Author: Sara May

Backyard Fun, Outdoor Entertaining, Outdoor Safety Tips

Plan Ahead for Successful Swing Set Installation

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Spring is the perfect time to install a new backyard swing set or playground set for the kids, but don’t wait until spring to get started.  Installing a backyard playground properly requires some initial planning before the equipment is ever purchased.  Spend time now thinking about important details, and you’ll be ready for installation when spring arrives.

  • Equipment Choices — What kind of backyard playground will your children enjoy most?  Play sets come with a wide variety of equipment options in any number of configurations, so get together with your kids and make a list of the types of equipment they’d like best.  Swings, slides, and monkey bars are generally standard on playground sets, but swings and slides come in a number of different designs and colors.  Additionally, you can choose from climbing walls, tire swings, club houses, and rope ladders, which are just a few of the other playground accessories available for backyard equipment.
  • Best Location — A number of considerations must be made before choosing a location for your backyard playground set:
      • Avoid ground that slopes or is uneven. Level ground helps prevent playground equipment from tipping.
      • Select an area that is away from potentially dangerous obstacles such as trees, low branches and wires, stumps, roots, large rocks, fences, bricks, and concrete.
      • Plan for a safety zone of at least 6 feet around all playground equipment; set aside even more space in front of and behind swings.
      • Think about where you plan to position any metal or dark-colored slides or surfaces. Placing these out of direct sunlight can help prevent burns on hot, sunny days.
  • Safest Surface — What material do you plan to use underneath the backyard playground?  Grass and dirt do not provide adequate protection from injuries due to falls from equipment.  Pea gravel, sand, wood chips, and shredded or recycled rubber mulch are some of the recommended protective playground surface options available. 

With a bit of planning now, you can ensure that your backyard playground equipment is exactly what your kids want and that it’s installed in the best location possible when spring arrives.

Healthy Ideas, Indoor Living Spaces

Soothe the Senses for Elemental Stress Relief

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Wall Fountains and Waterfalls

Relieving stress naturally can be as simple as soothing the senses.  Wall fountains and waterfalls — which come in tabletop, wall mounted, and free standing varieties — bring the soothing sounds of flowing water into the home, but they also bring a visual element. Not only are waterfalls and wall fountains beautifully conceived and able to fit into any home’s decor, the water itself lends another dimension of stress relief to the equation. Watching the dance and trickle of water as it flows across rocks, down textured surfaces, and into a basin at the bottom enhances our auditory experience. When we listen to sound machines or audio recordings of nature sounds, we may feel the need to close our eyes to block out visual distractions around us that take our minds away from the goal of relaxation. In contrast, the visual attributes of wall fountains and waterfalls transport us toward that end by giving us something beautiful and elemental to focus on with our eyes as we listen with our ears.

Tabletop FountainFurthermore, the water that flows in a wall fountain or waterfall changes its sounds subtly at every moment. This dynamic quality keeps our listening experience from becoming tedious or repetitive, which can easily happen if we listen to sound machines or audio recordings regularly. We can also choose to dramatically change the “song” of the water in our wall fountain or waterfall simply by rearranging rocks or other features in the basin or by adding a new element — such as a seashell, leaf, or small piece of wood — along the water’s path. We can even place our own fingers in the water’s flow to change the sound of the water as it moves; feeling the water stream across our skin would bring yet another sensory element to our experience.

Indoor Living Spaces

Spruce Up a Room in One Easy Step — Paint Not Required

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Affordable Redecorating Does Not Require Paint

The floor may be one of the most neglected areas when it comes to decorating. Adding an area rug to the floor has just as much impact on a room, though, as adding a fresh coat of paint to the walls. Area rugs define a space more effectively than furniture alone, and they help tie together the various elements in a room to make it feel like a unified whole.

Outdoor Rugs for Indoor DecoratingConsider using an outdoor rug for your indoor redecorating. Outdoor rugs are an ideal choice to use as indoor area rugs, especially in high traffic areas of the home. Outdoor rugs are made with durable materials that can stand up to all kinds of abuse, but they are just as beautiful and soft to the touch as traditional indoor rugs. They are much easier to clean than indoor rugs, which gives them yet another advantage over standard indoor area rugs.

Sprucing up a room in your home doesn’t always require spending loads of money or splashing on a new coat of paint. A simple addition, like an outdoor rug, might be all that is needed to freshen a room and give it new life.

Garden Tools & Tips, Storage Solutions

Backyard Greenhouses — Is Bigger Better?

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The purpose of greenhouses is to allow gardeners to grow a wider variety of plants and flowers, no matter the growing zone, and to extend the growing season to three, and sometimes four, seasons. No matter what size the greenhouse, the interior of a greenhouse heats up because the sunlight shining through greenhouse windows warms everything inside faster than heat can escape. The greenhouse walls and roof keep the warm air inside, even when temperatures outside are chilly.  How do you know, though, what size greenhouse is ideal for your garden?  Consider the following.

Hobby greenhouses are available in many shapes and sizes. If space is limited, a practical option would be a lean-to greenhouse or an attached greenhouse. These greenhouses are generally smaller in size and are physically attached to another building, such as a house, garage, or shed. Attached greenhouses and lean-to greenhouses get less sunlight during the day simply because they are attached to another structure, so they should be placed in a location that receives the most amount of sunlight throughout the day. Lean-to greenhouses and attached greenhouses are ideal for gardeners who wish to use the greenhouse only seasonally, and who may wish only to grow a small selection of plants.

Larger hobby greenhouses are free-standing and can hold more plants, flowers, and vegetables. Larger greenhouses can also support a longer growing season. Importantly, upgrading to a larger size greenhouse can be more expensive than starting with a larger greenhouse in the first place, so thinking ahead to future gardening needs is a must.

Is bigger better when it comes to backyard greenhouses?  The answer is different for every gardener because it depends on the amount of garden space available and the amount of planting each gardener wants to do.  If space is available, and if gardening is a serious endeavor, bigger is better.

Garden Tools & Tips

Successful Gardening on a Small Scale

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Trellis Box Planter  Kutstone Jumbo Roman Planters  Corsica Flower Bridge Planter Set

If you live in an apartment, condo, or other small space, you may feel that gardening is not a possibility. How can gardening be accomplished when there is no backyard in which to plant? Apartment dwellers can still reap the benefits of gardening because it can be done on a smaller scale. Container gardening allows you to create beautiful landscapes in miniature that can be easily tended on a balcony, next to a sunny window, or in a window box.

How to Choose Your Garden Planters

Choosing the right garden planters for your container garden depends on the space available. First, consider the size of the area where the garden planters will be located. Then, decide which shape would work best — square, rectangle, or circle. What material is preferred — natural wood, sturdy resin, metal, or clay? Be sure that the garden planters you choose are safe for growing edible plants, if that is your goal.

Planning Your Miniature Garden

Once you have selected your garden planters, decide what you would like to grow in your new garden. Containers can support a wide variety of plants, including herbs, vegetables, flowers, small shrubs, grasses, and vines. Not all plants like to live in containers, though, so be sure to select varieties that are known to be suitable container plants. Combining different plants in a container provides visual interest: choose plants of varying colors, sizes, and textures to give your container the feel of a “bouquet.” Be sure to choose plants with the same or similar lighting and watering requirements to ensure proper care for all of the plants.