President s Message. Rangoon Creeper. April Program: Our Annual Auction Featuring Colonel Barry Lovelace as Auctioneer.

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1 Austin Gardener 1 April 2012 Published monthly by The Garden Club of Austin Volume 49 Issue 4 April Program: Our Annual Auction Featuring Colonel Barry Lovelace as Auctioneer The Garden Club of Austin will host its sixteenth annual plant auction on April 26, at our regular meeting. Please plan to come with a fabulous plant to donate. Any plant related items will be appreciated also. If your garden hasn't quite come back to its original spring splendor, pick up something you think you'd personally like to have from a local nursery and take it for the auction. If you've found a fabulous new tool, buy another one to donate. A flat of flowering plants, a small citrus tree, a trowel and gloves, hard to find heirloom seeds, something made for the garden like a trellis, or anything else you think someone might like to have for their garden will be perfect. Whatever plant you decide to donate, please identify it with along with its growth habits if at all possible. If this is a specimen from your own garden, you might also add any information that helped you to be successful with this plant. Try to have your donations in a little before the 7:30 start of the meeting so they can be placed, and members and guests can browse the selections before the auction. As the plants and related items are donated by our members, all proceeds from this auction go into our general fund to support our various activities. Barry Lovelace has graciously consented to be our most entertaining auctioneer again. Once the bidding starts, the fun begins. Just jump in, have a good time, and go home with a perfect plant or three. There are some veteran members who delight in bidding against each other, much to the amusement of us all. Guests are always welcomed, of course. Editor Rangoon Creeper Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis indica) is my current favorite plant, and I ll be bringing it to the club auction. No other plant in my garden is hardier, does more cover-up work, is more fragrant, attracts more hummingbirds, or shows off more than Rangoon Creeper. This spectacular vine blooms constantly from summer to fall and has lovely clusters of red, white and pink flowers depending on age of the blossom and is a butterfly host plant as well as a magnet for hummingbirds. I have counted as many as twelve busy hummingbirds at one sighting. In my yard I use this vine to cover an arbor as well as provide focal points in large pots in the backyard. As soon as the soil warms up, Rangoon Creeper starts coming back to life. At present, it is growing vigorously and has reached the top of the arbor and my pots are already full. I added a bit of Miracle Gro fertilizer about March 15. In full bloom, Rangoon Creeper will make my garden smell like paradise, especially in the early evenings. It is truly a wonder plant and I m hoping you will find a spot for this winner in your garden. Laura Joseph Rangoon Creeper President s Message AAGC s March 31 and April 1, 2012, Zilker Garden Fest, the 55 th Annual, is now history. The weather cooperated nicely for the two day annual event. Thank you to all of our club members who worked and volunteered in various areas during the festival. Special thanks to Laura Joseph and Liz Stansfeld who chaired the ticket sales at the front gate and all who volunteered to help them. Annie and I served as the money counters on Saturday and Sunday. Also thanks to Robert Day for helping to chair the golf cart drivers, and to Christie Rodgers and others who worked in various club and information booths. All in all, I think the festival was again a huge success, but the ticket sales total dollars was just slightly less than last year, and it seemed that the crowds, although steady both days, were probably slightly less than last year also. On to the next project at hand, our Board of Director s meeting will be on Monday, April 23, and our regular meeting will be on Thursday, April 26. The April 26 meeting will be our annual plant auction, one of our major fund raisers, so be sure to donate some nice plants which See President, page 2

2 Austin Gardener 2 President continued from page 1 will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Once again our Auctioneer will be Barry Lovelace, one of our club s past presidents. His interesting commentary and bits of information always make the auction lively and quite interesting. So remember to donate plants, and bring money to buy beautiful and unusual plants donated by others. Remember that we will have the silent auction at another upcoming meeting, so as to simplify accounting procedures and to allow everyone to pay attention to what is going on, rather than jumping from one to the other. Also looming on the horizon is the club s annual Spring Garden Show & Sale, June 2 and 3. We need lots of volunteers to make this two day event run smoothly, especially a show chairperson, and a plant sales chairperson. So please volunteer to help where you can, because this event will be here before we know it, and it takes lots of planning to pull it off. Our July meeting will be on July 26, and will feature our annual ice cream social and our silent auction. Take some time to do a short trip out of town to see the beautiful wild flowers blooming at their peak. Indian paintbrushes, bluebonnets, evening primroses, phlox, wine cups, wild white poppies and others are quite beautiful now and will be for about another month, especially if we continue to get rain. Sincerely, Wilburn Tiger Fern President The Garden Club of Austin Wilburn Hackebeil 1 st Vice Presidents Laura Joseph, Robert Day, Marjorie Trachtenberg 2 nd Vice Presidents John and Joyce Fox 3 rd Vice president Elizabeth Wong Secretary Liz Stansfeld Treasurer Annie Hackebeil Historian Carol Kay Johnson Newsletter Editor Sandi Schmidt AAGC Representative Wilburn Hackebeil Directors: Term extending through 2012 Billie Passmore Irene Franco Term extending through 2013 Christie Rodgers Joe Defoe Term extending through 2014 Rainee Freeman Marilyn Metcalf The Garden Club of Austin, Inc. was established in 1953 and is currently affiliated with The Gardeners of America/Men s Garden Clubs of America (TGOA/MGCA), the Southwest Region of MGCA and the Austin Area Garden Council. Meetings are open to the public and held in the Austin Area Garden Center on the fourth Thursday of the month except for November (the third Thursday) and December (an awards banquet on the second Thursday). Membership inquiries should be directed to our treasurer, Annie Hackebeil at Questions or comments concerning the newsletter should be sent to the editor at brsch07@gmail.com Fern Team News The fern beds are filling out and looking lush. The three Acanthus mollis Bear s Breeches in the shady area of the pond are especially gorgeous. The plants in sunny area are starting to fill out also. Are you wondering why the pond water was looking so bad? We were told the pump had burned out. During the March fern bed workday, we removed the pump and found a stick wedged inside the line that blocked the water flow. The pump actually works, but instead of reinstalling it, we ve decide to have a stone mason restack the wall and leave few open areas to plant maidenhair ferns. The work on the new Woodland-Fern Bed starts this month. We ll order boulders and soil to have on hand. We have someone to remove the invasive plants and ivy. Then we ll prepare the area, rework the dry stem bed, add soils and soil amendment, and place the boulders and logs. We ll temporarily install weed cloth until we re ready to plant. In May, the irrigation will be installed. Shortly after that, we will start the planting. This is our garden club s major project. We d like to have everyone get involved in some way. Even if you can only provide encouragement, we d like you there. If you would like to help plant, provide snacks, or even be a sidewalk supervisor, please call me. The date and time will be announced. Saturday, May 26, is a scheduled fern bed workday. If everything has gone as planned, the Woodland-Fern bed should be finished by then! Christie Rodgers

3 Austin Gardener 3 Gardening Checklist for April-May If you planted potatoes they should be up and growing vigorously and your tomatoes should be near the bloom stage. It s not too late (but getting close) to plant beans, squash and cucumbers, or even Swiss chard if you want a good green. You can also plant just about anything that you have been putting off for warmer weather. This includes okra, Lima beans, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes, and Malabar spinach. Hopefully, your garden is looking great, but resist the temptation to mulch it. Wait until the soil has had a chance to really warm up (usually late April or early May) then put a layer of mulch about 3 or 4 inches thick on exposed soil. Just about anything works, but I usually use all the live oak leaves that I just raked out of my yard. Caladium tubers can be planted outside after the soil warms up, usually about mid to late April. Better a little late than too early, because the tubers will rot if the soil is too wet and cold. Prune spring flowering shrubs shortly after they are through blooming to encourage a thicker more compact plant. In May you can complete pruning of climbing roses to insure a good supply of new wood for next year s flower formation. You should also prepare your flowerbeds for the summer annuals. There is a wide selection available at your favorite garden center including periwinkle, petunia, zinnia, marigold, salvia, coleus, ageratum, geranium, and one of my favorites, portulaca. You have probably already mowed your grass. You should lower your mower a notch or two from where it was late last summer, then gradually raise the mowing height about one notch per month through early June. This is especially important for St. Augustine grass, but also is valid for Bermuda. This allows the grass to give extra shade to the soil during our hot summertime. Wait until after you have cut your grass two or three times before you give it an application of fertilizer. If you fertilize too early, you give your weeds a running start. I usually fertilize in late April or early May. Water it in thoroughly. Try not to use any weed and feed type fertilizers. Weed treatment should be done several weeks before fertilizing, so the two should not be done together. If you do use weed and feed, be very cautious. It is difficult to determine how far tree and shrub roots may extend into the lawn area and the weed killers are not particular about which broad-leafed plant they kill. Mark Your Calendar The following events are of direct interest to the membership of The Garden Club of Austin. All events are at the Austin Area Garden Center in Zilker Botanical Garden at 2220 Barton Springs Road unless otherwise noted. Additional gardening calendar information may be found every Saturday in the Life and Arts Section of the Austin American Statesman. Apr 17 - Tue: Third Tuesday Lunch Bunch. About 11:15 AM at Luby s Cafeteria located at the south-west corner of Mopac and Steck Avenue Apr 23 -Mon: TGCoA Board of Directors meeting 7 PM Apr 26 -Thu: Monthly meeting of TGCoA. Apr 28 - Sat: Fern Team work day for Woodland Fern Bed. 9:30-11 AM, Zilker. May 14 -Mon: TGCoA Board of Directors meeting 7 PM May 15 - Tue: Third Tuesday Lunch Bunch. About 11:15 AM at Luby s Cafeteria located at the south-west corner of Mopac and Steck Avenue May 24 - Thu: Monthly meeting of TGCoA. May 26 - Sat: Fern Team work day for Woodland Fern Bed. 9:30-11 AM, Zilker. You re encouraged to submit articles of gardening interest for the newsletter. Remember to give credit to your sources, both in text and photos. Send articles or news to brsch07@gmail.com. Deadline for submissions is the fifth of the month. The newsletter is published on the tenth of each month. A tuteur like these will be offered at the plant auction. Photo by S Schmidt

4 Austin Gardener 4 These logos have been submitted for consideration by our members. Please look them over and decide which you d like to see as our club s new logo. We will be voting for one in the future.

5 Austin Gardener 5 LAWN TO BEDS, THE EASY WAY by Dick Peterson Lawns tend to be more labor intensive than permanently planted shrub borders. By reducing the lawn area you can reduce weekly maintenance, reduce fertilizer use, and lower water bills. This only works if you choose plants that are acclimated to your area (native or adaptive). Choose native or adaptive plants that use less water and you reduce the need to supplement natural rainfall. The old method of creating a shrub bed included the back-breaking task of removing sod. Mechanical means include specialized equipment such as sod stripper or digging with a shovel. There is an easier method. Decide where you want the edge of your new bed to be. Mark straight edges with stakes and string, curved edges with a water hose. The curved lines tend to be the easiest to maintain if you use broad curves your mower can follow. Sharp curves and square inside corners are harder to maintain. Mow the area inside the lines as low as your mower will go. Remove the grass clippings to the compost pile. Do not discard this valuable recyclable material, it is full of nutrients. Use a string trimmer to further lower the level of the grass. Rake this material and place it in the compost pile. What you are left with is scalped turf. You can still see stolons, but most of the green is gone. Now cover the area with a 3 layer of compost or amended garden soil. The next step is the secret to this method. We will starve what is left of the grass by depriving it of sunlight and recycle at the same time. Cover the entire area of your new bed with fifteen to twenty layers of newspaper. Overlap the edges of each page by at least 6 with the next page. You want a random coverage with page after page. Cheat by laying down sections of the newspaper and you will be disappointed in the result. You are creating a maze that the grass cannot follow up through the overlapping layers of newspaper. This is temporary version of landscape fabric sold in garden centers. The problem with landscape fabric is that most of it is not designed to biodegrade. It is permanent, but really only semi-permanent. Any organic mulch you add over the fabric will eventually compost and you end up with another layer of growing medium on top of the landscape fabric. The weeds you are trying to discourage can now grow in this new fertile layer and through the fabric. When you pull out the weeds by the roots, you make holes in the fabric. The newspaper method avoids the layering problem. Just cover your newspaper barrier with 4 of mulch. The fastest to degrade is pine bark mulch. As it turns to rich, black compost, the newspaper is also beginning to disappear. You add a new 3 layer of mulch each spring and fall. You should not disturb the layers as this encourages weed seeds to germinate. We have recreated the forest floor in the backyard. Constantly decaying matter is turning into smaller and smaller pieces. Eventually the nutrients are incorporated into the soil. After your planting is established for several seasons, Native Texas Bark Mulch or cypress mulch can be substituted for the pine bark mulch. The cypress mulch is not as green due to the distance it travels to our area, but it does not float as easily as other mulches. Be sure to use mulch and not the bark chips as the larger pieces create spaces that can encourage roaches. What about the plants? Purchase plants according to your design (yes, every landscape needs a plan). Place them in their pots on the mulched bed. Move them as necessary until you are pleased with the final arrangement. Then brush away the mulch under the pot and cut an X in the paper if it is still there. Dig your planting hole just deep enough for the existing soil in the pot to be level with the soil level. It should be 4-5 times as wide as the pot. Fill the hole with water and allow it to drain while you work on another hole. Carefully remove the plant from the pot and place it into the hole. If the plant is root bound, slice the roots in several places on the side and bottom to encourage new root growth. Replace the removed soil. The layer of compost is usually all the soil amendment you need. Fold back the newspaper, tearing off the corners near the base of the plant. Any extra soil can be used to make a slight raised dam to hold water. Then replace the mulch. This method allows you to make a new bed at any time of the year and then install the plants at the best planting time. The newspaper barrier can also be used in established beds by working the newspaper around the existing plants before you add seasonal mulch. You can also create a mulched garden path by omitting the compost layer. An adapted version of this article was published as Drought-tolerant gardening requires preparation, care in the 90 s in the Austin American-Statesman when Dick Peterson was Program Coordinator for Xeriscape, Irrigation and Rainwater Harvesting for the Austin Water Conservation Program. April Climate for Austin The average daily maximum temperature varies from 75 at the beginning of the month to 82 at the end. The minimum varies from 53 at the beginning to 62 at the end of the month. Extremes are 98 observed in 1982 and 34 in We average about two days with a maximum of 90 or higher. Precipitation averages 2.56 inches but has ranged from a wet 9.93 in 1957 to a dry 0.06 in A maximum 24-hour amount of 3.86 occurred in On average, precipitation is observed on 7 days during the month with thunderstorms occurring on 5 of those days. We usually receive about 54% of the possible sunshine, and between sunrise and sunset have 8 clear days, 8 partly cloudy days and 14 days with overcast conditions. The time between sunrise and sunset increases from about 12 hours 30 minutes at the beginning of the month to 13 hours 19 minutes at the end of the month.

6 Photos by Carol Kay Johnson Austin Gardener 6 Photos from the March program on designing successful hanging baskets, presented by Laura Joseph Brenda Tran and Joyce Fox check out the products that make hanging baskets successful Molly Clark shows off her door prize that Laura Joseph designed Ferns and begonias for basket designs Laura Joseph demonstrates designing a fern basket Barbara Wagner with her bowl of flowers surrounding bluebonnets, grown from seeds received at the September meeting