In the Green Industry, June,July and August are crammed with trade shows and conferences so that us plantgeeks can stay up to speed on all the new & cool plants, products and technology. My suitcase has pretty much stayed packed for the last three months! I'm happy to be back in Big D now and will be sharing photos and thoughts about all the garden goodies and landscapes I visited in my travels. Cinncinati, Columbus, New York, Portland and San Antonio...lots of photos to come!

My favorite new plant release so far...the Pixie grape! Tiny wine grape plant that grows to only 18". Perfect for patios!

I love black foliage...several great new colors of Black Diamond crapemyrtles will be available 2015

A non-invasive shrub forming trumpet vine? Wha?? Summer Fire Jazz Campsis is gorgeous!

Not that they won't melt here in Texas (can't say yet) but the King Terrazza series of roses are really beautiful. this is Comet.

I have tons of stuff to share, but it's going to take a bit to get through the photos!

You can only make so many pies when you're up to your ears in blackberries. Sometimes you just need to throw them in something that's adult rated! Up next in my parade of garden cocktails is the blackberry and basil mojito.

Fresh picks from the garden: 4 cups fresh blackberries, 1 cup fresh basil leaves. You can also mix fresh plums if you have them...mine are all et up already!

From the store: 4 lemons (mine aren't ripe yet), 3 cups vodka, 1/2 cup sugar to make a simple syrup, club soda

In a bowl, mix blackberries, basil leaves and the juice from the 4 lemons. Stick in the fridge for a day or two. To make the simple syrup, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved then remove from heat to cool. You can either mix the vodka in with the fruit and let sit in the fridge together or keep them separate until serving time. If you do the later, then when it's time to serve, mix together the fruit, vodka and simple syrup in a punch bowl or large glass container. Mix well.

To serve, ladle 1/3 cup of mixture (that's about the volume of a regular punch ladle) into the glass - be sure to get some of the berries too. Fill the glass halfway with ice, then top with club soda and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Love this one, it's a keeper!

Today's garden cocktail: The blackberry margarita. Or whatever you want to call this concoction!

So I'm overloaded with fresh blackberries. My friend Sarah keeps telling me I need to muddle them into cocktails. So I did.

Fresh picks from the garden: Blackberries, mint

From the store: limes (mine aren't ripe yet!), a nice tequila, cointreau, soda water, agave nectar

I wasn't too scientific about this, but in a shaker, muddle 4 blackberries and 4 mint leaves. Add 1/2 cup of ice, juice of one lime, a shot or two (depending on how strong you like it) of tequila, spash of cointeau and about a teaspoon of agave nectar. Shake well and strain into a glass with ice. Top off with club soda and garnish with more fresh mint.

Fabulous on the patio at the end of the work day. Thanks Sarah!

If you're like me, you might just be up to your ears in tomatoes right now! Here in Texas, we're pulling in our harvest from spring planted tomatoes. In a week or so, it will be time to start planting our fall crop of tomatoes (yes, we have TWO tomato seasons here!) The last thing you want is for any of your homegrown produce to go to waste, so be sure to have a plan for what you'll be making or how you'll preserve the harvest.

What do you do with all your tomatoes? Here are just a few things I've made lately with my abundant harvest:

Marinated tomatoes - a great way to use up the millions of cherry tomatoes you might find yourself with. I like to use rice vinegar flavored with a bit of ginger, garlic, thyme, basil, salt and pepper.

Simple tomato salad - slice up a bunch of fresh tomatoes and arrange with fresh basil from the garden. Mix up a simple dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. DIVINE!

If you feel like turning the oven on, how about a simple tomato tart? I didn't feel like making actual tart dough, so I just substituted Filo this time around. Olive oil brushed between the layers, sprinkle with some fresh mozarella, basil leaves, cover with sliced tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. In the oven for about 25 minutes at 400F. Sprinkle on a bit more fresh basil. DELISH!

I think that next up on the tomato menu will be green tomato pickles...enjoy!

I have to say, I've seriously enjoyed the mild spring we had here in Dallas this year. And yes, temperatures have turned hot with the onset of summer, but we've also enjoyed some unexpected and much needed rain. The veggie garden has been delivering big this year and it's all I can do to keep up with the produce!

I'm picking veggies and fruits daily: Pictured is my Saturday morning harvest. The scallop squash are getting away from me (just put up quarts and quarts of it in the freezer!). Blackberries are comming out of our ears and we'lre covered in tomatoes. But hey, I'm not complaining! It's great to be able to feed myself from the backyard.

Happy Summer Solstice everyone!

Pop quiz: What do you do when you're swimming in backyard blackberries?

DUH: Make pie!

Now, I'm not a big sweets fan, but I love fresh fruit and it seemed a crime not to do at least a bit of baking with these fantastic fresh blackberries. My bees worked so hard pollenating the heck out of the bushes this year...so I bake in honor of them!

I prefer simple pies...no thickeners or any other junk added. Just a simple homemade butter crust, berries, sugar.

It turned out so good that I think I may just have to make another one. Happy Summer!

As a certified, and certifyable, plant geek and obsessed gardener, it's often difficult for me to understand why other people choose not to garden at all. The most common explaination for the lack of a garden? "Gardening is just too much work."

Too much work...too much work? What? Yes, I work in the horticulture industry. But I've never felt my own gardening activities were "work". Gardening is my refuge, my therapy and my sanity. When I need to destress I head out to my garden. Watering my plant babies is the most soothing of "tasks". Pulling weeds is strangely gratifying. Feeling my toes and fingers in the soil brings me back to a much needed earthly connection. AND I don't have to talk to anyone. ANYONE. Sure, after a day spent turning soil, planting, weeding and pruning, my muscles might be a bit sore. But does that make it work? No way! I actually feel sorry for folks that have never really gardened because they assume it's just too much work.

So I thought I'd ask some of my fellow professionals in the business to tell me why they don't feel like gardening is work to them.

First up? Helen Yoast of "Gardening with Confidence". Helen says " I garden one day a week, on Sundays. It is my time to connect with the plants, wildlife, and nature. I grow a dense half acre habitat that is the anticipation of my week. My kids and husband know exactly where to find me.

1/2 an acre sounds like a lot of garden to maintain, eh? Doesn't sound like Helen considers it work, but rather a refuge. This is the big secret those of us hortiholics are here to reveal: Gardening isn't work. Gardening is discovery, inspiration, connection, beauty, rewarding and good for you. You don't even need to have 1/2 an acre to garden. You can garden in a few planters on a balcony or patio. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting more quotes from hort-heads about what gardening means to them.

So, why is gardening not too much work for you?

So, it's going to be 90 °F all weekend in Dallas y'all. Summer is right on schedule! If you planted your tomatoes on time and haven't been over-fertilizing through spring, you should be seeing baby fruits on the plants now. That means it's time to start a regular feeding regimen.

When you continually fertilize tomato plants through spring, before they've set fruit, you can often end up with a whole lotta plant, but no tomatoes. Too much Nitrogen prior to flowering and fruit set will encourge plants to keep putting their energy into more green leafy growth, instead of into flowers and fruit production. That might be all fine and well in a more mild climate, but here in Texas you have to get plants flowering and setting fruit before the summer heat sets in. If you plant too late or over-fertilize in spring, plants can go into heat-delay and you get little to no harvest.

Best practice is to amend your soil with organic compost and composted manure at the beginning of the season and work in a dry organic fertilizer at time of planting. Then wait to feed again until plants start to set fruit.

Once baby fruit is about 1/4 it's mature size, start feeding your tomato plants with an organic tomato or vegetable fertilizer about every other week. That's a side-dressing of dry fertilizer. If you're using liquid feed, such as Hasta Gro, apply it to the roots and foliage weekly. Apply and mix per the application rates on the package.

Cherry tomatoes will start to hit harvest time in mid- to late-May with slicers typically ready to pick in mid-June. Want to start your fall tomato transplants from seed? Do it now! Plant into the garden in late-June through early July.