Gardening

Dallas Green Festival - Dallas

Dallas Green Festival at Texas Discovery Gardens
and the inaugural Texas Discovery Gardens Green Exhibit at State Fair of
Texas®!

Texas Discovery Gardens is once again hosting
the Dallas Green Festival, a celebration of environmentally positive
living! And this year we're extending it into the first ever Texas
Discovery Gardens Green Exhibit at the 2011 State Fair of Texas®!

That's over a month of environmental seeing, learning and doing!

These two fantastic events in one will feature activities and demonstrations on:

Backyard Composting Class - Arlington

The City of Arlington Master Composter
volunteers hold composting classes the second Saturday of every month
at the composting display in the Science Center's parking lot area. The
class includes demonstrations of proper pile building, and a worm
compost bin. Attendees will receive a free book. No need to register,
just show up. Dress for the weather. For more information, call
817.459.6778 or visit www.arlingtontx.gov. FREE.

Backyard Composting Class - Arlington

Organic Gardening Club Meeting - Arlington

Visitors welcome. Free. July Speaker TBA.

"Sex in the Garden" - Dallas

Dallas Organic Gardening Club Monthly Meeting:

Our next program topic is SEX IN THE
GARDEN presented by Dallas Master Gardener Janet Smith. The most
synergistic relationship in nature!

Janet Smith will provide insight
into what the flowers, insects and birds are really doing and how
pollination occurs. Learn to take advantage of this in your own
landscape.

Refreshments will be served.

Blueberry Picking at Echo Springs Farm - Brownsboro

Dallas Wildlife Hiking Group presents:

Join us for blueberry picking at Texas largest blueberry
farm with over 50 acres of land fed by a maze of underground springs.
This commercial operation is the most economical You-Pick farm in the
area. It is open to the public for pick-your-own and offers tours by
appointment. Today, we will just picking blueberries for fun! Pre-picked
and packaged Blackberries are available.

Farm Hours 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Our group starts picking at 9a although you are welcome to arrive earlier to beat the heat.

ABOUT:
Blueberry and Blackberry season lasts for only 8 weeks. We
will visit a different farm every 2 weeks to take advantage of the great
diversity in farms and produce offerings.

WEATHER - In the case of rain, this event will be rescheduled to the following weekend.

OFFERINGS: Blueberries & Blackberries

COST:

Build an Aquaponic Garden Unit - Dallas

I recently installed a 500 gallon, 80 sq ft super-efficient aquaponic
unit at Paul Quinn College (pics to be posted soon). This Meetup will
be used to go over the design and construction of that unit, with
hands-on training on the various steps in building it out. The same
basic design (with minor changes) can be built using one, two, three or
four totes depending on the size unit you wish to build, your energy
budget, etc. These designs will be discussed and the differences will be
explained in full. The unit at Paul Quinn utilizes four 275 gallon IBC
totes, and has four gravel grow beds and two raft sections. The unit is
simple enough to be built in a day using readily available, low cost
components.

Fall Garden Planning & Seed Exchange - Plano

Although the temperatures are anything but "Fall-like" right now, we
will actually be able to start planting a limited selection of Fall
veggies later this month into early August. The majority will not be
planted until September-October, but it doesn't hurt to start preparing
now.

Urgent notice: If you are tomato fans (and who isn't), now until mid July is the time to put in your transplants.

Topics for discussion will include:

1. Discussing what's working or not in your gardens right now

2. Pest and disease control

3. Fall bed preparation

4. Planting schedules and crop selection

We will also be exchanging seeds, so bring your stash to share with
others, and get some in return. Only if you have extra you haven't used
or want to exchange for something you don't already have! We can share!

Oh, the rewards of having a Texas-sized growing season! (with an oppressive heat and dry spell in the middle, of course)

Greenweavers Networking Meetup - Keller

“It's good for businesses, consumers, neighborhood, and our environment.”

This meeting's speaker will be Jackie Peal, Master Gardener from Calloway's nursery, and will be speaking on the topics of landscaping with native species and the organic/natural fertilizers. Come out to meet one of the most influential residential landscape design companies, learn something new and meet other folks in the Sustainable culture that can help your business to grow!

Free.

Greenweavers Networking Meetup - Dallas

“DFW Greenweavers is a power group of local, sustainable businesses that have been operating in the Metroplex as experts in their given Green fields.”

We will be following our synergizing format that we did last time. When people arrive you will be broken into three groups:

1) Home and Buildings

2) Food and Gardening

3) Health and Lifestyle

The first part of the meeting will be spent socializing with the
people in your industry. There has been a great response from people
spending time with others that are in their given fields.

After that you will draw a business card from the hat. You will then
have a 5 minute 1-1 with that person and you will be giving their 30
second commercial! This was a HUGE success last time. Lots of FUN!

Each meeting will be sponsored by a different business every month.
The sponsor will have 10 minutes to talk to the group about what they
do. There will be several other perks that go along with sponsorship.
The sponsor is paying the $75 room fee so that we can have our own
private room that's quiet. Finally!