Although winter is still here, gardening fans will want to look ahead and plan for the upcoming growing season in the Region.
And they can do so at the 17th annual Gardening Show on Jan. 21 at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso.
“We are so excited to have the show again,” said LuAnn Troxel, publicity chairwoman of the show. “We missed two years,” she said, referring to the halt of the event due to the pandemic.
Troxel said there will be many features and activities to engage the public at the event. Everything from plant and gardening supply sales to presentations, demos and a seed exchange will be in the spotlight. There are more than 120 vendors participating in the show.
“It’s not a lot different from previous shows,” she said adding they’ve listened to feedback from past show attendees about what they loved seeing at the event.
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Troxel said they expect a good crowd because so many people have recently become fans of gardening.
“During COVID a lot of people took up gardening,” Troxel said. She added people also became more interested in “creating special places” at home, which adds to the gardening boom.
The Gardening Show, which is sponsored by The Porter County Master Gardeners Association, started as a seed exchange and grew from there.
Today, the seed exchange is still a popular attraction at the show. Attendees of the event will receive tickets to trade in for packets of seeds.
“There’s a lot of interest in trading and gathering seeds,” Troxel said.
On the speaker presentation agenda at the show will be talks on wildflowers of the Indiana Dunes, garden pollinators, ornamental shrubs and trees, succulents and other topics.
Hands-on demos will include seed starting, propagating plants and more.
There will also be a garden photography contest and a raffle for a granite gardening bench. Guests may also purchase gently used gardening books and magazines on the premises.
A free children’s activity area will be featured. Suzie’s Cafe will offer food for sale at the event as well.