OLD HOUSES hold many charms, but their aged landscapes are rarely among them. It was difficult to even glimpse the facade of John and Tina Jacobs 1928 Georgian Revival home through the overgrown bushes shrouding the house.

You had to fight your way through the shrubs to get to the front door, says Jason Morse of the landscape architecture division of AHBL. Morse had designed the Jacobs garden in Broadmoor years ago as his first professional project. They hired him again a few years ago to work his stylish magic on their Laurelhurst front garden.

There were challenges. A steep slope slanted toward the house from the street. The narrow strip of lawn along the front of the house was perpetually soggy from water draining down the hillside toward the lake.

Tinas vision for the garden, and the homes architectural symmetry, guided Morses design. She wanted a front yard that was dry and welcoming, and offered a better view of the house. Because Tinas kitchen sink looks toward the street, she pictured garden rooms to be enjoyed from the inside out. Tina loves subtle colors and simple lines. And she wanted plants that look good even when they arent blooming.

Then there were John and Tinas differing aesthetics. John likes formal gardens; Tina prefers a more casual look. By enclosing looser plantings within layers of hedging, Morse created a garden that pleased them both. Floppy-leafed hostas and the pale-pink flower spikes of astilbe soften the gardens geometry. A taller hedging of yews offers screening from the street and textural contrast to the shorter, tightly clipped boxwood hedges.

Morse began by tackling the drainage problem. He reversed the flow of water by creating a slight slope away from the house. He got rid of the planted hillside down into the garden and poured a new retaining wall with proper drainage.Next: installing wide bluestone pathways and patios, outlined in sandstone cobbles to complement the homes vintage.

An old cherry tree and camellia bush were preserved, as was a huge magnolia along the side of the house. But most of the plants are new. A thick planting of the ground cover Saxifraga London Pride, with its foamy haze of little flowers, lines the sidewalk.

Most of the plantings were chosen for leaf over flower. Morse planned for seasonal color with compact Rhododendron Dreamland flowering palest pink in May, followed by the feathery pink blooms of Astilbe Peach Blossom. Hydrangea serrata Bluebird has soft blue lacecap flowers midsummer into autumn. A stately urn and window boxes hold flowering annuals. A Japanese maple (Acer palmatum Osakazuki) blazes red in autumn.

Morse extended the homes architecture into the garden with a white arbor. He repeated an oval motif from one of the homes old doors on the arbor and fence, tying house to garden. The homes traditional symmetry is reflected in the gardens rectangles, circles and view axes.

Tina is especially pleased by the gardens sense of serenity. The color scheme is quiet, mostly green and white with touches of pink and blue. This feeling of repose lies not only in the choice of plants but also in Morses attention to scale. One garden room unfolds into another, each comfortably intimate in scale and enclosure.

More here:
Laurelhurst garden is a study in grace with subtle color and good geometry

Resolve in 2015 to neaten that little shed of horrors. You know, that place in the back yard where things have simply been tossed throughout the year. There is likely a tangled cluster of tools, old hoses, pots and other gardening stuff. Now is the time to remove all that stuff, toss some, properly dispose of others and neatly return what we plan to use. It would certainly be nice to be able to walk into the shed again.

Part of what you might find in the shed are partially used containers of pesticides, fertilizers and similar chemicals. If you are not going to use these products, it is time to take them to a facility for proper disposal. Call your local University of Florida Extension Office to determine where you can properly dispose of these items in your county.

Keeping the garden growing is another good resolution and the secret to producing food for your table. No matter how small the garden might be, if there is nothing planted, it is not a productive spot. I am as guilty as most gardeners and it is one of my New Years Resolutions to keep the plantings up to date.

Right now is a good time for the cool season crops. Many gardeners plant broccoli, cauliflower, peas, lettuce and beets just to mention a few. But you can check out the entire list by obtaining a vegetable gardening guide from your local University of Florida Extension Office. When one crop finishes one of these should be planted.

Do consider keeping other New Years Resolutions too like tidying up the landscape. There are weeds to pull and out of bounds shoots to be removed. And how about the perennials that have grown too tall and wide? They can be trimmed back too. January is the month we can begin the maintenance we have been putting off for months. Remember? We have been waiting for the cooler weather.

Surely many gardeners want to trim their crape myrtles. But I am suggesting you wait just a bit longer. Crape myrtle trees and shrubs have been slow to lose their leaves and go dormant due to the warmish weather. It is best to wait until late January or early February this year. We do not want these plants to jump into growth too soon and be damaged by cold. And be kind by only removing the old seed pods and twiggy stems. Crape myrtles do not benefit from harsh pruning.

Some other new year, must do chores, include renovating overgrown beds, edging walkways and replenishing mulch layers. You might also take some time to discover new plants for the landscapes. One forgotten group is the bulbs. Some to try include the caladiums, blood lilies, crinums and rain lilies. These are tough durable plants for the landscape.

Lastly make time for something fun to do in the New Year. Visit some of the local botanical or private gardens. You may discover plants, landscape ideas and other projects you can use in the new year.

Link:
Dealing With That Little Shed Of Horrors

Prev Next Zen Oasis

Take a chill in this peaceful, Asian-inspired garden.

See five secrets to a gorgeous front yard landscape, as well as inspiration for your front yard landscaping project.

Shrubs and trees combine for a striking, expansive back or front yard landscaping.

Vibrant colors belie the ease of care behind the plants in this front yard landscaping.

Carved out in a corner, this landscaping idea for a front yard garden showcases fuss-free plants and trees.

A congenial grouping of perennials and annuals dresses up a narrow flowerbed in this landscape idea for a front yard.

A front yard landscaping nook relies on a soothing and low-key setup.

A front yard landscaping full of grass may seem like less effort than adding ornamental plantings, but this pretty yard proves otherwise.

This landscape idea for a front yard relies on no-fuss design and pretty plant accents.

Read more:
Landscaping Ideas for the Front Yard - Better Homes and ...

From resident, to voter, to volunteer, to activist grass-roots energy surged in 2014, changing the local political landscape for a long time to come.

Rumbles began early in 2014 as the Denton Drilling Advisory Group launched a petition drive that would eventually bring about the first ban on hydraulic fracturing in the state.

People registered to vote in large numbers, showed up at the polls to cast their ballots and weighed in other city matters, large and small. Thousands signed another petition, and thousands more voted, to end the citys prohibition on liquor sales. A big public-private partnership unraveled as community support for a new convention center and hotel plummeted. Public opinion pushed both an obscure property maintenance rule for flag displays and the citys once-perfunctory legislative agenda back to the drawing board to better reflect local priorities.

Denton became the first Texas city to ban hydraulic fracturing after a citizen-driven proposition cruised to a landslide victory at the polls in November.

Although voter turnout statewide was thought to be the lowest in the nation, local turnout was higher than average for a gubernatorial election. Thousands of people registered to vote in Denton. Although not all those newbies cast ballots, the city saw more voters make their choice in the fracking ban than in any other municipal issue in recent history.

Dozens of cities in New York and elsewhere have banned fracking, but Texas is oil and gas country. So Dentons proposition over the rights of a Texas city to police what happens within its borders pushed the local battle into the national spotlight.

The campaign was the most expensive in the citys history, by far. Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economy, which opposed the ban, far outraised and outspent Pass the Ban in its Frack-Free Denton campaign.

Denton Taxpayers pulled in close to $700,000 through Oct. 25, the latest campaign finance reporting date, a figure nearly 10 times the $75,000 raised by Pass the Ban. Chevron and Occidental Petroleum contributed $95,000 to defeat the ban even though neither operates any gas wells in Denton. EnerVest, XTO Energy and Devon Energy, which do have wells in Denton, all made six-figure donations that totaled more than $540,000.

Final campaign finance reports are due in the city secretarys office next month.

Denton Taxpayers sent out several mailers and had ads running in print, broadcast and social media, many of them with an image of a pink piggy bank being smashed by a gavel, in the final days before the election. The group also secured testimonials from former Texas Womans University chancellor Ann Stuart and former mayor Perry McNeill as well as support from the North Texas State Fair Association, the Denton Chamber of Commerce and the Denton County Republican Party, which bought its own ads opposing the ban.

Excerpt from:
Year in review: Spurred to action

Weeks after his team took Super Bowl 43, head coach Mike Tomlin was laying the groundwork for the next great generation of Pittsburgh Steelers.

As the league's landscape continued to evolve, so was the need for Tomlin's Steelers to follow suit.

The NFL was different game in 2009 than it was when former head coach Bill Cowher's Steelers won Super Bowl 40 in early 2006. Still, today, the NFL is contrasting to the year Tomlin's squad achieved a Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl 43 in early 2009.

Today's NFL is about creating matchup disasters with subpackages. For better or worse, it's become a weekly shootout.

A rebuild for Pittsburgh seemed imminent and necessary during that 2009 offseason. Even as the team would go to the Super Bowl the following season (2010), aging veterans on both sides of the ball like Hines Ward, Aaron Smith and Casey Hampton to name a few, the core of the Steelers for three Super Bowl appearances in six years, would eventually have to be replaced.

Mike Tomlin led his team to a Super Bowl 43 win in just his second season as head coach.

So, what did Tomlin desire for his offense? Caught in the "Tomlinisms" and coach talk often associated with a typical press conference during the 2009 season, he laid a few key quotes that were buried as the years went by.

"You study a team like New England, and they walk into a stadium offensively, and week to week they can be whatever they choose to be,"Tomlin told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a Sept. 23, 2009 article. "They can beat you in three wides, four wides, three tight ends, and it makes them very difficult to prepare for and ultimately beat."

Flash to today, the team is earning high praise on the offensive side of the ball, where it seems like the long turnover of a championship-caliber team may finally be bearing fruit. That after two, long torturous seasons of...8-8 football. Oh, Pittsburgh fans, why must we bear such pain?

Offensively, the Steelers are well on their way to becoming that ideal image, that Patriots image Tomlin swooned over in 2009. The 2014 version is executing with the ball in a variety of ways, able to attack teams with a devastating power counter run game or with a record-breaking aerial assault. Or, in many cases, both at the same time.

The rest is here:
Mike Tomlin's Pittsburgh Steelers Offense Takes New England Patriots' Mentality

Colby Sue Weathers: her mother had asked a local gunshop not to sell her the weapon she used to kill her father.

Lets say your mental landscape is similar to that of Colby Sue Weathers back in 2012: suicidal, homicidal, paranoid, schizophrenic. Oh, and with a drug and alcohol problem. You are too disabled by mental illness - schizophrenia was diagnosed in 2011 - and recurring hospitalisations to work. You are not great about maintaining your psychotropic drug regimen, which you administer inconsistently and sometimes to woozy excess. And you have an occasional hankering, occasionally satisfied, to consume a bottle of spirits. In other words, your life is utterly out of control.

One trouble you probably dont have - provided you live in the United States - is gaining access to a lethal firearm. Thanks in part to the advocacy of the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups, and in part to the commitment of politicians, you can buy a gun and kill someone, yourself included, almost entirely free of obstacles. In many cases, you can do so completely legally. Because in practice, the US gun market generally does not discriminate against a wide array of pre-existing conditions, including madness.

There are no thorough background checks to determine whether you are mentally unhinged and a danger to yourself or others. No waiting periods to give the evil voices echoing inside your head time to decamp. No opportunities for family or friends or public safety officials to intervene in the firearm transaction. No meaningful commercial distinctions made between a skilled hunter eager for the approach of deer season and a dangerous psychotic with visions of blood.

Last week, Janet Delana filed a negligence suit against Odessa Gun & Pawn shop in Odessa, Missouri. In May 2012, Odessa sold Delanas daughter - Colby Sue Weathers - a Hi-Point .40 calibre semi-automatic pistol. According to the suit, Weathers, who was 38 at the time, had intended to shoot herself. She sat with the gun for an hour or so before abandoning her goal and informing her parents, who promptly got rid of the gun.

Advertisement

A few weeks later, in late June, the voices in Weatherss head told her to buy another gun and kill herself. Having observed her daughters agitation, Delana said she called Odessa Gun & Pawn on June 25, and alerted an employee to her daughters chronic mental illness and current suicidal state. She asked that the shop refrain from selling Weathers a gun. Two days later, Weathers turned up at Odessa and bought another Hi-Point pistol. Weathers drove home, loaded two bullets and shot her father. Dad is dead, she texted her mother. He was.

The lawsuit, which was filed by lawyers for the Brady Centre to Prevent Gun Violence, is an uphill challenge'', said UCLA law professor Adam Winkler, author of the excellent book, Gun Fight, via email. Under the nations gun laws, the dealer was allowed to sell to someone without a criminal or mental illness record. Its usually hard to pin responsibility for someones bad acts on a commercial establishment that merely supplied the equipment.

Supplying the equipment is what the nations 140,000 federally licensed firearms dealers do for a living. And there is absolutely nothing in federal law requiring them to sell their wares in a manner that is socially responsible, discerning or protective of human life. Kevin Jamison, the lawyer for Odessa, told me, The store went through all the proper legal procedures.

And there you have the nub of the problem. The lawsuit doesnt even claim that Odessa violated the law. Presumably, Weathers passed an instant background check before killing her father. A 2011 report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg, revealed that almost half the states had submitted fewer than 100 mental health records to the federal background check database. Cases of substance abuse were also hugely underreported. And merely being crazy isnt sufficient for inclusion in the database, anyway. You have to be certified crazy. As the Los Angeles Times reported in September after a mass shooting at Washingtons Naval Yard, Most mentally ill people - including Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter who apparently showed signs of psychosis - never get treatment or arent recognized as being in crisis.

Continued here:
Colby Sue Weathers: homicidal, psychotic and legally sold a gun

In the world of business journalism, you are often asked whether the number of good news stories is increasing. It is not surprising to hear this question, with the issue of whether good or bad news stories are in the ascendancy being viewed, understandably, in a similar way to the needle on a barometer.

The fact of the matter is that, even in the depths of the 2008/09 downturn, there were plenty of good news stories from within the Scottish business community.

Often, these success stories were all the more impressive because the achievements were made against the odds, with the economy in dire shape.

And, even in the better times, there are bad news stories.

Unfortunately, for example, announcements of job losses by companies seem ever more like permanent features of the business landscape. There appears to be ever-less relief these days from such bad news even when the economy is supposedly faring a bit better.

In this regard, the question of whether the management consultants are just having too much of an impact often comes to mind.

When they are called into companies, it frequently seems that they are unlikely to resist the opportunity to advise taking out, say, a certain further percentage of the workforce. It is easy to make such a suggestion if you are not particularly familiar with the operations of a business and its requirements.

Such approaches, of top-down management seeking to squeeze efficiencies out of businesses, sadly often appear to figure more prominently than moves by companies to invest for future growth.

The highlight of the year, in terms of the good news stories, was Scottish engineering entrepreneur Jim McColl's rescue of the Ferguson shipbuilding yard at Port Glasgow.

When Ferguson, the last commercial shipbuilder on the Clyde, fell into administration, it was easy to fear the worst.

Originally posted here:
McColl rescue of Ferguson shipyard a high point in year of ups and downs

For now at least, ESA has lost contact with Philae after it bounced, rolled and ended up in a location where its solar panels could not be re-charged by the suns rays.

But the Rosetta is still orbiting Comet 67P from just a few miles away, allowing scientists unprecedented views of the celestial object.

Data already sent back to the ESA mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, indicates that ice in Comet 67P has a significantly different composition to the water in Earth's oceans. This may mean that comets were not, as some have previously thought, the origin of life on this planet.

By February, ESA hopes that the Rosetta will be able to reach just four miles from the surface. The spacecraft is scheduled to continue to accompany the comet as it makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2015 August before the probe burns up.

Scientists hope that the dishwasher-sized Philae may come back to life in when the sunlight intensifies as the comet nears the Sun.

It is now believed that after the Philaes landing equipment did not function as planned on its initial touchdown, the lander may have bounced up hundreds of yard because of the comets low gravitational field. It then came to rest again after two hours back in space.

The Rosetta travelled three billion miles over 10 years to reach the comet, which is moving at 34,000mph.

Go here to see the original:
Rosetta images show soaring 1km comet cliff

Leaves clean up
leaf clean ups, mowing, landscape, yard work, blowing, raking leaves.

By: Rene Romero

See more here:
Leaves clean up - Video

KUCHING: The potential entrance of South Korean Hyundai Heavy Industries (Hyundai) could spell a permanent change in the local fabrication landscape, analysts observed.

This could also mean pressure margins and reduce the appeal to pure domestic fabricators with single business focus such as Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd (MMHE).

The research arm of Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd (Affin Research) in a report saidHyundai is close to securing a US$1 billion engineering, procurement and fabrication contract for the central processing platform for the Baram Delta Gas Gathering Project 2 (Bardegg 2) and Baronia enhanced oil recovery project off Malaysia.

This contract, if awarded to Hyundai, will mark the South Koreans second major Malaysia contract wins this year. The group had in June 2014 secured a turnkey contract from Hess to build a large central processing platform under the North Malay basin gas and condensate development, it added.

We opine that the potential entrance of South Korean yard would permanently change the local fabrication landscape, pressure margins and reduce the appeal of MMHE, Affin Research commented.

Furthermore, Affin Research highlighted, as a domestic oil & gas company with single business focus, MMHE is more vulnerable to lower domestic upstream capital expenditure (capex).

It explained, Our economist has recently lowered our 2015 estimate Brent crude price forecast to US$75 per bbl, from US$85 per bbl on large global oil production surplus and OPECs decision to not intervene in the oil market. The lower oil price has pressured Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) to cut its 2015 capex by 15 to 20 per cent.

As of now, Affin Research noted, MMHE has secured a mere RM323 million contracts year to date (YTD), significantly lower than its RM1.7 billion to RM2.9 billion contract wins in 2011 to 2013. It noted the contract awards to the South Korean yards signalled that Petronas is now highly focused on cost control.

On its outlook, Affin Research said while it expects MMHE to secure some RM1.2 billion to RM1.5 billion worth of contracts per annum in 2015-16E, it believed that its bids would need to be highly competitive and hence, its profit margins might come under pressure.

It noted, MMHE is now undergoing a rightsizing exercise with its project partner Technip Malaysia. It said, in the first half of 2014 (1H14), MMHE had undertaken mutual separation scheme involving 100 employees.

Read the original post:
Site Last Updated 2:05 am, Friday