Gardens at Minneapolis Home & Garden show inspired by songs

Gardens that sing This year's Minneapolis Home & Garden Show, which opens today, is singing a new tune. The nine indoor gardens are inspired by popular songs that you won't be able to get out of your head.

"Rollin' on the River" themed beds are shaped by bubbling brooks and a waterfall. "Blueberry Hill" mixes masses of blue hydrangeas, irises and hyacinth. The gardens are the work of local landscaping companies and a great resource for ideas for your own back-yard beds.

If you're planning a remodeling or home improvements, take a tour of the contemporary ranch-style Idea Home. The 1,500-square-foot fully furnished structure features an open floor plan with an outdoor terrace and showcases the latest energy-efficient building materials.

There's also how-to seminars by TV celebrities, including Andrew Downward of "Divine Design" as well as by local experts on home staging, remodeling, interior design and cooking. This year's new attraction is the Eco Lounge for kids to unwind and pot some plants.

Home & Garden Show hours are noon-9 p.m. today, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thu.-Fri.; 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Sat.; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun. Tickets are $13 for adults; $4 for ages 6-12 and $10 when bought online at www.homeandgardenshow.com. The Minneapolis Convention Center is at 1301 2nd Av. S.

Passion for gardening pays off for kids Kids tending the Salem Hills Community Garden Plots will have 500 vegetable and herb plants and $2,500 toward garden supplies when they start digging this spring. The educational vegetable gardening program, sponsored by the Inver Grove Heights Parks and Recreation Department, was one of five winners of the Burpee Home Gardens "I Can Grow" Youth Garden award. Winners also receive garden design help from Burpee experts and a camera to document their garden's success.

The Inver Grove Heights youth gardeners, who are taught by Dakota County master gardeners, donated 20 percent of harvested food to local food banks last summer.

LYNN UNDERWOOD

In celebration of trees With his charming "How to Plant a Tree: A Simple Celebration of Trees and Tree-Planting Ceremonies" (Penguin, $15.95), Daniel Butler argues that putting a tree in the ground is the best expression of love, sorrow or appreciation.

In this small book, filled with lovely pencil drawings, Butler suggests trees as the best way to mark life's turning points. Welcoming a baby, buying a home, getting engaged? Plant a tree. Lost a job or a loved one? Celebrating an anniversary? Plant a tree. Trees, he writes, are a living, long-term reminder of the person or occasion and probably more meaningful than an electronic gadget or greeting card.

He includes the symbolism and timing of a planting ceremony and suggests the best trees for different occasions. He even touches on practicalities such as whether to pick a fast-growing species or a slower-growing, longer-lived one.

From the apple to the willow, Butler concisely and eloquently describes each tree's attributes, its place in history and why it's revered in different cultures. He also details how to propagate seeds or start a tree from a sapling, and briefly details the role of trees in climate change.

If nothing else, this book will make you look at the trees in your neighborhood with a keener eye and deeper appreciation. And you can mark that moment by planting a tree.

SHARON S. KESSLER