Okay, are you tired of the cold, the gray, and the rain…are you ready for SPRING yet?
I am, so I’m off to see the flowers, gardens and “stuff” at our spectacular Northwest Flower & Garden Show !
The show is this week, February 20th to the 24th at the Washington State Convention Center in Downtown Seattle, and I am planning on going Friday evening. I think this will be the 14th time I have gone, the first two years I went was as an apartment renter to see garden ideas and learn about gardening in the Pacific NW (I’m from Southern California). I wanted to know as much as possible so that when I was able to buy my Seattle home, I would already have ideas to work with when I was looking at homes with my realtor. Having a yard with garden potential was one of my criteria for finding a home. Seattle has so many homes with beautiful gardens, and I wanted one of my own!
There are ideas for patios and outdoor rooms as well as planter ideas for condo dwellers who yearn for some living green plants to soothe the urban soul. Last year one of my favorite displays was actually a bathroom as a tropical spa retreat.
At the show there are the display gardens, which are my favorite, lectures on various topics on gardening, an orchid show, more events, and my second favorite the Vendor booths with all sorts of wonderful things (STUFF!) for the garden.
If you are tired of winter, longing for the promise of Spring, enjoy gardening or think you might, then the Northwest Flower & Garden Show is the place to revive, recharge and refocus on that other part of your home…the OUTSIDE!
* Note, photos to be added when I figure out how…. 🙂
I am really looking forward to going this year as well. For the first time I am going to be looking at the green technologies that can be retrofitted to my existing home. I have never considered putting up solar panels or other energy saving/producing devices but I can see where this is going to add value to my home.
The Northwest MLS now has a feature checkmark in their listing forms for green homes and I personally think that the buying public will be willing to pay more for a home with green features in the coming years.
By the way, I am by no means a tree hugger. Actually I am quite the opposite feeling that much of current environmental regulation and rhetoric is based on black science and political ambition. I am however pragmatic. If I can find technologies with a reasonable payback and increase the value of my home in the process then the investment makes sense. Helping the environment is a pleasant byproduct. There may even be a hybrid car in my future as well.
Deborah,
If you are getting “dreaded red x’s” on those photos, you need to scale them down. If you forward them to me, I’ll scale them to size and send them back to you. Whatever the problem you are having uploading the photos, give me a call.
Hi ARDELL,
Thanks! I just sent you an email…..
Hi Ken,
The show you are thinking of is the Seattle Home Show ( http://www.seattlehomeshow.com ) which is also this week, but at the Qwest Event Field Center (Feb 16th to 24th). There is a “Built Green” section of the show, which is probably what you are thinking of.
If I have time this week I was thinking of going to see that show as well, although I have been overscheduled the past few weeks, so it might be a challenge. I will post about it if I do, and I hope you will come back to let us know what you found interesting about green improvements!
Deborah,
I uploaded them for you centered one under the next. You can now add copy or move them around as you choose. Two were monstrous file sizes. The other three were fine. I had no error reports when uploading them.
Give me a holler if you need any help with repositioning.
Thanks ARDELL!
I will have to have you show me how you did that next time I’m in the office and the timing is good.
The two monstrous files were probably the two that were directly from my computer files, and the last three I copied from a post I did last year on my ActiveRain post about my 2007 visit to the Nothwest Flower & Garden Show.
BTW everyone, the photo with the orange walls was the bathroom as a tropical spa. You can see the mirror and sink on the orange wall and in the foreground where you see the banana tree, there is a shower head off the baslt rock and a pool at the base as the shower!
Hi,
My name is Eunice, I would like to book for home and garden show 2009. I sell stone sculptures. I live in BC, Canada.
Thanks,
Eunice,