Author - King Feed

summer garden blog june 2023

Wimberley Summer Gardening 2023

Summer gardening weather is upon us, and the see-saw between breezy, rainy weather and blazing hot afternoons will likely continue for a while. Texas Hill Country gardeners shift gears from planning and planting to maintaining and nurturing this month. Summer gardening in Wimberley, Texas, is all about battling the extreme heat to come during the next several months. Many of our vegetables will bear their first harvest, and we should enjoy perfect growing conditions for our favorite plants. Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and others will fill our tables. Plus, nearly all the other veggies will soon follow. Some garden plants thrive under the influence of sustained summer heat. Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, cantaloupe, and watermelons will get over their occasional bouts with early blight and get on with full-scale fruit production. Hibiscus, vitex, bougainvilleas, roses, periwinkles, and other summer gardening plants should see accelerated blooming cycles and growth spurts.

Great Summer Plants

  • Hibiscus Flowers
  • Pride Of Barbados
  • Vitex Shrub and Trees
  • Bougainvilleas Vines
  • Roses - Available In Our Garden Center
  • Periwinkles

Some of our favorite native perennials and shrubs
took a hit this past winter. You and others in Wimberley also saw their trees damaged from February's ice storm. However, most of the trees are now recovering and should be on track for a great growing year. Especially with our spring rains and mild temperatures. Some perennials had to start all over from buds damaged in our hard freezes, but most have recovered and are on their way to a productive and beautiful year.

Natural Summer Fertilizer

Don’t wait for your plants to get the summertime blues before you give them a little boost. Besides regular feeding, homemade plant tonics can supplement your feeding with a few extra nutritional goodies. I especially like to use compost tea, which is easier to make than you might realize. You only need a heaping shovel full of well-rotted compost in a 5-gallon bucket and fill it with water. Add a couple of tablespoons of molasses and seaweed extract and stir vigorously several times for a day or two. Strain the bucket and use it for spraying or watering to perk up everything in your garden. Deep root drenching with this tea will perk up tired plants, and foliar sprays can boost activity, while discouraging many insects and
diseases.

Mulch Before Summer Starts

Mulch is material that is placed on top of the ground around plants to help moderate soil temperature, hold down the growth of competing weeds, and help retain valuable soil moisture. It is one of the best things you can do for your garden and yourself. It will increase yields and improve the appearance of your garden as well! At King Feed and Hardware, you can find several different types of mulch for your garden.

Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as fertilizer and to improve the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil. Most commonly prepared by mixing decomposing plant and food waste, recycled organic materials, and manure, it is rich in plant nutrients and beneficial organisms, such as bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, and fungi. Compost provides nutrients to crops acts as a soil conditioner, increases the humus or humic acid contents of the soil, and introduces beneficial microbes that help to suppress pathogens in the soil and reduce soil borne diseases. It can be mixed into the soil or top-dressed.

Summer Garden Watering Tips

We recommend that you water your plants early in the day during summer gardening. Watering your plant early helps ensure water is available to them through the heat of the day. It also helps to not have the leaves wet during their overnight sleep. Watering deeply and less often will encourage deeper root growth and more vigorous heat tolerance. Instead of spraying the leaves, you should soak the roots of the plant. Giving ample attention to the safety of gardeners themselves while working in the Texas summer heat is critical. Hydration before and during your time in the garden is very important as is protection from dehydration. Take rest breaks in the shade for more water, and do your work in the morning, when temperatures are more people-friendly, if possible. You’ll be glad you did. Also: Thanks to my Scandinavian heritage and my dermatologist, trust me on the sunscreen!

Quite a few avid gardeners become bird lovers as well. Whether it’s because both activities call for spending a lot of time outdoors or more related to birders’ and gardeners’ love and appreciation of Nature, they are passions that go well together. As a boy, I spent quite a bit of time in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge near our home and have many fond memories of my time there. Fortunately, Wimberley has a wonderful birding community, and I can personally recommend its Patsy Glenn Refuge just behind the community center. Happy gardening and birding!

June 6, 2023Uncategorized, , , 0 Comments
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may 2023 garden store

May 2023 Gardening Tips

King Feed Garden and Hardware Wimberley, Texas

Spring Gardening Tips: Compost Tea, Beneficial Insects, and More
April showers may not always be reliable, but they have certainly been good news for spring and summer gardening in Wimberley, Texas! The subsoil moisture stores we accumulate now are important for the long-term health and vitality of our landscapes, including our beloved oak and cedar hills.


The weather has been mild and beautiful, but gardeners should be aware of the conditions that can lead to the development of early blight. This fungal disease is especially common on tomatoes, peppers, and potato plants, and can be treated with fungicides or compost tea.
Speaking of compost tea, it's a cheap and easy way to provide your plants with a real boost in nutrition while helping them to fight fungal diseases and weather stress. Simply soak well-rotted compost or a high-quality, living commercial compost in water overnight, then strain it into your watering can or sprayer.


As for pests, Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, mites, aphids, and mealybugs have already begun to appear in gardens. One effective organic solution is Fertilome Triple Action, which can help control these insects. Beneficial nematodes and Nolo Bait are also useful for controlling ants, fleas, ticks, and chiggers.


Don't forget the rock stars of beneficial insects, ladybugs! They are highly desirable in gardens where aphids are a problem and can be attracted by using a Ladybug house.
In May, hot weather allows vegetables and flowers to be planted in Wimberley, Texas. Plant beans, okra, melons, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, and most herbs, as well as tropical plants like hibiscus, plumeria, bougainvilleas, and mandevillas. King Feed and Hardware is your plant store in Wimberley, Texas.


Finally, with graduation and Mother's Day coming up, be sure to visit our garden center for gift selections, including hardy trees and other beautiful plants, wind chimes, and gardener's clothing. We also have an excellent selection of pottery, garden décor, tools, and clothing for the gardener in your life.


Thank you for being part of our Wimberley family and happy gardening!

May 9, 2023Uncategorized, , , , 0 Comments
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April Wimberley Gardening Blog

The thunderstorms that often roll through Wimberley in the springtime have mostly missed us locally, but there is every reason to expect more to come that will surely bring life-sustaining water to our soil, lakes, rivers, ponds, and aquifers. We always need as much rain as possible during April and the months before summer starts. Every Texan knows that the heat will come and do its best to dry up or plants, trees, and bodies of water.

Hardly anything says springtime like the mild, sunny days of April. With mostly cool mornings followed by warm and sunny days, the garden fairly calls to us to come and dig! The punctuation of lovely showers and the first thunderstorms of the spring are just part of the joy of gardening in Texas at this time of year. Check out these tips from the Central Texas Gardener too!

Spring Into April Gardening

With Spring in full swing, we turn our gardening attention to the growing season ahead. If you are building a garden in a new spot, or in a space that has not been gardened for a while, now is the best time to make sure whatever you grow there will be all it can be. Enrich the soil with decomposed organic material like peat moss, compost, humus, or manure. To make sure your soil has plenty of nitrogen, you can add cottonseed meal or blood meal. Boost the available phosphorus with rock phosphate or bone meal, then add greensand for potassium and micronutrients. These nutrients will feed your plants for a long time. You’ll have a garden all ready for earthworms and some seeds or transplants!

The garden center is packed with gorgeous plants just waiting to be adopted and given a good home at your place. Some of the growers where our plants are born were set back by the ice storm, but most have recovered, so we are working hard for you every day to keep the nursery stocked with all the plants you might want for your next gardening project. Not every plant we want is available every week, but you can be sure we’ll have all your favorite plants in stock through the season. Stop in just to browse and see what’s new in the nursery, and feel free to let us know or give us a call if there’s something, in particular, you are looking for.

Plants Available at King Feed This Month

April brings us to the full-tilt vegetable gardening season, and it is time for planting all of those warm-season favorites right now! Eggplants, melons, cucumbers, squash, corn, tomatoes, peppers, okra, and more should be in the ground soon to get a good start while the weather is moderate. You still have time to plant cool-season veggies in the first part of April. The next recommended planting time for cooler weather veggies like broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, spinach, and lettuce will be this fall.

Yard and Garden Fertilizer

Free mulch and free fertilizer. Most of us have plenty of nutrition-rich organic material covering the ground right now, thanks to Mother Nature’s plan to have Live Oaks, Sierra Oaks, and Mexican White Oaks shed their leaves in the spring. One of the basic tenets of local economics is to use indigenous materials that are readily at hand whenever possible, and we have lots of these. Mow over them two or three times to chop them up, then either leave them on the ground to feed the grass and trees or rake them into your compost pile, mixing them with fresh organic material like grass clippings or kitchen scraps and some soil or old compost. Alternatively, use them either chopped or whole as native mulch atop the ground around your flowers, vegetables, trees, or shrubs, allowing them to decompose through the season, feeding the soil and your garden for free! In the fall, you can till or dig them directly into the soil in an unused garden space to decompose and enrich the soil over the winter and start the next spring with renewed vigor. 

Fertilizer For Gardens and Yards In Wimberley, Texas

Don’t forget to get your ornamental grasses and lawn areas off to a good nutritional start for the year with good feeding. We developed King’s Premium Lawn Food just for lawns, trees, and shrubs here. It is a 20-10-5 formula, with half of the nitrogen in slow-release form and a strong micronutrient package. We also have several excellent certified organic lawn foods from brand names you rely on.

Raised beds and container gardening have always been practical options in Wimberley due to our thin, rocky, alkaline soil. Growing in pots, raised beds, planter boxes, and hanging baskets is a straightforward way to grow your favorite plants with less labor. Container gardening is easier to keep weed-free and can usually be kept out of the reach of deer with less effort. When growing in containers of any kind, I recommend using a quality potting mix because they wind up being more cost-effective than using a lower-quality mix to which more soil amendments need to be added. If you are creating a larger raised bed, then you can easily make your own raised bed soil mix. Using readily available components like sandy loam, compost, peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, rock phosphate, and greensand.

April 7, 2023April Wimberley Gardening Blog, , , , , , , 0 Comments
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march 2023 king feed wimberley, texas

March 2023 Wimberley Garden Blog

King Feed Garden and Hardware

Tim's Garden Notes - Tim Thompson "Your Hometown Garden Guy"

Mother Nature has again taught us a Texas winter lesson: Sub-freezing temperatures combined with even light rain is a terrible combination. Power lines and trees across central Texas will bear the scars for quite some time. This website has all the Wimberley, Texas, tree debris drop off locations.

Once you have finished cleaning up the mess in your yard from the ice storm we suffered, make sure you have not left any detached limbs hanging high in remaining trees. Arborists call these “widowmakers.” If you see limbs left with jagged wounds where branches have broken, they will be more apt to heal quickly and without disease problems if they are blunt cut close to the collar of tissue near the intersection from whence they grew. You can find all the pole saws and chainsaws in Wimberley, Texas, you need at our store too!

Although the storm came at a time the beetles that transmit much of the oak wilt are dormant, we are now moving into their active time, so use all good practices when pruning or re-cutting broken limbs. Sterilize pruning equipment between trees and use pruning paint immediately.

March Vegetables Gardening Tips

Spring gardening continues for all the tasty cool weather veggies like Swiss chard, broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, collards, mustard greens, carrots and radishes that can still be planted in March. You can also begin planting tender vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, okra, corn, beans, squash and cucumbers, but we never know whether our last frost is behind or ahead of us, so watch the weather. Our average date of last killing frost is around March 20th, but it can occur even as late as the end of April. Frost can come quickly and unexpectedly, surprising even seasoned gardeners. We can plant tender vegetables, herbs, and flowers now, but it’s important to stay ready to protect tender young shoots when frost threatens, and remember that temperatures can vary widely between hilltops and river valleys.

We are starting the growing season with a groundwater deficit, so it’s a good idea to plan ahead for getting water to your gardens. This is most easily done before and during your spring planting time. Hose guides can help keep your hose from damaging young veggie starts as you drag the hose around in your garden. Drip irrigation can deliver just the right amount of water in the most efficient ways to you rows and individual plants. It’s easy to plan and assemble. See our displays of watering equipment.

Plant Grass Seeds In March

Mid-month is the first recommended time for planting grasses from seed. We carry a full complement of tough and beautiful native grass seed and blends as well as the most drought-tolerant of commercial lawn grasses. Planting with the best practices will give you the best results, so be sure to pick up your free copy of Tim’s Tips for Planting Grass Seed for ideas about all you can do to maximize your chances of success.

It’s the perfect time to start a compost heap or two with so much organic material available from freshly fallen leaves, and grass clippings, not to mention chipped and shredded twigs and branches from the ice storm. It’s fairly simple to make rich, life-giving compost of your own for practically free, but there are a few cardinal rules that can help you get started. Pick up your free copy of Tim’s Tips for Composting, available only at King Feed Garden Center.

Organic Gardening At King Feed

We are enthusiastic supporters of the economic, ecological, and practical advantages of organic gardening. We also recognize our responsibility to pass on the planet in the best possible shape to those who come after us. If you would like to hear some ideas about how to transition from conventional to organic gardening, we would be delighted to chat with you about it! We carry the seeds, plants, plant foods, pest controls, and everything you need to have a healthy, low-maintenance, beautiful and organic garden!

We are nursery professionals, but we are also your friends and neighbors and longtime gardeners as well. We are here every day, ready to give you friendly, personal, hometown service and answers to all your gardening questions all year long. We can help you with the best adapted plant choices for your particular needs, pest control issues, landscape planning, plant identification, the best foods for each plant in your garden, and much more. At King Feed Nursery, we offer things that you won’t find at grocery stores, big box stores, or anywhere else where they are not in the nursery business full time. All this at competitive prices as well! 

Come and see us today! We are ready to help you fulfill your dreams of the perfect flower, vegetable, hummingbird, butterfly, or any other gardens. We love being your hometown nursery!

Happy Wimberley Gardening!

March 4, 2023March 2023 Wimberley Garden Tips, , , , 0 Comments
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february 2023 king feed garden and hardware wimberley, texas

February 2023 King Feed Garden Blog

King Feed Garden and Hardware - Wimberley, Texas

February 2023 is starting with a big winter ice storm! We have never seen an ice storm negativily impact trees as this storm. You can find Chainsaws at King Feed in Wimberley, Texas. You can also find Pole Saws at King Feed in Wimberley, Texas. Although winter is not usually the time of year we get dramatic weather systems, the past three years have parted from that practice. With some memorable winter storms under our belt, most of us have had the chance to hone our skills at splitting firewood, insulating pipes, leaving a faucet dripping inside, and other cold weather survival skills. Mother Nature is full of surprises, so we’ll have to wait and see what she has in mind for us this year!

February 2023 Grass Care

February is our shortest month, but there are lots of garden chores that should be on our February calendar. For instance, grasses are living plants, and they need food. Even while dormant, grassroots, and stolons are growing and getting ready to take off once the weather warms. We developed King’s Premium Soil especially for Wimberley. Our Wimberley Soil has all the primary nutrients in the right proportions. It's a full complement of beneficial minerals with extra iron, zinc, sulfur, and other micro-nutrients also needed by your lawn, trees, and shrubs. We also love organic lawn foods like Sustane 8-2-4 Milorganite, and others. Using them along with a top dressing of ½”-1” well-rotted compost will feed your lawn the natural way.

Gardening In February 2023

Maintaining the nourishing qualities of our gardens is the most important task gardeners face, as each year’s crops constantly deplete the soil. While this is true everywhere, it is of particular note in Wimberley, where most of our poor, rocky, alkaline soils simply do not have all the nutrients necessary for a fruitful, prolific garden. Even experienced gardeners new to Wimberley are often surprised at how poor our typical native soil can be. Plants must have access to the primary elements they use to turn sunshine into food, and adding the necessary organic nutrients to your garden soil is the easiest and most cost-effective way to accomplish this. These amendments will become a permanent part of the soil structure and the living biomass.

  1. Decomposed organic material will improve the overall tilth, nutrition, and drainage of your garden. Peat moss, compost, well-rotted manure, coir fiber, leaf mold, and humus are useful for this purpose.
  2. Micronutrients can pair with mineral supplements, including greensand, vulcanite, sulfur coated iron, Minerals Plus, and others.
  3. Supplement the typically low nitrogen levels in Wimberley soils with cottonseed meal, blood meal, fish emulsion or seaweed.
  4. Either rock phosphate or bone meal will supplement the phosphorus your garden plants need to grow strong roots, bountiful flowers, and set flowers that will become our food.
  5. Dried ground banana peels and greensand are perfect for enhancing potassium.
  6. Boosting microscopic populations that benefit your garden is are discovered organic gardening technique that has now graduated to high tech production facilities.

One of these is mycorrhizal fungi, which we now carry in several brands, including Espoma Plant Starter Plus, and Jobes Organic plant foods.

Prune Roses In February

February is the traditional month for pruning roses here. If you have found a well-drained mostly sunny spot to grow roses that can be protected from deer foraging, prune your roses with a clean, sharp tool, removing up to a third of their mass, always ending with a cut just above an outward-facing bud.

Plant Potatoes, Onions, and Asparagus In February

potato plants for sale king feed wimberley texas
Potato Plants For Sale - King Feed Garden and Hardware
asparagus plants for sale king feed wimberley texas
Asparagus Plants For Sale - King Feed Garden and Hardware

Now is the time to do what’s got to be done to enjoy a bountiful crop of delicious home-grown potatoes, some sweet and juicy Texas onions, and an annual winter surprise of crisp green asparagus shoots. February is the latest recommended time to plant seed potatoes, onion plants, and asparagus crowns, and we will have a regular fresh stock of all through the month. All of them are cultivated in distinctive ways, so be sure to pick up a copy of Tim’s Tips for each of them while you’re in the store. Cool-weather gardening continues for a while, but as you plan on planting warm-season crops, check to see if branches adjacent to your garden need trimming to preserve sunlight for your veggies and flowers. Remember: they are completely solar powered! While planning, make plans for rotating some of your crops locations. All successful farmers and gardeners use this technique to balance the nutrient levels in their soils. It is our goal to always have everything you need to have a successful garden: pots, planters, baskets, raised beds, the soils, and mixes to fill them, every sort of plant or seed to plant in them, and quality advice and help from trained horticulturists and nursery workers. Let us know if you are not finding what you are looking for, and we will help you find it or try to order it for you! We hope you loved reading all of our February 2023 gardening tips! Thank you for checking out our website.

Click here to shop our True Value Products! King Feed Garden and Hardware is a True Value Store in Wimberley, Texas.


Be kind and take care of one another!
Happy Gardening!

February 2, 2023Uncategorized, , , , 0 Comments
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january 2023 king feed garden and hardware

Garden Blog January 2023

Tim’s Garden Center Notes

Garden Blog by Tim Thompson – Your Hometown Garden Guy

This Garden Blog will specifically talk about tips for January Gardening in Wimberley, Texas! We hope you enjoy the read. The freakish weather patterns, hot and cold, dry and wet, from the poles and the tropics have become the mainstays of our Texas forecasts. Due to this, I suggest that you learn what you need to do to protect your home, family, and garden, and stay ready to act when necessary. For instance, I have learned to wrap and insulate the outdoor faucets and pile mulch around the roots of some shrubs and trees. Besides leaving one faucet dripping on the coldest nights, we cover our wellhead, pressure tank, and all associated plumbing and plug in a couple of lamps under the cover. Bringing in tropical plants and draining hoses is also a good idea!

Garden Blog January Chores

While this is the “quiet season” in the gardening world, there are a few essential chores for Wimberley gardeners to remember.

Chief among those is tree pruning. Click this link to see all the Tree Pruning Products available at the store. Dormancy means less stress on the trees, and the insects that can spread disease from one open wound to another are usually gone for the season. Most trees need only dead or damaged limbs removed as well as any that rub against one another or a nearby structure. REMEMBER THIS IMPORTANT THING: For the same reasons you would want your surgeon to do so, be sure to sterilize all your tools between patients. Using a 10% bleach solution will prevent the spreading of any pathogens from one tree to another. As extra protection against disease, I recommend you paint your cuts with pruning sealer as soon as they are made.

Practice pruning that is safe for your trees. Make clean cuts that cannot collect rain that would encourage rot. Don’t leave stubs, but rather prune right up to the collar from whence a branch begins to grow. All pruning tools should be sharp and clean to avoid spreading disease.

Pruning can be an inherently dangerous job. We want you to have a terrific, healthful gardening season this year and every year, so please do remember that any job involving ladders, sharp tools, or power equipment requires the utmost attention to safety. Wear protective gear appropriate to your task, especially gloves and eye and hearing protection. Be careful.

Garden Blog Fruit Tree January Care

Fruit trees require slightly different treatment. In very young trees, choose two or three balanced leading branches, and remove all others, always finishing the ends of the branches with an angled cut just above an outward facing bud. As they mature, remove branches that threaten to cross or rub, and all those growing toward the center of the tree to encourage a wide-open canopy with lots of air circulation and sunshine down into the center of the tree. This task will maximize fruit production and minimize disease problems. After the first few years of shaping cuts, only maintenance pruning should be necessary.

Garden Center Vegetables

January is the time to remember some delicious veggies. Potatoes are planted this month and into early/mid-February to get them ready to produce tons of tubers later in the spring. We’ll have a ready supply of both red and white certified seed potatoes beginning early in the month. Pick up a free copy of Tim’s Tips for growing potatoes, as they are grown in a distinctive
manner.

Asparagus is also grown in an unusual fashion, and we have the crowns available now. They are already two years old, and a year or two should be plenty to get them established and producing lots of delicious spears for your table in the early spring.

If you have not yet planted your bulb onions, you still have time, but they should be planted by mid- February. We’ll keep all your favorite varieties in stock to produce loads of sweet, tasty bulbs later this spring.

Our gardens may appear dead, but they are only down for their annual sleep, and are full of life, nonetheless. The roots of perennials and trees are exchanging minerals and water with the earth even as they bring nutrition to rosettes and buds in preparation for the season just a few weeks away.

Take the opportunity this winter to enrich the soil in your garden to replace the nutrients used in making all those tasty, nutritious veggies last year. Our gardens grow all year on the soil we create now. Enrich it as needed with organic material, like compost, manure, or peat moss, and add trace minerals if you haven’t added them for a while. Add cottonseed meal or blood meal, rock phosphate or bone meal, and add greensand for potassium, and get ready for a great gardening year!

January 10, 2023Uncategorized, , , , , , , 0 Comments
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Garden Blog December 2022

Tim's Garden Center Notes

Garden Blog by Tim Thompson - Your Hometown Garden Guy

It’s easy to let the shopping and plans of the holiday season take our attention from the things that matter the most in our lives. The love we hold for one another is what gives real meaning and importance to our lives. Take a moment today to show someone that you care about them and strike a victory for human kindness.

The weather this season has been uncommonly seasonal- cool, with a fair amount of rain. The long-range forecasts are widely varied, so we’ll likely just have to follow the forecasts week by week. Storing soil moisture during the winter can make a real difference in the growing season next year, so, we are hoping for plenty of soothing, replenishing rains.

December Tender Plant Care

For the most tender plants in your garden, be sure to give them a little extra care. Water them well before especially cold spells, and cover the most susceptible with frost cloth, floating row cover, cloches, or wrap them in sheets or blankets. Remember that covering them alone might not be enough in extreme cold. For very cold temperatures, provide them with a heat source, such as a light bulb, heat tape, or a heater under their covering.

Fruit Trees For Sale In Wimberley, Texas

At the King Feed Garden Center you can find fruit trees and bushes year-round, but this is the traditional time to plant them. Planting now gives them the longest possible time to develop a strong root system before they must rely on it to get through their first Texas summer. We have a full selection of the best-adapted varieties for the Hill Country, all of which can thrive and be productive here. We carry only well-rooted container-grown specimens that are grafted onto the hardiest of rootstocks for Texas. They are grown for us by several local growers. Come by and let us help you choose from our peaches, apples, plums, pears, nectarines, figs, grapes, blackberries, and more!

December Vegetables For Sale In The Garden Center

Winter vegetable gardening continues this month as we begin planting bulb onion plants. There is no rush because the recommended planting date for onion plants is January and February here, but planting now, with the right weather conditions, can produce extra good crops. The short-day varieties constitute the best-adapted family for growing here in the Wimberley valley. This includes Texas Grano Supersweet 1015Y and its new, improved version, the Texas Legend, which are still the top favorites here. Texas Yellow Granex (grown in Georgia as the Vidalia onion) and Southern Belle Red are longtime favorites, and we’ll have a plentiful supply through mid-February. Several other well-adapted varieties are sometimes available as well, and all do well here. Cool weather and short days at the beginning of our onion-growing season stimulate lots of leaf growth, which in turn, produces large bulbs as the days lengthen and the weather warms next spring. Pick up a free Tim’s Tips planting guide for bulb onions. They’re easy to plant, fun to grow, nutritious, sweet, and delicious!

We won’t have certified seed potatoes available until next month, but now is the time to begin to prepare their planting beds. They do best in well-drained beds raised slightly above grade and enriched with lots of decomposed organic material, including an extra source of phosphorus, like bone meal or rock phosphate. Mix it up now and let the nutrients age for the best results in January and February.

One of the first things I learned in gardening was helping my dad spray our fruit trees, ornamentals, and shade trees with dormant oil. It is perhaps the easiest, cheapest, and most environmentally friendly way to control pest problems. Spray the trunk, branches, and twigs of woody tissue deciduous plants after the leaves have fallen with dormant spray, also called by many other names like Volck oil and horticultural oil spray. Insect egg cases and fungal spores will be encapsulated and rendered powerless in your garden. One treatment is all that’s needed. It’s as simple as that!

Few things of beauty in our lives last as long as a majestic spreading shade tree or a distinctive and colorful ornamental tree. All the Texas oaks: live, burr, red, Monterey, Sierra, chinquapin, and lacey, as well as cedar elms, make wonderful shade for generations to come. Our Texas mountain laurels, Anacacho orchid trees, Mexican plums, Texas redbuds, crape myrtles, and desert willows all make strong, lasting ornamental statements. If you are looking for a lasting, meaningful gift, a tree is a constant reminder of the person who gives it.

Speaking of gifts, we have lots of ideas for the gardener in your life. Please feel free to ask any of us in the nursery. We are gardeners as well as nursery professionals, and we’d be happy to share with you some of the things that make gardening easier and even more fun!

December 1, 2022December 2022 Wimberley Gardening Blog, , , , , 0 Comments
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Fall and Winter Gardening Blog

Tim's Garden Center Notes November 2022

Tim Thompson - Your Hometown Garden Guy

As blisteringly hot as the recent summer was, our autumn has been surprisingly mild– even coolish! I am sure most of you will join me in casting your vote for a mild November with plentiful rain to fill our aquifers and soothe the land as well as the gardeners. Fall and Winter gardening is upon us! Speaking of temperature, our average date of the first freezing temperature is usually around November 20th, depending on your elevation, so you will want to be prepared for that soon. In my years of living here, the first frost occurred as early as October 28th, and as late as January.

Thank YOU For Being A King Feed Customer!

Thank you for your patronage this and every year. The season of thanks is upon us, and we’re filled with gratitude that you have welcomed us into your lives to help fill your needs for home and ranch goods, pet needs, and everything you need for a beautiful garden! We wish you Peace, Love, and Flowers to fill your every dream!

Fall and Winter Gardening

Accordingly, you’ll want freeze protection for the potted plants and tropicals that have spent the summer beautifying your decks, porches, and yards. For fall and winter gardening, you will want to plan ahead. Prune them lightly if needed, and if in the same soil for a year or more, they need fresh dirt and a little more root space. Using the next larger-sized pot, repot them with fresh quality potting mix. If any of them show signs of pest problems, then take care of those issues before bringing them inside your house. Find a nice cozy winter spot for them, preferably with a bit of daily sunshine. Most will be happy in your home for the winter but try to keep them out of the drying drafts that heat vents create. If you have indoor plants that you are trying to keep just above freezing, that can accomplished in a garage, utility room, or well house. Plant caddies with wheels will make the job much easier with your larger plants. Remember that some of your outside plants will need protection as well. Plants that are only marginally winter-hardy here will benefit from extra root insulation on the coldest nights. Six inches of mulch is one of the most effective solutions, but anti- transpirants like Cloud Cover® or frost protection fabric such as N-sulate® can help as well.

Fall and Winter Gardening Protection Products

Whenever truly wintry weather sets in and no one knows exactly when that will come- remember that well-hydrated perennials, shrubs, and trees will be much more able to withstand extreme temperatures. Try not to forget your outside plant friends even when
they are asleep for the winter. Water them if we go too long without rain and top their root zone with a few inches of mulch for extra protection from cold temperatures and from the drying winter air.

Fall Yard Tasks

Winter is the perfect time of year to get rid of any annoying poison ivy and poison oak on your property. Their leaves usually turn brighter to orange in the fall, making them easier to find and eliminate. Their leaves have three leaflets 2 to 4 inches long whose edges can be toothed, smooth, or lobed, and all three variations can occur on one plant. Save yourself time and trouble by using a product specifically made for them, not regular garden Roundup, which is not made for this purpose. The best products for this job contains Hi-Yield Triclopyr Ester.

Onion Plant Growing Tips

Onion plants will be available later this month, usually by Thanksgiving if the weather is good, and that begins the onion-planting season, which continues into February. You can begin to prepare a spot for them in your garden now by building a bed at least four inches above the grade of the surrounding soil. (Raised bed gardens are perfect!) They like loose or sandy, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. While they prefer soil with a slightly acidic pH, you can add organic material, such as peat moss, compost, or manure and use sulfur to help lower the high pH of our soil in Wimberley for a perfect onion bed.

Fall and Winter Flowers Bring Color To Yards and Houses

As the wintery weather wears on, our gardens will begin to take on seasonal colors like browns and grays. You’ll be especially glad you had the foresight to plant your flower beds full of beautiful cool weather bloomers like snapdragons, pansies, violas, and dianthus. Plant them with a few handfuls of blood meal and bone meal mixed into the soil for season-long color that will brighten up your garden plot’s winter blahs.

King Feed Fall and Winter Gardening Center Gifts and Decorations

We have lots of wonderful gift ideas in the Garden Center for you and your loved ones. From decorating items like garden benches and pottery to toys, clothing, shoes, boots, jackets, books, and garden whimsy of all kinds, don’t forget your hometown store, King Feed, when you shop for that someone special in your life. Commerce around the world may feature sales days advertised as seasonal specials, but King Feed brings you good old-fashioned value and fair prices all day, every day.

November 3, 2022Fall and Winter Blog November 2022, , 0 Comments
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October 2022 Wimberley Gardening Tips

october 2022 garden center products wimberley texas
October 2022 Garden Center Products - Wimberley Texas King Feed and Hardware

Fall 2022 In Texas

Beautiful, mild weather similar to what we are currently having is our big payback for persevering through this year’s brutal Texas summer. It’s perfect weather for working in your garden and lawn, and there is plenty to do in the garden this time of year.

It is nearly always time to plant one blooming bulb or another! Keep up with the latest selections of fall-planted deer-resistant bulbs as well as all your favorite bulbs to force indoors for fun and beautiful decorating and gift uses. We sometimes run out of paperwhite narcissus and amaryllis due to their popularity, so we encourage you to shop early for the best choices. Many varieties will bloom as early as January! For best results, plant bulbs with a handful of blood and bone meal or one of our premixed bulb boosters.

Fall Vegetable Gardening Time Is Here

It is finally time to plant all your favorite cool-weather veggies. Swiss chard, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, broccoli, mustard greens, turnip greens, lettuce, endive, arugula, Brussels sprouts, pak choi, carrots, and others can be planted now, and some can be planted repeatedly through the cooler months. Don’t forget certified seed garlic and shallots from King Feed Garden Center—they’re delicious in so many of our favorite dishes! You can also plant beets, carrots, and radishes from seed and strawberries from transplants now. Enjoy fresh salads and delicious, nutritious cruciferous vegetables.

fall vegetable plants for sale
Fall Vegetable Plants For Sale - King Feed and Hardware

Fall Mums For Sale!

Mum flowering plants are a striking decorative touch, especially with other fall-colored leaves and gourds. You’ll find them right now in different sizes in our well-stocked nursery. Some are new varieties that will especially make your décor pop, and they are only available at independent garden centers like ours. Come in and choose your favorites. While you’re in, have a look at our brilliant selection of pretty choices for your cool-season flower beds: pansies, dianthus, violas, and snaps to keep the color going all year!

You can soothe the winter problems of mud in the house and ‘blah’ brown dormant lawns by greening with a pretty carpet of easy-to-grow winter ryegrass. With very little effort, you can start a pretty, green lawn that will last all winter long and help protect your existing lawn against the harshest winter weather and erosion. Just pour the bag of seed into your lawn spreader and walk around the yard a few times, lightly water, or wait for a shower, and you’ll be in the green in no time. We sell it by the pound and in a 50 lb. bag that will cover a little over 5,000 square feet. Because it’s growing in the cooler months, it uses little water and takes almost no care.

Wildflower Seeds Are In The King Feed Garden Center

6 Wildflowers That Benefit The Texas Ecosystem - Click To Read

Texas Wildflower Seeds For Sale

At The Store Are Below

Don’t miss the prime wildflower seed planting season! Texas Bluebonnets, several different wildflower mixes, and individual wildflower seed packets are available and ready to move to their new home at your place. Many wildflowers are the primary food and living choices of local and migratory butterflies. For the very best results, first, remove most of the competing vegetation from a contiguous area or prepare random strips or patches of ground and disturb the soil by tilling or raking. Sow the seed, rake lightly, and water as needed to keep the soil moist for a while, then stand back to enjoy the genuine beauty of true Texas color in the spring. In case you are wondering: Using a broadleaf weed killer on your lawn will kill many or most of the wildflowers growing there, so don’t use them near your wildflowers.

Winter 2022 Plant Preparation

As we head into the winter, it’s a good time to begin thinking about how best to protect your plants from winter weather. For trees and shrubs, top dress the root zone with one inch of compost, then top that with two to four inches of mulch. For tender plants that you cannot bring inside, begin to scout around for things you can use to wrap or cover the plants, like blankets, tarps, boxes, buckets, or bags. Remember that all plants are colder tolerant when they are thoroughly hydrated, so keep your garden well-watered if rainfall is insufficient.

It’s been an unusual year for Wimberley lawns. A relatively wet spring brought lots of new growth, but an ultra-dry summer followed, leaving sad and stressed lawns. Preparing those lawns ready for winter is one of the chores we want to take care of this month. The food we developed especially for Wimberley lawns, King’s Premium Lawn Food, is the recommended product available for the job. Its slow-release nitrogen, extra iron and sulfur, and a full complement of micronutrients will fulfill your lawn’s nutritional needs all winter long. We also have an ample supply of popular certified organic foods: Sustane 8-2-4, and Milorganite, both of which will improve your soil while slowly feeding your lawn all season.

October 17, 2022October 2022 Wimberley Gardening Tips, Vegetable Plants, , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comments
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September 2022 Wimberley Gardening Tips

After a memorable summer of some of the worst weather Texas ever produced, most of us are ready for something new. We can be thankful that traditional September weather is a lot more agreeable. The average high temperatures for this month go from the seventies to around ninety. Plus, we have the medium rain chances. All in favor, say “aye!” September in Wimberley, Texas, is the perfect time to stop by all the cute shops. For instance, you can find so many unique retail shops and restaurants on the Wimberley Square.

Nothing says autumn like the brilliant colors displayed by some of our favorite native trees, and this is the absolute best time to plant trees in south Texas. We have mostly evergreen native tree cover in the Hill Country, but the deciduous trees that splash fall color across the hills are some of the most gorgeous. If you’d like more reds, oranges, golds, and yellows in your landscape, then consider planting Red Oak, Bigtooth Maple, Prairie Flame leaf Sumac, Texas Ash, American Smoke Tree, Shumard Oak, or Cedar Elm. You can specifically find the Red Oak, Prairie Flame Leaf Sumac, and the Cedar Elm in the garden center at the store.

We started September 2022 with a 10% sale on all plants in the garden center and nursery. You missed a great sale that had everything on sale from trees to vegetables. If it was a plant, then it was 10% OFF!

Whether you plant one of these Texas beauties or another well-adapted tree, remember that trees are some of our best defenses against the effects of climate change. Their ability to lock up carbon in their tissues while creating fresh, breathable oxygen for us. Planting now gives them the longest possible time to become well-rooted and established before having to face their first Texas summer. Pick up your free copy of Tim’s Tips for Planting Trees and Shrubs in the Garden Center. Plus, you can plant a tree for the future of Texas!

September Garden and Yard Chores

Every September chores include dividing your iris, amaryllis, cannas, daylilies, liriope, and wood ferns. Gently dig around the existing clumps with a sharp shovel or garden fork and loosen them into smaller bunches with your fingers. Trim the tops back by as much as 75% with sharp scissors or clippers. Spread out the roots and replant your new clusters into garden soil enriched with cottonseed meal and rock phosphate or blood and bone meal, and water them thoroughly. You’ll be glad next year when you enjoy even more of these beautiful and reliable perennials.

Keep Your Yard Green All Fall

Mid-September through Mid-October, is one of the recommended times for planting grasses from seed. The temperatures have usually moderated, and rainfall is more likely, making it exactly the time to get turf started. Try one of our native grass seed mixes, the Wildflower Research Center’s Habiturf, or good old-fashioned common Bermuda, fescue, and Gulf Annual Ryegrass. All do fine when started at this time. Please feel free to pick up a free copy of Tim’s Tips: Planting Grasses from Seed, available only at King Feed.

Autumn is a great time for building new compost piles. With the bounty of fall leaves from shrubs and trees and the grass clippings from lawn trimming, you’ll be able to start up an extensive collection of organic materials that can decompose over the winter and be ready to add to your garden in the spring. Composting is not difficult, but there are a couple of practices that can guarantee reliable results every time. You can find them in your free copy of Tim’s Tips on Composting at the store.

Fall Vegetables and Fruits To Plant

Be sure to leave room in your garden for the cooler season vegetables, available beginning this month. Broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, strawberries, lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, endive, mustard greens, and lots of other delicious greens will be ready to choose from our garden center. Choose from our full assortment of little starters or seeds in the garden center. Plant them as soon as the weather begins to break for the best results, reinforcing the nutritional value of your soil with compost, cottonseed meal, and rock phosphate as needed.

We will also have the full range of beautiful cool season flowers beginning toward the end of this month. Lots of gardeners swear that cool season flowers usually take less weeding, watering, and fussing than their warmer season cousins. Pansies, violas, snapdragons, ornamental peppers, mums, dianthus, and ornamental kale and cabbage will brighten up your fall and winter flower garden. We’ll have those and lots more choices all winter long! 

Winter Yard and Garden Preparation

Winter cover crops provide “green manure” to decompose in your compost or till into your garden to increase the fertility of your soil. Sometimes they directly provide the nitrogen stores in your garden soil, as with legumes like clover, iron and clay peas, or hairy vetch. Some, like Elbon rye, can even be useful for controlling nematodes in your veggie garden. One of the most popular, Gulf Annual Ryegrass, also known as Winter Rye, is mostly used to keep a pretty and green presence in yards and to reduce muddy spots and erosion. It can be planted right over your existing lawn without disturbing your existing turf. Plant them all over the next sixty to ninety days for the best results.

September 12, 2022September 2022 Wimberley Gardening Tips, , , , , , , 0 Comments
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