 Photo by Angeli Wright of Asheville Citizen Times Happy National Pollinator Week and the official start to the summer of 2016! We’re welcoming summer in the best way imaginable, with our annual Garden Tour. This Saturday, June 25th, we’ll be adventuring through nine beautiful private gardens in the Kenilworth neighborhood to learn more about how these skilled gardeners are planting with permaculture, native plant species and edible gardens in mind. “What we try to do is highlight any native plant we find on the garden tour and say something about why that’s meaningful to pollinators, particularly butterflies and moths who will not lay their eggs on anything but a particular native species,” says Bee City USA Founder Phyllis Stiles. “The reason for that is they evolved chemically to be able to not only tolerate the toxin the plant was emitting, but even taking advantage of it, using it as a defense from predators. Nature is pretty crafty like that.” Here at Greenworks, we’ve proudly supported the work of Bee City USA since 2012. As a nonprofit entrenched in educating and championing locals on the importance of knowing native plant species and working with the city to landscape with our bees and other species in mind, their work very much aligns with ours in ensuring our ecosystems are all healthy and functioning in the way they’re supposed to. This Saturday, the Garden Tour will kick off at Kenilworth Presbyterian Church where participants will be given a map guiding them through the historic Asheville neighborhood. You can even purchase a box lunch prepared by Green Opportunities kitchen for $10, available at the church or prepaid with an advance ticket purchase. The Asheville Citizen-Times wrote a wonderful article sharing the story of one of the master gardener’s homes along with beautiful images of these private sanctuaries as well, including the one featured above. Read the full article HERE. “Greenworks has been such a friend to Bee City USA and we’re just as pleased as punch to be collaborating with them.” We hope you’re able to join us all on the first Saturday of summer! Advance tickets, box lunches, the VIP Lunch & Learn with Bee City USA and additional information available HERE.  Photo by Angeli Wright of Asheville Citizen Times Comments are closed.
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