Visit Plateau Discovery Gardens

12.15.2011 // Featured, Landscape Design // admin // 8 Comments

By C. Rae Hozer Chronicle contributor

When giving talks on gardening and landscaping or teaching Master Gardener classes in Cookeville and Crossville I typically take an informal survey and find about half attending have been residents of the area for five years or less. Some new residents were gardeners before relocating. Others adopted the hobby after settling here. All seem eager for information about plants that grow well in Tennessee’s Upper Cumberland Region.

August through October is prime planting time for woody stemmed perennials and ornamental grasses, so I also field questions from readers on plant selection at this time. Plateau Gardening articles try to spotlight local conditions and landscape plants likely to thrive in our part of the state, but this writer confesses a bias in favor of picking plants by seeing them up close over choosing new landscape additions based only on text descriptions and pictures.

I encourage readers looking for new perennial plants to visit Plateau Discovery Gardens located just south of I-40 exit 311 Plateau Road, off Hwy. 70N at the University of Tennessee Plateau AgResearch and Education Center, 320 Experiment Station Road, Crossville. Various theme gardens and university trial gardens within the Discovery Gardens complex are open for self-guided tours daily during daylight hours. Entry and parking behind the office are available without charge. Plant specimens are labeled. Write down Latin plant names and note attractive features so you will be able to ask for that cultivar (or another with the same attributes in case the exact variety you want is not sold near your home).

Attend the second annual Fall Gardeners’ Festival Tuesday, Aug. 31, 9 a.m. (registration and parking) until 4 p.m. at the UT Plateau AgResearch and Education Center. During this event enjoy education stations where experts discuss topics like Better Grasses & Hydrangeas, Turfgrass, Lasagna Gardening, Roses, Gourds, Square Foot Gardening, Home Irrigation Systems, Raised Bed Gardening, and wintertime Tunnel Gardening. There will be wagon tours of the AgResearch and Education Center, Plateau Discovery Gardens walks, an Ask-the-Expert booth where homeowners can bring samples of plant problems for diagnosis, a Cumberland County Master Gardener Association information booth, as well as a Food Court. Entry and parking for the festival at the same everyday low price — free!

Discovery Gardens History & 2005 Small Tree and Shrub Garden

Land was made available near the office at the Crossville UT AgResearch and Education Center in 2004. The vision of UT Cumberland County Extension Director Gregg Upchurch of demonstration and trial gardens designed, planted and maintained by the Cumberland County Master Gardener Association (CCMGA) was described to Master Gardeners. The CCMGA membership voted to adopt the project. It was christened Plateau Discovery Gardens. Carol Burdett (current CCMGA president) planned the initial themed garden with shrubs and small trees suited to the unique conditions on the Cumberland Plateau. The 2005 Crossville Master Gardener class put in mulched paths and beds and the plants at the end of their classroom sessions. By autumn, the young tree and shrub garden and a wildflower meadow nearby looked good. After four years of development and added trial gardens with plants such as hydrangeas, ornamental switch grasses and redbud varieties supervised by University of Tennessee specialists, Discovery Gardens opened to the public in 2009.

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Plateau Gardening is written by Master Gardeners for those tending home landscapes and gardens in Tennessee’s Upper Cumberland Region. UT Extension Cumberland County at P.O. Box 483, Crossville, TN 38557 (484-6743) has answers for horticulture questions, free publications and details on how to become a Master Gardener. Send email comments or yard and garden inquiries to Master Gardener Rae, mgardenerrae@frontiernet.net.

Originally posted 2010-08-24 11:42:08. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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