Akron Home and Flower Show

This weekend there are two garden shows. Akron has the Akron Home and Flower Show and Columbus has the Central Ohio Home and Garden Show . We were going to try to go to both but guess what? It snowed. It started Thursday and as I sit here writing this post, it still is. We decided to wait till next weekend to attend the Columbus show. The Akron show is smaller than either of the Cleveland shows but still a must see for area gardeners. It was the perfect time to try out a new camera. Well, the full auto mode on the new camera didn't work quite as I expected. None of my close ups turned out. They looked OK on the camera screen, but not so much once I downloaded them. None the less, we had a wonderful time. The place was full of exhibitors. As an extra added benefit, Pat and I attended a great gardening presentation by Ahmed Hassan.

It's fake. This grass is fake. Nice looking fake, but fake none the less. It even has little brown fake blades interspersed among the little fake green blades. I don't know what to think. I hate turf grass, but in my yard? I think it belongs in an American League ball park.

Pat said that we could do something like this, except not so big or tall. We want to put a water feature in the front yard. There are sections of the front yard that are in full sun. Maybe there are solar powered pumps.

I spotted some ivy being used as decorative ground cover between myrtle. Myrtle is one of my favorite plants. The flowers add a nice bit of color to our predominantly green yard. Now ivy is a different story. We inherited a mass of ivy in our side yard. It is the spawn of the devil. I hack it, pull it, bury it under a foot of dirt and it keeps coming back. Pat said, that's not the kind we have. It's some kind of miniature ivy. So it's OK then.

Now, this is why I got a new camera. I can take bird pictures where the birds are more than colored spots.

Deer trails around Big Blue. You know, it never got nibbled last year.

Snowing in the back yard.

Snow Day!

Since the invention of snow, these are the words that every student yearns to hear. They get to stay home, and I get to take pictures. I'll shovel when it stops.

somebody thinks it's spring

The last few days the temperatures have stayed above freezing during the day. The snow melt was noticeable. The back yard was turning into a swamp with a snow cover. It's a great time to check out animal tracks. It was so nice that I was calculating the number of days before I could get out in the yard and weed, or pick up stuff, or dig up plants, or anything involving plants and dirt. Some of our day lilies and daffodils which face south and are close to the house think that spring is just around the corner. Well nature has a sense of humor because it started to snow while I was taking the pictures and we can expect 6 inches or so.

we got tenants

We've always known that we shared our yard with a passel of animals. We provide water, shelter and a constant source of food for our furry and feathered friends. The home owners association ban on fences allows deer to freely travel between the metroparks through our yards. Some deer even bed in my next door neighbor's day lilies. Well, better his day lilies than our hosta. We have enough hosta so I don't mind a little munching, as long as the deer just visit. It is a wonder to look at the snow with only animal tracks in it. You see travel patterns that can help when we plant new or move old plants. We shoveled a part of our patio to get to the fire wood. I guess some of our tenants appreciated it also.

Big Blue looks so lonely standing out there alone in the snow. Well in a couple or three months it will look big and blue.

The Great Cleveland Home and Garden Show part 3

Besides great landscape architecture and wonderful plants and flowers, the garden show had a bunch of neat stuff to look at. The rain barrels are a great idea. We installed two last year and they work great. They also started life with that natural looking bright floral tarp blue. I primed and painted them the color of the house.

If the homeowners association doesn't like green houses, how do you think they would feel about a small wind turbine in the front yard?

We were walking by the booth . I stopped, Pat kept walking. For crying out loud, don't you think everyone who reads your blog knows about this stuff. Well all I could think of was "well maybe." Just in case you don't know about this stuff, if you don't have a horse, it's all you need for your plants.

This was a nice addition to the garden show. The show sponsored a green architecture contest for high school students.

Somewhere around a zillion of Ty Pennington's fans, admirers, or maybe just relatives showed up for a seminar. Past shows had celebrity guests in closed off areas. The new show team had it figured out right, out in the open for everyone to see. Great idea.

Every garden or food show Pat and I have gone to seems to have a vendor with Elvis stuff. I don't know if these are different guys or just one guy trying to get rid of the same three things.

Christine B from last frontier garden found Elvis at a garden show she recently attended, so maybe there is an Elvis garden connection that I don't know about. I mean, I am still new at this gardening and blogging stuff.

Alright Jodi, from bloomingwriter, I found a shamwow booth. Or at least a wow and a sham booth that doesn't infringe too much on copyright.

Who can resist a golden aluminum christmas tree? I can't, Pat can. You know what happened.

There is something about animal rescue and gardening that seem to go together. Bob and Fred are both rescues.