VOLUME 19, ISSUE 7 • February 16, 2023

Neil Sperry editor. Gretchen Drew design and circulation.

Quite a change in temperature these past 24 hours! But warmer weather is peeking in the window.

In this issue…
• Hellebores in the spotlight;
• This weekend's goals (Important!);
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith go to Big Bend;
• Steven Chamblee at his most unusual; and
• Great questions, hopefully great answers.

NEIL SPERRY'S LONE STAR GARDENING
PRE-SPRING SALE $36.95

• 344 pages. 800 photos. Hardback. High-quality paper. Printed in Texas.
• Covers every aspect of lawns, landscapes, and fruit, flower and vegetable gardening for every county in Texas.
• Not in stores and not on Amazon - so I could keep your price much lower, also so I could choose my own editor and graphics designer.
• I sign every copy as it sells.
• Satisfaction guaranteed or full refund. 77,000 copies sold to date and not one request for refund.

ORDER FROM MY WEBSITE
OR CALL MY OFFICE M-F 9-5
(800) 752-4769

Photo: Let your mind drift to a calmer place. Big Bend National Park, Texas.

Gardening This Weekend

You'll see in this most-read part of e-gardens this week that you're at the wall for several critical tasks. Wait any longer and you'll have to wait until next winter. Check out my list.

Photo: This is your last chance to plant seed potatoes for spring harvest. New potatoes like these will be ready in about 3 months.

Native Son: The Stevie Photo Challenge

Our buddy Steven Chamblee sends us one of his most unusual (and fun) stories ever. Seems he’s dug deep into his pockets to pull out his portable memories. Let’s see what he’s found.

Photo: What? A frog in his pocket!

Hellebores are lovely, yet still uncommon

They came onto the scene less than 25 years ago. Many of us have already grown to love them for what they bring to our shady surroundings. These Lenten roses are coming into bloom (or soon will be). If you don't have any, maybe it's time to go shopping.

Photo: Lovely rose-colored Hellebore with gold sedge.

Big Bend Beckons

Our friends Matt and Cyndy Smith started planning their second trip to Big Bend National Park before their first trip was over. They've just returned, and Cyndy has brought back photos to share. You're going to love 'em.

Photo: This is Texas! You'll fall in love, too!

Q&A
Ask Neil

Killing dallisgrass without killing a cedar elm. Filling a big hole where a tree stump used to be. Can you separate two different shrubs? What looks like hostas but stands up to sun? Wow! I can’t wait to see what I’ve written!

And, in closing…

That's all for now. I start building the next week's e-gardens about the time the current one gets distributed. So, I'm on my way now.

Please be sure you've looked through Cyndy's photos and Steven's story this issue. They're not to be missed. And if you've enjoyed them, please send your friends to this link on my website. They can sign up for e-gardens, but they can also see this issue now that it has been sent out.

My program on KLIF this Saturday is being pre-empted (again) by TCU basketball. However, I'll be doing my statewide program 11-noon and my Sunday morning program on WBAP 8-10 as usual. Please tune me in. If you missed last week's "fruit and pecan" program with Dr. George Ray McEachern on WBAP, it's available as a podcast on my website.

Until next week, thanks for reading. And happy gardening!

Subscribe to Neil's Podcasts!

Available for both Apple and Google Play

Click here to listen on Neil's web site »