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 Pablo Hernandez welcome your feedback and are so grateful to the many horticulturists who contribute their expertise
Click here to join our email list
CLICK HERE for PDFs OF PAST LG&F NEWSLETTERS
”Be like a flower. Survive the rain but use it to grow.”
— Brian Ford, OBE, founder Numerical Algorithms Group
—“RAIN GARDEN” —
A MULTI-BENEFIT TO A HOME YARD
AND BEYOND . . .
BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH
YEARS AGO, ANITA NELSON of Nelson Water Gardens, the late SALLY MCQUEEN SQUIRE and yours truly — faced with heavy rains and potential flooding — put together a “Bog Garden” plan to help gardeners turn the slushy messes that followed into a positive — at least in one sense.
These days — with even more climatic challenges — same fears prevail . A more appropriate name now: “Rain Garden.”
Many, if not most, of us have experienced monsoon rains like the ones that were predicted this week. The irony is that, across the board, Texas is actually losing underground water more rapidly than most of us realize, even though we are almost all already experiencing the effects of this ecological threat.
To quote the Harris Galveston Subsistence District: “Subsidence is the gradual sinking of the Earth’s surface due to substantial, long-term groundwater withdrawals and has been an issue for coastal cities worldwide, including Houston.”
How do you know if you’re being impacted? Developing cracks in your sidewalks, driveway and/or house walls? Doors/cabinets no longer shutting tight? Once-level yard developing slight hills & valleys? These are typical symptoms of subsidence, your area’s dropping water table (level) beneath your property and throughout your neighborhood. No area is immune. You’d think our rains would keep it high, right? Wrong. Our streets ARE our drainage pipes, engineered to direct excess water OFF your yard and to the nearest bayou route.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to store, deep underground, rainfall now running off your yard during heavy rains in such a way that it does no damage, protects so much and is available for use by trees and other plants during scorching-hot summer droughts? Keeping soil moist also helps prevent expensive residential subsidence damage and protects bayous and Galveston Bay from dangerous landscape chemicals in the runoff.
It’s a win-win. A naturally low spot, where water stands or collects in your yard during a heavy rain is ideal. It is NOT a mosquito breeding ground as gravity helps eliminate prolonged above ground standing water.
1. Dig area to 8-15+” below ground level. Fill half full with pea gravel and/or rocks plus very coarse mulch. Plant into mulch/rock level. Soil normally attached to nursery-grown plants will mix with this mulch layer, providing sufficient growing medium. Fill to top with leaves, pine needles and/or a very coarse mulch.
2. (Lazy way) Plant right into the low spot. Fill with leaves, pine needles or a coarse mulch. These beds may have to be watered to get the plants started and during extreme drought periods. But the more mulch you use on top, the more moist the bottom will stay during the summer.
Rain Gardens can be as sophisticated as you want — or as simple as throwing bananas, cannas, crinums, LA iris or into a low area that takes forever to dry out after a rain. Cover with leaves which, as they decay, will make the soil more porous. These root without planting and love this “difficult” situation.
When planting a rain garden, remember the center will be the most moist. Edges are less moist and a better area for experimenting with regular garden plants. Anita’s & Sally’s suggestion (below) for possible plantings include (outer edge) Morning glory tree, bananas, butterfly gingers, Virginia sweetspire, daylilies walking iris, sweet flag, hosts, torenia, salvia ‘Indigo Spires,’ spider lilies, cannas, swamp sunflowers. Deep center: Japanese iris, Cinnamon (or other) fern, craniums. John Ferguson adds button-bush as pollinators love it and many birds and mammals eat the seeds.
NOTES:
- Anita Nelson’s beautiful, ever-changing Bog Garden can be seen at Nelson’s Water Gardens, 1502 Katy-Ft. Bend County Road, Katy; (281) 391-4769; www.waterscapes.com
- For a clearer version of the sketch below, or a full pdf copy of The Lazy Gardener’s Guide book (which includes this sketch and notes), email lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com. (Taken from the “What to do in July” chapter.) NOTE: far more plants are listed here than you will need — just to give you lots of options!

VASCILATING ON A LANDSCAPE STYLE?
HOUSE BEAUTIFUL’S HOT-IN-’24 (MOST POPULAR)
Either way, you’re in the loop! “Minimalist” is “green-focused plant palette“ while (HB says)“Chaos” gardeners prefer natural planting, tapestry lawns, low-maintenance, eco-friendly, pollinator-attracting,and eco-friendly.
If “Chaos Gardener” warmed your cockles, might want to check out Better Home & Gardening Magazine’s CORI SEARS‘ Considerations for Chaos Gardening, which she describes as “a haphazard and laid-back approach to gardening in which rules and meticulous garden planning are thrown out the window.” (Gee, did she sneak into my yard?)
Just remember before you invest $$$$ on specific plants mentioned, she’s writing to a national readership. Houston’s a unique subtropical pocket unlike in many ways from even other parts of Texas. Check LOCAL actual plant advice!
John’s Corner
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD
OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 289
Subject: Legumes, Air pollution, UV light and pollination, AMF, Glyphosate and fertility
Researchers have discovered that Black Eyed Peas (a legume) emit chemicals through their roots to attract a bacteria called rhizobia that fix nitrogen from the air.
The plant feeds the bacteria carbon and forms a nodule to protect the bacteria. In return the bacteria pay for this service by providing nitrogen for the plant. They studied 20 types of black-eyed peas and found this was true in all of them. University of California – Riverside, the Journal Evolution 2022.
A study published in the journal Environmental Pollution (2022) by researchers at the University of Reading, found that when ground level air pollution including diesel exhaust, ozone, etc. were present, pollination was reduced by over 31%.
They found there were fewer pollinators (70%), and fewer flower visits (90%). The researchers believe the presence of pollutants react with and change the scent of the flowers, making them harder to find.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia have found that sunflowers have patterns in their flowers that the human eye cannot see. They analyzed almost 2,000 flowers and found a bull’s eye pattern that is invisible to humans.
These patterns show up in the ultraviolet portion of the sun’s spectrum that we cannot see. We have known for some time that these patterns help insects find the right spot to help pollinate the flower.
Sunflowers in drier climate had larger and more distinct patterns (more of the molecules that form the patterns). They also found these same chemicals help protect the plant’s respond to stresses like drought and extreme heat. Journal eLife 2022.
Researchers from multiple universities in China have found additional benefits of having arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonize plants roots. When the fungi form a symbiosis with the plant roots, it increases the activities of beneficial chemicals like urease, acid phosphatase, and sucrase in the rhizosphere (soil area around the root hairs).
This promoted the absorption and utilization of nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) and increased the utilization of carbon sources by other microbes. Journal Soil Science of America (2021).
A French study has found that 55% of all the sperm samples from a French infertility clinic contained high levels of glyphosate (the active ingredient in herbicides like Round Up.
The study found a connection between glyphosate levels and oxidative stress on seminal plasma. This suggests significant impacts on a man’s fertility and reproductive health when exposed to glyphosate.
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.
JOHN FERGUSON John is a native Houstonian and has over 27 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. He represents 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 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.
PABLO HERNANDEZ Pablo Hernandez is the special projects coordinator for Nature’s Way Resources. His realm of responsibilities include: serving as a webmaster, IT support, technical problem solving/troubleshooting, metrics management and quality control. Pablo helps this newsletter happen from a technical support standpoint.
Download the Newsletter with Our Events Calendar Below!