Experts, ideas abound at Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show

At first glance, the giant arch appears to be made of rock — but looks can be deceiving.

Decide for yourself when you encounter it at the 41st annual Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show, which opens Friday and runs through March 12 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

Blue Fox Surfaces, based in Richland, creates fire pits, tiki head planters, swimming pool fountains, hot tub surrounds — giant arches too – made from a material that imitates rock and stone.

The company will be one of more than 1,500 exhibits covering more than 10 acres inside the Convention Center. The show encompasses a variety of items from swimming pools and appliances to landscaping and even rescue dogs.

“This is a show for the whole family,” said Mark Moore, executive director of the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show. “People come year after year from around the region to see their favorite exhibitors or scope out the newest products. There’s always something new.”

New this year are more children’s activities compared with the past, as well as Golden Oaks Designs, a student business from Keystone Oaks High School that creates, markets and sells handmade products.

There are home interior experts and master gardeners, including Pittsburgh fan favorite Doug Oster and Dr. Lori (Lori Ann Verderame), an appraiser of antiques, collectibles and art who has been featured on various TV programs.

The home show’s farm-to-table area returns with local growers and food samplings. Vendors include Brother Monk Ciderworks, an orchard that grows more than 2,000 cider-specific apple trees. Country Hammer Moonshine produces more than 40 flavors of moonshine plus redneck rum, vodka and bourbon, and Kizzle Foods is known for its ground peppers. Lemmon Brothers’ maple syrup and Uncle Jammy’s sauces and rubs will be available.

The Biergarten will feature the show’s own Roof Top Hops, an IPA brewed with hops grown, appropriately enough, on the roof of the convention center.

John’s River View Café — named in memory of the show’s founder, John DeSantis, who passed away in January 2022 — sells drinks, appetizers and desserts. In the pet aisle will be animals available to adopt, as well as accessories for your furry friends.

It’s the second year for Blue Fox Surfaces.

“Last year, people would walk by and knock on (the display) to see if it was rock,” said Ray Saber of Hampton, owner of Blue Fox Surfaces and a horticulturist with nearly three decades in landscaping experience. “We started to count how many people would do that, but there were so many people that we stopped counting.”

Saber’s business creates projects for both residential and commercial sites. A specialized concrete mix is mostly applied using foam core construction.

Saber collaborates with Eric Richter, a graphic designer from Callery Borough, Butler County.

While he was carving one piece for the home show display last week, he said he studied rocks to learn about their texture so he would be able to create a likeness.

For this show, the exhibit will feature six pieces in a 10-by-20-foot space.

Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review

Eric Richter, a rockscape imagineer with Blue Fox Surfaces in Gibsonia, works on adding texture and shape to a moongate, an ornamental entrance to a rock garden, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. Richter and his fellow designers will be showing the finished display at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show.

Guests can enter through a “moon gate,” a circular opening to a garden or outdoor space, adorned with plants. Inside will be a Beer Meister cooler, a gun safe hidden behind a secret door in what looks like a big rock, and a rock structure that has a crevice that will have an orange glow and smoke-like mist emanating from its core, Saber said.

“We like to have people walk by and then come by again because they are intrigued with what they are seeing,” he said.

Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review

Robby Dunbar, left, and Dakota Stewart, rockscape imagineers with Blue Fox Surfaces work on adding shape and texture to a stone-shaped gun safe that will be part of their outdoor themed display on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. The crew will be showing their finished design at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show.

The creativity from Saber and other exhibitors adds a “wow” factor to the 10-day event, according to Moore.

“Ray said he wanted to do something new this year to show the public something that might not have seen before,” Moore said. “Their product is unique. It’s time-consuming. The proof is in the pudding, because when people walk by it catches their eye.”

Moore purposely places Saber’s exhibit space near the front of the show so it’s one of the first exhibits guests see.

“We want the reaction to be, wow, this is cool,” Moore said.

Courtesy of Ray Saber

The exhibit for Blue Fox Surfaces at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show which runs March 3-12 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

Saber said it’s all about being able to create a one-of-a-kind space for customers.

“We want this to feel like they are in the space,” he said. “It’s a very cool process, and not a lot of people in this area are doing this the way we are. We are creative and pay attention to detail. We want people to walk through it and to feel like it’s a space they’ve never walked through before.”