Invasive plant!

[gryphynshadow.livejournal.com]

Garlic Mustard is an invasive plant that will take over and destroy forests. It flourishes in a variety of climates and ecosystems, is highly adaptable, seeds easily and profusely, and grows aggressively and quickly.

Garlic Mustard Identification and Control from Barbara Lucas on Vimeo.

A video about garlic mustard, what it is, how to identify it, and what to do about it.

(I don't think it's in Texas yet, but eventually, it will be.)

Hardiness Zones

[gryphynshadow.livejournal.com]

So, the USDA hasn't updated the hardiness zone map since 1990. Some folks figure it's because the Bush regime didn't want to have such a clear indicator of global warming. Some say it's because the folks who'd be doing the measuring and mapping were all in Iraq, indefinitely.

The National Arbor Day Foundation stepped up, in 2006, and made an updated hardiness zone map.

http://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm

You can look at the 1990 map, and compare with the 2006 map, in a nifty animation.

I say nifty, when I mean horrifying.

We are no longer a zone 8.

Zone 9.

It really is getting warmer here.

So, my decision to seek out heat tolerant perennial alternative crops is a good one. I'm looking at plants from closer to the equator, in tropical and subtropical areas, to grow here. South Central Texas.

I've located a few companies that say they specialize in exotic plants. I'll have to do a bit more research, but I'm hopeful that I will be able to find either specimen plants or seeds for the types of plants I hope to be growing here.