Gwen Winters is hard at work in Kilgore’s Shakespeare Garden today, putting in the hours to prepare the tourist attraction for TSF’s 40th Season this summer.
Winters has been working with Kilgore Improvement & Beautification Association for about three years. The local nonprofit’s volunteers crafted the garden in the mid-90s and have been cultivating the site ever since with help from local supporters.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” Winters said Saturday afternoon. “I like to get outside, I like to plant flowers.”Â
The Shakespeare Garden is open to the public daily on Brook Drive, just north of the Ann Dean Turk Fine Arts Center, where Texas Shakespeare Festival stages its annual run of productions on stage in the Van Cliburn Auditorium. The outdoor amenity contains dozens of flowers and plants mentioned in the Bard’s plays.
Tickets are now on sale for TSF’s 2025 showcase, opening June 26 with “Twelfth Night,” and KIBA’s volunteers are making sure everything will be ready next door when visitors start heading to Kilgore for nightly performances. There will be a printed guide on-hand with details about the plants at the numbered spots in the Shakespeare Garden.
Winters is currently coordinating with Otoniel Macedo of Expert Lawn Care on the ideal watering schedule for this year’s weather.
“They do a great job trimming,” Winters said. Drought conditions hit hard last year, she added, despite the volunteers’ best efforts. “We lost three rose bushes.”
The garden’s thriving this Spring, however, and Winters has an array of projects lined up. She’s also been working alongside Mitchell Hancock of Kilgore Lawn & Landscape.
“As soon as I get all my plants planted, I gotta get mulch. Feel free to grab a shovel,” she quips, glad for any help she can get. Boy Scout Troop 252 is coming to lend a hand Saturday, May 17, and Winters hopes to complete a new star-shaped planting bed as an homage to Kilgore’s ‘City of Stars’ moniker.
(It’ll be another busy weekend in Kilgore, featuring Kilgore Mercantile & Music‘s annual Tractors, Trucks & Fun event downtown as well as Kilgore Historical Preservation Foundation’s Open House at the historic Dean Keener Crim Home on Lantrip Street.)
Winters is brainstorming about some new lighting elements as well: “I enjoy doing this,” she added. “It does run into a little work.
Granted, “A lot of people don’t know where it is,” and KIBA would be grateful for any new volunteers willing to pitch in, to make a monetary contribution or to just help spread the word. “We definitely need some people on the board.”
To arrange a donation, to lend a hand or to submit a local yard for one of KIBA’s Yard of the Month awards, reach out to Winters via gkwinters49@gmail.com
