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What to Do in Your Central Texas Garden (June 15–30): Train Blackberries & Plan for Fall · ATXGardens Podcast

• 0:08
  Hi listeners, I'm Colleen Dieker, landscape consultant and certified arborist at ATXGardens.com.
• 0:20
  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
  If you're watching on YouTube, tap like and subscribe for more gardening help.
• 0:40
  Hey there, gardening friends.
• 0:42
  Today we're talking about what to do in the second half of June.
• 0:48
  And as usual, this episode is sponsored by my Garden Consulting Business ATXGardens.com.
• 0:59
  So let's get to it.
• 1:01
  So in general, in the second half of June, we're really getting into summertime.
• 1:12
  Summertime is a really good time for planning.
• 1:16
  You know, it's when a lot of plants start going dormant in the garden, and I'll be talking more about that in the next episode.
• 1:24
  Um, and I'll be talking more about what to do at this time of year, but there's not quite as much gardening to do in the summer, so it's a great time for planning, and that's something that I can help you with with my business at atxgardens.com.
• 1:41
  It's a really good time to do a consultation.
• 1:45
  And speaking of planning, uh, a friend of mine named Susan Poisner wrote a new book that's called Designing a Fruit Tree Garden.
• 1:58
  And she even quotes me in the book and features some of my photos from my orchard projects in the book, too.
• 2:07
  So if you're thinking at all about planting any fruit trees, uh maybe creating an orchard or a food forest on your property, uh, take a look at that book.
• 2:20
  It's called Designing a Fruit Tree Garden by my friend Susan Poisner.
• 2:25
  And of course, there'll be a link to that in the show notes on Amazon.
• 2:30
  I am an Amazon affiliate, so I do get commissions from those links.
• 2:38
  Even though it's still hot outside, I still like to spend some time outdoors in the evenings, but it gets pretty buggy out there.
• 2:48
  And if you're hanging out outside, I recommend using a real strong fan to keep you cool, but also to help keep the bugs away.
• 2:58
  So if you have a strong fan blowing on you, it makes it hard for mosquitoes and other bugs to fly and land on you.
• 3:07
  I also really enjoy some giant uh citronella incense sticks while I'm out gardening or just relaxing in the yard.
• 3:18
  I don't know for sure if the citronella really keeps uh mosquitoes away or not, but I really like the way that they smell and they're just kind of fun.
• 3:28
  So I have a link for those giant incense sticks in the uh show notes too.
• 3:35
  Speaking of mosquitoes, I was recently also reminded uh to warn all of you against mosquito fogging services or the automated uh spray systems for mosquitoes, too.
• 3:53
  So there's automatic mosquito spray systems where they'll put a barrel of insecticide on the side of your house and it will automatically uh spray your entire yard with insecticide.
• 4:07
  Or you can also hire people to come and use a blower or a fogger to fog your entire yard with pyrethroids.
• 4:17
  And I'm really against this sort of service and practice.
• 4:23
  The insecticides that they use are pyrethroids mixed with citronella and other herbal scents.
• 4:32
  The pyrethroids kill all insects, not just mosquitoes.
• 4:37
  So that includes bees, butterflies, fireflies, rolly polies, basically any critter that doesn't have a spine.
• 4:47
  So all of the invertebrates are killed by pyrethroids.
• 4:52
  So if you're at all interested in any kind of wildlife in your yard, do not use those services as the invertebrates are key to feeding everyone else higher on the food chain, including humans.
• 5:09
  We need the pollinators, we need the insects to uh produce food for us.
• 5:16
  So the plants need the pollinators and other insects to help them reproduce and distribute their seeds.
• 5:26
  So absolutely avoid those insect treatment sprays as mosquito fogging and mosquito spray systems.
• 5:38
  Recently, a listener of mine asked me how to deal with soil erosion problems in her yard, and that's a really common question lately because of all the rain we've been enjoying this year.
• 5:52
  So the rainfall can wash away soil and can create a muddy mess.
• 5:59
  So now this is the second of a series of erosion control tips that I'll be sharing in the next few episodes.
• 6:09
  So last episode, I talked about an erosion control tip to use if you don't have gutters.
• 6:17
  Um, but this episode I'm gonna talk a little bit about what you can do if you do have gutters.
• 6:24
  Consider using rain barrels at the base of your downspouts.
• 6:29
  If you grow vegetables, herbs, or fruit, especially citrus trees in pots or blueberries in pots, watering with rainwater makes a big difference in the health and productivity of those particular plants.
• 6:46
  You'll be really surprised how much water you can collect from one downspout, even from a small structure like a shed.
• 6:54
  While I don't have a particular barrel or tank to recommend, I can give some pointers for what to look for.
• 7:02
  It's best if the top of the tank can be opened periodically so that you can clean it out.
• 7:10
  That's a big problem where you can start to get some sediment in the bottom of the tank that can clog the faucet or can make the water smell bad.
• 7:23
  So if the top comes off and you can clean it out, that's a much better option.
• 7:29
  The tank definitely should have a screen on the top to prevent mosquitoes from breeding inside.
• 7:36
  Because if you have any source of standing water, mosquitoes are going to breed in it.
• 7:41
  Also, make sure that it has an overflow pipe so you can direct the water out of the barrel once the barrel is full and it continues raining.
• 7:52
  Otherwise, the water will just splash and overflow out of the top of the container, and that will cause a big mess.
• 8:04
  Put the rain barrel up on a stand or on bricks to elevate it to make it easier to connect to hoses and to fill watering cans.
• 8:16
  I like to use short hoses on the faucets on my rain tanks to more easily connect to other hoses, electrical pumps, and to fill watering cans.
• 8:30
  I put a link for some short hoses in my show notes too.
• 8:36
  So for more tips like these, make sure you subscribe to this podcast because in the next few episodes I'll be giving more erosion control advice.
• 8:45
  Or you can hire me for a consultation at atxgardens.com.
• 8:51
  Next episode, I'm going to talk about rain gardens, and that is a technique that pairs perfectly with rain barrels with overflow pipes.
• 9:02
  And if you already have a rain barrel that is breeding mosquitoes, or you have any spot with standing water in your yard, I recommend mosquito bits and mosquito dunks to help prevent the mosquito larva from hatching in the water.
• 9:24
  Unlike the mosquito misting and fogging that I talked about earlier, the mosquito bits and dunks do not harm any wildlife other than mosquito larva, so they are safe for everyone to use.
• 9:38
  And again, there's a link to purchase those mosquito bits and mosquito dunks in the show notes.
• 9:46
  So now, what's going on with woody plants in the second half of June?
• 9:55
  Well, not much.
• 9:57
  Do not plant any woody plants right now.
• 10:01
  I just saw some people planting some trees, and I am really sad for them.
• 10:07
  It is not a good idea to plant trees or shrubs at this time of year.
• 10:11
  It's way too hot.
• 10:13
  It will definitely set the plants back.
• 10:16
  Do not trim oak trees right now.
• 10:19
  No pruning on oak trees because it's still oak wilt season.
• 10:24
  Pruning now can spread oak wilt, so avoid it.
• 10:29
  Wait until after June 30th.
• 10:32
  Okay, so in the next episode, I'll be announcing that the season has changed.
• 10:40
  But right now, do not prune any oaks.
• 10:44
  I think for other trees, it's okay to start some summer pruning to clear your roof line, to clear the street, to clear walkways and driveways.
• 10:55
  I also think it's a really good time to start to lift the canopies on small multi-trunked trees like Texas mountain laurels, cherry laurels, and yopons.
• 11:08
  Some people like to do that kind of trimming in situations where you want to be able to see underneath those trees or to separate them from the plants around them.
• 11:19
  So some of our perennials are starting to reach their very large size at this time of year, and they're reaching their max height, and they might start to touch the trees that are near them, and uh it'll start to look a little overgrown, maybe a little crowded.
• 11:41
  And um, removing the bottom branches on those trees can really help make your garden look a little bit tidier and more put together.
• 11:51
  So now's a good time to start doing that.
• 11:55
  And uh July is even better, so if you can wait till July, that's the best.
• 12:00
  And I'll announce that in the next episode.
• 12:02
  Now, what about the fruit trees?
• 12:05
  What's happening with fruit trees in the second half of June?
• 12:09
  Well, there's a lot of exciting things happening with fruit trees, including fig harvest time.
• 12:17
  So check your fig trees and see if your figs are ripe yet.
• 12:22
  This is usually when the early ripening varieties like brown turkey may start coming into harvest time right now.
• 12:30
  So check them and see how they're doing.
• 12:33
  Um, some of the other bigger fig varieties may take a little bit longer.
• 12:40
  Sometimes folks don't realize some of the fig varieties stay green on the outside even when they're ripe, or they just turn a little bit yellow when they're ripe.
• 12:51
  There's some fig varieties that actually need to be peeled when you eat them.
• 12:56
  So don't be afraid to grab one off the tree and cut it open and see what it looks like inside.
• 13:03
  My favorite variety is brown turkey because you can tell that they're ripe because they turn brown.
• 13:11
  They're sort of a brownish purple color and they get really, really soft when they're ready, and they're particularly delicious and easy to grow.
• 13:19
  So check your figs for ripeness now.
• 13:23
  Check your peaches too for ripeness.
• 13:26
  Uh, some of the earlier producing peaches will be really coming into fruit now.
• 13:33
  La Feliciana and Sam Houston are included in that category, but check all of your peaches because it's heavily weather dependent.
• 13:41
  And like I've said in past episodes with peaches, you can pick them as soon as you get any color on the fruit at all and bring them indoors.
• 13:52
  Put them in a paper bag with a ripe apple, an apple from the store if you need to, if you don't have any from your orchard, and they will ripen indoors.
• 14:03
  So that's one way to make sure that you actually get some peaches before the animals do.
• 14:10
  And sometimes it takes about a week for them to ripen indoors, sometimes even a little longer.
• 14:16
  So be patient, but bring them indoors, and that way you can get them before the animals do.
• 14:22
  Santa Rosa plums should be ready to harvest around this time, and you can do the same thing with plums.
• 14:30
  You can harvest them as soon as they get any color on them, bring them indoors, put them in a paper bag, and let them ripen, and they will be delicious.
• 14:39
  So check all your stone fruits, uh, nectarines, apricots, pluots, all of the stone fruits are starting to get ready now.
• 14:49
  Now I wanted to tell you a little bit about blackberries in this episode because you should be coming to the end of blackberry harvest time.
• 15:02
  And blackberries usually come in around early June.
• 15:07
  Um, it varies somewhat depending on the varieties and the weather, but it's getting to be the end of blackberry uh harvest time.
• 15:17
  So um cut down any dead, discolored, or dying stems on your blackberries.
• 15:26
  So the stems that produced fruit this year will die soon.
• 15:31
  Um, you'll notice the ones that had fruit on them are the ones that are gonna start looking discolored and they'll start dying.
• 15:39
  The new stems that are actively growing now will make fruit next year.
• 15:46
  Um so you'll want to keep those as much as possible and train those new stems onto trellises or onto a wire fence.
• 15:58
  Okay, those stems are also known as canes.
• 16:02
  Canes will grow roots wherever they touch the ground.
• 16:08
  So if you have really long canes, you can pin them down to the ground using landscape staples or a heavy rock, and they will grow roots, and that will create a new plant in that spot.
• 16:24
  So you can pin them down close to your trellis or your wire fence to create new plants.
• 16:31
  So uh see my show notes for a link to the landscape staples that I like.
• 16:38
  They're really heavy duty and strong.
• 16:41
  Um, you can't use wimpy ones for this, for anything in Central Texas.
• 16:46
  You can't use any wimpy ones, they don't work.
• 16:48
  Large blackberry patches can be mowed down completely and allowed to grow back for the rest of the summer.
• 16:58
  And so if you have a really big blackberry patch and you don't want to get in there and try to trim out the dead parts and train the new growth, you can just mow the whole thing down.
• 17:11
  And then the new growth that comes out later this summer will produce fruit next year.
• 17:18
  Um, so blackberry plants they don't live sometimes for more than three or five years.
• 17:26
  So don't be alarmed if your older plants start dying.
• 17:31
  Pinning down those canes with the staples or with heavy rocks so that they grow new roots will produce more plants, and that's the best way to perpetuate your blackberry patch.
• 17:44
  Okay, raspberries are very similar and they can be grown in central Texas, but it's a little bit challenging uh for most of us in Central Texas because our soil pH tends to be high.
• 18:00
  If you live in the vicinity of Austin, anywhere near the I-35 corridor or further west, um, you're probably gonna have alkaline soil, and raspberries prefer a lower pH to be a little more acidic.
• 18:18
  But people have done it.
• 18:20
  You can grow them here and you can train them and tend to them in the same way as blackberries.
• 18:27
  Um, watering them with rainwater and collecting rainwater will help keep the pH low.
• 18:35
  If you live further east, like in Bastrop County, Caldwell County, there are different soils there, and many of those soils are more acidic and you can grow raspberries there.
• 18:50
  So always get a soil test to find out what's going on.
• 18:54
  All right, so now we're gonna have our mid-episode sponsor break.
• 19:01
  Hey y'all, this is Colleen Dieter here from ATXgardens.com.
• 19:07
  If you want personalized help with your landscape, book a consultation and we'll walk your yard together, answer all of your questions, and create a strategy that feels doable for you.
• 19:18
  I specialize in helping do-it-yourselfers by alleviating their anxieties about their yards.
• 19:25
  This week I helped Near Ja in North Austin.
• 19:28
  Her son had some questions about his lovely vegetable garden, and she wanted to know what specific steps to take to actually finish her landscaping projects that were starting to feel like they would never end.
• 19:41
  I gave her some very straightforward, simple steps to pull her project together.
• 19:47
  I know that is a major issue for a lot of homeowners.
• 19:52
  You start getting into a project and it starts to snowball, and one thing leads to another, and it just feels like it's never gonna end, and you kind of get lost and don't know what to do next, and it can be embarrassing.
• 20:07
  Hire me for a consultation.
• 20:09
  I will not shame you.
• 20:10
  I completely understand.
• 20:13
  I can help.
• 20:14
  So make an appointment today at atxgardens.com.
• 20:18
  Let's get back to the episode.
• 20:21
  What's happening at the end of June with our perennials and our grasses and our bulbs?
• 20:29
  Okay, it's time to really wrap up planting, transplanting, and dividing.
• 20:36
  Do it now.
• 20:38
  If there's some rain in the forecast, it's still okay to do it.
• 20:42
  But do not acquire any more plants now, okay?
• 20:47
  It is too hot for more most plants to survive planting, transplanting, or dividing past July 1st, and you're really pushing it at the end of June.
• 20:58
  So avoid any planting, transplanting, or dividing.
• 21:03
  If you have any left to do, like just get it done.
• 21:07
  It's okay if there's rain in the forecast.
• 21:09
  If there's no rain in the forecast, try to avoid it.
• 21:13
  If you have plants in pots that are waiting to get in the ground, go ahead and put them in the ground ASAP, because it's easier for them to survive the summer in the ground than it is to try to keep them alive in pots.
• 21:28
  Because with nursery pots, you generally have to water them every day, depending on the plant, especially if they're in one-gallon pots and they usually die in the one gallon pots in the summer.
• 21:41
  So just put them in the ground and then stop getting any new plants.
• 21:47
  Now, on to vegetables and herbs and our garden flowers.
• 21:53
  Okay, go ahead and harvest all of your green beans unless you're saving a few plants to go to.
• 22:00
  Seed.
• 22:01
  It's time to continue removing spring crops that are not heat tolerant, like green beans and certain varieties of cucumbers, the big beefsteak type tomatoes.
• 22:15
  If there's any crops in the garden that are looking shabby and are not productive, it is time to remove them.
• 22:23
  Now, in the last episode, I mentioned this.
• 22:27
  I wonder if you've been thinking about if you're going to continue vegetable gardening through the summer.
• 22:34
  Many gardeners take a break from vegetable gardening around the end of June and into July.
• 22:41
  And in the next episode, I will discuss putting the vegetable garden to bed in early July.
• 23:30
  Now, if you've decided that you're going to continue gardening through the summer, you can add some compost where your spring crops were.
• 23:40
  And there's a few things that you could plant now.
• 23:44
  Southern peas, black-eyed peas, and cow peas will continue to produce beans and peas, so to speak, uh, through the worst months of the summer here.
• 23:59
  Plant those directly into the garden using seeds.
• 24:04
  You can also plant okra, melons, pumpkins, gourds, winter squashes, sunflowers, amaranth, malokia, and magenta spreen, all direct sown from seed, and they will all grow and produce all summer, too.
• 24:27
  Peppers and eggplants can still be planted from plants.
• 24:30
  So you need small little plants, little transplants.
• 24:34
  You can plant them now, and they will continue to produce all summer.
• 24:40
  Now is the last chance to plant sweet potatoes from slips.
• 24:45
  Okay.
• 24:46
  Make sure you're continuing to train and trellis all of your vining plants.
• 24:53
  It's still continued raining quite a bit, so you may need to prune some of your tomatoes, and I'll talk more about that in the next episode, too.
• 25:05
  Peppers and eggplants are going to get really large.
• 25:13
  And they benefit from being caged.
• 25:16
  You can use small tomato cages for that, or you can stake them because the fruit that they produce is going to be very heavy, and sometimes their branches will break when they get weighed down by the fruit.
• 25:30
  So some caging or staking can really help with peppers and eggplants.
• 25:36
  So make sure that you're giving them the support that they need.
• 25:40
  All of your winter squashes and gourds, things like loofah gourds, they're gonna maybe need some support too if you're trying to grow them vertically or if they're taking up too much space and your garden didn't realize how big they're gonna get, you can grow them on a trellis as well.
• 25:59
  So that's a real important thing to take care of in your garden at this time of year.
• 26:07
  This time of year also is a good time to side dress your summer crops that have been in the ground for a while.
• 26:14
  Like if you planted peppers and eggplants in March or April, give them some fertilizer or compost per your soil test results.
• 26:25
  Just side dress them.
• 26:27
  That's a technique where you sprinkle a handful of compost or fertilizer under the plants, and then you gently scratch it in using a hand cultivator.
• 26:40
  The hand cultivator is that little tool that looks like a claw that often comes in a set with a trowel and like some kind of little rake or some pruners or something.
• 26:51
  They all come together.
• 26:53
  That's called a hand cultivator.
• 26:55
  And if you don't have one, of course, I have a link to one on Amazon in the show notes.
• 27:03
  Now, in the herb garden, it's a really good time to harvest still.
• 27:09
  So keep harvesting those fresh herbs.
• 27:12
  Many of them are maturing now and they're at their best flavor-wise, right before they start blooming.
• 27:21
  Mint, lemon balm, chives, oregano, and thyme are all at their best now.
• 27:27
  And make sure you're trimming your basil really frequently and harvesting it to keep it from blooming.
• 27:35
  Depending on the variety of basil, there's some types that don't taste as good after they start flowering.
• 27:44
  And removing the flowers and harvesting them more often will increase the longevity of your harvest.
• 27:53
  So make sure you enjoy all those herbs fresh at this time of year or start harvesting larger quantities and drying them.
• 28:02
  And then in the next episode, too, I'll be talking about how to care for all of your herbs in midsummer.
• 28:10
  And there's a change that happens at the beginning of July.
• 28:13
  So make sure you listen to the next episode to learn about the kind of turn of the season for the herbs.
• 28:22
  Now I'm gonna give you a little reminder about lawn care.
• 28:26
  If you're still caring for a conventional lawn in Central Texas, make sure you're mowing once every two weeks.
• 28:37
  Don't mow more often than that.
• 28:41
  Mowing every week is too much.
• 28:44
  And make sure you put your mower on the highest setting possible.
• 28:49
  Let your grass stay longer.
• 28:52
  Okay, mowing the grass high allows the grass blades to shade the round the ground around them.
• 29:00
  Um and that will keep the soil moist and cool.
• 29:04
  Longer grass leaves means less exposed bare soil where weeds would grow.
• 29:13
  Okay, so if you have longer leaves on the grass, that leaves less open space for weeds to come in.
• 29:22
  And then this the grass can shade itself too and keep the soil cool.
• 29:29
  So cutting grass too low too often is the number one mistake that people make, and that's that can kill your grass.
• 29:37
  So it's really important to stick with that once every two week schedule or less and put your mower on the highest setting possible.
• 29:48
  Now, on to the activism portion of the podcast.
• 29:54
  And in the past few episodes, I've been covering uh stories about seed banks that have been lost or moved due to armed conflicts, or uh seed-saving movements that have sprung up due to armed conflicts.
• 30:13
  Uh, today I'm turning the lens back to Austin and Central Texas and asking you to think about the other kinds of pressures on our native plants, native plants specifically, those uh perennials and trees and shrubs and vines that are all indigenous to this part of the world.
• 30:37
  So excessive deer pressure due to lack of predators, grazing from livestock, displacement from non-indigenous plants, uh, extreme weather from climate change, construction, and even widening of roadways kills plant populations every day.
• 31:01
  And those are the same plants that support pollinators, and again, our food supplies depend on pollinators.
• 31:10
  So we need those native plants to support pollinators, and we need those pollinators to help us produce food from our domesticated crops.
• 31:21
  So there's a connection there between our native ecology and the food that we need to survive.
• 31:30
  Some of our native plants are becoming more and more rare, and I think that they should be protected now before they become endangered.
• 31:40
  So I use the the word rare often, meaning that they're harder and harder to find in the wild, and many of them are not available in the nursery industry or from seed companies.
• 31:56
  And they may not be officially endangered or threatened or on any particular list, but I think that it's important for us to protect those plants from all of those pressures that they're suffering from before they end up on a list.
• 32:13
  And that's what my organization, Central Texas Seedsavers, does through our seed sharing programs.
• 32:22
  And I'm so honored to be included in the Wild Spirit Wild Places third annual pollinator event, um, which is happening on Sunday, June 14th, from 11 a.m.
• 32:40
  to 3 p.m.
• 32:41
  at Vista Brewing.
• 32:43
  I'll be speaking on a panel from noon to one during that festival event.
• 32:50
  And that panel is going to be about native plants and their relationship with pollinators.
• 32:57
  And RSVPs are requested but not required.
• 33:01
  And there's a link in the show notes.
• 33:04
  So again, that's Sunday, June 14th from 11 to 3 at Vista Brewing, and I will be on the panel from noon to 1.
• 33:15
  And then in addition, there's another event coming up.
• 33:20
  That's a tree identification walk for seed savers at Natural Gardener on June 20th.
• 33:29
  That's 2026 from 10 to 11:30.
• 33:35
  And um, Central Texas Seed Savers sort of co-hosts those events with our partners, tree folks, for our seed-to-tree partnership to train volunteers to identify trees and then learn how to collect seed from those trees and send that seed to tree folks so they can use those seeds in their nursery.
• 34:00
  And then they use the saplings that they grow in the nursery in their reforestation projects.
• 34:06
  I'm particularly excited about the uh tree ID for Seed Savers class at Natural Gardener because there's a basswood tree at Natural Gardener, and the Basswood tree is uh native to this area, but relatively rare.
• 34:24
  We don't see them very often, and that's definitely one that Tree Folks is looking for seeds for.
• 34:31
  So I hope I'm not leading that class, but I hope whoever is leading it will um show off the basswood tree.
• 34:39
  So, of course, there's a link to sign up for that tree ID class in the show notes.
• 34:45
  That wraps up today's episode.
• 34:48
  Please check the show notes for links to everything I mentioned.
• 34:52
  And if you enjoyed my podcast, please share it with a fellow Central Texas gardener.
• 34:57
  It really helps me to grow the show.
• 35:01
  I'm Colleen with atxgardens.com, and I'll see you next time.
• 35:07
  Thanks for listening.
• 35:09
  Thanks for listening to the ATX Gardens podcast.
• 35:14
  For show notes, tools, and to book a consultation with me, visit atxgardens.com.
• 35:23
  Happy gardening.
• 35:24
  See you next time.