ROCKINGHAM — The Pansy Festival will be held at Singing River Farm in Rockingham on Saturday, May 6, from noon to 3 p.m. This free community celebration of spring will happen rain or shine, because pansies love both. An Earth Day Teach-In will also be part of the festival this year.
“Just as pansies are deeply rooted in the soil, so farms must be rooted in community,” said Laurel Green, who owns the farm hosting the festival along with Steve Crofter.
“We believe that our true security is to be found in relationships,” she said in a news release. “So, we have created the Pansy Festival as a place for neighbors to talk and play together, leading to deeper friendships across the divides of class and politics. Diversity is key to environmental health and also to resilient human community. Everyone is welcome.”
Pansies are a colorful harbinger of spring. Singing River Farm's field-grown pansies are nurtured to grow as nature intends, with strong, large root systems. In the fall, Green transplants seedlings from nursery beds to growing beds. The pansies overwinter under a thin blanket of pine needle mulch.
As the days lengthen in the spring, each pansy plant really puts on a burst of growth and begins blooming. Field-grown pansies of many colors will be available for sale at the festival.
At the Pansy Festival, the farm is extending Earth Day this year. Global climate change has affected this region in a number of ways. Spring comes earlier and the fall lingers much longer, even after there may be a killing frost in late September or early October.
Another effect is that rainfall, which used to be spread evenly throughout the year, now alternates between drought and longer inundations in the region.
The farmers also have created ways to slow runoff from torrential rainfalls so that water sinks into the soil to replenish the aquifer. They constructed water catchment swales in several key places on the property to passively manage the excess water that typically runs off other properties and contributes to the muddy flows during flooding of the Williams River.
They have developed more than 3,000 square feet of no-till raised production beds. The increased soil carbon and healthy soil food web in these beds allows heavy rainfall to penetrate the earth easily and be absorbed.
In the past year they built a passive solar high tunnel to grow flowers, herbs, and vegetables. This allows them to control the amount and timing of water on plants and prevents flood and wind damage. It also protects from frosts, thereby extending the growing season.
This year they are featuring an Earth Day Teach-In to learn how climate change affects our region. Several area organizations will share information, sell related materials, and help participants take local action.
Everyone is welcome at this community event!