 Est. 2008; bringing nature & gardeners together May 2, 2025
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NURSERY NOTES: Join Meem at Tillery Street Plant Co. tomorrow (May 3) at 11 a.m. for Kids Plant Class. They will learn the basics: soil, plant care, repotting, and gardening. $10. Tillery 🌿 Also tomorrow ATX Outdoor Living Tour offers a glimpse of the work of some our city's high-end landscape designers. $35. MADS 🌿
TREEFOLKS PICNIC: join this flourishing non-profit for a celebration on Sunday, May 4, 11 - 4 p.m. at Live Oak Brewing Co. Free admission. A seed swap, a dance, singer Pam Reyes, an Ask-An-Arborist Panel, and even tarot readings are all promised. TreeFolks ❦
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BUILD YOUR OWN TWIG TRELLIS: "A natural rustic trellis is one of most beautiful ways to enhance and create a portal into the garden," writes Ella Ecker Ogden. You start by taking saplings and bending them into the shape you want over a 2-week period. Ogden ❦
 A CELEBRATION OF BEE BALM: "As the dainty fireworks of bee balm flowers begin to erupt in summer, a time-lapse camera would reveal a growing and interactive crowd in motion," writes Marie Viljoen in her appreciation of this important friend to bees and butterflies. Gardenista ❦
THE AUSTIN GARDEN relies on readers for support. Whether annual or monthly, all donations are welcome. At present 6% of readers fund this newsletter. Many thanks in advance. PayPal link ❦
 photography: Héctor González
Forest Spirit
Meet TreeFolks Nursery Manager Vít Kašpar
by Darrel Mayers
I recently visited TreeFolks Nursery with 4 students from my school as a service project. During the sunny March morning we created a daisy chain to move plants, we dug a 40 foot irrigation ditch in some very friable soil, planted seedlings, and ended the morning chewing on some delicious home-baked sour-dough bread. Throughout our time there, nursery manager Vít (from the Czech Republic) was fun, friendly and informative, as were all of the gathering of volunteers.
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Greetings Vít. Can you tell me about your life before TreeFolks? Was the magic of nature and trees and flowers part of your childhood, or was it something that arrived a little later in life?
My original training was in linguistics — I studied Romance languages, specifically Italian and Spanish — and in Prague, I made my living as a tour guide and translator.
As a child, I spent summers on my grandparents’ small farm, where I learned the basics of horticulture. I would also forage for mushrooms and wild berries in a nearby forest.
After moving to the U.S., I spent a few years in the Pacific Northwest, living among the temperate rainforest, which was truly magical. While adjusting to my new life, I got involved in community gardening and urban agriculture in Portland, Oregon.
From there, I relocated to the Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas — quite a change of scenery! It took time to adjust and begin to appreciate the subtle beauty of the Tamaulipan thornforest, a unique and diverse ecosystem that has evolved over eons to thrive in a harsh, unforgiving landscape.
While working to establish school and community gardens with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, I met
Benito Treviño — a legendary botanist, conservationist, and nurseryman from Starr County — who became a mentor and friend. (photo below)
 He generously shared his knowledge and guided me as I established a small-scale nursery, where I grew native trees and woody perennials for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reforestation programs. That experience eventually led me to TreeFolks in Austin, where I now manage the development of our native tree nursery.
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Although just 2 years old, the TreeFolks Nursery already seems like a magical place. Can you describe it for readers?
The TreeFolks Nursery currently consists of a 40 x 50 ft shade structure built from wooden posts and metal pipes, covered with 40% shade cloth to reduce radiant heat.
Beneath the structure are five propagation benches (each 4 x 40 ft), topped with hardware cloth for air-pruning taproots. Each bench can hold up to 9,000 saplings.
We use an automated overhead irrigation system with microsprinklers. Next to the shade structure is a small, temperature-controlled greenhouse (12 x 36 ft) for propagation. At the end of last year, we added a larger, donated greenhouse (32 x 100 ft), which we now use as a shadehouse for saplings and one-gallon trees.
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I understand that TreeFolks was having difficulty buying in enough native trees to supply the needs of Austin – hence the nursery. Can you speak a little bit about the value and benefits of collecting seeds from local native species, and growing them yourself, as opposed to buying them from a supplier.
First, there simply aren’t many growers specializing in native trees — and those that do are typically small, retail-focused operations. Larger nurseries that offer native trees tend to carry only a few common species that are easy to grow and familiar to the public, like live oak, cedar elm, or mountain laurel and others.
Moreover, large growers often don’t prioritize sourcing seeds locally or from wild populations. While some species native to Central Texas also grow in other regions, seeds from distant areas may produce trees that aren't as well adapted to our local climate and ecosystems.
Our goals also differ from those of commercial growers. While they aim to grow attractive, sellable trees as quickly as possible, our focus is on ensuring the long-term survival of our trees after planting. That emphasis influences our growing techniques, container types, and potting mixes, which may differ from industry standards.
 Vit with a volunteer
One area that you mentioned you needed help with was collecting seeds. How would we go about doing that?
TreeFolks runs a Native Seeds Collection Program, which is essential to our nursery operations. While we collect many seeds ourselves, we couldn't meet our needs without the help of volunteer collectors and donors.
New seed enthusiasts can join one of our Tree ID Walks, where they’ll learn about local native trees and when and how to collect seeds for TreeFolks. All the information is also available on our website, linked below.
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We noticed, when digging the ditch, just how crumbly and wonderful the soil is out here. This was obviously a huge factor when choosing where to put your nursery. Can you tell us about the soil? Is this Blackland Prairie?
Hornsby Bend, where our nursery and headquarters are located, sits on a 500-year floodplain of the Colorado River. The soils here are deep sandy loams over a dense clay hardpan. This is not Blackland Prairie — that starts just east of us — which is known for its fertile but heavy black clays (vertisols).
Sandy loam drains much better and is easier to work with. We even add it to some of our growing mixes, especially in plant bands for field-ready saplings.
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It is rare to hear someone speaking positively about hackberry trees. But during our visit you spoke of their benefits and attributes that many of us overlook. Can you explain what they are?
Hackberries (Celtis laevigata and Celtis occidentalis) get a bad rap — in my opinion, unfairly.
Their berries feed dozens of bird species, including cedar waxwings, mockingbirds, cardinals, and warblers. They are a critical larval host for butterflies like the hackberry emperor and tawny emperor (below) and their bark and canopy offer habitat for insects, lizards, and small mammals.
 Tawny Emperor
They are drought-tolerant once established and can thrive in poor, rocky soils as well as rich floodplains. They even handle compacted urban soils better than most natives. Hackberries are excellent pioneer species — they establish quickly, stabilize disturbed soils, and pave the way for longer-lived trees.
People sometimes see them as “weedy” because birds spread the seeds everywhere — especially along fences and hedgerows. Their branches can be brittle, and they’re relatively short-lived (about 30–50 years). But their ecological value far outweighs these inconveniences.
The Celtis genus includes over 60 species found on every continent except Antarctica. Remarkably, archaeological evidence from caves around the world — like El Salt in Spain, the Caves of the Spear in Israel, and Hinds Cave in Texas — suggests hackberries were used as a food source by early humans.
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For a homeowner with a new tree, can you offer 3 tips to them for keeping it healthy?
I may have a few more than three,. Here goes!
1. In Central Texas, plant new trees in fall or winter.
2. Don’t plant the tree too deep or too shallow — aim for the root flare to be just at the surface.
3. Mulch generously, but don’t pile it against the trunk — make a “mulch doughnut” instead of a “mulch volcano.”
4. Water regularly during dry spells — not just near the trunk, but throughout the root zone under the canopy.
5. Prune in the early years to promote strong structure and desirable form.
6. Avoid using string trimmers near the base — hand-weed instead to prevent trunk damage.
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Do you always end the mornings for volunteers by offering your scrumptious home-baked sour-dough bread? It really was a delicious treat, and even my 5th graders were rendered silent by it ; - )
Yes! We've been doing this for several months now. I love bread — and I love baking and sharing it with our volunteers. In Central Europe, where I’m from, bread is a staple, and I started baking sourdough over ten years ago.
I don’t have a wood-fired oven (yet — maybe one day we’ll build one at TreeFolks!), but I use a gas oven and a basalt refractory baking stone. I bake traditional Czech bread using mostly wheat flour with about 15% rye. After bulk fermentation, I proof the dough slowly in the fridge for about 16 hours before baking.
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If you close your eyes and imagine the nursery in the spring of 2030, 5 years from now, , what would you see?
I see multiple greenhouses and shade structures, trees and people everywhere. I see an arboretum where visitors can explore over 100 woody native species from Central Texas. I see volunteers and schoolchildren on field trips, and I see future native growers learning how to start their own nurseries. ❦
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