It becomes a little hard to imagine life without citrus fruits! Not just because citrus fruits are seen as the perfect taste enhancers in our food and drinks, but also because they are excellent sources of Vitamin C.
Being carriers of several different antioxidants, citrus fruits help prevent many health problems, varying from heart diseases and cancer to skin damage from the sun’s rays. So if you are a gardening enthusiast, what are you waiting for, grow your own citrus trees today!
Interestingly enough, citrus trees are popular not only for the goodness they offer but also because they are ornamental yet productive trees! They are also easy to grow yet often gardeners find it difficult to grow citrus trees.
For those who are planning to grow citrus trees in their home gardens, we give you tips on how to grow citrus trees in your garden.
We all have those little compartments in our fridge occupied with lemons all the year round, don’t we? The zesty juice of citrus fruits enlivens our drinks and meals.
With regard to their health benefits and zesty flavor, citrus fruits are considered to be the most versatile fruits and are thus popular world over.
Varieties of Citrus Fruits Before moving further, let us go back to our basics of science to freshen up our memories about the varieties of citrus fruits. Some of the most commonly known citrus fruits are: lemon, orange, tangelo, grapefruit and lime.
Gardening Citrus Trees: Tips
Planting the tree Citrus trees and plants need sufficient sunshine, up to five hours a day should do for them. So while planting your citrus tree in your garden, make sure that you choose a bright sunny place for your tree to grow successfully. Spring season is generally preferred to plant citrus trees.
Also, did you know that we do not necessarily need big backyards to grow citrus trees? Usually reaching heights of 3 to 5 ft, dwarf varieties of citrus trees grow well in pots. During winter nights, bring the pots inside as long exposure to extreme cold weather may damage the plant.
Special Care for the Potted Citrus In order to grow a dwarf citrus in a pot, any sun-brightened place can be good enough for the plant to grow well. However, an important tip to remember is that gardening citrus trees in pots also requires constant care.
For starters, make sure that your pot has enough room for the plant to flourish. Besides sunshine, a quality potting mix and constant watering are essentials for potted citrus plants.
Gardening Citrus Trees in the Orchard Those who are willing to plant a mini-orchard should make sure that the grass is kept at a sufficient distance from the citrus tree’s trunk in order to protect the tree from collar rot.
Also, while planting, a minimum of two-metre distance should be kept between the citrus plants.
Common Causes of Citrus Tree Death Frost, poor drainage, over-watering are some of the common causes for sudden death in young trees whereas, in older trees, collar rot is observed as the usual suspect for the death of the trees.
Harvesting Once fully grown, citrus fruits develop a vibrant colour and are ready to be picked. An average 3 ft tall tree should not bear more than 20 fruits at a time.
We hope you found these gardening tips helpful. Happy gardening!
Russell Bomar (right), 412th Communications Squadron, Print Services technician and Andrew King (center), 412th CS Print Services lead, start the printer “right sizing” initiative by collecting 412th Test Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Michael Brewer’s office printer. The Project84 idea was implemented on Edwards as a way to save costs on printer ink, toner, paper and maintenance. Excess printers will be collected from buildings and there will be an increase in sharing printers. (U.S. Air Force photo by Rebecca Amber)
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Russell Bomar (right), 412th Communications Squadron, Print Services technician leads Andrew King (center), 412th CS Print Services lead, and Andrew Gumm to the elevators with the printers collected at the 412thTest Wing Headquarters Bldg. (U.S. Air Force photo by Rebecca Amber)
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Andrew Gumm, 412th Communication Squadron, is working with his team to “right size” the printer fleet on base. Their Project84 submission is currently being implemented on Edwards AFB as a cost saving measure approved by the 412th Test Wing commander. (U.S. Air Force photo by Rebecca Amber)
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(Left to right) Gary Glazner, 412th Range Systems Time Space Position Information technical expert; Cheryl Middleton, 412th Test Wing Public Affairs systems analyst; and Larry Booth 412th Operations Support Squadron, Mission Scheduling Support specialist. (U.S. Air Force graphic by Rebecca Amber)
Download HiRes Project84 continues into New Year
Posted 1/8/2014 Updated 1/8/2014
Email story
Print story
by Rebecca Amber
Staff writer
1/8/2014 – EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Towards the end of 2013, Brig. Gen. Michael Brewer, 412th Test Wing commander, announced his cost-savings initiative for Edwards AFB – Project84. According to Brewer, if everyone on base saved $84 each month, it would ultimately save an excess of $11 million annually.
The problem was finding out where the $84 would come from each month and that is where Project84 came in. Every person who works, lives or visits Edwards was invited to submit their ideas for cutting costs around base.
“Under the current economic climate, if we continue to do what we’ve done last year, we’re going to run out of money this year, so it’s incumbent upon us to figure out how we do our operations differently, how we get these ideas and execute these ideas so we can control our cost,” said Brewer. “We’ve already received lots of good ideas. We’re looking at things on energy savings from lighting to how we operate our computers during the evenings, changes to our flight operations and training, but we have to keep these ideas coming in. Our goal is for us all to be $1,000 less costly on average this year, or about $84 per month, hence the term ‘Project84.'”
The project has already brought in many good ideas, but the initiative isn’t over. Members of the Edwards community are encouraged to continue sending in their thoughts.
“We have the opportunity now to save money, to do things better, smarter and more [efficiently],” said Rodney Cruse, 412th TW Plans and Programs and Project84 lead. “General Brewer has started this initiative because he wants to hear from all of us no matter where you work. If you have an idea to save money while maintaining safety and lawfulness, General Brewer wants to know about it and you can do that through Project84.”
To submit your ideas to Project84, e-mail them to project84@us.af.mil or call (661) 275-8484. A Project84 tab can also be located on the bottom of the left-hand column on the Edwards home page, www.edwards.af.mil, and information has been added to the Edwards AFB site on the AF Portal.
Here are a few highlighted Project84 ideas:
Andrew Gumm
Andrew Gumm, 412th Communications Squadron, computer maintenance chief, is seeing his Project84 idea, “right sizing” printers, implemented.
The original idea came from a Digital Printing and Imaging Program over five years ago and was intended as an Air Force-wide initiative to lean out the printer stock and reduce costs associated with printing. However, the plan was never successfully executed.
Gumm took over as computer maintenance chief two years ago and noticed right away the enormous fleet of outdated printers and their associated expenses.
“Many of them have vulnerabilities that can’t be fixed,” said Gumm.
He started working on a plan to reduce the printer fleet by half, but had to prove that the plan was appropriate. Early in 2013, Gumm and his team started a pilot program within their organization to demonstrate the potential for cutting costs.
The experiment took place in four buildings that started with 42 printers and are now using only 11 without impacting their ability to print. What they found was a 45% overall reduction in printing and 58% in color prints, conservatively. Gumm stated that there are currently 1,300 network connected printers on base and approximately $400,000 worth of toner stocked up.
But, it’s not just toner and paper that makes printing so expensive, it’s maintenance.
“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is reduce what it costs to print a sheet of paper,” said Gumm. “Something that is supposed to cost a penny a piece is costing 15 cents a piece and color print jobs as much as 50 cents a sheet. It all depends on the organization, the machine, the usage, the age of the printer and the amount of maintenance. It’s a complex problem and it’s hard to quantify a single printer.”
Gumm estimates that the project will take 12 – 20 months to fully integrate. During that time, his team will perform an analysis to determine a proper balance between each organizations number of print jobs generated and geography of their building.
The printers that are no longer available will go through the DRMO process if they have vulnerabilities that can’t be fixed. Those that are still useable will be “mothballed” until another printer needs to be replaced.
Gumm sees “culture” as the projects largest hurdle. He has received some concerns about printing securely for those with sensitive information. He stated that multifunction printers are often CAC-equipped. Print jobs can be sent to the printer encrypted and will wait for the user to insert a CAC card before printing, a feature that has been available for the last four years.
“Project84 came up and suddenly the pathway [for ‘right sizing’] was paved with gold,” said Gumm.
Larry Booth
Larry Booth is a Mission Scheduling Support specialist with several cost-savings ideas.
“Gen. Brewer asked us for ways to save money, so my initial thought was, maybe we can fly each mission five minutes less. As far as I can tell, five minutes of each mission can mean a thousand pounds of fuel and that would add up significantly, to millions of dollars of savings,” said Booth.
His next idea was about bringing home aircraft that had been “stuck out” at Vance and Tinker Air Force Bases. According to Booth, pilots are sent on commercial flights to retrieve the aircraft. That means the Air Force has to pay for airline tickets, food and lodging. Booth suggested that pilot crews ride in Air Force tankers and then fly the aircraft back the same day.
“It would save a lot of money and we could accomplish getting all the airplanes back in one day,” said Booth.
Booth shared that he believes solving the budget crisis is a team effort. He wrote in his suggestions to Brig. Gen. Michael Brewer, 412th Test Wing Commander, that he would voluntarily give up one hour per week if it would help.
“I told them I would even come mow the grass myself,” said Booth. “General Brewer thought that was pretty funny. But, we all need to be conscious of our day-to-day practices. We need to be conscious of the bottom line that is spent to accomplish the mission. We know that the budget has been impacted severely, so we want to do our part so that funds can be used elsewhere.”
Booth encouraged others to start submitting their own ideas as well.
“I think anytime you solicit the opinions of the entire base you’re going to have someone come up with a golden idea. I believe Project84 will be very successful. We can cut a few dollars here and a few dollars there, eventually it will add up.”
Cheryl Middleton
Cheryl Middleton, 412th Test Wing Public Affairs systems analyst, also had several ideas for Project84, but perhaps the biggest was to re-landscape the business areas on base. The suggested landscaping was xeriscaping, a desert landscape that uses primarily rocks and desert plants instead of grass and lush, green trees.
The idea is to save money by eliminating the need for watering the lawn or paying a contractor to mow it. She first learned about xeriscaping from Environmental Management, who had already switched to xeriscaping.
“They had signs that explain what it is and why they did it. I thought it was very clever of them to think of it and to do it,” said Middleton. “We’re in a desert, let’s save water.”
Although xeriscaping would cost now, it would save money in the long-run, much like Middleton’s second idea, solar-powering the dorm areas. At the “very least” Middleton would like to see solar-heated water in the dorms.
Middleton also recommended converting any cars or “put-puts” on base to electric and making charging stations available.
“I like the idea of Project84 very, very much and I sincerely hope people take advantage of it,” said Middleton. “If you’re not happy with something, if you have a good idea, use that program to fix what you’re not happy about. I ultimately feel we’re all here to make things better.”
Energy and water were not Middleton’s only concerns. She recommended making the Joshua Tree Dining Facility open to everyone using a tiered system. The idea would be to have Airmen and younger NCO’s pay lower prices and others would pay according to their means. She also recommended tiered attendance to ensure that Airmen would not have their meal times interfered with.
“It’s a very nice facility, I don’t understand why we don’t do this,” said Middleton. “At the very least, it should be open for retirees.”
She would also like to see the Edwards community grow a garden, to be used for flowers and vegetables. The idea, she believes, is good for the schools too. Students would learn to garden and the produce could be used in the cafeteria.
Gary Glazner
Gary Glazner, 412th Range Systems Time Space Position Information technical expert, encouraged volunteerism to give a temporary fix to the budget crisis.
His idea, a policy of volunteer furloughs, would provide a short-term solution to the budget problems on base. He said it would act like a “Band-Aid” to buy additional time to implement other policies.
“We have a volunteer army, if we need more people than volunteer we can draft, but we don’t draft until we have to. As long as we have enough volunteers we don’t have to draft. I was thinking kind of the same thing relative to furloughs. We have enough people, I suspect, that are able and willing and others that aren’t,” said Glazner.
He added that he would like to see people who are living on the edge avoid furloughs or at least reduce them. The idea of permissive leave without pay has been on Glazner’s mind for “quite some time now.” He petitioned for the same policy in his own company prior to submitting it to Project84.
Glazner envisions volunteers being the high-wage earners on base, which means that the amount of money saved per furlough would be higher. The people who make less however, would not be forced to give up the time.
“It’s volunteerism and I recognize there could be problems with that and that it probably would not be a good long-term solution. But, it could buy us time to implement other possible solutions and measures that could be permanent, but can’t be implemented rapidly, so it could give us a little bit of a buffer.”
He added that leave without pay has generally been seen as a punishment and permissive leave without pay is frowned upon. Glazner, however, believes that it would not have to be negative if done on a volunteer basis.
According to Glazner, the idea has potential to be successful for two years, but no more than five because the program would start to experience donor fatigue.
“I don’t know all of the ripple effects, there might not be any. I just don’t know,” said Glazner.
“Project84 is a good idea because often your good ideas are going to come from the people with their boots on the ground,” said Glazner. “I’m really hopeful that something really good will come out of it. Perhaps some of the ideas that management hadn’t thought of can be implemented.”
Community Center Site Development Plans presented on January 11
Dale Porter, Chair Nederland Community Center Site Plan Committee
On Saturday afternoon January 11, 4:30-7 p.m., consultants to the Community Center Site Plan Committee will present three concept plans for developing the CC site over the next 20-30 years. The public is invited to view the plans and give feedback. Food will be provided so that people can stay until the Back Door Theater movie starts. All comments and questions will be recorded and used to help select a final concept plan.
A CONCEPT PLAN shows generally how the facility and the site might be developed, in phases, over the next 20-30 years, without any specific design details. It includes planning for energy savings and financial estimates.
The three concept plans to be presented January 11 have different features, but all of them include replacement of the West Wing with a building situated near the highway; redesign or relocation of the access driveway, possibly by way of Forest Road; and re-engineering the whole hillside behind and beside the main buildings to control storm-water runoff and prevent flooding.
The Committee and the consultants have NOT tried to anticipate specific uses for the building space, since tenants and uses have changed and will change frequently over the years. We have, however, considered moving Town Hall functions to a new building on site.
The Site Plan development committee was appointed by the Board of Trustees in February 2013. It includes: Dale Porter (chair), Roger Cornell, Jen Davis, trustee Ledge Long, Marylou Harrison, Linda Glasser, and Town Administrator Alisha Reis.
The committee reviewed all previous site plans, west wing ideas, Envision 20/20, Master Trails Plan, the new town comprehensive plan, and the developing town Infrastructure Master Plan. The Board of Trustees hired Workshop8, JVC engineering, and Norris Design to consult with the committee.
A first set of concept plans underwent a thorough discussion. After the public presentation on January 11, a final plan will be drawn up, with development phases and financial estimates. This plan will be submitted to the BOT at its February 4 meeting.
Our consultants will provide cost estimates for each phase of development, but of course those estimates may change depending on future rates of inflation. So we don’t know yet how much this will cost. It will be paid for over 20-30 years in stages.
Currently the CC operates with a .75 % (3/4 of one percent) sales tax that voters approved in 1997 and 2002. It lasts until 2023. That money covers normal operations; it does not include any money for drainage and flood control, parking, new buildings, renovation or landscaping.
For each phase of the Site Plan, the Town and the NCC Foundation will be seeking funds from state agencies and Colorado foundations that have helped us in the past. The Town may also seek a renewal and/or increase of the sales tax before 2023.
Current versions of the three concept plans to be presented January 11 are located with this notice on the Community Center website, www.nederlandcommunitycenter.org. Look to the links on the left side and click on “Site Plan.” Comments on the plans may be emailed to NCCF@nederlandcommunitycenter.org
Adventure, whimsy and inspiration are all yours, and free, when you visit Northern Californias Cornerstone Sonoma Gardens.
This unusual place stands alone in bringing a different perspective to the word garden because it offers landscape architects and garden designers the freedom to exercise extraordinary creativity in more than 22 individual garden spaces.
Chris Hougie and his wife, Teresa Raffo, were honeymooning in France when they visited the International Festival of Gardens at Chaumont-sur-Loire. Both were intrigued by this new way to experience beauty and art; after returning home they thought about developing something similar in California. Nine acres was found and designers were told to invent, inform, and create beautiful and compelling gardens that engage and inspire the viewer intellectually, emotionally, and aesthetically.
Working with all the designers really was wonderful, Hougie said. Clients give them constraints, and we had no constraints. Such freedom with this level of professionalism works out really, really well. Working with them was one of the best parts of the project. He credits landscape architect Peter Walker and Mark Francis, professor emeritus, UC Davis, for their very valuable help in the inception of the project.
Visitors are invited to play, wander, think, and try creating interesting garden spaces of their own when they return home.
Ron Lutsko Jr. and project manager Roderick Wyllie worked to create the garden so that as landscape design changed, the different garden installations could change.
Raffo, project manager for new gardens with oversight of all events and promotions, said she especially enjoys working with landscape architects and designers when they take up residence at the garden. Teams get together over dinner to talk about progress or setbacks and discover the many microclimates when they stay a while. Three Chinese designers are currently working on a garden that features growing food for the future. It will be about beauty and also functionality, Raffo said.
The area dedicated to the children has a vineyard, colorful sandbox, climbing structure and birdhouses large enough for a family of condors. It was designed by MIG, a planning and design firm.
Children dont have any preconceived idea of what a garden should be, Hougie said. His favorite day was the opening of the childrens garden. We had thousands of happy kids running through the gardens. Children are just as intrigued as adults by this collection of artistic landscape designs. Watching a 9-year-old gaze at sculptures or sit on them, roll huge garden balls about, or perch on a giant blue adirondack chair for a photo op is sheer delight.
Some design features are interesting if one takes a quick look, but visitors who look closer see more. That charming metal fence forming a series of hearts may be clever, but when you walk past the fence and into the garden space your feet are walking on a metal path of broken hearts.
Gorilla mulch, gravel in a variety of colors and sizes, grass, tumbled colored glass, metal, even pottery shards play a role your feet can experience here.
The red Chinese lantern looks lovely sitting in a pond filled with tiny mosquito fish. Closer inspection reveals the colorful red glass beads hanging from it are shaped like teardrops. The Chinese-inspired elements reference the migrant workers who came to California during the Gold Rush and stayed to build the Central Pacific Railroad.
Small Tribute to Immigrant Workers by landscape designer Mario Schjetnan of Mexico reminds visitors of the enormous help Mexican labor is to the success of Californias agriculture. Metal serves as a walk and a wall, and reflected heat reminds viewers of the desert where illegal immigrants die. One of the newest gardens has a more than 2,000-pound silver tree designed by Regan Gentry. It required great effort to anchor so a windstorm couldnt roll it like a giant tumbleweed into Sonoma. This garden, designed by Suzannne Biaggi of Petaluma, also incorporates sound as one of its features. Bertotti Landscaping was instrumental in building it.
Petaluma Seed Bank contributes heirloom squash, flower, and gourd seeds for one of the gardens. The gourds dangle from their trellis in shapes that belong in cartoons. Its one of those try this at home, its fun gardens.
Mary McCorkle lives in Los Osos. Contact her at happygardener225@gmail.com.
Prairie, North Platte inspire downtown landscaping concepts
Bryan Kinghorn, of Kinghorn Gardens, presents design concepts for a downtown landscaping, streetscaping and stormwater plan being worked on by Kinghorn and representatives of Dropseed Studio.
Posted: Thursday, January 9, 2014 12:00 am
Prairie, North Platte inspire downtown landscaping concepts
By MAUNETTE LOEKS
New Media Editor
Star Herald
Landscaping artistically modeling the North Platte River, shortened pedestrian crossings and a downtown gathering place were some of the concepts suggested by designers in a downtown revitalization effort.
Bryan Kinghorn, of Kinghorn Gardens, and Zack Fergus and Tom Bentley, of Dropseed Studio, outlined concepts that could make up a preliminary plan for a landscaping, streetscaping and stormwater master plan. Implementing the master plan will be the next step in downtown revitalization efforts. Concepts were presented Wednesday after the designers gathered information during a downtown tour, a public meeting and an open house.
“We are pretty excited about how energized the community is to have something different,” Kinghorn said, saying that participation from the public was good. The designs are driven by the city and the people who live in Scottsbluff, he said.
One of the first parts of the process will be to implement a downtown landscaping plan that will improve the aesthetics, while also being functional, Kinghorn said. The designers proposed landscaping to replace current brick work in the downtown areas, with a design that mimicks the meandering flow of the North Platte River. Plants could be inspired by the shortgrass prairie plants that surround the Scotts Bluff National Monument, Agate Fossil Beds and other sites that western Nebraskans identify with.
“We want to enhance the downtown experience,” Kinghorn said. Designers asked residents and officials to identify components that signify Scottsbluff and the prairie seemed to be a continuous theme in the designs.
Landscaping will also continue the current stormwater efforts that have been done by the City of Scottsbluff in other downtown parking lots.
Downtown intersections could also be flanked by trees.
“We want canopy cover,” Kinghorn said. “We want trees … but we want them to be healthy from the get go.”
Instead of placing trees in planters or planting boxes, the designers have proposed expanding bulb outs at the intersections and locating trees in those expanded bulb outs. The design would serve another purpose, with pedestrian crossings proposed to shorten, improving safety at intersections and slowing traffic. The enhancements would also improve the view for drivers crossing east and west streets.
The designers also proposed making the 18th Street Park and adjoining street a downtown gathering area. The 18th Street Farmers Market served as the impetus for the design, but other events could occur there, including adding a splash pad. The downtown area could also be enhanced by artwork, designers said.
“This is the town’s downtown,” Fergus said of the designs. “We received a lot of good input from people passionate about the community.
Kinghorn said designers will be back to present a preliminary design to the Scottsbluff City Council in about four weeks.
I was visiting a friend recently and remarking on what an incredible view he had of the mountains and red rocks and how especially this time of year it had that extra sparkle with the snow perched hither and yon.
Well, we don’t all have that type of spectacular view, and at times during the winter I know we look out upon our landscapes and dream of what they will look like once spring brings flowers bursting forth and then the unfurling of the rich green leaves of our plants.
Having been involved with horticulture for a long time, I know there is a never-ending search for ways to increase the visual interest in gardens and landscapes. One way to do this that, I believe, is often overlooked involves adding interest to the winter landscape. This can be done in a variety of ways, with plants of varying colors, those with berries and seed pods, bark with interesting textures and colors, and also with hardscapes and even furniture.
What first comes to mind involves plants with colorful foliage, which, for winter, means evergreens, but not necessarily those with green foliage. Juniperus chinensis or Chinese junipers are a standard in the landscaping industry, and many of its cultivars – plants that have been selected for certain characteristics – have blue and even yellow foliage that looks great year round. There are also many cultivars of the Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum), which has bluish foliage. Other plants that work well in our landscapes are yuccas such as the Yucca filamentosa “Golden Sword,” with yellow leaves that have a green edge, and Yucca filamentosa “Color Guard,” which has leaves with a central stripe of bright yellow, and in cool weather can have margins with a pinkish cast.
Other possibilities for plants with winter interest are those with fruit or seed pods that can persist or last into the winter. There is a nice small tree Crataegus crusgalli var. inermis or thornless cockspur hawthorn, which has red fruit. Then there are shrubs such as the Japanese barberry, Berberis thunbergii with red berries, the sea-buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides with orange fruit, the smooth sumac, Rhus glabra cismontane, which has fuzzy maroon fruit, and the silver buffaloberry, Shepherdia argentea, with yellow to orange red berries. Also, if you don’t remove the flowers from a rose, such as the native pink rose Rosa woodsii, they will form nice pretty red rose hips.
There are also plants with bark that have interesting textures or colors. There are some Cornus species with red and even yellow bark, but many of those would take special care in our area. However, there are some we should consider, such as the amur maackia, Maackia amurensis, with its amber, bronze- to copper-colored bark. As it matures it will start to peel or curl. Another is the Japanese red pine, Pinus densiflora, with its orange red bark, which also looks scaly as it ages. A shrub that admittedly takes closer inspection to appreciate is the cliff fendlerbush, Fendlera rupicola, with its reddish young bark which turns gray and scaly or shredded with age.
However, adding color and interest doesn’t stop with plants but can be achieved with items you place or build in your yard, such as arbors, gazebos, and trellises. Or even interesting wood fences, stone walls, water features and strategically placed boulders.
Finally, you might also consider colorful furniture such as a colored metal bench or even some of those brightly colored Adirondack chairs sold in town.
These are just a few suggestions among all that is out there waiting to be considered. So as you are looking through catalogs or online for what you want to plant for spring and summer, consider what you can add so that next winter you have a visual feast in your outdoor winter landscape.
Thought for the day: “The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.” —Hanna Rion.
Have an idea you’d like Mike to consider writing about? Want more information about these topics? Call the Utah State University Extension Grand County office at 435-259-7558 or email Mike Johnson at mike.johnson@usu.edu.
(Posted by Boston Globe Garden Writer Carol Stocker, who will be answering horticultural questions live on-line Thursday, Jan. 9, and Jan. 16 from 1-2 p.m.)….WELLESLEY HILLS, Massachusetts— The Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury, announces plans by its state organization, The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. (GCFM), to host Midwinter Interlude, an afternoon of flowers, food, music and fun. The event will take place on Saturday, February 1, 2014, at the Beechwood Hotel, Worcester, MA, and will feature floral creations by several distinguished designers.
Arrangements will reflect “The Wide World of Floral Design,” with plants and color schemes conveying a global flavor. Another type of “global flavor” will be appetizers by the hotel chef Laurant Olivier and live music by the Henry Platt Quartet.
“This midwinter getaway will transport attendees to an elegant party with an international feel—without making them venture far from home,” said Marisa McCoy, GCFM president. “They will be surrounded not only by beautiful flowers and fine food, but by friendly and engaging company.”
McCoy noted that the event fills a void left by Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s decision not to host their popular Flora in Winter floral design show in 2014.
Midwinter Interlude hours are 3:30 to 6:30 PM. Tickets are $50 each, a portion of which can be tax deducted. Proceeds from the event will benefit the horticultural mission of GCFM. For ticket information, contact Bonni Asbjornson at 978-692-8685 or asbjornson@comcast.net.
The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts (www.gcfm.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, dedicated to fostering an understanding and appreciation of horticulture, landscape and floral design, gardening, and environmental concerns. The Federation has approximately 12,000 members statewide.
The luxury Beechwood Hotel, rated four stars by AAA, is located at 363 Plantation Street, Worcester, just west of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Lake Quinsigamond, off Route 9. It is easily accessible via Mass Pike and other major highways. For more information go to www.beechwoodhotel.com or telephone 508-754-5789.
It’s a new year and a new gardening season. At the suggestion of a reader, I want to do a series of articles through this year for beginning vegetable gardeners. The popularity of growing your own food is still growing as people discover the joy of growing, cooking and eating their own vegetables.
The winter months are a good time for reading, taking classes and planning your garden. Many beginning gardeners have lots of ideas about their new-found project and that unfortunately can get them in trouble right from the start. So my first key to success is to be patient. Write down your ideas but don’t get tied to them right now. Just have fun with your winter research.
There is a lot of information on the Web to sift through, and I do mean sift. Not all websites are accurate or appropriate for Inland Northwest gardening. I always look for websites maintained by universities (.edu) first, especially those of Washington State University, the University of Idaho and Oregon State University. Through their extension services and Master Gardener programs, there is a wealth of online publications available on a wide range of topics. Many of them are available as free downloads and all are based on unbiased research and experience from right here in the Northwest. Outside the Northwest, I often check sites at other universities in the northern U.S. These northern tier universities will often have good information on short-season techniques and plants that will work here.
Beyond the university-based websites, a good gardening website will have in-depth information from a variety of sources and people. There will be advertising but it shouldn’t be overwhelming or promoting just one set of products. That said, some of the best websites are done by seed companies such Johnny’s Select Seeds, Seeds of Change, Territorial Seed (based in Oregon), and Baker Creek Seed. These sites provide a lot of detailed growing information not available in other places along with their seed offerings. Order seed catalogs from ones you like.
This is a good time to pick up a few good vegetable gardening books to have for reference. One of the best for the Inland Northwest is “Gardening in the Inland Northwest” by Tonie Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was WSU Spokane County Extension’s horticulture specialist for 25 years so the book is full of information and her experiences on growing vegetables, berries, grapes and fruit trees here. It is available at several websites and at the WSU Spokane County Extension Office, 222 N. Havana St., in Spokane.
Two of my other favorite references are the “Western Garden Book of Edibles” published by Sunset, and “Edible Landscaping” by Rosalind Creasy. Both books have extensive “how to” sections as well as detailed plant directories. Best of all, both are written by people who live and garden in our region.
Next week; a run-down on gardening classes available in the area.
Pat Munts has gardened in Spokane Valley for more than 35 years. She can be reached at pat@inlandnw gardening.com.
