Time for fertilizing and pinching back

The third week of June is when growth surges on bedding plants and perennials, so fertilizing now will give you and your plants almost instant gratification. Heavy feeders such as roses, petunias, geraniums and impatiens will branch out and bloom almost immediately after you fertilize. This is also a good time to pinch back leggy plants to encourage more compact growth. You can nip off the top one-third of plants such as chrysanthemums, sedum Autumn Joy, phlox and snapdragons now and you'll enjoy more numerous blooms later in the season.

Buy perennials in one-gallon containers this week and you can plant them directly into the ground or transplant into larger pots. You'll find shade-lovers such as hosta, astilbe and brunnera looking great in containers and easy to transfer into your garden beds … as long as you follow these perennial planting tips:

Before leaving the nursery or garden center,Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl. check all new plants for hitchhiking weeds and slugs. The often-cursed shot weed is an import that we all brought home in nursery pots. Look under the leaves and in the drainage holes of pots for hidden pests.

Once home, soak the soil of your potted perennial before you plant. You may need to immerse the entire pot into a larger bucket if the peat-based potting soil in the container is lightweight and so dry that it resists absorbing moisture. If you use a watering can, add the water slowly, let it seep into the entire root ball – then water it again.

Next, dig the hole for the new plant. Remember that making a hole wider is more important than making it deeper. Add a shovelful of compost or peat moss to the planting soil and mix the soil amendments with the existing soil. Add water to the planting hole and let it seep in – yes, before you add the plant.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

Finally, you can remove the plant from the pot. You don't want to expose the roots to sunlight until the very last minute. Roots are like vampires – they find sunlight painful. If a well-rooted plant is stuck in the gallon-size nursery pot you can usually loosen things up by squeezing the sides of the pot.Replacement Projector Lamp and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. Then turn the entire pot upside down and bang the edge of the pot on a table or the edge of a wheelbarrow.Has anyone done any research on making Plastic molding parts from scratch? Now it will slide right out.Not to be confused with RUBBER MATS available at your local hardware store

Position the new plant into the hole so that it is growing at the same level it was in the pot. If the roots are thick and packed, roughen them up with a garden trowel or clip a few near the sides. This will encourage more branching below.

Fill in around the new plant with soil, creating a bit of a basin but do not tamp on the soil with your foot. Press very gently with your hands. Too much pressure on the topsoil will squeeze out the air pockets and compacted soil not only struggles to absorb water, it also encourages deep-rooted weeds such as dandelions.

Pour water slowly into the soil basin or slight depression formed around the new plant. I don't like to use fertilizer on newly planted perennials unless it is a slow release fertilizer such as alfalfa, Osmocote or fish fertilizer. Give the newcomers a chance to settle in a bit before stuffing them full of food.

Finally, add the frosting. A light topping of mulch such as bark chips or composted steer manure will seal in the moisture and act as a security blanket to welcome your newly-planted perennial to the bed.

Stable owner finds miniature surprise

NEWARK, Ill. — Was she surprised. Marni Lee McClennan walked out her front door the other morning to find two live miniature horses tied to the fence enclosing her yard.

"It was definitely a little interesting," she mused Wednesday. "They were real grass-eating, foot-stomping little creatures."

McClennan operates Saddle Up Stables on Lisbon Center Road. She promptly called the Kendall County Sheriff's Department about her find, then coaxed the beasties to her stables for food, water,Shop a wide selection of billabong outlet products in the evo shop. and nice straw bedding to hide in.

"I have no problem with housing a horse," she said.

Sheriff's department spokesman Craig French thought the incident may have been a midnigChoose from one of the major categories of Bedding,ht donation. A hardship case,The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model, that is, because caring for the breed is fairly expensive. Such happens with unwanted cats and sometimes dogs, he said, but he's never herd – uh, heard – of anyone dumping horses before.

Deputies turned the incident over to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which promised a full-scale investigation.

The check was "neigh"-gated, however, after the rightful owner, who lived just down the road, hoofed her way to McClennan's door for the two tiny runaways, which apparently broke through their home fencing. Someone must have spotted them and, fearing they might get injured on the roadway, reined them in at Saddle Up Stables.

The owner called deputies after finding the miniatures were gone.

"‘Yep,uy sculpture direct from us at low prices they're found,' she was told, and she came right over and collected her babies," McClennan said. "It happens.Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services. I don't care how good or expensive and well-maintained a fence is, they'll get out."

Cow manure fuels green energy

The back end of a cow provides the front end of the green-energy business that Kevin Maas is slowly expanding in Western Washington and Oregon.

With missionary zeal, he and his brother Daryl build modest electricity-producing projects that help family-owned dairy farms preserve their key role in the agricultural ecosystem.

Their company, Farm Power, turns manure into electricity, fertilizer and bacteria-free animal bedding. The technology is fairly simple. What's hard about a manure digester is linking farmers, bankers, regulators, environmentalists and utilities.

"An urban liberal would get laughed off the farm" for trying to convince risk-averse dairymen they can save money while benefiting the environment, said the lanky, bearded 35-year-old.

But with rural roots, as well as an MBA, Maas seems uniquely suited to the task.

"Whether anyone else could have carried this off I don't know," said Don Wick, executive director of the Skagit County Economic Development Association in Mount Vernon, Wash. "I had to admire their tenacity and boldness. They really believed in this."

Maas' fervent push for digesters grew from seeing family dairies slowly disappearing,A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. despite their central place in the farm economy as sources of year-round jobs, natural local fertilizer and, of course, milk. His uncle in Minnesota recently gave up on dairy farming.

"It's tragic," Maas said.

Even dairies with several hundred cows are being squeezed by urban sprawl, environmental regulations and spiking feed costs. Adding electricity to the mix of farm products can help them survive, Maas said.

Yet Washington, with nearly 500 dairy farms, has only five digesters.

Maas was teaching high-school history in southwest Minnesota when he saw farmers setting up wind turbines on their land to generate electricity and supplement their income.

"It was really exciting to see these $2 million projects going in, and local guys owned them," Maas said.

He and his brother tried to get a wind project going on their uncle's farm but lacked the financial savvy,Houston-based Quicksilver Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline dealsPolycore zentai are manufactured as a single sheet,The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model, said Maas.

So he enrolled at Bainbridge Graduate Institute on Bainbridge Island, Wash., which calls itself the first MBA program in sustainable business.

Farm Power's business plan was his final project at the school. Daryl, after finishing a tour in the Air Force, joined him in 2007 to form Farm Power. That first digester wasn't easy. "It took us 2 1/2 years from when we started the company to when we made the first kilowatt-hour," said Maas, Farm Power's president.

Working through environmental regulations, utility contracts and bank-loan requirements was one challenge; persuading farmers to get on board was another.

"Dairy farmers are very nervous about somebody showing up and telling them there's a better way," said Daryl, Farm Power's CEO, who now lives in Redding, Calif.

Being local boys helped. "The Maas family comes with a great reputation in the community. I've known the father for years," Wick said.

Maas said he was confident Farm Power could pull it off, but "there were times that were a little scary" -- like discovering the utility lines to deliver their electricity to Puget Sound Energy would require a six-figure upgrade.

Two adjacent dairy farmers, who milk 1,200 cows, agreed to supply the manure. Farm Power's initial project opened in August 2009.

Now a large red generator hums loudly inside a metal building. Bright-yellow pipes feed in methane gas that rises off the digester's sealed outdoor pool of slurried cow manure.Customized imprinted and promotional usb flash drives.

Burning that potent greenhouse gas, Farm Power's Mount Vernon and Lynden, Wash., generators produce enough electricity for about 1,000 homes. The methane kept out of the atmosphere equals the annual greenhouse-gas emissions of 3,000 cars.

The digesters also yield nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer and pathogen-free fiber -- straw and such that survived the cows' digestive process -- which farmers use for bedding in their dairy barns. The two Mount Vernon farms save about $100,000 a year because they don't need to buy straw or sawdust for cow bedding, Maas said.

"It's just a big old circle. And when it's done right, that circle is very beneficial to us," said Jason Vander Kooy, 35, whose dairy sits north of the Mount Vernon digester. "We're very happy with it."

Best Friends Pet Care has pampering your dog down to a science

Florida pet resort means you don't have to leave Fido,The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model, Fluffy at home


Why should your pet miss out when you head off to a fun-filled tour of Florida theme parks? Next time, take the pooch.A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass.

Best Friends Pet Care has pampering your dog down to a science. And there may be no more extravagant an example than its Lake Buena Vista, Fla. location. As families pile into the car to visit the Central Florida theme parks, their pet is left in the care of experts who are trained to provide discerning care at the new Best Friends Pet Resort ¡ª one of the group's 42 locations but a one-of-a-kind facility. Gourmet treats, plush bedding, individual suites and yes, even flat-screen TVs are available to make Fido feel comfortable in his home-away-from-home.

The 27,000-square-foot facility is split into different wings: To the left of the lobby are the cat condos; just beyond that the doggy suites; to the right an extravagantly appointed outdoor dog park. Two 1,100-square-foot indoor doggy day-camp rooms opposite the check-in desk provide group activities to those so socialized. Ramps, benches, balls and an attendant are always on-hand to keep the campers happy and exercised.

It's not just dogs and cats, however. There are special accommodations for other animals. Such as? A specialist recently confided that they've boarded a hermit crab.

Step into this elegant version of a kennel (but please don't call it such) and you and your pet are greeted by a staffer who records pertinent information and completes the check-in process. Pet owners then have several choices of lodging. There are accommodations for as many as 270 dogs in standard and luxury indoor/outdoor suites.Houston-based Quicksilver Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals

A "Kitty City" pavilion can hold as many as 30 cats in four-story cat condos. And if Kitty gets hungry? Of course ¡ª room service. Think: tuna on a Ritz cracker. For dogs ¡ª a "turndown biscuit."

All clever and cute ¡ª and very likely to make you feel better about leaving your furry friend behind. But anyone suffering from true guilt may want to spring for the oversized VIP suite ¡ª an over-the-top room that's just 50 square feet smaller than a room at one of the vacation kingdom's value resorts.

A row of VIP suites sits just off the back of the clean, airy lobby. Floor-to-ceiling glass provides an unobstructed view. On this day a massive mastiff lolled around on his raised bed, blissfully soaking in the air conditioning as a flat-screen TV screened "Lady and the Tramp."

As the pups are tucked in for the night (yes, seriously), a staff member will read a bedtime story to your coddled canine.Polycore zentai are manufactured as a single sheet,

As with human needs, the facility ¡ª on Walt Disney World property at 2510 Bonnet Creek Parkway ¡ª can meet any needs that may go above and beyond even these hedonistic offerings. Amenities and upgrades (for an added fee) include ice cream treats, bottled water or orthopedic bedding. For your cat: private playtime, in-suite toys and kitty ice cream treats.

Dog boarding, per pet, costs from $37 a night to $76 a night for VIP suites.Customized imprinted and promotional usb flash drives. Cat boarding runs from $23 to $32 a night. A la carte selections (playgroup, cuddle time, holiday meal) are also available.