Play bingo to win plants while you learn more about native plants and trees.

Cost: $4

Join us for Aster After Hours, an evening gathering designed to bring our community together around good food, local art, music, conversation, and the simple joy of spending time outdoors. Wander through the gardens with a drink in hand, listen to music drifting through the nursery, share a meal from local food trucks, and discover a rotating collection of artists, makers, growers, and vendors from around our region.

Aster After Hours September - 

   Help name our little gift shop! Put your idea in the jar!

   Live Music - Travis Harmon and full string ensemble plus saxophone, & percussion!

   Hoodie Coffee Trailer, lemonade from Jupiter Jane and 2 food trucks: OPA! (greek) and Little Munich (german)

Flash Plant Sale! 30% OFF

   Last week of summer before school begins.  Lets share one more summer evening of music, food, friendships

This is more than an event. It is a place to slow down, reconnect, and enjoy the people and creativity that make this community special.

Whether you come to meet friends, bring the family, browse the vendors, or simply sit among the flowers and take in the evening, there is a place for you here.

Expect:

• Local food trucks

• Beer, wine, and refreshing beverages

• Live Music

• Artisans, food makers, and garden vendors

• Open gardens and gathering spaces

• A welcoming atmosphere for all ages

Come stay awhile. Wander the gardens. Meet your neighbors. Celebrate summer with us at Aster.

Feast in the Forest is a celebration of gratitude for the amazing support of our donors. This invitational gala takes place under the boughs of the cedars and twinkling evening lights on the land our donors helped protect. Guests savor forest-themed cuisine and cocktails crafted and sourced locally.

Our major fundraiser of the year, it is our pleasure to host a casual-formal event consisting of live music, delightful mingling, and a multiple-course meal served on a table winding through the woods.

If you are interested in receiving an invitation, contact us for pricing and details for the 2026 Feast in the Forest.

Spend a day making a broom that you can use daily and pass on to your kids someday. This one-of-a-kind broom will be ready for years of service in your home or to give to that special person in your life. Moderate hand and arm strength required.

Cost: $60

Join us as we launch what could become one of the Panhandle's most unique community growing projects.

During this engaging evening, you'll:

• Discover the fascinating history of North America's forgotten fruit.

• Learn why pawpaws once played an important role in American life, and why they're making a comeback.

• Hear how a community-led citizen science project could help establish pawpaw trees across the Panhandle and simple ways you can support this!

• Explore other unique and delicious fruits that can thrive in our northern climate.

Have you ever heard of a pawpaw?

It's the largest fruit native to North America, and our only native custard fruit. Rich, creamy, tropical, and fragrant, a ripe pawpaw has been compared to a blend of banana, mango, and vanilla custard. It's delicious fresh and equally at home in breads, pies, muffins, ice cream, sorbets, fruit leather, even beer and mead. Once you taste one, you're hooked.

Pawpaws were abundant across the American landscape.  Lewis & Clark referenced their importance as a food source. For centuries, pawpaws nourished Indigenous communities, early explorers, and settlers. Today, they're making a comeback, and local seed and plant breeder Joseph Zarr believes the Idaho Panhandle could become part of their next chapter.

Over the past four years, Joseph has been growing and selecting northern-hardy pawpaws that can survive and thrive in our climate. Now he's ready to officially launch the Panhandle Pawpaw Project, a citizen-powered effort to establish breeding populations of pawpaw trees across our region and bring this remarkable fruit back into our modern food system. 

Whether you're a foodie, gardener, fruit grower, food forest enthusiast, plant nerd, history buff, or simply love discovering something new, this promises to be a fun and fascinating evening.

Make a handmade natural broom, great for cleaning cobwebs from tall ceilings. Wrap one layer of broom corn onto a long light stick, then weave the stems and sew the brush part. This style of broom uses the same skills as making a sweeper broom but is much easier and quicker to make. Moderate hand and arm strength is required.

Cost: $40

Learn about Idaho's native plants and test your knowledge while competing to win plant prizes!
Door prizes will be given to all who show up to play!

Summer Wednesdays at Aster are always a win!

Learn the basics of carving functional and beautiful wooden spoons. Instruction will be given in how-to source and select the best woods for carving, how to safely use a knife, gouge and/or hook knife and how to rough out, carve and finish a spoon.
No prior experience required.

Cost: $35

Compost tea is a low-cost, high effective way to improve plant vigor and garden health.  At this workshop, you will learn how to easily and affordably make a home brewer from a trash can or 5-gallon bucket!

One of the best ways to support vibrant, resilient soil is through a simple, living brew made by steeping high quality compost, along with other natural components, in water that is highly oxygenated in a vortex shape for ~19 hours.  This controlled brewing process multiplies the diverse community of beneficial microorganisms. The result is microbe-filled liquid that you can apply as a drench or foliar spray.  

How it Helps Soil and Plants:

• Breaks down organic matter: excelerates decomposition of leaves, compost and other organic matter in your soil

• Boosts Nutrient Availability: microbes unlock and deliver more nutrients to plants, leading to stronger growth from a full spectrum of nutrition.

• Builds Soil Vitality:  Introduces a thriving microbial population that adds diverse beneficial life to tired or compact soils, improving structure, water retention, and overall biological acitivity.

• Promotes Balance & Disease Resistance:  Oxygen-loving (aerobic) microbes outcompete less desirable organisms, reducing issues from fungus and other non-beneficial microbes.

Aster Garden will brew a batch of Compost Tea that workshop participants can take home. 

BYO bucket!

Workshop taught by Paul Mahara of Spokane Organics

Trails & Tales is a great way to get the family outside in the summer. With a children’s story and kid-friendly nature walk, you’ll meet other families with littles who love to enjoy the outdoors together.

We will walk about 1 mile of the Powerhouse Loop Trail, taking breaks to read books from the Thompson Falls Public Library.
The trail is primarily dirt, and stroller friendly.

Outhouses are located at the Park and a short way down the trail. Drinking water is also located at the Park. The walk typically takes around an hour.

NOTE: Located in the Mountain time zone at 10 a.m. (9 a..m. Pacific)

Learn from the talented wire bender, Weezil. Using recycled materials, students will bend and twist copper to make this beautiful bracelet. All tools and materials are provided.

Cost: $35

Join us for Aster After Hours, an evening gathering designed to bring our community together around good food, local art, music, conversation, and the simple joy of spending time outdoors. Wander through the gardens with a drink in hand, listen to music drifting through the nursery, share a meal from local food trucks, and discover a rotating collection of artists, makers, growers, and vendors from around our region.

This is more than an event. It is a place to slow down, reconnect, and enjoy the people and creativity that make this community special.

Whether you come to meet friends, bring the family, browse the vendors, or simply sit among the flowers and take in the evening, there is a place for you here.

Expect:

• Local food trucks

• Beer, wine, and refreshing beverages

• Live Music

• Artisans, food makers, and garden vendors

• Open gardens and gathering spaces

• A welcoming atmosphere for all ages

Come stay awhile. Wander the gardens. Meet your neighbors. Celebrate summer with us at Aster.

Trails & Tales is a great way to get the family outside in the summer. With a children’s story and kid-friendly nature walk, you’ll meet other families with littles who love to enjoy the outdoors together.

We will walk about 1 mile of the Powerhouse Loop Trail, taking breaks to read books from the Thompson Falls Public Library.
The trail is primarily dirt, and stroller friendly.

Outhouses are located at the Park and a short way down the trail. Drinking water is also located at the Park. The walk typically takes around an hour.

NOTE: Located in the Mountain time zone at 10 a.m. (9 a..m. Pacific)

Join Suzanne Tabert for an immersive 3 hour walk through diverse ecosystems to discover the food and medicine abundant in the wild. Drawing on four decades of teaching and the themes of her upcoming book, The Forager's Apothecary, Suzanne helps participants move past the “green blur” to recognize the individual beauty and botanical signatures of our local flora.

Cost: $25

The 3rd annual Clark Fork River Pedal & Farm Tour brings private land conservation to life in a way that feels personal, real, and fun. This guided 30-mile bike tour visits several conserved private properties, where participants meet the landowners and learn the stories behind the land. Traveling by bike instead of car creates a slower, more intimate experience, with time to take in the views, feel the soil underfoot, and understand how landowners and land trusts work together to protect special places. The day ends with a shared farm-fresh meal, celebrating good land, good food, and community.

This year’s event will be taking place in Heron, MT. Find more details and register at www.bikereg.com/cfrpedal.

Unlock the beauty of hand embroidery and give a favorite garment new life. In this engaging, beginner-friendly class, you’ll learn essential embroidery stitches and techniques for adding thoughtful, artful embellishments to your clothing. 

Cost: $30

Trails & Tales is a great way to get the family outside in the summer. With a children’s story and kid-friendly nature walk, you’ll meet other families with littles who love to enjoy the outdoors together.

We will walk about 1 mile of the Powerhouse Loop Trail, taking breaks to read books from the Thompson Falls Public Library.
The trail is primarily dirt, and stroller friendly.

Outhouses are located at the Park and a short way down the trail. Drinking water is also located at the Park. The walk typically takes around an hour.

NOTE: Located in the Mountain time zone at 10 a.m. (9 a..m. Pacific)

This is a class for kids to learn about how to safely carve wood by making fun and creative little sculptures of pine trees, mushrooms and gnomes from branches. Participants will be provided with all the necessary tools, materials and techniques to feel confident in using a carving knife.

Parents are welcome to participate with their kiddo to learn some helpful hints for assisting the beginning carver.

Cost:$20

Learn how to weave this intricate copper wire chain to make a beautiful necklace or bracelet. The method used to make this jewelry is a style of knotless netting which is also used to make textiles.
Cost: $35

Ages: 15+

Learn how to weave this intricate copper wire chain to make a beautiful necklace or bracelet. The method used to make this jewelry is a style of knotless netting which is also used to make textiles.
Cost: $35

In this class students will learn a type of broom that involves a bit more work than the basic whisk broom. We therefore recommend first taking the Whisk Broom & Pot Scrubber class that is being offered in March. Moderate hand and arm strength are required in this process. We will use foot winders to tightly wrap bunches of broom corn into a beautiful and attractive tool for your home.

Cost: $35

Connect more deeply with the living world through nature journaling. Using watercolors and drawing tools, students will practice observing details of the plants and flowers they encounter in their surroundings and document them. This introductory class will receive instruction by artist, Amy Stephensen, in different approaches to drawing, color mixing, glazing, and building up values and textures in order to create a beautifully-illustrated journal page.

Cost: $30

Using a simple twist method of combining wire, students will learn to make their own copper bracelet. Students will be provided with materials to complete two bracelets.

Cost: $30

As the sun begins to set over the garden, Aster comes alive in a whole new way.

Join us for Aster After Hours, an evening gathering designed to bring our community together around good food, local art, music, conversation, and the simple joy of spending time outdoors. Wander through the gardens with a drink in hand, listen to music drifting through the nursery, share a meal from local food trucks, and discover a rotating collection of artists, makers, growers, and vendors from around our region.

This is more than an event. It is a place to slow down, reconnect, and enjoy the people and creativity that make this community special.

Whether you come to meet friends, bring the family, browse the vendors, or simply sit among the flowers and take in the evening, there is a place for you here.

Expect:

• Local food trucks

• Beer, wine, and refreshing beverages

• Live Music

• Artisans, food makers, and garden vendors

• Open gardens and gathering spaces

• A welcoming atmosphere for all ages

Come stay awhile. Wander the gardens. Meet your neighbors. Celebrate summer with us at Aster.