Home & Garden Information Center: June 2011

Garden Landscaping

You may have just moved to a new home or you may have decided to redo your yard and garden. It can be a lot of work. This is especially true if you want the entire property done to your specifications. This is the time to contact professional landscapers.

The reasons for consulting with professionals go farther than the laborious tasks that are involved with changing your landscape. Perhaps there is a problem in your yard that won't allow grass to grow. A professional can solve that problem with several alternatives. Shade loving plants, sand loving bushes that you may not have heard of may be the answer.

Water can cause problems as well. The runoff after a rainstorm can wash away your landscaping features. A professional landscaper can either change the way the land lies or construct a wall to avoid further erosion. The many choices of stone and marble will add features that you only dreamed of in the past.

They can emphasize an entertainment area or the entrance to your home. The coordinated pathway can lead to your beautiful garden or pool.

Your landscaper may suggest functional lighting to make the area easier to navigate and safer to travel. You can have solar lighting along steps and pathways and also to bring attention to a special area of your yard. The attractive lighting that is available may not be something you would think about when it comes to landscaping, but it will certainly add curb appeal and make your yard safer to travel.

Take a look around your yard. Look at the front, sides and back. Think about ways to make it all blend. It will add significantly to your curb appeal.

A professional landscaper can suggest greenery that will not attract swarms of insects and some that may repel them. They can do in one day what it takes an average homeowner a week or longer. Time is money. How valuable is your time?

You may not want the whole property redone. It is possible that you want your front lawn redone. Are you prepared to do all of the necessary tasks that's will make that a successful endeavor? There is a lot more to it than digging, planting and watering. Planning is very important. Borders around flowerbeds will keep the grass on the lawn and not in the flowerbeds. With professional landscapers, you are more likely to have the type of grass you want rather than crab grass and weeds.

Before you contract with a landscaper, it is best to get some references. Take a ride around your neighborhood and see what you like. It is possible that the residents will tell you who did their yards and let you know the reliability of the landscaper. Word of mouth advertising is something that every business appreciates and finding a landscaper that will create exactly what you are looking for in your yard is not difficult. It will take a little research and a lot of questions.

Spring time is the time of new life and a perfect time to make your retreat everything you hoped for.

Ambiance colorée au Danemark

Charlotte Gueniau est la fondatrice de la marque de décoration Rice.

Pour Marie-Claire Maison, elle a ouvert les portes de son home sweet home

au Danemark où l’on retrouve son style, festif, fantaisiste et multicolore.

Source : Automatism

Garden Sense - Garden Harvest

Well, it's that time of year again. The garden is in harvesting mode. How to keep up with it all can be quite an ordeal. Having a big freezer helps. We have been able to put all of our berries for jelly making in the freezer for the time being. We will get to those later.

Waiting for the pickles has been starting out a little slow so any that are going soft in the fridge are getting made into bread and butter pickles. Those are going to be soft anyway. When we get a better harvest we will make our dill pickles.

It looks like we didn't plant enough peas this year so we have been picking and eating them right out of the garden. You can't beat the taste of fresh peas.

We planted a little late this year so our corn is just starting to come along. The scarecrows are keeping the crows away but it is getting time to put the dog hair (left over from grooming) down around the garden to keep the opossum and raccoons out.

This is a first time trying this so I hope it works.

Our tomatoes have been beautiful this year. I've had to really keep up with pinching the side shoots. We have a lot of green tomatoes getting ready to turn. I am ready though. All my jars, lids, and bands are clean and ready to go. We are making tomato sauce and salsa this year. I hope we planted enough. I tried a new tomato plant this year called "Juliet". It is on the same lines as the "Roma" tomato. I thought that was kind of cute so bought two of each. The Juliet plant has far surpassed the Roma plant. I am very thrilled with it. It also produces a bunch of tomatoes. So far I have been getting 6-8 tomatoes in each group (per stem).

Because of our late start, our cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins have been extremely slow in getting started.

Hopefully in the next week we will finally get a bit of harvest from the cukes and zucchini.

Un refuge en centre ville : Duplex de charme à Madrid

Source : Chic Deco

Un jardin Mexicain

Le jardin et la maison ci-dessous appartiennent à un couple d'Américains qui, pour ne pas détruire

le magnifique arbre se trouvant sur le terrain, ont construit la maison et le jardin tout autour.

Source : Art of Gardening

Garden Tools

Designing your garden is most likely a personal statement of style. What one person likes may not be what another likes. For instance, some people like their gardens to be neat and tidy, while others love the adventure of winding paths and exotic plants. Formal, semi-formal, and informal are the three variations on the style for a garden. To properly design your garden, however, you will need to have the basic Garden tools, and perhaps a few extras depending on the look you are going for. You can choose to design your garden to mimic the design of your home, or it does not have to be related to your home whatsoever. It is all about personal choice.

Some people are born with the innate ability to transform space into something that is very pleasing to the eyes; whereas others are not and may not have the first idea about how they should go about designing their outdoor space.

To create a great outdoor space, you must manage the space well and remember that people will be moving around in the space. In other words, creating great patterns and utilizing the space within the pattern is vital. By utilizing geometrical patterns, your garden will achieve a unified feel about it. Which way would you like your patron to move about in your garden? You can achieve your ground pattern by using bricks or paving material. To achieve this you will need to have the appropriate garden tools on hand before you begin so that you do not have to stop in the middle of your project.

If you are seeking to create a formal garden, you want to be sure to incorporate symmetry and geometry, such as repeating patterns with different plants on each side.

The environment is very controlled, overgrowth is clipped and shaped on a regular basis. You can add urns or balustrades to complete the formal look. In other words, formal means that there are no surprises. You always know just what to expect.

An informal design is just the opposite; in fact, the design should be asymmetrical and not regulated. Allow the plants to grow without clipping. Allow it to grow as it may and to self-feed. This design is much softer and thus there is a surprise effect to it creating a great ambiance.

And finally, a semi-formal garden style is a combination of the above garden styles. You will create fine lines with your paths that will be softened by the occasional overgrowth in spots of your alluring plants.

Along with these types, there are also several different garden styles that you can choose from, such as Chinese, contemporary, cottage, or secret garden.

Contemporary is a modernized style that uses your plants to help reflect the surroundings. The texture and form of your foliage is just as important as what flowers you choose. You will weave hard landscapes into geometric buildings, which will then flow into a more open space. You will then use your flowers and other plants to create focal points around your architecture.

90 m2 à Barcelone

La rénovation de cet appartement de 90 m2, situé dans un édifice centenaire de la banlieue de Barcelone, porte l'empreinte des décorateurs Mario Calavera et Dunia Garriga.

Pour les propriétaires, optimiser l'espace a été l'objectif prioritaire. Il a donc fallu supprimer

des couloirs et abattre des cloisons tout en tenant compte de la configuration plutôt

irrégulière des lieux, comme on peut le voir notamment au niveau de la cuisine.

Au final, on obtient un appartement spacieux et plein de peps !