Invasive plants have been a hot topic in Burleson Heights and Burleson-Parker lately, and episode #2024 of “Texas Parks and Wildlife” features a long segment on efforts to remove invasives in state and local parks across the state.
Most of the segment was filmed in the Shoal Creek greenbelt in Central Austin, where volunteers worked with the Austin Parks Foundation to remove ligustrum. You can watch the episode to see what a little collaboration can accomplish, and get a sense of the kinds of tools and methods can help remove invasives.
Like many invasive plants, ligustrum was introduced as a landscape plant and has escaped into natural areas, crowding out the native plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife. Ligustrum has varieties with common names like Japanese privet or Chinese privet. It has choked greenbelts, empty lots, creek banks and parks in our part of Southeast Austin.
Many invasive species are still sold in retail nurseries, but they can spread from your yard to the wildernes in numerous ways. We can all do out part to avoid damage to the land and the natural balance of plants and animals by not planting invasives, asking nurseries not to sell them, and working individually and together to remove them on public and private property.
The episode will air again several times in the coming weeks on KLRU and KLRU Q. See the production schedule for episode #2024 of “Texas Parks and Wildlife,” part of an excellent weekly television series that is produced only 2 1/2 miles from our neighborhood at the TPWD headquarters, 4200 Smith School Road.
Learn more about invasive plants and animals in Texas and what you can do to help at www.texasinvasives.org.
This site's manager has lived in Burleson Heights since 1996 and uses this blog to share helpful information with neighbors.
The Hurly-Burly 
And don’t forget Nandina. That’s another one I always see growing wild thanks to the little red berries birds love.
Hard to phase these out when you’ve got 6+ of them, though.
Hi, Tim. Yep, nandina (http://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=NADO) is also one of the plants mentioned in the “Texas Parks and Wildlife” segment. But most of it focuses on ligustrum in the Austin area (http://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=LIJA) and salt cedar (aka tamarisk)in West Texas. (http://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=TARA.)
It can be hard to part with invasives once they’re already a part of your landscape, but think of it as an opportunity. We have removed close to a dozen gargantuan red-tipped photinias, and not only did it open up space where we can plant more perennials, but we have received compliments on the house from people who say the open appearance is more attractive. I also save at least 3 long, laborious days a year that I used to spend pruning (these things are sold as shrubs, but will become 20-foot trees, hiding your house). Plus, a lot of non-native plants introduce other problems, like requiring extra water or being vulnerable to diseases. The reason we started removing the photinias in the first place is that they we dying at a rate of one a year from a fungal disease.
Austin gardener and blogger extraordinaire Renee Studebaker bought a Central Austin cottage on a lot that was a deep, dark jungle of giant ligustrums. She removed them one by one over about a decade, replacing them with a series of garden rooms, parterres, paths, patios and fountains that are celebrated by the Austin garden community. She has been featured on KLRU’s “Central Texas Gardener,” and recently hosted a garden concert featuring Austin musician Amy Brobeck. That was only made possible by removng the invasive ligustrum. Read her former blog for the Statesman, http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/gardening/, or her current blog, http://www.reneesnewblog.com/.
You can find out more about the most common invasive plants in the Austin area — both on land and in the water — at http://www.austininvasives.org/common-invasive-plants-of-austin-1 and http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Watershed/growgreen/invasiveplants.pdf.