A family-owned business, Reid's Nursery puts the customer first. We love all aspects of gardening and enjoy helping people get the most out of their yards and gardens.

The next few months are busy ones for people who love growing things. There are flower and vegetable gardens to plan and soil beds to prepare and maintain. Here at Reid's Nursery, we want to help by offering seeds, plants, fertilizers, potting soil, gardening information and more.

We just got in some very helpful and easy-to-use garden planners. Designed by Clyde Majerus, a creative gardener in Missouri, the planners adjust to show the proper spring and fall planting times for whatever area you're in, along with lots of other information such as recommended row spacing, whether plants or seeds should be planted, harvesting times, etc. Only 5 inches by 8 1/2 inches, the planner makes a handy gardening tool and, at $3.85, an economical one, too. Come in and check them out.

Now is the time to build up your soil with compost and other amendments to make sure it has the right balance of nutrients. If you haven't done it lately, a good first step is getting the soil tested. We always have the soil sample bags and testing forms that you can send to Texas A&M. For a reasonable fee, they will tell you the pH of your soil, what its levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium are along with calcium levels and other helpful details.

We have many fine products that will improve the quality of your soil, like Rabbit Hill Farm Worm castings, Nature's Guide Expanded Shale, cotton burr compost, lava sand, greensand, Carl Pool Soft Rock Phosphate, bone meal, blood meal, liquid and dry molasses, Medina Soil Activator, Nature's Guide fertilizers and Feather meal, among others.

From now until March is also a great time to plant trees and shrubs. We have a good selection of trees that do well in this area such as Burr oaks, Xylosmas, Prairie Flame leaf sumacs, Southern Wax Myrtles, Crape Myrtles, Mexican Buckeyes, Live oaks, Huisache, Retamas, Cedar Elms and Desert Willows.

Along with perennial and annual flowers and herbs, we also have vegetable, herb and flower seeds, many of which you can start indoors and plant in the garden after the last frost. Along with our regular seeds, we just started carrying a new line of seeds: Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, which are highly respected by longtime gardeners. You'll be inspired by seed names like Moon and Stars Watermelon, Pineapple Tomato, Great White Tomato, Golden Marconi Pepper, Rosa Bianca Eggplant, Chantenay Red Core Carrots and enough different lettuces with such delicous names that it would make a salad lover out of anyone. Those and many more are available now.

The nursery has gardening and wildlife guides and books as well as the magazine Organic Gardening, which is very enjoyable to read, with information for both new and experienced gardeners. If you want the best start for spring, go out in the garden, work on the soil and get ready for a great gardening season. Please call us at (512) 398-6011 if you have any gardening questions.