Greenwich, Connecticut - June 12, 2002 -- Patricia Blake McNamee, of PATRICIA BLAKE CATERING, rose to the challenge of creating an exhibit that would tie together her business of gourmet catering and the wonderful world of gardening for this year's "Festive Beds" display at the Garden Education Center of Greenwich on June 9-11, 2002. Keeping with the "bed" theme of the event, Blake decided on a "Bed Bugs" story for her space and hired event decorator Kari Campano of Grand Events East in Old Greenwich to assist her in bringing the idea to life.

The adorable and impressive display, titled "Bed Bugs in the Garden", was completed on a stylish antique bed frame and featured actual food as items in the garden. Colorful peppers, radishes, onions, tomatoes, and even salami created flowers, leeks created trees, artichokes and broccoli created bushes and shrubs, radishes created mushrooms, and potatoes created a rock wall. The creatures inhabiting this garden included a cantaloupe duck, a honeydew melon turtle, cucumber frogs, an orange butterfly, a kiwi bird, a red pepper hummingbird, radish mice, and tomato ladybugs. The stars of the show, the bugs themselves, crawled along a path of beans and were made of dried peppers, fresh peppers, grapes, and tomatoes.

"You can't take your eyes off of it," raved Ann Callahan long-time Garden Education Center member and Festive Beds attendee who saw the display on Tuesday. "Everywhere you look there's a bug. I haven't seen anything like this before and the imagination applied is unreal." Designer Campano was proud to hear such compliments and said, "The display was so exciting to make but challenging because it had to be as impressive as Patty's food and service. She's incredibly reputable in our community and I was determined to reinforce her standards. I'm pleased to say that I think we achieved that goal."

Twenty participants exhibited at the popular Garden Education Center event, co-chaired by in-coming president Diane Jennings (Beds) and current president Christine Young (Tour), which also featured the fabulous annual garden tour of six homes, a silent auction, an open house of the Center and more. All of the unique exhibits were visual treats for the Festive Beds attendees and volunteers.

Patricia Blake, who also catered the Festive Beds event and satellite events, is a native and resident of Greenwich. Blake started her company in 1990 and was based in Cos Cob until last year when she outgrew her space. Unable to find an available kitchen in Greenwich, she relocated her operation to Darien where she keeps up with the demand for her service and expands her market. Helping to make party planning an enjoyable experience is an important part of what has made Patricia Blake Catering successful. Blake takes great pride in working with her corporate and private clients and offers business luncheons, cocktail receptions, large banquets, intimate dinners, and more. She is also introducing a "dessert-ery" at her new location. Patricia Blake Catering is located at 7 Tokeneke Road in Darien, Connecticut. For more information or photos contact (203) 655-1221.