Q: Should I trim back the leaves of my sago palm that have turned brown from freeze burn? The stem itself is still green. The leaves however are brown.

A: Those fronds will never be green again. So unless you want to look at brown fronds, remove them from the bottom of the trunk.

Q: We have chickens in the neighborhood that roam around and love our front plant beds, which are moist and have nice, loose dirt to dig around in.

I tried putting hot pepper flakes in the bed, but they still come and dig and throw the dirt everywhere. I am tired of sweeping. Anything you can recommend?

A: Perhaps chicken and dumplings, fried chicken or maybe roast chicken? You could put mulch in the beds that would prevent their scratching. I know of nothing else other than fencing them in or out. I doubt that the hot pepper is even felt by them.

Q: Can Freesia be grown successfully in our area? I received a small white freesia last spring and after the leaves died I planted it outside. I was surprised when in January it started growing.

I now have a very beautiful plant with lots of blooms. The only thing I did was water it and use my house plant food on it. I would love to plant more.

A: Freesia is not reliable in this area. I never tell someone that they cannot successfully grow anything – as you have proven with your (I assume) florist plant.

Freesia is not commonly sold in our local nurseries and garden centers so I cannot tell you where you might find them locally.

Q: I feel I may be a little behind the curve ball for this year, but I’m getting ready to install several raised-bed gardens and I’m having trouble finding some information.

The garden will be situated on top of a very rocky hill, with the soil (what there is) being mostly a heavy clay. Do I need to add some type of drainage to the bottom of the bed?

Also, since I will not be able to cultivate much of the existing area, how deep should I make the bed?

A: There is no need for anything in the bottom of your bed other than the soil that you fill it with. I recommend that you have a depth of 8 to 12 inches of soil in your beds.

Most purveyors of soils sell a mix of soil, sand and compost that they call something like “three-way garden mix.” This is what I recommend that you use.

Special thanks to Forrest W. Appleton, the “Answer Man” at www.plantanswers.com and all the Master Gardeners of the “Hotline” in support of the weekly gardening questions and answers.

David Rodriguez represents the Texas AgriLife Extension Service as an extension horticulturalist with the Texas A&M University System. To submit questions, call the Bexar County Master Gardeners Hotline at 467-6575, e-mail questions to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or visit the county extension Web site at http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu.