Spring Cleaning for Golden Cheeked Warblers at Twin Springs Preserve
Help prepare critical habitat for the annual return of the endangered Golden-cheeked warbler. Monday, February 20, 2023, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST, at Twin Springs Preserve 400 County Road 262 Georgetown, TX 78633
Xeriscaping with Texas Native Plants by Randy K. Pensabene, NPSOT-Williamson County
“Xeriscaping” (pronounced zer-i-skaping, not “zero-skaping”) is a term coined in the 1980s. A fundamental principle of Xeriscaping, is that people living in dry climates should landscape using “appropriate plant selection,” meaning they should use plants suited to dry, arid landscapes rather than plants that need lots of water to survive.
Watering of today’s landscapes and lawns accounts for approximately 50-75% of residential water use. Instead of the typical water-guzzling landscape, you can elect to have a beautiful and functional low-water, drought-resistant landscape with native plants.
The native plants that evolved in this area survive and thrive in our soil, heat, droughts, flooding rains, and freezes. They also provide year-round nectar, seeds, fruit, nuts, and habitat necessary for our native wildlife to survive. Texas native plants provide the host plants our butterflies depend on and the food required to sustain our native bird populations and fuel our migrating birds.
Click on this link to learn more about the benefits of landscaping with native Texas plants and a list of low-water, drought-resistant landscape plants recommended for Williamson County and surrounding areas.
Typical Landscaping using high-water non-native lawn and plantsXeriscape using low-water, drought-tolerant native Texas plants
Join NPSOT-Williamson County on Thursday, January 12, 2023, for our first meeting of the new year. Our featured topic will be Bicycling with Butterflies with author Sara Dykman. Free and open to the public. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM. Please note: this month’s speaker will be joining us via Zoom. Read more about our topic and guest speaker in this previous meeting announcement.
White Mistflower, Ageratina havanensis
If you attend in person, we’re at the Georgetown Public Library, 2nd floor. If you attend in person, you are giving consent to be videoed for Zoom and YouTube (if the meeting is to be posted on YouTube).
At every meeting, we give away a book — about native plants or the meeting topic — to one randomly chosen in-person meeting attendee and one Zoom attendee!
Have an idea for a speaker? Let Program Leader Susie Hickman know via email to wilco-chapter@npsot.org.
——————-
NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public. We hope you attend! Meetings may be in person, virtual, or both, so be sure to check details in the meeting announcement. Meetings are announced on our website, our calendar and Facebook.
When: We meet the second Thursday of each month from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. A short business meeting begins at 7:00 PM followed by our guest presentation. (For in-person meetings, doors open at 6:30 PM. Check out the seed swap board, get advice from expert members, or just visit.)
Where: In person and via Zoom. When in person, we normally meet at the Georgetown Public Library. Exceptions are noted in our meeting announcements, on our calendar, and in Facebook.
Monthly Meeting Guest Speakers: See these links for upcoming or past topics.
Recordings: Find video recordings of previous meetings and field trips on our YouTube channel at this link.
