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.

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

Allison Watkins, Special to San Angelo Standard-Times Published 5:05 a.m. CT Dec. 8, 2019

As unpredictable as our weather is, its always a sure bet that summer will be hot and dry.

The crepe myrtle is one of the most versatile landscaping choices in Texas, available as ground cover, shrubs or trees.(Photo: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service)

Thats why fall through winter is the best time of year to plant trees and shrubs, because it gives then time to establish good roots and overcome transplant shock before the harshest season hits.

Of course, an old proverb says that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the next best time is now.

Trees are the most permanent component of the landscape, and shrubs last long as well, so when installing these important foundation plants, do so with careful planning, good design and proper planting technique.

Whether creating a brand-new landscape from scratch, or rejuvenating an old yard, now is a great time to plant. Large shrubs should be reserved for the corners of the home, to help it look wider.

Dont cover windows with tall shrubs, or stagger them between the windows, as that can break up the visual flow across the front of the home and make it look smaller.

Use dwarf shrubs for the front of the home so they dont get too tall and require frequent pruning.

Depending on the specific landscape, a good general rule of thumb is to place trees at 45-degree angles off the front corners of the home not in front, visually dividing the home into sections, but framing it to highlight the home.

The right planting depth is very important only plant trees as deep as the rootball; dont place in a deeper hole that requires soil to be filled in over the root ball. Sometimes nursery trees even have too much soil over the rootball in the container, so check to see if there is loose soil that can be scraped off the top.

Remove excess soil until you see roots matted into soil, and dig the hole as deep as the roots are growing. Very large, heavy trees can even be planted slightly above grade because their weight will cause them to settle in a little deeper over time.

Trees planted too deep will have issues later on the canopies will not be as attractive and the they will be more susceptible to stress.

Improve soil with compost before planting shrubs, but not trees. Only the native soil dug from the hole should be used to fill after planting; trees are too large to amend all the soil their roots will occupy, so choose well-adapted species that do well in the local soil and climate.

Apply a three to four-inch-deep layer of mulch after planting trees and/or shrubs, but dont pile it around the trunk like a volcano that can be stressful to the plants.

Mulch helps trees and shrubs get established faster because it helps keep weed competition under control, moderates soil temperature, and conserves water.

Allison Watkins is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent for horticulture in Tom Green County. Contact her at aewatkins@ag.tamu.edu.

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If you're planning to plant trees or shrubs, now's the best time of year - Standard-Times

FOXBORO Tom Brady has the ball. Game on the line. Patriots are in the red zone. First-and-10 at the Chiefs 12-yard line. Down seven with 2:41 to play. Fans chanting his name.

For the GOAT, this scenario has been automatic. Never a doubt. Just chalk it up. He ties the game. Play on.

Only, this isnt the Brady, or the offense, weve been accustomed to seeing for nearly two decades. Its not the same group that kept trading scores with the Chiefs late in the AFC Championship game last season before finally putting them away in overtime, with three long third down conversions, before striking in the red zone.

Brady can no longer will this offense to score points when it has to produce. He can no longer deliver the Patriots when the defense has one bad half, and one good half, as it did against the Chiefs in defending Patrick Mahomes last night.

This offense went 2-for-12 on third down, and 1-for-3 in the red zone during Sundays 23-16 loss to the Chiefs.

Blame the officials all you want, and they certainly deserve blame for botching calls that impacted the outcome.

But the Patriots still had their chances to tie the game, or even win the game, but couldnt put the ball in the end zone.

We got the ball. We moved it. We had some plays there where we could have scored, Brady said, we had some in the red area, we had a couple fourth downs, we just didnt make the plays when we needed to make them.

Its been that way all year. At this point, its hard to see that changing. The Patriots went 2-3 over the toughest part of their schedule with the three losses to AFC opponents (Ravens, Texans, Chiefs) theyre likely to see in the playoffs. All three losses were similar in that the defense couldnt hold the opposing team under 20, while the Patriots offense wasnt capable of bailing them out.

We just got to go out and play better and try to win next weeks game, said Brady, as the Pats are onto Cincinnati. Its disappointing. Were not going to feel sorry for ourselves.

The heart and competitiveness of the 42-year-old quarterback was certainly still there down the stretch, as he took off on a 4th-and-6 from the Chiefs 29, gaining 17 yards to bring the Pats closer to the endzone, and keep their last gasp drive alive.

That was the play that set up first-and-goal from the 12. But then there was an incomplete pass to tight end Matt LaCosse in the end zone. Brady hit Julian Edelman for a nine-yard completion setting up fourth-and-goal from the three.

Again, the expectation was for Brady to deliver. Only, his try for Edelman in the endzone was broken up by KC cornerback Bashaud Breeland, who made a nice play to bat the ball away.

That was the plan. The plan is to always score, but at the end of the day, we didnt, said Phillip Dorsett. We cant say the refs blew the game, because we still had a chance to score and we didnt. Weve got to play better.

The Patriots resorted to trickery once again, to try and inject some life in the offense. On the opening series of the game, they used a flea-flicker, with Brady hitting Edelman for a 37-yard-scoring pass. They also had James White throw a pass to Jakobi Meyers for a 35-yard gain during the final, and futile drive.

Just trying some different things to give us a little spark or momentum, said Brady. You know, we had a couple big ones (Sunday) on the flea flicker and then on the other one with the halfback pass. So, those were good plays, those were good momentum plays. I wish we could have made a few more of the other ones, too.

Brady, who entered the interview room wearing a big bandage around his right throwing elbow, claimed it was nothing to worry about. He said it was the result of a hit, but that he would be fine and ready next Sunday for the Bengals.

Hes been on the injury report with an elbow problem. He didnt seem hampered by the elbow on Sunday, even though his numbers werent very good (19 of 36 for 169 yards with one interception).

Patriot fans actually booed the offense as it left the field for half-time. The Chiefs were in control of the game at the intermission as the offense was still having breakdowns, drops, a lack of protection and bad throws from the quarterback.

But then something happened on the way to completely losing hope that order would be restored within the AFC landscape: the Pats rallied.

With the help of another special teams punt block, the defense standing tall in the second half, Brady & Co. were able to creep back in the game.

With the fans chanting Brady, Brady, Brady for every fourth quarter possession, they felt something great was going to happen in the end. Only, it didnt.

We still had a chance, Brady said. Wish we could have scored there at the end.

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Tom Brady still cant deliver any last-minute heroics with this Patriots offense - Boston Herald

Dozens of sinkholes, some up to 12 feet deep, are dotting the landscape in the small southeastern Missouri city of Caruthersville, forcing road detours, swallowing sections of peoples yards and leaving city leaders scrambling to make repairs.

Months of flooding along the Mississippi River are to blame for the problems in the city of 6,000 people, which was built on a swamp, according to Mayor Sue Grantham. The nearly four dozen sinkholes have caused an estimated $4.5 million in damage, and things may get worse.

Its probably going to continue and we may find more, Grantham said Friday.

The holes range wildly in size, but the largest are up to 10 feet wide and up to 12 feet deep, Grantham estimated.

Federal and state money will help with about 90 percent of the repair costs, but the city, which is near the Tennessee border and in one of Missouris poorest counties, will be hard-pressed to cover its approximately $450,000 share.

Were looking for help from other places as well, Grantham said.

So far, no verified damage has been confirmed at homes or businesses, though holes are showing up in yards.

Homeowner Melvin Pipkins is convinced his house sits atop an emerging sinkhole. The home is surrounded by sinkholes in the yard, and Pipkins told KFVS-TV that that his new kitchen floor is coming apart at the seams and feels soft.

At another home, a woman walking on her brick patio could feel the ground sinking beneath her feet, Grantham said.

Several streets have been affected, including Ward Avenue, one of the busiest in town. Barricades surround a sinkhole on Ward Avenue that isnt far from the police station.

Caruthersville sits deep within the region known as the Missouri Bootheel, where the terrain is flat delta.

We were built on a swamp so we have a lot of sandy soil, Grantham said. So itll move on you.

The problem was worsened by the months of severe flooding along the Mississippi River earlier this year, which left the ground saturated and soggy. Even now, at a time of year when the river traditionally runs low, the Mississippi is just a foot below flood stage in Caruthersville.

The city is especially vulnerable because the river makes a meandering turn around the town that essentially circles it on three sides.

Pemiscot County received a disaster declaration, which opened the way for federal and state help to pay for some repairs. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been assessing the damage, FEMA spokeswoman Crystal Payton said. Some state funds may also be available.

City leaders expect to learn in about a month how much federal and state money theyll get.

Related

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Flooding leaves small Missouri city with dozens of sinkholes - Missouri Lawyers Media

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The Hudson River shimmers below the Manhattan skyline on a still Sunday morning in October. The world outside the PointsBet office in Jersey City, N.J., is calm, serene. Oddly, so is the world inside the offices, which feels strange given how much is at stake on this NFL Sunday for PointsBeta sports betting operator attempting to make its mark this side of the Hudson River, in the state of New Jersey, where a battle is taking place with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line.

PointsBet, an Australian online bookmaker, is just two years old, one of several new industry players in New Jersey, where the sports gambling market has been exploding since a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May 2018 paved the way for legal, regulated bookmaking in the Garden State. Today, at PointsBets New Jersey 17th-floor office, employees have packed a glass-encased room nicknamed the trenches. Its two hours before the 1 p.m. kickoff of todays slate of football games, and the young analysts, most wearing matching black shirts with the PointsBet logo stretched across it, are monitoring the bets coming in and comparing lines from other bookmakers.

One Burgundy chair sits taller than the other black swivel ones around it. Jay Croucher, PointsBets 29-year-old Director of Sport Analytics, sits there tracking six computer monitors at a time at his battle station, along with looking up at two rows of four television screens apiece plastered up in front. His polished appearance, mixed with a strong Aussie accent, fits right in with PointsBets youthful and globally diverse office. Croucher is in charge of overseeing the entire operation on Sundays and has final call on accepting the biggest wagerswhether or not, for example, to take a big bet from a sharp. Its a decision that can change the fortunes of a bookmaker like PointsBet on a given Sunday.

It is a key role for a company that is looking to find any edge it can in the New Jersey market, which is at the forefront of the sports betting movement across the country. PointsBet is competing in a New Jersey betting market with several bookmakers that had a head start on it, including DraftKings, FanDuel, William Hill and MGM. While each book is looking to emerge as the top dog among New Jerseys betting options, the state itself has materialized as the biggest new player in the U.S. sports betting landscape. In September of 2019, New Jersey accumulated a $445.6 million handle, which trailed Nevadas $546.4 million, per Legal Sports Report. New Jersey, however, has significantly shrunk the gap between the two states. In September of 2018, just four months after the Supreme Court overturned PASPA, New Jerseys handle was $184.0 million and Nevadas was $571.0 million. And New Jersey actually edged Nevada in betting handle in July and August of 2019. So as the gap continues to close between the two, this football season serves as an indicator for what state is generating the most action.

Despite everything thats about to unfold on Week 6 of the NFL season, despite the exposure PointsBet has today, Croucher appears as calm as the waters outside the windows. Among his six personal screens, hes constantly monitoring the betting market for where each bookmaker has its current pregame and in-game lines set. Another one always displays the Intercepta screen where traders can manually approve bets that exceed typical liability limits and monitor potential risk in real-time.

Ive never been a big gambler. Ive got a lot of faith in the market and the market prices, Croucher explains. I know that gameday, sharp liquidity in the NFL is stronger than me thinking that the Eagles defensive line is going to overwhelm the Vikings offensive line. All that stuff is generally priced in.

Ive always been interested in gambling by the market dynamics and the market psychology of why does the public think this when I think that? And what biases are coming into this? Why are lines progressing through the weekis that real information or is it just public bias? The psychology behind that I find really interesting and I find that more interesting than potentially losing money.

Croucher started at PointsBet from the get-go as one of the first traders hired when the company launched in Australia in 2017. Croucher was just finishing law school before being brought on, so he worked in PointsBets legal team, in addition to helping set the odds. He moved to the U.S. in late June of this year and is now wearing many hats as the Director of Sports Analyticswhether its handling risk, changing prices to align with the rest of the market or overseeing everyone elses roles in the trading room.

Crouchers decisions will help shape PointsBets fortunes on this NFL Sunday, and every Sunday this fall will help shape PointsBets fortunes in the larger gambling landscape that is changing at a breakneck speed. In a crowded market, PointsBet is an underdog, an unknown from the land down under with the odds stacked against them. So why does it think it has a chance?

***

In September of 2018, PointsBet announced Johnny Aitken, its former Chief Operating Officer, as the U.S. CEO to head its expansion efforts. His first mission: to make headway in New Jersey. Aitken came over from William Hill after managing a trading desk of over 100 and a betting handle in the billions. Aitken, like Croucher, grew up in Australia, and developed an interest in U.S. sports at a young age, asking for a Patrick Ewing No. 33 Knicks jersey for his eighth birthday. He estimates that 40% of Australias betting activity is on U.S. sports, while Europe is 3-4%.

So while that immersion helped when he moved to the U.S. to build out PointsBets American clientele, he was starting from scratch in a New Jersey market with several competitors that already had brand awareness and, in some cases, a preexisting userbase. PointsBet was going up against these very bookmakers for a coveted deal at the Meadowlands that ultimately would allow it to operate in New Jersey. PointsBet had to pitch why it deserved a seat at the table. In betting terms, PointsBet landing the deal it ultimately did was initially considered such a longshot, that the odds probably would have been off the board.

We did face a huge uphill battle going into a market where FanDuel and DraftKings have, estimated, invested one to one-and-a-half billion dollars worth of marketing, Aitken says. Were also going up against casino-resort such as MGM and Caesars. William Hill was the first European bookmaker, so when they set up here in the U.S., they had an advantage on us as well.

When youre coming into a market where you have zero percent brand recognition, zero percent database, dont own any resorts, we really are starting from scratch. Even when we won our first deal last year in June, we didnt have a bank account. I was working out of a lobby from a hotel.

PointsBetand every other new operatormust find ways to differentiate their business from the competition. Aitkens key strategy for getting PointsBets name out there was rocking the boat on price and promotion. PointsBet offers a -105 vigorish or juice (bet $105 to win $100) on its pregame NFL spreads, whereas its competitors are at -110 (bet $110 to win $100). While that difference in price has attracted more bettors, it puts more pressure on Croucher and the rest of the traders since PointsBet is working with smaller margins.

PointsBet launched its online sportsbook in New Jersey in January of 2019, and one week later, Aitken saw a prime opportunity to put its name on the map via promotion. Millions of dollars bet across the country were swung on the infamous Nickell Robey-Coleman non-call in the NFC Championship Game between the Saints and Rams. PointsBet announced shortly after that every Saints bet would be refunded as part of its Good Karma Payout initiative. Several outlets picked up the story, giving PointsBet P.R. traction and more brand awareness.

Now in the midst of its first NFL regular season, PointsBets Jersey City office manages the markets in New Jersey and Iowa, and has market access to 10 states overall. PointsBet now has over a 5% market share in New Jersey, per Aitken, which ranks third behind DraftKings and the leader in the state, FanDuel.

Unlike its competitors, PointsBet wants to keep its operation lean and its trading room small.

Its funny, when we have people come into the office, theres this Hollywood image in their head that its going to be like Wall Street from the 1980s with guys throwing pieces of paper at each other and theres that old-school trading floor mentality, Aitken says. Now, modern trading is a combination of technology, data science and trading. Rather than us hire 100 traders and have them all come in and have their own opinions of pricing and how to trade, we like to use a lot of automation, a lot of technology, a lot of data science and still have really smart people at the wheel like Jay [Croucher] in New Jersey and Australia.

PointsBet has nine traders in its Jersey City office and another 15 in Australia. There are six on duty inside the N.J. trading room with the second half of Panthers-Buccaneers underway in London, about 90 minutes before the 1 p.m. EST kickoff. PointsBets traders are in their twenties and thirties, with about a third of them from abroad. What they may lack in experience compared to the folks in the desert that have been doing this for decades, they certainly make up for in mathematics-based backgrounds.

Its long departed from the Vegas archetype of older guys kicking back with cigars and talking about what the line should be, Croucher said. Its a lot more model-driven now. A lot of our prices come from our quants.

We recruit traders based not only on deep understanding of the sport, but they also need an understanding of probability and odds. Were looking for guys who understand numbers. If you know numbers, you understand them and then youve got the deep understanding of the sport, then thats all we need to mold a trader. So thats why they skew younger, weve got a lot of guys who come from finance services, commerce, guys who understand the market. Because thats what gambling is, its the market.

A four-figure in-game bet comes in on the Intercept for Panthers/Buccaneers under 61.5 points. The games total was 47.5 before kickoff, but with the score at 34-18 early in the fourth quarter, the in-game total is 14 points higher than where the market closed pregame. Senior sports analyst Matt Pollett approves the bet on the Intercept, but the live in-game total moves to 62 just seconds later, meaning the bettor didnt get the best number.

Taylor Ballantyne/Sports Illustrated

The teams exchanged punts before the Panthers padded their lead to 37-18 with 7:56 left following a 29-yard field goal from the Panthers Joey Slye. That bettor cant have more than 6.5 points scored the rest of the way, or else his under is finished. The Bucs then drove 75 yards, including a fourth-and-one conversion in the red zone, to score a touchdown on a Dare Ogunbowale three-yard run to paydirt with 4:47 remaining. Head coach Bruce Arians opted to go for two in a 13-point game, giving the under 61.5 bettor one last chance. Those hopes soon evaporated after Jameis Winston scrambled into the end zone to make it 37-26, which ended up as the final score.

Next on the docket: the early afternoon games. A five-figure bet came in this morning on Eagles +3 at the Vikings, and its identified in the Intercept as a sharp client. While the term sharp money may be misconstrued nationally, PointsBet has categorized two different types of sharps that it deals withsteam chasers and market makers.

Sharp money can be taking a price thats best price in the market, Croucher says. So its just someone looking at a board of all the prices and we happen to be sitting above for whatever reason, so theyre betting with us. If youre taking best price in the market over and over again, then the margins generally going to be in your favor and youre going to win.

Or theres the other type of sharp money where youre generally betting early, and then the closing price is moving in your favor. So its very difficult to beat NFL gameday prices, because theres so much sharp liquidity in the market because all the sharps have bet early week and theyve told the market where the price should be. But if you bet early week, then the lines are less solid. If we find that people are consistently beating that closing price with the price they took early week, then theyll be considered as sharp accordingly.

Since its gameday versus early in the week, the five-figure bet on Eagles +3.5 doesnt move the line, but rather shifts the price of Eagles +3.5 from -105 to -110. Croucher explains that PointsBet would need significant activity to come in on the same number in order to shift the line so close to kickoff, especially on a key number like +3.5.

Around 90 minutes before the start of the early slate, NFL teams announce which players will be inactive. Typically, bettors have a general idea beforehand of who will be playing and who wont be, so the game lines wont shift much from inactives unless something very unexpected occurs. For instance, when Chiefs wideout Tyreek Hills return against the Texans was announced after a five-week absence, the line and total stayed put at Kansas City -3.5 and 54.5.

Where some of the more under-the-radar inactives could have a role in the betting market is player props. When the Ravens ruled out rookie receiver Marquise Brown against the Bengals, there was activity on the first touchdown scored prop. Fellow Baltimore pass-catcher Miles Boykin was originally listed as a longshot +600, however after a few bets were taken, that number jumped to +250, where he now had the seventh-best odds on the board to reach the end zone first.

One of the biggest prop bets of the day also came from the Ravens-Bengals game. This was on Ravens quarterback Lamar Jacksons rushing prop, where a bettor secured over 60.5 yards. That grabbed the attention of the person in charge of the Intercept at the time, senior sports analyst Nick Welch. Welch was able to verify that the price was in-line with PointsBets projections, despite Jacksons well-known rushing ability, so the bet was accepted.

Another prop that appeared in Intercept caught Welchs attention, although not because of the amount.

This just came in: [Cowboys wideout Michael] Gallup to get nine-plus receptions at [+2000], Welch said. It was a small bet, but it was me looking at the price and thinking Thats a good price, we dont have to lay that +2000 for the rest of the day. So thats why Im just rolling it to +1600 now.

The traders spend a lot of time during the week preparing and discussing where to set pregame player props at. They huddle up early in the week to discuss the previous weeks results and what theyre looking for in the upcoming week. Theyre also keeping a close eye on who is placing these bets and the amount. They have to be able to identify why certain props are drawing big money consistently, and adjust quickly accordingly. But Croucher actually surmises that taking these sharp bets are overall a net positive, as they give him and the PointsBet traders more intel about the market.

We pinpoint things that weve noticed our sharper clients are betting on, Croucher said. We noticed early on that Patrick Mahomes his passing yards were too low earlier in the season. They were being set at 300, 305, 310, which is more in line with last seasons average.

Just with that Chiefs team and theyre a bit more banged up this year, theyre running the ball less and theyre also not blowing out teams as much because Mahomess numbers last year were so skewed because he wasnt playing in the fourth quarter when they were blowing out the Bengals by five touchdowns. Now, the market has reflected that and Mahomes this week is at like 320.5 yards. So its little things that we point out like that that were noticing early week.

Not every notable play cashes, though. The Eagles lost 38-20 to the Vikings. The Boykin first TD prop lost on the first play of the game, as Bengals returner Brandon Wilson brought back the opening kickoff 92 yards to the house. Gallup finished with four catches. Jackson, on the other hand, crushed his rushing total prop, as he accumulated 152 yards on the ground.

As 1:00 p.m. EST rolls around and the games kick off, the early focus shifts to monitoring in-game bets on Intercept that need to be approved. Welch, along with all the other traders, has a screen that lists the current live odds at every other bookmaker, allowing him to scope out any discrepancy between PointsBet and the rest of the market. There are bettors with access to this information as well, and they are ready to snipe quickly if PointsBets live line is off from market standard.

When the Chiefs, up 7-0 at the time, were facing third down in the red zone after recovering a Carlos Hyde fumble in the first quarter, PointsBets in-game line was at Texans +13. The Texans closed as 3.5-point underdogs, and other bookmakers had the in-game line at Texans +11.5. But Welch attributed the contrast in lines to the third down being a swing play, where bookmakers models are programmed differently to account for third downs. Some models are more aggressive with how they price in-game lines right before swing plays based off of bookmakers different implied probabilities for converting. So Welch approved that Texans +13 live bet, even though he knew that bettor was getting the best of the number compared to what the rest of the market was offering.

As most of the games go into halftime, this is when all of the traders in the room are sprung into the action. While second-half lines or totals are largely automated, the traders have discussions regarding live player prop lines and, by default, second-half player prop lines. While the players talent and the pregame line are aspects in setting those props, the most important factors are game flow, projected opportunity and general market consensus.

For example, the Texans led the Chiefs 23-17 at halftime. Since Kansas City was down and the game was high scoring, the traders assumed that Patrick Mahomes would throw a lot in the second half. As a result, Mahomess adjusted live passing yardage line and second-half passing yardage line will be more in line with half of his pregame passing yardage prop of 320.5, since the market was already anticipating a high-scoring, close affair between the Chiefs and Texans.

On the other hand, the Vikings led the Eagles 24-10 at halftime. Kirk Cousins had 209 passing yards after the first two quarters, and his pregame passing yardage prop was 250.5. The traders, however, are anticipating fewer throws or less of an opportunity for Cousins in the second half because the Vikings are up two touchdowns and because Minnesota will likely go into more of a conservative gameplan. So unlike Mahomes, the traders will not be using half of Cousinss pregame passing yardage prop to dictate his adjusted live passing yardage line at the half, and instead have to come up with a new number on the fly.

Taylor Ballantyne/Sports Illustrated

As Aitken alluded to, while PointsBets operations are so dependent on technology, theres also a human element needed in order to strike the perfect balance. All of the traders are involved in a discussion for creating adjusted live/second-half player props right before the half of the early games, including Chiefs-Texans.

Alright, so Deshauns at 139. Prematch was effectively half that.

I think since Watson is at half of his prematch now, that price is gonna hold the rest of the game given hes still gonna be clearly throwing the ball. So were just gonna go back up with his prematch price, 275.

So Mahomes is 232.

And down.

And hes gonna be throwing.

Id say 385. 390.

Prematch he was 320.5. Id say take half of that again. So 392.5.

Hopkins.

Eighteen yards. Four targets.

Theyre giving him nothing.

Add 30 yards on that? 35?

But it is Hopkins.

52 on [one bookmaker].

He was 81.5 pregame. So slightly less than half of that given the coverage.

Only 48 then? 49?

Lets call it 50 just to make it round. 50.5

Kelce?

So 42, which is basically exactly half his prematch price. Effectively double that.

84.5.

What about Tyreek?

He was 74.5 prematch. Hes at 66 yards, but there was a 46-yarder in that. Hes been targeted eight times.

101.5 on [one bookmaker].

Would you back under or over on 101?

Id back over.

So 106.5?

Yeah, he only needs one catch.

Hes been targeted eight times. Yeah, 106.5.

Oddsmakers are always looking at discrepancies between their lines and other books. The one that caused the biggest stir in the room was Hopkins. PointsBet opened the Texans wideouts live game yardage prop at 50.5 at the half. A different bookmaker opened theirs at 52 and shifted to 51.5, while another one surprisingly opened it at 79.5. The price on that over 79.5 quickly shot up to +200, while the under went from -115 to -278.

Oddsmakers are setting these lines hoping for even action on both sides. On that specific Hopkins live yardage prop, the fact that there was a huge discrepancy in the market was clearly taken advantage of by some bettors, since the price on that Hopkins under 79.5 yards line went all the way to -278.

One prop that PointsBet adjusted based off the market was Mahomess passing yardage. There was a double-digit differential there between PointsBet and multiple bookmakers, so Croucher shifted it from the original 392.5 to 400.5 in the middle of the halftime break.

Hopkins finished with 55 receiving yards in the game, while Mahomes only notched 273 passing yardslargely due to the fact that Kansas City had just three possessions in the second half.

Adjusting the player prop market isnt even the toughest level of improvisation that traders have to pull off.

On Sundays, I think the biggest difficulty is responding to unexpected injuries or weather during games, Croucher says. So much of the in-play pricing now is automated based off the prematch closing price. But if Drew Brees gets injured in the second quarter against the Rams, then that prematch price, which I think was Rams -3, that goes out the door completely. You have to react in that circumstance and theres no model that can answer for what the difference is in that specific situation between Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater coming off the bench for the rest of the game.

And thats where trading now really comes into it, where you just have to take a calculated best guess. Or in games, mainly with total-related markets, its usually when theres a lot of rain expected and it just never comes, and then the totals are all out of whack and you have to adjust those on the fly. Those are the two most difficult aspects, just dealing with unexpected things in play that throw everything to hell basically.

The traders were tested early in the third quarter of Seahawks-Browns. Baker Mayfield was taken to the locker room, which suspended the in-game line. The Browns, who closed as one-point favorites, were leading 20-18 at the time, with the Seahawks taking over possession at their own 42-yard line. While Mayfields status for the rest of the game remained unknown, PointsBet still had to put up a new in-game line.

In-play modeling is heavily tied to the prematch closing price, Croucher explained. When theres a game-altering injury and prematch pricing becomes obsolete, the models prematch closing price needs to be altered to account for the new situation, thus informing more accurate in-play pricing. In this case, a Baker injury would skew the closing price back toward Seattle being favored.

In an adjustment to Mayfields injury, PointsBet opened its new in-game line at Seahawks -4.5, with its pricing more aggressive than other bookmakers. William Hill put its new in-game line up at Seahawks -3, while Bet365s -3.5 live line was quickly bet up to -4.5. Seattle scored a touchdown on that drive to make it a 25-20 game, however Mayfield jogged back onto the field and didnt wind up missing a single play. Croucher estimated that even with Mayfields early-season struggles, the sophomore quarterbacks value to the line compared to backup Garrett Gilbert would be 4-4.5 points.

As the early games wrap up, the New Jersey traders responsibilities this Sunday are winding down as well. Most of them stay in the office until halftime of the late afternoon games, before handing off control to the trading team in Australia. Croucher, the last vacate the room, departs from his Burgundy chair and heads home to his wife and child. While the war that is the NFL season still has a long ways before concluding, another Sunday battle has been carried out in the trenches.

Taylor Ballantyne/Sports Illustrated

***

There are two states on everybodys radar for sports betting in 2020. New York does have legalized sports betting, however bets can only be made in person at four upstate casinos. Without mobile betting available, that leaves NYC residents much more likely to venture to New Jersey to place their action. On the West Coast, the wheels are starting to churn in California. In November, Native Americans proposed an initiative for the states 2020 ballot that would legalize sports betting in certain locations in California. This comes months after Senator Bill Dodd and Assemblyman Adam Gray introduced a bill that would also give California citizens the opportunity to vote to legalize sports betting on the states 2020 ballot. If California were to implement it, that could have a major impact on Las Vegas and Nevada.

PointsBet, though, has its sights set on a different state to further build its brand. Colorado became the 19th U.S. state to legalize sports betting on Nov. 6, however the bookmaker already had zeroed in on it as the next step of its expansion.

Like the deal with the Meadowlands that allowed PointsBet to begin in New Jersey, the bookmaker struck a partnership with Double Eagle Hotel and Casino that will permit it to launch a retail and mobile sportsbook in Colorado. PointsBet also will have a new office in downtown Denver. Aitken is already out there, along with most of PointsBets U.S. executive, legal and social teams.

But why Colorado? PointsBet is convinced that given the states immense support for its four professional sports teams, that developing an interest in sports betting will be an easy process. Additionally, PointsBet has already been working with Colorados university systems to recruit the schools top tech students to bolster its efforts in that department.

PointsBet is aiming to have 200 employees in its Colorado office, which is scheduled to open in April of 2020. After starting from scratch in New Jersey, PointsBets next goal is to become the top sportsbook in Colorado. And its not stopping there.

[Our goal] is to have a national footprint. Once were in 10, 12, 15, 20 states hopefully within the next 3-4 years, were a national brand, Aitken said. If you asked anybody, Would PointsBet enter the market in New Jersey without any brand awareness and achieve over 5% market share over six months? theyd think youre crazy. Weve done that now, and for us, within 5-10 years, ultimately we do want to be number one in the entire country. We have the capability to do that, with our technology, our people and our complete focus on the U.S. market.

Read more:
A Behind the Scenes Look at How One Sportsbook Handles the Craziness of an NFL Sunday - Sports Illustrated