Blinn College-Schulenburg Offering Fall Classes for Growing Gardens and Trees

The Blinn College-Schulenburg Campus is offering three classes this fall designed to help amateur gardeners and botanists get the most from their foliage.

“Fall Vegetable Gardening in Central Texas” will be held Tuesday, Sept. 20, “Food Forest: Growing Perennial Foods” will be held Tuesday, Oct. 4, and “Trees, Trees, Trees” is scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday, Oct. 11 and 13. The cost is $19 each for the fall gardening and “food forest” courses. The fee for “Trees, Trees, Trees” is $39. All three courses will be held from 6-8 p.m. in Room 121 on the Schulenburg Campus at 100 Ranger Dr. “All three are really timely courses that will benefit anyone interested in gardening and trees,” said Dr. Becky Garlick, Executive Dean of the Schulenburg Campus.

David Will, former grounds maintenance supervisor at San Antonio’s Fiesta Texas, will teach the courses. Gardening classes are growing in popularity, said Will.

“I have been teaching fall vegetable gardening for more than 30 years. It’s one of the most popular classes I teach,” he said. “Students will hear gardening tips that are not in any books that I have read. One tip is how to salt your food before you harvest it.

“The ‘Food Forest’ class has been growing in popularity. People are looking for ways not to just grow fruit trees, but to have food growing in an informal garden year-round. Many orchards are sterile places, whereas a ‘food forest’ is alive with energy.”

“Trees, Trees, Trees” will teach participants to grow and care for trees, Will said.

“I talk about the 14 foundations for tree pruning that extend the life of a tree and oak wilt (how to identify it, what to do to prevent it, what to do if a tree has it), and what to plant for the next generation of trees,” he said. “A tall tree doesn’t take a lifetime to grow. This class will teach the student how to go from a fivegallon plant to a tree that shades a house in five years.”

For more information or to register for a class, contact Loraine Orellana, Coordinator of Distance and Community Education for Blinn College-Schulenburg, at (979) 743-5237 or loraine.orellana@blinn.edu.

The full list of classes being offered at the Schulenburg Campus is available at www.blinn. edu/workforce/schulenburg-fallschedule. html.