MORRISONVILLE — Gardeners can take “buy local” to the grassroots at today’s Master Gardener Volunteer Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to noon at the Clinton County Fairgrounds, 84 Fairgrounds Rd., Morrisonville.
Master Gardener volunteers are passionate about helping the public cultivate a thriving garden, and a booth will be at the event where they will answer plant-related questions.
“We have it each year because that money funds all our programs that we do throughout Clinton County,” Linda Noyes, a master gardener since 2013, said.
“So, we depend on those funds to do any kind of presentations we do, any kind of, for example, bucket gardens that go into schools, and we do Earth Day celebration that kind of thing. All that money comes from that plant sale. We go to nursing homes and work on raised beds there with the patients in the nursing homes.”
At the sale, perennials will be divided up into sun-loving, shade-loving, partial shade, and partial sun.
“We also have a section on native plants for the perennials,” she said.
“Then, we have annuals, also we have herbs, vegetables, and fruits. For example, we’re going to have blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. There will be all sorts of herbs like basil, oregano, different kinds of mint. There’s chocolate mint there, orange mint.”
Annual offerings include petunias, nasturtiums, and bachelor buttons.
All plants are sown from seed by the master gardeners or were divided from gardens.
“If we have divisions in our own yard, what we do to prevent any kind of invasive such as the Asian jumping worm, all the plants are bare rooted and then rinsed so that we’re not taking any larva stages of any insect that you wouldn’t want in your yard,” Noyes said.
“Then, we put it in a potting soil mix. The Asian jumping worms are invasive worms that are here in Clinton County, so we’re very careful not to spread that.”