High Plains Gardening

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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

A Garden in Focus is a garden review of the garden in south Amarillo designed by the owner of Windswept Prairie Plant Truck , Amarillo's only molibe plant store. Julie Fullington's garden design is is successful due to its adherence to three main areas of focus: her love of succulents and evergreens, a love of pots, and a love and need of a greenhouse. These elements provide structure, spacial form, texture, winter color and seasonal interest, and the memory of the landscape she grew up with in Colorado.

Succulents and broken pot in the xeriscape area.

One of the sedum, semperviven and iceplant combinations.

red ‘Voodoo’ sedum, lime green and golden ‘Angelina’, and blue ‘Turquoise Tails’ sedums, with a yellow blooming iceplant

Weeping garden cedar, Juniperus procumbens nana

Firesticks Euphorbia, Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’

Firesticks Euphorbia, Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’ at the back

Lavender lazily falling on to the path, notice the bee shadow, it was buzzing!

Great textural contrast with agave and Texas pink skullcap

Another agave alonside Texas pink skullcap, Turquoise tails sedum and Blue Note salvia

Echinopsis hybrid in bud about to break bloom.

Kalanchoe, Agave and dwarf mugo pine in the back of this potted trio

Allee of compact Tanyosho red pine, a single line borders the other side

Neat and tidy greenhouse where the "artist" works

Plants ready for sale in the Windswept Prairie Plant Truck

Julie Fullington and her mobile business, Windswept Prairie Plant Truck

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!

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Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'

There are several varieties of Salvia guaranitica that range in shades of blue from light to dark. As with most of the tube-shaped salvia flowers, S. guaranitica is a hummingbird magnet.

Native to South America, S. guaranitica is not zoned cold hardy for the Texas Panhandle, but it has wintered over in protected Amarillo gardens in many locations for many years. It has wintered over for me at least 5 years, unprotected. Deadheading is not required.

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Monarda didyma

An American native requiring medium to high water, it is a prolific grower, an old fashion pass-along plant. Perfect for a mixed border or at the edge of the vegetable garden to attract bees. The variety shown is most likely 'Violet Queen', although I'm unsure. However, it is not the common scarlet bee balm or red bergamot, that also grows well here. Blooms throught the summer and is an attractive addition.

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Caladium bicolor

Caladium corms are tropical plants grown for their summer foliage, however they do send up an arum type flower (a member of the Araceae family). Foliage comes in many different variegation patterns in red, pink and white. There are a over a thousand cultivars, most from the Caladium bicolor species. Plant bulbs after May 1st, only about 3 inch deep. Caladiums like it hot and moist. Complete shade works OK, or morning sun only.There are a few sun tolerant cultivars available. For larger leaves.

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Buddleia davidii 'Black Knight'

Butterfly bush is a perennial shrub that comes in many colors from white, yellow, pink, rose, to mauve and deep purple. Native to China and is available in many different hybrids, cultivars or varieties. Quite fragrant, attracts butterflies. Butterfly bush needs very good drainage, it will not tolerant wet clay soil. It will grow in poor soil with good drainage. Butterfly bush trives quite well in low water-use areas. Alternate spelling is Buddleja. Not invasive in the Texas Panhandle.Several species are native to parts of Texas and Mexico. B.

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Recent Garden Notes

A Garden in Focus

07/18/2020 - 15:15

A Visit to the Garden Designed by the Owner of Windswept Prairie Plant Truck highlights elements of successful design.

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Agave – Noble Plant from the New World

11/21/2019 - 10:10

It was with great delight and excitement I first noticed what appeared to be the first tip of the stem. Having watched agave blooms on a weekly basis at our botanic garden, I was elated to be able to watch it hourly, if I choose, but certainly, daily. I took photos of this marvelous plant nearly every day for the first 6 weeks, then several times a week until the it finished blooming. Each morning, I made sure to check its progress. Afterwards, I photographed it less frequently until the end, but watched it daily. From stem to first emergence to the end of flowering was a period of 10 weeks. Here’s a brief viewers guide to our New Mexican Agave's bloom cycle.

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Amarillo -- Degrees of Change: How Much Climate Change has Warmed Amarillo's Weather

02/06/2019 - 15:10

Over the past two decades, Amarillo’s weather has changed noticeably. I thought the weather in 2018 to be particularly hot, but not quite as severe as the terrible years of 2011 and 2012. I didn’t enjoy the heat of these summers. Three really hot, dry, miserable summers within a decade. Will this be our future? Should I consider moving to a milder, wetter climate? How hot will it get in Amarillo, as global warming continues to warm? This article seeks to answer Amarillo’s degree of change.

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News

HighPlainsGardening.com Celebrates 15 years of gardening information for the Texas Panhandle in 2020 -- still free and non-commercial!

NEW Featured Photos: A Garden in Focus, Photos from the garden of the owner of Windswept Prairie Plant Truck

New Garden Notes: A Garden in Focus, Principles to Ponder from a Successful Designer

Stepping Stones to Gardening Success. Check out the updated section on Stepping Stones, -- what to do in the garden, month to month. The entire year's been updated with some new information and links, and photos added. Just scroll down the Home page; it's on the right. Click on the Intro and choose a month.

Featured Plants focuses on plants of summer interest.

Please email comments and questions to pog@highplainsgardening.com. Angie Hanna, plain old gardener

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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. These are Stepping Stones to Success focusing 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.

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

High Plains Gardening

My Vision — Gateway to Southwest Gardens

Featured Photography

Featured Plants

Recent Garden Notes

On Facebook

News

HighPlainsGardening.com Celebrates 15 years of gardening information for the Texas Panhandle in 2020 -- still free and non-commercial!

NEW Featured Photos: A Garden in Focus, Photos from the garden of the owner of Windswept Prairie Plant Truck

New Garden Notes: A Garden in Focus, Principles to Ponder from a Successful Designer

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