CROWN POINT | Whatever the weather outside, it’s perpetual summer at the 11th annual Garden Pond Expo at the Lake County Fairgrounds’ Industrial Arts building this weekend.

Sponsored by the Illiana Garden Pond Society, the expo has transformed the building into a wonderland, complete with trees, blooming floors, bubbling fountains, elaborate ponds and outdoor living spaces.

“We try to make it look like you’re walking through a garden,” said Pam Manwaring, an Illiana Garden Pond Society member. The expo displays took five days to construct under the direction of chairperson Kathy Bartley.

The event continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. Admission is $5 for adults; children younger than age 15 are admitted free.

Local landscapers, garden centers, outdoor lighting experts and designers are among the 57 vendors with displays that showcase their specialties. Visitors will also find an array of other garden-oriented products including Japanese Koi, pond supplies, garden and bedding plants, vegetables, outdoor lighting, birdhouses, handmade garden art and outdoor décor.

A 4,000-square foot area, Enhancing Your Outdoor Living, is a joint project of Gardens on the Prairie and South County Landscaping. Here visitors can wander through exhibits of outdoor living spaces accented by water features, trees, shrubs and flowers.

“We really support local businesses and small home-based businesses,” Manwaring said. “We also have a number of not-for-profit organizations here. It’s a good showcase for them.”

The money collected through admissions is used to install educational ponds at area schools, nursing homes and other sites, she said. One of those sites is Eagle Park School in Crown Point, a part of the Northwest Indiana Special Education Cooperative for students with developmental disabilities.

“We use the pond for math and science projects. For example, we figured out the weight of water to fill the pond and weighed the fish in the pond,” said Joe Power, a staff member at Eagle Park School. “Our students also designed a feeding system for the fish.”

A booth filled with pottery and glass art projects made by Eagle Park students is raising funds to purchase clay, glaze and glass for the next school year.

Mother and daughter team Rose and Mickie Neises of Boone Grove said they regularly attend the Garden Pond Expo to get ideas for their extensive gardens.

“We have a bog garden, a vegetable garden and a water garden. We have our own greenhouses,” said Rose Neises as they looked for carnivorous plants offered by Anything Orchids of Frankfort, Ill. “I’d like to raise carnivorous plants.”

Carnivorous plants attract and destroy bugs, said Don White, owner of Anything Orchids.

“If you have a lot of plants and have trouble with bugs eating them, put some of the carnivorous plants near them and you won’t have any bugs,” he said. “That way, you don’t poison yourself with pesticides.”

Bill and Linda Uporsky of Portage said they are regulars at the expo. This year, the couple bought bulbs they plan to immediately plant in their garden, and a small flower vase that attaches to a mirror.

“We won a door prize,” said Bill Uporsky, holding up a wooden garden sign inscribed with the phrase “Plant your dreams and watch them grow!”

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IBISWorld Market Research

The competitive landscape has been difficult for industry operators as household spending has decreased

Melbourne, Australia (PRWEB) April 29, 2012

Contractors in the Landscaping Services industry tackle a large range of projects, from humble backyard makeovers to roadside parks and public botanical gardens. The industry often competes for market share with DIY home owners, other special construction trades (e.g. site preparation firms), the Gardening Services industry, and to a lesser extent with landscape architects. According to IBISWorld industry analyst Anthony Kelly, ‘the industry is expected to generate revenue totalling $2.82 billion in 2011-12.’ Industry revenue is expected to decline by about 3.6% in 2011-12, but average modest cyclical growth of an annualised 1.0% over the five years to 2011-12. The industry’s performance has been contained by the subdued trends in spending by the household sector on landscaping services, but supported by strong demand conditions in the non-housing construction markets, and on institutional building projects (notably schools and hospitals).

Over the longer term, the Landscaping Services industry has benefited from improved public appreciation of professional landscape design and installation services. Concurrently, the nature of industry activities has changed in response to the prolonged drought conditions across Australia. Kelly adds, ‘the drought heralded a focus on the installation of drought-tolerant lawns and plants, rock or stone gardens, the laying of artificial grass in household gardens and the installation of greywater systems.’

The Landscaping Services industry has a particularly low level of ownership concentration. Most landscaping services contractors maintain very small-scale operations (one or two people) and operate in narrow geographic or niche service markets. Programmed Maintenance Services Limited is the largest industry player. The pace of industry expansion is forecast to rebound over the next few years as stronger economic growth conditions support spending by households and the business sector. The industry will derive some stimulus from reconstruction activity in Queensland and northern Victoria in the aftermath of the devastating floods of early 2011 and Cyclone Yasi.

For more information, visit IBISWorld’s Landscaping Services report in Australia industry page.

Follow IBISWorld on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ibisworldau

IBISWorld industry Report Key Topics

This industry includes those whose primary activity is wholesaling confectionery, snack foods, or soft drinks. Confectionery includes chocolate or cocoa products, chewing gum, and sugar confectionery. Snack products include potato crisps, corn chips, nuts and pretzels, and nutritious snacks. Soft drinks include carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, cordials and syrups, excluding bottled water, fruit juice, alcoholic beverages or milk drinks.

Industry Performance

Executive Summary

Key External Drivers

Current Performance

Industry Outlook

Industry Life Cycle

Products Markets

Supply Chain

Products Services

Major Markets

Globalisation Trade

Business Locations

Competitive Landscape

Market Share Concentration

Key Success Factors

Cost Structure Benchmarks

Barriers to Entry

Major Companies

Operating Conditions

Capital Intensity

Key Statistics

Industry Data

Annual Change

Key Ratios

About IBISWorld Inc.

Recognised as the nation’s most trusted independent source of industry and market research, IBISWorld offers a comprehensive database of unique information and analysis on every Australian industry. With an extensive online portfolio, valued for its depth and scope, the company equips clients with the insight necessary to make better business decisions. Headquartered in Melbourne, IBISWorld serves a range of business, professional service and government organisations through more than 10 locations worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.ibisworld.com.au or call (03) 9655 3886.

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Right plant, right place: Group plants according to their needs. For example, place all the plants that require full sun together, so that they can be treated the same. Grouping plants with high and low water requirements together will mean one plant will thrive while the other one have problems. Eventually, you will be replacing the plants that are not doing well and that will cost money.

Some gardeners do not take the final size of the plant into consideration when planting. I recently saw a house with two live oaks planted within four feet of the foundation on either side of the front porch. This person will have to constantly trim these trees to keep the branches from poking someone in the face each time they come out on the porch. Can you imagine the foundation damage to his house in a few years? I can see the money leaving his pocket.

Recycle: Gardeners spend a lot of money buying topsoil and compost. You can save money by making your very own soil by collecting your kitchen scraps and plant litter and composting them. Commercially available compost bins can be purchased, or you can simply use a large garbage can with holes poked into it or bury the scraps in holes in the garden each time you collect them. If done right, you can have compost in approximately six weeks. Compost adds nutrients to your soil, adds organic matter and increases the ability of the soil to hold water.

The UF/IFAS Marion County Master Gardeners have a compost area display at the demonstration gardens at 2232 NE Jacksonville Road. Stop by to look at the display to see which one will suit your needs.

I also save money in the garden by recycling my newspaper. Instead of purchasing landscape fabric, I lay about four sheets of newspaper, not the sales ads, on top of the soil, then lay the mulch on top.

Water efficiently: Consider operating your sprinkler system manually or ensuring your rain shut-off device is in an open area where it is exposed to rainfall. It will automatically shut off when it collects a certain amount of rainfall. Install a rain barrel to collect rain water, and hand-water your plants. These steps will help to reduce your water bill.

Fertilize appropriately: We get calls all the time from gardeners wanting to know how much fertilizer to use without any idea of what nutrients are available in the soil or the soil pH. By simply taking a soil test and submitting a sample to the University of Florida Soils Lab, you will get a detailed report specific to the crop that you are growing. Soil test kits are available at your Extension office. This test only costs $7. It is well worth it. Your plants will love you for that — they will be happy and you will be happy, too.

Manage yard pests responsibly: Not every insect you come across in the garden is bad. Approximately 1 percent of the insects in the world actually cause economic damage. Learn which insects are good and which ones are bad. If you see a bad bug, there are other things you can do to kill it without going out to purchase an insecticide. Snip it in half, drop it in some soapy water or stomp it to death. Now how much did that cost you?

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Come on out to the UF/IFAS Marion County Master Gardeners’ Plant Sale on Saturday, May 12 from 8 a.m. to noon where you can talk with the experts on other ways they save money in the garden. Tour the demonstration gardens and purchase some Florida-friendly plants for your landscape. Remember to ask how you can become a Master Gardener. Place: 2232 NE Jacksonville Road at the greenhouse behind the Extension office. Please follow the signs for parking. For more information, contact Donna at 352-671-8400. See you there!

Norma Samuel is the Urban Horticulture Agent for the UF/IFAS Marion County Extension Service. Contact her at norma.samuel@marioncountyfl.org.

Desert Rain Gardens. Rainscapes. Rain-Fed Landscapes. Rainscaping. Whatever your name for it, landscapes designed to rely on natural rainfall are the ultimate in water efficient landscaping! Once established, they survive entirely on rainwater. This class teaches the essentials for design, installation, plant selection and realistic characteristics and expectations for rainfed landscapes. Join professional landscape designer Vicki France as she takes you through the basics of designing a Desert Rain Garden for your water-efficient landscape.

 

Seating is limited so registration is required. Please contact the SmartScape Program via email or phone at 520.626.5161.

 

Persons with a disability may request a reasonable accommodation, such as a sign language interpreter, by contacting the SmartScape Program Office 520-626-5161. Requests should be made as early as possible to allow time to arrange the accommodation.

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cals.arizona.edu/pima/smartscape/workshop_water.html

Posted: Friday, April 27, 2012 12:09 am

Landscape session set

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The YWCA Gettysburg Adams County will host a course on landscaping basics Monday, April 30, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at 909 Fairfield Road, Gettysburg.

Instructors Jerry and Jan Althoff, of Countryside Gardens, will discuss different styles of landscape designs, plant selections, proper spacing, soil amendments, mulches, and proper planting techniques. The course will also address the use of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals, as well as privacy screening and accent pieces.

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Lynne Wonacott’s informal garden has a plant-based design. “I see plants I like, and then I try to figure out where they should go,” she said.

Her half-acre lot in south Redding is a mix of shrubs, trees and groundcovers in many colors, forms and textures. There’s a little bit of many things — but no lawn.

In November 2007, when Wonacott moved into her new house, the yard was bare ground and weeds. She didn’t have a grand vision for the landscape, but she did have a basic rule: Plants had to handle the sizzle of summer and the chill of winter. No sense spending money, time and trouble on things unwilling to grow in Redding, she figured.

“Drought-tolerant and Redding-enabled were really important,” Wonacott said.

She planted California natives like Oregon grape, deergrass, ceanothus, manzanita and coffeeberry, as well as other hardy ornamentals, including euphorbias, salvias and ornamental grasses. Trees include crabapple, chilopsis, curly willow and Japanese maple. There also are blueberry bushes and peach, plum and apple trees.

The garden is one of five on the May 5 Shasta chapter of the California Native Plant Society’s Native Plant Gardens and Landscapes Garden Tour 2012.

Wonacott estimated a third of the plants in her yard are California natives. Many others are Mediterranean-climate plants with the same tough, non-thirsty characteristics.

Transforming the blank yard was a big job. Wonacott did almost all of the work. She retired from her job as civil engineering project manager with Sharrah Dunlap Sawyer in Redding about a year and a half ago but remains busy. She’s on the Redding Planning Commission and the board of directors for Shasta Women’s Refuge. And she is a master garden with Shasta College/University of California Master Gardeners.

Gardening is therapeutic, Wonacott said. “It’s wonderful exercise, and I just like the quietness and peacefulness of it.”

Before moving to Redding, she lived in Shingletown, where gardening conditions were shady, rocky and rooty. Gardening in Redding was a new adventure. She got inspiration for her landscape from friends with interesting yards and knowledge of native plants. She also

found ideas and expertise at Turtle Bay Exploration Park’s McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Redding.

She took on the project in small pieces, starting close to the house and moving out. To make the flat lot more visually interesting, she brought in dirt and created mounds for plants. She used cobble to build dry creek beds. A soggy ditch became a rain garden. To connect garden areas as she completed them, she added gravel pathways, determining: “I need to walk there, so that must need a path.”

Wonacott looked for ways to repurposed items. A discarded, broken arbor was repaired and painted. She used broken chunks of concrete from the free pile at a landscaping materials business to make planting beds and edge pathways. A tossed-out stained-glass window from a church became garden art.

She didn’t spend time improving the soil because it is former ag land, so is a notch above Redding’s typical red clay. Wonacott uses a solution made from worm castings to fertilize plants and encourage beneficial microorganisms in the soil. If soil is healthy, plants will be healthy, she said.

She offered these suggestions to those creating a landscape from scratch or reworking a yard:

“Start with a place you can manage — even if it is just a little planter,” she said. It’s important not to become overwhelmed. If you start small, you can build on your success.

Remember that little plants get big. Visualize the mature plant. Don’t plant too closely or in a bed that’s too small. Make garden beds bigger than you think they need to be.

If a plant is in a place that gets too much sun or too much shade, or if it gets too big for its spot, dig it up and find a new location. “Don’t be afraid to change stuff,” Wonacott said.

Be economical. Look for sales. Get plants from friends. Find new purposes for discarded items.

IF YOU GO

— What: Native Plant Gardens and Landscapes Garden Tour 2012, presented by the Shasta chapter of the California Native Plant Society

— When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 5

— Featuring: Self-guided tour of four home gardens in the Redding area and McConnell Arboretum Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding. Includes sale of native plants. Members of CNPS will be available to answer questions about growing native plants. Wintu Audubon Society members will provide information on north state birds.

–Cost: Tickets are $5 and available at Wyntour Gardens, Gold Leaf Nursery and Creekside Gardens, all in Redding; and Red Bluff Garden Center.

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Summer is just around the corner, and the City of Carrollton is preparing for the heat by teaching residents how to conserve water.

The city is building two gardens to show how landscaping can save water.

Doris Brockman walks around one of the water conservation gardens each day.

“It’s really a wonderful addition to think we can have plants grow without having a lot of watering to be done,” Brockman said.

Valerie Miller, who works for the city, said plants do not need to be watered as often as many people think. The jobs of the water conservation gardens are to teach people how to use landscape to save water.

“You can still have a lush, flowery, homey garden that still has butterflies and a healthy habitat for insects that still uses little water and fun to use,” she said.

Miller said now is a good time to plant, but the key to water conservation is healthy soil and native plants.

Carrollton resident Frank Castleberry said the gardens are full of new possibilities.

“If we can get a plants that live on a lot less water, let’s go for that, and we will learn to love them,” Castleberry said.

Planting wildflowers is an easy way to enhance a yard, particularly with mixed-flower meadows and border gardens./pp Nowadays, planting a small wildflower garden, or large meadow, is relatively simple, thanks to ready-made wildflower seed mixes like the new line from Pennington Seed Inc./pp Each mix is designed around the needs of specific planting environments, with general purpose, regional and specialized varieties available. There are special mixes for northeast, southern and Texas gardens, as well as mixes that focus on hummingbird and butterfly gardens./pp The mixes are available at Lowe’s, Home Depot and independent garden centers that carry Pennington products./pp Here are 10 tips for creating a wildflower garden, small or large, courtesy Russ Nicholson, senior agronomist for Pennington Seed Inc.:/pp Know your wildflowers. Annual wildflowers live one year and grow quickly, while perennial wildflowers return each year from the same colony of roots, and some may eventually build a community of flowers./pp Plan ahead when planting. Annuals bloom quickly. Once planted, they will likely fade before other wildflower species. Perennials can be planted during any time of the year, best in early spring or fall, but most need a winter before blooming. When planting a mix of annuals and perennials, you should plant in the spring or fall for the annuals to bloom the first year and perennials the second year./pp Select the right varieties. For optimal performance and beauty, it’s best to select varieties based on your specific climate and landscaping needs./pp Find a suitable planting bed. It’s important to choose a planting area where water does not stand after rain. This ensures seed health during the critical phases of germination and establishment./pp Test the site. A soil test is used to evaluate soil condition and nutrient levels, namely pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. A soil’s pH determines how well plants are able to access the nutrients they need. Homeowners can purchase a home soil test kit or have their soil tested by their local extension service. Because soil pH tends to change over time, you should test regularly, about every other year./pp Correct pH issues in soil before planting. Depending on the results of your pH test, apply a soil amendment, such as lime or gypsum, to correct any issues in the soil. This will create a better environment for roots to grow and may improve nutrient uptake. If desired, you can also add compost to the soil to improve the overall health, or tilth, of the soil./pp Conserve water. You should strive for a landscape that is more water efficient, utilizes less water over time and is healthier. Along with being more resilient, plants receiving proper nutrition have healthier, larger root systems that make best use of available water. This allows your wildflowers to remain bright and colorful during periods of drought./pp Monitor weeds. Frequently monitor flower beds, especially in the early stages, and keep brush away from beds to prevent weed or grass encroachment. If weeds become an issue, it’s best to spot treat with a weed control product as needed./pp Combat plant-damaging insects. The best defenses from problem insects are healthy, actively growing, well-maintained plants. Healthy plants have an enhanced ability to thrive under stress, including damage caused by insects, with no adverse, long-term effects./pp Remember to stop and smell … In following these steps, everyone from enthusiasts to master gardeners can take more time to enjoy their beautiful wildflower gardens and landscapes each year./pp Learn more about Pennington Seed Inc. at www.penningtonusa.com./pp (Kathy Van Mullekom is gardening columnist for the Daily Press, Newport News, Va.; e-mail her at kvanmullekom@aol.com; follow her at roomandyard.com/diggin, Facebook.com/kathyvanmullekom, Pinterest.com/digginin and Twitter.com/diggindirt.)

Archival pigment ink on photo rag from John Gollings’ Bushfire Aerials exhibition.

Landscapers are taking a fresh look at fire risk.

GRASSY meadows, gentle contours, open woodland – it sounds like the classic 18th-century English country landscape. Only we’re talking pre-white settlement Australia.

In his book The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia, historian Bill Gammage describes the precise measures to which he believes Aborigines went – clearing, burning, transplanting plants – to ensure ”all life flourished” and that erratic bushfire was not the phenomenon it is today.

Landscaping for bushfire, he argues, is nothing new. Since Black Saturday, however, landscape architects are being asked to consider afresh how they can reduce bushfire risk in the gardens they design. Just as photographer John Gollings reveals some of the beauty to be found in aerial views of scarred post-bushfire landscapes taken a week after the Black Saturday fires (the works went on show this week), others are focusing on how aesthetic sensibilities and planning for bushfire can work in tandem.

At the recent Flower and Garden Show, the Country Fire Authority launched its Landscaping for Bushfire guide, a 64-page text available online, that looks at how plant arrangement and selection can reduce the bushfire risk to any house.

CFA vegetation manager Owen Gooding says there are fantastic design opportunities in establishing ”fire-smart gardens”. ”They can be really beautiful and that runs counter to what people might think, which is little vegetation, maybe lots of concrete,” he says.

John Rayner, a senior lecturer in urban horticulture at the University of Melbourne and a contributor to the CFA’s guide, says personal aesthetics and preferences are an important aspect of designing for bushfire and these need to be balanced with fire ecology. ”If we ignore peoples’ aesthetic and personal preferences we won’t get the outcome we want, which is more sensitively designed gardens in high fire-risk areas,” he says.

Rayner and Gooding both insist that any debate between exotic and native plants is too simplistic and misleading, and the CFA guide avoids entering into a debate on the fire risk of plants based on their origin. It instead asks landscape architects to consider a range of characteristics that ”reduce the likelihood of ignition” (including high moisture content, open and loose branching, course textures, and leaves without high amounts of oils and resins) when selecting what to grow.

But while plant selection is important, the guide says even more critical to bushfire risk is the arrangement of vegetation within a garden, such as establishing an area of land around a building where vegetation is modified and creating separation between plants, garden beds and tree canopies.

Jeremy Francis, who owns the Cloudehill garden in the Dandenongs – essentially devoted to exotics – says he has been consciously avoiding planting long lengths of vegetation that can lead a fire up to buildings and to use plants with a high moisture content, such as deciduous trees. He has also maintained open grassed areas.

Landscape designer Sam Cox, however, takes a different view. ”I don’t design gardens to try to stop fire because I don’t think it’s possible,” he says. ”I don’t understand why you would want to live in a natural environment and then clear everything around the house for fear of fire that might only arise every 30 to 50 years.”

Cox, who works out of the Eltham area and uses native plants, says he would be struggling to make gardens that fitted with his design principles without bringing foliage close to the house.

Since Black Saturday he has, however, advocated having water supplies that can saturate the ground and vegetation around buildings and has more preliminary consultation with clients to ascertain their thoughts on bushfire risk. If they are not comfortable with his approach, he suggests they find another designer.

John Gollings: Bushfire Aerials runs until May 12 at Edmund Pearce Gallery, level 2, Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston Street, city.

Bill Gammage is speaking at Montsalvat, 7 Hillcrest Avenue, Eltham, tomorrow as part of the Past Matters: Writing for Rights writers’ festival.

The CFA’s Landscaping for Bushfire guide is available at cfa.vic.gov.au

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  Don Engebretson

Don Engebretson, known as the “Renegade Gardener,” will speak at the May meeting of the Hudson Home and Garden Club on Tuesday, May 1, at The Phipps Center.

Engebretson has received several writing awards, has published four books on gardening and landscaping, has appeared as a regular on HGTV and is the on-camera landscaping expert on PBS TV’s “Hometime” program. The meeting is free and open to the public.

The club meets on the first Tuesday of every month and welcomes new members. The meetings include speakers, hands-on projects and garden tours. The club is committed to beautification projects in the community, including the Hudson Library, and other public gardens.

For more information, call Barbara Peterson at (715) 549-6798.

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