Lady Bird Johnson’s legacy lives on, with a state full of wildflowers and a center that can help you pick the right native plants for your home landscape. Want to help bees and butterflies? The LBJ Wildflower Center makes it easy.
>> Read More
Stop the inhumane poisonings! Here are five ways to safely shoo and deter rodents, all of which are more eco-friendly than spreading poisons that endanger children, and kill pets and wildlife.
>> Read More
Are you weary of mowing, weeding and fertilizing that yawning stretch of lawn? Consider installing a patch of native prairie. A Pocket Prairie can reduce your thirsty conventional turf, replacing it with native grasses and flowers. You’ll be feeding butterflies and birds, and cut down your grass mowing obligations, perhaps to zero.
>> Read More
Yes, it’s cold for you, the tree trimmer. But pruning in the winter is kinder to plants. It discourages sap flow from the cuts, inhibits the spread of disease (like oak wilt) and gives deciduous and blooming trees time to recover before the spring growth period.
>> Read More
With the U.S. in the grip of possibly the worst outbreak of West Nile Virus ever, people need to do all they can to avoid getting bitten by the Culex mosquito that carries the disease and reduce the mosquito population in their yard…residents may be able to repel or reduce the mosquitoes living and reproducing in their yards by applying botanical oils that mosquitoes find disagreeable. A caveat: These products are no substitute for protecting your person (please refer back to the advice above). But they could reduce the mosquitoes breeding in and visiting your yard.
>> Read More
Drip line irrigation is a great idea for gardeners who want to save water and grow plants successfully.
By soaking the ground with water, the drip line approach mimics the effect of a gentle soaking rain, instead of battering leaves with a harsh jet of water like so many sprinkler systems do. More importantly, by slowly delivering the water to the soil and plants and not spraying it overhead the air, a drip line system can better target, and thereby reduce, the water needed for landscape or edible plants.
>> Read More