Hydrangea Festival 2016 - Free Garden and Arts Exhibits

Loving my time at the Hydrangea Festival! Alot of people do not know that there are plenty of free garden exhibits that are available to see!

The first free garden exhibit that I went to was the Druid City Daylilly Garden where owner Will Marchant specializes in hybridizing double, pattern and toothy Daylillies. He has over 1000 new daylilly seedlings each year and currently has 40 registered unique hybrids. He has been doing this over 10 years and uses raised beds of daylillies all over his wonderful front yard of his house! I really loved see the varieties of daylillies that he has in his garden and I truly appreciate this beautiful garden!

The another free garden exhibit is the Plant-a -Row for Hunger Vegetable Garden and Scarecrow Exhibit where the Douglasville Master Gardeners work to plan vegetables for the homeless cooking shelters. At the Plant-a -Row for Hunger Vegetable Garden and Scarecrow Exhibit the West Georgia Beekeepers Association was there to demonstrate how easy it is to become a beekeeper. Marilynn Parker who is the president of the West Georgia Beekeepers Association has placed a bee hive in the garden and now the garden is producing 3 times the amount of crops in the previous years.

The Douglas County Butterfly Trails Gardens has recently been registered with the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trails as a effort to preserve the monarch butterfly and provide habitat and fuel for their migration. Rosalyann Carter's butterfly garden established in April 2013, is the beginning of this trail. Mrs. Carter established her garden to bring awareness to conserving butterflies, their habitats, and for her love of nature. Since 1990, about 970 million monarch butterflies have vanished. It happened as farmers and homeowners sprayed herbicides on milkweed plants, which serve as the butterflies' nursery, food source and home. Butterfly gardens help with the loss of habitat by providing milkweed upon which they depend as larva to survive and nectar plants as food sources. Some of the registered trails are Cultural Arts Council, Master Gardeners Vegetable Garden, Children's Garden at the Douglas County Library and Woodie Fite Senior.

The artist exhibits that were a part of the Hydrangea Festival are the Woodie Fite Senior Center that featured homemade quilts presented to veterans through the Quilts of Valor Program (http://www.qovf.org/) and quilts from the Cherokee Rose Quilters Guild. The last garden is the Folk Art Exhibit and Miniature Gardens Display at the Douglas County Courthouse. These creative wheelbarrow miniature garden displays theme is America the Beautiful.

This year Hydragena Festival was the best and every year it seems to get better. Want to see pictures some more of the free garden and arts exhibits then click here!

Also, tell me about what is your favorite summer dish by emailing me at info@livinghealthy1.org !

D. Brown said " My favorite summer dish to make is macaroni salad. It's quick, easy & healthy!"