One of Britain’s leading landscaping manufacturers have donated over 70sqm of its Broadway riven flag paving to a new sensory garden in Loughborough. Having already revived over 40 million square metres the UK’s driveways and patios the company have now setup an initiative whereby they are trying to increase the amount of time people spend outdoors by helping create inspirational and creative public spaces, called “Love Your Landscapes”.
Brett Landscaping Helps With Sensory Garden
Fire Fighters Call For Common Sense
People across the country have been lapping up the sun and good weather the past couple of weeks following a glorious heat wave. Thousands of people have been having garden parties and the highlight of a good party is always a barbeque. With people drinking and enjoying themselves a little bit of common sense can sometimes go out of the window and that was certainly the case in Cove on Sunday. Rushmoor fire station had to respond to an incident on Haskins Road after a fire started there which destroyed a garden fence and left extensive damage to roof tiles and guttering.
Driveway Transformations
Are you sick of seeing concrete covering the front of your house or looking for a way to spruce up your lifeless bit of front garden? Whether you feel a little alteration is in need or a complete change of look to your driveway or garden. Adding a bit of imagination or appeal to the front of your home can be difficult, either due to the size or just because it is intimidating to experiment with passers by able to see your garden or driveway in full view.
Bee Friendly Gardens
Well the sun is finally out and the time has come for us to start thinking about our overgrown gardens. When sprucing up your garden this year consider the materials that you are using garden think about what flowers you are using. Are they bee friendly?
Bees play an important role along with many other insects in pollinating flowering plants and are crucial to our environment. They carry pollen from flower to flower causing the plants to pollinate. However they are also important for pollination of vegetable plants and fruit trees, as varieties that are not self vertile require flying insects to pollinate them in order to produce crops for us to harvest.
Support Earth Day By Making Your Home Greener
Green living and sustainable homes are becoming more popular as people’s consciences tell them going green is the right thing to do for the planet and their common sense sees the added green in their wallets from money saved by reducing waste.
The options for reducing your carbon footprint are always increasing and taking steps to make your home more sustainable and energy efficient can range from a big investment to small steps which when added together can make significant reductions in your home’s carbon emissions.
Today, 22nd April 2010, is Earth Day, and forty years on from the first ever Earth Day, what better day to start making a change to the way you live and what your home consumes? Below are a few ideas ranging from small steps to bigger projects, but whatever you decide to go for, localtraders.com can help you find a reliable and reputable tradesperson who can help you green your home.
Step 1: Up on the roof
Water shortages could be a big problem in the future and for an island that is renowned for its rainfall, it seems such a shame to let it all go down the drain. The first simple step is to harvest rainwater from your roof and use it for watering the plants in your garden, helping keep your shrubs and vegetables growing strongly in summer and saving a precious resource. Speak to a roofing specialist to ensure your gutters are clear and connected properly so you can ensure you catch every last drop.
Read more…
Preparing Your Garden For Summer – Seeking Out Pests
The warmer temperatures and drier weather that most of the country has experienced these last few days gives hope that spring has sprung and we may get a decent summer this year offering plenty of opportunities to get out in our gardens and enjoy colourfully planted flower beds and perhaps invite friends and family around to enjoy the great outdoors together.
This time of year is ideal for getting on top of organising your garden and despatching any unwanted visitors to your garden before they take hold. Slugs and snails will have been hibernating all winter and as the tasty young shoots of your prize feature plants and seedlings planted to grow vegetables and flowers will be dish of the day for the slimy intruders.
To safeguard your plants, it is good practice to keep your garden tidy as slugs and snails like to hide in areas that are seldom visited, lurking under moist bottoms of pots to sneak out while your back is turned and take a chunk out of your lettuce plants, or hiding away under leaves of weeds. Therefore it is also a good idea to keep paths and patios weed free to offer these irksome creatures as few hiding places as possible.
Planning A Hanging Basket
When putting up a hanging basket to add colour around the exterior of your property or garden, first and foremost you need to choose your plants. Always try and pick the plants dependant on the season you are going to be hanging your baskets in, mainly to ensure a longer life span and that if there are frosts, your plants are hardy enough to withstand the temperatures without being killed off.
Seasonal hanging will also have a bearing on what type of baskets you should use. Have a think about how you want your basket to look; whether you want a certain colour scheme, plants that trail or even growing things like strawberries from it.
Once chosen, the most important thing to look for when purchasing the plants is how healthy they are. You want plants that will grow and last so always try to purchase plants with several stems so there are further flowers to replace fading flower heads.
Spending Time in the Garden Could Help Relieve Depression
Although most people enjoy spending time outdoors in the fresh air as a matter of course, evidence has shown that spending time outdoors gardening, even something as minimal as tending a window box, can help relieve the effects of depression and mental illness. There are other health benefits too, as the exercise that gentle gardening activities provides can help keep you fit, helping to prevent strokes and heart disease too.
There are a number of charities and projects across the country that offer gardening and growing opportunities, but you don’t have to have an allotment or huge garden to be able to begin enjoying the benefits of fresh air and potential health improvements. Whether you set up a few pots to grow flowers or vegetables, a window box or a few flower beds, it is thought that the act of caring for plants and taking responsibility for watering, feeding and pruning them is what helps people suffering from dementia or depression.
One charity gardening therapy project, Thrive, will be presenting a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show this year and will feature a large amount of plants grown by those using the service in Reading and Battersea. The chief executive of the charity, Nicola Carruthers, said that the use of gardening and spending time outdoors has been an established method used to help people recover from physical and mental problems throughout history. Read more…
Erecting a Garden Fence – Different Types of Fence Panels
First and foremost when erecting a fence the obvious and perhaps most important thing to do is to decide what type of fence will suit your needs. There are 4 main types of fencing that you can use:
- closeboard
- palisade
- overlap
- trellis
By understanding what each of these types of fencing look like and are suitable for, you will be able to get the best type of fence to suit your needs.
Closeboard fencing is made from overlapped boards of timber. Closeboard fence panels provide complete privacy and are the strongest of the 4 main types of fence.
Preparing To Lay a New Lawn
When laying a lawn you need make sure you pick not only the best method to suit your needs, either laying rolls of turf or sowing grass seed, but also the best weather to lay it in, which usually is autumn as it is easier for the grass to root. The ground is often softer as the strong summer sun and lack of rain that dries and hardens the soil making it hard for plants roots to break through has usually subsided but the soil is still warm.
Also very important for the upkeep of your grass is fully preparing the ground before laying the rolls of turf, so it is advisable that you order the turf after the ground has been prepared. The reason being is that it will take a few weeks to prepare the ground adequately so you don’t want to have your new lawn lying around without proper care for long periods of time or it won’t look its best when laid.
The first step to preparing the ground for your new lawn is to use a garden fork to break up the soil after you have removed any old turf and cleared any weeds. If your garden has a lot of weeds then the best thing to do is add weed killer and leave a week or two. If you prefer organic gardening, the good old fashioned method of digging down to the roots will be your best option for ensuring a weed free lawn once your turf rolls root to make your new lawn.