Garden Success — Redbud Roundup, Ground Cover Alternatives, and a Water Conservation Check-In

This week on Garden Success, host Stephen Brueggerhoff reports back from the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association's annual trade show in San Antonio with a redbud tree deep-dive: the diminutive "Emerald," the finicky non-transplantable "Carolina Sweetheart," and weeping, variegated varieties like "Golden Falls" and "Ruby Falls" — plus a reminder that the drought-tough "Oklahoma" redbud remains the reliable local pick. He also flags frog fruit's resurgence as a native ground cover after years out of commercial favor. Water conservation coordinator Jennifer Nations calls in for a timely check-in on the toll a month of near-100-degree, rainless weather is taking on local water systems — from shrinking soil pulling on water pipes to spiking demand — and previews a Healthy Lawns, Healthy Waters workshop in the works for early 2027. Stephen then runs through a lineup of ground cover alternatives to go-to but aggressive Asiatic jasmine, including purple heart, obedient plant (a rain-garden-friendly pollinator magnet), silver pony foot, and woolly stemodia, with notes on drainage needs and spreading habits for each. Listener mail rounds out the show: Kathy shares success growing red yucca from seed, and Tanya gets practical advice — hand-grubbing plus herbicide painted on freshly cut vines — for a nine-years-in-the-making poison ivy battle creeping in from a drainage ditch. Plus: upcoming events including fall vegetable gardening and the Brazos County 4-H Club Fair on August 15th, two programs at Martha's Bloomers in Navasota (August 18th and 22nd), and the family-friendly Wings in the Garden pollinator event on September 26th.