Sharon Truett

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Sharon Truett from The Natural Gardener shares her drought tolerant plants for shade.

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Recent Episodes

Native Alternatives to Exotic Invasive Plants

What’s the negative impact of exotic, invasive plants on waterways and wildlife habitat? Erin Cord from Austin’s Watershed Protection Department analyzes the damage and offers native plant alternatives. On tour, Sandy Stone and Joe Brown worked with nature’s architecture to restore habitat in an area getting bulldozed. Daphne checks out a troubled container avocado and what | watch episode →

Save Your Succulents + Charmed Up Makeover

Yikes! I killed my succulent (and/or) air plant. To spare you that grief, Monique Capanelli from Articulture Designs clues us into success with mixed succulent designs for architectural beauty indoors. On tour, Colleen Jamison and Bruce Baldwin unite charm, romance, and hardcore practicality in their home and garden makeover. Daphne analyzes mysterious twigs/branches that appear to | watch episode →

February To Do List

Plant: ornamental & wildlife

Annual transplants: pansies, violas, calendula (wildlife plant), snapdragon, stock, larkspur, ornamental kale & cabbage, bluebonnet transplants, poppies. Transplants are preferred over seeds at this point.
Evergreen perennials & vines
Trees, shrubs, roses
Evergreen groundcovers like monkey grass, liriope, creeping germander, frogfruit

Plant: herbs

Calendula, chervil, cilantro, chives, dill, parsley, feverfew, oregano, sorrel, thyme, garlic chives
Protect cilantro and chives in below freezing weather.

Plant: food crops

Artichokes, asparagus, onions, greens, lettuce, spinach, radish, carrots, beets, bok choy, collards, kale, peas, turnips, leeks, broccoli, shallot bulbs, cabbage
Potatoes
Get tomatoes and peppers to move to pots. Late month: plant if well protected from late freezes.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Vegetable Planting Guides (Central Texas) http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/home-landscape/edible-gardens/growing-vegetables/

Plant: fruit

Apples, peaches, pecans, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, figs, almonds, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries

Prune

Roses
Prune dormant perennials and ornamental (clumping) grasses.
Prune grapes, fruit trees, blackberries
Cut asters and chrysanthemums to rosettes
Late month: prune woody salvias as much as ⅔ to encourage new growth
Trees: DO NOT prune red oaks and live oaks unless damaged. Spray immediately with clear varnish.
No need to apply pruning paint to other trees
Avoid topping crape myrtles: simply remove sprouts or entire limbs at the trunk.
Prune rosemary and oregano
Late month: prune evergreen shrubs as they start to set new growth

Divide/Move

Dormant perennials, roses, shrubs and trees. This is the best time to move plants!

Prep

Add compost to vegetable gardens along with organic fertilizer in prep for another round of winter vegetables
Soil test

Fertilize

Roses
Iris. Use a fertilizer with a higher middle number (phosphorus)
Add compost to beds as you cut back dormant perennials. Fertilize with slow-release granular late in the month or as dormant perennials leaf out
Add compost around trees and fertilize. Be sure to dig out grass several feet from the trunk, ideally to the drip line of the tree canopy.

Other tasks

Keep floating row cover available; avoid covering plants with plastic
Spray fruit trees with dormant oil to control overwintering scale, plum curculio and other pests.
WEED!

Tips

When planting, dig hole twice as wide as root ball but no deeper than where it sits in the pot.
Backfill and water until it sinks in.
Continue filling in.
Water again until it sinks in and pack the soil down.
Mulch.

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