by Janet Crozier
The board of directors decided not to meet this month. There isn’t a lot going on in the garden currently. Many of us are harvesting the remainder of our fall plantings and clearing out the areas of the beds where the recent freeze killed the left-over summer plants.
This is the time to rest and clean and sharpen our tools, plant cover crops such as red clover, and rye grass to be turned into the bed come springtime. I’ve even heard it is a good time to plant bluebonnets as they add nitrogen to the soil as well. Don’t forget to check out Seedsaving and Seedsaver’s Resource webpage.
Lampasas Community Gardens has taken this time to have gardening classes before it is time to start planting. Lucien Hodges gave a very informative class on trees, and he says he has more to talk about. He told us about a must have book, The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohleben. Lucien said it was “mind boggling”.
Of course, I ordered it.
Barbara Wright of Wright’s Nursery in Briggs will offer a course in January before she gets swamped with growing her produce. Fred Alston has promised to share his wisdom as well. Fred helped us identify pests that we were dealing with last year. He likes to teach by addressing our questions. If you have any gardening questions start collecting them. I am curious to see if he can speculate on how to deal with our extreme climate fluctuations here in Central Texas. He also might help us develop a watering system for our beds.
Thanks to Lucien Hodges and his employees, we have a start towards a remembrance orchard. If you would like to contribute funds to this effort, we will be happy to purchase a tree for your loved ones and friends. We will see that it gets planted before the winter is over as this is the best time to plant most fruit trees.
I am excited to have a couple of new and former gardeners who have expressed the desire to take up gardening. We will be meeting January 14 at 10 a.m.at the County Extension Center conference room. We will introduce our board and have a brief board meeting as well as reenroll the gardeners for the upcoming 2023 seasons. Refreshments will be served.
