DIY House Renovation Media: outdoors

Showing posts with label outdoors. Show all posts

Friday, 15 August 2014

Backyard Patio Transformation

With not much more than a concrete slab and a patch of grass to go on, this homeowner transformed his backyard into a stylish outdoor retreat. See how he did it, and get great cost-cutting ideas for your own yard remodel project!

Beautiful Backyard

The homeowner and designer knew his backyard had potential. And he had a plan. The tiny patch of grass behind his 1950s split-level would be plain no longer! With ready-made materials and his own blueprint, the homeowner created an outdoor retreat for his friends and family.

Cold Concrete

Before the makeover, the back patio was small and cluttered. The unwelcoming concrete slab didn't scream impromptu BBQs or intimate dinner parties with friends. There was barely enough room for two backyard basics: a picnic table and grill.

Slippery Slope

The small backyard provided great green space. However, it sloped steeply into the bramble and bush of a wooded ravine.

Breaking Boundaries

With a plan in mind, the first step was to extend the existing concrete patio. First, a level surface was created on the sloping ground. A retaining wall also helped solve this problem.

DIY Tip: Use what you have. Extending this small patio solved a big space problem. Adding on to existing elements will save time and money that you would sacrifice in a major overhaul.

Water-Ready

Flexible plastic tubing was placed along the length of his retaining wall to drain water away from the block wall.

Excavate Your Space

Inside a clearly defined perimeter, about 6 inches of dirt was removed by hand, making space to lay the new patio surface.

Walk This Way

Instead of a gate, the homeowner/designer set one wood-slat panel back a few feet to create an easy walkway. Without sacrificing its sleek, contemporary style, the fenceremains functional and welcomes guests into the new backyard retreat.

(source link: source link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/11031825/Are-young-people-really-hooked-on-gardening.html/)

http://www.canofix.co.uk/

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Thursday, 14 August 2014

Are young people really 'hooked on gardening'?

Young people are 'hooked on gardening', survey suggests

It's cool to compost: a survey suggests that the young are increasingly embracing gardening Photo: Alamy

By Leah Hyslop

4:38PM BST 13 Aug 2014

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It’s often said that young people are more interested in smartphones and videogames than the outside world – but new research suggests that twenty and thirty-somethings are just as likely to be found harvesting tomatoes in the garden as on Twitter.

A survey found that the average 25-35 year old spends 12 to 15 hours in their garden each month, with the average couple set to spend £518 this summer on their garden – a significant rise from the previous year, when £273 was the norm.

Read: University gardening: students who spend the whole day in beds

Twenty-three per cent of adults surveyed also said that they thought time spent outdoors was more fulfilling than time spent watching television or films.

Experts at Alfresia, the furniture provider which commissioned the survey, attributed the increasing popularity of gardening to television shows such as ITV’s Love Your Garden and the BBC’s The Big Allotment Challenge, which has been dubbed the horticultural equivalent of The Great British Bake Off.

Craig Corbett, product director at Alfresia, said: “More and more young people are choosing to invest in their gardens to provide a place where friends and family can spend quality time together. Young people are increasingly eager to cultivate their own creative and social space in which to relax within the boundaries of their own home.”

Gardener and writer Lia Leendertz said: "I very much see a rise in young people getting interested in gardening, and it’s a joy. They are generally a pretty alternative, left-leaning crowd, intensely interested in the politics of food production, in the mechanisms of the chemical industry and what they mean for the wider world. There are more community gardening initiatives than ever before and this is allowing people without access to gardens to start getting their hands dirty and learn about plants. I think it’s an organic, productive, social and socially aware form of gardening that is most capturing younger gardeners’ imaginations.”

Not everyone is convinced that gardening is a growing trend, however. Alan Titchmarsh, the veteran gardener and TV presenter, has spoken several times about his fears that the young are ignorant of the natural world, and that few consider horticultural careers.

“The more children and young people are divorced from the great outdoors the more fearful they become of it, the less understanding they have of the world outdoors,” he told the Telegraph earlier this year. “And the planet then is in very shaky hands.”

(source link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/11031825/Are-young-people-really-hooked-on-gardening.html/)

http://www.canofix.co.uk/

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Thursday, 31 July 2014

Garden activities for the children this summer

Game on: playing together teaches key communication skills

By Bunny Guinness

7:00AM BST 16 Jun 2014

1 Comment

It was at my children’s joint fourth and fifth birthday party that it dawned on me how much the outdoors can appeal to the young. I had organised a brilliant clown, Oodly Doodly the Fenland Fool, to come and entertain.

For all his magnetism, the guests completely ignored him, piling instead into our garden pool, where they had a great time catching fish, netting water beetles, hurling water weed and paddling. They went home wet and filthy, so I was not the most popular mother that week.

Children today seem to spend most of their time in the man-made rather than the natural world. They go to school by bus or car, and then spend hours in classrooms. At home, they spend yet more hours indoors, watching television, and rarely come into contact with mud, leaves or grass all day.

But being indoors is not good for them. Studies show that children who spend a lot of time in front of screens rather than interacting with people are worse at communicating and have lower attention spans.

(source link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardenprojects/10898829/Garden-activities-for-the-children-this-summer.html)

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Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Do-It-Yourself Outdoor Project Ideas

Sprucing up your deck, patio, or yard just got an inspirational boost, thanks to these 15 projects you can do yourself. They range from small and simple to more intricate and involved, and all are worthwhile to make the outdoors more livable and lively come spring.

By Sarah Wolf

Pallets in a Perky Palette

Wooden pallets are easy to come by on the cheap -- many businesses will even give them away! They are the building blocks of acoffee table so low-maintenance, it can stay outside year-round. Our version stacks two pallets together for height and features a window box-style planter (which we filled with Scotch moss) as a centerpiece.

Double Duty

Boost the function of a store-bought potting bench, which doubles as an outdoor serving station. Cut sections of lattice to fit the sides and back, paint them to match -- we chose a saucy hot-pink -- and fasten the lattice with screws. Use S-hooks or screw eyes to hang garden tools, gloves, buckets, or other necessities so they’re always within reach.

Fancy Fence

All fences are functional -- even the simplest ones are good at delineating the neighbor's yard from your own -- but this one takes practicality to new heights. Not only are the boards brushed with green, blue, and gray exterior wood stain for a lively striped look, but the fence also holds aloft a couple of gutter gardens. That's right: Inexpensive vinyl gutters -- the ideal shallow plant container -- were cut into 3-foot sections (folks at the hardware store can do it for you) and then sprayed with two shades of green paint. Once we attached the gutters to the reinforced areas of the fence, we filled them with potting soil and plants for an easy, almost-instant garden.

Sized to Suit

Most of us wouldn’t even try to build a house by ourselves, but shrink down the scale to the size of a garden shed, and all of a sudden we’re eager to roll up our sleeves! And why wouldn’t we be when a shed can be as detailed and dapper as this one? We designed it to be 5x8 feet so we could use standard, 8-foot boards, and it sits on a level spot so that water flow isn’t an issue. And because it’s meant to endure theelements, we used galvanized nails and weather-resistant materials throughout to avoid rust and rot.