Sonoma County Fair Demonstration Gardens
The UC Master Gardeners of Sonoma County and Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership have teamed up for 3 years to create sustainable garden displays for home gardeners at the Sonoma County Fair.
The exhibit in 2025 is titled It's Raining Cats and Dogs - Home Scale Practices to Retain the Rain. The exhibit demonstrates ways that home gardeners can slow, spread, and sink rainwater, improve soil health and create beneficial habitat in the garden. The exhibit also showcases a variety of low-water use plants recommended for the Sonoma County region.
In 2024, the exhibit titled The Greatest Care of Earth, focused on informing gardeners about our free Garden Sense program. The Garden Sense program advises home gardeners on how to save water in their garden with water saving tips on irrigation and plant selection.
Our Sonoma County Fair Exhibits provide visitors a climate ready landscape display of low water, mostly California native plants that will invite native pollinators and birds to your garden while also looking beautiful year-round including:
- Colorful perennial native flowers, grasses and evergreen shrubs that give a sense of place that is unique to Sonoma County.
- Water features that remind us to provide a water source for both birds and pollinators in our garden.
- Rain garden elements important during winter months to slow, spread and sink rainwater into our garden to provide moisture to the plants, soil and help to reduce irrigation use in the spring.
- The use of smart irrigation controllers with drip irrigation finishes out the sustainability of a climate ready landscape.
Our volunteer Master Gardeners are present to answer questions every day during the Sonoma County Fair.
Look for us at our fair garden exhibit located in the courtyard outside the Hall of Flowers annex at the west entrance. We hope to see you this year at the fair!
August 2025