Esther Colwell

When we lived in Austin, Texas, I was gardening mainly in containers since the ground was caliche (a type of limestone hardpan with 2-4" of soil on top, and sometimes there is no soil). The one thing we could grow on the land was native wildflowers since they had adapted to the caliche. We had one section, 40x20 feet, that was native sunflowers that grew to ~10 feet without water or fertilizer (planted once and then they self-seeded each year); the birds loved the small nutrious seeds and flocked to the flowers during the summer. Really loved watching them. The other section in front, with a deeper pocket of soil, had perennial natives such as asters, asclepias, and succulents. This area was also no dig and was only given organic, non-animal based rock powder at planting and then occasionally organic liquid fertilizer a couple of times during growth.

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