Welcome to High Plains Gardening
Welcome to High Plains Gardening, the 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.
New to this website are several gardening forums. Please feel free to post questions and I will answer as promptly as time permits. You can access the forums here.
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 that stock and sell a huge selection of low-water use plants suitable for our area;
- Area nurseries promoting and selling a wide range of organic gardening supplies; and
- TV gardening programs that focus on and high light area gardens, as well as being informational about southwest gardening.
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:
- Beautifully thriving
- Low water-use
- Low maintenance and
- Ecologically friendly to our environment
- Filled with interesting plants and plants of a long blooming nature
- Suited to our climate and conditions.
HighPlainsGardening.com offers more than that. It contains information on successfully growing medium and high water-use plants, including proper turf techniques for our region and a special section of activities you might find a plain old gardener doing month-to-month.
My name is Angie Hanna, and I’ve been involved with gardening and gardening education for a number of years. I live and garden in the southwest part of Amarillo, Texas and have for almost 30 years.
I garden in the city. Country gardening has the added challenge of windier conditions than the city. City gardening can be hotter in the summer, but also warmer in the winter. There are advantages and drawbacks wherever you live.
Gardening is America’s number one hobby and I’ve found nearly everyone likes to talk about plants and gardening. I’ve visited with many people both inside their gardens and in casual conversation. Even if a person professes to have a black thumb, all enjoy the beauty of foliage and flowers.
For me, gardening is a passion, pleasure, and a creative pastime. It’s an outlet to connect and reconnect with nature and let go of stress. Gardening is at times hard work physically, but mentally relaxing. Gardening is fun. Gardening in the Texas Panhandle is easy. Yes, gardening is easy for me, and it should be for you too.
I have no formal horticultural credentials to cite as basis for teaching gardening. But I have been involved in gardening projects and garden writing for a number of years. I'll be teaching Gardening Made Easy at Amarillo College through the Leisure Studies Department, and have taught gardening there nearly every year since the fall of 2003. During a decade long stint as a master gardener, I was responsible for developing and implementing the Xtreme Gardening class series with the Xtreme Gardening Committee and the Potter-Randall County Master gardeners at the Amarillo Public Library in downtown Amarillo, but now I am just a plain ol’ gardener (pog).
Amarillo Botanical Gardens
During 2006, I've become an active volunteer at Amarillo Botanical Gardens by designing and implementing the Xeriscape Garden,
and the High Desert Garden, featuring plants native to the four deserts of the United States in elevations compatible with our areas climate and conditions.
I'm currently working on two new gardens, the Yellow Garden at the parking lot entrance, and the Texas Terraced Garden, at the extreme south end of the gardens. I also brought my High Plains Gardening class to the Amarillo Botanical Gardens.
In 2010, the Amarillo Botanical Gardens is offering a series of gardening classes. Join me on March 20th for From Carbon to Chloryphyll, Into to Organic Gardening. In May, I'll be teaching a class on the High Desert Garden. Contact the Amarillo Botanical Gardens for details on these and other classes.
Be An Informed Gardener
You don’t need any special credentials to be a successful gardener. But it doesn’t hurt if you have them. What you do need is information about our area’s climate and conditions, what to plant, how to best use your microclimates and how to amend the soil to increase your plant selection. Water conservation tips are included throughout the website.
Everyday, more information is learned about new plants, better ways to garden, about stimulating the biological life of the soil and the interconnectivity of life. This is not an all inclusive information site, merely a beginning, a starting point.
HighPlainsGardening.com was a work in progress, beginning with the first sections in September, 2005. As of the end of January, 2007, the majority of the website is complete. Over the past months I've added many sections, including a large section of plant profiles for our area. And as my time permits, I still hope to add more plant profiles, plant lists and current information to the website . Technology moves so fast, before I've completed the website, I've already had my son overhaul the format and look of HighPlainsGardening.com in August 2008 with an updated format. We're still in the process of fine tuning it.
October, 2011 -- I just added the Garden Notes tab at the top. I hope you all will check back often to read the topic of the day. My plans are to write most weekdays. A lighter, more personal take on gardening in the Texas Panhandle.
Please visit this site often, and if you find it helpful, share these seeds of success with others — it’s free.