Gardening For Life Project

04/19/2026

Wonderful way to celebrate biodiversity and outdoor fun! Love following to see what folks share.

Enter the 2026 Habitat at Home photo contest and show us the wild things where you live!

04/15/2026

Hummers are here! Think that sugar water is their favorite? Think again - there are many native flowers that attract and support hummingbirds. Thanks National Audubon Society for this great resource. https://www.audubon.org/community-science/hummingbirds/how-create-hummingbird-friendly-yard

04/15/2026

One of our favorites!

04/15/2026

While we kicked off the spring native plant sale season, there are so many more great opportunities to shop, learn and get inspired. Here is the best list we’ve seen of regional plant sellers and sales - https://conservingcarolina.org/where-to-get-native-plants-for-wnc-and-upstate-sc/. Thanks Conserving Carolina!

Native plants attract birds, butterflies, and bees! Here's where to find native plants in Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina.

04/14/2026

Another great plant sale coming your way! Huge selection!

The Upstate Native Plant Sale webpage is open at https://scnps.org/2026-upstate-spring-plant-sale-information/. It has a preliminary list of plants that will be at the sale this upcoming Saturday, April 18th. We hope to see you there!

04/14/2026

We’d like to give a big shout-out of thanks to our entire community - to all the native plant growers, community organizations, volunteers and shoppers! The Spring GFLP Native Plant Sale was a huge success and was a wonderful day with friends, old and new. An extra special thanks to The Congregational Church, Tryon NC ( United Church of Christ) for co-hosting this event.

04/10/2026

More great info from Conserving Carolina!

04/09/2026

Dreaming up your shopping list for Saturday’s GFLP Native Plant Sale? Here is a splash of inspiration …

04/09/2026

Coming up this Saturday! The 2026 GFLP Spring Native Plant Sale at The Congregational Church, Tryon NC ( United Church of Christ). Come shop, learn and get inspired by many of our region’s finest native plant growers. Too, you’ll have an opportunity to connect with some great community organizations. Bring cash (some vendors prefer), bring a box (boxes!) to take your babies home in, and bring your friends!
Here is the line-up. Milkweed Meadows, Flower Moon Nursery, Saturnia Farm, Blue Oak Horticulture, Bells Creek Wildflower Farm, Optimal Arboriculture, Conserving Carolina Champions for Wildlife North Carolina Native Plant Society - Foothills Chapter Kudzu Warriors.
This event is brought to you by Gardening For Life Project and our community partner - The Congregational Church (UCC) Tryon.

Mark Your Calendars! Saturday, April 11 • Noon- 5 PM At the Congregational Church (UCC), Tryon 210 Melrose Ave., Tryon, NC 28782 (Sale location will be in the Melrose Ave. parking lot of the church) Brought to you by the Gardening For Life Project In partnership with the Congregational Chur

04/06/2026

Moths are power pollinators! Here is a great post … and another great resource is the Book “Gardening for Moths.” by Jim McCormac and Chelsea Gottfried

Moths pollinate more plants than butterflies. They work the night shift, visit more species, and outnumber butterflies roughly ten to one in most backyards.

But just like butterflies, they can't breed on nectar alone.

A moth visits your flowers, feeds for a few minutes, then flies to the one specific plant where it can lay eggs. If that plant isn't in your yard, the entire next generation happens somewhere else. Most pollinator gardens are moth cafés — they feed adults but don't support reproduction.

Here are the plants moths actually need to breed.

🌿 The pairings — what feeds them vs. what raises them:

- Luna Moths visit many flowers for nectar — but they lay eggs on willow, birch, and sweetgum. Caterpillars feed on those leaves and nothing else. No host tree in the yard, no Luna Moths emerging from cocoons in your trees

- Sphinx moths visit coneflowers and moonflowers at dusk — but they breed on tomato and to***co family plants. The tomato hornworm in your garden is a sphinx moth caterpillar. The larval stage of one of the most important night pollinators on the continent

- Hundreds of moth species depend on native cherry and plum trees for caterpillar development. A single wild cherry supports more moth reproduction than a large area of nectar flowers alone

- Oaks host more caterpillar species than any other tree in North America — well over four hundred. If you have one oak, you already have a moth nursery whether you know it or not

- The Promethea Silk Moth — one of the largest and most striking native moths — needs sassafras or spicebush leaves to complete its lifecycle. No substitute

- Viceroy moth caterpillars develop on poplar and aspen. The adults mimic Monarch butterflies for predator protection, but the caterpillars need poplar family leaves and nothing else will do

🌿 What this means for your yard:

- If your porch light never attracts large moths in summer, the missing piece probably isn't the light — it's the host trees. Nectar flowers bring adults through. Host trees make them stay and reproduce
- Native trees do more for moth populations than any flower bed can — one oak or one wild cherry changes the moth community in your yard more than a dozen nectar plants
- The fat green caterpillars on your oak and the hornworms on your tomatoes aren't an infestation. They're the larval stage of your night pollinators. Removing them removes the next generation
- If you're planting for pollinators, include at least one native tree alongside the flowers. The flowers are the café. The tree is the nursery

When you see silk cocoons on your cherry branches and hawk moths hovering over your garden at dusk — that's a functioning night ecosystem 🌿