HEARTS Healing History '24: Wild in the Garden

Join us for HEARTS Healing History 24’ - Wild in the Garden, featuring history, nature, and live music.  Saturday, 20th, from 2:00-5:00 at Huntersville’s historic Cedar Grove and Hugh Torance House and Store at 8229 Gilead Road, Huntersville, NC. A free indoor/outdoor community event, tickets are available at www.hught.org. Designed to inspire and enhance our community’s shared sense of place, HEARTS grass-roots events are known for juxtaposing regional history and ecology with curated local music, visual art, and dance in multi-faceted, place-based programs.

Healing History ‘23’s featured speaker is Aaron Kampe. Kampe will share the history and practice of the naturalistic gardening movement. An informative and engaging speaker, his ecological approach to gardening will be one not to miss.

Naturalistic gardening, also known as natural gardening or wild gardening, is an approach to landscaping that seeks to mirror the natural environment. This style of gardening emphasizes the use of native plants and strives to create a space that looks and functions like a naturally occurring ecosystem. The goal is to foster biodiversity, support local wildlife, and create a low-maintenance garden that thrives with minimal human intervention.

Kampe is a member of the International Dendrological Society and his garden has been featured on BBC’s Gardener’s World. Together with his young daughter, he hosts the Botany for Kids channel on YouTube. His company, Elk Haven Herbals, specializes in the medicinal use of plants. In the last decade he has created, designed, and developed over a dozen niche retail products, some of which sell worldwide.

Healing History’s musical guest is Christy Snow. She is a talented Charlotte-based singer/songwriter, speaker, writer, workshop, and retreat facilitator. Her music empowers others through life-affirming lyrics and messages, inspiring others to live their best life and share their unique expression in the world fully and freely while promoting authenticity and equality.  

This year’s Healing History Eco-minutes features backyard herbal remedies for a natural approach to health for common ailments.

The Cedar Grove Hallway features a Junion memorial to the enslaved ancestors of Cedar Grove. Totaling 138 names overall, their names memorialize and honor these individuals' lives and their contributions to this land and our community. Guests are invited to share written words for a collaborative poem dedicated to the ancestors of Cedar Grove which will be created at the end of summer.   

Next door, the Hugh Torance House and Store will be open from 2:00-5:00 offering new and interesting local artisan goods and fresh local honey, snacks, beer, wine, sundries, and more.  Plan to come early and/or stay late to enjoy the historic grounds and tour the oldest standing store in NC. The Hugh Torance House and Store is one of Mecklenburg County’s few surviving 18th-century structures and is adjacent to Cedar Grove, the 1831 Greek Revival home of James Torrance, son of Hugh and Isabella Torance.