(Great column, we look forward to it every Monday)

Eric – La Porte

A  -  The right awning can add visual interest to an outdoor space, with the added bonus of energy efficiency.

According to the Professional Awning Manufacturers Association, fabric awnings can save homeowners as much as $200 annually by reducing the load on air conditioners.

For example, homes with single- or double-glazed windows in our area can reduce cooling energy up to 50% in a hot year, compared with the same house without awnings. Correlating cost savings can range from $81 to $102.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, window awnings can reduce solar heat gain by up to 65% on south-facing windows and 77% on west-facing windows.

Consider these details when shopping for awnings that will maximize your energy savings:

Look for a tightly woven fabric that is water-repellant and treated to resist mildew and fading.  Light-colored awnings will reflect more sunlight than darker shades.

Choose awnings with grommets, eyelets, or other openings along the tops and sides to provide ventilation and avoid trapping hot air by windows and doors.

Opt for a retractable awning that can be rolled up in the winter so sun can warm the house.

If you decide to go for it, it might be the best hangover you’ve ever had.

Melody – La Porte

A  -  We all have this problem on occasion. When we take a shrub or tree out in our established gardens, the roots are always an issue.

I have the same situation in my front garden bed right now. I took a redbud tree down that was struggling, and now the roots have sprouted ‘suckers’ everywhere. The bed is planted with perennials and I’d need a backhoe and a whole weekend to set things right.

What I’m doing is clipping the sprouts as soon as they emerge. Every couple of days I’ll go around the bed and snip off any redbud shoots poking through the mulch. The roots have stored nuitrients, but sooner or later, the lack of any top growth will cause them to die and break down.

The tree (or shrub in your case) needs top growth for photosynthesis. Without it, the plant will eventually die. Any chemicals that you could pour on the roots would have an effect on the other plants nearby, so I really can’t advise that. It is pretty much a war of wills and I plan to patiently out wait the roots.

I hope this helps, if anything, at least there’s misery in company, right?

Q  -  A collection of iris roots were dug up and left in an open bag since the winter of 2011, placed outdoors in a shed, and lost track of. They were my Aunt’s and my Nana’s before that. My Aunt developed pancreatic cancer and we lost her this January.

I’ve just found the bag of iris roots. They are dry as bone. I’ve put them in a large draining pot outside, covered them with peat moss and saturated them with water. I thought I should soak them for a week and then put them in a normal flower bed, partially exposed. Any chance they’ll make it?

Rosiland – Michigan City

A  -  Sorry you lost your aunt to cancer, and I understand your wanting to save these irises if at all possible.

The good news is that bearded irises are fantastically tough. People have tossed old rhizomes (tubers) over a fence and found them sprouting the next spring. As long as they haven’t dried up to nothing, some should still be viable.

Your instinct to soak them was good, but I wouldn’t leave them in the wet peat as long as a week. Even with dried out rhizomes, rot is usually more of a risk than lack of moisture. Soak them a few hours or overnight in a bucket of water (maybe with a little bleach or hydrogen peroxide), and they will probably plump up quite a bit.

Plant them out just as you would normally.  You could try potting up a few also, as it’s easier to provide good drainage in pots.

Leaves may not appear for some time, but as long as the rhizome is visible there’s hope for it. Flowers may take another year or two, but be patient, and hopefully you’ll have a beautiful stand of bearded irises to enjoy and share — a living memorial to your aunt & your grandmother.

Q  -  Peonies are my favorite flower.  Why are they always covered with ants?  My Mom says ants are needed to make peony flowers open.

Abby (age 12) – La Porte

A  -  Great question!  Here’s what I found for you:

Folks have believed for years that ants are actually eating the waxy coating from the peony so that the flower can open. Some believe that the peony buds are secreting a sugary substance that attracts ants to feed.

In any case, the ant is enjoying a symbiotic relationship with the peony and is not doing any harm by being on the flower bud. Once the bloom starts to open the ants vanish. Peony flowers can open just fine without any ants.

Joan – Michigan City

A  -  Custom wall coverings can put Paris, the Great Pyramids or fall colors of La Porte county on your walls. As a result, large-format digital printing is growing in popularity as a way to make a generic room more of a personal space… as long as you’ve got great pictures.

Who needs floral wallpaper when sports and movies are what matter to you? Smaller images also can become a room’s focal point. Used in multiples, your children’s smiling faces or your cat’s paw prints can make a custom pattern.

The same process that provides businesses with signs and other promotional products can be put to work to the delight of residential clients.

You may want to have an accent wall in a child’s room that displays the child at a recent sporting event.  With the right photo, we can do that.

Digital images are made up of a series of pixels or tiny “dots.” The higher the dots per inch, the clearer and sharper the image.

Printing in a large format calls for a chemical and heat-transfer process that can reproduce your favorite images as wall coverings, murals or cutouts. Customers can get pictures and murals for entire walls, or just a large print for framing.

These digital images can even be used outdoors to add art or illusion to garage doors or other areas.

The printing companies that do this usually handle design, manufacture and sometimes even the installation for customers. Prices vary greatly for custom work, depending on the size of the image and materials. Turnaround times vary from a few weeks to longer periods. (www.fathead.com and www.signinnovations.com are ones I have used, but there are many others online.)

Large wall murals of jungle, forest and mountain scenes are also available at retailers such as Lowe’s. Prices start at less than $100 for an image that is 100 by 164 inches. These are typically do-it-yourself projects, but a contractor who is well-versed in wallpaper probably could step in if you don’t have the time or skills.

Custom printing is available to supersize your own superstars or scenes with your personal photographs or images. Prices start at around $25 for an 8-by-10-inch die cut (background removed) to $140 for a 48-by-78-inch premium-quality image.

Spring Home Maintenance

On dry and warmer days, when you’re enjoying time outdoors, walk around your home or property. Please be looking for several things that will give you hints about what could pose serious pest control threats in the coming month.

Your walls, landscape and entries to your home are the most common places that show rodent entry, and may show visible holes, scratches and marks of droppings. A visual examination will let you know what to repair and what entries to barricade from pests as they get moving again.

Tree branches are also something to look out for. Wherever they are, near the exterior, a pathway, nearby gutters, your roof, or your chimney, take the time while the branches are bare of leaves to cut down any that could lead to a problem of wildlife entering into your home through holes.

Also, chimneys and stove pipes should be covered with screens to prevent access to pests such as bats, squirrels, mice, rats or even beautiful birds that may try to nest, and later to come in to meet you or wake you up suddenly!

Plan on lighting a fire in your fireplace or fire pit outdoors while it’s chilly?  Keep your firewood stack far from the house. These piles often provide safe harbors for pests and moisture stored in many types of wood provides a great feeding and breeding ground for roaches and other insects.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this timely read for your needs this season!  I’m sure we all can’t wait for spring weather to officially arrive!

As trees leaf out around the our area, they’ll launch millions of buds, blossoms, seeds, needles and twigs, many of which land on roofs and eventually settle into gutters. Combined, they create a ticking time bomb that can only be stopped with old-fashioned elbow grease!

When gutters are left unattended for an extended length of time and clogs form, water will begin flowing over the edges instead of being directed away from your home’s foundation. As it falls, this water can cause damage to the eaves, soffits, siding, cement work and landscaping.

Water pooling around a foundation causes a host of additional problems, including basement flooding, mold growth and foundation cracks.

Several roofing and gutter companies in the area offer this service, and a complimentary roof inspection might not be a bad idea either.

Otherwise, you might decide to tackle the job yourself.  However, safety should be first on your mind when cleaning gutters.

You might not like the idea of moving the ladder every few feet, but getting up on the roof to do the clean-out is quite dangerous. If you don’t have a ladder that’s high enough, borrow one or rent one!  Splitting the cost of rental with a neighbor or friend is still cheaper than a professional.

On a single-story house, you might chance going up on the roof, but only if it does not have a steep pitch, and if you have shoes with good traction. Place the ladder on a secure base. Put it against the house, not the gutter since it could break loose.

Get a helper to hold the ladder, then climb up until you can look down into the gutter. Be careful to avoid any power or electrical lines. Use glove-covered hands to scoop out the muck, or use a garden trowel to clear horizontal run areas. You can empty the leaves into a plastic bag or bucket, or fling them down onto a tarp to save clean-up time.

Be sure to clean the downspouts so water has a place to go. Scoop stuff out of the top, then run water down the hole. Water pressure will remove almost anything. If necessary, remove the clog with a wire hanger or a broomstick.

You’ll be glad you planned ahead and followed these tips when the job is done and you are back on the ground!