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Archive for the ‘Gardening Tips’ Category

On my travels, I met a guy who had just built his own greenhouse. It had taken him two years! We got talking and I mentioned my Greenhouse web site. He could hardly wait for me to finish my sentence before launching into his tale:

“Building a greenhouse is one of the most frustrating projects that I have ever undertaken. I have been involved in doing home repair kinds of things for years, so I am no stranger to the difficulty of making everything fit together, but I swear, I will never build a greenhouse again. I had honestly thought that building a greenhouse would be just like building a shed. Just assemble the frame and install the walls and, bingo – all done. Boy was I mistaken. I had no problem when I made my shed, but the greenhouse was a real nightmare.

D.I.Y. Fundamentalism is a Form of Mentalism.
“I should have listened to my friends who said that I should hire an outside contractor instead of building a greenhouse myself, but I was sure that I was up to it. Let me tell you, it was one nightmare after another. Think installing windows is a pain in the neck? Try building a greenhouse, where every wall is made of absolutely nothing but windows and window frames! But that is not even the half of it. Oh no, not by a long shot.

“If you are building a garage or a shed, you have some leniency in terms of how things fit together. Sure, you assemble the basic frame as accurately and precisely as you can, but a millimeter here, half an inch there, and you’re still good. But it’s not the case if you are building a greenhouse. Not the case at all. Imagine assembling your whole frame and finding that your window frames don’t fit. Imagine trying to recut them,- an expensive waste of time and money that does nothing at all to fix the problem – and then having to dig out your foundations and start again. Imagine burning it down for the insurance and calling it a day. Such is the nightmare of building a greenhouse from scratch. Never again, my friend. Never again.

Plant Lovers Unite and Take Over.
“I had always thought that building a greenhouse was the ultimate project for a plant lover. It’s sort of like decorating the nursery for your kid. It’s the process of making a safe place for something that you love and treasure to glow and blossom. Now I realize the horrible truth. Building a greenhouse did just the opposite for me. It was six months before I could look at a plant!

“But now a year has gone by. I’ve begun to wander in and out of my greenhouse. After all the trials and tribulations, I have to admit that I now have something that I’d been wanting for a long time. It’s still standing, and it is no longer empty. Not by a long way.”

Telling his story put this guy in a much better mood, and we yabbered on long into the night. But I couldn’t help wondering if building a greenhouse could really be so difficult. I’d never even considered the possibility of designing and building one from scratch. There are simply too many good kits that are easy to buy off the shelf, take home, assemble and admire through the glass of a tart Chardonnay to worry about the whole D.I.Y.extremo thing.

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In this article I will try to explain why red cedar wood is the ideal building material and why it is especially good as a material to use for decking.

Cedar is a really remarkable natural material because is can be used in so many different sorts of building products and seems to be especially good to use a decking timber. The softwood seems to lend some of its Pacific Northwest charm to the exteriors of many homes and offices and with its warm cinnamon tones that will age gracefully over time to a seasoned silver colour. Although it is attractive and has a lot of rustic charm, it has many natural properties that provide it with a built in resistance to both attack by the elements and by insects. Because of this cedar wood has become one of the more popular choices when people are planning to add a decking area to their property. Red Cedar in particular is not only robust but is durable and a visually striking material which will add value to any exterior of a property.

The Red Cedar is a native species found in the costal regions of the Pacific Northwest and is now used not just for decking part for many other building products also. The wood itself is naturally imbued with a high resistance to UV rays, moisture and damage by insects because of certain chemicals in it which protect it from degeneration, and this is the reason why this species has survived in an environment heavy in moisture. Also these attributes are a key reason why the Red Cedar has been so heavily relied on by the Europeans who settled in the region for use as tools and building materials.

So with these strengths in mind you also need to remember that because Red Cedar is a softwood is it very easy to work with. Not only its looks, but its natural protection against the elements and even the scent that is associated with it lends a warmth and general appeal that can easily be transplanted to your own garden when carrying out a decking project.

Not only does it have the benefits mentioned above which are ideal for using when building a deck, but it also does not contain many of the resins or pitch which are normally found in other sorts of wood. So when it comes to the time for applying a finish it is much easier and you have no need for any further protection against what the elements may throw at it. Cedar is in fact resilient enough to discourage the decking fastenings from corroding, a problem which can often lead to leeching of rust into other pressure treated decks. Not only is Cedar durable, but it is also lightweight and to add another level is not hard feat when building your deck. But once completed it will retain its natural feel and look that you will find reminiscent of the beautiful countryside of the Pacific Northwest, as well as the practical benefits such as heat insulation (this ensures that the decking will feel cooler when walking on it compared to many other wooden decks), it has great sound absorption and is very stable so it will be a structural benefit to the rest of your home.

Another benefit that Cedar wood provides is the colour range, which starts from an amber and goes up to a pinkish hue as it is taken from the heartwood of the tree. By the time the timber has been shipped and is ready to be used as decking lumber you will find that it has matured to a cinnamon (reddish-brown) colour. Then as it ages it will change colour yet again and this time turns a silvery grey colour, unless it has been stained. Now if you choose to stain it then the colour variations available to you become even greater.

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For a lot of people, home gardening means the ability to grow your own fresh fruits and vegetables, the ability to control what pesticides enter your domain, and most of all just how fresh your food will be when you take it to the table. Home gardening can encompass a variety of different gardening styles, ranging from simple indoor gardening, to hydroponics gardening, to anything else that you can think of.

Bugs are an ever growing problem, sorry for the pun, and need to be watched for vigilantly. And especially in a vegetable or fruit garden, you will have to be extra careful of such cute, and cuddly creatures as rabbits, and other burrowing animals. Rodents are always a problem, and need to dealt with immediately so as not pass on any disease.

But is this really all that home gardening can accomplish? Shouldn’t there be more to it than the growing of vegetables and fruits? Those were my thoughts at one time when I came upon the concept of home gardening. There is a lot more to home gardening than initially meets the eye however.

Fruits and vegetables aside, you have your flowering plants, your leafy plants, and even your shade giving trees. All of these need to be placed within the design of you garden in such a way that you get the most of them. Next, if you liked you could always design an irrigation system worthy of a bigger garden, or you could keep it simple and just spray the hose when you need to.

It’s undeniable really just how tasty a freshly picked tomato will taste, or peas fresh out of the pod. And the fragrance you get from a handful of newly plucked berries, or freshly cut rosemary. This then is what the home gardener lives for.

Soil needs to be fresh, and aerated so as not to become compacted, thus hindering root growth. Worms and other like insects need to be welcomed into the overall scheme of your home gardening project.

And last but not least, you will need to make it a place that you feel welcome in, and that your visitors can feel welcome in. A place that invites you to explore all the nooks and crannies to see exactly what it is you’ve done with the place. And that’s what home gardening should be all about.

Water drainage, soil erosion, landscape maintenance, tools and equipment, the gallons of lemonade you’ll be consuming in your quest to make perfect your home gardening project. The list is nigh on endless, and I could go on forever, just suffice it to say that home gardening isn’t as cut and dried as it may seem.

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