Landscapinga hill might seem like a daunting task, but so is thenightmare ofpushing a heavy lawnmower along a slope. Unfortunately, most people believe that the alternative is to stareat anexpanse of weeds descending into theiryard. But, dont let this incline fool you. That unsightly hillsidecanindeed be transformed into abeautiful addition to your outdoor space. All you need is just a little imagination and planning. So, get ready to tackle that mountain of a problemand learnthese simple steps on how to landscape a hill.

Is that difficult-to-maintain hill in your yard a perfect fit for a hillside rock garden? Is the location also near an electrical source? If so, it could be well suitedfor a waterfall feature. This would utilize that incline to its fullest and it also would give you the serene sound of rushing water. Or, it could be a great place for a dry creek bed. It couldhelp to divert rainwater downhill, away from therest of your yard. But, keep in mind that a very steep hillside will require larger, heavier rocks to remain in place. If you are dealing with excessive erosion, adding some low maintenance plants will help to keep your landscaped hillside in place whether you opt for the waterfall or not.

Additionally, if your hillalready has many natural plants, you might considertrimming them back and then adding a gorgeous rock pathway. Ultimately, much of your design decisions will depend on the degree of the slope. If it is a gradualslope, you may just consider using large flat stones flanked by smaller ones. But, if the grade is steep, steps made from stones could be the answer. Either way, a pathwaycan clean up and add visual interest to your existing plants and as a result, create functionality.

Next, and perhaps most importantly, use amaterials calculatorto help you estimate the amount of landscapeproduct you will need. Be sure to use one prior to buying your materials. Otherwise, you may buy too much or too little.

Since there area vast array of landscaping materials to choose from, like decorativerock and mulch that come in various sizes, textures, and colors, you will need to decide which materials will work best.For example, if you decide onthat beautiful waterfall feature, you might choose amulti-colored river rock. Because of its rounded edges and variation in colors it lends itself perfectly to running water.If you opt for therock pathway,look for large, flat stepping stones,over-sized rip rap,and eastern shore egg rockto line and fill your new, beautiful path.

Finally, its important to realize that any landscaping project will take a lot of time and work. It will, however, pay off in the end. Homes that are landscaped offer far more curb appeal than those that are not. And, if you are selling a home, consider this: investing in home landscaping could potentially pay a 215% return in home value.Hence why you should take advantage of a low maintenance solution like a rock garden or dry river bed.

Now that you have a vision for your new project and a plan, you should ask yourself whether this project is something youcan do on your own or whether you shouldhire a professional. Either way, Wilson Blacktopcandeliver your landscaping supplies within a 50-mile radius of our home base in Martins Ferry, Ohio.

Most importantly, you dont have to keep dreading landscaping that hill. We are excited to help you with that uphill battle.So, dont hesitate to contact usand set up your delivery!

Read the original post:
Win the Uphill Battle: How to Landscape a Hill | Wilson ...

Wellers Hill stock all of the quality landscaping supplies you could need including bedding sand, crusher dust, garden soil, sugar cane mulch, topsoil and other general garden supplies. The drive through yard means you can pick up sleepers, sand, cement, soil and much more in the middle of Tarragindi. We also offer a Local Brisbane Southside delivery service so you can have gardening and landscaping supplies delivered directly to your door anywhere in the local Brisbane South Area from our offsite holding yards.

Wellers Hill is your locally owned and run hardware and landscaping supplies store. We only sell quality products and at great valuefor your money! Visit us today for genuine customer service and advice from our experienced team or contact the store on 07 3848 1682 to get a quote and organize a delivery.

On services include Key cutting, gas refills,pool water testing, paint colour matching, hardware & landscape delivery

The team has a range of experience and knowledge to help you make the right choice with your hardware needs

Originally posted here:
Landscape Supplies Brisbane & Hardware - Wellers Hill

Kat and Tim King of Land2c Landscape Architecture tame a slippery slope with flowing, private spaces and beautiful tableaux.

A BUSY, URBAN family of four that loves the outdoors and camping but not necessarily gardening already had remodeled its 1920s vintage Queen Anne home three times before undertaking a garden renovation. But creating that garden oasis on a property as vertical as they come was quite a project.

The back garden, with its fabulous views out to the city and Puget Sound, falls sharply away from the back of the old, three-story house. How to create a seamless transition between indoors and out, let alone a garden inviting enough to lure family and friends to descend all those steps?

Designers Kat and Tim King of Land2c Landscape Architecture were up to the vision and the job. But not without a major excavation, safety considerations like replacement and widening of steps, a new irrigation system, night lighting and lots of carefully considered plantings. We needed to create a new topography by berming the slope originally it was flat and then a big drop-off, explains Tim.

Tim is a landscape architect who specializes in crafting a smooth flow between house and garden. Kat focuses on color, plantings and decorative garden elements. She chose and placed every plant in the garden, except for the stately old sequoia that sold the family on the property in the first place. Lit up at night, the rough-barked old giant holds pride of place among a bevy of new plantings burgeoning up around it.

But first, masses of blackberries needed to be removed at the bottom of the garden to carve out level space for a stone patio, a fire pit, benches and Adirondack chairs. This is now the familys favorite spot to hang out. Leslie, the mom, speaks for the whole family when she says, We love camping, and when were down in the garden around the fire pit, it almost feels like were out camping.

The garden was designed to be looked down upon from the deck high above, with three arbors, art and a dramatically curving stone pathway. It works equally well as a space to stroll, hang out and enjoy the feeling of being submerged in the plantings. Its a place apart, quiet, private and enlivened by the familys five chickens, often let loose to peck their way around the garden.

The chickens are housed in a cleverly designed tansu of a chicken coop tucked beneath the steps down into the garden. Designed by Tim, and built by Bob Taylor (of Robert M. Taylor Construction), the coop is partially constructed of windows repurposed from one of the previous home remodels. There are built-in drawers for straw and food storage. The chickens have their own jungle gym, with perches and ramps to keep them busy when they arent out scouring the garden.

Luckily from both the chicken and the maintenance standpoints, Kat chose sturdy shrubs, ground covers and grasses to update, unify and simplify the garden. She planted them in generously scaled masses for great effect from above.

I dont like to see bare soil, she explains. At ground level, black mondo grass consorts with golden creeping Jenny and Sedum Angelina. The flowers of star jasmine cover the arbors and scent the garden, along with sweeps of lavender. Plantings of Japanese forest grass and the orange sedge Carex testacea run between stands of oak leaf hydrangea and Mount Vernon English laurel. And I love every evergreen fern there is, Kat says.

Leslie loves shades of green, so Kat included plenty of feather reed grass; laced the old fence with trumpet vines; and planted a big-leafed, spreading fatsia in the shade beneath the sequoia. Originally, Leslie wasnt much of a gardener. The easy-care beauty of her new garden has changed her mind.

I used to be scared of gardening, of killing plants, but now I love caring for them, she says.

After all the stonework (done by Rich Landscaping in Redmond) and hauling in 20 yards of good soil, Leslie, husband Justin, his mother and Kat did all the planting.

Justin and I wanted to take it from there, says Leslie. Now we take care of the garden.

Read the original post:
Landscapers are Kings of the hill on Queen Anne - The Seattle Times

Keene Lake at the base of Spruce Hill in Keene, reappeared for several days after Tropical Storm Irene ripped through the area in 2011.(Provided photo Joe Hackett)

After witnessing the incredible power and natural force ofheavy rains, blizzards, floods and electrical storms, I can empathize with residentsof Texas and other southern states who have recently weathered the great damage natural events can deliver in the blink of an eye.

Tropical Storm Irene was the most memorable storm to ravage theAdirondack region in recent times. The heavy rains and winds in excess of 60 to 70 miles per hour certainly left a mark and scoured the mountaintops.

Ive witnessed a variety of violent weather events like this over the years, but the Adirondacks still remains a relatively safe and stable environment for the most part. Ive seen considerable damage from blowdowns, ice storms and high winds.

Quite possibly, the greatest threat Ive encountered in the wild came from a natural source. It was theresult of a severe electrical storm that shattered and toppled several massive white pines in close proximity to our camp. As the storm intensified, we huddled in a lean-to in order to minimize the riskof falling limbs and toppling trees.

The incident occurred early in my career, while I was hosting a couple for a weekend of camping and climbing in the Dix Range. After summiting several peaks including East Dix, South Dix and Hough on the first day, we settled in for the night at a shelter near Dix Pond. As rains intensified, we watched a small stream near our shelter turn into a loud, frothing, whitewater torrent.

We shifted nervously as the stream breached its banks and flooded thesurrounding woods. The noise of boulders rolling down the stream-bed nearly drowned out the roaring waters as the rumbling vibrations rattled the floor of the structure.

Although the rain eventually let up, the trails remained full of water and footing was treacherous. Our trip back to Elk Lake ended up being a full-day affair Ill never forget.

However, after speaking with my relatives in Victoria, Texas, recently, the experience in the Dix Range was simply a walk in the park by comparison. They suffered through three sleepless nights in the dark, without water to drink or a house to sleep in.

The storm that had stagnated over Victoria for 24 straight hours deposited more than 8 feet of water on the city. The once vibrant city has been reduced to a vast wasteland, with boats providing the only traffic on roads that remain flooded.

It reminded me of the frantic hours that were spent with friends and family cleaning up in the aftermath of Irene in 2011.

In comparison with the devastation brought on by Hurricane Harvey, Irene was a mere spring shower. However, it certainly didnt seem so at the time.

On the morning after Irene, I traveled from Ray Brook to Elizabethtown to help out with recovery efforts in Elizabethtown. During the ride over through the Cascades and over Spruce Hill,the damage rapidly became apparent.

Roads had washed away and bridges were out. The historic Keene Lake reappeared at the foot of Spruce Hill. The storm transformed the entire landscape leaving wide scars on the surrounding hillsides and rerouting many miles of rivers and streams.

The results left no doubt about the forces of nature.

Here is the original post:
Destructive forces of nature - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

HELENA, Mont. The main building of an historic, backcountry chalet in Glacier National Park in northern Montana burned in a wildfire Thursday evening.

The two-story Sperry Chalet was lost despite efforts by firefighters to protect it and save it, fire officials said.

The firefighters, supported by 3 helicopters, made a valiant stand to save the structure but were unsuccessful in saving the main Sperry Chalet, according to a statement posted on a federal fire website.

No one was hurt, and firefighters were working to save other buildings of the chalet. The chalet had been closed since Aug. 15 because of the fire.

The Sperry Chalet was built in 1913 by the Great Northern Railway, the St. Paul railroad founded by James J. Hill and later led by his son, Louis W. Hill.

The Hills and the Great Northern worked to promote Glacier National Park as a tourist destination served by the railroads route from the Twin Cities to Seattle. The Sperry Chalet and other buildings constructed in Glacier by the Great Northern were modeled on Swiss architecture as part of a plan to portray the park as Americas Switzerland.

The chalet was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Elsewhere in Montana, a wind-driven wildfire ripped through parched forest and grasslands in southeastern Montana, threatening 35 homes and structures and forcing the evacuation of an undetermined number of residents scattered in the area, officials said Thursday.

The fire that started in the Custer National Forest about 35 miles northwest of Broadus on Wednesday burned at least 47 square miles in a single day.

Authorities issued evacuation orders for the ranches and houses that dot the landscape in the direction the fire is heading. It is unclear how many people are affected by the order, but fire officials say 35 homes and other structures are threatened.

Its growing exponentially, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Mark Jacobson. A lot of those people are sparse and spread out.

Its one of 45 fires that ignited Wednesday in Montana, where more than 90 percent of the land is in moderate to exceptional drought. Many of the new ignitions were caused by lightning strikes from a passing thunderstorm that carried little rain.

Unrelenting wind gusts caused the fire to spread too fast for crews to establish containment lines initially, and crews focused on protecting the buildings in the fires path.

Wind gusts and low humidity hampered firefighting efforts again on Thursday.

A 20-person crew and equipment arrived Thursday to help the 70 people working on the fire, but firefighting resources are stretched and are being diverted to catch new fires before they spread, Jacobson said.

We have a lot of other fires that are popping up all around this fire, he said. The situation is rapidly evolving. Theyre doing their best with what they have.

Montana officials plan to nearly triple the number of National Guard troops deployed to fight fires by the end of the weekend. Those 350 soldiers will work on fire lines, firefighting aircraft and provide security in fire zones, Adjutant Gen. Matthew Quinn said.

With personnel and equipment scarce across the nation, those troops could free up other firefighters to focus on keeping small blazes from turning into large ones, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director John Tubbs said.

We need people on the ground fighting fire and weve asked the Montana Guard to step up, he said.

So far this year, more than 1,500 fires have burned 937 square miles in Montana as the state suffers a drought that intensifies each week. The fires have already drained the states firefighting reserve fund and an emergency fund, and there is no end in sight for the hot, dry weather that the fires are feeding on.

In northern Montana, a wildfire burning between Havre and the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation has destroyed five cabins, five other structures and is threatening another 130 buildings, Hill County officials said.

Residents in the area have been notified that they may have to evacuate if the 17-square-mile spreads. It was uncontained as of Thursday afternoon.

In western Montana, fire crews continued to hold the line against a blaze that was threatening Seeley Lake. More than 1,000 homes and businesses in the town are under evacuation orders.

Link:
Wildfire torches Glacier National Park chalet built by James J. Hill - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

Dozens of people endured hellish heat Thursday morning in front of the bright, orange arch of Los Angeles iconic Angels Flight, for what many of them called a short, yet significant train ride to local history heaven.

The ride was amazing! It felt great, a perspiring L.A. Mayor Eric Garctti told a crowd of reporters after he and City Councilman Jose Huizar rode the first car of the morning up downtowns Bunker Hill.

On a hot day like today, its a perfect day to ride Angels Flight, he added. Theres a couple of historic bumps. The historic bumps are part of it. But it felt very safe, very secure.

The funky little funicular that carried Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to the top of downtown L.A. in the movie La La Land reopened to the general public Thursday morning. Dubbed the worlds shortest public railroad, Angels Flight will resume doing what it first did on New Years Eve 1901, ferrying riders up and down the citys stunningly steep Bunker Hill. A round trip cost a penny back then. It will now cost a $1 per round trip, or .50 cents with a TAP card.

For Whittier resident Ron Cherryholmes, the railway carries a special place in his heart and blood: his great-, great-, great-grandfather Col. J.W. Eddy built Angels Flight, which operates by using the counterbalancing weights of its cars to pull one up while the other descends.

Its a landmark, Cherryholmes said. People always link Los Angeles with it. Were so honored to be a part of it.

The railway has long made its mark as part of downtown Los Angeles historic landscape, even being mentioned in John Fantes American classic Ask the Dust. But its own journey has been one of stops and gos.

It closed in 1969 for a decades-long redevelopment project that saw Bunker Hills mansions replaced by high-rise office buildings, hotels, luxury apartments and museums.

Four years after it reopened in 1996 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It was closed again in 2001, however, after a failure of the counterbalancing system caused a crash that killed one rider and injured several others. The railway finally reopened in 2010, only to be closed three years later after riders had to be rescued by firefighters. No one was hurt, but a subsequent investigation revealed numerous safety flaws, and the state Public Utilities Commission shut the railway down.

Thursdays reopening came about with a little push from the film La La Land. Stone and Gosling climbed aboard it for a scene that depicted a romantic nighttime ride.

Advertisement

By the time the Oscar-nominated film was released last year, officials were considering plans to reopen Angels Flight. But the movie seemed to give them added incentive. While it was closed, the public had to use an adjacent steep, smelly, trash-strewn stairway.

La La Land was the last straw, laughed local historian and preservation activist Richard Schave. It was like, OK, we have to get a yes on this now.

Schave and his wife, Kim Cooper, had launched a popular petition drive to reopen the railway after an ugly graffiti attack damaged its two antique rail cars in 2015.

That sentiment was repeated again and again among riders, who said it was Angels Flight that solidified their love affair with the City of Angels.

Donovan Sinohue of Yorba Linda was so excited to ride Angels Flight he dressed in an early 20th century white period suit. His great-, great- grandfather worked to pave the streets of Los Angeles. His grandfather, a World War II vet and Native American code talker, worked with the Los Angeles Unified School District and his father worked for the Department of Transportation. Sinohue works in the citys election division. He said he worked to get the word out about Angels Flight opening because of his own history with Los Angeles. He said he was honored to have a small part in a big operation.

Steven Luftman and Karen Smalley, a couple from Central Los Angeles historic Carthay neighborhood, said they appreciated the citys efforts in preserving Angels Flight. Luftman, a Los Angeles native, said he hadnt been on Angels Flight for 20 years.

This kind of historic romantic old L.A. is why I was drawn to coming here from New York 20 years ago, Smalley added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

See more here:
LA's iconic Angels Flight railway climbs Bunker Hill once again - LA Daily News

Stiperstones and Corndon Hill Country is a beautiful upland area that crosses the Welsh English border between the Shropshire Hills and Montgomeryshire.

The Landscape Partnership Scheme aimsto conserve and enhance the local heritage and wildlife, raiseawareness, and provide opportunities to all for involvement, access and learning.

Itbrings together local people, groups, organisations and professionals from England and Wales, and covers an area bounded by the settlements of Churchstoke, Chirbury, Minsterley, Pontesbury, Bridges, Wentnor and Norbury see map below.

The Scheme is divided into four programmes reflecting the special qualities of the area, and is runningfifteen projects, ranging from heritage restoration and habitat management, to training young people in rural skills and offering grants and advice to landowners.

Take a look at oureventspage for local walks, talks and activities, includingourexciting local archaeological project, or help start a project in your local area throughDown to Earth.

Supported by Heritage Lottery and other funders, the Scheme is running for five years,ending April 2018.

Map of Scheme area (click on map to expand)

Read more:
Home - Stiperstones & Corndon Hill Country Landscape ...

Tumamoc Hill, a favorite walking spot for Tucsonans, will expand the hours it is open to the public starting Sept. 5.

The new hours will be from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, giving walkers 18 hours each day to enjoy the scenic 1-mile path. The change came as an effort to allow the community to enjoy the hike up the hill while also preserving the sites scientific, natural and cultural integrity.

The west-side site will also include signs displaying the new hours of access and wire cables along the path and top of the hill where Ben Wilder, interim director of Tumamoc Hill, said the most damage to sensitive areas is being done. The cable fencing will be to prevent public access to areas beyond the walking path.

With the increase of numbers in recent years, weve seen a very alarming degradation of the top of the hill, Wilder said.

Tumamoc is an 860-acre ecological reserve and U.S. National Historic Landmark owned and operated by the University of Arizona in partnership with Pima County.

Before, the hill was closed to the public between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. weekdays. This made it difficult for UA police to enforce rules, and for damage to be done at night.

UAPD was ticketing grandparents walking with their grandchildren in the evening around 5 p.m., Wilder said. Now, were kind of flipping that and trying to accommodate walking preferences if you want to go at sunrise, the middle of the day or evening.

Over the years, Tumamoc has seen a dramatic increase in foot traffic.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, no more than about 100 people would regularly walk the path, Wilder said. Today, that number is about 1,500 a day.

Tumamoc has seen over 4,000 years of human use (if you include settlement along the Santa Cruz) and has been a cultural gathering place for the valley of Tucson, Wilder said. This (current) migration of people is just the latest chapter in this story thats been going for thousands of years.

Tumamoc is a beautiful gathering place with a deep cultural history, Wilder said, and he sees it as an opportunity to let people see research in action. But this is an ecological reserve, not a park.

There are no pets, bicycles or smoking allowed on Tumamoc.

New phone app to enhance experience

Walkers on Tumamoc will also have a new way to enjoy their strolls a soon-to-be-released phone app that is similar to the one that supplements the drive up Mount Lemmon.

The app, for both Android and iOS devices, will feature six sections that are meant to narrate the hike up the hill.

The first section is an introduction and overview, followed by information on the desert laboratory site and history of the buildings. The desert lab buildings were built more than 100 years ago, and today, the glass in Wilders office is wavy with age.

Then the app walks listeners through the landscape, ecology and seasons of the desert.

At the top of the hill, the app delves into the archaeology of the site, including the history of the people who made the same climb thousands of years ago, and stories of the Tohono Oodham, descendants of the people who used to live on the hill.

There will also be 16 YouTube videos of additional content for those seeking a more thorough picture of the site.

The tour will be narrated on the app by Alberto Burquez, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, in Spanish, and David Yetman, a research social scientist at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, in English.

The bilingual aspect of the community that uses the hill has been overlooked, so in terms of my tenure here, its one of the most important things to support, Wilder said.

The music accompanying the app is by Calexico and Gabriel Naim Amor.

Contact Mikayla Mace at mmace@tucson.com or (520) 573-4158. On Twitter: @mikaylagram

Read this article:
Tumamoc Hill to be opened during the day for walkers starting Sept. 5 - Arizona Daily Star

Lawrence Township trustees

Monday meeting

KEY ACTION Fielded a complaint about the condition of Clover Hill Cemetery and agreed to send the Police Department to the site to investigate the damage.

DISCUSSION Many of the headstones, some dating back to the 1850s, have been knocked over, broken or moved and stacked in piles. There appears to be a road being built to the south side of the property, said Kathryn Hardgrove Popio of Wadsworth, who visited the cemetery located on Deerfield Avenue as part of her research on cemeteries. Trustees and the road superintendent were stunned to hear of and see pictures of the damage. The Road Department maintains the property, which previously was owned by a church.

OTHER ACTION

UP NEXT Meet in regular session at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at the township administration building.

JOAN PORTER

Read more from the original source:
Police to investigate Clover Hill Cemetery damage - News - The ... - Canton Repository

Sen. Bernie SandersBernard (Bernie) SandersWe might end up with single-payer healthcare, whether we like it or not Sanders: Single-payer isn't a litmus test for Dems OPINION | The real threat to our republic is the Orwellian Antifa MORE (I-Vt.) said that supporting a single-payer healthcare system shouldn't be a litmus test for Democrats, but that he believed more members of the party will grow to back the policy in the future.

Sanders told The Washington Post that hes building support for his Medicare for All bill, which would institute a single-payer health insurance system.

The former presidential candidate's backing for the policy has raised questions about whether he and his supporters might launch primary challenges against Democrats who do not back a single-payer plan.

Is this a litmus test? No, you have to look at where candidates are on many issues, Sanders said.

But youre seeing more and more movement toward Medicare for All. When the people are saying we need healthcare for everyone, as more and more Americans come on board, it will become politically possible.

Sanders did predict that Democrats in the future will likely have to back single-payer healthcare if they want to win elections.

Could people run? Sure, Sanders said of Democrats running for office without backing a single-payer system.

Do I think they can win without supporting single-payer? Im skeptical. Among the people who consider themselves progressive, who vote in the primaries, theres clearly movement toward Medicare for All.

Sanders plans on introducing his bill once the Senate returns from recess. He has been hosting town halls to draw attention to his plans.

The progressive senator said that the landscape had changed for single-payer during the GOPs drawn-out battle to repeal and replace ObamaCare, which failed in the Senate earlier this month.

People are saying the ACA did some good things, and the Republicans wanted to throw 22 million people off of it, Sanders said. Thats an absurd idea to most people.

Universal healthcare plans like single-payer have gained traction among more progressive lawmakers, but have not yet earned the support of more moderate Democrats, who remain hesitant about the idea.

More here:
Sanders: Single-payer isn't a litmus test for Dems - The Hill