Sunshine Community Gardens’ primary fundraiser, the Spring Plant Sale and Garden Festival, will be held on Saturday, March 6, from 9 am to 2 pm at the Gardens location: 4814 Sunshine Drive. The sale is a family-friendly gathering and is greatly anticipated by experienced and beginner gardeners throughout Austin and the surrounding area. The Gardens project has been on the forefront of green practices and natural gardening in Austin since its beginning, 31 years ago.
The Gardens are located near the intersection of Lamar Blvd and 45th Street. In 1979, the Gardens entered a cooperative arrangement with the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired to provide a garden oasis in the middle of the city. It is Austin’s largest and longest-lived community garden. Garden members take pride in promoting healthy living through natural, chemical-free gardening.
Plant sale visitors will find hundreds of varieties of organic and heirloom vegetables, medicinal and culinary herbs, ornamental plants and flowers. Culinary plants include tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers (including hard-to-find varieties like Bishops Crown and Beaver Dam), eggplants, and tomatillos. Flowers and ornamentals include skullcap, butterfly weed, agaves, and many more. Visitors can purchase a bag of rich compost to get their garden started. Keep an eye out for sale updates on the Gardens website (www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org).
There will be booths of food and drink, gardening products, a silent auction, and musical entertainment by the Polkadillos, and Laura Freeman and the Hey Hollies. Festivalgoers can stroll through the area and get a glimpse of what a group of hardworking gardeners can accomplish. Though most of the members use their plots for vegetables and culinary herbs, there are also multitudes of ornamental flowers, vines, exotics and wildflowers. In addition to the growing plots, Sunshine Gardens houses a chicken coop, two large greenhouses, and several small mountains of mulch and compost.
Photo credit: Jennifer M. Ramos
