It’s white and it looks like a barn, so points for being clever. This gift store really scores, though, with the selection of glittery Christopher Radko seasonal ornaments, sigh-inducing Niven Morgan scented candles and soaps, mix-and-match Zutano baby clothes, and country-chic horn-handled Vagabond steak knives. And that’s just the first floor. One flight up you’ll find what any bride-to-be would be delighted to have on her registry: Vera Wang and Haviland china, monogrammed photo albums, Lenox utensils, and Spode holiday dishes. They may share a pass-through door and the same owner, but these clothing boutiques couldn’t be more different. Sophisticates head to Sylvia’s for pageant-worthy gowns by Badgley Mischka, matchy separates by Michael Kors, and a shoe salon with finds from Juicy Couture and Stuart Weitzman. Uniques, with its zebra rug and flocked-damask dressing room curtains, has a younger vibe and stocks its shelves with trendy denim from People’s Liberation and weathered tees from Junk Food.

The festive papel picado decorations strung from the ceiling, brightly painted walls, and high-energy tejano music playing in cookbook author Melissa Guerra’s culinary shop capture the spirit of a Mexican marketplace. Enthusiasts of Latin cuisine will be pleased to find molcajetes and Mexican drinking chocolates alongside kitchen basics like prep knives and baking pans. A cookbook section includes titles such as Sharon Tyler Herbst’s Food Lover’s Companion and Guerra’s own Dishes From the Wild Horse Desert: Norteño Cooking of South Texas. Traditional Tex-Mex fare rules here, and the locals milling around the entrance prove that the wait is worth it. A simple desert mural is the backdrop at this no-frills family favorite. Three types of salsa are served with thick corn chips as soon as you’re seated, and the lemony sweetened iced tea is a refreshing antidote to their heat. Order the tacos de trompo, three corn tortillas filled with marinated pork, or go light and get the caldo de pollo, a chicken broth chock-full of veggies.

1621 N. Eleventh, 956-618-5449 This artist-run gallery is one of many must-stops along North Main Street, the central corridor of McAllen’s new arts district. A small, raw box of a space, ManicHaus exhibits local and national artists, but it also has a concentrated, inspiring blend of poetry books, handmade jewelry, and retro lucha libre masks. The best time to stop in is during the city’s ArtWalk, on the first Friday of every month from September through May, when up to four thousand designer-jean-clad urbanites wander from gallery to gallery. 1301B N. Main, 956-207-0940 Smack in the middle of the burgeoning arts district, this alehouse and restaurant anchors the hipster area of town. Come here for the 44 beers on tap and enhance your experience with a sampling of five house-made peanut butters served on toast points. Shuffleboard and boxes of Jenga at every booth keep guests occupied for hours, so arrive by nine o’clock to beat the benchwarmers and snag a seat. 821 N. Main, 956-928-1994

“Cheap and charming” sums up this emporium filled with decorative bulk buys. Mothers squeeze through pleasingly chaotic aisles spilling over with plastic flowers and spools of ribbon to buy recuerdos for anniversary, quince, and Communion celebrations. montgomery aztec curtainsThose events not on your calendar? blackout curtains barrieBuy a twelve-pack of tiny plastic debutantes to kitsch-ify cupcakes ($2.95), diminutive dolls in pink or blue diapers for a baby shower (from 25 cents), or synthetic blooms to trim presents (from 99 cents). brer rabbit curtains2 S. Main, 956-682-0933target circo pink ruffle curtains

Avoid the Valley’s supremely hot temperatures by taking a stroll through the lush grounds of this fifteen-acre birding sanctuary. Native trees envelop walking trails, while shade-covered benches make easy pit stops. kato tab top curtainsThe comprehensive children’s programs invite kids to embrace nature, but word to the wise: Birds don’t like screaming, and neither do the adults trying to spy on them. soundproof curtains lowesBe sure to snoop through the center’s headquarters, a stunning thirties adobe mansion. the tortilla curtain community meeting Monkey Blanket with Nunu Faux Mink Layer Blanket w/ Applique Elephant Blanket & Nunu Grey & Pink Minnie Mouse Blanket Floral Print with Ruffle Trim Blanket

Rosette Blanket - White Floral Bunny Security Blanket Blue & White Knit Stripe Blanket Rosette Blanket - Oatmeal Rosette Blanket - Grey Blue Cable Knit Blanket Blue & Grey Geometric Knit Blanket Aqua Fleece Blanket with Satin Trim This item is unavailable. Have TreesHugMeBack make something just for you, or try these other items: Browse more items from EtsySkip to Main Content Introducing: The Animal Print Shop Portable + Mini Cribs Gliders + Rocking ChairsWhat is the best way to plant an avocado tree? Give the tree what it needs: Good soil drainage, nearly full sun, ample fertility. If you have heavy soil, build a mound by mixing sand and old finished compost into the best, lightest surface soil you can scrape-up.  If you soil is very heavy clay, use lots of sand!  Imagine the root spread of a mature tree, and start building toward that now. A robust (2 foot tall, six feet across)  planting mound is your best insurance against root rot, don’t skimp.

Plant avocados from March to June when the ground is warm.  Prepare your mound and dig a hole in it so that the bottom of the root-ball sits at or above natural grade.  Set the potted tree in the bottom of the hole, gently peel open the seam of our paper tree box, and remove.  Fill in around the tree so as not to damage the roots, no uncomposted organic matter or fertilizer of any kind in contact with the roots.  Don’t cover the top of the root-ball, but leave a lip raised around it, creating a slight basin (about a foot or two across) to irrigate into.  Cover and support the new mound with lots of  mulch. If your mound is smaller than you’d like, use more mulch.  For fertility, it’s helpful to layer composted horse, cow, or goat manure into the mulch, so  it can be watered into the root-zone.  Don’t feel like you need to mix a bunch of compost or manure into the dirt, just make sure it drains, so the “tea” leaching from the rotting mulch and manure, that you have piled on top of the dirt, feed your tree. 

Five to ten pounds of gypsum scattered over the surface, then watered into your mound is said to be an effective incantation against (Phytophthora c.) root rot.   Water the new tree thoroughly upon planting, and twice a week (to keep the whole mound damp but not saturated) throughout the first season.  Sunburn is a common cause of death for young trees, so prevent it by painting exposed trunk bark with white interior latex paint diluted 50/50 with water.  It’s also a good idea to bury a three or four foot stick of bamboo, 1/2″ thick, next to the root-ball when you plant your tree, then loosely tie the trunk to it in a couple places.  I didn’t do this and an unexpected wind storm broke-off the 1″ trunk of my spring-grafted but gorgeous 5′ tall Edranol tree last fall.  A stick and two pieces of string would have saved it, and as you can tell, I’m still a bit bitter. Will the cold kill my avocado?Let’s face it: planting avocados is gambling.  Here on the central coast, roughly once every ten years come winter low temperatures that would kill any un-aided young avocado tree. 

It thus becomes the growers’ job to stack the odds by doing the things necessary to protect the tree. 1. Choose varieties wisely.  Sadly it’s like this: the more delicious the avocado, the less hardy it will be.  So plant something tough (Mexicola, Zutano, Bacon) for insurance, and then gamble for flavor: Tender varieties like Queen, Sharwil, Green Gold, Edranol, Hass. 2.  Plant wisely: Give the tender varieties the most favorable locations. 3.  Grow the trees hard.  Size matters when it comes to cold tolerance.  The bigger the trunk diameter, the more cold a tree can take. 4.  Protect the graft union!  When a cold spell hits, the most important thing to do is to insulate the graft union (the point at the base of the tree where the rootstock was joined to the tree trunk).  Use straw or sawdust or burlap sacks or rags, etc.  Insulate several inches thick to 10” above the graft.  This way, if your tree melts down in the cold, the graft will survive and will grow back quickly. 

It may be ugly for a while, but it will survive.  Don’t forget to remove the insulation after the cold snap has passed. 5. Cover your tree to hold in ground heat.  Floating row-crop cover works well, but so do old sheets, shower curtains, plastic bags, etc.  And if you want extra insurance, run a short string of large bulb (5 watt) Christmas tree lights up the trunk.  That small increase in temperature may be all the tree needs to survive. Can I plant an avocado tree from seed? The answer to the question is yes, but you probably don’t want to.  All avocados grown commercially like Hass, Bacon, and Fuerte originally came from a tree that was grown from a seed. That seedling was discovered, recognized as a variety worth cultivating, then reproduced through grafting to make millions of trees that are all copies of that original seedling tree.   Your avocado tree grown from seed may in fact produce a bounty of delicious avocados.  Unfortunately, the odds are against you, and you’ll most likely end up with a tree that produces inferior fruit, or no fruit at all. 

The varieties grown commercially have characteristics selected from an enormous gene pool that contains many negative characteristics: stringiness, large seed, uneven ripening, intolerance to Phytophthora (a fungus that causes root rot), poor flavor, a tendency to not flower or produce fruit until 7 to 13 years after planting, poor bearing characteristics, etc.  With this said, your beloved seedling may well grow into a large ornamental tree, but you may wish you had planted a recognized variety  that would be lovely and ornamental as well as delivering a delicious harvest. Can I plant an avocado tree in a container?Some varieties like Gwen, Littlecado, and Holiday are naturally self-dwarfing, and can in theory be kept in a container.  But it is a little like asking if you can keep an eagle in a cage; it is going to take a lot of work to keep it happy.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bearing avocado tree in a pot.  Avocado trees love to grow and spread out their feeder roots wide along the soil surface under a layer of mulch. 

It might work if you had a really, really big pot, otherwise their roots are just too finicky, I’ve noticed that there are websites advertising avocado trees that will bear in pots, and even encourage the owner to move it in and out of doors depending on the season.  I rather doubt that one will be blessed with much fruit that way.  If you want a large, attractive house plant, find a seed, sprout it, and keep it in a pot.  But if you want to grow avocados, get your tree in the ground. I only have a small space. Should I consider planting an avocado tree? If our small space has full sun and the possibility of good drainage, then go ahead and plant an avocado tree. You’ll need a least 6’ square.  There are several varieties that are either naturally dwarfing or are columnar and can be kept small.  The Gwen, Sharwil, Holiday, and Littlecado are all fairly small trees.  The Reed is a vigorous grower, but it grows “up” more that it grows “wide.”  The Reed is also self-fertile and would be a good choice if no one nearby has a tree for cross-pollination. 

Avocado trees can be pruned to keep their size manageable.  This is done in the winter and exposed bark areas should be whitewashed to avoid sunburn. Do I need to plant more than one tree for pollination? It is widely accepted by experts that you can increase your avocado production by planting more that one type of avocado tree.  The complication is that you cannot plant just any two trees; you need an “A” type and a “B” type.  “A” type trees have female flowers open in the morning, which become male in the afternoon,  “B” types open male in the morning and female later in the day.  It is good to have one of each so that you have both male and female flowers open at the same time.  However, if the average daily temperature (day and night temperatures) drops below 70°, the bloom becomes irregular and the same tree can have both male and female flowers open and available for pollination.  Thus it is possible to have only one avocado tree and still set a heavy crop, but you’re fighting nature. 

Biologically, the whole point of this A and B flower strategy is to avoid self pollination and in-bred progeny, and don’t think the tree stops there.  It has also been shown that self pollinated fruitlets on Hass trees drop off at a much higher rate than fruitlets pollinated from some diverse pollen source; the more unrelated the suitable pollen parent, the more likely will a fruitlet hang on to achieve a state of guacamole.  The Reed avocado is renown for being fairly self-fruitful, while the Gwen is famous for its promiscuous nature, bearing well only in the presence of multiple pollinators. How should I feed my Avocado tree? To grow an avocado tree so it really kicks in, follow the planting instructions, then renew the manure and mulch in your mound in early July, and then again toward the end of August.  Avocados take-up nitrogen most efficiently in the summer, so this is the time to push it, but having your tree well fed going into the fall seems like exactly what we’ve always heard one shouldn’t do: “Generating a flush of tender growth in the fall will only provide more fresh wood to be slaughtered in the first hard freeze.”