Pat Munts: Upcoming plant sales offer choices, gardening tips, gift ideas
There will be two sales on Saturday just a couple of miles apart. The Master Gardener Foundation of Spokane County will host its annual Garden Faire and Plant Sale at the WSU Spokane County Extension Office, 222 N. Havana St. This year’s fundraiser will feature loads of veggies including an especially large variety of tomatoes and peppers, and seeds for sale from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, Renee’s Garden, Ed Hume, and Northwest Seed. As always there will be lots of perennials grown by Master Gardeners. There will be a special collection of pollinator friendly plants and lots of how-to information about attracting these important friends to the garden. Several local specialty nurseries slso will offer their unique plants. The event runs 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Extension Office, 222 N. Havana St..
Also on May 7, and just up the road from the Extension Office, the Greenhouse Program at Spokane Community College will have their annual Mother’s Day sale at the greenhouses on the north side of the SCC campus at 1810 N. Market St. The sale will feature beautiful Mother’s Day hanging baskets, annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables, trees and shrubs all grown by or cared for by the second year greenhouse students as part of their educational program. The sale will run 9 a.m. 5 p.m. and will support the greenhouse program.
The next Saturday, May 14, will be the annual Garden Expo at the Spokane Community College Lair Student Union Building from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This year’s theme is “Gardening through the Ages – Once Upon a Vine.” This is the largest event of its kind east of the Cascades.
This year’s Expo will feature more than 250 vendors from across the Northwest selling a mix of exotic specialty plants; garden art, accessories and décor; garden-themed antiques; herbs; vegetables; locally made food products; landscape supplies and services and garden furnishings. Many of the specialty plant vendors only come to this show so this will be your only chance to discover some unique plants.
There will be a full day of lectures and demonstrations on garden topics such as the Selkirks Spectacular with photographer Jerry Pavia, Planning and Planting for Pollinators with yours truly, History of Northwest Agriculture with historian Robert Singletary, and Garden Remedies from the Past that Work Today with Phyllis Stephens. There will be demonstrations, too: Edible Landscape with Michael Loundagin of Home Fires Nursery, How to Take a Soil Sample with the Spokane Conservation District, and Tips for Using Clematis for Cut Flowers with Linda Beutler of the Rogerson Clematis Garden.
There also will be lots of educational displays and a judged flower show with the Inland Empire District Garden Clubs to round out the event. A wide selection of food available onsite and as always parking and admission are free.
Pat Munts is the co-author, with Susan Mulvihill, of Northwest Gardener’s Handbook. Munts can be reached at pat@inland nwgardening.com.