The Phinney Neighborhood Association’s annual Home & Garden Tour this Sunday features five remodeled homes and five gardens in our neighborhood. Billed as “real homes for real people,” the event is a great showcase of the possibilities for homes and yards in Phinney-Greenwood.

This year’s homes feature basement remodels, kitchen remodels, second story additions, solar panels and a bocce court. The gardens include native and exotic plantings, ponds, waterfalls, unique patios and hardscapes. Plenty of ideas and inspiration to embark on your own projects.

The tour is self-guided and you can view the homes and gardens by walking, biking or driving (keep in mind that parking may be difficult). Slip-on footwear is recommended as participants must remove their shoes before entering each house.

On last year’s tour, this backyard playhouse was a big hit.

The Home & Garden Tour is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12 for PNA members and $15 for the general public and are available online or at the PNA, 6532 Phinney Ave. N. Babes-in-arms are free; tickets for children ages 2-12 are $5. Online tickets must be exchanged for the Home & Garden Tour brochure at the Phinney Neighborhood Center. The ticket brochure includes a map, addresses and a brief description of each home or garden.

For brown-thumbed gardeners such as myself, this is a welcome bit of news. Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and the Saving Water Partnership have produced “The Plant List,” a guide to help you choose the right plant for the right place in your garden.

When choosing plants, the most important consideration should be whether a site provides the conditions a specific plant needs to thrive. Soil type, drainage, sun and shade all affect a plant’s health, appearance and maintenance needs.

The Plant List highlights trees, shrubs and other plants that will thrive in different conditions, including wet soils, dry soils and drought, as well as sunny and shady sites. The Plant List also offers a comprehensive list of native plants that are suited to the northwest.

“When gardeners match the right plant to the right place in their garden, the plants will flourish naturally” said Liz Fikejs, Acting Resource Conservation Manager with SPU. “The Plant List helps gardeners find beautiful plants that will thrive in their gardens without wasting water, pesticides and fertilizers trying to grow plants in places they are not suited.”

When planting new plants, Fikejs advises gardeners to dig one to three inches of compost into new beds – which helps sandy soils hold nutrients and water, and loosens clay soils – and spread a layer of mulch, such as leaves, wood chips, compost, or grass clippings around plants on the soil surface, keeping it about an inch away from stems.

Looking for a little more happiness in your life? Cecile Andrews, local author of “Less is More” and “Slow is Beautiful,” will guide you through “Happiness Lessons” from 7-9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 18, at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N.

In the past few years there has been a great deal of research on the nature of happiness. What are the secrets of happiness? Why is it on the decline? What specific steps can we take for our personal happiness as well as for societal well being? How can Seattle use a Gross National Happiness measurement? To register, call 206 783 2244, $5 donation.

The 85th Street Market on the corner of 8th Avenue Northwest and NW 85th Street now has an ice cream shop.

We are ready with our ice cream shop just in time for summer. We carry 24 different flavors from Dreyr’s . We will serving hand dipped ice cream by scoop, shakes, smoothies, sundae, banana split, root beer float and a lot more.

PlayMatters at 7720 Greenwood Ave. N. is having a summer-long special of $5 for open play time from now through August.

The Phinney Neighborhood Association is looking for volunteers in a number of different areas: PNA Board Members, writers for the quarterly Phinney Ridge Review, copywriters and “information architect” for the PNA’s new website, and volunteers to help run the PNA’s World Cup showings this summer. Email Alex if you’re interested in any of these volunteer opportunities.

The Seattle Times reports today that the city is removing more graffiti that has sprung up on the oft-tagged underpass mural near Woodland Park Zoo.

The Seattle Center Foundation is looking for your memories of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair for its upcoming 50th anniversary in 2012. “The Next Fifty” celebration includes an online time capsule. You can submit an image, story, video or audio file from the fair until May 21, and you’ll automatically be entered to win a Heritage Package (annual family passes to the Pacific Science Center, Seattle Center Monorail, and the Space Needle - a $2,400 value).

PhinneyWood reader Phil Fenner was strolling at Green Lake the other day when he came across a couple tending to the lovely little garden and seating area next to the crosswalk on Aurora Avenue.

He’d always wondered about the place, so he stopped to chat with them.

On the Greenlake path along the thin strip where Aurora comes right alongside the lake, you’ll find the “Crosswalk Rockery,” a volunteer-built and maintained memorial garden. A bench and landscaping are dedicated to Tom’s Grandma. 4 lilac trees were planted there for her 4 sisters. A cobblestone path was built by High school students, which curves around to “hug” everyone like Tom’s grandma loved the place and people of the neighborhood. A plaque in the pavement by the bench gives the specifics of the memorial - but unlike many others of these memorial benches, this one is surrounded by flowers and trees. At the moment, a row of daffodils lines the rim of the retaining wall.

Built 10 years ago and maintained by them ever since, Tom & Ruth & Larry moved to Northgate but they come back and spend a day a couple times a year fixing it up. Tom says if the “roar of Aurora” annoys you, “just think of it as a waterfall in the background! Or plug-in your earphones.”

The Greenwood Senior Center is looking for gardeners to joins its SAGE (Seniors Active Giving and Engaged) Garden Steering Committee.

Do you have a passion for urban gardening? Are you an advocate for organic and local foods? Would you like to help make gardens more accessible to all people, no matter their age or abilities? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, consider being a part of the Greenwood Senior Center’s SAGE garden committee.

The realtor of a new building next door graciously collaborated with the senior center to let us use the raised garden beds that he and his son have begun to construct. As a result, our dream of having a Greenwood Senior Center community garden is coming true!

We hope to begin planting as soon as possible and need a core committee of individuals who are able to commit some time every week to work on getting the garden going. We would like to meet sometime during the first week of March. If you are interested of coming to our initial meeting or want to get more information, call or email Emily at the Greenwood Senior Center: (206) 297-0875; emily@greenwoodseniorcenter.org.

I’m not a great gardener by any stretch, but it seems really early to be seeing blooming daffodils. To my recollection, one is more used to seeing the first crocus blooms popping up this time of year.

Assuming things are indeed blossoming early, what early signs of spring are you seeing?

Gardening experts will demonstrate rose pruning from 12-3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 27 at Woodland Park Zoo’s Rose Garden, near the south entrance. Both the demonstration and admission to the Rose Garden is free. (Parking in the zoo’s lot will cost you $5.)

Need tips on pruning roses, using proper tools and more? Come to the Woodland Park Rose Garden for the annual rose pruning demonstration hosted by the Seattle Rose Society. The demonstration will include many annual rose pruning practices such as where to cut, how much to cut, how to use your tools properly for correct cuts, the types of roses and respective pruning techniques. Learn about roses and how to care for them, get answers to your questions by rosarians, and hear a discussion about Woodland Park Zoo’s organic management and IPM techniques used in the Rose Garden.

The event happens rain or shine. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call the zoo’s senior rose gardener at 206-548-2635.

The Seattle Rose Society was started in 1913, making it the oldest horticultural society in the Seattle area. An active and enthusiastic organization, the Society has a roster of over 200 members from all over Puget Sound, the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Members have a wide variety of interests in roses, including gardening, hybridizing, arranging and exhibiting roses. The Society was instrumental in the founding of the Woodland Park Rose Garden in 1924 with the help of the Lions Club.

The 65th Street Preschool Co-op in Ballard is hosting a Plant Sale & Spring Cleaning Fundraiser this Saturday, May 2, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s lower parking lot. They’ll be selling veggies, herbs and flowering plants from a local nursery, as well as baked goods and coffee. All proceeds benefit the non-profit preschool.

They also will have electronics recycling.

We would greatly appreciate any old cell phones, digital cameras, laptops, PDAs, inkjet and toner cartridges, DVD movies, Game Boys and GPS devices. We are shipping them off to a group called Cartridges for Kids. They refurbish what they can and recycle the rest and we will earn money for our preschool programs.