TULSA, Oklahoma -

Can a park transform a city?

The man whose firm is behind the design for Tulsa's Gathering Place says it can.

Michael Van Valkenburgh has become one of the world's most acclaimed landscape architects by stressing that parks are more than just a collection of trees and swing sets. He believes they're a place for people, where strangers can mingle and interact and build a better city in the process.

To get a sense of what's coming to Tulsa, I met Van Valkenburgh in Brooklyn, New York, his home, where his firm has turned an industrial wasteland into a vibrant piece of urban life.

The sounds of a park in the middle of America's greatest city a park with a heart-stopping view of that city are the sounds that tell Van Valkenburgh he's done his job well.

This is something that people want to embrace, it's all around us, he said. People having a good time, around other people they don't know. People like being around people.

First and foremost, America's leading landscape architect considers himself in the people business.

Whether it's at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pennsylvania Avenue out front of the White House, Harvard Yard, the Gateway Arch grounds in St. Louis, the George W. Bush library, and soon, Tulsa's Gathering Place, Van Valkenburgh is at the top of his game and his profession - at a time of exciting renewal for American cities.

I feel very lucky as a landscape architect that I'm alive and doing this work at a time when people are so interested in what makes cities a good place to live, he said.

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Architect Behind Tulsa's Gathering Place Believes It Could Be City's Centerpiece

In the desert, where ecologically incorrect verdant lawns are trendy, not everyone has the 25 years of experience in landscape management and water conservation that Susan Savolainen can provide when it comes to figuring out why some spots of the lawn are less green than others.

At her home in Banning, her front yard is a landscaped example of what can be done with drought-tolerant plants, interspersed with geranium incanum, irises, star jasmine, rosemary, and an eastern red bud shrub.

Her backyard is a manicured emerald exhibit of what a carefully watered lawn can look like.

You dont have to sacrifice your lawn and have an entirely desolate desert landscape, Savolainen says. There are ways you can reduce or replace grass to reduce water usage and lower your water bills.

Savolainen founded her company over the summer, realizing that a lot of people in the Pass area could use some sage advice in how to conserve water and create landscapes that dont need to be intensely watered.

She has a degree in ornamental horticulture from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and is a certified irrigation auditor who worked for the Western Region Metropolitan Water District for 25 years.

Her time with the water district helped hone an appreciation for conservation and environmental preservation, she says.

Ever since I was a little girl, I enjoyed working in the yard, playing with plants, Savolainen says. Now that were in a drought, there are ways we can save water.

According to Savolainen, some common issues that she encounters when providing consultations, are sprinkler systems that use too much pressure for the lawns theyre being used on; others are simply blocked or broken.

For those who wish to reduce their reliance on watering lawns, Savolainen believes that many of the Web sites people go to for information on gardening, and TV shows like HGTV, have tactics and plants more suitable for lawns back east, and dont always apply to the Southern California desert.

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Focus on Pass area business: Drought Solutions

By Eric Elwell Tuesday November 4, 2014 6:22 PM UPDATED: Tuesday November 4, 2014 6:28 PM COLUMBUS, Ohio -

April Burnside says she loves the fall weather, but she just doesn't have time to keep up with it. "Like most people, I have a busy life. I have kids. They need to go places and do things and I'd rather be with them than raking leaves, she explains.

Last weekend, the growing season officially came to an end after our first hard freeze of the season. Plus, gusty winds have sent leaves piling up. So you may have found yourself wondering when you will have time to get your yard cleaned up.

April has gotten some help.

"We have the leaves removed, we have the shrubs all trimmed and pruned for the fall and they prepare the outside of the house for the winter.

Dave Smith, manager of Peabody Landscape Group, says customers can have their custom landscaping work done without lifting a finger via a simple phone call.

10TV followed a crew from Peabody Landscape Group as they worked to keep up with Mother Nature. Smith says this is a busy time of year For Fall time, the big thing is leaf removal. You've also got your winterization of your irrigation, so as a company, we blow everything out. It's a great time to add that last fertilization to help the grass bounce back in the springtime."

Of course, time is money.

Winterizing your irrigation system will average $90 to $100 dollars. Fertilizing $50-$75 and to have your leaves cleaned up will cost an average of $250, up to $700 depending, on the size of your property for two visits.

For April, the price is worth it. It becomes a balance of doing things that I like or spending time raking leaves that are just going to fall again tonight and I'll have to go back out and rack them tomorrow!"

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To Rake Or Not To Rake? Fall Yard Work Has Some Homeowners Choosing Sides

A heavily disputed piece of commercial property that borders The Regency at Ridgefield on Route 7 will receive public hearing Tuesday, Nov. 5, when the Planning and Zoning Commission reviews plans for a proposed contractors yard that would include four buildings and 14 units on the three-acre site.

Last year, the neighbors at the Regency opposed and ultimately chased away the proposed relocation of Danbury-based Ergotech Inc. a light manufacturing facility to the site, which is on the east side of Route 7 directly across from Little Pond.

This time around, residents of the condominium complex face the development of a facility that contractors would work out of and use to store construction equipment.

It wont come quietly or quickly.

The longtime owner of the site, Larry Leary Development LLC, is applying for a pair of special permits at the towns planning office one for a multi-unit contractors yard and another for rock crushing, excavation and earth processing in excess of 2,000 cycles that would apply temporarily during construction.

The latter application is for the removal 40,000 cubic yards of material from the steeply sloped site.

The 2.97-acre site is wedged between Route 7 and the 73-unit Regency complex, which is to the east and north of the commercially zoned Leary property. The Regency condominiums are at a considerably higher elevation than the Route 7 frontage of the site, where development of the contractors yard is planned.

Blasting, or ripping of rock, should last one to two weeks, which would be followed by rock processing and material removing for another one to two weeks.

That schedule would then be repeated over a six-month period.

The application estimates that 2,300 trips would be required before all of the material was completely removed and the rest of the construction could begin.

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Zoners to review Route 7 contractors yard plan

A local entrepreneur inspired by the window farming craze that has spread out of Italy to major cities across North America has opened a retail business to service urban farmers working in ultra-confined spaces.

Tasi Gottschlag launched FoodGROWS as an ecommerce website and a South Vancouver retail space, where many of their products are tested in real-world growing conditions.

Gottschlag is convinced there is a space in the retail market for ready-to-use planters, insect nets and growing kits designed for patios, balconies and windows, to service what until now has been a largely do-it-yourself hobby.

She may be right. The Brooklyn-based social enterprise windowfarms.org has more than 40,000 members, up about 1,000 per cent in four years.

When I look around, especially in East Vancouver, I would say 50 to 60 per cent of homes have some kind of crop growing in the front or the back yard, said Gottschlag, who founded FoodGROWS with a silent business partner. People want to do this, we just want to make it easy.

FoodGROWS.com is designed to occupy a niche not well served by garden suppliers or serious back-to-the-land outfitters. The website even has a 10-question entry point that helps guide new customers to the products best suited to their space and temperament.

Products range from low-tech wooden planters and wall-mounted pouch planters to high-tech plastic tower gardens for balconies and rooftops and soil-free growing systems, including a tabletop aquaponic herb planter with an aquarium base (goldfish not included).

For people who are strapped for time or who lack experience growing food, kits include planters, soil, fertilizer, tools and organic pest control.

I think that when people want to do it themselves and innovate, thats awesome, but there are a lot of people who dont have the courage, time or desire to go outside and figure it out; they just want to do it, and thats the market we are going to serve, said Gottschlag, an MBA grad from Simon Fraser University. I think there are a lot of 25- to 35-year-old professionals who work full time, but who want more in their lives.

Whole Foods is fine, but the next step for your health is harvesting the ingredients for dinner right on your balcony, she said.

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Garden shop occupies a tiny niche in the urban landscape

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Two months and 29 days ago, the Patriots were only about a week into training camp, and still a couple days from their preseason opener, which is noted here to remind just how much football remains to be played between today and two months, 29 days from now which is when the NFL will kick off Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Ariz.

A lot can happen between now and then. In fact, a lot will happen between now and then, and much of it is likely to reset our view of the NFL landscape and change our opinions. Multiple times.

But go ahead, Patriots fans. Believe.

Believe that your team is the best in the AFC. Believe that they can get to that title game. Believe that they belong in that game. Heck, believe that they can win it.

Believe that theres no ceiling for your Patriots, because after what happened late Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, theres no reason to place any limits on what this club is capable of accomplishing. They didnt just beat the Broncos, they dominated the so-dubbed best team in football in every phase, ultimately scoring a 43-21 victory that undoubtedly shattered many views of the league-wide hierarchy as the regular season heads into its second half.

I thought it was a great job by our players this week, said coach Bill Belichick, who praised the work his team did in preparing for Denver making particular note of how generally difficult it is to get ready for a record-setting offense like the Broncos having, and how the difficulty was even that much greater because Peyton Mannings team had extra time to get ready because it had played on Thursday night in Week 8.

In that sense, it was similar to the way the Patriots responded against the Bengals back at the start of October, when Cincinnati had the benefit of coming off a bye. Yet New England waxed the well-rested Tigers, 43-17.

That win kicked off a terrific month of October, in which the Pats rattled off four straight wins and offered hope that the inconsistency and the struggles that showed up over the first four weeks was merely the by-product of a team still finding itself. Pummeling the Bears last week by a score of 51-23 furthered that thinking.

But only after Sunday, when the Pats climbed to the top of the conference, and improved to 7-2, was it confirmed.

This week was a great week for all of us, defensive lineman Vince Wilfork said. Everybody came ready to work focused. Thats one thing we dont lack. We dont have guys that are here just to be here. My hat goes off to this team. We did a lot of things tonight. It was something different tonight. A lot of things we havent done in the past and we did it, and did it well.

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Dave D'Onofrio's Patriots Notebook Patriots leave no doubt they're elite

The 49ers seized momentum of the game early in the quarter, when safety Antoine Bethea timed a ball thrownby Rams quarterback Austin Davis andintercepted itat the Rams 35-yard line.

Bethea sagged off his man, backpedaled and made a nice grab of a pass that Davis tried to get to wide receiver Tavon Austin.

Three plays later, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick rolled right, stopped near the line of scrimmage, surveyed the landscape and found receiver Anquan Boldin all alone in the middle of the field,

Kaepernick got the ball to Boldin, who turned and navigated the remainder of the yards for a 27-yard touchdown that gave the 49ers a 10-3 lead.

Cornerback Perrish Cox intercepted Davis on the Rams ensuing possession and put the 49ers in business once again. However, the 49ers drive ended soon after it started and culminated with Andy Lee punting.

The Rams tied the game for a second time when they parlayed a Robert Quinn sack-fumble of Kaepernick into a 55-yard scoring drive.

Davis connected with wide receiver Kenny Britt on a crossing route, and Britt kept running into the end zone untouched for a 21-yard score.

Cornerback Chris Culliver was on Britt at the line, then let Britt go. Linebacker Chris Borland had no chance at catching up with Britt after he spotted Britt beyond him and with the ball.

The half ended with the 49ers attempting a 55-yard field goal. Phil Dawsons kick came up short, and it was fielded by St. Louis Tavon Austin.

For some reason, Austin danced around in the end zone before he advanced the ball into the field of play. By that time, 49ers coverage guy Derek Carrier met Austin about the 2-yard line, with Austin retreating into the end zone.

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49ers 10, Rams 10 Halftime

Fall color for your garden

Shimmery ornamental grasses + flame-colored flowers = one great autumn show

How to get great fallcolor, with tips from the ultimateNorthwest garden

Find ingenious designs for specific functional needs, from fire-fighting plants to laying out a stellar kitchen garden

A sloped backyard comes alive with water-wise plants and clever landscaping

How to design a landscape both you and your pups will love

Banish boundaries with green walls and disappearing doors

This isnt Bali; this is your backyardor it could be if you follow these steps to creating a lush setting

This garden has a secret: Virtually every plant in it can be put on your plate or in a vase. It doesnt look like a typical edible garden, which is exactly the point

With a tiny house, you can transform a lawn into a wild-around-the-edges zone for a complete cabin-in-the-woods effect

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Garden Landscaping and Design Ideas - Sunset.com

Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including:

Landscaping requires expertise in horticulture and artistic design.

Construction requires study and observation. It is not the same in different parts of the world. Landscaping varies according to different regions.[1] Therefore normally local natural experts are recommended if it is done for the first time. Understanding of the site is one of the chief essentials for successful landscaping. Different natural features like terrain, topography, soil qualities, prevailing winds, depth of the frost line, and the system of native flora and fauna must be taken into account.[2] Sometimes the land is not fit for landscaping. In order to landscape it, the land must be reshaped. This reshaping of land is called grading.[2]

Removal of earth from the land is called cutting while when earth is added to the slope, it is called filling. Sometimes the grading process may involve removal of excessive waste, soil and rocks, so designers should take into account while in the planning stage.[3][4]

In the start, the landscaping contractor makes a letter which is a rough design and layout of what could be done with the land in order to achieve the desired outcome.[2] Different pencils are required to make graphics of the picture. Landscaping has become more technological than natural, as few projects begin without bulldozers, lawnmowers, or chainsaws.[1][5] Different areas have different qualities of plants. Fertilizers are required for this purpose in excess amounts as natural landscaping is done. Some landscapers prefer to use Mix gravel with rocks of varying sizes to add interest in large areas.[6]

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Landscaping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doris Dumrauf of Robinson believes what we do in our backyards can make a difference when it comes to helping preserve wildlife, and she has the pictures to prove it.

Ms. Dumrauf, who has received national awards from publications like Birds & Blooms magazine for her wildlife photography, doesnt have far to go when she wants to capture memorable photographs of birds, insects or flowers.

She can just stroll into her backyard, which was certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife habitat.

What we do in our yards does make a difference. We see that in our yard with more and more species attracted each year, Ms. Dumrauf said. With the help of her husband, Donald, she has made their backyard a welcoming destination for birds and pollinating insects like butterflies and bees.

It took about 10 years. We did it a little bit at a time, she said.

When she decided to pursue certification she found The Wildlife Federation requiresthat people interested in establishing a backyard habitat provide food, water and shelterplaces for birds and butterflies to raise their young.

To achieve her goal, Ms. Dumrauf and her husband planted a variety of native flowering plants that would bloom at various times through the spring and fall.

For water, she started out with a bird bath, but eventually installed a small pond, and for shelter the yard features a variety of trees and large bushes.

The federation is very interested in if you use pesticides, and want to know what you use instead to keep the garden organic, she said.

For alternatives to pesticides she uses mulch to suppress weed growth, weeds by hand, and relies on the many species of birds who visit her garden to help keep the insect population in check.

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Robinson woman turns yard into wildlife habitat