Sorticulture fans can expect a good time this weekend, no matter what the weather, at the annual garden arts festival in Legion Memorial Park in Everett.
Buy some new plants, eat lunch, listen to music, talk to garden experts and browse among the dozens of booths of garden art and garden supplies.
One of the new vendors at Sorticulture is Everett-based Vertical Gardens Northwest.
Kristen Boswell and her husband, Matt Keenan, started the company after inventing hanging gardens for their own small lot in northeast Everett.
Find Boswell on Friday through Sunday in Sorticulture booth No. 161, located near a display garden.
Keenan and Boswell offer a way to grow flowers, ferns, vegetables or whatever flora you desire, in small spaces and without having to bend over.
Their hanging garden modular outfits, manufactured in their alley garage, aren’t cheap, but they’re built to last forever and can be attached to fences, exterior walls or apartment balconies. Some Vertical Gardens Northwest clients even grow their gardens indoors.
For $100 (that’s a $75 discount off the online catalog price) Sorticulture shoppers can buy a four-pot vertical garden kit, which offers plenty of room for a kitchen herb garden, succulents, lettuces, strawberry plants or red geraniums.
“My intention is to get people growing,” Boswell said.
The gardener waters the top pot (a drip line works well here) and eventually the water cascades to the bottom pot. Add to your vertical garden a bit at a time, and cover an entire fence with vegetables.
“The idea came from my desire to garden and the simple need for more space,” Boswell said. “I was having more gardening fun than my yard could handle. I researched different ways to garden and discovered that a lot of people in Europe, Australia and Asia had already solved this problem with vertical gardens.”
So Boswell’s motto became, “when you run out of space, grow up.”
The pots, made of food-grade polypropylene, nest into one another and are attached to an aluminum grid backing. Keenan, who works as a Boeing engineer, designed and built a computer-controlled router to put it all together.
“I did nerd out on this a bit,” Keenan said. “But it’s been a fun project. And we can do custom work, too.”
In addition, Boswell sells succulents tucked into her handmade wall-hanging pottery, as well as glass and metal hanging planters that she has produced for interior spaces.
More information about Vertical Gardens Northwest is at www.verticalgardensnw.com.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
If you go
The free Sorticulture Garden Arts Festival is at Legion Memorial Park, 145 Alverson Blvd., Everett.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 10; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 11; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 12.
The event features artists, plant nurseries, informational booths and food vendors.
Parking is limited at the park, so consider taking the free Everett Transit shuttle bus from the Everett Community College Fitness Center, 2206 Tower St.
Housing Hope will watch your purchases for you while you wander the festival or go to get your vehicle to pick them up.
Evergreen Arboretum &Gardens, renovated during the past year at the south end of the park, is open again.
Everett Public Works will sell rain barrels to Everett residents on Friday.
Cocoon House students offer hand-crafted garden art on Saturday.
Live music is scheduled all weekend in the wine garden. See the Herald’s A&E section on Friday for the lineup.
Garden guru Ciscoe Morris is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. June 11.
Kids activities include face painting, flower pot decorating, wood carving and butterfly house construction.
More information is available at everettwa.gov/823/Sorticulture-Garden-Arts-Festival.
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