Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

It just so happens that in our Special Collections we have one for the Edwards Plateau. This is how this area is described:

"Edwards Plateau

The Edwards Plateau area includes 1.45 million acres known as the Granitic Central Basin in Llano and Mason Counties (Table 2). The Balcones Escarpment forms the distinct boundary of the Edwards Plateau on its eastern and southern borders and outlines what is known as the Texas Hill Country. The area is a deeply dissected, rapidly drained stony plain having broad, flat to undulating divides. The original vegetation was grassland or open savannah-type plains with tree or brushy species found along rocky slopes and stream bottoms."

Please note that the original vegetation of this area is characterized as grassland or open savannah-type plains. The very best plants you can put in an area are those that belong there, that have already adapted to life in the rainfall, climate and soils of that area. We are going to look first at grasses on that list. It is a known fact that the long fibrous roots of grasses are the best treatment for erosion problems. And, in terms of wind, we believe that one of the loveliest sights in Central Texas are the long, tall native grasses blowing and bending in the wind. After that, we will search on the list for shrubs or small trees that will sucker or spread in such a way as to also hold the slope in place.

One word of advice, first. Please make sure you are prepared to offer some sort of watering, to the plot in the first few months after it as been planted. It seems like you just can't count on gettng rain when you need it, and the long-range forecasts don't give us a whole lot of encouragement on that. It would be a shame to spend the resources to put in good native plants and then watch them die.

We will go to the list we linked you to above and, using the list of specification s for plants on the right-hand side of the page, select first on "grass or grasslike" for Habit, "dry" for Soil Moisture and "sun" (which we consider to be 6 hours or more of sun a day) for Light Requirements. After making some suggestions from the resulting list, we will search on "shrubs" for Habit, with the other characteristics being the same. You can follow each plant link to our webpage on that plant to learn its growing conditions, propagation instructions, etc. We always suggest that woody plants (trees and shrubs) be planted in the coolest time of the year, November to January. We will select 6 of each to suggest and check to make sure our suggestions are native to Travis County.

Grasses or Grasslike Plants for the Edwards Plateau:

Achnatherum hymenoides (Indian ricegrass)

Bouteloua dactyloides (Buffalograss)

Bothriochloa laguroides ssp. torreyana (Silver beard grass)

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri (Lindheimer's muhly)

Nassella tenuissima (Mexican feathergrass)

Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem)

Shrubs for Central Texas:

Chrysactinia mexicana (Damianita)

Dalea frutescens (Black dalea)

Eysenhardtia texana (Texas kidneywood)

Leucophyllum frutescens (Cenizo)

Rhus virens (Evergreen sumac)

Salvia ballotiflora (Shrubby blue sage)