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An older friend of mine inherited a house with a large flower garden in the back. The flower garden is maybe 10 feet by 30 feet. Between the flowers and the shrubbery there are many weeds (no surprise there). A landscaper she talked to will clear the area of weeds, and has given her some options to control future weed growth.

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

A Canadian man has died after he was pulled into a wood chipper in the middle of a suburban street. Daniel Vanheyst, 22, had been removing trees in Oshawa, near Toronto, on Wednesday morning when the tragic accident unfolded. A traumatized resident told the Toronto Sun that he was filming the crew disposing of tree branches at the exact moment Vanheyst got caught up in the chipper. “I saw his feet leave the ground. It was that quick,” the unnamed man said.

Two home builders who destroyed 36 Joshua trees on their Prescott Avenue property were fined $18,000 in court Tuesday. “It is unlawful to remove these trees. It is a violation that will be investigated thoroughly and prosecuted,” said Patrick Foy, a captain with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The investigation began Feb. 11, when a Morongo Basin resident saw two local landowners uprooting Joshua trees to make way for a single-family home. They had the trees pulled from the ground and were burying them in a hole on the property, according to the prosecutor. “A resident in the...

South Korean troops will be free of cleaning and maintenance work, such as getting rid of overgrown grass and removing snow, as the defense ministry announced Thursday it will outsource the work to private contractors. The ministry said it will start having contractors take care of weeding and cleaning at major units in the tense border areas next year and expand it to rearguard and supporting units from 2021. In addition to tough drills and training, South Korean soldiers are assigned to do weeding and remove snow at their units and surrounding areas. The ministry said the work often causes...

[Martha's Vineyard] The Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation this week issued a public apology and launched an overhaul of its land management practices following the revelation that large numbers of trees and other plants had been dug up from two of its preserves and used to landscape an exclusive private property on the North Shore. *** The two foundation properties, the Caroline Tuthill Preserve in Edgartown and the Priscilla Hancock Meadow in Chilmark, were left damaged by heavy earth moving equipment brought in by contractors hired to landscape the 30-acre property of Dirk Ziff near Lambert’s Cove in West Tisbury.

Senator Rand Paul's neighbor Rene Boucher has pleaded not guilty after being charged for attacking the Senator at his Kentucky home. Paul is currently recovering after he was allegedly tackled from behind by Boucher for what Boucher's attorney told CBS News in a statement "was a very regrettable dispute between two neighbors over a matter that most people would regard as trivial." But Paul appears to be disputing claims made by his next-door neighbor's lawyer that a "trivial" dispute over landscaping issues were at the root of a recent dust-up that left the senator with six broken ribs. The statement...

With the severe drought that has been blanketing most of the country, and the wildfires ravaging Colorado this summer, now is the time to take steps to prepare for the unexpected...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Few things in life are as benign as a home vegetable garden. But for the residents of Miami Shores, Fla., growing veggies can land you a fine — the type you eventually can’t afford. That’s what happened to Hermine Ricketts and her husband, Tom Carroll. For the past 17 years they’ve grown a garden in the front yard of their modest South Florida home. The backyard, they say, doesn’t get enough sunlight. But in May, the city put the couple’s garden, and any others like it, in their legal crosshairs. A new zoning ordinance designed to “protect...

All Holes Filled Landscaping!!

With the severe drought and heat wave that has been blanketing most of the country, and the wildfires ravaging Colorado this summer, now is the time to take steps to prepare for the unexpected. The use of "Firewise" landscaping in the area surrounding your home and property can serve as a fire break...

When Friday's football game between Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (S.C.) High and Calhoun County (S.C.) High (members of which are pictured below) was delayed for two days, few people (if any) would have predicted what caused the postponement. Weather? Not this time. A power outage? Nope, the electricity was flowing just fine. Instead, the matchup between two small South Carolina schools was delayed because of a massive infestation of fire ants on Hunter-Kinard-Tyler's home field . After inspecting the field before the game's opening kickoff, football referee Steve Hook discovered nearly 20 active fire ant mounds on the surface of play.

OUESTION: Home Design Software Aug 29, 2011 Is there a computer software program that lets you: 1. First take item's size or dimensions and label them and save them, (stove, couch, sink, etc.) as a movable item. 2. Place them on a design sheet, and move them around by mouse movement. 3. Define space between items, and be able to change it later. 4. After you get satisfied with your layout of items, then design walls around those items, and design you home, yard, or whatever you are planning to build, in that order, and be able to make changes...

In 1729, British satirist Jonathan Swift anonymously wrote A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of the Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public. Swift mockingly suggested that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for the English gentry. Flash forward to Southern California in 2009 and Swift's satiric book might be re-titled something like: A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of the Poor People and Farmers of Central and Southern California from Being an Unsustainable Water Burden...

by Wayne Lusvardi - Pasadena Sub Rosa An anonymous apparent insider to the backstage dealings of California's water crisis has alerted this blog to the real possibility that imported water could be shut off soon to Southern California's cities if the cities have the wrong type of landscaping (i.e., water thirsty home gardens). This shut off scenario could hit Southern California cities out of nowhere much like the world-wide financial meltdown appeared nearly overnight. And like the financial meltdown, it would be wise to listen to those who are furtively trying to give us an early warning signal of this...

Lt. Burke Jensen was called five months ago to serve his country in Kuwait. Now he is being told to get an irrigation system and landscaping on his property as soon as possible or face legal action from the Oak Hill Country Estates Homeowners' Association.KENNEWICK — Burke Jensen moved to Kennewick about a year ago, bought a nice house in the country south of the city and began to settle into a new job at Energy Northwest. Then came the call five months ago to serve his country in Kuwait. So Jensen, who says he is an involuntarily mobilized reservist,...

Brandi Timmons decided to sleep downstairs with her young children Sunday night, just in case one of them might wake up, frightened, from the rain pounding on the windows. It was a decision that saved her life, but with heart-wrenching consequences. Her husband and high school sweetheart, Ed, died early Monday morning when a huge poplar tree crashed through the roof of their Decatur home, pinning him in the couple's bed upstairs. Timmons' wife and their two children, 3-year-old Max and 7-year-old Alley, were not injured. Neighbors heard an ear-splitting crack around 3:30 a.m. Then came a giant thud as...

I am new to gardening. 1. Just got a tiny Raywood Ash tree put in before Christmas. It has no branches but you can see little buds trying to pop through up and down the tree. How long before we actually see branches? 2. We also have an Indian Laurel Fig tree (aka Ficus family) and we had some very cold temps in December and January. What we were able to cover was protected but other parts of the tree, the green leaves came off. Do I leave what appears to be good branches in tact or do I cut...

After parking their trucks loaded with lawn mowers, rakes and leaf blowers on a street full of professional buildings, the group of gardeners walked into a small office and got down to business. Their job on this night: Learn how to stuff a letter into an envelope.