San Saba Garden Club met at 2 p.m., Tuesday, February 5th at the historic clubhouse in Mill Pond Park. Hostesses Dianna Furlan, Patricia Warren, Anna Wilson had decorated the buffet table with a hot pink tablecloth with a beautiful antique white lace cover, with hot pink and red satin draped on top, strewn with silver beads, lace and valentine hearts around an arrangement of gorgeous red and pink long stem roses in babies breath and greenery. Silver candelabras and trays offered miniature pecan muffins, pecan pies, and cherry cheesecake bites, chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate kisses, mints, nuts, and finger sandwiches of tuna salad, and tuna and pecan in cream cheese. A sparkling red punch was served with a silver ladle from a crystal punch bowl, and coffee and water were available. The tables were clad in red and white tablecloths dressed with lace and topped with bud vases of red and pink roses.

After we had noshed on goodies and chatted around, due to the absence of president Ann McElroy and vice president Lynn McHenry, treasurer Gail Bruner conducted the meeting. Others in attendance were Donna Baker, Gail Bruner, Judy Brister, Sheri Clarkson, Sharon Conyers, Marcie Cooper, Trish Fullerton, Imogene Hawkins, Sharon Hayes, Fran Hulgan, Sandy Kuykendall, Carol Littlefield, Marilyn Miller, Becky Moore, Louise Oswald, Jeanne Sauer and Nancy Van Etten.

Our former president now associate member Nancy Nelson paid us a special visit to assist her daughter Jami in presenting a program on Sustainable Landscaping. Jami Nelson holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M and owns a successful landscape design business in Austin, and she has served all over Texas and several other states for projects as small as homeowner flower beds, to major commercial projects with budgets up to a half million dollars. Jami explained that the object of sustainable landscaping is to use minimal resources, like water, fertilizer and pest control. This is accomplished by harvesting rain water – capturing and storing it for use in your garden, and by using native plants or plants that have adapted to our local conditions. Other means presented to sustain landscapes were: composting, using recycled materials like composite decking, and by using native gravel or rocks to accent the garden. Jami showed us slides of her creative “before and after” solutions in which she used native plants and natural stone landscape constructions with various colored crushed stone mulches, turning plain back yards into low maintenance private retreats with a variety of levels and featured points of interest.

Jami announced her very clever new free online landscape design tool to help take all the guess work out of your landscape planning. In the next few weeks, her new web site:mylandscapede-sign.com will offer the application where you may choose from five landscape styles, bed shapes and sizes, and select plants for it. Once you have selected all your plants, you just print out your design, which calculates a list and number of plants to buy, and the amount of soil and mulch you’ll need. Of course, If you would prefer a custom landscape design, you may visit Jami Nelson through her at: mylandscape-design.com to discuss your project.

Next we held our regular meeting, and Carol Littlefield announced that the club will hold its annual plant sale on April 6th at the courthouse. Lucky Ms. Judy Brister won the door prize – a bottle of Wedding Oak wine and chocolate truffles in time for Valentines!

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 5th at the clubhouse in Mill Pond Park, and as always, we welcome guests interested in gardening.