Herself’s Houston Garden

I recently attended a talk at Mercer on growing cactus and succulents in Houston. If you haven’t attended any talks at Mercer do consider it. They’d love to see you and I learn a great deal each time I attend.

Most cactus prefer drier environments than we have in Houston. While they all prefer it dry, not all of the cactus and succulents enjoy our heat. Winter rains are the biggest threat to cactus growing here. Wet and cold together will cause many cactus to rot.

Cactus and succulents differ only slightly. All cactus are succulents, not all succulents are cactus. Cactus store water in their stem, succulents store water in the leaves, stem or both.

Cactus have tufts of hair or small spines at the base of every spine, succulents do not. While you can strip a cactus bare of spines with out hurting the plant. It is similar to leaf removal. You can not do so with a succulent. Succulent thorns are connected to the stem tissue. Removing them will tear the stem that transports nutrients through the plant.

Cactus have spines which are leaves which have evolved to a more efficient shape for the climate. The spines offer protection from critters looking for water in the desert and also provide shade for the plant. The more spines on a cactus the more sun it likely needs.

Some succulents have roots that spread along the surface to collect water, some use tap roots to find deep water.

Cactus originated only in North and South America, succulents are found worldwide.

Sand and or soil mixed with larger rocks/mulch or other material that will let water drain works best as a planting medium. Be sure to slope and raise the bed to keep water from collecting near the plants.

Mealy bug occasionally bother succulents, treat with insecticidial soaps. Fire ants will some times build a mound right over your succulent, burying it. Treat them with your favorite fire ant treatment.

Succulent gardens look best and least annoy your neighbors and the homeowners associations when you use several plants of different heights, textures and colors together. Try to use one or a few large plants, then fill in with smaller plants. Also include some dry plants that aren’t succulents. Wild flower bunches blend well. The Succulent gardens pool at Flickr has a nice collection of photos for ideas.

See also:
Agaves
Soapweed yucca
Aloe
Aloe rust
Tigertoothed Aloe

December 2007 Desert Garden

desert garden Oct 1, 2009

2nd low water garden created 2009

Xeriscaping is the smart planting of gardens using low water plants so no watering beyond rainfall is needed. This conserves water. Happy plants need less fertilizers, pesticides saving you money and the enviroment from toxins. The process of xeriscaping consists of: planning your garden; plan small useful turf areas; use low water plants; amend the soil with nutrients; mulch to keep water in the ground longer, irrigate responsibly; and maintain the garden so the police don’t come take you away.

Xeros in Greek means dry so Xeriscaping is dry + landscape.

One of the easiest things to do in your yard is group together plants that have similar water needs. Put your cacti in a sunny dry area, put your bog gardens in a lower shadier area. Gardening like all hobbies has ‘in’ things and this year’s in thing is ‘pocket gardens’. This is a nice way to do pocket gardening. Florida has laws to prevent HOA from interfering when home owners xeriscape or use native plants. Texas and the Houston area do not.

Plants for Dry Sunny areas
Aloe
Yucca
African Spear

Plants for Dry Shady areas
Chinese Indigo (Indigofera decora )
Snake plant ( Sanservieria trifasciata )
Variegated shell ginger ( Alpine zerumbet )
American Beauty ( Callicarpa americana )
Witch hazel ( Hamamelis virginiana )
Oak leaf Hydrangea ( Hydrangea quercifolia )
Rusty Blackhaw ( Viburnum rufidulum )
Maple leaf Viburnum ( Viburnum aceifolium )
Mountain Sage ( Salvia regla )
Turk’s Cap ( Malvaviscu drummondii )
Beebalm ( Monarda fistulosa )
Coralberry ( Symphoricarpos orbiculatus )
Scarlet Sage ( Salvia coccinea )
Late Purple Aster ( Aster patens )
Fragrant Phlox ( Phlox pilosa )
Pidgeonberry ( Rivina humils )
Cedar Sage ( Salvia roemeriana )
Blue-eyed grass ( Sisyrichium sp. )
Arrowwood Viburnum ( Viburnum dentatum )
Rough leafed dogwood ( Cornus drummondii )

This month’s Lone Star Gardener put out by the Texas Garden Clubs had a couple of interesting over lapping articles. One was on ‘pocket gardens’. I found little to no information on line about pocket gardens so I guess we’ll have to start.

A pocket garden is a small growing area that usually has a theme or a purpose. There are butterfly pocket gardens, guerrilla pocket gardens, mail box pocket gardens &c. A butterfly pocket garden might have a tall feeding plant for butterflies and smaller host plants around it all wedged into some small corner of your yard. A mail box pocket garden might be a few flowers and a flowering shrub to brighten up your mail box area. What a great idea for all our tiny lots we now live on.

I’ve already been doing that a bit; I’ve a rose pocket garden, a fern pocket garden, a wetland pocket garden, an herb pocket garden and a vegetable pocket garden. I just didn’t call them pocket gardens.

Guerrilla pocket gardens are gardens set up on public property to brighten an spot. Some are planted in the dark of night by flashlight to surprise the natives in the morning, some are done during daylight to enlist the community to help care for the garden. Signs are usually left saying something like ‘This garden brought to you by YourTown Guerrilla Garden Club — please water me”. I noticed Houston does not yet have a group. Right now it seems more popular in Europe and the North East. Maybe this post will catch a few eyes and that will change?

More information:
Guerrilla Gardening
Make: Guerrilla flowerboxes
Conscious Urbanism: Guerrilla Gardening