July
2003
"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!"
-- Henry David Thoreau, (1817 - 1862), American naturalist and author
What does a gardener do when summer hits in the Sunbelt? What could possibly
be construed as a reasonable landscaping activity when the temperatures
edge towards the triple-digits? Of course this is no time to do strenuous
physical labor in the yard -- that should be reserved for the cooler months.
Well, when it is too hot to plant -- plan! Our prime planting season is
at least two months away, so why not take the opportunity in the summertime
to plan and design future planting projects?
What? You say there is no more room to plant in your yard? One way to
create room for more trees, shrubs, and flower beds in the landscape and
to simultaneously simplify life is to get rid of some of that lawn! Author
Alan Lacy addressed the issue of The Lawn in a Wall Street Journal article
that I have saved for twenty years. It is entitled "The On-Growing Crimes
of Budding and Liebig," from August 20, 1982.
For some time I've been increasingly convinced that the world would
be a better place for gardeners if Edwin Budding and Justus Liebig, two
19th century gentlemen with bright ideas, hadn't let these ideas loose
in public. Budding, an English engineer, invented the lawn mower, a device
to keep grass short. Liebig, a German science professor, invented chemical
fertilizer, a means to make it grow faster.
A moment's reflection is all it takes to see that these ideas are at
odds, but I reached my 47th year before I suddenly perceived their contradiction.
I was caught up in that most common and pervasive of American suburban
superstitions, the belief that the lawnless life is not worth living.
…Last year, I began to feel some of those nagging doubts about
my behavior that seem to go along with reaching middle age. Was the lawn
serving me, or I it? Did I need a lawn at all? If so, how much?
The author Lacy goes on to explain that lawns are British in origin,
and were found on the "estates of English landed gentry, and they were
kept mown by cattle and sheep. The animals also provided fertilizer."
At least those early lawn mavens knew the benefits of organic fertilizer.
A nice lawn is essential for a game of croquet or "Red Rover, Red Rover."
There are the pleasures of simply rolling about on a nice cool lawn in
summer, or smelling a freshly mown lawn. For these reasons a modest patch
of lawn is worthwhile. However, all too often I talk with homeowners who
are at the mercy of a lawn that is way too big for their needs. They are
indeed serving The Lawn, simply because of an outmoded tradition or cultural
habit. Especially in Texas, it just makes sense (and cents!) to minimize
the lawn. Instead, plant shrubs, trees, perennials, ornamental grasses
- anything that doesn't require that constant input of mowing, watering,
fertilizing, mowing, aerating, disease control, mowing, watering, weeding,
topdressing, and insect control. Why does a lawn requires so much constant
input? Well, besides the distinct lack of cattle and sheep on our lawns
to keep them cropped and fertilized, the other reason why our lawns require
so much input is that monocultures do not exist in nature. Therefore,
those huge expanses of one species of plant - the St. Augustine or Bermuda
monocultures, for example - only invite problems, such as diseases, insect
pests, and compaction, because they are alien to the laws of nature. Any
time we fight the laws of nature, we are bound to be in for an uphill
battle, at best.
Therefore, why not sit down now with a cool beverage and plan out how
to turn just one patch of that lawn into a perennial garden, a butterfly
and hummingbird garden, a shrub border, or a grove of trees for more shade?
Once you have decided on a spot, now is the time to use the power of the
summer sun to get rid of the lawn. There are two ways that organic gardeners
can go about eliminating lawn or other patches of undesirable vegetation:
using horticultural vinegar as an organic herbicide and/or solarization.
At 20% acidity, horticultural vinegar is four times stronger than table
vinegar. Spray it undiluted, using a pump sprayer, a trigger sprayer,
or a watering can with a "rose spray" attachment, onto the lawn in the
middle of a hot, sunny day. Apply just enough to get the leaves wet. You
can probably watch the blades of grass wither. Even though it is organic,
be careful with vinegar. Stay upwind of it; avoid breathing the fumes,
and avoid skin contact. After a week or so, water the area to encourage
any remaining life in the roots to sprout, and spray them immediately
again. Keep repeating this process until the lawn or weeds give up. Remember
that Bermuda grass is going to be harder to get rid of than just about
anything else. Ranking right up there with Bermuda is nut grass (or nut
sedge) and Johnson grass. If you have difficulty getting rid of the lawn,
you may want to spray vinegar first, then use solarization.
The process of solarization takes at least a month. First, water the
area thoroughly. (Skip this step if you are using vinegar right before
solarization). Then cover the area with a clear plastic, and hold the
edges down securely with soil, rocks, and the like. This "seal" around
the edges is very important. The plastic should be at least 4 mil thick;
6 mil is better. This is creating the "greenhouse effect" under the plastic:
the sun's energy gets through the clear plastic, but gets trapped as heat
underneath, baking the top layer of soil and the Bermuda or other weeds.
Leave this in place for at least two weeks. Then remove the plastic, till
the area to bring the roots up to the surface, and water and cover again
for at least two weeks. When this is all done, remove the plastic and
start watering again to see if the rascals will come back from any millimeter
of root left behind. At this point it would be a good idea to have that
vinegar on hand to spritz any sprouts that emerge. Keep up with this process
until you see a distinct lack of lawn or weeds.
Once the lawn and weed elimination process is complete, don't allow
the soil to stay bare for long, or else new weed seeds could fly in and
take hold. Either cover the area with at least three inches of mulch until
planting time, or plant a summer cover crop, such as buckwheat or cowpeas
(black-eyed peas). A cover crop is good because while it covers the soil,
preventing weeds, it also improves the soil. As the roots grow, they loosen
the soil and bring up nutrients from deep in the soil. Then, two weeks
before it is time to plant, the cover crop should be tilled in, adding
those nutrients and organic matter back into the soil.
While the vinegar and/or the plastic and the sun are doing all that
work for you, you can sit back and design your new time and money-saving
landscape area. When planning on paper, be sure to avoid some of the common
mistakes made in landscape design. First, investigate your ecosystem.
Austin is a unique crossroads of at least two different ecosystems: the
Blackland Prairie to the east and the Hill Country to the west. It is
very important to know where you stand, so that you can choose the right
plants based on your soil type and other conditions. An almost essential
guide for this stage of planning and choosing plants is an often-recommended
book by Sally and Andy Wasowski entitled Native Texas Plants: Landscaping
Region by Region. Second, take into account the amount of sun the area
receives, and choose plants accordingly. Notice how the sun, shining from
the south, may be blocked by a fence, a taller plant, or other obstruction.
Third, measure the area, and plan the plantings based on the mature size
of the plant, not the size of the plant in the pot. Of course new plantings
will seem sparse at first, but part of the joy of gardening is watching
how our plants develop over time. Be sure to take note of any power lines
or other obstructions overhead. Finally, be sure to group plants according
to their water and soil needs. When a drought-tolerant plant and a water-loving
plant are grouped together, one of them will suffer.
There are many choices of plantings that will blend with any design.
Do you have a formal look to your landscape? Then choose some of the native
or well-adapted plants that tend to be more well-behaved. Some shrubs
in this category, which may be pruned or not, are Burford holly, yaupon
holly, cenizo or Texas sage, wax myrtle, and eleagnus. Other choices which
have a neat habit with no pruning are the Texas mountain laurel and the
red yucca. Similar choices in the perennial category are pink skullcap,
inland sea oats, and bi-color iris, to name a few. In most yards, you
can't go wrong with planting more trees, either.
When choosing shrubs, trees or perennials, don't make the mistake of
creating another monoculture like the lawn. Plant swaths of shrubs or
perennials in groups of three perhaps, but avoid a long row of the same
plant. Such monocultures are not only less appealing to the eye, but if
one plant is attacked by a disease or insect, they all are likely to be
attacked. Diversity is the name of the game.
If you don't have a formal design to your landscape, your options are
extensive. Even when you narrow your choices down to native and well-adapted
plants, there are so many beautiful plants and design schemes to choose
from. Do you want to design a dynamic butterfly garden? A beautiful guide
for this endeavor is a hardcover book by Geyata Ajilvsgi entitled Butterfly
Gardening for the South. Another resource is The Austin Butterfly Forum.
They meet on the fourth Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the Zilker
Botanical Center building, located at 2220 Barton Springs Road. Check
out their website at www.main.org/abf/.
Do you want to attract more than butterflies? Your backyard is already
a wildlife habitat no matter what you do, but if you want more diversity
of wildlife, including birds, hummingbirds, bats, and even foxes, then
use the book Texas Wildscapes, Gardening for Wildlife as your guide. Extensively
researched and written by Noreen Damude and Kelly Bender and published
by Texas Parks and Wildlife Press, it is an inspiring guide for many aspects
of landscaping.
For additional inspiration, instruction, and just plain recreation,
the Lady Bird Wildflower Center is everyone's resource. There is always
something going on at the Wildflower Center. Go to their website at www.wildflower.org
or call 512-292-4200. When you visit, be sure to meet Ralph, the talking
lawnmower in the Visitors Gallery. Their grounds are an inspiration to
anyone designing a new landscape.
Another way to transform a portion of your monoculture lawn is to turn
it into a beautiful tall grass prairie, complete with wildflowers. October
will be the month to plant wildflower seed. Therefore, if you are starting
this summer to eliminate the lawn and prepare the soil, your wildflower
meadow site will be ready to plant by then. First, it must be a full sun
area. Second, the lawn and weeds must be removed as above, including the
use of mulch or a cover crop afterwards to prevent weeds until planting
time. In late September or early October, if cover crops were used, they
are tilled in two weeks before planting the wildflower seeds. If mulch
was used, it is raked aside and used elsewhere in the landscape. Then,
wildflower seeds can be planted! They will need regular watering, perhaps
daily, until they sprout. The wildflower plants hug the ground and develop
roots for the winter, building up their energy for the fabulous springtime
show. Next April or May, native grass seed can be planted in the bare
spots between wildflowers to create a complete, self-sustaining prairie
ecosystem. If you want a true tall grass prairie, in which some grasses
reach four to five feet tall when flowering, plant the Native American
Seed Company's "Prairie Starter Mix" or "Caliche Mix." If you want a shorter
prairie, plant a mixture of 2/3 buffalo grass seed and 1/3 blue grama
seed. If you are planting seed on a slope, you may also consider using
jute netting for erosion control. Native American Seed Company seeds and
seed mixes can be found at several nurseries in town, including our nursery:
call first for availability. If you want to learn more about their seeds,
check out their beautiful website at www.seedsource.com,
or call 1-800-728-4043 for a catalog.
What if you want to plant more trees for shade? Consider deciduous trees
to the south and west of your home, so that they shade the house in the
summer, but allow the sun through in the winter. Rather than having the
usual lawn or Asian jasmine planted all the way up to the trunk of the
tree, consider creating a grouping of plants that mimics the natural associations
found in nature. This is a great way to bring in more diversity in the
landscape and to create a more appropriate native look. In a Hill Country
setting under the native Ashe Juniper, oaks, and cedar elms, consider
cedar sage, horseherb, pigeonberry, frogfruit, and/or Turk's cap. Create
a multi-layered thicket with understory shrubs or trees as well, such
as rusty blackhaw viburnum, Mexican redbud, Mexican buckeye, and scarlet
or yellow buckeyes. These are the kinds of delicious suggestions found
in the Wasowskis' book, Native Texas Plants.
There are numerous resources available to help us break our addiction
to large lawns and, in turn, create a more diverse landscape. Our payoff
in reducing the lawn is spending less time and money mowing and watering
the lawn, and more time with family and friends, enjoying more butterflies,
birds, and other wildlife in our home landscape. May we all find ways
to keep cool this month, discovering tranquility in our own backyard.
Enjoy!
July
2002
"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer
day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across
the sky, is hardly a waste of time."
— John Lubbock (1834 ‚ 1913) English naturalist, banker, and statesman
"True wealth is a deep understanding of the world you live in."
— Bill Mollison (1928 - ) Australian field biologist, itinerant
teacher, and founder of permaculture
What should we do in the garden in July? July is to Texas gardening as
January is to gardening in, say, North Dakota or Maine. For those of you
who are new to the area, July and August are our fallow times. It is the
dormant season now ‚ time to plan, not to plant. This is the season--not to sit by the fire with seed catalogs dreaming of the thaw--but to
sit by the fan reading books on permaculture, the biology of soil, and/or
landscape design, sipping lemonade or iced tea, and praying for rain.
Forget about spring being the major planting time, too. Spring can be
a wonderful time to plant, and perhaps it is the season in which we are
most biologically driven to plant. However, fall is the best planting
season in Texas. Since summer is our harshest season here, gardening is
all about getting everything prepared to survive the heat. When we plant
in the early fall here, our new green friends have three relatively mild
seasons--fall, winter, and spring--to get established before our toughest
season arrives. Therefore, July and August are the months to design and
plan for any new plantings in the fall.
Landscape design used to be more or less an adaptation of the formal
gardens at Versailles and other such palatial gardens. This basically
European design consisted of boxy shrubs planted at the foundation of
the house, and perhaps shrubs outlining the property as well, flowering
annuals to be planted and then tossed at the end of their season, and
lawn ‚ lots of lawn. Sally and Andy Wasowski, in their book, Native Texas
Plants: Landscaping Region by Region, describe this type of landscape
as "tightly clipped hedges, smooth green lawns, and isolated flower gardens.
The plants are not summer-hardy, and the whole style is inappropriate
for most of Texas because it requires unconscionable amounts of water.
On a square-foot basis, our most basic (and boring) hedge-and-lawn landscape
requires more maintenance and watering than some of the most famous gardens
of Europe, which, by the way, are usually never watered at all."
G. M. Pierceall, in his landscape design textbook Residential Landscapes,
says "Changing lifestyles, more informal entertaining preferences, smaller
households, and a need to conserve natural and energy resources have influenced
the forms and functions of housing and its associated landscapes. ...(L)andscape
design concepts have changed from an era when landscaping was considered
as an art form and status symbol to current times when residential site
design must provide for a more functional and attractive home environment."
About the time this book was published in the mid-1980's, homeowners
and landscape professionals were indeed shifting away from the previous
high-maintenance design principle. We began realizing that the old "hedge-and-lawn"
design required an enormous input of not only water, but chemicals, equipment,
and time in order to prune, mow, spray, fertilize, and irrigate such foreign
landscapes. The first step in our transformation was the idea of xeriscaping:
it just made sense to plant drought and heat resistant plants in Texas.
Therefore, the boxy boxwoods were replaced with boxy Eleagnus or perhaps
Texas Sage (Cenizo). At the same time, more drought-resistant lawns like
Zoysia were being developed.
The next step in our transformation began about the same time, and still
continues today. Thanks to Lady Bird Johnson, her Wildflower Center here
in Austin, and some pioneering nurseries, we began expanding our knowledge
of drought and heat-resistant plants by learning the merits of native
plants. We started discovering how beautiful and relatively carefree a
landscape could be if the original habitat was taken into consideration.
The wisdom of a huge lawn was likewise considered dubious. Native plants,
or well-adapted non-natives, planted in the right place and in the right
combination, were found to need little or no input once established, and
they look marvelous.
Today, there are even more wise and exciting new approaches to landscape
design. The Wasowski's book mentioned above is the quintessential guide
to landscaping Texas-style, with beautiful color photographs of native
plants and information on the plants organized in an easy reference style.
Homeowners (or home-renters) can also design their landscape to attract
butterflies, hummingbirds, or all wildlife. Two books that we carry at
The Natural Gardener to assist in this process are Texas Wildscapes: Gardening
for Wildlife, by Noreen Damude and Kelly Conrad Bender, and Butterfly
Gardening for the South, by Geyata Ajilvsgi. The Damude-Bender book is
an extensive and useful reference for designing, containing different
sections that focus on hummingbirds, butterflies, mammals, reptiles and
amphibians, and birds. Their book also contains an extensive list of Texas
native plants, indicating also to which area of Texas each plant is best
adapted. Geyata's book is a beautiful hardcover which contains full-color
photographs and information on butterflies, their larvae, and the plants
which satisfy the needs of each of these stages of the butterfly's life
cycle. If you have butterflies already and want to identify them, then
the Peterson Field Guide of Eastern Butterflies is the book for you.
For those of us who are ready to go to the next stage of landscape design,
permaculture is the most exciting and satisfying idea to come along. Permaculture
is a word coined by Bill Mollison, an Australian who began developing
the system the 1970's. The word is derived from permanent agriculture.
Permaculture is defined by Mollison as "the conscious design and maintenance
of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity, stability,
and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration
of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter and other
material and nonmaterial needs in a sustainable way." This quote comes
from another good summer read, Gardening for the Future of the Earth,
by Howard-Yana Shapiro, Ph.D. and John Harrisson. This book offers "a
synthesis of the philosophies and practices of this ëDream Team'" of modern
organic gardening, including Mollison on permaculture, John Jeavons on
soil, Carol Deppe on seeds and plant breeding, and Alan York on fruits
and biodynamics.
For a better understanding of just what permaculture is all about, some
of my colleagues are raving about Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale
Permaculture by Toby Hemenway. What does permaculture really mean? Most
comprehensively, it boils down to common sense - using all of the resources,
technology, and information we have available in order to live the most
efficiently and with the least amount of waste on the earth. For example,
plan your compost pile and plant your herb and vegetable garden as close
to your kitchen door as possible, or else you might find that your garden
and compost is not used to its fullest capacity because it is not really
that convenient. Permaculture is rainwater harvesting. Permaculture is
building contours in the landscape in order to catch rainwater. Permaculture
includes using "graywater" from our kitchen sink, for example, to water
the landscape. Permaculture is using "keyhole" or spiral patterns instead
of straight rows in landscape design to create the most efficient growing
space possible. Permaculture of course uses organic gardening practices,
including plenty of mulch, but it goes even further. The folks I know
who have attended a permaculture class are transformed and excited from
the experience and the knowledge they have gained.
The next Fundamentals of Permaculture class will be taught by Patricia
Allison from September 13 through 20 near Fredericksburg. For more information,
contact Kathryn at 441-2009 - kstevens@ktc.com or Martha 830-864-4174
- mjshtx@yahoo.com.
If you would like to take one small step towards the self-reliance that
permaculture promotes, consider installing a rainwater collection system.
We have both the book and the video at The Natural Gardener: Rainwater
Collection for the Mechanically-Challenged by Richard Heinichen. The video
includes music by Darden Smith, and the book is co-authored by Suzy Banks.
You can tell by the title that either way you look at it - book or video
- Richard has a way to make rainwater collection systems fun. Richard
is the mayor of Tank Town, which is Central Texas' rainwater collection
headquarters in Dripping Springs.
Our natural tendency is to slow down and take it easy in these dog days
of summer, and that is the wisest thing to do. It is time for the harvest,
time to enjoy whatever fruits of our labor made it past the heat, the
drought, and the grasshoppers. I am wishing everyone a safe and happy
July - a relaxing month to vacation, or study, or simply play in our home
environs. Until we meet again next month, stay cool!
July
2001
"Have you spent a summer here yet?" Newcomers to Texas will inevitably
get this question. The person asking will likely have a suspicious grin,
or even a superior, haughty look about them when they ask, as if they'd
climbed Mt. Everest, and you had not. ("Nya-nya nya-nya-nya.") While surviving
summers here is no Mt. Everest, it is still quite a challenge. It may
make us even more grateful for air conditioning. It may make us gain an
appreciation for those who pioneered before us and those who live even
nowadays without air conditioning. I have lived one summer here without
air conditioning in the house, and one summer without air conditioning
in my car, and I am here to say it is possible. ("Nya-nya nya-nya-nya!")
There are ways to acclimate.
One great trick I learned from the woman who lived behind my grandmother's
house in Houston, is to wet a bandana and secure it around your neck while
you are outside. Keep turning the bandana to the cooler side, and re-wet
as necessary to keep that evaporative cooling happening. Better yet, for
maximum cooling, just wet your hair too, and as much of your clothing
as you can possibly stand.
No one can remind us too much to drink plenty of water - morning, noon,
and night. You know what they say: "Once you feel thirsty, you have waited
too long to take a drink." If water gets boring, make some refreshing
herbal teas--iced, of course--from your garden. Mint is a winner, as
are Lemon Balm, Lemongrass, and Lemon Verbena. Fill a quart sized "Mason"
or "Ball" jar (or non-metal teapot) halfway with fresh herbs. Pour boiling
water over the herbs to fill, and seal tightly. Let it steep for 5 - 10
minutes, strain, and add ice. (Pregnant women should avoid Lemon Balm).
Just as we slow down and focus on staying cool in the summer, so do our
plants. It is best to consider summer as our dormant season here, just
as winter is up north. Don't expect a lot of growth and avoid trying to
plant anything, especially trees, shrubs, or big perennials. Just let
the landscape rest. I took an informal poll, asking mostly professional
gardeners, "What do you do in your garden in July?" The unanimous answer
you might have already guessed was something akin to "Nothing!"
Now is, however, another wonderful time to plan in the garden and landscape.
Fall is THE best time to plant in Texas. And fall is officially just a
little over two months away. The fall vegetable garden is often the easiest.
Trees, shrubs, and perennials planted in the fall have fall, winter, and
spring to get their roots established before summer rolls around to stress
them. Plan while you can and enjoy your summer break.
Now is also the time to consider turning some of that water-, time-,
and money-hogging lawn area into a more xeric landscape. Research some
great native plant choices at your local nursery specializing in natives,
or in books such as Howard Garrett's Plants for Texas; Gardening Success
with Difficult Soils by Scott Ogden; the new Garden Guide for Austin and
Vicinity compiled by the Travis County Master Gardener Association; and
Native Texas Plants or Native Texas Gardens by Sally and Andy Wasowski.
(The last two books may be only available at the library, or bookstores
with back stock. Hopefully they won't be out of print for very long).
Now is the time to plan the planting of more trees. To receive a low-cost
tree planting guide or fruit tree planting guide, contact TreeFolks at
512-443-5323, or check your local nursery for copies. Be sure to give
TreeFolks a donation if you can; they are a wonderful, local non-profit
organization planting trees and educating folks about trees all over the
Austin area.
Now would be a great time to turn your yard into a wildlife habitat,
if it doesn't already qualify, and you can even get recognition for your
efforts. An indispensable book for this process is Texas Wildscapes -
Gardening for Wildlife by Noreen Damude and Kelly Conrad Bender. To find
out about the "Texas Wildscapes Backyard Habitat Certification Program,"
contact the Texas Wildscapes Coordinator, Mark Klym at Texas Parks and
Wildlife at 512-389-4644.
Of course, summer is also prime time to play in the water. Consider installing
a pond in your landscape. You can find out about the Austin Pond Society
and over 35 other garden-related clubs by calling the Zilker Botanical
Gardens at 512-477-8672. There is a Newcomers Club, or you could even
join "Weed People!"
Finally, another idea for the summer months is to visit your local farmers'
market or farm stand and experience the freshest produce available, outside
of your own home garden, along with other delightful finds such as goat
cheese, herbs, flowers, and perhaps handcrafted treasures. The Garden
Guide mentioned above contains a complete listing of farmers' markets,
farm stands, as well as all those gardening clubs at Zilker.
While you're planning your fall vegetable garden, remember to plan for
crop rotation. This means to avoid planting vegetables of the same family
in the same area for two to three years. Since plants in the same family
attract similar diseases and pests, these problems can build up if crops
are not rotated. Another reason to rotate crops is that different crops
tend to deplete the soil of different nutrients and to different degrees.
Some crops are heavy feeders, like corn and tomatoes, and some are light
feeders, like garlic and Swiss chard. Rotation allows the soil time to
replenish those nutrients, with the help of the gardener.
Here are some examples of vegetable families to help you with crop rotation:
Chenopodiaceae/Goosefoot family: beets, spinach, Swiss chard, lamb's
quarters
Compositae/Sunflower family: chamomile, chicory, dandelion, endive,
globe artichoke,
Jerusalem artichoke, lettuce, salsify, sunflowers
Cruciferae (Brassicaceae)/Mustard family: bok choy and other Asian
greens, broccoli,
Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard, kale, kohlrabi, mustard,
radish,
rutabaga, turnip
Cucurbitaceae/Gourd family: cantaloupe, cucumber, gourd, honeydew,
luffa, pumpkin, squash, watermelon
Gramineae/Grass family: corn, oats, rice, wheat, and other cereal crops
Leguminosae/Bean family: all beans and peas, peanuts, cover crops such
as alfalfa, clovers, and vetch
Liliaceae/Lily family: asparagus, garlic, leeks, onions, shallots
Umbelliferae (Apiaceae)/Carrot or Parsley family: caraway, carrots,
celery, celeriac, coriander, dill, fennel, parsley, parsnips
For more information on this subject and much more, consult Grace Gershuny's
Start With the Soil. Here are just a few examples of the incredible wealth
of information contained therein: simple soil chemistry and fertility,
composting, how weeds are indicator plants for problem soils, and soil
needs for vegetables, trees, lawns, flowers and even potted plants. Did
you know that "Flower color, intensity, and aroma are all influenced to
some degree by soil nutrition"?
One of the hardest things for the Average American to do these days may
be to relax. However, that is just what the doctor ordered for the summer
months in Texas. Digging, lifting and planting are out; lounging, playing
in the water, and planning are in. Have a safe and joyful Independence
Day, and may the rest of your month be as cool as the Rio Frio!
|
8648
Old Bee Cave Road
Stacey
(Rosina) Newton is a graduate of the Texas A&M University (Aggieland)
Horticulture Department, class of 1984, and has been in the environmental/horticulture
field ever since. She learned everything she knows about organic gardening
while working at The Natural Gardener, starting in 1997.