This is the home of Lawrence Sweeney, who redid his ranch-style home after a 2007 fire burned hot and the firefighting efforts caused extensive water damage. It took him a year to redo the house, during which time he lamented that the front yard looked like the Gobi Desert, it was so barren.

He finally got to the landscaping, putting the finishing touches on a house he’d called home for 47 years, a house in which he raised seven children.

Yes, admire the finished look and applaud the fact that he won the Visual Award. Because Lawrence Xavier Sweeney died in December, a mere month before his daughter got word that his dream restoration had been noticed by many.

Susan Allen and Marcy Foster took an inside-out, top-to-bottom approach. After dealing with major infrastructure — new electrical and plumbing, for example — the two turned their attention to the exterior of their 1926 Spanish Territorial home.

They started at the top: A new roof under the territorial’s terracotta tiles, and some new tiles for good measure. Moving down, they did a major masonry repair by repointing aging bricks. Some were beyond repair — Susan said there were big chunks missing in some places — so up to 100 bricks were replaced. After that, they gave the house a fresh coat of paint, opting for a soft tan tinted with green to replace the earlier off-white color, with green trim.

With a new sprinkler system in place, the next job is a redo of the front gardens. Check out this makeover in the 1300 block of Lynwood St.

The couple stabilized the foundation of their 1925 California bungalow, thanks to assistance from the city of Phoenix’s historic-preservation grants. They installed sprinklers in the yard and poured concrete curbing to edge in their front-yard flower beds. All of this is part of their effort to spruce up the house that was built by Henry Riegor, who in 1925 was town manager of Phoenix.

The couple’s work got a helping hand from Mother Nature late last summer. The microburst that blew through the neighborhood in late August gave the two olive trees in their front yard an unexpected trimming. More yard work is planned, once danger of frost is passed, and hopefully, without an unplanned assist from the weather.

For these efforts, the couple are the winners of January’s Visual Award. Admire the work in progress in the 700 block of Willetta St.

Saturday, July 12th

8:00-10:00AM
Sustainability Book Club Meeting
Requested Donation: $2 to the Market for A/C etc.
Classroom will be the FRONT building meeting area
Join us as we discus Gary Paul Nabhan’s “Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods”

Learn all aspects of designing a productive vegetable garden in the low desert. This is a multi-part series that will guide you through the design process so that in fall you’ll be ready to plant your first garden and be eating out of it shortly afterwards. Nothing tastes as good as homegrown food!

In Designing a Vegetable Garden: Part 1 ,we will be focusing on learning the steps for finding the ideal location for the garden plot. This basic site analysis will include recognizing the grade of the property and how this relates to water usage, microclimates and basic soil analysis. We will also go over basic tools for the beginning gardener.

Tired of digging stolons? Frustrated with solarizing? Then perhaps this radical method is for you. Merging two contradicting practices in a beneficial way will result in grass-free growing soil in one season. This method uses a popular chemical for grass eradication and then bioremediation of the area with microbes. This method allows you to be rid of the No. 2 invasive weed in the world - Bermuda grass.

Due to the popularity of these classes, you must RSVP either online or by emailing Jennifer at phoenixhomesteader@gmail.com. Please RSVP for each date of the series. We are limiting these classes to 35 participants to provide a quality experience for our students.

You can see all our classes at http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/events

To see blogs on people’s projects, participate in discussions on permaculture topics and view photos and videos pertaining to permaculture, visit us at www.phoenixpermaculture.org

Book Club Update and Upcoming Meetings
Hello fellow book club friends,

We had a great time at Anne Stone’s house discussing Huckleberry Finn and Mark Twain. Anne, thank you for your warm and friendly hosting and that delicious dish of cheese grits and sausage. Thank you, new members, for joining us, it is a pleasure to have you in the group.

What a funny turnout, only those that originally voted not to read Huck Finn were there!

It was a very stimulating discussion with lots of history about Samuel Clemens and his background and we also had time to sit down and discuss the next few meetings and those that were there came prepared with book selections, so here is our list for the upcoming months:

IMPORTANT:

The blog we were using for the book club has been getting a lot of spam, so much so that it has become a real pain to deal with, so I have moved the blog over to a blogger account and will now be hosting the information here:

http://fqstorybc.blogspot.com/

Please link your bookmarks (or favorites) to our new web address. If you would like to add info, thoughts and ideas about the upcoming books, please comment on the respective posts. If you would like more information about the FQ Story Book Club you can email Patricia at fqstorybookclub@chezmatch.com.

Thank you all for participating and making the book club fun.

Best regards,
Patricia