A plant for every place. A place for every plant:
Growing a passion for nature through gardening

The land around us contains many plants and fungi that can be gathered and used to help feed ourselves and help keep us and our families healthy and well. Adam’s class explores the many different edible and medicinal species that you can find and forage from the woods. This class will explain the ethics and rules of foraging to help ensure future harvests, and the safety and proper identification of forest products. This class will spend some time walking around the native plant area looking at available plants that are used as food and medicine.

Have you noticed fewer bees and butterflies? Most people notice it before they can name it. The good news: we can change that with a Saturday of knowledge. Brannen and Jill of Spriggly's Beescaping have spent years creating the habitats pollinators actually need. Learn what to plant and what not to plant, while you take a dive into the lifecycles of the beneficial creatures you wish to support.

Cherokee fiber artist Nancy Basket turns kudzu and wisteria from backyard nuisances into handwoven baskets. Learn ribbed construction, how to gather and work these vines, and the Native traditions behind the craft. No experience needed. You'll leave with a basket and a new relationship with a plant you used to resent.

Join John Kotab, a local bee expert and author of Bee the Change: If We Protect, Nature Will Provide, for a native bee walk at Winding Stair Gardens. The class opens with a short lecture covering the basics: how to tell a bee from a wasp from a fly, and what to notice first in size, color, and movement. Then everyone heads into the field together, twice, with a regrouping in between to go a layer deeper into individual bee genera. If conditions cooperate, John will net a few bees and pass them around in an observation box for a closer look.

Artist Dayna Walton of Solstice Handmade guides you through watercolor fundamentals- value, brushwork, color mixing from three primaries, and observational painting from real plants and flowers at the Gardens. No experience or supplies needed. You'll leave with finished work and a friendlier take on watercolor.