Garden parties
Inspired to work in your own garden? These metro Atlanta events offer advice and plenty of plants to choose from.
Georgia Native Plant Society Plant Sale
Saturday, Sept. 14
9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Stone Mountain Park, Stone Mountain Propagation Project area
Park entrance fee waived for those attending the sale.
Cash, credit card and checks accepted for plant sales.
For more information and directions: www.gnps.org/shortterm/Plant_Sale_Announcement.php
What’s available? Fall bloomers such as asters and turtlehead, lots of native ferns, and a variety of trees and shrubs including bigleaf magnolias, buttonbush, huckleberry, granite gooseberry, redbuds and spicebush. Knowledgeable volunteers will be on hand to answer questions and help you choose the right plants for your garden.
Hall County Fall Garden Expo
Friday, Sept. 20, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Saturday, Sept. 21, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center, 1855 Calvary Church Road, Gainesville
Admission: $2 per person, children free
For more information: http://hcmgs.com/expos/fall-expo or 770-535-8293
What’s available? An extensive collection of plants for sale selected just for Southern gardens and garden art. There will be speakers, food vendors and lots of door prizes. The expo is put on by the Hall County Master Gardeners and UGA Cooperative Extension Service.
Come along
“Anything Grows – A Yard and Garden Tour of East Atlanta Village”
A guided bike or car tour of 10 gardens. Rain or shine.
Sunday, Sept. 8
4-7 p.m.
Admission: $30 plus $2.04 service fee. Tour is a fundraiser for Community Farmers Markets, www.farmatl.org.
Information: http://bit.ly/17zNR9c
To buy tickets: http://anythinggrows.brownpapertickets.com/
On Sunday afternoon a caravan of bikes and cars will travel through the gently rolling terrain of East Atlanta for “Anything Grows — A Yard and Garden Tour of East Atlanta Village.” The caravan will stop at eight spaces with edible landscapes: residential gardens, a farm, a community garden, an urban orchard and a restaurant garden.
At every stop the gardeners will be on hand to share what they’ve learned about growing food for beauty and for dinner. Hungry? Tour goers can nibble on a handmade popsicle from King of Pops at one stop. Thirsty? Protea Wild Crafts will offer an herbal tonic at another.
The tour’s last stop is Midway Pub, with snacks and craft cocktails made from ingredients grown in the gardens on the tour.
There’ll be no excuse for stealing fruit along the way.
The tour is the brainchild of Robby Astrove.
“We think this is more than just a tour of interesting gardens. It’s a chance to build a community of people interested in growing food,” said Astrove, who serves on the advisory board for the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market and organized the tour. It will serve as a fundraiser for Community Farmers Markets, the operators of the East Atlanta Village, Grant Park and Decatur farmers markets.
Astrove, whose garden is on the tour, earned the title “Johnny Appleseed of Atlanta” by planting more than 15 orchards at local schools, parks and farms. He’s looking forward to sharing his personal “food forest,” which includes serviceberry, pawpaw, American persimmon, dwarf figs, pomegranates, pears, cherries, kiwi vines, blueberries and raspberries.
The bees busy in Astrove’s garden don’t have far to travel to reach the jujube, pomegranates and pineapple guava planted in Glynnis Ward’s “Electric Garden.” She’s been cultivating her two garden spaces for 15 years. Vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruit bushes and trees, and garden art fill her three-quarters of an acre.
“When I bought this property I figured I should make my land work for me,” Ward said. “I took out the front lawn and planted flowers and vegetables.”
Ten years later, a tornado tore through East Atlanta and took down all the trees on what had been a very wooded lot. She turned the devastation into opportunity and began planting more fruit shrubs and trees in her newly sunny space.
“Being able to harvest my own food is so satisfying,” Ward said. “You don’t have to do it on the scale I have, but maybe someone can plant a fruit tree on their front lawn and plant some flowers and herbs. Or put in a few beds with vegetables.”
A mile or so away is the home of Robert Hamilton, who blogs at atlantafruitman.wordpress.com. His garden is so packed he laughs and says it can be a lesson in things not to do.
“I bought my house in 1996. There were big hollies that had to be pruned with a ladder and a tarp. As I was pruning, I would wonder why I was spending so much time on something that didn’t put food on the table,” Hamilton said. “That’s what inspired me to get out there and plant things that would put food on the table.”
Fascinated with fruit trees, Hamilton set out to plant the unfamiliar. No apples for him. He wanted jujubes and persimmons, mulberries and loquats. What he refers to as an addiction led him to plant until there’s no space left on his quarter acre.
The tour also stops at a guerrilla orchard, planted behind a vacant building, the garden at Midway Pub, the homes of Atlanta horticulturist Brooks Garcia and farmer Hudson Rouse, and the Friends of Brownwood Park Community Garden.
Eight gardens complete with homeowners to answer questions, mandatory popsicle, refreshing tonic and end-of-tour cocktail and snacks made from food you saw growing? Now that’s a garden tour.
Come along:
“Anything Grows – A Yard and Garden Tour of East Atlanta Village”
A guided bike or car tour of 10 gardens. Rain or shine.
Sunday, Sept. 8
4-7 p.m.
Admission: $30 plus $2.04 service fee. Tour is a fundraiser for Community Farmers Markets, www.farmatl.org.
Information: www.farmeav.com/ai1ec_event/anything-grows-a-yard-and-garden-tour-of-east-atlanta-village/?instance_id=4092
To buy tickets: http://anythinggrows.brownpapertickets.com/
