Norfolk.VA.MyCityTalk.com: Culture and Style, Home and Garden

Don't let a lack of garden space in Suffolk keep you from growing and enjoying fresh veggies! With this plan, you can start harvesting fresh, flavorful, nutritious salad ingredients in about a month.

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Milestone Herbicide Creates Killer Compost

Published 08/03/2009 - 8:08 p.m. EST

Last fall, our report on manure, hay and compost contaminated with Milestone herbicide (aka aminopyralid), made by Dow AgroSciences) told of 2008’s tragic summer in the United Kingdom, where thousands of gardeners lost their tomatoes, beans and other sensitive crops to manure and hay laced with this potent, highly persistent herbicide.

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Lakewood gardener goes natural with organics, drought tolerance, lush plantings

Published 08/03/2009 - 10:04 a.m. EST

Babs Young chooses natives and other drought-tolerant plants for her front yard instead of turf grass. The wirework gazebo is a French antique.

The very day that Barbara Young's grown daughter remonstrated her for the informal look of her mother's wildflower plot in the front yard – "Mother, your yard looks terrible. What are you thinking?" – Young won yard of the month.

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Save Over $1,000 with These Six Green Tips

Published 07/19/2009 - 10:32 p.m. EST

Buy less, save more, and go green

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Planting an edible landscape

Published 05/29/2009 - 5:59 p.m. EST

The Adderley family of Sandy converted part of their back lawn into garden plots two years ago. (Photo: Salt Lake Tribune)

A spring 2009 national survey reports that more Americans are planning this year to spend more money growing food than they'll spend on lawn maintenance.
While the tough economy undoubtedly contributed to this change in attitude, most gardeners grow their own fruits and vegetables for superior flavor and quality. It takes just a bit of creative thinking to make your own landscape more edibly productive.

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Tip of the Day: Cut your exposure to arsenic in pressure-treated lumber

Published 05/28/2009 - 6:06 p.m. EST

new advice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on how to mitigate hazards associated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) used to preserve wood. (Photo: USEPA)

If you have a deck, playground set, or other outdoor structure that was built before 2004 with pressure-treated lumber, you should pay attention to the new advice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on how to mitigate hazards associated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) used to preserve wood.

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Rain Gardens to the Rescue - Absorbing stormwater runoff...and student interest!

Published 04/20/2009 - 4:11 a.m. EST

Also known as a bioretention system, a rain garden is a landscape feature planted in a shallow depression designed to capture stormwater runoff. Once collected, stormwater is slowly absorbed into and filtered by the soil.

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Gardening With Charlie - Charming Annual Vines

Published 04/13/2009 - 4:29 a.m. EST

Would you like to cloak a summer porch in cooling shade? Hide an eyesore such as a chain-link fence? Dress up an arbor? Annual vines offer foliage and flowers (some fragrant) for many situations, and they're perfect for creating a cottage garden look.

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Fine Design - Improving your yard with hardscaping

Published 03/30/2009 - 4:14 a.m. EST

Landscaping not only makes your home more beautiful it can also make it more valuable. In fact, a Michigan State University study found that, depending on where the house is located, high-quality landscaping adds between five and 11 percent to its price.

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Keep mosquitoes off of yourself, your property

Published 07/22/2009 - 9:51 a.m. EST

SUSAN ELLIS

She's out resting in the shade of your shrubs and vines, waiting for you to walk by before she attacks.

In the blink of an eye, the wispy creature takes a nip out of you, leaving behind the most common summertime tattoo.

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Save Water in Your Garden: 5 Tips for Maximum Conservation

Published 06/17/2009 - 11:55 p.m. EST

Natives Plants are a natural way to save water

Blooming gardens and lush lawns are a joy in the summertime, but they can also be huge water hogs. While every garden is a bit different, depending on your local microclimate, the site of your garden, and your soil composition, among other things, these tips will help every gardener save thousands of gallons of water.

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Many Summer Internships Are Going Organic

Published 05/29/2009 - 4:47 p.m. EST

Alex Liebman, 19, collected eggs on the first day of his internship at Full Belly Farm in Guinda, Calif.

Erin Axelrod, who graduated from Barnard College last week with an urban studies degree, will not be fighting over the bathroom with her five roommates on the Upper West Side this summer. Instead she will be living in a tent, using an outdoor composting toilet and harvesting vegetables on an organic farm near Petaluma, Calif.

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Finishing Touches for Your Lawn

Published 04/20/2009 - 4:11 a.m. EST

Edgers and trimmers are useful tools that can give your lawn a neat and tidy appearance. There are a lot of options available - how do you know which one to buy?

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new gardens - new beginnings

Published 04/14/2009 - 10:25 a.m. EST

Welcome to Skippy's Vegetable Garden. We're located near Boston, in eastern Massachusetts, USA (USDA hardiness zone 6a). I'm a biochemist and I garden as a hobby. (Photo: Skippy)

I always love to hear from people starting a new vegetable garden. What a wonderful thing. And on this Inauguration Day, a day of such hopeful new beginnings, it seems a particularly appropriate topic.

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Mow Like A Pro

Published 04/06/2009 - 12:41 p.m. EST

Sometimes the grass really does seem greener on the other side of the neighbor's fence. There are several key elements to having a lush, healthy lawn - the type of grass, how well it's fed and watered, and how it's mowed.

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The Low Down on Lawn Diseases

Published 03/30/2009 - 4:14 a.m. EST

If your lawn has mysterious discolored or dead patches, it could be a sign of lawn disease.

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