It’s a growing technique that’s been almost 20 years in the making. It’s called “Earth-Kind,” and it was the brainchild of my friend Steve George, a horticulturist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Steve began the work by studying hundreds of rose varieties, new and old alike, to find those that required absolutely the lowest levels of overall maintenance, particularly bed preparation, fertilizers and pest controls.
The program has been widely accepted by rosarians, and now Texas A&M has expanded on it well beyond its original DFW roots and far past being solely about roses.
Many members of the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association seek and offer Earth-Kind plants from their grower suppliers, knowing that they will do well for their customers. Look for plants with the branded tags. Buy and grow them with the greatest confidence, knowing that TAMU and a large alliance of skilled plant people across Texas stand alongside these plants, products and practices.
As you might expect if you know my background with Aggieland, I do wholeheartedly support the work that George began and that he and TAMU continue. Admittedly, I don’t always insist that every plant that I grow be able to sustain itself without some degree of bed preparation, fertilization and pest control. That would rule out too many of my favorites. So I have molded the principles ever so gently in my own gardens. Here is how I present this common sense approach to gardening to others:
Choose only plants that are well adapted to your area. It doesn’t matter as much whether they’re “native” – just that they are capable of succeeding in my plantings.
Buy highest quality specimens of the species you choose. Saving a few dollars here or there is not always a good plan. “Cheap” plants often come with issues that may threaten their prosperity.
Give each of your plants the soil preparation it needs. However, limit your choices of plants that require extensive bed preparation to annuals, perennials, groundcovers, low shrubs and vegetables — that is, plants that have limited root systems.
Transport your plants home carefully, and plant them immediately. Nothing good happens when you keep a plant sitting around in a pot week after week.
Learn what problems might befall your new plants, then watch for early symptoms. Should you see them, determine the best way to provide help.
Use mechanical means of control whenever they are practical. This includes washing or blowing pests off or plucking or thumping them off and stepping on them.
Use biological means such as predatory pests as the next option. Effective organic pest control products would be my next choices, but I do insist on good efficacy. Most of all, I do not use products that do not have complete label instructions. No home remedies here, please.
Finally, when other measures are not enough, I am willing to use inorganic pest control products. I know that they have been researched thoroughly, and if I am careful in mixing the products and prudent in the amounts that I use, the results will be satisfactory.
Neil Sperry, a McKinney resident, hosts Neil Sperry’s Texas Gardening from 8 to 11 a.m. Sundays on WBAP-AM (820). He is the publisher of Neil Sperry’s GARDENS Magazine. Learn more at neilsperry.com.