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

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.

The Texas Panhandle is known for its rapidly changing weather, where temperatures race up and down a thermometer on a somewhat regular basis. Now, global warming is bringing the additional challenge of not only changing weather, but a changing climate. Hail and long-term drought damage plants. Sudden and fierce rainstorms pound weakened plants whose root systems fail to hold the soil in place. Additionally, a warming planet doesn’t preclude early devastating autumnal freezes. Yes, we in the Texas Panhandle have struggled with these conditions in the past. They are not going away, and most likely will get worse. Gardening is not for the faint of heart. Learn how to adapt and mitigate the gardening challenges climate change presents.

Inspiring the Texas Panhandle to Go Native for over 20 years, this November 4th, Neal Hinders, gardening hero, was awarded the Lynn R. Lowrey Memorial Award by the Native Plant Society of Texas in Huntsville, Texas at their annual symposium. Neal Hinder is in many ways like Lynn R. Lowrey himself, for whom this award was established. Hinders' nursery is Canyon's Edge Plants and is located just off the square in Canyon, Texas at 1401 5th Avenue.

Xeriscape gardens sparkle with color when planted with America's star wildflower, the Penstemon. This genus of flowers native exclusively to the North America continent, from Anchorage to Guatemala, includes species suitable to any garden condition. But chiefly, with the majority of penstemons native to Western United States, it's most suitable to dry gardening. Penstemon is one genus that sings “right plant, right location” louder than most.

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.

In the Southwest, nearly nothing will make as dramatic a statement as one of the large mature agaves. Their imposing thick succulent leaves stare you down and dare one to come look closer. Virtually untapped as a means of winter green and winter interest, our native evergreen (or ever-blue, ever-gray) succulents can easily be incorporated into native, low water-use, Western cottage and rock garden designs and styles.

According to the just released global pollinator assessment, 16% of vertebrate pollinators (increasing to 30% for island species) and more than 40% of invertebrate pollinating species are threatened locally, across the globe. Home gardeners can most positively and directly affect the problem of pollinator shortages through a different gardening paradigm than is currently being practiced in home landscapes. Read about our main pollinators and how to install a pollinator-friendly garden.

This summer I visited a familiar garden I watched grow and change over my adult life. Like my brother-in-law, Gene Dees, who creates and tends it, the garden has grown and matured over the decades. This year I realized a new appreciation for his decades of imagination, creativity and skill. What was once a typical northern garden, Gene's landscape has been transformed into an eclectic garden of depth and whimsy with the power to draw one in and sustain one's curiosity and interest.

Monarch butterflies serve as an indicator of the health of pollinators and the American landscape. The eastern monarch population has recently been assessed as critically imperilled due to its rapid decline from nearly one billion down to 57 million at the beginning of 2015. The are ways to help insure that the migrating monarchs don't become just a pleasant memory.

Wind is an ever present condition gardeners know they have to live with. Amarillo had been name the windiest city in the United States, according to a Weather.com report last spring.This came as no surprise to Panhandle gardeners, who have long thought the area is excessively windy, and it is. Amarillo consistently is ranked in the top 10 of windiest city. How does the wind affect the garden, and is wind related to temperature and moisture patterns. I explore this topic comparing weather data from 1892 to 2013.

The facts and stats -- not excessively hot, nor bracingly cold. Windy, but not extreme. The highest temperature recorded was 104º on August 31st and the coldest temperature was 1º on February 6. Between these two bookends lies a lot of weather, most pleasant and some nasty. Here's a look back on the weather for 2014 and it's effect on the garden.