Earl May gardening experts showed the different plants that flourish even in the dead of winter. Many different floral house plants can grow all winter long and can keep the inside of the house looking green.
Earl May experts said winter house plants should be misted and spritzed but not heavily watered. These plants should stay moist but never be dry or drowning in water.
By Rhonda Ferree
Horticulture Educator,
University of Illinois Extension
Posted Jan. 18, 2014 @ 10:50 am
Would you send me the free garden and pest information mentioned at the end of your Sun columns?
We have hundreds of publications and articles on topics ranging from termites and deer to vegetables, fruits, trees and shrubs. You can browse through the subject areas or in the Information Library on our website. Or call and we’ll help you get the ones that address your interests or problems. If we do not have your topic already written up, we will send a specific answer (click “Ask MD’s Gardening Experts” on our website) or answer it over the phone. If you’re looking for a general reference on every aspect of gardening, however, we also offer the 600-page “UME Master Gardener Handbook” for $69.
University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information. Call 800-342-2507 or send a question to the website at extension.umd.edu/hgic.
Plant of the week
Baldcypress
Taxodium distichum
If you have a sunny, damp area, lots of space and want a strong focal point, baldcypress could be the plant for you. This unusual native looks like a lofty needled evergreen in summer but drops its foliage in the fall, giving it the name “bald”. Foliage is soft and flowing — yellow-green in spring, sage in summer, changing to russet in fall. In winter, its stately trunk has coppery peeling bark. An adaptable tree, it withstands dry and city conditions and can be used as a street tree. Planted in water, knobby “knees” grow from the ground around the trunk to provide more oxygen. Growing about 21/2 feet a year to a mature height of 50 to 75 feet, not only is it long-lived, but it is a low-maintenance native. —Ginny Williams
A ‘humanistic garden’ has emerged the winner in a design contest for a preservation corridor around the Qing-era Lung Tsun stone bridge in Kai Tak. A team of architects and landscapers from the University of Hong Kong came out tops with their ‘Broken Bridge, Hidden Dragon’ concept – a futuristic walkway built above the Qing-dynasty ruins and surrounded by gardens and open spaces.
The garden’s name was a twist on the name of the bridge, Lung Tsun, which is based on the Chinese poem, Gathering the Dragon, Connecting the Piers.
The three-storey design, which includes an amphitheatre, artificial forest, urban garden and a canal, will also provide open spaces for street performances. The first floor will be a plaza, the second an exhibition space, and the third a pedestrian bridge.
When completed, the 300-metre corridor will link the pedestrian subway across Prince Edward Road East to Shek Ku Lung Road Playground and the Kowloon Walled City Park.
“It’s hard to track the origins of the idea, but the overall objective was to pay respect to the ruins and also to provide space for those who live and work in the area,” team leader and HKU assistant professor of architecture Gao Yan said.
“It’s an example of urban nature – a mix of artificial and natural; a new bridge crossing over an old bridge. It’s a humanistic garden.”
Gao, together with his four team members Tsui Ho-cheung, Chang Qiang, Virginia Goh and Huang Wen-ying, will share a cash price of HK$400,000 for their winning design.
The ruins of the almost 150-year-old Qing-dynasty Lung Tsun stone bridge were discovered in 2008. After a series of debates, the government decided to preserve the ruins as a special cultural heritage asset.
But Civil Engineering and Development Department senior engineer Peter Chui Si-Kay said the project would not start until at least 2018.
“There are still road and infrastructure works going on at Kai Tak, so construction will not begin any time soon,” he said.
The winning design in the open group competition was ‘Condensation of Memory’, which was awarded a HK$80,000 cash prize
University Heights Library Director Nancy Levin makes a point to residents who attended a visioning session to discuss ideas for the library’s upcoming renovation project.
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio – University
Heights Library patrons met with library officials Thursday night to share
renovation ideas.
Thirteen people attended the
event – dubbed as a visioning session by library officials – in which they talked
about what changes they would like to see in an upcoming renovation project.
Following are the top five
issues brought up at the meeting.
1. Residents want the building to have a back door
accessible from the parking lot.
Access to the library’s
parking lot is off Fenwick Drive and parking spaces are located at the rear of
the building. The library’s entrance is at the front of the
building off Cedar Road. Patrons who park their cars in the lot must walk
around the building to enter the library and do the same when returning to
their cars. Those at the meeting said they would like to have a second entrance
at the rear of the library, directly off the parking lot.
2. Residents want restrooms on the first floor.
The library has two levels. The only two restrooms – one for men and one for
women – are located on the lower level.
Patrons must go down a set of
stairs or use a lift to access the restrooms. There is no elevator.
3. Residents want a bigger parking lot.
The library lot has 37
parking spaces and on-street parking is available along Fenwick Road. When those
spaces are filled, patrons must park across the street from the library in a
shopping center lot on Cedar Road.
4. Residents want to see nicer landscaping.
One resident said the
library’s landscaping needs to be better maintained. Library Director Nancy
Levin said some of the flowerbeds will be replaced with grass that will be mowed and is easier to maintain.
5. Residents want the library to maintain its cozy,
intimate feel.
Some said the library is
small and intimate compared to libraries in other communities. While they welcome
renovations, they don’t want the library to become too large and cold.
“Our customers had great
ideas about how to improve the branch, and it was clear from their enthusiasm
how much they care about their library,” library spokeswoman Sheryl
Banks said.
The library was built in 1952. The last renovation project
was in 1997 and included updates to the heating system, the addition of air
conditioning on the lower level and display areas, as well as rewiring of the entire
building.
Library officials say goals
for the next remodel include better access for library visitors of all ages,
more efficient and sustainable energy updates and a comfortable environment
with enduring aesthetics.
This was the first of five
visioning sessions set at various locations in University Heights. The
remaining sessions will be at:
• 7 p.m. Tuesday at Gearity
Professional Development School, 2323 Wrenford Road;
• 2 p.m. Jan. 29 at Whole
Foods Market at Cedar Center, 13998 Cedar Road;
• 7 p.m. Feb. 4 in Donahue
Auditorium at the Dolan Center for Science and Technology at John Carroll
University, 1 John Carroll Blvd.; and
• 2 p.m. Feb. 13 during
Senior Happenings at the University Heights library.
All sessions are open to the
public, and registration is not required. There also will be online and paper
surveys for those who cannot attend the sessions.
“We can’t wait to hear what other residents
and customers have to say at our next four sessions and hope we’ll get some big
turnouts,” Banks said.
Call the library at
216-932-3600 for more information.
City Commission meets Tuesday
The Garden City Commission will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the City Administrative Center, 301 N. Eighth St.
Items on the agenda include:
* Consideration and approval of distributing 2014 AFAC funds and 2014 Community Grant funds as recommended by the Alcohol Fund Advisory Committee.
* Resolutions authorizing the removal of nuisance conditions from property at 411 N. First St., and motor vehicle nuisances from property at 505 Bancroft and 711 N. First St.
* An ordinance regulating front yard setbacks in commercial and industrial districts. Current zoning regulations require a 30-foot setback. A proposed change would allow a 15-foot setback under certain conditions.
* Discussion of submitting a project request to the Kansas Department of Transportation using federal Transportation Alternative funds. Last November, the commission approved an application for landscaping on U.S. Highway 50/400 from the bypass east to Farmland Road.
County meeting delayed one day
Due to Monday’s Martin Luther King holiday, the Finney County Commission will meet at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the county administrative center, 310 N. Ninth St.
Items on the agenda include monthly reports from the health department and Emergency Management and Emergency Medical Services; discussion of fees and policies for the fairgrounds; a review of an employee assistance program; recommendations for grant funding from the Alcohol Fund Advisory Committee; an annual board reorganization; an closed session with the county counselor; and a closed session concerning non-elected personnel.
If you’ve looked at your old bathroom or tired and worn out carpet and fixtures for too long, get inspired to modernize your home by attending the 8th Annual Katy Home and Garden Show slated for Jan.25-26 at the Merrell Center Robinson Pavilion in Katy. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
For those eager to get a head start on any home and garden expansion no matter the size, make plans to visit more than 250 exhibits.
“Consumer interest and spending in home remodeling and DIY projects continue to rise for many reasons,”said Robyn Cade, President of RJC Productions and organizer of the Katy Home and Garden Show. “Baby boomers may now find themselves as empty nesters with disposal incomes to refurbish, redecorate and reinvest in their homes, creating beautiful living spaces which reflect their individual personalities and an emphasis on entertaining at home.”
Additionally, low interest rates make remodeling affordable. Some of the other reasons to consider remodeling a home include modernizing it.
“Research shows that investing in your home pays for itself in the long haul, particularly with kitchen and bathroom remodels,” said Cade.
In fact, an American Housing Survey found that adding a half bath can increase home value 10.5 percent and a full bath contributes 20 percent to home value. Lower heating and cooling bills by replacing outdated windows and doors with energy efficient ones.
“We’re especially excited about the range of exhibitors, demonstrations and experts who’ll be part of this year’s show,” said Cade.
Fall in love with your home all over again. Get inspired to kick start or finalize renovation plans with the help of design and renovation experts and two buildings of one-stop shopping including: decorating, gardening, remodeling, window treatments, home theater, landscaping, kitchens baths, do-it-yourself, flooring, windows doors, siding, heating/cooling, pools, outdoor entertainment and a myriad of other home related products and services. Whether planning a major renovation or smaller home updates, you’ll be right at home at the Katy Home Garden Show with the ability to comparison shop in one convenient area. Find out how to make “green” improvements which can reduce electrical and heating bills or creative ideas to improve your home’s curb appeal.
For those interested in a new garden, landscaping tips or other home improvement how-to’s the Katy Home and Garden Show is brimming with ideas; experts and workshops. Foodies can get in on the fun with more than 20 food sampling booths.
On Saturday, attendees will meet celebrity DIY TV Host, Jason Cameron, who helps bring life to dreary landscapes and or specialized man caves.
Watch him work and it quickly becomes apparent this licensed contractor really knows his stuff, especially when it comes to his own personal passions: home improvement and landscaping. Jason says he recently even gutted his own home and completely revamped the backyard. Now he’s putting his extensive hands-on expertise to work for DIY Network building, landscaping, hardscaping and more.
Tickets are $9 for adults; $8 for seniors and $5 for military. Kids under 12 are free. The facility charges $1 per ticket added at the time of purchase. For ticket information, directions, parking and more visit www.katyhomeandgardenshow.com.
It seems that I cant talk about gardening with our friends without their eyes glazing over. I guess that with restricted water, there is not much to be discussed.
As we wait for Mother Nature to nourish the earth, trees, and shrubs, the hillsides remain parched and gardeners are forced to wait and wonder.
But most gardeners do not enjoy being idle in body and mind.
So while we are in a holding pattern, we can revisit a garden design appropriate for thirsty regions.
While we ordinarily are planning our spring planting at this time of year, perhaps our time would be better spent reviewing principals of gardening in an arid region. Gardening of this type is called xeriscaping.
In the early 1980s, Colorados Denver Water coined the term xeriscaping to describe a low-water-use landscaping design.
Xeriscape is a combination of the word xeros, the Greek word meaning dry, and scape, meaning a kind of view or scene.
Many water districts across the country have adopted the term and used it to help customers become familiar with drought-tolerant landscaping.
It continues to become more and more popular in the West as rainfall figures drop and gardeners search for efficient ways to use resources.
Essentially, there are seven principals of xeriscaping:
1. Plan and design your xeriscape. Consider soil, sun, shade, and slope.
2. Soil improvement. You can have your soil analyzed but we all know that most of our soil is deficient in humus, limiting absorption of water and holding capacity. Soils should be enriched with organic matter before planting.
3. Planting in the right place, in terms of sun and soil conditions, will greatly effect your success in creating a beautiful xeriscape around your
home.
4. Turf substitutes should be incorporated. Traditional turf can be replaced with low-matting ground-covers and grasses. Astro-turf? Well, Im not there yet.
5. Make your irrigation system efficient. Trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers can be watered efficiently with low-volume drip systems or low sprinklers that emit large droplets.
6. Apply mulch to all bare ground. Mulch minimizes evaporation and reduces weed growth and soil erosion. Organic mulches are typically bark and wood chips, pine needles, or rocks. Hardscape such as paths and patios reduce bare exposed earth in gardens.
7. Maintenance. If youve followed the first six principals, the maintenance of a water-wise
landscape is relatively easy. Chores such pruning, weeding and pest control are lessened in a healthy xeriscape.
Theres much to learn while we are in our holding pattern. With a little effort, we can consider giving our gardens a xeriscape face lift.
Lee Oliphants column is special to The Cambrian. Email her at cambriagardener@charter.net; read her blog at http://centralcoastgardening.com.
David Hughes, a Doylestown landscape architect with an affinity for native flora and natural landscapes, often finds himself ripping out dead, overgrown, or otherwise undesirable plants to make way for new.
But he doesn’t haul that nasty Japanese honeysuckle, Chinese white mulberry, or Norway maple to the dump, curb, or chipper. Hughes is that rare soul who prizes what other designers and gardeners despise, more so if it’s scarred by deer browsing, insect damage, or disease.
That’s because, in addition to designing ecologically responsible landscapes in the Philadelphia region, Hughes, 46, is a skilled woodworker who makes rustic furniture from garden “debris,” a kind of plant-world Dumpster diver.
“To me, it’s a nice marriage, landscaping and woodworking,” says Hughes, whose five-year-old business, his second, is called Weatherwood Design. It comprises about 70 percent landscaping and 30 percent woodworking.
Storm-felled trees and gnarly vines make good raw materials. So do pruned branches, old barn boards, and stuff plucked, with permission, from the side of the road.
An arborist friend scouts out intriguing branches and discarded trunks. Hughes helps the Natural Lands Trust and local preserves thin out invasives or dead trees. And every July Fourth, again with permission, he rescues unwanted driftwood from death by bonfire at a public beach on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
The wood might sit for years on the one-acre property Hughes shares with his widowed dad, Merritt Hughes, a retired English teacher. Logs, planks, oddball sticks and scraps are stacked along the driveway, in the yard, and in and around Hughes’ densely packed, unheated 8-by-12-foot workshop.
“It’s hard to throw anything out,” he says a bit sheepishly of the jars of nails, screws, and bolts, the bits of this or that, and the saws, planes, and other tools of his trade.
Drying wood outside is challenging. But if rain and snow are his nemeses, water is also a friend. “My best ideas come in the shower,” he says.
Those ideas – for chairs, tables and benches, garden gates, and screens, trellises, arbors, railings, and birdhouses – are time-consuming. A simple-looking chair can take 35 hours to make, at $45 an hour, not counting time to find and dry the wood and do research.
“It’s like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle. There are no square edges to anything,” says Hughes, who is itching for some land of his own so he can grow hedgerows of the native trees – alder, sassafras, Eastern red cedar, black locust, Osage orange – he likes to work with.
He also wants to live off the grid and build native plant, meadow, and woodland demonstration gardens. Four acres, at a minimum, would do it, though so much real estate would involve a lot of deer-fencing.
But fenced it must be; deer are plentiful, and Hughes has had Lyme disease 14 times since the early 1990s.
That he has worked through such a scourge reflects a lifetime of loving plants.
Growing up in Glenside, Hughes was “always out playing and getting muddy and dirty,” often in Baederwood Park. Foreshadowing the landscape architect he would become, he spent hours in the attic constructing vehicles and buildings with Legos and Lincoln Logs.
As an 8-year-old, guided by his handy grandfather, Sylvester “Cookie” Cook, Hughes built metal cladding to reinforce a toy castle, and carved sticks to support a leather-covered tepee.
“I loved the outdoors,” he says, including time spent at his family’s vacation home outside Wellsboro, Tioga County.
Hughes is a graduate of Abington High School and Pennsylvania State University, where he knew almost instantly “I was doing the right thing” in studying landscape architecture. He also did graduate work at the University of Massachusetts.
His resumé includes jobs at plant nurseries, landscape architectural and planning firms, and the U.S. Forest Service. He has restored wetlands and woodlands and worked on suburban subdivision landscapes, meadows, and residential projects, including a highly idiosyncratic Bucks County second home belonging to New Yorkers Todd Ruback and Suzanne Schecter.
The couple’s 21/2-acre property, overlooking the Delaware Canal in Upper Black Eddy, features a converted century-old barn that backs up to a gravelly 200-foot red shale cliff that was choked with exotic vines. Hughes cleared the cliff and literally carved a landscape into it, choosing wildlife-friendly plants such as Eastern prickly pear cactus, the region’s only native cactus, that grows almost exclusively along the high cliffs of the Delaware River.
“He’s not bringing in eucalyptus trees,” Ruback says. “He’s making use of what local, Bucks County nature is giving us.”
And much of what Hughes takes away from “Bucks County nature” goes toward his rustic furniture. The results, says a mentor, Daniel Mack of Warwick, N.Y., are both sturdy and playful, and demonstrate “a poetic sensibility.”
“Nobody actually needs any of these chairs. There are plenty of chairs in the world already, thank you,” says Mack, a rustic-furniture teacher and author. “You’ve gone beyond need, and you’re into another realm.”
It’s a realm, Mack says, that “engages us with the landscape in a way you don’t see with more-anonymous furniture.”
vsmith@phillynews.com
215-854-5720
facebook.com/InqGardening
@inkygardener
As part of the quot;Art in Naturequot; series at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, 1635 River Rd., New Hope, landscape architect and rustic-furniture-maker David Hughes will host a workshop, from 1 to 5 p.m. March 8, called quot;Woodworking With Invasive Plants: How to Make a Small Whimsical Chair.quot;
Click photo to enlarge
Marin
West Marin Commons offers a weekly harvest exchange at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Livery Stable gardens on the commons in Point Reyes Station. Go to www.westmarin commons.org.
The Novato Independent Elders Program seeks volunteers to help Novato seniors with their overgrown yards on Tuesday mornings or Thursday afternoons. Call 899-8296.
Volunteers are sought to help in Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy nurseries from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Tennessee Valley, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Muir Woods or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays or 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays in the Marin Headlands. Call 561-3077 or go to www.parksconservancy.org/get-involved/volunteer/.
The SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) native plant nursery days are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays and weekends. Call 663-8590, ext. 114, or email jonathan@tirn.net to register and for directions.
Marin Master Gardeners and the Marin Municipal Water District offer free residential Bay-Friendly Garden Walks to MMWD customers. The year-round service helps homeowners identify water-saving opportunities and soil conservation techniques for their landscaping. Call 473-4204 to request a visit to your garden.
Marin Open Garden Project (MOGP) volunteers are available to help Marin residents glean excess fruit from their trees for donations to local organizations serving people in need and to build raised beds to start vegetable gardens through the MicroGardens program. MGOP also offers a garden tool lending library. Go to www.opengardenproject.org or email contact@opengarden project.org.
The Marin Organic Glean Team seeks volunteers to harvest extras from the fields at various farms for the organic school lunch and gleaning program. Call 663-9667 or go to www.marinorganic.org.
San Francisco
The Conservatory of Flowers, at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, displays permanent galleries of tropical plant species as well as changing special exhibits from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $2 to $7. Call 831-2090 or go to www.conservatory offlowers.org.
The San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park, offers several ongoing events. $7; free to San Francisco residents, members and school groups. Call 661-1316 or go to www.sf botanicalgarden.org. Free docent tours leave from the Strybing Bookstore near the main gate at 1:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. weekends; and from the north entrance at 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Groups of 10 or more can call ahead for special-focus tours.
Around the Bay
An olive curing workshop with Don Landis is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 19 at B.R. Cohn Winery at 15000 Highway 12 in Glen Ellen. $15 to $20. Call 800-330-4064, ext. 124, for reservations.
Cornerstone Gardens is a permanent, gallery-style garden featuring walk-through installations by international landscape designers on nine acres at 23570 Highway 121 in Sonoma. Free. Call 707-933-3010 or go to www.cornerstone gardens.com.
Garden Valley Ranch rose garden is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at 498 Pepper Road in Petaluma. Self-guided and group tours are available. $2 to $10. Call 707-795-0919 or go to www.gardenvalley.com.
The Luther Burbank Home at Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues in Santa Rosa has docent-led tours of the greenhouse and a portion of the gardens every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $7. Call 707-524-5445.
McEvoy Ranch at 5935 Red Hill Road in Petaluma offers tips on planting olive trees and has olive trees for sale by appointment. Call 707-769-4123 or go to www.mcevoy ranch.com.
Wednesdays are volunteer days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center at 15290 Coleman Valley Road in Occidental. Call 707-874-1557, ext. 201, or go to www.oaec.org.
Quarryhill Botanical Garden at 12841 Sonoma Highway in Glen Ellen covers 61 acres and showcases a large selection of scientifically documented wild source temperate Asian plants. The garden is open for self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. $5 to $10. Call 707-996-3166 or go to www.quarryhillbg.org.
The California Rare Fruit Growers’ scion exchange is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Veterans Memorial Building at 1351 Maple Ave. in Santa Rosa. $5. Call 707-766-7102 or go to www.crfg-redwood.org.
“Tree Shaping” workshops are offered at 1 p.m. Jan. 25 and 26 at Wildwood Farm at 10300 Sonoma Highway in Kenwood. $25. Call 707-833-1161 or go to www.wildwood maples.com for reservations.
The Trowel Glove Calendar appears Saturdays. Send high-resolution jpg photo attachments and details about your event to calendar@marinij.com or mail to Home and Garden Calendar/Lifestyles, Marin Independent Journal, 4000 Civic Center Drive, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903. Items should be sent two weeks in advance. Photos should be a minimum of 1 megabyte and include caption information. Include a daytime phone number on your release.