AUSTIN, Texas — For the first year ever, the Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department hosted "Yule in the Garden" on Saturday afternoon.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., attendees could participate in several family-friendly seasonal craft activities located throughout the garden. Some of the activities included making your own native plant-based ornaments, building a winter bird feeder and crafting edible herb bouquets.
Lindsay Loftin, programs specialist for Zilker Botanical Garden, said Austinites could learn from gardeners about how to provide winter birds with habitat, get tips for growing holiday herbs and explore the secrets of ball moss.
"These activities have a botanical focus and we tried our best to extract materials from the garden or ornament-making activities using ball moss, an important plant for our garden ecology. A lot of people don't realize that ball moss is actually a really important part of the ecosystem and provides habitat for birds," said Loftin.
Later that afternoon, at 1 p.m., there was a special holiday musical performance by a local string quartet, Austin Camerata, in the Mabel Davis Rose Garden.
"You can become a member of the conservancy and that's a way to get a lot of different benefits, including free admission throughout the year for all garden events such as this activity, as well as dining days and some of our upcoming events, which happens every month, but it's regular admission," said Loftin.
The garden is always looking for volunteers to help maintain and improve the grounds and assist with events.
"We welcome you to come to the garden year-round. If you have ideas for activities, you can always reach out to us and we're interested to hear what the community would like to have offered here," said Loftin.