Somervell County Master Gardeners

• PLANT SALE SATURDAY MARCH 30th at 9am
• Pre-Spring Inventory

PLANT SALE SATURDAY MARCH 30th at 9am

The Somervell County Master Gardeners will hold a Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, March 30th starting at 9am. The location will be the same as last year, the parking lot of First United Methodist Church Family Center on Barnard Street. There will be a varied assortment of perennials, annuals, hanging baskets, and vegetables. Plan to arrive early for the best selection!

Pre-Spring Inventory

By Tessa Chenoa Ownbey, Somervell County Master Gardener

March 12th

This is the week of the year that I wander around my garden, seemingly purposelessly.  I know it looks purposeless because my husband always asks me what I’m doing.

My wanderings are not completely without purpose, though.  My garden plans are made and committed to graph paper.  Seeds are accumulated, and I’m on the fence about the weather.  It’s my week for inventory.  I see the onions and the daylilies are up, and everything I trimmed back last month is springing forth new life…except that thing.  I wonder what that was.

I note that my natural rock borders are a little out of whack, and that it’s time to start on the next section, so I will need to go talk to my neighbor, who wants me to take away some of his limestone that I crave for my borders.  I have run out of the right size pieces on my own property.  Unless I use dynamite.

I contemplate which raised bed I am going to add into the drip system next. Probably bed #2. This implies that it is only the second one I have done, but actually Beds #1 and #3 are done, as well as old beat-up cattle trough #1.  I am about to drag old beat-up cattle trough #4 to the garden to be planted this year.  The donkeys were complaining that it no longer holds water.  Which makes it ideal for my purposes.

I note that my husband did mow down the blind prickly pear in the yard that I asked him to avoid.  And the donkeys have eaten the native honeysuckle that grew through the fence into their pasture, but the rest is doing great! The passionflower in the front yard is climbing well, but that in the garden has completely disappeared and I wonder if it will recover this year from the gulf fritillary caterpillars that overgrazed it last year. I see a rosemary bush that I want to move soon – perhaps near the yard gate; somewhere sunny.

A phoebe insists on being heard.  They are not my favorite bird.  To me, they don’t seem to be saying, “phoebe, phoebe.”  They sound like a squeaky toy being squeezed over and over again.  But I do notice that the bluebird house in the garden already has inhabitants and the start of a nest.The hummingbirds are not here yet, but I can see from the maps that they are getting close.

I think maybe I will move my “lazy-man’s” compost pile outside of the garden gate where the neighbor’s chickens, that prefer my land to his, can help me turn and aerate it. Although I am a Master Composter, this is still my favorite method of composting.  I turn it whenever I am in the mood, maybe a few times a year…but it seems to me most natural – a slow breaking down of the materials through the seasons.

I contemplate where to build my own chicken coop, since I can’t depend forever on the generosity of the neighbor’s chickens to turn my compost and be my entertainment.  And where to build the rabbit run, since I covet those little round bullets of nitrogen for my garden, as well.

My mind wanders back to the planting, and I decide to wander down the hill to see if the mesquite tree is budding.  Lord knows I’m not depending on the weather man.  No, the mesquite tree hasn’t budded yet, but that’s okay.  I have junipers to fell this afternoon, and the porch containers to fill with lemon grass and other herbs if I can find some down in Clifton.  The mesquite tree urges caution, and I listen, but in my heart spring has already sprung.