GMG President Arline Rinehart accepted the 1st place award for Project--Guadalupe Valley Black Walnut Conservation and Restoration Project--for Jan Fiebig, project leader. Cheryl Hillman accepted the 1st place award for Educational Program--Participating in Natural Science (PINS). Fran Saliger accepted the 3rd place award for Outstanding Individual. |
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.
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.
Come and Take It ParadeGonzales Master Gardeners won first place in local entries at the Come and Take It Parade held October 5, 2019 in Gonzales Texas. Way to go Team!!!
Celebrating 10 YearsOn September 24, 2019 Gonzales Master Gardeners celebrated their 10th year gardening and working in the Gonzales community.
2019 Spring Children's GardenWOW!! 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.
March already... time sure is flying by and there's nothing happening at the Gonzales Master Gardeners except the Spring Plant Sale!!
Okay that's not exactly true... not even close, lol. There are other things that have been going on; the Children's Garden has been planted, the new beds at the Pace Building are getting filled with soil, and they're almost ready for some tomato plants! The curtains have been installed inside the Pace Building with a noticeable difference in the noise and echo. The fruit trees have been fostered so they can be cared for until the fall sale. The Plant Health specialist training went off well, and sounds like it's setting a high bar for future specialist training courses. It sounds like all Master Gardeners will benefit from this new approach, not just the specialists! The irrigation system has been set up with the black walnut trees at the Pace Building, and should help germination rates quite a bit. Maintenance on the PACE building has brought about some welcome changes. It included windows being repaired and painted, ceiling painted, curtains added and other general maintenance. By the time I get this posted the Texas Master Gardener conference will be over. Three of our members planned to attend, and we can look forward to some information from them about events there. The South Texas Home Garden and Environmental show in Floresville is also over by now, and we had members there as well, manning a booth. So, yea, there's always things going on in the GMG, and I'm sure I missed almost as many as I mentioned... BUT...the Biggie is still the Spring Plant Sale. If you didn't make the meeting March 1st and you didn't sign up on the sheets for volunteering... basically show up at Texas Heroes Square on Friday March 23rd at 8:30. If we don't need people there you can go to the greenhouse around 9 a.m. On sale day, Saturday March 24th we start at 7 a.m. Try to be there by 8 for final instructions and questions... 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! |