All Entries in the "HOME GARDEN" Category
Environmentally Friendly Tips for Your Lawn
Who doesn’t appreciate a nice green lawn? Caring for a lawn doesn’t have to be a nightmare. In fact, with a little creativity it can be fun—even if you live in a neighborhood with an overly strict and nosy homeowner’s association and makes seemingly unreasonable demands and is always looking over your shoulder. Here are some of the things to make the task of yard and lawn care easier for you and for the environment.
1. Hire a Professional
Seriously! The easiest way, though not the cheapest, to care for your yard and lawn is to hire someone else to take care of it for you. It’s easy enough to find a professional in your area by using sites like search sites like lawnservice.net or hitting up Craigslist. Professionals do this for a living, know all the tricks of the trade, and bring professional grade equipment that can do the job in half the time.
2. Use a push mower
Mowers that use engines require gasoline. This is terrible for the environment, your lungs, and your wallet. They are also louder than push mowers and while it might be fun to irritate an annoying neighbor, that whole turnabout is fair play thing should keep you in check. Plus, do you really want to spend money to bother your neighbor?
Decorate Your Garden with Water Features
Gardens are the extensions of a home. Just as you decorate your interiors and add interesting features to it, so can you to your gardens.
The most common garden décor items included are bird feeders, garden lighting, stones and gnomes, bird baths and so on.
Among other things many gardens also include a water feature. Here are some ways you can decorate your garden with water features:
Large Gardens
If you have a large garden as part of your home, then you must be indulging in some amount of landscaping. Carving a space out to include a water feature would add interest and variety to the landscape.
Constructing artificial ponds, waterfalls and streams are some of the water body ideas for a large garden. A pond could be either a reflective pond or one that supports water-borne plants such as water lilies.
The soothing sounds of flowing water are a welcome break to the serenity of a large garden.
Small Gardens
If you fancy maintenance- friendly small gardens, the idea of a water feature need not be stashed away. A visit to the garden supplies store will give you endless ideas on how to include a water body even in a modest garden.
Stylish Tips for Summer Outdoor Dining
There is nothing better than having dinner in the garden in the warm summer nights. Eating outdoors doesn’t mean that you have to give up comfort; in fact it means that you should have everything you need, in a different setting.
A canopy
All you have to do is to sink four poles in the ground and have a large fabric that you can secure to them. This way you can be protected against the rays of the sun. To secure the poles you could be using tent pins. This way you can be sure that not even the wind will damage your canopy.
Kitchen set
When it comes to outdoor dining you don’t necessarily have to think about a picnic. You could have a table and some chairs, not to mention that you could even think about decorations, such as a vase with some summer flowers.
Runners
To add life to the entire setting you should go for runners in vibrant colors. Instead of a runner placed lengthwise, you could have three runners laid across. You could make these three runners of the same fabric. You could cut up one runner and then stitch the sides.
Give Your Patio a Stepping Stone Path This Summer
In case you would like to protect your lawn against foot traffic, the best thing that you could do is to have some stepping-stones laid down.
The good news is that you can have the project done in only one day. The most difficult part of the project is to mix the wet stone dust that will be the base and then lift and move the stones.
Shopping
Start by going to a local stone yard and look for pieces that are about one and a half inches thick and about 24 inches wide.
This is the optimal size because most probably they won’t crack and you don’t need to cut them. All you have to do is to adjust them to fit together. When you come up with the plan for spacing, digging, placing the stones will be quite easy.
(photo credit: www.myyardrocks.com)
Stakes
Place a stake at the starting point and at the end point. Tie a rope between the stakes close to the ground. This rope is supposed to mark the height of the stepping-stone.
Useful Tips to Save Money in Landscaping
When tempted to invest in landscaping one of the most important thing to consider is to find the best price for the majority of the items that you need.
Keep in mind that in many cases the prices of the materials change very fast, according to the season.
Plan ahead
Before you start with the planting and building, you should draw a plan of what you want on planning paper.
You can make sure that you won’t waste any money and time if you know exactly where things belong and what you need for the project.
Design
It is true that it is easier and less expensive to have a square or rectangle shaped patio, but if you don’t like it, you won’t use it and in this case it is just a waste of money.
This is why it may be best to talk to a professional designer who can offer you a design that you would like.
Talking to a professional
Most probably you don’t need an architect or a designer to finish the project for you. Nonetheless it may be useful to pay for a consultation that later will save you a lot of money.
5 Methods to Build Your Very Own Garden Gate
One of the nicest additions that a garden could have is a white garden gate. Of course the gate could have just any color that you like.
The most common style is the Z style, but the one you opt for should be determined by the way that the gate will be used and it also depends on the type of the fence.
(photo by Ryan Benyi)
1. Measures
In order to know the size of the gate that you need, you should measure the distance between the two posts. Then measure the height that the gate should have through placing the tape at the top of the post and then stretching it to the ground. This way you will know how many boards you need for the project.
Buy as many boards as you need and since these come in 2-by-4 increments, most probably you will have to cut them to size with the help of a circular saw. To create the frame of the gate you should place the builder’s square at a 45° angle on the boards and then fit them together.
Home and Garden Furniture for All Seasons
Home and garden furniture is basically any kind of furniture that can be used both inside your home and out on your patio by the garden. This type of furniture is usually best for screened in porches where you can enjoy the outdoors while still having a roof over your head.
There are many different options available to the people who are developing some kind of indoor-outdoor patio, but this is definitely the type of furniture you should be using for those types of rooms.
There are many different materials that can be used for home and garden furniture, but you want to choose something that fits the rest of the surrounding areas.
Wicker and wood are usually the top choice for porch areas, and metal and plastic are better options when your room is more outdoors.
While you definitely don’t want to have furniture that is too simple, you don’t need to make it too elegant for its needs.
Switch Your Style with a Mediterranean Garden Design
There is a lot of history in the Mediterranean when it comes to garden style, and you can go back to the ancient gardens in Greece and Rome if you want to see how long this has been a staple of that area’s culture. A Mediterranean garden design is a design that will contain within itself a lot of history and culture on its own.
There are many different styles and cultures that influence these kinds of designs, so you will be getting the best from a lot of different minds in the world.
Since there is so much cultural diversity in the Mediterranean, it’s easy to see why they are able to come up with some of the most epic cultural advancements in history.
A Mediterranean garden design attempts to put this cultural diversity into art found in your garden. This area of the world has already affected so many other cultures so it may be time that you joined the party.
Ignoring the Mediterranean garden is basically like ignoring 3000 years of advancements made by these people when it comes to garden designs. There are so many things to learn about with these types of gardens that it can sometimes be hard to figure out where to begin.
Lean to Greenhouses – The Practical Space Next to Your Home
The advantage of the lean to greenhouses is that they may be placed near the house or the fence and this way they will need less space than a free-standing greenhouse. Nonetheless these types of greenhouses are less often used because their design allows them to be placed in only few locations.
They must be leaning against an existing wall and in the majority of cases there is more space in the garden or in the yard.
Since they have to be leaning against a wall, it is possible that they will be shadowed. This is why the best option is to build them next to a south facing wall.
The advantage of the greenhouses placed near a south facing wall is that it will cost a lot less to heat them during the winter months because they act as a solar greenhouse. This is possible because they are able to collect a lot of sunlight from the south through the wall of the greenhouse.
Garden Design Elements for Active Youngsters
Every parent today understands the importance of having kids play out of doors and lessening their reliance on electronic gadgets, the TV, the X box, other video games and so on.
With a little bit of imagination, you can install the kind of design elements in your home or yard that will encourage your youngsters to spend more time out of doors.
Here are some ideas about how you can encourage an interest in the outdoors and also help your child imbibe more of nature and its many benefits –
A sand box
This may be an idea that you associate mainly with toddlers and preschoolers, but even older kids can have a really great time in a sand box. As a child gets older they may think of more creative ways to make structures out of sand, and the sand box may continue to delight even an older child.
The tree house
There isn’t a child in the world whose fancy wouldn’t be caught by the idea of a hideout in the trees, far from prying adults and all seeing eyes. A tree house can be really basic – the fixing of some bare boards securely among the branches with a rope ladder leading up. If the tree is easy to climb you may even want to give the ladder a miss.
