A weekend’s worth of rain and shine welcomed garden enthusiasts at the 20th annual Spring Garden Festival as about 10,000 flocked to the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens to celebrate the start of the spring season.
The first festival was held in 1991 and featured 116 booths. This year’s festival included about 200 vendors, from local artists showing crafts to nurseries selling plants.
“It’s a very diverse group of vendors, but we all pull together for one common cause,” said Marion Sproul, chairwoman of the festival committee.
In an effort to promote green living, the festival teamed up with the Alachua County Office of Waste Alternatives to create a compost of all food waste collected at the event.
“It’s important to educate folks so we’re not putting everything in a landfill,” said Jenny Seitz, public education coordinator for the Office of Waste Alternatives.
Festival organizers also put strict limits on food vendors as a means of minimizing the festival’s environmental impact.
“We don’t allow Styrofoam; we don’t allow straws," Sproul said. "We encourage them to use recyclable paper goods.”
Two stages were also set up as venues for live entertainment, and visitors bid on various plants and crafts during live and silent auctions.
Don Goodman, director of the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, said the event honors the spring season and its significance.
“This festival is a celebration of the beginning of the gardening season,” he said.
