Urban living takes center state in the 55th annual Indiana Flower & Patio, which continues at the Indiana State Fairgrounds through Sunday, March 17, 2013.
There’s 10,000 square foot urban homestead home and garden, which includes chickens, a large rain barrel and well-planted vegetable beds.
The landscape display gardens seem to rely on hardscape to attract visitors rather than plants. Like all garden shows, there is a lot of eye candy, especially the blue flowering hydrangeas, the envy of Hoosiers everywhere.
Other things to look for:
JP Parker Flowers moves out of the shadows and into a center island display called Die Moldau, complete with a grand piano. The island is full of buckets of cut flowers so visitors can take home a little spring.
The Forested Retreat by Gardens of Growth has a fascinating display with a large root ball of a downed tree, which was decorated with moss and other plants.
Hittle Landscaping’s Reclaim Your Backyard uses recycled doors to mark the entry to the garden and to provide a lovely screen.
Noblesville’s Girly Steel (Joan Drizin) sculpture appears in Stoneycreek Farm, Nursery & Landscaping’s Earth Friendly garden. The tops of wine bottles were turned into lanterns and the bottoms encased in a metal grid.
Be sure to stop by the Purdue Extension-Marion County Master Gardener booth and Purdue University’s statewide Master Gardener’s booth to get all of your gardening questions answered.