Central Texas Gardener - January 30th, 2010

Episode of the Week

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January 30th, 2010

Kelly Bender from Texas Parks and Wildlife offers alternatives to invasive plants. Sweetpea Hoover from The Natural Gardener tackles weeds with tools and organic products, including corn gluten and Garden Weasel Crabgrass Killer for crabgrass and other weeds.

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Shop for roses and prepare your beds for them: lots of compost and good drainage. Be sure to pick a sunny site! On bare root plants, it really is important to get them into the ground now. Container plants can wait a few more weeks or even a month until we warm up a bit, but you can also plant now.
Plant trees and evergreen shrubs.
Prune trees, especially ones susceptible to oak wilt. Clean up water shoots and sprouts. Clean off tiny stems from crape myrtles.
Dig up grass from around the trees to give them a wide berm away from grass.
Pull weeds! Or mow them down; many are already setting seed.
Brown patch: If you have a history of brown patch in your lawn, go ahead and treat it now with fungicide. If you have a history of it, you'll probably see it again this year. If you have low drainage spots, correct for that. Don't overwater or over fertilize.
Plant calendulas, coneflower, gaillardia, and hollyhock.
Clean up mushy leaves from frozen plants, like agapanthus, society garlic, daylilies, and others.
Cut back frozen woody perennials, herbaceous salvias, and evergreen salvias, like Salvia greggii (autumn or cherry sage).
Wait a few weeks to prune evergreen shrubs.
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