DELRAY BEACH, Fla., March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ —
Delray Garden Center of Delray Beach, FL has been honored with a recognition by South Florida Business Journal in its selection of “Top Landscaping Companies.”

Announcing a special recognition appearing in the August 2011 issue of South Florida Business Journal published by American City Business Journals, Delray Garden Center was selected for the following honor:

“Top Landscaping Companies”

A spokesperson from Delray Garden Center commented on the recognition: “This is quite an honor for us. The fact that South Florida Business Journal included Delray Garden Center in its selection of ‘Top Landscaping Companies,’ signals that our constant efforts towards business excellence are paying off. We are proud to be included in this recognition.”

About Delray Garden Center:

Centrally located at 3827 W Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach, Delray Garden Center is a full service Landscape Design Center that offers you the luxury of extending your indoor living space to seamlessly include your outdoor living areas. Our experienced staff will create and install your personal oasis turning your dreams into reality. Our services include everything from Pavers Pergolas, Walls Waterfalls, Fountains Fire Pits, to Lighting the Landscape of your dreams. Please come see us at our Beautiful Retail Garden Center and stroll through OUR oasis.

Following the publication of Delray Garden Center’s selection for South Florida Business Journal’s Top Landscaping Companies list, American Registry seconded the honor and added Delray Garden Center to the “Registry of Business Excellence(TM).” An exclusive recognition plaque, shown here, has been designed to commemorate this honor.

For more information on Delray Garden Center, located in Delray Beach, FL please call 561-243-6869, or visit
www.delgarden.com .

This press release was written by American Registry, LLC with contributions from Delray Garden Center on behalf of Delray Garden Center and was distributed by PR Newswire, a subsidiary of UBM plc.

American Registry, LLC is an independent company that serves businesses and professionals such as Delray Garden Center who have been recognized for excellence. American Registry offers news releases, plaques and The Registry(TM), an online listing of over 2 million significant business and professional recognitions. Search The Registry(TM) at
http://www.americanregistry.com .

Contact Info: Delray Garden Center Phone: 561-243-6869Email Address: dgc@bellsouth.net

SOURCE Delray Garden Center

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Strangely enough, there are few great gardening apps available, as last week’s App Smart column pointed out. But this is such a big market opportunity that niche media companies will inevitably join the fray.

Indeed, notable new ones are already starting to appear. Among them is Garden Design with Jamie Durie ($3 on Apple), which is anchored by the host of HGTV’s “The Outdoor Room” and longtime Oprah gardening guest.

The app includes a video introduction from Mr. Durie, a deep well of garden photos and a plant-finder tool that includes photos and text.

It has a few rough edges. The Jamie’s Gardens section, for instance, includes hundreds of garden photos, which serve as design ideas. But if you scroll through on an iPhone, the thumbnail images are so small that they’re often nearly useless. (Far more space is given to the title of each design.)

But just as it’s the early days for the category, it’s also the early days for Mr. Durie’s app. With time, it should grow nicely.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., March 27, 2012 — Delray Garden Center of Delray Beach, FL has been honored with a recognition by South Florida Business Journal in its selection of “Top Landscaping Companies.”

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Announcing a special recognition appearing in the August 2011 issue of South Florida Business Journal published by American City Business Journals, Delray Garden Center was selected for the following honor:

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120327/DC77470)

“Top Landscaping Companies”

A spokesperson from Delray Garden Center commented on the recognition: “This is quite an honor for us. The fact that South Florida Business Journal included Delray Garden Center in its selection of ‘Top Landscaping Companies,’ signals that our constant efforts towards business excellence are paying off. We are proud to be included in this recognition.”

About Delray Garden Center:

Centrally located at 3827 W Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach, Delray Garden Center is a full service Landscape Design Center that offers you the luxury of extending your indoor living space to seamlessly include your outdoor living areas. Our experienced staff will create and install your personal oasis turning your dreams into reality. Our services include everything from Pavers Pergolas, Walls Waterfalls, Fountains Fire Pits, to Lighting the Landscape of your dreams. Please come see us at our Beautiful Retail Garden Center and stroll through OUR oasis.

Following the publication of Delray Garden Center‘s selection for South Florida Business Journal‘s Top Landscaping Companies list, American Registry seconded the honor and added Delray Garden Center to the “Registry of Business Excellence™.” An exclusive recognition plaque, shown here, has been designed to commemorate this honor.

For more information on Delray Garden Center, located in Delray Beach, FL please call 561-243-6869, or visit www.delgarden.com.

This press release was written by American Registry, LLC with contributions from Delray Garden Center on behalf of Delray Garden Center and was distributed by PR Newswire, a subsidiary of UBM plc.

American Registry, LLC is an independent company that serves businesses and professionals such as Delray Garden Center who have been recognized for excellence. American Registry offers news releases, plaques and The Registry™, an online listing of over 2 million significant business and professional recognitions. Search The Registry™ at http://www.americanregistry.com.

Contact Info: Delray Garden Center Phone: 561-243-6869Email Address: dgc@bellsouth.net

SOURCE Delray Garden Center

Two meetings upcoming on Barton CSO rain garden project

The first on Wednesday, March 28 and the second on Saturday, March 31

Dow Constantine Letter Barton CSO.doc

Information from King County
King County will be hosting two community meetings for Westwood Village Sunrise Heights neighbors to discuss the Barton Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) project. This project is designed to control CSOs at the Barton Pump Station near the Fauntleroy Ferry Dock.

1st meeting
Wednesday, March 28, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Presentation starts at 6:45
Westside School
7740 34th Ave S.W.

2nd meeting
Saturday, March 31, 10 a.m. to noon
Presentation starts at 10:15
High Point Community Center
6920 34th Ave S.W.

The project team invites you to learn about:
– Streets selected for detailed evaluation
– Process used for street selection
– Next steps
– Opportunities for public input

Meetings include a short presentation on bioswale (rain garden) design and street selection, and sessions to discuss streets in detail and receive neighborhood feedback.

For more information, special accommodations, or questions, contact: Kristine Cramer at 206-263-3184 or kristine.kramer@kingcounty.gov.

The County’s website for the project is found here.

Background from the Herald
The above opportunities this week provide citizens with a chance to learn more and ask questions about King County’s plans to install rain gardens in the Westwood and Sunrise Heights neighborhoods of West Seattle. The goal is to help reduce sewer overflows into Puget Sound.

A group of neighbors have spoken out against the project, noting similarities they have found with the West Seattle project and a partially-botched 2011 rain garden project in Ballard.

Westwood resident Sabrina Urquhart said in an email, “Many neighbors are upset and concerned. We know the problem of sewer overflows must be fixed–but don’t support the proposed project because it will create life safety hazards in the public right of way, negatively impact quality of life and reduce housing values. We believe this project should be stopped.”

She goes on to write:

“The rain gardens project in Ballard was a disaster (http://ballardraingardengue.wordpress.com/) and King County found the same soils in West Seattle. The project is another costly experiment that risks taxpayers’ safety and money.

“Many citizens in West Seattle are concerned that the project is unsafe, unfair and untested as described in the attached letter (a link is provided at the top of the story) several residents sent to King County Executive, Dow Constantine, the chief decision-maker on this project.

“This project will continue to be replicated in neighborhoods throughout Seattle–so all residents need to know what’s going on–before it comes to their streets.”

In an interview with the Herald, King County Barton CSO project manager Mary Wohleb expressed her belief that the longer time frame and greater funds applied to research and design for the West Seattle project will result in positive outcomes very different from the Ballard experience.

To read more, please check out the following Herald articles:
West Seattle rain garden project evokes neighborhood worry after Ballard troubles

West Seattle neighborhoods get the rundown on rain garden project to reduce Sound pollution

Also included at the top of the story is a downloadable version of a letter sent from a group of residents to King County Executive Dow Constantine asking him to halt the project.

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On my bookshelf is a 1956 DIY guide from Better Homes and Gardens. Its title is as practical and straightforward as the homes from that era: Decorating Book. The interiors in the photos are fascinating and nostalgic, and there are plenty of quaint touches, like an illustration of a husband and wife brandishing their favorite “accessories”: hers are a framed picture, a lamp and a potted plant; his a trophy, a ship in a bottle and a rifle. Of course, this was long before there were terms like man cave. But the fact is, this book has much of the same basic advice designers are touting today, because these are the universal rules that help regular people create the interiors they really want. (And funnily enough, it seems like everyone wants to live in a 1956-excuse me, Midcentury-interior again, but perhaps without the firearms.)

1. Start with Use

If you hired a professional designer to transform your living room, they wouldn’t start by asking what colors you like or what style you have in mind. They would ask you, “What do you do in this room?” Successful interior design revolves around use. A finished interior can look completely fabulous, but if it doesn’t suit the way you live in the space, it just won’t work. It’s also important to be realistic. If you have young kids, for example, don’t plan on things staying where they belong or games being played in their designated areas. (But why am I telling you this? You have young kids. You know what it’s like.) The point is, don’t try to make the lifestyle fit the design scheme; do it the other way around.

2. Characterize the Space

This is along the lines of the popular advice, “choose a theme,” but the real goal is to define your tastes and vision much more clearly than saying you’d like a French Country living room or an Asian-inspired bedroom. It helps to actually put your theme in writing. Define how should the room feel-is it a traditional masculine social space with all but the whiff of pipe smoke or is it light, smart and airy, like a Scandinavian family room? All of the stuff you put into the space (and how you arrange it) will either support or detract from the theme, so establishing a keen sense of your direction early in the process is critical to making the best style and purchasing decisions.

For many DIY designers, it can help to focus on an object that symbolizes the theme or look you’re after. This could be a favorite furnishing, a family heirloom or a piece you lucked into at thrift store that just does something for you. Or, if you’re handy, create something that fits. My wife and I designed and built a sofa table that nicely characterizes our design scheme (and at the right price, of course). It’s clean, modern and practical, and it has reproduction “hairpin” legs that were popular at the time when our house was built. 

3. Focus on Furniture

I know from personal experience how much it hurts to hear this when you’re on a tight budget, but it must be said: Furnishings are the building blocks of a room. Yes, a focal point is important. So are colors and accessories, but those are things you look at; furniture is what you live on. Nothing can make or break a design plan more effectively than furniture. This is because furniture is so many things in one: look, function, texture, style and form. It’s both the traffic cop and host; it directs movement through the space and invites people to sit, lie down, cozy up or maintain a comfortable distance. So, before you spend money on any significant elements for an interior, make sure you have the right furniture pieces (or at least the most crucial ones) in place. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, either. My favorite piece in our living room (not counting the sofa table) is a $70 Poang chair from IKEA.

Apartment Therapy recently published a tour of a modern rustic home in Los Angeles’s Mar Vista enclave. Although it features the work of an amazing Los Angeles carpenter, it’s the furniture in the sparse but warm-feeling design scheme that really make it work.

4. Coordinate, at Any Level

Some folks like things matchy-matchy, while others want anything but an overly “perfect” look. But even if you’re in the latter camp, it’s important to have at least some threads of continuity in a design scheme. This can be as subtle as throw pillows that match or complement colors in a prominent piece of wall art. Most guests might not even notice the connection, but it is there, and it helps legitimize the aesthetic scheme. Consider this before you select just any can of paint and start painting.

5. Get Help

Two of the biggest challenges of doing your own design work are: 1) knowing what’s out there and 2) knowing what you like. It’s important to remember that interior designers, as with all creative professionals, weren’t just born with the ability to do what they do. They’ve had years of practice and training, exposure to countless ideas and, perhaps most importantly, lots of feedback from others. When you’re designing your own interiors, getting some of that experience is up to you. There’s a ton of free and inexpensive help out there for DIY designers: online resources for finding ideas and products, choosing colors and textures and asking experts for advice, plus catalogs, magazines and books tailored for every style (and budget) imaginable. Keep in mind that you can also hire a local designer for help with specific aspects of your project. For example, a one-hour color consultation can yield a complete color plan for one or several rooms for the price of a few gallons of good paint.   

Philip Schmidt writes for Networx. Get home garden ideas like this on Networx.

 

View original post.

BRITT — The Britt community garden is reaching out to a younger demographic: the horticulture class at West Hancock High School.

The class is designing the plots for this year’s garden, which is entering its second year of providing fresh produce to Britt residents.

“With our thrust to keep our youth here, it’s one more way to get them involved,” said Britt Area Chamber of Commerce Director Kathie Smith.

The class, taught by Paul Hauge, will research a variety of crops and plot arrangements. The students determined how many plants could fit in a row and how much space would need to be between each plant, Hauge said.

“We encouraged the kids to think of things people could want and could grow throughout the season,” Hauge said.

The students designed vegetable and flower arrangements for a 110-foot by 70-foot garden, a space that has grown since last year’s dimensions of 70 feet by 70 feet.

“We were astonished how well it did last year and we want to keep that momentum,” Smith said of expanding the garden.

Peas, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, squash and other vegetables have been discussed by the class, as well as useful flowers for the space.

“We were thinking about planting marigolds around the sides to keep deer away,” said Anna Mallen, a member of the horticulture class.

Sunflowers may also be added to add color to the garden, Hauge said.

None of the members of the class were active participants in the community garden last year, or have done much gardening. Smith said she hopes the project will attract other high school students to the garden, just as it has attracted a wide variety of community volunteers.

The students, who are also experimenting with growing their own greenhouse plants, said they appreciate the opportunity to design the garden.

“To be able to help people in the community get fresh vegetables whenever they want,” was one perk of the project, said Scott Glawe.

The garden will be tilled again before the majority of the planting begins in May.

Caitlin Hamilton is a reporter for the Britt News-Tribune, a Lee Enterprises newspaper.

BYRON CENTER, MI – After more than 25 years of bringing nature indoors, Scott and Jody DeVecht decided it was time to change their company’s name to reflect their growth.

Foliage Design Systems of West Michigan is changing its name to Integrated Plantscapes.

The new name reflects the 26-year-old company’s expansion in the design of large gardens and water features for corporate settings and hospitals throughout West Michigan.

Some of their prize-winning installations include the Meijer Heart Center and the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion at Spectrum Health’s downtown campus and Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo.

“Fifty percent of our work is in hospitals because doctors are now recognizing the need for holistic healing,” said Jody DeVecht.

“Providing greenery in what can be a stressful place is nurturing. Whether it is the fresh scent of the plants or the sound of running water, our plantscapes are an oasis in a hospital. It gives patients and visitors a place to escape,” she said.

“Because of this growth, we are now integrating landscape architects and designers into our plantscape creation process,” she said. “This ensures that the design fits the building and the purpose of the space.”

That can mean working with an architect as much as three years before groundbreaking to ensure the building can house and support the plant life and water features the DeVechts will install near the end of construction and maintain long after the project is complete.

“For example, window washers can be our friends or our foe,” she said. “If it’s not taken care of in the planning stages, it can be a nightmare.”

“We are very integrated with the design end of the project as well as the client end,” said Scott DeVecht. “After the designers and architects go home, we’re there to keep that garden looking beautiful.”

Over the years, Integrated Plantscapes has received national recognition for its design work, including 13 “Best Project Awards” from the former “Interiorscape” magazine.

Their big breakthrough came in the mid-1990s, said Jody DeVecht. “We installed the Frederick Meijer Gardens when it opened. It put on the map very quickly. That got us into the larger arena of projects.”

While Meijer Gardens has its own horticultural staff and an army of volunteers, they are still brought back to help out on special installations.

For most of their corporate and hospital installations, Integrated Plantscapes has staff of 11 that makes regular visits to make certain the plants are well-tended, she said.

“On average, the typical site gets taken care of once a week. On someplace like the Lemmen Holton Building, we’re there every day. Some properties are set for us to be there every 10 days.”

E-mail Jim Harger: jharger@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JHHarger

Saturday
It seems there’s a bit of sea change in the garden design trends. Clients with classical houses are increasingly asking for modern gardens. Can a minimalist garden be classical? I mean, would it date? These were the thoughts passing through my mind as I dug endless amounts of composted manure into the vegetable garden – a headache to go with the backache.

Sunday
Doused in Deep Heat, I continued single digging, thankful that double digging is now passé, used only as a form of punishment at horticultural college. My trusty long-handled Cornish shovel makes the job less back breaking, and this mindless task allows for further thoughtful debate: classical versus minimalism. Minimalism is a natural offshoot of the post-modernist era whereas Classicism’s roots are derived from Greek and Roman antiquity; one would assume poles apart, yet somehow they seem very connected – not just because of the obvious classical influences in minimalism.

Monday
I would call my design style traditional and have always been wary of the “contemporary” label; often claimed, but mastered by few – Andy Sturgeon and Cleve West spring to mind. Yet again, I have been given a brief asking for a modern garden by an owner of an architecturally classical house; citing my portfolio behind the reason for winning the pitch. Perplexing but challenging, hence, the much-needed reflection on personal design style as a whole.

And it’s unlikely to be resolved today either: I am standing in the garden of the said classical house with views of sheeted scaffolding for a house clutching the client’s brief and survey, trying to sum up the creative forces.

Tuesday
I am signing off the stone cutting list for the 2012 Chelsea garden. After this point I can no longer change my mind. My sponsors, Arthritis Research UK, gave me an enviable one-word brief for the show garden: Re-birth. The charity has recently re-branded with a view to more actively promoting awareness of the negative impact of arthritis – a “rebirth” for the organisation if you like. Of course, another manifestation of rebirth – Renaissance sprang to mind immediately. So my interpretation is a take on the Italian Renaissance gardens focussing on their theme of controlling nature. I’ve always found the presumption of the creators of these gardens compelled to reign over Mother Nature interesting – our Chelsea garden would be an ideal opportunity to address this notion.

What was originally intended as a simple design has now become massively complicated due to the stone finishes. Led through a series of watery feats, the garden gradually becomes more controlled and refined. This refinement also needs to manifest in the stone. So we have an unfinished finish for the back of the garden associated with our wild waterfall leading to a finely honed filled stone, surrounding our truly tamed destination pool. But trying to get all the graduated increments to flow harmoniously between is a nightmare. All the stone pieces have been labelled by letter and number and the evermore frantic phone calls towards today’s deadline between garden builders, architect and stone supplier – F4 to E6; A5 to T2 – sound like a game of battleships.

Wednesday
Time to resolve the style dilemma of this new project – a day of research, sketching and contemplation. The well-travelled client kept sprinkling Japanese references amongst his briefing for a modern garden, reacting adversely to my classical suggestions. And Japanese sprinklings may be the vital bridge: to me, Japanese style is the yin in minimalism, and classical, the yang. I had recently skated on the minimalist ice of this theory, blogging that my Italian Renaissance-themed Chelsea garden was indeed minimalist – and duly got wet. But this is a case where it might achieve balance between house and garden. And suddenly, the aches and pains of what I put down to weekend digging, dissipated.

An outpouring of scrappy Far East meets minimalist meets classical doodlings on the drawing board quickly evolved into presentation-standard ideas.

Thursday
A relaxing day working with the head gardener Graham on our Devon project: the house was commissioned in 1848 by Arctic explorer Billy Grant and did house a fine rhododendron walk, but one could only imagine what it would have been like as Rhododendron ponticum now rules the roost. This thug of a plant was most likely the rootstock of the historic collection and out-competed the grafted species.

Graham has spent a year grubbing out the R. ponticum to make way for new planting. We are planning a new explorer-related walk linked in age with the house, using such species as the Sikkim rhodos collected by JD Hooker in 1848. Our job today is to match species to appropriate habitat based on their cultural needs rather than grouped by named collection.

Friday
Driving back to Suffolk, the Chelsea stone supplier calls me to give the thumbs up – our intricate cutting demands can be met.

And as I sit on the M25 at a complete standstill, thoughts of style resurface: you can clearly see the origins of minimalism in the mannerist gardens of Villa Lante – grid layouts, exploitation of scale and proportion and abstract representation of surrounding countryside using just two species (Buxus sempervirens and Platanus acerifolia).

Cautiously, I am stating that ‘the Arthritis Research UK garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2012 is inspired by the gardens of the Italian Renaissance and has strong minimalist influences.’ There, I’ve said it and I’m comfortable with that…I think.

Video: Tom Hoblyn talks about the challenges of creating a Chelsea show garden

Thomas Hoblyn is a Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winning landscape and garden designer. This is the latest in a series of posts on the ups and downs of a life spent creating beautiful gardens.

Masami Matsuda, designer of the Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden at Como Park, passed away in Nagasaki, Japan, in early February at the age of 89 years. Mr. Matsuda created gardens all over the world for both private and public spaces. He was born in Koga Prefecture, but studied agriculture and landscape design at Isahaya. I, Department of Agriculture. He wrote textbooks and had his own design studio in Nagasaki.

Mr. Matsuda was born on December 26, 1923, and became the 9th generation to follow the family gardening business. He graduated at the end of World War II, when trees were being replaced by farms to feed the growing population. However, he persevered and became internationally known for his design work. . In creating and recreating the Japanese Garden at Como, he was involved in every step, even planting trees and shrubs. He was so devoted to perfection that he would spend hours determining the exact location of every stone.

The Japanese Garden is an enduring symbol of the friendship between St. Paul and Nagasaki, the first Sister City relationship between Japan and the United States after World War II.. Beginning in 1970, Mr. Matsuda made seven trips to St. Paul over a period of almost 30 years and deeply valued the connection. Jim Kunzman, past president of the Saint Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee (SPNSCC), read a letter from Mr. Matsuda on the 45th anniversary of the Sister City relationship at the Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival at the garden in 2000.  The letter said, in part, “My heart is filled with joy that this meaningful lantern lighting festival is happening here…In my mind’s eye I can visualize the lanterns floating on the ponds…may this experience become a bridge, enhancing the (cultural) exchange between our countries and expand the ring of peace and friendship in this world.” It was signed “the man who loves St. Paul more than any.”

Mr. Matsuda has been honored by the City of St. Paul, Governor Perpich, the Rotary Club and the Saint Paul Nagasaki Sister City Committee. For the 55th anniversary of the Sister City relationship in 2010, Peter Leach, potter, photographer and garden volunteer, took photographs of the garden in all four seasons. The exhibit, called Seen and Unseen, was shown both in St. Paul and Nagasaki. JoAnn Blatchley, current president of the SPNSCC, accompanied the exhibit to Nagasaki and had tea at Mr. Matsuda’s  studio and home. One section of his tea room is devoted to his work and honors from Minnesota.

This spring volunteers are producing a podcast about the Garden, which people can use as they visit the  Garden. A permanent memorial is being planned for installation at the Garden in 2015, the 60th year anniversary of the Sister City relationship.

Most people’s gardens have been put to bed for the winter, tucked in under a pile of crispy brown leaves. But that doesn’t mean that people aren’t already thinking about what they’ll do with their plot come next spring. And we’re not just talking about the flowers or vegetables they’d like to plant.

Gardeners on the Go, an Eagle County garden group, is hosting a free talk about garden design by landscape architect Christine Sena on garden design Monday at the Eagle Public Library.

“We think the topic of the history of garden design will appeal to many club members, plus it has many spinoffs,” said event organizer Jan Fedrezzi, who is a master gardener. “After hearing and seeing the presentation, gardeners will be more aware of their own garden style and perhaps will garner ideas to refine their approach to their personal gardens. Plus, learning about architectural and garden design history allows us to appreciate design elements that we see every day.”

Sena’s lecture will include site plans and photos of noteworthy gardens from the Renaissance through present day.

“Many design concepts we use today are based on classic garden designs from the renaissance through present day,” Sena said. “Some examples range from the very simple contemplative garden Ryoan-ji in Kyoto, Japan, which consists of only three elements: rocks, moss and raked sand-like quartz. On the other extreme, the renaissance era Villa D’Este at Tivoli diverted an entire river to run its unique water features.”

From formal to natural

Monday’s program is targeted to gardeners of any level and to members of the public interested in elements of design, especially architectural and garden design, Fedrezzi said.

Sena will talk about formal renaissance era gardens like France’s Vaux-le-Vicompte where the architecture became secondary to the gardens.

“This 100-acre landscape, which was owned by Fouquet, the finance minister for King Louis XIV, included intricately designed parterres, grand views, fountains and hunting grounds.”

The English took their gardens in an entirely different direction — “natural landscapes, which included man made lakes with natural edges, framed views of ruins, and outer parks for hunting and riding,” Sena said.

“Many of the design concepts evidenced in these gardens can be adapted to smaller scale, more intimate residential gardens,” Sena continued.

‘Diverse interests’

Gardeners on the Go has been around for five years. The group hosts speakers on many gardening topics throughout the year — “our members have diverse interests — from seed starting to design to pest control; from flower gardening to vegetable gardening; from growing cacti to orchids,” Fedrezzi said.

The group hosts a program, hike or field trip every month.

“This past summer, for instance, we went on an all-day field trip to Leadville to visit high altitude gardens and also on a trip to Palisade to visit a lavender farm and the state insectary, where beneficial insects are bred and dispersed,” Fedrezzi said. “We appreciate local nurseries and experts helping us out for programs; have been all over the Western Slope and to Denver for our field trips.”

Sometimes the group does a community service project, like weeding at the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, instead of a meeting. The group sometimes works loosely with the CSU Extension, sharing speakers or ideas. Members meet on the first Monday of the month. The locations varies based on the planned program or trip. The only membership requirement is to pay $15 in yearly dues.

If you’re interested in Monday’s talk, or in learning more about joining Gardeners on the Go, call 970-328-6961 or email defnaj@yahoo.com.