Monday, February 16, 2009

INSTANT CURB APPEAL

INSTANT CURB APPEAL. Increase the value of your home without hiring a landscape designer. Let’s face it, in these challenging economic times we need to use this time wisely to maximize value of your home.

Multiple studies have shown the increasing importance of curb appeal in selling a home, especially in a competitive market.

According to the Real Estate Agent Community Trends survey, commissioned by JELD-WEN Windows & Doors. Out of about 500 realtors polled, 82 percent agreed that buyers unimpressed with a home's exterior will not want to look inside. The results also found that 90 percent of respondents agree that a sale depends on first impressions of the front entry, while 91 percent said that the home's exterior is just as important as what is inside.

Another study by The Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association compiled the following property value statistics:

  • Landscaping can increase the resale value of a property by as much as 14%
  • The sale of a property can increase by as much as six weeks
  • A landscaped patio can raise property values by 12.4%
  • A landscaped curb can increase property value by 4.4% and hedges can add 3.6%

As our economy starts to improve and home sales increase, you will be ahead of the game!

Create a stunning DIY lighted, landscape design using pre-fab, curved raised garden bed kits, which contains everything you need to transform your empty yard into a stunning garden oasis, in less than an hour. You can have your landscape done before your realtor comes over to appraise your home.

A great choice for raised garden bed kits are called Landscape In-A-Box. They are beautifully designed all-inclusive, eco-friendly, curved raised garden bed kits. They come in different sizes and shapes to add variety to your yard or garden. They appeal to the “green” buyer as well. Unlike pressure treated wood, these composite wood timbers do not leach toxins into the soil. They are easy to install with just a screwdriver and a mallet, and even include an optional solar lighting kit.

Talk about curb appeal!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Earth-Friendly Raised Garden Beds

Landscape In-A-Box DIY Kit

Earth-Friendly

Raised Garden Beds

By: Lauren J. Heimberg



Eco-friendly Raised Garden Beds are the hot ticket item for this year’s spring planting season. Raised garden beds and planters are multi-functional and can be used for planting flower beds, vegetable gardens or shrubbery, landscape edging, playground borders and splinter-free sandboxes for kids.

These modular raised garden beds can be stacked on top of each other, to adjust the height as your garden blooms. Typically, raised beds are sold in 6” high increments, and can be purchased in heights of 6”, 12”, and 24”. The width of raised beds should be limited to 2’ or 4’ widths, so they will be easy to maintain, without having to climb into beds.

The best elevated garden beds look like real wood grain but are made from earth-friendly recycled, composite plastic timbers. They are durable and long lasting, non-toxic (like arsenic-containing, pressure treated lumber), termite-free, and do not rot, warp, splinter or lose their wood grain finish like traditional timber.

There are a multitude of benefits to raised planters or raised garden beds including:

· Provides a beautiful frame for your garden

· Longer lengths may be used as landscape edging or playground borders

· Can be used as a, or sandboxes

· Improves drainage

· Improves poor soil conditions by providing a deeper topsoil layer

· Adjusts in height, size & shape to accommodate plant growth

· Lawn mower and edger proof plant and flower beds

· Easy to install

When purchasing elevated or raised beds and planters, make sure they are made from eco-friendly recycled materials and include anchor joints for connecting plastic timbers. You may also need finishing sleeves for landscape edging kits.

After constructing your raised garden bed, and securing it into place, place a liner made from gardening plastic or weed mat in the bottom of bed; this greatly reduces the growth of weeds.

Next fill the liner 1/3 full with nutrient-rich compost (from your compost bin, we’ll talk about this later) then fill the rest with potting soil (store-bought or from another area of your landscape) and some dry organic fertilizer. Finally, you are ready to create your garden by sowing seeds or planting flowers, vegetable and plants starts.

Lastly, water your raised bed and don’t forget to water these beds frequently since there are above ground, and do not retain water as well.

If you are using the raised garden bed for a sandbox, it is best to place a gardening plastic liner in the bottom before filling with sand. Some raised garden beds are sold as sandboxes and come with covers for protection from the elements and from animals who think it’s a giant kitty litter box.

After you’ve created your very own eco-friendly, raised garden oasis, you can begin work on the composting and vermiculture.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Composting In Small Spaces

One thing I’ve noticed on the Composting forums and elsewhere, are people saying they have a hard time composting due to space restraints because they have a small backyard or live in an apartment. There are actually products out there specifically for this, so that you can recycle those costly food wastes into something less destructive to our landfills, and therefore that much better for the environment (and your houseplants!).

The Pro Automatic Indoor Compost Bin is a fully functional, indoor composting system. It efficiently recycles your food wastes, coffee grounds, newspaper, pet waste and plant clippings, conveniently in your kitchen, without smell.

It is a powerful compost bin that can fit inside one of your cabinets and handles up to 120 lbs of food waste a month, 70% of which will vanish into thin air. You don’t even have to worry about stirring or aerating it and it has a vacation mode to reduce the energy it uses during periods of non-use.