Author: Home Design

How to Get Rid of Moss

Get Rid of Moss

If there’s one thing that often drives homeowners batty – especially those who make lawn care a priority – it’s moss. It turns up uninvited, can be tricky and messy to remove, and it can prove hazardous on footpaths and in patio areas.

Moss thrives in moist, shady areas, on rocks, soil, wood, and grass. It has thread-like stems and creates a thick mat of greenery that often gets in the way of the plants you do want to have around. So, once it takes up residence on your property, what can you do to give it its marching orders? Here’s how you can make sure your property is as moss-unfriendly as possible.

Improve Your Lawn’s Drainage

Experienced landscapers will tell you that Moss loves moisture, so don’t give it any. If there is a part of your lawn that attracts moss because it’s quite wet, then improve the drainage. Lawn care must be your priority. Aerate your soil, dig trenches, and divert water away into a different area of your property. The less water you have, the less desirable it is for moss.

Use a Lawn Spreader to Add Lime

By using lime in a lawn spreader, you can increase your soil’s pH level and create more favourable growing conditions for your grass, rather than the moss. Talk to your local gardening or lawn care expert about how to do this properly for best effect.

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How to Landscape on a Budget

Landscape on a Budget

Not everyone has the experience, knowledge, or inclination to work on creative garden makeovers themselves. And that’s okay because there are plenty of landscaping experts, such as Intreeg Landscapes, to lend a helping hand.

However, if you are trying to bring your property up to scratch on a budget, a landscaping business owner who’s trained in that very task may not be within your reach.

If that’s the case, then you must try and battle through on your own. While it’s going to be tough without the help of someone with years of experience, it’s not impossible.

Here are a few helpful hints to help you landscape on a budget.

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Easy-Care Plants to Enhance Your Landscape Design

Easy-Care Plants

While landscaping and landscape design is important to many people, very few would want a yard that seems to use up all their spare time. But how are you supposed to strike a balance between a beautiful yard and one that takes minimal effort to maintain? Easy-care plants could be the answer. Here are a few easy-care plants in Australia that are worth considering to enhance your landscape design.

Liriope

Liriope is a landscape design expert’s best friend. Not only is it beautiful, vibrant, and full of life, but it’s low maintenance, affordable, and versatile. You can use Liriope for border planting, green walls, and mass planting, and grow it from a cutting. As soon as you have one substantial plant, you can then split it into smaller plants and grow those to your heart’s content too.

This easy-care plant is robust, ideal for sun or shade, and you can cut it back to allow for new growth. What more could you want?

Rhoeo

If you’re all about attitude, colour, and a little bit of pizzazz, then you’ll get that with Rhoeo. Also known as Moses in a Cradle, it’s a beautiful purple and green plant that both looks attractive and doesn’t need a lot of care. It will fill any area you plant it in – be it sun or shade – and will not ask for much love or your time. The only thing to consider is that this plant does not like wet soil and will sulk if you place it somewhere sodden. (more…)

The Importance Of Always Using High Quality Stainless Steel Pool Fence Fittings

Stainless Steel Pool Fence Fittings

A lot of people forget just how important fittings are to high quality glass pool fencing. Although the glass panels are the main component of the fence, and probably the one which people notice the most, the fittings and other hardware that holds the panels together needs to be installed right.

If you use poor quality fittings to put your pool fence together, they will be obvious. They will corrode or rust, will gather dirt and will lose their shine in no time at all. This will result in pool fencing that looks average at best, even if your glass panels are clean and well maintained.

Below thanks to ClearAzGlass we’re going to look at a few reasons why it’s so important to make sure that you always use high quality glass pool fence fittings that are made from a tough, durable material like stainless steel.

High Quality Fittings Will Last

If you’re spending money on a glass pool fence – and most glass pool fences aren’t cheap – then there’s really no point trying to save by using poor quality fittings and other hardware. They will wear out and lose their shine within a couple of years, and will detract from your entire fence.

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Getting The Most Out Of A Small Space

Small Landscape Design

Designing a new garden can be both fun and rewarding. However, it can be hard to know exactly what to do with small spaces. Should you ignore landscape design and just throw a few plants or a fruit tree in, or should you spend time and money employing a professional to come and sculpt it to perfection?

Unfortunately, there’s no real correct answer. Some people will prefer not to waste their time and money on a good quality, experienced landscaper, while others would jump at the chance to turn their small outdoor area into more than wasted space. With this in mind, I’ve put together a few things for you to think about with respect to getting the most out of small outdoor spaces.

Start With A Clear Plan

Planning becomes essential when you’ve only got a small outdoor space to work with. Before you do anything else, you need to sit down and think about the following questions:

  • What sort of elements do you want to include in your landscape design?
  • Who’s going to be using your outdoor area? Do you need to make it child friendly, or should it be designed for adult entertaining?
  • What sort of budget do you have?
  • How much time do you have for garden maintenance?

The answers to these questions will help you clarify exactly what sort of things you should include in your landscape design.

Don’t Waste Space

If you’ve only got a small area to work with, whether it be inside to create a small home office or outside to create a garden, it doesn’t make any sense to waste space. Make sure that you use every bit of your yard wisely. Having a clear plan in place before you start landscaping is the best way to make sure that you can fit everything you want in your backyard.

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Plumbing: Air Quality and Your Health

Plumbing

It’s the air that you breathe

It’s no secret that the quality of air you breathe has an impact on your health. Think pollution and its effects. You are at home more than anywhere else, so the air you breathe at home is super important. Is your air clean or is it like many homes a poorer quality than the air outside?

An expert installation by a plumber of a HVAC system ensures its efficiency is responsible for reduced air leaks and has also eliminated the exchange of air with the outside. This means that odours, chemicals, particles and micro-organisms can build up over time and are trapped inside the home. The filter on your system can keep out larger particles, but it’s not able to truly purify the air inside your home. There are specific air purifiers these days that can bring the natural energy of the sun indoors and keep your air clean to ensure greater well-being.

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Chain Link Fence for Security

chain link fence

Chain link security fencing is both practical and cheap. It provides extra security for your business or your home without costing an arm and a leg. Not all fencing contractors love chain link fencing but there are a few good reasons why this basic fencing material is a good choice.

Durability

Chain link fencing requires very little maintenance, unlike timber fences. There’s no need to spend a weekend staining or painting a chain link security fence. Termites won’t be a bother either.

The zinc coating prevents corrosion making the chain link fence great in the toughest conditions. Regardless of the weather, a chain link fence won’t fall apart.

You can get a vinyl coating in black or green if you choose, and this gives even better protection against the weather. If you damage the fence, it’s a lot easier to repair then other fencing types.

Protection

Just because it’s a cheaper option doesn’t mean that chain link won’t provide good protection and keep intruders from your property.

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Best Landscaping Ideas for Your Garden

Landscaping Ideas

Your home isn’t just a place for shelter. It’s also where you want to live the good life. Isn’t that what every one of us wants? There are lots of ways to do that. You can renovate your house and add a patio, or a pergola, or perhaps put a pool in your backyard where you can cool down on a hot summer’s day. Those are great ways to improve your standard of living. But nothing beats the simple freshness that a landscaped garden gives you. Here are some of the best landscape design ideas you can incorporate into your garden.

Driveway Dress Up

Driveways are necessary for all homes, but it can ruin your house’s picturesque view. To avoid this from happening, you can break up the plain old concrete driveway with a central median strip of hardy grass. You can plant any kind of grass there, something like couch or Buffalo grass being the best ones.  This will add a bit of color to what is regarded as a boring, functional part of a house.

Grow Blooming Shrubs

Shrubs don’t necessarily ruin your home’s aesthetics — as long as you use the right ones! Hydrangeas are highly recommended because these bloom lots of vibrant flowers during springtime. This’ll surely transform your landscaped garden into something more stunning and lively, not to mention that they can also hide cracks in your garden’s walls. They also don’t grow too quickly, so there’s no need to worry about branches!

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Concrete Gravel Boards and Posts

Concrete Gravel Boards

If you don’t know what gravel boards are, they are short panels attached below the fence panels, to keep the fencing from contact with the ground. The gravel boards will prevent mud, moisture, insects and whatever else that can cause the fence to deteriorate, which could mean replacement well before it’s due.

Easy to Install Different Ways

The gravel boards provide flexibility when the height of your fence can vary due to the terrain. For example, if the fence location is sloped, the concrete gravel boards can be partially buried making your fence sit level as a result. Another benefit from using these types of boards means they can retain soil that might naturally run away and be lost from a garden bed. If you have gardens set up at various heights, the gravel boards help to divide off each section.

Wooden Fence Posts or Concrete?

There are pros and cons when it comes to deciding on what type of fence post to use when erecting your fence. Like most things, the ‘get what you pay for’ principle also applies in the case of concrete or timber. It’s the customer’s choice to consider appearance, quality, practicality or price. It gets down to budget or what your idea of saving money over the long term means to you.

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Four Benefits of Timber Flooring

Benefits of Timber Flooring

If you are designing a new home or you are planning to renovate your existing home or an investment property, you will, at some stage, have to answer the question about the type of flooring to choose. Over the past few years, timber flooring seems to be an obvious choice for many.  Writing down the project requirements may look a bit like this:

  • What will a timber floor look like?
  • Does it have an ambient quality?
  • How easy, or hard, is it to install?
  • What will it cost?
  • How difficult or easy is it to clean?

Let’s look at a few important points that, when explained, will put you in a better position to make a decision.

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