Friday, August 21, 2009

“Shania Twain plans to surprise fans on her birthday - Arizona Business Gazette” plus 4 more

“Shania Twain plans to surprise fans on her birthday - Arizona Business Gazette” plus 4 more

Shania Twain plans to surprise fans on her birthday - Arizona Business Gazette

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 12:02 PM PDT

Shania Twain is planning a "big surprise" for her fans.

The country music star posted a video on her Web site, promising to reveal the "special gift" on her 44th birthday next week.

In the clip - which was shot in the garden of Shania's home in Switzerland - the singer thanks fans for remembering her son Eja's eighth birthday, before giving hints about the surprise.

Shania said: "Hi everyone, Shania here. First to start off, I want to thank you for all the beautiful birthday wishes for Eja's birthday.

"Secondly, if you haven't already seen on my website for August 28 on my birthday, I will be giving you a small gift of thanks for all of your support over the last year... You've been really wonderful, thank you so much."

The "gift" is thought to be a "very personal travelogue" documenting Shania's 2008 split from her husband, producer Robert 'Mutt' Lange, who reportedly had an affair with her best friend.

A source said: "It's not new music, but it's a piece that Shania put together of what she's been doing for the last year. It's definitely a totally new side of Shania that no one's ever seen."

Fans will also be able to watch Shania on TV later this month when she appears as a guest judge on 'American Idol'.



image

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Home & Garden calendar - Asheville Citizen-Times

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 09:14 PM PDT

(5 of 5)

FALL ARRANGEMENTS: 10 a.m.-noon Sept. 24, N.C. Arboretum. Hands-on workshop using store-bought flowers to make seasonal arrangements. Bring two or three store bouquets, a container and scissors or clippers. $20/$25. The arboretum is off Brevard Road, south of Biltmore Square Mall. Call 665-2492 or visit www.ncarboretum.org.

INVASIVE PLANT WORKSHOP: 6:30-9 p.m. Sept. 24, Chimney Rock Fire Department. Methods of identification and removal will be discussed. Dinner provided. R.S.V.P. by Sept. 22 to 685-8798.

STONESCAPING FOR YOUR YARD: 2-3:30 p.m. Oct. 4, Botanical Gardens at Asheville, Weaver Boulevard. Learn how natural materials can be useful in building decorative garden projects. $5/$7. Registration required. 252-5190.

SOIL HEALTH, PART TWO: Designed to provide backyard growers the information, resources, understanding and planning capability required to allow growers to design and implement whole property sustainable fertility systems. 10:30 a.m. Oct. 6, N.C. Arboretum. The arboretum is off Brevard Road, south of Biltmore Square Mall. Call 665-2492 or visit www.ncarboretum.org.

ONGOING

BONSAI VOLUNTEERS IN THE GARDEN: 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays at the N.C. Arboretum, Frederick Law Olmstead Way, Asheville. Volunteers stationed in the Bonsai Exhibition Garden will answer questions about the collection and the garden. $6 parking fee except on Tuesday. Call 665-2492.

FOREST TRAILS WALK: 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays at the N.C. Arboretum, Frederick Law Olmstead Way, Asheville. Tours leave from Baker Exhibit Center lobby. $6 parking fee except on Tuesday. Call 665-2492 or visit www.ncarboretum.org.

GUIDED GARDEN TOURS: 10:30 a.m. Tuesday-Friday at the N.C. Arboretum, Frederick Law Olmstead Way, Asheville. Tours leave from Baker Exhibit Center lobby. $6 parking fee except on Tuesday. Call 665-2492.

MASTER GARDENER PLANT CLINICS: Free help in diagnosing and solving garden problems. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 22, Sept. 12, 26 and Oct. 10. WNC Farmer's Market, 570 Brevard Road, Asheville.

RAIN BARREL SALE: Asheville Greenworks is selling 65-gallon rain barrels, with debris and mosquito screen for $125. Garden Gourmet composter is an 11-cubic feet, stand alone composter for $75. Also, the Envirocycle Tumbler, seven-cubic feet with compost tea bin as base for $165. Contact 254-1776 or info@ashevillegreenworks.org for info or to order.

RAIN BARREL SALE: RiverLink is selling 55-gallon white barrels for $60. To purchase, visit www.riverlink.org or call 252-8474, ext. 114.



image

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Home and garden briefs: Garden symposium coming to arboretum - Asheville Citizen-Times

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 09:14 PM PDT

BENT CREEK — The N.C. Arboretum will host its annual Speaking of Gardening symposium Aug. 28-29. Symposium topics include private and public garden design, new plants from NCSU plant research program, designing with grasses, new perennials and a program on the Human Flower Project.

Registration includes seven lectures, a book signing, plant giveaway, lunches and snacks and is $98 for Arboretum Society members and $114 for nonmembers. The symposium is limited to 100 participants. Register by calling 665-2492, Ext. 317.

Among the presentations will be one by Allen Bush titled Stories from the Human Flower Project and Beyond. The Human Flower Project (www.humanflowerproject.com) is an international newsgroup that incorporates a photo album and discussion of humankind's relationship with the floral world.

For a rundown on all presenters, visit www.ncarboretum.org or www.GardenAsheville.com.

Lane mobile showroom coming

Lane Home Furnishings has gone on tour to showcase entertainment design by gender. Featuring a man-cave, a she-den and the compromise wow room, the gender-tainment furniture tour will make its way to Tyson Furniture, 109 Broadway St., Black Mountain, 11:30 a.m. 5:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, and two Carolina Furniture Concepts shops: 11 a.m.5 p.m. Sept. 4 at the Waynesville store, 121 Eagles Nest Road; and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Arden store, 2617 Hendersonville Road.

People who attend can check out new Lane furniture and accessories. They can also participate in a survey to decipher furniture preferences for both he and she. Based on the survey findings, they will then be given a list of furniture and interior design suggestions.

There will also be games and prizes.

Flower Carpet Evenings scheduled

In conjunction with Biltmore Estate's outdoor Flower Carpet, running through Aug. 30, the estate is offering Flower Carpet Evenings, tonight, and Aug. 28-29.



image

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Phipps Conservancy director is practicing what he preaches by ... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 09:28 PM PDT

Richard Piacentini, executive director of Phipps Conservatory and a veteran gardener, wasn't wishing for a torrential downpour. But when an all-day storm in June overflowed his rain gauge, he was ready.

Though the rain topped the 5-inch mark on the gauge at his Squirrel Hill home, there were no puddles in his front yard, side yard or small bed at the bottom of the sloped driveway. That's because they're all rain gardens and the driveway is made from permeable pavers.

During Mr. Piacentini's 15 years at Phipps, he has promoted many "green" innovations that save energy and water at a complex centered on a Victorian greenhouse. He figured it was high time he did the same at home.

"We talk about this all the time at Phipps. I thought I ought to practice what I preach," he said.

Rain gardens work by collecting and holding water beneath the soil surface. Plants grown there generally don't need much water but can tolerate deluges if necessary. Permeable pavers sharply reduce runoff by allowing rainwater to run through gaps between the stones and collect in layers of gravel beneath. Extra rainwater at the Piacentinis' house usually ends up in the 1,800-gallon concrete cistern beneath the bed at the foot of the driveway.

Like many household projects, this one started small, with a cracked driveway and falling-down retaining wall. Mr. Piacentini decided on Eco-Tek interlocking permeable concrete pavers and Omni-Stone cast-concrete wall stone made by R.I. Lampus of Springdale. The project took seven months. Mr. Piacentini declined to say how much it cost.

"Seven months of mud -- my wife wasn't very happy," he said, smiling.

Architect Christine Mondor of Evolve EA designed the new, wider driveway and Mr. Piacentini designed the gardens based on information he found on the Web, especially a stormwater management manual created by the Westmoreland Conservation District). Now Phipps has rain garden information on its own Web site.

The Oakland conservatory and botanical gardens has been preaching the gospel of sustainability for years. But convincing gardeners to use less water and grow less thirsty plants is an uphill battle. Mr. Piacentini admits one of his motivations was strictly personal -- he wanted low-maintenance beds that he wouldn't have to water often.

Since he favors native plants, he chose most of his shrubs and perennials from Sylvania Natives and Beechwood Farms nurseries. His gardens include winterberry, black-eyed Susans, irises, daylilies, sedums, liatris and boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), whose fuzzy white flowers were teeming with bees this week. Since he loves vegetables and herbs, he couldn't resist also planting tomatoes, leeks, pepper, parsley and rosemary.

To water everything, he has two rain barrels and a spigot connected to the concrete cistern. If it ever overflows, the water runs through a pipe into the hillside and is dispelled into gravel at its base.

So far that hasn't happened. But if it does, this gardener is ready.



image

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Columbus man wants city to cut neighbor's garden - Ledger-Enquirer

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 08:59 PM PDT

In 2005, after being warned by city regulators that her leaves were piled too high and her flowers were too tall, she got a permit to plant on the right of way. The permit said her plants should not exceed 3 feet.

That's 18 inches too tall, decided Doug McLeod, president of East Highland Columbus Against Drugs, who on July 24 lodged a complaint with the city's citizens service center. City workers handled it just like the other 200,000 calls they get each year: They referred it to the appropriate agency, in this case the Public Services Department that maintains the city right of way.

On July 27, a city crew showed up to mow Smith's garden. Her husband, Brad, talked a supervisor out of it, explaining the plants were flowers, not weeds. On July 29, a second crew showed up, just as the Smiths were leaving to go out of town. They returned to find workers had mowed part of the garden not covered in the right-of-way permit, and cut other plants back to 18 inches.

Law limits growth

According to the city attorney's office, the law limiting yard growth to 18 inches applies only to weeds or other "woody perennials" — which could include shrubs — not to flowers intentionally grown.

City workers claimed they were acting on neighbors' complaints, but the Smiths' closest neighbors liked the garden. "It's gorgeous. We all love it," said Joya Davis, who lives across the street, near her mother, Connie Rose, who said: "It's absolutely beautiful."

Neither of the Smiths' next-door neighbors, Alek Ansley or Judy Tucker, had complained. Ansley donated part of his right of way to the project — the part the city cut July 29 because it wasn't in the permit.

Tucker sent City Manager Isaiah Hugley a July 30 e-mail saying neighbors liked the garden. In outlining her concerns, she wrote: "I also fear the city is unwittingly doing their job prompted by and at the behest of a mean-spirited citizen's retaliatory act to have a fellow neighbor suffer."

Even James Smith, the head of East Highland Neighborhood Watch who previously had complained that Aurelia Smith's garden looked like a jungle, had decided after talking to her that she could have until November to clean it up and label the plants. Then it could be a "showpiece" for the area, he said.



image

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

at

No comments:

Post a Comment