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Country Lifehome garden first space your guests encounter when they enter your home and the last place they see when they leave. Because of this, your entryway design should have a warm and inviting feel, while expressing your individ- ual style. Lighting Want to make your guests feel welcome? Let there be light. Your entryway is the MCT photo Blushing Princess overs heat tolerance and con- tinuous blooms throughout the long hot summer. Snow Princess now 'blushing' with success By Norman Winter McClatchy-Tribune News Service Three years ago Snow Princess lobularia shocked the gardening world with a dazzling performance through the long hot summer. It became a plant that left many horticulturists scratching their heads in disbelief. Now, after more than 130 awards, Snow Princess appears to be blushing with all of that suc- cess. You know where I am headed right? across the country there is the new Blushing Princess showing out with distinctive blushes of lavender, offering gardeners even more options whether in the landscape or designer mixed con- tainers with petunias and verbenas. The success of Snow Princess has not just led to In trials way can come from a few different sources. If you have generous bay win- dow, a skylight or another source of natural light, your entryway is probably well lit throughout the day. For those other times when a lighting fixture is necessary. A foyer pen- dant can illuminate an entryway, a chandelier can work wonders and a wall sconce mounted next to the door can add a dec- orative and functional touch. Light for your entry- entryway needs furnish- ing, but when you and your guests need some- where to place your things, or sit down, then you get the picture. An entryway table is the perfect solution for a functional furniture void, and its drawers can hold all sorts of things like keys and mail. And a table is a great spot for placing décor on. And if you have the space, a bench or chair Furniture You may not think an & Entryway decorating ideas can make your entryway feel extra welcoming. Storage What's one of the first things you do when you enter your home? If you're anything like me, you're looking to drop the things you brought in: keys, backpack, briefcase, water bottle, etc. Having a storage place for your stuff is essential. From key rings on the things your guests see when they reach your front porch, it's the last item they see on their way out. Don't underestimate its design power. An appealing handleset and deadbolt combination set can add coordination and harmony to the entire entryway. Décor wall and a shoe caddy to a coat rack and a table where you can drop pretty much everything else, storage allows you to be organized and helps elim- inate clutter. Door hardware Just as your door hard- ware is one of the first creative muscles? Then get ready, because your entryway décor is truly where you can express your personality. From mirrors and framed pho- tographs for the wall to accent pieces, lamps, and candles for the entryway table, everything else that doesn't fit into any of the Ready to flex those above categories can be considered décor. Don't forget the rug, which can be an entire classification of décor by itself. Your entryway is unique to the rest of the home. It's where you can have fun, find useful fix- tures and foster your sense of individualism, while giving guests a taste of what to expect in the rest of your home. Until next time, Happy Home Improving! Sean Murphy is a copywriter for Build.com in Chico. Visit the company's website for more home improvement tips at www.build.com. Gardening can help mitigate grief the Proven Winners release of Blushing Princess but other companies are now introducing their own selections, many of which look impressive. Danzinger, a leading company from Israel, is intro- ducing three new selections, White Stream, Sum- mer Stream that has hints of golden yellow, and Lavender Stream. If you are not familiar with these plants, they are like having a sweet alyssum that incredibly blooms all summer. The industry has chosen to refer to them as lobularia, which is probably good to help delineate these rugged performers from the ones we use as pansy partners. In 2009 when Snow Princess made its debut Va. (MCT) — In 2008, Michael Palmer, 30, died peacefully in his sleep, the victim of a bad heart damaged by 16 years of drug abuse. He had found hope and a year of clean living through a ministry called Celebrate Recov- ery, according to his father, but the years of abuse were too much in the end. NEWPORT NEWS, everyone was skeptical that a lobularia could indeed survive a summer in Florida or anywhere else with torrid heat. At the time I was with Mississippi State University and we planted ours in raised beds that were rich and fertile and watered with a drip-type system. Saturday, July 21, 2012 – Daily News 3B they are unmatched in containers as well. It will take your breath away to see a blanket of white that seems suspended in air. But they have the ability to work wonderfully in partnerships. One such partnership I recently saw was a mixed container featuring Bouquet Rose Magic dianthus, Becky shasta daisy and the hot new Blushing Princess. This was a dream of a mixed container featuring three award winning plants. I saw other containers where Blushing Princess was combined effectively with Pink Caliente gera- niums and another with burgundy leafed coleus. In each case it was the Blushing Princess that gave the finishing touch. Whether you choose Snow Princess, Blushing Princess or one of the Stream series know that these new lobularia like plenty of light and fertile well drained soil. They will let you when moisture is needed and usually respond rather quickly. At any time that you feel they have grown out of their boundary to your satisfaction give them a trim with a good pair of scissors. With new plants like these lobularia showing up The beds were out in full sun with absolutely zero shade. To make matters even more challenging the beds were surrounded with rocks, which no doubt gave off even more heat during the day and into the night. They established quickly, filling out their allotted space and creating a blanket of snow flakes all summer. As great as they are in the landscape, know that father, Hollis Palmer, was lost in a storm of emo- tions and pain. He could not move forward with his life, which includes wife Nancy and two daughters, ages 25 and 26, both in health-care careers. "I felt as if I would never experience joy in my life again," says Hol- lis, 58, who lives in south- eastern Virginia. "I wondered if I was actually going crazy. I felt as if I had no hope of ever being happy again." Two things brought him to what he calls his "new normal," or his renewed ability to func- tion with joy and hope again. The first were 13 weekly GriefShare sup- port group meetings at Liberty Baptist Church in Hampton, Va. vegetable garden. I have loved gardening since I was a little boy," he says. The second was his Afterward, Michael's MCT photo Hollis Palmer of Newport News, Va., tends to his backyard vegetable gar- den. Palmer found comfort in gardening after the loss of his 30-year-old son in 2008 and currently facilitates a support group to help others deal with grief. was thrilled to harvest something and bring it to my mama. What a sense of accomplishment." But, that sense of accomplishment died with Michael. "There was a long while I didn't feel like I deserved to be happy, so I stopped doing things I like such as gardening," he says. every year there has never been a better time to be a gardener and to have fun creating mixed borders or containers. Norman Winter is executive director of the Columbus Botanical Garden, Columbus Ga., and author of "Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South" and the highly acclaimed "Captivating Combinations Color and Style in the Garden." Contact him at gardenguy2000@aol.com. "My daddy was raised on a Georgia farm. He helped me plant my first vegetable garden 50 years ago when I was eight years old. He spent a lot of time teaching me how to grow vegetables. It was a good time in my life. I loved working the soil, planting the seeds and watching the seeds emerge. I watched over the garden every day keeping it weed free, watered and fertilized. I new normal, I had Jesus at the center of my life. God added back into my life the things that brought me joy such as gardening but in the proper priority." Today, his 2,500- square-foot backyard gar- den is a place where warm- and cold-season vegetables like squash, tomatoes, cucumbers egg- plant, collards, spinach and Brussels sprouts are shared with neighbors, friends, strangers and GriefShare participants. He installed his own sprinkling system, and gardens organically, using "After I reached my small fish he catches as natural fertilizer in planti- ng holes. "As I work the soil, I feel a sense of peace," he says. the squash and tomato blooms. "Quiet time in the gar- den relaxes my body and mind. I have many con- versations with God while in the garden. I enjoy the food but I actually enjoy the time in the garden more than the harvest itself." Palmer also enjoys the neighborhood people that discover the garden while walking their dogs along the private road that runs along the back of his property near a Baptist church in Newport News, Va. They see the cross and the memorial with pho- tographs of his son next to the garden and began talk- ing about their own pain from loss, he says. A small table with two chairs is where Hollis and fellow grievers sit and quietly talk while bees busy themselves among After three months of GriefShare meetings, Hollis says the unexpect- ed happened to him. He realized he had reached his "new normal," and wanted to do more than just attend the support group meetings. He retired from a shipbuild- ing career to become the GriefShare facilitator in 2009, and has helped about 1,000 grievers find renewed interest in life. In September, he becomes a certified chaplain and plans to volunteer with a local police department, in addition to continuing with the GriefShare min- istry. ken-hearted consider gar- dening," he says. "You can grow any- thing from flowers to col- lard greens. The time you spend being still in your thoughts with God, work- ing the soil is good for the soul." "I recommend the bro-