Late winter garden shows are an interesting experience, particularly when you’re the one building the garden. We begin with an empty concrete floor Monday afternoon, and by Wednesday a garden appears that looks as if it’s been there for years. The photos below show the progression building Meadows Farms’ garden at the Capital Home and Garden Show in Chantilly, Virginia beginning midday Monday and finishing at noon Wednesday. The show opens Thursday evening, February 25, and runs through Sunday Februsry 28.

I have been designing show gardens for fourteen years, and find that many people marvel at the effort and beauty of a garden that will stand for only four days. Of course, that is our intent. We want to create a garden with no evidence that it was begun a few days earlier. The rootballs and pots that the plants are grown in have been buried and covered with mulch, and flowers and trees have been forced in greenhouses to be at their peak bloom so visitors to the show can experience a taste of the spring to come.

What does Meadows Farms get out of it?
First, we enjoy creating the garden as much as you enjoy seeing it. A garden show affords the opportunity to develop a dream garden, without budget constraints. Second, our intention is to impress you so that you’ll call our Landscape Department if you have a project that requires our design and installation skills, or to encourage you to visit our garden centers to purchase plants and gardening supplies.

If you’re in the area stop in and say hello. I’ll be there most of the time, and we’ll have landscape designers staffing the garden throughout the show to answer questions and help you with ideas.