The ninth annual Bainbridge Island Home Garden Show is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Mar. 31, at Woodward Middle School. The event will feature more than 60 exhibitors and a full day of speakers showcasing home and landscaping improvements, interior design, kitchen design, gardening, alternative energy, energy conservation and sustainable practices.

The keynote speaker is Bloedel Reserve Horticultural Director Andy Navage, who will reveal “Secrets of the Bloedel Reserve: Great Successes Abysmal Failures” at 2 p.m. With 18 years at the Reserve, Navage has some amazing stories to tell. He’ll also cover topics including spring plants, woodland gardens, and gardening with and in spite of wild creatures.

Other speakers are: Rick Blumenthal of RePower Bainbridge, “Stop Losing Heat Out of Your Drafty House – Fundamentals of Whole House Air Sealing”; Molly McCabe of A Kitchen That Works, “How to Hire a Contractor and/or Designer”; Rebecca Slattery of Persephone Farms, “Tips Tricks for Growing Organic Vegetables in the Pacific Northwest”; Joe Deets of Community Energy Solutions, “Solar Energy in Washington”; and Saffronia Baldwin of Saffronia Baldwin Design, “How to Design a Beautiful Interior in 7 Bite-sized Steps.”

The show, free to the public, is produced by the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce. More information on the show, speaker biographies and a list of vendors is available at www.bainbridgechamber.com.

Contact Bainbridge Island Review Staff Bainbridge Review at editor@bainbridgereview.com.

Comment on this story.

Steve Scher
03/27/2012 at 10:00 a.m.

Social Purpose Corporations: A new Washington state law establishes a new kind of business, a Social Purpose Corporation. It allows corporations to legally go beyond maximizing shareholder profits to establish broader goals. It also establishes procedures for greater transparency to monitor against greenwashing. Is this more than symbolic? Could this inspire socially responsible entrepreneurs into action, or shape long term corporate thinking? We will talk with Bruce Herbert, who helped promote the new law.

Greendays Gardening Panel: Pledge Drive Edition! It’s a pledge drive edition of the Greendays gardening panel. Do you value them as a resource? Let them know by pledging your support to all the programming on KUOW. Call the pledge line at 206.543.9595. We’ll also answer your gardening questions at 1.800.289.KUOW (5869).

Guest(s)

Bruce Herbert is with Newground Social Investment.

Marty Wingate writes about gardens and travel. You can find her works at martywingate.com. Her book is “Landscaping for Privacy.”

Greg Rabourn is the Vashon basin steward and works on habitat restoration and salmon recovery on Vashon and Maury Islands. He also helps landowners in the Raging River and Patterson Creek watershed solve landscape problems sustainably. You can see him as cohost of King County TV’s “Yard Talk.”

SAN FRANCISCO, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ —
The weather is getting warmer and signs of Mother Nature surround us with singing birds and blossoming trees. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about what you want to do with your gardens this year, along with any exciting home improvement projects you may have up your sleeve. From landscaping to building a new deck, finishing your basement, repairing or replacing the roof, and so on down the list, this is a great time to refresh your home and get it in shape for all the summer entertaining you might like to do. As for gardening, you can choose from planting a vegetable garden to caring for flowers of all kinds, and even putting together a little herb garden to serve you well in the kitchen as you prepare delicious dinners.

Springtime is a wonderful time of year to enjoy gardening and to tackle those home improvement projects. With all of these great intentions, sometimes the high cost of these projects can sneak up on us. Thankfully, CouponSnapshot, a website offering countless online coupon codes and discounts to help consumers save money, now offers a wide array of home improvement and gardening focused deals and discounts that are simple and so fast to use.

CouponSnapshot’s Home Garden deals page should give you access to just about everything you need to get your latest project done on the cheap. You can find great deals from preferred stores like Home Depot, Build.com, Home Decorators Collection, Lighting Showplace, Toolbarn, simplehuman, Gardener’s Supply, Fast Growing Trees, and many others. The deals for gardening and home improvement stores range from percent-off to dollars-off and even free shipping or selected freebies with your purchase.

“Springtime often reminds us of all the wonderful things we want to do around our homes,” says CouponSnapshot’s Marketing Director. “The weather gets nicer, so we want to start working outside, fixing up our gardens, getting new walkways, or caring for the exterior of our homes. Spring is also a nice time to fix up the interior of the home, and of course, to tackle spring cleaning. At CouponSnapshot, we have worked hard to take the edge off the exorbitant cost of these types of gardening and home improvement projects. Those who visit our website can take advantage of vast deals and discounts to save them money on hardware, tools, gardening equipment and supplies, and other materials they would usually have to pay full price to purchase.”

Some of the top deals in gardening and home improvement include:

Build.com – Save 10% or more on Wall Sconces

Fast Growing Trees Nursery – 25% off site wide plus free shipping on orders over $99

Gardener’s Supply – 10% off orders over $75

Garnet Hill – Enjoy Free Shipping on All Rugs

Home Depot – 50% off your orders, $100 off all orders over $1000, $300 off orders over $2500, and more…

Sears – Up to 30% off Kenmore Elite appliances

Tractor Supply – $30 OFF Champion Power Equipment

Online shoppers can browse thousands of deals in other categories as well, ranging from beauty and fashion to electronics, gifts, furniture, travel, sports, health, and pets, to name just a few. To find the best savings, consumers can browse by their favorite brands or they can review the Top 20 Deals pages, which have some pages specific to home improvement as well as gardening. Any shoppers in the mood to spruce up their homes and their yards should check out CouponSnapshot’s great Garden Deals, Rugs Deals, Lighting Deals, and HomeGarden Coupons before getting started.

“We have a special team of deal hunters who spend their entire workday looking for the best deals and discounts for our visitors,” says CouponSnapshot’s CEO. “Our dedicated deal team then organizes all the new deals so they are easy to find and even easier to use. We feel fortunate to be a one-stop site that helps you save time and money!”

About CouponSnapshot:

CouponSnapshot is a website devoted to helping shoppers save time and money by using online coupon codes and discounts. The site compiles online coupons, deals, and special offers from thousands of merchants, giving shoppers the opportunity to save money on just about anything they’re planning to buy. CouponSnapshot is free to use and new discounts are becoming available every day. For more information on CouponSnapshot and to view thousands of online coupon codes and discounts, please see:
www.couponsnapshot.com .

Media Contact: facebook.com/couponsnapshot Twitter: @CouponSnapshotpr@couponsnapshot.com

SOURCE CouponSnapshot.com

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Barbara Murphy holds a piece of landscaping material used to keep grass and weeds down in a garden. The University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator is teaching a six-week class on gardening. It is being held at Mountain Valley High school in Rumford.

Barbara Murphy, educator with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, shows an electric Fizzat bug zapper during her gardening class at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford.

RUMFORD — Destroying insect eggs regularly is the best way to ensure that plants won’t be devoured, particularly with the increasingly warm winters.

That was a major message given by University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator Barbara Murphy at last week’s class on growing community and school gardens at Mountain Valley High School.

Attending were teachers involved in school gardens, community garden organizers, including one from Wilson Grange in Wilton, and a middle school student from Jay-Livermore Falls who is heading up a school garden project.

As if tomato hornworms, a variety of beetles, cabbage loopers and squash vine borers weren’t enough, she warned that a serious threat to berries may hit Maine this year in the form of an Asian fruit fly. It entered through California just a few years ago and was discovered in Massachusetts last fall.

“Everyone is in a panic about the blueberry crop,” she said.

Warm Maine winters the past few years are also wreaking havoc on gardens because many insects, such as the potato beetle, don’t die in the numbers they usually do. And to make matters worse, the growing season is becoming longer every year, enabling these and other insects to produce several generations.

“I can’t think of a harder crop to grow organically than potatoes. These beetles can wipe out a crop in no time,” Murphy said.

To try to prevent that, she suggested planting eggplants either between or very near potato plants, if the gardener is willing to sacrifice the eggplants. The potato beetles like eggplants as much as potato plants, so many of the beetles will flock to them.

Keeping the potato patch small is also a help, she said.

But above all, and for every crop, she said, keep a very close watch on all plants every day so that eggs and larvae can be spotted and destroyed. Insects generally lay eggs on the back side of leaves.

“Insects continue to lay eggs that used to have just one generation. Now there are two or more and they don’t die over the winter,” Murphy said.

Some insects destroy from the inside, like the squash vine borer. Again, keeping a close watch is required. She advised checking the squash, pumpkin, cucumber or melon stem where it meets the soil because that’s where the eggs are.

Other suggestions for finding and destroying insects and larvae include using yellow sticky cards to trap cucumber beetles, and a Fizzat, which looks like a plastic tennis racket, to manually swat insects.

Some insects, such as Japanese beetles, winter as grubs, so they should be destroyed as they are found, she said.

“Gardening is about being on your knees and squishing things,” she said. “All it takes is one day without a visit to the garden and we’ll never catch up,” she said.

Murphy also recommended ways to keep weeds down, and to rototill just twice a year: spring and after the fall cleanup.

Cover all areas that are not in growth, she said. Nearly anything will work, from carpet remnants to newspapers, mulch and special fabric materials found in gardening shops made for that purpose.

It’s particularly important to cover the perimeter of the garden, to keep grass and weeds down and less likely to seed in the garden itself, she said.

“Get weeds when they are small. Using a stirrup hoe works,” she said.

And keep at it. Soil nutrients will go into the weeds and grass rather than the vegetable plant, resulting in smaller harvests.

Wayland resident Leisha Marcoccio embraced a hobby in 2004. Today, that hobby is a full-grown business with employees, awards and clients throughout Wayland and other nearby towns.

Gardens by the Yard, Marcoccio’s business, embraces the idea that “Landscaping done well requires a balance of many disciplines — horticulture, engineering, life sciences, art and design, physical work and project management,” according to its website.

Marcoccio, a mechanical engineer by college and a Master Gardner by passion (and training, obviously), prides herself on bringing all those skills to the table when she meets with clients about “beautifying their outdoor rooms.”

In New England, those outdoor rooms are all situated in a natural woodland.

Marcoccio said that even residential spaces in New England, if left to their own devices, would return to their natural woodland setting. Understanding that setting is the first step in helping clients create landscapes they both enjoy and know how to manage.

“We try to work with folks to work with the existing setting they have,” Marcoccio said. “Plant choice can make a huge difference on the look, the quality of the curb appeal, and what kind of maintenance you have to put forward.”

She added that there’s no such thing as a no-maintenance landscape, but she does use “bulletproof plants” that require little pruning, deadheading and other maintenance to keep them healthy.

Gardens by the Yard, Marcoccio said, is unique in that the client is fully involved in the process, including updates on the project via email, text message, phone call or whatever works best.

Marcoccio serves as the primary customer contact, and she said some of the best tools she can offer clients are computer renderings of their landscape featuring the work her company plans to do.

“If a customer is invested and owns the design, they’re going to make it succeed,” Marcoccio said.

She said she sees each landscape as a problem-solving project, “not a recipe,” and since she’s an engineer by schooling, probelm-solving is right up her alley.

“I adore [landscaping],” Marcoccio said. “The passion for it is also what sells people on wanting to work with us. When I start going through with people what’s possible, they light up.”

More information is available at GardensByTheYard.com.

Landscape your sanctuary

Published 6:01am Sunday, March 25, 2012

No longer is it enough to just have a nice, well-kept backyard.

Just ask Darren Williamson, landscape architect and owner of North Star Landscape Design and Installation in Cassopolis.

Extravagant waterfalls, ponds, rain gardens and even outdoor kitchens are becoming more in demand, he says.

“People really want to create their own sanctuary in their backyard,” he said. “They want to be able to have a glass of wine, look at a fish pond with the sound of a waterfall in the background.”

Williamson’s goal as a landscape architect is to help to make people’s backyard dreams a reality.

“It’s really neat to create their dreams and have them come to life,” he said. “It’s fun creating something from nothing.”

One of the more unique trends is the outdoor kitchen, which can include kitchen appliances, barbecue islands, beer taps, pizza ovens, cabinets, counterspace and an element for shade.

Water elements, like fish ponds, fountains, water wheels and waterfalls, have also been gaining in popularity for a while, according to Williamson.

Williamson said water features allow for the property owner to use some creativity.

“There are big waterfalls, small falls, deep ponds, shallow ponds, a huge variety of plants and fish,” he said.

North Star Landscaping, which Williamson started in 1982, helps in every stage of landscaping from design to installation to maintenance.

Among the services North Star offers are water features, retaining walls, patios, fire pits, naturescapes, seeding and sod, irrigation design and landscape renovation.

Williamson says maintenance help is becoming more common among his customers.
“What I’ve realized over the years is how important maintenance is,” he said.

He said sometimes he will design and install a beautiful display, only for it to become rundown after a few years due to lack of maintenance.

North Star’s maintenance package offers three to five visits a year to do trimming, apply fertilizers, herbicides, remulching and a host of other projects.

Williamson added that North Star employs integrated pest management, meaning they try to use the most minimal amount of pesticides and herbicides to treat a pest problem.

Here are some ways people can maintain their yards in March and April, courtesy of North Star:

• Lawn and bed cleanup

• Cut back ornamental grasses before new growth appears

• Rake mulch away from bed edges

• Re-define bed edges

• Identify winter annual weeds and remove or spot-kill before they flower or produce seeds

• Transplant dormant plants and bareroots before they leaf out.

• Prune out dead winter branches from trees and shrubs.

• Divide perennials

• Re-mulch beds

• Apply crabgrass preventer to lawn and bed areas

• Apply pre-emergent herbicides to planting beds to control annual weeds

• Apply slow-release fertilizers

North Star offers services within a 50-mile radius of its headquarters in Cassopolis.
For more information on North Star Landscaping, visit northstarlandscape.net, call (269) 445-9100 or by email at northstar@beanstalk.net.

Tags: North Star Landscape Design and Installation

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. – To help planners, landscape architects, and real estate and construction professionals interested in sustainable design better understand green roofs and their many benefits, the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association (NJAPA) will host an educational presentation on Thursday, Nov. 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the John Theurer Cancer Center (JTCC) at Hackensack University Medical Center, 90 Second Street. 

The presentation will address green roof planning, design and construction, and will provide attendees with an opportunity to tour the center’s new 4,500-square-foot green roof garden and learn about its purpose and the many benefits it provides to the hospital and its patients. The tour will be followed by a session dealing with physical design, regulatory issues, urban heat island and neighborhood impacts, storm water reduction methods and tips on roof garden planning.

Using its Eco Earth Design method of utilizing only the most eco-friendly materials and practices, Midland Park-based RS Landscaping completed the cancer center’s extensive oasis last year in two phases. With the goal of providing patients with easy access to the outdoors and a place to sit among greenery, in addition to serving as a respite for visiting families and friends to spend time while their loved ones are receiving treatment, RS installed drought-tolerant green roof modules, decorative planters, shrubs and sitting areas as well as a demonstration vegetable garden.

Speakers at the presentation will include RS Landscaping President Robert Schucker; Alex Dambach, who serves as the Northeast Area Representative for the NJAPA, and is the director of policy, planning, and development for the City of East Orange; and John McDonough, a licensed professional planner and landscape architect in the State of New Jersey.
 
Schucker is a Green Roofs For Healthy Cities-certified Green Roof Professional and one of New Jersey’s foremost experts on green roof design and installation. Using the proprietary Eco Earth Design method, RS Landscaping provides superior quality landscape design to property owners seeking cutting-edge approaches to sustainability. For more than 26 years, RS Landscaping has offered environmentally responsible, high-end service to residential, public and commercial properties in the areas of design/build, grounds maintenance, irrigation, lighting and plant health care.
 
In his role with NJAPA, Dambach helps the organization support of the needs of the state’s most urbanized areas, and he also works to establish professional development and educational opportunities for planners to improve their skills.
McDonough has been a land use consultant for more than 25 years and has been recognized as an expert in land use matters before hundreds of boards and commissions throughout the State of New Jersey and in Superior Courts. In his capacity as a private consultant, McDonough has designed or planned thousands of projects in all types of land use genres, including Yogi Berra Baseball Stadium and the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
 
“Green roofs offer property owners a plethora of benefits that can readily be seen at the JTCC installation,” Schucker said. “We hope this informative event will open the eyes of attendees to all of the possible applications for green roof gardens at other sites.”

Attendees should park at the Cancer Center garage, use the Second Street entrance, and advise the guard they are there for the NJAPA meeting. It will be held in Conference Room #1 and will provide CM credits.
 

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 | Posted by Malia Zimmerman |  Print This Article

Hawaii Island Volcanic Activity captured by Chuck Denny

BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN – For the last four years, Hawaii Kai resident Chuck Denny has been intrepid in his effort to capture photos of Hawaii Island lava fields that almost no one else has seen.

While his photos appear as stunning as any professional ones, he told Hawaii Reporter that this is a hobby for him. However, since he often hikes for miles in remote areas to get to the lava because he wants the world to see what he can see, his hobby may be more of a calling.

Lava field on Hawaii Island in November 2011 – Photo by Chuck Denny

On November 3 and 4, Denny traveled to Hawaii island to photograph the active lava surface flow expansion field that originates from the lava tube on the east flank of the Pu’u O’o vent. That is about 1 mile long and extends 3 miles to the south east of Pu’u O’o and 1.25 miles above the Royal Gardens subdivision northern boundary.

Photo by Chuck Denny

Denny said the photos were taken along the 1 mile surface flow field during visit to Jack Thompson’s lava house in Royal Gardens. This is his seventh visit there in four years, since his initial trip on January 20, 2008.

Jack Thompson is a well known animated personality on the Big Island of Hawaii. He welcomes guests to his so called lava house, where they are sure to find solitude and beauty. But as Denny said, guests must realize that somewhere nearby flows 2,100-degree lava.

Mr. Thompson’s House in Royal Gardens – Photo by Chuck Denny

“Mr. Thompson is now the only remaining full time resident in the Royal Garden subdivision of which he has resided for 28 years and in which over 180 homes have been consumed and over taken by Madame Pele,” Denny said.

Madame Pele, the Hawaiian Goddess of Fire who is said in Hawaiian culture to rule over the volcanoes, is a force to be reckoned with.

“The photos exhibit the beautiful phenomenon of Madame Pele creating new land with streaming rivers of pahoehoe lava and the creation of extending lava tubes at lower elevations as they meander down the pali toward the ocean,” Denny said.

Photo by Chuck Denny, November 2011, Hawaii island

He adds that if this current episode persists without lava stalling, the existing path is South East toward the middle of Royal Gardens where Thompson lives.

“The active terminus of lava was moving 200 yards per day and the residents of Kalapana Gardens may soon see lava high on the pali, however Madame Pele decides the direction of her ever changing landscaping project,” Denny said.

In his four years of photographing this area, he also has captured stunning active lava tubes, lava skylights along the lava tube within the Royal Gardens subdivision, surface flows that have traveled 6 miles from Pu’u O’o to the ocean, and ocean entry.

Short URL: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/?p=42097

Author:
Malia Zimmerman

Malia Zimmerman is the editor and co-founder of Hawaii Reporter. She has worked as a consultant and contributor to several dozen media outlets including ABC 20/20, FOX News, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, UPI and the Washington Times. Malia has been listed as one of the nation’s top “Web Proficients, Virtuosi, and Masters” and “Hawaii’s new media thought leader” by http://www.thewebstersdictionary.com Reach her at Malia@hawaiireporter.com

Malia Zimmerman has written
277 articles for us.

Scott M. Fay, Hobe Sound

Letter: Literally, figuratively, Rood left mark on Martin County landscape

Roy S. Rood has left behind a legacy of strong values of faith, family, business, philanthropy and leadership. At Treasure Coast Irrigation and Landscape and Rood Landscape, we strive to continue that legacy, honoring his memory with a spirit of gratitude for the road he paved for us.

Mr. Rood was well known and respected throughout the community. He was a founding member of the Jupiter/Tequesta Kiwanis Club and American Legion, Grace Emmanuel Church, Jupiter Christian Academy, and the first bank to open its doors in Jupiter/Tequesta, just to name a few. He was very involved with the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Museum, and in 1938 he planted the ficus there that can be seen growing and prospering to this very day. He opened Rood Landscape in 1946.

A man who cared passionately for excellence, he built this company with the simple vision: “Do it right the first time.”

This vision will live on with every member of the TCI Rood family, where we share and respect his passion for the industry. Mr. Rood was a founding member of the Florida Nursery Growers Landscape Association, and received several state and national awards, including an award from First Lady Barbara Bush for landscaping the Gardens Mall.

A consistent theme to every talk given to the industry (and he gave many) was to keep learning and make this profession better than ever. He was dedicated to giving back to the community he lived and worked in, and ensured his company would continue his philanthropic efforts.

As we reflect with gratitude on the life and legacy of our founder for the strong infrastructure he built for generations to come, we look forward to carrying his memory into the future through excellence and commitment to the landscaping industry and the customers we serve.

Scott M. Fay is the CEO of TCI Rood.