March 25, 2012
Central Texas Planting 0
Alright, I admit it. My husband and I are murderers.
PLANT MURDERERS.
You see, we were just in a bad situation – you’d have done the same! Like many other Texans last year, our plants fell victim to a long hot summer, coupled with no rain and strict watering restrictions. Despite a nice plant graveyard in the compost bin…er… nevermind those, here are a few good plants (and grass!) that managed to survive, despite our murdering habits.
And – just as a general disclaimer, we’re novice planters – and doing a lot of learning as we go. I’ve put in a few sources below. Feel free to chime in and point out any tips or tricks you have for helping plants survive the hot Texas summers, or post any helpful links in the comments.
Native Grass Blend of Buffalo Grass and Blue Gama, available at Native American Seed.
This stuff is really great, and perfect for our shadeless backyard that is basically a few inches of mediocre topsoil on rock solid clay. Low water, low maintenance (doesn’t require weed/feed or other fertilizers!), and can handle FULL sun. Once established, don’t feel like you need to water it, because you don’t. It took 2 full days and about 10 of our friends and family to rip out our backyard of (mostly dead) St. Augustine and put this in, but it still looks great, even after the drought last summer.
There are lots of advantages of having a natural lawn. If you are in another area of Texas or the Southwest, you might need another blend. we’ve had multiple conversations and email exchanges with the folks at Native American Seed, and they just couldn’t be more helpful.
Flowers.
I love having fresh flowers in my gardens. These flowers attract bees and birds to help with our veggie garden, and they are pretty. I’m not much on replanting every year, so I have a set of plants that take turns flowering, don’t require any digging or replanting (for the most part) and I have something green all year.
Lamb’s Ear – This stuff is great to section off areas of your garden. It can handle the heat once established, I almost never water it, and it is the only thing that keeps my bluebonnet shrubs from taking over the whole garden each year March. Green, velvety carpet all year long. When I’m turning under the stems and seeds from the flowers in late fall, I go through and pull out the under leaves which have browned so the lambs ear can spread. I just fold under the soil with all of the other clippings to return the nutrients to the soil. You can also do low and dense growing succulent plants, but I haven’t had much luck with them. Probably that whole “never watering” thing I do.
Texas Wildflowers. The early bloomers. Between late October and early February, I see the little sweet leaves of the bluebonnet and coneflower sprouts peeking out of my mulch. These will form a low, green carpet that grows slowly until late February. Then, in what seems like a week, the greenery will triple or quadruple in size, and yield tons of Texas bluebonnets. These will flower until early April, and they are just beautiful.
Zinnias. The prime-timers. I have a few different types of zinnias growing, mostly due to my indifference when purchasing seeds. I have tall, antique zinnias, which have a single row of leaves around the flower center and grow to be about 3’ tall, and everything in between to dwarf zinnias (which look a lot like Marigolds, but they aren’t) that have many rows of petals and only get about 1’ tall. These guys will start to bud just as the bluebonnets and coneflowers are fading, and will flower through October if it stays warm enough. (It always does.) You can make these flowers more often by diligent dead-heading (more murder! No, more like lame limb removal. After the flower begins to wilt, remove it so another can take its place). I do this as I can, but mostly when I stop by to clip a few stems for my dining room table.
Don’t like the flowers I picked? Visit the Texas Wildflower Center website. You can use filters to get to just the right flowers for your front gardens.
Vegetables – Spring/Summer
Okra. Last year, we had plentiful Okra for several months. It seemed like the hotter it was, the happier the okra. Pull the Okra while they are still tender, they get really tough and wood-like if you let them go too long.
Cherry, Roma and San Marzano Tomatoes. We got a fair amount of these guys last year, but once it was over 100 degrees from mid morning to early evening, they didn’t produce. This year we’re going to try growing them in containers, and moving them into the shade as needed. We’ll keep ya posted how this works out.
Bush / Pole Beans. Plant these guys early, the earlier the better. Beans (and root vegetables, like carrots) don’t do well with transplanting, so if you lose a few plants to a late frost, you haven’t lost much. We planted bush beans early, and had several good harvests, but the pole beans made it in the ground too late, and it was just too hot.
Summer Squash. These guys also did really great, but watch out for squash bugs.
Herbs. Our oregano, mint, and basil grew like gangbusters. I think they are cousins of dandelions – I’m still pulling up rogue mint out of the yard – it will not die!
We do planting from both purchased transpls, transplants from seeds, and seeds. We have found The Natural Gardener to be a great web resource, as well as a really nice way to spend an afternoon. Even if you aren’t in the area, there is an abundance of information on their website.
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