Appearances, Lectures and Shows

Jump Start Your Summer Garden with Seed-Blocking!

Join me for a workshop on how to mix, press and plant seed blocks. Nurture your sets and plant on Mother’s Day. Learn how to successfully grow flowers in your garden. Help our butterflies and bees!

Details:

• Date: Saturday April 4, 2015 10-1 pm.
• Light lunch provided.
• Location:  Dovecote Porch & Gardens 35 Flashpoint Drive Cashiers, NC. Instructor: Mary Palmer Dargan, rla. Small group.
• Fee: $25.
• For re-registration : [email protected] or call 828-743-0307.

About our workshop:

Action Steps for Planting on Mother’s Day

I find myself collecting seed packets like fine wine, putting them into the refrigerator for later use to preserve their freshness….Then, I get busy and forget to plant the summer flower seeds!

Do you have a stack of seeds ready to be planted? Do you love flowers, butterflies and bees? Hardy annuals like lychnis, queen anne’s lace and black eyed susans return each year after blooming. They rest in the mulch of your garden during the cold weather. Other annuals like zinnias and Bells of Ireland are more tender and not frost resistant. They need TLC to germinate and get their roots started in order to bloom early in our short, mountain growing season.

I plant tender annuals in early April and put them under lights in my warm attic; your warm basement or heated garage would do, too! Tender annuals need at least 16 hrs of light a day to stand straight and hearty. Their roots develop in the seed blocking media, so the baby plants are strong when planted and suffer no transplant shock. Planting medium, seed blockers, buckets, water and seeds will be available for the workshop.  Plus, instructions on how to grow flowers successfully.

Why do we want to encourage planting hardy flower seeds? You remember these. They were in your grandmother’s garden. Each year they bolted effortlessly out of the ground and volunteered to populate summer borders…effortlessly. Or at least until your yard service came along, weeding and spraying them into oblivion. Or maybe the rabbits overtook.
I’m on a mission to reinvent your garden and mine. Have you ever tried a handprint garden? Its fun. Think like a 6 year old and put your hand on the soil, then put a hardy annual seed on each finger print. That keeps baby plants separated to grow well spaced. This genre of seeds likes to be cold for awhile. I recommend marking them with a well labeled plastic knife, or you will forget where they are. Our mission is to encourage native bees and butterflies to ravage these colorful blossoms this summer so both bees, butterflies and flowers can procreate. Now, I’m thinking of starting a seed library this fall.

So, if you are in the western North Carolina area, especially Cashiers and Highlands, please join us. If you prefer a video of our workshops to share with your friends, please watch and take part vicariously!

Just sign up for our newsletter and click the Garden Talk Salon option at www.dargan.com.