 1 bag per 12 sq. ft. is good. Once prepped, add a thick layer of pine straw or hardwood mulch, which will help retain moisture, keep weeds from sprouting, and keep the soil cooler until you’re ready to plant. As you plan your space, think crop rotation – don’t plant the same veggies in the exact same place you planted them last season, or you encourage pests and diseases.

4. Water to Maintain Depth Moisture!

We’ve been lucky to have some well-timed rain showers this summer, which has created some depth moisture in the soil. Our goal with watering this month should be to maintain it. For lawns and established plants and trees, this means watering less frequently, but watering deeply when you water. New plantings will require water every day for the first couple weeks to get the roots established, but again, think deep drinks so the roots dive deeper. Use a water wand with a cut-off valve to make it easy on you and conserve water. Pro tip: Conserve water by watering at ground level, not spraying from above. This way, water soaks down to the roots rather than evaporating off the leaves.

5. Mulch = Cool Roots, Dude!

Proper mulching using natural Hardwood or Pine Straw mulch has big benefits, especially during hot weather. A good 3” deep layer of mulch will keep your plants and the soil moist and cool for longer after you water or after it rains. Not just a little cooler – we’re talking more than 25 degrees cooler!! Cooler soil temps allow plant roots and beneficial microorganisms in the soil to flourish. When mulching, give the main trunks or stems of your plants a little space – mulch 3” deep throughout the bed, but no more than 1” deep right up against the main trunks/stems of plants.

Bring the kids to Gill’s this Saturday, July 11th to celebrate our favorite summer flowers – zinnias! We’ll have stations set up for the kiddos to make their own mud cookies, sprinkle some zinnia seeds into the mud mixture, and cut out cute cookies in the shapes of butterflies! Once you get them home, these zinnia seed cookies can be planted in pots or beds – just water them in, and in a couple weeks, your zinnias will start to sprout and grow!

Free event for kids 12 and under! See y’all this Saturday!

Welcome to 2026! It’s time to set our gardening resolutions! What do you hope to learn more about in the garden this year? What new plants are you going to try? What areas are you planning to revamp? January is time to get moving and set yourself up for big success this spring and beyond. Beds need prepping, veggie seeds need starting, citrus trees need feeding, and YES you can get a head start on planting too! Here are our top must-do’s (and don’t do’s!) this month.

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. Mulch for Many Reasons!

Let’s start off with the simplest and most effective garden must-do…JUST MULCH! A good 2-3″ deep layer of mulch is our best protection against dry drought conditions and against cold snaps/freezes. Think of mulch as insulation for your plant roots – it helps retain moisture in the soil and it provides a barrier to keep cold air out. Natural mulches also break down over time and add nutrients to your soil. Maintain a good layer of mulch, but don’t pile mulch up around the base of trees and plants. Give your trunks and root flares (where the roots meet the main trunks/stems) a few inches of breathing room for better oxygen exchange and to prevent potential fungal problems. Mulch is also an excellent place holder this month for areas that you plan to plant this spring. Mulch will help keep underlying soil active and alive, while suppressing weed growth. Clean up and mulch now, then easy planting when you’re ready!

2. Prep Soil Now for Spring Planting

January is our month to plan and prep for spring. Clean up, remove weeds, and most importantly, prep your garden beds by adding some compost! We love Nature’s Blend Compost for veggie and landscape beds, including raised beds. A good ratio is 1 bag per 12 sq. ft. of bed space. If you make your own compost, that approximate ratio works well. It doesn’t have to be exact. If working out is part of your new year’s resolution, get outside, grab your garden forks or a shovel, and turn some compost into the first few inches of soil – the best kind of exercise! Again, you can prep beds with compost and add a layer of mulch as a placeholder until you’re ready to plant.

3. Wait to Prune!

Remember – wait to do any major pruning of most plants until February! We can be tempted to do too much pruning in January because we want plants to look pretty, but you don’t want plants to think its time to start putting on new growth while we still have potential for cold snaps. Even if we do get a cold snap that damages some foliage, wait to prune because that damaged foliage will help insulate against more possible cold weather. We need to tolerate some wintery-looking plants this month.

Ornamental grasses, like Pink Muhly or Purple Fountain grass, are a January 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 with your shears – just like the photo above.

4. Feed Your Citrus Trees

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 and highly effective. 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.

5. Start Veggie Seeds!

January is time to start tomatoes, kale, chard, onions, carrots, beets, parsley and more from seed. We carry easy seed-starting trays, peat pots, and Espoma Organic Seed Starter 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.

6. Grow Potatoes and Onions!

January is prime time to plant potatoes and onions! We carry Red La Soda and Yukon Gold potatoes because they are better suited for South Texas growing conditions than larger varieties. Watch Matt’s video guide to planting potatoes here! Potatoes will be arriving any day now!

Plant onions in a row every 3-4″ then thin them by plucking every other green top as they grow. This will allow the onions to grow to full size. Keep in mind that both potatoes and onions need well-drained soil. Great for raised beds and containers!

7. Adjust Lighting and Water for Houseplants

Generally, most houseplants will need more light and less water this month. A moisture meter will come in handy to be sure you’re not overwatering. Experiment with moving houseplants to sunnier windows, and take them outside for a sunny day or 2. Keep their leaves clean to help them take up sunlight and prevent bad bugs. We like using a very light solution of Neem oil + water to wipe down leaves here at Gill’s.

Check out our August Garden Guide for more tips and remember that trees, shrubs, and perennials can be planted 12 months out of the year!

1. Pick Out Your Fall Veggie and Flower Seeds!

August is the time to start your fall veggie seeds! Next week, we’ll receive the new 2025-2026 seeds from our favorite seed suppliers, including heirloom vegetables, brand new releases, and wildflower seeds. Try our new Cow Pots or seed starting trays to start seeds indoors this month, move to a covered patio once they sprout, then into your garden beds once they’re robust enough to live outside. This will protect the seedlings and slowly acclimate them to outdoor temps. Our Fall Vegetable Planting Guide provides the specific seed-planting dates to help plan your fall garden. Remember – if you want bountiful fall veggies, you need to get an early start!

2. Start Planting Now for Fall Pollinators!

3. Prep Your Garden Beds

4. Water to Maintain Depth Moisture!

5. Mulch = Cool Roots, Dude!

6. Set Your Late Summer Lawn Expectations

In late summer in South Texas, even if you were watering quite a lot, it would be difficult to keep your lawn perfectly green. If we don’t get much rain this month, and with current watering restrictions in place, our goal shouldn’t be perfect green – our goal should be alive! If you can haul or find someone to haul recycled effluent water to apply to your lawn, you’re in good shape. Applying water once every 2 weeks at a half inch depth is sufficient. Again, don’t expect lush and green, but it will keep your lawn alive. Our lawn watering schedule is currently full, but we may be able to help connect you with others who are providing the service. Also, keep in mind that current watering rules allow you to hand-water your trees. Since trees should be watered at the drip line, watering trees properly can be a way to get some water on the lawn too.

This is also a great time to think about whether you need or want all of your lawn space. Consider reducing lawn space by increasing your planting bed space, adding new planting areas, using native groundcover like frog fruit to replace lawn areas (pictured), or creating space for wildflower seeding – lots of other options that are more beautiful and more beneficial than a traditional lawn.

Traditional St. Augustine or Bermuda turfgrass lawns can be nice if you use them a lot for sports and rolling around on. But the truth is, much of the time, lawns are mostly for show. Plus, they take a lot of time, effort, and water to maintain. Many folks are rethinking their lawn space for these practical reasons as well as the desire to attract and support pollinators. If you’re ready to un-lawn, we can certainly help with that! Take a look at these recent lawn replacement projects designed and installed by Gill’s Landscape Designer, Harry Villarreal using a wonderfully tough and ecologically beneficial Texas native plant…Frog Fruit!

On May 1, Harry and the Gill’s landscape crew stripped out what remained of a patchy turf lawn and planted a total of 1,332 small 4″ Frog Fruit plants across several large areas in this Ocean Dr. landscape. This is what it looks like just 8 weeks later! The clients were interested in bringing in bees and butterflies to their property, and they had these mostly unused areas that they wanted to put to work. They wanted something tough, cold hardy, salt-tolerant, low-water, and very low-maintenance for these ex-lawn areas that don’t get a lot of traffic. Perfect job for Frog Fruit!

Here are a couple of pics from planting day. We prepped the soil by doing a shallow 3″ till, then graded the areas to remove any dirt clods and achieve a smooth finish. We then top-dressed the areas with a thin layer of Nature’s Blend compost and a light sprinkling of Medina Growin’ Green fertilizer. Before planting, we applied a 2″ deep layer of natural hardwood mulch to the entire area. This makes planting very fast – just pull back mulch, dig a small hole, plant, and gently push the mulch back into place. The Frog Fruit runners have no problem rooting into the mulch, and the mulch helps prevent weeds from popping up while the Frog Fruit is getting established and helps with moisture retention. A good trick for getting even spacing on mass plantings like this is to use an 18″ piece of dowel rod or pvc to measure the space between plants as you go. Much easier than a tape measure!

At another property in the Corpus Christi bay area, Harry used 469 small 4″ Frog Fruit in dense shade under trees where turf grass struggles to perform. As you can see, the small Frog Fruit lawn is filling in nicely! Neither of these Frog Fruit lawn projects require any irrigation. Even if we hadn’t been getting any rain, it would be happy with the occasional gentle blessing of water from the hose. Compared to a turfgrass lawn, a Frog Fruit lawn uses almost no water.

Before!

These projects are proof that what some consider a weed can look elegant and beautiful in the right context! The bees, butterflies, and clients couldn’t be happier. Us too!

We find growers who grow the best plants. If plants we source are not Gill quality when they arrive here, we send them back! We have long-standing relationships with our suppliers and they know we expect the best. Through our network of awesome growers in Texas, Florida, and California, we can find most plants most of the time, but sometimes there are plants our customers need that are not available on the market. So, we’re taking matters into our own hands – just for a few things! This spring, we got a new license to grow some of our own plants here at Gill’s, and Ori and Wyatt set up our first-ever grow house! Here’s what they’ve been up to.

For our growing projects, we use the same tried and true products that we sell and recommend to customers. Most of our babies were started using Southern Exposure Seed, a seed company we love that carries lots of unique varieties. For most seeds, we start by soaking them in a mixture of water and Liquid Seaweed to encourage good germination. Then we plant the seeds in small seedling containers using our Ultimate Potting Soil by Ferti-lome. After they sprout and grow a bit, we move them into larger pots with a 50/50 blend of Ultimate Potting Soil and our all-purpose potting soil from Landscaper’s Pride, plus a little Bio-tone starter fertilizer. Once they really get growing, we use Medina Growin Green granules and Medina Super Gro liquid to keep feeding them. All organic!

Right now we’ve got Burmese and Hill Country Red okra, Hale’s Best cantaloupe, Moon & Stars watermelon, Rosita eggplant, Amethyst basil, and more that will all be ready in the next few weeks. And we’re experimenting with growing native Zizotes milkweed (Asclepias oenotheroides), which is proving to be a challenge! Once the plants are nicely rooted and we can be confident that they’ll perform well for customers, we put them out for sale here in the garden center. Some of you have already taken home our 1gal Thai Red Roselle hibiscus and 4in Holy basil!

Does this mean we plan to start growing a lot more plants?? Nope! We plan to grow interesting varieties that we can’t find anywhere else, as well as a few key plants (like geraniums) that we need more of at specific times. If there’s something you’d like for us to try growing, let us know! We won’t be able to accommodate every request, but some we might!

If you’re looking for a hardy, beautiful, and beneficial plant to add to your garden, Pavonia lasiopetala—commonly known as Rock Rose—is a perfectly pink pick! With its cheerful pink flowers, impressive drought tolerance, and versatility, this native perennial is a gem for local landscapes.

Why Choose Rock Rose?

Rock Rose typically grows 2 to 4 feet tall and wide. Like its native relative Turk’s Cap, it can be grown in lots of different areas in the landscape – very versatile! Its mini-hibiscus-like flowers bloom from spring through fall, and attract lots of hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. We planted Rock Rose in the front raised beds here at Gill’s back in February, and it’s been a show-stopper!

Growing Tips for Our Area

Soil: Rock Rose loves well-drained soils. Excellent for sandy soil, raised beds, and pots. It can do well in heavy clay soil too, just amend your soil well with compost and plant high (on a slight mound).
Sun: Full sun is great, but it can tolerate some shade, especially from afternoon sun.
Water: Once established, it’s very drought-tolerant. Water young plants regularly to help roots develop, then it won’t need much attention.
Pruning: Light trimming after blooming keeps it tidy and encourages more flowers. Cut it back hard in February to refresh its shape.

Medicinal and Historical Uses

While not primarily a medicinal herb, Pavonia has traditionally been used in folk remedies. The mucilaginous leaves (meaning they have a soothing, gel-like texture when crushed) have been used to relieve minor skin irritations or sunburn, similar to aloe. Along with other plants in the mallow family (like Turk’s Cap and Hibiscus), it’s also been used in teas to ease respiratory issues and cough.

Plant it with These Native Friends

Rock Rose plays well with others! Pair it with other heat-loving Texas natives for a stunning and sustainable garden. Try these companions for a rainbow of colors:

Salvia greggii (Autumn Sage) – Hummingbird magnet with long-lasting blooms.
Zexmenia (Wedelia acapulcensis var. hispida) – A sprawling yellow daisy-like flower that thrives in hot, dry areas.
Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum) – Low-growing with sweet white flowers and a delightful fragrance.

Our low-water section here at Gill’s is stocked full of all kinds of tough plants for dry areas, including something very special…Opuntia ficus-indica aka the choice edible Prickly Pear cacti used for making nopales! Here are our tips for growing and preparing them for all kinds of delicious recipes!

There are over 100 species of Prickly Pear cacti known in Mexico as well as the Texas Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii), and almost all of them are edible. This one, Opuntia ficus-indica is one of the most commonly farmed for food due to its tender pads with a great texture for cooking. Our climate is excellent for growing Prickly Pear – they love the heat and they can handle a freeze too. They love full sun, but they can tolerate some shade. If you live in an area with sandy soil, Prickly Pear will thrive with very little soil amendment. They love good drainage. If you have heavy clay soil, it’s a good idea to amend your soil with Premium Blend Expanded Shale and Compost to create better drainage. Another good idea for clay soil is to plant high! Mound up your amended soil a bit when you plant Prickly Pear so water will run off and won’t be able to collect at the base of the plant. A good mulch or rock layer on top will also keep water from splashing up onto the cactus. Water every day for about a week to get roots established, then taper down. Once established, Prickly Pear will thrive with very little water long-term.

Before long, you’ll have buds emerging and new pads growing out from old pads. When selecting pads to harvest, look for the bright green ones that are soft, but not limp. Using a nice sharp knife, cut them off at the base of the pad. A sharp knife and clean cut will allow the wound to heal over quickly without putting much stress on the plant. To prep for cooking, lay the pads flat on a cutting board, trim off the tough outer edge all the way around, then use a peeler or small knife to remove all the bumps and thorns. Gloves help! Keep as much of the dark green skin intact as you can. Many people like to boil and rinse the nopales first to help remove some of the gelatinous liquid inside the flesh. Or, you can skip this step and cook the whole pads on the grill or chop and cook with a little fat in a cast iron pan, uncovered until most of that mucilage is cooked out.

Now if you had a few backyard chickens, you’d have your own steady supply of nopales and egg breakfast tacos!

seeds

1. Pick Out Your Fall Veggie and Flower Seeds!

2. Start Planting Now for Fall Pollinators!

3. Prep Your Garden Beds

4. Water to Maintain Depth Moisture!

5. Mulch = Cool Roots, Dude!

1. Mulch for Many Reasons!

2. Prep Soil Now for Spring Planting

3. Wait to Prune!

4. Feed Your Citrus Trees

5. Start Veggie Seeds!

6. Grow Potatoes and Onions!

7. Adjust Lighting and Water for Houseplants

1. Pick Out Your Fall Veggie and Flower Seeds!

2. Start Planting Now for Fall Pollinators!

3. Prep Your Garden Beds

4. Water to Maintain Depth Moisture!

5. Mulch = Cool Roots, Dude!

6. Set Your Late Summer Lawn Expectations

Why Choose Rock Rose?

Growing Tips for Our Area

Medicinal and Historical Uses

Plant it with These Native Friends

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