A month has gone by since the Great Texas Blanco-style Clean-Up Event. The statistics are in, and Blanconians outdid themselves in their effort to Keep Blanco Beautiful. Over 1,000 pounds of litter were picked up along the city streets, parks, and creek beds. Three pick-ups pulling flatbeds cruised the neighborhoods collecting large items citizens were unable to haul to the city yard themselves.

April was a busy month. You should have the garden planted and the flower gardens blooming. The larkspur are beautiful and the bluebonnets are already bloomed out. They must dry and throw their seed for next year’s blooms. Don’t mow until the plants have completely dried. This is a very ugly part of the season.

Spring is actually here, at least by the calendar. It has been a lovely spring. Wildflowers are all over the landscape. Easter is next week, so let us hope we have had our “Easter Spell.” This will be a very busy month with Easter, the Blanco trash-off, IRS deadlines, the fire department fish fry, plus preparation for our spring gardens. House plants need to be moved outside, trimmed, and fed.

Eleven days and counting to Blanco’s annual Trash-Off Event. On Saturday morning, April 14, volunteers will be hard at work picking up litter and trash along our streets. Keep Blanco Beautiful can use more volunteers. Call Retta Martin at 830-833-4720 to sign-up to help. The City Yard has been open since April 2 for those with vouchers (picked up at City Offices) to drop off large items cluttering property during business hours.

Wow! What a great response Keep Blanco Beautiful has had to their call for help with the April 14 Trash-off event. Over 100 Blanco citizens have signed up to clean our city’s roadways and parks. Thirty-four local businesses are participating with donations that help keep Blanco beautiful all year long. There is always an opportunity to help.

Three trash-off events will be held in April. Please read this carefully so you don’t get confused. The first event will be Keep Blanco Beautiful’s 13th Annual Trash-Off and Citywide Clean-Up. The main event will be held Saturday, April 14. Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at Bindseil Park. They will be given trash bags and assigned an area of town to clean up.

The 13th annual KBB "Don't Mess with Texas" Trash-off, citywide cleanup, and the 6th annual Blanco River Cleanup is April 14 at 9 a.m. We will meet at Bindseil Park with your team leaders to pick up your t-shirts. Please get your list together this week and send me the list with names, shirt sizes, and team leaders names by March 15.

Have you noticed how many of the redbud trees are in bloom for the second time this season? It has to do with the warm winter and the wonderful rains we have experienced. I have had many questions concerning roses, so I hope this information will be helpful. It is time to prune and feed the roses.

Up for Adoption! In 1985 Texas introduced the Adopt-a-Highway program to give citizens an opportunity to support litter prevention by picking up trash along designated stretches of highway in the Lone Star State. Currently the program has more than 4500 groups involved. Here in Blanco, the Masons have helped Keep Blanco (and Texas) Beautiful since February 1987 along the stretch of 281 north of town.

Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup is the nation's largest community improvement program, taking place annually from March 1 through May 31. Activities can include beautifying parks and recreation areas, cleaning waterways, handling recycling collections, picking up litter, removing graffiti, planting trees and flowers, and conducting educational programs and litter-free events — anything that keeps communities beautiful. In 2011, 1,905 Great American Cleanup events were held, w ...

I was going to write something cutting-edge about recycling. An article about how it’s the 21st century and the future is here. But, frankly, as a culture we are creaking along at a snail’s pace regarding our understanding of what being green means. Being green really just means going back to the old ways of our ancestors; reusing items many times instead of just once.

How about that rain? We had three inches at our house; many people in Blanco received more. The rain is very good for the Spring wildflowers. I’m expecting a beautiful flower show this year. When your flowers begin to sprout, don’t neglect to thin them for correct spacing. Then you may move them to another area or place the extras in pots or give them away to friends. We have removed about one-half of the dead and frozen plants from the downtown area.

Blanco is registered for the 2012 Texas Trash-Off event. This year it will be held the second weekend in April because the first weekend is Easter. So, mark your calendars for Saturday, April 14, and watch the newspaper for more information on how the event will be run in 2012.

The Christmas decorations are down but they are not put away. With the help of the city, we purchased a building from Jeanette and Bobby Fishbeck. It was moved into the park on Wednesday. We still need to add shelves and pegs in order to store decorations. It’s time to sharpen the tools and prepare for spring planting.

Keep Blanco Beautiful ushered in 2012 after the very special 2011 Christmas season that was spent with wonderful volunteers and friends who helped create our first “Christmas In Blanco” Trail of Lights. The Blanco Chamber of Commerce listed Blanco in the Hill Country Trail of Lights Brochure in 2011. A committee was formed that included KBB, Uptown Blanco, OBCCPS, Chamber of Commerce, downtown merchants, Santa and Mrs.