Smart Yards and Friends Festival is September 7

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Visit the UT Gardens, Knoxville, to Learn More About Sustainable Landscaping Practices

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Learn ways you can enhance and improve your lawns, gardens and property to benefit the community and ecosystem at the Smart Yards and Friends Festival.

The event is from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, September 7, in the UT Gardens, Knoxville, at 2518 Jacob Drive on the UTIA Knoxville campus. It’s hosted by Knox County Master Gardeners, Tennessee Smart Yards, University of Tennessee Extension and Tennessee State University Cooperative Extension.

At the festival, visitors can explore the Gardens, talk to and ask questions of Master Gardeners, swap yard chemicals for seeds, and learn about water management, composting, native plants, turning your lawn into a meadow, soil conservation and gardening for wildlife.

The event is free, but pre-register for extra raffle ticket giveaways. You must be present to win. Click this link to pre-register and to read more about the event.

Tennessee Smart Yards is an Extension-led program that guides Tennesseans on practices to create healthier and more ecologically-sound landscapes and communities. Residents incorporate nine foundational principles to have a certified Tennessee Smart Yard. The principles include planting the right plant in the right place, managing soils and mulch, practicing sustainability, watering efficiently, fertilizing appropriately, managing yard pests, reducing stormwater and pollutants, providing for wildlife and protecting the water’s edge.

Last year, more than 300 people attended the first Smart Yards and Friends Festival. Interest in home gardening, sustainable landscaping and protecting the ecosystem is increasing, and that is seen in the attendance at this event and those similar around the state.

Here is a schedule of events:

  • 9 a.m. – Doors open
  • 9:30 a.m.- Compost Demonstration
  • 10 a.m. – Prize drawing (worm compost bin)
  • 10:30 a.m. – Rain Barrel Demonstration
  • 11 a.m. – Prize drawing (ivy rain barrel)
  • 11:30 a.m. – Bat House Demonstration
  • Noon – Prize drawing (bat box)

For more information about Tennessee Smart Yards, visit tnyards.utk.edu.

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.

Media Contact

Lauren Lawson

UTIA Marketing and Communications