January 5 at 11:26 AM

Gardening is much more than growing plump tomatoes or fragrant roses. Gardens are part of the chain of life, with environmental consequences that can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on the choices a gardener makes.

That is the central theme of Landscape for Life, a five-week course that 15 people will begin taking Tuesday through the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy. The course focuses on the concept of sustainable gardening and examines the effects of gardening on pollinators, wildlife, the immediate environment and the watershed.

Sustainability, in the Landscape for Life framework, essentially is to meet our current needs without decreasing the ability of future generations to meet their needs, said Nan McCarry of Lucketts, the lead teacher of the course. Sustainable gardening is just one small way that a person can have a positive impact on the local and wider ecosystems through their ... yard or garden.

The Landscape for Life curriculum, which was developed by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Garden, uses a train the trainer model to adapt the course to the local community, McCarry said.

The course is divided into three main subject areas: soil, water and plants. The unit on soils covers topics such as erosion and soil compaction, which is a problem in neighborhoods that have been recently developed, she said.

The need to conserve drinking water is an area of particular concern for McCarry.

We are seeing really frightening droughts in other parts of the country, she said. Right now, we are lucky to be experiencing some wet years, but water is going to become a more limited resource everywhere as we have more people.

Landscape for Life advocates smaller lawns that require less water and fertilizer to maintain, as well as the use of rain barrels to retain water in the yard. Collecting water in a rain barrel conserves water that otherwise would flow down the driveway or through the yard, McCarry said. The collected water can then be used in the garden.

The class also teaches how to create rain gardens by growing deeply rooted native plants, such as white oak, coral honeysuckle or bee balm, among other varieties, to trap water that would otherwise run off the property, McCarry said.

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Loudoun course addresses the growing concerns about eco-friendly gardening

The landscape for how to turn life science and health care technologies into viable companies has changed more in the last 3 years than in the last 30. New approaches to translational medicine have emerged. Our Lean Launchpad for Life Sciences is one of them. But a new class of life science/healthcare co-working and collaboration space is another.

The National Institutes of Health recognizes that Life Science/Health Care commercialization has two components: the science/technology, and the business model.TheLean Launchpad for Life Sciences (the I-Corps @ NIH) uses theLean Startup Model to discover and validate the business model.

The classprovides Life Science/Health Care entrepreneurs with real world, hands-on learning on how to rapidly:

This user/customer-centered approach is a huge step in the right direction in the life science/health care commercialization. However, one of the bottlenecks in actually doing Customer Discovery for medical devices/health care is testing how minimal viable products work in-context. Testing hypotheses with doctors, patients, payers, providers, purchasing departments, strategic partners is hard. It can involve traveling hundreds of miles and can consume months of time and loads of money. Scheduling time to look over a surgeons shoulder in an operating room is tough. Getting time to brainstorm with payers or experts in clinical trials is hard.

It would be great if there were a way to first test these hypotheses and minimal viable products in a realistic setting locally. Then after a first pass of validation, take them on the road and see if others agree.

A new life science/healthcare co-working and collaboration spaceIt looks like someone is actually pulling this together in a life science/healthcare co-working and collaboration space in Chicago called MATTER.

Co-working spaces seem to be evolving into the startup garages of the future. Its a shared work environment (typically a floor of a building) where individuals (or small teams) rent space and work around other people but independently. Yet they share values and hopefully some synergy around topics of mutual interest (same customers, or technologies). Incubators are designed for teams with an idea. They add mentors and additional services and some offer free space in exchange for equity. Accelerators take teams with fairly focused ideas and offer a formal 3-4 month program of tutoring/mentoring with seed funding in exchange for equity.

The MATTERco-working space will havefive unique things specifically for life science/healthcare companies:

By building a co-working space that includes all of these stakeholders, MATTERallows startups (and companies) to get in front of customers and other members of the value chain first, before they leave the building.

Read more here:
Heres a group getting it together in the murky world of healthcare collaboration

Presentations on controlling deer in your landscape, planning a flower "cutting garden" and understandingowls will be offered Saturday, Jan 24, at a Winter Horticulture Workshop in Geneseo, Ill.

The eventsponsored bythe University of Illinois Extensionwill be 9 a.m. to noon atFirst Lutheran Church, 114 E. Main St. Doors open at 8:30 a.m.

The cost is $15 at the door, including coffee, juice and rolls,but you can save $3 by pre-registering by Jan. 22.

To register, go online toweb.extension.illinois.edu/hmrs, or call 309-756-9978 or 309-853-1533. Here's a closer look.

Deer Departed?Martha Smith, a U of I Extenstion horticultureeducator, will discusswhat is knownabout deer control for gardening and the options that may or may not work.

Cut Flowers From Your Yard.Cathy LaFrenz of Miss Effie's Country Flowers & Garden Stuff, Donahue, Iowa, will share her experience and recommendations.

"All About Owls.Susan Atchley, a U of I Extension master naturalist, will teach you aboutowl habitat, diet, behavior, physical features and threats to the species.

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Hort workshop looks at deer, flowers, owls

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.

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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

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