Green Austin Texas » Williamson County

Birding Around Austin Texas: the Williamson County TX Audubon Group

Betty Saenz — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:20:40 +0000

Betty Saenz, member of Williamson Audubon Group

If you live in the northern part of Austin, Texas or even elsewhere, the Williamson County Texas Audubon Group (WAG) is a great organization to further your interests in nature and or birds. I just retuned from a Williamson Audubon Group meeting at the New Church on County Road 245 in Georgetown, Texas. A large crowd, including myself, were entertained by guest speaker and local, award winning wildlife photographer Greg Lasley. Mr. Lasley said he has had his photos published in over 100 books and magazines which include American Birds, Texas Highways Magazine, Wildlife Conservation and many more. His book, Texas Wildlife Portraits was available for purchase and signing. Mr. Lasley’s book is available for purchase on Amazon.com Mr. Lasley showed many photographs of various birds and other Texas wildlife on 2 huge screens so all attendees could see them well. Listeners could hear the Lesser Prairie Chicken recording on his i Phone while looking at its photograph. Lasley said the Lesser Prairie Chicken with their orange sacks on the side of their faces can still be seen roaming in the wild in the northeast Texas Panhandle. Many Native American tribal dances mimic the Prairie Chicken. Other photos included the Screetch Owl, Inca doves, a golden cheeked warbler with its bright yellow head and namesake cheeks, black capped vireo, wild turkey, yellow throated warbler, Least Bittern, and the beautiful Painted Bunting. Painted Buntings have a bright blue head, red throat, bright green below the head and an orange belly and back. Mr. Lasley also had photos of females and immature males which both looked a drab green. He said it takes 2 years for the male painted buntings to mature into their bright colored plumage. I have not yet seen one in the wild but long to! Mr. Lasley has had some interesting experiences on his wildlife adventures. He spoke of a ranch owner who fed wild Harris’s Hawks store bought kidney off of a mesquite tree on his ranch. There were pictures of a Wood Duck with can be seen on Town Lake (Ladybird Lake) and a white tail hawk as seen in McAllen, Texas in the valley. There was 1 soaring adult white tailed hawk as well as a nest of fluffy, downy babies.

Among the non-bird photos was a jackrabbit, coyote, Mexican ground squirrel, armadillo, Pallid bats roosting, an alligator at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a painted damsel fly, a black saddlebags dragonfly, a blue faced ring tailed dragonfly, an Ebony jewel wing (black) dragonfly, a wolf spider carrying its babies, a flame skimmer dragonfly, a Toothpick grasshopper, a long jawed spider with a dusty dancer damselfly caught in his web, a beautiful red Mayan dragonfly, a praying mantis photo taken through a Macro lens, a South Texas Queens butterfly, a migratory American Snout butterfly, a Banded Peasant dragonfly, a Rock Rattlesnake, a Luna Moth in Luling, TX, a Texas horned lizard, a Texas Spiny Lizard, a red-eared slider turtle, a Texas tortoise and a 6 foot Texas Indigo snake which are known for eating rattlesnakes. This goes to show that most birdwatchers, like myself, are nature lovers. Many of his photographs were very unique and artistic showing just an animals head, part of a tortoise’s shell or only a section of a Wild Turkey’s plumage.

My 25 minute drive from Leander, Texas to Georgetown, Texas and back was nice down the new section of Ronald W. Reagan Boulevard (Parmer Lane). It felt like you were miles and miles from nowhere since there was no traffic. You can join the Williamson Audubon Group (WAG) by signing up on Meetup.com

April 12. 2010 at 7:00pm at the NewChurch Georgetown, TX the Guest Speaker for the Williamson Audubon Group will be Richard Kostecke, PhD of The Nature Conservancy. I am amazed at how much the people in this group know about birds. I am hoping to be able to identify all the birds in my Texas backyard! In looking at my personal, signed copy of Greg Lasley’s Texas Wildlife Portraits, I think I can almost narrate through most of the book after the presentation tonight. Hopefully I can hold my grandkids attention that long! LOL

Contact me at (512) 785-5050 or by e-mail to learn more about the Williamson Audubon Group or about buying or selling a home, lot or ranch in the Williamson County or Austin area.

Austin Texas’ Green Garden Program

Betty Saenz — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:13:52 +0000

I am jealous. Everything’s in Austin…Sometimes, to someone who cares about the environment it seems that way…I live in Leander, Texas, Williamson County because of the affordability of homes and the Leander ISD school system. I am trying to help the City of Leander to encourage greenbuilding and green yards. My yard meets the criteria for Austin’s Award Winning Green Garden Program yet I am not a City of Austin water customer so I can’t share my yard in that venue. The City of Leander gets the water from the same place, Lake Travis but we buy it from Leander, not Austin. Part of being a Texas Organic Home is to have a green yard. By green I do not mean a huge, water hungry synthetic yard but a water conserving, sensible and beautiful yard that is safe for humans, pets and wildlife due to lack of synthetic chemicals. “Synthetic” yards use non-native plants and grasses from some rainforest that do not jive with the Austin/Central Texas climate. These plants drink too much of our water and may be invasive and take over our wild spaces.

Call or e-mail me and I’ll help you learn more.

signed, a Native Texan and aspiring Master Naturalist, Citizen Gardener, and Master Gardener.

With Drought & HEAT Xeriscapes Should be the Next Yard Fashion

Betty Saenz — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:47:41 +0000

With record setting high heat, drought, and lake levels getting lower and lower it seems that xeriscaping would be all the rage in Central & South Texas but it’s not. Who started the fad of growing these expansive water hogging St. Augustine (“carpet” grass) lawns anyway? I have yet to know the full history behind this ecological disaster. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, there is a way out, and it is called xeriscaping. Not “zero scaping ” as it often is miscalled, implying that xeriscapes can’t be beautiful when they can be colorful & artistic when well designed. Xeriscaping is landscaping that is designed for drought and water conservation to protect our water supply and environment. A xeriscaped yard is not only beautiful, but uses less water, requires less maintenance and the native plants and flowers attract & provide habitat for native species of birds, butterflies & other living things.

Getting Started

One of the first steps in a xeriscape landscape plan is to reduce or eliminate the lawngrass. Another alternative is to replace the existing lawn with a grass that needs little water to live like zoysia or buffalograss. I look at many homes and landscapes in the Austin, Texas Metro area. Right now so many lawns are that sickly, depressing shade of yellowish brown. If left on their own, lawn grasses may die and weeds fill in. The next year I see people trying to re-sod with St. Augustine only to start this cycle again.

Learning More about What and How To Plant

Some great ways to learn about xeriscape plants are through the Native Plant Society of Texas, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, and local nurseries. The “big box” store nurseries still carry invasives, and plants that “look pretty” but are not good for conserving water. Some cities such as Leander, Texas and Austin, Texas have recommended plant lists. Leander’s is on the City of Leander website- search for Preferred plant list.doc and the City of Austin has a Grow Green section on their website. Go to the Plant Guide section. There is also a Grow Green booklet free of charge at the City or many Austin area nurseries. The City of Austin also has a Xeriscape Advisory Board to help homeowners design these water-wise gardens. Texas A & M Horticulture has some great information. The Williamson County Extension Office at 3151 Inner Loop Rd. in Georgetown, Texas has local demonstration plots at to see xeriscape plants & grasses growing. There is a map in the Extension Office & plants & trees are labeled & staked. The Wilco Master Gardeners maintain the xeriscaping gardens.

Professional Advice and Installation

You may choose to hire a professional landscape architect or designer to design a custom plan for your yard. The Austin Area has many experienced and knowledgeable professionals with many completed projects on the ground (or should I say “in” the ground! LOL). Many will design the landscape plan, giving you a drawing of where to plant what and a list of desired specimens but allow you to carry out your plan thus saving you money. Or, you may choose to have the entire design implemented completely by professionals while you relax in the air conditioning watching through the window! You avoid heatstroke that way!

Enjoying Your Xeriscape

Now that your own yard is a Texas Hill Country heat lovin’, water shruggin’ paradise, you may want to take a further step and get your home Certified as a Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation or the Texas Parks and Wildlife Texas Wildscapes or Best of Texas Backyard Habitat programs. Get a cool glass of fresh- squeezed lemonade, hibiscus tea or other cold beverage and go hand with your butterflies and birds, relishing in the thought that you are having a share in conserving water and our wonderful state.

Leander Getting $585 Million Sustainable Industry Facility

Betty Saenz — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:51:27 +0000

A Valence Press Release announced that Valence Technologies, Inc. of Austin, Texas as well as China, Northern Ireland & Las Vegas, Nevada chose Leander, Texas as the site for their $585 million dollar facility. Valence has applied for an Electric Drive Vehicle Battery & Component Manufacturing Initiative Grant as part of the Recovery Act. The State of Texas, Williamson County and the City of Leander, Texas are offering incentives. Valence’s manufacturing facility will be considered a sustainable industry because electric vehicles which include hybrid electric vehicles (HEVS) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), electric vehicles (EVs) & neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) are more efficient, and help reduce noise and air pollution because they are quiet, powerful, low to zero-emission vehicles.

Lawn Grass in Leander & Cedar Park

Betty Saenz — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:05:42 +0000

Lawn Grass in Leander & Cedar Park Texas

For those whose lawns look weathered and barren now. remember, we are in the dead of winter- the grass has been dormant but will come to life soon. We had a horribly harsh summer with the drought a dry first part of the winter and we are just now getting blessed with a little rain. A good dose of Dillo Dirt or other organic fertilizer and these continued showers will do our lawns good. The Grass Patch on Ronald Reagan Blvd. (aka Parmer) in Leander sells and installs lawn grass. Farmer’s Nursery on Leander Drive in Leander does as well- not positive they install, but they sell as well as have a lawn grass demonstration area located to the left of their gate as you drive in. In the Farmer’s demo plot you can see real lawn grass growing and determine which look is right for you. If you go to Farmer’s please tell ‘em “Sandy” sent you. I bought so much builder’s sand and other supplies during my backyards de-grassing that my name was changed by them. Another good resource is the Williamson County Ag. Extension office. Yet another resource is the Native Plant Society of Texas. Georgetown has a very active group. Unfortunately for ME- they meet on Thursday nights when I have P & Z (Leander Planning & Zoning Commission meetings). The City of Leander has one of the best water conservation ordinances in the state as well as a recommended plant list of natives are hardy adapted plants & grasses. Builders must use Bermuda grass or Zoysia in new home landscape construction and may NOT use the water hogging St. Augustine. Commonly called “carpet” grass, St. Augustine may be good for Houston, parts of Florida or other areas with high annual rainfall amounts but not here in the Texas Hill Country.

I have 3 types of grass in my lawn (what’s left of it). Zoysia, a wide stemmed variety, Bermuda and St. Augustine. Little by little I have been removing large expanses of lawn and replacing it with low maintenance stone or granite, or xeriscaping or edibles. Neither my son nor my husband like to mow, edge, weed eat, water or otherwise care for a lawn.

I would encourage anyone contemplating putting in a lawn to think long and hard about it. Many yards are totally lawnless and look great and are functional. I have seen local landscape designers create masterpieces of hardy & beautiful plants and walkways of granite, tile or stone that aesthetically rival the finest & fanciest lawns. Maybe you could just pare down the amount of lawn and add wide pathways around the perimeter with crushed granite or stone. I put in a large native stone patio using 10 tons of native patio stone at $80. a ton 2 years ago. Set in sand and filled in with decomposed granite, it created a pervious, all weather expansive area in my back yard. I also put in a pond with a bog or biological filter to keep it clean without the use of any chemicals.

My Backyard in Leander, Texas

My yard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat. I garden sustainably, by organic methods. The City of Austin, Texas has a great Grow Green program. One huge aspect of the program is protecting our water supply. Nitrates and Atrazine are being found in our waterways due to Weed and Feed and other chemical fertilizers being applied to lawns and then being carried down to creeks, streams and lakes when it rains with the stormwater runoff. Deformed frogs have been linked to lawn chemicals such as pesticides. That is why the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. has a Texas Amphibian Watch program to document frogs and toads.

Leopard Frog on Lilly in My Pond

You see, amphibians serve as bio-indicators worldwide of how safe our environment is for us to live in. If anybody wants to participate in the Frogwatch program, my yard’s pond is available for the study & we do have several species in our pond & yard. Please also think of your pets and children playing on your lawn.

In my front yard, large strips of grass along the entire front edge and sides have been removed. I replaced it with xeriscaping & edible landscaping including fruit trees, vegetables and herbs. I also added some boulders- they require no maintenance or water! My goal is to have an aesthetically pleasing landscape that adds to the value of my home while eliminating as much water use and maintenance as possible while actually yielding fruit, vegetables and herbs. For more information see EDIBLE ESTATES: ATTACK ON THE FRONT LAWN A Project by Fritz Haeg & The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping: Home Landscaping with Food-Bearing Plants and Resource-Saving Techniques: by Rosalind Creasy (Sierra Club Books). These as well as many other books, pictures & websites prove that our yards can be water conserving, low maintenance, productive AND aesthetically pleasing all at the same time.