Autumn begins this month and with it the beauty of the colorful, falling leaves, the softer sunlight and the slowly disappearing summer blooms and crops.

Now is the time to plan and execute in dry and warm weather all the projects that were postponed during the summer, including such large projects.

Here are a few that could be on your hit list.

• Clean the garage. Take a weekend away, collect big bags or boxes and order a garbage box if necessary, then put on your favorite music. If you can’t stand doing the garage on your own, swap favors with a friend or hire someone to help you.

Pull out everything that has been collected over time and assess whether it is worth keeping. If not, donate, sell, or toss it. It’s liberating.

Consider adding a garage floor for the things that are impossible to part with or buy, or build a garden shed for outdoor gear, toys, or bikes.

When the garage doesn’t need cleaning, there may be a room in the house where invisible, disregarded items gather. Whatever space it is, challenge yourself to clear it. You will feel great afterwards.

• Check your roof for broken tiles or damaged shingles. While you are up there, you may want to clear the gutters if they are not protected by foliage protection.

• Finish any painting project, whether it’s house cladding, an interior or a piece of furniture, before it rains.

Andy Templeton / Orange County Register

Take some time to clean your garage.

• Check your fence line. Make sure the posts and boards are sturdy enough to withstand winter storms so that you can breathe easily the next time you surface.

• Consider collecting rainwater in a barrel or cistern this winter. According to the Marin Municipal Water District, “just 1 inch of rain on a 1,000-square-foot roof produces 600 gallons of runoff” that can be used for irrigation. You can find the discount program for water production on the MMWD website.

• Hire a chimney sweep to inspect and clean your chimney. Sweeps are generally affordable and well worth the price for your safety.

• Clean and store the items used for summer entertainment such as floats, umbrellas, pillows, beach chairs and towels, and barbecues.

• Fall is also a good time to inspect and clean large appliances such as the oven and dryer opening. A handyman can do this if you can’t.

• The garden changes with the season. If you’re visiting the local plant nursery over the next few months, look for cool-season annuals to spice up your yard.

Put them in pretty garden pots near the front stairs or door for a nice welcome. They will also add pops of color when added to a garden bed or used as underplanting for larger plants. Remember to fertilize them during the season.

• Also upgrade your welcome mat if she needs it.

• Check the condition and structure of the trees in your landscape. If they don’t look healthy, or if the branches look dangerous or need to be thinned, hire an arborist if it is not safe for you to self-medicate. You won’t worry about branches falling down in the next storm.

Photo by Elizabeth Jardina

Look for flowers for the cooler season to spice up your garden.

• Fall is perfect for planting spring onions. If you see them in bulk at garden centers, splurge and plant them en masse for the best effect in the garden.

If you like the look of forced amaryllis or daffodil during the holidays, stock up on them when you see them too.

• Maintain your fertilizing, weeding and spraying routine as needed to maintain a healthy landscape.

• Learn from experts this fall and be inspired. Join a gardening club or take in-person or virtual classes offered by local nurseries and organizations.

Indicate

If you have a beautiful or interesting Marin garden or a newly designed Marin house I would love to hear about it.

Please send an email describing one (or both) what you love most about it and a photo or two. I will publish the very best in the next few columns. Your name will be published and you must be over 18 and a resident of Marin.

PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertainment topics every Saturday. She can be contacted at PO Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.

The post Now’s the time to get your private home and backyard prepared for winter – Marin Impartial Journal appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The Grocery Outlet on West Harvard Avenue in Roseburg, which has been supplying customers with cheap groceries, housewares and other items under different names for 30 years, is moving.

The store at 930 W. Harvard Ave. will take over the former JCPenney area in the Garden Valley Shopping Center. The move is scheduled for early next year, said Stephen Burton, who has owned the grocery outlet with his wife Kelly since October.

The move will give the Burtons and their new grocery store more of everything, said Stephen Burton – more customer parking, more retail and storage space, and with that additional storage space, more community service.

“We’re really focusing on the positives of this move,” said Burton. “Not only is the new building a brand new building with the aesthetics of a new store and a vastly improved shopping experience for space and flow, it also allows us to become a stronger community partner and reach even more families in need.”

The JCPenney store closed in mid-October after having been in the same location for more than 30 years. Since then it has stood empty in the Garden Valley Shopping Center, which is located at 780 NW Garden Valley Blvd. is located.

Connie Bennett, who runs the Garden Valley Shopping Center for Silva Management Co. in Eugene, said transforming the former JCPenney, which included clothing, home accessories, bedding, and the like, into a grocery store with large refrigerated shelves is a huge task, and work on it should begin this month.

Bennett also said banners announcing the new Grocery Outlet should appear in the next few weeks, as well as a new sign on Garden Valley Boulevard promoting the Grocery Outlet and other stores in the mall, including Michaels, Ross Dress For Less, and Dollar tree.

The former JCPenney, at around 34,000 square feet, will give the Burtons a lot more space for their grocery store – about 3,000 square feet of additional retail space and even more storage space.

That will allow the couple to store more goods, which means more savings for customers and more opportunities for community service, said Stephen Burton.

In the 10 or so months that the Burtons owned the shop, they’ve been involved in several charity events, including fundraising for the Fish Food Pantry and the Dream Project, gift baskets for the Association of Vietnam Veterans of America, and providing food and water to the Senior center Roseburg during the recent heat wave.

More recently, Grocery Outlet donated pet food to the Saving Grace Pet Adoption Center to feed animals evicted by the Jack Fire.

“The equipment upgrades, the expansion of our retail space and the expansion of our warehouse will put us in an excellent position to take the next steps in our public relations,” said Stephen Burton. “It is currently under development, but one indication of our plans is to be able to send as many food insecure students home as possible with enough food for the weekend so they can focus without the distraction of an empty stomach. “

A LONG STORYThe Harvard Avenue Grocery Outlet Store has had a variety of owners over the past few years. In late 2017, Tom Leavitt retired and Mindi and Ken Admire took over the new shop owners.

Leavitt has owned the store with his wife, Ronda Leavitt, since it opened in 1975. It was then called Canned Foods and was located where Oregon Tool & Supply is now at 276 SE Stephens St.

A fire in 1988 resulted in the store being remodeled, then in 1991, when the store grew out of the old building, the Leavitts moved it to its current location, which offered more space and parking. Eventually, Canned Foods turned into Grocery Outlet as it began stocking more items such as meat, produce, clothing, and wine.

The history of the grocery outlet nationwide dates back to 1946 when Jim Read opened a military surplus store called Cannery Sales in San Francisco. In 1971 the Del Monte store signed its first supplier agreement.

In 1982 Peter and Steven Read took over the management of the company. In 1999 the business started selling fresh produce and four years later fresh meat was added.

In 2015, the Grocery Outlet expanded into the Los Angeles market. Today Grocery Outlet has more than 400 independently operated stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Last year has been a difficult year for Garden Valley Shopping Center, owned by RAM Property Development in Eugene. Pier 1 was closed earlier this year. The 10,000 square meter store had been in the mall for 15 years. The place is still free today.

In addition, the pandemic forced most of the mall’s stores to close for much of the year.

While the move of the grocery outlet gives the shopping center a boost, the south side of Roseburg will remain without a grocery store. A Safeway in downtown Roseburg was abandoned more than 20 years ago and razed to the ground in 2019.

The north side, meanwhile, has Fred Meyer, Safeway, Walmart, Sherms Thunderbird, Albertsons, and Costco. In addition, WinCo Foods has received its first permit to build a new supermarket on the site of the former Kmart, 2757 NW Stewart Parkway.

Scott Carroll can be reached at scarroll@nrtoday.com or 541-957-4204. Or follow him on Twitter @ scottcarroll15.

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When Steven Pitsenbarger goes to work as a garden manager amid the greenery and beauty of San Francisco’s Japanese tea garden, he often takes a trip back in time.

He was taken there frequently by his single mother and five siblings during their childhood in San Francisco when the garden was still vacant. It is a place whose history he has been researching tirelessly for many years and lecturing at conferences and workshops across the country. It is also home to a grove of Cryptomeria trees – one of his favorite spots in the United States’ oldest public Japanese garden.

The Mill Valley resident, who studied ornamental horticulture at the City College of San Francisco, started out as a gardener at the Japanese Tea Garden in 2007. Pitsenbarger is also on the board of directors of the North American Japanese Garden Association.

Q How did you get into this field?

A I worked in an office job and felt like I was losing touch with myself and the world, trapped in that fluorescent cubicle. I remember exactly one day watching a grove of trees at work in front of the window and thinking about how I wanted to be outside. I quit with no real plan. I saved some money so I wouldn’t have to work for a while and spent about three months at home working on my own garden. That was my therapy. I should have known then that I should be doing gardening. I ended up starting my own business and painting houses for 10 years. That took me to a point where I again didn’t feel satisfied with my work. I thought about the things I wanted to do, what I would be happiest to do, and gardening was one of those things.

Photo by Kevin Kelleher

Steven Pitsenbarger grew up with the Japanese tea garden.

Q What do you love about Japanese gardens?

A When I went to school I had been doing an internship at the Conservatory of Flowers and thought to myself, maybe I want to end up here. But after being in the Japanese Tea Garden for a couple of weeks, I thought I had found my place. There’s something about a Japanese garden that just clicks with my brain. At its core, Japanese gardening is a connection between people and nature, and I have always been drawn to nature.

Q How was it when the garden closed at the beginning of the pandemic?

A On the one hand, being in the garden all by myself was fantastic and I was able to do things that I normally can’t do in the garden when it is full of people. But since the garden was empty there was a sadness. All this beauty happened and people couldn’t experience it. It also gave me a bit of perspective because our world was turned a bit upside down. So much has changed in our lives, but when you look at the garden, it’s like the world is still going, spring is still in progress, the flowers are still in bloom. The world doesn’t stop just because of us.

Q Why was it important to you to get to know the history of the garden?

A Often times, when you get into an older garden, try to determine the intent of the design. It’s difficult in our garden because so many hands have worked on the design over the years. But I didn’t just want to be informed about Japanese gardens in general, but also about our garden, so that when I make a decision – I take this tree out, I move this stone – I want to make informed decisions. I ended up walking down all of those rabbit holes trying to put together a full story about how the garden became where it is today. I am in the process of writing a book about the garden because there are many fascinating stories about the garden, but also that the information out there is based on myths, family stories and many exaggerations and sometimes just inventions that are generally known.

Q Do you spend a lot of time gardening at home?

A I have a garden in Mill Valley but can’t say I spend a lot of time in it. It’s pretty easy. It’s hard to garden all day and then to garden at night when I come back. With managing the garden, playing and writing music, taking care of two dogs, there are plenty of things to keep you busy.

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Desi Danganan had a clear vision when redesigning the former parking lot at 967 Mission Street in San Francisco. Filipino community activist and SoMa resident who is a driving force behind the area’s cultural district, SOMA Pilipinas, envisioned an active space with a basketball court, food trucks, and surrounding murals.

Then COVID-19 arrived. “Full contact sports were basically illegal at the time, and crowds were illegal,” he recalls. “We have decided not to fight COVID and only to design the space for COVID.”

The result is Kapwa Gardens, which opened this April with lots of greenery, techno-colored meeting rooms and a redesigned jeepney bus (which will be converted into office space and a sound booth) painted with a giant bird’s head. It is designed to help the neighborhood “recover from the devastating psychological, physical and economic effects of COVID-19,” according to the website. It’s also the latest offering in a growing cultural district that is anchoring a Filipino trade corridor on Mission, an up and coming block of the city.

The city recognized SOMA Pilipinas in 2016; The cultural district honors and presents the 120-year history of the Filipinos in San Francisco. Danganan, who is part of a SOMA Pilipinas working group and who founded the local non-profit incubator Kultivate Labs hosted a series of night markets and holiday pop-ups known as UNDSCVRD SF to highlight the area.

He saw a great opportunity in Mission 967, which had been a parking lot for decades. As part of a massive real estate development nearby, the city acquired the 8,777-square-foot lot and published a tender in fall 2019 to activate it. Kultivate Labs had already built and activated a two-month meeting room and basketball court called the UNDSCVRD Court on city-owned property just blocks away. The city gave Kultivate the tender to build a more permanent common room here.

The UNDSCVRD court was taken into account an early prototype for Kapwa Gardens. (Kapwa in Tagalog roughly translates to “neighbor”.) Kultivate Labs, in collaboration with CAMO Studio, also led community engagement with residents, seniors, and a local school to develop potential designs.

COVID-19 paused community engagement, but with few public meeting rooms in the neighborhood, the team didn’t want to give up. “We couldn’t do what we were going to do, but we had to do something“Says Marcus Owens, co-founder of CAMO. “It was supposed to be much more of an active pre-COVID space, with an adventure playground and basketball hoop, and it became a completely peaceful, serene calamansi grove.”

The team opted for plenty of green – calamansi trees are native to the Philippines and are considered medicinal plants – versus bright colors for the room and the surrounding works of art. “Calamansi trees are very special to a lot of people because we don’t have the space to grow them in our own four walls,” says Kimberley Acebo Arteche, who curates the artistic component of the garden. As for the giant bird painted on the converted school bus: “It’s a Sarimanok, a kind of mythical creature that interweaves everyone’s wishes and dreams,” she says.

There were also design and programming considerations for security. Kapwa Gardens was designed for 56 people who are socially distant and the team grew internal contact tracing for visitors.

With a limited budget, Kultivate Labs organized a team of volunteers who built the space over several months. “It was part of a mental health reduction to give people a safe place to gather and focus on something other than zoom,” says Danganan. The request for volunteers was well received – about 350 people helped build the garden, who traveled as far as San Jose. 65 percent of the volunteers were non-Filipino, according to Danganan. “It shows that our work doesn’t only appeal to Filipinos,” he notes.

Kapwa Gardens opened with limited entry in April to maintain social distancing, temperature controls, contact tracing, and hand sanitizer throughout. It also hosted weekly COVID-19 tests. In addition to quiet meeting rooms, an open space offers socially distant activities like yoga, dance, and self-defense classes. There were no associated COVID-19 outbreaks here throughout the expansion and opening, according to Danganan.

Kultivate Labs also wanted to pay attention when San Francisco moved out of its housing mandates. When the city’s mask restriction was lifted, the team interviewed community members about the lifting of mask restrictions in Kapwa Gardens. (Masks are now optional.) Kultivate will increasingly host food trucks, vendors, and programs as part of the economic recovery for Filipino business owners. “We have to do it really slowly, as a recreational space”, Danganan says. Still, he adds: “We see Kapwa Gardens as part of the recovery of SOMA Pilipinas.”

Ideas and programs for the future cultural center of the region are tested in Kapwa Gardens, Balay Creative. It won’t open until 2025, but Danganan believes the lessons of designing, building, and opening a common room will go down strongly during the pandemic.

“Everyone’s talking about the San Francisco exodus … our church, we’ve made a decision to adapt,” he says. “It’s just part of the DNA of the Philippines, and that resilience is part of the Filipino-American culture here.”

Emily Nonko is a reporter from Brooklyn, New York who writes on real estate, architecture, urbanism, and design. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Curbed, and other publications.

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