On the weekend the kids and I went to the Calgary Horticultural Society Garden Show. We had a blast! If you've never been you should really think about going next year. It is just south of the city at Spruce Meadows, which is a bit of a drive if you live in the north, but at least the parking is free. They have three buildings set up. The Congress Hall is where the speakers are as well as the container competition entries and a snack area. I didn't make it to see any of the speakers this year because I had the kids with me, but in past years they have been really good.
The next building is the Equiplex where the display gardens and most of the booths from vendors are set up. It was great to see all the newest things for your garden. Of course, some of my favorites were there including some metal workers. It seems to me that garden decorations are really "in" this year, including all sorts of cool metal flowers and metal works for walls and fences. They look really cool, especially when real flowers haven't made their appearance in our gardens yet.
The final building was the Marketplace Tent. This is where the kids activities, workshops and booths for information/societies were set up and where we spent the majority of our time. We looked at some bees, talked with a guy about butterfly houses (we bought a kit to build our own), we made seed bombs, looked at orchids, and even joined the birdhouse building kids' workshop. I think that building the birdhouse was my favorite part. The kids got to saw, chisel, help with the electric drill and hammer in nails. It was a pretty simple design, but it turned out pretty well. It even has a swivel top (one nail) so that we can clean it out in the fall and maybe even find a bird's nest! I can't wait to put it up in the backyard!
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| making seed bombs |
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| watching the bees |
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| all of us working together to make the bird house |
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| our completed bird house! |
Then there were the outdoor booths and displays. The kids favorite was the play castle. It was pretty cool!
On the weekend the kids and I went to the Calgary Horticultural Society Garden Show. We had a blast! If you've never been you should really think about going next year. It is just south of the city at Spruce Meadows, which is a bit of a drive if you live in the north, but at least the parking is free. They have three buildings set up. The Congress Hall is where the speakers are as well as the container competition entries and a snack area. I didn't make it to see any of the speakers this year because I had the kids with me, but in past years they have been really good.
The next building is the Equiplex where the display gardens and most of the booths from vendors are set up. It was great to see all the newest things for your garden. Of course, some of my favorites were there including some metal workers. It seems to me that garden decorations are really "in" this year, including all sorts of cool metal flowers and metal works for walls and fences. They look really cool, especially when real flowers haven't made their appearance in our gardens yet.
