By 

James Arkin

The Columbus Dispatch

Tuesday December 25, 2012 5:44 AM

Finding a new spot for COTA to turn around its N. High Street buses in Clintonville wasn’t easy.

But after several years, several fights and a couple of million dollars, the project is
nearly finished. COTA is completing work on the new turnaround site at N. High Street and Westview
Avenue. It is to open on Jan. 7.

COTA spent $1.2 million to acquire the property and estimates that the final cost of
construction and improvements will be about $1 million, according to spokesman Marty Stutz. The
problem started when the owner of Graceland told COTA that the redeveloped shopping center could no
longer accommodate its buses. COTA began looking for land.

Michael Bradley, the director of capital projects and planning for the transit authority,
said there were “challenges with the community” early in the planning. That’s an understatement.

COTA was in contract in July 2010 to buy a small strip mall at the southeastern corner of
Kanawha and High streets for $1.1 million. That would have displaced several small businesses. Area
officials and residents were outraged and told COTA so.

So the transit agency kept looking for property that was suitable for its needs and OK with
neighbors.

Eventually, all sides agreed on a vacant used-car lot near the Sharon Heights neighborhood.
Bradley said COTA and the community had a “good partnership” in planning the turnaround there.

D Searcy, Sharon Heights’ representative for the Clintonville Area Commission, agreed.

“They brought up several different ideas and plans, and they kept the community informed
about how they were moving forward,” Searcy said. This made community members more “self-invested
in what the end product is now,” she said.

Blair Staravecka, the manager of the Iron Grill BBQ and Brew, which is next to the new
turnaround, said COTA has a good relationship with the restaurant.

“Before, (the lot) didn’t look very good, and now it’s nice with the trees, and it’s nice and
clean, so I hope we’re going to have more business from that,” she said.

The turnaround is not a stop for passengers but a location for drivers to rest at the end of the
route, Bradley said. The site includes a driveway for buses, a small restroom facility for drivers,
and plenty of landscaping.

Searcy said she joked early in the planning that the community wanted a “ world-class bus
turnaround.” She said COTA “has really stepped up.”

Buses from the No. 2 route on N. High Street, the No. 4 route on Indianola Avenue and the
cross-town No. 95 route will use the location. Bradley said generally two or three buses at a time
will use the turnaround, but it can accommodate eight.

COTA will wait until spring to hold a grand opening to “show the community what it really can
look like,” Bradley said.“It looks nice. Let’s see how it operates,” Searcy said.

 

Sepa has issued 19 flood warnings across Scotland as heavy rain continues to cause problems.

A further 10 flood alerts have also been issued by the agency.

Areas likely to be affected by flooding include Kintore in Aberdeenshire, Arbroath and Brechin in Angus and large parts of Tayside.

The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings across southern parts of Grampian, parts of Strathclyde, Central, Tayside and Fife and south-west Scotland and Borders.

A spokesman said: “Outbreaks of rain will spread across Scotland on Monday. While not expected to be as heavy as over the last few days, it may be rather heavy and persistent at times.

“This may add to the risk of further flooding over still saturated ground in some parts and the public should be aware it could bring more disruption to travel. The rain should gradually clear eastern Scotland in the evening.”

Traffic Scotland was warning motorists that roads across the country could be affected by the adverse weather.

In Aberdeenshire the B977 Fintray-Kintore road is closed in both directions due to flooding.

Farther south the A713 is closed due to flooding at Crossmichael.

Scotrail was warning of “severe disruption” on its Wick-Inverness service due to a landslip.

A spokesman said: “Owing to a landslip between Helmsdale and Wick all lines are closed.

“Train services between Inverness and Wick may be cancelled, delayed or terminated at and started back from Helmsdale at short notice.”

Western Isles ferry operator Calmac was also warning of disruption to four of its services including the Mallaig-Eigg-Muck-Rum-Canna route.

Environment minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with Transport Scotland, local authorities, the emergency services, power companies and bodies such as Scottish Water to manage the impact on Scotland’s transport network and infrastructure and to ensure the clean-up operation is progressed as quickly as possible.

“As the last of people’s journeys home for Christmas get underway, we aim to keep Scotland moving. That is why our road operating companies stand ready to deal with any emergency pothole, clearance and landscaping work that needs to be undertaken at short notice. Rail and bus partners are also providing us with up-to-the minute information to ensure we can help people get home in time for festivities.

“Our strong advice is for anyone travelling over the next couple of days to plan their journeys carefully, using all the available information from Traffic Scotland website, Sepa’s floodline, local radio and public transport operators. And for those who are driving, please be alert to the risk of standing water around the next corner or on minor roads and exercise due caution.”

Your report: If you have information on this or any other story, please let us know. You can send information, pictures to web@stv.tv or call us on 01224 848918.

Feedback: We want your feedback on our site. If you’ve got questions, spotted an inaccuracy or just want to share some ideas about our news service, please email us on web@stv.tv.

For flooding and travel updates, check the websites below.

ScotRail

Traffic Scotland

NorthLink

Caledonian MacBrayne

Sepa

GALLERY

Flooding in Stonehaven

Related articles

• Residents unite in effort to save Christmas for Stonehaven flood victims
• Live updates on the flooding as storm sweeps across Scotland
• Residents evacuated from homes as torrential rain hits Scotland

Monday December 24, 2012

WILLIAMSTOWN — The final phase of the Clark Art Institute’s $170 million expansion project, due for completion in July 2014, is generating 523 new construction jobs with an economic impact on Massachusetts labor income of $20.7 million.

That is one of the conclusions of an economic study commissioned by the Clark and conducted by Boston-based Economic Development Research Group (EDR).

Other conclusions indicate that local and state tax revenues will increase by $992,000 per year during construction and $529,000 per year after construction is completed.

The first phase of the 10-year expansion was completed in 2008 when the Stone Hill Center was completed on the southern side of the 140-acre campus. The second phase, an underground infrastructure, security and shipping/receiving dock, was completed in 2011.

The final phase includes construction of a 44,400-square-foot visitor and exhibition center, which features glass walls that bring light into the building and allows visitors to better connect with the natural surroundings.

The project includes a total renovation of the original museum building as well as the Manton Research Center. Then there is the installation of new landscaping that includes a 1.5-acre reflecting pool, which will allow for ice skating in the winter.

After completion, the expanded museum and research center is likely to generate an additional 80 jobs related to the tourism industry,

according to the EDM study.

Michael Conforti, director of the Clark Art Institute, said the size and scope of the project will dramatically improve the Clark’s ability to enhance art research and conservation, and the exhibition of the Clark’s own collections and visiting collections from around the world.

He added that it would likely have the “unintended consequence” of helping to lure people to live in, or even open new businesses, in the Berkshires.

The expansion, he noted, will allow for “grander” art exhibitions, and an ability to adjust exhibition space for the needs of the many unique traveling international exhibits. It will also provide expanded space for scholarly efforts to study art and art history, likely resulting in more visits from students, art scholars, artists and art historians.

Figures provided by the Clark show an average annual attendance of about 200,000 people.

With the expansion, Conforti noted, “as people look at the quality and variety of things to do here, the Clark ends up being a more prominent star than in the past.”

Funding for the expansion came from benefactors, foundations and “some borrowing,” he said.

In the end, Conforti said the project will allow the Clark to be one of “the major centers for generating ideas and discussions around art,” which is at the heart of the Clark’s mission.

He added that the Clark’s annual operating budget of roughly $15 million will grow by $1 million to $2 million when the project is complete.

According to Williams College economist Stephen Sheppard, “in terms of profile, the Clark is a major cultural institution with international visibility, something the Clark helps bring to Berkshire County.”

He said that year-to-year, the Clark has a total impact of roughly $39 million on the local economy, and generates about 440 jobs — about 70 of them in the food service industry and 125 in hotels.

“It does help sustain the local economy,” he said. “They make long-range plans and they follow through on them even when the economy takes a dip. That is a huge advantage.”

The Stone Hill Center and the new visitor/exhibition center were both designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, with the corresponding landscape enhancements designed by the landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand.

The new reflecting pool will also serve as part of the museum’s water supply, allowing the facility to reduce its water usage by roughly half. The new building will increase the museum’s exhibition space by about 45 percent.

Another result of the Clark’s enhanced ability to draw visitors will also “bolster all the other cultural attractions in the Berkshires,” Conforti said.

When Amber Abell moved from Kilgore to Tyler during the summer, she heard about Wilhite’s good reputation and started using his services for yard maintenance. “I’m always complimentary of Wilhite,” she said. “I can be particular but they always do a good job the first time.”

Mrs. Abell, 33, said together, she and Wilhite came up with a design to decorate her home for Christmas. Wilhite’s design kept with the traditional style of the home, an older red brick house on West Eighth Street. She said she wanted colored lights to make it more fun for her children, Frank 4, and Ruby, 2. Smaller lights were placed in the trees and shrubs, larger blue lights line the house, wreaths hang from the windows and garland is strewn along the balcony.

“The scale is just perfect,” she said of the lights, adding that it is festive but not overdone.

Wilhite estimated his crews put out more than 150,000 lights since November.

He said one of the Christmas Dcor trademarks is their tree lighting. He pointed out a tree on Copeland Road that is strewn with lights to look like a Weeping Willow. People stop their cars to look at the tree, which has lights that go up 50 feet, he said. Wilhite crews also decorated a pair of oak trees by East Texas Medical Center, as well as three large trees in the hospital’s parking lot plaza.

“In person, they’re just awe-inspiring,” he said.

Wilhite said they focus on providing exterior installation but will do some interior decorations. They have customers as far as Nacogdoches, Henderson, Athens and Mineola.

“The real talent is our team,” Wilhite said, adding that his three teams work every day for a month to put out lights that are perfectly spaced and edged. He said his employees map each design so they put the lights back exactly how the customer had it the year before unless they request a change.

Wilhite constructed an 800-square-foot warehouse to keep his lights 11 months out of the year. “It’s surprising how full it gets,” he said.

The Town of Grand Lake will be receiving $22,000 in Conservation Trust Funds money for landscape work at a retaining wall where the sand volleyball courts are located at the lakefront.

Grand County commissioners approved the allocation of the money at their Dec. 18 meeting, with the bulk of the money contributed from Commissioner District 2 and a total of $600 contributed from each of the commissioner districts that do not incorporate Grand Lake.

The Town of Grand Lake does not have a specific design in mind for its lakefront improvements in this area, according to Grand Lake Town Manager David Hook, but hopes to enhance the “rough-looking” elevation change from the sand-courts property to the Western Riveria hotel parking area. To beautify the area, there may be rock landscaping done at the retaining wall to create more of a terracing effect, Hook said. The work is slated to be done in 2013.

Town officials see that area of the lakefront as under-utilized, the manager continued. In town discussions, board members have suggested ways to make that section of town property more inviting, such as with an extension of the boardwalk and more town benches. Other ideas considered for use of the property have been incorporating a gazebo, installing kayak docks, and maybe even using the land for parking, Hook said.

Most of us see a pity. Craig Carmichael sees potential.

“Can’t you just see it?” Carmichael, 47, says waving his arms.

Well, sure. Look past the plywood covering the broken windows that were never replaced, the unkempt landscaping, mildew, torn screen, the skeleton of the air conditioning unit, broken light fixtures, exterior cracks, nonworking elevator, dingy paint and all round dumpy appearance and this place could really be something.

The place is the abandoned Hacienda Hotel that has been sitting idle in downtown New Port Richey for roughly nine years now.

Immediately to the west is the Sims Park playground that has fallen into disrepair and is scheduled for a $400,000 makeover. Past that is a supposedly decorative overlook of the park and Pithlachascotee River that is named for golfing legend Gene Sarazen. Except it carries no explanation of Sarazen’s greatness nor his ties to New Port Richey. Instead, it, too, is missing light fixtures and any sense of purpose other than, judging by the ground, a place to hang out, smoke cigarettes and discard the butts.

Enter Sims Park from the north and you are greeted by the moldy rear of the amphitheater. Go toward Circle Boulevard and there sits the vacant, former office of the U.S. Postal Service. Nearby is the empty lot that used to be the home of First Baptist Church but now is the resting place for litter and a sign asking for housing developers to please come invest in the property.

“The city,” says Carmichael, “is the biggest owner of blighted property in New Port Richey.”

Carmichael recently led me on a golf cart tour of what should be the city’s most recognizable assets to share his vision for downtown. He’s not running for office and he’s not in it to make money. His business, Suburban Feed, is in Hudson. But he lives just north of the park and believes the city has failed to tap its potential. He’s dealt with the city as the organizer of the annual Christmas boat parade on the Cotee River and he’s shared his ideas with the City Council. Here’s what he sees:

The Gene Sarazen overlook should be turned over to artists for weekly exhibits and sales, or to animal agencies to show off pets for adoptions.

The city-owned West Pasco Chamber of Commerce building should be a deli, kayak rental business or a bait and tackle shop catering to the fishermen launching from the boat ramp next door.

The playground should be moved to the northern edge of Sims Park where it would abut an existing parking lot. The park’s split rail fence should be replaced by the same nautical-themed rope-and-stump look that is used further north on Grand Boulevard. The back of the amphitheater should be shielded with decorative fencing and vegetation.

The vacant church property should be a temporary dog park until the city can entice private investment there and the former post office is big enough to house the Chamber of Commerce and business incubation activities.

Along the river, he sees city-owned boat docks that would encourage overnight stays. And a commercial venture, like the Port Richey-based Miss Daisy, docking there permanently to offer seven-days-a-week excursions along the waterfront.

Still, his hand-waving enthusiasm is centered on the Hacienda. The city recently cut ties with its private-sector partner after a stymied six-year effort to build a hotel there. Carmichael, whose pitch is now echoed by Vice Mayor Rob Marlowe, sees the first floor as home to an upscale steakhouse since a dining room and commercial kitchen already exist. He sees a coffee shop there, too. Consider it a miniature version of the Vinoy in St. Petersburg. There should be an ice cream store. Maybe a livery. Office pace for the boat excursions. The kayak-rental business could go there if the chamber building is used for another purpose.

And after the first floor generates rental income for the city, the job of rehabilitating the upstairs guest rooms becomes more manageable. Forget 50 rooms. Knock down some walls and offer 25 suites, instead.

Of course, it’s easy to envision when there are no price tags attached. The docks, the Hacienda repairs, even installing fencing for a dog park all come with a cost. Meanwhile, the city is upside down on the loans used to buy the Hacienda, the Baptist Church site and other redevelopment projects over the past decade. At least the first investment is cheap. It’s sweat only. A community clean-up of the Hacienda property is scheduled for Jan. 12.

Aesthetics are just the start in Carmichael’s view. New Port Richey is making mortgage payments on the Hacienda anyway while failing to budget anything for upkeep. The city, he says, can’t afford not to get business tenants in there on the ground floor to begin rebuilding downtown commerce.

There’s a quiet revolution afoot at the University of Virginia, but it’s the lavender-scented kind. Guerrilla gardening put down roots on the school’s historic Grounds.

Officially, the landscape at UVa is a centrally planned feature and, theoretically, landscaping changes go before a committee. But in practice, that isn’t always the case.

Instead, professors and other university professionals sometimes take what they see as a boring yard or barren slope and add plantings.

“We are a community of creative and ingenious people who have their own ideas, so there’s always things that slip through the cracks, so to speak, and spring up, so it isn’t a hundred percent,” said Mary Hughes, the university landscape architect. “And I guess that makes the place interesting on a day-to-day basis.”

Art projects also appear on Grounds, though there’s a committee for them, too, Hughes said.

University officials are wary of students taking up guerilla gardening, because they typically leave after a few years, sometimes dumping the responsibility of caring for plantings on the university’s staff.

“Certainly there are cases where people have created very thoughtful, lovely plantings without getting permission per se or discussing,” Hughes said.

The English department has a couple of people who planted a garden, she said, calling it “very lovely.”

David Lerman, adviser to the Horticulture and Environmental Club at Piedmont Virginia Community College, said his group doesn’t do any guerilla gardening.

“It would be exciting to see more guerilla gardening,” he said. “I like reading about it, but we’re not actually doing it.”

Rampant guerrilla gardening at UVa isn’t encouraged, Hughes said, because the university is a public landscape with competing needs, but some of the school’s more than 1,100 acres in the Charlottesville area are more sensitive than others.

“The problem is that everybody wants to do everything as close to the Rotunda as possible,” Hughes joked.

In one guerilla garden, a professor and his assistant have shored up a slope with flowers, including iris.

And some guerilla gardens go for decades.

The University of Virginia Press, for example, is known for its elaborate guerilla garden. Not as much has been done since some of the founders retired, and the university provides the heaving lifting for things such as mulching, but it’s still a relatively well-known garden on Grounds.

In fact, that garden started with a bunch of guerilla conscription.

The director of the press at the time was married to a master gardener, and what started out as an herb garden by a few employees rapidly grew into much more.

“He’d never get away with it today,” former press employee Janet Anderson said, but he assigned press employees watering duty and had press employees out mowing the grass.

Anderson, who now does her guerrilla gardening with a group beautifying the Gordon Avenue branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, recalled how the press garden got its distinctive boatload of daffodils.

Across the street from the press, workers were building a dormitory, Anderson remembered. The existing front lawn was full of daffodils, which were going to be torn out. The foreman was planning to take them home to Richmond, but Anderson suggested they were sort of university property.

“He said, ‘If you want them, have them out of there by tomorrow,’” she recalled.

They dug trenches around the front and side of the press, she said.

“The whole press got in on that,” she said.

Since then, the daffodils, which can use the dividing, have become a source of bulbs for other plantings around the university.

“We were all delighted with it,” said Nancy Mills, a former press employee. “The press itself, the building, made you feel like home. It was just a warm place to work.”

Hoover Elementary School’s gym was transformed Thursday into a gingerbread house factory.

About 85 fifth-graders and many of their parents spent the afternoon building traditional and not-so-traditional gingerbread houses.

For Hannah Thomas, Thursday’s work represented a second chance – she was determined to build a gingerbread with an A-frame-style roof that wouldn’t topple.

“I made one earlier at my mom’s work and it collapsed,” Hannah said. “So I wanted to try making one again.”

Hannah was all smiles at the end of the school day as she showed off her sturdy-looking gingerbread house.

The key to success, she said: More frosting.

“I always warn students about being too risky,” said Hoover fifth-grade teacher Matthew Criscione. “But every year there’s students who pull things off.”

This year marked the 14th year that Criscione’s classes have built gingerbread houses. Last year, Hoover’s two other fifth-grade classes joined in on the fun.

And this year, the trio of teachers – Criscione, Justin Barron and Emily Carver – decided that their classes should work together in the gym.

“We thought it would be fun to have all the students and parents together,” Criscione said. “It really made it a lot more festive.”

There was an added benefit for Criscione: He got to help his daughter, Francesca, build her gingerbread house this year. She’s in Carver’s class.

Josh Reese was assisted by his father, Douglas, in building a two-story tower-like gingerbread house. Josh said that he wanted to build something that would be a challenge. His father didn’t mind his son’s approach.

“I’m supportive of anything he wanted to do,” Douglas Reese said. “Originally he wanted to make it three stories. But he settled on this. It turned out well.”

The gingerbread house building project consisted of three parts. Tuesday, students created and drew plans for their gingerbread houses. On Wednesday, they cut graham cracker pieces and assembled the frames.

They used staples such as peppermint candies, gumdrops and red twists to decorate their houses. For more exotic touches, students could use items such as chocolate gummy bears, fruit roll-ups and peppermint patties.

Many of the more creative ideas by the students revolved around the landscaping outside the houses.

For example, one student used blue fruit roll-ups and gumdrops to make a pond. Another made trees out of marshmallows. Mailboxes also were a popular addition this year.

Min Jee Kang used MMs and candy canes to decorate her gingerbread house with outlines of hearts. The project was a bittersweet one for Min Jee. She and her family are moving next week to Korea.

“I’m happy that this was my last project here,” she said. “It was a lot of fun building this.”

Today is the last day of school before the holiday break for Corvallis School District students and most other Benton County students.

PANAMA CITY— Bay County plans to buy and bulldoze a home in the Premier Estates neighborhood and run a road through the property, giving residents a second exit, which should cut down on traffic accidents.

The project is a precursor to the county’s effort to finish widening Baldwin Road. Premier Estates’ only entrance — Wood Valley Road — has no traffic light at its intersection with Baldwin Road and sits about 120 feet from the Harrison Avenue intersection, which has a light, said Ken Schnell, county public works director. And the intersections are too close to install another light, he said.

Schnellsaid Premier Estates’ 118 parcels generate 750-1,000  vehicle trips a day, and the congestion has caused numerous accidents in the last four years. So the county has been searching for an alternate exit from the neighborhood, eyeing homes on the west side of Wood Valley Road that abut Harrison Avenue.

The plan was to buy a neighborhood parcel and run a road through it, connecting Wood Valley Road to Harrison Avenue for a second, back exit.

“We’ve been looking and looking and looking, and just before Thanksgiving a sale sign popped up on that lot,” he said.

A county employee saw the available three-bed, two-bath home at 3109 Wood Valley Road. The county snapped into action getting an appraisal — $152,500 — and holding a Dec. 13 public meeting for the property owners, Schnell said.

More than 40 people attended the meeting and the residents were receptive, Schnell said.

But Richard Hughes, whose home will be on the new road, offered strong opposition. He said the county didn’t hold the meeting to hear residents’ ideas or get feedback, only to inform them of the county’s plan.

“I don’t like the way they did it. They didn’t trust me enough to come to me and say, ‘This is what we’re planning on doing,’ ” he said.

Hughes said he grew upset at the meeting because he believed the county could put a light at Wood Valley Road. He said 23rd Street has two lights very close to each other, near the Airport Road intersection.

Also Hughes said residents were told they could take their problems to the County Commission meeting, but that was only five days later, which gave them little time.

On Tuesday, the commission voted 5-0 to approve the property’s purchase — with no objections from residents — at the $179,000 asking price, despite it being $26,500 more than the appraised value. County spokeswoman Valerie Sale said part of the motivation for paying the full price was other offers were on the table.

The county should close on the property by January’s end and work should start immediately. It should be finished by summer, Schnell said. The new exit’s cost, in addition to the home purchase, is $100,000.

“Once we have the access … we want to relieve the problem these people are having with these accidents,” he said.

The county will raze the home and pave the 150-175-foot parcel, connecting it to Harrison Avenue; then drivers can use the light at the Baldwin Road intersection.

Also Schnell said the county will do some mitigation — a minimum 8-foot privacy fence and landscaping including trees and bushes on either side of the new road. He said the road will have a speed limit no higher than 25 mph.

Premier Estates resident Penni Beitzel is thrilled with the plan. She said there are a lot of accidents and it’s difficult to turn left out of the neighborhood.

“I have two teenage girls driving, and it would be much easier for them to go out on Harrison (Avenue), so I’m all for the idea,” she said.

Beitzel said her husband is on board too, as are most of the neighbors she’s talked to.

When the new exit is finished, the county will modify the Baldwin Road and Wood Valley Road intersection. Only right turns will be allowed for those entering and exiting the neighborhood.

Beitzel said the right-in, right-out plan for the current entrance is “perfect.”

“I think that’s what they need to do. … It’s impossible to get out of our neighborhood now to turn left,” she said.

Schnell said the county hopes to finish the project before starting on the estimated $6.2 million Baldwin Road widening project. The road will increase to five lanes — four through lanes and turn lanes — between Harrison Avenue and Minnesota Avenue. Right now the road has just two through lanes and turn lanes in that section.

 Construction should start January 2014 and finish in eight to 10 months, Schnell said.

Back in 2009, the county finished widening Baldwin Road between State 390 and Harrison Avenue at a cost of about $4 million, Schnell said. Both projects are funded by the Transportation Regional Impact Program through the Florida Department of Transportation, which requires a 50 percent match from the county.

New, re-designed photo gallery featured on LandscapingNetwork.com offers an extensive collection of landscaping pictures for homeowners and designers.

Calimesa, CA (PRWEB) December 21, 2012

LandscapingNetwork.com has debuted its long-awaited, re-designed photo gallery featuring landscaping pictures. Creating the ultimate user experience, this new gallery offers an extensive collection of high-quality landscaping projects from around the country covering over 25 landscaping categories.

Every year homeowners decide to invest thousands on new landscaping projects. Part of the investment is creating a space that can be enjoyed for years to come, whether the space is to be used for entertainment, relaxation, or to add curb appeal. The Landscaping Network helps inspire homeowners with design ideas and photos of the possibilities.

Perfect for homeowners, and designers alike, this new, re-designed gallery of landscaping pictures covers over 25 landscaping categories. From photos of front yard landscapes to backyards, popular patio and pool designs, to detailed decorative concrete pictures and garden pictures, this photo gallery offers everything the consumer needs to create a perfect landscape.

Each gallery displays hundreds of photos of popular landscaping styles, with the ability to expand each photo into a large format for a detailed look at the project’s design elements. This gallery gives consumers the perfect opportunity to explore and design a great landscape at home.

To view this extensive photo gallery and get great landscaping ideas from around the country, visit LandscapingNetwork.com.

Photos courtesy of LandscapingNetwork.com.

About LandscapingNetwork.com

LandscapingNetwork.com works with a team of professional landscape designers and writers to bring together the very best landscaping resources and information available. Homeowners, landscape designers and architects, builders and more can also stay up-to-date through the site’s extensive collection of articles, landscaping photos and videos on landscape design ideas, products and more.

For consumers ready to turn their landscaping design dreams into reality, the site offers an easy-to-use Find a Contractor directory to find local landscape contractors and designers throughout the United States and Canada.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweblandscaping/pictures/prweb10252603.htm