In her first year as a first-time homeowner making her first attempt at landscaping, Tish’Lara Jarvis has observed that: It’s hard to keep kids off a lawn. New plantings need regular watering. Spreading plants, like petunias, give you a bigger bang for your buck. “It’s exciting, growing” plants, said Jarvis, at her home this week in the Angus Road subdivision, a Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity development in South Richmond that was completed in November.

Q&A with Susan A. Edwards, master gardener coordinator, Chesterfield County office of Virginia Cooperative Extension Q:Are there some general tips you offer new homeowners on landscaping? Answer: Start small—it’s easy to get overwhelmed if you are new to gardening. Concentrate on one bed at a time. Don’t over plant, and know the mature size of your plants. Some people want that instantly full landscaped look and will plant two to three times as much as they need. When the plants mature, they crowd one another and the plants decline from competition for resources. Give the landscape some time to establish (and save money, too).

Shipp & Wilson Landscaping and Richmond Professional Grounds Management Society
Colesville Nursery
Ukrop’s
Watkins Nurseries
Yard Works/Grind-All
Richmond Council of Garden Clubs and Canterbury Garden Club
Southern States Cooperative
Richard Harris Photography
Tractor Supply Company
Westel Inc.
A Thyme to Plant at Lavender Fields Herb Farm

Powhatan County’s Habitat for Humanity program is building affordable homes and buying land again after struggling with high real estate prices that delayed its projects. In late March, Habitat purchased at a tax auction eight tracts that provide enough land to build three homes, said Terry Parquett, the Powhatan program’s part-time director.

The executive director of Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity saw something yesterday that gave her great hope for the future of affordable housing in central Virginia: strangers. “Other than a few faces, I recognized no one in the room,“ Leisha LaRiviere said a few minutes after the conclusion of Habitat’s Building on Faith Affordable Housing Summit at First Baptist Church in Richmond. “Usually at these things, we see all the same faces.“

Eight Habitat for Humanity affiliates will each host a Ride Virginia Poker Run on April 18, 2009. Motorcycle enthusiasts across the commonwealth will get together for a ride, food, entertainment and the chance to learn about Habitat for Humanity. Events will be in Hanover County, Fredericksburg, Winchester, Page County, Fluvanna County, Bedford County, Wise County and south Hampton Roads. Starting times and festivities vary.

Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity is trying to have its homes blend in. Volunteers for the local nonprofit organization built two homes in Richmond’s Highland Park neighborhood using a James Hardie cement fiber siding. The siding is simulated to look like wood planking, allowing the homes to look similar to the architectural style of the neighborhood.

Perhaps a “Keep Hanover Affluent” sign should be planted at the county line, featuring an encircled bungalow with a diagonal slash across its facade. How else can we explain the county’s apparent aversion to affordable housing? Hanover Habitat for Humanity has teamed with Home town Realty, which has agreed to build seven homes ranging from $225,000 to $260,000, near Ashcake and Lewistown roads. Hanover Habitat would build two additional homes selling for about $130,000, said its executive director, Tim Bowring. The developers, for the third time, are bringing their proposal to the county Planning Commission.

Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore is moving. The ReStore sells donated building materials, new and used, for up to 70 percent off the retail price. The money generated goes toward funding Habitat for Humanity home projects for local families in need of affordable housing. For the past two weeks, workers and volunteers have been slowly loading merchandise from the store’s Christiansburg location, on Roanoke Street, to the store’s new location on East Main Street in Pulaski.

For most of its 22 years, Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity followed a simple yet successful business model by building one house at a time. The local nonprofit organization has changed its strategy. It built an entire neighborhood within a year.