It sure feels like spring around Milton lately. And soon enough, it will actually BE spring with ideally vegetables, fruits, flowers, and ultimately all your plants thriving.

And the North Fulton Master Gardeners are back to help you make that happen.

The City’s non-profit, volunteer-led partner returns to Milton City Park and Preserve’s Community Center (1785 Dinsmore Road) to offer three more free (pre) spring gardening classes. Just as with previous collaborations, their goal is to help grow knowledge,  community, and their special brand of love for the outdoors. Not only are the events happening at a City facility, but they fall under the Plant! Milton umbrella – an initiative to encourage tree growing, care, and generally keeping Milton green.

Doors open for the upcoming sessions at 6:30 p.m. with a half-hour period during which anyone can mingle with Master Gardeners and other gardening-lovers in the room. Then, around 7 p.m., the presentation-plus part of the programs will begin. These are the days and topics for each class: 

• TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25: There’s nothing like fresh vegetables. And you can’t get any fresher than plucking them from your garden and putting them directly on your plate. This session will dig into veggie gardening – whether you grow your future foods (vegetables and herbs) in a garden bed, a container, or somewhere else – by sharing tips, tricks, and best practices.

   

• TUESDAY, MARCH 4: The first half (of this two-part class) will focus on hostas. You’ll learn about different colors and types of these shade-tolerant, low-maintenance perennials, then get ideas on where to put them and protect them (we’re looking at you, deer and slugs!). This session’s second half is about turning some lawn space into garden space by adding trees, shrubs, perennials, groundcover, and more. Doing this can allow for bio-diversity, better stormwater absorption, and cost you less in the long-run.

   

• TUESDAY, MARCH 11: This next, likewise two-part class begins with “Success in Growing Small Fruits.” Attendees can pick up best practices when it comes to growing berries, figs, grapes, plums, figs, and more that many birds, other wildlife, and certainly humans love. This session (and this spring’s educational series) concludes with a talk focused on getting the right gardening tools for the task at hand – whether it’s a trowel or a shovel or a snip or saw or something else.

There is NO cost to attend any of the above. However, for planning purposes, people should register online in advance. To do, go to this North Fulton Master Gardeners webpage -- https://nfmg.net/wp/2025/01/21/spring-2025-classes-plant-milton/ -- and click “Register Here” next to the class you expect to attend.

Hope to see folks there … and better yet, out in their gardens making Milton more beautiful, one picturesque plant at a time.