YGC excited for new community garden

A location has been set for the new Yoakum Community Garden. The garden is hosted by the Yoakum Garden Club (YGC). They have been around for 50 years.

“When someone in our group mentioned doing a community garden, we started looking into it and got pointed toward the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service,” YGC President Cindy Mucala said. “They have a program in place to do just that and did it in Yorktown first. They have a very large garden there now that has been around for three years. They can give food to the local food bank and fresh produce to anyone in the community that needs it.”

“It also gave people an opportunity to learn how to garden. There is no charge to it, it’s just an open program that you can do. That’s what we’re doing here. We went to the city and said we needed a place to have a garden. We wanted this garden to be closer to town. The Director of City Services Doug Laqua went out and found us a spot in the park. It is behind the city’s RV Park, between the RV Park and the Golf Course. It is about a 60 by 40 square foot area inside a high fence. It has a water well in it.”

There is a specific mission and goal for this garden in the community according to Mucala.

“The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Better Living for Texans Program looks forward to partnering with organizations to support the development and implementation of a community garden,” Mucala said.

“Their program is called ‘Growing and Nourishing Healthy and Community Gardens.’ They do teaching, that’s their main objective. They want to teach people how to grow and preserve a community garden. They also want to teach people the nutrition of different vegetables and what to do with it as well.”

“Our YGC is made up of elderly people, but we also want to help with youth groups that may need some service opportunities to help us maintain our garden.”

Many plants can be grown in this garden.

“We want to have a rock bed with cactus type things in it so people can know how to grow in a dry environment,” Mucala said. “We will also have any and all kinds of vegetables. We will start with three or four tubs that sit on the ground, but are also up high, so that people can work in them without having to go down on the ground. Then you keep adding to it. Once we get ours going, the next group can come along and add to it. That could be a 4-H group or a church group.” “Everyone that’s known about this said it’s a wonderful idea and they would like to get involved.”

Any community members can be involved in any way they want with this garden. Folks just need to reach out to the YGC, and they can get them started in participating in this Community Garden. They can reach Rita Kasper at 361-401-9045. However, the garden will not start until the middle of April.

“We will, however, go out to the garden beforehand and start planting some vines on the fence or start an herb bed on the ground,” Mucala said.

The YGC is looking forward to getting this garden going and hopes people will benefit from learning how to maintain a garden.