Hothouse

Shake off those umbrellas! On episode 2 of The Horticulturati, Austin-based garden designers Colleen Dieter and Leah Churner discuss  Central Texas’ mercurial climate. Specifically, the rain. And the lack thereof. Leah explains how longitude is destiny along the Hundredth Meridian (or is it the 98th?), and Colleen examines how “Xeriscape” became “Zeroscape.” But first, a garden update: Leah’s ripping out landscape fabric and Colleen has a misadventure with a skid-steer.  Email us at info@horticulturati.com and visit us at www.horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band.  Mentioned in this episode:  “Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian,” by Christopher Collins in The Texas Observer, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Path to Power by Robert Caro, this map of the hundredth meridian; Southwest Gardening by Rosalie Doolittle and Harriet Tiedebohl, and “Gravel in the Garden: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” with Elizabeth McGreevy on KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener.