Depleted landscape

"Our best birds are declining in number and there's little change in sight. Our gardens need birds. The land is being skimmed for housing developments and replaced with skimpy, lookalike houses. It's heartbreaking when the bulldozers move in and the trees are cut down because birds are displaced. Great changes are taking place. Are we going to have a silent spring in a few years?"

James City issues

"To the people complaining in Seasons Trace about cats and a dog stalking their bird feeders, and digging in the flower beds. You are correct about the dog and the leash law. The dog's owner should control it and hopefully pick up the poop. But the cats are regarded as 'free roaming animals' and therefore are entitled to go wherever they please. You cannot control a cat; therefore, you need to protect your bird feeders as best you can. It is against the law to harm them even if they are on your property."

Clumpety-clump

"Capitol Landing Road has some serious problems too, about the seams. How many more weeks will it be before Public Works paints those much-needed stripes in our town after their paving? In James City County, VDOT re-striped its re-paved roads the next day."

Recycling

"Where do our recycled items go from Williamsburg/James City County? Is there a plant in our area or does it have to travel a long way, and what do they do with everything that they gather up?"

David Magnant, director of operations for VPPSA, responded: Recycled items goe to a County Waste material recovery facility in Chesterfield that is undergoing modifications. Like any MRF they must be updated with the latest ability to differentiate all the recyclables sent through the line. Typical MRF's have optical scanners, eddy current, magnetic head pulleys, blowers, shaker decks, to separate the different materials. While a facility undergoes upgrades, materials are baled and shipped. Currently some of the material from Poquoson and York goes to a facility operated by Bay Disposal and Recycling, and the rest goes to the County Waste facility."

"On the first day of pickup with the new recycling bins, the driver loaded the bin onto the truck with the mechanical arm, and proceeded to drive away while newspaper was flying all over our front yard."

Excerpt from:
Virginia Gazette Last Word for July 9: Depleted landscape; Recycling; Beware of scams

Updated JUL 07, 2014 2:53p ET

The red zone. Its only 20 yards, but a distance which glues people to their high-def televisions. Heck, a channel pays homage to the landscape. When an offense resides inside their opponent's 20-yard line, youll quickly reference your fantasy team(s) to see which player to pull for when a touchdown looms.

The word target is popular term tossed around the fantasy football world, too. Its easy to review who racked up the most receptions, but its going beyond the box score to dissect how many times the quarterback threw to a certain player.

When you combine the two expressions, red zone targets, the metric can provide loads of fantasy-relevant information before the season heats up.

The cream obviously rises to the top in these scenarios. Out of all the wide receivers, Calvin Johnson led the way with 26 targets inside the red zone, which was 30.2 percent of the Lions RZT (red zone targets). Wes Welker was second to Megatron with 24 RTZ (26.1 percent of Denvers RZT). The big name that has fallen in the receiver rankings this year, Larry Fitzgerald, was fourth with 22 RZT (40 percent of Carson Palmers red zone passes).

Much like the WRs, the tight end position is one where there is no surprise at the top: Jimmy Graham. The Saints tight end recorded 24 RZT (39.3 percent of Brees RZT). Second among TEs, Vernon Davis, had 19 RZT. Jordan Cameron tied Davis, but Cameron had a disadvantage of three different quarterbacks passing to him throughout the season. The next two names may surprise you. Greg Olsen of the Panthers and Delanie Walker of the Titans tallied 17 RZT.

Looking back at 2012 numbers and projecting 2013 success, Eric Decker had the most red zone targets with 25 looks from Peyton Manning. The following season, Decker finished with 23 RZT, the third-most in the NFL. However, this year, I would expect a significant drop in the rankings for Decker with the combination of Geno Smith and Mike Vick throwing him passes for the Jets.

Reliability becomes a large factor for the amount of red zone targets a player receives. Much like a crucial third or fourth down conversion, the quarterback will want a sure-handed teammate in a situation where every play could determine the final outcome. So, it shouldnt surprise you to find receivers like A.J. Green, Brandon Marshall, and Fitzgerald on the top of RZT lists.

As for the 2012 red zone target stats, four of the wide receivers in the top five RZT category concluded 2013 in the top 10 for receiving touchdowns. Looking forward, that would mean that Calvin Johnson, Wes Welker, Larry Fitzgerald, A.J. Green, and Dez Bryant should produce double-digit TDs. Though that conclusion wont shock many, players like Julian Edelman and Keenan Allen are just a couple names among the top 10 RZT from 2013 to keep an eye on for this fantasy football season.

One other name that stood out among wide receivers from the 2013 RZT rankings was Cecil Shorts. In just 13 starts with the Jaguars, Shorts was targeted 16 times inside the 20-yard line and 11 times inside the 10, last season. With Justin Blackmon suspended, again, Shorts is the top receiver on Jacksonvilles depth chart. Shorts average draft position of 77.5 a year ago should definitely rise in 2014.

See original here:
2014 Fantasy Football: Red Zone Targets Statistical Trends

When planning your exterior dcor you should be sure to keep in mind easy landscaping designs and photos that can help simplify your task. The outside design of your home is just as important as the interior dcor. If planned properly, the front of house landscape can really increase the curb appeal of your property. Some of the best landscape and garden ideas include adorning your yard with trees and plants that require little maintenance. Incorporating plants that do not require watering or trimming every day will make it easier for you to maintain. Plants and shrubs that do not need frequent maintenance and cheap to buy while becoming a great addition to both your front and backyard landscape designs. Because there are many different types of trees and plants to choose from, photo galleries can be great resources to help you make a decision. Whether you have a lot of money to spend or very little, there are many landscaping ideas on a budget to help you design your dream home.

When planning your design and getting ready to build an outdoor structure, our online photo gallery of landscaping ideas for the front yard can be a great source of information. Searching through photo galleries will give you an idea of trends others are doing in their yards and what you can plant in yours. While you are brainstorming about your yard, it is a good idea to consider simple landscape designs. If you are not an outdoor fanatic, you may find it difficult to develop a plan for your yard. Our many beautiful pictures of backyard landscaping ideas are online to inspire you to begin designing the perfect yard layout. Looking at these photos can help you decide upon the types of trees, shrubs, or flowers you wish to plant in your front or backyard. Planting landscaping trees outside your home can add shade as well as beauty to any space. You can even search for online landscaping pictures before and after to see the types of transformations that can take place by the simple addition of plants.

In order to retain the easy upkeep of your garden, you will want to choose low maintenance landscaping plants. These types of plants can grow and prosper with little water and do not require trimming and other care. Some easy large or small yard ideas include planting bushes such as the plumbago ariculata or leocophyllum frutescens. These bushes are water conserving plants that do not require irrigation or frequent watering. Another easy outdoor design is to plant a flower garden in your yard. There are numerous types of flowers that you can choose from with a wide range of colors. You can visit your local nursery, hardware store or look on through photo galleries for great ideas for garden flower bed designs. Planting flowers in your yard can be an easy way to spruce it up and add some color. If you live in a warm climate tropical landscaping plants can be a great addition to your home. Orchids, begonias, and ferns are great examples of tropical plants that you can plant in your yard.

If you dont have a fence, there are many landscape edging ideas that incorporate plants to create a wall around your home. Trees and shrubs are great plants to be used as a fence around your property to give more privacy. An easy to use for seclusion are fast growing trees that will reach their maximum height within a few years. Some privacy fence ideas for backyard gardening include using Green Giant trees or holly shrubs and bushes to create a wall. Both these plants grow rapidly and keep their dark green colors year round. For ideas of other easy landscaping plants to use as privacy hedges you can search our photo gallery. Using plants as a privacy fence is one of many great outdoor living space that can be an easy solution to keep your yard secluded without the hassle of installing a wooden or metal fence. Having these as a lawn edging throughout your yard will create a natural fence that will keep noise out and block the view from the inside and out.

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Top Landscaping Designs & Photos for 2014 with DIY Ideas

JEFFERSONVILLE

City Pride hosts landscape contest

City Pride, Jeffersonvilles Beautification Committee, is asking for nominations for its fourth annual home landscape contest.

Last years winners were Libby and Steve McCreight, who took top honors for their home in the Mellwood neighborhood.

It is very simple to enter this year. Call 812-989-0827 and leave the home address and the phone number of the nominated landscape and your name. Or you can email the information to Marilyn.Czape@twc.com.

There are a few rules:

It is required that you get the homeowners permission prior to submitting their landscape.

The home must be in the Jeffersonville city limits.

The landscape must be visible from the street (side or front yard). The contestants do not need to be home for the judging or otherwise do any additional work.

The winners receive two free tickets to the annual River Breeze Wine Tasting festivities held on the RiverStage Sept. 12, recognition at the event, a beautiful and unique yard sculpture and bragging rights for the year.

Read more:
BRIEFS: July 5-6, 2014

Why would anyone follow the advice of a landscape gardener whos been at it in Tucson for only five years?

Because, Bruce Hyland says, hes made a lot of mistakes in those five years. And he figures he could save a new gardener some time and heartache from those lessons he learned.

Hyland plans to give dozens of tips at his Tuesday talk, Down and Dirty Gardening. Its at the monthly meeting of The Gardeners of Tucson, of which he is a member.

The talk is aimed at new gardeners and those who think they have black thumbs.

I want to help people who have tried and it didnt work, says the retired business executive, consultant and professor, 62. Ive had so many failures, but I dont think its a bad thing.

Instead, Hyland has rediscovered the joy of gardening, something he avoided after leaving his tiny hometown of Haddam, Kansas.

As a teen and young adult, Hyland was known as the lawn mower king as he tended the gardens and lawns of all the old ladies in town.

The business paid his way to college. But once he started attending university, he was done with gardening. I swore I would never touch a plant as long as I lived, he says.

Thats not to say he didnt like gardens, but he had other people take care of his yards. That included while he lived eight years in Tucson in the 1980s as a manager and 22 years in San Francisco.

Fast forward to 2009, when Hyland was ready to retire. He decided to move back to Tucson. I always knew this was my spot on Earth, he says.

More:
Tucson garden thrives from years of heartache

Friday, July 4, 2014 | 6:00 a.m. CDT; updated 7:46 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 4, 2014

COLUMBIA In honor of the Fourth of July and backyard warriors everywhere, staff photographer Matt McCormack asked nine residents to show off how they use their outdoor space in the summertime. These are their stories and a glimpse of their greenery:

Luke and Barbara Buffaloe's backyard at 717 Hilltop Drive on June 29

The Buffaloes' backyard is a mix of trees, shrubs and wildlife. Luke and Barbara Buffaloe have found many ways to enjoy their yard, and their kids Ben, 2, and Eleanor, 3 1/2, have also found innovative ways to play in the landscape.

"We like to hike through the woods, and there's a pretty awesome swing hanging from a tree," Barbara said.

"In the last week we've seen raccoon, deer, owls, turkey, red tail hawk and a snapping turtle," Barbara said.

"There's a cylinder in the yard that used to be an old millstone. The kids use it as a rock box," she said.

"The historical society of Missouri said if we ever plan on getting rid of it that they wanted it," she said.

Marion and Alberta Dey's backyard at 4211 Rice Road on June 26

Read more here:
Landscaped escapes: Nine Columbia residents show off their lawns

EDMOND When traveling past the home of Tim Foley at 2600 S. Coltrane you may feel as if you are looking at a large canvas of a French Country house set in peaceful blends of natures colors. However, a year ago this weeks winner of Edmond Yard of the Week would have looked different after a tornado had just damaged the home, uprooted trees and destroyed the landscape.

The first view is that of an expansive area, shaded by many well-groomed native trees and carpeted with a solid lawn, before your eye will be caught by the massive island bed filled with harmoniously shaded colors of impatiens, caladiums, giant hostas, day lilies and large tufts of liriope. More textures are added to the bed with silvery spruces and natural-stone boulders.

There is softness added to the front of the stone and brick house with masses of pentas, angelonia, begonias and scaevola, in pastel beautifully blending shades. Sculptured areas of deep green Mondo grass emphasizes the flower palates of color, as do varieties of ground-cover sedums, moneywort and ornamental blue fescue. Height is added to the landscape with a weeping cedar, spruces, Japanese maple and an ornamental peach. A backdrop of shrubs, with trimmed photinia, yews, laurels, holly, burning bush and spirea, protect the lower layer of flowers. Earth tones appear in the flowerbeds with native rocks and clay pots overflowing with magenta and white impatiens. Gently waving maiden grasses, lantana and Stella del Oro lilies complete the picture.

Two artistic columnar copper flower pots by the entry are a symphony of color with purple fountain grass, elegant tuberous begonias and trailing Mandevilla.

For overcoming Oklahomas weather challenges and giving us a feast for the eye, Edmond Beautiful would like to reward Tim Foley with a gift certificate to Home Depot on Broadway, a gift card to TLC Nursery and a six-month subscription to The Edmond Sun. The Yard of the Week is co-sponsored by Edmond Beautiful, the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce and The Sun. To share another beautiful Edmond garden, you may nominate it by calling 341-2808.

Originally posted here:
Tornado-ravaged yard springs back to original splendor

CEDAR FALLS | A bald spot appeared on Bill Ruud's manicured yard.In a few years, though, 25 species of native plants will flourish, taking back a small portion of land once covered in prairie.

"We have a Tallgrass Prairie Center. Why not promote it?" says the University of Northern Iowa's business-minded president.

Ruud asked center officials to put prairie plants near his residence. Of Iowa's land, 80percent was once rolling prairie but, as agriculture expanded, less than 1/10th of 1 percent remains.

That good black soil that we farm, it created that, said Daryl Smith, founder and former director of the center.

Prairie plants deep root system can plunge 15 feet, holding soil in place and permitting water to infiltrate the soil. These plants can also reduce chemical runoff on farm fields.

According to Smith, if more prairie were back on the landscape, it could also help mitigate seasonal flooding that devastates communities.

Were lobbying to get prairie established in watersheds on a larger scale, Smith said.

Some 125 acres of prairie dot UNI's campus. Campusgoers may not realize theyre walking past Ohio spiderwort or rattlesnake master and probably understand even less about the plants characteristics. Spiderwort, for instance, also known as cow slobbers, oozes a clear goo when leaves snap. Native Americans used rattlesnake master to make shoes.

Bewildered freshmen may find the compassplant useful. Settlers used it for navigation, since its leaf margins tend to point north and south.

But planting prairie instead of traditional sod grass also represents a long-term cost savings. The plants requires very little maintenance. Center officials estimate the transformation saved UNI about $47,100 so far.

Read more here:
Prairie in Progress: UNI promoting Iowa's natural landscape

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) July 03, 2014

Intensive code schools are gaining notoriety among people interested in launching programming careers as well as the tech companies who are hungry to hire talent. The Iron Yard, a nationally-renowned code school who opened Atlanta offices in March, opens its doors to the public after each set of three month courses to showcase just what it is their students are building behind those glowing computer screens. On June 20th, they welcomed their first graduating class into the developer community with a day of demonstrations and presentationsand the projects proved as varied as the participants in their courses.

What type of student fits the mold at an immersive programming school? The Iron Yard aims to change the landscape of education in technology, beginning by opening their courses to candidates from all walks of life. From mid-career financial gurus to creative-types, the common vein that runs true at The Iron Yard is a passion for learning and a propensity for problem solving. With no coding experience required, how far could a three-month course take students? Far enough to launch a career, get a job, or start a company. Students spend the final two weeks of their project-based curriculum building a robust application for over 80 hours each week, tackling everything from concept to deployment. That capstone project serves as proof that they are ready to work as a professional and solve programming problems for companies and clients.

This month The Iron Yard graduated Mobile Engineering and Ruby on Rails Engineering classes at ThoughtWorks in Midtown. The event was open to the public, local hiring partners, and recruiters. The presentation of final projects was exciting and full of variety. Some students took a playful approach to everyday needs: a socially integrated iOS app for barbecue enthusiasts, an application that mashes up famous love letters to send to loved ones, and a resource for generating cocktails based on current home inventory, to name a few. Others entered the education space, creating platforms for educating and training students of all ages. With the vast developer talent void prevalent in Atlanta, the presentations gave a hopeful glimpse into the future of tech in the growing Southeastern city.

Developers, developers-in-training, and representatives from area corporations, including State Farm, were present to see the culmination of twelve weeks of intensive programming. Graduates will go on to enter the industry as developers in back-end, front-end, and mobile technologies, and are currently interviewing for roles that will fill the wide gap we face in Atlantas tech industry.

Interested in learning to code or hiring development talent? Check out theironyard.com to find out more, and mingle with the graduates themselves at their next Demo Day.

Original post:
The Iron Yard Graduates Inaugural Coding Classes in Atlanta

When Ruth and Hurst Mauldin downsized to Sedgefield in 1999, there was little but red dirt in their small back yard.

But the veteran gardeners looked past the red dirt and envisioned a lush, green sanctuary. In fact, Ruth says her garden has become a place she goes to contemplate, to celebrate and to praise.

The Mauldins, both retired educators, raised two daughters in a Tudor home in Myers Park one with a big backyard and a garden that Ruth describes as down yonder. When they decided to move to a one-story house 15 years ago, Ruth told her Realtor, I just need a place with a front and back yard so I can dig.

And as hard as it was to leave their mature garden behind, the couple love having their plants and flowers within easy reach. Its all just out the back door and visible from every window in the house.

And its not as if they left the old Myers Park garden entirely. Much of it came with them hostas, Lenten roses, azaleas, primrose, King Alfred daffodils and some liriope (commonly known as monkey grass) their old friends, Jean and Joe Vance, had given the young newlyweds in Birmingham in 1965.

Ruth says the garden is still a work in progress. The Mauldins have taken on the task little by little, and their garden continues to evolve each year and with each season.

Working in the garden is therapeutic and almost spiritual for the Mauldins, who love their church (St. Andrews United Methodist), take care of the earth and try not to harm any of its creatures.

They occasionally put out moth balls (the smell is supposed to be a repellent) for the critters that feast on their plants, but mostly they peacefully coexist with bunnies and chipmunks. Slugs are the one pest they wont abide.

Siberian iris caper

The couple has been known to go to extreme lengths for a plant they covet. Hurst confesses to a caper that involved digging up a Siberian iris in an abandoned area and transplanting it in their yard. It was just so gorgeous, says Ruth.

The rest is here:
Retired Charlotte couple converts their plain backyard into a showcase