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Birdbaths Help Wildlife Beat the Heat
Want to help feathered friends beat the heat? Get a birdbath. A well-placed, properly maintained birdbath can be a vital resource for birds and other wildlife, and needn’t attract mosquitoes. Record temperatures, drought, smoky air and loss of habitat make it increasingly difficult for feathered and other winged creatures in urban and suburban areas to find the water they need. But there’s a simple way that humans can help them out: install a birdbath. “A source of clean, fresh water can be one of the hardest things for birds to find,” said Kim Eierman, an environmental horticulturist and the founder of EcoBeneficial, an ecological landscape design firm, who teaches at the New York…
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Fall into Vegetable Gardening in Autumn
Autumn is a great time to start a vegetable garden in Lakeway. The weather is cooler and less humid, which makes it ideal for growing a variety of crops. Fall vegetables tend to be more productive than spring vegetables in our area. Here are a few tips for success: Choose the right crops. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach, and Swiss chard are all good options. Prepare your soil. Amend your soil with compost or manure before planting. Space your plants properly. Follow the spacing instructions on the seed packet or plant tag. Water regularly, especially during dry spells.…
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Gardening in an Exceptional Drought
An exceptional drought is a period of unusually dry weather that is significantly longer and more severe than a normal drought. These droughts can have a devastating impact on plants, animals, and ecosystems. Over the past month, due to our lack of significant rain, Travis County has sadly progressed from a state of extreme drought to a state of exceptional drought. And no, there is no drought level worse than exceptional. Just like in July, we continue to have a high pressure dome reside over Texas, causing those triple-digit temps and no sign of significant rain. If you are gardening in an exceptional drought, it is important to take extra…
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Let’s Grow: Pollinator Gardens for Monarch Butterflies
Monarch butterflies are a beautiful and important part of our natural world in Central Texas. They are also in decline, due to habitat loss and other factors. One way to help monarch butterflies is to plant a pollinator garden. A pollinator garden is a garden that is designed to attract and support pollinators, such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Pollinators are essential for the health of our planet, as they help to pollinate plants, which is essential for food production. Below is a great pollinator plant chart (PDF – printer version) that you can print and take with you to your local garden nursery to pick out your selections. When…
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Saving your Vegetable Seeds for Next Year
Many of the vegetables we grow in our gardens produce seeds, which, if harvested and stored correctly, have the potential to grace us with free plants. And late summer is the perfect time to start collecting them. Heirlooms versus Hybrids Make sure the plants from which you’re collecting seeds are heirloom, or open-pollinated, varieties. These are plants in their original forms whose seeds will produce plants with the same qualities as their parent. Hybrid varieties, on the other hand, are created by breeding two or more different types to capture the best qualities of each. Attempting to grow seeds collected from hybrids will yield a harvest of disappointment, as the…
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Be Water Wise and Build a Rain Garden
Rain gardens are a great way to reduce flooding, improve water quality, and add beauty to your yard. They are shallow, vegetated depressions that are designed to capture and filter stormwater runoff and are especially beneficial in areas like Central Texas, a region that is prone to flooding. Here are some easy steps to create a rain garden in your yard: Choose a location. The best location for a rain garden is in a low-lying area that is close to your home’s downspouts. This will help to ensure that the rain garden captures as much stormwater runoff as possible. Prepare the soil. The soil in the rain garden should be…
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Planting “Deer Resistant” Flower Gardens in Central Texas
Deer are a common sight in Lakeway and Central Texas, and they can be a nuisance to gardeners. They love to eat young transplants of all kinds and will often nibble on most plants to “test” them out even if they are considered “deer resistant”. But if you’re looking for ways to keep deer out of your flower beds, there are a few things you can do. One option is to plant native deer resistant flowers. There are many different types of deer resistant flowers available, so you can find ones that will fit your garden style. Some popular deer resistant flowers for Central Texas include: Black-eyed Susans Bluebonnets Coneflowers…
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Five Easy Steps for Creative Ikebana
Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. It is a centuries-old tradition that has evolved over time, but it still retains its core principles of simplicity, asymmetry, and harmony. Ikebana is a great way to bring beauty and peace into your home, and it can also be a fun and creative outlet. Here are 5 easy steps for beautiful floral arrangements. Remember there is no right or wrong way to create an ikebana arrangement! The important thing is to have fun and create something that you find beautiful! Choose Your Container Start by selecting your container for the arrangement. Ikebana containers are typically low and shallow but they can…
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Ten Native Plants You Can Eat
With these native plants, you can feed wildlife and enjoy the fruits of your labor during holiday meals and other times. It’s hard to imagine a Thanksgiving meal in New England without the traditional dollop of cranberry sauce. For many southerners, holiday celebrations would be incomplete without a bowl of warm persimmon pudding. We may not think of these fruits as being as “American as apple pie,” but in fact both were flourishing on this continent long before early European settlers imported the first apples to our shores. Cranberries, persimmons and other native fruits are among the true American native originals. They’re also the epitome of “locally grown.” As we…
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Know the 6 D’s of container gardening
To be successful at container gardening requires more than just a pot and a plant. The “6 D’s of Container Gardening Success,” as presented by Texas Master Gardener Kirk Walden, highlights how to have better plant-growing results, with the information given in manageable — and memorable D-letter — chunks. The six D’s are: Design Dirt Diameter Depth Drainage Daylight Of course, each topic has subsets of information. Design Gardeners need to keep in mind how much space is needed. Also, they should bear in mind the purpose of the garden, such as whether it is ornamental or intended to grow fruits or vegetables. There are numerous styles of gardens ranging…
