Weekend Gardening: March Tips
March 14, 2015
Here are gardening tips for the month of March from the University of Florida IFAS Extension office:
Flowers
- Annual flowers that can be planted in March include: ageratum, alyssum, amaranthus, asters, baby’s breath, begonia, calendula, celosia, cosmos, dahlia, dusty miller, gaillardia, geranium, hollyhock, impatiens, marigold, nicotiana, ornamental pepper, pentas, phlox, rudbeckia, salvia, sweet Williams, torenia, verbena, vinca and zinnia.
- Caladium bulbs are extremely sensitive to cold soil. There is no advantage to planting early. Purchase caladiums while there is a good selection, but wait until late March or April before planting them in shady beds.
Trees and Shrubs
- Finish pruning summer flowering shrubs such as althea, hibiscus, abelia, oakleaf hydrangea and oleander.
- Delay the pruning of azaleas, camellias, spiraeas, gardenias and other spring flowering shrubs until after flowering is complete.
- Prune any cold weather-damaged plants after new growth appears.
- If needed, fertilize shrubs and small trees with a slow release fertilizer. A good general-purpose landscape fertilizer is a 15-0-15.
- Mature palms should receive an application of granular fertilizer. Use a special palm fertilizer that has an 8-2-12 +4Mg (magnesium) with micronutrients formulation. Apply one pound of fertilizer per 100 sqft of canopy area or landscape area.
- Last opportunity to spray shrubs with dormant horticultural oil.
- Pick up all fallen camellia blossoms and remove them from your property. This practice helps to prevent petal blight next season.
- Prune ornamental grasses.
- If you are in the market for specific colors of azaleas, visit the local nurseries and garden centers this month. Though this is not the most ideal planting time you are assured of the right flower color without having to wait until next blooming season.
Fruits and Nuts
- Time to finish planting bare-root fruit trees.
Vegetable Garden
- This is the month for establishing a spring vegetable garden. Early March plantings have about an even chance of avoiding a late frost.
- The warm season vegetables that can be planted this month are: bush beans, pole beans, lima beans, cantaloupes, sweet corn, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, southern peas, peppers, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes and watermelon.
- The cool season vegetables that can be planted this month are: beets, carrots, celery, collards, endive, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mustard, bunching onions, parsley, English peas, Irish potatoes, radish and turnips.
- More conservative gardeners might wish to wait until the middle to latter part of the month to risk tender plants such as tomatoes and peppers.
Lawns
- Remove excessive accumulation of leaves from the lawn. This will increase the effectiveness of fertilizers and pesticides applied to the lawn.
- If a preemergence lawn herbicide is needed to control summer weeds, it should be applied in early March. Make certain to choose one that is safe on your kind of grass.
- Keep lawn herbicides away from the root zones of desirable flower, shrubs and other plants.
- Fertilize the lawn only after the danger of frost has passed and when the grass has greened up. Fertilize using a complete fertilizer applied at 0.5 lbs nitrogen per 1000 sqft containing 50% soluble and 50% slow-release nitrogen.
- Service the lawn mower: include a sharpening of the blade and adjusting of the cutting height for your type of grass.
- Anyone considering establishment of centipedegrass from seed should hold off until the soil warms up and stabilizes above 70°F. Add Item Here…
Blue Bell Recall Issued After Illnesses, Three Deaths
March 14, 2015
Officials are investigating an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections (listeriosis) linked to certain Blue Bell products. Five people have been hospitalized with three deaths reported.
Blue Bell Creameries reports that it has removed the affected ice cream products from the market, but some products may remain in the freezers of consumers. If these ice cream products are in your freezer, they should be thrown away, even if some of them have been eaten without anyone becoming ill.
The recalled products include Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookie, Great Divide Bar, Sour Pop Green Apple Bar, Cotton Candy Bar, Scoops, Vanilla Stick Slices, Almond Bars, 6-pack Cotton Candy Bars, 6-pack Sour Pop Green Apple Bars and 12-pack No Sugar Added Mooo Bars.
The regular Mooo Bars, which were available at grocery stores, are not subject to recall. The recall includes only the products listed above and does not include Blue Bell cups, pints, half gallons, three gallons or the company’s other frozen snack novelties. This was the first recall in the company’s 108-year history.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, five patients who were treated in a single hospital in Kansas were infected with one of four rare strains of Listeria monocytogenes. Three of these strains, which are highly similar, have also been found in products manufactured at the Blue Bell Creameries production facility in Brenham, TX.
The FDA was notified that these three strains and four other rare strains of Listeria monocytogenes were found in samples of Blue Bell Creameries single serving Chocolate Chip Country Cookie Sandwich and the Great Divide Bar ice cream products collected by the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control during routine product sampling at a South Carolina distribution center, on February 12, 2015. These products are manufactured at Blue Bell Creameries’ Brenham facility.
The Texas Department of State Health Services, subsequently, collected product samples from the Blue Bell Creameries Brenham facility. These samples yielded Listeria monocytogenes from the same products tested by South Carolina and a third single-serving ice cream product, Scoops, which is also made on the same production line.
Appeals Court Upholds 24 Year Sentence In DUI Manslaughter Of Two
March 13, 2015
The First District Court of Appeal has affirmed a Escambia County trial court decision to send a woman to prison for DUI manslaughter for a 2012 crash on I-10 that claimed the lives of an adult and child.
Kimberly Renee Rodrigues was sentenced in November 2013 by Judge W. Joel Boles to 24.45 years in state prison for of two counts of DUI manslaughter, one count DUI causing great bodily harm and one count DUI causing property damage. She was convicted following a two-day trial, and later filed an appeal.
Rodrigues had been free since December 2013 on a $165,000 appeal bond awaiting the appellate court’s decision. After the conviction and sentence were upheld, she was booked back into the Escambia County Jail Thursday afternoon.
The Florida Highway Patrol says Rodrigues was traveling west on I-10 near the Pine Forest exit about 4:40 a.m. on October 21, 2011. Prosecutors said she was traveling approximately 86 miles per hour when she slammed into the rear of a delivery truck driven by Melissa Lynn Lyublanovits, 44, of Pensacola.
Moments later, a GMC Yukon driven by Riviera Beach resident Lovett Cummings approached in the outside lane and swerved to avoid Rodrigues pickup. Cummings barely missed Rodrigues’ truck but his Yukon then rolled several times before coming to a rest in the trees on the north shoulder of the Interstate.
His 11-year old son, Lovett Deshun Cummings II, was ejected and died on the scene, while his 71-year old father, Lovett Junior Cummings, was also killed in the crash. Cummings’ mother was seriously injured and was airlifted by Life Flight from the scene. The delivery truck driver was unhurt.
Shortly after the crash, Rodrigues’ blood alcohol content was determined to be 0.166/0.170, over twice the legal limit.
Pictured above: A pickup involved in an October accident on I-10. (Note: The tractor-trailer in the photo background was not involved in the crash.)The scene on I-10 in Pensacola where two people were killed in a multi-vehicle accident in October 2012 NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Tate Head Football Coach Ronnie Douglas Resigns
March 13, 2015
Tate High School’s Ronnie Douglas has resigned after two seasons as head football coach.
Douglas said he must take care of his outside car wash businesses. He told his coaching staff of the decision Thursday.
He led the Aggies on two trips to the playoffs in his two seasons with a 8-3 record in his first season and a 9-3 record in his second season. The back-to-back play off appearances were the first for the Tate Aggies since the 1976 and 1977 seasons. Before Douglas, the Aggies won a four total games during three seasons.
FloridaHighSchoolFootball.com also named Douglas as the All-Panhandle Coach of the Year.
NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Tate High Students Create Lip Dub Video
March 13, 2015
Students at Tate High School have created a lip dub video, directed by Sarah Baxter and Megan Edgar. The video was produced for the Escambia County School District Lip Dub Film Festival, which was won by Escambia High School.
If you don’t see the video above, it is because YouTube videos are being blocked by your home, work or school firewall.
House Panel Backs Abortion Waiting Period
March 13, 2015
A House panel Thursday plunged into the legislative session’s first abortion debate, approving a measure that would require a 24-hour waiting period before women could terminate pregnancies.
The battle lines were familiar: Republicans and abortion opponents on one side, Democrats and abortion-rights supporters on the other.
In the end, the GOP-dominated Health Quality Subcommittee voted 9-4 to approve the measure (HB 633), filed by Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, R-Mount Dora. Under the bill, a woman seeking an abortion would be required to meet with a physician to get information and then wait at least 24 hours before the procedure could be performed.
Sullivan said the bill would empower “women to make an informed decision versus an unexpected, rushed and pressured one.”
“It gives them the opportunity to have that face-to-face with their doctor 24 hours in advance, to be able to think through that just like any other procedure as common practice,” Sullivan said.
But opponents argued that a 24-hour waiting period is not medically necessary and that such a delay could be hardship on women who live in areas without abortion clinics. Rep. Kristin Jacobs, D-Coconut Creek, said state law does not require similar waiting periods for other procedures, including vasectomies.
“A mandatory delay is not something that should be imposed on a woman, because there are lots and lots of procedures, as we know, that happen every day with doctors and there is not a single instance in Florida law or in this country where someone is required to wait, other than having an abortion,” Jacobs said.
Republican lawmakers in recent years have incrementally increased restrictions on abortions, such as approving a law that requires women to have ultrasounds before they can undergo the procedures.
Sullivan’s bill would need to clear two more committees before it can go to the full House, while an identical bill (SB 724), filed by Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, has not received its first committee hearing in the Senate. Also this session, lawmakers could consider bills (SB 920 and HB 147) that would require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals if they perform abortions in Florida.
During Thursday’s debate, groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union lined up with Democrats in opposing the waiting-period bill, while groups such the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Florida Family Policy Council joined Republicans in supporting it.
“The delay you are considering is not medically necessary and could in fact interfere with a woman’s health, ” said Michelle Richardson, a lobbyist for the ACLU of Florida. “Only a woman and her doctor should make decisions about what is best for her in her unique situation. Requiring two trips to a facility, regardless of a woman’s circumstances, and an override of a medical professional’s judgment places politicians between a woman and her health-care provider.”
But Rep. Julio Gonzalez, a Venice Republican who is an orthopedic surgeon, said the waiting period is medically necessary and pointed to data that he said indicates some women suffer post-traumatic stress disorder after undergoing abortions.
“I do not see this as anything else other than an attempt to protect women from a rushed decision that they may regret for the rest of their lives,” Gonzalez said.
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Escambia Senior Out $1 Million; Bill Seeks To Stop Predatory ‘Cockroaches’
March 13, 2015
Now 93, Ernestine Franks has lived in Escambia County all of her life. She and her late husband, Charles, both worked at the Pensacola Naval Air Station — she was in cost accounting and he was a metalsmith. They saved their money and invested it wisely and put their children through the best schools to ensure they would get the best education. Ernestine and Charles’ life was devoted to their boys and always went the extra mile for them.
Douglas said he and his two brothers agreed to a guardian for Ernestine in 2011 because they lived out of town and her health was becoming more of a concern.
But that guardianship has cost his mother $1,000 per day since June 2012.
“It is over $1 million that my mom has spent,” her son Douglas Franks said. “We’re trying to bring awareness so people know what’s going on and how this is a lucrative cottage industry.”
Franks spoke in favor of a measure Thursday in Tallahassee as a Senate panel on Thursday unanimously approved a bill aimed at protecting Florida seniors from predatory “professional guardians,” described by one lawmaker as “cockroaches.”
The bill (SB 1226), filed by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, would expand the Statewide Public Guardianship Office at the Department of Elder Affairs, with an eye to tightening oversight of people who assume control of a senior citizens’ finances.
A recent series by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune found that while Florida has an efficient system of identifying and caring for fragile elders, “tapping their assets is a growth business.” In 2003, there were 23 registered professional guardians on Florida. Today, the number has grown to more than 440.
“Those little cracks in the law are allowing cockroaches to crawl through and take advantage of people who are elderly,” Detert told the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee. “Let’s face it. The elderly are today’s invisible people, who are not given much credence when they complain.”
The bill would charge the Department of Elder Affairs with certifying, overseeing and —- if necessary — investigating and disciplining professional guardians who abuse their trust. It would also create a registry of professional guardians in each judicial circuit.
Currently, Detert said, the Department of Elder Affairs is responsible for public guardians, who are assigned to indigent seniors, but there is little to stop unscrupulous “professional guardians” from charging exorbitant rates for services they provide and running through their wards’ assets.
“When you are turning somebody’s entire life over to a guardian, they have access to every asset that you have, and your own family is blocked from participating,” Detert said.
Detert said the courts are so overwhelmed with foreclosures and other backlogged cases that they aren’t able to investigate guardianship expenditures that are unreasonably large.
Her proposal comes as several other lawmakers also are offering measures aimed at curbing abusive guardianships.
by Margine Menzel The News Service of Florida with contribution by NorthEscambia.com
Couple Wanted For Sexual Battery On Juveniles Arrested In Colorado
March 13, 2015
After two weeks on the run the suspects wanted in a child sexual abuse case have been arrested.
Douglas Albert Manning, 47, and Leah Giannotti Manning, 40, were taken into custody Thursday in the Indian Springs Campground in Florence, Colorado, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. They were wanted on outstanding Escambia County warrants for sexual battery and child neglect. They are being held at the Fremont County Detention Center in Florence, Colorado, awaiting extradition to Escambia County.
“Many thanks to our media partners and followers on social media for working with us to locate these fugitives,” Sheriff David Morgan said in a statement released on Facebook.
Two Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies were previously arrested in connection with the case.
Senior Deputy Mark Gene Smith was arrested and charged with felony sexual assault and misdemeanor battery. Deputy Walter Michael Thomas, Jr., was arrested and charged with felony sexual assault. Thomas was released from the Escambia County jail on a $150,000 bond, while Smith remains behind bars with bond set at $170,000. Both have been placed on administrative leave without pay by the Sheriff’s Office.
Leah Manning was previously employed in the Escambia County Jail as a nurse.
From June to October of last year, both deputies had sexual relation with juveniles under the age of 18, according to arrest reports. The Mannings were “swingers’, according to authorities, with multiple partners. Investigator are still combing through over 100,000 images and videos found on the Mannings’ computer.
Pictured: Douglas and Leah Manning are taken into custody in Colorado. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
NHS Students Win In Century Sawmill Poster Contest
March 13, 2015
The Century Lions Club and Northview High School students partnered to create two winning posters to promote the Century Sawmill Pageant. Sophomore Hadley Woodfin (right) won first place, and senior McKenzie Nasser won second place. Also pictured is their digital design teacher, Christa Mizrahi.
The 24th Annual Sawmill Pageant will be held on Saturday, March 28, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Carver/Century Auditorium. There are 91 young ladies registered for the event. All proceeds benefit Tri-County children who may need assistance in purchasing glasses.
Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
NHS JV Baseball Over WFHS; Jay Softball Downs NHS, Tate Over Milton
March 13, 2015
Northview 4, West Florida 2 (JV)
The Junior Varsity Northview Chiefs defeated West Florida High School 4-2 Thursday in Pensacola. The Chiefs are back in action, weather permitting, today at Freeport. The JV plays at 4:00 followed by the varsity district game at 6:30.
SOFTBALL
Tate 6, Milton 0
Tate 11, Milton 2 (JV)
The Tate Lady Aggies topped Milton 6-0 Thursday. Savannah Rowell was on the mound for seven for Tate, striking out eight while allowing two hits. Lauren Brennon was 2-3 at the plate with a doulbe and RBI. Casey McCrackin was 3-4 with an RBI; Rachel Wright was 2-3; Ashley Barnett was 1-2 and Zaria Anderson was 1-1 for Tate.
The Lady Aggies will travel to Niceville on Friday, JV at 4:00 and varsity at 6:00.
Jay 12, Northview 2
The Jay Royals beat the Northview Chiefs 12-2 Thursday in Jay. Dana Blackmon pitched six for the Royals, allowing two runs and seven hits while striking out five. Michaela Stewart was 3-3 with two runs, two RBI’s, a double and a home run. Also for Jay:: Kolby Bray 3-4, 3 R, RBI, 3B; Harley Tagert 2-3, 1R, 2 RBI; Destiny Herring 2-4, 1 RBI; Avarie Jackson 2-2, 2 R.
Jay (8-3, 4-1) will host Baker at 6 p.m. Friday. Northview is set to host Holmes County with the varsity game at 6:00, following a 4 p.m. JV game.
Pictured: Northview’s JV defeats West Florida High School Thursday afternoon in Pensacola. Photos by Ramona Preston for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
