the buzz

  • Wednesday, October 24, 2007 2:17pm
  • Life

Poppin’ up pink: ‘Strawberry Popcorn’ is a new variety of corn.

The stalks grow about 4 feet tall and sport 2- to 3-inch pinky-red ears. It can be grown as an ornamental or to make popcorn. The Buzz has never sampled this one so we can’t tell you if the kernels pop up pink or what they taste like. But maybe next year consider planting it at the back of a sunny mixed border.

The authentic garden: Americans don’t need to look overseas to create something beautiful in the garden. In fact, author Claire Sawyer goes so far to say doing so is inauthentic in her new book, “The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating a Sense of Place” ($34.95).

Here’s what the author suggests:

Capture the sense of place: Discover and preserve what is special about your site and work with what you have rather than struggling against it.

Derive beauty from function: Essential features such as a driveway, mailbox or storage area offer opportunities to provide beauty as well as functionality to gardens.

Use humble materials: Using materials familiar and tied to the land, whether they’re indigenous, natural or recycled materials, helps convey a mood of modesty and casualness.

Marry the inside to the outside: Blur the lines between the built and the natural, between the architecture and the landscape; bring the outside in and take the inside out.

Involve the visitor: The more you and your visitors touch, smell, hear and see in the garden, the more profound and transformative the garden’s effect.

Fruit sampler: Taste apples and pears before you plant a tree at the Seattle Tree Fruit Society’s Fall Fruit Show 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday at Crossroads Bellevue Mall, 15600 NE Eighth St., Bellevue.

Fruit tree aficionados also will identify any “mystery” apples growing in your yard. Bring five unpolished apples for the experts to taste. They’ll also be apples to buy by the pound or by the box, and Hartman Nursery experts will offer advice about fruit trees that will produce well in your yard.

The event is free.

Clarification: An Oct. 18 story in Home &Garden, “Keeping the Basement Dry Important to Home’s Health,” listed Rainy Day Basement Systems as an exclusive dealer for Basement Systems Inc. Other companies also sell these products in the area.

Herald staff

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