What's Up? Magazine

Nature’s Wonders Provide Beauty, Shade, and Energy Conservation

Little Bits of Tranquility Right in Your Own Backyard By Renee Houston Zemanski

Kent Island Flower Show Captured in Pictures

Want to bring a splash of color to your garden getaway? It’s easy this summer with the variety of colors available in outdoor furniture made from 100 percent recycled resin now on the market.

With their billowy heads of pink, blue or white, hydrangeas dominate the garden, as they should. Technically a shrub, hydrangeas produce hefty flower buds, which can range in color between white, pink, purple, and blue or even a mixture of colors. Some varieties of hydrangeas can even change color.

Have you been thinking about starting a garden and didn’t know how to begin? We’ve asked local gardening experts to give you “templates for planting” to use as a guide. Whether you have in mind a colorful rain garden designed to utilize the natural rainfall in our region, a sunny cutting garden with a bountiful selection of blossoms for bouquets, or a simple shade garden, here are three plans to help you begin.

Life still abounds in winter even though most trees are bare, flowers are gone and many birds have migrated. Evergreens, ignored most of the year and out dressed by other trees dazzling us with blazing autumn hues, now take center stage. Their greens and blues feed eyes hungry for color.

As the days draw shorter and the nights cool down, it's time to get ready for the fall bulb planting ritual.

Some of today’s trendiest fountains do not mist, glow, or reflect projected images behind a curtain of colored water. Instead, they are composed of natural materials and simple forms designed, like Basho’s famous haiku, to isolate the serene sound of water.

When it's time to put together a bouquet, carnations are often the stepchild of preferred flowers.