The Missouri Master Gardeners Conference

The Missouri Master Gardeners held their annual conference Sep 20-22 in Springfield, MO.  Springfield is the home of the Springfield Botanical Gardens, which is only ten years old, but so fantastic!  The MG's had dozens of garden tours and workshops, so it was hard to decide what to do.  I drove up with Debbie Pittman a day early so we could visit the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AR.  Springfield is just a two hour drive from Bentonville, so it was easy.

We arrived early on Friday morning and almost immediately boarded a bus to visit Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  There we watched a presentation about organic seeds, toured their demonstration garden, shopped in their store, and ate a great lunch.

The demo garden was unusual.  It was constructed of flagstone, with sunken beds rather than raised beds.  Debbie and I agreed that this would break our backs and further ruin our knees!  The Baker Creek folks must be young.

Demo garden and the neat village buildings

Demo garden

Celosia in the demo garden

Cockscomb and ornamental peppers

They had seeds galore!  I bought several kinds of zinnias, Black Currant Hollyhock, De Bourbonne cucumber, and some beans for my dad.

They had animals, too!

This guy thought we had something for him to eat...

And, of course, chickens - my favorite!

Coming up - the amazing MG demonstration garden at the Botanical Gardens, MG garden tours, and more.