Nature’s Way Resources is proud to bring you this free weekly newsletter. While we don’t run ads, generous sponsors help support this project as a public service. Their names are listed below, please consider showing your appreciation by supporting their businesses!
Nature’s Way Resources honors the contributions of our late owner, John Ferguson. “The Lazy Gardener” Brenda Beust Smith and Shelby Cassano welcome your feedback and remain grateful to the many horticulturists who share their expertise.
Wild native beauties that love our bayous! L to r, American Beautyberry, firewheel (Indian blanket), and yellow passionvine. (See HOUSTON BAYOU PRESERVATION info below)
YEA! OLD ENOUGH TO BE A TRUE “DIG”!
by Brenda Beust Smith | The Lazy Gardener
The older I get, the more I appreciate and — (now in my ’80s) –finally consider myself fully qualified to be one of Southern Gardener Extraordinaire Felder Rushing’s “DIGS” (Determined Independent Gardeners). As Felder describes DIGS:
“These earnest, color-outside-the-lines folks (who) garden for the love of it and nurture and share beloved plants and time-tested techniques.”
In his “MAVERICK GARDENERS book, Felder further describes us (if I may be so bold): “While they may garden alone, these seeming outliers are a loosely-affiliated tribe bound by plants and attitude. They’re modern-day ‘keepers of the flame.’ ”
AMEN! (If you have trouble finding this book, try: felderrushing.blog/contact-me/). I particularly always liked one of Felder’s favorite sayings: “Life already has so many boundaries and pressures – why add more in the garden?” But that’s not just what it’s all about.
DIGS don’t really care what other gardeners are doing. Loosely quoting: They know what they like and they know their own area. E.g., altho most (especially beginning) gardeners think of spring as the time to start a gardening year, DIGS in our Southern area know differently.
Spring is too late for us (in lower South) to plant many highly promoted spring bloomers! By spring, we’re already at the start of SUMMER heat! That’s why — whenever you google advice for growing “anything” — always preface it with “In Houston . . . ” Even if you just live relatively close outside this area, you’re close enough to need this caution!
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“… TIS THE SEASON” — IN THE PAST, IT WAS GENERALLY THOUGHT (by most folks) that most plants like a bit of beer. Not so much today, to the delight of our plants! Smarter gardeners knows it depends… Generally speaking, tomatoes like beer in moderation. So do most lawns. It’s good for compost piles as it helps with break-down. Flies, wasps, snails, slugs and fleas love beer, so it makes a good trap-draw-ingredient. Beyond that, better look up individual plants.
(Personal note: Pictured is a ’60s-’70s Houston Chronicle cartoonist Mike Scavel sketch. As a young reporter (too young to decline), I was assigned to temporarily write the gardening column until editors replace the departing columnist. I had never gardened and begged to name it The Lazy Gardener (. . .so no one would take me seriously. “it’s only temporary, Brenda!”) HA! Wherever you are, Mike, thanks!
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MEA CULPA! (See, Sr. Heloise, I do remember SOME Latin!) Meant to include this tip with last week’s wet spell forecast. (But we’ll surely have more!) The minute you hear hard rain’s coming, water deeply around the base of your favorite plants. Why? … if it’s just going to rain!
During dry periods, our gumbo soil tends to cake up, becoming more solid, causing very heavy rainfall to spread horizontally more than vertically downward. Watering in advance loosens soil so it will absorb water faster than hard-packed clay (which also may be below your developer’s “new” topsoil level).
Wetting areas around treasured plants makes it easier for rainwater to seeps downward faster through water-softened areas than spreading across rock-hard dried areas where weeds and grass will quickly take advantage!
SEE THOSE FLOWERS ABOVE? THEY LOVE OUR BAYOUS! Either directly or indirectly, everyone in the Greater Houston area is affected by at least one of our 22 area bayous and river systems. Smart gardeners keep an eye on their bayou’s condition BEFORE their gardens might be affected.
Many gardeners now are going one step further, actually seeking planting natives flowers like these growing around their local bayous, a trend that triggered HOUSTON BAYOU PRESERVATION‘ to collect seed (volunteers needed) that will be given away at HBP‘s SAT. NOV. 15 Fall Pollinator Gardens Workshop, 2-4pm, 5715 Canal St., Houston. Must register: bayoupreservation.org/events/resiliency-at-home-fall-pollinator-gardens-workshop. HBP’S free mailings are also a great resource info@bayoupreservation.org (for outlying counties as well.)
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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.
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John’s Corner
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS
Subject: Tires – Elderberry – Bumble Bees Leaf Mulch
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.
Calender Submittal Rules
WANT EVENT IN RIGHT AWAY? FOLLOW RULES!— ONLY GREATER HOUSTON AREA NONPROFIT GROUP EVENTS —
Expect delay if we must reformat: 3-LINE (max) EXACT FORMAT:
DAY, DATE: TITLE (by NAME if talk), time, site. Sponsor (if not in title). website/phone (NOTE CAPITALS VS lower case)
- Gardening events ONLY! No harvest, cooking, arranging, etc.
- ONLY events sent SPECIFICALLY TO US FOR CALENDAR are used!
- NO events picked up from flyers — NO PDFS! TYPE IN EMAIL ONLY.
- Don’t add city unless not “Houston.” (Don’t add “Houston”)
- Submit to: lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com. Check published entry!
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 (1951-2025)
John was a native Houstonian with more than 35 years of business experience. He founded Nature’s Way Resources, a composting company known for producing high-quality compost, mulch, and soil mixes. He held an MS in Physics and Geology and was a licensed Soil Scientist in Texas.
Throughout his career, John received numerous awards in horticulture and environmental work. He represented the composting industry for many years on the Houston-Galveston Area Council for solid waste. His personal garden was featured in several horticultural books and in Better Homes and Gardens. His business was recognized by The Wall Street Journal for the quality and value of its products. He was a member of the Physics Honor Society and several professional organizations, and he co-authored Organic Management for the Professional.
John contributed articles regularly to this newsletter and oversaw its publication. We continue to share his past articles each week alongside The Lazy Gardener column to keep his passion, knowledge, and spirit alive for our readers.
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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Conroe, TX 77385
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