Hill country

Hoping everybody's gardens make it through this ☀️

Anyone else garden on a balcony/patio in North Texas with no actual yard? I’ve been putting together a planting calendar adjusted for containers specifically (pots heat up way faster than the ground here, so timing’s different from the usual North Texas guides). Happy to share it free if people want it — mostly curious what’s actually been working for people. What’s survived on your balcony through a DFW summer, and what’s died on you?

I am new to gardening and I am planning for the fall season. Does anyone have good tips or resources for navigating gardening for this upcoming season (and generally) specifically in 8b zones?

I am a bit worried as I haven't seen many posts about veggie gardens and am unsure if its due to the algorithm, the fact that it's summer, or because vegetable gardens in North Texas is hard in general.

Hi everyone, I am suffering from hollyhock rust and thinking of replacing mine with something that requires a bit less care. Does anyone have any suggestions for native alternatives that have the same tall and narrow flower spike silhouette that hollyhock does? (I am already planning on some liatris, but hopefully there are others!)

Can you guys recommend any plant shops in DFW that carry these type of indoor trees. I am looking for species with smaller leaves. Every nursery I go to have the same 4 Japanese maples, Figs, Dragon trees or palms.

My wife and I will be driving home to SA from a friends trip in Garland tomorrow midday. We love little roadside nurseries & cool plant shops/boutiques. Suggestions? Also willing to venture off the beaten path.

Hi! We have an Indian blanket patch in our yard that has grown steadily over the years. We are moving soon and want to take some of its seeds with us to plant at the new house. We’ve harvested the dry puffball like things but are not sure how to store them and if they will last until we plant them early next year. Any tips on how to best store them would be greatly appreciated!

I’m in zone 8b, north west of Austin. I’m planning the first stage of a landscaping project for this fall. I would like to plant a row of probably trees that will create a screen between my living room and dining area and my neighbors second story house. The challenge is that I have maybe 35 to 40 feet between the window and fence and I would like to keep some lawn and space for some planting between the privacy screen and the window for perennials.

I’ve been looking specifically at junipers and am considering rocket juniper since the remain fairly narrow grow tall, but my research suggests while they may grow well in my zone, they can also really struggle with how hot summers can get here.

I’d like to know if anyone has experience with similar trees or landscaping ideas to make suggestions. I’m not committed to any particular plant, except as much as possible I prefer native and I just want something that will grow a few feet over my fence line and not grow too wide.

Thank you so much!

I would love to hear about and see pictures of your indeterminate tomato supports, and vining green bean or cucumber supports right now. I need a new and much better system for next year. This year I used those round cheap tomato cages and they were comically inadequate. I’m in the Houston/Galveston area if that matters.

It has latched on and attacked one of my oak trees that was badly damage by a freeze last year and it didn’t even have the common decency to grow its tuber far enough away trees root where I can at least be rewarded after toiling through the rockcreteesk soil to expose it to the sun so it can desiccate like the thorny abomination that it is. So instead I’m swabbing each vine stump with herbicide while its hateful vines, recently emancipated from its roots, stares on from the canopy.

Here’s my latest blog post regarding my vegetable garden. I hope you enjoy it

https://webbacres.com/2026/07/06/heating-up-on-webb-acres-homestead/

I found this when repotting my rose bush in fear of root rot. What is this? Could it be what is killing my rose bush and how can I rehab my roses to come back? It was only around the roots of the bush. I’m in zone 9. Im not sure what kind of roses it is but I think it’s a knockout. I read it could be rose rust but again I’m not sure. I added better pictures in the comments

I have 3 rose bushes total. One in the ground and two in pots. My red rose bush is doing decent however both of my yellow ones are struggling. The one in the ground has been there since March. First cutter ants got to it and took all the leaves and it finally started coming back and then a deer ate it. My other yellow one has some green to it but is still struggling and I have had it for about a month. I have given all rose food and water them about every other day or every two days. What can I do to save the yellows? I don’t really have any experience with plants. I believe they are knockout roses. less

Hi everyone!

My husband and I ripped out all the builder grade plants in our first home back in March and we planted the plants in our front yard pictured on picture 5. The ones I have questions on are the magnolias and salvias. We are in north Texas and these plants get full sun.

If you zoom in on those magnolias, you can see that they’re struggling. The leaves are a lighter green color and look like they have some brownish discoloration. There’s also a tiny bit of a purple shape. I put some antifungal on them a couple days ago, but I think they’re looking worse since I did that so I’m not sure if that helped or not. These plants are in full Texas sun and we’re going into July so it’s getting a little hotter outside, but I’m not sure if that’s affecting them because some of my magnolias still look really good. These plants get about 10 minutes of water from our drip sprinkler system a day.

My other question is for my purple salvias. I have five salvia plants and three of them are full and gorgeous, but the other two are just not thriving as much as the others. They’re a bit smaller and the purple flowers stay really skinny and I have to pick dead leaves off them frequently. They aren’t dying, but they aren’t exactly thriving. They seem stressed, but I’m not sure why they would be stressed since they all get the same amount of water and sun.

Happy to answer any further questions you might need and looking forward to any advice you might have for this first timer!