All Around the House

Certain steps must be taken in order to successfully make a garden plot, including choosing the correct area and amending the soil before plants can go in. Matching the plants to the area chosen is a crucial, yet often over-looked aspect of garden design many beginners forget about.   3 Important Tips to Making a Garden Plot Make a Garden Plot- Choose the Location Carefully Choosing the correct location is very important to the success of the garden. Considerations must be made for sunlight and drainage requirements when considering which plants to grow in the area to make the garden plot most successful. For plants which require full sun, an area which receives at least six hours of sunlight will suffice. For part shade plants, four to six hours of dappled sunlight is good. Full shade means not much light at all can be gotten by the plants, so an ideal location would be under a tree or next to a building or fence. Many different techniques can be used to increase sunlight in...

Keeping home carpets clean is important to maintaining a healthy environment. Dirt and allergen particles from carpets can enter the air causing poor air quality, that can aggravate allergies asthma and other breathing problems. Home carpet cleaning removes dirt, debris and allergens from carpet fibers. Generally, vacuum carpets on a regular basis, such as once or twice a week, but heavy traffic areas may need vacuuming more often. If carpets become heavily soiled, steam cleaning may be necessary. Vacuum Carpet Before vacuuming carpets, make sure to remove all clutter from carpets. This is especially important in children’s bedrooms where small toys or toy parts may litter carpet. Some small items, such as paper clips, rubber bands and marbles can damage vacuum cleaners. Removing dirt or loose soil that remains on carpet surfaces prevent it from penetrating deep into the carpet or embedded by foot traffic. When vacuuming, use a slow, deliberate forward motion pushing the vacuum c...

By learning different ways to dry flowers you can open the doors to a wide variety of craft projects. Preserve your wedding flower bouquet, prom corsage, baby shower flowers, or make simple greeting cards and other fun projects with a unique assortment of wild flowers. All of these dried flower crafts will require one important job – drying the flowers. There are several ways to dry flowers for crafts, some of which can take longer than others. The techniques we’ve listed below are easy to follow and fairly inexpensive.   5 Ways to Dry Flowers Easily How to dry flowers with cat litter If you have an indoor cat, you already have all the supplies needed for this flower drying technique. If not, head out to the store and purchase a small bag of inexpensive cat litter. The flowers that work especially well for this method are roses. TIP – There should be no moisture (including dew or rain) on the flowers before drying. Remove the flower heads and discard the stems. In a deep ...

One of the most popular herbs is Ocimum basilicum commonly called sweet basil. Often called the ‘king of herbs,’ basil can be grown indoors or out. Sweet basil has inch-long, oval-pointed, dark green leaves and a clove-pepperish odor and taste. Sweet basil makes a handsome, bushy small plant, growing to a foot or more indoors. A purple-leafed variety, ‘Dark Opal’ is decorative, makes a lovely houseplant, and is equally useful in cookery. Do not let basil bloom, or it will go to seed. Instead, pinch out the plant tops and they will grow into compact little bushes. Basil is an annual and grows 12 – 24 inches (30 – 60 cm) as the height varies according to the variety. Cultivation requirements for growing basil: full sun; light, well-drained, nutrient rich, slightly acidic soil; frequent watering (don’t waterlog); will not tolerate cold; pinch off flower stalks for a longer season of leaf production. Basil can be easily started from seed or can be brought indoors at the end of the growi...

Power saws are used for small and large projects. Some of them are light weight and other projects involve heavy objects. Power saws are available in a variety of sizes and different volumes of power to ensure you can always find the right power saw for any need you have. The newer power saws often come with an infrared light that you follow as you cut. This is a perfect way to ensure your cuts are as straight as possible. Types of Power Saws Chainsaw The most common type of power saw is the chainsaw, used to cut down timber. They work well if you need to trim your trees or cut them down for firewood. On draw back of chainsaws is that the cut is often ragged so there is a great deal of splintering.     Circular saw Circular saws are used for a variety of home improvement projects. They are very versatile, so it is a great choice if you don’t want to have to purchase several saws that you only use occasionally. Circular saws are powerful enough to cut through very thick...

Whether you have pets, kids, both or neither, it is still highly likely that accidents will happen from time to time, resulting in unwanted additions to fabrics and carpets. Rather than descending into stress, learn simple and effective stain removal tips to getting your home and clothing looking at its best again. Fabric Stain Removal – Remove Fabric Stains The key to effective stain removal is taking action as soon as clothing has become stained, rather than just waiting until the item next hits the laundry pile. Unlike in days gone by, where hand-washing was used to clean clothes, the washing machine and development of new detergents are able to remove many stains, which would previously have not been possible. However, home remedies have long since been used for removing specific stains. In The Little Book Of Quick Fixes For A Spotless Home , Bodoano  highlights simple ways to effectively remove troublesome stains, to include as follows: tea/coffee – rinse out the worst, ...

Known as common garden chives, Allium schoenoprasum, can be grown indoors and out. Chives are rich in vitamins A and C, potassium, and calcium. They are grown for the flavour of their leaves, which is reminiscent of onion, although much milder. Both the stems and light purple flowers are used in cooking and the snipped leaves are an addition to many dishes. Chives lose their flavour with long cooking so it is best to add them to dishes at the last minute. For chopping stems, a pair of scissors is the best tool. Chives can be frozen or dried. They are less flavourful when dried rather that frozen, so they are best used when fresh and snipped, or snipped and frozen. In both cases sort them carefully, removing any yellowing leaves and shoots, and keep only the plump green ones. It is possible to place chives in non-iodized salt, keep them there for several weeks, remove the leaves, and then bottle the ‘chive salt’ for use in flavouring. Chives are a perennial in the garden and grow app...

Tillers are workhorses that churn through soil, destroying weeds as they break up the ground. Tilling a garden saves the gardener backbreaking work. It would take hours or even days using a shovel to turn a medium garden plot. Tillers do a consistently better job preparing gardens for planting. All models can be used to distribute compost or fertilizer. Smaller, slimmer front-tine models work best to keep weeds under control. Larger rear-tine models are capable of chewing through small tree roots and can plow large plots of ground in a short time. All power tillers have a depth bar adjuster so the operator can select how deep the tines dig. What are Tines? Tines are the rotating steel blades on a garden tiller that break through the ground and turn the soil. There are significant differences between front-tine and rear-tine tiller models. Front-tine tillers are designed with the rotating tines in front of the drive wheels and under the engine. Tillers with tines in the front are ...

For those people who are ecologically conscious, finding a way to make a homemade carpenter ant killer might become a priority if carpenter ants are around your house or you think you might be susceptible to carpenter ant infestation. The most effective way to get rid of carpenter ants is with chemicals, but some people just aren’t comfortable with using chemicals which has prompted them to try and find a homemade carpenter ant killer that will be effective and easy to use. Unfortunately, there is no easy homemade carpenter ant killer that has proven to be as effective as chemicals. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to get rid of carpenter ants without the use of chemicals. Carpenter ants are resilient creatures who simply look for a food source and “go to work”. The best homemade carpenter ant killer you can employ is to remove their food source. That means getting wet wood dry, cleaning up damp leaves around the base of your home, and making sure that there are no minuscule ...

White grubs, the larval stage of Japanese or June beetles, damage and kill lawns by eating grass roots. Infected lawns show brown, irregularly shaped patches that appear in summer and early fall. Severely damaged areas can be picked up whole, as the grass no longer has roots to hold it into the soil. More About Grubs According to Michael Merchant , Texas A&M extension service entomologist, all of the common warm season grasses – Bermuda grass , zoysia, St. Augustine and buffalo grass – are vulnerable to attacks by white grubs. Infestations some years are worse than others are. Neil Sperry, author of “The Complete Guide to Texas Gardening ” (Taylor publishing, 1991) describes these damaging grubs as about one-half inch long, curled into crescent shape with white bodies and brown heads. In May or June, the adult beetles emerge from the soil usually after heavy rains or irrigation in search of a mate. Light attracts males and they may be found under porch lights or around lighted...