Wave after wave of scent has filled the air since my garden awakened in spring. Most prominent have been the aromas from daffodil blossoms, plum, flowering currant and now dame’s rocket, pinks and roses.
Home and Garden
“I fell off my pink cloud with a thud.” — Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011), actress
Dear Heloise: I recently moved to a house with cultured marble counters. How do I take care of them? I don’t want to do anything damaging without knowing. Thanks for your help! — Mark in Wisconsin
The other day I dropped off a housewarming gift at a friend’s new house. After an almost yearlong renovation, she and her family were finally moving in.
Q: I’ve begun my almond harvest and have found black substance on the inside of some of them. It is almost like soot. Do you know what it is and is it toxic? Should I wash it off or throw them out?
It’s hard to talk about design trends without mentioning open floor plans, which have officially replaced granite countertops as a national obsession. But what do they mean for renters? These days, many apartment buildings have responded to open-plan demand by slyly combining the kitchen, living room and dining room into one small space.
When choosing a focal point for a room, designers and homeowners alike often plan for a single feature — windows, TVs, artwork, or fireplaces — to take center stage. However, the explosion of flat-screen TVs for every room in the home has created a debate: Can you really have more than one focal point?
Master Gardener Helen Brown presents All About Tomatoes at 9 a.m. Saturday at the UNCE orchard in North Las Vegas. Registration for Master Gardener morning classes beginning in March is now underway. For more information on both of these events, call the Master Gardener hotline at 702-257-5555.
Circles, triangles and squares. One of the first things we learn as children are basic geometric shapes. And they stay with us throughout our lives.
Recently, I had the good fortune to participate in a panel discussion at the monthly meeting of the U.S. Green Building Council — Nevada Chapter. Appropriately, its meetings are in a beautiful green building built with straw bales, one of several LEED-Platinum structures at the Springs Preserve.
House plants were popular with our ancestors, but indoor plants took a lot of work. No bug spray, no packaged topsoil or plant food, not even a good selection of pots was available.
Q: I heard about a cherry tree from the Dave Wilson Nursery website that has very low chill hours. Can we order these from the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Orchard?
Question: We have nine pine trees, and they are dropping lots of needles. We have a large berm under the trees and water inside the berm twice weekly. Should the needles be removed or left inside the berm?
