Maggie and I once again attended the Madison Garden and Landscape Expo in February. This is a great event, as it combines an exhibition hall of vendors with presenters discussing a wide range of gardening topics. This year, 15,000 people attended, and there were over 150 presentations. This year, we attended presentations on rainwater harvesting, roses, peonies, and herbs. I particularly enjoyed the peony discussion as it reminded me of the small peony bush my mom has had in front of her house since I was little, and our own small group of peonies that came with our house. One of Maggie's first gardening effort was pulling the grass growing up into those plants.
During our garden planning, we identified only about three plants we needed to buy seeds for. We of course bought more than that. I always buy a bag of chocolate chip cookies, and this year bought a small carnivorous plant to try as a houseplant. It is a Nepenthes, which is a tropical hanging pitcher plant. Many carnivorous plants are subtropical and have a dormancy period that I have never been able to figure out, but I have had luck growing Nepenthes in the past. We always pick up informational pamphlets that are fun to read while eating those cookies.
This year, we were more active participants at the Expo. For starters, I volunteered to give a presentation on our homesteading experiences, entitled "Five Years to Chickens: Maggie and Ed's Homesteading Journey". The presentation was at the end of the day on Saturday, and provided a good way to pull together other topics discussed earlier in the day. About 40 attendees stopped in to listen. It was nice to give back a little to an event we have enjoyed for many years.
There are a number of side events at the Expo each year, including a photography competition. Photography used to be a hobby for me, until film was overtaken by digital cameras. I have been reluctant to invest in a new camera because technology changes so quickly. Last year, I took a photograph of hoarfrost on some winter hydrangea flowerheads with my phone. The competition had a separate category for tablet/phone photos, so I entered and won third place. The prize - $10, and of course, bragging rights.
One of the other side events is a raffle of items provided by vendors attending the Expo. Every year I buy a few tickets, and have never won, until this year. Mid-week, I received a call from the Expo to tell me I had won a garden tool kit. They could not read my email address as it had gotten partially torn off, so they called to send me a release form for tax purposes. All in all, a successful Expo for Blackhammer Acres!
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