LibGuides: Gardening in South Texas: Gardening in South Texas

Subject Guide

Subjects: What to Read

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Keyword search link to the San Antonio Public Library Catalog.
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Reduce Your Water Bill & Preserve Our Environment

Choosing plants that require less water helps our environment and ensures your garden or landscaping stays vibrant even under watering restrictions.

Saving water saves you money on your water bill, but SAWS residential customers can get a little something extra to reward you for water-wise ways. Apply for Watersaver Coupons and Rebates from SAWS. Find all the available coupons and rebates on SAWS' Garden Style San Antonio section. Applications for the WaterSaver Landscape Coupon resumed March 1.

What is 'Permaculture'?

Permaculture embraces practices and methods to make an endeavor, such as a garden, sustainable for the long-run and as self-sufficient as possible, which saves you time and effort!

Holistic Homesteading by Roxanne Ahern
ISBN: 9781642509953
Publication Date: 2022-09-13
Ahern's book guides new and seasoned homesteaders in improving personal and environmental health. Learn about permaculture design, holistic nutrition, and sustainable farming in rural and urban settings. The Happy Holistic Homestead covers how to use organic soil and zero chemicals to grow the best vegetables and fruits, responsible and humane animal husbandry that improves the ground and carbon sequestration, as well as the best canning and preserving techniques.

TV & Radio Shows

South Texas Gardening with Bob Webster on KTSA 550 AM
A local rancher and nurseryman talks about creating colorful landscapes here in South Texas, answers questions from listeners and offers advice from other gardening experts.

Podcast available on the website.
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Airs: Saturday 5:30am - 9am / Sunday 8am - 11am
Bob Webster has hosted the KTSA Garden Show on KTSA since 1991.
Central Texas Gardener on KLRU
Host Tom Spencer visits with experts who cover a lot of ground from plant selection to design. Producer Linda Lehmusvirta consults garden experts from around the state to get you the most up-to-date information on gardening in Central Texas.
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Central Texas Gardener showcases exquisite Central Texas gardens and teaches how to have your own beautiful garden.
Neil Sperry's Gardens
Neil Sperry's podcasts. Neil Sperry’s may be the most familiar voice in Texas horticulture. Since his early radio broadcasts on behalf of the Texas AgriLife Extension of Texas A&M in the early 1970s, to his first commercial radio broadcast on January 7, 1978, Neil has been on the air 7 days a week reaching hundreds of thousands of listeners weekly with his four different programs.

Welcome to Gardening in South Texas

When searching the catalog use different search terms based on the type of gardening you’re interested in—organic, flower, houseplants, etc.

In the case of houseplants use “house plants” or “indoor gardening” for best results. Using quotation marks ensures the words are searched as a phrase--rather than unrelated words.

Stage 3 Water Restrictions!

Stage 3 Water Restrictions are now in effect!

A complete listing of instructions and restrictions can be found at saws.org. Here are some highlights:

Watering with an irrigation system, sprinkler or soaker hose is allowed only from 5-10 a.m. or 9 p.m. - midnight, one day per week, based on the last number of your street address. Weeks when no watering is allowed will be announced via local media and online.
Watering with drip irrigation is allowed every Monday and Friday, but only from 5-10 a.m. and 9 p.m. - midnight.
Water waste is prohibited at all times. Water waste includes lawn watering overspray and runoff or failing to repair a controllable leak.
Watering with a hand-held hose is permitted any time and any day.
Washing impervious cover such as parking lots, driveways, streets or sidewalks is prohibited.

Under the new Stage 3 watering rules, irrigation system hours of use remain the same, but a high-use surcharge will apply to residential customers using 20,000 gallons or more during a billing cycle after July 6. The new process consists of a one-time charges on SAWS bills for violations rather than criminal citations.

Favorite Gardening in South Texas Books

Gardening with Less Water by David A. Bainbridge
ISBN: 9781612125831
Publication Date: 2015-12-29
Bainbridge offers simple, inexpensive, low-tech techniques for watering your garden much more efficiently -- using up to 90 percent less water for the same results. With illustrated step-by-step instructions, David Bainbridge shows you how to install buried clay pots and pipes, wicking systems, and other porous containers that deliver water directly to a plant's roots with little to no evaporation. These systems are available at hardware stores and garden centers; are easy to set up and use; and work for garden beds, container gardens, and trees.
Garden Renovation by Bobbie Schwartz
ISBN: 9781604698329
Publication Date: 2017-11-01
Your garden, just like your house, sometimes needs a makeover. The change can be as minor as replacing a shrub or as major as pulling everything up and starting from scratch. Bobbie Schwartz draws on her years of experience as a garden designer to teach you how to evaluate your yard, determine what to keep and what to remove, and choose the right plants and design plan.
Texas Gardening for the 21st Century by Patricia Scott McHargue; Nan Booth Simpson
ISBN: 9781933979687
Publication Date: 2010-02-01
Full of in-depth information and gardening tips, this resource contains the latest information on organic gardening and native plants, as well as regional-specific tips for each type of plant in the garden and creative suggestions for hardscaping.

Each chapter in this sourcebook is devoted to one of Texas's 12 gardening regions, describing each region's climate and soil type, and interspersed throughout are money-saving tips and professional landscaping advice on plant selection and garden maintenance. Containing all the information needed to create and maintain a healthy and beautiful Texas garden, this handbook is a great reference for any avid gardener.-- From publisher description.
Gardening with nature in Texas by by Karen M. Breneman
Call Number: 635.90976 BRENEMAN
ISBN: 1556228910
Rather than long lists of individual plants for you to choose from, Breneman focuses on the larger issues of making every part of your garden environment work together.

She devotes a chapter to creating a Texas Wildscape and another chapter to Texas Wildflowers. But she also includes a chapter on Pest Control and a section is devoted to the dreaded Fire Ants.
50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants by Alan L. Detrick (Photographer); Ruth Rogers Clausen
ISBN: 9781604691955
Publication Date: 2011-05-31
With full-color illustrations of each and every plant, Clausen introduces versatile and visually appealing plants that deer usually choose not to eat. Clausen includes design tips and companion plants for her 50 chosen annuals, perennials, bulbs, ferns, grasses, and shrubs.
Herbs for Texas by Howard Garrett; Odena Brannam
Call Number: 635.70976 GARRETT
ISBN: 9780292781733
Publication Date: 2001-04-15
Herbs offer flavor to your cooking, appealing scents for your garden, and simple remedies for your health.

Herbs for Texas zeroes in on nearly 150 herbs suited to Texas and Southwestern gardens. It offers detailed information about each plant's possible uses in your landscaping, cooking and medicine chest. The authors even include the occasional recipe!

Web Sites of Interest

Gardening from bushes to vegetables.

Protecting your plants from Frosts and Freezes
There is a lot of confusion when it comes to frosts and freezes, and what practical things we can do to protect our plants.
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Covering plants is the best way to protect them from the cold. There are some thick types of plant cover fabric available in local garden centers and by mail order that can provide a few degrees of protection on a cold night. Blankets also work well but are heavier and may require some supports to avoid crushing tender bedding plants
Garden Style San Antonio
Find a plant, design a landscape, garden tips and coupons can all be found here. Best of all, the website focuses on San Antonio so everything is optimized for our area.
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Sponsored by SAWS, this website bridging their conservation programs and incentives with conservation-focused gardening articles and water-saving landscape designs.
Gardopia Gardens
The mission of Gardopia Gardens is to grow healthy communities through garden-based learning. Serving San Antonio since 2015.
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Since 2015 Gardopia has promoted health and environmental stewardship by implementing garden-based learning programming in schools, businesses, and community organizations – offering tools, materials, and best practices to ensure their gardens’ sustainability. Gardopia Gardens provides five programs: Garden-Based Learning, Build-A-Garden & Optimization, Garden Volunteer, Garden Media, and Farmers’ Market.
Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center
In addition to the classes they teach, the magazine they publish, and the practical lessons their gardens offer visitors, they post their knowledge and research online for you to read and download.
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These articles cover a wide range of issues relating to native plants, from gardening to education to land restoration and more.
Gardening in San Antonio - Tips
Tips and tricks to help your garden be strong and healthy during each season of the year.
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Gardening Tips for the San Antonio area courtesy of the SA Botanical Garden.
Gardening Volunteers of South Texas
A “hands on” group they offer day and evening classes that are free and open to the public, and they volunteer gardening services to other community and civic organizations.
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Gardening Volunteers of South Texas is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging water-saving gardening horticultural education, research and earth-wise gardening.
GardenWeb - Gardening in Texas
A forum for gardeners in the Lone Star state to discuss whatever gardening topic strikes their fancy. Pose questions or make suggestions for your fellow gardeners.
Outstanding Landscape Plants for South Texas
A list of plants adapted to South Texas, organized by type of plant (vines, small shrubs, large shrubs, small trees, etc). Prairie View A&M created the list specifically for Bexar County. Not the most visually appealing list but very focused.