• What: Clark Public Utilities Home & Garden Idea Fair, home and garden show with energy-saving ideas, more than 50 plant vendors, a farmers market, presentations and children’s activities.
• When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 24-25; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 26.
• Where: Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds, 17402 N.E. Delfel Road, Ridgefield.
• Cost: Free with suggested donation of canned goods for local food banks or cash donations to Operation Warm Heart. Parking is $6. Free Park & Ride shuttles available from the 99th Street or Fisher’s Landing transit centers.
• Information: www.clarkpublicutilities.com or 360-992-3000.
Gardeners and home owners have an unusual chance to get an early start on improvement projects this year, thanks to our early and unseasonably warm spring.
Plant starts from 70 vendors at the 24th annual Clark Public Utilities Home & Garden Idea Fair are in some of the best shape that organizer Heather Allmain has ever seen, she said.
• What: Clark Public Utilities Home & Garden Idea Fair, home and garden show with energy-saving ideas, more than 50 plant vendors, a farmers market, presentations and children's activities.
• When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 24-25; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 26.
• Where: Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds, 17402 N.E. Delfel Road, Ridgefield.
• Cost: Free with suggested donation of canned goods for local food banks or cash donations to Operation Warm Heart. Parking is $6. Free Park & Ride shuttles available from the 99th Street or Fisher's Landing transit centers.
• Information: <a href="http://www.clarkpublicutilities.com">www.clarkpublicutilities.com</a> or 360-992-3000.
“With the early spring, the plants are blooming and really ready to go,” Allmain said. “And there’s a huge variety of flowers, vegetable starts and landscaping foliage to choose from.”
Each year, the popular home improvement fair and plant sale draws about 20,000 people over its three-day run.
The gathering, at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds, has indoor and outdoor exhibits, food, guest talks, home improvement vendors and a host of kids activities.
“This year, we are also really focusing heavily on the utility angle of safety and storm preparation,” said Erica Erland, a spokeswoman for Clark Public Utilities who also helps organize the event. “We have a 30-foot power pole set up so we can show kids how the power system works and learn more about us.”
The publicly-owned utility launched the fair in 1991 as a way to share energy-saving tips and provide details about rebates with its customers.
The garden and decorative yard-plant sale seemed like a natural fit with the focus on home improvement and efficiency, so the Specialty Nursery Association of Clark County joined with the utility and has been part of the show since the beginning, said Allmain, who’s been organizing the event for the past 18 years.
The Washington Association of Landscape Professionals also joined about a dozen years ago. That group builds elaborate displays inside buildings at the event center to give homeowners some ideas of what they can do with their lawns, gardens and homes.
“We have full-scale landscape displays indoors, and an energy smart home, which New Tradition Homes built for us,” Erland said. “The house shows what people can do with solar energy, home automation and energy efficiency.”
Over the years, the show has continued to grow, expanding to hundreds of vendors from commercial and community groups. Seminars on a variety of topics have also become a big draw.
One of the newer, more popular events is the “Chicken Keeping 101” seminar at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Erland said.
“The chickens are back, which was a huge hit for us last year,” Erland said. “Tonya Meyer and Chris Vincent from the Urban Farm Store bring chickens and teach people how to raise and care for them.”
Besides the popular power-pole exhibit, where kids get to wear hard hats and learn about energy, the PowerZone area has flower planting, pine cone bird feeder crafting and button making for younger visitors.
“We’ll also have someone from the Red Cross to teach them about electrical safety,” Erland said.
An outdoor farmers market run by Clark County Farmers Markets will also run through the event for people who want to pick up some vegetables after they join in some of the other activities.
And for people looking to fund their spring or summer projects, the event will also have a booth with financial advisors from Columbia Credit Union.
It’s free to check out the fair, but organizers suggest visitors bring donations for Operation Warm Heart, which provides food and other help to underprivileged local families.
“We’ve got a lot of great things going on this year,” Allmain said. “And next year, we’re going to have our 25th anniversary, which will be even bigger.”
