By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star in October 2006
One nice thing about living in the Hill Country is that we have a “second spring” of blooming wildflowers. Our long spell of intense summer heat is sort of like a second winter, keeping most native plants in a “dormant” state. But just after the summer temperatures begin to drop a little in early fall, many native plants burst into bloom. Fall is commonly the prettiest season in yards landscaped with natives.
To show off some local native-plant gardens during the fall bloom season, the Cibolo Nature Center and the Boerne Chapter of NPSOT recently sponsored a tour of yards. Judging from comments I heard, this native-plant yard tour was a resounding success. The event attracted over 200 people to yards in and around Boerne as well as in Fair Oaks Ranch and Cordillera. People came from Kerrville, Fredricksburg, New Braunfels, and other nearby communities to see how native plants are used effectively in home landscapes of the Boerne area.
Every yard on the tour seemed to have its own unique personality. One very popular yard on the tour was planted by local landscaper David Barrett and another was designed by native-plant experts Patty Leslie Pasztor and Janis Merritt. Most of the yards, however, were the product of imaginative homeowners wanting to landscape with water-conserving natives.
From conversations I overheard during the yard tour, there is a growing interest in landscaping with native plants in this part of the Hill Country. Several local residents said they were looking forward to the Bigtooth Maples for Boerne program that our NPSOT chapter will launch next month. I think there is no doubt that more and more yards in this area will be landscaped with native plants.
This trend toward planting with natives probably is largely motivated by the increasing public awareness that a major use (some say misuse) of our groundwater is for yard watering. During the recent August drought, I was struck by how most people in our subdivision “did the right thing” by letting their lawns go brown. Only a few lawns were embarrassingly green, even as the severe drought threatened the supply of ground water.
In addition to the increasing concern about the quality and quantity of water in the Hill Country, more people are motivated to plant with natives because of a new awareness that many of these water-conserving plants also are handsome and easy-to-grow. This was well illustrated on the tour of native-plant yards.
Another important reason for planting with natives is to minimize the possibilities of landscape plants escaping into the wild and displacing native vegetation. Happily, this is another subject that is receiving increasing public awareness, thanks to programs by the National Wildflower Center, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, NPSOT, Texas Forestry, Native American Seed and other organizations.
Despite all the warnings, however, there is still widespread use of non-natives that could become invasive. On a recent visit to Tucson, Suzanne Young was told how popular it is to plant “Texas umbrella” trees in new subdivisions there. Suzanne soon realized that the so-called Texas umbrella tree is really Chinaberry, a plant high on the list of least-desirable invasive exotic plants in the US. I hate that the Arizona nursery people put “Texas” in the name by which they sell Chinaberry.
It is gratifying that more and more people in our part of the country are opting to plant with natives and with non-natives that are drought resistant and not prone to become invasive. Keep up the good work, Central Texans!
