Gardening Events | Buddy Garden

29Apr/103

2010 NYC Grows report

I debated whether or not to go in the rain because walking around Manhattan with an umbrella is no fun! Since I've been waiting for this for so long, I don't want to regret it afterwards. So I put on my blue polka dot rain boots, umbrella in my hand and hit the city! I already had plans in case the show was no good, I was going to just hang out at Max Brenner (a chocolate theme restaurant near Union Square) and go shopping afterwards.

I got there not expecting much because of last year's disappointment. As I got closer to Union Square I saw tents and thinking that's a good sign, at least they were prepared for the rain. I entered the show from the side and immediately saw many sponsor booths, gardening and cooking demonstrations, nicely decorated mini-gardens. They had big sponsors like Whole Foods, Organic Valley, Toyota, and woollypocket (will talk about this later, pretty cool stuff). I spent a couple of hours there and got a lot of goodies.

I had mixed feelings after the show. Every year I feel like this event is driven by sponsors and those sponsors are not always gardening related. I had a good time at the show but walking away wishing there would be more gardening related demonstrations or workshops, etc. I still remember when Target was the sponsor, they had more gardening related activities. Having said that, I think they did a fantastic job and if I were to pick the best booth, it would be the Organic Gardening magazine.

2010 NYC Grows

You see all the beautiful vertical garden? It's the first time I've seen such a big display of vertical garden and I have to say it's pretty impressive. It's called the woollypockets. I don't know if you can see in the picture above the hot chocolate, there's a small tree in the bottom 'pocket'. I was tempted to buy one at the booth, but I thought it was too expensive and I wasn't sure if it's going to work. I think it's great for people who live in apartments or condos who have limited gardening space.

11Mar/100

2010 NYC Grows

The annual NYC Grows is coming up on Sunday April 25, from 10am to 4pm. I've been to this festival two years in a row and the first year was a lot of fun. I remember coming home with a lot of free goodies and plants. I also enjoyed the different gardening demonstrations and had fun talking to other gardeners. They even had a container gardening session which I enjoyed a lot. Last year's festival was just okay, I was kind of disappointed because there were only a few booths, no gardening demonstrations and no goodies. I had a feeling it was due to the bad economy and lack of big sponsors. I'm hoping this year will be as good as the first year and I hope the weather will cooperate! I'll see you there!

NYC Grows
Sunday, April 25, 10AM - 4PM
Union Square Park View Map
Manhattan, NY
Event website

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11Dec/098

Holiday Train Show

Today I attended the Blogger VIP tour of the New York Botanical Garden Train Show. This was actually my second time visiting the train show but I had a different experience compare to last year. Since the tour was during the non-peak hours hours 2pm to 4pm, there weren't a lot of people and I was able to take my time to enjoy the artists' beautiful work.

NYBG has been doing the train show for the past fifteen years and it gets better and better each year. This show is all about miniature replicas of famous New York architecture buildings. Everything is made by dried plant materials--orange slices, cinnamon sticks, pods, pine cones, twigs, bark, and berries! It takes a team of 20 for about 10 days to create the whole display. It is definitely a must-do if you're visiting New York City during the holidays.

Can someone remind what's the name of the stick-like plant (The ones in between the angels in the picture)? I think it has a japanese name but I don't remember what it's called.
- Thanks to Marc... the plant is called Syngonanthus chrysanthus ‘Mikado’ (Eriocaulaceae )- Pipewort Family