By Unsie Zuege

Ladies and gentlemen, start your garden tillers, your power washers, your various power tools, and gardening implements, tune up the lawnmower, dust off the patio furniture and rethink the flower beds. As of last Saturday, spring officially arrived.

And just in time to help you sort out what’s new, improved, and must-haves for the coming summer season, is the annual SouthWest Metro Expo that features products and services for homes, landscaping and lifestyle.

The SouthWest Metro Expo is a one-day event that provides homeowners with plenty of ideas for all kinds of projects around the home and yard, improvements for your home, patio and landscaping, all under one roof.

The one-day event will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, at the Chanhassen Recreation Center at 2310 Coulter Boulevard, Chanhassen. There’ll be a special appearance by the Hometime Crew, the popular Chaska-based home improvement show that airs both locally and nationally on PBS.

All Johnsons?

Kathi Johnson laughed. She’s heard it before. Her husband, Dean Johnson, is the producer and popular on-air handyman of PBS’s long-running “Hometime,” home improvement show.

Kathi isn’t on the air; she heads the human resources area for the show.

But still, there are two Johnsons who host the show, Dean and Miriam.

The most common questions that Hometime and the Johnsons field are: Is co-host Miriam Johnson, related to him? Are they married? And just how many times has he been married anyway?

The answers are: No, no, and just once, to Kathi, and very happily at that.

Well, OK.

But one more question.

“So, does a person have to have the last name of Johnson to work on Hometime?”

“No,” Kathi Johnson said, with another laugh. “But you can’t avoid it when you live in Minnesota.”

Good point.

Hometime fans will have an opportunity to meet the Hometime Crew at the Expo.

Mirian Johnson, Dan Laabs and Tom Weckworth will be on hand, starting at 12:45 p.m. They’ll give a presentation and show a DVD reel of “Hometime” bloopers and out-takes.

“The outtakes of the show start the audience thinking of projects they’ve seen on the show,” Kathi said. “The crew will talk about the upcoming season, new products that are available for remodeling and construction. They’ll answer questions from the audience. We do this three or four times a year at different shows and expos.

“The younger people in the audience usually have questions about trends; the older members of the audience want to know about basic repairs.”

Afterward, the crew will autograph photos of themselves and greet their fans.

The Hometime show does the majority of its home improvement and building projects in the Twin Cities, Kathi said, from St. Paul to Minnetonka, Chanhassen and Eden Prairie.

“We like to stay in this general area,” Kathi said, “but that’s not always where the projects take us. We’ve also done Habitat for Humanity projects here and in other parts of the country. But, generally, we stay around here.”

If you go

SouthWest Metro Expo: Home, Landscape, Lifestyle

When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, March 27

Special guest appearance: PBS’s Hometime Crew, 12:45 p.m., for presentation and autographs.

Where: Chanhassen Recreation Center, 2310 Coulter Boulevard, Chanhassen

Admission: Free parking, free admission, free seminars

Event schedule

* 10:45 a.m. Metabolic Makeover; All You Need to Know about Windows

* 11:30 a.m. Look Great at the Lake Boot Camp

* 12:05 p.m. Remodel Design; Math for Parents

* 12:45 p.m. Meet the Hometime Crew from PBS

* 2 p.m. Kitchen Concepts; Color for your landscape

* 3 p.m. ABCs of Wine; Window Energy Savings

* 3:45 p.m. Floral Arrangements; Saving Energy and Money; Restore and Recondition Wood windows

* 4:30 p.m. Choosing Replacement Windows

For a complete schedule of seminars, go to www.swmetrochamber.com