If ever we needed a home and garden show to remind us of all that once was good about Milwaukee weather — and could be again — it’s now.

The 10th-coldest winter since the late 1800s and almost constant snow cover have left many pining for the sight of green grass and plants, blooming flowers, water fountains and smoking barbecue grills.

The good news is that, whatever you want your personal landscape of dreams to look like this spring and summer, exhibitors and experts at the annual Realtors Home Garden Show will try to help you — and offer lots of ideas for indoor projects and upgrades, as well.

The show, in the Wisconsin Exposition Center at State Fair Park in West Allis, runs Friday to March 30, with off days on Monday and Tuesday.

Among celebrity experts at this year’s show will be Roger Hazard of the AE channel’s “Sell This House.” Hazard, who will be on the Solutions Stage March 28 and 29, will be giving away one $5,000 room makeover that will be completed between March 30 and April 1. The makeover will be filmed and featured in a future episode of Hazard’s new reality show, “Roger That.” To register, visit www.rogerthat.tv/register.

Steven Katkowsky, a general contractor, designer and TV personality, will be on hand sharing tips and tricks, such as how to use hidden wall space to increase storage in kitchens and bathrooms, and how to create and decorate outdoor living space.

The Realtors Home Garden Show will feature more than 10,000 square feet of garden, nursery, landscaping, sculpture and fountain displays from area professionals. The show includes 12 showcase gardens.

Also on the eight-day agenda are daily cooking demonstrations and seminars on topics such as urban beekeeping and do-it-yourself fruits.

Presenting a seminar on do-it-yourself fruits will be Sharon Morrisey, consumer horticulture agent for the University of Wisconsin Extension in Milwaukee County. Morrisey is among those who will be happy to see the land in bloom again, but she said there are trouble spots homeowners should watch for in the aftermath of the harsh winter.

She said the long-lasting snow cover — Milwaukee had 92 consecutive days of at least 1 inch of snow on the ground, about 30 more days than normal — sheltered mice all season as they tunneled to the bark of shrubs and trees, which is a major winter food source. At the same time, rabbits have been chewing bark above the snow line.

“It may or may not heal itself,” Morrisey said. “It depends on how extensive it is. It can be deadly if it’s had all its bark stripped away all the way around. Then there is nothing left there to conduct water and nutrients up into that branch.”

Some plants might not have survived the extreme cold at all.

“There are a lot of things we’ve been planting over the last five, six, seven, eight years that are marginally hardy,” she said. “And because we’ve had mild winters, we’ve kind of been lulled into this sense of, ‘Oh, I can grow that here.’ But if we get a really cold winter like this, and it’s not completely hardy, the winter can kill it outright.”

Among plants to check for signs of life: herbaceous perennials, rhododendrons, witch elder and coralbells.

Morrisey also advised against working garden soil when it’s wet because it can break down its structure and usefulness for growing plants.

One thing that shouldn’t have a hangover from winter’s binge, however, is the lawn.

“I think our lawns are going to be fine,” Morrisey said. “They were underneath the snow and we had constant snow cover, and that really helps to insulate it.”

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IF YOU GO

What: Realtors Home Garden Show, sponsored by Unilock.

Where: State Fair Park Wisconsin Exposition Center, 8200 W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis.

When: Friday to March 30. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday, 4 to 8 p.m.

Cost: Adults $8; children 12 or younger and active military personnel with ID admitted free.

Increasing the amount of plant diversity in your landscape is a giant step toward creating a more self-sustaining, less-chemical-dependent garden. Plus, a greater variety of plants leads to an increase in the number of birds, amphibians, pollinators and beneficial insects your garden is able to support.

Because of this increase in “good� creatures, a decrease in pest numbers often follows. Not to mention all the beauty found in a garden filled with a broad diversity of plants. Here are a few simple ways to pump up the plant diversity in your backyard.

Interplanting: Long rows or blocks of the same kind of plant are easily discovered by pests, especially in the vegetable garden. But when you mix it up and intermingle a broad assortment of plants, pest densities are reduced. Interplanting involves growing several different plant species together to increase diversity, build corridors for wildlife, and create favorable habitat. It also adds different nectar and pollen sources to the garden. Interplanting can involve simply alternating crop rows in the vegetable garden or, better still, mixing flowers into shrub beds and foundation plantings.

Under-planting: Another way to build garden diversity, under-planting is done by planting a low-growing plant underneath a higher-growing one. For example, under-plant your tomatoes with a mixture of lettuce and sweet alyssum. The tomatoes shade the lettuce from the summer sun, while the alyssum lures in the parasitic wasps that control the aphids on the lettuce and tomatoes.

In my own garden, I get higher yields because I am making good use of all the available space, and I have fewer weeds because the alyssum and lettuce form a living mulch beneath the tomatoes. Or, interplant rows of peppers and eggplants with rows of dill and coriander to deter pests and introduce beneficial insects. Mix lots of flowers into the vegetable garden as well as into shrub areas and tree islands.

Plant sunflowers: Sunflowers are as useful as they are pretty, and including them in your garden is a great idea. Sunflowers produce extra-floral nectar in addition to floral nectar. This extra-floral nectar is produced from the leaf undersides and serves as a carbohydrate source for ladybugs, parasitic wasps and other pest-eating beneficial insects. Researchers have noted an increase in the population levels of various predaceous beneficial insects when sunflowers reach a mere 6 inches in height. Planting sunflowers within rows of vegetables is an effective way to help battle pests and increase diversity in the garden.

Herbs in the vegetable garden: An integrated vegetable garden — one that incorporates an array of flowering plants with the vegetables themselves — is another excellent way to diversify the garden. It’s also quite beautiful. Not only can the herbs be readily harvested for kitchen use, but also, later in the season, when they are left to flower, they’ll provide beneficials and pollinators with nectar and pollen.

Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts “The Organic Gardeners� at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio. She is the author of several gardening books, including “Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control� and “Good Bug, Bad Bug.� Her website is www.jessicawalliser.com.

Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com or The Good Earth, 503 Martindale St., 3rd Floor, D.L. Clark Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.

Whether your interest lies in the historic gardens of Vizcaya, the landscape along modernist Lincoln Road or the changes over time to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, you’ll learn something new April 12-13 during What’s Out There Weekend Miami.

“It’s our goal to teach people how to see and value the landscape that is all around us,” said Charles Birnbaum, founder and president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, the nonprofit group behind the event.

Dedicated to helping people see, understand and value landscape architecture and those who practice it, the foundation will provide free access to more 20 gardens in South Florida.

Guided tours “will educate participants about the history and design of the open spaces that they regularly pass or visit with family and friends,” said Miami landscape designer Raymond Jungles.

Jungles’ water garden and hammock in the 1100 block of Lincoln Road are on the program April 12. During this tour, participants will discover how he reinterpreted the work of Morris Lapidus, the original architect of Lincoln Road, who turned it into a pedestrian mall in 1960.

A tour April 13 will highlight the changes that modern culture has brought to the vision of William Lyman Phillips, who was responsible for Fairchild from 1938 until his death in 1966.

“If you join us, you’ll learn of Phillips’ remarkable legacy that makes the garden unique to our community,” said Joanna Lombard, professor of architecture at the University of Miami, who lead this tour as well as one at the University of Miami.

Other destinations include Greynolds Park in North Miami Beach, Little Havana in Miami and the Deering Estate at Cutler. Farther afield, there will be tours of Flamingo Gardens in Davie, the Morikami Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach and the Gardens at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach.

This weekend is the result of two years of planning, said Birnbaum, whose foundation has hosted similar events over the past 3 ½ years in 10 cities, including Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles.

“There’s a breadth and diversity of landscapes in Miami spanning a century or more of design and making this city unparalleled in the country,” said Birnbaum, explaining why he set his sights on South Florida.

It is estimated that more than 1,000 people will attend the tours, which are expected to be filled to capacity. But for those who don’t get a chance to participate, the information used to organize the weekend can be accessed through the foundation’s website on your smartphone.

A click on the “What’s in the Area” tab lets your phone’s GPS work with the site to discover what landscapes are located within a 25-mile radius. And whether you search the database on your phone or home computer, you can learn about 1,500 gardens nationwide, view 10,000 images of those gardens and study 750 profiles of their landscape designers.

“We leave this free website behind in perpetuity,” said Birnbaum.