Gardening
- Activities
- About Us
| Season | Schedule | Gardening activites | Key focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring (Mar to May) |
Saturday: 9:00am-11:00am | Pruning Trees & Shrubs Veggie Saplings Harvest & Planting Garden Bed Preparation |
Prune fruit trees, harvest winter veggies and prepare garden beds for spring. |
| Summer (Jun to Aug) |
Saturday: 8:00am-10:00am Sunday: 6:30-8:00pm |
Planting & Harvest Mulching On Demand Watering Hands-on Classes |
Mulch garden beds to conserve water and improve aesthetics. |
| Fall (Sep to Nov) |
Saturday: 9:00-11:00am | Harvest Cleanup Specific Projects |
Special projects to improve the landscape aesthetics |
| Winter (Dec to Feb) |
Saturday: 10:00am-11:00am | Planting & Harvest Winter Protection Pruning |
Winter gardening |
PS: Additional schedules will be planned for new garden projects and events. Schedule is also subject to availability of good weather.
The HTW gardening team plans and executes landscape and gardening initiatives. Gardening team manages 12000 sq. ft. of identified garden areas apart from larger landscape.
Objectives
- Improve temple landscape with green pastures, vibrant colors and Vedic plants
- Nurture sustainable gardening by engaging everyone particularly younger generation in the community using environment
friendly gardening methods - Create a mature natural eco space for co-habitation of different habitats like native birds, animals, insects to co-exist in our landscape.
- Inculcate organic gardening practices engaging the community at large through gardening events and education programs.
Key developments
New Gardens
- Priest garden includes religious plants that priests utilize as offering to deities.
- Flower beds with fragrant, colorful flowers to beautify temple landscape and offering to deities.
- Vegetable gardens’ produce is usually used in Sunday Annadanam cooking.
- Herb garden has select herbs for offering to deities and temple kitchen needs.
- Pollinator garden adds vivid colors and attracts bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinators.
- Fruit trees recommended by Texas A&M master gardeners include Apple, Citrus, Fig, Pear, Nectarines, Plum, Banana, Paw Paw, Persimmons etc.
- Founders’ Trees were planted. Each tree has been carefully selected considering the zoning requirements and unique nature of the tree. The trees will symbolize the strong foundation the founding members has given to the community in several years to come.
- Garden Trellis were installed. Established to enhance the landscape. It now serves to anchor fragrant jasmine plants and serve as a photo shoot spot for visitors.
- Native species of shrubs and trees inside and outside the temple premises including species of Oaks, Bald Cypress, Hackberry, Loblolly Pine, Green Ash, Silky Dogwood etc..
Optimized Resource Utilization
- In 2018, borewell was installed that can supply about 500K gallons of water for temple landscaping needs.
This saves substantial expenses we had from using city water. - Using drip irrigation and manual on demand watering methods in high sun areas to conserve water.
- Expanded and upgraded irrigation systems including new zones, drips, remote controllers and several water savings schemes.
- Compost bins are installed in several areas inside the landscape. The used flowers, temple kitchen veggie scraps, gardening wastes are converted into organic compost.
Community Engagement in Gardening Activities
- Engaging kids in volunteering activities in the garden like planting, harvesting etc
- Involving Eagle Scouts for building garden benches, signage boards, wooden trellis/cages etc
- Consulting Master gardeners in the community and enable hands-on experience at the premises
- Promoting organic gardening practices through gardening events
- Conducting hands-on summer education programs on gardening
- Participating in community programs like “Community Reforestation Program” organized by Woodlands Township
Volunteering opportunitiesThe gardening program is run entirely by willing volunteers of all ages. There are several volunteering opportunities that people can get involved.
- Watering plants on regular basis as per the schedule based on the seasons
- Participating in weekend regular gardening sessions
- Maintain a specific garden area at volunteer’s convenience
- Take up a garden or landscape improvement project and complete it
- Help in the gardening events like Earth day, Arbor day, Founder’s Day, Fall Harvest
Volunteers always say that it is a very therapeutic experience working with mother nature.
Register as a Volunteer