Rusty and Mrs. Buttplate have enjoyed gardening for many years. The Garden section of this site was created to share experiences and sources of knowledge needed to coax Mother Nature into providing you with a peaceful corner to restore your soul. Every author, book and nurseryman are enthusiastically endorsed based on personal experience. Happy gardening.

   This native son of Texas graduated Texas Tech University as a Landscape Architect. In 1980 he invested his own money to publish Plants of the Metroplex. The book became popular among people looking for sound advice selecting shrubs, trees, and plants for landscape in North Texas. Around 1985 Howard began realizing that people were pouring millions of tons of garden chemicals into the environment and would leave a poisoned world for his young daughter to inherit. Thus began the transformation of a successful landscape architect into a missionary proponent of organic landscape gardening methods. Has he been successful? If being the author of a weekly column in The Dallas Morning News House and garden section, host of a popular weekend radio program, seeing Plants of the Metroplex remain in print since 1980, and transforming the nursery retail business in Dallas is any indication of success; then he has been successful. Because of his effective leadership no nursery in DFW is without a substantial "organic" program for the customers demanding it, in fact Dallas leads the nation in this regard. His recipe for Garlic Pepper Tea as a pest spray is called "Garrett Juice."
    As loyal converts to the organic methods he has championed the Buttplates have few big problems in their garden. Over the last nine years we have seen the populations of bees, butterflies and lizards flourish while significant populations of insect pests and blightful fungi have diminished. We believe Dr. Dirt when he says that the health of your soil means the most to the wellbeing of our garden planet.

    Howard Garrett did do some sniping at Neil Sperry when he was starting to establish his call-in radio show opposite Neil Sperry, then the undisputed king of North Texas Gardening radio call-in programming. Sperry had almost single-handedly transformed Dallas into a garden city starting as a Texas extension agent doing little garden tips for the media. From his launching pad program on KRLD, a 50,000 watt AM clear channel radio station, began a substantial enterprise that now includes books, a magazine, calendars, and an annual trade fair for garden supplies. His beloved classic, a trustworthy and oft referred tome, Texas Gardening is in its umpteenth printing. Organic proponents as the master of chemical gardening snipe at him, but that is not entirely fair. People come to him with garden problems, and the solutions to Neil are an arsenal of chemicals. Rusty and Mrs. Buttplate have sought Neil's advice at one of his "sponsor visits", like going to Catholic confession on Saturday each sinner patiently waits in line clutching a plastic bag or an old mayonnaise jar containing the evidence of their sins. Once they arrived to speak in low tones to Neil they would speak in low tones, the penance and the gratitude for absolution would be seen at the cash check-out.
    The real truth is that he also believes in soil health as fundamental to success, but sees that truth as too fundamental an axiom to mention often. He actually believes in an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to garden probelems, the right material at the right time in the right amount properly applied. He and Garrett are often portrayed as antagonists, but they both are two sides to the same coin, and Dallas (North Texas) is all the richer for their presence.

   Julie Ryan originally collaborated with Sally Wasowski on Landscaping With Native Texas Plants. Although the two weren't pioneers in advocating native plants in the landscape, the book did give ordinary gardeners a guide to collecting and obtaining plants. She continues her dependably well illustrated approach to perennials in Texas with this fine book.

    Another great Aggie contribution to horticulture. His student David Shoup is the owner of the Antique Rose Emporium, a real source for the widest selection of antique roses in the world. Welch also is a founding member of the Texas Rose Rustlers. His Perennial Gardens for the South is one of the most trusted books in the Buttplate Horticultural Library.