Get the Buzz on Honeybees & More @ the Garden Tour - June 13

You’ve likely heard that beekeeping, or apiculture, is a growing trend among gardeners who want to help stem the alarming rate of decline in honeybee populations. For the last two decades, bee populations have been under serious pressure from a mystery problem called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Experts disagree as to the exact cause, but it appears to render honeybees more susceptible to a host of pathogens, stemming from nutrition problems from lack of diversity in available pollen and nectar sources and possible sub-lethal effects of pesticides.

If you’re concerned about the fate of honeybees, you will enjoy visiting one of the gardens featured on this year’s EMG Garden Tour, which features an apiary.

Explore, learn and grow at the Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Garden Tour, Saturday, June 13 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm - RAIN or SHINE. Seven gardens will be open for your enjoyment in the Asheville area.

The tour will begin at Enka High School in Candler. Aspects of this year’s featured gardens will include:

• Enka High School Garden – Raised bed veggies, greenhouses and chickens
• Residential Garden – Viburnum collection, water capture and erosion control, planting a dry sunny bank and shade gardening
• Residential Garden – Attracting and controlling wildlife, raised vegetable beds, composting, plant propagation and managing water run off
• Residential Garden – Managing stormwater runoff, daylily division, attracting hummingbirds and arbor selection
• Residential Garden – Reclaimed native woodlands, hosta garden, managing a climbing rose, attractive garden art
• Residential Garden – Beekeeping, veggie garden rotation techniques, garden house, large conifers and planting under a Black Walnut tree
• Residential Garden – Water capture and use, transforming a building lot and edibles in the landscape.

In addition to an exhibit highlighting the Extension Master Gardener programs School Grant Program and other community outreach, we will have presentations from tour sponsors present at Enka high school with garden related items for sale to the public.

Advance tickets can be purchased:

• Online May 1 to June 10 for $15 each
• at the EMGV website:  www.buncombemastergardener.org
• or in-person from May 1 to June 12 for $15 each at the Buncombe County Center of NC Cooperative Extension, 94 Coxe Avenue in Asheville

You can also purchase tickets at registration on the day of the tour, June 13, for $20 either cash or check at the starting point of the tour at Enka High School.

Proceeds are the sole support of our School Garden Grants program and
provide for support for EMGV activities. So please bring a friend, a sun hat, and a bottle of water and spend the day enjoying a selection of some of the most beautiful gardens in Buncombe County!

For more information, call Buncombe County Cooperative Extension at 255-5522.