Information
The Chattahoochee Nature Center: www.chattnaturecenter.org
Garden Faire: www.bullochhall.org/a-garden-faire.html
Wednesday Walks in the Barrington Hall Garden: www.roswellgov.com/Calendar.aspx?EID=4859
Farmers Market at Sweet Apple Village: www.facebook.com/FarmersMarketatSweetAppleVillage
Marietta Square Farmers Market: www.mariettasquarefarmersmarket.net
Smyrna's FARM-Farmers Atlanta Road Market: www.facebook.com/FARMSmyrna
Downtown Alpharetta Farmers Market: www.facebook.com/DowntownAlpharettaFarmersMarket
Traction-challenged commuters will agree that this was a different and difficult winter, making spring all the more welcome: a season where the ice is in the tea, not on the roads. It’s spring on the calendar and in the air, and time to get ourselves back to the garden and play in the dirt, again. No matter how humble and land lacking our environs may be, there are ways to get around to growing things.
Pine straw ground cover spreads across the suburban landscape, some bales delivered by fundraising neighborhood Boy Scout troops, defining and protecting perennial flower beds planted and nurtured in previous growing seasons. This provides a neutral background for colorful blooming bulbs, or awaiting annuals now.
A butterfly garden can take flight on a sunny site for about three hours. But a lawn and a lot of time are not needed to add flowers or flavor, as a mix of herbs can be cultivated in less than an hour in a terracotta pot. The Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell, a wonderful resource for all things outdoors, continues fundraising events on Friday with sales of native Georgia plants, including vegetable and herb seedlings from their Unity Garden.
There are also gardens to stroll and enjoy of the fruits of the labor of neighbors, with Wednesday Walks in the Barrington Hall Garden recently resuming. Built in the 1830’s and sitting on seven of the original 1600 acres, Barrington Hall is the third of the Southern Trilogy of historic house museums in Roswell.
Site Horticulturist Janet Rigsby conducts the free garden tours Wednesday mornings through September. Winner in the Historic Bulb Division at The Georgia Daffodil Society’s annual show, late blooming daffodils continue to color the informal west garden, while fragrant and stunning wisteria occupy the historic formal east garden. The annual Lavender Festival is June 14, with vendors signing on now.
Barrington Hall Garden holds the distinction of being the Atlanta area’s only antebellum garden open to the public, welcoming visitors every day from sunrise to sunset. Bring a book and relax on the swing glider, an Eagle Scout project, in the boxwood garden, or pack a picnic and dine on the grounds near the vegetable garden. But be courteous and leave only footprints behind.
Garden Faire, presented by the North Fulton Master Gardeners, is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 26 on the grounds of Bulloch Hall, also one of Roswell’s Southern Trilogy museum homes.
Planting a vegetable garden now will yield produce in the weeks and months ahead, but there’s no need to wait as April is when many local farmers markets open or expand their hours of operation. Locally grown produce, wild-caught seafood from the Georgia coast and grass-fed beef and pork can be found at Farmers Market at Sweet Apple Village in Roswell Thursday afternoons until 7. Marietta Square Farmers Market adds Sunday afternoons, Smyrna’s FARM-Farmers Atlanta Road Market, supports Path to Shine, an after-school tutoring and mentoring program, and Downtown Alpharetta Farmers Market opens April 19.
You can always check the signs posted along Hardscrabble Road to see what’s fresh and for sale from Billy Albertson’s garden.
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