This year we held our fifth garden fair on Saturday October 26th to take advantage of the extra hour of sunshine but, we had a particular challenge, to hold our event and to comply with the recent changes in local councils, and national legislation. Everyone involved in the organising is very grateful for the help we received from the newly united Estoi and Conceição Junta and the Horse Association of Estoi. We hope to work with them again in the future. It was very disappointing that we could not return to the Palace Hotel in Estoi but the historic gardens there were so unsafe for public access that it was beyond our resources to prepare them.
The Mediterranean Garden Fair has become a firm favourite with keen gardeners, here on the Algarve and further afield. This is not surprising when you consider that one of the main building blocks of our gardens are the plants we use to provide beauty, colour and seasonal interest. Without the small, and usually family-run, plant nurseries we would have a much reduced choice. One of our aims has always been to support this kind of nursery and put them in touch with gardeners seeking a wider range of plants. The fair is also our annual fund raising event to support the programme for the year and our own members plants for sale is a very popular stall. We are very grateful to everyone who brought along plants for us to sell on the day.
This type of event is very common in the UK, France, Belgium and Germany and the model is well known in those countries. Here in Portugal there was no precedent for an event which combines small nurseries with a wide range of plants, larger specialist sellers and the opportunity to talk to and learn from fellow gardeners.
This is an element we have always tried hard to incorporate and willing volunteers have offered their time and expertise freely to share with visitors. This can be passing on basic but practical propagating techniques, looking at one plant family, gardening with native plants or even solar cooking - and eating !
This year, again, we had the challenge of the weather to deal with. It was a very wet week leading up to the day itself and the volunteers involved in the set-up day on Friday were, once again, soaked ! Fortunately the following day was bright, clear and sunny and the plants all looked wonderful after their dose of rain water. It was indeed a beautiful day to celebrate the start of the gardening year.
We had some new small nurseries, one specialising in succulents and another with unusual plants grown from seed. The fair ground looked very inviting and the layout allowed everyone plenty of room to show off their plants and trees. We are always very keen indeed to hear about small nurseries with good plants to offer, please let us know of your own recommendations so that we can send invitations in good time. It takes a lot of hard work to prepare plants for this special day. I noticed that there was a larger range of lavenders available including the excellent Lavandula dentata candicans in good numbers. Also caper plants, the spectacular semi-tropical African Tulip Tree, Spathodea campanulata and, from South Africa, the lovely fynbos tree, Cussonia paniculata for those who like a challenge.
We also had good presentations on Propagating from John Vellam, Low Maintenance Mediterranean Gardening from Marilyn Medina Ribeiro and another on The Nasty Stuff, Pests etc.
as well as our usual Plant Clinic for questions and identification. This year we had bulbs for sale that are suitable for mediterranean gardens and these flew out on the day, obviously something we may have to include again.
As we were not charging an entry fee then it was difficult to estimate numbers but despite the change of venue and the last minute arrangements to comply with the rules, we were very pleased indeed with the response.
So, a big ´thank you to everyone who came along to support this event, we will look forward to seeing you again next year, and enjoy the wonderful gardening season ahead. If you would like to be put on our email distribution list for news of events then please send your email address to rosie@thebtf.net and you can look us up at www.gardeninginportugal.com
