Take Crash Course On Austin Gardening
How was gardening in San Jose. CaIif., or Seattle or wherever it was you moved from? Well, it's different here in Austin.
Every day. new people arrive in Austin and pick up shovels and hoes to put down roots in their landscapes.
The Austin area offers the gardener a uniquen and challenging combination of weather, soils, rainfall and environment. "Rules of thumb" seldom apply, and how you garden frequently depends on what area of the city or county you choose to live in.
Regardless of how successful you might have been in your previous hometown, you might need to learn to garden all over again now that you are at home in Austin.
Let's take a look at pertinent gardening pointers for the first-time groundskeeper in Austin.
* Temperature. Horticulturally, Austin is in plant hardiness zone eight, which means that plants capable of withstanding low temperatures of 10 degrees above zero can be expected to survive here, Fortunately, we seldom see 10 degree temperatures. But the overnight lows in your landscape can be cooler or warmer than the official reading at the weather bureau, depending on where you live. Generally, our winter low temperatures do not dip below 20 degrees with any frequency.
Although winter temperatures can be unpredictable, summer temperatures are usually quite predictably hot. Summers are potentially more devastating to our landscapes than the winters. Many of our cooler-summer-loving plants such as bluegrass, fuschias or maples cannot be expected to survive our prolonged summer heat. So forget about trying to grow item.
Our frost-free growing season averages 270 days. The average last freeze date in the spring is March 3; the first freeze of the fall, Nov. 28.
* Rainfall. Again, averages tell us little. In most years. the Austin gardener can anticipate about 32 inches of precipitation falling on the landscape. Rainfall is fairly evenly spaced during the spring, fall and winter, with the summer months usually deficient. Supplemental watering, particularly during the summer, is usually essential for the survival of most laud-scape and garden plants.
* Soils. Austin area soils have the notorious reputation of being shallow, poor and difficult to manage. Some are full of caliche. and others are black, sticky gumbo.
The majority of our soils are alkaline. Alkalinity affects the availability of plant nutrients, especially iron. Most plants won't be seriously affected, but it's wise to avoid planting high-iron-requiring plants such as dogwood, pines and sweet gum trees.
For success in growing acid-loving plants such as azaleas, camel lias and gardenias, soil acidifiers (products containing iron and sulfur) are generally needed in large quantities to keep them looking their best.
For optimum plant growth, the Austin gardener will need to improve the soil with liberal amounts of compost, peat moss, shredded bark or other organic materials.
* Lawns. Although St. Augustine grass remains the most popular widely planted lawn grass, more homeowners are turning to Bermuda or Buffalograss, which are more drought-tolerant. Zoysia grass and fescue are sometimes planted in special situations. The hybrid Bermuda grasses are very beautiful but demand extra care.
* Trees and shrubs, The landscape palate is vast and varied when it comes to adapted trees and shrubs suited to the Austin area. Visit with local nursery or garden center personnel and let them suggest sturdy, dependable varieties for your home gardens.
* Vegetable gardens. if, like many Austinites, you enjoy "growing your own groceries," you will find that most vegetable crops will do well here, provided that you prepare the soil carefully and plant at the right time of the year. Both spring- and fall-planted gardens can be highly productive. Many herbs make outstanding additions to the local vegetable garden.
* Fruit crops. Most fruit crops are fairly dependable, but choose the varieties you plant carefully, To avoid disappointment, it is best to avoid cherries, raspberries and blueberries. Peaches, plums, pears, apples and apricots do well. Blackberries, figs, strawberries. persimmons and certain "exotic" fruits also grow well.
If you are a lover of citrus. there are several cold-hardy varieties that can be planted for dependable performance. Other citrus, such as kumquat, make excellent container grown plants with some winter protection.
[Scanned in from Austin American-Statesman (10/22/94) by Dewey Coffman.
Residing on the Web by the kind permission of Ted Fisher and the AAS]