After a long, hot, dry summer, flower gardens are looking bedraggled. But not Christy Hodges’ Coppell property.

Foliage is dense, with barely a square inch of uncovered soil. While some summer blooms are fading, bees harvest nectar from Turk’s-caps, salvias and roses.

The sound of dripping water from three fountains provides a relaxing background, and a gentle floral note with herbal overtones scents the air.

Hodges’ landscape is a model English garden, except that it is planted with Texas natives and other drought-tolerant species.

Hodges’ heavily mulched garden uses little water and looks good throughout the typically hot summer. It is one of five houses and two community gardens on display at Coppell’s annual Texas SmartScape Tour from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

“The tour was started to just educate residents on planting native and adaptive plants,” says Jen Ferguson, the Keep Coppell Beautiful community programs coordinator. “There are ecological benefits, water benefits.”

Residents with drought-tolerant yards and gardens use 50 to 60 percent less water than the traditional broad lawn and foundation plantings, and such practices decrease their water bills, Ferguson says.

The city gets cleaner storm water run-off because native plants need less fertilizer, if any, and fewer pesticides, she says.

Hodges didn’t have any of these benefits in mind when she began planting gardens around her house 28 years ago. She and her husband, Gary, moved to a new house surrounded by bare dirt.

“I started off thinking about herbs,” she says. “They’re my passion.” She went to the library for books and soon was fascinated by herbs’ medicinal uses, scents and culinary advantages.

She found a photo of a traditional English garden featuring a tiered fountain in the middle with herbs planted around it in quadrants. Hodges used the photograph as her guide to develop her own landscape. Much of the original effort still exists, the centerpiece of the backyard.

Eventually Hodges discovered something that should have been obvious: Traditional English plants will not grow in North Texas. They need cool temperatures and lots of water, not exactly staples in Texas.

“I had lots of failures,” she says.

Hodges, 58, kept experimenting, looking for plants that would give her the cottage-garden look but would survive Texas summers.

The gardener, who loves roses, found antique varieties adapted to the Texas climate. They need little water to bloom and require less care than, for instance, most hybrid teas.

“I’m not a designer,” Hodges says. “I’m a collector. I want one of everything.”

She and her friends take road trips, looking for just the right species. She goes on garden tours and is a regular at local nurseries. Her favorite plants, however, come from friends. “The best sources are pass-along plants. I have so many memories of the different plants.”

Today her garden is an eclectic mixture. Bright-yellow esperanza blooms next to agave. A desert willow provides an accent near traditional boxwood. About 100 roses grow throughout the beds.

Last year, Hodges and her 65-year-old husband expanded the front garden by usurping half the remaining lawn for new beds. What lawn remained they planted in buffalo grass, a native prairie variety that survives on little water and infrequent mowing.

“My husband hates mowing. He has allergies,” Hodges says. “I think we’ve only mowed maybe six times” since its installation.

In addition to the native plants, Hodges has adopted other gardening habits that lessen water use. She has barrels that collect rain from the roof. She also heavily mulches the landscape beds, and she composts.

“I got a big double rotating composter for Christmas. I was so excited,” she says.

Hodges’ abundantly flowering garden has attracted attention. Neighbors stop by to ask about the new plants in the yard, and drivers slow down and sometimes stop to admire the plantings.

“I’ll be squatting in the garden,” she says, “and people will stop and say they come this way just to see the garden.”

Karel Holloway is a Terrell freelance writer.

garden@dallasnews.com

Tour details

The annual Coppell SmartScape Tour is 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. Maps will be available beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Coppell’s Helping Hands Garden, 255 Parkway Blvd. The second community garden is Ground Delivery Garden, 450 S. Denton Tap Road.

The map shows five homes, city gardens and medians the city landscaped to save water, says Jen Ferguson, Keep Coppell Beautiful community programs coordinator. A bike map also is available Saturday.

The fall garden is just as beautiful as spring’s, and has every bit as many chores needing attention. Happily, autumn weather is drier and sunnier than spring, with an energizing zing in the air that makes you want to dig into your garden or lawn. Working outdoors will also help you store up some much needed vitamin D from the sun to combat the low-light blues of the oncoming winter. If you have a moody teenager, it might be good therapy to set them to raking leaves! So here are a few tips as we say goodbye to summer and start preparing for fall and beyond.

Lawn

Most homeowners think spring is the season for lawn care but fall is actually better. Apply fertilizer between now and November rather than in spring. You can also reduce compaction by renting a core aerator to cut plugs from the turf now.

September to early October is the time to overseed. Buy seed dated this year that contains at least 50 percent combined fine fescues and bluegrasses, the best grass types for Southern New England. Use a shade mix if your lawn gets three to six hours of sun a day. Any lawn getting less sun than that needs to be overseeded every fall just to look decent.

Whether you are patching, overseeding, or starting a new lawn, the basic procedures are the same. A spreader will help seeds achieve even distribution. For seeding large areas, rent a slice-seeder to plant your seeds at the proper depth. After planting, keep the seeds moist until they sprout. Fall rains should help with this.

Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff/file

Plant hardy spring bulbs like daffodils in October.

Bulbs

You’ll get better price and selection if you order them now through the mail. I use Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, (877-661-2852; www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com) and John Scheepers Flower Bulbs (860-567-0838, www.johnscheepers.com). In October plant hardy spring bulbs like tulips and daffodils with a shovel and lift non-hardy summer bulbs like gladioli and dahlias with a garden fork for indoor winter storage.

Cutting down the garden

You can postpone this until next spring to provide cover and food for birds. But always remove the top growth of disease-prone plants such as tomatoes, peonies, bearded iris, hollyhocks, and phlox and bag these. Cut the garden down now in stages, removing the ugly stuff first and leaving plants that still have presentable seed heads and foliage like ornamental grass. But eventually you will want to cut it all down because it begins to look like debris.

You can compost cuttings from your garden.

Composting

This is the easy way to dispose of garden debris without having to bag it and set it on the curb. Simply make a free-standing 3-foot-high pile in some unseen corner of your property (not leaning against a tree or building, which could rot). Then just let it break down and return to nature.

What should you compost? Leaves, grass cuttings, chipped brush, pine needles, weeds that have not gone to seed, vegetable and fruit wastes from garden or table, perennials tops you’ve cut back, dying potted plants and annuals along with their root balls, coffee grounds, eggshells, tea bags, shredded paper and cardboard, including newspaper, paper towels, and paper plants and bags.

Do not compost dairy products, meat, fat, or grease, cooked foods with sauces, bones, peanut butter, mature weed seeds, kitty litter or pet manure, whole branches, diseased plants, or weeds that spread by roots and runners, including vines. I put woody branches in a different pile for burning in spring. Or you can chip them for mulch if you have a chipper.

Leaves

You don’t have to rake these unless they’re thick enough to suffocate what’s underneath. Leave them between trees and shrubs and on empty planting beds, where they can serve as natural fertilizer. But rake or blow leaves from lawns and evergreen ground covers into a 3-foot-tall pile in an out-of-the-way spot and let nature take its course. They will decompose into a 1-foot-tall pile of leaf compost, called leaf mold, in about 15 months. Naturally weed-free, this is a much better garden mulch than pine bark since it is loaded with nutrients.

Irrigation

Unhook and drain garden hoses completely, roll them up, and store them off the ground. If you have an automatic irrigation system, shut down the timer. If the timer has a digital display, switch to “rain” on the controller. If it has a dial, like an analog clock face, or a pump is wired to the timer, turn off the power to save electricity.

Inside the house is a shut-off for each exterior faucet, usually just on the other side of the basement wall from the outside faucet. Shut off each of these from inside the basement, then open the outside faucet to drain any remaining water. Back inside, look for the vent on the bottom of each valve. Put a bucket under each and then unscrew with pliers. Remove the half-inch metal cap and the “O” ring inside the bottom of the shut-off, using a pin to break the vacuum. Water will drain out from that 5-foot section of pipe between the inside and the outside faucet; otherwise it can freeze and burst inside the wall, causing damage.

Cleanup

Prune climbing roses and fasten them to their supports so they don’t get whipped around in winter winds. Clean and store garden furniture, stakes, cages, and seasonal temporary trellises. Many pots are now good-looking plastic that can survive the winter, even if they remain filled with soil. High-fired stoneware will not break either. If you want to ensure the safety of expensive terra cotta pots, dump their soil in the compost pile, wash and sterilize them with a 10 percent bleach solution and let them dry in the sun before storing them (upside down if stored outdoors). Store pesticides and fertilizer in a dry, locked area that’s labeled for dangerous chemicals.

Pests

Deer are the biggest outdoor pest in some areas. Start spraying evergreens now with a deer repellent or wrap individual shrubs in the kind of black netting used to keep birds off berry bushes. Protect young fruit trees from gnawing mice by wrapping the base of the trunks with commercial tree wrap or 18-inch-tall metal tree guards. If you notice swarms of identical small white moths attracted to porch lights in early winter, you probably have winter moths. Their immature inchworms can cause a lot of damage in spring so contract now, before arborists get busy, for spraying the biological pesticide Spinosad next April.

For the birds

Setting up a winter bird feeder in front of your favorite window is a great way to stay in touch with the outdoors while staying warm indoors. Fill it with black-oil sunflower seeds to attract pretty red cardinals.

Most likely just about every one of us has run into the problem of shrubs or trees planted too close to our homes, whether of our own making or caused by a previous owner.

Trees can crack concrete foundations, and branches rub against walls or eaves — the latter very annoying at night and both very damaging to buildings. House siding needs space for air circulation; otherwise mildew can set in and not enough space causes havoc in painting or cleaning the outside of the house.

Plants need air space to remain healthy. Ones planted too near a building tend to lean out seeking sunshine.

As I was writing this column, a friend asked about this very problem and he agreed to share his dilemma.

Ernie Chan-Nui bought his home 47 years ago in a comfortable neighborhood just beyond Wenatchee’s city limits. The previous owner had planted Doug fir and cedar trees in a U shape around the lot. Many have now been removed, although Chan-Nui appreciates the shade and screening effect of the remaining 10 or so trees. But he knows they’re too large for a city lot and they will eventually have to go.

Back a few decades, he planted another Doug fir, filling an open space, then later decided to have a 24-by-12-foot shed built nearby. As you can imagine, the tree and shed are now in fierce competition.

“Of course, the circumference of the tree just got bigger,” says Chan-Nui. “I tried to figure out what to do with either the tree or shed. So this year I compromised and when the shed was reroofed, I had them make a notch in the roof at the corner of the shed.”

He knows this is just buying a year or so before he’ll have to face the music and remove the tree. He asked me if he should slice the side of the tree base next to the foundation. My reply was a definite no, unless he wants a damaged tree likely to topple during the next windstorm.

So how does a person decide how close to plant a shrub or tree?

A general rule is allow two to three feet between building and mature plant.

But, you say, a house without plantings around it looks bare. Corners especially are enhanced by shrubs. So the challenge is where to locate a little gallon or 2-gallon shrub (or even more of a problem — a tree) where it looks not too forlorn in its youth, while allowing distance from the building and as it matures.

First, do some research on how wide the shrub or tree will reach at maturity. A big tree can reach above the roof at maturity, but big trees don’t belong in city lots or right next to a building. Small trees are appropriate away from a building, but their canopy can reach surprisingly wide, so consider this before planting. A long-range consideration is needed.

Shrubs are a good choice for foundation plantings, as long as they’re planted far enough from a building. Again, check their spread at maturity.

While you’re researching, consider how tall a shrub will reach at maturity so it won’t block window views.

While your foundation plants are small, you might consider planting annuals or perennials that can be moved later, or tossed … just to fill in empty spaces until the long-range shrubs or trees don’t look like orphans out in the cold. Aesthetics are important, both for immediate enjoyment as well as in the future.

Some homework before planting saves much consternation later.

A WSU Master Gardeners of Chelan County column appears weekly in the At Home section. Mary Fran McClure is one of three columnists featured.

Gary: Hey are you looking for a good crop in your garden? John says a couple of tips will help you do just that. What do we have here, John?

John: Don’t forget, fertilizer!  If you don’t start with that you don’t have anything. So this is the 5-20-20 I always talk about.  Great product. If you have cucumbers in your garden, you can throw it in the cucumbers, don’t worry about burning them.  You still want to water it in and get it off of the leaves, but it doesn’t have a lot of nitrogen. It does have a lot of food for the fruit and the flowers, so that’s what you want to use. 

Sometimes at this time of the year you may have a problem with certain types of diseases.  I do have this Agri-Fos which is good for vegetables and ornamentals and all that but use it as a drench. It gets rid of a lot of root diseases.  You can spray it for different mildews and stuff you may get on cabbage or whatever.

Don’t forget again. Ants at this time of the year – I know it’s not old yet, and when it is they got down, but before that – they’re all over the place and they’re actually almost worse than they are in the spring. 

We have a great selection of tomatoes right now, for the people that want to take a chance, but for cabbage the best one I recommend is the Rio Verde. It makes a beautiful, round, tight cabbage.  About a 7 to 8 pound cabbage.  So that is a good sized one.  Broccoli, cauliflower, all that, you can still plant shallots and onions, we’ll have the onion sets coming in.  Things like that.

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Linda Shefcheck, a member of the Rices Landing Town and Country Garden Club, presented the program, “Putting the Garden to Bed,” at the club’s September meeting. Putting the garden to bed involves preparing the garden for spring planting. This procedure is vital to ensure a successful summer garden.

Shefcheck discussed harvesting and storing flower seeds for spring planting, such as zinnias. Another procedure is to separate plants and share them with fellow gardeners. Tall ornamental grasses can be contained with garden tape over winter. This will keep them intact during winter and make it easier to cut down in the spring to make room for new growth.

Mulching the garden should be done after the first frost to deter small critters from taking up residence in the soil. Granular fertilizer, rather than powder should be used. Leaves can be placed around plants for mulch as winter protection.

To complete the cleanup, all gardening tools need to be cleaned, sharpened and properly stored for spring use.

Shefcheck emphasized the importance of having the pH (acid or alkalinity) of the soil analyzed. This can be done by requesting a soil kit from the Greene County Extension Office in Waynesburg. A soil sample is taken from each corner of the garden and the kit is returned to the Extension Office, which sends the samples to Penn State for the pH results.

A question and answer session concluded the presentation.

With the hot and dry summer, many people’s gardens are looking a little dry.  Earl May gardening experts give tips on how to plant beautiful fall gardens no matter the weather.  Popular fall garden plants include mums and flowering kale and cabbage.

After you replant your fall favorites into your garden, don’t forget to give the plants a good, long drink of water.

As Coloradans face the aftermath of torrential rains that dropped as much as 11 inches and flooded parts of the state, many gardens and landscapes were left saturated and storm-damaged.

A professor of horticulture at Colorado State University, Professor Jim Klett noted that between Monday and about noon on Friday the 13th, about 4 inches of rain fell at the Plant Environmental research Center on the CSU campus in Fort Collins.

The recent heavy rains and hailstones damaged plant material in flower beds, borders, and container gardens across hard-hit areas in Colorado. But gardeners can take steps to help landscapes recover.

Tips to help gardens recover after heavy rains

• “Problems that arise could include floppy plants,” Professor Klett said. “If a stem is broken, then trim it off.”

Professor Klett said that flooded gardens also suffer below the surface of the earth.
“If you get waterlogged roots, plants will look wilted,” he said.
Plant roots need oxygen, as well as water, and Professor Klett offered a simple solution to help ease saturated landscapes

• “If roots are waterlogged for extended for a long period of time, then a plant may die. You may want to poke holes in ground after water settles to let oxygen into the ground.”

Professor Klett noted other problems Front Range gardeners might face after the recent deluge.
“Other pests could include mildew on leaves and fungal diseases including spots on the leaves,” he said.
Professor Klett offered the following tips:
• Turn off automatic sprinklers.
• Empty saucers beneath containers.
• Possibly trim back foliage for better air circulation around plants.

Helping hail-damaged plants

For hail-damaged plants, Professor Klett suggests these tips:
• “Cut back plants–especially herbaceous plants–to the ground,” he advised. “Some may come back, but it’s getting late in the season now.
• “Woody plants should be cut back if damage encircles most of the stem or wounds into the cambial layer,” he said.
The professor noted that Colorado’s recent storm was not the worst rain he’s witnessed in the state.

“I have seen more rain when several years ago in July, Fort Collins had major flooding,” he said.

Beware out there as the storms subside, Colorado’s cloudy skies clear, and the sun shines again on the Centennial state. Remember that you’re part of the solution because your permeable garden surfaces and the plant material you cultivate help absorb dangerous rain run-off during such severe weather. Metro Denver feels power-washed, but watch your footing on rain-slick landscapes as you head outdoors again to investigate your soggy garden.

••• “Cultivate your corner of the world.

You grow your garden; your garden grows you.” •••

• Colleen Smith’s gift book “Laid-Back Skier” makes a charming gift! This whimsical, inspirational book includes lots of ski bunnies and encouragement for life’s ups and downs. Watch “Laid-Back Skier’s” brief YouTube video here.

• Colleen Smith’s first novel, “Glass Halo”—a finalist for the 2010 Santa Fe Literary Prize — is available in hardcover or e—book.

To learn more:

• FridayJonesPublishing.com

• GlassHaloNovel.com

• “Like” Friday Jones Publishing on Facebook for frequent posts on gardening and other fresh topics.

• Follow FridayPublisher on Twitter.

• Follow FridayJonesWags on Pinterest.

A ton of tent caterpillars just ate the leaves on my tree. The branches are too high for us to cut off. Will the tree die?

Your tree should be fine. The fall webworm, a caterpillar of our native tiger moth, has two generations a year. The spring population is largely unnoticed, but the late summer-fall one is bigger — and this year it was record-setting. Their webs differ from tent caterpillars because tent caterpillars build in tree crotches (in spring only), whereas webworms build nests at branch tips. Webworms feed inside their webs. Because they’re native, more than 75 species of predators and parasites (insects and birds) normally control their population. Your simplest solution is to break up low webs with a pole and let predators feast on the caterpillars. Webs can be pruned out or removed by hand, but it’s not necessary. Though webs look unsightly now, they’ll disintegrate over the winter. Late season webworm feeding should have no lasting effect on your tree, because its leaves already manufactured plenty of energy reserves during the summer.

My basil is being ruined by a fuzzy coating with black spots under the leaves. First the leaves got smaller and a washed-out pale green. Now this. Can I spray something?

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Your basil has downy mildew. You can’t solve this with spray. Harvest the symptomless leaves, then cut the plant to the base. It may have time to regrow some clean leaves. The pathogen cannot overwinter here; it comes in on infected plants or seed. If symptoms developed only recently, you had a clean plant that was infected from other basil in the area. Purple leaved varieties are most resistant. Some green varieties are more resistant than others.

University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information. Call 800-342-2507 or send a question to the website at extension.umd.edu/hgic.

Plant of the Week

Ironweed, New York Ironweed

Vernonia noveboracensis

The rich glowing purple of ironweed pops against the warm autumn hues of goldenrod and mums. Depending upon its site, ironweed may reach 4 feet in the back of the perennial bed or soar 7 feet or more. This Maryland native is a butterfly favorite. Plant in full sun to slight shade. A perennial, it likes moisture and is a good candidate for a rain garden. Give good air circulation by not overcrowding or planting flat against a wall. The brown fluffy seed heads are small and spread by wind. Its name may refer to the strength of its stems or its general constitution. — Ellen Nibali