After Hurricane Irene increased business by more than 300 percent, president Chris Atiyeh decided there was enough demand to warrant a booth at the 33-year-old show, held Saturday and Sunday in the Greenwich High School student center.
“A customer had a list of something they wanted to do with their house, a generator was somewhere between five and eight,” Atiyeh said. “Now it’s one to three.”
Among the home remodeling and landscaping vendors, there were several new businesses offering unique products and capitalizing on the move toward more “green” products.
Christine Segalas started her company, Homegrown Harvest, to help people who may be intimidated by the process of growing their own food. The company builds raised-bed vegetable gardens, and offers follow-up services.
“A lot of people are intimidated by gardening,” Segalas said. “We figure there are people in Fairfield County, they want to do this but they don’t know how to get started.”
The company provides soil and seeds, so gardeners can avoid having to test the soil around their homes. Segalas explained that the grid shape of the garden allows for more efficient use of water, and the gardens can fit a variety of vegetables.
Robert Staab showed off the products his company makes from recycled barn wood. Staab, whose business, After the Barn, is based in Campbell Hall, New York, has a showroom on Arcadia Road in Old Greenwich.
Staab and his son reclaim wood from barns that have been torn down in places such as New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which they turn into furniture, cabinets, siding and flooring.
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By Lisa Chamoff
