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>> hi, there, i'm tom spencer. this week oncentral texas gardener, get a new spin on houseplants with jenny peterson, co authorof "indoor plant dã‰cor" with kylee baumle. from style to statement, bring some of thatgarden love inside, even to your home office. on tour, see how mueller in austin transformeda former airport and wildlife habitat. daphne answers your top question and her pickof the week. john dromgoole has your basic backyard tips.let's get growing right here, right now. support comes from geo growers, offering customsoil blends for lawn, garden and xeriscaping, and landscaping supplies.for more information go to geogrowers.net. â¶â¶

>> what happens to an airport when it closes?see how mueller airport in austin transformed runways into of community of close neighbors,diverse gardens, and wildlife habitat restoration. >> everybody's garden reflects their own personality.>> almost everybody in this neighborhood gardens on some level or other.>> because we have smaller spaces here, it is a more doable yard.>> you are not secluded in your backyard anymore like you were when you had a big backyard.you sit on your front porch and you see your neighbors and you say hi and they do the samething. >> at mueller in east austin, it' a new andyet old fashioned way to garden, with compact

yards that value resources and connect neighborsas nearby bungalows did years ago. it's a community that unites with nature,too, through the parks and ponds that have brought back wildlife on land once coveredby airport run ways and parking lots. >> catellus, who is the developer of mueller,is very sensitive in the design and what's happening with the environment.>> sunflowers that collect solar energy dot the i 35 access road. in the restored prairies,real native plants support wildlife habitat, framing human services and homes, designedto be as resourceful as their gardens. janelle dozier faced two challenges, texasweather and a downsized garden. when she and husband don moved from new orleansafter katrina.

>> we wanted to be close in town so that wecould do all of the fun stuff in downtown austin, so it was a tradeoff. and then i realizedhow much you can do with a little postage stamp space.>> janelle's garden may be smaller but every square foot packs a punch.after removing glass, she amended her clay soil for better drainage. she even has a peggymartin rose, a katrina survivor, that's just as tough in texas.in the brutal alley strip she calls the strip tease, janelle affirmed her new roots withtexas natives. >> and i realized, you know, i am right herein the city on the old airport lot and i can have butterflies.i can have hummingbirds.

>> a few blocks away, keith romel and partnerjose brunel spend more time enjoying their low maintenance garden than tending it.>> it's a small yard and i just wanted to get as much impact from it as possible.i color was a big thing for me. i wanted a variety of color so i think everycolor in the spectrum in the rainbow is in there.not only the color, just texture and variety, so there was mulch and crushed granite androck and different sized rocks, so there is a lot of ways to add texture and interestto the yard and that was my goal. the walkway was just pushed away and is goingright through the garden and so it makes it look really a lot more expansive.it looks like a bigger yard than it really

is.>> laura and andy atlas don't have far to go to pick organic food on their street sidegarden. since the airport moved, not only did theybuy into a resourceful home, they wanted a new garden perspective.>> we had a typical lawn with the front flowerbed, and so this is different from what we hadbefore. >> yes, this is our first time to take outall of the grass from a large area. we actually have a larger garden here than we would atour other house because it is manageable. >> the kids are out looking at dragonfliesand caterpillars and birds nesting and it's really brought nature in a really intimateway.

>> there is a consciousness in the neighborhood.people, you know, consciously don't want to use pesticides.people talk about all of these kinds of issues. we've got swallowtail caterpillar in a potthere and we have barn swallows nesting in our eaves. we had a mourning dove that wasfledging that was living on the patio for a couple of weeks.you know, we came outside this morning and there was a dragonfly sunning itself or hangingout there. you see all of these things and it just makesyou feel good. >> the native prairie was the reason thatfirst adopters, carolyn and glenn hagler chose their lot.>> across from the greenbelt i thought i can

look out and pretend that i'm away from itall, even though i am not. >> an inspired gardener, carolyn wanted todownsize from the large one in their former home.>> typical suburban yards are large and full of grass and if you want to do anything, itrequires a lot of work and a lot of upkeep. but this neighborhood, we have small spaces,small yards and it is doable. it's not an overwhelming thing.>> that is the main difference here is people really do garden and love to see the differencethat a little bit of work can do. >> the new prairies are taking hold, despitethe drought conditions since they were first seeded.>> the native american prairies have been

so overused.they have been built on. they have been tilled, used for agriculture.there is a very, very tiny percentage of untouched native prairie left.so we had this great opportunity to recreate the prairie here at mueller because we hadnative soils that had not been tilled. >> to achieve restoration, catellus collaboratedwith dr. mark simmons from the lady bird johnson wildflower center and rvi landscape architecturaldesigners. >> it's an example of what you can do withgreen and native here in a totally urban area on top of what used to be tarmac and runways.>> mueller neighbors and residents formed the friends of the prairie to maintain them.>> when i do everything i can in my yard,

i can always go to the prairie and the demonstrationgarden. i have a 30 acre garden out there to playwith. >> the wildflowers that grow over there arereally inspiring because, you know, they come back every year.they just do whatever they do and i like to have elements in my own garden.>> there is all of this stuff that it's from right here, that you can pick the seeds backinto your own yard and they will do great. >> to illustrate how home native plants canfit into a home garden, rvi landscape architect chris lalich designed a more formal setting.a walk around his central labyrinth connects all viewpoints.sculptor and mueller neighbor chris levack

designed the artwork to celebrate the garden'sindigenous roots. >> this is a wigwam that you make a houseat night where you pull saplings together. >> levack's pollen grain testified to austin'sclaim of allergy capital of the world. each section of the prairie is planted forits biome. united by trails, popular for jogging andstrolling. the main link is habitat cluster for wildlife diversity.arachnophillia, designed by houston artist dixie friend gay, applauds the return of wildlifein the former of parking lots. wildlife helps parking lots too and engineeringdesigns that helps all residents. >> all these parks and the ponds and themselvesare helping with storm water control for mueller.

>> at lake park, it is hard to imagine thati 35 or a busy shopping center is just around the corner.>> two blocks away, i can arrive at one lake and walk around, and then two blocks the otherdirection, i can walk to another lake and walk around, and the scenery just around thelakes itself changes as you walk around. >> in its innovative urban design, muellerhas an eye on the big picture, a community that connects service, neighborly bondingand environmental responsibility. >> and everybody is aware of nature and howwe can incorporate nature into our gardens and as part of our homes and then to havewildlife inhabit this urban space and create a space for wildlife where it's not just thishuman environment.

>> i think in the future, places like muellerare going to be important because if we continue the same cycle of tilling up our prairie,which is so ravaged already, that this is a really a seed bank for what we might beable to spread into the future. >> so when you look at the gardens here, thinkthat this used to be under concrete and we are just having the most fun doing this andwe are also learning about soil, about improving soil, because if you can improve what wasunder tarmac, you can improve anything, you know.>> we are now going to shift our attention from outdoors to in, and we are joined byjenny peterson. welcome back to central texas gardener.>> thank you, always a pleasure to be here.

>> we are here to celebrate your new bookwhich is indoor plant decor, and this is really about indoor gardening in a way, isn't it?>> it is. it is kind of where interior decor meets houseplants. it is not house plant 101 book out there.there is lots of fine books that tell you how to grow plants and individual plants butit is how to use plants in a very stylish way so that it reflects your own particulardecor and your own personal sense of style. >> and you use the word "our." we want togive a shout out to your coauthor. >> yes, my wonderful colleague kylee baumle,who is in a more northwestern setting, and we became friends a few years ago and it wasour idea to do a book together and this is

where we crossed over.>> great. >> yes.>> so let's focus on the indoor gardening concept.what you have done in terms of the book is really to organize kind of thematically differentstyles, if you will >> yes.>> of decor and matching that with plants and thinking about how you contain the plantsand present them. >> exactly.it is not just about a plant in a pot on a table, although we don't scoff at any kindof household house plant displays that anybody could come up with but we have come a longway to having a ficus tree in your dorm room

and an african violate in your kitchen windowsill, just things that are a little more stylish and a little more creative and give you ajumping off point of being more stylish. >> a lot of the imagery in the book is notjust stylish, it is artistic and maybe a little bit of avant garden.>> yes, we were going for that. there may be more of traditional gardeneror person with more of a traditional or classic that could look through some of our book andthink that's a little whackadoo for me but hopefully we have something that will appealto everybody in whatever kind of decor you have in your house.>> well, you are in austin, so whackadoo to you.>> yes, my friend had to reign me in a little

bit and it's not crazy. yes, it is, and theyhad to bring me back in. >> a ying and yang situation.you brought a lot of things in and i want to show them off.first we have a grouping of beautiful plants and really remarkable containers over hereso tell me why you brought this particular group in.>> well, there is a few different ways people can start off planting their own interiorhouse plant display. one of them start with the plant themselves.as you can see by virtue of foliage or flowers, a lot of these plants have a very distinctflowers, like the alocasia have very strong foliage and veining in the leaves so it tellsme tropical or ethnic or tribal, very masculine.

if you are a dude and want something in yourhouse that is not frilly or fussy, that is a plant to start with.>> certainly bold, i love the color of the alocasia and it looks great, the color.>> almost looks fake to me. i killed a few of those until i figured outhow to deal with them. >> a lot of people like decorating with interiormexican furniture or african accents and this perfectly matches that.>> exactly. that's something to keep in mind.if you have a strong theme like that or decor style coming in your home, you want to picka plant that has foliage or flowers that's going to complement that, not fight it.>> and behind that is the bird nest firn which

i think is an architectural plant.>> yes, i love the bird's nest thorn because it's a chameleon and changes. it can be verytraditional depending on the pot you put them in and can be contemporary because it hasthe strong architectural form. >> and then orchids.>> yes, orchids and then the plumosa firn that is in the small orange pot.any of those can be classic elegant choice. it can even a bit asian or zen inspired.>> i always thought of an asparagus firn as being a zen plant.>> when you have something like this, you want to go softer and simple and not quiteas bold as that. you can go bold but not quite as graphic asthat alocasia.

>> and very traditional, the pothos ivy.>> yes, a lot of people start them in your college dorm room, you pick out it up foryour entertainment center or headboard and it depends on how you use it.you put it in a little pot like that, it tells me i am fresh and young and quirky and thereis a way to what i call grandma plants and put them in a fresh new container and updateit. >> you brought a classic grandma plant.>> yes, what i love about this, what we just talked about was having a jumping off pointwith your plant selection. well, you can also do the opposite, have yourjumping off point be your container collection, so you have this very small but beautifulplant.

anybody can grow this in any household.there is nothing exotic about this plant. so if you pop it out of the planter and putit in that chartreuse and a gray, small pot in the back, it looks very artsy contemporary,different vibe and then change it in dark red container, it is instantly classic orelegant and then leave it in that little turquoise pot and to me it is a little more tropicaland earthy because it is more pottery like. >> right.>> and then i always like my household is more eclectic and that's one of the stylesin our book as well, so if you have an eclectic enter your, what is keeping you from puttingall of those containers together? you mix them together and put very simplehouse plants in them.

>> there is such an explosion in this beautifulglazed pottery now. you can have them any color, any form.imprinted with beautiful patterns or just plain.then they look great together. >> exactly.now, one thing that's good to keep in mind when you are combining really different piecesof pottery like that is to keep the plants very simple.you don't want to have your plants and your pottery all working against each other andcompeting for attention. >> good point.>> so that's what i tend to do. >> you brought along i love these presentations.>> i do, too.

>> looking at that hand.it looks like an old glove model thing. [laughter]>> i don't know what what >> a prosthetic?>> who knows. but i love the presentation on these.>> well, do you know what? you don't have to have a traditional containerto put plants in and the ones with soil so you have the celosias here with the beautifulbloom and there are ways to display these and there is the pottery here with glazedhand and you lay them in here for these little, you know, kind of interesting planters here,you pop the larger celosias in there, and you don't even need to have i was saying radishplanters, you can use anything in your household.

you can find old silver pieces, mason jars,even cool looking buckets with old paint in it.those can be repurposed in cool containers for inside.you just have to pay attention to a little bit of drainage in the bottom.>> real briefly, you brought something that can hang on the wall.these are pocket gardens? >> they are.you take that very strong outdoor gardening trend of the vertical garden.it has been a strong trend for several years and when you bring that inside, you can bridgea really cool product like this from the woolly pocket company where you attach this reallycool planter to your wall, plant it and then

there is there is a water reservoir whereyou just >> let it wake up?>> exactly. >> very cool idea.very cool idea. >> again, the plant is "indoor plant decor,"very fun and beautiful images. >> thank you.>> thanks for coming on with us. >> my pleasure, john.thank you. >> coming up next is our friend, daphne.>> hi, i am daphne richards. our question this week goes all the way back to late seasonfrost which damaged quite a few plants. most of the questions we got involved tomatoesthat were planted a little early, as we were

all excited but the early warmth tricked usinto planting before it was quite time. although i didn't plant any tomatoes early,i did make a different rookie mistake and got some front damage in my yard on some establishedtrees and shrubs. i got quite a few calls from people with similardamage so i thought i would use my own tree as an example.frost damage on trees is not really that common, since our temperate zone deciduous trees cantell time quite well. they click the off the hours of cold they'vereceived along with the hours of daylight to increase with the coming spring.they do this to know what time of the year it is.now back to my rookie mistake.

i fertilized my plants too early. my landscapeis very young and a little raw so i am impatient for growth, especially since the high temperaturesand lack of rainfall since my arrival in austin four years ago have hampered my progress.i really thought that my landscape would close to down by now, but instead, i only had twobeds, a row of wax myrtles, and a gorgeous montessori oak.in my impatience to get my shrubs tree into high gear, i fertilized them a little tooearly, three days before the frost, in fact, causing the tender new growth to shoot outand to be extremely vulnerable when old man winter visited for the last time this spring.i was so in shock when i first noticed the damage. and sort of tip invading disease would notonly have not only caused burn symptoms on

the new leaves but also on the tender, developingstem. that would have caused the stem to be discoloredand i would have seen obvious die back. although i am disappointed at the frostbite,you can see the plant is already recovering by breaking new buds which will create allkind of new growth and actually that will make my tree more full and lush which willhopefully look much nicer in the long run, our team is also known as bachelor's button.this plant has been a gardening main stay and gardener favorite for years but recentlycolors were developed by researchers at texas a&m.before these plants were released, i was lucky to given some to trial in my garden and ican report they are indeed fabulous.

in fact, they were declared texas superstarsin 2012, meaning they were trialed and shown to be super tough in most texas landscapes.the plant trials coincided with the summer of 2011, hottest on record, and these littleplants kept on going and blooming like crazy. in addition to newer, deeper root colors,taller plants were also developed. we love to hear from you so visit us not klru.org/ctgand thanks for watching us now let's check in with john dromgoole with backyard basics.>> hi, i am john dromgoole. we will talk about nematodes today.there is reason that parasitics are beneficial. there are a wide range of flies, the worms,and these are the ones you encounter sometimes in the garden.when they attack them, they can stay in their

host for 48 hours and there is no acquiredimmunity. it is not harmful to earthworms, beneficialto insects. and the way the nematodes are used, they finddifferent grubs. they find carbon monoxide soil or temperaturechanges and this is a good time to find them in the soil.they are easy to use. they are very effective.they control i mentioned a few, there are many, many grubs that are in the soil thatcan do a lot of damage in the garden or in the landscape or in the yarn.for example, chiggers, too, out in the special areas these are a problem, you can spray themout there.

they need to be sprayed in the evening orearly in the morning because the sun can destroy them, so doing it late in the day is veryimportant. the other thing is, they need to be wateredand water is an important part of the success of using these nematodes, and so this mighttake place over two weeks. it is not as if you had to water every day,depending on what the soil moisture level is, but i think that's essential, so out ofthe sun and nice water for them and they will get into the ground and they attack the grubs.within 48 hours, i mentioned that, they will have killed these grubs and they make theirway into the grub through the anus, through the mouth parts, or actually through the sphericalsand some of them that are soft bodied they

go right through the body, also.there are other types of nematodes you may also have heard of and these are the kindthat attack plants. these aren't that kind.these are different. it is not the one that does damage.it is easy to use. they come in containers like this and thereis a medium in there that helps keep them in the jar and keeps them nice and fresh witha little bit of moisture, and so this is how they come to you.the other thing is, now you will take them and put them in water and release them intothe water medium and then at that point you will put them in your sprayer by going throughthis filter. that way, no medium is going

in there, just the nematodes, and then youcan spray it out there. i think this is something to think about whenyou begin to have insect problems in the yard that are coming from the soil.there are many of them. so this is a nice advancement. if you nevertried this, you will find that this is an effective way to stop some of those problems,especially for those of you who grow fruit, like peaches.the plum curculio does a lot of damage and this is a way to do that without toxins.this is very different than putting insecticides into the soil.so i think you will have very good success with problems in your garden when you usetheir beneficial nematodes.

i am john dromgoole.i will see you next time. >> find out more at klru.org/ctg and checkus out on facebook. on june 1, cool off with a preview of theaustin pond society tour. until then, i'll see you in the garden.>> so learn about today's program, watch online and follow ctg's blog, check out klru.org/ctg.ⶠâ¶>> report from central texas gardener comes from geo growers, offering custom soil blendsfor lawn, garden, xeriscaping and landscaping supplies.for more information, go to geogrowers.net. >> this week on central texas gardener, geta new spin on house plants with jenny peterson,

coauthor of indoor plant decor with kyleebaumle. bring some of that love inside even to yourhome office, and how austin transformed a former airport.daphne answers the top question and makes answer of the pick of the week and john dromgoolehas your basic tips so let's get growing. >> country gardener is brought to you by thealice kleberg reynolds foundation, a foundation providing funding since 1979.

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