Urban Gardening Festival

Today was the Urban Garden Festival at Ellington Agricultural Center.  A free event sponsored by the Davidson County Master Gardeners. Mr. Tin Man was one of my favorite things.  Made entirely from common tin cans.

There were all kinds of fun things at the festival.  These are Tennessee Fainting Goats.  They have a very useful purpose--they are used to clear overgrown areas--honeysuckle, kudzu, and poison ivy are some of their favorite foods.  This goat is a first time Mother and her baby is about three weeks old--she was a very attentive Mother.

This scarecrow was at the entrance to one of the many cottage gardens.

The cottage garden was filled with this beautiful lilies and poppies.  The gardening fence was bamboo.

There were hundreds of these lilac and blue flowers blooming in the gardens

Master Gardeners must have two green thumbs.

This is a pollinator house--a house for bees and insects, made entirely from recycled, reclaimed materials:  concrete blocks, pallets, bricks, broken pottery, sticks.  

AppleJack loved this idea--instead of trying to mulch, weed and mow around trees, the Master Gardens had planted ground cover.  

Raised beds--I am so borrowing this idea.

More square foot gardening--I have the perfect spot in our garden for these raised beds.

Ferns the perfect plant for those shady areas

Ferns in all varieties and yes, some of them came home with me.

Sun loving plants growing in a recycled satellite dish--those Master Gardens sure know how to reuse and recycle.

A pottery scare crow--very clever.

Jaw dropping hostas were growing everywhere.

Thank you Master Gardeners for the beautiful gardens!