Plant Gardens 101

We were contacted by the owner of a Houston, Texas home who asked us to design a series of gardens and landscaping features that would compliment and expand the Mediterranean theme of his house into the surrounding landscape. This house sat on a very large lot of several acres in a secluded Memorial Drive neighborhood located near the 610 Loop. The home featured a symmetrical, linear appearance in spite of its two-story build, and our client wanted a landscape and garden design that would follow these same principles of self-contained regularity and subtle linear motion.

Creating a Mediterranean theme in a Houston, Texas garden and landscape is a bit more complex that it might appear at face value. The southern coast of Europe—particularly in Italy and Greece—is a mountanous area where homes and gardens are built on steep angles and sharp vertical rises. Gardens and fields are often built in terraces that climb the mountains due to the limited planting area and rough, rocky terrain. Limestone is the predominant rock type in Italy and Greece and has become iconic of this part of the world in our collective consciousness. Mediterranean homes and gardens are historically famous for their white stucco walls, olive groves, and carefully sculptured greenery embedded in a rugged limestone backdrop. (more…)

Do you love the beauty and color of flowers but cringe at the thought of the maintenance required for their upkeep? If your colorful blooms have a tendency to turn brown and crunchy from neglect in the hotAustin sun, there may be some flowers made just for you. Flora native or adapted to theAustin area thrive where others perish, resisting drought, pests and other hazards. Just choose your plants wisely and you can have fabulous landscaping for your property with little work.

There are many benefits to growing native plants. In addition to saving on water and fertilizer you save on time by choosing plants that thrive in the unique climate of Austin Texas. Your gardening is also more enjoyable when you are not fighting mother nature in an attempt to grow plants that are not suited to the Texas Climate. It is also nice to help maintain the original ecosystem of your locale by promoting local plants and flowers. (more…)

In many parts of the Taxes the soil is unsuitable and difficult to work with. In the summer the baking heat of the sun can cause the hardiest of plants to succumb to the sun’s rays, containers can be moved to a shadier spot. If you live on a zero lot, or in an apartment, it can be impossible to find space to garden so using containers will help your plants thrive almost anywhere. Selecting the right variety for vegetable for container gardening in Texas is very important. You can grow delicious vegetables in containers, if you find yourself with insufficient space to grow a vegetable garden. Your ideal vegetables for container gardening are squash, lettuce, beans, green onions, egg plants, cucumbers, peppers, and of course delicious tomatoes. You can set up two containers over in the corner with a bamboo tee pee set up in each and grow pole beans all season long. Your cucumbers will need a large container also and you can let them grow up and over and down the sides of their container. Most vegetables will need water daily especially in hot weather. You can plant a few marigolds in your container garden area to keep away garden pests. Use Miracle Grow for vegetables to feed your plants on a regular basis. Problems with soil-borne diseases, nematodes or poor soil conditions can be easily overcome by switching to a container garden. Crop selection almost any vegetable that will grow in a typical backyard garden will also do well as a container-grown plant. Vegetables which are ideally suited for growing in containers include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, green onions, beans, lettuce, squash, radishes and parsley. Most varieties that will do well when planted in a yard garden will also do well in containers. The size of the container will vary according to the crop selection and space available. Regardless of the type or size of container used, adequate drainage is a necessity for successful yields. Best suited for container culture are vegetables which may be easily transplanted. Most vegetables should be transplanted into containers when they develop their first two to three true leaves. (more…)