| When work turns to fun
Like Davis, many of the garden club's members have moved to Phoenix from around the country and are unfamiliar with techniques and growing seasons. "I really wanted to be a gardener, but I just didn't know how," Davis said. Since joining the club, she's "learned a million things about Arizona planting conditions." London Lacy is a master gardener and the water conservation analyst for Surprise. "I think a community garden is a wonderful idea, and I am hoping maybe for the rest of us out here in Surprise, we can find some land to start one in this area," he said. "We can still learn from (them) as (they) put their garden together." The community will hold a dedication ceremony on April 21, and everyone from the neighborhood is welcome to use the garden. .
Plastic problem
Once winter is over in Prince George there is always that period of drabness when the receding snow reveals the mess accumulated over the preceding five months. Litter, lots of it, mars the landscape until it's picked up by work crews, volunteer groups or civic-minded individuals out for a stroll. In all that trash, however, one type of item is more noticeable than the rest. Plastic shopping bags. Floating in ponds, lying in ditches and parks, tangled in trees and shrubs or blown against your house, those plastic bags are everywhere. The Kootenay town of Rossland, along with Leaf Rapids, Man., have proposed banning them. Tofino wants to tax them and San Francisco is pitching a partial ban. It's no surprise, really, that in these environmentally conscious times it would come to this.
Queen Bees buzz yards
A careful observer will notice bees buzzing around the yard doing their work; they're critical to a healthy landscape. In nature, the queen bee stays at the hive and the actual work is done by other bees. In Pratt and surrounding counties, the Queen Bees stay busy eight or nine months of the year with a lawn grooming business."We're two grandmas who wanted a little business," said Ginger Bowe."We laugh at the 'little business,'" partner Deb Trinkle added. "We didn't stay little very long." .
Begin your spring garden adeventure at the Arcata Branch Library ...
Are you impatiently waiting to start gardening? Is the ground still too wet, the wind too cold or the days too short for you to go out and get your fingernails dirty? If so, you may want to look at some of the books the Arcata Library has on gardening and landscaping. The next best thing to actually working in a garden is to plan a garden.Northern California Gardening: a Month-by-Month Guide by Katherine Grace Endicott is full of good advice. As the subtitle says, it tells month-by-month what is in bloom and what you can find in the nurseries that month. It also gives good ideas of what tasks need to be done in the garden for each month. What makes this book special is that it is specific to our area, with all of the information divided between coastal gardens, valley gardens and high mountain gardens.
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