BENSON

MOW FLOW & GROW SPECIALS

Weekly mowing $25 and up Natural treatments $50 (5k sq. ft.) Sprinkler check-up $50

5 DO’S

1. Use compost. (it adds life and energy to your soil)

2. Pull weeds. (it aerates the soil, burns calories and some go great in salads)

3. Disinfect and sharpen all landscape tools. (grass is supposed to be cut not beaten to death)

4. Mow higher. (the roots will grow deeper and you will water less)

5. Plant at least one edible plant in your (it helps connect you to the earth)

5 DONT’S

1. Don’t use salt based chemical fertilizer. (it burns the life and energy out of your soil)

2. Don’t use herbicides. (they kill trees and pollute our water)

3. Don’t use pesticides. (if you touch or smell it, it starts causing metabolic mayhem)

4. Don’t over-water. (you are wasting money and stressing your plants)

5. Don’t scalp your lawn. (sun’s ultraviolet light destroys the microbes in your soil) my wife was in the hospital.”

HeplayedcollegebaseballatDrake University in Des Moines, Iowa, but the baseballprogramwaseliminatedhis junior year to make way for women’s basketball. After graduation, he played competitivesoftballformorethana decade before joining the amateur baseball league.

Thesedays,Bensonmakes a living in insurance sales, but his heart is in sports. He plays for two baseball teams and referees volleyball and basketball, which brings in a little extra cash and helpskeephiminshapeforbaseball season, he says.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the summer league doesn’t draw a lot of fans.

“It’s hot out there; too hot for even the families of players,” Benson says. “We do it not for the fans, [but] for the love of the game.”

Martial arts Master

Quite the opposite end of the sports spectrum from the comfortingly traditional game of baseball is mixed martial Arts.mmA is a fast-growing, full-combat sport combining elements ofboxing, wrestling, jujitsu and other disciplines its mention might conjure images of a wild-eyed Kimbo slice dominating an octagonalringashekicks,punches, grapples, stomps and throws his opponent to the mat, ready to “tear the guy’s arm off and beat him with it”, as he once told ESPN magazine.

But the pride of Lake Highlands fighters, Dylan Domizo, defies the scary stereotype. The polite and intelligent LHHS sophomore — who has won six Golden Gloves boxing titles, national and world championshipsandhas13beltsdisplayed in the LHHS trophy case — has lent his face to brands such as Adidas, Abercrombie and Hollister.

“No, if you met me on the street, you’d never know I was a fighter,” Domizo says. “I’m really very loveable.”

His father was a professional fighter, hismom a third–degreeblack belt in Taekwondo. Domizo started fighting at age 4.

“I’ve been very competitive from a young age, and I had a temper when I was little. Fighting was a good outlet for that in the beginning, but as I got older, it also taught me a lot of discipline.”