- Howdy, I'm John Hart Asher.

This week on Central Texas Gardener, James Barela and Ray Delgadillo went from lawn to lovely in their new garden.

Certified arborist Andrew Anstrom explores how drought and freeze impact tree health over time and what we can do moving forward.

Daphne Richards answers your questions, and Laura Brennand shows how to start those spring wildflowers this fall.

So, let's get growing, right here, right now!

- [Announcer] Central Texas Gardener is made possible by generous support from Lisa and Desi Rhoden.

Thank you.

(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) - Lawn dominated their new home's hillside yard when James Barela and Ray Delgadillo unpacked their imagination on moving day.

- We've definitely killed a lot of plants as well, in order to get to this point, and its part of that process, its part of that journey that we've kind of both been on learning about our particular space and what works here.

I'm James Barela.

- I'm Ray Delgadillo.

- [James Barela] And five years ago, we created this garden from scratch.

- At the time, we were really interested in English cottage gardens, and so we wanted something very peaceful.

My day job is being a product designer, James is a freelance designer, he's a working artist, and so I think we approach gardening as a creative outlet.

- [James] So the first thing we did to the backyard was to install a retaining wall.

That was the very first thing we wanted to do because it was so foundational to the entire garden.

- [Ray Delgadillo] I decided to build a deck out of Trex to keep it very low maintenance.

It's a composite material, it's half wood, half plastic, and so it's supposed to last up to 25 years without any maintenance.

- [James] So we built the raised beds with the same material as well, so hopefully they'll last several years.

The other option was cedar, but we had some friends that had some extra Trex, so that's kind of how we started the whole process.

The material for our retaining wall is a concrete product.

We started to learn a lot about retaining walls.

- They came with a spec guide for different types of soil and how to build a foundation and build a drainage behind it.

And so they lock with fiberglass pins.

It's a dry stack so it can drain.

There's about ten cubic feet of stone behind the wall, which is pretty crazy.

- Yeah.

- Actually, cubic yards.

- The construction of the wall took about six months of weekends for us, but it was a wonderful challenge that I think both of us really were really proud of and we really wanted to accomplish this.

- [Ray] It was so much work, but it was fun in the end.

- [James] We had a lot of that extra loam that we created when we were building the wall, so we were kind of loading it up in different parts of the yard.

It was very, very rich.

It was almost like black soil at that point, once all the sod decomposed.

So we used that, mixed it with native soil, and then we added compost, Dillo Dirt, and some topsoil.

- [Ray] A lot of our garden, we started from seed and then we'll buy things that just naturally interest us, either the flower color or the structure.

- We'll often like, collect seed one year and then we'll basically use all that seed for the next planting.

Sometimes, we've also taken cuttings from a plant that we really like, and really kind of save those cuttings, make sure you bring them inside during the winter.

So for privacy, because this was a blank slate out here, we had to think about that, and we originally started with clumping bamboo.

Unfortunately, with the past couple of years, it was really, really stressful for the clumping bamboo.

I think at this point, we're going to replace them with something different.

- I think one of the most challenging things about this property is how exposed it is.

We're on a hillside.

And so anytime there's a windstorm, it feels so much more intense than anywhere in Austin we have lived, so we wanted to address not only the privacy but the wind.

- [James] We did get a couple of magnolias.

This variety is called D.D.

Blanchard and it's supposed to be a lot more vertical.

We've also tried Scarlet's Peak, hollies, which are really, really wonderful.

And we also have a nice peach tree.

I've try to create sort of rooms and divide the space a lot more because it just becomes a lot more manageable.

- [Ray] I think we've also used color to help tie the garden together.

- We wanted there to be a lot of color around this patio because we were going to be able to see it from the inside of the house as well.

And then we do spend a lot of time on this deck.

In this garden, we have standing cypress, we have cosmos, columbine, Rudbeckia maxima.

There's a couple of scabiosas, the ones that I saved over from fall as cuttings and then brought them back into this bed.

And more columbines, 'cause I really love columbines.

- [Ray] And I think all of this bed was grown from seed.

- [James] Our cat will kind of just watch through the window and birds will come visit the little fountain right there, the little water garden.

Our cat will just watch it and, you know, just kind of be enjoying the little butterflies in the area.

- This border behind us, this actually...

It doesn't get any irrigation.

We water by hand every once in a while in the summer.

We started by picking plants that were just really tough.

Nepeta or catmint, roses.

A lot of people think roses are not drought tolerant, but they've been really good for us, especially English roses.

Monarda, Salvia.

Salvia Blue Victory has done amazing in this garden, and there's so many varieties of salvias, we probably have six or seven in the garden.

Angelonias.

Russian Sage.

- There's tons of butterflies that visit this area.

We have bees, all different types of bees.

We have native bees that come by.

The garden gets full of anoles.

We have Texas Horned Lizards as well.

Just a lot of wildlife that I think wouldn't necessarily be here if it wasn't for all these places for them to kind of interact with, and for pollinators to come by.

We're trying to also do a lot of like, succession planting, so when something is finished blooming, we want to make sure that there's something behind it that's going to refresh that when that plant is done.

So a few years ago, I started with ceramics and I really wanted to create my own containers for my plants.

Since then, I've actually become really inspired, you know, during this process of building this new garden.

And now I start seeing some of the forms in some of my plants, you know, influencing the way that I work now.

And the process of gardening is very much similar to the process of ceramics.

They're both very meditative and they're both creative, where you kind of have those moments where you lose track of time.

- My work is sitting on the computer all day, and so gardening complements kind of my creative side, by allowing me to do something meditative that takes me away from the computer and allows me to just get lost into some something that is also creative.

- In the very front, we have what we've called the Devil's Strip.

Some areas call it different names, but I really love the name Devil's Strip because it is like a devil to plant there.

It's constantly dry, so you really have to choose plants that can handle the radiant heat from the concrete, and there's also no irrigation in that area.

In the other garden next to it, we have coreopsis, sea holly.

We've used Brazos penstemon or Gulf penstemon, which has been really reliable.

We also have some of the Rudbeckia maximas in the front there.

- Overall, I think we both really like informal plantings, but you also have to be aware that they can look a little wild.

And so we like to insert elements of thoughtfulness to kind of clean it up and make it...

Some elements that are sharp.

- In the center of one of the beds, we also have a smokebush, "Royal Purple", and that's kind of like the big anchor in that area where everything kind of circles around that.

We really want to bring in some just like, interesting textures and variety to the area.

- [Ray] We try to emulate nature as much as we can, which is actually really difficult.

We're next to a really busy road, it's western-facing and so it gets the really hot afternoon sun.

It also has no irrigation.

We do water it every once in a while in the summer, but we wanted to choose natives that are really tough, so we have big muhly, we have Indigo Spires salvia, we have Salvia greggii, which always... That one does well all across the garden.

We also planted a few Mexican feather grasses a few years ago, and they've been slowly spreading into kind of a carpet effect.

We also have rudbeckias.

I personally think of gardening as kinda like painting with plants, and you have to think about the seasons and how they're change, and how the colors evolve.

- It's kind of just been this nice thing for us to kind of explore together.

We're both very curious people, so we kind of both latched on to this relatively quickly, and I think it's been just a really nice journey for both of us to kind of go on.

- The past few years have really taken a toll on our trees.

Today, Certified arborist Andrew Anstrom of Tree Amigos explores how drought and freeze damage continue to impact tree health, and what we can do moving forward.

Great to see you, Andrew.

- Great to see you too.

- [John] The past few years, our trees have just really taken a beating.

- It really all started in the winter of 2021 when Winter Storm Uri hit.

Winter Storm Uri was a really exceptional event where we had really high temperatures in early February.

You know, we hit 86, which was a record, followed by a week of extremely low temperatures that then bounced back up to high temperatures.

And, you know, what that did was it told a lot of the trees to begin preparing for spring, and what happens when they prepare for spring is they become much, much more vulnerable to cold damage.

So while we saw the trees and shrubs that we expected to die from freeze damage, like the low quads, the viburnum, the figs, we even saw trees that are resistant to cold really suffer, and really, you know, die back from this event.

So the Arizona ash, the red oaks, the lacebark elms.

We saw mature, established trees that should have been able to weather the storm fine, just completely plummet and decline.

Luckily that year, we had pretty good rainfall following that, which really helped to sustain those trees.

But into 2022, you know, we went into a pretty horrible drought.

May of 2022 was one of the hottest Mays on record in Austin, so that summer started early and it was extremely dry, and those trees that were stressed from Winter Storm Uri really took another beating and started to decline even further, and we saw a ton of mortality all through our urban forest that summer.

And then the icing on the cake was this February, 2023, you know, we saw the ice storm, which was a completely different type of damage, you know.

Freeze and drought is more of a physiological stress, whereas this ice storm was more of just a physical structural stress.

The damage was simply caused by the sheer weight of the ice.

It really affected the live oaks and ash junipers more than other trees, because they have persistent foliage through the winter.

So they still...

They had so much extra surface area for the ice to accumulate on, which really just did a ton of devastation, especially in northwest Austin is where I saw the worst of it.

And there was even some surprises like our cedar elms, which are deciduous and didn't have a ton of foliage, took a ton of damage.

Some were just absolutely ripped apart in North Central Austin where there's huge stands of them, cedar elm forests.

We saw some areas where it was total canopy loss and massive loss of tree life.

Plus, the insane drought we're going into, or that we just came through- - [John] Hottest year on record yet again.

- [Andrew] I mean, it was brutal.

We're seeing ancient trees that are in the forest, you know, live oaks that have been there for hundreds of years, just completely die from drought.

We're seeing newly planted trees die, we're having a lot of mortality, and it really brings me back to 2011, which was the last time we had a drought of this significance.

So the mortality's gonna be huge.

It has been so hot and so dry that a lot of the fungal pests, a lot of the insects, the normal pests that are a minor nuisance, aren't even there.

We're just seeing total drought damage.

And what that looks like differs from species to species, but it is definitely the most prevailing issue right now, is drought damage through our whole urban forest canopy.

- Well, let's go through a few of those.

I mean, you said, you know, depending upon the species, maybe some of the common ones, the live oaks, Cedar elm, maybe ashes, what...

I mean, how are these drought conditions really showing up?

- Yeah, they're all a little different.

Every species expresses it differently.

Live oak's a tricky one.

A lot of times, they'll have, you know, smaller foliage and the foliage won't be that deep dark green.

But a tricky issue with live oaks is they'll do what we call flashing, where they'll seem perfectly fine and then within a week, the whole tree will just turn brown and you're just way too late.

So that's why we generally recommend keeping your live oaks watered even if they seem like they're okay.

You know, the ashes, the foliage will turn yellow and they'll start to defoliate a little bit.

Bald Cyprus have a pretty unique evolution to deal with drought.

Their foliage will just brown and they'll just drop their needles and they'll just wait for the next year to start growing again.

Monterrey oaks, they'll just turn a pale colored foliage, so instead of being dark green, it'll be a much lighter green.

Some trees like figs, they'll lose turgor pressure and the leaves will droop heavily.

And then eventually, if they stay drooping and don't get any water, they'll just fall right off.

Crape myrtles do a similar thing.

Their leaves will droop, they'll brown, and then they'll fall off if they don't get any water.

So every species is a little different.

- And is there... You know, I've heard if you see leaf retention versus leaf drop, that's a bit more of an alarming sign too.

- It is because what that indicates is that the tree doesn't have the resources to produce abscisic acid, which is basically the hormone that the plant uses to push the petiole off of the tree.

So, you know, when they defoliate in the fall, that's an active process, where they're, you know, releasing those leaves, and if they don't even have the energy to do that, it's a really bad sign.

- What are some of the best watering practices that we can have right now to help try to offset some of this impact?

- Yeah, it's hard to give general advice about watering, 'cause every soil's different, every tree's needs different, the size of the tree, there's a lot of variables, but there's really four basic points that can be consistently applied across our urban forest that will really help you have success with watering.

The number one, I think, would be to have a mulch layer.

You want three to four inches of mulch over as much of the root zone of the tree that you're possibly willing to mulch.

- So that would be maybe the critical root zone to the drip line, or just whatever you can do?

- As much as you're willing to do, that would be ideal.

That's a huge mulch ring on some trees.

If you could do that, the tree would be very happy.

It does a lot of things, it gets rid of any competition, so there's no grasses competing for the moisture.

It helps, you know, make every watering event more available to the tree, sometimes up to 40%.

It slowly adds nutrients to the soil.

It also does a really important thing of buffering the soil temperature from the Texas heat.

You know, if you just have bare soil and that Texas heat is beating down on it, it'll accelerate the drying process.

- Sure.

- Mulch really is the magic potion when it comes to tree health.

The second thing I would say, is to water deep.

And what that essentially means is to get water to at least the top six to eight inches of soil.

This can be best achieved using a soaker hose or drip tubing, you know, a slow release of water over a long period of time.

And you want to try to apply that water over as much of the root zone or the root plate as possible.

You know, anywhere on the roots is good, but if you think about the roots like a spoke on a bike tire, on like the spokes on a bike tire, the closer in, you're gonna have more spokes, so it'll get more water.

But really, you want to try and get as much of the root zone as possible.

- So, you know, what would be the sign of maybe you're too late?

- The sign of being too late, I would say, would... You know, you really wanna wait to see if the tree will come back the next spring.

So I always like to say, you know, see if it'll come back late spring or early summer.

If there's no foliage by that time, you know the tree is pretty much gone.

- And if people do have to replace trees, when's gonna be that ideal time to replace those trees?

- October, November are the best months for most of our trees.

You know, with fruit trees, a lot of times it can make sense to wait until March to try and dodge that last freeze.

But most trees, you want to get in in fall so that they have all winter to put down roots to prepare for the summer.

- You've mentioned that all these different species are affected differently.

Might that be a reason to look at planting a diverse canopy in your yard or on your property?

- It's always a good thing to have a diverse urban forest.

I think the main reason for that is resilience of the urban forest as a whole.

Whenever we have these single events that cause a lot of damage to certain species, if every tree was a live oak, the ice storm would've been been much worse.

If every tree was an ash, then the day emerald ash bore gets here, we'd lose every single tree.

So by having a good mix, you can be sure that the canopy layer will never be too affected by one environmental extreme or another.

- It sounds like there's just a lot of complexity and nuance to really determining what's going on.

You know, why would a person really want to hire a certified arborist versus a tree guy, so to speak?

- A certified arborist is dictated by the International Society of Arboriculture.

It requires that you have a minimum of three years of experience in the field and that you pass a test that was prepared by professionals all across the world.

When you get a certified arborist, you know they at least have the base level layer of knowledge that's gonna have them make the best recommendations for your trees.

- Well, Andrew, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

I know this has been a really pressing question for a lot of people.

- Thanks for having me.

- Now folks, we're gonna check in with Daphne Richards.

(cheerful music) - Thanks, John Hart.

Augie always loves CTG day.

Our question this week is, when's the best time to move perennials, roses, or small trees?

And the answer is autumn.

Autumn is the best time to do most planting and transplanting in Central Texas gardens.

So it's perfectly safe to move any perennials that have lost their leaves and gone dormant to a better location now, if you need to.

Smaller, younger plants will handle the shock of being moved better than older, larger ones will.

But pretty much any plant in your yard that has to be moved, would best be moved in the fall, except for tropical plants, which you should hold off disturbing until early spring, after the last frost has passed.

Even though we've had some crazy-cold winter surprises the last couple of years, our soils don't freeze, so roots generally stay protected.

Soil amendments are generally not necessary when transplanting, as plants don't grow enough during the first winter to use those nutrients.

But a nice layer of mulch around the root zone is always a good idea.

And don't forget to water.

Newly transplanted plants will have disturbed roots, so water will be even more important for them until they get acclimated to their new spot.

A favorite houseplant this time of year is Christmas cactus, the common name for a group of cactus species native to tropical regions of Brazil, that flower around this time of year.

These beautiful plants produce their show-stopping blooms in response to shorter days, so they're very popular gifts this time of year.

David Lee shared pictures of one that's been in his family for over a hundred years.

In summer, he takes them outside to a patio that's shaded by live oak trees.

Even in last summer's record heat, they were fine, but he checked the soil moisture every other day and watered them when they were dry.

Of course, you'll want to bring your Christmas cactus inside in the fall, to a location of your home with bright, indirect light, so that you can protect them from the cold.

We'd love to hear from you.

Click on centraltexasgardener.org to send us your stories, pictures, and videos.

- Let's head over to Laura Brennand, who shows us how to plant for success.

(cheerful music) - Hi, I am Laura Brennand, and today I'm gonna show you how you can start growing plants indoors using seed trays.

There's so many reasons why I like to start growing seeds in trays.

First, you can get a headstart of the growing season.

Sometimes it's too hot, sometimes it's too cold.

Another really good reason is so that way, you can grow different varieties of seeds.

Sometimes there are a limited selection of plants in the nurseries.

You can put one or two seeds into the seed tray rather than just putting all of them in the ground.

Not all of 'em are gonna come up, so you have the benefit of having a better chance of germination right in the trays.

The soil mixture I'm using here, is something light.

I have here some cocoa coir, compost, and vermiculite.

So I'm gonna transfer the soil into the seed tray.

And you wanna do this nice and evenly.

You wanna tap it down some to get rid of the air pockets, so that way, you make sure that all of the seed mixture is going into the seed tray.

I like to prepare my labels ahead of time and put them in the seed tray so that way, I know exactly where the seeds that I'm planting are going.

And after you do that, I like to write it inside my garden journal, just to make sure that I remember what seeds I planted, and what day, and if they germinated or not.

So now we're gonna talk about the different kinds of seeds.

I have here, two common seeds that I like to start in trays.

One of them is cosmos and the other is Thai basil.

I'm a cut flower gardener, so I like to use basil in my arrangements.

Some of 'em are very tiny and some of 'em are pretty large.

Cosmos seeds are a good size, and I like to use my pencil to make pre-holes inside of the seed trays.

Sometimes the seeds are very tiny, like snapdragons, those are very small, and so I just like to just sprinkle a few on the top and then push them in.

But for cosmos seeds, these are a good size, so I'm gonna just pop 'em inside one seed at a time for each seed tray.

You can kinda just with your finger, push them in.

And once you have them all filled in, you're gonna wanna kind of mist it so that way, it's all moisturized.

Check on your seeds first thing in the morning.

Are they still wet?

Are they drying up?

I do a little finger test.

I kind of put my finger inside to see if it needs more moisture.

I have a mister that I like to mist in the mornings.

So something that you wanna keep in mind when you have light, is that it needs to be as closest to the seeds as you can, so that way, as they grow, you can move the light up, so that way they're not stretching out or getting too leggy.

The goal is to get them in the garden.

So once plants are about two inches high, the first leaves, the second leaves, that's when you can take them out.

And I use a knife to kind of get them out, shake all of the excess soil, and then you wanna put them in the garden.

Or if you have extras, then you can pot them up into a four inch.

Here, they can get nice and big and bushy.

I don't like to keep them in four inches for too long, because sometimes they get stunted and they just wanna be in the garden, so you wanna get them in the garden as soon as you can.

For Backyard Basics, I'm Laura Brennand.

- Find out more and watch online at centraltexasgardner.org.

Until next time, remember, adopt the pace of nature.

Her secret is patience.

(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) - [Announcer] Central Texas Gardener is made possible by the generous support from Lisa and Desi Rhoden.

Thank you.

(tinkling music)