By DEBBIE ARRINGTON, Sacramento Bee

Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.
Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

Amid the crowded front aisle, the feeling of expectation is palpable. On a frosty February morning, farmers and gardeners alike are lined up at the huge oak counter, eagerly awaiting their chance at the drawers.
Inside those drawers is the future, packed into tiny seeds. Row upon row of drawers reach the ceiling, each slot filled with promise.

It never fails, lamented David Roberts.
"Tuesday, I was driving around in that pouring rain," related the Sacramento, Calif. landscaper, "and there were homes with their sprinklers on. What a waste!"

The Kapickas could not wait for the economy to turn around.
With a toddler and a new baby, the couple had outgrown their two-bedroom house in Sacramento, Calif. Despite the financial uncertainty that has gripped most of America, the Kapickas needed to either move or expand their house to fit their growing family.

Judd Van Sickle has seen it all: The junk-food binges, the candy bars, the post-ride burgers.
The longtime cyclist and coach of the University of California-Davis' renowned cycling team even acknowledges powering down a double bacon cheeseburger himself after training.
"That was before I knew better," he said.

How do you add a little romance on a tiny budget? Just in time for Valentine's Day, celebrity interior designer Kenneth Brown shared his secrets to creating a sensual bedroom -- without breaking the bank.
The key word is "sensual," Brown advises. Romance starts with your senses. Go beyond sight to touch, smell and sound.

Tight times require some creativity and common sense. There are dozens of ways to pinch pennies around the house, starting with simple things like turning off the lights when you leave a room (all those watts add up) or dialing down the thermostat.

Architect Renzo Piano supplied the vision. It was botanist Frank Almeda's job to find a way for nature to cooperate.

Muriel Humenick attacks every rosebush with the same philosophy: Cut out the old, protect the new.
It's an appropriate New Year's maxim, especially when facing thickets of thorns.

Tom Lawson showed off his latest masterpiece with the pride of a fine craftsman.
"This is a real beauty," he said of the gleaming 600-pound blue, white and silver cast-iron stove. "You should have seen it when we started."
It's another successful revival, brought back from the dead to fully functional kitchen centerpiece.