Archive for the ‘Gardening’ category

Considerations For Selecting A Landscaping Wilmington DE Designer

Using the services of a landscaping Wilmington, DE designer or company can help you to have an outdoor space that is completely unique. There are lots of ideas which you can use from magazines, books and from websites to come up with your own garden design but to get the perfect one you need to plan carefully beforehand. Certainly the only way of achieving this is by using the services of a reputable landscaping design service. Read more »

Decorative Solar Lighting - Improve The Look Of Your Garden

Today there are a wide variety of different styles of decorative solar lighting that one can use to enhance the features of your garden. No matter what size garden you have there is plenty of styles to select from which will help to bring a dull area to life once more. Read more »

Childrens Playhouses for the Garden

Timber playhouses will offer your child a chance to allow their imagination to run riot as well as allow them a place where they can while away a few hours on a summers afternoon. When it comes to what kind playhouse a parent wants for their child they will soon find that they have a number of different styles and sizes that they can select from. So finding one that really suits their child’s requirements is not going to be as difficult as they first thought. Read more »

Tips for looking after your Garden Furniture

Teak garden furniture can really enhance the features of your garden and provide a relaxing and comfortable location to pass the time. But because the wood from which this furniture is made comes from Southeast Asia if you want it to last you need to look after it properly.

Teak is a hardwood and this is what makes the furniture so it is very durable. Plus this type of furniture will last quite a considerable amount of time because it is a very dense timber and contains high levels of resinous oil within it. It is this oil which actually not only makes the wood resistant to drying out but also from absorbing too much moisture.

Initially you have to make a choice between whether you want to purchase furniture, which comes in its raw state, or one that has been treated using a teak oil. When you first buy your teak garden furniture, you will find that it has a golden color to it. However, over time and when the elements get to work on it, the wood will turn a silver grey color instead.

If you are happy for the wood to turn from a golden to silver grey color then once this has happened there is very little that youTeak foliage and seedsImage via Wikipedia actually need to do. However, if you want yours to retain the golden color that it first came with then you will need to be regularly applying teak oil to its surface.

For furniture, which will be outside in the garden throughout the year, you will need to apply the teak oil every 6 months. However, before you actually apply the oil you will need to clean the furniture first.

To do this you take some warm water (with a mild detergent mixed into it) and then use a soft damp cloth to wipe off and remove any dust or grit. After you have done this, you now need to leave the wood to dry naturally before you actually apply the oil.

It is important that you only use a specialist teak oil on the furniture and apply this using a lint free cloth. You could use a spray gun that is filled with the oil but using a cloth will ensure that the oil is spread evenly over the surface of the furniture. Now you need to leave it for sometime until it feels tacky.

Once you feel the oil is tacky you take yet another clean lint free cloth and this one you wipe across the surface of the teak garden furniture in order to remove any excess oil. After this cleaning stage, you leave the wood for a further hour before you then take another clean cloth that is free of lint and this will be used to polish up the surface of the wood and present that golden color you were after.

 

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Ways In Which Outside Solar Lighting Can Be Used

Today there are several different ways in which outside solar lighting can be used to full effect. However, the only thing that can stop you from fully utilizing this equipment is your imagination. In this article we provide some ideas of ways in which outside solar lighting can be used to help enhance your garden.

Idea 1 - Why not use either spotlights or spread your decorative solar lighting around so that it can highlight or provide focus on a specific place or object within the garden. It could either be something like a tree, plant or a statute that you have and want to show at its best in yours. By offering a contrast between a dark background and the lit object will make it stand out even more.

Idea 2 - Provide a shadow effect around certain areas of the garden by placing the outside solar lighting as low down on the ground as you possibly can. Ideally locate them in areas where you want to enhance the features of certain plants or objects that would otherwise be ignored because something else overshadows them. Before you install the lights place them on poles or posts so that placing them in the ground is much easier.

Idea 3 - Another idea is to mount the solar lighting as high up as you possibly can and then aim it down to shine directly on to the object or tree. By doing this when it lights up a tree it will then cause a dappled effect and make the area feel much softer especially good for soften angular lines within a garden.

Idea 4 - Rather than you placing the outside solar lighting directly over the object you are trying to enhance in your garden On 140 acres of unused land on Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., 70,000 solar panels are part of a solar photovoltaic array that will generate 15 megawatts of solar power for the base.Image via Wikipediainstead put the decorative solar lighting underneath it. This way those objects or plants which are quite tall and will be lost in the darkness of the garden at night can come into full view and be enjoyed no matter what time of day it is.

The great thing about outdoor solar lights is that you are not restricted to where they need to be mounted as we have shown you from the ideas above. In fact they can be positioned just about anywhere in the yard or garden, however you must ensure that the panels on top which store energy collected from sunlight are in a position of being able to get direct sunlight throughout the day.

Once you have chosen the locations where the outside solar lighting is to be placed and have installed it you now need to leave them turned off for about a week (five to seven days should be more than sufficient). Doing this will allow the batteries a chance to become fully charged and after this they can then be used as many times as you like.

 

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Clean Your Home Air: Just Add House Plants

If you want to add some life to your home, house plants are a great option. They are available in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Be careful to check your plants closely for bugs before bringing them into your home. If you tap on the leaves and a little cloud of white appears, that plant is infested with white flies and you should not buy it. This infestation is rather common, but you definitely don’t want the insects in your home.

Not all house plants like the same climates. Most like moist climates that can be found in bathrooms or laundry rooms. People normally want plants in more commonly used places in the home, however. Luckily, you can find house plants for any climate or situation. You need to be careful though, not to put plants in locations that do not suit them. Without proper research and care, your house plants will not have a very good chance of survival.

casa picó balcony
Creative Commons License photo credit: slow Spain

Some plants are extremely effective at removing pollutants from the air. If you want to filter the air at your home without buying an air filter, these plants are great, natural alternatives. Examples of the plants that are best at cleaning are spider plants, peace lilies, chrysanthemums, aloes, and pothos. You need to make sure that they will survive in the environment that you want to put them in. The appearance of the plants is important as well. You won’t want a plant that does not fit the rest of your home decorations.

The spider plant has arching green or variegated leaves that produces small white flowers in the spring and summer. They have been grown as house plants for hundreds of years, and look very nice in hanging baskets.

The pothos plant, otherwise known as devil’s ivy or golden pothos, is a climbing plant. It needs a well lit spot to thrive, but it cannot handle direct sunlight. It does not need watered in the winter, but should be watered more often in spring, summer, and autumn.

With the peace lily, you must be very careful to keep cold drafts away. Also, you must not allow the plant to be in direct sunlight. It also needs warm temperatures (nothing below 55 degrees F). It needs plenty of humidity, so adding a water-filled pebble tray will give it the extra moisture that is needed.

Aloe plants come in many different forms. Besides cleansing the air, the aloe vera plant also serves the purpose of providing the medicine aloe to treat burns. Aloe variegated does not provide the drug, but it is another option for air cleansing. Another type of aloes includes the aloe aristata or lace aloe. Aloes, along with other succulents, prefer warm daytime temperatures and rather cool nightime temperatures. You should place aloes near a south facing window. In the summer you may have to provide some shade for the plants. In the winter, the aloes only need watered about once a month. For the rest of the year, they should be watered whenever the soil dries out.

There are many varieties of chrysanthemums as well. They are a flowering plant that is normally less than one foot high. The flowers are quite large for the size of the plant, however. The flowers should remain for six to eight weeks. Cool rooms are the best conditions for chrysanthemums. Temperatures under 60 degrees F are ideal. They need bright light, but should not be subjected to direct midday sunlight. The soil should be kept moist, even if this means watering more than once per week.