Tag Archives: pollinators

Events, Meetings, Previous Events, Previous Meetings

Rain Gardens: “Plant the Rain” for Resilient Landscapes—Tuesday, April 8, at 11:30 a.m.

We hope you will join
the Garden Club of Weaverville
for our April 2025 Meeting

Rain Gardens: “Plant the Rain” for Resilient Landscapes

Tuesday, April 8, at 11:30 a.m.

In the Weaverville Community Center
[60 Lakeshore Drive, Albert Weaver Room]

Our region is experiencing extreme weather events more frequently, from micro-droughts to downpours. What is a gardener to do? Join RiverLink’s Director of Programs Renee Fortner to learn about “planting the rain”—that is, incorporating a rain garden—to create beautiful and resilient landscapes in the time of a changing climate.

Renee will discuss how to harness the rain that lands on your roof and keep it onsite where it can nourish your plants and recharge groundwater. Not only does this practice conserve potable water and build resilience against drought, but it also prevents polluted runoff from reaching our local streams. 

Renee holds a Master of Science in Biology and professional certificates in both stormwater BMP inspection and maintenance and residential rain garden design. As an avid river paddler, naturalist, and home gardener, she is continually reminded of how the environment around us and, thus, our daily lives are affected by access to clean, abundant water. Through her position at RiverLink, she works with communities and local governments to collaboratively address water-related issues across the French Broad River Watershed.

All are welcome to attend. The garden club will not provide refreshments this month, but feel free to bring your own lunch, snack, or beverages to enjoy immediately following the program, if you’d like. The business meeting will begin soon thereafter.

Club of Weaverville is a co-ed, non-profit organization open to everyone. For more information on what we do, becoming a member, or supporting the club, visit our website.

Events, Meetings, Previous Events, Previous Meetings

If You Plant It, They Will Come!—Tuesday, March 11, at 11:30 a.m.

We hope you will join
the Garden Club of Weaverville
for our March 2025 Meeting

If You Plant It, They Will Come!

Tuesday, March 11, at 11:30 a.m.

In the Weaverville Community Center
[60 Lakeshore Drive, Albert Weaver Room]

Are you interested in learning how to control non-native invasive plants in your yard, on your street, or on your homeowners’ association property?

If so, please join us at our upcoming meeting where Bob Gale, local invasives expert and ecologist, will discuss issues related to non-native invasive plants, methods of control, and ideas for moving your yard toward a more natural ecosystem. He will also describe landscape changes that you can expect to occur—regarding both native and non-native invasive plants—as a result of Tropical Storm Helene, and he’ll share ideas for restoration planting and erosion control.

In 2023, Bob retired as the ecologist and public lands director for the non-profit organization MountainTrue, where he worked for 25 years providing scientific input on issues related to environmental policy and protection and restoration of Southern Appalachian mountain forest communities. While with MountainTrue, he founded the organization’s non-native invasive species program, promoting invasive plant control methodologies and native plant replacement.

Following his time at MountainTrue, Bob formed RestoraFlora–Gale Botanical Consulting, a business focused on advising individual homeowners and HOAs on non-native invasive plant removal and wildlife friendly native plantings.

Bob received his bachelor’s degree in geology and biology at the University of South Carolina. His special interest is botany, and he has spent his life working in fields related to this subject. For over two decades, Bob served in many positions as an environmental activist with the Sierra Club in South Carolina, which helped prepare him for his career with MountainTrue. He also spent many years as a nature writer and photographer—contributing to regional and national magazines—and as a wetlands scientist for Ballantine Environmental Resources in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Bob has an additional interest and expertise in paleontology and, with his wife and son, co-authored the first field guide to Atlantic and Gulf coastal fossils.

All are welcome to attend. The garden club will not provide refreshments this month, but feel free to bring your own lunch, snack, or beverages to enjoy immediately following the program, if you’d like. The business meeting will begin soon thereafter.

Club of Weaverville is a co-ed, non-profit organization open to everyone. For more information on what we do, becoming a member, or supporting the club, visit our website.

Events, Meetings, Previous Events, Previous Meetings

All-Season Perennial Color—Tuesday, February 13, at 11:30 a.m.

We hope you will join
The Garden Club of Weaverville
for Our February 2024 Meeting

Program: How to be a Bird-Friendly Gardener 

Tuesday, February 13, at 11:30 a.m.

In the Weaverville Community Center Multipurpose Room 

60 Lakeshore Drive

Native Garden

Do you want a flower garden that delivers continuous blooms and color from spring through summer and into the fall? Gardens that offer color throughout the growing season simply require a little planning. But like most anything worthwhile, they offer tenfold back to you in their beauty and value to pollinators. Pat Sommers of Weaverville’s Natural Selections Nursery will walk us through what’s required to create, in our area, a native perennial garden with yearlong interest.

Pat studied horticulture/landscape design, including as an intern in plant breeding and plant evaluation, at the Chicago Botanic Garden, and she worked as an outdoor volunteer at the Asheville Botanical Gardens for nine years. For many years, her mother taught her about the native plants of New England while taking walks in the woods. Pat started growing natives from seed 16 years ago when she moved to our area. And since moving to Weaverville in 2015, she has been growing native plants. She has taught a number of classes on how to grow natives and their important place in various ecosystems, and she can be frequently found hunched over a plant on the side of a trail anyplace in the area.

PatSommers

The Garden Club of Weaverville is a co-ed, non-profit organization open to everyone. For more information on what we do, becoming a member, or supporting the club, visit our website.

Previous Events, Previous Meetings

March 2020 Meeting Announcement

We hope you will join
The Garden Club of Weaverville
for Our March Meeting

Program: Integrating Natives Into An        Existing Garden and Landscape 

Tuesday, March 10 at 9:30 am

In the Weaverville Town Hall Community Room
[30 South Main Street]

Pat Sommers, owner of Natural Selections Nursery in Weaverville, will be presenting a program on “Integrating an established garden/landscape with natives.”  Her talk will feature a variety of southern Appalachian native perennials for sun/shade, wet-dry conditions, small and large spaces.  We will also discuss how native perennials enhance our gardens and why they are important to the ecology of our larger landscape.
Pat’s background:
Natural Selections Nursery:  Pat started growing southern Appalachian natives from seed 11 years ago when she moved to this area.  She moved to Weaverville in 2015 and have been steadily growing since then.
Pat studied horticulture/landscape design  at the Chicago Botanic Garden, including an internship in plant breeding and plant evaluation.

Native plant background:

  • Her Mother taught her about the native plants of  New England through walks in the woods for many years.
  • Worked as an outdoor volunteer for 9 years at Asheville Botanical Garden.
  • Has taught a number of classes in how to grow natives and the importance of their place in various ecosystems.
  • Can be frequently found hunched over a plant on the side of a trail any place in the area!

Gardening with Perennial Native Plants
Gardening with Perennial Native Plants

The Garden Club of Weaverville is a co-ed, non-profit organization open to everyone. For more information on what we do, becoming a member or supporting the club visit our website.