Put a little spring by your steps

By Nora Firestone Correspondent

Pat Simpson believes that home should be "where you get the most comfort from life " - where "you feel safe, content and loved."

"Content" may be the word of the year as more homeowners embrace - rather than flee - the quirks of their current quarters and opt to renovate while the housing market hashes out its own quandary.

Simpson, host of numerous home-improvement shows since his 1988 television debut, "The Weekend Gardener," will other home and garden experts to impart tips, advice and proven wisdom to an expected 25,000 attendees of next week's Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show, Feb. 5 to 7 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

Presented by the Tidewater Builders Association and The Virginia Horticultural Foundation, the show is part of The National Home and Garden Show Series with PremierHomeShows.com, sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Simpson insists that he's "not really an actor. I just do what I do" on shows like "Room to Improve" and "Before & After," he said. "I have a passion for building and remodeling. I grew up in it."

Laughing, Simpson recalled his teenage years, when his father, a builder, would call him back from the beach to the site of a job left sub-standard.

"I'd tried to do the jobs as quickly as I could so I could water ski," he mused. "But then I'd always have to come back.

" 'Do it right the first time,' Dad would say. 'It may take longer, but it's worth it in the long run.' "

His father's words still guide the sage. It's that work ethic, combined with skill, vision and a sense of fun, that keeps his viewers tuned in, Simpson believes.

At the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show Simpson will share his enthusiasm for life and do-it-yourself make-overs and his list of top 10 home-improvement tips.

Catch "Little Projects...Big Impacts! Easy and Inexpensive Projects" at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 6 and noon for Feb. 7 practical and inexpensive ways to increase a home's comfort, functionality and value, including at least three DIY projects costing $1,000 or less.

During Simpson's interactive "Name That Tool" presentation - at 2 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Feb. 6 and 7, folks will vie for prizes as they clamor to correctly identify tools and gadgets. A lover of great stories and lessons, Simpson ties this presentation together with true stories, bits of wisdom and tool-use tips.

"People are going to have fun," he said.

The show schedule is packed with ongoing events, including "Landscape Design for Homeowners" and other presentations by Renegade Gardener Don Engebretson, "Dr. Lori" Verderame's antique appraisals (one free per ticket-holder), and hourly educational seminars by expert horticulturists and gardeners, including design demonstrations.

Competitions will include colorful display gardens by 11 local landscape companies; floral design by area garden clubs; a Canstruction project by students from local high schools, who turned 12,000 canned foods from Food Lion into creative structures; and the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' "Tidewater's Top Pet" contest.

Canstruction cans will later be donated to the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia; the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will present adoptable animals and advice from pet experts.

The event will also feature some 400-plus exhibitors of home and garden products and services, including those within "Artist Alley" and "The Green Zone," presented by members of the TBA's Green Building Council.

TBA's Sandra Amidon, staff vice president, said she expects attendees to take away inspiration for their homes as well as green tips for new and existing homeowners, gardening ideas and "items that will make things easier around the home." Gardening societies will have everything from honey and cut flowers to arts and crafts and tips about bonsai and orchids, she added.

The show - one of the largest consumer events in the region - averages about 22,000 to 25,000 attendees annually, TBA said.

"It's a great opportunity for families to get out and see the latest and greatest of what can be done in the home and garden," said Bill Halprin, the organization's president.

Halprin looks forward to meeting Pearl Fryar, famously known as "A Man Named Pearl," the title of a 2005 documentary about the South Carolina man who left his day job at age 40 to pursue an interest in gardening full time.

Fryar recalled the catalyst: an Irish garden club competition for city dwellers. Fryer lived in rural Bishopville but wanted in.

"In order to get them to make an exception, I had to come up with something unique," he said.

Fryar visited a local nursery, spied "a plant that was cut into two balls, like pom-poms," he said, but was told, " 'because you know nothing about gardening, I don't want to sell it to you' " by an attendant.

Apparently, people had been returning the topiaries, unwilling to maintain them.

" 'But I'll show you how to do it,' the man said. "And I took that three-minute lesson he gave me and turned it into what you see today," Fryar, 70, proclaimed.

He won the garden club's award that year, but more importantly, Fryar's garden has grown to national acclaim, to inspire others and to fund scholarships for "average" students who want to pursue their given talents, because "education is about developing what you have," he said.

Fryar will speak about his "living art" topiaries, pruning, finding your own gardening style and more during several presentations at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. Friday, 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Feb. 6 and 1 p.m. Feb. 7.

"I'm going to talk about things that you'll never see in a book," he said, "because I break all the rules."

Nora Firestone, nfirestone@verizon.net