Turlock Garden Club has a fair bit of fun growing Mr. McGregor’s Garden

Fairgoers taking time to smell the roses or relax by the floriculture building waterfall will pass by Mr. McGregor’s Garden as they exit the floral displays and head down the garden path to the exit.

The Best of Show, perfect-score achieving, labor of literary love is the entry of the Turlock Garden Club. A friendly club committee chatted and snacked their way through months of preparation and days of setup to offer the display, packed with story references and playful touches.

“We are so entertained by these ladies – they make our fair!” said Joyce Davis, who with husband Dick Davis supervises floriculture exhibits. In their 27 or more years, she said, “We’ve never had a group that’s done it like this.”

The group has landscaped the waterfall area for four years – “That was our very first effort here, our dip our toes in the water,” said Peggy Hoyle, one of the garden growers.

This is the second year the group has competed in the garden display area. Last year’s entry illustrated the Mad Hatter of “Alice in Wonderland,” following the fair theme of Birthday Parties. It, too, won Best of Show.

This year, the ladies started in March, as soon as the themes of Backyard Gardens was announced. They chose Beatrice Potter’s “A Tale of Peter Rabbit” as their literary inspiration for 2015.

“We get together to eat, and then we start brainstorming,” said Noreen Porath. “The reason why we brainstorm is, we want to take it beyond the general theme. We want to have a (children’s) literature tie-in.”

“We’re into the kids here,” added Hoyle.

The group added a bit here, a bit there, that fairgoers can spot in the exhibit.

One member made a little blue jacket like the one Peter leaves behind after it catches on a gooseberry net. A few little sparrows – like those who urged the weeping rabbit to keep trying – perch on a clothesline holding farmer McGregor’s red long johns.

There’s a tiny mouse carrying peas, like the one who would not take time to give the frantic young rabbit directions to the gate. A white cat stares at a glass pond. Peter himself, thoroughly stuffed after his naughty nibbling, hides in an old wooden wheelbarrow.

Club member Mary Sweet painted the background mural. Each of the dozen or so women working on the entry added her own ideas and touches.

“We’re changing it constantly, all the way through the end of June, then we’re here setting up – right up until they kick us out,” Porath said with a laugh.

“We have so much fun,” said Bonnie Donaldson.

A lot of laughter, a little exercise and a fair bit of nibbling are all part of that fun.

The meetings, now happening at the fairgrounds as the women pitch in to keep the garden plants tidy, all feature homemade refreshments. “Muffins, cookies, breads, doughnuts, pastries …” different women pitched in their favorites. “It is just a social event,” chipped in Porath.

Most the flowers were purchased as seedlings and repotted as they grew, what club members call baby-sitting. The front flower bed includes zinnias, impatiens and celosia, mixed with the colorful greenery of coleus and dusty miller.

Hoyle grew the vegetables, started from seed in April and grown to 4-gallon tub size by fair time. The corn have real ears on their stalks. The tomatoes are bearing fruit, as are the bell peppers and the eggplant.

“This was our best year ever,” said club member Susan Smith.

This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Turlock Garden Club has a fair bit of fun growing Mr. McGregor’s Garden."