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Gardening in the snow tips

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Raise plants in pots off the ground to prevent roots from freezing, remove
saucers to ensure plants don’t stand in water, and wrap the whole thing in
bubble wrap or hessian if you want to be doubly sure. But note that in very
exposed areas you may already be too late to save marginally hardy plants.

Don’t walk on the lawn when it is frosty, as it damages the grass.

If you have plants in the garden that already look frosted (ie drooping,
blackened foliage), and are not sure what to do, leave them alone. They will
probably die back but, if perennial, they will reshoot in spring.

If they are frost-tender it’s too late to revive them, so start making plans
on what to plant in the gap next spring.

This is best done indoors, by a roaring log fire, with a selection of 2013
seed catalogues.

How to make your own Christmas wreath

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YOU don’t have to buy expensive Christmas garlands and wreaths when you can make your own from garden material, Hannah Stephenson reports

If you’ve bought the Christmas tree and now have little left in your budget for wreaths, baubles and other festive garlands, just take a walk in the garden to find some twigs, sprigs and berries which will make pretty adornments – and save you pounds.

Ideal material for adding natural beauty to festive scenes indoors include crab apples, hazel, dogwood, berried ivy, holly, silver birch stems, as well as a variety of seedheads and pine cones.

Pre-lit man-made Christmas paper trees are all the rage this year, but you can create a similar pretty adornment at a fraction of the cost with half a dozen thick stems of willow or birch, tied together with florist’s wire and festive ribbon or raffia and placed in a large indoor trough or pot filled with moist compost and decorative stones as a mulch on the top.

Wind a selection of Christmas lights around the branches, which will give any corner a focal point and takes up less room than a regular tree in a smaller space, or will add a festive glow in another room away from your main tree. If you’re using Christmas lights, don’t add extra water to your pots.

Clippings from your Christmas tree can make the base of a fabulous wreath, using a wire frame wrapped in moss, secured by florist’s wire. Take the tree clippings and feed them into the frame from their stems, making sure all the sprigs face the same way. Again secure with thin wire, circling it all the way around the frame, and then add holly or other evergreen additions, along with pine cones which you can secure with wire or glue, baubles and colourful ribbon for a bow at the top or bottom.

The colourful stems of dogwood also make an easy indoor or outdoor wreath. Weave the most colourful stems together, wiring the first one to create the frame and then weaving subsequent stems around it.

Holly spheres are also easy to make, using a dry oasis ball, strong curling ribbon or raffia and florist’s wire. When you are picking your holly, use end pieces, allowing for two to three pairs of leaves and then trim the bottom pair of leaves off so you have an inch of clear stem.

Pierce the ribbon with a piece of wire so you can thread the wire and ribbon right through the centre of the oasis ball, knotting the ribbon or making it into a loop at the bottom and securing it further by threading more wire through the loop and into the oasis, to secure the decoration when it is suspended.

At the top of the ball, wind the ribbon up to stop it becoming too creased and secure with a paperclip, which you can hold with one hand while inserting foliage with the other.

Starting at the top of the sphere, put in pieces of holly around 2.5-3in long, adding small bits of conifer as you go, working around the ball until it is all covered. By eye, make sure the foliage is even and fill in any gaps with other evergreens. Thuja ‘Rheingold’ is a great ornamental golden conifer to stick between the holly sprigs. You can also use ivy with clusters of berries, leaving the last two leaves of the ivy and the berries, which will fill it out and give the sphere a different dimension.

Other bits and pieces can also be added including seedheads and cones, which may be better glued on. Tie a bow at the top of the sphere with the remaining ribbon and then suspend it from your hanging basket bracket.

Festive natural baubles can be hung off shelves and door handles by making a ball out of chicken wire and then covering it with moss from the garden, secured with florist’s wire, and then adding either sprigs of berries or decorative seedheads. If you want a bit of sparkle, add a spray of glitter to the berries or a little fake snow on to the moss.

And at the Christmas table, create your own festive place settings with dried fruits or small bundles of cinnamon sticks, gluing small cones to the base so they can stand upright, to take florist card holders. The same natural materials can then be added to your Christmas crackers to match.

‘Garden Jewels on I Street’ – Times

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Click photo to enlarge

EUREKA — The theme for the Eureka Sequoia Garden Club’s “Garden Jewels on Eye (I) Street” presented in December is that they all contain rhododendron shrubs and are best seen starting in December through early summer.

This is the fourth in the ongoing series of “Garden Jewels” monthly winners selected by the club. Members view the front yards on one selected street to look for good landscape design and then present the winners with certificates.

The public is invited to the presentations at noon on Dec. 21 at First Covenant Church located at 2526 J St. in Eureka, as part of the club’s monthly meeting.

Here are the “Jewels” on I Street:

* The gabled home of Joy Morrison located at 940 I St. is flanked by a pair of columnar junipers and a white picket fence. Clay containers of pansies are featured on the brick porch, steps and walk ways.

Tree roses, azaleas, Japanese maples and flowering cherries are in the corners with matching brick accents. Summer flowers includes oriental lilies, primroses, poppies, iris and peonies. Spring will bring a profusion of tulips, daffodils and lilacs.

* The two-story 1940s home at 1234 I St. is nestled under large tree rhododendrons and well-pruned pine trees. Larry and Sue Sherrer enjoy their display of variegated pieris, huckleberry, flowering maples and fuchsias.

The side yard is accented with day lilies, purple hebe, heathers, purple princess shrub, purple smoke tree,

pyracanthus and fragrant white mock orange. These are repeated in a high and low pattern along the sidewalk and street.

* Gerry Tollefson lives at 1314 I St. in a two-story yellow bungalow home with red trim. The two-tiered front yard with lush green lawn includes steps with wrought-iron railing accented with clay planters filled with blue hydrangeas. Mature rhododendrons, which are spectacular in the spring, tower over the agapanthus, mock orange, abelia and woodwardia fern. The yellow marguerite daisies repeat the house color.

* The corner of 14th and I streets is the location of the home of Gene and Shirley Box. The two-story red midwestern home has white wrought-iron railings to the front door. Symmetrical yews are located on the corners of the home, while red brick defines the borders containing abelia, and pieris.

The large corner raised-brick planter features heaths, geraniums, photinia and topiary junipers. California native plants and rhododendrons complete the picture.

* The First Presbyterian Church of Eureka, built in 1929, covers a full block between 14th and 15th streets and I and J streets. Professionally designed by Mary Gearhart, the flowering cherry trees, privet hedges and variegated pieris provide year-round color. The entrances are marked by stately junipers.

In the recessed garden you’ll find Japanese maples, dogwood, cypress, Australian tree fern and sword fern. The south garden is colorful with camellia, heather, abelia and native plants. Azaleas, New Zealand flax, heavenly bamboo, camellia and agapanthus complete the block.

* Soil Seekers of Arcata designed and installed the gardens for Jonell and Orville Roady to accent their 1950s home at 1515 I St. The colorful front yard repeats the pink color of the home with heathers and succulents.

Miniature mugo pine, ornamental grasses and wood ferns are nestled among the fuchsia plants. The curving walkway is next to the lush grass. Other featured plants include purple hebe, hydrangeas and heuchera.

* Jeff Hutchens owns the gray, early Eureka settler’s home with the salmon door at 2114 I St. Succulents (hen and chickens) invite the visitor to the front porch with the white railing. Flowering cherry and liquid amber trees provide seasonal color.

They are backed by azalea, pieris, photinia and mock orange. The curving cement walkway with exposed river rock provides more design details. Speckled aralia sparkles in the sun all year and is a great accent plant.

* The shingled, ranch-style home behind a 10-foot privet hedge at 2315 I St. reveals a lush green lawn for children to play on as they enjoy the playground equipment. Robin Newby has created a landscape with many California native plants including a coastal redwood tree, rhododendron, ferns and species geraniums.

The vegetable garden includes Asian pear, apple, lemon and lime trees. The accent area shows a rock garden with heathers and lavender, while the arbor is covered with vine lilac.

* The shingled gabled home and patio located at 2507 I St. are secluded behind an 8-foot hedge of privet, escallonia and ivy. Paul and Pam Gossard enjoy their two-story home with fall color provided by red-leafed Virginia creeper, which covers the arbor across the front of the home.

Seafoam roses are along the brick walkway and tree roses provide accents. Additional plantings include polyanthus roses, azaleas and ground covers.

* A cotoneaster street tree with gaillardia daisies brings you to the two-story, yellow-and-white Colonial Revival home located at 2509 I St. William Troiano and William Fust enjoy the white-picket fence near the yellow marguerite daisies.

The brick driveway, walkway and front porch feature variegated hebe and extend from the rose-covered arbor to the front porch and to the side yard with another rose-covered arbor. Priacanthus topiary trees flank the front door. Additional plants include rhododendrons, camellias and hydrangeas.

* Peter and Pam Kaufhold live at 3544 I St. in the modern white house with blue shutters. Pavers form a walkway through the front-yard landscape ending at the lattice arbor covered by wisteria.

Roses, rosemary and hebe cover the split rail fence near the street, while an assortment of gerbera daisies, lilies, New Zealand flax, gaillardia daisies, geranium and succulents cover the garden in raised beds. Pam’s collection of container-growing plants changes with the seasons. This is a good example of a lawn-free front yard.

* Larry Albin has designed and installed the landscaping at his residence at 3529 I St. The sage green, one-and-a-half-story bungalow home with white accents and a red front door features evergreen shrubs which look good all year round.

The mature trees in the front yard form a frame for the picturesque collection. Outdoor lighting shines on the New Zealand flax, heaths, heathers and trimmed junipers. Red rock ground cover completes the picture.

After the Boom, a Better Kind of Art

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SAY the words “design art” to Didier Krzentowski, and he makes a funny noise in his throat, as if something is stuck there. You don’t have to speak French to understand that Mr. Krzentowski, a founder of Galerie Kreo in Paris, is expressing disdain.

We were at Design Miami, the annual show of design art, or limited-edition furniture and accessories, that ended on Sunday. The event began in 2005 as a satellite to Art Basel in Miami Beach, to attract elite collectors who want a rarefied sofa to go with their Gerhard Richter.

This year, Galerie Kreo was introducing a bookcase by François Bauchet. The work, called Cellae 9, had the look of thinly sliced gray marble but was made of felt impregnated with resin. Only eight were produced, plus two artist’s proofs. The price was about $29,000. (Like many of the figures quoted in this article, that may rise as the number of available pieces declines.)

Mr. Krzentowski, who founded Kreo in 1999 with his wife, Clémence, has long worked with designers to produce objects that have the conceptual depth and rarity of fine art. But he dislikes the idea of lumping art and design into a single category. The pieces he sells are experimental, but they are not freewheeling in the way of many artworks; they have a function or at least allude to one. “Design means constraints,” he said approvingly.

The funny throat noise may have also come from the fact that, for many, the term “design art” means pretentious and opportunistic.

Blame the art boom. When limited-edition design was canonized as a serious collectible a few years ago (about the time an aluminum lounge chair by Marc Newson fetched nearly $1 million at auction), galleries took notice. Pieces by emerging designers were touted as blue chip investments. “Editions of 10” appeared in 10 different colors, diminishing rarity with every hue.

Like the rest of the art market, design art crashed with the economy, and for the most part, it has remained grounded. A version of a Ron Arad rocking chair called Loop Loom, which in 2006 sold at auction in Paris for $160,000, went for $75,000 at Phillips de Pury in New York on Tuesday, $5,000 below the low estimate.

That’s the economic picture. The creative picture is something else. Design Miami showed that design art (or whatever you want to call it) is thriving. The 36 exhibitors included not only contemporary-design veterans like Kreo, R 20th Century of New York and Nilufar of Milan, but also several newly hatched galleries.

Dealers reported satisfying sales, especially now that the fair is across the parking lot from the Miami Beach Convention Center, where Art Basel is based. Until three years ago, the event took place about five miles away, in a retail sector developed as the Miami Design District — not as easy a trek for the Richter-owning sofa buyer. This year, the fair’s organizers reported that more than 30,000 people visited over five days.

MOST impressive, Design Miami had a vigor that was missing from Art Basel, which was seven times its size. “Because it’s smaller, I have more space to play and more space to say something,” said Sebastian Errazuriz, whose work was shown by the New York contemporary design dealer Cristina Grajales and was also part of an exhibition of outdoor benches that Ms. Grajales organized at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Fla. Mr. Errazuriz designed one bench with a crystal chandelier ($24,000) and another with a pair of Julius Caesar busts ($20,000).

“Design art has so much growth potential where I’m fortunate to be a spearhead of this new movement,” Mr. Errazuriz said.

“Meanwhile, in the arts,” he said, “it’s so difficult to find something that stands out and proposes something new anymore.”

The fair offered a bracing combination of living design legends like Wendell Castle and Gaetano Pesce, vintage masters like the Eameses and Jean Prouvé, and younger talents (like the Chilean-born Mr. Errazuriz, 35), whom gallerists say have established their bona fides though museum collections or monographs.

Pamplin to hear news about Main Street makeover ideas

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Posted: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 9:32 am


Pamplin to hear news about Main Street makeover ideas

By STEPHANIE A. JAMES


Staff Writer

Representatives from Virginia Tech soon will present a plan for development along the entrance of Main Street in the Town of Pamplin.

The plan, to be presented in January, incorporates growth so that Main Street can be the attraction it once was.

It will offer different revitalization options where citizens will be able to voice their opinions at a public hearing set for Jan. 29 at 6 p.m.

Earlier this year at a meeting, Virginia Tech’s Community Design Assistance Center representatives solicited input on ideas that would encourage growth on Main Street.

Presently, Main Street has minimal business and features only the Pamplin Depot, a wood yard, and vacant storefront buildings.

At that earlier meeting, among ideas voiced citizens stated that they would like to have a train station and assisted living facility on Main Street. In addition scenery ideas included landscaping the area with dogwood trees and butterfly scapes.

Virginia Tech’s involvement in the revitalization of Pamplin was made possible through a $5,000 matching grant.

With the funds, Virginia Tech representatives were able to complete design work for the project.

In other news…

* The Pamplin Town Council agreed last Thursday to send a letter to the Appomattox Community Development Inspector so that an inspection can be done on a building on Main Street in Pamplin.

Acting mayor Jake Hamlett informed the Pamplin Town Council that there are bricks falling from the building onto the ground.

The Town’s action to get an inspection done on the building is part of the initial process of them trying to get the building condemned.

* The Pamplin Town Council agreed last Thursday to appoint Billy Horton as acting vice mayor.

* Jake Hamlett, who nominated Horton, is serving as acting mayor as Robert Mitchell is recovering from surgery.

Hamlett has been interim mayor since October.

Mitchell is expected to return to his duties as mayor in January.

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Gift ideas for your favorite gardener – Petoskey News

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Are you ready for Christmas? Me neither. Here are a few gift ideas for the gardener in your life. How about a magazine subscription? A couple of my favorites are “Organic Gardening,” and “Fine Gardening.” I’m going to try a new “Michigan Gardening” magazine I received information about.

Or how about a book to read during our cold winter months? One of my favorites is “Landscaping with Native Plants of Michigan” by Lynn M. Steiner. Other books I refer to frequently include, ‘Michigan Gardener’s Guide” by Boland, Coit and Hair, “The Berry Grower’s Companion” by Barbara Bowling, and “Superior Perennials for the Great Lakes States” third edition by David Mackenzie. If your gift is for an inexperienced gardener I’d recommend “The New Seed Starters Handbook” by Nancy Bubel. This book covers much more than seed starting. You’ll find good basic information on how to start seeds indoors, moving plants outdoors, special techniques and situations, saving seeds and garden planning. Another great book for the perennial gardener is “The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques” by Tracy DiSabato-Aust.

If your gardener doesn’t already have one, they might enjoy receiving a gardening journal. There are several different types available on Amazon or for the serious gardener check out the 10 year Gardener’s Journal at www.leevalley.com. I’ve used this journal since 2008. In the diary section, one page is given to each day of the year, and each page is divided into 10 sections — more than enough for 10 years of personal jottings. In addition to the diary pages, there is also a section on such gardening techniques as composting, digging garden beds, tree care, soils, and garden tool maintenance. They also provide reference material and numerous charts. There are several pages to record your inventory of perennials, more to record sketches of your garden, yet more to list plantings and harvestings, etc.

OK, here’s another idea I have found very handy. Get a five gallon bucket with a lid. I’ve seen these all around town at hardware stores and even Home Depot. Fill the bucket with garden tools such as pruners, trowel, cultivator, weeder, gloves, twine, or anything else frequently used in the garden. I leave my bucket at my garden gate or near another garden I may be working in throughout the gardening season. The lid keeps the tools dry if it should rain and your tools are always handy. Another variation on this idea is to get a mailbox, mount it on a post in your garden, decorate it and store your tools in it. The mailbox becomes useful garden art.

If you give a plant as a Christmas gift be sure to have the store clerk cover the plant for transportation to and from your car. Plants left in cold cars for extended periods of time while you do other shopping, won’t be very happy and may not survive very long after the gift is given.

One last idea, Sloggers garden shoes. They may be hard to find around town, but are easy to find on-line for less than $25 and are also great for just walking in the rain.

Cydney Steeb, Advanced Master Gardener, can be contacted at Emmet Conservation District, 3434 M-119, Harbor Springs (231) 439-8977 or cydney.steeb@macd.org. Her Gardening Wit and Wisdom column runs every Wednesday.

Toronto’s Bridgepoint Hospital weaves healing into its design

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When architects designed Toronto’s Bridgepoint Hospital – under construction on the eastern edge of the city’s Don River Valley – they had two reasons for making the 472 vertical windows an important visual feature: That’s the exact number of beds the new facility will hold; the vertical orientation symbolically represents patients getting back on their feet and into their communities.

“This hospital leads new thinking about the role of hospitals, how they’re designed and the features that will aid the rehabilitative and restorative processes that inspire health and wellness,” says Marian Walsh, president and chief executive officer of Bridgepoint Health.

To passersby, the sleek, 680,000-square-foot structure is the most visible indication that the four-hectare site is undergoing a massive redevelopment. Besides the construction of the new hospital, which is scheduled to open next April, the project includes the conversion of the 148-year-old Don Jail to Bridgepoint administration offices, demolition of the existing Bridgepoint Hospital and Toronto Jail, new landscaping and roadways. The $1.2-billion project is to be completed in spring 2014.

The new hospital will focus on complex chronic disease and disability care. Patients using the facility are coping with multiple ailments such as diabetes, cancer and musculoskeletal conditions. “We’re really focused on the more complex patient who carries a fairly high burden of illness and disability and who spends a lot of time in hospitals and doctors’ offices,” Ms. Walsh explains.

Fifty-seven per cent of Ontarians older than age 65 live with three or more chronic diseases, according to Bridgepoint Health. And complex continuing-care patients typically stay in hospital for up to three months, according to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Barrier-free patient rooms, wide corridors, handrails and infection control rooms have been designed with patient safety and comfort in mind. The hospital will have only single and double rooms where private three-piece bathrooms will mean better infection prevention.

All aspects of the new building – from communal dining rooms where patients will take their meals, to an Internet café, spiritual room, rooftop garden, visitor lounges, outside terraces and hairdressing services – have been designed to get patients out of their rooms, and motivated to manage their illnesses and return to their communities.

“The role of family members and other visitors, and the whole social environment for patients is hugely important,” explains Greg Colucci, principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, Toronto, which is the joint architect of record along with HDR Inc. of Omaha, Neb. “They need spaces that are conducive to a return to wellness.”

Bright floor-to-ceiling windows in every patient room will offer spectacular views of the city skyline to the west and the Riverdale neighbourhood to the east. Views of Lake Ontario to the south and Riverdale Park to the north allow patients to stay connected to nature.

That integration with the outdoors is critical, says Jane Merkley, vice-president of programs, services and professional affairs, and chief nurse executive for Bridgepoint Health. “Many of our patients have eight or nine chronic health issues. For months they’ve been in acute-care hospitals and therefore have an illness focus. We want to take away the sense that the hospital is an end destination for them.”

The community will be drawn into the building by visitor-friendly features, Mr. Colucci adds. For example, a grand entrance that leads to the main floor lobby is unlike many post-war hospitals that leave visitors guessing as to the location of the front door, he says. The main floor will feature glass walls, food concessions, retail outlets, learning centres, office space, an auditorium and an outdoor terrace with steps to parkland.

The landscaping deliberately blurs the boundaries between public and private property, Mr. Colucci says. Visitors can wander through Bridgepoint’s gardens and walkways where interpretive displays will communicate the history and significance of the site. A 20-metre-diameter public labyrinth – based on the medieval Chartres labyrinth near Paris – will be sized for wheelchairs and will promote mobilization, meditation and mental health.

For the first time, pedestrians and bicyclists using public trails won’t have to detour around the site. Without compromising patient and staff security, “we’ve made the site and its buildings permeable and have enabled a variety of means to access it, pass through it and walk around it,” Mr. Colucci says.

For staff, there will be decentralized nurses’ stations on every floor, windowed staff lounges, wellness programs, a fitness centre and, because it’s a University of Toronto-affiliated community teaching hospital, clinical training labs and educational resources.

The Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, with input from Diamond Schmitt and the University of Toronto School of Architecture, will, over a period of about 18 months, study whether the building is performing as expected in terms of improved outcomes for patients, Ms. Walsh says.

Long a place of refuge

Health and wellness services have been offered on the Bridgepoint site ever since the House of Refuge was established there in 1860.

– It became one of the first public hospitals in Toronto. In 1869 it helped to contain a smallpox epidemic.

– Two teams of architects are responsible for the two-tiered project design and delivery under Infrastructure Ontario’s Alternate Financing and Procurement program: Stantec Architecture / KPMB Architects, planning, design and compliance architects; HDR Architecture / Diamond Schmitt Architects, design, build, finance and maintain architects.

– Plenary Health was awarded the 33-year contract to design, build, finance and maintain the new Bridgepoint hospital. The team includes Plenary Group, PCL Constructors Canada Inc., Innisfree, HDR Architecture, Diamond Schmitt Architects, Johnson Controls Inc., and RBC Capital Markets.

Editor’s note: Two teams of architects are involved in the Bridgepoint project. Incomplete information appeared in the original version of this article. This online version has been corrected.

 

Neighbours object to underground swimming pool plans

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Neighbours object to underground swimming pool plans in Woodford Green

11:06am Wednesday 12th December 2012 in News


By Melanie Attlesey

A HOMEOWNER has applied to build an underground swimming and gym leading to concerns from neighbouring residents.

Isabella Honeyman of The Dell in Woodford Green has already started building the extension which will eventually contain the pool and gym if permission is granted, but this has prompted neighbours to object to the plans.

Rochelle Posner who lives on the High Road and whose house backs onto the property said in an objection letter to the council: “We have grave concerns regarding both contamination issues, substantially natural differences in garden levels but especially the important trees under preservation orders directly adjacent to the site.”

The two trees in question are both Turkey Oaks and are subject to a tree preservation order by the council, leading to an objection from the trees and landscaping department.

Mrs Posner added: “We are not against anyone improving and extending their homes in the traditional manner such as rear extensions which are disproportionate to the existing building, but this brand of home extension on an already heavily extended house in the shape of vast excavation work needs addressing urgently.

“Given the gardens are so close to each other we feel this would set a precedent for serious and inappropriate overdevelopment in relatively small but very mature gardens.”

Her neighbours Roger and Madeleine Davis have also objected to the building work.

They said: “Waste from the filtration of the pool must be properly  controlled by direct access to the house main drainage and if this cannot be guaranteed there is a grave risk of seepage beyond their boundary causing contamination to neighbouring properties.

“There is an unknown effect that such large underground structure might cause to local drainage of underground rainwater, by either retaining or diverting it, causing possible flooding or subsidence problems in other properties in the area.”

No date has yet been set for a decision to be made on the underground development.

The subject of underground developments in London is controversial as homeowners extend their homes beneath the surface because they can no longer build outwards.

A billionaire recently binned his plans to build a 50foot complex under his Chelsea home, which included a pool, cinema and staff quarters, because a provision for affordable housing had not been included in the design.

Comments(1)

mtp1db

says…

12:18pm Wed 12 Dec 12


I see this becoming more of an issue as time goes on as people have extended their house as far as they can and normally look awful. I personally I think these type of extensions are great but only if surrounding neighbors are okay with it and that the work is done to the highest standard.
mtp1db


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The green world of Khadra

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Colourful plants in colourful pots at Khadra Courtesy of Khadra’s Facebook page

Colourful plants in colourful pots at Khadra
Courtesy of Khadra’s Facebook page

Egypt is not a green country, most of the land is stark desert and only on a small strip around the Nile and in the Delta can lush greenery be found. To counteract this, more and more people are livening up their homes and balconies with plants and those who live outside the cities create little havens of greenery and flowers in their gardens. Family run Khadra is one of the places where you can find a large variety of home grown plants, shrubs and trees.

Khadra’s owner, Heba Yassin, started gardening later in life. “I moved out of the city to Mansoureia and because I had a large garden I started to learn how to plant and found out I loved it,” she said. “Over the years I learned more and sometimes helped out my friends with their gardens. I never planned for this to become a business but as I got better at it my daughters convinced me to start doing it professionally. It really is a combination of retirement and hobby that became a job.”

The set up of Khadra is different in that they do not have a shop where they sell their plants. “I have a big garden and green house where we grow our plants, herbs, trees and shrubs,” Yassin said. “We organise events here every two to three months where people can come and see what we have on offer. Other than that I take pictures of our plants and post them on Facebook and people contact us to order. We deliver directly to their homes so there is no need for a shop.”

Besides Yassin, five gardeners work in Khadra. “I love growing things but I am not interested in the business side of things which is why my daughter joined me, she handles that,” Yassin said. “I do the Facebook page and I take the pictures I post myself. They are not professional, sometimes you see my dogs in the background, but I think people are a bit fed up with things being too perfect. The fact the images are not perfect makes it obvious that these really are the plants we have.”

Khadra does more than just sell plants for gardens, homes and balconies. “We do landscaping for gardens and have been commissioned by several restaurants to design the plants for their interiors. Sometimes an architect will give us a colour scheme or we make a design of what we feel fits the place,” Yassin said.

The pots Khadra offers are varied; they range from ceramic to wooden barrels and metal buckets, and come in a large spectrum of colours. “I like combining the colours of flowers with the colours of the pots, yet I could not always find the exact shade I wanted. We have a machine that is used to paint cars and create the exact colours we want,” Yassin explained.

All plants come with a card that explains if they need sun or shade and how often they have to be watered, “to make sure people will be able to enjoy their plants for a long time,” said Yassin.

One of Khadra’s bestsellers is a large pot that combines six different fresh herbs that can easily grow on a balcony. “More and more people like to grow their own food, and we offer a variety of plants, from fresh herbs to citrus trees that work on balconies as well as in gardens,” Yassin said.