November 2nd, 2008 Getting Your Hands Dirty in Wells Branch

When I was a young teenager I applied to an integrated arts high school. Upon acceptance, I began my first year of the visual arts program. Day after day we toiled away on large sheets of newsprint with charcoal sticks and pastels, often complaining about how our hands seemed to be constantly filthy. One day, one of our art teachers commented on these concerns, saying, “if you don’t have dirty hands, how is anyone going to know that you actually did any work?”

This Wells Branch area activity is for just those people. People who don’t mind getting their hands dirty, and who love to experience the benefits of a little hard work. You’ll find the venue neatly tucked away behind Wells Branch Elementary school, on the southeast corner of the intersection at Single Trace and Town Hill Drive. Behind a stone fence at the back of the parking lot, iron gates open up to a thick canopy of vines, and lush banana trees. Fragrant smells of herbs and wild flowers waft past your nose with every breeze, and the sun beats down providing nutrients to every living thing that lies therein. This place is the Well Branch Community Garden.

The term “community” is really taken to heart with this concept. On our last visit to our plot, a sign posted on the iron gates announced a “garden & greet” where you can get to know fellow gardeners a little better, and make some new “neighbors”. Every trip has proven to us that these really are some friendly people who have a genuine passion for natural gardening (no pesticides are permitted). Some plot renters have gone a step further and decorated their spaces with bird baths, painted welcome signs and even charcoal grills, only further adding to its quaintness.

Sign-up for plots occurs annually, so if you’re interested, mark your calendar for the end of next January (February 1, 2008 is when the plots open up for would-be gardeners). If you are not exactly a gardening buff, or even if historically you don’t have a green thumb, the amenities at the garden will help to make sure you have everything needed for success. A compost pile lies square in the middle of the enclosed lot, there is a hose at each individual plot, and a tool shed contains a host of contraptions that can be used to till, turn and weed to your hearts content. As one of our plot neighbors said the other day, “it doesn’t get any easier than this.”

The Wells Branch MUD website states the price (annually) of a 10′ x 10′ plot as follows:

$25 per plot deposit

$25 per plot in-district residents

$50 per plot out of district residents

Here are a few websites that contain information about the gardening seasons in central Texas, and can help guide your fall and winter gardening, whether at home or at the garden.

http://naturalgardeneraustin.com/information/index.html

http://www.centraltexasgardening.net/calendar.htm

http://www.lcra.org/water/save/gardening/index.html