Author Archive

Don’t miss our free garden seminar!

Thursday, October 6, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

Winterizing Gardens and Landscapes for Exceptional Results

Don’t miss Life@home’s seminar series, set for 1 p.m. this Sunday, Oct. 9, at Nielsen’s Florist & Garden Shop.

Come and hear Life@home garden writer Kerry Ann Mendez, who will offer tips galore to get your gardens and landscapes winter-ready. She’ll focus on how to bring more color to fall gardens and how to cut back perennial gardens, winterize roses and flowering shrubs, plant bulbs and protect evergreens from winter’s outdoor perils.

Refreshments will be provided by Michael Joseph’s Catering. Nielsen’s Florist & Garden Shop is at 1405 Post Road in Darien.

The program is FREE but space is limited, so pre-register online at www.healthylifect.com/seminar.

Maximizing your cold-weather lawn

Thursday, October 6, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

By Kerry Ann Mendez
Living in the Northeast has many perks, but year-round gardening is not one of them. Most of us stare at bleak winter landscapes for five, if not six, months of the year.

But that’s no reason to despair when the gardens are buried under snow. By making some simple wardrobe adjustments, you can have a dazzling winter wonderland that is both beautiful and less work than summer gardens. Here are some colorful ideas.

• Plant flowering shrubs and trees with attractive bark. Deciduous red and yellow twig dogwoods have striking bark that glows against snow. Arctic Fire Dogwood is a particularly showy cultivar with stems that are orangey-red at the base and yellow at the tips. To keep dogwood stems a vibrant color, prune the oldest stems in late winter or early spring. Stems older than three years lose their brilliance. Peeling (exfoliating) bark can be another focal point. Birch trees are prized for this feature. For those with smaller spaces, there are dwarf birches under 12 feet like Little King. Paperbark Maples are also stunning and top out around 20 feet. Flowering shrubs with peeling bark include Ninebarks (Physocarpus), Oakleaf Hydrangea and Climbing Hydrangea.

• Evergreen flowering shrubs and conifers play an important role in winter landscapes. Rhododendrons, mountain laurel (Kalmia) and Japanese Andromeda (Pieris) are popular spring flowering shrubs. Semi-evergreen flowering shrubs (they don’t shed all of their leaves) include Daphne “Carol Mackie” and Abelia. Boxwood and Inkberry make zippy green structures and are also deer resistant. And the world of conifers — with its vast range of plant sizes, as well as needle colors and shapes — is extraordinary. A few of my favorites are Birds Nest Spruce, False Cypress (Chamaecypairs), Russian Cypress (Microbiota) and dwarf Mugo pine and blue spruces (Picea). Be careful when selecting blue spruces, however, as mature sizes range from 2 to 3 feet (Glauca Globosa) to “Compacta” Colorado Blue (4 to 5 feet) to the mighty Colorado Blue, topping off at 30 to 60 feet. Continue reading →

Heating Up

Friday, August 19, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

Family gets creative to add outdoor living space
By Larissa Lytwyn
Problem: The owners of this Sherman home lacked adequate recreation space because of their large, prominent driveway.
Solution: Shayne Newman, owner of YardApes Inc. of New Milford, transformed the end of the driveway into a cozy paradise, including a fire pit. “Fire pits can be a great addition to the home if you like to relax outside,” he says.
About two feet in depth, the circular stone structure can be used to flip hamburgers on a grill grate, or kept open for an outdoor fire to be enjoyed simply for the atmosphere
it creates. “The key is to ensure you have high enough trees
to ensure the pit will be safe, and place it in a setting
where you will have both privacy and a nice focal point, like
a water view.” The new outdoor living space is large enough for entertaining and is a welcome new addition for the
homeowners.
Top Tip: Make sure plants used in new landscaping are appropriate for the amount of shade or sunlight the area receives.
— Shayne Newman

Did you have a problem with your home that’s now solved? A window that was difficult to treat? An ugly feature that needed to be camouflaged? An unusual space that was difficult to utilize? We’d love to feature it in life@home. Send your before and after photos to rhaynes@hearstmediact.com.

Bonsai artist has soul for the task

Thursday, July 21, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

By Nancy DeFelice
Stamford’s Shanti Bithi Nursery has a feeling of serenity. Rocks adorn the entrance as natural sculpture and a statue of Buddha sits on a stone wall. The graceful curve of terraced stone steps leads to a four-foot bonsai planter that showcases a miniature grove of lush Alberta spruce. All as nature intended, all as seen through the intuitive eye of bonsai artist Saeko Oshiro.

“It’s magical what Saeko has done. I give her all the credit,” says Jerome Rocherolle who, along with his wife, Carole, owns Shanti Bithi.

Out back in the nursery, the sun washes over Oshiro’s exquisite charges — a select few, such as a dazzling Japanese black pine, are centuries old. Tucked in a very special spot is the artist’s prized Korean Hornbeam, a 100-year-old deciduous bonsai about to shed its withering crown of leaves for spring’s new foliage. It captured two of four awards in the prestigious Mid Atlantic Bonsai Society Symposium last year — the President’s Choice and People’s Choice. Continue reading →

Bloodroot recipes

Thursday, June 9, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

Tara Rubano’s Empanadas
(makes 32 empanadas, or 4-8 servings depending on what else is served)

Chickpea Dough
ingredients
1 cup dried chickpeas, see note 1
Baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2/3 cup coconut oil, see note 2

method
Soak chickpeas overnight and cook according to directions on package, adding a pinch of baking soda and a teaspoon of salt to the cooking liquid.
Once cooked, place in a bowl, add cold water and rub the chickpeas to loosen the skins. Drain. Repeat this step three more times. You will need 1 cup of cooked chickpeas for the dough.
Turn drained chickpeas into a food processor. Pulverize.
Add flour, 2 teaspoons salt, cumin and coconut oil. Process until granular.
Now add 1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water. Pulse until a smooth dough results. Let stand 15 minutes, Refrigerate.
Note 1: Canned chickpeas can be used. Drain and dry them in a single layer to remove moisture.
Note 2: Coconut oil should be stored at room temperature, even after it is opened. It stays solid at colder temperatures. For this recipe, place it in the refrigerator for an hour or so to harden.
Continue reading →

Friends help Bloodroot owner test new recipes

Thursday, June 9, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

By Valerie Foster
For five lucky women, Monday night is their weekly chance to talk, laugh, share and enjoy the food experiments du jour that Selma Miriam has been busy perfecting. For Miriam, Monday is her day to try out new recipes — add a pinch of this, a touch of that — and ultimately, create food that will appear at her vegetarian Bridgeport restaurant, Bloodroot.
Like Bloodroot, this weekly gathering has been around for years. Guests start arriving every Monday around 7 p.m. at Miriam’s Westport home: her life partner, Carolanne Curry; business partner, Noel Furie; Maya Davidson, who’s designed the Bloodroot cookbooks and annual calendars; and Elva Skrensky, an across-the-street neighbor for more than four decades.
Miriam’s life revolves around community building, not just at home but in her restaurant, which is celebrating 34 years in business. It’s this feeling of community that keeps locals returning to Bloodroot, and keeps these five women holding Monday nights at Miriam’s sacred.
Continue reading →

New annuals you won’t want to miss

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

By Kerry Ann Mendez
Annuals provide full throttle color in gardens spring through fall. Get them out of their containers in May, park them in the correct light with some time-released fertilizer such as Plant-Tone, and get out of their way as they accelerate to non-stop color. They are especially prized in shade gardens where late summer flower color from perennials is less intense. Gardeners are like kids in a toyshop looking for new gadgets, bells and whistles. So let’s peek into the toy chest and see what annuals are arriving at garden centers this spring.
Continue reading →

Families turn backyards into vacation getaways

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 by:Rebecca Haynes

By Alice Kenny
Julie Marcus sips tea in her new “mom cave,” an outdoor room nestled in the hillside and bordered with fieldstone, hostas and fern beds. Her hidden get-away is just a small detail in what at first glance looks like an outdoor resort complete with movie theater, pool, kitchen and living areas. Actually, this is the family’s “outdoor home” artfully landscaped into the backyard of their one-acre plot on a busy New Canaan road.

Meanwhile, Mathew Berger grills rib-eye steaks on his outdoor Viking grill. It’s built into his bluestone patio complete with sunken hot tub, adjacent stainless steel beverage cooler, outdoor living room and patio heaters. The feel is of a country retreat. But the reality is that this outdoor oasis is in the backyard of his family’s quarter-acre Fairfield property.

Whether wedged into the back of a quarter acre or spread out on more, the trend toward turning backyards into outdoor fantasies is growing throughout Southwestern Connecticut. Neglected backyards once dominated by badminton nets and crab grass are transformed into real estate assets and five-star vacations. Continue reading →

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