tomatoes

Over the years, my trough garden has seen mostly flowers and herbs. I’ve tried tomatoes a few times, but this year I decided to try kale.

I started eating kale when I read it was the #1 food source for healthy eyes. It wasn’t my favorite tasting green, but I found that it’s great mixed with blueberries in a smoothie. Plus, it’s easy to grow and lasts longer into the season than other greens.

I planted five kale plants about a month ago, fed lightly with HastaGro weekly, and starting this past week, I’ve had enough production to harvest smoothie greens most mornings! If the plants start looking a little too thin, I supplement with HEB’s organic spinach & kale mix. Yum!

Here’s the recipe:

Blend first:
– 2-3 oz Pomegranate juice
– 2 tbsp Lemon juice
– 3-5 Kale leaves, chopped
– 2 tbsp Ground flax seed
2 tbsp Yogurt

Then add:
– 1.1.5 cup Blueberries, frozen
– 1/2 Banana, frozen
– 1 scoop Protein powder

Sometimes I add fresh grated turmeric too. Hope you enjoy!

Please share some of your favorite recipes from your garden and we’ll pass some on in our garden blog in preparation for Thanksgiving! Send recipes to info@gillnursery.com.

-Sally Gill

My two goals for my garden are to only use organics and to constantly be eating!

Check out the harvest: wax beans, eggplant, cucumbers, banana peppers, tangerine peppers, purple string beans, jalapenos, San Marzano tomatoes (great for pasta and pizza sauce), and sun bright tomatoes.

If you want good veggies, prepping the garden beds is the most important thing. I amended my soil with organic compost and used Medina Growin’ Green to fertilize. I sprinkled both on the surface of the soil, then used a tiller to work both into the existing heavy clay soil.

Since I’ve re-done this bed a few times, the soil has gotten closer to a nice sandy loam. It gets a lot softer and easier to work with each year.

Other than making sure you prep your beds and amend your soil, keeping everything mulched might be the next most important thing to do. Mulch helps a lot with watering – it helps retain moisture. Since I don’t want to use any chemicals, mulch is also important for helping control weeds.

Pro tip: plant your entire veggie garden first, then go in and fill small spots with wax bean seeds since they produce a lot and don’t take up a lot of space.

-Larry

What a joy to see green everywhere! You can feel the big sigh of relief from plants and people too. All this rain is FANTASTIC news for fall gardens! Here are our top must-do’s this month as we head into our best planting season.

Check out our September 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. Choose Plants for Birds, Butterflies, and Bees

Fall is our best planting season here in the Coastal Bend. We are bringing in lots of new plants with our pollinator friends in mind! While you’re choosing what to plant, consider adding Texas Natives like Turk’s Cap and Lantana that birds and bees love. If you want to attract and support butterflies, try butterfly weed, Gregg’s mist flower, and lots of different blooming salvias.

2. Plant Veggies, Herbs, Citrus, and Fruits!

It’s time! Tomatoes, peppers, & warm weather edibles should be planted by now, or at least early this month. Plant cool weather veggies & herbs anytime this month and remember to shelter them from scorching sun and keep watered. Seeds of cool weather crops like turnips, beets, and radish should be started now. Carrots and greens should be planted later in September and into October. Here is our Fall veggie planting schedule. And save space for citrus trees, figs & other fruits to round off your garden grocery store! Revisit Josh’s guide to planting citrus trees.

3. Pull Weeds While the Ground is Soft

Pulling weeds – part of the gardening full-body workout plan! And a great stress reliever too. With the ground saturated from recent rains, most weeds are so easy to pull. Make sure to get the root, then add mulch to the area 2-3” deep to prevent new weeds from sprouting.

4. Plant Trees and Shrubs for the Best Start

Plants that are cold hardy (trees and woody shrubs) will benefit greatly by planting during our Fall season. They’re under less heat stress, and they grow more roots, making them stronger and ready to “take off” next Spring. More roots, stronger plants, better success! Oak trees, Crape Myrtles, Hawthorns, Lantana, Plumbago, Boxwoods and a host of others should be planted starting this month.

5. Trap and Prevent Mosquitos

Setting simple traps with organic Mosquito Dunks or Mosquito Bits is perhaps the most effective method for controlling mosquitos. It couldn’t be easier – grab a 5-gallon bucket, fill it with water and add a few handfuls of straw, leaves, weeds, food waste, etc. This will start to stagnate and attract female mosquitos to lay their eggs. After a day or 2, toss in a Mosquito dunk or a spoonful of mosquito bits which will kill the mosquito larvae. Try a few traps plus some repellant granules and incense!

6. Sow Wildflower Seeds!

September is the best time to plant wildflower seeds. Fall rains help wildflowers like Bluebonnets grow strong and have beautiful blooms next Spring. Choose an area with good sunlight and cleared of weeds or unwanted plants. Rake clean, sow seeds, cover with soil, water, and wait for the transformation!

Yay for May! Everything’s growing and blooming and we hope you are too! May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which is a good time to think about the peace of mind that gardening brings us. Gardeners know that all the research is true – gardening is good for you! Here are our Top 7 Must Do’s this May to keep you and your garden feelin’ good.

1. Join Us for Garden Talks and Events!

We’ve got a big May planned here at Gill’s, and we’re kicking it off this Saturday, May 3rd with a fun cyanotype printing event with the TAMUCC Student Art Association. Stop by and create your own cyanotype prints using leaves and flowers! Then next weekend we’re inviting kids to come pot up a flower for Mom for Mother’s Day. Sure to be lots of fun and lots to learn and discuss! Click here for more info and tickets!

2. Plant Blooming Perennials and Trees

It’s time to plant lots of different blooming perennials and blooming trees. Get them established in May so they are rooted and acclimated to withstand warmer temps this Summer. Staples like Esperanza, many varieties of Salvia, Lantana, and tons more are all blooming beautifully right now. And blooming trees like Vitex, Retama, and Wild Olive are looking great right now. Crape Myrtles will start blooming soon too. Added bonus: blooming perennials and trees attract lots of butterflies and hummingbirds!

3. Plant and Harvest Veggies

Warm weather veggie time! Plant all kinds of peppers, zucchini, squash, melons, and okra this month for continued harvesting into the Summer months. If you planted tomatoes, cucumbers, and other early Spring veggies, you’ll be harvesting now or very soon. Be sure to harvest often! It keeps birds & insects from finding them first. If you do have insect issues in your veggie garden, our go-to organic control is Spinosad – safe for food but takes care of bugs. Remember to keep watering your veggies as the weather warms up to maintain depth moisture.

4. Mulch for Many Reasons!

We all know that fresh mulch is like a fresh coat of paint for your garden – instant makeover! But did you know that applying a proper 3” layer of natural mulch keeps underlying soil temps more than 20 degrees cooler?! A good mulch layer keeps weeds at bay, and as it breaks down over time, it add nutrients to your soil. And perhaps most importantly right now, a good mulch layer retains moisture, which means big water savings.

5. Transition Your Lawn to Summer

Feed with Natural Fertilizers: Medina Growin Green or Milorganite. Yes, you can still fertilize your lawn, even though our lawn watering is limited. Using a good organic lawn food, like our go-to Medina Growin Green, promotes root growth and long-term health, which makes lawns more tolerant of less water. Ideally you’d want to water the fertilizer in, but you don’t have to. Medina Growin Green is gentle and won’t burn your lawn. You can apply it now and water it in slowly over a few weeks. If you have trees in your yard, keep in mind that fertilizer and water need to be applied at the drip line, aka where rainwater naturally drips off the outer edge of the canopy. Therefore, if you apply fertilizer to your lawn and water it in for the trees, your lawn will get the benefit too. You can also try to time your lawn fertilizing with a light rain. We typically don’t recommend waiting for rain to fertilize since a heavy rain would wash most of the fertilizer granules away. But, given the watering limitations, taking advantage of a light rain is a good solution.

Watering: Homeowners can collect free effluent water at the Oso Wastewater Treatment Plant to use to water lawns, which is a great option. Apply for a quick and easy residential permit from the City of Corpus Christi here. If you do so, keep in mind that 1,000 gallons can water 1,621 sq ft of lawn at a nice 1” depth or 3,225 sq ft of lawn at ½” depth.

When mowing, the proper height for St. Augustine lawns is around 3 inches. For Bermuda lawns, keep mowed to around 2-2.5 inches. Buzzing lawns shorter than that will cause lawn stress, and stressed lawns are more susceptible to pests, weeds, and disease.

Watch for lawn insects & treat when needed. Grub worms & chinch bugs are easy to control when caught early but there’s no need to treat unless you have them. BioAdvanced 24-Hour Grub Killer or Season-Long Bonide Insect and Grub Control will do the trick for grubs. Diatomaceous Earth, Spinosad, or Cyonara takes care of chinch bugs. Reminder, you can bring us a grass sample any time you suspect a lawn disease or pest. We’ll diagnose (using our microscope if needed) and get you what you need to knock it out.

Consider reducing your lawn space! Does all this lawn stuff sound like a lot of work? It can be! Many of us are reconsidering whether we really even want all that green lawn space. Why not start converting small portions of lawn to planting beds filled with blooming perennials that benefit the environment and use far less water? One way to start would simply be to deepen existing landscape beds to reduce some lawn.

6. Set Your Mosquito Traps!

We are big fans of the simple bucket mosquito trap. Just fill a bucket 3/4 with water, add a good handful of lawn or plant clippings, and toss in a Mosquito Dunk or Mosquito Bits. These dissolve in the water and release bacteria that target mosquito larvae and kill them before they hatch. And they’re organic and not harmful to birds, bees, pets or humans! Set a few of these traps, sprinkle some organic Mosquito Beater granules around walkways and patios, spray organic Cedar Repel on your lawn, and use Skeeter Screen incense sticks near where you’re working or hanging out outside. Remember that using chemical mosquito foggers kills all the good bugs too, some of which also help control mosquitos and other bad bugs.

7. Gifts for Mother’s Day and Graduations

Let us help you find something pretty, useful, or both for the gardening moms and grads in your life. Pottery, birdbaths, wind chimes, quality garden tools, hats, gloves, garden decor, plantable greeting cards, gardening books – lots of options. You can purchase Gill gift cards online here and we’ll gift wrap and mail them to your loved one. Or come find the gift that gardeners love most – plants 🙂

February is time to get your spring veggies going! We’ll be stocked with all your fav spring veggies and probably some you’ve never tried before. Join DeAnna Baumgartner and Wyatt Page, Gill’s managers and Texas Certified Nursery Professionals for an informative talk about how to plan and start your veggie garden. They’ll cover everything from what varieties to plant, crop rotation, organic pest prevention, soil health, fertilization, and much more. Free and open to everyone – bring your veggie questions! We’ll be doing some giveaways for Gill gift cards + other fun stuff!

FREE event – No RSVP required.

Click below to watch DeAnna & Wyatt’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. Lots more to come!

It seems like our fall tomato season came and went so quickly last year…luckily we already have another opportunity! We’re all stocked up on spring tomatoes, and right now is the time to get them planted. If you want delicious tomatoes this spring, they must have time to get established and growing before temps warm up or they won’t be able to set fruit. As DeAnna says, “cool temps can linger, but the heat is always on time.” Check out our huge variety of tomatoes + tips for growing the best!

Come Check Out our Huge Selection of Different Tomato Plants!

We are kicking off tomato season with 25(!!) different varieties of tomato plants. Here’s the list – if you don’t see one you’re looking for, we bet we can find it!

Celebrity
Tycoon
Early Girl
San Marzano
Roma
Sungold
Juliet
Red Snapper
Old German
Red Brandywine
Mr. Stripey
Beefsteak
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
Thunderbird
Yellow Pear
Lemon Boy
Patio
Polbig – the 2026 Rodeo Tomato!
Chocolate Sprinkles
Micro Tom
BHN 968
Purple Zebra
Large Cherry
Tomatillo Toma Verde

Simple Tips for Growing Prizewinning Tomatoes!

Eating fresh, perfectly ripe, homegrown tomatoes is one of life’s greatest pleasures – yes, it takes a lot of TLC, but so worth it!

Start with good soil! If you’re growing tomatoes in containers or raised beds, we highly recommend Gardener’s Magic from Landscaper’s Pride. It’s a nice, loose mix specially formulated for raised beds and it doesn’t need any amendment. Just pour and plant. If you’re growing tomatoes in the ground in heavy clay or sandy soil, use our beloved Nature’s Blend compost to add nutrients and better structure to your native soil. About 1 bag of compost per 12 square feet of bed space, or the rough equivalent if you’re making your own compost.
Choose your variety. Do you want a big slicing tomato for burgers and sandwiches? Do you want cherry tomatoes for salads? San Marzano or pear tomatoes for sauces? Unique heirloom? Determinate? Indeterminate? All of the above? If you already have fav varieties to grow, we recommend planting your tried and true varieties plus a couple new ones each season.
Plant em Deep and in Full Sun! Tomatoes are one of the very few plants that you can plant deep since they grow new roots out of the stem. So, pull off a few of the bottom leaves and plant them deep – all the way up to the next set of leaves. More roots = more tomatoes! Look for the sunniest place you can find. Make sure your tomato plants get at least 6 hours of full sun. When planting, add some worm castings + BioTone starter fertilizer for excellent root health.
Use a Tomato Cage! It will make your life easier and your tomatoes happier if you cage them when you plant, while the plants are still small. This way they have some structure to grow up onto and you don’t have to risk breaking branches trying to cage them later.
Feed and Water Regularly! Tomatoes, and any other bloom and fruit-producing plants, need lots of energy and regular watering. Water every day at first, then you can back off some once the plants get more established. Feeding on a regular schedule is perhaps the most important tip for getting a big harvest. Use DeAnna’s tried and true method: Medina Growin Green on the 1st of the month, then liquid Hasta Gro on the 15th. Set these reminders/alarms in your phone!
Watch Out for Caterpillars. Caterpillars, especially the tomato hornworm, love tomatoes but they’re usually easy to control. If you’re inspecting your garden every day, you’ll catch caterpillar and any other pest issues before they become a problem. You can remove and relocate hungry caterpillars or use organic Bt to control. Some prefer liquid Bt spray, and others prefer the dust – we’ve got both.
Harvest often! Most tomatoes take 65-80 days to mature. Once you start seeing ripe or almost ripe tomatoes, harvest often!

Watch Our Tomato Tips Video Now + Come to DeAnna & Wyatt’s Veggie Gardening Talk Next Saturday, 2/21!

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!

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.