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Expert Advice

October 5, 2012


Steve Maxwell

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

“Nestled into a thin layer of black soil, beneath a sparse covering of small white cedar trees, there’s a layer of limestone like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“One side benefit of small operations like this is that it’s easy to manage things responsibly, in a way that doesn’t leave an ugly, damaged landscape behind.”

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While it’s obvious that the Internet has changed the world in big ways, the full extent of these changes isn’t always easy to see. One of the most influential is the way the Internet lubricates the wheels of tiny ventures across the globe. Entrepreneurs with business ideas that used to be too small and specialized to be commercially viable can now find customers they’d never have connected with otherwise. Sometimes lots of customers.

As a homeowner, this also means you’ve got access to items that no physical store could ever carry, offering real benefits for those of us looking to add unique details to our houses and yards. This dynamic of small businesses reaching out digitally to find wider markets is at least as true for home improvement options as anything else. And a one-man venture offering the most unique landscaping stone I’ve seen is a perfect example.

For 25 years it’s been a serious hobby of mine to seek out formations of limestone bedrock, quarry the materials using simple hand tools and then use the blocks I unearth to build traditional stone walls, arches and foundations. I love stone and the shapes imposed on it by human hands following traditional methods. The work has taken me to countless outcroppings of bedrock in the fields and forests near my house. My long-term preoccupation with stone has also prompted me to look at bedrock farther afield wherever I find it, and that’s what led me to a guy named Pete Paquet.

In 1982, Paquet discovered a few acres of rural Ontario that are quite a geological oddity. Nestled into a thin layer of black soil, beneath a sparse covering of small white cedar trees, there’s a layer of limestone like nothing I’ve ever seen. The geological composition of the rock itself is the same as what you’ll find for miles around, but that’s where the similarity ends.

Paquet’s rock sits on the unproductive outskirts of what has been used as cattle pasture for the last 100 years, and exists in layers 6 to 20 inches thick, naturally separated from underlying stone by a fortunate accident of nature that put a few inches of soil between it and the bedrock below. More importantly, however, is the striking way each piece of stone has weathered into one-of-a-kind shapes as it sits on the thin soil. I’ve never seen anything like it, and neither have professional stone guys I’ve talked with.

Points, holes, fingers, lobes and crevices make each stone unique, and much different than the standard blocks of landscaping limestone you see everywhere these days. Pete pulls these stones out carefully with his loader, brushes them off, then packages and ships them to individual customers across Canada and the U.S. for installation around homes and businesses. Although all the stones formed horizontally under the influence of rain and sun and wind, their beauty comes through visually when the stones are mounted vertically, held that way by a reinforced concrete base poured just below ground level.

Unlike my work shaping stone for traditional building projects, Paquet’s aim is completely different. No scratches, breaks or damage can be tolerated on these things. They’ve got to remain completely natural throughout the extraction and installation process, and this is a trick that he has perfected.

For more than 20 years, it wasn’t possible to do much with these stones beyond the small, local market, but then the Internet kicked in. Paquet has created a digital outreach that he calls Signature Stones (signaturestones.ca, 1-705-377-4213) and the only problem is that it’s making him way too busy. As it turns out, even a small slice of widespread demand can be huge for little guys.

One side benefit of small operations like this is that it’s easy to manage things responsibly. After the stones are removed, the thin soil cover remains for new cedar trees to move in, just as they had grown there originally. Paquet’s only real ecological concern is the appearance of a very large black bear that regularly visits his operation from time to time.

One popular lament about modern life is the way creativity and unique details are extinguished by technology and mass production that only gives us access to the same consumer goods everyone else has. And while this fact has been strikingly true in the past, something unusual is happening. As technology is becoming more advanced, a certain threshold has been reached. We now find ourselves moving into a whole new world of creative home improvement options, rippling out into areas no one could have guessed even 10 years ago.

Who would have thought that the Internet would ever be instrumental in connecting a tired, rocky pasture in a very quiet corner of rural Ontario with the landscaping around swanky homes, offices and corporate headquarters across North America?

Steve Maxwell, syndicated home improvement and woodworking columnist, has shared his DIY tips, how-to videos and product reviews since 1988. Send questions through stevemaxwell.ca/ask-steve, connect with him on Facebook at Canada’s Handiest Man or follow him on Twitter at @Maxwells_Tips.

Editor’s picks

LAKE ELSINORE: Water district offering free landscape workshop – Press

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Did you know almost 70 percent of household water use is outside the home? Consider a change to low-water-use plants and groundcover as an alternative to a thirsty turf landscape.

Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District provides free landscape workshops twice a year to homeowners who wish to design a new landscape or convert existing landscape to low water use. Classes include landscape design, drip irrigation, native and California Friendly plants, and watering and fertilizing.

Join landscape architect Jean Marsh for the free fall landscape workshop hosted by Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District on Oct. 13 at 9 a.m.

The four-hour seminar will include basic landscape design and drought-tolerant plants. Residents can learn about the most appropriate landscaping choices for our climate. Landscape ideas presented at the workshop are designed with cost, time and water savings in mind.

EVMWD customers unable to attend the workshop can visit the beautiful Temescal Garden Showcase at The Diamond baseball stadium for low-water-use plant and landscape design ideas. The gardens are always open to the public.

The workshop will be held at the EVMWD offices at 31315 Chaney St., Lake Elsinore.

EVMWD provides service to more than 140,000 water, wastewater and agricultural customers in a 96-square mile service area in Western Riverside County. The District is a subagency of the Western Municipal Water District and a member agency of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Visit the EVMWD website at www.evmwd.com for additional information.

Boekelheide: October is transition time in gardening

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October is a transition month in University City gardens. If March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, October arrives hot as a jalapeño but leaves as cool and crisp as a fresh green salad.

That parallels how the food garden works this time of year: You’ll still have peppers and green beans at the beginning of the month, but by the time Halloween rolls around, you’ll be picking greens, lettuce, carrots and beets.

October isn’t just a good time to enjoy food gardening. A number of other garden and landscape jobs are on the October calendar, and they are a lot more fun to do now that fall is in the air.

The only bad news is that it’s too late to plant most vegetables. This is the time when you reap the harvest sown in August and early September, not the time to start your garden. You might get away with a late planting of spinach or mustard greens, but even those are iffy.

The exception is garlic. The middle of this month is prime time for planting garlic to harvest next June or July. More on that in a future column.

If your planting mojo won’t leave you in peace, don’t worry. Redirect your energy to planting trees, shrubs and perennials. Mid-to-late October is prime time to set out new landscaping plants. Watch for bargains at local nurseries, and be on the lookout for fall plant sales sponsored by botanical gardens, schools and garden clubs.

One especially good opportunity, if you are interested in adding blueberries, blackberries and other fruit producers to your edible landscape, is Mecklenburg Cooperative Extension’s fall fruit crops sale. The sale benefits local 4H programs serving youth. You have until Nov. 7 to place your order. To learn more call 704-336-2082 or visit http://mecklenburg.ces.ncsu.edu/2012/09/mecklenburg-cooperative-extension-fall-plant-sale.

Extension programs in other counties also have sales, so you may also want to Google around a bit. I’ve seen an excellent selection at Renfrow Hardware in Matthews, and you can’t beat their good advice.

Rabbiteye blueberries deserve a special note. Rabbiteyes are local native plants, and the 4H sale offers varieties such as Tifblue that thrive here, produce a tasty harvest and look great in the landscape, with beautiful fall leaves that linger into January. Remember: They like our acidic soils just as Nature made them; no lime, please! Choose a couple of varieties (say, Tifblue and Climax) so they can pollinate each other for maximum fruit production.

The 4H sale plants are from good Southeastern nurseries (though not from North Carolina) and have strong root systems. They produce best in full sun but can tolerate some shade.

If you plant new trees, shrubs or perennials in October, be sure to water them religiously if we hit a dry spell, as happens this time of year. That also applies to all container plants and to shallow-rooted azaleas, even established ones. Your azaleas and camellias are preparing to bloom next spring, and you don’t want them to get stressed.

This is also a good month for all those odds-and-ends lawn maintenance jobs, including aeration (a core-type aerator is best – forget the spiky shoes, which were invented mostly to give ankle doctors more business). You can also add a sprinkle of compost after aeration.

If you have a fescue lawn, this is a good time to overseed whole lawns or fix patches. When you seed, keep the area evenly moist and very gently remove tree leaves daily. This is not the right time to seed Bermudagrass or other warm season grasses, but you can overseed warm-season lawns with annual ryegrass to keep them green through the winter.

When the leaves start falling at the end of the month, be sure to rake them off the lawn. Next month, we’ll all have plenty of free material to make compost with.

Start preparing now. Make sure your compost bin is in a spot that is convenient to reach. Beside your site, you can now informally pile up weeds and old vegetables left from the summer garden, then mix them with leaves when they start falling in a few weeks.

By the same token, you can get a jump on your spring vegetable garden by making beds now to use for early crops. Leave the beds in place under a sprinkle of straw or leaf mulch. When rains return early next spring, they can make it too wet to work the soil but not too wet to sow seeds or set out transplants of cool-season crops such as spinach, lettuce and sugar snap peas. Preparing your beds now in the fall – a trick learned from successful farmers – enables you to plant in early spring even when it’s too soggy to dig.

One last hint from experience: If you have sweet potatoes or sprawling winter squash or pumpkins in your garden, or ornamental sweet potatoes in your landscape, harvest them now and pile the vines where you can put them in the compost or use them for mulch. If you wait until a frost, you will end up with a black, gooey mess, since the leaves and stems turn to slime in cold weather.

It may fit the Halloween theme; it certainly makes for a scary cleanup job.

Speaking of Halloween, it’s worth noting that Rhode Island farmer Ron Wallace grew the world-record biggest pumpkin this summer; it weighed in at 2,007 pounds. That’s one scary Jack o’ Lantern!

Now if only our politicians could grow the economy like that.

Natives’ colourful display

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WE'D like to draw your attention to a couple of delightful small native plants that we feel would provide a lot of pleasure for anyone with a garden.

Banksia Allyn Gold

WE’D like to draw your attention to a couple of delightful small native plants that we feel would provide a lot of pleasure for anyone with a garden, whatever the size.

The first is the delightful hardenbergia Mini Haha, a lovely form of the well-known H. violacea that produces an abundance of its eye-catching clusters of bright purple pea-shaped flowers at this time of year on a dense green, compact, 75cm tall and wide shrub.

Its main requirements are a full or ample part-sun situation with well-drained soil providing some moisture retention.

The second is the beautiful banksia Roller Coaster, a cultivar of the well-known B. integrifolia.

Roller Coaster grows to 50cm tall and 1.5 to 2m wide, producing its large yellow candlesticks against a background of dense, deep-green foliage from autumn, throughout the year.

It has similar soil and sun requirements to Mini Haha, and both make excellent tub specimens – think what a colourful display you’d have if you planted Roller Coaster and Mini Haha alternately along a driveway, and two or three containers of either or both would brighten a sunny balcony or patio beautifully.

As a final thought on these lovely plants, if you have an area where you can create an eye-catching new garden bed with a tall central plant surrounded by lower growers, plant the tall growing grevillea Honey Gem that flowers most of the year round, with a row of the hardenbergias, then a border of the Roller Coaster – the birds would never leave your garden!

 

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Landscaping seminars offered

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The Chesterfield County office of Virginia Cooperative Extension is offering a series of free lawn and landscape seminars this month.

From learning about the fitness benefits of gardening to discovering native plants, novice and experienced gardeners will appreciate these seminars.

Backyard Smorgasbord – 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6, at Meadowdale Library.

Discover how to create enjoyable and environmentally friendly backyard habitats.

Your New Tree – 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 8, at Central Library. Learn about selecting, planting and caring for a new tree.

Gardening and Fitness – 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 10, at Midlothian Library.

Gardening may be the best-kept secret to getting and staying in shape.

Native Gardening – 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 15, at Chester Library. Learn about native plants in natural landscapes, and preserving and restoring native plants into gardens.

To register for any of the seminars, call 804-751-4401.

Garden to-do list for October

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October is the month for several important gardening chores. Here’s a rundown:

Clean garden beds in preparation for winter. Many insects and diseases winter-over in fallen debris. Prune diseased leaves from roses, camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas. But leave leaf litter under oaks, pine and junipers, since the leaf duff helps protect the roots.

Add a mulch layer to existing garden beds to provided needed nutrients for next year’s crops. However, don’t practice wall-to-wall mulching; it’s important to leave areas of exposed native soil for ground-nesting bees.

Trim perennials such as salvias, penstemons, yarrow and buddleia (butterfly bush) to between half to one-third their existing size to stimulate new growth in the spring.

Harvest persimmons by cutting, rather than pulling, the fruit to avoid damaging the tree. Harvest Fuyu persimmons when firm and crisp; wait to harvest the Hachiya variety until fruit is soft.

Chill tulip bulbs now (place them in the refrigerator, not the freezer) so they will be ready for planting before the first frost. These bulbs need about six to eight weeks of chilling time before planting. But avoid storing your bulbs near apples, since apples emit ethylene gas, which will cause the bulbs to sprout prematurely.

Sow native wildflowers. Poppies, clarkias, lupines and blue-eyed Marys are easy to start from seed. Planting just before the winter rains

start will prevent the need for watering.

(For our complete list of October gardening tips, go to www.mastergardeners.org/tips/october.html.)

What to plant now

Local nurseries should have a good supply of most of the following for transplanting: arugula, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, chives, fava beans, garlic, kale, lettuce, mustard, onions, parsley, peas, potatoes, spinach and Swiss chard.

October also is the time for the following seeds: arugula, fava beans, garlic, kale, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and spinach.

(To find a list of cool-season vegetables that do well in Santa Clara County, go to http://mastergardeners.org/picks/cool.html or call the hotline.)

The Santa Clara County Master Gardener Program is a University of California Cooperative Extension volunteer organization dedicated to providing research-based gardening information to home gardeners. Have a question for Rebecca Jepsen and the other Master Gardeners? Call the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener hotline in San Jose at 408-282-3105 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Visit the Master Gardeners website at www.mastergardeners.org.

Midi-Pyrenees Feature : October Gardening in South West France – Guide 2 Midi

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Midi-Pyrenees Feature : October Gardening in South West France

In his second article on gardening in South West France, Gary McArthur gives some gardening tips and ideas of what gardening jobs need to be done during October.  Future articles will appear on the first Monday of each month, giving tips and advice for the coming few weeks.

It is now an excellent time to plant bulbs in the garden, which could be planted along with some low growing hardy annual seeds for extra spring colour.

 

October Garden in South West France

Due to the diverse climate here in the South West, it is difficult to give any sure advice on Dahlias and Cannas (and Gladioli), but after the first hard frost, these plants will need attention.  Once frosted and brown they should be lifted and dried, (turned upside down for a week or so in a dark barn or shed), then stored somewhere dark, cool, dry and frost free for the winter. 

 

Alternatively they can be left in the ground (provided it never gets waterlogged) and buried in a deep layer of mulch or compost.  I have a bed of Canna musifolia, a tall 2-3m variety which now cover over 3 metres of ground so would be impossible to dig up.  Each year, I bury all of them with a cubic metre of compost which really seems to help root development and keeps them producing several hundred flowers a year.  Dahlias are perhaps the most at risk of frost damage.  They do after all come from Mexico (first introduced by the way because of their edible roots, not the flowers).

 

Continue to clean herbaceous plants and mulch the ground well.  Although our soils are quite fertile, mulching will supply valuable bacteria which will in turn allow the plants to feed.

 

It is now the very start of the tree and shrub planting season.  After the recent light rains, the soil is easier to work, and by planting before the winter, plants have a chance of getting roots established, before the long hot summer.

 

It’s the best time of year to start work on Compost heaps.  Old heaps can be turned, and new heaps sited and constructed. Most of us have so much garden waste that a compost heap becomes a real asset for both a convenient site to dump all the leaf litter and dead foliage but of course primarily to create dark usable compost. It is difficult to sum up construction of a heap in a few lines but remember first and foremost that compost only works with lots of air, water and nitrogen. Therefore old pallets or an open wood construction would be better.  If it doesn’t rain it is advisable to water the heap regularly.  Adding a nitrogen rich fertiliser will help the process, as well as peeing on the heap regularly, (this will create more bacteria creating compost faster).  Provided there are no large tree branches the compost can be ready for use in one or two months.

Other jobs in the garden

 

  • Pumpkins and squashes will soon need cutting and storing. Try to cut leaving a stork and a few centimetres of foliage as this will help stop them rotting. Store on wood above the ground in a cool, dark, dry place.
  • Herbs can be cut and bunches simply tied and hung up in the kitchen to dry.
  • Lawns should be cut and after a week fed for the winter. If you are really keen its a good time to tine the lawn either with a fork or a small machine.
  • Tender plants should be cut back and brought in for the winter.
  • Peas, spinach and radish can be sown in the vegetable garden.

 

 

If you have any gardening questions for Gary, then feel free to post them in our gardening forum

 

 

Gary McArthur

Gary has a HND in Amenity Horticulture, a BSc (honours) Degree in Landscape Management and over 30 years of practical experience in the Horticultural trade. 

 

Gary owns and runs Kingdom Vegetal garden centre with his wife Nikki

 

For all your gardening needs, visit Kingdom Vegetal in Boulogne sur Gesse or take a look at the Kingdom Vegetal information page.

 

 

 

 

 

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Your Garden Guy: Tips for adding pansies to your landscape

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• Buy and plant pansies now for better root growth and vigor going into the cooler months.

• Lightly till or turn the soil with a shovel. Add some organic matter and work into the area.

• Pansies like sun. So make sure the bed will get four or more hours of sun a day. Consider that trees shading an area today will drop all of those leaves and allow more sun to shine on the bed.

• Pansies look best when planted close together in masses. Use flower colors that are the same, or try mixing just two colors together.

• Bright colored flowers, such as yellow and white or light blue and white, are more noticeable from the street.

• Pansies look great in containers, too.

• Because pansies are heavy feeders, use a liquid fertilizer every two to four weeks.

• Deer and squirrels love to eat tulip and crocus bulbs. This year, when planting, place chicken wire over the bulbs and then add the soil.

Todd Goulding provides residential landscape design consultations. Contact him at GouldingDesignGroup@gmail.com.

Garden Tips: Plants need conditioning before moving inside for the winter

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It is time to start getting houseplants that have been outdoors or on the patio all summer ready to move back indoors.

If you bring them inside without any advance conditioning, plants can suffer serious shock. The change can cause leaves to turn yellow or drop off.

Here’s how to ease the journey indoors for your plants:

About two weeks before you expect to bring your plants inside, start getting them adjusted to less sunlight. Do this by moving them into a bit more shade during the day.

Let them dry before watering. This will help them adjust to the indoor environment.

Do not fertilize your plants before moving them inside. Fertilizer can add new growth before they get adjusted to the new environment.

Inspect plants for insects before you bring them inside. Insects hide on the undersides of leaves. You can wipe your leaves, using a fine spray of water at room temperature. This also will remove any dust from the leaves.

Check your plants to make sure they are not root- bound. If you see roots coming out of the bottom of the pot, move the plant to a larger pot. The pot should be no more than 2 inches larger in diameter than the pot in which it is currently growing. The new pot should have at least one drainage hole.

If you have seeds left from this year’s garden there is no reason you cannot save them for next year. Proper storage of seeds can greatly increase the chance of germination next year. The seeds should be air-dried and placed in a glass container with an air-tight lid. Keep this in a refrigerator or in a cool area at a temperature between 35 and 50 degrees. Do not save seeds from vegetables labeled “hybrid” Many of the new, improved vegetable seeds are hybrid. Seeds from hybrid varieties produce a mixture of plant types.

Vegetable seeds that are fairly simple to store at home for three to five years are tomato, peas, beans, lettuce, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, cucumber, watermelon, and squash. Seeds with a short shelf life (one year or less) are onion, sweet corn and parsley. Be sure the containers are labeled and dated.

E-mail your gardening questions to bleigh1@utk.edu. Include your name and the area where you live. For more gardening information, call the Tipton County Extension office at 901-476-0231 or the Shelby County Extension office at 901-752-1207. Booker T. Leigh is the extension director for Tipton County.

Hervé Van der Straeten Unwinds in the Garden

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By NICOLE SWENGLEY

The French artist-designer talks to The Wall Street Journal Europe about how he spends his weekend.

Hervé Van der Straeten is an artistic multitasker whose work is rooted in the hand-craft traditions of French decorative arts. Initially known for his eye-catching jewelry, his main focus now is the contemporary furniture and lighting he makes at his own bronze and cabinetmaking workshops in Paris. These sell at Galerie Van Der Straeten in the French capital while collaborations with French luxury brands have, among other designs, resulted in scent bottles for Dior, Guerlain and YSL.

[image]Cécil Mathieu/courtesy of Galerie Van der Straeten

Hervé Van der Straeten

Next week, the award-winning designer will show his latest limited-edition furniture and lighting at the Pavilion of Art Design in London’s Berkeley Square. A dozen new, highly sculptural designs, including console tables, mirrors, chairs and chandeliers, bear all the hallmarks of his signature style: bold forms, elegant lines and the precision-crafting of contrasting materials, including bronze, lacquer, stone, anodized aluminum, wood and Plexiglass.

“I’m always challenging myself with new shapes and combinations of materials,” he says.

When he isn’t jetting between Paris, London, Berlin, Milan, New York and China, the 47-year-old designer enjoys quiet weekends at his 18th-century cottage in Burgundy with his partner, Bruno Frisoni, the artistic director of shoe brand Roger Vivier, and Alfred, his siamese cat, who travels with them.

How do you start your weekend?

We travel from Paris on Friday evenings by train or car to my house in Burgundy. It’s an 18th-century cottage with a lot of charm and is a complete contrast from my big, modern loft in Paris. Supper is the highlight of Friday evening because cooking is one of my great hobbies—I find it very relaxing. As the house is located between Sancerre and Chablis territory, we drink a very good bottle of wine and I make soup using herbs from the garden and roast a duck, which we have with a tomato and basil salad followed by garden strawberries with verbena jelly or poached pears. I like to use as much fruit and vegetables as possible from the garden.

Do you spend Saturday working in the garden then?

Exactly. Gardening is my other great passion. I bought the property as a wreck six years ago and have slowly been restoring both the house and garden. Tania Compton, a U.K.-based garden designer, helped me choose the right plants for the soil. There are several English rose varieties and lots of verbena bonariensis, which has very elegant, geometric branches and grows like crazy. As well as growing vegetables and herbs, I love clipping the box trees. I’m into structure and shape so the topiary is very precise—a bit like making something in my woodworking studio.

Is gardening an antidote to designing?

For me it’s a form of meditation because my mind is only focused on the aesthetic of the tree. Because I’m mainly indoors during the week, either at my studios or in the gallery, I like to be outside as much as possible at weekends. On Saturday morning I always go shopping in the local farmers’ market, especially if we have visitors from Paris staying with us. On Saturday evening we often have supper with friends in the neighborhood and sometimes someone will hold an informal concert at their house with a jazz singer and pianist.

What about Sundays?

During the autumn and spring, we spend Sunday mornings at a local vide-grenier [garage sale] as there are many in the neighborhood. I bought a big bunch of silver-plated cutlery for 15 centimes a piece at the last one. My cottage is furnished with old furniture bought at local vide-greniers or Drouot, the Paris auction house, where I recently picked up eight stuffed boars for a room I’m turning into a party space. Even though my own style is very contemporary, I’ve always liked historic furniture. You can learn a lot from its proportions, shape and scale.

Do you like to forget about work?

Visiting the cottage with all its old pieces gives me a total break from my own aesthetic. There’s none of my own furniture here. But I always have my sketchbook with me and enjoy working on the move. If we aren’t driving, the train back to Paris on Sunday evening is ideal for dreaming.