It's a busy time Out the Door right now, and all gardeners are feeling the frenzy. It's the time of year to buy and install summer annuals. Below are a few tips to help you with your summer planting and dealing with weeds and insects!

Summer annuals and all of your plants, should be fertilized with a time-released product such as Osmocote 14-14-14-or 17-17-17. Time-released beads do not burn and feed throughout the growing season.

Gardeners can also apply granular Treflan or liquid Surflan, which are weed pre-emergents. Spraying these over all beds will cut down on weeds. Bear in mind, that the principals of Green Design extend to the outdoors as well. Be cautious of applying any herbicides where they have potential to run off into a body of water (such as beautiful Lake Norman). On new home sites, Duke Power has determined the first 50 feet of land from the water as a setback where no lawn should be installed because of the chemicals necessary to maintain lawn.

Going green doesn’t mean that your garden and plants must suffer. The perfect environmentally- friendly fertilizer is compost. Just mulch with it, and it feeds while holding in moisture at the same time!

Insects will also start to appear as temperatures warm. Be on the lookout from now through September, for lacebugs and aphids. Usually lacebugs go undetected until they’ve done their damage, because they fly in and feed on the undersides of many plants, especially Azaleas and Rhododendrons. They take all of the plants' energy leaving the leaves silver and mottled for the rest of the year. Residual black specs on leaves are actually the bug's excrement, another telltale sign. Environmentalists spray with insecticidal soap or Sun oil at least one time per month when insects are present. Get out the "big guns', Isotox, Malathion, or Cygon only as a last resort.

Not to Miss! Be on the lookout for more garden tips and a featured look at Jan's own garden in the upcoming issue of Perennials magazine. You'll find it on newsstands and at Lowe’s Home Improvement during May and June.

Continuing from our previous Feng Shui conversations, I want to focus this month on Wood.

Wood is the second element used for transformation in feng shui. It is represented as anything shaped like a column (think of a tree trunk) and the colors range from blues into greens. The energy of wood is growth, like a tree growing out of the ground, reaching for the sky.

In the cycle of the bagua, wood is found in the Knowledge area. It is here that one asks questions such as “who am I, and why am I here?” Adding wood energy to a space helps one to get answers to questions and to grow into new ideas.

If you are having difficulty in making a decision, gazing at a plant or holding a piece of special wood may help sort things out. Hold the intention that the wood energy is giving you the clarity to know the best answer to your problem, and then sit quietly for a few minutes; let go and just be with the wood energy, knowing that it is helping you to grow into a clear place to hear the answer.

Plants are wonderful in any space; just be sure that they are kept healthy and vibrant. A wilting or dying plant is an indication of energy leaving; it means that the attention necessary to keep your life vibrant is lacking. Fresh flowers are wonderful, but throw them out once they begin to wilt. Silk flowers and plants are a wonderful alternative for those without a green thumb! However, in feng shui, dried flowers are considered dead and do not add the wood energy to a space, but if preserved well will add great aesthetic beauty.

Next month we will continue our study of Feng Shui. If you have any questions along our journey, please do not hesitate to contact me.

--Valerie DeLong combines her business sense and unique creative style, seeking to enrich people's lives and businesses on a more powerful and intimate level. She is a Reiki Master in the Usui tradition and has studied Kinesiology, Hellerwork, and other body-mind therapies. Valerie can be reached by email at valeriedelong@earthlink.net or by phone at 704-502- 8814. www.fengshuiconcepts.us

• Pippin featured in two articles of the May issue of Lake Norman Magazine: Starting Point for Start-ups and Soaked in Luxury, a bathroom trends article
• Pippin Project Update: As I make minor design adjustments to my home and prepare to break ground, I continue to research Green for myself and for my clients. I find it thrilling and encouraging that you no longer have to SEEK out Green Design information. It's everywhere! Our newsstands are currently riding the Green Wave with covers shouting "green" on most, if not all, homebuilding publications and even popular, mainstream magazines such as Vanity Fair. Check them out!