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Welcome to HCMG!

The Hill Country Master Gardeners is an organization of enthusiastic gardeners who happily share their knowledge with all who are interested

Welcome!

Gardening in the Texas Hill Country or central Texas?
Looking for gardening inspiration and information?
Want to become a Master Gardener?
This is THE place to find it all.

We are one of the best resources you will find.
Look here for information about gardening methods, ideas, designs;
about vegetable gardening, perennials, flowers, trees, shrubs, native plants; about problems, pests, diseases, insects.
And, you will find links to a multitude of other gardening websites as well.

  Drought — it's a word gardeners everywhere dread to hear.
Visit these websites to learn more
about being an informed, responsible gardener/citizen.

                            Water Saving Tips for the Gardener

                                USGS Interactive Drought Map

                                         DO YOU KNOW?
According to Doug Welsh’s Texas Garden Almanac . . .
Impact or pulse sprinklers are best; they make the sound “chew-chew-chew” as they rotate, throwing a wide stream of water and large droplets at a low trajectory, resulting in less wind drift and less evaporation. 
Traveling or tractor sprinklers are also highly efficient, distributing large droplets low to the ground.
Spinners, sprayers & whirligigs have reduced efficiency due to wind drift and evaporation.
Oscillating sprinklers that throw water high in the air and rotate back and forth can lose half of the irrigation water to wind drift and evaporation before it hits the ground.
You can use the water that drains from your AC unit. Be sure that the end of the hose that you attach to the AC stays lower than the drain so that the water does not back up into the unit.

  
  Members of Hill Country Master Gardeners, like Master Gardeners everywhere, have received extensive horticultural training. In return for this training, we use this expertise to teach about the culture of plants and their importance to the environment and to quality of life. We are an educational, non-profit, volunteer service organization. If you would like to learn more about the Master Gardener program, click on Certification (left), or click on the link on the right.
   If you have a gardening question, call the Kerr County AgriLife Extension office at 830.257.6568 and ask to speak to a HCMG volunteer. If a volunteer is not available, your call will be returned. If you prefer, you can email your question to kerr@ag.tamu.edu. You can also check our Resources page where there is an abundance of gardening information.

 We invite you to join us — become a Master Gardener!