- Howdy, I'm John Hart Asher!

This week on "Central Texas Gardener," let's bring together beauty, resilience, and good health.

In San Antonio, Jeffrey Harris and Kevin George turned an empty backyard into a sensory voyage.

Liz Pfluger from Green 'n Growing spotlights a few native plants geared for our region, especially the Blackland Prairie.

Caroline Riley from Mutable Earth Botanicals serves up herbal-infused honey and tea.

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

- [Narrator] "Central Texas Gardener" is made possible by generous support from Lisa & Desi Rhoden.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Imagination, creative reuse, and spirited fun turned an empty backyard into a sensory voyage.

In their San Antonio garden, Jeffrey Harris and Kevin George outlined circular paths that amble from vibrant poolside color to tranquil conversation nooks.

- Before I started, I didn't really know anything.

It's been an adventure.

Hi, I'm Jeffery Harris, and I live here in San Antonio with my partner, Kevin.

My partner inherited this house back in 2009, so it's been a work in progress.

What little what little was here was dying St. Augustine lawn.

And so that was the first thing to go, because I knew that we, you know, had some severe droughts all the time.

There were a few trees in place, so I worked around those, and it just went from there.

I worked as a social worker for many years, and that work was pretty stressful.

So I needed a place to de-stress.

And I had been to a few gardens around the country, and I always found them so tranquil, and they really created this sense of peace for me.

And I thought, "You know what?

I want that at my own house so I don't have to keep traveling to all these different gardens."

And also, we like to entertain.

We have, you know, a nice set of friends.

And I wanted them to have a place to enjoy when they came over.

And so I created pathways in kind of a circular motion that people could go from one point to another.

Well, when we moved in, the house had a patio slab, which was nice, but the summer heat just beat down on the house.

And we knew that we needed some form of shade right away.

So we put in the covered porch.

And it has really created a nice place to come out and sit.

And then we also have an outdoor dining table where we've hosted many barbecue parties.

And it's a nice place to eat and enjoy the evenings.

Starting from the the covered porch, it kind of leads into what I call the subtropical garden.

The plants that are located in there lend a tropical feel.

And I also tried to create different levels.

And it doesn't take much.

This was a fairly flat piece of property.

There was a slight incline, but just created using Windsor Stones or some type of stone to build up a bed, even if it's only maybe like a foot, foot and a half, it really helps create, you know, that sense of different levels, some sense of excitement.

And as this was kind of close to the pool deck, I started thinking like, "I really want to create more of a rounded form of garden where there's plants in a circle rather than in a line."

So I thought, "You know what?

That would be a really great area to put some seating."

And I've always been kind of against grass.

You know, when we moved in here, what little grass was left I just completely took out.

But this area really called for some grass because it has a nice, soft place to step on to if you get out of the pool, and it kind of creates a place for the eye to rest with all the flowering trees and shrubs around it.

So as you're walking along the pathway through the tropical garden, it kind of segues into more of a Mediterranean look.

And one of the things that is really a focal point is a large iron gazebo.

And what I've really learned is creating focal points in your garden is so important because it's somewhere for you.

It draws your eye.

And then tucked right off to the side in between the tropical garden and the Mediterranean is what I call a little serenity garden or tranquil garden.

And you can go in there, sit down on a bench with a cushion, and just kind of contemplate life.

And there's a bird fountain in there and a bird bath.

And then the pathway continues from there.

And so as you're moving through these different rooms, there's always something to catch your eye, whether it be a plant or a statue or a piece of yard art.

And then as you're moving from that, you step down from the Mediterranean gazebo, you move into what I call the seating area, and it consists of four red Adirondack chairs with a large umbrella to provide shade.

And it's just a nice place to sit with your friends and have a conversation.

So what we've done is we've repurposed things from the house and also gone to thrift stores and found some things that fit nicely.

The house had security bars when Kevin's mother lived here.

Once we inherited the house, we took those bars off.

And we have repurposed those throughout the garden.

And I think it worked really well.

Kevin painted them all black, so they're kind of a uniform color.

And what's so interesting is if you turn around and go back the other way, you see so many different other things, and it gives a whole different feel to the same pathway that you just came from.

The pool, obviously, is a large focal point for the garden.

But there was something missing at the end of the pool.

And so I thought, "You know, what could go there?"

I envisioned a large red cedar pavilion.

And so we had that put in.

And it just creates a sense of peacefulness.

And again, that sense of enclosure, because it's surrounded by lattice and flowering vines, and then also some pieces of artwork that are also put on the walls of the pavilion.

And then you wind up on the pool deck, you're kind of seeking refuge from the heat at that point.

And so I had this area behind the shed that we had put in, but I had some forethought and I started thinking like, "Let's put doors on both sides of the shed."

That way we could access the shed from what I now call the lower courtyard garden.

And it's kind of tucked away, you know, behind the shed.

And it's very shady and comforting.

There's a fountain.

I had a townhouse before, and the owners that purchased it didn't want the metal bifold closet doors.

So I took them with me, and I repurposed those as well by putting it along the fence.

So it really provides a sense of enclosure.

It creates its own room.

And then I had a nice little backdrop of like an English garden.

Part of the garden is filled with colorful flowers, shrubs that give off scent, just a real sense of excitement and the viewers like to come into.

But there's a time for a downtime, right, where one needs to relax, to get a sense of calm and peace.

And we certainly needed that.

And I think by creating the different rooms, that that is achieved.

So you can go from one room, if you're looking for excitement and adventure.

And then if you're needing some downtime and wanting to some time to relax, then there's another room that you can go to.

And that's nice to have both.

- Knowing what kind of soil you've got makes a big difference in what you can plant.

Today I'm joined by Liz Pfluger from Green 'n Growing in Pflugerville, who spotlights a few native plants geared for our region, especially my favorite, the Blackland Prairie.

Liz, it's wonderful to have you here.

- I'm so glad to be here again.

- Thank you so much for coming.

We've got a lot of wonderful plants to talk about, but first, forgive me, but I have to ask you about, you're in Pflugerville, your last name's Pfluger.

Is there a connection?

- There is a connection.

So my family was early settlers in the area.

And we were very centrally located, the family farm, so they just sort of built the city around us.

- Ah.

So you were the original, native Pflugervillian, I guess, maybe.

- Yes.

(laughs) - What does that mean for plants?

What are the soil types that we're talking about?

- Generally, in our area, especially in the Pflugerville area, east of 35, you're gonna be in that heavy black clay.

And it's very different from the rockier, more caliche soils that you're gonna see in the escarpment area, which is where a lot of natives you see commonly in the industry are coming out of.

And those plants don't always, though they often do, thrive in our black clay soil.

Drainage tends to be an issue with us.

We also tend to be a little rainier and wetter, and we hold that moisture longer.

And plants that can take those conditions are really critical for success with natives in our area.

- There are some plants from the Edwards Plateau that come over, because we're essentially in an ecotone, right, where the convergence of Blackland Prairie and that plateau are coming head to head.

So we do have some variability that perhaps a distinct zone might not.

- Yeah, I think that people sometimes get two ideas.

These are like these firm barriers, and they're really malleable.

And then you have plants that go across the whole state, like blanket flower, Mexican hats, a lot of different grasses.

And you have plants like the purple skullcap that is often thought of as more of an Edwards Plateau plant, but you do see it transitioning into our area, especially in slopey areas.

- So the good news is if you live here, you've got a lot to work with.

- A lot of material, which is great.

I have such a variety in my yard, and I think people can have more variety in their yards too.

- Okay.

Let's start here with this beautiful flower, which is all over our roadsides at the moment, Indian blanket flower.

- Oh, that is one of my absolute favorites.

I think it is widely underutilized in yards.

You see it on the roadsides, and you should be putting it in your beds.

It is a perennial.

It also does recede and spread itself through the yard, which I think of as free plants, in not a problematic way.

It's very easy to move if it's somewhere you don't like it.

It is an absolute favorite of pollinators, and it will bloom very heavily in the spring, early summer.

With a little irrigation, you can push that through the summer, well into fall.

Now, young plants that you've transferred in, of course, you're gonna have to water, establish.

Once they're well established, it is one of the most drought-tolerant plants you can grow.

In my yard, they're only getting a few irrigations in the middle of summer, and that's just to keep it kind of looking how my neighbors would like my yard to look.

(laughs) - I see a number of grasses here which sort of grew, but I think we've got big bluestem, we've got blue grama, we've got little bluestem, and we've got bushy bluestem.

So let's go through those.

Let's start with big blue.

- Yeah, big blue is a plant that you're gonna see a lot through the Blackland Prairies.

But where you really see it is more eastern Blackland Prairies.

As we had west into our area, its water needs aren't always met by rainfall.

And I think that's another thing you have to think about, is the soil conditions are one thing, but also the climate affects things.

I think with big bluestem is a beautiful grass.

It's not my absolute favorite for the landscape 'cause it can be tricky in our area.

- [John] And again, with that shade.

- Sun.

- Sun?

- [Liz] For me, I think it's best in the sun.

- I think that's gonna be a common answer.

(John and Liz laugh) Let's move on to little bluestem.

What about that?

This is one of my favorites.

- I love little bluestem.

I think it's everyone's favorite who likes native grasses.

- [John] All the plant nerds.

- [Liz] And we all like it.

It has beautiful color, that kind of silvery blue spring color.

It gets these wonderful brown plumes in the fall.

It gets that coppery red winter color.

So it has great interest through a lot of seasons.

Nice structure, nice smaller grass.

I think it looks wonderful planted in groupings, and that's really how it looks in the wild.

And it really looks at its best in our yards too.

- Both of these are big supporters of pollinators as well, right?

- Yes.

- Everybody thinks flowers, but- - Everyone thinks flowers, but grasses, especially native grasses, are so important for pollinators.

They also provide a lot of winter shelter sites as well.

And they're a really important part.

When you're putting pollinator plants in your yard, incorporating native grasses is so critical.

- And bird nesting material, right?

- Yes.

I mean, birds, yeah, I love my birds.

And that's also with seeds too.

And I love watching my finches harvest, especially the turkey feet on the giant.

They love it.

- And then if you have those growing, those are later successional prairie species, so that means you've got really healthy soil as well, correct?

- Yes, it is a sign of good soil.

'Cause you're gonna see the bigger the grass is, generally the deeper the soil and the better condition that soil's in.

Your smaller grasses tend to go in areas with thinner, poorer soils.

- Okay.

And the other two grasses, we've got sort of polar opposites of the moisture level.

We've got blue grama and bushy bluestem.

Why do you have those out here?

- I have them out here because, well, blue grama, I think we all know, it is a really widespread grass, and it is a fantastic grass.

I love it in big mass plantings.

I love to use it as a low ground cover, like, in what a lot of people, like, call the hellstrip.

And it has these absolutely adorable little seed pods that are so cute.

They start in early summer, late spring, and they just look great.

It's very soft and fluffy.

Very drought tolerant, very good with hot sun, very good with reflected heat, which isn't always the case with grasses.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

And then- - And then bushy blue.

- My polar opposite.

And a plant that I brought in because people don't know what it is.

And yet it's a very common plant in my area.

And it meets a need that we have, which is people who have areas with really poor drainage, that stay wet or stay very seasonally wet.

This grass grows in those areas.

You're gonna see it in river bottoms and creek bottoms and areas like that.

Those low-lying, water-collecting areas.

I see it a lot in suburban yards, where they have strips between the houses that are low that just hold moisture.

This grass will live there, colonize there, bring in a ton of wildlife, and it is absolutely beautiful in the fall and winter.

- Well, let's quickly go through some of the other plants we've got here.

I know we've got a skullcap that you mentioned earlier.

- We do have a skullcap, and that one is one that people really think of as being an escarpment plant.

But I see it a lot in the Pflugerville area.

I used to see it a lot more as developments kind of disappeared out.

That is a less commonly seen.

Pink skullcap I think is a skullcap most people think of.

This skullcap, it's gonna be a little taller.

It's gonna be about 18 inches tall.

Makes a really nice neat mound.

Those beautiful purple flowers in the spring and summer.

It's absolutely gorgeous, and it does recede itself.

- [John] And then what about Artemesia over there?

- Oh, well, that is one of my favorite plants that can be sort of a little bit too good of a grower in the garden.

If you like your plants to stay very neatly in place, you may wanna put it somewhere confined, whether you like sidewalks or something like that.

But if you're like me, and you just are like, "That's a free plant," I just let it loose.

I love that silver color running between my perennials.

It covers up my early spring-flowering perennials.

As they're going out, it's really coming in.

And that also is gonna give you some evergreen structure through most winters with that silver color, which is nice.

- [John] And then another structural plant you've got is the coralberry, correct?

- Oh yeah.

I love coralberry.

(laughs) If you've talked to me at the nursery about shade, I've probably recommended coralberry.

- [John] Okay.

- That is a plant that is a shade plant for our area, which we don't have a ton of in the Blacklands, 'cause we're more of a grassland.

But this, I don't think of it as a single solitary shrub.

I really think of it as a tall ground cover, 'cause it likes to spread itself out.

And using it in large amounts in banks and sweeps, it looks really lush, really glamorous, and really beautiful.

- I mean, in the winter, too, when it sets those berries.

So it's not just a spring or growing season.

In the winter, it just sets off, right?

- Oh yeah.

Those great, little, magenta berries.

And also for pollinators, the little flowers in the summer are really popular.

You probably won't notice them, but your little native pollinators will absolutely adore them.

- Really quickly, last two we've got is Carolina buckthorn, and we've got some elbow bush for more of our structural plants.

- Elbow bush, one of my favorites.

Huge shrub.

People looking for larger shrubs, even up to privacy, this is a really cool option.

Elbow bush's name, the branches come and turn on joints.

And it ends up creating this really, you can't see on this young plant, but end up creating this fabulous weeping effect.

The foliage is really soft and green and stays really green.

Even in hot, dry summers, elbow bush is normally looking very fresh, which I really like.

The way it looks in the landscape is beautiful.

It looks gorgeous combined with grasses, and it's a great little plant.

It can take some shade too.

- Yeah, I've noticed it under some oaks.

- You normally see it kind of growing on wood edges, is where normally I find it.

- Okay.

And our last one, the Carolina buckthorn.

- Carolina buckthorn.

Wildly underplanted little native tree.

I think of it as really being an understory tree.

It needs some shade, especially from hot afternoon sun.

The shape of it is one of my favorite things.

They have a very open branching shape.

Kind of reminiscent of the Eastern dogwood to me.

Cute little bloomers, great little berries.

Really pretty little tree.

- Well, Liz, thank you so much.

You gotta come back 'cause we could stay here for hours chatting about this stuff.

But thank you so much for sharing your passion for these natives and helping people understand how they can better utilize them in your yard.

- Great.

Thank you for having me.

- Now let's head over to Backyard Basics with Caroline Riley, who shows how to make herb-infused honey and sun tea.

(upbeat music) - Hi, my name's Caroline Riley, and I'm a community herbalist who works with plants that grow in our bioregion.

You can find me in our garden at the Whole Life Learning Center in South Austin, and you can find our herbal remedies in adult classes through Mutable Earth Botanicals.

Today I'm gonna show you how I process and dry herbs in my home, as well as make a delicious herb-infused honey and some fresh plant sun tea.

Summer's coming, which means it's getting hot.

And I say that let's use the heat and sun to make some cooling, relaxing plant remedies to support us through the seasons.

I brought these plants from our garden, all of which love the heat.

We have tulsi, AKA holy basil, that is a plant from Southeast Asia and India.

It brings pollinators into the garden, it can grow in full sun, and it thrives in our summers.

Here we have lemon balm, which I like to say is sunshine in plant form.

It's a perennial, and it likes a little extra water and a little bit of shade.

But if you give it a little love, it'll give a whole lot back.

I also have various mints.

We have apple mint and spearmint, peppermint, and some mountain mint, all of which grow together in our garden.

I like to grow them in pots, but if you give it room to spread, it'll definitely move throughout your garden.

I also brought elderflower from our garden.

It wanted to come with me today.

It blooms late spring, early summer, and its garnet-colored fruits come just after summer solstice.

This one is wonderful for our immune system and is really quite beautiful.

I also threw in some native salvia flowers, as well as some pink evening primrose, and one of my favorites, rock rose, which is a sun-loving mallow.

We know that all mallows are edible, and so it's nice to incorporate them into our herbal treats.

I like to dry them in my house on a counter or table.

The AC is a natural dehydrator.

And so when we chop up plants into small pieces, like about a quarter inch, like this.

And I actually incorporate the stems and leaves.

The green, healthy stems, especially of the mint family plants, have a lot of flavor in them.

And after I chop them up, including the flowers, oftentimes when we think of teas, we think of leaves.

But the whole plant of many plants is quite useful.

And then I put them on a paper bag that I have cut up and laid flat.

Lay them out on the paper like this.

And in the AC, it'll dry within five to seven days.

From there, it's important to put them in an airtight container, this is actually some tulsi here that I dried just last week, like jars, or you can simply put them in a Ziploc bag.

And you wanna store them out of direct sunlight.

Dried herbs can store for a couple of years, although they never last that long in my house.

They can be incorporated into teas and cooking for spices, and as well as herbal treats, like this herb-infused honey.

Treats like herb-infused honeys are wonderful to enjoy in teas, on toast, or by the spoonful, 'cause as we know, a little spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Herbs that have a lovely aromatic or pungent smell, so ones where you rub the leaf and you can smell them, can make really delicious honey extractions.

It's really simple to make.

What we do is we take a jar.

I say start small, because eight ounces of honey is a lot of honey.

Sacred honeybees work hard to make this stuff.

And you wanna know you really like it before you have it in your pantry.

And I start by layering a little bit of herb on the bottom of the jar.

And in comes honey.

Yes, that's right, a gallon of honey.

(laughs) And put a little honey on top.

And we are gonna put another layer of tulsi.

Or perhaps you wanna do lemon balm.

Hibiscus is a really delicious honey.

It will also grow here.

Mint-infused honey is delicious.

Also another layer of herb, and then I'm gonna cover it with honey.

Honey is naturally antimicrobial, and since we're using dried herbs, I'm not worried about bacteria or mold growing.

It's gonna do just fine.

But what I do wanna make sure is that the herbs are covered in honey.

And then we're gonna close this, and we're gonna let it sit for two to three weeks, which is the perfect amount of time.

Every once in a while, I will turn it upside down and then turn it back.

Maybe every two or three days.

If you need to add a little bit of honey to the jar to make sure the plant is covered, that's okay too.

After two to three weeks, we are ready to go.

And we're gonna strain it using a simple sieve over a bowl.

And I have to say, on honey straining day, it's the perfect day to make a fresh plant sun tea.

So we're gonna start straining this here.

So beautiful.

Really just working with honey brings a smile to your face.

It's kind of impossible not to smile.

And while gravity is doing its work, we'll set this aside a bit and start on our fresh plant sun tea.

This is the perfect time to take a basket or a bag and go out to the garden with a friend or family.

And we're gonna bring your herbs in.

Anything in the mint family is perfect.

Remember, y'all, ID is key.

We only wanna work with plants that we know are safe to consume.

That's the kind of mistake you only make once.

Don't do that.

All right.

So in comes tulsi.

I'm gonna start by cutting our mint here.

One of my favorite things about fresh plant sun tea is that it pulls out the delicious aromatics.

If you wanted to use dried herbs, then it would be a little bit stronger.

But this is so fun and easy to do, and it's quite empowering.

I'm gonna go ahead and put these flowers in here, too, because it'll be beautiful.

Boop, boop.

Okay, A little bit more tulsi.

(laughs) 'Cause it's delicious.

I wish you could smell it.

And now here's the key.

Let's bring this full circle.

So we're gonna take some of these honey-soaked herbs, this delicious tulsi.

And there's still so much honey in there, and gravity will keep doing its work.

But I'm just gonna take some of this and put it in the jar.

And then, (laughs) it's impossible not to do that.

(laughs) We're gonna cover it with water, put the top on, and set it out in the sun for two to three hours.

That should do a job on a hot day.

For Backyard Basics, I'm Caroline Riley with Mutable Earth Botanicals.

Thank you.

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

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

Her secret is patience.

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

Thank you.

(perky woodwinds music)