If you’re like me, every year as the weather warms up and spring fever kicks in, you look out at your yard and vow…this year, I’m going to make this place a real garden. So, the first thing you do is attend the Home and Garden show in February. Fabulous presentation; but can a non-professional really create and upkeep these looks? Not this one.  A more practical option is "Through the Garden Gate,'' the 2011 tour of the private gardens of Cobb County Master Gardeners. The tour is a fundraiser for the Master Gardener organization to support the nine projects they work on in Cobb County. It is …

At the turn of the 20th century, like many other industries of the day, scientific changes in agricultural practices were coming fast and furious. However, these changes were simply theoretical and found mainly within academia. It was noted, at the time, that the youth were willing to embrace the idea of new farming techniques. To precipitate the movement into the world of farming, groups began to arise around the country to teach this new “science” of agriculture to these eager young people.  Another aspect of this movement focused on developing leadership skills to positively impact the …

The first of February had barely past when I ate the last of my summer tomatoes. This past summer - sunny, hot, and long - made for an excellent growing season. Miserable as I was, my tomato plants were happy campers and good producers. I favor a hybrid variety called Early Girl; my heirlooms never seem to produce as well, and being impatient for that first tomato of the season, Early Girl satisfies me sooner than later.  Last year, I experimented with growing tomatoes in oversized pots. I mean really big ones. The idea of having to buy all that potting soil and amendments to fill them didn’t…

Been missing fresh market produce? You don’t have to; it’s only a click away. Farmers have taken an old concept, reworked it a bit and brought it into the technological world of today. You can now have fresh locally grown products every week of the year. Community Supported Agriculture, CSA for short, links local farmers with community members. Members usually pay a yearly membership fee and then pledge to receive local farm products for a designated period of time. Each CSA defines its own rules - membership fees, box weight and cost, time commitment, distribution dates and places, etc. …

The empty parking lot at the Crossings shopping center, located on the northwest corner of Concord Road and South Cobb Drive, reveals that redevelopment is about to begin. Tri Land Properties, the developing company, specializes in reusing and renovating distressed and undervalued properties. The new center will have 230,000 square feet of retail space with 60,000 square feet of the space coming from renovating the existing building. Kroger has signed on as one of the anchors and will be building its largest store in Atlanta at this location. Funny thing with redevelopment - the memory of …

The parties are over. The presents unwrapped. The tree, once full of sparkle and splendor, now stands bare and it's time to toss it out. The question is how?   You can take it down, put it at the curb, and the city will pick it up; but, just so you know, trees picked up on the curb are not mulched or recycled. They go to a C/D (construction and demolition) landfill. The City of Smyrna no longer has the money in the budget to rent the $200 an hour horizontal chipper or the manpower expense needed to provide the chipping service.    Option two is a statewide program in its twentieth year of …

In the 1970s, driving down Paces Ferry Road toward Vinings was a different experience than it is today. There were no high-rises, restaurants or Vinings Jubilee; only small clapboard houses lining the street. Just before the town itself, at the railroad crossing, there stood a house with trinkets and dolls hanging from branches and all sorts of bizarre-looking items in the yard. I had always heard that the woman who lived there was a witch or at the very least she was practicing voodoo. Always fearful, but completely intrigued by this woman and her house, I would stare as I rode past, hoping …