Calendar of Events
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS
Join us for our winter class series with Steve Pettis, Henderson County Commercial and Consumer Horticulture Agent, host of the Gardening in the Mountains radio show, and your guide to the plants of our unique mountain landscape. Friends of Bullington take 25% off the regular course fee!
In this class Steve will introduce you to the many short-lived springtime flowers as well as several mosses and ferns that grow in the forests of Western North Carolina. He will discuss the plants’ biology, their pollinators, and some of the interesting history of these special plants.
We are seeking volunteers to assist us in our small after school program for children in West Asheville in low-income housing. We provide a safe and nourishing environment, healthy snacks, and creative activities. Our program currently meets during the school year on most Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:00-5:00pm. You may volunteer for one or two days a week.
Volunteer Responsibilities:
- Assist with serving snacks
- Interact with children during activity time
- Supervise games and outdoor free time
- For people with background in education, there is also an opportunity to assist with curriculum development and program planning and administration
Requirements:
- Background check
- Orientation booklets will be provided
- Masks are required if unvaccinated
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Try Tai Chi at the Weaverville Library! Learn more about the gentle art of Tai Chi. These Thursday PM sessions are suitable for beginners and regular practitioners alike. You may join at any point in the series. Come as often as you are able. No pre-registration is necessary. All ages are welcome. Children must have adult partners participating. Come try Tai Chi! This is a partnership program with Fung Loy Kok Taoist Tai Chi and the Friends of the Weaverville Library. |
The Extension Gardener Training classes are open to anyone wanting to learn more about good gardening practices in Zone 7 based on research-based information. A new topic will be discussed each week during the series. You may join us for each of the six topics or you can choose which topics interest you.
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Presenter: Bruce Appeldoorn – Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery
Bruce Appeldoorn, a life-long nurseryman and the owner of Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery, will share with us some of the best conifers for Western North Carolina gardens. You will see his favorite low-maintenance, long-lived choices based on his 45 years of nursery experience.

For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
After six years of hard work, the dream of using The Learning Garden as a hub for public gardening education is finally a reality. The Learning Garden, located at the Extension Office, 49 Mt. Carmel Road, is offering the public the opportunity to Visit and Learn in the garden on selected 2nd and 4th Thursdays, February – October. The Thursday in-person programs will consist of five garden-specific series. Visitors can walk around before or after the program and soak in our lovely gardens. Our gardens will open at 9:00 a.m. and all the demonstration programs run between 10-11:30 a.m. To ensure a good learning experience, attendance will be limited and registration will be required.
Dahlia Series
February 23 – Getting Your Dahlias Ready for Planting
August 3 – Disbudding Dahlias for Better Blooms
October 26 – Dividing and Storing Dahlias
Dye Garden Series
May 4 – Planning Your Dye Garden
June 22 – Introduction to Natural Dyeing
July 27 – Fresh Indigo
August 24 – Botanical Printing: Printing with Leaves and Flowers
September 28 – Dyeing with Hopi Black Sunflower
November 9 – The Magic of Indigo
Rose Garden Series
March 9 – Pruning Roses
April 6 – Climbing Roses
April 13 – Rose Pests and Pathogens
May 20 – Growing Beautiful Roses (Saturday Seminar)
Sun & Shade Garden Series
May 11 – Planting a Native Butterfly Host Plant Garden
June 29 – Foodscaping Edible Plants in Flower Beds
August 31 – Dealing with “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” Plants
Sept 14 – Native Butterfly Life Cycles in the Fall Garden
Vegetable Garden Series
March 23 – Building an ADA Compliant Raised Garden
April 26 – Planting Root Crops: Leeks, Onions, Carrots, Parsnips
May 25 – Planting a Seed Saving Garden
June 8 – Common Vegetable Garden Pests
July 13 – Kid Friendly Gardening
August 10 – Preserving Your Vegetable Harvest
In addition to the Thursday programs listed above, The Learning Garden will present a series of ninety minute (+/-) hands-on seminars covering various gardening topics. These in-person programs will be held at The Learning Garden on selected Saturday mornings, February – September.
Saturday Seminars
February 18 – Tool Selection and Sharpening
March 18 – Pruning Trees and Shrubs
April 22 – Gardening for the Birds
May 20 – Growing Beautiful Roses
June 17 – Pollinator Plants in The Learning Garden
September 16 – Bulbs for All Seasons
Each of the programs in The Learning Garden will be announced individually through this blog and on our website two weeks before each program. Each announcement will include instructions on how to register. Mark your calendar and register to attend as many as you can.
ESOL tutors commit to working with their students for at least one year. Learn more about this program. Sign up to volunteer.
ESOL Tutor Training Dates:
Presenters: Alan Wagner and James Wade, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers
Gardening tools are key to successful pruning. You need the right tool for the right job,
and you need to correctly maintain those tools. Are you sure, for example, when to use your anvil pruners or your bypass pruners instead? This workshop will cover the different kinds of pruning tools, their uses, and their care as well as gardening tools like shovels and hoes. Ergonomic pruners and other tools will also be covered.
Bring your pruners, loppers and shovels to learn how to clean and sharpen them.
In this seminar we look into the fundamentals of bad habits and how to overcome them. How are habits formed, and how can they be changed? Many struggle with a variety of habits ranging from anger, lack of forgiveness, lust, addictions to substances, repetitive unhealthy thoughts and a host of other vices. In this seminar we look at scientific, health, and Biblical principles that aid in the victory over habits. Presented by Chad and Fadia Kreuzer. Chad and Fadia share seminars on health, the Bible, and overcoming habits. They have taught in Europe and throughout North America.
REGISTRATION IS NOT REQUIRED.
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Presenter: Bruce Appeldoorn – Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery
Bruce Appeldoorn, a life-long nurseryman and the owner of Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery, will share with us some of the best conifers for Western North Carolina gardens. You will see his favorite low-maintenance, long-lived choices based on his 45 years of nursery experience.
The upcoming Journeyperson course is now available AT NO COST! Due to some timely grant funding, we can offer this in-depth farmer training for farmers in years 3-7 with no associated tuition fee! The course consists of monthly cohort meet-ups and 2-3 in-depth workshops, plus mentorship!
In addition, a select number of participants will also receive matched FUNDS for your farm savings account (Savings Incentive Program) and money to spend on a professional development opportunity of your choosing! Want to attend a workshop on livestock management? OGS will contribute towards that fee! Are you saving money for a farm asset? OGS will contribute up to a certain amount to that investment.
The Journeyperson Program is for farmers who have been independently farming for three or more years and are serious about operating farm businesses in the Southern Appalachian region.
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For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
We’re putting our build crew back together and we’d love to have you join us. Every 2 weeks, we’ll meet at 9 am for hands-on set construction! Whether your talents are building, painting, or you just want to learn, come out and join us every other Saturday for some creative fun. Tools and work gloves are helpful but not required
In this seminar we look into the fundamentals of bad habits and how to overcome them. How are habits formed, and how can they be changed? Many struggle with a variety of habits ranging from anger, lack of forgiveness, lust, addictions to substances, repetitive unhealthy thoughts and a host of other vices. In this seminar we look at scientific, health, and Biblical principles that aid in the victory over habits. Presented by Chad and Fadia Kreuzer. Chad and Fadia share seminars on health, the Bible, and overcoming habits. They have taught in Europe and throughout North America.
REGISTRATION IS NOT REQUIRED.
In this seminar we look into the fundamentals of bad habits and how to overcome them. How are habits formed, and how can they be changed? Many struggle with a variety of habits ranging from anger, lack of forgiveness, lust, addictions to substances, repetitive unhealthy thoughts and a host of other vices. In this seminar we look at scientific, health, and Biblical principles that aid in the victory over habits. Presented by Chad and Fadia Kreuzer. Chad and Fadia share seminars on health, the Bible, and overcoming habits. They have taught in Europe and throughout North America.
REGISTRATION IS NOT REQUIRED.
Join Alexis from Cisco Pilates Asheville for a free Pilates mat class! The class is beginner friendly. This will be offered in-person at Pack Library or from the comfort of your own home. You choose!
To register for the in-person class, please use the registration option on this calendar entry. To register for the online class, visit ciscopilates.as.me…
These classes are offered to the public free of charge, sponsored by the Friends of Pack Library.
We will have some yoga mats on hand for the in-person participants, but feel free to bring your own equipment and water bottle!
If you have any questions, please call Jen at 828-250-4700 or email [email protected].
In this seminar we look into the fundamentals of bad habits and how to overcome them. How are habits formed, and how can they be changed? Many struggle with a variety of habits ranging from anger, lack of forgiveness, lust, addictions to substances, repetitive unhealthy thoughts and a host of other vices. In this seminar we look at scientific, health, and Biblical principles that aid in the victory over habits. Presented by Chad and Fadia Kreuzer. Chad and Fadia share seminars on health, the Bible, and overcoming habits. They have taught in Europe and throughout North America.
REGISTRATION IS NOT REQUIRED.
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Presenter: Bruce Appeldoorn – Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery
Bruce Appeldoorn, a life-long nurseryman and the owner of Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery, will share with us some of the best conifers for Western North Carolina gardens. You will see his favorite low-maintenance, long-lived choices based on his 45 years of nursery experience.
The upcoming Journeyperson course is now available AT NO COST! Due to some timely grant funding, we can offer this in-depth farmer training for farmers in years 3-7 with no associated tuition fee! The course consists of monthly cohort meet-ups and 2-3 in-depth workshops, plus mentorship!
In addition, a select number of participants will also receive matched FUNDS for your farm savings account (Savings Incentive Program) and money to spend on a professional development opportunity of your choosing! Want to attend a workshop on livestock management? OGS will contribute towards that fee! Are you saving money for a farm asset? OGS will contribute up to a certain amount to that investment.
The Journeyperson Program is for farmers who have been independently farming for three or more years and are serious about operating farm businesses in the Southern Appalachian region.
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For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
Could you be a Voice for a Child?
A Guardian ad Litem (GAL) advocate is a trained community volunteer who is appointed, along with a Guardian ad Litem attorney, by a district court judge to investigate and determine the needs of abused and neglected children petitioned into the court system by the Department of Social Services. Their role is mandated by North Carolina General Statute 7B-601. Throughout North Carolina, the Guardian ad Litem Program seeks to serve the best interests of thousands of children who find themselves the subjects of court cases by assigning them Guardian ad Litem volunteers. Our program exists in every county throughout the state, and with the help of more than 5,300 volunteers, we serve more than 18,000 children a year.
The GAL volunteer’s primary responsibilities include:
Digging for details in the case
Collaborating with other participants in the case
Recommending what’s best for a child by writing court reports
Empowering the child’s voice
Staying vigilant by constantly monitoring the case
Keeping all information confidential
The main qualification for becoming a GAL is to have a sincere concern for the well-being of children. There are no education or experience requirements.
Submit your application today at: volunteerforgal.org.
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Presenter: Bruce Appeldoorn – Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery
Bruce Appeldoorn, a life-long nurseryman and the owner of Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery, will share with us some of the best conifers for Western North Carolina gardens. You will see his favorite low-maintenance, long-lived choices based on his 45 years of nursery experience.
After six years of hard work, the dream of using The Learning Garden as a hub for public gardening education is finally a reality. The Learning Garden, located at the Extension Office, 49 Mt. Carmel Road, is offering the public the opportunity to Visit and Learn in the garden on selected 2nd and 4th Thursdays, February – October. The Thursday in-person programs will consist of five garden-specific series. Visitors can walk around before or after the program and soak in our lovely gardens. Our gardens will open at 9:00 a.m. and all the demonstration programs run between 10-11:30 a.m. To ensure a good learning experience, attendance will be limited and registration will be required.
Dahlia Series
February 23 – Getting Your Dahlias Ready for Planting
August 3 – Disbudding Dahlias for Better Blooms
October 26 – Dividing and Storing Dahlias
Dye Garden Series
May 4 – Planning Your Dye Garden
June 22 – Introduction to Natural Dyeing
July 27 – Fresh Indigo
August 24 – Botanical Printing: Printing with Leaves and Flowers
September 28 – Dyeing with Hopi Black Sunflower
November 9 – The Magic of Indigo
Rose Garden Series
March 9 – Pruning Roses
April 6 – Climbing Roses
April 13 – Rose Pests and Pathogens
May 20 – Growing Beautiful Roses (Saturday Seminar)
Sun & Shade Garden Series
May 11 – Planting a Native Butterfly Host Plant Garden
June 29 – Foodscaping Edible Plants in Flower Beds
August 31 – Dealing with “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” Plants
Sept 14 – Native Butterfly Life Cycles in the Fall Garden
Vegetable Garden Series
March 23 – Building an ADA Compliant Raised Garden
April 26 – Planting Root Crops: Leeks, Onions, Carrots, Parsnips
May 25 – Planting a Seed Saving Garden
June 8 – Common Vegetable Garden Pests
July 13 – Kid Friendly Gardening
August 10 – Preserving Your Vegetable Harvest
In addition to the Thursday programs listed above, The Learning Garden will present a series of ninety minute (+/-) hands-on seminars covering various gardening topics. These in-person programs will be held at The Learning Garden on selected Saturday mornings, February – September.
Saturday Seminars
February 18 – Tool Selection and Sharpening
March 18 – Pruning Trees and Shrubs
April 22 – Gardening for the Birds
May 20 – Growing Beautiful Roses
June 17 – Pollinator Plants in The Learning Garden
September 16 – Bulbs for All Seasons
Each of the programs in The Learning Garden will be announced individually through this blog and on our website two weeks before each program. Each announcement will include instructions on how to register. Mark your calendar and register to attend as many as you can.
New or early retiree? Young entrepreneur? Like to work outside and with your hands? Learn about farming with the Small Farm Boot Camp!
Objectives for Season Extension:
Understand the advantages and disadvantages of season extension.
Recognize different types of season extension .
Develop base knowledge in management practices (irrigation, fertilization, weeds).
Become familiar with the resources on obtaining and implementing season extension.
Could you be a Voice for a Child?
A Guardian ad Litem (GAL) advocate is a trained community volunteer who is appointed, along with a Guardian ad Litem attorney, by a district court judge to investigate and determine the needs of abused and neglected children petitioned into the court system by the Department of Social Services. Their role is mandated by North Carolina General Statute 7B-601. Throughout North Carolina, the Guardian ad Litem Program seeks to serve the best interests of thousands of children who find themselves the subjects of court cases by assigning them Guardian ad Litem volunteers. Our program exists in every county throughout the state, and with the help of more than 5,300 volunteers, we serve more than 18,000 children a year.
The GAL volunteer’s primary responsibilities include:
Digging for details in the case
Collaborating with other participants in the case
Recommending what’s best for a child by writing court reports
Empowering the child’s voice
Staying vigilant by constantly monitoring the case
Keeping all information confidential
The main qualification for becoming a GAL is to have a sincere concern for the well-being of children. There are no education or experience requirements.
Submit your application today at: volunteerforgal.org.



