The 18th Annual Spring Garden Market
Mark Your Calendar!
The Nineteenth Annual Spring Garden Market
Saturday, April 13, 2013
History San Jose, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose
Despite the rainy weather, a great crowd turned out on March 31, 2012 for our Spring Garden Market at beautiful History San Jose for our premier plant sale, sustainable gardening showcase and fair (Directions | Parking Map | Spring Garden Market Map)
Radio update! The March 22 radio show on KKUP (2-hour MP3 file) was all about the Spring Garden Market, with Master Gardeners in the studio to talk about the vegetables, herbs, and flowers; talks and gardening info tables; Green Elephant Sale and vendor fair; Plant Daycare and gourmet food trucks ... the inside scoop. As a bonus: they each named their favorite tomato! Although the Spring Garden Market was on March 31, you might enjoy this back and forth discussion among a dozen Master Gardeners.
Our plant sale featured unique heirloom varieties you won't find elsewhere
Loyal fans have been coming for years for the 75+ varieties of tomatoes and 100+ varieties of peppers, and in 2012 people picked up beans, eggplant, collards, Chinese broccoli, amaranthus and kohlrabi - and strawberries.
We also expanded our offerings to include herbs and flowers.
For your reference, if you can come to our April 28 sale at Guadalupe Gardens - the descriptions of plants we grew are tantalizing! These lists might also be handy if you are growing plants from seed, or looking for them at nurseries.
Master Gardener Sustainable Gardening Showcase
The Spring Garden Market is a day when people learned about sustainable vegetable and ornamental gardening. Check out our videos and handouts about vegetable gardening.
We offered short and long talks on a wide variety of gardening topics. Watch videos of the talks on our Spring Garden Market Bonus Page.
- 40-Minute Talks These in-depth talks included Edible Landscaping and Make Your Own Tomato Supports.
- Short Talks (15, 20 or 25 minutes) More than forty different talks: Taking Care of Your New Plants. Propagating Plants. Our Favorite Tools. Turning Trash to Treasure. Blueberries. And many more!
We set up tables focused on sustainable gardening techniques, along Master Gardener Lane .
- Favorite Plants California Native Plants. UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars. Gardening with Succulents.
- Hotline LIVE! and Plant Clinic
- Animal Pest Control Got gophers, moles, voles or other critters?
- Tool Care It's easier than you think to keep your tools sharp and in tip-top condition.
- Worm Composting
- Our Favorite Tools Sale We compiled over 25 years of experience from 330+ Master Gardeners to come up with our top choices of books, tools, gloves and gardening items.
- UC Gardening Publications Display Oodles of free pamphlets as well as excellent reference books for you to browse. Browse the catalog and purchase online from UC with a 10% discount when you use our promotion code PRCLA43.
Green Elephant Sale In a category of its own, our Green Elephant Sale featured treasures from our garden sheds and garages to yours - tools, pots, apparel, books,and trellises as well as unusual items you can repurpose to use in your garden. Everything but the kitchen sink ... although one year we did have a kitchen sink for someone to plant in! The prices can't be beat and we only put out items in good condition.
Vendor Fair
Booths lined both sides of the Main Street in History San Jose. Plant nurseries, gardening societies, urban farmers, beekeepers and conservation groups could be found alongside vendors of containers and raised beds, apparel, mosaics and even chicken coops. See the list of vendors for an idea of our colorful "Main Street."
Amenities
A Plant Daycare was set up right next to the plant sale, where people left their purchases securely.
This year, six gourmet food trucks provided coffee, lunch, drinks and snacks.
But perhaps the best amenity was History San Jose itself. People enjoyed wandering the beautiful park, and seeing the historical buildings, beautifully restored, along with their gardens. In 2011, we created a demonstration garden at the Umbarger House.
The Spring Garden Market is sponsored by the Friends of Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County.
We are pleased to have History San Jose and San Jose Mercury News as supporters of our Market.