Tips for Choosing Garden Furniture

Outdoor patio furnishings can make a big difference to your backyard. Well-chosen pieces of furniture can end up being attractive features of your garden design.

There are other things in gardening than just choosing and setting up plants. You can use furniture as a design element.

There’s a huge range of outside patio furnishings to pick from, depending upon the design of your garden, your spending plan, and your way of life.

For example, if you like to entertain guests on your patio, then there are different types of dining sets available. Or for more casual relaxation, there’s a selection of recliner and lounge chairs for whiling away those long warm days.

When selecting patio area furnishings, it’s good to look a little bit on their functions and the various materials.

When you begin your search, consider these things:

  • How much space do you have? Don’t fill your outdoor space too much.
  • How will you use your area? Is it for dining or resting?
  • What kind of maintenance is suitable for you? How to keep clean, and how long will they last.

Materials and Weather

Some outdoor furniture is not that well suited for adverse weather, and they are meant to be stored inside when not in use.

Light-weight aluminum, plastic and wicker furnishings falls under this classification, and they are typically cheaper than the more solid items that can you can leave outdoors year-round.

These kinds of chairs and tables require little maintenance and are easily portable. They are often designed to be folded away or stacked, to save on the storage space.

For long-lasting garden furniture that will stay in your yard all year round, it’s better to look for heavy and long-lasting products, such as wood or metal.

Cast aluminum and wrought iron are popular materials, as they can be crafted into all kinds of elaborate styles.

Aluminum is preferred because it’s rust-proof. Wrought iron can be treated with a metal protector to avoid corrosion, and with some care, it can stand up to many seasons of use.

Alternatively, wood items, comprising pine, teak, and cedar, can look spectacular and with a little care can last for many years.

Accessories

There are also some accessories that you may want to think about for your outside furniture.

To get protection from the outdoor elements, weatherproof covers are ideal. There are different types of patio furniture covers.

These are typically long-lasting vinyl or PVC coverings that can be fitted over individual products or whole sets. They are reliable at avoiding wear and tear from rain, wind, snow, and sunlight.

A cover is likewise beneficial for keeping your chairs clean from dust and bugs.

Other devices include specially made patio furniture cushions, which can be found in all sizes and shapes. These not just provide added convenience, however, can add a splash of color to your patio location.

Conclusion

Outdoor patio furnishing not just boosts the appeal of your yard, it can supply loads of enjoyment for outdoor living for seasons to come.

With function and scale in mind, you can decide the style, color, and material for the furniture. Pick furniture that is visually satisfying for your garden theme, but there are no hard rules for that.

You can have modern furniture in an old English garden setting. Or you can have a mix of colors and materials in your chairs. Whatever is best for your vision, suits for you.

The Highs and Lows of Gardening

Gardening is good for the soul, whether you do it for fun or as a business. Gardens supply fresh food and improve our landscape.

But gardening also comes with some potential drawbacks. 

Backyard gardens, for instance, requires hard work and commitment. Acknowledging the highs and lows of gardening will help one determine if this project is worth their effort.

Benefits of Gardening

There are several reasons people should grow a garden, including:

1. Saves money in the long run

Getting started in your garden can be expensive. And it may seem cheaper and easier to buy veggies at supermarkets, but once your plants have grown, you’ll start saving a lot. 

Growing your garden pays you back both financially and health-wise.

Gardeners often get most out of their space by practicing succession planting or growing vegetables that can be stored like carrots or potatoes. 

And although flower gardens don’t save you any cash, the sense of pride and personal satisfaction make it a worthwhile investment.

2. Improve heart and mental health

Gardening is an excellent exercise for everyone regardless of age or physical conditions. It helps maintain the flexibility of one’s muscles. 

But most importantly, it helps burn calories and by so doing, strengthens your heart. This, therefore, reduces risks of heart attacks and strokes.

Also, growing plants is a wonderful way of escaping everyday stress. Digging reduces tension hence calms people’s minds. Anytime we obsess with negative thoughts, reconnecting with the natural world can get us out of our heads.

3. Plants beautify landscape

Everyone loves to live in a beautiful environment. The sight of trimmed flowers in one’s compound makes their home look appealing. 

Flower gardening can be useful to people who want to beautify their outdoor spaces. 

Flowers may not save you any money, but at least your home will not be dull.

Pitfalls

Even though gardening has many benefits, it also presents many disadvantages, which are:

1. Time

Growing and tending gardens require time. Planting is not even hard, it’s the activities that follow that make this process somehow tricky. 

You must:

  • weed, 
  • water, and 
  • fertilize your plants. 
  • then you also must harvest. 

All these things take time. If one is busy with work or other commitments, they may not have much spare time, and hence gardening may be difficult for them.

2. Cost

Starting a garden is not cheap and even maintaining it is expensive. 

One will need to purchase vegetable seeds or flowers, then gardening tools like shovel, rake, and tiller. 

And even watering your plants is pricey, and you’ll also buy fertilizer and support systems like trellises!

But, these costs are only higher when starting, but afterward, it becomes cheaper and enjoyable.

3. Space

Individuals can try to use their space efficiently. But, gardens take away a portion of your lawn or patio.

And for someone with a small property, it means even less space for other activities like playing or creating seating areas.

4. Physical work

Gardening is physical work. Digging and kneeling can harm your muscles, joints, and bones, causing pain and damage. You can get carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), for example, because of compression of the nerves in your wrists when working with your hands in the garden. 

Leaning and bending over your plants can lead to chronic back pain, and squatting can cause knee pain and damage.

Conclusion

Gardening has both highs and lows. But, the many advantages of growing your plants outweigh the handful of negatives. 

The disadvantages all have solutions. It’s all about your specific needs and preferences, but if it intrigues you, give it a go.

Then again, there are lots of reasons not to garden. Plus, it is not a cheap hobby. 

But if you love doing backbreaking physical work and don’t mind getting dirty, then gardening is an excellent hobby to start

Setting up a beautiful garden

A garden is known to be a house of happiness for many homeowners – the place to forget all the stress and tensions from their job. 

To achieve this, you’ll need a garden that is healthy and not only colorful and lush green.

Designing a garden can be hard. Figure out precisely what you want to do, how you want to do it, and where you want it.

But it does not have to be hard.

If you want to design your garden (this is the most gratifying way to go), then follow these easy steps.

1. Choosing a Location for your Garden

The immediate step is deciding where you want to put the garden.

Guess what, you probably already know where you want it.

If you’ve thought it would be nice to have a garden in front of your window, then that is where you should put a garden.

Gardens are not permanent! We can alter them to fit our needs.

2. Setting up your Garden

The second step is how you want to set up your garden. 

A few key things are

  • how big you want it (easy, you only have as much room as you have to work with)?, 
  • do you want it rounded or squared?,
  • what plants do you want (perennials or annuals?). 

A combination of Annuals and Perennials make the most stunning gardens. 

Does your house have an L shaped indentation on it? They enable the making of beautiful half circle gardens. Put those plants grow smaller one’s upfront and most prominent in the back.

Mix the plant – it is not a must you put them in a straight line.

3. Gardens need work

The third step is action! Get out the gardening tools and begin your work. 

Gardens don’t go up by themselves, you know. 

If after you have completed your garden, you don’t like it then play with it until you do. 

The best thing about gardens is they are always a work in progress. You can change them up as often as you’d like to or leave them be.

4. Consider the Climate

Give your garden a multi-colored hue. But if you do not have a favorable climate for exotic plants or flowers do not plant them. They would need extra care, and the chances of survival are lesser. 

Often people make the mistake of planning a garden based on what they see in gardening books. Rather use plants capable of adapting to local conditions and climate.

5. Group your Plants

Theming parts your garden by using colors is an easy trick to enhance your garden. 

You can use both trees that have colored leaves and flowers to make your garden a riot of colors. 

In the absence of seasonal flowers, you won’t be deprived of color in the garden. 

6. Pay Attention to Garden furniture

Are a table and chairs the center of interest in your backyard or patio? Pay attention to outdoor furniture, as furniture can be a great design element in your garden.

Then add some color with a flower arrangement.

Prefer fragrant herbs and flowers to fascinate the senses even further. Choose herbs that you can use as a freshly picked garnish like coriander, parsley, and chives. They provide lovely enzymes too.

7. Insects

Pollinators, like butterflies and bees, are great to have in the garden, but make sure your yard is not infected with pests.

This enables your garden to be more safe for relaxing and children to play.

Conclusion

You need to choose what you want from your garden:

  • a tranquil place to relax after a workday, 
  • a place to entertain friends and family,
  • do you need to consider the needs of children, pets or elderly relatives?
  • do you like to your hands dirty on gardening?
  • would you prefer low maintenance garden?

All these things will impact how you design your garden, and how much work is needed.

Gardening has its ins and outs, but for most of us, it’s a lot of fun to do and can be relaxing. And in this day and age anything that is relaxing and enjoyable is something worth doing!

The right way to plant seeds indoors

What to do now that you’ve purchased your seeds? It is an excellent idea to plant your seeds indoors and give them an early start to the season.

When your plants have a head start, they will be able to mature earlier in the growing season. Some plants need extra attention that can be provided for them by being planted indoors.

Soil blocks

Soil blocks are inexpensive and easy to use. Organic vegetable seeds can easily be planted in soil blocks.

When the plants begin to grow and form a root system, the soil blocks will provide them with lots of space.

Each soil block will contain all the nutrients that are needed for growing plants.

Many organic gardeners have used soil blocks and found them to be an excellent way of planting seeds indoors.

There are a variety of sizes of soil blocks.

Most people like to use the 2in/5cm size. For larger plants, you can start with this size and then transplant the seedlings to a more massive soil block when the roots need more space.

Choose a soil block that is sturdy enough to stand some rough handling.

Soil

It is also essential to buy some soil which has a combination of compost and peat.

You may wish to make your soil mixture instead of buying it, which will be just as effective.

You will need to find a sturdy tray to put underneath your blocker once you have filled it with soil so that everything is kept together.

Planting

Do all of the plantings for one whole tray at the same time. Now when you want to transplant your seedlings outside, they will all be the same size.

One or two seeds can be placed in each soil block and covered with some of the soil mixes.

There are some seeds which need light to germinate, and these should not be covered.

To save space, it is a good idea to plant several seeds in the same block. It will not harm seeds to be planted together in a small place, and they may do very well with this arrangement.

It does not matter if you place four onion seeds in the same blocker because they will grow apart from each other once you plant them outside.

Soil blocks typically can be planted a little smaller than potted seedlings because the blocks can be handled and hold together.

Prevent diseases

You want to make sure that no fungi disease grows on your indoor plants. A fungi disease called damping off is one of the more common ones.

If young plants have lots of suns and not too much water, this kind of infection can be prevented.

Proper air circulation is crucial to prevent these diseases.

Watering

It is best to water the plants from the bottom, not from the top, to prevent disease.

The seedlings will reach down through the soil to find water and will grow deep roots.

The soil will soak up the water from the tray underneath the blocker if you fill the tray with water.

Moving outside

After the plants have grown too big for the blocker, you can move them into a pot to make more space for their roots.

As soon as the weather is warm enough, you can plant the seedlings outside to grow for the rest of the season.

Just remember to choose the right location to keep your garden healthy and beautiful.

How efficient gardener you are can be determined by your garden and the methods you use. So stop dabbling your thumbs and put your green fingers to use.

As far as gardening is concerned, if you put in hard work, your efforts will never be useless.

Gardening Basics: Choosing Plants

Starting a garden is not easy, especially to someone who’s not familiar with the different plants that exists. It’s undoubtedly difficult for me, as I’m just starting out, and the garden is more for relaxation.

But, before I drop any seed, I need to figure out few things:

  1. I need to know my garden’s condition.
  2. I need to research on various plants that stand a survival chance in my small piece of land.

If you are starting too, you need to evaluate those things as well.

Then, you can head out and pick what you prefer, and those that suit your cultivation methods.

Different plants have different needs

The plants you choose depend on many factors, such as

  • orientation,
  • size, and
  • soil type of your garden.

However, every garden will benefit from a well-executed planting scheme, and plants can help one create that effect they want.

I did some research so that this guide will help individuals choose the right plants for their yards.

Start by assessing your outdoor space

Before choosing any plant, you need to recognize how much space you have. Measure the size of your garden by a tape measure.

Knowing how much space you have will help determine what plants you’ll grow and your gardening design.

If you have lots of space, plant large and fast-growing specimens such as Roman chamomile. But, if your land is limited, then you should try container gardening.

Determine the soil type

Just by looking around your neighborhood, you can tell which soil you have in your plot. If, for instance, camellia grows in that area, then probably its ground is pH neutral to acidic.

However, for accuracy, you can buy simple and inexpensive PH test soil kit, which gives useful information. Loose soils are generally sandy, and those that clump together are clay.

Once you’ve determined which soil you have, selecting plants wouldn’t be hard.

For example:

  • Goldenaster and most succulents survive in dry soil.
  • Hydrangea and Siberian iris will do well in marshy soil types.

Understand your climate

Hardy perennials should be planted in cold conditions. People who live in cold climates will have luck with resilient flowers and shrubs such as

  • sorrels,
  • daylilies, and
  • ostrich fern.

These plants can survive fluctuating temperatures.

For gardeners living in tropical and subtropical climates, heat-tolerant plants such as amaranths and some ferns will be best.

It’s also wise that one considers precipitation levels of their area:

  • If it’s raining a lot where you live, your plants won’t need much extra watering.
  • Gardens and plants in a dry climate exposed to hot temperatures need a lot of watering.

Determine the light levels in your garden

Observe and write down the hours of direct sunlight your yard receives each day.

  • 8 or more hours is considered full sun while
  • partial sun is between 4-5 hours.

Remember that plants have different light requirements. Therefore not all specimens will survive in your area.

Understand annuals, perennials, and edibles

Annual plants like dahlias and zinnias have great shapes and stunning colors. Most require low maintenance; hence, people can grow different species together.

Again, gardeners should also grow perennial flowers and shrubs for beauty.

Perennials are tough and return year after year as long as one takes proper care of them.

Then also consider growing vegetables and fruits as they provide healthy nutritious foods. This, in the long run, will cut down the cost of going to grocery stores now and then.

As you can see, choosing the right plant narrows down to

  • your garden size,
  • its type of soil,
  • your preference, and
  • location.

But, you can also experiment with different options to determine which plants do well in your area and which don’t.

Choosing plants for your garden can be exciting and fun.

Certainly, a lot of the choices you make about the plants will be based on your taste and style.

But remember to take into consideration these basic factors mentioned here.

What to do next when you have purchased the seeds for the plants? What’s the right way to plant them? Indoors with soil blocks or outdoors?

Welcome to My Gardening Blog!

So what a better place to spend a lazy afternoon than in a garden?

This site celebrates gardening and nature, and also my love of a few other things, like photography, the environment, native plants, and my family. I’ve added a touch of fantasy, a feeling of peace, and an appreciation for the beauty of nature. After all, nature can give us an order that the rest of life sometimes denies us.
And I’m Paul. Welcome!

Thy journey be auspicious;
may the breeze,
Gentle and soothing, fan thy
cheek; may lakes
All bright with lily cups delight
thine eyes,
The sunbeam’s heat be cooled
by shady trees,
The dust beneath thy feet
the pollen be
of lotuses.

from Sanskrit play, c.400 A.D.

This morning I decided that I would use the inspiration of the sunshine coming through my curtains to start the day on a positive note and do something that I have been putting off for about a year…

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been wondering if a gardening blog is something of a burden or a joy. I’ve had a few eras when my energy has been low, and my thoughts have joined in. It is one thing to write a blog when one is feeling happy, but quite a different thing when one is a bit flat.

I live in the beautiful county of Yorkshire, and I decided to start a new chapter in my life and start blogging.

Someone asked do I like gardening?  For a little while, I couldn’t answer, but as I drifted on, it came to me: I love gardening because gardens are such amazing and powerful places.

So what do I want from my garden? 

  • Relax,
  • play with our kids,
  • have quality time with friends,
  • enjoy in the color, scent, and shapes of perennials,
  • to seed the tomatoes for our salad,
  • enjoy the butterflies, birds, bees, and many critters.  

Amazing stuff, yes?

Where you tend a rose, my lad,
A thistle cannot grow.

from “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Garden helps us connect with nature, but for me, more compelling is that I can express creativity in myself.  When we spend so much time in our desks at work, acting in roles where we have to overcome our essential needs, gardening is our own space. Just being in our area, re-connects us with whom we are, and re-wires our brain.

I’ve just started gardening, but gardens have always been a meaningful part of my life; ever since I was a small child who dragged his mom around the yard asking the names of all the flowers.  Those flowers are in bloom in my garden soon, I hope.

I’m picturing my mom now, and I’m transported back to childhood and those summer days in the garden.

So, you see, gardens are places where we can connect (or re-connect), with what is relevant and meaningful to us.

We also help reverse the damage that our lifestyles and economic systems are inflicting on the earth. We can create valuable habitats for butterflies and bees by choosing the right plants

Our gardens are places of healing, connection, and nourishment. 

Until next time, enjoy and love your garden.