Volunteer this Fall in Round Rock

News from the City of Round Rock, Texas:

Come join a new project with the City of Round Rock Public Works department.  The City building at 3400 Sunrise Road, Round Rock, is looking for help to clean up and prepare the property’s bed areas for new native plants.  Many of the original plants have died.  Weeds are spreading, and City staff want to turn the property into a demonstration site of native plantings.  This fall, we are looking for helpers to assist with weed pulling (there’s a lot), possible compost spreading, native seed dispersal, and some shrub pruning around the perimeter of the building, as well as  the parking lot islands.  New plants will be installed in the spring.

Work days will be scheduled for every Friday morning starting October 18 thru December 6 (weather permitting and if there’s still work to do), from 8-10am.  Please bring your own gloves, sharpshooter shovels, hand trowels, and other weed pulling devices.

Please note this building is occupied by employees, so there will be people around, as well as vehicles.  The good news is that means there’s plenty of parking, restrooms, and water fountains available! 

  • Location: City of Round Rock Utilities & Transportation office at 3400 Sunrise Road, Round Rock
  • Date/Time: Fridays from 8-10am starting October 18, 2024.
  • How to Volunteer: Reach out to Jessica Woods, City of Round Rock Water Conservation Coordinator, with questions or to volunteer. jwoods@roundrocktexas.gov, 512-844-8514.

Announcing Regular Landfill Pollinator Garden Workdays

We’re going to have regular workdays at the landfill pollinator garden each month, on the third Sunday of the month. The first of these will take place on Sunday, October 20, 2024, 8:30am to 11:30am.

  • No NPSOT sign up required! Join us at the garden when you can. Bring a hat, boots, gloves and water. Bring your favorite tools.
  • We’ll have the workday dates on NPSOT-Wilco’s website calendar. If NPSOT plans change for a particular date for some reason, we’ll update the specific date’s calendar entry so be sure to check there for news.

The Pollinator Garden is a collaboration of the NPSOT-Wilco chapter, Good Water Master Naturalists, Williamson County Master Gardeners, and Williamson County Waste Management. The garden includes a Monarch Waystation and is a Certified Texas Wildscape.

Volunteers help maintain the garden when the collaborating organizations announce a maintenance work day.  Anyone interested is invited to help!

image of large native plant garden

Call for Volunteers!  NPSOT @ H-E-B on Oct 16 & 19

[Post updates: 9/15-form closed. 9/11- one store removed from list.]

News on Sept 15 – Thank you! We have enough volunteers to cover the two stores. The signup sheet is now closed. If you have any questions, contact Nancy Pumphrey via the contact form at this link. (Choose Projects/Community Gardens.)


For October’s Texas Native Plant Week, H-E-B will be selling NPSOT-recommended native plants, and at some stores across the state, NPSOT volunteers will be on-hand to distribute native plant seed mix packets. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation’s Pollinators and Prairies program is donating the seed packets containing NPSOT-recommended mixes from Native American Seed.

On October 16 and 19, the Williamson County Chapter will host tables at one to three up to two local H-E-B stores in Georgetown and Hutto, depending on the number of people who volunteer.  The stores were selected by H-E-B. Though the event is in mid-October, we need to line up our volunteers asap so State NPSOT can confirm all tabling activities across all the stores with H-E-B by the middle of September.

Details:

  • Wednesday, October 16, 11am–2pm, and Saturday, October 19, 11am–2pm.
    • For each day, we need 2 volunteers per shift.  Volunteers can sign up for 1 or more hours, whatever works for you.   Volunteers will give away the seed packets and answer questions.  
  • The Society will provide table signage to us with info about NPSOT, the native plants currently on sale at H-E-B (including QR codes) and TPWF Pollinators and Prairies program information.  

How to Signup:

Nancy Pumphrey will have a signup sheet at the chapter meeting on September 12, or you can fill out the volunteer form at this link.