Up around Tulsa the highways are not sprayed and only mowed after the wildflowers go to seed. Miles and miles of wildflowers bloom along the highways. I cannot vouch for the how it looks on the off roads - dirt roads - but at least you see the Tulsa area officials taking a stand for Nature. They are more progressive thinking up there. Over on the West side of Stillwater the same is true to a lesser extent, but only because of the university faculty and students. The local yo-calls don't seem that "into" the local Wildlife or preservation that I have ever seen, other than shooting it and making trails with their three wheels and other rec vehicles. The land on the west side and an area on the south side of Stillwater belongs to Okla State. They have a large experimental garden there that is open to the public. They also have lots of experimental sites dotted around in Payne county where they grow new crops, varieties of fruit, fruit trees, herbs & flowers. Once a year the plants are sold to the public. Too pricey for me, but all proceeds do go back to the school's horticultural or agricultural studies. On the west side is where Lake Karl Blackwell is located, which I believe was built by students many many years ago and is operated by the University. Loblolly pines were planted there about 30 years ago. There are little log cabins that can be rented and some are perpetually leased, so the families keep them for generations. My kids and I spent one Fourth of July at one of the cabins with a friend and her family. They were small, spacious and VERY NICE. In the spring the wildflowers along the highway are quite pretty. They were almost all seeded by university students. One year they seeded the median with Oxeye Daisies and for more than two miles they filled the grassy median. Sure beat just old Bermuda grass. It was lovely. But down this way...not the same story. As for the farmers and ranchers who leas that land....uh...well. They spray with herbicide. They use chemical fertilizers and they us pesticides. On the days they spray, I keep all the animals inside and you cannot go outside else you might choke to death on it. I am serious. Yes, I have called the authorities concerning my complaint about the herbicide and etc. I told them how it killed off all my wildflowers and even my herb garden. They smiled and told me, "Hey lady. This is farm country. What do you expect the farmers to do? They have to do what they have to do to make a living, and if that means spraying, then they spray. And I seriously doubt you would find any lawyer who would be willing to take your case, and if they did, it would end up costing you more than you lost." He was right. However, I have put the word out with lots of the locals about what I am doing out here, especially the owner of the local feedstore in town, (who is the one you call when you want to know ANYTHING around here), so I am sure Jim has told the local men about me and my "funny ways a doin' things". This town is like Mulberry USA, except that instead of going to the barber shop, they all meet over at Jim's feedstore and stand around jawing about "important stuff". I talked to the new guy who leases that land about the herbicides. He said 'Why sure little lady!" with a big cheesy grin and then 2 days later he sprayed anyway. However, this year he didn't spray herbicides and he left a wide span of wild vegetation between where he plowed and sprayed fertilizers and planted his crops and our 2 stretches of fence that borders his field, so I am HOPING he is being considerate. At least I will act like that is why he did that. Probably just left those areas to prevent erosion, but whatever. It works for me! As one of the locals sages here likes to to tell me, "Things here is the way they always has been, and there ain't no a'changin" how they is, don'tcha see?" And that is the truth. :) Have a good one whoever you do. ~Annie

Seeing that Central Texas soil is alkaline soil, are you talking about west/central texas source bald cypress that can thrive in alkaline soil better than east Texas source which is mainly acidic soil? Where I live (south of Dallas), the soil is pretty much exact same as Central Texas so I have to look at Central Texas and see what grows well rather than East Texas that big boxes seem to sell a lot of plants that do well in East Texas including bald cypress. No wonder why they look crappy. The best conifer i've seen around here is that Taxodium Mucronatum. Dark green leaves... About pine tree... You might want to check out Italian Stone Pine tree (P. Pinea). It was recommended over any other pine trees including black japanese. Texas Forest Service is selling these seedlings for West and Central Texas. You might want to talk to them about it how they perform compared to others. Juniper (eastern cedar)is very common but does great in crappy soil... Best wind break and privacy screening trees money can buy around here.

Here are some thoughts from the southern fringe of the Hill Country, AKA Canyon Lake. Water and electricity are expensive but to well heeled folk moving here it doesn't seem to be an issue to scrap bare the native vegatation and transpose what ever city concept of plants they choose to use. They bring in "top soil" (with weeds:( and want their city lawn grasses. I guess what I am saying is many new folks moving in and think they want what they had from where ever they came from to grow here. Some even succeed to a degree but many learn over a few years not to try and subjugate Mother Nature and learn to adapt often after they have destroyed their ecosystem. On the other hand there is a groundswell of people moving in that appreciate Mother Nature and try to adapt to their environmnent and utilize the local plants to make their landscapes an extentsion of the surrounding area. Getting involved with the Master Gardner program will be a big plus. It is what I did when I came to Texas from Hawaii 11 years ago. I would also look at the Master Naturalist program to further educate you about the local flora and fauna. Deer will be an issue so learning about the basics of plants that are deer resistant (there is not such a thing as deerproof IMO:). Many folks will do raised beds to adapt to the area instead of trying to punch holes in the limestone rock. I would expect you to do just fine with finding work after a period of adjustment and real Hill Country living. Welcome to the Hill Country and enjoy the majestic beauty that abounds here and look to educate those behind you how to help keep Austin weird and the Hill Country, the Hill Country. An Eagles song says a lot for how I feel about the Hill Country or any place we humans call Paradise. The song is Paradise Lost. I love the Hill Country and try to help other keep it that way as a horticulturist and garden center manager. Mulch of choice local when possible, red cedar if not. I am of the camp that termites are not an issue except those that build on the ground. I am on pier and beam so I would see tunnels before any damage would be done. Not much leaves my property unless I can't figure out a way to reuse it some way. Welcome and Happy Growing David

Wow! Talk about troubles! My house was broken into last Wednesday and all my time went to that. But here we are... Thistle is easy after it bolts (shoots upward). All you need is a shovel. Stick the shovel into the base and push through severing the top growth from the ground based rosette. Done. Check back in a week for any regrowth and repeat where needed. For the rest of the weeds in the St Augustine, you'll need a product with atrazine. Here's one of them you can find at Walmart. Read the entire instructions, twice, and follow them carefully. This is not the sort of stuff you want to walk through or let your pets into. It is also not an immediate kill, but in 2-3 weeks everything but the St Aug will be brown. And be sure to only aim this at the lawn. Don't get it on your ilex or crepe myrtles. I'm going to ask you how often you water the lawn, but I'm going to predict your answer and explain what you need to do to cure your weed problem. You were going to tell me you water every day. Why did I say that? Because you're in FL. Everyone there waters daily. Daily water is exactly what the weed seeds need to germinate. Established turf, on the other hand, doesn't even nearly need water that often. I did an experiment with St Augustine located on the eastern edge of the Texas desert. I stopped mowing (to develop deep roots) and as much as I could, I stopped watering. I started the project in Oct 2011. To date there is about 1,000 square feet which I have not watered even once. It has been 42 months, including a very severe drought and not much else until last fall, since I watered that area. All it has received is rain. As it turns out this part of the grass is in full shade, but the point is, you do NOT have to water as frequently as the Florida lawn industry tells you. What we tell everyone is to water deeply (meaning 1 full inch all at one time) and infrequently (meaning NEVER to water every day). Infrequently depends on the temperature. If the temp is below 70, then infrequently means to water once a month. If the temperature is in the 90s (like most of FL for most of the summer), then water once per WEEK. But always water the full inch. This schedule allows the surface of the soil to completely dry out. When the surface is dry, most weed seeds cannot germinate. The second thing you should be doing on the St Augustine is mowing at the mower's HIGHEST position. There is never any reason to lower the mower deck for St Augustine. I sometimes tell people to weld it in place so your well-meaning neighbor kid doesn't try to do you a favor and cut it short. Tall grass develops deeper roots and provides much more shade to the soil helping to moderate the soil temperature. Weed seedlings also need sunlight to grow, so if you shade the surface, any weed seeds that sprout will have a hard time growing. If I had a mower to do it, I would wait until the grass got to 12 inches and then mow it back to 9 inches tall. The grass in my experiment is almost waist deep at this point. We've had a wet fall, winter, and spring. I emptied 7 inches of rain out of the gage in the past month. That's really rare. So in addition to deep infrequent watering, mow it high to minimize weeds. If you are doing those two things, you should never have a problem with grassy weeds. You might still get the occasional dichondra or other broadleaf weed, so keep the atrazine handy from year to year. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.