photo by: Journal-World File Photo

The Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St.

Douglas County Extension Master Gardeners will be hosting a free garden show to celebrate the beginning of spring.

The event, “Big Ideas Garden Show,” will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 21 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2110 Harper St. The garden show will feature a variety of activities, such as educational booths, guest speakers, art, a rain barrel workshop, a garage sale and more.

There will also be 10 local vendors at the event, including Wild Ivy Herb Farm, which grows over 80 varieties of herbs using sustainable and organic methods. Other vendors include Clinton Parkway Nursery, Find Fitness, Forest Keepers Tree Care, Lawrence Tree Service, Low Maintenance Landscape, MycoBloom fungi, Nature’s Image Aquatic Design, Pines Garden Market, and Wild Birds Unlimited.

Some of the community partners also in attendance will be Extension Master Food Volunteers, Johnson County Extension Master Gardeners, Kansas Permaculture Institute and University of Kansas Monarch Watch.

Extension Master Gardener teams will be situated at seven educational booths to lend their expertise. Here is a list of the booths:

• Edible gardening – learn how to gather naturally occurring plants, or weeds, to make unique salads. The booth will also describe vegetable planting to maximize yields in small spaces.

• Native plants – learn how to incorporate native plants into gardens to support butterfly populations. The booth will also address decreasing populations of vital native insects.

• Fairgrounds demonstration gardens – learn how the garden at the fairgrounds has been able to retain water with bioswales – vegetated, shallow, landscaped depressions designed to capture, treat, and infiltrate stormwater runoff – topped with native plants.

• Drip irrigation system – learn about how this custom-designed drip irrigation system conserves water for Extension Master Gardeners’ High Tunnels. It directs water flow to plant roots with the goal of increasing vegetable yield for donation to the Lawrence community.

• Garden design – learn about how thoughtful design starts from the soil up, encouraging focus on healthy soil, smart water use and native plants that support pollinators while growing abundant, seasonal food.

• Sustainable gardening – learn about practices that focus on growing and preserving our own food, rather than buying produce shipped from long distances, and composting all organic waste.

• Horticulture hotline – Extension Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer gardening questions with research-based solutions.

There will also be speakers held in the north room of the Dreher building, just east of the Extension Office on the Douglas County Fairgrounds. A Q&A session will follow each talk. The speakers include:

• 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. – Entomologist Betsy Betros presents “Spiders–Fascinating!” Attendees can hear why spiders are a crucial part of the food chain and see how their webs are amazing feats of engineering.

• 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. – Neil Bass, U.S. Army natural resources specialist, presents “Fort Leavenworth: History and Natural History at the First US Fort in Kansas.” The talk will explore the fort’s old-growth forests and multiple species of flora and fauna that few people know about.

Additionally, at noon, there will be a rain barrel workshop in the Dreher Family Building. People can register for the session at https://dgemgks.org/2026-garden-workshops/.

A Kids’ Corner and scavenger hunt hosted by the Lawrence Downtown Farmers’ market will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Garden art that recycles common materials into yard decor for gardens, patios or porches will also be available for attendees to purchase along with a garage sale. Food and drinks will be offered in the parking lot of the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

People interested in the event can see the details on each activity at https://dgemgks.org/.