Houston House and Home - Index

Houston House and Home - houstonhouseandhome - Index

SG10
Get Ready for the Growing Season
The secret to a picture-perfect landscape is planning, and February is the prime time to plan. Houston House &
Home’s Landscape Planner is designed to help you make decisions about the type of landscape, gardens and lawn
you want for your home, professionals who can help you achieve it and the essential elements you’ll need to make it
happen (good soil, appropriate plants, an efficient watering system). A checklist on Page SG14 can help you formulate
your plan and discuss it with others. The variety of microclimates in the Houston area and our extraordinary yearround
growing season make landscaping and gardening here a pleasure.
In Houston’s climate so generous with water and sun, it’s not that difficult to become a good steward of your patch
of earth — whether it’s a three-acre floral landscape in the Memorial area, a wooded forest in The Woodlands, a lush
coastal garden in Clear Lake or Galveston, a former rice field turned suburban lawn in Katy, a tiny urban swath in the
Montrose or a flowery cottage garden in the Heights.
Natural Strategies
START WITH GOOD SOIL; PICK PLANTS THAT THRIVE HERE | BY MIKE GIBSON AND SUZY FISCHER
One or two clear spring days in February are usually all
it takes to send the anxious gardener scurrying to the local nursery.
Impulse buys at the garden center may be rewarding to the winterweary
gardener, but they are seldom successful by summer’s end. As
with many aspects of life, obtaining results in your garden is a result
of proper preparation. For a healthy garden, start off right, and then
follow a plan.
GET THE DIRT
A healthy garden can only come from healthy soil. Many garden problems
begin with the soil; poor drainage, nutritional difficulties, insects
and diseases all can be a result of imbalances or deficiencies in the
soil. In the long run, organic gardening methods can lower costs,
reduce synthetic chemical usage and provide a safer environment for
children, pets and wildlife in your garden.
Over and over, successful gardeners say, “Don’t put a $10 plant in
a $1 hole.” The correct preparation of your planting beds is crucial.
We recommend two good books dedicated to building healthy soils:
Howard Garrett’s Texas Organic Gardening Book from Gulf Publishing
Company and Malcolm Beck’s The Garden-Ville Method from AMS
Publications.
TEST YOUR SOIL
The only way to know where you are going is to know where you are
starting. The Harris County Agricultural Extension Agency has
detailed instructions on how to take a soil sample (it’s not difficult). A
number of soil testing laboratories will test your sample. One is
Agricultural Consulting Institute, 8303 West St., Route 571, West
Milton, Ohio 45383. Another is Kinsey’s Agricultural Services, Route 2,
Box 116, Charleston, Mo. 63834. Try to use the same lab for subsequent
tests since each lab may have a different method of testing for
certain properties.
Once you have received the results, you can follow the lab’s recommendations.
For instance, you may find the calcium or magnesium
levels are too high or low. The lab should recommend a rate of application
to correct this imbalance.
ADD ORGANIC MATTER
Most soils in our area lack sufficient organic material. Incorporating a
five- to six-inch layer of organic matter when preparing new planting
beds will improve drainage, improve mineral and nutrient retention
and foster microorganism growth and activity. Compost is a great way
to increase organic matter. Also, an organic mulch encourages healthy
plantings. Nutrients are added to the soil as the mulch decays, weeds
are discouraged, erosion is checked, moisture is conserved and soil
temperature is regulated by the mulch’s insulating properties.
USE ORGANICS, MINERALS & BIOLOGICALS
Humate, a natural byproduct of composting, will increase the amount
of available carbon (a necessary building block of all life) in your soil,
help balance pH, make existing minerals more available and promote
strong root growth. Zeolite, another natural mineral deposit, helps
improve drainage and increases beneficial fungi and microbes.
Choose organic fertilizers. They release nutrients more slowly so
plants make better use of them and they contain trace elements that
most synthetic fertilizers do not.
MONITOR YOUR GARDEN
Stop problems early. Look for changes in leaf color or leaf drop,
unusual growth patterns, insect or disease damage, areas needing
mulch or anything else that looks awry. Also, making notes to yourself
on your calendar for when to fertilize or add supplements will make it
easier to be consistent.
CHOOSE NATIVE OR ADAPTED PLANTS
After building up your soil, choose the plants appropriate to your
needs and existing conditions. Choosing native or adapted plants, if
possible, will give you better results than introduced or unacclimated
varieties.
By choosing your plants wisely and faithfully tending to the needs
of your garden’s soil, you can promote a strong healthy garden that
will reward you with fruit and flowers beyond your expectations.
Mike Gibson and Susan Fischer, A.S.L.A., are licensed landscape
architects with the design-build firm Fischer Schalles Inc.
Texas Home & Garden ShowGuide | February 13th-15th, 2009 | www.texashomeandgarden.com