Green Gate Farms Opens Soon, Farm Stand and Flowers
Farm News:
Our farm stand opens for the season on Saturday, April 2, 10-1. You’ll find veggies, flower bouquets, eggs and more each week. Cash, card or work trade accepted. (Will take SNAP soon)
Volunteers welcome at Green Gate! Join us at our east Austin farm on Wed/Sat and at our Bastrop farm on Wilbarger Bend on Tues/Thurs, nine to noon. No experience necessary. Just complete the volunteer form on our website and we’ll be in touch.
Tulips in our Tiny House
Flowers!
Flower Power Workshares: Learn how to cultivate organic cut flowers this spring by joining Farmer Erin and her team as they work/learn together for the season...Apply here
Our Flower CSA is guaranteed to put a smile on your face every week during April, May and June. Join for a month or a season, then pick up a beautiful organic bouquet at our big red Bergstrom barn every Saturday.
Partners
Black Women in Business: We are partnering with this organization to help with their east Austin feeding program. The founder Rose Smith can always use more help so don’t hesitate to volunteer.
Want to learn how to garden while supporting local farmers? Join Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association (TOFGA), the leading voice of education and advocacy for organic food production in Texas: www.tofga.org.
Village Farm Agrihood News
Where some folks see a pile of tires, Village Farm resident Scotty saw the beginnings of a pollinator garden. He created this new garden bed, beside our Permaculture garden bed, and has plans to have it designated a wildlife habitat garden. Come learn more about it at our next gardening club meeting on April 13.
Gardening Club meets at big red Bergstrom barn second Wednesdays of each month all are welcome, no experience required.
Green Gate’s Green Events Guide Coming Soon: Want to celebrate in a more eco-friendly manner? Our Interns are working on a guide to make this much easier…stay tuned.
IT’S TREE PLANTING TIME
By Farmer Erin
The Chinese say the best time to plant trees is twenty years ago and the next best time is now. We couldn’t agree more, especially when you consider it can take three years before a fruit tree rewards you with a harvest. Another reason to get trees in the ground now is to give roots the time needed to mature before the stress of summer. But what should you plant?
If you’re unsure, you’re not alone. Every week our farm hosts volunteers, most of whom have never gardened or are newly arrived to Central Texas. We explain the importance of choosing native, hearty trees like jujubes and loquats and to consider varieties with traits like the crunchy Keiffer pear that can be stored for months.
Planting a tree is easy. Keeping it alive is the challenge. After last year’s Polar Vortex we planted an orchard of 60 fruit trees at our historic east Austin farm. A large group of volunteers - mostly residents of Village Farm, the new Tiny Home agrihood around our farm — helped dig holes amended with rock phosphate and Azomite (trace minerals) for trees we sourced from Womack Nursery. Normally we wouldn’t plant in spring, but given weather challenges and tree shortages, we hoped for the best. The good news is that more than two-thirds of the trees survived.
If you’d like to plant a tree but don’t have space, sponsor a tree at our River Farm by clicking here. When you do, we’ll plant and tag it with your name so you can visit and give your tree encouragement as it grows.
Tree Resources We Like
TreeFolks
LBJ Wildflower Center
Arbor Foundation
The Natural Gardener
Hill Country Natives
Womack Trees
Milberg Farms in Kyle (he sells rare Haupt Figs)
The Wholistic Orchard by Michael Phillips
NOTE from Treefolks: If you own streamside land with minimal canopy cover in eastern Travis County and are interested in having your land reforested at no charge to you, contact us about our Travis County Floodplain Reforestation Program.
Farmer Update:
Environmental Stewardship Needs You: Our ways With Water Will Seal Our Fate
By Farmer Skip
This time last year, all Texans were shaking heads in disbelief at the freeze-burned, pipe-broken aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, a storm that froze the entire state for a week. Thankfully, we escaped a polar vortex this winter. Instead we had other record breakers: when temperatures plunged a whiplashing 56-degree in 24 hours in January, when the hottest December flipped to the third coldest February, and how a five-inch torrent fell in a single weekend followed by only a few sprinkles of rain for five weeks.
Now comes yet another upper-level disturbance to the neo-cortex as that old ghost of summers past appears to be creeping in from the West.
Read more on our website HERE!
Will we act to prevent a drought that could eclipse the drought of 2011?
By Green Gate Farms Interns Robert Egal and Vincent Dominguez
A decade after the worst drought recorded in Texas, a leading authority in water conservation is warning we need to better prepare for the next one. Steve Box, a local advocate for ecologically responsible public policy, explained to our interns the relationship between surface water flows and groundwater flows, essentially how water above ground can be maintained based on the amount of water available underground.
Our community’s water supply is highly dependent on these flows and can be disrupted by degrading the area surrounding our rivers with activities such as mining. Steve Box informed us that our river systems have a larger size that runs alongside them called the alluvium, layers of sand and gravel that act as a sponge and store water below the surface. Mining this sand and gravel creates an imbalance in our water supply that pulls water from the surface deeper and deeper underground, making it more difficult to access as a resource. This ecological degradation exposes our communities to the possibility of more severe drought and flood conditions as this natural buffer is depleted.
Read more on our website here!
Green Gate Gift Cards Available!
Need something special for your friends and family? Give the gift of fresh, organic food! We have Farm Bucks for all your celebrations.
Green Gate Farms
8310 Canoga Ave Austin, Texas 78724
512-484-2746