library landscaping

Jared Stewart, owner of Stewartscape, Inc., of Oelwein made a presentation to the City Council that consisted of a plan for a two-phase landscaping project for the City Library.

Posted: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 12:38 pm

Council hears landscaping plans for library

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Landscaping plans for the green space west of the Oelwein library were presented at Monday’s city council meeting.

Library board member Mike Kerns prefaced the presentation with a little history on the acquisition of the former railroad right-of-way to the west of the library in 2008. The property was cleared of scrub trees and an evergreen was planted with plans, at that time, to do further landscaping. Five years later, the library board is revisiting those plans to enhance the appearance of the area.

With consent from the board, Kerns had contacted area landscaping businesses to get some ideas for the space. Jared Stewart, owner of Stewartscape, Inc., of Oelwein responded. He saw the original sketches that had been made and listened to ideas from the board.

His presentation to the council consisted of plans for a two-phase project. The first would be the “stone phase” building up areas and retaining walls with landscape stone. The use of limestone blocks from the former Great Western railroad shop would be configured in a three-piece limestone fountain water feature and four benches. The area would have lighting elements installed to present a soft glow at night.

Read more of this story in the Daily Register.

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Long Island Landscaping

Splendor Landscape Design celebrates 15 years serving the Long Island community.

Long Island, New York (PRWEB) August 28, 2013

Splendor Landscape Design, a Long Island-based company specializing in landscape design, masonry, irrigation system installation and lawn sod installation, is proudly celebrating their 15th anniversary as a leader in the Long Island landscaping industry.

Established in 1998, Splendor Landscape Design became the new name of Top Cut Landscaping as they began to phase out the landscape maintenance services to focus on their growing landscape design business. Since then, Splendor Landscape Design has served over 1,000 properties encompassing both the residential and commercial sectors of the Long Island community stretching from Western Nassau County to the Hamptons.

The move to focus primarily on landscape design and its various components was to fill an area that the Splendor ownership viewed as underserved on Long Island at the time. Up until that point, landscape design was limited to simplistic designs created by companies whose primary focus was on the maintenance aspect of the landscape business and who undertook landscape design when asked by their clients. By changing their focus to introduce more stylistic designs, combining shrubbery and floral designs with masonry accents and water features, Splendor Landscaping brought a fresh new approach to the Long Island landscaping industry and gave potential clients a new option in response to their desire for landscaping that was both functional and artistic.

By creating landscape designs that include the various elements that were rare in designs up to that point and working within their diverse clientele’s budgets, they have built a loyal customer base who appreciates their attention to detail. During Splendor Landscape Design’s 15 years in business the Splendor staff has grown in both knowledge and experience which has allowed them to become one of the true powerhouses of the Long Island landscaping community. With the massive success of their first 15 years, the entire Splendor family looks forward to the next 15 years with excitement as they continue to serve their Long Island neighbors.

Since 1998, Splendor Landscape Design has focused nearly exclusively on landscaping, servicing both residential and commercial. Splendor Landscape has grown as a direct result of the talents and experience of their employees. Trained in all the most innovative methods of landscaping masonry, their staff offers their customers innovative ideas to enhance their properties. Splendor Landscaping uses the best quality materials to secure a long lasting fresh look for years including Cambrige Paving Stones Nicolock Paving Stones. Splendor Landscaping is among the most sought after landscape design service providers throughout Long Island and may be contacted at (631) 242-6058 or online at http://www.splendorlandscaping.com.

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on August 28, 2013.

To the editor:

I am baffled by Sandy Springs’ leadership and the mayor’s vision for building the Sandy Springs downtown center out of suburban sprawl. Each week, the pages of the Sandy Springs Reporter bring fresh news of how our tax dollars are being spent: on outside consultants, failed traffic control ideas, and beautification projects that are not adding value, community or efficiency to this newly-formed city.

I read about the vision for a new downtown City Center, which displaces or destroys existing businesses. I read about grand ideas for European-style traffic roundabouts, which won’t improve traffic flow. I read about out-of-state consultants being paid for beautification and landscaping schemes to welcome visitors to see what? And I wonder who is filling our leaderships’ heads with ideas that clearly don’t work or won’t add community value? Can we not hire a local city planner, traffic engineer and landscaping architect who know the area and can come up with viable solutions that make sense for residents?

The mayor wants park-like landscaping to welcome visitors on the Roswell Road exit from I-285. The additional lane recently added to the bridge has not helped solve Roswell Road traffic one iota, as it was promised to do. I hope our guests, once lured off the highway, will enjoy the attractive shuttered bars and pubs between Allen and Cliftwood as they sit in the unbearable traffic on Roswell Road, waiting to get to the run-down visitor’s center.

While I applaud the idea of a thriving downtown area, I question the action to get there. The mayor threatens eminent domain on small businesses in the proposed “city center” area, while offering the business owners no options for how to survive and thrive in new locations.

• Why not supplement the displaced businesses’ leases and build-out expenses by offering tax incentives or cash incentives for them to stay in the “city center”?
• How about offering a deal to the landlords of strip shopping centers along Roswell Road? Fix up your shopping center and we’ll help you fill your unleased space with the aforementioned businesses.
• How about helping poor CityWalk attract some businesses that can sustain life in that center? This center should be the crown jewel of the ‘downtown area’, but is instead mostly shuttered.
• Want a great idea of where to put an ice skating rink? Instead of the inaccessible Roswell Road/I-285 intersection, how about CityWalk? How about the Prado? How about one of the many run-down shopping centers with traffic lights, parking and better egress?
• While we’re at it, how about incentivizing renovation of the Bank of America building and neighboring Northside Tower to attract the live/work crowd to downtown?

While I believe our city leadership’s intentions are good, their execution is far from good. What I hear and see makes no sense, is not a long-term plan, and is using valuable resources ineffectively.

If the city of Sandy Springs wants a heart, it is going to take a lot more than the current fluff, squabbling and squandering to form a true thriving downtown. It takes vision, commitment, community action and leadership.

Patrick Farrell

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Related posts:

1. Gateway project should be a ‘no-go’
2. Sandy Springs splits city center streetscape project
3. Roswell Road getting better, officials say

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Many homeowners use their porches, decks, and yards as extensions of their living space. To feel at ease, however, they need privacy. Walls and fences create privacy, but can be off-putting and expensive. ‘Living screens,’ methods of landscaping for privacy, provide another alternative.

Related: Creating Privacy and Beauty with Hedgerows

When creating a living privacy fence, make sure to pick plants that are appropriate for your property in terms of hardiness, sun, and moisture. Younger plants will be cheaper and easier to install, but if you need privacy quickly, buy larger ones and expect to pay a lot more. You can also use shades, shutters, or awnings until your plant cover grows in fully.

Trellises
Plants grown on trellises create an effective screen that allows light and air to pass through. “Trellises are very handy because they take up very little space,” says Doug Gagne of The Mixed Border Nursery and Gardens in Hollis, NH. They can be made of pressure-treated wood, plastic, iron, copper, or aluminum—just make sure the trellis is sturdy enough for the plant you grow on it. Most trellises have stakes that go into the ground. If you’re going to use one on your porch, you’ll also need to secure it to the frame or soffit. If you use a trellis to screen your deck, you may have to combine it with a structure like a pergola across the top for support. Good perennial vines to grow on a trellis include clematis, honeysuckle, and Dutchman’s pipe. Popular climbing annuals include morning glories and scarlet runner beans.

Hedges
Hedges can be as tall or short as you like, and can fit in small or large spaces. Select shrubs or trees that won’t grow taller or wider than you need, otherwise you’ll spend lots of time pruning. When planting, calculate how much space the full-grown plants will fill so they don’t encroach on your house or the neighbor’s yard. Leave breaks in the hedge, so you won’t be boxed in or send an unfriendly message. “You want privacy but you also want it to be inviting,” says Patricia St. John at St. John Landscapes in Berkeley, CA. “To enclose it all the way makes it seem very uninviting and tells visitors to go away.”

When planning your hedge, remember that deciduous plants drop their leaves, so most of your screen will disappear in the winter. For year-round privacy, evergreens may work better. Arborvitaes are fast-growing evergreens that come in many sizes. “They have the effect of looking like little soldiers, but if you have a narrow area, that might be your best alternative,” says Judy De Pue, owner of New Vistas Landscaping in Goshen, IN, and president of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. If you have lots of space and need to screen your yard from a multi-story building next door, larger evergreens like blue spruce, white pine, or hemlock can do the job.

If you’re using deciduous shrubs, mix different kinds and colors to make your hedge interesting. One of De Pue’s favorite combinations includes burgundy ninebark, variegated red-twig dogwood, dwarf lilac, golden privet, and Onondaga viburnum. You can also incorporate herbaceous perennials, ornamental grasses, and annuals into your hedge for interest and variety.

Trees
Carefully positioned small trees, especially those that branch out at the base, also help create privacy. “We find trees give all the benefits of a hedge with a lot less maintenance,” says Judy Drake of Sunscapes Landscape Design in Jacksonville, FL. Options include magnolias, flowering dogwoods, Japanese maple, Japanese tree lilac, stewartia, birch, and palms. Bamboos make good screens, but the aggressive roots of the running variety need to be contained.

If you’re planting trees you may want to mix the sizes. “That way your screening will look more natural because in nature trees are all different sizes and have different rates of growth,” St. John says. You can also plant shrubs to fill in under the trees. For a beautiful but high-maintenance privacy wall, consider an espalier or flat, broad screen, made with trained apple, pear, or fig trees.

Outdoor Rooms
You can build a private “outdoor room” in your yard with greenery instead of solid walls. Use posts covered with vines to establish the boundaries and enclose the sides with trellises, planters, shrubs, or perennials. You can also create a pergola effect by connecting the posts from above with wood, wire, or chains and training vines across them. Make sure you match the materials, colors, and style of your outdoor room to the house. “It’s important that this outdoor space doesn’t look like it’s been stuck on,” Gagne says.

Berms
Another option for screening your property is an earthen berm or mound with plantings, which serves as a living hillside. The berm should not be too narrow or steep, because a broad, gently rising area blends with the yard more naturally. Use drought-resistant plants when creating a berm, because water tends to run off the incline, leaving plants thirsty and undernourished.

 

For more on landscaping, consider:

Landscape Edging: 10 Easy Ways to Set Your Garden Beds Apart 

How To: Transplant Trees, Shrubs, and Perennials

5 Ways to Use Bamboo in Your Landscape

 

 

 

 

 

Delco Sports Net

Allows community sports teams and leagues to share information about league news, game results, tryout and registration information, etc.

A $100,000 study will help determine the detailed plans for the proposed 3.3-mile Charlotte Rail Trail that would tie South End to uptown.

The city and county will each contribute $30,000, and Charlotte Center City Partners will cover the remaining $40,000.

The plan for the “linear park,” which would run adjacent to the Lynx light-rail system, was announced by Center City Partners in April.

To get more details, including the total project price, the next step is the proposed plan, said Cheryl Myers, vice president of planning and development for Center City Partners.

“This framework plan … will give us the detailed planning and tools necessary to build this project over the next five to 10 years. It won’t happen overnight,” she said.

The organization has asked for proposals from consultants, Myers said, and a team will be selected sometime in September. She expects planning to begin in October.

The effort, which could wrap up in the spring, will include a community workshop and public meetings, she said.

The plan will provide design guidelines for lighting, paving and landscaping, among other elements.

“We want it to be kind of spontaneous and whimsical, but there still have to be some organizing materials,” Myers said.

Besides walkways, the park would use space along the rail line to feature “activity areas,” Myers said.

Proposed ideas include public art and space for nonprofits, performances, food vendors, a giant seesaw and a beer garden, among other options, she said.

David Furman, architect and founder of Centro CityWorks, has been involved with the rail-trail project and helped develop the vision. As someone who walks and bikes the existing sidewalk, Furman said, the finished park “has the incredible potential to be a destination for people all over the city,” he said.

“This is not one big comprehensive program where someone has to go find millions of dollars to implement it simultaneously. It will evolve in pieces that plug into the whole to one day be complete,” he said.

Furman said organizers have been meeting with developers and property owners along the trail about small projects. While none is 100 percent ready to go, they’re working to design and determine the cost. So far, many owners and developers have been receptive, he said.

One such effort is something as simple as connecting the trail to businesses, as well as adding signs.

Myers said the trail will connect community, culture and commerce. With seven neighborhoods along the trail, Furman said, people will walk to restaurants, bars and shops.

“It’s my goal for it to be not just a South End thing or a downtown thing but a destination and amenity for everybody in the city to come and enjoy it,” Furman said.

 

 

Having been transformed from the clunky sounding “Block 10” into the more inviting “Heritage Square,” a portion of Vancouver’s downtown is being prepared for the next step in its evolution. Block 10, er, Heritage Square is ready for its close-up.

City officials have decided to publish a “request for interest” regarding the block on the northeast corner of Columbia and Eighth streets — kitty-corner from Esther Short Park. It’s a bit of legalese, but a “request for interest” apparently is the first step in asking, “Hey, does anybody have some great, innovative, dynamic ideas for this space of prime downtown real estate?” In other words, it’s a formal way of inviting the private sector to make offers for purchasing and developing the site.

And why not? In the past 15 years, blocks near the site have seen the development of Heritage Place, Vancouver Center, the Hilton Vancouver Washington, Esther Short Commons, and what is now Vancouver City Hall. Not to mention the renovation of Esther Short Park, which served as a catalyst for the makeover of downtown.

Block 10, meanwhile, has languished, forgotten and forlorn.

It hasn’t always been that way. In the early 1900s, the site was home to Preston Bicycle Shop, and W.E. Carter Wholesale Grocery, and B.P. Youmans Hardware, along with other businesses. Somewhere along the way, the block became part of the Lucky Lager Brewery complex, serving as a parking lot for beer trucks and employees from 1975 until the brewery shut down in 1985. In 1993, the city purchased the former brewery complex, including Block 10, for $2.3 million.

Serving as a parking lot for many years, and then as an empty space for many more, is a rather undignified fate for a noble downtown block. So earlier this year, Vancouver’s Downtown Association completed work on prettying up Block 10 and re-christening it as Heritage Square. Investing $15,000 and many hours of labor, the group added raised flower beds, decorative flags, bicycle racks, and a little landscaping.

Now, city officials hope, the area is ready for the next step in its evolution. But there’s no telling what that step might be.

A May study by the Leland Group, which specializes in investment banking, found that the market for office space in downtown Vancouver remains weak. The study suggested that the city’s best bet might be multifamily housing, such as four floors of housing above parking or retail space.

All of which reflects something that downtown areas always struggle with — striking a balance between residential, retail, and office space. While a certain number of retail outlets are desirable, many retailers won’t locate to an area that doesn’t have adequate population density. For example, downtown areas in many cities — including Vancouver — are bereft of grocery stores and gas stations.

Because of that, the Vancouver City Council is open to ideas. If any developers respond to the “request for interest” with a creative plan for Heritage Square, with an offer-they-can’t-refuse type of proposal, the city can put out a more detailed “request for qualifications” in order to move the process along. Then there would be public hearings and negotiations and council votes and property assessments and, undoubtedly, plenty of public debate.

So, for now, the site formerly known as Block 10 will have to be patient. Its day is coming, and that’s good news. But it’s going to be awhile before that day arrives.

The runway number of La Fleur Couture’s most recent show in Las Vegas featured large, red floral designs on the actor’s heads, which they then stacked into two large floral towers. La Fleur Couture has performed at many industry events across the country.
Photo courtesy of Floral Underground

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As City Art seeks expressions of interest for public artworks, the question is not just what the art will be, but where it will be.

 

 

In many public areas it is common for shops, signs, walkways, seating and more to compete for space. When envisioning an artwork for public display it is vital that the work adds quality, not congestion, to the site. This may mean rethinking the area from the ground up in an attempt to visualise a space not as it is, but how it could be.

 

The three places City Art has selected for public art have very different spatial elements. There is the busy area of George Street, filled with signage and commercial trade. There are the long east-west connecting streets, a two kilometre section of blocks between Central and Circular Quay. There is also a parkland in the Green Square urban development area.

 

The City Centre Public Art Plan and the Green Square Public Art Strategy are filled with ideas for the placement of artworks that will cause pedestrians to rethink their idea of each space.

 

The Green Square Public Art Strategy highlights the idea of discrete works that can blend in with the environment and even be incorporated into seating and landscaping for the Drying Green. 

 

For the east-west urban connectors examples have been shared in the City Centre Public Art Plan that include art on the ground plane in the form of paving treatments or micro-works with repeated elements.

 

To combat competition for space along George Street, one idea was to have art up high, above the mid-level line of retail signage or even higher. There are also ideas to fill disused or forgotten spaces with art.

 

According to City Centre Curatorial Advisor Barbara Flynn, ‘… One of the important goals is to unify George Street – from the City perspective we were thinking if an artist would, for example, work with the void spaces, that might be one way of establishing unity all along the length of the street. But there could be other ways that that could be done as well.’

 

The examples within the public art plans are only there to help artists understand a few of the ways a space can be opened up with public art. It is up to applicants to consider the area, the relevant themes within and create an inspired proposal to integrated artwork.

 

Lord Mayor Clover Moore is hopeful that the works selected will be able to engage the public in surprising ways.

 

‘We want people to be inspired and intrigued as they walk around the city.  Whether it’s Caroline Rothwell’s hooded little boy on George Street (Youngsters) or Michael Thomas Hill’s remarkable mesh of bird cages above Angel Place (Forgotten Songs), public artworks tempt you to take a second look as you walk the streets.’

 

The challenge has been set.

 

For more information read the City Centre Public Art Plan, the Green Square Public Art Strategy, or visit the City Art site.