Sometimes the solution to a dilemma is sitting right in front of you and you miss it. For me, it took almost a year to realize that the answer to my question of what to plant to hide the edging around my patio was sitting right in my front yard, under an oak tree.




Artemisia.

I have planted this beauty in several gardens, and repeatedly remind myself to use it more often. Its lacy texture, silvery ... << MORE >>

Not sure if Butterfly Wrangler Liz Cannedy meant to make that pun when she gave me the details about her free Butterfly Gardening Workshop at 10 a.m. Saturday in Austin, but there it is:

"I'm kind of winging it," she told me.

I am guessing she used the term intentionally, knowing her. At any rate, if you are out and about in the Austin area this Saturday morning, May 28, and want excellent information about butterfly gardening, it's worth a trip to Snooper's Nursery, 3602 Kiphen Road. Liz ... << MORE >>

As a lifetime sufferer of asthma, I find myself drawn to the latest research and to stories about children with asthma. Putting accurate information about asthma out there prompted me to write a novel for children about it — Breathing Room, published in 1993 by Royal Fireworks Press, which received the Texas Institute of Letters' best book for children award. << MORE >>

For Texas gardeners who want to know how to grow better tomatoes and other edibles, a mid-February seminar in Austin, Texas, comes to the rescue.

And it's FREE.

"Planning and Planting the Spring Vegetable Garden" will be from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 12 at Sunshine Community Gardens , 4814 Sunshine Drive, near the intersection of Lamar Boulevard and 45th Street. Park on the street.

The seminar is described as a "hands-on" session covering plant and seed selection, ... << MORE >>

A reader sent an SOS this week asking if I knew of an organic solution to the grass burrs that have overtaken her "back 40."
 
I personally have not communed with grass burrs since I was a barefoot child. We called them stickers, and they are a big part of the ecosystem in the Texas Hill Country.

When you are young and barefoot, you learn that running very fast through stickers reduces the risk of getting them in your feet. There is probably a sage explanation for this, ... << MORE >>

Here's another garden event for people in the San Antonio-Hill Country area: At 7 p.m. Jan. 20, Bill Schneider of Devine will talk to Guadalupe County Master Gardeners about how to grow avocados. He's been growing them since 1983.

Schneider is a retired state employee and one of several people growing avocados in Texas.

The program will be at the Texas AgriLife Extension Office at 210 East Live Oak in Seguin. Call 830-303-3889 for more information.

You can read more about avocados ... << MORE >>

Are you within the sound of my voice?

Second annual Peach Tree Planting Day will begin at 9 a.m. Feb. 26 at Vogel Orchard in Fredericksburg, Texas. If you are interested in attending, call the orchard at 830-456-2337. You can also send an e-mail to info@vogelorchard.com

Dig and Let Dig is planning to be there. We attended the first one last year and almost froze our toes off at the (mostly) outdoor event. But we learned lots of valuable lessons, and the peach trees ... << MORE >>

If you have anything plastic, you should know about Fusion paint for plastic. It's a great way to give old furniture, toys, decor — just about anything you can think of — a new look.

Fusion appeared on Dig and Let Dig's radar when fellow gardeners talked about how well it covered the neon blue shade of the rain collection barrels, formerly soft drink barrels, that we had purchased. Many of them found a shade of Fusion that blended with their homes.

If you are intimidated by spray paint, ... << MORE >>

We are a society consumed by how much time something takes, and I am as consumed as the next person. I realized this as I kept reading articles about how to build my own patio. My eyes were continually drawn to the paragraphs that said I could finish in one or two weekends.

Wow! Start on a Friday and enjoy the patio by Monday. It sounded too good to be true.

It was. But as I realized during the building process, the getting there was as good as ... << MORE >>

It's that time of year when rueful gardeners look at their front yards and wished they'd remembered which plants die in the cold of winter and which one are evergreen. Not that you don't plant things that winter kills...but I like my landscape a lot better if the dead plants (the ones that look like kelp right now,according to an apt description from a gardening friend) spend the winter in a less obvious spot than abutting the front sidewalk. << MORE >>