Our first Spring Plant Fair

Report on our first Spring Plant Fair  - Saturday April 11th

By Burford Hurry, President MGAP

April 11th saw the advent of the first Spring Garden Fair organised by the Mediterranean Garden Association of Portugal . The Association had already enjoyed an extremely successful Fair in November last year but a decision was reached to stage a plant fair that would cater for those gardeners with itchy fingers who wanted to plant up their gardens in the spring. It was also decided to move across the Algarve from Estoi to Silves and stage the event in a more rural setting. The Association was fortunate in that one of our members, Gerhard Zabel offered to provide the setting for the plant fair by letting us use his home at the Quinta da Figueirinha.

In the event the day was extremely successful. The weather was perfect and the campo was full of flowering lavender and other plants. There were eight nurseries and plant stalls and although more modest in scale than the Autumn Fair , sufficient gardeners arrived at the plant fair and bought enough plants to make it really worthwhile. It was also interesting to note that for many of the gardeners it was the first time that they had attended such an event. There were also a fair number of children which bodes well for the future of gardening. Food and drink was available for those gardeners who wanted to make a day of it. All in all it was a delightful and very successful plant fair.