Nature’s Way Resources is proud to produce & email you this free weekly newsletter. We have no ads, but sponsors do graciously help support this project as a public service. Please note their names below & show your gratitude for this free service by patronizing their businesses! To become a sponsor, call (936) 273-1200
Nature’s Way Resources owner John Ferguson, “The Lazy Gardener” Brenda Beust Smith, and Shelby Cassano welcome your feedback and are so grateful to the many horticulturists who contribute their expertise
Homegrown National Park’s first community site. (homegrownnationalpark.org photo)
A Community for Living with Nature
by Brenda Beust Smith | The Lazy Gardener
It was back in the 1970s when I first crossed paths with DR. DOUG TALLAMY and his Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Best Hope publications and a then-new-concept “Homegrown National Park”. His main goal is not to encourage people to move here (although that’s possible). Mainly, it’s to encourage folks to ask for, and support more residential communities that promote habitat restoration and biodiversity in their plant selection.
In the 1970s, as a still fairly-new Houston Chronicle reporter, I wasn’t thrilled to be asked to “temporarily” fill in for departing gardening columnist Alice Hodges and agreed only if I NEVER had to write about garden chemicals, treatments, etc. (It wasn’t as noble an approach as Doug’s. I just knew I could be sued if my advice resulted in someone’s injury or worse. But it’s no chemical approach so fit in, when I contacted Doug, he wrote a great article for my “Lazy Gardener” column (now delightfully published by Nature’s Way Resources)!
Doug’s bold plan hit the media in the late 1970s and has grown tremendously ever since. Now known as HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK, a “nonprofit membership organization promoting habitat restoration and biodiversity in your plant selections on public and private lands.
Now comes a new venture which hopefully will become a nationwide movement: with thousands of acres at Sunbridge, Florida, now set aside for both conservation and neighborhoods landscaped with native species. Click on any of the links in this section to learn more about this program.
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HERB PLANTING TIME! In our Spotlight Article below, SUSAN GAIL WOOD of the Herb Society of America South Texas Unit gives us the “Top Ten Reasons to Enjoy Your Fall Herb Garden.
Yellow blooming Mexican mint marigold, Tagetes lucida (Susan Gail Woods photos)
TOP 10 REASONS TO ENJOY YOUR FALL HERB GARDEN
It’s cooler now with summer heat and humidity finally ending.
Grass is dormant – more time to spend gardening rather than mowing.
- Mulch mow (don’t rake) the first fallen leaves to fertilize lawn naturally. Then use mower bag to add excess mulched leaves to garden beds and compost piles.
- Harvest all basil to make pesto – it will not survive the first freeze.
- Early November is the best time to plant 4” pots of fall annual herbs: dill, fennel, parsley, nasturtiums, calendula and cilantro (coriander).
- Early November is the best time to plant perennial herbs, so they are well established before the summer heat: rosemary, oregano, salvia (sage), thyme, ginger, vetiver, lemongrass, lemon verbena, lemon balm, mints, Mexican mint marigold, and yarrow.
- Plant lavenders now that might not survive hot, humid summers. Try sweet lavender or fern leaf lavender which do well here. Mulch with pea gravel to improve drainage and increase blooms.
- Mulch and water all herbs before a freeze – they will survive the winter, either unscathed or coming back from the roots once weather warms up. Clipping fresh herbs from your garden whenever needed is delightful.
Hoya Santa (Piper auritem) on left with red blooming pineapple salvia, Salvia elegan
Visit www.herbsociety.org national website full of educational information, history, herb of the month profiles, and over 65 webinars on all things herbal.
Visit www.herbsociety-stu.org, located in Houston for growing and using articles including my detailed “Cool Weather Herbs” and “How to Harvest, Dry and Store Herbs” plus many other member articles sharing their expertise from years of experience. Sign up for our newsletter for notices about open to public monthly meetings and lagniappe events. Our member benefits include free admission to over 360 gardens across America.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t waste money. Learn and buy from our local experts!!!
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LOOK UPWARD – MORE THAN SUPER MOON ABOVE! Hope you’ve noticed, it’s is bringing with it a massive bird migration southward. It’s moving past peak point, so try to get outside tonite as late as possible to view. Then watch your gardens carefully for birds you’ve never seen before. You might want to plant more of those you see attracting these.
ATTN. GARDEN/PLANT GROUPS
— Nature’s Way Resources offers free guided tours of NWR’s extensive nursery/soil/mulch facilities for garden clubs, plant societies and other plant-oriented, organized groups. As usual, NWR’s now-expanded meeting site is free to above groups. Reservations a must for both. Great time to visit.
Submitting a Calendar Event?
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John’s Corner
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS
Subject: Fungi Intelligence; Fungi and Sound; GMO soy
John’s regular column was on a brief hiatus during this issue. Please enjoy this column from October 2024.
Click below to learn more about all of the different types of mulch in detail.
Explore our article library to learn more information about various mulches and other topics.
Sponsorship
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at 936-273-1200 or send an e-mail to: lazygardenerandfriends@gmail.com
About Us
BRENDA BEUST SMITH
WE KNOW HER BEST AS THE LAZY GARDENER . . .
but Brenda Beust Smith is also:
- a national award-winning writer & editor
- a nationally-published writer & photographer
- a national horticultural speaker
- a former Houston Chronicle reporter
When the Chronicle discontinued Brenda’s 45-year-old Lazy Gardener” print column — started in the early ’70s as a fun side-project to reporting, it then ranked as the longestrunning, continuously-published local newspaper column in the Greater Houston area. The name, she says, is not just fun, it’s true.
Brenda’s gradual sideways step from reporter into gardening writing led first to an 18-year series of when-to-do-what Lazy Gardener Calendars, then to her Lazy Gardener’s Guide book which morphed into her Lazy Gardener’s Guide on CD, which she now emails free upon request.
Brenda became a Harris County Master Gardener and, over the years, served on theboards of many Greater Houston area horticulture organizations. She hosted local radio and TV shows, most notably a 10+-year Lazy Gardener specialty shows on HoustonPBS (Ch. 8) and her call-in “EcoGardening” show on KPFT-FM.
For over three decades, Brenda served as Assistant Production Manager of the GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA’S “BULLETIN” magazine. Although still an active broad-based freelance writer, Brenda’s main focus now is THE LAZY GARDENER & FRIENDS HOUSTON GARDEN NEWSLETTER with John Ferguson and Pablo Hernandez of Nature’s Way Resources.
A native of New Orleans and graduate of St. Agnes Academy and the University of Houston, Brenda lives in Humble, TX, and is married to the retired Aldine High School Coach Bill Smith. They have one son, Blake.
Regarding this newsletter, Brenda is the lead writer, originator of it and the daily inspiration for it. We so appreciate the way she has made gardening such a fun way to celebrate life together for such a long time.
About her column, Brenda says: “I don’t consider myself a ‘garden writer.” I started out 50+ years ago as a very lazy “gardening reporter.” I still feel that way today. I hope my columns inspire/help newcomers, but I do not write to them. I write to very experienced gardeners who want to expand their horizons.
JOHN FERGUSON
John is a native Houstonian and has over 35 years of business experience. He owns Nature’s Way Resources, a composting company that specializes in high quality compost, mulch, and soil mixes. He holds a MS degree in Physics and Geology and is a licensed Soil Scientist in Texas.
John has won many awards in horticulture and environmental issues. For years he represented the composting industry on the Houston-Galveston Area Council for solid waste. His personal garden has been featured in several horticultural books and “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine. His business has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal for the quality and value of their products. He is a member of the Physics Honor Society and many other professional societies. John is the co-author of the book Organic Management for the Professional.
For this newsletter, John contributes articles regularly and is responsible for publishing it.
SHELBY CASSANO is the communications and marketing lead for Nature’s Way Resources and the editor of The Lazy Gardener and Friends newsletter. Through her business, Leaf and Ledger, she exclusively partners with NWR to direct all marketing efforts, from campaign strategy and content planning to technical production of the newsletter. Shelby holds a B.S. in Agriculture with a concentration in Horticulture from Stephen F. Austin State University and previously managed the company’s nursery.
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