Diana C. Kirby, Author at Diana's Designs Austin

About Diana C. Kirby

Diana Kirby is a lifelong gardener and longtime Austinite, who loves the Central Texas climate for the almost year-round opportunities it offers for active gardening and seasonal splendor. Known as an impassioned and successful gardener, Diana began by helping friends design and implement their landscapes. Soon, she was contracted as a professional designer by a popular local landscaping installation firm, where she designed landscapes for residential and commercial clients for several years. In 2007, her new passion blossomed with the launch of her own firm, Diana’s Designs. ... Diana is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, the Garden Writers Association of America, and she writes a monthly gardening column for the Austin American-Statesman. Diana teaches the Landscape Design classes for several county Texas Agrilife Extension Service Master Gardener certification programs and speaks about gardening and design for garden centers and other groups. Learn more about presentation topics, availability and speaking fees.

Gardening with deer

txaas_masthead

You plan, you carefully select plants, you dig (which, in our area requires a major commitment), you mulch, you water and then you stand back to enjoy your newest landscaping project.

And, the next morning you find that the fruits of your labor must have tasted like fruit to the deer that browsed your buffet the night before, leaving nothing standing but stalks.

Even though some plants are thought to be deer resistant, each and every plant, garden, year, and deer, means a different situation fraught with risk if you live and garden where deer like to play.

My advice: Buyer beware.
Encroaching development continues to remove more natural wildlife habitat around the Central Texas area. Compound that with the horrific drought and it’s tough being a deer. During stressful times like these, deer will eat almost anything. And, trust me, your garden looks awfully tempting.

First, there is no such thing as deer proof. Even with plants that deer are known to dislike and generally avoid, the smell of freshly turned soil and mulch can entice a young deer into your garden. And while the deer may not actually eat the plant, they may paw at it until it comes up out of the ground and then simply leave it lying there, roots exposed, to dry up and die before you even notice. They even pulled the same little plant out of my bed three separate times this spring.

Deer resistant plants do exist. Many of the plant characteristics common to our native plants are distasteful to deer. They tend to turn up their noses at herbs and plants with pungent scents like garlic, rosemary and mint. Textures like fuzzy or rubbery leaves often repel them. And they generally pass by plants with thick or poisonous sap. Sometimes they leave thorny or prickly-leafed plants alone…but then again, they do eat roses.

Willing to try most anything once, deer are more likely to take a chance on new growth or young plants. Deer like vegetation that is soft and has a high water content, like succulents. And they are particularly fond of blooms, even on plants whose foliage they don’t care for. How many times have you gone out to admire a bloom on a yucca that’s been safe for years, only to find the prize flower stolen from you in the dark of night?

Their palates are particularly adventurous in the spring. Once plants are established and become woodier, deer will often pass them by. For several years, they munched on the new spring growth of my Moy Grande hibiscus, but now that the plant grows as tall as me each year, they pass it up without a second glance. If you’re willing to protect some plants briefly while they are young, or reemerging each year in the spring, they may be safe once they are mature.

Even after all of these Central Texas torrential rains encouraging vegetative growth for deer in their wild habitat, a young doe was traipsing through my garden just last night. I saw her coming back from walking with the dogs. I’d seen signs of her in my beds for several days – her hoof prints sinking deep into the rain-drenched mulch. And there she was, looking at me, wondering if perhaps today I’d planted something new for her to try.

They check out my plants, but they also eat our bird seed, so don’t put feeders out where the deer might wander. I’ve seen them use their snout to tip up the feeder, letting the seed literally spill right into their mouths for dinner. I love watching the birds, so I deal with the occasional deer hijacking in the wooded area beside our house.

So, how can you limit your losses in the garden?

Erect physical barriers

Fences between 6-8 feet tall can help protect your plants, particularly if you have shrubs and trees near them to prevent deer from easily jumping the fence. Out in the country, electric fences or hotwires are often used to control animal access to property, but that’s not really an option for the average suburban homeowner.

For individual plants or trees, a small roll of flexible metal fencing or chicken wire, placed around the plants, can protect them from not only grazing, but also the antler-rubbing that male deer engage in during the rut. Just make sure the fencing is tall enough and that the perimeter is the appropriate long-deer-neck-stretching distance away from the vegetation you are protecting. Remember the phrase “low hanging fruit” and be sure you’re not leaving anything exposed.

For smaller plants, some types of netting are available that may help, but they can be a hazard to birds or other small animals who can become trapped in them. They can also make pruning and maintenance more difficult.

Make some noise

Deer have highly specialized ears, designed to hear potential predators from far away, and can turn their ears in any direction without moving their heads. They are easily frightened by loud sounds, so large wind chimes or other rattling things in the garden may scare them away.

Install motion or touch-based deterrent

If you don’t have a dog guarding your premises at night (ours spend their nights cozying up to my feet instead of earning their keep outside), consider a motion sensor to help keep the critters away. There are many different varieties available, from motion-detecting lights, radios, and water sprayers to touch-based sensors that shock the deer when they touch the sensor placed near tender plants.

Put up scent barriers

These include such things as urine, pepper spray, blood meal, rotten eggs, human hair, soap shavings, and even fabric softener sheets. You can buy prepared deer/critter repellant sprays at most nurseries – however – they have to be reapplied frequently, and always after rains or watering. There are also many home recipes available online that you can make yourself. But beware, they will make your garden stink. Whatever you do, don’t spill any on yourself!

Use plants that deer are most likely to avoid

I’m always amused by the wording used on deer resistant plant lists — frequently eaten, occasionally eaten, seldom eaten.

Do your research — use plants known to be distasteful to deer. Don’t buy an unfamiliar plant with the intent of ‘trying it’ to see if your deer will eat it. If you take that chance, you may be throwing money away. I’m always most attracted to new and interesting things at the nursery. Most of the independent nurseries that I shop at either have deer resistance printed on their labels (I love this, by the way), or their knowledgeable staff can tell you, so ask. Or, pull out your phone. My Google app has probably saved me a lot of heartache and money by making it easy to check online while standing in front of the plant.

I also keep many deer resistance lists on hand in a notebook in my office. Some of my favorites can be found at:

http://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=deer

http://www.klru.org/ctg/resource/deer-resistant-plants-nancy-webber/

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/deerbest.html

You can also find lists at local nurseries or on their websites:

Barton Springs Nursery

The Great Outdoors

Hill Country Water Gardens

If you do more searching, I recommend that you include the words Central Texas in your search so your results include web sites focused on local plants and deer.

My Top 10 Deer Resistant Perennial Go-To Plants

Which, simply put, means that no deer have eaten them in my garden in the 16 years I’ve been gardening with deer. For hundreds of other options, check some of the resources listed above.

Blackfoot daisy
Catmint
Damianita
Lambs Ear
Lantana
Society garlic
Skullcap
Salvia
Verbena
Zexmenia

Local Landscape Designer and Garden Coach Diana Kirby provides landscaping tips at www.dianasdesignsaustin.com and writes a garden blog at www.dianasdesignsaustin.com

By Diana C. Kirby|2019-07-15T19:14:42-05:00May 23rd, 2015|Articles|Comments Off

Magical mulch transforms the garden…

I love spring. I love the first bulbs, buds and beautiful colors that emerge in the landscape.

Once pruning is done, new plants are planted and the garden is basically on its way, I’m ready for the next color in the garden — brown.

That’s right. Not dead brown, but bright, organic great-smelling mulch brown. Native Texas hardwood much is my favorite. It helps protect the plants from the heat and the cold, and it helps keep precious moisture in during the drought.

And it is another color in the garden — it provides a great deal of the contrast we want in our landscapes.

And there’s nothing like walking through the garden and reaching down to brush some of that fluffy, fresh mulch off a few leaves.

I think we’re over 9 yards now. They had to go get another truck load of it, so I’m not sure what the final total was.

All the plants are happy, as is this gardener!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:38:52-05:00May 4th, 2015|beds 2015, Blog, dry creek, Japanese aralia, mulch, plum yew, Senorita Rosalita cleome, Sharing Nature's Garden, yucca rostrata|0 Comments

One for me, one for you, one for me, one for you…

Passalong. One of my favorite words. This simple word represents the cornerstone of gardening. Just as heirloom vegetable seeds, carefully preserved and handed down from generation to generation, passalong plants represent the intricately woven past of our gardens.

I’m fortunate to be part of a group of more than 50 other gardeners in the Austin area that write garden blogs. While not everyone in the group is active, a core group of gardeners meets once a month at someone’s garden to oooh and ahhh, commiserate, eat, drink, teach, and share in the joy of gardening. Oh, and we pass along plants.

The plant swap gives us the opportunity to trial new things in our gardens and to share extras with those who are building or rebuilding in their landscapes. I feel blessed to have been the recipient of so many wonderful gifts.

And, yes, sometimes plants even make it full circle.

For a while, I was sharing off shoots of my ‘grandfather’s pipe’ plant (not as in MY grandfather, but the grandfather’s pipe plant that I was growing – confusing right?) After I had handed out pieces for a few years, others began to bring them to the swap to share theirs, because the plant is so prolific and easy to grow. “Wait a minute,” I said, “you can’t ditch your extras of my plant here – that’s mine to push on everyone.”

Sharing is a wonderful thing. So, today I will be digging some more in my garden – planting little plants that I bought to put in pots — yes, more plants and more pots. My latest collection is gathered in the wooden box on the little table in the photo above.

And, on the ground below it are all of the plants that I am passing along. Today, I will continue digging up some pups and reseeded plants to share with a friend who needs to fill in her garden and to share with some of my clients who are avid newbie gardeners and are eager to try new things.

Plants that will be finding new homes this week include: squid agaves, quadricolor agaves, lamb’s ears, datura, echinacea (coneflower), catmint, silver ponyfoot, pale pavonia, Mexican feather grass, and Nuevo Leon salvia.

In my own garden, I know that I have enjoyed the beauty of so many passalongs. To name but a few, Green goblet agave from Pam of Digging, white cemetery iris from The Transplantable Rose, a lovely peach iris from Robin of Getting Grounded, agave pups from so many of my blogging friends, larkspur seeds from Zanthan Gardens and Caroline of The Shovel Ready Garden, Klondike cosmos seeds from my neighbor Holly, a collection of seeds brought to me by my friend, Maria, from Monet’s garden at Giverny, and countless other plants from other gardeners.

These Klondike cosmos are a riot of hot summer color, but watch out, they reseed like crazy!

I love the blue hues of larkspur in the late spring garden.

The green goblet agave has a unique color, and I love how the dark emerald green leaves contrast with other grey-green plants in the dry garden, like this euphorbia rigida.

Strolling around the garden infuses me with a sense of peace and serenity, and it reminds me of my good friends, enjoying the some of the same plants in their gardens. My garden blog turns 8 this July — it hardly seems possible. I’m so thankful to have it and all the friends, both near and far, that it has brought into my life.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:01-06:00May 3rd, 2015|Austin bloggers, Blog, green goblet agave, Klondike cosmos, larkspur, passalongs, Sharing Nature's Garden, squid agave|0 Comments

Spring spruce up from a wide angle lens

One of the rites of spring (even though it has already been 94 degrees here in Austin, Texas), after the whining about winter, pruning, planting and mulching, is taking photos of the garden as it grows.

I recently bought a wide angle lens, primarily for use in photographing our landscaping jobs and getting a good overview. But, I haven’t put it to use here at home.

When I finished the recent spring planting and mulching work on the back garden (which is technically outside of our property line in the neighborhood easement), I decided to try out the new lens.

If you’re wondering WHY I am gardening and watering outside of our property, it’s because the back is bordered by hideous cedar trees.

Several years ago I decided to remedy the ugly cedar problem. I started a deer-resistant, drought-tolerant “trial bed” — all things that are tough as nails and can survive with next-to-no water. In the heat of summer I would drag the hose all the way back there and water with a oscillating sprinkler head only once a month if we hadn’t had rain.

But then came the barn. The neighbor on the country road far behind us decided he needed to build a barn — a RED barn — right on the back edge of our easement. Which you can see through the trees — see the silver metal roof — and below the little bit of red peeking through? Well, I can see it. So, I expanded the bed, planted soon-to-be large, screening plants, shrubs and trees and added an actual sprinkler head to make it easier to get the plants established at least, though I still don’t water often back there.

My goal is to eventually remove the cedars when the nicer plants have gotten large enough to provide some screen. On this end you’ll find a sharkskin agave, some quadricolor agaves, some creeping germander, two Kentucky coffee trees, given to me by my father, (thanks, Daddy!), a green goblet agave passalong from Pam of Digging , some newly planted Yaupon holly trees, and far in the back, a Mexican olive tree. Oh, and two hot pink oleander to coordinate with the desert willow and salvia on the other end.

I’ve added things slowly — some passalongs, some things that didn’t behave elsewhere in the garden and some things I just had to have. The goal is for this bed to be low maintenance. So, toward this end of the bed, you’ll find my beautiful whale’s tongue agave, a desert willow tree, some salvia, Jerusalem sage, zexmenia, euphorbia, dyckia, a few muhly grasses, indigo spires salvia, bright edge yucca, and some recently transplanted large native yuccas that came from a client’s overcrowded natural area. There are also two yaupon hollies on this end, hidden behind the other plantings.

This bed is mostly out of sight from the back deck, unless you walk down the steps leading to the back of the pool. The aerial shots (well, high as I could get them — me on the back pool sheer wall) give you a sense of the breath of the bed.

We’ve started pruning out some of the dead wood on the cedars and hope to start taking some of them out entirely in a few years. I have babies from my loquat tree in the front, so I think there will be a few loquats back there soon, as well. I will have to fence them until they get tall, since the deer have free reign back there and will think I finally served up something that they like to eat!

It’s nice when things come together in the garden, isn’t it?

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:02-06:00April 28th, 2015|Agave, back bed, Blog, cedar tree, deer resistant, desert willow, drought-tolerant, dyckia, euphorbia, Garden 2015, long lens, long shot, screen, Sharing Nature's Garden, whales tongue agave, wide angle lens|0 Comments

April tip: Grow vegetables in small spaces

garden

Across the country, the move toward sustainability has people eager for new and creative ways to try their hand at vegetable gardening. Perfect for those who live in urban areas, have small properties or very little time, the concept of ‘square foot’ or ‘postage stamp’ gardening is skyrocketing in popularity. Whether prompted by a desire for the freshest or most local of foods, more and more people are harvesting dinner from their own vegetable gardens.

The roots of the ‘intensive,’ or ‘postage stamp’ gardening concept are believed to date back to France in the 1890s. Another similar approach is ‘square foot gardening,’ a concept devised by Mel Bartholomew in 1981. Both methods promote the dense planting of fruits and vegetables in small spaces with highly fertile soil.

The premise is that by keeping it simple and condensed, growing tantalizing fresh fruits and vegetables becomes much more manageable.

Read the full article.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:02-06:00April 25th, 2015|Tips|Comments Off

Small space gardening

square-foot-gardening

The premise is that by keeping it simple and condensed, growing tantalizing fresh fruits and vegetables becomes much more manageable.

Regardless of which approach you use as your guide, the first step to building a small space garden is finding a suitable spot that will provide enough sun for healthy veggies. Most require at least six hours of direct sunlight. Some tender, cool weather plants, like lettuce or peas, may like a little bit of late afternoon protection from our blazing sun, but in general, find a sunny spot for your garden.

Typically made using raised beds, this style of gardening provides easy access for the gardener to harvest, prune and replant vegetables. Postage stamp gardening allows for a myriad of condensed layouts designed to fit your needs; the square foot plan involves use of 4’ x 4’ grids divided into 1’ x 1’ squares for planting.

One way to help create the best spot for your plants is to place taller vegetables on the north end of the garden and plant the others in descending order of size as you reach the other end. This will prevent taller plants from shading out the other veggies in the bed. Or, if you have some more heat sensitive plants, you can use the taller plants to provide shade for them.

Designed to produce a high-yield and diverse set of crops in a small space, begin with a nutrient-rich soil to kick-start your plants. The idea is to encourage heavy production of plants in a small space using highly fertile blended soils. This is no easy feat here in Central Texas.

While experts recommend different methods for building good soil, the fundamental components include amending our mostly clay soils with compost, sand and other organic matter. Local nurseries offer many different types of compost blends with ingredients like humus, manure, or earthworm castings. Some even sell specific square gardening soil mixes.

Vegetable gardener, Maria Tedder, says her lack of decent soil led her to try square foot gardening. “We have no topsoil at all, so I knew we would need a raised bed to grow vegetables. I read about square foot gardening and it seemed like a great way to get started.”

After her first year yielded great results, Tedder has now expanded her vegetable garden to two 4’ x 4’ garden beds.

“Our experience with this approach has been fabulous. We’ve enjoyed so many fresh vegetables from our garden,” said Tedder.

By placing plants very close together, these small space approaches will help to eliminate weeds and reduce watering needs. Weeds will be crowded out by healthy veggies and the smaller garden means you have less physical area to water. Less weeds and less water? Sounds like a great plan.

Dense planting works well for smaller plants, but be careful not to exceed your space limitations. For example, an indeterminate tomato plant (which can easily grow to be at least 6 feet tall by 3 feet wide and requires heavy-duty staking), will be an unwelcome guest in a garden where each plant’s property lines are 1’ x 1’. Overcrowding the space can also lead to poor circulation and can be a breeding ground for some diseases.

Train your vining vegetables up on poles, supports or trellises as much as possible, using the vertical space in your garden as well as the ground.

Consider adding companion plants to your garden as well. There are many plants that can provide a habitat for beneficial insects that will provide pest control and encourage pollination of your crops.

And, you can use the outer edges of your garden to plant decorative vegetables and plants in your small space garden. Pretty edible nasturtium flowers, bright and colorful Swiss chard and lovely strawberries can create a beautiful frame for your harvest.

If you’re ready to begin your foray into vegetable gardening, you can check out “The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden” by Karen Newcomb, or “All New Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew.