Durham Grown: The Durham County Library Garden Club

Growing Trees from Seeds! Fun, Easy and Something You Can Do!

Native trees provided a multitude of benefits to local ecosystems. Have you ever wanted to grow your own tree? Join Clay Bordley of Panther Creek Forest Farm for a presentation using a mix of didactic, demonstration and hands on techniques to learn the basics of seed collection, storage, planting options and using air pruned boxes. Clay will also discuss growing trees to scale at Panther Creek Forest Farm and at Project Pando as well as Keep Durham Beautiful’s tree planting efforts here in Durham.

Forming in 2014 Panther Creek Forest Farm is a former farmland and former commercial forestry operation located in Northeast Durham. The vision of Panther Creek Forest Farm is to live in a world were people and forests are reconnected. Their mission is to share the bounty of the forest with our community through education, events, and experiences. Their style of farming is focused on agroforestry. Agroforestry consists of five farming practices: alley cropping, forest farming, silvopasture, windbreaks, and forested riparian buffers. Partnering with his daughter Clay has been working tirelessly on making Panther Creek Forest Farm what it is today!

Clay Bordley is Panther Creek Forest Farms very own “Johnny Appleseed” and keeps the farm running year-round! Clay’s favorite things on the farm include planting trees, feeding goats, mowing grass, collecting acorns, and various carpentry projects.

In this spare time, Clay advocates for more trees to be planted in Durham, especially in communities lacking urban forests. Clay loves propagating native trees for donation. If you visit Panther Creek Forest Farm for a workshop or tour, you are bound to meet Clay and his dog!

Registration is appreciated.