Category: Native Plants

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Enjoy a virtual walk at River Ranch County Park

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— by Sue Wiseman

* River Ranch County Park, in Williamson County, TX, is currently closed while under construction. **

Join us as Sue Wiseman, NPSOT-Wilco member, narrates this preview of the stunning River Ranch County Park located along the San Gabriel River. We are grateful to the Williamson County Parks and Recreation Department for allowing NPSOT to get an early glimpse of what’s to come and many thanks to our tour guide, Alejandra Urista.

When opened later in 2021, this beautiful 1,354 acres of meadowlands, woodlands, hills and escarpments that provide hill country vistas between Leander and Liberty Hill will offer park users the opportunity to camp, picnic, hike, bike, ride their horses, nature watch or just relax outside.

River Ranch will showcase an approximate 4,800 square foot Interpretive Center, where you can learn about the natural, cultural and historic resources that make this park so special. Group pavilions and classroom/meeting space can also be reserved for those family, church, civic, business and other group type gatherings you may have.

Click on the image earlier in this article to watch the video, or use this link.  Find all NPSOT-Wilco videos on our YouTube channel.

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Thanks for a Great Fall Plant Sale!

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— by Beth Erwin

Our Fall 2020 series of plant sales at the farmers markets in Georgetown was a huge success.  Big thanks go to the Georgetown, Sun City, and Wolf Ranch Farmers Markets for allowing us to be guests for a day.  Our hard-working, enthusiastic team of volunteers worked for months getting ready for the sale and followed through right to the end.  Believe or not, we are already working on the Spring 2021 sale!  We are extremely grateful for our plant producers for providing us great native plants to sell.  Between sales, check with Wright’s Nursery in Briggs if you are seeking more native plants.

Many of our customers were seeking native plants for shade, and plants with some level of deer resistance.  We are planning to have more shade tolerant plants in the next sale.  As for deer resistance, we will work on that, too.  There is an excellent article on dealing with deer in the landscape in the most recent issue of the NPSOT members newsletter, Native Plant Society of Texas News.  Check it out at this link.

Lots of customers downloaded and printed the plant availability list and brought it to the sale.  Several of you commented on how much you liked having it.  We will keep that going.

We appreciate the customer feedback and really enjoy talking and listening to you at the sales.

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Online Chapter Meeting Nov 12: “Managing a Native Landscape in an Urban Institutional Environment” with Justin Hayes

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[Post updated 11/3/2020 to add the Zoom link and 10/27/2020 to add more information about the topic. PD]

Join NPSOT-Wilco’s online chapter meeting on Thursday, November 12, 2020, at 7:00 pm, when guest speaker Justin Hayes will present Managing a Native Landscape in an Urban Institutional Environment.

You must register in advance to attend the meeting.  You’ll find instructions later in this article.

About the topic:  Now that I have managed the Dell/Seton Medical campus for 4 years, there have been many successes and failures. New techniques made and old techniques brought back into use. I will go through many of the different ways we manage, as well as I will try to include a good amount of pictures that show what my crew and the University are doing to increase sustainability and still have an award winning landscape.

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About our speaker: Justin Hayes has been in the landscaping industry for 20 years. Starting at the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 as a gardener, he worked his way up to crew leader and eventually supervisor of the SITES Gold certified Dell Medical District landscape.   He and his team won the Texas Turf Association’s “Best Turf in Texas” contest in 2012 for their work on the campus’ University Avenue landscape.

He received his National Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) Organic Land Care Accreditation in 2017. In addition, he is Grow Green certified as well as Level 3 certified through the Native Plant Society of Texas.

In June 2020, Justin took over a larger part of campus in which the more sustainable methods from the Medical District will be implemented. Justin is now on his 3rd year of serving on the Employee Engagement Council.

Register to Attend

You must register in advance to attend, using the link below. After registering, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to join the meeting.

NPSOT-Williamson County meetings are free and open to the public. In this time of public health risk, our in-person meetings and field trips are canceled until further notice.

Check our blog announcements, calendar and Facebook for developing plans for virtual meetings and virtual field trips.

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