Albemarle Neighbor: Binnicker, Master Gardeners gear up for Spring Garden Show

If picking up gardening tips and browsing nurseries and flower shops is your thing, Kellie Binnicker encourages you to attend next month’s Albemarle Master Gardener Spring Garden Show in Hertford.

“There’s something for everyone,” says Binnicker of the free annual flower and garden show sponsored by the Master Gardeners of Chowan, Gates and Perquimans counties.

This year’s show will be held Saturday, April 27 at the Perquimans County Recreation Center from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

More than 20 vendors will be in attendance, offering everything from plants and seeds to artisan-crafted items like pottery and birdhouses and outdoor decor, says Binnicker, NC Cooperative Extension agent for agriculture and consumer horticulture and Master Gardener Program coordinator for Chowan, Gates and Perquimans counties.

The show’s “Ask a Master Gardener Booth” will feature Master Gardeners offering advice and information to attendees with gardening questions. The Master Gardeners themselves will also be selling a variety of plants, shrubs and trees.

A children’s garden will also provide kids activities like “make and take terrariums.” And food trucks will be on hand in case you work up an appetite with all that browsing.

Binnicker said the Albemarle Master Gardener Spring Garden Show is a fundraiser for the Katherine G. Shook Master Gardener Scholarship Fund; vendors are charged a $40 fee to participate in the show. Katherine G. Shook Master Gardener Scholarships are awarded to college-bound students in Chowan, Gates and Perquimans who plan to study either agriculture, horticulture or a related field of study.

Binnicker grew up in Roper in an agricultural family. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Extension education and a master’s degree in agricultural and Extension education, both from N.C. State University. She began her work with the Perquimans Center of Cooperative Extension last September.

Binnicker said her position as an Extension agent allows her “passion and purpose to intersect” with all types of people.

“I just love helping people,” she said.

Binnicker will instruct a Master Gardener training course this coming September. For more information NC Cooperative Extension, visit ces.ncsu.edu and click on County Centers to find information about the Extension office in your county.