Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Guardian photo by Nigel Armstrong

Victoria Row

Tempers flared Thursday as Charlottetown City Council met to approve bylaws affecting restaurant patios and mobile food vendors.

Councillor Mitchell Tweel was agitated that the bylaw sets 24 as the total number of parking spaces in the downtown core that can be used by eating establishments for outdoor patios. The bylaw provides for three, with an option up to six additional parking spaces for push-cart or food-truck vendors.

Tweel was especially outraged over provisions that a lottery would decide who would get a permit if the requests exceed that 24-parking-space cap for patios.

"Some of these businesses, and I suggest to you that they are doing an excellent job of enhancing the downtown experience, some of these patios are upward of $15-$20,000," said Tweel after the meeting. "What happens if they don't win the lottery next year?"

Debate lasted close to an hour before the bylaw changes were approved, with Tweel and Coun. Danny Redmond opposed. Coun. Terry Bernard was absent.

Mounting pressure from the restaurant community to begin installing outdoor patios for this season pushed this bylaw amendment to Wednesday's special public meeeting.

Earlier this year there had been a request to expand the boundaries of the outdoor patio zone to include all areas south of and including Fitzroy Street. Since that required an amendment to the existing bylaw, it was decided to make other amendments to better control the growing demand for patios, and better control mobile food trucks and carts.

That has been accomplished through a new licensing program, enhanced set of definitions, and a new fee schedule, council heard.

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Tempers flare up as Charlottetown limits outdoor patios

Heliotrope is one of the most universal of all the summer blooming plants, but not all are the same, says Brian Minter.

image credit: SUBMITTED PHOTO

Summertime in our gardens, whenever it comes, should be the ultimate outdoor sensory retreat. The wonderful long evenings on the deck or patio should be the antidote to the stress we all feel during our busy days. The big question is can our decks, patios and gardens meet the challenge?

Summer colour and how we blend analogous tones together is very important, but fragrance is perhaps the most important when it comes to creating that sensory refill. Ironically, most of the colour with which we surround ourselves has little perfume. Its time to add the fragrance!

As easy as it sounds, finding lasting perfume is more of a challenge than most of us think. Finding plants that will accommodate sun or shade, be compatible with other plants and continue to perfume all summer is possible, but we all need to think out of the flower box just a little.

Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens) is one of the most universal of all the summer blooming plants. However, not all heliotropes are created equal. Some of the new varieties are far more compact, but have little perfume. The very best is still the nameless old fashioned variety that has that lingering scent of baby powder. Its versatile enough to be used in hanging baskets, containers or in bed plantings. It will, as most heliotrope varieties, do well in shade or sun. If you need it to be more compact and well behaved, simply pinch it back a few times. My second favourite variety is Sachet. It is a very dark foliaged variety with fragrant deep lavender-purple blooms. Its rich dark foliage provides wonderful contrast with pink, white or silver flowers and with other foliage. Its also a compact grower and well suited to containers and plantings. Blue Marine, another compact dark foliaged variety, produces fragrant deep blue flowers about 10cm (4) across and grows only 25cm (10) tall and wide. Like Sachet, its a rich deep contrast plant to other colours.

White heliotrope provides slightly less perfume, but its white flowers add a very different look to planters and ground beds. The blues will always be my favourite, but in the right situation, the old fashioned white varieties can provide quite a classy look.

When folks ask for a flowering shrub that blooms all summer with a nice perfume, one plant leaps ahead of all others - the Butterfly Bush or buddleia. Native to China, Japan and other parts of Asia as well as Chile, Mexico and the USA, there are at least seven different species, all unique in their own ways. The greatest challenge for many species is their invasive nature and there are now many regions in North America, including British Columbia, Oregon and Washington where gardeners are encouraged not to plant them. The great news is there are now many new varieties which are sterile and do not pose this very important environmental concern.

A Proven Winner introduction Buddleia x Blue Chip from the Lo & Behold series is the first miniature (24-30 or 61-76cm) sterile variety. Hardy to zone 5, it requires little pruning or deadheading and blooms and reblooms all summer until frost. Its fragrant lavender-blue flowers add a nice perfume to our gardens and patios all summer and of course, attract both butterflies and hummingbirds. I love the fact it grows well in containers and is a wonderful complement to so many trailing and upright annuals, perennials and vines. Lo & Behold was the top buddleia at the RHS Wisley Gardens and won the gold medal at Plantarium in 2009.

Another too often overlooked fragrant plant is Spanish Broom (Spartium junceum). This tender zone 7 plant needs a protected sunny dry spot, but will bloom with huge fragrant yellow pea-like flowers from early summer through autumn. It has a wonderful perfume that seems to carry throughout our patios and gardens. Spartium does very well in containers or in the ground at the edge of patios. It has virtually no leaves, but its rush-like stems make interesting focal points. Its a must have plant.

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Adding the sweet smells of summer

Patio dining season didnt really get under way this year until the start of Jazz Fest. That is when winter appeared to finally slither away, ensuring that if we were going to get chased inside, it wouldnt be due to the cold.

In recent weeks Ive enjoyed meals outside at Oxalis, MoPho, Apolline, Mortons Seafood and Sukho Thai. And Ive coveted outdoor tables at Bayona, Dominiques, Caf Amelie, Dantes Kitchen and Bacchanal.

Im curious about your favorite places to dine al fresco around town. Do you have a favorite new restaurant with a patio? What about in the French Quarter? Or on the North Shore?

Please leave suggestions in the comments below. Id love to discover some new places to dine under the stars.

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Where are the best New Orleans restaurant patios?

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Gigi Huscroft of the Cupcake Lady Cafe with the storefront portion of her cake creation celebrating the start of Main Street Matters which takes place Saturday. The cake, she and husband Derek, worked on for over 40 hours, will be big enough to feed over 500 celebrants at Saturday's party which begins at 10:30 a.m.

image credit: Mark Brett/Western News

Recent weeks of wet weather put plans for a makeover of two blocks on Pentictons Main Street on hold, but the project is back on, along with a celebratory party Saturday.

It was supposed to start April 21 and the rain pushed it back until April 28, that is when they actually started, said Kerri Milton, executive director of the downtown Penticton Association, adding that power washing buildings in the 300 and 400 blocks of Main Street is underway, with painting getting started on Thursday.

Its all a result of the community casting enough votes in an online contest last spring to get Penticton into the top 20 communities of Benjamin Moores Main Street Matters contest, and winning paint and services to refresh two blocks Main Street.

The residents and businesses of Penticton got behind the project with such enthusiasm it is an honour we were selected as one of three Canadian cities, said Milton.

The party gets underway at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, with speeches and then the official cutting of an immense cake commissioned from Pentictons own Cupcake Lady Caf.

It is supposed to be a big party to celebrate our Main Street, said Milton. There will be activities all like an old-style photo booth, face painting, a bouncy castle and music from DJ Shakes through to 1 p.m. in the street. They just want a big party atmosphere.

When Gigi Huscroft, aka The Cup Cake Lady, was approached by a Benjamin Moore representative about constructing an edible storefront re-creation cake capable of feeding upwards of 500 people, she didnt hesitate to take on the challenge.

Although Id never done a cake that size it was huge it was just a matter of planning and I didnt want to go to Kelowna and so I said yes, said Huscroft, who owns the Front Street Cup Cake Cafe which the company rep just happen to stumble across during an earlier visit here. Yes there were times I was worried we couldnt do it, just the engineering necessary, we had to make sure it would stand up straight and not wobble over and transport it as well, its mind boggling.

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New paint on Main Street takes the cake

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