Lawns and Gardens

Bravo Sports produces various sizes of canopies. The Bravo Sports Weekender 64 is a good all purpose size that will go from backyard parties to days at the beach with ease. The canopy is lightweight and easy to move around. It stows away in a compact case that makes it convenient to transport. The canvas canopy does not absorb heat like a metal canopy would and creates a cool place to sit and relax. These canopies are great for creating a focal point for outside gatherings at places like the park, your backyard or the beach.

Bravo’s weekender 64 model is eight feet by eight feet or 64 square feet. It is large enough to put a table under and allow six people to sit in the comfort of the shade to eat. Once you own this portable sun canopy you will be surprised how many uses you find for it. The aluminum frame is made so that it is completely assembled. All the owner has to do is open it up, lock down the legs and attach the top. The top goes on super fast with velcro fasteners. The height can be adjusted through springs in the legs. It extends to a maximum height of seven feet. You also have the ability to elevate one side and keep the other slightly lower to help block blowing sand and dirt at the beach or other areas.

The Bravo line of canopies are very durable. The fabrics that are used block one hundred percent of the UV rays. These canopies also resist fading and will not absorb heat. When your canopy stays cool so do those sitting beneath it. Bravo offers a warranty for one year from date of purchase. Purchase price for the weekender 64 is approximately sixty dollars depending on the vendor. This price makes the weekender 64 very attractive to potential buyers since comparable canopies start at over one hundred dollars.

The Bravo weekender 64 has received positive reviews from many customers who have purchased it. Feedback praises the easy set up and break down of these canopies. Owners also like the amount of shade the canopy provides making it useful for so many applications. One thing buyers would like to see changed is the canopies performance in the rain. Rain soaks into the canopy and causes it to buckle. Making the canopy waterproof would add to its usability. Overall the weekender 64 makes a durable and portable source of shade that owners like.

Making a pond is so easy these days with all the things that are available today on the market and it is also a very enjoyable hobby. One thing you need to make sure of is to feel your fish properly if you want them to stay healthy. There are many types of fish pond food available on the market today.

Pond fish often live on foods like floating pond plants, plankton, and the very small roots of the pond plants that float in the water. Pond fish also eat the larvae of insects, worms and other small creatures. A natural food supply is not always available all year round so you need to feed your pond fish other things such as store bought fish food. Pond fish will rush to the top of the pond to feed and it is very enjoyable to watch.

Pond fish are generally bigger in size than the everyday aquarium fish so you need not over feed them, and it is actually recommended to skip one day of feedings. This will keep their digestive systems regulated. Never just throw an over abundance of fish pond food into the water as this can cause an excess of algae to form on top of the pond. An over abundance of food can also bring unwanted visitors such as raccoons as well as other creatures and also it will cause your pond to give off a foul odour. Make sure to give your pond fish a variety of pond food.

Eating the same food everyday is not good for us and it is not good for our pond fish. Before you buy any fish pond food, you need to take into consideration the time of year, temperature of the water, and the age and spawning cycles of your pond fish. We all know one food does not meet all the requirements your pond fish. So be sure to read the food labels carefully.

Try to feed the fish several times a day but in small quantities, just enough that the pond fish will eat, leaving none left floating on the top. Try to feed them at the same time of day and in the same spot if possible. By doing this you will be able to regularly check your pond fish to make sure they are healthy and disease free.

For families with a large backyard gardening can be a nice pastime to share together. If you take your gardening projects seriously you might have a lot of different types of tools you use. To help keep your tools and pots organized and ready to use you could use a garden tool wall rack. The model that is made from cedar not only looks nice when placed in an outdoor setting, but is able to hold up to twenty different tools. This large capacity makes it easy to find the exact tool you need to get the job done.

Some features of the cedar design include the wheels on the base. This makes the item easier to move to the location you want to have it so you save time in walking long distances to access your items. This portable rack is designed to hold items that are larger such as rakes or shovels and is not equipped to handle a lot of the smaller types of tools used for gardening. There are special tool racks created to be hung on the wall of a garage or storage shed that have the small areas for small tools.

The wall unit works well for holding a trowel or pruning shears and can be easily hung using basic nuts and bolts. This is a good choice for garage areas that may have a separate space set aside as a work area. This handy rack could be used in combination with a workbench or potting bench. Gardening with the family can be a rewarding practice and also teaches the younger members about caring for the items in nature. Teaching your children to select and use the proper tools to create beautiful gardens and landscapes, will help them when they have their own home and yard to care for. A good quality storage shed or rack will help them keep organized as well.

Conservatories are the perfect marriage of outdoor and indoor space. Combining the beauty and light of the outdoors with the comfort and warmth of the interior, conservatories can be the heart of a home.

After parking space and garages, the conservatory is the most popular must-have for most home buyers. There is a downside though. Sadly poorly planned conservatories can often end up neglected and hardly used if they don’t meet the home-owners needs properly. Whether your new project is a designer hardwood affair or a practical UPVC conservatory, good planning is vital to avoid making expensive mistakes when building.

Before you start building, get a good idea of what your conservatory is going to be. Will it be a play room for the kids, a study, a workroom or an extension to a kitchen, living room or downstairs bedroom? If you want a dining room, make sure your new conservatory can house a dining table and enough chairs without being squeezed in. If you want an extension to a downstairs bedroom, will your bedroom furniture fit in OK?

Make sure that you have the internal dimensions of the room clear so that you plan the layout. The external footprint will be a lot bigger and this can be misleading. Mark your internal dimensions on the ground if possible. To make your plan more real, some old newspaper cut to the footprint of your furniture might give you some idea of where your things might be placed and if you have enough room.

If you are unsure about what size of conservatory you want note this rule of thumb. The footprint of your conservatory should be no more than one third the size of the footprint of the house. Any bigger will feel quite large. Also you need to think about how much garden you will lose. Losing too much might make your house difficult to sell later on.

Follow these simple rules and you will have a wonderful outdoor room and a valuable addition to your home.

If you want your little one to have the most fun when you are outside, then you should look into a cottage playhouse. These offer all of the benefits of outdoor pretend play when you choose to go with one of these. They can be perfect for boys or for girls. There are many styles of playhouses to choose from since you have the option of what your child plays with, and the style that would be best suited for their tastes, and for your backyard.

There are various materials to choose from on the type of playhouse you would like. With a wooden playhouse, there is no need to worry since the structure is strong, and it can be painted whenever it needs a touch up. These are also affordable on the pockets, and fun to play with. Choose if you would like a little porch on the outside of the house, or if you prefer to have more or less windows. There are various specifications that you can order on your play house, and choose from a variety of sizes as well depending on where it is going, and who is going to be playing with it.

There is no better time than now to start searching for the perfect toy playhouses for your little one. This allows you to get the best one, and possibly have them choose the outdoor playhouse they would like to use. There is no need to wait when you are in need of one of these play houses since you can find them in a store near you, or right off the internet. This gives you more choices than ever before, and also allows you to search within your price range for the perfect ones for your kids, and your backyard for play time.

Outdoor lighting has seen many changes over the years. Even though lighting for outdoor areas has seen changes some things have remained the same. From the earliest forms of lighting put in place by King Louis the XIV of France in 1700 to the newest lighting technology of today, security has remained a primary reason for adding light outdoors. While we don’t want to sacrifice the security of our property by eliminating the lighting, the electrical costs for operating outdoor lights can add up. This is one reason that so many people are excited about the advances in LED (light emitting diode) technology as LED’s are very energy efficient.

While LED”s have been around since the 60’s, it’s only in the last few years that technology has allowed for the use of LED’s in a wide variety of applications. Whether you are looking for landscape lights, patio lights or lights that highlight your garden, you will most likely find a fixture that makes use of LED bulbs. You will find many new outdoor light fixtures that are sold with LED’s and you can also retrofit many existing fixtures including low voltage fixtures. While they are somewhat expensive, there are LED bulbs for 120 volt fixtures as well.

Although the initial cost might make you hesitate to purchase LED bulbs to replace other types of bulbs, they will save you money down the road. LED’s last much longer (up to 25%) than regular incandescent bulbs and are much more energy efficient. They use up to 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and produce little to no heat. When LED’s do burn out they don’t just suddenly quit like other types of light bulbs. Instead and LED will gradually decrease the amount of light it puts out as it reaches the end of its useful life.

Improvements in LED’s have resulted in more widespread use and lowered costs. As the technology continues to improve we should see even lower costs and greater mainstream use of LED’s. Because LED’s are so energy efficient and long lasting, many people believe LED’s will be the light bulb of the future not only for backyard lights but for all our lighting needs.

As any seasoned gardener knows, and you face a constant battle with pests trying to eat the food that you are growing. It doesn’t matter will, vegetable or fruit that you have in your garden, there is a good chance that something else is going to try to eat it before you can pick it.  Although for each pest it is a solution, they all don’t work the same way. For this article, we’re going to focus on how to keep birds from eating what you are trying to grow.

One of the best ways that you can stop these birds from getting at your crops, is by using fruit nets. These are readily available in many hardware stores or garden centers. Before you buy one of these nets, you want to have a good idea of the dimensions that you want to protect. If you need to, use a tape measure or pace off how many feet you will need. You can buy them in 14 or 28 foot lengths usually, and they are pretty inexpensive. Besides, it is well worth the price to prevent birds from eating all of your precious fruit.

To install your bird net, and you can either choose to simply lay the net down on the ground, or you can make a small cage around the area you are trying to protect. Laying the net flat on the ground works well to protect small shoots that just came up from your seeds. Once the starters have grown a little bit, you can remove the net and birds won’t be so much of a threat. For other plants, you will need to keep the net on as long as you can. For things like tomatoes and raspberries, birds will happily eat them all, so you need to keep them protected. The best way to do this, is to use garden stakes or poles around the perimeter and wrap the bird net around it.  If you are trying to keep them off a railing or other similar area, bird spikes are a good product as well.

There are a lot of gardeners out there who believe that a live butterfly garden has to be entirely natural. That is, you can’t include anything in it that wasn’t grown by Mother Nature herself. Garden urns? No. Solar-powered garden lights? Negative.

Well, those gardeners obviously haven’t seen a butterfly garden stake.

Yes, you want to be sure that your butterfly garden is properly designed and laid out. Yes, you wan to be sure that you have the right shrubs and plants and flowers – your asters, your marigolds, your butterfly bushes. Of course you should have some moist sand and plenty of resting places.

Buy the Cricket Forge Heavy Duty Butterfly Garden Stake from amazon now!

But remember that you also want your garden to be fun.

Decorative garden stakes are a great way of adding a little whimsical flair to any garden space. For that matter, you can stake them around your yard. Any exterior landscape can benefit from these decorations. In recent years they have become much more popular, and easier to find in garden supply stores as well as online.

The basic idea is that you have a stake atop of which sits some decorative element. There are hummingbird stakes and bird nest stakes. There are garden stakes for your favorite N.F.L. team, and stakes that are personally monogrammed with your initials. You can get religious garden stakes and holiday garden stakes.

You can also get stakes that combine style and flair with practicality. How about a sun face with a thermometer in the center? Or a butterfly stake with a rain gauge on it?

Garden stakes don’t wither and fall as the spring and summer pass, either. When your butterfly bush is sagging and the blossoms are all fallen away, the garden stake will still stand proudly right where you put it.

Don’t fall into the trap of being a butterfly garden purist. Of course you want to be sure you have taken care of your butterfly visitors. But what’s wrong with adding a little fun and pleasure to your garden as well? After all, you might just find a butterfly resting on top of a model of itself one of these days!