Gardening in Austin......a few questions. (house, best, nursery)

[love roses]

Does anyone here watch central texas gardener on pbs?

[jread]

I've found gardening to be really difficult west of I-35. The soil (or what little there is) is absolutely worthless. You'd better like Oak Trees as well, because there aren't many trees that will live here.

The main problems with gardening in west Austin:

- Soil is very shallow and doesn't hold enough moisture to keep anything alive (you will water your lawn constantly due to shallow roots)

- Soil is too Alkaline for many plants

- Summers are too hot and sunny for northern plants or plants that need shade

- Winters are too cold for tropicals


This leaves you with few options as most of the native plants are flat out ugly.

[AustinTraveler]

Well, jread certainly doesn't speak for my neighborhood. I live west of I-35 and just east of Mopac and we have a beautiful lawn. We do NOT water all the time. In fact, that is the worst thing you can do to grass. Grass needs to be watered deeply when it is showing signs of stress but should not be watered every day. In fact, I haven't watered my lawn since sometime last year because of all the great rain we've been having. And when it's killer hot in the summer, I most certainly don't water every day. In fact, it's more like maybe once a week. Also, you need to make sure that your lawn mower is set on the highest setting. Grass needs surface area for photosynthesis.

We do have a lot of great shade because our neighborhood is covered with trees. Yes, we have oaks but we also have pecan, crepe myrtles, redbuds, dogwoods, figs, loquat, catalpa, palms, box elder, cherry laurel and many others.

So, you see, it really just depends on where you live. You can't generalize the whole area west of I-35 as barren with little or no vegetation. Take a drive down Shoal Creek Blvd. and check out the neighborhoods and you'll see gorgeous landscaping and beautiful trees.

[jread]

Yes, I know that you should only water about twice a week. The problem is that the soil in our area is so shallow that it cannot hold water long enough. If I don't water every few days, then the grass will go completely brown (our lawn has NO shade). It still gets pretty crunchy through most of the summer. I have to admit that this year has been great so far... I haven't watered once!

I agree that Shoal Creek is nice. However, there are large Oaks everywhere that give it enough shade to grow other plants. As I said in my earlier post, Oak trees are the only trees we can grow. I should have mentioned that our lot has no mature trees at all, so everything we try to plant gets blasted by the sun. Once the oaks are large enough to provide some shade, then maybe we'll have more luck.

[twange]

What about cacti? Succulents? I'm thinking these would do pretty well there. There's a ton of variety and many have beautiful flowers and get quite large ...and they can handle scorching hot as well as below freezing temperatures. I love gardens like that but I know not everyone does, especially if you come from another zone and are used to certain types of flora. We're coming from Ohio so obviously we'll need to learn some new things...but that's sort of the point of moving somewhere else right?!

Here's a few links and pics:

Crash Course On Austin Gardening
GLP Austin, Tx
what i like about gardening in austin texas




David, what part of Cleveland are you from?

[AustinTraveler]

I agree that Shoal Creek is nice. However, there are large Oaks everywhere that give it enough shade to grow other plants.

Yeah, there are definitely lots of oaks but many, many more pecan trees than anything. I have four in my yard alone! I know it's the state tree of Texas but does anyone know why there are so many pecan trees around here? Did people just go nuts planting them years ago or were there pecan orchards here? Anyone know?

[Trainwreck20]

Did people just go nuts planting them years ago or were there pecan orchards here? Anyone know?

There used to be a few orchards around here (and there are a few small private ones still). If you go scuba diving off windy point, about 100' down along one of the swimming bouy lines is a huge old pecan orchard. Very spooky looking....

Also, they make good shade trees while producing fruit, so they were historically considered more 'functional' than a lot of other trees (such as oak, which provides shade but no real usable food). They also thrive in the climate, although you will notice that the trees are pretty much east of the Balcones fault, not much in the true hill country. For those without pecan trees, the major 'issue' is all the tiny little limbs they drop all the time .

[AustinTraveler]

Thanks Trainwreck!

[Trainwreck20]

Interesting article about the factors involved in pecan growing...

Commercial Pecan Orchards In Texas

..and a short history (with lots of numbers )
Handbook of Texas Online:

[Biscuits]

Originally Posted by AustinTraveler

Yeah, there are definitely lots of oaks but many, many more pecan trees than anything. I have four in my yard alone! I know it's the state tree of Texas but does anyone know why there are so many pecan trees around here? Did people just go nuts planting them years ago or were there pecan orchards here? Anyone know?

I would guess squirrels burying the pecan nuts play a factor in their native growth.