​Texas Master Gardeners Association President Louie McDaniel attended the first Gonzales Master Gardeners meeting since March due to Covid-19.  Highlight was Louie's presentation of three Search for Excellence Awards.  What a wonderful celebration!  Thank you, Louie McDaniel on behalf of all the Gonzales Master Gardeners.

Master gardeners working were Barbara S, Fran, Shirley, Cheryl, Sandy L, Carolyn P, Carolyn W, Dave and Kay. The roses were moved outside and various plants were repotted. Getting ready for the Spring Plant Sale, March 28th.

The work went well thanks to Sandy L, Sandy M, Cheryl H, Robbie C, Shirley F, and Fran.

Congratulations!
​Thanks for your dedication.

We had a great turnout of members. This is the season of the year to gather the nuts so they can be prepared for the students to plant in their classes with Gonzales Master Gardeners. The black walnut trees have played a part in the Gonzales County history. We are proud to have an opportunity to work with the youth of Gonzales to educate them about the black walnut tree history and to plant and raise seedlings. The seedlings are made available to the community through the AgriLife Extension office at no charge. They are distributed annually to those who sign up in advance. Tree distribution this year is November 12.

On September 24, 2019 Gonzales Master Gardeners celebrated their 10th year gardening and working in the Gonzales community.

WOW!!  The 2019 Spring Children’s Garden produced a lot of carrots this year. They were not ready to harvest back in April when the first graders came to harvest their lettuce, spinach and radishes so they were left to grow until the end of the school year. These were harvested, cleaned up and taken to East Avenue Primary School the day before the last day of school, May 23.  The students were super excited about getting a bag of carrots to take home. Thanks to all the Master Gardeners who helped with the Children’s Garden this spring. 

​Well, another year is nearly in the books, and the highs and (ahem) lows of the gardens (at least MY gardens) are fortunately, soon to be forgot... For now, I am content to have this small break from canning more Salsa Verde from the veritable unending supply of green tomatoes, just to sit here and peck out this post.

I sure hope you had many enjoyable moments from your gardening ventures this year, and if you’re like most of us, you learned a few things along the way. 

Here at the Gonzales Master Gardeners, we had our Winter Social, which was a great success, and well attended despite the threat of poor weather. There was a wonderful spread of good food, as usual, and many smiling faces. I have to think we have a collection of some of the better cooks in the area, and we sure do benefit from them when it is time for a feast! After the meal, we had a meeting, and ironed out some of the plans for the 2018 Spring Plant Sale.

I was lucky enough to attend 2 classes recently, Drip Irrigation, and Practical Fruit at Home. They were captained by Jim and Gail Johnson, respectively, and both very informative, and judging by the attendance, very popular. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage veteran members to attend some of the classes when they can, since they do change from time to time, and the Fruit and Nut class was a good example of that. As part of the Drip Irrigation class, Jim also had some new planting calendars he put together that should be a great help.

Myself, I will be getting a few things started in the greenhouse this weekend already.. Some cuttings from tomatoes I might try to over-winter, some asparagus seeds, pepper seeds, and eggplant seeds for my spring garden. as well as some chives, onion, and leek seeds. (The seeds for the Spring Plant Sale need to wait a little still.) I will be planting some of my plants out in the garden before the sale, and I have to kinda shuffle seed flats since I have only one heat mat. In the garden, I'm planning on planting some kohlrabi, spinach, lettuce, chard, turnips, and rutabaga.. with row covers, I should be able to get some of them to produce before January is over. With the weather crazy and warm as it has been, they should sprout fine and if they are warm enough to sprout, they should be fine.

The 3rd grade Black Walnut Classes went off very well. Many happy 3rd graders passed through the PACE building, as they participated in their 3rd project with the Gonzales Master Gardeners in so many years. They learned a bit of history of the region and the Black Walnut trees. They learned about Natural Resources, Renewable, and Sustainable Resources, and they planted some Black Walnut trees. A lot of Black Walnut Trees. Congrats to the efforts of Donna Bell, and her team for a successful day with the kids. As far as I could tell, everyone enjoyed it, and the kids seemed interested and eager to learn.

I will sign off here for this post, and until next year.. Have a fun, Merry, and above all, safe, Christmas and New Years!