New Home Security Setup
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New Home Security Setup - Video
Secret Home Security Concept by Atelier Mackay Design
Secret Stairway to wine cellar. Try to find it before I show it...when Adele sings: "Feel the earth mooving" Concept, Design, Build by Atelier Mackay Design....
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Secret Home Security Concept by Atelier Mackay Design - Video
TOPEKA Whether its getting free advice, getting some ideas or just getting out of the house for a few hours in the waning weeks of winter, the annual Topeka Home Show has provided a way for local home repair and home improvement-related businesses to connect with northeast Kansans since 1962.
Neil Carlson, owner of Plumbing by Carlson, a company started by his father, Bob, in 1957, said locations for the home show have varied over its 52-year history.
Carlson, also a former associate director of the Topeka Home Builders Association, or THBA, said the annual event started in a small building on what is now the Kansas Expocentre grounds with just about two dozen vendors. He said the show was held at the former White Lakes Mall for several years and for one year, was at a hangar at Forbes Field. The event then moved to Agriculture Hall at 17th and Topeka Boulevard as the number of exhibitors continued to grow.
It (Agriculture Hall) was too small for us by then, Carlson said. Then we got into Heritage Hall. We filled it.
Once the Kansas Expocentre opened in 1987, Carlson said the Topeka Home Show has been held there ever since and now has nearly 200 local, state and national vendors.
Carlson said in the first few years, local businesses werent charged a fee to have a table at the home show and had simple displays. After a THBA committee visited the Wichita home show and a national home show, Carlson said the committee made a push to get the businesses to invest in more sophisticated exhibits to showcase their products.
We encouraged people to do more than just a table, he said, just to have a better presentation. And it worked. Its really become a decent show.
Carlson said the more elaborate displays at the home show helped attendees visualize what could be done in their own homes, especially before the national home improvement stores opened in Topeka.
We didnt have the big box stores back then, he said. We didnt have many showrooms, either.
While the numbers of vendors and attendees have gone up and down over the years, the Topeka Home Show still remains a way for local contractors, remodelers, plumbers, heating and cooling experts and many others to connect to their potential customers.
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Topeka Home Show's growth matches that of area houses
Property Preservation, Handyman Services in Dayton OH 45426
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Property Preservation, Handyman Services in Dayton OH 45426 - Video
Taylormaid Property Services
Services we offer: Window Cleaning Gutter Cleaning Bond Cleaning Vacate Cleaning Bond Cleaning Exit Cleaning High Pressure Cleaning Call 0418 892 993 or emai...
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Taylormaid Property Services - Video
Q: Can I overseed my lawn and prevent weeds at the same time? Can I do it right now?
A: If you have a Kentucky 31 or blended fescue lawn or any of the special shade grass mixtures, you can certainly overseed through the month of February and into March. The benefits of early dispersal of seed are that the soil has been loosened, rains are certainly coming, and weeds have not yet grown enough to choke out the new grass. In fact, a light cover of snow over the seed can be beneficial.
Obviously, the weather is a problem this year, there is no guarantee that there will be no late freezes. The main threat to newly emerging grasses would be a hard freeze that could damage the tender seedlings. Another threat would be light freezes and thaws that push the seedlings out of the ground.
If you keep your eyes on the weather reports and choose just the right time, early seeding can produce a nice lawn. Be sure to include fertilizer along with the seed. Treat with lime if your soil test says you need it.
You cannot use weed prevention products, called pre-emergent weedkillers, that are often packaged as "Weed and Feed" on a newly seeded lawn. These products prevent weed seeds from germinating, and they will kill all your new grass seed. Read those labels carefully. Get only the plain fertilizer products.
If your lawn is seriously in need of help, plan to seed again in the fall around September, depending on the weather. Fall is the optimum time for fescue renewals, but our weather has been so hard on our cool season grasses that a spring effort may be required.
Contact Pat Lea at lea.pat@gmail.com.
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Lea: Weed 'n' feed products kill new grass seeds
South Albany High School is proposing replacing its grass football field with artificial turf, a project to be outlined at Mondays meeting of the Albany school board.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the district office, 718 Seventh Ave. S.W. Also on Mondays agenda are a discussion about making up snow days and recommendations for improving school safety.
Board members will review a proposal from South Albany High Schools administration and booster club to put in a turf field at a cost of roughly $750,000.
Under the proposal, the district would pay or borrow about $500,000 of the project over eight years to cover the turf and the subsurface materials.
The rest of the cost, for drainage, dirt removal, subsurface hauling and leveling, would come from in-kind donations.
The school suggests creating community partnerships with the city of Albany, the Boys & Girls Club, Pop Warner Football, the high school booster club and others who might benefit from the field to help cover the bulk of the debt.
Turf fields also save on watering, seeding and other maintenance costs, although the actual savings may be less than the $30,000 per year the proposal estimates.The Lebanon Community School District has saved approximately $7,000 per year since installing its artificial turf field in 2011.
Construction excise taxes, which school districts are allowed to impose on new construction, also could be put toward the project. The district has about $1.8 million available in CET funds.
According to the proposal, the real benefit in having a turf field is the community access it would provide.
Right now, Souths field is used between 20 and 25 times per year, primarily for home football games. The proposal estimates a turf field would boost usage to more than 200 events per year between South Albany classes and teams and youth baseball, soccer and football programs and other community events.
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South Albany considers new football field turf
Published: Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, 6:04p.m.
Want to have the best lawn on the block come spring? Here are ideas for growing a healthy, chemical-free lawn that is gorgeous, safe, and easy-to-maintain.
Let's start by shifting our thinking from feeding the lawn to feeding the soil. Instead of dumping on chemical fertilizers that may result in a quick, temporary green, use organic-based fertilizers that slowly release their nutrients over time, resulting in month after month of green, instead of just weeks. Using fertilizers derived from natural ingredients, rather than chemicals, means you'll be feeding all the beneficial insect and microbial life into your soil. These microscopic critters break organic matter down into usable plant nutrients and, in turn, feed our plants as they were meant to be fed, slowly and evenly.
You can do this by adding an organic granular fertilizer once or twice a season or by topdressing your lawn every spring with a quarter-inch of finely screened compost spread via a pitchfork and a wheelbarrow or a drop spreader. Compost creates a nutrient-rich blanket that is available to plants for far longer than a chemical fertilizer. Another important reason to move away from chemical fertilizers: 75 percent of the nutrients in them run off into our watersheds before plants can use them, but 90 percent of the nutrients in natural, granular fertilizers stay in our soil and continue to feed our lawns for months.
The next step in growing a healthy lawn is to cut high. Leaving turf grass 3- to 4-inch-tall shades out weed seedlings and generates a good, deep root system. After all, the more surface area grass has for photosynthesis, the more energy it has to promote good root growth. Deep, healthy roots mean less irrigation and fertilization, too. You'll also want to be sure your mower is capable of recycling the clippings back into the soil via a mulching feature. Since these tiny clippings are both quick to decompose and chock full of nitrogen, with a mulching mower, you are fertilizing every time you mow.
If you want to cut down on mowing chores, you may want to consider replacing or over-seeding your existing lawn with a low- and slow-growing seed mix. Seed mixes like Pearl's Premium (www.pearlspremium.com) require mowing only three or four times a year. This particular brand is a collection of fescue varieties and newer cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial rye with slower growth rates. Other similar seed blends are produced by High Country Gardens (www.highcountrygardens.com) and Wildflower Farm (www.wildflowerfarm.com).
If weeds are presenting a challenge, know that many weed problems are the result of poor soil conditions. Get a soil test through your local extension service, and follow their recommendations to boost fertility and adjust the soil pH. Remedy poor soil conditions and promote healthy grass, and major weed outbreaks become a thing of the past. Weeds like ground ivy thrive in poorly drained, compacted soils with low fertility, so aerating and dethatching the lawn every three or four years also goes a long way toward staving off this, and other, pernicious weeds.
Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts The Organic Gardeners at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio. She is the author of several gardening books, including Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control and Good Bug, Bad Bug. Her website is http://www.jessicawalliser.com.
Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com or The Good Earth, 503 Martindale St., 3rd Floor, D.L. Clark Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.
You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.
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Make your lawn the best it can be
Stockpiled snow has finally surrendered to salt and sun. Unfortunately, its retreating has exposed my shaggy dog of a lawn. If only I could send it out for a wash and a blow-dry. Long periods of snow cover can cause a myriad of lawn woes.
Many lawns weren't picture perfect going into winter. Snow is nature's airbrush; it masked the flaws but didn't really improve the lawn's condition. As snow recedes, lawns may show damage from salt, plows, voles and molds.
Salt can cause death of lawn grass or cause severe browning of grass blades, generally near sidewalks and roads. Removing any obvious salt and flushing areas with water may help. However, right now more water can cause other problems. Wait until April and reseed areas.
If plows have scraped off lawn areas, use your best puzzle skills and set sod pieces back into place now. Do a little spring dance to assure good soil contact. Sod should reroot.
A couple species of voles can inhabit your yard. Voles can make runways under the snow in lawns as they feed on grass blades and roots. Voles are well protected under the snow from hawk and owl predators. Voles may have brown to reddish-brown fur and range from 4 to 7 inches long. They have stockier bodies and shorter tails than mice. Damage is frequently mistaken as mole damage, but moles are not active during winter. Vole damage appears as surface runways or winding trails of damaged grass. Damage also occurs when my dog tries to dig out the aforementioned voles.
Once spring arrives, grass will usually grow into and fill in the surface runways; however, severe damage may require some overseeding of lawn grass in April. Voles love tall vegetation; therefore, prevent damage from occurring by continuing to mow lawns to a height of about 2 inches until grass is completely dormant in fall. Also in fall, clean up any excessive vegetation near lawns.
Check out web.extension.illinois.edu/wildlife for more information on voles and other wildlife.
Snow mold damage can also be very visible on lawns as snow recedes in spring, especially if we get a prolonged snow cover on unfrozen soil. Both gray (Typhula blight) and pink (Fusarium patch or Microdochium patch) snow mold may occur. During the wet, cold weather of early spring, snow mold may be highly visible as matted, crusty looking areas. Gray snow mold appears in roughly circular yellow to whitish-gray patches. As conditions dry out, snow mold will gradually go dormant.
Often, just leaves are affected and new grass blades grow as weather warms. Severely infected areas may remain in the form of weak or even dead turf. To repair damage, rake matted grass and reseed or resod as necessary in April.
Snow mold severity varies from year to year. Fungicides are generally not needed. Ways to avoid snow mold problems include: follow sound fertilization programs, use fertilizers containing slow-release or controlled-release nitrogen and manage thatch via aerification or removal with vertical mowing (dethatching).
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Receding snow reveals lawn woes
Ice Sweeps Away Docks On The Muskingum River
The Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency is keeping a close eye on the Muskingum River.
Ice broke loose on the Muskingum River Friday afternoon, tearing out docks, gazebos, trees, and other debris. EMA Director, Bo Keck, said his office has been monitoring the river ever since it froze across earlier this winter. He called what happened Friday "devastating."
"We're a little concerned about the Lorena right now. And then of course down stream, what's this gonna do going down into the Philo area," Keck explained.
So far no homes have been damaged, and as ofright now, Keck said there's not much they can do.
"We were concerned it would back up behind the bridges and of course put a lot of weight there. And now our concern is the damn here at the Y-Bridge to make sure it doesn't back up, that it just keeps going over it."
At this point, Keck said theywill continue monitoring the river.
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Ice Sweeps Docks And Debris Down The Muskingum River
