Photos: LYLE RADFORD
Words: LARA HART

AFTER a stella turnout at last weekend’s Marburg Garden and Outdoor Expo the organising committee are already working on next year’s event.

The Expo is put together by a group of dedicated ‘green thumbs’ and each year they try to make it better than the last.

This year a crowd of people came through the gates and into the Marburg Showgrounds.

Most left carrying newly acquired plants and garden decorations.

“The weather was perfect, it was sunny and there were blue skies,” said Barb Frohloff, who is one of the Expo organisers.

“We had another successful event that made a lot of people very happy.”

Happiness came from stallholders and customers in equal measure.

“Our stallholders are always very happy. They know they’ll do a lot of business at this event and they always do,” Barb said.

“We had 160 stalls and Searles gave away seedlings to people who’d finished their coffee by putting it into that cup.

“Searles also gave advice on gardening products and how to grow plants.

“People were buying so much they’d need to keep some of it in their car while they purchased more.”

Expo goers didn’t go hungry as there was Asian food, German sausages, hamburgers, sandwiches and barista made coffee for sale.

A job well done means next year’s event will likely do well, too.

“It is important we put on an event people enjoy so much they want to do it again the following year,” she said.

“[The committee] meet after a show and discuss ways the expo can be better and what perhaps didn’t work and needs changing.”

The hard work is made worth it when people congratulate the organisers and thank them for putting it on.

“I enjoy the happy faces and that each year stallholders and customers get so much out of it,” she said.

“That makes the hard work behind the scenes worth it for all of us.”