February 28, 2023
Get Alongside and Develop Together with Clay Soil
Kool-Assist, bubble gum, or grape soda? That’s the quiz round city when Texas mountain laurels scent our lives with plump, lavender-purple blossoms. Who is aware of how delighted bees, butterflies, and wasps describe that candy perfume, however we will all agree that spring is pushing winter out the door.
‘Tis the season the place each morning brings a present. In late February, Leucojum aestivum glows with miniature white droplets. Only a handful of bulbs steadily populated a border in my backyard, amenable to no matter Texas climate throws at them.
In solar or shade, strappy foliage fills in for winter-dormant native perennials, quietly fading away because the perennials take over in warmth. Simply divided as foliage browns up, I’ve shared many a clump with strolling neighbors on the lookout for an easy-care plant to transition us from winter to spring. They’re not usually in native nurseries, so that is one to get on-line. Horticulturist Greg Grant tells a fast story of those sturdy heirlooms. 
It’s taken me just a few years (and quite a lot of tries) to know what accepts my dense clay Blackland Prairie soil and what won’t. Texas baby-blue-eyes, a spring-blooming annual beloved by bees of every kind, is considered one of many success tales. A good friend shared just a few seedlings, and so they took it from there. When rosettes emerged in November, I plucked just a few to populate one other part-shade mattress below a yaupon holly. Tucked between two leucojums, this toddler hurried as much as be the primary bloom on the block.
Native spiderwort (Tradescantia gigantea) additionally flowered this week. With a pure eye for design, it seeded itself into this mattress of baby-blue-eyes, set to bloom any day now.
With golden groundsel blanketing one other part-shade spot, it’s actually feast days for every kind of pollinators. Stalwart bearded irises to colorize with purple in just a few weeks.
I’ve obtained just a few trouble-free roses, too! Iceberg rose is simply as aromatic as mountain laurels, however just like the well-known battery bunny, it retains on going. It bloomed minutes after the ice storm and the day we hit 91° final week. I’ve by no means fertilized and the one irrigation it will get is a couple of minutes every week in summer season.
As native winter-dormant perennials leaf out, I’m making headway clipping again outdated stems/branches. I solely needed to contact up evergreen narrowleaf globemallow (Sphaeralcea angustifolia). A brand new addition from final fall’s Wildflower Heart sale, it didn’t flinch in December’s freeze and February’s ice storm. Supposedly it grows in clay soil and half shade; spring-to-fall flowers entice butterflies.
For years, I’ve loosened up my dense soil with leaves, compost, mulch and deep plant roots. However we merely can’t change the construction of our soil, backyard designer Leah Churner reminds us. This week, she explains how she amended the heavy clay (and rocky) soil in Lori Najvar and Glen Chappell’s shady hillside backyard.
“In a clay soil setting, there’s not a number of oxygen. It’s good that the clay soil can maintain on to water. However there it’s sort of a low oxygen setting as a result of these clay particles are so tiny. So what we wished to do was usher in natural matter, which might feed all of the little microorganisms and all of the fungi and all of the little earthworms and micro organism and every thing, and simply create some more healthy soil biology,” Leah advised us.
Together with sheet mulching from the outset, and on-going compost and mulch, Leah additionally selects crops that get together with clay soil and shade. Right here’s a partial plant checklist. 
See why she used a choose/mattock to make digging in simpler.
Watch now!
Plenty of occasions developing! Listed below are just some.
March 4: Sunshine Neighborhood Gardens Plant Sale
9 a.m. – 2 p.m. 4814 Sunshine Dr.
20,000 tried & true tomatoes, peppers, every kind of greens
March 25: Budding Out Plant Sale & Pageant
9 a.m. – 1 p.m. The John Fairey Backyard, Hempstead, TX
Uncommon and distinctive crops/artwork/clothes/material/ceramics/excursions
March 25: Earth-Variety Gardening Discipline Day
9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Travis County AgriLife Extension workplace
Workshops on houseplants, greens in pots, composting, vermicomposting, irrigation, rainwater harvesting, entomology
March 25: Austin Natural Gardeners Spring Plant Sale
10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Zilker Botanical Backyard
Every kind of natural crops from native growers
Thanks for stopping by! Linda
