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Mountain Gardens

LXCL:<h2 class="lxcl-h2" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">Mountain Gardens, begun by our founder Joe Hollis in 1972, is an education center and botanical garden of useful plants featuring the largest collection of native Appalachian and Chinese medicinal herbs in the Eastern US, organically grown at the foot of the Black Mountains in Western North Carolina. Our specialties include: native and oriental medicinal herbs, wild foods, perennial vegetables, craft plants and other ethnobotanicals.</h2>

Join us at Joe Hollis&rsquo; Mountain Gardens as we &ldquo;embrace the invasives&rdquo; in this kudzu/bamboo= &ldquo;KuBoo&rdquo; Basket Weaving class w/<a fr-original-style="" href="https://carolinabamboo.org/who-is-carolina-bamboo/" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Aaron McCarty</a> of <a fr-original-style="" href="https://carolinabamboo.org/" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Carolina Bamboo</a>! Get to know split bamboo and kudzu as weaving materials. Learn how to harvest and strip a kudzu vine. Engage with refined, hand-crafted split bamboo. Weave the Kudzu and Bamboo together to create your own personalized and unique KuBoo basket! Space is limited, reserve your spot!&nbsp; In this class students will learn how to make a circular basket from wildcrafted kudzu and bamboo harvested locally from Spartanburg County. &nbsp;We will provide split bamboo and stripped kudzu vine for incorporation into the KuBoo basket. &nbsp;Aaron will give a short demonstration of the first two bamboo splits starting with a whole cane of bamboo so that students will better understand the work and skill that goes into producing these traditional Japanese hand splits. &nbsp;These skills were passed down from Aaron&rsquo;s mentor, Keiji Oshima of Haiku Bamboo Nursery. The kuboo basket dimensions will vary based on student proclivity and aptitude. &nbsp;Students can expect to walk away with a completed KuBoo basket of a minimum of 6&rdquo; diameter by 5&rdquo; tall, with the option to upgrade &nbsp;to a maximum of 12&rdquo; diameter by 8&rdquo; tall. &nbsp;Additional upgrades such as dyed kudzu and bamboo (in an available assortment of colors) and a bamboo handle can also be added to a student&rsquo;s basket for an additional fee. The skills involved in making a kuboo basket require decent hand eye coordination as well as healthy hands. &nbsp;Most important is the willingness to practice dedication, discipline, determination, and patience. &nbsp;Anyone with these qualities can create a kuboo basket successfully. &nbsp;While we weave, Aaron will be available for a Q&amp;A session about bamboo. Bamboo is a mysterious plant to many. Ask Aaron questions to learn more about bamboo while you weave. Hosted at Mountain Gardens, this workshop supports our mission to rebuild, restore, and maintain Joe Hollis&rsquo;s Paradise Gardens as a living educational center. Learn practical craft skills while helping us care for this botanical sanctuary.

Embrace the Invasives kudzu/bamboo= “KuBoo” Basket Weaving class w/Aaron McCarty of Carolina Bamboo at Mountain Gardens

Don&#39;t miss this great opportunity to join Ethnobotanist Marc Williams in Joe Hollis&#39; Mountain Gardens.&nbsp; We will focus in this class on plant family patterns and what they indicate regarding identification and ethnobotanical application of exotic invasive plants for food, medicine and beauty. A big focus of the class will underpin the opportunities to employ these plants and effectively make use of a problem by turning it into a resource. We will take an in depth look at some of the prime exotic invasive plants occurring in the southeastern United States as well as a more general exotic invasive plant list of over 150 useful species from the region and unusual examples currently peculiar to Mountain Gardens. We will finish our time with a sampling of snacks and beverages embodying what Invasivorism looks like in an applied, delicious and efficient manner.Time: 1 - 5 p.m. Fee: Sliding Scale $25 - $75Marc WilliamsEthnobiologist Marc Williams has studied the people, plant, mushroom and microbe interconnection intensively while learning to employ botanicals and other life forms for food, medicine, and beauty in a regenerative manner. His training includes a Bachelor&#39;s degree in Environmental Studies concentrating in Sustainable Agriculture with a minor in Business from Warren Wilson College and a Master&rsquo;s degree in Appalachian Studies concentrating in Sustainable Development with a minor in Geography and Planning from Appalachian State University. He has spent over two decades working at a multitude of restaurants and various farms and has traveled throughout 31 countries in Central/North/South America and Europe as well as all 50 states of the USA. Marc has visited over 200 botanical gardens and research institutions during this process while taking tens of thousands of pictures of representative plants and other entities. He has taught hundreds of classes to thousands of students about the marvelous world of people and their interface with other organisms while working with over 100 organizations and particularly as a key contributor to the work of <a fr-original-style="" href="https://unitedplantsavers.org/" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">United Plant Savers</a>, <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.plantsandhealers.org/" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Plants and Healers International</a> and online at the website <a fr-original-style="" href="http://www.botanyeveryday.com/" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">www.botanyeveryday.com</a>. &nbsp;Marc&#39;s greatest hope is that this effort may help improve our current challenging global ecological situation. Mountain Gardens is a botanical garden of useful plants featuring the largest collection of native Appalachian and Chinese medicinal herbs in the Eastern US, organically grown at the foot of the Black Mountains in Western North Carolina. Our <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/our-specialties-1" id="isPasted" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">specialties</a> include: native and oriental medicinal herbs, wild foods, perennial vegetables, craft plants and other ethnobotanicals. We offer for sale <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/seeds-4" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">seeds</a>, <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/bare-roots-3" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">plants</a>, fresh and dried herb material, and other preparations. We present useful information regarding the cultivation and uses of these species, as well as our philosophy of <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/new-page" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Paradise Gardening</a>.

Challenges and Opportunities with Exotic Invasive Plants w/Marc Williams of Botany Everyday

Not to be missed! &nbsp;Marc Williams (Botany Everyday) &nbsp;will be leading a workshop on Plant Family Patterns: The Key to See and Mocktail Hour. &nbsp;Plant Family Patterns can greatly aid in demystifying the &ldquo;green wall&rdquo; of species around us. Approximately 300,000 species of flowering plants are known to global science. These species have been grouped into around 15,000 genera and over 400 flowering plant families. About 200 flowering plant families grow in the temperate world where it annually frosts and or freezes. You will know something significant about the majority of plants that you see in the temperate world if you learn the top 30 families around you. It is often possible to guess whether a plant is edible, medicinal, or poisonous simply by the family it occupies. However, some exceptions are important to know as well. We will engage in a walk and talk around Mountain Gardens where we will delve into the major plant families of the Southern USA. Students will reinforce plant identification skills by observing family patterns such as leaf, flower and fruit types. Uses including edibility, medicinality, craft, wildlife promotion and landscape beauty will be discussed. Participants will gain a more holistic understanding of the major plants comprising the Southern US flora and their potential ecological and ethnobotanical applications.&nbsp;We will finish with a celebratory mocktail hour and honey tasting where students can mix an match various non-alcoholic beverages and try honeys from various parts of the world along with tree syrups like Black Walnut, Birch and Hickory as well.

Plant Family Patterns: The Key to See and Mocktail Hour w/ Marc Williams (Botany Everyday)

Join basketmaker Jeremy Cro at Mountain Gardens to learn how to harvest and weave poplar bark into sturdy, beautiful baskets rooted in Appalachian tradition. Jeremy Cro &nbsp;describes himself as natural materialistic. working with stone, wood, antler, bone, plants and others. learning earthskills and land based living in the mountains of WNC. &nbsp;We think Jeremy is one of the finest ancestral skills craftspeople we&rsquo;ve ever met! &nbsp;Join us for a hands on workshop where Jeremy will lead us thru the harvesting and processing of poplar bark and we will each be crafting our own Tulip Poplar bark basket.&nbsp;

Poplar Bark Baskets with Jeremy Cro

Join Dave Meesters and Janet Kent of the Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine for a May Day walk around Mountain Gardens. Learn the medicine of spring at Mountain Gardens. All proceeds go to the continuing restoration of Mountain Gardens. Terra Sylva exists to meet the growing need for environmentally and socially conscious herbalists able to support their communities as healers, educators, and emissaries of the plants. From basic energetics and botany, to medicine making and human physiology, all the way to herbal formulation and clinical skills, our programs impart the knowledge, skills, and experiences that best support the practicing community herbalist.

May Day Plant Walk w/Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine

<p style="margin:0px;padding:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16px;line-height:1.5rem;color:rgb(111, 114, 135);font-family:&quot;Neue Plak&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">Food as Medicine w/Marc Williams of Botany Everyday<p style="margin:0px;padding:10px 0px 0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16px;line-height:1.5rem;color:rgb(111, 114, 135);font-family:&quot;Neue Plak&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">Food as medicine is a concept that is rooted in the healing systems of ancient Africa, China, Greece, India, and others. It is well known that various compounds such as antioxidants and bitters can be helpful in promoting overall health and well-being. Groups of plants, such as adaptogens, make up a large part of the current superfood trends in our society. An overview of plants and fungi that are prime examples of how food can be medicine, as well as some fascinating stories of how these life forms and humans have interacted over time will be the main focus of this class in Powerpoint form, food for sampling and during a plant walk after.<p style="margin:0px;padding:10px 0px 0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16px;line-height:1.5rem;color:rgb(111, 114, 135);font-family:&quot;Neue Plak&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">If money is a limiting factor in your enthusiastic attendance feel free to write marc@botanyeveryday.com and we will try to work something out.<p style="margin:0px;padding:10px 0px 0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16px;line-height:1.5rem;color:rgb(111, 114, 135);font-family:&quot;Neue Plak&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">This in-person event will be held at Mountain Gardens, a beautiful location surrounded by nature. Mountain Gardens is a botanical garden of useful plants featuring the largest collection of native Appalachian and Chinese medicinal herbs in the Eastern US, organically grown at the foot of the Black Mountains in Western North Carolina. Our <a href="https://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/our-specialties-1" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" style="background-color:transparent;color:var(--eds-control,#3659e3);text-decoration:underline;box-sizing:border-box;user-select:auto" target="_blank">specialties</a> include: native and oriental medicinal herbs, wild foods, perennial vegetables, craft plants and other ethnobotanicals.<p style="margin:0px;padding:10px 0px 0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:16px;line-height:1.5rem;color:rgb(111, 114, 135);font-family:&quot;Neue Plak&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to expand your knowledge and discover the power of food as medicine!

Food as Medicine w/Marc Williams of Botany Everyday

Your donation helps Mountain Gardens care for rare medicinal herbs, diverse&nbsp;useful plants, and the practices in which they thrive 🌿. Each donation supports garden restoration, seed saving, and hands-on education for visitors, students, and community members. Together, we can continue Joe&#39;s legacy and keep this living classroom thriving for years to come. Thank you for helping protect garden biodiversity and the craft of ecological gardening.

Your donation helps Mountain Gardens care for rare medicinal herbs, diverse useful plants, and the practices in which they thrive 🌿. Each donation supports garden restoration, seed saving, and hands-on education for visitors, students, and community members.Together, we can continue Joe's legacy and keep this living classroom thriving for years to come. Thank you for helping protect garden biodiversity and the craft of ecological gardening.

Mountain Gardens

Mountain Gardens

Past events

Past events

Embrace the Invasives kudzu/bamboo= “KuBoo” Basket Weaving class w/Aaron McCarty of Carolina Bamboo at Mountain Gardens

Challenges and Opportunities with Exotic Invasive Plants w/Marc Williams of Botany Everyday

Plant Family Patterns: The Key to See and Mocktail Hour w/ Marc Williams (Botany Everyday)

Poplar Bark Baskets with Jeremy Cro

May Day Plant Walk w/Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine

Food as Medicine w/Marc Williams of Botany Everyday

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