Shannon Curley here. I'll be guest blogging today from the Flower Show.  I'm a senior at La Salle University and an intern for the Inquirer's Features Desk this semester. 

Walking around, I was impressed, of course, by so many of the artistic exhibits, but one in particular really stood out. There, sandwiched between exhibits channeling Rome, Venice, and Florence, was a South Philly backyard, right down to the wine bottle and two half-empty glasses sitting on the rustic wooden garden table and the scaled down reproduced Mario Lanza mural.

It wasn't until I maneuvered my way through the sizeable crowd that had gathered around the exhibit enthusiastically that I even realized that this was not an exhibit created by a professional company. Instead, I found two teenage girls handing out packets of seeds and informational fliers about the exhibit they and their high school classmates had created. The girls were from W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences in Roxborough.

They and about 60 of their classmates from three Agricultural classes joined forces to follow in a tradition of W.B. Saul participation in the Flower Show that goes back farther than senior Jane Gagliardi can remember.

"We follow the theme of the show, but we try to be unique," said Gagliardi. "If this is the Philadelphia Flower Show, why not show South Philly...South Philly Italian backyards?"

Each of the three classes was responsible for different aspects of the project. One class handled the landscape design, another the greenhouse management, and the final one took care of the construction.

Trying to stay as true to an authentic South Philly Italian garden as possible, the students incorporated a lot of herbs, like golden lemon and English thyme, rosemary and sage, and vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce, beans) into their garden. Some of the flowers they brought in from nurseries, but all of the vegetables the students grew on their own.

"I think they really did a good job representing a South Philadelphia garden," said Ann Spiegel, a South Philadelphia native who lives at 11th and Washington. "Honestly, this is one of the better exhibits."

Caio!