Archive for 'Home Improvement'
Landscaping and Vegetables: A Healthy Place in the Sun
Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
Landscaping is nature’s greatest form of art. It is one form of enhancing the natural splendor of a particular piece of land. It combines the different facets of creativity into one giant creation of art, beauty, utility, and practicality.
Shade trees provide protection against the glaring heat of the sun, where trees can actually soak up almost 85% of the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Some people do not know that landscaping can also be a good source of food.
Most garden-lovers think that beauty in nature lies in the flowers and ornamental plants. What they fail to notice is that vegetables can make a nice display in the scenery as well.
Vegetable gardeners contend that the bright yellow color of the sunflower under the heat of the sun is as magnificent as the rich green color of lettuce. The best thing about it is that these vegetables do not just feed one’s eyes but their stomach as well.
Most people who realize the value of vegetables in landscaping instantly decide to start planting edible plants in their garden. They find that landscaping using vegetables is a gratifying activity, more than merely landscaping with flowers and shrubs.
The common benefit that these people assert is the fact that landscaping a vegetable garden does not just add beauty to the area but can also provide the health-supplying goodness of vegetables.
When landscaping a vegetable garden utilize a detailed principle - because the main purpose is to grow vegetables that produce continuous harvests.
Here is a list of some of the principles in landscaping vegetables:
1. Try to separate ornamental plants from the vegetables. This is to avoid the contamination of the different pesticides for each type of plant.
2. Crop rotation is extremely important. Keep in mind that landscaping vegetables should not focus more on the beautification than how the land will respond to the demands of the plants.
3. Proper maintenance is important. Rotting fruits are not a good sight nor a positive feature in a landscape.
4. Use vegetables that can easily be maintained and that are very attractive.
Landscaping a vegetable garden is the most profitable aspect of the process. It makes one’s yard productive and fascinating all at the same time.
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Simple Landscaping Ideas
Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
Home is where your heart is. It is the place to go when you want to relax, have fun and do what you want. You will want every place in your home to be attractive - just the way you want it. This applies to your yard as well, and considering that your surroundings affect the way you feel, the appearance of your yard is of great importance.
Landscaping is an art. It is a place that contributes to the tranquility of your surroundings. Landscaping helps you achieve the aesthetic quality you desire for your garden and/or yard.
Landscaping does not need to be done by a professional design team. That is the beauty of it. You and your family, including your children can help assist in designing your surroundings for a more “family” type environment.
Here are some ideas to start you off.
You might want a garden, full of blossoming flowers, something that encircles your whole house. This is great since it will serve as the perimeter for your landscaping project.
Other ideas include assigning spots for other family members. Your children will want a play area where they can run and play with their friends. You might consider planting a shade tree to protect them from the harmful effects of extended exposure to the sun.
Another point to consider is an area your older children (or you and your spouse!) can use to play sports, grill some steaks or just relax in a chair and get the tan you desire. This is an important feature for your yard because you can consider it a place where you have fun and just relax.
Other areas should also be reserved for drying your clothes (if you choose not to use a dryer, for trash cans, and for your pets. These areas should be as close as possible to your house for easy access.
To be more artistic and aesthetically appealing, be prepared to use basic landscaping materials such as rocks, pebbles, trees, lawn and fences. These will help you achieve the view you want people to see and the functionality that a basic yard needs.
Perhaps a good thing to remember when designing your own yard is that you and other members of your family have artistic capabilities too. Remember that your home’s yard requires a family’s touch so you’ll be proud to say that you have created your own yard.
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Landscaping Aftermath: Maintaining Your Yard
Posted on 18. Feb, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
You have just finished landscaping your yard and you are pleased with the results. The flowers are blooming magnificently, the trees are giving enough shade and your kids are busy playing in the area you provided them for. It sounds peaceful and you are content with your own masterpiece. Like an art piece, though, without proper maintenance your landscaped yard will slowly fall apart.
In a perfect world, everything you’ve planned for your yard would be just that, perfect. It is not a perfect world, though, and there are several things to consider after you have finished the landscaping. Here are some simple maintenance tricks that might have escaped your mind.
The first thing that you should think about is the safety of your own kids. Weeds will grow and some of these weeds are harmful not only to your other plants but to your own children as well. You should check regularly for weeds and be prepared to immediately remove them from your garden.
Your kids are naturally curious and you make sure that thorns from your flowers (roses, etc.) are not problematic. You must also consider a tree’s branches, as big frail branches could easily fall, or may so low that they are easily a hazard. Prune them. Be sure that rocks and pebbles are not in your child’s way as they could stumble on them and hurt themselves.
After thinking about your kids, you must care for your plants. Plants need regular watering as they will wilt or die if not given taken care. Play areas that are too close to the play area can be destroyed by a stray ball or trampling.
Another thing to consider is making sure that the soil is suitable for growing plants. Fertilizers and/or constant tilling of the soil will make it more fertile and will enhance the growth of your plants.
Make sure that your yard is properly cleaned and that the grass is kept mowed. Trash can ruin the aesthetic value of your yard and can also be harmful to your health. Be sure to take out the trash at least every few days. You might also watch out for stagnant water areas as they are the favorite breeding places of mosquitoes.
Creating and landscaping your yard and garden does not end there, the work starts at this point and you must realize that every masterpiece needs proper care to maintain it’s beauty.
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Landscaping Tips: Making Your Yard Part of Your Home
Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
Your yard can be more than just empty space, it can become a central part of your home and landscaping can make that happen. This doesn’t have to be a grueling or expensive venture on your part, just so you apply some of these landscaping tips.
Function
First of all, determine what your yard is primarily used for. Is it a place for the kids to play, somewhere to hang the laundry out to dry, or do you see it as a place to ease away the tensions of the day? The answers to these questions will help determine what kind of work needs to be done before you start landscaping.
Another useful tip is to determine how your landscaping can help with energy costs. You may not know it but trees and shrubs can help you cut down on your heating and lighting expenses.
For example trees planted on the south and west can help with shading your house, which helps cut down on air conditioning. If these trees are the kind that shed their leaves (deciduous trees) during the fall, it will allow more light into the house during the winter when it’s most needed. Shrubs planted a few feet away from the foundation also help keep the warm air in and the cold out therefore helping with the heating bills.
Hardscape and softscape
Hardscape refers to the “non-plant” parts of your garden (deck, patio, statues, fountains, walls, etc.). Softscape refers to the plants and the lawn.
If you’re just starting out, lay out the hardscape first before you work with the plants. This way, the plants aren’t in the way when you’re installing the necessary hardscape materials.
Walls have the option of being treated as hardscape or softscape. If you want total privacy, you may want to go with a hardscape wall using materials like wood, vinyl or masonry. Otherwise, shrubs and trees make for a more natural wall that give a more open look while still closing the view to other people.
Find a central focus for your yard
This can be anything from a statue, to the play set or even a single tree. Finding a focus for your landscaping gives you a point of reference so that you give your design a better sense of order rather than just having plants scattered everywhere.
These are just some tips to get you started. As you continue working on your landscaping, you’ll be able to come up with more ideas that are distinctively yours, making your home as unique as you are.
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Keep Your Yard Neat with Basic Landscaping Supplies
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
Nothing beats coming home to a house that welcomes you and makes you feel right at home. Whether it’s in the front or back yard, a garden has a lot to do with that feeling. That said, you just might consider taking the time to landscape your yard.
Don’t be intimidated by the term “landscaping”. It is simply done by adding and/or arranging things in your yard to make it both functional and pleasing to look at.
To help maintain the neatness and the look you’ve achieved with your landscaping efforts, these handy tools will become essentials in your yard.
Lawn mowers
If you have a sprawling yard, with a lot of space for lawn, you might consider investing in a power mower to save you the effort of using a push mower or clipping it manually with shears. Smaller lawns may merit the same equipment, especially if you have health problems.
Hoses and sprinklers
You’ll need to water the plants so find a hose that can reach the edge of your yard. Determine diameter of hose that can give sufficient pressure too small and the hose May burst or too big and you may not get enough pressure.
Sprinklers are especially useful for big lawns since they save you the effort and time of watering by hand. There are sprinklers that require you to turn the faucet on and others that turn on automatically at a preset time.
Spades and trowels
Spades are smaller versions of shovels and are useful in digging up small amounts of dirt. Trowels are even smaller versions that can be used with the hand.
Both are used to dig up soil which you need to do occasionally to take out the weeds and to aerate the soil around the plants. Your plants will be much healthier if done on a regular basis.
Shears and pruners
Shears are a lot like big scissors that you use to trim hedges, vines and shrubs to keep them looking neat. Pruners are similar, although smaller, and are used for more delicate cutting within flower beds and for trimming roses and small shrubs.
Rakes and leaf blowers
Both of these tools tidy up a garden after pruning or during fall when the trees lose their leaves. Take care when using leaf blowers because when used thoughtlessly, you may end up being resented by your next door neighbors.
These tools help you maintain your garden and keep it neat all throughout the year. When used regularly, your garden will be neat and not look like a jungle.
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Making the Best out of One’s Garden
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
Having a garden is a lot of work. Not only will it take time to figure out the best possible design, and your budget, but construction and maintenance will be a bigger challenge.
Here are a few things that a person must be aware of in order to make the garden beautiful and keep it looking good throughout the year.
1. Remember that your yard was once an empty lot that was probably had various types of vegetation grass, you must realize that there would have been other kinds of living organisms that lived there also. When new plants are grown in the same area, there will be pests you will encounter so preventable steps are need to protect them.
Insects can be warded off by using chemicals, bars of soap can be used to ward off deer and other animals to discourage them eating the plants, or a scarecrow might be used to scare off birds.
2. Weeds that grow can also be a problem. You must allow some time to keep weeds under control, preferably by pulling them rather than mowing. If you are not able to find time to do this, then a gardener should be hired to do the job.
3. Choosing the right kind of plants may not be easy as one thinks. Some plants do not survive under certain conditions such as full sun, while others need a lot of sunlight or water to do well. Do some research and ask for assistance at the local gardening store to determine the plants that grow well in your area. This will save you both time and money.
4. Planting trees or plants is not the only answer to beautifying your home. You can also use other accessories such as a bench, a stone statue or a wooden fence that will to compliment the home.
Landscaping takes a lot of work. One can get advice from magazines, gardening websites and the help of friends and neighbors. The best people to ask advice about maintenance are certified professionals who are capable of giving good advice
There are many ways that you can improve the appearance of your garden. All it takes is some imagination, ingenuity and the right tools and equipment to bring life to your idea.
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Improving One’s Garden
Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
Having a good garden is not enough. To those who strive for perfection, these individuals will stop at nothing to make it better than before so they may enjoy the compliments of family members, neighbors and friends.
Even if some people have experience doing landscaping in the past, there is no harm in asking the advice of others including professionals. Here are other tips that one will need when making improvements to their garden.
1. The first thing that a person has to think about is how much you are willing to spend for the project. It is not only the plants and other accessories that you will need, but how much the professional will be charging to do the job.
2. Since it takes a degree and a license for a professional to do the job and there are many firms that do that job, it is best to look around. You should pay a lot of attention to the accomplishments that these professionals have achieved and interview the people who hired the firm to determine how well the job was done.
You can also check designs and be provided with an estimate with the exact cost before picking the person and/or company to the job.
3. Professionals can do a complete overhaul of an area or do minor improvements. Being in the business for a long time, these people have suppliers that can be contacted to provide right kind of plants, trees and other things that will be needed to finish the project.
4. It is necessary to see if the materials and specifications you desire and the contractor you plan to hire comply with your city’s landscaping codes.
5. The person or company you contract with must be someone who can be contacted easily especially if you do not like how the project is progressing or have a question that needs an answer. It is the garden so as the owner, you must have the last say concerning the project…
An individual can save a lot of money when doing the improvements without the help of a professional. Since there are many things to consider and these people have more experience, it is still advisable to seek the help of professionals so you will not have to worry and enjoy the changes when the job is finished.
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Landscaping 101: A Pond in Your Own Yard
Posted on 03. Jan, 2010 by Mark Coleman.
A pond is attractive way to enhance the landscape if your home and have l large area you wish to landscape. So what do you do? Consider an area where the pond would be attractive and practical.
Why create a pond, you ask? Ponds increase the value or your property, and would be a way to attract a prospective buyer. A well designed and functional pond also adds a peaceful effect to your yard. Ponds create an ideal ecosystem beneficial not only plants but wildlife as well. If you are fond of fish and water plants, a pond would be ideal.
This article will not go into details on creating your pond, but will furnish information about the landscaping aspect…
Landscaping your pond starts at the pond itself. Create a border by adding stones, plants and statuary that will create a great view. You should also create a walkway from your pond to your house. Access is important and easily accomplished by using stepping stones, etc.
Trees are both beneficial and harmful to your pond. Trees provide shade that will be good for your pond but they will also add to debris such as branches and leaves or fallen fruit The key is to strike a balance between the two.
Shrubs will also play a role in maintaining unity between the tall trees and the low pond. They will create continuity from your pond to the trees. You may also add some flowers to provide some color. Be sure to cut the off the old blossoms to prevent debris that can make your area unsightly.
Water plants are a must for ponds and should be added immediately after your pond has been finished. Use similar colored plants as their surroundings to create some balance and harmony between the two. Be creative and do some research on different kinds of water plants to use.
A finishing touch for a pond is adding some fish. Add them after everything else has been finished. Always select appropriate species of fish that will not out-grow the size of your pond.
Creating a pond for your yard will both be tiring, but the fun of creating it will be rewarding. Be sure that do regular maintenance to so it will always be free from debris. After all of your work is finished, enjoy your pond and marvel the harmony you have created in your yard.
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Planning Your Landscaping
Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
Landscaping is an art. It is something that takes some time to do, some effort, and some patience. Landscaping if done properly - will be a masterpiece. Every part is very simple is planned well.
Landscaping your own yard needs not only you but your whole family’s cooperation. Be prepared to spend several weeks to plan and implement every detail, to insure that every rock and every nook and cranny of your yard is used to enhance the appearance you desire.
Plan how you will attack the problem. The simplest solution to the problem is to divide the work into parts.
The first part in your landscape is your boundaries. Put up some fences or use a hedge or border something to set the perimeter. Be creative, it does not have to be a fence or hedge, use your imagination. It might consist of bushes with a wooden fence and gate. Consider other alternatives and combinations that you might use also.
After setting up the boundaries of your yard, look for areas where planting might be a problem. You might use these areas as play areas for your children or a place where you put other things such as trash cans and your pet’s house.
You need to find a space for trees, shrubs, etc. Planting a tree close to the children’s play area would provide needed shade for them while playing. Trees and shrubs may also be placed at the front of your house to provide some a pleasant view.
Next thing is planning your planting area. Perhaps a vegetable garden, for those who love harvesting their own food, would be a good idea. Of course, this could simply be a flower garden where you could plant flowers that you like and enjoy.
You should not forget to create a walkway from your gate to your front door. This can be done by using pebbles, flagstone, etc., or you could simply cement it and put flowers either side. A driveway can also be enhanced by using flowers and/or shrubs.
It’s up to you to decide if you wish to add a lawn to your yard. There are other possibilities such as river rock, wood chips, etc. These are some ways to add aesthetic beauty to your yard, but not really necessities.
Plan also where you will get the water needed to water your plants regularly. This have to be close to your plants and you could use a hose or a sprinkler, whatever your preference might be.
Planning your landscaping is easy, but you must not forget to include in these plans some safety precautions for your child, some daily and regular maintenance to your plants and some place where you could add new stuff that you might like.
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Tips for Landscape Gardening
Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
Beautifying your garden does not mean spending a fortune to make it happen. By following these tips, the person will be able to have a nice garden that people will appreciate.
The first thing that a person needs to do it to draw up the plans on paper based on the layout of your home. This should include the location of the sun at different times of the day, trees or other structures that are present in the neighboring areas.
The first thing that a person must do is check how much the project will cost. This should include the kinds of plants that you want as well as any other materials like rocks or wood that will be used to compliment the garden.
Since there are people who do this as a living and who know more about landscaping than you do perhaps, you can hire professionals to prepare your plans. If you draw up the plans you might want to show the plans someone their opinion before starting your project. This will save time and money should you not like what the other person has planned.
Landscape gardening takes a lot of work. Rather than turning one’s garden into a construction zone, it is best to have this done in phases. This helps keep costs down and makes the plan flexible to changes.
Money can be saved by buying these materials during the “off” seasons. Wood for example is cheaper during the winter months. The price of shrubs and soil are lower when you buy late in the season.
Projects like this are done for the long term. To save on the cost of plants that must been bought and materials to be used as flooring, you may not to buy the cheapest. Those that cost a little more are preferable to others that are cheaper and damage more easily.
Check the local stores that sell gardening equipment and supplies for prices. You can also do some surfing on the web, and by comparing the prices that you can get nearby and those available elsewhere, there is a chance that you can get the same thing at a more affordable price.
After doing all the work, proper maintenance is needed your project looking good throughout the year. You can do by yourself alone by or enlisting the help of a gardener to check on it regularly.