Stephen Brueggerhoff, CEA – Horticulture, Brazos County AgriLife Extension; published 3/17/2026
All images unless otherwise noted by Stephen Brueggerhoff
Our Texas A&M Extension office enriches our community with programs related to agriculture and natural resources, 4-H and youth development, family and community health, and horticulture. We are a team making a positive impact to the benefit of our community through education programs. I am privileged to have the support of our Brazos County Master Gardeners, a dedicated team of volunteers promoting best practices in gardening and resource conservation to our community.
Brazos County Master Gardeners Educating the Public
Brazos County Master Gardeners are 36 years old and growing. We offer programs to improve gardening skills and share best practices from our garden with you through seminars, outreach events, training and education. We recently offered seminars at the Greater Brazos Valley Builders Association Home and Lifestyle Expo on March 14 and 15, exploring growing tomatoes, native plants, trees, edible and pollinator gardening, and more. We invite the public to our monthly member meetings exploring gardening topics such as container gardening and seasonal color change-outs with horticulturist Henry Flowers on March 24. At the Clara B. Mounce Library in Bryan, we are hosting a gardening display through end of March promoting science literacy and home gardening practices. Also at the library, our Brazos Valley Gardening series starts in May supporting our Learning at the Library programs. Our planner is jam-packed with gardening education programs, and I recommend one signature “be at” event that can help with your spring garden itch and support our efforts.
Mark Your Calendar – Spring Plant Sale
Brazos County Master Gardeners are hosting our annual Spring Plant Sale on March 28, Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at the Brazos County AgriLife Extension office parking lot located at 4153 County Park Court in Bryan. Our Master Gardeners are excited to offer a variety of plants that will fit your gardening needs. This year’s spring plant sale features ornamentals to liven up your landscape, Texas native plants, culinary herbs, a plethora of tomatoes and pass-along plants lovingly hand-raised from members’ homes. Don’t forget butterflies and hummingbird plants for habitat gardening. Experienced Brazos County Master Gardener members and I will be on hand to answer your gardening questions. Brazos County Master Gardeners is a nonprofit organization, and all proceeds support our education programs and maintenance of our demonstration garden we call The DIG. Find out more about the event from our Master Gardeners’ website at txmg.org/brazos.
Visit Us at the DIG
Speaking of The DIG and never resting on our mountain laurels, we are hard at work cultivating thematic gardens that demonstrate a wide range of plants that can be grown with minimum care under Brazos County growing conditions. The DIG is located at 2619 Texas 21 West in Bryan. We invite you to stroll through the individual gardens that focus on Texas A&M AgriLife select Texas Superstar® and Earth-Kind® plants, an arboretum with trees appropriate for our region, vegetables, Texas native plants, roses, pollinator plants, bulbs and many more plant varieties. Our rainwater harvesting system is inspirational for conservation of a precious resource. We are continuing a research demonstration project with our Texas Master Gardener training class, trialing 5 tomato varieties for performance and yield. Celebrity, Independence Day, Green Zebra, Texas Superstar® designated variety called Tycoon, and dwarf tomato Fred’s Tie-dye. I will post a report on the Brazos County Master Gardener’s website about mid-June of our intern’s success with best performing tomato recommendations for our residents. While it is open daily during daylight hours for self-guided exploration, we host seasonal monthly garden-related programs and are looking forward to a public tomato tasting event in late May with fruit cultivated from our tomato research plots. I am proud of our Brazos County Master Gardeners and proud to be part of a dynamic AgriLife Extension team of professionals that continue to make a positive impact in our community. You can always chat with me on Garden Success, my live call-in garden radio show every Thursday at 12 pm on KAMU-FM 90.9 with your landscaping plans, challenges and successes. We’ll see you at the annual Spring Plant Sale on March 28, remember we are friends when we meet and of course, I’ll see you in the garden.