Durham Grown: The Durham County Library Garden Club
Cool Flowers! Fall Planting for the Earliest Spring Bloomers!
Are you interested in learning to grow early spring flowers? Join Megan Leiss, Farmer and Owner of Spring Forth Farm, a no-till flower farm and homestead in Hurdle Mills, to learn about Cool Flowers! Cool Flowers are a unique subset of annual flowers called “hardy annuals.” They are planted in the fall and can survive and thrive during our NC winter months, to then bloom in early spring. They are easy to start and easy to grow and in this class we will walk through the basic steps of how to grow cool flowers from seed to bloom including: seed sourcing and flower variety selection, bed prep, seeding, winter care and bloom time. Megan will draw on her 13 years of local flower farming experience to guide the class and answer questions. Learn more about how easy it is to have early spring flowers in your garden with the Cool Flowers growing method!
Megan Leiss is the Farmer and Owner of Spring Forth Farm in Hurdle Mills. Megan and her husband, Jonathan, started their farm and homestead in 2012 on borrowed land and in 2014 they bought old tobacco land in southern Person County and moved their farm to Hurdle Mills onto their own piece of good earth. Megan runs the cut-flower business and Jonathan is a Captain in the Durham Fire Department. Together, with their two girls, they work to grow a homestead-size veggie garden to feed their extended family and beyond. Spring Forth Farm uses as many earth conscience practices as possible when working their land including: no-till permanent raised beds, planting pollinator habitat to attract a myriad of native insects, Korean Natural Farming methods (making our own homemade garden sprays), and, maybe most importantly, welcoming the helping hands of their young daughters as they learn to grow alongside us. Megan sells her cut-flowers through two wholesale outlets specializing in 100% local flowers. Piedmont Wholesale Flowers in Durham and Stemz based out of Winston Salem. While wholesale focused, each May, Megan offers beautiful peony bouquets for Mother's Day. Megan and Jonathan are rather old fashioned and do not have any social media accounts, however, you can sign up to join the farm email list at this address springforthfarmnc@gmail.com. We use our email list to share information about signing up for Spring Forth's Mother's Day bouquets.
Due to high demand for Durham Grown: the Durham County Library Garden Club programs seating is first come first serve. Registration is encouraged in order to receive an email reminder about the event and cancellation link if you are unable to attend. Registration does not hold a seat or guarantee a seat.
Parking is available in the library parking lot or at the North Queen Street Garage located at 115 North Queen Street which is directly across the street from the library behind the apartments under construction.
