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February in the Garden – 2023 Edition
Greetings, Lakeway gardeners! Even though we are off to a very icy start this month, February is still one of my favorite times in the garden. Spiderwort may be frozen in glass-like ice right now but soon their purple blooms will burst out and herald the promise of warmer weather. Once the ice thaws, it is a great time to enjoy your winter garden bounty of greens, broccoli, carrots and other healthy vegetables. Kids often love to get involved in the garden if they know they can eat some things too! Many vegetable gardeners here in Central Texas find a cooler season to be more productive than a warm season,…
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Successful Gardens Create Thriving Habitats for Birds
What’s a garden without birds? As gardeners, watching birds perched on a branch or visiting a feeder can impart a certain connection to nature that little else does, and many believe listening to their melodies alleviates stress. Birds are the most cost-effective way of reducing the number of pests in your garden. Their young are ravenous consumers of insects, including aphids, whiteflies, cabbage worms, cucumber beetles, grubs, earwigs, stinkbugs and, especially, caterpillars. According to Doug Tallamy, a University of Delaware professor of entomology, one clutch of chickadees, for instance, requires 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars, delivered by their parents, to sustain them from birth through first flight, which is just over…
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January in the Garden – 2023 Edition
Happy 2023! If the infamous 2021 Central Texas Snowmageddon was a “once in a lifetime” freeze event, let’s keep our fingers crossed for a milder winter season this month… so far this winter, it has been pretty unpredictable – unseasonably warm days and then back into the freeze zone at night. This is the type of unstable weather pattern that can trick plants into emerging from dormancy. Be assured that it’s still winter. Just remember to cover (or better yet, bring inside) your cold sensitive plants. The average last frost day for the Austin area is March 11 to March 20. It is a great idea to use this month…
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Regrow Vegetables on a Sunny Windowsill
Gardening naturally lends itself to reusing and recycling — just think about compost and last year’s seed trays. So if there’s a way to reduce trash while saving money on produce, it is a wonderful thing. And a favorite way to do both is to regrow vegetables from kitchen scraps. Instead of throwing away or composting the bottoms (or tops) of vegetables when preparing them, you can grow them into leafy greens and other tasty tidbits right on your windowsill. It’s important to point out that these methods aren’t likely to produce plants that will grow well in your garden, so it is not recommended to use this method to replace…
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December in the Garden
Hello gardeners! How are you enjoying the latest weather roller coaster? Bringing tender potted plants inside one freezing day, then putting them back outside in the warm eighty degree sunshine the next. I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted! December is when we normally coast into a predictable winter weather pattern here in Central Texas. Therefore, gardening often, and should, be less of a priority during the holidays. The colder weather has slowed growth and hopefully is providing enough moisture to reduce the need to irrigate. Use this time to thoroughly enjoy the results of your labors and spend time in the garden with friends and family. And if you pull…
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Saving Seeds for Next Year’s Flower Garden
Just like vegetable seeds, you can save flower seeds from your garden this year to plant the following. Here are some tips for saving your flower seeds for next year. Hybrid vs Heirloom If you want the same kind of flower or plant for next year’s garden, collect only the seeds from plants labeled as “heirloom” or “heritage.” These kinds of plants will grow just like their parent plant. Hybrid seeds with a mixture of two different parents will produce new plants, but they will only look like one of the parents. Therefore, you are taking a risk with planting hybrid seeds. Even if you expect plants to be the…
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How to Grow Garlic
It was surprising to learn recently that, according to Google Trends data gathered by AllAboutGardening.com, the most popular fall-planted crop in the United States is…. garlic. A good guess would have been kale. Possibly beets. Maybe Brussels sprouts. But garlic? Another deep dive into Google’s search trends, comparing Americans’ interest in growing garlic with interest in growing other fall-planted bulbs, like tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocus resulted in yet another surprise. Surely, colorful blooms would trump the spicy, pungent vegetable. No. When people used the search term “how to grow…,” garlic was again the frontrunner when compared with those spring bulb plants. Could it be that Americans have a previously undisclosed obsession with garlic?…
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November in the Garden
Feel that brisk chill in the air each morning? November is the month that finally feels like fall has arrived here in Central Texas. If it cools down enough at night, we may even see some fall color in the trees and shrubs. Of course that also means that deciduous plants will begin to shed their leaves in earnest, providing plenty of raw material for homemade mulch and compost. The average first freeze for Austin (Camp Mabry) is anywhere from November 29th through December 5th depending on the period of record. See below for things that should be on your November gardening to-dos. Happy gardening! November Garden Tips Flowers to…
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Wildflower Center 40th Anniversary Celebration
Join us to celebrate the first 40 years of the Wildflower Center by spending Saturday, Oct. 22, in the Lady Bird Johnson’s gardens! Guests can enjoy live music, crafts and more. Admission is free all day, but most of the performances and activities will take place between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. In 1982, Lady Bird Johnson and Helen Hayes established the National Wildflower Research Center on 60 acres of undeveloped land in East Austin. The Center moved to its current location at La Crosse Avenue in 1995 and was renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1997. The Center has been committed to inspiring the conservation of native…
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Explore the 2022 Earth-Kind Gardening Field Day
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Travis County Master Gardeners are having their fall 2022 Earth-Kind Gardening Field Day on Saturday, October 22nd from 9am to 1pm at the Travis County AgriLife Extension office located at 1600 Smith Road, Austin, TX 78721. Parking is available along Smith Road. This event is free and open to the public. Inexperienced and experienced gardeners and those curious about sustainable gardening, irrigation, growing vegetables, and selecting tough plants for the Austin area are invited to attend the fall Earth-Kind Gardening Field Day. The event includes hands-on activities for both youth and adults. Master Gardeners will be available to answer your questions as you…
