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Let Your Imagination Run Wild With 5 Cool Ways To Change Your Garden This Summer

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Don’t tell me you’ve not looked out at the garden recently and tried to come up with some amazing ways to make it better. It’s the same every year when you look out of the window and there is snow lying everywhere. You start to get a little depressed because you can’t go outside and your imagination starts to run wild. Have you ever done something about it before, or does next winter come around before you have the chance to do anything?

You should make this year different because you will feel great when the sun is out and you spend time outside. The last thing you want is to be sitting in a garden that you don’t think looks nice. It completely ruins the moment, so you shouldn’t let it. Think about everything you would like to do and run with your favorite idea before it’s too late. We can even look at some ideas together so you can get that imagination of yours running wild again.

Add some decking

Fiberon Tropics composite decking

You could choose a little corner of your garden and add some decking, or you could even have some running off the house. When it’s nice outside you could put out a table and chairs so the family can sit around and eat their meals while relaxing in the sun. You could always put the furniture on the grass, but when you have decking it looks a lot better. If you had a nice seat out there you could also sit and read books when you’re not at work.

Get rid of the crap

You might have some things inside your garden that you don’t want to be there anymore. If it’s something big like a hut you maybe haven’t got rid of it because it’s too much work. This year could be different and you could go outside and start knocking it down this weekend. Get rid of everything else in your garden that is making it look a mess. Even if you don’t replace anything it will still look a lot better when the crap is gone.

A kid’s playhouse

Old playhouse

If you have young children you might want to do something nice for them because they will be using the garden a lot more than you during the summer. You’ll have to think about the kinds of things they might like. You could put a playhouse in the corner and they will love it whether they are a boy or a girl. If you think back to when you were a child I bet it’s something you loved. You could even turn it into a tree house if your child is a little older.

Let there be light

Even though the sun sticks around longer in the evenings during summer it won’t be there all night. Eventually it will be gone and your garden won’t be suitable to spend any time in unless you add some lighting. When your garden is light up it looks beautiful and you can stay outside as late as you want. You have a huge number of options available to you and perhaps it’s best if you looked hard before you decided how you would light the place up.

Grow some vegetables

sun gold tomatoes

If you have enough time to spare you could take up a new hobby. It’s quite enjoyable growing your own vegetables and eating something you have grown yourself always tastes a little better. A nice little vegetable patch in the corner of the garden will look great and it could come in very handy. When you’re cooking dinner you can run outside and pick something straight out of the ground if it’s ready.

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The author of this article, Sharon Anderson works for Country Cubbies. Country Cubbies is Australia’s leading cubby housemanufacturer with a huge range of cubby houses and children’s play forts.

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

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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.

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

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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.

How to Come Up With Amazing Ideas for Your Garden

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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.

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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.

Renovation Tips That Will Increase The Value Of Your House

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Selling or renting out your house may not always be easy, especially if it is old. Other than the attachment that you have to it, the house may be too worn out to catch a buyer’s attention. Old houses are harder to sell, since most people assume that they are not as stable as they were. If you are looking to sell your house, you need to make sure that it is in the right condition to be sold. This will help you to sell it for a higher value that it would have sold for, before being refurbished.

Should I renovate my house?

Renovation is a must! One of the most important factors to consider when you make the decision to sell your house is how to make it attractive to potential clients. A customer will only take a product that they feel is better than the last one they saw.

Your home therefore, needs to stand out from others on sale so that people literally keep lining up for it! With this in mind, the following tips will help you find out how to change the outlook of your home to make it look modern and appealing. It will also play a big role in making the value of your home go up.

  • Thorough repairs

If you want people to be attracted to the house you are putting on sale make sure they can tell that the items in your home are new. Fix every sink, faucet, cabinet, surface, counter or any of the spots you know have been broken down for years. When potential buyers come to see the house, they will scrutinize every part of the house to make sure they are not getting less than what they are paying for.

Use affordable, new and modern appliances or parts that will draw people’s attention and make them have more faith in the new house. If they see new parts and well done remodeling, they will definitely be enticed into buying or renting the house. It will also help you have more selling points to use to convince them.

  • Create more rooms

The best way to sell your home for a higher price is to emphasize the amount of square feet that you are selling by creating another room. This may be expensive though if you reinvent a room you stand the chance of selling the house for a higher asking price that you would have. It simply means that you may be able to recover more money than what you will use to create the room.

The cheapest way to do so is by using space that already exists. For instance, you could convert the attic into a self-contained bedroom in order to fetch more money for your home. This is cheaper since you will not need to build an entire room rather you will only be making installations and changes to an already existing space in your house. You can also convert a garage into a guest room if there are enough parking spaces outside. This will also give you the option of renting it out or selling it as a separate entity.

  • Be strategic

When remodeling, pay as much attention to the outer parts of the home as you would to the inner ones. People will be attracted to your house from what they see outside first. Make sure all the paint is fresh and the environment is clean with attractive elements such as flowers, a patio, side porch or veranda. It is also important to consider outer elements like the doors and windows. These will attract people even before they enter the house and give them an expectation on what they will be getting inside when they buy it.

You can use inswing or outswing doors, bars and door grids, molding, the jamb or stile designs in order to draw attention to the design of your home. Doors can also come in many designs like steel, wood or fiberglass depending on the setting of your house. When it comes to windows, you can use several replacements on your home improvement approach like vinyl wood or aluminum. Windows can also be a sales point because of the colors and designs they come in. Make sure the outer part of the house is just as great, if not better than the inner one.

Emma Parkes shares useful tips on home improvement. She works for Windows and Doors which excels in improving home energy efficiency of their clients. You can get her insightful tweets on Twitter by following her.

 

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