| Landscape Architects' Meeting to Feature Vice President Al Gore
WASHINGTON, April 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has announced that former Vice President Al Gore will be the closing keynote speaker for its 2007 Annual Meeting on October 8 in San Francisco. He will present An Inconvenient Truth, the visually stunning multimedia presentation that inspires audiences to confront environmental issues in the world today. The Society's mission is to lead, educate, and participate in the careful stewardship, wise planning, and artful design of our cultural and natural environments. In 1992, ASLA presented then-Senator and soon-to-be Vice President Al Gore with its Olmsted Medal, the highest honor the Society may bestow upon an individual outside the profession of landscape architecture. "It was only the third time the medal had ever been presented and this early honor turned out to be very prescient given Al Gore's steadfast leadership, vision, and stewardship of the environment," said Nancy C.
City Set to Endorse Water-Wise Landscaping
(KCPW News) Covering your yard in water-wise plants and decorative bark is technically against the law in Salt Lake City. Landscaping codes require yards to be covered in grass - but that no longer fits with the city's water conservation goals. The Salt Lake City Council is now on the verge of making xeriscaped yards legit. On April 17th, the City Council will hold a public hearing on changes to the law that will require only one-third of a yard to be filled with grass or other plants. The rest of the yard can be covered in mulch, gravel or rocks. But first, city water conservation coordinator Stephanie Duer says the city must calm the fears of those who think the change will give people an excuse to abandon their yards in favor of weeds and parked cars. Duer says the city has other laws to address those issues.
Gardening: inspiration and advice
The word "garden" derives from the Latin word for yard. It is the notion of enclosed space that is key to its meaning, more than what is planted there, be it fruit, vegetables, flowers, trees or sculpture. 1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die takes the broadest view of the word garden and combs the world for the most inspiring, the grandest, the most unusual varieties. It is a sprawling garden of a garden book. All the expected worldly wonders are here: Giverny, Kew, Boboli, the gardens of the Taj Mahal, and Gatchina, the famous Leningrad garden of Catherine the Great's son, Emperor Paul I. But the surprises far outnumber the familiar. There's the garden Goethe designed in Thuringen, Germany, and the lost gardens of Helligan, restored and written about so elegantly by Tim Smit.
Unattended, garden costs can grow sky-high
Spring is in the air, along with countless advertisements from garden centers, lawn-care services, and hardware stores. It's easy -- take it from one who knows -- to spend so much on your garden that your per-tomato costs rival the highest gourmet market prices. But gardening can save you money, too, if you approach it in a smart way. There's some evidence that gardeners are doing just that: A record number of people are gardening, but they are cutting what they spend, according to the National Gardening Association. In 2005, the last year for which figures are available, the average gardening household spent $387 on lawn and garden activities -- 13 percent less than in 2004. Here's how to stretch your $387 as far as possible. Grow stuff that's expensive to buy.
School Garden Project continues to grow in Virginia
RICHMOND—Educators say the best way for students to learn is by doing. That is exactly what happens in the classrooms of teachers participating in the eighth annual School Garden Project. "This program is wonderful for children who may not have a chance to garden at home," said Karen Davis, executive director of the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, which coordinates the project. "It teaches children the importance of nature and shows them how plants develop. This hands-on experience helps kids connect with the state’s science standards while having fun." Earlier this spring, packets of vegetable seeds and other materials were shared with about 1,300 teachers around the state. The School Garden Project is a partnership between the AITC foundation and Southern States Cooperative Inc., which provides teachers with free vegetable seeds and seed catalogs.
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