LCG President's Report by Janet Crozier

November was a month filled with gratitude for the accomplishment in reaching our goal to allow us to start and be able to complete our ADA-Compliant Garden beds before the spring planting season begins. The beds are in place, and Ralph Bullard is preparing the beds for irrigation. TJ Wright gave us a beautiful new gate for the space, and we are talking to John Hines to find us a keypad lock that will provide the security for the area. Our hope is that it will be completed before the end of January.

We were notified that the Bartholomew’s will be visiting the community garden sometime in January. Steve Bartholomew is the son of the founder, Mel Bartholomew. He and his wife, Laura, are the executive directors of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. They were the first to support the ADA-Compliant venture.

While many gardeners shied away from doing a fall garden, those of us who suffered through the extreme heat are now reaping the rewards of a bountiful harvest. I am very encouraged with the response I have had to some of our previous gardeners intending to return to gardening with us. I have heard from several new gardeners as well. One of my elderly gardeners has put in her request to be the first in our ADA garden area.

I have had a conversation with those who work with veterans, and they are interested in encouraging vets to transition from their military service to a less stressful life through gardening. We are learning more about the benefits of gardening to counteract depression as well. Touching the soil is so important for our well-being.

I sincerely want to thank all the volunteers who have helped not just with gardening, but with our fundraising efforts and other activities that we have been a part of throughout the year. We had so many activities that our class offerings were neglected. We did have a hydroponics class on December 4 given by Robin Smith. We are offering a variety of interesting topics that hopefully will benefit all who attend. Look for some classes in January on our Facebook pages.

Lastly, I would like to thank our board members for all the time and work to make our community garden an attraction to those visiting our beautiful city.

Happy New Year!

President's Report by Janet Crozier

 

With the LCRA grant and all the other grants and donations, as well as our several fundraisers, we have finally raised enough money to begin and complete the ADA-Compliant Gardening area in the community garden. This truly is the time of Thanksgiving!

Not only has the concrete been laid in the garden area, but the sidewalk from the Sculpture Garden was poured. The irrigation to the beds will be added starting November 21. Each bed will have its own emitter. A shed will be added soon after. Our thanks go out to TJ Wright and Ralph Bullard for their speedy efforts to get this garden in place before winter.

I am so happy for the gardeners who took a chance on the fall weather and planted their beds with plenty of good fall veggies. They are amazing! You can see them on our Facebook group and pages. And no doubt Renee will post them on the website as well. I just planted onions this morning and we have another tree to add to our orchard too.

Now is the time to think about growing your own garden and start making a plan to start living a healthier life. We are here to help. Not only do we provide a space for gardening, but we offer classes that teach various methods of gardening. Most of the gardens in the community garden are Square Foot Gardens, but we offer other methods to suit different situations.

For example, you may have a small area in your home where a hydroponic garden might be an option. Actually, you can get as elaborate as you want with this method. Robin Smith is coming to the Lampasas County Extension Center conference room on December 4 from 6-8 pm to demonstrate and teach the hydroponic method. She is a captivating instructor. I am very excited to share this unique opportunity with you. There is a $10 suggested donation requested.

We are planning other gardening and nutrition classes during the winter months before we get busy planting.

I have a request; we are looking for more board members who can help with spreading the word about our community garden. There are so many new people coming to Lampasas and may want to garden or become a volunteer. If you are interested in helping with this, contact me at lampasascommunitygardens@gmail.com or text me at 512-434-9293 with your contact information, and I will be in touch with you.

President's Report by Janet Crozier

Thank God September is over! There is still time to get many fall vegetables in the ground before a freeze and many of us have taken advantage of it. In my estimation, the fall garden is the best. It produces a lot of the winter comfort foods that we enjoy on cold winter days. Many of our summer vegetables are reviving with the rain and cooler nights as well.

We decided to do our fundraiser in September, hoping to take advantage of an early fundraising event instead of trying to raise funds after the bigger, more extravagant fundraisers made their splash. We wanted to have a family-friendly event thinking that the weather would be a little cooler toward the end of September. Even though we put a lot of planning into the event, the extreme heat persisted and prevented so many families from attending.

However, we came out ahead, and with our previous fundraisers and grants, we felt we could begin our ADA gardening project. I talked to T.J. Wright of Blue Springs Pools and got us on his calendar for October.

We are so appreciative of all the support financially, with silent auction donations, and volunteer help that contributed to our success. Words just don’t convey how much you mean to the success we have had at the gardens.

The long-awaited response to the LCRA grant written in July was received on October 1, and this should enable us to come close to completing the project entirely!

As we are coming close to the end of the year, we have a few board members who are coming to the end of their 3-year term and wish to step down or take on another role within the board. So, I am asking for referrals for us to consider. 

Please email us at lampasascommunitygardens@gmail.com

President's Report by Janet Crozier

Welcome to fall you ‘all! I guess technically we need to wait to call it that until the Equinox on or around the 21st. Up until this week, it has felt like anything but fall with non-ending 100-degree days and no rain. As I am writing this it is raining and it feels like fall! I felt guilty trying to urge potential gardeners to get started planting with such an unyielding climate.

I want to remind everyone, that fall is the best time to plant the vegetables that will be the most beneficial to our health through this time of the year. Our planting time is limited as history has proclaimed that the end of November is the first freeze date. With the climate change we are experiencing, we use it as a guide. Gardening has no absolutes. It keeps us mindful and attentive.

It's now time to rent your garden bed and get started on your way to a healthy lifestyle as gardening provides not only a food source, but gentle exercise and fresh air. Many of you know that we provide gardening instructions and through our experience have plenty of advice to pass on. If you are interested, please email lampasascommunitygardens@gmail.com or text me at 512-434-9293 to set up a time to check us out.

The big news is our upcoming Fall fundraising event, “It’s Fall Y’all!” to be held on September 30 from 4-7 p.m. It will be held at the Lampasas Community Gardens and the nearby pavilion. We have planned an event for the whole family. We have numerous activities for the kids of all ages and a silent auction and line dancing for the adults. (Kids will be welcome to join in too). Oh, I forgot to mention food. Dusty Dreher will be providing fajitas and the gardeners will be providing salads and desserts. (We need to lure you in somehow, ha). Tickets are available by clicking the QR code on the Facebook flyer and they will be available at the door if that is too techy. We all hope to see you there.

I want to give a shout-out to our fundraising committee: Karen Allen and Lindsey Jackson, our co-chairs, Kenya Martin, Layne Friedrichs, Bob Stockman, Ladonna Bishop, Karen DeZarn, Mabel Truman and our behind-the-scenes treasurer, Renee Alter. Of special note. Layne and Bob have worked almost daily to ready the gardens for this event by ridding the beds of dead vegetation and weeds.

Our ADA Compliant project is starting to take shape. We should be having the area excavated before the end of the month. We are waiting for the City’s contribution of the sidewalk to our fence line.

Have a good month!

Upcoming Event

President's Report by Janet Crozier

 

With over 30 days of 100 degrees, our gardens have taken a hit. It’s not unusual though for August to have extreme heat, but to have it this long and have water restrictions doesn’t encourage our plants to produce much. We remain optimistic because we know this won’t last forever and we must make plans for fall gardening.

We are planning a Square Foot Gardening class on Saturday, August 19, at 10 am at the Lampasas Co. Annex conference room. At this class, we will talk about Square Foot Gardening. Why we use this method, how to structure it, and what goes into the soil mixture, and why we make a grid instead of a row. After the instructions, we will go to the Lampasas Community Garden and create a Square Foot Garden bed and ready it for planting. Meanwhile, we need to decide what fall vegetables we want to grow. Maybe even experiment with a vegetable that we have never tried before. Many herbs do well in the fall and winter too.

We are planning our fall fundraiser to be held at LCG and the pavilion on September 30 from 4-7pm. We are looking forward to having activities for all ages, The Great Zucchini Race, which was such a hit at the “Arts in the Park” event, our bicycle blender, and there will be so many other activities for the kids—AND line dancing for those that want to learn this dance. All this and a silent auction that is turning out to have a fun selection of items that no one will want to miss out on.

Food reminiscent of fall flavors, such as anything pumpkin and zucchini as well as barbeque once again from Dusty Dees BBQ. If you have had it before, I bet your mouth is starting to water at the thought. We believe we will have a family event that will have something for everyone. We will have a photo shoot so you can remember the fun and share it with your extended family. More details will be forthcoming on Facebook.

Our goal is to raise all the funds for our ADA-compliant garden beds. We have come a long way with our earlier fundraisers, we have raised more than half of our projected goal, but there are last-minute additions that were not planned. We have our garden beds already purchased; a shed is being donated by Mike Irvin. Keypunch locks are needed for our gate and shed. Irrigation is another expense that we are looking at that we would like to get set up at the same time as the concrete pad. Please donate or contribute to this fundraiser. We need your help.

We appreciate all the donations received and have a banner with the names and logos of many of you mentioned. If we have missed anyone, I am truly sorry.

Square Foot Gardening Class