There was no sign of snow at this year’s Pennsylvania Garden Expo. One of the organizers, Rick Moran said “we’ve been doing this for about ten years and we definitely have the most flowers we’ve ever had.”
It wasn’t just flowers. Roughly 150 vendors were selling everything from tractors to wind instruments. Craig Heller was selling robotic lawn mowers. He’ll come to your house, program the size of your lawn and let the robot do the rest.
“We do feel this is the future. We started the product twelve years ago, but now John Deere is in the process of releasing theirs, Honda is also doing it. Robots are the future” said Heller. He says he sold 4 of them last year and hopes to double sales this year.
If you prefer a more old fashioned form of landscaping then John Connelly had you covered… with his goats. “We’re using the goats to graze, an environmentally friendly way to control brush and overgrown fields” said Connelly.
Connelly said one herd consists of about 20 goats. It takes them roughly a week to eat all the weeds off of an acre of property. Municipalities, commercial properties and residential customers employ Connelly’s goats. For him it’s more than a business.
“The goats, they are fascinating creatures. They’re friendly, they’re very sociable and people love them” said Connelly. The goats, robots and everyone else went home at 5PM on Sunday when the 3 day show came to an end. Visitors and vendors alike went home with the feeling of Spring, even if it doesn’t last.