Calloway's leaving San Antonio market
Texas-based Calloway's Nursery will close its 4 locations in the San Antonio area at the end of May, company officials said last week. "We are redeploying our assets at this time," Calloway pres. and CEO Jim Estill said in a statement. "We continually seek ways to allocate our resources to best serve customers while sustaining a healthy and prosperous business." Calloway's spokeswoman Kimberly Bird told San Antonio Express News that the closure affects about 40 employees and that some have agreed to move with the company. Although the company is not closing any of its Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston stores at this time, Bird said, the company sometimes will close stores when their leases end.

Raleigh eases water restrictions
Raleigh, N.C., mayor Charles Meeker announced that the city was returning to Stage 1 drought conditions, which effectively ends the total watering ban that was in place before, the News & Observer reported. The new restrictions allow once-a-week watering of home gardens. Homewood Nursery's Joe Stoffregan had campaigned to end the total ban.

Americans miss health benefits of gardening
While 83% of Americans say spending time outdoors makes them feel refreshed, healthy and excited, 61% admit they don't take enough advantage of the restorative powers of nature. In response to these and other results of a survey released last week, Miracle-Gro kicked off the It's Gro Time campaign, which urges people to unplug and unwind by heading outside to enjoy gardening. The survey also revealed: The leading reasons Americans didn't spend time gardening in the past year: they didn't feel they had a green thumb (38%) or didn't have enough time (36%). 53% feel the growing reliance on technology has led them to spend less time outdoors.

California sued over pesticide spraying
The battle over whether California officials should drop pesticide over urban areas to fight light brown apple moth (LBAM) is moving to the courtroom. The city and county of Santa Cruz are suing the state to stop what they say is unnecessary spraying of pesticide over homes and schools on the Central Coast of Calif. The case will be heard in Santa Cruz County Superior Court on April 24. Homeowners were upset last summer when the state announced it would drop a chemical pheromone, CheckMate LBAM-F, over urban areas to fight LBAM, an invasive pest from Australia. If left unchecked, state officials say the moth could wreak havoc on California agriculture. After stopping over the winter, spraying is set to resume over parts of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in June.

U.K.'s Dobbies buys Sandyholm
Dobbies purchased Sandyholm Garden Centre, a leading Scotland retailer, for 8 million pounds. The purchase was announced around the same time the company reported it is raising 150 million pounds to pay off debt and fund expansion plans. In other news, Dobbies, which is owned by Tesco, reported a 21% increase in sales, yet a dip in pre-tax profit.

Bowood Farms named Innovator finalist
Bowood Farms in St. Louis is among 4 garden centers to have made the cut to be finalists for the 2008 Garden Center Magazine Innovator Award, sponsored by Garden Market Expo. The winner will be announced in the June 2008 issue of Garden Center Magazine. Bowood Farms has learned to how to meet the gardening needs of its urban neighborhood, one it helped revitalize. Hip, appealing merchandise mixed with healthy plants reside in a former plastics factory, which is currently gaining a green roof.

Coming next week
A special Earth Day edition of the Weekly Dirt.

View from a blog
• Yale Youngblood laments allergy season's arrival. Open Register
• Roger's Gardens makes saving water look sexy. Project: Green Industry