gardening2.html

Those of us lucky enough to live in this part of the world must accept the price we pay for beautifully mild January weather — scorchingly hot, dry summers. In response to the question, "What should I be doing in the yard in July?" The answer is, "Not very much!"

The dog days of summer are a dormant season for plants. Planting mid-summer in the Hill Country can only be considered plant cruelty. Survival of new transplants is iffy, requiring careful attention and lots of watering. A better strategy is to use this season to plan and prepare for successful fall planting. Take a look at your landscape and think about what improvements you would like to make. Have you been noticing attractive yards that you might want to emulate? Are you fed up with mowing and watering a big lawn?

If you decide it is time for a few landscape changes, the next step is to evaluate the current conditions of your yard. Do you have a sufficient soil depth for planting? What type of soil do you have? Do you have good drainage? Where are the areas of sun and shade in your yard? Finding answers to these questions will help you make good plant choices for your landscape.

After evaluating your site conditions, peruse books specializing in plants that are native and adapted to this region. The Grow Green Guide to Native and Well Adapted Landscape Plants is an excellent source, as is Native Texas Plants by Sally Wasowski and Andy Wasowski.

Once you have done some research, allow your inner artist to emerge. Print out photos of your front yard and try tracing new landscaping ideas over the top. Think about how you might be able to bring more texture, structural diversity and foliage color into your yard. See if there are any areas where it might be practical to replace lawn with well-adapted landscape plants, then sketch out a plan.

If you decide to remove turf, mid-summer is the best season for bed preparation. Hot days create perfect conditions in sunny areas for killing weed seeds with solarization. Solarization has three easy steps:

dig up grass (or weeds) as best you can;
thoroughly wet the area;
cover the area with clear plastic (not black plastic). Leave the plastic in place for two weeks, allowing the sun to steam the weeds to death. After you have solarized an area, cover it with a three-inch thick layer of mulch until conditions are right for planting.

While you are out in the garden mulching your new bed, give your existing beds fresh mulch to help them through the heat. Then go for a swim, or find other cool activities to enjoy while you endure our dormant season in the Texas Hill Country.