Abilene libraries cultivate learning during National Garden Month

Abilene Public Library staff
·2 min read

April is National Garden Month and your Abilene Public Library is pleased to be able to provide you with the information to get started.

We have partnered with the Big Country Master Gardeners to provide the community with great programming as it relates to gardening in West Texas.

The April Master Gardeners Series session will cover Irrigation Basics at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the south branch library meeting room as well as at 10 a.m. April 14 at the downtown library, basement level. Volunteers from this organization will lead the program and it's open for you to attend free of charge. Come ready to take notes, and with your questions, and learn from some local experts in our community.

"Raised-Bed Gardening for Beginners" is available at the Abilene Public Library.
"Raised-Bed Gardening for Beginners" is available at the Abilene Public Library.

Your library also has a variety of gardening books for you to learn everything you need to know about growing just about anything. “Raised-bed Gardening for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know to Start and Sustain a Thriving Garden” by Tammy Wylie, “Gardening Your Front Yard: Projects and Ideas for Big & Small Spaces” by Tara Nolan, and “The Family Garden Plan: Grow a Year's Worth of Sustainable and Healthy Food” by Melissa K. Norris are just a few that can get you started.

Our Hobbies & Craft Reference Center contains “how-to” instructions for virtually every hobby, including gardening, with full-text for more than 1,500 leading hobby books and craft magazines. Here you can find a variety of articles on gardening and composting such as “Growing Giant Pumpkins” by Milan Lukes who has grown six half-ton pumpkins and won awards for two.

Perfect for horticulture enthusiasts, the Gale OneFile: Gardening and Horticulture database has millions of articles on the practical and scientific aspects of horticulture studies. Deanna Kizis wrote “Your Winter Garden Checklist: What to Do in Your Garden Now, No Matter Where You are in the West” for the December 2022 issue of Sunset magazine. You can access the article in its entirety via this database.

Universal Class, offers an online school where you can take any of 500+ classes, including gardening, as well as a variety of subjects and fields, and receive continuing education credit if you pass the course. For example, learn to design gardens with the class Landscaping 101. The lessons can help you improve your current yard or create one from scratch.

If you have gardening interests, check our calendar of events for more gardening programs at your library, in partnership with the Big Country Master Gardeners. They will be back to teach us about rainwater collection in May. We look forward to seeing you and learning something new at the library.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene libraries cultivate learning during National Garden Month