Bill Scheick

Scheick has been living and gardening in Texas since 1969. He has learned that the same techniques may not work even just a few miles away—let alone across the state. Every yard is different, and every challenge is unique. Even the professional gardener must rely on the trial-and-error process from time to time, and they shouldn’t be ashamed of it. He subscribes to the George Bernard Shaw school of thought, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. . . .” He softens the blow of the ever-present challenges of gardening in this great state with his easy sense of humor.

As Scheick wrote, “The stories told here are about pushing back against gardening challenges, embracing gardening constraints, rethinking gardening possibilities and learning to care most about those plants that exhibit a can-do spirit in our Texas yards. In the course of my gardening adventures, I (with the stories of others) have zeroed in on some plants and strategies that worked. In these instances we got nature to ‘say beans’ enough times to keep our obsessions going—in my case for almost half a century in Texas.

“And what better vengeance against nature’s tilted ‘house odds’ than to recall and share some of the winning streaks? If I am lucky, these stories will be at least entertaining. If I am doubly lucky, they will prove useful, too. I think of these retellings as casual conversations exchanged among odds-savvy buddies or neighbors sympathetically supporting each other during our mutual gardening endeavors.”

Not only a gardener, Scheick has written numerous gardening articles for the Dallas Morning News, Austin-American Statesman, Native Plant Society of Texas Newsletter, Tropical Treasures Magazine and Texas Gardener, where he currently serves as a contributing editor. He has shelves full of previously read and consulted gardening books, including those he loves and those he’s reviewed for various state publications.

With a firm understanding of horticulture and a good dose of humor, Scheick offers beginning and experienced gardeners a resource for inspiration, information and commiseration as they pursue their own gardening adventures in Texas.

Adventures in Texas Gardening

2017