WBNA National Night Out | Please join us!

You and your family are invited to a FREE supper to visit with your neighbors and local area first responders. The WBNA will be serving up hotdogs, sausage wraps, chips and drinks! Enjoy FREE Culver’s frozen custard provided by the Friends of Wells Branch Community Library.

Distinguished members from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Pflugerville Fire Dept./Travis County ESD2 and Precinct 2 Constable’s Office will be on hand to meet with residents and answer your questions.  Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion and Representative James Talarico are hoping to make a special appearance.

National Night Out’s purpose is to heighten crime awareness, generate support for and participation in local anti-crime efforts, build neighborhood spirit and strengthen our law enforcement-community partnership. There will be several information booths set up, special topics from Get Ready Central Texas, Austin Community College, RRISD and more. Don’t forget your donations to the St. Andrew’s food bank (optional).

Activities include: Prize drawings for home safety products, new interactive safety activities, a fire truck, and an ambulance hosted by Pflugerville Fire Department / ESD2. The Wells Branch MUD will have representatives there with information on upcoming events and safety on the trails. Plus, we’ll have folks on hand to register voters and share ballot information.

Take a stand against crime. If you have a local Neighborhood Watch group on your block, set a date after the event to meet your neighbors and discuss how you can
make your homes and our community safer. If you don’t have a group yet we’d like to encourage you to make plans to set one up. The WBNA is here to help!

We hope to see you at NNO!

Wells Branch Wild –
A Community Wildlife Habitat

by Jill Douglass

Wells Branch Wild is dedicated to connecting the human community to the natural world.  We invite all residents to participate in this journey by creating personal wildlife habitats.  One of the best changes we can make to support wildlife in our yards is to install native plants.  This is because native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, greatly reducing the food source for birds, lizards, toads, and even larger animals like foxes.  Foxes love to eat grasshoppers!  Traditional gardening methods often encourage us to eliminate insects that eat our plants, so supporting wildlife gardening really turns things upside down because we actually are inviting all those insects to eat!

The easiest way to welcome native plants into your yard is to identify “weeds” before you pull them.  They may be native plants that have naturally sprouted in their home environment.  Horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis) is a common native groundcover that often volunteers in our lawns.  Similarly, Prairie Tea (Croton monanthogynus), Pepper Grass (Lepidium virginicum), and Chili Pequin (Capsicum annuum) show up as volunteers in our flower beds.   The seeds of these plants were deposited by the birds who ate them. Helpful phone apps such as iNaturalist can help you identify plants to determine if they are native or not.

As we come into the fall planting season, when purchasing new plants, buy native plants for your landscape.  If you are not sure what to plant, the city of Austin has a great website to help, https://www.austintexas.gov/department/grow-green.  Green ‘n Growing, a local Pflugerville nursery, regularly stocks Texas native plants, as does Round Rock Gardens.  Both are a short drive from Wells Branch.  The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in south Austin hosts a native plant sale every fall and spring.  Check out their website for dates.  In addition, TreeFolks has regularly scheduled tree giveaways all year long.

By changing a few gardening habits over time, we can convert our yards from food deserts to a full buffet for our wildlife, and a healthier, beautiful environment for us.

WBNA Arts at the Library

Saturday, September 23 | 10:00am – 3:00pm
WB Community Library Parking Lot | 15001 Wells Port Drive

We are excited to launch the NEW Arts at the Library event. This event will target hand-crafted goods, services and artwork. We are offering a “farmer’s market” format for local artisans and crafters. If you hand craft something wonderfully unique and you want to sell it—and you want to grow your business in the Wells Branch area, this event is for YOU and the Wells Branch community.

Variety is the spice of life! Do you make jewelry or work in wood, glass, clay, textiles or resin? How about painting, photography or home goods? Do you craft personal care products like soaps, honey, candles or natural beauty products?
Do you bake, cook, write or create music? Apply today to reserve a space.

WBNA is organizing this event for the community to help promote the wide variety of locally hand-crafted goods, original artwork, photography, literature, music and culinary creations. We will also host a small area for “Kids Crafts” for young entrepreneurs looking to learn how to market their work.

Fees collected for the stall space will serve as a donation to the WBNA organization, which in turn benefits the entire Wells Branch neighborhood.

Format: Open air parking lot with assigned spaces, Canopies
recommended (10×10’).

10 x 10’ space for $25
10 x 20’ double space for $40
4×6’ open table space (breezeway)  for $15
6’ tables for $10 (limited supply)

There will be an open stage area available for live performances, such as music, readings or story telling. Call to schedule a slot.

Apply today to have a space assigned:
https://tinyurl.com/Artsatlibrary
Questions? Contact Margaret Sufke:
info@wbna.us or call 512-341-0824 (msg).