Master Gardener show and sale April 20

By John Miller, 04/11/24 10:32 AM

PRESCOTT – Randy Forst and Amanda Malcolm will be the featured speakers at this year’s Master Gardener Plant Show and Sale.

The event is set for April 20 at the Barn at Willow Oak Acres and will run from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. There will be plenty of plants, edible and non-edible, for sale for gardeners of all kinds.

Forst is the State Consumer Horticulture/Master Gardener Coordinator with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. He has a BS in Landscape Design and Urban Horticulture. Before working with the extension service, he worked for a landscape architecture firm in Collierville,TN. Now, he has a small farm where he raises Dorper Hair Sheep, cattle, free range chickens, vegetables and blackberries.

Malcolmowns and operates Love Creek Nursery in Okolona. She began with the idea of building a greenhouse, though she had no plans on what to do with it at the time. After getting it built there was the learning process when it came to gardening. Initially the nursery was only open on weekends and orders taken over the phone. However, in 2020, she told her husband she’d quit her job and was going to run the greenhouse full time – this was two weeks before Covid-19.

Social media came to the rescue as she posted pictures and information online. It worked as people came to the farm for plants. Since then, the farm has continued to grow and offers annuals and seasonal plants, along with decorative metal baskets and clay pottery.

The day will begin at 8 a.m. with brunch, plant sale and silent auction. Stacey Stone will give the welcome at 9 a.m., with door prizes (the first round) awarded. From 9:15-10:15 Malcolm will talk about wildflowers and pollinators. She she’s done there’ll be a break for shopping and door prizes. At 10:45, the lectures resume with Forst talking about perennials. At 11:45 there will be a break for more shopping and door prizes with the silent auction ending. From 12:15-12:30, the winners of the silent auction and last round of door prizes will be announced.

Shopping is for registered garden show participants only. All proceeds from the show will be used by the Nevada County Master Gardeners to fund community projects.

For more information, call 501-627-8341.