The Home and Garden Show emphasizes eco-friendly

By Matt Weafer
For the Messenger-Inquirer Home and Garden Show catalogue

While the venue may be smaller than last year, the Home and Garden Show will not lack in quality.

This year the Home Builders Association of Owensboro’s annual Home and Garden Show will start at 5 p.m. March 6 at Mid-America Jet at the end of Tamarack Rd. in the Mid-America AirPark.

“This is our first time in the venue,” Associates Council President John Sublett said. “We feel really good about the show. We did have to downsize a little bit but we feel like the quality of our vendors has increased as our actual size decreased.”

Expecting at least 69 vendors so far, the show will feature the newest trends and techniques and services available from local businesses in the home and garden industry.

“I think the Home and Garden Show is a great avenue for consumers to go out and look at the products available in Owensboro,” Mark Schmidt of Mark Schmidt Remodeling said. “(People) see products on HGTV and want those for a project, but in reality it takes longer for products to be ordered and received than it does to do the job.”

The Home and Garden Show is an opportunity for vendors to advertise their new products and services, and for consumers to research the market before they build their new privacy fence, in-ground pool or dream house.

“A lot of these products (on HGTV) are pricy, too,” Schmidt said. “Make sure you’re looking at products that are easily accessible to the community. And that’s what’s good about the Home and Garden show.”

For this year, Sublett said vendors are focusing heavily on environmentally friendly services and supplies.

“I think we’re going to see an emphasis on the green building and green cleaning (industry),” he said. “We’re seeing an increase in availability of environmentally friendly products and services here in the Owensboro area for our community.”

Sublett said the influx of environmentally friendly options at the Home and Garden Show is due to a combination of local interest and the national trend of eco-friendly living.

“That was unplanned,” he said. “As we were looking at some of our vendors, that’s what we were noticing. Our vendors are reflective of a national trend of environmentally friendly building and products.”

The environmental options available at the show range from recycled materials for home building and décor, Energy Star appliances, and other energy-saving and eco-conscious items.

“Specifically,” he said, “we have a new vendor bringing in new solar technology that hasn’t been readily available in the area.”

That vendor is World Class Renewable Energy, and will be located at booth 127.
Carpets Unlimited will also display recycled carpeting.

There will also be several new vendors this year.

“Especially with the economic downtown, we’re seeing a lot of newer vendors who are coming into our show who are vary eager to show off what they do for the folks in Owensboro,” Sublett said.

And many of the new vendors are from outside of Owensboro but offer services in the city and the area.

“We’re attracting these visitors outside of Owensboro because we put on a good show,” Sublett said. “They wouldn’t be coming back if they weren’t generating business from people.”

Sublett said the show also attracts residents from other counties as well.

“I think we always do a quality show,” he said. “Per size, we have probably the best show in the state.”

The Home and Garden Show is open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, March 6; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 7; and noon to 4 p.m. on March 8.

Tickets are available at the door, $3 for adults; children 12 and under enter free.

Reprinted with permission from the Messenger-Inquirer