Change is in the air at this year’s Home & Garden Idea Fair

If you want inspiration for your home or garden – you won’t want to miss the Clark Public Utilities Home and Garden Idea Fair.

The three-day event will be held April 24-26 at the Clark County Event Center at the fairgrounds. The show offers an abundance of commercial exhibits and activities for the whole family. It’s fun, free, educational, and a great way to welcome spring.

“Each year we produce the Home & Garden Idea Fair to provide our customer-owners with a fun event that showcases ways to save energy and protect the environment, too,” said Heather Allmain, a utility employee who coordinates the show. “This is our largest community outreach event of the year.”

The show features one of the largest plant sales in the region, coordinated by the Specialty Nursery Association of Clark County. The plant sale includes more than 60 participating nurseries. Local landscape professionals, through the Washington Association of Landscape Professionals, will exhibit 12 beautiful landscape displays.

These features have been relocated this year, Allmain said. “The landscape displays will be located in the Exhibition Hall, while the plant sale will move to fair buildings across from the Exhibition Hall”

Hundreds of commercial exhibitors will display indoor and outdoor home improvement and yard and garden products and services.

The show is also a place to ask the experts for advice. If you need some energy conservation tips for your home you can visit with a Clark Public Utilities energy counselor at the Energy Smart Home. Or try out a free online energy audit.

The Energy Smart Home, built for the show by New Traditions Homes, incorporates features found in a Northwest Energy Star® qualified home, as well as some features in an Earth Advantage qualified home.

If you have old compact fluorescent light bulbs, bring them to the show for recycling and you’ll receive a replacement bulb from Clark Public Utilities (limit six replacement bulbs). Recycling will be provided by PSC Environmental Services.

Presentations will be offered each day on a variety of home and garden topics, including designing your own landscaping and tips for energy efficiency. Among the presenters will be Shannon Quimby, an innovative Portland designer and writer who has appeared on the HGTV series “My First House.” She also is a contributor to The Oregonian’s Homes & Gardens of the Northwest, and has written articles for dozens of magazines. Her presentation, Don’t Dump the Junk, will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, April 25.

“Environmental education has always been an important goal of the show and this year we’ll have a variety of exhibits and activities designed to emphasize the importance of protecting the environment,” Allmain said. “We’ll also have a number of hands-on activities for kids of all ages.

“We hope everyone will join us at the Home & Garden Idea Fair,” Allmain said. “This is a true community event with activities and attractions for the whole family.”

The 2009 fair is sponsored and organized by Clark Public Utilities for the 18th year, with support from The Columbian, and KINK.fm.

While admission to the fair is free, the utility encourages fairgoers to bring canned food to donate to local food banks, or to make a donation to Operation Warm Heart, a local program that helps limited-income Clark County residents pay their electricity bills. The fairgrounds charges $5 per car to park.