Plant some ideas at annual Home and Garden fair

If you’re a homeowner, or even just a lawn mower, you’re well aware that spring has sprung. How did these blades and bushes already grow so tall and out of control?

Maybe keeping nature down is landscaping enough for you. But maybe you’d like to turn over a whole new leaf — lots and lots of beautiful, well-planned leaves — this year.

If so, start at the 25th annual Clark Public Utilities Home & Garden Idea Fair. It’s a little like passing GO and collecting $200 worth of great inspiration for your perfect yard-to-be.

And not just inspiration. You’ll be able to buy plants and supplies of all sorts: Trees, shrubs, vegetable starts, flowers, native plants and hanging baskets are all for sale via more than 50 vendor members of the Specialty Nursery Association of Clark County. That’s a lot of human expertise alongside a lot of alive-and-growing wares.

But maybe your American dream is less about exterior greenery and more about the joys and comforts of your castle itself. Clark Public Utilities has you covered there, too. The Home & Garden Idea Fair is a clearinghouse of expertise and products from more than 200 local home-building and home-improvement businesses that can help you with your duelling lists: the to-do and the to-dream. From flooring to roofing, from heat pumps to air conditioning, from windows to siding, you’ll find it all here.

Plus, there will be free 90-minute presentations on many hot topics, both indoor and outdoor. Take in tips for hiring the right home remodeler and avoiding scams, unearth the secrets of the great tomato growers, review the risks and rewards of keeping chickens or bees, size up eye-catching design touches that don’t break the bank.

This is the 25th annual home and garden event hosted by Clark Public Utilities, and spokeswoman Erica Erland said the agency has been gratified to watch it grow from “a couple of tables promoting energy efficiency and lower energy bills” to a popular yearly gathering of the home-improvement tribe.

Energy efficiency and lower bills remain the basic mission, Erland said. Now add personal safety and other useful information — for example, you can learn about putting the right project or planting the right tree in the right place to avoid power lines, sidewalks, sewers and other potentially expensive and even dangerous problems.

In fact, Erland noted, there’s a new public awareness campaign called “Think!” This partnership between Clark County and the Building Industry Association aims to promote knowledge of the hows and whys behind construction permitting and hiring, green building programs and techniques, and fighting fraud in the industry. All of which aims to get you better quality and peace of mind for your dollar, she said.

Clark Public Utilities is a customer-owned nonprofit agency, Erland pointed out, and the Home & Garden Idea Fair “is a great way to give back. The community loves it and our staff loves it too. There’s no better way to get face to face with tens of thousands of our customers and to talk about the programs and services we provide.”

Other local nonprofits with an environmental mission will be on hand too, she added — from the Audubon Society to the Water Resources Center. There will be activities for kids and local farmers’ market produce for sale.

Innovative everything

If you’re interested in a thorough education in what’s new, efficient and simply smart in homebuilding these days, tour the Innovation Home, created by New Traditions Homes with materials and appliances by other local businesses. The Innovation Home includes LED lighting, a tankless water-heating system, smart low-voltage electrical panel, high-efficiency furnace and Energy Star appliances. Or, if you’re interested in downsizing in style, check out the 250-square-foot “tiny house” by Wolf Industries.

KXL-FM radio and Internet personalities Mike Darcy of “In the Garden” and Handyman Bob Strong of “Around the House” will both appear in person to broadcast their shows. Darcy’s “In the Garden” will be live from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday; Handyman Bob’s “Around the House” follows immediately, from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

And the Washington Association of Landscape Professionals will unveil a half-dozen landscape scenes meant to fire up your imagination (and maybe your willingness to hire a contractor). Themes like pollinating gardens, peaceful empty nests, water features and classy wrought iron should keep you inspired.

If you do buy plants or make other purchases, you’ll be able to park them in the plant-holding area near the “plant building” or in the package-holding area near the Exhibition Hall. CPU also advises you to bring a backpack, stroller or wagon if you plan to take away lots of stuff — and consider whether it’ll be most practical to wait until late in your visit to start laying down money and loading up. (There will be rentable wagons and boxes, a loading zone and an on-site cash machine too.)

Pigtail recycling

You’ve probably started replacing old incandescent light bulbs with those newfangled Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs — the ones that curl like pig tails. But guess what? Newfangled CFLs are so old-school. The state of the art is now Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), Erland said.

So, this is the last time the fair will sponsor free CFL exchanges, Erland said. Bring as many as six burned-out CFLs to the fair for free recycling and replacement by Clark Public Utilities; plus, you’ll get a free bonus LED.

“It’s the last hurrah for CFLs,” Erland said. “Everything keeps changing.”