Articles - Neil Sperry's GARDENS

Pruning With No Purpose

By Neil Sperry • February 19, 2019

When Pruning Blows Off-Course I asked an award-winning bird carver how he got his red-tailed hawk so perfectly done. “Well, Neil, I start out with a block of wood, and …

Straight Facts on Pre-emergents

By Neil Sperry • February 19, 2019

I’m being asked several times daily about pre-emergent applications – types and timing. It started clear back in January, fully seven weeks before the proper time for the person who …

Gardening This Weekend: February 21, 2019

By Neil Sperry • February 19, 2019

This part of e-gardens over the next two or three weeks will be perhaps my most difficult to write. We have 55,000 subscribers, and you’re reading this from Brownsville to …

Time Here for the Cole Crops

By Neil Sperry • February 12, 2019

We’ve come to appreciate the plants in this family more than ever before. Chief among them are cabbage and broccoli, with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts gaining all the while. The …

Fabulous Fragrance, Great Little Tree

By Neil Sperry • February 12, 2019

Botanically it’s Prunus mexicana. Horticulturally, Mexican plum is a fine small landscaping tree with several outstanding features. Let me list a few facts. You’ll want to know… • Mexican …

What’s not to love about garden hearts?

By Diane Morey Sitton • February 11, 2019

Hearts have long been a symbol of Valentine’s Day, but it doesn’t have to be February 14 for gardeners to wear their hearts on their sleeves. In Texas, as elsewhere, …

Gardening This Weekend: February 14, 2019

By Neil Sperry • February 11, 2019

This weekend’s cool weather means it’s still early for application of pre-emergent granules. I’ll have full details in e-gardens next week. In the meantime, here are this weekend’s critical tasks. …

Plant of the Week – February 7, 2019: Reseeding Larkspur

By Neil Sperry • February 5, 2019

I love this plant. It grew in the old gardens in College Station when I was a young kid riding my bike around town admiring them. That was decades ago, …

3rd printing of Neil Sperry’s Lone Star Gardening