Agrarian Guild of Requiem

06/14/2026

🗓️ UPCOMING GUILD MEETINGS 🗓️

Hey everyone! Mark your calendars for next Saturday, June 20th, because we have two great virtual meetings lined up for the community.

Whether you're looking to build up your self-sufficiency or talk all things sci-fi and tech, we’d love to see you there! Both meetings are open to everyone.

⏰ The Schedule (Central Time):
7:00 PM – Homesteaders and Preppers Guild

8:00 PM – Space Station Requiem

💻 How to Join Us:
We are meeting virtually, so you can log in from the comfort of home!

Platform: ZOOM
Meeting ID: 830 535 2022

Grab your favorite beverage, pull up a chair, and join the conversation. See you next Saturday! 🚀🌾

06/04/2026

🗓️ UPCOMING COMMITTEE MEETINGS 🗓️

Hey everyone! A quick reminder that we have two important committee meetings coming up tomorrow, Friday, June 5th.

Whether you are looking to help our community get ready for emergencies or want to bring some comfort to those in need, we would love to have your voice in the room! Both meetings are completely open to the public.

Here is the schedule (all times in Central Time):

6:00 PM – Bandera County Preparedness Event Committee
7:00 PM – Operation: Teddy Bear Hugs Committee

💻 How to Join Us:
We are meeting virtually, so you can log in from anywhere!

Platform: ZOOM
Meeting ID: 830 535 2022

Mark your calendars, grab a refreshment, and join us online to see how you can get involved. See you tomorrow! 🐻✨

05/31/2026

05/25/2026

Today, we pause to honor and remember the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Their courage and dedication will never be forgotten.

Wishing everyone a safe and meaningful Memorial Day from all of us at Guilds of Requiem.

05/24/2026

Sheet Mulching 101 📦🌱

Ready to start your no-till garden but staring down a patch of stubborn w**ds or thick grass? Don't reach for chemical sprays, and definitely don't break your back digging. Enter Sheet Mulching (aka lasagna gardening)—the ultimate eco-friendly cheat code for w**d control.

Instead of fighting nature, you’re going to smother the w**ds while simultaneously building premium soil. Here is your step-by-step guide to setting up a brand-new bed:

Step 1: Scalp the Area 🌾 Mow or w**d-whack the existing grass and w**ds right down to the ground. Don't bag the clippings—leave them right there to return nutrients to the soil.

Step 2: The Cardboard Shield 📦 Cover the entire area with plain, unprinted corrugated cardboard. Make sure to remove any plastic tape, staples, or glossy labels. Pro-tip: Overlap the edges by at least 6 inches so sneaky w**ds can’t find a gap to climb through.

Step 3: Soak It Down 🌊 Give the cardboard a heavy watering until it’s completely saturated. This kickstarts decomposition and invites earthworms to the party.

Step 4: The Compost Layer 🤎 Add a 2-to-4-inch layer of rich, w**d-free compost directly on top of the wet cardboard. If you want to plant immediately, you can dig small holes right through the cardboard layer for your starters.

Step 5: The Blanket 🍂 Top it off with 2 inches of wood chips, straw, or shredded leaves to lock in moisture and protect your compost from the sun.

Over the season, the cardboard will completely break down, the trapped w**ds will die and become fertilizer, and you'll be left with deep, loose, nutrient-dense soil. No digging, no tilling, no chemicals. Just pure biology at work. 🪱✨

05/23/2026

Want to water less and grow more? Meet "The Sponge Effect." 🌧️🧽

Ever wonder why a forest floor stays damp and rich even during a dry spell, while a heavily tilled garden bed can turn into a cracked desert? It all comes down to soil structure.

When you leave your soil undisturbed, a beautiful, natural phenomenon takes place. Your soil transforms into a literal living sponge.

How the "Sponge Effect" Works:
Built-in Plumbing: Undisturbed soil is full of tiny, microscopic highways created by earthworms and old root pathways. This allows heavy rainwater to sink deep into the ground instead of pooling on top.

Organic Matter Magic: No-till gardening keeps rich organic matter right where it belongs—on top. Did you know that every 1% increase in soil organic matter helps the land hold roughly 20,000 gallons of water per acre?

Erosion Shield: Because the soil has a strong, interconnected structure, it locks together. When a heavy storm hits, the water absorbs beautifully rather than washing your precious topsoil down the driveway.

The Best Part? It Saves You Time & Money. 💰⏱️
When your soil acts like a sponge, it retains moisture for days—sometimes even weeks—longer. That means way less time dragging the heavy hose around the yard, lower water bills, and happier, deeper root systems for your plants.

By stepping away from the tiller, you’re not just saving your back; you’re working with nature to build a resilient, drought-proof garden that knows how to take care of itself.

Let’s nurture the sponge this season! 🌿

05/22/2026

From the San Antonio Composting Project group:

"We hope to see you there. It's a donation-based workshop to help out the Mahncke Park Community Garden. The address is 330 Funston pl, San Antonio, TX 78209 There's no set price. It's what you can afford. Thank you!

05/22/2026

Your soil is alive—stop breaking its heart (and structure). 💔

Beneath your feet lies a thriving Underground City. It features skyscraper root systems, massive fungal highways, and billions of microbes working 24/7 to keep your plants fed and healthy. 🐜✨

Then comes the rototiller. To this delicate ecosystem, tilling isn't a helpful refresh—it’s a 10.0 magnitude earthquake that rips their entire world to shreds.

We’ve been conditioned to think that fluffy, powdery, bare dirt is the goal. In reality? That’s a ghost town. Tilling destroys the soil's natural infrastructure, blends up earthworms, and crushes microorganism homes. Without them, the soil structure collapses, baking into dead, compacted dirt that can't absorb water or sustain life.

Why Say No to the Till?
Healthy soil relies on a vital infrastructure:
🍄 Fungal Networks: The garden's internet, passing nutrients from plant to plant.
🦠 Microbes: The tiny chefs breaking down organic matter into usable plant food.
~ Earthworm Tunnels: Natural aeration highways that let roots breathe and water flow.

When you till, you destroy the plumbing, evict the cleanup crew, and ruin the soil's ability to bounce back.

The No-Till Alternative: Put the tiller away. Instead of digging up the ecosystem, layer compost and organic mulch right on top of the ground. Let the rain, the worms, and the microbes do the heavy lifting for you. 🌿

Drop a comment if you're letting your underground city thrive this season!

05/20/2026

The Truth: It’s Not All Sunshine

Let’s be entirely real for a second: transitioning to a no-till garden isn’t all immediate blooming flowers and perfect aesthetic reels. There is an "ugly phase," and we need to talk about it.

If you’re waiting for the catch to this whole no-till thing, here it is:

💪 The Upfront Workout: Sourcing clean cardboard, stomping it flat, and hauling endless wheelbarrows of heavy compost and mulch is a serious workout. You’re trading a few hours of wrestling a noisy, vibrating rototiller for some genuine, muscle-building layering.
🟫 The "Pile of Dirt" Aesthetic: When you finish sheet mulching, your yard isn't going to look like a lush paradise right away. It’s going to look like a giant, brown mound of woodchips or straw. A stray piece of wet cardboard might peek out. Your neighbors will look at you funny.

But here is the secret: This is the essential incubation phase.

Beneath that quiet, boring blanket of mulch, a massive biological transformation is happening. The cardboard is softening, the w**ds are suffocating, and billions of microbes and earthworms are moving in to build premium soil structure for you.

It takes a little patience to let nature do its thing, but the long-term payoff is unmatched. Don't let the brown phase discourage you—it's just the prequel to a thriving, low-maintenance paradise. 🌿✨

Have you embraced the ugly phase of your garden yet?

05/20/2026

💙 A Quick Note to Our Guild Community 💙

To all our wonderful members, vendors, and friends across the Guilds of Requiem—we want to ask for a little bit of your grace and patience right now.

Our amazing social media manager is currently navigating some health-related difficulties. Because of this, active updates across all of our official guild pages may be a bit quieter or more delayed than usual over the coming weeks.

📌 Please Note: You may still see some automated or pre-scheduled posts go live during this time, but our ability to respond to comments, messages, and real-time updates will be limited.

We love keeping you connected with everything happening in our community, but right now, supporting our team's health and well-being comes first.

Need immediate assistance? If you have urgent questions about onboarding, memberships, or upcoming events, please feel free to reach out directly via email at [email protected] or give us a call at 830-328-7130.

Thank you so much for your understanding, your kindness, and for being such a supportive community. Please join us in sending our manager the warmest wishes for a smooth recovery! 🌟