The 14th Annual Spring Garden Market

This weekend, the weather took a turn for the better. It jumped into the low nineties in my neck of the woods. It was the perfect weather to do some morning garden shopping at the annual Spring Garden Market presented by the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara.

The Garden Market is the Master Gardeners’ biggest fundraiser of the year. It’s a day when those wacky purveyors of greenery wear funny Carmen Miranda hats and sell organic plants, including a huge selection of heirloom tomatoes, and 90 varieties of peppers and chilies from around the world.

There were vendors of plants and gopher traps; there were beekeepers and irrigation suppliers. There were camellia experts and iris experts and succulent experts and orchid experts and rose experts.
Unfortunately, I brought my youngest son. I was not 20 feet into the garden market when he asked me: “It’s hot, can we go home now?” My husband had already disappeared into the crowd and there I was with a little fifty-pound complainer pulling on my left arm while I was trying to take pictures with my right.
My only grievance with the Spring Garden Market this year is that in the past they have had kid activities to keep my wonderful little offspring busy. What now? The only saving grace was the fact that this event was held in History Park at Kelley Park. History Park is a 14-acre park consisting of 27 original and reproduction buildings. One of these buildings, the Pacific Hotel, had an ice cream parlor in the lobby. Yeah!

That kept him busy for about 15 minutes. So I ran from booth to booth. That’s kind of the way I shop anyway.

Most of the people that read gardening blogs on a regular basis and go to events like this know a lot about gardening. When us garden freaks go to a nursery, sometimes we feel like we know more than the people that work at the nursery, but I guarantee when you start talking to one of the master gardeners that represent one of the specific booths—for example the camellia booth—and ask them a question, you will learn something you didn’t know. This might be the single best thing about the Spring Garden market.

I had a couple of questions about one of my camellias so I wandered into the camellia booth and asked a wonderful master gardener and she gave me so much information and good advice that I felt guilty for taking up so much of her time, however she was clearly enjoying herself. These people have such a passion for gardening and a positive, happy energy and spirit. Pretty soon I felt the familiar tug on my left arm and I knew it was time to go, all to soon.

I left with mostly photos, a couple of tomato plants, a pair of pruning loppers and a wonderful gardening high.
I decided to do a pictorial on the many modes of vegetation transportation.
Here is a very popular mode of transport:

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Comments

[Clare]

wow...I am a master gardener here in maryland and we don't have anything so fabulous ( or the fabulous early spring weather either), I am jealous! BTW the complainer is super cute.

[Annie in Austin]

This is better than a magazine article, Chigiy - looks like great fun, and the 50-pound complainer got you into a cool ice cream parlor.

Our Zilker Garden Fest is not as large but might feel similar walking around. In addition to the conveyances you show, a couple of vendors sell lightweight folding metal carts with large detachable fabric bags, a bigger version of the old-fashioned urban shopping cart.
I was afraid to buy one because then I'd have to fill it.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose