Each year, I look forward to the start of fall, which is signaled by the county fair. I love our fair, it is a favorite time of the year – better than Christmas! I love to enter things in the fair and this year, I was excited to enter some things from my new house – things that were all mine.
I have entered the flower show in the past, but most of the entries have been flowers grown by my mom and myself. This year, I only had a few flowers, but they were flowers that belonged to me alone. I entered a hosta bloom in the Any Other Cut Flower category. I didn’t get a placement, but the judge told me afterward that I had done a nice job picking the flower, but it just wasn’t as eye-catching as some of the larger entries.
I also entered the Sedum category, where I also didn’t get an award, but I once again was able to talk to the judges after the show and find out what it was they were looking for and I hope to do better next year!
My very first eggplant was ripe just in time for the fair, so I entered it in the Any Other Color Eggplant category. There were quite a few eggplants and the judge of the Farm Products division said that there were a lot of very nice eggplants with a lot of hard competition – so I was shocked when I saw I won 3rd place!
I also entered one of my yellow squash in the Crookneck Squash class, where I was very please to find I also had won 3rd place!
In the second flower show, I entered a floral arrangement. Because I didn’t have many flowers around my house to work with, and I couldn’t afford to buy any, I only entered one class, Bright Foliage, which was a class for horizontal designs with no flowers. I used the hosta leaves from my yard as the main focal point and the leaves from the arborvitae as the filler. I was very surprised, but pleased when I found I won first place!
I also entered my African Violet that I got from my grandmother. It is large and healthy looking but uncentered. I had hoped to repot it before the fair, but ran out of time. It got second, because it was off-center and because it was not blooming (there were only two entered).
And finally, I entered my huge scented geranium (middle row, far right) in the geranium class, only to discover that it should have been in the herb class instead. The judges liked it and thought it looked healthy, but couldn’t place it since it was in the wrong class.