Category Archives: ~Gardening

4 Different Ways To Get Started With Gardening

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Gardening is so rewarding. Not only do you get to experience the joy of bringing a seed to life, but you can also stock your kitchen with homegrown treats and elevate your home decor!

To the uninitiated, beginning a garden can seem like a daunting task. The truth is that you don’t need a huge yard or years of experience to get started. If you’re interested in developing your green thumb, try these beginner-friendly gardening ideas.

  1. Pallet Garden

If you don’t have a lot of outdoor space to work with, a pallet garden is a wonderful option. Whether you live in a dense city or you’re looking for a unique way to make the most of your side yard, you’ll find that the vertical nature of a pallet garden is absolutely perfect for tight quarters.

As you might assume, the structure of your garden comes from an ordinary wooden pallet. The pallet acts as a frame, holding whatever plants you decide to stuff it with. The best part of pallet gardens is that you can be so creative with it. Stain the wood and fill it with herbs for a rustic, bucolic look, or paint it your favorite color and load it up with flowers for a fun spring/summer vibe.

  1. Bins, Buckets, and Barrels

 

If you’re interested in adding some greenery to your life, but you don’t want to bother with repotting plants as they outgrow their pots, try using some oversized storage containers. Buckets, barrels, and bins are all great choices that are easy to find and have plenty of room for growth. Simply fill them with soil, plant your seeds, and follow some basic gardening tips, and you’ll have your own self-contained garden in no time!

The great thing about this approach is that it’s easy to customize and expand over time. The containers give you a self-contained version of a large garden so you can decide if gardening is for you without committing to the real thing just yet. Growing plants in oversized containers is kind of like a cross between potted plants and a real garden—it’s the best of both worlds!

  1. Your Special Corner

For many would-be gardeners, the idea of starting and maintaining a garden is just too big. If you feel overwhelmed, just find a small, outdoor corner, dig it up, throw down some soil, and then put down some stone garden markers to make it official. If you have any pets, be aware of any potentially poisonous plants, and consider putting up a fence.

Even if your corner only has enough space for a person to sit down, you might be surprised by the amount of plant life you can grow. This approach works well because you can really focus on each individual plant. After all, you’re not a full-blown farmer just yet! Your little corner is a backyard oasis where you can get your feet wet without making a major commitment. Maybe next year, you’ll have two corners!

  1. Tin Cans in the Window

All you need is some tin cans, seeds, soil, and sunlight to start your very own indoor herb garden! If shoveling and raking isn’t your cup of tea, you can still enjoy the magic of gardening from the comfort of your couch.

Herbs need to be grown in containers that provide good drainage, so drill a few holes in the bottoms of your cans (or any other small container you prefer). Try using a variety of shapes and sizes—coffee cans make great centerpieces alongside classic tin cans. You can paint them or remove the label for a surprisingly elegant metal look. Prevent water leakage by placing a liner, saucer, or even paper towels underneath the containers.

Now, you simply fill your containers with soil, plant your seeds, label them, and place them in your windowsill. Make sure you check each herb’s water and sun requirements. Most will need at least around 4-6 hours of sunlight daily, and most should be watered when the soil is dry to the touch. Here are some of the most popular herbs for growing indoors all year-round:

  • Basil
  • Parsley
  • Oregano
  • Rosemary
  • Sage
  • Tarragon
  • Thyme
  • Chives
  • Chervil

Have Fun and Be Creative

There you have it—four easy garden ideas that are simple to start and maintain. The best part about gardening is that you can put your heart and soul into it. It’s not just about having some pretty flowers or tasty veggies to enjoy. Savor the journey. Gardening is your chance to wield the power of nature and create something truly unique and beautiful. Let your personality shine!

Author Bio: Katie Tejada is a writer, editor, and former HR professional. She enjoys writing about events, travel, decorating trends, and innovations for the home, but also covers developments in HR, business communication, recruiting, real estate, and finance.

Outside Creative Lighting Solution

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You will need some chunks of logs that are wide enough and cut straight enough to stand on their own. On one side use an auger to drill a hole wide enough so that the base of a solar light can fit into it. Use e6000 and glue the base of the solar light into the hole. Now stand the log in your garden or on your deck. So much better looking then just pushing these guys into the ground plus you get light up a bit higher which will be more useful.

A Solution For The Pile Of Leaves

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So, you rake up that huge pile of leaves. Now what to do. pick it up by hand? Shovel? Use part of an old tarp and rake the leaves onto the tarp. When you get a manageable amount of leaves on the tarp pick the corners of the tarp up and bring it to your trash to dump. Makes this task so much easier.

Top 6 Outdoor Home Improvements for 2020

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A swimming pool might have been a top trend back in the 1990s but nowadays, different outdoor home improvements grab the attention of homeowners. In fact, these trends shift so often, that in 2020 we can expect a whole new set of improvements to dominate our backyards. From a spruced up back door to a basketball court, the coming year will definitely be spent outdoors as much as possible.

Replacing the back door

When thinking of doors, most people immediately think of the front door and a new paint job it probably requires. However, the back door takes the same amount of beating by the elements that it too could do with a bit of sprucing up.

In some cases, installing a gasket at the bottom of the door is enough to prevent draft inside but in other cases, the back door needs to be replaced entirely. If you go with the latter solution, then choose a metal door over a wooden one because it will last longer and it will seal better.

Going green

Apart from the usual outdoor home improvements that come to your mind, plants are probably high up your remodeling list. However, the last place you would plant them is near or even on the fence. Quite the contrary, creating a garden wall should be a top priority in 2020 for several reasons.

Firstly, you’ll enjoy a greater level of privacy since vines and other climbers fill all the gaps in a picket fence, thus hiding your backyard. If you have trouble with a neighbor who’s a nosy parker, then a green wall is a subtle way to tell them to bugger off.

Furthermore, a green wall will act as a barrier that will stop dust particles from entering your home. This can come in handy if you live next to a busy road or a street. In addition, the sound of traffic will be muffled by the foliage so you can enjoy a relative comfort in the privacy of your backyard.

Adding a deck

Needless to say, building a whole patio will set you back a few thousand dollars but building a deck is not that expensive. A deck will provide you with the firm ground for housing the seating and even the dining area. You can bring in the furniture when the weather becomes too cold to spend time outside and the deck can be covered to prevent water damage from thawing snow.

Shooting some backyard hoops

With a lot of NBA teams competing this year for the title of the league’s champion, 2020 will see a rise in the number of backyard basketball courts. They needn’t be particularly large as a single rim is enough. If your plot of land is big enough, level it to create a basketball court.

After pouring the concrete surface, all you need to do is draw the lines and add some LED sports lights, as made by Legacy Lighting so you can play after dark. Just think of it, your kids might grow up to become a new Larry Bird or Michael Jordan playing on that court!

A stream running through your yard

As the weather improves next year, you will be spending more and more time outside. This means that a lazy July afternoon will probably catch you sleeping in a hammock behind your house. In order to enjoy outdoor leisure time to the fullest, add a fountain to the backyard. There are ready-made outdoor fountains widely available but this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be crafty.

The water from the fountain will have to drain somewhere so why not create an artificial stream that will run the length of your backyard. You can beautify its “banks” with rock and boulder, dotted with colorful plants. In fact, the stream can be created out of necessity because the tap and the drain are set wide apart in many yards.

A hammock for the adults and a swing for the kids

We’ve mentioned already that you can throw in a hammock inside the backyard. Like the fountains, they too can be purchased pre-made and simply hung between two adjacent trees. However, expect the children to start climbing into the hammock because they cannot resist the temptation to swing in it.

Since hammocks are not built for this purpose, at least the one made from rope, it is wise to provide your kids with an alternative form of entertainment. A tree swing is easy to make and it requires a single solid branch for installation. Once you test the swing for safety, don’t fall to the temptation to swing in it yourself because you’re made it for the children.

These were just the top 6 outdoor home improvements that will be in vogue in 2020. Some of them, like the swing, have been popular for ages, while others like a green wall are just now entering gardening practices. However, the boldest idea presented here is a well-lit basketball court that is bound to draw the attention of your neighbors in a positive way.

Home Improvements To Help You Get Through Winter

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You may not like the bitter winter cold but for your house, this season is the hardest to survive. In fact, the biggest structural damage your home suffers occurs during winter as the snow and cold take their toll on the unprepared house. Luckily, there are home improvements that can help you get through winter without any major repairs. Regulating the temperature inside and insulating the walls are just some of the measures you can apply to winter out this snowy season.

Insulating the unusual spots

You probably know all about the importance of insulating the walls of your house. However, it is equally important to invest in insulating the less probably areas of your home. For instance, insulating the basement is not a waste of money since a cold basement will literally drain all the heat from the rooms above.

Furthermore, the hot water pipes that run through the basement can benefit from insulation as well. The last thing you need is lukewarm water reaching your heating bodies when the temperature outside plummets below minus 20 degrees Centigrade. Metal is not very good insulation so even a thin layer of foam around the hot water pipes can help reduce waste of energy.

Finally, insulating the attic is also a great move. You don’t of this space as an energy-inefficient area because the roof is slanted. However, a roof without proper insulation underneath will give out warm air that is generated below. This will cool down the house, especially the upper floor where the nursery and the bedrooms are located.

Disconnecting the garden tap

Just like the hot water pipes in the basement, every meter of piping that is not going to be used during winter and that lacks proper insulation should not be used. This is easier said than done, as homeowners forget to disconnect the garden tap, for instance. They turn it off in September or October and completely about it until springtime comes. However, as temperatures hit their yearly low, the water inside freezes over, increasing the risk of a pipe bursting.

Instead of closing off the garden tap, be sure to disconnect it all together so there is no water inside the pipes underground. The same should be done with other outdoor water features, like a provisional kitchen. As far as swimming pools and splash pads are concerned, they should only be fully emptied but covered with a plastic sheet to prevent the show from accumulating inside them.

Cement rendering the walls

Having mentioned the swimming pool, it is worth noting that its inner walls are much more reliant to cold than the walls of your house. The main reason for this is that cavity insulation can only provide protection against cold air to a certain point.

A much better solution is rendering the walls with cement. This method will not only weatherproof the walls (subzero temperatures included,) but it will increase the overall aesthetic appeal of the house. If you have already used this method to treat your walls, then perform the necessary cement rendering repairs before the onset of winter.

Helping Santa

If your children ask you if the chimney stack is clear for Santa to come down, don’t take this question as a joke. In the best Christmas spirit, be sure to actually look up the chimney. Namely, it needs to be cleaned because you are going to fire up the hearth once again and if there is anything stuck inside the shaft, all sorts of problems can occur. Even if the chimney is unobstructed, it still needs to be cleaned for the inside so call the local chimney sweeper to the rescue. Finally, check the kitchen hood and all the other air vents, as they should all be ready for the winter season.

Inspect the house for openings

In the end, one final checkup will get you ready for the holiday season. Get outside and walk around the house inspecting it in the process for holes, cracks, and openings. You might find out that there is a draft coming from under the windows or that the corner roof tile is missing. These are easy fixes but if you fail to perform them, you could be in trouble after the first snowfall.

If you notice a chilly breeze sweeping through the house but you have ruled out the window area as the likely culprit, turn to the front door. Its bottom section is often disproportion to the size of the frame so a gap several millimeters wide can appear. You could never tell it existed during summer but in winter you’ll need to get a rubber gasket to cover this minuscule opening that cold winds can still get through.

Getting through winter is not easy as it’s the most challenging season of the year for your home. However, a couple of home improvements listed here will help turn the tide around and ensure you spend the snowy January in the comfort of your warm home.