Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan ■ Saturday, March 20, 2010PAGE 6B www.yankton.net

HOMEGARDEN

BY GINNY SMITH© 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — This week,two things became clear.

One, spring is close — justdays away. We know thatbecause the temperature is inch-ing up, the days are growinglonger, the snow is gone.

Which brings us to Point No.2: We have a boatload of yardwork to do. As if we didn’t haveenough to clean up, the winter’ssnow drop, almost 80 inches,caused a huge amount of treedamage.

It’s comparable to whatoccurs when we have a hurri-cane, says Christopher C.Palmer, director of operationsand landscape management forFairmount Park.

After one particularly wet andheavy snow last month, the cityhad more than 300 calls forstreet-tree emergencies, com-pared with about 10 for a typicalsnowstorm. “The largest stormevent for trees in a lot of years,”Palmer says.

Jennifer Stillabower’s 25-footcypress took a major hit, and abunch of 6-foot junipers weretotally smashed. “I have morecleanup than I ever thought pos-sible,” she says.

But Stillabower, who lives on1 1/4 partially wooded acres inWilmington, plans to put thedestruction to constructive use.Once the ruined trees and wid-owed branches are cut up andremoved, she’ll add them to abrush pile in the woods that pro-vides shelter and food forwildlife.

“I’m a big believer in provid-ing habitat,” says Stillabower,who was so concerned aboutbirds during the storms, she duga trench through the snow toher bird feeder so she couldkeep it filled with seeds.

That’s the sort of ingenuityDrew Gilchrist likes to see.

Turns out, Gilchrist, direc-tor of the Center forConservation Landowners ofthe Natural Lands Trust inMedia, Pa., has a brush pile,too. “It’s a wonderful thing forwildlife,” he says.

Brush piles offer cover forchipmunks, rabbits, and birds.Insects, which feed many crea-

tures, make cavities in the rot-ting wood, which in turn drawsfrogs.

Gilchrist suggests putting thepile on the edge of the woods,placing larger branches on thebottom and smaller ones on top.It’s more visually appealing and“the smaller brush acts like aroof. This way, the pile won’t col-

lapse on itself,” he says.And don’t worry about

attracting termites or large ani-mals. “These creatures are not tobe feared. These are not thingsthat will attack you or yourhouse,” Gilchrist says.

Downed branches also makegood kindling, firewood, andwood chips, which can be aged

to use later as mulch or path-covers.

For most of us, the storm’slegacy is about common playersin the landscape — trees thathave what arborists call “sail,”as in ship’s sail, meaning leavesor needles, often in a horizontalgrowth habit, that catch windand collect snow.

Good examples are hemlock,Southern magnolia, cypress, andespecially Eastern white pine,which has weak wood and brittlebranches and makes up most ofwhat arborist Scott Lussier hasbeen called about this winter.

“They snap easily. Anybodywho has a pine will tell youevery winter they see a lot ofbranches on the ground,” saysLussier, owner of Oakwood TreeCare Professionals in WillowStreet, Pa.

For trees that may be severe-ly bent over, but haven’tsnapped — white birch,Japanese maple, arborvitae,Leyland cypress — Lussier sug-gests patience, not necessarilypruning.

“I’ve seen some that comeback in spring. They pop rightup,” he says. “I’ve also seensome that have not. It’s reallyhard to say.”

If you see few or no intactroots, your flopper is probably aloss, Lussier says. If, however,you see a large soil mass on theroots, pull the tree back up andstake it with guy-wires for two orthree growing seasons. It shouldgrow back.

Steve Shreiner of ShreinerTree Care in King of Prussia saysmany ornamental plants in homegardens — rhododendrons, azal-eas, camellias, boxwood, cherrylaurels — have taken a poundingthis winter, too. “It’s so sad. Idon’t even want to look,” hesays.

But all may not be lost.“Certain species will respondand regenerate if you cut theentire plant back in March orApril,” says Shreiner, who hassome other advice that mayprove harder for gardeners totake:

Go slow. Wait and see howyour plant responds to the win-ter’s trauma. “Mother Naturedoes a beautiful job,” he says.

Winter’s Damage: All May Not Be Lost

SHARON GEKOSKI-KIMMEL/PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/MCTBob Anderson, Director of Physical Facilities, walks the grounds at the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, Penn., Monday, March 8, 2010.The trees and property at Morris Arboretum suffered damage from the wind and snowstorms this winter.

BY FRED ORTLIP© 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS — People are eatingup the idea of growing their ownfood. Economic hard times havesent millions of Americans forag-ing for ways to eat more economi-cally, and they're doing it by grow-ing their own edibles.

A survey by the Garden WritersAssociation Foundation found thegrowing of edibles boomed lastyear, with more than 7 million ofthe 41 million U.S. households newto vegetable gardening. The sur-vey found 37 percent of house-holds planned to increase theiredible gardens this year.

“Last year it was huge, a 50percent increase over the yearbefore,” said Steffie Littlefield, gar-den designer and assistant manag-er at Garden Heights Nursery inRichmond Heights, Mo.

Nurseries are responding to thedemand by boosting not only theirvegetable, fruit and herb inventorybut also their related products,such as seeds and seed startingkits and organic soil amendments,fertilizers and insect control prod-ucts.

Residents are finding creativeways to grow their own, not onlyby building raised garden beds butalso by using containers to makethe most of small spaces in apart-ments and condos.

“Growing your own herbs is ahuge savings, and people are grow-ing them in containers becausethey’re cooking more at home andare more cognizant of what theyneed,” Littlefield said. “People arelooking for those unusual thingsthey can’t buy in the grocery storebut enjoy in a restaurant.”

Decks and patios are becomingpopular places to put containersto grow fruit, such as blueberriesand raspberries. Another alterna-tive to traditional beds is squarefoot gardening, in which vegetableplants are massed tightly in asmall space.

Ellen Barredo, horticulturalmanager at Bowood Farms in St.Louis, said among vegetables,tomato growing is most popularwhile basil is the most popularherb. She said emerging trends aregardening under lights, foodpreservation and home gardeningfor brewers.

Jennifer Schamber, generalmanager at Greenscape Gardens inWest County, Mo., says a newgourmet cherry tomato, Tomaccio— called sweet raisin tomato —should be in demand because ofits taste and high yield.

Meanwhile, nurseries areresponding to the interest in edi-bles by providing additional sup-port in the form of handouts,books and on-site classes.

FIND A SUNNY SPOTSo about that garden. Where to

start?

—Identify an area with plentyof sun, preferably at least sixhours — and less may be OK inafternoon exposure.

—Raised bed gardening is pop-ular and can boost yield becauseamending the native, clay-basedsoil with organic matter improvesthe growing environment.

—Pressure-treated lumber isoften used to build the borders.This rot-resistant product nolonger contains arsenic, but gar-deners concerned about leachingof the chemical content can play itsafe by using an impervious linerto wrap the wood. More expensivenatural wood options are red-wood, cypress and red cedar,which are rot-resistant.

—A typical raised bed kit mightcontain a plastic composite thatresembles cedar. Some gardenerseven get a rise out of using stonesas a border.

BUILDING A NEW BEDRoxanne and Dave Oesch dis-

mantled several smaller raisedbeds in the backyard of theirKirkwood home and built a 32-by-13-foot bed surrounded by fencingto deter critters.

Like a lot of St. Louisans wholive in established areas wheretrees provide some shade, theOesches finesse some of theirplantings.

“Even if you have part sun, youcan still sort of cheat on somethings because not all plants wantthe heat,” Roxanne Oesch said. “Iwas able to grow some wonderfularugula in the fall of last year, andI put it back in a shadier spotbecause it wants it cooler.”

Plants grown in less sun maynot perform at their peak, but “aslong as they have enough energyto flower and you have pollination,part sun’s OK,” she said, addingexperimentation often produces atleast one byproduct — discourage-ment.

Experienced gardeners empha-size the importance of soil forgrowing success. This meansincorporating broken down plantmaterial, which feeds microbesthat produce nutrients in the soil.Compost “helps retain waterbecause of the texture that bro-ken-down material gets — it reallyhelps hold on to water so the soildoesn’t dry out as quick, which isimportant in the summer, and it’seasier for roots to grow deeper.”

Soil amendments are sold inbags and by the cubic yard. Orthey can be homemade.

“We have a giant compost pile,and we’ve been known to collectother people’s lawn and leaf bagson Sunday night,” Oesch said.“That’s what we did for this gar-den — stole other people’s leavesand grass clippings. So A, we getfree lawn bags and B we had a 2-foot pile of organic matter whenwe started our big bed.”

Edible GardensSprouting Up All Over

From Pavers To Shingles, Man Builds Own HouseBY MARY BETH BRECKENRIDGE

© 2010, Akron Beacon Journal

SHARON TOWNSHIP, Ohio —To say Jim May built his ownhouse doesn’t quite do the projectjustice.

With help from his family, Maybuilt the whole house, right down tomilling the oak woodwork, buildingthe paneled doors and casting theconcrete pavers for the walkway andfront porch. The only exceptionswere a few jobs he either didn’t havethe credentials to perform or forwhich he couldn’t get the necessaryequipment or supplies.

May, 58, is not a home builderby trade. He’s a retired NASA elec-trical engineer with a handy streakand a voracious curiosity. He man-aged to earn a master’s and doc-torate in structural engineering atthe same time he was building thehouse, just because he had aninterest in the subject.

His wife, Sharon, said he hasmore perseverance than anyoneshe knows. That’s a useful traitwhen you spend more than adecade on a project, most of thetime while you’re living in it.

For May, building the housewas just a drive.

“You get this bug,” he said.“For some reason, building ahouse was a challenge I wanted.It’s like going mountain climbing.”

At least he knew what he wasgetting into. He’d already built ahouse in Dayton, Ohio, while hewas working at Wright-PattersonAir Force Base.

The project began with Maydesigning the structure, based ona set of architectural plans hemodified to include ideas gatheredfrom a number of places. Groundwas broken in July 1998.

The house still isn’t complete— “Is a house ever finished?”Sharon May asked rhetorically —but any unfinished elements in themain living quarters are unnotice-able to anyone but her husband.

The 2,500-square-foot house is amodified New England saltbox, cladin sugar maple that Jim May orderedfrom a sawmill in Vermont. He andhis sons, Kyle and Ryan, primedboth sides of every board beforeinstalling them — 1 1/2 miles’ worthof clapboards, he noted.

The house sits on 1 1/2 wood-ed acres and has a cozy, tradition-al feel. The floors are covered ingleaming oak and the Vermontslate that Sharon May amassed inbits and pieces from sources

throughout Ohio. The walls areadorned with deep oak base-boards and dentil crown molding,all of which Jim May fashioned. Acentral chimney rises through thestructure, its brick face forming awall of the winding staircase.

The heart of the house is thekitchen, warmed by a wood stoveand the oak cabinets Jim May builtwith his usual attention to detail.He lined the bottom of everydrawer and cupboard withFormica to make them easier towipe clean, and he even measuredthe spice containers so theywould fit precisely in a nook in thekitchen island.

The island’s Corian top wasone of the few elements he could-n’t fabricate himself. The materialsaren’t available to do-it-your-selfers, he explained.

The only other jobs he subcon-tracted were the installation of theseptic system (he changed his mindabout getting licensed for the workafter the codes were changed whilehe was preparing for the test), thepunching of a hole in the ground forthe well and the installation of thecasing (he and his sons installed the

rest) and the installation of a NatureStone floor in the basement workoutarea (he couldn’t get the materials).

He also had a contractor spraya waterproofing membrane on theoutside of the foundation, but itleaked. That chapter ended withhis having to dig all the dirt awayfrom the foundation walls so thework could be redone.

Those subcontracted jobs wererare exceptions to what was over-whelmingly a do-it-yourself proj-ect. Jim May and his sons evenrebuilt an old backhoe to use dur-ing construction and constructeda freestanding workshop. A signnext to the door reads, “Boys (NoGirls Allowed).”

It wasn’t an all-male project,however. “I carried my share ofblock and mixed my share of mor-tar,” said Sharon May, 49.

And it was her patience thatmade the project possible, herhusband was quick to note. Whenthe family moved in, about 3 1/2years into the construction inFebruary 2002, the kitchen was ashell and the house had only oneworking bathroom. The familycooked with a microwave and a

toaster oven and did dishes in atub in the basement.

Some of the skills Jim Mayneeded for the project werepicked up from his handy fatherand from decades of buildingthings, starting with clubhouseswhen he was a kid. Others helearned by studying and doing.

“It required a lot of reading —and a lot of trial and error andredos,” he said with a laugh.

The project wasn’t without itstrials. One of the biggest waswhen everyone broke out insevere rashes after coming intocontact with poison ivy rootswhile digging a trench for the gasand electric lines.

Flexibility was another challenge,Jim May said. He often found himselfhaving to shift priorities, droppingone project to pick up another thatneeded to be done faster.

But he said the hardest partswere staying motivated and tryingto keep from feeling overwhelmed.

He learned to focus on the taskat hand and not get distracted byeverything that lay ahead. And heforced himself to press on, evenon the days he didn’t want to.

ED SUBA JR./AKRON BEACON JOURNAL/MCTJim, right, and Sharon May, pictured March 1, 2010, stand in the doorway of the master bedroom inthe saltbox house that May, a retired electrical engineer, built by himself with the help of his two sons,Kyle and Ryan in Sharon Twp., Ohio.