Bright Lights Swiss chard, among the plant starts available at the Crabtree Farms sale, is an edible beet relative that’s colorful enough to be grown as an ornamental. The celery-like stems come in a rainbow of colors, including red, rose, gold, yellow and cream.IF YOU GO• What: Fall Plant Sale and Festival• When: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6• Where: Crabtree Farms, 1000 E. 30th St.• Admission: Free• Phone: 423-493-9155, ext. 10• Website: www.crabtreefarms.orgWORKSHOP SCHEDULE• 10 a.m. Fall Gardening Q&A with Crabtree Farms Manager Sara McIntyre• 11 a.m. Composting: Easy as Dirt with Master Gardener Bud Hines• Noon. Five-Minute Farmers Cheese with CeCe McDermott of 423 SoapsSAVE THE DATEComing up at Crabtree Farms:• Sept. 20-21: TasteBuds Farm Tour (self-paced road trip to area farms for guided tours)• Sept. 30: Community Garden Workshop at Crabtree Farms (lunch, speakers, garden tour)• Oct. 11: Farm to Table bike ride (from Crabtree to two downtown restaurants)• Nov. 1: Pumpkin Smash (fall festival with pumpkin chunkin’ trebuchet)Coming up at Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center:• Sept. 12-14: 27th annual Native Plant Sale
The plant names alone should draw you in: Blue Stocking bee balm, Celeste fig, Bright Lights Swiss chard.
But there’s more than merry monikers at Crabtree Farms’ 12th annual Fall Plant Sale and Festival. Foremost, of course, it’s a great place to shop for sustainably grown fruit, vegetable, flower and herb plants to enjoy during the upcoming growing season. You might even be surprised by how much you can produce in the garden in the cooler weather.
Plant starts available at this year’s sale will include:
• Vegetables – Green Magic broccoli, Skywalker cauliflower, Red Stalk celery, Lacinato kale, Bright Lights Swiss chard.