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Author Archives: sheryl.williams
Texas Superstar® – Gold Star Esperanza
Give Yourself a ‘Gold Star’ Gold Star Esperanza (Tecoma stans ‘Gold Star’) is a subtropical Texas native. It’s a reliable perennial in USDA Hardiness Zone 9. You might also know this showy plant as ‘yellow bells’ or ‘hardy yellow trumpet. The ‘Gold Star’ variety is the most prolific flowering variety that is “a must” for a Central Texas gardener. It is a fast-growing shrub that can reach 4-5 feet tall with similar width. The actual size is responsive to the growing conditions and is a wonderful accent plant… Read More →
Tree Damage RX
Assisting our Dynamic Wonders The tree damage from the recent ice storm continues to plague Travis County, fueled by several high wind events. Branches are now falling or hanging when they looked fine right after the storm. Our challenge now is to continue to survey and review our trees for pruning, signs of life, or terminal damage. Let’s look at several examples to acclimate to detecting damage and how best to address. Mother Nature’s Stubs In my last post (Trees CODIT for Ice Storm Aftermath), I discussed pruning… Read More →
Trees CODIT for Ice Storm Aftermath
Tree – Heal Thyself! With the most recent ice storm and freezing temperatures, it makes you wonder what mother nature will do next to our trees and landscapes. Think about it, we had the “Snowpocalypse” of 2021, the drought of 2022, and now the “Icepocalypse” of 2023. Our trees are definitely in a weakened state and with so many also incurring ice damage, is a large portion of our natural landscape at risk? We have trees documented in our area that are 100+ years old. That’s before people… Read More →
Cutworms by Wizzie Brown
It’s That Time of Year for Cutworm Damage Granulate cutworms are damaging in the immature, or larval stage. Cutworms can cut plant seedlings stems off at the soil level and on older plants they can climb the plant and feed on foliage or fruit. Young larvae skeletonize leaves while older larvae eat holes in foliage, feed on the surface of fruit, or burrow into fruit. Larvae are nocturnal, which may make it difficult to discover the culprit of plant damage. You may need to inspect the garden at… Read More →
Container Gardening at 2023 Earth-Kind Field Day March 25th
Container Gardening 101 Focus for Spring 2023 Earth-Kind Gardening Field Day Come join the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Travis County Master Gardeners for our Spring 2023 Earth-Kind Gardening Field Day! It will be Saturday, March 25th from 9 am to 1 pm at the Travis County AgriLife Extension office located at 1600 Smith Road, Austin, TX 78721. Parking is available along Smith Road. The event is free and open to the public. The spring 2023 theme is Container Gardening 101 – for indoor and outdoor gardening…. Read More →
Insect Life Cycles by Wizzie Brown
. Two Categories of Insect Lifecycles Wizzie is kicking off the year with some basic insect biology about metamorphosis. Insect life cycles can be broken down into two major categories: incomplete and complete. Incomplete can then be further broken into three varying types. Paurometabolous Incomplete metamorphosis, also called paurometabolous, has three life stages. The first stage is the egg which hatches into an immature insect called a nymph. The nymph eats, grows and molts, going through several different nymphal stages called instars. With each successive molt, the nymph… Read More →
What’s Happening in Austin’s January Vegetable Garden
January Vegetable Garden Checklist Tips from Paula Wolfel January is surprisingly an exciting time for Austin vegetable gardeners because this is when the bulk of your spring garden planning can occur! Continue to make preparations for the lower temperatures, and watch the rain because this time or year we can reduced our irrigations needs. Make sure you continue to protect all new transplants from freeze and their first frost. If the temperatures falls below 28 degrees then cover your plants, securing them with soil, bricks, rocks, or pins. … Read More →
Austin’s December Vegetable Garden by Paula Wolfel
Hooray for Rain! Gardening slows down a bit during this month. As predicted, some of us had our first freeze a few weeks ago, as well as lots of rain!! So hopefully all preparations were made last month for the lower temperatures, and the rain reduced irrigations needs. Make sure you continue to protect all new transplants from freeze and their first frost in the December vegetable garden. If the temperatures fall below 28 degrees then cover your plants, securing them with soil, bricks, rocks, or pins. In… Read More →
Help Overwintering Insects by Wizzie Brown
Provide Shelter for Overwintering Insects If you want to help increase the survival of overwintering insects these next few months, there are some things you can do to provide them with shelter during colder times of the year. Why Bother? First of all, why should you provide shelter for overwintering insects? Not all insects are pests! It is estimated that less than 5% of insect species are considered pests which means the majority of insects are beneficial or just hanging around the landscape. Any of you that have… Read More →
Leach Teaching Gardens Visit by Kay Angermann
Texas A&M Campus-More than tailgating and football When most folks from central Texas think about Texas A&M, they think about the days of big football rivalries, core cadets and not so funny Aggie jokes. I spent quite a few weekends at A&M with my Aggie friends in my 20’s going to bonfires, games and doing what college kids do. I did not realize until a few recent visits how large and beautiful the Texas A&M campus is. As of 2021 it has a total undergraduate enrollment of 56,723,… Read More →