Austin Garden: 42 plants that can take the heat 🌿 sacred botany 🌿 Hamlet in watering dilemma 🌿

NURSERY NOTES: Learn all about worm composting from worm farmer John Garza at the Natural Gardener on Sept. 9 at 10 a.m (free) vermicomposting. Also, some useful notes on how to water from their website: TNG 🌿 Visit the Cactus & Succulent Society's fall show and sale tomorrow and Sunday (Sept 2 - 3) at Zilker Botanical Garden. Rare and beautiful cacti, succulents from around the world are all part of the show. AC&S 🌿 The Native Plant Society of Texas holds its Fall Plant Sale on Oct. 7, Dowell Ranch Preserve, off FM 1626 just west of Manchaca. NPST ❦

NEW LEAF: join the folks at Austin Organic Gardeners on Sept 11 at 7 pm to hear from the amazing Matt Simon of New Leaf Agriculture. "Amazing," because Matt's the director of this all-organic alliance project with the Multicultural Refugee Coalition. Apart from providing a livelihood for refugees, it is the first farm in Texas with a carbon plan; plus they're growing crops for textiles and natural dyes. AOG ❦

SACRED BOTANY: dive into the world of sacred plants with musician Jahnavi Harrison in this 30-minute radio meditation where she explores plants, such as holy basil (Tulsi), that act as intermediaries with the divine world. BBC ❦

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Reader Grania Patterson ponders this question with some assistance from Prince Hamlet!

To water or not to water that is the question

Whether tis nobler in the mind to believe

The weatherman and his offers of precipitation,

Or to take up the hose against a sea of

Dead vegetation

To sleep perchance to dream,

Aye, there's the rub

For in that sleep of expectation,

What dreams may come, that shuffle off

This mortal expectation

Of a decent tomato.

And, thus the native hue of resolution

is sicklied o'er with the pall cast of thought,

And enterprises of great moment

Whither away in the name of expectation. ❦

THE AUSTIN GARDEN relies entirely on support from its readers. Please consider making a donation of $10 - $15 a year to support this bi-monthly publication. Many thanks! PayPal link ❦

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CENTRAL TEXAS GARDENER: despite rocky land and deer aplenty, Colleen Belk has created her own cottage garden paradise . . . with a little help from her pup Jellybean. CTG ❦

Water Requirements:

VL [Very Low]

by Darrel Mayers

So this is life on a warming globe. . . day upon day in the 100s, a splash of rain on a Tuesday afternoon, and then back up into triple digits.

What better time than now to consult the City of Austin's excellent Native and Adapted Landscape Plants. Within its pages, the water requirements are carefully listed as high, medium, low, or very low for each plant.

It's the last category - very low - which is the focus of my list of 42 plants below. This is where we discover those tough-as-nails specimens that can make it through almost anything. . . even the hot, hot summer of '23.

(Please note: in its next issue, the Austin Garden will publish an addendum of plants that the Grow Green project is adding to its publication. Also, if any readers have plants that are alive and well and surviving without much water this summer, please let me know. )

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Trees

Cedar elm trees (Ulmus crassifolia)

Honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa)

Lacey oak: (Quercus laceyi)

Mexican White Oak (Quercus polymorpha)

Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)

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Small trees/ Large shrubs

Arroyo Sweetwood (Myrospermft um sousanum)

Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) photo above

Eve’s Necklace (Styphnolobium affine)

Goldenball Leadtree (Leucaena retusa)

Huisache (Acacia farnesiana)

Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora)

Mexican Olive (Cordia boissieri)

Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei)

Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana)

Mexican Redbud (Cercis canadensis var. mexicana)

Texas Redbud (Cercis canadensis var. texensis)

Retama (Parkinsonia aculeata)

Flameleaf sumac (Rhus lanceolata)

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Shrubs

Agarita (Berberis trifoliata)

Black Dalea (Dalea frutescens)

Elbow bush (Forestirera pubescens)

Flame Acanthus ( Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii)

Fragrant mimosa (Mimosa borealis)

Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens)

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Perennials

Artemisia (Artemisa ‘Powis Castle’)

Bulbine (Bulbine frutescens)

Square bud primrose (Calyophous berlanderieri)

Blackfoot daisy (Melampodium leucanthum)

Damianita (Chrysactina mexicana)

Gayfeather (Liatris mucronata)

Hymenoxys (Four nerve Daisy) (Tetraneuris scaposa)

Cedar sage (Salvia roemeriana)

Goldeneye Skeletonleaf (Viguiera stenoloba)

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Yuccas/Agaves/Succulents/Cacti/ Sotols

Agave (multiple species)

Basket grass (Nolina texana)

Yucca (multiple species)

Yucca paleleaf (Yucca pallida)

Red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora)

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Groundcovers

Iceplant: (multiple species within the genera Aptenia,

Delosperma, and Malephora)

Santolina - Lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus)

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Grass

Buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides)

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Ornamental Grass

Pine muhly (Muhlenbergia dubia)

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Native and Adapted Lan dscape Plants is available free at most nurseries in Austin. ❦