Home Gardening

Gulfport Garden and Patio Show Opens This Weekend
Mississippi Gardens Newspaper and Web Column - February 17, 2003

The Second Annual Coast-Wide Garden and Patio Show will be held this weekend, February 22nd and 23rd at our new location in Gulfport. This year, the Coast's garden extravaganza will be held in the Food World Building located just north of the Coca Cola Bottling facility on Hwy 49. The show opens Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 6:00 p.m. It re-opens Sunday at noon and concludes at 5:00 p.m. The Garden and Patio Show will feature nearly twice the number of exhibitors as last year and plenty of parking for everyone!

We are so excited about this year's show. The expanded line-up of exhibitors and educational programs will offer something for every gardener. In the list of exhibitors we have growers of orchids, fruit trees, flowering annuals, perennials and vegetable transplants, aquatics and tropicals, palm trees, shrubs, bamboo, bonsai, roses, foliage and houseplants. We'll have representatives of coast garden clubs and horticulture societies who can answer your questions about such topics as bonsai, camellias, native plants and water gardens. In addition, MSU Extension Service will have an Information Booth to answer your landscape and garden questions and check the pH of garden soil.

We'll also have hard-scape garden supplies including decorative concrete, stone pavers, greenhouses, gazebos and some of the finest Mexican pottery. Lawn equipment displays will feature many popular brands of mowers, weed eaters, etc. Do you have questions about landscape lighting or need help managing your turf? Lawn care specialists, pest management companies and lighting gurus will be on hand to help you with these subjects and more.

Gardeners will enjoy viewing the wide array of beautiful plants and garden supplies and attending educational programs scheduled for both days. Programs begin Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. with Designing and Installing Your Own Water Garden. Topics that follow include Palms for the Coastal South, Tropical Fruit Possibilities for the Home Garden, Butterfly Gardening, Outstanding Gingers, Tough as Nails Flowers, Flower Gardening and Annuals and Perennials for the Gulf Coast. Sundays schedule includes Intensive Vegetable Gardening, Hummingbird Gardening and Plant Propagation. Norman Winter, garden author and media personality will be on hand for the Tough as Nails presentation and he might sign a book or two!

Sponsors for the Second Annual Garden and Patio Show include the Mississippi Nursery and Landscape Association and Mississippi State University Extension Service. Admission is $3.00, no charge for children under 13. For more information you may call 1-800-678-0179. See you at the show!

Publications may download photograph at 200 d.p.i.

These archived columns were written by Kerry Johnson, a hobby gardener, former weekly newspaper columnist and an Area Extension Horticulture Agent for 11 coastal counties in Mississippi.