Your garden need not be cancelled! Central Texas Gardener producer Linda Lehmusvirta offers pandemic-proof advice for growing food and sprucing up your yard.
Story by Andrew Keys
Spring and early summer are always a good time to get out in the garden—but of course, our notion of “getting out” this spring has changed, and how.
Yet gardening and staying safe aren’t mutually exclusive.
In fact, Linda Lehmusvirta, long-time producer of Austin PBS, KLRU-TV’s legendary Central Texas Gardener program, thinks there’s good reason to exercise your green thumb this year.
“I believe [gardening is] about intimate outdoor connectivity, both physically and emotionally. We get excited when seeds break through the soil and grow into plump beans that we pick ourselves,” she said, via an April telephone interview. “Our corral has become limited to our own yards and neighborhoods. [Now] we’re seeking expressive creativity beyond the workplace.”
Victory gardens. Central Texas style
As happened in the wake of the Great Recession—when victory gardening became new again, families are looking to go DIY with their vegetables.
“Some people are growing food for the first time,” Lehmusvirta said.
Although most families aren’t going to sustain themselves with homegrown food—at least not right away, she noted that our sudden awareness of how we rely on others to feed us is useful.
Like any other essential life skill, gardening—especially cultivating edibles—requires practice, trial and error. So, take it easy on yourself if your new garden doesn’t live up to those pictures one finds on Pinterest or on plant package inserts.
If you’re a veggie newbie with a serious itch to grow something this summer, however, Lehmusvirta has some thoughts to share.
“[By early May] it’s too late for tomatoes, but peppers can still be planted from transplants,” she said.
Her recent fave is shishito, a small pepper with more flavor than heat that produces constantly until frost. “I stir-fry them with a little sea salt and olive oil for pop-in-mouth appetizers.”
Working from seed, she said Central Texans also have time to plant okra, beans, and squash. (Just be ready to deal with squash vine borers, which are a real nuisance—even for accomplished gardeners.)
“I highly recommend Trisha Shirey’s latest book Grow Great Vegetables in Texas for every tip under the sun (and soil), with monthly guides to plant and harvest. [See link below.] Check with your county extension office for planting times and best varieties to plant,” said Lehmusvirta.
Growing young gardeners
With the kids at home, now is the perfect time to introduce kids to the simple wonders of gardening and the outdoors. Vibrant, colorful blooms yield not only pretty bouquets but also a lifetime passion for cultivating plants.
“Plant seeds of sunflowers, brilliant orange Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), and cosmos that grow fast,” Lehmusvirta said, “and then check out the different butterflies that arrive from summer to fall to nectar and the little birds that snap up ripened seeds.”
For those suddenly homeschooling, there’s plenty of kid-centric stuff to do outdoors, and it need not be over complicated.
“I don’t know that children always need ‘activities,’” she said. “Wonder and imagination grow by just going outside to look under rocks, watch an anole, or pet a leaf to feel its texture. Lay on the grass and listen to birds chatter, or look at the stars. Watch a caterpillar in all its instars, and then hunt for its chrysalis and, perhaps (with luck!) watch it emerge.”
More resources for beginners
Lehmusvirta also recommended making a square foot garden with PBS Learning Media’s how-to geared toward children, as well as books by author and illustrator Sharon Lovejoy.
“You can watch Central Texas Gardener’s latest episode with Sharon where she captivates us with a simple magnifying glass and child-sized stethoscope to bring nature and its mysteries close up,” Lehmusvirta said.
In the market for new plants, but worried about a trip to the nursery? Lehmusvirta noted many are offering online orders and curbside pickup, and those that are open are monitoring attendance.
“Delta Dawn’s Leah Churner is even delivering plants and supplies in the Austin area,” she added.
If COVID-19 nixed your bluebonnet viewing this spring, Lehmusvirta has recommendations for getting that blue fix in your home garden.
“Bluebonnets may be spring’s ambassadors, [but] we can keep the pollinator highway open all year at home,” she said. “To satisfy the blues (and the bees and hummingbirds), there are countless salvias that delight in spring and again in fall. A few include native Salvia farinacea, Salvia guaranitica and its cultivars like ‘Black and Blue’, Salvia amistad, Salvia sylvestris ‘May Night’, and fuzzy-leaved Salvia leucantha, a fall bloomer.
And thankfully, there are fragrant plants you can enjoy, even wearing a mask—Lehmusvirta recommends almond verbena (Aloysia virgata); citrus like satsuma oranges, ‘Improved’ Meyer lemon, and key lime; and herbs, including lemon balm, rosemary, mint, oregano, and Mexican mint marigold, “a Texas-tough substitute for tarragon.”
Above: A brief Central Texas Gardener YouTube video. More here.
More things to do in the garden
Still looking for reasons to get to gardening? Lehmusvirta offered a list of stay-at-home tasks to get you started:
- Clean out that shed: “Many of us are relieving stress by spring cleaning cupboards and cabinets, dumping out-of-date products and checking our inventory. So, why not get to that shed? (Okay, you can see what’s on my list!) Organize supplies and tools, discard old products, and finally find ‘that thing’ you’ve been hunting.”
- Make funky garden art for the heck of it: “Repurpose broken containers into toad halls. Paint clay pots and attach stones, marbles, broken pottery or whatever else you find on cleanup scavenging day!”
- Save some new seed and plant (or chuck) the old: “Collect seed from spring bloomers. And hey, don’t forget that seed box stash that’s expiring by the day.”
- Give those bulbs some TLC: When foliage browns on spring bulbs, divide them to surprise a new spot next spring, and share some with a neighbor. My postal carrier so loved my Narcissus ‘Erlicheer’ that I’m texting her when I’ve dug up a ‘delivery’ for her.”
- Get wise to watering: “Test your irrigation system if you have one—if not, stick a trowel into the soil, especially under new plantings, because our rains often don’t really make it past the mulch. Get a rain gauge. (It’s a couple of bucks for a basic plastic one.) What looks like a lot of rain may only be a few tenths of an inch.”
- Most importantly, schedule some Zen moments with the sun: “When we head out at dark and return at sunset or later, we miss what’s going on in our yards, and we wonder why plants are struggling. [But] we haven’t seen the sunlight swings in our yards—sun lovers getting too much shade, or shade lovers begging for respite. The best thing about being home all day instead of in traffic, the workplace, or endless errands is noting where the sun hits every hour of the day.”
Looking for more great tips from Lehmusvirta and the rest of the Central Texas Gardener team? Be sure to check out the show’s official website.
Andrew Keys Pepper is a visual artist, editor, and writer. He’s also the author of two books: Why Grow That When You Can Grow This? and Growing the Northeast Garden.
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