The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) announces the fifth annual Virginia GoGreen Garden Festival Saturday, September 11, 2010, at the Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 West Broad Street in Richmond, VA. The multi-faceted event, sponsored by the Virginia Green Industry Council, runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, free for children 12 and under. Parking is free on the museum lot.
This year’s Festival features plants for display and sale by Virginia growers, plant raffles every half hour, gardening products that can help make your yard the envy of the neighborhood, landscaping services that give your yard that wow factor, pottery demonstrations and sales, landscape photographs and much more for an interesting day of fun and relaxation.
The much more includes DNA testing that lets visitors see a strawberry at the cellular level, expert Master Gardeners to answer your gardening questions, observation hives where bees make honey (visitors may buy honey to take home), crafts for sale, children’s activities (pet the bunnies, crafts, face painting), gardening books for sale, information about Virginia’s Beautiful Gardens® plants and a live broadcast of the Andre Viette radio gardening show from 9 – 11 a.m. The Festival also features live music by local artists, food by local bakers and lunch by Strawberry Street Foods. It could be the most fun-filled and informative seven hours you’ve spent in a long time, with something for all ages. And don’t forget all those plants for sale, many of which you cannot find at the local gardening center.
One of the Festival’s goals is to help make environmental stewardship a way of life for every person of any age. Exhibits will provide information and demonstrations on how each of us can do our part to improve air and water quality, recycle our finite natural resources and maintain the health and well being of our Chesapeake Bay. The Science Museum of Virginia will offer tours of their environmental displays throughout the day with special discounts on museum passes.
Make plans now to attend the Garden Festival Saturday, September 11. Enjoy a few hours of fun and information for the entire family and go home with a rain barrel, a lavender plant, a bird house, a Barn Again wood product or the makings for a backyard pond. For more information on the Festival, contact Rick Baker at rick.baker@vdacs.virginia.gov or 301.275.2077.