The Cumberland County Master Gardeners will host the Flower Lawn and Garden Festival this weekend to celebrate the spring season and promote local horticulture.
Margo Carroll serves as a lead organizer for the festival. Carroll said the organization operates as a volunteer group in partnership with the University of Tennessee extension offices to provide gardening education to the community.
“The Flower Lawn and Garden Festival is an event that started back in 2005 to celebrate spring and growing and, you know, vegetables and getting outside and enjoying the springtime,” Carroll said. “And it’s also part of the mission for the Cumberland County Master Gardeners to educate and inform and share, you know, different outlets to learn, area growers to promote them, and just to get out and enjoy, you know, the spring and being around people and people that make things and grow things and enjoy that celebration of spring.”
Carroll said the local group consists of approximately 100 members who remain active in environmental initiatives across the Cumberland Plateau. Carroll said the region attracts people interested in nature due to the local landscape of parks, rivers, and lakes.
“I think maybe that comes from the beauty, you know, that this region has, all of the parks we have, the beautiful rivers and lakes, it just draws that type of person,” Carroll said. “They’re just so involved in environmental things and we have a lot of gardeners up here on the Cumberland Plateau.”
To become a certified Master Gardener, Carroll said individuals must complete 14 weeks of classes through the University of Tennessee extension. Carroll said these sessions last three to four hours per week and cover topics ranging from soil health and insects to landscaping and horticulture.
“It’s quite extensive and you’re basically just scratching the surface of that huge subject of horticulture and growing things,” Carroll said. “There’s a book that you get and you study and you learn from everything of the soils to insects to vegetables, horticulture, other things, landscaping.”
The festival will feature more than 70 vendors specializing in plants, local produce, and naturally made products. Carroll said the event serves as a fundraiser for the group through the sale of pepper and tomato plants.
“We’ll also have at the festival an Ask a Master Gardener booth set up so people can bring in, you know, maybe they have something going on with a plant, you know, the leaves look bad or something, bring in a picture of it or bring in, you know, part of the plant, and they’ll help them decide what they need to do,” Carroll said. “We’ll also have one of our biggest fundraisers going on, we sell tomato and pepper plants, and we’ll have that.”
Carroll said the group aims to share information regarding sustainability and popular trends like pollinator gardens. Carroll said the arrival of spring offers a significant transition for residents following the winter months.
“Springtime is just, you know, we come through that hard winter, those gray days, and just to be outside and hear the birds, you know, see the animals, see I mean the amazing things that nature does, you know, the leaves get their flowers and their and their leaves and the bulbs, you know, tulips and daffodils pop up and bloom,” Carroll said. “And then coming up soon here will be planting our tomato and pepper and gardens outside and, to me it’s just, it’s just like magic, it’s amazing.”
Admission is free for attendees aged 18 and under, and Carroll said the first 100 youth participants will receive a free plant. The festival will also include food trucks and live music.
“People should just come on out and enjoy the day,” Carroll said. “We’ll have live music, we have food truck vendors, and it’s always fun, just a fun, fun time.”
The event takes place this Friday and Saturday.