Wichita Garden Show

I love, love, LOVE the garden show.... except the price to get in. This year, it was $11. YIKES! I decide to go about every 3 years or so, and that seems to even it out a bit. Since I tend to be a veggie gardener and the show seems to favor grandiose landscapes and spic n span flower gardens, I don't feel like I'm missing much.

For whatever reason, I had the urge to go this year and I'll share some of my "finds" with you!

Okay, you know I have chickens and *ahem* chicken predators. Also, I'm a big fan of Polyface Farm and their rotational patured methods of raising livestock. I would love to have an Eggerator, but it's not exactly conducive to the urban backyard. We do have a home made chicken tractor, but it's not predator (or puppy) proof and anyway, our chicks free range. Okay, so much to my delight, there was a super duper high dollar ($1200) chicken tractor that is designed to rotate to fresh pasture every day and is predator proof. I present, The Egg Cart'n:

It can easily be moved by just one person - uses hydraulics and has several other nice features. But, yeah, the price is pretty steep. The sides are made of corrugated plastic, which doesn't seem to be very stable. The interior of the larger coop (says that it holds 12 hens) is pretty small. Overall, I'll pass - but it's AWESOME that it was there. Too bad there weren't any real chickens! Or a sign with the benefits of raising your own chickens/eggs.

Over at the Sedgwick County Master Gardeners booth, they had a complete veggie garden growing, in square foot frames, raised beds, pots and hanging baskets. They had a way to garden for anyone!! I loved it!! And, the luscious veggies were just begging to be picked, but I resisted. This mini-hoop house looked interesting. It's far sturdier than our pvc pipes wrapped in plastic.

Cole and Dalton were able to pot up their own Cherry Tomatoe plants, free. They made newspaper pots - seems the evaporated milk cans were perfect sizes. Master Gardener explained that the "soil" was actually 100% compost and the tomatoe plants were just 3 weeks old... and TALL. Over twice as big as mine - which are 6 weeks old. She said that the compost plus grow lights probably made the difference. I have plain shop lights - I didn't want to spring for the more expensive grow lights - and everybody said they weren't necessary. Hmmmm, may have to look into it for next year. Over at the Derby KS booth (combined with Arbor Day) we got a free Chikapin Oak seedling. I've got the perfect spot for it. Oh, and a free package of wildflower seeds.

Okay, this is a dream veggie garden. Hong's Landscape had recreated his grandfather's hut and veggie garden, complete with woven fencing. It was serene and gorgeous. And weed free. I dream of weed free gardens.

I couldn't figure out what the huge crowd was oogling - even when I got up close. Can you guess? Yes, those ARE candles. Filled with olive oil and fruits/veggies. They sure looked interesting -and it seemed to be a big hit, but I wasn't too sure about them. It would look really out of place in my non-frou frou house. LOL

This is another example of why I love to go to the show. Mark & Lalanea Moore of Scenic Landscapes (I'm biased ~ they're my favorite local garden shop to visit as I love ponds) took trees that had been uprooted and used them upside down all throughout their display. Some were left bareand some were used as giant planters. They were so beautiful and majestic. Cole thought they were creepy ~ ah, well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'm a card carrying member of the tree hugger club.

This is a wheeled garden cart made of black walnut - so gorgeous! It has 3 pots growing lettuce, herbs and flowers. Perfect for someone who can't stoop to garden or it could be put it out on a patio. I loved the wood - it was left natural and I don't remember seeing black walnut in person before.

Who can resist this scene?! I didn't take photos of everything, but I did see several other things that show me more people are interested in my kind of gardening:

• worm bins
• rain barrels ($100 a pop ~ NOT cheap~ but the paint jobs were cool)
• city of Wichita water dept had a rain barrel display, but the gal working the booth has no idea where to get the barrels :(
• multi purpose benches that can convert to a picnic table
• pasta (that I thought was locally produced only to read the fine print and see its from Colorado)
• Farmer's market schedules
• recipe sheet from a local herb farm
• I met the Farmers Market basket weaving instructor
• master food volunteer info (teaching others how to cook and preserve food)
• and much more.

It was a delightful day spent with my boys - and the highlight for them? Riding in the Party Bus.