After working a hard day in the clay of the Gulf Coast Prairie and then driving home on the concrete superslab, it's nice to come home to a relaxing view and complete tranquility. The sound of water running in the ponds always stills the air and calms the soul. Relax, smell the blooms, listen for a hummingbird, spot a butterfly and plant a Texas Native today. I frequent Anderson Landscape and Nursery, Buchanan's Native Plants and Native Enhancements to relax and enjoy. I wrote an article which can be found at Native and Natural. My habitat is also listed at the Amercian Garden Museum.

I am a native Houstonian and my love is native plants and habitat restoration. I own Celestial Habitats, a native plant resource, design and consulting company for the Gulf Coast area. Twelve years ago, my corner lot was as desolate as the Mohave desert. (See Fall, 1992 pic) After purchasing a chipper/shredder and refreshing my composting skills, soil test along with using organic fertilizer (MICROLIFE) and NO PESTICIDES, the pictures taken show the results. Approximately 70% are native plants. On May 15, 2001 the property became Texas Certified Wildscape # 1564 and on May 29, 2001 National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat # 28771. On Sept 04, 2002 Texas Parks and Wildlife awarded the habitat Texas Wildscape "Demonstration Site" status. In May of 2002, I got rid of all my St. Augustine and Bermuda turfgrass. Since doing so, my wildlife and insect population has doubled in variety. Grassy turf is a waste of time, energy, motion and is non-productive. Grassy turf costs money to procure, water, feed, cut, maintain and fertilize which fosters runoff into Galveston Bay. That creates algal bloom which chokes bay waters, restricts marine development and cripples the Galveston Bay fisherman/shrimp/oyster industry. A native habitat with native groundcovers is water conservative and is a natural setting. This concept is defined in the principles of Watersmart Landscaping and further explained in the Gulf of Mexico Repair Kit, an Rx for a healthy Gulf. Beautiful nativescapes can be created with a small amount of imagination. One can get their yard certified as a Texas Wildscape. A bog garden / "rain garden" is easy to make and there are many plants to chose from. I had a natural low spot that I made a rain garden out of and it proliferated. See the pictures at the bottom. Anyone need to buy a lawnmower?

Here is a schedule of Urban Nature Series presentations that I will be giving at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center (HANC) this year. The presentations will be digitized Powerpoint presentations from a laptop and will use a color SVGA projector and will have sound accompanying the presentation. The presentations are on Sundays from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm and are free to the public. The Arboretum is located on the west edge of Memorial Park at 4501 Woodway and is 1/2 block east of 610 West Loop.

Texas Wildscape # 1564 Texas Wildscapes Demonstration Site (right-click and view image) NWF Backyard Wildlife Habitat # 28771

Counter created on January 30, 1998
See all my other websites at: J. Kolenovsky's personal pages		Comments or suggestions? garden@hal-pc.org

March - April 2001
April 2002 - new Native Perennial Beds - less grassy turf
May 2002 - The converted area where the black plastic is will be a dry stream bed, a peat marsh bog, groundcovers, pathways and mulch.
Late May 2002 - Finished for now! 140 bags of mulch and no more St. Augustine and Bermuda turfgrass!
July 4th, 2002 - Midday pix of the grassless "habitat". Note the fullness of the biomass and maturity of the bog.