summer

Floratam

Pro- Good drought tolerance, better disease tolerance, vigorous growth quick to heal damage and resist weeds

Con- Less shade tolerant than some varieties, less tolerant of some weed killers, less resistant to severe freeze (not a factor this far south), most coarse in texture

TamStar

Pro- Said to have good drought, disease, cold, and shade tolerance

Con- Very new introduction, so we don’t know for sure if these claims will pan out for us

Raleigh

Pro- Good shade, cold tolerance

Con- Poor resistance to drought, disease

Note: There is no St. Augustine resistant to grub worms, and there are situations too shady for any St. Augustine to grow. If shade might be a problem, buy one piece of grass, cut into plugs, plant, water, and fertilize carefully, and if it does not grow over spring and summer, consider flagstone paving, wood deck, shade tolerant groundcovers and shrubs, or a combination of these.

Note: Due to our cold winter, Floratam & Tamstar will be available beginning in April 2018!

-James

Do plant the tree at the right depth, with the top of the root ball as high or slightly higher than surrounding soil.
Do eliminate competition from lawn by clearing the grass out a minimum of 18″ (more is better) from the trunk and keeping the cleared area mulched.
Don’t “volcano mulch” the trunk of your new tree, 2″ of mulch over the roots and 1″ or less touching the trunk.
Don’t let a string trimmer get close enough to strip off the bark of your new tree.
Don’t use “weed-and-feed” fertilizer near your new tree.
Don’t excessively prune all lower growth off your new tree thinking it will make your tree grow up faster; it will actually slow growth of roots, trunk diameter, and height.
Do check watering frequently through the first summer and water as
needed.

-James

Whether your hummingbirds are just passing through or they’re residents to our area, you can be sure they’re hungry! Hummingbirds are most attracted to orange & red blooming plants with tubular blooms.

From our observation, one of their favorites in our area is the Firecracker Plant, which blooms spring, summer and fall as long as it gets good hot, full sun.

The tubular flowers make it perfect for the hummingbird to feed on. Another sun loving hummingbird plant is Red Yucca, which also has a very generous bloom season.

One of my favorites is Salvia gregii. It doesn’t look like much in the garden center because it doesn’t bloom as heavy until it gets established. But boy, the hummingbirds love this one!

Others are Mexican Honeysuckle, David Verity Cuphea, Firebush (aka Hamelia), Turk’s Cap (native to our area), Shrimp Plant and Cape Honeysuckle. Planting in mass (two or three plants) in full sun is a sure way to get them to stop by your garden for dinner!

Clockwise from top: Hamelia, David Verity Cuphea, Turk’s Cap, Shrimp Plant

Happy Gardening!!

-Sally

There are many different varieties of Crape Myrtles but a limited number that thrive in South Texas. With the proper cultivar and proper placement, they will provide color and form to your landscape for many years. They do love the sun and need a half a day of sunlight or more. All of the below varieties are drought tolerant once established and are mildew resistant. They all bloom clusters of crepe-like blooms.

Our favorites are:

(Listing From Tallest To Shortest)

Basham	up to 30′ tall	lavender-pink blooms
Natchez	up to 25′ tall	white blooms
Arapaho	up to 20′ tall	red blooms with maroon tinged foliage
Red Rocket	up to 15′ tall	ruby red blooms with dark green foliage
Dynamite	up to 15′ tall	fire red blooms
Catawba	up to 15′ tall	purple blooms
Zuni	up to 12′ tall	purple blooms
Tonto	8′-10′ tall	dark red blooms
Hopi	up to 10′ tall	light pink blooms
Ebony Flame	up to 10′ tall	dark foliage with red blooms
Ebony Ivory	up to 10′ tall	dark foliage with white blooms

*Please note – most dwarf varieties do not do well in our area without pampering.

From the above, the Basham Party Pink Crape Myrtle provides the fastest and most shade, growing up to 30′ tall.

When selecting your variety, make sure you give it plenty of space, height and width. As with all trees, trim as needed to eliminate branches from rubbing against each other and prune off lower “twiggy” growth, but do not “top” prune. If you purchase a Crape Myrtle as a young plant, you can select which trunks you want to keep and get rid of the rest to give it the form you want it to have as a mature plant.

It’s a wonder to watch Crape Myrtles go from ordinary to extraordinary in a matter of days as they start blooming in late spring. Look down most neighborhood streets to find a multiple of white, pinks, reds and purples high above homes. Crape Myrtles are a beautiful long-lived addition to your landscape. They are cold hardy, great color for summer, provide fall colored foliage and interesting bark (exfoliating), and drought tolerant once established.

We think Crape Myrtles are a winner for landscapes and will give you years of enjoyment!

-Sally & Debbie

Watering slow and deep but not too often is the key to a strong and deep root system. By contrast, frequent, short watering encourages roots to stay shallow, in a zone that dries out faster. Texas A&M recommends applying one inch of water once a week or less, on your chosen watering day. You can measure this by setting out a rain gauge or a tuna fish can. If you find water running off into the gutter before you get one inch (likely) then you need to break your watering into two or three applications on the same day (Learn more: Cycle Soak Method of Lawn Irrigation) The second watering and third watering will push the water down deeper into the soil, to help grow a deeper root system. Remember, shallow watering every few days forces the roots to rise to the surface where the moisture is. Shallow roots demand more watering and make for a weaker plant.

Newly planted trees, shrubs and grass will require more frequent watering since they do not have an extensive root system. Annual flowers and vegetables require more also due to their limited root system. So start now, and water slow and deep to maintain that beautiful lawn and landscape for the summer with minimal care.

-DeAnna

Water! It’s a vital part of having a healthy lawn and landscape. Rain is always our best source of water but since summer is here and rain is scarce, I want to show you a little trick I learned.

Personally, I love to hand water with a hose, watering pots and flowerbeds, playing with dogs, cooling myself off in the process. It’s fun and gets the job done! Now watering with a sprinkler, that’s a bit of a hassle. Setting it out, making sure the spray is in my lawn and not on the street, remembering to move it and then turning it off. You get the picture! And a sprinkler can only cover a limited space. Aughhh!

But now I can cover more ground with my new Melnor pulsating sprinklers we have here at Gill’s. You can attach them end to end… doubling the watering area in the same amount of time. WOW! Plus, I added a Melnor mechanical timer to my faucet that can be set to run up to 2 hours and then will automatically turn off. A double WOW! I attached 1 sprinkler to my 100’ hose, unscrewed the other side and attached a 50’ hose, attached the 2nd sprinkler, set the sprinkler tabs to keep the water in my yard, turned the water on, fine-tuned the stops, set the timer, done!

Now my yard, trees, shrubs are much happier and so am I.

Remember, you can water your lawn with a sprinkler from 6pm to 10am, one day of the week. Your choice of day. You can hand water or use a soaker hose, any day, any time, for however long you like.

-Debbie

If your watering hose is in the sun, make sure to let the water run through for a little while before watering your plants. Hot hoses make for hot water!
Caladiums last longer if you pinch off the bloom stalks, which are always great for bouquets.
If your tomatoes or cucumbers remind you of Jack and the Beanstalk, use Takiron stakes and jute twine to lengthen your cage and keep those veggies contained.
You CAN give perennials a haircut in the summertime if you need to, but please nothing too drastic. Shearing blooms and gentle pruning are great ways to keep perennials looking fresh.
Weeds love to encroach on your garden beds in the summer. Walk your beds once a week! Pulling up small weeds now is alwayseasier, and can save you a lot of sweat.
If you have to spray insecticides or fungicides, do in early in the morning or late afternoon, not in the middle of the day! Water droplets have this nasty little habit of acting like magnifying glasses in 90 degree weather, and can cause burns.

-Marta

I get my green thumb from my sweet, sweet grandma. She was an avid organic gardener long before the term was coined. Her beautiful vegetable and flower gardens mesmerized me and instilled a love and wonder for the beauty of nature within my soul. I bet she chuckles in heaven, accepting that I am usually too busy to adopt her old fashioned ways of planting from seed. I usually begin with starter plants, but a busy girl has to do what a busy girl has to do.

My Grandma Atkinson always did everything the old-fashioned way, meaning plants were propagated from cutting or by seed and everything got a good dash of rich, smelly cow manure from time to time. She even saved seeds from her beloved garden babies and set them aside for future generations.

A couple of years ago I decided to grow sunflowers, my grandma’s way, from seed. Once they were up and blooming, even my husband Mike fell in love with them. That year the smash hit ended with us harvesting the seeds for the birds!

This year Mike purchased some sunflower seeds from Gill’s at the end of May. I started numerous varieties, more babies than I had room to plant in my garden. So many that I was able to share some with Gill staff! I staggered the seed plantings so the plants would set bloom over a period of weeks. The seedlings this year were sown in starter flats. They also can be successfully started in other types of containers like recycled milk cartons (Grandma’s favorite) or even straight into your flowerbed. The key to success is water. Keep the soil damp enough that the seeds are able to break out of their heavy shells and emerge as seedlings. Once they emerge, don’t splash water on their foliage because that can cause downy mildew. Find that sweet spot where they do not drown from being kept too wet, and yet never allow the soil to completely dry out.

Prior to my second set of seedlings being transplanted to the ground, I did a show and tell with them at Gill’s at one of my garden talks. After the talk, it was time. My seedlings were large enough to endure being transplanted, so into the garden they went. I mixed Plant Tone into the soil for good organic matter. I was rewarded with a ton of rain shortly thereafter. They started growing by leaps and bounds.

The week of July 4th, they started revealing their happy faces one by one all over my backyard almost as if to announce, “Summer is here!” As a result, my Facebook page was filled to the brim with happy sunflowers that warmed everyone’s hearts and vases were filled with sunshine flowers I shared with friends.

Gill’s has sunflower seeds now and no, it’s not too late to plant for a beautiful fall harvest! Hope you enjoy them as much as my family has!

-Grace

summer

Our favorites are:

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