VOLUME 15, ISSUE 32 • August 8, 2019

Neil Sperry editor. Gretchen Drew design and circulation.

Gardening This Weekend

Lady or gentleman! Allow me to lay out before you the tasks that are most important over the next several days. They are the headwaters of fall gardening, and success demands your attention now.

Photo: Plant straightneck and crookneck squash now for fall harvest.

Diane Morey Sitton: The Willmann garden

Guest in many gardens, our friend Diane Sitton has visited a lovely landscape in Lufkin. She had a great time, and you will, too!

Photo: Stacey Willmann has a talent for creating color themes using flowers, garden art, and accessories.

How to Beat Gray Leaf Spot

If your St. Augustine has you playing games: it turns yellow, then you apply nitrogen, then the yellowing gets worse…and so, on and on, maybe it's time to try something different. It may be gray leaf spot. I can show you what one man did. And it worked!

Photo: This is the way gray leaf spot looks in a lawn.

More Sawfly Questions Than Ever!

It was like a game of dodgeball a few days ago. Everywhere I turned people were asking what was happening to the oaks' leaves. Red oaks. Bur oaks. Chinquapin oaks. Even live oaks. They looked like parchment paper. Sawflies had been at work.

Photo: This is what sawfly damage looks like on bur oak.

Acalypha Achievers

Sometimes when I write about special plants here in e-gardens it takes me back to my childhood. Copper plants were just becoming known in Texas then. But now I find that I'm writing about new generations of this great hot-weather annual.

Photo: Fire Dragon copper plants earned their name.

And, in closing…

That's it for this week. I need to go change the water. You probably ought to as well. Remember to water new trees and shrubs by hand every 2-3 days. Sprinkler irrigation alone simply won't cut it.

Next week I'm going to have exciting new topics, beautiful new plants, dangerous new insects (that's just to tantalize you) and answers to your most common questions. And more from our favorite garden gnome Steven Chamblee if we're really lucky.

You know the routine. See you on Facebook, website, radio, newspapers, podcasts, church, Serenity High, burger joints.

Until next week and next e-gardens…

Happy gardening!