CUMMING -- With spring finally here, it’s time to get gardens ready.
From 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, the Forsyth County Master Gardeners will host its annual plant sale at the covered barn of the Cumming Fairgrounds. The event is free to attend and will be held rain or shine.
“We’ve got 46 vendors this year.That’s the most vendors that we have ever had,” said Jackie Grote, chair of the plant sale. “We’ve got a nationally known metal art worker that will be there. Probably the best thing for our market, we have hard-to-find heirloom and hard-to-find plants.”
Grote said there will be native and harder-to-find plants sold by experts.
“There is a hosta dealer that specializes in hostas, there is a Japanese maple vendor that specializes in all the different cultivars,” she said. “We have a lot of azaleas and other native plants.”
Food will also be for sale at the event in the form of a food truck and ice cream.
Other than just plants, there will also be gardening systems and other items to help with gardening.
“Not everybody has enough acreage in their yard for a garden, but we have some new vertical, as well as horizontal, planting systems that you can put on a patio,” Grote said. “We’ll have all kinds of yard art; it’ll be a good show.”
The Forsyth County Master Gardener program is part of an extension program with the University of Georgia that aids in research and seeks to educate residents through outreach programs.
Members will be on hand to answer visitors’ questions.
“The Master Gardeners will be there with an ‘Ask a Master Gardener’ booth,” Grote said. “You can bring clippings from plants that are having trouble; you can just bring things in and ask questions.”
Grote said though affiliated with the university, the group receives no funding and the plant sale makes it possible to run programming.
“We do gardening in the county, we also maintain demonstration gardens at all the libraries and several of the schools,” she said. “We don’t get any federal or state funds or university funds, so this plant sale is our fundraiser to run our programs for the year.”