Bulletin Board
- The CMG Scholarship for local high school seniors is available HERE. Application deadline is March 15, 2025.
- Our Annual Fall Auction was a success once again in 2024. Click HERE to see the list of the very generous businesses that gave donations .
- Read our Dear Comalito articles linked below. They are currently being written by some of our Master Gardener Interns. Click HERE.
Spring Gardening Checklist
As soon as the first hint of warm days appear in Comal County, the extension office and Master Gardeners get flooded with questions about when residence can start planting their gardens. The weather turns warm early for us in the southern half of Texas, but you cannot trust the warmer days to be consistent. In February alone each week has flip-flopped back and forth between freezing temperatures and days in the 80s. Backyard gardeners want to get their babies in the ground to beat the coming summer heat, but many jump the gun and end up having death by frost instead. Knowing the historical frost dates helps you to protect and time your plantings for the best success! Frost dates are determined by the average first and last occurrences of a light frost day. A light frost, ranging from 29°-32°F (-1.7°-0°C) can be enough to kill tender plants such as lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, etc. For Comal County, our typical first frost date is around November 10th while the last occurs around March 18th, giving us roughly a 236-day growing season in total. Of course, this does not take into account mid-summer temperatures, which stops all growth in our gardens.
Continuing reading HERE.
Tips from the Garden
“One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a packet of seeds.” ~Dan Bennett~
March is a time for planting in south central Texas. The ground is warming up, as we welcome Spring on Thursday, March 20. There are so many colorful flowers waiting for a chance to grow, such as aster, zinnia, coreopsis, echinacea, dahlia, cosmos, dianthus, and begonia. Here’s a large list of summer flowers including favorite nectar flowers for bees and butterflies. Click HERE for more Tips.
Focus on a Native
The Pecan tree, Carya illinoinensis, is a towering (up to 160’ tall) shade tree of the hickory family of trees. This is the state tree of Texas and it has a tall, straight trunk and sturdy branches that form a symmetrical, oval crown. Pecan trees are native in wooded bottomlands and along stream banks in a large swath of eastern states from Texas and Alabama, north to southern Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas. They have been cultivated in most of the southeastern United States from Florida to Maryland. Click here for more information.
Creepy Crawlers
Crane Flies
It’s a bit chilly and raining as I write this, but I know that soon the weather will warm up and the “Texas groundhogs” will be out in force. “Texas groundhogs” is the term I use for crane flies as these typically are the first insects we begin to see
Click HERE to learn more about crane flies.
Veggies, Q&As, and Native Plants
Happenings and Harvests in the Veggie Garden
A weekly log of veggie garden activities
Native Plant Gallery
Visit our gallery of native plants--and Go Native!