How to Build Your Own Fencing Panels
How to Build Your Own Fencing Panels
Building your own fencing panels may seem like a difficult thing to do by yourself, especially if you’re not a professional, but actually it is a very simple and quick task to do if you have the right tools and knowledge such as fence maintenance and safety.
The first major step to take when building fencing panels is to decide the number of pickets your fence will need. To estimate this, you will need to measure the distance across and split the total number of inches by six. The number six is used because it contains the picket width and the space between pickets.
The second step that you will need to take after you have all your measurements down is to brand two marks three inches down from the top of all your pickets. Placing the marks on the outside edges is more convenient, as they are easier to erase this way. After that you will need to make a second mark on the top midpoint of each picket. To create a point the technique that you should use is to mark each wedge in the shape of a point on all the tops of the pickets.
To start to cut the marked areas you will need a circular saw because it leaves sharp pointed tips on the tops of each picket. To shape out the bottom of the picket you need to start by marking the tops of each of the pickets eight inches south of the initial point you have just created. Mark the bottoms eight inches down towards the lower edge, again to ensure an easy removal of the mark. Continue to make the same mark on all the outside edges of your pickets. Creating these lines will give you the ability to line up all your pickets evenly on the rail.
After you have done this you can go ahead and place two on your fence rails on a flat surface and space them about twelve inches away from each other. Make sure that the outside edges are approximately seven inches away from the end of the rail. Use your nails to attach each picket to the railing and use the frame square to assure that each picket is at a 90 degree. Make sure to check that all your measurements are correct. After you have ensured that all your measurements are correct you can mount your fence.
Next, once your picket fence panel is finally mounted, you will need one extra picket on all joints at the end of your panel to hide the joints on your pickets in the rails. Make sure to not complete this step until after the panel has been mounted. Once you have completed this last final step you should be left with a beautiful fence panel that involves easy fence maintenance and upkeep.…
Your Back Yard Influences the Sale of Your House
Your Back Yard Influences the Sale of Your House
If you want to have the best chance of selling your house in this economy, you need to do as much as you can to spruce it up and make it appealing to a buyer. It is a buyer’s market right now and probably will be for some time that means buyers are going to be picky and demanding.
One of the things you should not overlook is your backyard. Many homes have very plain yards and that is OK as long as you make sure it is well groomed. Your backyard is part of the house and how it is taken care of reflects on you and how you view your house. It is best to have a complete product (house and yard) that look equally nice and well kept.
Some people go overboard in their yards and make them very personal. For instance, having a nice Japanese garden in your back yard is great, but it might in fact hurt your ability to sell the house. This is because you would have to find someone who also loves Japanese gardens and is willing to take one on. If you have a nice house and a yard that is elaborate to your exact personal tastes, it will mean the new homeowners much share your passion for that type of yard.
Upgrading your yard to make it presentable for selling your house does not mean you have to spend thousands of dollars. It just means you should have a nice layout that complements the house and also looks comparable to what the other houses have in your area. If all the other houses have nice yards, so should your house.
At the least, you should have a yard that looks like it is taken care of and cared for. Many homeowners get lazy and don’t water their grass and mow the lawn like they should. If you want to have the best chance of selling the house, green grass looks so much better than brown grass that shows you don’t care. The bottom line is that no one wants to buy a house that looks like the previous owners haven’t cared for it and the yard is an extension of the house that helps form an opinion.…
Lawn Sod and Grass Sod
Lawn Sod and Grass Sod
Are you tired of looking at your yard with disgust? Lawn sod and grass sod may be just what you need to give it an overall appearance that is very different from what you see right now. There are many different reasons why your grass may not be growing properly on its own. It can be the environment, the soil, or a combination of factors. It can be expensive and time consuming to make various changes along the way to see if that helps.
You can avoid such costly hassles though with law sod and grass sod. This is a viable solution for any environment. There are several types of sod offered so you can even pick what you would like for it to look like when it is all finished. A professional can install it so that it looks very nice. This is the route to take because installing it on your own can be a headache. It can also be disappointing when you see the way it looks compared to when a professional does the job.
Always take your time to find the right person to do the work for you. That can make a huge impact when it comes to the finished look with lawn sod and grass sod. Compare prices but also compare value. When you get estimates from businesses, ask for a break down of the cost. Then you can see how much they are charging you for supplies and how much of it is for the labor of installing it.
What you will often find is that the cost is quite comparable with lawn sod and grass sod for the materials. Those that are bigger companies may be able to offer a bit less of a price because they can buy it in bulk. The major difference in pricing will be in terms of the cost for the labor.
With lawn sod and grass sod as an option, your lawn problems are a thing of the past. It won’t take long at all to transform your lawn from what it is right now to something you are very happy with. The fact that it is also an affordable option makes it one that many people are highly interested in pursuing. You may have seen lots of different lawns out there you are envious of. However, changes are the majority of them look great due to the application of lawn sod and grass sod.…
Show Off Your Home – Top 3 Landscaping Tips
Show Off Your Home – Top 3 Landscaping Tips
We all know that the value of a home increases when you enhance it both inside and out. One way that you can enhance your home outside is to make it a point to keep your landscaping looking nice. You can do this by maintaining your yard and adding in new elements such as furniture, water elements, lighting and other d?�cor. If you are not skilled, you might call on the help of a landscaper, but that can become quite expensive. If you are willing to do a bit of labor yourself, here are five landscaping tips that will have you on your way to a beautiful yard in no time at all!
Get a Beautiful Yard
Before you can jump right in and start buying items for your yard or garden, you have to understand that planning is essential. It is not as simple as buying and planting, there is much more involved, especially if you do not want to run the risk of wasting money.
Inspect your land- get to know every nook and cranny. This is important because it is known as space planning. You need to know where the sun shines, how long it shines and be familiar with the patterns. This is especially true if you plan to plant flowers. Flowers can be tricky because some varieties require more care and specific locations than others.
Research the Trends – learn what will work with your particular home style and available land. You want your property to look nice – not too sparse and not too crowded. Learn the modern trends in outdoor d?�cor to avoid an outdated look. Color trends tend to change with the seasons, but you can find the newest information in publications at the local gardening store.
Equip Yourself with the Proper Tools – if you have a lot of property you will need to invest in a good lawn mower. If you have one with mulching capabilities, you can create your own mulch for composting purposes which will help fertilize your grass and make it rich. Other such tools you will need include garden rakes, hoes, digging tools as well as sculpting tools if you plan to sculpt your hedges and bushes.
Once you have everything planned out, you are ready to start gardening and landscaping your own yard. Remind yourself to take it slow and do it right – the rewards will be endless!…
DIY Meets Professional: Some Landscaping Design Companies Offer the Best of Both Worlds
DIY Meets Professional: Some Landscaping Design Companies Offer the Best of Both Worlds
You might think hiring a landscape designer is an all-or-nothing proposition. You tell them what you want and watch as your yard becomes the garden, lawn, or oasis of your dreams. But what if you enjoy gardening, and want to get your hands dirty? What if you’ve sketched out plans or purchased the materials, and just need help getting started?
DIY lawn care and landscaping is popular for a reason. For gardening aficionados, it’s soothing to water, trim, and weed, and fulfilling to see something you planted grow. But for amateur gardeners, certain tasks are simply too complicated or time-intensive to take on by yourself. Maybe you need professional help to ensure that stepping stones and retaining walls are installed properly to handle erosion. Maybe you’ve never worked with a certain plant before. Whatever the case, you can find a landscaping design company to help you out without sacrificing the do-it-yourself element.
The staff at a landscape design company bring a variety of skills to the table. They’re trained in architectural design to come up with harmonious, attractive, and functional plant arrangements and hardscape structures for a given property. They may have expert experience and knowledge related to trees and plants that are native to your area, or may specialize in keeping non-native plants alive in your location. Maybe they also provide lawn and tree services to keep your property looking neat and orderly. In many cases, you can hire a landscape designer to function in anywhere from one to all of these capacities.
Scenarios in which you might want to maintain a DIY element in a landscaping design and installation project include:
You’re an avid gardener, but need a professional to design an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of plants, trees, and shrubs for you to plant and maintain.
You’ve personally designed your desired landscape layout in rough or complete form, down to what plants you want and where each footpath will go. However, you don’t have any gardening experience and want to ensure your plants are going to survive long-term.
You want to add a patio, outdoor kitchen, or landscape lighting to the garden or yard you have already begun working on.
You truly want to construct and plant everything yourself, but need advice and guidance on what to purchase and how to complete the job for best results.
If you choose to go the partial or total DIY route to complete your landscaping, it’s still a good idea to solicit and listen to advice from the pros. After all, landscape architects, garden designers, and lawn care professionals plant trees and flowers and install patios for a living. Their experience can be extremely valuable to you as you create a plan of action for your own project. While working on a garden or backyard landscape can be fun and satisfying initially, it can become frustrating quickly if you have to redo work that was done incorrectly or watch your new plants die because you missed some crucial element in their care. Unless you yourself are a trained botanist, arborist, landscape architect, or other expert in the field, you can always benefit from asking for help.…
Best Landscaping Ideas For Your Home
Best Landscaping Ideas For Your Home
Landscaping is one of the most exciting things to do in your home. You can easily turn your empty backyard or front yard into a lovelier and more attractive view. Landscaping varies according to the availability of your vacant space at home. You can actually start landscaping your yard without hiring a contractor. However, if you really wish to have the most outstanding landscape done by a professional then it is best to seek for assistance to facilitate your plan and the construction. To know more about landscaping, here are some useful ideas that will surely help you in developing a beautiful landscape for your home.
Simple landscaping idea is the best since you will not be involving yourself to a very complicated plan including the technicalities, contractors, style, latest trends, etc. Always stick to your budget that is not beyond your capacity. You can still create an attractive landscape even if you will use the simple and affordable style. Flowers with different colors will surely bring a glowing appearance to your yard. You can add some shrubs to enhance the charming look of your yard. Trim them regularly because uniformity in shape will make it more fun and interesting. Front yard landscaping is very popular to homeowners nowadays. It brings tremendous beauty and charm to ones house. The house will be more appealing and lively if it obtains colorful and organized landscaping that can surely be pleasing to visitors and guests.
Make your landscaping more creative by choosing the appropriate lighting system. There are so many light bulbs available in the market that is suitable for landscaping. Different colors of light bulbs can bring dramatic effect. Try focusing the lights to the areas that you want to give emphasis. You will surely see the difference of illuminating some special landscape area. Using your own creativity can already bring big changes to your landscaping as long as every object found in the area complements with each other so that good harmony will be created which is pleasing to the sight of everyone.
Customize your design. If you are having difficulty in deciding and conceptualizing your landscaping ideas, do not hesitate to opt for online research. Internet offers a lot of specific ideas about landscaping that fit to your taste. Personalizing your designs can reflect to your personality. We all know that every person has distinct characteristic. Other people like your visitor who will come to visit your home will surely be able to identify easily the unique look of your landscaping design. To have an attractive yard does not entirely depend on a contractor. Sometimes, you just have to believe in yourself that you can make a difference on your own.
Include some fence, rocks and stones. These materials are commonly used to enhance the beauty of your landscaping project. They are also cost-effective. You can save more if you will use stones then paint them so that they will have brighter color. Landscaping has a great contribution to your outdoor decoration. Therefore, do your best.…
Ingredients For Landscaping the Gold Coast
Ingredients For Landscaping the Gold Coast
Gold Coast, a city in the south-east corner of Queensland in Australia, generally known for its sunny subtropical climate and a rainforest hinterland in the west of the city, envelopes a wide variety of landscaping. Landscaping the Gold Coast brings to light the science, design skills and the art of blending nature with construction required by a landscaper.
Landscaping includes modifying living elements, such as flora and fauna along with the art of growing plants with a goal of creating a beautiful environment within the landscape; man-made elements such as buildings, fences etc; natural elements such as terrain shape, elevation and water bodies, and abstract elements such as weather and lightning conditions.
A landscaped backyard could be all that your luxurious house needs. Instead of spending time and loads of bills on a vacation close to nature, spend a little time along with a few of those loads of bills on landscaping your backyard and what you get in return is a beautiful vacation close to nature yet within the premises of your house. Swimming pools and hot-tubs are the most widely accepted additions to landscaping. Installing swimming pools or hot-tubs in your backyard could bestow on you the facility to loiter under the hot summer sun.
In case, you feel you cannot give in the required amount of time and money your landscape needs, you could go in for patios which need low maintenance. You could also try using brick patios or flagstones that are available in a range of colours, sizes and shapes. A small patch of grass on it would further beautify your patio.
You could also take into account the advise of an expert to landscape your backyard.…
Gardening by the Ocean
Gardening by the Ocean
Maintaining a garden in an ocean front location is not all blooming hibiscus and scented plumeria. Extreme conditions such as high winds and drought can play havoc on the sturdiest landscape. When planning your ocean front garden, you need to do you homework. Here are some flowers that love to bloom in the toughest of environments.
Rugosa Rose: This Siberian native knows all about tough climates. the Rosa rugosa endures extreme temperature shifts, drought, wind and salt spray. Expect scented blooms from string to fall accompanied by colorful rose hips that will attract the birds.
Lavender: A hearty plant in most climates, and tolerates sandy soil well. Position the plant in front of your roses for a fragrant walkway. The bushy shrub also hides the bare rose stems.
South American Verbena: This is a nice complement to your lavender with its showy lavender/purple blooms on stems that can extend up to 6 feet tall. Butterflies love this plant.
Daylily: These do well in most climates and have a variety of colors and patterns to choose from. When not in bloom, their grassy foliage makes a nice border.
Hydrangeas: This delicate looking plant is actually a pretty tough cookie and doesn’t mind wind and salt. It’s wise to plant it in a partially shaded area where it will get the morning sun and afternoon shade. Set up an irrigation drip for this one, hydrangeas don’t tolerate drought very well. To keep it blooming, trim off the old flowers as soon as they start to fade.
Ever wonder why some hydrangeas have bright blue blooms and others are pink? It all has to do with the amount of acidity in the soil – the more acid, the bluer the flower, the less acid, or more alkaline, and the pinker the bloom. Use aluminum sulfate to increase acidity and dolomitic lime to decrease it.
Juniper: This is a hearty evergreen that adds color and texture to your garden year round. Choose from blue, green or gold foliage, and tall or creeping styles of plant. The low growing selections work well in sandy rock gardens or for erosion control on hilly areas.
Wintercreeper: This is a hearty groundcover that still looks great in the winter with its variegated leaf.
Portulaca: This is a popular plant commonly found along walkways at the beach. You can forget to water it, expose it to wind and sea spray and it will respond with colorful blooms. Its trailing flowers make a nice accent in an ocean facing window box. Although it is an annual, it will generally self seed.
Yarrow: Also considered a herb for its medicinal qualities, yarrow will endure, sun, rain, cold, drought and wind. It comes in a variety of colors such as yellow, orange, pink and white. Plant it in a spot where you can keep an eye on it, yarrow loves to spread its roots and wander.
Gaillardia: This colorful flower blooms from summer to early winter, resists drought and doesn’t balk at sandy soil. It’s brightly colored blooms attract butterflies and make perfect cut flowers.
Cuphea: This is the new kid on the block and what an interesting plant it is. It has bright red crinkly petals with purple middles that bloom non-stop in the hottest, dryest, salt and wind blown conditions. Keep it moist and fertilized, and you will be assured of constant color all season.…
Landscape Fountain – Choosing the Best One
Landscape Fountain – Choosing the Best One
The size and design of your fountain will be determined by several things including how big your yard actually is, the style of the yard and how big the pump you are prepared to install.
Landscape fountain styles
It is very important to remember, that since the fountain is the central point of your yard, it should be in the same style as everything else. It often happens that homeowners chose their fountains for their beauty, not thinking about how the fountain will integrate with the trees, plants and the garden theme in general. Even the prettiest fountain if it doesn’t create harmony with the surroundings will not benefit your space, but will make it look unplanned.
Power supply for a fountain pump
Another thing to consider is what source of power your fountain will have. Here you have two options – you can install solar panels to provide your fountain with power, or simply use electricity. If you intend to run electricity from the house, the pump should be connected to the power by a professional electrician.
What is the best place for landscape fountains
The placement of your fountain is just as important as its style. Obviously, if you want it to be the focal point, you should install it somewhere very visible. In formal landscapes the fountain is usually installed in the middle, but if you have a less formal landscape style, the middle is not necessary. One thing to consider, however, is to keep your fountain away from trees, since you don’t want to fish the leaves out of your water all the time.
If your fountain runs from the electricity it makes sense to install it closer to the house. Also keeping the fountain close will give you the opportunity to enjoy it while seating on your patio. On the other hand, you can place the fountain in the opposite side of the yard, if you have a little retreat aria there. Possibly also install a bench there and some cover.
As for the size and shape of your fountain, there are so many available, that it should be really easy to find the one that suits your general landscaping theme. Also, you should not buy the fire first fountain you like, look around. It would be a shame to get a water feature and later discover that the next garden center has a much better deal.…
Using the Right Tools for Your Landscape Work Can Make All the Difference, What Tools Will You Need?
Using the Right Tools for Your Landscape Work Can Make All the Difference, What Tools Will You Need?
There is no doubt that for the do-it-yourself landscaper as well as those in the trade, that good tools are essential, attempting any kind of work in any trade, requires tools, but the importance of knowing what tools you need is also a must, and landscaping is no different.
By you understanding some of the most essential tools used for even your basic landscape needs then you are one step ahead of keeping your landscape garden in the best possible shape, doesn’t matter how big or small your garden may be.
Your tool collection can be split into two categories, general and specialist, your general tools are tools like wheel barrows, shovels, forks, rakes, crow bars, picks and mattocks, hoses etc. These tools are used for a large variety of tasks, and attempting to landscape without owning these would be futile.
However the specialist tools are job specific, and depending on the size of the job and the regularity of that work you might want to consider hiring the equipment necessary rather than buying. But, if it’s a large job like paving a drive and patio for example, then consider buying a brick saw and selling it after the jobs complete, this can still be more economical than hiring one for all the cutting, just way it all up and decide, you may have friends who are attempting the same task you could hire it out to them etc.
Let’s go through the tools you need for your lawn care, apart from the obvious of a decent lawn mower, you might want to think about wiper snippers, or brush cutters and edger’s, these are available both in motor powered and electric, but also for those times once or twice a year hiring an aerator and a fertilizer, although a hand fertilizer is good to have in your collection of tools anyway, but a wheeled one for those larger lawn areas you could hire.
Then there is the garden, now apart from the general tools listed above there are some hand tools you will need as well. Hand trowels, hand forks, watering can, secateurs, hand sheers and pruners etc. There are some more specialist tools like the pole extension pruners/sheers and chainsaws, hedge trimmers and cultivators, these can all be hired when needed.
Building projects is another side to landscaping and will require a whole range of tools, more specialist but necessary if you are going to attempt the structural side of landscaping. There are the carpentry tools needed for the timber projects like decks, pergolas, timber walls and platforms, bridges, Gazebos etc. the minimum tools you will need will be the likes of power or hand saws, screw drivers, hammers, spirit levels, set squares, string line, markers etc.
The paving jobs will require the likes of vibrating plate for the compaction, brick saw, screeding tools, trowels, rubber mallet, marking pens, as well as a variety of the general tools listed above. It’s the same with the concreting, you will need a variety of concrete trowels and floats, screeds, edging trowels, form wood and pegs, most jobs can be done with these but there are some larger ones that may need the pole floats and trowels enabling you to reach into the slab without going in on boards.
So in closing I’d just like to mention here that when you are considering purchasing any tool, the amount you spend and the quality of that tool must be relative to the amount you need to use it, if it’s a tool you need to use very regularly, then you will want to buy a good one, one that is easy to use and is built well, if it’s a tool that is used once or twice a season then the quality is not so important.…