A New Spring Class:
Growing Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs in the Desert
Keep the morning of Wednesday, April 3rd, open for this new class which will teach you how to grow and care for vegetables, fruits, and herbs in our desert climate.
This fee-based class is $25 and you can pay at the front desk on morning of the class. Cash, checks, or money orders will be accepted.
Class registrations will be accepted through Monday, April 1st. Please call 915-771-2354 to save your seat!
You Can Plan Ahead for Monthly GROWS Talks
Mark your calendar and join us for our gardening talks each month. El Paso Water and El Paso Master Gardeners have created a series of Water Conservation workshops we’ve nicknamed our GROWS talks. GROWS is an acronym for Gardening Resources Outreach Workshops and Seminars.
The informative talks will be presented by Master Gardeners and local experts in their field. They will be on the second Saturday of each month through September 2024 at convenient locations around El Paso. Please check our Events page as the event date nears for more information.
Live educational events and online webinars are some of the ways we present learning opportunities for gardeners in our area. As the new year gets going, look for our Information Tables where you can get handouts and ask questions about landscaping or gardening. You can also find previous webinars on our YouTube channel.
Here are some upcoming event dates so you can mark your calendar. Click the event link, if shown below, for more information, or watch for our Events page to be updated.
April 3 – Growing Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs in the Desert
April 6 – FloraFest Native Plant Sale at UTEP
April 13 – Irrigation Basics-Don’t Waste a Drop! – A GROWS Community Workshop
April 21 – Rose Garden Open House at the El Paso Municipal Rose Garden
May 11 – Landscape Designs for Desert Dwellings
Read AgriLife TODAY for Texas Gardening News
Texas A&M AgriLife has a news blog page with several topics like Lawn & Garden, Environment, Life & Health, and Science & Tech called AgriLife TODAY. As gardeners, we’re especially interested the Lawn & Garden category and we want to share these articles with you.
Foundational Tips for No-Dig Gardening
It’s Time to Embrace the Power of Flowers This Spring
Eight Great Plants to Bring Butterflies to Your Garden
Pansies Named Newest Texas Superstar
From Moon ‘Dust’ to Moon ‘Soil’
Why Should I Get My Soil Tested?
Ignite Landscapes with Newest Texas Superstar – the Firecracker Plant
Good to Grow Radio Shows
(Current and Archived)
Gardening Tips as You Prepare for Spring Planting!
Spring Gardening Tips
Seed Planting
Toxic Plants and Your Pets
Rose Care
Benefits of Cold Temperature in Gardening
Gardening New Year’s Resolution
Winterizing Gardens
Winter Lawn Care
Care for Gardening Tools in the Fall
The Efficiency of Irrigation with Trees and Turfgrass
Maintaining Desert and Adapted Trees
Garden Design Tips
Garden Design Trends
Vegetable Container Gardening
Container Gardening, Pt. 1
Container Gardening, Pt. 2Indoor Plants and Gardening
Evergreen Gardening (caring for houseplants)
Benefits of Mulching
Composting
Native Plants
Irrigation, Part 1 of 2
Irrigation, Part 2 of 2
Watering Your Landscape
Tree Selection and Planting
Trees-What to Know Before You Buy
Tree Pruning
Proper Pruning Tips
Listen live on Saturdays at 11:15 a.m. on 88.5 FM or stream from the archives at KTEP Good to Grow.
Read more about our Good to Grow Radio Show, here.
By the Season – Gardening in El Paso
March Monthly Tips
Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County
Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)Pests of Foliage and Flowering Plants
Bug Book-Insect ID and Control
Easy Steps for Drip Irrigation
Ornamental Plants for Far West Texas (including trees)
El Paso Desert Blooms Water Smart Landscaping Guide
Gardening with Perennials (including dividing; sections in Spanish)
Pruning Shrubs in the Low and Mid-Elevation Deserts in Arizona
Low Desert Pruning Guide for Commonly Used Shrubs (includes Tips and Schedule)
What Tree is for Me?
Help Your Tree Survive in El Paso (PDF)
Regional Recommended Tree List (TPG List)
Trees for High Desert Communities
Fruit Trees for El Paso
Training and Pruning Newly Planted Deciduous Fruit Trees
Texas Tree Planning, Planting, Pruning, and Care Guide (text and video; Spanish version at page bottom of selected pages)
Lawn Water Management
Efficient Use of Water in the Garden and Landscape
Watering Trees and Shrubs: Simple Techniques for Efficient Landscape Watering
Watering Tips for Lawns, Vegetable Gardens and Trees – Gardening in El Paso
Videos:
Soil Testing by Skip Richter, Horticulturist—Agrilife.org
Why Test the Soil? by Ignacio Munoz, El Paso Master Gardener
Find other helpful articles at Gardening in El Paso – Articles and Gardening Topics – Links. Find more videos at Videos and More.
Newcomer’s Gardening Snapshot for El Paso County
Many new residents arrive in El Paso each year from climates and growing conditions much different than the Chihuahuan desert. This Newcomer’s Gardening Snapshot highlights some main features of El Paso’s climate and provides links to helpful, informative websites. It also provides links to local gardens exhibiting native and adapted plants for local landscapes. We hope this information assists new gardeners in getting off to a fast start in their new Texas home.
Do you have gardening or landscape questions and don’t know who to ask? The El Paso Master Gardener live online Chat Desk, part of our Help Desk is available to you. The Chat windows are opened by clicking on the blue Chat button on our web pages. When the Chat Desk Master Gardener volunteers are offline, the Chat buttons can still be used to leave questions and photographs. You’ll be asked for your email address, and we’ll reply by email as soon as possible.
Other ways to leave questions for our Help Desk volunteers are through the Ask the Help Desk contact form on our Ask Us page and through the Ask the Help Desk contact form on our Help Desk page. You will receive an answer from a Master Gardener volunteer by phone or email.
El Paso Master Gardeners provide a free service for the public by answering your gardening questions. We follow Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service guidelines and do not endorse or recommend specific products or places of business.
Improve Your Skills with Our
Informative El Paso Gardening Handbook
El Paso County Master Gardeners created a one-of-a-kind illustrated gardening handbook for our area. The El Paso Gardening Handbook addresses El Paso specific gardening concerns and best practices.
Texans Ask About Gardening–Vegetables, Herbs and More
From Asparagus to Swiss Chard plus “Non-Crop” plants and Herbs, you’ll find many of your questions answered in Everything Texans Ask About Gardening, an informative 67-page publication by Joseph Masabni and Patrick Lillard. Organized largely by vegetable name, the questions and answers cover general issues, diseases, and insects. Since this is a digital document produced by Texas A&M AgriLife, you can easily search for a topic or keyword by using the “Find” command if on a PC. Otherwise, here are some page numbers by section:
Vegetable Q&A – pages 1-54
Minor Crops – pages 54-61
Herbs – pages 61-63
Non-Crop Q&A – pages 64-67
Who We Are
The El Paso County Master Gardeners Association, as a member of the Texas Master Gardeners Association, is a non-profit educational and charitable organization supporting the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in providing quality, relevant outreach and continuing education programs and services to the people of El Paso County. Our local volunteers receive extensive training and experience in a wide range of subjects before certification as Texas Master Gardeners.
In collaboration with the County A&M AgriLife Horticultural Agent, Eduardo Rascon, we educate the community through various events, workshops, and demonstration gardens. Our Master Gardeners volunteer through our Outreach programs and community Projects to provide information and recommendations on horticultural topics to all residents of El Paso County.
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Webmaster: Mary Ann McCravey
Content Editor: Marlene Stalker