“Do you believe that blue roses grow only in China?”, the EXPOFORUM presenter of the Gardener’s Day asks the audience. “Do you believe that a horse spits to warn a human about some danger?” Guests confer, look for answers to interesting and tricky questions. The announcement of the next event is very soon, a showy performance of the group “Kazachiya Dolya” was met with enthusiasm by the audience.

Special guests are also present at the festival. By tradition, the Head of the St. Petersburg Gardening Department Andrey Lyakh awarded the best gardeners and participants in annual competitions “Most, Most, Most”, “The Best St. Petersburg Balcony” and “The Best Garden Plot”. The lucky winners received deserved diplomas and presents, such as dish sets, juice squeezers, electric tea kettles, and so on. Visitors could see their achievements on a multimedia screen on the main stage, where awards were given: a gigantic cucumber, glass jars with juicy canned vegetables, balconies decorated with plenty of flowers, tended lawn plots, swings and cozy arbours, etc.

As Andrey Lyakh noted, every other person in St. Petersburg has a garden plot; over two million people work actively on the land; every year gardeners grow tonnes of organic, ecologically-green products, including such rare exotic crops as grapes, watermelon and muskmelon.

As a part of the targeted programme, a civil infrastructure is being created in gardening, budget funds are being devoted to construction and repair of roads, power lines, water supply systems and medical aid. “In the last decade, from 2004 to 2015, more than 1.406 bln roubles have been allocated to and spent on development of horticultural and summer non-commercial associations of citizens”, Andrey Lyakh stressed.

Andrey Vladislavovich also told about the latest innovations. “Gardeners are now released from network maintenance: electrical, gas and road networks were transferred to the government and municipal entities. There are more domestic products on our tables. Before the sanctions, we used to eat products from the Netherlands and Poland, now it’s all homegrown.”

The Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Industry of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Varenov, added his congratulations with the Gardener’s Day. He recalled that there were about 4,000 horticultural associations and more than 550,000 gardening plots in the Leningrad Region. “This is a huge army of people who are in love with their occupation and are ready not only to rest, but to work as well. Every year your voice is heard louder and louder”, he noted.