Life

Published: Saturday, January 12, 2013

By Michael Patrick Shiels
Journal Register News Service

Marriott Palm Beach Gardens

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Oops! A hotel chain reports that some of the common items forgotten include teddy bears, phone chargers, pajamas and toiletry items. But an $81,000 Rolex watch, a winning lottery ticket and a pet python named “Monty” also ended up in the “lost and found” department. Housekeepers also found thousands of books last year — more than a third of them were E.L. James’ sexy novel “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

My wife recently reached in her beach bag to discover she’d forgotten a book on the nightstand at the Marriott Palm Beach Gardens in south Florida, which was conveniently located 10 minutes from the airport, but hundreds of miles away once we’d lifted off. Once we landed, a call to the hotel quickly produced the book with a friendly offer to ship it to us.

“Service has got to be good all the way from the check-in desk to how the housekeeper takes care of you and how friendly they are,” says Jeri Ann Hart, director of sales and marketing at the hotel. “You can have the nicest hotel imaginable, but if there isn’t a great service staff your experience is going to suffer.”

The Palm Beach Gardens Marriott, just off I-95 and PGA Blvd., because of its location in the Sunshine State, has to consider the service needs of both the business travelers and vacationers.

“Our hotel associates look for cues from the guest upon check-in,” Hart said. “If they notice it’s a family on vacation with children, they might present them with a bucket and pail to take to the beach. If it appears to be a business traveler, they give them a room in a different part of the hotel away from the families.”

For instance, three of the 11 floors are concierge floors with a private lounge.

Nowadays both families and corporate executive requite access to wireless Internet, which Marriott provides free. And don’t expect to be gouged by an overpriced minibar. Marriott Palm Beach Gardens has a convenience shop with moderate prices. The Blue Fire Grille offered surprising quality for a hotel restaurant at both dinner and breakfast.

Cleanliness is the latest marketing push by hotels, and Hart said it starts with the landscaping and parking lot.

“A ‘sense of arrival’ is one of the things every hotel is judged by,” she said, “and if a hotel doesn’t care to pick up trash in the parking lot, I would be concerned about my sheets and bedding.

“Our housekeepers are trained to clean every room for the white glove treatment.” Continued…

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Oops! A hotel chain reports that some of the common items forgotten include teddy bears, phone chargers, pajamas and toiletry items. But an $81,000 Rolex watch, a winning lottery ticket and a pet python named “Monty” also ended up in the “lost and found” department. Housekeepers also found thousands of books last year — more than a third of them were E.L. James’ sexy novel “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

My wife recently reached in her beach bag to discover she’d forgotten a book on the nightstand at the Marriott Palm Beach Gardens in south Florida, which was conveniently located 10 minutes from the airport, but hundreds of miles away once we’d lifted off. Once we landed, a call to the hotel quickly produced the book with a friendly offer to ship it to us.

“Service has got to be good all the way from the check-in desk to how the housekeeper takes care of you and how friendly they are,” says Jeri Ann Hart, director of sales and marketing at the hotel. “You can have the nicest hotel imaginable, but if there isn’t a great service staff your experience is going to suffer.”

The Palm Beach Gardens Marriott, just off I-95 and PGA Blvd., because of its location in the Sunshine State, has to consider the service needs of both the business travelers and vacationers.

“Our hotel associates look for cues from the guest upon check-in,” Hart said. “If they notice it’s a family on vacation with children, they might present them with a bucket and pail to take to the beach. If it appears to be a business traveler, they give them a room in a different part of the hotel away from the families.”

For instance, three of the 11 floors are concierge floors with a private lounge.

Nowadays both families and corporate executive requite access to wireless Internet, which Marriott provides free. And don’t expect to be gouged by an overpriced minibar. Marriott Palm Beach Gardens has a convenience shop with moderate prices. The Blue Fire Grille offered surprising quality for a hotel restaurant at both dinner and breakfast.

Cleanliness is the latest marketing push by hotels, and Hart said it starts with the landscaping and parking lot.

“A ‘sense of arrival’ is one of the things every hotel is judged by,” she said, “and if a hotel doesn’t care to pick up trash in the parking lot, I would be concerned about my sheets and bedding.

“Our housekeepers are trained to clean every room for the white glove treatment.”

And obviously trained to keep an eye open for forgotten items of all types!

To visit, log on to: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/pbipg-palm-beach-gardens-marriott/ or phone (561) 622-8888.

Michigan-based travel writer Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at InviteYourself@aol.com or via www.TravelTattler.com

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Smithfield in bloom

Published 9:52pm Friday, January 11, 2013

Historic houses to be open during Garden Week

Smithfield is inviting folks to visit the town during Virginia Historic Garden Week beginning April 20, when six private historic homes and gardens will be opened to the public.

The town’s garden week theme is “Smithfield: Simply Southern,” and tours will operate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., a news release states.

Mansion on Main Bed and Breakfast, “a showplace Victorian-era home … that stands proudly on the corner of original colonial roads,” will be one of six Smithfield homes open to the public for Virginia Historic Garden Week in April.

Tickets cost $35 on the day or $30 in advance, while admission to a single featured home and garden is $15. Tours for ages 6 to 12 are $17, and ages 5 and under are free.

“We have recently had two national awards for our charming historic district,” said Lois Tokarz, marketing and public relations manager with the Smithfield Isle of Wight Convention Visitors Bureau.

“When people think of Smithfield, they think of ham, of course, but they also think of the gorgeous Victorian homes and gardens — and it isn’t just Victorian, there’s also 18th and 19th century Colonial, Federal and Georgian homes.”

The six featured homes include The Berryman Mansion, “a Colonial Revival house with Victorian influences that sits atop an elevated property overlooking the Pagan River.” It features an English garden with informal landscaping and pathways, according to the release.

The Sinclair-Hines House, meanwhile, is described as “a charming 1758 weatherboard home, once the residence of Privateer Captain John Sinclair.” It gives an expansive view of the Pagan River and has “a lovely hillside garden (with) crape myrtles, English boxwood, Japanese maples, cariole, and flowering plants … indicative of the owners’ love of gardening.”

Then there’s the Old Library, built in 1892. Meticulously renovated several times, it is now “an interesting mix of popular late 19th- and early 20th-century styles,” with “a lovely garden and extensive landscaping.”

The Wentworth-Barrett House “boasts an intimate and charming boxwood garden and

vegetable gardens. The garage, garden shed, well house, and rabbit hutch were based on

18th-century examples and the rear of the property offers an expansive view of the Pagan

River below.”

Mansion on Main Bed and Breakfast is described as “a showplace Victorian-era home … that stands proudly on the corner of original colonial roads,” the garden behind “flourishing with native flowers and plants.”

Stephie Broadwater, co-chair of the Nansemond River Garden Club, organizer of the tour with the Elizabeth River Garden Club, gave particular mention to the Parker-Todd House. “It was the original home of Captain Todd, who helped bring the curing of ham to Smithfield,” she said.

The house was “empty for years” before a family bought it and “spent several years researching the history … and carefully renovating the home to be true to that history.”

Smithfield was last included in Historic Garden Week in 1989, Broadwater said. “We are thrilled” to be included again, she said. “We have some homes that have not been open to the public for a long time.”

Tour tickets can be purchased on the day at any of the included homes with cash or

check payable to NRGC.

Advance tickets are available at www.VAGardenWeek.org or, beginning March 1,  at Smithfield Isle of Wight Convention Visitor Bureau, 319 Main St.; in Suffolk at A. Dodson’s, 2948 Bridge Road; in Portsmouth at Bowman’s Garden Center, 315 Green St., and Way Back Yonder Antiques, 620 High St.; and from Chesapeake’s 18th Century Merchant, 3591 Forest Haven Lane.

Boxed lunches for $12.50 must be reserved and purchased by April 6 by calling 357-3367 or emailing StLukes@visi.net.

A limited number of box lunches will be available the day of the tour at St. Luke’s Church, and a list of restaurants also open for luncheon is available at VisitSmithfieldIsleOfWight.com, where information on Garden Week activities in Smithfield can also be found.

During the summer, the kudzu and air potato vines came creeping back, threatening to reclaim the ground that dozens of volunteers had cleared only months earlier.

By October, the vines were snaking up oak and magnolia trees, some more than a century old, that had once been the subject of federal research programs but had been overgrown by invaders. The volunteers launched a late-fall counter offensive, cut back the new runners, then set to work uncovering more trees. They sawed through the sturdy vines, slowly peeled them back like a carpet from the trees they had taken over, used crowbars to pry their roots from the soil. Then they planned more workdays to fight the invaders.

In the midst of all this greenery, the tangle of desirable and the undesirable, stands the former home of Henry Nehrling, a botanist who nearly a century ago tested and introduced to Florida some of the plants that are now staples in landscaping throughout the state. The historic Central Florida property is on the National Register of Historic Sites and has been certified as a Florida Historic Landmark. It is the headquarters of the nonprofit Nehrling Garden Society, which is rescuing and restoring the home and grounds.

But whether it is the invasive vines that keep returning, financing that vanishes just as it is on the verge of landing in the bank, or a compromise with the wary neighbors, the society’s efforts often sound more like a battle than simple conservation.

“We are doing it foot by foot, yard by yard,” said Theresa Schretzmann-Myers, the society’s vice president and volunteer coordinator.

On the grounds is a sago palm that was already more than 100 years old when Nehrling planted it a century ago. Enormous magnolias he hybridized. A tall eucalyptus that Nehrling planted and that has been dead for 30 years but is home to giant pileated woodpeckers. A huge golden bamboo with lime green trunks and gold leaves, masses of amaryllis and caladium, towering bunya pine and bay laurel.

“It’s just such a treasure,” said Angela Withers, the society’s president. “It’s rare to find a place with such a combination of elements … the history, the science, the beauty — a site where a man who was really quite extraordinary did his work. It was an amazing passion and he grew these amazing plants. There are plants here that are over 100 years old. It’s a living laboratory.”

The property is a house of dreams. In an architectural rendering, the run-amok greenery has been curbed and neatly organized into a palm collection, a bromeliad collection, demonstration gardens. Walk the grounds with Withers and Schretzmann-Myers and they will point out the Nehrling Society’s ambitious vision. In addition to reclaiming the garden and the house, they want to turn the garage — added in the 1980s — into an education wing, build a gazebo, plant a palm allee, build a lakeside observation boardwalk and add Henry’s Bookshed, a small library.

“For me it’s been an unbelievable journey,” said Richard Nehrling, Henry’s great-grandson and a volunteer and advocate for the garden. “It’s really sad for me, knowing how important this garden was. David Fairchild was on plant collecting trips all over the world and he was sending samples back to my great-grandfather to test. He tested over 3,000 species.

By Kathryn Beach

When I was a renter, I dreamed about being a homeowner. Among my reasons for wanting this was so I could decide the types of flowers, shrubs and trees in the yard. My goal was to have something blooming each season of the year.

One of the benefits of living in coastal North Carolina is that this is actually possible. We have a growing season of more than 250 days, which allows us to have blooming plants in our yards virtually year round!

If you have an interest in gardening, or are simply interested in an attractive and well-landscaped yard to add to your curb appeal and property value, the library provides resources to help you plan and undertake gardening projects.

North Regional Library has a series of programs planned for spring. We lead off on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. with “Landscaping in the Sandhills.” An attractive yard and garden requires thought and planning. Join us as Brad Goodrum, instructor of horticulture at Fayetteville Technical Community College, discusses the environmental challenges of the Sandhills, plants that thrive in this area, and how to develop a landscape plan to meet your lifestyle, aesthetics and location. Supplement what you learn from Goodrum by going to a library and checking out books such as “Landscaping Your Home: Creative Ideas from American’s Best Gardeners,” “The Four-Season Landscape,” “The Front Garden,” “Landscaping Makes Cents,” and “The Border Book.”

Each year the library works to improve its overall collections, but we also select a specific topic on which to expand and improve the holdings. Gardening was the topic selected for this year; currently there are more than 800 entries pertaining to gardening. There are guides for selecting annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees.

Interested in organic gardening? We have books for you – “The All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook: Easy Organic Vegetables and More Money in Your Pocket” and “Step by Step Organic Vegetable Gardening.” Recent additions and books on order include “Fun Gardening for Kids,” “The Better Homes and Gardens Quick Color Gardening,” “Perennial Vegetable Gardening With Eric Toensmeier,” “Landscaping Solutions for Small Spaces” and “Landscaping for Privacy.”

The staff is not only updating and expanding our holdings in this subject area; we are highlighting it with our programming, too. In the coming months at North Regional Library, look for programs on growing roses, vegetable gardening, container gardening, urban chickens, and creating and watering with rain barrels.

Landscaping and gardening can be challenging and rewarding experiences. Whether you love to spend time tending your shrubs, flowers and vegetables or prefer a low-maintenance garden, the library has resources for you. Come visit us. North Regional Library is at 855 McArthur Road, Fayetteville. For information on programs, call 822-1998 or check out events on our website at www.cumberland.lib.nc.us/ccplsite.

Sandoval County Master Gardeners’ Corrales-based Seed2Need program donated more than 65,000 pounds of tomatoes, chile, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and other produce to pantries in Rio Rancho, Albuquerque and Bernalillo in 2012.

Food crops are grown on plots of land donated by property owners in Corrales. This year, the program has the opportunity to increase its cultivated area from 1.5 acres to 5 acres if it can enlist help from enough volunteers, said Sam Thompson, a former coordinator for Sandoval County Master Gardeners.

“We know that the need is out there,” Thompson said.

The goal is to start planting seeds in a greenhouse in March or April, then progress to tilling the garden space and transplanting seedlings. The main effort would be during harvesting season from July through September. Seed2Need also needs volunteers to help harvest fruit from local orchards.

Volunteers can commit to as much or as little time as they can spare; 10 hours a month would be ideal, Thompson said.

Harvesting takes place one weekday and one Saturday morning and one evening each week during the summer. Volunteers will work alongside master gardeners who have been trained by New Mexico State University horticulturists through the Sandoval County extension service.

“It is also a great way to meet people within the community and to learn gardening techniques,” Sandoval County Master Gardener Penny Davis said in an email.

Davis launched the program in 2008. Since then, food pantries like St. Felix in Rio Rancho have reported the number of families seeking food assistance has increased thanks to the sluggish economy and persistent high unemployment.

Sandoval County Master Gardeners also give courses on gardening, advise homeowners on planting and landscaping, and they oversee demonstration gardens Rio Rancho, Corrales and Placitas.

In the spring, Seed2Need will launch a “Grow a Row” program, encouraging local gardeners to plant an extra row of vegetables and donate the produce to a food pantry.

“Most home gardeners grow more produce than they need and we will be providing an opportunity to make sure the produce doesn’t go to waste,” Thompson said.

Seed2Need will have a booth at the Corrales Grower’s Market where it will collect the Grow a Row produce.

For information about volunteering email Seed2Need@gmail.com.

Vegetables harvested by volunteers in Sandoval County Master Gardener’s Seed2Need program. Last year the program donated more than 65,000 pounds of produce to local food pantries. The program hopes to expand this year and is seeking volunteers. (journal file)

— This article appeared on page 10 of the Albuquerque Journal

A phasing plan for site improvements and expansion of the Gordon Doner office building at the southwest corner of Northlake Boulevard and Sunset Drive won approval from the council Thursday night.

The council voted unanimously to approve the plan, which would delay the expansion of the existing building until site improvements are completed.

Those improvements include grading, paving, curbing and landscaping at the 0.87-acre site. Seventeen additional parking spaces will be added.

Work could begin within the next six months, said Alessandria Palmer, a land planner with project manager Cotleur Hearing Inc.

Expansion of the building would be delayed until late 2014, Palmer added.

The site was developed in 1985 with a three-story office building providing 9,611 square feet of office space. An expansion by 5,059 square feet plus additional parking was approved in February 2012.

Kevin Easton, who has lived in area for 30 years, opposes the expansion, citing traffic.

“It’s a danger to residents,” he said. “Somebody’s going to get hurt. It’s just not safe.”

26th Season of Prairie Yard and Garden Airs on Pioneer Public Television

Posted by Jenna Ray on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013

The 26th season of Prairie Yard and Garden(PYG) begins on Thursday, January 17. Larry Zilliox, former University of Minnesota Extension educator from Alexandria, Minnesota, hosts the popular 30-minute program—one of Minnesota’s top resources for gardening information. PYG airs Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Pioneer Public Television.

Each season, PYG travels the state to confer with researchers, gardening and nursery professionals, educators, and backyard gardeners about their expertise in horticulture, landscaping, and a variety of other gardening topics. In association with Pioneer Public Television, the series is produced by Roger Boleman, director, and Michael Cihak, assistant director of marketing communication and design, of Instructional and Media Technologies at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Cihak also serves as production coordinator, editor, and videographer.

The longevity and success of the program characterizes a unique alliance between the University and Pioneer Public Television, KWCM Appleton. Pioneer Public Television, a Public Broadcasting System (PBS) affiliate, serves more than 375,000 households across Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa.

On Thursday, January 17, PYG showcases hedges used in landscaping. Jeff Johnson of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum shares varieties that can act as a windbreak or be used to define a boundary.

On Thursday, January 24, Zilliox explores the ornamental garden of Steve and Cher Colby of Douglas County, Minnesota. To add a new dimension to their existing wooded paths, the two have been decorating their trails with small fairies, gnomes, and gargoyles. These ornaments give the paths a life all their own by transforming them into enchanted trails.

On Thursday, January 31, Bernie Angus of the West Central Research and Outreach Center demonstrates the important maintenance steps needed when preparing a water pond, which requires maintenance throughout the year, for winter.

On Thursday, February 7, Zilliox travels to New London, Minnesota, where Ken and Kay Johnson have acquired an aging bridge on an abandoned township road that divides their rural property. The two have added a roof and landscaping around the bridge to create a unique destination used for social events and gatherings.

On Thursday, February 14, the program will feature Meika Jo Hoffman, who maximizes interest in gardening by using window boxes and a front porch to grow and show her many varieties of plants and succulents at her home on a small city lot.

On Thursday, February 21, Daiv Freeman demonstrates growing cacti in Minnesota. Freeman has developed a wonderful space to grow hundreds of exotic varieties of cacti, which are overlooked as plants that thrive in this region.

On Thursday, February 28. Zilliox travels to Watson, Minnesota, where Weldy and Deanna Hodges have been restoring their farm site for nearly 25 years. Their property is flanked by beautiful country gardens that utilize rustic farm implements, hardscape, and colorful plant varieties.

Six additional episodes will air throughout March and April.

A war is sprouting in College Park, and the battlefield is covered with tomatoes, radishes, carrots and beets.

On one side are Jason and Jennifer Helvenston, an earthy couple who dug up their front lawn and replaced it with a vegetable garden.

On the other side is Orlando City Hall, which issued a code-enforcement citation demanding the Helvenstons get rid of the veggies and replant the yard with approved ground covers. When it comes to front yards, the city’s code requires traditional landscaping — grass and shrubs — and enforces the rule with fines as high as $500 a day.

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But the Helvenstons are digging in, so to speak.

“They’ll take our house before they take our garden,” Jason says.

It’s blossomed into a fight that has drawn national attention and become a cause célèbre among gardeners across the country.

It all started about a year ago. A sustainability consultant, Jason had already built an eco-friendly addition to his house. The Helvenstons had also enrolled in an “urban chicken” pilot program run by the city, built a backyard coop and raised three egg-layers.

They wanted to cut their grocery budget with a vegetable garden, but their backyard is tiny and shaded. Jason looked at his brown front lawn and saw delicious possibility.

The couple built raised beds, installed drip irrigation and planted green beans, peppers, mustard greens, kale, onions, broccoli and more. The garden covers nearly the entire front yard, with neat rows of vegetables and a wall of tomato plants more than 6 feet tall.

The harvest has been so plentiful that the Helvenstons share their vegetables with neighbors and friends. The garden spreads joy, Jennifer said.

“When we come out and work in the garden, so many people stop,” she said. “They want to see the garden; they want to learn about the garden. We don’t want to fence people out; we want to invite people in.”

But not everyone is a fan. Pedro Padin, who lives in Puerto Rico, owns the house next door. When he visited his renter a few months ago, Padin didn’t like the look of the Helvenstons’ garden.

“It’s not that he has a small garden — he took the whole front yard,” Padin said. “It’s not a proper place to have a garden of the scale that he wants to have. If I wanted to live near a farm, I would move to the county. This is a residential area.”

Padin complained to the city, and a code-enforcement officer told the Helvenstons they had 30 days to restore the front yard to its original condition.

Instead, the Helvenstons got loud. They circulated petitions calling on Orlando to update its landscaping code. They gave media interviews and blogged about the controversy.

The brouhaha caught the attention of higher-ups at City Hall, who put the code-enforcement case on hold. Mayor Buddy Dyer has made sustainability a key plank of his administration, launching Green Works Orlando with the goal of becoming one of most environmentally friendly cities in the country.

The city itself has established four community vegetable gardens. But city officials admit the code has fallen behind the rebirth of urban gardening.

And Orlando isn’t alone. As the “local food” movement grows and more people pay attention to how food makes its way to their table, urban gardeners have run afoul of zoning rules requiring turf. More often, fights have erupted over the strict rules enforced by homeowner associations.

Like Orlando, the codes in Winter Park and Orange County don’t address front-yard gardens. Some rural areas, including Lake County, don’t restrict vegetables more than any other plant.

Orlando planners have now proposed changing the code to allow front-yard gardens. But the proposal comes with regulations designed to ensure gardens don’t run amok and to allay the concerns of homeowners such as Padin who worry about their property values.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE – Target is coming to Westlake Village. The popular discount retailer will anchor The Shoppes at Westlake Village, a 243,000-square-foot center now under construction, officials said Wednesday.

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. has bought 10.3 acres at the property and will build a 138,500-square-foot store, said Daniel Selleck, president of Westlake Village-based Selleck Development Group.

The center at 30800 Russell Ranch Road will be designed after a European village and have a tenant mix of restaurants and retail shops.

“We’re trying to become kind of the community gathering place, so we’ll have lots of outdoor and patio dining areas with lots of landscaping and gardens and a fountain,” said Selleck, who has lived in the city for 25 years.

A prior owner planned about 450,000 square feet of office space and the next owner wanted to put in a home improvement store. Those plans were quashed by the Great Recession.

Selleck bought the 21.5-acre property, which had been foreclosed on, in 2010.

Financial terms are not being disclosed. Selleck will own and operate the center except for the Target.

Selleck rolled out his plan a year ago and the Westlake Village City Council approved the project in June. Grading began late last year.

Selleck estimates that The Village will have 25 to 35 tenants. It will have 1,035 parking spaces.

Total Woman Gym and Day Spa has already signed on for

15,000 square feet.

“We’re really just starting to market it now,” he said.

The Target will have an 18,000-square-foot warehouse and 13,000 square feet of retail space will be devoted to groceries, he said.

“They have really stepped up architecturally, so it will be a beautiful store,” he said.

Target officials did not respond to request for comments.

Selleck said that he tried to capture the essence of Westlake Village in the name.

“We think it’s a nice identity. The community and the city is kind of a small town,” Selleck said.

Mike Tingus, president of Lee Associates-LA North/Ventura office, brokered the deal with Lee Principal Grant Fulkerson.

Target was a pretty easy catch.

“Target had expressed interest in the site almost from the day that it was acquired by Selleck,” he said. “And we have had significant interest from a number of other retailers and restaurants.”

He also noted that the center will draw from a nearby population of nearly 175,000 and daytime employment of more than 74,500.

The area also has an average annual household income of $143,866.

The next closest Targets are 10 miles away in Newbury Park and 13 miles away in Woodland Hills.

The center will also be a boon for the city.

Westlake Village City Manager Raymond Taylor estimates that it will generate $675,000 in sales tax revenue the first year it is open.

“It will probably go up to a million as time goes on, so it’s a good source of revenue for the city. And it will probably produce a couple of hundred jobs, and I think that is a plus as well,” he said.

greg.wilcox@dailynews.com

818-713-3743

twitter.com/dngregwilcox

GARDEN EDUCATION:North Haven Gardens, 7700 Northaven Road, Dallas, offers the following free classes. nhg.com. Winter Color, noon Thursday. Veggie Seeds, 1 p.m. Saturday. Onions and Potatoes, 1 p.m. Sunday. Terrariums and Dish Gardens, 10 a.m. Jan. 17.

LANDSCAPING WITH ROSES:The city of Farmers Branch will offer a