Asheville Garden Club

10/03/2026

Great idea.

Skip the tug-of-war when the zinnias, marigolds and beans are done this fall. Take the pruners, cut each plant off at the soil, and let the roots stay where they are.

Ohio State University Extension's master gardeners say to cut annuals at the soil surface, leaving the roots in the soil to add organic matter. The UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County explain what happens next: worms, bacteria, fungi and other soil life slowly break the old roots down underground, and the decaying roots leave the soil more porous, with better air and better water holding.

Pull the plant and all of that comes out on the end of it, clump and all. 🍂

10/02/2026

What are you planting that will need cold Stratification? I have creeping Phlox and poppies waiting for December.

09/22/2026

The Asheville Garden is a proud member…

Before you squish that caterpillar, pause and look closer. That tiny creature might be a monarch, swallowtail, luna moth, or cecropia in the making — native butterflies and moths that belong in your garden ecosystem.

Here's the thing: caterpillars aren't pests. They're a critical food source for birds, they're pollinators-in-progress, and they're part of the balance that keeps your garden healthy. Yes, some will munch on your plants. But destroying every caterpillar you find means destroying the very insects that help control actual problem pests and support the web of life your tomatoes depend on.

Take five seconds. Look at what you're about to remove. If it's a monarch, swallowtail, or any of the beautiful native species, let it be. Your garden — and your local ecosystem — will be better for it. plantamericaorg

09/18/2026

Our September meeting was a tour of a member's garden in Arden. Hers is a "working garden" she warned us. It was not going to be gussied up for a garden tour...what you see, is real. We certainly can see the hard work, creativity, and knowledge that went into making this such a wonderful garden to tour. Enjoy the photos...you are going to get a tour of a gardener's paradise.

09/14/2026

This explains it… can anyone concur?

Do not put the squash in the cellar yet.

A butternut off the vine is not done. The rind still marks under a thumbnail, the stem cut is wet, and the flesh is more starch than sugar. Ten days somewhere warm, near eighty, a sunny porch out of the rain, finishes it. The rind hardens like a shell, the cut heals over, and the starch turns to sugar. Sweeter, not just harder. It is why a squash that sat on the vine through a hot dry September often keeps fine on its own. It cured itself.

Then, and only then, a cool dry shelf near fifty five. Not the fridge. Not the concrete floor. Leave an inch of stem on every one, and never carry it by the stem, because the scar where it tears out is where the rot gets in.

Done right, a butternut keeps four to six months. Done wrong, it is soft by Thanksgiving, and everyone blames the squash.

Press a thumbnail into the rind after ten days. No mark, and it is ready. 🎃

09/14/2026

And I love the smell of a ripe tomato..and the taste. No more refrigeration for me!

09/11/2026

How Blessed we are as gardeners… we have a front row seat.

09/10/2026

The average first frost in Asheville is around October 26, so we are cutting it pretty close.

Go out to the tomatoes before the light goes and count the flowers. Then take them all off.

Every yellow star open tonight is a promise the plant cannot keep. In warm weather a flower takes six to eight weeks to become a ripe tomato, and September nights stretch that. If your first frost is inside six weeks, and in most of the North it is, the flower is spending the plant's last strength on fruit that will be green and hard when the cold comes.

So pinch them. Every flower, every fruit smaller than a pea. On the tall vining kinds, nip the growing tip off just above the highest cluster of real tomatoes, and stop there. The bush types that set all at once do not need it. The plant now has nothing to do but size up and colour what it already carries, and the gain is honest but modest. It will not double the crop. It will finish it.

If you garden where the frost holds off until November, leave the flowers alone until October. You have the time.

Count what you took off. It is usually more than you would guess. 🍅

09/09/2026

The Japanese Anemones , a vibrant perennial, deer resistant and attracts pollinators.. they are aggressive garden spreaders, rather than an invasive species. They send out runners that pop up as new shoots. They drop seeds that germinate easily.

America with a gorgeous Japanese Anemone! These flowers grow to be about three feet tall and enjoy full sun. This anemone is a bee haven and the pollinators are just loving it. 😍 The bloom season is in August in Zone 7b, and continues into September. At this time of year, it is hard to find blooming perennials which makes the anemone even more precious. And what a lovely shade of deep pink!