Scarsdale Inquirer Home & Garden 2012

A S pecial S ection of T he S carsdale I nquirer – A pril 20, 2012

Page 2A | The scarsdale Inquirer

HOME & Garden

April 20, 2012

How does your cutting garden grow?

With a lot of sun and a little imagination!

By DEBRA BANERJEE

W

A special section of

The Scarsdale Inquirer P.O. Box 418, Scarsdale, NY 10583 914-725-2500 www.scarsdalenews.com PUBLISHER Deborah G. White SECTION EDITOR Todd Sliss ART DIRECTOR Ann Marie Rezen ADVERTISING DESIGN Katherine Potter ADVERTISING SALES Thomas O’Halloran, Barbara Yeaker, Marilyn Petrosa and Francesca Lynch Š2012 S.I. Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without the Publisher’s written permission.

ouldn’t it be nice if any time you needed a floral arrangement for your home you could simply go into the garden and pick what you needed?

Well, you can! Having a cutting garden can be as simple as planting specimens in your foundation or landscape planting or as ambitious as a large backyard plot like a vegetable garden with flowers planted in neat rows.

Sun is critical, experts agree. If you have a sunny spot and lots of time to devote to cultivating, 100 square feet of space would be ideal to carve out for a cutting garden, according to Al Krautter of Sprainbrook Nursery in Edgemont. “You want to prep your soil like you would any garden soil,� Krautter said.

Krautter is the author of a new book called “12 Steps to Natural Gardening,� which gives the organic gardener tips from A to Z, including how to prepare the soil for flowers and other plants to flourish.

Joey Vizioli, one of the owners of Cher-

ry Lawn Nursery in New Rochelle, believes a 48-square-foot garden with proper soil amendments “will give you adequate flowers through the blooming season.� Spraying and fertilizing are a must for “optimal flower and color yield,� he said.

Annual dividends

Virginia Maybank, past president of the Bedford Garden Club and co-founder of Branch Out, a tree-planting project initiated by the garden club, incorporates her cutting garden into her vegetable garden, which measures about 20 by 40 feet. “That’s a good way to do it,� she said.

Since she digs up her garden after the first frost, Maybank’s cutting garden is comprised of primarily annuals. She keeps her perennial garden separate.

Maybank said there are some flowers Continued on the next page

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HOME & Garden

aPrIl 20, 2012

The scarsdale InquIrer | Page 3a

a vase,” she said.

Maybank continued, “I plant my garden in early May so the annuals won’t start blooming until six weeks later.

Bulbs are nice in spring and azalea, cherry, forsythia and lilac are all fantastic for cutting.”

As the vegetables all need to be rotated in the soil every year, Maybank rearranges her flower planting, which she does in rows, just like the vegetables. “Every year I rethink what I want to plant,” she said. “If I have a tall plant, I need something lower next to it. If it’s something really tall like a sunflower, I put them as far back as I can. Otherwise they would shade the garden.”

Continued from the previous page

not necessarily grown in a cutting garden that are “fantastic for cutting,” like bulbs — daffodils, tulips and such — that “just go into the natural landscape planting.” Plants with “interesting foliage, not from annual plants, shrubs, trees, hostas, things with interesting leaves,” can become “the backbone of any arrangement,” she said.

Before heading off to the nursery, “think about the colors in your house.

If your house is all blues, and you like blues, plant blue flowers, plant something that looks great in your house.”

Also, go for height and a sturdy stem.

“Buy annuals that are going to be tall and wonderful,” she said.

Because tender perennials, like the delicious-smelling purple-flowered heliotrope and verbena bonariensis, die in cold climates, they are used like annuals, and are perfect for floral arrangements, Maybank said. Sometimes the plants reseed themselves, she noted.

Some of Maybank’s recommendations for a cutting garden are cosmos, salvias, cleome, snapdragons, ageratum, blue horizon and larkspur. “The nice thing about annuals is they bloom all summer long,” she said. “Perennials have a bloom time of about three weeks. Annuals bloom forever!”

After the frost hits and there’s nothing left in the patch, Maybank gets even more creative. “Branches of beautiful Japanese maples look gorgeous sitting in

Indulgence courtesy of Virginia Maybank

A cutting garden from A-Z Here are some of the plants experts recommend: ALLIUM

DAHLIAS

PEONIES

ASTILBE

DELPHINIUM

PHLOX

ASTERS

GLADIOLAS

BACHELOR BUTTONS

HOSTAS

ROSES

BLUE INDIGO

HYDRANGEAS

CALENDULAS

IRIS

CONEFLOWERS

LADY’S MANTLE

COREOPSIS

LILIES

TULIPS

COSMOS

LILYTURF

VERBENA

DAFFODILS

MARIGOLDS

ZINNIAS

SALVIA SNAPDRAGONS SUNFLOWERS

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Sheri Silver of Fiori Garden Design in Irvington advised making a list of all the flowers you want to have. Silver writes a blog called “donuts dresses and dirt” at sherisilver.com that shares “what I am most passionate about,” including gardening.

“A cutting garden is different than a foundation bed or perennial border,” Silver said. “It’s sort of an indulgence.

It’s not about what looks right or what makes sense, but about what you love.”

Although it’s great to have a wish list, the plant has to be put in the right space to thrive, Silver cautioned.

Gardeners in our area also have to think about the critters that love to Continued on page 15A

Page 4A | The scarsdale Inquirer

I

t all started innocently enough. The brown tiles in our basement were old and ugly, many of them cracked or completely unglued. So I decided to remove them and put down some new self-adhesive tiles.

A week later, men in HAZMAT suits were traipsing through the house, sealing off the entire basement area with biohazard tape and barrier paper.

What had seemed to be an easy do-ityourself job turned into a major expense because I had inadvertently released asbestos into the room when I removed the first few tiles. Fortunately, I noticed the word “asbestos’” printed on the back of the third tile and I got out of there, pronto. When the men in the white suits arrived, they explained that removing the tiles would actually be more dangerous than “encapsulating” them with a special sealant, then putting wall-to-wall carpeting over the sealant. To this day, I still obsess about what I may have inhaled in those first few minutes.

Then there was the simple kitchen wallpaper job. We assumed the walls were in pretty good shape, except for the unfortunate navy blue wallpaper we had inherited from the former owners. When the painter began removing the old paper, the wall practically disintegrated.

“That paper was the only thing holding the wall together,” the painter said with a big grin.

The final bill was not funny. It turned out that not only had the wall been damaged by a slow leak in the roof that the room shared with the garage, but carpenter ants, who love leaky places, had turned all the wood studs and supporting beams into something resembling a rice cake. We ended up replacing two walls and half of the ceiling of the kitchen and the garage.

Then there’s my friend whose roof was damaged in last year’s hurricane. They covered everything with a tarp to prevent further damage, and an emergency roofing crew soon arrived to make everything watertight.

It was too late, though. Water had already seeped between the walls, and mold was growing in there. When painters arrived to do some work on the ceiling of the room whose roof had been damaged, they discovered evidence of mold, and insisted on taking a look-see inside the wall. Guess what? There was mold

When small jobs turn

BIG > By Jackie Lupo

growing all over the inside of the wall, and all over the inside of the exterior wall too. All the wallboard in the room had to be replaced, as well as the damaged part of the exterior wall.

With home ownership comes the realization that small jobs have the tendency to become great, big jobs very quickly.

And don’t forget expensive.

Lots of times the culprit is hidden damage that is discovered in the process of doing some seemingly routine maintenance, or when opening up a wall during a small renovation project. That’s when you find out the ugly truth about the water damage, insect infestations, wood rot, mold, toxic chemicals and various building code violations that the inspector never noticed before you bought your house.

But wait, you say. My house is new and does not have any of those problems. Surely I can do a few minor home improvement projects myself.

How hard can it be?

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HOME & Garden

it-yourselfers.

“Half of my business is finishing work homeowners try to do themselves,” said Bob Kahn, an architect and building contractor in White Plains. “The things that are important are preparation and experience,” he noted, adding that many people take on renovations without being aware of all the details involved. “If you have a set of plans and a contactor bids on the plans, there shouldn’t be any surprises.”

That being said, however, sometimes homeowners are still surprised when they hire an architect or a contractor and find out that the project is a lot more involved than they thought it would be.

“You’re best off in the hands of an architect because an architect doesn’t have anything to lose if he gives his clients proper advice,” said Scarsdale architect Carl Petrescu. He advises homeowners who are thinking about a renovation project to call an architect before hiring a designer or a contractor. “It’s worth spending a few hundred dollars for a consultation.”

For example, an architect might tell you

April 20, 2012

that the floor in an old house might not be strong enough to take the weight of new, heavy flooring. “The more structural the problem is, the more complicated,” he noted.

For example, if you see the floor is angled and you put in a new, level floor, then you have to anticipate changing the doorframes and the moldings. Or, if you put on an addition, you might create drainage problems. “Designers tell you anything is possible, but they don’t know what structural issues may be involved,” Petrescu said.

Other problems arise when homeowners set out to make minor household repairs. Bart Tyler, owner of Kelloggs & Lawrence Hardware Store in Katonah, sees many homeowners who visit the store for help with projects that take on a life of their own.

“Probably the leading one would be plumbing,” he said. He noted that homeowners often try to replace faucets, drains, or the mechanism inside the toilet… “and one thing leads to another.

You get the faucet in place and then you find out the valve doesn’t shut off, but in attempting to replace it you break a pipe inside the walls.”

Then there’s the “simple” project of hanging a shelf or curtain rod. “These products often come prepackaged with wall fasteners,” he said — but the fasteners in the package might be ones made for plaster walls, and your walls are sheetrock, or vice versa. “Over time, it will come off,” he predicted. And when it does come off, it usually leaves a hole bigger than the one you started with, so you need to come up with a different kind of fastener to reattach what just fell off the wall.

Painting is a favorite do-it-yourself project that Tyler said could often go wrong if the homeowner doesn’t prepare the walls properly.

Even planting a simple garden can turn into a major project. “You buy seed and start a little garden plot,” said Tyler.

“Then you see there are critters eating the garden, so you put up fence stakes.

But then you realize there are burrowing creatures getting in underneath, so you have to sink wire mesh around it.

But then you find that birds are attracted to it…” and so on and on, until you’ve Continued on page 6A

HOME & Garden

aPrIl 20, 2012

The scarsdale InquIrer | Page 5a

Flooring: it’s what you walk on According to Donna Kanter, of Kanter’s Carpet and Design Center in White Plains, “Flooring has become its own fashion statement, not just a way of covering the floor. What you put on the floor defines the overall look of a room.”

In general, she has noticed greater attention to natural materials like wool carpets and green products, such as carpet backs made out of recycled bottles.

“Synthetic carpets have also come a long way,” Kanter said. “They’re very recyclable and easy to care for. Advanced stain protection is now incorporated directly into the carpet fibers before the carpet is even woven.”

1) Prefinished hardwood flooring: Available in a variety of finishes, these can be installed in less than a day, without dust or mess.

They offer immediate beauty and instant gratification.

2) Custom area rugs: Imaginative designs, patterns, sizes and colors are now available through made-to-order area rugs for bedrooms, living rooms or kitchens. Textured or patterned carpets, too, can be cut down to size and finished with a boarder in leather, fabric or suede.

3) Printed and patterned carpets: From bold to demure, geometric to floral, printed and patterned carpets are im-

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5) Laminate flooring: Available in tile, wood or stone designs, laminate flooring offers the look of natural beauty, but is softer on the feet. Easy to clean and maintain, this option is ideal for kitchens, mudrooms, entryways and other high traffic areas.

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Page 6A | The scarsdale Inquirer

HOME & Garden

Small job, big job Continued from page 4A

built a bunker to keep out all those walking, burrowing and flying creatures.

Preventive measures

Sometimes little maintenance issues are ignored, ending up as big repair jobs later. Mark Goldman of American House Care in New Rochelle visits clients on a seasonal basis to take care of maintenance chores before they become problems.

“Gutter cleaning is important because if you don’t do it, it can affect the fascia boards, and the water can run down the house,” he said. “We take care of little cracks in the masonry after the winter.

You don’t want to wait so long that the cracks become large and they start dislodging the stones. We’ll do an annual flushing of an electric or gas water heater to prevent buildup of sediment. That can prolong the life of the water heater.”

Goldman also cleans out clients’ clothes dryer vents. He noted that just brushing off the lint filter isn’t enough: it’s necessary to clean out the whole vent. “Most people ignore this, but it can cause inefficiency in the dryer, and eventually it can cause a fire.”

Ignoring subtle signs of problems can lead to big repair issues later. Insect damage can be hard to spot inside a wall, but if you spot carpenter ants (big ants with a thin waist, bent antennae and two sets

of wings of different sizes) or termites (a thick waist, straight antennae and both sets of wings the same size), don’t wait to seek help. Signs of damage from carpenter ants would be piles of sawdust around the bottom of walls or decking.

This indicates that the ants are burrowing into the wood and depositing the sawdust outside their tunnels. Termites may bore right through wallboard to get to the wood below; a telltale sign is little piles of plaster dust on the floor.

Since these insects are attracted to wet wood, leaks (such as those caused by broken plumbing inside the house, or by overflowing gutters or ice dams that

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send water between the walls) should be taken care of immediately. If you have had a roof leak, sending water through the ceiling, the section of ceiling will probably have to be removed to make sure the timbers are dry and free of insect infestation. If you just patch and paint where the water came through, you may not know you have a wood problem until it’s too late. The same goes for mold: ignoring a persistent leak can cause serious mold problems that eventually can require replacing large areas of the walls.

Dangerous substances

If you live in an older house, you may

April 20, 2012

be in for some surprises when you start to remodel. Lead paint was used for decades, and there may be many layers of it hiding under more recent paint finishes.

If you think there may be lead paint under all those old layers, you should not sand those areas yourself.

Asbestos was used in all kinds of construction projects until the ’60s in products such as flooring, acoustical tiles, insulation, wrappings for pipes, etc. It was also used in soundproofing or decorative material sprayed on walls or ceilings, and in patching compounds through the ’70s. Any of these items are safe to leave where they are, as long as they are intact.

In fact, trying to remove them can cause worse problems, because when asbestos is disturbed (such as when a floor tile or an acoustical ceiling panel is broken), the dangerous little asbestos fibers, which can cause cancer, are released into the air. Drilling into walls containing asbestos can also have problems, and pulling asbestos insulation out of walls by yourself can be really hazardous.

Asbestos and lead abatement professionals can come to your house and tell you whether your house contains these materials. They’ll let you know your options: sealing, or encapsulating, the area, enclosing it with some sort of covering material, or removing the material entirely. If it must be removed, the abatement should only be done by a professional.

HOME & Garden

aPrIl 20, 2012

The scarsdale InquIrer | Page 7a

Decorating for the empty-nester: making your home your own

By NANCy ALMEIDA

W

hat will you do with your home after the children leave? For parents, this is a question that eventually comes our way. We can’t imagine it as we push the stroller or are wrapped up with school activities, but one day the house will be all yours to do whatever you’d like.

This is a time of self-discovery, especially when you can reclaim areas of the house that once were not all yours.

As an interior designer, I get calls from time to time from empty-nesters looking to do something different to their homes.

They do not want to move; they just want to make their home feel “new” again with furnishings and accessories that reflect this new time in their lives.

The first thing I suggest is to do an evaluation of their existing furnishings and see what can be kept, what needs to go and what can be reassigned to other areas of the house. I also always ask to see items they may have stored as now is the time to use that white rug or delicate chair that was kept safely hidden. Once I have a good idea as to what furnishings we will be using, I suggest experimenting with colors for the walls that are different from what was always used before. Nothing gives a

room a facelift like a fresh coat of color.

Now is the time to be creative and have fun in the design process; after all, now it’s all about you.

Design style is also something to consider. If your home was always traditional, you may want to think about a contemporary look. If your color palette has always been white or cream, richly painted colored walls in deep shades can bring a completely different feel to the room or house.

As you can see, you do not need to do an entire overhaul. Small changes such as new wall color, new light fixtures or simply rearranging a room can give you a sense of private ownership. You can also turn that now extra bedroom into that office you always wanted or into a sleek media room.

If you entertain frequently, you can create intimate “niches” in a room for interesting dinner parties.

With a little creativity, your new “old” home will bring you many more years of enjoyment in this new phase of life.

Nancy Almeida has been an interior designer for 30 years with offices in New York, Connecticut, Long Island and Florida. She has been featured in local and national publications. Her website, www.nancyalmeida. com, features a selection of her work.

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Page 8A | The scarsdale Inquirer

April 20, 2012

Maintenance

Be good to your chimney and furnace year-round

By MARY LEGRAND

A

house needs to be heated and cooled.

Sometimes that’s about all a homeowner knows about his or her HVAC system.

But whether a house has a boiler that heats by producing hot water or steam, or a furnace that forces out hot air, what is probably the major piece of equipment in one’s home must be installed and maintained regularly for safety and efficiency’s sake.

Greenfield Plumbing and Heating in Irvington was started in 1962 by John Greenfield. In 1981 Joe Clarke joined the team, became a licensed Master Plumb-

er, and, in 1988, took over the business upon Greenfield’s retirement. With business partner Joey Good, Clarke handles complete boiler installation, replacement and servicing, among many other aspects of the business.

“With boilers and furnaces you definitely want them serviced once a year,” Clarke said. “You want to make sure you’re getting proper combustion. We come out and clean the burners and make sure we analyze flue gases. If filters need to be changed, we do that at least once a year. We check the base of the chimney to make sure the flue is in good shape and that it’s drafting. We don’t check the actual interior of the Continued on the next page

23,600 reasons to have your chimney serviced by a professional The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that some 23,600 residential fires in the 50 states were related to solid fuel appliances and equipment in 1996. An additional 5,500 fires were attributed to chimneys and chimney connectors serving heating systems burning liquid and other fuels. As a result of these fires, 130 people died, 230 people were injured, and total property losses were set at more than $184.4 million. In addition there were a minimum of 119 deaths from carbon monoxide and at least 4,700 “injuries” reported for the same time frame, though most estimates range much higher.

The root cause of most of these losses is that most U.S. homeowners are unaware that chimneys are an integral part of a home heating system and that they require regular evaluation and maintenance. In a great many European countries — including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Germany — chimney-fire damage statistics have been reduced to negligible numbers because national coalitions of government, insurance companies, fire and building of-

ficials, and chimney sweeps have developed tough regulations mandating regularly scheduled chimney inspections and cleaning. The citizens of those countries understand the hazards of unmaintained chimneys, and their chimney sweeps are regular members of their home safety team.

Most homeowners in the U.S. and Can-

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home’s exhaust system — the chimney or vent — to go unchecked and unmaintained for years. The threat of chimney fires and unsafe indoor air quality conditions can be greatly reduced, perhaps even eliminated, if homeowners only understood that chimneys are active home operation systems which require regular maintenance.

The basic task of a chimney sweep is to clean chimneys. Cleaning means removing the hazard of accumulated and highly combustible creosote produced by burning wood and wood products. It means eliminating the buildup of soot in coal- and oilfired systems, it means getting rid of bird and animal nests, leaves and other debris that may create a hazard by blocking the flow of emissions from a home heating appliance. In doing their primary job, sweeps also function as on-the-job fire prevention specialists. They are constantly on the lookout for unsafe conditions that can cause home fires or threaten residents with dangerous or unhealthy indoor air quality.

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HOME & Garden

APril 20, 2012 Continued from the previous page

chimney, which is important for safety’s sake. That’s done by a chimney company.”

Greenfield Plumbing and Heating offers homeowners an annual maintenance agreement. “We come out and do the cleaning and servicing and check the whole unit,” Clarke said. “If something needs to be repaired, we bring it to your attention.”

Clarke said that having a technician look at a furnace or boiler on a regular basis is the best practice. “That way we get familiar with your system.” He adds, “many houses, especially older homes, have quirks that are part of the system. We’re completely computerized in terms of our records, so if, as we’ve seen in some houses, there’s a vent on the second floor in a closet, we’ll have that in our records. Our technicians are reminded on the call slip about things like that, but more importantly they know each house because they’ve been to it multiple times.”

For Clark, smaller is better when it comes to customer service. “When you have a relationship with our firm you can trust that what we tell you is what needs to be done,” Clarke said. “Some companies are fly by night. Their guys work strictly on commission, so they’re looking to sell you something. We don’t operate that way.”

Clarke said that while Greenfield is “licensed all over the county,” its tech-

nicians service homes and businesses “mostly on the west side of the county, the Rivertowns from Ossining to Yonkers and into White Plains, Greenburgh, Hartsdale and Scarsdale.”

Those applying for jobs with Greenfield are given a 10-page exam as part of the application process, Clarke said.

“It’s not a pass or fail. I look at it and can tell what he knows and doesn’t know just by looking at the exam. And we have ongoing training all the time.

We’re constantly sending everybody to manufacturers’ schools. Most good companies will do that.”

Although chimney installation, repair and cleaning are not services generally performed by heating and cooling firms, Clarke emphasized that keeping a house’s chimney in good working order is extremely important and goes handin-hand with ensuring a home remains safe.

Homeowners should do their research and obtain verification of a chimney cleaning and repair company’s expertise before hiring such a firm. Chimney repair and cleaning are typically done by other, unrelated firms, like Mr. Chimney, which has been serving New York and Connecticut since 1969. All of these types of companies can help protect you against the silent killer, carbon monoxide (visit www.mrchimney.com/cohazard.html).

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The scarsdale Inquirer | Page 9A

Interior decorator, owner of Motif Designs ‘stylish, but thrifty’

F

or nearly 20 years, Scarsdale native and renowned interior decorator Lyn Peterson has been creating fresh interiors with her trademark mix of practicality and elegance, fashion and function.

Peterson, has been asked to contribute a tablescape to the Red Cross annual Red & White Ball on April 28. This is an honor reserved for only the most acclaimed decorators. The ball’s theme will be “When Help Can’t Wait.” It will be held in the NetJets Hanger at Westchester Airport. To reflect the ball’s theme, tabletops will incorporate red and white and, of course, the “help can’t wait” theme.

Peterson’s table will be donned with old-fashioned nurses caps, chairs dressed in hospital scrubs and, of course, her signature style.

Motif Designs co-founder Peterson, otherwise known as “the real life decorator,” boasts a roster of clients from Napa to Naples. Her role as house whisperer is one she takes on with spirit. She does not discriminate. A project is a project whether mudroom or manse. Working regularly with top architects and contractors, her goal is to come up with a realistic familycentric design.

Stylish, but thrifty, Peterson keeps her well-trained eye on the big picture. She combs trade sources, antique stores, retail venues and increasingly, Motif’s own to-the-trade home furnishings, mirror,

lighting and accessories catalogues to bring a client’s aesthetic to fruition. A home should be about you — your lifestyle, your furniture, your budget. To Peterson, nothing is less chic than a home that screams decorator.

Years of on-the-job site knowledge make her savvy about what really works and what doesn’t in renovation and decoration. Peterson’s ideas and interiors are featured regularly in the shelter magazines. Her designs have graced the covers of House Beautiful, Country Living, House and Garden and Home. Her books include “Real Life Decorating” (Creative Home), “Real Life Kitchens” (Clarkson Potter) and “Real Life Renovating” (Clarkson Potter).

Peterson and her husband, Karl Friberg, co-founders of Motif Designs, produce a to-the-trade catalogue, intended to provide a Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn-like resource — only a bit more upscale — to industry professionals. As with all projects Peterson has brought her decorating know-how to the table in selecting products, combing through millions of choices from thousands of vendors. The finished product is both stylish and practical as all things Lyn Peterson. The catalogue is rich with chic options that are all about real living—sofas geared to seating, chairs for reading and generous bedside tables with lots of surface space to list a few.

Visit www.motif-designs.com.

HOME & Garden

Page 10A | The scarsdale Inquirer

April 20, 2012

Long live your lawn!

And how to bring it back to life when it seems grim

By JACKIE LUPO

A

neighbor of mine had a lawn that was the envy of the block: thick, green and weedfree. This elderly gentleman could be seen each day removing a few errant weeds from the flowerbeds, but otherwise he apparently did nothing but pay a guy to mow every week.

When we moved into the house two doors away, our lawn could hardly be called a lawn, since weeds and bare spots greatly outnumbered areas of what could reasonably be called “grass.” After a few years in the hands of the landscaper who had worked for our neighbor for decades, our lawn was also lush, green and weed-free, although I soon realized that mowing was only one of the many jobs that gardener did for the lawn throughout the season. I also realized that without constant attention,

u ns o c

s on i t lta

there is no natural scenario in which a lawn will remain a lawn.

Left to its own devices, the typical suburban lawn will revert to its baser instincts, which most likely means an amalgam of a little grass and a lot of weeds (both native and invasive foreigners) and many areas victimized by insects and disease.

Since no two ailing lawns are sick for exactly the same reason, I set out to discover why some lawns look great while others struggle on, season after season. Here’s what I found.

It starts with the soil

“Everything that occurs in the lawn starts with the soil,” said Jim Boes, owner of Innovative Irrigation in Larchmont. “My house was built in the 1920s and six or seven owners have been here. You don’t know what kind of care people have taken before you. So a good thing is to start with a soil sample, because you want to know

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the pH level of the soil.”

Having forgotten my high school chemistry, that meant little to me. But it turns out that a lawn thrives only when the pH is neutral: about 6.5. When the pH is below 7.0, it is acidic; above 7.0, it is alkaline. Lots of things can affect the lawn’s pH, including the leaching of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium from the soil, or the use of certain fertilizers. When the pH is off, the lawn can’t get proper nutrients for growth, and it becomes less able to withstand stressors such as heat, lack of water, or too much traffic over the grass.

If the lawn is too acidic, you will probably need an application of lime to bring it up to a neutral pH. Don’t expect instant results after the lime application, said Boes: “It takes two to three months for the lime to cycle through the soil.” Once you have your soil analyzed, you’ll also be in a better position to choose other lawn care products that are made for the particular com-

position of your lawn.

Note that what you use to treat your lawn may not be what you need for your shrubs and flowers. For example, naturally acidic soil is not all bad. Azaleas will thrive in acidic soil. Lilacs will suffer in it.

How do you have your soil analyzed?

The easiest way is by hiring a turf grass expert to take samples from several areas of the lawn in order to find out the pH and discover any other anomalies in the soil.

You can also do this yourself. An excellent resource for this is the agricultural college at Cornell University. Send them $45 along with your soil sample (their website tells you how to take the sample) and they’ll tell you the condition of your soil, what organic matter and minerals are present, the pH, and many other facts that affect the fertility of your lawn. Visit http://soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu/extension/test.htm Continued on the next page

HOME & Garden

APril 20, 2012

The scarsdale Inquirer | Page 11A Timing is everything

Continued from the previous page

for complete instructions.

What, exactly, is your problem?

SavaLawn, with offices in Mamaroneck and Bedford Hills, sends a lawn care expert to walk the property, diagnose the soil conditions, spot the many factors that can be causing lawn problems, and recommend treatments for those problems. Many homeowners assume that all lawn care companies will want to put lots of chemicals on the lawn. But many lawn care specialists, such as SavaLawn, offer customers a choice among organic, nonorganic, and combination programs. If you live near water or if you have children and/or pets walking all over the grass, the organic solution may be preferable. It costs a little more and takes a bit longer to see results, but you may sleep better at night not wondering about the chemicals in your yard.

Soil composition is only one factor affecting lawn health.

“High humidity, moisture, stress conditions and certain types of grass can create favorable conditions for problems such as lawn fungus, brown patches, red thread and other lawn diseases,” according to information published by SavaLawn.

Although there’s the temptation to throw everything you can at a lawn problem at the beginning of the spring, that may not be the best time. This year, many people have problems because of the early spring. Ideally, said Boes, “a pre-emergent broadleaf [weed] control and fertilizer kills weed seeds and feeds the lawn.” But you may have missed your window of opportunity to use a pre-emergent product, since everything started to grow about a month early. If you want to reseed your lawn, you will need to apply a post-emergent weed killer, and then you will have to wait a while to apply grass seed.

“Ideally, you should do seeding in the fall, not in the spring,” said Boes, “because the soil temperature is still up but you don’t have weeds emerging.”

Aeration is another remedy for sick lawns. The healthiest lawns have nice, deep roots. If the soil is compacted, water can’t get deep down into the soil. The grass roots stay near the surface, and it’s easy for those plants to be killed by drought, excessive water, people walking on the lawn, the wheels of lawnmowers, and so on. When landscapers do a core aeration, they use Continued on page 12A

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Long live your lawn Continued from page 11A

a machine that brings up little cylinders of soil, creating lots of holes for water to enter. Many landscapers do this job in the spring, but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not ideal if there are a lot of weeds, because, according to Boes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This also brings the weeds up.â&#x20AC;? A good time to apply seed is after aerating, because when you do apply seed, it has to have a way to get into the soil. Applying seed over a thatch of dead grass and hard soil wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do much. At the very least, you need to vigorously rake up the lawn so the seed has someplace to go.

Bad patches

Suppose your lawn is generally in good shape but has patches of dead or yellowing grass. The problem could be that some fertilizer has killed a patch of grass, or doggie visitors have upset the chemical balance of the soil. Now, the soil is contaminated. So putting seed and fertilizer there wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do much.

The best remedy for patches of contaminated soil begins with getting that contamination away from the surface. Dig a spade into the soil and try to remove the whole dead patch, along with a few inches of soil, in one piece. Flip the whole thing over. Now, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve transferred the contaminated material deep underground, where it will dissipate. You should flood the area with water to drive the contaminants further underground. Then you can seed and fertilize the bare patches. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essential to

keep the seeded areas constantly moist until the seed germinates, which may take a couple of weeks. If you let the seeds dry out before they put out roots, they will probably die.

Starting over

Sod is the high-ticket solution for bringing a lawn back from the dead. Sod is like wall-to-wall carpet for your lawn, complete with weed-free grass and its own root system. But for sod to establish itself well on your soil, it needs to be able to put down roots, receive adequate water and get enough sunlight to grow properly.

Boes explained that if homeowners donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have an irrigation system and are thinking of installing a sod lawn, the time to get those sprinklers installed is before the sod is laid down. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s much more difficult to install sprinklers after sod is down,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Keeping the sod well-watered will help its roots reach down, into the soil below. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A steadily, properly irrigated lawn will be healthier because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re able to drive the root growth,â&#x20AC;? said Boes. He added that once the sod is established with roots in the underlying soil, it should be aerated to promote water reaching deep into the ground. Compared to most existing lawns, sod lawns are very dense, and water has trouble getting through. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t aerate sod before the roots are established, though: if you can pull on a section of sod and it comes up like a doormat, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not rooted yet. It may take four to six weeks for sod to lock into the soil.

aPrIl 20, 2012 Sprinkler savvy

Sometimes installing an irrigation system or tweaking an existing system can give a lawn a new lease on life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The design is absolutely the crucial part of the irrigation system,â&#x20AC;? said Boes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You need to know how to design a system for the amount of slope, and for sun and shade factors. You need to separate the lawn from the shrubs and high water-need plants.â&#x20AC;?

Even though it may seem more complicated, said Boes, the more zones you have, the better. Not only will you be able to control the frequency and duration of the watering in each zone, but you will be able to choose what types of sprinkler heads deliver water to different areas of the garden. If you have put in a flowerbed where you used to have lawn, and you already have a sprinkler system, the sprinkler heads delivering water to that part of the property should probably be changed because flowers and shrubs have different water needs from grass lawns.

Expect to reset your sprinkler system a few times during the growing season. If you have your sprinkler system set up by your irrigation company when they arrive this month to turn it on for the season, the system does not need to be delivering as much water now as it will in the heat of the summer. It may seem like a pain to keep resetting the system when the weather changes, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s necessary, unless you invest in a controller that is weather-sensitive. These are newest generation of irrigation system controllers.

They adapt to the weather conditions and continually change the program for each zone, so the homeowner never has to touch it. Not only can this kind of controller do away with changing the programming several times a year, it also prevents your lawn from being soaked with water the day after a major rainstorm.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t undo your hard work

Once youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve done everything possible to get a gorgeous lawn, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let that hard work be undone. â&#x20AC;˘ Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t over-irrigate in shady areas where grass is thinly established; these areas will tend to become flooded after watering, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll turn into mud pits when you run a mower over them. â&#x20AC;˘ Be sure the lawn mower blades you or your gardener uses are nice and sharp.

If the ends of the grass look jagged, the blades of the mower are dull. Blades of grass that are injured this way will put out a clear, sticky liquid. If this happens, the lawn should be watered thoroughly. â&#x20AC;˘ Is your gardenerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mower contagious? If he is not cleaning off his mower blades from his last job before he comes to your property, his mower could be transferring weeds to your pristine lawn. â&#x20AC;˘ Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cut your lawn too short. Let it grow to 3â&#x20AC;? to promote dense growth and healthy roots. â&#x20AC;˘ If you see weeds emerging, leave your grass a little longer, about 3 1/2 inches, to choke out the weeds and deprive them of sunlight.

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HOME & Garden

The scarsdale Inquirer | Page 13A

Fern-tastic!

By MARY LEGRAND

O

h deer!

How do Westchester homeowners create beautiful landscaping without attracting those roving bands of four-footed munchers that lay waste to tender shrubs and perennials on a nightly basis?

One answer is to plant ferns, which white-tailed deer and other critters tend to avoid. Compared to other perennials, ferns are also relatively low maintenance, another added plus.

Mark Gilliland of Garden Artistry in Irvington is a New York Botanical Garden certified landscape designer. A fan of ferns, he noted that “a large number of fern species can accept part shade to full shade environments, although most require rich humus soils and prefer not to have extended periods of dry soil.”

Thus, “they are appropriate for woodland edges, shade gardens, rain gardens and other specialized design uses,” Gilliland continued.

Best used in groupings, ferns can differ in size from delicate Japanese painted ferns, which are typically 18 inches high by 12 inches wide, to ostrich ferns, which come in at a whopping 5 feet in height by 3 feet in width.

“So planting smaller ones near the front of the border and larger ones as architectural accents in the mid- to rear-bed makes sense,” Gilliland said. “I particularly like using painted fern under flowering trees as a ground cover accent mixed with sweet woodruff.”

Gilliland does caution that those thinking of planting ferns need to “check carefully about soil and water requirements, especially as they get into sunnier locations — damper, more continuous moisture will be needed. One particular fern for drier locations is autumn fern.

In terms of water, ferns could do well in beds of mixed part-shade to shade perennials such as cimcifugia or snakeroot, astilbe, bleeding heart or monkshood.”

Basic care involves cutting ferns back to their crown in late winter or early spring before regrowth commences. “Although not evergreen, leaving ferns standing through winter can provide interesting visual textures against snow,” Gilliland said.

Daryl Beyers is senior landscape designer at Poundridge Nurseries in Pound Ridge. A graduate of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where he earned a degree in environmental design, Beyers concurs that landscaping with ferns is a good idea for Westchester property owners, particularly those who live in the

parts of the county with high deer populations.

“Ferns are great plants to use for groundcover,” Beyers said. “They’re useful considering all the trees around here, because ferns do really well in the shade.

Deep shade is one of the hardest parts to try to garden in; you’re really limited in terms of the possibilities. You can’t use hosta because the deer will eat them all.”

Ferns are also useful because there are so many varieties, colors and textures, according to Beyers. “They can range from the big ostrich ferns, which can get

to be 6 feet tall,” he said. “Compare that to the maidenhair fern, which is so delicate, small and tiny, just the opposite of the ostrich fern.”

Beyers said “getting a lot of mileage out of foliage” is an important plus for those who consider planting ferns.

“Flowers come and go, but foliage tends to be there all year-round, at least during the growing season and along the edges of those months. Ferns persist throughout the winter. They’ll get a little ragged, but if you have a winter like we just did with no snow, they’ll definitely hold up through December.”

Beyers said there are about two dozen kinds of ferns available at Poundridge Nurseries, where he’s been for four years and writes a blog that appears on the nursery’s website. “You can buy big ferns in 3- or 5-gallon pots down to a little 4-inch pot. Once they’re established you’re in good shape, but you do have to water them well the first season, depending on the sun exposure,” he said. “With deep shade you should be in good shape even through the summer. If they do get some sun during the day, they might need extra water during the hottest, sunniest days in July, August and September.”

Amending soil with peat moss to help retain moisture is always helpful, Beyers said, adding that one of his favorite ways to use ferns is to mass them. “You could take over a big slope,” he said. “The maintenance is practically zero. They go Continued on page 15A

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HOME & Garden

aPrIl 20, 2012

Consider variety of sources for a well-lit space From sunlight to bulb, the importance of lighting is very much tied to comfort and well-being in a space. According to interior designer Linda Blair of The Blair Interiors Group in Scarsdale, “It’s easy to get caught up in picking out fixtures, but the real magic is in achieving the quality of a properly lit space. I like rooms that feel right; and for me, that feeling has a lot to do with lighting.”

To achieve comfort of life, Blair recommends layered landscapes of light within each room. “Lighting can be tricky,” she said. “You neither want too little nor too much, and you must be sensitive to the function of each space and the activities that occur there.”

Therefore, she recommends a combination of overhead ambient light, middle light around eye level, and directed task lighting for activities like cooking, reading or deskwork.

“All lighting should be strategically placed for the health and harmony of your life,” Blair recommended. It is important to illuminate hallways, walkways and stairways and to provide focused lighting in task areas. Coordinating light placement with a furniture floor plan assures a sensible, functional environment — and avoids the curiously popular fashion of repeating rows of recessed ceiling fixtures that tend

toward an overlit interior.

Today, light bulbs are offered in a variety of choices. Blair recommends a combination of traditional incandescent bulbs (in lamps, sconces and overhead fixtures) and low-voltage MR16 halogen bulbs (in smalldiameter, recessed lighting or track lighting). Although incandescent bulbs have the shortest lifespan of 100-150 hours, Blair prefers their soft quality of light for achieving the greatest comfort in a space.

MR16 bulbs have a lifespan of 500 hours.

A third variety — florescent bulbs with a lifespan of 15,000 hours — are recommended only for hotels, apartment buildings and other commercial spaces where corridor lights need to stay on at all times.

1) Middle lighting: It is important to

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install lighting at eye level throughout a house, especially in foyers, living rooms, passageways and bathrooms. Sconces, table lamps, standing floor lamps and pendants satisfy this need and provide many design options.

2) Ceiling lights: A central ceiling fixture controlled by a switch is a practical and attractive way of lighting a room. Consider a central ceiling fixture for each room, combined with other layers of light. This combination creates a comfortable, pleasing atmosphere — as opposed to the stark brightness of numerous rows of recessed lights. A striking central fixture can also be an unexpected decorative element.

3) Task lighting: Focused task lighting is essential and should be placed where

needed inside a house — near a reading chair, at a desk, in the kitchen, flanking the bathroom mirror or highlighting a collection or an art display. Lamps or small (4inch) recessed lights with directed beams of light satisfy this role. Since the optical ability to physically see light decreases from age 25 through middle age, and further declines after the age of 55, task lighting is extremely important for health, productivity and well-being.

4) Simple fixtures: Lighting design has evolved away from fixtures dominated by metal arms and tiny shades. The most popular contemporary look favors clean geometry and soft-looking materials. Oversized drum shades, with bulbs concealed behind the shade, offer a clean, elegant, modern style. In simple solids, bold prints or geometric patterns, shades are making bold design statements while they seem to float in a room. Look for them suspended as hanging fixtures or mounted on simple standing bases.

5) Pairs: Two’s company when it comes to balanced lighting. Pairs of accent lamps, sconces or pendants create a lovely sense of symmetry while bathing a space with even lighting. The visual balance of a pair of sconces flanking an elegant mirror can be strong enough to even replace artwork on a wall. Pairs of strategically placed lamps can also create a rhythm of light and shadow, which softens an environment and can be used to navigate a space.

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APril 20, 2012

Fern-tastic

Cutting garden

Continued from page 13A

Continued from page 3A

dormant in the winter, so you don’t have to cut them back or take them out. It’s natural for them to do that, and the old leaves compost and produce the next generation.”

In addition to consulting landscape designers such as Gilliland and Beyers, there are a number of reference books and sources on using ferns. Gilliland suggested Christopher Lloyd’s “Garden Flowers: Perennials, Bulbs, Grasses, Ferns,” William Cullina’s “Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses,” A.M. Armitage’s “Native Plants for North American Gardens,” and “Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East,” by Carolyn Summers as good references.

And, unbeknownst to many local residents, there’s a fern expert living right here in Westchester County. Dr. John Mickel, senior curator emeritus at the Institute of Systemic Botany, lives in Briarcliff Manor. Interpretation of ferns to the public has been a major part of his career.

As founder and only secretary of the New York Fern Society, and founder and editor of the American Fern Society’s bulletin, Fiddlehead Forum, Dr. Mickel is a longtime public lecturer on fern cultivation who has shared his expertise with a number of local garden clubs over the years. He is also the author of “Ferns for American Gardens: The Definitive Guide for Selecting and Growing More Than 500 Kinds of Hardy Ferns.”

make a snack of our tasty flowers. “You cannot ignore the deer,” Silver said. “It’s just a reality. The plants you love are also ones that the deer covet. You need a spot that the deer won’t get to.”

An important factor to consider is the longevity of the garden: “Do your research. You have to have a mix of plants that grow during different times of the growing season — early, mid- and late-summer — so you’ll always have flowers to pull from. Think about when things are in bloom.”

Silver thinks about composition, about harmonious arrangements. She recommends thinking about color palettes that you like and having the flowers all work together and blend. A palette of white, yellow, blue and purple is one combination. Orange, red and bright yellow is another.

“Think outside the box,” Silver said.

“Don’t limit yourself to flowers only.

Plant at least a small percentage of foliage plants — plants that have, for example, striped leaves or really crinkly texture. Those are plants that really lend an accent and a nice complement to all colorful blooms. Look through the nursery for striking foliage that catches your eye. It provides a little bit of a break, to the eye. It gives it a nice mix.”

Silver recommends as “fabulous foliage” hostas, ferns, coleus and ornamen-

The scarsdale Inquirer | Page 15A

tal grasses.

She also likes flowering shrubs: “The stature and weight of flowering shrubs adds nice heft and diversity to delicate flowers. Azalea, or hydrangea, roses, add something unexpected.”

In an ideal world a garden would get “tons of sun and no deer.” But not everybody has that kind of acreage. If your space is limited, Silver suggests weaving a cutting bed through a border or traditional garden: “If the sunniest place is in your foundation bed, use it.”

Quantity is essential for a cutting garden. “Be judicious in what you pick,” Silver said. “If you can’t have a large variety, quantity is what matters. I have a ton of coneflower. I can take it all season and I won’t have a hole in the garden.

You don’t want a gaping hole.”

Silver aims for at least one of every perennial bloom in every season.

For spring blooms Silver likes allium and peonies — “They look pretty together,” she said. In summer, astilbe and white and green coneflowers; in late summer/early fall, green hydrangeas “cut judiciously, to take inside.” She also likes Montauk daisies, anemones and lilyturf, which she describes as very low, with grassy foliage, and a spiky purple flower.

The name of the rose

All the experts recommended roses.

“The fairy rose is a very good beginner rose to start with. It’s sturdy, very pest and disease resistant, low maintenance,” Silver said.

Krautter recommends a separate rose cutting garden, although he said “roses are pretty no matter where you use them. You can use a flowering rose instead of a flowering shrub.”

Hybrid tea roses are going out of style, Krautter said, but the new “Knockout” varieties are more disease resistant and easy to grow.

Beautiful arrangements

For long-lasting arrangements, Vizioli of Cherry Lawn advised cutting a bloom when it is about one-third of the way open for “optimum life in the vase.”

Avoid cutting all flowers off one plant at one time, so you won’t deplete the garden: “It will take two or three weeks to rebloom.”

Early morning or dusk is the best time to cut a flower. “You don’t want to do it when the plant is under stress, when the sun is high in the sky,” Vizioli said. “The same goes for watering or fertilizing.”

Before placing a bloom in water, strip the leaves off. Cut the stems at an angle “so they don’t sit flat on the bottom of the vase,” Vizioli said, because that cuts off the water supply to the bloom. Add a floralife packet because the flowers continue to “drink up some of the nutrients” and change the water midway through the week.

“The plants don’t know they’ve been cut,” Vizioli said. “With nutrients and water, they’re tricked.”

Now you can enjoy your garden inside and out.

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HOME & Garden

Page 16A | The scarsdale Inquirer

April 20, 2012

The 5 Rs of reuse: recover, repaint, remix, reinvent, rethink that had been in their families for years and years. And these items were cherished, used, cared for and passed on again.

There are many reasons why we should emphasize the reuse of furnishings in our homes today. We all now know that it’s time to raise our sense of sustainability and make our world “green” for the future generations.

We should consider the reuse of items to interrupt the solid waste hierarchy. Giving away your cabinet keeps it out of the waste stream with little effort. It allows it to be used and permits it to be cherished once again. Reusing furnishings is also good for the environment by keeping virgin materials from being used, saving gas and oil consumption in packaging and trucking and, of course, avoiding that landfill.

By LINDA BLAIR, ASID

R

eusing old furnishings should always be considered when designing a new space. We’ve done that in our family, and it has been successful over the years from everybody’s point of view.

Having four married children, six grandchildren and a couple of residences overflowing with our families’ possessions, we have an ideal situation for mixing the old with new and redistributing family treasures.

For example, one son has a China hutch and dining chairs from my husband Bill’s Aunt Elsie, and crystal antique light fixtures from my mom Magda. Another son has a large portrait and marquetry chest from my parents’ New York City apartment that formerly housed a radio providing us the news, music and “The Shadow” and “The Lone Ranger” when I was growing up. His wife is pleased to receive family accessories rather than new items for every gift-giving opportunity.

Bill is thrilled to have his Aunt Elsie’s Governor Winthrop mahogany desk in our guest room, a piece that was originally purchased in 1942 for $89. It’s probably not worth more than that today, but it stays with us because it’s full of memories and useful, too. Similarly, I love using my mother’s Louis XV French desk that is in our elegant living room.

And, I remember the boys as teenag-

ers once intensely scrutinized a table full of over 50 small precious ivory and silver bibelots that I know they will want someday. They may have a fight on their hands — our grandchildren now lust after them, too.

One daughter living in California cherishes the antique cabinet with reverse painting on its doors and the China and ruby apertif glasses she has from my parents, while still another daughter uses Bill’s grandfather’s desk that he personally used for over 50 years.

When talking about family treasures, I can’t forget the centerpiece of our dining room, given to me half a century ago by

my grandmother, herself a talented interior designer. It’s a China cabinet created from Asian panels and screens, decorated with jade, ivory and mother of pearl figures and carving unlike any work I’ve seen here or there.

Cherished and passed on again

It’s a simple fact that almost everyone knows — things are not made as well now as they used to be. Yet we continue to purchase new, some of us avoiding old items in search of brand-new ones the way many of our forbears insisted on wallto-wall carpet and that first Maytag. But it wasn’t always that way — earlier ancestors came to their new homes with items

My kids don’t want my furniture

During a talk on design I gave at the Scarsdale Woman’s Club a couple of years ago, one attendee lamented to me, “My children don’t want my furnishings and I don’t know what to do with them as I move to smaller quarters.” I recommended an auction house I know and trust and several antique and thrift shops.

I am certain that many people have a similar lament. But I am equally certain that inheriting items from one’s family will, down the road, add meaning and a sense of family history as these items become cherished heirlooms.

Continued on the next page

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For me, a third-generation interior designer and antique dealer buying and installing, reusing, if you will, old items has been a joy. The hunt for the treasure itself — whether at auction, thrift shop or family attics and living rooms — is the link from past to present and the link toward a sustainable environment as well.

Trends come and go

I know today we favor a simple, uncluttered, clean look, but it too, after all, hearkens back to the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s — ’70s as well — as new generations like what the older ones had. As a designer, I know the best way to give character to a space is by judiciously mixing pieces, styles and products. That technique adds the special element of individual style to say nothing of history and memories if they’re pertinent.

Lighting, furniture and many accessory objects can be repainted, or distressed and antiqued. My grandmother was known for painting old iron light fixtures white to totally transform them.

During the decades I’ve been practicing interior design and serving on various historic boards and councils, my passion for history has been undeniably strengthened.

I grew up antiquing and in a world of beautiful homes with objects from all over the

HOME & Garden

world and I never ever lost the wonder of different styles and various cultures. Styles are “in,” then “out,” then back again in a decade or so. But trends notwithstanding, shepherding our planet toward increased sustainability should not go out of style, ever. Nor should our respect for the past.

At this time I’m delighted to have the opportunity to let my neighbors start to think even more about the idea of reflecting on reusing what they own or what others owned.

Using a dining table against a wall as a desk, using copper molds and plates on the walls, hanging rugs and tapestries from tag sales and antique stores and a plethora of others ideas — too many to list here — can make your home a warm and welcome home. We can respect well made and well worn furnishings a little bit more for their history and craftsmanship, their vintage and style, the knowledge they’ll be on top of the earth not buried in it in a landfill.

What’s better than that for living in 2012?

Linda Blair, ASID, NYSCID practices interior design from her Scarsdale office and works with clients in the metropolitan area and throughout the country. Email blairinteriors@aol.com.

New at DreamWork Kitchens & Baths Celebrating their 20th year in business, Paul and Elizabeth Bookbinder, owners of DreamWork Kitchens & Baths, have completed over 2,300 renovations in Westchester, New York City and Connecticut while maintaining over 98 percent complete customer satisfaction. In fact, they guarantee it.

At their recently remodeled showroom in Mamaroneck, DreamWork is now offering Executive Custom Cabinetry, an all-American made, 100 percent environmentally friendly cabinet that costs about the same as traditional cabinets.

Besides Executive, they also carry Mouser Custom, Dutch Made, Designer’s Choice and High Point cabinetry.

A design and build firm, DreamWork stands apart from most traditional kitchen and bath dealers because they also offer custom cabinet refacing. A step above the usual laminate refacing, DreamWork offers replacement fronts in real wood, ranging from the standards of cherry,

The scarsdale Inquirer | Page 17A

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maple and oak, to the more exotic woods like bamboo, cypress, walnut, etc. Consumer Reports featured before and after pictures of one of DreamWork’s refacing projects in their annual kitchen issue.

Besides going to DreamWork’s showroom at 401 Ward Ave. in Mamaroneck, you can visit with them on their website at www.dreamworkkitchens.com, see them on Facebook, follow their tweets on dreamworkkitch, or read the Kitchen & Bath Insider© on their blog, kitcheninsider.blogspot.com. Call 777-0437.

Cal Petrescu

If Cal designs it, they will come. That’s because Cal Petrescu Architecture and Design, in business since 1995, is a one-stop shop that covers all conceivable aspects of a project, with an eye toward protecting clients’ financial interests and the original design intent. Jobs include residential, retail, restaurants and entertainment.

Cal Petrescu, A.I.A., has worked with such companies as Tiffany & Co. and Brooks Brothers.

Based on his 25-plus years of design expertise, home and abroad, Cal’s studio develops exciting concepts, both traditional and nontraditional. Services include zoning and site analysis, feasibility studies, construction documentation and management, agency process, budgeting, and interior and lighting design.

A Scarsdale resident, Cal is one of the few architects in Westchester to offer multimedia or computer-generated renderings and animated presentations of intricate projects. His studio works hard to translate lifestyles into distinctive home designs across the tri-state area. Simply look around your neighborhood to view the results!

Hours: Call any time, Cal will flex to your schedule.

Cal PetresCu arChiteCture and design e-mail: cal@mynyarchitect.com • www.thewestchesterarchitect.com

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Page 18a | The scarsdale InquIrer

HOME & Garden

aPrIl 20, 2012

Wall art gets personal

A

ndy Bart, owner of The Elegant Poster in Dobbs Ferry, has noticed a shift in wall art over the last decade. Current fashion favors â&#x20AC;&#x153;an individual, personal approach as opposed to general decorating trends,â&#x20AC;? he said. While allowing for a full range of tastes and styles, the most interesting art and objects have meaning and aesthetic sensibility. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What you hang on your walls affects the way you live in a space and how you feel there. You want it to represent whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to you,â&#x20AC;? Bart said.

Photography is especially popular now, ranging from intimate groups of elegantly framed snapshots to poster-sized enlargements hung exhibition style. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photos are getting better now with digital cameras and all the manipulations available on Photoshop,â&#x20AC;? Bart said.

Sometimes interests are reflected in unusual items, but even this is not a problem. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Anything can be framed and displayed, including three-dimensional objects,â&#x20AC;? the master framer said.

His shop has handled challenging projects ranging from significant historical items to fun collectibles, such as a deed signed by Ben Franklin, a piece of the first undersea transatlantic cable and a full-size guitar autographed by the Beatles. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The cost of framing is more affordable than many

Photos courtesy of The elegant Poster

Creativity is key to giving your personal space a personal touch, with some help from The Elegant Poster.

Continued on the next page

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HOME & Garden

APril 20, 2012

The scarsdale Inquirer | Page 19A

Continued from the previous page

Ancestors and Descendants of Megan Maureen Yates James Yates

George Abbey

John Monahan

Michael Nash

Pryor Anderson Nimmo

Jon Petter Andersson Lundstrom

Peter J. Fagan

Jacob Ruff

Born: 1777 in Guilford County, North Carolina Died: 1858 m: 1796 in Guilford County

Born: December 12, 1806 in Middlebury, Vermont Died: March 23, 1901 in near Cleveland, Ohio

Born: Abt. 1796 in County Meath, Ireland Died: June 23, 1849 in County Meath, Ireland

Born: Abt. 1806 in Ennis Fale, County Clare, Ireland

Born: March 14, 1828 in Grainger County, Tennessee Died: November 4, 1918 in Mammoth Springs, Fulton County, Arkansas

Born: December 13, 1835 in Valinge, Sweden Died: February 19, 1889 in Marshalltown, Iowa

Born: 1812 in Ireland Died: June 13, 1892 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: 1816 in Strasbourg, Alsace Lorraine Died: February 14, 1877 in Indian Creek Township, Pulaski County, Indiana

—married—

—married—

Mary Jones

Helen Wilson

Bridget Glacken

Unknown Manogue

Born: Bet. 1775 - 1780 in North Carolina Died: Bet. 1840 - 1850

—married—

Born: Bet. 1806 - 1811in Middlebury, Vermont Died: Bet. 1875 - 1880 in Delhi, Delaware County, Iowa

Born: Abt. 1800 in Glackenstown, County Meath, Ireland Died: Abt. 1892 in County Meath, Ireland

Isaac Taylor

—married—

—married—

Mary Alice Willard

Elizabeth McGuire

Born: September 18, 1797 in Sutton's Creek, North Carolina Died: April 15, 1865 in Hamburg, Iowa

Hiram Yates

married

Born: January 29, 1832 in Belleville, Indiana Died: September 14, 1904 in Hamburg, Iowa

Elizabeth Ann McManus

married

U.S. Grant Yates Born: November 22, 1864 in Sidney, Iowa Died: March 1955 in Omaha, Nebraska

married

Born: 1843 in Robertson County, Tennessee Died: Abt. 1893 in Farmington, Graves County, Kentucky

Patrick Monahan

John Nash

Born: July 22, 1830 in Glackenstown, County Meath, Ireland Died: May 17, 1907 in Chatsworth, Illinois

Born: April 16, 1833 in Warrinsville, Ohio Died: September 28, 1913 in Sidney, Iowa

Born: November 7, 1833 in New York, New York Died: October 16, 1928 in Omaha, Nebraska

Julia A. Baggett

Born: in Ireland Died: Abt. 1849 in Ireland

Born: Abt. 1793 in Beltrassen, County West Meath, Ireland Died: December 18, 1872 in Jordon, Onondaga County, New York

Larue H. Abbey

Born: March 1813 in North Carolina Died: July 5, 1893 in Sidney, Iowa

—married—

Unknown Malone

Elizabeth Hanley

married

Bridget Brennan

Born: March 2, 1836 in Beltrassen, County West Meath, Ireland Died: December 2, 1906 in Chatsworth, Illinois

married

Born: February 1835 in County Roscommon, Ireland Died: December 28, 1901 in Panama, Shelby County, Iowa

Kittie Maude Abbey

William Patrick Monahan

Margaret Winifred Nash

Rollie Oliver Nimmo, Sr.

Born: June 19, 1869 in Manchester, Iowa Died: July 1957 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: April 30, 1867 in Chatsworth, Illinois Died: February 21, 1939 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: April 20, 1874 in Lost Nation, Iowa Died: February 14, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: July 29, 1891 in Farmington, Kentucky Died: January 1972 in Omaha, Nebraska

Grant Yates, Jr.

Born: September 15, 1899 in Nebraska City, Nebraska Died: October 8, 1988 in York, Pennsylvania

married

married

Margaret Mary Monahan

Born: August 8, 1939 in Omaha, Nebraska

—married—

Mary L. Kennedy

Julia Lanphier

Born: January 14, 1842 in Burston, Norfolk, England Died: February 3, 1939 in South Bend, Pacific, Washington

Born: Abt. 1824 in Ireland Died: June 13, 1893 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: June 18, 1823 in County Tipperary, Ireland Died: Aft. 1883

Ludvig Lunstrum

James Fagan

Lawrence Ruff

Born: November 20, 1862 in Munka Ljungby, Kristianstads, Sweden Died: November 4, 1912 in Council Bluffs, Iowa

Born: 1856 in St. Louis, Missouri Died: 1900 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: April 29, 1842 in Indian Creek Township, Indiana Died: April 20, 1920 in Phoenix, Arizona

Bridget Kennedy

married

Born: December 21, 1858 in Chicago, Illinois Died: July 31, 1885 in Omaha, Nebraska

Blanche Lillian Lunstrum

John Aloysius Fagan

Born: November 7, 1894 in Valley Junction, Iowa Died: March 21, 1991 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: September 18, 1881 in Omaha, Nebraska Died: May 11, 1958 in Omaha, Nebraska

married

Born: October 8, 1917 in Council Bluffs, Iowa Died: June 19, 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska

married

married

Born: July 3, 1866 in New York Died: October 14, 1938 in Los Angeles, California

Rollie Oliver Nimmo, Jr.

Born: June 30, 1905 in Chatsworth, Illinois Died: February 19, 1986 in York, Pennsylvania

David Patrick Yates

Born: December 21, 1827 in Ireland Died: Aft. 1883 m: 1850 in New York

—married—

Eliza Bale

Josephine Wilson

married

Born: March 11, 1866 in Robertson County, Tennessee Died: July 7, 1951 in Los Angeles, California

Patrick Ryan

Born: Abt. 1825 in County Tipperary, Ireland Died: Bet. 1862 - 1869 in Probably Chicago, Illinois

—married—

Born: September 6, 1861 in Farmington, Kentucky Died: June 23, 1937 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky

Martha Ann Shannon

—married—

Magdalena Daudinger Born: 1821 in Strasbourg, Alsace Lorraine Died: September 9, 1879 in Indian Creek Township, Pulaski County, Indiana

Born: November 5, 1844 in Buffalo, Niagara, New York Died: December 15, 1867

Thomas Mitchell Nimmo

Born: July 2, 1832 in Ennis Fale, County Clare, Ireland Died: March 7, 1915 in Panama, Shelby County, Iowa

John Kennedy

Richard G. Wilson

Born: October 15, 1836 in Robertson County, Tennessee Died: July 12, 1900 in Farmington, Graves County, Kentucky

—married—

Mary Catherine Lynch

Born: 1816 in Enniskillen, Ireland

Mary F. Davis Born: September 16, 1827 in Ireland Died: April 1, 1885 in Omaha, Nebraska

John A. Shannon

Born: in Ireland Died: Abt. 1849 in Ireland

—married—

—married—

Carolina Malm Born: February 12, 1836 in Sonnarslov, Krikahus, Kristianstads, Sweden Died: March 15, 1920 in Boise, Idaho

Born: September 28, 1835 in Calloway County, Kentucky Died: Abt. 1863 in Farmington, Kentucky

Michael Brennan

Born: Abt. 1790 in (Beltrassen, West Meath) Old Castle, Ireland Died: May 11, 1877 in Jordon, Onondaga County, New York

Born: 1814 in Enniskillen, Ireland Died: 1849 in Cincinnati, Ohio

—married—

Sarah Taylor

Charles Hanley

James McManus

Born: April 27, 1784 in Henry County, Virginia Died: December 15, 1839 in Hendricks County, Indiana

—married—

—married—

Martha Vieola Cochran

married

Julia Anna Ryan

married

Born: May 9, 1855 in Carroll County, Indiana Died: June 25, 1932 in Omaha, Nebraska

Julia Ruff married

Born: January 14, 1882 in Winamac, Indiana Died: December 13, 1941 in Omaha, Nebraska

Jane Elizabeth Fagan Born: December 7, 1918 in Chicago, Illinios

Susan Ann Nimmo

Megan Maureen Yates Born: March 10, 1966 in Omaha, Nebraska

Born: May 7, 1940 in Omaha, Nebraska

married

David Gerard Martin Born: January 20, 1966 in Holyhoke, Massachusetts

Julia Anne Martin

Abigail Elizabeth Martin

Emma Jane Martin

Born: March 22, 1997 in Ridgewood, New Jersey

Born: February 16, 1999 in Ridgewood, New Jersey

Born: July 19, 2002 in London, England

Above, a multigeneration family tree is designed as wall art for a study. Left, The Elegant Poster does work that makes clients feel at home.

people think,” Bart said. “For about the same price as a night out to dinner, the relative value of a framed piece is forever. What is important is a work’s meaning to you. Think of your children’s drawings or those French prints purchased on an anniversary trip with your wife. One look and you’re transported back to a wonderful place in time.”

1) Family ties: Family portraits, moment-in-time snapshots and items from family ancestry deserve a place of honor on your walls, to keep connections alive and preserve a sense of continuity with the past.

Talk to a professional photographer about restoring faded or damaged family photographs. Today’s digital technology can copy original photos, restore poor condition and bring back amazing life and color.

2) Kids’ art: Moms and dads love children’s painted handprints and self-portraits more than the most commercially valuable paintings. Spontaneous and full of colorful abstraction, kids’ artwork embodies wonderful energy and expression. Why not preserve junior’s first drawings and turn a hallway or dining room wall into a gallery space?

These sweet childhood mementoes only get better with age, and they’re a tremendous boost for any young, developing Picasso.

3) Travel memorabilia: Re-experience vacation delights by enjoying souvenirs from your travels. Like a visual journal, photographs, postcards, event programs and other paper ephemera can be collaged onto a display board. Textiles, ceramics and other cultural artifacts can be mounted in a boxstyle frame. Start a collection by visiting an art gallery in every new city you visit. Or

make it a habit to pose for a photo next to each state sign that you encounter on meandering road trips.

4) Hobbies/collections: Decorate your space with images and objects that reflect your passions. Display your collections with dynamic flair. Let your walls speak of your personality. A music buff might define his den with record jackets, concert posters, sheet music and mounted instruments. A consummate chef may splatter her kitchen walls with copper gelatin molds, elaborate Victorian serving pieces, vintage cookbook pages or fruit and vegetable botanical prints.

Whatever you hang on your walls, let it make a statement about you.

5) Maps and documents: Which places and events hold personal significance? Gather maps and documents that define the story of your life and display their graphic designs in simple frames. Are your family’s roots in Ireland? Find an Irish map of the particular county from which your ancestors originated. Did you honeymoon in Rome? Select a city street plan showing the romantic places you visited. Have you been a lifelong New Yorker? Visit the library and photocopy relevant hand-drawn land surveys and property maps. Is your house historical? Track down old photographs or original architectural blueprints. Did your grandparents own a restaurant? A framed menu would make an interesting conversation piece. Old maps and documents are not only decorative; they provide an important link to the past.

— Traci Dutton Ludwig

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Page 20A | The scarsdale Inquirer

HOME & Garden

If you live in Scarsdale, you’re in good company...

If you’re insured with Advocate Brokerage you’re in great companies!

April 20, 2012