We want our yards to be the farmers market, a nature preserve, a kitchen, the den and an expression of our own personal style.

Thats the snapshot for whats hot in Tucsons gardens for 2015 according to several gardening and landscape professionals.

Interest in growing food continues to explode. Garden writer and educator Jacqueline Soule says her gardening classes are full, while nurseries can barely keep up with the demand for vegetable and fruit seeds, starts and trees and supplies to keep them growing.

Thats the largest increase in sales by far, says Silverbell Nursery manager Matt Smit. The only thing that is trending up in plant sales is food.

He notes that hes seeing a lot of new gardeners who are in their 20s and 30s, usually not the typical age for gardening. And baby boomers are returning to their growing roots established by their parents, he adds.

Reusing, reclaiming and recycling are increasingly important themes with clients, observes landscape designer Paul Connolly.

Its not so much for a cost savings, although thats part of it, says Connolly, owner of Sundrea Design Studio, Sundrea Landscape Center and Sundrea Style. Its the whole ecological aspect of it.

People would rather repurpose items than to throw them away, he says.

For one design project, Connolly tore up a brick patio in the front yard and used the material to create a new patio in a side yard.

Dirt that was excavated to build new walls and cinder blocks that came from an old wall that was torn down were not dumped into a landfill. Instead, they were used to fill an eroded area that then was landscaped.

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What's hot in Tucson's gardens in 2015

Updated JAN 03, 2015 5:19p ET

Going inside Florida's 28-20 win over East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl.

The Birmingham Bowl doesn't have the mystique of some of the SEC's other bowl destinations, but it provided one of the league's more resounding statements of this postseason:

The East has the last laugh.

The division hasn't won a conference title since Tim Tebow and Florida did so in 2008 and this season, while the West was being touted as the deepest division in the nation with Alabama, Mississippi State and Auburn all at one time or another in the playoff mix, the East was in shambles. Underscoring it all, Missouri, the team it sent as its representative to Atlanta for the conference title game, was shutout 34-0 by second-place Georgia and lost to Indiana, which would go 1-7 in the Big Ten.

All that being said, the West went 2-5 in bowl games -- only Texas A&M (Liberty Bowl vs. West Virginia) and Arkansas (Texas Bowl vs. Texas) won -- including top-ranked Alabama's loss to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl national semifinal. The East, meanwhile, improved to 5-0 after the Gators' win over East Carolina.

To review the East's wins, No. 13 Georgia beat No. 21 Louisville in the Belk Bowl; No. 16 Missouri topped No. 25 Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl; South Carolina edged Miami in the Independence Bowl; and Tennessee downed Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl.

Chances are this isn't going to alter the landscape in the SEC, but the East can at least go into the recruiting season with some unexpected ammo.

Among the few bright spots on this Gators team was Vernon Hargreaves III, the sophomore cornerback who was named a second-team All-American after totaling 42 tackles, two interceptions and a team-high 12 pass breakups.

But he had a daunting task ahead of him at Legion Field vs. Pirates wide receiver Justin Hardy, the NCAA's all-time receptions leader.

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Four Downs: Florida keeps SEC East perfect with Birmingham Bowl win

Published: Saturday, 1/3/2015 - Updated: 17 hours ago

BY DAVID BRIGGS BLADE SPORTS WRITER

NEW ORLEANS The college football landscape underwent a transformational shift one night in the Arizona desert eight years ago.

Ohio States 41-14 loss to Florida in the BCS championship game represented not just one bad night for a proud power but the creation of a deep-fried monster that would assume a life of its own.

As the Southeastern Conference claimed seven straight national titles, other leagues became cast as the junior varsity. Ohio State might be good but not SEC good and certainly never SEC fast.

RELATED CONTENT:Oregon Territory? Not if it involves any Ducks

On Thursday night, Urban Meyer with the help of his uncommon Buckeyes team formally ended the reign he began.

Ohio States 42-35 win over top-seeded Alabama in the Sugar Bowl provided the latest implausible chapter to its storybook season and punctuated a Big Ten bowl mutiny that upended everything we thought we knew.

Meyer came to Ohio State in 2012 to build a deeper, faster program modeled after the titans of the SEC the way he did in leading Florida to national titles in 2006 and 2008. Three top-five recruiting classes later, he has a team without equal in the once-invincible southern league.

The Buckeyes (13-1) will play second-seeded Oregon for the first College Football Playoff title on Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas.

Read more here:
Big Ten changing its image

The styles and planting schemes of garden design and landscaping are practically endless. The information, ideas, and pictures available to you for free is also endless. Getting ideas to landscape your home front yard, backyard, and all areas around your home should be easier.

While my own Gallery of Designs is a wealth of free information, the scope of home landscape design goes beyond any single designers imagination. And way beyond my own.

I originally started this directory for myself as a catalog of pictures to refer back to for ideas. I've decided to categorize it as an examples resource for everyone. Front yards, backyards, patios, and and all other areas of the yard in different design styles.

There are different styles of yards for nearly every climate, country, trend, fascination, art form, era, and you name it. I do believe there are more themes than I could possibly go through.

If you simply want to browse through landscaping pictures of different design styles or just look for ideas for front yards, backyards, or a certain style, you should really enjoy this directory.

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Yard & Garden Designs Gallery - The Landscape Design Site ...

OLD HOUSES hold many charms, but their aged landscapes are rarely among them. It was difficult to even glimpse the facade of John and Tina Jacobs 1928 Georgian Revival home through the overgrown bushes shrouding the house.

You had to fight your way through the shrubs to get to the front door, says Jason Morse of the landscape architecture division of AHBL. Morse had designed the Jacobs garden in Broadmoor years ago as his first professional project. They hired him again a few years ago to work his stylish magic on their Laurelhurst front garden.

There were challenges. A steep slope slanted toward the house from the street. The narrow strip of lawn along the front of the house was perpetually soggy from water draining down the hillside toward the lake.

Tinas vision for the garden, and the homes architectural symmetry, guided Morses design. She wanted a front yard that was dry and welcoming, and offered a better view of the house. Because Tinas kitchen sink looks toward the street, she pictured garden rooms to be enjoyed from the inside out. Tina loves subtle colors and simple lines. And she wanted plants that look good even when they arent blooming.

Then there were John and Tinas differing aesthetics. John likes formal gardens; Tina prefers a more casual look. By enclosing looser plantings within layers of hedging, Morse created a garden that pleased them both. Floppy-leafed hostas and the pale-pink flower spikes of astilbe soften the gardens geometry. A taller hedging of yews offers screening from the street and textural contrast to the shorter, tightly clipped boxwood hedges.

Morse began by tackling the drainage problem. He reversed the flow of water by creating a slight slope away from the house. He got rid of the planted hillside down into the garden and poured a new retaining wall with proper drainage.Next: installing wide bluestone pathways and patios, outlined in sandstone cobbles to complement the homes vintage.

An old cherry tree and camellia bush were preserved, as was a huge magnolia along the side of the house. But most of the plants are new. A thick planting of the ground cover Saxifraga London Pride, with its foamy haze of little flowers, lines the sidewalk.

Most of the plantings were chosen for leaf over flower. Morse planned for seasonal color with compact Rhododendron Dreamland flowering palest pink in May, followed by the feathery pink blooms of Astilbe Peach Blossom. Hydrangea serrata Bluebird has soft blue lacecap flowers midsummer into autumn. A stately urn and window boxes hold flowering annuals. A Japanese maple (Acer palmatum Osakazuki) blazes red in autumn.

Morse extended the homes architecture into the garden with a white arbor. He repeated an oval motif from one of the homes old doors on the arbor and fence, tying house to garden. The homes traditional symmetry is reflected in the gardens rectangles, circles and view axes.

Tina is especially pleased by the gardens sense of serenity. The color scheme is quiet, mostly green and white with touches of pink and blue. This feeling of repose lies not only in the choice of plants but also in Morses attention to scale. One garden room unfolds into another, each comfortably intimate in scale and enclosure.

More here:
Laurelhurst garden is a study in grace with subtle color and good geometry

Resolve in 2015 to neaten that little shed of horrors. You know, that place in the back yard where things have simply been tossed throughout the year. There is likely a tangled cluster of tools, old hoses, pots and other gardening stuff. Now is the time to remove all that stuff, toss some, properly dispose of others and neatly return what we plan to use. It would certainly be nice to be able to walk into the shed again.

Part of what you might find in the shed are partially used containers of pesticides, fertilizers and similar chemicals. If you are not going to use these products, it is time to take them to a facility for proper disposal. Call your local University of Florida Extension Office to determine where you can properly dispose of these items in your county.

Keeping the garden growing is another good resolution and the secret to producing food for your table. No matter how small the garden might be, if there is nothing planted, it is not a productive spot. I am as guilty as most gardeners and it is one of my New Years Resolutions to keep the plantings up to date.

Right now is a good time for the cool season crops. Many gardeners plant broccoli, cauliflower, peas, lettuce and beets just to mention a few. But you can check out the entire list by obtaining a vegetable gardening guide from your local University of Florida Extension Office. When one crop finishes one of these should be planted.

Do consider keeping other New Years Resolutions too like tidying up the landscape. There are weeds to pull and out of bounds shoots to be removed. And how about the perennials that have grown too tall and wide? They can be trimmed back too. January is the month we can begin the maintenance we have been putting off for months. Remember? We have been waiting for the cooler weather.

Surely many gardeners want to trim their crape myrtles. But I am suggesting you wait just a bit longer. Crape myrtle trees and shrubs have been slow to lose their leaves and go dormant due to the warmish weather. It is best to wait until late January or early February this year. We do not want these plants to jump into growth too soon and be damaged by cold. And be kind by only removing the old seed pods and twiggy stems. Crape myrtles do not benefit from harsh pruning.

Some other new year, must do chores, include renovating overgrown beds, edging walkways and replenishing mulch layers. You might also take some time to discover new plants for the landscapes. One forgotten group is the bulbs. Some to try include the caladiums, blood lilies, crinums and rain lilies. These are tough durable plants for the landscape.

Lastly make time for something fun to do in the New Year. Visit some of the local botanical or private gardens. You may discover plants, landscape ideas and other projects you can use in the new year.

Link:
Dealing With That Little Shed Of Horrors

Prev Next Zen Oasis

Take a chill in this peaceful, Asian-inspired garden.

See five secrets to a gorgeous front yard landscape, as well as inspiration for your front yard landscaping project.

Shrubs and trees combine for a striking, expansive back or front yard landscaping.

Vibrant colors belie the ease of care behind the plants in this front yard landscaping.

Carved out in a corner, this landscaping idea for a front yard garden showcases fuss-free plants and trees.

A congenial grouping of perennials and annuals dresses up a narrow flowerbed in this landscape idea for a front yard.

A front yard landscaping nook relies on a soothing and low-key setup.

A front yard landscaping full of grass may seem like less effort than adding ornamental plantings, but this pretty yard proves otherwise.

This landscape idea for a front yard relies on no-fuss design and pretty plant accents.

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Landscaping Ideas for the Front Yard - Better Homes and ...

From resident, to voter, to volunteer, to activist grass-roots energy surged in 2014, changing the local political landscape for a long time to come.

Rumbles began early in 2014 as the Denton Drilling Advisory Group launched a petition drive that would eventually bring about the first ban on hydraulic fracturing in the state.

People registered to vote in large numbers, showed up at the polls to cast their ballots and weighed in other city matters, large and small. Thousands signed another petition, and thousands more voted, to end the citys prohibition on liquor sales. A big public-private partnership unraveled as community support for a new convention center and hotel plummeted. Public opinion pushed both an obscure property maintenance rule for flag displays and the citys once-perfunctory legislative agenda back to the drawing board to better reflect local priorities.

Denton became the first Texas city to ban hydraulic fracturing after a citizen-driven proposition cruised to a landslide victory at the polls in November.

Although voter turnout statewide was thought to be the lowest in the nation, local turnout was higher than average for a gubernatorial election. Thousands of people registered to vote in Denton. Although not all those newbies cast ballots, the city saw more voters make their choice in the fracking ban than in any other municipal issue in recent history.

Dozens of cities in New York and elsewhere have banned fracking, but Texas is oil and gas country. So Dentons proposition over the rights of a Texas city to police what happens within its borders pushed the local battle into the national spotlight.

The campaign was the most expensive in the citys history, by far. Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economy, which opposed the ban, far outraised and outspent Pass the Ban in its Frack-Free Denton campaign.

Denton Taxpayers pulled in close to $700,000 through Oct. 25, the latest campaign finance reporting date, a figure nearly 10 times the $75,000 raised by Pass the Ban. Chevron and Occidental Petroleum contributed $95,000 to defeat the ban even though neither operates any gas wells in Denton. EnerVest, XTO Energy and Devon Energy, which do have wells in Denton, all made six-figure donations that totaled more than $540,000.

Final campaign finance reports are due in the city secretarys office next month.

Denton Taxpayers sent out several mailers and had ads running in print, broadcast and social media, many of them with an image of a pink piggy bank being smashed by a gavel, in the final days before the election. The group also secured testimonials from former Texas Womans University chancellor Ann Stuart and former mayor Perry McNeill as well as support from the North Texas State Fair Association, the Denton Chamber of Commerce and the Denton County Republican Party, which bought its own ads opposing the ban.

Excerpt from:
Year in review: Spurred to action

Weeks after his team took Super Bowl 43, head coach Mike Tomlin was laying the groundwork for the next great generation of Pittsburgh Steelers.

As the league's landscape continued to evolve, so was the need for Tomlin's Steelers to follow suit.

The NFL was different game in 2009 than it was when former head coach Bill Cowher's Steelers won Super Bowl 40 in early 2006. Still, today, the NFL is contrasting to the year Tomlin's squad achieved a Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl 43 in early 2009.

Today's NFL is about creating matchup disasters with subpackages. For better or worse, it's become a weekly shootout.

A rebuild for Pittsburgh seemed imminent and necessary during that 2009 offseason. Even as the team would go to the Super Bowl the following season (2010), aging veterans on both sides of the ball like Hines Ward, Aaron Smith and Casey Hampton to name a few, the core of the Steelers for three Super Bowl appearances in six years, would eventually have to be replaced.

Mike Tomlin led his team to a Super Bowl 43 win in just his second season as head coach.

So, what did Tomlin desire for his offense? Caught in the "Tomlinisms" and coach talk often associated with a typical press conference during the 2009 season, he laid a few key quotes that were buried as the years went by.

"You study a team like New England, and they walk into a stadium offensively, and week to week they can be whatever they choose to be,"Tomlin told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a Sept. 23, 2009 article. "They can beat you in three wides, four wides, three tight ends, and it makes them very difficult to prepare for and ultimately beat."

Flash to today, the team is earning high praise on the offensive side of the ball, where it seems like the long turnover of a championship-caliber team may finally be bearing fruit. That after two, long torturous seasons of...8-8 football. Oh, Pittsburgh fans, why must we bear such pain?

Offensively, the Steelers are well on their way to becoming that ideal image, that Patriots image Tomlin swooned over in 2009. The 2014 version is executing with the ball in a variety of ways, able to attack teams with a devastating power counter run game or with a record-breaking aerial assault. Or, in many cases, both at the same time.

The rest is here:
Mike Tomlin's Pittsburgh Steelers Offense Takes New England Patriots' Mentality

Colby Sue Weathers: her mother had asked a local gunshop not to sell her the weapon she used to kill her father.

Lets say your mental landscape is similar to that of Colby Sue Weathers back in 2012: suicidal, homicidal, paranoid, schizophrenic. Oh, and with a drug and alcohol problem. You are too disabled by mental illness - schizophrenia was diagnosed in 2011 - and recurring hospitalisations to work. You are not great about maintaining your psychotropic drug regimen, which you administer inconsistently and sometimes to woozy excess. And you have an occasional hankering, occasionally satisfied, to consume a bottle of spirits. In other words, your life is utterly out of control.

One trouble you probably dont have - provided you live in the United States - is gaining access to a lethal firearm. Thanks in part to the advocacy of the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups, and in part to the commitment of politicians, you can buy a gun and kill someone, yourself included, almost entirely free of obstacles. In many cases, you can do so completely legally. Because in practice, the US gun market generally does not discriminate against a wide array of pre-existing conditions, including madness.

There are no thorough background checks to determine whether you are mentally unhinged and a danger to yourself or others. No waiting periods to give the evil voices echoing inside your head time to decamp. No opportunities for family or friends or public safety officials to intervene in the firearm transaction. No meaningful commercial distinctions made between a skilled hunter eager for the approach of deer season and a dangerous psychotic with visions of blood.

Last week, Janet Delana filed a negligence suit against Odessa Gun & Pawn shop in Odessa, Missouri. In May 2012, Odessa sold Delanas daughter - Colby Sue Weathers - a Hi-Point .40 calibre semi-automatic pistol. According to the suit, Weathers, who was 38 at the time, had intended to shoot herself. She sat with the gun for an hour or so before abandoning her goal and informing her parents, who promptly got rid of the gun.

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A few weeks later, in late June, the voices in Weatherss head told her to buy another gun and kill herself. Having observed her daughters agitation, Delana said she called Odessa Gun & Pawn on June 25, and alerted an employee to her daughters chronic mental illness and current suicidal state. She asked that the shop refrain from selling Weathers a gun. Two days later, Weathers turned up at Odessa and bought another Hi-Point pistol. Weathers drove home, loaded two bullets and shot her father. Dad is dead, she texted her mother. He was.

The lawsuit, which was filed by lawyers for the Brady Centre to Prevent Gun Violence, is an uphill challenge'', said UCLA law professor Adam Winkler, author of the excellent book, Gun Fight, via email. Under the nations gun laws, the dealer was allowed to sell to someone without a criminal or mental illness record. Its usually hard to pin responsibility for someones bad acts on a commercial establishment that merely supplied the equipment.

Supplying the equipment is what the nations 140,000 federally licensed firearms dealers do for a living. And there is absolutely nothing in federal law requiring them to sell their wares in a manner that is socially responsible, discerning or protective of human life. Kevin Jamison, the lawyer for Odessa, told me, The store went through all the proper legal procedures.

And there you have the nub of the problem. The lawsuit doesnt even claim that Odessa violated the law. Presumably, Weathers passed an instant background check before killing her father. A 2011 report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg, revealed that almost half the states had submitted fewer than 100 mental health records to the federal background check database. Cases of substance abuse were also hugely underreported. And merely being crazy isnt sufficient for inclusion in the database, anyway. You have to be certified crazy. As the Los Angeles Times reported in September after a mass shooting at Washingtons Naval Yard, Most mentally ill people - including Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter who apparently showed signs of psychosis - never get treatment or arent recognized as being in crisis.

Continued here:
Colby Sue Weathers: homicidal, psychotic and legally sold a gun