Over the last couple of years I decided that at the garden center I run, North Haven Gardens in Dallas, we weren't going to call it "Black Friday" anymore. I decided "Green Friday" was much more fitting. So before I wish you a happy Thanksgiving, I'll just say that maybe you should consider staying out of the "black" on Friday and try a little green for a change. Hit up your local independent garden center for fresh American grown Christmas trees and fresh greens, blooming gift plants, daffodil bulbs for the garden, tiny terrariums, fragrant pansies and violas...you name it. At NHG, we'll have warm cider and cookies out for you too, plus plenty of parking. Go "Green" this Friday and stay away from the crazy! Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

A few years ago, I started designing these cute tiny terrariums for the holidays for North Haven Gardens in Dallas. They've become quite popular the last couple of seasons and I couldn't help but share a few photos of the first ones put together this season. 

I love using Tillandsias, because they require little to no care in a tiny environment such as these ornaments.

I also love using reindeer moss and assorted lichens, wood chips, branches and the like.

This year I started up some tiny square ornaments. TOO CUTE. You can create these kinds of low maintenance terrariums in just about any containter. Just a little fun homeade gift goodness! These terrarium ornaments are available for sale now at NHG.

Want to create beautiful containers of blooming bulbs for the holidays? Now is the time to start forcing! Forced bulb containers make wonderful indoor decor for the holidays and are also a beautiful and thoughtful gift....perfect for teachers, hostesses and co-workers. In my recent segment of Good Morning Texas, I'll show you some modern twists on forcing blooming bulbs this season!

It’s Garden Giveaway time! Live in the Dallas, Tx area? In need of a professional Horticultural Housecall? Want to start a veggie garden or maybe keep backyard chickens? Well, you do for me and I’ll do for you! I’ll be giving away an in-depth home garden consultation, which typically values at $175-$250. Seriously? Seriously!

First, head on over to my Halleck Horticultural Facebook page. To enter, write a once sentence comment on the Garden Giveaway post about why you need my help, and please share the post (or recommend my FB page) on your page if you think you have other gardening friends who could benefit from my expertise. I’ll let this giveaway run for a week, and then I’ll randomly pick a winner from the list of comments (yes, I’ll write all your names down and put them in a hat so that it’s fair!)

I’ll announce the winner next Wednesday 11/14 so be sure to check back! You can read more about my consultation services HERE.

I know, it is only November...so why am I pushing tulips on you? Cuz if you don't get your hand on them soon, you aren't going to get your pick of the litter! If you live in the South, where soil temperatures stay relatively warm all winter, tulips must be planted anew each December. Yes, I know, those Northerners have it easy. Tulips perennialize there and require little effort or care. Down here, we have to vernalize (chill) our tulips for just the right amount of time at just the right temperature in order for them to develop a flower bud. You must wait to plant your tulips until soil temperatures have reached 50F and stay there. That's usually not till after Thanksgiving and it can often be later. The perfect time to plant tulips in Texas? The third week of December. 

I'm a bulb freak and I have extensive experience crafting big displays of them for mass consumption. So I decided to take a little work out of the decision making process for you and come up with some custom mixes that are both beautiful and reliable. If you live in the DFW area, you can pop over to North Haven Gardens and score yourself some, while they last!

 I put together these mixes so you'd have some well-tested and very reliable varieties that work well together either as a mix that blooms all at once, or a season extender which will mix early and late bloomers.

Personally, my favorite is 'Fuzzy Navel'...I mean, who doesn't love those?! I'm kind of obsessed with the color organe, so there ya go. Some folks are ready to plant up their beds and pots with tulips now, because they also want to get their pansies in the ground. Well, nature doesn't always work that way. In North Texas, and other areas with a similar climate, you really have to wait to plant your tulips. My solution? I go ahead and plant violas, or small flowered pansies, along the edges of my beds so that my borders look great for the cool season. I always plant some pockets of warm season annuals in my beds, such as Angelonia, Zinnas, Salvias and the like. Once we get hit with with the first frost, those plants come out and I use those spaces to plant clumps of tulips. Then, I overplant pansies in those spots. So I kind of have two pansy/viola planting times: Now and then again in December. If you want to drop bulbs in pots right now and top with cool season color, you can go ahead and do so with daffodils or other perennial bulbs. Just set aside a few pots to plant with tulips in December.  To read more about proper chilling and planting of tulips bulbs, go HERE.

Think it's too late to get your cool season vegetable garden growing? Now way! You've got plenty of time. In much of the Southern part of the U.S., gardeners can grow vegetables year-round. In many places with extreme summers, fall and winter provide for much easier growing conditions and maintenance in the vegetable garden. Cool-season edibles like broccoli and kale can be grown for many months. It can be hard to make it to gardening classes on the weekends and the classes you want aren't always available. I get asked to teach many classes, but I can only be in so many places at once! So I've started making my programs available to take online. In Fall & Winter Vegetable Gardening 2012,  Learn how to get started on your cool-season vegetable garden with a comprehensive class that covers soils, amendments, timing, varieties, care, nutrients and more! This paticular class has 90 slides with audio and several handouts. Its about a 2-hour class, but the beauty is, you can long in, stop, start and review anytime you'd like...even in your pajamas! Classes are updated seasonally, which means you'll have 3-4 months to log in and review your class.

I'll have more classes coming soon so be sure to check back. I hope you'll give this class a shot and if you do please let me know your thougths!