Have a question about your garden that needs answering? The Extension Master Gardener Hotline in Buncombe County can help.  Volunteers are available to answer your gardening questions on the phone, 255-5522, or you can bring problem samples in to the Cooperative Extension office, located at 94 Coxe Avenue in Asheville, for diagnosis. Hours are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Fridays.

Happy Mother’s Day!

The Weaverville Garden Club holds its last meeting of the season Tuesday, May 13 in the Weaverville Community Room at Weaverville Town Hall. It begins at 9:30 a.m. and will feature a program by garden club member Annick Flaxman, who will share photographs of gardens in her hometown - Dinard, Brittany, France.  All community members are invited to attend.

Concrete angel amidst a selection of shrubs and flowers at The Garden Station.

Upcoming classes, presentations, and demonstations at Reems Creek Nursery & Landscaping (check out their newly redesigned website). Pre-registration is required for all classes. You can register at the nursery or by calling 645-3937.

Dealing with Drought ~ Tough Plants & Drought-proofing Techniques for your Garden
Wednesday, April 16, at 10 a.m.
Maintain a beautiful garden despite dry conditions. Drought-tolerant plants, natives, and water-wise cultural practices will be discussed. Master Gardener credit for this class. Free.

Organic Gardening Basics
Saturday, April 26 at 10 a.m.
Great soil produces plants that are healthier and more naturally resistant to insects and diseases. Learn about soil building, good cultural practices, and planning a season of bountiful harvest.

Tree / Shrub Planting Demo
Saturday, April 26 at 2 p.m.
Proper planting goes a long way toward your gardening success. Aftercare of your trees & shrubs will also be discussed. Hands-on demonstration. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Town of Weaverville Tree Board.

Go Wild – Plant Natives
With Peter Loewer ~ The Wild Gardener
Saturday, May 3, at 2 p.m.
Peter Loewer is a garden writer, artist, passionate plant-person, native plant authority, and author of many gardening books including “Native Perennials of the Southeast”. This lecture and slide show is sure to be inspiring. Free.

The Annual Weaverville Garden Club Rummage Sale will be held 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday, April 26 at the Weaverville United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.

The Garden Club requests donations of books, plants, household items, clothes, baked goods, small furniture, small appliances, or crafts for their fund raising event. You can drop off your donations to the Weaverville United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall on Friday, April 25, between 8:30 a.m. and Noon. All proceeds from the rummage sale go towards beautification projects for the town of Weaverville.

If you have any questions or need more information, call Cindy at 658-3089, Mickie at 645-4444, or Anna at 658-1154.

“Appalachian Xeriscaping: Landscaping Ideas for Water Efficient Gardens” will be presented at 10:30 a.m.-Noon on Saturday, April 5 at the Weaverville Library.

The presentation features a slide lecture by Randy Burroughs, Landscape Architect & Naturalist, and a walk through the Main Street Nature Park.

The focus of this talk will be useful ways for homeowners to have healthy attractive gardens in a time of low rainfall. We’ll discuss plants, garden planning, soil ammendments, water catchments systems, and things you can do to make a lower maintenance, more entertaining garden.

In the park we’ll see how nature sorts out plants into communities and what you can learn about the place you live from reading these patterns.

The talk should last about an hour, with the Main Street Nature Park walk until Noon. This event is provided by the Weaverville Tree Board.

The Weaverville Library is located at 41 North Main Street. The talk will take place in the Program Room.

A Volunteer Workday will be held at Main Street Nature Park beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 15.  The goal is to save the great white oak which has overlooked the town for centuries but is now in competition for rainfall from invasive exotic plants and young saplings. 

Volunteers will help cut and pull the English Ivy from the old tree and clear its root zone of the heavy undergrowth, giving it a better chance at another 100 years.  Volunteers should meet in the lower Town Hall parking lot.  Wear jeans and sensible shoes, and bring work gloves, your favorite pruners, and a bottle of water.  Participants automatically become members of the Weaverville Weed Team and will receive a commemorative color group photo with the spruced up tree if name and address are provided.

This community activity is sponsored by the Weaverville Tree Board, the Weaverville Garden Club, the Weaverville Weed Team, and Quality Forward.  In case of rain, the workday will be held one week later, on Saturday, March 22.

Days like today make it easy to believe Spring really IS just around the corner, so it’s the perfect time to tell you this news: The Garden Station has a half price clearance sale going on now on plant food, fertilizers, brush and bug killer, and more. They will be on sale until they’re gone, because all are items The Garden Station will no longer carry once the current stock is sold. Among the items you’ll find on sale:

• Bug Killer
• Bulb Tone Fertilizer
• Tomato Tone Fertilizer
• Tomato Tone Dried Blood
• Brush Killer
• Insecticidal Soap
• Miracle-Gro Plant Food
• Miracle-Gro Rose Plant Food
• Miracle-Gro Fertilizer Spikes

They also have a couple of their Cypress Rockers left — those are marked 50% off too. The Garden Station is located at One Merrimon Avenue.

The Garden Station is having a Gold Ribbon Clearance Sale going on now through Saturday, January 26.  All items marked with a gold ribbon are 20% off.   Winter hours are also now in effect at the store.  Through February, they’ll be open Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m.  The Garden Station is located at One Merrimon Avenue.

Just a reminder: if you still have Bloomin’ Bucks from Reems Creek Valley Nursery, you have until Monday, October 29 to redeem them.  They’re closed on Sundays, so that leaves today, Saturday, and Monday for plant shopping.  They’re located at 70 Monticello Road, but if you have Bloomin’ Bucks you already knew that, didn’t you?

The Weaverville Tree Board is putting on a “Workday in the Park” 10 a.m. Saturday, October 27, in the Main Street Nature Park behind Weaverville Town Hall.

The park’s landscape architect, Randy Burroughs, will be on hand to do some training on seed collecting, sowing a wildflower meadow, and cut-and-paint shrub removal. Volunteers will need pruners and lopping shears for the invasive plants, and shovels and mattock for tree planting. A pruning saw or two will be needed to disentangle a shingle oak. Volunteers will also need work gloves, sturdy shoes, and a water bottle.

For additional information call 645-3912.

Larry Newlin will speak at Reems Creek Nursery 10 a.m. Saturday, October 20, about great plant combinations for fall, including tips on color theory; which colors clash and which combine well ~ plus the most important aspects of flowering shrubs, perennials, and grasses; and blending plants of varying textures and forms to promote harmony and dynamism in the garden.

Newlin is Territory Manager for Imperial Nurseries, owned his own garden center for 20 years, and along with his wife, Lee, leads garden tours of public and private gardens.  Just back from tours of the Hudson Valley and England, his enthusiam is contagious. 

The event is free, but please call 645-3937 to pre-register. Reems Creek Nursery is located at 70 Monticello Road.

If you’ve wanted to pick up some new pots for your plants, now’s a good time at The Garden Station.  They’re having a 20% off sale on all pots in the store, including their frost-proof and eco-friendly ones.

They also have a new website, which includes photos and a section of monthly tips for your garden.

The Garden Station is located at One Merrimon Avenue (where Weaverville Florist used to be).

Reems Creek Valley Nursery, in conjunction with the Weaverville Tree Board and Weaverville’s new Community Wildlife Habitat Project, are sponsoring the presentation “Creating Habitats for Wildlife” at 2 p.m. Saturday, October 13 at Reems Creek Valley Nursery.

Dr. Alicia Hulse, wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist, will describe how to create a backyard habitat for small nature wildlife species - including butterflies and birds - with an emphasis on native plants which provide food, cover, and places to raise young.

The presentation is free, but you are asked to pre-register by calling 645-3937.

Reems Creek Valley Nursery is located at 70 Monticello Road.