Garden Town Programs at the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

Even though the festival opened earlier this month, I was busy getting ready for the seminars after that first day. Throughout the festival lectures are featured in the pavilion every, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Garden Town opens at 10 a.m. with the first presentation starting at 11 a.m. then running every hour until 4 p.m.

One of my roles for Disney’s Horticulture is creating festival program content and my crew and I were putting the finishing touches on Garden Town even after the event began. We were so excited to start the day when we finished setting up we walked down the promenade to greet the guests gathering at the entrance to Garden Town. To our surprise the crowd of enthusiastic Guests greeted us with waves and smiles. With many familiar faces spotting the crowd, this made me feel prouder than ever to be part of such a great event.

Garden Town is the hub of activity for educational seminars featuring our own Disney Gardeners, Great American Gardeners, and University of Florida Extension Agents. The seminars feature gardening trends, techniques and even some of our own Disney’s Horticulture traditions. Topics change weekly and the Disney Gardening at Home presentations with hands on activities are very popular with gardeners of all ages.

Gardening to me is like a language everyone understands. There is so much to know about gardening, it seems gardeners are able to share knowledge by experiences they have had growing plants with success or not. Yes, it is ok to talk about a negative gardening experience that is part of a successful garden.

At Garden Town I enjoy spending time with our Guests prior to show time; when they are chatting about their favorite plants or garden techniques I attain a few good tips myself. Over the years I have seen many new friendships develop over this plant chatter.