The Central Texas Gardener

National Weather Service Bulletin

FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 9 AM CST WEDNESDAY

CLEAR SKIES...LIGHT WINDS AND LOW MOISTURE LEVELS WILL COMBINE TO ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO DROP INTO THE UPPER 20S AND LOWER 30S DURING THE OVERNIGHT TONIGHT INTO EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. THIS WILL MAINLY BE IN IN PROTECTED VALLEYS AND LOW LYING AREAS ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE HILL COUNTRY AND ESCARPMENT

LLANO-BURNET-WILLIAMSON-VAL VERDE-EDWARDS-REAL-KERR-BANDERA- GILLESPIE-KENDALL-BLANCO-HAYS-TRAVIS-KINNEY-UVALDE-MEDINA-BEXAR- COMAL- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...LLANO...BURNET...GEORGETOWN...DEL RIO... ROCKSPRINGS...LEAKEY...KERRVILLE...BANDERA...FREDERICKSBURG... BOERNE...BLANCO...SAN MARCOS...AUSTIN...BRACKETTVILLE...UVALDE... HONDO...SAN ANTONIO...NEW BRAUNFELS

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Been pretty quiet around here since Spring, but that'll happen when you're dealing with the worst drought since the 50s. Which the climate folks say has eased considerably with our recent rains!



So how did everyone's gardens fare this year? My herbs did well but only because I built raised square foot garden beds last Spring so the plants weren't subject to my yard's horrible clay soil. I swear I could make bricks out of that stuff! A few pepper plants survived the summer and have rejuvenated. And the tomatillos, OMG! As soon as the temperature dropped into the 90s they exploded into blossoms, many of which are now making tomatillos. Yay, salsa! And I have to give a huge thumbs-up to lemongrass. It grew massively while everything else stunted for a couple of months. I'm thinking of using it as a landscaping plant since it doesn't flower so won't be invasive. And it might keep bugs away: lemongrass oil is a major component to most herbal bug repellents.

I also had good luck with a partially shaded butterfly garden I started with a seed packet and a milkweed plant. Only the Mexican sunflowers and purple verbena lived through the summer but the bright purple and orange flowers made wonderful landing spots for Monarch and swallowtail butterflies as well as a few hummingbirds. The bees enjoyed them too! Right now I'm tending a number of Monarch caterpillars in a ten-gallon fishtank. Four have changed to chrysali and the rest are growing quickly. I can't wait until the butterflies emerge! That was an end-of-year surprise: I thought that only happened in the Springtime!

Right now I have some cauliflower and broccoli in the beds and one remaining lettuce plant: snails ate the rest. :( I still want to plant some carrot seeds but I may be too late. And the herbs that survived the summer are doing really well: Greek and Sicilian oregano, marjoram, lemon verbena, winter savory, lavender and English thyme, and my *six* basil plants: African Blue, green globe, Mrs. Burns' lemon, Thai, 'holy', and ruffled purple. African Blue basil cannot be beat for even the hottest summers: it grows strongly when all the others begin to wilt.

So what's up in your garden?

National Weather Service Special Weather Statement

The Funky Chicken Coop Tour is today. I hadn't realized how many people here in Austin keep chickens. For more info, see http://fccooptour.blogspot.com/.

There may be a light frost in East Austin and parts of the Hill Country on Monday night/Tuesday morning.

See http://www.wunderground.com/US/TX/192.html#SPE.

( National Weather Service bulletinCollapse )

Temps in the city will be colder than expected but probably won't dip to freezing: still too cold for the tomatoes & peppers, though.

Perhaps more importantly than chilly weather this weekend is the stormy weather happening today and possibly tomorrow.



The biggest threat is high wind and hail, which is no good for our brand-new springtime plants, so if you can cover or move them that might be a good idea. If you want to keep up with the radar and don't have cable, the same feed is available at www.news8austin.com. www.wunderground.com (Weather Underground) also has an excellent radar feed. And of course there's the National Weather Service and The Weather Channel sites (www.weather.gov and www.weather.com).

The National Weather service is calling for nighttime temps in the 40s beginning Friday night, so remember to protect your new tomatoes and peppers!

I hope everyone is having a good spring. I've been having fun planning a square foot raised bed garden: I wish I had thought of it years ago instead of rueing my clayey soil. I might actually get vegetables to grow! In addition to my usual collection of herbs, of course. I discovered The Natural Gardener recently, located in South Austin, and if you haven't been there then you're missing out! It's totally worth a long drive in from the Hill Country.

What are your garden plans this year?

Also, would it be helpful to readers to have a planting schedule posted once a month so we all know what to plant? I forget broccoli every year because I don't keep up with the calendar.

So, two plants I'm jonesing for this year...I've heard jujubes are very difficult to kill, Texas-tolerant, and prone to fruiting, all of which sounds good. Haven't seen any in stores *this* year, but I remember seeing them in the past.

The other plant I'm looking for is an Arabic jasmine, called Grand Duke of Tuscany. It's got large flowers that are unusually fragrant and very good for teas.

If anyone's seen these plants in stores that'd be good to know, or wouldn't mind parting with some cuttings if they've got the jasmine, I'd love to work out some sort of hostage exchange. Thanks in advance!