What a great project! I attended the Chicago event and loved it. Attendance was depressingly low because it was frigid and raining that whole week - really awful weather. The Chicago one was in a dedicated space where all the gardens were in one giant tent-like building. (Tent isn't correct - it was a HUGE temporarly building.) The event was billed as having "realistic" gardens, but truthfully only a handful were what I would call realistic. The vast majority had lots of architecture added in, outrageous fountains, outdoor rooms, crazily abundant plantings etc., that your average person just doesn't have in the yard. There were a small handful of more realistic settings with more average, but beautiful, arrangements, and those were my favorites since I was looking for ideas about what I could actually implement myself.

Sounds like you might like to have a garden walk component as well as, or instead of, a temporary display space. I think that would be great. It broke my heart to think of all the effort and beautiful stuff that literally was only at the Chicago one for a week. What a waste! But getting decorators to do private balconies might be a trick.

I believe the Chicago event had some major sponsors, like Target donating a $million.

Sorry, I really am just rambling, but I wish you luck on setting it up!

Sorry I'm joinint this thread a little late! I'm new to this forum. i think this is a really great idea; have you all planned any more for this event? i just forwarded this link to the president of our downtown neighborhood assoc. to see if this is something we would take on.

I'm interested in your ideas so far!

Jenny

Actually, we just had our first planning meeting this week.

The ideas are pretty much the same at this point, though we'll have to look into the feasibility of 'show' spaces, and we'd like to have a neighborhood social after-hours.
Also, we like the plant swap idea, though we have to decide if we want to tie it into the neighborhood social or have it as part of the larger event. We might also find that there's interest in a vendor area, where attendees can purchase garden-related items and make contact with local nurseries, designers, etc.

We've decided that task #1 is deciding on a date, and close after that is lining up the speakers. We'll also want to put a preliminary call out for gardens to include on the tour. We'd like to have all sorts of gardens represented, and note on the map/program what types of gardens to see at each address. That way if someone is particularly interested in balconies, water gardens, etc., they can focus their time first on seeing those.

Also, I appreciate the feedback on the Chicago event. Never having done this before, it's all speculation at this point, but I do think our approach of using existing gardens with (hopefully) designer spotlights here and there will give our event both realistically attainable and aspirational ideas.

the only thing about having balcony gardens on the tour is the accessibility--the person would have quite a lot of people tramping through his/her condo or loft, and it could get crowded.

I wonder what the best way is to find gardens to be on the tour; how are you putting out the call? I think if our association tries this type of event, we may decide to include business landscaping as well, because we are a group focused on the broader scope of downtown life (residential and commercial). Keep posting, please, and let us all know how you're coming! I will, too...and thanks for the good ideas.

Jenny

Once you have a firm date, approach local garden shops/landscape designers and ask them to create container gardens.

Put the container gardens out by your main table with the "sponsers" name promptly displayed-then give them away as door prizes at the end of the event.

betcha your local companies will jump on this as a chance to get attention and some advertising out of your show.

Well, I did it! We're actually having the event in one month, and I'm really proud of how it's turned out. I'll post again later to give lessons learned.

Here's the info:

In case anyone is from Indy or nearby, I've been working on putting together an educational urban/small/historic gardening event for the past year now.

Diggin' Downtown is an educational urban gardening event taking place June 23 and 24 from 12 - 5 each day in the Old Northside. The purpose of the event is to promote gardening and urban living in downtown Indy while raising funds for our historic neighborhood.

We're going to have 9 lectures and 22 gardens on tour. Tickets are $10 in advance (at O'Malia's downtown) and $12 day of. Speakers and ticket booth will be at All Saints Episcopal Church at 1559 N. Central Ave.

Speakers for the event are Lynn Jenkins, Steve Mayer, Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, Geoff VonBurg and Mary Welch-Keesey. They will be covering the following topics:
- Ornamental Trees
- Vines
- Landscaping Historic Homes
- Woody Plants Worthy of Small Spaces
- Container Gardening
- Pruning Trees and Shrubs
- Gardening for Winter Interest
- Cut Flowers for Home and Garden

If you have any questions, let me know!