drought Archives | Page 3 of 3 | Diana's Designs Austin

Sharp ideas from Tucson’s arid climate

Extended droughts and excessive heat seem to be becoming the norm in Central Texas and many other parts of the country. This June, more than 170 all-time U.S. heat records were either tied or broken. Cracked earth and wildfires threatened lives and livestock across the nation.

The experts don’t all agree on the causes and the debate rages on about greenhouse gasses and global warming.

Whether these recent weather patterns are a natural and temporary period of heating like the dustbowl, or part of a larger, long-term climate change, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to garden around these parts.

So gardeners are doing what gardeners do – trying to second-guess the weather conditions to achieve gardening success.

I recently traveled to Tucson, where I was eager to learn more about their approach in a hotter climate – their gardening techniques and the plants they use. While Tucson is a desert and extremely arid, there are some similarities to our most recent climate changes.

Against the backdrop of the rugged Santa Catalina Mountains, tough, structural plants dot the landscape of the Sonoran Desert.

Cacti, yuccas, hardy woody perennials and trees thrive in the desert. Lawns are a true rarity – even our resort had only a small token strip at the front entrance. The rest of the property was threaded with crushed granite, mulched paths, boulders and native, drought-tolerant plants.

Only the toughest plants survive there, where the temperatures soar into the 100s throughout most of the summer, yet also dip below freezing in winter. They also have a monsoon season, between June and September, when they can get huge amounts of rainfall in very short periods of time.

The soil in the desert is mostly sand or clay or caliche and is alkaline, much like most of Central Texas. Caliche can be just below the soil and retard plant growth. Even worse, caliche can slow drainage to the point that plant roots suffocate and die.

Like Austin and the surrounding area, fall is an excellent planting time in Tucson because the warm soil and moderate temperatures help roots grow to get plants established after the excessive summer heat.

Most of the shrubs and trees we saw throughout the area had very small leaves – a natural survival characteristic which helps reduce plant water loss in heat and drought. Many of the desert plants also have very long taproots, instead of shallow, horizontal surface roots, allowing them to get as much water as possible from deep in the soil. Others have a thick, waxy layer on their leaves to protect them from the heat and sun. And succulents store water in their stems or leaves.

They grow many of our tried and true favorites like lantanas, salvia, agaves, yuccas, acacias, desert willows, daleas, and gopher plants, to name just a few. hey also grow an entire palette of cacti and agaves that we don’t normally find here. Some might provide new interest and structure for our increasingly warmer gardens. We may or may not be able grow some of them here because our climate isn’t as arid, but I’ll be researching more plant varieties as I’m adapting my garden.

With approximately 2,500 different species of cacti, and about 400 different kinds of aloes, there are plenty from which to choose.

My favorite plant towering in the desert was the saguaro cactus, Carnegiea gigantea.

This is one we really can’t grow here — the saguaro only grows in the Sonoran Desert, and it doesn’t do that very fast. Saguaros only grow between 1 to 1-1/2 inches in their first 8 years, according to information published by the Saguaro National Park.

Saguaro can be as old as 75 years old before they grow their first branch. In drier areas, it can take up to 100 years to grow a branch. They begin to bloom at about 35 and can live to be 175 to 200 years old. They can get 50 feet tall and weigh as much as 6 tons.

During a heavy rain, a saguaro absorbs as much water as it can. To accommodate the large amount of water, saguaro’s pleats expand like an accordion. Conversely, when the desert is dry, the saguaro uses its stored water and the pleats contract.

Gardening in a changing climate is a challenge. Our success as gardeners will depend not only on the adaptability of the plants we use, but also on our own adaptability as we consider a different aesthetic in this new climate.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:15-06:00November 24th, 2012|Articles|0 Comments

Create a tropical oasis right here in Texas

Between last year’s excessive drought and our increasingly warmer temperatures, it’s easy to feel discouraged about your landscape. Knowing these spring rains aren’t likely to last, many gardeners are dreading their first water bill, and think their only choice is to switch to a desert-style garden filled with rocks and cacti.

Not so.

Do you find yourself wishing for a lush, green garden in the middle of our hot summers? Will the hot temperatures have you longing for a tropical paradise – someplace with bold, exotic plants and hot colors? If you can’t afford to fly off to an island, you can create a tropical-looking garden right here in Central Texas using native or adapted drought-tolerant plants.

True tropical plants are wild plants from the equatorial areas bordered by the Tropic of Cancer to the north and the Tropic of Capricorn to the south. Inside this swath around the center of the earth, tropical plants live in both cool upland environments, and in hot, steamy lowlands.

You might not be able to plant many of the same plants, but you can improvise, using similar shapes, textures and color combinations to capture the illusion of paradise.

While the plants you use play a significant role in defining the style of your landscape, there are many other design elements used to help create specific garden types. Color, texture, form, line and scale – the five elements of landscape design – all play a role in crafting your garden. How you place and prune your plants is also a factor affecting the end result.

Line

Soft, curved lines provide drama and expression in the garden and lend themselves to a tropical design more than straight lines when used in borders and paths. They are much more informal and natural.

Form

The natural shape of plants is the primary determinant of whether a landscape is formal or informal. Tropical plants commonly have large, broad leaves and lush foliage that is very naturalistic – sprawling or flowing like palms – and rarely pruned into any sort of predetermined shape.

Texture

This is how coarse or fine the surface of a plant feels and looks. Plants with coarse texture have larger, irregular leaves, thick veins or rough bark like agaves, philodendron or leather leaf mahonia. Fine-textured plants have thin, strappy leaves like grasses or vines. Most tropical gardens include medium to coarse-textured plants with mid-sized leaves and smooth shapes like banana trees, cordylines, agaves or cannas.

Scale

Scale refers to the relative size of plants and other garden elements to the house or patio or the property as a whole. Tropical gardens generally use a larger scale than other garden styles. The plants are bigger and bolder and more plants are grouped closely together for a dramatic feel. The goal is to create a jungle-like effect of dense plantings with many vertical layers. Enormous plants with gigantic leaves also bring a sense of fun into the garden with their almost-absurd scale.

Color

The most powerful design element in establishing a tropical feel is color. Bright, hot colors with great contrast work best. Try pairing colors on opposite sides of the color wheel like purple and yellow or burgundy and lime green. In tropical gardens, foliage is usually the star player year-round. Dramatic variegated foliage with contrasting stripes and bands of color often command your attention before the blooms.

Your hardscape and garden decor can also impart a tropical style – with hot colored cushions, bamboo or rattan furniture, bright nylon outdoor rugs and even a water feature – you can imagine yourself on that island far away.

Getting a tropical look with drought tolerant plants

There are many native and adapted plants that will tolerate our harsh Central Texas summers and still give you the feel of a lush, tropical garden.

For example, native palms and hibiscus like Moy Grande or Texas Star are varieties that will do well in our heat but still look and feel like steamy, tropic-loving varieties.

variegated ginger
esperanza
sago palms
agapanthus
bougainvillea
elephant ears
coleus
sabal minor or palmetto palm
bananas
fatsia
cordyline
philodendrun
fern
croton
agaves
Spanish dagger
plumeria
duranta
potato vine
crinum lily
variegated yucca
shrimp plant
amaranth
bamboo (clumping to prevent spreading)
purple heart
bamboo muhly
castor bean
persian shield

Containers

Containers can also provide spots of hot, tropical color on your patio with dramatic color combinations. Tall plants like variegated dracena or cannas make great thrillers and could be combined with coleus for the middle layer of fillers, followed by trailing neon-green potato vine for the spiller. Several pots with vibrant tropical combinations could easily transform your entire patio.

So, try some hot color combos with bold plants this summer and let yourself drift away to a tropical garden paradise.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:17-06:00April 7th, 2012|Articles|0 Comments

Access your yard’s needs and consider agave

The long-term forecast for Central Texas is a little daunting for gardeners. Some experts are predicting that our current drought pattern could hang around until 2020. That’s a long time to wait for rain.

But die-hard gardeners are looking for ways to make lemonade out of this situation.

So what’s a gardener to do?

Shift gears. Accept it. Adapt. Think Darwin.

There are hotter and drier places all around the globe that are filled with beautiful plants, though some of them are very different from the plants that we’re used to growing here.

It’s time to:

a.) Assess what worked and what didn’t work in your garden this summer. That means what lived, what died and what you had to baby by hand watering much too much.

b.) Of the plants that made it, which were the hardiest, the ones that didn’t just live, but bloomed their little heads off on the hottest of days.

c.) Think twice about replacing something that didn’t survive with the same kind of plant. If it died, it was telling you something about its hardiness, your soil or growing conditions or its water needs.

d.) Finally, look around and see what did well in your neighbors’ gardens and consider planting those plants in your garden. Think outside of your traditional style box and consider how you can adapt to include more xeric and drought tolerant plants in your landscape.

Where do you start?

If you haven’t already incorporated agaves into your landscape, now is a great time to give them a second chance. An agave is a succulent, a drought-tolerant plant that stores water in its leaves, stems or roots. Native primarily to the dry regions of North and South America, there are more than 200 recognized species of agaves.

Landscaping with agaves doesn’t mean a rock and cactus garden. Creating a xeric — water-wise — garden simply means using native and adapted plants that can thrive in our climate. It means using plants that need significantly less water, though certainly not no water. And agaves are a perfect addition to a native perennial garden.

Agaves provide great contrast – the bold, structural look of an agave next to the soft, flowing form of Mexican feather grass or black foot daisies can be the beginning of a beautiful Texas-style cottage garden. Agaves provide both texture and focal points in the landscape. And don’t be worried that all agaves come in one size – huge. There are many smaller species that won’t take over.

As with any new venture in the garden, make sure you do your homework. Double check with your local nursery about the mature size of an agave as well as its growth habit, how it reproduces and also how cold hardy it is. Not all agaves can survive the colder winters we’ve had in recent years.

Agaves come in just about every size, color and flowering habit. They range from an almost blue-gray to olive to variegated — green with white or yellow. They can grow as compact as 9 inches high, like the Queen Victoria agave, Agave victoriae-reginae, to certain species of the century plant, which is one of the largest and hardiest agaves and can reach 7 feet tall and 10 feet wide. This agave can grow a stunning bloom stalk more than 20 feet tall.

More commonly used in residential landscapes are the Parry’s or Weber’s agaves. Agave parryi generally grows to 2 feet by 2 feet and is more compact than some other species like the Agave weberi that can get 5 feet tall by 6-10 feet wide and are used for specimen or focal point plants in an open space.

Although some agaves are called century plants, they do not actually live for a century. Agaves can reach maturation anywhere from 8 to 40 years, after which many, but not all, agaves bloom and then die. Some of them bloom annually. The time to maturation can vary depending on the species and the growing environment. Because agaves are native to very dry environs with little water and scorching sun (like here, lately) the plant has to work long and hard to reproduce for the species to survive. Reproduction has been underway for years once the bloom appears and at that point, the plant is already dying. The energy required for the agave to bloom and produce seeds saps the mother plant. Removing a bloom spike won’t prevent the mother plant from dying; it will kill a spectacular bloom.

Some agaves produce little plant offsets from underground called pups, which can be cut off and replanted. Some produce bulbils (which are small clones of the mother plant) on the flower stalk. Other species only reproduce from seed. Many species are actually bat pollinated and some produce sweet scents to attract insects.

Agaves prefer sunny or partly sunny spots, deep and less frequent watering and well-drained soil. If agaves are planted with perennials or other plants, it’s helpful to place them higher than their landscape bed companions — on a berm or a bank, so they get less water and have better drainage than nearby plants.

Thomas Bintliss, the cactus and succulent expert at The Great Outdoors Nursery, recommends a 3-part soil mix for agaves.

“Drainage is very important,” according to Bintliss, “I recommend mixing soil with decomposed granite and either course sand or expanded shale, particularly for clay soils.”

One common misconception he points to is that agaves don’t need water. “If it’s hot and dry, a little bit of love goes a long way,” says Bintliss, recommending once a week watering in dry soil.

Unlike most plants, agaves are relatively pest-free, other than the evil agave snout weevil — it even sounds bad, doesn’t it? The weevil, a glossy black beetle-like insect, is relentless and will devour an agave. Adults lay their eggs in the agave and their young eat their way out. Infested plants start to wilt then collapse. To prevent spreading, infested plants should be removed and destroyed along with any weevils and grubs you see.

In addition to providing elegant and dramatic focal points in your landscape, agaves also have culinary and medicinal uses.

Some agaves have edible flowers or are used for their sap, a honey-like substance called agave nectar that is fast growing in popularity as a sugar substitute.

Some species of agaves are used as a diuretic or to relieve itching and sores.

Fiber from Agave silsiana is used to make sisal for twine, rugs, ropes, mattresses and crafts and is an eco-friendly alternative to asbestos or fiberglass.

Some agaves were used by Native Americans to make pulque for religious ceremonies. A similar drink is the foundation for today’s Mezcal. Agave tequilana, grown commercially in Tequila, Mexico, is used to make the distillate called Tequila.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:20-06:00October 29th, 2011|Articles|0 Comments

Drought is the best time to plan for floods

This year’s dramatic lack of rain has left our gardens parched and dry. But the rain will come. Maybe not much, but eventually our ugly cycle of drought will be followed by torrential rains that won’t soak into the soil and instead run off, creating a raging river, making walkways impassable and threatening your home and landscape.

If your property is on a slope, or you have poor drainage and design issues, too much water is no small matter. It can cause structural damage to your home and foundation and it can kill plants, trees and grass. Standing water left hours after a rain also breeds mosquitoes and can result in mold inside and outside of your home.

If left unaddressed, drainage problems that threaten your home and foundation can lead to costly renovation repairs – repairs that are much more expensive than addressing the drainage problems at the source – out in the landscape.

So what can you do, now – while it’s still dry – to correct your water problems before the next Central Texas flood? There are many options to address drainage issues — from simple downspout connectors and underground French drains you don’t see — to attractive dry creek beds and rain gardens that can beautify your landscape while getting the job done.

Down spouts

One of the simplest solutions to runoff and drainage problems is to simply bury downspouts down in the soil. If water from your roof, driveway or patio doesn’t drain naturally, you can install a flexible downspout connector and extension pipe onto the end of the downspout to direct the runoff out into your landscape. There the water can be dispersed throughout the lawn, instead of making a river on your walkway. (Be sure it always drains away from your foundation.)

Rain barrels

Rain barrels or cisterns can collect runoff from your roof to store and use to water your lawn or garden. Overflow pipes from rain barrels can also be directed to overflow into beds or rain gardens. Placing rain barrels on cinder blocks or raising them up off the ground helps with flow. Smaller rain barrels are available at most nurseries and garden centers and can be placed at several downspouts around your home. Larger, more sophisticated rainwater collection systems are also available from many sources in the Central Texas area.

As an added bonus, the City of Austin offers a rebate program for both non-pressurized rainwater barrels and pressurized collection systems. For more information, go to http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watercon/rwrebates.htm

French drains

Another simple method to direct drainage is with a French drain. By digging the trench at the base of the slope of the problem area, it will capture and redistribute any unwanted excess water. A French drain is usually dug one to two feet deep, depending on the slope required for proper drainage. Filled with gravel and piping, it is then covered over with grass or landscaping so it is not visible.

Dry creek

A dry creek bed can be created with or without a French drain underneath it to help direct the flow of water in your landscape. River rock, pea gravel or other rock material is used to create a swale along the draining area, with larger rock to line the outside edges of the bed and hold the rest of the rock in place.

Rain Garden

Like a basin in your yard, a rain garden collects rainwater from your roof, sidewalks and landscape and channels it to soak into the soil instead of causing runoff problems. Planted with an assortment of native plants, a rain garden is an attractive and low maintenance way to solve drainage issues. Situated in a low spot in your garden that already draws water, the garden is dug out with a flat bottom, the depth based on the slope of the garden area. For our clay soils, the fill for the hole should consist of sand, compost and topsoil, since clay gets waterlogged and won’t drain properly. Then a berm (with a gentle, rounded slope) is placed around the downhill edge and up the sides. Native plants such as purple cone flowers, rudbeckia and sedges are perfect for rain gardens because they require little care and will develop strong root systems. The plants should thrive in moist soil. Ground cover or grass on the berm will help prevent erosion and disruption of the plants during a big rain. As with other landscape beds, mulch well and water as you would for other new transplants, even when it doesn’t rain. In a few years the plants will have strong root systems and will only need infrequent watering.

No matter which particular drainage issue plagues your garden, there are a variety of solutions available to help you channel your problems away.

By Diana C. Kirby|2017-11-29T23:27:23-06:00May 28th, 2011|Articles|0 Comments

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