Playhouses have been used by many people for years now – these can be made from wood, plastic or even canvass and provide your child with somewhere to play and call their own. Most of us remember playing in dens and making tree houses or hideaways when they were younger, and most children really enjoy having that space away from adults.

A lot of children enjoy having a den or hideaway, usually to get away from the adults, but also as a great place they can create a fantasy world inside.

So is it worth getting your child a Wendy house? Is it not just a miniature version of a shed? Well yes, in many cases a Wendy house is just that – a child sized shed that they can play inside.

Apart from there being a great range of Wendy houses now available, without breaking the bank I might add (as this is usually a worry). There are also some more interesting looking ones which will not only last the test of time but will beat the elements too. To most, this part is important as you want your garden to look good as well as be practical for all ages.

There would be nothing worse than having a broken down tatty looking playhouse in the corner of your garden, not only will it make your garden look shabby but will also prevent you from being able to enjoy your garden in those summer evening when you just want to relax.

Forget about the boring looking Wendy Houses which really do look like mini sheds, or the unsightly plastic playhouses. There are a number of really cute more aesthetically pleasing wooden Wendy houses out there such as the range here at the Big Game Hunters Playhouse Shop. You can get them pre-painted in various different colours, and even in different shapes with crooked roofs and funky windows.

Another great way to blend in the perfect play space into your garden is by concealing the Wendy house into a area of your garden with trees and bushes. This will further enhance your child’s play experience by giving them a secretly concealed world to play in. If you have a particular ‘look’ in your garden, hiding the playhouse will prevent it from ruining the look or landscape of your garden.

Source: Bridgman

Understanding the process

The basic principal of mulching is the laying of some kind of material over your flower beds.  Any inorganic material used serves to cover the soil, preventing frost damaging roots during cold spells, whilst also retaining moisture which is released into the soil, keeping plants and shrubs watered. They will also do a good job of suppressing weeds.   Inorganic materials used for mulching are:

• Geotextile blankets
• Gravel and stone
• Plastic and rubber

Of the three options, stone and gravel tend to be the most popular due to their aesthetic appeal.  In addition to these inorganic options, there are several organic materials that offer the additional benefit of providing nutrients to the soil and thus plants as they decompose.

Organic mulches

Compost and manure compost – These two work in a similar fashion and are a good choice when looking to add some insulation in the first few months of the growing season, to protect against the possibility of drops in temperature.  They are very rich in nutrients and will deliver a real concentrated boost to young plants and shrubs.  The only downside to compost and composted manure is that they do not last as long as other organic mulches.

Grass cuttings – Rather than throw away your grass cuttings you can spread them on your flower beds.  However, it is perhaps better to use them in the more remote areas as they give off a pungent smell as they decompose.  The high water content in grass means that they also break down very rapidly, but nutrient levels are quite high.

Straw – This option is best suited to those that have vegetable patches.  A carefully placed layer will stop soil splashing onto the vegetables and leaves during the watering process, which helps prevent the spread of soil-based diseases.  One application of straw should offer nutrients throughout the growing season.

Newspapers – In the past it was not advisable to use newspapers for mulching as the dye could poison plants.  However, organic dye is now commonplace and you are safe to recycle your newspapers as garden mulch.  Unfortunately they don’t look particularly attractive, which puts many gardeners off.

Leaves – This is a great option if your soil has become compacted and you are looking to improve aeration, without doing any digging.  The fact is that worms love soil that is covered by leaves and you will soon have hundreds of them digging their way through your flower bed; providing excellent soil for growing.

Garden bark – A fantastic long term organic mulch that takes a long time to break down whilst providing lots of nutrients.  Garden bark mulch is a favourite for gardeners looking to give their greenery with a helping hand, without sacrificing the aesthetics of the garden.

John Browbeck recommends Rolawn Direct for UK residents looking for garden bark.

It’s a Fun Hobby

People love to garden because it’s fun. It’s fun to plant a garden, maintain it, and see the work pay off when your flowers start to bloom or your vegetables ripen. It’s enjoyable and relaxing to partake in a hobby that’s so natural and positive.

It’s Great for Kids

Kids especially will benefit from a garden. When they help with a garden, it gets them outside and doing physical activity. Most kids love digging in the dirt and planting. At the same time, they can learn so much about nature. Gardens are a great way to bond with your kids, get them excited about nature, and introduce them to a new activity they’ll enjoy.

It Looks Nice

If you want to improve your landscaping, growing a garden is a surefire way to do it. The pretty flowers and other plants will spruce up the look of your lawn, and it will make your property look more appealing. If you want to liven up your yard, plant a garden.

It’s Good for Your Health

Gardening has so many health benefits. For one thing, you’ll be moving and doing physical activity, which is always healthy. You can also grow things like vegetables, fruits, and herbs that will boost the healthfulness of your diet.

Its Food Tastes Better

If you grow fruits and vegetables in your garden, you’ll probably find that they taste a lot better than the ones you buy at the grocery store. Freshly picked food from your own garden tends to be delicious. In addition, you can grow your own organic produce by not using any chemicals in your garden. At the very least, you know where your food came from.

It’s Spiritually Rewarding

Having a garden will give you emotional and spiritual benefits, too. It’s incredibly relaxing and serene to be working in nature and cultivating plants. Gardens have a very calming effect on people. When you see your plants growing, you’ll feel a great deal of satisfaction. You can be proud of yourself for your garden.

It Will Attract Animals

While in many cases you don’t want animals eating your garden, a garden can bring an interesting variety of animals and insects into your yard. You may see more beautiful butterflies, for example, or humming birds. You’ll seeing the different animals as they enjoy your garden.

It Will Help the Earth

With so many trees getting cut down and so much land getting cleared for more buildings, open and natural space is diminishing. By planting a garden, you’ll be contributing more “green” to the environment. Your garden will help improve air quality, too.

Ashley Cole is a stay at home mother and gardener who loves to share her passions through the internet. To ensure all her writing is crisp, clear, and abides by all grammar rules she proofs it using a grammar checker prior to letting anyone see it.

• Carrots

Not only will these little orange gems help you to see in the dark, they are incredibly easy to grow and maintain. All they need is a bit of rock-free soil (in a plot or deep pot) and an area that gets full sun. Try not to overwater your seeds, and don’t compact them with soil, carrots thrive best in loose soil. Your carrots should be ready to harvest after around 70-80 days.

• Green Beans

Green beans are easy to cultivate as they aren’t a demanding vegetable. Ensure that they are planted in a warm, sunny area with lots of air but they will not survive any frost. Your green beans will be fully matured after about 55-70 days.

• Lettuce

Wouldn’t it be great if the crunchy lettuce in your salad came straight from your back garden? Well, it can! Lettuce is easy to grow and maintain and all you will need is a LOT of compost and pH neutral soil. Your lettuce will be fully mature after 45-55 days and you should sew its seeds in late spring, but remember that it won’t tolerate extreme heat. Keep your lettuce well watered and weeded.

• Cucumbers

A staple in any salad, cucumbers grow quickly and are fully ready after 55-65 days. Your cucumbers will need to be watered weekly.

• Spinach

Not just Popeye’s favourite, spinach will not tolerate heat and seeds will need to be sown in moisture-retentive soil as well as being watered regularly. Outer leaves can be harvested as soon as they have reached your desired size.

• Tomatoes

Tomatoes will need full sunlight and adequate water (but don’t overdo it!) and can be harvested as soon as they begin to show colour as they continue to ripen off the vine. Your tomatoes will need a little support in the form of a cage or stakes.

• Peppers

Useful in many dishes, peppers are best started indoors in the early months and require full sun. As pepper plants grow quite tall it is likely they will need support in the form of a stake and you should be careful not to overwater them.

• Basil

Basil can be grown indoors and is ideal for use in Italian food, when the leaves reach their desired size just pluck them straight from the plant.

This post was written on behalf of uShip, the shipping aggregator, who specialise in house removals.

But barbecues don’t have to be simply associated with the home. Many take barbecues away with them on camping trips with owners packing up the disposable or even the gas BBQ along with the tent and essentials to ensure that they get an amazing meal wherever they may lay their head.

Campsites and “stay-cations” have proved to be particularly popular with people looking for ways of saving money but still enjoying well-earned holidays. While expensive and exotic trips may be a thing of the past for many people due to the current state of the global economy, trips to the coast, country or city are proving to be just as popular as trips to the Caribbean or safaris were five to ten years ago.

In such cases people are looking for ways to experience the great outdoors and cooking on a barbecue allows them to do that, and also means that they don’t have to pay for meals at hotels or restaurants.

At family camping trips, barbecuing isn’t just an effective way of cooking but it’s a practical one too. Without access to electricity and therefore ovens and refrigeration in most sites, it’s snacks-to-go or cook-your-own. Grilling sausages, burgers, chicken and vegetables is a great way of feeding the family and provides that real sense of being out in the wilderness and survival – think Bear Grylls without the scorpions and other creepy crawlies!

Down on the coast you get an extra opportunity to test those survival skills with fresh seafood. If you venture out into the water and catch your own fish, crabs and alike, you can cook them up on the barbecue and enjoy food caught on the same day with your own hands – you don’t get much fresher than that! Wrap them in some tin foil, crank up the grill and enjoy!

Fresh vegetables can also be cooked on a barbecue meaning you can still get all of your necessary nutrition and healthy foods. When you say the word barbecue you think of meat and unhealthy products, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Cooking vegetables inside foil wrapping will do them in a similar way to steaming veg at home so even on the road you can get your five a day.

To conclude, cooking on the go doesn’t have to mean just burgers, hot dogs and bags of crisps. If you’re a whizz in the kitchen, you can whip up just about any meal on a barbecue – or the bulk of one at least! Meat, vegetables, even fruit, all cook perfectly on a grill when done correctly, helping to provide a nutritious and appetizing meal that even ensures you get the majority of your five a day.

Happy grilling!

This guest post was written by Matt Rawlings. Matt is an experienced blogger who has covered a variety of topics relating to food, from the best table sauces to restaurant reviews. He is a freelance writer currently working with The Gas BBQ Company in the UK.

To begin building your water garden you must first find a vessel to put the water in. Look around and see what you can find. A few suggestions are using a water collecting cistern, a faux stone orb, or maybe even a bird bath. The cistern is great, because it is already a water collector. A faux stone orb could be a potential waterfall with water lilies floating atop. A bird bath is a great idea. If the birds can bath in it, there’s no reason why plants could not thrive.

Let your imagination take over and run with it! Once you have found the vessel you are going to use, it’s now time to get planting!

Which Plants Can Grow In Water?

Growing plants in water is quite similar to growing them in soil.  A few plants to consider using for your water garden are:

• water lilies
• reeds
• rushes
• lotus flowers

There are several others, these are just a few. In order for the plants you choose to thrive, you need the three vital components of sunlight, water, and nutrients.

Here are a few tips to building a successful water garden:

1.)  Choose an area with at least 5 hours of sunlight a day.

2.)  Determine the desired depth needed for the crown of water tolerable plants. Some prefer deeper depths than others.

3.)  If using pots to hold the plants, weight the pot down. Also available are special aquatic potting soil mixes such as tetra pond that keep the plant from floating out.

4.)  Fertilize plants by pushing pond tablets in the soil around the plants roots.

5.)  Make sure to top off the water every few days, as the water will slowly evaporate.

6.)  Remove any debris or fallen foliage from the plants, as it can disrupt the water quality leading to the possibility of algae and/or fungus.

7.)  Depending on the types of plants in your water garden, you can possibly “winterize” them.  Bring the plants inside and place them in an area that gets a lot of sunlight.  Treat them the same as if they were in your water garden.

Now, you can bask in the beautifully planted aquatic environment you have created! Enjoy!

This article was provided by this do-it-yourself pest control supplier. If you’re in need of any products for controlling pests in your garden, or anywhere else around your home, please visit www.domyownpestcontrol.com.

Here are some simples tips on how to design the perfect backyard patio.

1. Make your patio inviting. Turn that back space into a quiet retreat. Plant large trees and shrubs to create an intimate space. Fill out your yard with strategically placed plants so that it feels cozy without overwhelming the space. Think about the best way to block neighbors views of your backyard without invading their space.
2. Keep it nearby. While it might be fun to create a patio overlooking a pond or creek, keeping your patio close to your house means you’ll use it more. A patio directly off of a bedroom is a great way to enjoy a cozy breakfast outdoors. Behind the kitchen is a perfect spot for BBQs and garden parties.
3. Create an adaptable deck area near your patio so that the space can easily adapt for a firepit, a BBQ, or sitting in the sun.
4. Create an outdoor kitchen to keep your house cool. If you live in a warm climate you understand the importance of keeping your house cool during the warmer months. Using your back patio as an extension of the kitchen becomes extremely important. Turn your outdoor oven into a focal point that welcomes guests outdoors for delicious treats like fire-oven pizza, or grilled veggies.
5. Keep it simple. Your patio doesn’t need to be elaborate for it to hit home. Look for small nooks around your yard for you to put a small table and a bench. Sometimes less is more, and a patio is no different than any other type of remodel.
6. Use potted plants to change up the setting regularly. When your spring bulbs have died away, make room for summer annuals by switching out pots. There’s no reason not to incorporate an old tree or flower bed into the design of your patio, using pots you can make anything look intentional.
7. Make your patio comfortable. That may mean buying an umbrella to give guests shade, finding high quality wicker furniture, or buying cushions for all of the benches. The more comfortable the space is, the more time you’ll spend in it.
8. Use your favorite colors. There’s no reason you can’t incorporate all of your favorite colors, textures and styles into your outdoor patio. Choose plants that appeal to your senses, whether their varying shades of green and white, or have burgundy leaves, make everything work for you.

Regardless of your overall style, make sure that you have a space that will stand up to your climate. If you like going barefoot in the summer, make sure that the materials you choose will not heat up in the sun. Think about how you will water everything, where the shade will be and if the rain will damage anything. But most importantly, enjoy your space.

Avery Lane is a freelance writer based out of the Pacific Northwest. She writes about a wide spectrum of home improvement topics, such as guides to central air conditioner parts and furnace prices.

Container Garden

One of the most common forms of gardening, this involves growing plants in some sort of container. This form of gardening has its clear advantages. Because they are in pots or containers, the plants can easily be moved or transferred to a new location. Also, many plants in containers are small enough to be grown either outside or inside. Other common places for container gardening is on balconies, porches, patios and on roof tops.

Water Garden

There are specific plants that are adapted to grow around ponds, bogs and ponds. The conditions required for growing these gardens are very specific, and usually depend on soil conditions and amount of sunlight. Also, water gardens are typically maintained around small bodies of water, and are relatively shallow as most aquatic plants cannot survive in deep waters. A great addition to a water garden are carp, goldfish or other fish you can buy at a pet store. Be careful not to release those fish into natural bodies of water, as they can wreak havoc on the native fish species populations.

Indoor Garden

The majority of people do not have the option to grow gardens outside all year round. For the advanced gardener, an indoor garden is a great way to garden all year round. Some sort of nursery or ideal growing condition is required for large scale indoor gardens. These often require glass ceilings to allow natural sunlight to shine through in all seasons, or special lamps that provide needed light for plants. Many indoor gardens serve the sole purpose of priming plants to be ready for the summer growing season. Depending on the plant type, seeds can be planted in containers between December and March which will be grown and ready to be planted when conditions are warmer. Although these gardens require a great deal of time and energy to put together and maintain, the rewards of having a garden or fruits and vegetables at all times of the year can pay off.

Native Plant Garden

Depending on your location, there may be a wide variety of great plant species that are exclusively native to your area. The purpose of the garden is to create a scene that blends in well with the surrounding natural environment. The use of pesticides, manure and other artificial means of growing gardens can be used, but typically is not. Although these gardens can look very natural and pristine, they can become easily overgrown and infested with invasive plant species. For that reason, most of the work required for maintaining these gardens involves weeding.

This article was provided by Pro-Tec Equipment, offering trench shields and other trench shoring products.

Rootstocks and tree size

Tree size is determined largely by the rootstock onto which the tree has been grafted. Choose rootstocks that are of appropriate vigor for the planting area or trainingspace available. Apple trees grown on dwarfing rootstocks such as ‘M26′ or ‘M9′, for example, are likely to suit most gardens; their relatively small size makes picking, pruning, and spraying easier. If a large tree is required, select one that is grown on a more vigorous rootstock.

Pollination compatibility

Most cultivars of apples,pears, sweet cherries, and some plums are not satisfactorily self-fertile. They therefore need to be planted close to one or more suitable cultivars of the same fruit that are in flower at about the same time so that insects are able to cross-pollinate all the trees.

By garlandcannon

For example, the apple cultivars ‘State Fair’, ‘Delicious’, and ‘Wolf River’ need to be planted together for all to be cross-pollinated uccessfully. When planning a fruit garden, take into account the minimum number of trees required for pollination to occur, and position compatible cultivars adjacent to each other to help ensure satisfactory fertilization and cropping.

Crop Size and Timing

Within the limits of space available, the amount of fruits that are required will determine the number of plants that should be obtained, bearing in mind that crop levels inevitably vary from year to year. The amount of storage or freezer space available may govern the size of crop that can be handled. Try to balance the numbers of early-, mid-, and late-ripening cultivars of each fruit grown in order to provide a consistent supply over a long period rather than a brief glut.

Early-ripening apples and pears do not keep well for more than a day or two, so do not grow more than can be consumed quickly: one or two cordons yielding 5 -11 Ib (2-5kg) per tree should suffice. If you have plenty of storage space, plant a high proportion of late-ripening cultivars, the fruits of which can be stored for several months. Plums are also liable to produce gluts, and the fruits must be used quickly unless they are frozen or otherwise preserved.

By Balaji.B

When deciding whether to plant early- or late-ripening cultivars, remember to take climatic factors into account. For example, late-ripening apples or pears are not a good choice for a region with a short summer or if the proposed site is shady, because there will not be enough time or sun for the fruit to ripen fully.

Samet Bilir writes about technology trends, digital cameras and photography, such as Sony S tablet and top dSLR cameras. To read more articles from him visit his blog at www.chi-photography.com.