Looking for top-notch Hill Country gardening resources? One of our favorite area garden bloggers, Shirley Fox, shares her favorites.
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Editor’s Note: We’re delighted to feature two articles this March by Shirley Fox. The outstanding garden blogger was profiled recently on KLRU’s long-running and informative Central Texas Gardener show.
The Texas Hill Country has many gardening challenges from intense heat and severe drought to hard winter freezes. This is why, as a gardener, I consult a variety of expert resources.
My favorite website for ideas is Garden Style San Antonio. Here the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) conservation team shares their hands-on experience with gardening in our area. Have a new home landscape? New to gardening? The SAWS plant list and garden design tools are a good place to begin planning.
Blogs by gardeners in Central Texas can be a helpful place to learn, especially when writers are willing to walk readers through personal trial and error. I’d highly recommend garden writer and author Pam Penick’s Digging blog and Rock Rose by Jenny Stocker. Both women are fun, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic Austin gardeners. Blanco resident Sheryl Smith-Rogers blogs at Window on a Texas Wildscape about her native plant garden and Hill Country meadow. Of course, you’re always welcome to stop in to join me at my own blog Rock-Oak-Deer, where I talk about my own north San Antonio garden.
Since each region of the Lone Star State is so different, books focused generally on Texas gardening can present a challenge almost as robust as the gardens themselves. For Hill Country gardening specifically, I find books on water saving and native plants in the landscape to be most valuable. Sally Wasowski, Pam Penick, and Mary Irish are just a few of the authors whose books I consult. Garden books can still work for design inspiration, of course, even when not specific to Texas. Personally, I’ve found design ideas in English gardening books useful; I simply substitute plant varieties proven to grow best in our climate.
Speaking of inspiration, we have excellent garden-themed TV and radio resources in the Texas Hill Country. The locally produced PBS show Central Texas Gardener on KLRU/KLRN each Saturday morning has been so helpful in expanding my ideas of gardening and garden design for our region. Here in San Antonio, we have three excellent gardening radio shows each weekend. Near Austin you can hear John Dromgoole of KLBJ’s The Natural Gardener, which is useful to gardeners across the region.
Local, independent garden centers are typically a reliable place to learn which plants will grow best here. Because they live, work, and garden here, the owners and staff are more in tune with what to plant here (and when). Still, not every plant they sell will necessarily thrive here—or even specifically at your house, so get to know the staff and ask lots of questions.
Many nurseries hold classes seasonally. That’s an excellent way to deepen your knowledge and perhaps make a new friend or two. Joining a garden group or club is another way to meet people and learn a little. Classes and field trips with groups like Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) are the best way to get hands-on experience with native and adapted plants.
Two of my favorite sources of garden inspiration are the “drive-by” and “shopping for inspiration” approaches. Study commercial landscapes to see what the pros choose. Newer landscapes at locations like The Shops at La Cantera in far northwest San Antonio, with striking combinations of native grasses and drought tolerant perennials, are often full of excellent ideas to follow.
When it comes to Hill Country gardening, good research leads to much better results. With so many new residents seeking out the natural beauty of this Texas treasure, it’s smart to consult local expert gardening resources and learn from their experiences.
Shirley Fox has a degree in interior design and worked as a commercial interior designer on both business and government projects for more than 20 years. Now retired to San Antonio, she focuses her creativity and skills on gardening. Shirley also blogs about “living and gardening in San Antonio” at Rock-Oak-Deer (Facebook | Instagram).
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