Gardening

Hot Garden in the City

Hot Garden in the City

Houston: This Garden's on Fire

Houston: This Garden's on Fire

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April in Houston: Get Up and Garden. The Time is Now.

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Apr 26, 2023

The past couple of months in Houston has been a roller coaster of warm and chilly temperatures with beautiful cloudless skies mixed with thunderstorms and high winds. For the most part, though, we've had pleasant days that make many other regions envious. While there are global warming deniers or those...
Diggin' It: Spring Gardening in Houston

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Mar 1, 2023

It's springtime in Houston. Other cities may be covered in snow or battling below-freezing temperatures but the Bayou City has been blessed recently with warm days, though not always sunny ones. With mornings in the 50s and 60s and afternoons in the 70s and 80s, it's time for we Houston...
Fall Flower Gardening in Houston

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Sep 29, 2022

This week, the morning lows were under 60 degrees in the Greater Houston area. Houstonians took their dogs out for walks, drank margaritas on the patio and rushed to the coffee shops for their pumpkin-spiced beverages, barely breaking a sweat. Every year, we wait for the first taste of autumn...
Fall Vegetable Gardening: Ready, Set, Plant!

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Sep 21, 2022

Houston weather is such a tease. After a blistering hot summer, accompanied by months of drought, we were given a brief respite, at least in the mornings and evenings, from the triple digit heat. Many of us awoke to temperatures below 70 degrees in the past week. We even got...
Houston Gardening: Droughts, Floods and Heat, Oh, My!

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Aug 31, 2022

Most Houston gardeners have become accustomed to the hardships of a Houston summer. However, the summer of 2022 has been particularly brutal. While we are used to 100 degree temperatures in July and August, this summer they were coupled with little to no rainfall. Until last week. Now, we are...
Garden of Despair: Houston in Summer

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Jun 16, 2022

It's hot. Bloody hot. To paraphrase Shakespeare's King Richard III, "Now is the summer of our discontent". You would think we Houstonians would be used to it by now, but when the dog days of summer begin in early May, that's even too much for we natives. Record heat started...
Houston Gardening: It's Bloomin' Time for Flowers

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Mar 30, 2022

Gardening in Houston's humidity and heat is no easy feat. Add in hurricanes, floods and unprecedented weather extremes, it's a wonder any of us attempt it at all. Last year, February 2021 hit us with winter storm Uri, giving us single digit temperatures and a rare citywide snow. Though it...
Get Down and Dirty This Week in the Garden

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Mar 17, 2022

With all the troubles going on in the world, many of us may be tempted to veg out in front of the television binging on the must-watch shows our friends have been raving about. And sometimes we need a brief escape from the news and doom and gloom. There are...
Freeze Framed in February: Houston Gardening

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Feb 22, 2022

The residents of the Lone Star State have good reason to be traumatized by the ups and downs of February temperatures. In 2021, not only were we in the second year of the COVID pandemic, but many of us were huddling in below-freezing temps in our own homes, melting snow...
Fall is Here and It's Time to Garden

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Sep 24, 2021

Fall has finally dropped our temperatures and lightened our humidity. Shoppers at the grocery store today were already loading up the pumpkins and buying miniature pickup trucks decorated with fake autumn leaves and "Apples 4 Sale" signs. The pumpkin spice latte crowd are happy and Halloween devotees are already decorating...
Houston Gardening: After the Rain Has Gone

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Jun 11, 2021

Houston has had a tough year weather-wise. Though we didn't have a major flood or hurricane in 2020, we had an unprecedented hard freeze in mid-February 2021 that damaged a lot of our landscaping and numerous citrus trees. But our gardens bounced back and some plants actually flourished, renewed with...
Houston: How Does Your Garden Grow?

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Apr 28, 2021

The month of April is nearly over. After the devastating freeze in February, Houston has seen even more unusual weather with cooler-than-normal temperatures and a mix of wind, storms and dry spells through the past two months. However, a look around the Bayou City's neighborhoods shows the resiliency of nature...
Rebirth of a Garden: After the Freeze

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Mar 17, 2021

Last week, we wrote about the damage done to our gardens by winter storm Uri, here in the Houston Press. The first couple of weeks after the snow, ice and single-digit temperatures showed a Houston landscape that seemed barren and devoid of life. But nature is an amazing mother. She...
A Houston Garden After the Winter Storm

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Mar 10, 2021

The unprecedented winter storm that hit Texas on Valentine's Day was not wholly unexpected. The forecast for unusually cold temperatures in Houston had many of us scrambling to wrap our pipes and stock up on comfort snacks. For Houston gardeners, however, it meant a last look at our budding fruit...
After the Freeze: Get Your Veggies Growing

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Mar 12, 2019

Houston has had a record wet winter and an unusually late freeze this year. We Space City residents aren't usually susceptible to cabin fever. There are usually a few sunny and mild winter days for margarita sipping and park bench lounging. This year has been more like living in the...
It's Time For Urban Harvest's Annual Fruit Tree Sale

By Houston Press
Dec 26, 2017

Fruit trees don't give you that instant return that annuals or even perennials do. They usually take a few years to take off, to grow enough and bud and be able to produce fruit. You can forget about any shade from them for years. At the end of one whole...
Picky, Picky: When Your Kid Is Not a Foodie

By Lorretta Ruggiero
Jul 20, 2017

I was a picky eater well into my twenties. I had a reputation among my family members as a skinny, vegetable-eschewing bookworm. I am still a bookworm, but the skinny moniker is no longer appropriate and I now not only eat my vegetables but grow them. I blame part of...
Spring Vegetables: 5 Tips for Using Your Garden Produce

By Lorretta Ruggiero
May 3, 2017

Delicious tips for using your fresh garden vegetables
League City's Natural Living Co-op: Something We All Need in Our Backyard

By Jennifer Fuller
Apr 26, 2017

Chances are, not too many League City residents know about the tucked-away treasure nestled in their own backyard. Natural Living, a GMO-free co-op that's quietly operated since January of 2011, is next door to League Park in downtown League City. Walk in either the front or back door of this...
Marijuana Grower Now Raises Microgreens for Houston Restaurants

By Phaedra Cook
Aug 17, 2016

A native Houstonian who moved to California and grew marijuana for a dispensary for three years is now applying what he learned to grow microgreens for Houston restaurants. Juan Molina of JSH Equipment & Supplies just returned to Houston last December. “I’ve had a crazy adventure. I went out [to...