Haywood County Library gardening classes available

From The Giving Garden:

The Giving Garden in Canton

From February into September, the Canton branch of the Haywood County Public Library hosts gardening classes enriched by the “Giving Garden” located behind the library. These classes teach interested adults about soil and fertilizers, the plight of the Monarch butterfly and other pollinators, square-foot gardening, food preservation, cooking with herbs and more. The Giving Garden program is an education-oriented joint venture of the Haywood County Public Library, the Friends of the Haywood County Public Library, the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Center and the Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program.

Children are also included in the Giving Garden Program. In April, there was a story time that focused on gardening. Afterward, the children built a teepee outside in the Giving Garden in preparation for a children’s planting day scheduled for May.

On the planting day on May 24th, following a reading of How Groundhog’s Garden Grew, the children joined Master Gardeners Hughes Roberts and Marcia Tate, along with volunteers Bill Rhodarmer, Dale Treadway and Ryann Roth in the Giving Garden to plant a 3’ x 3’ square-foot raised garden and the teepee garden.

With guidance from the Master Gardeners and volunteers, the children planted the sectional garden with cherry tomatoes, onions, bush beans, sage, carrots, salvia, leaf lettuce, vinca and radishes.

The teepee they built in April was now ready for planting. Marcia Tate guided the children in spacing the seeds of scarlet red runners, blue lake, yard long and pole beans. “Before long these beans will trail up, over and down the teepee,” Tate explained to the children.

In addition to learning about gardening and food sources, the children saw an example of community spirit: All the vegetables grown in the Giving Garden are donated to The Community Kitchen in Canton.

The Giving Garden is one of the stops on the June 18th Haywood County Garden Tour. Tickets for the tour can be ordered through the Cooperative Extension Center at 589 Raccoon Road, Suite 118, Waynesville, NC 28786. They will be on sale at B. B. Barns Nursery in Asheville, the Haywood County Arts Council in downtown Waynesville, Riverview Farm & Garden in Canton and Grass Root Gardens in Waynesville. There will be a maximum of 500 tickets sold. These locations will also have tickets for a drawing for a $500 gift certificate from Mountain View Nursery and Landscaping.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 the day of the tour.

For more information regarding the Giving Garden at the Canton branch of the Haywood County Public Library, visit haywoodlibrary.org and click on the Giving Garden tab or call (828) 648-2924.