Going to seed

The Man and I dropped in on the Capital District Flower and Garden Show today, in the sports building of Hudson Valley Community College.

I'd always wondered what you could do with an ice-rink in the off-season.  Why, fill it with garden displays, of course!  Several landscaping companies had come in and packed the space with trees, shrubs, bulbs and a whole lot of mulch.  Our favourite, by some margin, was a recreation of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, with a very inviting natural garden around it.

Also on show were some memorable floral arrangements, a la Linton Flower Festival / Garden Show - but more on those another day.  What really caught my fancy was a stand in the trade hall.  It was an odd collection of stalls in there, to be honest - everything from cheese to double glazing, with a few plants thrown in - but I was very taken by the Hudson Valley Seed Library.

I hadn't heard of this organisation before.  I gather it started as a sort of community scheme to preserve heirloom plant varieties.  Now it supplies beautifully packaged seeds grown on small sustainable farms.  I do like seed packets at the best of times, but these were extra lovely, especially a series called "Art Packs" - each package designed by a different artist, and made to be unfolded and framed once the seeds are planted.  Bourgeois nonsense really, I suppose, but you know - useful and beautiful, William Morris would have approved.  I was tempted into buying several packets, which I may give as gifts but may just as likely keep for myself.