Valeria Tokun Haga/THE RIDER
City officials talk about gardening programs Brownsville has for the community interested in creating their own garden or learning about the local vegetation, from workshops and classes to at-home toolkits available for residents.
Sean De Palma, director for the Parks and Recreation department, said the Native Plant Restoration and Garden Club focuses on native plant regeneration and replacing exotic plants with natives at Antonio Gonzalez Park, located at 34 Tony Gonzalez Drive.
“We … take care of [them] because we want to strengthen the structure of plants here in Brownsville,” De Palma said.
Even though the programming was paused on Feb. 13, the garden at Gonzalez Park remains open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday to the public.
He said the program is a good experience for attendees to be exposed to nature and, when the classes are back, they will be able to learn about Brownsville native plants and how to take care of them at home.
“We just don’t supply those plants all the time,” De Palma said. “There’s certain times of the year when we have the opportunity to share seeds and smaller grows, meaning smaller plants, so they can take them home, but not all the time.”
He added during the weeks before the program was paused, it was averaging 20 to 25 people each class. The relaunch is set for mid-March.
“They were very popular classes, and that’s why we’re going to restart them in the next couple of weeks,” De Palma said.
Valeria Tokun Haga/THE RIDER
He added it would also have the return of birding, and he hopes people enjoy the experience.
“We’re a bird city,” De Palma said. “… We have some of the most diverse birding populations here in Brownsville. So, attached to that program … birding also goes on … like identifying the different birds.”
Jose A. Gonzalez, librarian at the Brownsville Public Library, said the gardening program the library offers started in September 2025 with the goal of getting the community involved.
“We actually offer seeds for our community they can take,” Gonzalez said. “We also offer gardening toolkits that they can check out with a library card.”
He added the kit has everything needed to start a little at-home garden with plants and seeds purchased and obtained from community donations.
“We also have [a] book that people can check out in regards to gardening … in both English and Spanish, and it’s been such a great success,” Gonzalez said.
He said both libraries, Southmost and the main branch, have greenhouses and little seed libraries.
“This month, our plants of the month [are] cilantro, basil and oreganos,” Gonzalez said. “So, we have those three that we have a kit … first come first serve. People can actually [use] those little starter kits.”
He said the participation and support from the community to the program has been “phenomenal.”
“Being a first-time ever program that the library has … it has been such a huge success,” Gonzalez said. “Every month, we do statistics and, here at Southmost, it’s over 40 people that participate.”
Diego Troncoso, a history junior at UTRGV, said he was not aware about the gardening programs but finds them interesting as he is into agriculture.
“I myself would probably like to do that in the future, gardening … because it’ll be beneficial to me, especially because I plan to actually do that,” Troncoso said.
