TORONTO, June 25, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Our lawns and gardens seem to be all about the “green” … We spend a lot of green on our lawns and gardens—over $2 billion a year in Canada. We grow a lot of greens—nearly a third of us grow food in our gardens. And many companies now make outdoor gardening products with recycled plastics—this contributes to sustainability and makes our lawns and gardens a bit greener.

A Greener Landscape Ahead

Plastics for years have been replacing other materials in lawn and garden products due to their versatility, durability and low maintenance—plus they resist rotting and shattering, so we can spend more time gardening and less on maintenance, repair, and replacement. And today when we recycle our everyday household plastics, some of them are turned into practical products for our lawns and gardens.

For example, many companies make composite lumber with recycled HDPE plastic, the type used to make milk jugs and most plastic bags and film. This durable lumber looks pretty much like wood, but the plastic makes it extremely durable and nearly maintenance-free. And boring insects have no interest in plastics. Used to build decks, fences, railings and swimming pool enclosures, lumber made with recycled plastics not only looks great and lasts a long time—it also keeps this valuable material out of landfills.

Manufacturers also are increasingly using recycled plastics for landscaping products. For example, landscape pavers made with recycled plastics are used to create patios, decks, walkways and other outdoor areas. They can be installed more quickly than traditional pavers, and each 1,000 square feet of pavers saves 500 scrap tires and 15,000 plastic bottles from landfills, according to a manufacturer. They also use 94 percent less energy and release 96 percent less CO2 in manufacturing than concrete alternatives.

Landscape edging made with recycled polypropylene plastic—the kind often used for yogurt cups and bottle caps—won’t “rot, fade, crack, splinter, or warp,” according to its manufacturer. And planter boxes made with recycled plastics “maintain colour and shape … without weathering, warping, deteriorating, rotting or splintering” … season after season. More gardening—less maintenance.

Greener Tools and Planters

Many essential gardening tools also are made with recycled plastics, including wheelbarrows, compost bins, watering cans, pots, trays, tools, hoses, rain barrels and more. And some companies now use recycled plastics to make planters, stylish outdoor furniture, and other decorative garden accessories. Many of these durable, weather-resistant products are made to stay outdoors year round.

Where space is tight, planters and hanging pots made with recycled plastics from used beverage bottles can create vertical flower gardens and add some food plants almost anywhere—indoors and out. These planters don’t rust, and they can be reused again and again.

Contribute to a Greener Garden

Like a growing number of everyday plastic products—from plastic bags to shampoo bottles—the plastic pots and trays we use in gardening today can be recycled in many places.

• Many Canadian households have access to a recycling program that accepts garden pots and trays.
• Some large retailers, such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, accept used plastic pots at their stores, where they either are reused or sent to recycling facilities. Some even come back as new pots.

Plastics—and more recently recycled plastics—are staking a claim in our lawns and gardens. For good reason. In the often rain soaked, sun scorched, insect ridden environment of our lawns and gardens, plastics make it possible to spend more time enjoying the fruits of our labour—often while contributing to sustainability.

Today’s intelligent plastics are vital to the modern world. These materials enhance our lifestyles, our economy and the environment. For more information visit www.intelligentplastics.ca.

The Canadian Plastics Industry Association is the national voice of Canada’s plastics industry, representing the interests of processors, material suppliers, equipment manufacturers and brand owners across the country.

A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=19551

Darlene Gray
Canadian Plastics Industry Association
905.678.7748 ext. 239

quakertown alive’s garden affaires

Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 7:26 am
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Updated: 7:51 am, Tue Jun 25, 2013.

Quakertown Alive! holding its third annual garden tour on Sunday

Posted on
June 25, 2013

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  Stacy Briggs
  

Quakertown Alive! will hold its third annual Garden Affaires tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, giving visitors an opportunity to stroll through six private gardens and outdoor living spaces in and around Quakertown.

Who knows? Perhaps you’ll be inspired by simply viewing beautiful blooms, flowing waterfalls, serene ponds, whimsical ornaments, pristine pools and inviting hardscaping.

This year’s gardens include the Paulovitz property at 1014 Park Ave., the Fulmer property at 316 Park Ave., the Montoney property at 709 Lafayette Drive, the Hellman property at 811 Mill St., the Quay property at 1040 Brookfield Circle and the Hinderliter property at 2175 Weiss Road.

The festivities will begin with the “Art of the Garden” reception from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday in the Paulovitz garden, termed a “beautiful backyard oasis.” It will include complimentary beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres, as well as music sponsored by Jann and Tom Paulovitz and Barbara Knauss.

On Sunday, you’ll begin the tour day at the Burgess Foulke House on North Main Street where the Keystone Quilters will be demonstrating the art of quilting, and featuring an exhibit of floral-inspired quilts, as well as garden-inspired photography and artwork by local artisans.

It’s an opportunity to see one of Quakertown’s historic treasures open to the public through the generosity of the Quakertown Historical Society.

The Garden Marketplace, on the grounds of the Burgess Foulke House, can fulfill the novice and experienced gardener’s thirst for knowledge.

The marketplace’s sponsor, American Native Nursery, will supply information on ecological landscaping ideas such as rain gardens, green roof plantings and native plants. The Bucks County Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer your gardening questions and provide a composting demonstration. The Fry’s Run Watershed Association will be selling affordable rain barrels and educating area gardeners about water conservation.

Other retail vendors such as Bromm’s Lullaby Farm, Cameron McIntosh Pottery, Aquascapes Unlimited Inc. (specializing in wetland landscaping), Kathy Greger handpainted floral glassware, Stone Soup Designs’ garden-inspired jewelry and others will provide visitors to the marketplace with an informative shopping experience.

Visitors can feel free to shop and the marketplace will hold your purchases until you finish the tour. The garden marketplace also is open to the public (no tour ticket necessary).

While there, visitors can tour the new Upper Bucks Visitor’s Center at the Upper Bucks Chamber of Commerce Building (formerly the Quakertown Historical Society Barn). Parking for the garden marketplace is in the UBCC parking lot.

Tickets: In advance, they are $15; seniors (65-plus), $12; they can be purchased at Quakertown Alive!, Quakertown Borough Hall, Tana Kaya Boutique, Lion Around Books, Sine’s 5 10 and Richland Feed. The day of the tour, they are $18; seniors (65-plus), $15; they can purchased at the Quakertown Alive! booth at the Garden Marketplace or any featured garden.

Tickets for the evening reception (which includes the tour) are $40 each and can only be purchased at the Quakertown Alive! office at 312 W. Broad St.

Quakertown Alive! is a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit organization founded on the principles of the national Main Street program.

Its mission is to create strong, broad-based partnerships that provide the leadership and resources necessary for a successful revitalization effort in downtown Quakertown. Its ultimate goal is an enhanced quality of life for the residents, business operators and visitors to the borough.

Information: 215-536-2273; www.quakertownalive.com.

More about Garden

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• ARTICLE: ‘Tickle Your Senses’
• ARTICLE: Grow your own food at a community garden
• ARTICLE: Chalfont’s gateway ordinance continues to raise concerns

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Posted in
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on

Tuesday, June 25, 2013 7:26 am.

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Quakertown Alive!,

Garden Affairs,

Garden,

Tour,

Blooms,

Waterfalls,

Ponds,

Ornaments,

Pools,

Hardscaping,

Paulovitz,

Fulmer,

Montoney,

Hellman,

Quay,

Hinderliter,

Art Of The Garden,

Reception,

Garden Marketplace,

Burgess Foulke House,

Keystone Quilters,

Quakertown Historical Society,

Upper Bucks Chamber Of Commerce,

Visitor’s Center

Despite what the name might imply, there won’t be any lawnmowers present in Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s new exhibit ‘Composite Landscapes: Landscape as a Photomontage.’ Rather, the exhibit defines landscape architecture and explores the distinction between landscaping and gardening. The former, as it turns out, is an entirely more artistic botanical enterprise.

“Composite Landscapes” reclaims landscape architecture as rooted in art, and the mind and imagination. “We can imagine where and therefore how we live. “These pieces convey the conceptual nature of landscape architecture,” says s Charles Waldheim, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. “But you don’t have to be interested in landscape architecture.  We want it to be accessible to all museum goers and show the fun behind the creations.”

“Landscaping is specifically human, it’s hard to imagine us without it,” Waldheim continues. “But though all cultures are involved with gardening, which involves the use of plant materials, not all cultures are involved in landscaping, which is spacial.”

The first landscape architects, he says, were artists imagining space.

“Landscape first emerged in painting in western Europe, particularly in the British Isles,” Waldheim explains. “In the 19th century, landscape architecture was a new profession, which fomented in and around Boston and the East Coast. It started in the public realm. The Fens is a good example. It involves the design and shape of a city. In the 1830s, it spun off and really was the beginning of city planning.”

A landscape architect, then, doesn’t necessarily have to have a background in or diverse knowledge of plants.

“Landscape architects work internationally and consult with plant experts locally,” he says. “It’s inconceivable that someone would have knowledge of local plants in the international market place.”

“This is why this exhibit is important,” he adds. “Landscape architecture begins with something that is drawn and involves planning common ground. It exists in the public realm, not in our private gardens. The term has been adapted to homes and leads to categorical confusion that we want to nudge away.”

If you go

June 27-September 2
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston
$15, 617-566-1401
gardnermuseum.org