Our biggest event of the year! Since the grand opening of Simple Gifts Community Garden at our new location on Tingen Road, both our gardening community and our garden are thriving! We grow a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs. We’ve built everything using sustainable and organic practices, mostly using people power and amending the soil with our own compost and organic treatments when needed.

Most of the harvest is donated to local food banks, and last year we donated 4,871 pounds of fresh, organic produce. This fresh, organic food is more nutritious than the processed foods that are often at a food pantry. We also hope that our efforts empower people by allowing them to take home some of the harvest on a day they work and teaching them to grow their own food. Come check our garden out at the open house on April 18th.

We also partner closely with the South Wake Conservationists (SWC), who are once again holding their annual Native Plant Sale as part of our open house. The garden is committed to a sustainable environment, and together with SWC, we have over 350 feet of diverse pollinator gardens, three bluebird houses, a purple martin house array, and a bat house. This year, there will be 14 different species of high-quality native plants for sale in quart and gallon sizes for sale. Come early to get a good selection and help support local conservation work! Here is what is in this year’s offerings:

• Eastern Bluestar
• Butterfly Weed
• Blue False Indigo
• Threadleaf Coreopsis
• Pale Purple Coneflower
• Blazing Star
• Bee Balm
• Cinnamon fern
• Beardtongue
• Jacobs Ladder
• Black-eyed Susan
• Goldenrod
• Stoke’s Aster
• Bushy Aster

Activity Stations

• Garden Tours – small groups
• Garden merchandise (shirts, hats, bags)
• Garden membership information table
• South Wake Conservationists information table
• Native plant sale
• Master Gardeners of NC State Extension info table
• Kids activities:
  • Plant your own plant
  • Pollinator fun station
• Refreshments (complimentary)

As you can see, there is much to see and do, when you come. Please share this with your friends and neighbors, and we look forward to seeing you there!