ALAMEDA, Calif. A few years ago, Thushan and Megan Amarasiriwardena considered buying a home in Alamo Square, their neighborhood in San Francisco, but found that even one-bedroom condos were way too expensive. Then they looked at Alameda, a place that Bay Area residents often forget.

One of the best things about Alameda is the most obvious: Its an island in the San Francisco Bay (another part is attached to Oakland) with spectacular water and city views. It also exudes character and charm barbershops display old-fashioned barber poles on nearly every downtown block, and politely aggressive Girl Scouts sell Thin Mints. The speed limit is mostly 25 miles an hour. The city evokes a Norman Rockwell vision of America, but with more diversity.

In the spring of 2017, the couple went with some friends to Alamedas Art Deco movie theater, where before the film began, they watched Alamedas Got Talent, with local kids playing piano and an older guy performing magic tricks. This town is too good to be real, said Ms. Amarasiriwardena, 36, a landscape architect.

By August, they had become Alamedans.

They could afford to buy because in 2015, Mr. Amarasiriwardena, 38, sold his start-up, Launchpad Toys, which created apps for children, to Google, where he also works developing the companys robot personality. We could finally buy a place, he said.

Their search was analytical. Theres speed, quality and cost, Mr. Amarasiriwardena said. They were not in a hurry, so they focused on quality and cost.

Their spreadsheet listed local asking prices and sale prices. We just waited, said Ms. Amarasiriwardena, 36. Three times they bid over the asking price; they lost all three.

Then something different came on the market: a five-bedroom Victorian between two small apartment buildings, with a towering turret built in 1894, on a main street. At $1.4 million, it was too big and expensive, but when the owner reduced the price to $1.3 million, they attended an open house. What struck us was how loved the house was, Mr. Amarasiriwardena said, although it needed a new foundation, which could cost $200,000.

The couple wrote a letter to the owner about how theyd fallen in love across San Franciscos fire escapes and wanted their children to grow up in Alameda. They bought the house for $1.152 million. Theirs was the only bid. (They now have a toddler and another on the way.) We feel like were caretakers in the long life of this house, Mr. Amarasiriwardena said.

The first weekend they went to a pizza parlor and found a family crowd, something we didnt realize we didnt have in the city, Ms. Amarasiriwardena said. I felt we were home.

The couples enthusiasm has now led to a chain migration: Mr. Amarasiriwardena coaxed two high school friends from his hometown of Amherst, Mass., to settle in Alameda.

After Jason Hill, a Washington D.C., health care lobbyist, took a job with the California-based managed health care consortium Kaiser Permanente, he and his wife, Ann Rhodes, a community organizer, looked for a friendly community with a short commute, good schools for their young daughters, and diversity.

Guided by a relocation specialist, Mr. Hill spent a day looking for a town to call home. He considered Oakland, Berkeley and Point Richmond before he saw Alameda. It seemed family-friendly and felt like a quaint small town. It met a lot of our criteria, he said.

It wasnt perfect. The family was coming from a neighborhood in Washington that was about 80 percent African-American. Mr. Hill, 47, is African-American, and Ms. Rhodes, 40, is white. And while Alameda prides itself on its diversity, Mr. Hill observed that, compared with their previous experience, there werent many black residents. The town is 50 percent white, 31 percent Asian, 11 percent Latino and 6 percent African-American, according to U.S. census figures.

In 2018, they rented a house in Alameda and began their hunt. They looked at about 10 houses, settling on a beautiful, refurbished four-bedroom Craftsman from 1920 with a yard on a quiet street, close to Oakland. They paid $1.4 million. Neighbors brought cookies and welcoming cards.

When their oldest daughter attended an Alameda public school, she was the only black child in her class. That was problematic for us, Mr. Hill said. She now attends a Montessori charter school in Oakland, where there are many more children who look like her.

Mr. Hill and Ms. Rhodes sold their individual condos in Washington, for $410,000 and $290,000. That was the only way we could do it, Mr. Hill said. The couple kept the condo they had bought together in Washington and now rent it out.

Alameda, home to almost 80,000 residents, is a jigsaw puzzle of a city comprising two main sections Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, which isnt an island but a peninsula attached to Oakland.

There are resort-like townhouses and newer houses in planned communities on Bay Farm Island, with kitchens that have islands of their own. On Alameda Island youll find renovated Craftsman, Tudor, colonial-style and Mediterranean houses, small apartment buildings and regal Victorians. Some houses come without a garage, but street parking in residential areas is abundant.

A drive into town from the mainland quickly reduces stress. Children ride bikes with no helicopter parents in sight. Half the town watches the blowout Fourth of July parade; the other half is in it. On warm days, parents take small children to the beach. Windsurfers scrape the sky and there are spectacular views of San Francisco and the Bay. Neighborhoods have block parties, and book clubs are not exclusive.

At Alameda Point, on the western end of the island, where the Alameda Naval Air Station once stood, tumbledown buildings look like Hollywood stage sets, which they sometimes are. With 900 acres of city-owned land on the Point, new neighborhoods are being built.

Spirits Alley, a cluster of distilleries along Monarch Street at Alameda Point, offers wine, spirits and craft-beer tasting rooms in old hangars. Elsewhere, local industry includes pharmaceutical firms, Peets Coffee roasting plant and Saildrone, which makes wind-powered ocean drones used for scientific research.

Before the Naval base closed in 1997, Alameda was a middle-class community with housing for military families. Today, its tough for a teacher or a ferry worker to find affordable housing in the city. A townhouse built in the 1960s may sell for $800,000, while a 19th-century Victorian can go for $2 million.

In 2017, 493 single-family homes sold for a median price of $980,000. Prices rose in 2018, with 502 houses selling for a median price of $1.02 million, and again in 2019, with 469 houses selling for a median of $1.11 million, according to Patrick Carlisle, the Bay Areas chief market analyst for Compass, the real estate company.

Still, said Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, Alamedas mayor, Were working to house people at all levels of income.

At Alameda Point, old military housing is used to house formerly disabled, homeless resident. In the next decade, 1,425 new housing units are planned, with 75 percent designated as market-rate housing and the remainder as affordable housing.

The city has about 230 homeless residents, Ms. Ashcraft said, and is establishing an emergency fund, because the most effective way to address homelessness is not to let it happen.

Families that move to Alameda often stay. Joey Pucci, owner of JP Seafood Co., is a second-generation Alamedan. Kate McCaffrey, a Compass agent, is a fifth-generation resident. Her great-grandmothers wedding dress is at the Alameda Museum.

On the main commercial block there are two toy stores, a local ice cream shop whose motto is Life Is Uncertain, Eat Dessert First, a bookstore, a high-end watch repair shop and a newspaper store (which also sells mobile phones).

Beautifully maintained parks are scattered throughout town, luring young parents with strollers. Much of Alameda is flat, making biking easy for all ages. And residents are, mostly, nice. People thank the bus driver when the get off the bus, Ms. Ashcraft said.

The Alameda Unified School District operates nine elementary schools, including the Maya Lin School, an arts institute named for the artist best known for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

During the 2018-19 school year, 68 percent of third-graders met or exceeded standards on English and language arts (ELA) on Californias Smarter Balanced Assessment test, compared with 49 percent statewide. In math, 72 percent met or exceeded standards, compared with 50 percent statewide.

There are four middle schools and four high schools, including the neoclassical, blocklong Alameda High. Of the students who took the SAT exam during the 2017-18 school year, 85 percent met or exceeded benchmarks for English, compared with 71 percent statewide; 89 percent met or exceeded the benchmarks for math, compared with 51 percent statewide.

Gail Payne, Alamedas senior transportation coordinator, said that most residents drive to work. An average of 18,000 ride the bus every day; fares are $3.50 one way or $86.40 for a monthly pass. On a typical workday, 5,200 people take the passenger ferry to the San Francisco Ferry Building, which costs between $3.60 and $7.20 one way. Alameda has two ferry terminals one on Main Street, where there are 20 daily trips, and another on Bay Farm Island, which makes eight daily trips. A third terminal is set to open this summer at the Seaplane Lagoon, and will become the main terminal for trips to San Francisco.

Others drive to a nearby BART station and pay $4.20 for a 16-minute ride to San Francisco. Tech buses from Silicon Valley pick up and drop off employees in Alameda. During commuting hours, the drive to Silicon Valley can take one to two hours.

Alamedans are very mindful of climate change, Ms. Ashcraft said. The city has 47 miles of bike lanes and paths, and is building a bike and hikers trail east to west leading to the new ferry terminal. Part of our mind-set is that weve got to get out of our cars, she said.

The Ohlone Indians lived in what is now Alameda, eating acorns and oysters until the Spanish arrived in the 1700s and forced them to relinquish their culture. In 1853, a city was established. In 1869, Alameda served as the terminus for the Transcontinental Railroad. San Franciscans started moving to Alameda following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, Mayor Ashcraft said. In the mid-1940s, Alameda became a Navy town, where during World War II, three shifts of workers were employed.

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Alameda, Calif.: On San Francisco Bay, With Great Views and Rising Prices - The New York Times

These stingless male digger bees are clustered on the bloom of a Verbena. Ive also found them on lavender blossoms, rosemary, Texas ranger, and other low-water plants. The females are in the undisturbed, unmulched bare soil nearby. Courtesy photo

Once again, I see a tuft of a tail disappear around the corner of a shrubbery, so swiftly and gracefully that even my sharp-eyed cattle dog doesnt notice it.

I always check which way the tail is, up or down. I am told that a coyote runs with its tail down, while a fox runs with its tail straight out. Foxes are fine. If its a coyote, the dog needs to stay closer.

Foxes have been living on my property for a couple of decades now, enriching the night sounds with their strange yelps and doing these funny vanishing acts when we walk nearby.

Their dens are amazingly well hidden, but invariably are somewhere deep inside an overgrown thicket of prickly plants. Right now, its a hedge of grevilleas and callistemon, but in the past theyve inhabited a mlange of berry canes and suckering wild roses, or a pile of prunings from the thorny trifoliate orange that I intended to move months prior. Our interactions, mostly at dusk or dawn, are very casual, fleeting and mutually respectful.

Its an open question whether these are the native Sacramento Valley red fox, or the introduced red foxes, escaped from 19th century fur farms, that predominate in other parts of the Valley. It seems our property is right on the borderline where those populations meet. They might even be hybrids. All I know is, if theyre eating voles and pocket gophers and ground squirrels, theyre fine with me.

The way to get red foxes on your property, if you happen to live out in the country, is to have some thickets. Those are also great habitat for ground birds such as our native quail. And for skunks and opossums. On the plus side, skunks eat snails.

Its surprisingly easy to create a thicket. Ive done it several times by accident, usually involving roses and berries, but also bamboo, junipers, compact xylosma, prickly pear, and fruit tree rootstock suckers. Apparently, the spinier, pricklier and denser, the better. Good rule of thumb: if you wouldnt want to crawl in there, the foxes will be happy.

I am not proposing that you plant thickets in your back yard, just allow a little more wildness in the interest of better ecology. Planting or allowing wild areas encourages natural pest management. You provide habitat, nesting sites, food and water sources, and protective cover to promote higher-order members of the food chain.

On a rural property, it can be a hedgerow. In your yard, it can just be a corner where you let things grow naturally, perhaps with a water feature, and make some strategic plant choices for beneficial insects and wildlife.

You can:

* Encourage native, overwintering, reproducing populations of ladybugs (convergent ladybird beetle), which eat aphids.

* Increase populations of leatherwing beetles, which eat aphids.

* Encourage native, ground-dwelling bees for pollination, and help conserve the species.

* Provide habitat for songbirds, some of which feed on garden pests.

* Provide food sources and habitat for the gregarious birds, the scrub jays and mockingbirds, which eat larger insects as part of their diets.

* Provide resting and larval habitat for dragonflies, which eat whiteflies.

Its pretty simple. Birds like a safe place where they can rest, hidden. They like berries and insects to eat, preferably near dense shrubbery. Ladybird beetles benefit from winter moisture on grasses. Ground dwelling bees need open soil, without mulch. Dragonflies like water for their larvae, and the adults like sticks to sit on.

How it works

The leaf-footed bug is an increasing pest in our area. Twenty years ago, Id see a couple of samples in the summer, whereas now they are brought to me every week from spring through fall. They are in the category of large bugs known as stinkbugs. Squash one and youll understand the name.

Stinkbugs mostly have broad host ranges (i.e., they attack a lot of kinds of plants). The leaf-footed bug has a powerful proboscis that it pokes into soft fruit such as tomatoes and peaches, as well as soft green almonds and even pomegranates. Pomegranate trees are one of the places youre likeliest to find them. They are a congregating insect, meaning that they gather in groups, especially as the weather cools.

Most of the damage to soft fruit, occurring when the tomatoes and peaches are nearly ripe, is barely noticeable. You may see a slight blemish at the point of the poke. If there are large numbers of them attacking green fruit, the fruit can be unsightly or fail to develop.

With pomegranates, they like to suck the juices out of a few of the little red arils inside, and sometimes introduce spoilage organisms into the fruit such that you find the pomegranate rotten inside when you cut it open. Usually the yield of good fruit far exceeds the number of damaged ones.

In a garden with lots of birds, you rarely have a significant problem with these pests. Mockingbirds and scrub jays eat bugs in the summer, in their mixed diets of small fruits and seeds and insects. So, if you have a lot of leaf-footed bugs, try to encourage these larger birds. My small mulberry trees draw the birds to the garden, and then I watch as they move from the mulberries to the nearby tomato vines, ducking in and out as they search for bugs.

Grevilleas are Australian native shrubs with great drought tolerance, very well adapted to our climate. Some such as Pink Pearl, shown here, get quite large and have prickly needle-like leaves. Foxes have taken up residence deep in my unpruned hedge of this variety. I stopped watering them a couple of decades ago. The flowers in winter and spring attract hummingbirds. There are smaller and less prickly varieties suitable to smaller yards. Don Shor/Courtesy photo

What birds want

The key is to provide food sources, such as the mulberries, for the birds, along with some shrubs that are dense enough to provide them with cover. Examples of shrubs that produce berries eaten by birds are mahonias and barberries, native and ornamental currants (Ribes), native wild lilacs (Ceanothus), even common landscape shrubs such as Viburnum tinus. As a bonus, each of these has flowers that attract beneficial insects as well as hummingbirds in some cases.

You also need to be willing to tolerate their slight predation on your fruit, though the blackberries and mulberries the birds prefer are generally so abundant thats not an issue. A fresh water source is helpful. A nearby drip line can be modified to fill a bird bath or small, shallow pond. Sprinklers are very popular with many types of birds and also attract dragonflies.

Mulching with leaves

The website of Pacific Horticulture magazine has an outstanding resourcefor gardeners wishing to encourage native and beneficial insects. They provide insight as to how to encourage the leatherwing beetles, which are voracious aphid eaters:

Encouraging a resident population of soldier beetles is easy in gardens. Choose suitable flowers to bloom over a long season. Any habitat garden must include a water source; soldier beetles are particularly known to frequent moist habitats. It is important to the life cycle of soldier beetles (and many other beneficial organisms) that they have undisturbed, mulched soil in which to pupate, so include permanent perennial plantings in gardens. A fragile and important community thrives at the interface between soil and organic matter. In permanent plantings, avoid raking and add organic material to the surface of the beds as needed to keep the soil in good fertility.

I have always lived with very large shade trees, and we just rake up the leaves in fall and spread them around perennials and shrubs nearby to decompose through the rainy season. This provides for an abundance of leatherwing beetles and eliminates aphids.

The larvae live one to three years, so having some undisturbed areas where leaves and compost are breaking down steadily and continuously is crucial to their lifecycle. This requires some water. In xeric landscapes with underground drip irrigation, provide some areas watered by above-ground micro-sprinklers for sufficient moisture.

Not mulching some areas

Much has been made of the problems faced by European honeybees. But less attention has been paid to our native pollinator species, including bees that live in the ground.

While I advocate for mulching to improve the soil, shade roots, and retain soil moisture, some of these ground-dwelling native bee species require open soil areas. Leaving part of your landscape un-mulched can be vital to retaining their habitat.

California or wild lilac, the Ceanothus species, are popular natives, but they often succumb to root and crown rot. Water carefully. Some varieties, such as Yankee Point, have proven more adaptable. The blooms attract bees of all kinds. The shrubs are dense and provide cover for songbirds, and the late summer berries, barely noticeable to us, attract larger birds. Don Shor/Courtesy photo

California natives

Having some California native plants in your landscape can encourage specialized pollinators. Many can be touchy about our heavy soil and high summer temperatures. The following California native plant choices are adaptable, can be left unattended, have reasonable drought tolerance, and host insects and birds.

Yankee Point wild lilac (Ceanothus griseus horizontalis Yankee Point). One of the most adaptable of the California wild lilacs. Most flounder in our dense soils and hot climate, but this one has proven successful in a wide range of habitats. Spreads several feet, spring blooms attract bees of all kinds, and the small fruit attracts songbirds.

Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia). Native to the oak woodlands of California, the flowers attract pollinators and beneficials and the berries attract larger birds. One of the most adaptable of our native shrubs.

Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri). Southern California native that thrives here. The big fried-egg flowers float atop a vigorous plant which spreads by rhizomes. Scads of pollen, easily accessible, attracts bees of all types.

Elderberry (Sambucus mexicana). A great big plant with tropical-looking leaves. Lush when watered, but tolerates drought. Flowers attract beneficials, berries are eaten by all kinds of wildlife and people.

Catalina perfume (Ribes viburnifolium). A native low spreader for shade. The tiny flowers attract hummingbirds. Pretty much indestructible.

Sages (Salvia clevelandii, S. sonomensis, and hybrids). The sages draw large bees and hummingbirds. Our native species mostly bloom in spring, while the southwestern species bloom in summer and fall. I often find all stages of ladybird beetles on my native sages. The California natives need room to spread. Very tolerant of drought and heat.

Willows are great for beneficial insects, as they provide pollen on blooms that come very early. But most of the native species are too big and breakable for a typical yard. Non-native types are more attractive and manageable garden plants. Salix caprea, a large shrub commonly called pussy willow, is used in flower arrangements for the interesting fuzzy buds. It grows quite easily. Willows can take poor, wet soils, as well as some drought once established.

Don Shor and his family have owned the Redwood Barn Nursery since 1981. He can be reached at [emailprotected] Archived articles are available on The Enterprise website, and they are always available (all the way back to 1999) on itsbusiness website, http://www.redwoodbarn.com.

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Getting a little wild in the garden - Davis Enterprise

PARKER STEWART has lived in Savannah for nine years.

In that time, hes lived on 35th and Barnard, then 38th and Barnard, now 40th and Barnardmoving south, says the SCAD alum.

Hes seen Starland grow and change, but a constant has been the beauty he finds in his neighborhood.

Stewarts solo photography exhibition, Love Thy Neighborhood, opens March 6 at Starland Yard and is a collection of photos hes taken on his walks around the neighborhood. The Cold Beer sign on the corner of Bull and 40th, one of the defining features of the Starland neighborhood, also happens to be the epicenter for the photographs that Stewart has taken.

This body of work is a culmination of things Ive been seeing over the past eight years that Ive lived in this neighborhood, shares Stewart. It started as this idea of over time, there were things that I would drive by, walk by, bike by every single day of the week and observe them, see them, think about the time of day and the background. And I knew that I wanted to go back and photograph it someday, whether it was later that day or later in the week or years later. Just something about the way the light was hitting this building, or the way Ive always noticed this person sitting in the same spot.

On his walks, Stewart always brought his camera along to document the scenes of his neighborhood. That, of course, led to a massive body of work with hundreds of photographs to choose from. The result is an exhibition of about 25 photos printed on archival vinyl and mounted to the inside walls at Starland Yard, as well as three large photographs in the window that faces Whitaker and 40th.

While paring down the work to fit in the exhibition, Stewart chose photos that presented a story of the neighborhood. Its not necessarily a narrative, but the photos show more of the nuance of Savannah, particularly this area.

The work is macro and micro; it pulls in and out, says Stewart. Id say its very romantic also. The idea of the body of work is poetic because its subtle. Its as simple as the way you turn a corner and see a scene and keep walking, but you recognize that spot, that time of day, and you just thought to yourself, This is the neighborhood. This is what this place is.

What this place is, though, is currently up for definition. Theres a seemingly endless debate between people who want to preserve Starland and people who want to see it grow. In the middle of that debate, of course, is the Starland Yard. So, of course, its a smidge ironic that Stewarts exhibition commenting on the beauty of Starland is in the bastion of its development.

I love controversial places like that, he says with a laugh. Whats fun about the work compared to the situation is Im not commenting on problems with change. I think that change is great. Ive been here for eight or nine years and Ive always known this change was going to happen. For the first six years here, every year it seemed like next year is going to be the year, then next year is going to be the year.

Stewart remembers that 2018 is when things really started to happen, and when the development for Starland Yard began with tree removal in the area.

They took the trees down and everybody thought, Oh, boy, here goes the neighborhood, he says. I agree with the sentiment of immediate changeyou see a big beautiful tree go down and thats a big sigh. But it was always exciting for what was to come, especially as young creatives living and thriving in Savannah. We all need this stuff to happen. If one person in the neighborhood is successful, it means anybody else can be, too. Every amount of traffic or additional people who are coming to spend time in the neighborhood is better for us as a whole.

Yes, that means tourists. As Starland grows, its gaining attention and becoming an alternate destination for the downtown crowd.

While, yeah, I dont want Lone Wolf and Moodrights filled up with a bunch of yahoos from Ohio, but Im still rooting for the success of all my friends businesses, says Stewart.

The yahoos from Ohio that fill up Moodrights are inevitable, as long as this writer goes there, but one thing is certain: if you build it, they will come.

Stuffs going to keep popping up constantly. I think whats important about these photographs is the record of where it is at this present moment, says Stewart, because we know in three to five years, theres going to be massive condos built on Bull Street, the Save-A-Lot is going to be something else, and eventually the [Old Savannah City] Mission will be gone. Its going to really, really change soon. So in the past year, thinking about this project as a whole and digging through the archives, it makes me very happy that I started shooting all of this when I did.

The body of work in Love Thy Neighborhood is indicative of Stewarts approach to social landscape work.

I definitely consider myself a fine art landscape photographer, but that kind of borders on the social landscape, he muses. The Savannah work and this neighborhood work specifically, its just kind of how I keep my eye trained. Its something that started as I like to walk around and make pictures and post them on Instagram and to a collection of work that needs to be seen.

The title of the exhibition is a nod to a photo series from a few years back that Stewart posted on Instagram and captioned, Love thy neighborhood. The sentiment stuck for him, largely because Stewart really, truly does love his neighborhood.

The work is an homage to this place that I love so deeply, says Stewart. Its somewhere that deserves to be seen in all its glory and really appreciated.

CS

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Showing love to Starland - Connect Savannah.com

Once upon a time, a concrete slab, a charcoal grill, and maybe a beer-bottle opener mounted on a nearby tree was considered a pretty fancy outdoor entertainment area.

No more.

These days, outdoor room design is limited only by imagination and budget.

Ive been in the industry 30 years, and weve really seen a change in just the last five years in the amount of products and options for outdoor rooms, said Matt Medlock, account manager and designer at Ryans Landscaping in Dublin.

People want to be outside, and theyre thinking about more than just a patio with a grill and a table, Medlock said.

Last summer, Carolyn and Thomas White of the North Side upgraded a deck they had built 30 years ago. The old deck was showing its age and wasnt providing the couple, who are now in their 70s, with the outdoor experience they wanted.

We wanted a space where we could really enjoy our backyard, watch the birds and the deer, Carolyn White said.

Their aging wooden deck was replaced with a multilevel patio made with decorative pavers. The patio is accented with a circular half-wall seating area with fire table and topped by a pergola; a decorative fish pond with waterfall; lovely landscape plantings; and huge natural stone steps leading down into their expansive, wooded backyard. Matching paver paths lead to other outdoor areas, including a side courtyard with an outdoor pizza oven.

Now we find ourselves in the outdoor rooms all the time, Carolyn White said.

My husband bundles up every morning and takes his coffee out back. I dont like cool weather, let alone cold weather, but with our new fire table we can sit out even on cool evenings, she said. Now we love watching the deer frolic and play their reindeer games.

The outdoor work, including landscaping, cost about $35,000, Carolyn White said.

It was money well spent, she said.

Dave Lindsay, co-owner of Lindsay-Wright Company, a Columbus firm that designs and builds outdoor living areas, has been in the business for more than 30 years. Most of the companys projects begin with a base of decorative stone or concrete pavers, he said.

I can remember our first job, back when I was still working full-time as a schoolteacher, Lindsay recalled.

At the start, you just had red clay pavers. We threw down railroad ties, put down compacted sand and laid red clay pavers. Thats as sophisticated as it got back then. Now the skys the limit. There are so many fun things that can be done.

Now there are literally thousands of pavers in every color, shape and texture, plus natural stone. And the choices just get bigger and bigger and bigger. The brick paver industry continues to grow every single year, Lindsay said.

The pavers have come a long way, agreed Greg Gilbertsen, a design and sales professional with Landscape Design Solutions, the Dublin company that designed and built the Whites new outdoor area.

Twenty years ago, there was just what you think of as the standard 6-by-6, 6-by-8 paver, Gilbertsen said.

Now theres a wide variety of looks and colors, and also natural stone. People ask, Does the stone hold up as well as the pavers? I say, Theyre millions of years old already, so yes.

Gilbertsens company prefers pavers as a floor for outdoor rooms.

Poured concrete sometimes can be lower cost, and Ive seen some pretty artistic stuff with stamped concrete. But you can do so many things with pavers, and they are so much easier to repair.

Of course, the floor is only the beginning of most outdoor-room projects these days.

A lot of people are putting a roof over their outdoor room now, Lindsay said.

Companies that make pergolas and pavilions for outdoor rooms are piggybacking on the back of the growth of the hardscape industry, Lindsay said.

Before, wed have to plant a tree for shade, he said. Now, you can have instant shade with a pergola or pavilion.

And Ohios cold winters dont deter homeowners, Medlock said.

In Ohio, that means using outdoor fireplaces, fire pits, tower heaters, even resonating heaters built into the ceilings of pavilions, he said.

Projects can be as simple or as elaborate as a customer wants, Lindsay said, and can be designed to fit tiny urban backyards or huge suburban or rural lots.

When Leah Miller, 47, and Todd Miller, 46, bought a home in Dublin last year, one of the first things they did was start work on a new outdoor entertainment area.

At our old house, we had a covered patio with a fireplace and absolutely loved it, Leah Miller said. The previous owner of our new house had put on a simple concrete slab patio. That didnt make sense for us.

The Millers new outdoor-entertainment area includes a hot tub, outdoor kitchen and big-screen television over the fireplace.

My husband has three smokers, and every fall he hosts something he calls Meat-a-palooza. We have lots of people over, eat and watch football all day, Leah Miller said.

But the area isnt just for entertaining, she said. The Millers and their two teenage children use the outdoor area on almost a daily basis, she said.

We use it all the time, pretty much from March until it gets down to 30 or below, she said. Especially during football season, we love the feeling of having a fire going, getting cozy with blankets on, and watching games out there.

My husband also has an office at home, and when its nice out he works outside.

Leah Miller said she could not estimate the cost of the outdoor-entertainment room itself. The entire yard project, including addressing a drainage problem, re-sodding, installing an irrigation system and landscaping, cost about $200,000, she said.

Medlock, whose company designed the Millers project, said that more and more homeowners want to get outdoors to escape the frantic pace of modern life.

Family life is so hectic now. Bringing people together, outside in their own yard, surrounded by nature, is a better environment for everyone.

sstephens@dispatch.com

@SteveStephens

Originally posted here:
Pavers, pergolas and pavilions: Outdoor living areas get elaborate - The Columbus Dispatch

Marisa Thompson, Southwest Yard and Garden Published 6:19 a.m. MT March 8, 2020

Many roses are impressively drought- and heat-tolerant. A thick mulch layer and regular watering to a depth of 18 to 24 inches are great steps toward healthier, showier rose bushes.(Photo: Marissa Thompson)

Question: Is it too late to prune my roses?

Pat J., Artesia

Answer: No, its not too late. Theres more harm in pruning roses too early than too late. Thats because pruning stimulates a flush of new growth, which is wonderful as long as youre past the risk of more hard freezes in your area. That new green growth is especially prone to frost damage, and damaged branches would then need to be pruned back again. The optimal window for most rose pruning is two to fourweeks before your expected last frost. Even when pruned at this time, an abnormal late freeze can do considerable damage to your rose plants, but it is much less likely.

According to https://www.plantmaps.com/, the average last frost in Las Cruces is early April, in Artesia and Roswell its mid-April, Los Lunas and Albuquerque early May, and Taos early June. Many successful gardeners do holiday pruning, meaning in Las Cruces they might prune their roses around Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day in Albuquerque, and Tax Day in Taos.

Marisa Y. Thompson(Photo: Courtesy)

I see two drawbacks to waiting until your areas expected last frost date to prune your roses:

Many roses are impressively drought- and heat-tolerant. There are also flowering shrubs in the Rosaceae family that are native to New Mexico and are great options for low-water landscaping. Native or not, now is a great time to add a mulch (like woodchips, leaf litter, pine needles, etc.) under your bushes and around trees, and as a moisture-holding layer on the tops of your veggie beds.

I subscribe to a new newsletter from Divine Earth, a commercial pruning and landscape company in Albuquerque (https://divineearthnm.com/), and I was delighted to get their quick and clever tips on rose pruning:

I love that three out of their four rose pruning tips are about growing roses more sustainably. Any time is a great time to remove artificial weed barriers in ornamental landscapes. The trouble with them is that theyre either too flimsy to keep weeds from popping through, or they do a great job keeping weeds under control, but at the expense of keeping water and air from moving down into the soil. That means the soil and ornamental plant roots in those areas are sure to suffer. And, after time, soil that blows in on top of that barrier can harbor weed seeds that grow just fine on top of the fabric or plastic. Landscape designers and installers across the region are officially giving up on weed barriers in urban landscapes.

Its also always a great time to pull back landscape rock from around the base of roses and other ornamental plants and replace it with a nice, thick top layer of woody, fibrous mulch. If you compost your kitchen and garden scraps, you can sprinkle a layer of that on top with your mulch. Check out NMSU Extension Guides H-110, Backyard Compostingand H-164, Vermicomposting,for helpful info for beginner composters.

Water your established roses to a depth of 18 to 24 inches about once every two to four weeks in spring, depending on your soil type and environmental conditions like wind and temperature. When temperatures get higher, its recommended that we water our roses and other shrubs every one to three weeks from May through October. For newly planted roses, water will be needed more frequently and always to the same depth.

Special pruning note for climbing roses: wait until after bloom to prune. Thats because climbing roses bloom on one- and two-year-old wood, so if you prune before bloom youll be cutting away the current seasons flowers. Other roses bloom on new branches that develop in spring.

Roses can be pruned back harder than most people think, so dont be shy. If youre worried, try your own mini trial at home by pruning some branches lightly, pruning some branches back severely, and leaving some alone. Take photos before pruning, after pruning, and throughout the season and share them with me on social media: @NMDesertBlooms. NMSU Extension Guide H-165, Growing Roses,has lots more information about rose types and their care.

The Albuquerque Rose Society offers free pruning demos each year, and several are still coming up this season: March 14, 15, 21, and 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (http://www.albuquerquerose.com/). Ill attend one of these sessions and post video to the blog version of this column next week (https://nmsudesertblooms.blogspot.com/).

For more gardening information, including decades of archived Southwest Yard & Garden columns, visit the NMSU Extension Horticulture page (http://desertblooms.nmsu.edu/), follow us on social media (@NMDesertBlooms), or contact your County Extension office (https://aces.nmsu.edu/county).

Marisa Thompson, PhD, is the Extension Horticulture Specialist for New Mexico State University and is based at the Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas.

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Some of the best places to honeymoon remain consistent year after year: Hawaii and Mexico are enduring and beautiful, while European capitals and coastal destinations like the ever-romantic Paris or the photogenic Greek isles remain top of mind for engaged couples.

But when it comes to the best places to honeymoon in 2020, there's a strong argument to be made for venturing off the beaten path. Some of the globe's less-traveled or more-underrated destinations offer just as much (if not more) stunning scenery with better value on luxury hotels and fewer selfie sticks to shatter your serenity.

Whether you're walking down the aisle this year or planning for next year, expand your map to include our top picks for places that offer the perfect mix of romance, adventure, and indulgence in places such as South and Central America, Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast, Southeast Asia, Caribbean, Azores, and New Zealand all with unforgettable hotels.

We selected these hotels from our own sublime experiences as well as based on top Trip Advisor ratings and reviews. Most hotels feature starting rates from about $200 to $600 per night, or slightly higher for all-inclusive honeymoon packages with dining and excursions.

These picks are priced for mere mortals, so they won't put a newlywed couple deep in debt as they start their lives together. But they are every bit filled with romance, bucket-list activities, and exposure to other-worldly beaches and landscapes every ingredient you'd want for a once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon you'll forever cherish. Cheers to love and incredible travel in 2020.

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The best honeymoon destinations and hotels that are luxurious, but still affordable - Business Insider - Business Insider

People who contract the novel coronavirus emit high amounts of virus very early on in their infection, according to a new study from Germany that helps to explain the rapid and efficient way in which the virus has spread around the world.

At the same time, the study suggests that while people with mild infections can still test positive by throat swabs for days and even weeks after their illness, those who are only mildly sick are likely not still infectious by about 10 days after they start to experience symptoms.

The study, by scientists in Berlin and Munich, is one of the first outside China to look at clinical data from patients who have been diagnosed with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and one of the first to try to map when people infected with the virus can infect others.

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It was published Monday on a preprint server, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed, but it could still provide key information that the public health response has been lacking.

This is a very important contribution to understanding both the natural history of Covid-19 clinical disease as well as the public health implications of viral shedding, said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy.

The researchers monitored the viral shedding of nine people infected with the virus. In addition to tests looking for fragments of the viruss RNA, they also tried to grow viruses from sputum, blood, urine, and stool samples taken from the patients. The latter type of testing trying to grow viruses is critical in the quest to determine how people infect one another and how long an infected person poses a risk to others.

Importantly, the scientists could not grow viruses from throat swabs or sputum specimens after day 8 of illness from people who had mild infections.

Based on the present findings, early discharge with ensuing home isolation could be chosen for patients who are beyond day 10 of symptoms with less than 100,000 viral RNA copies per ml of sputum, the authors said, suggesting that at that point there is little residual risk of infectivity, based on cell culture.

Public health officials and hospitals have been trying to make sense of patients who seem to have recovered from Covid-19 but who still test positive for the virus based in throat swabs and sputum samples. In some cases, people test positive for weeks after recovery, the World Health Organization has noted.

Those tests are conducted using PCR polymerase chain reactionwhich looks for tiny sections of the RNA of the virus. That type of test can indicate whether a patient is still shedding viral debris, but cannot indicate whether the person is still infectious.

The researchers found very high levels of virus emitted from the throat of patients from the earliest point in their illness when people are generally still going about their daily routines. Viral shedding dropped after day 5 in all but two of the patients, who had more serious illness. The two, who developed early signs of pneumonia, continued to shed high levels of virus from the throat until about day 10 or 11.

This pattern of virus shedding is a marked departure from what was seen with the SARS coronavirus, which ignited an outbreak in 2002-2003. With that disease, peak shedding of virus occurred later, when the virus had moved into the deep lungs.

Shedding from the upper airways early in infection makes for a virus that is much harder to contain. The scientists said at peak shedding, people with Covid-19 are emitting more than 1,000 times more virus than was emitted during peak shedding of SARS infection, a fact that likely explains the rapid spread of the virus. The SARS outbreak was contained after about 8,000 cases; the global count of confirmed Covid-19 cases has already topped 110,000.

Osterholm said the data in the paper confirm what the spread of the disease has been signaling early and potentially highly efficient transmission of the virus occurs before clinical symptoms or in conjunction with the very first mild symptoms.

The study also looked at whether people who have been infected shed infectious virus in their stool. The report of last months international mission to China co-led by the WHO and China said that in several case studies in China, viable virus had been recovered from stool but that isnt likely driving transmission of the virus.

The German researchers found high levels of viral fragments in 13 stool samples from four patients in their study, but they were unable to grow virus from any of them. The paper noted, though, that all the patients had mild illness, and the fact that they could not find virus in their stool doesnt rule out that it could happen in other cases.

Further studies should therefore address whether SARS-CoV-2 shed in stool is rendered non-infectious though contact with the gut environment, they wrote, adding that their findings suggest measures to try to stop spread of the virus should focus on respiratory tract transmission protecting others from the coughs and sneezes of people infected with the virus.

Virus could not be grown from blood or urine samples taken from the patients, the authors reported.

The study also noted that people who are infected begin to develop antibodies to the virus quickly, typically within six to 12 days. The rapid rise of antibodies may explain why about 80% of people infected with the virus do not develop severe disease.

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People 'shed' coronavirus early, but most likely not infectious after recovery - STAT

The Boston Bruins are in the midst of an impressive season, but we havent seen the best of them yet at least according to Jake Debrusk.

I dont think weve peaked this year, Debrusk said Monday, per the Bruins. We had a really good start obviously and weve kind of stayed more consistent I think than anything else and kind of found ways to win games, but I dont think weve peaked by any means.

Boston currently leads the NHL with 98 points with a 43-14-12 record.

The Bruins jumped out to an 11-1-2 start in the fall, which was motivated in part by coming up short in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues. And while that loss has continued to fuel players, the team also has tried to focus on the present season, rather than getting caught up in the past.

I think, obviously, its something that you want to have as a motivational tool, but you dont really want to doubt yourself in any way. We were one game away last year and obviously we want to come back and finish the job as every team does in this league, Debrusk said. But personally, its just a matter of trying to build your game and peak at the right time.

While Debrusk believes the Bruins have not peaked yet, the team certainly is getting close.

Boston has had a number of players step up of late, like Charlie McAvoys huge game against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Patrice Bergeron notching his sixth 30-goal season of his career. The team has gone 14-4-0 since the All-Star Game and has just 13 games left to play in the regular season.

Though, a key part to the Bruins success also will depend on the team staying healthy. Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo both will be out with upper-body injuries for Tuesday nights game against the Philadelphia Flyers. And, of course, Boston is taking precautionary measures amid growing concerns about the coronavirus, and even has tossed around the possibility of playing games in empty arenas something Bergeron feels would leave a big void without the fans.

The Bruins will take on the Flyers on the road Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on NESN.

Thumbnail photo via Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports Images

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Jake Debrusk Sheds Light On Why He Believes Bruins Havent Peaked Yet - NESN

CLEMSON, South Carolina Just as there is a mysterious dark matter that accounts for 85 percent of our universe, there is a dark portion of the human genome that has perplexed scientists for decades. A study published March 9, 2020, in Genome Research identifies new portions of the fruit fly genome that, until now, have been hidden in these dark, silent areas.

The collaborative paper titled Gene Expression Networks in the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel is the culmination of years of research by Clemson University geneticists Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt. Their groundbreaking findings could significantly advance sciences understanding of a number of genetic disorders.

Robert Anholt (left) and Trudy Mackay in their lab at the Clemson Center for Human Genetics.Image Credit: Robert Bradley, College of Science

The dark portion refers to the approximate 98 percent of the genome that doesnt appear to have any obvious function. Only 2 percent of the human genome codes for proteins, the building blocks of our bodies and the catalysts of the chemical reactions that allow us to thrive. Scientists have been puzzled by this notion since the 1970s when gene sequencing technologies were first developed, revealing the proportion of coding to noncoding regions of the genome.

Genes are traditionally thought to be transcribed into RNAs, which are subsequently translated into proteins, as dictated by the central dogma of molecular biology. However, the entire assemblage of RNA transcripts in the genome, called the transcriptome, contains RNA species that appear to have some other function, apart from coding for proteins. Some have proposed that noncoding regions might contain regulatory regions that control gene expression and the structure of chromosomes, yet these hypotheses were difficult to study in past years as diagnostic technology was developing.

Only in recent years, with the sequencing of the entire transcriptome complete, have we realized how many RNA species are actually present. So, that raises the whole new question: if they arent making the proteins the work horses of the cell then what are they doing? said Mackay, director of Clemson Universitys Center for Human Genetics (CHG), which is part of the College of Science.

For Mackay and Anholt, also of the CHG, these human genetics questions can be probed by studying the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Because many genes are conserved between humans and fruit flies, findings revealed by analyzing the Drosophila genome can be extrapolated to human health and disease.

Mackay and Anholts former postdoctoral researchers, Logan Everett and Wen Huang, led the charge on this latest research, which identified more than 4,500 new transcripts in Drosophila that have never been uncovered before. Referred to by the researchers as novel transcribed regions, these 4,500 transcripts consist primarily of noncoding RNAs that appear to be involved in regulating networks of genes and that could contribute to genetic disorders.

Most disease-causing mutations are known to occur in the protein-coding portion of the genome, known as the exome, but when youre only sequencing the exome, you miss other disease-related factors in other parts of the genome, such as these long noncoding RNAs, said Anholt, Provosts Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Biochemistry at Clemson University. Now that the cost of whole genome sequencing has gone down considerably, and we have the capability of sequencing whole genomes rapidly, we can look at elements of the genome that have traditionally been considered unimportant, and we can identify among them potential disease-causing elements that have never been seen before.

By probing several hundred inbred Drosophila fly lines, each containing individuals that are virtually genetically identical, the researchers discovered that many of the novel long noncoding RNAs regulate genes in heterochromatin, a tightly packed form of DNA in the genome that is usually considered silent. Because heterochromatin is so condensed, it was thought to be inaccessible to the molecular machinery that transcribes DNA into RNA. Thus, any genes contained within heterochromatin are kept off, silent and unexpressed or are they?

What we think is that the repression of gene expression in heterochromatin is somewhat leaky, and that there is variation in how those genes are repressed, Mackay said. The network of RNAs weve discovered may have to do with actually regulating chromatin state.

These noncoding RNAs may play an important role in opening up such regions of the genome for expression of genes in a way that varies among different individuals depending on their genetic background, Anholt added.

Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt address human genetics questions by studying the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, because many genes are conserved between humans and fruit flies, meaning research results can be extrapolated to human health and disease.Image Credit: College of Science

Another outcome of the study is the expression of jumping genes, known as transposons, that are pieces of DNA able to move around the genome. As transposons cut and paste into other genes, they may cause genome instability that leads to cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and other diseases. These transposons were also located in heterochromatin, but the identification of transcripts of these transposons shows that they are actually being expressed, despite residing in a usually silent portion of the genome. Identifying regulators of transposable elements, as the researchers found among these 4,500 novel transcribed regions, could prove useful in treating disorders that stem from transposon interference.

Overall, the study lends toward a greater understanding of gene regulatory networks that contribute to human health and disease.

These observations open up an entirely new area of biology that hasnt been explored and has unlimited potential for future follow-up, Anholt said.

The teams own follow-up studies are using CRISPR gene editing technology to uncover what happens when genes revealed by this study are altered or deleted from the Drosophila genome. If the expression of other genes is altered by knocking one out, important conclusions can be drawn about the role that deleted gene plays in development or progression of disease.

Everett, one of the lead authors on the Genome Research publication, is now a bioinformatics scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Wen Huang is an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University.

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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health under grant numbers R01-AA016560, R01-AG043490 and U01- DA041613. Additional support was provided by The Danish Council for Strategic Research. The researchers are wholly responsible for the content of this study, of which the funders had no input.

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The Tom Green County Agrilife Extension office held their annual gardening seminar at the Tom Green County 4H facility on Saturday, February 29th. The seminar was named, Turf, Trees and Tomatoes, the Three Ts of Texas Horticulture. Hosting the event was the Tom Green County Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service office. Allison Watkins, the horticulturist for the Tom Green County Agrilife Extension office was the hostess for the Extension Office.

Along with Watkins, 2 other Agrilife agents made presentations; Dr. Russ Wallace, Professor and Extension Vegetable Specialist Department of Horticultural Sciences

Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Lubbock and Dr. Chrissie Segars, Assistant Professor and Extension Turfgrass Specialist, from the Agrilife Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in Dallas.

Agrilife spared no expense or experience for the seminar, with Wallace coming in from Lubbock and Segars from Dallas. Wallace is a highly respected professor and researcher with his Ph.D in Vegetable Crops from Cornell University. Wallaces territory for Agrilife covers the Texas High Plains and Panhandle regions.

Segars earned her Ph.D in Crop sciences from Oklahoma State University and is the go-to person when it comes to turf grass. Her interests include Turfgrass Management, Turfgrass Physiology, Athletic Field Management and Player Safety as well as Reducing Inputs in Turfgrass Management.

There isnt much that Watkins doesnt know about trees and she, as well as Segars and Wallace, covered an extensive amount of information in an easily understandable and gardener-friendly manner. The presenters answered technical questions about chemicals and mixes as well as less-detailed questions such as, What grass do I plant in the shade? Every question was important and the presenters encouraged participation. The time limits for each class werent enforced, which allowed everyone time to ask all of the questions that they wanted to.

The seminar, as promised, offered everything anyone could want when it came to turf, trees and tomatoes.

Watkins started off the day with her presentation on, Tree Selection and Establishment. Watkins began with several quotes about trees, including one from Alexander Smith, A man doesnt plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity. Watkins then delved into the topic of trees. She went over tree selection and establishment such as selecting native trees or adapted trees and consider mature size. Watkins also covered selecting a site, or rather, a tree, Select a tree for the site, not a site for the tree. She also covered the subject of purchasing trees; Dont buy root bound trees; Select trees with good form; The biggest tree is not always the best; as well as Inspecting for girdling roots and double leaders, Watkins pointed out that only the outer ring of a tree will take up the water. She talked about transplant shock, Smaller trees will go through less transplant shock than larger tree, and discussed handling of trees, Always handle a tree by the root ball and not by the trunk. She covered Oak Wilt as well, with one bit of information centering on how the disease is transmitted. Buying infect oak firewood from other places and bringing it here can spread Oak Wilt. You can find out further information on Oak Wilt at http://www.TexasOakWilt.org.

The remainder of Watkins class covered prepping the site for your tree, planting the tree and protecting the tree. Watkins also said that that staking a tree should only be done as a last resort. Her presentation, as well as the presentations from Wallace and Segars included slides with photos of the dos and donts.

Watkins also gave out information on recommended trees for this specific area of the state, which included; Texas Redbud; Mexican Redbud; Oklahoma Redbud; Mexican Buckeye; Chisos Rosewood; Mexican Paloverde; Evergreen Sumac; Western Soapberry as well as many more species that she said do well here with the proper care.

The next class was Growing Tomatoes, and was taught by Wallace. It seems that growing tomatoes is woven into the DNA of every Texas gardener and it was a hot topic at the seminar. Wallace is not only the Extension Agent Vegetable Specialist, hes also a tomato judge at the fair in Lubbock and in the Panhandle. Wallace grows tomatoes for Texas A&M Agrilife at their facility in Lubbock and is a master of the red fruit that is the subject of so much frustration one year and pride the next year for Texas gardeners. Yes, tomatoes are fruits but theyre considered vegetables by nutritionists.

The subject of tomatoes went well beyond the 60 minutes that was schedule for the topic, but the subject never bogged down or hit a lull. There was a great deal of conversation and numerous questions about growing tomatoes. Some of the information put out by Wallace included: Tomatoes are a tropical fruit; they like an average temperature of 70-80 degrees; they dont tolerate freezes; they like a pH of 5.5 7.3; they dont like salinity (some fertilizers contain salt and tomatoes dont like it); they prefer consistent moisture and dont like to be waterlogged; they prefer starter fertilizer; they respond best if regularly fertilized with small amounts throughout the season. Wallace said that Miracle Grow is a good fertilizer, especially starter solutions. Miracle Grow is made in Ballinger at Buddys Plant Plus.

Wallace said that drip-irrigations systems worked best for growing tomatoes and stressed the importance of keeping them regularly fertilized and watered uniformly throughout the season.

Wallace also covered the selection of tomato varieties. Some of the varieties covered were Phoenix, Shady Lady, Solar Fire, Sun King, Celebrity, Classy Lady, Sun Master and BHN 444. The pros and cons of each variety were discussed in depth, as well as their resistance to various diseases and pests such as Verticillum Wilt (V), Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Variety (TYLCV), Fusarium (F), Nematode (N), Tobacco Mosaic (T), Alternaria Stem Canker (A) and Stemphylium solani (S), which also known as Gray Leaf Spot.

Wallace covered how to identify problems in your tomato plants, such as iron deficiency, which can be spotted by a yellowing/bleaching of leaves. Iron deficiency is common to soils with high pH and salinity; Physiological Heat Roll was also discussed. Physiological Heat Roll is caused by heat stress. He also spoke about how to address issues such as Physiological Heat Roll: Use shade cloth to protect them from the sun; cool down the plant with a spray bottle of water. Wallace said that irrigating your tomatoes more will not help. Perhaps the most concerning, at least to Texas gardeners, is that tomato flowers will pop off when they hit 92 - 93. Giving them protection from scalding afternoon sun is critical when our temperatures get into the high 90s and 100s.

Segars covered the subjects of, Turf Irrigation, and Hot Topics in Turf. Segars said that good turf grass can help in several ways, It can absorb pollutants, heat, noise, dust and it can prevent soil erosion. She said that the primary selection criteria should revolve around heat/drought tolerance, irrigation requirements, traffic tolerance, desired use and the time of year the turf is most used. Anyone who has endured a west Texas summer knows the frustration of watching your lawn turn brown in July when water restrictions set in and you can only water your yard once a week while temperatures bake it at 100.

When it comes to native grasses and drought-resistant grasses, Segars said that Buffalo Grass is the only native turf grass in the USA. She said that Buffalo Grass and Bermuda grass are the most drought-resistant grasses and the Zoysia grass thrives in filtered shade. St. Augustine is another good grass for shady areas. Buffalo Grass is the most cold-tolerant grass. According to Segars, the downside to Zoysia is that it is a slow-growing grass. All of the grasses and varieties of each grass were covered during the class, along with how to care for them and how to build a great lawn, even in drought conditions.

If youd like more information on the material covered in the classes or have questions about horticulture, you can email Watkins at aewatkins@ag.tamu.edu or call her at (325) 659-6528.

If you would like more information or have questions about growing tomatoes, or vegetable gardens in general, you can email Wallace at: rwwallace@ag.tamu.edu or call him at the Lubbock Agrilife Extension office at (806) 746-4057.

For questions about grasses, Segars can be reached at Chrissie.Segars@ag.tamu.edu or follow her on Twitter: Hairyligule21. The phone number to the Agrilife Dallas office is (972) 952-9212.

The annual Concho Valley Master Gardeners plant sale is on April 4th, from 8 a.m. until noon (or sold out, whichever comes first). Last year over 4,500 plants were sold. The event is wildly popular and most plants are sold out within 1-2 hours of the doors opening. The event is at the Tom Green County 4H facility and its best to get there 30 minutes to an hour early to get in line.

In September the 9th Annual Fall Landscaping Symposium will be held at the Tom Green County 4H facility.

You can find out more information, as well as Allison Watkins horticulture updates, soil testing and Earthkind Landscaping at http://www.txmg.org/conchovalley.

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Agrilife gardening seminar sheds light on turf, trees and tomatoes - Runnels County Register