Leon County 4-H members delivered Christmas poinsettias to each nursing home resident in Leon County on December 3, 2008. This outreach provides 4-H youth the opportunity to seek knowledge from former 4-H members that have so much to share. During this time of year it is always rewarding to pause and and reflect on the contributions that others have made before us.

Pic Caption: Leon County 4-H members Justin Pistone, Amy Terry and Christina Cockrell present Centerville Nursing Home resident Perline Wimberly with a poinsettia.








Tommy Neyland, CEA-Ag
Texas Agrilife Extension Service

Scholarship Training

Leon County 4-H host scholarship training on Dec. 3, 2008 at 6:00pm in the Leon County Annex Grand Activity Room. Last year Texas 4-H awarded over 220 4-H youth over 2 million dollars in scholarships at Texas 4-H Roundup in College Station. During the scholarship training Leon County 4-H members were encouraged to take the opportunity to showcase their 4-H experiences and work to try to be one of those 220 in 2009. The workshop was open to others who were looking to complete the application in the upcoming years. The focus was on how to complete the application and learning the steps of the scholarship process.

pic caption:
Texas Agrilife 4-H Specialist Laura Hebinger provides instruction to Leon County 4-H seniors and parents during the training.








Tommy Neyland, CEA-Ag
Texas Agrilife Extension Service

AGRILIFE MASTER GARDENERS SAY DECK THE HALLS WITH REAL HOLLY IN LEON COUNTY

Deck the halls with real holly...drawing on an old age adage of having a natural eco - Christmas. Instead of spending money on artificial Christmas decorations that won't bio-degrade, let nature decorate your home this Christmas. Christmas decorations can be made from organic, recycled and scrap materials. Try organic popcorn, dough, cinnamon sticks, bows, gingerbread, holly, seasonal berries, organic fruit and vegetables, ivy and evergreen branches, pine cones, gumnuts,painted eggshells, dried indian corn - after Christmas, store decorations for next year and put the branches in the composter. Have arrangements of greenery from the garden and organic seasonal fruit, with bright red apples amongst the greenery. Using garden trimmings as decorations costs nothing and you xmas-crayon_drawing_280px.jpghave to prune them anyway. Hang greenery, twist into wreaths or garlands or make table arrangements, etc with greenery and bright fruit. Apples, oranges and other fruit can last for 2-3 weeks in decorations and can be eaten after that or used for cooking a pie or for juicing, in our home they get eaten and we replace daily. Leave some greenery for last minute changes or replacements that will wilt, or as extra Christmas decorations closer to Christmas or for the Christmas table. Make a homemade wreath from branches trimmed from your garden. Decorate the outdoor trees and bushes in your yard with homemade decor that will survive a few weeks of weather.
An environmentally friendly Christmas need not be the traditional red and green. Let nature be the inspiration for your own unique, individual style. If you need ideas or just want to enjoy the beauty of a natural Christmas Tree stop and see the Natural Christmas tree donated to the county by Huebner Christmas Tree farm and decorated by Texas Agrilife Master Gardeners of Leon County in the lobby of the Leon County Annex I.

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Texas Agrilife Master Gardeners Jeff Miller, Mary Foucheux, Elaine Trefry, Kay Serifin, Charlene Manning, Carole Huebner, Brenda Savelle, Laminda Coker, and Charlie Patin.










Tommy Neyland, CEA-Ag
Texas Agrilife Extension Service

LEON COUNTY 4-H MEMBER GOES TO D.C.

Leon County 4-H member Ryan McCarty travels to Washington D.C. for Texas 4-H Leadership Conference. Over the Thanksgiving Holidays 24 Texas 4-H State Recordbook Winners and four Chaperone's converged on our nation's capitol? These very lucky individuals were selected as the state winner in their category last summer during the state 4-H recordbook contest. Each summer their are over 10,000 recordbooks turned in for competition in the state of Texas and these 4-H members were at the top of the pile! Record keeping and 4-H Recordbooks are an important part of all Texas 4-H projects. By learning good record keeping skills, 4-H members are able to refelect annually, and over their career, the growth and development they have experienced in 4-H. Record keeping is done on a daily and monthly basis on all projects, recording such things as financial investments, learning experiences, goals of projects, and leadership. At the end of the 4-H year, 4-H members are encouraged to transfer their records into a Texas 4-H Recordbook, which is a competitive process allowsing youth to be evaluated with other youth in one of the categories. Recordbooks are a family affair that involves the 4-H member and an adult recording and completing the record book of project experiences, leadership, community service, awards, and non-4-H accomplishments. Over the Holidays 24 state winners traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the Texas 4-H Leadership Conference. Their focus was to take their leadership skills to the highest level by learning to solve local problems; learning to build relationships; developing their character and making the best better. Located in our nation's capitol, the Texas 4-H Leadership Conference is a five-day event that trains allowed 4-H members to make a positive impact in their school, local community, state and country. The Texas Agrilife Extension Service selected Leon County Extension Agents Tommy and Wendy Neyland as two of the Chaperone's for this state activity.


pic caption: County Extension Agents Tommy Neyland & Wendy Neyland and State 4-H Recordbook Winner Ryan McARTY









Tommy Neyland, CEA-Ag
Texas Agrilife Extension Service

Private Applicator Training in Leon County

The Texas Agrilife Extension Service in Leon County will host a Private Applicator Training on December 19, 2008. Participants must pre-register in theTexas Agrilife Extension office on or before December 17, 2008. The training will begin with sign in from 8:00am to 8:30am in the Leon County Annex Grand Activity Room. Following the training Mr. Brad Tullis with The Texas Department of Agriculture will administer the test. Their will be a $35.00 fee due upon registration of this training. Training will be from 8:30am to 12:00noon and the test will be given at 1:00pm. For more information please contact the Texas Agrilife Extension Service at 903.536.2531or at leon-tx@tamu.edu We will seek to provide reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities for this meeting. We request that you contact Texas Agrilife Extension three days before the event to advise us of the auxiliary aid or service that will be required. Extension programs serve of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, disability, or national origin. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating.

Tommy Neyland, CEA-Ag
Texas Agrilife Extension Service

AGRILIFE EARTHKIND LANDSCAPE SCHOOL

Once you start looking for landscaping "don'ts," you'll find them everywhere: a huge oak tree planted close to a house; a holly bush planted beneath a window and covering the view; a solitary island flower bed, floating by itself, disconnected from all the other elements of the landscape. All were decisions made by well-meaning people that just turned out poorly. You didn't want to end up making such mistakes, so before you start reworking your own yard, set out to learn a little about landscape design. Here are some approaches road-tested and some thoughts about how to make them more useful to you. Each year around the end of January Texas Agrilife Extension Service in Leon County host a Home Landscape School. The Keynote speaker this year will be Texas AgriLife Extension landscape horticultural specialist Dr. Steven George. Each year the program has grown and this year we are expecting over 150 people to attend the session, which will take place at the Centerville High School Cafeteria. This years event, will mark the 4th year of the program. Dr. George will speak in the morning on topics including landscape bed layout and prep, plant placement, general design principles and, his foremost interest, EarthKind gardening and landscaping principles. He is a charismatic, engaging speaker who fits a lot of useful information into just a few hours. The pace will be brisk but understandable. He makes effective use of an overhead projector, sketching freehand the best places to put things like trees, shrubs and planting beds. For example, at one point Dr. George will show a sketch of a front landscape on the overhead and draws a big circle over the yard space to illustrate best places for turf, bedding plants and trees. Imagine a circle (as big or small as you want it) in the middle of the yard. That's for the turf. The areas that remain outside the circle are where you would place flower beds, shrubs and/or trees. This design technique is simple and, of course, there are other ways to effectively plan a landscape. But that circle stuck in my mind, and in many cases it jumps out at me when I notice good-looking properties. During class registration, participants receive design handouts, booklets on Texas plants, and graph paper. Participants sign up during class for a 30-minute consultation with a landscape professional that takes place at the event after lunch. The project goal is to use the class information to sketch a landscape plan and then review the plan during the event. The class is a great, time-effective way to learn solid landscape-design basics and get a plan going. The trick to getting the most of out of this class will be to focus effort on one manageable area. Pick the front or back yard or focus on an even smaller area to maximize the time you spend with the landscape professional. Participants must pre-register in the Texas Agrilife Extension office on or before January 27, 2009 and space may be limited. Their will be a $65.00 fee due upon registration of this event. Check in will begin at 9:30am on January 31, 2009 a noon meal and break snacks will be provided along with event materials. For more information please contact the Texas Agrilife Extension Service at 903.536.2531 or at leon-tx@tamu.edu We will seek to provide reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities for this event. We request that you contact Texas Agrilife Extension three days before the event to advise us of the auxiliary aid or service that will be required. Extension programs serve of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, disability, or national origin. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating.

Tommy Neyland, CEA-Ag
Texas Agrilife Extension Service