High Plains Gardening

Article Category:

Welcome to High Plains Gardening, the free, non-commercial, gardening information website for the Texas High Plains region and surrounding area!

The purpose of this website is to promote a culture of gardening within the Texas High Plains Region by offering information on an easy and successful way to garden. My hope is that many more people will enjoy gardening, and gardening success, in the Texas Panhandle.

My Vision — Gateway to Southwest Gardens

I have several goals, or visions, for the Texas High Plains region. I envision:

The Texas High Plains region will be known as “Gateway to Southwest Gardens”;
Area nurseries will stock and sell a huge selection of low-water use plants suitable for our area;
Area nurseries will promote and sell a wide range of organic gardening supplies; and
TV gardening programs that focus on and highlight area gardens, as well as being informational about southwest gardening, will be broadcast locally.

Establishing and creating this website is just one of the activities I do to draw closer to my vision for our area. I believe all four of my goals are attainable. Read through the rest of the website and give it a try. HighPlainsGardening.com is filled with information that will help you create gardens that are:

Featured Photography

In celebration of wildflowers for National Wildflower Week, photos of garden-worthy wildflowers are featured from gardens or in the wild.
Click on arrows at the right and left of photos to advance, and on the i for description.

Featured Plants

Check out my top plants for the season

Zinnia grandiflora

Not our old fashioned garden zinnia. Zinnia grandiflora is the native zinnia for most of the Midwest, West and Southwestern parts of the United States. So widespread a wildflower, each region has named it theirs: plains zinnia, prairie zinnia, desert zinnia and Rocky Mountain zinnia. A terrific low growing and spreading groundcover for poor soils needing no supplement irrigation. Rugged! A survivor without being a pest!

View Full Plant Profile

Oenothera macrocarpa

Oenothera macrocarpa, and O. missouriensis have been used interchangeably. Native over a wide range including the plains and wooded areas, carries the common name, Missouri evening primrose, bigfruit sundrops and Ozark Sundrops.

View Full Plant Profile

Linum lewisii var. lewisii

Linum lewisii, the southwestern and western native perennial wildflower variety of flax was named after Meriwether Lewis, who was first to describe it during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. On July 18th, 1805, near the Great Falls of the Missouri Lewis recorded: "I have observed for several days a species of the flax growing in the river bottoms the leaf stem and pericarp of which resembles the common flax cultivated in the U'States. The stem rises to the hight of about 2 1/2 or 3 feet high; as many as 8 or ten of which proceeds from the same root.

View Full Plant Profile

Heuchera sanguinea

View Full Plant Profile

Glandularia (Verbena) bipinnatifida

Prairie verbena is one of my favorite plants, it is one of the first to bloom in the spring and one of the last to be affected by freezes in the fall. Small in stature, but it has my respect for giving so much with so little given (from me) in return. It's short lived, maybe just one year or three. Green, finely cut hairy leaves, with several branched stems that put on clusters of tiny lavender, purple, violet or pink flowers. Blooms from spring to fall. Readily reseeds, not invasively so. Its volunteer seedlings are easy to dig up and transplant.

View Full Plant Profile

Eriogonum umbellatum var. aureum

Golden sulfur buckwheat is one of those plants you'll come across while hiking in the West and wonder why it isn't in your garden, its so adorable!
The leaves are gray-green, spatula shaped and woolly underneath, to about 2-3 inches. They form a rosette at the base. In early spring, tall, stout stems extend upward up to 2-3 feet. The bright golden flowers are nearly luminescent, appearing first as ball-like umbels (clusters), then each ball opening up to a circle of golden flowers. As the flowers age, then turn orange.

View Full Plant Profile

Recent Garden Notes

Discover these Plants! Seven Garden-Worthy Wildflowers

05/06/2017 - 11:07

In celebration of National Wildflower Week, May 1-7, 2017, I'm featuring seven wildflowers whose native range is west of the Mississippi that make splendid garden-worthy plants. Discover these plants and add a little bit of the wild to your garden.

Read full article

Attracting Pollinators with Annual Plantings

04/05/2017 - 16:10

Annual plants comprise some of the jewels of the garden, used to add sparkle and interest when and where needed throughout the landscape and in containers. Annual plantings need not only be a garnish to the garden. Selecting plants used for seasonal plantings that remain attractive to both gardener and beneficial insects is becoming more and more popular today with the loss of native habitat and widespread use of pollen-less hybrid annuals. Consider the benefit of pollinator friendly annuals that contribute to a landscape more in harmony with nature.

Read full article

Tranquil Oasis in the Heart of the City – Tucson Botanical Gardens

09/14/2016 - 11:40

The Tucson Botanic Gardens, known to the locals as a “tranquil oasis in the heart of Tucson”, tells the story of the people and place, while developing awareness and appreciation of their native surroundings. With a vision of creating an oasis, and a mission promoting, demonstrating and educating responsible use of regionally appropriate plants,Tucson Botanical Gardens strives to become America's best small public garden.

Read full article

On Facebook

News

New Garden Notes: Discover these Plants! Seven Garden-Worthy Wildflowers

Featured Photos: Annuals and plants used as annuals that attract beneficial insects.

Featured Plants are the Seven Garden-Worthy Wildflowers blooming in gardens now.

Please email comments and questions to pog@highplainsgardening.com. Angie Hanna

Article Categories

Plan and Design

The first vital principle of the Basic Gardening Principles is effective planning and design. Formulating your gardening management statement, determining your garden theory, settling on the style, working out the design, and deciding how the garden will be used should be settled before ground work can begin.

Soil

Understanding our soil and plants soil requirements are two vital keys for the gardener. Without a basic knowledge of soil, a gardener only plays the trial and error game. Amending the soil to conform to one's plan and matching plants to all components: aspect, location (sun, shade, wind), water needs, maintenance requirements and style criteria is vital in expanding one's plant palette.

Landscape Beds

After acquiring a basic understanding of our soils, it's time to apply your knowledge to your garden itself, whether in creating new beds or revitalizing existing beds, borders or lawns. This section discusses different situations gardeners face in creating new beds and borders in an existing landscape, particularly in regards to soil health.

Lawns

Lawns, or turf, is so important to American Gardening, that an entire principle is dedicated to these residential expanses composed of a single plant type, turfgrass. The purpose of lawns, lawnscaping in general, alternatives to lawns, turf type choices, how to take care of turf, and water-conserving tips to implement in traditional landscapes are some of the issues discussed.

Plants

Gardening is all about making choices. None of the other seven basic principles of gardening illustrates the impact of choice quite as much as our choice of plants. Plants are the focus, the purpose, and the reason for the garden and illustrate the garden of our imagination. Choosing regionally appropriate plants that match your choices are essential to success.

Plant Lists

To view lists of plants of different categories, such as native grasses, shrubs, flowers, and Southwest evergreens: cold hardy cacti, agaves, yuccas and other native evergreens suitable for the climate and soil conditions of the Texas Panhandle, click here. Often one just wants to scan a list of possibilities rather than reading through all the plant profiles, however, not every plant on these lists will be profiled.

Trees

The Texas High Plains region is part of the vast and treeless plains, at the southern end of the Great Plains. It is difficult for trees to grow effortlessly. Planting a tree is viewed as an act of hope and trust in the future. Care should be taken to match the tree to soil, location, exposure and water needs.

Efficient Use of Water

Water continues to be a precious resource on the Texas High Plains. Our average annual precipitation of 17-21 inches is sufficient for growing regionally appropriate plants, especially when moisture is used efficiently. In soil, where just adding more water is not always the answer, make every drop count, soak in, quenching the plant's thirst before it moves down the line.

Mulch

Although all of the 7 basic principles of gardening are important and will greatly enhance your gardening success, the easiest to implement is to use mulch. Appropriate mulch covers help preserve moisture, improve soil structure and quality, helps prevent weed seed germination, moderates soil temperature and much more.

Pest Management

A lethal arsenal of products have been developed to eradicate weeds, insect pests and pathogens in the lawn and garden. Integrated Pest Management is a four-step system of managing landscape problems by using the methods that are the least harmful to the environment first, before considering chemical intervention.

Maintenance

Everything worth having requires maintenance, even lower water-use gardens that follow the other six rules of gardening. When a landscape is properly designed and implemented, matching plant to location, maintenance is greatly reduced. Maintaining the garden using correct horticultural methods, not seeking control but cooperating with the normal properties of our plants, is the gardener's simple mission.

Stepping Stones

Gardening is a succession of related tasks, when combined together, orders our garden. Choice of plants, climate, location, water supply, soil type and texture affects design and style choices. Our degree of knowledge, competence and time available to give to gardening affects the outcome. This section focuses on the week to week, month to month gardening timeline for the Texas Panhandle.

Creating Organic Landscapes

Successful gardens are in harmony with nature, working with soil and climate conditions, not against them. For this section, I've combined the 7 basic principles of gardening and 6 principles of organic gardening and divided them into three sections: gardening practices above and below ground, practices below ground and gardening practices above ground.

Designing for Panhandle Gardens

What garden style differentiates Texas Panhandle gardening from any other region across the world? What plants, accents and hardscape, when combined, bring to mind the Texas Panhandle? I've explored the shortgrass prairie, cliffs and outcrops, the plateaus and playas and have noted features, landmarks, colors and plants to gain some insight in formulating a distinctive Panhandle garden style.