After falling in love with the formal grounds at Paris’s Rodin Museum, fabric designer Michael Devine transformed a 25- by 120-foot patch of dirt into a backyard idyll — in just three months flat.

 

Steal this idea: Two architectural mirrors create a trompe l’oeil window effect.

 

Purple Prince Zinnia

Devine made room for plenty of flowers to yield bouquets for the house – planting larkspur and lisianthus for cutting and to splash painterly color throughout the beds. The overall aim was to evoke a traditional French priest’s garden – “both structured and informal,” says Devine, “producing herbs, fruits, and vegetables for the table and flowers for the altar.” His version seems effortless, mixing vegetables with flowers that attract pollinating bees. And because almost all the plants are annuals, this garden goes from bare to burgeoning in a single season.

‘Ronde de Nice’ Squash

“The blossoms are small, cute, and just as delicious as the vegetables themselves. We like to fry the flowers up in a beer batter.”

Don’t be fooled by the beauty here: This garden works as hard as any farm. Growing vegetables organically, without pesticides, was a must for the designer, who harvests from late April (peas and greens, like lettuces, chard, and sorrel) into summer (tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers) and early fall (turnips and tubers).

‘Victoria’ Salvia

“It’s shocking how well these took off – they started from seed and shot up to be 30 inches tall. Salvia is easy to maintain and great for cutting. We’ll scatter the seeds around the fence this year.”

‘Frosted Queen’ Bachelor’s Buttons

“We love to use these pink flowers in bouquets around the house; they’re great on the bedside table. They remind Thomas of growing up upstate.”

Michael Devine

Michael Devine (foreground) and his partner, Thomas Burak, relax in their backyard garden.

‘Milkmaid’ Nasturtiums

“The seed package promised pale-yellow blossoms, but orange appeared instead. Still, I think they’ll look marvelous cascading down from our flower boxes on the second floor.”

Purple Cabbages

“After a hailstorm destroyed our purple Brussels sprouts, we used these to fill in with deep-colored foliage. It was an ideal, quick emergency fix.”

‘Purple Prince’ Zinnias

“We grow these because they say ’summer’ to us — plus the flowers last a really long time.”

 

 

‘Early Sensation’ Cosmos

“The petals look so delicate and airy, but they’re actually quite sturdy, and very easy to grow.”‘Precoville’ Petits Pois

“We chose this pea variety because it’s so compact. We eat the vegetables raw, sprinkled on salads.”

 

 

Chic Shed

Devine draped the walls and table inside the shed with his own linen fabrics. The flea market chandelier is powered by good old-fashioned candlelight.

Prettier raised beds: Raised beds give gardeners greater control over soil makeup and condition, but they rarely look this fine. Devine’s inspired trick: He faced his utilitarian, rot-resistant cedar frames with ornamental willow fencing (from $36 for a 4- by 8-foot sheet at mastergardenproducts.com) – the outdoor equivalent to icing a cake. Just be sure to stain the boxes before nailing on the fencing, advises Devine, so the not-so-lovely lumber won’t peek through.

 

 

 “I wanted to make something small but exquisite on a modest budget,” explains fabric designer Michael Devine. “We had to use a lot of imagination, and I devoted myself to the details.” Devine’s vision would have to be packed into this less-than-fantastic space, a skinny plot just 25 feet wide by 120 feet deep. But the designer proceeded, undeterred, and his devotion paid off. Today the old yard is gone, a lush garden in its place. A tiny wood building – a prefabricated shed, customized with French doors and a roof that looks thatched – stands at one end of the space, where Devine and his partner, interior designer Thomas Burak, host friends for dinner on summer nights. At the opposite end sits a terrace where the couple drink their morning coffee and read the paper. These two spaces are linked by four raised, willow-trimmed beds filled with tidy rows of vegetables and flowers. The beds’ jewel-box chic is enhanced by Devine’s technique of “mirror planting,” so that the spacing of the rows in the right- and left-side beds lines up across the grass path that runs between them.

 

Nursery owner Flora Grubb shares the 10 most common mistakes made while shopping at the nursery and how to avoid them. Read more

The Ultimate Self-Tanner Guide

Top-Paying Jobs for Women

Women are flocking to the labor force in record numbers. Nearly 60% sought or occupied employment in 2008, the latest year for which statistics are available, representing 46.5% of the total U.S. labor force. More than one-third of these women worked in management, professional and related occupations, accounting for 51% of all workers in this top-paying sector.

Though a pay gap persists — women’s earnings remain stalled at around 80% of men’s — women are finding the jobs that pay them the most, and some may surprise you. Based on a U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau 2008 analysis, we ranked women’s median weekly earnings as full-time wage and salary workers to uncover the highest-paying jobs for women.

An unlikely No. 1 emerged. Much to our surprise, pharmacy topped the list, where women pharmacists earn a median wage of $1,647 per week or about $86,000 a year. Women currently account for slightly less than half of all pharmacists in the U.S. and earn about 85% as much as their male colleagues. It’s a much smaller pay gap than that of medical doctors, however, where women make 59% as much as men. And pharmacy requires less education.

Women physicians and surgeons came in far behind pharmacists at No. 6 on the list, earning a median of $1,230 per week. Dr. Drucilla Barker, economist and director of women’s and gender studies at the University of South Carolina, explains this by the wide distribution of salaries in the medical profession. Women often go into family practice or other lower-paying specialties, she says, rather than work the 80-hour-plus weeks of surgeons. In jobs like pharmacy and speech pathology there is a clear and narrow salary range, and women are more likely to have manageable schedules, Barker says.

Women computer scientists and systems analysts came in at No. 10, earning a median wage of $1,082 per week or about $56,000 a year. In recent years, telecommuting has become increasingly common in the industry, making computer science even more appealing to women seeking high-paying work and flexibility.

And just above, at No. 9, were speech-language pathologists, the only occupation on our list in which women earn exactly equal to men and represent 50% of the field’s total workers.

While women are inching higher and higher in status positions and earnings — the pay gap has narrowed by 10 percentage points since 1990 — there remains a large divide. About 3.5 million women earn within the highest pay bracket, making a minimum of $1,500 per week, compared with almost 10 million men. This may be explained by the most common female-held positions: administrative assistants, nurses and grade school teachers. (As a comparison, there are 36 times as many women administrative assistants as there are women pharmacists.)

Yet women outnumber men in some unexpected high-earning jobs like financial managers, accountants and auditors, and budget analysts. Women human resource managers, the No. 8 position on our list with a median of $1,137 per week, outnumber men in the field 2 to 1.

 

Top-Paying Jobs for Women

Though a pay gap persists–women’s earnings remain stalled at around 80% of men’s–women are finding the jobs that pay them the most, and some may surprise you. Based on a U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau 2008 analysis, we ranked women’s median weekly earnings as full-time wage and salary workers to uncover the highest paying jobs for women.

No. 1: Pharmacists

Women’s median weekly earnings: $1,647
Women’s median yearly earnings: $85,644
Percentage of men’s earnings: 84.9%
Education required: PCAT; Pharm.D. degree; six to seven years of collegiate study
What they do: Distribute pharmaceutical drugs

No. 2: Chief Executives
Women’s median weekly earnings: $1,603
Women’s median yearly earnings: $83,356
Percentage of men’s earnings: 80.1%
Education required: Varies; many hold a bachelor’s or graduate degree in business administration or more specialized discipline
What they do: Hold overall responsibility for the operation of an organization, including corporate and small businesses

No. 3: Lawyers
Women’s median weekly earnings: $1,509
Women’s median yearly earnings: $78,468
Percentage of men’s earnings: 77.5%
Education required: LSAT; J.D. degree; about seven years of collegiate study
What they do: Advocate in criminal and civil courts and provide legal counsel to clients on business and personal matters

No. 4: Computer Software Engineers
Women’s median weekly earnings: $1,351
Women’s median yearly earnings: $70,252
Percentage of men’s earnings: 87.3%
Education required: Bachelor of computer science or software engineering
What they do: Design, develop, test and evaluate computer systems and software

No. 5: Computer and Information Systems Managers
Women’s median weekly earnings: $1,260
Women’s median yearly earnings: $65,520
Percentage of men’s earnings: 85.4%
Education required: Bachelor’s degree; often a technology-specific MBA
What they do: Implement technology into an organization, often overseeing network security and IT operations

Mother gets limited power over Jackson’s property

A judge has granted Katherine Jackson limited control over some property in her son Micheal Jackson’s estate after she expressed concerns about the control of his business deals and bank accounts.

The order issued Monday by Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff states that Katherine Jackson has the right to take control of Jackson’s personal property now in the hands of an unnamed third party.

It does not detail the nature of those items and does not provide control of any money in the estate.

The request by Katherine Jackson says she wants to take possession of thousands of items removed from Neverland Ranch that had been slated for an auction that was later scrapped.

A hearing on the request is set for July 6.

L. Londell McMillan, an attorney for Katherine Jackson, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Oprah’s Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Herbs and Cheese

Oprah uses thyme, oregano, or chives — whatever’s freshest in her herb garden — when cooking up scrambled eggs. She keeps the meal healthy by using mostly egg whites in the scramble.

Ingredients
 
6 egg whites
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon(s) fresh thyme or oregano or chives
1 scallion, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 ounce(s) pepper Jack cheese (or 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese)

Directions

In a bowl, beat the egg whites and the yolk. Add the herbs and scallion, and season with salt and pepper.
Spray a nonstick omelet pan with cooking spray, heat the pan to medium, and pour in the eggs. Use a wooden spoon to move them around, making sure to scrape the bottom to prevent them from sticking. When they begin to come together, sprinkle on the cheese, and cook till they reach the desired doneness. Enjoy!

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