Gardens
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Earth Day 2024: Our Earth, Our Future
Celebrate Earth Day by beautifying our Lakeway community together! The City of Lakeway is hosting a volunteer event on Monday, April 22nd, at 11:00 am, where we’ll be planting flowers at the Lakeway Swim Center (3103 Lakeway Blvd.). If you’re passionate about keeping Lakeway vibrant and want to meet some friendly neighbors, this is the perfect opportunity! The City will provide all the necessary equipment for the planting, and afterwards, volunteers can enjoy some delicious snacks and pick up Earth Day goodies with helpful information. What to bring: Reliable transportation (your car) Comfortable clothing (dress for the weather) Comfortable shoes Gardening tools (optional, but feel free to bring your own!)…
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Grow Big in a Small Space: The Magic of Square Foot Gardening
Dreaming of a bountiful harvest but limited on space? Look no further than square foot gardening (SFG)! This revolutionary method, developed by Mel Bartholomew, allows you to maximize your yield in even the tiniest of balconies or patios. What is Square Foot Gardening? Imagine your garden bed divided into a grid of 1-foot by 1-foot squares. Each square becomes its own mini-ecosystem, planted with specific vegetables, herbs, or flowers according to their spacing needs. This eliminates wasted space and allows for intensive planting. Benefits of Square Foot Gardening: High Yields: SFG utilizes a special, lightweight soil mix that promotes healthy growth, leading to impressive harvests from a compact area. Low…
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Cultivate Longevity: Your Guide to Blue Zone Gardening
After our Lakeway Garden Club Spring mixer last week, we had many requests to share more information about Blue Zone gardening. Enjoy! Have you ever wondered what the secret is to a long and healthy life? Look no further than the Blue Zones! These five regions around the world – Sardinia (Italy), Ikaria (Greece), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Loma Linda (California), and Okinawa (Japan) – boast populations with exceptional longevity. And one key element they all share? A deep connection to gardening. Here’s why you should consider incorporating Blue Zone gardening into your life: Move Naturally: Gardening isn’t just about planting seeds. It involves weeding, watering, harvesting – all activities that…
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Texas A&M AgriLife hosts Monthly Open Houses in 2024
Join Us in the Texas A&M AgriLife Demo Garden for our monthly Open House! The first Friday morning of every month is designated as a FREE open house for the Texas A&M AgriLife Earth-Kind Demonstration Garden at 1600 Smith Road, Austin. You’ll be able to visit the garden and speak with the Travis County Master Gardener volunteers who maintain it as well as get your gardening questions answered by the Plant Clinic staff. Each month will also feature some sort of demonstration or workshop that deep dive into subject areas. See monthly topics below. Monthly Topics January 5th – Tree Trimming February 2nd – Houseplant University March 1st – Rose…
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How to Make a Yard Appealing to Birds
To make your yard appealing to birds, transform it into a thriving ecosystem rather than just a manicured garden. Replace conventional lawns, often referred to as “green deserts,” with native plant species that provide essential resources for birds. Focus on creating a haven that caters to the “big four for birds”: nesting sites, protective cover, natural food sources, and clean water. Here’s some recommendations: Emulate the layers found in a local, natural ecosystem. In Central Texas, where the natural landscape is characterized by a mix of grasslands, woodlands, and riparian areas, recreate this diverse ecosystem in your garden. Incorporate a variety of native plants that mimic the natural layers of…
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Let’s Grow: Pollinator Gardens for Monarch Butterflies
Monarch butterflies are a beautiful and important part of our natural world in Central Texas. They are also in decline, due to habitat loss and other factors. One way to help monarch butterflies is to plant a pollinator garden. A pollinator garden is a garden that is designed to attract and support pollinators, such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Pollinators are essential for the health of our planet, as they help to pollinate plants, which is essential for food production. Below is a great pollinator plant chart (PDF – printer version) that you can print and take with you to your local garden nursery to pick out your selections. When…
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Be Water Wise and Build a Rain Garden
Rain gardens are a great way to reduce flooding, improve water quality, and add beauty to your yard. They are shallow, vegetated depressions that are designed to capture and filter stormwater runoff and are especially beneficial in areas like Central Texas, a region that is prone to flooding. Here are some easy steps to create a rain garden in your yard: Choose a location. The best location for a rain garden is in a low-lying area that is close to your home’s downspouts. This will help to ensure that the rain garden captures as much stormwater runoff as possible. Prepare the soil. The soil in the rain garden should be…
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Planting “Deer Resistant” Flower Gardens in Central Texas
Deer are a common sight in Lakeway and Central Texas, and they can be a nuisance to gardeners. They love to eat young transplants of all kinds and will often nibble on most plants to “test” them out even if they are considered “deer resistant”. But if you’re looking for ways to keep deer out of your flower beds, there are a few things you can do. One option is to plant native deer resistant flowers. There are many different types of deer resistant flowers available, so you can find ones that will fit your garden style. Some popular deer resistant flowers for Central Texas include: Black-eyed Susans Bluebonnets Coneflowers…
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Let’s Grow: WaterWise Gardens with the Lakeway MUD
Lakeway Municipal Utility District (LMUD) is hosting a week-long series of water-related speakers from March 27-31 at their district office (1097 Lohmans Crossing). Join us on Monday March 27th at 2pm when the Lakeway Garden Club shares tips for successfully growing drought-tolerant, low-maintenance native plants and how to create a WaterWise garden! The Lakeway Garden Club is free and open to all local area residents. For information about the Lakeway Garden Club, visit https://lakewaygardenclub.com
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Successful Gardens Create Thriving Habitats for Birds
What’s a garden without birds? As gardeners, watching birds perched on a branch or visiting a feeder can impart a certain connection to nature that little else does, and many believe listening to their melodies alleviates stress. Birds are the most cost-effective way of reducing the number of pests in your garden. Their young are ravenous consumers of insects, including aphids, whiteflies, cabbage worms, cucumber beetles, grubs, earwigs, stinkbugs and, especially, caterpillars. According to Doug Tallamy, a University of Delaware professor of entomology, one clutch of chickadees, for instance, requires 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars, delivered by their parents, to sustain them from birth through first flight, which is just over…
