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Three Easy Steps To Prepare Your Backyard For The Warm Summer Months

by Trish

Pool parties, barbeques, and sunbathing… Spring actually isn’t as far off as it seems. It’s only a few months away! With Spring approaching shortly, it may be time to start thinking about some Spring-cleaning so that your backyard is ready to go by the time summer rolls around. Get your yard ready for summer by following a few simple steps such as cleaning it up and setting up a patio space… you may even want to consider a home extension if you live in a sunny area in order to beat the heat (and sunburn!) By following the steps below, you can properly prepare your home for the upcoming warm months and make the most out of your backyard this summer.

1.       Clean up

Chances are that your yard is a bit of a mess if you haven’t been keeping up with it throughout the winter. Enlist some helpers (i.e. family members) to help get the yard back in shape. This means picking up any fallen branches, cutting down dead trees, trimming bushes, weed whacking, and raking up any dead leaves that have collected over the past few months.

2.       Set up

It’s time to bring out the old patio furniture out of storage and uncover and fill up the pool. Set up a nice sitting area, as well as a lounge area so you can easily host a barbeque or get-together without having to worry about having enough seats. Place mosquito-repelling candles around as well as some extra lighting so your yard will be useful at nighttime as well – solar powered lanterns will do the trick.

3.       Improve

Think about what you can do to improve your backyard’s appearance, as well as it’s worth. Whether you add a garden with seasonal flowers or a miniature waterfall, your backyard’s aesthetic is just important as your home’s interior. Leave it to a landscaper to plan out your backyard and find plants that work best in your location’s climate and weather conditions. If you live in a primarily sunny area, you may want to consider adding on a home extension to provide shade to you and your guests.

There are a variety of things you can do to improve your yard and perfect it before the summer season arrives. However, the first step is cleaning up your existing yard, setting up with the tools and materials you already have, and then thinking about what you can improve on.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Image author owned

Jillian Johnson is a professional content marketing writer and blogger with a particular interest in writing about home and garden. To read more writing by Jillian, follow her @MissWritey.

Filed Under: The yard Tagged With: backyard, barbeque, branches, clean up, easy steps, Furniture, garden, Landscaping, leaves, lights, party, patio, prepare, set up, solar lights, summer, tidy yard, warm, weeds

5 Reasons Why A Small Home Might Be A Better Investment Than Its Big Brother

by Trish

colourful burano house

 

People have goals in life and the main idea is always to improve on what you have right now. Everyone always wants bigger because they think it is better, but is that really true? You only need to look at houses to understand the way people’s minds work. A much bigger home makes them feel like they have accomplished something. Even though half the rooms would remain empty they want to become rich so they can buy themselves a huge mansion with an even bigger garden.

You’ve got to ask yourself if this is the route you want to go down when you’re looking to buy a new home. Will something that big fulfill your needs, or do you just want it because you can say to yourself your home is massive? You need to think about if very carefully before you make one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. Owning a small home can be just as good and if you’re looking for some reasons why we can go over a few of them now.

It will cost you less

Money

When you buy a small home it will be cheaper than one that is twice the size. It doesn’t just mean you will save money when signing on the dotted line, because there are much more ways to save more over the years. Think about how much it will cost you to keep it cool in summer and hot in winter. It will definitely be cheaper. The same also goes for repairs and a good example we can use is the guttering, because you will need less lengths when it is time to replace them.

You’ll have more time

Cleaning a large home is a tough job, but someone has to do it and it will probably be you. Imagine how much time you would save hovering if you had 50% less carpet space. When you work out how much time you’re cutting out per week it might not seem like much, but now times that by 500 and work out how much time is being saved over 10 years. That isn’t just cleaning the house because it also includes doing work in the garden.

Buying nice things

Pink ice-pendant

Big homes are expensive to buy and your mortgage payments will be a lot. It’s not nice watching all of that money leaving your account each month. If you add that onto the money you’re paying in bills you might not have much money left on the 31st. With all that money you will save on your home it means you will have a lot more to buy nice things. Would you rather have a big empty house, or a small one filled with wonderful treasures?

Living the easy life

People buy a huge home and they have so much space to fill. That means going out and getting things to fill the space. Before you know it your home is full of junk. With a small home you can’t be so rash. You can buy amazing things, but not millions of things. Just a few amazing things and it leaves you will less materialistic problems which lets you relax a bit. Having too many things can be very stressful if you believe the minimalist movement.

Selling it more easily

Everyone wants to buy a huge home, but how many people do you think will be able to afford one? Not many if you read the news. A small home is well within the price range of the biggest majority of people. As the future gets closer and closer you will also see a huge jump in the number of people looking for smaller, more energy efficient homes. Maybe the millionaires of the future will realize that smaller might be better than bigger, too.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Josh Butler is real estate consultant at Abercromby’s. He has vast knowledge of the real estate sector and has suggested many useful tips in Abercromby’s real estate blog.

Filed Under: Home and family, Home Improvement Tagged With: better investment, garden, home, house, items, mortgage payments, price, savings, selling, small home, time

Make Your Green Thumb Sweetie A Gardener Gift Basket

by Trish

If you have an avid gardener in your life or just someone who likes to be amist the flowers and plants, give her a gift basket with a garden theme this year. A gardener’s gift basket is one of the loveliest and most thoughtful things you can give someone who loves to plant and nurture their garden.

The Basket/Container

Consider what you will put your basket in. It doesn’t have to be a true basket, just something that will hold all the items. Consider a bell jar. These glasses resemble upside down wine glasses without the stems. They are perfect for starting and growing seedlings or one perfect plant. You can include everything inside and tie with a nice fat ribbon.

What to Include

Start with a pair of gardening gloves. They can be any color, just make sure they are the size that will fit your friend. Then, include a nail brush and gardener’s soap so that she can scrub her hands clean after playing in the dirt. A garden tool set in miniature is perfect if she likes to work in a greenhouse or with potted indoor plants. They’re also great if she likes terrariums.

Other things you can include are seed packets. If you know she loves flowers, go with all flowers. Or do a mix of vegetable seeds if you know she loves to tend her vegetable garden. A gardening book tailored to her interest is a nice idea. If she’s talking about making a shade garden or a raised bed garden this year, there are books specifically on those topics. Or if you don’t know what she might already have on her bookshelf, give her a gift certificate to a garden shop or bookstore that sells gardening books.

Also include sunblock for when she’s out in the sun, a hat that rolls up would also fit in the basket. You can also include a lip balm in a nice fragrance. Anything she might use when she’s out gardening is perfect.  A gardening themed t-shirt can be rolled up and placed in the basket as well.

If you’re stumped for what to give your gardening friend, go for a trug. These baskets are made for gathering flowers or fruits and vegetables. Any garden catalog or store will have them. Then, you can fill it with flowers and a gift certificate to a nursery that you know she loves. Throw in a magazine subscription about gardening and your gardening gift basket is all set.

A nice set of gardening sheers can be a great addition and a kneeling pad will save her knees. If you know her shoe size, go ahead and include gardening clogs. You might include a wind chime or another outdoor decoration that she can use in her garden and think of you.

Gardeners are a special breed. They love what they do whether they do it as a job or as a hobby. You will show how much you care about their interests and how you really went out of your way to make a gift that they will enjoy. Start making baskets today and you may make baskets for all your birthday and holiday gifting needs. It can be so much fun!

Attached Images:
  •  License: MBG Stock Photo provided by: smartphotostock.com

Barbara Petersen is a crafty writer with a special interest in gift giving and party planning. She regularly contributes to the All About Gifts & Baskets Idea Blog, put on by http://www.aagiftsandbaskets.com.

Filed Under: Gardening, General, Shopping, The yard Tagged With: basket, bell ;jar, flowers, garden, gardening books, gardening gloves, gift basket, green thumb, hat, sun block, tools, wine glasses

5 Great Things You Can Do With Your Garden This Summer That Will Make It Look Great

by Trish

Have you thought about what your garden is going to look like this summer? When people think about making some great changes to their home it’s always to the inside and the garden is merely an afterthought. That could be something people regret once the sun comes back because they’re going to be spending a lot more time outside. Sitting inside all day when it’s sunny is enough to drive you insane, so if you’re spending all that time outside you want it to be somewhere that’s beautiful.

Why don’t you take this time to think of all the wonderful changes you can make in your garden? It doesn’t need to be something that costs a lot of money and it can still look great if it doesn’t. There are things you can do that will suit all budgets. It’s probably a good idea to go over some things you can do right now. It will plant the idea of making changes in your head and perhaps you might like some of the ideas suggested. Get out your notepad, take some notes and you could be enjoying yourself a lot more than last summer.

Build yourself a pond

They put me here to try to make the world better

When you decide to build a pond you get to put your creative hat on because you can do anything you like. They can be big and fancy like something you’d find in a Japanese garden, or it can be a small hole in the ground with water in it. The choice is up to you and the sky is the limit. They also don’t usually cost much provided you do the work yourself and you don’t fill it with expensive fish. You also need to remember than having a water feature in the garden is a big responsibility if you have children running around.

Paint your fingers green

Your garden might look plain just now, but if you decided to get green fingers you could turn it into a work of art. Looking after flowers is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your garden, but remember that it’s not easy. If flowers are not your thing then maybe you could grow your own vegetables instead. Sometimes it’s nicer putting in all that work if you can be rewarded with food at the end of the day. It’s your garden so you can grow anything you want.

Lay a patio

terrace August 2006

It’s always nice to have a patio if you’ve always been used to grass everywhere you look when you go outside. It turns into a great place to eat your dinner in the evenings during summer because you can buy a proper table and chairs. You can also keep a barbeque on the patio and invite people around for food whenever you want. Of course you can do all this on the grass, but there’s just something about a proper patio that makes it a better option.

Give it the once over

Sometimes you don’t even need to add anything new to your garden to make it look great. Taking away all the crap that’s lying around is enough. You could go one better and paint everything so it looks like the day you moved in. When you’re cleaning out all the crap you do realize you won’t think of it in this way? You’ll think it’s all great stuff, so keep your emotions in check and throw out everything that you don’t need.

Treat yourself to something special

Everything we’ve talked about up until now is just a few nice things you can do to make your garden look nicer. You always have the option of treating yourself to something special, but this option is only available if you have enough money. I’m talking about a swimming pool, sauna, hot-tub, or anything else that would take your breath away every time you went outside. If you do have the money sometimes treating yourself is exactly what you need.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://www.andertoons.com
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Jeff Kruger is the owner of a famous Mower Shop in Perth which specializes in custom designed turf equipments to make your yard look great. He spends his free time blogging and watching rugby.

Filed Under: Garden decor, Gardening, The yard Tagged With: ;changes, barbecue, flowers, garden, great things, ideas, Japanese garden, paint, patio, plants, pond, summer, sun, vegetables

How to Come Up With Amazing Ideas for Your Garden

by Trish



For many of us coming up with a layout for our garden is a speedy and routine process. In most cases we will go with the normal design conventions that gardens tend to feature (a patio, a lawn and perhaps some flowers around the edge) and will be happy to keep our garden pretty much the way it was when we moved into the property.


Of course doing this though means that we won’t be taking full advantage of the space, and would mean missing out on many of the great opportunities that a garden presents. Here then we will look at some ways that you can come up with a garden design that will be more creative and that will help you to take full advantage of the space.

Look Around

Of course the first thing you can do to get ideas for your garden is to look around other gardens. This will mean visiting friends, looking around garden centres, or just browsing images of gardens online in order to get a feel for the kind of thing you like and that you might want for your garden. You may find a garden that you want to practically replicate for yourself, or you might just spot particular features and items that you want to use instead. Either way, this is a great place to find inspiration.

Use a Mood Board

(moj) FLAJER / (my) flyer

In any interior – or in this case exterior – design, a mood board can be a very useful tool for coming up with a design you’re happy with. Essentially a mood board is a collage that you create by taking images, photographs and words and attaching them to the page. This way you can start to come up with a general ‘theme’ that you want for your garden and start to get an idea of the colours, the features and the ‘style’ that you want to employ. If nothing else this is a great way to communicate to your landscaping contractors the kind of feel you want for them to work from.

Research

Researching what’s possible in a garden and the kinds of additional features and things you can get for them is another way to expand your horizons and to come up with new ideas. For instance you may never have heard of the ‘office pod’ which is essentially a pod that you can place at the end of your garden to create an enclosed working space. It’s very modern and very cool and completely changes the way you view what’s possible in your garden. Likewise researching the plants you can grow in your climate and your soil can help you to get a realistic idea of what you want to grow in your garden.

Sketch

Less involved than a mood board but just as useful is to simply sketch out some ideas, and as you start to find the features and the items you want for your garden you can use a sketch to come up with an actual layout and a plan for where you want them all and how they’ll work with your larger design.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Sharon King is a home improvement expert and says that it is a great idea to try new things while designing. She also says that you can take help from landscaping company while designing your garden.

Filed Under: Garden decor, Landscaping, The yard Tagged With: amazing, flowers, garden, garden centers, garden design, ideas, lawn, patio, photographs, plan, plants, Property, sketch

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