Master Gardener 1993 – 2011

Hugh (Bud) Kane was in the first class of Travis County Master Gardeners because of his lifelong love of gardening and his thirst for more knowledge. He lives in northwest Austin and, despite the challenging terrain, wanted to know how to better grow vegetables….his favorite subject. After finishing his M. G. classes, Bud was searching for a way of making a true difference with his volunteering. Ted Fisher was the Horticultural Agent at that time being quite swamped with telephone calls and little staff. Bud started the Travis County Master Gardener phone desk and singlehanded worked answering, researching and returning calls each week for over 10 years. He sought guidance from Ted Fisher throughout his years of service, but without the benefit of computers, learned by experience and “doing”. His knowledge of vegetable gardening has long been recognized as being one of the best in our area.  And, more importantly, he has lectured and given talks on this subject for many years.

Bud also became an early advocate of rainwater harvesting, installing his own home collection system long before it was popular. Enjoying a bountiful garden harvest with his own rainwater collection tanks, Bud shared freely by means of his garden/rainwater collection tanks being on an early TCMGA garden tour. Any person coming to Bud’s garden was given a mini veggie lesson and tour for many years. He continued with his skills on rainwater collection tanks by helping install both the large systems used by Zilker Botanical Garden and the TCMGA greenhouse. Always eager to teach and share his learned knowledge, Bud worked with the greenhouse staff in maintaining this system for numerous years. In 2010, Bud was also awarded the ‘5000+Hours of Service to Travis County Master Gardeners’.