Texas

Beautiful!!!! Where are you located? I've just moved to Texas (just north of San Antonio in Hill Country) and am finding gardening quite the challenge. I hadn't appreciated how much the extremes in Texas weather affected the plants. I've gardened in Saudi Arabia, the Caribbean and Canada, and Texas is by far the most challenging.
Wow even harder than Saudi Arabia? I have heard that if you can garden in Texas, that you can garden anywhere. I grew up here in the hillcountry so it is all I know. I must have had a past life in the tropics because I just go gaga over big, lush, and colorful. If it is rare I got to have it. If it is hard to grow I gotta prove em' wrong! I I have worked in the plant industry on and off for years and have learned there are a lot of rules. I'm not one for following boring gardening rules and in doing so I have learned a lot of tricks.

Yes, the extremes of quickly changing weather here are a challenge. The secret is healthy soil full of lots of organic nutrition. My personal secret is horse poo and a bag of lady bug dirt with new hardwood mulch every season. I use a lot of hardy natives and in focal points put all my lush beauties so the overall effect is tropical without all the water use. I actually use less water than a suburban green lawn!
 
Beautiful!!!!  Where are you located?  I've just moved to Texas (just north of San Antonio in Hill Country) and am finding gardening quite the challenge.  I hadn't appreciated how much the extremes in Texas weather affected the plants.  I've gardened in Saudi Arabia, the Caribbean and Canada, and Texas is by far the most challenging.

Wow even harder than Saudi Arabia? I have heard that if you can garden in Texas, that you can garden anywhere. I grew up here in the hillcountry so it is all I know. I must have had a past life in the tropics because I just go gaga over big, lush, and colorful. If it is rare I got to have it. If it is hard to grow I gotta prove em' wrong! I I have worked in the plant industry on and off for years and have learned there are a lot of rules. I'm not one for following boring gardening rules and in doing so I have learned a lot of tricks.

Yes, the extremes of quickly changing weather here are a challenge. The secret is healthy soil full of lots of organic nutrition. My personal secret is horse poo and a bag of lady bug dirt with new hardwood mulch every season. I use a lot of hardy natives and in focal points put all my lush beauties so the overall effect is tropical without all the water use. I actually use less water than a suburban green lawn!
Absolutely. The secret is healthy soil with tons of organic matter. I've just moved to East Texas from Houston and I'm seeing stuff I never saw before growing here, being a native of south Texas. Can't wait for spring to get started really getting my feet wet in gardening this area though! Sandy instead of clay, acid instead of alkaline, and a bit cooler. Really different from what I've been gardening in for the last 40 years.
 
Fantasy? It's real! Absolutely beautiful! But looks ... unreal. Great job!
That is what I am going for, so I am just tickled pink that is the experience that ya'll are having with it! I have only been working on this garden for two years so by fall next year it should be a surreal experience.

I will have to dig up a before shot somewhere.
 
Absolutely. The secret is healthy soil with tons of organic matter. I've just moved to East Texas from Houston and I'm seeing stuff I never saw before growing here, being a native of south Texas. Can't wait for spring to get started really getting my feet wet in gardening this area though! Sandy instead of clay, acid instead of alkaline, and a bit cooler. Really different from what I've been gardening in for the last 40 years.
It sounds like you might like the difference. Cooler weather oh ya, and sandy soil is so much easier to amend than clay!
 
Absolutely. The secret is healthy soil with tons of organic matter. I've just moved to East Texas from Houston and I'm seeing stuff I never saw before growing here, being a native of south Texas. Can't wait for spring to get started really getting my feet wet in gardening this area though! Sandy instead of clay, acid instead of alkaline, and a bit cooler. Really different from what I've been gardening in for the last 40 years.

It sounds like you might like the difference. Cooler weather oh ya, and sandy soil is so much easier to amend than clay!
I'm loving the difference! Can't wait to try stuff that won't grow in Houston cause of the soil and because it's too far south. Blueberries. Oh yeah.
 
Wow even harder than Saudi Arabia? I have heard that if you can garden in Texas, that you can garden anywhere. I grew up here in the hillcountry so it is all I know. I must have had a past life in the tropics because I just go gaga over big, lush, and colorful. If it is rare I got to have it. If it is hard to grow I gotta prove em' wrong! I I have worked in the plant industry on and off for years and have learned there are a lot of rules. I'm not one for following boring gardening rules and in doing so I have learned a lot of tricks.

Yes, the extremes of quickly changing weather here are a challenge. The secret is healthy soil full of lots of organic nutrition. My personal secret is horse poo and a bag of lady bug dirt with new hardwood mulch every season. I use a lot of hardy natives and in focal points put all my lush beauties so the overall effect is tropical without all the water use. I actually use less water than a suburban green lawn!

Yes, harder than Saudi Arabia! I didn't have deer in Saudi Arabia and it never got cold. It is really tough for a plant to be able to cope with 107 in the summer, no rain and then have to cope with well below freezing. That's really tough.

I'm trying to grow natives so I don't have to water. I planted over 100 bushes and trees this spring, and it has been a real challenge to keep them watered which I do by hand.
 
This is my 3rd year here.. moved from Wyo.. I STILL can't figure out growing anything here! It's crazy!
Basically you take all those gardening books and magazines you read and chunk them in the trash... cause almost all of them deal with weather and conditions that don't exist where you are now. Then look up gardening for where you really are on google. Or something.
 
So I'm cautiously optimistic but I gently shoved (haha) my 4 two week old Marans under my broody tonight. She didn't seem concerned. No pecking at them even though they were really moving around under her. Fingers crossed.
 
Basically you take all those gardening books and magazines you read and chunk them in the trash... cause almost all of them deal with weather and conditions that don't exist where you are now. Then look up gardening for where you really are on google. Or something.
So true and then anything you do find for your area you got to account for any little micro climate you got going on. Good times once you figure it out though. Or some of it out. If anyone tells you they have it all figured out their either lying or full of themselves. I have met some very angry Master Gardeners that will tell you all kinds of bull. No offence to the MGs just cant stand the know it alls that are angry with everyone and act like everything is some big secret or private club
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Gardening is supposed to be fun
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