Lifestyle

As fall weather brings frosts, your annual flowers will start to fall victim to nighttime temperatures, wilting and turning brown. Some annual flowers are more tender than others. The petunias and lantanas in our landscape seem to shrug off the cold, while the impatiens and begonias are fading fast. In Marjorie’s garden, all the annuals are in containers, and once the summer annuals keel over she has to replace them with more cold-hardy flowers. Mums are fairly cold-hardy, so some of our planter pots have fall mums blooming in them.

Natural stone paths look good in almost any landscape. They never go out of style like so many man-made paver materials. Like most things made of stone, they will stand the test of time if they’re built carefully. Stone construction is one of the most satisfying home improvement projects you can do, for that exact reason. Stonemasons are generally a happy and satisfied group, because they build things that last and no two projects are exactly alike.

Regular shearing, particularly when shrubs are young, helps them develop a stronger branch structure and a more rounded, full, and neat appearance. The more branches they have, the shorter each branch will be, making shrubs more compact and well-shaped in later life.

Do you worry that your children or grandchildren are slipping out of touch with the natural world? You have intelligent company. In his book “Last Child in the Woods - Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” author Richard Louv directly links childhood obesity, ADD and depression to the lack of nature in children’s lives. Every parent should read this eye-opening book, brought to my attention years ago by Adams County educator Donna Shepherd. Full of documented evidence that nature is essential for healthy childhood development, it shows how that nature-based education improves grades, test scores, problem-solving, critical thinking and decision making.

Today

All plants have one thing in common. If they don’t like where they’re living, they can’t pick up their roots and move. So, ask yourself, are you doing what it takes to give your trees a long, healthy and happy life?

The following births were reported by Grady Memorial Hospital:

The following birth was reported by Grady Memorial Hospital:

By Gloria Yoder

One of the most cost-effective and dramatic improvements you can make in your landscape is to define your planting beds with retaining walls. Landscape walls can “tie together” your foundation plantings and extend your home visually, enhancing its value and making maintenance easier. They can solve landscape problems such as slopes along the foundation, bringing plantings up level with the house for a more professional look. You can also use them to visually “link” outlying beds such as driveway entrance plantings with the rest of your landscape.