the Austin Garden: planting in the fall / Downton Abbey garden tips / Dwight for hire

Nursery notes: The Natural Gardener is well-stocked with fruit trees and cool season veggies. Free class Sat. at 10 a.m: Homebrew Kombucha, with the owners of Buddha's Brew. Tues. 10 a.m., 'Organic Veggie Gardening 101' with Neil Schmidt. Events ❦

Barton Springs Nursery: on sale this weekend. 15 gal. Monterrey oaks: $80. 5 gal. giant mistflower: $18. Pineapple guava trees, $84. Four inch purslane plants: 99 cents Barton Springs Nursery ❦

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Wimberley Gardens: weekend sale: 20% off cactus, yucca, agave. 20% off garden tools (except DeWit brand).

5 gal. crape myrtles, butterfly bushes, heady hibiscus $20 (reg. $25). / This Sun. (Sept 29) visit Roughhouse Brewing in San Marcos for an informal talk by the nursery owners about Fall Gardening. 2 - 3 p.m. Wimberley Gardens ❦

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Earth-kind gardening field day: this Sat. 9 - 2 p.m. Expect tool sharpening, composting, grow boxes, garden art, water conservation, rainwater harvesting,veggie gardens at this free event. 1600 Smith Rd, 78721. Texas Master Gardeners ❦

Dwight Littleton: many of you will remember how helpful and knowledgeable Dwight was as a member of It's About Thyme's staff. Dwight has now created his own little com-pany called Thursday Morning Landscaping. He offers design and installation at a reasonable price. Call Dwight at 512 913 2189 to set up a free consultation.❦

Downton Abbey gardens: for fans of this series, and now the movie, you can in a small way emulate the grounds of Highclere castle, writes Heather Arndt Anderson. 'Think wild rambling roses growing languidly between strict lines of mathematically precise boxwood.' Sunset ❦

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Central Texas Gardener: learn from Drake White (The Nectar Bar) how to turn your garden into a year-long habitat for butterflies and bees. Fruit specialist Jim Kamas talks about when to fertilize fruit trees, and explores troubled persimmon and fig trees. Sat. 4 p.m. Sun. 9 a.m. KLRU ❦

Escarpment oak at St. Andrew's Episcopal School; tree of the year, 2010.

Be smart: Plant in the Fall

by William Glenn

My love for plants is the thread that ties together my hobby of gardening with my professional life as a horticulturist.

Whether I am at a friend’s house for an evening soiree, or plugging away trying to care for thousands of plants, I’m approached with the same question: 'what is wrong with this plant?'

Inevitably a phone emerges from a back pocket with a few pictures of a plant looking pathetic and miserable.

With a houseplant, I usually say the same thing every time. 'Too little light, too much water.' Studies have shown that people predictably overwater a plant that they have paid for, holds sentimental value, or is showing signs of stress (even stress from overwatering). Use the old pointer finger to see if dryness is really the problem.

For today, though, I want to broach problems for plants in our landscape. If you take anything at all from this column, please let it be this:

Plant your landscape plants in the FALL.

You can avoid most of the other problems you’re facing simply by following that simple suggestion.

The 'gardening gene' kicks in for most of us between St. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

When this gene switches on, we’re compelled to go buy a bunch of trees, shrubs and vines that look dazzling, perched on their tables at the store, plump and satisfied, gloriously adorned with flowers.

Although we can plant them and care for them, we’ve got a couple of strikes against us right off the bat. Most impor-tantly, the roots will have almost no time to develop, and are totally reliant on you for water, rather than seeking it for themselves.

When summer’s heat descends upon the shaky new transplant, a quick demise is almost inevitable.

Try to plant a tree or shrub this fall around Halloween. There has been tons of news lately about how tree planting is our best defense against climate change (if you need extra motivation to get out there and plant!).

Give it water to get up and running, a thick layer of mulch, and if you’re really serious about its success, add a mycorrhizal supplement to the root zone (don’t worry, the garden centers know what this is).

As your new plant sits over winter, it will be developing a com-plex network of roots every day, each one capable of offering up more and more water and nutrients, enabling the plant to better endure the rigors of summer. ❦

William Glenn is senior sales manager at Barton Springs Nursery. Thanks to the Windsor Park Newsletter for granting permission to reprint this article.