Gardening This Weekend: August 27, 2026
There are the things you might want to put on the list for this final weekend of August.
PLANT
• Fall vegetables. Finish up Cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale) from transplants in North Texas. It’s prime time for planting them in South Texas. Leafy and root vegetable crops can be planted in all of Texas now.
• Wildflower seeds onto lightly tilled (1 in. deep) soil where there is no turfgrass growing. If you’re planting bluebonnets, sow acid-scarified seeds for best germination.
• Fall color from marigolds, zinnias, celosia, copper plants, wax begonias, crotons, purple fountaingrass, pentas and other plants from 6-in. and 1-gal. pots now.
PRUNE
• Browned foliage off perennials. Iris and daylilies are good examples. Do not remove green foliage.
• Dead or damaged branches from trees while you can easily identify them. Don’t wait for winter winds and ice to bring them down, often with serious side effects.
• Remove rose bushes that are diseased with rose rosette virus. It is fatal. I have photos and information on my website.
FERTILIZE
• Lawngrasses, landscape shrubs and groundcovers, flowers and vegetables with all-nitrogen or high-nitrogen fertilizer depending on recent soil test. Unless you have active gray leaf spot outbreaks in your St. Augustine, it is probably safe to fertilize it now that cooler weather is on the horizon.
• Flowerbeds and fall vegetable plantings with same high-nitrogen plant foods to keep crops growing and producing vigorously.
• Last call to apply iron additive to correct chlorosis in acid-loving plants. Keep iron products off masonry and painted surfaces that could be stained.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Apply pre-emergent weedkiller granules Dimension or Halts to prevent germination of annual bluegrass, rescuegrass, ryegrass, and other cool-season weeds. Also apply Gallery granules to prevent germination of broadleafed weeds.
• Fall webworms. If you are seeing their unsightly webs developing in your pecans, walnuts and other large trees, prune them out as soon as they start to form. Use long-handled pole pruners and drop them to the ground. Gather and destroy them. Spraying is not efficient, nor is it effective.
• As you are working around your shrubs and in fallen leaves, keep a sharp eye out for stinging caterpillars, wasp nests and snakes. They venture into human spaces more commonly in fall.