PHS Annual Flower Show

There is a tradition in Philadelphia that saves the city & surrounding suburbs from going Postal on the world. Just when you have lost all patience, crabby is your daily mood, losing interest in even getting up in morning, AND to make it even worse, you have a reality check & decide you can't got some place sunny & warm this winter, THE FLOWER SHOW ARRIVES!!!!

Always late March, for one week. Different theme every year, so it is like a mini VaCa to chase the blues a way. Hawaii, Great Britian, Art in Flowers have been some recent themes. It's an international roster of exhibitors: florists, landscapers, horticulturists, novice & hobby gardeners,colleges & universities, workshops, and vendors for all things GREEN. 

    

    

The Convention Center space is transformed to a magical space. On visit is usually not enough to see everything.

    

 I was part of an exhibition once. Well,my quill   I made was! A college friend was part of a garden club that early exhibited in the show. One year in the 80's their arrangement was tropical so the group used my ocean-themed color quilt as the backdrop to their display. They won!

The show is filled with garden & flower enthusiasts from everywhere also. City is filled with tourists & their is a certain buzz for that week. Remember EVERY HUMAN is SICK OF WINTER! 

So everyone is very bubbly, walking around with huge smiles & prone to talk to anyone. So in this manner we met visitors from Iowa in a steak shop where we had gone for lunch separately. After hours spent over 4 packed days, talking non-stop about all sorts of GREEN topics, comparing each other's gardens, showing photos from our smart phones, discussing what projects we have planned & now want to try after being inspired by the Flower Show, we have become the BESTEST OF FRIENDS! 

Gardening can be solitary. Maybe the actual doing it. But the joy & pleasure we all get from doing it, becomes something to share with other like minded people. Get us started talking about it and we can't shut up!

     

And the Flower Show is the Mecca for all this lovely passion, whether for hobby or for a career.

Call me CHEAP!

Gardening can be done CHEAPLY!

Yes I am declaring my self "Princess of the Do-It- Cheap Gardening"! 

I learned from my father, the "King" of above that method. I used to wonder why he was "bringing home trash all the time", and things from jobs he did. And of course he learned this method from his father. When they came from Italy ( my father was 11), they bought a South Philly row house on one of those super narrow streets more suited to a Fiat than a Ford pick- up truck. Their garden behind home was a small square but with the heat of sun & brick walls, they grew a lot in that small space. 

When I started gardening on a bigger scale than window boxes on a deck, I realized the beauty (ha!), rather,  the smart, wise & inventiveness of doing this. Mostly it's done for why not save some cash? Also, things happen in garden & then you can just reach for something right a way vs having to go to a store.

For the struture to keep the cloths off the vegetables as they GROW, you need hoops. My hoops are made of old election signs repurposed & free. The fabric that raises temps about 10-15 degrees that I bought. Also bought fabric staples to anchor cloth to ground but also use bricks, stones too. And Dollar Store cloths pins to attach fabric to hoops.

I wanted more windows this year so whenever I was out driving, I kept my eyes open for them someone trashed or workers at home that didn't want to take them for scrap metal. Sure enough, last fall I had collected 8 windows! And boy do they work as a quick cold frame.

Another pastime

Like I said it takes a lot to get me to leave the cozy warm house in the winter. What dragged me out this winter was a wonderful event:  my my photograph was in a gallery exhibit!

I once again entered a photograph in "Philly Photo Day 2013". I did it last year either and both years my photo entry was selected to be in the main exhibit in a gallery and then both 2012 and 2013 photos were each chosen to be part of 200 photographs in a year long photographic exhibit at the Philadphia airport! 

I wasn't able to see both of two years exhibit at airport  because they're in terminals that you can only enter if you are a passenger with a ticket. Friends got to see it and sent me the photos. No airplane travel these last few years. I am way over do to fly somewhere!

This was 2012 photograph I entered and exhibited:

    And on exhibit at airport:

Of course I'll be entering "Philly Photo Day 2014"!

Winter 2014 ALMOST gone!!!

More signs everyday: hear birds, more sunny days, weather warming up. In fact this March, it got unseasonably warm too soon. Not complaining. But who knows what this screwy weather new weather pattern means for the garden this year? We became a Zone 7. So technically warmer. Yet coldest winter on records, including record amounts of snow. Last summer was wonderful. You knows about what's ahead for us.

Project for March: START UNCOVERING THE TUNNELS & COLD FRAMES!!

I had taken off the outer covers & blankets. And you can see how warm March has been very early as the weeds had started to grow already . In fact as I stated , the garden season seems to last 12 months now. I found myself weeding under the low tunnels! Who knew?

It was so exciting to see how things lived & started re growing!!

 

Amazing, right? LOTS to do before the actual planting time starts. Rule of thumb: peas can go in by St Patrick's Day. Another found out that fava beans can go in ground earlier. They can take the cold. The plant don't like the heat or rather the planter(me) doesn't like them in warmer weather as the aphids LOVE them! They come with black ants all over the flower, stem & even pods. Yuck!

Learned a lot my second year of cloth covered load tunnels. On some levels it's really worth it but I would have to set up my system to be more efficiant and not make me do all this unnecessary work( hard labor).

Plus I GOT REPAIR or even REBUILD the deer fence!

Decided my swiss chard & beets this spring would be planted under a covered top enclosed in a wire fence. They would be protected from the deer nibbling or wiping out the row of veg. In one night in 2012 they ate an entire 15ft row of my Swiss chard & a 15ft of my beets. I kid you not! 

Signs it's ALMOST FINISHED!!

I got an email today from PHS: the 2014 Flower Show App is ready to download & check out show.

The PHS Flower Show in Philadelphia is every year in late March.

SPRING is MARCH 21!

What does all this signify???

WINTER 2014 IS MOST OVER!!!! 

Yippy-i-Yea!!!!!

Color of the year

Is: RADIANT ORCHID

PURPLE is one of my fav colors. All shades. February BDay means your birth stone is purple: amethyst. The "gemstone amethyst is also the Zodiac stone for the constellation of Pisces. Amethyst is associated with spirituality, wisdom, sobriety, and security." 

So what does a bored creative person do when it snows AGAIN? Invent "The PURPLE Challenge". What is that you ask? It's a "a photo challenge to take pictures of how many things we are surrounded with already in our homes that is PURPLE." I called Patti, who is an artist who also has a winter bday & hates winter as much as I do. She grew up & still lives near the beach & ocean & even that doesn't make a Notheast winter any better! To get back: the point being with the Chalkenge was to not leave the house (which we couldn't) and take pictures of all the PURPLE things we had before we even had a chance to buy any of the new colored products that were already flooding the consumer market this year.  The reason for a new "Color of the Year": new stuff to sell & buy!! Great marketing idea.

We started just sending to each other the photos taken immediately with Air Drop.

But when we realized how much "purple stuff" we were surrounded with for years without even knowing, paying attention to, we decided to keep taking but post all to our FLICKR account & share that way.

Get the PICTURE? 

I won't bore you with all the photos I took that day. I ended up having almost 200 items that were purple so you can view all my photos on my FLICKR account if you'd like to continue this voyage through "The Purple Challenge".