We feel your pain Our neighbors let a bird planted Ca Oak start, they are on the city side of the line, we are in the county. Those oaks are highly protected. It has almost all of the massive growth on our side of the fence and has destroyed an antique horse stall, favorite apricot and several other fruit trees. We could probably apply for permits to prune, pay for an arborist etc....but, because of the lack of thought in planting I am afraid of liability when the tree splits in half and takes out both of their rentals. So are not touching it. The condo association on another side did the same kind of thing, planted giant fir trees to block the view of our old house. Granted at the time my dad and the developer where having issues and my dad was not in to maintenance... But we now have a long section of the lot that is in heavy shade. They also over water their lawn massively, they have their own well, so our plum seem to rot before they ripen-they are close to the property line. On the plus side, our blueberries like the fir needles and extra water. And where they skipped the firs, we put in a citrus grove that can enjoy some free lawn water once they get bigger. Our Veggie garden is right in the middle of our lower yard and new fruit trees are being put in where we control the water and the sunlight (well other than the new citrus grove)

Welcome to Austin! Ground: Depending on the area you are moving to, some have gardens in-ground and others utilize raised beds due to bedrock just below the surface. Poke a screwdriver in the area of your yard you are wanting to do a garden and see how far down it goes. Water Restrictions: With the exception of the rainfall we have been having this year, we are usually in drought restrictions. Austin has been in stage II restrictions for a few years now and will probably stay there. Google City of Austin watering restrictions (austintexas.gov) to read up on them, as this will detail watering rules (days, times, etc.) Rainwater Harvesting: While it would take a 10 foot diameter, 60 foot high water silo to provide enough water to supplement the average rainfall during the summer months for my third acre lawn, watering a garden requires watering about every three days or so down here, depending on weather. If you can afford to go the trending (and beneficial) route, get you some rainwater harvesting barrels/cisterns to capture rainwater off your roof/through your gutters. The hose spigot usually attached to these will allow you to supplement your watering needs from our rainfall. Things to grow: You can grow just about anything down here as long as you have the proper amount of sunlight (about 6 hours direct sunlight minimum), though some plants require more or less sunlight than others. The other thing is that although we generally can grow almost year around here in Austin, you grow certain things at certain times. Some vegetables are cools season plants while others are warm season plants. I generally do warm season gardening and my favs are sugarbaby watermelons, tomatoes, peppers of the "hot" nature, and fresh okra. Some Austin places to go visit and talk to people are: Boggy Creek Farms (I love this place and the people who own it!) http://www.boggycreekfarm.com/ The Natural Gardener http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/ The Great Outdoors http://gonursery.com/ Red Barn Nursery http://www.redbarngardencenter.net/ Travis County Master Gardener's Association http://www.tcmastergardeners.org/ Coalition of Austin Community Gardens http://communitygardensaustin.org/ City of Austin Grow Green website http://austintexas.gov/department/grow-green There are more resources out there, but this is a good starting point. Another wonderful thing is to go visit one of the Austin/Austin area farmer's markets. These local growers are a wealth of information and are passionate about talking gardening. Hope some of this helps, Bryan

This conversation is a new subject for me and I hope you folks will carry on with it so I can learn from your mistakes! Brenda & I live near Mineola Tx which is, I think, in zone 7. Our soil is mainly sandy which should give us at least that one advantage. I’ve read that moringas grow fat roots which don’t do well in pots for very long and I’m certain that it gets a tad colder here in Winter than it does in South America. Still, I can’t resist giving this tree a shot because, hey, it’s good clean fun and I might learn something. Is a 5 gallon bucket filled with a mix of my own sand and some potting soil enough to start some seeds? I promise not to put the seeds on the bottom of the bucket and will try to remember water. Also, it seems like I should drill holes in the bottom of the bucket, right?

Yikes! Redwoods are NOT for residential yards. I made that mistake 30 years ago and then spent tens of thousands of $ dealing with pipe and other issues.. Damage due to Redwoods and removal (30) ... around $55k. You can NOT have redwoods and landscaping. Choose one. I planted Red Tipped Photinia as an alternate and could not be more pleased. They've grown to 18 ft. in 5 years. Now, on to fruit trees. You are in the citrus zone - but the ACP bugs and lethal HLB is coming so I would avoid citrus for the next 5-9 years or until disease resistant varieties become available. [search ACP and HLB if you wish to know the dirty details; its bad, really bad]. Pomegranates and Persimmon are relatively low maintenance and are good looking too. I love the Parfianka variety - dwarfish and deeee-lish. Figs will do well, but they must be planted away from pools and concrete as the roots will travel long distances and cause havoc. The Black Mission fig is about as good as you are going to get! Post some pictures and let us know what you choose! - good luck!