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Making Your Garden an Outdoor Living Room

by: Hege Crowton

Today, when building costs make large houses prohibitive, one way to extend your house is to use your outdoor space to full advantage. And many contemporary houses make many a room look larger by visually extending it into the lawn or garden.

Tricks such as glass walls, using the same wall material inside as for a continuing wall on the terrace and using the same material for the ceiling inside as on the extended terrace eaves, help to do this.

Your living room or dining room and even your bedroom or your children's bedrooms can flow right outdoors on to "floating" decks of wood, bricked terraces or lattice-roofed loggias.

However you do it, with the aid of vine, fences, shrubbery, shade trees and flowers you can make your terrace a delightful place for entertaining, sun-bathing and relaxing.

With a barbecue another dimension is added, for with your own fireplace or barbecue any terrace, lawn or garden spot can offer the blithe enchantments of dining under sun and stars.

In planning your terrace, consider installing an electric outlet for lighting, portable radio, electric spit for your barbecue, etc.

Use vines for a lattice roof (grape vines, for instance, leaf out late when shade is wanted and drop their leaves early at the beginning of cool weather, giving delicious fruit as bonus). Choose a rapid-growing vine like grape, hyacinth or the gourd vine.

Relate your terrace to the rest of your grounds with flowers and vines grown in pots, baskets and tubs. If the wall of the house next to your terrace seems bare or the profile of your cement or asphalt paving seems too sharp in contrast against the grass, soften the line with pots of plants.

Have dwarf trees on your terrace and blossoming shrubs in the terrace-retaining walls. Create interest with changes of level; build flower beds around trees, steps and walls.

For a terrace where everybody in the family assembles, have play space for young children, a sand box which can later be filled with plants, or a little square pool for sailing small boats (this can create a sense of luxury long after the children are grown up).

You need not rely on trees alone for shade. Construct a self-bracing terrace roof in an egg-crate design, using the side of your house and wood, masonry or metal pillars. Corrugated plastic and reinforced glass is in frequent use nowadays because they are watertight, yet let the sunlight through.

Coming into more and more architectural use � particularly in hot climates�is the "parasol" roof, extending from the walls of the house some 4 feet and even more to give pleasant shade to the surrounding area.

Since glare reflected on bare grounds is a source of heat, a carpet of shaded grass under the parasol roof helps to keep the house cool.

Often an outdoor living space gets twice the use if it is made more accessible. A window in a living room can be converted to a French door, making it more natural to step right out on the terrace instead of walking around the house to reach it.

A terrace that is an extension of a narrow porch�a paved area adjoining the porch�will make the porch that much more liveable. A flagstone path�or any other path� leading to a terrace away from the house will increase the usefulness of the terrace.

Some kind of hard flooring is of prime importance, whether it is of brick, crushed rock, cement, wood block, or flagstone, for it makes it easier to move the furniture around and eliminates worries over tramped-on turf. In fact, it is a good idea to have a terrace in a spot where you are having trouble with the lawn.

Outdoor living space is successful, too, when it is sheltered�away from street noises and traffic, from the neighbours, from the wind. An unused corner of the house or the garage, with the aid of fences and walls, can turn into a sun trap that will stretch out the season for outdoor living both in spring and fall.

A louvered board fence, a basket-weave fence, asbestos laid in cement to form a modern wall, or the traditional brick wall, all are pleasant backgrounds for planting and good screens against wind and other disturbing elements.

About the author:
Hege Crowton is an expert copywriter.
She is known for doing in-depth research before writing her articles.
Many of her articles are posted on
and she also does a lot of writing for

Copyright 2005

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Things You Should Know About Gardening
by: Gerardas Norkus

Gardens come in different varieties like the plants you find in them. There are several gardening tips that can be used for all type of gardens.

1.Mulching protects your garden topsoil from being blown away. It also provides nutrients as it decomposes and improves the appearance of your gardens. Mulching has other benefits and is one of the most recommended gardening tips by gardeners and farmers alike.

2.Healthy plants are more disease resistant. Plant are like people, a person with a strong immune system can combat diseases. A healthy plant does the same.

3. Pests can be eradicated by cleaning the plant with a watery solution of soap. Just make sure to rinse after. This gardening tip is best heeded for fruit bearing trees or edible plants.

4. Using compost fertilizers are a great way to have healthy plants. It is also a great way to save money on expensive fertilizers. Non -organic fertilizers also tend to leave chemical residues that can accumulate in garden soils and harm not only the plants but the gardeners as well. They cause toxins to go to the water supplies. Another gardening tip recommended not just by farmers and gardeners but also by environmentalists.

5. There are several plants that are only suitable for a specified climate, a certain kind of soil or can only grow with certain plants. You have to know what plant grow in the conditions you have in your area this is for you to avoid unnecessary purchases. This is a money saving gardening tip.

6.Landscaping is a good investment which can double the value of your home. This is one gardening tip that can earn you money.

7. Growing grass on bare ground is an easy way to make your home look better and appreciate in value. This is one gardening tip that promotes earning money while growing grass legally.

8. Aside from looking great in your home, trees also provide some sort of protection from direct sunlight exposure and strong winds.

9. Vines on the walls, fences and overhead structures also would offer some protection and would also look great.

10.Flowers are beautiful, but they are also expensive. Get one that is resistant to many elements. Flowers from your local community already have developed resistance to conditions present in your area.

11.For most gardens plants, their roots go only as deep as 6 inches. Putting fertilizer deeper than that would be a waste of money. Put them shallower as they seep down when the plants are being watered.

12.Earthworms are important to plants. They till and aerate the soil for the roots to breathe. Non-organic fertilizers can kill them. This gardening tip dates back to the old days of gardening.

13. Having several kinds of insects that are beneficial to your garden would be good. These insects can be encouraged to stay by having diverse plants in your garden.

14. Spot spraying weeds with household vinegar, instead of using commercial weed-killers, can eradicate them. This is another environment friendly gardening tip.

15. Avoid putting too much mulch on tree trunks, this would encourage unwanted pests to reside on them.

16. Use plant varieties that are common to your area or have been taken from an area with similar conditions.

17. Be sure to know the plants that are poisonous. If you are intent on growing them, make sure to have the necessary cure available in your household. Take note of this gardening tip, it can save your life.

18. The best time to water plants is during mornings.

19. Before planting a new plant in your garden, you must consider its height and size when it matures. This garden tip can help you save money in the future.

20. Newly transplanted plants may require special attention during its first week. This is to reduce the stress and shock it got during transplantation.

And last but not the least of the gardening tips...

21.Plants are living entities. If you want them to grow in your garden you have to treat them as such. They need to be taken care of. They are like your pets, you look out for them. In return you get that feeling of contentment watching them thrive.

A good way to take care of them is to consider that plants might have some feelings too.

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