Gardening This Weekend: May 7, 2026
This time of year, the challenge isn’t in coming up with things to put on this list – it’s in paring them down to only the most critical. That’s what I’ve done below.
PLANT
• Hot-weather annuals. Choose only those types that hold up to the heat. Let your Texas Certified Nursery Professional guide you.
• Patio pots and hanging baskets for color in otherwise useless spaces. Choose tropicals that look good all summer and fall.
• New turf from sod or plugs. New bermuda from seed.
• Trees, shrubs, and other landscape plants as soon as possible to allow them extra weeks to start establishing roots. Water by hand this first summer. Neither sprinklers nor drip irrigation will be adequate.
PRUNE
• Spring-flowering shrubs and vines to redevelop their natural growth forms.
• Dead or damaged branches from crape myrtles, oaks, and other shade trees. Coat wounds of oaks with latex paint or pruning sealant.
• Unwanted or erratic growth from shrubs and groundcovers. Do so carefully to maintain natural growth forms.
• Mow lawn more often by removing less at a time. That will encourage dense growth. That will discourage weed growth in the thick turf.
FERTILIZE
• Apply all-nitrogen, lawn-type fertilizer to turf, landscape, flower and vegetable gardens if plants are growing in clay soils. Phosphorus accumulates to harmful amounts in clays, and soil tests usually suggest application of only nitrogen.
• If new growth of plants is yellowed with dark green veins, most prominently visible on newest growth, that is almost always iron deficiency. Apply iron additive with a sulfur soil acidifier.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Apply Imidicloprid systemic insecticide around drip lines of crape myrtles to prevent crape myrtle bark scale (the white pests that look like cigarette ashes up and down the crape myrtles’ trunks). The scales secrete sticky honeydew which gives rise to black sooty mold. To control the honeydew and mold, control the scale first.
• Snails, slugs, and pillbugs feasting on tender new growth, especially stems and leaves near the ground can be controlled with Sevin dust or snail and slug bait.
• St. Augustine that is showing signs of take all root rot (TARR) can be treated with fungicide Azoxystrobin. Yellowed blades in irregular patches of turf. Diseased grass is relatively loose on top of the soil due to loss of roots.
• Non-grassy (“broadleafed”) weeds such as clover, dandelions, dichondra, dollarweed, and poison ivy can be controlled with broadleafed weedkiller spray containing 2,4-D and perhaps other herbicides in combination. Read and follow label directions carefully.