Central Texas Gardener

- Howdy, I'm John Hart Asher.

This week on "Central Texas Gardener," we're taking a look back at some of the standout students we've met over the years, like the young women leaders who used a garden to give back at the Ann Richards School, and the college kids who restored a pocket of their campus to its historic prairie glory.

We'll also catch up with Texas A&M alum, Aaron Kotwal, as we dish on landscape architecture's past, present, and future.

So let's get growing right here, right now.

- [Announcer] "Central Texas Gardener's" 30th season is made possible by Lisa and Desi Rhoden, supporting a love of gardening and nature for all communities.

- [Announcer] Want to know what happens to your recycled plastic?

Since 2004, H-E-B has turned 58 million pounds of recycled plastic into things like composite decking and Field & Future by H-E-B trash bags.

You can learn more at OurTexasOurFuture.com.

(bright music) (bright music continues) - Over the course of CTG's 30 seasons, we've been happy to bring you a wealth of student-centered stories covering everything from elementary school green classrooms to college campus living walls.

So as we conclude our 30th season celebration, we wanted to take time today to look back on some of the standout students we've encountered over the years, beginning with the young women leaders at Austin's Ann Richards School who showed us how they used a garden to give back.

- [Linda] The Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders encourages project-based learning like "Project Ventura," where 7th-grade science and 10th-grade engineering students collaborated in a real-life product.

Their mission, to give back to their teachers with a solar-powered lounge and garden.

- It's a 1977 Airstream, and it came to us completely gutted, so they had to create all of the furniture and the inside and the interior.

They interviewed all the teachers and found out what they wanted from their teacher's lounge and what they wanted it to look like.

And then they had to build the furniture, and they started doing that with 3D modeling software.

So they actually built all the furniture and designed it all on the computers, and then we went forward and actually built everything in the trailer.

- [Linda] By researching renewable energy, they captured the sun that fuels the garden into the Airstream's power strips.

- They had to figure out the entire AC/DC conversion system and the inverter and how much power it would supply and what kind of appliances it would provide power to.

- [Linda] With a grant to purchase decomposed granite and rocks, the seventh-grade science team installed a patio as part of their garden design.

Then the 10th graders built a porch to extend lounging time outside.

- And it gave an opportunity for the 10th graders and 7th graders to interact and the 10th graders to become role models.

- [Linda] And what's a garden without a picnic table?

It wasn't a picnic to revive the worn-out discard, but helping hands restored it to alfresco magnificence.

- It was just a contribution that everybody did, and it was really cool.

Like, the 10th graders built the trailer, all the classes, you know, would work on, you know, separate parts, and we're all just working as a good community.

- Well, the really wonderful thing about having a 6 to 12 school here is that the girls come in loving math and science, and then they see their big sisters do things like this trailer.

So it makes it very real world for them that that's where my math and science and my engineering and my art is headed to real-life projects.

- You kind of have to like cooperate more because you got to have the same idea on like the sketch out and like the way things grow and have the layout pretty for everyone.

It's kind of harder, but it can be worked out.

- [Linda] These students were the original garden design and build team.

- They were in teams of three or four, and they came up with a design.

They did have the option of using Google SketchUp as well for their plants.

And then they created a kind of like an online website or portfolio that the 10th graders viewed, and then they decided on what would be the best design.

I realized that I could teach ecology.

I could teach decay of biomass in a compost bin.

I could teach photosynthesis, homeostasis, all of these through gardening.

- And while composting, we're stirring a lot of it, and it'll break down more.

- I think it's really cool that we got to learn like this.

Like, you know, in a lot of schools you get to learn about, you know, biology and the anatomy of plants through textbooks and stuff.

But I think it was really cool that we got to do like, you know, hands-on projects to be able to like, you know, actually build stuff.

- [Linda] Their plant selection cultivated science of the senses.

- I was thinking about having the flower living rose, and I thought about how the teacher has stress a lot every day.

So when they come out here, they will see the living roses.

- [Linda] They learned how to combine native and well-adapted plants in a pleasing design year round.

To salute their school colors, blue and white, they included plumbago.

- I designed the garden and also thought about what plants or vegetables that we can put into the garden.

So I thought a lot about that and kind of like organized the whole thing and like draw it out.

- I really like to be able to eat like the fresh fruits and vegetables.

So that's one reason why I like to garden.

And then another reason was that I really like to just kind of get my hands dirty and, you know, be able to say I did this and have an accomplishment.

And I really like that.

- And just knowing that they don't need as much stuff as if you had just picked a random plant off the internet, we researched throughout these plants, and they're well like thought of, I guess you could say.

And I just love the color.

They're so vibrant and they're really pretty.

- Campus modernization work followed by the pandemic moved gardening to the back burner at ARS for a spell.

But thanks to the efforts of Lily Rerecich, an Ann Richards School junior, gardening is thriving on campus once again.

In 2023, she successfully pitched the school on her plan to build a new garden, and as a result, a pesticide-free pollinator garden stands tall at the school today.

Much of Central Texas sits atop the Blackland Prairie, so named for its rich, dark soil.

And if you could have seen it before Euro-American settlement, you would've seen a thriving sea of wildflowers and tall grasses.

Back in 2020, we brought you the story of some UT Austin students who felt compelled to restore a pocket of their campus to its former prairie glory.

- [Linda] University of Texas at Austin students are seeding the future at the Half-Pint Urban Prairie just down the street from the iconic campus tower, a project of the student-led Campus Environmental Center.

They broke ground in February 2019 to demonstrate the beauty and importance of the Blackland Prairie ecoregion.

- The Campus Environmental Center, it's the oldest and largest environmental student org on UT campus.

We kind of institutionalized recycling back in 2002 before UT had recycling.

Our main goal as an organization is to start environmental projects.

Most of them are started by students.

We have a bunch of project team leads, like the project team leads, Jack and Mark, of Half-Pint Urban Prairie.

And then we have five other projects that are led all by students.

- When I was in high school, I took this class where you get to look at what different professions are, and you interview with people just to learn about what they do.

And so I interviewed with a lot of ecologists that live in the DFW area 'cause that's where I went to high school.

And then I learned about Blackland Prairies.

It's a kind of prairie which is essentially an ecosystem dominated by grasses that runs in a narrow strip that runs from around the Texas-Oklahoma border through Dallas, through Austin, and through San Antonio.

And it's a mixed-grass prairie, which is in between tall grass and short grass.

It's the ecosystem that's native to Dallas, but most people in Dallas have no idea what a Blackland Prairie is.

So just learning about it, I learned about how over 99% of it's been destroyed due to agriculture and urbanization.

So it was just something that I cared a lot about, and I wanted more people to know about Blackland Prairies, and I wanted to hopefully inspire some conservation movements for them.

- Austin's an ecotone, so it's this really interesting spot where right along the Blackland Prairie and where the Edwards Plateau meet.

And so it's in this mixing between these two ecoregions, you get a lot of really interesting things that occur.

And we didn't feel like the environment on campus really reflected how unique Austin's environment was.

In talking to landscape services, once we had this idea, it took us about a year to finally get a location.

They're really excited about the prairie as a kind of pilot program for using more native plants in this kind of wilder sense.

We're really fortunate to have funding from the Green Fund.

That's a really special program here at UT where $5 out of every student's tuition per semester goes towards this competitive grant program that student, staff, and faculty can apply for.

- I've always been interested in environmentalism, which isn't really the same as environmental science, but it's in the same ballpark.

Ever since I was little, I would hang out in the woods around my house.

And I live in Edwards Plateau, so I live just west of here.

And I would go and I would walk around with my friend, and we would look at trees, and I didn't know anything.

We would just play in the forest and we'd get lost and we'd be there all day long.

And I think that that love for nature is what personally drives me to pursue things like sustainability and environmental science.

It's so important to make that connection between scientists and what they know and people, just normal, average, everyday people and what they need as a community, as a country, as a state, all the different levels.

- [Linda] Finally, the Half-Pint team found an open, sunny spot for the pocket prairie, an old planter bordering the Student Services Building and the CEC office.

To eradicate the overgrown rosemary and invasive nandinas, concept met reality in shovel-wielding, sweat labor, and clear-ground triumph.

The next challenge was the deep incline.

Quite unlike a prairie, UT's landscape services had the solution.

- So we ended up installing a coir log on the top and bottom to prevent a lot of the soil from dripping out and then installing different berms along the middle of the prairie.

And so the berm is just this supportive structure of dirt.

It's a little mound that breaks up the flow of water from top to bottom.

And so we really leaned into that and used that as an opportunity to showcase a lot of the different grasses that can grow in the Blackland Prairie.

So we planted Texas bluegrass and prairie wild rye and some of the other grasses.

- And then another benefit of just this being a native prairie restoration is that all of our native prairie plants have really deep root systems.

So once this is established, the soil's going to be held really firmly in place, and we won't have to worry about erosion.

- [Linda] The team worked closely with Matt O'Toole, Director of Ecological Research and Design at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and Jim Carse, UT's Landscape Services Manager.

Along with expertise on soil, design, irrigation, and plant selection, they provided starter plants.

- [Jack] Most of what we planted was from plugs, from little four-inch pots, and that gave us such a head start.

- [Linda] Along with warm and cool-season grasses, they planted perennials to attract pollinators.

- Part of the reason we included pollinator plants is because we wanted to be a certified wildlife habitat.

So by providing that, we can provide habitat for pollinators.

And then that also helps us work on our Bee Campus USA certification, which is something that's in the works right now.

And then another thing is just that flowers, they look great, and people know what they are.

Like, we have a coneflower right over there, and that's a really distinguishable prairie plant.

So by including all of these brightly-colored flowering plants, we can increase our appeal to people that otherwise aren't as interested in prairies.

- [Linda] But as the students learned, seeding new perceptions takes time to root.

- We have this responsibility to take care of this and make sure that people understand it when they see it so that they don't ask landscape services why the lawnmower is broken.

That's definitely something they deal with a lot.

When you let these native plants grow up, they're like, "Why is this thing four-feet-tall?

What's the reason for that?

Like, are y'all lazy, what's going on?"

And so trying to make sure that we can preempt those things by helping people understand, it's like, "Well, these are tall because it provides shelter for the different animals on campus."

One of the most important lessons we learned in Half-Pint, in working in this like very urban environment, we were kind of forced to think critically about how we use space both on campus and in our communities.

Like, what is every single spot being used for?

And who's using it, and who is it accessible for?

And who has programming that's made for it?

And keeping those considerations in mind as we think about the way our cities have to change over the next 100 years, and how we have to react to the climate crisis to reorganize the way that we situate ourselves.

And so thinking about the role that prairies can play in that, but also just like more mindful urban development.

- And I think that students really do have a unique perspective on what's best for their campus.

We have to be here for four years, and so I think that is important that we make the most of it.

- UT's pocket prairie, now known as the Little Blue Prairie, is still going and growing strong today, as are the students who seeded it.

Avery is now a sustainability coordinator for a construction company in Dallas.

Mark is an outdoor guide in Yellowstone National Park as well as a freelance journalist whose work has been published by the likes of National Geographic.

And Jack just earned a master's degree from the University of Utah's Environmental Humanities Program.

On a separate note, that delightful voice you just heard guiding you through that blast from the past is that of Linda Lehmusvirta, CTG's producer since day one and the voice behind countless field segments over the years.

After over 30 years with the show, Linda recently embarked on a well-deserved retirement, and we just wanted to take a moment today to wish her well.

We love you, Linda.

Here at "Central Texas Gardener," we've been happy to host a variety of celebrated landscape architects over the years.

But back in 2015, we took time to hear from some landscape architects in the making.

Here's a clip of Tom Spencer's conversation with two Texas A&M University students of the craft, Ixchel Granada and Aaron Kotwal.

- It's great to have both of you here.

I love talking to young people who are about to enter whatever field they're joining, but especially landscape architecture with me.

You know, I'm curious, what got you interested in it?

Aaron, what was it for you?

- Well, I think for me one of the things that really got me into landscape architecture was the, I guess, the subconscious effects that it has on your soul and how it really does feed that.

And I know my favorite places that I've been to have been outdoors.

And trying to bring that to other people is a beautiful thing.

- What are some of the big challenges that you see facing landscape architects as they head out to do their work today?

I'll start with you on this one, Aaron.

- I would say urban sprawl is a big issue- - Mm-hmm.

- So as the population keeps growing, we need to use more and more resources.

So how we use those resources effectively as far as our water and I guess our land space and things of that nature.

- Mm-hmm.

- Absolutely, and I'd like to second that.

I think land use changes, you see in Austin, it's growing at such a fast rate, and traffic and all of these other issues.

And so land use is really changing, and people still need places that they can connect outside.

- Yeah, we need those gathering places and places that draw us outdoors, you know?

If everything's homogenous and the same, you know, that's why people stay indoors and watch TV, I think.

And you know one of the challenges, I think, that often people coming into landscape architecture face is often in the world of architecture, it's like you're dealing with bricks and structure and form and building and materials.

But in landscape architecture, you've got also to consider living things that depend on care and water and sun and soil, right?

- Yeah.

- Making those connections between the two.

- Mm-hmm.

- But not over-engineering is kind of where I was heading.

It's like you really have to be aware of the living organisms, right?

- Yes, definitely.

And I think trying to take in the context to the site and really listening to the site and allowing it to speak back to you to the point of it almost designing itself is something that's definitely vital.

- Aaron has since finished school and become a landscape architect.

And he returns to the show today to catch up and discuss landscape architecture's past, present, and future with us.

Aaron, welcome back.

- Good to be back.

It's been a little while.

- Yes, apparently it has.

When was the last time you were on the show?

- Oh gosh, about 11 years ago, I believe, it was - 11 years.

late 2014, maybe early 2015, somewhere in that range.

- Wow, so tell us a little bit, let's do some catch up there since so many years.

What's been happening?

- A lot's been happening.

So since my last visit here at "Central Texas Gardener," I got a few different jobs here in Austin.

So starting with a smaller firm, it was just a two-man shop when I joined.

- Mm-hmm.

- We did a lot of kind of commercial work, more private clients.

And then was there for about two years.

And then hopped over to a little bit larger of a landscape architecture firm.

Had about six or seven folks in-house.

And then was there about a little over four years.

And then I'm now at Halff, which is a multidisciplinary infrastructure design firm.

So a lot larger, thousands of employees.

I'm at the North Austin office and working on a lot of public jobs, which I'm really enjoying.

So kind of prefer public clients.

I get to work on these larger parks and more grandiose type things, trails, projects, and things of that nature.

- Right, well, that's amazing.

So in your old interviews with Tom, it seemed like that you had talked about some concerns back then or what you were thinking that you were going to be addressing.

But it sounds like some of those concerns came true, right?

You're actually dealing with them now.

Talk to me about that.

- Absolutely, so water, I feel like it's still a big one, continue to be a big topic in landscape architecture.

A lot of different facets when it comes to water and landscapes.

So of course, the one that you think of is irrigation.

So trying to design with plants that are more for that area.

So xeriscape planting, things like that is what I advocate for.

- Mm-hmm.

- But then also looking at what floods can do and what that does to a different landscape and how that affects how you design.

And then beyond that, just making sure that you are utilizing the water that you have on site.

Because a lot of times there's this notion when it comes to engineering where they want to get the water offsite as quick as possible.

- Yes.

- And so how can we keep that water on site and utilize it?

- Right, so I think that's best sort of stated as, you know, for a long time we've seen water as almost a waste product to push off and not view it as a resource.

- Absolutely.

- I know that y'all also talked about urban sprawl for a bit.

So can you get into that a little bit and talk about - Sure.

you know, what you were thinking then and what you're experiencing now?

- Well, just lots of concrete always being poured everywhere.

I feel like it's just gradually getting larger and larger.

These bubbles that accumulate from our center of our cities, and they just move outward and start to just combine with other bubbles of concrete.

I guess what I'm trying to do is just rewild that area.

- Mm-hmm.

- I want to come in and put green into those spaces and make sure that we don't just shed that water away as quick as we can.

- So to me, you know, it's about sprawl, habitat, but all these things are connected.

That's also about water, right?

Impervious cover means the rainwater's definitely not staying on the site.

- Mm-hmm.

- And that's contributing to flash floods, that's contributing to water shortages, that's contributing to a lot of issues, heat island mitigation.

- Absolutely.

- Rewilding is an interesting term 'cause a lot of people feel subjective about that.

They have a lot of their own views.

So can you discuss a little bit more about rewilding and what it means for you?

- Sure, sure.

- Because green stuff isn't necessarily just good stuff.

Rewilding isn't just letting it go.

It's actually, there's a thoughtful design process.

- Oh, absolutely.

Through bioremediation and things like that, you can really start to kind of treat the site as more of a sponge.

- Mm-hmm.

- And what is that first layer that's actually filtering out those sediments in the water and then making its way into the watershed?

So thinking of it as more of a kind of an engineering perspective.

So laying out landscapes and different plants that will allow that.

But I also think that when we think of landscapes and a landscape architect, it's more of a formal design.

- Right.

- And so what is kind of a tricky thing is convincing a client that it looks kind of wild, but that is the intention and that is the best for this environment.

And then how you can make that match with it looking aesthetically pleasing as well is kind of that, always something I'm trying to tackle.

- Sure, I mean, gardening for a large part of its history has been about control, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- And I think with this idea of wildscapes, it's embracing the dynamism that is inherent in nature, right?

And I think part of that's educating the client to help them learn to see and understand that what you're looking at is not bad because it's not controlled as per the cultural definitions that we've sort of been ingrained with.

So what are some of the future challenges or concerns do you see moving forward?

- I'd say water usage is a huge one still.

And that's, I can't think of one that's more dire, I would say, than water usage.

But like you already mentioned, urban sprawl is a big one too.

Yeah, I really, I haven't been able to get off of that topic of water since I've started.

And so I've done irrigation design, so I know how to do that.

And just the amount of water that we have readily accessible underground is just mind-boggling.

It's all pressurized, ready to go, and that water's not being used for anything else.

It's just waiting for us to be used.

- Mm-hmm.

- And that's a big issue to me.

- Well, it sounds like you were pretty spot on in the beginning 'cause it's- - Oh, yeah.

- It's past, present, and future, that concern with water.

So let's talk about some of the projects that you're working on specifically.

What about Brushy Creek?

- So Brushy Creek, I am a part of a project that is taking a very typically engineered watershed.

- Mm-hmm.

- So you know those typical like concrete flumes that you see that just run in a ditch?

- Right, right.

- I've been tasked with construction administration on a project that is a part of a branch of Brushy Creek, and we've taken over one portion to where we took out the concrete in this area, rewilded it, and we did some curves and things like that in this area and then planted thousands of trees and shrubs, all probably around three gallon.

And then we had a few little live stakes that we plant as well.

But hopefully in the future, a few of those take place because the idea with planting like that is that, you know a few are going to die as it moves forward, you just overplant it, and then it just creates its own habitat with what works best in which space.

So that's Brushy Creek, and that one's been really fun to work on, just seeing the amount of plants that are out there.

And then I'm hoping in a few years when I go back, it doesn't even look like someone was there.

That's the idea.

- Right, and I think that sounds like a great project because a lot of our waterways, we think of them as ditches.

- Mm-hmm.

- And a lot of the ones you see in urban areas now are very straight, and to your point, meandering is a vital component of creating habitat but also holding onto water as well.

And it's something that's harder to do in urban areas where you're sort of landlocked.

But Waterloo Park and Waller Creek work is a great example of how you can sort of redefine too.

- It is beautiful.

And that's a great example of how can you take something and make it look intentional, but still wild.

- Right, right.

So last thing, when you were here, you were saying when you were growing up, you tended to find peace when you were outside in outdoor spaces.

Does that still hold up for you?

- Oh, definitely.

There are multiple places around the Austin area and within Austin that that takes place for me.

I would say one of the biggest ones is Barton Creek, of course, just trails along Barton Creek.

Watching it change different times of year.

Going down to Barton Springs Pool and just hanging out for a day.

Heading out to Reimers Ranch occasionally.

I do a lot of climbing as well.

But there are just so many beautiful places in the Austin area, and that's what keeps me here.

- Well, any final thoughts you have for us, Aaron?

- Hmm, sure.

So I would say just the biggest one.

I know I've said it a lot already, but just looking to the future, how can we utilize the water that we have to the best of our capabilities?

- Okay, well, thank you so much, Aaron, for coming here, we appreciate it.

And playing catch up because that's quite a bit of time.

And it sounds like the work you're doing is so pivotal, so we want to thank you for that as well.

All right, that's our show.

A special thanks to you, our viewers, for 30 great seasons.

Be sure to check out centraltexasgardener.org for tips, resources, and to watch online.

Until next time, adopt the pace of nature.

Her secret is patience.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] "Central Texas Gardener's" 30th season is made possible by Lisa and Desi Rhoden, supporting a love of gardening and nature for all communities.

- [Announcer] Want to know what happens to your recycled plastic?

Since 2004, H-E-B has turned 58 million pounds of recycled plastic into things like composite decking and Field & Future by H-E-B trash bags.

You can learn more at OurTexasOurFuture.com.

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