Published on January 30, 2015

AMHERST Fundy Landscaping has been awarded the contract to develop a multi-purpose outdoor playing field at Dickey Park.

The project will cost $40,870 and will be funded by reallocating $25,000 that had been earmarked for the Robb Complex study with the remaining funding coming from operating reserves.

Deputy Mayor George Baker declared a potential conflict and excused himself from his council seat.

The work will include grading, leveling and seeding a playing surface of 195 feet by 450 feet that is suitable for soccer and football, as well as other uses.

Amherst announced last year that the infield at the park was going to be converted into a sports field at the request of the Cumberland Wolfpack football association. The organization had been using the soccer pitch on Winston Street for football games, but it wasnt usable for the older age groups.

Visiting teams indicated they would not travel to Amherst to play at Winston Street Field. Last year, a temporary solution was put in place that saw Fundy Soccer allow the football association to use the Church Street fields on the Dolan property.

While plans were to have the field at Dickey Park ready for late last season, the project was not completed on time.

The town is hoping the field will be completed sometime later this year, but its more likely it will be ready for use for the 2016 football season.

Amherst is also working with the Municipality of Cumberland and a local sportsplex committee to develop a facility on the former parade grounds in West Amherst. The project, expected to cost approximately $2 million, would include an all-weather turf field, two natural grass fields and a clubhouse that would include dressing rooms.

Read more from the original source:
Fundy Landscaping gets playing field project tender for Dickey Park

Finn Titan T330 Hydroseeder Hydromulcher Reed Hydromulch
Finn Titan Hydroseeder Hydromulcher T330 Reed Austin Texas. Learn more about our Hydromulching, Grass Seeding and Erosion Control services at http://www.reed...

By: Reed Hydromulching Inc

Link:
Finn Titan T330 Hydroseeder Hydromulcher Reed Hydromulch - Video

When youre trying to find the perfect grass seed for your lawn, it can seem like there are so many options available. Our goal is to give you the information you need to select the best grass seed for your situation while answering some common questions:

When youre looking at grass seed varieties, one of the first issues youll run into is when youre asked whether you want cool or warm season grasses. Grass is grass after all, right? Not necessarily.

Cool season grasses are varieties that do well in cooler weather and can tolerate some heat. They grow best in the fall and spring, as well as in the winter for areas in the south. Except for the coldest winters, cool season grasses will even continue growing to a certain extent while under snow cover. Cool season grasses do best when planted in the fall, allowing them to take root before harsh winter weather arrives.

By comparison, warm season grasses do very well in the worst heat of summer and tend to be very drought resistant. If you have extended periods when your lawn is brown and dry during the summer, you may want to consider seeding with a warm season grass. When soil temperatures get below 65F, warm season grasses will begin to brown and remain that way until temperatures warm enough to allow the plant to begin growing again.

New grass seed is usually planted either in the spring or fall, depending on what type of turf grass youre planting. Whichever type youre planing, youll want to plant it when it has the best chances of becoming well established before its peak growing season, so that it may smother out and compete well with weeds for sunlight, soil nutrients and water.

Cool season grasses do best when established in the early fall, though they can be planted in the spring. Why fall? Because the soil is usually still warm from summer, the plants are able to germinate and grow more quickly, while the cooler air helps keep the soil moist. Planting when daytime temperatures are between 60 to 75F are ideal, as the soil will be at the best temperature to promote strong growth and establishment.

By comparison, warm season grasses do best when planted in late spring. If warm season grasses are planted in the fall, they are not able to become well established enough to compete with weeds, leading to a weaker lawn by the time summer rolls around. Because they grow well in heat, spreading warm season grass seed just before summer helps it grow quickly enough to smother out weeds. When overnight temperatures are maintaining 65 to 70F, the soil will be warm enough for warm season grass seed to thrive.

What if youre in the transition zone? In areas that receive both a very hot summer and a very cold winter, you have a couple options. In northern areas, you can plant fescue, which is a drought- and heat-tolerant cool season grass. In southern regions, Bermuda grass is a great grass that is somewhat more cold tolerant that other warm season grasses. The other option is overseeding.

Overseeding involves planting both a cool season and a warm season grass in your lawn. When your lawn begins to brown due to heat or cold, its a good time to plant the other grass type. This allows the new seed to compete with weeds effectively without choking out your established lawn. Overseeding is a very popular option for a year-round green lawn.

Now that youve got a handle on what type of grass youre planting, its time to plan what youll need to get your lawn well established, but there are a few questions to look at first. Are you establishing a new lawn or renovating an old one? A new lawn will require control of problem weeds, and youll want to be especially careful of biennial weeds such as carrot relatives, thistles, mallows or other plants with a strong root system which will actually cause more weeds if the roots are chopped apart in a tiller. A good pre-emergent herbicide can go a long way to help your new grass plants establish themselves without weed competition. Soil preparation is also vital to establishing your new turf grass. A little planning now will help prevent big headaches later.

More here:
Best Grass Seed: Ultimate Buyers Guide! | BestGrassSeed.net

Heres a pottery barn approach to meddling with ecosystems: You broke it, you fix it.

Only problem: Turns out its a lot easier to mess things up than to set them right.

Thats one conclusion that emerges from a creative effort to use intensive cattle grazing to get rid of an invasive, ecosystem-wrecking exotic grass, deliberately seeded over thousands of acres after the Dude Fire in 1990.

The experiment focused on reducing the ecosystem tyranny of the weeping lovegrass planted by air in 1990 to prevent flooding and erosion after the intense crown fire that seared the soil across 28,000 acres.

Rim Country rancher Ray Tanner teamed up with the U.S. Forest Service, researchers from Northern Arizona and others to determine whether concentrating cattle in an area overrun by weeping love grass would actually allow many other grasses and shrubs to get a roothold in an area dominated almost entirely by the domineering, non-native grass.

The two-year effort enjoyed limited success. It increased the amount of bare ground and encouraged a greater diversity of other grasses. But the effects faded quickly after the rancher returned cattle numbers to normal and stopped concentrating them in certain areas.

The researchers concluded the experiment could have produced a long-term effect if continued for a longer period and carefully controlled, according to the results in Rangeland, published by the Society for Range Management.

Researchers included Christopher Bernau, Jim Sprinkle, Ray Tanner, John Kava, Christine Thiel, Vanessa Prileson and Doug Tolleson.

The study adds to an intriguing set of studies that suggest careful management of cattle can improve the condition of rangelands, which remain in degraded, stressed-out condition across Northern Arizona. Uncontrolled grazing in the early 20th century transformed grasslands and pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine forests like those surrounding Payson. Those changes resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of cattle the U.S. Forest Service allows on the range, devastating changes in wildfire patterns and the near extinction of family ranch operations.

The rest is here:
Cattle to the rescue

Tamil Nadu has just celebrated the harvest festival of Pongal a time when we enjoy the bountiful produce of crops such as rice, lentils and sugarcane. Pongal marks the end of the month of Margazhi, our winter, and welcomes the month of Thai, the start of spring when the sun starts its journey in the northern hemisphere and the days become longer.

As one growing season ends, another starts. Chennai has one more growing season till the scorching heat of summer begins, the heat that is natures signal that its time to let the soil rest. So what can we grow from January to April?

Cool weather crops like cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, spinach will continue to grow until February. Tomatoes do well in this season too. But this is the time to sow things that are light to cook, eat and satisfy your thirst in the summer. Its time to start planting gourds, greens and melons.

Gourds such as bottle, snake, ridge, bitter, ash, pumpkin, and cucumber, and melons such as watermelon and musk melon can be started now too. These need well-drained soil and space to trail or climb, and are great plants for fences and sunny balconies with grills. And if you let them trail on your terrace floor, they also help cool the house. Heres a quick growing guide.

Soil

Its all about soil and seeds. Gourds do incredibly well in permaculture soil. Weve grown 3.5 foot long bottle gourds in the Cancer Institutes permaculture-raised beds. You can also use regular potting mix. Ensure the soil is loose, well-drained and well-mulched.

Seeding

Gourds and melons are sown directly. If you plan to start them in a different location, start them in containers that can be planted along with the sapling and will compost. Gourds dont do well with transplanting. There are many DIY, recycled or store-bought seed trays that you can start the seed in. When the seeds sprout and the true leaves emerge, plant the contents directly into the ground. At the Cancer Institute, weve started gourds in bamboo baskets and theyve done very well. Ensure there is enough space for the vine to run or climb.

Support

For bottle, snake, bitter and ridge gourds, try to ensure a pandal or trellis of some sort. This can be a fence, a simple trellis using poles and rope, or even a broken ladder. Its easier to spot the fruit in a pandal, but a fence or balcony railing will do just as well. Weve used ladders and even the sides of a broken baby cot to support gourds.

View post:
Gourds in your garden

Hydromulch Wind Farm Energy Seeding Reed Hydromulch Renewable Texas Oklahoma
Hydromulch Hydroseed Wind Farms Seeding Texas Oklahoma Finn Learn more about our Hydromulching, Grass Seeding and Erosion Control services at http://www.reed...

By: Reed Hydromulching Inc

Link:
Hydromulch Wind Farm Energy Seeding Reed Hydromulch Renewable Texas Oklahoma - Video

........................................................................................................................................................................................

Q: I was pretty successful forcing several hyacinths this past holiday season but now they have finished with the bloom. What can I do with them now? I hate to pitch them! S.H., Albuquerque

A: You can plant the spent bulbs outdoors, just not yet. Since these treasures gave you their all they would crumple if you set them out now in this cold weather.

This is what you can do to save them:

First, cut out the spent bloom stalk. Next, plant them all together in a pot with fresh potting soil. Set the pots in a spot indoors where theyll get bright light and maybe a smidgen of actual sunlight daily. Then continue to treat them as you would any houseplant, making sure they get average waterings but dont stay too soggy. Thats it for the time being.

As the season advances and the majority of winter weather passes, late March at the soonest, plant the saved bulbs outside.

Since hyacinths tend to stay short, remember to plant them in places where theyll be seen next year. Paperwhites are a bit more fragile and can easily be beat up by our windy springtime weather, so keep them a bit more tucked up when you plant them. Be sure to watch the weather to offer protection from any surprise frosts.

The existing leaves will re-feed the bulb and, if all goes as planned, theyll acclimate and bloom again for you in spring 2016!

Q: I have several bare spots in my lawn and want to reseed them. Can I do that now? N.G., Albuquerque

A: Wow! You are way too early to be thinking about seeding a lawn! The soil is far too cold to support any germinating seed. Dont waste your time or money on this project yet.

View original post here:
Give forced hyacinths a rest and they will reward you

The worst smog of the year so far swept into Beijing this week, coating the city in a grainy, deep grey murk on par with what the city endured in 2013, pictured above (though you'll see it's popping up again today). China is trying, hard, to get its air quality problem under control, and is considering some seriously wacky ways to do it. Unfortunately, the only one that will work is also the most difficult.

If you're in Beijing right now, here's what you're dealing with: Extraordinary levels of a small particulate called PM2.5, which is great at hanging out in midair for long periods of time. PM2.5 comes from industrial sources and wood-burning fires, and it's as dangerous to human lungs as it is good at staying put. The World Health Organization recommends that the max amount of the stuff we can breath is 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Beijing hit 568 today.

The really startling thing, of course, is that this isn't all that uncommon. The concentration has hit 993, almost twice as bad as this week's levels, before. Smog comes, you don a mask and stay inside as much as possible, and smog goes. China is actually pretty good at controlling it when it matterswhen world leaders were in town for APEC's annual summit in November, locals jokingly described the clear sky as "APEC blue." Pollution is so intense, it can be seen from space:

But temporary respites like the one APEC brought don't help actual residents all that muchwhich is why China has become a hotbed of smog-busting ad hoc design.

The big tool in China's smog-busting arsenal is cloud seedingSoviet Russia brought the concept to China in 1958, as QZ explained in a great story on artificial rain a few years ago. The idea is fairly simple: A plane (or rocket launcher) dumps chemicalsfrom potassium iodide, to liquid propane, to silver iodideinto an existing cloud, creating ice particles that get heavy and fall to Earth as "rain."

Rain "washes" the air of PM2.5 particles; the water molecules collect the toxic particulates and then bring them down to the ground. Technically, it's called "wet deposition," and according to QZ, China now makes 55 billion tons of artificial rain to aid in the process every year.

A rocket launcher used to seed clouds to induce rain is seen at a station of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau in Beijing. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan.

Read more here:
Four Ideas to Fix Beijing's Smog Airpocalypse, And One That Will Work

January 15, 2015 - By Roger Pugliese, Chair TASC

The TASC Board of Directors is generally inclined to resist removal of perfectly healthy trees in Topanga, but enthusiastically supports the North Topanga Canyon Fire Safe Council (NTCFSC) in its efforts to cut dead or certifiable dying trees.

TASC, however, feels that the upside of slightly increasing safety on the Boulevard is not compelling enough to justify the killing of healthy trees. Tree culling impacts water runoff, erosion, carbon dioxide, pollution control, animal habitats, temperature control and the general green scenic beauty of Topanga.

Removing live, healthy trees when the entire Boulevard is lined with creosote-soaked telephone poles that can burn, fall and drop live electric wires to the street is unreasonable. The killing of mature healthy trees will not even minimally insure that the Canyon will not be blocked by the poles. Trees that can impact the wires should be trimmed, not killed.

Additionally, TASC is aware that the removal of non-natives from the Canyon is a regional issue that requires a focused discussion. A gradual, natural replacement of dead and dying non-native trees with native trees makes much more sense then culling healthy non-native trees along Topanga Canyon Boulevard or elsewhere. Gradual replacement keeps the Canyon green as the process evolves and minimizes impacting the environmental issues mentioned above.

It is questionable to focus on fire safety programs to promote non-native tree removal. If so, one can argue that every plant, non-oak tree, flower, shrub, rose or garden vegetable in the canyon is a non-native. Indeed, we are ourselves non-natives. As previously stated, this is a complex issue that warrants community discussion and agreement.

An argument can be made that pine and pepper trees are not the main threat. Pines are not seeding themselves here. They do not multiply and invade like arundo, nor do they clog the streambed or threaten the riparian environment like certain invasive vines.

Fire Science literature recommendations and analysis changes all the time. It is now widely held that the cutting back of chaparral around homes is a bad thing. It leads to very flammable non-native grass invasions.

Yet, we, for decades, were forced to cut the chaparral to meet California Fair Plan insurance requirements. To kill living trees as a reaction to the latest popular hypothesis seems rash and counter-productive. Trees take many decades, not seasons, to mature and grow.

Here is the original post:
Remove Dead and Dying Trees, Leave The Healthy Ones

Plants should provide habitat, runoff absorption in future

January 11, 2015 | 8:02 pm

CEDAR RAPIDS An innovative program to plant native grasses in electric transmission line corridors in the Cedar Rapids area will help restore a dwindling Iowa resource native prairies.

Its a win for us, a win for wildlife and the environment and a win for the public, which owns the land, said Tom Petersen, communications director for ITC Midwest, the company whose electric transmission lines cross the properties.

Contractors for ITC Midwest earlier this month planted native prairie plants on 6 acres at Beverly Park, city property in southwest Cedar Rapids; on 30 acres of city property east of Cole Street SE near the Sac and Fox Trail; and on 6 acres near Squaw Creek Park, east of Highway 13, on land owned by the Linn County Conservation Department.

The plantings generally extend for several hundred yards along the 100-foot-wide easements allowing ITC transmission lines to cross the public properties.

We recognize that we have impacts on the environment and remain open to projects that help us improve that relationship, Petersen said.

The plantings, featuring native grasses, wildflowers and broad-leaved native plants, should take root next year and become more prominent with each succeeding year, he said.

The native vegetation will provide wildlife habitat, especially for ground-nesting birds, and make the land more absorbent to slow runoff from heavy rains, he said.

While he was watching the seeding contractors work on Dec. 6, Petersen said neighbors approached to thank the company for its consideration of the environment. It was cool to see the neighborhood appreciate the effort, he said.

Read the original here:
Company plants prairie grass to protect transmission lines