Ocean Springs Garden Club

06/01/2026

Hmmmmm…

Pest-repelling plants can help, but they’re not magic 🌿 A few ways I use them:
🌼 Marigolds and nasturtiums are easy to tuck around vegetable beds for extra color and diversity.
🌿 Basil near tomatoes and peppers is one of my favorite kitchen garden pairings.
💜 Lavender and rosemary like sunny, well-drained spots, so I don’t plant them where the soil stays wet.
🌱 Mint is useful, but I always keep it in a pot because it spreads fast.
🧄 Garlic and chives are great around garden edges, especially if you already use them in the kitchen.
I think of these as part of a healthier garden setup, not a guarantee that pests will disappear overnight 🌱

05/28/2026

What a Fantastic Idea!

In Texas, five acres of bees now gets you the same tax break as five hundred acres of cattle.
Texas just granted honeybee owners a massive property-tax break. Keeping bees on just five acres now qualifies for the full agricultural exemption. A backyard beekeeper's tax deal is identical to a traditional Texas rancher's.
This matters because Texas property taxes are among the highest in the nation, and agricultural valuations typically run 80 to 90 percent lower than market valuations. For decades, the tax code treated small-scale beekeeping as a hobby unless you were a massive commercial operator. Now a landowner with a few hives on five acres gets the same break as a cattle baron.
The state is acknowledging what ecologists and farmers have always known. Pollination is agricultural infrastructure. Without bees, Texas cotton, melons, squash, and berries fail. Producing pollinators is producing food, because one cannot exist without the other. Backyard beekeepers just got recognized as farmers. And the tax savings are real enough to make beekeeping a financially rational land use instead of a niche interest. In a state that builds its identity on agricultural production, it is a direct admission that insects are part of that economy too.

05/27/2026

Putting this up in my potting shed! 🌱

05/04/2026

🐝 Positive!

Pollinators need us. 🐛

Bees and pollinator populations across the U.S. have been declining, and the loss affects gardens, wildflowers, food crops, and entire ecosystems.

Real change can start right at home. Plant more native flowers, remove invasive species from your yard, and learn which native plants thrive in your area. Even a small patch of habitat can provide food, shelter, and a much-needed welcome for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

Small actions, multiplied across many yards, can make a real difference.

05/04/2026

Excuse two are better than one sometimes! 😎

Pair sunflowers and petunias for sunny cheer or geraniums with lobelia for vibrant shades. Marigolds teamed with nasturtiums naturally repel pests, while lavender mixed with sweet alyssum attracts pollinators! 🌼🌻🐝

04/29/2026

So helpful to keep our vegetables safe to eat! 🌶️🥕🥬🥦

DO NOT use fire ant mound treatments containing the active ingredient acephate in the vegetable garden! Acephate is commonly used to treat fire ant mounds in home lawns but must not be used around edible plants. Acephate is a systemic insecticide that is readily absorbed by plant roots and translocated to leaves and fruit of vegetables.

Some fire ant baits can be used in the garden and lawn. These include baits containing the active ingredients methoprene or spinosad. Baits containing spinosad are relatively fast-acting and this makes them a good choice for controlling mounds that occur in the garden itself, but it will still take a two or three weeks to see results.

Don’t wait until you have big mounds, go ahead and apply one of these baits as soon as you see fire ants moving into the garden. But don’t forget to treat the lawn area around the outside of the garden as well. Workers from mounds located just outside the garden will readily forage into the garden area.

Here's a great resource if you want to learn more about safely keeping fire ants out of your vegetable garden: https://extension.msstate.edu/insects/fire-ants/control-fire-ants-and-around-home-vegetable-gardens