Fitter and Faster Swim Camps is the proud sponsor of SwimSwams College Recruiting Channel and all commitment news. For many, swimming in college is a lifelong dream that is pursued with dedication and determination. Fitter and Faster is proud to honor these athletes and those who supported them on their journey.

Jordan Morgan, a junior at the US Performance Academy and a member of Irvine Novaquatics, has made her verbal commitment to swim for the University of Texas in the fall of 2021. Primarily a breaststroker, Morgan is .23 seconds away from an Olympic Trials cut in the 100 LCM breaststroke and 2.45 seconds away from the cut time in the 200 LCM breaststroke.

Im so excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of Texas! Im grateful to my family and coaches for supporting me through the years, and Im so happy to have the opportunity to swim for such an amazing program. Hook em

At the Speedo Champions Series in Carlsbad, Morgan took home a 7th place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.60). She also took 19th place in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Speedo Winter Junior Championship West meet (1:02.44). Her career-best time in the 100-yard breaststroke came from the USA Swimming Winter National Championships in 2017, where she took 14th.

Top Times in Yards:

With her career-best times, Morgan would have the second-fastest 100-yard breaststroke time, behind senior Kennedy Lohman, and the fastest 200 yard breaststroke time on the current Longhorns team. She is the sole breaststroker amongst the 2025 recruiting class for the Longhorns, made up of #15Olivia McMurray,Morgan Brophy,Ellie Andrew, andAva Collinge.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [emailprotected].

About the Fitter and Faster Swim Tour

Fitter & Faster Swim Camps feature the most innovative teaching platforms for competitive swimmers of all levels. Camps are produced year-round throughout the USA and Canada. All camps are led by elite swimmers and coaches. Visitfitterandfaster.comto find or request a swim camp near you.

FFT SOCIAL

Instagram @fitterandfasterswimtour

Facebook @fitterandfastertour

Twitter @fitterandfaster

FFT is a SwimSwam partner.

Continue reading here:
Texas Lands Verbal From Breaststroker Jordan Morgan For The Fall of 2021 - SwimSwam

Some of the photos in this story depict graphic scenes of hunting carnage. Reader discretion is advised.

__

(CN) The herd of bison fed quietly along the dirt roadside Saturday, just inside the northern border of Yellowstone National Park.

About 100 yards away, a group of about 50 Native Americans watched the bison intently. With rifles of all calibers slung over their shoulders, they waited for the big animals to cross the dirt road onto National Forest Land, where the bison could be shot.

Pickup trucks with license plates from around the country lined both sides of the narrow dirt road. Some of the men sat in pickup trucks, idling their engines to keep warm, while young boys sat on tailgates, sharpening knives. They knew the killing would start soon.

The bison, meanwhile, would step across the road, only to be herded back to the park by an unknowing passing motorist. The entire mood of the group of men shifted as the bison crossed back and forth.

After about six hours, the herd of 18 bison had crossed in singles and in pairs and was now making its way up a long, flat ridge where bison carcasses lay strewn about from previous days killings.

The men grouped together to listen to a tribal game officer from the Nez Perce tribe tell them how the hunt was going to take place. As there were only 18 bison, but about 50 men, the tribal members who had come from across the country decided how the bison would be distributed. One elderly man was given the chance to lead the pack of men up the ridge. He would shoot first.

The men moved in a group slowly up the ridge while the bison grazed nonchalantly just 40 yards away, oblivious to the dead carcasses dotted around the sagebrush and open grass. The tailgate-party atmosphere of a few minutes ago had now turned serious, sullen and quiet.

As soon as the bison had moved past fluorescent signs dictating where the shooting could take place, the elderly man raised his rifle and fired, dropping his buffalo. The other bison stood nearby, nonplussed.

The other shooters fired quickly and the bison dropped where they had stood. In less than 30 seconds it was over; the herd of bison lay dead in the snow, some still writhing from injuries while battle cries and shouts echoed across the still winter landscape.

The men took to their task immediately, skinning and butchering the enormous animals, while a few women shot photos with cellphones. The snow turned red, and a small creek running with snowmelt carried the bison blood down the hill.

One man who came from a tribe in Idaho cut out the eyeball of the bison bull he was butchering, out of respect, so the animal could not watch, the man said.

Saturdays bison killing by Native American tribal members was part of a management effort to reduce the animals numbers in Yellowstone National Park.

The culling of bison that wander outside of Yellowstone National Park started in the late 1990s, after the state of Montana sued the National Park Service over allowing bison to roam outside the park and possibly infect nearby domestic cattle with brucellosis.

The spread of disease has never happened, according to the park, but the shooting of bison outside the park has carried on ever since, mostly in late winter when the bison move out of the park to find better feed.

The park service has a goal of about 3,000 bison for Yellowstone Park. In 2019, the agency counted about 4,900 bison.

The park service uses three strategies to keep the population figures within the 3,000-animal range: tribal and public hunts outside the park; sending bison to slaughter, with the meat and hides going to tribes and putting bison in quarantine to test them for disease, then shipping the bison to tribal lands. Ninety-three bison were sent to the Fort Peck Reservation of Montana in 2019.

A small neighborhood of about a dozen homes sits just 300 yards away from where the killing takes place each year near Beattie Gulch, just north of Gardiner, Montana. The killing field has led to one neighbor filing a lawsuit in October 2019 against the National Park Service over the handling of the hunt.

The lawsuits plaintiff, Neighbors Against Bison Slaughter, is seeking injunctive relief and a restraining order to stop the killings. In its answer to the complaint Feb. 20, the Department of Interior said the plaintiff had failed to exhaust administrative remedies over the hunts and that plaintiffs lack standing.

According to the lawsuit, federal agencies in 2013 began allowing four Native American tribes to shoot bison in Beattie Gulch near Yellowstone National Park. By 2019, the number of tribes had expanded to six.

Tribal members from the Nez Perce tribe, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation are allowed to shoot the bison. Tribal members represented last Saturday came from as far away as Wisconsin and Oregon.

Lee Whiteplume of Idaho harvested a big bison bull Saturday. He meticulously cared for his bison, wrapping the quarters in cotton game bags. He brought two other men with him to help with the arduous task of skinning and quartering the bison. Children walked among their elders, inspecting the bison animals that for centuries have fed and clothed Native Americans. Tribes that were once sworn enemies worked together from the shooting to the harvest.

This is good medicine, Whiteplume said while hunched over his big bison, helping skin the big animal. I think its only right that of all people on planet Earth we get to exercise our aboriginal rights by being able to harvest one of these animals.

Some of the neighbors, though, dont see it that way.

According to the lawsuit, The dramatically expanded and escalating tribal hunt has forced neighbors some only a few hundred yards away to bear the economic costs and physical risks of the slaughter; the hunt causes extreme noise; and, perhaps worst of all, the hunt leaves thousands of pounds of rotting, potentially disease-laden bison carcasses littered across this small geographic area.

The Neighbors lawsuit claims that the number of bison killed by native Americans and non-natives at Beattie Gulch has increased from 59 in 2007 to 389 in 2016-2017. Last year about 300 bison were killed there, according to Gregg Todd, a game warden with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who was on the scene Saturday.

Todd said this years mild winter has led to far fewer bison coming out of Yellowstone National Park.

Kerry Gunther, who lives about 400 yards away, walked among the carcasses Sunday.

Gunther, who has applied for one of the non-tribal permits to shoot bison, said hes not against the culling of the herd, but he thinks the government agencies and tribes could do more to reduce the eyesore of the hundreds of bison carcasses left to rot in the sun long after the shooters are gone.

Im not against hunting and Im not against culling bison, Gunther said, but the shooting line forms right here and the bison die right here.

Gunther said the eagles and birds that feed on the carrion often land in the big cottonwood trees at his home and drop pieces of meat into his yard.

Its amazing how big a chunk of meat an eagle can carry, he said. Its not fun having bison udders in your yard.

The gut piles from the shootings are concentrated in a 20- to 30-acre area on a bench overlooking the Yellowstone River and in plain view of a county road, where tourists drive by, hoping to catch a glimpse of wildlife. Gunther recommends the shooting be moved at least a few hundred yards farther up the hill and away from public view.

Gunther works as a bear biologist for Yellowstone National Park, and said the park takes extreme care to remove roadkill so that grizzly bears are not attracted to it. This area of bison remains often attracts grizzlies, which will soon be coming out of hibernation, he said.

For years, the federal agencies have ignored the local residents plight and the extreme dangers of the hunt because they seem to think they have no alternatives to this gruesome, unsanitary, and dangerous hunt, the lawsuit claims.

While one neighbor has taken the lawsuit approach to stopping the hunt, Gunther, meanwhile, said he has approached the agencies that oversee the killing including Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service to try to find a solution to the carrion problem.

When it deals with treaty rights, they claim there is no jurisdiction, Gunther said.

According to the National Park Service, Yellowstones bison population has grown steadily over the last 50 years, from 500 animals in 1970 to about 4,900 today. The bison population increases 10% to 17% per year and predation by bears and wolves has had little effect in reducing the bison numbers, according to the park service.

In winter 2018-19, 460 bison were killed in the hunt or captured and taken to slaughter. This winter, wildlife officials decided to remove 600 to 900 animals through shooting outside the park, capture and shipment to slaughter at the parks Stephens Creek facility, and placement in quarantine for transport to native American tribal lands.

Last Saturday, bright sunny weather changed to a wintertime blizzard by evening, as trucks and trailers hauled off the bison meat and hides. Lee Whiteplumes truck and small trailer rattled down the dirt road, loaded with several hundred pounds of clean bison meat.

Once back home, the bounty of the harvest will be shared with his family. The entire family will get involved with the tanning of the enormous bison hide, using the brains as an emulsifier on the hide. This will take weeks of strenuous work, he said, weeks and weeks, and hours upon hours of work.

A member of another tribe approached Whiteplume to borrow his portable electric saw, while Whiteplume took a brief rest on his tailgate. Whiteplume looked down at the massive bison bull sprawled below him.

He was not festive or jovial, and no sense of bloodlust was displayed. He appeared at the same time somber but grateful. Snow began to spit out of the ashen gray sky and Whiteplume resumed his work on the bison.

This represents our life and our livelihood, Whiteplume said. This is our connection to this landscape.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Like Loading...

Read more:
'This Is Good Medicine': Tribes Work Together in Annual Bison Hunt - Courthouse News Service

An unfamiliar smudge suddenly appears against the forest fragment I'm birding. Voice shrill, hands waving high, I charge across the field toward it. The inky smudge vanishes into the woods. It's a cat. It has been over a year since the last cats were lurking around my yard, so the appearance of this new cat has me on edge. The previous stable tenants, next door, left a litter of kittens behind when their lease was over. I went to great lengths to trap the litter, prevent them from being eaten by the local fox, and then to rehome the three that survived. Sure, we could have left them to starve, to be attacked by wild animals, and let nature sort it all out, but cats are not a part of nature, they are a domesticated species, and when they impose upon the natural landscape they are pests; therefore, it was my responsibility to act in their best interest and in the interest of the environment.

Each year over 100 different species of bird pass through my yard, which is along a main artery of the Potomac River, and sandwiched between a mountain and extensive farmland. Many species stay to breed, nest, and raise young, so when I saw that inky smudge stalking the property, I did what any true bird-lover would do: I took down my feeders and stopped attracting birds to my yard. It was an aggravating time because I wanted to be visited by my resident winged beauties, but I also felt a sense of duty to protect them from the cat, so in addition to taking my feeders down, I began cat-watching. Aside from the injury to wildlife and birds, which inevitably took place over the course of the year that little smudge stalked my yard, my main worry was that a feral cat colony might form nearby.

The number of birds that outdoor cats kill per year has been estimated to be between 1.3 and 4 billion. That's a wide range, but even on the lower end, 1.3 billion is a problem. These numbers only represent birds (not reptiles or small mammals), which make up 20 percent of feral cats' prey.

People are the solution to the feral cat problem in our nation, but people are also part of the problem. A feral cat simply does not apparate in the wilderness, it is put there, sometimes intentionally. For example, an indoor cat is a protected companion animal that is, for the most part, supervised and supported. A free-ranging, or outdoor, cat is exposed, unsupervised, and unprotected. The free-ranging cats that escape domestication are not wild like bobcats or ocelots, they are feral and invasive. Invasive species are described as a non-native organism that causes ecological harm to an ecosystem, including extinction of species, competition with species, and altering habitats. Feral cats are the poster-species of this description. For additional reference, another species that fits this definition is the Burmese Python populations which plague the Florida Everglades. Neither have a place on our natural landscape.

During the times that my unwanted visitor was absent from my yard, I worried about it. I wondered how it was keeping warm on cold nights, if it got eaten by an eagle, a coyote, or a fox. Sometimes I just wanted to know that it was OK. I worried about the inky smudge because I believe in protecting all animals, including cats, and promoting their welfare. I like them. Norwegian Forest cats and Maine Coons are my favorite. Their voluptuous shape, sophisticated coats, and affectionate demeanor are irresistible. Even though I am severely allergic, I can't resist tickling a furry ear, or lending my legs to a head butt. Experiencing the joy and tenderness of an indoor cat is worth the doses of Benadryl, Zyrtec, and puffs of Albuterol that I need to breathe around them. So, yeah. I like cats. Yet, I am able to recognize the serious problems that feral cat colonies pose.

Supporting feral cat colonies prolongs their inevitable suffering. Trap, Neuter, and Release programs, in which the cats are trapped, neutered/spayed, then returned to the environment, do not address the issues of population control, human health hazards (rabies and toxoplasmosis), ecological hazards, nor do they address the animal's safety. Feral cat colonies are not contained spaces, therefore, it isn't possible to trap spay/neuter every single cat or provide health care for all of them. Feral cats are nearly impossible to rehome, are unprotected, neglected, and sickly. Subsidizing colonies only drags out feral cats' suffering.

Meanwhile, 33 bird species have been confirmed extinct due to feral cats. These species were confined to islands, but consider my yard, the acres of rural homesteads that are spread thin across America, and the suburban neighborhoods which those cats fallen from domestication prowl: They are islands unto themselves and free-ranging cats reduce bird populations at a minimum rate of 1.3 billion per annum. Why isn't this invasive species controlled like other pests? We control wolves and coyotes to protect livestock and wildlife, why not control feral cats to protect wildlife and human health? In Australia, nearly 80 percent of the naturescape is overrun by feral cats. The government has acknowledged the problem and has committed to culling 2 million feral cats by 2020 in order to protect the native wildlife and ecosystems. Why not humanely manage feral cat populations in the United States?

On a gloomy February afternoon, my friend Tom and I are scouting for a suitable place to build a Barn Owl nesting box at the stables. We meet the current stable tenant who becomes interested in our plans. Amid the horses, miniature ponies, and the domestic ducks quacking about, we tell her about our plans for the owls. The conversation steers toward our love of birds, animals, horses, and then the jingling of a bell interrupts us. The ducks scatter. From behind the barn, I see it. The smudge. The tenant reads the look of surprise on my face and says, "That's Panther." She explains Panther's circumstances to us and shares with us his random arrival to the stables.

"He just showed up one day, about a year ago."

That's about how long he has been stalking my yard.

She informs us about how sickly he was when they met and how she and her daughter nursed him back to health. She confesses that he has been killing the shorebirds that hatch in the back paddock. Underneath her words, I sense embarrassment over his actions. I don't blame her. She inherited an unwanted cat and acted in his best interest.

Panther, who is sporting a purple collar with his name engraved across a purple metal tag, slinks toward us. He is plump, fluffy, and missing half of his tail hardly the look of the killer that has been leaving mutilated cardinals, wrens, garter snakes, and voles around my home. Without hesitation, even though I've been chasing him from my yard regularly, he gets close to my legs and helps himself to multiple head butts. My instinct is to reach down and stroke his back, but there's nowhere to wash my hands, so I simply say, "hi, cutie." I'm both annoyed and relieved by this encounter with Panther. I'm annoyed because there's no way an owl box can be built with a known killer on the prowl and because I'm not sure how to manage the spring broods of shorebird. However, I'm relieved. It's just one cat and not a colony. Panther is fortunate. He found safety with people who care about his welfare. Feral cats, even with the help of cat activists, aren't so lucky. Panther's guardians eventually moved on to different pastures and they took him with them. When the new tenants moved in, I put in a request to the stable manager: no cats. So far, my yard has been cat-free and my bird feeders are up again.

Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.

Read more from the original source:
The case for controlling the cat population - The Week

ALAMEDA, Calif. A few years ago, Thushan and Megan Amarasiriwardena considered buying a home in Alamo Square, their neighborhood in San Francisco, but found that even one-bedroom condos were way too expensive. Then they looked at Alameda, a place that Bay Area residents often forget.

One of the best things about Alameda is the most obvious: Its an island in the San Francisco Bay (another part is attached to Oakland) with spectacular water and city views. It also exudes character and charm barbershops display old-fashioned barber poles on nearly every downtown block, and politely aggressive Girl Scouts sell Thin Mints. The speed limit is mostly 25 miles an hour. The city evokes a Norman Rockwell vision of America, but with more diversity.

In the spring of 2017, the couple went with some friends to Alamedas Art Deco movie theater, where before the film began, they watched Alamedas Got Talent, with local kids playing piano and an older guy performing magic tricks. This town is too good to be real, said Ms. Amarasiriwardena, 36, a landscape architect.

By August, they had become Alamedans.

They could afford to buy because in 2015, Mr. Amarasiriwardena, 38, sold his start-up, Launchpad Toys, which created apps for children, to Google, where he also works developing the companys robot personality. We could finally buy a place, he said.

Their search was analytical. Theres speed, quality and cost, Mr. Amarasiriwardena said. They were not in a hurry, so they focused on quality and cost.

Their spreadsheet listed local asking prices and sale prices. We just waited, said Ms. Amarasiriwardena, 36. Three times they bid over the asking price; they lost all three.

Then something different came on the market: a five-bedroom Victorian between two small apartment buildings, with a towering turret built in 1894, on a main street. At $1.4 million, it was too big and expensive, but when the owner reduced the price to $1.3 million, they attended an open house. What struck us was how loved the house was, Mr. Amarasiriwardena said, although it needed a new foundation, which could cost $200,000.

The couple wrote a letter to the owner about how theyd fallen in love across San Franciscos fire escapes and wanted their children to grow up in Alameda. They bought the house for $1.152 million. Theirs was the only bid. (They now have a toddler and another on the way.) We feel like were caretakers in the long life of this house, Mr. Amarasiriwardena said.

The first weekend they went to a pizza parlor and found a family crowd, something we didnt realize we didnt have in the city, Ms. Amarasiriwardena said. I felt we were home.

The couples enthusiasm has now led to a chain migration: Mr. Amarasiriwardena coaxed two high school friends from his hometown of Amherst, Mass., to settle in Alameda.

After Jason Hill, a Washington D.C., health care lobbyist, took a job with the California-based managed health care consortium Kaiser Permanente, he and his wife, Ann Rhodes, a community organizer, looked for a friendly community with a short commute, good schools for their young daughters, and diversity.

Guided by a relocation specialist, Mr. Hill spent a day looking for a town to call home. He considered Oakland, Berkeley and Point Richmond before he saw Alameda. It seemed family-friendly and felt like a quaint small town. It met a lot of our criteria, he said.

It wasnt perfect. The family was coming from a neighborhood in Washington that was about 80 percent African-American. Mr. Hill, 47, is African-American, and Ms. Rhodes, 40, is white. And while Alameda prides itself on its diversity, Mr. Hill observed that, compared with their previous experience, there werent many black residents. The town is 50 percent white, 31 percent Asian, 11 percent Latino and 6 percent African-American, according to U.S. census figures.

In 2018, they rented a house in Alameda and began their hunt. They looked at about 10 houses, settling on a beautiful, refurbished four-bedroom Craftsman from 1920 with a yard on a quiet street, close to Oakland. They paid $1.4 million. Neighbors brought cookies and welcoming cards.

When their oldest daughter attended an Alameda public school, she was the only black child in her class. That was problematic for us, Mr. Hill said. She now attends a Montessori charter school in Oakland, where there are many more children who look like her.

Mr. Hill and Ms. Rhodes sold their individual condos in Washington, for $410,000 and $290,000. That was the only way we could do it, Mr. Hill said. The couple kept the condo they had bought together in Washington and now rent it out.

Alameda, home to almost 80,000 residents, is a jigsaw puzzle of a city comprising two main sections Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, which isnt an island but a peninsula attached to Oakland.

There are resort-like townhouses and newer houses in planned communities on Bay Farm Island, with kitchens that have islands of their own. On Alameda Island youll find renovated Craftsman, Tudor, colonial-style and Mediterranean houses, small apartment buildings and regal Victorians. Some houses come without a garage, but street parking in residential areas is abundant.

A drive into town from the mainland quickly reduces stress. Children ride bikes with no helicopter parents in sight. Half the town watches the blowout Fourth of July parade; the other half is in it. On warm days, parents take small children to the beach. Windsurfers scrape the sky and there are spectacular views of San Francisco and the Bay. Neighborhoods have block parties, and book clubs are not exclusive.

At Alameda Point, on the western end of the island, where the Alameda Naval Air Station once stood, tumbledown buildings look like Hollywood stage sets, which they sometimes are. With 900 acres of city-owned land on the Point, new neighborhoods are being built.

Spirits Alley, a cluster of distilleries along Monarch Street at Alameda Point, offers wine, spirits and craft-beer tasting rooms in old hangars. Elsewhere, local industry includes pharmaceutical firms, Peets Coffee roasting plant and Saildrone, which makes wind-powered ocean drones used for scientific research.

Before the Naval base closed in 1997, Alameda was a middle-class community with housing for military families. Today, its tough for a teacher or a ferry worker to find affordable housing in the city. A townhouse built in the 1960s may sell for $800,000, while a 19th-century Victorian can go for $2 million.

In 2017, 493 single-family homes sold for a median price of $980,000. Prices rose in 2018, with 502 houses selling for a median price of $1.02 million, and again in 2019, with 469 houses selling for a median of $1.11 million, according to Patrick Carlisle, the Bay Areas chief market analyst for Compass, the real estate company.

Still, said Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, Alamedas mayor, Were working to house people at all levels of income.

At Alameda Point, old military housing is used to house formerly disabled, homeless resident. In the next decade, 1,425 new housing units are planned, with 75 percent designated as market-rate housing and the remainder as affordable housing.

The city has about 230 homeless residents, Ms. Ashcraft said, and is establishing an emergency fund, because the most effective way to address homelessness is not to let it happen.

Families that move to Alameda often stay. Joey Pucci, owner of JP Seafood Co., is a second-generation Alamedan. Kate McCaffrey, a Compass agent, is a fifth-generation resident. Her great-grandmothers wedding dress is at the Alameda Museum.

On the main commercial block there are two toy stores, a local ice cream shop whose motto is Life Is Uncertain, Eat Dessert First, a bookstore, a high-end watch repair shop and a newspaper store (which also sells mobile phones).

Beautifully maintained parks are scattered throughout town, luring young parents with strollers. Much of Alameda is flat, making biking easy for all ages. And residents are, mostly, nice. People thank the bus driver when the get off the bus, Ms. Ashcraft said.

The Alameda Unified School District operates nine elementary schools, including the Maya Lin School, an arts institute named for the artist best known for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

During the 2018-19 school year, 68 percent of third-graders met or exceeded standards on English and language arts (ELA) on Californias Smarter Balanced Assessment test, compared with 49 percent statewide. In math, 72 percent met or exceeded standards, compared with 50 percent statewide.

There are four middle schools and four high schools, including the neoclassical, blocklong Alameda High. Of the students who took the SAT exam during the 2017-18 school year, 85 percent met or exceeded benchmarks for English, compared with 71 percent statewide; 89 percent met or exceeded the benchmarks for math, compared with 51 percent statewide.

Gail Payne, Alamedas senior transportation coordinator, said that most residents drive to work. An average of 18,000 ride the bus every day; fares are $3.50 one way or $86.40 for a monthly pass. On a typical workday, 5,200 people take the passenger ferry to the San Francisco Ferry Building, which costs between $3.60 and $7.20 one way. Alameda has two ferry terminals one on Main Street, where there are 20 daily trips, and another on Bay Farm Island, which makes eight daily trips. A third terminal is set to open this summer at the Seaplane Lagoon, and will become the main terminal for trips to San Francisco.

Others drive to a nearby BART station and pay $4.20 for a 16-minute ride to San Francisco. Tech buses from Silicon Valley pick up and drop off employees in Alameda. During commuting hours, the drive to Silicon Valley can take one to two hours.

Alamedans are very mindful of climate change, Ms. Ashcraft said. The city has 47 miles of bike lanes and paths, and is building a bike and hikers trail east to west leading to the new ferry terminal. Part of our mind-set is that weve got to get out of our cars, she said.

The Ohlone Indians lived in what is now Alameda, eating acorns and oysters until the Spanish arrived in the 1700s and forced them to relinquish their culture. In 1853, a city was established. In 1869, Alameda served as the terminus for the Transcontinental Railroad. San Franciscans started moving to Alameda following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, Mayor Ashcraft said. In the mid-1940s, Alameda became a Navy town, where during World War II, three shifts of workers were employed.

More:
Alameda, Calif.: On San Francisco Bay, With Great Views and Rising Prices - The New York Times

These stingless male digger bees are clustered on the bloom of a Verbena. Ive also found them on lavender blossoms, rosemary, Texas ranger, and other low-water plants. The females are in the undisturbed, unmulched bare soil nearby. Courtesy photo

Once again, I see a tuft of a tail disappear around the corner of a shrubbery, so swiftly and gracefully that even my sharp-eyed cattle dog doesnt notice it.

I always check which way the tail is, up or down. I am told that a coyote runs with its tail down, while a fox runs with its tail straight out. Foxes are fine. If its a coyote, the dog needs to stay closer.

Foxes have been living on my property for a couple of decades now, enriching the night sounds with their strange yelps and doing these funny vanishing acts when we walk nearby.

Their dens are amazingly well hidden, but invariably are somewhere deep inside an overgrown thicket of prickly plants. Right now, its a hedge of grevilleas and callistemon, but in the past theyve inhabited a mlange of berry canes and suckering wild roses, or a pile of prunings from the thorny trifoliate orange that I intended to move months prior. Our interactions, mostly at dusk or dawn, are very casual, fleeting and mutually respectful.

Its an open question whether these are the native Sacramento Valley red fox, or the introduced red foxes, escaped from 19th century fur farms, that predominate in other parts of the Valley. It seems our property is right on the borderline where those populations meet. They might even be hybrids. All I know is, if theyre eating voles and pocket gophers and ground squirrels, theyre fine with me.

The way to get red foxes on your property, if you happen to live out in the country, is to have some thickets. Those are also great habitat for ground birds such as our native quail. And for skunks and opossums. On the plus side, skunks eat snails.

Its surprisingly easy to create a thicket. Ive done it several times by accident, usually involving roses and berries, but also bamboo, junipers, compact xylosma, prickly pear, and fruit tree rootstock suckers. Apparently, the spinier, pricklier and denser, the better. Good rule of thumb: if you wouldnt want to crawl in there, the foxes will be happy.

I am not proposing that you plant thickets in your back yard, just allow a little more wildness in the interest of better ecology. Planting or allowing wild areas encourages natural pest management. You provide habitat, nesting sites, food and water sources, and protective cover to promote higher-order members of the food chain.

On a rural property, it can be a hedgerow. In your yard, it can just be a corner where you let things grow naturally, perhaps with a water feature, and make some strategic plant choices for beneficial insects and wildlife.

You can:

* Encourage native, overwintering, reproducing populations of ladybugs (convergent ladybird beetle), which eat aphids.

* Increase populations of leatherwing beetles, which eat aphids.

* Encourage native, ground-dwelling bees for pollination, and help conserve the species.

* Provide habitat for songbirds, some of which feed on garden pests.

* Provide food sources and habitat for the gregarious birds, the scrub jays and mockingbirds, which eat larger insects as part of their diets.

* Provide resting and larval habitat for dragonflies, which eat whiteflies.

Its pretty simple. Birds like a safe place where they can rest, hidden. They like berries and insects to eat, preferably near dense shrubbery. Ladybird beetles benefit from winter moisture on grasses. Ground dwelling bees need open soil, without mulch. Dragonflies like water for their larvae, and the adults like sticks to sit on.

How it works

The leaf-footed bug is an increasing pest in our area. Twenty years ago, Id see a couple of samples in the summer, whereas now they are brought to me every week from spring through fall. They are in the category of large bugs known as stinkbugs. Squash one and youll understand the name.

Stinkbugs mostly have broad host ranges (i.e., they attack a lot of kinds of plants). The leaf-footed bug has a powerful proboscis that it pokes into soft fruit such as tomatoes and peaches, as well as soft green almonds and even pomegranates. Pomegranate trees are one of the places youre likeliest to find them. They are a congregating insect, meaning that they gather in groups, especially as the weather cools.

Most of the damage to soft fruit, occurring when the tomatoes and peaches are nearly ripe, is barely noticeable. You may see a slight blemish at the point of the poke. If there are large numbers of them attacking green fruit, the fruit can be unsightly or fail to develop.

With pomegranates, they like to suck the juices out of a few of the little red arils inside, and sometimes introduce spoilage organisms into the fruit such that you find the pomegranate rotten inside when you cut it open. Usually the yield of good fruit far exceeds the number of damaged ones.

In a garden with lots of birds, you rarely have a significant problem with these pests. Mockingbirds and scrub jays eat bugs in the summer, in their mixed diets of small fruits and seeds and insects. So, if you have a lot of leaf-footed bugs, try to encourage these larger birds. My small mulberry trees draw the birds to the garden, and then I watch as they move from the mulberries to the nearby tomato vines, ducking in and out as they search for bugs.

Grevilleas are Australian native shrubs with great drought tolerance, very well adapted to our climate. Some such as Pink Pearl, shown here, get quite large and have prickly needle-like leaves. Foxes have taken up residence deep in my unpruned hedge of this variety. I stopped watering them a couple of decades ago. The flowers in winter and spring attract hummingbirds. There are smaller and less prickly varieties suitable to smaller yards. Don Shor/Courtesy photo

What birds want

The key is to provide food sources, such as the mulberries, for the birds, along with some shrubs that are dense enough to provide them with cover. Examples of shrubs that produce berries eaten by birds are mahonias and barberries, native and ornamental currants (Ribes), native wild lilacs (Ceanothus), even common landscape shrubs such as Viburnum tinus. As a bonus, each of these has flowers that attract beneficial insects as well as hummingbirds in some cases.

You also need to be willing to tolerate their slight predation on your fruit, though the blackberries and mulberries the birds prefer are generally so abundant thats not an issue. A fresh water source is helpful. A nearby drip line can be modified to fill a bird bath or small, shallow pond. Sprinklers are very popular with many types of birds and also attract dragonflies.

Mulching with leaves

The website of Pacific Horticulture magazine has an outstanding resourcefor gardeners wishing to encourage native and beneficial insects. They provide insight as to how to encourage the leatherwing beetles, which are voracious aphid eaters:

Encouraging a resident population of soldier beetles is easy in gardens. Choose suitable flowers to bloom over a long season. Any habitat garden must include a water source; soldier beetles are particularly known to frequent moist habitats. It is important to the life cycle of soldier beetles (and many other beneficial organisms) that they have undisturbed, mulched soil in which to pupate, so include permanent perennial plantings in gardens. A fragile and important community thrives at the interface between soil and organic matter. In permanent plantings, avoid raking and add organic material to the surface of the beds as needed to keep the soil in good fertility.

I have always lived with very large shade trees, and we just rake up the leaves in fall and spread them around perennials and shrubs nearby to decompose through the rainy season. This provides for an abundance of leatherwing beetles and eliminates aphids.

The larvae live one to three years, so having some undisturbed areas where leaves and compost are breaking down steadily and continuously is crucial to their lifecycle. This requires some water. In xeric landscapes with underground drip irrigation, provide some areas watered by above-ground micro-sprinklers for sufficient moisture.

Not mulching some areas

Much has been made of the problems faced by European honeybees. But less attention has been paid to our native pollinator species, including bees that live in the ground.

While I advocate for mulching to improve the soil, shade roots, and retain soil moisture, some of these ground-dwelling native bee species require open soil areas. Leaving part of your landscape un-mulched can be vital to retaining their habitat.

California or wild lilac, the Ceanothus species, are popular natives, but they often succumb to root and crown rot. Water carefully. Some varieties, such as Yankee Point, have proven more adaptable. The blooms attract bees of all kinds. The shrubs are dense and provide cover for songbirds, and the late summer berries, barely noticeable to us, attract larger birds. Don Shor/Courtesy photo

California natives

Having some California native plants in your landscape can encourage specialized pollinators. Many can be touchy about our heavy soil and high summer temperatures. The following California native plant choices are adaptable, can be left unattended, have reasonable drought tolerance, and host insects and birds.

Yankee Point wild lilac (Ceanothus griseus horizontalis Yankee Point). One of the most adaptable of the California wild lilacs. Most flounder in our dense soils and hot climate, but this one has proven successful in a wide range of habitats. Spreads several feet, spring blooms attract bees of all kinds, and the small fruit attracts songbirds.

Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia). Native to the oak woodlands of California, the flowers attract pollinators and beneficials and the berries attract larger birds. One of the most adaptable of our native shrubs.

Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri). Southern California native that thrives here. The big fried-egg flowers float atop a vigorous plant which spreads by rhizomes. Scads of pollen, easily accessible, attracts bees of all types.

Elderberry (Sambucus mexicana). A great big plant with tropical-looking leaves. Lush when watered, but tolerates drought. Flowers attract beneficials, berries are eaten by all kinds of wildlife and people.

Catalina perfume (Ribes viburnifolium). A native low spreader for shade. The tiny flowers attract hummingbirds. Pretty much indestructible.

Sages (Salvia clevelandii, S. sonomensis, and hybrids). The sages draw large bees and hummingbirds. Our native species mostly bloom in spring, while the southwestern species bloom in summer and fall. I often find all stages of ladybird beetles on my native sages. The California natives need room to spread. Very tolerant of drought and heat.

Willows are great for beneficial insects, as they provide pollen on blooms that come very early. But most of the native species are too big and breakable for a typical yard. Non-native types are more attractive and manageable garden plants. Salix caprea, a large shrub commonly called pussy willow, is used in flower arrangements for the interesting fuzzy buds. It grows quite easily. Willows can take poor, wet soils, as well as some drought once established.

Don Shor and his family have owned the Redwood Barn Nursery since 1981. He can be reached at [emailprotected] Archived articles are available on The Enterprise website, and they are always available (all the way back to 1999) on itsbusiness website, http://www.redwoodbarn.com.

Related

Go here to see the original:
Getting a little wild in the garden - Davis Enterprise

PARKER STEWART has lived in Savannah for nine years.

In that time, hes lived on 35th and Barnard, then 38th and Barnard, now 40th and Barnardmoving south, says the SCAD alum.

Hes seen Starland grow and change, but a constant has been the beauty he finds in his neighborhood.

Stewarts solo photography exhibition, Love Thy Neighborhood, opens March 6 at Starland Yard and is a collection of photos hes taken on his walks around the neighborhood. The Cold Beer sign on the corner of Bull and 40th, one of the defining features of the Starland neighborhood, also happens to be the epicenter for the photographs that Stewart has taken.

This body of work is a culmination of things Ive been seeing over the past eight years that Ive lived in this neighborhood, shares Stewart. It started as this idea of over time, there were things that I would drive by, walk by, bike by every single day of the week and observe them, see them, think about the time of day and the background. And I knew that I wanted to go back and photograph it someday, whether it was later that day or later in the week or years later. Just something about the way the light was hitting this building, or the way Ive always noticed this person sitting in the same spot.

On his walks, Stewart always brought his camera along to document the scenes of his neighborhood. That, of course, led to a massive body of work with hundreds of photographs to choose from. The result is an exhibition of about 25 photos printed on archival vinyl and mounted to the inside walls at Starland Yard, as well as three large photographs in the window that faces Whitaker and 40th.

While paring down the work to fit in the exhibition, Stewart chose photos that presented a story of the neighborhood. Its not necessarily a narrative, but the photos show more of the nuance of Savannah, particularly this area.

The work is macro and micro; it pulls in and out, says Stewart. Id say its very romantic also. The idea of the body of work is poetic because its subtle. Its as simple as the way you turn a corner and see a scene and keep walking, but you recognize that spot, that time of day, and you just thought to yourself, This is the neighborhood. This is what this place is.

What this place is, though, is currently up for definition. Theres a seemingly endless debate between people who want to preserve Starland and people who want to see it grow. In the middle of that debate, of course, is the Starland Yard. So, of course, its a smidge ironic that Stewarts exhibition commenting on the beauty of Starland is in the bastion of its development.

I love controversial places like that, he says with a laugh. Whats fun about the work compared to the situation is Im not commenting on problems with change. I think that change is great. Ive been here for eight or nine years and Ive always known this change was going to happen. For the first six years here, every year it seemed like next year is going to be the year, then next year is going to be the year.

Stewart remembers that 2018 is when things really started to happen, and when the development for Starland Yard began with tree removal in the area.

They took the trees down and everybody thought, Oh, boy, here goes the neighborhood, he says. I agree with the sentiment of immediate changeyou see a big beautiful tree go down and thats a big sigh. But it was always exciting for what was to come, especially as young creatives living and thriving in Savannah. We all need this stuff to happen. If one person in the neighborhood is successful, it means anybody else can be, too. Every amount of traffic or additional people who are coming to spend time in the neighborhood is better for us as a whole.

Yes, that means tourists. As Starland grows, its gaining attention and becoming an alternate destination for the downtown crowd.

While, yeah, I dont want Lone Wolf and Moodrights filled up with a bunch of yahoos from Ohio, but Im still rooting for the success of all my friends businesses, says Stewart.

The yahoos from Ohio that fill up Moodrights are inevitable, as long as this writer goes there, but one thing is certain: if you build it, they will come.

Stuffs going to keep popping up constantly. I think whats important about these photographs is the record of where it is at this present moment, says Stewart, because we know in three to five years, theres going to be massive condos built on Bull Street, the Save-A-Lot is going to be something else, and eventually the [Old Savannah City] Mission will be gone. Its going to really, really change soon. So in the past year, thinking about this project as a whole and digging through the archives, it makes me very happy that I started shooting all of this when I did.

The body of work in Love Thy Neighborhood is indicative of Stewarts approach to social landscape work.

I definitely consider myself a fine art landscape photographer, but that kind of borders on the social landscape, he muses. The Savannah work and this neighborhood work specifically, its just kind of how I keep my eye trained. Its something that started as I like to walk around and make pictures and post them on Instagram and to a collection of work that needs to be seen.

The title of the exhibition is a nod to a photo series from a few years back that Stewart posted on Instagram and captioned, Love thy neighborhood. The sentiment stuck for him, largely because Stewart really, truly does love his neighborhood.

The work is an homage to this place that I love so deeply, says Stewart. Its somewhere that deserves to be seen in all its glory and really appreciated.

CS

Read this article:
Showing love to Starland - Connect Savannah.com

Once upon a time, a concrete slab, a charcoal grill, and maybe a beer-bottle opener mounted on a nearby tree was considered a pretty fancy outdoor entertainment area.

No more.

These days, outdoor room design is limited only by imagination and budget.

Ive been in the industry 30 years, and weve really seen a change in just the last five years in the amount of products and options for outdoor rooms, said Matt Medlock, account manager and designer at Ryans Landscaping in Dublin.

People want to be outside, and theyre thinking about more than just a patio with a grill and a table, Medlock said.

Last summer, Carolyn and Thomas White of the North Side upgraded a deck they had built 30 years ago. The old deck was showing its age and wasnt providing the couple, who are now in their 70s, with the outdoor experience they wanted.

We wanted a space where we could really enjoy our backyard, watch the birds and the deer, Carolyn White said.

Their aging wooden deck was replaced with a multilevel patio made with decorative pavers. The patio is accented with a circular half-wall seating area with fire table and topped by a pergola; a decorative fish pond with waterfall; lovely landscape plantings; and huge natural stone steps leading down into their expansive, wooded backyard. Matching paver paths lead to other outdoor areas, including a side courtyard with an outdoor pizza oven.

Now we find ourselves in the outdoor rooms all the time, Carolyn White said.

My husband bundles up every morning and takes his coffee out back. I dont like cool weather, let alone cold weather, but with our new fire table we can sit out even on cool evenings, she said. Now we love watching the deer frolic and play their reindeer games.

The outdoor work, including landscaping, cost about $35,000, Carolyn White said.

It was money well spent, she said.

Dave Lindsay, co-owner of Lindsay-Wright Company, a Columbus firm that designs and builds outdoor living areas, has been in the business for more than 30 years. Most of the companys projects begin with a base of decorative stone or concrete pavers, he said.

I can remember our first job, back when I was still working full-time as a schoolteacher, Lindsay recalled.

At the start, you just had red clay pavers. We threw down railroad ties, put down compacted sand and laid red clay pavers. Thats as sophisticated as it got back then. Now the skys the limit. There are so many fun things that can be done.

Now there are literally thousands of pavers in every color, shape and texture, plus natural stone. And the choices just get bigger and bigger and bigger. The brick paver industry continues to grow every single year, Lindsay said.

The pavers have come a long way, agreed Greg Gilbertsen, a design and sales professional with Landscape Design Solutions, the Dublin company that designed and built the Whites new outdoor area.

Twenty years ago, there was just what you think of as the standard 6-by-6, 6-by-8 paver, Gilbertsen said.

Now theres a wide variety of looks and colors, and also natural stone. People ask, Does the stone hold up as well as the pavers? I say, Theyre millions of years old already, so yes.

Gilbertsens company prefers pavers as a floor for outdoor rooms.

Poured concrete sometimes can be lower cost, and Ive seen some pretty artistic stuff with stamped concrete. But you can do so many things with pavers, and they are so much easier to repair.

Of course, the floor is only the beginning of most outdoor-room projects these days.

A lot of people are putting a roof over their outdoor room now, Lindsay said.

Companies that make pergolas and pavilions for outdoor rooms are piggybacking on the back of the growth of the hardscape industry, Lindsay said.

Before, wed have to plant a tree for shade, he said. Now, you can have instant shade with a pergola or pavilion.

And Ohios cold winters dont deter homeowners, Medlock said.

In Ohio, that means using outdoor fireplaces, fire pits, tower heaters, even resonating heaters built into the ceilings of pavilions, he said.

Projects can be as simple or as elaborate as a customer wants, Lindsay said, and can be designed to fit tiny urban backyards or huge suburban or rural lots.

When Leah Miller, 47, and Todd Miller, 46, bought a home in Dublin last year, one of the first things they did was start work on a new outdoor entertainment area.

At our old house, we had a covered patio with a fireplace and absolutely loved it, Leah Miller said. The previous owner of our new house had put on a simple concrete slab patio. That didnt make sense for us.

The Millers new outdoor-entertainment area includes a hot tub, outdoor kitchen and big-screen television over the fireplace.

My husband has three smokers, and every fall he hosts something he calls Meat-a-palooza. We have lots of people over, eat and watch football all day, Leah Miller said.

But the area isnt just for entertaining, she said. The Millers and their two teenage children use the outdoor area on almost a daily basis, she said.

We use it all the time, pretty much from March until it gets down to 30 or below, she said. Especially during football season, we love the feeling of having a fire going, getting cozy with blankets on, and watching games out there.

My husband also has an office at home, and when its nice out he works outside.

Leah Miller said she could not estimate the cost of the outdoor-entertainment room itself. The entire yard project, including addressing a drainage problem, re-sodding, installing an irrigation system and landscaping, cost about $200,000, she said.

Medlock, whose company designed the Millers project, said that more and more homeowners want to get outdoors to escape the frantic pace of modern life.

Family life is so hectic now. Bringing people together, outside in their own yard, surrounded by nature, is a better environment for everyone.

sstephens@dispatch.com

@SteveStephens

Originally posted here:
Pavers, pergolas and pavilions: Outdoor living areas get elaborate - The Columbus Dispatch

Marisa Thompson, Southwest Yard and Garden Published 6:19 a.m. MT March 8, 2020

Many roses are impressively drought- and heat-tolerant. A thick mulch layer and regular watering to a depth of 18 to 24 inches are great steps toward healthier, showier rose bushes.(Photo: Marissa Thompson)

Question: Is it too late to prune my roses?

Pat J., Artesia

Answer: No, its not too late. Theres more harm in pruning roses too early than too late. Thats because pruning stimulates a flush of new growth, which is wonderful as long as youre past the risk of more hard freezes in your area. That new green growth is especially prone to frost damage, and damaged branches would then need to be pruned back again. The optimal window for most rose pruning is two to fourweeks before your expected last frost. Even when pruned at this time, an abnormal late freeze can do considerable damage to your rose plants, but it is much less likely.

According to https://www.plantmaps.com/, the average last frost in Las Cruces is early April, in Artesia and Roswell its mid-April, Los Lunas and Albuquerque early May, and Taos early June. Many successful gardeners do holiday pruning, meaning in Las Cruces they might prune their roses around Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day in Albuquerque, and Tax Day in Taos.

Marisa Y. Thompson(Photo: Courtesy)

I see two drawbacks to waiting until your areas expected last frost date to prune your roses:

Many roses are impressively drought- and heat-tolerant. There are also flowering shrubs in the Rosaceae family that are native to New Mexico and are great options for low-water landscaping. Native or not, now is a great time to add a mulch (like woodchips, leaf litter, pine needles, etc.) under your bushes and around trees, and as a moisture-holding layer on the tops of your veggie beds.

I subscribe to a new newsletter from Divine Earth, a commercial pruning and landscape company in Albuquerque (https://divineearthnm.com/), and I was delighted to get their quick and clever tips on rose pruning:

I love that three out of their four rose pruning tips are about growing roses more sustainably. Any time is a great time to remove artificial weed barriers in ornamental landscapes. The trouble with them is that theyre either too flimsy to keep weeds from popping through, or they do a great job keeping weeds under control, but at the expense of keeping water and air from moving down into the soil. That means the soil and ornamental plant roots in those areas are sure to suffer. And, after time, soil that blows in on top of that barrier can harbor weed seeds that grow just fine on top of the fabric or plastic. Landscape designers and installers across the region are officially giving up on weed barriers in urban landscapes.

Its also always a great time to pull back landscape rock from around the base of roses and other ornamental plants and replace it with a nice, thick top layer of woody, fibrous mulch. If you compost your kitchen and garden scraps, you can sprinkle a layer of that on top with your mulch. Check out NMSU Extension Guides H-110, Backyard Compostingand H-164, Vermicomposting,for helpful info for beginner composters.

Water your established roses to a depth of 18 to 24 inches about once every two to four weeks in spring, depending on your soil type and environmental conditions like wind and temperature. When temperatures get higher, its recommended that we water our roses and other shrubs every one to three weeks from May through October. For newly planted roses, water will be needed more frequently and always to the same depth.

Special pruning note for climbing roses: wait until after bloom to prune. Thats because climbing roses bloom on one- and two-year-old wood, so if you prune before bloom youll be cutting away the current seasons flowers. Other roses bloom on new branches that develop in spring.

Roses can be pruned back harder than most people think, so dont be shy. If youre worried, try your own mini trial at home by pruning some branches lightly, pruning some branches back severely, and leaving some alone. Take photos before pruning, after pruning, and throughout the season and share them with me on social media: @NMDesertBlooms. NMSU Extension Guide H-165, Growing Roses,has lots more information about rose types and their care.

The Albuquerque Rose Society offers free pruning demos each year, and several are still coming up this season: March 14, 15, 21, and 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (http://www.albuquerquerose.com/). Ill attend one of these sessions and post video to the blog version of this column next week (https://nmsudesertblooms.blogspot.com/).

For more gardening information, including decades of archived Southwest Yard & Garden columns, visit the NMSU Extension Horticulture page (http://desertblooms.nmsu.edu/), follow us on social media (@NMDesertBlooms), or contact your County Extension office (https://aces.nmsu.edu/county).

Marisa Thompson, PhD, is the Extension Horticulture Specialist for New Mexico State University and is based at the Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas.

More Southwest Yard and Garden:

Read or Share this story: https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2020/03/08/its-not-too-late-prune-your-roses-but-might-too-early/4970050002/

See the rest here:
Its not too late to prune your roses, but it might be too early - Las Cruces Sun-News

When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

Alyssa Powell/Business Insider

Some of the best places to honeymoon remain consistent year after year: Hawaii and Mexico are enduring and beautiful, while European capitals and coastal destinations like the ever-romantic Paris or the photogenic Greek isles remain top of mind for engaged couples.

But when it comes to the best places to honeymoon in 2020, there's a strong argument to be made for venturing off the beaten path. Some of the globe's less-traveled or more-underrated destinations offer just as much (if not more) stunning scenery with better value on luxury hotels and fewer selfie sticks to shatter your serenity.

Whether you're walking down the aisle this year or planning for next year, expand your map to include our top picks for places that offer the perfect mix of romance, adventure, and indulgence in places such as South and Central America, Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast, Southeast Asia, Caribbean, Azores, and New Zealand all with unforgettable hotels.

We selected these hotels from our own sublime experiences as well as based on top Trip Advisor ratings and reviews. Most hotels feature starting rates from about $200 to $600 per night, or slightly higher for all-inclusive honeymoon packages with dining and excursions.

These picks are priced for mere mortals, so they won't put a newlywed couple deep in debt as they start their lives together. But they are every bit filled with romance, bucket-list activities, and exposure to other-worldly beaches and landscapes every ingredient you'd want for a once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon you'll forever cherish. Cheers to love and incredible travel in 2020.

Link:
The best honeymoon destinations and hotels that are luxurious, but still affordable - Business Insider - Business Insider

Allison Watkins, Special to San Angelo Standard-Times Published 5:05 a.m. CT Dec. 8, 2019

As unpredictable as our weather is, its always a sure bet that summer will be hot and dry.

The crepe myrtle is one of the most versatile landscaping choices in Texas, available as ground cover, shrubs or trees.(Photo: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service)

Thats why fall through winter is the best time of year to plant trees and shrubs, because it gives then time to establish good roots and overcome transplant shock before the harshest season hits.

Of course, an old proverb says that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the next best time is now.

Trees are the most permanent component of the landscape, and shrubs last long as well, so when installing these important foundation plants, do so with careful planning, good design and proper planting technique.

Whether creating a brand-new landscape from scratch, or rejuvenating an old yard, now is a great time to plant. Large shrubs should be reserved for the corners of the home, to help it look wider.

Dont cover windows with tall shrubs, or stagger them between the windows, as that can break up the visual flow across the front of the home and make it look smaller.

Use dwarf shrubs for the front of the home so they dont get too tall and require frequent pruning.

Depending on the specific landscape, a good general rule of thumb is to place trees at 45-degree angles off the front corners of the home not in front, visually dividing the home into sections, but framing it to highlight the home.

The right planting depth is very important only plant trees as deep as the rootball; dont place in a deeper hole that requires soil to be filled in over the root ball. Sometimes nursery trees even have too much soil over the rootball in the container, so check to see if there is loose soil that can be scraped off the top.

Remove excess soil until you see roots matted into soil, and dig the hole as deep as the roots are growing. Very large, heavy trees can even be planted slightly above grade because their weight will cause them to settle in a little deeper over time.

Trees planted too deep will have issues later on the canopies will not be as attractive and the they will be more susceptible to stress.

Improve soil with compost before planting shrubs, but not trees. Only the native soil dug from the hole should be used to fill after planting; trees are too large to amend all the soil their roots will occupy, so choose well-adapted species that do well in the local soil and climate.

Apply a three to four-inch-deep layer of mulch after planting trees and/or shrubs, but dont pile it around the trunk like a volcano that can be stressful to the plants.

Mulch helps trees and shrubs get established faster because it helps keep weed competition under control, moderates soil temperature, and conserves water.

Allison Watkins is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent for horticulture in Tom Green County. Contact her at aewatkins@ag.tamu.edu.

Read or Share this story: https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/2019/12/08/if-youre-planning-plant-trees-shrubs-nows-best-time/4352744002/

Excerpt from:
If you're planning to plant trees or shrubs, now's the best time of year - Standard-Times