September 1st Saturday at The Learning Fields at Chaffee Crossing

Summer is winding down and so are the 1st Saturdays at The Learning Fields at Chaffee Crossing. Septembers’ 1st Saturday will be September 3rd from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and it will be the last 1st Saturday of the 2011 gardening season.

We’re inviting you to the Open House to tour our demonstration gardens, learn a little bit more about the gardens, and enjoy refreshments. This Saturday, we will have a special guest. Lori Spencer will be speaking on "Drama in the Butterfly Garden" at 9:15, 10:15, and 11:15. Lori is the author of the award-winning field guide "Arkansas Butterflies and Moths". Lori also coordinates the Mount Magazine Butterfly Festival and serves as an interpretive volunteer at Mount Magazine.

In addition to Lori speaking about butterflies, we will tour The Learning Fields butterfly gardens showing which plants are better suited for which butterflies. OUr Wildflower Meadow will also be featured. Keep in mind that the Wildflower Meadow has seen the worst summer in over a hundred years. We will pay tribute to the few flowers that have struggled through this heat and will be blooming this fall. You will hear about the history and the future of the Wildflower Meadow. You will even get to help start next year’s spring blooms by throwing Seed Ballz that will melt in the fall rains and germinate.

Directions: From Fort Smith and Barling; Take the first right after the RR tracks on Hwy 22. From Charleston; Take the first left right before the RR tracks on Hwy 22 as you near Barling. That street will be Mahogany. Continue on Mahogany and take the third right (which is Tuscany). Go about halfway down the block and make a left onto Gardeners Avenue.  You make it!