‘We’re always hoping to sell out’: Greensburg Garden Center prepares annual May Mart plant sale

Every year, the Greenridge Garden Club arrives at the Greensburg Garden Center’s May Mart plant sale with hundreds of heirloom tomato plants.

By the end of the sale, most — if not all — of them are gone, said club member Janet Bentz.

Bentz, of Irwin, has been a member of the garden club for about eight years. Club members have grown heirloom tomatoes for decades, saving and replanting the seeds year after year.

The club has about 15 to 20 members who grow and sell between 300 and 400 heirloom tomato plants at May Mart each year, Bentz said. It is the club’s primary annual fundraiser.

“We’re always hoping to sell out,” she said.

The Greensburg Garden Center started May Mart — which will take place Friday and Saturday — more than 55 years ago, said Elizabeth Pesci, one of three volunteers who help with the center’s LeFevre Butterfly Garden.

Visitors to May Mart can take their pick of perennials, annual hanging baskets, vegetables, herbs and gently used gardening tools from a flea market.

Succulent planters and spearhead spade shovels will also be available from Garden in the Woods, a private residence in Acme that offers garden tours and classes. Benedictine Farm, a garden based in Armstrong County, will sell medicinal herbs and vegetable plants.

There will be hot dogs donated from Bardine’s Country Smokehouse in Salem, cookies made by residents of the McKenna Senior Center, kettle corn and a Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Truck. The Greensburg Hempfield Area Library will sell donated books at the sale.

“We’ve expanded some of our offerings this year,” said Pesci, of Greensburg. “We’re hoping we acquaint more people with our garden … and maybe when they pass by in the summer, they stop in.”

Between 300 and 400 people come out for May Mart each year, Pesci said. She has about 40 volunteers signed up to help out.

“We’re happy with what we do, so we just want everyone to enjoy their volunteering,” Pesci said. “I think that people just love to garden and things about it, and we have a big group, so we do a lot of different kinds of things.”