FREE Fall Garden Fest

Salsa and Season Celebrated at

PHS Fall Garden Festival

Saturday, September 24, Philadelphia Navy Yard

PHILADELPHIA – The family-friendly PHS Fall Garden Festival will inspire everyone with music, food, displays of the harvest, gardening workshops, and entertaining activities for kids, adults, and pets!  

The festival will celebrate all aspects of the growing season on Saturday, Sept. 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. 

Competitions will feature homemade salsas and edible arrangements. Entries in the “Salsa Contest” will be judged on quality of ingredients, flavor and appearance. “Bounty by the Basket” entries will receive scores based on the most creative, colorful displays of homegrown vegetables, arranged for aesthetic effect in a basket.

The PHS Fall Garden Festival is a great place to get first dibs on garden plants for the fall and plan your next gardening project. The Festival Marketplace features plants, produce, tools, garden accessories, home décor, fine crafts, and keepsakes from the PHS/Philadelphia International Flower Show collections. 

Local experts will conduct presentations on a variety of topics and include members of the American Rhododendron Society, Delaware Valley Daylily Society, Delaware Valley Hosta Society, Hardy Plant Society, Herb Society of America, Liberty Bell Gesneriad Society, Philadelphia Cactus & Succulent Society, Indoor Plant Society of the Delaware Valley, Delaware Valley Water Garden Society, and African Violent Society of Philadelphia.

Anyone planning landscape improvements should check out the PHS Gold Medal award-winning plants display. These exceptional trees, shrubs and vines have received the Gold Medal designation for their beauty and hardy nature and undergone rigorous testing by a team of experts. Visitors can shop at the Meadowbrook “pop-up” store for unusual varieties of succulents and tropical indoor plants, and a colorful selection of cabbages, kale, peppers, pansies and plants for fall. Meadowbrook is PHS’s acclaimed garden center in Abington Township. In addition to an extraordinary variety of fine garden plants and products, Meadowbrook Farm is surrounded by acres of inspirational gardens.

Gardeners can recycle their nursery containers and horticultural plastics at the “Green Stop,” where vendors and organizations will answer questions on the many ways to create a more sustainable lifestyle, business, home and community.

The Fall Garden Festival is a multi-sensory experience for people of all ages.  Kids and their parents will create race cars out of vegetables to compete in the high intensity Veggie Races. Eco-games, face-painting, and a large play area for kids are planned, as well as  an obstacle course and play zone for pets sponsored by Subaru. The festival features double-decker bus tours of the Navy Yard, an area rich in local and military history; local foods for sale and a Bier Garden featuring beers from the Yards Brewing Company.

PHS is offering everyone an opportunity to join as a member and receive a free gift, discounts, plants and other benefits, in addition to tickets to the 2012 Philadelphia International Flower Show.

A special announcement of winners of the PHS City Gardens Contest is planned.  This popular, annual competition is open to anyone who lives in Philadelphia, and honors more than 100 local gardeners.

The 2011 Fall Garden Festival is sponsored by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. For more information about the festival and the benefits of PHS membership, please visit PHSonline.org. Directions: The Navy Yard is located at the south end of Broad Street and is accessible from I-95 (Exit 17, Broad Street). Enter through the main gate; the event is held on the Parade Grounds. SEPTA users can take the No. 17 bus (marked Navy Yard).

PHS motivates people to improve the quality of life and create a sense of community through horticulture. Its programs and events inspire, transform, build and sustain communities throughout the nation.