Finally, the candidates discuss the real issues. And just in time for election day, too!
(Oh, I guess I should mention the candidates’ actual words are in white and my very slight modifications are in yellow.)
Folks, it’s not too late to completely re-do your landscape for Halloween!
Whether your goal is just to have a little spooky fun, or to actually terrorize the children so they will not set foot in your yard, here are some “go-to” plants!
1. Poncirus trifoliata
Photo credit: http://www.ecoterralandscape.com
It’s a bit premature to make a final judgment, but it looks as though HGTV’s 2013 Dream House — located on Kiawah Island, South Carolina — might actually be worth cheering for!
The high school where I work just built a new sign at the entrance from the main road. Within days of being built, it was vandalized. So last week my principal asked me if I could suggest some landscaping for around the sign that might discourage hooligans from getting up close to the sign and defacing it.
Of course, I had already been landscaping the sign in my mind since the beginning of the school year, but now with the principal’s specific parameters, I am ready to offer a real plan. Any ideas, readers?
It is full sun (sign faces east/west), crap soil, no irrigation. The plants have to be fairly low so that the sign stays readable. I like the idea of some natives. I am specifically struggling with how to shape the bed, and with what to stick between the sign and the sidewalk. Here’s a picture:
Readers who suggest something that actually gets planted will receive a jar of my special homemade Black Walnut Chutney. Not really, but seriously I will be grateful for your suggestions!
What’s the difference?
I ask because I came across this quote from Teddy Roosevelt when I visited Roosevelt Island this weekend:
“Conservation Means Development as Much as it Does Protection.”
Coming from the man who established the National Park System, I raised an eyebrow when I read this. These terms — conservation, preservation, protection, etc. — are pretty slippery. When you’re talking about actual environmental policy, these words have no concrete definition. Which, come to think of it, is probably why politicians like them. Politicians are just nuts about abstract language.
Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Pink Dawn’
2012-2012
Fare thee well, large shrub/small tree. I barely knew ye.
“I have a new vision for the backyard.”
I say this to my husband as I gaze out the kitchen window, assessing the lawn, trees, and borders. It is all unsatisfactory! All of it!
He looks at me with suspicion as he sips coffee. My urge to create new territory is not new territory for us.
“Does it involve ripping out something you’ve already planted?” he asks.
How much should I tell him?
Isn’t the weedy Hellebore bed with wire fencing just super classy? It’s my patented “Postmodern Retro Tacky” design aesthetic.
No, those aren’t dirty tennis balls. Those are just a few dozen of the THOUSANDS of black walnuts that rain down on my backyard at this time of year.
Black Walnut Dispatch 