Welcome to Texas!

Pam Penick's Digging blog is a good one to start with for the area.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is a great resource on the Web and in person for hardy native options.

The Native and Adapted Landscape Plant Guide was actually developed for the Austin area, but also useful for much of the state.

Barton Springs Nursery is one of my favorite stops on the west side. There are several other great plant places in Austin and its environs.

Your plants might benefit from more shade in the afternoon than they've been getting and more frequent watering during the summer and early fall. Not sure about the umbrella pine, but think the rest would stand a good chance of doing well in pots with these bits of additional attention. The soil varies quite a bit across Austin, so how well they could do planted in the ground will depend some on the specific conditions at your home site.

Everything depends on where in Austin you are moving too. The soil changes drastically in this area. Sally Wazowski has some great books for Texas. I am partial to her " Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region". Also Scott Ogden's "Gardening Success with Difficult Soils" . If you are moving into the area west of Austin, "Caliche" will become your new swear word. The Natural Gardener and the Great Outdoors are other good Nurseries. Brugs grow well here if you give them rich soil , fertilizer and water. Roses are particular about their likes. We do have lots of roses that grow here. The Antique Rose Emporium Just an hours drive away (east towards Houston) is an incredible nursery for roses that grow in Texas. You might have to grow them in raised beds if you live in "Caliche-ville". But it is possible. If you are west, you will most likely be growing in limestone and caliche.

Tomatoes have to go in early here. The race is to get fruits out of them before the big heat hits. Some people will keep them in pots while young , moving them in and out on cold nights. The Natural Gardener (west of town) is great for free lessons and great for many types of tomatoes, eggplants and other vegetables.. They have a sample garden and great knowledgeable help. A desk with microscope for IDing bugs and all sorts of problems.

Here is a Planting schedule that I work off of.

Travis county Planting schedule

ALSO we do a great plant swap in San Antonio in the spring. It is worth the drive. You will see it announced here soon. I live west of Austin too and I make the drive down with a car load of plants and return with more than I took usually.

The Central Texas Gardener is a good local site/Tv program that is worth checking into on occasion.

I enjoy Renowned native plant writer and landscape designer Jill Noke's blog,

Jill Nokes/ Landscape Design

I did exactly that, thirty years ago. Came from Santa Cruz. Bottom line. Gardening here is VASTLY different than on the West Coast. I had to relearn just about everything.

As noted, tomatoes are hard here. Why? Because the season is so short. They go in in March, and they are done fruiting in June. Boom. Two months of fruit. Broaden your horizons a bit. Go for melons, and peppers. They love the heat. But do note that the alkaline soil will be very unlike what you're used to. And rocks. Most residential soils are just a few inches deep. Be prepared to pull hundreds of pounds of rocks out, or just do raised bed. Lots of advice available about specific crops, but by all means find a local friend who gardens a lot, and refer to the sources listed above.

But we have 2 seasons of tomatoes.I have had good luck with fall tomatoes. I seed them in late June/July 1 . protect them from heat i when young and then plant them out with a cardboard sunshade to get acclimatized Sun gold tomatoes and the smaller tomatoes do better.. They can make it through the summer Jullietes and Carmelas also. Squash should go in late to avoid the SVB, Plant in July. Some have luck planting REALLY early and using bug screens. Not me so far. I look to seed sources who have blistering hot summers. So seeds fromSouthern asia , Africa. I grow those long asian cucumber and rattlesnake beens. I am experimenting this year with a Hmong cucumber this year. Yard long beens thrive here

Following this thread. I am starting from scratch here as well.

I've tried fall tomatoes a few times, and have always been disappointed. Major pain to grow seedlings when the temp is over 100F. Tried valiantly to preserve fully grown tomatoes through the summer, but I've never been able to irrigate enough.

Yes, about squash vine borers (SVBs), hold on to your hat. No SVBs on the west coast, but they are endemic here. Most squash planted here in the spring will get killed. Kerblam. Forget it. On the west coast, zucchini were coming out of our ears. That won't ever happen to you here. HUGE difference between there and here. Now, that being said, there ARE strategies for growing squash, but most aren't easy (row covers, vine surgery, etc.) As noted, late planting can help. In my book, SVBs are the single most serious pest for vegetable gardens, and are guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes.

Good advice about heat loving plants. My latest fave is Malabar spinach, and I'll be doing Madras pod radishes this year.

I grow the fall tomato seedlings in flats in shade with daily water and then up them to 5 gallons in semi shade and then put them out . I find that it takes less water to keep them going in the five gallon pots than watering the raised bed on a limestone hill. Later I transplant them into the garden with cardboard sunshade. The early freeze did catch me flat footed but I still had a good harvest and a great harvest of green tomatoes that have ripened up through the winter. I do very little all summer gardening . My garden is too small for melon and okra. I am 100% dependent on rainwater so I just let things rest and I go swimming in the waterhole instead. I water myself. I gear up for a fall garden and winter garden with frost covers for those occasional bad nights. This year's winter garden is glorious right now. I have covered it with the frost covers twice and they barely needed that.

Welcome to Texas!

I second The Natural Gardener. It's an hour and a half drive up there from south of SA area and worth it to me.

The biggest learning curve for me is adjusting to new planting times of the year. Once I really followed that, things got easier (though not always easy).

Watering things in containers is always a challenge for me because they dry out so quickly- some things might need it twice a day during really hot spells. But if you're willing to pay attention to soil moisture levels it's doable.

There's a magazine called Texas Gardener that sometimes is pretty good. It's a huge state, so they give very broad outlines, but it give you a sense of the differences in soil in different areas and how it impacts plant selection.

Lisa

Let me just add that new Texas gardeners should be very careful about the advice they get. Generic gardening books, columns, and blogs quite often give advice that is totally inappropriate to us down here in the south. Laughably inappropriate. It's as if these gardeners simply aren't aware of southern gardening, and assume that everyone lives in Massachusetts, California, or Illinois. The sources listed above are excellent.

I grew Cherry tomato (or one of the small types) and it grew way too well for me. Maybe 10 feet of growth which easily overwhelmed the puny cage that I put up. It produced tomatoes all year long. Birds apparently loved them and deposited them everywhere in the yard and I had so many seedlings come up in the yard everywhere the following year. I live in in the hill country. East side of I-35 seems to be more tolerable for growing all kinds of things without having to deal with bedrocks like I did at my house. I literally had to break up bedrocks and dig them out then get a pile of topsoil to fill the hole just to plant trees, shrubs, etc. They are doing pretty well...

Meegs,

I lived and gardened in Berkeley for 45 years and now live in Port Isabel near the very bottom of Texas so (sadly)) pretty far from Austin. I had to accept my new status as a rank beginner when I arrived here 10 years ago. It was actually pretty thrilling to start over.

You should bring the plants you love, you might be surprised at what thrives or dies. Micro-climates around your house can offer shelter. My jades are happy given enough shade. Talk to your neighbors and nursery staff.

Everything is different: temps, rainy seasons, wind, humidity, pests (hello, leaf cutters!) Building soil is the biggest, long term job. On the other hand, I've always wanted to have a tropical garden, just never thought I'd need a machete.

Tropical gardens always need machete like hillcountry gardens need a pick axe. I lived on the windward side of 2 hawaiian islands and I was never far from my machete. I had to protect my house or it would have been sawllowed whole by that devil vine and my neighbors wood rose.

As for the pests in the open Hill Country...

Deer love to eat almost anything... Gotta protect the trees. Dwarf trees are no go for me in the front yard sadly. I had grown a dwarf Shantung maple that I grew from a seed that produced red fall color (relatively rare) and a deer found it very tasty and decided to eat all the leaves overnight. I just moved it from the front yard to the backyard that's protected by the fence.

Armadillos... Gotta learn to live with them... I am actually forced to get rid of plants that armadillos love to build homes underneath them. They can dig huge holes where you literally cannot see them under dense vegetation from the shrubs and live in there. Abelias are no go since they spread out and grow down making it a lot easier for armadillos to hide out. I have to get rid a bunch of them from the front yard ( just finished the backyard) and replace them with Nadina plants of different colors and sizes. Space them out so Armadillos don't try and build homes around there.

If you like Japanese Maple but there's not enough shade, try out Shantung maple. Metro Maples in Ft Worth have cultivars of all kinds. Metro Maples and Shantung Maple

Your giant jade will do well , But I would watch it for sun scald. The shade under our trees west of Austin is bright shade. I grow many succulents under and peaking out from around them. Trees are our friend. My neighbor has budleias growing wild.. She does not water them so their flowers aren't that great. It might be the variety. Some Bamboos do not so well out on these alkaline hills, but some do just fine. Their is a Bamboo Society of Texas.If you like Bamboo, go visit the Tanaguchi Gardens in Zilker Botanical Garden. I know that there is a yellow variety that is a bane of old neighborhoods in Austin. My neighbor grew the black running bamboo just fine. He was on clay.You might have to grow it in a raised amended bed if you are up on a limestone hill, Or pull out rocks and bring in soil like Lou of Spicewood. Spicewood is west of Austin.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I’ve been so busy with the house hunt and move planning, I’ve had to put the garden plans on the back burner for the time being. The cost to ship plants is prohibitive, so I’ve found a friend nearby in Sacramento that will take everything and am planning a uhaul day to bring her my CA potted garden. The roses are in big fat spring blooms so it’s bittersweet!

New House is sort of in between Lakeway and Spicewood so will learn to love rock! Looking forward to the actual move (1 month away) and in the meantime, will delve into your recommended sites, books and nurseries.

Thanks again!!!

I am not far from you as the bird flies,....uphill. Get a pick axe . What I really want for christmas is a ladylike jack hammer. We will be here. If you need plants that thrive, ask us when you get here. Some of the roses that do well in the bay area are not the roses that do well here.

Well, it's called the "Hill Country" because the Edwards Plateau is rocky, alkaline, limestone hills (from being an ancient seabed). So, there is no topsoil in many areas. And, keep in mind that most plants prefer lots of, and slightly acidic, topsoil... :/

Best thing to do is yes, leave all your exotic plants at home...and take the time to learn about all the native plants here that are naturally-adapted to grow in these conditions (Native and Adapted Landscape Plant Guide). Amongst my personal favorites are Texas Persimmons, Goldenball Leadtrees, Pecans, and Desert Willows for trees. Not to mention Eve's Necklace, Texas Mountain Laurel, and Rusty Blackhaw. And I also love American Persimmons and Red Mulberries as well - but not sure how well they can grow in limestone? Vastly overused exotics include Crape Myrtles and most of the crap used by the landscaping industry (although Austin seems to be better about employing natives in general)...

There are a host of really amazing Texas wildflowers too including [Mealy Blue Sage[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/lavender-dsvw-vd~5288952), Compass Plant & [White Rosinweed[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/oak-leafed-wildflower-dsvw-vd~5017261), Standing Cypress, Texas Bluebell, Winecup ([Callirhoe involucrata[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/purple-callirhoe-dsvw-vd~4608968)), Texas Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush, Indian Blanket, Mexican Hat, etc, etc!

blakrab Centex , the ancient seabed went all the way somewhere in Dallas-Ft Worth area. At my previous house in Midlothian when I had to get rid of limestone rocks to plant trees, I did find fossilized shells. I don't know how old these were but 13,000 years or so, sea level was about 300-400 ft lower than what it is now. I would be very careful about the "vastly overused exotics" plants because there are plants that are out of their places for tens of thousands of years at least... It seemed that the world was very well traveled among us like now as it was back then then a massive comet came 12,900 and pretty much destroyed everything. Think of Tunguska event that happened in Russia... it was much smaller event than what it was 12,900 years ago but you should get an idea how powerful it was on NA on much larger scale...

Meegs, I do have one suggestion. You should be arriving after the main planting season is mostly over, but just before the BIG HEAT hits (Our summer deserves capitalization). Don't start gardening, no mater how bad you feel like it. I draw my planting to a close usually the beginning of May. It has been a cool wet spring so I am still at it, But I expect to nurse anything I dig in now with lots of summer aqua and accept death with aplomb. Get some gardening books from the Natural Gardener and find a good water hole ( like Reimers ranch, hamilton Pool, Barton springs, Lake travis, Krause springs, sit back with your feet in the cool water and read about our peculiar land.... and then when it really gets hot, start amending your soil for a fall planting. If you are moving into a old house wait a year to see what comes up that was planted by the previous owners.

I am a neighbor (in Texas terms) and am willing to meet you for coffee in Bee Caves, or wherever and gift you some plants that thrive here when you are ready. God knows, I seem to be moving seedlings out of my path today. Just PM me.

Should probably become familiar early on with any restrictions placed by your water supplier according to each conservation stage - may impact decisions about irrigation and related plant placement. Here's a place for starters: https://www.watercache.com/education/water-restrictions

I read that in some places, there are no restrictions on drip irrigation?

Yes, drip is a common exception - but not everywhere at every conservation stage. Hand-watering is similar. Only way to know is to follow your particular water authority for both the current conservation status and corresponding restrictions.

If you decide to put in a lawn, or improve the lawn you inherit, the Lawn Care forum here is a good resource.