Time to Order Bulbs

If you want a beautiful spring show of annual tulips, daffodils, paper whites, or jonquils, now is the time to order them! Bulb prices start as low as $.75 each installed with a minimum of 100 bulbs.

We will be picking up our bulb orders this month and start planting after Thanksgiving. Call to place your order today!

Not sure what to plant? Email us!

Beautiful tulips in bloom

Pleasant Fall Days and Holidays Ahead

Our fall weather is really just getting started. We may see a freeze by around the end of the month, but we should also see a lot more mild weather in the next 2 months. The rains have been great, and maybe they will continue and get our lakes out of the drought situation.

Fire ants are extremely active this time of year, foraging for food to last through winter. This is the ideal time to apply bait products. You will see new mounds pop up after every rain. Feeed your ants. Feed them!

Gardeners look to the change of seasons as a chance to plant pansies, kale, and other cool season plants that we can’t use during our hot summers.

There are still lots of chores to do — replacing plants, prepping veggie gardens, mulching beds, trimming trees, and raking leaves. And we have splendid weather for doing our outdoor chores. But if you aren’t big on chores, remember that’s what we are here for! So dig this fall weather and leave the real diggin’ to us.

The Autumn Blaze Maple - One of few maples adapted to our area

Fire Ants - Here to Stay, What You Can Do

Fire ants came out with a vengeance after the October rains. This is a typical pattern, where the ants are less active in hot dry summer conditions and begin foraging and spreading aggressively as weather cools and soil moisture rises. Fire ants cannot be eliminated, they can only be managed. Sad, but true. Queens can fly and move their colonies up to 3 miles and may do so several times a year. It is impossible to keep ants from migrating into a property. Colonies may also dig as deep as 10 feet into the ground, and 3-4 foot deep is common. Other than using bait products that workers can carry to the queens hidden deep underground, it is virtually impossible to poison an entire mound.

Call to schedule a treatment today while conditions are still optimal!

This is a great time to apply bait-type controls. The ants will be very active through the remainder of November – December,foraging for winter, and will carry baits to the queens. Baits have a minimal environmental impact and offer long term control, up to 80-90% effectiveness. The Texas Department of Agriculture’s “Texas Two Step” recommends treating individual mounds that are in problem areas with a mound treatment and to broadcast bait products throughout the entire area. The other proven method is to broadcast fipronil across the entire property or around the perimeters of larger properties to create a chemical barrier effective for up to 8 months. Ants die as they tunnel or cross through the barrier. Fipronil can also offer up to 80% effectiveness and a longer residual effect, but is also somewhat more expensive.

Fire ants are not just annoying, they are destructive and dangerous. They can inflict serious and painful injury to young children and adults who may be allergic, and are renown for colonizing outdoor electrical equipment and shorting it out.

A Special Congratulations- and a Call for Support!

Spencer Young, our pond and pool service guy extraordinaire, also happens to be married to an extraordinary lady. His wife Deborah is one of 3 nationwide finalists for Teacher of the Year!

The Today Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda hosts this award each year, and it is an honor and testament to Deborah’s dedication as a teacher to have made it through the selection process to this point. The teachers are nominated by parents of their students, and each have a compelling story and are all deserving of recognition.

We would encourage you to copy and paste the link below into your browser, read their stories, and then show your support for Deborah and the public schools of Texas and cast a vote for her!

Who Should Be Teacher of the Year?

Voting ends Monday November 4th at midnight, so do your part if you get this in time.

LED Christmas Lighting — Time to Plan Now!

The ho-ho-holidays are almost here!

I know, I know, we haven’t even gotten to Halloween yet and retailers are already pushing Christmas. We hate to jump on the bandwagon, but since we are now an official installer of Seasonal Source LED Christmas Lighting, we want you to have the info you need to plan your holiday lighting and get on the schedule.

Why Seasonal Source LED?

 LED is green technology, consuming about 80% less electricity than traditional. You save money every year you use them.

 Tired of testing your strings of lights every year only to find half of them don’t work anymore? Our lights are premium grade and ruggedly constructed with a 3 year guarantee.

 Our LED lighting provides a dazzlingly bright display with brilliant jewel-like colors that never fade, chip, or scratch. You can choose from traditional warm-white to an array of festive colors.

 LED are safe and cool to the touch.

 Do more with less. Let’s compare the energy savings: On roof lighting, we typically use the C9 bulb. With LED, 100 ft of roof line will use less electricity than a single 100 watt light bulb. 100 ft of traditional incandescent Christmas lights will consume more power than a 600 watt microwave! When wrapping trees or columns with mini-lights, we can plug up to 300 23 foot long strings into one outlet! Compare with only 35 strings of traditional mini lights.

Its easy to see. You can cover more area with a huge reduction in electrical costs, or increase your display without dangerously overloading your electrical circuits.

What do we provide?

We can provide everything for your outdoor display, custom designed to fit your home, including mini lights to wrap trees and shrubs, C9 roof lights, lighted wreaths and garlands, and all the jumpers, cords, and timer needed to make it all work. After Christmas, we will come out and place the lights in stackable storage boxes with tags and a diagram so that installation the following year will be easy to duplicate.

What does it cost?

We will measure your roof, trees, shrubs, sidewalks- whatever you want to highlight and provide an estimate and design suggestions. Once you have purchased your lights and supplies from us, we have a simple labor rate to cover installation and take down.

Labor
Lining driveways, sidewalks, etc: $1.25 per ft
Single story roof lines: $2.50 per ft.
Second story roofs: $3.75 per ft
Wrapping tree trunks, shrubs, etc. $.25 per ft

Sample light prices:
C9 roof lights are $1.70 per ft including wire and clips, and 23.5 ft strings of M5 or G12 mini lights run $15.00—$18.00 per string depending on color.

Got Junk? We Can Help

Do you have something unsightly taking up room in your yard or garage?

We can haul off that rotten firewood, broken picnic table, or other trash that is too large or cumbersome to put out on the curb. Just let us know what you need disposed of.

We can get you a quick estimate and help you get that junk out of your trunk!

Prime can take care of that unsightly mountain for you!

Good Times Ahead

Fall officially began September 22nd as the sun reached the autumnal equinox and our day and night were nearly equal in length. And despite the unseasonably hot and dry September we had experienced so far, the fall spirits cooperated with a nice rain and low temperature of 56. Hopefully September was summer’s last blast. Lots of 90 degree days and virtually no rain really dried us out, but October looks to arrive with milder weather just as it should.

With this latest round of showers we will see bluebonnets and other spring wildflowers germinating. Of course, this means that henbit and a few other less desirable “wildflowers” will be popping up in our lawns and beds. Be sure you have us apply a pre-emergent weed control soon if you haven’t already!

Fire ants are extremely active this time of year, foraging for food to last through winter. This the ideal time to apply bait products. You will see new mounds pop up after every rain. Feeed your ants. Feed them!

Several flowering plants will put on a last big show for the season. Some of our most notables are the cool lavender blooms of Mexican Bush Sage and Blue Fall Aster. The bright yellow of Mexican Mint Marigold is a great companion. Salvia greggi are blooming in pinks, reds and many other shades, great forage for migrating humming birds and butterflies. Texas sage puts on a big purple bloom after rains and Knock-out roses are flushing again. All of these plants are also tolerant of dry conditions and water restrictions.

Salvia Leucantha

The next several weeks should provide some of our most pleasant weather and some great flowers. Get out and enjoy this great time of year!

Salvia Greggi