Gardening in Texas- need advise please

[Yennefer]

G'day everyone!

Hubby and I had purchased a small castle this fall in a lovely Austin, TX  which came with a small garden in the back of it. Right now we have pretty much nothing but trees and grass there- I would love to grow some veggies/flowers/stuff there but do know know when/what to plant.

So please help if you happen to have  a castle garden in Southern Texas of your own- I will appreciate it greatly.

I have few questions:

1. I would love to grow small alpine strawberries.. My mom back in Russia used to grow these and they were giving us berries all summer long. But the climate is different and I am not sure if they will survive texas heat. Anyone had any luck with these? or any strawberries in Texas? If yes, which  kind would you recommend and when am  I to plant them?

2. Anyone knows of any good online resource for Southern gardening?

3. I would like to grow climbing roses/vines next to our castle walls but I dont know which ones would grow in a heat..

Thank you in Advance

Yennefer

[LadyShadow]

I live closer to Galveston, but my mother-n-law has had great success in growing strawberries every year.  What kind and special things she does I don't know.  But between now and April you want to start them indoors.

I have had success with many vines and roses.  There is no one in particular that worked better than the other.  So I couldn't tell you exactly which one to get.

*Hope some of this helps*

[Yennefer]

Oh, I better go find some strawberries seeds then.. Thing is, I dont always trust salespeople in nurseries/home depot.. Many of them never had a garden of their own and while shrubs might look good, plant  might die later. I bought some tomatoes last spring  in hopes to grow them in pots in our  balcony ( we did not have a house yet)  and they grew  very tall at first and then died mid summer regardless of my watering/ plucking new leaves..

Thank you for advise LadyShadow! Where did you get your roses from?

[knarlyknot]

I would contact Queen Bonnie, she lives in the same area and is quite the gardener, I bet she has lots of advice!

Best of luck, we too are going to try gardening this year.

[Tipsy Gypsy]

Texas gardening can vary greatly from one area to the next. So, first of all, I'd recommend seeking books on Texas gardening by Dale Groom and Neil Sperry. Used bookstores area great resource. Neil also has a website and e-mail list you can subscribe to that has lots of good information.

Here's a link from Texas A&M's website on gardening in your area: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/

And here's one of my favorite places. We buy lots of plants at their plant sales:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/, and Dr.Novak is a terrific guy.

One of my favorite places for roses and ornamentals, or just an afternoon's photo safari: http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/

Don't get discouraged if you try several things, and not all of them succeed as you'd like. It's very much a trial-and-error thing, especially here!


Hope that helps!

[Yennefer]

Oh, there is a link to Garden faire in Austin on one of those websites and its in March so I dont have to sacrifice any of my Scarby's weekends

Tipsy Gipsy, thank you so much, I am reading your links and find a lot of useful info there. I  should definitely  go check out used books. I went to Barnes and Noble and they did not have anything about gardening specifically in Texas. I bought a book but I didnt find any use of it as it mostly talks about gardening in Northern US.

Still though Id love to hear which strawberries/ roses others had most sucess with as personal experience is golden.

[Blushing]

The Master Gardening program is LOADS of help, especially with region-specific questions.  Here's the main site for the Texas program:
http://mastergardener.tamu.edu/

Heat is good to keep in mind, but you also need to be aware of where the light falls.

I love gardening, and I've had fun trying new things, and learnign what works and what doesn't.  One of my favorite blooms is nasturtiums - very bright flowers and they are great in salads!

Good luck!

[RenRobin]

Queen Bonnie is in a Gardening Club and lives in Elgin, so not too far from us here in Austin.  She will be a wealth of information for you, I am sure.

Unless you buy a heat tolerant tomato seed, anytime it gets over 85 degrees, tomatoes usually do not make because of the heat.

[Yennefer]

Thank you, Blushing!

Accoding to that website,English Ivy could be grown in Texas.. I always thought it needs shade for it  grow and I dont think I ve seen it on houses in Texas. I would love to grow it, I think I am going to give it a shot

[LadyShadow]

So far everyone I have talked to, and including us, had no success with tomatoes this year, which is surprising, usually we cant kill ours no matter what we do.

The roses I have are "Mi Amori (spl?)" and I got them at Home Depot.  We have some type of ivy growing in our gardens, and it also does well in Texas, but I am unsure of which exact type of ivy it is.

Good luck with your gardening.

[Yennefer]

Unless you buy a heat tolerant tomato seed, anytime it gets over 85 degrees, tomatoes usually do not make because of the heat.

Where woud I buy such a seed? I had been in USA for about 5 years and still new to all the wealth of retail here..I bought my seeds in Home Depot.. From what I planted, not many sprouted..

[RenRobin]

I have it growing at my house, but it is in a shaded area...engish ivy that is.

[RenRobin]

Unless you buy a heat tolerant tomato seed, anytime it gets over 85 degrees, tomatoes usually do not make because of the heat.

Where woud I buy such a seed? I had been in USA for about 5 years and still new to all the wealth of retail here..I bought my seeds in Home Depot.. From what I planted, not many sprouted..

http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/  I would start here.

[Yennefer]

RenRobin, the link that you kindy shared has pointed me in a direction of :


February 14 – Mike Shoup, Owner of the Antique Rose Emporium, presents "(Antique) Roses are Easier than You Think."   Class! How timely and I was just thinking about buying roses

Much appreciate

[Tipsy Gypsy]

Actually we had pretty good luck with tomatoes this year (when we could keep the birds and our dogs out of them), Cherry Grande being the best producer of the ones we planted. We even had tomatoes still on the vine when the freezing rain hit. RenRobin is right though, although tomatoes like full sun, they produce best in moderate temperatures.

I believe there are some Half-Price Books stores in Austin; check their gardening section for a "regional" or "Texas" shelf. That's where I found some of mine. I've actually found some decent Texas-specific books at Sam's Club, too, of all places. And of course, there's always Amazon .