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April 30, 2024
Preview: Inside Austin Gardens Tour
Get set for a enjoyable day of design inspiration, problem-solving intel, and intelligent concepts on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour on Might 11, a tour for gardeners by gardeners. A challenge of the Travis County Grasp Gardeners, they’ll be readily available with the owners to reply your questions from crops to patio design and upkeep.
This week, Grasp Gardener JoAnna Benko joins John Hart to speak particulars. This 12 months, tour 4 gardens on Might 11 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. No money: on-line fee solely. $20 by Sunday Might 5; $25 day of. Get your tickets right here.
Let’s begin off with Daphne Richards’ personal backyard, “The Work-in-Progress.”
As our Travis County Extension Horticulturist, she’s on the go a LOT serving to us all out, so right here’s an opportunity to get her tips about ranging from scratch.
We visited Julie Nelson and Kay Angermann’s backyard in 2019 for the 2020 Grasp Gardener tour. They introduced artistic collaboration, muscle-wielding grit, and drawback fixing to rocky, flooding floor to sentimentally-dubbed Katie Hen Farm, named for Kay’s grandmother.
The pandemic pushed that tour again 4 years, so I do know that the dynamic duo at “The Suburban Farm” has extra in retailer for you.
For certain, you’ll wander amongst intelligent repurposed finds, flood-control plant design on berms, and pleasant dialog nooks to speak with the hens and gregarious donkeys!
At “The Elevated Backyard,” discover designs atop a stone quarry. Grasp Gardener Theresa Garcia and husband, Donnie may give you a number of rock-solid concepts of their Licensed Wildlife Habitat!
They elevate all the things on their one-acre property. Wander via raised vegetable beds and beehives. They hold chickens, too, who will likely be joyful to reply your questions on their care!
In “The Woodland Escape,” meet habitat gardeners Sandy Stone and Joe Brown who constructed their residence to embrace their bounty of timber and defend the wildlife that dwell there.
CTG met them in 2017, however I do know they’ve made modifications since then, too.
Joe creates sculptures to accent native crops of all types.
And so they carry intelligent whimsy and sentiment to each nook.
Subsequent, carry spring and summer season’s backyard magnificence inside to get pleasure from all 12 months! Laura Brennand, minimize flower gardener at La Otra Flora, reveals the best way to dry flowers for bouquets, preparations, and wreaths.
Summertime’s vibrant celosias and amaranth Love-Lies-Bleeding tackle new romance as their colours fade.
Laura found her ardour for rising flowers when her lovable son Shea was an toddler (now 7!). We fell in love with him after we first met at Laura’s backyard and later returned to discover ways to plant flower seeds (together with persnickety poppies) in fall.
I guess Shea helps her safe the floral bundles with rubber bands to dry in a cool place inside, together with Laura’s all-star: strawflower, gomphrena (globe amaranth), larkspur and statice.
All her crops appeal to pollinators in spring. Gomphrena loves the warmth and butterflies like it. Right here’s a bordered patch butterfly dipping into nectar.
However to get the butterflies, you’ve acquired to feed their younger. Bordered patch butterflies feed on cowpen daisy, sunflowers, verbenas, and zexmenia.
So, Travis County Extension IPM Program Specialist Wizzie Brown reminds us that chewed leaves are a part of a wholesome balanced backyard. With meals crops, it’s possible you’ll need to use controls like Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) if squishing doesn’t give you the results you want. Simply word that it’ll hurt the caterpillars you need, too. Additionally, proper now, I’ve acquired wrens nesting in a patio hanging basket, and the dad and mom are hauling a number of wiggly meals to the children all day lengthy!
And to that, viewer Patricia Anderson in Bastrop shared an image of black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars that devoured her rue plant final fall. That was one cause she planted the rue—she wished the butterflies. So, she coated the plant with shade material to save lots of as many as doable, however most have been gone the subsequent morning. Almost certainly birds and lizards nonetheless snagged them (that’s occurred to me in the identical state of affairs).
From viewer Marjorie Mautz comes a fall webworm caterpillar. Wizzie notes, “They create ugly webbing on the information of tree branches, however hardly ever trigger long run injury to the timber. When you really feel the necessity to handle them, break open the webbing with a stick or jet of water to permit predators contained in the webs to feast.”
Wizzie’s Yard Bug webinars are an effective way to be taught extra in regards to the creatures in your yard! E mail her at ebrown@ag.tamu.edu to enroll in notifications. And comply with her on instagram for the most recent bug adventures!
Watch now for a lot extra!
Thanks for stopping by! Linda
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