Latest / ATXGardens Podcast / What to Do in Your Central Texas Garden (April 15–30): Plant Perennials, Warm Season Veggies, and Do Not Prune Oaks

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What to Do in Your Central Texas Garden (April 15–30): Plant Perennials, Warm Season Veggies, and Do Not Prune Oaks · ATXGardens Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hi listeners, I'm Colleen Dieker, landscape consultant and certified arborist at ATXGardens.com.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the ATX Gardens Podcast, where every other week I share simple, timely tips for what to do in your Central Texas garden right now.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you're watching on YouTube, tap like and subscribe for more gardening help.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there, gardening friends.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking about what to do in the second half of April, which is a very busy time for gardeners in Central Texas.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as usual, this episode is sponsored by my landscape consulting company, atxgardens.com.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get started.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, in general, for the second half of April, here's what's happening.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: My vegetables are recovering from that late cold snap that we had.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I had some tomato plants, so I really wasn't sure if they were gonna make it or not, but they've kind of straightened out.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were sort of yellowy purple color for a little while, looking a little sick and curled up, kind of sad, scrunchy looking.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I really wasn't sure if they were gonna make it, and they've started sort of straightening out.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna have some cool weather here at the time of this recording.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope they keep going.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had to remove some cold damaged leaves from some eggplants in my garden.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, use your judgment.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody looks like they're just really stunted and yellowy purple color, curled leaves, that kind of thing, you may want to replant.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And mine are all recovered and seem like they're doing okay.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the rain that we got is definitely helping, it's sending the plants into supersonic growth now.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's called spring, because they're all springing.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Watch out for the weeds.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: All of the cool season and warm season weeds are growing now.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is a very weedy time of year.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the weeds are gonna start blooming.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Try to pull the weeds before seeds start forming, and that way you'll cut off their life cycle.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Removing the weeds before they have a chance to make seeds helps you not have as many weeds next year.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: So think about it that way.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of people realize that you can prevent problems next year by getting the weeds out before they make seeds, especially the weeds that make burrs, like cleavers, also known as sticky weed, and sand burrs, hedge parsley.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're all blooming and making seed right now.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can get them out before the seed spreads around, you'll be in better shape next year.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So now what's going on with woody plants in the garden?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really good time still to plant Mediterranean and tropical trees like figs, pomegranates, bay laurels, low quats, bougainvias, things like that.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it's too late to plant all of the other woody plants like oaks, pecans, roses, those types of plants.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So stay away from you know the native woody plants.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a good time to plant at this time of year.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's not enough time for them to get established before the weather turns hot.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So they have a lower likelihood of survival if you plant them now.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: But then it's really getting to be the last chance for planting the Mediterranean plants like olives and figs and pomegranates.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So get them in the ground as soon as you can.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: In late April, you can start deadheading your roses to get more blooms from them if you want to.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So once the roses go through their first cycle of blooming, you can encourage your roses to bloom again if you cut off the dead flowers.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the way to do that is to go to the dead flower at the top of the stem and follow the stem down until you come to a leaf that has five leaflets and a bud.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the bud is just a little bump that's sort of wedged in up against the main stem and a leaf.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So look for that little bump, and the leaf should have five leaflets, and that's where you make the cut.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just up, you make the cut above the bud.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then that bud will grow and will grow more flowers.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: It'll grow a stem and then that stem will have more flowers.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now you don't have to deadhead them, and some roses don't require deadheading, and they will repeat on their own.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: It just depends on what type of rose you have.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I personally like to allow the rose, the rose flowers to fade, and then the plants.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: My roses, because I have mostly antique roses, they make hips.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the hip is the rose fruit.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I like my antique roses to be able to make rose hips because I harvest the hips to make rose hip tea.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: The rose hips are really good for you, they're really high in vitamin C.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I harvest the rose hips and I dry them and I use them for tea.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't deadhead my roses.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it just depends on what your priorities are.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: For other woody plants, it's really important to know you should not be doing any pruning right now.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do not trim any row any of your woody plants, especially oak trees.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do not prune any of your oak trees right now because it's oak wilt season.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oak wilt disease can be spread very easily at this time of year.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really important to stop any kind of tree pruning, particularly oak trees.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Wait until summer.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Spring is not the time for tree pruning.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's going on with our fruit tree friends?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: April is still time for grafting.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I still haven't gotten around to grafting my grafting projects that I have going on in my yard.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm planning to graft some grapes and some nectarines that I got at the Scion Swap back in February.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I still have them in my fridge.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can subscribe to my newsletter, the ATX Gardens newsletter, to get updates about fruit tree classes, fruit tree grafting classes, and the fruit tree scion swaps that uh Central Texas Seed Savers hosts every year.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So visit ATXGardens.com and sign up for my newsletter, and you will get alerts about all of those events.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: In April, if you haven't already, because I mentioned it in the last episode, but if you haven't already, it's time to spray your fruit trees with some sort of holistic spray to prevent fungal and bacterial diseases.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that could be something like a product like actinivate, a product like arbor, those are both probiotic sprays that prevent fungal and bacterial diseases.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can use homemade compost tea.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that's sometimes the best thing to use.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could use even a homemade garlic spray or other holistic spray to inoculate your fruit trees with beneficial microorganisms.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Try to control the microbiome of your trees so that way you can help block out, kind of elbow out those pathogens.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the fruit trees are very prone to fungal and bacterial diseases.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So those kind of holistic sprays can really help.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have links to some of those products that I mentioned in the show notes and also to my compost tea recipe.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you can make your compost tea at home too.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned in the last episode, too, this is the time of year where we need to do some preventative action to keep caterpillars and also known as little worms like plum curculeo from infesting our fruits that are developing on the trees right now.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I've mentioned this in a couple other episodes, and I'm gonna repeat it again now because the calendar for this varies a little bit depending on your fruit and your fruit tree and when they bloomed, because there's still some fruit trees blooming late this year, or if you have varieties that are just later harvested varieties, everything happens a little later.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna repeat this.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can still put micro mesh or orchard socks over the tiny fruits on the trees to protect them from caterpillars because the moths and butterflies that are the adult versions of the caterpillars are flying around at this time of year looking for teeny tiny fruits to deposit their eggs on.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you cover the fruit with a physical barrier like micro mesh or orchard socks, then they won't be able to lay their eggs on your little fruit.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the eggs then, you know, if they lay their eggs on the fruit, the eggs hatch and a little worm comes out and they eat their way into the apple or the plum or peach.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a problem, sort of.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: For some people, it's no big deal.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: You just cut off the part that the worm eats, but they can do a lot of damage sometimes.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it just depends on your tolerance.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I personally use orchard socks are also called maggot barriers over my plums on my plum trees.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't want to cover using a physical barrier, you can spray with an organic insecticide such as takedown garden spray, and there will be a link in the show notes to both the maggot barriers and the takedown garden spray.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to spray, if you use the takedown garden spray, you have to spray when the fruit has just barely formed and has expanded enough to split through its little papery covering, which is also known as shuck split, which is about 14 days after the trees finish blooming.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have to spray again about 10 to 14 days after shuck split.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there's many sprayings that need to happen.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to be careful with the sprays because the sprays can hurt pollinators, they do injure bees, moths, butterflies, all kinds of insects.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can use a physical barrier instead, that makes a lot more sense.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's more ego-friendly.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have tons and tons of fruit trees, sometimes using the physical barrier is not practical and the sprays are more effective.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you may have very early peach, pear, apple varieties where the fruits are really starting to develop now, and you may need to prop up your tree branches if they're too heavy with fruit.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll mention this again going into May, when the fruits really start developing, especially after rain.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can use tree tie webbing to tie droopy branches to more upright branches in the center of the tree.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can make props with shade tree branches, like Y-shaped branches, or pieces of lumber.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's really common that we need to prop up fruit tree branches that get too heavy with fruit.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so that brings me to the next topic, which is fruit tree thinning.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is the time of year where we need to start thinking about thinning the fruits on our fruit trees.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And this is by far, I think, the hardest job in the orchard.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So thinning is where you go in and you actually remove some of the tiny fruits from the tree.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: So most palm and stone fruits, like apples, pears, peaches, and plums produce more fruit than can possibly grow be grown to a large size with a good quality.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I know I've had customers say, gosh, my apple tree made a lot of fruit this year, but it tasted bad.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was bland.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're lucky enough to get fruit at all from your fruit trees, it's a total drag if it doesn't taste good.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: But that's because the trees, they need to be thinned.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: The fruit needs to be thinned.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the trees only make so much carbohydrates with the number of leaves that they have.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: They use uh light from the sun and nutrients from the soil to make sugars and carbohydrates in their leaves, and they use the sugars and carbohydrates in their leaves to grow new parts, including fruit.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if the tree produces a lot of fruits, there's only so much sugar that can go into each fruit.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you remove some of the fruits, then the remaining fruit will taste better and will get bigger.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really tough, and there's more to it.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to remove some of the tiny fruits from the branches by hand to control the number of fruit per tree, to increase fruit size and quality, and to ensure adequate leaf growth on the trees.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some trees, like apples, need to be thinned, otherwise, the tree will make very few or maybe no fruits next year.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thinning also takes weight off the branches, so it's less likely that the branches will break under the weight of the fruit, which I was just talking about people trying to prop up those fruit tree branches.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the earlier that the fruit is thinned from a tree, the bigger the remaining fruit will grow.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a really good time to do it when the fruits are teeny tiny.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thin the fruit about four to six weeks after they're done blooming.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's usually around this time in late April, but it varies from tree to tree.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on the species and on our weather.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Remove all of the fruit on trees that were planted in the last two years.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they can use all of the carbohydrates that they produce to make strong roots and branches instead of fruit.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Also, their very small branches may be too thin to hold the weight of the fruit.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you planted a fruit tree in the last two years, you have to take all of the fruit off of it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do not allow young fruit trees to make any fruit until the third year.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's really important.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: It makes a big difference in the health of that tree and the productivity of that tree later in its life.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: So now if you have a tree that's old enough that's been in the ground for three years, and it's producing fruit, start thinning them, and here's how to do it.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So peaches and apples should be left six to eight inches apart on the branches.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so peaches and apples, you need to remove them so that there's six to eight inches between each fruit.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: For plums, because they're smaller, it's about four inches apart.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And for pears, they're in the middle, it's about four to five inches apart.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Start at one end of the branch and systematically remove the fruit.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: To remove the fruit without damaging the spur or the branches or other fruits on the spurs and branches, hold the stem of the fruit between the thumb and your forefinger and push the fruit off of the stem with your other fingers.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like this.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you're watching on YouTube, you can see my little fingers doing it.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: But this method removes the fruit and leaves the stem attached to the spur or the branch.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I sometimes use snips or use my pruners to do it so that you don't break any branches and you don't rip the spur off of the tree if it's a spur-producing tree.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some varieties of fruit naturally grow through a process of dropping fruit on their own, which is often called May drop or June drop.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here in Texas, the drop might happen in other months.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes wind, drought, and animals will thin the fruit for you, but by early May for stone fruits and June for palm fruits, you want to see the fruits with the right amount of space between them on the tree.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: So get to it.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Start thinning those fruits.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's much better for the tree.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: We've bred the trees to be ultra productive over the 6,000 years that humans have been breeding domesticated fruit trees.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: We've bred them to be very productive, and they make too much fruit to be able to really sustain themselves.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's also really hard to remember when you planted your fruit trees, what species they are, what varieties they are, and how you've cared for them in the past.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I really recommend keeping a journal of some sort, whether it's a paper journal, a blog, notes in your phone, even social media posts.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Try to keep track of the work that you've done on the fruit trees so that you know how old they are and what kinds they are.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's really important to have that information.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Tagging the tree is something that's very important.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Adding a tag to the tree with the name of the variety, the year that you planted it, adding another tag if you know what kind of rootstock you have can be really helpful.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: See the show notes for the type of tags that I like for fruit trees, and I also use them for roses and other woody plants.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, and then the last thing for fruit trees is most nurseries are carrying citrus trees at this time of year, and it's a great time for planting and repotting citrus trees.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: I recommend planting citrus in pots only in Central Texas so that you can bring them inside to protect them from cold.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just with climate change, it's just getting too cold every winter to put them in the ground anymore.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't feel confident about them surviving outdoors in the ground.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's time for our mid-episode sponsor break.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hey y'all, Colleen here from ATXGardens.com.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you want personalized help with your landscape, book a consultation and we'll walk your yard together.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'll answer all of your questions and we'll create a plan that feels doable for you.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I specialize in helping do-it-yourselfers by giving you guidance to get you to your garden goals.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: This week I helped Molly in Far South Austin.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: She's lived in her house for over 20 years and she injured her back and she couldn't care for her yard for a little while.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Many of her plants died in the meantime, and now she needs to edit the yard and make the plantings more simple and easier to care for.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's really important for me to meet my customers where they are.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So for Molly, I recommended some extremely easy to care for plants.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I also recommended some design changes to her yard that would make the yard less maintenance overall.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have challenges like that and you're a do-it-yourselfer, make an appointment today at atxgardens.com.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know someone who's new to gardening?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tell your friends about atxgardens.com.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's get back to the episode.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on in the springtime, late April, with perennials and bulbs and grasses?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well now it's a great time for planting all of those plants.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Perennials, bulbs, and grasses.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Some of my favorites include Greg's Mist Flower, Dallas Red Lantana, and Fall Asters.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love these plants because they're easy to grow, they require very little care, and they don't need much water once they're established.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I love them because they're beautiful.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: But most importantly, they also provide food and shelter for butterflies.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Butterfly gardening is a passion of mine, and watching the beautiful, mysterious creatures drink up the nectar in the flowers is a bonus in exchange for my hard work.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's also a great time for transplanting and dividing all perennials, grasses, bulbs, cacti, succulents, and ground covers.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dividing is important if you feel like the plants are too crowded.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the plants start to look a little overgrown.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I noticed this year that my Dutch irises didn't bloom as much as I wanted them to, and that's usually a sign that they need to be divided.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna do that now.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: At this time of year, it's the height of spring, and these blooming perennials are the plants that make spring really special in Austin.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: So enjoy all those blooms.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's going on with the vegetable and herb garden in the second half of April?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just like in the last episode, this is a busy time for vegetable gardening.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: All of the warm season crops can be planted now.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers all need to be planted from transplants.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to purchase or get from friends who grew them from seed little plants in pots for tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers, and plant those into the garden.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Other crops can be direct planted by seed directly into the garden.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: So you just plant the seeds directly in the ground, and that includes bush beans, pole beans, black-eyed peas, southern peas, edamame, corn.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just planted corn the other day, um cucumbers, summer squash, melons, so that's all the melons like cantaloupes, watermelons, um musk melons.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can also direct so winter squash, like pumpkins, cushaws, butternuts, and all the gourds at this time of year, too.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can also plant warm season greens like magenta spring and melokia, and um even the hibiscus like roselle hibiscus.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: You can eat the leaves on the Roselle hibiscus at this time of year.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Plant those from seed.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hot season plants like okra and sweet potatoes can be started now.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Asparagus can still be planted from container-grown plants.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now is a great time for hot season herbs.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Turmeric and ginger can be planted now, either from plants or from just rhizomes.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: You can get organically grown rhizomes, which is like the root, that's kind of the part that we eat.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can get organically grown rhizomes from the nursery, or get them from a plant swap or friends, or from a garden club, um, and plant those right in the ground this time of year.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Basil, sunflowers, zinnias, and saloshas are all garden favorites that can be planted from seed now.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: They all do best uh direct sown from seed in the ground.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned in the last episode, poppalo, which is a warm season substitute for cilantro, can be planted from seed now.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And just by coincidence, I happen to drop off a huge bag of poppalo seeds at the Austin Central Library for the seed collection there.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't checked out uh the seed collection at your local library yet, go take a look.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the Austin Public Library branches have seed collections.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Many of the exurban and suburban libraries have collections as well.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if your library does not have a seed collection, ask your librarians.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, listeners, now we're moving on to lawn care, and I have a special installment of the lawn care portion of this episode because I got some listener mail and a listener emailed in, so I'm gonna read you her question.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Hi Colleen, just listened to your latest installment on YouTube.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have a question, and if you're too busy, no problem.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: We had new Zoija installed in November of 2024, and I recall that the installer picked out all the rocks in the bare dirt yard, but did not till down the six inches that I now read in several sources he should have done.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: The sunniest parts of the Zia are really struggling or have all turned to mostly weeds.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've used plenty of microlife humates and microlife 624 on the grass.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do you recommend for the hottest struggling part?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or even the entire Zia?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Should I put compost on top of all of it?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Should I have done that in the winter?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Also, we did till six inches, the worst small part, and mixed in compost and put down 11 pieces of sod recently.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to avoid dooting that doing that for the rest of the poor-looking stuff.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've also heard of Zia plugs, but then it's still the compacted crap soil underneath.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Totally understand that it's much better to diagnose in person, and you are definitely worth your charge.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: My husband and I are DIYers, and we'll see how our new little rehabbed patch of Zoija goes, and just see in the fall if we need to do more like that and put our money into the sod laid correctly.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's from Lynn in Circle C.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, Lynn, thank you so much for your question.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Typically, I recommend top dressing any lawn at least once per year with compost, and I do recommend doing it usually in the winter.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: But in this case, knowing that you live in Circle C, that part of Austin, southwest Austin, has very shallow, thin soil, and it's very rocky.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: It can be very rocky over there.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: So in this case, I recommend using a mix of one part sand to one part compost, and then add a quarter inch to a half an inch on top of the worst part of the yard at least twice a year, even three times a year could be even better.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you'd lay that material down, you want to make sure that the grass leaves are popping through it, because if you put it too thick, you'll shade out the grass, you know, you're just covering the grass so that it can't get enough light.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: So put that quarter inch to a half inch deep, and then immediately after you apply that mix of sand and compost, you'll want to water it in with liquid humate, soil activator, or homemade compost tea.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll have links again to all of those items in the show notes.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: That compost and soil mixture applied to the top of the grass, it will slowly build up the soil under the grass so that there's more room for the roots to grow if it's rocky.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, then the grass can slowly grow taller and taller through that those little quarter inch to half-inch layers that you keep adding, or it can grow into that space from the side, from the sides too, from the margins.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: I always wish that I had X-ray vision.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: That would be my superpower.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: If I could have a superpower, it'd be that one.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that way we could see rocks and tree roots and other stuff that might be in the way of the root growth for your Zoja grass.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: If I was there in person, I might be able to tell if something else was going wrong with that patch of grass, like a disease, insect damage, you know, maybe the sprinkler isn't hitting it, that kind of thing.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: But you can, you really can't go wrong with top dressing with compost.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And in this case, because it's in circle C and you know that it wasn't, you know, really prepared as well as it could have been for planting.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: I recommend that one-to-one ratio of compost with sand.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to let everybody know at this time of year, you know, everybody's thinking about fertilizing and planting and lawn care and stuff like that.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to give you a heads up, you know, watch out for synthetic fertilizers.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do not use synthetic fertilizers with very high numbers, like 2000 or 2020-20, something like that.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those fertilizers give your lawn a shot of unsustainable food, and they leave it hungry in the long run.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of the plant equivalent of a sugary dessert.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Excess synthetic fertilizers run off into streams and creeks and cause massive fish die-off events and other ecological crises.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Also, avoid weed and feed products that pollute our waterways and are a waste of time and money.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here in Austin, we do not weed and feed our lawns at the same time.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: Those combination products are a waste.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do not use them.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a June bug crawling around last night, and June bugs in their larval stage are known as grubs, and they will eat your lawn roots.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: They'll also eat other plant roots, too.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a pile of fire ants in my vegetable garden too.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: So for grubs and fire ants and other unwanted insects that dwell in the soil, like fleas on ticks, I recommend applying beneficial nematodes three times per year.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And April is one of those application times for beneficial nematodes.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's April, September, and then again in December, December or January.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and now the final segment of the ATX Gardens podcast is the new activism segment.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask you, what are you doing when you are gardening?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean trimming, weeding, digging, watering.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what are you really doing when you're gardening?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing a lot of different things when we're gardening.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you grow heirloom or native seeds that are special to you and your region, you are preventing extinction of relatively rare plants.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're preserving biodiversity and stewarding genetics that will help us all survive climate change and wars.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna include in the show notes a link to an article from The Guardian in 2024 about the history of the first seed bank in Russia and the scientists that stewarded those seeds through the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: So check that out.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a compelling story that will give you a new perspective on how important seeds are.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that wraps up today's episode.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Check the show notes for links to everything I mentioned.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with your fellow Central Texas gardeners.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: It really helps me grow the show.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Colleen with atxgardens.com.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: See you next time.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to the ATX Gardens podcast.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: For show notes, tools, and to book a consultation with me, visit atxgardens.com.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Happy gardening.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: See you next time.