Wanda,

Please send out the following announcement to the Master Gardener Listserve.

Thanks,
Joy Moore
NE TN Master Gardener

Rick Darke to Speak in Northeast Tennessee

Internationally known landscape design consultant, author, lecturer and photographer, Rick Darke, whose books include The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest, The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes, and The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden (coauthored with Doug Tallamy,) will speak at two public events in Northeast Tennessee on March 21 and 22.

On Monday, March 21, 2016, Johnson City Public Library will host “An Evening with Rick Darke & Amy Fahmy” at the Carnegie Hotel at 1216 West State of Franklin Road in Johnson City, TN from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Fahmy, Lead Horticulturist at Sitework Studios in Asheville, NC, will facilitate a conversation with Darke about "living landscapes," a more naturalistic and ecological approach to gardening that uses habitat and sustainability as criteria for both design and plant selection.

General tickets to the event are $50 and may be purchased by calling the JCPL at 423-434-4450 or online at www.jcpl.net. A limited number of special event tickets are available for $100 and include VIP seating and a meet and greet with Rick Darke prior to the main event. Wine and hors d'oeuvres are included with all ticket prices. After the event Darke will be available for a signing of his book The Living Landscape: Designing for beauty and biodiversity in the home garden. The book will be available for purchase at a special event price. Proceeds from the event will benefit the pollinator garden on the front lawn of the library.

On Tuesday, March 22, the East Tennessee State University and General Shale Natural History Museum and Visitor Center at the Gray Fossil Site, 1212 Suncrest Drive, Gray, TN, will host a special evening with Rick Darke. At 6 p.m. Darke will give a presentation titled “Collision or Collusion? Culture, Ecology, Landscape.” In a thoughtful discussion accompanied by his stunning photographs, Darke will explore places where human culture and native ecologies meet and the rewarding landscapes that can result. Afterwards, he will be available for a meet-and-greet and book-signing.

Also during the evening, the museum will present plans for a pollinator garden at the Site.  It will include plants from the Miocene Epoch, to which the Gray Fossil Site fossils date. Guests are encouraged to sponsor a plant to be purchased for the new “living landscape” pollinator garden at the museum. The Southern Appalachian Pant Society (SAPS) is cohosting the event.

The evening’s activities are free and open to the public.  Registration is requested. To register or for more info email [log in to unmask] or call 423-439-3642. http://www.etsu.edu/naturalhistorymuseum/