Looking Out From Our Tent at Klehm Arboretum
This weekend Judy and I were vendors at the Klehm Arboretum Garden Fair. This was our seventh year at the event now in it’s 19th year. Rockford is just under 70 miles from home. If you don’t know Rockford, it’s the second biggest population area in Illinois outside the Chicago metro area. Rockford used to be an industrial dynamo, but like a lot of Midwestern towns, heavy manufacturing went bust, and for a while Rockford suffered some very hard times. It’s coming back though, with a vibrant historical downtown area and lots of attractions for visitors including the Klehm Arboretum.
Our Busy Little Tent
A big advantage to this show is that we really have some room to spread out. We are outside, which can be both good and bad. This year it was good with a most perfect weekend, but in the past we’ve experienced some really bad thunderstorms or blistering heat. Everyone was upbeat this year just because the weather was so nice.
Lush Trees and Grasses
The setting at Klehm is beautiful.
Looking at the Vendors
The show went well for us. We have lots of repeat customers here and what I found particularly gratifying was the interest in vegetable gardening by older folks who had never planted a vegetable garden before or were getting back to it after a long layoff and the young couples who were new but very serious vegetable gardeners. Gardening is the future and that makes me very happy.