- Howdy.

I'm John Hart Asher.

This week on "Central Texas Gardener", meet Colleen Belk, who followed a dream that's led her down unexpected paths, from design to plants.

Designer Casey Boyter showcases the Austin creators on this year's Garden Conservancy Tour, where native and adapted plants mingle with outdoor living.

Daphne Richards answers your questions, and Austin Davenport demonstrates how to grow and harvest microgreens.

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

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

Thank you.

(bright music) (birds chirping) - Gardens can be a diary, if you will, of our life's progression.

When Colleen Belk started hers over 40 years ago, she never imagined where its path would lead her.

- When I first started, I didn't know really what I was doing.

I just love plants.

My name's Colleen Belk, and Brady and I bought this property about 48 years ago.

And it's been the happiest time of my life.

Brad and I created these gardens on our own.

And working for Plant Nursery Health because I was given a lot of plants and my paycheck didn't always come home.

(laughs) That's really true.

Anyway, it's just been therapy for me, especially the last two years.

I haven't really wanna go anywhere.

I just wanna garden and be here.

and that's what I've been doing.

So when I started, behind me here is a small, round area.

That was my first garden that I actually did.

And then the second garden was in the very front, is a small area there, and that was my second garden.

Not big.

So I kind of started small.

And then as time progressed, I started doing rock gardens.

I started doing a lot of rock work, and next thing I know, I have another garden bed.

And it just all just keeps coming together.

One thing my husband said to me, he says, "Colleen", he says, "You cannot garden the front.

You have to have boundaries."

I went, "Okay, honey."

So I built, had Hermilio and Danielle build stacked, rock walls around the back perimeter from our front to back.

And he was right, but I did slowly start going to the front, but not anywhere else.

It's hard to stop.

I realize that I need to fence my backyard in.

I have to do that because I'm tired of fighting the deer, and I love deer, but I'm tired of fighting 'em.

My very front garden, that's all deer-resistant plants.

They don't eat any of those plants.

I have two rose bushes out there, but they're tall, but they eat the bottom foliage, but they can't reach the top.

And a lot of my friends would gimme advice, and that's where some of these things came about because they'd say, "Oh, Colleen, you should put this there and that there."

And I go, "Okay, I wouldn't have thought of that."

It's hard to judge a plant when it's small, of how big it's going to actually get, but you can always dig it up and transplant it and put it somewhere else if you mess up, (laughs) which I've done occasionally.

Scott Thurmond, he's the one I hired to build this pond for me.

And he had a college student that helped him.

They'd walk around all my yard and they'd walk over from my neighbor's yard, and that's where he got some of the larger boulders.

And he just incorporated it into the back of my yard to make it look natural.

That was so helpful, and I've enjoyed this pond ever since.

I had crushed granite for a long time, but I realized that it was dark.

And so I said, "I want it brighter."

So that's when I put the pea gravel in, and it did change the whole, the look of my garden.

Every view you walk in, my garden's a different view.

It gives you a totally different aspect, the way my garden looks.

My father, when he was gardening, he did everything in lines.

He measured things in line.

And he came to my yard once goes, "Colleen, what are you doing?

This is just like a, I mean, it's like, these plants are everywhere.

What's going on?"

And I said, "Daddy, this is called a cottage garden.

It's like you let things grow, and there's a variety of all kinds of things.

I don't want a long row of marigolds and a long row of that.

(laughs) I don't want that.

That's just not me anymore.

I appreciate what you did, Daddy, but I don't do that."

And he goes, "Well, it's just beautiful."

(Colleen chuckles) Daddy was so funny.

You have your garden and you could be out in it.

Go, "You know what?

I think I want a seat, I want a chair there with a bench.

I want that."

Or I'll go to the nursery and I'll buy plants, and I really like that plant.

And I'll come home and go, "Now, where am I gonna plant this?

Where can I put this so that I can appreciate it?"

And that's how I do that, that way.

I would go to every nursery in town.

I loved nurseries.

I love looking at plants.

Other people's enthusiasm is just so contagious.

So contagious.

So going to nurseries, I felt that.

Going to Barton Springs, the first one that I went to over off Barton Springs, so I called it, I guess, it was a very unusual place.

And I met Conrad, and he was just the neatest person ever.

And his wife, I met her and she was behind the desk.

She was the cashier, and she'd quit her job, her professional job to help Conrad.

And they both were just so sweet.

And I had two little boys, four-year-old and a six-year-old, or younger than that.

And they'd run through the nursery and I was like, "Oh my gosh, is that okay?"

And they went, "Oh, sure, they can.

He won't get in trouble."

I was president of the Herb Society for two years, and I learned a lot there.

And I'd come talk to her about herbs with 'em and do this and that, you know.

I came home and asked Brad, I said, "Brad, you know what, if I work at the nursery?

I really need to do something.

I can't stay home and raise kids.

I'm bored, I gotta do something."

He goes, "Okay, go for it."

So I did.

That was back when water was really scarce, you know?

And Brad says, "Well, let's just get a rainwater, let's just do a rainwater collection system."

I said, "I have no idea, Brad."

He goes, "I'm an engineer, Colleen.

I'll figure it out."

People would show up and Brad would just go, "I gotta show you my rainwater collection system.

It's so cool.

You gotta see what I've done.

I mean, it's the best."

And he was so excited.

He loved doing that.

And then when it would rain.

There's a gauge over there.

When it would rain really hard, he'd go, "Colleen, let's go sit.

Get a glass of wine.

Let's come sit."

And we'd watch in the rain, we'd watch that bobber go up, and it's filling the tanks.

He just thought that was like, "Oh my God, this is the coolest thing ever."

(laughs) I think my succulents thrive because I only use rainwater.

What's fun too is that spring, summer, and fall are totally different environment and different color and different plants.

In the wintertime though, when I get a hard freeze, pretty much my yard is a perennial garden.

So a lot of it is just goes away and it's dormant-looking and it's kind of sad.

But I had a friend of mine come over and I said, "Robert," I says, "Look at this.

There's no plants."

He goes, "Colleen, this is the time you see the bones of your garden.

You get to see the rocks, you get to see your garden in a different way.

So just appreciate that."

I went, "You know, I would've never had thought of that until you told me that."

And so now I do.

It really does mean a lot, but it's not dormant for long.

And it's definitely makes me feel good.

When it's growing and it seeds out places, I let the seeds pretty much lie where they are.

There's an orchid tree over there right now.

The little orchid tree that seeded itself out, and I'm letting it grow.

And it's perfect place.

It's like, okay, I like this.

Another fulfilling aspect of my garden is that there are so many different varieties of, and there are insects, but some of the insects are just temporary and it's okay.

But I have birds and I have butterflies.

And I have these frogs.

I come sit out and listen to the frogs talk and stuff.

It's really nice.

Then I had the greenhouse down below.

Brad and I built this deck and the walkway down to the greenhouse and he helped me build that greenhouse.

And inside that greenhouse I have a mist table that I actually grow plants.

I do cuttings and then I propagate 'em and then I put 'em to four-inch and to gallons.

It's just been a value to me because if anyone shows up in my yard, I love giving plants away.

The fact that I grew that from cutting, it makes me feel even better.

There are times where you've bought a plant and that plant doesn't survive.

It's kind of frustrating to me sometimes.

It used to be more frustrating 'cause I go, "Why can't I grow that plant?"

But then I'd realize maybe this isn't the time for that plant to grow here, or that's not the right plant for this location, or I'm over watering it, or it's getting too much sun or too much shade.

So it's a learning process and you learn from your mistakes.

That is just, you just do.

You learn from your mistakes.

and don't let it, don't let it any way, keep you from gardening.

Don't feel like you can't do this because you can.

The process of having a garden, the process of it is like here, you've created this environment and you sit.

In the mornings, I come out with my coffee and I sit here and look at my gardens, and it's so rewarding.

It's just a reward I get every morning, or whenever I come out in my garden.

It's all a part of the whole process of having a garden.

What else is special about my yard is that being in the nursery business as long as I was, I had so many friends and people that I met that gave me plants.

So I can say, I can walk in my garden and I can tell you who gave me those plants.

And that's real special to me because they are in my garden with me and there's lots of plants here that were given to me.

A lot of times, I dig plants up to share if someone wants 'em.

A lot of memories, a lot of good memories in my garden.

- And you can visit Colleen Belk's Garden in-person on this year's Garden Conservancy Open Days Tour.

Right now, Designer Casey Boyter walks us through all the gardens and how you can attend.

Great to see you, Casey.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- [John] How's it going?

- Going great.

- Wonderful.

So now for people who aren't familiar with the Conservancy and the Open Days Tour, what is it?

- It's a nonprofit organization with the goal of advancing and sharing American gardens for the education and inspiration of the public.

And one way to do so, inspire the public is through tours and programs such as Open Days Tour.

It's been going on since 1995.

It's in 41 different states and expanding.

And we've seen 44,000 gardens or so since '95.

- This is gonna be the first one in Austin since around 2019?

- Yep.

First one since the pandemic.

We're back in our every other year, flip flopping with San Antonio.

- [John] We looked at Colleen Belk's Garden.

How did you decide to start with hers?

- I'm a huge admirer of Colleen Belk.

We've known each other a super long time working at a nursery together a million years ago.

And I admire her very much on many levels.

She's just an amazing gardener.

This garden in particular, it really because of how skilled she is, is a gardener's garden.

- Oh, okay.

- Beautiful collections.

- [John] And it's how old is the garden?

It's been there for quite some time, right?

- [Casey] It's pretty incredible.

And I don't know how it makes mathematical sense for Colleen, but she's had that garden, I think, as she said, for 43 years she's been working on it.

- 43 years.

Well, what are some of the elements that she's sort of put together in that time?

I mean, my goodness.

- I mean, it tells a story, absolutely.

It tells a history of just her knowledge of plants.

She propagates on a greenhouse.

One thing about this tour, I think is it, the tour, that all the gardens this year take inspiration from the landscape that surrounds them.

So it's a beautiful take on very hearty plants from nature around.

- So we need that this year, don't we?

- Oh yeah.

- How much are tickets, and where can people get those?

- Tickets are $10 a garden.

There is a discount for members, so I encourage you to become members.

But yeah, $10 per garden and that can be found at gardenconservancy.org at the Open Days tab at the top.

- The next garden we're gonna talk about is a Tortuga Garden?

Am I saying that correctly?

- Yes, you are.

Turtle, turtle.

Yeah.

- Tell us about that one.

- This one is beautiful.

It's on the banks of Lake Austin, which is really interesting because Lake Austin can create microclimates.

And so it's opportunities to find, interesting, the water holds a lot of heat, so it's more tropical of a garden.

But it's beautiful, established wild cypresses.

Yeah, they did a wonderful job.

ADLA did this, designed this garden.

- Okay, and from your perspective, what's the best thing about the Gardens tour?

- I just love how, the access because these are private gardens that not everybody gets to see all the time.

So it really is a nice opportunity for the public to see something that they don't see all the time.

- So you're gonna see probably a lot of different styles and different plant pallets.

- Exactly.

- [John] You're just gonna get the whole mix, per se.

- [Casey] Exactly.

Exactly.

- And Casey, this year, it's probably a really great time to get back into things, so to speak because we've had quite an impactful year.

We've had yet another pretty hard freeze.

We know what the summer's been like.

So, what are the lessons learned, you think, we can get from attending these gardens?

- I mean, Central Texas is a pretty interesting ecotone of sorts, as we know, where there are a whole bunch of different ecosystems that converge.

So it gives us a lot of different plants to choose from.

And there's quite a few winners that can be found here in Central Texas.

And these landscapers and designers and owners of the gardens are showing us what's possible.

- And again, it's important to attend this year because we haven't had 'em in the past, and this is gonna be some great funding for the conservancy, correct?

- Absolutely.

An opportunity to walk around with people that have success in their gardens after these extreme events.

- Yeah, so I think that's a really big thing, I think exciting for me is getting to have that one-on-one time with some experts that maybe can help you troubleshoot a few things that might be going on in your neck of the woods, so to speak, and to deal with some of these challenges.

'Cause again, I think it's so nice that you get to see gardens that have been there for quite some time and have rolled with the punches, so to speak.

But you've got some of these newer designs as well.

And then we're gonna move on to the Folded Slope garden.

Is that correct?

What are you gonna see there?

- It's kind of interesting.

Folded Slope is really, it kind of explains the landscape itself.

It's in Wild Basin, and it's in a canyon of sorts with Wild Basin Preserve around it.

And the landscape itself mirrors those hillsides and folds in on the slope.

It's beautifully done by Open Envelope Studio.

- Open Envelope, yes, we love them.

And you said it's relating to that hillside.

So is it, as we'd mentioned, there's gonna be lots of styles, this one's more of a naturalistic sort of garden, you would classify it, or is it a little bit of a counterpoint to that?

- Yeah, I think it sets in with the existing topography of the landscape, for sure.

It's a little bit more modern in its lines because of the house, but it definitely just folds into the existing landscape.

- Are any homeowners, people going out, the homeowners or the designers are gonna be there?

How does that work so they can learn about the gardens while they're visiting?

- Absolutely.

We know the Colleen's definitely gonna be there to tour people around.

Tait will be there.

So yeah, we'll have homeowners, we'll have designers, and we'll have our trustee volunteers as well.

- Okay, so they'll help, guide you through the process and let you know.

So the next is the Bee Cave Garden.

This one has been on the tour before, I believe.

The landscape architect is a long-time friend of Central Texas Gardener, but there have been changes.

So especially since I believe 2019, since we sort of shut down for a while.

- I love Tait's Garden.

Tait's is beautiful.

He is a landscape architect, also has the building side of his company.

So it is just a beautiful example of masonry work that can be done with scraps from old jobs and things like that, but with a beautiful touch.

It is an expansive property.

I think it's over 20 acres in total, right off of Bee Cave.

So he has an entire hillside and canyon of, I think it's Barton Creek.

So it really is beautiful to see just the lush trees that were quite affected actually by the past three freezes that we got.

So it's been kind of fun to see the story of how the weather has changed through that untouched canopy.

- [John] So how long has that garden?

I mean, he's been working on that for quite some time.

- I Don't know exactly, but I think it's maybe '80s, early '90s is my guess.

So yeah, he's been working on it for a while, and I think it's been on the tour, I'd say at least 10 years ago.

So it's about time we had him again.

- Okay, and I mean, we mentioned there's different styles, different plant communities, but also, I think that it's gonna be really interesting for the visitors is gonna be, they're gonna be able to see lots of gardens that have grown in over time, that have dealt with a lot of the ice apocalypse.

I don't even know how you say it anymore.

So you're gonna be able to see a lot of time ranges and things that have worked out over time versus stuff that's sort of a flash in the pan, per se.

- Definitely, there's some old gardens and there's some newer gardens for sure.

And each of those tells a really cool story of how ever-changing and ever-evolving gardens really can be.

Definitely.

- Okay, and then again, as opposed to these are the, are there four or five?

- There's four.

- There's four gardens this year.

Okay.

What information of when, where, how, how much for the tickets again?

- So go to gardenconservancy.org, the Open Days tab.

First Saturday in November, November the fourth from 10 to four.

Yep.

Buy your tickets online and we will see you there.

- Casey, thank you again so much for coming and speaking with us.

I'm looking forward to the tour.

And looking forward to see you out there as well.

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

(upbeat music) - Thanks John Hart.

Augie and I are happy to see you.

When Daylight Saving Time ends on November 5th, we'll fall back an hour.

These time switches can be hard on people, but plants don't rely on clocks to know that fall is here.

But the shorter hour of daylights definitely do have an impact on our plants.

Temperate species like our native deciduous trees, shrubs, and perennials keep track of time biochemically through processes that are affected by air temperature and the number of hours of daylight they experience.

The arrival of shorter days and cooler temperatures announces that it's time to sleep.

Probably the most widely recognized biochemically-induced change for plants in the fall is leaf drop for deciduous species.

If freezing temps are on the way, soft, green tissue can be more of a liability than an advantage.

So deciduous trees and shrubs reabsorb the nutrients in leaves and then drop them as a means of self-preservation.

Natural biochemical changes in leaves lead first to a color change, then to death, and eventually to leaf drop.

Autumn biochemical changes also induce other plant responses like blooming, such as in chrysanthemums, or a fruit set, such as the ripening of berries.

In plants whose leaves change color before dropping in the fall, the interplay of weather and biochemical processes has an effect on autumn leaf color.

As leaves begin to die, green chlorophyll is broken down, making way for red, orange, or yellow pigments.

If plants are stressed and natural biochemical processes are disrupted due to drought perhaps, dead leaves may cling on unnaturally for most of the winter, only being removed by the arrival of winter winds strong enough to tear them violently away from limbs.

But once leaves do finally fall to the ground, consider leaving them in your yard rather than raking them up and putting them by the curb.

Leaves aren't trash, they're treasure.

You can use them in compost piles as a source of brown to balance out the green of lawn clippings and food waste, or you can mow them up, allowing the mulched clippings to fall back to the ground and work their way down into the root zone where they add precious, organic matter along with the small amount of nutrients, building a healthy soil structure for roots to grow in.

Or you could simply rake fallen leaves into garden beds and use them as free mulch, piling them around your plants to protect from the coming cold of winter.

We'd love to hear from you.

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

- You don't need a lot of space or even a yard to grow lip-smacking microgreens for salads, sandwiches, smoothies, and more.

Austin Davenport, a community gardener who grows his microgreens in his apartment, demonstrates how to grow and harvest them even in refurbished containers.

(upbeat music) - I'm Austin Davenport, and we're here at the Deep Roots Community Garden.

And today, I'm gonna show you how to grow microgreens.

Now microgreens are perfect for any range of skill levels or gardening space.

These vegetables grow in small, condensed containers, and are typically harvested within 10 to 14 days.

You can see here that I'm growing these microgreens in a 10-inch by 20-inch nursery tray.

These trays are easy to come by and I like them personally because I can expect about a pound of greens from a single tray.

In order to sterilize the tray, I just use a bit of soap and water, but also any sort of like bleach solution will work, as long as you wipe it back down and get it nice and dry before you use it.

But before putting in any growing media, I like to create a little wicking system using twine and that'll hang into a reservoir of water and bring water up to the trays as needed.

I'll show you how this works.

So the twine pulls up the water to the plants just as needed.

Not too much water, not too little, but just right.

Starting out, you'll want to use a nice, clean growing container and some growing media.

I like to use coconut coir personally because it's inert and it doesn't have any sort of fungus, gnats, or microbes.

I could put this whole tray into the fridge without having to worry about introducing any sort of dirt and contamination in my fridge.

You want your growing media to be nice and damp, about a ringed out sponge level of dampness before you set it down into the tray, and that'll help get perfect germination every time.

Microgreen seeds or anything that are like a vegetable that you could eat the entire plant, stem, leaf, all of it, that mostly includes all your leafy greens, your peas, your cabbages, your bok choys, your brassicas, lentils.

I like radish most specifically 'cause it's nice and spicy at the end.

It's not too spicy, but with other micro greens, I think it gives a really, really good balance.

And now I'm just gently spraying the seeds.

I just want good, clean coverage.

I want some touching.

I don't want them on top of each other, just one single layer.

And then I'm really gonna go in hard on the edges because the edges will keep everything nice and straight.

And from here, we're just gonna give the seeds a good, little watering.

Dang it.

The rosette on this thing is a little clogged.

We don't wanna disturb the soil level so much.

We want to keep everything nice and even.

From here, we're gonna check on the seeds at least once a day to make sure that there's good germination, nice and damp surface.

And we're also gonna put another tray on top of it just to keep out all the light.

We want the seeds to grow devoid of any light, and that will help them grow straight upwards.

After a few days of where we see good germination and straight, yellow seedlings, we'll move these to a light source.

That can be a window sill, that can be fluorescent lights.

Any light source would do, as long as it's like T5, natural lighting, or LEDs.

These have been under darkness for about two to three days now.

I've kept it nice and damp.

We have really good germination.

I want to see about maybe an inch and a quarter of them nice and straight upwards before I'll start moving them to a light source.

I could definitely move these to a light source now, and it would work out just fine.

But I want them just a little bit more straight from my personal preference.

I'll gently water these from the top using a small watering can or a spray bottle.

I want the roots to start getting a little bit longer before I switch the bottom watering method.

These are about four days old.

At about five to six days old, the roots will be long enough for me to use the bottom watering method.

We want to use the bottom watering method for two main reasons.

The first being to discourage any sort of fungus development on the surface.

We wanna water from the bottom up, not the top down to try to keep the surface as dry as possible.

And that'll help prevent any sort of molds developing on your microgreens.

And we also want to have good air circulation in the room with these, and that'll help prevent any sort of molds developing on the top.

When it comes time to harvest, you want to use a really, really sharp utensil.

Otherwise, you'll start to see some browning from the bottoms, and that'll sort of reduce the shelf life.

And that's it.

After about 10 to 14 days, you're ready to harvest food that you grew yourself.

These greens are incredibly delicious.

They'll last you quite a long time, a lot longer than a packet of salad mix from the store.

And thank you so much for your interest in growing a portion of your own food.

Have fun.

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

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

Her secret is patience.

(bright music) (bright music) (birds chirping) (bright music) - [Announcer] "Central Texas Gardener" is made possible by the generous support from Lisa and Desi Rhoden.

Thank you.

(gentle flute music) (no audio)