Nevada County Master Gardeners Annual Garden Show and Plant Sale

The Nevada County Master Gardeners held their annual garden show and plant sale at the Barn at Willow Oak on Saturday.  There were two speakers at the event, Sabrina Childs and Minnie Hahn. Childs is Ball Seed sales representative and resides in Ripley Mississippi. Hahn is the Senior Manager of Design and Display at Garden Woodland Gardens in Hot Spring.

The event also had a plant sale with flowers, grasses and herbs to offer. There was also a silent auction with the winners announced at the end.

Childs talked about different varieties Ball Seeds has available and what works best with the climate. Unusual varieties such as black petunias were mentioned. Ball Seeds has come up with different planting mixes including both seed mixes and plants.  Dianthus can be planted both spring and fall. Lemon basil was one of the plants mentioned as being an interesting plant.  She said silver leafed lavender works best with the heat. As salvia can take over Childs said they have small varieties available.  Childs talked about Ball seeds growing flowers in a petri dish to make sure they don’t have diseases as virus are easy to spot that way.

Hahn talked about basics of landscaping with a special emphasis on pollinator plants. Bees, birds, bats, and butterflies are all pollinators. Hahn talked about which colors each type of pollinator was attracted to.  Bees like white, yellow and blue and can see colors we can’t in the ultraviolet spectrum. Butterflies like orange, red, and yellow. Birds like scarlet, red, orange, and white while hummingbirds like trumpet shaped flowers.

One-third of our food supply is reliant on pollinators. Hahn talked about creating pollinator corridors and being careful about the chemicals used in the garden. Even neem oil is an insecticide as it smothers them.

Other things Hahn talked about included creating a focal point in the garden and the scale and proportion of the garden as well as the elements of fire and water. Neither of these must be physically present as a fire pit or empty bird bath works.

Keeping it colorful throughout the season with staggering blooms and deciding on a color scheme were other things to consider. Warm colors and light shades appear closer while cold colors and dark shades appear farther away.

A pollinator garden doesn’t need to be larger than 4 feet by 4 feet. Hahn recommended using native plants for the pollinators as they produce more nectar. They are also lower maintenance and more drought tolerant once established.

Hahn talked about many different types of flowers and which ones she prefers as well as which ones to be careful of.  Asters will easily take over the garden so the variety is important.  Agastache attracted hummingbirds and milkweed attracts butterflies.

Hahn said echinacea had become one of her favorite plants.

Globe thistle provides food for the birds. This is not to be mistaken for regular thistle that is normally weeded from the garden.

For honeysuckle and verbena use the native ones.

Hahn mentioned larkspur as it has a short growing season and might bloom twice.

Lavender should be planted in a dry spot.

The event also had snacks and bag lunches.   There were announcements at the end including a plant sale by Miller County on April 26th at the 4 states Fairgrounds with a wide variety of plants. The event starts at 8am and will go until the plants are sold out.

The Pike County EHC is putting on a quilting event on May 17th.