Whether you want to grow food, cut flowers, perennials, or a more beautiful lawn, The Dallas Garden offers timely gardening advice based on scientific research and decades of experience.
As the snow begins to melt over the next few days, you may find yourself wondering about the status of your garden plants. First, don’t fret. Remember that when you treat everything that you do in the garden as an experiment, you cannot fail. Whatever happens in the garden, good or bad, it’s just feedback.
Indoor seed-starting is one of the best ways to adapt our gardening to the challenging North Texas climate.
I cover the technique extensively in the semester cohort, and it is a cornerstone of my curriculum because it makes such a remarkable difference for North Texas gardeners.
Gardening surged in popularity during the pandemic, and as a result, suppliers are running out of stock faster and earlier than ever before. Because we plant things later than our gardening friends further north, we are competing with them to snag things before they sell out.
Many gardeners prefer direct-sowing because it is less labor-intensive and requires fewer supplies than indoor starting. Germination rates are often lower when direct-sowing because seeds can be easily washed away by rain, accidentally planted too deeply, or be disturbed by animals, but there are some things that you can do to maximize direct-sowing success.
Part of my gardening philosophy is that only a handful of very simple things, when done consistently, lead to the greatest amount of success in the garden.
Only a handful of tools.
Only a handful of amendments.
The delphiniums and snapdragons are still blooming well, but the foxgloves and poppies are toast and have been pulled to make room for the ‘Indian Summer’ rudbeckia, ‘Mystic Spires’ salvia, and Profusion zinnias to fill out. These three plants will be the foundation of my summer flower garden.
