Although the gardening season has been strained due to dry weather, the Bradley County UT Extension office is still hopeful there will be some good entries in the garden and fruit crop competition categories this year.
There are separate groups for youth and adults and categories that include apples, pears, grapes edible crops, vegetables, ornamental crops, largest vegetable or fruit.
Field crops include corn, hay, hayledge or silage, straw, soybeans and tobacco. Honey categories include extracted honey and comb honey.
Horticultural categories include herbs, decorative leaf, annuals, perennials, potted plant, rose, crepe myrtle, hydrangea, cactus and succulents. Also there are many categories in food canning.
Entries are open to the public, but all entries must have been produced by the entrant in the last 12 months.
Drop off your entries at the Tri State Exhibition Center, Foothills Country Fair grounds at the Louie Alford Ag & Expo Hall, which is the large blue building located on the west side of the fairgrounds up on the hill.
Drop-off will Tuesday, July 24, between 3 and 7 p.m. only. Judging will take place Thursday and winners displayed during the fair.
Anyone with questions should contact the Kim Frady, Bradley County Extension agent, at 728-7001.
Bradley County Master Gardeners, a group recently organized in the county, will have a booth this year demonstrating some new trends in gardening, along with a gardening question-and-answer table and a display on bugs directed toward children. There will be silent auctions for gardening-related items and a raffle for a brand new rain barrel and gutter diverter.
Ricky Tallent, President of the Bradly County Master Gardeners, commented, “Home gardening has been rapidly increasing across the nation. Bringing back some old-fashioned ways of growing and putting food on the table is back in popularity and we are here to do what we can to help Bradley County Grow.”
