Blue Ridge will host its 33rd annual Arts in the Park Festival this Memorial Day weekend. Now a premier event, drawing artists and craftspeople from around the country, the festival had humble roots. The first festival, held in 1977, displayed local children's artwork hung on a clothes line. 
Spring in the North Georgia mountains is not just an intellectual exercise triggered when the calendar reads March 20. No, the bursting tree buds and daffodils that fill the woods, yards, and roadsides herald the beginning of the season with nary a calendar in sight. 
last year. Last week, first lady Michelle Obama showed her support for what might be called a 'growing' movement, by breaking ground for a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House.Vegetable gardens are resonating with gardeners for environmental and health, as well as financial reasons. NGA estimates that a 600 square-foot garden costs about $70 to prepare and plant, but it will yield approximately $600 worth of produce during the growing season.
And, beyond the strictly monetary returns that a garden may provide, there is no price that can be put on the deeply satisfying intangible rewards that gardening brings. As Nathaniel Hawthorne waxed so eloquently in his short-story collection, "Mosses from an Old Manse:"
"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green."
The bewitchingly balmy breezes that have been wafting through the North Georgia mountains lately seem to be saying to the excitable gardener "plant now...plant now." Don't be fooled by the siren song. Soil temperatures are still too low and the threat of frost is still with us, so waiting another two or three weeks to plant your summer crops -- tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peppers, to name a few -- is the prudent course of action.
There are steps you can take in the meantime to ensure your garden is at it's fertile best when the time finally does come to plant:
• Prepare your soil. Skip this step, and you'll come to regret it. Now is the time to build a raised garden bed and till your soil with plenty of compost and organic fertilizer. A good rule of thumb for our heavy clay soil up here in the North Georgia mountains is to incorporate one part organic matter (compost or manure, for instance) and one part coarse sand into one part of your existing soil. You will also want to make sure your garden is situated in a sunny location that gets a minimum of six hours of sunlight a day.
And, if you absolutely MUST start planting, it's not too late to plant cold-weather crops like arugula, kale, collards, broccoli, cabbage, peas, and carrots.
Now get digging!
compression, elevation), she should be back on the soccer field in time for the next game. 
Blue Ridge Pharmacy
My name is Kim Southern. After working in banking for many years, I decided to follow my passion and become a full-time real estate agent. My family and I moved to the North Georgia mountains several years ago, and it didn't take me long to recognize the exciting potential of this beautiful region to become a highly sought-after second home market. Little over an hour's drive from Atlanta, and less than a day's drive from all points in Florida, Blue Ridge and Ellijay are fast becoming a destination for folks looking for their own little piece of heaven.
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