Does this week’s winter weather have you looking forward to spring?

The 48th Annual Omaha Home Garden Expo may help to cure your winter blues. The expo unites with the Omaha Lawn, Flower and Patio Show to showcase the latest products and services for the home – inside and out.

The event begins today and continues through Sunday at CenturyLink Center Omaha. The exhibits will be open from 5-9 p.m. today, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is $8 for adults, $4 for children 12 and under, and free for children under 5.

Visitors to the show will find a wide variety of products and do-it-yourself ideas, interior decorating trends, contractor services, energy-saving products, patio furniture, lawn and garden equipment, room additions, windows and doors, siding, roofing, fireplaces, bathrooms, kitchens and more.

Landscaping ideas are also part of the show. There will be a showcase of locally grown plants and products made in the Omaha area, and a front yard landscape display that educates homeowners on building a beautiful and functional landscape.

If you have gardening questions, you can visit the “Ask the Master Gardener” answer desk. The show’s Garden Theater will have informative programs on a variety of gardening topics.

This year’s featured celebrity entertainment includes George Stella, also known as “The Good Carb Chef.” He will appear on stage at 7 p.m. today and 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Stella, who you may have seen on the Food Network or Dr. Oz, is a best-selling author and chef who will demonstrate fresh foods and secret recipes for low carb diets.

Stella lost 265 pounds in the late 1990s. His wife and two sons followed his weight loss by losing a combined 560 pounds by adopting a low-carb diet. He has shared his family diet secrets through a series of best-selling cookbooks, most recently, “Real Food, Real Easy.”

HGTV stars Amy Matthews and Jared Walker Dostie also will appear at the show.

Matthews is host of HGTV’s “Renovation Raiders” as well as DIY Network’s “Sweat Equity” and “This New House.” She will share design ideas and do-it-yourself tips to take rooms from drab to fab. Her presentations will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Walker Dostie is a carpenter on HGTV’s “Rate My Space” and “Mom Caves.” He will present new home design trends, and custom furniture and carpentry ideas at 6 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. He will soon by featured on a new show to launch on the Food Network called “Save My Bakery.” He will help give bakeries a makeover from the inside out.

Guests to the show also can take in musical entertainment near the fountain café and food court.

Belles Whistles, an acoustic country duo, will play from 4:30-8:30 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Kim Eames will play an acoustic mix from 5-8:30 p.m. today and noon to 4 p.m. Friday. The Steve Thornburg Group will play jazz and blues from 3:30-7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Other show attractions will include an exotic animal show and a kid zone with inflatables, face painting, balloons and more. Show times for the exotic animal show are 7:30 p.m. today, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday, 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, and 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Despite recent sporadic rain, California is still in the worst extended drought in its brief recorded history. If more storms do not arrive, the old saying that California could withstand two droughts — but never three — will be tested for the first time in memory.

There is little snow in the state’s towering Sierra Nevada mountains, the source of much of the surface water that supplies the state’s populated center and south. The vast Central Valley aquifer is being tapped as never before, as farms and municipalities deepen wells and boost pump size. Too many straws are now competing to suck out the last drops at the bottom of the collective glass. 

The vast 4-million-acre farming belt along the west side of the Central Valley is slowly drying up. Unlike valley agriculture to the east, which still has a viable aquifer, these huge farms depend entirely on surface water deliveries from the distant and usually wet northern part of the state. So if the drought continues, billions of dollars of Westside orchards and vineyards will die, row cropland will lay fallow, and farm-supported small towns will likewise dry up.

There is a terrible irony to all this. Never have California farm prices been higher, given huge Pacific export demand. Never have California farmers been more savvy in saving water to produce record harvests of nutritious, clean, and safe food. And never has farming been so central to a state suffering from the aftershocks of a housing collapse, chronic high unemployment, overregulation, and the nation’s highest sales, income, and gas taxes.

Yet there are really two droughts — nature’s and its man-made twin. In the early 1980s, when the state had not much more than half its current population, an affluent coastal corridor convinced itself that nirvana was possible, given the coastal world-class universities, the new dot.com riches of Silicon Valley, the year-round temperate weather, and the booming entertainment, tourism, and wine industries.

Apparently, Pacific-corridor residents from San Diego to Berkeley had acquired the affluence not to worry so much about the old Neanderthal concerns like keeping up freeways and airports — and their parents’ brilliantly designed system of canals, reservoirs, and dams that had turned their state from a natural desert into a man-made paradise. They have become similar to the rarified Eloi of science-fiction writer H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine, who live dreamy existences without any clue how to supply their own daily necessities.

Californians have not built a major reservoir since the New Melones Dam more than 30 years ago. As the state subsequently added almost 20 million people, it assumed that it was exempt from creating any more “unnatural” Sierra lakes and canals to store precious water during California’s rarer wet and snow-filled years.

Then, short-sightedness soon became conceit. Green utopians went further and demanded that an ailing three-inch bait fish in the San Francisco delta receive more fresh oxygenated water. In the last five years, they have successfully gone to court to force millions of acre-feet of contracted irrigation water to be diverted from farms to flow freely out to sea.

Others had even grander ideas of having salmon again in their central rivers, as they recalled fishing stories of their ancestors from when the state population was a fifth of its present size and farming a fraction of its present acreage. So they too sued to divert even more water to the sea in hopes of having game fish swim from the Pacific Ocean up to arid Fresno County on their way to the supposedly ancestral Sierra spawning grounds.

The wages of both nature’s drought and human folly are coming due. Unless it rains or snows in biblical fashion in the next 60 days, we could see surreal things in California — towns without water, farms reverting to scrub, majestic parks with dead landscaping — fit for Hollywood’s disaster movies.

Instead of an adult state with millions of acre-feet stored in new reservoirs, California is still an adolescent culture that believes that it has the right to live as if this were the age of the romantic 19th-century naturalist John Muir — amid a teeming 40-million-person 21st-century megalopolis.

The California disease is characteristic of comfortable postmodern societies that forget the sources of their original wealth. The state may have the most extensive reserves of gas and oil in the nation, the largest number of cars on the road — and the greatest resistance to drilling for fuel beneath its collective feet. After last summer’s forest fires wiped out a billion board feet of timber, we are still arguing over whether loggers will be allowed to salvage such precious lumber, or instead should let it rot to enhance beetle and woodpecker populations.

In 2014, nature yet again reminded California just how fragile — and often pretentious — a place it has become.

— Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His latest book is The Savior Generals, published this spring by Bloomsbury Books. You can reach him by e-mailing [email protected]. © 2014 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

LIHUE — Fifteen-year-old Princeville resident Talia Abrams has a vision not only for Kauai, but the entire state and beyond — edible landscapes in public places.

Not in a Willy-Wonka’s-chocolate-factory, made-entirely-of-sweets type of way. Abrams wants them to be nutritious, delicious, sustainable and for everyone.

“I just want edible landscape to be spread out all over,” she said. “If you’re hungry and you want healthy food it would just be around everywhere.”

The young lady’s vision is being supported by nearly half of the 51 members of the state House of Representatives.

As a result of Abrams’ motivation and hard work, a bill — one she wrote at age 14 — aimed at establishing a community food forest program in the state Department of Land and Natural Resources is moving through the House.

And Abrams, a lifelong home-school student and vegetarian, said she couldn’t be more excited.

House Bill 2177 was introduced last month by Rep. Derek Kawakami, D-Wailua-Haena, and has been co-sponsored by 23 other House representatives, including Kauai Reps. Dee Morikawa, D-Koloa-Niihau, and Jimmy Tokioka, D-Koloa-Wailua.

Kawakami said he was approached by Abrams last session about her interest in learning more about the legislative process and how to get started on a bill that would allow DLNR to create a program much like what has been implemented in Kalihiwai.

“She worked hard in drafting a bill and we were more than happy to introduce the bill on her behalf,” Kawakami wrote in an email. “In the future, we will be working with more schools in similar efforts. Not only do some of the best ideas come from our keiki but it is a great way to introduce and involve them in civics.”

The Kalihiwai Food Forest covers two acres on Kauai’s North Shore and boasts thousands of root, ground, shrub and tree plantings. The one-year-old project is a collaboration between Malama Kauai and Regenerations International Botanical Gardens.

If passed, the measure would appropriate funds and require the DLNR to “work collaboratively with local government and community organizations to provide sources of healthy food statewide.”

“Community and urban gardens, concepts which have been adopted statutorily in states like New York, California, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Maine, may provide a solution to the problem of increasing food costs and the dwindling availability of undeveloped land,” the bill states.

“By identifying and utilizing public lands, particularly those near existing community gathering places such as parks and community centers, to create community food forests that adopt edible landscaping concepts, the State may be able to provide additional sources of low- or no-cost food to residents, while also utilizing developed land for community sustainability purposes.”

The act would go into effect July 1.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Water and Land voted 9-0 that the measure be passed with minor amendments. The bill now moves on to the House Committee on Finance, its final referral before it could move on to the House floor.  

The background

Talia, the daughter of Ernest and Meryl Abrams of Princeville, said the idea came to her when she was listening to a radio show about a low-income family. With only $12 per day to spend on food, the family was forced to eat cheap meals at fast food restaurants.

“I decided I really wanted to do something,” she said.

Last year, at age 14, she drafted the bill for an assignment prior to attending the Christian non-profit TeenPact Leadership School in Honolulu. Later, she took the bill directly to Kawakami, who promised her he would introduce it during this year’s legislative session.

“He was really interested in it,” she recalled.

North Shore resident and teacher Felicia Cowden, who Abrams described as a “mentor,” said the bill is designed to adapt to any community, with the community deciding what’s best for its own needs.

“It can be as small or as big as the community grows it to be,” she said. “Every community would have its own influence on the size, the style, the funding.”

Cowden said the food forests could also be used for grief counseling, with individuals or families planting and caring for a tree in honor of a lost loved one. Or, portions of an area — for example, the bike path along Kauai’s Eastside — could be adopted and lined with fruit-bearing trees.

“A lot of places around, they have trees that are completely useless,” Abrams said. “But if they could just be fruit trees, or native ones or edible, then I think it would help us all out.”

Positive momentum

Abrams’ reaction Wednesday after hearing that her bill passed through committee was short and sweet.

“It’s amazing!” she said.

“When I first started, I didn’t think it would go anywhere. I was 14!”

A total of 47 pieces of testimony were submitted prior to Wednesday’s hearing. All but one voiced strong support.

“When the young people of today are bright enough to understand that THEY are our future, we need to LISTEN,” wrote Ann Evens. “This is a STEP towards helping all communities take the important step forward toward healthy self-reliance.”

Sean Lathrop wrote that the state of Hawaii “could become an example for the entire country by adopting and implementing this bill.”

And Peter J. Martin, president and CEO of TeenPact, testified that the bill is not only good for the people of Kauai, but also “shows Talia that even through she cannot yet vote, her voice can be heard.”

DLNR Chair William Aila testified that while the department supports the bill’s intent, it does not feel it is necessary since the Forest Stewardship Program and the Kaulunani Urban and Community Forestry Program are already in place.

“The Department believes that through these two existing programs, the goals for House Bill 2177 could be met without creating a new program,” he wrote.

Backup plan

Should the bill not make it through the legislative process, Abrams is prepared. In fact, she has already sat down to discuss the idea with Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., and has pitched her proposal — signed by 150 community members — to the Kilauea Neighborhood Association.

“If the bill doesn’t go through, I will still somehow make it a community thing,” she said with confidence.

In her own submitted testimony, Abrams said she was honored to see her bill introduced and that her dream is to help feed the people she sees in the park who she knows are hungry.

 “Please pass this Bill because I want to help people have healthy food to eat, even if they can’t afford it,” she wrote.

• Chris D’Angelo, environmental reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or cdangelo@thegardenisland.com.

The Miami Valley’s largest home improvement show takes place this weekend and next at the Dayton Airport Expo Center with more than 10,000 expected to attend.

Now in its twelfth year, Home World 2014 will host 166 vendors and devote 102,000 sq. ft. of space to services and products aimed at helping folks create an attractive and comfortable home. The event is produced by Cox Media Group with Universal 1 Credit Union serving as title sponsor.

“People come for information and ideas — whether they are planning a small do-it-yourself project or a major renovation,” says John Adams, WHIO Local Sales Manager. “We see younger people who have just purchased their first home and are looking for ideas as well as retirees who want to downsize or make their homes safer and more convenient.”

In addition to picking up business cards on products ranging from windows and kitchens to bathrooms and barns, visitors can view demonstrations on topics ranging from home technology to cooking. A new cooking demo stage will replicate an actual working kitchen.

Josh Mandich, strategic events coordinator for Cox Media Group Ohio, says guests at the show will once again be offered two chances to win a $10,000 shopping spree which can be used for any of the Home World exhibitors.

“It was just heaven sent,” says Betty Hensley of Huber Heights, whose husband was one of last year’s $10,000 home improvement winners. “Our furnace was old and we had already had it repaired, so we were able to get a new furnace, a new hot water tank and storm windows. It’s been great!”

The couple, she says, always attend Home World.

“We go to see all their ideas and see if there’s anything we can do to improve our home,” Hensley says. “This year we’ll go to look at flooring and kitchens.”

IGS Energy, a new sponsor this year, is offering one year’s world of free energy to a lucky winner.

“All you have to do is bring your gas and electric bill and sign up for their low fixed energy program and you are automatically entered in the drawing,” Mandich explains.

Universal 1 and Cintas will also be sponsoring a “Shred Day” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday where people can bring their personal or business documents and have them securely disposed of on-site.”

Adams says there will be ideas for fixtures, color palettes, room design, home maintenance, landscaping.

Zach Hyatt, administrative assistant at Seal Smart, says his company will be a new exhibitor this year. They’ve recently opened a new location in Cincinnati.

“We permanently seal wood, concrete and masonry on decks, patios, brick and driveways,” Hyatt explains. “We’re planning to have a demonstration and people will be able to request free estimates.”

Jason Haught, president of Bath Fitter, has been exhibiting at Home World since the inception of the show.

“Home World is just an excellent venue to bring a showroom atmosphere to the general public,” he says. “We can display our products and make great connections with potential clients.”

Haught says he brings a variety of potential bath and shower solutions to the show.

“For example, if your existing tub or shower is structurally sound, we can place our Bath Fitters custom solution right on top,” Haught says. “It’s less stress and no mess remodeling — we like to say we are reinventing the remodel.”

Other special attractions at this year’s Home World range from mattress options and irrigation systems to solar power and hot tubs. Ongoing live demonstrations range cover topics ranging from window and door ideas to landscaping.

Covington officials want their iconic square park to be used even more frequently in 2014 and are planning to add some new touches.

The Covington City Council voted unanimously to ask the county – which owns the park area in the square – for permission to build a gazebo, or other similar structure, to the southeast corner of the square and to add more park benches. A Civil War historical marker could also be added.

The ideas are in the preliminary stages, as no final designs have been selected, but Mayor Ronnie Johnston said he’d like to see the square looking in top shape by spring, including a new landscaping plan.

“My overall goal is when spring hits, everybody says, ‘Holy smokes! I wish the city had taken over (the square) a long time ago,’” Johnston said Tuesday.

The city and county signed an agreement in November 2013 that gives the city authority to maintain the square and landscape it any way city officials see fit; however, permanent changes to the park still have to be approved by the county.

City Manager Leigh Anne Knight said the plan is to build a permanent structure for concerts and events, as opposed to using temporary canopies as is often done now. The structure, which would likely be a wooden gazebo-like building, would be located on the southeast side of the square where the pavement pad is located. Knight said the plan is to match any new structure to the current style around the square as closely as possible.

The city’s request will next be brought before the Newton County Board of Commissioners, but the item was not on the board’s Tuesday agenda.

Because the designs aren’t finalized, the cost hasn’t been determined. However, Main Street Covington will contribute around $14,000 to the project, including several thousand dollars donated previously by Bonanza Productions, which produces “The Vampire Diaries” TV show. The city of Covington will cover the rest of the cost.

Four benches will be added to provide more seating on the square, according to Deputy City Manager Billy Bouchillon, while the Civil War marker is being proposed by the Dalton-based Whitfield–Murray Historical Society. Knight said Tuesday the society believes Union troops led by Brigadier Gen. Jefferson Davis slept on the square in 1864 during General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea.

She said Monday the marker would probably be similar to other Civil War plaques around town.

SCHEDULE A SINGING VALENTINE: The Hernando Harmonizers will provide singing valentines between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Feb. 13 to 15 throughout Hernando County. The singing valentines include a serenade of two love songs by a men’s barbershop quartet in tuxedoes. Recipients will also receive a long-stem silk red rose, a personalized valentine card and a photograph of the occasion. The cost is $40, with $5 of the fee donated to HPH Hospice.

The Hernando Harmonizers is a nonprofit men’s a cappella chorus. For information or to schedule a singing valentine, call Charles at (352) 686-7559 or Gene at (352) 684-7931.

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COMMUNITY TRAFFIC MEETING: The West Central Community Traffic Safety Team invites area residents who are concerned about local roads and traffic conditions to attend its next meeting from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Florida Department of Transportation, 16411 Spring Hill Drive, south of Brooksville.

The team includes highway safety advocates who are committed to solving traffic safety problems in Hernando and Citrus counties.

Those who have safety concerns regarding particular intersections or roadways; who see a possible need for new or replaced lighting, striping or signs on a particular street to improve pedestrian or bicycle safety; or those who are interested in hearing about traffic safety initiatives in the county are invited to attend.

For information, or to be included on the agenda, contact Rhonda Grice at (813) 975-6256 or rhonda.grice@dot.state.fl.us.

DISTRIBUTION OF FREE CONCERT TICKETS: Free tickets will be distributed at 9 a.m. Tuesday for two upcoming Community Performing Arts Concert Series performances at Mariner United Methodist Church, 7079 Mariner Blvd., Spring Hill. Distribution will continue until noon or until tickets are gone.

The concerts are the Beatle Maniacs on Feb. 22 and Rocket Man, an Elton John tribute band, on March 8. There will be 2 and 7 p.m. performances of both concerts.

For information, call (352) 544-1068 or (352) 597-1703.

SPRINGS RESTORATION WORKSHOP: Hernando County will host a “Restoring Our Springs” Florida-Friendly Landscaping workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Hernando County Association of Realtors, 7321 Sunshine Grove Road, west of Brooksville.

With a Valentine’s Day theme, the free workshop will focus on reasons to “love” local springs and ways residents can help protect water quality by following Florida-Friendly Landscaping principles. Presentations include:

• “Florida Springs are in My Heart,” by Chris Anastasiou, senior scientist with Southwest Florida Water Management District.

• “Landscaping that Comes From the Heart,” by Sylvia Durell, Hernando County Florida-Friendly Landscaping coordinator.

• “Plants That Love to Thrive,” by Kathleen Patterson, Marion County Florida-Friendly Landscaping coordinator.

• “Love Springs Eternal: Follow the Fertilizer Ordinance,” by William Lestern, Hernando County extension agent.

Seating is limited, and registration is required by Friday. Register online at fflworkshop-springs.eventbrite.com or contact Sylvia Durell at (352) 540-6230 or sdurell@co.hernando.fl.us.

HONORING WWII CHAPLAINS: American Legion Post 186 will host the annual Four Chaplains Memorial Service at 2 p.m. Feb. 16 at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church, 5030 Mariner Blvd., Spring Hill.

The service honors the four military chaplains who died aboard the USS Dorchester, which was torpedoed during World War II on Feb. 3, 1943.

The chaplains — a Methodist minister, a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest and a Lutheran minister — handed out life jackets to the servicemen aboard and, when there were none left, gave up their own. They remained aboard to comfort those who were too severely wounded to abandon ship.

Representing the four chaplains at the service will be: Deacon Roland Desjardins of St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church; Rabbi Lenny Sarko of Temple Beth David; Bill Owens, pastor of First United Methodist Church; and Father Lance Wallace of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.

Speakers include retired Air Force Maj. Gen. M.T. Smith and retired Army Col. Nick Morana. Jim Matheson will provide bagpipe music.

For information, call chaplain Charles Haag at (352) 597-1210.

HOSPICE SPEAKERS AVAILABLE: HPH Hospice has speakers available to appear at churches, clubs and civic groups. Presentations about HPH Hospice and end-of-life care will be provided.

Presentations are generally 15 to 20 minutes and can be designed to meet the group’s needs and areas of interest. Advanced care planning, how hospice works, and who qualifies for hospice care are a few of the topics offered.

For information or to schedule a speaker, call Carla Hayes at (352) 597-4120.

COMMUNITY DESIGN WORKSHOP: Residents, business people and property owners around the area of Kass Circle and Spring Hill Drive are invited to a community design workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 15 at 7421 Spring Hill Drive in the Spring Hill Plaza (formerly Paesano’s Italian Bakery). The purpose of the workshop is to discuss ideas for Hernando County’s Kass Circle Neighborhood Revitalization Project. The county hopes to include public input in developing a conceptual revitalization plan for the area. The workshop will be led by the University of South Florida’s Center for Community Design and Research. The workshop will start with an orientation and general discussion. Afterward, participants will work directly with the design team to generate ideas for the business district, the immediate neighborhood and enhancements that could help transform the area into a safe, walkable and sustainable mixed-use district. For information, contact Patricia McNeese of the Hernando County Planning Department at (352) 754-4057, ext. 28016, or pmcneese@hernandocounty.us.

CRIME WATCH HOSTS ANNUAL OMELET BREAKFAST: The Ridge Manor Area Crime Watch will host its annual omelet breakfast fundraiser from 7 to 11 a.m. Feb. 15 at the Ridge Manor Community Center, 34240 Cortez Blvd. There will be several chefs preparing omelets, including U.S. Rep. Richard Nugent, Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis and Hernando County Commissioner Jim Adkins. Guests may order a custom-made omelet, with a variety of ingredient choices. Also included are sausage, grits, biscuits and gravy, coffee, tea and orange juice. The cost is $5; $3 for children. Takeout orders will be available. For information, call Carol Defilippo at (352) 583-2556 or (352) 206-0910.

RED CROSS SHELTER TRAINING: The American Red Cross will offer free sheltering training from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 20 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office emergency management facility, 18900 Cortez Blvd., Brooksville. Those who receive the training can become Red Cross volunteers and learn how to work in Red Cross shelters, providing shelter and food for those evacuated from their homes during severe weather, and providing health/mental health services to shelter clients. For information or to sign up, contact Alex Glenn at (352) 459-6601 or alex.glenn@redcross.org.

In the middle of winter why should we give our sprinkler system a thought?  Months will elapse before the system is brought back to life. Landscaping ideas are often “hatched” during the winter doldrums and how you are going to water the landscape should be your first consideration. Seed catalogues have already arrived in the mail, as well as agreements for annual landscape care. It really is time to think about your existing landscape, new landscape and sprinklers. At the risk of being macabre, inadequate water management is the primary reason for landscape demise.

Everyone is familiar with sprinkler systems that spray water on the lawn.  A well operating sprinkler system yields a uniformly green lawn. If part of the lawn goes off color we know something needs to be addressed. What about drip irrigation? Admittedly, not everyone has a drip component to their sprinklers, but with the advent of more planting beds and water conservation, these systems are now common.

The purpose of drip is to apply water to plants outside of the lawn area, perhaps in a garden, mulched bed, or a raised berm area. Drip irrigation tubes are positioned adjacent to the new plants such that the roots are efficiently watered. The tubes are held firmly in place with a wire anchor.

Drip irrigation can be concealed in the landscape; it’s easily modified and conserves water. Because it is out of sight, it’s rarely modified and over time does not supply enough water to a growing landscape. If your drip irrigation system is five years old or order – please read on!

At landscape installation typically there are two emitter lines or “spaghetti” tubes assigned to each shrub or small tree. Larger trees may have three or four of these tubes. The tubes are placed directly over the root ball of the new plant.   Usually the system is set to run for an hour and yield one to four gallons per tube per cycle. The idea here is to water the plants just enough for them to get situated in their new landscape and begin to flourish.

In order for plants to grow and flourish, the roots must grow out of the root ball exploring the native landscape soil for water and nutrients. The rub is the roots must grow past where the drip system tubes were originally placed. How do we compensate for the larger growing plants?

Shrubs
For small shrubs, perhaps not much needs to be done, except to make sure the drip system operates and ensure the tubes don’t get buried in the soil. If shrub foliage scorches in the summer (sign of water stress) more water is needed. More water may be delivered by lengthening the time the system runs, changing the emitters from two to four gallons per hour or adding an additional tube.

Trees
Trees will most always grow larger than shrubs and with higher water demands. Tree roots grow rapidly expanding past the original root ball. Expect tree roots to grow six to twelve inches per year. For the first year or two of the tree’s life the original drip system should be adequate. However, after the initial time period, periodic drip irrigation system modifications are likely needed.

Drip Tube Placement
Each year or so, move the drip lines six inches out further from the tree trunk. The final placement of the drip lines should be 36 to 48 inches from the tree trunk.

Number of Drip Tubes
Most installations begin with two drip tubes for shrubs and three for trees. A six foot tall tree should have at least three drip tubes. Trees taller than six foot should have four drip tubes.

How much water
Emitters are measured by how many gallons per hour they distribute. Common sized emitters on new installations are two gallons per hour. However as your tree grows, consider changing those to four gallons per hour.

Trees over Twenty Feet Tall
We are finding trees taller than twenty feet may not get enough water relying on drip irrigation.

The tree’s roots may grow from the bed area out into the lawn. This is the best case scenario and the drip system may become unnecessary, but what if the drip system is all the tree has to rely on?

Drip systems may be retrofitted with micro-spray irrigation heads. Micro-sprays will wet a larger surface area and may provide enough water.

Trees may be watered manually with sprinklers or soaker hoses can be placed underneath the tree canopy and connected to water spigot.

In Summary
Water management around landscape plants is not a one size fits all scenario. Soils and water requirements by individual species greatly affect the design of the sprinkler system. Once the snow clears and you prepare for sprinkler activation, it’s a good idea to call and have someone come out to advise you of what your specific plants’ water needs are. You may need sprinkler system repairs and/or you may be in need of supplemental watering services.

Dean Justice acknowledges he kind of stumbled into the profession of graphic design after buying a computer on QVC with a simple version of Adobe Photoshop.

Then a friend from Atlanta who is a designer took him under his wing, so to speak, and taught him the intricacies of using colors and shapes and techniques to make a business card or brochure pop out and catch customers’ eyes.

That was more than three years ago and it led Justice, 30, a Columbus native, to opening his own company, D3 Designs, inside his family’s Justice Accounting and Consulting Firm office on Whitesville Road.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the 2012 median pay for a graphic designer was $44,150 per year or $21.22 per hour. The job is expected to grow slower than average over the next decade, with 17,400 positions being created on top of the 259,500 that already exist.

The Ledger-Enquirer talked with Justice recently to get his thoughts on the profession. This interview is edited a bit for clarity.

What do you do as a graphic designer?

My job as a graphic designer for D3 Designs is to ensure that clients are able to articulate through art what they want their own clients to see. The majority of time spent in designing for my clients is spent in research. To properly create a logo, business card design, brochure design or any other marketing media, one must understand the industry in which they are designing for.

Colors of logos and other images impact the effect?

Colors can mean the difference between you becoming a successful business, struggling to survive or failing all together. A hospital or other medically affiliated company would not want to use green in their design scheme, as green we relate with being sick. However, green is great for landscaping, accounting, banking and a host of other industries because it means wealth and prosperity in the life of the business.

Who are your typical customers?

My clients are typically those small-business owners who are perplexed and overwhelmed at the idea of marketing themselves, or know how to market themselves but can’t quite lock down that one idea that will make them take off.

I sit down, virtually side-by-side, with all my clients. I’ve sent as many as 20 drafts between myself and a client before because they wanted to see their ideas on the drawing board before making them become reality.

Are business cards and brochures more popular than the web design you do?

I probably do business cards more than anything. … D3 Designs helps companies brand themselves, not only through the logo and through the imagery, but also through giving people tips and hints and advice about customer service and how they should market their product, what they should look for with their colors and backgrounds, how they can catch the customer’s eye.

Are there any design no-no’s?

Using PowerPoint and Word. I notice there are a lot of people who use those and very generic looking texts and fonts like comic sans or times new roman or arial. I go to a free font source like dafont.com and look for crazy fonts and see what I can come up with.

Depending upon what you’re trying to do, you may want to have an icon … the best example I can think of is Norton and McAfee. You know them by that icon. State Farm is the same thing. You can take the name State Farm out of it and just use their little icon they’ve had for the last 100-something years. There’s also McDonald’s, with the golden arches.

A graphic designer must spend so much time in front of a computer?

Absolutely. Most of our time, I would say probably 60 or 65 percent of a graphic designers time, is spent on Google and other research media trying to find out the company and the industry that they’re helping out with.

A good graphic designer will sit down with his client and try to come up with an idea of what they’re looking for. … I go for more of a relationship with my clients. I try to understand what they want. My job is to work side by side with them. Because I have the tools and resources and knowledge necessary, my job is to get inside their heads and find out what they want and create what they would have created if they had the knowledge themselves to do it.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?

Getting inside my clients’ heads and trying to figure out exactly what it is that they want. … Probably the hardest part of this job is making clients understand that their preferences, a lot of times, are not what they want to put in their business. … There’s a lot of consultation that goes into that because some clients think they know what they want. You’ve got to kind of walk them away from that and make them understand their idea isn’t necessarily bad, but if it was my company, I would do it a little differently, and that’s why I would do it a particular way.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

When I’m able to create that one-and-done logo, I call it, where the client looks at it and says, ‘That’s it! That’s what I had in my head!’

But, the bottom line, a business card design can make you or break you?

A lot of people don’t realize how important the logo on the business card is. But an average client is going to take a look at your business card and take about three seconds to decide whether or not they’re going to do business with you. If they decide not to do business with you, you’ve only got one chance within about that next three-year period to get their attention again, and if you don’t, you lose them forever.

That’s probably the biggest thing, is getting my clients to understand that imagery — what you decide to do with that logo or business card — can either make your business take off, or it can affect it detrimentally to the point that you just about never recover.

BIO

Name: Dean Justice

Age: 30

Hometown: Columbus

Current residence: Columbus

Family: Single

Education: 2001 graduate of Columbus High School; attended Columbus Technical College; currently a junior pursuing an accounting degree from Columbus State University

Previous jobs: Started working with Olympia Sales Club at age 9; has also sold cellphones and service for Sprint, life insurance policies for American General Life, and once was a bank teller with Columbus Bank and Trust.

Of note: Enjoys performing with the Justice Family Bluegrass band, which includes his parents; Dean says D3 Designs is also an independent distributor of both Herbalife and It Works! Global.

Rutland received plenty of attention Monday at Kelowna council’s weekly public meeting.

In addition to approving plans for a new $6 million ultra-violet water treatment system for approximately 20,000 water users on the Back Mountain Irrigation District’s system, council also gave the green light to new $100,000 plan to ask the public how the money can be spent to improve the city’s most populous residential area.

The BMID water treatment plant will be built on five acres in the Joe Rich area and will improve water quality already considered the best in the city. The land it is to be located on is in the Agricultural Land Reserve but the commission that overseas the reserve ruled last year that it could be used for the new plant.

The plant is expected to be operational next year and will be tied in with plans for a much more expensive new reservoir for the BMID system, one that will require funding from either the province or the federal government, or both.

Meanwhile, the Our Rutland campaign will see the city put up $100,000 and ask the public to submit ideas for how the money should be spent to improve the Rutland area. Mayor Walter Gray said in addition, the city’s public art fund could be used to get more pieces of public are created for the area.

Described by the city as a potential catalyst and one to help generate positive momentum through community-determined, Rutland-focussed actions, the Our Rutland project is a partnership between the city, the Uptown Rutland Business Association (URBA), the Rutland Residents Association and The Rutland Unified Stakeholders Team (TRUST).

According to the city, the money could be used for one large project or several smaller ones. It is one-time funding and cannot be used for projects already identified in previous planning documents, for re-branding or marketing the area or for Highway 33 improvements, as they are the jurisdiction of the province.

The work(s) must be implemented or constructed by Sept. 30 and must have the support of the community.

In her report to council on the initiative, sustainability co-ordinator Michelle Kam said $25 million has been spent by the city on capital investments in Rutland over the last two years, providing new transit facilities, parks, sidewalks and landscaping, as well as improvements to recreation facilities. But the city wanted to do more.

She said the neighbourhood has the best established system of parks in the city and in this year’s budget, council has allotted more than $1 million for the area, including $600,000 for the Bulman Road Bridge improvements, $400,000 for improvements to the sports fields in Rutland Centennial Park, $70,000 for lighting improvements at Rutland Arena and the $100,000 for the Our Rutland project.

Rutland (work) isn’t finished yet and it’s really getting ready to go as a community,” said Mayor Walter Gray, who joined a chorus of supporters on council for the new initiative.

The public will be asked to register with the city to propose ideas and vote on ideas for the money and can do so online at getinvolved.keowna.ca, by email at ourRutland@kelowna.ca, by phone at 250-469-8982 or in person at the URBA office, 148 Valleyview Road in Rutland.

During February there will be a series of in-person opportunities to propose and review already presented ideas, including at the:

• URBA Uptown After Hours event Feb. 5 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans Club,

• Plaza 33 Shopping Centre, Feb. 6 from noon to 2:30 p.m.

• Willow Park Plaza Shopping Centre, Feb. 6 from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

• Rutland Centennial Ha Flea Market, Feb. 9 and 16 from 9 a.m. to noon

• Rutland Activities Centre, Feb. 11 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

• YMCA, Feb. 11 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“I’m really excited with this,” said Coun. Mohini Singh. “We’ve talked about Rutland for so long. I’m happy to see this moving ahead.”

The ideas will be gathered between now and Feb. 20 and can be shared and passed around on social media networks such as Twitter (#OurRutland) and Facebook (facebook/cityofkelowna) to gain support.

From Feb. 20 to  March 5, Kam said a feasibility analysis will take place of the ideas proposed, there will be a vote on a shortlist of ideas in mid-March and a tendering or bid process will be held for the successful idea(s) in April. Project implementation will take place from May to September and city staff  will measure the success of the initiative and report back to council in October or November.

Council Gail Given said the Rutland project will be a good launching point for similar projects in other city neighbourhoods.

Rutland is the city’s most populous residential neighbourhood and after years of watching other areas receive what many residents believed was more attention from City Hall then their area was getting, been seen council focus more on Rutland in recent years.

 

 

 

Progress Park sits in the shadow of Interstate 280 in San Francisco’s burgeoning Dogpatch neighborhood, a community park that just a few years ago was a fenced Caltrans property filled with rocks and debris.

The space used to be a magnet for homeless camps and illegal dumping. Now neighbors head there to play bocce, owners bring their dogs to the canine play area, and workout groups gather at the open space’s foam matting and exercise bars.

The park was built with private and public donations, a $21,000 community grant from the city, and a lot of hard work by neighbors. Those neighbors, along with a group of community members in nearby Potrero Hill, are proposing to tax themselves to pay for the upkeep of this and other open spaces in adjacent neighborhoods. Taking a page from business owners who for years have formed community benefit districts to help pay for security, landscaping and other quality-of-life improvements, the groups are working with Supervisor Malia Cohen to create a “green benefit district.”

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will vote on legislation by Cohen that would amend local law and pave the way for the creation of the district. Like community benefit districts, the new tax would have to be put to a vote and approved by a majority of property owners in the district.

Taxes would be assessed at 9.51 cents per square foot of property, meaning that homeowners such as Bruce Huie, who helped create Progress Park, would pay about $170 a year. Buildings housing nonprofits and industrial uses would pay half as much. The district would raise an estimated $440,000 a year – $360,000 for the Dogpatch area, which is larger, and $80,000 for Potrero Hill projects.

Hard to maintain

“It’s easy to set up projects like this, but it’s not as easy to maintain them,” Huie said, noting that the city’s parks department is stretched thin. “This neighborhood is changing. It used to be strictly industrial, and there was no one here at night. Now there are families coming in, people are bicycling and running – we want to create an atmosphere that’s conducive to people.”

The benefit district is a particularly useful tool for neighbors looking to rehabilitate Caltrans properties, said Jean Bogiages, who lives on Utah Street in Potrero Hill. The state-owned land is often regarded as an orphan by city officials, she said, and the state hasn’t been interested in spending the money to spruce up the lots that hug Highway 101 around 18th, 17th and Mariposa streets.

Bogiages and other neighbors have already worked to create two neighborhood parks near the 18th Street freeway overpass, Fallen Bridge Park and the Benches Garden. They envision other nearby Caltrans lots as terraced open spaces that could provide places for people to eat lunch or sit in the sun, and they want to build a green wall made of plants as a freeway sound barrier. They hope to attract businesses that can sell coffee or snacks – much like the ones on Octavia Street in Hayes Valley – and widen the sidewalk to make it safer for pedestrians.

The neighborhood already has raised $15,000 and hired a landscape architect who put those ideas into sketches and detailed plans.

“We want to activate the space so we can use it, reorganize it in a way that it becomes a community space,” Bogiages said, gesturing to the fenced-off area, overgrown with weeds and the site of frequent fires. “We are trying to change the whole way it fits into the community.”

Cohen, who worked with neighbors to create Progress Park when she was a candidate for supervisor four years ago, said she hopes the idea of a green benefit district will be embraced in other neighborhoods as well.

Support growing

“Literally, up to this point, it’s been neighbors taking up a collection and pooling their resources together,” she said. “We are looking to create something more stable that has longevity.”

While some neighbors were initially skeptical about taxing themselves, support has grown among property owners, Cohen said, once they understand the concept.

The district would be its own nonprofit, managed by a part-time director and governed by a board that is elected by the neighborhoods. The money could only be used in the district, for maintenance and repairs of parks and publicly accessible spaces.

“Part of enjoying San Francisco is having open spaces that enhance our quality of life in the neighborhoods,” Cohen said. “We either have to make do with what we have – which is nominal on this side of San Francisco – or come up with creative ways to solve the problem.”

Many neighbors are excited. Dogpatch resident Kim Metting van Rijn had to drive to Mission Bay Park to exercise her dog. Now she just walks to Progress Park – along with some neighbor pooches, which she now helps care for.

“It’s so great I can just come across the street,” she said on a recent sunny day as her dog played at the park. “The small businesses around here are so thrilled, and it just makes life easier. Everyone seems to care more about the neighborhood now.”

Marisa Lagos is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mlagos@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mlagos