Civil engineer shares tips for hiring a landscape firm

Just about anybody can call himself or herself a landscape designer, but if you’re hiring a firm, you want a company with experience, know-how and a solid reputation in the industry.

For my feature in the June/July 2019 issue of Colorado Expression magazine, Chris Silkwood–a civil engineer who also is co-owner of B. Gardening Landscape Design–offered tips for hiring a firm. 

You can read the article on the Colorado Expression website — and there’s no paywall to slow you down. Just click the link below.

https://www.coloradoexpression.com/featured-stories/b.-gardening-landscape-design

#ByColleenSmith #LandscapeDesign #ColoradoExpressionMagazine #Gardening #Cultivation

 

 

“Denver sits atop a large layer of expansive clay soil that tends to expand with moisture and can negatively affect any hardscape, including patios, walks, driveways,” says Chris Silkwood

 

EY Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist Simer Mayo names favorite business book

Simer Mayo grew up in India, and he now conducts business in the U.S., Costa Rica and the Philippines from his base in Scottsdale, AZ.

During our interview for his profile in the Denver Business Journal, he listed his favorite business book: “The Dream Manager” by Matthew Kelly.

Asked what he’d be doing if not an entrepreneur, Mayo said, “I’d be playing guitar by the side of the street. That’s my second passion. And I don’t play guitar at all.”

#ByColleenSmith #SimerMayo #EYEntrepreneurOfTheYear #ValorGlobal

Sider Mayo said of being an entrepreneur, 
“On this journey, you have to evolve, grow, learn to fail and fail fast.”

EY Entrepreneur of the Year Seth Anderson lists his favorite business book

Seth Anderson has a sweet story about his first experience as an entrepreneur. As a boy, he had a crush on a girl and bought a bouquet of suckers for her. But on the bus, he sold the suckers to the other kids for twice what he paid.

For my Denver Business Journal profile of Anderson, an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, Anderson offered would-be entrepreneurs this advice: “Just keep following that dream.”

And he noted his favorite business book: “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.”

#ByColleenSmith #SethAnderson #WeifieldGroupContracting #DenverBusinessJournal

Seth Anderson defines and entrepreneur as “somebody willing to take risks and provide opportunities for others.”

EY Entrepreneur of David Stubenvoll shares his favorite books

For the Denver Business Journal, I conducted a series of profiles featuring EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalists, including David Stubenvoll, CEO of Wowza Media Systems. Stubenvoll’s impressive academic credentials include an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, a JD and an MBA, so I was curious about his favorite books. He singled out Nassim Nicholas Talebas a favorite author.  “His whole body of work had the biggest effect on me, but especially ‘Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets’ and ‘The Black Swan.’ Also, [Nobel Prize-winner] Daniel Kahneman’s book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow.’ “

Also of note, Stubenvoll practices meditation, which he listed as one of his key elements of success. 

 

#ByColleenSmith #WowzaMediaSystems #EYEntrepreneurOfTheYear #Nassim #NicholasTalebas  #DanielKahneman #FooledByRandomness #TheBlackSwan #ThinkingsFastAndSlow #TheHiddenRoleOfChanceInLifeAndInTheMarkets

EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist Lani Dolifka shares tips

For the Denver Business Journal, I interviewed four finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, including Lani Dolifka. After growing up in an area with foul-smelling and -tasting drinking water that was contaminated, she and her husband launched a company creating kiosks to provide purified water.

She testified to the dedication and endurance required of entrepreneurship and said, “Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.”

#WatermillExpress #EYEntrepreneurOfTheYear #DenverBusinessJournal #ByColleenSmith #Entrepreneurs #PureDrinkingWater #Waterkiosks #Cleanwater

Lani and Alice enjoy purified drinking water in Africa

Japanese garden in Denver takes a 40-year anniversary bow

For this article published in The Denver Post, I wrote about one of Denver’s hidden treasures: the Japanese Garden: Shofu-En.  The Denver Botanic Gardens recently celebrated 40 years since the dedication of Shofu-En, the Japanese Garden of the Pine and Wind.  To read more, follow the link to my article here.

TAGS:

#ColoradoGardening #Gardening #DenverBotanicGardens #ByColleenSmith

Betty Shepherd of Sydney, Australia enjoys the Japanese Garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens in June 1988. Photo By Lyn Alweis/The Denver Post

Tips on harvesting herbs for good food and your good health

For this article published in The Denver Post, I wrote about adding herbs to your garden in addition to tips on how to grow them.  Marie Peacock of Gardenz, a local landscaper, offered the following tips on harvesting herbs:

• Harvest when oils are strongest
• Use washed, organic herbs
• Dry herbs easily
• Brew an herbal tincture
• Freshen rooms with herbs
• Scent sweet dreams
• Infuse oils and vinegars

Interested in growing herbs? Read my article here.

TAGS:

#ColoradoGardening #Gardening #ByColleenSmith

Trouble with animals eating your herbs? Plant herbs that animals don’t like such as sage. Photo by Kathryn Scott/The Denver Post. 

The perfect plant that’s easy enough for beginner gardeners but also interesting enough for experts

For this article published in The Denver Post, I wrote about the benefits of sedum plants. According to Mike Bone from the Denver Botanic Gardens, the best sedum plants for the Front Range include:

• Sedum lanceolatum
• Sedum ‘Angelina’
• Sedum ‘Turquoise Tails’
• Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
• Sedum cauticola
• Sedum hybridum
• Sedum “Purple Emperor’
• Sedum populifolium
• Sedum ‘Vera Jameson’

For more information on the adding sedum plants to your garden, follow the link to my article here.

TAGS:

#ColoradoGardening #Gardening #DenverBotanicGardens #ByColleenSmith

With attractive stems and flowers, sedums can be used as ground cover, mixed beds, borders or rock gardens. Photo by Mike Bone/The Denver Post 

Denver parks’ flowers are three weeks behind after rough spring storms

For this article published in the Denver Post, I wrote about the effects of extreme spring weather on Denver’s parks and gardens. As a result, city horticulturists are planting fewer annuals and more perennials, native plants, xeric plants and ornamental grasses. You can read more by following the link to my article here.

TAGS:

#ColoradoGardening #Gardening #ByColleenSmith

Centennial Gardens in Denver, CO relies heavily on drought-tolerant and native Colorado plants. Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post