Has it really been a whole year since we visited last year’s ‘Spring Garden Fair’ at Silves? We already had Saturday 4th March written in the diary for this year’s event, but we have to say we were greeted with rain and grey skies in the morning and a forecast of rain for the day …. and until lunchtime we didn’t even considering venturing outside …

We appreciate that you might find that hard to believe when you see the shots we managed to take in the afternoon .. beautiful blue skies and sunshine greeted us when we finally arrived at the idyllic Quinta da Figueirinha on the edge of Silves:

You can read all about last year’s event and the lovely natural setting of the quinta in this post:

Spring Garden Fair in Silves

It is a very well-organised event run by the Mediterranean Gardening Association and the event itself has a lovely relaxed and friendly welcome to it, with lots of families and visitors there – last year over 700 people attended the day, and even though the weather was against them in the morning, it was expected that around the same number of people were there this year – the afternoon was certainly busy.

Now our friends will all tell you – judging by the distinct lack of green things in our garden – that we are no experts at all on plants .. but we still found this Fair to be a delightful event to attend – and it is certainly a brilliant place to go with a camera:

It’s not just the plants for sale that put on a show of colour .. there were an array of plants growing at the Quinta just asking to be captured too:

How pretty is this place?!

Even the local wildlife came out to see what the fuss was about and bask in the afternoon sunshine:

The event is well organised with plants for sale displayed outside:

This year’s  theme for the Fair was ‘The Edible  Garden’ and the plants for sale included fruit trees, vegetables and herbs as well as ornamental trees, succulents, shrubs and container plants.

And there were a series of talks – and more stalls – inside, selling organic wine, fruit and vegetables, and organic essential oils:

There were demonstrations by the lovely lads from the Naturarbo tree surgeons:

And food and drink a-plenty:

Which you could enjoy sat in the gardens listening to the live music:

It was also a lovely place to go for a walk …

Kat the dog was especially excited to discover the chickens!

Which still left us plenty of time to have another look at the plants for sale or catch up on chatting to friends:

And if the empty containers at the end of the day were any reflection on the sales .. the stalls must have been busy!

It was a beautiful setting for a gentle and enjoyable event … we will put the date in our diary for next year and let you know as soon as we know when it is …

And leave with you with this lovely shot of someone enjoying the late afternoon sunshine in the orchard:

We took so many shots that we thought we would share them all with you via a gallery – click any of the images below to start the slideshow:

If you are featured above and would like any of the shots (full-size) (no charge!) then just let us know!