Organizers expect 500-plus attendees at 2nd annual native plant festival in Marshall

MARSHALL - Marshall Native Gardens and Madison County Garden Club will host its second Fall Native Plant Festival Oct. 14 at the Madison County Public Library's Marshall location.

The gardens are located on the 4.2-acre grounds of the library and are open to the public free of charge. Founded in 2011, the native garden was envisioned, designed, constructed and is maintained by Marshall Native Gardens Initiative in cooperation with the county and Madison County Library Director Kim Bellofatto.

Ed McNally, Marshall Native Gardens' coordinator and landscape architect, said last fall's inaugural festival attracted 250-300 attendees.

As with last year's festival, this year's free event will feature talks and workshops on a host of topics related to native trees and plants and invasive vegetation management strategies and the benefits of native plants for native birds and wildlife.

McNally said he expects more than 500 attendees at the second annual fall plant festival, as a shuttle will transport people from the Marshall Ingles to the library.

McNally attributes part of that rise in attendance to a $3,000 grant from the Madison County Tourism Development Authority. The team also learned a lot about how to best carry out its operations following the production of the first festival.

"It's going to be a great event, and it will still meet our goals of getting native plants out into the community and backyards, and supporting our local native plant vendors, and educating the public," McNally said. "All of those are primary goals for the event."

Four local speakers will present free talks and workshops at the event — Carrie Blair, Raven Sterling, Alan Smith and Preston Montague.

The presenters hope the festival will not only raise awareness about the importance of native plants, but facilitate an environment in which attendees can relax and have fun all while partaking in some informational activities in nature.

Montague will serve as the plant festival's keynote speaker. Montague is a landscape architect and artist who grew up in the rural foothills of Virginia. He is currently based in Durham.

Montague said he's excited to speak in Madison County because he enjoys speaking to gardeners in different regions than his own, as it teaches him about how to garden successfully in different climate conditions, and their successes and challenges help him become a better gardener.

"I originally planted my hot, dry, gravelly garden in native plants thinking that if they were native they would likely adapt quickly and thrive in my garden. However, I had a lot of plants fail in that first iteration of the garden,'' Montague said.

According to Montague, his original plantings, which were mostly native except for a number of Mediterranean plants, failed because he didn't pay attention to the microclimate.

"The native plants I chose were from the mountains or wetland areas," Montague said. "My garden is very dry, sun-baked and urban. The closest climate analogue to my garden are the balds of Hanging Rock near Greensboro, the granite flats in Eastern Wake County, the Fynbos of South Africa, and the Provence region of France."

Montague said he began looking at plants in those environments and studying how they grew, how they were shaped, what colors they were and special adaptations they had, like hairy leaves, which block sunlight and reduce moisture loss.

"I became a much more successful gardener once I began choosing plants, especially native plants, that come from environments with analogous climates," he said.

Sterling, an Asheville resident, will give a presentation on mindful management of invasive plants without the use of chemicals.

McNally said one of the main motivations for the festival is to help Western North Carolina residents identify and conscientiously eradicate invasive plants.

"If you go pretty much anywhere in the car in Madison County, you're going to see an awful lot of invasive species - the silvergrass, the Asian bittersweet, and kudzu in places," McNally said. "Knowing how to identify them and knowing how to control them is part of what we're trying to teach. Trying to do it without chemicals is going to be interesting. We'll definitely be learning something from Sterling."

Blair will present a talk on native tree identification and the trees' ecological importance.

Blair runs Tree Lovers' School in Brevard, and is originally from Virginia, where she holds credentials as Virginia master gardener, Virginia master naturalist and tree steward, and docent at the State Arboretum of Virginia, and was an instructor at Virginia Native Plant Society.

According to Blair, the festival will allow the team to educate the public on the harmfulness of invasive species, as often times residents may try to intervene with measures that they believe are ecologically helpful, but in fact are not.

"We've all been made aware that the monarch butterflies are having a rough time, and they try to make that long migration. Once people got alerted to that, they said, 'Oh, well I'll just plant more milkweed, and that will give them a place to feed,'" Blair said.

"Well, there are non-native milkweeds. There are native milkweeds in Mexico and South America that are similar plants, and same genus different species, that would bloom later in the season. So, the mistake was made by innocent people saying, 'Oh, I'm going to have a variety of milkweeds that are going to extend the feeding season,' but what that does is interrupt the monarch's trigger to go south. So, they're feeding in North America into September, maybe October, when they should have started flying south already. We found out the hard way that you think you're feeding the animal what it needs, but in fact you've spoiled the whole plan."

Blair said the responsibility of controlling invasive species involves goes much deeper than an aesthetic component of aiming to have a pretty yard or field.

"Non-native plants are a huge problem. They outcompete our natives, and quite often take over habitat, and can become a monoculture," Blair said. "When we're talking about natural areas that are supporting wildlife, you actually need sort of the original menu of plants that were there that all works with the insects and the wildlife and the birds that are dependent on the plants, and that all work together."

Blair said her talk on tree identification will be a lively and interactive session, and, while it could potentially even save lives, is meant to bring more enjoyment to nature enthusiasts on their own walks.

"You need to identify what's around you, and it certainly adds to your enjoyment of an area," Blair said. "I see many hikers that are just sort of reeling off the miles, chatting away, or listening to their earbuds. We call that 'plant blindness.' People may choose that. But, it's really important for us to know what the native plants are, what the non-native invasive plants are so we can not choose them when we go to a nursery, so we can support wildlife with the plants that evolved with our animals."

Smith will host a workshop on this year's featured plant, the native azaleas.

Additionally, there will be native plants for sale from 12 local vendors. Free shuttle and off-site parking will also be available.

Sweet Monkey Catering, Notorious Coffee and Buchi will offer food and drinks, while two local groups will provide music at the festival.

There will be docent-led tours of the Marshall Native Gardens, as well as activities for kids, and prizes at the door.

Blair said while she is impressed with Marshall Native Gardens' 4-acre native plant garden, she hopes to combine educational enrichment with fun at the Oct. 14 festival.

"I love spreading the word and hopefully stimulating interest in these subjects," Blair said.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: More than 500 attendees expected at native plant festival in Marshall