More than 1,000 people showed up despite stormy skies Sunday at Locust Grove for the annual Gardeners’ Fair and Silent Auction.
They browsed flowers, herbs and vegetables, gardening tools, lawn ornaments, handmade crafts and many other locally produced goods on the last day of the three-day event, celebrating its 19th year in Louisville.
“It’s a real community event,” said Locust Grove executive director Carol Ely.
She estimated around 3,000 people visited 80 vendor booths on the historic property since the event started Friday. More than just a place for people and families to peruse the booths, the event also showcased Locust Grove, a national historic landmark where three presidents visited over the years and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stopped upon the completion of their cross-continent expedition in 1806.
Julie Michael of Louisville and three generations of her family have made a trip to the fair for the past eight years, this year shopping nine people strong.
“We love to support Locust Grove,” she said. “And the local vendors.”
More than 1,000 people showed up despite stormy skies Sunday at Locust Grove for the annual Gardeners’ Fair and Silent Auction. (Arza Barnett/The Courier-Journal)
She was at the fair to browse through the countless flowers set in pots and baskets across the lawn — which was strewn with hay to cover the muddy muck caused by storms the previous two days.
One booth specialized in a kind of gardening supply that isn’t generally available at your everyday nursery: insects used for “biocontrol” of garden pests. The first two that stood out at the Entomology Solutions booth — also called Bugs Behaving Badly — were ladybugs and preying mantises, the “poster children” for beneficial insects, said owner and entomologist Blair Leano-Helvey.
The idea is to use natural predators — or “beneficials” — to kill plant-damaging pests, instead of insecticide, she said. “It’s not a new science,” she said, but as organic produce and plants are becoming more and more popular, people are looking for ways to keep crops healthy in a more earth-friendly way. “You can’t get much more organic than beneficials,” she said.
Nadine Stevens, 85, of Louisville, who has been gardening for more than 60 years and has made a trip to the Locust Grove gardeners’ fair for the past five years, looked at the Bugs Behaving Badly booth with interest, but didn’t seem totally sold on the idea. Any way to use fewer pesticides, though, “is a good thing,” she said.
It’s that kind of interaction, introducing people to new ideas and educating the public about the natural world, that makes the event what it is, Ely said. And even if bugs and plants aren’t your thing, there are so many other booths and products, and even tours of the property itself, that no one should go away from the fair empty handed, she said.
“There is something everyone can relate to.”
Reporter Mark Boxley can be reached at (502) 582-4241 or on Twitter at @Boxleyland.
Speak Your Mind