KUT
Prickly pear cactus around Central Texas were severely damaged from last week s winter storm and freezing temperatures.
Austin’s plants feel a bit like many of us do after last week s winter storm: broken, battered and hoping to recover. Once tall opuntia cacti have been reduced to prickly pear mush. Agave leaves lie in lumps on the ground.
John Dromgoole can identify with how they’re feeling.
“That s what tree-hugging is about: this connection to the natural world,” says Dromgoole, who runs Natural Gardener in Oak Hill. “You re not gonna hug an agave or some mesquite tree that s broken in half, but you can certainly sense the distress. Go out in the countryside, walk through the neighborhood, you can really feel it.”