>> Hi, there, I'm Tom Spencer.
This week on "Central
Texas Gardener,"
explore beneficial plants
with Jay Beard from Lone Star
Nursery.
From hibiscus tea
to native milkweeds,
see what grows organically.
On tour, meet the Compost
Pedallers who cycle around to
recycle your household scraps
and nourish local urban farms.
Daphne makes her pick of the
week and explains how to prune
coral honeysuckle, plus John
Dromgoole has your Backyard
Basics tip.
So, let's get growing,
right here, right now!
>> "Central Texas Gardener" is
sponsored by the Austin Area
Garden Center in Zilker
Botanical Garden,
home of 31 local garden clubs
and the Zilker garden festival.
Zilkergarden.org.
[Music].
>> There's a lot of household
waste beyond food scraps that
can go into a compost pile
to nourish our plants,
but if you don't have room
or time to do it the Compost
Pedallers can cycle by to
recycle for you and nourish
urban farms.
>> My name's Dan.
I'm a pedaller with the East
Side Compost Pedallers in
Austin, Texas.
We pick up residential and
commercial organic waste stream
basically to divert
it from landfill.
>> We're about to
break about 100,
000 pounds composted all
without burning any diesel fuel.
>> We love the Compost Pedallers
because they do such a unique
service for our community by
literally driving around picking
up food scraps on the back of
their bikes and taking it to
places that need
that for compost.
>> The material that we
collect we call it scrapple.
And scrapple is anything that
you can compost with the Compost
Pedallers, and obviously that
includes fruit and veggie
scraps.
>> Some of the things that
can go in are tea bags.
Just put it right in your
bucket, the whole tea bag.
>> If you compost four pounds
it turns into about a pound of
finished compost.
>> The dryer lint definitely.
And a couple of other things
around the house that people
might not think about, pencil
shavings, toilet paper rolls.
When you're done with a roll,
just put it in your compost bin.
It helps to tear it up a little
bit into smaller pieces so it
composts more quickly.
>> We do have two
kitchens in our building.
One is the staff
kitchen upstairs.
On the first floor is a teaching
and a commercial kitchen and the
bulk of what we're generating
goes in those compost bins.
>> Sometimes I go
through my spice drawer.
I know I found these bay leaves
that are very old and they can
all go in the compost and
you can recycle the bag.
I want to talk about
junk mail, right?
We all get tons of junk mail.
So, if it's shiny
paper like catalogs,
that goes in recycling.
Shiny paper is for recycling.
Magazines, these
cardboard inserts,
these are great for composting.
Tear them up, throw them in.
And then as far as junk mail,
if it's shiny or has a plastic
window, go ahead
and recycle that.
But the contents are all
perfectly good to throw in your
recycling bin.
>> I was really
surprised to see,
even in a very progressive
city like Austin,
that there's so many people who
have no idea what composting is
or why someone would think of
doing anything but throwing it
all in one container and
putting it at the curb.
>> And so I just saw this
beautiful connect between the
amount of waste that we create
and all the people who are
starting to get interested
in growing their own food.
>> We're promoting that
seed-to-table approach.
Part of the entire food system
is always what ends up back in
our soil and the best thing
for our soil is compost.
And where do you get that?
You get that from
your food scraps.
>> So I had this idea for the
Compost Pedallers and it was
really just kind of a pipe dream
idea really until I met Eric
Goff who's now my
business partner.
>> I've always loved gardens,
that's what we got me interested
in it is, like, my experience
doing gardening and stuff.
So doing that you stop being
squeamish about composting and
you start, like,
really loving it.
>> Not everyone has the space or
really the time to cultivate a
compost pile.
Since 2012, East Side Compost
Pedallers cycles to the rescue
through five neighborhoods
to collect residential and
commercial compostables.
Residential customers pay just
$4 a week to spare the landfill
and nourish their neighborhood
farms and urban microgrowers.
>> I wanted to have a real
direct environmental impact on
my neighborhood.
I just kind of like the solitude
when I'm riding around early in
the morning.
I enjoy listening to podcasts
while I do my work and I think
that's pretty nice.
I like that it's a physical job.
I spent time -- before doing
this job I spent time working in
an office for several years and
I was very happy to start doing
something physical that just
made me sort of feel alive,
I guess.
>> For efficiency and
neighborhood connectivity,
pedallers pick up and drop
off within a few miles.
Some neighbors donate their
garage to store the Metrofiets
cargo bikes and supplies.
>> And the pedalling's not bad.
It's not hard to
ride these bikes,
even when there's several
hundred pounds in them.
>> What we do is
we provide a bin,
which is a bin which is a
five-gallon bucket with a lid.
>> And the vacuum, all the pet
hair that you vacuum up when you
brush your cats or dogs, put
the pet hair in the bucket but
certainly any of your vacuum
contents, right into the bin.
>> They fill it throughout the
week and I come by on the bike,
stop, pick up their bucket.
So what I'm doing now is I'm
just going to weigh my bin.
>> So as a member you're able to
go on the website and look at a
score card that shows you in
realtime updated each week how
much you've composted to date.
>> They sanitize
with organic soap.
>> Because we put a paper
bag in the bin every week,
I tear it up just so that
it breaks down a little more
quickly.
I like to write little
encouraging notes.
Well, maybe not with this one.
30% of the residential
waste stream is compostable,
but if you're talking about
the commercial waste stream in
restaurants, it's
more like 50% to 80%.
>> We have a lot of vegetable
scrap and instead of it going
into a dumpster it goes
back into soil and our local
community and gets more
food for everybody.
>> We've been doing recycling
the whole time and we're -- we
actually won an
award from the city.
>> The fact that we're taking
several hundred pounds of waste
out of the landfill I think more
than makes up for the small cost
that we pay.
>> We get more customers
because we do it.
We also changed the
way our box looks.
>> You sort of do your route
so that once you get to a point
where you're loaded up, then
you're right there at your drop
site.
>> We drop them here or we
drop them at local gardens,
community gardens where they
have the same sort of bay set up
here.
>> And Dustin said he was
even able to break up, like,
a lot of the paper plates are
pretty large and when you chop
them into smaller pieces then
that's always going to help as
well.
>> You don't want to put
shredded paper in your recycling
bin.
It can jam up the recycling
machines so this is really great
for your compost bucket.
It helps absorb a
lot of the moisture.
Dannea has a bill -- and this
is a good idea -- credit card
offers or junk mail.
You're not going to have
to worry about ID theft.
>> So this is the end of my
route or part of my route.
What we do is we partner
with a number of farms,
community gardens, and just
local growers, microgrowers,
and we provide our
scraps to them.
>> We get probably a couple of
hundred pounds of compost from
them a week and then we're able
to break that down and we have
multiple stages in our hot
composting bays and a bay for
all of our finished compost.
>> We compost at over 20
different urban farms,
community gardens,
and back yards.
>> Their margins
are relatively thin,
and so being able to provide
a resource and to help those
growers by providing nutrients
is also really attractive to me.
>> Waste is also a
manmade convention, right?
Waste in nature does not exist.
If you go walk around in the
woods there's no such thing as a
landfill.
And at the end of the day
we've diverted tons and tons of
material from the landfill and
used that to empower people to
grow more food.
>> Thanks for sharing
your garden with us.
Now we're going to be turning to
different groups of plants that
have benefits for you and
benefits for garden visitors,
like butterflies.
I'm joined by Jay Beard
from Lone Star Nursery.
Jay, welcome back
to the program.
>> Thank you.
I appreciate you having me back.
>> Yeah, and it's
a real pleasure.
You've brought an interesting
group of things with you and
we're going to start by talking
about some plants that have
medicinal or edible properties
that a lot of us are unaware of.
And some plants that are kind
of new to the area altogether,
including tea tree, which
is famous here locally,
or worldwide, I guess,
for tea tree oil.
>> Yep.
So tea tree oil, also called
melaleuca alternifolia.
It grows great in Austin.
It's an evergreen and, yes, it's
famous all over the world for
its anti-septic as
well as anti-bacterial.
>> Anti-fungal.
>> Anti-fungal.
>> Yeah.
>> And it's heavy in the oil.
So growing the plant, you can --
you'll have massive amounts of
oil.
>> So how do you harvest it?
I'm curious.
The plant is
beautiful, by the way.
>> It is.
It's nice.
It's got a nice white
bloom in the springtime.
The harvest can be cold
pressed with the leaves --
>> Okay.
>> Bark.
You can also make,
like, poultice,
which is taking the leaves and
actually putting them directly
on --
>> Right.
>> -- problem
areas in your hair.
Those kind of things.
Or how it's commercially
available is distilled,
which is a little
more complicated.
>> Right, right.
>> A little more for the home
gardener, but it can be done.
>> Yeah.
Well, anyway, it's
a beautiful plant.
I knew they were from the
tropics but I didn't know they
would grow in Austin.
>> It does magnificent here.
In fact it, you know, it's
supposed to be sort of a desert
shrub.
I mean, that's
kind of what it is.
>> Okay.
>> But it can take just about
everything Austin has including
rain, cold, so it's a champion.
>> Well, right next to it
is ginkgo, which is, again,
a botanical that is used
medicinally or herbally
worldwide.
And these are beautiful trees.
There's some beautiful old
specimens that can go around
Austin too.
>> Yeah, especially on campus
there are a few really old 50,
60-year-old ginkgos.
There's also a few in
the botanical gardens.
But, you know, it's kind of --
it's got a bad, sort of bad rap,
I guess you would say, just
because of the male/female.
One of those, I believe
it's the female --
>> Female, the fruit.
>> -- puts out massive amounts
of fruit that can be messy.
>> Right.
>> Kind of like pecans and all
of the other natives that we
grow around here.
>> Right.
>> That just, I guess, maybe it
has a little more smell to it.
>> It's malodorous,
to put it politely.
[Laughter].
>> I've never actually
smelled it, so I don't know.
>> I come from the northeast and
there was a female ginkgo in our
neighborhood, yeah.
>> Everyone knew about it.
>> Yes.
>> Well, the leaves
are medicinal.
>> Right.
>> You know, it's a great plant.
If you've ever dabbled in
Chinese medicinal herbs,
it's one of the main plants.
>> Right.
Well, and beautiful color.
Stunning color.
>> Yes.
And it does great here.
As we said, there's some
specimens around town,
if you look for them, so.
>> Now you also brought in this
grouping some Canna lilies.
And I was thinking Canna?
Edible?
Botanical?
What's going on with
the Canna lilies?
>> Well, it's a Canna
from South America.
Last time I was here I brought
some other South American
tubers.
This also is a root tuber.
The leaves on this
one are also edible.
It's called Canna edulis, which
we -- likely is because of the
edibility of the entire plant.
It's been used for thousands
of years in South America.
>> Well, I love Canna lilies.
They're easy to grow,
full sun, grow rapidly.
You know, almost pest-free.
All the good stuff, right?
>> And it's very ornamental.
It has a very similar bloom to
ones that your grandmother grew.
>> Right.
>> So it's a nice one.
>> Your grandma's Canna.
All right.
Well, grandma never ate Cannas.
>> She didn't, right.
That would be shocking
if you could do that.
>> Well, you also, speaking
of edibles and plants for -- I
mentioned garden visitors.
You brought some
butterfly plants,
including some of
the native milkweeds.
We're going to start by
talking about Frostweed though,
which is a fantastic
butterfly plant.
>> It is.
And we brought Frostweed
specifically for the monarch
migration.
>> Right.
>> And more specifically
the fall migration.
You know, it's important to
feed the butterflies with the
milkweeds or the caterpillars
with the milkweeds.
>> Right.
>> But what's also important is
to keep them going and this is a
plant that does it
with the nectar.
>> Right.
And this, mass volumes of blooms
in the fall in time for the
butterfly migration.
>> Exactly.
Yes.
And they're beautiful.
You could put it in a
perennial bed, you know,
where you're growing
other natives.
Sort of a wild garden plant.
>> It's kind of a
rambunctious plant, right?
>> It can -- you know, we let it
go to seed in some of our pots
and every single perennial's
got a Frostweed growing with it,
which for us is not
a bad thing but --
>> Right.
Right.
Well, you know, there's a place
for those kinds of aggressive
plants.
>> Yes, exactly.
You donate an area in your
garden that is the wild side of
Austin.
>> I think that's
important for every garden.
>> Sure.
>> You also have a small
Maximilian sunflower plant
there, which everybody
knows in Texas.
Those big, tall spikes in
the fall with the gorgeous
sunflowers on them.
Man, they're amazing.
>> They are.
Everybody knows them but for
some reason you can never
actually buy one.
So this year we're going
to be offering those.
When you see the yellow
Maximilian sunflower blooming,
you know, there's a resource.
>> Yeah, that's a great resource
for the butterflies for sure.
>> Exactly.
>> And everybody's been
talking about milkweeds,
planting milkweeds
for the monarchs.
There are lots of different form
of milkweed but the ones native
here are often called, like,
Snow on the Mountain or antelope
horns or things like that.
And you brought antelope horns.
>> Yes, so we grow two of the
most common native milkweeds,
antelope horn and
green antelope horn.
Today we brought
green antelope horn.
>> Okay.
>> They're almost
indistinguishable by the bloom
and it is the sole food source
for the caterpillar of the
monarch.
>> So if you want -- if you
really want to feed the larva.
>> Yes.
And this plant is
very hard to find.
>> Very, very hard
to find, right.
>> We have thousands of them
and we'll be moving them at the
Natural Gardener is where
we will be selling those.
>> They're very striking
plants, I think.
>> They are.
They're beautiful.
The blooms are -- not only is
the plant a foliage plant for
the butterfly, it's also --
they get nectar from the blooms.
>> Right.
>> So there's the viridis, the
green antelope horn and also the
antelope horn.
And we'll have both of those.
>> We have, of course, some
nectar plants for the monarchs
as well, Salvia farinacea
and Gulf Penstemon.
>> Yep.
And these are also nectar
plants, like you said,
for more specifically for the
spring migration of the monarch.
Again, they need --
they come in the spring.
In fact, they left, I think the
date was March 28th they left
Mexico.
>> Oh, really?
>> Yeah, which was
a later -- you know,
it's later migration than normal
because of the cooler winter.
>> Yeah.
>> So they should
be in Austin now.
>> They're on their way.
They're winging through.
>> Exactly.
>> Right.
Well, those are great plants.
I love both the Gulf Penstemon
and the Salvia farinacea.
>> Yes.
>> There's some other cool
things that you brought.
Let's start by talking
about this one.
And you told me the name.
Aztec spinach.
>> Yes.
>> So obviously I'm
thinking edible here.
>> Yes.
It's in the Chenopodium family,
which is in the same family as
lamb's quarters.
>> Okay.
That's what I thought it
was, lamb's quarters, right?
>> Yes, which, you know,
some gardeners hate,
some don't really know about,
and others are, you know, just,
I guess, eat it.
But this would be one
and the same family.
Again, another South
American staple food.
The leaves are eaten like
spinach cooked in a tortilla or
however you can eat it, raw.
But it's sort of our -- we're
trying to promote people doing
more than the tomato
and the pepper.
>> Sure.
Well, and I'm sure it's packed
with minerals and lots of other
good things.
>> Exactly.
Very nutritious.
>> Yeah.
Unfortunately we've
run out of time.
We have a lot of other cool
plants we could talk about, but
we really appreciate you being a part of the program, Jay.
Thank you so much
for being here.
>> Well, thank you, Tom.
And thanks for having us.
We really appreciate it.
>> All right, well
happy foraging.
There's lots to forage on here.
>> Yes, definitely.
>> Okay.
All right.
Well, coming up next
is our friend Daphne.
[Music].
>> Hi, I'm Daphne Richards.
Our question this week is
on pruning flowering vines.
Kathy Fall, from Moody, sent us these pictures of her lovely
coral honeysuckle, which has
been going gang-busters this year.
The vine was a gift from a
generous bird, says Kathy,
and she transplanted it to
this location on her patio.
Each year the hummingbirds flock
to the nectar of its flowers,
and it becomes home
to nesting birds,
including cardinals
and mockingbirds.
When deciding when to prune,
Kathy carefully balances the
needs of the wildlife with her
own needs to have a beautiful,
well-kept landscape.
Pruning only lightly, and
when absolutely necessary,
Kathy illustrates a great point.
As with most vines, coral
honeysuckle does require regular
pruning to keep it in check,
but when and how will depend not
only on the plant's growth, but
on your personal preferences.
You can either leave the vine
shrubby and a bit wild for most
of the growing season, or you
can shear it back into shape
regularly to give it a
more refined appearance.
It's best to do any hard pruning
in the late fall or winter,
once flowering is done and the
birds have eaten most of the
berries.
As they move into dormancy,
winter is the best time to get
flowering vines back into shape
and prepare them for new spring
growth next season.
By their very nature,
vines are rampant growers,
so you'll need to stay on top of
any errant runners and offshoots
in the early spring.
Just prune those all the way
back to the ground if you don't
want your vine taking over
any new garden real estate.
Vigorous vining plants such as
coral honeysuckle also produce
offshoots all during the summer,
so if you want to keep your
vines in bounds, you'll need
to make a regular visit to the
garden with your pruning shears.
This is the price we have to
pay in exchange for all that
boundless expansion of plants
that grow this easily, because,
they'll quickly take over
if you don't watch out.
Our plant this week is Almond
verbena, Aloysia virgata.
This large, shrubby plant is
an absolute must for anyone who
loves fragrance in the garden.
Almond verbena should be planted
in full sun or only light shade
and given plenty
of room to grow.
This plant does get very
tall, usually very quickly.
My experience has been in the
range of 10 to 12 feet tall and
about 3 to 4 feet wide.
Listed as hardy to zone
8 in most warm climates,
almond verbena
will be deciduous,
especially in mild winters.
But even if it doesn't
die back to the ground,
it will perform best if you
treat it as you would other
root-hardy perennial shrubs,
shearing it back to the ground
in late winter.
This hard pruning forces almond
verbena to put on all new
growth, making it fuller,
greener, and bushier.
Be sure to plant near a patio or
porch to get the full effect of
its strong, but lovely,
delicately sweet fragrance.
Almond verbena is
a repeat bloomer,
usually from late spring
all the way through fall,
maybe taking a break during the
hottest time of an extremely
hot, dry summer.
And when in flower,
bees, butterflies,
and hummingbirds will be
attracted to it like magnets.
A little light pruning in
mid-summer can reinvigorate the
plant for fall growth.
Plant almond verbena in a
well-drained soil and water
sparingly, but regularly.
Once a week watering
should be fine,
and fertilizer is not needed.
Our Viewer picture this week is
from Charlotte Trussell near San
Antonio, who's overwhelmed with
excitement to have this pair of
beautiful bluebirds
nesting in the yard.
Thanks Charlotte!
For timely garden tasks
and monthly to-do lists,
and to send us questions and
pictures from your garden,
please check out our
newly designed website at
klru.org/ctg.
We'd love to hear from you!
>> Thanks, Daphne.
Now, let's check in with John
Dromgoole for Backyard Basics.
[Music].
>> Hello gardening friends.
Welcome to Backyard
Basics, I'm John Dromgoole.
So, you want to build the
soil, you don't want to buy a
truckload of compost?
It's easy enough to do.
The farmers do this, the
organic farmers do this,
and they build their
soil with plants.
They grow plants out there
specifically to build a healthy
soil.
And, so, some of the
plants include buckwheat,
many types of beans and peas.
Here's some peas that we like
to use quite a bit out in the
garden.
You know, lots of times we're
shutting down for the summer
these days, it's too hot,
it's not productive out there,
it's too much water, and so
what we want to do is cover the
ground with something
called a biomass.
A biomass is the plants that you
grow out there and they are just
pure organic matter, and then
they cover the soil over time
and then when they
break down later on,
when you break them down, you've
got some good organic matter to
work in.
But what it most important about
some of these legumes is the
fact that they fix nitrogen
from the air, lots of nitrogen,
more than you can imagine
as a matter a fact.
And one pound of these covers
about 1,000 square feet and,
you know, that's not much
money at all for these things.
Nurseries carry them, but if you
don't find them in a nursery,
you might check out your local
organic gardening store or your
favorite food store.
You can find them
there in packages.
These are the same
things, really.
And so these crops
can be put out,
even if you're not going
to garden in the spring,
you could go ahead and put them
out there as the soil warms up.
You do need a definite warm soil
so that they will germinate and
do well.
You can broad cast them, break
up the soil a little bit and
just broad cast them out there.
Keep them moist in the
beginning, they'll get underway.
And one of the more
important things, though,
is that you can inoculate
them with a bacteria called
Rhizobium, and this bacteria
helps them fix nitrogen even
much more than they were
going to do on their own.
And this bacteria will
grow along the roots,
and there are so many different
types of legumes and different
types of Rhizobium for them.
Read the package, so that you'll
know when you're in the garden
center and you're buying
a fuel for your garden,
you pick up the Rhizobium.
This little packet
that's over there,
somebody that's attending you
might recommend it to you and
you'll think maybe they are
adding on something extra.
It's a good source of nitrogen.
It's a good way to
build a healthy soil.
And the roots go down into the
soil and open it up some more.
If you've got a new garden and
you want some organic matter
down deep without churning the
soil with a tiller or anything,
that root system will go down
there and then begin to fix the
nitrogen.
And that's one of the best
things that we can do.
And so, and this
suppresses weed growth.
If you've got a weed problem out
there and you want to get rid of
them, this is a slow process
that takes a season or two,
but you'll get rid
of those weeds also.
And it improves the ability of
the soil to hold more moisture
with that organic matter.
And I'll take a garden fork at
the time that it's time to turn
them in, really before it gets
to really flowering that much.
You'll get the flowers and then
before that's setting seed,
you'll go ahead and start
twisting them into the top of
the soil.
Buckwheat's another very good
one to add to the garden.
Buckwheat can bring up phosphorous.
While these guys fix nitrogen,
the buckwheat gets the
phosphorous in there.
It's a great combination.
And talk about feeding the
beneficial insects and the
butterflies, the buckwheat
is great at that,
one of the best ones to bring in
those beneficials to the garden.
You have to manage it, though,
because if it's allowed to go to
seed, it becomes
a weed out there.
So you have to take it down
before the seeds really get to
form.
So these are a few ideas.
If you've got a small
garden or you've got a farm,
this is the appropriate way to
build a healthy soil during the
summer months.
For Backyard Basics,
I'm John Dromgoole.
I'll see you next time.
>> For lots more tips, to watch
online anytime and follow us on
social media, check out our
fabulous revamped website at
klru.org/ctg.
Until next week, I'll
see you in the garden.
[Music].
[www.captionsource.com]
>> "Central Texas Gardener" is
sponsored by the Austin Area
Garden Center in Zilker
Botanical Garden,
home of 31 local garden clubs
and the Zilker garden festival.
Zilkergarden.org.