The Spring Garden Festival Helps Those Garden Dreams Become Reality
As the Holiday decorations come down and the cold weather takes over those who enjoy gardening seem to turn their attention to the coming spring. Even those of us who consider themselves to have a “black thumb” think about getting outside and enjoying their yard in some way, or enhancing it for when backyard barbecues and cookouts are in full swing and lightening bugs start to light up the night. No matter how bad the weather is in January, our Master Gardener meetings are full of members ready to discuss upcoming plans, new ideas for seed starting, great varieties of plants they grew last year or with questions on how they can improve upon last years failed efforts. Our new class of 2020 Master Gardener students have also begun in January and are ready to learn everything they can about conquering plants, pests and sometimes the dreaded disease that can take place.
A little over three years ago the Bradley Master Gardeners organization started to discuss putting together an event to help encourage the public in their gardening efforts. This may seem an easy task but the mission of the Bradley County Master Gardeners is to educate our local community on research-based home gardening related information and environmental stewardship. We wanted an event that stayed true to that mission. Three years later we are now about to have our 3rdAnnual Spring Garden Festival on Saturday April 4thfrom 10 to 4 p.m. and it will be located at the Museum Center at 5ive Points, 200 Inman Street.
The event has four main areas of focus, which include education – adults and children, gardening advice for those with questions and a marketplace where attendees can find new plants, gardening tools or art to help their gardening journey. The first area is a large vendor area with a wide array of vendors that will line the courtyard and the large indoor cultural center room of the museum. There are a variety of gardening related items available, both decorative and functional and the public can shop everything that is garden related from plants and fresh produce to a yard sale booth where deals can be had on any garden related items. Other vendors have included yard art, photography the Master Gardener gourd booth, which will offer unique gourd art and birdhouses. The second main area of focus is education. All day the public will have a chance to see short garden related demonstrations. Past demonstrations have included how to make a compost bin, how to make a plantosaurus, and how to start your own seeds. All attendees to demonstrations will have the chance to win a prize. The demonstrations will last from 10-15 minutes. For those looking for more in-depth related information there are seminars that last 30 minutes and have included a wide array of topics including beekeeping basics and how to start an herb garden. The third main area is our “Ask a Master Gardener” booth where the public can come and pose their most difficult questions to our seasoned members. The “Ask a Master Gardener” Booth will be attended all day for anyone needing assistance on home gardening related topics. Our fourth area is our Kinder Gardens. This area is dedicated to encouraging the next generation of gardeners by giving hands on learning activities for ages 4 to 7 years old. Activities have included crafts, story-time and hands on learning about how plants grow from seed when they get to take home their own seeds that they planted. Children have loved the Spring Garden Festival and have found interesting things in our Gourd Booth like painting Egg Gourds – a perfect thing right before the Easter Holiday.
Food Vendors and live music round out the event to provide a fun experience for our community. Food vendors will be available in the courtyard area and music will be provided around mid-day. So after strolling through the vendor displays, sitting in on a seminar, catching a demonstration, chatting with a master gardener, or stopping by with the kids at the Kinder Garden, relax in the courtyard and enjoy some music with some good food and a good cup of coffee. As vendor lists and seminar and demonstration schedules become finalized more detailed information will be posted to the Bradley County Master Gardener website. Anyone interested can also find the Bradley County Master Gardeners on Facebook and Instagram. We look forward to seeing our community at this fun event rain or shine. So start dreaming those big dreams, write down those questions, bring your children and grandchildren and we will see you on April 4th.