Garden2Blog 2012 with P. Allen Smith & Friends

April was a blur for me as I spent most of it sick, then May was spent catching up on the garden chores that I neglected in April, with some excitement sprinkled in here and there.

After spending three weeks sick as a dog, I was whisked to Little Rock, Arkansas…husband-less and kid-less, thanks to P. Allen Smith, his wonderful staff, Garden Home Retreat partners and his 2nd Annual Garden2Blog event.  I spent a few days in Arkansas with 24 garden bloggers from all over the United States, visiting the sites, having friendly garden competitions, eating yummy cheese grits (which I had never had before!), while meeting the faces behind some of my favorite garden products (and learning about some new products as well). 

After watching Allen’s show for years, it was really nice to get to know him outside of the show, especially the Allen that jumped in his pond- fully clothed- with our floating containers that we made with Laguna Ponds.  He was also gracious enough to talk to my daughter on the phone within the first 30 minutes of meeting me! “Hi Mr.Smith!” she said, and he asked when she was going to come and visit. Of course she has been begging me ever since to go to Arkansas. 

Over the next few weeks I will be posting several blog posts about my trip, and all of the wonderful products I get to try out thanks to G2B12’s sponsors.  In the meantime, I wanted to give a shout out to all of my new garden friends- thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope to see everyone soon! You were all so nice, and I am thankful to call all of you friends!

And a special thank you to P. Allen Smith and staff.  I am still not sure why you chose me, but I am so grateful for the opportunity!  I’m a huge fan of Arkansas now- can’t wait to visit it again and see more!

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Click on the links below to check out what everyone else had to say about G2B12 and see their awesome photos! 

The Sponsors: Berry Nurseries, BioSafe Systems, Sun Gro Horticulture/Black Gold, Bonnie Plants, Conard-Pyle Company, Easy Gardener/Jobes Organics, The Garden Patch GrowBox, Laguna Ponds, Purina Mills, Proven Winners, Le Creuset, and Mountain Valley Spring Water.

The Garden Bloggers:

Bruce Bailey from Heavy Petal Nursery

Kylee Baumle from Our Little Acre

Steve Bender from The Grumpy Gardener/Southern Living

Carolyn Binder from Cowlick Cottage Farm

Shirley Bovshow from Garden World Report

Amy Bowers from About You magazine and LocalEyes

Susan Cohan from Leaf Magazine and Miss Rumphius Rules

Shawna Coronado from The Casual Gardener and Gardening Nude

Bren Haas from BG Garden

Annie Haven from Authentic Haven Brand

Robin Horton from Urban Gardens

LaManda Joy from The Yarden

Monica Milla from The Garden Faerie

Dee Nash from Red Dirt Ramblings

Michael Nolan from My Earth Garden and The Garden Rockstar

Kat Robinson from Tie Dye Travels

Gen Schmidt from North Coast Gardening

Christopher Tidrick at From the Soil

Amanda Thompson from Kiss My Aster

Linda Tyson from SS Garden Girl

Jean Ann Van Krevelen from Gardener to Farmer

Barbara Wise from B Wise Gardening

Helen Yoest from Gardening With Confidence

Oh, and there’s me!

***Attendees of Garden2Blog 2012 (including myself) received transportation, accommodations and meals during this event. Some Garden2Blog sponsors provided samples to the attendee's with no obligation.  Any thoughts/views about the products are my own.  ***