Now that the active gardening season in this area is dying down – well other than all the work we still have to do to put our gardens to bed I mean – I started thinking about all the Home and Garden shows that will occur over the next 6 months.

Do you like going to those kinds of shows? There’s a huge one called Garden Blooms that’s held here in Toronto each March. I love attending that one, even though the cost of getting in is a bit expensive. If you’re really savvy when you go to these shows you can take advantage of some of the cheap promotional advertising that the various booths do to get you to buy more expensive products. You know – buy a plant and get a couple of free seed packages (often carrot seeds for some reason), Buy two plants get a third for free. Yes that kind of thing. I’ve found that if you pick some plants that are a little bit past their prime sometimes they’ll give you an extra one free or give you a little bit of a discount.

The home and Garden shows often have seminars and lectures that you can attend while you are there, free of charge. I’ve seen some of my favorite HGTV gardening personalities at some of these lectures. Next year, depending upon how I’m feeling I might get busy and grow a number of plants in the spring that I can sell to others – perhaps online. I’m hoping that while I’m attending one of these shows or one of the lectures that I might pick up some advertising tips from others that have created small businesses out of their gardening hobby.

If you go to the gardening shows what kinds of things do you buy there? I often get garden ornaments made by metal work artists, pottery figurines, a few plants or bulbs, and often some seed packages. Occasionally I’ve found items that make fun office gifts for my co-workers or friends too. The figurines, table top water falls or soothing music machines work well for those kind of gifts.

I’d love to know if you attend Home and Gardening shows? If you do, do you purchase items there, listen to lectures or just look around and get ideas for your own garden?