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Port Aransas Arbor Day Giveaway. 23 October 2021.

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NMG will be participating in the Port Aransas Arbor Day Tree Give Away on Saturday, October 23, 2021.  The event is scheduled from 9:00AM till Noon, however, we need to arrive NLT 8:00AM for orientation, training and setup.  The event will take place at the University of Texas, Marine Science Institute, 750 Channel View Dr, Port Aransas, TX 78373, USA.

We will be contributing by assisting those coming to get a tree or shrub as part of the Give Away.  All are 3-gallon sized Texas native species that include:  American Beautyberry, Parsley Hawthorn, Texas Persimmon, Deciduous Holly, Mexican Plum, Overcup Oak, Willow Oak, Palmetto Palm, and Elderberry.  We will answer questions and get plants from a staging area to give to the guest.

NMG will be able to select from the available plants. Volunteer hours earned can be applied in A.ED-Presentations, EXT OFF-Project, COMMUNITY SUPPORT and/or NMG-Support along with Travel Time.  This will assist you in applying volunteer hours in a Project where you need hours.  You can take the hours in one Project, or you can divide the time between Projects.  In the Description use Port Aransas Arbor Day Tree Give Away.  Attached is a Site Layout.  Volunteers are asked to park in the designated parking leaving Guest Parking open for those visiting to pick up plants.  If you have a NMG T-Shirt or Shirt, be sure to wear it with your name badge or tag.

KEEP READING FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Want to win $500 to improve an outdoor space in your community? Gather a team and enter this year’s Texas Arbor Day contest using Tree Trails, a tree mapping application from Texas A&M Forest Service. This is a great activity to do with school groups, members of the community, or fellow chapter members! 

 

Trees make our world a better place, and it is our responsibility to make sure our trees remain healthy and cared for. Knowing where our trees are growing, measuring them, and calculating their individual benefits is a great place to start. Tree Trails is an app that turns this process a fun activity that anyone can do. Gather your group of friends, classmates, and/or members of the community and help Texas map our trees and calculate the real dollar benefits that those trees provide! Visit our website for full contest rules.

 

Getting Started:

Step 1: Download the Tree Trails app on your tablet or smart phone or visit the Tree Trails website.

Step 2: Identify an area that meets the requirements of the contest.

This year there are 4 location categories to choose from:

1. School Campus (K-12 or College Campus)
2. Public Library
3. Unique Public Green Spaces (Parks, greenbelts, arboretums etc.)
4. Walking Distance to a Hospital or Assisted Living Facility

Step 3: Assemble your group, gather your supplies, and hit the field!

The instructions in the app tell you exactly what you’ll need and what steps to take to gather data on your trees.

You’ll be measuring the tree, identifying the species, and entering the GPS coordinates, and then the app calculates all of the benefits for you!

Don’t worry if you’re not a tree expert! The app gives you everything you need to successfully complete a Tree Trail, no experience necessary.

Step 4: Submit the Texas Arbor Day Tree Trails Contest Form, including the name you’ve given your Tree Trail, the names of your group’s members, and the organization or community that you represent.

Map for Tree Give Away Site Layout 2021Map for Tree Give Away Site Layout 2021

Additional Questions/Comments? Contact Texas A&M Forest Service at education@tfs.tamu.edu

 

 

Galvan & Coles Raised Bed Projects

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NMG has completed three (3) LTG Raised Bed Projects in CCISD during the month of September and first week of October.

On September 17, NMGs purchased 54 bags (2 CU FT) of Vegetable Soil from Lowe’s and all the materials to construct four 4 ft x 8 ft x 10 In Raised Beds from Home Depot and pre-staged it at Windsor Park Elementary School. The following day at 1:00PM, 26 NMG and Interns installed the beds in one hour.

The following week, on Friday, September 24, NMGs purchased 54 bags (2 CU FT) of Vegetable Soil from Lowes and three bales of hay from Naylor Farm Supplies and pre-staged it at Coles High School. The day before, six Go Grow Bags were delivered to the Assistant Principal.

These Go Grow Bags measure 3 ft x 6 ft x 1ft with 8 divided bins. These are a new experiential approach to installing raised beds. They are much less expensive than the lumber raised beds and take almost no time to position and ready to receive soil. Landscape Weed Blocking Cloth was laid the entire length of the bed area, then cardboard was placed on top with the Go Grow Bags resting on this substructure. After the Go Grow Bags were filled with soil, hay was laid between all the beds. The process took 45 minutes from start to finish. There was a substantial cost savings realized.

The third project was to finalize the installation of the four Raised Beds installed at Galvan Elementary School by filling the beds with soil. The Beds were installed by NMGs during Spring Break and solarized for the summer months to the vacation break. Soil was purchased on October 1st and installed on Saturday, October 2nd. With the great turnout and all hands approach, the 54 soil bags were transferred from the trailer to the beds in 30 minutes.

Starting in November, the NMGs will conduct a District-wide assessment of all Raised Beds in CCISD to determine their condition. A refurbishment and rebuild plan will be developed to bring all the Raised Beds up to standards and then put them on a phrased upkeep and replacement schedule.

An important component of the LTG Raised Beds Project is keeping the Campuses replenished with seeds, plants and supplies to maintain their beds. On October 30, the NMGs gathered at the JCC to put together Replenishment Kits for the 80 plus Raised Beds throughout CCISD. The team packed seeds into individual envelopes, sorted vegetable plants and other supplies to assemble the replenishment kits. Within three hours they had all the kits ready to be distributed. Team members then transported the kits to the CCISD campuses district-wide.

Plant of the Week: Ascelapius tuberosa

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This week’s Plant of the Week is Ascelapius tuberosa.

Plant Profile: Ascelapius tuberosa

Common Names: Milkweed, Pleurisy Root, Butterfly bush, orange Sallow-Wort.

Family: Apocynaceae

Category:  Perennial

Height/Spread:  1-3ft H

Growing Habit:  Slow grower; Tall plant with a bushy appearance.

Foliage and Flower Characteristics: Leaves are mostly alternate and between 1 – 2″ in length topped by large, flat clusters of brightly colored flowers. The clusters can be 2 -5″ across and are usually yellow-orange in color. This plant produces copius amounts of nectar and are a great food source for Monarch Butterflies. Unlike the Common Milkweed, this variety produces no milky sap.  However, take care to wear gloves when pruning or removing dead/diseased parts.

This variety is not favored for Monarch larvae as it does not contain enough glycoside that will make the larvae distasteful to predators. It is however, an excellent source of nectar for Monarchs, hummingbirds, Bumblebees, Fritillaries, and honey bees.

Care Requirements

Bloom Time:  May – September

Hardiness Zone: 3a – 9b

Light/Soil/Water Requirements:  Full sun. Prefers well draining sandy soil, but can be planted in well draining clay. Soil should be moist to dry and it can tolerate drought conditions.

It can take 2-3 years for the plant to become fully established and although it does spread by stolons, it is not considered invasive.  If you need to transplant do so in early spring or fall for best chances of survival

Fertilization: Organic, slow release fertilizer is best.

Propagation: Root cutting. The easiest method of propagation is root cuttings. In the fall, cut the taproot into 2-inch sections and plant each section vertically, keeping the area moist.

Seed. Plant produces 4″ greenish-gray pods and can be propagated by seed. Pods can be removed to stop seeding.  Watch plants closely for seedpods in late summer/early fall. Allow seeds to completely mature before collecting seed to establish new plants in another location. The pod produced contains hundreds of seeds with tufts of long, silky hairs (an adaptation for wind dispersal).

Pests:  Aphids.

Nueces Master Garden Annual Plant Sale Update

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Hello All!

First, thank you to everyone who has participated in this year’s sale – from donations to purchases.  And speaking of donations, there have been over 700 plants donated to this year’s sale! This is fantastic and I know those of you who have donated, have spent many hours cutting, clipping and propagating for the annual sale – it is much appreciated and so we’d like to thank you.

Home Depot has generously donated $140 worth of plants to the cause as well!

If you did not pre-order, I am quite sure that with over 700 plants available you will still be able to grab some of your favorites plants just in time to put them out for the fall.

The sale will held Saturday,October 9th, from 9am – 2pm,at the following location:

Jewish Community Center
750 Everhart Rd
Corpus Christi, TX 78411

See you all there!

Seville Farms Plant Sale Update

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Hello Members and the General Gardening Public.

This post is just to update you that ordering plants for the Seville Farms Plant sale has ended.  If you did not get an opportunity to place orders, do know that Seville Farms will be doing it all again next year!

For those of you who did purchase, you will need to pick your plants up between 9am – 1pm at the following location:

Jewish Community Center (JCC)
750 Everhart Rd,
Corpus Christi, TX 78411

Please make sure that you have identification and your receipt for your purchase, which should have been emailed to you. You can either show this receipt on your phone or print it out.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the sale this year!

Volunteers for the Migratory Bird Celebration. With Tree Giveaway!

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ruby throated hummingbird

Hello all!

It’s that time of year again!  We are having our 4th Arbor Day Foundation tree giveaway on October 23, 2021 from 9am-12pm at UTMSI.  

This year the event will be paired with a Migratory Bird Day Celebration.  We are still working out the schedule of events but it will likely be at 9-10 am tree giveaway, educational handouts and explore the WEC on your own (so for those who want to get their tree and leave they can do so).  Then at 10-12 tree giveaway continues but then we will have schedule that includes nature story time (the public library), nature scavenger hunt, WEC tour, and hopefully a presentation by the ARK with a raptor.  We will also have some goodie bags for the first XX number of participants in the outreach activities.   

So – we will need volunteers to help with:

1. Tree Giveaway:  helping residents select their tree and having them fill out the forms we will have

2. Education and Outreach: assist or lead activities, nature scavenger hunt and WEC tours

 For your info: We will have 400 free trees and shrubs. All 3-gallon sized and Texas native species that include:  American beautyberry, parsley hawthorn, Texas persimmon, deciduous holly, Mexican plum, overcup oak, willow oak, palmetto palm, and elderberry.

 Let me know if you would like to help or just help spread the word!  The event is in the Jetty Fall visitors guide and will be posted on Facebook hopefully by tomorrow.

If you’d like to know more about the migratory birds that pass our way and when, you can download this pdf document.

 If you’re interested, please contact:

 Rae Mooney
Nature Preserve Manager
City of Port Aransas
710 W. Avenue A
Port Aransas, TX 78373
(361) 749-0081 (office)
(361) 443-4621 (mobile)
www.cityofportaransas.org

Garden.Org Weekly Newsletter. October 2, 2021.

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It’s that time of year, summer is over and fall is settling in, and we start to look ahead and start dreaming about next year’s gardens. On Garden.org we have a huge database of plants and our members contribute photos, comments and other data points about all the plants we know about. We use that data to mine out information about what are the most talked about varieties of each kind of plant. Thus, this week we present to you a collection of “Top 25” type lists. We’ll be making more of these in the weeks ahead. Enjoy the following articles as you dream of future blooms. If you have a desire for a specific “Top 25” list for your favorite kind of plant, shoot us an email and let us know at nga@garden.org and we’ll try to feature it in a future newsletter!

You can read all the great articles by clicking this link.

Enjoy!

Plant of the Week: Tecoma Stans

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Known as “Yellow Bells” or “Esperanza”, this little shrub/tree is a workhorse in the South Texas garden. It is a native of Texas, but there are also cultivars out there such as the Gold Star Esperanza which is a Texas Superstar® plant.  One would be hard pressed to find another beautiful blooming plant for the extreme variable south Texas weather.

Plant Profile

Name: Tecoma Stans

Common name: Yellow Bells; Esperanza; Yellow Elder

Family: Bignonicaea

Category:  evergreen/shrub/tree

Hardiness Zone: 11 – 15

Light Requirements: Does best in full sun, but will tolerate light shade.

Height/Spread: 30ft H/30ft W; Can be pruned back to a more manageable size.

Growing Habit: Upright; bushy; rounded shape.

Flower and foliage characteristics:  Leaves are typically mid-green, but can have a lighter tint usually with 5 – 13 leaflets. Flowers are funnel shaped and normally yellow, but some can have a red-orange color near the center of the flower. Bean-like seed pods appear after flowering is finished.

Bloom Time: Spring to Autumn

Water/Soil Requirements: This is a low water plant and can withstand periods of drought. Do water more in times of prolonged heat and dry conditions. Can be grown in almost any type of soil and will even do well as a container plant.

Propagation: Propagate by seed in the Spring and by semi-ripe cuttings  in the summer.

Pests: Spider mites could be troublesome.