Somervell County Master GardenersTexas A&M AgriLife Extension Service

Community Horticulture Program – How to Prune Trees and Shrubs

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Monday, October 28, 2019, 6:00 pm
209 SW Barnard

Steve Chaney

Steve Chaney, Tarrant County Horticulture Agent

Whether by man or nature, all plants are eventually pruned. Proper pruning can enhance your landscape and improve the health of your trees and shrubs. Come hear Steve Chaney, Tarrant County Horticulture Agent, speak on pruning at a joint educational meeting of the Somervell County Master Gardeners and the Prairie Rose Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. Learn the best methods, times, and equipment to use for pruning native and non-native trees and shrubs alike, at 6:00 pm, October 28, 2019 at the Somervell County Citizens Center located at 209 SW Barnard Street in Glen Rose. This program is free and open to the public.

Master Gardener Open House

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Calling all Gardeners! Join us for the Somervell Master Gardener Open House/Meet and Greet on Wednesday, February 20th at 10am at the Somervell County Extension Office, 1405 Texas Ave., Glen Rose, directly behind the Expo Center.

At this event, you can learn all about what it takes to become a Master Gardener, you will meet current Master Gardeners, our Master Gardener coordinator, Ellerie Jackson, as well as other individuals who will be taking the Master Gardener Training Course. You will have the opportunity to ask questions about the MG program and more importantly, you can sign up to take our Master Gardener Training Course, which starts April 2, 2019!

We will have a short program on postage stamp gardening, given by one of our Master Gardeners. As this is our regularly scheduled monthly meeting, you can sit in with us as we conduct our short business meeting and learn what projects we are working on.

Come and let us show you why you will want to be a part of this fun and exciting group! 

Next CHES Meeting

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The Community Educational Horticulture Sessions have been suspended for the summer, but go ahead and mark your calendar for the second Monday in September, the 11th.

Shirley Smith and Donna Hagar will present a program on Building a Rain Barrel and Harvesting Rain Water.

Have a safe and wonderful summer.  Enjoy your garden!

CHES – Monday, May 8th

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This Monday, May 8th, the CHES

program will be on Water Well Conservation,

including understanding your well

and touring a mock well.

                             Karen Siddall is bringing a demonstration trailer with a mock well, so people can understand

                             the different water table levels and the types of soil and rock we are dealing with here.
                             Her excellent presentation also explains how pumps work.
                             Don’t miss this opportunity to understand your important part in water conservation! 
                             Come to the Citizen’s Center, just off the east side of the square, 209 SW Barnard,
                             at 6:30 pm, to enjoy this informative program.

Master Gardener Training

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CALLING ALL GARDENERS…

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office of Somervell County, along with the Hood and Johnson County Extension Offices, will be offering a Master Gardener Training starting in March 2017.  If you are an avid gardener or someone who enjoys learning about horticulture this is a great opportunity.  Training topics will include in-depth classes on plant diseases, soil fertility, trees, grasses, vegetable production, irrigation, organic gardening, entomology and more.

You may ask yourself what exactly is a Master Gardener?   A Master Gardener is an individual who has completed extensive training and has served the community by sharing their gardening knowledge through the activities of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.   They are enthusiastic, willing to learn and to help others, and are able to communicate with diverse groups of people.  What really sets Master Gardeners apart from other home gardeners is their special training in horticulture.  In exchange for their training, persons who become Master Gardeners contribute time as volunteers, working through their Extension office to provide horticultural-related information to their communities.

If you think the Master Gardener Program may be for you, contact Zach Davis at the Somervell County Extension Office by emailing [email protected] or call 254-897-2809. The fee for the 2017 Master Gardener training is $150, this includes Master Gardener Training Manual, field trip fees and all other training fees.

Next CHES Meeting, November 14th

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Common Invasive Species on Rangeland

Characteristics, Management and Control

Are you overlooking a sea of cedar on your property? Wondering what to do about Johnson Grass?  Join us on Monday, November 14th to meet our local Natural Resources Conservation Service’s District Conservationist Bill O’Quin.  This will be the second time Bill has visited our chapter, and we are excited to have him back with us!  Save time for questions and answers, as he also has management grants available for landowners, and is himself a wealth of information!

 

Next CHES Meeting, Rainwater Harvesting, October 10th

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Presented by Zach Davis, Somervell County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources

Water? It’s an issue that people don’t want to think about, but it’s something we all need. We know our water supply is limited and it’s something that is not going to get a whole lot better. As society moves forward we need to find ways to conserve as much as we can.  A simple solution that will continue to be important in the future is Rainwater Harvesting.

Rainwater Harvesting reduces the demand on our existing water supply and helps reduce the contamination of surface water which is a “win-win” for everybody. Rainwater can be sanitized so you can use it for basically any purpose you use traditional water. Different uses include:

  • Landscape watering
  • Wildlife and livestock watering
  • In-home use
  • Fire protection, etc.

As diverse as our needs are, whether you live in a rural, semi-rural or urban setting, a rainwater harvesting system can be just as diverse and just as beneficial. The systems can be as simple or as complex as you would like it to be. The choice is yours to make it your own!

RainBarrelHow much rainwater can you catch from a couple barrels??? A 2,000 sq. ft. house X 0.6 X 1 inch of rain = 1,200 gallons of water. To put that in reference to how much we use, the average American uses approximately 69 gallons of water per day. A one inch rain could supply you with water for 17 DAYS. AND leave 1,200 gallons of ground water in our aquifers.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic come down for the Community Horticulture Educational Series, October 10th, at the Senior Citizens Center, Glen Rose, at 6:30 pm.

 

About the presenter:

Zach DavisZachary A Davis, County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources, has been employed for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service for seven years serving in three different counties. Stationed in Somervell County for over one and a half years, Davis has worked with master gardeners, homeowners, master naturalist, livestock producers and 4-H youth to promote proper agriculture practices.

Zach and his wife Kristen, a self-employed wedding photographer, currently have a 2 year-told daughter named Emma. In addition to his extension work Davis has a small herd of black maine-angus cows that are managed on his parent’s ranch in Slidell, TX.

 

Educational programs of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating.

NEXT CHES PROGRAM, MARCH 14TH

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Can we save our oaks from oak wilt?

There are not many things more heartbreaking for Texans than to watch our mighty oaks succumb to Oak Wilt.  There are several things we can do to prevent the spread of oak wilt and keep oaks as part of our local landscape.

Rachel McGregor, Texas Forestry Service’s Oak Wilt expert for our region will introduce us to Oak Wilt, including prevention, identification and disease management (when to prune, how it spreads and options for stopping the spread) at our Monday evening meeting.

We will then follow up with a field day at High Hope Ranch, Tuesday morning from 10:00 AM – noon, so we can put what we’ve learned to the test.  We will see live oaks with and without oak wilt and discuss the best interventions and protocols.  This will help us all be able to identify what is going on in our own property and neighborhood.  If you would like to join us at High Hope Ranch (adjacent to Fossil Rim’s Overlook) please let our program chair, Sandra Skrei know by emailing her.

A great link for your further research:  http://texasoakwilt.org/oakwilt/

Rachel McGregor is from Springtown, Texas. She is married and has an almost two year old red headed image2son, Resin, and yes what they say about a red heads temper is true. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelors of Science in Urban Forestry in 2010, while working on undergraduate research with Dr. David Appel at Texas A&M University on oak wilt. Rachel received a Masters of Science in Plant Pathology with an emphasis on Nematology from Tarleton State University in 2012. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Cross Timbers Urban Forestry Council and is an ISA Certified Arborist . Rachel has been working as a Staff Forester II in Granbury for almost three years and her goal is to educate the public on the importance of early detection and management options for Oak wilt, while also assisting landowners with helpful stewardship information and resources for their property.

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Rachel was recruited from Texas A&M to attend Tarleton as one of the first graduate students in Forestry.  She is the Staff Forester in the Forest Resource Development & Sustainable Forestry division for Texas A&M Forest Service. She is one of seven foresters to cover land owner outreach in the entire state of Texas.  Each state in the United States has a forestry agency, but Texas was the first in the nation to establish its state forestry agency as part of a land-grant college.

 

The Prairie Rose Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas has a short business meeting starting at 6:00 PM Monday, March 14 (and the second Monday of every month), followed at 6:30 by a joint program with the Somervell County Master Gardener’s CHES program.  The public is always welcome to attend.  We meet at the Somervell County Senior Citizen’s Building, just off Glen Rose’s square.

Remember October 3rd!

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JOIN US FOR THE BIG “B” EVENT!!!!!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, BARNARD’S MILL

307 SW Barnard, Glen Rose

The weather should be glorious for the second annual event focusing on bees, bats, birds, bluebonnets and all things native.

Plant sales and booths set up 8-9 am,  and the event will be roughly 9-3.   Participating will be Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose Bird Club, Somervell County Master Gardeners, Rio Brazos Master Naturalist, Glen Rose Garden Club and Dino-Bee Club.

At 10 am, our first speaker,  Plantsman and longtime NPSOT member Armand Huffault will present “Gardening with Native Plants.   Next program at 1pm Bat World Sanctuary offers a very informative program that will give the audience a new appreciation of these little, often feared, beneficial pollinating mammals.

Event will wind down by 3 pm.