Extension Educationin Travis County

Spring has Sprung in Travis County

Peggy Martin Rose in full bloom outside the AgriLife office in the Earth-Kind Demonstration Garden on Smith Road

St. Valentine’s Day is the first day of spring for many gardeners in Travis County. February 14th is usually the start of milder weather and with any luck, the hard freezes are over. Now is the time to garden: prune your roses, start your spring vegetable garden, restart your compost, and get a jump on weeds these few weeks before warmer air arrives in April.

Get Expert Advice from Master Gardeners at These Events

Travis County Master Gardeners are out and about all through the month of March, giving you a great opportunity to get your questions answered and receive expert advice from gardeners who have experienced many of your same challenges. There are several Plant Clinics and a seminar that you can attend.

• March 7 – Sunshine Community Gardens Plant Sale and Travis County Master Gardener Plant Clinic 
• March 7 – Drought to Deluge – Creating the Resilient Central Texas Garden seminar at Zilker Botanical Garden
• March 7 – Stronger Austin Day and Travis County Master Gardener Plant Clinic
• March 15 – Texas Farmers Market at Mueller and Travis County Master Gardener Plant Clinic
• March 21 – Austin Public Library Hampton Branch at Oak Hill Spring Into Nature festival and Travis County Master Gardner Plant Clinic 
• March 28 – Texas Farmers Market at Lakeline and Travis County Master Gardener Plant Clinic

Most noteworthy on April 4th is the the 14th Annual East Austin Garden Fair. There are over 60 booths on gardening and healthy living, which include DIY projects and kids activities.

Monthly Gardening To-Do List

For even more great advice, check out our monthly gardening calendar. Your to-do-list for March should include the following activities to make the most of your time to garden:

• Test your soil then use the results to apply fertilizer to blooming shrubs and the vegetable garden. Hold off on fertilizing your lawn until April.
• Make sure to irrigate if your soil is dry, and water deeply if frost is predicted.
• Add compost and water it in well to establish good soil contact.
• Stay on top of weeds so they don’t go to seed.

Call or Email For More Help

We’re here to help. Please call, email, or stop by the AgriLife office and one of our volunteer Master Gardeners will assist.

 It’s Time to Fertilize Citrus

Here in Austin, the prolonged cold usually comes to an end around Valentine’s Day and the warmer air triggers many plants to come out of dormancy. We’ve already noticed plums blooming in the neighborhood and new buds are emerging on just about everything in the Earth-Kind® Demonstration Garden. Joe, our Master Gardener citrus expert, says that now is the time to fertilize citrus plants. There are two trees in the ground at AgriLife, and both received specially formulated citrus fertilizer as an early Valentine’s Day treat. The fertilizer contains micro-nutrients that are deficient in our alkaline soils. Adding the nutrients now will support the new blooms as the trees come out of dormancy. Joe says the timing is the same for container citrus plants. You can read more on how to care for citrus over at Aggie Horticulture.

Overcrowding = New Divisions

Over in the rose bed, area leader Manda is digging out overgrown salvias and the pink Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus x ‘Pam Puryear’s Pink’. All have done well next to the roses but have outgrown the space. The ‘Pam Puryear’s Pink’ was developed by Texas plantsman Greg Grant and was named after his friend and the ‘Rose Rustler’ founder Pam Puryear. Manda had no trouble finding help to dig out the plants among fellow volunteers who were eager to take home the new divisions.

A Happy Mix-Up in the Herb Garden

Many of us have come home with the wrong plant from a retail nursery. Herb garden leader Pat went to a local nursery to pick up some cilantro starts. A helpful employee handed her a plant and, at a glance, Pat saw that the tag started with a “c”. It wasn’t until later that she discovered that the “c” was for celery, not cilantro.

Celery is not a crop usually grown successfully in Central Texas because of heat and lack of water. Some nurseries sell water celery, Oenanthe javanica, as a pond plant, but it’s a completely separate family than garden celery, Apium graveolens. Pat planted the celery on the herb garden edge closest to the street, giving the plant a little micro climate protection from the recent cold. The plant is thriving there and now has a few stalks ready to harvest. She will leave it there to see how long it holds up once warmer weather arrives.

Peas Ready for Trellis

David, the vegetable area garden leader, built a trellis for the peas. He uses bamboo stakes wired to metal fence posts, then attaches netting made from gardening twine. The structure is rigid enough to hold the weight and withstand the constant wind that uses Highway 183 as a conduit. Master Gardener Charles helped finish the project. David planted two types of peas; an edible pod variety and, for fun, a sweet pea. The sweet pea is a vigorous grower and will scramble up the trellis in no time. The edible pea is more of a bush type but will utilize the trellis as it grows. The edible pea is already setting pods that are ready for stir-fry or salads.

Site Preparation for New Garden Bed

A new garden bed and gabion wall is in process at the Earth-Kind Demonstration garden at the AgriLife Extension office on Smith Road, and both require a LOT of digging.

The new garden bed is adjacent to a parking area at the AgriLife Extension office and is mostly weeds and grass. The Travis County facilities department regularly mows it but does not provide any other ancillary care or irrigation.

Master Gardener Sandy, the wall garden area leader of the Earth-Kind Demonstration Garden, is leading the renovation.

The tree planting last fall during Earth-Kind Gardening Field Day revealed compacted soil comprised mostly of roadbed material. Anyone who is gardening in parking strips understands this challenge.

At the same time, JoAnna, the pollinator garden area leader, is prepping the area to install a gabion wall. A gabion is a rock-filled cage retaining wall for civil engineering, road building, military applications and landscaping purposes. The new wall in the pollinator area is next to a driveway and will help keep soil and mulch from washing away during heavy rain events. The soil in this area is excellent, and is finding a home in the new bed at the other end of the garden.

Digging site for new Gabion wall

Swapping out soil is not ideal and not something that AgriLife recommends, especially on a site with heavy clay soil. The danger is that the digging compacts the soil and creates an impermeable layer for water and roots. Special care was taken to remove the top layer down to the underlying road bed. Loosening the road bed material, adding compost, then mixing the entire soil profile together afterward helps prevent impermeable layers. New plants are going in over the next few months and will be added to the plant list. Extensions staff and Master Gardeners will hand-water the first year.