March News from the Garden |
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A Loss for the Garden
Longtime volunteer and friend of the garden, Craig Jackson, has resigned as Nursery Manager. Craig had a deep love for the garden and was incredibly knowledgeable of its history and plant holdings. His contributions to the newsletter were always informative and enlightening, and he was also a star docent who enjoyed sharing his enthusiasm with our guests. We will miss Craig and wish him great success in his next venture.
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Letter from the Executive Director |
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Greetings!
We typically ascribe a monolithic quality to mammoth weather events like last month's winter storm, Uri. It's understandable, given that Uri did uniformly punish much of the United States, northern Mexico, and parts of Canada for six consecutive days. Millions of people were affected by low temperatures, snow, rain turning to ice on highways and tree limbs, widespread and days-long power outages and no access to clean water. A bludgeon of a storm. However, having lived through that storm in a garden where the impact was manifested most clearly on plant life rather than the built environment, those six days from Sunday to Saturday felt anything but monolithic, each day bringing its own particular weather conditions and the garden its own reactions, both systems constantly changing, the weather dishing out its punishment, and the garden taking the blows. This characterization makes it sound like "the weather" and "the garden" are two discrete and unrelated entities which they are not. Still, it seems natural to think of the weather as having been on the offensive, and the garden as an innocent recipient of the aggression.
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Open Days in April
We will have Open Days at the garden on Saturdays, April 3rd, 17th, and 24th. Guided tours will leave on the hour at 10 am and 11 am. Spring should be in full effect by then. We hope you'll come see for yourself.
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Support from the Garden Conservancy
We're very pleased to announce that we were one of six recipients of a $5000 grant from the Garden Conservancy's new initiative, Gardens for Good. This award is given to gardens that are making a contribution to their communities through garden programming We are very grateful for this support. The Garden Conservancy, whose mission is to preserve, share, and celebrate America's gardens and diverse gardening traditions for the education and inspiration of the public, holds the conservation easement on our garden, and is a valued and much appreciated ally. You can see the list of recipients here.
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Insider Tour
Saturday, March 20th at the Garden
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Wade Roitsch, Former Yucca Do Nursery Manager, Leads Two Tours of the Garden |
If you're curious to know how the garden fared from the impact of Uri, you'll want to join us for our first Insider Tour of the year. Former Yucca Do Nursery Manager, Wade Roitsch will lead tours at 10 am and 1 pm to discuss the damage and what to do in response. Tickets are $25 ($15 for members) and limited to 20 per time slot.
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Tool Quiz
Last month we published an image of a tool that Adolfo and his crew made specifically to be used this time of year. In February's newsletter we asked for your best guesses on its function and received some great answers including: "Getting the pups our from under the large agaves," "Handling a wasp nest," "Making a straight line for planting vegetables," and "Collecting/pulling fruit/seed pods." While close, no one guessed the exact use. In the image below, garden crew member, Agustin Casas, demonstrates the proper use of the tool as he hooks it onto tree branches and then shakes the pine needles out, giving the tree a neater appearance. Our crew performs this task all through the garden during February. For all of you who submitted a guess, please email your mailing address to info@jfgarden.org and we'll send you a couple of guest passes to the garden. Thank you for participating.
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Last week we were visited by our neighbors from the Prairie View A&M Department of Agriculture, including Dean, Gerard D'Souza (who took this group selfie), Aruna Weerasooriya, Laura Carson, Rafash Brew, and Alfred Parks. Also pictured, Randy Twaddle and Board Vice President and Treasurer, Wally Wilkins. We have just begun discussions on how we might establish a working relationship with the faculty and students at PVAM.
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Volunteers Needed
We're always looking for volunteers and have a variety of tasks suited for a range of volunteer interests and skills. If you're interested in finding out more or in signing up, email info@jfgarden.org or call Margaret at 979.826.3232
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