Master Landscaping
http://www.masterlandscaping.net

Meet with landscape designers at 10 private gardens and landscapes they designed and installed from Southern Marin to San Rafael, Terra Linda and Novato. These gorgeous, well-established gardens may feature a stone fountain, pond, waterfall or beehive.

Whether your garden has shaded or sunny areas you will get great ideas for successful plant combinations. Tour gardens are diverse, but all are pesticide-free.

Gardens may feature a creek with stabilization project, steep terraced hillsides with oaks, redwood and fern bordered rock creeks, succulents and ornamental grasses, fruit trees, lawns, herbs and medicinal plants or flat meadow areas. Some are Asian or English garden-influenced with a California twist. See ways to better use rain and irrigation water on your property.

Learn how the right plants and planting can reduce fire danger around your home. Garden includes natives and other Mediterranean summer-dry climate plants.

Discounts to visitors are offered on landscaping services. Refreshments provided and free resource booklets and other garden experts are available at each site to answer questions.

Marin’s Eco-Friendly Garden Tour Sat., May 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Featured designers include PlannedLand, Jeannine White; Edger Landscape Design; EcoScapes, Leslie Patton; Quinn’s California Landscapes; Blume & Dean Landscape; Equinox Landscape; California Native Landscapes; EcoLogic Landscaping, Leith Carstarphen; Reilly Designs and Art Gardens Landscape Company.

Registration required, directions provided at time of registration: Call Gina Purin of MCSTOPPP at 499-3202. Cost: $15 per adult.

Support Community Gardens with City Council

The cost of fresh fruit and vegetables is going through the roof. Many children have lost their connection to the earth and its seasons. Seniors have become increasingly isolated. People from all walks of life have little or no access to garden space, whether apartment renters or folks who own condos, townhomes or McMansions. Community gardens bring people together, provide opportunities for socialization and education on healthy gardening and eating.

Please contact the Novato City Council and let them know you support community gardens. The Garden Committee has identified two good potential locations. Novato covers a large geographic area and one garden would be a great start, whichever location they choose.

For little cost to the city, it will bring great benefit to Novato residents. Individuals including seniors and families with children will be able to experience the pleasure of gardening, the health benefits of garden exercise and fresh, pesticide-free food.

The Novato Community Garden Committee has been working with the city and other groups to find a permanent location. They received grant funding through the Kaiser Foundation and Supervisor Judy Arnold that will help the gardens get off the ground. Ongoing funding for insurance and water management will be provided by nominal annual garden plot rental fees.

Tags: adult support, amp, apartment, california landscapes, dry climate, fresh fruit and vegetables, fruit tree, garden experts, grass, grasses, herbs, irrigation, irrigation water, landscape, landscape co, landscape company, Landscape Design, landscape designer, landscape designers, Landscaping, landscaping service, Landscaping Services, lawns, meadow areas, native landscapes, ornamental grasses, plant combinations, plants, resource booklets, Services, southern marin, stone fountain, tour gardens, vegetables, walks of life, waterfall
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Q: My new partner loves my children and doesn’t want to admit they have a biological father who’s active in their lives. He doesn’t approve of their dad’s parenting and says he doesn’t know if he can go forward with our relationship if the children continue to see their father. My ex and I get along OK, and although he’s a little inconsistent, he’s not that bad. I love my boyfriend and want to build a life with him, and I’m hoping this will fall into place in time. What do you think?

A: We think there are red flags waving all over the place and you’re pleading colorblindness. Unless Dad is practicing questionable behavior and the kids are in danger, whether the kids see their father is not your boyfriend’s call.

Bio-parents celebrating a new love often encounter questionable attitudes on the part of new partners and deny that it could be a permanent state of mind. If that’s you, open your eyes. Your partner is telling you he might force your kids to choose their allegiance - Dad or him. We commend him for his love and honesty, but remember the first rule of good ex-etiquette is: “Put the children first.” It sounds as if he is saying, “Put me first.” Red flag.

If he simply needs a little education concerning this subject, we have a suggestion for you. In our book “Ex-Etiquette for Parents: Good Behavior After Divorce or Separation,” there is an exercise we suggest all couples with kids who are about to marry take together. “The Before Exercise” asks each of you to describe the relationship you envision with each member of your new family - yes, including the children’s other parent, if custody is shared - before you tie the knot and then to describe how you propose to achieve that relationship. That puts the responsibility for a positive relationship with family members in your own hands. Not: “If he or she does this, then I will do that.”

Attempting to ace out your children’s biological father may be just as detrimental to their adjustment as if your guy didn’t care about them at all. In order to offer them a balanced home life after divorce it’s important that your partner be a member of the adult support system - not the entire support system. If he doesn’t get it by the end of the exercise, he’s not right for you - or your kids.

Tags: adult support, rta, suggestion
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