Patio lights can run on solar power these days, but if you want real, usable light, then solar isn’t quite up to the task – at least not at a reasonable price point. In my opinion, the way to go for powering patio lights, is still with mains voltage – but converted to a low voltage. It goes without saying that you need a transformer to do this, and very often, this will be a 12v transformer. Many types of LED and halogen lights use 12 volts, so it should be an easy choice to make. 12v garden lights are a great option for improving your garden lighting. To choose the right low voltage lighting transformer, you need to know a few things about transformers. First of all, you may as well buy a product which is advertised a lighting transformer – preferably something with a few extra features like [...] Read more »
Outdoor Sconces: An Easy Solution
If you are thinking of putting your house on the market, you have to set yourself apart from the competition. How does your house look on the outside? Do you need a fresh coat of paint or some landscaping? Those things might cost money because you might have to hire professional help. For a quick face lift, change the outdoor lighting fixtures, front and back. First, let’s talk about the front of the house. You need lighting at the front of the house; that is a given. The lighting zone should measure from the driveway or street to the front door. You need different fixtures for this zone, depending on where you are within it. At the door the light needs to be bright and well placed to minimize shadows. In other words, you need to be able to see who is at the front door before you open it! [...] Read more »
First Steps Towards A Butterfly Garden
There are plenty of gardeners and animal lovers who fantasize about adding a butterfly garden to their backyard. But they often get confused about what they need to do first. For example, should you purchase a live butterfly kit? Focus on a particular type of plant? What if you get the garden started but no butterflies show up? None of those are bad questions – and each of them deserves a good answer. But before you get down to specifics, you need to simply get started. If you want to build a successful garden for butterflies, you are just going to have to do it. Throw a few plants in the ground and see what happens! In butterfly gardening – as in so many other things – there are no promises of sure success. But there is a prety good guarantee for failure – don’t do anything at all. Live [...] Read more »
Preparing Your House for Winter
Throughout the fall there are several outdoor chores that you want to complete in order to prepare your home for the harsh winter months ahead. It is much harder to take care of some of these issues when there is ice and snow covering the ground. You should take advantage of the warmer weather of fall. It is still nice out, but not so hot that you will not be able to work for long periods of time outside in the sun. Probably the most important outdoor chore is cleaning your rain gutters. During the fall, leaves, twigs, and other debris will clog the gutter so that they are not capable of diverting rain water away from your home’s foundation. It is important that you clean out these clogs. When winter snow starts to melt in great quantities, it will be especially important that your gutters are in good working [...] Read more »
A Garden Pond Water Treatment Guide
If you have a pond as part of your landscape, you know how much it adds to the overall appeal of your yard. However, if you’ve owned your garden pond for very long, you know how much that murky green water can detract from that beauty. All this green water is caused by millions of single celled plants commonly referred to as algae. The algae use sunlight and oxygen from the water to live. An algae bloom can even deprive your fish of oxygen if the pond is not properly aerated. There are many ways to get rid of the algae, but some are more effective than others. The most natural pond water treatment method is to add surface plants like Water Lilies, Water Lettuce, or other floating plants. This method is actually a two-fold approach. The plants block much of the sunlight that the algae use for photosynthesis. They [...] Read more »
What is Mushroom Composting?
Various materials are used in a process known as mushroom composting. There are many questions about mushroom composts; is it worth the price, is it useful in the garden, how is it made? We will address these questions in this article and decide if mushroom compost is really that valuable to the home gardener or even the large scale landscaper. Mushroom composting is a long and laborious process. It is started with raw materials such as corn cobs, grass clippings, hay and straw. These materials are piled up and allowed to go through the slow process of decomposition, or composting. Once they are fully composted the result is a fine grained soil which is then transported to a large facility, usually a warehouse, where it is allowed to cure and fungal spores are introduced. Mushroom compost has many downsides. One of the major cons to using this type of compost [...] Read more »
The Best Way to Buy Garden Lighting
Shopping at home and garden stores is big fun for many of us. Cool lights, neat gadgets to help with home organization and fun decorative touches all under one roof can be a productive afternoon and evening of shopping. When it comes to garden lighting, however, restraint is in order if only to save you from purchasing too much, purchasing the wrong kinds of lights and purchasing fixtures that you’re only going to have to take back later. Before you go to the store or shop online, which makes it just as easy to spend too much and purchase too much at once, look at your garden carefully both during the daytime and at night. If you only do one or the other, you could end up with the wrong fixtures. A look at your garden at night is essential to figure out where you really need light. You could [...] Read more »
Tree Removal Issues
Many of us take great pride in our backyard, with its lush greenery and towering trees. As beautiful as nature may be, it can cause damage to your home if gone unchecked. Perhaps you have noticed that a number of beautifully landscaped homes have cracked driveways and pathways. This is not so much a sign of negligence on behalf of the homeowner as it is nature’s way of saying it wants more room. Of all the pesky problems that various plants can cause, tree roots are by far the biggest threat to your home. However, thanks to the low tree removal cost in most areas, they can be dealt with swiftly. Once a tree begins to age, its roots expand outwards without regard for any grassy landscape or concrete driveway which may be standing in the way. Cracked pavement is but one byproduct of out of control tree roots, but [...] Read more »
Garden Lighting: Best Placement Tips
Most people don’t realize how important garden lighting can be. It’s easy to discount them as non-essential trimmings around a house, but done well, they can be advantageous in many ways. A lot of people think that they’re good only for floodlighting their patios. They’re missing the point if they can’t see all the great advantages they offer to us. Placing garden lighting around the outside of your house has numerous benefits to the homeowner. Firstly, when done well, it will add significantly to the aesthetics of the house, and will likely add to the value of a house. Who doesn’t want a house that is pleasing to the eye? Additionally, security will be vastly improved, as you will be able to light up the dark spots in your garden. When you have visitors unfamiliar with your property, they also, will be able to see where they’re walking. Placement Tips [...] Read more »
The Benefits You Can Extract From Outdoor Lighting Lamps
Outdoor lighting is already considered to be a standard part of the patio or your backyard. As you know, people nowadays are more aware of the right materials that are needed to be placed on the outdoors and lighting is without a doubt one of them. Lighting will not only make your outside environment look prettier and more elegant but it also serves as an extra security blanket from intruders especially at night. Lighting can actually do so much in making your house truly look marvelous and inviting. That is the reason why there are already a lot of lighting fixtures available for patio and outdoor use. One of the most popular will have to be the outdoor lighting lamps. Outdoor lighting lamps are a definite favorite in a lot of outdoor lighting. These garden lights offer not only an excellent glow that you are wishing for but it also [...] Read more »