Hey Texas!!!
I saw that quiltygirl had started a thread about her search for a place in TX but, rather than hijack her thread I thought I'd start my own.
We're going to be moving to the Austin/Round Rock/Cedar Park/ area in May or June. I'm excited because we'll have actual RAIN!!! Four times as much of it and I'm sooo glad! We are originally from NM (both my DH and quiltygirl's DH have ties to the Las Cruces area) and where we live here in CA is no different weather/temp wise.
I've heard Austin was full. Hope not cuz CA is fuller (it's only taken us 13 years to figure that out). But both my DH and I have family in Round Rock so there's where we want to go.
I'm not real picky about the area though, our only criteria is it has to have high speed internet (FIOS would be best but we don't even have it here yet) cuz my DH works from home.
I'm in mourning big time cuz I can't take my garden with me! That's my main reason for writing. I've done a little searching online to what plants I can take and what I need to do to be able to take them but I have read several conflicting sites so naturally turn to DG for real answers.
I'm wondering if there is somewhere that has a list of plants I can't cross state lines with? (no, what I really want is to read an official letter saying "Sure! Bring your whole garden here to TX and settle right in!) ^_^
Most of my garden is edibles in containers including cherries, blueberries, grapes, avocados, strawberries, rhubarb, a loquat and an apple. Lot's of other things but those are the main ones. I'm slowing coming to terms with the fact that I might have to leave all of them here but I'm hoping I won't have to. So I'm mentally preparing myself JIC. (It's hard to think of leaving all my babies that I've nurtured and tended all this time behind. They're like children! No, they're worse than children cuz children eventually become independent. I think. ^_^ )
I'm pretty sure I can't take anything citrus so I'm going to be rehoming my Meyers lemons and Valencia oranges. (sigh) I was glad to hear that San Marcos TX practically gave loquats away. I just planted mine last year and am very sad to leave it.
Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated by this soon to be CA transplant (I am grateful that Californian's can transplant to TX--and so well too. ^_^ ). Any one else in mourning that can commiserate--I'm gonna need a shoulder to cry on.
Thanks everyone!
Cayte
(kirla Heather)
Another California refugee
They are dead serious about the citrus so dont even try it.
I ordered some off EBAY before I knew it was against the law years ago. A government employee called me and then showed up at my house and took them for burning.
You are limited to only a few citrus in the Austin area anyway. Satsumas and Kumquats do good. Bloomsweet Grapefruit will live here because it is good to 15F but not any other Grapefruits. Meyers Lemon is okay if it is right up on the house.
Only get the citrus on Trifoliate rootstock as the Sour Orange rootstock dislikes it here.
I order many of the other things you listed from CA so I think they are okay. However, they usually come with a certificate so you might want to double check.
Cherries hate it here. Too hot.
You have to make a Blueberry bed or go with pots because the soil isnt acid enough.
Apples can live here but you have to pick specific kinds.
Loquats grow wild in this area.
You can only grow a few types of Avocado such as Opal, Wilma and Fantastic which are cold hardy to the mid-teens. You will probably have to ammend your soil or grow them on raised beds. It really depends if you get rocky soil or clay.
Cayte - some sites that I have visited a LOT when looking anywhere are: weather.com including their averages page for cities (http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USTX1177), Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Google Earth (although tilting the axis to see the mtns, hills and valleys is less dramatic lots of other places than here), city-data.com, wikipedia, etc. Try this site also: http://nationalplantboard.org/docs/summaries/texas.pdf. I too, had wanted to bring my plants, but the freeze we had and DH releasing the horses during the rain to roam the property narrowed down those options, lol.
I have heard good things about Round Rock. Weather is similar to here, summer warmer in eve (no cool ocean breeze), but cooler in the daytime, slightly. I also like the sounds of Fredericksburg.
Have fun making your plans. Since you have family there, you know the folks are friendly
Lynda
Here is a long post about edibles that can be used in Texas landscaping:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1070847/
Enjoy!
forget about the rhubarb I live a long way north of there and can't get Rhubarb to survive more that 2 years ..
The only time I have been asked about plants that I had in my vehicle was when I was driving into California, not returning to Texas.
So patrob do you haul them dirt and all? Or they just in bulb or cutting form? All my blueberries and grapes are in 55 gallon water barrels cut in half. It's not practice to haul all of my plants including the dirt (although this dang dirt cost money to have delivered here! But only a gardener would care about that.)The 55 gal. make the best raised beds!
I do have a call in to our local agricultural dept asking if I need certifications for all my plants but haven't heard back just yet.
I remember getting a scabiosa from a seller in FL that is a vendor here on DG and the ag place quarantined it for a week. It set on the officer's desk the whole time (which is weird cuz she only quarantined one plant and not the whole shipment) before she delivered it to me (I secretly think she just wanted the plant ^_^ ).
Thanks for the info!
Texas does not have checkpoints or ask what you have in your vehicle or inspect it unless you are coming in from Mexico. Moving large, heavy containers would be difficult. I'd likely move plants bareroot or pot smaller and lighter. Late May to June is the beginning of summer in Central Texas. It can be mild or really hot.
Having moved from the Chicago area to Texas, the only experience I would have to relate re. moving plants is if you have already sold your house and if any of your plants are in the ground and part of the landscape, the buyer might think those are his/hers. I thought I would be moving with many of my roses. The folks who were buying my house specifically named off the roses as part of the contract! I had no idea until the realtor came by, saw me with shovel in hand, and told me I couldn't take the roses with me! It transpired that we moved from the house a couple of months before the buyers actually moved in. The realtor called me a couple of weeks after we moved and asked if I had given permit to a neighbor to take some of the roses and flowers. I said "no" and she called the police on the neighbor (turns out this was the neighbor who kept telling me I had way too many roses and the house would never sell that way--it was ugly to have so many roses)! Turns out she wanted the roses! Sigh! Who knew.....
So if you do have plants in the ground that you want to move with you, and you house is not sold, pot them up now and put something you don't want in it's place! But then again, I had so much fun replacing the roses down here in my new garden. And these wonderful folks here on Dave's have enabled me to no end in purchasing more and more =D!
Have fun with your move, I looked at it as a new adventure and it was!
PS. #1 son loves Round Rock. There is a BBQ joint there that he and his college buddies love. They go there periodically to eat many pound of meat!
Oh, alright, fine if yall have family here we can squeeze you in...
Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, so I think maybe they would high speed internet there. That's not really going to be an issue unless yall are planning to be much much further out in the country than the Cedar Park/Round Rock band, although I'm not sure that Verizon would be the preferred provider. If you're looking in those areas, you might also be attentive to your commute.
Those areas should all be prairie, but if you starting drifting more directly west Austin, you'll hit the limestone with no dirt. Doesn't matter if everything is in containers, but a big difference if you want to put anything in the ground.
Here's the whole official scoop on ag regulations http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.ViewTAC?tac_view=3&ti=4&pt=1 . They're looking to make some changes in the noxious/invasive part this legislative session, but anything most likely wouldn't take effect until Sept 1. As a practical matter, no you probably wouldn't get caught, but gosh, I'd hate to see what is left of the Texas citrus industry end up like central Florida. It only takes one.
There's a good bit of fruit that will grow here, especially if you're willing to move containers about and such. But maybe don't plan to stock your whole yard with memories. There's some cool stuff here, too. Average rain more like 35 inches per year, but that's one of those who lives at the airport things. (It will be a bit cooler in those more surburban areas than in Austin city proper, so factor that in, too - more frost but also cools off much quicker in summer evenings, so less stressed trees in general.)
Try to fit in a visit to the Lady Bird Wildflower Center if yall make a previsit to house hunt. (Not just flowers, natives in general.) There are also some nice garden tours that can offer some possibilities.
Give us a holler as you get more specifics.
Texas does have a few inspection stations listed on its maps. When we moved from California to Texas, I had to leave citrus, camillias and roses behind. Palms and nut trees are also forbidden, but I didn't have any of those. In Round Rock, your average number of chill hours is about 600 hours. The standard rule of thumb recommended by TAMU is to aim for plants needing about 500 hours or less. Late frosts are always a danger so late blooming fruit trees would be more desirable.
Jujubetexas has already address a few of the fruit you mentioned so I won't duplicate.
Grapes: The glassy-winged sharpshooter is very active in most of Texas. It is the vector that spreads Pierce's Disease. Grapes should be resistant to the disease or you will lose them. However, cuttings root easily so bringing cuttings or rooting them this winter will give you some grapes to try here. If they thrive, great, but if they die, you won't have invested much money on their transportation either.
Apples need to be of the low chill variety. Cox Orange Pippin and all its relatives are among my favorite apples. So I packed all my apple trees and brought them over. They were all dead within 2 years — not enough chill hours for them, they didn't emerge from dormancy properly, got stressed and died. The trees should probably also be apple/.cedar rust resistant to reduce the amount of maintance they will require.
We had to rent a separate truck to move all my pots and plants. If I had to do it over, I would have left most of them behind and used the money I saved on transportation to buy new ones. There were some plants that just had to come with me. but I could have put them in my SUV. If that is not an option, take as many cuttings as you can and root them now. Small pots are much easier to fit here and there and to transport.
DH and I have friends in Round Rock and Cedar Park in various areas, as well as into Leander and Liberty Hill. Caliche is the most common soil type west of I35.. Towards the eastern side is more clay. RR seems to be mostly clay that I've seen at friends' homes. Depending on the drainage of the lot, you may end up with decent soil (usually runoff from neighbors). We actually have pockets of good soil along with the granite and limestone jutting out of the back yard. :)
Our biggest issue around here is the wildlife. Most of the greenbelt areas have pockets of deer which obviously get into everything, so a fenced yard is almost a necessity if you want to garden with other than native plants.
Carey what Y'all need down there in Texas is some redneck poachers then the deer would seem like a very minor problem
lol grits! I wish! Unfortunately there's no safe way to cull them. :)