Gardening calendar can help you keep track of plantings

I tend to harp on keeping a record of what you do in the vegetable garden and flower beds and when you do it. To that end, the Wichita County Master Gardeners Association proudly announces its 2013 Gardening Calendar.

The brainchild of Master Gardener Mary Barry, we have created this calendar with the Knightcrawlers Junior Master Gardeners of Notre Dame Catholic School. Mary has volunteered at Notre Dame, helping with the JMG program since 2005. Her idea was to have the children create gardening-themed artwork, and each child in the group that submitted a picture would have the art included. Several of the children did more than one picture and I have to tell you, Mary and I spent a good bit of time deciding which of the extras to select. There are some budding artists in that group.

Inside on the calendar pages you will find gardening tips for each month, specific to our area, as well as water-wise gardening tips, recommended books and websites to help you in your gardening efforts. All of the information is solid, research-based data you can count on. There also is room to make notes and have a journal for future reference.

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, all of whom are listed inside the calendar, the cost for printing, in color, was completely covered. That allows for all sales to be profit, which will be divided equally between the Knightcrawlers and the Wichita County Master Gardeners to fund our gardening projects.

My thanks go to Benny Butler with the Wichita Falls Parks Department for his horticultural editing; to Gail Elmore, our own editor-in-chief for all things printed (the woman can spot a typo from a mile away!); to Mary Barry, Jan Gardin, and Jerry Warren for their excellent fundraising efforts, and to our printer, who wishes to remain nameless. Without their incredible help, this project would never have gotten off the ground.

We will be selling the calendars for $10 each, and will be set up at United MarketStreet on Fairway from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 8 and 15. Many thanks to the good people at United for allowing us to plant ourselves two Saturdays in a row (I couldn’t resist the pun). This is a major fundraiser for both groups, so we hope you will come out and support our efforts to help folks garden better and smarter, sharing our love of gardening, and making some new friends along the way.