Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

With bitter temperatures and a snowy landscape, February may feel a bit early to start planning your spring garden.

Not so, says Chuck Martin, horticulturalist at Dow Gardens. For 15 years, Martin has helped organize the annual Dow Gardens Know & Grow Seminar, an informational seminar for gardening enthusiasts and plant lovers alike.

We usually do this event in February, though a lot of others (botanical gardens) wait until late winter, Martin said. We hold the event in February to get people really excited about gardening.

The Know and Grow Seminar takes place this Saturday, Feb. 21, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Bullock Creek High School Auditorium, 1420 S. Badour. A $75 ticket will grant you access to listen to nationally known speakers on a variety of garden topics. The Midland Master Gardeners will also be on site, hosting a marketplace with items for sale from vendors across Michigan. Lunch is included.

This years event features a breadth of topics covered by well-known professionals in the horticulture world.

Roy Diblik, author of the book The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden, will speak on the topic, Creating Your Perennial Plant Community: The Know Maintenance Approach. A noted plantsman and designer, Diblik has spent more than 30 years cultivating a career focused on plants, designing such well-known gardens as the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago.

(Seminars like Know & Grow) are like a pep rally, Diblik said. Its helpful to have these discussions and get everyone emotionally charged up in the mid or late winter because everyone is dreaming about that first 45 or 60 degree day when you can smell green. Its good to have these discussions so people get motivated and theres that thought process and inspiration for your garden.

Best-selling and award-winning author Niki Jabbour will give a presentation titled Year Round Vegetable Gardening. Jabbour will discuss maintaining a year-round vegetable garden and methods of extending your harvest season. Vegetable gardening year-round is a gardening trend gaining popularity, Martin said

Jabbour, who wrote The Year Round Vegetable Gardener, hosts her own radio show and currently writes for such publications as Fine Gardening, Garden Making, Birds and Blooms, The Heirloom Gardener, and Horticulture. She said her passion for gardening dates back to her childhood.

When I was a child, we had a family veggie garden, but it was strictly a May to September garden, Jabbour said. It was, however, enough to pique my interest and by the time I was a teenager, I had taken over the plot and never looked back.

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Dow Gardens presents Know & Grow Seminar

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POOLSIDE LIVING: Linda Hodgson and Ginger in the redesigned pool deck area.

POM POM TREE: Cloud pruned Juniperus 'Kaizuka' provides a sense of fun in the garden

FRAMED OUTLOOK: The arch of the front entrance is reflected in the curved gate and the cloud pruned Juniperus 'Kaizuka'.

SWEETLY SCENTED: Hedges of gardenia, star jasmine and mandarins offer a beautiful fragrance in the front garden.

Just as houses grow and change to suit their owners, so Linda Hodgson's Remuera garden has evolved over the past 11 years.

When Netherlands-born Linda, husband Steve and their family moved into their first New Zealand home, she worried about keeping her preschoolers safe from the pool and where to site the sandpit.

Fast-forward a decade and daughters Lara, 15, and Jemima, 13, and their friends are sunning themselves on the new pool deck and trying not to get their hair wet.

Belinda Merrie

For more great gardens, see the latest issue of NZ House & Garden.

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Formal and fun Remuera garden evolves to meet family needs

This spring, Drake Community Library is moving into the second phase of its landscape redesign. The library features prairie plants and grasses in their landscape, but decided last year to remove these plants in some areas and replace them with more conventional landscaping.

The first part of the project, completed last year, focused on making the streetscape more appealing to visitors, including planting Rhizomatous Tall Fescue grass, which will be greener and look cleaner.

This whole campaign has been about bringing people together, making our library grounds a gateway to the prairie, versus trying to be the prairie, said Library Director Marilyn Kennett. We reevaluated our goals and purposes and therefore did more of a conventional landscaping on our streetscape because literally there were comments that people couldnt find us because they thought we were an abandoned school building.

Drake Library moves ahead in landscape redesign. Contributed photo.

The second part of the landscaping project will focus on structural improvements which are necessary for the prairie to be successful and accessible.

We have to be able to have people who are in their hiking boots and their high heels, Kennett said. We need to accommodate people in their high heels with pathways and park benches and we need to accommodate people who want to delve into the prairie by leaving as much natural as we can. Thats the convergence, the compromise that were aiming for.

This includes building permeable pavement walkways in several places in the prairie. The permeable pavement allows for water to move through spaces in the pavers and there are special soils underneath to absorb water, which is not presently being absorbed due to the high amounts of clay left in the soil after the construction of the library.

Additionally, areas of bioswale will be added in order to help solve erosion problems and keep excess rainwater on site. They help to improve water quality and convey heavy rains to storm sewers.

At the start of this project, the library was in a difficult position as community members had conflicting positions over the prairie landscape.

They had some folks in the community thanking them for installing the prairie and others telling them that it was an eyesore and to rip it out. I met with the Drake Library board of directors and convinced them to give us a little time to manage the prairie before getting rid of it, wrote Center for Prairie Studies Outreach Coordinator Elizabeth Hill in an email to The S&B. Prairies are composed of a large diversity of perennial plants, and they take a while to grow, so it is going to take a while before the prairie reaches our goals of beauty and functioning, but it will be worth the wait.

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Drake Library moves ahead in landscape redesign

Fancy a walk this weekend? There's nothing quite as satisfying as a climbing achallenging hill to be rewarded with an incredible view. Fortunately, Dorset has a lot of incredible views. Here are some of our favourites.

All pictures embedded viaFlickrsharing, click each one for more details

The one with the ancient civilisations: Maiden Castle

People have been living on Maiden Castle, near Dorchester,for almost 6,000 years, although it's the Iron Age settlement - the biggest hill fort in the UK - that is most obvious now. The hill is maintained by English Heritage, who don't charge for access. The lowest hill on the list at 134m. Picture by Michael Day, via Flickr. Click it for more details

The one with the views over Lulworth Cove: Bindon Hill

Bindon Hill is accessible from West Lulworth or along the South West Coastal Path from Lulworth Cove, but only when Lulworth Ranges are open. (see here for times) The hill itself is 168m high and offers incredible views along the coast, as this picture by Geoff Hill via Flickr shows.

The highest point on the south coast:Golden Cap

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11 Dorset hills to climb this weekend (and the incredible views you'll get from the top)

Feb. 19, 2015, 8:44 p.m.

They were the rain clouds with a $1 million Labor silver lining.

Pledge: Labor candidate for Heathcote, Maryanne Stewart, Federal member for Sydney, Tanya Plibersek, Federal member for Cunningham, Sharon Bird, and Keira MP Ryan Park brave the wind and rain on Bald Hill, Stanwell Park, to announce Labors plans for the walking track. Picture: KIRK GILMOUR

They were the rain clouds with a $1 million Labor silver lining.

As grey skies rolled over Bald Hill on Thursday, concealing the picturesque landscape below, the region's ALP politicians donned umbrellas to pledge money for the first stage of an Illawarra Escarpment Walk.

The money, which would fund the upgrade and connection of three walking routes - Otford to Bald Hill, Bald Hill to Stanwell Park and Stanwell Park to Stanwell Creek - is subject to the party being elected on March 28.

Shadow Minister for the Illawarra, and Keira MP Ryan Park, was joined by Labor candidate for Heathcote, Maryanne Stuart, and federal deputy Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, for the announcement.

"This has been on the cards for decades," Mr Park said.

"It is now time to accelerate this as we transition our economy from traditional industries to one that we need to rely on - the growth in tourism - particularly here in the northern suburbs."

The continuous walking track would link Oftord and the Royal National Park with Austinmer.

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$1million pledged for Illawarra walking track

Feb. 19, 2015, 8:03 p.m.

There are claims that NSW could see unprecedented levels of land clearing and threatened species will become extinct if the "radical" recommendations of a review of NSW Biodiversity Legislation are adopted by the NSW government.

The Independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel handed down its final report in December.

It recommends repealing the Native Vegetation Act 2003 as the act "has not met expectations as a central pillar of biodiversity conservation in NSW".

The panel also recommends repealing the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and parts of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 Act and "reconstituting elements of them in a new Biodiversity Conservation Act".

Greens candidate for Kiama, Terry Barratt, said the report portrayed current biodiversity legislation as an impediment to agricultural and other types of development, rather than recognising that it was there to protect NSW's biodiversity.

Mr Barratt said the proposed approach was "radical" and intended to clear away the obstacles and responsibilities biodiversity protection laws impose on the corporate farming, mining and development industries.

He said the failure to achieve legislative biodiversity objectives was largely due to poor government resource allocation, rather than inadequate legislation.

"Both Labor and Liberal governments have for years been progressively reducing the capacity of government departments to respond to the challenges associated with biodiversity protection," Mr Barratt said.

Gerroa Environmental Protection Society secretary, Howard Jones, said current laws helped protect areas such as the Illawarra escarpment.

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Environment fears if 'radical' overhaul ratified

Feb. 16, 2015, 5:11 p.m.

SHELLHARBOUR Village Uniting Church will celebrate a significant milestone next Sunday when parishioners mark the 150th anniversary.

The original Wesleyan Church and the modern Uniting Church are celebrating the old stone church's 150th anniversary this weekend.

SHELLHARBOUR Village Uniting Church will celebrate a significant milestone next Sunday when parishioners mark the 150th anniversary.

After the founding of Shellharbour by the district's pioneers, starting from land clearing in 1851, the village gradually started taking shape after the then Peterborough was divided into 80 farms.

In 1858 the stone Church of England and Presbyterian churches were built, followed by the Catholic Church in 1860.

As the town grew a courthouse and police station were built in 1863. The town's fourth stone church, then known as the Wesleyan Church, was also constructed in 1863. The church became the Uniting Church in 1977.

Current Church Council secretary Cliff Bell said the church's congregation was extremely excited to be celebrating such a significant milestone.

"The church was first used on February 23, 1865, with the Reverend W. Curnow conducting the opening service," Mr Bell said.

"The church has made somewhat of a comeback in recent times, with numbers falling quite alarmingly at one stage, but with around 70 members now, the church is, thankfully, in quite a strong position again.

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Shellharbour Village Unit Church marks 150 years

Dressers, which are often the catch-all for socks, pajamas and off-duty garb such as jeans and T-shirts, are just as important as closets.

Unfortunately, theyre also notoriously bulky, heavy and expensive, so folks who are squeezed into tiny apartments and condos may have a tough time finding a narrow, affordable piece. David Benton, an architect with Rill Architects in Bethesda, Md., suggests apartment dwellers think outside the box.

Really, it doesnt even have to be an actual dresser, Benton said. It could be a sideboard if you want something low and wide, or a chest thats intended for a dining room. Dont feel like you have to shop in the bedroom department. It can be limiting.

Benton knows what its like to live in cramped quarters. He once lived in a 230-square-foot studio. It was a lesson in prioritizing, he said. Small spaces teach you how to utilize every square inch.

They also force you to get creative. While its true that modern retailers such as West Elm and CB2 now offer handy items such as storage beds and stackable bins, dressers are typically still too large for rooms that barely fit the bed.

What these spaces need is what people used to call a lingerie chest, said interior designer Kelley Proxmire, referring to the tall, slim chests that were once popular for storing linen and womens undergarments. They should resurrect those.

Lingerie dressers are harder to find today, but some stores carry modern variations, such as Pier 1s Ashworth Lingerie Chest ($500, http://www.pier1.com). An alternative might be a bookshelf to stack shoes, or a taller nightstand with multiple drawers. Even if its just where you keep your socks, it will help, Benton said.

Jessica Parker Wachtel, an interior designer at GTM Architects in Bethesda, Md., said she stumbled into her own dresser conundrum when she was trying to find storage furniture for her 750-square-foot condo in Washington. After hitting every major furniture retailer in the area looking for dressers about 36 inches wide, she finally found the perfect piece: a cream-colored, three-drawer French Hall Chest probably designed for a traditional foyer or entrance hall ($939, http://www.bassettfurniture.com). In Wachtels apartment, though, it holds a decent amount of clothing and doubles as a stand for her TV.

Youd never know it wasnt intended to be a dresser because it fits perfectly in my space, she said. I just had to get creative.

Another trick Benton suggested is looking for vintage or secondhand pieces with a midcentury aesthetic, because theyre typically smaller-scale than furniture designed for newer homes. The homes of the 50s were not the homes of today, he said.

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Storage ideas when space is tight

Elegant English Tudor Home
Elegant English Tudor located in the historic Allendale neighborhood. Walk to Kemper Center, Eichelman Park, Southport Marina or Celebration Point including Museums, Restaurants and the ...

By: Tara Agnew

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Elegant English Tudor Home - Video

(NEW) 2015 UFO MOVING @ AMAZING SPEEDS
After my home security cam captured three objects within distance of my house. Ive since been directing one of home cams at the skies and to my surprise captured this...However the object is...

By: Francine Fae Foster

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(NEW) 2015 UFO MOVING @ AMAZING SPEEDS - Video