PICTURE PERFECT: Visitors stand on a specially built bridge mounted in the hall of Kunsthistorisches Museum to better view the wall paintings of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt in Vienna.

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Vienna looks good and tastes even better. Explore monumental palaces and energetic art spaces then relax in your favourite coffee house over a Wiener Melange and a slice of apple strudel.

1. Schloss Schonbrunn

The magnificent rococo former summer palace and gardens of the Habsburgs are a perfect place to experience the pomp, circumstance and gracious legacy of Austria’s former monarchs.

A visit to 40 of the palace’s lavishly appointed rooms reveals the lifestyle and the eccentricities of Europe’s most powerful family, right down to Empress Elisabeth’s obsession with her figure.

Beyond the palace, Schloss Schönbrunn Gardens invite a stroll past pseudo-Roman ruins, along bucolic paths winding through leafy woods and a stopover in Gloriette.

2. Kunsthistorisches Museum

As well as accumulating vassal lands, the Habsburgs assembled one of Europe’s finest collections of art and artefacts.

The majestic highlight of this museum is the Picture Gallery, an encounter with a vast and emotionally powerful collection of works by grand masters, such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s evocative and ‘industrial’ Tower of Babel from the 16th century, or the bright plenitude of Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Summer.

3. Schloss Belvedere

Living up to its Italianesque name ‘beautiful view’, this palace and garden ensemble is deceptively close to Vienna’s centre while still creating a feeling of being worlds apart. Symmetrical, finely sculpted and manicured gardens inspired by France’s Versailles connect two exquisite palaces dedicated to Austrian art, complemented by design interiors so stately that these are worthy of a visit in their own right.

Altogether, Schloss Belvedere and gardens bring together an astonishing who’s who of Austrian art with the finest of 18th-century palace architecture and landscaping. Not to be missed here is Gustav Klimt’s painting The Kiss.

4. Ringstrasse Tram Tour

Jump on a tram and explore the Ringstrasse, one of Europe’s most unusual streets.

This circular boulevard of magnificent state buildings, palaces and majestic hotels was carved out of the space once occupied by fortifications protecting Vienna from Ottoman Turk attack in the 16th century.

Today, monumental 19th-century architectural masterpieces boldly rise up along the flanks, encircling most of the central Innere Stadt and separating the centre from the gritty, character-laden Vorstädte (inner suburbs).

5. Prater the Ferris Wheel

There are larger and more hair-raising Ferris wheels, but this icon in Vienna’s Prater has the most character. Graham Greene sent his fictional character Harry Lime up here for a slow rotation in The Third Man, the film from 1949, and little about it has changed since then.

A ride takes you high above the beautiful green open spaces of the Prater, giving you a bird’s-eye view of the city and the expanse of wooded parkland and meadows that you can explore on in-line skates, by bicycle or on a walk after hitting ground level.

This is an extract from Lonely Planet Vienna (7th Edition) by Anthony Haywood, et al. © Lonely Planet 2013.  Published this month, RRP: $39.99.

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Landscape designer Paul Connolly hated the wooden utility pole that dominated the backyard view of his Sabino Canyon-area clients.

Connolly, owner of Sundrea Design Studio, couldn’t chop down the pole, so he designed a landscape that essentially forces visitors to ignore it.

By creating several focal points and inviting gathering spaces, attention is diverted from the transformer-topped pole to the landscaping, including the weathered teal gate and the built-in fireplace.

“You really don’t see it,” Connolly says of the pole, which is further hidden by a new patio roof that helps block the sight.

Connolly’s design led the Association of Landscape Designers to name him in August as the 2013 Landscaper of the Year.

He earned the title because his gold-award design in the International Landscape Design Awards scored the highest among all entries.

The estimated 3,000-square-foot backyard at the home, whose owners did not want to be identified, was undeveloped except for the seven-foot-wide patio that ended with a three-foot drop-off into the yard.

That drop-off remains to accommodate a manmade drainage system that now looks like a natural dry creek, although it’s now covered with Carolina jessamine.

The land then slopes up into several terraces and ends at the property fence with patios around an above-ground spa and the fireplace. Gardens and pea-gravel or stone paths weave through the spaces.

“I really like to blend the natural elements with the patios so the plants and hardscapes work together,” Connolly says.

He also likes to create several small gathering places that provide a sense of “coziness” within a large space.

Here are some other features:

— Elevation changes help hide the above-ground spa. It sits wrapped in synthetic stone on a lower level. Steps lead to the gathering space at the next terrace, which provides easy step-in access into the spa.

— The large gate with hacienda-evoking sconces is used only as access to a neighborhood hiking trail. Making it look like a major entryway adds another focal point to the back of the landscape.

— Connolly chose plants that won’t get unruly at maturity. Valentine emu, blackfoot daisy, bulbine and blue elf aloe stay trim without much maintenance.

— Because of the house’s orientation, the patio didn’t need the roof for shade. Instead, the covering visually extends the interior living space to the outdoors.

— The kitchen hides a wall that separates private and patio gathering spaces. Behind it is an artful private space, which is at a different level and that has access only from the master bedroom.

PHOTO: Salvia ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’ catching late-fall morning light.

Some months are all about the busyness of doing and getting things done – April and December, for instance; some months are all about just being and surviving – the overexposed heat of July and the grey cold of February come to mind.

Still other months seem to be more about feeling. November is one of these. November is a month of rich sensory experience. It’s about turning leaves and falling light, the sharp, tangy taste of late fall fruits and early winter greens, the scent of cedar and evening wood fires, the sound of first winter winds, the bite of first frost, the lull of warm late fall afternoons saturated in color.

PHOTO: Fall trees.

If I did nothing whatsoever in my garden this month other than feel my way through – looking, listening, smelling, tasting and touching, my garden might even be better for it. Who knows, with keener powers of observation and the knowledge gained from just this, I might be a better gardener for it?

PHOTO: Mustard greens in the vegetable garden.

Some timely gardening activities if you must do something this month include continuing to plant for winter and early spring – onions, garlic, greens, sweet peas, eating peas, perennials and decorative spring bulbs. Winter crops in the edible garden could use a slow release organic feed mid-month, and while we are waiting for rains, keep watering the vegetable garden, your containers and recently planted trees, shrubs and perennials. Continue to compost or mulch with your leaf fall, discarding any diseased material. As you notice them, divide your overcrowded perennials and replant or give away as starts.

PHOTO: Frost on the leaves of a species geranium.

As we get closer to first frost or as frost becomes more frequent, keep protective covering at the ready to extend your late summer bloomers such as salvias, and to keep your tender winter plants, such as citrus, happy. Before frost becomes more frequent, consider flushing and turning off your irrigation system for the winter, and winterizing your water features and ponds. It’s nice for my hens if I get to giving the chicken coop a thorough cleaning before the holidays.

The November calendar of North State gardening events is full of offerings to help you feel your way through the month. The On-line Calendar of North State Gardening Events at jewellgarden.com adds events throughout the month. I do my very best to keep the calendar up-to-date and accurate, please confirm all events with the event host. If you have an event you would like listed, or if you are aware of a mistake on the calendar, please send all pertinent information to: Jennifer@jewellgarden.com. Thanks!

PHOTO: Architecture in the garden.

NOVEMBER

Nov 1 2 – Chico: Geffray’s Gardens OPEN FALL GARDENS SALE from 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM. There will be more than 10,000 Cacti and Succulents on sale at 20 to 40% off. They range from tiny plants in 2″ pots to large specimens in 15 gallons tubs. We now have a large selection of Hardy Cacti and Succulents for landscaping (dry garden, rock garden). Among them: Agaves, Opuntias, Trichocerei, Ferocacti, Echinopsis, Yuccas, Cylindropuntias, Sempervivums, Sedums, etc… They can be bought bare root from the growing beds, or in different size containers.We also carry a nice selection of Clay and Ceramic pots of all sizes at 15 to 20% off marked price. Our custom made cactus mix is available in small ,and big bags. Geffray’s Gardens is now on Facebook: I invite you to visit us there. We are located at 741 Carper’s Court. From Esplanade take East Avenue toward Hwy 32. Turn right on Alamo Ave, cross Henshaw Ave, go another 200 yards. Carper’s court is the first private road on your right. There will be signs in the adjacent streets. For further information , please call Claude at 345 2849. Sorry we do not accept credit cards at this time. We are open by appointment ONLY at any other time. Thank you for calling first. (7 days a week)

Nov 2 – Chico: Mt. Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society FIELD TRIP: 10 Mile House to Big Chico Creek Upper Bidwell Park, Chico 8:45 Meet at Chico Park and Ride West Parking Lot (HYWS 99 32). Wear Hiking shoes, bring lunch, water sun screen/bug protection, and money for ride sharing. Call the leader for an alternate meeting place. We will drive 9 miles East on Hwy 32 to the Green Gate Trail. Fairly steep 2 mile walk in and out – we will see buckeye and black oak in fruit, as well as an old fig and persimmon near an old spring and homestead site on this historic Wagon Trail. Leader: Gerry Ingco (530-893-5123) and Wes Dempsey, phone (530-342-2239).

Nov 2 – Redding: Shasta Chapter CNPS FIELD TRIP: Brandy Creek Falls 9 am meet. This is an easy, four-mile, largely shaded round-trip hike to Brandy Creek Falls at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. A good portion of the trail is under a dense canopy of tanoak with little understory. This is a good example of plant succession following clear-cut logging of the area in the early 1960s. Walk leader David Ledger will identify many riparian plants along the trail, and a plant list will be provided to participants. Meet at Redding City Hall’s south parking lot on Parkview Avenue at 9 AM. No dogs, please. For more information, call David at 355-8542. For more info: http://www.shastacnps.org

Nov 2 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Charlie Rabbit and His Friends 10:30 am. Join us the first Saturday of every month for an interactive program in the Gardens (or Greenhouse when it rains) for children, their siblings, parents and Grandparents. Join Charlie, our adorable jack rabbit puppet, in various gardening activities. Wear your favorite gardening clothes! Presented by Dennis and Sherrill Bambauer. Free with park admission! Meet at the Arboretum Botanical Gardens Office (1135 Arboretum Drive next to Nursery Greenhouse)

Nov 2 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum COMMUNITY PLANTING DAY: California Native Plant GATEway Garden 10 a.m.-12 p.m., California Native Plant GATEway Garden (behind the Davis Commons Shopping Center). In two hours participants in this community planting day will be responsible for kicking off the transformation of a once empty lot behind the Davis Commons Shopping Center to vibrant green space filled with flora specific to the lower Putah Creek watershed region. The event is free; participants are encouraged to walk or bike to the event, however parking is available nearby. Interested? Find out more and register to attend here: https://first-community-planting-day.eventbrite.com/

Nov 2 – Chico: 33rd Annual Farm City Harvest Celebration at Bidwell Mansion CNPS Mt. Lassen Native Plant Sale 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., The mission of the Farm City Celebration is to increase understanding about the value of agriculture to the urban community and show its importance to all within Chico and the surrounding communities. A FREE family fun event featuring activities including: kids arts crafts, interactive animal displays, bounce house, calf roping, antique and modern farm equipment, butter churning, food booths, nutrition education, bee demonstrations, Bidwell Mansion tours, food available from Madison Bear Garden, plant sale, horse-drawn carriage rides and much, much, more. Bring your family and enjoy this great day at the home of Chico’s first farmer, John Bidwell.

Nov 2 – Chico: Magnolia Gift Garden Fall Bulb Planting Workshop 10:30 am. Hosted By Trish This is a Free event here at Magnolia Gift Garden Learn all you need to know about planting Bulbs in the North Valley this time of year. For more info: magnoliagardening.com

Nov 2 – Redding: Wyntour Gardens: Winterize your Pond 11 am. Join Join Sherrie to learn how to get your water features ready for winter! Please note all of our classes are free, Please Call or Email to reserve you seat. 8026 Airport Road – Redding, CA. 96002 – 530-365-2256 – Email Us: inform@wyntourgarden.com. Hours of Operation: Monday thru Saturday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sundays: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Nov 2 – Chico: Chico State Herbarium Annual Meeting and Open House and Special Guest Lecture: Dr. Barry Rice: “Murderous Plants – Carnivorous Plants – that’s what?” 129 Holt Hall, CSU, Chico. Open House and Native Plant Photos Contest Viewing at 3 pm, Meeting at 4 pm; Dr. Barry Rice will speak at 4:30 in Holt Hall Room 170. For more information: http://www.csuchico.edu/biol/Herb/friends/Annual_Meeting_2013.pdf

Nov 3 – Daylight Savings Time – Clocks fall back one hour

Nov 6 – Chico: Cultivating Community North Valley: Hedgerow Workshop With Lee Altier Zeb Putterbaugh of FLoral Native Nursery Wednesday, November 6th 4:00 – 5:30 P.M. Organic Vegetable Project At the CSU Farm – 311 Nicholas C. Schouten Lane This workshop will discuss how to select perennials that will attract pollinators to your farm or garden, as well as how to plant, irrigate and maintain your perrenial hedgerow. Participation is open. No maximum occupancy for this workshop. Pre-Registration is required at cultivatingcommunitynv.org. Priority is given to Income-Eligible participants. Price for Income-Eligible participants: Free. Income-Ineligible participants may sign up for the waiting list: If there is space we will contact you within one week of event. Cost will be $10. Paid day of event at sign-in table. For more info: http://cultivatingcommunitynv.org

Nov 6 – Chico: Mt. Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society regular Monthly Meeting Program by Lawrence Janeway, “Three for the price of one” By: Lawrence Janeway, District Botanist – Feather River Ranger District: USFS. 7:30 pm Chico Butte County Library. For more information see website at mountlassen.cnps.org

Nov 8 – Anderson: Anderson Valley Garden Club Monthly Meeting 12 noon – 1 pm, public welcome. Anderson Valley Garden Club meets the 2nd Friday of each month at the Anderson City Hall Community Room unless otherwise stated. Meeting begins at noon. For more information call Nancy: 530-365-2014. Fri Jul 12, 2013 12pm – 1pm Anderson City Hall Community Room

Nov 9 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum GUIDED TOUR: Native American Uses of California Plants 11:00 a.m., Buehler Alumni Visitors Center, UC Davis campus. Enjoy an engaging, family-friendly tour of the Native American Contemplative Garden and discover traditional uses for a variety of California plants. Free parking is available in the Gateway District Parking Structure on Old Davis Road across from the Mondavi Center. For more information and directions, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/calendar.aspx.

Nov 10 – Chico: Mt. Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society FIELD TRIP: OLD USDA Plant Introduction Station and Arboretum Meet at the gate of the Mendocino Natl Forest Genetics Resource Center on Cramer Lane at 10 am. The station was established in 1904 as a research center to test plants from around the world for their use in agriculture, industry and medicine. Leader: Gerry Ingco (530-893-5123) and Wes Dempsey, phone (530-342-2239).

Nov 11 – Paradise: Paradise Garden Club Regular Member Meeting Horticulture/Gardening Program Where: Terry Ashe Recreation Center, 6626 Skyway, Paradise When: 12:30 PM Program: Begins 1:00 PM. Speaker: TBD Topic: TBD General Membership Meeting follows program. Plant Sale, Benefit Drawing, Refreshments. For more info: http://www.paradisegardenclub.org

Nov 13 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum Walk with Warren: Exploring Oaks from Around the World 12 p.m.-1 p.m., UC Davis Arboretum Gazebo, UC Davis campus. Join Warren Roberts, the Superintendent Emeritus of the Arboretum and famous storyteller and punster for an always engaging noontime exploration of fall at the UC Davis Arboretum’s west end gardens. The event is free; limited free one hour parking is available along Garrod Drive near the Gazebo or in nearby Visitor Parking Lot 55 where parking can be paid by meter or by purchase of an $8 daily pass. For more information and directions, please call (530) 752-4880 or visit http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/calendar.aspx.

Nov 13 – Chico: Chico Horticultural Society Regular Member Meeting 9:30 am. Refreshments and socializing 9:30 – 10 am, Program 10 – 11 am. Business meeting: 11:15 – 12 noon. Please join us for our monthly meetings and programs to learn more about home gardening and horticulture in Chico, Butte County and beyond. More information, call or email Chico Hort President Carol J: ajcarol@aol.com or 530-345-4824.

Nov 13 – Chico: North Valley Orchid Society Regular Member Meeting 7 pm. in the Conference room at the CARD Lakeside Pavilion 2565 California Park Drive Chico* ( SEE DIRECTIONS BELOW) PLEASE NOTE the change!!! We are pleased to welcome back Dr. Nick Burnett who will speak on “Orchids and Integrated Pest Management” Orchid growers are often frustrated in dealing with insect pests in their collection. This talk introduces Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as a safer and more ecologically rational approach to dealing with orchid pests. Supported by research from UC Davis, IPM seeks to offer safer and less expensive alternatives for dealing with the nastier things in your orchids. Nick will be bringing plants to our raffle table as well bringing plants to sell. Nick is an Accredited American Orchid Society Judge and a newly minted UC Master Gardener. He grows paphiopedlums and phragmipediums at his house in Sacramento. He recently retired as a Professor of Communication Studies from Sacramento State and is a regular speaker at orchid societies around Northern California. Refreshments will be served. Direction: Take Hwy 32 , past the Hwy 99 underpass and turn left on Bruce road. After several blocks turn right on California Park Drive. The Pavilion will be on your right. Turn right after the lake. Lots of parking! For additional information, contact Tricia Edelmann @ 891-4224

Nov 16 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Sustainable Landscaping, A Healthier Garden and Yard 10 am – 12 noon. Learn some easy and practical ways to make your landscape sustainable from Master Gardener, Doug Mandel. This broad-ranging program will cover many topics, and give you practical methods on improving urban water quality and conservation, using safe pest management practices, recycling and composting, reducing energy, and encouraging wildlife in urban areas – all while still having a beautiful landscape! Members and Turtle Bay volunteers FREE, nonmembers $3 Meet at Arboretum Botanical Gardens Office – 1135 Arboretum Drive (Next to Greenhouse in Nursery) Take N. Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive. Take the right fork. Nursery on immediate left.

Nov 16 – Redding: Wyntour Gardens: Wire Basket Workshop 11 am. Join Ellen and create a living work of art to enjoy throughout the year! Please note all of our classes are free, Please Call or Email to reserve you seat. 8026 Airport Road – Redding, CA. 96002 – 530-365-2256 – Email Us: inform@wyntourgarden.com. Hours of Operation: Monday thru Saturday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sundays: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Nov 16 – Redding: Shasta Chapter CNPS FIELD TRIP: Oregon Gulch Outing 9 am meet. This fieldtrip will be on 385 acres of City of Redding owned land in southwest Redding. Seven organizations in the area, including the Shasta Chapter CNPS, are advocating keeping this land as open space, preserved as a natural area. This area is gray pine-blue oak woodland with extensive chaparral and a riparian stream that is federally listed for steelhead trout. We will walk the length of the area and identify plants along the way. This hike will be 3 to 4 miles, mostly level but on uneven, undeveloped trails, steep in a few areas, with a 200 ft. elevation climb to great views of western mountains. Meet at Redding City Hall parking lot on Parkview Avenue at 9 AM to carpool to the trailhead. No dogs, please. For more information call David Ledger at 355-8542. For more info: http://www.shastacnps.org

Nov 16 – Chico: Chico Permaculture Guild Monthly Meeting 1 – 4 pm Butte County Library. CPG EDUCATION/WORKSHOPS: 1. Permaculture design concepts -The next step after learning the Ethics and Principles of Permaculture is Design Basics. Over the next few months we will help members understand mapping (using Google Earth and more), assessment/analysis (water, access, structures etc.) and the different types of design overlays (sectors, zones, etc.). We will spend approx. 45 minutes during each gathering (through March 2014) on this topic. 2. November PermaBlitz at W. Lindo Gardens… yes, we’re trying to make this happen. Scheduling has been problematic. NEWS/UPDATES: 1. Finally! The lowdown on field trips, workshops and excursions that happened over the summer/fall:
Joan’s trip to Beacon Food Forest in Seattle,
Sherri’s medicinal herb workshop in the Bay Area,
Geoff Lawton talk in Sacramento attended by Elena and Gary, Joan, Rik, Brian and Stephanie and
Edible Forest Garden workshop Stephanie and Brian attended in Reno, NV with Eric Toensmeier. 2. CSLL update and work party schedule. WHAT TO BRING: 1. Please bring a small dish to share as well as your own dishes, utensils and cup for the POTLUCK –beverages (sun tea) will be provided. 2. If you have anything in SURPLUS (vegetables, eggs, fruit, seed, plant starts etc.) please bring it along and we’ll ‘Share the Surplus’ after the Potluck.

Nov 17 – FULL MOON

Nov 18 – Cottonwood: Cottonwood Garden Club Regular Member Meeting 10 – 12 pm. Cottonwood Cummunity Center, 20595 Gas Point Road (behind the little league fields). The meetings are educational and social with a potluck following meetings. Different speakers teach a variety of topics from scarecrow making to attracting birds into your garden. Call 530-347-3852 for more information.

Nov 21 – Chico: Mt. Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society FIELD TRIP: Trees of Bidwell Mansion and CSU, Chico Arboretum 10 AM. Trees of CSU Chico Bidwell Mansion. Meet in front of Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park. Leaders: Gerry Ingco, phone (530)893-5123 Wes Dempsey, phone (530) 342-2239.

Nov 21 – Redding: Shasta Chapter CNPS Regular Monthly Meeting Program: Jay Terri Thesken for a photo presentation of their month-long trip to Chile in March 2013 7 – 9 pm. Shasta College Health Science University Programs building, downtown Redding, 1400 Market Street, Community Room 8220 (Southwest corner of Market Tehama Streets). Chapter business followed by Jay Terri’s slide presentation. They covered about one-third of this very long country and saw fantastic forests of Araucaria, or monkey puzzle, trees as well as several Nothofagus (beech) species and other plants foreign to us. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Chapter Meeting. Meet at 7 PM at the Shasta College Health Science University Programs building in downtown Redding, 1400 Market Street, Community Room 8220 (clock tower building at the north end of the Market Street Promenade; enter on south side of building). For more info: www.shastacnps.org

PHOTO: A sweep of beckoning, waxy-cap mushrooms brighten the forest floor. Photo Courtesy of John Whittlesey.

Nov 23 – Chico: Friends of the Chico State Herbarium WORKSHOP – DISCOVERING FUNGI How to Find, Name, and Learn about the Hidden World of Mushrooms with Debbie Viess of the Bay Area Mycological Society 9 am – 4:30 pm. Meet in 129 Holt Hall, CSU, Chico. A day long workshop dedicated to discovering and understanding the mysterious world of mushrooms. Debbie Viess of the Bay Area Mycological Society will lead us into this world. Debbie, aka “Amanitarita,” is a biologist and naturalist, writer and artist. A former zoologist and animal behaviorist, she was seduced away from her work with the furred and feathered by the fascinating world of fungi, and has been seriously obsessed with various fungal studies, and especially the genus Amanita, for over twenty years. A long time Bay Area resident, she is the Co-Founder of the Bay Area Mycological Society (BAMS!). Debbie has written about mushrooms extensively both online and in print. The workshop will meet Saturday, November 23rd, 2013, at 9:00am, in Holt Hall, room 129 at CSU Chico. After a brief classroom introduction to fungi in their myriad forms, and a bit of training on how to find and collect them in the field, we will carpool to the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve for several hours of mushroom hunting. We will return to the lab in the early afternoon and spend the remaining time discussing and attempting to identify our collections. Participants should dress for being both indoors, and outdoors in field exploration mode – i.e.with boots, hat, etc. – and with rain gear if conditions require. Bring lunch and water, a personal copy of “Mushrooms Demystified” by David Arora to help in your own identifications, both in this class and in your (hopefully) mushroom-filled future! An optional copy of the pocket field guide, “All that the Rain Promises and More…,” by the same author, can also prove useful to you in the field. Also bring a basket or cloth grocery bag with a flat bottom and wax sandwich bags brown are best).How to Find, Name and Learn about the Hidden World of Mushrooms The registration fee is $100.00 personal, $125.00 business, $90.00 for members of Friends of the Herbarium, $40.00 student (only 2 seats available at the student price). Please register in advance; class size is limited to 25 participants (class cancelled without a minimum of 10 participants). For information about workshop content or logistics please contact John Whittlesey at johnccnd@gmail.com. For more information about workshop registration please contact the Biology office at (530) 898-5356 or jbraden@csuchico.edu.

Nov 23 – Chico: Plant Barn and Gifts WORKSHOP: Dig to Share: Perennial Dividing Workshop 11 am. Divide and share perennials swap-no charge. Bring perennials to swap. Learn to dig and divide perennials if you are new at it! Saturday at 11 am. Bring your divisions or come see what can be shared and just how to do it! Kind of like a seed swap-only dirtier! The Plant Barn 406 Entler Chico CA 95928 345-3121. www.the plantbarn.com

Nov 23 – Redding: Wyntour Gardens: Centerpiece Workshop 11 am. Join Wendy and create a centerpiece for the holidays! Please note all of our classes are free, Please Call or Email to reserve you seat. 8026 Airport Road – Redding, CA. 96002 – 530-365-2256 – Email Us: inform@wyntourgarden.com. Hours of Operation: Monday thru Saturday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sundays: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Nov 24 – Davis: UC Davis Arboretum COMMUNITY PLANTING DAY: California Native Plant GATEway Garden 10 a.m.-12 p.m., California Native Plant GATEway Garden (behind the Davis Commons Shopping Center). In two hours participants in this community planting day will be responsible for kicking off the transformation of a once empty lot behind the Davis Commons Shopping Center to vibrant green space filled with flora specific to the lower Putah Creek watershed region. The event is free; participants are encouraged to walk or bike to the event, however parking is available nearby. Interested? Find out more and register to attend here: https://first-community-planting-day.eventbrite.com/

Nov 24 – Redding: Shasta Chapter CNPS PLANT PROPAGATION SESSION 10 am meet. Two-hour work session starting at 10 AM at the Shasta College greenhouses. The greenhouses are located at the back of Shasta College, near the livestock barns. We will be weeding, potting up, and propagating cuttings and seeds. Any propagative material or California native plants you may want to donate are always appreciated! Please call Jay Terri Thesken at 221-0906 for further information. For more info: http://www.shastacnps.org

Nov 26 – Chico: Butte Rose Society Regular Monthly Meeting and Program 7 pm Public Welcome! At the Chico Veterans Memorial Hall on 554 Rio Lindo Ave in Chico, California. Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Butte-Rose-Society/189382585776 Or contact us by US Mail at: Butte Rose Society, P. O. Box 8888, Chico, CA 95927For more info: http://www.butte-rosesociety.org

Nov 30 – Redding: McConnell Arboretum Botanical Gardens at Turtle Bay: Walk with Horticultural Manager Lisa Endicott 10:30 am. Bring your notebooks and camera! We’ll make our way through the Gardens with frequent stops for discussions about (what else?) plants! Free with Park or Garden admission. Meet at West Garden Entrance. Take N. Market Street, turn on Arboretum Drive. Take the right fork. Parking lot and entrance are on the left.

Nov 30 – Redding: Shasta Chapter CNPS FIELD TRIP: Sacramento River Bend Recreation Area Hike 9 am meet. This will be a hike of about 4 miles in the Sacramento River Bend Recreation Area south of Battle Creek, featuring open grassland, blue oak woodland, and riparian areas. Some parts of the trails are fairly rough and will require balance and agility. Meet at Redding City Hall’s south parking lot on Parkview Avenue at 9 AM. No dogs, please. For more information, call David Ledger at 355-8542. For more info: http://www.shastacnps.org

PHOTO: Two luminous fall-colored ginko leaves.
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In a North State Garden is a weekly Northstate Public Radio and web-based program celebrating the art, craft and science of home gardening in Northern California and made possible in part by the Gateway Science Museum – Exploring the Natural History of the North State and on the campus of CSU, Chico. In a North State Garden is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell – all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In a North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here. Weekly essays are also posted on anewscafe.com a regional news source that is simultaneously universal and positively North State.

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Posted Oct 31, 2013

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Planting Justice, a non-profit that aims to start community gardens and educate the public in healthier eating habits, has one of its community gardens in its hometown of Oakland, Calif., photographed Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013.

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  Haleh Zandi, educational director of Planting Justice, waters and weeds the raised beds at a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Planting Justice is a non-profit organization attempting to create green jobs in edible landscaping, helping people to eat healthier and produce their own food. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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  An artichoke grows in a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Perennials and annuals are cultivated by Planting Justice, with the participation of residents, to create healthier eating habits and educate on where food actually comes from. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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  Haleh Zandi, educational director of Planting Justice, waters the raised beds at a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Planting Justice is a non-profit organization attempting to create green jobs in edible landscaping, helping people to eat healthier and produce their own food. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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  Haleh Zandi, educational director of Planting Justice, waters and weeds the raised beds at a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Planting Justice is a non-profit organization attempting to create green jobs in edible landscaping, helping people to eat healthier and produce their own food. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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  Haleh Zandi, left, educational director of Planting Justice, works with resident Tylen Lee, 12, to make fresh pesto at a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Planting Justice is a non-profit organization attempting to create green jobs in edible landscaping, helping people to eat healthier and produce their own food. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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  Haleh Zandi, educational director of Planting Justice, pours Parmesan cheese into a mixture of olive oil, walnuts and basel leaves to make pesto, at a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Planting Justice is a non-profit organization attempting to create green jobs in edible landscaping, helping people to eat healthier and produce their own food. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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  Haleh Zandi, educational director of Planting Justice, spoons out freshly-made pesto as a snack for children at a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Planting Justice is a non-profit organization attempting to create green jobs in edible landscaping, helping people to eat healthier and produce their own food. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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  Haleh Zandi, top, educational director of Planting Justice, offers samples of sorrel leaves, a perennial herb that is cultivated as a garden herb or leaf vegetable, to children at a community garden in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Planting Justice is a non-profit organization attempting to create green jobs in edible landscaping, helping people to eat healthier and produce their own food. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)

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Saturday, November 02, 2013

Frank Crandall, GoLocalWorcester Landscaping Expert

How are you supposed to maintain your garden in the winter? It can be done! Check out these tips to find out how.

Although we may not want to think about it…winter is right around the corner! However, before those cold winds, snow and ice storms and frozen ground arrive, there are some very easy steps you can take to help your plants survive (and thrive) winter conditions. New England winters can feature a range of weather from sub zero temperatures, frozen soil, ice storms and heavy snow that can affect the health of your landscape trees, shrubs and perennials. There are action steps you can take now to mitigate the variable winter vagaries. Let’s look at seven steps you can take to help protect your landscape, gardens and plantings.

Seven Steps to Protect Your Landscape

1. The use of Anti-desiccants and Windscreens

One important step you can take to prevent evergreens (rhododendrons, Mt. laurels, andromedas, needled evergreens, boxwoods, hollies and azaleas) from having their leaves and needles turn brown from desiccation is to apply an anti-desiccant spray (wilt-proof, leaf-shield, etc.) while the temperatures are above 45 degrees to lightly coat the needles and leaves with a polymer that will prevent the wind and ice from drying out the plant. Additionally, you can erect a windscreen (burlap or plastic) to minimize the damage from wind and salt spray. Be sure to attach the screen securely and use stakes that are rugged enough to withstand the relentless winter winds.

2. Mulching Around Trees and Shrubs

Adding several inches of pine bark mulch around trees and shrubs will help to moderate soil temperatures during the cold winter months, prevent frost heaves and allow moisture to make its way into the plant’s roots during periods of rain and snow. Be sure not to build up the mulch around the trunk or base of the shrub…this can be a favorite spot for mice to establish a home during the winter and feed on the inner bark…possibly girdling and killing the tree or shrub!

3. Compost and Cover Crops for Vegetable Gardens

Now is a good time to remove your spent vegetable garden plants, sow annual rye or oats to the bare soil and add several inches of quality compost to the garden. The cover crop will be up in a week or so providing protection from losing topsoil, fixing nitrogen into the soil and adding nutrients to the soil when turned over in the spring (commonly known as green manure). The compost will add nutrients and humus to the soil in advance of the spring planting.

4. Cutting Back Perennials and Shrubs

The fall is a good time to cut back perennials so they will have an opportunity to put out new growth in the spring. Catmint, Black eyed Susan’s, daisies, peonies, grasses, Annabelle hydrangeas and many others can be cut back to the base of the plant. However, perennials like lavender do not like to be cut back severely, shrubs like Nikko hydrangeas can be dead headed but if you cut them to the ground they will survive but produce no flowers next summer!

5. Dahlia and Rose Care

Dahlia is a plant that must be dug up in the fall before it freezes and its roots stored in a paper bag in a dry, cool basement. After digging up you can cut off the stems and flowers and make sure to label your different varieties of dahlias.

There are numerous care steps for the many kinds of roses. Generally you can mulch or use leaves around the base of the rose after the ground is frozen to protect the roots and graft (swollen knob near the base of the plant). In the spring you will remove the mound of compost, soil or leaves. Pruning hybrid teas, floribundas and other roses can take place in the spring. For shrub roses pruning can be as simple as removing old wood and dead canes.

6. Use your Leaves for Mulch

When it comes time to rake up all those leaves from your lawn and beds consider mulching them with your mower, piling them in an empty area in your yard and using some to mulch your gardens and beds. In the spring the leaves can be incorporated into the garden as mulch and the pile of shredded leaves can be added to your compost pile. Leaves can serve as an insulator for your plants and ultimately provide nutrients to the landscape beds.

7. One Last Watering

Before the ground freezes it is a good practice to water your trees, shrubs and perennials deeply before winter sets in. This will provide needed moisture in the ground and around the roots for the plant to use preventing leaf desiccation when winter winds blow because the ground is frozen inhibiting water uptake. This is especially important for newly planted trees and shrubs that may not have fully developed their new, expanded root systems.

These are several simple steps you can take to help protect your valuable trees and shrubs, incorporate nutrients into your soil, prevent soil loss to winds and turning some of your “wastes” like leaves into a valuable resource!

In the next article I will share steps to prepare your lawn and water features and fish ponds for winter!

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape-the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.” —Andrew Wyeth

Frank Crandall, Horticultural Solutions. Frank is a R.I. resident specializing in coastal landscaping, organic land care, small business consulting, writing, speaking and photography and will be submitting biweekly articles about Landscape Solutions. Frank just published his third book, Creating a More Peaceful, Happy and Successful Life!. You can read more about his book on his website, www.FrankCrandall3.com Comments about Frank’s articles are welcome by contacting him at FrankCrandall3@gmail.com.

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Pertinent Impertinent

The Glory of the Garden
James van Sweden wasn’t just a landscaper; he was a landscaping artist. In gardening, he preferred a holistic experience — but Americans disagreed.

   

The 1940s suburban Michigan of James van Sweden’s youth was a panorama of precise, tidy houses bordered by meticulous lawns. As a teenager, van Sweden (who died a few weeks ago) was responsible for maintaining his parents’ own prized yard. The chore grew into a lawn-mowing business, which didn’t last long. As van Sweden pushed his mower across his neighborhood, something else caught his attention. A few of his neighbors had allowed their yards to sprout free and the results were a revelation. Margaret Smith’s lawn was “postage-stamp size,” overtaken by larkspur and iris and globe thistle. Marybell Pratt and Margaret Holmes had almost no lawns at all. For James van Sweden, these neighbors had joined in a tiny revolution. They began to give plants to the young van Sweden, who proceeded to overhaul his own pristine backyard. Gone went the lawn and in its place waved tangles of wild phlox. Van Sweden began taking trips to the Michigan countryside, where he sketched country meadows and wildflowers, sand dunes and pines, re-imagining what a garden could be.

Like his Michigan neighbors, James van Sweden had a passion for grass. But van Sweden, and his partner Wolfgang Oehme, wanted their grass free-flowing and long, filled with birds and bees and butterflies. In Gardening With Nature, van Sweden included two paintings. One is A Neat Lawn by David Hockney. The centerpiece of A Neat Lawn is a house that is essentially a beige rectangle with an address on it. The house is flanked by static shrubs. The bottom half of the painting is another rectangle, a large green swathe of lawn. The grass is also static and strangely barren. There are no people in A Neat Lawn, no movement at all, save a sprinkler lightly sprinkling.

Cape Cod Evening, Edward Hopper

The other painting, by Edward Hopper, is titled Cape Cod Evening. It is also a painting with a house, but only the side of the house is seen. A man and a woman are relaxing in the evening light — the woman leans against the house with crossed arms; the man sits slouched on a step. A soft, overgrown grass that is yellowing with autumn hides their feet. They have obviously stopped mowing their lawn. There is a dog in the painting too, standing half-swallowed in the meadow of grass that reaches back into a copse of woods behind the house.

Stachys byzantine or Lamb’s Ears, courtesy of giltay / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

James van Sweden wanted his gardens to be a holistic experience, something to stand in the middle of, be enveloped by, residing somewhere between art and wilderness. Van Sweden wanted to design gardens that had the boldness of a wild landscape, lush and full and free, gardens that moved even when the wind wasn’t blowing, with dramatic contrasts of texture and height and color. Van Sweden thought a garden ought to have a powerful smell and include plants that you could stroke, like the velvety Stachys byzantine, which feels like the ears of a lamb. Touch was even more important to van Sweden than color, for human beings are tactile creatures. Time’s effect on the garden was paramount and each plant was carefully chosen in its relationship to the seasons. Some people thought Oehme and van Sweden’s gardens most beautiful in the winter. “Time is the gardener’s friend and foe,” wrote van Sweden, “always working its relentless changes. Gardening teaches us patience… But gardens can also teach us to live more in the moment — to listen, to watch, to touch, and to dream as the garden works its peaceful magic.” Van Sweden thought a garden could be experienced like a poem or a story. There was meaning in every lichen-covered stone, every changing leaf, and that meaning could emerge from the same mystery contained in wild nature. “Out of vast, unknowable nature comes the freedom to form new thoughts, or to notice some tiny wonder for the first time… It is not necessary that meaning be written in the garden, only that you discover personal meaning and be transformed.” Even a tiny garden plot on a tenement balcony could achieve the romance of a meadow, if given the right attention. Sometimes Oehme and van Sweden’s New American Garden style was also called New Romantic.

For van Sweden, the words “American” and Romantic” were perfectly interchangeable. “Americans crave frontiers,” he wrote in Gardening With Nature.

We like wide-open spaces, broad horizons, and new challenges. As a nation, we are restless wanderers, always searching for what’s over the next rise. We put down roots only to pull them up again when the spirit moves us.

Given our love of change, it’s surprising that the American garden scene consists mostly of suburban yards marching across the countryside in uniform ranks: hedges pruned carefully into unnatural boxes and balls; “foundation” shrubs piled high against houses like green concrete; broad, empty lawns awaiting weekly crew cuts and frequent doses of weed killer and water; and prissy flower beds jammed to their borders with garish and predictable annuals. Do gardens have to be so tame, so harnessed, so uptight?

For many Americans, these were fighting words. The American lawn is not merely a domestic pleasure — it is the emblem of the civilized American. The American lawn is an ordering of savage nature, it is a triumph over the forces of chaos. Americans may once have craved frontiers, but the terror that wolves and mosquitoes wreaked upon early colonizers ultimately changed their intrepid self-conception. Prairies turned to city blocks, cowboys became urban planners, and geometry overcame anarchy. We paved over the chaos, drove out the insects, and shined fluorescent lights over the darkness. We are not to be entirely blamed for doing this. It is difficult to sit comfortably in a tangled meadow. We have no fur to speak of, no scales or feathers. Our foot soles are soft, our nails are short, the meadow air makes us sneeze. Few things can soothe our tender hides and tender souls more effectively than the wide-open, broad horizon of a freshly mowed lawn.

A classic, freshly-mowed, American lawn. Image courtesy of herefordcat / CC BY-NC 2.0

Oehme and van Sweden understood that our gardens ought to be a balance between green concrete and totally wild nature. They would often allow garden paths to crop up organically, for instance, letting people wander as they liked and setting them later. Oehme and van Sweden were also not very strict about “natives.” They liked North American plants but they liked exotics too. Both gardeners felt the Japanese, for instance, had a particular sensitivity to grass and were quite influenced by their uses of it. Oehme and van Sweden were broad-minded when it came to grass — they loved Himalayan purple silver grass and European autumn moor grass as much as (or even more than) American grass.

Himalayan purple silver grass, also known as Himalayan “fairy grass.” Image courtesy of Kew on Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Yet James van Sweden was ever guided by the spirit of “American grass.” American grass is the days of Thoreau and Whitman and wild Prairie shag. It is amber waves hiding the burial mounds of the Sioux and Grizzly bears and jackrabbits. This kind of grass was destroyed with the birth of the standard American lawn. Lawns took on the burdens and comforts of all things domestic. The wildness of grass went away. And with it went that fabled wildness once said to reside in every American: The belief that one could, at any moment, go from settled to savage, that one could, at any moment, just go.

Wild grass was already on the way out in Thoreau’s time. One of his most famous essays, “Walking,” is largely a complaint about his neighbors’ yards.

Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps… The most tasteful front-yard fence was never an agreeable object of study to me; the most elaborate ornaments, acorn tops, or what not, soon wearied and disgusted me. Bring your sills up to the very edge of the swamp, then (though it may not be the best place for a dry cellar), so that there be no access on that side to citizens. Front yards are not made to walk in, but, at most, through, and you could go in the back way.

James van Sweden would have agreed. Where van Sweden disagreed with Thoreau was the solution. For Thoreau, the only cure for our sterile civilization was in the pristine, unspoiled wilderness. “In Wildness is the preservation of the World,” he famously wrote. James van Sweden was able to find wildness in an unmowed field. Americans, he knew, can never be truly wild. But they can be inspired by nature even in a yard and feel a longing for wildness in their souls.

This is what James van Sweden meant when he wrote, “It is not necessary that meaning be written in the garden, only that you discover personal meaning and be transformed.” Van Sweden was not merely dabbling in superficial aesthetics. The New American Garden was an exhortation to resurrect the shattered American spirit. It was the barbaric yawp of Whitman and every American Romantic who calls out to the wild. Maybe it is ridiculous to put so much importance in a garden. A gardener cannot return us to Eden any more than a preacher can. But there are messages written in a garden whether we place them there or not. And what better way to consider America than in the consideration of her grass?

“A child said, What is the grass?” wrote Walt Whitman, “fetching it to me with full hands;”

How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
of the vegetation.
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

The grass in Cape Cod Evening is only a few inches longer than the grass in A Neat Lawn. It is yellowing instead of green. Both paintings are residential scenes: a house, a town, a lawn. Both paintings show nature in the hands of men. Only, in Cape Cod Evening, the grip has softened. The man in Cape Cod Evening holds his hand out to the dog but the dog looks the other way. The animal is just close enough to the couple to look comforted and just far enough away to look free. • 24 October 2013

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Stefany Anne Golberg is an artist, writer, musician, and professional dilettante. She’s a founding member of the arts collective Flux Factory and lives in New York City. She can be reached at stefanyanne@gmail.com.

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Article photo courtesy of Rachel Ford James / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Feature photo courtesy of Karen Roe / CC BY 2.0
Homepage photo courtesy of UGArdener / CC BY-NC 2.0

One concept for the Sunset Greenway plan would install new landscaping to capture rainwater in several areas along the green strips parallel to Sunset Boulevard. Screenshot via SFPUC website.

By Jennie Butler

During wet days of the approaching winter and spring, rainwater will flow along the slopes of Sunset Boulevard with no place to go. While some of the water is absorbed by the green spaces that span all the way from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard, most of the rainwater flows into the drains at the end of each block.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission plans to change this through a new green infrastructure project: the Sunset Boulevard Greenway. The project aims to create alternative harbors for rainwater, to prevent it from entering the sewer system. These “rain gardens” will be placed throughout Sunset Boulevard’s east and west landscaped borders, and will absorb runoff that would otherwise overwhelm the City sewer system.

San Francisco’s sewer system, which combines both sewage and rainwater, processes more than 80 million gallons of water per day. On rainy days, this number can reach 575 million gallons, according to the SFPUC. Excess water flow could overpower the the City’s sewage capacity, causing floods in low-elevation areas and potentially causing partly treated water to be released into the water of Ocean Beach.

This system is particularly hazardous for San Francisco as the city’s urban landscape prevents most of the rainwater from being absorbed and filtered through the earth’s natural water cycle.

The Sunset Boulevard Greenway’s rain gardens will alleviate the flow of water into the sewer by capturing and absorbing  an estimated 10 million gallons of runoff per year, according to the SFPUC, which has advertised the project on the Ocean Beach Bulletin. The project will also prevent 5 million gallons of combined sewer discharges from entering the Pacific Ocean along Ocean Beach every year.

The SFPUC either will install rain gardens at the low end of slopes where water naturally collects during rainfall, or they will place several throughout each block. Both options are equal in cost and environmental benefits, and the SFPUC will let the community choose the option they prefer.

The Sunset Boulevard Greenway is one of eight sewer-system improvement projects in the works in San Francisco. All are part of the SFPUC’s plan to move the City out of its outdated and inefficient “gray” infrastructure of pipes and gutters directing water, and into the innovative and earth-friendly green infrastructure.

Lily Madjus, communications manager at the SFPUC, said that the Sunset Boulevard Greenway is a great example of what green infrastructure can do for San Francisco.

“We think Sunset Boulevard is a great area to demonstrate what we can do for storm water management,” Madjus said. “We want to improve storm water management because it is a beautiful area. Sunset Boulevard is one of those rare locations in the city where there is actually green parcels you can drive beside.”

The SFPUC has a rigorous three-year timeline for the Sunset Boulevard Greenway. The project is in the planning and design phase, and the SFPUC is taking suggestions from the public until Oct. 31. Construction will begin in mid-2015, and the project’s completion is planned for summer of 2016.

Until October 31, Sunset and Parkside residents can give their input on the Sunset Boulevard Greenway filling out this survey on SFPUCs website: http://www.sunset.metroquest.com/, or by visiting their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SFWater.

In addition, two community meetings are planned for Monday, Oct. 28 to discuss the Sunset Greenway. One is at 6 p.m. at 2200 Kirkham St. near 26th Avenue. The other is from 7-8 p.m. at 1736 9th Ave., between Moraga and Noriega streets.

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Master Gardener Renee Marsh, part of a team beautifying Monroe’s parks.

Amid an array of colorful and fragrant flowers they planted this summer, Renee Marsh and Robert “Mac” McFarland, placed a variety of bulbs in a flower bed at Great Hollow Lake.

The new gardens are part of a beautification effort for Monroe’s parks and municipal buildings.

“For me, as far as a park is concerned, it has to be a combination of athletics and aesthetics,” said Monroe’s director of parks and recreation, Frank Cooper.

Marsh, a master gardener from Shelton, joined Cooper’s seasonal staff July 1 to help spruce up Monroe’s lakefront property and the exterior of Town Hall. Marsh, certified by the University of Connecticut, is vice president of the Olde Ripton Garden Club in Shelton and responsible for maintaining the club’s herb garden at the Shelton Historical Society. She is also an expert on invasive plants.

Both Marsh and McFarland, a seasonal maintainer for Monroe’s Parks and Recreation Department, are experienced beekeepers.

When the horticulturists began to tackle the flower beds at Great Hollow Lake, they found overgrown junipers and evergreens, said Marsh.

Their first task was to rip out all of the existing plants from the six-foot- by 30-foot beds and amend the soil.

“It took us digging through a lot of rocks to get the soil ready,” Marsh said.

Robert “Mac” McFarland

In mapping out the new garden beds, Marsh took the flowers’ height and colors into consideration. They also had to be “sun-resistant and drought-resistant,” Marsh said.

As they talked about the makeup of the garden, Cooper asked to have roses included for their color.

“We also put in some lavender because it smells so nice,” Marsh said.

All of the new plantings were purchased locally. Scott Mason of Mason’s Farm Market in Monroe donated mums for the autumn season.

“Since we’ve initiated this process of beautification, we’ve been called by local vendors looking to be part of the transformation,” Cooper said.

Although there is currently no funding in his budget to work on the new Police Department’s building and the Edith Wheeler Memorial Library, Cooper would like to include these municipal areas in future projects.

Cooper said he didn’t realize how much the exterior of Town Hall was in need of gardening until Parks and Recreation was relocated there earlier in the year.

“In my estimation, Town Hall should be a showpiece,” Cooper said. “The whole Town Hall complex now, including the new Police Department and beautiful library, has zero landscaping.”

When she came on board, Marsh agreed.

“Everything around Town Hall was planted willy-nilly,” she said. “It was a hodgepodge of everything.”

She and McFarland began to get the overgrown plants under control and create a sense of unity and order.

“We removed everything but saved it so we could use it elsewhere,” Marsh said. “Mac likes to save every little seedling. We try to throw out as little as possible.”

Their challenge was to plant shrubs and flowers that would be attractive in all climates and require minimal pruning.

In the past couple of months, Marsh and McFarland also helped to beautify Stepney Green. Along with a crew from the Parks and Recreation Department, they assisted in getting the Green ready for last month’s Civil War commemoration sponsored by Save Our Stepney Task Force.

“The beds were overgrown, so we did some weeding,” Marsh said. “We also added some new plantings, some perennials and bulbs. The challenge with that space is that there is no water at the Green.”

Cooper said the Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for maintaining all town properties, not just its parks. Monroe’s park superintendent and crew, with many responsibilities relating to athletic fields and maintaining the town’s lawns and landscaping, do not have the time to spend on beautification projects, he added.

“Russ [Tice] has many talents, but his skills in this area haven’t been able to be recognized given the amount of responsibilities he has with taking care of the parks’ landscaping and athletic fields,” Cooper said.

Monroe’s Great Hollow Lake and Wolfe Park are busy properties and its gardens and shrubs are highly visible.

“I wanted to take the parks and town properties to a new level,” Cooper said.

 

City Council is expected to celebrate the expansion and completion of the 51 new garden plots at the Community Gardens at Central Park on Thursday, Oct. 31 at 10 a.m.

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The ribbon cutting event is planned to celebrate the increased space the Community Gardens is expected to offer to residents.

Currently, the Community Gardens at Central Park features 80 plots open to community residents who utilize organic growing processes to grow organic, pesticide-free food, according to a statement provided by the city.

 “The community garden project in Santa Clarita is expanding to 131 garden plots, offering residents an opportunity to enjoy gardening in a community setting at their local park,” said Gail Ortiz, communications manager at the City of Santa Clarita.

  “Community gardening is a healthy way activity for people of all ages.  The vegetables, herbs and flowers not only add to a healthy lifestyle but also provide residents with a chance to socialize.  Some of the gardeners provide donations of food to the senior center and SCV Food Pantry, helping to expand healthy eating to those in need,” said Ortiz.  

 The new, expanded garden is expected to include 51 new, raised garden beds, three universal use plots, a dozen new fruit trees, a butterfly garden, and landscaping elements.

 “The ribbon cutting expansion event will include a tour of the garden and refreshments. Residents can view the many different gardens and find out more information about the project at the ribbon cutting event,” said Ortiz.

 For more information on the Community Gardens Expansion project or the ribbon cutting, please contact Gail Ortiz at (661) 255-4314 or gortiz@santa-clarita.com.  

 Central Park is located at 27150 Bouquet Cyn. Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91350.

About the Community Gardens of Santa Clarita

The Community Gardens of Santa Clarita is a non-profit organization and a community facility where residents can come together to harvest and enjoy the benefits of locally grown, organic food that is environmentally friendly, sustainable, and cost effective.  Food grown in the Community Gardens is enjoyed by residents and donated to local organizations, including Help the Children and the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry.

 

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Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

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Article: City Council To Host Community Gardens Expansion Event
Source: Santa Clarita News
Author: Luzzei Tsuji

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Peaches and pears grow in an orchard across the street from Larry Adams’ home in one of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods. A garden has been planted a few lots down, and another parcel serves as a nursery for a landscaping business his nonprofit is nurturing.

Adams, his wife and Walnut Way Conservation Corp., their community development organization, have been buying homes and other properties on surrounding streets, creating a local renaissance by renovating buildings, expanding urban agriculture and encouraging others to do the same.

The couple’s success has inspired Milwaukee leaders, overloaded with abandoned and foreclosed properties, to turn land over to residents who want to grow gardens, create parks and establish food-related businesses. The goal is to revitalize neighborhoods and cut costs while improving residents’ access to healthy food.

Many cities have looked to urban agriculture as a way to use open space and improve residents’ diets. Milwaukee borrowed some of those ideas, such as New York’s licensing of food carts that sell fruits and vegetables. The city also is updating zoning and other regulations for urban agriculture.

But the most attention-grabbing part of Milwaukee’s plan is selling tax-foreclosed properties, perhaps for as little as $100, to people who promise to produce food. The goal is to create radical change by focusing resources — at least initially — on one neighborhood, and to have residents lead the way. In other words, they want to make it “Home GR/Own.”

The seeds have been planted in Lindsey Heights, a neighborhood just northwest of downtown. Adams’ home is less than three miles from City Hall, but economically, the areas are worlds apart. The median household income here is $22,838, half that of downtown, and the unemployment rate is six times higher at nearly 24 percent, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Venice Williams runs a community garden that serves as an incubator for food-related businesses on the Lindsey Heights border. She sees Home GR/Own as an opportunity for many gardeners to get land and strike out on their own.

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Concerned residents sent a flurry of emails to Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna last month after two men showed up armed with assault rifles near the city’s farmers market, according to a new analysis.

A few emails supported the men’s Second Amendment rights, but most were from residents who threatened to stay away from future public events if firearms could be present, the Post Crescent Media reported (http://post.cr/1gQB9JOhttp://post.cr/1gQB9JO ).

“As long as there are people with guns walking around this city, my family will not be,” wrote Adam Fredrick, of Appleton.

The men were carrying AR-15 assault rifles legally near the market on Sept. 7. Police detained them at gunpoint and handcuffed them before eventually releasing them without tickets.

“If these idiots are this paranoid perhaps they should stay home and protect their fortress and not wander around on the streets,” Mary Rutten, of Appleton, wrote of the men. “I do not want to live like this where people feel they have to carry guns to protect themselves at a public and/or family event.”

Other writers were worried about how the incident might affect the city’s reputation. Some asked Hanna to figure out creative ways to keep the city safe for families without violating state law.

Hanna noted that open-carry laws are governed by state statute and can’t be altered by city ordinance. He added that he’d like to see the state law changed, but acknowledged that the chances of that happening are remote.

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The health care overhaul law has made insurance available to 500,000 Wisconsin residents who don’t already have it, but many are not aware of their standing.

Groups working to teach the uninsured about their options say they are having trouble finding and reaching those in need, the Post-Crescent Media reported (http://mnhne.ws/1hiLc8ihttp://mnhne.ws/1hiLc8i ).

Some experts blame a lack of money and coordination.

“We just don’t have the resources to get out and really do the job we need to,” said Bobby Peterson, executive director of ABC for Health, a public-interest law firm in Madison that helps connect families around the state with health care.

Wisconsin’s community health centers received a $1.7 million federal grant to help enroll residents, and six other organizations got about $1 million more to target specific groups. But coordinators say that’s not enough to cover the cost of finding the half-million affected people and explaining complicated issues such as deductibles and premiums.

U.S. Rep Tom Petri, a Fond du Lac Republican who opposed the law, said the measure was inherently confusing, regardless of how much money was set aside to help explain it.

“I think there is bound to be a lot of confusion with the implementation of the law no matter how much money you spend advertising it,” he said in an email.

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Rob Zerban (zer-BAHN’), the Democrat who lost to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan in last year’s election, is mounting a new challenge next year.

Zerban told The Associated Press this week he was getting back in the race. He made his announcement official Saturday at a rally in Kenosha.

He lost last year by 12 percentage points, 55 percent to 43 percent. But that was Ryan’s smallest margin of victory in eight races.

The 45-year-old Zerban is a former Kenosha County Board supervisor who used to run two small businesses. He blames Ryan for voting against ending the government shutdown, and for advancing a budget that cuts money from social-service programs.

Zerban says he supports green technology, immigration reform and same-sex marriage.