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Award-winning Dubai-based landscape architect Will Bennett launches WILDEN Design, a new sustainable landscaping boutique to encourage people to foster and stimulate natural habitats that can thrive in the UAE, by offering clients inspiring, contemporary gardens created using landscaping practices that have a lower environmental impact.

There is a huge movement globally to live sustainably and to regenerate landscapes for our shared benefit, and this has really inspired the ethos behind WILDEN Design, says founder Will Bennett. My mission extends beyond designing beautiful gardens I want to inspire people to connect to the nature that is on their doorstep in the most meaningful way that I can, by understanding the environment around us and by nurturing it. If we all start to take care of the little piece of the planet that we call home, this behaviour will snowball into helping to conserve and improve the wider world around us.

WILDEN Designs landscaping practices focus on using locally-sourced and manufactured materials, and plant and grass species that are indigenous to the GCC or from similar arid climates. Such practices help to minimise resources used in construction and maintenance, whilst generating strong, flourishing ecosystems in residential gardens across the Emirates.

Catering to a growing demand for online consultation, WILDEN Design provides clients with a seamless digital design experience through its website http://www.wildendesign.com, which employs innovative technologies to map out a clients plot. Customers receive a bespoke landscape design according to their brief and budget or they can choose from a range of pre-designed thematic gardens that are customised to suit the required plot.

Every garden, yard, patio and even balcony in the UAE has the potential to generate a thriving natural habitat for people to enjoy and cherish, says Will. It doesnt matter what the scale is whether its ten people or ten thousand if someone hears my message and is inspired to create a beautiful garden that encourages biodiversity, reduces waste and has a positive climate change impact, then thats my goal achieved.

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Dubai-based landscape architect Will Bennett launches WILDEN... - Construction Business News

Put aside worries about Google Street Views surveillance capability, and its HD cameras will open up myriad strange and wonderfully immersive views into landscapes both out-of-the-way and under-the-radar. Theres a privacy and an intimacy in clicking through those public, panoptic street scenes, as disembodied visitors form their impressions of a place based on a strangers documentation.

The immersive format works especially well at sites like Philadelphias Graffiti Pier, a disused coal bridge on the Delaware River that in recent years has gained notoriety as a mecca for aerosol art. Thanks to Street View user Mark Henninger, who documented the alle, as well as more than 14,000 Instagram tags, I can stroll under the piers concrete arches to admire the colorful cartoon characters and writhing arabesques in high-res.

A place like Graffiti Pier is both an open-air gallery and a living monument to changing economics. The site was once part of the giant Port Richmond rail yard, a busy inland exchange where ships were loaded up with Pennsylvania anthracite for distribution along the Eastern Seaboard and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Freight company and current owner Conrail bought the industrial area in the mid-1970s, at the nadir of the states coal output, and all but abandoned the southern portion of the waterfront in 1991a decision that de facto opened the pier to street artists. Now, thanks to a nonprofit that stewards the citys waterfront, and a coalition between the New York-based landscape firm Studio Zewde and the Philly taggers who have made it into a destination, Graffiti Pier is slated for yet another transformation.

The proposal from Studio Zewde walks a tightrope: Make the area accessible to a wider public and protect it from climate change, but dont erase the piers offbeat spirit in the process. The design moves that were proposing are really an act of preservation, explained Studio Zewde principal Sara Zewde. But in order to keep the space feeling the same way, you have to change it.

Renderings of the six-acre site depict interventions so minimal as to be indistinguishable from the photos on Google and social media. In one image, a stylish woman in a pinstripe dress and a young boy sit on top of a rail bridge covered in wildflowers (see up top), while in others the yawning coal bridge trellis stretches out toward the river in both directions.

Despite its newfound online exposure, the pier isnt easy to findsomething that Studio Zewdes plan seeks to address. Currently, visitors arriving at the pier from nearby neighborhoods Port Richmond and Olde Richmond must traverse the barren undercroft of Interstate 95 or the rail yards overgrown industrial flatlands. A big goal is to make a more legible entrance to the future park and to improve the paths alongside and beneath the coal bridge for ease of use. Access means little, however, if the pier is underwater, a real likelihood with fiercer storms and higher tides in the coming years. To mitigate potential ruin, Studio Zewde is considering seeding intertidal wetlands both to control flooding and to add a visual barrier between the pier and a massive townhouse development underway in Port Richmond.

Investments like these in Graffiti Pier, said Zewde, were the only way it could survive, essence intact, amid a changing environment and development pressures. A lot of the new development is sleek, clean, and sterile, and people said they didnt want an aesthetic that relates to a lot of the new development. And so our approach to designing something gritty, and that feels found, is a challenge to that aesthetic.

Consensus around the approach, Zewde added, mobilized artists and community groups to get involved in the planning process. The project teamwhich, apart from Studio Zewde, includes the nonprofit Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) and the public space advocacy firm Amber Art and Designexpressly avoided the conventional box-checking approach to community outreach, in which public meetings are a rubber stamp to move projects along the pipeline. DRWC in particular hopes the relationships it has forged with Philadelphians through its decade of greening the waterfront have built goodwill and buy-in for the pier transformation.

Every project we do is for the city, not just for people who live nearby, said Karen Thompson, DRWCs director of planning. This project really has these three audiencesnear neighbors, people interested in art, and people who make art.

Shortly after winning its contract in September 2019, the team convened an advisory council with an even split among seats for community development corporations and higher-profile artists, who helped provide connections to underground street artists, who are harder to reach. Occasionally these smaller groups met in bars, because some of the street artistsowing to the illicit nature of their work and negative public perceptions of graffitiprefer a level of anonymity that would be hard to maintain at a larger public event.

Zewde and Thompson both shared some insight into the on-the-ground process: At one of the first public meetings, Thompson said, the team asked artists what they thought was the best thing that could happen at the pier (How do we keep this a place that feels found?) and the worst thing that could happen (accelerating gentrification). The G-word came up often, but she noticed it was invoked around the fear of losing a place that feels secret and undiscovered amid new development in the neighborhood.

For Zewde, being on the other side of these exercises is what got her interested in urban planning and landscape architecture in the first place. She grew up in Louisiana and, as a college sophomore, started going to community planning meetings after Hurricane Katrina hit. I was frustrated by the gap between what I knew the place to be and what the designers were saying, she recalled. That was what made me feel like I should learn what they learned and see why theres this huge gap [in understanding].

It all ties into a holistic approach toward shaping space. My research and practice are really held together by a central inquiry, an expanded mode of what landscape architecture can be, Zewde explained. It is designing places and building places that make people feel like they belong in this world.

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Thanks to a design coalition with community ties, Philadelphia's Graffiti Pier will live on as a public park - The Architect's Newspaper

Allison Watkins, Special to the San Angelo Standard-Times Published 6:00 a.m. CT Oct. 15, 2020 | Updated 12:56 p.m. CT Oct. 17, 2020

Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension Service offers several publications to help you establish and maintain a healthy lawns.(Photo: Texas A&M AgriLife)

Fall weather has come and gone several times; summer hasnt quite wanted to be done for the year. Its hard to know what to do in the yard with such changeable conditions! Now that we are getting closer to November, days are getting shorter and temperatures are not jumping up quite so high.

The first landscape task for fall is to modify watering. Homeowners with automatic irrigation systems should adjust the timers if they have not been changed for fall yet. While there have been plenty of hot days recently, landscapes are needing less water than during the extreme summer climate. The website WaterMyYard.org is a great tool to help know how long to run the irrigation system each week based on local weather.

There have been questions about a weedy grass popping up in yards KR bluestem is an invasive, aggressive perennial grass that pops up in late summer and has gone to seed this time of year. It thrives most in yards that are stressed, and not as much in healthy, vigorously growing yards. So the main recommendation for control is to mow frequently, fertilize properly and irrigate regularly through the growing season to allow the turfgrass to thrive and resist weed invasion. Pre-emergent will not provide good control since KR bluestem is a perennial plant. Keep an eye out and catch it early dig up clumps of the grass by hand before it gets out of control.

Later in the season when leaves start to fall, remember dont bag it and keep fallen leaves out of landfills. Leaves are a great source of organic matter and should be taken advantage of place in a compost pile, use as mulch in beds, or even simply mow over leaves in the grass to shred them up.

Now that its cooling down, its a great time to add some fresh bright color to the landscape with cool season annual color. Plant pansies, snapdragons, stock, dianthus, and ornamental kale for late fall and winter interest. When planting annual color, the biggest bang for the buck comes when planting in small groupings instead of spreading a few flowers out through a large bed. Plant several flowers close together in a few areas or pockets of a flower bed, or plant several close together in a container for the most color pop and impact.

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

Allison Watkins(Photo: San Angelo Standard-Times)

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Tips for taking care of your lawn in the fall in West Texas - Standard-Times

Marisa Y. Thompson, Southwest Yard and Garden Published 3:17 a.m. MT Oct. 18, 2020

This purple fountain grass is thriving after a single growing season, but it may not be cold hardy enough to stay alive through the winter.(Photo: Les Bender)

Question: We have a lovely purple fountain grass (planted in the spring), and I keep hearing that it will die in the winter and we would have to plant a new one each year. Others say to dig it up, pot it, cut it back, put it in the house near a window, and replant it in spring. Another view is it will be fine in winter; just cut it back in spring and it will flourish! So we are confused. I also considered purchasing a small pop-up greenhouse and putting it around the plant to fight off frost and also allow it to get sun. Any help you could give would be most appreciated.

Les Bender, northeast Rio Rancho (6,000 feet elevation)

Answer: I understand this conundrum. Conflicting horticultural advice is often an indication that theres no single correct answer. Youre right that purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum') is perhaps marginally hardy in your area, and is listed by several sources as being cold hardy to USDA Hardiness Zones 8 and 9, which means this species can make it through winters with temperatures reaching as low as 10 degrees Fahrenheitand still grow back in the spring.

The next step is to determine the USDA Hardiness Zones in your yard. According to https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/, youre likely to be in USDA Hardiness Zone 7, with average annual extreme minimum temperatures (from 19762005) of 0 to 10 degrees. But its not quite that simple because 1) average temperatures have gone up, even in the past decade, and continue to do so; and 2) you may have microclimates, like up against a low west-facing wallthat get plenty of sun and stay considerably warmer than other, more exposed areas.

Marisa Y. Thompson(Photo: Courtesy)

For details on how to find and use this info in your landscape planning, check out my May 2020 column on picking the right shrub for your zone by searching my blog for the terms match maker (https://nmsudesertblooms.blogspot.com).

The rock mulch shown in your photos can also be expected to impact the microclimate by increasing daytime soil temperatures and keeping nighttime temps higher with residual heat. This may be a serious concern for our Southwest landscapes because of related urban heat island effects, continued global warming, and heat and drought stress on landscape plants. But, in terms of keeping microclimates warmer, the gravel around your ornamental grass may help it survive the winter.

I dont trust myself to keep a plant like this alive indoors over the winter. To me, the plant may be more likely to die with the combined stress of being dug up and potted, sporadic neglect while being protected inside, and being transplanted again in the spring than if I left it in place. So I cannot recommend this method. Plus, we may have an unseasonably warm winter ahead of us. Keep an eye on the weather. If a cold snap is coming, you can easily add short-term protection by covering your grass with a sheet or blanket overnight.

An important tip is to keep that beautiful foliage intact through the entire winter. This is true for other ornamental grasses as well. On top of it being pretty through the winter, the above-ground plant material provides a warming micro-microclimate (lets call it a nanoclimate) for the root zone and plant crown. In the early spring, itll be time to cut the leaf blades down close to the ground; you can simplify cleanup by tying them in a ponytail beforehand.

I joke that a title for this column could be Pain in the Grass, but its not the grasss fault. These are the problems associated with planting species that are marginally cold hardy. We have several other species of beautiful ornamental grasses (both native and adapted) that are plenty cold hardy in New Mexico landscapes. My personal favorites are sand lovegrass (Eragrostis trichodes), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), and muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). For more info, including links to recommended landscaping books and a video on selecting ornamental grasses for your yard, check out the blog version of this weeks column at https://nmsudesertblooms.blogspot.com/.

Send gardening questions to Southwest Yard and Garden - Attn: Dr. Marisa Thompson at desertblooms@nmsu.edu, or at the NM Desert Blooms Facebook page (@NMDesertBlooms) Please copy your County Extension Agent (http://aces.nmsu.edu/county/) and indicate your county of residence when you submit your question! For more gardening information, visit the NMSU Extension Horticulture page at Desert Blooms (http://desertblooms.nmsu.edu/) and the NMSU Horticulture Publications page at http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/.

Marisa Y. Thompson, PhD, is the Extension Horticulture Specialist in the Department of Extension Plant Sciences at the New Mexico State University Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center

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Pain in the grass: Protecting cold-sensitive plants - Las Cruces Sun-News

Alabama now has blown out the second-best and third-best teams in the Southeastern Conference, beating Georgia by 17 and Texas A&M by 28. Clemson has laid waste to four Atlantic Coast Conference opponents by an average margin of 34.3 points.

Thats your landslide 12, in whatever order you prefer. After that, it gets interesting.

Georgia earns the third spot in the SI Top 10 as much out of default as anything else. The Bulldogs were good before going to Tuscaloosa, and were good for a half once they got there. In the current barren landscapewhere we are not ranking anyone who hasnt yet playedthats enough.

North Carolina coughed up a giant hairball against Florida State and Notre Dame was unimpressive enough against Louisville that it seems fair to start a nationwide search for the fourth-best team. Why not BYU? The Cougars passed their biggest test of the season to date Friday night, roaring back to beat Houston.

The latter half of the Top 10 is similarly indistinguishable. A couple of one-loss SEC teams, a couple of undefeated Group of Five teams. And, wow, look what the cat dragged in: the only unbeaten Big 12 team, Oklahoma State, which hasnt played since Oct. 3.

Long story short, the Big Tens arrival this week is perfectly timed. There are plenty of high rankings available.

1. Clemson (50)

Last game: Beat Georgia Tech, 737Next game: Syracuse Saturday

The Tigers' offense dropped 52 points on Georgia Tech in the first half, the most in a half in school history against an ACC opponentand thats despite committing two turnovers. Trevor Lawrence had five touchdown passes before intermission, though he did throw his first interception since Oct. 19, 2019. Most ridiculous stat from this ridiculous Clemson offensive onslaught: 17 Tigers caught passes, including both of Dabo Swinneys sons. We are once again left wondering whether anyone in the ACC can even mildly stress Clemson. (Notre Dame or bust on Nov. 7?)

2. Alabama (40)

Last game: Beat Georgia, 4124Next game: At Tennessee Saturday

Trailing the Bulldogs at halftime, the Crimson Tide opened a can of beatdown in the third and fourth quarters. Huge plays by their peerless wide receivers on some nice deep balls from Mac Jones; the usual all-around efficiency from Najee Harris; and some big stops from a defense that had been taking a beating on the field and in the press. Maybe it would have been closer if Nick Saban had to stay home, but Bama still looked like the better team once it tightened up defensively and got after Stetson Bennett IV. A Joe Burrow supernova aside, the SEC continues to run through Tuscaloosa.

3. Georgia (31)

Last game: Lost to Alabama, 4124Next game: At Kentucky Oct. 31

The Bulldogs touted defense was shredded by Alabamas passing game, giving up 417 yards and four touchdowns through the air. Thats the most passing yards Georgia has allowed since 2000, when Hal Mumme was the coach at Kentucky and Jared Lorenzen was throwing it every down. The other glaring issue for Georgia: Stetson Bennett IV isnt good enough to win a shootout. The former walk-on has been a success story thus far, but he was exposed by Alabamacompleting just 18 of 40 passes for 269 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. It might be time for Kirby Smart to turn to USC transfer JT Daniels.

4. BYU (50)

Last game: Beat Houston Friday, 4326Next game: Texas State Saturday

BYU had it easy through its first four games, and then Houston made the Cougars work for this one. Trailing 2614 late in the third quarter, BYU exploded for 29 unanswered points to win going away. It was yet another showcase performance for quarterback Zach Wilson (25 for 35 for 400 yards and four touchdowns, plus 40 yards rushing), and a defense that had trouble stopping Houston much of the night rose up to make some big plays in the final quarter. The Cougars will be heavily favored in their next two games (Texas State and Western Kentucky) before facing Boise State Nov. 6. If the Cougars run the table, they will likely be the most argued-over team from a College Football Playoff perspective.

5. Notre Dame (40)

Last game: Beat Louisville, 127Next game: At Pittsburgh Saturday

The Fighting Irish struggled unexpectedly against the 14 Cardinals. Louisville came into the game surrendering 34.3 points per game, but didnt give up a touchdown until late in the third quarter. Notre Dame failed to finish drives in the Red Zone, and its passing game produced just 106 yards. There were zero plays of 20 yards or longer through the air. This is the second straight game the Irish have trailed in the second half, however briefly. After four straight at home, its now time for Notre Dame to go on the road.

6. Texas A&M (31)

Last game: Beat Mississippi State, 2814Next game: Arkansas Oct. 31

The Aggies have still been outscored on the season, thanks to a lopsided loss to Alabama. But this was a second straight impressive performanceoffensively explosive against Florida last week, and defensively tough against the Bulldogs this week. A week after losing receiver Caleb Chapman for the season, A&M showed some playmaking depth at that position with a 51-yard touchdown reception by freshman Chase Lane. But the offensive anchor continues to be running back Isaiah Spiller, who turned in his third 100-yard rushing game of the season against the Bulldogs.

7. Florida (21)

Last game: Lost to Texas A&M on Oct. 10Next game: Missouri Oct. 31

The only place where the Gators didnt suffer any embarrassment this week was on the field, since their game was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak. That followed coach Dan Mullens absurd stance that he wanted to Pack The Swamp with 90,000 fans after the loss last Saturday to Texas A&M. The week ended with Mullen publicly acknowledging that he, too, has the virus. Florida is such a mess from a numbers standpoint that its scheduled game for next week already has been pushed back to Halloween.

8. Cincinnati (30)

Last game: Beat USC 287 on Oct. 3Next game: at SMU Saturday

The Bearcats own COVID-19 outbreak forced postponement of their game against Tulsa, which means they will be 21 days between games when they visit undefeated SMU Saturday (assuming that game remains on the schedule). Thats a big one for the American Athletic Conference. Cincinnatis offense has been pedestrian thus far this season, with quarterback Desmond Ridder not as dynamic as hed been the previous two seasons. But Luke Fickells team remains the best defensive unit in the AAC, and that still likely makes them the team to beat in the league.

9. Oklahoma State (30)

Last game: Beat Kansas 477 on Oct. 3Next game: Iowa State Saturday

The Cowboys game against Baylor was postponed by the Bears ongoing COVID-19 issues, so they are on the same schedule as Cincinnatithree weeks between games. The next one is one that will weigh heavily in the Big 12 race, with the Cyclones also unbeaten in conference play. Oklahoma States defense leads the conference in fewest points allowed per game (9.0) and fewest yards allowed per play (4.05).

10. Marshall (40)

Last game: Beat Louisiana Tech, 35-17Next game: Florida Atlantic Saturday

Time to show some love to the Thundering Herd, which has yet to trail in a game this season. Marshall has a top-10 defense nationally, and freshman quarterback Grant Wells continues to impresshe was 19 of 24 for 227 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score Saturday against Tech. The Herd figure to be heavily favored in each of their remaining regular-season games.

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SI's Top 10: It's Clemson, Alabama and the Rest - Sports Illustrated

The best trees and shrubs for fall foliage

Although fall officially arrives in late September, mid to late October is when it starts to feel like fall in the Pennsylvania landscape.

With cooling temperatures comes a shift in a lot of our tree and shrub foliage. As green chlorophyll breaks down, the other pigments that are in leaves start to show through at least for a few weeks until they also break down, leaving behind brown and falling leaves.

Were in one of the relative few parts of the world that has an ideal climate for blazing fall foliage.

Tourists come from afar (at least in non-pandemic years) to see Pennsylvanias forests in their red, orange, and gold fall glory. Red maple, sweetgum, blackgum, birch, oak, dogwood, and serviceberry are among the native tree species that are particularly vibrant in our native fall landscapes.

If you play your cards right, your own yard can be a riot of rich fall color, too.

Many of those same native tree species make excellent landscape specimens. If you add non-invasive, non-native species with good fall color to the mix, we have a lot to pick from in our Zone 6 to 7A growing zone. Among them:

Over 30 feet: assorted maples (red, gold, or red-bold blends); assorted oaks (gold or red/gold); ginkgo, river birch, linden, and katsura (yellow or gold), and blackgum and sweetgum (deep red).

Under 30 feet: Japanese, trident, paperbark and similar smaller maples (red, gold, or red-gold blends); dogwood (deep red); serviceberry (bright red); stewartia (red/gold blend); American hornbeam (orange-red), and parrotia, redbud, and American fringe tree (yellow or gold).

Lots of shrubs turn color as well and usually fall into the four- to eight-foot size ranges that are fine for typical home landscapes.

Some of the best fall-foliage shrubs to make your fall yard go out in a blaze of brilliance instead of a dribble of drabness include: fothergilla and panicle hydrangea (gold or gold/red); Virginia sweetspire, crape myrtle, sumac, nandina, and blueberry (blood red or bright red); oakleaf hydrangea, viburnum, bayberry, PJM rhododendron, and ninebark (deep red to burgundy); summersweet, spicebush, red-twig dogwood, winterberry holly, witch hazel, and bottlebrush buckeye (yellow to gold); chokeberry (red to red/gold), and spirea Ogon (rusty orange-red).

The yellowing needles on this pine are all on the inner part of the branches. The branch ends are sporting green. This is normal shedding of the older needles.

Needled evergreens have been taking a beating in central-Pennsylvania yards the last few years, especially needlecast diseases on Douglas firs and Colorado blue spruce as well as long-running troubles such as spider mites on dwarf Alberta spruce, woolly adelgids and scale on hemlocks, and bagworms on arborvitae.

Some of those can be treated with insecticides or even stiff sprays of water every now and then (which spider mites hate). Others (i.e. needlecast diseases) are difficult and/or expensive to control.

Some of the yellowing and browning you might be seeing on needled evergreens isnt trouble at all but a normal function of those trees this time of year.

Evergreens dont drop all of their foliage each year as do maples and dogwoods, but they do shed older and no-longer-needed needles from the inside as the age.

As new growth occurs toward the tips, the older needles nearer the trunk begin yellowing in fall and ultimately brown and drop.

This yellowing can be more pronounced in hot, dry years like we had this summer and with newly transplanted evergreens.

The way to tell the difference between normal needle yellowing/shedding and a more serious needlecast disease is where the needle loss is occurring.

If the tips are growing annually and producing new needles each spring while the inner parts of the branches are bare, no need to worry.

Native eastern white pines, for example, are particularly notorious for dropping copious quantities of their long needles in fall.

However, if needles have died at the tips or if branches are completely bare, thats a problem especially if the bareness is working its way up a tree. Needleless branches are often dead and eventually will go brittle and snap when you attempt to bend them.

A curveball is that with needlecast on Colorado blue spruce and Douglas fir, an infected tree will grow a new needles on the tips in spring while all of the older needles have browned from there on in. As the disease continues, that growth dies by the following year, and the whole branch is a goner.

Your local county Penn State Extension office and their Master Gardeners can help you figure out whats going on with your hurting evergreens. They get a lot of calls every year about yellowing white pines.

Penn States Master Gardeners get a lot of gardening questions of all sorts and have begun doing free monthly webinars to share answers to many of them. The program is called Garden Hotline Live, and episodes take place the second Friday of each month at noon. Recordings of past webinars are also available for free viewing later.

Penn States Plant Disease Clinic is another resource that helps diagnose plant diseases at no charge to Pennsylvania homeowners.

Compost bins can be made using skids or scrap lumber.

Nothing improves soil and aids plant health better than compost.

If you dont have one of these waste-recycling, soil-building stations in the yard, now is an excellent time to add one.

Leaves are one of the best compost-pile ingredients, and theyll be in prime supply shortly.

Composting is also an excellent way to recycle kitchen waste (coffee grounds, egg shells, potato peels, etc.) and assorted yard waste (frost-killed plants, grass clippings, and yanked weeds in addition to falling leaves).

Ideal composting spots are out-of-the-way corners of the yard or behind a shed or garage. If you have neither, create a compost closet by installing vine-covered trellises around one, two, or three sides of the compost bin(s).

Shoot for piles that are at least four feet tall and wide. Many gardeners keep two or three different piles at various stages of decomposition.

Bins arent absolutely necessary, but theyre helpful in keeping piles contained.

A simple system is to contain piles with cylinders of metal or plastic fencing. Used wooden skids can be wired together, or you can build your own bins out of scrap (or new) lumber. Or you can even use large trash cans with holes bored in the sides for aeration.

If youd rather buy than build, lots of ready-to-go composting gizmos are available in garden centers and catalogs, ranging from small plastic domes to $300 rotating drums on legs.

As for what to add to the piles, an ideal mix is a blend of high-nitrogen greens and high-carbon browns. A good proportion is three parts browns to one part green.

Good browns include shredded paper, fallen leaves, pine needles, sawdust, and wood chips.

Good greens include grass clippings, fresh weeds from the garden (ones that havent gone to seed), pulled or frost-killed garden plants, and assorted non-meat, non-dairy kitchen waste, such as coffee grounds, banana peels, carrot shavings, salad leftovers, and egg shells.

Toss in an occasional shovel full of finished compost or garden soil to supply microorganisms that help cook the materials.

You dont need to turn the pile, but doing so every now and then speeds up the decomposition process. So does chopping the materials into small pieces in the first place.

Water the pile when you first build it, then rain usually supplies enough moisture to keep the pile cooking.

With a good mix thats damp and turned, the pile should get hot enough to produce steam and be uncomfortable if you try to stick your hand in.

Otherwise, if youre a lazy composter, just pile up the ingredients, and let them rot. In a year, the materials on the bottom will have rotted into a crumbly, black, earthy-smelling compost thats ready to go on or in gardens and lawns.

Composting not only keeps waste out of landfills and the water-wasting garbage disposal, it yields a highly nutritious soil additive that improves drainage, adds life and organic matter to compacted soil, and even helps fight off some plant diseases.

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Fall foliage at home, struggling evergreens, and composting: This Weekend in the Garden - pennlive.com

Culture The Renovation of Tianbao Cave District of Erlang Town / Jiakun Architects

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Background. The project site is located in Erlang Town, Gulin County in Luzhou City, next to Chishui River basin that is naturally perfect for making good liquors. It is in the middle part of the cliff under Tianbao Peak. There are Tianbao Cave, Dibao Cave, and Renhe Cave, which are the largest natural liquor-storage caves in the world.

ConceptPavilion. Extract the classic image of Pavilion from Chinese classical architecture as the prototype. Utilize the contemporary technique to express traditional connotations, echoing the brand culture of Lang.

Pan Museum.The project adopts the strategy of literary narration to organize the contentof multiple spatial function nodes, which creates a continuous spatial scenario. The circulation focuses on the arrangement of rhythm. According to the location, height difference, and modality of the site, the space of light and shade, opening and closing, loose and tight, twists, and turns are thoughtfully organized to enrich visitors experience.

The Overall Layout.The site was originally the production area of Lang liquor, which has been one of the leading Chinese liquors for centuries. The new buildings replace the old ones with poor conditions and connect the reserved buildings scattered among the mountains in a circular loop.

Entrance Pergola.Composed bamboo and steel together construct a sixty-meter-long green tunnel, giving people a strong sense of space. Theheliophiloustrigonometry climbs as time goes by, swaying the shadow.

The Reception Lounge.The weathering steel pavilion cantilevers on the foundation bed that visitors are able to overlook the natural beauty. The interior of the foundation bed is a reception hall. The long horizontal window facing the Chishui River provides a photo frame of distant mountains.

Poetic Liquor Yard.The Poetic Liquor Yard demonstrates famous quotes about Chinese liquors. The three sides of the overhanging corridor are enclosed, surrounded by the mirror-like water.

The Tree Yard.Walk through the plank road in the woods and enter into the Tree Yard. The Tree Yard has low space with a suspending roof. Windows are designed when there are trees, allowing the sun to draw a mosaic of light on the ground. The panoramic projection on the surrounding walls presenting the liquor-making scene.

Exhibition Hall of Lang.Following the Tree Yard, visitors will arrive at the Exhibition Hall of Lang. Full height racks are arranged on both sides. Mirrors are installed on the ceiling and the ground, applying the sense of limitlessness through multiple reflections.

Blending Experience Area.Move along the corridor to reach the blending experience area. Under the concrete arched beams, there are scattered individual blending experience rooms.

Liquor Tasting Pavilion.The Liquor Tasting Pavilion with the far-reaching eaves stands in the sky and is surrounded by water. With a cup of Lang in the gentle breeze, visitors can gaze into the distance.

Terraced Garden.Visitors walk through the cherry blossoms along the cascade of stairs and are able to enjoy various sceneries.

Plank Walkway and Lounge Bridge.The plank walkway and the lounge bridge wind through the woods.

The Sloped Elevator & Cliff Restaurant & Renhe Cave.The sloped elevator stands up to the mountain, connecting the Cliff Restaurant and Renhe Cave.

Material and Construction.The fair-faced concrete and the local stone are piled upand integrated into the landscape, forming the bed of basic functional areas. The orange-red weathering steel framework is cantilevered over the bed, lightly floating in the sky, which conveys the Oriental classical imagination dwellingin nature.

The project is interwoven in two characteristics,SEDIMENT, and FLOATING,being integrated into the mountainand tripping in the landscape.

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Culture The Renovation of Tianbao Cave District of Erlang Town / Jiakun Architects - ArchDaily

The most delicious vegetables are the ones you grow yourself, as many have come to realize during the pandemic. But some cities and counties have restrictions that prevent people from gardening at home. In one Midwestern town, a temporary greenhouse has ended up on the wrong side of the law, revealing a value system that is distinctly regressive.

Nicole and Dan Virgil, who live in Elmhurst, a suburb of Chicago, are dedicated vegetable gardeners. By the summer of 2015, they had maxed out their 2,000-square-foot backyard with raised beds and were relying on them for much of their familys produce. They had branched out from simply growing the typical salad ingredients to cultivating potatoes, fennel, leeks, and tomatillos. In late August, the plants were still going full-bore, and the Virgils wondered how they could extend the Midwestern growing season. (In this climate zone, seedlings go into the ground on Mothers Day and peter out in October.)

It seemed like such a shame that everything would come to a dead stop once the temperature dropped, says Nicole, who is among an estimated one-third of all Americans who have grown food at home. We really wanted to make a dent in our grocery bill and in our carbon footprintwe didnt turn our whole backyard into a garden just to have a few token vegetables.

After doing some online research, Dan built a high-tunnel hoop house to protect two of the larger garden beds. The temporary greenhouse, made of plastic sheeting over a frame of PVC pipe and plywood, was nine feet tall at its apex. It was big enough to produce sufficient heat to warm the soil and allow the Virgils to stand inside while gardening in frigid conditions. In more temperate climates like Californias, farmers use hoop houses to protect delicate blackberries and raspberries from dew and fog.

A few weeks after their hoop house went up, Nicole found a violation notice from the city taped to it. I thought it had to be some kind of misunderstanding, that it couldnt possibly be serious, recalls Nicole. She had assumed that the hoop house, a lightweight temporary structure akin to a tent, wouldnt be subject to city regulations.

After several discussions with city officials, 16 public meetings over two years, a lawsuit filed by the Virgils, and a subsequent appeal, the city remained unmoved, siding with the neighbor who had filed the original complaint. The Virgils found themselves stuck in a catch-22 of having an unpermitted temporary structure while having no way to get a permit for a temporary structure. Facing a daily fine, they took down their hoop house.

Why would a backyard hoop house be so contentious? The Virgils are among many home gardeners around the country who have triggered a city or county ordinance that restricts edible gardening. Its fairly common for local governments to have a broadly written landscape ordinance, which may not explicitly prohibit vegetable gardening but requires grass or similar vegetation and calls for plants within a certain height.

The neatly manicured yard has long been a status symbol; lawns first appeared in the 1700s on European estates, whose owners could afford to have high-maintenance living carpets. And the suburbs have historically differentiated themselves from ag land. A lot of rural land was developed into suburban municipalities, and the zoning code was changed to prohibit agricultural usespeople didnt want a pig farm to move in, says Laura Calvert, the former executive director of Chicago-based nonprofit Advocates for Urban Agriculture.

Given the context, its easy to see how the neighbors might look down on home gardening as a form of subsistence farming. People think that its beneath them, says Nicole, who documented her struggle in a recent op-ed for the Chicago Tribune.

The goal of these ordinances, whether theyre about landscaping or temporary structures, is to maintain property values. (The racist practice of redlining, which kept African Americans out of the suburbs, was rationalized in the same way.) However, the perception that growing vegetables will drive down home values is not rooted in any evidence, as Calvert points out.

Now the pandemic shutdown is shifting these cultural attitudes. For the first time in a long while, people have seen empty shelves in grocery stores and witnessed hoarding. The past months have been a visceral reminder of how important it is to have access to healthy food, which no doubt prompted many to start planting. Elmhursts neighbor, Chicago, is ahead of the curve; it embraced hoop houses in its 2011 ordinance promoting urban farming while still regulating them with restrictions on their size and height. We have broad mayoral support for urban agriculture, says Calvert. It provides all these benefits, including food access, public health, and public education.

In addition to these imperatives, there are also philosophical and legal principles to defend. On a basic level, the right to garden year-round can be encapsulated as the right to do what you want in your own yard. The Virgils are advocating for a state Right to Garden bill, which would override local ordinances. Theyve joined forces with attorney Ari Bargil at the nonprofit Institute for Justice, which works on constitutional law cases and helped pass the first such gardening bill in Florida.

Bargil sees restrictions on home gardening as a violation of a fundamental right: We have the right to use our own properties to grow our own food, as long as that use doesnt impinge on someone elses freedom to enjoy their property. And he feels that landscape ordinances smack of authoritarianism. If a vegetable garden is attracting pests, it has a bearing on the health and safety of a community, and that should be regulated, he says. But if the government is acting like Disney World and specifying what your front yard should look like, thats not a vision of a free society.

The Right to Garden bill in Illinois has been through three rounds of revisions and should go before the state legislature in its next session, which begins in early 2021. The Virgils are cautiously optimistic that their cause will prevail. Im just trying to do something good, Nicole says. I want to help people live well and help each other and have food in abundance.

This article was originally published by Sierra, and is reprinted with the permission of the author. Photos courtesy of Nicole Virgil.

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Without a Right to Garden Law, It May Be Illegal to Grow Your Own Food - Civil Eats

For now, wildlife, plants and Andrew Padula exist in harmony on Plantation Road, north of Greer.

But nearbyalong NorthState 101 are signs ofa boom in development that could threaten thepeace that Padula and nature now share as part of his nursery and landscaping business.

Padulas nearly two-acre nursery relies on the animals around it to make sure the plants he grows are healthy. They also add to the natural feeling, the rural setting that he enjoys.

A little bit of that goes away when things are cut down on a very large scale, like acres and acres at a time, he said.

Contrast that to the fact that if they were to build homes with nature and land in mind, much of the wildlife and plant life would remain becausethere would be only one house every two acres or one house every 10 acres, Padula said.

Andrew Padula, owner of Padula's Plants and Garden Design in Greer, waters his potted plants, Wednesday, October 7, 2020.(Photo: MATT BURKHARTT/Staff)

Many people in rural parts of the county and beyond share Padulas sentiment.

The divide is Article 22 the proposed amendment to the county's Land Development Regulations. It's been called "back door zoning" by some who oppose it. Some who favor it consider it a way of sustaining rural communities in the midst of growth.

This amendment sets a minimum lot size of two acres for new residential developments in rural areas.

It pulls the minimum lot sizes directly from the countys comprehensive plan, which was approved with input from a variety of stakeholders,said Michael Corley, Upstate director of the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and a supporter of the amendment.

"Itseems to me very logical and very sensical that the minimum lot sizes in the Land Development Regulations would be the same as whats in the comprehensive plan," he said.

More: How Greenville County is striving to balance growth, quality of life, budget issues

Greenville County Council chair Butch Kirven also supports the amendment, saying in an Op-Ed in The Greenville News that it is a natural next step in accomplishing what the Comprehensive Plan calls for in the unzoned areas and will bring clarity for citizens and developers on the minimum sizes of new residential developments.

"Many studies have shown, and our citizens can see for themselves, that sprawling developments reaching farther and farther into rural areas create an incredibly inefficient way to grow," he wrote.

Greer Mayor Rick Danner is opposed to the amendment, stating in a written reply about the issue to The Greenville News that hebelieves it would effectively end development in the county,with the exception of property/land that is contiguous [or could be] to a municipality that could / would annex it."

"While the goal of the restrictions ostensibly appears to be to limit sprawl and control growth which are valuable Smart Growth tools, there is an economic advantage for the county to push growth into the municipalities," he said.

Concerns about the amendment by the Homebuilders Association of Greenville includefear that there won't be enough land to build homes for future anticipated growth.

Nearly 900 of people have signed a petition urging Greenville County Council to act now to control sprawl in rural areas from new suburban-style residential subdivisions.

Article 22 is a move favored by a group of landowners in northern Greenville County, who are seeing a mounting number of dense subdivisions proposed or constructed in that area of the county.

Corley is representing a group oflandowners in their appeal of a subdivisiondeemed incompatible to their rural community. Many of them are hoping the county will approve Article 22.

A reason for that is, Corleysaid, the proposed amendment addresses Article 3.1 of the Land Development Regulations.

Andrew Padula, owner of Padula's Plants and Garden Design in Greer, waters his potted plants, Wednesday, October 7, 2020.(Photo: MATT BURKHARTT/Staff)

Article 3.1 is arule intended to allow planners to reject subdivisions that are not "compatible with the surrounding land use density" or the site's "environmental conditions. Instead, it has been a source of legal challenges.

The Greenville County Planning staff has said, as it relates to density, the county comprehensive plan and Article 3.1 do not apply to unzoned areas.

Opinion: Why county should help municipalities more in bearing costs of growth

"What weve been pushing for and the reason weve been filing appeals is to say you dont think you can apply (Article 3.1), but its still on the books. Its still the only regulation we have to control these rural subdivisions,'" he said. "'You've either got to apply the law thats on the books or youve got to pass a new law.

Some supporters of Article 22 cite "misinformation" as one of its challenges.A pamphlet explaining the petition counters that"misinformation," saying the amendment will not prevent divisions of property among family members, it is extremely unlikely to devalue rural property, and it is not zoning.

The latter is one of the concerns the Greenville HBAhas with the proposed amendment.

Michael Dey, HBA spokesman,said the way the ordinance is structured, theyre essentially trying to zone unzoned areas without zoning it.

Padula's Plants and Garden Design in Greer Wednesday, October 7, 2020.(Photo: MATT BURKHARTT/Staff)

We get the political problem with that, but our issue with it is with zoning there is a means of appeal if you dont agree with the zoning on your property, he said.

With the ordinance they have proposed, the only means of appeal if you dont agree with the zoning of your property is to go to court, he said. Thats a very expensive process and its one that most property owners wont be able to pursue. They just cant afford it.

As for concern about land to accommodate homes for future growth, he said,When youre going to add 100,000 jobs and 200,000 new residents to the county in the next 20 years, our estimate was that were going to need close to 100,000 new houses.

Their (the county's) estimate was around 85,000," he said. "I think were all in the same ballpark.

Andrew Padula, owner of Padula's Plants and Garden Design in Greer, waters his potted plants, Wednesday, October 7, 2020.(Photo: MATT BURKHARTT/Staff)

But, he said weve got to have the land entitled so that those houses can be built.

Already, he said, theyre seeing rezonings being turned down that are consistent with the comprehensive plan as it was presented because they found it to be too dense. So were definitely not going to have enough places to build the houses to accommodate the growth that is coming," Dey said.

The market of homebuyers are, by and large, not looking for really low density development, Dey said. Theyre looking for medium to high density, and though they dont want to care for a lot of yard, they do want a larger house, he said.

An option that builders and developers would have to avoid the proposed ordinance is annexing into a municipality, Dey said, and that'salready happening in Mauldin, Greer, Simpsonville, and Travelers Rest.

Builders and developers and the property owners theyre buying land from are being annexed the cities because cities are, by their very nature, more dense anyway, Dey said. Theyre more aligned with where themarket is and what the market is demanding for housing .

Additionally, he said, Greer is attractive because ithas a complete sewer, gas, and water system. But to connect to it, you have to annex, he said.

Andrew Padula, owner of Padula's Plants and Garden Design in Greer Wednesday, October 7, 2020.(Photo: MATT BURKHARTT/Staff)

When growth occurs in the municipalities, the associated cost of the growth and its impact is assumed by the city, thus relieving the county of the burden of providing services, facilities, maintenance and other related cost while collecting their full share of taxes, Danner said. "This is a potential economic windfall for the county at the expense of the cities."

He thinks the ordinancewould open a Pandoras Box of legal issues "Would the new regulations constitute a taking if you were a large land owner in the county? What if you owned or had invested in a large tract of land in the county as an investment but were now unable to sell it for it highest and best use. Who would reimburse utility providers and other service providers that have invested in infrastructure and capacity for future growth in their assigned territory that will now be unused? Will utility and service providers be willing to provide services to single homes scattered in areas of the County that currently have no service. Would it even be practical?"

The Article 22 proposal is being held as planning and development members get answers to their questions and an in-person public hearing before the entire council can be held, said Councilman Joe Dill, chair of the committee. He said hes hoping the in-person meetings return next month.

Meanwhile, Dill, who represents District 17 ofnorthern Greenville County, said hes got people concerned about growth and wanting to know what the county is going to do about it.

Some are considering zoning their property, he said. Whatever people want, Im willing to help them accomplish.

Padula, who moved to northern Greer 10 years ago from Maine to openPadulas Plants and Garden Design, not only wants homes built on larger lots, he wants them built to control erosion. He also wants more roads built before houses are built.

If you have homes that have land to them and not try to cram 12 of them into two acres then thats going to be a nice mediumbetween allowing wildlife to still flourish here while keeping a nice rural setting, he said. Yet, everybodys got a nice home, they're happy and theyre not complaining about their neighbor as much.

Designing a neighborhood with more property would cause the homes to sell faster and just be more scenic.

This is a farming community, a rural community, he said.

Once you get five miles outside of ( U.S.) 25, it gets country pretty fast and that would only take that about three years to change, he said. Pretty soon, what was country five miles away will be a Walmart or a Dollar General, or something that is taking over a nice piece of land that had a function to it.

Kay Mott on her family's property in northern Greenville County(Photo: Submitted/Vintage Farms Photography)

What Kay Mott sees happening in the community is exactly what she and her family moved from Florida to Blue Ridge to escape: Clogged insufficient roads to handle the traffic, cookie-cutter developments that ruin the landscape, the impact to Lake Robinson which runs red likely from runoff due to land clearing when it rains, decimating the trees and stripping away all the natural beauty and along with that the disappearance of nature.

I am so saddened to the point we are already trying to discern where to go next, she said in an email to The Greenville News. Choosing to live in SCis a sacrifice in many ways compared to Florida. We bear the burden of a state income tax, including taxing the pension of a retired first responder.

Mott and her family had been searching for what they hoped would be their forever home when they vacationed in the Upstate in 2011.

They considered a number of states in their quest for a rural area withstrong school and hospital systems.

This area offered everything in terms of the lifestyle we were seeking, the mountains, hiking, biking, water access, the equestrian community, and we fell in love with downtown Greenville, she said.Greer is close to so many amenities, but was not clogged to the point of spending hours in traffic like South Florida where I had lived for over 50 years. We found the perfect home and moved here.

Padula's Plants and Garden Design in Greer Wednesday, October 7, 2020.(Photo: MATT BURKHARTT/Staff)

Now, fast forward to my perception of what I see unfolding as though I am back in SFL all over again.

What Florida did so well that this area seems to grossly ignore entirely is the infrastructure to manage the increased population, Mott said.

Roads are horrible and have not kept up with the rapid development, she said. There are no new schools to handle the influx. I understand the desire to increase the tax basis, and building more homes certainly serves that purpose, and with Covid-19 my presumption is more and more people will seek to escape crowded cities and move to this area.

Read or Share this story: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2020/10/20/rural-greenville-county-residents-petition-action-against-sprawl-sc/3565448001/

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Petitioners urge Greenville County to act against sprawl in rural northern areas - Greenville News

Torontos restaurants and bars are scrambling to extend patio season for as long as possible following the 28-day ban imposed October 10 on indoor dining but many are finding that winterizing is more difficult than they thought, and some are closing down altogether for the time being.

Theres no confidence, really, that people will flock to outdoor patios in the winter, said James Rilett, Restaurants Canadas vice-president for central Canada. This uncertainty has left restaurant owners wondering if theyll be worth the investment, he said.

And while some restaurants are charging ahead with winterizing their patios for the long haul, its a select few and its a challenge, given the current shortage of space heaters caused by increased demand, said Ryan Mallough, director of provincial affairs for Ontario for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

There are also lots of rules to follow, Mallough said. For example, business owners looking to put up tents around their patios need to make sure theyre following city directives.

According to Torontos guidelines for restaurants and bars, if a business is covering its patio, at least two walls of the structure must be open to the outdoors. If the roof of the patio is open, at least one wall must be open to the outdoors.

On Monday, Toronto Mayor John Tory said hes hoping to have more advice for businesses in the next couple of days on how to create safe outdoor patios.

The challenge is you cant just create another indoor space out of canvas, he said.

Most businesses would prefer to just go back to indoor dining, Mallough said, but if the ban on that continues, the ones who stay open will likely revert to takeout only, as they did in the pandemics early days.

Thats really the only option, he said.

Some may shut down temporarily, Mallough added a reality some are already facing.

Devon Salomone, co-owner of East Thirty-Six, said in an email that construction on Wellington St. prevented the restaurant from extending its patio season, making it impossible to stay open.

We are 100 per cent concerned about being able to survive a continued ban on indoor dining, Salomone said.

Salomone and other Toronto restaurateurs said the short notice of indoor closures just 24 hours made things even harder, from trying to sell off inventory to having to lay off staff.

The new rent relief program may help temporarily closed businesses like East Thirty-Six, as it theoretically gives extra aid to businesses that have been forced to close. But Mallough wants to know whether that will include restaurants that are only offering takeout.

Its hard to put any type of investment (into a winter patio) when you dont know if the business is even there, Salomone said. Do people even want to eat outside when it will be cold and damp?

Rilett expects many restaurants will shut down permanently, especially if the indoor dining ban is extended. Others will pivot to takeout or meal kits, he said.

But pivoting to takeout isnt a fix-all. Many restaurants, like The Pint Public House on Front St., just arent the kinds of restaurants people got to for takeout, explained owner Cesar Mesen. So while offering takeout has helped, if the indoor dining ban continues into the winter, it wont be enough to sustain the business, he said.

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Mesen said the business has had no choice but to extend its patio season for as long as possible but not forever.

It comes at a great expense, he said, explaining that between propane, the rental of an awning and other expenses, hes looking at $1,000 a week.

Are we afraid? Absolutely, he said, stressing how difficult it is to plan for the unknown.

Sean Bayley, president and owner of FAB Restaurant Concepts Inc., said some of the nine restaurants the company owns already had heaters or fire pits, which have helped extend patio season. One location, Against the Grain, recently debuted several transparent outdoor domes that can fit up to six people.

But Bayley isnt planning on fully winterizing those patios: it costs a lot of money, he said.

Its hard to make a decision with the mixed messaging coming from officials at different levels, he added, referring to the back and forth that preceded the ban on indoor dining.

Mesen and Bayley are both concerned the indoor dining ban will be extended, or that the winter will see restaurants repeatedly forced to close, reopen, and close again.

That would be very bad, Bayley said.

Both are also waiting for details about the governments new rent relief program.

We still dont have an answer, and rent is due in two weeks, Bayley said.

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Toronto's bars and restaurants are scrambling to winterize their patios but new rules and high costs are making it tough - Toronto Star