Gazing Into the Crystal Ball: Are We Serious About Sustainability and ‘Going Green’…or Just Paying Lip Service?

January 6, 2008 Leave a comment

There appears to be a growing fervent desire, even within ‘mainstream circles,’ to rid oneself of conspicuous consumption, and attempt to live a more austere lifestyle. Perhaps you have a friend who decided to forgo Christmas-time gift-giving, or even displaying a Christmas tree…or know someone who rides the bus or a bicycle to and from work (toting their lunch to boot!), lives in a downtown urban core, or nor matter where the locale, is espousing the virtues of voluntary simplicity — a life free from clutter and ‘things.’ Perhaps not since the days of Henry David Thoreau, or the 1970’s back-to-the-land movement, have some people expressed such deeply felt environmental convictions.

city streetsSome of these convictions, cynics (conservative-government soothsayers) point out …

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Raving Against Paving

November 13, 2007 Leave a comment

“To build a road is so much simpler than to think of what the country really needs.”
– Aldo Leopold

Our yearning for ‘hitting the road’ and exploring new terrain is an American obsession that predates the invention of the automobile. Early settlers moving westward via animal power established trails and encampments that spawned our culture’s unending desire to experience new places, see new sights, exploit resources and impose changes in land use patterns.

The introduction of the automobile, the development of suburbia and a national highway system gives most of us freedom and mobility to move as we choose but at what cost? The typical car commuter spends upwards of 90 minutes per day getting to and from work. …

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Preventing a Garden

October 13, 2007 Leave a comment

In the November 2007 issue of Garden Design Magazine, plant guru Dan Hinckley wonders if he “is just another angry white gardener. You know the type. We are irate in general but don’t know exactly why or what for. We don’t like to look too closely at the basis of irritation for fear we are ourselves at the root.” I roared and snorted a bit out loud as I read his piece while crammed into a busy Amtrak train car, startling my seat mate who raised her head and rolled her eyes at me, as if waiting to see if I was drooling or sputtering uncontrollably. I felt my face redden a bit, nodded politely at her and slunk …

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Lawns, Steroids and Roger Clemens: Reclaim Your Turf — Reassessing America’s Past Time!

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Lawn grass requires an inch of water a week – a 25’ x 40’ lawn needs about 10,000 gallons per summer.

Americans are passionate about grass…and baseball. After today’s release of the George Mitchell report, American baseball fans are reassessing the merits of Roger Clemens’ long standing achievements and baseball’s abilities to deal with its own turf. Though it is almost winter, and a winter storm is bearing down upon us, and gardening minds here in the Northeastern United States are far removed from the boys of summer and lawns, it seems as appropriate as any time to reassess the lawn. I may have raved against paving but nothing gets me riled up as much as the American lawn…

Americans …

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Anyone can sell a good product, but to sell a piece of crap, now that takes real talent.” Is ‘Design’ and ‘Handwerk’ increasingly less valued?

January 13, 2007 Leave a comment
There appears to be a growing misconception in mainstream America about just what exactly is ‘design,’ its value to the individual, and the culture at large. Big-box stores, mass media outlets, educational institutes and even the “design disciplines”– to name just a few entities – can share the blame for muddying the term. In many circles design is a commodity, produced by a recipe, cranked out, apparently, by anyone. In this line of thinking – propelled by mass-marketing forces – there is no such thing as ‘bad design’ …and very little ‘site-specific design.’ This ‘one size-fits-all, rip and read’ approach to design has produced another disturbing trend: an increasing de-valuation in ‘handwerk.’ And begs the question: just what does distinguish …

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Michael Veracka Joins Farmingdale State College Faculty

November 3, 2006 Leave a comment

Mr. George P. LaRosa , Officer-in-Charge at Farmingdale State College, welcomes Michael Veracka as an assistant professor in the Ornamental Horticulture department.

Michael Veracka, a Providence , RI resident, joins the Farmingdale faculty with a wide variety of experience in the field of horticulture. He has worked as an educator, landscape urban planner, designer and builder and business owner.

Mr. Veracka has been an adjunct professor at Harvard University ‘s Landscape Institute at Arnold Arboretum for over two years and at the Rhode Island School of Design for over eight years. At both universities, he developed and taught contemporary landscape design, horticulture and plant identification, construction methods, and building materials in design studios and technical classes. Professor Veracka also teaches …

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