SPRING is HERE! Even though the recent snow caught all by surprise … and soon our gardens are growing Growing, GROWING!
It’s Plant Sale Time, and everyone has visions of tomatoes (and lots of other veggies, flowers and plants) dancing in their heads.
For the past several years the gardeners of our region have relied on the annual Plant Sales at Lower Nehalem Community Trust’s Alder Creek Farm and Nehalem Bay Garden Club.
Alder Creek Farm (ACF) has traditionally focused on edible and native plants while the Nehalem Bay Garden Club (NBGC) sold a mix of ornamental and edibles. In January, NBGC members learned that ACF was not going to host a Plant Sale this year, due to a gap in garden management resources. NBGC members along with the community have grown to depend on the great plants that Alder Creek Farm grows as they select varieties that are proven performers in our coastal climate. We put our heads together and figured out a way to fill the gap and offer many of the plants that ACF has sold in the past. So your plant selections will be available from a local source as always.
For the past month NBGC members have been starting seeds and rearing the baby plant starts in their homes until they were large enough to transplant into 4” pots. They were then moved to the 9’ x 12 greenhouse at “Club Headquarter” at Don and Constance Shimek’s house. The greenhouse was a generous donation to the club a few years back and this year we were able to make full use of the resource and have it filled to the brim as our plants grow from tiny seedlings to “teenage” plants. Once they are large enough for gallon pots we are potting them up and finishing the growing in a full size hoop house. Thanks to the cooperation of the Trust, the NBGC began using the hoop house at the farm this week to continue growth of the tomatoes for one more month. They will be transferred to “Club Headquarters” and hardened off in time for our plant sale Saturday and Sunday May 7th and 8th. While our biggest crop focus this year is on edibles we will also be offering our usual ornamental plants; annuals, perennials, shrubs and a few trees.
The Sale will be held at 43080 Northfork Rd, Nehalem – at the intersection of Hwy. 53 and North Fork Rd. Follow signs up Northfork Road or up Highway 53 to Nehalem Bay Garden Club Headquarters, located at the corner of Hwy 53 and Northfork Rd. We will have directional signs posted on both roads. Sale will be open from 9-4 Saturday and 10-noon on Sunday. We are thrilled to be able to partner with Lower Nehalem Community Trust to keep our community supplied with locally grown vegetable starts.
See you at the Sale!
Nehalem Bay Garden Club donates proceeds from the sale to local organizations focused on food security and garden education in our community. Past recipients include North County Food Bank, Nehalem Bay United Methodist Church for their food programs, Food Roots, Hoffman Gardens, Alder Creek Farm, Nehalem Elementary Garden Program, and the mural at Nehalem City Park.
