© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Workshop To Overcome Your Brown Thumb

Ben Eldredge
Keith Amelung Conducting Workshop at Herff Farm

If summer’s departure has you thinking about fall tree planting, an event’s being held that you should know about. I spoke to Cibolo Nature Center Education Director Ben Eldredge.

"We have a planting trees and shrubs workshop that’s going to be held at the Herff Farm, which is an extension of the Cibolo Nature Center.”

And here’s the fun part.

(The workshop) “…it will be taking place during our Farmer’s Market on Saturday, October 4th. And the workshop itself will take place from 10:30 ‘til 11:30” he said.

If you can afford the gas to get there, you can afford the workshop. It’s free. Eldredge continued.

“We often see a lot of people just come to the Farmer’s Market and discover there’s a workshop and they end up taking a seat and enjoying the presentation.”

I asked him what can participants expect to walk away with.

“What folks will learn is they’ll learn the best methods for planting a tree to insure that it is healthy, strong and successful, as well as how to care for that tree as it grows" he said.  "How to dig the hole, how big to dig the hole, what kind of soil amendments to add to the hole before you put the plant in.”

And listen up--this may come as a surprise to you.

“People often mistake spring as the time to plant.  That’s oftentimes the time when everyone heads off to buy their plants at the local nursery" said Eldredge. "However, fall is the best time to put in your trees and shrubs. Any kind of tree or shrub you want to plant, the best time to do it is in the fall.”

I asked if mulch one of the most overlooked tools for keeping our plants alive through our summers, and got an enthusiastic response.

“Oh, absolutely! Mulching is a very important thing to do for our plants.  We highly suggest mulching, both because you’re going to conserve water, but it’s also going to take good care of the tree itself.”

We’ve more on the workshop at the Herff Farm here:  https://ciboloorg.presencehost.net/experience/events/calendar.html/event/2014/10/04/planting-trees-shrubs

Best Native Plant Choices: http://npsot.org/wp/resources/links/

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii