The Cincinnati Home and Garden show is back, but with the overload of featured displays, guest speakers, and other exhibitions, fitting all the most interesting and worth-it visits into your schedule could be a challenge. Hey, where else would you get your home inspiration?

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So, if you want to maximize fun and efficiency, here are a few tips and highlights that will make planning your Cincinnati Home and Garden Show experience as easy as possible.

The Basics

This year’s Cincinnati Home and Garden Show span from February 24-25 to March 1-4 in the Duke Energy Convention Center. But be careful! Each day has different show hours. Here are the dates and hours in a convenient list, so you don’t forget:

• Saturday, February 24 - 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM
• Sunday, February 25 - 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
• Thursday, March 1 - 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM
• Friday, March 2 - 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM
• Saturday, March 3 - 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM
• Sunday, March 4 - 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

With these hours in mind, you can plan your visit to the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show around your work schedule and weekend family-friend time.

Also, you should also consider ordering your tickets ahead of time--the online price is $2 cheaper! The average adult price is $13, but $11 online. If you happen to have a Kroger nearby, tickets are even cheaper at $10 a piece for pick-up. Children 12-years-old or younger can experience the showcase for free.

Now, about the actual time within the showcase…

This Year Features...

Every year, local landscapers create featured gardens for public viewing. Oberfields even presents an outdoor wine lounge in the featured gardens! Returning features include Habitat for Humanity’s UpCycle Challenge and Warrior Homestead’s Operation Tiny Tribute, but there are also new features like Fiona’s Cove and Madtree Beer Gardens.

Habitat for Humanity’s UpCycle Challenge

This year, Cincinnati’s most popular DJs from WKRQ 101.9 participated in Habitat for Humanity’s UpCycle challenge. The UpCycle Challenge requires its participants to “upcycle” an old piece of furniture. Upcycling is similar to recycling, except the participant actively transforms their materials into something new. All furniture is provided by the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The end creations of the UpCycle Challenge are displayed at Habitat for Humanity’s exhibition booth.

Warrior Homestead’s Operation Tiny Tribute

Tiny Homes are exactly what they sound like, but more. Yes, they’re small homes--typically 750 sq ft or less--but they are also built to be especially efficient. With less space, less maintenance cost, and less environmental impact, Tiny Homes make us consider what we really need to live and be happy. Do we really need an entire two bedroom apartment for one person? Do we really need the commercial items that consumer culture sells us?

At this year’s show, there will be a Tiny Home available for touring. Operation Tiny Tribute will donate a Tiny Home to a veteran in need for every Tiny Home purchased at this year’s show.

Fiona’s Cove

Fiona’s Cove is an outdoor garden water feature inspired by the Cincinnati Zoo’s prized hippo, Fiona. One of the feature’s focal points is a wishing fountain, in which all our wishes will be collected and donated to the Cincinnati Zoo to contribute to Fiona’s care.

Madtree Beer Gardens

Madtree Beer Gardens is meant to be a relaxing garden atmosphere where showgoers could enjoy the trendiest craft beers along with an issue of Cincinnati Magazine. Cincinnati Magazine presents Madtree Beer Gardens with their latest issue and invites readers to read and drink.

Stage Schedule

Many of the show’s celebrities and other speakers will be using the main stage. View the schedule in advance to see if your speakers of interest will be on stage when you’re available. Certain speakers may even be speaking more than once, which will give you more than one opportunity to see them.

Browse the Exhibitors List

There are over 50 exhibitors at this year’s show. Although you may want to visit every one, you should first pick to visit the ones that most interest you and then browse the others later.

For those who are new to the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show or not very familiar with home and gardening, browse the exhibitors by category. If you’re not too familiar with the names of the exhibitors, browsing the list of their unfamiliar names won’t help you much. Browsing by category can help you find organizations and vendors based on your categories of interest.

Those who regularly attend the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show or are more experienced home and garden enthusiasts can also benefit from discovering exhibitors by category, but also have the advantage of knowing the names of their favorite exhibitors. If you have a particular exhibitor you’re curious about, you have the option of searching them by name.

Special Days

Besides the regular schedule of home and garden events, here are some day-long specials that may apply to you.

Hero Day

On March 1, all active and retired members of the military, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, medical professionals, and teachers could come to the showcase for free!   

Family Day

Families are encouraged to bring their children to the show on March 2, when especially family-friendly activities will be taking place. Events include kid-inspired presentations at the main stage and a reading at Fiona’s Cove at 2 PM and 3 PM of the children’s book, “My Best Friend Fiona,” with the author Lucy May and illustrator Kevin Necessary.

With the gist of the Cincinnati’s Home and Garden Show now in mind, we hope this brief guide helps you pick out the highlights and manage your schedule.  Even if you end up having extra time, there’s nothing wrong with some schedule free browsing to liven up your home and garden inspirations even more.