Workshop Can Help Those With Bad Backs

Some people who develop physical limitations such as arthritis or a back problem think their gardening days are over. Not so, say the folks at the St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute.

The organization will again offer a workshop to teach those with a physical limitation how to keep gardening. The workshop is April 26 from 9 a.m. to noon at the St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute Conference Room, 711 S. Cowley. Cost is $5 and the entire workshop is handicapped accessible.

Topics will include adaptive gardening techniques and tools, accessible garden designs and budget-conscious ideas for barrier-free gardening.

Advance registration is recommended, call the Institute at 838-7254.

The workshop will be conducted by Sheila Yamamoto, a physical therapist at the Institute.

Think trees

We’ll remind you next week, but just so you get the date on your calendar, Arbor Day will be celebrated on April 26 at the Finch Arboretum. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will include a composting workshop, self-guided tours through the arboretum, and a tree-planting ceremony during which a Chinese elm will be planted by Spokane Mayor Jack Geraghty and Jennifer Belcher, the Washington State Director of the Department of Natural Resources. It’s all free.

And, because the focus this month is on trees, give at least a passing glance to the National Arbor Day Foundation. In April it will be worth your effort in that 10 free white flowering dogwood trees will be shipped to any person who joins the Foundation this month.

The 6- to 12-inch trees will be shipped postpaid for immediate planting; they are guaranteed to grow or will be replaced for free.

Arbor Day Foundation members also receive a bimonthly publication. Membership fees are $10 a year; send a check and your name and address to Ten Free Dogwoods, National Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Ave., Nebraska City, NE 68410, by April 30.

Rooms for big shots

If you think trophy rooms are relics - a scruffy bear rug here, a moth-eaten moose there, assorted horns and teeth everywhere - think again. With about 50,000 serious big-game hunters in this country, the Wall Street Journal says Julian & Sons, Creative Wood Interiors Inc. of Heber Spring, Ark., is doing a booming business designing and building what some people consider to be oxymorons: tasteful trophy rooms. The price: $25,000 to $50,000.

Just a click away

Time to head out to the garden center, but don’t you dare move a single muscle. Just start clicking.

Time Warner’s Virtual Garden Web site has opened an online garden shopping center - Virtual Garden Marketplace - featuring tools, supplies, seeds and plants.

Smith & Hawken offers 300 products, including English gardening tools; Seeds of Change (organically grown seeds, many of them heirloom varieties); Gurney’s Seed & Nursery (live plants, seed collections and gardening supplies, including live, beneficial insects); Flowernet (cut flowers); and Select Seeds (heirloom flower seeds). http://vgmarketplace.com.

The Flood Company, a maker of paint additive products used in decorative finishing, has introduced its new Faux Finishing Guide, a 20-page publication that shows how to faux (or “false”) finish walls, old furniture and fixtures with paint.

The four-color publication offers step-by-step instructions and photographs, lists necessary supplies, and provides preparation and application tips for numerous faux techniques. Included in the guide are directions for the basic techniques of sponging, ragging and combing, and more advanced methods such as wood graining and marbling.

The free booklet can be ordered by calling (800) 321-3444 or by visiting Flood’s Internet Web site at www.floodco.com.

Clarification

Last week we included an item about the unusual Chinese trees being offered by the Bellevue-based Wells Medina Nursery. The family-owned nursery is celebrating Chinese Tree Month as a way of helping preserve these rare species of trees.

While we reported last week that there are only 20 trees available, in fact, Wells Medina is offering 20 varieties of the Chinese trees. Little is known about the way these seedlings will mature so the folks at Wells Medina are asking gardeners who buy the trees to check back and let them know how the trees are developing. For information: (206) 454-1853.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Susan English Staff writer The wire services contributed to this report.