Category: Que Paso?

What’s new in the garden?

Events: Rolling 2014 Calendar

Festival Beach Steering Council Meeting – Monday, November 24, 2014 6:30-8pm

Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, December 13, 9 to noon

Winter Solstice Celebration – around December 20 (to be announced)
 Catalogue of Past 2014 Events:
Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, March 8, 9 to noon
Festival Beach Plant Sale – late March (date to be announced)
Equinox Celebration – around March 20 (to be announced)
FB Steering Council meeting – March 26, 6:30-8:00pm
Austin Parks Foundation Grant, 1st draft due- March 30, Final draft due April 30
Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, April 1,2 9 to noon
FB Steering Council meeting – April 23 (to be confirmed), 6:30-8:00pm
Austin Parks Foundation Grant, Final draft due April 30
Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, May 10, 9 to noon
FB Steering Council meeting – May 28 (to be confirmed), 6:30-8:00pm
Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, June 14, 9 to noon
FB Steering Council meeting – June 25 (to be confirmed), 6:30-8:00pm
Keep Austin Beautiful Grant – due July 1
Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, July 12, 9 to noon
Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, July 12, 9 to noon
Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, August 9, 9 to noon

Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, September 13, 9 to noon

Apiary Unveiling, Ribbon Cutting and Celebration with Music – Saturday September 27 noon to 5pm

Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, October 11, 9 to noon

Festival Beach Workday – Saturday, November 8, 9 to noon

Event: Monthly Workday-Saturday, February 8, 2014-A Great Success!

FBCG Workday 1 2/8/14

FBCG Workday 2 2/8/14

FBCG Workday 3 2/8/14

FBCG Workday 4 2/8/14

FBCG Workday 5 2/8/14

FBCG Workday 6 2/8/14

The workdays are a great way to help maintain the common areas, learn new things, meet your work hours requirement, and get to know fellow gardeners.
There are many projects to work on including:
• Moving a pile of bamboo and logs so a bobcat can enter
• With the use of a bobcat, prepping for development of a rain garden
• Weeding and mulching swale, especially newly planted items
• Transplanting some larkspur along the inside banks of the swale
• Harvesting compost
• Planting the perennial area under the peach tree
• Mulching and pruning perennial beds along the main path
• Composting asparagus beds near section A and mulching perimeter
• Mulching other wildlife habitat areas and weeding perimeters
• Transplanting native grasses

Katie
Workday Coordinator

Festival Beach Community Garden Named “Garden of the Month” 2014

FBCG is profiled as the “Garden of the Month” in the February 2014 issue of Habitat Herald, Cultural Places, Natural Spaces published by the Austin Parks and Recreation, Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens and Wildlife Department. Meredith Gray, the Coordinator says “Your garden is famous. Congratulations and please share with all your gardeners.”

Article in Wildlife Austin February 2014 Newsletter_Garden of the Month

Event: Monthly Workday – November 9, 2013

Join us on November 9, 2013 from 9am to 12pm for our monthly workday.  The Compost Committee will be leading the day. There are always lots of tasks to accomplish and it’s great to work side-by-side with fellow garden enthusiasts.

Hope to see you there!

Wheelbarrowing

Teamwork

Hardwork

If you can’t join us this month, our monthly workdays are the second Saturday of every month.

Our Community: In the Garden series: In Search of a Pumpkin Patch 2013

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At Festival Beach Community Garden, our focus is not only on the plants, structures, and people in the garden, but it is also on the community that surrounds us. We hope to welcome the garden’s neighbors and share messages about gardening and healthy living to all, especially the youth of our area.

This entry is a 2011 recap by Regina about one of the first tours in the garden for kindergarten and pre-kindgarten children from Sanchez Elementary.

The tour went wonderful. The children were so very excited to be in the garden. We went on a search for pumpkins. Although we never found any pumpkins, they were excited to see the cotton, okra, herbs and other types of vegetables growing. They actually enjoyed the tool shed too. We played a game of “What is this tool used for”. It’s amazing what excites kids of this age group. Libby and Christina were on hand and helped a great deal. Christina offered some of her squash blossoms for tasting. Julio also gave a tour to a group of pre-kindergarteners.

At the end they sat at the picnic benches and drew pictures of things they saw in the garden. I gave the teacher 4 packages of seeds that were in the shed. They will be used for their garden at school.

A new set of children from Sanchez visited the garden again in 2012 and they were able to find a new pumpkin patch that was planted with them in mind. In addition to the garden tour, they were treated to a few smelly moments in front of the compost bins to learn about composting.

We look forward to continuing this effort to educate students.