Located along Clear Creek just six miles east of downtown Hendersonville, Milkweed Meadows is a 5th generation family farm. Its grassy "bottoms" once nourished cows that produced milk sold to Biltmore Dairy Farms in Asheville. Today, the meadows are yielding milk of a different kind — milkweed plants to help sustain monarch butterflies!
THE FARM AND THE FARMER
An avid wildlife habitat gardener and environmental educator for over 25 years, farmer Kim Bailey has a true passion for pollinators. Over the past years, she has been expanding the farm's natural habitats for native milkweed species and planting additional host plants for other butterflies.
Living tunnels of passionvines, pipevines, climbing milkweeds, and hops vines benefit a diversity of species while an orchard of over 100 pawpaw trees specifically nurture zebra swallowtail larvae.
Milkweed Meadows Farm currently produces native wildflower seeds, open-pollinated heirloom vegetable seeds, pollinator-friendly potted plants, cut flowers, and specialty fruits. Educational programs and/or farm tours for groups are also periodically scheduled onsite.
PLANT SALES & PROGRAMS
Find Milkweed Meadows Farm selling pollinator-friendly potted plants and/or teaching at these upcoming events:
Monday, September 9, 6 PM - 7:30 PM
Certified Pollinator Advocate (CPA) Course: All About Monarchs & Their Migration
Asheville Botanical Garden, 151 W.T. Weaver Blvd., Asheville, NC
Talk about picky eaters! Monarch butterflies have captured the imagination of young and old with their exclusive milkweed diet and unfathomable migration from Canada to Mexico. This class will cover everything from milkweed seed collection and stratification to species options for different settings, dangers of tropical milkweed, the milkweed insect community, raising monarchs responsibly, reporting monarch sightings, and tagging monarchs. Registration is required.
Saturday, September 14, 9 AM - 4 PM
Asheville Botanical Garden Fall Plant Sale
151 W.T. Weaver Blvd., Asheville, NC
Sunday, September 15, 12 PM - 4 PM
Sideways Farm & Brewery Makers Market
62 Eade Rd, Etowah, NC
Friday, September 20, 3 PM - 7 PM
Gardening For Life Project - Fall Native Plant Sale
Harmon Field (Outdoor Gym), 117 Harmon Field Road, Tryon, NC
Saturday, September 21, 8 AM - 1 PM
Hendersonville Farmers Market
Historic Train Depot, 650 Maple Street, Hendersonville, NC
Friday, September 27 & Saturday, September 28, 10 AM - 3 PM
NC Arboretum Spring Plant Sale & Market
Monarch Day also takes place on Saturday, September 28th!
100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC ($20 parking fee for all non-members)
Due to potentially hazardous weather from Tropical Storm Helene, the plant sale on Friday, September 27 is canceled. As of now, we are STILL ON for the plant sale and Monarch Day on Saturday, September 28. (We will have plenty of Eastern Swamp Milkweed available for $5 per pot with all proceeds going to support local classroom participation in the Symbolic Monarch Migration education program).
Friday, October 11, 12 PM
Pawpaw Ice Cream Release Woohoo! 🙂
The Hop Ice Cream Shops (all four locations in Asheville and Black Mountain)
Taste the magical flavor of pawpaws (somewhere between mango, banana, vanilla and pineapple) in the form of ice cream made using locally grown pawpaw fruits from Milkweed Meadows Farm. Both dairy and vegan versions will be available!
February 15 - February 21, 2025 (Trip is now full, but a waiting list is available in case of any openings.)
Migration of the Monarch Butterflies in Mexico Trip
Morelia, Angangueo, & Macheros, Mexico
(Sierra Chincua, El Rosario, and Cerro Pelón Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserves)
Friday, May 30 - Sunday, June, 1, 2025
Gardening for Butterflies, Bees, Moths, & Hummingbirds (Weekend Course)
John C. Campbell Folk School, One Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC
Explore the life cycles, habitat needs, and importance of our native bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. Learn how to create a garden, planter, or yard that's not just friendly to pollinators, but irresistibly beautiful! Practice plant propagation techniques, including growing native plants, to attract monarchs. Build a unique hummingbird fountain, butterfly puddling station, or native bee nesting hotel and return home with plants to further enhance your pollinator habitat. Registration is required.
CONTACT US TO...
- Make an appointment to purchase potted plants or buckets of fresh-cut flowers at the farm (typically available May - October).
- Schedule a farm tour and/or onsite educational program for your garden club, classroom, or other group ($10 per person, $100 minimum). Kim may also be available to give presentations or teach classes/workshops on monarch butterfly ecology, gardening for pollinators, etc. at your location.
- Contract for “grow to order” pollinator-friendly plants available in 5” deep 38-plug flats or quart containers (8-12 weeks’ notice needed, depending on species) or bulk seed production.
- Request butterfly eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalides (as naturally available April - September) for your classroom, public garden/arboretum, or other educational organization. Butterflies are always free. Host plants (to feed caterpillars) are available for purchase.
- Purchase native passionfruit (AKA maypop) or pawpaw fruit (typically available starting in September) for fresh eating, brewing/fermentation, or restaurant/culinary creations.
Individual packets of milkweed seeds and certain open-pollinated heirloom vegetable seeds grown at Milkweed Meadows Farm are available from Sow True Seed.