- Howdy, I'm John Hart Asher.

This week on "Central Texas Gardener," explore how people are making a difference; on tour, a shuttered mall's parking lot now hosts an urban park of colorful wildlife-friendly plants; Chuck Foster, president of the Capital Area Master Naturalists, explains what they're doing to conserve resources and habitat; germinate mountain laurel seeds with Billy Garza; plus Daphne Richards answers your questions.

So, let's get growing, right here, right now.

- [Announcer] "Central Texas Gardener" is made possible by generous support from Lisa and Desi Rhoden, Diane Land and Steve Adler, and by the Travis County Master Gardeners Association.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) On tour, a shuttered mall's parking lot now hosts an urban park full of colorful wildlife-friendly plants.

- The opportunity to create a three-acre refuge has been really quite remarkable.

- Hi, I'm Dr. Molly Beth Malcolm with Austin Community College District, and I'm so excited to be here in this fabulous space that we have at Austin Community College, which once was the site of the original mall in Austin, Texas: Highland Mall.

And it was a hopping place when it started back in 1971.

But as malls do throughout the years, they often fall into disrepair.

We wanted to keep the old mall and see what we could do rather than tear it down to build it and make it sustainable.

So that's exactly what we did.

But part of that plan was to have beautiful green spaces.

At the time, it probably had about 97% of this area was impervious cover, and we wanted to bring it back to be beautiful spaces for our students, faculty, staff and the community.

- My name's Daniel Woodroffe, president, founder of dwg, Landscape Architects.

- And I'm Cassie Gowan, design director at dwg, Landscape Architects.

- This was a story about converting parking lots to parks.

But it was so much more than that.

It was about adaptive reuse.

It was about celebrating the role and importance of water and water management, of native plants, of understanding a sense of taking a neighborhood that was devoid of parks and open spaces and giving a place to gather and come together.

- We knew that we wanted to bring the history back.

This was originally belonged to St. John Baptist Association, and every year, they would have beautiful tent revivals for two or three weeks where people would come in with their tents and camp, and then they would have Bible study.

Ultimately, there was an orphanage, the first African-American orphanage in the state, and a vocational school built here.

Thus, the name St. John Encampment Commons.

- The heritage live oaks actually have a really unique story, is that when we were awarded the project, five of the live oaks had actually already been transplanted from a previous phase of the Building 1000 improvements on the campus, but they were placed onto the asphalt in these kind of upturned kind of ice cream mounds, and they were fine, but they were seven feet up in the air.

And so part of the design thesis that was developed was a sense of lifting and stitching and that's where the genesis of the amphitheater mound actually came from in terms of understanding the grading of the site, which falls from high to low.

- [Cassie] As the low point of the site, and we just embraced it.

So this is where we want to put this sponge garden that's gonna slow down the the stormwater.

It's gonna help soak the water in, it's gonna help filter things out of the water before it gets back into the system.

We've got bald cypress, Mexican sycamore, sabal minors, possumhaw hollies.

Lots of frog fruit.

I love frog fruit.

Switchgrass.

A lot of things that are typically found in sort of a micro riparian, I would say more of an abstract of a riparian sponge garden.

It kind of cools the space next to the pavilion.

We have a million-gallon cistern that's helping to reclaim all the water in this area and irrigate the campus.

- The parking lot was 95, 97% asphalt and concrete.

Today, we've seen well over an 85% reduction to porous pavers, to the lawn, to the planters.

And we had to be really quite bulletproof with the planting.

- The ice storm of 2021, Uri, the garden had only been installed for a little while, and then we got hit by that.

And so we did have probably a few casualties.

Some of the mountain laurels got nipped down.

But for the most part, it's a huge testament to the resiliency of native plants.

- There's so much kind of balance between the evergreen mass and then the kind of the spikes of color and interest throughout the year.

- [Cassie] I lay out the evergreen sort of structure, the anchor things.

And then silver blue things peppered in.

And so I think that always has a nice cooling effect.

And it sends your eye around the space.

There's also threads of red.

I wanted this to be for the hummingbirds.

The palette has a lot of purples and threaded throughout.

- [Molly] We also have, if you notice, the purple poles that represent the River Bat, we're the River Bats and purple is the color for the college.

- I wanted to tie that color palette into the landscape just subtly.

We have, like, the Henry Duelberg, Salvia farinacea and Peter's Purple monada is kind of in that color range.

Lots of fall asters.

And then, the fuzzy grass mix at the edges.

A lot of times, a park might have just turf at the edges.

And we wanted it to feel more wild and fuzzy and a nod to the native grasses that are, you know, the sideoats grama, which is the state grass of Texas.

Little bluestem, the blue grama.

We have the Mexican feather grass mixed in there.

They act as larval host plants for a lot of the skippers and butterflies.

There's things that are blooming, you know, in the early spring through the summer through the fall.

And so there's plenty of nectar and host plants for all the pollinators.

And when we talk about pollinators, it's not just the butterflies, it's the bees.

Honeybees, native bees, bumblebees.

Wasps, beetles, all the insects.

I'm forgetting a million... Hummingbirds.

(Daniel chuckles) Birds, bats.

We've got Texas red buds, Mexican buckeyes, possumhaw hollies, mountain laurels.

The sweet almond verbena.

That's not a native.

It's an adopted species.

Once it's established, it's really root hardy.

And so it acts kind of like a perennial.

Probably toward the middle of summer, those are gonna be exploding and you'll just smell...

It smells so wonderful.

And the bees and butterflies, love that one too.

Hummingbirds as well.

I love combining Whirling Butterflies white gaura with white Salvia greggii and then the grasses.

So they kind of dance in the landscape.

I think that also has a cooling effect in the summer.

It's kind of calming too.

And we've got kind of a fall sequence with the fall aster, the Gulf muhly, the shrubby boneset, for the start of fall migration.

In the winter, we have lots of possumhaw hollies and yaupon hollies for the birds.

One of my favorite things is the cedar wax wing.

And when they come like little bandits to take, you know, they take all the berries all at once, like little gangsters.

- [Daniel] Part of Cassie's kind of brilliance is doing it in almost kind of like a paintbrush way, in a very descriptive, bold way.

- We love turning parking lots into parks and taking basically a lifeless, dead place and bringing life into it.

- We can have a convocation here.

We can have gatherings.

There's different areas all around for people to see it.

You can have a class here.

Someone else could just be enjoying their coffee, listening to the birds and watching the squirrels and seeing the grackles.

It'll come get your coffee.

I see one headed this way right now.

And then, of course, the beautiful scenery.

- You go from maybe one bird, a grackle kind of pooping on everyone's cars, to now this kind of cornucopia of species, this kind of refuge that's been created.

It's been a really remarkable story of transformation.

- Across the state, certified master naturalists are getting together to help conserve our natural resources and learn about our native plants and animals.

Today, we are so excited to have Chuck Foster, president of the Capital Area Master Naturalists, explain what all they do and how we can get involved.

Chuck, how are you doing?

Welcome to "Central Texas Gardener."

- Oh, thank you so much.

It's an honor to be here today.

- How did you get involved with landscaping or the natural world?

- My start came with my grandfather, growing up in East Austin, the early '90s.

He had a small little garden on the side yard where we would pick tomatoes and peas and stuff like that.

So that was like my real first introduction.

I was about five or six years old.

He had a nice little landscape in his front yard with roses and salvias and things like that.

And he really kind of taught me the beauty of it all.

And then, on the weekends, he was a weekend warrior lawn man.

He would pack his lawnmower in the back of his truck.

He had an old red Buick and he would put his lawnmower in the back of the trunk, grab a big jug of water, and he would take us with him out there to, like, West Austin, West Lake, and Lake Travis.

We had properties out there he would work at.

And just seeing those landscapes out there was just amazing.

And so a young kid, you know, that's just, like, the biggest thing, the greatest thing to see, you know, all that beautiful landscapes out there.

But that's where I got my start from.

He was the genesis.

He wanted to started everything for me, from landscaping, outdoors, and nature, so I really appreciate him for that.

- So then, how did you become involved with the Master Naturalist program?

- Well, I got involved because I got my degree in urban regional planning.

So, for a while, I was a city planner and I was specializing in site planning and long range planning.

And I got to a point where we would be in site development meetings and I didn't know what really was going on between the city engineer or the landscape architects from the developers and the contractor side, and I wanted to learn more.

I wanted learn how urban development was impacting spaces so I can be able to contribute.

I got more involved with, like, local non-profit outdoor groups, like TreeFolks; Austin Parks Foundation, who I work really heavily with to this day; Shoal Creek Conservancy, and they had, like, seminars and things like that where they would teach you more about specific things like the parks and trees.

But I needed something more.

I wanted something that was more general, more outdoors in nature.

And so, one day, I was at Milwood Library, it was about 2018, and they had this book in there called "The Austin Environmental Directory."

And in there, they had a listing for the Capital Area Master Naturalists.

And so, for a few years, I kind of mulled on it.

I asked my mom, I was like, "Should I be part of Master Naturalists?"

She's like, "What is the Master Naturalists?

That's something you probably stay away from, you know, Chuck?

So I don't want you to get involved with that."

So I was doing more research on it and then 2020 hit, and, of course, that's the COVID year, right?

And so I knew work was gonna kind of slow down, and at that time, I already had quit being a city planner, started working in landscaping design.

And so I decided to take a risk, threw application out there, and got selected for the class of 2020.

Our class was all hybrid.

We met up a few times to do field trips and things, but everything was hybrid but all virtual.

And so we had the opportunity to kind of do all our classes through there.

And I got certified in 2021.

And it's been four years since, and this year, I'm the president, so- - Wonderful.

- Yeah.

- What exactly is the Master Naturalists program?

I mean, it's not just something in Austin, right?

It's something that's statewide.

- Oh yeah, yeah.

To kind of jump back a little bit, the term master naturalist actually was coined and termed in Fort Collins, Colorado, 1995, as a response to urban development and sprawl.

The citizens there decided to use their tax money to protect those natural space and areas from development and also to use it to educate the residents about the wildlife, ecology, environmental things like that.

And so, kind of fast forward a few years later, it kind of caught wind in Texas, and the first chapter was in San Antonio, Alamo City, with the first Master Naturalists chapter.

And then, subsequently, it was Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and then us in Austin, where we're the Capital Area Master Naturalists.

So, yeah, Texas became the first state to offer it statewide, Texas Master Naturalists program.

And really, our mission really is just to educate volunteers to go out and provide education, services, and outreach for the beneficial management of our natural spaces and natural resources here in the state of Texas.

- What sort of conservation work are y'all doing specifically?

Because it's not necessarily just plants or animals, it's ecology, right?

It's all.

- Totally, yeah.

We work really close with the Austin Water Wildlands.

Specifically, we help out at, like, Vireo Preserve, which is located off of 360 and Pascal Lane.

And so we do a lot of work out there where we help out with, you know, ecology, environmental stuff, migratory border birds, helping with those type of habitats.

We do native plant rescues, we help out with invasive species removal.

So a lot of different things.

Anything outdoor nature regarding is what we do.

We're all about it.

- And what's sort of the benefits of becoming a master naturalist are involved?

'Cause, you know, I've definitely, in my travels, have been to other states and they're not as familiar with this program and I think it's such a wonderful group of folks that really carry out.

So what all is involved for those who might be interested?

- Well, to kind of start back, you know, like I said, we have the initial trainees.

We offer two classes this year.

We started last year.

We have a spring class that's all in person.

And then, we have a fall class that's hybrid between you can be in person and the field trips.

You get a chance to be part of a network of people, like-minded individuals, that are all about, you know, Texas outdoors and just really protecting the ecology and the environment.

As an initial trainee, you have to go through and get, like, 60 hours.

40 of that is volunteer service, 20 is all in class and in-field training.

Then, to, like, re-certify, you have to get 40 hours annually of volunteer service and eight hours of advanced training, which comes through seminars or, you know, chapter meetings, board meetings, and things like that.

So, again, like, you have the opportunity to be a part of just a really group of great individuals that love outdoors.

- Why do you feel that y'all's work is so important for this area or even statewide?

I mean, what are master naturalists bringing to the table that maybe that just other non-profit or conservation organizations need help with?

- There's a lot of things, but I'm gonna kind of chop it down to maybe two or three, really, right?

From the individual person, right, you become one with nature, right?

You have the opportunity to heighten your senses of certain things like your hearing and your touching and your sight.

You feel a lot more comfortable being outdoors and walking through trails or going to a nursery or going to a park.

Our education gives you that opportunity to heighten your senses and just your passion, your drive for being outdoors, right?

Then, again, like I said earlier, you know, you're part of a family, of people that are really like-minded and want to help you to grow and be a part of a lot of these conservation and restoration projects that we're doing.

But on the bigger scale and the macro scale of it all, if we look in our general government right now, right, there's funding cuts coming, there's staff positions being cut, and especially like in our wildlife and parks area as we've kind of seen already, right?

So that's where master naturalists come in and able to fill those voids.

We're not looking to be professionals, right?

We just want to give back where our heart is, you know, and kind of lies at.

I tell people, in our chapter, we give 10,000 hours or more of volunteer service per year.

You kind of break that down, that's almost 27 hours of volunteer service per day.

So regardless if it's trash pickup or if it's, you know, native plant rescue, you know, we're giving back in all different areas, right?

But, again, when I originally got involved with becoming a master naturalist, again, just the pressures of development, sprawl, these things are affecting our areas.

And so we need individuals out there, like master naturalists, to provide the outreach and provide education, let people know what's going on.

- So for people who are interested in this and want to become part of this wonderful, wonderful group of folks, I think passion, just driving this, as you've said, how do people get involved?

- Well, the first thing I'll tell anybody is just show up to our work days, right?

We have work days at Verio and other land tracks that are part of Balcones Preserves around town.

You know, get involved so you can be around the master naturalists.

And then, also, you can join our chapter meetings.

You can subscribe to our newsletter.

Just jump on the website, camn.org, and read up about everything that we have going on.

We have pictures, we have all the meetings, and all the workdays on there.

That's the first step I tell anyone.

But, again, we do have applications coming out pretty soon for the fall class, which is, I think, June.

Again, you become more educated, your heart is more full, and you're giving back to society.

- Well, Chuck, thank you so much for coming and speaking to us about the CAMN fam today.

But now, let's check in with Daphne Richards.

(gentle music) - Last spring, I installed a much-needed shed in my backyard and decided to build a ground-level attached deck to spruce it up.

As my home was scheduled to be on a garden tour very quickly thereafter, I decorated the space with a colorful rug and some outdoor furniture, and I was pleased with the result.

But after the tour, I got very busy with work and travel, and didn't get back out there to start enjoying the space for quite some time.

By that point, the space was littered with leaves, so I went out with my battery-operated leaf blower to clean it up.

But as soon as I turned on the blower, a bunch of hornets emerged from several places under the deck and began to attack me.

I stumbled backwards, falling off the deck and abandoning the still-running leaf blower, but managing not to break my neck, and escaping with only a few stings.

I spent quite a bit of time that summer scheming about how to get rid of the hornets and regain my backyard serenity.

But since the deck was enclosed on all sides and the hornets were well established on the undersides of the deck boards, there really was no easy way to get at them.

By this time, it was obvious that there were several nests in multiple places, so I decided to cede the territory for the rest of the summer, and wait for winter, when the nests go dormant.

Hornets are great pollinators, and normally not at all aggressive, so I didn't want to kill them, I just didn't want them to make their home in such a dangerous spot.

I decided to deal with the problem in February, detaching and lifting up the boards in two areas where I knew there had to be nests.

And I was not wrong.

There were even a few hornets still in residence.

I removed the huge nests, and reattached the deck boards, with a plan to remove the entire surface of the deck later this spring, when I'll have more time to institute a longer lasting solution.

My plan is to tack down a layer of landscape fabric under the boards, like a carpet, which will provide a physical barrier, so the hornets can't access the space under the deck.

Now, what's going on with Kathy Priebe's soft leaf yucca in Bulverde?

All the leaves are damaged and spotted.

The pattern of injury here is typical of feeding by insects with piercing/sucking mouthparts, most likely yucca bugs.

The stippling damage pattern is indicative of the scar created when the insect pierces the skin of the leaf to get at the sugary nutrients in the plant's phloem.

Insecticidal soap can be effective against plant bugs, but it's challenging to get enough product on them to cause harm.

Start by washing the plant with a strong jet of water and clearing away all mulch and debris in the area around the plant, where the insects might be hiding.

Repeat this process often, and watch for any sign of returning bugs, picking them off and tossing them, if you see any.

And Helen Johnson wants to know what's wrong with her citrus plant.

What's causing this damage and what should she do?

This also appears to be insect feeding, although it could be other physical damage, like sun scald or desiccation due to high winds.

As tender new leaves emerge in spring, they haven't yet formed their protective waxy coating, and until they thicken up, they're very susceptible to hungry, opportunistic insects, and to the elements.

Many insects, including aphids, leaf-footed bugs, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, are attracted to tender new growth in spring, so it's very important to be vigilant at this time, watching for signs of insect infestation, so that you can identify any issues and get on top of them quickly.

We'd love to hear from you.

Head to CentralTexasGardener.org to send us your questions, pictures, and videos.

- Next, Billy Garza cracks the code to germinating mountain laurel seeds.

(gentle music) (lively music) - It's a beautiful day in the Texas Hill Country.

I'm Billy Garza here with Crane Valley Growers.

I'm gonna talk to you today about propagating the beautiful Texas mountain laurel tree.

I know everybody has seen these red seeds laying all over sidewalks all through town.

This is how the trees are grown.

A lot of reference will show you different methods of propagating the tree.

Some use sandpaper, some use a hammer.

Some use sulfuric acid to soak these in.

And I thought some of those were pretty crazy.

So I met with somebody many, many years ago, and he showed me the easiest method and the fastest method that I've found.

You get your pruners and you grab a seed, and all you do is little piece of the red seed coat.

(pruners clacking) That's it.

And you put it in a good compost, so it has a good environment to grow.

The reason I use a one-gallon pot is because of their long roots.

Some people will try and grow them in four-inch pots and it will work, but not as good as a deeper pot.

It takes about six to eight weeks for them to start, where you'll see actually growth coming out of the ground.

And I usually do six to eight seeds because there is about a 60% propagation rate.

You can put eight seeds in there, but three to five of them are gonna start growing.

When you walk by the Texas mountain laurel tree, you'll see the pods hanging down.

In the spring after the blooms have finished blooming, you'll see the pods green.

Now, I haven't tried it, but people say you can take the seed pod when it's green and still ripe.

And open it up.

And the seeds are easily accessible.

And just plant those seeds in a pot or in the ground.

Now, later in the fall or the summer after the seed pods have turned brown, they get real rigid, real hard, and you have to get some pruners or something to crack it open to get the seeds.

It's a little more difficult, but the seeds have already hardened and they've become red within a few months.

So after I started growing the mountain laurels, and I see good growth coming out, and they've established a root system in about six to eight months, in my nursery, I'll wait till I've got that root system going.

And in my nursery, I will bump them up from a one-gallon to a three-gallon, so they have a bigger area to grow.

If your objective is to take the Texas mountain laurel after it started growing in a pot and put it in your garden, we'll do it in the fall, but make sure you don't grab the mountain laurel by the trunk.

Don't grab it by the leaves.

You want to lay it on its side and slowly squeeze it to get it out of the pot and lay it next to the hole that you're gonna put it in, and just slide it in there gently.

The Texas mountain laurels are very temperamental.

If you disturb the root system too much, it'll go into shock and you'll lose everything you worked for.

That's it, basically.

Cover them.

I usually use seaweed extract as my main fertilizer.

And in and about six to eight months, they should be where you can plant them.

But make sure you plant them in late fall.

That way, they adjust to the environment through the winter and they establish their roots.

And when I grow them in my nursery, I water three times a week, and I fertilize them once a month with the seaweed extract and Superthrive.

It seems to be working great for me.

But as far as watering in the garden, once it's in the garden and it's a year old, it's gonna be on its own.

You don't need to do anything.

You don't have any problems at all.

They're easy to propagate.

They're easy to grow.

They do great in the Hill Country.

So for "Backyard Basics," I'm Billy Garza with Crane Valley Growers.

Hoping you have fun growing the Texas mountain laurel.

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As always, adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Central Texas Gardener is made possible by generous support from Lisa and Desi Rhoden, Diane Land and Steve Adler, and by the Travis County Master Gardeners Association.

(gentle flute music)