Get your garden and soil ready because Fall is here ..read more

Plant Rosemary to help repel mosquitoes It’s summer now and mosquitoes are starting to get aggressive, but you want to enjoy your beautiful garden without getting completely eaten. We all know that chemical pesticides are a no-no in the kitchen garden. Why? Because the plants will take up the chemicals from the soil and deposit them in our bodies. No one wants to eat pesticides! Here are a few natural ways to repel these pesky buggers: 1) Burn a Fresh Rosemary Sprig. If you’re barbequing, throw a fresh sprig of rosemary on the hot grill or hot coals and the smoke will not only keep the bugs a ..read more

Just like the sun, water is a key component to having a successful kitchen garden. Water is used by plants to transport nutrients from the soil to the plant. The proper amount of water will keep your plant nourished to grow strong and produce abundant harvests. I can recall after I set up my first drip irrigation system in my garden and had consistent watering for the first time, it was a game changer. I thought I was the most amazing gardener as my veggies were big, healthy and beautiful. When we design raised bed kitchen gardens here in Houston, we include drip irrigation in the turnkey pri ..read more

Lori Gobillot’s perfect little side yard garden in West University A common request from clients is to make their side yard more appealing. A side yard is a wonderful place to get creative and add usable space to your outdoor living area. Here are our three favorite ways to take blah to beautiful. A Raised Bed Garden Sanctuary A peaceful garden retreat If a side yard gets ample sun, turn it into a garden room with raised beds. One of our favorite gardens is in River Oaks, where a dull gravel side yard was transformed into a garden sanctuary. The side yard has two steel beds, an arch trellis ..read more

Fully formed pumpkin fruit on a vine Traveling for the summer? Want to take a break from the Houston heat but still feel productive in the garden?  Plant pumpkin seed!  June is the perfect time to sow pumpkin seed for a fall harvest.  Pumpkins typically take 90-120 days from seed to harvest, depending on the variety.  Tips for planting: Select a spot in your raised garden with plenty of space for sprawling leaves and vines.  We typically use a bed with room on all sides so that the vine can go wild and spill over to the gravel below.  These plants require 6-8 h ..read more

Curled leaf Aphid damage on mint. Hey gardeners, here’s something to consider.  The next time you see holes in your basil leaves, consider it a compliment.  Pests LOVE healthy gardens.  Here in Houston where heat and humidity play major roles, we know the power of a pest. Kitchen gardens are an ideal breeding ground for pill bugs and other insects that need a moist environment in which to call home.  Let’s cover the most common garden buggers and how you should treat them. Aphids. Perhaps the most common of all!  You’ll see them anywhere and everywhere, but they have ..read more

A Charm of hummingbirds at luncheon Our love for hummingbirds didn’t truly begin until we installed raised-bed kitchen gardens.  Don’t get us wrong, as Houston gardeners we liked them, but now we LOVE them!   When you hang a hummingbird feeder in your garden as well as plant nectar-rich flowers, you create an incredible environment where hummingbirds can thrive. What do you know about Hummingbirds? Let’s do something different in this blog post and play a quick round of hummingbird trivia.  You can use these questions later to stump your kids or impress your neighbors. Ready?&n ..read more

Zinnias in full bloom Allergy sufferers hear this!  There are plenty of allergy-friendly flowers to plant in your Houston gardens this season. When choosing flowers, look for those that produce minimal pollen.  If the flower is insect pollinated, you will likely not feel allergy symptoms.  Once the insect has done its job, the heavy pollen falls to the ground.  If the flower is wind pollinated, the pollen stays in the air much longer. No time to research?  Here are our favorites:  Vinca~ A spring and summer staple, they grow well in containers and raised bed kitc ..read more

Jen’s Peggy Martin Rose The Garden Girls love our Peggy Martin roses. Considered our own ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ Peggy Martin roses are delicate but offer true Southern grit.   A Little Bit About Peggy- A Southern Gem The story goes a little something like this:  A woman named Peggy Martin was living in Plaquemines Parish, just southeast of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.  Martin was evacuated.  Upon returning home, she discovered that her climbing rose, which had started from cuttings, had survived.  This defiant rose survived the storm and two w ..read more

Courtney’s garden designed and installed by Garden Girls Trellises are a wonderful addition to any kitchen garden.  They can double your growing space by allowing you to grow vertically.  And, when you are not growing veggies on your trellis, your trellis provides a focal point and visual interest to your garden space. Favorite Veggies that Need a Trellis In Houston gardens, our favorite veggies that grow on a trellis are tomatoes, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas.  Tomatoes and cucumbers occupy the space in spring, summer, and fall; while sugar snap peas use the trellis in coole ..read more