Green Thumbs Up: Better Gnomes & Gardens in BC & Calgary

Give a gnome a home!

Winning you points with both Mother Nature and your home base, the Better Gnomes & Gardens feature at the upcoming BC and Calgary Home + Garden shows is as good for your community as it is for your garden’s style-cred.

In an artistic venture that would get even Picasso’s palms sweating, Vancouver and Calgary’s top movers and shakers will put their artistic license to the test as they transform plain garden gnomes into whimsical, colorful treasures. Check out the final products on display at the BC Home + Garden Show and Calgary Home + Garden Show, then bid on your favourite to benefit local organizations dedicated to supporting urban-farmed food production in each host city. Give a gnome a home!

BC Home + Garden Show

All proceeds will directly benefit Sole Food Street Farms, a non-profit, urban agricultural community dedicated to transforming empty lots into fruitful farming plots while empowering and employing the underprivileged along the way.

Participating gnome designers include:

·       Andrea Bellamy, HeavyPetal.ca

·       Barbara Matson, Hodge:Podge by Markova Design

·       Christine Friend, Friendly Decorator

·       Coleen Christie, CTV Vancouver

·       Cory Ashworth, 102.7 The Peak

·       Dawn Chubai, Citytv Vancouver

·       Jody Vance, Citytv Vancouver

·       Johanna Ward, SHAW TV

·       Kaitlyn Herbst, Global BC

·       Laurie Logan, local radio personality with Jude Kusnierz of The Beaumont Studios 

·       Mallory Bromley, 4Cats Edgemont Village

·       Mary Zilba, entrepreneur & TV personality

·       Monika Hibbs, The Doctor’s Closet

·       Stephanie Rose, GardenTherapy.ca

·       Steve Darling, Global BC

·       Todd Talbot, Love It or List It Vancouver

Gnome bidding at the BC Home + Garden Show will be open from Wednesday, February 19 at 4PM until Sunday, February 23 at 5PM, on the concourse level of BC Place Stadium. Stop by and sign your name away for a great cause!

Calgary Home + Garden Show

All monies raised will enable access to fresh, local food for all Calgarians, by way of GrowCalgary, which cultivates fresh produce for the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank on Canada’s largest urban agricultural farm.

Participating gnome designers include:

·       Alykhan Velji, AlyVelji Designs

·       Bryan Bauemler, HGTV’s Leave it To Bryan

·       Carlos Cuevas, KooL 101.5

·       Cynthia Roebuck, CTV

·       Erin Strate, Go!Calgary on Shaw TV

·       Jason Gogo, Local Artist

·       Kait Kucy, Yuppie Love

·       Kim Flanagan, Fashion Stylist (www.kimflanagan.com)

·       Ryan Massel, I’m Mr. Fabulous

·       Ricky Zayshley, Avenue Magazine

Gnome bidding at the Calgary Home + Garden Show will be open from Wednesday, February 26 at 4PM until Sunday, March 2 at 5PM, in Hall D&E of the BMO Centre. Come down and get your bid on to show your support!

  

Stop by the upcoming BC and Calgary Home + Garden shows to show your support for two admirable, agricultural initiatives that are as empowering to the individuals they employ as they are to the communities in which they were created.