“`html Preparing Garden Beds for July Transplants 🌱 Set the Stage for a Thriving Late Summer Garden! July is a funny time in the garden here in Zone 9. Some beds are bursting with life—tomatoes climbing high, basil spilling over the sides—while others start to look tired and bare. When the first flush of spring…
“`html Ensuring Trellises Can Support Heavy Vines 🌿 Grow bigger, stronger, and worry-free all season long! If you’re anything like me, you’ve learned that there’s nothing quite like watching a well-supported vine produce armfuls of tomatoes, cucumbers, and gourds—and nothing quite like the sinking feeling when an undersized trellis gives way mid-summer. Years ago, when…
“`html Container Gardening Tips for Big Veggies: Growing What You Need, Not More Than You Can Hold 🍅 Last Tuesday, I walked out to the back fence where my tomatoes have been living in their containers for six weeks now, and I noticed something that stopped me mid-step. The leaves on the heirloom varieties—the ones…
“`html Make a Bee Watering Station in 10 Minutes 🐝 There’s something deeply satisfying about tending a garden that thrives, and I’ve learned that part of that thriving comes from caring for the tiniest workers in our beds—the bees and beneficial insects that make everything possible. When I first started gardening here in the Houston…
“`html Succession Planting for Late Summer Crops: Keep the Harvest Going Through Fall 🌿 By midsummer here in Zone 9, my tomato plants are sun-fatigued, the spring lettuce is long gone to seed, and I’m eyeing every empty square in my raised beds like a puzzle waiting to be solved. I used to think the…
“`html Replenishing Soil for Late Summer and Fall Planting 🌿 By the time July rolls around in our Zone 9 gardens, our soil has been through the wringer. Tomatoes, peppers, squash—all those heavy feeders have been working overtime, and the blazing Houston heat doesn’t help matters one bit. If you’re gardening where I am, you…
