Tag Archives: garden

Maintenance Checks for When Spring Has Sprung

Standard

Many places might just be reaching peak winter conditions but spring isn’t too far around the corner. It will be here before you know it, so don’t despair if the cold weather is getting you down. If you can’t wait for spring to arrive, you can start thinking about how to prepare your home for slightly warmer weather. Winter can be harsh on some parts of your home and other things could be a little rusty from misuse. Take your spring cleaning to the next level by doing a bit of spring maintenance as well. These tasks will help get you started:

Clean Your Gutters: Wind, snow, and rain during the cold months can affect your home’s gutters, spouts, and roof. Leaves and other debris might block up your gutters, making it harder for them to drain properly. With rainy spring weather on the way, you need them to be able to cope with a lot of water. Cleaning them out, along with your downspouts, is an essential job to do before the spring. You should also make sure to inspect your roof to ensure that there is no damage. It needs to hold up through the spring to keep your home warm and dry.

Check Your Air Conditioner: Spring might not be the time to put your AC unit on just yet, but you don’t want to leave it until the last minute. Checking your air conditioner well before the summer months is essential if you don’t want it to suffer a sudden breakdown once it’s stifling hot. There are a few simple jobs you might do yourself, such as changing the filter. However, it’s a good idea to schedule an AC service from a professional to give it a thorough check. They’ll know what to look for to make sure that your air conditioner is working correctly.

Check Your Home’s Exterior: Winter can put a stop to working on the exterior of your home. Who wants to paint their house or fix any fences while it’s so cold? But once the weather gets a little warmer, it’s a good opportunity to spring clean your home exterior. You don’t want to do them when the temperature is through the roof, either! Check decks, fences, and other woodwork to see if you need to reseal them before the spring rains arrive. Pressure washing will be an instant face lift to your home as well as a deep clean of the windows. You might choose spring to paint your home’s exterior or maybe install some new siding.

Tend to Your Garden: When spring first arrives, it still might not be the best time for planting. However, you can start to prepare your garden for later. Turning over your soil once it’s not too hard to do so is a good task to start with. Start planning what you want to plant and when you need to plant it. It might be time to unwrap or replant some plants that you had to protect during the winter, too.

Spring is a time of renewal, so take the opportunity to refresh your home. It’s a good way to get your mojo back after a cold and blah winter!

How To Save Time While Keeping Your Garden In Tip Top Condition

Standard
How To Save Time While Keeping Your Garden In Tip Top Condition

Garden maintenance is probably the last thing on your mind at this time of the year. With Christmas just around the corner, you’re probably far too busy buying presents and ingredients for the big day. However, now is the best time to start thinking about your garden because you’ll have to start working on it in the spring. We’ve come up with some excellent tips that could help you to save a lot of time and money. So, don’t stress too much when you think about how long you’ll have to spend outdoors. It’s possible to make sure that your garden is in tip top condition without spoiling your weekend or breaking the bank!

Get a Brand New Mower From a Local Retailer: There are hundreds of different lawn mowers available on the market today. If you’ve had your model for more than a couple of years, then you need to purchase something new. The motor will have deteriorated and the blades will have become blunt. That means that it will take a lot longer than it should to cut the grass. It says at http://www.lawnmowerlane.com/honda-variable-speed-lawnmower/ that Honda makes the best products around at the moment. You just need to read reviews and perform some research to ensure that you don’t make the wrong decision. Mowers are expensive, so you don’t want to waste your moolah.

Get the Entire Family Involved: When all is said and done, you are not the only person living on your property. So, it makes sense for you to get the whole family involved when it comes to garden maintenance. There is no reason why your children can’t help to rake the leaves or remove some weeds. It will get them away from their computer screens for a while, and that can only be a good thing. Also, many hands make light work. You could have the job complete in a matter of hours if you can convince your family to assist. Maybe you could offer to treat them to a special day out for their efforts? Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with bribery to make the job go by faster!!

Call the Experts: If you want to save as much time as possible, then the best thing that you can do is call in the big guns. Whether you need HEDGE TRIMMING SERVICES or a full fledged landscaping makeover, there are lots of professional firms willing to undertake the work. They charge a fee for their services, but it’s not usually too expensive. Taking that action would allow you to stop worrying and relax on your days off. Journalists at http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/12/garden/hired-hands-in-the-garden say lots of people choose that option. It’s convenient and people working in the industry know how to achieve fast results.

Use the suggestions from this page to remove all of the headaches from gardening in 2017. Who knows? With a bit of luck, you might have everything sorted in time for when the weather improves. That means you could start hosting outdoor parties and BBQs again without having to complete any gardening tasks for the occasion. At the end of the day, you can make the work as easy as you want. It all depends on how much cash you’re willing to spend.

Featured Image By: Flickr

Turning Your Back Garden Into A Perfect Paradise In Five Easy Steps

Standard

This time of the year, it’s hard to think about going outside too much. Your back garden starts to turn into a barren wasteland, with patchy, brown grass and a load of bushes and trees that are more stick than leaf as the winter gets into full swing. Looking out of your back window has never been more dismal! Luckily, there are some things that you can do to make it a little better during the first sightings of spring. Read on to find out more…

Add Evergreen Plants: If you’re going to add more plants to your back garden, it’s best to make them evergreen ones, so that you can appreciate them all year round. You could add daphne plants, which are known for the small, fragrant flowers that grow during the winter and spring. Or, you could try aucuba, a tough green shrub that will make it through the harshest winters. You could also add a lavender plant – not only is it attractive and fragrant, but it’ll also attract bumblebees throughout the summer.

garden.png

Pretty!

Grow A Vegetable Patch: If you start to grow your own vegetables and become more self sufficient, then no question about it, you will feel incredibly proud of yourself. Make sure that you do your research first so you can find out what fruits and vegetables grow at what time of year. If you’re really determined to produce your own food, then you could get a greenhouse to get yourself organized and grow a bountiful harvest for you and your family to enjoy.

Install A Deck: If you want to turn your back garden into a place where you can relax, then it’s important to install a deck. Invest in some treated timber from a reputable merchant like George Hill Builders Yard, and work with a garden designer to find the shape of the deck that’s right for you and your family’s needs. A deck will enable you to sit outside and eat together when the warmer weather comes around. Although it isn’t very environmentally friendly, a patio heater can always keep you warm out there in the winter while sipping hot chocolate with friends.

garden1.png

 Pixabay Image

Install A Water Feature: There’s very little that’s more peaceful than the gentle trickling of water. If you have the space in your back garden, why not add a small fountain or pond? Not only will it provide an area of peace and reflection, but it will also encourage a wider variety of creatures to take up residence in your back garden. Bear in mind that it doesn’t have to be a huge feature that takes over the space. A small fountain or even a bird bath will be just as effective!

Add A Bird Feeder: One of the small joys in life is looking out of your kitchen window at the birds in your back garden (I do this frequently!) – so you should install a bird feeder full of seed where you can see it. Buy a bird book so that you can identify different breeds of birds and figure out which ones will come to visit the feeder the most depending on where you live.

garden2.png

So cute! 🙂

Every Little Bit Helps – Subtle Changes to Make Your Home Look Like A Million Bucks

Standard

If you’re serious about making your home look more awesome, you need to take action now. There are, of course, plenty of big changes that you can make. But, there are also subtle things you can do as well that will really make a big difference. So, check out these ideas and try to use them to make your home even better.

DIY Facelift: When it comes to subtle changes that will make your home stand out you need to think about what you can do yourself. Often you’ll find that a DIY facelift can have a great impact on sprucing up your home. And this is something you can do yourself without much hassle and for limited cost. Try to make some changes yourself where possible, such as painting the property and making repairs. These small changes can make a huge difference and they don’t have to set you back a lot of time or money.

diyPixabay Image

Make the Front Garden More Presentable: The front garden, in many ways, is the most important part of the property. This is what catches people’s eye and makes them want to see your home in the first place. When you’re looking to sell, the presentation is everything. And, even if you aren’t looking to sell, you still have to make sure you are proud of the way your property looks. There are subtle changes you can make to the front of the home to make it look better. For instance, you could check out mailboxworks.com residential mailboxes to add a post box and smarten things up. You might consider planting some colorful flowers and replacing the front door with something that looks nicer. Making random changes here and there can really help you make the most of the front of your home.

Have a Clear Out: You need to make sure you tackle the inside of the home and get rid of some of the clutter you have, too. We are all natural hoarders and we all have stuff that we don’t need. So, it’s time to declutter and get serious. Tackling major in home projects and decluttering will give you the opportunity to focus on small odd jobs that you need to do to spruce up your space. You might be surprised by how much space you can create by getting rid of the mess in the home. It will make your home look much better and more spacious as a result.

Artificial Lawn: How would you like to have a lawn that looks amazing all year round? Something that you never have to trim, water, or maintain, and it still looks amazing? Well, in that case, you need to consider getting an artificial lawn. There are so many reasons why you might consider getting a false lawn but the convenience and low upkeep are two of the most obvious. These days you can get artificial lawns that look so good you’ll barely know the difference. And, the best part about them is that they will look amazing throughout the year, no matter what the weather is like.

diy1Wikimedia Image

An amazing looking home is all about making the right choices with projects large and small to create a pleasing aesthetic. And, despite what you might think, this doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. There are plenty of subtle changes you can make that will help to make the home look a lot better on the inside and out.