I am relatively new at being a Master Gardener, but have always had a love of gardening.

Maybe it’s in my blood, or it could just be the country way of life and the desire to provide for yourself. Growing vegetables has provided delicious, healthy food as we raised our family, while landscaping and flowers have given our homestead the curb appeal! There have been many moments while gardening that I have asked myself “is this the right way to do it?” That was the driving force for me to take the Master Gardener training. The next rational reason was, enjoying the beauty at parks, city gardens and nodes, arboretums, botanical gardens, etc. and realizing that volunteers make it happen or contribute to the upkeep.

That’s what Master Gardeners do: learn and help. We learned accurate applications from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach for planting, maintenance, pest control, animal ecology, turf grass management and much more. Then we are equipped with training and experience and a willingness to help others.

The course class schedule lasted for two months, September through early November. The three-hour classes were one or two nights a week, which got us through 40 hours of instruction.

We had two formats, Adobe Connect, with the class viewed via Internet and given by ISU horticulture professors, or live presenters. The last class was a day-long class held on the ISU campus at the Horticulture centers. Overall it was a great experience!

Kim Keller is the Jefferson County coordinator, with so much educated knowledge and enthusiasm to share. Kim is very passionate on every horticulture level! I’m partial to Kim; she grew up near us on “Quality Avenue.”

I also want to mention that you don’t have to reside in the county where you take the Master Gardeners course. Van Buren County, where I live, didn’t have enough interest so I signed up in Jefferson County.

Our group had a desire to stay connected and work together so we formed the Jefferson County Gardening Club. We meet once a month at the Jefferson County Extension Office. Our officers are Sandi Dimmitt, president; Julie Johnston, vice president; Colleen Bell, secretary; Gerri Lyon, treasurer; Julie Wetrich, historian.

Some of our projects include the Maasdam Barns along Highway 1; adoptions of Fairfield city nodes; courtyard gardens at the Jefferson County Health Center and more.

We also write a column for The Fairfield Ledger titled “Dear Iris.” Our correspondence is via email with work times and locations.

We come from all walks of life. There is a young librarian, dental employee, retired teachers, organic farmers, a photographer, etc.

No matter your age, gender or occupation, the goal is the same: a desire to share information and volunteer. Kathy Tollenaere keeps a gardening blog going at http://jcmastergardeners.blogspot.com/

In order to become a certified Master Gardener, 40 hours of volunteering is required, as well as six hours of continuing education in the first year following your training. After these requirements are met you are certified.

To maintain your certification 12 hours volunteer work and six hours continuing education are all that is required. There are many ways to achieve each of these areas through organizing events, manual work, writing, plant sales, etc. Continuing education can be attending seminars, workshops and clinics that involve horticulture.

More information is available at www.mastergardener.iastate.edu. With enough interest, there will be a Master Gardener Training scheduled for the fall 2012.

The gardening and landscaping industry is very popular and thriving in America. It is so desirable on many levels: to provide food, beauty, and economic value. Because Iowa can produce many challenges with weather, diseases, insects and, of course wildlife, we all need more knowledge. Enjoy your space, watching all great things grow!

 

Gerri Lyon is a Master Gardener intern.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Questions are welcome and can be directed to Master Gardener Intern and Ledger photographer Julie Johnston at photo@ffledger.com.

• 

Easy Care Flower Carpets add color and style to this pool patio.

We all lead such busy lives and we don’t want an outdoor living space where you’re looking at more chores or another to-do list.

Lawndale, CA (PRWEB) May 17, 2012

The desire for low-maintenance landscapes just keeps growing, according the latest gardening and landscaping surveys. At the same time, Americans’ love for outdoor amenities like fire pits, grills, dining areas and seating shows no signs of waning (see “Recent Statistics”).

Tesselaar Plants suggests that combining the two should mean less work and more play, right? Here, Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of Tesselaar Plants and other garden experts suggest fuss-free flowers and foliage for outdoor living.

“Whether you’re relaxing during a private moment in your personal sanctuary or are hosting a dinner party, you don’t want to come out to a tired, ailing landscape,” says Anthony Tesselaar.. “The idea is to go for something that’s easy-care, with season-long interest, so you never have to worry about what’s outside your door.”

“We all lead such busy lives,” agrees California landscaper and North Coast Gardening blogger Genevieve Schmidt. “You don’t want an outdoor living space where you’re looking at more chores or another to-do list.”

Not-so-needy blooms

If you’re looking for less watering, spraying and pruning, flowers aren’t out. Schmidt regularly uses drought-tolerant, blooming perennials like catmint, hardy cranesbill geraniums, ornamental sages, Russian sage, lavender, lion’s tail, euphorbia, sunrose, artemisia and phlomis.

Landscape roses are another favorite of Schmidt’s, and she often turns to the Flower Carpet® line. Often called “desert roses” in the southwest, these shiny-leaved, colorful bloom factories can be a great choice for low-maintenance, season-long color in beds or containers.

When planted en masse, carpet roses (which spread more horizontally than vertically and become covered with a blanket of blooms) are also a great way to quickly fill in a large bed while turning it into a more low-maintenance, sustainable landscape.

The Flower Carpet range of roses, notes Tesselaar, won high marks in the Dallas Arboretum’s famous plant trials in extreme heat. The series has also won the most awards for disease-resistance; most notably, Germany’s coveted All Deutschland Rose (ADR) designation, the world’s top honor for disease-resistant roses. “And if you want roses in containers, which succumb to drought even quicker, Flower Carpet’s Next Generation line offers even better heat and humidity tolerance.”

Another Tesselaar plant that did well in the Dallas Arboretum trials was the Storm™ series of agapanthus (lily of the Nile). Say Tesselaar: “It offers up to three flushes of blooms a season with full clusters of strappy foliage in between for season-long interest.” Jimmy Turner, Senior Director of Gardens for the Dallas Arboretum, says it’s good for mass planting because of its sturdy, multiple flower stalks, uniform height and multiple flushes of blooms, each lasting six to seven weeks. But, Tesselaar notes: “It’s really a head-turner when it’s by itself in a pot.”

Schmidt also recommends native and adapted plants (those that naturally grow or thrive in your area without using a lot of resources, respectively): “Native plants are especially nice for outdoor leisure areas, because you’re inviting in the local cycles of wildlife and a balanced local ecosystem, which means wonderful extras like singing birds, the sight of butterflies and nature’s own methods of pest and disease management.”

There’s a native plant society for almost every state, she notes, and you can go to your state’s page to learn more about native plants in your area.

Fuss-free foliage

Low-maintenance foliage can also soften and add character to outdoor living spaces.

“Going without flowers doesn’t mean going without color,” says Tesselaar. The colorfully foliaged Tropicanna® cannas, which can handle wet feet, can be potted and set right into your favorite water features. And the dark-red, strap-like foliage of Festival™ Burgundy cordyline is so extremely drought tolerant and pest resistant, you’ll wonder if it’s real. Its basal-branching, low-growing structure allows for fuller, more compact clumps and a gentle fountain effect – perfect for containers or color blocking around your favorite outdoor living spots.

Festival, which is only hardy in Zones 7 or warmer, also overwinters beautifully as a houseplant, says Tesselaar: “So you can simply bring the patio pot in or out depending on the season, or replant it in the landscape year after year.”

Schmidt loves the bright-red color of Japanese blood grass, along with other low-maintenance ornamental grasses like maiden grass (miscanthus – although it’s considered invasive in some areas of the country), blue oatgrass, leatherleaf sedge, fountain grass and noninvasive dwarf or clumping bamboo. Favorites in other parts of the country include ‘Elijah Blue’ fescue, pampas grass (also invasive in some areas), Northern sea oats, blue panic grass, muhly grass (also extremely salt tolerant and prevents sand dune erosion) and little bluestem (hardy to Zone 3).

Then there are Schmidt’s other foliage faves: phormiums (New Zealand flax), nassella (needlegrass) and Mexican feathergrass. Succulents, she adds, have exploded in popularity – in containers, hanging baskets and even as wall art.

Of course, the plants themselves aren’t the only part of a low-maintenance landscape, say Schmidt and Tesselaar. There are also tips and tricks like mulching, grouping together plants with similar needs, efficient irrigation, reducing your lawn and maintaining healthy soil. But low-maintenance plants are a key ingredient.

“Some work in the garden is great if you enjoy it, but we all have tasks we’d rather not do,” says Schmidt. “I know I’d rather be doing artful pruning, potting up containers and deadheading instead of weeding or mowing. The idea is to reduce or eliminate what feels like work so you’re free to focus on what really matters to you.”

Fact sheets

Flower Carpet roses

Next Generation Flower Carpet roses

Storm series of agapanthus

Festival Burgundy cordyline

Hi-res images

Pink Flower Carpet roses and lavender, poolside

Festival Burgundy cordyline alongside deck, pool

Festival Burgundy cordyline underplanted with white lobelia in pot on formal patio

Tropicanna cannas by patio in water feature

Blue Storm agapanthus in landscape (cordylines and phormiums to right)

Blue Storm agapanthus in container

Recent statistics

In the 2012 Residential Landscape Architecture Trends Survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), a whopping 96.6 percent of respondents rated low-maintenance landscapes as “somewhat or very in-demand” In particular, 85.4 percent of them had installed native or drought-tolerant plants in their outdoor living spaces.

The Winter 2011 survey on sustainable gardening by the Garden Writers Association Foundation showed similar results, with 58 percent already having reduced their watering (58 percent) and 35 percent adding more drought-tolerant plants.

At the same time, respondents in the ASLA survey stressed their love for outdoor leisure elements like grills (97.4 percent), pools (79.2 percent) and seating and dining areas (95.7 percent).

About Tesselaar

Tesselaar Plants searches the world and introduces new plants for the home garden, landscape, home décor and gift markets. Tesselaar undertakes extensive research and development of its varieties and, once they’re selected for introduction, provides marketing and promotional support for them through its grower and retail network. Tesselaar carefully selects its licensed growers and purposefully keeps its portfolio of plants small by design, resulting in consistently high-quality, dramatic, prolific plants that are also environmentally friendly and exceptionally easy to grow.

The Tesselaar philosophy is to introduce exceptional plants while “making gardening easy” for everyone, and so it makes its products as widely available as possible. Tesselaar believes that the more gardeners there are, the better it is for everyone.

Editor’s note: Other images of low-maintenance plants cited in this release are available via the Image Library on Tesselaar’s online Newsroom.

Media Contact:     Laurie Riedman, Riedman Communications

                laurie(at)riedmancomm(dot)com / 585 820 7617

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Nunspeet – Today we left Amsterdam and travelled to the little town of Nunspeet to visit a unique garden complex built by one of the Netherland’s most successful landscape architects, Len Goedegebuure.

I had visited here a few years ago and was blown away by the amazing range of ideas presented in a compact five-acre space. It was even better this visit with more than a dozen distinctive styles of gardens represented from contemporary formal to Moorish to woodland.

What immediately impressed us were the rows of linden trees neatly clipped into sculptural cone-shapes that gave the site its definitive structure along with equally beautiful clipped yew and privet hedges.

Fearless pruning is a core quality of Dutch gardening. But there are also amazingly confident planting ideas such as using dozens of silver-leafed weeping willow pear trees (Pyrus salicifolia) to form a curving hedge or two or three closely planted ones to create a pillar of silver foliage.

Another eye-catching idea was what we decided to call Platform Pruning that features mulberry trees with their canopy ruthlessly clipped to form flat umbrella-like platforms as a ways of shading sitting areas on a patio.

From Nunspeet, we travelled south to Appeltern to visit an even bigger complex featuring more than 200 different kinds of model garden as well as countless inspiring ideas.  This is a place where Europe’s gardeners can visit to see a vast range of garden styles and landscape materials displayed over 30 acres.

It was impossible to see it all. And it was a pleasure being able to move from one style of garden to another within a few short steps.

The quality of landscaping was first class and the planting in each garden was consistently excellent. There is nothing like the Garden of Appeltern in North America.

Sorry that there isn’t time to tell you more. I took dozens of photographs here and will be showing them later but it is time to set off on the next stage of our adventure to Floriade, the once-every-decade world expo of horticulture in Venlo.

Lovely topiary wheelbarrow and clipped trees at Appletern,

The Boca Raton Garden Club had a gradual makeover in the last nine years, so when the city’s volunteer Beautification Committee was looking for candidates for the annual Landscaping Excellence Awards, the pink building made the list.

The committee starts the search in January when plants and flowers are at their peak, and announces the winners and runners-up on May 16 at a luncheon sponsored by Lang Realty in the City Hall conference room.

“As we’re driving around Boca, we see something and we start telling Dick Randall,” said Barbara Benefield, the awards committee chairwoman. The former city staffer is the group’s official photographer.

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“He knows the city, so we get Dick to take pictures and we go around and get photos together and make a choice,” she said.

The garden club was honored back in 2003, but Scouts and members keep the building at 4281 NW Third Ave. looking fresh. There’s a Japanese garden in the back with bamboo, rocks and a Japanese lantern. A wooden arch leads to the back garden.

Carol Rice is the club’s landscape chairwoman, and Benefield credits her work. “Since she has been chairman, the gardens have improved considerably,” she said.

“There are a lot of changes, and some of the gardens have been redone,” Rice added. “Last summer we put a gazebo in our backyard, and that was separate from the Scouts. A pergola entrance to the south garden gives us much more curb appeal.” The pergola and two other projects that figured into the award, including a stepping stone path and jasmine vines, were done by Eagle Scout Patrick Tully of Troop 326, according to Rice. Three other Scouts also did improvement projects including Michael Bronson, Bradley Eldred and Michael Starling.

One Boca Place won for large commercial buildings. “It’s a big building and they have a lot of landscaping,” Benefield said. “It’s nicely kept. That’s another thing we look for.”

The other winners are:

· Small Commercial: Woolbright Development

· Industrial: Nation Safe Drivers

· Residential medium density ungated: Provence

· Residential low density gated: Les Jardins

· Residential high density: The Mayfair

· Institutional: St. Andrews Estates South

· LEED-environmentally green: Boca Village Corporate Center

· Place of worship: Chabad of East Boca

· Automotive Services: Mobile Service Station on 20th Street and Dixie Highway

· Open Category: Boca Raton Garden Club

The landlord, Richard Higgins, takes care of the garden, said Rabbi Ruvi New.

“Lang Management and Lang Realty salute today’s winners. We are proud to be the sponsor of the awards luncheon for the fourth year, and to have the opportunity to celebrate the beauty of Boca Raton,” said Kevin Carroll, president, Lang Management.

“We are open to suggestions, and if you have a building that really looks good, come to one of our meetings. We always like to have new members,” said Benefield, who may be reached at bocabarb@bellsouth.net.

LONDON, May 15, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ —

• Brits increase spend on landscaping, boosting property value
• As a nation the UK will spend £3.9bn on gardens in 2012
• Spend on garden accessories such as BBQs and water features down to just £27

Households are defying the financial climate and increasing spend on landscaping to spruce up their garden and boost property value, according to a new survey.

The annual HSBC Gardens Survey, published ahead of the Chelsea Flower Show, found that Brits will spend an average of £83 on garden improvements, including landscaping, this year – a 10% increase since 2011.

The figure increases to £148 in both North West and South West England, compared to just £20 in the London, where many householders can only dream of a large garden.

While spend on landscaping has increased, the nation’s garden budget as a whole is being reduced. The average spend in 2012 on general maintenance is £37 (down 47%) and greenery including plants and flowers just £39 (down 47%).

But it is spend on garden items such as barbecues and water features which has seen the most dramatic cut in the past year – down 67% at £27.

Peter Dockar, Head of Mortgages at HSBC, said: ‘The UK has traditionally had a love affair with gardens, but with households facing financial pressures, people have to make difficult decisions about where to spend their cash.

‘The survey reveals that spend on non-essential items has gone down in favour of general improvements, including landscape projects. Improving the general outlook of the garden can not only boost quality of life but also help to increase property value.’  

While the UK average spend on the garden now stands at £185, down from £296 in 2011, four regions in England buck the trend with higher garden budgets – the East Midlands (£253), North West (£240), South West (£239) and South East (£238) all spend more. The regions with the lowest spend are Yorks and Humber (£112) and London (£124). The total UK spend on gardens for 2012 will be £3.9bn*.

The survey also revealed that while relaxing (72%) is the most popular garden activity, over a third (38%) of households now use their garden to grow fruit or veg.

Further findings from the HSBC Gardens Survey can be found on the HSBC newsroom at http://www.newsroom.hsbc.co.uk/

Notes to Editors:

Survey sample: 2056 British homeowners (aged 18+).

*   Number of UK households is 21,407,000 (DCLG Table 804 http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/householdcharacteristics/livetables/)

SURVEY FINDINGS

How much spent on garden in 2012?

Days
Improvements in
General inc. Garden Total Total garden
maintenance landscaping New plants items 2012 2011 2012

East Midlands GBP59 GBP112 GBP50 GBP32 GBP253 GBP281 109
North West GBP41 GBP148 GBP33 GBP18 GBP240 GBP236 97
South West GBP25 GBP148 GBP43 GBP23 GBP239 GBP211 102
South East GBP57 GBP101 GBP47 GBP33 GBP238 GBP237 105
Wales GBP24 GBP91 GBP36 GBP27 GBP178 GBP466 100
Eastern GBP35 GBP50 GBP44 GBP33 GBP162 GBP243 112
North East GBP27 GBP66 GBP39 GBP23 GBP155 GBP306 105
West Mdlands GBP18 GBP76 GBP35 GBP26 GBP155 GBP265 94
Scotland GBP46 GBP43 GBP33 GBP20 GBP142 GBP330 69
London GBP34 GBP20 GBP35 GBP35 GBP124 GBP395 74
Yorks and
Humberside GBP23 GBP42 GBP29 GBP18 GBP112 GBP286 90

What do you use your garden for (%)?

All
Relaxing 72
To dry laundry 65
Growing plants 64
Attracting
wildlife 46
Eating al
fresco 41
Sunbathing 39
Growing fruit
or veg 38
Entertaining 33
For kids to
play 26
Exercising pets 23

How important is having a garden?

West East S S
All Scot North-east North-west Yorks Mids Mids Wales East London East West
Very
important 60 49 51 60 60 62 68 68 65 50 59 67
Quite
important 29 40 36 25 23 27 24 25 28 41 28 25
Not
important
at all 10 11 10 15 17 9 8 7 7 7 11 8

Days spent in the garden

West East S S
All Scot North-east North-west Yorks Mids Mids Wales East London East West
Total
days
per
year 95 69 105 97 90 94 109 100 112 74 105 102

How much spent on garden this year?

National average
(GBP)
2011 2012

General maintenance 70 37
New landscape projects 71 83
New plants, flowers etc 73 39
New items such as BBQ,
water feature etc 82 27
Total GBP296 GBP185

For the latest updates, visit the UK Press Office social media newsroom:

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/newsroom

http://twitter.com/hsbc_uk_press

HSBC Bank plc: HSBC serves 16.1 million customers in the UK and employs approximately 52,000 people.  In the UK, HSBC offers a complete range of personal, premier and private banking services including bank accounts and mortgages. It also provides commercial banking for small to medium businesses and corporate and institutional banking services. HSBC Bank plc is a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc.    

HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The Group serves customers worldwide from around 7,200 offices in over 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, North and Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. With assets of US$2,637bn at 31 March 2012, the HSBC Group is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/newsroom

SOURCE HSBC PFS

Now that Spring has sprung and it’s time to get outdoors and start (or finish) those landscaping and gardening projects, we’re all looking for some ideas and inspiration. The App Store can certainly provide a variety of sources for outdoor projects, but just like in your garden, you’ll have to do some weeding. If you do a simple App Store search for “yard and garden ideas” one of the top results is the Yard and Garden Ideas Catalog by Runner Apps. Upon initial examination it appears to be a catalog of images of various garden and landscaping ideas, which could be handy solely for browsing for inspiration, but unfortunately the Yard and Garden Ideas Catalog provides no real value despite the dollar purchase price.

The Yard and Garden Ideas Catalog presents itself as an image catalog that can be filtered by yard type. The list of potential types and styles is seemingly extensive, ranging from front and back yards, to porches, patios, decks, European and American styles, waterfalls and even 1800s (for Victorian home owners). But sadly, the results for most categories are nothing more than a random, unrelated collection of photos that have nothing whatsoever to do with yards or gardens.

In both the front and back yard categories, the results are mostly images of various landscaping designs, providing a handful of inspirational images that may spark an idea or two. But unfortunately the “catalog” returns just as many irrelevant and unhelpful image results for nearly every other category and many of the included images simply don’t display. It essentially comes off as nothing more than a collection of image results obtainable through any search engine. It does not offer any original ideas, no yard or garden tips, and doesn’t even link to the original source of the image. It merely supplies you with the option of emailing or saving an image – should you find one you like.

With a plethora of other options for getting your gardening on, there’s no benefit to a paid app like Yard and Garden Ideas Catalog. Opt instead to get started with something like Lowe’s Creative Ideas, which downloads for free into the Newsstand Library and Harvest Landscape Calculator by Harvest Power, Inc., which is also free and provides a simple calculator for determining the amounts of mulch, hardscape or compost required for basic landscape projects and also provides some yard and garden tips. As far as finding ideas for inspiration, skip the unnecessary and unproductive weeding through Yard and Garden Ideas Catalog – after all, there’s enough weeding to be done outside.

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For the past few years northern Utah has jumped from winter directly into summer, bypassing the spring season those who make their living from the soil so desperately seek.

It’s a different story in 2012 for the lawn and garden industry.

“It’s been a night and day difference from the last couple of years,” said Loren Nielsen, owner of Wasatch Shadows Nursery in Sandy. Weather impacts the business even more than the economy, he said.

“(When) the two combine against you, weather sinks you and the economy is the knife twisting in your back,” Nielsen said.

But, after a few years of wetter and cooler than normal springs resulting in declining revenues, the landscape and garden industry is again blooming.

“A good spring like this … kind of brings hope back,” he said. Sales at his store were up 60 percent to 80 percent in April over last year.

He said that approximately 30 percent of his revenue is generated in the three-month spring season as homeowners set aside time to plant their flower and vegetable gardens. The focus typically changes right after school breaks for summer, and families plan vacations and spend less time tending to their yards.

“A good summer won’t maintain booming sales,” Nielsen said. “You see an almost instant 20 to 30 percent drop (once summer starts).”

He said sales during the eight to 12 weeks of spring usually determine whether his business makes a profit or loses money for the year.

“(Spring) is absolutely critical,” he said.

The importance of the season is similarly strong for those in the lawn care and maintenance business.

“It seems like this year, we’re busier than ever,” said Don Conroy, owner of DJ Landscapes. He said when he bought the business 12 years ago, there were about 50 clients. Today, he services about 160 accounts.

During that time, his annual revenues have jumped from slightly more than $100,000 to approximately $400,000. Much of the growth has occurred in the past five years despite the lagging economy, he said, with a 20 percent increase in the last year.

Conroy could not pinpoint a particular reason for the increase other than to say he offered good work and a fair price. He said all his business is “word of mouth” referrals, he does no mass marketing.

Your last chance to enjoy spring before the heat of the summer sets in could be spent touring some of the city’s most beautiful gardens.

The Lufkin Landscape Task Force will host its 11th annual garden tour from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 19. Tickets for the tour are $15 each and include entry into four fabulous private gardens and one peaceful park.

The always-anticipated tour serves several purposes, one of which is to let the community know what the LLTF does and drum up interest in the organization, said Conni Estes, garden tour chairperson.

“We want to reach people who are not only interested in gardens and flowers, but those who want to help the community,”  she said.

The tour also serves as a fundraiser for the club’s latest project, the building of an amphitheater in Louis Bronaugh Park, she said.

While spending a morning touring the unique gardens is already a reward in itself, there are other benefits, Estes said.

“People will find good ideas for things to use in their gardens,” she said. “And, it’s a fun way to get outside and enjoy our beautiful East Texas weather.”

For more information about the garden tour, call Estes at 675-1760. Tickets can be purchased in advance from any Lufkin Landscape Task Force member, or on the day of the tour at any garden on the tour.

Louis Bronaugh Park Amphitheater Project

Located on Burke Street adjacent to City Hall, the Lufkin Landscape Task Force has already completed a number of projects at the park, including the beautiful Spirit of America Garden, which is surrounded by the Avenue of Flags.

Dedicated on Sept. 11, 2002, this beautiful garden was made possible entirely by community donations. Its stunning bronze eagle and flagpole pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and to the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, and the volunteers who tirelessly assisted in the recovery.

Fourteen American flags are now a beautiful addition to the Spirit of America Garden in the park.

Donated by interested citizens, the flags encircle the bronze eagle sculpture dedicated in honor of the victims of 9/11, along with serving as a memorial to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Plans are now being formulated for an amphitheater with all the necessities, including new landscaping and murals.

Take time to enjoy this peaceful and patriotic garden.

The garden of Bruce and Donna Chicoine

612 Crown Colony Drive

Upon arrival, visitors are instantly greeted by a multilevel flower bed filled with assorted daylilies, crowned by a backdrop of Knock-out roses. The daylilies are neatly labeled, giving admirers an understanding of the many varieties of daylilies.

The park-like setting of the back yard is complemented by the peaceful sounds of a rock water feature and a cozy gazebo to take it all in.

The garden of Dr. and Mrs. V.E. Brooks

4 Winged Foot Court

Dr. Brooks’ collection of antique roses is a must-see for any rose lover, taking over most of the front of the property.

After admiring the roses in the front, visitors to the garden can walk down a pathway covered with different varieties of climbing roses. The rose-covered path leads to the back yard, which overlooks the Crown Colony Country Club golf course and the lake.

The garden of Jeanetta Stewart

302 Crown Colony Drive

This beautiful garden begins with a stunning art piece that doubles as a water feature surrounded by a colorful array of perennials that overwhelms your senses.

As you travel through the front archway, you enter a Japanese garden overflowing with different types of ferns, setting a peaceful atmosphere as you enter the home.

At the back of the property, there is a water feature separating the yard from the shade garden. In the shade garden, visitors are faced with the choice of which unique path to take, where the use of different materials and plants on each path keeps the garden new and exciting each visit.

The brick path leads to a gazebo in the middle of a shaded garden overlooking the golf course and the lake.

The garden of Dr. Richard and Deborah Ruckman

664 Earl Largent Road

As visitors enter the gate to this must-see garden, they are guided to the home by oak trees lining both sides of the drive. The front of the home is outlined with evergreen beds edged with limestone.

In the center of the front bedding area, a low-growing hedge is shaped like a star.

To the right of the home is a large bed of evergreens surrounded by trails so the bed can be enjoyed from all sides. A “living fence,” this bed was designed to block several buildings from the main house.

The backyard landscape is designed around a sparkling pool, and the hot tub is surrounded by evergreens. This area has been built up, with different levels allowing many smaller “theme” beds to take shape, such as a rose garden and a daylily garden. The view overlooks a wooded area sloping down to a creek.

Directions: Turn right off Hwy. 94 onto FM 706. At the three churches, turn left onto Ben Dunn Rd. Bear left on Largent, following the signs and balloons.

The Center For Sight

2 Medical Center Blvd.

This established business has recently undergone a new landscape design to bring a fresh look to a frequently-traveled area.  

With greenery and floral accents, visitors to the clinic and motorists passing by will enjoy the manicured and well-thought-out plantings.

Denise Hoepfner’s email address is dhoepfner@lufkindailynews.com.

Home gardeners can substitute natives for exotics in any type of landscape design: a single specimen, perennial border, ground cover, grass substitute, hedge, water feature, rock garden, or shade garden, just to name a few.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has published a wonderful book titled “Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants,” which can help gardeners choose appropriate substitutes for the more familiar but problematic standbys. It has categories for trees, shrubs, vines, herbaceous plants and grasses.

In this article we’ll take a look at a “ready packaged” scheme for a perennial bed based entirely on natives. I follow traditional precepts of garden design, but using natives instead.

This bed would measure about 25 feet by 8 feet, and the plantings are appropriate for full sun and average soil. It features colors in the red, purple and white range. The total bloom time for the ensemble extends from mid spring to late fall. All of these plants are relatively well-behaved and commercially available.

Any perennial bed needs “bones.” These are the basic plants that provide visual and literal structure to a garden.Usually, these are the large, tall, shrubby species or even small trees, which anchor the garden and often remain above ground all winter to provide four-season interest.

For my hypothetical bed, I chose Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica), also known as “tassel-white.”  This shrub can grow to about eight feet and bears long tassel-like nodding white flowers in the spring.

My own plants also have attractive bright green twigs that offer wintertime brightness. Sweetspires look best planted in clumps. A complement foundation plant is Viburnum dentatum, a member of the arrow wood family. For home gardens, a cultivar called “blue muffin” is popular.

It grows to just around four feet. In spring, it bears flat clusters of white flowers. These are followed by intense blue berries in the fall, attractive to native and migrant birds.

Since repetition is another good garden design practice, we’ll place clumps of Itea at either end of the bed, with a pair of Viburnum in the middle.

The body of the garden consists of medium height (2 to 4 feet) perennials whose bright blooms and interesting textures supply the “wow” factor in high summer. Monarda didyma (bergamot, bee balm) now is available in many sizes and colors.  It can’t be beat for its fragrant leaves, summer-blooming red to pink flowers, and attraction for hummingbirds and butterflies.

A single clump will provide a focal point in the middle of the garden. Penstemon tubiflorus (White wand penstemon) has performed beautifully in my sunny border, sending up long-lasting spikes of white flowers in mid-summer.  A clump of three would do nicely on either side of the bee balm. Give the bee balm a little room to expand, though.

Finally, no native garden should be without Phlox paniculata, garden phlox. This two- to three-foot plant blooms late in the season and bears clusters of white to pale lavendar flowers. Put a clump at either end of your garden and maybe one in between somewhere to tie the whole thing together.

If your garden is an “island” bed, use the “backbone” plants along a center lengthwise line, and deploy the smaller plants to either side.

You can make the “backbone” curvy if you want, and place the shorter plants inside the curves.   If your garden borders a fence or hedge, then it is easiest to put the tall plants in the rear and the shorter ones in front. A wavy front edge can add visual variety.

Once established, this garden will need little care and reward you with a long bloom period. Birds and butterflies will find it, too. 

Each week the Green Bay Press-Gazette talks to business owners and leaders for its Monday conversation feature.

Today, Mike McPeake and Justin Rollin of Earth Development Inc. talk about the landscaping business and its focus on teaching customers how to care for their own landscape and gardens.

Instruction is included as part of landscaping projects and also available for a fee as a stand-alone service.

Rollin has been in the business since 1999 and recently brought on McPeake to focus on the landscaping and instruction. The business also offers fertilizer, weed control and snow removal services.

Q. What are the origins of this business?

A. Rollin: We started out lawn mowing in 1999, started landscaping in 2000 and landscaped heavily through 2006 or 2007 when the economy started turning. We started backing off and going more toward residential chemical application.

About 75 percent of our business is snow removal.

Q. Why has landscaping become a focus again?

A. Rollin: We feel the economy is changing, and it’s changing huge.

McPeake: We think there is a need for a different kind of landscaping company, one that is more about educating and teaching.

Q. Why is that education and customer-based approach important and what would you like to teach customers?

A. McPeake: It’s not about the dollar amount, it’s about getting the customer’s ideas and incorporating those ideas in landscaping that is affordable for them.

Within the process is doing the follow-up if they have problems with their plants or trees.

We do garden coaching. We have private pruning lessons we’ll do for our customers. We have a garden bed maintenance program we can put together for them to assist customers in correctly taking care of their landscaping … and we give them the confidence to do the work themselves so they can maintain their own landscaping.

It also helps them to know that when they need to turn to a professional they can call us and we’ll be there. We also make house calls for any landscaping, it doesn’t make a difference who put it in.

We think there’s a real niche there.

I’ve been in the business 25 years. I owned my own business and worked for a lot of other companies. It’s just hindsight … I believe educating the customer is the bottom line.

Q. Is there any trepidation with trying a different approach to the landscaping side of the business?

A. Rollin: We’re trying to be a little different than everyone else, and this is the way to go.

Going back into it now with the market changing, I want to be different than everyone else. If we go into it with this attitude that we’re there to help everybody, it will work out.

People get their landscaping done … and they have no idea what the plant is, how to take care of it, what to do with the plant. That’s where we’re here to educate them.

McPeake: We don’t really know where this is going to go … but we know we’re moving in the right direction and we know there is a need for it.