Plant lovers can pick up some bargains at Bracknell Horticultural Association’s spring plant sale on Saturday, May 5, between 10am and 3pm, at The Bandstand, in Bracknell town centre.
The group will be selling vegetables and herbs, and there will also be a seed swap and hanging basket demonstrations. Visit www.digforbracknell.org.uk
During the monsoon season, one of the main things that gardeners fear is the stagnation of water and the birth of pests controlling the garden. Gardeners should take extra care of their vegetable garden during the monsoon season because this is the time when your garden thirsts for things to keep your plants healthy, like sunlight which is rarely seen.
Gardeners should take a look at some of these tips for a vegetable garden during the monsoon season. It is necessary that you provide in extra hours in the garden when you see that little ray of sunshine. Try to do all your gardening work when there is sunlight, so it gives you time to prepare for the rain.
Take a look at these tips for vegetable garden during the monsoon season.
Watering the garden – Gardens require a good amount of water for them to grow in a healthy manner. But due to the monsoon season, make sure that for a vegetable garden there is not too much of water standing in the bed. Cumulation of stagnant water will only lead to thriving of insects.
Looking after soil – The soil is the most important aspect in a vegetable garden. If the soil of your vegetable garden is loose, it is a problem. Vegetable garden soil needs to be of medium texture. They should not be loose nor tight!
Fertlisers – It is very important for you to compost your own natural fertilisers for your vegetable garden during the monsoon season. In this season, garden beds are more prone to developing moss which may lead to fungal infestation.
Weeding – When it comes to a vegetable garden, weeding is important. Make sure to trim your garden during this season as weeds grow easily in this weather. Vegetable gardens are prone to getting lots of weeds because of the soil bed.
Pest control – If there is stagnation of water in your vegetable garden, they will welcome pests and insects with a lot of care. Using natural pesticides to get rid of pests is the only way you can not harm your vegetable garden and corrupt your veggies.
These are some of the ways in which you need to care for your vegetable garden during the monsoon season.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has developed a new pamphlet meant to help guide home gardeners on the ways to protect bees and other pollinating insects from the possible effects of certain pesticides.
The guide, “10 Ways to Protect Bees from Pesticides,” offers information on pesticide use and bees, web sites with information on the topic, and tips to reduce the risk to bees.
One tip is to avoid applying pesticides to plants when they are in bloom, since this is when bees are most likely to visit the plants. Another tip urges home users to read pesticide labels closely and look for specific instructions regarding the protection of bees and pollinators.
“There has been a growing concern about the health of bees and other pollinators in Washington and across the country,” WSDA Director Bud Hover said. “Our agriculture community and our environment need these pollinators, and sharing information like this is one way we can help more people do their part to protect our bees.”
In addition to making honey, bees pollinate a variety of fruit and vegetable crops. It is estimated that the value of the crops pollinated by bees in Washington state was more than $2.75 billion in 2011. While no large bee deaths have been reported in Washington in recent years, there has been a general decline in the state’s bee population and significant bee death incidents elsewhere.
According to pollinator experts, the possible reasons for the decline of honey bee colonies may include parasites, disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticides. In mid-August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new pesticide labels that prohibit the use of some neonicotinoid pesticides where bees are present.
WSDA has posted the pamphlet on its website and has advised retail associations that it is available so they can share the information with homeowners purchasing pesticides in local businesses.
For more information or copies of the pamphlet, email pestreg@agr.wa.gov or call 360-902-2078.
By
Mark Ferenchik
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Chris Russell | DISPATCH
The bike shelter at the corner of 3rd and Broad streets is one of many that have sprung up for cyclists across Downtown.
New development on the Scioto Peninsula in Franklinton. A 33-acre park along the Scioto River —
the Scioto Greenway project — approved last week by the Downtown Commission.
Both ideas came out of a plan the city adopted three years ago to transform Downtown. And while
many plans come and go, most of the 12 ideas in 2010’s Downtown Columbus Strategic Plan are coming
together.
Plans are underway to transform the neighborhood around the Columbus College of Art Design
and Columbus State Community College into a “creative campus” with improved streets and more green
space. Apartments are being built along S. High Street. Bike stations with lockers have popped up
across Downtown.
“These are all catalytic ideas. Business leadership and political leadership all got engaged,”
said Amy Taylor, chief operating officer for the Columbus Downtown Development Corp., the private
nonprofit group that helped put together the plan.
The 12 ideas “are intended to inspire Columbus to think big and to bring people together around
common goals and projects,” the plan says. Funding sources still need to be found for a number of
the ideas.
City leaders still are considering a 120,000-square-foot Downtown field house near the Greater
Columbus Convention Center that could accommodate sports tournaments and other events. They are
determining whether there’s enough need for the building to justify the cost, said Bill Jennison of
the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority.
While S. High Street is being transformed with the Highpoint on Columbus Commons apartments and
other residential projects, the city has struggled to create momentum along High Street north of
Broad Street. The city continues to offer tax incentives and other programs to try to jump-start
interest there, said Bill Webster, deputy development director.
“Because of the sheer size and importance of High Street, we’re trying to create as much density
as possible,” Webster said.Plans also are underway to narrow Broad Street to five lanes between
Front Street and I-71, with trees and other green spaces, although city leaders have stopped
talking about putting in a median.
“It will be a much more lush street,” said Cleve Ricksecker, the executive director of the
Capital Crossroads and Discovery District special-improvement districts.
The city also plans to pave Gay Street between Cleveland and Washington avenues with bricks,
while making the area near the Columbus College of Art Design more pedestrian friendly, said
Dennison W. “Denny” Griffith, CCAD’s president. The city wants to build raised intersections to
calm traffic in that area in 2015, said Rick Tilton, Columbus assistant public-service director.
The city also plans to add streetlights.
The Downtown plan also called for a single Downtown bike station with storage facilities,
lockers and showers, but Ricksecker said bike shelters across town are filling that need. And those
cyclists who park at the shelter near the Downtown YMCA can use that facility’s showers, he
said.
What about the proposed Downtown pedestrian bridge linking the east and west banks of the Scioto
River? That was put on hold until plans came together for the Scioto Peninsula, Taylor said.
Several other projects on the plan’s to-do list are dead or are dying. For example, a Downtown
Central Ohio Transit Authority transit center is not going to happen.
“I don’t think it’s front and center for us in the immediate future,” COTA spokesman Marty Stutz
said. “There’s not a demand from customers for that facility.”
Another dead-end is a 3-C multimodal station, which could link intercity rail with local light
rail or streetcar systems. Until Columbus gets intercity rail, the project’s a no-go.
The plan also calls for apartment buildings on what are now parking lots along the Old Deaf
School Park east of the Main Library. Motorists Mutual Insurance owns the lots. Motorists spokesman
Todd Long emailed that there have been no discussions with the city about developing the lots.
Patrick Losinski, the library’s chief operating officer, said he hopes the new Cristo Rey
Columbus High School, which is to move into the former Ohio State School for the Deaf next to the
library in 2014, and other projects in the area will spur additional development.
mferenchik@dispatch.com
@MarkFerenchik
Carroll and Sandy Wheeldon are a gardening team.
“I am the one with all the ideas,” said Sandy. “He’s the labor.”
It works.
The Wheeldons, both retired, moved into their Shiloh home in 2001. They bought the lot partly because of a towering white oak tree in the middle of the backyard.
“It puts the house in shade by 1 in the afternoon,” said Sandy.
The white oak stood in the midst of dense woods. Before their five-bedroom brick home was built, they started reclaiming the backyard.
“It was a jungle,” Sandy said.
“I pulled a 63-foot grape vine out of that tree,” said Carroll. “I tugged and tugged. Another one, me and a guy bigger than me were swinging on. We couldn’t get it out of the tree.”
They won the battle.
The neat, deeply wooded garden along the back of their yard is a shady oasis with winding brick paths and shade-loving perennials. An arched wood bridge spans a usually dry rock creek bed. Statues add interest. Wind chimes made by Sandy’s father, hang from a sassafras tree.
“We love the whole setting,” said Carroll, “how peaceful and quiet it is back here.”
“I love to come out from 8 to 10 in the morning,” said Sandy. “Kids are in school. People are at work. All you hear is water running and birds.”
The sound of water running comes from a waterfall and pond, located on the sunny side of the yard. Goldfish filled the pond until a blue heron spotted the action. In two days, he cleaned out 35 six-inch goldfish.
The water feature became part of their yard after Sandy spotted just the right one at a St. Louis home show. With their landscaping, the backyard waterfall and pond turned out nice enough that they were invited to be on the St. Louis Water Gardening Society’s tour last year.
“The most frequently asked question on the tour was, ‘What do you have hanging back there?’ said Carroll, pointing out white blocks in the garden. “It’s Irish Spring soap. If you put it out, deer won’t bother plants.”
The Wheeldons credit Skip Soule from Lagniappe (a Cajun term that means “a little something extra”) of O’Fallon, with the landscaping around the house that includes rows of azalea bushes and rhododendron. They were put in the year they moved in. They invited him back to build their circular garden walk, and put in shade plants.
The most recent project was a pondless waterfall in the front yard.
“We just picked him out of the phone book,” said Sandy, walking along a garden path. “He knows plants really well. He’s good at picking plants that blossom at different times of year.
“These are bleeding hearts, which in the spring are gorgeous.”
Skip, a landscaper for more than 30 years, tries out new plants on his own wooded lot before introducing them to clients’ landscapes. The Wheeldons’ yard has been an ongoing project for him.
The slope of the yard called for retaining walls.
“There are 13 tons of gravel in this one,” said Carroll. “I know. I hauled it all in.”
The garden with its ferns, hostas and variety of trees continues to evolve.
“We came up with ideas from here, there and elsewhere,” said Sandy.
When grass doesn’t grow in the deep shade, they try plants. There’s not a weed in sight.
“What we do, we wait until the oak blossoms fall,” said Carroll,” then we put the mulch down. We put it down heavy and we don’t have to pull weeds the rest of the summer.”
Just beyond the pond is the Wheeldons’ vegetable garden. It was a sea of red tomatoes last week. They also grow peppers and cucumbers.
“I probably will be canning this afternoon, 50 to 100 quarts,” said Sandy. “I can whole tomatoes.”
“We don’t have to buy them for spaghetti or chili,” said Carroll.
“Because my mother canned, she taught me to can,” said Sandy. “I have never bought a can of tomatoes in my life. Now, my mother is 85. She’s not able to, so I take her tomatoes.”
Carroll is originally from Washington. Sandy is from Missouri.
“My dad grew up in central Missouri. around Fort Leonard Wood,” she said.
Sandy met Carroll met when he was stationed there.
The Wheeldons moved to the metro-east in 1988. Carroll, a U.S. Army lieutenant-colonel, retired from the service two years later, then took a computer job with Mitre Corp.
“We liked Shiloh,” said Sandy. “Everything was close that we need, but it was still country living. We liked the open area.”
“The main reason we picked this lot, it gives you the privacy. It’s gorgeous in the wintertime when you get snow.”
Both retired three years ago in July.
“I was not allowed to relax until she did,” said Carroll.
“When we’re out here, we look at each other and wonder, ‘How did we do al this and work at same time? We do not know.”
They do know they’ve slowed down in the last five or six years. For the last four, they’ve talked about selling their house.
“He was ready,” said Sandy. “It broke my heart.”
Now, they’re both ready to downsize, to move to a condo and let someone else inherit their oasis.
“We want to enjoy retirement,” she said, “and do some traveling.”
Sacramento landscaping company Green Valley Landscaping Services has been cited with $665,000 in wage theft violations.
Kathy Robertson
Senior Staff Writer- Sacramento Business Journal
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California Labor Commissioner Julie Su has cited a Sacramento landscaping company with $665,000 in wage theft violations over a three-year period.
Sanctions against Michael Mello, owner of Green Valley Landscaping Services, include minimum wage violations of $338,175 for more than 40 employees, $169,088 in unpaid overtime and $157,500 for failure to provide itemized wage statements as required by California law.
The violations occurred between Aug. 9, 2010 and Aug. 8, 2013. Efforts to reach Mello or Green Valley Landscaping were unsuccessful.
The Labor Enforcement Task Force, a multi-agency group formed to combat the underground economy, kicked off an investigation of Green Valley Landscaping in May 2012 after receiving a complaint and individual claims for underpayment of wages to workers and potential misclassification of employees as independent contractors.
Investigators found Green Valley was using a workforce of up to 43 employees while reporting less than 10 on the payroll. Further investigation showed the rest were misclassified as independent contractors.
“Misclassification of employees as independent contractors harms legitimate businesses and cheats the hardworking men and women on California who are entitled to a just day’s pay for a hard day’s work,” Su said in a news release. “This is a tactic by unscrupulous employers to deny workers’ pay for every regular hour worked and overtime. Misclassification is also used to cut costs and to underbid projects, making it extremely difficult for legitimate contractors to compete.”
The Labor Enforcement Task Force includes investigators with the Labor Commissioner’s Office and California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as the Employment Development Department, Contractors State License Board, California Board of Equalization, California Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control and California Bureau of Automotive Repair.
California workers and employers can contact the task force hotline at 855-297-5322 to report documented complaints and enforcement tips.
Kathy Robertson covers health care, law and lobbying, labor, workplace issues and immigration for the Sacramento Business Journal.
ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY — Feel like you need a vacation? You can stroll through the backyards of some area gardens when you join Tussey Landscaping for their annual Outdoor Living Spaces Tour on Saturday, September 14, from 10 am to 10 pm.
The Outdoor Living Spaces Tour gives you the opportunity to view some of the nicest landscaping creations in our area, especially at night. Stroll through unique and various landscapes and visit with the homeowner to see what landscape and lighting can bring to your backyard.
All proceeds benefit The Arc of Blair County, a local non-subsidized/non-government funded agency serving individuals with any type of learning delay including AD/HD, reading delays, Autism, Bi-polar or mental health diagnosis, Down syndrome and other disabilities for 60 years.
MANILA, Philippines – The Henann Resorts Group, under which belong Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Convention Center, Regency Lagoon Resort, and Boracay Garden Resort, and Bohol’s Hennan Resort Alona Beach, has continuously shown aggressive expansion in the country.
The company believes that as long as there is a potential market, it will provide quality rooms, excellent service, and value for money, so says its chairman Henry O. Chusuey.
He adds that by doing so, it is helping uplift the Philippines’ economy by earning foreign currencies, creating more employment opportunities to Filipinos and paying more taxes to the government.
In April next year, the group will open the biggest resort in Panglao, Bohol, the Henann Resort Alona Beach. Situated in a 6.5 hectare property surrounded with lush gardens and the longest stretch of white
sand in Panglao’s Alona Beach, the resort will feature 400 world-class designed rooms, three massive swimming pools, a convention center, a luxury spa and dining and entertainment options.
Chusuey reveals that they are also setting their sights on an island in Coron, Palawan. The planned Henann Resort Malcapuya will be exclusively situated in 13.5 hectare Malcapuya Island, which boasts of the best white-sand beach among the islands in Coron. The all-villa resort is being designed by the most renowned architect in the Philippines, Jun Palafox. It will be one of the best high end resorts in the country, says Chusuey.
Henann Group of Resorts will have a total of 1500 rooms under its management by 2015.
“It is something that I never planned and even imagined 15 years ago,” Chusuey said. “Our business success at Henann Resorts is mostly credited to our mission in satisfying our guests’ expectations and we will keep on innovating and improving our services and facilities to always make them happy and make sure that the money they spend on our resorts is worth it.”
But while their resorts have enjoyed a relatively high occupancy rate year-round, they are aware of the challenge brought by the low-budget or “barkada rate” resorts.
Chusuey offers that they have always positioned themselves to cater to all markets so even if they
don’t capture certain markets, their occupancy is still doing very well.
Consider Boracay Garden Resort at Station 2, formerly Seraph Hotel, a Korean-owned resort which caters to 95% Korean market. Chusuey says that the state of the resort when they acquired it in December 2009 was not to their standard and their one-market focus is not acceptable to their business policy.
“When we took over, we immediately started operations and we slowly renovated the entire resort,” Chusuey said. “We started re-landscaping the resort, we built an alfresco restaurant called Garden Café, refurbished the rooms to create a more contemporary Asian feel, redesigned its four swimming pools with tiles imported from Bali and added a new wing.”
Boracay, Chusuey believes, has a very bright future as long as the rules and regulations set by the government are properly implemented and followed by the different stakeholders involved.
“There’s peace and order in the island, the island’s drainage, sewerage and solid waste management systems are continuously improved to cope up with the growing demand of tourists, infrastructures such as roads, airports, and seaports are enhanced and maintained in order to provide easy and comfortable access to tourists and in order to become competitive to international standards as well. If all these conditions are met, Boracay will still be the no. 1 destination in the Philippines and probably a premier beach destination in Asia.”
During the Philippine Travel Mart from September 6-8 at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex, Boracay Garden Resort will be giving special rates on its travel packages. A deluxe room for two nights go for as low as P4,376.80 net per person. Based on double occupancy, the package is inclusive of buffet breakfast and dinner and roundtrip transfers via Caticlan. Travel period is until March 31, 2014 except on super peak dates.
For more information on Boracay Garden Resort and reservations, interested parties may visit www.henann.com or call (+632) 353-1111 or (+636) 288-6672, or send an email to manila@boracaygarden.com.ph.
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Meredith Heuer
THE LATE SHOW | This shot of garden designer Grace Kennedy’s Garrison, N.Y., property—showcasing a border of Monarda ‘Raspberry Wine’ and echinachea—was taken last year at the end of September.
A color guide to plants that are in flower when the leaves are turning. Ms. Kennedy shares two of her favorite late-season palettes.
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Meredith Heuer (2)
Click to view the interactive
“MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE I’m a procrastinator, or maybe it’s because I love the bittersweet quality, the light and the cooler temperatures, but I’ve always embraced the decay and the musky, earthy smells that are synonymous with fall,” said Grace Kennedy, a garden designer based in Garrison, N.Y., who considers autumn the standout season of the year.
Most novice gardeners don’t see it that way. Once Labor Day hits, they resignedly watch their success stories fade and start to say goodbye to the flowers they’ve nurtured. But for Ms. Kennedy, the growing cycle is just beginning then. “Some wonderful plants peak once the hot weather subsides,” she said. She tells her clients with evangelical zeal how alive a fall garden can be if you plan for it—with late-blooming perennials providing color (see interactive), plumes of ornamental grasses swaying in the welcomed breezes and fruit and berries attracting voracious wildlife. In the Northeast, where summers can be oppressive, a fall garden can flourish a good three months before it finally succumbs to the first hard frost.
Ms. Kennedy, whose own spread blooms into late November, typically brings a bucket load of cut flowers—cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers, foxgloves—to her parents for Thanksgiving. Her belief that fall can be a time of floral abundance was shaped, she said, by a book she read early in her career, Rosemary Verey’s “The Garden in Winter,” which argues that “off” seasons are fair game and should be factored into a garden plan.
Some clients have struggled to see things her way, but lately there’s been a shift, she said, and both newer and more established clients are coming to her with ideas on lengthening the season. “There’s a trend toward edibles,” said Ms. Kennedy, “but also an interest in ecosystems. Clients are seeing the garden as an active system that provides and feeds in addition to looking good.” Shrubs like elderberry or beautyberry, for instance, both nourish and shelter birds.
Other professional gardeners have long been playing with plant selections to dramatically extend the longevity of their flora display. William Wallace at Wave Hill, a public garden in New York City, fills its beds with late-blooming salvias, like Salvia leucantha, which starts flowering in late September, and Salvia mexicana ‘Limelight,’ whose blue flowers sprout out of chartreuse bracts. He also likes to weave in asters and garden mums, and has started leaving seed heads on plants through the winter and adding more grasses to the flower beds to give them textural interest and a modern, unstuffy sophistication—a trend that’s catching on elsewhere too.
“Add ornamental grasses to fall flower beds to give them a modern, unstuffy sophistication.”
To extend your own garden into fall, Ms. Kennedy recommends working some late bloomers and ornamental grasses into existing beds or, if space allows, dedicating a whole border to plants that flourish in autumn. When it comes to grasses, she particularly likes Calamagrostis and Carex varieties, as well as little bluestem. Meanwhile, her favorite perennials include Vernonia (ironweed), a tall native plant, riveting to butterflies, that can reach a height of 7 feet when it hits its stride in late August. She shares Mr. Wallace’s love of asters and salvia, along with dahlias and agastache (hummingbird mint), whose seed heads reliably seduce gold finches.
Though many people assume that gardens should be planted in spring, fall is actually a great time to shop for plants and get them in the ground. Nurseries often have sales, and you can see the autumn bloomers at their peak, so you’ll know what you’re getting.
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A version of this article appeared August 31, 2013, on page D4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: It’saFallWorldAfter All.
