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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
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L to r, Moi hibiscus (my hand), Canna indica, giant white milkweed, Confederate rose and tunera
“Someday we’ll find the love . . .
…cause after the storm’s
when the flowers bloom”
—”AFTER THE STORM” by Kali Uchis et al
BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH
Plants probably don’t like hurricanes any more than we do, but may get better prepared, starting flower buds to insure seed to continue their species if parent plants are wiped out. My flowers pictured were barely starting to bloom pre-Beryl. Now, to my delight, lush August delights include flowers pictured above and at right: Peppermint Pink crepe myrtle, a shrub variety. (More on crepes below.) Any surprise bloomers for you?
The closer you live to the Gulf, of course, the more likely your plants & soil were (or will be) impacted by salt water blown in by horrific circulating winds. Those of us on eastern & northern Berle sides were more likely saturated than on south or west sides. Even so, remember damage may not show up for a while. Excessive salt can affect a tree’s water intake and result in later loss of leaves and slowed growth.
TIP O’ TROWEL to Summerwood Subdivision in Humble for the incredibly tall crape myrtles at the intersection of Lake Houston Parkway at Deussen Parkway. WOW!!! One of the most beautiful crepe myrtle displays I’ve ever seen — not counting, of course, my own Peppermint Pink crape above!
NOT SURE WHAT ‘CRAPE MURDER’ IS? Come late fall, some start telling folks, especially newcomers, “it’s time to prune your crapes.” True for shrubs, not for trees. Problem is, sometimes hard to tell which crape you have, especially if previously pruned across the top. Nothing wrong with pruning dwarfs this way. But many folks are out to make money by pruning ALL crapes straight across top (pictured). With tree crapes, sooner or later this kind of pruning results in fist-like knobs sprouting weak new branches that lack the ability to fight off insects/disease.
Of course, prune your plants any way you want! But to avoid insect and/or disease problems with TREE crapes, follow TREE crape pruning instructions from Texas A&M. Obviously the Summerwood arborists (above) did it right!

Do you spot above bonus of correct tree crape pruning? Trunks stay vertical, (don’t take up much horizontal space). Also, those aren’t insect problems on tree pictured at right. As tree crapes age, bark becomes beautifully sculptural. In Autumn, After flowers fade, bark starts its own artistic show, turning silvery browns and tans that almost glow on grey days. As winter sets in, light reflects off the large, peeling, silvery brown bark, especially on somber dark days.
In the market for a shrub or tree crepe? Shop an independent nursery (not box store). Your success = their success. Tell them exactly which one you want. They need your return business so make sure you get the the right one.
ATTN. GARDEN/PLANT GROUPS — In wake of Hurricane Beryl, Nature’s Way Resources is offering free guided tours of NWR’s extensive nursery/soil/mulch facilities to garden clubs, plant societies and other plant-oriented organized groups. As usual, NWR’s expanded meeting site is free to above groups. Reservations required for both..
John’s Corner
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD
OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 295
Subject: Food Quality and Health
Since we are in our August heat wave and very few of us are actively engaged in gardening, let’s examine some reasons to grow as much of our own food as possible. The reason to “Go Organic” continues to increase! A few more examples:
More and more Americans are waking up to the fact that most of the food sold in the USA is far inferior to the rest of the world. More people are raising their own food from vegetables to fruits and herbs to get better quality in nutrition and flavor, and to avoid the cancer-causing chemicals that conventional food is covered with.
Another example of unhealthy food is the milk from grain fed cattle which is inferior to grass fed cattle both in nutrition provided and when we consume it, it hurts our general health. This is followed by pasteurization and homogenization that then destroys what little benefits that are left and has been linked to many health problems. Conventional milk is also contaminated with the growth hormone rBGH which is also linked to many health problems.
Even in grass-fed cattle the quality varies, was the grass from old wore out pastures or from pastures that are organic and have been re-mineralized with all the trace elements needed for good health. Was the pasture a mixture of forbs, wildflowers, and many species of native grass that fed tens of millions of Buffalo or just Bermuda grass. Luckily more and more farmers are providing fresh, raw, organic, and grass-fed milk.
Similarly, farm raised fish, like salmon are fed a very unnatural diet which is a mixture of grains, antibiotics, growth hormones, and other drugs. Toxic rescue agriculture as applied to fish farming has ruined what God gave us as a very healthy food. This can be seen as the grayish color of farmed salmon compared to the bright pink of wild caught salmon. Many countries have banned these practices.
Last week I mentioned the corruption in many of our government agencies that are supposed to protect us.
Let’s look at papaya from Hawaii which is genetically engineered. We know from animal studies that GE foods cause intestinal damage, organ damage, tumors, birth defects, and increase fertility issues.
How did this happen you might ask? During the Obama presidency, a former Monsanto attorney and Vice-President (Michael Taylor) was appointed to oversee the food safety agency. Monsanto makes the herbicide Round-Up that we know now is a carcinogen and related to many health problems.
Another chemical fed to pigs and turkeys is the drug ractopamine. In animal studies it was found this drug increased muscles and reduced fat content. This chemical has been banned in 160 countries for animals raised for food, as it has been directly linked to 1,700 poisonings as of 10 years ago. Ractopamine is linked to reduced reproductive function, increase of the condition called mastitis in cattle, and increased death and disability. In 2013 Russia banned meat from the USA if it had this chemical in it.
We know that chicken and other poultry are often full of the cancer-causing heavy metal known as arsenic and that is why chicken manure should not be used in gardening (it is also high in salts). The use of arsenic to speed up weight gain in poultry is being phased out, but we still have a few years to go.
Additionally, eggs from factory farms are very high in cholesterol. One study found it took 23 free range eggs to give as much cholesterol as one egg from a caged factory farmed chicken. Another study found it took 27 eggs.
One of my neighbors raises organic free-range chickens and I occasionally get my eggs there. Their chickens eat seeds, insects, worms, forbs, and other plants. The yolks are a deep rich orange, and they are full of flavor when I cook them.
The chickens keep their garden free of weeds and insect pests. I look forward to having my own chicken tractor and vegetable garden and fruit orchard as soon as the retirement home is finished, and we are all settled and moved in.
This mornings e-news from the Epoch Times had an article how a women changed her health by changing her diet.
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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.
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