It is the time of year when many want to plant a garden, but historic drought restrictions in Corpus Christi can make that tough. However, the South Texas Botanical Gardens on the Southside is making a gardenscape easier with its annual plant sale Saturday.
Walkways are lined with colorful native plants and pollinators, all thriving on minimal water, making it hard to tell a drought is happening at all.
"Instead of bringing in a lot of plants that come from a wide range of areas, we're trying to focus this year, make it an educational event to show people plants that you can put in your yard that take minimal water once they're established," Dr. Michael Womack said.
The change did not come without a cost. The Botanical Gardens skipped its sale last year while trying to navigate new water restrictions.
"Our big bloom plant sale is a significant financial boost. We usually make about $45,000 to $50,000 on that event each year. So last year we didn't have that. Part of that is through plant sales. Part of it is through increased membership sales and sponsors. So not having that last year did put a financial pinch on us," Womack said.
The xeriscape sale runs all day Saturday and features butterfly releases and a Texas-sized barbecue. For part of the sale, the Botanical Gardens is also selling orchids,which are marked with red tags.
While looking at some of the plants, I met Karen Decker-Creighton, who had been searching for xeriscape plants and kept coming up empty.
"We were going to generic stores like the local lumber yards and they really didn't have a display area for xeriscape and I think that's a great idea here," Decker-Creighton said.
Not everyone at the gardens is a longtime Corpus Christi resident, but even newcomers are taking notice and hope the sale helps with water usage.
"Any way that we can reduce the use of water, since there's a shortage, will help,"Randy Holmquist said.
With the newly unloaded low-maintenance plants, visitors might not think the area is in a historic drought at all.
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