We Recognize Our AgriLife Extension Volunteer Award Recipients
During National Volunteer Week in April, we thanked our Master Gardener volunteers who are life-long learners and are willing to share their knowledge with the community. Special recognition went to Dixie Wicker and Ignacio Muñoz as they were recognized as recipients of the 2021 AgriLife Extension Volunteer awards.
The Secret to Growing Tomatoes in El Paso
by Dave Turner, El Paso Master Gardener
The tomato is the most popular vegetable grown in the home garden in Texas and across the country. It’s not the easiest to grow successfully, so why is it the favorite? The answer is simple: TASTE.
Like all vegetables, tomatoes like well-drained soil that has been amended with lots of compost.
If it is not the soil, then what’s the secret? Tomatoes have both the male and female parts (the stamen and the pistil) in each blossom, and therefore can be pollinated by the wind. This is not a problem in El Paso. However, with tomatoes, this pollination is inhibited at higher temperatures. When the nighttime temperatures are above 75 degrees and the daytime highs are 92 and above, very little, if any, pollination takes place. The plants will still blossom, but the blossoms will not become tomatoes.
How Gardening Can Help Manage Anxiety
Emergence Health Network partnered with Eastside Discount Nursery to talk with Jan Petrzelka and Ignacio Muñoz, El Paso County Master Gardeners, about how plants and gardening can help with anxiety in these days with health stressors and changes in our routines. Click the arrows or titles below to access the Facebook pages for the videos. Jan Petrzelka’s interview is in English and Ignacio Muñoz’s is in Spanish.
Gardening: Useful Tips to Manage Anxiety
Photo credit: Jan Petrzelka, El Paso Master Gardener and
Edricardo Gandara, Community Educator
(Emergence Health Network Facebook)
Jardineria: Una Buena Manera de Lidiar con la Ansiedad
Photo credit: Ignacio Muñoz, El Paso Master Gardener and Edricardo Gandara, Community Educator Emergence Health Network Facebook)
Save the Date! 
This spring will have several learning opportunities for gardeners wanting to welcome the new season. Watch a new webinar and visit us at our Information Tables to get handouts and ask questions about landscaping or gardening. Here are some upcoming event dates so you can mark your calendar. Soon we’ll be updating our Events page with more information.
May 8 – Master Gardeners’ Information Table – Country Club Farmers’ Market
May 8 – EPCCTV’s Mature Living Interview with Master Gardener Doc Stalker on Summer Rose Care
June 5 – Webinar–Read & Grow with Master Gardeners in Collaboration with Books Are GEMS
See What’s New at Our YouTube Channel
Thanks to the El Paso Master Gardeners on our Adult Outreach Committee and our Speakers Bureau, we’ve started recording videos for our new YouTube channel. They range in length from short video tours or discussions to longer webinars on popular gardening topics. We also thank Master Gardeners Crystal Ramos and Greg Davis for being our YouTube webmasters. Below you’ll find our AgriLife Vegetable Garden Raised Bed Hoop Houses video with Ignacio Muñoz, Rex Morris, and Bev Clark as well as links to the other videos now available.
AgriLife Vegetable Garden Raised Bed Hoop Houses with Bev Clark, Rex Morris, and Ignacio Muñoz
What’s Blooming at the Rose Garden in March? by Crystal Ramos
EPC Master Gardener Overview with Dixie Wicker and Ignacio Muñoz
Seed Propagation with Jan Petrzelka and Art Corral
Why Test the Soil? with Ignacio Munoz
Tomato Growing Essentials or Anywhere! with Bev Clark
Rose Pruning in El Paso, TX (includes rose care, too) with Roger “Doc” Stalker
Christmas & Holiday Plant Aftercare with Rhonda Williams
Greenhouse at Ascarate Teaching & Demonstration Garden with Jan Petrzelka
By the Season – Gardening in El Paso
May Monthly Tips
Getting Your Vegetable Beds Ready for Spring
Starting a Garden from Seeds – Gardening in El Paso
Back to Basics: How to Start Seeds Indoors
Growing Tomatoes in El Paso
Timely Tips on Starting Seedlings at Home
Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide
Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County
Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)
Dividing Perennials
Why We Landscape with Native and Adaptive Plants
Ornamental Plants for Far West Texas (including trees)
El Paso Desert Blooms Water Smart Landscaping Guide
Gardening with Perennials (including dividing; sections in Spanish)
Growing Roses (includes plant types and winter pruning)
Flowering Bulbs
Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes, Tubers
Summer and Fall Flowering Bulbs for the Landscape
Constructing Your Flower Bed
Wildflowers in Bloom – Growing Info
Fertilizing Foliage and Flowering Plants
Fertilizing Texas Lawns
Fertilizing Woody Ornamentals
Pruning Shrubs in the Low and Mid-Elevation Deserts in Arizona
Follow Proper Pruning Techniques-Shrubs, Trees, Vines, Groundcovers
Low Desert Pruning Guide for Commonly Used Shrubs (includes Tips and Schedule)
Help Your Tree Survive in El Paso (PDF)
Watering Tips for Lawns, Vegetable Gardens and Trees
Regional Recommended Tree List (TPG List)
Trees for High Desert Communities
Fruit Trees for El Paso
Texas Tree Planning, Planting, Pruning, and Care Guide (text and video; Spanish version at page bottom of selected pages)
Herbicides for Weed Control in Turfgrass
Weeds of Texas Turf (good photos for ID of weeds)
Weeds-Pest Notes Library (see weed management tips)
Find other helpful articles at Gardening in El Paso – Articles and Gardening Topics – Links. Find more videos at Videos and More.
Good to Grow Radio Shows
(Current and Archived)
Answering Community Questions
Plant Parenting & Indoor Gardening
Vegetable Gardening While Under Quarantine
Garden Design Tips
Garden Design Trends
Seed Planting
Spring Gardening
Spring Gardening Ideas
Spring Vegetables
All About Tomatoes
Vegetable Container Gardening
Container Gardening, Pt. 1
Container Gardening, Pt. 2
Tree Selection and Planting
Trees-What to Know Before You Buy
Tree Pruning
Watering Your Landscape
Irrigation, Part 1 of 2
Irrigation, Part 2 of 2
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.
El Paso Master Gardeners’ Ascarate Accessible Garden
by Penny Leslie, Beverly Clark, and Ignacio Muñoz, El Paso Master Gardeners
Credits: Entrance Sign by Alison Wells; Photo by Ignacio Muñoz
Most gardeners agree that gardening is good for the mind, body, and spirit. However, for many people completing gardening tasks in a traditional way is difficult due to physical, cognitive, or emotional challenges. Fortunately, there are countless ways to adapt the gardening environment. As part of our vision to make gardening accessible to everyone, we created a beautiful garden area with multiple examples of garden adaptations.
Our Accessible Garden within the Ascarate Teaching and Demonstration Garden provides a wide variety of raised garden beds and benches, each with unique details that can be tailored to meet specific needs. We have great handouts and lists of resources with additional information about specific techniques, as well as gardening adaptations and tools that can be used to create further accessible gardening opportunities. If you love gardening but find that health conditions are impacting your ability to get the job done, or if you know people who are giving up gardening or not even considering gardening because of physical or cognitive challenges, adapting accessible gardening techniques may be the answer!
Related:
Creating an Accessible Garden
Accessible Gardening Tips
Accessible Gardening Reading & Reference Resources
Keep On Gardening – Create Your Own Tools
Accessible Gardening Tools
Here’s Your Easy Start to a Vegetable Garden
Credit: Vegetable Gardening at Ascarate Teaching & Demonstration Garden (El Paso Master Gardeners Facebook)
As we transition from winter to spring, it’s a good time to look around your yard to see if there are places which would be good for a vegetable garden. In this AgriLife TODAY article by Adam Russell, we learn from Joe Masabni, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension vegetable specialist, his easy plan for gardeners that allows you to build and plant a vegetable garden in as little as a day. Read the article, Want to Start a Vegetable Garden?, to learn his tips and follow the links to other pages on raised beds and the wide number of resources offered by Aggie-Horticulture.
Related:
Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)
Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide
Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County
Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
Raised Garden Beds-Featured Solutions (scroll down for Spanish)
Raised-Bed Gardening (types and construction materials)
Container Gardening
Vegetable Gardening in Containers
Earth-Kind® Composting
After the Freeze: Plant Care and Pollinator Gardens
Photo credit: Bee on Piñata Rose by
Marlene Stalker, El Paso Master Gardener
Many in our area experienced some plant damage in February’s period with freezing temperatures even though our conditions weren’t as extreme as in other parts of Texas. In addition to learning what to do with your plants that may be showing some signs of recovery, Texas A&M AgriLife is recommending that we plant pollinator gardens or provide other pollinator habitat to make sure pollinators have what they need if flowering plants are being delayed this spring. Here are some articles on these topics:
Plant a Pollinator Garden to Supply Immediate Food in Response to Freeze Setback
How to Care for Plants Damaged by the Texas Freeze–and Prep for Spring
Maintenance After the Freeze
How to Care for Palms After the Storm
Palms Can Suffer in the Cold
Cold Damage on Palms
Freeze Damage Symptoms and Recovery for Citrus
Our Help Desk Now Has a Live Chat Desk!
El Paso County Master Gardeners are ready to help with your spring gardening or landscape questions! We’ve added a live Chat feature to our website to help you reach us more easily. Master Gardener volunteers will be available live online to provide you research-based horticultural information when you visit our website and click the Chat buttons during our Chat Desk operating hours.
On desktop and laptop screens, you’ll see a clickable blue sidebar on the right side of the screen, like this, below:
On a mobile device, the clickable Chat icon will look like this,
in the lower right screen corner:
Click the blue Chat buttons to enter the Chat feature so you can either message us live or leave us a message.
We’re looking forward to assisting you during our live Chat Desk hours:
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday – 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday and Friday – 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
To use the Chat feature you type in your question, and you can send photographs of your problem, too. Please convey in your question or message some background information about the plant or problem as well as what plant care practices you have been following. If you’d like help with identifying a plant, please send photos of it in flower, if possible, as that aids in identification. During our live chat hours, you’ll interact with a Master Gardener volunteer.
When 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 contact our Help Desk team are through the Ask Us form, which also accepts photos, or by calling the Extension Office at 915-771-2354.
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 including our growing season, USDA Plant Hardiness Zones, U.S. Sunset Climate Zone, first average frost date, average rainfall and more. It also provides links to informative websites which are helpful for newcomers, identifies some local public gardens, and provides a contact for obtaining a Soil Sample Kit.
How to Improve Your Soil
bу Marge Gianelli, El Paso Master Gardener
Photo credit: Good Soil by Vegansoldier (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Unless you live in a few choice areas in El Paso, you probably have light-colored, coarse, grainy soil. Water has a tendency to drain right through, leaving plants dry without access to water in the hot afternoon summer hours. In addition, your soil probably contains few nutrients to promote root growth and development. Another complicating factor is the alkalinity of the soil. Typically, in El Paso the soil pH is around 8. With some exceptions, a pH of 6.0 to 7.0 is ideal for plant growth. What is a gardener to do?
Related videos from our Videos & More page:
Why Test the Soil? by Ignacio Munoz, El Paso Master Gardener
Soil Testing by Skip Richter, Horticulturist—Agrilife.org
Texans Ask About Gardening–Vegetables, Herbs and More
Photo credit: Vegetables Grown at Ascarate Demonstration & Teaching Garden (El Paso Master Gardeners Facebook)
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
Improve Your Skills with Our
Informative El Paso Gardening Handbook
Gift Shopping? You Can Support Us at AmazonSmile
When you start your shopping at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com/ch/20-1878485) you can support the El Paso County Master Gardener Association. With your support we can do more at our teaching gardens and for the community. At AmazonSmile, you’ll find the same convenient shopping experience as at Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of your cart’s value to El Paso County Master Gardeners. You can verify you’re shopping through the AmazonSmile portal by finding the AmazonSmile logo in the upper left of the website page. Your support is appreciated.
You shop. Amazon gives.
Note: Only purchases at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com/ch/20-1878485) or with AmazonSmile ON in the Amazon Shopping app will support us (not www.amazon.com). Please see this page, Donate, for more information.
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, Denise Rodriguez, 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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