Houston Community Garden

Despite the winter that won’t let go, the Houston Community Garden is busy planning for another season of growing good food. In March, the Houston Elementary Second graders began the process, planting seeds in recycled egg shells and egg cartons. With help from their teachers, Matt Schutte and Heather Martin, the kids will water and “love up” their seedlings, recording their growth as they sprout under lights in their classroom. Weather permitting, they’ll plant their seedlings in the garden in May.

This summer marks the fifth year of the Houston Community Garden, a volunteer effort and project of the Friends of the Houston Nature Center with a goal to provide food to the Houston Food Shelf and educational opportunities to the greater community. While our goals have remained successfully consistent, each year we add something new to improve our variety or experiment with techniques. Last fall, we planted blueberry bushes and rhubarb, and made room for a large raised bed for strawberries, which will be installed when the weather allows.

While plans for educational classes are fewer this year, we look forward to hosting the first annual “Pesto-Fest-O” on Sunday, July 14th. The afternoon will include taste-testing competition and recipe sharing of a variety of pestos. Prizes may be given for the favorite pestos of the day. So break out your favorite recipe and tune up your taste-buds for this seasonal treat!

The biggest change this year is in opening up some 4’ X 16’ garden plots (boxes) for the use of individuals or families on a first come first served basis. For a small requested donation, the garden will provide everything except seeds and labor that will allow a person or family to grow what they’d like. Interested gardeners must sign up in person at the Houston Nature Center by Friday, May 3rd and attend a mandatory orientation session on May 5th.

Lastly, everyone is invited to the Houston Community Garden open house and orientation meeting for gardeners and volunteers on Sunday, May 5th at 1 pm. (We have requested a sunny day of 70*, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t stop by!) The garden will be open for tours and we’ll be accepting new volunteers and orienting new gardeners! If you’ve never been out to the community garden before, this will be a great opportunity to be amazed at what we have accomplished in a short time. It truly is a special space! Meet us at the nature center and we’ll guide you to the garden!

Until then, dream of sunny days and warm weather! It’s out there somewhere!

-Audrey