SOUTHAMPTON — A taste of pollinator-friendly gardening is coming to the Edwards Public Library.

The Southampton Good Earth Gardeners were awarded a $500 “Plant Something Bee-eautiful” grant funded by Keep Massachusetts Beautiful, and plans to install a small demonstration garden outside of the library. The garden will be installed and utilized per the Pollinator Partnership’s “Recipe Card Garden” guidelines, and will invite hands-on community participation.

“Our hope for this grant is to spark interest among home gardeners and to make the process less daunting by providing a template with options and inviting residents to participate in each step of the process,” said Robin Gottlieb of the Good Earth Gardeners in a statement.

The Good Earth Gardeners are a group of local volunteers with an interest in gardening. For the past three years, they have been working on several civic projects, including two native plant beds at the Labrie Field entrance, a perennial border along the split rail fence in Conant Park and renovations to the town property next to the Old Grange, where they hope to install a vegetable garden to supplement the Community Pantry. The group has also held lectures, discussion groups and a workshop on sowing milkweed and other native species over the winter.

The first gardening demonstration session will take place on Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. in the library parking lot. The Good Earth Gardeners will be demonstrating a simple no-till gardening technique to prepare the garden site for planting next spring. The rain date for this demonstration is the following Sunday.

The small garden will be a yearlong project. Following the fall no-till preparation demonstration, native pollinator plants with three seasons of bloom will be selected and planted in May, garden maintenance will be performed in July and the garden will be put to bet next October. The Good Earth Gardeners are also planning to host a lecture at the library in February during which the Hampden Hampshire Conservation District will speak on native plants and their residential lawn conversion grant.

“Our Plant Something Bee-eautiful program is all about beautifying public spaces while also restoring natural habitats for pollinators,” said Neil Rhein, founder and executive director of Keep Massachusetts Beautiful in a statement. “Bees and other pollinators are an essential link in our food chain and this program provides funding to help protect and restore essential habitats. We’re pleased to support the Good Earth Gardeners in this joint effort.”

Garden “recipe cards” are expected to be available at the library in the coming weeks. These cards outline instructions for creating a small garden and planting seasonally appropriate native plants.

Fall Festival returns to Westhampton

WESTHAMPTON — The 17th Annual Westhampton Fall Festival is coming to the Westhampton Town Center this weekend.

All afternoon, community members are welcome to enjoy axe throwing and lumberjack demonstrations, blacksmith demonstrations, a history museum, cider making, corn husking, fiber spinning, live fiddle music, sledge hammer throwing, skillet tossing, potato cannons, cow pie bingo, lawn games, crafts, a 5k race and more.

Bright Spot Therapy Dogs and the Firefighter’s Brigade will be in attendance, and there will be an interfaith church service at 10 a.m. before the festival commences.

The festival will take place on Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m.

Library seeks input on ‘Library of Things’

SOUTHAMPTON — The Edwards Public Library has plans to expand its offerings beyond books and audio visual materials, and requests the public’s aid in deciding what new materials to provide.

The library received a grant from MassDEP’s Reduce, Reuse, Repair Micro-Grant Program, and plans to use the funds to create a “Library of Things.” This will be a collection of practical items for librarygoers to use. For example, the “Make and Mend” collection will focus on do-it-yourself and repair items while focusing on reducing the need for large single-use purchases.

Aside from mending and home DIY supplies, the library is considering supplying technology and appliances, craft and hobby items and other tools. Community members can fill out the library’s poll about which items they would most like to see in the Library of Things.

The poll can be found on the library’s website at southamptonlibrary.org.

Free COVID and flu vaccine clinic coming to Town Hall

WESTHAMPTON — Hilltown Community Development will be coming to Town Hall to host a COVID and flu vaccine clinic on Oct. 30 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Westhampton Town Hall.

Attendees are asked to bring their insurance cards and ID’s. While there is no charge for the vaccines, insurance companies will reimburse the service provider.

To save time at the event, those interested in attending are asked to preregister if they can. A preregistration link can be found on the town’s website at westhampton-ma.com or on Hilltown CDC’s Facebook page.

For more information, reach out to Joan Griswold, Director of Community Programs at Hilltown CDC, at 413-296-4536, ext. 102.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.