East Texas Gardening Guide and Calendar now available

The 2019 East Texas Gardening Guide and Calendar prepared by the Smith County Master Gardeners is now available for purchase. East Texas gardeners eagerly await it each year. Gardeners moving to this area find it invaluable to help them become familiar with the soil, climate, pests and diseases around Smith and surrounding counties.

Each month has a full page calendar with daily blocks large enough to write helpful gardening reminders and observations. The education page for each month contains a very informative article on a rose that will perform well in East Texas. Greg Grant, Smith County horticulture agent, selected these roses for their easy care and beauty. There is also a short article on some of the different cultivars of roses; this will help with selecting the rose with the best characteristics for your garden. The “Things to Do” each month is a great guide for keeping your garden beautiful. There is enough space to record notes about your garden for future reference in this section also.

The calendar also includes articles on the history of the Heritage Rose garden that is maintained by Master Gardeners, the history of roses, growing and using herbs in your garden and cooking. A vegetable planting chart will give you the best dates to plant your vegetables in this area. Gardening Events for 2019 and helpful websites for gardening information can be found in the calendar also. All of the beautiful pictures in the calendar were taken by Smith County Master Gardeners and showcase beautiful plants growing in and around East Texas.

The 2019 Calendar sells for $7. Smith County Master Gardeners will sell the calendars and answer gardening questions at the Farmer’s Market in downtown Tyler on Saturday. Calendars also can be purchased at the following locations: Ace Hardware, Noonday; Blue Moon Garden; Breedlove Nursery; Cycle of Seasons, Lindale; Fleming Farm and Ranch, Lindale; Forget Me Not Florist; Hand Nurseries; Hughes Plant Farm; In the Wind; Lillie Russell Memorial Library-Lindale; The Potpourri House; Rainer’s Nursery; Roquemore’s Hardware, Whitehouse; Rose Museum Gift Shop; Rubicon; Southland Feed; Steele’s, Troup; and the Tyler Public Library.

The Calendar can be mailed to you from the Smith County Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office, 1517 W. Front St., Suite 116, Tyler, 75702. Send a request including a $10 payment ($7 plus $3 for shipping) made out to Smith County Master Gardeners.

The Master Gardening program is a volunteer organization of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. It is comprised of people from all walks of life who enjoy teaching others about all aspects of gardening.