Brush (or bush) turkeys can create a huge mess for keen gardeners.

PERHAPS everyone’s least favourite birds, the brush (or bush) turkeys, are having a ball, with all the beautiful autumn leaves, new plantings and fine weather urging them to give us more to do, cleaning up after them.

If you have a property with mature trees, try hanging a couple of bird-feeders out on the branches, provide some good “scratching” material in the form of dropped leaves, with some added birdseed scattered in it, and they’ll scratch there all day, leaving the rest of the yard to you.

For smaller vegie beds or flower beds: lay chicken wire on top of the soil, cover it with mulch, and they’ll quickly learn they can’t scratch there; or surround the bed with knee-high bamboo stakes, attach black cotton to the first, then around each stake a couple of times as you get to it, and when they touch it to get to the garden, it spooks them and it works.

 

The time to plant is now

While this week’s flowers are not blooming at present, it is the time to plant them.

Red Hot Pokers, or Torch Lilies (Kniphofia) are splendid eye-catchers for the garden, and great favourites of nectar-loving birds.

They grow into large clumps, producing long stems of massed small, tubular orange-red and yellow flowers during summer into autumn, and are so easy to grow.

If a friend is sub-dividing, or you see some packets in the garden shops, get some now – see the blue-eared honey-eater enjoying the one pictured.

BRAMPTON, ON. (July 18, 2012) Do you wish your yard was more beautiful and colorful and could stand up to the summer heat? Then start with a free Fusion Landscape Consultation offered throughout the summer by the Region of Peel.

“Fusion Landscaping is a style of gardening that looks attractive and colourful but has more environmental benefits than traditional methods,” says Carol Chaput, Supervisor, Environmental Education. “The intense heat and little rain over the last weeks is no match for this type of landscaping” adds Chaput. “With little to no watering, Fusion Gardens do well in drought-like conditions where typical grass lawns are brown and dry.”

Consultations are a great way for new gardeners to learn more about Fusion Landscaping. Advanced gardeners can also benefit by adding some fusion to their garden by choosing bright perennials and native trees and shrubs for height and texture.

Landscape consultations involve booking a session with a trained advisor who will assess your outdoor space and provide the tools needed to help you choose and plant appropriate flowers, plants, trees and shrubs. To sign up, call 905-791-7800, ext. 4409 or visit watersmartpeel.ca

The benefits of Fusion Landscapes include:

• reducing the need for watering
• increasing the number of native plants and habitats for birds and butterflies
• reduce pollutants in stormwater before it reaches streams, rivers and lakes
• improving air quality with shrubs and trees that remove carbon dioxide and reduce air pollution

For additional inspiration, visit watersmartpeel.ca.

The Regional Municipality of Peel was incorporated in 1974 on the principle that certain community and infrastructure services are most cost-effectively administered over a larger geographic area. The Region of Peel serves more than one million residents in the Cities of Mississauga and Brampton and the Town of Caledon.

Follow Public Works on Twitter at twitter.com/peelpublicworks

Patricia Fitzpatrick gets to work in her Toormina garden.

SECATEURS have been sharpened and the garden gloves are on.

Patricia and Merv Fitzpatrick of Bower Crescent, Toormina are preparing to defend their title in the Coffs Harbour Garden Club 2012 Spring Garden Competition.

Patricia entered their garden in the competition for the first time last year and came away with the gong for “Best small home garden up to 600sq m” in the residential section.

“We were really thrilled and surprised with that win,” she said. “I saw the form at the library and thought ‘why not give it a go?’ – and we won.”

The Fitzpatricks’ garden has an immaculate front lawn with a large, mature date palm as the focal point.

The rear garden is spilt-level and has a mix of natives and exotics, water features, statues and a couple of good-old-fashioned, friendly garden gnomes.

“We’re lucky, we agree on the style of the garden, but we don’t always agree on the cost,” Patricia said with a laugh.

The couple shares the mowing, digging and planting, but when it comes to plant choice and identification Merv said, “I wouldn’t have a clue”.

Patricia was busy in the garden when our photographer called around to take some shots.

“It looks like a jungle at the moment. We’ve just been away on a five-week holiday and with all this rain we’ve had, everything, including the weeds will need attention. There’s some pruning and a bit of tidying up to do to get ready for the competition.”

Patricia heartily recommends two things to local gardens: entering the garden competition and using pebble mulch.

“One of the best things we did was put in pebble and stone mulches. You just put down weed mat and then lay a thick covering of the pebbles. It looks good, it keeps the weeds under control and means less work to get the garden competition ready.”

I want one of those push mowers, but that 1 lawn mower for over 2 grand is a bit much!

When it comes to what you can ask a landscaping company to do to your yard, your imagination is really your only limitation! You can create a complete jungle-like environment filled with beautifully overgrown shrubs and greenery; or you can have a clean patio surrounded by rock gardens and waterfalls. And of course, you can have just about anything in between.

A landscaper’s job is to make sure that your yard is not only beautiful, but that it’s like a work of art and makes people stop as they pass to admire the natural beauty. It’s also a landscaper’s job to make sure that your lawn is as functional as it is beautiful. You want your yard to be beautiful because you want to spend time in it; and to do that you’ll need some practical elements to help you enjoy it a little more.

Paving walkways, driveways, and patios isn’t something that people often think of when it comes to landscaping companies, but many companies also specialize in these areas. If you can’t find a landscaper that can provide you with a fully paved driveway, they should at least be able to install a simple concrete patio pad or concrete stepping stones for the garden, or to create a walkway.

Incorporating walkways into your landscaping can make it even more beautiful and give you an even more practical way to enjoy the nature that surrounds you. Think a beautiful stone walkway winding through gardens filled with bursting blooms!

Lighting is another element that can be both practical and beautiful, and is also something that a landscaping company will be able to do for you. Having some sort of lighting outside is a good idea for those warmer nights when you want to sit out on the deck for dinner, or have friends over for a pool party. There is a huge selection of different lighting options for your landscaping including post lights, lanterns, string lights, or spotlights lighting up a large area, to name just a few.

Of course, choosing and planting different flowers, shrubs, plants, and trees for your yard will be part of any landscaper’s job. This will include things such as digging out the flower beds and often, regular maintenance of the beds and trees after they have been planted.

The most basic job of any landscaping company, and the one people most often imagine when they think of landscaping companies, is the basic job of lawn-cutting. Of course, this too can include things such as trimming bushes and pulling weeds. You can hire a landscaping company that will do only these very basic jobs for you, if you’re already happy with your landscape design but don’t want to put the effort into it that the maintenance requires. If this is the case however, it’s especially important that you research any company very carefully to make sure that they are a legitimate, licensed, and insured landscaping company. This is because it’s very easy to push a lawnmower down the street and go door-to-door claiming to be a one-man landscaping company. But they’re probably not a legitimate company and if that’s the case, you could end up paying the price should something go wrong.

Information provided by: Mulch More

SEAL HARBOR, Maine — Some of Maine’s most popular destinations are located on Mount Desert Island, including Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. But the island is also home to several remarkable gardens, all connected to the renowned landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, whose philosophy of garden design emphasized native plants and using natural landscapes to define outdoor spaces.

One of the gardens, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, is a private garden that’s open to the public, by reservation only, just a few days a year. But the other two, Thuya Garden and Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor, which contain plants from Farrand’s Bar Harbor home, welcome visitors daily for much of the spring, summer and fall.

All three gardens use natural settings so artfully that it’s sometimes hard to tell where the landscaping ends and nature begins.

Farrand, the sole woman among the founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects, was born in New York in 1872 and died in Bar Harbor in 1959. She designed gardens for the White House, consulted at Princeton and other institutions, and had many prominent private clients, including John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife Abby.

Farrand worked with Abby Rockefeller to design the private garden in Seal Harbor between 1926 and 1930. The property is still owned by the Rockefeller family. Each summer, the garden opens to the public one day a week, but reservations fill up fast. As of mid-July, only a handful of slots were left for late August and early September. And there’s no sneaking in: To be admitted, your name must be on a checklist at the entrance, which is virtually unmarked and hard to find even with directions. Photos are permitted only for personal use.

Once inside, most visitors head to the rectangular lawn, where the borders burst with colorful flowers and plants familiar to any backyard gardener, from bright purple clematis vines to gray-green dusty miller. But in some ways the Rockefeller garden is at its most stunning away from the sunny flower beds, where the landscaping melts into the woods. Forested paths are carpeted by velvety moss; giant hostas and feathery ferns offer contrasting textures and a palette of greens. A stone wall punctuated by doorways shaped like the full moon or a bottle give the feeling of stepping into a secret garden hidden in a magical forest. The property also displays centuries-old Asian art, ranging from Buddhas to tall stone figures lining the walkways.

David Bennett, a landscape architect in Washington D.C., has visited the Rockefeller garden as part of his research for restoration of Farrand’s kitchen garden at The Mount, the country estate in Lenox, Mass., created by Farrand’s aunt, writer Edith Wharton. Bennett says Farrand wanted her gardens to “fit into their natural settings. She had a strong appreciation for the natural character of the land and the appropriate way of integrating a designed landscape with its natural context.”

She used plants to create “impressionistic” effects of texture and color, and was also known for creating outdoor “garden rooms,” with “the idea of moving through a landscape in a sequence, from one space to another, where each space has its own character,” Bennett said. “One space may be very shady and enclosed, and you pass through a hedge or a row of trees or through an actual gate in a wall to enter a very sunny and open space.”

The Thuya and Asticou gardens, easily found along Route 3 in the neighboring town of Northeast Harbor, both include plants from Farrand’s Bar Harbor estate, called Reef Point, which Farrand sold in the mid-1950s.

The azaleas at Asticou are finished blooming by summer, but Asticou’s landscaped pond is a star attraction in all seasons. The garden was created in 1956 by Charles K. Savage, who owned the nearby Asticou Inn. The picture-perfect pond reflects the surrounding flowers and trees like a mirror, and the layers of greenery and contrasting shapes and textures look like a Japanese landscape painting. Savage also designed Thuya Garden, where the centerpiece consists of spectacular rows of colorful flowers, from towering blue larkspur to delicate pink and white snapdragons bordering a rectangular lawn.

Those interested in learning more about Farrand can also visit Garland Farm on Route 3 near Bar Harbor, which this summer started offering regular visiting hours for the first time, Thursday afternoons through Sept. 13. Farrand retired to Garland Farm after dismantling Reef Point, bringing plants and ornaments with her and designing her last gardens there. Garland Farm is also home to the Beatrix Farrand Society, which just completed restoration of Farrand’s terrace garden at Garland Farm and is working on restoring other areas there.

Alvion Kimball, who owns the Orland House Bed Breakfast about 40 miles from Seal Harbor and is on the board of DownEast Acadia Regional Tourism, says each of the gardens has its own charms. At the Rockefeller property, he likes the mossy garden best, while the impressive show of flowers at Thuya is like “an English cottage garden.” The garden at Garland Farm is “a more personal garden, on a smaller, intimate scale,” but Asticou with its pretty pond and walkways is his favorite, even without the azaleas in bloom. “It’s just so understated, peaceful and quiet,” he said.

Kimball notes that Farrand’s preference for indigenous plants and natural settings, rather than exotic specimens or rearranged landscapes, was ahead of her time. “You look at what’s happening today with native plants and ecology,” he said, “and to me, it’s almost an extension of what she’d be doing if she were still here.”

___

If You Go…

THUYA AND ASTICOU AZALEA GARDENS: . Located in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island. Asticou is at the intersection of Routes 198 and 3, and Thuya is a half-mile away on Route 3. Open daylight hours, May to October, $5 suggested donation for each garden. http://www.gardenpreserve.org

ABBY ALDRICH ROCKEFELLER GARDEN: . Located in Seal Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island. A private garden open to the public one day a week in late July, August and early September, by reservation only, with two-hour slots filling up well in advance. Check availability online. http://rockgardenmaine.wordpress.com/

GARLAND FARM: . Located on Route 3 near Bar Harbor, Maine. Open Thursdays, 1 p.m.-5 p.m., June 21-Sept. 13. http://www.beatrixfarrandsociety.org

NEARBY ATTRACTIONS: Opportunities for hiking, swimming, boating, nature walks and other activities on Mount Desert Island abound, along with accommodations ranging from campsites to hotels. The island is home to Acadia National Park, and Bar Harbor, or . Other area gardens include the Charlotte Rhoades Park and Butterfly Garden in Southwest Harbor and the Mount Desert Island Historical Society’s Somesville Historical Museum and Gardens.

Links:

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• This July 2011 photo provided by the Beatrix Farrand Society shows the restored terrace garden at Garland Farm in Bar Harbor, Maine, where Farrand, a renowned landscape designer, lived and designed her last gardens. Farrand is connected to several gardens in the area, including a private garden designed for Abby Aldrich Rockefeller that’s open to the public just a few days a year. (AP Photo/Beatrix Farrand Society)

• This 2010 photo provided by the Mount Desert Land Garden Preserve shows colorful flowers at Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Thuya’s collection includes plants from renowned landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, who created the nearby Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, a privately owned garden that’s open to the public just a few days a year. (AP Photo/Mount Desert Land Garden Preserve, Jason Ashur)

• In this July 12, 2012 photo, visitors sit on a rock bench to view the scenery at the Asticou Azalea Garden pond in Northeast Harbor, Maine. The garden includes plants from the collection of renowned landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, who has connections to several gardens in the area, including the nearby Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, a private garden that’s only open to the public a few days a year. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

• This July 12, 2012 image shows snapdragons at Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Thuya’s collection includes plants from renowned landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, who has connections to several gardens in the area, including a nearby private garden she designed for Abby Aldrich Rockefeller that’s only open to the public a few days a year. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

• This 2010 image from the Mount Desert Land Garden Preserve shows colorful flowers at Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Thuya’s collection includes plants from renowned landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, who created the nearby Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, a privately owned garden that’s open to the public just a few days a year. (AP Photo/Mount Desert Land Garden Preserve, Jason Ashur)

• This July 12, 2012 photo shows a wooded path lined with moss and ferns at the Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor, Maine. The Asticou contains plants from the collection of renowned landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, who also designed the nearby Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, a private garden open to the public just a few days a year. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz)

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The Board of Directors of OFA – The Association of Horticulture Professionals voted today to begin the process of organizing a new association with the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA). Following several months of working together in a joint venture, the working group comprised of leaders from both organizations determined it was time to formally explore creating a new trade association.

OFA and ANLA announced in January 2012 the formation of a joint venture to support business education and government relations activities. The vision statement adopted by OFA’s board of directors expressed the desire to form a new organization if it brings more value to our members and the industry. Since June 2011, OFA’s executive committee has been meeting with ANLA’s leaders about the opportunity for and viability of a formal relationship between the two organizations. As early as the first meeting, the idea of forming a new organization has been discussed by the joint venture working group.

“We are listening to our members. Results of a membership and organizational study performed at the end of last year indicated that members of both associations want the organizations to work closer to unify the industry,” said OFA President Mike McCabe, owner of McCabe’s Greenhouse Floral in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. “They want their industry association to be all encompassing – one that touches and links all pieces of the horticulture industry, which can be offered by a new organization. After significant exploration and evaluation the elected leadership of OFA determined this is the best way to meet the needs of our members and the industry.”

The multi-faceted horticulture industry is undergoing dramatic changes. Economic strains, generational differences and the changing interest in and need for gardening and landscape products are altering the way our products and services are valued by consumers. Governmental activity and inactivity, financial uncertainty and environmental changes are altering the way plants are being produced, bought and sold. In light of future opportunities and threats in this quickly changing environment, trade associations need to work together to build the capacity and governance structures to properly serve their members and the industry.

The timeline is to have a new organization established no sooner than July of 2013 and no later than January 2014. “This is not a merger. This is taking the best of what both associations do to create a new organization that will advance the industry and better serve our members,” said Michael V. Geary, CAE, OFA’s chief executive officer. “We have many details to work through, but OFA’s leaders are committed to ensuring that our members are involved in the decision-making process. It’s an exciting time for both organizations and the future of the horticulture industry. The combined 215 years of service and resources will create a powerful and meaningful association.” The new association will replace OFA and ANLA.

In further developments of the joint venture, following ANLA Executive Vice President Bob Dolibois’ scheduled retirement at the end of the year, Geary will become the chief staff executive of both ANLA and OFA beginning on January 1, 2013. The organizations will continue to be governed separately, but Geary will lead the day-to-day operations of both associations.

To keep the industry up to date on the formation of the new organization, visit www.OneVoiceOneIndustry.com.
 

Wendy GilmartinFro-hedge at the corner of Leyland and Seward in HollywoodEarly on in architecture school, a professor advised me against filling in a half-baked drawing with a row of sycamore trees. Admittedly, I was trying to cover up the unresolved aspects of the design.

“Ah trees,” he sighed gently, raising one eyebrow, “the architect’s eraser.”

Around the city, one can easily spot the work of long-practicing, professional, non-student builders who never did learn the lesson of the “architect’s eraser.” Case in point, the Olympic Collection at Olympic and Sawtelle boulevards in West Los Angeles, and on a smaller scale, at the house at the corner of Leyland Way and Seward Street in Hollywood, pictured above.

Are the buildings behind these plants fugly? We can’t be sure. But all those trees, hedges, pots and urns beg the question: why the cover-up? Landscaping costs property owners money, it requires maintenance, gardeners, tree trimmers and clean-up crews through out the life of the project, not just at the start. In construction projects, budgets for landscaping are typically the first portions scrapped or downsized. So what does landscape overload mean? Either the owner is crazy about greenery (could be), or the designers are very good at their business (maybe), or something is seriously lacking in the building and it requires an adjustment – something a coat of paint can’t fix (highly likely).

Its not like buildings and plants don’t get along. Fabulously and famously well-integrated landscape/building projects over the centuries include, to name a very few, the gardens at the Getty, the High Line in New York, Japanese garden design in general, anything by Emilio Ambasz, and everyone’s favorite house built on a waterfall, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kaufmann house. On the other hand, when floral flare goes wild and engulfs the whole dang building, usually fugliness is to blame.

Wendy GilmartinOlympic Collection
Take the Olympic Collection at the corner of Olympic and Sawtelle, for example. The 4-story retail center, which was painted dung brown over its original mustard yellow a couple of years back, hosts a variety of tenants, like sushi and ramen restaurants, frame shops, a couple interior banquet halls and a Pinkberry.

Dressed up in marble-clad signage, dainty yellow awnings, old-timey lampposts, a central hulking elevator shaft, and dusty murals featuring quaint, French street scenes, the Olympic Collection is a bit of an architectural mess. The strange echoing voices from the banquet halls, occasional thumping bass and long dark hallways can be a little spooky if you’re there late. But from the street, no one would ever know. Potted urns are placed mere inches apart on every spare walkway and deck surface in the building’s complex — making a 5-to-6-foot tall perimeter wall of palms and ficus. Inside, beyond the wall of plants, its like a mock-Parisian jungle with noodle shops all around.

Probably less of an intentional cover up, the afro-shaped bougainvillea hedge that boldly adorns the front windows and doorstep of the Hollywood bungalow at Leyland and Seward pictured above, is nevertheless hiding an unfortunate secret. The hedge is definitely an after-thought remedy for a south-facing front facade that blazes in the summer afternoon sun.

The architect or builder here should have known the house’s orientation was a problem, and could’ve integrated some shading elements on the front of the place — a deeper overhang, a sun porch, canopy system — but they didn’t and so now fro-gainvillea has to do all that work. Shaved into a slightly askew suave fro, the hedge borders on genius topiary art. This wacky, weed-whacked treasure could put a smile on any passersby’s face, and its a testament not only to this owner’s DIY moxie, but also to their soulful style.

Never fear fugly buildings, plants have got your back (or front, in this case).

Follow me on Twitter at @fugly_buildings, and for more arts news follow us at @LAWeeklyArts and like us on Facebook.

Brush (or bush) turkeys can create a huge mess for keen gardeners.

PERHAPS everyone’s least favourite birds, the brush (or bush) turkeys, are having a ball, with all the beautiful autumn leaves, new plantings and fine weather urging them to give us more to do, cleaning up after them.

If you have a property with mature trees, try hanging a couple of bird-feeders out on the branches, provide some good “scratching” material in the form of dropped leaves, with some added birdseed scattered in it, and they’ll scratch there all day, leaving the rest of the yard to you.

For smaller vegie beds or flower beds: lay chicken wire on top of the soil, cover it with mulch, and they’ll quickly learn they can’t scratch there; or surround the bed with knee-high bamboo stakes, attach black cotton to the first, then around each stake a couple of times as you get to it, and when they touch it to get to the garden, it spooks them and it works.

 

The time to plant is now

While this week’s flowers are not blooming at present, it is the time to plant them.

Red Hot Pokers, or Torch Lilies (Kniphofia) are splendid eye-catchers for the garden, and great favourites of nectar-loving birds.

They grow into large clumps, producing long stems of massed small, tubular orange-red and yellow flowers during summer into autumn, and are so easy to grow.

If a friend is sub-dividing, or you see some packets in the garden shops, get some now – see the blue-eared honey-eater enjoying the one pictured.

When it comes to landscaping your yard, the possibilities are endless.

Although the traditional yard is preferred by many, ideas are sprouting in local yards.

This year, xeriscaping and vegetable gardens are proving to be the popular choices for many Puebloans.

In a time when conditions are dry, the climate is hot and water conservation is pivotal, the decision as to which kind of garden to put in is split among homeowners contemplating the best route for their yard.

Gary Waye, owner of Fox’s Garden Supply, is a master of the art of landscaping yards and has offered input regarding the topic.

Waye said xeriscaping, which has been a popular option for homeowners and featured in many streetscapes across Pueblo, offers certain advantages.

“Xeriscaping can conserve 50 to 60 percent of water per year,” he said.

These yards featuring bluegrass, rose moss and coneflowers may seem like a more economical route, especially in the hottest months of this arid state.

Waye said, however, that the popularity xeriscaped gardens is decreasing.

“It is not as popular a trend as in the past,” he said, “People are opting for the more traditional looking yard, mainly with grass.”

But, if you are leaning toward a xeriscaping garden, Waye advised, “educate yourself first. Start by looking around your own and your neighbors’ yards and see what you like and ask questions.”

To begin, consider incorporating plants such as Russian sage or black-eyed Susan. Larger, taller plants best can be arranged closest to the house since they require more water, while smaller plants, which can better withstand heat, can be planted farther away.

As temperatures rise at the height of summer, the prime planting window has passed, so if you are looking to put in xeriscaping plants, wait for the temperatures to drop.

“Early spring and fall are the best times to incorporate new items, depending on the type of plant,” Waye said.

Although xeriscaping is less popular this year, and traditional yards occupy the majority of Pueblo, vegetable gardens are increasing in popularity.

“People may be eating out less or may be more health conscious, so many are growing veggies this year,” Waye said.

Water maintenance is key, but vegetable gardens are an efficient choice due to the readily available food source, he said.

Charles Parsley, 75, lives in the Belmont neighborhood and has maintained a vegetable garden for the past five decades.

“The whole reason I do this is to get out and do something productive, but it is healthy too,” he said.

Parsley, who can be seen caring for vegetables ranging from beets and onions to Anaheim chilies, has several 6×10 raised garden beds complete with a drip irrigation system.

No matter the homeowner’s choice, Waye stressed the importance of proper yard maintenance.

“A lot of people water completely wrong,” he said. “They overdo it, on their lawn and in the vegetable gardens and with plants and flowers too,” he said.

The most efficient and productive method to watering is to do so less frequently, but for longer periods.

“Watering too much and too shallow is not the right way. People should look out in the morning (the best time for watering) and if everything looks perky, they can skip a day, then water well the next day,” Waye said.

He pointed out that most lawns have very shallow roots and, if the watering patterns are altered, the roots will be deeper and stronger, in a few weeks.

At least an inch of roots leads to a healthy lawn, he added.

A drip irrigation system is recommended for vegetable gardens and sections that are xeriscaped, and serves as an easy and conventional way to provide those areas with an ample amount of water.

As the temperatures rise, maintenance is key to whatever type of garden, or landscape area you choose to have, Waye said.