Wild About Plants: Presented by Grow Green

Grow Green is a creek-friendly gardening education program. We help protect Austin’s water by encouraging less use of landscape chemicals and keeping rain where it falls — reducing flooding, erosion, and pollution, because what runs off our land flows straight to our creeks and river. We teach people how to select the right plants for their space and manage pests in ways that minimize their impact on both people and wildlife. The Central Texas climate has many extremes, so plants must be resilient, or "Texas tough." Understanding what makes them capable of surviving, as well as the regional environment and the importance of site-specific conditions, is essential for making informed plant selection decisions.

Denise Delaney is Austin Watershed Protection’s Grow Green Program Coordinator. Her professional horticultural roots are 40 years deep in Central Texas. She has coordinated the Grow Green program since 2004. Before that, she was the first Director of Horticulture at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. She spent a decade working closely with Mrs. Johnson during the construction, installation, and establishment of the original gardens and growing operation. Other experience includes working for landscape design, installation, and maintenance companies on private estates, retail nurseries, and at the University of Texas at Austin.