Rewilding My Lot

Vachellia farnesiana
Height in July 2023: 1.5 ft tall, 3ft spread
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center database entry

The Huisache tree was chosen for this garden because of its moderate height (15-25 feet) and extreme drought tolerance. It’s also a very hardy tree, and in fact many ranchers here consider it a weed because it’s so hard to eliminate and cattle don’t like to graze near their thorny branches.

I was visiting a ranch a few weeks ago with some other native gardeners, and heard the rancher react to another guest, “Please don’t tell me you planted a Huisache in your garden!” as he was explaining how troublesome they were on his land. I quietly learned afterwards that most of us had, in fact, done exactly that.

That makes a good point that just because a plant is “native” doesn’t mean it’s helpful in all environments and it’s always good to have additional knowledge about how a plant interacts with its surroundings. I plan to have only one Huisache tree in my garden (I will have to watch for suckers to prevent spread into a thicket) and there is no plan to introduce cattle here. I just need to remember to avoid the thorns myself.

The first photo in this post was taken when the Huisache tree was initially planted in late April 2023 out of its little 1-gallon pot. The second photo here was taken in mid-July 2023. You can tell from the original mulch circle (sized for the drip line at that time) how much it has grown in just a few weeks, mostly in width. It received a few buckets of water in the first couple of weeks to establish, and since then has only been watered by whatever rain has fallen.