Hold off on fertilizing and pruning during drought - Houston Chronicle

Harris County Master Gardeners will present an online lecture on fall vegetable gardening this month.
Q: A friend thinks she should fertilize shrubs now to help them out in the drought and heat conditions. Is this advised?
A: Do not fertilize shrubs or trees right now. It will do more harm than good.
Fertilizers are soluble salt compounds that are used to improve plant growth or fix a nutrient deficiency by adding one or more essential nutrients to the soil. However, plants need water to dissolve these nutrients before they can take them up. Without water, fertilizer salts build up in the soil and can lead to burned roots and/or leaves. This will only add another layer of stress.
During normal precipitation times, fertilizer should not be applied to mature shrubs and trees, unless a soil test states there is a deficiency.
If drought stress is observed, give supplemental water — but not the type of watering where you stand there and spray your hose at it for a couple of minutes until you get bored. If you do not have drip irrigation, provide a slower, deeper watering with a trickling hose lying under the shrub for 10-20 minutes. If the water runs off right away, the water stream is too high.
The only exceptions to this fertilizer advice are annuals and perennials that get adequate water from drip irrigation or watering by hand.
Reduce weeds, since they are competing for water, and avoid applying herbicides and pesticides.
Q: I read that I should not prune trees during the drought. What if there are issues that need to be addressed for hurricane season? I’ve consulted with an arborist to prune this month.
A: Courtney Blevins, Texas A&M Forest Service Urban Forester, says: “What you’re trying to do is reduce stress to the tree, so pruning, even when you have to, is adding stress because you are wounding the tree. If you’re pruning out live branches or live leaf areas of the tree, you’re removing food and the site where the tree’s root growth hormone is developed, affecting root growth and further stressing the tree at a time where it’s already too stressed.”
The exception is if the limbs and branches in question are dead or a hazard, then do what you must.
Since you have consulted with an arborist, they will be aware of the risks. It could be a two-phase pruning where the bare minimum is removed now and more removed later in the year, when rain and cooler temperatures return. If drought conditions persist, monitor the pruned tree and add supplemental water.
Garden calendar
OPEN GARDEN DAY: Harris County Master Gardeners host Open Garden Day the third Monday of each month. Tour a variety of plant exhibits, meet and talk with Master Gardeners, and purchase perennials and herb plants available in the greenhouse. 8:30-11 a.m. July 19. Free. Genoa Friendship Gardens, 1201 Genoa Red Bluff. For more info: hcmga.tamu.edu
CANNING 101: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will present a hands-on class where participants learn the basics of food preservation safety and supplies needed for home canning. They will leave with a canned item to take home. Presented by Brazoria County AgriLife Extension. 6 p.m. July 19. $20. Register at brazoria.agrilife.org.
FALL VEGETABLE GARDENING: Harris County Master Gardeners will present an online lecture. Attendees will learn how to prepare your garden, prep the soil, use fertilizer, and discover which vegetable are best to grow for the fall season. Presented by the Harris County Public Library and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension via Facebook Live. 11 a.m. July 19. Free. No registration required. Visit harris.agrilife.org for link.
BUILD AN HERB GARDEN: Mercer Botanic Gardens will present a hands-on class for children and teens ages 6 to 17. Children younger than 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Participants will plant basil, cilantro, dill and fennel seeds in a miniature take-home greenhouse. One kit per child. Multiple start times. July 20. Register at pct3.com/MBG.
CULTIVATING SCHOOL GARDENS: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will present a full day virtual gardening conference for school gardens, community gardens, or anyone wanting to learn more about maintaining a collaborative garden. Topics covered: layout design, soil, seeds, spring and fall vegetable gardening, irrigation, beneficial insects, maintenance, volunteer support, funding, health and wellness, and curriculum. 8 a.m. July 20. $30. Register at tx.ag/CSGC22Reg.
Brandi Keller is a Harris County Horticulture Agent with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.
Instead of shutting down the program immediately, they let it fade away over the course of a year. A tidal wave of applicants has now rushed to seek billions of additional dollars in last-minute tax breaks.
By Eric Dexheimer and Mike Morris

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Attracting pollinators to your yard: Garden Guy - FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul

FOX 9 Garden Guy Dale K offers tips to help attract pollinators to your Minnesota yard. There are some key ways you can do this in the garden, from the plants you choose to the habitat you offer.
(FOX 9) - From what you plant to the habitat you create, there are a few simple ways to attract bees and butterflies to your yard. 
Pollinators are an important factor in growing vegetables, fruits and other plants in your home garden, as well as in global food production. FOX 9's Garden Guy Dale K has some tips for attracting them to your yard. 
To create a welcoming habitat for a variety of pollinators, you should include water, such as a bird bath, in your yard. You can also purchase pollinator homes at your local garden store. And in early spring, it's important to leave that early lawn decay alone because it serves as a home for pollinators over the winter months. 
There are also different plants you can incorporate into your yard. There's a honeybee mix that you seed like any other grass seed and includes thyme and clover, which bees love. You can also plant a variety of perennials that are pollinator-friendly, as well as many herb flowers, such as oregano, which help attract pollinators. 
Watch the video above for more, and check out Dale K's other gardening tips here. 
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If There Are Only 4 Waterfall Hikes You Take In Florida, Make Them These - Only In Your State

Interestingly enough, the Sunshine State is not widely known for its waterfalls, being that it is a fairly flat state. It is, of course, famous for its ocean vistas and some of the best fun in the sun you can find. For something a little bit more novel, let’s do a deep dive into the waterfalls of Florida. These featured waterfall hikes are relatively short, but don’t let that deter you, as these hikes pack quite a punch just the same – unique beauty abounds. If there are only four waterfall hikes you take in Florida, make them these.
Don’t go chasing waterfalls? In this particular case, we would like to suggest that you literally do just that! Even if they are not the tallest of falls to be found, Florida offers a few downright fascinating waterfalls. After enjoying the beautiful beaches and soaking up that Florida sun, you’ll be ready to add a little adventure to your week with one of these waterfall hikes, if not all of them.
What is your favorite waterfall in Florida? Share your thoughts with us!
Read our other articles to learn even more about Falling Waters State Park, Rainbow Springs State Park and Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park.
 
 
 

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Gadgets Were Hot. Now They’re Not. - The New York Times

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By Shira Ovide
A lot of companies have been caught off guard by changes in our spending choices this year. Americans eager to travel and party after two years of staying largely at home are gorging on plane tickets and fancier clothes — and ignoring the patio furniture and soft pants that we splurged on in 2020.
Consumer electronics may be the flaming center of Americans’ flip-flopping shopping habits. Gadget buying has suddenly switched from hot to not, a change that will most likely bring pain and confusion for many companies — and potentially some great deals for people who still want to buy electronics.
In the early months of the pandemic, many of us were so eager to buy internet routers, laptops, video game consoles and other tech gear to keep us productive and cozy from home that some products were impossible to find. However, experts cautioned that people would inevitably pull back on buying some types of gadgets until they needed them again.
The magnitude of change after two flush years of gadget purchases has surprised many people. From January through May, electronics and appliance stores make up the only retail category for which sales fell compared with the same five months of 2021, the Commerce Department disclosed last week. Best Buy said last month that purchases at its stores dropped across the board, especially for computers and home entertainment, and are likely to stay meh. And the research firm IDC expects global smartphone sales to decline this year, most sharply in China.
What’s bad for electronics manufacturers and stores could be good for us, but value hunters will need to be careful. Nathan Burrow, who writes about shopping deals for Wirecutter, the product recommendation service from The New York Times, told me that prices for some electronics are already being discounted. But a sale when inflation is at a 40-year high in the U.S. may not always be a good deal. A discounted product might still cost more than similar models a few years ago, Burrow said.
The whipsaw in shopping habits has led Walmart, Target, Gap and some other retail chains to be stuck with too much of the wrong kinds of products. That’s true about some types of electronics, too, which means that more price chopping is likely during summer shopping “holidays” from Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Walmart.
Burrow predicts significant price breaks are coming for tablets, internet networking equipment, Amazon devices and some laptops including Chromebooks.
The research firm NPD Group said this year that consumer electronic sales would most likely decline in 2022 and again in 2023 and 2024 — but two previous bonkers years of electronics sales would still leave overall sales higher than they were in 2019. Despite the overall higher sales, this phenomenon of electronics sales unexpectedly going through the roof and then suddenly sinking is disorienting for gadget makers and sellers.
“It’s the unpredictability that makes everything worse,” said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC.
Making long-term predictions is tough for manufacturers, retailers and buyers of electronics. Some executives have said that global shipping and the availability of essential components like computer chips may never be 2019 normal. Select electronics like super-low-priced TVs and laptops could be gone for good as manufacturers and retailers became hooked on higher profits from pricier products.
In the electronics industry, experts told me that there were conversations about how to do things differently to prepare for potential future crises, including by spreading more gadget manufacturing to countries other than China. It’s not clear how our spending may shift again in response to inflation, the government’s efforts to cool off climbing prices or a potential recession.
For a while, people in rich countries grew accustomed to a steady stream of cheap and abundant electronics, furniture, clothes and other goods thanks to interconnected global factories and shipping. The pandemic and the wackiness it set off in supply chains have made some economists and executives rethink the status quo.
It’s possible that the ups-and-downs of electronics sales since 2020 will sort themselves out in a couple of years. Or perhaps consumer electronics are a microcosm of a world changed by the pandemic that may never quite be the same again.
Microsoft will remove features that claim to identify a person’s age, gender and emotional state from its facial recognition technology. My colleague Kashmir Hill reported that this decision was part of a broader effort at the company and elsewhere in the tech industry to use artificial intelligence software more responsibly.
A rural California town is divided on Amazon package delivery by drones: “I don’t want drones flying around my house — we live in the country,” one resident of Lockeford, Calif., told The Washington Post. (A subscription may be required.)
Related from On Tech last week: Where are the delivery drones?
Is Google Search not what it used to be? The Atlantic looks at the shreds of truth — including ruthless commercialization — behind the feeling that web search is becoming less useful. (A subscription may be required.)
You must read my colleague Sarah Lyall’s article about Wasabi, the semiretired champion Pekingese who doesn’t play fetch, run fast or do anything much besides enjoy his life.
We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you’d like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.
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Remembering New Bedford's 1985-86 Fishing Strike - wbsm.com

“You fishermen over the years have been screwed royally," said then-New Bedford City Councilor David P. Williford to a raucous crowd of union fishermen. “But you got sometimes nobody to blame but yourself because you never stuck together. You never had a leader. Well you got one now, and if you don’t stick together this time, you better hang it up.”
It’s difficult to imagine America’s top fishing port slowing down for a moment, but in late 1985 the once-unionized seafaring workforce of New Bedford brought operations to a screeching halt when they went on a strike. Then-Mayor John Bullard said at the time that stoppage was costing the industry roughly $1 million per day. 
According to the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, which keeps detailed records of the strike digitally and as part of an in-person exhibit at their downtown location, the three key reasons for the strike were: how to divide proceeds of catch; the fate of the $13 million pension fund for fishermen; and how crewmen could be hired.
The union picketed the docks and around the Wharfinger Building where the City-sponsored seafood auction was held. The demonstrations sometimes escalated into violence as boats that tried to leave the port were bombarded with rocks, boat owners' car tires were slashed, and wires were pulled from the electrical box at the Wharfinger Building. 
Fishing strikes in New Bedford were not a novel concept at the time. Unions had went on strike successfully in 1967 and 1973 and had resulted in fishermen getting better wages and working conditions.
Approximately six weeks after the 1986 strike, however, with the backdrop of corporations being empowered by the anti-union crusade of the Reagan Administration, a previously unsuccessful strike in 1981, and cultural distinctions in the fishing community creating barriers to their ability to coalesce, Councilor Williford’s warnings became a premonition.
Fleets of vessels crewed with non-union fishermen embarked on trips out of New Bedford Harbor, which devastated fishermen solidarity and effectively ended the unionization of local fishermen at the Port of New Bedford. The unions were not awarded new contracts. 
Though strike has faded from public memory, a recent and devastating report by New Bedford Light and Pro Publica detailing how foreign companies are capitalizing on the industry at the expense of local working class fishermen, as well as the ongoing dispute around scallop-leasing, highlight the consequences of the successful union-busting efforts of the boat-owners nearly four decades ago.
While the large corporations on New Bedford’s shoreline enjoy record profits, the working-class members of the fishing community are unable to effectively demand their fair share without an organized collective bargaining force. 
“When the union was there, you didn’t have a situation where people were complaining about working conditions or complaining about the wages or anything else," said labor attorney and former New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang in a recorded testimonial at the Fishing Heritage Center. “It was a good, well-known job. The idea that what American would ever work those jobs? Well the fact of the matter was that about seven hundred of them did. They were in the union and they loved the job.”
For more information on the 1986 strike and the history of organized labor of the local fishing industry, visit New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center’s in-person exhibit “More than a Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Fishing Industry” at their 38 Bethel Street location in downtown New Bedford.

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Bienenstock Furniture Library Adds Dudley Moore, Sr. Scholarship to Design Competition - Furniture World

Furniture World News Desk on 7/14/2022


The Bienenstock Furniture Library announces another new scholarship for its annual student furniture design competition, reflecting a $7,500 contribution made in memory of legacy furnishings designer Dudley Moore, Sr.
Dudley Moore, Sr. was the grandson of a prominent chair manufacturer from the mountains of North Carolina who initially relocated as a freelance designer to the High Point area, known as the Furniture Capital of the World. The company he eventually worked to establish remains one of the largest independent residential furniture design firms serving clients in the global home furnishings industry. 
 
The contribution was initiated by Moore’s children, Dudley Moore, Jr. and Carolyn Moore Shaw, who are executives and co-owners of Otto and Moore, Inc. Furniture Design, which was co-founded by their father in 1960. The firm has been recognized for design excellence throughout the years, with more than a dozen International Society of Furniture Designers (ISFD) Pinnacle awards.
 
“Otto & Moore has been involved with the library’s student design competition since its inception, as we are committed to supporting young designers and encouraging them to pursue careers in our industry,” says Moore, Jr., who additionally serves as board vice president for the Bienenstock Library Furniture.
 
“Our father very much enjoyed hiring young talent, and teaching them the skills they would need to be successful,” adds Shaw. “We can think of no better way to recognize our dad’s contributions to the industry, than to continue his tradition of mentorship by sponsoring the Bienenstock Furniture Design Competition in his honor.”  
 
Entries for the 2023 student challenge, newly christened The Dudley Moore, Sr. Furniture Design Competition, will be accepted in December, with two ranked winners selected and named by March 1, 2023. A check for $5,000.00 will be awarded to the student earning first place in the challenge; with $1,500.00 going to second place. At the first place winner’s school, the furniture design department will additionally receive $1,000.
 
The library’s annual student challenge includes The Barbour Spangle Interior Design Competition, which was launched in May with $7,500 in scholarships funded by High Point-based interior design firm Barbour Spangle Design. Winners of the 2023 student challenges for the furniture and interior design categories will be announced at the same time. 
 
For more information about the student competitions and for additional resources, please visit the Bienenstock Furniture Library website. 
 
 
About the Bienenstock Furniture Library: The Bernice Bienenstock Furniture Library is a worldwide center for research, design, and collaboration.  It holds the world's largest collection of rare and significant books on the history and design of furniture, with more than 5,000 volumes.

The Library is located in High Point, NC and is open to members of the home furnishings industry, students and the general public. The Library was founded in 1970 with an endowment from Furniture World Magazine and the Bienenstock family. It is supported by a board of directors from nearly every facet of the home furnishings industry. It is devoted to the advancement of knowledge about design, furniture, interiors, architecture, textiles, finishes, and constructions.

The Library's rare book collection contains volumes published since 1543. A special climate-controlled room houses these rare volumes. It is a treasure trove of inspiration for anyone interested in home furnishings and interior design.  

The Library's facilities include the Vuncannon Seminar Room, the high-tech Hadley Court Center for Design Collaboration and the Pat Plaxico Sculpture Gardens.  These areas are available for seminars, classes, events, meetings, design collaborations, networking and design retreats for a small honorarium.

For more information visit www.furniturelibrary.com or contact Karla Webb, Library Director at info@furniturelibrary.com or 336-883-4011.
 
 
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