How to Have an Attractive Grassless Yard
Photo credit: A Lovely Grassless El Paso Front Yard by Helen Abresch, El Paso Master Gardener
by Helen Abresch, El Paso Master Gardener
Many of us are transplants to this desert southwest; we long for the green lushness of our native lands. For most of us, this translates into GRASS–surely the definer of the color green! But is it practical, or even ethical, to plant our turf yards in the Chihuahuan desert?
With drought and low annual rainfall, a reality in this region, perhaps thinking outside the box can bring the color green into our spaces. Choosing native plants and drought tolerant adapted plants to bring the green can enhance our recreation and outdoor spaces without taxing our resources.
Related articles from the Learn » Gardening Topics-Links
Ornamental Plants for Far West Texas (Annuals, Perennials, Flowers, Shrubs, Trees, Succulents, Groundcovers, Grasses, Turf, Vines, including Natives, with Water Use)
Recommended Southwestern Native Plants for the El Paso/Las Cruces Area (Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, Grasses and Succulents)
Xeriscape™ – Landscape Water Conservation (pg. 8 starts “Outstanding Plants for Texas”; consider Regions 6 & 7)
Xeriscape™– Desert Landscapes
How to Keep Busy in the Garden During November
Check Out the New Aggie Horticulture® Facebook Live Videos
In April 2020, Aggie Horticulture® began to post on their Aggie Horticulture® Facebook page online educational Facebook Live streams to better reach audiences confined to their homes because of the Covid-19 pandemic. There are now more than 54 gardening and landscape videos posted from their 2020 live events and more on their Facebook Video page from previously recorded classes and events.
Below are some of the videos you can find on the Aggie Horticulture® Live Event Facebook page and on the Video page:
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension County Horticulture Agent Beth McMahon from Gillespie County shares about “Keep or Go: Transitioning a Spring Vegetable Garden to Fall.” A team of horticulture agents and specialist will be available during the live event to help answer audience questions. Additional resources are available online at: https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fblive/.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension County Horticulture Agent Beth McMahon from Gillespie County shares about “Transitioning Spring Vegetable Garden to Fall, Part 2: Planning, Soil Prep & Planting Cole Crops.” A team of horticulture agents and specialist will be available during the live event to help answer audience questions. Additional resources are available online at: https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fblive/.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension County Agent and Horticulturist Steve Chaney shares about homeowner greenhouses with five different examples from Tarrant County, Texas. A team of horticulture agents will be available during the live premiere to help answer audience questions. Additional resources are available on: https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fblive/
You don’t need to login with a Facebook account to watch these videos. If you do access the page without logging in, the Facebook banner asking you to log in may rise and block your screen. If this happens, just click “Not Now” to lower the banner so you can view the Facebook page. Also, be sure that your device’s sound is turned on and the volume control on the screen is turned on.
If you prefer YouTube over Facebook, watch these Facebook Live events after they’re recorded on the YouTube playlist page for Facebook Live videos (not all videos may yet be posted here due to processing time).
Operating in College Station, TX, Aggie Horticulture® provides gardening and horticultural crop information and news. More than 50 teachers, scientists, and Extension specialists contribute their work to their website, Aggie Horticulture®.
Our Raised Bed Hoop House and How to Build It
by Beverly Clark, El Paso Master Gardener
Photo credit: Raised Bed Hoop House, by Beverly Clark, El Paso Master Gardener
We extended our growing season – and you can, too! We have built our own raised bed hoop houses to grow cool weather crops at the El Paso Master Gardeners’ Texas A&M AgriLife Vegetable Demonstration Gardens. Our raised bed hoop houses, like row covers and cold frames, function like a small greenhouse as they give some winter weather climate control, protect against hungry insects, allow a longer growing and harvest season, and provide a safe place to start new seeds and to set out transplants.
In the fall of 2019, and on through the winter and spring of 2020, we brought our El Paso Master Gardeners Facebook viewers along with our Raised Bed Hoop House Journal providing them with updates on a new gardening adventure for us: growing cool weather crops in raised bed hoop houses. Through the updates, they got a close look at the hoop houses, what we were growing, issues we encountered, fixes, and the many amazing vegetables we harvested. Because we used 6 mil greenhouse plastic for the covering, the raised bed hoop houses in this installation were for fall, winter, and early spring use. We had a blast growing all those great salad greens and kale in the raised bed hoop houses. We learned a lot and consider them a great success! We hope that we will be able to put these multi-functional gardening structures into use every fall.
Related:
For more articles on hoop houses and other small greenhouse-type structures, see the category Gardening with Hoop Houses, Row Covers, and Cold Frames under the Fruits and Vegetables subheading on our Learn » Garden Topics-Links page
Fall Gardening Ideas for Vegetables and Lawns
Photo credit: Ornamental Kale by Mustang Joe (CC0 BY 1.0)
Now that that the fall season has arrived, how can you spend your time in your garden and landscape? If you grow vegetables and haven’t yet started your fall garden, now’s the time to check our Learn » Gardening Topics-Links website page for articles with vegetable recommendations. Especially timely are the Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County and Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County pages. Things to do in October are given on our Monthly Tips page.
The Lawn & Garden section of the AgriLife TODAY newsletter website is a good place to check when you’re looking for the latest ideas and suggestions about gardening. Two recent helpful articles are How to Choose the Right Fertilizer for Home Vegetable Gardens and Apply Fall Preemergence Herbicide to Avoid Spring Weeds. This article on preemergence herbicides also gives tips on lawn watering as the seasons change.
Seasonal Color with Bulbs in El Paso
by Sarah Wood, El Paso Master Gardener
“Bulb” is a general term often used to describe all types of plants that are capable of gathering and storing nutrients in a specialized underground storage structure. Classified as true bulbs, tubers, rhizomes and tuberous roots, these special plants offer seasonal blooms with low maintenance in gardens throughout El Paso.
Photo credit: Lilies of the Nile by romaryka (CC BY-NC 2.0)
They evade drought by growing and flowering when the right combination of temperature and moisture occurs.
Iris (available in many colors) and the white Texas tuberose bloom in the spring. Rain lilies (white, yellow or pink) bloom in response to summer and early fall rains while gayfeather and society and edible garlic chives announce fall is coming. All these plants have low water requirements and will survive on annual rainfall alone when established.
Gardening Tips for Fall
by Skip Richter, Horticulturist—Agrilife.org
Related:
Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide (also note Zone III for USDA Hardiness Zone 8)
Vegetable Gardening in Containers
Fertilizing a Garden
Fertilización
Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)
Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County (note fall planting calendar)
Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide
How to Choose Cool Weather Veggies & Flowers for Your Garden
Cool Season Gardening Is Easy After the Heat of Summer
by Roger “Doc” Stalker, El Paso Master Gardener
Photo credit: Colours of Health by Alex Proimos (CC BY-NC 2.0)
The full onset of summer’s heat usually means the end to harvesting many vegetables planted for spring gardens. But summer doesn’t necessarily signal the end of vegetable gardening for many people who look forward to planting cool season vegetables. Late fall, winter, or even early spring can all be successful growing seasons with the right plants, under the right growing conditions, and the right care.
Cool weather vegetable gardening offers many advantages, not the least is the wide choice of crops that can be grown. You can have a long producing vegetable garden with minimal effort, keep harvesting in your garden into the fall, and maybe even into the winter months.
Related articles from the Learn » Gardening Topics-Links page:
- Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County
- Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
- How to Care for Cool Weather Vegetables – Gardening in El Paso
- Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)
- Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide
Have You Tried Growing These Popular Perennials?
by Johanna Barr, El Paso Master Gardener
Photo credit: ‘New Gold’™ Lantana in Landscape by Johanna Barr, El Paso Master Gardener
Springtime brings a flurry of activity at local nurseries as gardeners seek color for their homes in the form of annual and perennial flowering plants. Summer annuals such as marigolds, sunflowers, and cosmos bloom, set seed, and then die in one season. Pansies, petunias, and sweet peas thrive during cooler weather in El Paso but wither as summer approaches. The lives of these annuals are short but very colorful!
On the other hand, perennial plants live for two years or more but do not form woody tissue like trees and shrubs. In certain climates, perennials may grow all year long. Evergreen perennials keep their foliage, growing continuously, especially where winters are mild. Other perennials die back during cold weather, but the roots are protected and send up shoots to bloom again the next year. There are many showy perennials which do well in the El Paso area.
Related articles from the Learn » Gardening Topics-Links
How to Add Color to Your Garden with Perennials
Ornamental Plants for Far West Texas (Annuals, Perennials, Flowers, Shrubs, Trees, Succulents, Groundcovers, Grasses, Turf, Vines, including Natives, with Water Use)
Texas Superstar ® Plants – Annuals, Perennials, Shrubs, and Trees
Pollinator Plant Recommendations for New Mexico (annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees; includes bloom season)
Gardening with Perennials (common types, planting, transplanting, dividing, plant care; sections in Spanish)
Texans Ask About Gardening–Vegetables, Herbs and More
Photo credit: Vegetables Grown at Ascarate Demonstration & Teaching Garden (El Paso Master Gardeners Facebook)
From Asparagus to Swiss Chard plus “Non-Crop” plants and Herbs, you’ll find many of your questions answered in Everything Texans Ask About Gardening, an informative 67-page publication by Joseph Masabni and Patrick Lillard. Organized largely by vegetable name, the questions and answers cover general issues, diseases, and insects. Since this is a digital document produced by Texas A&M AgriLife, you can easily search for a topic or keyword by using the “Find” command if on a PC. Otherwise, here are some page numbers by section:
Vegetable Q&A – pages 1-54
Minor Crops – pages 54-61
Herbs – pages 61-63
Non-Crop Q&A – pages 64-67
Gardening Questions? Contact Our Help Desk
* Note: Until we resume our office schedules, the Help Desk volunteers who answer the telephones will not be available. Please send your questions to our virtual Help Desk volunteers through our Ask the Help Desk form. During this time, email replies will be preferred. *
Do you have gardening or landscape questions and don’t know who to ask? The El Paso Master Gardener Help Desk will be happy to assist you. You’ll be helped by a volunteer who will provide research-based horticultural information. When you complete the Ask the Help Desk form, you’ll be able to send photos and choose the option to receive an answer by phone or email. Descriptions of the plant in question or problem are more helpful if they include some background details, information about its growth or decline, and plant care practices you’ve been using or have tried. All photos are appreciated and are especially useful if they show the plant in flower, if possible, as that aids in identification.
By the Season – Gardening in El Paso
November Monthly Tips
Texas Tree Planning Guide: Planting, Pruning, and Care (text and video; Spanish version at page bottom of select pages)
Help Your Tree Survive in El Paso
Pruning Shrubs in the Low and Mid-Elevation Deserts in Arizona
Low Desert Pruning Guide for Commonly Used Shrubs (includes Tips and Schedule)
Dividing Perennials
Gardening with Perennials (planting, dividing, plant care; sections in Spanish)
Planting Spring-Flowering Bulbs Outdoors
Seasonal Color with Bulbs in El Paso
Prepare for Bulbs in the Landscape Now (includes additional information on forcing bulbs)
Wildflower Growing Information with Photos and Links
Wildflowers – Southwestern Mix
Wildflowers in Bloom – Growing Info
Spider Mites
Bug Book-Insect ID and Control
Fertilizing Foliage and Flowering Plants
Pests of Foliage and Flowering Plants
Lawn Water Management
Watering Trees and Shrubs: Simple Techniques for Efficient Landscape Watering
Watering Tips for Lawns, Vegetable Gardens and Trees – Gardening in El Paso
Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County (note fall planting calendar)
Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide for Texas
Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)
Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide
Herbicides for Weed Control in Turfgrass
Weeds of Texas Turf (good photos for ID of weeds)
Weeds-Pest Notes Library (see weed management tips)
Videos
How to Prune Small Trees by Southwest Yard & Garden (nmsuaces)
Care of Bulbs After Blooming by University of Illinois–Gardener’s Corner
Find other helpful articles at Gardening in El Paso – Articles and Gardening Topics – Links. Find more videos at Videos and More.
Good to Grow Radio Shows
(Current and Archived)
Fall Planting
Fall Gardening Tips
Decorating for Fall
Herbs in the Fall in the Desert Southwest
Tree Selection and Planting
Tree Troubles
Gardening for Health
Landscaping
How to Care for Native Plants
Native Plants
Earth-Kind® Principles
Bermuda Grass
Proper Pruning Tips
Vegetable Container Gardening
Container Gardening, Pt. 1
Container Gardening, Pt. 2
Made in the Shade, Part 1 of 2
Made in the Shade, Part 2 of 2
Irrigation, Part 1 of 2
Irrigation, Part 2 of 2
Overwatering
Watering Your Landscape
Garden Insects and Pests
Garden Weed Control
Listen live on Saturdays at 11:15 a.m. on 88.5 FM or stream from the archives at KTEP Good to Grow.
Read more about our Good to Grow Radio Show, here.
Improve Your Skills with Our
Informative El Paso Gardening Handbook
The Holidays are Coming – Shop for What You Need
When you start your shopping at AmazonSmile you can support the El Paso County Master Gardener Association. With your support we can do more at our teaching gardens and for the community. At smile.amazon.com/ch/20-1878485, you’ll find the same convenient shopping experience as at Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of your cart’s value to El Paso County Master Gardeners. You can verify you’re shopping from our AmazonSmile page when you see this banner on the upper section:
You shop. Amazon gives.
Note: Only purchases at smile.amazon.com/ch/20-1878485 or with AmazonSmile ON in the Amazon Shopping app will support us (not www.amazon.com). Please see this page, Donate, for more information.
Newcomer’s Gardening Snapshot for El Paso County
Who We Are
The El Paso County Master Gardeners Association, as a member of the Texas Master Gardeners Association, is a non-profit educational and charitable organization supporting the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in providing quality, relevant outreach and continuing education programs and services to the people of El Paso County. Our local volunteers receive extensive training and experience in a wide range of subjects before certification as Texas Master Gardeners.
In collaboration with the County A&M AgriLife Horticultural Agent, Denise Rodriguez, we educate the community through various events, workshops, and demonstration gardens. Our Master Gardeners volunteer through our Outreach programs and community Projects to provide information and recommendations on horticultural topics to all residents of El Paso County.
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