Sizzling Summer Success: Outdoor Home Staging Tips for the Hottest Season!

Too hot for you to get out there and do some summer gardening? Well, if you're selling your home you'd best be prepared to get out there and liven up your landscaping. In summer's hot and competitive market, buyers are expecting yards to be parading their "best in bloom" colors, and showing off all their assets. So, slap on that sunscreen and get in gear to optimize your homes final sale price. Here are some quick and easy tips, to get you revved up for potential buyers:

Stage Your Garden and Yard

It's very important to create some usable, practical entertaining spaces out of your existing yard and garden. This need not be too elaborate of an addition. It can be as simple as setting up a table and a set of comfortable chairs in the corner of your back yard. Stage the table with a nice linen or cotton table cloth: something airy and summery. Set up some colorful potted plants or flowers around the table to add some appealing color.

Another idea might be to buy, or build a bench that takes advantage of a particular view or a nice spot amongst your garden.

Water features are enticing elements and if you can "spring" for a well-placed fountain on your deck or in your garden, you'd be wise to do so. The sound of water generally evokes a calming emotion and can serve to drain out any unwanted neighborhood sounds.

Be sure to keep your lawn and foliage amply watered. You'll want all green things to look as green as possible. Also, the wetness will bring down the air temperature for a cooling effect.

Flower Power

Plant bright colored red and yellow flowers to catch a buyer's attention. Use them as punctuation to accent around other more mono-chrome or green areas of your yard. Likewise, if you live in a very warm climate white flowers can be nice and add a refreshing cooling effect.

Green is Gold

Adding lush green foliage is a great way to spruce up empty space that is currently unused. An easy way to add beautiful green, tropical flair to your landscaping is to add hanging ferns

Prep the Deck

A deck is a great outdoor feature and should be highlighted. Again, with the trend for outdoor "rooms" you should make sure your deck is as appealing and comfortable as the inside of your home. Watch for cracks on structural timbers. Check the deck's surface and remove any old nail heads or screws that are sticking out- replace them with galvanized decking screws. Once your deck is structurally sound- give it a power wash or re-stain it if it's thirsty! Next, you can create some staged space out there- maybe a canvas gazebo to provide some shade, and some potted tree and colored flowers for visual flair and appeal. Be creative and have fun.

Leave No Stone Un-turned

A general rule of thumb is to make sure all of your outdoor space has been attended to in some way. Oftentimes an area can come to life and be much improved with a simple organizing or clean-up job.

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5 Quick Gardening Tips to Save You Money

It's easy to spend a lot of money every year to create a beautiful garden. These five tips that can help save money in both cases, and the future of the gardening season.

1. You plan a vegetable garden planted according to what your neighbors so you can share your veggies when they are ready to eat. Often I'm too much of one type of vegetable that I cannot give because my friend ripen at the same time.

2. Select perennials rather than annuals for your flowerbeds. They breed every year, cut them back and exchange with your friends so that you both have a beautiful garden and save money at the same time.

3. Compost your kitchen scraps and garden your coffee. The end result is much better than any you ever get the potting soil purchased from a nursery or hardware store. The price is right, and this certainly is recycled!

4. Instead of using mulch, try gravel or small stones in your garden as ground cover. This will save a lot of cash because you do not need to buy mulch in spring and autumn every year.

5. Spend more money now to buy gardening tools better quality and you will save in the long run. They will last for years, saving your dollars because you do not need to replace it every planting season. The same goes for gardening gloves make sure you buy the best you can afford so that they last all season.

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3 Easy Tips for Successful Container Gardening

Here are some tips to make a beautiful hanging basket or container this summer. The first is to use artificial soil composed mostly of peat moss. Good soil such as Afford or pro using a mixture of perlite, peat and other materials to produce that will not compact the soil during the summer. Real garden soil compacts and turns into concrete under normal water pressure. And when it is, the plant roots stop growing because they need open spaces to move to, and absorb nutrients. Ground hard, compacted does not grow a good crop that does not use real soil in your container. I reuse my artificial potting soil from year to year. I throw it out of the pan. Chew with a shovel to chop all year’s roots and adding approximately 10% by volume of compost. Compost increases the room and give the plants a boost in healthy nutrition.

Feed plants weekly. Nitrogen, plant growth engine, is soluble in water and as you water your containers on top of dissolved nitrogen from the lower left. I use fish emulsion liquid feed with seaweed to provide trace nutrients my plants all require and highly recommend it. You can use a liquid plant food (like miracle grow or Shultz) to promote growth. Compost tea is the Cadillac of liquid plant food, and if you make your own compost tea, your plants will respond with a bloom bigger and better as well as improve morale.

And finally, no matter the size of the container, it is very important to soak all the way down at each watering. Continue watering until water emerges from the bottom of the pan. This ensures that the roots can reach all parts of the container and grow well.

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7 Natural Stone Pebble Projects For Every Home

Natural gravel became very popular at home because of their wide range of colors and use. Here are some ideas to use in your own home.

Japanese garden

Japanese Gardens and known for peace and tranquility. Style garden uses specific plants as well as rocks and water to create this effect. This park is often small in scale and incorporated into the overall design of the park instead of the entire park.

Decorative pots

Put some gravel on top of a pot plant can make indoor plants more attractive. Consider what part of potted plants you want to make the focus. You can use decorative ceramic pots as well. Decide whether you want to match or contrast colors in pots and gravel that you choose. Gravel and pot selection should help focus your eyes on the plant you have chosen.

Vase

Gravel also very effectively used under the vase. Especially glass vase looks incredible with some colored stones beneath. Basic gravel also helps hold the arranged flowers in place. Decorative vases make great table decoration for a dinner party.

Road and drive

Road and drive to be very low maintenance when covered with small pebbles topping natural stone. Pebble size you choose will need to consider how to walk or drive to be used. Area traffic is heavy foot traffic or cars need stones are smaller because they are more comfortable and better ground for cars to drive on. Gravel drive and path should maintain the edge to hold the stones in place. Drives and paths need to be replenished with additional rock sometimes. They are very durable and much better looking than the plain old concrete driveway.

Water features

It seems now that everyone wants water park features. They can be very small or very large and bold but always adds an element of tranquility to any garden. When planning a water feature you can incorporate natural stone in a variety of ways. The stones are larger around the edges of features can be added to the character. Gravel can also be used to cover the basic features of the water and to cover or rope pumps used to power it. Before choosing your stone remember to wet the sample because this is how it would look on your water feature.

Pond

The same rules apply with a wet your sample and check the color of the stone. Natural stone is usually dusty when collected and when the dust comes from the actual color stated. The pool looks great with a built-up edge. You can use a variety of features including stone, wood, metal, and many others. You can also mix and match the various sizes of stone to look more natural.

Gravel as mulch

Mulching is something else to do in the garden Gardener. It basically involves adding a layer of material on the ground to help with water retention. This means less watering which saves time and also water supply. Not everyone has an endless supply of water or enthusiasm to keep the grass and gravel are a great alternative, especially in the area of natural dry.

Weeding in the garden bed is greatly reduced. It is easy enough to pull a few weeds that try to grow among the pebbles. As the plants mature and fill the planting spaces there is little room for weeds to find a place to grow.

To stop the grass from coming through the mulch of gravel roads we have found that a heavy layer of newspaper and then a layer of plastic or weed mat on top works very well. Newspaper and plastic helps to retain moisture, another important reason for mulch. On top of this plastic gravel newly planting holes scattered in thick layers. Stones larger flat used as an edge.

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6 Tips Styling For Your Fresh Cut Flowers!

So you will bring your grocery store or florist bought flowers home, now what! I have seen many people just plunk them in a vase of water and that's it. Sometimes that works, but here are some simple tips to make you look like you're a pro that.

1) In a clean vase, take your greens first, snip the tip of the size you want and then began crises crossing the stems into the vase so that you have come in a vase. There are two reasons for this. Since you now have the basis for a flower arrangement, and two; crises cross rod makes it easier for the placement of flowers.

2) If you make small, low-key setting, slide in interest in crises cross so that the stems in a vase. You now have a vase with flowers in the outer ring and nothing but stems display in the middle. (Trunk more you have in a vase, the easier it will have a fixed interest put!) Line of interest will be higher each time you get them in until you have a nice round series.

3) If you make a high setting, then use a high slender vases. Your flowers will hold up better and will look well proportioned. The flowers are great to use is Gladiolas, blue delphinium, lilies, snapdragons etc... Sometimes you can get tall tulips and that looks fantastic too.

4) Design errors often have to place flowers in a vase perfectly even. The reason this does not work is because it looks unnatural. Look at any park and you will see some flowers bloom sticking out, some tucked in; some almost hidden but still contribute to the overall look. Mimic nature and you cannot go wrong! Do not be afraid to include some flowers in a bit.

5) A good rule of thumb is to use odd numbers of flowers. What I mean by that is to use 3 roses together or 5. Even numbers are not effective. If you use 5 roses for example, where 3 together (touching but slightly different in length) at the bottom center of the vase and then two higher.

6) The next best advice I can give you if you are really new in floral design, is to gather bouquets image you like and the tips I've stated above, practicing while looking at the pictures. Shortly thereafter, you will look like a pro!

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