Gayla Trail at Art in Bloom

The Art in Bloom exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum provided a opportunity to spend real life time with a few of the garden bloggers whose 140 character insights I follow. Gayla Trail (@yougrowgirl), author of the books You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening and  Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spacesand founder of the website You Grow Girl was going to be speaking.  Meeting up were bloggers @mrbrownthumb of Chicago Garden, @snappyjdog of The Dig-it-yourself garden, @myskinnygarden of My Skinny Garden and @cobrahead of Cobrahead Tools.

As the Milwaukee host of the meet-up, I suggested we start at the Milwaukee Public Market. This is a great choice when needing something for everyone,  not to mention a pleasant walk from the museum. The next two hours passed quickly; sharing stories of our gardens and community gardens, plus hearing Gayla talk about the challenges of writing garden books (and photographing not to mention growing everything needed).

 We headed back to the museum so Gayla could prep for her talk, and we could visit the exhibit.

 I hate to admit that not only had I not been to the Art Museum before, I also did not know what the Art in Bloom exhibit was all about. As we walked into the galleries, I thought, "hmm, how odd, just floral arrangements set around the museum". Then this one, done in such a literal fashion, hit me......oh my, the floral exhibits are inspired by the paintings.

From that point on it was fascinating to see how the floral designer had interpreted the paintings. Next year, I plan on spending more time in the exhibits. They really are quite compelling.

Gayla did a great presentation on urban gardening, growing food in unlikely spots, from rooftops, to alleys, in containers and in the ground. I learned a lot, got some great ideas, looking forward to using her suggestions , ideas this summer in the driveway farm part 2. I'm enjoying reading 'Grow Great Grub", recommend it highly.

After the lecture and Gayla's book signing, the group headed back to the Third Ward for dinner at Milwaukee Ale House. This beer girl loved the plates her pot roast was served upon! Need to find these.

One of the topics at dinner was how great a city is Milwaukee. That's always nice to hear, especially from a group primarily from Chicago. We do have a great town, I can sometimes lose sight of that with my constant rush to visit someplace new and exciting. 

Finished off this garden and Milwaukee centered weekend with brunch with Hubby and kiddo at HoneyPie in Bayview before heading to the Home and Garden Show. So good. A typical Milwaukee Bloody Mary with it's side pony of High Life, great food, and for kiddo a carefully chosen dessert to go from the bakery cases.

Brunch included a small reminder that we aren't quite to spring yet in Milwaukee. A hail downpour. Unlike anything I've seen, small bits of hail, the size of Dipping Dots, quickly covering the ground. Fascinating to watch, and to walk in.

 Milwaukee did itself proud with Art in Bloom. With all my travel - for business and pleasure, it's good to be reminded every now and again of how much this great city I call home offers!

A Tale of Two Cities' Garden Shows

Early spring.....the time when gardeners in the upper-Midwest start itching for some greenery. It's the beginnings of seed starting season, but still several long weeks from outdoor planting time.

So what's a gardener to do? Visit a garden show or two. Which is exactly what I did. First up the Chicago Flower and Garden Show, held March 10-18th at Navy Pier. This one had an added bonus for me of a tweet-up with other Chicago area garden bloggers. A couple of weeks later closer to home, Hubby, Kiddo and I attended the Milwaukee Realtors Home and Garden Show, held March 25 - April 3rd at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds.

The theme for the Chicago Flower and Garden Show was "Sport of Gardening". The display gardens all had some kind of sport theme, from the obvious such as giant croquet mallet and balls (made out of beautiful white orchids), backyard putting greens, and sailboats. Or the less obvious "sport" of backyard entertaining and chicken keeping. Even the decorated tablescapes/floral arrangements had a sports theme.

Best of all the sport's themes, the over the top but fascinating Blackhawks garden

 The display garden where I spent the most time was the garden featuring stone sculpture's and plants (mainly woodies, both deciduous and evergreen) from Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery in Woodstock, IL. While we were visiting, the artist was actively working on a new piece. Watching him hand carve the stone was fascinating - as were the mainly examples of his craft woven throughout the garden.

 But, of course, it was the plants that drew me in. Can't wait to get down to Woodstock and check out this nursery located 65 miles southwest of me, 35 miles due west of my Mom, I have no excuse not to go. Based on the specimens in the garden (which were very nicely marked), this is a must see place for me.

Spring garden shows can get ideas flowing for projects large and small. Unfortunately, as one of the garden bloggers commented, more and more these shows are about selling bricks, pavers, and other hardscape. The Milwaukee show made no bones about it with both the sponsorship of the "Garden of the World" theme by Uniloc, a manufactured block and paver company, and the outdoor bedroom display when you first walked in the door.

Like the Chicago show, the Milwaukee show's display gardens included lots of focus on outdoor entertaining, outdoor kitchens, fire pits, and water features.

My favorite garden at the Milwaukee show was the one that highlighted a bit more green practices. Beekeeping, green roofs, rain barrels...

Both shows had water features created by drilling holes through rocks. The Chicago show even had a vendor selling kits of pre-drilled rocks to make your own at home fountain. I love this technique for fountain building, first seeing it in the Better Homes & Gardens display gardens in downtown Des Moines back in 2003 or 2004. Trend setters that we are, Hubby & I built one at our last garden. Here's the ones from the garden shows:

And mine from 2006, in situ:

Each show also had a market area. The Chicago one a bit smaller than the Milwaukee one - which to be fair was a *home* and garden show. From Chicago I brought home seeds and a few bulbs. Milwaukee's catch was much more fun. I've always wanted a bottle tree. There was a vendor with iron bottle tree forms, plus other iron garden scupture. Couldn't resist the bottle bug to go along with the bottle tree. Now to find them a home.....