Usually these workshop booths are boring to me as they generally focus on insects and disease and lawn problems where they give out free soil sample bags where people can have their soil tested and get back a computer printout they can't understand. This may be interesting to many but not to me. My interest would be on plants and gardens but let's narrow the focus because you can't represent ALL plants or ALL gardens so let's just suppose that instead of a traditional booth you instead use that space to build a display garden. Give it a theme like Oriental Garden or Decorating with Yard Art (yes, I'm serious), water gardening or others such as herb gardens (showing cooking use and vinegars), perennial gardens, yady yada. Let's say you pick Oriental Gardening: You will want to represent plants, stone and water. Put a weeping maple in the background, come forward with some ornamental grass, then a couple low-growing evergreen conifers. Put pine straw or pine bark around these plants to give the impression they are planted , then a stone or peagravel walkway that curves. Place some large stones in a grouping beside the walk and use smaller stones as an edging. Have a stone (or cement) bowl filled with water, border this in front with a low bamboo fence and you have demonstrated in miniature the basic elements of an Oriental garden. print out some literature telling the material in the garden with a flat plan showing the placement and a legend. Tell who you are and give contact information on this literature. For a State Flower Show I did a 6 foot by 6 foot Yard art demo garden by myself and it was one of my best efforts. If you're interested in hearing about that contact me and I will tell about it here in short version just an I did the Oriental garden but then again, this may not be the direction you want to go. Our club did an outdoor workshop once on how to build and decorate your own gourd birdhouse and another on making a hypertoufa container. Again, speaking for myself, these are the kind of workshops that are interesting to me. Our directory lists our members and their interests and that was a good place to start getting ideas for what to do. Though Master Gardeners disdain commercialism, it wouldn't hurt to find a sponsor in a local nursery who can at least loan you the plants

Here is a link that might be useful: BittersweetGardens

I agree with you. Most workshops need to be more focused on useful tips for gardeners, things they can see are quite easy to do. Also, thanks for the advice of choosing a specific topic. We probably won't do the oriental thing just because it's not prevalent in our area. However, I can see what you mean. Thanks for the advice. Anyone else out there got any ideas?

You could do a demonstration on building a compost pile: Every 30 minutes begin by (on a plastic tarp) putting down a wooden pallet and explain this is for air circulation, then heavy limbs and brush -same thing, followed by alternating nitrogen/carbon items like grass clippings, leaves, then food scraps, cardboard, add a sprinkle of dirt to innoculate with bacteria, a cup of fertilizer, then use a watering can to sprinkle from top explaining that to biodegrade the compost needs a moist acidic environment. Explain how it needs turning occasionally and ask if there are any questions - there will be. You will need a sign giving presentation times and it wouldn't hurt if someone worked the crowd rounding people up to hear the presentation. A giveaway would be nice: maybe a ziplock bag of Sphagnum Peat moss or something small and light. Hey, you could give them some of that exciting Extension literature. You know: plant seed A in Hole B at depth C on date D......

Here is a link that might be useful: Bittersweet Gardens

Great Idea! Thanks. And, I love that exciting extension literature!

I am not a M.G, but one of the most popular booths at our county fair is the MGs compost booth. They show compost in different stages of decomposition. Not enough time to do a how to build a compost pile demonstration. The booth is usually way too busy. Kids love the vermicomposting. They love seeing all kinds of food scraps breaking down too. I think it's the ooh, gross! factor.

There are also vats of compost tea being made and the M.G.s give out small bottles of compost tea daily to anyone who wants some. Lots of good handouts, including how to make your own piles, vermicomposting and compost teas.

I work at my church booth, but I stop every day during the fair to talk gardening and composting.

Mary

Yes, I did a compost display once with zip-loc bags of the various components on the backboard with labels under them. Then on the tabletop I had a tub containing the fresh ingredients and a tub full of finished compost. I fudged a little by adding a small amount of ground pine bark and also a small amount of sphagnum peat to increase the volume. There was a sign that said: Finished compost, touch it, feel it, smell it. We stood off to the side and laughed about all the people who did just that. Should have taken pictures.