by Lisa Lennon & Dr. Paul Nester Extension Agents - I.P.M - Fire Ant Project Texas Agricultural Extension Service Photo: Scott Bauer Fire ants love the springtime - they like the warm humid air, the moist soil in planting beds and turfgrass, and conditions in the compost pile. Spring is the ideal time for imported fire ants to begin working their mounds and causing problems for homeowners. The past dry winter kept... 

  Common Symptoms Does your lawn look thin and yellow? Is the soil hard as a parking lot? When watering, do you start to get run- off into the gutter after just a few minutes? Is the root system of your grass shallow and easy to pull up? Does your yard look worse than your neighbor that “never does anything to his yard”? These are all indications that the soil structure in your yard is poor. The purpose... 

The Ultimate Garden Soil Recipe The key to healthy plants is healthy soil. Late winter is the time to prepare the soil in your vegetable and flower gardens for the upcoming season. Nothing will make more of a difference in the performance of your plants than the correct soil mixture. Most plants will do best in soil that is well-drained with an abundance of organic matter. Does your dirt crust over when dry? When wet,... 

Tips on How to Manage Their Healthy Growth These seeds look like little rocks. Why are they so hard? Mother Nature made them that way. In nature, when the plant goes to seed, that seed must be protected from the climatic elements since they are dropped in areas untended by man (i.e. in protected, irrigated areas). The seeds are also “timed” to germinate at different intervals. For example, let’s...