Blog items for Landscape
by Melody Stramer, Bexar County Master Gardener
After being confined to our homes for so long, some of us may feel we are in a rut. Here are some ideas to consider at this time of planning for the new garden year, plus some encouragement to think outside the box and expand our perspectives.
by Bill Swantner, Bexar County Master Gardener
There must be a dozen types of grasses grown as “lawn grass” in the state of Texas - but Texas is a big state. Along the coast of Texas, the turfgrass must be able to grow in sandy soil with a high salt content; in far west Texas the temperature...
By Agnes Palys-McLean
Most of us are familiar with plant hardiness zones that appear in many plant and seed catalogs. They serve as a guide to help determine which plants and trees are best suited for our growing area and which are likely to die due to the cold.
By Melody Stramer, Bexar County Master Gardner
Two of the most common questions we encounter at Master Gardener presentations are: (1) what plants grow well in shady conditions and (2) what plants are deer resistant? With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to Inland Sea Oats, a plant t...
Bill Swantner, Bexar County Master Gardener
There are many kinds of Dutchman's pipevine. There is a giant pipevine, small leaf pipevine, different blooms, various growth habits. It is a large group of curious plants. All the varieties are a food source for the black and pipevine swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. In fact, it is the only plant where the pipevine swallowtail butterfly will lay its eggs. I never tire ...
Around the time of the political elections at the beginning of May this year, the St. Augustine grass around a candidate’s sign in our front lawn began wilting. Within a week, that grass and a strip the along the entire width of the yard had died (photo, left), apparently the result of herbicide applied by vandals. Several dozen other yards in our neighborhood that had s...
Let me introduce you to my Epiphyllum oxpetalum. You may know her as Queen of the Night, Night Blooming Cereus or Night Blooming Cactus. What do you think? Isn’t she a beauty? Doesn’t she radiate majestic splendor? Ok, maybe just a hint of potential attractiveness? What, she’s not speaking to you? You’re not feeling her royalness? Not even a little twinge ...