There’s never really a bad time to visit Sportsman Lake in Cullman. But this weekend, the Cullman County Master Gardeners are adding a little extra incentive, anyway.
Beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 23, the Master Gardeners will host the local organization’s annual Native Azalea and Wildflower Sale at Sportsman Lake Park. Finding the sale’s location is easy: Just follow the drive through the main park entrance, and look for activity around the pavilion area that lies through the open gate just ahead of the drive’s first turn to the left.
Locating the sale at the park offers the public a chance to check two green-thumb achievements off their to-do list at once. In addition to offering a long list of spring-season plants to take home (including Alabama native azaleas, ferns, butterfly milkweed, bee balm, Shasta daisy, purple cornflowers and many more), the sale also lies just a stone’s throw away from the Master Gardener-maintained Wildflower Garden at Sportsman Lake.
Marked by its bright red Japanese-style Torii entrance gate, the Wildflower Garden is a four-acre park within-a-park that Master Gardener members have spent the past two years working to reclaim from an extended period of disuse. Featuring dozens of native plants strewn among the meandering turns of an easy-to-travel walking trail, it’s a community-sourced project that’s constantly evolving, while incorporating new aesthetic touches (like the pedestrian bridge crafted by Cullman Area Technology Academy students) that make touring the garden a pleasant way to enjoy one of Sportsman Lake’s unique attractions.
This weekend’s sale isn’t the only one on the Master Gardeners’ springtime agenda. On April 19 and 20, the group also will hold its annual native plant sale under the pavilion at the North Alabama Agriplex. Proceeds from both sales help fund maintenance and improvement at the Wildflower Garden as well as other Master Gardener projects; for more information about all the Master Gardeners’ upcoming activities and events, visit the organization’s Alabama Cooperative Extension Service web page (mg.aces.edu/cullman/), and follow the group on Facebook by searching the site using “Cullman County Master Gardeners.”