Garden Updates for 2006

New Community Garden Established

This summer Williamson County's newest community garden project, the Taylor Community Garden, is creating hands on learning space to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables in Taylor, Texas. The new community garden is located at the tennis courts of the Old Middle School, at the corner of Davis and 7th (see on map). This project is sponsored by the Williamson County and Cities Health District, Taylor ISD and the City of Taylor. The garden features 20 raised garden plots, which include plots to accommodate those physically challenged. As with our other community gardens, the Taylor Community Garden is an organic garden and will only use organic fertilizers and pesticides.

Spring 2006 at Heritage Community Gardens

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Spring at Heritage has been full of fun and surprises.

We saw our second class of Expert Gardeners graduate. The class of 2006 was a class of 21 students. We are extremely proud of the work that our Expert Gardeners are doing.

Heritage Community Gardens was host to the Williamson County Juvenile Program. We worked with their GED students at the garden and planted 14 fruit tree in the Memorial orchard. They helped move compost into the garden and planted seed potatoes. This group of young men and women worked hard to rehabilitate the far end of the garden for a bird sanctuary. Our “Thanks” go out to all that were involved in this trial program.

Dell Computer sent us a team of 30 volunteers that spent a morning weeding, planting, pruning and cleaning Heritage Community Garden’s theme gardens. They also started seeds for our greenhouse production. These are the best workers in the world. Dell should be exceptionally proud of their team.

Happy Kitchens concluded three classes this spring. Our first class in Taylor was very successful. We meet in the Taylor Methodist Church and it was a great facility. Then we taught two classes simultaneously. Georgetown’ Caring Place hosted Liz and new facilitator Monica. While Natalie and new facilitator Mannie taught a class for the first time in Round Rock’s newly rebuilt and expanded Serving Center. All three classes were given rave reviews by the participants. Thanks Liz for a great series of classes. Liz is resting for a spell before our first ever youth cooking classes begin in July. She will begin another class in Taylor with the help of new intern Lauren. Go Liz!

The Production garden is in full swing and our produce this year is being distributed at the Thursday Farmer’s Market in Georgetown (as well as the Health District offices). The Farmer’s Market has been a fun and fairly good way for the gardens to become self sustainable. Thanks to the gardeners and Expert Gardeners for their donations of produce, time and talents to make the Farmers Market so easy and successful. The production garden is producing 50 to 75 lbs weekly of tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, green beans and peppers.

We had 26 fieldtrips at Heritage Gardens this spring. Over 750 children had a great time in the great outdoors. We had fun learning together about butterflies, insects, ponds, ladybugs, dinosaurs and good earth stewardship. Thanks go out to our wonderful spring interns Katie and Robin. They organized most of the fieldtrip activities and supplies. And they did a superb job keeping the program on track. Amy Basey heads up our garden/school cooperative programs, thanks Amy for a really great fieldtrip session.

Amy also heads up the county survey on youth weight and nutrition, the YAWN Survey. The entire health promotion department participated in gathering data on the height and weight of Williamson County 4th, 8th and 12th graders. This data is currently being analyzed for a final report coming this summer.

We also visited ESE classes in Georgetown and taught a nutrition class this spring. We talked about the importance of eating healthy and getting plenty of exercise with the kids in this after school program. Then we played the “What part of the plant do we eat?” game and made apple smiles. Everyone had a good time eating a healthy snack.

The spring gardens have new name signs for the in-ground gardens. And we have new large wire tomato cages. These were two projects that I really wanted to see happen this spring. I also painted the rainbow teepee that I’ve been dreaming of for the past year. Robin and I painted birdhouses that were built and donated to the garden by Larry Gregoire. Thanks Larry.

We held a mulch day in May and re-mulched beds and paths in the theme garden area. All of the gardens are doing beautifully this year.

The Eat-Five-A-day Gardens were featured on a KXAN News spot this spring. KLRU public TV will feature a short spot on Heritage Community Garden airing in July on the Central Texas Gardener. Thanks go out to Julie and Linda for making our efforts a focus for their TV features.

As we come into the summer months we will be hosting fieldtrips for Camp Goodwater again this year. We will also have Project Hope kids in the garden weeding watering, harvesting and prepping for Market day. I will start the tilling and composting process to get the garden ready for our fall garden planting. We hope the rain continues to fall for all of our sake.

Interested in spending time with us?

If you, someone you know, or a business, organization or community group are interested in volunteering time at the gardens please contact us. We will be happy to accommodate your needs. There is always work to be done and we could use your help.  Please view our “wish list” (make a link) for possible ideas.  We look forward to hearing from you.

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© 2004 Williamson County & Cities Health District