View on Fredericksburg Texas Native Gardening YouTube channel
Learn how to Design a Garden that invites Butterflies and Wildlife to share it with you: butterflies on your flowers, birdsong dancing in the air.
Deborah Simmons, President of NPOST Fredericksburg Chapter, will enchant listeners into creating a garden oasis graced by the presence of wildlife in their very own yard at the next meeting of the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT), Fredericksburg Chapter on June 25 at 6:30 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Halle.
“If you’ve visited Cross Mountain, you’ll notice the area is teeming with life,” noted Simmons. “Bees, butterflies, birds, and lizards make their homes in Cross Mountain Park.” She added “If you want your yard to attract wildlife like this, you can do it on purpose by designing an environment that invites creatures to come.”
Much of the wild landscape at Cross Mountain Park has been planted and is maintained by the local NPSOT chapter in partnership with the City of Fredericksburg.
Simmons has been a lover of plants since she was a toddler, first hiding beneath the green curtain of a weeping willow tree, then at age 5, watching zinnias sprout from seeds she had planted in her mother’s birdbath. She spent her professional life working with people, not plants, but always maintained a garden to breathe life back into herself. Simmons has been gardening in the Hill Country for 15 years. Learning through trial and error: if there is a mistake to be made, she has probably made it. She and her husband, Mark, operate a 90-acre conservation ranch in Doss under a wildlife management program. They are restoring meadows, removing invasive species, adding biodiversity to the woodland areas, and maintaining the riparian areas along their creek.
The Fredericksburg NPSOT chapter holds its monthly meetings on the 4th Tuesday of the month at St. Joseph’s Halle (212 W. San Antonio St., Fredericksburg). There is a social time with snacks at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting starts at 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend in person and/or live via online streaming (www.youtube.com/@fredericksburgtexasnativeg4884). More information is online at Facebook (@fbgtxnpsot), Instagram @npsot_fredericksburg_chapter, and https://npsot.org/chapters/fredericksburg/. Meetings are free and open to the public.
