The antique Victorian house at 11 Clapboard Hill Road looks like a small cottage as one views it from the road. In truth, it is a 6,011-square-foot residence hidden behind stone walls and strategic landscaping of perennial flower gardens and mature trees.

This updated vintage house sits on a 3.47-acre largely level and partially sloping property in the Greens Farms area. The estate is a private haven that includes a tennis court, heated in-ground swimming pool, bluestone patios and terraces, stone courtyard, art studio, and gardens. Its gardens are designed to bloom throughout the summer months.

The symmetry of the grounds and gardens complement the house, which is not symmetrical. The property could be mistaken for a botanical garden or an arboretum with the number of trees and specimen plantings it has. The pool garden was fashioned after the Italian Renaissance gardens of Villa d’Este in Tivoli.

Between its gardens and bluestone terraces and patios this property provides the best of indoor and outdoor living.

Interesting architectural details are visible throughout the house, which was built in 1900 and updated to infuse modern amenities into its early 20th century charm.

A stone wall lines the front of the property and a stone path leads past quintessential Victorian gardens to the formal front entrance, the door of which has beveled glass. Inside, the foyer is large enough to have a small sitting area, but small enough to convey warmth, which sums up the feel of the house as a whole. There are some rooms that are quite large, and yet they are more comfortable than intimidating. Other rooms, like an office, the first-floor staff quarters and laundry room, are more typical in size for the period in which the house was built. The staff quarters could serve as an au pair suite.

Although the current owners appreciate antique houses and furnishings, they have given a nod here and there to the modern day. The first-floor powder room features wallpaper of an artistically rendered herd of zebras galloping across a forest green background.

Step down into the formal living room, which has a wet bar with glass shelves, two walls of built-in bookshelves and a fireplace with a decorative white wood mantel. There are recessed window areas and a door to the courtyard, which can also be accessed via the formal dining room and the atrium area of the gourmet kitchen.

What was the original front-to-back parlor of the house now serves as the library. The dining room has recessed cupboards with scalloped Colonial arches. The family room has a chair railing and detailed millwork that resembles fluted columns at the wide entrance into the room.

A large sunroom doubles as a billiard room and has French doors to the terraced stone patio overlooking the pool.

The gourmet kitchen has a ceramic tile floor, two center islands topped with marble counters, a farm sink, and glass-front cabinets with interior lighting. The kitchen has Viking Professional appliances, including a six-burner range top with a griddle, double wall ovens, refrigerator, wine cooler and beverage refrigerator. The eat-in area has two walls of windows, skylights and a vaulted ceiling.

Upstairs, there is a unique open space, sort of like an interior courtyard. The owners use this as a den or sitting area or casual family gathering space. There are five bedrooms on the second floor, all of which are accessed from this carpeted “courtyard,” and all are en suite. One bathroom has a sauna.

The master bedroom has a fireplace. Another bedroom has a door to a balcony/wood deck.

Outside, a border of hornbeam hedges hides the tennis court. The art studio has a vaulted ceiling with lots of natural light. A vegetable garden is enclosed with deer fencing.

For more information or to set up an appointment to see the house, contact Melanie Smith of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services New England Properties at 203-319-3409.

ABOUT THIS HOUSE

TYPE: Antique Victorian

ADDRESS: 11 Clapboard Hill Road

PRICE: $3,800,000

NUMBER OF ROOMS: 12

AMENITIES: beach rights, 3.47-acre property, tennis court, heated in-ground swimming pool with spa, art studio, proximity to Greens Farms train station, bluestone patios, stone courtyard, pergola, skylights, stone walls, invisible fencing, built-in bookshelves, wet bar, butler’s pantry, gourmet kitchen, four fireplaces, green shutters and window boxes, front and rear staircases, staff quarters, fenced vegetable garden, sauna, security system, audio system, large sunroom, French doors, central air conditioning, landscaped flower gardens, specimen trees, balcony

OTHER INFORMATION: six bedrooms, seven full and one half baths, two-car attached garage, full unfinished walk-out basement, zoned hot air steam oil heat, attic, shed, random width hardwood floors, workshop, wall-to-wall carpeting, laundry/utility room, wood roof, stone foundation, septic system, public water

SCHOOLS: Greens Farms Elementary, Bedford Middle, Staples High

ASSESSMENT: $2,137,800

TAX RATE: 18.07 mills

TAXES: $38,630

“Use implies something utilitarian,” he said on a recent weekday after a rain had doused the yard. “I don’t want it for anything utilitarian at all.”

Mr. Golden does not grow vegetables. He leaves the farming to the farmers. If he wants to cook or dine, he’ll do it in the house. And although he is 68 and seemingly into his hammock years, he doesn’t maintain a lawn for sitting. There is no tetherball pole. He leaves the entertaining to the entertainers.

But useless is not the same as meaningless. Mr. Golden was puttering around the mahogany-paneled parlor, looking for one of his favorite books, by the designer Rory Stuart, titled “What Are Gardens For?” Though the garden, called Federal Twist, is at the center of Mr. Golden’s life, he admits that he has trouble formulating an answer.

“I would say the main purpose of this garden is aesthetic, ornamental, even emotional,” he said. “And I don’t think most Americans think of gardens in those terms at all.”

This Saturday, Mr. Golden invites the curious public to visit as part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program. (Tickets are $5.) Agnostics can inhale the fragrance of the JPEGs on his blog, View From Federal Twist.

Taking in the scene evokes the breathless rush through the fabric store Mood on “Project Runway.” Like the endless bolts of cloth, there are grasses here that shimmer and grasses that undulate, grasses that you’d like to feel caressing your neck and grasses you might don as a hair shirt. (Mr. Golden also maintains a judicial list of fashion crimes; for years, he rejected all yellow blooms as “brash.”)

The grass is a hint: The garden at Federal Twist is meant to be a prairie — or a prairie masquerade. It is an ecosystem that most likely never existed here on the edge of a shaded woodland.

Mr. Golden has sowed native plants by the thousands. But he is not restoring a pristine habitat. When he started landscaping here, eight years ago, he cleared 80 scrub cedars to bring in light. A good part of the garden grows over his septic field.

The plants he prizes bear the oversize, fantasy foliage of a Maurice Sendak dreamscape. “I don’t care that much about flowering,” he said. “I’m much more into dead plants and seed pods” — or rattling calyxes that look as if they might contain goblin teeth. If this is a prairie, it is a prairie of the imagination.

A garden, Mr. Golden said, should be a place “to sit in, think about, look at the sky in, live in. In my case, it’s sort of a psychological exploration of the hidden, the part of myself that never got expressed because I was such a timid, shy little boy. I learned to adapt over the years to living in the world. On sunny days, when the garden is in full growth, it’s quite exuberant and in-your-face. It’s pretty much the opposite of my personality.”

In other words, Mr. Golden’s garden is useless, except as an all-encompassing creation that fills his days and reveals his innermost feelings to the world.

And the world, for once, is listening. William Martin, an iconoclastic gardener and lecturer in rural Australia, discovered the Federal Twist blog and now counts himself among an international fan club. “It’s not really about horticulture,” he said of Federal Twist. (“Haughty-culture,” is the way Mr. Martin pronounces it, although this could be an accident of his Scottish and Australian upbringing.)

Though his own dry-climate garden, Wigandia, showcases vastly different plants, Mr. Martin reports that the two often correspond about “gardens as places for the mind instead of places for shovel and spade.”

Mr. Golden claims no formal training in haughty-culture. “I didn’t grow up seeing many pretty gardens,” he said. “The closest I came was the cemetery in Canton, Mississippi. I used to play there.” His favorite spot was the old brick columbarium, built for the casualties of a yellow fever epidemic.

R.S. Walsh Landscaping recently donated and planted grapefruit and tangerine trees in the garden at the Sanibel Historical Museum and Village. The mission of the Museum and Village is to preserve, protect and share the island’s history. The story of Sanibel is told from the Calusa and Spanish eras to the early pioneer families who settled on the island in the 1800s. Nearly 10,000 guests visit the Museum and Village each year.

“The purpose of the garden is to demonstrate to visitors how Sanibel pioneers kept ‘truck gardens’ to help feed their families,” said museum manager Emilie Alfino. It’s a beautiful addition to our picturesque village and the trees provide much-needed shade for the garden.”

“We have been providing landscape design and installation services in Southwest Florida for 30 years,” said Robert Walsh, president of R.S. Walsh Landscaping. “Our company feels a great responsibility to make a positive contribution in the community where we live and work. We support The Sanibel Historical Museum and Village because of their important role of preserving and sharing Sanibel’s history.”

R.S. Walsh Landscaping is a family-owned and operated, full-service landscape design-build Company specializing in landscape design, installation, and maintenance. For 30 years, R.S. Walsh has been committed to superior workmanship, the highest standard of materials and the constant pursuit of excellence. R.S. Walsh Garden Center Outdoor Showroom is located at 3889 Sanibel Captiva Road, across from the Sanibel School. For more information call (239) 768-5655 or visit www.rswalsh.com

Proposals to create more productive landscaping are underway

This time next year, Concordia students could be celebrating fall with fresh produce from campus bushes. Landscaping on Concordia’s campus could become edible if a Concordia garden intern’s proposals are accepted.

John Stelter, a garden intern from this past summer, believes the landscaping on campus would be more productive if it yielded edible produce. As part of his internship he wrote a paper describing his research and conclusions, which he passed on to President’s Sustainability Council Chair Ken Foster at the end of summer. Stelter hopes the paper will eventually help influence the PSC to add edible landscaping – or permaculture – to the landscaping agenda.

Foster and the PSC will let the campus know when they have formed an opinion of permaculture. It is also likely permaculture will be a topic in Concordia’s sustainability action plan that comes out at the end of the year, according to Foster.

Foster said the PSC hopes to have permaculture incorporated into campus landscaping by next summer. To do this, the native and organic plants that now thrive throughout campus would be replaced with native plants that produce food.

Depending on the plants, such a change may allow students to grab food from the bushes as they walk across campus.

Stelter hopes Concordia will modify examples set by the campuses of Carleton College, Luther College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Landscaping at these campuses include berry bushes, which students are free to take from.

While these campuses mainly reside in rural settings, Stelter believes they could be adapted to a more urban setting like Concordia’s.

Stelter believes landscaping on campus could be designed to use space more productively. He hopes marginalized spaces could be made productive. The 10 feet of grass between the edge of the science buildings and the sidewalk or the dead grass under pine trees could ultimately be transformed into edible landscaping.

Edible landscaping also has the potential to provide food for Dining Services. Luther and Amherst specifically have gardens that provide food for the campus dining centers. According to Stelter, their example could be replicated at Concordia.

The edible landscaping preliminary research was given not only to the PSC but also the landscape coordinator.

“They seemed interested and hesitant,” Stelter said. “As they should.”

Foster believes adding permaculture to campus is a real possibility. He said the PSC is currently working with facilities and other staff to decide where to incorporate edible landscaping.

“John’s paper is helpful in providing some initial information and ideas,” Foster wrote in an email.

He said the PSC hopes to have the landscaping updated in time for the 2014 Symposium, as it will be focused on sustainability.

Edible landscaping would help spread the image of the campus garden, according to another summer garden intern, Maddie Hyde. Hyde also believes it would spread a message of sustainability.

Stelter agrees that the campus garden should be a more integral part of campus. Still, he pointed out that the campus garden and landscaping are different projects and does not want them to be confused, as they have different purposes. The point of having edible landscaping on campus is to have productive space, he said.

Before a recommendation can be sent to decision makers, more research needs to be done to determine which edible plants would work well as part of campus landscaping, Foster said. He hopes either Stelter or other students will continue to show interest in permaculture research on Concordia’s campus. Stelter said some of the research would be to decide which plants to use, as the plants would need to be native and ripe while students are on campus.

“A lot of these plants are ripe in summer and early fall,” Stelter said. He suggests that plants ripening in fall are the best choice. Some options Stelter pointed out include everbearing strawberries, raspberries, pumpkins or apple trees.

Foster agrees with Stelter that native, edible plants are important. He pushed that the presence of native, edible plants reinforces both the need for natural foods and that our area is a place where important plants thrive. Instead of simply planting traditional landscaping,we can better utilize the resources we have on campus, according to Foster and Stelter. One way to do this is to focus on planting productive greenery.

“There’s an opportunity cost for there just being grass,” Stelter said.

Britt Bublitz

Britt Bublitz, 2016, is a News Writer for the Concordian. Originally from Centuria, Wisconsin, this sophomore has declared a psychology and English writing double major. She is also involved in the Jazz band and Tri-College Swing Dance Club.

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Contact Britt Bublitz at bbublitz@cord.edu

Tags: edible landscaping, gardening

At a press conference held yesterday during IMEX America at the Sands Expo® and The Venetian® | The Palazzo® Congress Center in Las Vegas, Carina Bauer, IMEX Group CEO, announced details of the next IMEX Challenge, designed by the IMEX Group to create a positive and long-lasting legacy in a local community.

The next IMEX Challenge will be completed in 2014, thanks to the financial and in-kind support of Las Vegas Sands Corp., the parent company of the Sands Expo, The Venetian® and The Palazzo®, and Global Events Specialists, GES.

“This IMEX Challenge will call on members of the meetings and events industry to help with the landscaping and construction of a new healing garden and children’s play area for The Shade Tree shelter for women, children and their pets in Las Vegas,” she announced.

Bauer explained that the 2014 Challenge would be the third in the company’s history, with previous challenges having taken place in Slovenia and Poland.

The Challenge itself will take place over the weekend prior to IMEX America 2014 which will take place October 14 – 16. Prospective volunteers are being asked to sign up on the IMEX America booth #1464 during the current show. Each volunteer will be asked to pledge just four – five hours of their time to help bring the new healing garden to life.

The Shade Tree is one of two local Las Vegas charities — the other being Opportunity Village — with which IMEX America has an ongoing and actively supportive relationship. IMEX America also works with hotel soap and toiletries recycling not-for-profit, Clean the World. Both organizations are also playing their part in supporting the 2014 Challenge. During the current show, Opportunity Village is inviting attendees to enjoy a huge piece of artwork that will be donated as a mural for the indoor children’s room at The Shade Tree. Clean the World is also operating a working station at the current show where meetings professionals can donate their time to create recycled hygiene kits that contain a personal message for each recipient. All of the hygiene kits will all be donated to The Shade Tree for use by families throughout the coming year.

Bauer paid tribute to the generosity of the 2014 IMEX Challenge’s two host sponsors, Global Events Specialists, GES and Sands Cares, the charitable arm of the Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Said Bauer: “They have been extraordinary in their willingness to jump right in and offer help. Sands Cares have pulled together an amazing team, and their expertise and passion is going to transform what is currently a dusty backyard into a thoughtfully designed, living garden which will provide a wonderful healing space for the families to enjoy. In turn, GES are providing invaluable storage sheds for all the gardening, play equipment and pet care items that the shelter will need to keep the gardens in good shape in the future.”

Bauer explained that the original idea for the IMEX Challenge came about in 2004 when a handful of IMEX staff climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for charity. After that the company began to express its sustainability values more consistently, through a focused approach to sustainability incorporating numerous operational changes, as well as industry promotion for this issue; and then through the launch of the bi-annual IMEX Challenge.

Representing The Shade Tree, DeAndre Esteen, Director of Development, attended the press conference with Napoleon McCallum, Director of Community Development for the Las Vegas Sands Corp. explaining how the project fits into the company’s community development remit. Dana Beatty, Director, Horticulture and Kent Bagnell, Director of Floral and Horticulture for The Venetian and The Palazzo (resorts owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp.) also presented the plans for the new garden and described the types of plants and landscaping techniques that would be used.

Commenting on their sponsorship support of the IMEX Challenge 2014, Andy Abboud, Senior VP of Government Relations Community Development for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation later said:

“It is great synergy when IMEX, its exhibitors and Las Vegas Sands Corp., can create a legacy community project for The Shade Tree. We hope our support through Sands Cares will be a catalyst to encourage others to contribute to this innovative endeavour.”

Sand Cares is the charitable arm of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. The organization supports endeavours that assist youth, promote health, aid wounded veterans, and expand educational opportunities within local communities.

Global Event Specialists (GES) is a global events company that creates unique experiences for marketing organizations, exhibitor organizers and event attendees.

IMEX America show attendees are invited and encouraged to sign up to help with The IMEX America Challenge 2014 at Booth #1464.

Marion Cole has lived in Plant City for more than 20 years and enjoys the beauty of a quiet suburban lifestyle. Her love for plants began in North Florida as a child as she helped her parents and grandparents plant and maintain their beautiful flowers, fruit trees and vegetables.

She is both patient and adaptable and has mixed the townhome’s community plantings and her own to make a charming garden with a formal but very comfortable feeling.

Part of her success comes from the setting. While most corner lots are framed by an angle of two streets, this one is surrounded with a single street that curves around from one side of her house to the other. The excellent landscaping that came with it offers elegance and privacy.

A professional landscaping company hired by the association takes care of the lawns, sprinkler system, ground cover, trees and shrubs.

Marion keeps many of her personal plants in pots, mostly along the house, entrance way or doorway. She waters and prunes them herself. She also does a good bit of grooming in the rest of the yard. Once she starts, she says, she doesn’t want to stop.

By keeping plants in containers, she can move them around to make them happy. Marion fertilizes with Black Magic, Jungle Grow, ironite and other recommended fertilizers to keep her plants green and healthy.

Huge magnolia trees bloomed heavily this year just inside the wooden fence by the street. The trees stand in a thick ground cover of oyster plant, sometimes called Moses in a Boat, and rain lilies that grow wild and make a beautiful setting seen from the street. There is a central area of manicured, well-grown grass and all of the beds are neatly mulched. Large, red-leaved ti plants and variegated succulent stems of devil’s backbone give color year round. Near the kitchen bay window is a cluster of ruellias bloom with lavender flowers that give color to outdoors and inside.

Her own favorite plants line the walkway from the driveway to the gorgeous, etched-glass, front-entrance doors and best of all, a bench gives that special sense of not being seen but being able to see out. It has an almond bush planted in front of it, wonderfully fragrant most of the year, and a great nectar food for butterflies. A crinum lily was blooming the day I was there with a firework globe of more fragrant flowers.

Today’s pick is the foxtail or asparagus fern. Actually it’s not a fern at all because it produces seeds rather than spores and is a member of the lily family. It likes full sun to partial shade and well-drained soil. Its dense, small spiny leaves grow on upright stems. The roots become a mass of tubers that can crack a pot, so in containers they should be divided every two to three years.

Yellowish leaves will not turn green again, so cut them off. There are inconspicuous little white flowers in summer followed by BB-sized berries that turn from green to red. Don’t overwater this plant. It mixes well with succulents, like the round-leaved Sansevieria.

Now’s the time to tell you the majority of the monarchs started their migration to Mexico at the end of August. I could tell because the milkweed plants are growing leaves faster than the caterpillars are eating them now. Before that I had to cover some of mine to keep them from being eaten to death.

I’ve taken the cover off now. A few monarchs will stay through the winter. I’ve had six emerge recently. I haven’t seen any caterpillars for awhile, but I keep looking. There are still plenty of other butterflies around, especially the zebra longwings.

Upcoming events

• The Tampa Bay Orchid Society meets Thursdayat Christ The King Church, McLaughlin Center, 821 S. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa. The doors open at 6 p.m., and the meeting starts at 6:30. Antonio Toscano de Brito, curator of the Orchid Research Center at Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, will speak. There will be refreshments, plants for sale and a plant raffle.

The meeting is open to the public. For more information and directions, call (813) 839-4959 or visit tampabayorchidsociety.shutterfly.com.

• Lori Symington is opening her garden to the public this Saturday at 2317 Hamlin Court, Valrico, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. It’s full of color, flowers, vegetables and fruit. Her granddaughter Abbie will have some plants for sale. For directions or details, call (813) 352-1712.

Monica Brandies is an experienced gardener, freelance writer and author of 11 gardening books who can be reached at monicabrandies@yahoo.com. Her website is www.gardensflorida.com.

On any given day and at just about any given hour, Sun Prairie resident Ann Broehm can be found toiling in the plants, flowers and herbs that surround her home on Blankenheim Lane.

Much of the past 41 years on her ¾-acre lot have been spent in the front and back yards, where upcoming seasons and holidays are celebrated with festive items she finds at garage, church and estate sales.

It is this dedication and the beauty it brings that the Sun Prairie Garden Club recognized by awarding Broehm the October “Garden Of the Month.”

Broehm’s first love has always been the outdoors. She learned the ins and outs of gardening and landscaping from her mother, and has spent many decades practicing and refining the art of bringing the outdoors to life.

Of the many types of gardeners that exist, from low-maintenance landscapers to retirees with hours to spare with their hands in the dirt, Broehm finds herself among the latter, seeking out the great outdoors for tranquility.

“Let me put my hands in dirt and I can hear some bad news, but it doesn’t bother me,” Broehm said. “ … I’m at peace when I’m outside.”

In October, her porch resembles a carefully done-up collage of autumn foliage, hay bales, and festive pumpkins. But there are also remnants of late summer color – punches of fuschia, gold, bright yellow, blue and red cluster in wooden and cement pots. The porch changes with the seasons, and serves as a beautiful reminder to passersby of what holiday is coming up next.

Around the back of her home is where her years of hard work are evident – the yard remains mostly open, but with a few spaced out areas reflecting her different landscape and gardening interests.

A vegetable garden in the corner grows radishes, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, beans, peas and thousands of cucumbers. This year alone, she picked and pickled 3,267 cucumbers, with the help of dill from her herb garden.

“When I can my pickles, I pick them immediately then I have my own dill so it’s all fresh,” Broehm said. “People just fight over my pickles.”

She also has a grapevine, which she uses to make concentrated grape juice.

Her backyard is host to not only her annuals, perennials and yard decorations, but to wildlife as well. She regularly attracts Cardinals, Blue Jays, Orioles, Blue Buntings, Finches, Mallard and Wood ducks, geese and foxes.

The telltale sign of her love for the outdoors and gardening? Laughter when you ask her about the time commitment.

“It could be 24/7,” Broehm said. “I just love it. I go outside thinking, ‘I have to do this one thing.’ It never is that way. I see so much that has to be done, always.”

The time she has spent outdoors has taught her a lot of useful tips for preparing her gardens.

To save money on geraniums, Broehm cuts the flowers off and puts them in her basement during the off-season. She takes seeds off flowers and holds them over to dry out, then starts growing them in a southwest facing window in her basement beginning in January.

“In saving on buying geraniums, that’s a big thing,” she said.

She also advises on the most important part of a good garden, good soil. Broehm has a compost bin in the garden, which she regularly fills with cow manure she receives from a farmer she knows and grass clippings from her neighbor.

She is also faithful to providing plenty of space for things to grow, and fertilizer.

From there, it’s all about choice.

“Just pick out some seeds that you would like … and start planting,” Broehm said.

Her talents have been recognized by countless family, friends and strangers, but it was still a pleasant surprise for the longtime Sun Prairie resident to be named the final “Garden Of the Month” of 2013.

“So many people have said, ‘With all your work and how beautiful it is, you should be the garden of the month,’” Broehm said. “I said, ‘Well maybe some day I’ll be picked.’ I was shocked and very, very surprised.”

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Chevy customers can help make strides against breast cancer just by taking a drive. Chevrolet is holding national test drive days to benefit the American Cancer Society, and Tom Gibbs Chevrolet, at 5850 State Road 100, is participating.

The dealership will donate $10 to the society for each test drive on a new vehicle on Oct. 19, Nov. 2 and Nov. 16.

The fundraising effort is part of the Chevy Making Strides Against Cancer initiative. For more information, contact Tom Gibbs Chevrolet at 888-450-1509.

SunTrust Bank brings in new personal banker

The SunTrust Bank at 5399 N. Oceanshore Boulevard has brought in a new personal banker.

Lori Gottlieb worked at the Hancock Bank in Palm Coast for 12 years before moving to SunTrust Bank, according to a press release from the bank, and welcomes new and former clients to visit her new location at the SunTrust Bank in the Publix shopping plaza.

For more information, call 386-246-3038.

Coldwell Banker recognizes top listing agent, sales associate

Coldwell Banker Premier Properties in Palm Coast is recognizing its top listing agent and sales associate for the month of September.

Kathy McEnaney was named top listing agent, and Shellie Keever was named top sales associate, according to a news release from the bank.

Coldwell Banker has served Flagler County for 27 years, according to the news release. Coldwell Banker Premier Properties, managed by broker Tom Heiser, is located at 33 Olds Kings Road, Suite One. To learn more, call 445-5880. 

Palm Coast landscaping company hires new landscape architect

Hammock Gardens Nursery Landscaping has hired a new landscape architect.

Landscape architect Steve Glaze earned a bachelor’s in landscape architecture from the University of Florida and worked for an engineering, planning and landscape architectural firm in Ormond Beach for seven years, according to a press release.

“We had future plans to hire a landscape architect, but moved up those plans when Steve called us last month,” owner Mike Fonseca said. “We realized he was just what we were looking for to help us fill the needs of our customers looking for landscape design services.”

Glaze enjoys the creative work of landscape architecture and the ability to work both inside and outside, according to the press release.

Hammock Gardens Nursery Landscaping, at 5208 N. Oceanshore Blvd., is owned by Janine Regina Fonseca and Mike Fonseca and opened in 2006.

The company holds workshops and classes on gardening and works with subcontractors to create outdoor living spaces within a customer’s budget, according to the press release.

For more information, call 446-9154 or visit https://www.facebook.com/HammockGardens.
 

 

 

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Community Gardens bring people together, builds
relationships, improves quality of life and activates communities through its
bounty, exercise, therapy, education, family budget augmentation, social
interaction and neighborhood beautification. A community garden can be used for
food, ornamental gardening, urban forestry, preservation and management of open
space, memorial gardening and any other types of gardening that a community
collectively values.  But much goes into
creating one especially if it’s an urban garden.

ADVERTISEMENT

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For any community making a garden takes forethought and
organization. This includes:

·     
Organizing the group of interested people

·     
Identify the community’s resources necessary for
the garden’s success including local garden associations, horticultural
societies, landscaping professionals, etc.

·     
Identify and secure a location

·     
Secure a sponsor

·     
Test the soil on the site for pollutants, and
check for of water availability

·     
Determine if liability insurance will be
necessary

·     
Prepare and develop the site

·     
Organize the garden so as to establish necessary
plots to satisfy the mission of the garden

·     
Plan an area for children

·     
Determine rules and put them into writing

·     
Setup a communication network to maintain
contact amongst members and interested community resources

·      Celebrate often!

With these valuable tips in hand, Sally Brown,
Associate Professor at the University of Washington offers additional
considerations when dealing with urban soils for those wishing to start up a
garden in a city. Brown notes that soils are more often contaminated in the
urban setting and most commonly with lead. But there are other potential contaminants
too resulting from what may have once been on the site such as old cars or
buildings that housed unknown chemicals and substances.

Further, healthy soils must not be compacted and must
contain at least 5% organic matter to improve soil structure. Increasing the
amount of compost and biosolids within the soil will enable it to hold more
water and provide the necessary nutrients for crops. Soil replacement is not
always required ad the addition of compost will help decrease contaminants in
the soil. Contaminants are diluted out with the addition of the compost mixed into
the soil. Some contaminants, such as lead, often become less hazardous when
compost is added. Brown explains, “Compost can change the form of the lead in
soil so that if you actually do ingest the soil, the amount of lead that’s
available to do harm is reduced.”

Read more at the American Community Gardening
Association and the American Society of
Agronomy.

Community
Gardening photo via Shutterstock.

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Catherine Navalta’s Japanese-inspired garden won top honors in New Hope’s suburban home awards.

Photo: Joel Koyama, Star Tribune

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Tammy Nelson didn’t really know her neighbor, but she knew her garden. And so she nominated it for a New Hope community award.

“The beauty and the smells from this yard make me happy every time I walk by. They have a koi pond too,” Nelson hastily jotted in ink on the entry form. She listed the address, but under “name,” she wrote: “We spoke once but I forget.”

The neighbor is Catherine Navalta, who discovered that she’d been nominated only when judges came to take a look. Now, she is the winner of one of New Hope’s RAVE awards for her lush garden of mostly perennials, meticulously planned so something is blooming all season long.

Winners are honored with a plaque or engraved garden rock at a City Council meeting, but that’s not the main point.

“The idea behind it is to build community spirit and let people have a way of recognizing their fellow New Hopians who may be doing something a little extra or special in the city,” said Curtis Jacobsen, the city’s director of community development. New Hope bestows five RAVE awards each year: for outstanding property maintenance; gardens; landscaping; remodel or renovation; and environmentally sensitive improvements.

Natural nurturer

On a recent afternoon, Navalta shared some of her garden’s secrets.

She acknowledges that she’s a born nurturer. She nurtured four children, now all grown. As a registered nurse, she nurtured patients rehabilitating from brain trauma and strokes at Hennepin County Medical Center. And she nurtured her gardens — flowers in the front yard, vegetables in back.

“For me it’s therapy. When I am in my garden, I cannot even feel the time,” she said.

Navalta, 64, recently retired but she used to work the 3-to-11 p.m. shift. She’d come home at night and sit in her quiet, dark garden.

“It’s only at night that I can smell the flowers,” she said.

Growing up in the Philippines, she learned to garden from her mother, who also grew flowers in the front, vegetables in the back.

“We had gardenias. When I smell gardenias, I think of my mother,” she said.

Navalta and her husband came to the United States in 1990 and bought their New Hope home in 1991. She spent time at the library researching what flowers would thrive in Minnesota’s climate. She started planting two years later — moving the existing hostas to make room for more showy blossoms. She planted mostly perennials that bloom in waves from early spring through the fall.

The hellebores bloom first, followed by tulips, daffodils, magnolias, azalea, clematis, cornflowers, dahlias, roses, lilies, hibiscus and phlox — to name a few. She dabbles in some annuals — impatiens, cosmos, marigolds and petunias. She harvests those seeds to replant the next year.

“I want it to be carefree,” she said.

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