As the Festival Beach Community Garden inches toward planting many of us are looking for ways to get educated about organic gardening. We’ll be having educational opportunities at the garden (dates TBD), but until then check out Garden-Ville University. They offer a range of free online classes. It doesn’t come close to digging in the dirt, but you are already spending time on the computer. So stop reading this and go learn about organic gardening 
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How To: Garden Organically
4 MarScoop the Poop
13 DecKeep East Austin clean and healthy. Scoop the Poop
Pet waste is more than smelly and unsightly, it pollutes our water! Pet waste left outdoors is flushed into the nearest waterway when it rains. This waste contains disease-causing bacteria and viruses that are harmful to pets and humans, particularly children.
Join Scoop the Poop on FaceBook
Festival Beach Fence Design
2 NovThanks to everyone who contributed their brilliant ideas for our fence design, especially Jessica Braun, Alex Gilliam, Amy Starling Rampy and Emma Brandt. Have a look here…
In reviewing the designs, several ideas emerged as important:
- there should be some visual continuity in the fence design, for example, wood and mesh panels that repeat at intervals along the perimeter.
- for the more decorative areas, we liked the idea of a framework that people could work with to create different patterns (see “warp”)
- we’d like to incorporate some educational elements — murals, other signage — on the exterior in addition to (and as part of) the community vegetables and native and habitat plantings already discussed.
PARD and the City are reviewing our application for a general site permit, and we hope to be able to start construction in December. In the meantime, we’ll focus on getting our design clear, identifying materials and sources and recruiting volunteers. More updates to follow… stay tuned!
Click on the images and links to view ideas and sketches:
Public Workshop
Public Workshop1
Public Workshop2
Public Workshop3
Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit
31 OctThe Texas Book Festival presents an interesting event for gardeners and soon-to-be-gardeners. Check it out…
For years, plants have been subordinate to the architecture to which they are juxtaposed, mere ornaments dwarfed by structures that receive priority. Scott and Lauren Springer Ogden’s Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens that Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit advocates giving plants the place of honor they deserve and making gardens the places of personal connection they should be. In this session, the Ogdens will discuss how to properly treat your garden as a living, growing being rather than a static decoration given the minimum of maintenance.
Location: Lifestyle Tent (10th & Congress)
Date: Saturday, October 31
Time: 3:00 – 3:45
Authors:
Lauren Springer Ogden
Scott Ogden
Inside Austin Gardens Tour
21 OctThe Travis County Master Gardeners Association, in cooperation with the Travis County Agrilife Extension Service, will present the 2009 Inside Austin Gardens, on Saturday, October 24, from 9 am – 4 pm MORE
Neighborhood Farmers Market Opens Sunday
21 OctThe HOPE Farmer’s Market starts this Sunday!
414 Waller Street,
Sundays, 10 am – 3 pm.
The Sunday HOPE Farmers Market is a weekly community gathering space where local farmers, artisans, community groups, families, and urban consumers can find fresh foods, community programs, artistic creations, agricultural education and wellness workshops. This unique weekly gathering space will be a platform to introduce local artists and Austin residents to surrounding area farms, healthy lifestyle companies, education in the arts and local community volunteer programs.
In addition to local farmers and prepared foods, the market will include student DJs from Austin AMP, bike repair corners, yoga workshops from Empower Yoga, cooking classes from East Side Show Room, sustainable agriculture and landscaping from Big Red Sun and host free space for other non-profits and community groups as well as promote healthy living for local artists.
The HOPE Farmers Market is a project brought to the Austin community by the HOPE (Helping Other People Everywhere) Campaign, Finca Pura Vida, Daily Juice Co., Café Mundi, Nomad Sounds, Big Red Sun, Graphic Glass Studios, Empower Yoga, Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill, Jewel Magazine, Austin AMP and HOPE Events Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3).
