CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – If you’re one of many people eagerly anticipating spring, you may have found yourself at this weekend’s Outdoor Living Show at Hawkeye Downs. Vendors brought landscaping ideas and the latest mowers to display.

From brick ovens to brick patios, there are plenty of projects to occupy your time this spring.

“It’s been a long winter, and it’s nice to see people getting out and coming out to the show,” said Kevin Manternach, owner of Outdoor Creations.

But he said a deep ground frost and a thick snow cover could delay plans for planting and other outdoor activities.

“It’s going to slow everything up a little bit,” Manternach explained. “Once the sun shines and the snow’s gone, everybody’s going to be eager to get out and get going with things, but we’re going to have to wait until some of that frost comes out of the ground before we can do a whole lot.”

As soon as temperatures allow, Manternach said creating outdoor living spaces with fire pits and water fountains are popular this year. If it’s gardening you’re wanting to get into, keep a close eye on plants that went into the ground last fall, as frost heaves could be a big problem.

“If you plant plants in the fall, they need to have gotten their roots established, to keep the frost from heaving them,” said Devon Dietz, with Linn County Master Gardeners.

Jeff Gonzalez of TruGreen said you should also pay close attention to your lawn as things thaw out, especially if you let it grow last fall.

“A lot of times at the end of the year, people don’t mow before winter, and if their grass is long, it’s going to be susceptible to problems because there’s not enough airflow going through it,” Gonzalez explained.

Problems include snow mold and different types of fungus that can creep into grass roots.

“Getting a good fertilization right off the bat, to get it out of dormancy,” said Gonzalez.

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MASON CITY | Eugene and Linda Knecht of Algona didn’t know about the Home and Landscaping Show at the North Iowa Events Center when they drove to Mason City Saturday.

They were just planning to get out and do some shopping after being “cooped up” for so long this winter, Linda said.

They saw the sign advertising the home show when they got to town.

“We decided to pull in for landscaping ideas,” Linda said.

The couple just put in a new garage at their acreage this fall, and want to do some landscaping around it.

“This is right up our alley,” Eugene said.

The home show was crowded on Saturday as other North Iowans looked for ideas for sprucing up their homes and yards.

Bryan and Alicia Navarette, of Mason City, came to the home show because they want to build a new patio.

They brought their three children with them.

“I saw a patio that I really liked,” said Romey Navarrette, 8. “It had a waterfall coming out of it.”

She said the waterfall had lighting in it that changed colors.

“It was really pretty,” Romey said.

The patio also had a brick oven that could be used to bake pizzas, she said.

Romey and her brother, Peter, 5, and sister Riley, 6, got a lot of freebies at the show, including pencils and plastic construction hats.

Gary Stemmerman, of Mason City, was looking at sun rooms for his mother’s house in Hampton.

He stood inside a model of a four-season room from Midwest Construction.

“It’s kind of nice,” he said. “You feel like you’re right out in the open.”

Sarah Banchs, of Lu Verne, came to the home show to “get out of the house and get some ideas.”

Banchs, who used to live in Mason City, also enjoyed talking to others at the show.

“I’ve seen quite a few people I know and met some new people,” she said.

Sommerhausers will bring their handmade jigs to Commerce and Outdoor Show March 8-9

Previously featured on fishing shows and in the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Brainerd Dispatch, the next appearance of Hunter and Grant Sommerhauser will be at the Aitkin Area Commerce and Outdoor Show March 8 and 9. At the tender ages of 16 (Hunter) and 14 (Grant), the boys have already turned their love of fishing into a cottage industry. At the Aitkin show, they will display and sell about 600 jigs and 100 bags of soft plastic baits. Both of the boys will be on hand to explain all aspects of their booming business that got in full swing about a year ago.

The St. Paul boys were just 3 and 4 years of age when they started fishing with their parents, Richard and Andrea. Children of the digital age, last March, they took their home-grown love of the sport to a new level. Grant said they learned to tie their own jigs by watching YouTube videos. Now they’re creating not just jigs and lures but their own videos as well. They’ve been making appearances at sports shows throughout the region and they’ve been featured by media outlets throughout the state. They’ve landed a sponsorship from a fishing gear manufacturer and purchased their own 12-foot fishing boat.

“We came across the videos and decided to try it. Now, we spend most of our spare time coming up with new ideas, filling orders, doing research and making videos,” Grant said.

Add to that their own company and website (HG Jigs and HG Bait Co., respectively) and online fishing show (Rip some Lips).

The boys attend Central High School. They make their jigs in the basement of their home in the West Seventh neighborhood of St. Paul, melting plastic in a microwave and drying painted lures in a toaster oven. It’s an easy bike ride to a favorite fishing spot on the Mississippi and, Grant said, both boys are anxious to make the trek north this weekend to connect with northern Minnesotans who share their passion for all things angling. For more information, go to www.hgbaitco. com.

Library booth

A special booth at the show this year will be devoted to the expansion of the Aitkin Public Library. Library representatives will be available to explain the expansion and three pieces of artwork will be on display. The art will be raffled off individually.

The Library Task Force is currently about $15,000 from its funding goal and co-chair David Hommes said the booth at the show will be one of the task force’s last efforts that will get them to their final goal.

Also at the show

The 2014 Aitkin Area Commerce and Outdoor Show will run from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Sunday, March 8 and 9 at Aitkin High School. Admission is free for the show, hosted by the Aitkin Area Chamber of Commerce. It will feature more than 100 booths and displays, food court, health care expo, DNR shooting exhibit, knife sharpening, Deerwood Lions clowns and the Heritage Hall with artisans, hobbies, furs, art pottery and demonstrations.

Booths and displays will include boats, atvs, docks, cabinets, water systems, landscaping, siding, flooring, roofing, windows, toys, Internet, art, insurance, gardening and more.

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Learn more about permaculture in a session planned for 7-9 p.m. Wednesday at Midtown Arts Center, 3750 S. Mason St.

Permaculture is far more than a gardening technique; it is a philosophy of working with, rather than against, nature. Seeking to imitate naturally occurring patterns, permaculture is most commonly applied to landscape design.

Patrick Padden, permaculture educator, will share ideas about how to make your own yard more sustainable and organic.

This is the first of three landscape programs in the annual Residential Environmental Program Series.

• Unique and Functional Xeriscape on April 2, features Loretta Mannix, The Horticulture Consultant. Discover how to create a well-designed landscape with design tips for transitioning from lawn to garden beds, including a variety of exceptional, underused plants.

• Wildscaping 101: Habitat Hero Landscaping on April 9 is with plantswoman and author Lauren Springer Odgen and plant biologist and author Susan Tweit. Learn why and how to provide habitat for songbirds and pollinators, while saving water.

Information and RSVP: www.fcgov.com/reps, call (970) 221-6700, email utilities@fcgov.com or TDD (970) 224-6003.

To help you look for a summer job

With many Canadians suffering through one of the coldest winters in years, we’re all looking forward to summer. That is, unless you’re a student under pressure to find a summer job. Well, here are five things to keep in mind when you’re looking to make some money this summer:

1Plan for an unpaid internship. If you need to work for free to break into the job market, budget accordingly. “Have a handle on what money is coming in, if anything, and understand that if there isn’t money coming from the internship, is there an opportunity for something part time or a couple of evenings a week so you have something to live off of,” says Melissa Jarman, director of student banking at RBC.

Work for yourself.

2 Consider selling your skills or manpower to create income. Start a landscaping, painting or tutoring service. Make sure you put some money aside over the next few weeks for startup costs and do your market research to know how much you should be charging. “Create a small business plan. Are you going to have any startup costs? How are you going to build your client list? Can you work a network?” In Ontario, if you are between 15 and 29 years of age, you could get up to $3,000 from the government to help you start.

3 Get an early start. Big companies that have internship programs are often recruiting as early as January. If you have a “dream” company in mind, find out what their deadline for job applications is. Troll online databases and job banks. Use social media. Ask friends and family if they know of any openings. Apply across the country. Write a kick-butt cover letter.

4 Make the most of your paycheque. Once you are making some money, make it work for you. “The most classic piece of advice we give is, ‘Pay yourself first,’ ” Ms. Jarman says. “If my paycheque goes into the bank on Thursday, I’d have the money come out right away on Thursday. You don’t really notice it. It also forms a really good habit.”

5 Don’t dismiss jobs that are not in your field.

“Anything that can build up your resumé in the future is going to be a benefit,” she says. “Whether it’s lifeguarding or working in a grocery store, those jobs are not necessarily in a field that postsecondary students aspire to. But you have the choice between earning an income and not earning an income and you’ll pick up a lot of soft skills.”

mleong@nationalpost.com Twitter.com/lisleong

Monday

I don’t mind admitting that these last few months have been absolutely hideous, much of it climate-related. I visited our long-term restoration project, Hillersdon House, now in its third year. Or should that be Hillersdon Island? The approach from Taunton is mostly submerged and surrounding roads closed. The contractors are seriously hindered by the wet, and mindful that they will be financially penalised for not finishing on time: at the same time we want all landscaping to be conducted in ideal conditions. This is when contractor/client/designer relations become tense: the client wants their house and garden, the contractor wants to finish on time and I want a garden that flourishes from the off. We spent a tense day negotiating an all-party desirable result: we plan to monitor conditions as the deadline approaches, but will call a halt to works if necessary. Fortunately, we now have a polytunnel and laying out area on site so we can hold any plants should we have to take delivery prior to conditions improving.

Tuesday

A detour on my way back up to Suffolk took me to oak furniture makers: Gaze Burvill. I am there to advise on their Chelsea Flower Show exhibit, as they want a “real garden” setting and I managed to wangle a fascinating tour around the workshop. I had always wondered how they managed to create that “handmade by craftsmen” look and now I know: everything is handmade by craftsmen. The steam bending was in progress using techniques unchanged for centuries. Modern techniques were much in evidence too, with a state of the art cutting machine that carves a single piece from 3D CAD drawings, negating the need to batch cut and hold lots of space consuming stock. They are about to move to premises where all the oak offcuts will be used to heat the buildings.

Wednesday

Not only has the elemental climate affected work, but the economic climate has too: last year, several long-term projects finished with little new work to fill in. So much so, that when two of my team left last year I did not recruit replacements. For the month of January I wondered if my phone worked. But is it any wonder? Not only are people put off by the weather, but also the luxury of a new garden is understandably low on the list of financial priorities. We are told that the economy is improving but it will surely take a while to filter through.

Then the oddest thing happened: we had two enquiries today – both hotels. One is in Cornwall and the other very local. The latter I was able to visit in the afternoon. I had worked for the client many years ago on his private garden. This new project is the restoration of hotel and grounds on par with its 4 star status.

Huge ancient yew topiary flank the terraces with a magnificent lime avenue framing the driveway. Even more exciting is a walled garden (with crinkle-crankle walls) that the owner wishes to re-activate to supply the kitchens, having poached a top notch chef from London. I’m in heaven … just a small matter of fees to sort out. The other project I plan to visit next week.

Suffolk is one of the driest counties, but even here the meadow has flooded. Photograph: Tom Hoblyn

Thursday

Someone must be looking down on us: we have the go-ahead for a restaurant garden in London, working with the Guardian’s very own Alys Fowler, no less. Alys and I had presented some ideas to the clients before Christmas, but it had gone awfully quiet. Now contracts have been scrutinised, budgets set, fees haggled and we can finally start. Typically there is a mad panic for drawings so that materials can be ordered to meet the tight deadline. I am now very short staffed and start putting in calls to freelancers.

Friday

Met the topographic surveyors at our new hotel project. It is important to get detailed surveys done for all projects. Levels, existing buildings, trees, shrubs etc. must all be plotted. We ask for measurements every half metre in main parts of the garden and one metre elsewhere. We also ask for them to be measured as 3d loci so that we can model the terrain easily using software such as Sketchup and Vectorworks.

It’s amazing how things have changed since my training days at Kew. Then our surveying lecturer taught us to survey using chains (uncontrollable slinky-like strips of metal that measured 66 feet). This required throwing the unthrowable chain in such a way that it laid out in a straight line so one could measure objects trigonometrically in increments of links. 100 links equals four rods or one chain, with 10 chains in a furlong and 80 chains in a mile. Don’t you just love the metric system?

Weekend

Suffolk is traditionally one of the driest counties, but we too have been affected by recent weather. Our garden backs onto fen-like wetland and is quite low-lying. The ancient ditches are no longer dredged on a regular basis and have become choked with silt. This means the water backs up each year, but not as much as this year. Our woods and meadow are completely submerged, with tree branches reaching skyward from the watery depths. Visually quite beautiful but worrying for wildlife. Luckily we have one bit of high ground where our sheep may safely graze as we hope the weather improves before they lamb. The Shetland breed may be tough and resilient but they don’t do breaststroke.

• Thomas Hoblyn is a landscape and garden designer. This is the latest in a series of posts on the ups and downs of a life spent creating beautiful gardens.

Green living: For homeowners, ideas flow in to ease drought

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L.A. County offers residential water rebates

There are a variety of programs to help residents conserve water, including the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Water District’s rain barrel rebate.

The water district offers a $75 rebate when a resident buys a rain barrel, which can be used to collect water and irrigate plants, trees and gardens.

Larry Rich, Long Beach’s sustainability coordinator, said that a 1,000-square-foot roof can shed 600 gallons of water during a storm that produces 1 inch of rain.

The county’s water district also gives rebates for high-efficiency toilets and soil moisture systems,

Visit SocalWaterSmart.com for more information on those rebates.

The Water Replenishment District of Southern California also offers advice on how to conserve water at wrd.org/conservation. The site lists programs, rebates, landscaping tips and factoids such as: “A leaky faucet can waste 1,500 gallons of water per month.”

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and final story in a series on environmentally friendly, or green, homes in Long Beach.

Beneath dark clouds and driving rain, Larry Rich pulled his parka over his head and pushed on quickly, raising his voice to be heard above the sound of sloshing muck beneath his feet as he treaded over to a concrete shelter and took cover under a corrugated aluminum roof.

As he spoke with a sense of urgency about California’s drought, water from the roof of the building, which houses landscaping tools and stone features, flowed onto the ground and into a handful of rain barrels designed to catch precipitation to be used for irrigating plants and trees.

Even in the face of the powerful winter storm that hit the state last week, Rich wasn’t hesitant to share his message about saving money and doing one’s part for the environment.

He shrugged off the irony of delivering such a message in driving rain because it seems lately that people are starting to get his point that water conservation is important.

Since Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared California in a drought in January, Rich, Long Beach’s sustainability coordinator, has been hearing from more homeowners interested in water conservation.

“We saw an uptick in people being interested in rain barrels,” Rich said.

Rich could be fielding even more calls from Long Beach residents following Brown’s highly publicized signing of legislation earlier this week to assist drought-affected communities and provide funding to make better use of local water supplies.

Although some believe that the drought will pass and water in the future will be plentiful, others such as Rich fear that climate change could bring abouta “new norm” for California.

Such a change could bring more drought conditions to the Western U.S., which is currently in a three-year period of severe drought, and stronger storms to much the rest of the nation, such as the East Coast’s current “polar vortex” phenomenon.

Regardless of whether people are climate change believers or naysayers, the region always has been a place with moderate rainfall in the winter and almost no precipitation in the summer, Rich noted.

It’s Rich’s practice to keep the drought in mind at all times and plan for the long term – and he hopes Brown’s declaration will continue to help make people aware that they live in a region without a lot of rainfall.

“For us, it’s always a drought,” Rich said. “We’re in this for the long haul in terms of greening our city and society.”

Rich was talking about the importance of water conservation at Willow Springs Park, a 47-acre, city-owned property with a master plan to gradually restore habitat to California native plants and provide enhanced public access and amenities.

He treats the park like it’s a microcosm of the city. As he walked around the park, he spoke enthusiastically about what homeowners can do to conserve water.

Besides helping being more environmentally conscious, there are real dollar incentives for making homes more green and water-efficient – and despite the dark clouds that have recently produced some much-needed precipitation, there is still one of the worst droughts in California history to consider, Rich said.

Rich, who has been the sustainability coordinator since 2008, when the city’s Office of Sustainability was formed, can rattle off a long list of incentives offered by the city and the county, some of which have come and gone.

The Laundry to Landscape program, also known as the gray water pilot program, enabled residents to use their washing machines to provide water for landscapes. The program was started in 2011 and since has ended.

The city conducted 33 gray water installations. The program had mixed results, but it taught Rich and his staff a great deal, he said.

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SKANEATELES | The Skaneateles Town Board hopes to soon seek bids for the landscaping portion of its Western Gateway Improvement Project that saw renovations done to U.S. Route 20 on the western end of town.

After the project finally broke ground in August 2012 after years of delay, the landscaping portion was cut out of the original plan because of a lack of funding. The town hopes to complete that portion with a combination of donations and either grant funding or town money.

At Thursday’s meeting, Larry Hasard, the New York State Department of Transportation resident engineer for western Onondaga County, was on hand to answer questions and provide guidance about the landscaping portion.

Hasard said he understood the town wished to move forward with that portion but wanted to make changes to the original landscaping plans and would help figure out what the town wants to do and how it can do it with “the least amount of bureaucracy.”

Supervisor Mary Sennett said she felt the Western Gateway landscaping is supposed to complement the landscaping already in place throughout the village, but the current plan seems out of context and separate from what’s already been done.

“This is essentially an extension of the sidewalk area that runs through the center of Skaneateles,” she said. “It’s not in keeping with the streetscapes in the rest of the community.”

As an engineer, Hasard said he was not involved with the development of the landscaping plan but believes it represents a plan that is acceptable in terms of safety and visibility for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.

Still, Sennett said she feels the current plan does not fit in with the existing appearance of the village along Genesee Street.

“I think that’s my no. 1 concern – to preserve the look and feel of what we’re used to in the community,” she said.

Hasard said the town can “basically do anything you’d like” in terms of altering the original plan, as long as the new ideas are consistent with the location and plant types set out originally.

All the town needs to do, he said, is to confirm that it will do the work and then update its insurance and contractor for the project.

The town can delete plants – such as shrubbery and grasses that were not popular originally – without a problem. But Hasard said changing species of plants would take some work, since the DOT would need to approve the new plan.

“That’s really what our only interest is – just making sure those efforts are consistent with the use of the highway,” he said, reiterating the importance of safety and visibility as part of the landscaping.

He said a DOT landscape architect could provide better guidance on choosing acceptable species, and the board hopes to have one at a future meeting.

Councilor Nancy Murray said the town will seek donations for the landscaping – particular to purchase trees and possibly memorial plaques and benches – but could not seek donations until it used up its original grant funding.

Hasard noted, though, that the Western Gateway project exceeded its budget, so the original grant funds were depleted. The infrastructure for planting, however, was put in place during the construction, he said.

Councilor Connie Brace asked if the town could obtain a new grant for the landscaping, while Murray said she received two pledges and at least 10 phone calls from people interested in donating.

Murrray suggested the town stick with the original plan of 16 trees but delete the grasses from the plan.

“We’ll make a board decision on that when the time comes,” she said.

MEETING NOTES

• The board voted unanimously to authorize closing the town Transfer Station on June 10 for an employee training day.
• The board approved requests from the Skaneateles YMCA and Community Center to use Austin Park, Searing Fitness to use Clift Park, and Grace Chapel to use Clift Park.
• The board approved rules for the farmer’s market, which include the Saturday market starting at 9 a.m. and both Thursday and Saturday markets running from May through October.
• The board voted unanimously to establish a Planning and Zoning Subcommittee that will include two members of the Planning Board, two members of the Zoning Board of Appeals and two members of the Town Board.
• The board voted unanimously to transfer $11,000 from the Water Consolidated Repair Reserve Fund for an upcoming project.
• Sennett reported the town court received a Justice Court Assistance Program grant to make updates to the court office.
• Councilor Claire Howard said she attended a recent Comprehensive Plan Review Committee meeting, where the committee finished reviewing the text of the document. The hope is to submit the plan to the town and village review committee by April.

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