Harare Annual Garden Show 2015

I learned a new word, "xeriscaping", the word of the future

- or should that be now?

We had such fun at The Garden Club, Harare, Annual Garden Show. It was fascinating to see what the contributors managed to put together for this year's main theme, "Sustainable Gardening". The theme was very apt, because in Zimbabwe, the power is off for hours every single day, with no respite, (unless, of course, you are a member of the government, then you are allowed to have electricity permanently on!). Can you imagine, no electricity, all day, every day? Many people get up in the middle of the night to do essential chores, like vacuuming, laundry etc. Others, more fortunate, have their own generators and boreholes. So we were eager to see how the Garden Club exhibitors would rise to the challenge of gardening with unpredictable water supply and no electricity.

This exhibitor is from Domboshava, a village just north of Harare

I was photographing the exhibits, when this guy rushed up to have his photo taken. He had an amazing array of great ideas in keeping with the theme of the the show, and, although we didn't discover who won any of the prizes on offer, I am sure he was in the running.

Here is another idea of his ideas, using guttering...

...and another, using plastic water bottles

I thought this, by another exhibitor, was a good idea for using old worn out tyres

Of course, vertical gardening is well known as a way to use less water, and there were two in particular that I liked.

...this one, using a lattice frame...

...and this one using discarded pallets

This was a much-admired, and popular idea, with an intricate watering system

Here is a close up of the above, that shows the watering tubes, leading from the

main water supply on top of the stack

There was also a section for Floral Designers. They had a particular theme: High Tea with an Up-Cycled Twist. Think: Pretty, floral afternoon Tea with a non-traditional twist of up-cycling, recycling or repurposing old, used or damaged objects to create a beautiful, thought-provoking table display.

Very pretty afternoon tea.

All in all, a wonderful day. Thank you Mary for hosting us, and making our stay such fun!

Elizabeth Coughlan