On Sunday I took my parents and Workerman, along with his mother, to the Minneapolis Home & Garden Show. Of course we had a great time; we're a funny bunch, but the show itself wasn't that great. Sorry, MSPH&GS.
After seeing my Twitter/Garden friends' photos of the recent Northwest Flower & Garden Show I admit I was expecting too much from Minneapolis. A Home & Garden show isn't a Flower & Garden Show - I know that now. I was, however, expecting a bit more Garden(ing) with my show than Professional Landscaping. And I totally was not expecting the copious amounts of bedazzled clothing, cheap "pashmina" scarves and lead-based jewelry :::Shudder::: Oh! And like a gazillion of the same Induction Cooking booths.
But rather than bust out the negativity on this show (oh, boy! could I!), I wanted to share some of my favorite booths, products and images. A "Best of Show," if you will. The things I did like. Some photos have comments, some don't. Hang in there. It goes fast... I promise.
There isn't much to mention as far as home stuff goes. Copper gutters, a few rain chains and some gorgeous wine barrel-rain barrels caught my eye. Nothing we haven't seen before.
So without further adieu...
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MISCELLANEOUS
If I had a farmhouse or a barn, I'd have purchased this cupola (sorry I have no clue what booth this was in) because I'm a sucker for copper. And the Tower Garden... cool if you're into that kind of stuff or have limited growing space.
Workerman's pick - Harley Gnome. That's all I have to say about that...
Gorgeous copper leaf fountain - Pretty sure this was done by ArtScape Lighting - Lowell Pajari
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FEATURE GARDENS
and Land Style
Stonewall Inc built this garden entitled "Gunsmoke." It was my favorite. Austere and O'Keeffeish and not overly decorated with artwork.
After this point of the show I basically put my camera away. I was seriously the only one in the entire place carting around a huge SLR. People kept asking who I worked for and that was embarrassing. "Hello, I'm just a garden nerd who likes to take photos of garden stuff for my blaaaahg!"
I snapped a few more (bad) shots of Minnesota State Horticultural Society's booth because they were selling Amanda Thomsen's new book - Kiss My Aster, and because I need to be reminded to actually join the Minnesota State Horticultural Society :)
And that was it for interesting shots.
So now I share my
BEST OF SHOW - NOT PICTURED
First Editions. A rep for First Editions ran over to give me a coupon as I was signing up for their e-mail list. Whoop! $5 off my next purchase. Love that!
Of Nature Jewelry. These are the type of gift items I like to see at Garden Shows. Handmade, natural and simple.
Greehouses.com was also there. I signed up to win the greenhouse above (hey, a girl can
dream). They were the only greenhouse company there that actually
had a vented structure. That's one nice looking greenhouse!
And Cook Water Farms. I couldn't believe they are located right on Rice Street! We are still fairly new to St. Paul so I'm not totally beating myself up about not knowing about them. However, I will be going to them when I get my stock tank pond set up. They have some of the best selection of Hardy Water Lilies I've ever seen. Monet would be envious.
And last but not least... Cowsmo Compost from Cochrane, Wisconsin! Since Wisconsin is my home-state I have to give them a shout out. I didn't get a chance to stop and chat, but their compost is carried in some of the IGCs in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I'll be sure to pick some up this spring.
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Welp, that's about it. Pretty lackluster if you ask me. I don't think I would ever attend the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show again (unless it was FREE), but I'm glad I went. Our families had a good time and it was exciting to see what interested my mom and dad and Mr. Workerman's mom.
The Living Green Expo in St. Paul is much more my style. This will be my 3rd year attending, so look for that posting some time in May. It's always a blast; good food, good vendors and information/inspiration I can actually use.
Hope you had a great weekend! Maybe you spent it outside planting, while I was inside dreaming?! Spring is almost here, folks!
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