Texas Gardening

If you've never seen guinea fowl, don't fee alone! I hadn't seen one until two of them flew up on my roof one morning. Then they refused to leave! A few months later, here I am with a baker's dozen guineas and loving it! They are the most entertaining creatures. It also ties in with my title of "Texas Gardening". If you're not from this area you may not have heard that we're under one of the worst droughts since the 50's. Sure doesn't make it easy on the gardening. Some of the things you can do to help keep your garden green include putting in soaker hoses, water in the early morning hours only, and consider the water needs of your plants before buying them. Soaker hoses are the best thing I've found for getting the water down into the roots of the plants without evaporating as soon as it hits the air. But for this to work correctly, you must cover the hoses with a good layer of mulch, which you will have already done, so then you just need to tuck it under. I found it easier to just add more mulch - you can never have enough, anyway. Everyone's heard about watering in the early morning hours. I think this is mostly for overhead sprinkling. This accomplishes a couple of different things. First, the temperature's not so hot that the water evaporates immediately and secondly, getting water on the leaves will scorch them when the sun hits them. I guess the very best way to deal with the hot, dry Texas weather is by xeriscaping. This is a form of gardening that uses very little water, but takes a little more forethought and preplanning to be able to find the right plants for the right spots. I'm not talking about cactus and other prickly things, but beautiful, lush plants that can withstand whatever the weather can throw at it. Some of my favorites are all the ornamental grasses. They can be small and delicate or large and commanding. They're all graceful and depending on which types you get have some of the most beautiful colors in them. Another good thing about grasses is they usually stay nice looking through the winter, helping with that "winter garden" dead look. I've got one bed that I didn't think about xeriscaping, it's close to the house and I'm keeping it the way it is. But for all my outer beds and the rest of my garden planning, I'm definitely watching and looking for just the right plants that will thrive without me watering them daily. Just my thoughts on 7/29/09.