This past weekend the Ottawa Home and Garden show brought crowds to the EY Centre looking for inspiration to dig homes out from winter’s embrace. Local businesses showed off the latest in home improvement goods but highlighting the weekend was an overwhelming influence from the landscape and garden community.
Landscape Ontario wowed show attendees with a fantastical garden display that made me want to thoughtfully walk each path and smell every bloom! In fact, the scent from the spring blooms permeated the show making it a fun and inspiring place to be Easter weekend.
An entire section of the show floor was dedicated to the Ottawa Living Landscapes feature with 30,000 square feet of space designed to help budding landscape professionals understand the complexities of choosing a career in landscape.
Gardens included five-foot artistic tulips and a life size sculpture of Vincent Van Gogh within the Canadian Tulip Festival inspired garden, signifying the arrival of spring. Themes of playfulness, serenity and, of course, nature’s influence flooded the area and paid tribute to the talents of local landscape professionals including a playful garden creation from Algonquin college’s Horticultural Industries class of 2015.
HGTV star and landscape expert Carson Arthur took the stage to discuss the importance of creating a well designed exterior touting the significance of your homes outdoor impression and return on investment. Read more about Carson as we Step Inside with him in our spring issue, coming April 21st.
Mary Taggart
