Northern New England Home, Garden, Flower Show

May 16th, 17th, & 18th • Fryeburg Fairgrounds, Fryeburg, Maine

Published Spring 2014

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FRYEBURG — SPRING HAS ARRIVED! Whatever your spring resolutions, the place to start is the Northern New England Home, Garden, Flower Show, taking place May 16-18 at the Fryeburg Fairgrounds.

If you’re ready to start

that remodeling project, new kitchen, bathroom, or make your home more energy-efficient, you’re in the right place.

Garden centers, garden artisans, beautiful land-scape displays, seminars and demonstrations, good friends and delicious food

makes this 3 day event a great way to kick off sum-mer in New England!

This is the 13th year of the home show, which has twice been chosen by Yan-kee Magazine as a top-20 event in Maine. Last year more than 11,000 people attended the three-day

event.Some 8,200 square feet

of exhibit space has been added this year. The show will encompass a total of seven buildings at the fairgrounds, and over five acres of outdoor displays.

Exhibitors include ex-perts in all aspects gar-dening, landscaping and home improvements. The show is an opportunity to shop for ideas, and for the materials you need to bring those ideas to frui-tion.

There is a food com-ponent to the show as well. The popular Meet the Chefs Cooking Series, pre-sented by Bridgton Hos-pital, returns to Expo 1, with award-winning chefs from the region sharing healthy and delicious reci-pes for the entire family.

Crafters and artisans round out the show, cre-ating unique accessories for your home and gar-den, craft baskets, hand-made jewelry, dried floral wreaths and more.

“We have assembled a unique mix of quality ex-hibitors, speakers, artists, crafters and breathtaking landscape displays,” says Karla Ficker, producer of Northern New England Home, Garden, Flower

Show. “Our exhibitors are here to help enlighten attendees to the newest energy-saving products on the market, others to showcase their amazing talent in landscape and garden expertise. If it is information you are seek-ing, plants or veggie seed-lings to purchase, great garden crafts, or you just want a fun way to spend a spring weekend, this event should be high on your weekend schedule.”

Activities for the kids will be taking place Satur-day and Sunday. Young-sters can learn how to plant their first garden, starting with preparing the soil. “By starting small they will develop a deep respect for the earth,” says Ficker. “It’s a magic time for them.” There will also be an opportunity to meet Author John Shel-ley who will be doing a book reading from The Adventures of Snitch The Fracoon. Children will enjoy meeting Snitch the Fracoon and have their picture taken too!

The show’s “All Things Growing” series, present-ed by the Maine Land-scape and Nurseryman’s Association, offers semi-

Time To CelebraTe Spring!Northern NE Home, Garden & Flower Show

Returns To Fryeburg Fairgrounds May 16th - 18th

See SHOW on 3

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nars and demonstrations throughout the weekend. Paul Parent, host of the popular Paul Parent Gar-dening Club talk radio show, will be on hand, and he will host his show live from the fairgrounds on Sunday, May 18, from 6 to 10 a.m.

Show hours are Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.;

Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admis-sion is $9 for adults, $4 for ages 6-16 and free for children under 6.

More information is available on the website, www.homegardenflow-ershow.com, or on Face-book. Or call (800) 359-2033

SHOW from 2


“The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.” – Gertrude Jekyll

One of my favorite things about gardening is choos-ing what to plant each year!

Before you order or pur-chase your seeds, it’s al-ways a good idea to plan out what you’re going to plant and think about where it will go in the gar-den. Keep in mind that the sun will shine in different parts of your garden at dif-ferent times of the year, so you’ll want to make sure you choose seeds that will grow into seedlings adapt-able for your conditions. (Tip, do your garden layout on a piece of paper and then file your layout away for reference for next year’s garden).

There is a special magic when you start growing plants from seeds, and ex-perience watching a small seed grow into a beautiful living plant. There are also

or recycled nursery cell packs. It is a good idea to label the containers, as many seedlings look similar. Clay is not a good choice for starting seeds as plastic pots will retain more moisture needed for germi-nation. Be sure to sanitize the containers by soak-ing them for 20 minutes or more in a 10% bleach solution. Next, air-dry the containers and then poke holes for drainage in the bottoms. Or, you can purchase jiffy pots at any gardening store. They are handy and will the do the job just fine.

Fill the containers with a good seed starting mix, which can be purchased at a local gardening store. Lay the seeds on the sur-face, then spread more seed starting mix on top to cover the seeds thoroughly. Press the seeds down into the seed starting mix, you can use the bottom of a glass to do this. Gently spray the surface with wa-ter until moist. Cover the containers with plastic wrap to keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate.

Be sure to keep the seeds warm by putting them in a warm location or on a seed heating pad. Ideal tem-peratures for germinating seeds are 65-75 degrees. Check the seeds daily, and once they germinate, re-move the plastic wrap to provide fresh air. Be sure not to overwater the seed-lings. Rotate the seedlings on a daily basis to keep the stems strong and growing straight. After the seed-ling develops leaves, you can start to feed them on a weekly basis with a ½ strength liquid fertilizer. Once the seedlings are hardy and strong enough, they will be ready to trans-plant in your garden!

Compliments of Northern NE Home Garden Flower Show, May 16, 17 & 18th at Fryeburg Fairgrounds. For more information on the show visit www.ho-megardenflowershow.com or www.facebook.com/fryeburgshow.

ChooSing and STarTing Your SeedS

by Karla FickerContributing Writer

practical benefits such as choosing varieties beyond local availability, saving money and getting a head start on the growing sea-son. And it’s a great way to involve the kids!

It is important to know how early to start seeds in-doors. You’ll have to figure out when the last frost usu-ally occurs where you live. Then, count backwards from the average frost date the number of weeks it will take for the seeds to turn into seedlings. The major-ity of seeds should be start-ed six to eight weeks before the last frost date, however it can vary. Check the seed package to determine the number of weeks.

When choosing your seeds, check to make sure the seeds were packaged for the current growing season. Then you’ll need to gather your supplies for planting the seeds. You can use wide flat contain-ers such as margarine tubs


Ask The BuilderHow To Install A Deck Post

by Tim CarterSyndicated Columnist

This short deck post is installed just like a taller deck post should be. Note the approved metal connectors at both ends of the post.

DEAR TIM: This is the year of the deck at my home. I’ve scheduled the time off and I’m ready to build. However, I need your help on several things. How do I connect the deck posts to the deck? How do the posts connect to the concrete pier, or do they just rest on the concrete? Should the posts be buried in the soil? How do you cal-culate where to place the concrete piers so the posts are centered on them? Can you just come over and help me do all this? --Cath-erine R., Uncasville, Conn.

DEAR CATHERINE: I’d love to help you, but you know what happens next, right? “Tim, you helped Catherine with her deck, so surely you can help me install my water heater.” I’m going to do my best to answer your questions and I urge you to visit my AsktheBuilder.com web-site where I have an entire category titled Deck Con-struction.

I’m hoping your deck is a small one and not too high off the ground. That’s a good beginner’s project, especially if the deck is just one level and a rectangle or a square. As decks become more complex, you need quite a bit of carpentry experience to ensure ev-erything comes out as it should.

When I first got into the building business, decks were just starting to explode in popularity. It makes sense, as people love to be outdoors and a deck can be an excellent outdoor room if designed properly and outfitted with shade structures or even screening. One of the cool-est decks I ever built was

the platform for a gorgeous screened porch for an older woman. The vaulted ceiling and the wood floor made for an ideal spot to spend all day and night.

As the deck industry ex-ploded, one or two manu-facturers responded by developing engineered metal connectors that al-lowed carpenters and ho-meowners to safely and securely connect the parts of decks so they don’t fall down. Deck collapses are a real concern, they happen annually, and people get killed or severely injured when decks suddenly fall to the ground.

You’re going to use ap-proved galvanized metal connectors sized to your deck lumber to connect the vertical posts to the outer beam that supports your deck joists. The most common connector is a

plate that has two tabs of metal that point up and two that point down, cre-ating shapes of the letter U. Special corrosion-proof fasteners are used to con-nect this metal bracket to the post and beam. These brackets come in various sizes for the different sized posts and beams. You’ll find them online, at home

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centers and at lumber-yards that sell lumber for deck construction.

As for joining deck posts to the concrete piers, you should use similar metal connectors. There are sev-eral types of metal post bases, but they all connect to the concrete pier and to

BUILDER from 5 insect infestation. Keeping the treated lumber above grade allows it to dry rap-idly, thus extending its useful lifespan.

The placement of the concrete piers that sup-port your deck posts is very critical. I learned long ago from a fellow carpenter a fairly easy way to place them perfect each time. Once again, if your deck is low to the ground, this will be very easy to do.

I’ve found it best to cre-ate the actual outline of the deck using the deck lumber. This means you’ll connect the ledger board to your home using all the approved flashings and internal metal connectors ensuring this board will not pull away from your home.

You then attach the two end joists that extend out from the house and cap those with the band board joist that runs parallel with the ledger board along the house. You now have a square or rectangular box.

Suspend this box in the air with temporary posts made from 2-by-4s or 2-by-6s. Make sure the box is level and square.

To square this box, lay flat 2-by-4s on the top of the box that extend from the center of the end joists to the ledger board and to the outer band board. These should be oriented roughly at a 45-degree angle across the top box. When the di-agonal measurements from one corner to the opposite corner across the box are equal, the box is square. Making sure the measure-ments are the same, put two nails at each end of the flat 2-by-4s.

You can now suspend an old-fashioned and reli-able plumb bob from each corner of the box to the ground. These two points on the ground can be used to help you calculate the exact position of your con-crete piers based on the deck plan you’re using. Let me know how it works out!

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the wood post. Once again, you’ll size the metal post base to the wood post that you’re using.

You don’t want the deck posts to just rest on the concrete pier. Wind uplift, shifting soil, garden tractor accidents, etc. could cause the post to shift off the pier, which could contrib-

ute to the deck collapsing. Connecting the post to the concrete pier anchors the deck to the earth.

In my opinion, it’s not a great idea to bury the deck posts in the soil, even if they’re resting on concrete piers. I’ve seen lumber that’s treated for ground contact succumb to rot and

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Documents

Northern New England Home, Garden, Flower Show