- Hi, there, I'm Tom Spencer.

This week, discover how
urban prairies matter

to our long-term ecology.

John Hart Asher,
environmental designer

at the Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center,

explains what we can do at home.

On tour, a living
wall pilot project

explores success under
harsh conditions.

Daphne answers
your top question,

and John has your
Backyard Basics tip.

So, let's get growing,
right here, right now!

- [Announcer] Central
Texas Gardener

is made possible in part by
Austin Area Garden Center,

sharing the joys of
gardening for over 50 years

in Zilker Botanical Garden,

home of 32 garden clubs

and Zilker Garden Festival.

zilkergarden.org.

And from the University
of Texas at Austin

Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center,

displaying Texas native
plants in sustainable gardens.

And with the generous support
from Lisa & Desi Rhoden.

Support for this and
other KLRU productions

made possible by the
Producers Circle,

ensuring local programming

that reflects the
character and interests

of the Greater Austin,
Texas community.

(upbeat whimsical music)

- What exactly is a living wall,

and how can it
change our future?

The University of Texas
School of Architecture

and the Lady Bird
Johnson Wildflower Center

collaborated to explore
techniques in harsh conditions.

- [Reporter] To explore
living wall ecology

in a harsh environment,

the University of
Texas at Austin

and the Lady Bird
Johnson Wildflower Center

partnered in a project

that takes education
outside the walls.

Planted in June 2016, its
roots started with an idea.

- The project really started in

2010

when I

became a faculty member

in the School of
Architecture here in Austin,

and came across a wonderful
man named Mark Simmons,

who is the Director of Ecology
at the Wildflower Center,

the Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center.

He was directing

and doing some major
research on green roofs,

and I was super excited to
see that that was taking place

at the Wildflower Center,
and my thinking was,

"Why aren't we doing this
in the vertical dimension

"with architecture?"

And I approached Mark and said,

"Look, I've got some
sketches, and I've got ideas

"about the architecture
side to this,

"but my love of plants
only goes so far."

And so, we started
imagining what that

architecture and ecology
incubator could be like.

And then wanting it to be

around the School of
Architecture in some
capacity because,

from my perspective,

that's where we're trying
to change the thinking,

is that we're not
just building with

steel and concrete
and glass anymore;

we're building with plants

and trying to integrate
landscape in a different way,

in the vertical dimension.

We wanted to

replicate or test
the western facade

that is the most challenging,

and so this is the
northwest corner of the

Goldsmith Hall for the
UT Architecture School.

- We planted all the units
at the Wildflower Center.

With our volunteers,

and with our staff tying in
with our space, which was,

it was really beautiful
and fun to do because

a lot of the
volunteers hadn't...

They were very curious
about this particular pot

we were using and why,

and so, there was
a lot of questions,

which I think was
really, really lovely.

- [Reporter] Danelle
designed and fabricated

the 148 plant cells on a
10 x 25-foot structure.

- It is sized to be not only

the right sort of
capacity for a plant to

be able to grow into.

It's not huge, because
it needs to be able to be

held up by a wall.

- [Danelle] Our pilot
project is actually

cantilevered out of the ground.

It's not touching
Goldsmith Hall because

in effect it is temporary.

It's just a folded
thin metal plate

that has this hexagonal
honeycomb pattern cut out of it.

- [Reporter] The soil
blend's also a result

of years of testing.

- The soil that we use
at the Wildflower Center,

what we've found, that if
there's particulates and sized

the same amount,

that kind of pack in there,
they hold a lot of heat.

So, we've developed a media

that has different
particulate sizes,

and so, air can move
through it easily,

and the plant can
actually root easily.

But it still holds on to water.

It has a certain amount
of organic material in it.

But it's not an organic material

that's going to break
down immediately.

It's a slower material
that'll break down slowly.

We actually use things
like pecan husks.

Then, when we installed
it in the wall,

we had one or two
big rain events.

And yeah, it's been a struggle
for some of our species.

False aloe is just not
liking the rain at all.

We also put the wall on
the most extreme condition,

which is on a
west-facing surface.

So, getting a very
specialist plant might not be

the best thing to do for
this particular situation.

So, choosing the
plants for here,

we looked at eco-regions
around Texas.

And some of the
eco-regions we even choose

areas that were out
in the Trans-Pecos,

because cities tend to be

five to 10 degrees hotter than
the surrounding rural areas.

So, we knew we might have
to have some hardier,

heat-tolerant
species on this wall.

So that's what we looked at.

We looked at species
in Edwards Plateau,

and the Balcones Canyonlands.

We looked also to
the Chihuahua Desert

for a few different things.

And then there's a few
things from the east as well,

and in the Blackland
Prairie zones.

A lot of the grasses
we chose are very

hardy and kind of generalists,

so they live in many different
habitats across Texas.

Two of those being
sideoats grama,

which is the Texas state grass.

And then, we also
use little bluestem.

Some of the other
species that are really

tidy and nice are red yucca,
which just keeps its form.

It's not overly fussy.

It hasn't lost a lot
of dead material.

We're doing seasonal
maintenance trips,

where we go in and we record
everything we do in each pot.

I know how much dead biomass

needs to be picked
from these things.

I know the amount
of time it takes for

one person to kind of handle
this whole particular site,

so that if we were
to create a larger

wall in the future,

we'll know what type of
time it takes to put in

to this particular system.

We're also keeping
soil moisture,

pH, and salinity information.

So, let's talk a little
bit about irrigation, too.

So, one of the reasons we do a
certain amount of soil volume

is so that the plant can hold
moisture within that volume.

- Each component has its
own irrigation drip line,

which is, in some
effect, redundant

because we could imagine that

one could drip all the way down.

But we really want to
understand, at a granular level,

what water is being
given to each plant,

and the variety of
plants that we've chosen,

and how we can reduce water
usage as much as possible.

It's a

research side to
what we're doing,

that's been directed by
Markus Hogue from Facilities.

He's really in charge of

the smart-watering system
initiative that's on campus.

And so, any water that
is going into the wall

is being data-driven
and data-monitored,

and it doesn't get watered
on days that it's raining.

We're monitoring the
water distribution,

the thermal heat gain

in both the front and the back
of the wall, and in between.

We're monitoring motion

and

light.

And so, temperatures of the day

and everything to do with
the environment that is

very local here is
all being captured.

We're not only considering

the benefits of plants for
such a living wall system,

but also the habitats
that we've included

on the four corners of the wall.

- We have four
different habitat units

on this particular wall,

and they're all for
different species.

Two of them,

we got really specific
with how we designed them.

One of them was a wren house.

The other thing that
we did specifically for

a particular species is
the native bee house.

- And then the cork habitat
that you see in the corner

is the bask.

We're just providing

a kind of scratching,
exfoliation surface
that lizards like.

There are actually sort of
insects and bees and bugs

sort of adapting to
what is here, because

before there was just
stone and concrete,

which is nice,

but I think that we've
given them a bit of relief

that's different from what
they might find out here

in the lawn and
oak tree scenario.

People who have nothing
to do with architecture,

or the Wildflower Center,
are stopping and asking,

"What is this, and why is it
here, and what is it made of?"

And so, we're sparking a lot
of interest from people who

just were unaware.

You know, as much as we
think that living walls

are becoming ubiquitous,
there are some out there that,

this is completely
new, and I'm happy that

we're changing the way people
think about architecture

and think about our
future development.

- All right, well
that unique exhibit

from the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon

to the vertical gardens
on the UT campus,

it's very cool.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Right now, we're
gonna be talking about

ecological design, and my
guest is John Hart Asher

from the Lady Bird
Johnson Wildflower Center,

and John, what the heck
is an ecological designer?

- That's a good question, and
it's one that's asked a lot.

Our group is

the Department of Ecological
Research and Design,

and we're really a niche sort
of group in that we bring

ecology, so we have ecologist
biologists on staff,

and landscape
architects on staff,

which my background is.

I'm a Longhorn that was
trained here at the UTSOA.

And we bring those two
worlds of thought together

so that we get fully
functional landscape.

So, it's not just about
beauty, but it's really about

cleaning air, cleaning
water, sequestering carbon,

all of those benefits you get.

- [Tom] And how the
plants work together

to do all of that.
- Absolutely.

- It's a very cool
piece of science that's

a cutting edge right now.
- Absolutely.

- I'm very excited about
the work being done.

A lot of these sites that you're
working on are urban sites,

aren't they?
- Yes, so,

when we started about 2000,

a majority of our
projects were more rural.

There were ranch owners
that wanted to know

how to revert their
land back to a prairie.

But now, the further
as we go along, 2018,

almost two decades, a
pretty much of a majority,

if not all of our
projects, are urban

designs.

And it really is a
big commentary on
how important it is

to thread nature
through our cities,

but also again, it
always comes back to

we get all that
wonderful function.

- Exactly.
- Yep.

- There are ecological
benefits to all these things.

In the past, we were taught,

urban streams, dangerous,
bad, put it in a culvert,

that was actually destructive.

And actually, more harmful
floodwise to a lot of other

communities downstream.

- Absolutely, and we shouldn't
expect that nature is

over here,

and then where we
live is sort of

adverse conditions.

We should expect the
flora in abundance.

We should expect the
health benefits from nature

where we live every single day.

- Well, there's some examples
you're working on in Austin.

One of them has to
do with Waller Creek.

What is that project about?

- So, the Waller Creek
restoration project,

we're with Michael Van
Valkenburgh Associates.

It's really exciting.

We're helping turn
essentially a degraded

water shed back into
a thriving ecosystem.

Now, it won't be a complete
100% restoration of what it was,

but it's going to be
something very close to that,

and it's gonna be an
amenity for the city,

and really something
nationally that I think

will be a wonderful example.
- Yeah.

And homeowners can
play a role in that by

catching stormwater
on their properties.

- Absolutely, the more water
we can keep in the Uplands,

so that would be people's yards,

you don't think about that.
- Right.

- But the more water we can
keep up there and let that

slowly infiltrate
through the soils,

the less that our
creeks have to do.

- That's gonna be
a project to watch.

There's another that
you've been working on,

which is very high profile.

It's the Bush Presidential
Library in Dallas

on the SMU campus.
- Yes.

So, that was a really exciting
project that we worked on

for a number of years ago.

This is actually the
5th-year anniversary

of its installation.

Mrs. Bush will be hosting
a big ceremony up their

for everybody come and
look at the prairie.

It's really, really
exciting, in that

President Bush and Mrs. Bush

really wanted to bring

nature back into the
middle of Dallas as well.

So, we designed about a
14- to 16-acre prairie

right alongside SMU campus.

- And there's so many
benefits to prairie gardens.

I mean, you have reverence
cleaning of the water,

you know, slowing the
filtration, reducing flooding.

One thing I learned recently
is that an acre of prairie

sequesters as much carbon

as an acre of the
Amazon rainforest.

That blew me away.
- Yeah.

The grasslands are

some of the most endangered
eco-types in the world,

but a lot of people
see them as nothing.

They see them as sort
of barren wastelands.

But, grasslands are only behind

peat bogs and permafrost in
terms of carbon sequestration.

So, they're a
wonderful tool for us.

- Yeah, well,
amazing tool, really.

- Absolutely.

- Real quickly, there's another
project you're working on

which has to do
with Hill Country,

and that's Blanco
River restoration.

- Absolutely, after the
2015 Memorial Day flood,

we heard a lot of residents
in that area wanting to

fix their landscape.

And unfortunately, they
had, with good intentions,

had contractors coming
in with heaving equipment

down into the river,

and they're actually
exacerbating some
of the problems,

and primarily erosion.

And so, we got together with
Texas Parks and Wildlife,

created a

137-page booklet called the
Blanco River Design Guidelines.

It's a free resource

for everybody.

You can access it at the
Wildflower Center website,

and also the Parks
and Wildlife website,

and it really walks you
through the nitty-gritty

of all the components
to what you need to do

to restore your land.

- Well, you're doing this
at a kind of a macroscale.

People at home can do
it on a microscale.

- Absolutely.
- And they can adopt

certain techniques you know,
the creating of rain gardens,

other ways to slow the flow,
planting of native plants.

One of the things that we
wanted to talk about today

is the planting
of native grasses,

which are an essential
piece of the designing

of our local ecology.
- Absolutely.

They are the workforce
of the prairie.

They put in these extension
root, fibrous root systems

that can go down 20 feet or so.

That's where we get
our drought resistance.

- Even 30 feet, I've seen it.
- Absolutely, absolutely.

They're beautiful, and
they're something that I think

a lot of people are
scared of because

how do you identify a grass?
- Sure, it's tough.

- Yeah.
- It is tough.

- When I got into
this sort of work,

grasses were the thing.

You just gotta sort of jump in,

and over time you sort of
build your knowledge base.

Grasses are beautiful.

They inflouresce,
they have flowers

that people don't
appreciate as much.

- [Tom] They're
stunning actually.

People have really
begun to adopt

some of these plants
very avidly, you know.

- Absolutely.

There are varieties--
- Gulf muhly, for example.

- There are varieties being
developed at many gardens,

but the sheer number
that were in our prairies

offers gardeners at home a
wonderful palette to pick from

for their properties.

- [Tom] And they're great
companion plants for wildflowers

and shrubs and other
kinds of things as well.

And there are grasses
that will adapt

even to shady situations.
- Absolutely.

- [Tom] Not as
many, but they will.

- Yeah, we don't have it's...

When you get in the shade, you
sort of reduce your palette

by a good amount, but there's
things like Inland sea oats,

there's some of those.

Texas Bluegrass

is a wonderful

grass, and also even our
state grass of Texas,

sideoats grama.

It preforms pretty
well in the shade.

- Okay, well, spring is
the time to plant grasses,

and what is the
appropriate technique?

Are you advocating for
starting from seed?

- I like to go with
seed personally,

because it's pretty cheap,

and if you're covering
a larger area,

it's the most economical
way, and it's pretty easy.

You can also do some plugs.

It depends on what your budget.

You can really
sort of design it.

It depends on what
your parameters are.

- Yeah, and I think a
mix of the two actually

in the areas where you
might have drainage issues,

and you need a more
established plant.

That would be a good
place for the plugs,

but at seed, the
others out elsewhere.

Site preparation
for seeding though.

What's that?
- Yeah, so,

you wanna take your time.

It depends on what's
been growing there.

If you have something like
St. Augustine, or something,

well, that's not a big deal.

You can sort of get
that out pretty easily.

But if you have invasives
like Bermuda grass or brome,

you wanna take your time.

So, I like to put down

in a six millimeter, you don't
do anything thinner than that

'cause the sun'll break down,

but you put down
a plastic sheet,

and solarize it for a year
because you wanna address

cool season and warm
season invasive species.

- Once they're grown,

you can also transplant
them relatively easy.

- I think your yes and method
of seeding and plugging

is right on because

there's some of the later
successional species like

Indian grass, or little
bluestem that if you seed out,

they won't necessarily come up

unless that soil is
just right for them.

There are the microbes
that are there,

that it's essentially evolved
enough to where they can grow,

and it's conducive
for their growth.

So, it's sometimes
it's really great

to get some of those
later successional species

and plug those in so
you get a really diverse

palette growing for you.

- At your field,

there's something that's real
exciting that's happening.

It's a sustainable
sites initiative.

Real briefly, tell
us about that is,

because it's real, again,
ground-breaking stuff.

- Absolutely, the American
Study of Landscape Architects,

the Wildflower Center, and
the U.S. Botanic Garden

got together after there was
a big emphasis in designers

in terms of the
performance of building.

You might have heard of lead

performance rating systems.
- Of course, right.

- Absolutely, and so
we really thought that

we needed something
that would ensure that

there was a sustainable
practice for the landscape.

And that's what Sites
really does, is help

guide designers and developers

so that they can look at a site

and design it in a
way that you don't

reduce any of that performance.

It's so important
for our urban areas.

- Yeah, this is,
again, something that I

just wanna encourage.

I know that we have a
lot of really interested

viewers out there.

This is being done at a kind
of an institutional scale,

but it can also be done
at a residential scale?

- Right.

- And one good way to
participate in all of that

is to go to the
Wildflower Center

for a special event.
- That's right.

Weekend of April 13th,
but also twice a year,

in the spring and
fall of every year

we have native plant sales.

So, we'll have grasses,

and we have a lot of
wildflowers as well.

And again, the spring is the
time you want to plant grasses,

especially seeding, and
you wanna sort of seed

wildflowers in the fall,

but you can pick up
some wildflowers that
are already grown.

- John Hart, it's been great.

I really commend you for
the work you're doing,

and thank you for being a guest

on Central Texas Gardener.
- Thank you so much.

It's a pleasure to be here.
- All right.

And coming up next, it's Daphne.

(upbeat whimsical music)

- Hi, I'm Daphne Richards,
and this is Augie.

Our question this
week comes from John

in Southern California.

What's going on with his
Palo Verde Desert Museum?

The bark on the trunk has
square chunks neatly carved out.

Since we knew this
wasn't caused by disease,

and it didn't look
like deer damage,

we consulted David Cristiani,

a landscape architect
in New Mexico.

He tells us that this
appears to be rabbit damage,

which he's seen on smooth
tree trunks like this one,

usually during winter
and during drought,

when moisture is in short
supply for all living creatures.

He says the damage seems to be

about the animal trying to
get moisture out of the trunk,

eventually girdling and killing
the tree, if it continues.

David also says that
he's observed young,

smooth-barked trees

such as desert willow, ash,
and pistachio being gnawed

by multiple cottontail
and jackrabbits

for several days in a row.

Then the trees are dead.

While nearby older
rougher-barked young trees

like mesquite, oak, and
juniper are left alone.

When we got back in touch with
John about his Palo Verde,

he reported back
that he has indeed

started noticing
rabbits last year,

and that even though rabbits
had always been around,

they've never been so visible.

To further illustrate the point,

David also sent us pictures
of an Opuntia macrocentra

that had been chomped by
jackrabbits or cottontails,

or maybe pack rats.

He says that usually
the pack rats

eat cacti from burrowing
under the roots

and getting their moisture
and roughage that way,

in order to avoid the spines.

Our plant of the week
is blackfoot daisy,

Melampodium leucanthum,

a delicate-looking perennial
that's actually quite tough.

This lovely little plant

is native to regions from
Oklahoma south to Mexico,

and from Central Texas west
through Colorado and Arizona.

As another of its common
names, rock daisy, implies,

it does quite well
in rocky, poor soils

and loves the heat and full sun.

Water sparingly,
once established,

and be sure to plant in
loose, well-drained soils,

or even tucked among the rocks

of an alpine or cactus garden.

Growing to only six inches tall,
but at least twice as wide,

blackfoot daisy will be
covered in bright white flowers

from early spring

all the way through late
autumn in most regions.

Plant in swaths along borders

to create waves of
white in your garden,

or singly, tucked in
among other xeric species.

The delicate, deep green
leaves contrast nicely

with the bright
white of the flowers

and will attract bees and
butterflies of all kinds.

Our viewer picture this week

comes from Mary and Rick
Trujillo in New Braunfels,

of their beautiful
variegated agaves

and spineless prickly pear,

against the backdrop of
their majestic live oak tree.

We'd love to hear from you!

Head over to klru.org/ctg

to send us your questions,
pictures, and videos!

- Thanks, Daphne, now let's
check out Backyard Basics.

(upbeat whimsical music)

- Hello gardening friends,
welcome to Backyard Basics.

I'm John Dromgoole.

Well, a lot of folks are

living in apartments
and condos these days,

and a lot of other
folks in their homes

don't have a lot of light

in the backyard where they
might be growing a garden.

So, there's alternatives.

Container gardening is
probably one of the best ways

of doing something like that.

There are many great containers.

Even if you're a beginner,
there's some that help you out,

like these containers
right here.

Today there are small plants

that are designed to fit in
some of these containers.

You don't have to use
a great big old tomato

or some of those.

You can use some small stuff

designed for
container gardening.

So, this kind right here

allows you to go out
of town for a few days,

because it's a
self-watering container,

and in the bottom of this

where the water goes
there's a reservoir,

and the water siphons
up into the container

where the plants are growing,

and the roots grow down there.

So, you don't have to be
a great gardener at first

in order to be successful.

There's small ones you
can grow herbs in them,

or spinach in the winter
time, things of that nature,

or some of the bigger
ones right here for some

chard that you would be
cutting on a regular basis.

So, that's a great container.

An easy one to grow.

They're not expensive, and
they'll last a lifetime.

There are other containers
like these right here.

These round ones
have the same benefit

that they also

water themselves.

And so you start them
out, and you prime it

by putting the water in there,

and then there's a
little hole on one side

where you can refill
it along the way.

These are great too.

Some of the plants,
they can grow in there.

There's even small cucumbers,

dwarf plants.

And then there are
these real nice ones

that are made out
of terra cotta.

Now you could hang
this on the balcony.

Look at this nice little wire.

It's cut from the
orchid industry,

but it works very
well for homeowners.

You know one of the
things I don't like

is to look up there and
see an old plastic pot.

So, these terra cotta ones
are really, really nice.

And one of the other
things I like to do,

because the terra cotta
usually has a big hole,

I like to put that over it,

especially when they're
sitting on the ground,

like this one right here.

This is a great one for,

well, for windy spots.

They weigh a lot, and
they won't blow over,

so you don't have that
kind of a problem.

Also, there are many
different types of gardens

that are larger than
the pots these days,

and some of these
fiber ones are great.

You can put it out in the
middle of the driveway.

There are several
different sizes of them,

and I think that when
it gets down to it,

you can garden just the
way everybody else does

by using one of
these containers.

So, whether it's
this soft fabric,

the clay, or these
self-watering pots right here,

you will be very successful
in that garden of yours

with containers.

I'm John Dromgoole
for Backyard Basics.

I'll see you next time.

- Find out more and watch
online at klru.org/ctg.

And follow CTG on Facebook
and Instagram, too.

Until next week, I'll
see you in the garden.

(upbeat whimsical music)

- [Announcer] Central
Texas Gardener

is made possible in part by
Austin Area Garden Center,

sharing the joys of
gardening for over 50 years

in Zilker Botanical Garden,

home of 32 garden clubs

and Zilker Garden Festival.

zilkergarden.org.

And from the University
of Texas at Austin

Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center,

displaying Texas native
plants in sustainable gardens.

And with the generous support
from Lisa & Desi Rhoden.

Support for this and
other KLRU productions

made possible by the
Producers Circle,

ensuring local programming

that reflects the
character and interests

of the Greater Austin,
Texas community.

(bells chime)