Northwest Flower and Garden Show: Report #2

One of the highlights of the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle is walking through the amazing display gardens. These beautiful, inspiring, finished gardens have all been created inside a concrete-floored convention center. And in a short period of time, at that. We gardeners we can all appreciate that feat, right?

Awesome garden from Farmer Frog

This year, a favorite garden of mine was the “Honey! We Shrunk the Farm: Urban Farming in Style” (whew, that’s a long title!). It was created by Farmer Frog (farmerfrog.org) and designed by Zsofia Pasztor and the Team of Farmer Frog.

 

The goal of this garden was to demonstrate ways to grow food in a small area. The centerpiece was a hoop house filled with microgreens, a place to grow plants in the ground, and an impressive aquaponics system. That last setup allows one to grow both veggies and fish. Very ingenious.

Outside the hoop house was a delightful urban chicken coop, an insect hotel, beehive, and espaliered fruit trees. They even had a hydroponics set-up for growing (in this case, at least) heads of lettuce. You can see the hydroponics system in two of the photos. That wouldn’t take up much room at all, would it?

In the next photo (below), you can see beekeeping and seed-starting supplies. And there are espaliered fruit trees and chicken coop in the final photo. All great ideas. Very well done, Farmer Frog! And a huge thank-you to the folks at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show. Every year, their shows are amazing.