FORT WORTH: How green and pretty is Fort Worth? Is pollution bad? Year round flowers?

Question

Thanks.

Answer 1

Ho boy. Fort Worth is the gateway to the West. It is not the Garden of Eden. It is beautiful, but in a big-sky western sort of way. The number 1 turf is Common Bermuda - emerald green in the summer under irrigation and fertilization, brown straw colored all winter (6 months) The rainfall is so low that much of the summer and all the winter is brown where not irrigated. When it rains everything greens up for awhile, if it happens in the spring, summer, or fall, that is. The natural trees are clustered around creek beds, and in low places where water may collect, but not much of anywhere else. Climate zone is 8a I believe which means you can have pansies over winter in your flower beds, but summer color needs to be able to tolerate a lot of heat and sun. Lantana zinnias scaevola and vinca are common summer annuals.
Trees for your home are usually fairly small, and stunted compared to say, the NE. Fortunately the number 1 tree, Live Oak, is evergreen. But they rarely get so big and luxuriant as they get in New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston or even as nice as the ones a little farther south in the Hill Country around Austin.
Fort Worth is a great size of town and does not suffer from bad pollution. But green and pretty are not the first words that come to my mind.