The Arboretum Foundation garden showcased plants of the Witt Winter Garden, plus a well-painted arbor and a reproduction of the new loop trail. It opens officially in April.

A giant chess set, luxurious grill setup, and sculptural slices of ancient tree trunks combine for this imposing garden.

This hive-inspired gate, complete with a bee at bottom, welcomes you to the Bee Simple garden.

An orchard mason bee house sits hopefully next to an espaliered apple tree.

This show garden’s multi-colored greenhouse, accessed via a floating wooden deck, grabbed me.

A “spa garden” inspired by Japanese “wabi-sabi” is themed in white.

Orchids and a vanilla vine (in pot on left) surround a funky shed in the tropical Vanilla Farm garden.

The Vintage Market provides a funky corner to the show.

The Plant Amnesty booth was busy. It’s heartening to see the organization doing well after the tragic loss of its founder, Cass Turnbull, last year.

The ikebana display is always cheery.

The folks at Diggit have created another comfortable tool — a hardened stainless steel hori-hori with their signature colorful soft handle.

Useless shovels. But cool!

Sam Benowitz dispenses wisdom along with edible fruit starts at the Raintree Nursery booth.

A tiny terrarium sits in the window of the convention center’s skybridge, with Pike Street below and Pike Place Market in the distance.

These Opots come in striking colors, great to enhance a wall garden.

This Catlin Elm was raised from a cutting by American bonsai forefather John Yoshio Naka, beginning in 1970. Amazing.

Colorful hand-painted pots, yes. Bionic gloves? Definitely!

A 30th dinner party is set in this show garden to celebrate the show’s 30th anniversary. Here’s to 30 more years!

The festival’s own show garden resembled a layer cake of colorful flowers and plants, enhanced by art-glass candle flames.

A Christmas view of our yard from the house.

Broccoli shoots peek out of the snow cover.

Glass cloches protect young plants from the snow.

A plastic cloche covers lettuce, and a double window A-frame covers overwintering beets.

The beets are tiny and might handle this cold, but I should have put ends on this double-window cold frame for better protection.

A big water bottle protects a young cabbage.

Cold frames in the background protect greens, but lots of brassicas fend for themselves under the snow.

The big cold frame in the back and the smaller Triangle Tunnel in the front both contain salad greens. I won’t open them until our warmer weather returns, but the tender greens should be fine. Snow is a great insulator!

Dinosaur kale is tough!

A Christmas stew is going to contain fresh parsnips, pulled today from the snowy ground.

Calendula is still flowering, providing a cheery spot in the garden and in the salad bowl.

Mixed salad greens, including arugula, bok choi, tatsoi, lettuce and Asian mustards are flourishing in this bed, and getting mowed down regularly for salads.

Tatsoi.

Sparrows, black-capped chickadees and a rosy finch (obscured, center) gather for a meal of bugs on my Lacinato/palm tree kale.

Cabbages and broccoli, with one cabbage covered.

I’m experimenting with winter growth of a cabbage under cover inside this giant water bottle. There’s another one uncovered right next to it.

Cauliflower setting its head.

This DeCiccio broccoli might yet put on some side shoots.

A purple sprouting broccoli and some winter radishes grow in front of a fleece-covered tunnel containing spinach.

Lacinato/palm tree kale plants grow against a bamboo trellis which held up cherry tomato plants last summer.

Giant walking stick collards are ready to eat.

A pot of spinach covered in garden fleece sits in front of an espaliered Akane apple tree that still has its leaves.

Red Kitten spinach grows with seedlings of parlsey and flowers in a pot.

New hybrids of Brussels sprouts and kale promise a harvest of budding florets along the stem.

The first florets coming from the Brussels sprouts/kale hybrid.

The last of the fall carrot crop sits in front of a cold frame made of two window sashes, wired together. The easy cold frame holds overwintering turnips.

Cover crop of clover, vetch and rye helps build soil on this bed over the winter.

This cold frame is planted with bok choi (back) and tatsoi that I started indoors in January.

Corn salad (mache) growing wild in the mulch in front of my compost bin chopping block (which itself has been colonized quite nicely by volunteers).

Early Red Treviso radicchio overwintered in a cloche and is spicing up our spring salads while Viola tricolor (Johnny jump-up) kept it company.

Mustard greens, overwintered in a cloche, are exuberantly growing.

Buds on the pear tree promise sweet blossoms.

The fresh, silvery leaves of the globe artichoke cheer up a border bed.

This is probably a cabbage, sprouted up from a stray brassica seedling. I have no idea if it will make a head. if not, I’ll probably start eating the leaves.

This volunteer, clearly a Brassica but not clearly what type, popped up on the edge of a bed. Looks like a cross between collards and dinosaur kale. Also looks like good eating!

Red-veined garden sorrel sprouts back to life from a dense head.

Lettuce seedlings, begun indoors, gain strength under my Triangle Tunnel cloche.

The plant is healthy but our cool late winter weather has delayed the buds on the Purple Sprouting broccoli. But they are coming.

Lacinato (dinosaur) kale going to flower. It was planted too late last year to reach “full frame” before winter, but we’ll eat it soon and pull it up to make room for something new.

Garlic slices through the straw mulch behind a whimsical steel bike sculpture.

Massive square stones stacked into an imposing fountain, which is skirted by blooming daffodils, greet visitors to the show gardens.

These steel and wood sculptures pair nicely and seem about to take flight.

The “Good Times Great Food” garden features a varied patio landscaping with an assortment of stone pavers and groundcovers.

This bar-fountain-pool combination nicely edges a patio in a small garden.

An artistic water sculpture echoed by another shapely sculpture behind highlights one garden.

A stylish espaliered tree dresses up this shed wall.