Herself’s Houston Garden

I attended a talk given by Greg Grant of the Piney Woods Nursery. This is a summery of what I heard. If it catches your imagination you should let him know and find out more about what he is hoping to do.

Texas is a unique state in that its size gives it a multitude of micro climates. Rainfall across the state ranges from 6″/year to 60″/year. We have desert, tropical, forests and bayous that all come together to form a unique patchwork not found anywhere else.

Over time we have paved and polluted this unique area driving many of the local critters and plants to extinction. Much of the extinction is due to lost habitats like those of the once common bald cypress swamps.

As gardeners we listen to the news about flora and fauna losses and wonder if we, as individuals, can do much of anything that will make a difference. Gardeners in particular are accustomed to shaping our yard to the garden of our choice. But when we choose plants and the design of our gardens we need to consider the larger picture.

Most of the plants of choice now are plants from Asia, not Texas, or they are the weeds ( annuals ) our ancestors brought over from Europe. Our gardens have become a hodge podge of plant materials from around the world and not part of a larger plan.

If we, as gardeners were to all choose plants native to our areas ( pre colonialist ) then we could create a patchwork of native plant habitats that would grow over time. These habitats would provide food and shelter for native species to grow and thrive.

Unfortunately some have taken gardening with native plants as an excuse to let the yard grow wild with weeds. This have given native plants a bad name and created the stereotype of native plant people to be a bit daffy. Native plant gardens need to follow the same basic design principles that our more common gardens follow. They can and should be just as pretty to look at as what we now plant.

Get familiar with invasive species. Remove them from your gardens, enlighten your neighbors and any stores you find selling invasives to an unwitting public. Limit the amount of lawn. Ditch those plastic and silk flowers made from petrochemicals. They are an abomination.

Remember that when you spray an insecticide something, perhaps a young bird, will come and eat those insects you poisoned.

Do the research. Find out what plants are native to your area. Plant them and the native species will grow. Use local materials for your hardscape. The place will look more natural. Anything that comes local takes a lot less gasoline to get to you.

Put up bird boxes. Put out water for the birds.

Use rain water collection systems and don’t let our water go to waste.

Grow more of your own food.

Recycle.

Most importantly relax and enjoy your garden. Leave some dead trees for the woodpeckers. We have lost most of our cavity dwelling birds because the woodpeckers who create the homes for them have no material to work with.

Send your children outside to play. The world is a wonderful place.

Remember that most butterflies, moths and insects have a specific host plant. Lose the plant and you lose the butterfly.

And that is how you, as a local small gardener can make a difference.

While his philosophy is not my own, it was an inspiring talk. I left fully intending to rip out my gardens and plant all natives. Then I realized my garden is more than half natives so I didn’t feel so bad.

If you are even a little bit inspired or interested be sure to check out The Stephen F Austin State University SFA Mast Arboretum and the Piney Woods Native Plant Center. They would love to hear from you and tell you more about what they are doing.

If you build it they will come.

See also:
Texas Invasives

I receive a fair number of people who wander to my website looking for information on toxic plants. It is my opinion after gardening down here for almost three years that every plant in my garden that doesn’t have thorns is toxic. And some of the plants that have thorns are toxic as well. I try to cover topics that bring people to the website that I haven’t already covered. But there is far too much conflicting information on which plants are toxic and to what degree for me to feel comfortable writing about it.

Some excellent, reliable sources of information on toxic plants are:
The army medical site list of toxic plants. There is extensive information here.

Utah Poisonous Plant Guide is an extensive database with pictures of the plants.

We’ve only had one problem with toxic plants and pets. We had an English mastiff. She was a beautiful dog, but all looks and no brains. It came time for her to be fixed. It was January, snow was on the ground and it was cold. We brought her in for her operation and she spent the day throwing up plant material at the vets. He sent her home and wanted to know what we had let her eat the night before. Nothing of course, she was due for surgery, and just about everything outside had died back for the winter. We rescheduled a week later.

She again went to the vets and proceeded to upchuck plant material all over the office. Again she came home with stern warnings from the vet to quit feeding her toxic plants. ( And what kind of idiots were we anyhow? )

The third time we didn’t let her out of our sight and she managed to get fixed. We never did figure out what plant she had been eating the nights before vet appointments. We never had another problem with her or any of the other pets eating toxic plants in the yard. Go figure.

{Freya in her usual spot hiding under my desk.}

Earlier this week I attended a talk by a local Master Gardener, Robert Dailey, on organic gardening. Now we all know about organic gardening Mr. Dailey informed us 45% of gardeners claim to understand how to garden organically and how to use garden chemicals safely. He also explained only 5% of gardeners actually do so.

Herbs have been grown organically since before people began putting them in gardens and have done so quite well with out chemicals. Homeowners are far more heavy handed with chemicals than large farms. It is a far smaller part of our budget. Texas is one of the top 10 states for use of herbicides and pesticides.

A recent UN study showed that Texas is losing 1% of arable land a year. There will be enough lost aquifers in Texas by 2050 that there will not be enough water for the population. While we can build desalination plants they too have a negative environmental impact not to mention high cost.

A good compost bin, smart use of rain water will allow you to grow most plants successfully with out using toxic chemicals or large amounts of city water.

Essential elements for plants:
Photosynthesis: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen
Primary food/macro elements: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium
Secondary food elements: calcium, magnesium, sulfur
Micro nutrients: boron, manganese, copper, zinc, iron, molybdenum, chlorine

Compost bins do best when they are the wire frame model at least 3′x3′ in size. This allows the heat to build up enough to kill off weed seeds and pathogens. Good soil contains not only the essential elements for plant life but also micro and macro organisms.

On a not totally unrelated note I ran across an interesting story Big roots, tough leaves, help plants survive on why some plants survive better in high heat areas. It’s worth a read.

More information:
Soils: Soil Fertility and Fertilizers
The Environmental Problem Desertification and Its Causes
Humus: An Organic Solar Battery: Converting Sun’s Energy into Food

Check here for a constantly updated list of Houston garden blogs. This post isn’t kept up to date.

There truly are very few gardener’s down here. I hunted far and wide and could only find 4 other Houston garden blogs, one of which may not still be active.

Black Gumbo ( new added: 7/13/07 )

Huntingwick Gardens ( new added: 7/6/07 )

Garden Obsession

Nancy’s Garden Spot

Cybertoad’s Garden Not active

Garden Spot Not active